August 24, 2025 - Sunday Morning Service - Abide in HIM - 1 John 2:28-3:2

God's good to us. We're looking at 1st John chapter

John 2 · chapter mention

2 and we have a different text this morning.

We're going to be starting at verse 28 and going

into chapter 3, verse 3. So I'm going to read

the text, but we probably won't get into the

text because I want to talk to you, Lewis, about

some of the context of the text and what it's

talking about. But we start in verse 28. John

introduces his text as he's done several times

with the reference to little children. There

is the term little children that he is using

there. It's actually referring to believers and

it's a general term. We could translate that

into the word beloved, I guess. Now beloved.

And he says here in the text, and let me just

read it, he says, abide in him. The word means

to endure without yielding. So he's saying abide

in him or walk with him, endure with him without

yielding to the temptation to quit or to do something

else. It's easy to start something and then change

or quit or do something else. Very easy to do

that. The Lord wants us to come to Him and to

walk with Him faithfully. That's one of the biggest

changes in my life was the decision to take the

Lord seriously in our morning devotions, in our

Bible reading, in witnessing, in seeking to follow

Him faithfully. It's easy to let things go. Believe

me, it's easy. I know that, and I'm sure you

do too. encouraging people to come to church.

We encourage people to pray. But it's not always

easy to make time for these things. Sometimes

we have so many other things on schedule. So

here he says to abide in Him or to endure in

Him. Notice that the pronoun there, Him, he's

talking about the Lord. And isn't that an interesting

challenge really that we are commanded here to

abide in the Savior, to be with Him, to abide

in Him so that when He is manifested, He is made

known or revealed, we may have confidence and

not be ashamed is probably the best way to translate

that, not shrink away or be ashamed. Again, there

he's talking about the Lord being manifested.

I can't imagine what that's going to be like

when we get to see him and when we stand before

him. There is a sense in which I fear that, because

he's not a toy. The Bible says, come boldly before

the throne of grace. But the term boldly does

not mean flippantly. It does not mean casually.

It does not mean come... like you would be walking

through a rose garden. When we come before Him

boldly, we're coming to a place that is potential

danger, and yet we can come because we've invited

to come. So we have access to that. We were talking

about prayer. Boy, is that important that we

exercise that. Brian prayed that coming before

his throne. And we are just so blessed and so

fortunate that the God of the universe invites

us to come boldly before His throne, to come

in prayer, and let our request be made known

unto Him. So in this text here, I'm taking up

all the time just reading it. He says that we

can have confidence and not be ashamed from Him.

We don't want to shrink away from Him at His

coming, at His return. And He is coming. And

that's a nice, comforting thought. He's coming

to straighten things out, and He is going to

do that. If you know that He is righteous, you

know that everyone also who does righteousness

has been born of Him. See how great a love the

Father has given to us, that we would be called,

what? The children of God, the offspring of God.

That's a very touching term that God uses. I'm

not righteous. You may think I am, and I may

appear as a pastor who's just so heavenly minded

with no earthly good, but I'm not righteous,

but God is. And He calls us to follow Him in

obedience, in trust. And so that's what we seek

to do. He goes on to say that that we be called

the children of God and we are and for this reason

the world does not know us there is that strange

barrier we talked about it this morning there

is this because we know the Lord and we're in

the world the world does not know us because

it doesn't know him beloved now are we at this

point in time the children of God and it does

not but it has not been revealed or manifested

And yet, what we will be, we know that when He

is manifested, we will be like Him because we

will see Him just as He is, and everyone who

has this hope fixed on Him purifies Himself just

as He is pure. I think our text there that I

want to focus on at the beginning is that last

verse, verse 3, that everyone that has this hope,

these are the hope and the promise that we've

just been reading about. this hope that's fixed

on Christ, fixed on Him, purifies Himself just

as He is pure. That doesn't mean that we can

work salvation, that we can just go out and have

a good intention, but it means that we access

ourselves to the presence and the Word of Christ,

that He can use that in our lives to kind of

wash us and cleanse us. So that's the topic here.

