In his sermon, Scott Brown expounds on the theme of 'Abiding in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,' emphasizing the vital role of abiding in God's love as a means of protection and spiritual growth. He explains that John, in his epistle, outlines the doctrines of regeneration, sanctification, and the gospel, while warning against worldliness and the deceit of antichrists. Brown highlights four divine safeguards for believers: the truth of God's word, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the act of abiding in God, and the practice of righteousness. He stresses that true joy and confidence, especially at Christ's second coming, are found in a deep, abiding relationship with God, characterized by righteousness and a rejection of worldly deceptions. The sermon underscores the importance of knowing Jesus Christ's righteousness and imitating it, as this affirms one's identity as a child of God.

Starting in verse 24. 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. And this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.

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. And now little children, abide in Him, that when He appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Please pray with me.

Oh Father, we do thank you for the privilege of hearing your word this morning I do ask that you would soften our hearts That you would give us understanding Lord we do look forward to your coming we do look forward to that day Lord help us to hold fast to you. I pray that we truly would abide in you. Lord be with Mr. Brown now as he comes and give him wisdom as he opens your word. Give us soft hearts in Jesus name.

I pray amen The text before us is is just another Example of God's love and how he expresses it toward his people in fact John's whole letter is an explanation of what it means to know the love of God. And John has been itemizing many different ways that it's demonstrated that God is love. And He's explaining what it means to know that love that comes from God. And he's really explaining what it means to be a Christian and how one is before an ever-flowing fountain of grace from God. And he is showing what it means to be without Christ, to be without the love of God in the world.

And as he does this, he's developing various doctrines of the faith. He's developing the doctrine of regeneration. He's developing the doctrine of sanctification, the gospel, Christology, theology, and pneumatology. Christology is the doctrine of Christ. Theology is the doctrine of God the Father.

Pneumatology is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And you see that really coming into a crossroads here in this passage. And what John has been saying Is that it's not what you say that makes you a Christian is who you are and if you say you know him, but you walk in darkness then Then you're not a child of God if you say that you know him and you don't walk as he walked, then you're not a child of God. And if you say that you're in the light, but you hate your brother, you're walking in darkness. And if you say you love God, but if you don't keep his commands, then you don't know him.

And then he speaks of worldliness and he says, do not love the world or the things that are in the world. He who loves the world does not know the father. And now John adds two more tests of salvation to his explanation of what it means to really be saved. And those two tests are the test of abiding in him and the test of practicing righteousness. And you see these here, particularly in verse 28, abiding, 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 then practicing righteousness in verse 29. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Now why is John doing all of this? Well, he's told us why. He's writing these things to increase the joy of his children.

And this is the heart of a great grandfather in the faith who John was writing this late in life. He'd lived for many years with the Lord Jesus Christ. And now he desires the greatest joy that a person can have to be known, that you would know if you have that joy. And so he's writing these things to increase their joy. And he wants them to know the source of all joy.

And the source of all joy is fellowship with the Father and with the Son and with the Holy Spirit. And all of these are expressions of His love. Now The very next verse that we'll be looking at next week begins like this, Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God. He's explaining the love of God. He's describing the many manifestations of the love of God toward a Christian.

And he's used this as the most important thing. And he's warning them that they can say that they have fellowship with God but have no real fellowship at all. So he's warning them. He's trying to draw this cord of love in the hearts of his listeners so that they would know whether they are in the love of God or not. Because their fellowship with God is their greatest asset in life.

And it's through that fellowship with God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit that they are protected. And John is very concerned with their protection. And they are protected through their abiding. Their abiding in him is a hedge of protection from those who are trying to deceive them. Notice how often the word abide appears in this text.

John is not finished with using the word abide or abiding and that doctrine will continue to be developed in this letter. But in five times in seven verses he speaks of abiding. That's really the heart of this passage of Scripture that we're in here. In verse 24 we learn that the truth abides in you. In verse 24 The son and the father abides in you in verse 27.

