Where does our Confidence lie?

Introduction:

Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 John 2. This week we will finish up this chapter and we will take a break regarding false teachers. They do not pop up again until chapter 4. This morning we are going to read verses 26-29. As you are turning there, we are going to look at the confidence that the Christian has in Jesus Christ. This is an important topic for our consideration this morning. Why? Well, we are in an everyday battle for the heart as we live lives that are either finding confidence in the things that we can see, or in the God who has made all created things. As we live in an age with lots of untruth being spread about, it is imperative for us to firmly have our confidence grounded in Jesus Christ. As we live Christian lives that are everyday going further in the direction of the world, we must be confident in Christ who has set us on mission. We are going to see this in three ways 1. Our Confidence in His anointing, 2. Our Confidence in Christ, and 3. Our Confidence in His coming. Read verses 26-29.

1. Our Confidence in His anointing (vv.26-27)

We begin our time this morning with seeing ‘Our Confidence in His anointing.’ Look with me in verse 26. John begins by summarizing why he has written about not loving the world and the antichrists. As we have seen, John has put the love of the world and the antichrists together. He has done so in that those who are antichrists love the present age and the system that governs it. Therefore, John has written to comfort, inform, and warn believers about those who were going to come and attempt to deceive the flock of God.

He has also written these things so that his hearers would know what true anointing looks like. We saw last week that true anointing from God looks like the Holy Spirit being given to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are reassured that the truth lies within us because we have been made known to the truth through the Holy Spirit. This will project us to verse 27 and the following.

Where does this connection take place? Notice with me the first few words in verse 27. John writes “And as for you.” We have seen this before in chapter 2. He says this as a means of transition. As I said last week, John has shifted his focus at the end of chapter 2 to believers in the Lord Jesus alone. He is done speaking, specifically, about antichrists and those who love the world.

He goes on to talk about the anointing that believers receive from God in verse 27. That is the central focus of John’s in this verse. We have seen before that the anointing from God is not a physical pouring of oil. We have also seen that the anointing that comes from God is the giving of the Holy Spirit from Christ. So, what else do we have to do with the ‘anointing?’

Look with me in the middle of verse 27. Notice, that John says that this anointing that is given by God is sufficient. John says that “you have no need for anyone to teach you.” Paul pens similar words in 1 Thessalonians 4:9 “Now concerning love of the brothers, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.” God has given us all we need to love one another. Therefore, the love that God has given us and the teaching that comes from Him is all that we need. We do not need anything else. Is this true? I mean, if this is the case then why do pastor’s have shelves and shelves full of books that were written by human hands? Why do we need them if we have received all that we need from God? Turn with me to Ephesians 4. We are going to read verses 11-16. As you are turning there I want us to see the blessing that each one of us are to one another. Now, the terms used are those who are pastors and teachers, but I want us to see the blessing that faithful pastors and teachers are. Read the verses. Do you see why humans who are carried along by God to carry out specific tasks are helpful for us? Paul tells the Ephesians that the reason that we are given such preachers and teachers is so that we do not slip into false teaching yes but notice that Paul desires most growth and unity in the local church. Brothers, this must be our desire as well. It must be our desire to not settle for milk drinking. We must long for the spiritual meat of the Word of God.

Turn back with me to 1 John 2. Look with me, again, in verse 27. I hope that you see the similarities in Paul’s writing to the Ephesians and our text here. The same teaching that has been bestowed to preachers and teachers is the same teaching that comes from God Himself. How do we know this? Because we are confident in the anointing that all that comes from God is true. Do you see where John declares that? He tells us that the anointing of God teaches us about all things and that it is what? It is true! And NOT a lie! This is the confidence that we have! Every single thing that God says is true and not a lie. Jeremiah 31:33 is a clear parallel to verse 27. “But this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh: I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” The Bible is clear that we can have our confidence firmly rooted in the Word of God.

