Paul Washer | 1 John 2:25-29 | University Lectures transcript

let's take a look at this passage and it's got some really really good stuff in it some stuff that can really be helpful not only now but as you go on through your Christian life why there's going to be these temptations to depart from something that's a term that's been used in different languages for many many centuries about Christianity there's a word it's called simplicity and you're going to be tempted by other people maybe even by your own flesh to turn away from the simplicity of the gospel to complexities that cannot save you and this is very very very important additions yes you have Christ but you need us yes you have Christ but you need this also and and you always have to be very aware of that and that's something of what's going on here so he says in verse 25 this is the promise which he himself now notice he himself you see if a representative makes you a promise or even ambassador makes you a promise what are you wanting to know well you're making the promise but you don't have any authority to make the promise the king has the authority to make the promise so are you making it or is that the king and so he's saying this is the promise which he himself made to us literally this is the promise which he himself promised to us eternal life now remember this is John if you go back to the Gospel of John he's what is you know what's probably the most famous verse you know for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life or everlasting life now that can sound a little bit carnal whoever believes in Him gets to live forever all right but that's not what eternal life means it is a life eternal but eternal life is referring more to a quality of life than it is a quantity of life and so it doesn't just mean you live forever but you live forever knowing him now in John chapter 17 he says this is eternal life that what that you know God that you know Jesus Christ whom he sent now know is a very important term in the Bible it doesn't just mean factual knowledge but it can even mean intimate knowledge all kinds of knowledge relational knowledge okay and so this is the promise he's given to you not just to turn a life but it not just living forever but living forever in his presence in a perfect and unhindered relationship with him this is what he's promised now John's writing remember to children this is what he's promised you children you little children who simply believe are trust in what God did for you through his son he promised you eternal life not because you were able to carry out all kinds of complexities or obey all kinds of laws not because you had some esoteric hidden knowledge or an extremely high IQ he promised you eternal life because you trusted in his son now then he says in verse 26 these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you well how are they trying to deceive them it seems here that they were saying - and let me I mean this in a proper fashion to simple Christians to people who were walking in simplicity to people whose entire hope was Jesus Christ died according to the scriptures for our sins he was buried and he was raised according to the scriptures at the third day okay people are trusting in this person and work of God that's all they have they have no boast about I have all this hidden knowledge they have no boast about you know I do all these things and I keep all these laws I have this secret mystery about me no nothing you see that's what I mean by simplicity now as I've often reminded you because it's not very obvious I'm old I've lived a long time and not as long as some but at least longer than most of you all of you and I've studied a lot a lot so what I was doing today study but here's the thing I want you to see the faith that saved me remember I told you when I was a college student I was converted and I went to a Bible study and they said turn to Philippians and I I just laid the Bible aside like you know I'd memorized the whole book the thing was I didn't know where Philippians was okay but this I'm saved for the same reason now that I was saved then none of my studies none of all my things languages and everything else has added to that I'm not more saved and then I was as that young college student who couldn't even find the book of Philippians but I was trusting that Jesus Christ died for my sins don't ever lose that and if you one of you are called into the ministry and become some great Greek and Hebrew scholar or great theologian if all that just adds complexity and burden and other requirements to that initial faith and then you've studied the wrong things you know you know what is the greatest theological truth you've ever had jesus loves me this I know because the Bible tells me so Christ died for my sins okay now and it appears that there were a group of people that were coming in and we're taking mocking it seems this simple faith the things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you now the Christian life you know let's look at the center the gospel Jesus died for our sins Jesus rose again from the dead and we forsaking trust in ourselves forsaking trust in our good works we trust exclusively and what he did for us okay now there's going to be two attacks against that one is to say that on one hand okay you believe in Jesus Christ the body doesn't matter so what you do with the body is no big deal so go sin go do all kinds of horrible things and it doesn't matter because what really matters is that you trust in Jesus that's heresy okay the other is rule and law and rule and law and rule and law and rule and law added and added and added netted both those things are dangerous see Christianity is like walking in a very narrow path and on both sides there's a dangerous ditch an old friend of mine used to say this Christianity is like walking on the edge of a razor blade you see you can walk you can go a thousand miles this way and walk in error and a thousand miles this way and walk in air but to walk in the truth it's a very defined path now don't let that scare you thinking oh I've got to know all these things to walk in the truth know what John's going to tell