The anointing abides in you. So this passage is about abiding. But the primary subject that's related to abiding is this threat of antichrists. That's what he's been speaking of. The primary subject of this text is how do you evaluate the threat of the antichrist, that's one threat, and the antichrists, the many antichrists which come before that one antichrist will come at the end of the age.

And in verse 27, we find what is the heart of the instruction. He is speaking of those who try to deceive you. And how should you think about those who are trying to deceive you and your brothers and sisters in the church? And he's speaking of the conditions that will exist in what he calls this last hour, which is the hour of time, the era of time, that begins with the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and ends at the second coming of Christ. This is the final hour.

These are the last days, and in these last days certain things will happen and he wants you to know how you're going to be protected in these last days. This is a text that speaks of your great protection and really your only hope of protection during that time between the resurrection and the second coming. And he is speaking of what you do when you encounter false teachers and how you are protected from them. The problem with false teachers is that they continue to call themselves Christians. They continue to quote Bible verses.

They talk about Jesus. They talk about biblical categories. They use the name of Jesus, but they are not of Jesus, and they are not preaching the true doctrine of Jesus Christ. And so, he's speaking of this whole reality that, as John said in his gospel, I am the vine and you are the branches. He's speaking of how the branches remain in the world.

It's sort of the branch life in the world between two worlds, the world that the Lord Jesus Christ created at his resurrection and then that world that he will create at his second coming and and God leaves His children he leaves his branches in the world and They will encounter deceivers. They will encounter various antichrists. And so this passage is yet another declaration of God's love. It's really an expression of behold what matter of love the Father has given unto us. He's explaining the way that God loves his people and what he does, how he is destroying the works of the devil in them, and how he's protecting them.

And I've outlined There are four ways God the Father God the Son and God the Spirit Protects his children through their fellowship with him These are promises of God for the protection of the people of God. He will sustain his people He will get them through he will get them to heaven and the here are four ways that God will God is using in order to protect his people and the first Safeguard is the truth That you have heard from the beginning which abides in you." That's in verses 24 and 25. 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. And this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life.

And so in this verse where we find this first safeguard, you find the word therefore. Therefore, let that abide in you, which you heard from the beginning. What is the therefore, therefore? And what the therefore is therefore is referring to the previous section, which ends in verse 23, which speaks of the person who denies the Father and and in contrast with the one who believes the Father and he speaks the immediate context is the the instruction about the Antichrist and the antichrists and the protections that God has given. He's going to repeat some of those protections that he has already spoken of in the previous verses where he says in verse 20, you have an anointing from the Holy One.

This is the immediate context. John is assuring them that they know the truth because of the anointing that they have received. He's going to bring this subject up again. And he ends that previous section by saying that he who acknowledges the son or he who embraces and loves the Son has the Father. And that is the greatest protection you can have, is to have the Father and have the Son.

To live life in such a way where you possess the treasures of the kingdom of heaven through the Father and through the Son. You have a Father. You have a Savior. You have a Comforter. This is the whole matter that he's been bringing before those who encounter antichrists in this world.

And you have the Son who is full of grace and truth. You have the Father who has created all that there is. You have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and all of his comfort and guidance and conviction. This is what you have to protect you from the wiles of the devil, from the antichrists that will come. This is your only hope in the face of many antichrists, the fellowship of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And we were speaking last week that fellowship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we were speaking last week that fellowship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is really your greatest need. And at the bottom of it, it's really your only need Because when you have the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, it doesn't matter what you encounter. It doesn't matter where you end up because God will protect you. You have a Father, you have a Savior, and you have a Comforter in the Holy Spirit and a Guide.

So The greatest resource in the world for any human being is fellowship like that. And this is the argument that he is making. And he is speaking of the truth abiding in you, the word of God abiding in you. This is the first safeguard that you have the word of God to protect you. You have the gold standard.

You have what is pure and has been, as the Bible says, tried by fire seven times. The word of the Lord is perfect. It converts the soul. It makes wise the simple. It rejoices the heart.

