Monthly Archive for April, 2001

1 John 2:28

Published on April 30, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”


And now, little children,

John continues to appeal to born again believers. 

abide in Him,

“Abide in Him” is a command.  Abiding concerns both belief and behavior. 


PRINCIPLE:  Abiding means to walk in fellowship with the Lord. 


APPLICATION:  Abiding in Him means that we believe the Lord’s promises, we apply His principles and we love Him and serve Him.  We allow the Holy Spirit to fill and control us.  We trust Him in everything. 

Abiding means that we willingly do God’s will.  It may mean that we must deal radically with some sin or injury.  If we abide in Him, we are prepared to do what He asks of us.  It means we accept our present situation.  We may not like it but we believe in His sovereign hand on our lives.  We accept His design for our lives.  Abiding in Him may mean that we may have to deal with a broken relationship.  If we deal with these things, we will look forward to Jesus’ coming with confidence. 

1 John 2:27b

Published on April 29, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”


 but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things,

The resource of the Holy Spirit indwelling each believer is all that anyone needs to discern true doctrine.  The Holy Spirit teaches doctrine, any doctrine that a believer needs to grow in the faith or discern false teaching.  The Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know about spirituality and false doctrine.

The scope of the Holy Spirit’s teaching ministry is “all things.”  There is nothing more disgusting than a know-it-all.  No teacher is infallible.  The idea here is that there is nothing excluded from the teaching ministry of the Spirit.  The indwelling Holy Spirit will help any believer anywhere to detect false teaching. 

and is true, and is not a lie,

The phrase “is true, and is not a lie” contrasts truth and error.  Believers can rest assured that what the Holy Spirit teaches is true.  It is true as to its character; it is consistent with God and His Word.  His teaching has no deception like that of the antichrists. 

and just as it has taught you,

The Holy Spirit taught John’s readers from the point of their salvation. 

you will abide in Him

Abiding in the Holy Spirit presupposes intimate fellowship with the Lord.  The Holy Spirit abides in you and you abide in Him.  When you effectively relate to the Holy Spirit, you “abide in Him.”  That is, you fellowship with Him. 


PRINCIPLE:  The Holy Spirit is the only one who can illumine the Word of God to the child of God. 


APPLICATION:  The Holy Spirit illuminates the Word of God to the child of God.  He enables the believer to understand the Bible.  When the Christian loses interest in the Bible, he loses interest in the Son of God.  He does not lose his salvation but he loses the dynamic of the Christian faith.  We cannot love the Lord Jesus without thinking about Him.  We put Him foremost on our minds by listening to His Word.  The Holy Spirit will enable us to engage with the truth as it is in Jesus. 

Jn 14: 26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

Jn 16: 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

If the Holy Spirit does not teach you, you are not well taught.  Unless the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart while you listen to Bible teachers and study the Bible for yourself, the Word of God will not have much effect on you.  You do not have “ears to hear.”

Some believers conclude from this verse that they do not need a human teacher to teach them the Bible.  No, the Holy Spirit uses human teachers to teach us (1 Co 12:28; Ep 4:11).  He uses the apostle John to teach his readers. 

Every Christian needs the Holy Spirit to enable him to understand divine truth.  This is an intensely personal work of the Spirit.   

1 Co 2: 10 “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

1 John 2:27

Published on April 28, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”


But

Verse 27 is the solution to the religious deception of verse 26. 

the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you,

The Holy Spirit’s presence ever abides in the believer.  He lives, remains and stays in every Christian.  No sin will drive Him away.  His abiding presence remains with each Christian. 

John discussed “the anointing” in verse 20.  The anointing refers to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to work in the life of the believer.  In this case, the indwelling Holy Spirit helps ferret out false teachers and false teaching. 

and you do not need that anyone teach you;

The idea is not that the anointing of the Holy Spirit preempts a teacher of the Word of God but that He co-operates with it to protect us against apostasy.  No man can add anything to what the Holy Spirit taught John’s readers so there is no need for any further revelation.  There is then no need that a false teacher teaches you anything! 


PRINCIPLE:  The Holy Spirit protects every believer from religious tangents. 


APPLICATION:  Satan can easily seduce baby Christians.  They are the most susceptible to spiritual infection.  The first thing you know is that they have come down with some spiritual sickness.  The Holy Spirit is their spiritual safeguard.  He will keep them from being swept away on religious tangents. 

