MESSAGE – WHAT IS IT GOING TO BE - ABIDING OR BLACKSLIDING? 1 John 2 v 28-29
1John 2 v 28 Now, little children, abide in Him so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 1John 2 v 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practises righteousness is born of Him.
Chapter 2 ends with these 2 very challenging verses that have a full implication for our Christian life and walk. John appeals to his readers; wanting to encourage them, for the consequences are high as the results are touching eternal realities. I suppose in considering these facts, we can picture these illustrations:- A student tends to waste His time during the year with socialising and non academic ventures, but at exam time, reality sets in and he starts to feel ashamed. An athlete spends too much time eating and drinking, but when the competitors are called for the start of the big race, then he starts to shrink back. When it comes to the crunch, will there be regret from the student and the athlete because of their attitudes? I think so. They have failed their commitment.
There is an old hymn we ought to sing more, because it means much, but like many of the old challenging hymns, it has been shelved by so many churches. In some churches it is not the done thing to challenge the people. Here is one that applies very well to our message today:-
By and by when I look on His face,
Beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face.
By and by when I look on His face,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more;
More of my life than I e’re gave before.
By and by when I look on His face,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.
By and by when He holds out His hands,
Welcoming hands, nail-pierced hands;
By and by when He holds out His hands,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more,
More of my heart than I e’re gave before.
By and by when He holds out His hands,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.
By and by when I kneel at His feet,
Beautiful feet, nail-riven feet;
By and by when I kneel at His feet,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more,
More of my heart than I e’re gave before,
By and by when I kneel at His feet,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.
By and by when I sit in His throne
Glorious throne, wonderful throne;
By and by when I sit in His throne,
I'll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more,
More of my heart than I e're gave before,
By and by when I sit in His throne
I'll wish I had given Him more.
In the light of that heavenly place,
Light from His face, beautiful face;
In the light of that heavenly place,
I'll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more,
Treasures unbounded for Him I adore,
By and by when I look on His face
I'll wish I had given Him more.
(Grace Reese Adkins 1948)
What the poet is inferring, is that the shrinking back and the feeling of shame is because not enough of our time, and devotion, and service, and wills, and labour, have been given to the Lord. We spend a lot of time “talking church” and “acting church” and speaking about the Christian faith and disputing doctrine and precept, but what about the one-on-one with the Saviour, and abiding in Him?
What John is begging of his readers, is that their relationship is right with God in a strong connection that will not cause them to shrink back or to be ashamed when they enter the presence of the Lord – be it through death or at the Rapture. It will all be about –-> “confidence” verses “shame and withdrawal”. The Christian life has probably always been a marginalised life, for deep Christian strength has never been dominant in the world. I do think that right now in history, it is hard to keep faithful as a Christian, more than it has been for a long, long time. We live in a post Christian world, an almost pagan society, and the world arrays all its glitzy attractions and idols of sport, and social media and gaming, and entertainment and technology and temptations. Christians can get caught up in many mazes and wander the many byways and fruitless paths. What would John say about all this? Well he has done so in this verse – {{1John 2 v 28 Now, little children, abide in Him so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.}}
HOW TO ABIDE? – THAT IS THE QUESTION
We will look at the last part of the verse to begin with. It uses the words “shrink away” and “shame” (NASB). I am imagining a situation like this one – Take a Christian home where the parents have gone away for three days and left the home in the care of their teenage son. The son is loved by his parents and trusted to do right. Something arose and the parents had to cut short their time away, and came home early. Meanwhile, the son had asked some of his mates around and one of them brought drugs and all those gathered got into the drugs. The son heard the front door open, and his father’s voice, and immediately began to shrink away. The minute he stood in front of his parents, he melts into shame. Shame, the result of great guilt.
He started to shrink away and was covered in shame. Why? Well, it wasn’t just his parents’ trust that had been shattered, and it wasn’t just his honesty that came crumbling down, and it wasn’t just that he’d been caught out, but his failure was, that he stopped abiding in his parents’ will. Now, it might have been only for that day, even though it might have carried consequences for the coming days or weeks to come, but the fact was, he had lowered the flag of his testimony.
As an aside, I think there is another consideration which is a separate issue, but I believe the Lord is gracious to his people who can be caught up with, or caught out in a sin, and God sometimes plucks them out of it before they get too much involved and too scarred by their sin and failure. I used the words, “he had lowered the flag of his testimony”. What that means, is that for a period of time, he had stopped abiding.