It enlightens the eyes. It endures forever. The word of God is this great protection and God has given us his word in order to protect us from the various anti-Christ's which we will hear in our lifetime. And this whole idea of abiding in the word of God is not a new category of Scripture. The Word of God speaks of this over and over again.

The Word of God is the perfect safeguard. David speaks of this safeguard in Psalm chapter 12. He says, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men They speak idly Everyone with his neighbor with flattering lips and a double heart they speak so he's talking about people who are speaking with flattering lips and distorting the gospel. They are trying to flatter everyone to bring everyone under the tent. And these Flattering words that we know today are not new at all.

And then David says, but the words of the Lord are pure words like silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. You shall keep them, O Lord. You shall preserve them from this generation forever, the wicked prowl on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men." What David is saying is that there are times in the world where godly men cease, where men flatter one another to include one another in a fake religion, and that God will keep, he will keep his own by his word. And he will preserve them forever, even though the wicked prowl on every side. The wicked are those who are flattering the church with words of a false unity.

But the word of God smokes them out and then divides them, divides them from the believers, which is the great blessing of the church which we spoke of last week. You know, how does God bless his church through the apostates? He blesses them because they can't stand it anymore and they leave. And they depart from the church and they operate a different kind of church. But God protects His church not only by causing them to depart, they went out from us because they are not of us.

Now he says that the church is protected by the word of truth, by abiding in the truth, by saturating one's mind in the truth and having that gold standard to guide us. And he says, therefore, let that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. And what is from the beginning? He is speaking of the instruction of true doctrine that resulted in the saving of their souls. They heard from the beginning a right testimony of Jesus Christ.

They were genuinely converted by a true gospel. And that's what he's speaking of, what you have heard from the beginning. He's speaking about the beginning of their Christian lives. And this is the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ being the chief cornerstone. And this is under a regular and constant attack.

And you have so many attacks against the true person of Jesus Christ. John, in the previous section, makes it very clear that Christology, having a right Christology, is a great protection to the church. And our brothers who went out to preach in Washington, DC at this syncretistic gathering called Together 2016, which was supposed to be a celebration of the coming together of the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope himself with many very well-known evangelical leaders. One of the things that they said is that they encountered what they described as an undefined Jesus. They spoke of Jesus, but it was a different, it wasn't a Jesus really defined by the Bible.

It was a sort of this general blob Jesus rather than Jesus Christ the Son of God, the full and only sufficient sacrifice for sins. The one who saves by grace and by grace alone. And there is no other mediator between God and man. No other mediator. They were trying to bring hundreds, thousands of mediators together.

And it's completely corrupt. But it was an undefined Jesus. There is only one mediator between God and man and it's not Mary and it's not the Saints and it's not the priests and this was this was a wicked amalgamation of mediators and this this undefined Jesus that sort of encompasses everything is a completely corrupt and false apostate doctrine of the Antichrist's and that's what our brothers were encountering yesterday in Washington DC and And they said it was just like a big celebration, like a Christian Woodstock, like a Christian Lollapalooza, you know, where there was just this experience of this amorphous blob Jesus thing out there, you know, but it wasn't the Jesus Christ of the Bible It was a great celebration and an emotional outburst of experience with all kinds of music and and people just you know Rejoicing in this experience of all coming together, but under what name? What mediator were they coming under to celebrate and to fellowship with? And that's the problem with this whole matter.

When the Apostle Paul was speaking to the Galatians, he used some of the strongest language in the New Testament. He says, who has bewitched you? Who has bewitched you? And because they were believing in another Jesus. A Jesus that required more than his sufficient atonement, a Jesus that required a circumcision or some practice of the law in order to be saved.

This is a different Jesus. And so the apostle here is saying that this great safeguard is the truth of the word of God, the truth that you heard of Jesus Christ. And again, it would be right for us to say that we should make sure that we understand a biblical Christology. And of course these other matters are also brought up, these other categories of theology are there that he is speaking of. And so he is concerned with their abiding in the truth, and this abiding is a protection.

