BEFORE HE APPEARS
1 John 3:1-3 (KJV)
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Whenever I think about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, I like to come to this passage as one of my favorites.
The mystery of His love
What manner of love…
How could we possibly understand it?
· That God would love us
· That Christ would die for us while we were yet sinners and
· That God would call us His sons
The mystery of heaven
It doth not yet appear what we shall be
Everything we think we know about what we will be like in heaven is just guesswork. The Bible says it does not yet appear.
But what wonderful guesses we can make.
We shall be like Him.
Even better,
The mystery of Christ revealed
We shall see Him as He is…
In His glorified body.
· As the Lion of the Tribe of Judah
· As the bridegroom of His Church
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
But I want you to consider that this passage does not stand alone.
There is a context preceding it.[1]
My message then is entitled, Before He Shall Appear
I see at least three things in 1 John chapter 2 that are consistent with Christian life before Jesus appears.
First
I. WE HAVE AN ADVOCATE
1 John 2:1-2 (KJV)
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
A. We can take that first phrase a couple of ways.
1. I am writing to tell you not to sin
Beloved, it ought to be obvious to the born again that sin is an unacceptable way of life.
No child of God could possibly
· Knowingly
· Willfully
· Habitually
Sin against the One Who died so that those very sins are forgiven.
It makes no sense.
If your wife gave you a piece of chocolate cake, and you loved her, you wouldn’t throw it on the ground in her sight.
You might accidentally drop it, but you would not throw it on the ground.
It would be rude. It would be ungrateful.
Listen, we are always in God’s sight.
It’s just not consistent with being a true child of God to accept the pardon of sin and then willfully sin in the sight of God.
We could also understand this phrase to mean
2. I am writing to show you how not to sin
Someone said, “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”
The Psalmist wrote, Psalms 119:11 (KJV)
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
The best antidote for the tendency to sin is the Bible. If you struggle with sin:
· Read your Bible
· Memorize Bible verses
· Meditate and think about those verses
Now, no true child of God would willfully, knowingly, and consistently sin, but we still live in this flesh so sometimes we do sin.
B. That’s where our advocate comes in
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous
Notice the Bible does not say, “But, if any man sin.” It says, “And if any man sin….”
The fact is, we are going to sin.
As much as we read the Bible, follow the instructions, memorize Scripture, meditate upon the Word, hang around believers and do all of those things in generous portions, we are still going to sin.
Consider – there is a difference between occasionally stumbling in sin and living consistently and willfully in sin.
1 John 1:8 (KJV)
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Compare that to
1 John 3:9 (KJV)
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
The difference is between willfully living in sin and stumbling into sin.
A born again Christian won’t willfully live in sin
And when we stumble into sin
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
When I trip on the stone of some sin.
I want to reach out for the arm of my Saviour.
Consider that before Jesus appears,
II. WE HAVE AN ADVERSARY
1 John 2:15-19 (KJV)
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
How many have heard that the three enemies of the Christian are:
· The world
· The flesh and
· The devil
We have all three adversaries right here, with some insights and some solutions to overcome them.
A. Love not the world
1 John 2:15-17 (KJV)
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Our flesh and the world collide right here because, as much as we know what the Bible says – we do love the world.
· We excuse it
· We justify it
· We deny it
· We ignore it
But we know it is the truth.
· We want the satisfaction of the world
· We want the pleasures of the world
· We want the approval of the world
The answer to the world is to remember that it’s going to pass away.
Everything we put into the world is a lost investment.
Its pleasures are only for a season.
B. Antichrist has antichrists
1 John 2:18 (KJV)
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
We know, we have heard – we have read it in the Word of God, that Antichrist shall come.
In the last time, just before Jesus returns to this earth to establish His 1000 year reign, the Bible says that Antichrist shall come.
It’s the Tribulation Period, a terrible time such as the world has never seen.
Here we are reminded that, before Antichrist comes, many antichrists will come.
Religious deceivers,
Displaying false righteousness, false giftedness and false powers from heaven.
Religious deceivers,
Preaching popular messages to sometimes throngs of people, who cannot discern the truth from a lie.
Religious deceivers,
Reproducing themselves into many antichrists – the more of them there are, the more of them they produce.
Shockingly, the bible says of these antichrists,
C. They went out from us
1 John 2:19 (KJV)
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
We thought they were one of us.
· Maybe they were dear friends in the house of God
· Maybe they were once leaders of our spiritual walk
They used to be among us, but they never were of us or they would never have left us.
In these last times, before Jesus appears,
We have an advocate
We have adversaries
Finally,
III. WE HAVE AN ABIDING
1 John 2:27-28 (KJV)
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
A simple definition of the word abide is “to stay.”
I notice here that there are to abidings,
A. One abiding is in us
There is an anointing of God that stays with us.
The Holy Spirit of God never leaves or forsakes us
The illuminating work of the Spirit of God never abandons us
As we await the day of Christ’s appearing we have this anointing of the Holy Spirit, verse 20 calls it an unction, so that
· We can see the truths of the Word of God
· We can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit warning us and prompting us to truth
· We can verify the message of the preacher, whether it is accurate or not[2]
B. The other abiding is asked of us
1 John 2:28 (KJV)
And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
As we await the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ we know that His Holy Spirit won’t leave us.
And the Word of God urges us to stay with Him.
Don’t follow the world, the flesh or the antichrists.
Stay true to the truth by staying dependent upon the Holy Spirit and staying close to the things you know from the Bible.
Conclusion
1 John 3:1-3 (KJV)
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
There is a lot of mystery surrounding the coming of Jesus Christ:
· How He could love us
· What heaven will be like and
· When exactly Jesus comes
But there is no mystery about the Christian life before he appears.
· We have an advocate when we sin – lean upon Him
· We have adversaries in this “last time”– turn from them
· We have an abiding while we wait for Jesus – stay with that
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