Jesus Christ is our Hope!

“Jesus Christ is our Hope!”

Sermon Series: Walk in Faith (4 of 10)

1 John 2:15-29 (NIV)

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

First Baptist Church-New Castle, Indiana

February 7, 2010

We are continuing in our 4th teaching time on First John. Please open your Bibles, pull out your sermon notes, and grab a pen. Let's dive in!

God's Word to us this morning from 1 John 2:15 - 29 (NIV),¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. ¹⁸Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. ²⁰But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. ²¹I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. ²²Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. ²³No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. ²⁴See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵And this is what he promised us—even eternal life. ²⁶I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. ²⁷As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. ²⁸And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. ²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. [Please join me in prayer.]

Let's look at our Scripture lesson in three separate sections. Each lesson centers on Jesus Christ who is our hope!

Hope seems to be as hard to come these days as a good paying job. Hope can be misguided and misleading when we chase after it in the wrong places and in the wrong ways. Jesus Christ came to give us a hope that is beyond our circumstances and beyond our own desires in this world.

From the first 3 verses (15-17) we learn, JESUS CHRIST IS OUR HOPE...BEYOND OUR DESIRES!

John commands us in verse 15, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Before we can continue any further in our teaching, I need to clarify what the Apostle John is NOT saying. He is not saying that the world God created is not good and is to be hated and despised. Listen to this famous verse: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The Greek word for "world" is kosmos and is found in both these passages. Kosmos has two connotations. First, it is the world that is God's creation in which He made all things well (this is the literal usage of 'the world' as seen in John 3:16). The second usage is the world at odds with God and all that that rebellion implies (this is the moral sense of ‘the world’ as used in 1 John 2).

From Scripture, we learn that God does not instruct us to disdain the world he created, but we are to steward it. We see that Jesus Christ loved the beauty of the world. Time after time Jesus told parables and His illustrations were from the world and from nature and agriculture.

In our passage, the Holy Spirit is telling us to not love the world in which human society has rebelled against God and his moral and religious standards with false values, false standards, and false gods.

God loved the world enough to send His Son to rescue it, but he hates the sin in this world! We are to hate the sin of this world that has forsaken the God who made it and has ordered itself on wrong principles characterized by base desires, false values, and rampant unchecked egoism.

What happened? Humanity and the world we are stewarding are temporarily controlled by evil, and the powers and principalities are organized in opposition to God. This is a consequence of creation’s rebellion where sin entered the created realm; first in the angelic beings and then through the Devil’s deceptions humanity was enticed to disobey God and we have not stopped sinning since!

Let’s walk with John as he further emphasizes what he means by this "world" that is opposed to God in verse 16, "For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world."

John describes three ways this rebellious world order manifests itself in the human heart and in interpersonal affairs at a personal, communal, and global level--each of these manifestations seeks to obscure the Light and distract us from the Truth.

1. "the cravings of sinful man" This is a larger category which literally speaks to “the desires of the flesh”.

Let’s be clear, the word “desires” is a morally neutral term meaning we see it used in both positive and negative ways through the Scriptures. We can desire God (positive) or we can desire selfish gain (negative).

It is clear from the context that it is pointing to the larger concept of our fallen nature and our sinful desires. This includes all worldly ambition, all selfish aims, and all sins of the flesh. This nature judges everything by purely material/visible standards and makes a god out of pleasure and comfort.

Honestly, this is the life of our greater American culture dominated by our senses and the material realm. We, as a culture, have become gluttonous in food and drink; slavish in pleasure; tolerant in morals and ethics; selfish in possessions; and extravagant in consumption! Friends, theses fleshly desires are not only the deeds of news-worthy criminals, these are the struggles we all deal with every day and they erode at our witness as we compromise the Truth of Jesus Christ to accept these indulgencies as normal acceptable views and lifestyle choices.

2. "the lust of his eyes" More specifically than the general sinful desires, John now specifically addresses “cravings for what is sensed (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing)” Do not our senses become aroused by the things we see and smell? We wish for what we want, when we want it, in the way we want it! In short, that is sin!