It is an objective protection, and it is an abiding in the truth of the Son and of the Father. And he's explaining what this abiding is looking like. Now this abiding secures the promise of eternal life in verse 25. And This is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life. First, that you also will abide in the Son and the Father, and second, that you will have eternal life.

These are the promises of abiding that John is bringing before his readers here. Now, this again is not a new concept in the Bible. This is the very same concept that the Lord brought to Joshua when the Lord said, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. It's the very same thing that we encounter through David in Psalm chapter 1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, but he meditates in the law.

He meditates in his law day and night. This is a filling up of the Word of God. This is a protective resource that God has given to us. This is a constant feeding on the Word of God and to be saturating our lives in the truth of God. This is the greatest protection for your children.

This is the greatest protection for your own soul, is to seek the Word of God. Seek it early and seek it constantly throughout the day. You know, David spoke of this in Psalm 65. He spoke of what it meant to dwell in his courts, and he says, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house. Satisfied with the goodness of your house.

Isn't it interesting that the great protection from the antichrists is the goodness of the house of God and the Word of God that resides there. And so the first protection is the protection of the truth of the Word of God. And then The second safeguard is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and that's in verse 26. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you.

So there is an anointing from God that abides in you. Then he says, and you do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in him. So he's speaking of this reality. There are people who are trying to deceive you. There are many deceivers.

John is speaking of this. He has already said that many deceivers have already come. It's been 60 years since the resurrection and he says many deceivers have already come and many more are coming and then there's another one, a final one that's going to come. And he's saying that it is the Holy Spirit that protects us. He teaches the truth and does not lie.

This is the essence of the New Covenant promise in Jeremiah 31 where the Lord becomes the teacher. And he is a father who teaches, he is a shepherd who guides, he is a spirit who instructs, and these are the instructions that God brings through His Holy Spirit. And this instruction continues when there are those who are trying to deceive us. Now, this passage does not deny the necessity of teachers in the church. When he says you have no one that you need to teach you, he's absolutely not saying that you don't need human teachers.

He's really exalting the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit and that there are many things that you can just know through the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. By the way, the Word of God is the Word of the Spirit. The Word of God and the Spirit of God are very much the same thing. And there are many places in the Bible where it's very clear that we need teachers. Like, for example, in Matthew 28, where Jesus delivers the Great Commission, In verse 20, Jesus commands his disciples to teach.

He says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them, teaching them to obey, teaching them to obey all the things that I've commanded you. The, you know, part and parcel of the Great Commission is that we send out teachers and we send them out to teach other people to obey. People need to be taught to obey. And then in Acts chapter 4 verse 18 the Apostles actually were commanded by the authorities to quit teaching but they refused and they say, no we will continue to teach. And then they're reminded again that they've been commanded not to teach, and they come back and say, we will continue to teach.

Because the teaching ministry of the church is something that's very, very important. And you know, the Apostle Paul commands Timothy to teach specific things in 1 Timothy 4, 11. He says, these things command and teach. And he has itemized various things that Timothy was supposed to be teaching there as a pastor in the church of Ephesus. Also in 2 Timothy 2 verse 2 and in verse 24, the apostle Paul commands Timothy to actually raise up more teachers.

We need more teachers to be raised up by the Spirit of God. He says, you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So part of our work in the church is actually to multiply teachers. It would be wrong to say, you only need the Holy Spirit all by yourself. Well, you do need the Holy Spirit all by yourself, but that's not the only thing that you need.

And so John is not contradicting this entire critical matter in the church that we have teachers. Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, Paul makes it very clear to the Ephesian church that he has given different kinds of men to the church, and some of those men are pastors and some of them are teachers. So teaching is not being abrogated in this passage of Scripture here. But the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit that's done privately in the heart of the believer is not new revelation. It is truth that is consistent with the revealed Word of God.

