Patience and Perseverance

I believe there are two kinds of music that God approves of today more than others. One is classical music, because in classical music you can see the order and the beauty of creation. There's a certain beauty into the order and the rhythm and the unity of classical music. The other one is what we want to talk about more today, and that is country music. I believe God can look upon and hear country music and say, this is good because it's about the real stuff of life. It's about dogs and trains and mamas and marriage. It's the only real music that you can hear a real proclamation of the goodness of marriage. Now, I want to say that because I'm going to pick on country music a little bit this morning, I want you to know that I love country music. There's a Kenny Chesney song that I just don't like. For one, it's just too catchy. I'm going to try to just read the words and not sing it, because if I sing it, you won't stop playing it in your head. It's too catchy. The words go like this. This is the chorus. Everybody wants to go to heaven. Everybody wants to hear their name called at the pearly gates. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now. Those last two phrases are what really bother me. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now. What's theologically wrong? You're not supposed to say that. I hear what he said, what the words are saying, and you're not supposed to say, I don't want to go to heaven now. And the idea there is he wants to enjoy things in this life instead of enjoying the immediate presence of God. Now, he has some things that are a little more gross than this, but. He talks about life and the good things of life. And he's saying, I want more of that. Instead of experiencing God in heaven. I think this song really irks me, not just because it's catchy and it's theologically wrong. But identify with it. He's saying the thing that I know I'm not supposed to say, but I know if I really think about in my heart, he's saying what I feel. He actually has the guts to say what I feel deep inside that I'm afraid to talk about. That I don't want to go to heaven right now, I want more children, I want to see my grandchildren, I want to hike every mountain in Virginia. I have projects, I have life, I want to experience all the good things this life has to have, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to experience all the good things of this life. It's just wrong to prioritize those good things in this life with the glory that awaits us in heaven. There's something wrong with Kenny Chasney's words. There's something wrong with my heart that I desire the things in this temporal, material, fleeting world more than the things of the eternal realm. where God will show himself most glorious. Most loving this morning, we're going to talk about how we as a church, as believers can persevere in this world, not believing the lies that this world is better than heaven. And looking forward to the glory of God, the day we will see him face to face. Our text this morning is first John chapter two. Verse 18 through chapter three, verse three. Let me read this for us. 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. 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. Then it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge." I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no liar is of the truth. 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. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 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. And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you receive from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and it is true and is no lie, just as it was taught to you, abide in him. Now, little children, abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him and shame in his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. Because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. What a glorious text for us to be thinking about this morning. There's two major parts of this text. The first section that runs verses 18 through 27 talks about the dangers that we must persevere through in this life. And the next section, verses 28 through 33, talk about the hope That's set before us. We have to realize both of these are necessary for us to always be thinking about, we have to be aware of the dangers that are always threatening us. We always have to have the goal, the prize, the glory, the hope. Set before us so that we persevere. So, if you look at this this morning, there's going to be two major points. First, in order for us to persevere, we must abide in Christ and his truth. In order for us to persevere, we must abide in Christ and his truth. And the second one is, in order for us to persevere, we must make our greatest desire, seeing God face to face. In order for us to persevere, we must make our greatest desire, seeing God face to face. Let's look at the first half of our passage this morning. John addresses them again and again. He continues to give many addresses, children, beloved young men, old men. He's not referring to a certain age group or a certain group within the church. He's referring to all Christians. He's referring to all the sons and daughters of the father. And he's calling us all to persevere in the truth. That's