Let's be turning to 1 John, chapter 2. 1 John, chapter 2, the apostle tells believers here to abide, to continue, to remain in what they heard from the beginning. Specifically, he's speaking of what they have heard in the new man born of the grace of God. That confidence which they had in Christ when they heard in power. That's what he's telling them here. I'm going to tell you that again as we go through this message. Let's read verses 24 and 25. 1 John 2, 24 and 25. Let that, therefore, abide in you. Let it remain in you. Let it continue in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, continue in you, abide in you, ye shall also continue, remain, abide in the Son and in the Father And this is the promise, that he hath promised us even eternal life." Now, I want to first address the beginning here of which John speaks. The beginning. The beginning. I don't think that there's much doubt about it that what beginning John is referring to here is the gospel. which the apostles preached. He's referring to the gospel, the truth. the truth as it's revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what they declared when they gave witness to Christ, when they bore witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, of who He is and what He successfully accomplished for His people on the cross when He redeemed them with His own blood. That's the witness that they gave of Him. I want to show you this in Luke 24. Let's go there. Turn with me to Luke 24. It's a lengthy passage, somewhat, but we'll pick up in verse 36. And I want to turn there because it serves to explain these two verses. When you go back and you read it later, Luke 24, verses 36 through 49, is filling out. It's helping us to understand more of what John is saying here. in this text. So verse 36, And as they thus spake, this is speaking of the disciples who were gathered together in a room discussing the things that were being told to them of the brethren who had seen the Lord. And they were declaring that Christ had risen from the dead. As they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, peace be unto you. This is what Christ says to the soul, to the heart of his child. When he comes to them, when he visits them in grace, peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit. Now did Christ Jesus rise from the dead in spirit only? No, no, not at all. There'd be nothing special about that. He was standing before them in his resurrected body. This is his new body. This is his body. He was raised from the dead. And to prove it, we read in verse 38, he said unto them, why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. He's referring to the nail prints in his hands and in his feet. When he went to the cross, he's showing them the wounds, his suffering for them. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, it was a good, it was just amazing. It was unbelievable what they were seeing there. They wondered and he said unto them, have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of an honeycomb. And he took it and did eat before them. And so he's proving his body to them. Right then and there, he's proving his body to them that he indeed had risen from the dead, not just as a spirit, but in his body, in his heavenly resurrected body. He's dead no more, never to die again. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, he died. And he went to the grave again. But Christ rose from the dead and never died again. He ascended unto the Father after that. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you. that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. These men had walked with our Lord for some three, maybe three and a half years there. And now he's giving them a special revelation, a special revelation to understand the mystery of God revealed in the scriptures, so that their understanding is not a fleshly, carnal understanding, but it's an understanding in the new man, born of the grace of God, born of the spirit of God, whereby they understand the mystery of God, which is declared in this word. which the natural man doesn't see, nor understand, nor believe, nor receive. But they saw it, now they understood by the grace and power of Christ. And now he begins to declare to them the gospel which they would be declaring to others, including the fact that they had seen Christ risen from the dead. That's why we looked at that, that in his body he rose from the dead. And he said unto them, verse 46, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer. He had those nail prints because he suffered for his people. He bore that for them. He bore their sins and iniquities on the cross to put them away forever. Thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance be turned from dead works that can't save you, trusting these things, and turn to Christ and receive the remission, the forgiveness of sins, that this should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, And he are witnesses of these things. This is what you're to go out and bear witness of. Preach this, teach this to the people, and declare to them, reveal to them that we are made new creatures. Speak of these things, what Christ does for us, making us new creatures. Look at verse 49, and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. So this gospel word is declared here by Christ. This is the word that they received in the beginning. This is the witness that they were given in the beginning when they received that confidence. from Christ, that power, that glory that entered into them, that understanding they had in the new man, being born of his grace, receiving that blessed word, understanding the mystery of God then and there, to know that gospel which they believed, and now we're going out to declare to the world, to others. And so this is the beginning word that is heard by the chosen people of God when Christ comes and speaks to you, peace be unto you, peace be unto you. And he speaks that word into your heart and opens your