Anytime a person receives instruction from their heart, thinking that is the Holy Spirit, when it contradicts the Word of God, has not received teaching from God. And so the Spirit of God always teaches inconsistency with the Word of God because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of God, okay? So he doesn't contradict himself. And then the third safeguard is abiding in him, and this is found in verse 28, and now little children abide in him, that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. Now notice again something that we've seen many times already in John's letter a very tender appeal, and now little children abide in him.

He's speaking to them as one who knows better than children. He's speaking to them as one who's walked with Jesus Christ for many years. He's suffered much for Jesus Christ, but he loved Jesus Christ. He was actually the disciple whom Jesus loved. And I can't help but think that he considers himself now as a little bit like the Lord Jesus Christ, who is teaching his children now, and he regards them as his little children, and he very tenderheartedly speaks to them.

You know, tradition says that John, you know, was, though he wasn't, he was never martyred like all the other apostles. He was boiled in oil, but he survived. Imagine that, The suffering and the anguish and the effect on his body that being boiled in oil might have had. And what has that done to him? It may have hardened his skin from the burns, but it tenderized his heart.

It made him a very tender-hearted shepherd. And he's really longing for the greatest joy of his children. And so he's instructing them in the ways of joy. He wrote all these things for their joy. And, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ instructs his children for their joy.

The Lord Jesus Christ said the very same thing. I write these things. We write that your joy may be made full. So this very tender appeal appears again. Little children, and look at the word right after little children, abide, abide.

What a beautiful word. The greatest thing in all of life is to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he speaks of the time of the appearing of Jesus Christ, the perusia, the time where he comes at the end of the age. He says, and now little children abide in him that when he appears, so he's talking now about the second coming, when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. He's referring to what we read about in Matthew chapter 24 verses 30 and 31.

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another." So it's this great parousia, the great appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Tragedy of those who haven't turned to Jesus Christ the tribes of the earth all over the earth They'll see him come and they will mourn But there are own not only mourners There are others who have confidence They can't wait. They are so thankful. They will soon be in His arms forever. He'll wipe all their tears from their eyes.

He will make all things well. And He will make them happy for all eternity because heaven is a world of happiness. But he's speaking of these two different classes of people. There are those who have no confidence before him, those who are ashamed, and those who mourn, and those who mourn, and then the others who do have confidence. And so you have these two responses that are explicitly in this text, confidence and shame.

And again, The Lord divides people only into two categories. There are only two races sheep and goats. That's all there are in the world and There are those who delight in his appearing Who find joy in the thought of his appearing and then there are those who are disturbed? By his appearing because of their shame, because they did not turn to him. They did not know Jesus Christ as their righteousness.

They did not know that Christ was the bearer of their sin. They were like Adam in the garden who hid from God rather than opened up to God and cried out, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of David, have mercy on me, bear my sin." They had no one to bear their sins. And so now their sins are like a heavy weight upon their whole soul, and they mourn and they are ashamed. They didn't not delight in his laws because They did not delight in His laws because they did not delight in His grace. And on that day, as Isaiah makes very clear, those who hung on to their idols to the end they'll they will be embarrassed of their idols here John uses the word ashamed Isaiah said they'll be embarrassed they'll want to throw their idols away they'll hate their idols they want to throw them to the bats and into the holes they want to They'll want to throw them to the bats and into the holes.

They'll want to throw them to the ground. They'll want to stomp them on the ground because of the defiling troubles that they brought into their lives. They'll see it and they'll mourn. But not everybody will mourn. Those who had their sins borne will not mourn.

They won't be ashamed. They'll actually have confidence. When He appears, they will have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. And so all of this hinges upon abiding. If you abide in him then you will not be ashamed at his coming.

And what is abiding? Now, there are various elements of abiding, and we're not going to escape the subject of abiding in this sermon because we're going to have, we're going to touch on it and try to develop it further as we go on to our pleasure to consider such a marvelous thing that God has done to allow us to abide in Him. Well I'm going to outline several elements of abiding. First, abiding speaks of a duration or a period of time. It's something that begins and continues for all eternity.

