September 14, 2025 - Sunday Morning Service - The Hope that Cleanses - Part 1 - 1 John 2:28

Well, we're looking at God's Word, and we're

looking at that little book of 1 John, so if

you want to turn to it, I'm going to be reading

from chapter 2, beginning of verse 28 in a minute.

This section that we're in now is talking about

hope, and we've been looking at it, and we want

to just kind of concentrate on the very first

part there, verses 2. chapter 2 verse 28 to chapter

3 verse 3. But before we do that, let's ask God's

blessing all this time. Lord, we've gone through

a list of things that we've asked you to be involved

in and we've approached the throne on behalf

of some people that have problems, medical problems,

most of all spiritual problems. We've talked

about the church. and inquires Bible study, a

lot of things that are on a mind and I was thinking

the audacity that I have that I could stand up

here and open your word and tell people what

Almighty God says. That's a practice that the

scripture says don't be too big a hurry to do

that. There's a lot of accountability. And this

morning in our text we'll be talking about the

Lord coming. And that's a fearful thing. Fearful

in the sense that we are sinners and you're not.

You're holy. And the only hope that we have when

we stand before you is if we are in the Lord

Jesus Christ, that we belong to Him. And so I

pray that as we're looking at the text, you'll

help me not to confuse the issue or cover it

up or distort it, but that your word would be

clear and you would have free reign in our heart.

You've promised that your word will not return

void. The idea of returning means that it is

sent out. But that returning would be the fruit,

the response to that. That you send it out and

then you bring it back and it's productive. It's

like fishing, almost fishing for men. You go

out and you share the message and you seek to

catch people, their hearts, and bring them back

into the fold, bring them to the foot of the

cross. I was reminded this morning at the restaurant,

the man had a shirt on and talked about people

kneeling for the flag or standing for the flag

and kneeling at the cross, which I thought was

an interesting thought. And yes it is, that we

come to your presence and when we approach your

presence, we fall on our face because you're

majestic and you're holy and you're awesome.

and we're sinful. So as we're looking at 1 John

this morning, Lord, as we start reading through

the text, I pray that you'll help us to get a

glimpse, John's talking about things that make

up hope, that fulfill your will in providing

us with not just a wish, but a biblical hope,

a reality of what you've promised. that is not

only promised, but is promised to us. And not

only is it a promise that we look forward to,

but it is something that we will realize one

day, that you promised it and they will come

to pass. We will see fruit in our lives. And

so I pray about that. I pray as we look at your

word this morning, you will open our hearts,

protect me from saying stupid things, and to

really... Honor you I pray in Jesus name with

thanksgiving amen First John chapter 2 verse

1 John 2:28

28 And I'm going to point out as I read through

the text there's several words in that text that

I want to comment on But it begins at the very

beginning. He writes in says now little children

And we've talked about that before when he uses

that phrase little children. He's not speaking

so much about the age of the audience, that some

are younger than others, but he's speaking, talking

to Christians as general, and he's lumping them

all together and referring to believers of all

ages as little children. And I suggested using

the term beloved. It's not really an accurate

translation, but it does accurately portray,

I think, what John is saying. So now, beloved.

Abide, and that's one of the words I want to

focus on here. When he says abide, abide has

the idea of holding on, of staying without yielding,

without giving up, without quitting. I think

of the military preparation for the Marines.

They go through At least they used to pretty

strenuous and heavy -handed discipline, and they're

very strict with them in the training. And you've

heard stories, and I've heard stories. I was

talking to a Marine the other day, and I asked

him how he liked Parris Island, and he said,

well, they have a lot of sand fleas and mosquitoes

down there. And what he's saying is that when

they're standing at attention and they get mosquitoes

and sand fleas and stuff on the skin, they can't

do anything. They can't slap them or push them

away. You know what I'm talking about. They're

not allowed to do that. And the reason is it's

not so much because they like mosquitoes or sand

fleas or whatever, but they want to teach them

that if they're out in the field and they're

guarding a bridge or something and there's an

enemy on the other side. They can't afford the

luxury of slapping a mosquito or something like

that and giving away their position. They have

to be able to be faithful and endure whatever

painful issues arise in their lives before them.

And so that's kind of the idea here. When he

says little children abide, you stay faithful.

You can't just exit and walk away. we're not

given that privilege he says abide and notice

the pronoun he uses he says abide in him who

is that that's christ but um he's telling us

to be faithful um it is easy for us sometimes

to want something more than christ to want some

promotion or want some uh provision or even some

relationship. I have a young man at work that

has a girlfriend and he was asking me to pray

for him because he's trying to quit drinking

alcohol. He's a young guy. If you look at him,

you wouldn't think he's a day over 18 or so.

