Safe Until He Comes #2

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in the Truth Pulpit. And that wonder of knowledge in Christ is promised to us by God for those that belong to him, those that are in his family.

And see, and that's more than enough, my friend. I say it gently, but I say it truly, that's more than enough to compensate for every earthly loss or every earthly disappointment that we could ever have. We lose relationships, they kind of come and go.

We lose jobs, we lose our prosperity, we lose our health. Loved ones spurn us, friends despise us, forsake us. But through it all, underlying that, there's something greater, something more wonderful, something more precious than anything that humans could give to us. It's this knowledge of Christ, and that he's loved us and considered our soul, and gave himself that he might bring us to himself, that we would be with him at that great feast and the celebration of the bridegroom as he welcomes as he welcomes his bride into heaven.

And you have a place there reserved for you in heaven, Peter says. That is what's been promised to us, all of those magnificent riches in Christ. And so when we understand what's promised to us, we understand what it is that we pursue, it shapes our affections, and we're not shaken by the fact that life here on earth doesn't go quite the way that we had hoped or expected. Those things come and go, we are wrapped up in a wonderful abiding security in Christ, and the knowledge that he loves us, and this is splendor, this is eternal life, to have that as our own personal possession in our hearts. And so I have to ask you, you know, do you know Christ like that, my friend, or is that foreign to you? Have you had maybe mistaken ideas of what it meant to be a Christian, and you were merely looking for Jesus to kind of smooth out the bumps in your life and to just help you when problems come up? Well I've got blessed news for you, Christ is calling you out of that modern false gospel, calling you out of that, calling you to repent and put your faith in him, and to enter into this fellowship of life, enter into this wonder of eternal life that far surpasses those things that have been sold to you.

You were sold a counterfeit version of Christianity by people who maybe meant well but didn't understand or didn't tell you the truth about it all. Well tonight Christ comes and calls you to himself to this manner of eternal life of which we've been speaking. It's a promise that he keeps to everyone who comes to him in repentant faith.

Wouldn't it be great if tonight was the day of your salvation? Look at these scriptures, consider them well, and ask the Spirit of God to do a work in your heart that you cannot accomplish on your own. All of these things we see as we turn to scripture, and so in the midst of these promises, John says these words that we already looked at in verse 26, he's been writing about the protective influence of apostolic teaching, which now in the 21st century we understand that we find it in the written Word of God, in the Bible, and now he's he's talked about the promise of fellowship, the promise of eternal life, and he clarifies, he clarifies what he's doing. He says, these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. You know what false teachers do if you up and follow them? They may be exposing the fact that you were never a true Christian for one thing. If they entice you away from the truth, they're enticing you away from this fellowship with God.

They're enticing you away from this knowledge of eternal life of which we have been speaking. Well my friend, what that means is these spiritual realities should be so precious to you that you immediately recognize that a false teacher would rob you of those most sacred jewels. They would rob you of those most sacred possessions that you have, these spiritual riches in Christ, and so John says, I'm writing concerning those who are trying to deceive you, if you follow after them, you are losing your possession of these things. I don't mean that in the sense of losing your salvation, simply that false teaching clouds the knowledge of God and the knowledge of eternal life, and the deeper you go into it the more that you lose that experience, and maybe it's even being exposing to you that you're not really even saved, because again as Jesus said, if you abide in my teaching you are truly disciples of mine, and so that means that we need to be really careful when new teachers come to us, especially if they're bringing doctrine that's foreign to your ears, oh time out, don't go after that kind of stuff. There are those who want to deceive you, who want to bring you into enslavement to their own twisted versions of what truth is, which is no truth at all, which is no truth at all, understand that John writes and says in the scripture, in apostolic teaching, you find your protection against those who are trying to take those precious things away from you, and so how can you thrive in an environment like this?

You turn to scripture and you find that which protects you, and so that's the first point for this evening. Secondly, what we find as we continue in this in this passage is this, is that you trust the spirit, you trust the spirit, you turn to scripture and then you trust the spirit of God, and John spells this out in verse 27, look at it there with me, he says, as for you the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in him. That's a pretty long verse isn't it, and as scripture sometimes is, it's kind of a complex sentence, but we'll just break it down piece by piece and let God help us here. The anointing in this verse is a reference to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit indwells every true believer. That's what John is saying, the anointing which you received from him abides in you. You, my Christian friend, you received the Holy Spirit the moment that you believed. If any man does not have the spirit of God, he does not belong to Christ, Romans 8 teaches us, and so you received the Holy Spirit when you believed, and the Holy Spirit came into your life and one aspect of it is a down payment that the fullness of the gift of salvation would one day be delivered to you. The Holy Spirit's a down payment on greater things to come, and on greater things to come, but there's more to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life than just that. The Holy Spirit comes to indwell you in order to to teach you, to be your your teacher par excellence you could say, the indwelling teacher who guides you into the truth. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to help you understand the word of God, to give you understanding that goes beyond your natural ability, that goes beyond even the the limits of human education as he takes the word of God, brings it to your mind, and expands your understanding of it.