But abiding is a particular category of experience in this world. And there is an abiding like you've never seen in heaven, but there's a kind of abiding that we have here. And it speaks of a duration of time. Secondly, it speaks of proximity and intimacy of living in the presence of God and continuing in the presence of God to have a sense a consciousness of the presence of God as you go out throughout your day you're abiding in Him as you get up in the morning, as you have your breakfast, as you go to work, as you come home, as you go to sleep, there's this constant abiding in Him. But it has to do with the proximity with God, that God, He is in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory abiding in you.

And it has to do with proximity. And then there's the quality of the time in terms of the closeness. And because There are ways where there is a way that we abide positionally and God abides with us and he is always fellowshipping with us because he is a fountain of grace. But there's also a whole other sense in our sanctification that we have a greater consciousness of our abiding with him. We feed the things that cause a sense of abiding to sweeten and deepen and to be more powerful in our lives.

And so we ought to be growing in our abiding. While we have an abiding that is fixed, it is by grace alone, there's also an abiding of sanctification. And you'll find that John deals with this very same kind of pattern He speaks of things that are done that Jesus Christ has done, but also he can do more in your life So there's a deeper abiding that a Christian can have and the question is how deep is it now for you for me? And what would we do to increase the abiding? I mean, Mike spoke of it right at the very beginning of our service before we started.

It's the saturation of the Word of God increases the sweetness of the abiding, the quenching of the Holy Spirit, hurting that abiding, and being filled with the Spirit, enhancing it. So we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We saturate ourselves with the Word of truth. And there's an ever-sweetening abiding that we can have. Don't you want that?

Don't you want to just have that fellowship with God in every moment of life? One of the most frustrating things that I encounter in my life as a Christian is when I realize that my sense of awareness of God and His glory and His Word, it's just taking a back seat. And I'm just speaking my own words. I'm doing, I'm just being me, which is a great tragedy for me and everybody else around me. But don't you want to abide more, more deeply, more sweetly, more self-consciously.

But abiding is the experiencing of the riches that there are in Jesus Christ. Now, The word abide occurs 127 times in the New Testament alone. And it speaks of communing with him, being filled with him, leaning on him. There's a central text on abiding. It's John 15.

Go ahead and read it today, this afternoon. I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me you can do nothing and Then he speaks of those who do not abide They are branches that are thrown away if anyone does not abide in me He is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

In this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. 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 things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full." John's chief concern for his little children is that they would have their joy in abiding, And that's how they would find their joy in this world.

Where do you want to find joy in this world? Well, the only true joy is found in abiding. Everything else is a masquerade of joy. And so John desires his little children to partake in his love by their abiding in him. Again, this is spoken of all over the Bible in Psalm 91 verse 1.

It's spoken of as the secret place of the Most High abiding under the shadow of the Almighty saying to the Lord he is my refuge in my fortress my God in whom I will trust. In Psalm 15 verse 1 he speaks of this matter of abiding as like abiding in a tabernacle Abiding in a holy hill Lord who may abide in your tabernacle who may dwell in your holy hill He who He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart Do you notice how David in Psalm 15 wraps up the entire message of first John in one sentence? The abiding in the truth and speaking the truth in your heart and and then doing works of righteousness and walking in the light walking in the truth he sums it up there in the very first verse of Psalm 51 in in Psalm 61 verse 4 he speaks of this abiding as a shelter. I will abide in your tabernacle forever. I trust in the shelter of your wings.

And he speaks of it as a strong tower from the enemy and a shelter, this is abiding. You find yourself in a shelter, you have fellowship with him, and he hides you in his tabernacle. You're hidden from the false teachers, you're hidden from the attacks, you're hidden from the darts of the devil in this tower, in this tabernacle. This is fellowship with God. This is abiding with Him.

You can go through anything when you're abiding with Him. It doesn't matter what you go through. You can abide in his tabernacle, in his tower, under the shadow of his wings, in the secret place of the Most High. This is the beauty of the Christian life and how loving God is. This word abiding is really explained in different words that are in the Bible.

