Chapel of the Lake
We Proclaim Righteous Living
Welcome to Chapel of the Lake in Lake St. Louis, Missouri. The chapel family is a multi-generational community of believers who gather weekly to worship and explore God's Word as we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Join us now as Pastor Keith Spaw opens the scriptures. Well, good morning, chapel family. Good to be with you again this morning. I was wondering this morning if I would remember how to preach. Because it's been a little while, but I think it'll come to me. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we are so grateful that our young people had this opportunity to go to a different place and to there have an impact in some ministries in Tulsa. We're grateful for the the labors that they got done there. We're grateful for the encouragement that they have been to the ministries there. We're grateful for seeds that were planted in the lives of people there with whom they were they were ministering and able to share the gospel. We're thankful for as well the the opportunities for growth for our young people and adults as they were stretched as they stepped out of things that they were familiar with and tried new things and they served you and as they father seeds were planted in their life as well. We pray that you would continue to grow those. That you'd continue to raise up here young people, our teenagers, our youth, our children. You'd raise them up to love Jesus. That you'd raise them up to be godly men and women leaders in their homes leaders in their churches leaders in ministry. That you would work through them to bring about wonderful things for your namesake, for your kingdom. So Father we pray that the results of this trip will go on for many months even years to come. And Father we thank you for the privilege of gathering here this morning as the body. The opportunities we've had already this morning to give you worship through our from our lips with our songs and reading your word together. We're thankful for the opportunity now that we have to open your word to hear you speak to us through it. Father may we, may you help us to understand your word well. May you work through the living and the active and the powerful word of God to impact our hearts. That we might be drawn near to you. That we might be changed to being more like Christ. That we might be equipped and motivated and moved to go out and to live for him in the days ahead. So bless us as we now look into your word in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. What it is good to be back here this morning and to be opening the word with you. I appreciate so much Pastor Aaron's very capable and very faithful teaching over the past few weeks. It's given me opportunities to do some things, some other things that I love to do. Have a little time with family away for a week, a time with our college, some college students on a weekend retreat week at junior camp and last Sunday the opportunity to to lead worship here as as brother Rob was away and Tulsa I love the the music part. But what a joy it is now to open the word here this morning to 1 John and chapter 2 and verse 28 as we continue in this study through this wonderful little letter. We'll be going through chapter 3 of and verse 10 of chapter 3 this morning. Some of you occasionally ask about our puppy Piper. You want to know you know I showed pictures when she was a little thing about a year ago and and she's doing well now about a year and a half into this. She is finally I think I hope exiting the puppy stage and while she still has boundless energy and she is never more happy than she is when she is flying through the air as fast as her legs can carry it does mean that as she gets a little older that there it's rare now that I enter a room to find her you know sneaking around the corner trying to be invisible because she has done something that she knows she shouldn't do. He reminds me of Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve they're in the garden of Eden where you know the story that they send and the Scripture says that the Lord God came down to the garden and Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees or tried to hide themselves and the Lord calls out and he says where are you and Adam replied I heard you in the garden but I was afraid because I was naked and so I hid. I bring that up because that is the theme of the passage before us this morning as we come here to 1 John chapter 2 verse 28 John writes here in verse 28 he says and now little children abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. John calls to us as believers in Jesus and he calls to us to live in such a way that we won't be ashamed to face him when he returns looking for someplace to hide rather than cheering yay Jesus he's coming back. John writes to us he says don't end up ashamed make no mistake the Bible could not be clearer Jesus Christ is coming again every true believer in Jesus Christ believes that because it is a fundamental truth of Scripture James Boyce in his little commentary on this little letter of John he writes that one verse in every 25 in the New Testament deals with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ it's mentioned some 318 times in the 260 chapters of the New Testament it is a fundamental foundational truth the same author the Apostle John records in his gospel that the night before Jesus was crucified he was there in the upper room with his disciples and he told them that he was going away and then Jesus said in John 14 he said let not your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in me in my father's house there are many rooms if it were not so I would what I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and it will take you to myself so that where I am you may be also Jesus is coming again just over a month ago we were studying here on Sunday mornings if you were around we were in Matthew chapter 24 and 25 looking at Jesus all of that discourse just a few days before his crucifixion there on the Mount of Olives and Jesus was teaching them and he said in Matthew 24 44 he said therefore you also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect Jesus said I'm coming again but it'll be at