What John is saying is abide in the spirit, let that anointing which you receive from him continue to abide in you, and one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit my friend is this, these are blessed, these are blessed truths and blessed truths in an unseen realm. The Spirit of God indwells us to help defend us against deception. Look, the Spirit of God led you to Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God alone was the power that enabled you to believe. He supernaturally took away your heart of stone and instilled in you a heart of flesh that was tender to the Word of God and able and willing to believe and to repent and believe in Christ. The Spirit of God did that for you.

You didn't do that to yourself. Well, understand this my friend, the Spirit, this is so sweet, this is so so sweet and so far superior to the false claims of charismatic theology that that tie up the work of the Holy Spirit in in in gimmicks and false gifts. Here's the true ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God guided you to Christ. Now that you are in Christ and the Spirit of God indwells you, he keeps you in Christ. He protects you, he preserves you, and his power cannot fail.

This is very very comforting. Yes, God calls you and me to work out our salvation. We are called and commanded to persevere in the faith, but right alongside that command is the is the statement in Philippians chapter 2 that it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Your efforts at pursuing sanctification are energized by the Holy Spirit and so as you go to the Word of God in the context of what's being said here, as you go to the Word of God, the Spirit of God gives you discernment, he gives you understanding, he helps you to distinguish what is true from what is false.

Now that doesn't that doesn't happen all in a moment. Part of the way that that the Spirit of God does that is through the sustained study of the Word of God over the course of time. Let me let me remind you of 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 where it says this, we just turn back a few pages in your Bible to 2 Timothy 2 verse 15 where it says, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed accurately handling the Word of truth. You see the Spirit of God works through our applied diligence to the Word of God, our commitment to understand it well and to understand it accurately. We don't engage in the study of the Word of God as Christians by ourselves left to our own resources and left to our own intellect. The indwelling Spirit is given to help us understand these things. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 is a passage that we need to see in this context. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13 where it says this, now we have received not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom but in those taught by the Spirit combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. And so we see the Spirit of God indwelling true believers and having as one of his primary ministries to us to illumine our minds to Scripture, to help us understand to help us understand and to grow in the truth. And so as we turn to Scripture as we saw in point one we understand in point two that we can trust the ministry of the Holy Spirit to guide us to that which is really true. And as he guides us to that which is really true he defends us from those who are trying to deceive us.