I suppose it is like one of the lengths of a passionfruit vine. If you cut off or separate that stem from the main vine, then very quickly, the passion fruits depending on that cut off section of vine, will know something is wrong and start to shrivel up. If, by a miracle, that stem could be restored, then the fruits are infused by the goodness of the vine again. God continues to do marvellous things for us by restoring those fellowship stems we keep cutting off. It does not happen automatically, but according to a procedure the Lord has laid down.
In our verse 28, the answer to the shrinking away and the shame, lies in the first part of this verse where it says, “abide in Him”, for when we abide in Him, then we walk in the light as He is in the Light, and indeed, HE is the Light, and we have fellowship one with another. That means fellowship with each other, that is, Christian to Christian, but it also means one on One with God. The Father has fellowship with me and I have fellowship with the Father. All this happens because there is a transparent openness. We can’t know God through an opaque glass. The light exposes sin and reveals the wrong path. If your sight is dim through lack of abiding, you will be tracking towards the wrong path. If your sight is wholesome, then you will see clearly.
DULL THE SIGHT - LIFE’S NOT RIGHT
Is it not sad that Christians are found living a deficient life when all the resources are made available to them from God? Some complain of having no direction, of not feeling like partaking of spiritual things, or careless about their walk each day. Why should this be so? Nearly always the problem can be traced back to the neglect of the available resources. These are, most importantly, the word of God, prayer, and Christian fellowship. We need to focuss basically here on the bible, the word of God, because I think it is the most fundamental item at our disposal. When there is a problem with a person’s spirituality, it can nearly always be traced back to a neglect of, or carelessness with the living word of God. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
When the application of the word is reduced, so is the light and therefore the discernment and the growth. The psalmist in psalm 119 asked God to open his eyes that he may behold wonderful things from God’s law (His written word). (v 18). He also asked God to revive him according to the word (v 25) and to strengthen him the same way (v 28). In the very first line of a poem I will read, one could almost write, “If the Light before you fades,” for the Lord Jesus is the Light and neglect of the word is neglect of the Light of the world.
DULL THE SIGHT - LIFE’S NOT RIGHT
If the light before you fades,
Is the problem with the light?
If the path a dullness has,
Perhaps the problem’s with your sight.
Dull perception, you will find,
When not discerning left from right,
Can be traced back, straight to you.
Your viewfinder’s no longer bright.
Light has dimmed; the pathway grey:-
You’ve neglected God’s true word.
You have not discerned the truth,
And His inviting call, not heard.
Read God’s word, and prayer renew.
Then let your heart by those, be stirred;
Pay attention to God’s voice,
And by unfailing love, be spurred.
(Ron Ferguson – copyright, but may be used in Christian service with acknowledgement)
ABIDING IN CHRIST
I know from my own experience how subtle sin is. It is sinfulness, perverse, deceitfulness Paul used. It is like a Christian behaving in the following manner – he acts as if he is saying, “Lord, I am going here, or doing this or that, but You just wait outside for me.” Now he does not do that deliberately, but by implication, he is doing it. There are the closed off areas of our lives where we will not take the Lord, or we try to cover them up, or we try to put them out of our minds, which is precisely another way of telling the Holy Spirit to hush up when He is convicting us.
We can not abide if we have sin which is a blockage to trust, and openness with God. It may cause us to think, “I hope the Lord does not come back just now, for this in my life is not right.” That is exactly what John is saying when he speaks of shrinking back and shame. If we are doing something that gives us a guilty conscience, then that something is most likely wrong. Let us examine ourselves. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows that he shall also reap, and it applies to the coming of the Lord, and whether we will have confidence, or we shrink back from Him.
John is urging his fellow Christians to keep abiding in the Lord. This essential of abiding is something he writes about in this letter and in the gospel. We will look at the Gospel reference later on.
There is a contrast in verse 28, which is confidence and regret. Regret follows on from shrinking back and shame; it is a feeling of guilt and repentance in some form. Which part of the contrast best describes you and me and you and you and you? I ask that here today, but it is a general question on display to all Christians.
We hear the expression “sold out to Jesus” but far too many Christians are sold out to their own desires, their own agendas, their own self-fulfillment. Jesus wants committed men and women. Discipleship is on the line. The rich young ruler came to Jesus and wanted to follow him. Yes, he was keen, and he’d seen the vision, but the Lord put His finger on the very issue that made him shrink back and not follow the Lord.