a time that you're not expecting so be ready be watching be prepared don't be unprepared and so John now writing in this little letter he reminded us he wants us to have confidence when when we face Jesus rather than shrinking away slinking away in shame we wonder how is it that we do that how is it that we can have confidence when Jesus returns rather than being ashamed of the answers right there in verse 28 look back with me he says and now little children abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence we may not shrink away abide in him the answer is quite simple don't end up ashamed instead abide in Christ if we abide in him then when he comes we will meet him with confident joy with expectant joy yes Jesus I've waited for so long so glad you're here so there it is but what does abiding in Christ look like I'm glad you've asked that question because if you didn't ask that question the message would be over it's time to go home face the coming of Christ with confidence don't be ashamed and the way to do that is to abide in Christ but the rest of our passage going through verse 10 this morning what we're going to learn about is what it is what it looks like to abide in Christ and I hope that you'll stick around for a few more minutes as we dig into that because it is I think vital information for us to see there's a lot of verses here for us to cover in a short amount of time and we won't be able to go through as is my typical pattern just go verse by verse and walk through all the way through these there's not enough time and besides that it's difficult to do because as we've already noted in this book as pastor Aaron has been teaching that John doesn't teach in a straight line like Paul you this and this and this and this and this and you can just walk through John kind of talks in circles concentric circles he'll have a theme and he'll develop that a little more and develop a little more and develop it a little more and so what we're going to do is we're going to walk through some of the first verses this morning and in the process I hope to summarize these concentric circles of the other verses in our passage as we go along there's several themes again that John here restates and amplifies again that relate to and teach us about abiding in Christ the first truth I think we need to notice here about abiding in Christ we'll find in verse 29 and on into chapter three says 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 the first of these key truths we need to see about abiding in Christ is that abiding in Christ begins with a relationship with God through Jesus it's about becoming a child of God John the author of this letter writes in his gospel the gospel of John he writes about this very thing and I think he expects his readers to be acquainted with what he wrote in his gospel because they've heard him teach they've surely probably read his gospel and he figures that most of his readers are acquainted with it and if we go back to John's gospel John chapter one John speaks about becoming a child of God but to all who did receive him speaking of Jesus who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God becoming a child of God he says occurs when someone receives when they put their trust in Jesus when they believe in him at that moment they are as Jesus will say a couple of chapters after this in John chapter three they are born again it is a birth that Jesus says there and John says here in chapter one is not a physical birth it's not another being born again physically it is being reborn spiritually as a child of God and John says he calls us to be born again to be born spiritually to have a relationship with God through Jesus that's the beginning of not being ashamed when Jesus comes I've noticed that when my dog is ashamed when I walk into the room when she ducks her head and slinks around the corner I've noticed it's a very different thing for her than when I have walked through the doorway to encounter different critters in my home see so far to date in my home I've encountered on two occasions birds a squirrel and a possum okay that's over what 20-something years we've lived there my dog slinks away in embarrassment and shame and hopes that she is invisible and I don't notice her when I have walked in on those other critters in my home the reaction is they shriek in terror the birds have gone nuts flying into windows and walls and everything trying to get away the the squirrel was sitting there on the back of the couch and the possum didn't shriek but it made noises I've never heard a possum make and that's a long story behind all of each of those you see my dog is embarrassed she is ashamed but she knows she's my dog she knows she is loved there's a relationship there those other critters all were a certain of one thing I'm going to die right now if I don't get away if I don't get out of here may I say that's exactly the point here the first and most important step towards confidence when Jesus returns is having a relationship with him where we face him as our savior where we face God as our father rather than facing God as our judge so the most important thing is to have a relationship with him to be born again as a child of God by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your savior and so the most important question I can ask you this morning is are you trusting in Jesus Christ as your savior for the Bible is very clear that every one of us will stand before him the difference between those who are saved and those who are doomed is their relationship with Jesus Christ this new birth this relationship with God changes everything it changes our standing before God instead of being enemies of God which the Bible says is our natural condition just how we came into this world we are enemies of God and this relationship with God through Christ changes that standing from being enemies of God to being his beloved children John says here that this world does not understand it does not recognize us because they didn't understand Jesus and now we belong to him it's changed our relationship with the world and John goes on in verse two to remind us that our new identity this new relationship we have with God this new identity we have with