extremely important for us to persevere in the truth. Because there are lies all about us. Notice how he describes the certain time, it is the last hour. There are many Antichrists who have come, that is how we know it is the last hour. Now, what does it mean that it is the last hour? Well, if you're an Israelite, especially if you're thinking about John's particular place in history. If you're an Israelite, you've been waiting for the Messiah for generation after generation after generation after generation. There was a great promise in Genesis 315 that God would bless the woman with a seed who would crush the head of Satan, crush the power of sin and death while he is being bruised. That's the first promise we see in Scripture. But then there's so many other promises that we should meditate upon, particularly during this season, like Isaiah 11, Psalm 110, Isaiah 9 next week with Pastor Russell. Of who this Messiah will be. And John said this the last hour, because we have had the great honor and privilege of seeing all those promises, all those long hours, metaphorically speaking, all that long time of waiting and anticipating. We've seen so much of it fulfilled and completed in Christ. He has appeared, God himself, as a man. He died on the cross. He rose again. And it's the last hour because he promised he was going to return. It's the last hour because he came and ascended. And now we're in the last hour. We're waiting for Christ to return. To finish the whole work up, to finish what he began in Genesis 315. Powerfully empowered us At the time of the cross, the death and the resurrection. And he will come back and complete his work. It's the last hour. And I think John really did believe Jesus was coming soon because that's what Jesus taught him to believe. There's supposed to be a great anticipation in the church. There's supposed to always be a wanting and a wondering, is this the day that Christ will come and renew us? There's supposed to be a desire and understanding that this could be the final minutes. When Christ returns and renews all things. Well, the last hour is a sweet message for those who are being persecuted. For those who are being tormented spiritually, who are in the midst of suffering physically, And that's the context that we have here in 1 John. There are those, the church is under spiritual attack. To be, for it to be declared that it's the last hour is sweet because the church is under constant attack by spiritual opponents. Well, who are these opponents? They're liars. John references that the Antichrist will come, but we know it's the last hour because many Antichrist have already come. Now, they're not the final Antichrist or the final one who will say, I'm the Messiah. But what they are doing is they're coming in the spirit of the Antichrist, Satan, the evil one. And they're doing the one thing they can do and know to do well, they lie. The opponents lie. What are they lying about? They're lying about who Christ is and what he's done for us. They're lying about who Christ is and what he's done for us. Now, we could look at. Today and say, well, where are the Antichrist at and we can look at this group of atheists in New Jersey that put up a billboard with Mary, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, and they say in the big headline, you know, it's a myth. It's caused a lot of controversy. You can watch a video of it on CNN.com. I don't think the lies that bother us are the kind of intellectual lies these atheists are proclaiming and saying, you know, it's a myth. I don't think what bothers us as a church, as I understand us, is not that we have a fear that the whole narrative, the whole story, the whole proclamation of Jesus's virgin birth, his death and his resurrection, we don't fear that's a myth. Now, what we fear. Is that Jesus isn't able to forgive us of our sins? We fear that we somehow with a great gravity of our own sin have made it impossible. For God to truly forgive us. That stone attack upon who Christ is and what he's done for us, because what you're saying. Is that you and your power to sin are more capable of Jesus and his power to forgive. I think the lies of the church are prone to today are doubting. The power of Jesus Christ, the power of the cross, the power of the resurrection, the power of the spirit who can heal and comfort and make perfect. That which we've destroyed. Friends, we look at the. The lies. The lie that is prevalent is that we are too great in our sin. Recognize that this is the lie that Satan wants you to believe, because when you believe your sin is greater than Christ's power, you become ineffective for the kingdom. The second you start doubting the power of Christ in your own life, you're going to be ineffective in proclaiming Christ to one another. The second you start believing that Christ is not able to forgive you for your sins, you're going to stop proclaiming him to the outside world. Remember, the whole goal of first John goes back to chapter one in verse three. That you would have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship was with the father and the son, when we deny the son. We deny our fellowship with the father. The whole goal of the book, and especially if we think about this, the Satan and the Antichrist and those who deny the son, those who tempt us to question