He's probably older than that, but he's trying

to quit alcohol. So as I was talking to him,

I said, Cory, why are you doing that? And I said,

I'll be praying for you. And he said, well, I'm

doing it because my girlfriend, I get mad when

I get drunk and act up. And she's going to leave

me. And so he said, I've quit alcohol. I haven't

had a drop in a month and a half or so. And so

that's a nice saying. But you can kind of clean

up the outside, the activity of doing something

like that. and yet not change your heart, not

make a difference in your personal relationship

with the Lord and you can discipline yourself

and you quit alcohol or quit smoking. I used

to smoke for ten years and Elaine told me when

I first met her, after I first met her, that

I had an erratic heartbeat and she was concerned

about that so I quit. And you can do that. But

the difference here is what he's talking about

is staying in a relationship with Christ, focusing

on Him, putting Him first. It's easy to put ourselves

first. It's easy to put things that we want,

whether it be a girlfriend, whether it be a vacation

like Pete and Doria are going on, whether it

be a new car like a Subaru, which I know you

would really like to have, or something like

that. These are things that we could really be

impassioned for. He says to abide in him to remain

faithful in him don't yield and He says that

because it's coming today when he's going to

be revealed. That's what he says in the text

He said now little children abide in him so that

when he is Manifested we may have confidence

and not shrink away from him notice that all

this is around the idea of abiding I mean says

abide in him so that when he is manifested that

idea of manifested means to perceive and particularly

it focuses on perceiving by sight. So that what

he's saying is that when he stands before us

and we see him, we'll behold him with our very

eyes. If you remember in the scripture, Bible

says no man can see God and live, can't look

at his face. It's a deadly thing because you're

standing in the presence of absolute holy God

and the only response is to fall on your face.

your mouth in the ground because he's holy and

we're not we're not ready for that but in Christ

we can be accepted in the beloved we can have

our sins paid for our relationship with the Lord

can be cleaned if you will Bible talks a lot

about cleanse me from sin and remove the stain

in my heart we're dirty God is holy and so he

we can be cleansed And so what he's saying here

is, abide in him, stay faithful, stay without

yielding, don't compromise, stay in him so that

when he is manifested, when we stand before him,

we may have confidence. To be honest with you,

it kind of terrifies me. I know it sounds funny,

the way to say that as a pastor, you should be

bold and everything should be all right and you

don't have any problems. No, I do have problems.

The biggest problem is in my heart. because I

know what it's like to lust, I know what it's

like to struggle, and I'm sure you do too, struggle

with sin and stuff like that. And I think, you

know, I got to stand, I got to stand in the presence

of the Lord one day and give an account. And

I just really, that's a scary thing for me. And

all of us are going to have to do that. We're

going to stand before Him. That day is actually

coming. And we want to be ready for that. We

want to take him seriously and to put that challenge

maybe before us and let it be kind of a purifying,

having a purifying effect, which is kind of where

he's going with this. So he said, abide in him

so that when he is unveiled, when he is revealed,

when we can perceive him by sight, that we may

have confidence and not shrink away. Again, I

keep changing the words here, but the word confidence

there, an interesting word, has the idea of boldness

of speech, believe it or not. Boldness of speech.

You say, well, that's kind of a funny thing to

say. Well, if you remember in the scriptures,

I think it's Romans, it is Romans chapter three,

where it says in there, Paul is listing from

Psalms a lot of the passages in Psalms that describe

man's sinful condition and some of the words

he says, there are none righteous, no not one,

there are none that understand, there are none

that seek God, all are turned aside together

to become useless. And that goes on to the very

end, when it gets to the very end of that, he

says that every mouth will be stopped, that all

the world will become guilty before God. part

of where the Lord is standing, that when we stand

before Him, it's not that God's going to say,

and put His hand over our mouth so that we can't

talk. It's not going to be like that. It's going

to be that man realizes how absolutely guilty

he is and he has nothing he can say. Can't add

anything to it. You can't say but. You can't

blame your wife, or your husband, or your school,

or the company, or the government, or the president,

or your neighbor, or whatever. It's your fault.

You're sinful. You have said you stand before

God guilty, and so we really have nothing to

say. But in this verse, He's saying that when

we stand before the Lord, we are to abide in

Him so that when He is manifested before us,

We may have freedom to speak. We may be able

to say something. You see what I'm saying? That

our sin will be paid for. That's what he's saying.