him comes with a new purpose with a new destiny look at verse two 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 God has a purpose for us in Christ it's not very apparent now no one can look at you no one can look at me and see this but God says that he has for us not only a purpose in this life but a destiny and that destiny is that one day when Jesus comes you and I will be transformed the scripture says in a moment an instant we will be transformed I love the way that the old hymn writer put it this life of sin will be done away with and will be replaced with glorious perfection the hymn writer put it this way he said then we shall be what we should be we shall be where we would be then we shall be what we should be things that are not now nor could be soon shall be our own I love that tongue twister but I love the truth behind it even more we shall be where we would be no more in this world that's so messed up we'll be with him in glory no more this body of sin this body of death but we will be in glorious perfection no more struggling with things that we ought not do and should not do and don't want to do we will be sinless like Christ things that aren't now and couldn't be in this world and in this body soon will be our own what a marvelous wonderful truth John elaborates on this theme as he we get to these concentric circles of this passage he elaborates on this theme just a couple of verses later in verse five God's purpose for our future he says there was accomplished by Jesus work in the past he's talked twice about when Jesus appears in the future and he's talked about what our future is going to be here now he looks back to the past and he says that was actually accomplished when Jesus came and appeared the first time look in verse five he says you know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin God's purpose for us one day you see is to be sinless to be perfect and Jesus accomplished that when he came the first time he came to take away sins in him there is no sin Jesus the sinless one came to take away our sin through his death and through his resurrection we come on down to verse eight we see that theme again developed a little more the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil when God created this world he created it perfect when he created mankind he created his perfect in the image of God Satan desired to destroy that he came in and he introduced he tempted man to sin sin was introduced in the human race and along with sin came death along with that came corruption at what came was everything wrong that we see in this world sin and suffering and death corruption Satan came to destroy but Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil to foil and to destroy Satan's scheme to undo it the second key to abiding in Christ is to embrace God's plan to make us like Christ to understand God's God's plan right now and his ultimately our destiny his purpose for us and his destiny for us to make us like Christ to undo Satan's and destroy Satan's work the third key truth about abiding in Christ I find in verse three verse three look it says and everyone who thus hopes in him in Christ purifies himself as he is pure in other words if we have placed our faith in in Christ if we have been reborn as God's children and we have this glorious destiny ahead of us the natural result the natural consequence of that is that we don't wait till that time when one day we will be made perfect and be like Christ because we will see him as he is when we see him face to face but we will begin right now to start purifying ourselves and to start living righteously to start living righteous now so righteous living right living is the natural result the natural outworking of abiding in Christ of being in him we see John bring this concept again in verse six the next verse no one who abides in him in Christ keeps on sinning we see it again in verse seven little children let no one deceive you whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he Christ is righteous to clarify John's point here because that's a lot of righteous words in there and it's a lot of it's it's easy to get tangled up as we read through it but to be very clear John is not saying here that someone can save themselves by doing righteous things by doing good deeds that we can somehow make ourselves righteous and save ourselves from our sin and that's not at all what he's saying in context when we read his point is that if someone is righteous and they are righteous because they have been born again by putting their faith and trust in Jesus Christ if they are right with God have a right relationship with God because of faith in Christ then that will be reflected in the way they live they will live righteously they will live rightly those two things will go together a right relationship with God being saved being born again will produce right living in our lives that's his point that thought is stated more clearly in another of those concentric circles when you get down to verse nine look at verse nine no one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God here at the chapel we have been blessed with lots of babies lots of our young couples here have had babies and and typically in in our service there's one or two somewhere and then downstairs if you go down to the nursery it's overflowing with babies that is a wonderful thing that's a beautiful thing we love that and for most of us when we go and we see someone with their new baby we own we go and ooh and ah and that's cool because they're so cute and everything but then one of the things we'll do is we're there i've noticed most of you and i'll do the same thing we started we start looking at the baby and start looking at mom we look at dad and we try to find out who do they most resemble do they most look like dad or mom i think they've got your your hair i think they've got your nose i think they you know when they when they laugh they kind of laugh like you laugh when they giggling and we expect that we expect babies to look like to resemble their parents and that is john's point here he says because someone has been born again in christ when they've been born as a child of god reborn as a child of god says they had