AWARE & ABIDING
1 John - Walk In The Light • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewChristians can redeem the time of this antichrist age as they walk in the light of God's Word, filled with the Spirit as they make much of Jesus!
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INTRODUCTION:
INTRODUCTION:
In self-defense training, you are taught that one of the most significant skills you can possess is SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. Just being aware of what's going on around you - keeps you from living in fear, ready to respond, and possessing an upper-hand in MOST situations.
The apostle John issues, a warning, and an encouragement here to his first readers and to us… He is calling us to be aware so that we might continue to walk in the light.
LET’S LOOK AT THE TEXT:
18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
1. AWARE OF THE TIME (v18)
1. AWARE OF THE TIME (v18)
One are the exercises that we do as teachers is to go through the passage of scripture and highlight interesting, repeated, or difficult words.
Two words appear in the first two verses that certainly grab our attention.
Put verse back on screen with those words highlighted
1. THE “LAST HOUR”
2. “ANTICHRIST”
THE LAST HOUR
THE LAST HOUR
When word like THE LAST DAYS / THE END / THE LAST HOUR / FINAL DAYS appear in God’s Word, they can send our mind in all sorts of directions.
>> “What time is it?” the kids ask from the backseat.
>> “Are we there yet?” “How much further?” “How much longer?”
WHAT TIME IS IT?
We are living in the last days. We are living in the last hour.
If earthly time were like the grains of sands in an hour glass:
CREATION was a grain
the OT age was a grain
the INCARNATION was a grain
the DEATH, BURIAL, RESURRECTION, and ASCENSION of Jesus and the COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT was a grain
and here we are in that grain…the Church age (if you will)
the whole rest of the hour glass is the end of all things and the eternal reign of Christ!
WE ARE IN THAT LAST GRAIN! John knew it was the last hour…and here we are.
3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”
19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
We are in the last hour because Christ has come, He has ascended, and He has NOT returned yet.
While we DO NOT LIVE IN FEAR…
WE WILL LIVE READY FOR HIS RETURN.
WE WILL LIVE ON MISSION.
WE WILL REDEEM THE TIME, AS
- STEWARDS OF HIS NAME,
- AMBASSADORS OF HOPE,
- BUILDING ONE ANOTHER UP IN FAITH
- TELLING EVERYONE WHO WILL LISTEN ABOUT THE GRACE OF GOD IN CHRIST!
ANTICHRIST(S)
ANTICHRIST(S)
The word “antichrist” can take your mind to John’s apocalyptic vision in the book of Revelation.
Fantastic scenes of the end times and the great enemies of God and His plan for humanity who appear there; and yet John says there are “antichrists” among us now.
The Antichrist is a reference to a main focus of the end of time who will rise to absolutely oppose and replace the Lord Jesus Christ. But lest John’s readers from then or now
ANTICHRISTS:
Some of super easy to identify:
A recent article in World Magazine noted that Isaac Simmons, associate pastor of Hope UMC in Bloomington, Ill., has been invited to speak at UMC conferences around the country - often as his drag queen persona, "Ms. Penny Cost."
In 2022, Simmons delivered a message titled "The Bible Is Nothing" in which he said, "God is nothing, but if she were, she would be a seamstress, of divine couture, weaving together string theory and self-portraits to form the fiercest gowns of queer existence."
The reality is that anything that lies to us about the truth revealed in Scripture, the truth of the LORD Jesus Christ is the spirit of ANTICHRIST.
The false teachers in John’s day were worldly to the core!
John’s readers knew about the predicted coming of the Antichrist but they also needed to be aware and on the alert for many who would display his traits of hostility toward God’s Christ.
This is a clear indication that history has entered a climactic era: the last hour.
Despite the lapse of centuries since John wrote, the beginning of the end began when Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven.
WHAT TIME IS IT? It’s the last hour.
HOW MUCH LONGER? Only the Father knows.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO? Fear not, make disciples, live for the glory and fame of Christ.
TRANSITION TO POINT 2:
Not only do we need to be aware of the time, we need to
2. AWARE OF THE TRUTH (vv19-24)
2. AWARE OF THE TRUTH (vv19-24)
There is a truth about “THEM” - those who are AGAINST CHRIST!
There is a truth about “US” - those who are IN CHRIST!
How do we mark “them”?
17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.
Let’s look at our text concerning “them”.
They were “here” but not OF US.
Proximity does NOT equal identity.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
They departed the fellowship.
It was clear by the way they left.
They denied Jesus.
His LORDship.
His Exclusivity.
His Teaching.
22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
They claim to know God, but reject Jesus.
They claim to have a spiritual experience with God, but they deny the truth of the triune God.
They don’t JUST leave…they want folks to go with them.
26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
They have found a different way.
They will deceive others and attempt to pull them away from Christ.
Anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ
is ‘the’ liar (ho pseustēs, 22, rv, rsv, neb, niv), the liar par excellence.
This is the big lie, a living embodiment of the spirit of antichrist (4:3; cf. 2 John 7).
The heretics’ theology is not just defective; it is diabolical.