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Andy Stanley, the son of the late Charles Stanley who was famous for his In Touch radio ministry. In the mid 90’s when Andy started North Point church in Georgia, his sermons and Bible studies were grounded on the truth of Scripture. He would quote scripture repeatedly. His foundation was built on the preservation of the Word of God. If you were to listen to any of his sermons or Bible studies today, however, they would sound very different. Here is a quote from his Bible study series Starting Point. “We went off to college and discovered that even though (the Bible) was sacred, it wasn’t scientific. Even though it was something to appreciate, it wasn’t necessarily factual. Even though there were stories (in the Bible) that were inspirational, they weren’t necessarily true.” It seems to me as though he has stepped aside from the Word of God which is true. He will say that he has not lost confidence in the Bible, but for those who are unbelievers (whom Andy desperately tries to go after, so much so that his church is geared toward them to a degree) their greatest hope is what lies in the Scriptures.

“The passage (v.27) teaches that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the all efficient means of enabling believers to possess a knowledge of the truth.” We have confidence in the Spirit. Romans 8:14 and 16 are boosts of confidence in and of themselves “For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God…The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truth. He opens our eyes to see how the truth applies in our eyes. He testifies on our behalf. It is the Holy Spirit that brings each one of us here Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day to hear the Word of God. We are counted as those who “have been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Pt. 1:23). And because the Word of God endures, we have confidence that the anointing of God upon His people will endure as well.

2. Our Confidence in Christ Himself (v.28a-29)

Let us now turn our attention to verse 28 and see ‘Our Confidence in Christ Himself.’ We start with the familiar command of John’s to abide in the Lord. Earlier in this chapter, the young men are defined as those who have the Word of God abiding in them and that the one who does the will of God abides forever. However, in this verse we see a different reason as to why John is telling his hearers and us to abide in the Lord. If you see in the beginning of verse 28, John gives an absolute statement. I don’t want us to miss this. John tells us that Christ will come back again on the day that the Father has willed Him to. He will be manifested in His incarnate form for all the world to see. The revelation of His true character will be revealed (Vine’s). This is what we look forward to. The promise is made in Colossians 3:4 “When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.” Do you see why I didn’t want us to skip this? The manifestation of our glorified bodies in heaven is the end of the line regarding our hope in Christ. Our hope will come to complete fruition at His second coming. John says to the beloved, “When, Christ is manifested.” Not if, WHEN!

So, is the Scripture clear that we can have our confidence firmly held in Christ alone? The answer is, Yes! We can because everything that is of Christ is absolute just like His manifestation at the God appointed time.

This confidence of ours does not stay within Christ, but we experience this confidence in our lives. Turn to Hebrews 10. We are going to read verses 32-35 and let’s see in who their confidence was found. Read the verses. Now, these 4 verses do not tell us exactly who, but notice in verse 32 the author writes that “after being enlightened.” May I ask you, who does the work of enlightening? It is the Holy Spirit come of Jesus, who enlightens or regenerates a person. The addressees of the book of Hebrews had already been known for their sympathetic and sacrificial nature amidst the many trials they faced. They had been through a great ordeal. For the person who is unregenerated, when trials like these happen, where does he/she run? What hope do they have? The Christian has their confidence set in Christ. He will use all experiences, trials and triumphs to build our confidence in Him. Christian, there is not one difficulty that you go through that is purposeless. Yes, we may question why we are going through it, but God always has the answer. We might not find out the purpose for the trial for a long time, if ever. Be rest assured that our confidence lies in Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Turn with me back to 1 John 2. We are going to work a little out of order. Look with me at verse 29. Not only do we have confidence in Christ because the promises of His manifestation are true, but because He is truly righteous and boldly proclaims so. The beginning of verse 29 is not a questioning of whether Christ is righteous or not. John does not ponder this thought as he is writing. What he is doing is proving the righteousness of Christ as it is worked out in those of us who follow Him. John says that “everyone who does righteousness has been born of Him.” This is a perceived knowledge that believers have. The “if you” statement is reliant on a condition. Matthew 4:9 is an example of this when Jesus is being tempted by Satan. Satan says, “If you worship me…” then all the kingdoms of the world would be Jesus’. In 1 Jn. 2.29, John says, “If you know that He is righteous, you know…” who true believers in Christ are because they perform acts of righteousness.

I want us to focus on the righteousness of Christ. Without this, Christianity falls apart. This is not just something that we are confident in, but we completely depend upon for our lives both here and for eternity. Zechariah 9:9 proclaims the promised Messiah saying “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal.” We are aware that this refers to Jesus’ Triumphal entry. But did you see the description that Zechariah gives? “He is righteous and endowed with salvation.” Other kings in these days and the days after rode on animals, the people made loud shouts. Songs would be sung to them and about them. There will be announcements made of his arrival. But there is one thing that has never been said about another King. “He is righteous.”