Do you have difficulty extracting principles of the Word to live the Christian life?  If you do, you have help.  God promises that His Holy Spirit will enable you to understand divine truth. 

This does not mean that we always come to the right understanding of the Bible.  Every person has misunderstandings about Scripture but the idea here is that the Holy Spirit will process us toward the truth and keep us from error. 

It is possible to hear with our ears but not understand in our spirit.  This is what Jesus said in Matthew 13.  He illumines our minds and hearts.  He goes further by bringing us under conviction about a truth.  The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and makes the child of God like the Son of God. 

Mt 13: 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,

And seeing you will see and not perceive;

15  For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,

And their eyes they have closed,

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.’”

Ac 20: 22 “And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, 23 “except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.”

Ep 1: 17 “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…”

The human teacher is only an instrument.  An instrument cannot take the place of the Holy Spirit or contradict the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit delivers us from the error of false teachers.  He will alert us to novel explanations of Scripture peddled by antichrists.  The Spirit will dispense with their teaching if the child of God responds to His indwelling presence. 

Bible taught and Spirit grounded believers have the best protection against people pretending to represent God with new truth. 

1 John2:26

Published on April 27, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.”


These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you

John continues to write about the antichrists of verse eighteen.  All believers need cautions of false teachers and false teaching.  These false teachers love to seduce susceptible believers away from sound doctrine. 

In the next verse, John shows an antidote against apostasy — we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit to protect us from error. 


PRINCIPLE:  Believers should be on their toes against religious deception launched by Satan himself. 


APPLICATION:  There is no doubt that some Christians are vulnerable to deception.  Immature believers are susceptible to pseudo spirituality.  Usually, these are people who know very little of the Word of God.  Satan leads believers astray by counterfeit.  His primary system for deception is religion.  He gets as close to the genuine thing as possible without being the genuine thing. 

2 Co 11: 13 “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”

1 Ti 4: 1 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…”

Without spiritual safeguards, Satan will sweep Christians into false doctrine.  Many Christians are open to religious tangents.  Satan follows the principle – divide and conquer. 

1 John 2:25b

Published on April 26, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.”


And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life

Eternal life is not in question as some of the antichrists asserted.  John’s readers passed from death to life at the moment of salvation (Jn 5:24; 1 Jn 3:14).  God always links eternal life with regeneration.  The Christian passes from death to eternal life at the point of belief in Christ.  He receives life as God has it (Jn 3:15).  God not only wants us to enjoy eternal life in eternity but also in time. 

Biblically, life results from faith in Christ (Jn 3:15f, 36; 5:24, 40; 6:40,47,53f; 10:10; 20:31; 1 Jn 3:15; 5:12,13).   Eternal life is the polar opposite of death.  Eternal life primarily belongs to God.  Jesus also has life in Himself (Jn 1:4; 5:26; 6:57; 1 Jn 1:1f; 5:11,20). 

Tit 1: 2 “…in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began…”

Eternal life is not only quantity of life but also quality of life.  When God saves us, He saves us body, soul and spirit.  We possess a new essence of life, the life of God Himself. 


PRINCIPLE:  Our eternal security rests on the credibility of God’s promise. 


APPLICATION:  Eternal death came through sin (Ro 5:12).  Sin forfeited life with God.  Impartation of God’s life to the sinner comes through shedding of blood, the life of the flesh.  The blood of Christ gives eternal life by reason of the sacrifice of Christ’s life.  Removal of death comes by the sacrifice of Christ’s life. 

Our eternal future is secure because it rests on the credibility of God’s promise.  The person who believes on Jesus Christ possesses eternal life.  The issue of eternal life was settled long ago for the Christian. 

Jn 3: 36 “He who believes in the Son has [has and holds] everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Eternal life is more than life in the future; we can enjoy the dynamic of eternal life in time.  It is a possession of the present because it comes from a promise.  That is why we have assurance and not some vague wish for the future.  The Christian rests on this safeguard. 

1 John2:25

Published on April 25, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.”


 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life

This verse closely connects to the immediate context. John introduces the idea of eternal life to expose the antichrists of the preceding section.  They did not possess eternal life.  They tried to introduce a system of salvation and spirituality by works. 

Yet, the issue is not salvation for John’s readers.  They settled that issue long ago.  They have eternal security.  God donates eternal life freely as a gift.  Their issue was not salvation but false teachers who tried to impose a false system of spirituality on them. 

