Children of God in the World part 1

Well, it is good to be back in our sermon series fundamentals of the faith in first John tonight We're starting the the second part the first four verses of the book are a preface And we spent two weeks in first John chapter one and two In part one I called the gospel truth and we gain a blessed assurance From knowing God and knowing that we know him those Blessed assurances will come about as we know the gospel truth So we see the gospel truth last week of our sinfulness Last week we saw the gospel truth of our witness the Christians know that you have a witness on your behalf in heaven and You know that advocate you know Christ the great high priest that we sung of You know the gospel truth of your love you know That your love has changed I was talking to his sister in Christ this week who talked about a time in college where church members came to the door Knocked on the door of her apartment and she very Abruptly shut the door in their face and years later after her conversion She remembers how her heart had changed as a Christian you remember your old love and you know a new love for God's Word a love for God's ways a love for God's light and a love for God's people And you also know the gospel truth about your growth You know that the father has overcome the evil one and therefore you overcome sin in your life and you see growth John is talking about young children young men spiritual fathers and I challenged you all to look for a time in your life where you may become a spiritual Decipolar that you may be grounded in these fundamentals in these vital signs And you're so rooted in the testimony of God and what he's done in your life that now you can pour into others well tonight We are going to see not what we love we're gonna see what we don't love as born-again believers We're gonna see the love of the world and what?

Christians do not love So tonight I want us to see the message title children of God in the world part one This will be a part one and part two Let's read the text. We're in John 1st John chapter 2 15 through 20 And we will also reach into 1st John chapter 3 Probably just get through verse 4 so I'm gonna read quite a lengthy bit of text tonight 1st John chapter 2 15 through 17 and And in through 20 then I will be in chapter 3 verses 1 through 4 Do not love the world or the things in the world If anyone loves the world the love the father is not in him For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh the desires of the eyes the pride of life is not from the father but is of The world and the world is passing away along with its desires But whoever does the will of God abides forever 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 not they would have continued with us But they went out that it might become plain That they all are not of us Verse 20, but you have been anointed by the Holy One and you have all knowledge Let's go into chapter 3 and I'll read verses 1 through 4 What kind of love the father has given to us?

Some translations say lavished on us, but what kind of love the father has given 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 In verse 4 everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness Sin is lawlessness We asked the Lord would would bless the reading of his word well, let's see tonight What God's children cannot love What we know is that God's children have God's love let's look at first John chapter 2 verse 15 Do not love the world or things in the world if anyone loves The world the love of the father is not in him The text just clearly shows us Our first point tonight that God's children have God's love In verse 15 you see clearly That worldliness is forbidden This is a command some translated trans some translators and and and Scholars simply say that worldliness is Not allowed it is forbidden God's children have God's love and what that means is God's children love what God loves We hate what God hates And we can't love you might say that it is not possible for you to love the world and the things in the world Now I'm really glad to see Tommy here tonight he has his Lsu shirt on if anybody follows Tommy on social media, you'll know that he's a big LSU fan, especially baseball and The state fans are a little salty at this point Okay, I got you But there is one thing that you know when you know Tommy alderman or some of our other another LSU fan tray Who is back from California?

That's another answer to prayer doing doing really? Well say he lost about 20 pounds but Also a huge LSU fan and if you know another thing about trays he loves duck hunting He's about to have shoulder surgery and he has scheduled his shoulder surgery So that recovery will happen by the time duck season opens up Now scripture tells us in verse 15 that we cannot love the world or things in the world So is this an evidence that someone is not saved that they love a good baseball game or they love Hunting or they love recreation. I love guitar. I love running at what point Can we say that loving hobbies and things that we do in the world?

Becomes loving the world and loving all that is in the world Now we have to know something of the text and something of the language Worldliness is not just forbidden. Thank goodness that John explains what he means by the world. So verse 16 explains what he means For all that is in the world three things the desires of the flesh the desires of the eyes and the pride of life It's not from the father But is from the world see we're talking about the world and brother Chris defined this back in 2012 when he Spoke in a series in first John that the world is the anti Christ system It is the system that hates God and there are only three things that are in the world and John explains this He takes all of sinfulness and reduces it in one verse to three categories This will really help you to examine your life to see if you have the love of the world and the things in the world The first the lust of the eyes The Greek word here is epithelia It is simply covetousness Christians do not covet Does not mean Christians don't struggle with covetousness and repent of covetousness and grow through covetousness But if anyone loves the world and the things in the world I think it's very easy to say Christians can't want the world stuff the second Lust is the lust of the flesh This is the epithelia of the flesh or sensuality So Christians can't love the world stuff and we can't Love the world's pleasures You can take One third of all the sins if we if we divided all sins into three categories 33% roughly would be assuming a normal distribution lust of the eyes wanting the world stuff secondly would be Wanting the world's pleasures Finally the pride of life The Greek language here speaks to a willful defiance of God and all that is good So we cannot want the world's stuff or the world's pleasures or the world's praise and Christians are people who used to love those things But the Lord changed them and they see that they have a new love What do we love what we learned last week we love his word we love his ways we love his light we love his people We also see that worldliness is fleeting in verse 17 The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever Been reading William Barclay quite a bit studying him what he says here is that worldliness is The life in which there is no future He who attaches himself to the world and to the world's priorities is quite literally Attaching himself to that which is bound for the fire Conversely children of God have an eternal hope And I will also paraphrase this Barclay quote He who has taken God to be the center of his life have given his given his life over to things which last forever Christian can you evaluate your love?