the power of Christ. By doing that, they're breaking our fellowship with the son, and by doing so, they are breaking our fellowship with the father. Well, John goes on and describes these opponents more. They're not just liars, but in verse 19, he describes them as. Not of us, they went out from us, but they were not of us, so they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might be plain that they were not of us. Well, what does it mean for the opponents not to be of us? Well, here John is getting into this truth about the church. That there's an empirical church in a real church. There's a church that we can see with a membership role of the church that we can see with those gathered, but then there's a real church. The universal church, there's those who are part of the physical church, the local church who are also truly believers. Now, this gets at a very difficult part of our life together. Our goal as a church is to be pure. Our goal as a church is to only be made up of those who are professing believers and practicing believers. But it's easy to join a church. It's easy to come in with sheep's wool, it's easy to come in and be professing. And make when we know what to say and how to act when we're here, but the truth is, there are. nonbelievers on roles across the world in churches. It's impossible for us to know who are the absolute believers in a church. See, many of us are tempted to think of church membership as a ticket to heaven. I'm on the roll. I've been faithful, I've been there my whole life. Look at all the things I've done at the church. I'm not just been a member. I've been a faithful servant of the church. That's not a ticket to heaven. I wish I were in the business of tickets to heaven. I wish I had that kind of power, but I don't. I wish we as a church had that kind of power to give out tickets to heaven. Join the Heaven Club, just join up. That's not what the church is. The church. It can be a huge detriment to you spiritually if that's how you view it. If your faith is in your service and your long standing membership as a member of the church, your faith is in the wrong place. That's you putting faith in your works. No, friend, your faith has to be in him who died on the cross and rose again, your faith cannot be in your membership. To the Heaven Society. Your faith must be in Jesus Christ. Church membership can be a detriment to us when we look at it wrongly, but it can also be a great blessing to us when we see it rightly. Church membership can be a great blessing to you spiritually if you do not see it as evident as as as a means to heaven. But an opportunity for other brothers and sisters to come around you and constantly proclaim Christ. Church membership is a glorious thing God has given us because what we do is we covenant together not to get tickets. But so that we can give ourselves over to one another, we can be transparent with one another, we can let others experience Christ in us and we can experience Christ in each other. You see, there is something sweet about the assurance of being a church member and it's not having the ticket. There's something sweet about. Assurance. In the church and that you've committed yourself and submitted yourself to these brothers and sisters, and they get the opportunity to look at you. To challenge you in your sin, to bring you to repentance and experience new forgiveness in Christ, and they get to encourage you and the evidences of grace that they see in you. Your assurance is never in the past. Your assurance is never in our affirmation. Your assurance is in your continual longing for forgiveness, your continual repentance of sin and your hope that when Jesus comes back, he will renew us. The church can be a blessing to us spiritually. We do not see it as a ticket. But we see it as an opportunity to get together with other brothers and sisters who will encourage us in the faith, who will point us to Christ. Friends, what we have to think about is how do we persevere? And the main proclamation of this text, I think, is to be watchful. We need to be watchful for our lives and for one another. We need others being watchful for us because as we see the Antichrist, they come to lie. And the lies. Are tempting. The lies are the things we want to hear, the lies are the things that are like traps that are just working to capture us. and to devour us. They seem so simple, they seem so small, they seem so insignificant and entertaining. They're like swallowing a grenade. Once you buy into it, it will destroy you. Friends, we look at this world. If we're not intentionally seeking the truth, if we're not intentionally seeking Christ and his truth, We're going wayward. If we look at this world, the way of vice is broad. The gateway into vice is always there. If you're just taking a walk without any purpose or direction in this life, you're walking into vice. You're walking into sin. You're walking into destruction. The lies are prevalent. If we're not watchful. We're walking right into the trap. The way of vice. Is broad, but the way of virtue is narrow. The way of virtue is available, but it is narrow the way of God, the way of Jesus Christ, the way of life and hope and truth, it is narrow and it must be sought with full intentionality. We must realize that the sharp piercing arrows of the evil one are always