Bible talks about Faith hope and love those three

and they are very commonly used the one that's

we're gonna be looking at this morning is hope

faith and Love are covered quite a bit in Scripture

We don't talk as quite as much about hope but

hope is very important That's going to be kind

of what we are looking at in our text today Bible

talks about having this hope We frequently will

use the term hope almost like we would use the

word wish my hope Well, I could say I'm hoping

that Alabama will win the national champion I'm

just trying to use an illustration and that's

what it comes to mind some reason but that But

that's a hope but that's not not the same thing

as what he's talking about here It's not just

a wish, it's a hope that's based on God's word

and God's promise and God's promises to fulfill

and to do things. And we'll be looking at a number

of verses like that. But it's good that the Lord

gives us these goals, if you will, of things

that are really important that we want to pursue,

that we anticipate, we hope, we look for them,

and He's promised to fulfill them. He is undertaken

for your welfare and my welfare. He is undertaken

to provide for us things that bring glory to

His name and that He can use those things in

our lives to challenge us, to kind of straighten

us out a little bit because we need straightening

out at times. We need to be taken out in a gentle

way behind the woodshed because I know that I

should... I started to say, I know you need that,

so do I, but I should reverse that. I know I

need that, but so do you. We need that sometimes,

because we are very self -centered. And so here

he's telling us, here is this hope, and that

we strive to that. It causes us to purify ourselves.

And that's what I want to look at this morning.

I want to look at this hope. David, the Lord

in Acts chapter 2, David said, I saw the Lord,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

this is Acts 2 .25, I saw the Lord continually

before me because he was at my right hand, so

I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart was

glad and my tongue exulted. Moreover my flesh

also will live in hope. This desire, this forward

vision of anticipating what God, not only what

He is and who He is, but also what He's promised

for us. and that we live in that. Galatians chapter

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

5 says that you have been severed from Christ.

He's talking about those who are seeking a righteousness

by keeping the law. And he said you've been severed

from Christ in one sense. You have been severed

from Christ. You who are being justified by law,

you have fallen from grace, for we through the

Spirit by faith are eagerly waiting For the hope

of righteousness that challenge eagerly waiting

looking for that. So let me just talk to you

I've got got some of these ideas from John and

his Commentary as we look at hope and one of

them is that we hope for Eternal life. I don't

know if you what you what you're thinking about.

I appreciate the testimony this morning Pete

gave that it was a good series by the way and

spoke to my heart, but the testimony this morning

That you you can for a long time Embrace what

you think you you know in the Lord and how you're

following him and so on and so forth and yet

be deceived about that I've had that happen at

church. I've had Honestly, I've had deacons that

would come forward at the invitation saying that

they Thought they were saved and that but they

realized they were not We can be deceived about

that and that's something the Bible tells us

to examine ourselves But here Paul says and I'm

going to read Titus chapter 1 verse 1 and 2 Paul

Titus 1:1

says he introduces himself as a slave of God

and an Apostle of Jesus Christ For the faith

of God's elect. That's God's children. He's an

apostle for the elect and the full knowledge

of the truth, which according to godliness, in

hope, he says, of eternal life, which God, who

cannot lie, has promised from all eternity."

I've gone to several funerals. I've conducted

several funerals. I've looked at the casket,

and almost every time I do that, I don't want

to sound gross, but I... think of myself as one

day taking that person's place there in that

casket, that I will be there one day. Don't get

too excited. It may not be right away, but that's

going to happen to all of us. We're not going

to be around forever. And you kind of want to

be ready for that. The Bible promises that to

those who love Him, He gives what does John 3

16 say for God so loved the world that he gave

his only begotten son that is so I believe in

them not bears, but have what? Everlasting life

eternal life God promises that life real life

not just duration life, but real life right life

that comes from him that is Beyond what we can

just experience on a good day when we say, boy,

things are really going well, but really have

that relation with Him. You talked about this

morning, having that personal relationship with

the Lord. So He promises eternal life, and that

produces in us, those who love Him, a hope, an

anticipation. It is promised, but it's still

something that we want. Now, I realize that we're

not in a hurry to die today to experience that,

but the hope is that when we do take our place

in that casket there, that box, that we are going

to be with the Lord and we're going to be there

forever. I frequently talk to people at work

about my wife, Sweetie. Many times it has to

do with military because that's where we met

and tell people that I met her, she outranked

me, which she did, always has. We married, we

got to see 12 countries in Europe and then we

came home and we were married for almost 50 years.