Abide in him so that when you stand in his presence,

that you'll be able to talk. You'll be able to

say, I don't know the best way to word that,

but it's just that the text says, confidence

means that you'll be bold enough to be able to

speak. and not to shrink away. The shrink away

means to cower. There we have this contrast where

he's standing before the Lord and one of two

things are going to happen. Either we're going

to have the freedom to say something and speak

or we're going to cower and run away and hide

and not be able to be bold before him like that.

that that's a challenge to you and it's a challenge

to me and I I just want you to know that it's

not something that I Really enjoy saying oh good.

I'm going to see Jesus and I it's not quite that

simple. It's pretty severe in scriptures Anytime

anybody sees God or an angel angels many Angels

are many times in the scripture when angels appear.

What's the first? What's the first thing to say

be not afraid exactly fear not Because that's

a fearful, fearful thing to stand in the presence

of an angel. How much more fearful is it to stand

in the presence of Almighty God? It's terrible.

And yet here he said that you'll have confidence

you'll be able to speak and not shrink away from

him in shame, not be put to shame in embarrassment

at his coming. Shame is a way of saying that

we would not I want to say that we would not

be embarrassed, but I think the idea is a lot

more serious than just embarrassment. Think of

the things that you've done or that I've done

that we're really embarrassed about. Things that

are private, things that only you know about,

things that if they were revealed to the public,

you would go away and never want to be seen again.

You would hide. When we stand before the Lord,

all our past is going to be exposed. And I don't

like that. Even though I'm a pastor and you think

you've got it all together, no, don't have it

all together. And I know my life and I know my

thoughts and I know things that I've done both

publicly and privately. And yet he says here

in this passage the word that we're looking at

is the word abide in him, be faithful in him,

walk close to him so that when he is unveiled

or manifested or revealed that we may have boldness

of speech and not run away or hide in shame at

his coming, which by the way there is a reminder

there that he is coming back. The world has not

seen the last of our Savior. The last time he

was here, they spat upon him and they mocked

him and stuff like that. But when he's coming

back, he's going back on a white horse. He's

coming back, the Bible describes him like a sharp

sword coming out of his mouth, which is the way

of seeing that his word will cut and destroy

and expose. And so this is a terrifying picture,

but that's the first picture that he has there

that John paints, is that we want to abide in

him so that when he has appeared, when he comes

back, we will not be ashamed. We will not...

run away from him. The second thing in verse

29 is he says, you know, and that has to do with

an objective, you know for sure in your heart,

you know, not because you've experienced it,

but you know as a fact that he is righteous.

The idea of righteousness when it says you know

he is righteous means that you know that he is

right. He's doing what's right before God. He's

doing what's right. And we're told to be righteous.

We're told to be righteous before God. We're

told to do what is right, to be what is right.

What does the scripture say? Righteousness exalts

a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

Righteousness, what is right? Doing what is right.

Being what God has said and pleases Him. Doing

what is right. The practice of that, the pursuit

of that, the investment of that. makes a nation

strong, exalts a nation, but to live for personal

gain, personal lust, personal sin, personal advancement

is a disgrace, it's an insult, it's death to

a nation. What do you think we stand in our country

today? We've got it all over the place. Riots

in the street, fires, political battles that

are going on. We need to pray for our country.

We need to pray for our country. We saw the assassination

that we were talking about that. I don't know

what God's going to do with it. He could stop

it if he wanted to. He's absolutely sovereign.

That's a comfort that I have to know that God

is sovereign. It doesn't mean that he's happy

that the assassination took, but I think it means

that he's going to use it. That he is able to

take tragedies both in public and in your life.