there to conquer us. But if we abide in Christ, we abide in truth, if we intentionally seek out his way. We'll be safe. We'll be kept. Be watchful. The world is a dangerous place. The second way we can persevere is to abide in Christ, John says it six times in our passage. Abide in Christ. What does it mean to abide in Christ? It means to rest in Him, to be dependent upon Him, to realize that He is our only hope, our only salvation, our only life. He is the Holy One who has anointed us. And there's a play on words, right? Because the word Messiah means the Holy One. Antichrist or against the Anointed One. But we receive an anointing from the holy one. The Antichrist are opposed to God, the Antichrist are opposed to his good works. But God, in his mercy, gives us the right anointing. Jesus, the holy one, gives us his truth. He gives us his spirit. One thing I'm very thankful for is the church. Because I realize I am like those very pesky Old Testament folk. You read the Old Testament and what are they always doing? They're forgetting. You want to shake them sometimes. He just made the promise. He just gave the command. How are you going to make a golden calf now? Constantly, over and over again, you just get frustrated. And I realize I'm just like him. I'm forgetful. I need constant reminders of the gospel in my life, I need constant reminders that I can abide in Christ, that I can trust him, that he's my hope, he's my life. And you are those reminders. I don't need to pin something over my doorway. I need you. I don't need to put something on my forehead. I need you to be that reminder. Finally, how do we persevere? We trust the Holy Spirit. He has given us his anointing. The Holy Spirit has illuminated our hearts and something that's beautiful about the Spirit. Is that his work is always. Operating his work is always bound to the sun, the Holy Spirit's work in scripture is always bound to the sun. Now, for some reason, we've gotten the idea that I guess it may come from John three, the spirit blows where he wills that in order to be a spirit led person, you kind of have to be free. You know, you're not supposed to be with people. You're kind of supposed to be able to be free and move about and walk about. And he's going to move in an instant. He's going to do it every once in a second. If you come with these things where if you say something you didn't expect to say, well, that's the spirit moving. But if you said something you plan to say, well, that's that's not the spirit. That's not the spirit I see in scripture. The spirit I see in scripture is a spirit of order. The spirit I see in scripture is a spirit of unity and harmony. The spirit I see in scripture is a spirit who is bound to the work of the sun. And the sun is the head of the church. And so if you want to experience the spirit. This is where I think we're going to experience the spirit. Now, we can quench the spirit by being a routine church. We're not going to quench the spirit by being an orderly church. But we can quench the spirit by being a routine church. What we need to do is be constantly aware that we are creatures of habit. Because we aware that when we come, the spirit is moving in the proclamation of his word, as it is, if it is faithfully proclaimed. What we need to be doing is praying that the spirit would convict us. That we would experience the spirit as he operates with the word. So we must persevere by being watchful. We must persevere by being by abiding in Christ. And trusting his spirit, that's how we're going to battle today. We must be aware of the danger. And the only weapon we have is Christ and his truth, the second section. Calls us to persevere by making our greatest desire, seeing God face to face. Let me read these verses again, and now little children abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him and shame it is coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the father has given to us. that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that they do not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is, and everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is pure. See, the first session talked about how we need to resist the lies, and that is by abiding in the truth. But it's not just resisting the lies for purpose of resisting the lies, no, resisting the lies for the purpose of seeing God face to face. We're resisting the lies for a purpose. That we will have confidence. And not shrink away. When we see God face to face, you see, when we're believers, when we believe in Christ, when we abide in Christ and we are faced with a holy and righteous God, we're not going to shriek away, but we're going to enter his place boldly. Because we're not entering on our own merit, we're entering into the merit of Christ, who is able to take us into the holy place. This is very much unlike Adam and Eve. What did they do when they first sinned and God came into the presence? They were ashamed. They shrank back, they were fearful because they knew they had sinned against God and they did not want to see him. Friends, we will have no shame as children of God. We will desire to be in his presence. Let's look first in this section at the glorious declaration. Versus twenty nine through verse one, if you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And there's just