The word keep is synonymous with abiding. Follow, looking. You know, Christ keeps His sheep. His sheep follow him. They look to him for his appearing.

To keep, to follow, to look. This is all in the range of what it means to abide. And so he's been speaking of Jesus Christ in verse 28, but then he speaks of God the Father in verse 29. Notice the change in person in verse 29. He's now speaking of God the Father and not Christ.

You remember we've been speaking so much along the trend line here in 1 John about what it is to have fellowship with God the Father and with God the Son and with the Holy Spirit. This is the whole matter that John is concerned about, this treasure in earthen vessels that you have this relationship of The Christian life is not a way of life. It's a relationship with a person. And so, the fourth safeguard is in verse 29. Those who know his righteousness and become like him.

Again, remember, he's telling the church about how God loves his people through protecting them. And he protects them through his word, abiding them. He protects them through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And he protects them through their abiding in him. And then finally, he protects them by righteousness, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And so he says this, if you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. So this verse speaks of how those who know that he's righteous practice righteousness and how those who practice righteousness are born of Him. Now, I want you to focus on the first words of verse 29. Look at them with me. This is very beautiful.

If you know that He is righteous. This is a statement of a worldview. It is your view of Jesus Christ. You know that He is righteous. You know that He is pure.

You know that He is good. You know that He is holy. You know that there are no imperfections in Him. And He is Savior and Healer. He is Lord.

He is bread. He is water. He's adore. He's righteous. You know He is righteous.

Isn't it so good to know that? Do you remember when you first knew that? When you knew he was righteous And you knew He was good and beautiful and perfect. And you knew you needed Him. And you knew that you had no hope without His righteousness.

That you needed what He had, and you needed less of what you were. And you saw the beauty of his righteousness and you also saw your sin at the same time But you saw that he had mercy upon you in your sinfulness and that he would be so kind to you that He would impute His righteousness to you. If you know that He is righteous, I love those words. Do you know that? Does your heart resonate with that?

That He is righteous. If you know that He is righteous, then you know something. You know something. You know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. So there's this safeguard of knowing his righteousness.

Because when you know his righteousness, then You know those who are born of Him and those who are not born of Him. You know who the antichrists are, and you know who the Christians are, the little Christs are. When you know that He is righteous. And this just opens up a whole world of understanding of how helpful it is to know the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Again, we're back to Christology, to know this quality of Jesus Christ.

He is righteous, and He bequeaths His righteousness to sinners. It's the most astonishing thing. Now, there are two kinds of righteousness that are spoken of in the Bible. There's righteousness that is imputed to the repentant sinner and there is righteous living. Now, the primary focus of this verse is righteous living.

First of all, you see the righteous living and the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, but when you see other people who practice righteousness. I don't believe he's speaking of imputed righteousness here. He's talking of practicing righteousness. In other words, you are known because you do the works of Jesus Christ. The people who are born of God and are sons of God are becoming like him.

Because those who know God, they behold Jesus Christ as in a mirror. And they're transformed from glory to glory. And they become like him. Another way that the Apostle Paul speaks of, he speaks that we will be made in the likeness of the heavenly man. In the likeness of the heavenly man.

The heavenly man, Jesus Christ, is one who transforms your life and he makes you more like him. And so the fruit of being born again is that you see his righteousness And in seeing his righteousness, you become aware of your own unrighteousness and you repent of your unrighteousness. And he clothes you with his robes of righteousness. And with the robes of righteousness, you desire to imitate his righteousness in the world and you become like him and You know the children of the antichrist and the children of God by their righteousness, their love for God's law, their ways that are consistent with God's ways. You know, The day before yesterday, I was with a group of pastors speaking about defending marriage in the church and in the home.

And I said the reason we're having to discuss this in the civil realm today is because we did not protect marriage in the home in the marriage bed and we did not protect it in the church but it was it was remarkable to me because in that meeting was probably the man who has defended marriage in the civil realm like no other American in modern times. Judge Roy Moore. So there he was. He had been protecting marriage in the civil realm, and we were talking about protecting marriage in the ecclesiastical realm in the church and in the family. And what he said in that meeting was the reason that we are having this problem in the civil realm today is because we've rejected the law of God.