them is forget about all these complexities and everything and abide in the thing you first heard and that's what I'm telling you to do you become great theologians or whatever I'm telling you the key is to abide in the initial message you heard Jesus died for your sins and you trust in him you see now he says verse 27 as for you now why is he doing that he's kind of cutting here he's dividing this group into two there's these false teachers with all their big knowledge and big words and mysteries and complexity and he's going to say they're not even Christian and he's going to say it's like looking at them and saying go away and then looking to these believers who are kind of being mocked for their simplicity and saying no as for you he's making a distinction you see that 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 it's not a lie and just as it has taught you you abide in him now this can get kind of confusing and some people have kind of twisted this into something it doesn't mean let's look at it it's actually very simple as for you the anointing which you receive from him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you he's kind of let's put it this way that day you become a Christian if you have become a Christian and there's joy and there's a sense of forgiveness and the love of God and happiness and cleanness and and and it's just just feels right for the first time in your life okay with that simple you believed in Jesus you can't find the book of Philippians but you believed in Jesus okay and what was happening was you believed the message the saving message and the Holy Spirit confirmed it in your heart not with visions or thunder clouds or lightning bolts coming down out of heaven or an angel named Gabriel coming and talked to you no but there was joy there was peace there was a sense of oh my so this is what it means to be alive I feel I'm forgiven I'm loved okay that's the work of the Holy Spirit and that that's the anointing he's talking about the anointing which you received from him abides in you and you have no one you have no need for anyone to teach you now he's not going to deny that there are benefits to having teachers what he's saying is this group that's come in here with all their stuff you have no need of them I know they're making themselves really big and making you really small but let's go back to the beginning that special joy you had when you were became a Christian that special love you felt when you became a Christian expensive security in your heart that happened without these teachers that happened and they were nowhere around that happened without all their silly deep information and knowledge and mysteries do you see that an oh dear young person listen to me this is where you want to stay this is where I've stayed maybe because I'm not that smart no it's really where I've stayed there are things I marvel about but there's one thing I rest upon Jesus shed his own blood for me and that's it that that's enough you see and I remember that day on that college campus when that happened that I that I saw that he died for me and that my heart it seemed like it had been dead it was dead and he came alive and there was joy there was meaning all I knew was Jesus Christ died for my sins that was the Holy Spirit working all right and that's what happened to these people but now some group is coming in and saying that's not enough you're not there yet and John saying you don't have any need for these people to teach you okay now it says but as his anointing teaches you about all things and it's true and it's not a lot and Justices has taught you you abide in him now he could be saying you are abiding in him now without the help of these teachers already saying continue abiding in that first thing that you learned continuing that and even though you may come to understand it at a more profound profile level there's no message that big ever becomes more important than that message you see abide in what you first learned when we preach the gospel to you and you had a sense in which your sins were forgiven and there was joy and life just keep going in that now let me show you how important this is okay just for a moment go over to go over to Galatians for a moment that's a little bit further back towards the front one of Paul's epistles in chapter 3 verse 1 he says you foolish Galatians who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified he said we preached Christ to you in such a way that it is though you were seeing him he says this is the only thing I want to find out from you did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith what he's saying is so these Galatians had come to know about Jesus and trust in Jesus by faith then these Judaizers came in and started teaching them no you need to practice the law of Moses you need to be circumcised needed the Eagles stop stop stop hold it let's go back to the beginning did you need all that stuff before is the knowledge of all that stuff what brought you peace and life and joy and hope no and he is a strong word who has bewitched you he'll even talk later about you know you were running well who cut you off and and that's what I want you to see there are going to be things that are the people ideas they're gonna try to attach themselves to the gospel and basically say the gospel is not enough don't don't be bewitched by that okay not at all I remember two different cults that have at times come to me and tried to win me or whatever and a Java witnesses and the Mormons and and they'll always act like we're Christians too man we believe what you believe you know and and I remember one time and this has happened with both groups they said I sight old them well you know I believe Jesus son got we believe that too well you know I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins I do we believe that too I believe he rose again from the dead well we believe that too I believe we're saved by faith in Him alone oh we believe that too and I said then why are you evangelizing me what else do you have that I need that if I don't have I'm not saved if you say I'm believing what you're believing then what why are you trying