Well as we become AWARE OF THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS ANTICHRIST MOVEMENT, WE ALSO SEE THE CONTRAST AS WE BEGIN TO WALK IN THE AWARENESS OF THE TRUTH ABOUT “US”.
Look at these verses…that point to us:
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
Notice the preposition there…”BUT”
we are not like them
there is something distinct about us
we HAVE something THEY don’t have…better - we have SOMEONE they don’t have.
We’ve seen the Father mentioned. We’ve seen Jesus mentioned. This “anointing by the Holy One” is none other than the HOLY SPIRIT!
WE HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN US!
The promise of new life that God gave Israel through the prophet Ezekiel points so clearly to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through the Church:
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Jesus said,
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
The Holy Spirit:
convicts us of sin
regenerates us from the inside out
baptizes us into the family of God
seals us - as He is the pledge of our inheritence
indwells us - living inside us
fills us - controls us and produces fruit
empowers us - for ministry that glorifies God
assures us - bearing witness that we are in Christ
illuminates - the Scriptures so that we might understand God’s Word
teaches us - guiding us into all the truth
prays through us - searching our hearts to speak to the Father through us
gift us - with spiritual gifts for the building up of the Church
WE ARE AWARE OF THE TRUTH THAT:
We have the Holy Spirit and all that entails!
We have knowledge from God Himself…
24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
we have the promise of the Gospel
the good news of Jesus Christ
THEY MAY HAVE HEARD IT…THEY MAY HAVE SEEN IT
But WE have that Gospel truth abiding in us today!
WHEN I SAY “WE”
Of course, I’m speaking of those who have have come to Jesus for salvation
we responded by faith to the Holy Spirit’s convicting us
we came to see ourselves as SINNERS in need of THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD SAVE
We have had their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus
WE have been made new by the Holy Spirit and power of God
I hope that you’re IN the family of God today.
I hope that the Holy Spirit lives IN you.
I hope the Gospel abides in you
QUICK NOTE: “LET IT ABIDE IN YOU…”
Christians should always be grounded in their theology.
The age that we live in has shined the light on how ungrounded so many are.
To have ‘itching ears’,
always running after new teachers,
listening to anybody and never arriving at a knowledge of the truth,
is a characteristic of the ‘terrible times’ which the Bible said would come ‘in the last days’ (2 Tim. 3:1, 7; 4:3).
The constant obsession for ‘the latest ideas’ and the ‘newest takes’ is a mark of something like the Athenians in Acts 17, not the New Testament Christians (Acts 17:21).
This passage in the Scriptures calls us to be
AWARE OF THE TIME - but not afraid…just alert!
AWARE OF THE TRUTH - about enemies of Christ (those actively working against him and the church) AND secure in our identity IN Christ!
and the more that truth comes alive in us, the more we will be…
3. AWARE OF OUR TRIUMPH (v27-29)
3. AWARE OF OUR TRIUMPH (v27-29)
Remember: you are not fighting for victory, but from victory, for Jesus Christ has already defeated Satan!
Warren W. Wiersbe
Our victory is a participation in his victory.
Grant R. Osborne
Victory begins with the name of Jesus on our lips. But it is not consummated until the nature of Jesus is in our heart.
Francis Frangipane
Let’s look at the text for this final thought:
27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
We see the Holy Spirit leading us. We are learning from God’s Word and the Spirit Himself. We don’t NEED TO BE TOLD EVERYTHING TO DO.
a baby has to be told, “don’t swallow that”, “chew this up really well”…
there comes a stage where you don’t have to be told EVERYTHING
How do I know it’s the Holy Spirit and not my own thoughts…
in our “own thoughts” unaided by the Spirit - there is no good thing.
if it lines up with God’s Word - that’s evidence of God’s Spirit
I want to touch these last two verses briefly
28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
Where does our victory come from?
Walking in the Spirit
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Abiding in Him
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Hunger for Righteousness
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
WE KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS…
WE KNOW WHAT THE TRUTH IS…
WE KNOW WHERE TRIUMPH IS…
WE ARE AWARE OF THESE THINGS AND WE ARE ABIDING IN HIM!
INVITATION
If you find yourself threatened and fearful by the God haters… Fear not, it’s exactly as Jesus promised it would be. (This same God said He would never ever ever leave us or forsake us!) Remember what time it is!
If you find yourself confused by the “mass exodus” of people that you thought were Christians, but they deconstruct and become “anti-Christ”, it’s right to be heartbroken.
Remember the truth, there is an US and a THEM. Posers don’t last.
Remember WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST!
If you find yourself tempted to think the ship is going down…that the world is crumbling around us and there is no hope, no light, no beauty…
Remember VICTORY IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! VICTORY IS OURS - IT WAS RIGGED BEFORE TIME EVER TICKED IT FIRST SECOND!
GRAB THAT PRECIOUS WORD OF GOD THIS WEEK…DIVE INTO THE PSALMS AND WORSHIP THE LORD - ABIDE IN HIM - LINGER A LITTLE LONGER ON YOUR KNEES
Thank Him that we are not of those who are unaware…
we are NOT of those who shrink back!
WE HAVE SURRENDERED ALL TO THE VICTOR!