Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter – Our home with Christ in the word “abide”: confidence.

Friday June 1, 2018

Title: Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter – Our home with Christ in the word “abide”: confidence.

1Jo 2:27 And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him (baptism of the Spirit) 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.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit (anointing) changes the believer forever. It abides in him and that means that his regeneration cannot be undone or changed.

This is the most wonderful, good news. The gospel, the good news, is that the work of Christ changes men forever, by grace, through faith, not of works lest any man should boast. At the moment you believed, God the Holy Spirit got to work and, in an instant, you were changed within. Your heart of stone was turned to a heart of flesh. The Holy Spirit took up residence in your body and made your body the temple of the living God. Jesus Christ indwelt you and you were entered into union with Him. The righteousness of Christ was imputed to you and you were called righteous and therefore you were justified before God. God also elected you to His highest and best and put His seal upon you. God predestined you in order to be conformed to the person of Christ and realize the fulfillment of your election, and you were adopted as an adult son and priest into the royal family of Jesus Christ. And, none of this is reversible, and none of this will ever diminish or lessen.

Due to the anointing of the Spirit, John states that they have no need for anyone to teach them. This of course doesn’t mean that they do not place themselves under the teaching of pastors. It means that they are not dependent upon them.

If you were dependent upon a man, as a believer, then Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit would not receive all glory. The saints that John is writing to are not under the mercy of the Gnostic teachers. They are also not at the mercy of any teacher besides God the Holy Spirit. The gift of pastor was given to the church to build up the knowledge of the Son of God, but if one man is not teaching the truth properly then God will provide another. Plus, the full cycle of learning or wisdom is more than the classroom. Life and the struggles and successes in applying the truth you learn in the classroom is just as important a teacher. One needs both, but no believer is dependent upon any one man. Ultimately, God the Holy Spirit anoints and raises up the teachers and He puts them where He wills. The students are to hear him filled with the Spirit of God and concentrating on the truth of the scripture and then, by the power and guidance of the Spirit, the students are to take what they have learned and use it in their lives, and once they do and they see the fruit, the cycle of wisdom is complete, and is to be repeated consistently until death and beyond.

So far, in this epistle, the verb meno, “abide” has been stated as a claim (infinitive):

1Jo 2:6 the one who says he abides [infinitive = consistent lifestyle] in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

It has been stated as a fact [present indicative]:

1Jo 2:10 The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

1Jo 2:14 I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

And now for the second time in this epistle the verb meno is given as a command, “abide in Him.”

1Jo 2:28 And 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.

Confidence or boldness is always associated with Christ in the NT and Yavah Elohim in the OT.

It is a great paradox for a Christian to lack confidence. Every believer is in Christ and has all the benefits of Christ forever. He is an heir of God and lacks nothing of value. We are not to attempt to build confidence on our own merits or assets. Human confidence is only comparative to other humans and therefore it is only relative. Relative confidence depends on circumstances and environment and so it is weak and temporary. Our position in Christ is eternal and God who is faithful is immutable.

The confidence spoken of in the Bible is the confidence in God due to His ability, our own confidence due God’s faithful protection, and our confidence in ourselves due to our position in Him.

God is able to do all that He says. We have confidence in Him. This leads to confidence in ourselves. We are what we are by the grace of God. We lack nothing. We are confident in ourselves without arrogance. And, we can face others with confidence.

By far, the challenges against a believer’s confidence in the Bible comes from other people. False teachers attacked the apostles and the churches. Satan’s ministers bully and intimidate. But we have nothing to fear from them. God makes this clear. It is God who fights for you. Vengeance belongs to Him. What can mere man do to us?

Others can and will persecute and hurt us, but ultimately, we can all perform the will of God with confidence despite what they do or say.

Confidence in ourselves and our position in Christ is contrasted in the scriptures with confidence in riches or personal prowess. The person who trusts in man will be a dried-up bush in the desert.

We are called sons of God. It is interesting that this is also the title of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ did not receive the title Son of God after or concurrent with His virgin birth. The Lord Jesus Christ has always, for all eternity, possessed the title of Son of God just as the Father has had His title. I could prove this to you with scripture, but for the sake of time we will simply state it.

Doubtless, there are mysteries galore in these eternal names, but one thing we may state with surety, that the Son was sent to reveal the Father. Joh 1:18 No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. The Lord said to Philip, Joh 14:9 “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

The Son was set apart to come to earth as a Man. The sanctification led to His birth. The One who was sent forth was already the Son of the Father for all eternity. He was and is the Son, not because He began to derive this relationship from the Father at His incarnation, but because He ever was, in that relationship, the expression of what the Father is.

The title Son of God is indicative of an eternal relationship in which the Son is the expression of what the Father is. Believers are sons of God. Our lives expressions of _____________.

Would we look at the call to express the Father by our lives, all of our lives, as a burden or as a great blessing? I pray that we all see this for what it really is.

Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

Gal 4:5 in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

Gal 4:7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Christ has made us complete. He has also commanded that we abide in Him.

1Jo 2:28 And 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.

“abide in Him” – imperative (command). We have to choose to remain in Him, not in position, but in walk or way.

Other passages of meno in the imperative:

Joh 15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

Joh 15:9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.