And so yes we come with diligence to the Word of God but we come in faith, we come by faith trusting that the Spirit that God has given us will use his Word and help us understand it so that we grow in the true knowledge of of Jesus Christ. It's wonderful truth. This is part of what God has given to us and that's why we are able and that's why we can be confident that we can overcome false teachers when it's all said and done because the Spirit of God is given to us to help us achieve precisely that victory in Christ. And so it's just wonderful wonderful truth. False teachers may undermine your confidence, they may shake you for a while, but in the end their their efforts to mislead Christians are doomed to failure because the Spirit of God is given to us to keep us in the truth. And you know what else that means? Kind of looking at it from a human perspective those of you that have come out of false teaching you've come out of false churches either from your childhood or or more recently and you've turned your back on those who were misleading you let me tell you something really wonderful something tremendously encouraging the fact that you turned away from those false teachers is a sure mark of the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart the fact that you could not tolerate falsehood and that you went out looking for truth and pursuing truth as it's found in Jesus Christ truth as it's found in the scripture that's a mark of the work of the Spirit of God that is far superlative to the false gift of tongues or false gifts of healings or false prophecies that are you know that are no true prophecies at all your desire for truth and your understanding of truth is is a sure mark of the work of the Holy Spirit who's given to us for the ability that we might know the things that God has freely given to us in his word so this is wonderful encouraging seeing what the mark of the work of the Spirit of God is and the point here in verse 27 is that you can trust the Spirit to continue that work that he has begun in you you know that's the language of Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 isn't it I'm confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus well the the certainty that that work will be perfected is the fact that God has put his spirit in us for precisely that purpose now what that means is is that the Holy Spirit does not just is not just a passive resident in our lives he has an active ministry to direct us and to keep us and to teach us to protect us from fatal error now as John goes on he makes a statement that is that is easily misunderstood understood look at verse 27 with me he says the anointing which you receive from him abides in you and therefore is protection against those who are trying to deceive you found in verse 26 and then he goes on and he makes he makes this statement he says and you have no need for anyone to teach you well I've had people tell me I've had people tell me see I don't I don't need a pastor I don't need any teachers I have the Holy Spirit and that's all that I need the Spirit teaches me and that's and that's that and that kind of settles them into their their self-satisfied approach to spiritual life well maybe they're a Christian maybe they're not I don't need to speculate on that especially in such a general reference as I'm making right now but here's what you need to understand about this and follow me closely so that you're not so that you're not misled on this John is not dismissing the role of teachers in the church that is not what he is doing here and if you think for just a moment just in the context of what's being said here you can see why that must be the case what is John the apostle doing as he writes this letter what's he doing he's teaching them John is teaching them why because they need the instruct the instruction in apostolic doctrine what he's talking about here is not the role of legitimate teachers in the church rather what he's telling them is this is that you don't need false teachers who come to you with so-called new revelation in order to find the true knowledge of God no you don't need teachers like that because you already you already have what you are to do is to abide in the teaching that you heard from the beginning trust the scripture trust the spirit of God that it's at work in you he's refuting and taking away the the role that false teachers were trying to exercise in the life of these believers as they whistled like they were whistling for dogs to come after them John's saying you don't need that let me give you a parallel passage of scripture to help you understand that this is not a proof text for rejecting all teachers in your life in Ephesians chapter 4 turn over there with me in Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 11 it says that God gave some as apostles some as prophets some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ God gives pastors and teachers to local churches throughout the world in order to build them up in doctrine John is not contradicting that in what he's saying here at all he's speaking in the context of false teachers trying to bring new theories new revelation he says you don't need that you have everything that you need in the scriptures in Christ in the spirit you have everything you need you don't need to go beyond what you heard from the beginning rather you simply need to abide in it and you will have everything that God has appointed for you for your spiritual growth for your sanctification for your joy for your holiness for your assurance and so we don't need lng white we don't need the book of mormon we don't need catholic tradition we don't need charismatic prophecies i could go on and on but i won't we have the word of God we have the spirit of God indwelling us and that's what we can abide in and know that we are growing and heading toward the goal that God has appointed for us in the Lord Jesus Christ and so what you beware of is not teachers of the bible but teachers who come bringing things beyond the bible that's what you don't need and that's what john is trying to protect his readers from and so here's the thing here's the thing beloved and and i i feel really animated about this what i'm about to say but i'm going to control my emotions in in saying it beloved you must understand this you must understand that God loves his people and God is not hiding things from his people he's not hiding the holy spirit so that only some people get him in a in a second blessing and he's not hiding his truth and giving it only to a select few who can who are the dispensers and the gatekeepers of truth no God loves us and therefore God is not hiding his truth from his people he has made it known he has made it available in his word and you can turn to the scripture and trust the spirit of God as a Christian and realize that you have everything that is necessary for life and godliness found within the pages of this most blessed book and so the spirit guides you watch this the spirit guides you not apart from the word of God oh this is so important i did a series of 10 or 11 messages on the charismatic movement but because this very point is so important the spirit of God does not guide you apart from the word of God he guides you through the word of God he's given to help you understand the word of God and it is that trusting in the spirit's work through the word of God that is the the call of God upon your life so that at the end of verse 27 we see this