to come and add something else and they were they were they're always trying they're something that well well in reality you also I also what I need your group I need to be a part of it have to bear your name have to be a part of what what do you saying you see there's always going to be that you see you want to be very very very careful of it look over in the book of Colossians for a moment and we see the same thing in the book of Colossians look in chapter 2 look in verse 6 therefore as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord so walk in him do you see that continue in him you received Christ by faith now continue in that just continue and then look what he says in verse 8 see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty decisions of men according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ the aware of men who are going to come to you and tell you you need something more than Christ okay and verse 9 for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him you have been made complete I can't tell you how many times some cult or even some so-called pseudo Christian group has come to me and says yeah you're on the right path but you're not there yet you're not complete you need one more thing and automatically listen young people that's a red flag because it's exactly the opposite of what the Bible says he's saying here look what he's saying verse 6 therefore as you have received Christ Jesus is Lord as you became a Christian that one moment when you were you know brand-new baby continue walking in that in that message ok why look what he says verse 10 in him you've been made complete now we're going to grow in that message we're going to grow in our understanding of his will but look what happens in verse 16 of chapter 2 therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day you see what's going on adding something to Christ yeah you need Jesus by faith you also need to be circumcised you also need to keep the law you also need to keep the Sabbath you also need to do this you see impulses no as a matter of fact look at verse 18 let no one keep defrauding you of your prized by delighting and self-abasement and the worship of the Angels taking his stand on visions he has seen inflated without caused by fleshly mind here's people that are boasting about I fast more than you guys so I'm obviously a Christian you're not I suffer I make my body suffer I beat my body I do this I do that you don't do that you're lacking this okay and then worship of angels and taking a stand on visions he has seen yeah you're trusting and credit of Christ but you're just if you are saved you're so immature because you know what visions have you seen what communications with angels have you had what dreams what miracles what kind of gifts do you have all of this is nothing compared to Christ okay and he says that people that hold on to these things in verse 19 they're not holding fast to the head how do you hold fast to the head simple faith that God became a man walked upon this earth lived a perfect life went to a cross on that cross bore your sin suffered the wrath of God paid full payment for all your transgressions died and rose again on your behalf and you're trusting in him that's where you stay now let's go back to to first John and he says in verse 27 and you have no need for anyone to teach you but as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and it's not a lie and just as it has taught you abide in him just as it's taught you from the beginning how did you learn the gospel through the Holy Spirit even though people were showing you Bible verses and things like that the Holy Spirit is the one that opened your mind and bore witness to the truth okay and he's saying just keep going in that and let me tell you stories one of the most wonderful stories of my life I love telling this story I was up in a town just a few kilometres south of Alaska and a british columbia and i was preaching and there are more there are more grizzly bears actually in the town and well in the area then there were people i mean it was a little small church and right when i got ready to preach some door the doors opened up in the back in this mountain of a man he was at least almost 65 or 70 years old but he was just a mountain of a man I mean his fingers were like that big and just the saddest person I've ever seen he walked in and he sat down on the front row and I just man I just started preaching the gospel and he would look so sad and he had a manila envelope about this big and so after I my sermon I went right down to him and I said sir what's wrong and he pulled an x-ray out of the manila envelope and he said they just told me I'm gonna die and he said I've lived out on a working cattle ranch all my life you can only get there by horse or floatplane he said it I've never been scared of anything but I know there's a god and I'm scared and I said well you heard the message right he said yes I did did you understand it he said yes it was clear and then he said something he goes but is that all I understood it is that it I'm gonna die I understood the message I understood it was clear a child could understood what you were saying is that it and so I said sir I'm supposed to fly out of here tomorrow but I'll cancel my flight and here's what we'll do I'll sit with you with the Bible until the Lord saves you or you die and I said let's start right now so I'd it's a little church and we're in Harleen by there so I started at where does faith come from from hearing the Holy Spirit uses the word right and so what I do I mean Old Testament New Testament I just start taking him through promises that the one who believes the one who trusts in the Lord the one who trusts in the gospel has eternal life and I mean we went on for over an hour and I said so do you understand he goes yeah I understand is that it I said no he said I'm gonna see it but you know what there's nothing else because I'm gonna die I do I do I die just knowing that I understood this I said no is it are you believing it is it you're throwing yourself upon it do you see it it said no it says okay let's start again went through a few verses and