the sweetest, simplest, glorious declaration. And so we are. We are children of God. Now, notice that he's using the strongest declaration of love he can. There's familial language. Throughout this showing the great beauty of God's gospel and the strong love that he has. In verse 29, we have been born of him, the father has given us new life, we have been born from above. Verse one, the clear declaration, he's the father who loves us. That we should be called children. And the reason we're called children. Is because we are his children. His love for us gives us a new status, a new identity, a new position in life. Let's think about this for a second. We are sons and daughters of God, the father has adopted us, there's a sweet declaration of adoption here. And there's two ways we can think about how sweet it is. Because it gives us a better position in two ways. First of all, if we think about the best man who ever existed. It's Adam, apart from Jesus Christ, it's Adam. Adam was innocent. Before Adam sinned, he was in the garden. He was in harmony with God. He was walking and talking with God. He was a creature servant who was in good standing with God. But we have a position now that's better than Adam. Because we're not just a creature servant who's in right standing with God. No, when we believe in Jesus Christ, the son, We're adopted into the family. We're not just creature servants anymore. You see, if there had never been a sin, if there had never been the fall, Adam and Eve, they would just be creature servants, faithfully serving in the kingdom and right standing with God. But we get a position better than what Adam had in his innocence. We get a position and identity and a love. A fellowship with God that's better than what Adam had as a creature's servant. We're not left in the garden to serve faithfully. We're brought home to experience a familial love. A love from the Father for his sons and daughters that is new and unique to us. Now, what is the evidence for this? Well, there's there's there's there's a lot, but the most simple is this. No one in the Old Testament ever called Jesus father, sorry, no one in the Old Testament. Ever called God father. You didn't call God father. It's too close. It's saying too much, you don't call God father when Jesus called God father, they picked up stones. Because it's blasphemy. But when we believe in Christ, we get to pray as Jesus prayed the son. We get to call him father. There's a new relationship established between his children now in Christ and his children then. The closest declaration you ever get in terms of our love is Abraham was called a friend and there's a sweetness to that. But our sweetness is better. We get to call him father. We miss that because we secularize this very emphatic, important Christian declaration. Our Western world has secularized it because everyone thinks God's the father now. But if we really think about it in light of the revelation of God. It's new with Christ. It's a new way of talking to God, it's a new relationship that no one ever got to receive. And we only receive it because the son gave it to us. You see, there's a very unique love that takes place between the father and the son, the triune God from all eternity. That love is foreign to us apart from Christ. That love is not supposed to be upon us as creatures. But we place our faith in Christ, we receive a new, unique, amazing love from God. The second way this declaration that we are sons and daughters is is glorious. Is that, well, we're not like Adam, are we? We're not creature servants in good standing. No, we're creatures who have rebelled against God. We're creatures who are under judgment. We're not in good standing with God because we've all fought against God, because we've all rebelled against God, because we've all ignored God and not given him thanks and sought to have our own will and not his. You see, with the privilege of not only having a better standing than Adam had, But if we look in the light of our sins and what we deserve, we should be crushed by God's holiness. We should be destroyed when we look at God face to face, when we come into His presence without His grace protecting us. We should be overwhelmed with guilt. We should be destroyed by His holiness. But no. The Father loved us. And in Christ, we know we have a sure and steadfast anchor. In Christ, we know we have assurance as we go before the Father, as long as we're not saying, I've been a member of a church for so many years, as long as we're not saying, look what all the things I did. No, when we go before Christ and we say, look what the Son has done for me. That's when we go to the Father. As children, as sons and daughters, without shame. Friends, let's look at a glorious promise now. Let us look at verse two. Beloved, we are God's children now and what will be seen has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. This is a glorious promise. This. I apologize, I find myself inadequate in the words that I know, inadequate to actually talk about these verses. But when but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. Because we shall see him as he is. What a glorious promise. What depth there is in this promise when we meditate upon this, we need to bring our shovel because the hard frozen ground of our hearts needs to be broken so that