Almost 50 years. It's a good thing to be able

to relate that I know where she is. They'll say,

well I'm so sorry when I tell them I'm so sorry

that your wife died. I said, well, I know where

she is and I'll see her again. And there's no

doubt about that. These are things that are serious.

And so, that's the first thing. We have this

hope of eternal life, this promise, if you will.

It's like, Hebrews uses the phrase that we have

this hope as an anchor of the soul. And I think

of it, this may not be the best way, but I think

of it kind of as a where you have the temple

and you have the holy of holies and you have

the high priest that goes into the holy of holies

once a year on the day of atonement and the understanding

that I have is and I have not been able to confirm

this but I've heard it said several times that

he goes in with a cord that is attached to him

because he's going into a place that is extremely

dangerous and men have died who went in casually

before the Lord and took it lightly. And so you

don't take that lightly. And so as he goes in,

he goes in and the only thing you see is this

cord kind of being pulled on the inside as he

goes into the Holy of Holies. And if something

happens and he did something wrong before a Holy

God, a thrice Holy God, you get struck dead,

just like Ananias and Sapphira and others that

in the scriptures have died. You'd have to pull

him out because you couldn't go in there and

get him. That's what the court is But this hope

that we have is kind of like that that anchor

this in the veil there That we don't go in and

see it, but we have the hope it's like a connection

for us that we can connect to it and so we have

this this anticipation this joy of The relationship

with the Lord this hope and it is a hope a promise

of eternal life the second another area of hope

that the scriptures may talk about is That God's

grace is a gift of this holy of this hope if

you will second Thessalonians is the verse that

I landed on in second Thessalonians chapter 2

2 Thessalonians 2:16

verse 16 says Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself

and God our Father who has loved us and given

us eternal comfort by good hope, by grace. So

we know what grace is. Grace is God's riches

at Christ's expense, and it's God's overflowing

bounty to those who don't deserve it, and it's

His provision for us. And He says it's good hope.

By the way, notice the word good there. It's

a good hope. that God has for us and it comes

to us by grace and he says that should encourage

your hearts. I don't know if your hearts need

encouragement this morning. Mine do frequently.

I'll get up in the morning and before I have

my quiet time I may have a very sour look on

life or maybe be kind of depressed or whatever

things I want to do. didn't do them yesterday.

You have those kind of things. And He gives us

this good hope, if you will, that comes to us,

and it comes to us by grace. It's always good

to feed on the things that God gives us by grace,

the disciplines of the Christian life that He's

given to us to practice. and one of those disciplines

is hope. It's a good hope, and He's given it

to us by grace, and we want to feast on that.

That's a good thing, that hope is given to us

by God, by grace, by His Spirit. Another one

is related to the Scriptures, and Paul says in

Romans 15, 4 that whatever was written in earlier

times, that is in the Old Testament times, was

written for our instruction, for our learning.

Those things that are written down in the Old

Testament are there so that we can learn from

them so that as we learn from them, as we read

to them through the perseverance or the endurance

or the steadfast persistence, if you will, and

the encouragement of the Word of God of the Scriptures,

we might have hope. And the Bible is just filled.

There's so many illustrations of that. One of

the illustrations is David and Goliath. David,

here's this young boy going out to face this

giant. We have down at Lowe's some Halloween

displays. And they have one of them, this great

big horrible monster with red eyes and stuff.