they god seed abides in them so the child of god should demonstrate a family resemblance to his father to her father because god is righteous his children will live righteous lives just as kids can't help but look like their parents i know every time i go by the mirror i think dad and it's not dad when he was young it's dad when he was old that's the really frustrating thing like when did this happen how did this happen so it is for us we physically we look like our parents and god says spiritually you should look like me if you're my child you should live rightly and this raises a question a perplexing question because i know some christians matter of fact i know lots of you and you know what here are a bunch of dirty sinners and matter of fact i sin too and it makes us wonder well john has talked here in some pretty straightforward terms and he it sounds like can somebody be a christian and sin he says we should resemble our father and live rightly and so if we sin does that mean that we're not saved that's a great question to ask and i've got some good news this morning for you and some bad news for you this morning let's take the good news first good news look very carefully at verse nine look at what he says he doesn't say no one born of god sins it's not what he says says no one born of god makes a practice of sinning ah there's a difference in other words it's not that you never sin but that sin is not the direction it is not the defining characteristic of your life it is not the persistent pattern of your life we see this back in chapter one that pastor erin took us through a couple of weeks ago or chapter one it says there in verse eight if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us he's writing to christians if we as christians say i don't ever sin the buzzer should go off and we just sin because we just lied the truth is not in us yes you sin yes i sin but the next verse is important because then it goes on in verse nine if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness god's ultimate purpose for us is that you and i be totally cleansed and purified from sin that we are in glorified perfection but as verse two as we just read a few moments ago said that ain't now what we will be isn't apparent now because it hasn't been realized yet it will be realized when we see him face to face we will be changed in a moment until then we are we still sin so yes as christians we sin but abiding in christ means that when we sin we don't ignore it we don't excuse it we don't dismiss it we confess it we repent we return we turn from it we cooperate with god's cleansing and shaping us to be more like jesus that's goodness but there's bad news with this john has a few more things to say and if i may summarize first and then read the verses what john says is that persistent sinning contradicts it's antithetical to being in christ john makes four very shocking statements here verse four everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness sin is lawlessness making a practice of sin in other words knowingly disobeying god knowingly sinning and continuing to live in that sin without confessing without repenting without seeking to change he says that is lawlessness ultimately sin is lawlessness okay so it is lawlessness it's not a big deal well we need to understand what lawlessness means you see what we recognize is it is an attitude that we often have what lawlessness is is saying there is no law there is no there is no accountability that i have to some standard to follow then we don't go saying that but what we say is i'm going to do what i want i'm going to go my way i don't care what you say i'm going to do what i want and we don't usually use those words to god but whenever we disobey what god says or whenever we refuse to obey what god says that's exactly what we're saying what do you mean don't i want to do that what do you mean love my enemy you don't know my enemy i'm not doing that why don't you forgive them no i'm not going to forgive them that is lawlessness it's rebellion against god is a declaration of god you're not in charge i am show of hands of people who've done this all of us see i'm your pastor i know you and i've done this myself sin is lawlessness ultimately what sin is it was satan saying you're not going to be in charge god i'm going to i'm in charge and we have all bought into that and we buy into it all the time ooh everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness that's a shocking statement it gets worse concentric circles we move on down to verse six he brings up this subject again no one who abides in him in christ keeps on sinning no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him a person who in other words he says a person who keeps on in persistent sin he says doesn't know god you haven't seen him you don't really understand who he is and you don't know him in terms of relationship you have no relationship with him if you continue in persistent sin that's a shocking statement he makes another shocking statement two verses later in verse eight whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning not only is he saying a person who persists in sin not in christ doesn't know christ but he says you're of the devil whoa and if that weren't clear enough we go down to verse 10 the last one in our passage today by this it is evident who are the children of god and who are the children of the devil you want to know who is saved and who's not you want to know who is of god and who is not here it is by this it's evident who's the children of god and who are the children of the devil whoever does not practice righteousness is not of god nor is the one who does not love his brother who's the child of god the one who practices righteousness a child of god he's very clear here a child of god someone who's born again through faith in Jesus lives as a child of god they practice righteousness they live rightly the one who is that child of the devil he says here makes a practice of sinning he says who's saved who's not look at their life are they practicing righteousness or are they practicing sin which is it first we have to get over the shock of the black and white blunt statement he makes here then some questions