we can begin to think about the depth of this spiritual promise, because we are so weighed down by our physical and sinful minds. I tread lightly to even think about what this verse means. Even tell you what this first, we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. Because we shall see him. As he is. My challenge for you is to memorize that verse. Think about it five minutes every day this week. Try to get a picture of what that's going to look like. Because that's the hope set before you. That's the vision that we have to have. When he comes. We shall see him as he is, we will be like him. What a glorious. Hope that is. Well, I hope I can do is give us some parameters to think about how glorious this promise truly is. First of all, the promise is glorious if you go back and think about the situation that John is writing to in the situation we're in. There are lies all around us, there are lies always tempting us, and here John is saying that even though there are antichrist and they're always in our midst and they're always lying. The truth is going to come, the truth will come and it will finally and perfectly and purely Set you free. It's a great hope to have in the midst of all the lies surrounding us. At every corner of life. And so at one level, if we think about the perspective we should have as we the parameters we should be thinking about this person at one level, it's just a great promise that the truth is coming in whom we can abide in. The second one is. There's really a long history of Israel. Concerning the concept of seeing God. Remember Moses? Moses leaves the people at the base of the mountain, puts up a boundary and says you can't go around this boundary. If you cross the boundary, fire and brimstone, there it goes, you're done. Be afraid of the mountain because the mountain is where God's presence is going to be revealed. Moses gets to go up the mountain. He has to leave the people at the base. When Moses goes up the mountain, what is he allowed to see? Well, it's not God as he is. It's not God face to face. It's not God in and of himself and all of his glory and his beauty. No, he only gets to see the hind parts of God. He can't look at the full glory of God. He's not pure enough. He can't see the face of God because he hasn't been purified. This theme runs throughout Scripture. No one can see the face of God. Until Christ comes, because when Christ goes up the mountain, he doesn't leave a boundary for us at the base. No, when Christ comes, who is the son of the father and when Philip said, show us the father, he said, look at me and you see the father. No, when Jesus Christ comes, he breaks down the barrier. He purifies us, he makes us like himself, who is pure. So that we can go into the presence of God and we're not going to look at the hind parts of God. We're going to see God in all of his glory. We're going to see God in his pure beauty. We're going to see God as perfect love and true wisdom. This is the great hope and the great vision that all of Israel was longing for all their days, and not even Moses or David or Abraham could look at God face to face. But we have a perfect mediator. who takes us right into his presence, takes us right to the front row so that we can see the glory. We can experience it as perfect love. If we abide in him, if we abide in him, the righteous one, we will practice righteousness. If we abide in him, we will be led into the presence of God. Finally, the parameters that think about this, there's a glorious transformation that takes place. We will be like him. We have to be purified. All our sins need to be removed from us, and we need a new righteousness, and the Son provides that for us. He provided it for us on the cross and in the resurrection. Then when he comes back, he will give us a glorified body that is purified. So that we're not ashamed. Well, it's interesting here. We'll talk about this more next week. If we look ahead to our verses. John says everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. You see, the beauty of God, the glory of God, the love of God is not something we're supposed to wait to experience. It's not something we're just going to enjoy with our ticket to heaven once we die. No, it's meant to be enjoyed now. It's meant to be experienced in a new way every day, today and tomorrow and the rest of your life. The glory of God, the vision of God is available. What keeps us from it is our impurities. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. There's nothing future about that promise. What are you doing when you believe in the lies? What are you doing when you keep the impurities down safe where nobody else can get involved with them? You're robbing yourself. You're robbing yourself of a clear vision of God. You're robbing yourself of an opportunity to experience the love of God in a new way. You're robbing yourself of seeing the glory. Friends, fight the lies with the truth of Christ and set forth the glorious vision of being like Him when we see Him. Let's pray. Lord, your words are so glorious. Pray that your Spirit, your Spirit would move in us to give us a vision of what that day will look like. Give us your Spirit to protect us Give us Your Spirit to move us, to understand the great love You have for us, so that we might love You more. In Your holy name we pray, Amen.