Has your life been marked by a renewed love? Look at verse 15. He says if anyone loves in verse 15 Do not love the world the things of the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father Has your life been marked by the love of the father or has it been marked by the love of the world? We gained blessed assurance Knowing that we know that God saved us knowing that we are bound for the promised land because hey, I remember before March 3rd of 2003 I Lived and died for the praises of men And I shared my testimony last week as a religious Unsaved unconverted worship leader If you took all of my religion, it was wrapped up in number three The pride of life is the boasting of what man has and does For some people the boasting of what they have they are trying to accumulate the world's stuff because they want everybody to look at them and Say Wow our teenagers are wrapped up in numbers of likes and follows And retweets But this world is passing away this world is fleeting But you know that worldliness It's not just forbidden and explained and fleeting and revealing it is truly revealing First John 2 15 says if anyone loves the world the love the father is not in him John MacArthur says this is the love that God hates But this is also a revealing love if someone claims to love God Yet clearly is embroiled in a love of the world Then the truth is not in them I'll quote our pastor here as long as I've known him.

He's always said that time tells off on people Someone may be in the church, but if You stay around them long enough. You will know what they love because our loves are the great litmus test of Our heart and our hearts desires For those people who are struggling and not Uncertain of their conversion they come to us for spiritual counsel We asked them to take first John and to work through first John.

I'm blessed to look out When I leave worship and see people who came to us at one time in great despondence Not knowing whether they're lost We give them first John and some other reading materials and we pray for them and they pray on the other side they come to a point of conversion and If you follow someone long enough you can tell that time tells off Whirling this ought to be avoided and what is this word balance?

I Think of Jeff knoblet who oftentimes says that he's had people in his church that try to out humble each other If he has a nice new truck they like to come by and kind of brag about How old their truck is how that makes them more spiritual? If you've ever known someone like that You know Abraham I'll quote a W toes are here Abraham at all things yet possessed nothing He had all things yet his things did not possess him And I think that's a good litmus test that you take this in your evaluation in your self-examination and say Lord What about the love of my stuff? Lord what about the love of my flesh?

What about the love of what I see and what I want? Let us avoid this If your life has been embroiled with the love of the world Sinner, please come to Christ in repentance If your life has been embroiled with the love for the flesh and pursuing what feels good Perhaps numbing emotional pain sinner come to Christ repent of your sin Another evidence of a Born-again Christian is that they remain let's look at verse 18 through 20 Children it is the last hour as you have heard that Antichrist is coming So now many Antichrists have come therefore we know that it is the last hour So 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 But you have been anointed by the Holy One and you all have knowledge Let's look in verse 18.

Let's see that God's children Remain in him God's children remain in him What is this Antichrist that John is talking about Many has been many Books have been written about the Antichrist raise your hand if you've been through a study of Revelation and you have Read about the Antichrist in last days this apocalyptic language Also written by John right John God Jesus Sees John the island of Patmos and gives him the book of Revelation But he says this is not the a the Antichrist that he's talking about.

This is not the man of lawlessness in first Thessalonians You know just as Moses was a shadow of Christ The Antichrist is a type and shadow of Satan He is undiluted Concentration of evil and this is not who John is talking about John is talking about the perilous apostates the waterless clouds we learned about in Jude the hidden reefs that we learned about in Jude the Ferocious wolves That we discussed last week.

These are perilous and dangerous apostates These are the Antichrists and What are their? characteristics they have a form of godliness, but they defy they Deny the power thereof what that means is they profess to be Christian in fact They were at one time with this church, and they went out Because they were not of this church and They apparently had some Facade of godliness But they also were causing people to engage in wickedness That becomes painfully clear in this text that part of the Gnostic heresies.