There is one other major implication that I want us to look at. I want to do so by asking a question. How do you know that the Bible is the true Word of God? At moments notice, I would hope that you would mimic 2 Timothy 3:16 and say that “All Scripture is God-breathed.” The letters to Timothy were later in Paul’s life. But the reality of God giving the words to Paul is nothing new. In Acts 22, Paul is defending himself before the Jews. He recalls his conversion experience, and, in that recollection, there is a quote from Ananias that is of peak interest to us. Acts 22:14 says, “And he said (Ananias), The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from His mouth.” See, it is not only Paul who spoke about his encounter with the Lord, but Ananias confirmed it! We are not confident in the men that God used to pen the Word of God, but we are confident in that God has set apart these men to pen the Scripture. And Paul is a great example as we have 13 of the New Testament books written by him. Brothers, take confidence that since the Bible’s beginning, Christ, in His righteousness, has been present with the Holy Spirit in the inspiration of the Bible. Not only do we have our confidence in the truth of the Bible itself, but the Divine Author’s righteousness we place our confidence in as well. For without righteousness, the Bible loses its authority.

3. Our Confidence in His coming (vv.28b)

Thus far we have seen the confidence that we have in the anointing of Christ and the confidence that we have in Christ, both of these focusing on the present day that we live in, but what about the future? Do these verses speak of confidence in the future? We now turn to ‘Our Confidence in His coming.’ Look with me at the middle of verse 28 and let’s answer that question. John tells us that “we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”

We start with confidence itself. The word confidence has multiple meanings. In this context it means assurance. We are confident that what we have been taught by God is true. We have the assurance that Christ will come back again. This is not questionable. If it were, then all that we have seen in this letter regarding eternal life would not be true. Isaiah 25:9 tells us “Behold, this is our God in whom we have hoped; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” The prophets of old looked forward to the day that Christ would come and save sinners. Furthermore, they looked forward to His conquering of sin as a whole. Again, from Isaiah, 45:17 “Israel has been saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation; you will not be put to shame or dishonored to all eternity.” The salvation that we have in Christ is not for this world only, but for our heavenly dwelling as well. To summarize, our hope, or our confidence, is in the Christ who will return again.

Confidence brings forth two paths of travel in this verse. There is the act of having confidence and there is the turning from Christ in shame. For us as Christians, we do not merely have confidence and it ends there. Confidence implies a “frankness, bluntness, or publicity” which we are to have as we witness to the ends of the earth. Another way that it is defined is “the trait of being willing to undertake activities that involve risk or danger; especially that involve being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech.” Do you see how having our confidence in Christ’s coming promotes the proclamation of the gospel? For John’s audience it was applied in contrast to the false teachers. Those who are of Christ proclaim the gospel in an age of apostate teachers. We preach the gospel amidst those who “will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” (2 Tim. 4:3). This is true of the teachers and preachers of John’s day and of ours as well.

The second path of travel is having shame in Christ’s coming. There are several passages that support this. Luke 9:26 tells us “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” What does it mean to have shame? In this sense, it means to back down, cower in a corner, and not speak up about the truths of Christ. It means to agree with others when they are wrong in an effort to not cause conflict or a disturbance. For our consideration, the Bible tells us that those who act in this manner will be turned back upon as Luke 9 tells us. It is our duty and honor to be those who do not cower at the coming of Christ, but to fulfill the Great Commission and to make disciples of all the nations.

Conclusion:

Christian, Christ has given us so many reasons that we can trust that every word that proceeds from His mouth is true. We have solid confidence in our Lord. Not a confidence that the world has where it is there for a moment and then it fades. Our Lord has made this part of Himself available to us, so that we can be prepared to rejoice at His coming.

As we end chapter 2 this morning, might we be a people that do not rejoice in the things of this world, for we have seen where that leads. It is said of all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that we rejoice in much greater things. Things that we cannot fully comprehend, things that are so lavish and grand, we are unable to put together in our minds what it might look like. We depend on God, and we can trust Him at His word, for He has given us all that we need to know, here, in the Word of God. It is on the Bible that we have our confidence, for it tells us of all the ways that we can be confident in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Benediction: 1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” This is the God we serve, go in peace.