Because the law of God is a righteous law and a righteous law creates a righteous people. And we don't have a righteous people today and now we have to defend marriage and sexuality and gender distinctions in the civil realm. And it's a tragedy that we had to do that, but it's because we set aside the law of God in the home, And we set aside the righteous law of God in the church and we said the law of God didn't matter anymore Disagreeing with Jesus who said not one jot or tittle will pass away from the law Until all is fulfilled But we might in order to have a righteous life, we must love the law of God. And this is how you see that he is righteous, because every law of God is a law of Jesus Christ and every law of God is a law of love. And that's what John is getting at in the entire epistle, to be wrapped in this world of love, the love of God.

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God." So in order to have fellowship with him, to abide in him, It's a sign that you marvel at his righteousness, that you look at Jesus Christ and you love his righteousness. In Hebrews 1 verse 9, one of the great Christological statements in Hebrews, there are many. Speaking of Jesus Christ, God says to his son, you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above all your companions. Because righteousness always leads to gladness.

The hatred of sin, the loving of the law of God, walking in conformity to the law of God, being transformed by the renewing of your mind by the Holy Spirit and the law of God, it always brings happiness. It's a result of abiding in Jesus Christ. And I think the most important question here is, do you know that He's righteous? Do you love his law? Do you cherish in your heart that his laws are righteous?

Do you have a personal knowledge that he is good? When you think of Jesus Christ, do you see him as righteous? Maybe that's beginning to dawn on you. Maybe you haven't thought of him that way, but you're thinking of him that way now, and you're just realizing it. You're just realizing now that you're beginning to think of him that way.

That you're thinking of him as good. You're thinking of him as as beautiful and perfect as the only source of happiness, as the only source of truth and love, and you're beginning to think of him like that, that means that you might be beginning to be saved. Because you cannot be saved and you cannot abide in him the way that John is talking about without seeing that he is righteous. You know, do you say in your innermost thoughts when you're alone, God is such a kind Father? Do you say the Lord Jesus Christ is such a good shepherd?

Do you say the Holy Spirit is such a comforting Spirit. And then the very last phrase in our text today and the conclusion of chapter 2, John takes us from the final judgment, from the time of his appearing, and it's like he puts you on a supersonic jet, and he takes you from that great day of judgment, and he jets you straight to the new birth to being born again. He takes you to the new birth and He speaks of being born of God And so he says he who practices righteousness is born of him and This is the beginning of all abiding to be born again To See your hatred for you for sin like you never saw it before To want to cast your idols into the holes before the final judgment Because you know that you will appear before him and you do not want to be ashamed You want to be confident in the day of his appearing, you know, this this will be the experience of the true believer. The true believer is going to be confident and so happy, so thankful. And the unbeliever does not want him to come back because that person has not been justified.

And they're ashamed. But the Christian has no more shame. Jesus Christ has absorbed all of his shame in his body and he has no shame. This is the love of God in Jesus Christ. And God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that those who believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

And the life that they would live in the flesh would be a life of abiding. They would know that Jesus Christ is righteous and they would love Him. And they would be protected from the false teachers. God would use many different things to protect them their whole life long. He would give them the Word of God to abide in them.

He would give them the Holy Spirit to abide in them. He would give them an abiding that would protect them and He would also give them a love for his righteousness and he would protect his children. That's what this whole section is about. It's about how God in his love protects you from the evil one. Because God is love and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

This is the love of God in Jesus Christ to protect you from the antichrists. Let's pray. Lord, we delight in the words that you have given to us for our nourishment. We pray, O Lord, that you would give us such hearts to spread the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the message of it in the world, that you would help us to appeal to those who don't know you of your great righteousness and that we would bask in your love and how you have caused us to abide in you to protect us. Lord, thank you for protecting us.

Amen.