He's able to take these tragedies and remake

them and use them. What does the Lord Joseph

say? You meant it for evil, but God meant it

for good. He's able to turn it around and turn

it into a blessing to make it good. And so here

in this text here, he says that you know for

certain that he is righteous. He is conforming

to God's will. And you know that everyone Who

does righteousness that is not only do you know

that he is righteous? But you know that everyone

who does righteousness who practices righteousness

whose habit is doing what is God's will? has

been Born of him so that not only is he telling

us to abide But he's saying you know what God

is like that you know that those that do his

will and that's what he's talking about us to

do What is what is pleasing to him to do what

is consistent with him and righteousness? Everyone

that does that is born of Him. To be born of

Him, what does Jesus say to Nicodemus? You must

be born again. That comes out of John 3. To be

born again means to have a new life, a new nature,

a new beginning in a way. It's not just that

you need to have a little turning over of a new

leaf, but you need to be reborn. You need to

have a new life. I don't know where you stand

on that. I know that most of us in church hear

that and we talk about that, but have you been

through that fire? Have you met the Lord face

to face and surrendered your life? Because that's

what he says. If anyone wants to come after me,

let him deny himself. In other words, stop putting

yourself first and take up his cross and follow

me. And you know, we talked about the cross where

in the New Testament time if you saw somebody

carrying a cross on their back and they were

going somewhere. They would have soldiers with

them. That person that had the cross on his back

is a person that's been tried and found guilty

and condemned to die. And all he's doing is going

to the place of execution. What Jesus says is

you deny yourself. Don't put yourself first.

Take up your cross. That is the emblem of self.

Execution, if you will. Die to self and live

to me, if you will. That emblem, Paul says, I

am crucified with Christ. I died to self. When

Christ died for me, I was with him and we died

together. In that sense, we're associated together

with that. I am crucified with Christ, yet I

live. Nevertheless, I live yet not I but it's

Christ living in me and the life which I now

live by faith I live in the faith of the Son

of God who loved me and gave himself for me that

personal sacrifice that personal personal death

To self is what he's talking about here. And

so he says here We know you know for sure that

he is righteous that he is conforming to God's

will and you know for sure that everyone who

does what is conforming to God's will, has been

born of Him. And what does that mean? What it

means is that in our life and in our flesh, we

don't do God's will. We pursue our own selfish

goal. We pursue our own purpose, our own agenda.

To be honest with you, we might say that we care

about God thanks, but we only say that for a

little while because in truthfulness we care

more about what we think. We want to do what

we want to do. We want to put our will first,

our goal first, our purpose first, our passion

first, instead of Him. And that's sin. And so

you know that everyone that does what is righteous,

what is proper, they're not doing it in the flesh,

they're doing it because they've been born of

God and they belong to Him. And so that's kind

of the second thing. First thing is to abide.

The second thing is to live. in a way that's

consistent with God's purpose and God's will

for your life. And then maybe one more we'll

look at out of this text. That is verse one of

chapter three. See how great a love the Father

has given to us. This love is the provision of

His Son, is salvation that He has made available.

The word that I would focus on here is the little

word given. God has given out of His great love,

that's what the verse is saying, is given to

us so that we would be called the children of

God, the children of God to offspring. See how

great a love, how a massive love. Do you know

that the cross is a display, it's not just a

display of God's love, it is a display of His

love. But it's more than that, it's a display

of His Holiness. Christ died not just to show

love, but He died to pay for sin, to pay for

your debt and my debt. It's like an exchange

where we're guilty before God. I don't know if

you've ever had, or you probably have had your

parents, thank you. I know that I was in school.

In fact, I was home. I remember one time that

I had started to set my sister on fire. Before

you get upset about that, we were little kids

and we had a tool shed in the back of the house

in Wake Forest and somehow I'd gotten hold of

some matches and there was some newspaper there

and I could see my little sister standing on

the side there and I lit that paper and all of

a sudden it started getting a big fire and I

got scared so I ran. and left her there. Well,

there were college students upstairs. There was,

at that time, the college was in Wake Forest,

and we had boarding students there. And they

saw the smoke coming, and they ran down there,

and it was going out, but they grabbed her and

stuff. My mother was really upset. I can remember

to this day, I can remember the first thing she

said when she came out of the yard, where's Peter?

And I was hiding under a fig bush. And she said,

wait till your daddy gets home. And sure enough,

he came home and gave me a spanking, which was

pretty severe. I mean, about that, it was painful.

But I can remember anticipating that, thinking,

I'm not looking forward to that. That's not something

I want. Wait till your daddy gets here. It's

not very pleasant. Well, here is a text here

in this passage. See, our greater love, the Father

has given to us that we should be called the

children of God. This is that anticipation here

that He said that we have this love that God

has provided for us, and that He has given this

to us, that if that sacrifice has paid for the

sin that we otherwise would have to pay ourselves,

that we would stand before Him as guilty. And

so here is a display now, not just of abiding

and not just of righteous living, but a display

of God's love and God's provision. in the cross

to pay for our sin in Christ and so he says see

how great a love and the fact that he uses that

phrase see how great a love means that this is

something that we want to contemplate here it

is before you this is a love this is not just

a a feeling but a sacrifice that was paid a sacrifice

by Jesus on the cross see how great a love the

father has given This is freely the the the idea

is abundantly given to who? to us So that we

would be called the children of God when he uses

the phrase children of God It's actually just

saying that we are offspring of God That's one

of the aspects and it took them to look at the

scriptures You see somebody as a child of God

or you talk about Jesus being the son of God

means that he is like his father He is taken

of the same nature the same personality the same

character. God is holy He is holy God is God

He is God these are the same thing and we He's

saying this is a love that Christ has paid for

us that we would be called children of God. We

would be called sons of God. And the word call

there just simply is a word that means it's summoned.