we got back to John 3:16 and we'd already read John 3:16 several times my favorite verse in the Bible and I said let's read John 3:16 again and he goes okay and he had my Bible like this in his lap and I remember the big ol hands and he goes okay I'll read it and he goes for God so loved the world that He gave His Son and I mean his hand he's just started shaking and his tears just he said then whoever believes has eternal life I have eternal clots because I have I have eternal life and I said how do you know and you know what he said haven't you ever read this verse before did you see what happened he had read it and read it and read it but what happened what John calls the anointing do you see that the Holy Spirit what you know just like me I mean I was a kid my mom drugged me to church they preached the gospel there I never saw it I never heard it I could have explained it to you like a parrot but one day in the library of the University of Texas it was like he died from me that me I mean I see it I see it you see it may not be that dramatic but it's always the same with someone and that's why when I'm showing someone about Jesus I trust in the word I just take them through the promises and I don't say oh you understand it let's pray a prayer I'm not going to treat people like that I'm going to take them to the promises explain and take them through the prom until they go you know what I see it I I see what should I see it for myself see the Holy Spirit bears witness opens up their eyes and they see it you see and that's what he's saying this has happened to you and it happened to you before all these people came with all their silly stuff their super spiritual stuff okay so reject at that stuff and just keep going in the very message that you had I knew this girl on campus at the University of Texas and she was I mean man she she had so much energy and she was so funny and she's just all kinds of things but and she read her Bible all the time but man she was just like a little girl when it came to faith in Christ it's like a child it's just you know she wasn't a great theologian but man she jesus loves me this I know and I mean our old life was just a simple trusting in Jesus Christ she loved to study and learn about other things but that was her thing one thing I always remember cuz I was a waiter in her in her dorm it was a girls dorm and she'd walk out you know sometimes I'd be walking out at the same time she'd walk out and be a beautiful morning she could just go look at that Paul way to go god way to go she was like a little girl but that was it man to see that one thing of trusting in that simple message she would have stared down lions in an arena I'm confident of it she would have died for her faith a simple yet extremely powerful Jesus died for me and that's my hope and that's what John's telling them now he says in 28 and their little children abide in him and continued continuing him continuing what you learned and he says so that when he appears we may not we may have confidence and not shrink away from him and shame at his coming now this doesn't mean that they're going to be genuine believers were going to shrink away from him and it's coming what he's talking about is how do you know that you really are a Christian it's because you continue in this hope in this singular simple hope okay so now imagine no it's the closest I'm gonna get to drama so imagine you got this person who's says they're believing in Jesus okay trusting and cry simple Jesus died for me and rose again from the dead all right and he's enough Jesus is enough then all these false teachers come in okay and start telling you no you need to be circumcised no you need to keep the law is Sabbath you need to eat this way you need to do this you can't do that you've got to add all these different things and this person listens to that that Christ isn't enough okay that the gospel isn't enough and so they go over here and they join to this yeah Jesus is part of it but he's not all of it and then imagine they let's say that they've got great brilliant theories and philosophies and they they fast four times a week and they go to church every day and they tithe a hundred percent you know they eat air I mean they just that they've got all this stuff but when Christ comes back and they see him as he is and they in the light they see themselves as they are they will literally be ashamed I trust it in don't eat this I trusted in the observance of certain days I trusted in these stupid philosophies I said that Christ wasn't enough do you see that that's what he's talking about now if you're a genuine Christian you're over here in this camp who's your boast what is your boast Christ his death and resurrection now as a Christian can these guys tempt you and deceive you yeah they can can you even go over there for a moment and think man you're super spiritual and everything else yeah you can't but if you're a true Christian you know what God's done dude sooner or later he's gonna grab you by the collar and pull you right back over here and you're gonna think I was that you I was how could I have been so stupid how could I have been so blind and every time you wander he'll he'll pull you back and when he pulls you back you're gonna be like how how could I Hey I mean how could I think that added something to Christ really gosh how stupid all right and that's what he's getting at here you know don't run over to these other things because they don't save and even if they come out of the Old Testament they were a shadow a type of the fullness that was to come and the fullness is Christ the fullness is the gospel don't go back to the shadow when the real things come here I mean on your wedding day guys what do you want to dance with the shadow of your bride or your bride do you see hold on to this one thing that that my only hope my only glory my only boast is Jesus Christ died for sinners Jesus Christ died for me that's it and those who have that even though they may be great scholars those who have that when Christ comes back they're not ashamed but when he comes back his light will shine on this other stuff it will be like well garbage it's like oh