Fellowship with the Son and the Father (v. 24) is an eternal relationship.  The hope of eternal life is certain.  Fellowship in time is a foretaste of fellowship in eternity.  Every believer possesses God’s pledge of eternal life. 

The One who makes the promise here is Jesus.  Those who possess eternal life give evidence of their relationship with the Father and the Son by fellowshipping with them.  This starkly contrasts the one who truly possesses eternal life and the one who merely professes that he has the life of God. 

The New Testament uses the word “promise” to emphasize God’s guarantee for the future.  God’s promises will find fulfillment because He is true to His Word.  The word “promise” is a legal term denoting a summons. The eternal life that God gives He maintains. 

Jn 10:28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”


PRINCIPLE:  We realize the promise of eternal life by abiding


APPLICATION:  Our eternal keeping does not rest on the uncertainty of merit or works; it rests solely on the finished work of Christ on the cross.  We link to the finished work of Christ by believing God’s promise.  We hold Him to His promise.  The guarantee of eternal life rests completely on the believability of God.

2 Co 1: 20 “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”

We do not have to worry about God making good on His promises.  When God gives testimony to something He will deliver on it. 

We cannot put our confidence in men.  They break national treaties and personal promises all the time.  God never goes back on His Word. 

Nu 23: 19 “God is not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent.

Has He said, and will He not do?”

Ro 4: 20 “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”

Ti 1:2 “…in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began…” Whenever we doubt the promises of God, we know that the Devil is at work in our lives.  Any time we put a question mark on God’s Word, Satan is busy at work on us. 

Ro 3: 3 “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written:

“That You may be justified in Your words,

And may overcome when You are judged.”

1 John 2:24c

Published on April 24, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.”


 you also will abide in the Son and in the Father

The word “also” serves to add the experience of fellowship with God on a firsthand, experiential basis.  Genuine communication with the Father and the Son depends on believing the original message of the gospel. 

The word “abide” conveys the idea of persist, continue.  “Continue in a vital fellowship with the Son and the Father.”  The degree of fellowship with God will determine how well we stand against error. 

The “Son” is the key to fellowship with the Father.  Christ the Son of God is truth itself; to abide in the truth is to abide in Him.  Fellowship with the Father depends on fellowship with the Son. 


PRINCIPLE:  Fellowship with the Father depends on fellowship with the Son. 


APPLICATION:  If we do not have a high regard for Christ we cannot have fellowship with the Father.  If I do not like your personality, we probably will not get along very well.  We cannot have a dynamic fellowship with the Father without a vibrant relationship with the Son. 

There is an inescapable inference from letting the Word of God grip our souls and that is that we will have rich fellowship with God.  When we do, He will provide for us at home, at work and at play.  We will experience His presence in everything.  He will walk us through pain and tribulation.  We can trust Him through it all. 

John 14: 21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

There is a big difference between being “in” something and “abiding in” it.  This is the story of John 15.  The believer (the branch) is in the vine (the Lord) by virtue of union to Him by faith.  The vine imparts His life to the branch in order to produce fruit.  We could not produce that fruit without drawing the energy of the vine.  When the life of the vine is imparted to the branch, dynamic fellowship occurs. 

Jn 15: 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

There is reciprocity in this as well.  When we accept by faith the promises of the Word God provides for us.  We allow the will of God to flow through us.  The fellowship in this is rich. 

1 John2:24b

Published on April 23, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.”


 If what you heard from the beginning abides in you,

The Greek puts great emphasis on “you.”  That is, “For you believers, you in contrast to unbelievers, if you remain true to where you started, you will abide in the Son and the Father.”  It is possible to let foundational truths slip from us.  Many people start out fine but they do not finish well. 

The emphasis here is hearing what God said in His Word at the beginning.  If God’s truth abides in us in a dynamic way, we will experience continuing vital fellowship with God in time.  Going back to the incarnation (God dwelling in man) is the sum substance and foundation to abiding. 


PRINCIPLE:  God gave us the Word that we might have a stable, ongoing fellowship with Him. 


APPLICATION:  Many people start out fine but they do not finish well in the Christian life.  How many people have you seen fall away from a dynamic faith and engagement with the Word of God? 

Have you lost interest in the Word of God?  Many churches devolve into religious country clubs having no interest in the Word.  They are more interested in a social life than they are listening to what God has to say. 

God intends that His Word take hold of our lives.  He did not design it to lay dead on dusty pages of a black book.  He desires that we interact with what He has said.