They were saying we have this extra knowledge Jesus was not fully man and That the flesh because it is not real it sometimes led to Antinomianism which led to immorality Antinomianism means anti-law They denied the truth of God's Word Later in first John specifically verses 22 through 26 He goes on to talk about the Antichrist he who denies the father and the son Whoever denies the son Does not have the father and these people are the Antichrists he says The one who confesses the son has the father also these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you So let's put all this together who were the apostates professing Christians Who left the church?

Who denied God's Word? Who tried to deceive the church? put those things together if you have someone in your church who leaves and They're professing Christ and They they have a form of godliness Yet they are trying to deceive the church if they are not here at church Submitting to the pastoral authority that God's given yet. They leave the church and they're trying to deceive the church What do we have we have apostates? So what is an evidence of a real Christian is a person who remains?

They remain committed to the same gospel message That we discussed in week one Which is the same message that John wrote? in his gospel That in the beginning was the word the word was with God and the word was God if you weren't here for the first Couple sessions what I said was that we cannot separate the essence of Christ and The essence of the gospel message They're one in the same Jesus is Fully God and fully man and if you tamper with God's Essence if you tamper with the Trinity and these core doctrines of the Ecclesiology specifically of Christology and theology well, then you're tampering with the gospel message So God's children remain in him they remain in Him and they remain in God's work Want you to see that we've always had apostates Moses and Exodus 13 13 Predicted that the nation of Israel would You'd have worthless fellows.

He says that would leave and they would seduce the people into pagan idolatry I'm reading in first and second Kings now and it happens over and over and over again that people leave God's people and they began to Fall into the pagan idolatries of the outside nations and they bring those Idolatries back and they deceive God's people Just a recap from last week John is writing from Ephesus and a few decades prior Paul on his returning is on his missionary journey and he speaks to these Ephesian brothers and he says Savage wolves will arise from you In Acts 20 verse 30 Jesus himself in Matthew 24 verse 5 Says that many will come in my name deceiving you even with miracles So some apostates and have a form of godliness that can even seem miraculous Scholars like Barclay say that external membership in a church Should never be confused with internal submission to God's Word Just because your name is on the roll does not mean that that is eternal security But if you remain in God and remain in his work Finally tonight I want us to see that God's children remain rooted God's children remain rooted.

Let's Move into chapter 3 We'll be in verses 1 through 4 Time permitting we might even read to verse 7 What kind of love the father Has given to us or lavished on us that we should be called children of God and so we are If you're gonna have a blessed assurance You will see that your life is rooted in God's love This is not the love you have for God, this is the love God has for you Do you know what a blessed assurance we gain from understanding? How great the love of God is for us? I'm glad brother Chris mentioned our Lord's Supper service. I Have found myself thinking about that over and over and over multiple times during the day.

Do you remember what brother Chris said? He said that we partake of the elements Lord Supper as a proclamation Not just of the gospel Not just that we believe the gospel But we partake of the Lord Supper because it is a reminder. It's actually even proclaiming That God loves us The cross screams of God's love for us and when we sit together as brothers and sisters and we partake of the Lord Supper It is as if God is shouting and screaming.

I Love you and the cross shows my love for my children What love the father has lavished on us has given to us that we should be called children of God And we know this love Verse 1 the second part 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 We love God and we have a blessed hope that comes from him John MacArthur says that we are blessed In assurance of love because hope is established by love But we also have a blessed assurance of Christ lightness Look at verse 2 We are rooted in God's love and we are also rooted in hope Let's look at chapter 3 verse 2 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 What this is talking about is the Lord's second coming?

Do you know that we are purified again in the Lord's Supper reference? Scripture says that everyone has this hope Fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure Brother Chris spoke of our expectation that we have for the Lord's return and What John is saying is that because we believe that Jesus is resurrected and because we believe his physical body died and was buried And was resurrected then we believe he is coming back And because we have this hope Then we have the hope in the resurrection that we though we die will be raised and the hope that Jesus Is coming back for us purifies us Again to the sister that I spoke with this week who said I don't want Jesus to come back With certain things in my life as they are Do you know that is a purifying hope If you see something in your life that you're working on perhaps you have confessed perhaps you're making progress You know that the long narrow winding road is not flat.