understanding to see the mystery of God in the face of Jesus Christ, to see how this word is testifying of him, to give us comfort and peace in him. to behold him, that he's our all. This is what John, this is the beginning word of which the apostle speaks of in our text. Let's read it again, 1 John 2, verse 24 and 25. Let that, therefore, abide in you. which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father, and this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life." In other words, his word shall not fail to deliver his people to the uttermost, to deliver us into the very arms of our God, So what we just heard our Lord say in Luke 24, let that gospel, let that sight that they saw of Christ, beholding him and hearing his words with understanding, let that fill your understanding when you read 1 John 2, 24 and 25. Let that impregnate that word and fill that out and amplify that word. The Christ of that word is the hope of the believer. So now it's been about 2,000 years. We're coming up on that in a few more decades, about 2,000 years from when the Apostle John wrote this epistle. So what are we to understand concerning what we have heard from the beginning? It makes sense when he's writing this epistle to his hearers there, but this is almost 2,000 years. What do we need to understand about what we've heard from the beginning? I just want to affirm to you, to assure you that what we believe is the same for us as it was for the beginning. Meaning the beginning for us is the same as it was for them. They had a beginning. They had a beginning and we have a beginning. The same witness they heard in the new man born of the grace of God by the spirit of God. And then, which they went out and preached to the churches, the beginning word that we are to abide in is the witness of Christ revealed in the gospel to the new man. That's the beginning. That's the beginning. So I'll use myself as an illustration to help us understand this a little better, this beginning. Because we've had beginnings, various beginnings. We've all had various beginnings. I just want you to see the beginning is when Christ reveals himself to you as your savior, delivering you from death, from your sins, from vain dead religion, to hear his voice, to believe him. So myself as an illustration, I've mentioned a number of times how I've grown up in religion. From a young child, I was in religion. And what I heard, I heard in the flesh. I heard it in the flesh. I didn't hear the gospel. Whether or not they were preaching the gospel, I can't say. I just know I didn't hear the gospel. I didn't hear it. And I mentioned before that I had heard some true things, though. I did hear some true things. I had heard that Jesus is the Son of God, come in the flesh, and that He and He alone is the Savior. There is not a Savior. There is not another Savior. There is one salvation, one name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. I heard that. I heard that. Now, what I heard from the beginning as a child is not the beginning spoken of here. That's good that I heard that. I'm glad that I heard that. But that's not the beginning that John is speaking of here. And it was some useful things. I mean, those are true things. Those are things that we must, that all believers hold dear. We know this, we know that Christ is the Savior, and He alone, and that He is the Son of God, come in the flesh. Those first words that I heard and embraced are not what's intended here, even though they were made useful to me in my teenage years. They were made useful to me. There came a point when my parents stopped going to church, and I stopped going to church. They didn't take me there anymore. And although I became very liberal in my sinning, I was very liberal, I did a lot of wicked things. Yet, I must confess that that knowledge, that limited knowledge that I had, did stand. The Lord made it useful as a guard that did stop me from doing certain things because I knew that Jesus is the Christ. And it was made useful. I believe the Lord put that word, seeded that word there for my good. to prevent me from going even further than what I would have done. So it was useful in that sense. I'm thankful for that word. But that's not the beginning. That's not my beginning. That's not what I heard and received at the beginning that John's speaking of here. As a young adult, late in my teens, 19 years old to be exact, I was stirred up by the Lord. He brought me into various stresses and trials and difficulties that troubled me greatly and caused me, without my parents, to begin seeking the Lord. in great duress, in great stress, I began to seek the Lord. And what I heard had some truthful things in it, but it was mixed with a whole bunch of wicked lies, a whole bunch of just false doctrine. I believe a lot of the things that John here is writing of the teachings of Antichrist. It just pervades the church. It's all over. There's a lot of foolish things that cause me great stress and great confusion. More confusion than it was even helping me. It was just driving me into greater darkness. And so as a result in my religious experience in going through different churches and all different places, I went through many dangers and toils and various snares, right? But in all of it, I was tried greatly for my sin, very much tried for my sin. And in the end, I was just stripped of all comfort. I had no peace. I had no understanding of salvation, because I was constantly just being driven to the flesh, to just do better, to try harder, to stop this, to start that, try this. And it was just driving me nuts. And I had no comfort that Christ, the Son of God, loved me. and gave himself for me. I knew he was the savior of men, that he was the savior of his people, but I had no comfort that he was my savior, no comfort. And so those words are not the beginning that John is talking of here, right? We've all come from religion, many of us from various religions, and we've heard lots of things. Some things good, many things bad. And so that wasn't the beginning either. One day I heard the gospel preached. I'm a man named Don Fortner, a man hated by so many people in the world. But I heard him preach. And I remember his text, which was Ephesians 432. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And it blessed my heart. And it wasn't so much the text that he preached from. I just remember the text. But that wasn't so much the text that he explained, but it was the gospel. It was the gospel that he preached in that message that blessed my heart. The Lord just opened my ear, turned my heart to Christ, and I began to see Christ is all. Christ is all, and it was such a joy and a comfort to my heart. He just declared the successful Savior in what He does for His people, what He did for His people, and what He does, what He works effectually in the hearts of His people, turning us from striving and spending and laboring and trying to get it right and just constantly coming up short and just sinking down in our sin because all I could do was look at myself. Because that's all that I heard. It was like, look at Christ. Oh, but then fix yourself. You better start working really hard. And it was just a burden. And though many years of trial still lay before me, it was still difficult. I still went through many difficulties. Yet the Lord blessed my heart to receive his word, to see Christ, and to believe him. And there was no gospel church where I was for many years until the Lord planted one there. And so my food was very sparse for a while there, and I would just hear it on CDs. We didn't have streaming devices and things like that to make it easy. I'd have to get CDs. But once the church came, especially, I began to be settled, just settled in the gospel of Christ, settled in Christ. with all my confidence in him." And that's where he brings his child, to be rooted in Christ, to feed upon the bread of heaven, to eat his flesh, to drink his blood, that is to hear and to receive and rejoice in his atonement in what he's done and behold him and worship him for what he's accomplished for us. That's the beginning, that beginning confidence, which you heard and received that Christ is all, that he's all my salvation. And that's where he roots us and then we bear fruit and he prunes us. And He makes us more and more fruitful in Him as He grows us and turns us to Christ. It's that new, it's that word that we heard by the Spirit making it effectual in our hearts in the new creation of Christ. Not something we created, not something we forced, because I've done it. I've tried forcing it. I've tried driving my stake in the ground and saying, never again, I'll never do this again. And then I'm just right back there doing it again. But by the grace of God, all I can do is turn to Him, and confess it to Him, and lay it before Him. And by His grace, I see His power so much more in Him. And I do me, because I don't have any power. I've tried to do it, what I thought I should do, only to fall on my face. But Paul even said it this way, even the mystery, this is when he turns us to Christ, even the mystery in Colossians 1, 26 through 28. even the mystery, which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles." Right? Who had no religion. And if you want to call it religion, it was just sheer idolatry. It was just wicked, wicked, false ideas, just sheer idolatry. To whom God would make known the riches of his glory to these fools, these base, ignorant barbarians, that He would make this known to them, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, that He's all my hope. I don't have any righteousness of my own. I don't want to be found in my own righteousness. I want to be found in the righteousness of Christ. And to just see Him and to believe Him and just trust Him is what He reveals in our hearts, whom we preach, warning every man, And teaching every man, right? Warning every man, not driving them to religion warning. No, warning them, get to Christ. Get to Christ. He is the Savior. He is the robe of your righteousness by whom we enter boldly into the throne of God and are received of Him. Teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That's the goal. to be found in Christ, to present you in Christ Jesus, not to present you perfect in Moses and the law, not to present you perfect in works, religion whereby you strive and spend and labor to make yourselves righteous, not to present you in will worship based on your decision for Jesus or not, no. If you love Christ, it's because He loved you first and gave you that love and turned your heart and drew you to Himself to present you in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Ghost in Christ, what He does for you. Now, having With that understanding of that's the beginning, John says, let that, therefore, that hope of Christ, that confidence in Christ, let that, therefore, abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. Your beginning in grace, when he revealed it with power to your heart, that beginning. when he delivered you from the bondage and darkness of this prison in the flesh, in the palace of the strong man, that devil, when he delivered you from him and brought you into the light of Christ, when you heard grace at the beginning of grace, when Christ's seed was formed in you and that new man is born. in us when we are regenerated, not from Adam's seed, but from Christ's seed. And John asks, if that which ye have heard from the beginning, when you tasted the grace of God in spirit and in truth, if that shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. He gives us that confidence, that confidence in Him. So continue in that hope of Christ's righteousness. Don't be turned the way the Galatians we see, how they were turned from Christ back to the law. as if we could improve on Christ's righteousness. Don't be turned. Continue in the hope of Christ's righteousness. Continue in the hope that his sacrifice has satisfied once and for all the holy justice of