We even feel entitled to have it simply because it has aroused our interest—whether a sexual partner, a real estate property, a new tech gadget, that new car (whatever it may be that you crave for more than God).

Here is a way I like to describe this struggle: you and I have a hole in our soul that must be filled or we feel empty inside. It is a vacuum that causes us to try and try and try to fill it with the things of this world—whether work, promotion, food, sex, drugs, alcohol, pornography, doing good works, successes, accolades, the approval of other people—until we finally realize that nothing can fill this God size hole. It can only be filled by a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ

Friends, let me tell you from my personal testimony, that the lust of these eyes has caused me to chase after so much only to find myself more and more empty the more accolades, successes, pleasures I experienced. When all along, all I ever needed was the One who created me with this hole in my soul so that I would turn to Him to fill it, but the cravings of this tent I dwell in led me away. And I followed!

3. "the boasting of what he has and does" This is a powerful illustration of the temporary trappings of this world. The Greek word is alazoneia which references the alazon who was the man who laid claims to possessions and to deeds and to achievements which did not belong to him in order to impress others and to exalt himself. This is the braggart. This is egoism and pride at their grandest! This is a shallow insecure existence covered with the illusion and deception of pride in one’s self. Friends, you don’t have to be insecure when you know who you are in Jesus! God made you to be secure and to know you are loved with an everlasting love!

Jesus Christ spoke truth about these manifestations of the rebellious world order in our life and in His rebuke we find the solution! He stated in the Gospel of Matthew 6:23-24, "But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

This passage speaks directly to money, but the principle speaks to the heart of our passage. You cannot love the world and God; the darkness and Light! It’s an either/or choice, but we live in a both/and world! That leads to the daily struggle and our ongoing need for the Holy Spirit’s refining fire!

We have to refocus ourselves every day from the world to God! From the darkness that seduces with counterfeit lies to the Light which illumines the way for us to go.

We all will sin, but only those who are in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ will know the daily cleansing through the forgiveness of sins and the quickening of our human spirit through our rebirth as Christians. Reform must start from within and that is the job of the Holy Spirit! And the first step of this reformation is acknowledging we are powerless to deal with our sin alone without God!

John emphasizes in verse 17, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

If we attach our loyalties and our hope to this world then we will fall into judgment with it. But, if we offer ourselves fully to God and do the will of God then we will live forever.

This leads to the question people ask me more than most others: how do I know what the will of God is for my life? Let’s go to Scripture and find out!

The Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 12:1-2, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

The solution is to focus on the Light of God and the Hope afforded to us in Jesus Christ, the Light to the World! We focus our minds, our hearts, our lives, our words and deeds on God. We surrender; we submit; we give Him everything—that’s what it means to be a living sacrifices!

Do you want to know the will of God for your life? Then no longer allow yourself to be caught up in all these manifestations of the world that are so common place in our culture and dive deeply into God who is the only One who can transform you through the renewing of your mind!

As a church, I exhort each of us to commit ourselves to the truth of God's Word found in the Bible. We must have a systematic methodology to studying the Bible every day; to fasting and prayer; to tithing and serving. Reading the Bible in the sweet fellowship of God’s Holy Spirit is how we experience inner transformation and the renewal of our minds. Your ACTION ITEM for this daily mission if you choose to accept it is: I commit to being in God's Word daily.

From the next 7 verses (18-24) we learn, JESUS CHRIST IS OUR HOPE...IN THESE LAST DAYS!

John teaches in verse 18, “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”

John now gets to the heart of the deception of this world—we live in the End Times. The End Times a.k.a. the Last Days or the Last Hour is the time between the first coming of Jesus Christ and the imminent return of Jesus Christ in His second coming (the Parousia). In this time, those who join with the Devil will have the spirit of the Antichrist which denies the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and seeks to pull people away from Truth and Light. But, upon His second coming, Jesus Christ will judge all who have not put their faith in God through Him, including the Devil himself who will manifest Himself in one final effort to deceive the people as the Antichrist.