how could I have done that it's the same way with a with a lost person who refuses to believe the gospel and they think that they're righteous and they don't need a Savior they may think that now but when he comes back and his light shines on that they're gonna cry out you know for the for the rocks to fall upon them to hide them because they're gonna see themselves as they truly are and so that is what he's getting at nothing in my hands I bring simply to what to the cross I claim my only hope okay now now he's going to go on and say something else here verse 29 if you know that he is righteous you know that everyone who is born you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of you now remember I said there's two types of deviations there's adding a whole bunch of laws and rules to the gospel that the Bible doesn't give us but there's another deviation and these kind of false prophets here maybe were the the roots of what later became Gnosticism that's the way they were they were a contradiction some of these characters man had every kind of law and you don't eat this and you can't get married and all sex is bad and you name it they they were against everything they were legalist you could say but there was another part of them there was the opposite that they basically said this the body's not important the only thing that's important is spirit and so you can do whatever you want to do with the body and it doesn't matter it won't be bad because we're spiritual beings and God is spirit so the body doesn't matter so you want to get drunk you want to commit immoralities you want to do all that that's okay just go ahead it's no big deal and remember what I said about Christianity being a narrow path and there's ditches on both sides there are ditches on both sides and this is the other side of that ditch that well in America kind of it goes this way I believe in Jesus it doesn't matter if I live like the devil well we do know this salvation is not dependent upon your ability to walk in holiness and if you do walk in holiness it doesn't add one thing to your salvation salvation is by faith but what we see throughout all the New Testament is those who have truly believed their hearts have been changed it doesn't mean that they don't struggle with sin and they don't struggle with apathy because I struggle with sin and apathy till today but I hate my sin and I hate my apathy and I am changing and I am growing and I do want to walk in righteousness so avoid legalism on one side and avoid living in sin and immorality on the other okay because he says if you know that he is righteous you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of you now I think John's probably also referring back to this group of false teachers who were not righteous who are very wicked very immoral and he's saying look these guys are wanting to be your teachers they're not even born of God because you know anyone who's born of God is going to practice righteousness they don't practice righteousness you know another thing I'd like to tell you you know what I've discovered whenever you see legalism I mean really in legalism I mean making up rules and laws that God never made and forcing them on people and wherever you see legalism you'll see immorality it's almost as if the legalistic teachers are trying to mask their own immorality or are thing or fine victory over it but in places where the gospel is not center and law is center and self-righteousness and ability to do certain things and not do certain things you will also find corruption it seems to always be the case now what you want to be is someone who trusts only in Christ and seeks to walk simply with him love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself the simple commands of the gospel and the simple commands of Scripture the simple statements of wisdom you seek to know them embody them live them out but all under the rule of love you see very simple very simple now he's going to go on and maybe we'll have to save this for next week chapter 3 and he's going to go on to talk about the greatness of God's love for us and what will happen when Christ appears and we don't have time to get into that I don't think tonight because there's several different things that I want you to see in that passage that will be beautiful for you but but now let's just summarize if you're a Christian remember that day that you became a Christian when you saw that salvation was through faith in Christ remember the joy remember the peace and then remember this all the complexities rules and laws and everything else you did not know them and yet salvation was granted to you by faith all the mysteries you did not know them so obviously they are not important for your salvation the thing that you knew that saved you continue walking in it mature in it mature in your understanding but continue walking in it and oh my great prayer for you is that the older you get in the faith the more simple your faith will become and the more the more you will realize you have no hope except Jesus Christ if if someone asked me the day after I was converted do you have any hope other than Jesus Christ I would have said no but you asked me that now and I'll still say no but I think I understand it a lot better because as time goes on and not in a morbid way but as time goes on you see how needy you are yet as time goes on you see more of his grace and more of his love you see in one sense a Christian is kind of like a walking contradiction Jesus said blessed are those who mourn and yet we're told of joy unspeakable and full of glory and I know it's hard to believe but both those things increase at the same time because the more I see of him the more I see of me the more I see of me the more I see of my need my sin my lack of love my apathy all sorts of things but that does not lead me to despair why also the more I see of him the more I see of Christ and the more I see that that the blood of Christ the love of Christ the sacrifice of Christ is greater than my sin and that I stand before God perfect not in myself for my performance but in Jesus Christ my lord you see he's everything plus nothing alright let's pray