It is through hills and valleys Mount tops and peaks and trial and tragedy You know and sometimes born-again Christians Aren't quite where we need to be and we're smoothing out these rough places in our life by God's grace and we're striving To submit to the Lord maybe in certain areas of our life with accountability And when we think that we are going to be accountable to the Lord Then we know that we Need purity We are rooted in God's love we are rooted in hope and this is a purifying hope But we're also rooted in holiness let's look at verse 4 chapter 3 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness because sin is lawlessness You know that he appeared in order to take away sins In him there is no sin and no one who abides in him keeps on sinning No one who keeps on sinning I'm in verse 6 going into 7 no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him Little children let no one deceive you Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is Righteous we're rooted in God's love and rooted in hope and rooted in holiness Because we have a purifying hope we know we are accountable to the great advocate the great high priest our righteous judge then We are growing in likeness to Christ Get some of the things that we have learned in first John Christians do not continue in sin first John 3 9 Christians practice righteousness first John 2 29 Christians love their brothers and sisters in the family first John 3 10 and Christians believe that Jesus is the Christ in Chapter 5 verse 1 and chapter 4 1 through 6 Do you know that Christianity is incompatible with sin?

Christianity cannot coexist with sin My brother Keith you just talked about having rough patches in your life and things you were painting through and things you're working on That is different than practicing sin You guys understand what it means to live in sin to live in the darkness to live in the world to live in hate Remember the word I gave you last week juxtaposition Tell me you weren't here last week, but I introduced the word juxtaposition I'm always scared to throw out certain words People will think that actually talk like that I don't really say juxtaposition unless I'm teaching you about juxtaposition or in class But John says we get a blessed assurance from seeing what Christianity is and what the anti Christ Antichrist is What is light and what is darkness? what is Godliness and what is that of the world?

And we get as we get great assurance as we see our life conform to God He says in verse 4 that no one who is born of God practices sin Some commentators actually describe First John as a downward spiral actually you'd say an upward upward spiral. He says the same things but every time he circles back around to another topic he is Defining it's becoming more clear.

It's become becoming more pointed and more direct and more laser focused In Essence John is saying we cannot live in habitual pattern sin and keep in step with Jesus The word abide comes from the Greek Mino It means to stay or to remain Do you know it appears nearly a dozen times in John's writing? a dozen times alone just in John chapter 15 Brother Chris walked us through John in John chapter 15. It's abide. It's abide.

It's abide It's Mino Mino remain remain Barclay says that one of the tests of Christianity is the abiding in Christ test and He gives the text First John 2 24 to 29 and this is what he says the best way to abide in Christ is to walk with him every day May it be when he returns? That we find ourselves Picking up right where we left off in our praise to him you Know the best way to abide in Christ is to walk with him every day Let that sink in Those Christians who have a new love they love spending time with him You know part of the pride of life that got me hung up as a lost professing Christian Had to do with things like how long I was reading my Bible and how many people I witnessed to how many times I Went to summer missions.

I know that sounds Very Twisted and warped and it kind of is Because you know if you're gonna be worldly, I guess people like to see how many Sports cars they can buy and instead of boasting and things of religions, but but that's what the Pharisees did That's why I say I am a recovering Pharisee But you know we gain and we grow in our assurance as we see our loves change as We see our life change We have this blessed assurance in Christ likeness and in purity and In our practice What is your? repetitive practice My kids are involved in sports and Sometimes we have two a days or three days and They have the week kind of divided and segmented into Specific sports and specific events and it's boiled down to practice over over over and over If you have your our loved ones and our friends who we care about who we're praying for who are not walking in the light Who are not born of God who are not children of God?

We see them day in and day out Obsessed with embroiled with the love of the world's pleasure The love of the world's stuff and the love of the world's praise In conclusion let's ask the Lord that we would be a people who are rooted and grounded in him the God of light We said a few weeks ago that light dispels darkness And that people would come in who are walking in darkness and they come through the doors of the church and they sit down and we stop for a minute to pray and We begin seeing truth and their mind begins to clear they start to see their sinfulness because God is light We don't need any extra gadgets to help light We don't need entertainment God's Word is Light it will dispel darkness So we talked about Christian maturity last week to be a spiritual father is simply to live in the light and walk in the light and You live as a Christian for 20 30 40 years if you've talked to all kinds of Unbelieving folks And God has put you in in the church right here at Grace Life Brookhaven So that when someone you connect with walks in the door and you sense that they are in darkness You have another layer of grace specifically for them Perhaps the Lord brought you through a terrible trial just for that person Perhaps the Lord brought you through seasons of grief Just for that person Just for their flavor of darkness Because the Lord dispelled that darkness when he called you into the light and you can speak to that flavor of darkness because you're speaking the light To say that a Christian is Incompatible with sin to say that Christians don't practice sin that they don't have pattern sin Does not mean that we're perfect It means we make very good repentors We know our sin more than anyone it grieves us more than anyone, but our new nature won't let us stay there Let me let me pray and then we'll have a quick time of prayer