In the Gospel of Mark 13:5-6, 22, Jesus has this to say about the activity of the Evil One in the last hour, "Jesus said to them: 'Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. . . For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible."

Jesus Christ told us that there would be false Christs, also referred to as antichrists in our text. With certainty, John can write to the house churches in Ephesus that they (and we still today) are in the last hour because he is experiencing the fulfillment of Jesus Christ’s prophecy.

These false prophets come with counterfeit promises of hope and fulfillment and future. They are liars!

They are liars trying to either make people believe they are the Christ or point to a hope other than Jesus Christ. They are being influenced by the spirit of the Antichrist. As political correct, as popular, and as well intentioned as they may be they will perish when Jesus Christ comes to set the world order right. Until that time, we must live as children of the light and not walk in darkness!

John continues in verse 19, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”

How can we know if we are truly part of the Body of Christ? We all will struggle with doubt at times because it is a part of the human condition; it is a part of each of our dynamic journeys toward God. John answers how we can know we are a part of Christ’s body in his next verse, but before I highlight that let me reemphasize to you the end of Mark 13:22, "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible."

If you are the elect of God, then you can hold claim to this truth, your faith in Jesus Christ is a true faith that has grafted you into the Body of Christ and though you may trip and stumble, fall away and return, the free of gift of Jesus Christ will not be withdrawn. God's persevering grace wins the day and the Victory has been won on the Cross of Calvary! Truly, it’s about Christ; not about you!

Being a member of the Body of Christ—the Universal Church that transcends any one local church congregation—is about a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ that transforms you by the presence of the Holy Spirit living in you. We are anointed by the Holy Spirit and set apart like the priests of Israel found in Leviticus.

John emphasizes this in verses 20-21, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One [the ‘Holy One of Israel’ possibly; definitely an allusion to the Hebraic God of the Jewish faith and to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World], and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.”

We see a direct connection between the anointing from God, the Holy One, and our knowing the truth. When I read through this, I assume a one way relationship…we receive the Holy Spirit who allows us to know the truth. But, the reality is that we only receive the Holy Spirit once we receive the truth, the gospel of our salvation. It’s dynamic! It's both!

Paul proclaims this dynamic reality in Ephesians 1:13-14, "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory."

Throughout First John, we have seen the direct connection between the Logos who is Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Jesus Christ which brings life, and the truth which has no lie in it because it is the message of Jesus Christ which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ with God from the beginning.

What happens when we believe this Gospel message of Jesus Christ, the Truth? We are sealed and anointed by the Holy Spirit who enters our lives and grafts us into the Body of Christ—eternal life. We are brought into the Light of God by the Holy One who is the Light to the world. We can know that we really belong because we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. To anoint is to set apart from the world, for God!

The implication of this is that we should no longer participate in the rebellion of the world because we have been set apart for God’s purposes!

John then directly teaches the congregation about discerning who has the spirit of the Antichrist as opposed to who has the Holy Spirit as an anointing from the Holy One. He teaches in verses 22-24, “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.”

John is directly dealing with orthodoxy again! He cannot, nor can I, overstate the severity of the consequences for knowing the truth and then living an obedient life in accordance to the truth. He keeps coming back to this because he knows that right lifestyle flows out of a right belief structure.

If we think the world has the right idea then we will model our choices after the world with the spirit of the Antichrist deceiving people. If we think wrongly about who Jesus Christ is, then we will not render the proper view of His teaching and words. But, if we see Jesus Christ as the Son of God who is eternally one with God, then we will see the Bible and the life of Jesus as authoritative and our decisions will fall in line with God's teachings!

Jesus Christ leaves us no doubt of His authority as the Son of God. He states, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well" (John 14:6-7). This is reaffirmed by John, his messenger, in our passage, "whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also!"

A better tomorrow does not simply come through better decision making; it is much deeper, our decisions must flow out of right views. That is why John keeps returning to correcting our wrong views of God and Jesus Christ and why he is strongly fighting against the deceivers--those who have the spirit of the Antichrist.