Yes, we all fail. I have spoken about that in an earlier message. Peter failed. In spite of all those slips, his confidence was in the Lord and remained so all his life. Our confidence grows through trust, commitment, humility and experience. The Greek word disciple, µa??t??, means a a learner, a pupil, and has a sense of self discipline as Mathematics is a discipline requiring exactness and dedication as a follower. A follower is one who trusts the leader, listens to the leader, learns all he or she can about the leader. For the Christian disciple, it is a path of joy and fulfilment, but also one of persecution, ridicule, and sorrow. The world will not embrace a follower of the Lord. What is better – to stand before the Lord in shame, or to hear the words, “Well done you good and faithful servant.”
Verse 28 calls for us to abide in Him. Can I say there is a difference between abiding “in” Him and abiding “near” Him. Have you ever thought about that? Think of Noah for a time. He was safe and secure IN the ark. What if Noah had also made a small rowboat he took on board, and after the tempest and torrents had ceased and it was relatively calm, Noah took his boat and set out on the calm water to row around to take a look at everything. In fact maybe if Noah had done that, he may have loved it so much that he did it a couple of times a day – you know, for exercise, or to enjoy God’s clear sky, or to keep the ark under surveillance, or to - - - - well, just do his own thing. In this hypothetical case, we could say Noah was abiding near the ark. That was not God’s call for Him; he had to abide in the ark. He could have argued how important it was to maintain his little boat in his life – after all he could justify what he was doing, but it was absolutely outside the will of God to be near the ark. He had to be in the ark.
For us, the Ark is Christ. He is the one who buffeted the storm of the wrath of God for us and became sin for us, and died a substitutionary death for us, in order that the justice and righteousness of God might be satisfied, so we could have everlasting peace. Christ is our Ark who invited us into a new relationship in Him and He always enfolds us in the beloved in Christ. We are to abide in Him. We are not to go sailing around in our own boat of our own making; in other words, we are not to be disobedient merely abiding near Christ. We must abide IN Christ. That is what John lovingly tells us to do. It is the Lord who tells us that.
I will read John 15 verses 7 to 10. {{John 15 v 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you. John 15:8 By this is My Father glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. John 15:9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Abide in My love. John 15:10 If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.}}
These verses can not be in isolation, for the teaching in them is closely linked. “My words abide in you” (v 7) is fundamental and I think this is the sap flowing into the branches. The restriction of that sap does not allow the word of God to abide in the life of a Christian. There are many impossibilities in the world, but it is most certain that high among those, is the fact that a Christian will never function successfully unless the word of God is directing and building him into a worthwhile man and woman of God. In verse 9, Jesus confirms His love for His own, and then He asks that they abide in His love. We might ask, “How can I abide or remain in Christ's love? What is the secret? I want to, but what is the way I must do it?”
Well, God is gracious in that He has not left us without the answer. The answer is in two parts, one in verse 7, and the other in verse 10. The first is that I must allow the word to abide in me. Read, listen to, and study the Bible. Others can not do that for you. Allow the bible to infuse you, and you become saturated with it. The second part is in verse 10 “If you keep my commandments”. That is, you must be obedient to the Bible, for its Author is the Lord, and they are His words. In fact the Lord emphasised this truth elsewhere in these parallel verses – {{John 14 v 15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. John 14 v 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me, and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” 1John 3 v 24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.}}
Verse 29. {{1John 2 v 29 “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practises righteousness is born of Him.”}} The connection between this verse and verse 28, is that verse 28 depends on verse 29. Picture a person who is not walking properly with the Lord, who may be in a backslidden state. That person may be saved, but is not producing a saved testimony.
The “state” of righteousness produces the display of “practical” righteousness. One does righteous acts because that one is righteous. The Lord is righteous, so all His born-again sheep are righteous too, and therefore will practise righteous behaviour. It is dark at night because the sun has set. It is light in the daytime because the sun has risen. A bad fountain produces bad water. A pure spring issues forth the good water of life. This is what verse 29 means. Because the Lord is righteous, then His true followers must practise righteousness. Indeed they will practice righteousness.
Is it not sad that those who say they are Christians are not abiding in Christ? Where are you today in your Christian walk? Are you abiding IN Christ and not NEAR Christ?
WHAT THINK YOU? What would you say these two verses should mean to us?
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
POSSIBLE HYMNS
Be Still for the Presence of the Lord
In Heavenly Love Abiding
When We Walk with the Lord
All to Jesus I surrender