raised wait a minute is john contradicting the other teaching of scripture like Ephesians two eight and nine is he contradicting the teaching of scripture that we are saved by faith and not by works is he saying that it's by our works that save us and if you live rightly you're saved and if you don't live rightly if you persist in sin you're lost and and that's you know we are we are saved by our works and we can lose our salvation by our sin is is he saying that no not at all what john is saying as john has done already in this book we'll see he continues to speak in terms of black and white with no shades of gray he does that to get our attention to rattle our cage and to make a stop and think what john is very clearly saying is this genuine faith shows up in real life through the same thing james says in his little letter what with the way we live is a reflection of what we believe really believe what we really believe shows up in how we live real faith genuine faith shows up in real life i've often been asked by people how do i know for sure that i'm going to heaven john answers that question later in this book in chapter five in verse 13 he says i write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of god that you may know that you have eternal life is john confused about the gospel and think we're saved by works absolutely not he makes it very clear here in this verse how does somebody know that they have eternal life it's that you believe in the name of the son of god that you that you're trusting in jesus it jesus came to die for your sins he paid for your sins on the cross he rose again from the dead to give us new life and we place our trust in him and if we have if our trust our faith is in him we may know we may have confidence that we have eternal life we're going to heaven john understands that salvation is by faith not by works okay he's not confused we are saved by trusting believing in jesus but then when i've been talking to someone who has those doubts going on how can i know i'm saved i'll take him to this verse and then i will often hear after this but how do i know for sure that i really believe in jesus so that's another great question and i think that's exactly where john has been taking us here in this passage he's challenging us to do what paul calls us to do in second krentians chapter 13 the apostle paul there says examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith test yourselves faith in christ is not the same thing as praying a prayer it's not the same thing as walking down an aisle it's not the same thing as making a profession yes i trust in jesus faith is a little harder to pin down it's what i believe it's trusting jesus how do i know that i trust jesus well paul says test yourself how do i test myself by doing what john is calling us to do here do i see the evidence of faith in my life i can say all day long i believe in jesus i trust in jesus but if it makes no difference in my life if it doesn't affect how i live we've got a problem taken we need to take an honest look at how we live how we work how we play we need to examine our priorities we need to examine our values we need to look at how we treat others we need to examine the words we speak and even the thoughts that we think and we need to ask ourselves honestly do i care what jesus thinks jesus said that night before the cross he said to the disciples he said you are my friends if you do what i command you how do we know we're in right relationship with jesus well are we listening to him if our life doesn't match up to what jesus says if we're not on that path and we think we're just fine may i say i can't find a verse in the bible that gives a word of comfort to a person who says well i walk down an aisle and i prayed a prayer and trusted jesus 40 years ago and now they live for themselves you live for themselves you do whatever you want you don't care what god thinks you don't care what jesus thinks i can't find a verse in the bible that gives any comfort to you the very words that we've read here today should be frightening if i care what jesus says if i desire him and aim to follow him if so that is evidence of faith on the other hand if i persistently live in sin i'm going my own way stubbornly uncaring about anything god says this is great concern because as i see it one of only one of two things is true either i'm a prodigal son a true son who has wandered away or worse i'm not a son of god at all these are sobering words and the apostle john intended them to be words that rattle our cage and cause us to do what paul challenged us to do examine ourselves are in the am i in the faith i trust that as we do that as you do that it is my hope and prayer that for most of you you will find assurance here yeah when jesus comes man i can't wait he won't be oh can you give me just a couple of days to straighten a few things out sorry didn't realize this or shrieking in terror because you don't know him at all i trust it's going to be yes thank you lord jesus i'm so glad you're here i've waited so long but there could be some of us today from us watching online some here today you need to do a little business with god you need to go back through and read this again and ask the questions am i following jesus or do i care less father these sobering words but thank you for them they're questions that need to be asked because quite frankly most of the time we don't think about it and yet jesus said i am coming but i am coming to the time when you do not expect are we ready will we will we welcome you be excited that you're coming or will be like my puppy who is slinking away in embarrassment or worse will be we like the the one who doesn't know you at all and shriek in terror because we realize it's too late i pray lord that not one person listening to these words today will not put their faith in trust in jesus christ if they haven't already and i pray that not a one of us who knows you would go on living as though we don't that we would aim at abiding in christ at walking in him and how we look forward to the day when he will return thank you for sending jesus to be our savior our rescuer in his name we pray amen may god bless you as you grow in your walk with him this week