as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie and just as it has taught you you abide in him you see as we turn to scripture as we trust the spirit of God the spirit of God is working in us to keep us abiding in Christ and so it's a reality that is being described here this is what the spirit of God does there's also an aspect of of an imperative there's also an aspect of command here that this is what you are to do my Christian friend my brother is sister in Christ you are to turn to scripture and trust the Holy Spirit as you do and the result of that process is to that process is the long-term outcome that you will abide in Christ and arrive safe at the end of of your life and enter into heaven without fail and without fear what a blessing we have from God in these things and so as we continue on what we've what we see this ministry of the spirit in your heart we now come to the third and final point of tonight's text and it's this it's it's turn to the second coming turn to the second coming we trust the scripture or we turn to the scripture we trust the spirit of God and we turn to the second coming by which I mean we set our hope on the the the coming return of Jesus Christ we see this in verse 28 as John kind of summarizes things for us here he says 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 Jesus Christ is going to appear Jesus Christ is is coming again and what John says is is he he lifts them from the immediate situation and points them to that which was still future and it is still future to us Jesus Christ is coming again and when he comes we want to be found by him blameless when he comes and he could come at any time we want to be found doing the things believing the things being the person that would be pleasing to him at at his arrival can you imagine if Christ returned in this next hour and it was at that time that you that you were pursuing sin or you were you were vile or you were profane or you were doing other things to defile yourself and all of a sudden Christ appears that that would be awful wouldn't it oh lord I'm I'm ashamed that you found me doing that when when you came no this is this motivation of realizing that Christ is coming again is a true motivation to holiness in our lives we want to be holy because our God is holy we want to be holy because Christ is coming again and we want to we want to do everything in our human ability our human power to be found pleasing by him if and when he does and so John says there and look at it again in verse 28 little children abide in him abide in him by turning to scripture abide in him by trusting in the spirit so that you will experience this result when Christ appears you can have confidence when he comes as it were you can run to him and know that that you are going to be found blameless in his sight rather than shrinking away in shame because you had been unfaithful during the course of your life and so John places the coming of Jesus as the ground of their hope and this is the conclusion this is the conclusion to the passage God is at work in us let me back up and state it this way my Christian friend God saved you in the past God is saving you now in that he is keeping you and one day God will save you and deliver you fully into heaven you are completely saved you are being saved from sin as you go through life and you will enter into the fullness of that salvation at a time yet to come and so there is just this there is just this telescopic expansion of the reality of salvation we are fully justified now we will most certainly go to heaven but God is continuing his work in sanctification in our lives so that we will be delivered into that ultimate time of glorification when we are with him in heaven and so what John is saying here is that God is at work in us and the reality and the understanding of that work does not make us passive it does not make us indifferent to holiness rather the fullness of everything that we have seen tonight motivates us and encourages us to pursue greater christlikeness in our lives and so for now Jesus is hidden from our sight we don't see him physically but as the scripture says here in verse 28 he's going to appear he's going to be made manifest we will see him face to face and he is going to return for us and so remembering that coming of Christ becomes a sure motivation to holiness as we remember those that wonderful promise of Jesus in John chapter 14 verse 3 when he said if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and I will receive you to myself so that where I am there you may be also and so here in this passage of scripture John wants us to be confident as Christians that Christ is coming for us as well and that Christ has saved us and that when he appears you and I as believers in Christ we will we will be safe we will be confident when Christ appears we'll as it were we'll run to him we won't be calling for the rocks to fall upon us to hide us from his presence as the wicked will be this will be the consummation of every hope that we have ever had and so my friend I must only ask you this will you be safe when Jesus comes again well there are spiritual responsibilities for you now turn to scripture trust the spirit and and turn to the second coming of Christ as you do those things you'll find the spirit of God bringing to a fullness of expression in your mind that Christ keeps his own that Christ will receive you when he returns and you know what the effect of that will be as that becomes the more increasing possession of your spiritual life you'll grow in joy you'll grow in holiness you'll grow in assurance that's my prayer for you as we close tonight let's pray together father I simply thank you for the clarity of your word how we love our lord Jesus and how we ask you to continue the work that the spirit of God has begun in us give us understanding in your word help us yield to the fullness of the work of the holy spirit that we might bring forth his fruit in our lives and father we ask you to keep us safe until the second coming of Christ and I pray for each one under the sound of my voice father that when Christ appears each one might have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming we pray these things in jesus name amen well my friend just before we close today's broadcast I just wanted to give a special word of greeting and thanks to the many people that listen to our podcast internationally it's remarkable to me the last report that I saw listed 83 different countries that in one way or another are listening to us and I just want to send a special word of greeting to those of you that are in lands that are distant from my own home here in the United States you know we've seen people from every continent except maybe Antarctica and people from countries like Ireland and Australia and Singapore Canada the UK India I have friends in all of those countries and whether you've met me face to face or whether you only know me as a voice through your favorite device I just want to say god bless you thank you for your interest in the word of god and may the spirit of god work deeply in your heart as you continue to study god's word thank you for being with us thank you for your prayers god bless you my prayers and love are with you as well and we'll see you next time on the truth pulpit that's don green founding pastor of truth community church in Cincinnati Ohio thank you so much for listening to the truth pulpit it join us next time for more as we continue teaching god's people god's word