And I guess he's... 14, 15 feet tall, and I'm

thinking that's about the size of Goliath. He

was a big, big guy. He was a big dude. And here

is David, and when he comes in from taking care

of those little sheep, he hears this Goliath,

and he takes a double -take, and the text says,

I love the way it's worded, it says, when Goliath

started running his mouth, he said, David, hurt

him. That's when things began to change. Before

that happened, the Philistines heard him, Saul

heard him, everybody else heard him. Didn't make

any difference. But when David heard him, things

started happening. Because he couldn't, he said,

who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he

is going to defy the armies of the living God?

And to him it was a spiritual matter and that

means that it wasn't... David who was the underdog

in a real sense it was Goliath because he has

defiled God's army, God's people and it's God's

people and God's name that's on the line and

so he took a stand for that and so this is just

a way of getting hope from the scriptures that

give us hope. I think of another one is Nebuchadnezzar

who is this godless leader of Babylon. very arrogant

man most powerful person on the planet in whatever

he wants to do he can do and nobody can question

him he can have people killed if he wants without

even batting an eye he can give riches to people

without missing any of the wealth or whatever

he was powerful very very powerful man and yet

at the end he humbled himself and he learned

a lesson and he said that and I forget exactly

the wording but he makes it clear he said that

God who rules the universe is able to humble

those who walk in pride and he's able to exalt

anyone from the lowest place to the highest place

and he's able to bring the person at the highest

place down to the place of humility and that

illustration is there for a reason among other

things is we can learn that because a lot of

times we get depressed like Moses we get depressed

because we things don't go the way we want them

to go well that's okay they're going the way

God wants them to go and that's what matters

and so we can learn from scripture the examples

of people who've gone through these things they're

real people they're real examples they really

took place God's hand was was behind the scenes

working and so what some people meant it for

evil, God meant it for good and he turned things

around for his story, for his kingdom. And so

that's kind of some of the things that we get

hope as we read the scriptures and as we study

the scriptures. And I'm going to stop here because

we're going to be, I got about seven more and

I can't get through them all. So we're going

to come back to look at some of the other areas

of hope. next time. I would encourage you to

read your Bible and to read the examples in Scripture,

both in the New Testament and in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is filled. That's what we see

as things written beforehand or written for our

encouragement. We can learn from these examples

and these people both good lessons and bad lessons.

There's a lot of warnings in this. The Proverbs

are filled. with text that tell us things not

to do and talks about the bridle is for the horse

and the whip is for the back of fools and things

of this nature. The illustrations that help us

and you know people like that. You know people

that are very stubborn and they need a whip or

whatever to move them and the Bible is very clear

about that. So if we read the Proverbs and we

read the scriptures, read the book of Genesis

and read the gospels, read about the Lord Jesus

and the scriptures and how he functioned and

what his passions were. It does give us hope

and give us encouragement. So let me close in

prayer. Father, thank you for these words. I

know we're kind of rushing through this and yet

it's really very rich and very powerful and I

thank you. I thank you for the examples. I pray

that you'll... We were reading about being sons

of God. That means that we are like you, that

we take on your nature like children do, that

sons do their fathers in a way. And so help us

to demonstrate our relationship with you and

our commitment with you and our likeness with

you and our love for you and our commitment to

you. I pray that for my life too. I'm sitting

here thinking as we're talking about this morning

that Jesus... I was going to say to many in that

day, depart from me, for I never knew you. Get

away from me. I didn't know you. Lord, nothing

is more terrifying to me than to hear those words.

And yet they're going to be uttered, and I pray,

Lord, I ask that they will not be uttered to

anybody in this room, that from the top to the

bottom, beginning with myself, that we will really

take you seriously and surrender. to your lordship

and find our hope and purpose in you rather than

in our good planning or our finagling or whatever

we have plans and things, whatever we want. Help

us to realize that none of these things are as

good as your will. Your best usually comes disguised

as something that's tiring or boring or whatever

and it's not. but that's because we don't see

it like you see it and don't know the things

that you know. We were talking this morning and

I think it's almost a biblical axiom that our

will, when placed against your will, ours is

never right, yours is always best. So we just

want to surrender to you and thank you for this

time and for these people. Help us to live for

you and to honor you with our hearts, with our

lives. with everything we have. Help us to really

take you seriously. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.