Ro 15:4 “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We live in a day when evangelicals put heavy emphasis on the subjective rather than the objective.  It is high time that we return to the objective Word of God and engage with it actively.  An objective orientation to Scriptures gives us confidence, stability and clear direction for our lives. 

1 John 2:24

Published on April 22, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.”


John turns to the responsibility of his readers to avoid being taken in by the false teachers of the previous verses.  First, they are to remain true to the original message they received when they became Christians.  This is a spiritual safeguard against falling away from the foundation of Christianity. 

Therefore let that abide in you

God wants the believer to let eternal truths abide in his soul.  John uses “abide” six times in this section.  The idea is continuing assimilation of God’s truth to experience.  It is not enough to assent formally to the message of the past; we must own it for our lives now.  If we continually apply the principles of the Word to experience, we will engage with the reality of the Word. 

2: 14  “I have written to you, fathers,

Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men,

Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,

And you have overcome the wicked one.”

Abiding has to do with fellowship, not relationship.  Fellowship produces fruit-bearing in the Christian life.

which you heard from the beginning.

First, it is our responsibility to let the Word abide in us.  Secondly, it is God’s responsibility to give the Word in the first place – “which you heard from the beginning.” 

The phrase “which you heard” refers to something handed down from the past that is constantly true and reliable.  The tense indicates that God handed down the Word at a given time in the past.  It is our responsibility to allow the unalterable Word of God live at home in our souls harmoniously. 


PRINCIPLE:  If we accept salvation by faith, we should accept the fullness of the Christian life by faith. 


APPLICATION:  When someone comes along with unique doctrine, it is always a red flag.  Truth is always older than error.  The challenge is to remain true to apostolic teaching – to the teaching of the New Testament.  We hold fast to the faithful Word because our fellowship with God in both eternity and time revolve around it. 

Ti 1: 9 “…holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.”

We must not forget foundational things.  Everything we know about God we learned from the Bible.  We cannot forget about fundamental truth, basic truth, if we want to move on in the Christian life.  The crucial concern is that we engage with God through His Word. 

Co 3: 16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Steadfastness in truth received is a high priority to God.  God’s Word is a finished quantity of truth.   It is not in a state of flux making it indefinite.  Truth in the beginning is truth in the end.  It is an anchor for the soul. 

If we allow the truth to dwell in us, we will have intimate fellowship with God.  We must allow truth to have a vital place in our priorities and behavior.  Orthodoxy is one thing but “orthopraxy” is another.  It is one thing to formally believe truth but it is something else to practice what we believe.

Jn 15: 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”

Letting the message abide in us is more than applying the Bible to experience occasionally.  If we let it abide in us, it will take hold of us.  Cursory trafficking in the Word will not deliver the change in our lives that we need.  The Word must abide in us in order to possess us.  It needs to grip our souls and find lodgment in our souls.  It will change our lives if we allow it to do so. 

1 John 2:23

Published on April 21, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”


Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either;

John now employs a universal statement – “whoever.”  There are no exceptions to believing in Jesus Christ for salvation.  If a person denies the Son, there is no question that he does not have a relationship with the Father.  The one goes with the other.  If you reject the Son, you reject the Father. 

he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also

The word “acknowledge” is a synonym to the word believe.  Only by believing in the Son’s suffering for our sin can we receive redemption from the Father. 


PRINCIPLE:  There are no exceptions to God’s exclusive way to heaven. 


APPLICATION:  Many who defect from Christianity were never true believers in the first place.  Now they put off their appearance of biblical Christianity.  They revert to type.  They were not sheep but dogs and pigs all along. 

2 Pe 2: 22 “But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”

Every antichrist system at work in the world today assaults the deity of Christ.  These systems do come in the form of religion.  That makes it very deceptive for the naive who believe that religion is always good. 

God says that we cannot have the Father without the Son.  There is no equivocation in this.  Not all roads lead to Rome biblically.  Jesus is the only road to heaven (Jn 14:6).

Ac 4: 12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Any religious system that denies either the deity or the humanity of Christ is from Satan and his religious scheme of things.  There is no exception to God’s plan for salvation in Christ’s finished work on the cross. 

If we do not accept this, we forfeit any relationship to the Father.  To reject the Son is to reject the Father.  We cannot believe in God without believing in Jesus.  If we deny the Lord, we incur eternal damnation.  This will cost us eternal life.  This is a matter of eternal life and eternal death.

2 Pe 2: 1 “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction”

Ju 4 “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”