God, and that following him in faith, hope, and love, not being turned aside if we're persecuted for our hope in Christ, not Not being choked out by the cares and the concerns of this world and the pursuit of momentary pleasures and the passing things of this world. Don't be turned from those things. And seek him for it because we all see, we all know the draw and the lust of this flesh. We know it's present that we may know, that we may seek him and strive to seek him, to flee to him for all. Continue hearing his voice in the preaching of the gospel. and following him, continue in that hope that his death please the Father and his resurrection justifies all who believe him and worship the Father, trusting his blood and righteousness. All right, as Paul said, we are the circumcision who worship God in spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. We've seen what we are in the flesh. We know, we know, have no confidence in this thing. It's a, deceitful, wily, unbelieving Jacob, is what this flesh is by nature. It's tricky just like him, but by the grace of God, we are Israel, by his grace and power. Continue in that, continue in him, knowing that Christ makes us acceptable to the Father. And then John speaks here of the believer's perseverance, to continue in this hope, to not be turned from it, verse 25. And this is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life. And this is throughout the scriptures. Paul said something very similar in Hebrews 3 verse 6. He said, Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. And again, Hebrews 3.14, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence. It's almost the same thing that John's saying. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. If the work is Christ's, we will hold that beginning, the beginning of our confidence. That is when Christ in grace revealed his love, his mercy, his sacrifice, his righteousness, his power, his grace to you. When he revealed that to you, that's the beginning. that we heard Him and rejoice in Him, we shall persevere to the end because His grace preserves us in the body of Christ. Ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. So this is the very promise of God to His saints, to finish the work that He has begun in you. When He shows you Christ, He'll finish that work that He's begun in you. He says, this is the promise that He hath promised us even eternal life. John says a little later in 1 John 5 forward, whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Faith is not of the flesh, it's His gift to you, which He bears as fruit in the new man to continue in Him. Hold the beginning of our confidence. and hold that confidence when it ceased to be you saving yourselves and it was all Christ and you cast yourselves upon Him. Our perseverance is the testimony that God hath given us our hope and our confidence in Him. We that persevere, it's because God has called you. And though we've come, each of us, through various ways with baggage and luggage and all kinds of ideas from the flesh and traditions of man and various things that we thought were important. But in his grace, he brings us to see, as he showed Mary and was teaching Martha, the one thing needful is Christ. He's the one thing needful and that from him that all things are fruitful. and all things are rightly understood and received, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it." He'll do it. He'll do it. Philippians 1.6 He makes us confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So I exhort you brethren, hear this word, receive Christ, hold fast that confidence that He is your Savior, venture wholly upon Him, Cast yourselves upon him. Knock at the door. Seek him. Ask him. Beg him. And he'll reveal himself to you. More and more, he'll root you in him and show you the very truth of these words. Colossians 1, 10 through 12, that ye might walk worthy. He'll show you this. He'll keep you that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. That's what we want. We want to be pleasing to him. And we need Him to do it, because without Him we can do nothing. That we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power. That's what we want, to be strengthened with His glorious power. Unto all patience and long-suffering, with joyfulness, right? If it's His work, then we can bear it. We can bear it, if he's our strength, we can bear it in him and continue in him. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. See how, that's Colossians 1, verses 10 through 12. He just keeps turning our eyes to Christ, to Christ, to him, to what he does to save his people according to promise. so that we shall inherit that eternal life which He's promised us. We shall. That if rests all on Him. You will bear that fruit. You will continue if the work is His. If the work is ours, we won't. We'll fight, we'll go a long ways, but we will come up short in the end. But if it's His work, will not come short of that which you seek, Christ and his kingdom, his glory, his praise, and his honor. So rooted in Christ, he's saying we cannot be lost. We cannot die in our sins because they've been put away by Christ forever. You shall live. This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life. His glory is at stake. If he's begun it, you shall not come short of that which he's begun in you. He's promised it in his word. He gave his darling son to secure it, and therefore he shall bring it to pass in your heart, witnessed in your continuing in that word, that confidence which he gave to you in the new man in the beginning. He revealed it to you, that Christ is all. He is all, who hath sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, which is the earnest of our inheritance, the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. Abide, continue, remain in Christ, and be not moved away from Him. Continue in Him and you'll continue in the Son and in the Father. Continue in that word, believe it, receive it, hold it. Hold it fast, brethren. Amen.