Those who deny Jesus is the Christ deny the truest essence of God! This is not simply a philosophical or intellectual debate; this is deception with eternal implications and John is commanding the church to remain in the Gospel message they received from the beginning regarding Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the World.

Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, "For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction."

There is power in the name of Jesus Christ! There is forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ. The gospel has come to us with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We have hope in Christ who is our rock to stand on and our anchor in life’s storms in these last days.

Your ACTION ITEM for this daily mission if you choose to accept it is: I allow the truth of God to lead my daily life. Friends, if you do not allow the truth of God to lead you then you will be deceived and the implications are not just in this life, but they are eternal. That leads us to our last point.

From the last 5 verses (25-29) we learn JESUS CHRIST IS OUR HOPE...FOR ETERNAL LIFE!

John declares in verses 25-26, “And this is what he promised us—even eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.”

John is directing us to the promises of God in Jesus Christ--"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:23)!

In these last days we are combating the spirit of the Antichrist which manifests itself in toleration. We are told we must tolerate deceptive lies. We are told that Christianity is OK as long as you really don’t take Jesus to be the only way to God and put into practice His teachings. We must wake up church! We cannot compromise, we cannot become luke warm, we cannot moderate our love and commitment to Jesus Christ. If we do, He will spit us out! Stand firm in your anointing!

Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 1:20-22, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. . . Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

We have hope in Jesus Christ because we know ALL the promises of God are answered yes in Him! Without Christ in our lives we are destined for Hell! With Christ we hold claim to His promise—the promise of eternal life in Heaven!

No matter the circumstances or the devastation caused by sin in your life and in this rebellious world, we have an assurance of the Truth in Jesus Christ as affirmed to us through the anointing of our lives through the Holy Spirit. There is hope!

John continues in verse 27,"As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

This seems strange. Here John is teaching a very heavy theological teaching with forceful direction in how we should live our lives, then states, "you do not need anyone to teach you."

The Word of Life through the Holy Spirit will teach us! The seal of the Holy Spirit which binds us to Christ; the power of the Holy Spirit which empowers us to live an obedient life; the conviction of the Holy Spirit that allows us to grasp the teachings of Christ and stand firm in them; this Holy Spirit will teach us!

Jesus Christ taught John this in the Upper Room; He stated to His disciples, "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:26-27).

The world gives counterfeit and inflated promises for hope and peace, but friends, let me declare to you that Jesus Christ is the real deal; His Peace is everlasting! The Apostle John is calling us to stand firm against our society, this world in rebellion to God, and the lukewarm preaching of shallow preachers who dismiss the authority of the Bible and the particularity of salvation through Christ alone. We must stand firm in the True Gospel Message of Jesus Christ and not be deceived by the lies, the call to tolerance, and the compromise of our core values that have become rampant in this world.

We conclude with the last two verses (28-29) of our Scripture lesson, "And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming [Parousia which is a rich Greek word in eschatology for Jesus’ second coming]. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him."

We are born again! Not born of the world, but born of the Spirit of God! John wants our lives to be built upon this Truth so that our hope is not misguided, so that our confidence is not misplaced, so that our mission in life is not misdirected!

If we persist in our faith in these last days, we will stand before our Lord approved for the way we lived our lives. He is coming!

Jesus promises to John (and to all who hear this final verdict from God to humanity) in Revelation 16:15, “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to live our lives every day knowing that Jesus Christ is going to come back and we do not know the day or time, but we know that we have been given this mandate: Be ready; stay alert; stand firm! Live your life in obedience and in humility each day so that we will receive the promises of God with confidence.

Your ACTION ITEM for this daily mission if you choose to accept it is: I live like Jesus Christ is coming back today. There is no other way to live! Are you ready? Are you alert? Are you standing firm in the Truth?

RESPONSE TIME: Pastor Ken and his team are now going to lead us in a time of response. As the piano plays, I am going to invite you to respond to this message. We are going to have a few of us here if you would like to pray with someone, but mostly I invite you to be free and respond to God through song and celebration or through prayer and committal.