So that we would be summoned before God as His

children. Before we stand before Him to see Him

as He is, now we are being summoned before Him

as His children. And it says for this reason,

The world does not know, that means they intimately

know us because we are standing before God as

his children. The world does not intimately know

us because it did not intimately know him. It

didn't have that relationship with him. That's

another thing that we can see in it in our lifetime.

We can see it as believers. that our heart and

our passion is different from the world's. Jesus

said, I've given them thy word, and the world

has hated them. If we have God's word in our

heart, it puts us on a different level, a different

family, and a different goal, and a different

direction. The Bible says, being unequally yoked

together with unbelievers, that's one of the

reasons why you shouldn't marry unbelievers,

because you're still not going in the same direction,

you're going in opposite directions. and you

can't walk together, two can't walk together

if you're not in agreement like that. And so

he says, for this reason the world does not,

for this reason, this is talking about intimate

knowledge, does not know Him. And then he uses

again a very dear phrase, beloved, now are we

the children of God. This is right now at this

present, and it does not, it has not been manifested,

it has not been opened up, it has not been has

not appeared to us as sight we have not been

able to see it what we will be this is future

this is another word i would have to stop here

at this point but what we will be does not manifest

we are looking um kind of down the road at the

future promise of what we will be we don't know

yet what it will be we don't know exactly except

we know that when we stand before him we will

stand before him in perfect fullness um Have

you ever thought about what it's going to be

like to stand before God? To stand before Him,

really? Because you are and I am too. You can

tell this morning I've been talking about this

is a serious wake -up call for me and I'm sure

it is for you as well. That this is what we will

be when we stand before Him. That He's making

that change in our hearts and our lives so that

we stand before Him complete in Christ. We will

look like Him. We will see Him. as he really

is, and we will be at peace in his presence.

I don't know if you had loved ones, I know I

have, that have died, and you look down at the

empty coffin, or you look down at the coffin,

it's not empty, and you miss them, but if they

know the Lord Jesus and you know the Lord Jesus,

you'll see them again. I have that happen all

the time at work. People would talk about the

military, and I tell them I... married a girl

who outranked me. She's a better wife than I

deserve. And I said, she died October 10, 2013.

Oh, I'm so sorry. And I said, it's OK. I'll see

her again. I know who she is. I know who she

is. She's doing better. She's a better off man

than she ever was before. I looked over at David.

I just remembered his dad. I remember Vernon

and all the things. We used to have a picture

of him on my phone there. I can look at that

and see him. He was a great man. He was one of

the most godly men I knew and you probably all

of you could say the same. He was a great man.

We'll see him again because we know where he

is and we just want to take him seriously. So

here he is. We stand before the Lord. We want

to abide in him. We want to do what's righteous

and because we're his children and we want to

be pleasing to him. Now let me close this in

prayer. Father has been sort of I kind of rushed

through this maybe too much but I do thank you

for your your patience and your mercy and your

grace and your love for us. Thank you for your

love for me in spite of all the rebellions and

bad things that I've done and said and still

say and things you have been you have been and

I shouldn't put that in the past since you are

merciful and you are gracious to me and to us.

And I pray that those here sitting here in this

room this morning who have not surrendered their

life, I ask you to speak to their hearts. Help

them to realize that it's not a toy, not something

to play with, that we can't just decide what

we're going to do like that. We make the decision

to walk away from you. We may walk away for the

last time. So it's not a toy. It's not just a

guessing game. It's real. And I just pray for

our hearts, that you'll work in our hearts. My

heart, make this obedient. Open our lives to

examination by you and show us the things that

need to be confessed and show us how we can turn

our lives over to you. You said that if we want

to come to you, we deny ourselves, take up our

cross, but that's not all. Then we are to follow

you. Help us to do that. I pray in Jesus' name

of thanksgiving. Amen.