Sermon Brief
Date Written: February 26, 2009
Date Preached: March 11, 2009
Where Preached: Oak Park (Wed Evening)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Series from 1 John
Sermon Title: Are You Being Deceived?
Sermon Text: 1 John 2:18-23
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
Introduction:
Today there are those who say they are Christian but yet they live lifestyles opposed to Scripture. There are those who say that they know God but yet deny the exclusivity of Christ in their teaching and deny the claim of Christ, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life…”
The one name that comes to mind when I speak on this subject… the most recent popular figure that has come out and denied the exclusivity of Jesus is Oprah Winfrey.
On one of her shows, Oprah was interviewing people who were having affairs with married people. One woman who had a long-standing affair with a married man was saying how happy she was. But then someone from the audience raised the question of morality.
The woman protested this question by saying, "I am a Christian, but my personal life and my religion don’t have anything to do with one another. God wants me to be happy, and if I am happy with this man, then God doesn’t mind."
This is what John was speaking about when he spoke of being deceived. Let me ask you a question, “Is God only happy in making us happy?” As believers, can we believe in God and live like the Devil? Can we sow wild oats all week then go to church like nothing was wrong in our lives?
I believe the prophet Habakkuk said of God in Hab 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong” God does not like, tolerate or put up with sin. Sin will and ALWAYS will have consequences and we can NEVER come to the point where we believe sin is the answer to our happiness… OR that God will tolerate sin in our lives JUST to pacify our desires!
But back to Oprah, she was born in Mississippi and raised in a Baptist church with the doctrines of the Bible taught to her. Oprah has done many great things and has given so much of her time and money to help those less fortunate. She has been involved in many things that has endeared her to the general public and has a very high approval rating, especially among women.
Oprah’s show is on in over 120 countries and it is said that she reaches more of an audience than any evangelical preacher could ever hope to reach. Now in the past, she has confessed her belief in God, but recently has begun to espouse a different approach and teaching…and it is a very dangerous one at that…
Oprah’s book club has been probably the most popular book club in the history of book clubs and one of the books she reviewed has ‘changed’ her completely. She has begun to read, follow and adhere to the teachings of Eckhart Tolle a new age mystic/guru whose book “A New Earth” has struck a chord with Oprah.
Likewise her comments and direction and leadership has led many people to begin to follow the teachings of Tolle and the new age ramblings within his books.
In Tolle’s book, that Oprah called the most exciting thing I have ever read, he teaches how we should ‘awaken’ to the reality that we are god. He uses Jesus’ quote in John 14:6, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life…” and teaches that Jesus is saying this from the ‘every man’ perspective…as if EVERY man and woman could apply this statement to themselves…
Tolle’s book is nothing more than a rehashing of old, new age dogma… in fact it is nothing more than the promise of Satan to Eve in the Garden of Eden when he promises her that she will become like god when she eats of the fruit! It is an appeal and a teaching that can be exposed when held up to the truth of Scripture and when we view its teaching on humanity, Jesus and the Bible.
About humanity, Scripture tells us we are created in God’s image and we were the apex of creation, but that we fell in sin and are separated from God because of that sin and we have a sinful and selfish nature that we ourselves cannot overcome. We cannot be redeemed of ourselves, but need salvation from God!
Tolle teaches that humanity is god and that because we are god we are not separated from God and therefore do not need ‘saving’ or deliverance from God. We can deliver ourselves. He teaches that sin is living unskillfully and that salvation is realizing we don’t need forgiveness from some spirit God but enlightenment that reveals to us that we ARE god.
About Jesus, Scripture tells us that He is the Son of God and the Redeemer of sin, and the Savior of all who place their faith and trust in Him. He died on the Cross for our sin and raised from the dead to offer eternal life. He did this out of love for us.
Tolle rejects the need for a savior and thus Jesus in his teaching is relegated to nothing more than a good moral teacher. But Tolle’s explanation of Jesus’ quote in John 14:6 only uses the 1st part of the verse and ignores the part of the verse where Jesus emphatically states His exclusivity for salvation! So Tolle rejects the need for a Savior and the fact that Jesus IS that Savior!
About the Bible, Scripture is clear, it is God-breathed and worthy of teaching to all people… it is the revelation of a holy and just God through the pen and personality of the men of old. Divinely inspired writing that reveal the person and nature of the Creator God of the Universe who desires a relationship with His creation.
Tolle teaches that because we are god, the Truth lies within us and that Scripture takes away from that ultimate truth we find within ourselves. Tolle does scour the Scripture and chops out verses out of context to fit into his worldview and support his teachings. But ultimately all of Tolle’s teachings are about YOU, centered on YOU, and that YOU are the ultimate authority on truth and how to live and so you don’t need scripture.
The Apostle Paul wrote that in the last days people will gather teachers to themselves that will give them what they want to hear… let’s look at what Paul says in 2 Tim 4:3-4 [NKJV]
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
This is exactly what John is referencing when in v.18-19 when he says,
“18…and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us...”
“The Antichrist…” is a reference to a person, and we have all heard about the coming of the Antichrist, the mark of the beast and all of that end of times stuff. But what did John mean when he says, “many antichrists have come…”?
Well John was speaking of those who claimed membership within the fellowship of Christ, but their teaching and beliefs were contrary to and actually denied the deity and exclusivity of Jesus Christ as Savior. This is why he says ‘antichrists’ in the plural…there were obviously MORE than one of them. And they all claimed membership in the fellowship, but they were never actually believers…
Today there are so many who truly believe that they say that they can love God and yet still live in their sin. But Scripture is clear in this matter, sin and Christ do NOT mix, a saved individual will not live in a sinful lifestyle, it cannot be done.
When we come to Christ, we have made a choice and that choice was that we chose God over sin. You see you cannot have it both ways; you cannot love both sin AND God.
Scripture tells us that when we come to Christ that we die to sin… that we are DEAD to the sin of our past and we become alive to God. In Matt 16 we find Jesus teaching a very important kingdom principle when He says: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matt 16:24-25[NKJV].
Here John warns believers to NOT be deceived by these ‘antichrists’ because the truth is not in them, but John goes on in v.20-21 to reveal where the truth lies...it lies within them!
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
Here John really brings it home… here John reveals that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to salvation regardless of what others told them. He tells these readers that because of their anointing by God…that personal and intimate relationship they now had with Jesus… because of that, they had the Truth!
John puts it like this, “...you have an anointing from the Holy One…” the Holy One is Christ and this ‘anointing’ he speaks about comes from the Scripture they had and the Holy Spirit that opens their eyes and hearts to that Scripture. This anointing protects the believer from false teachers.
John does say that because of this anointing that they ‘know all things’… well only God can KNOW all things, but the context of John’s remarks are that these believers know about false teachers and how to spot them and what to believe and NOT believe. John is merely refreshing the memories of those true believers as to what they had believed and what had proven true in their lives… about what they ALREADY knew!
These believers KNEW what Jesus had taught and that Jesus had claimed to be the EXCLUSIVE way to God…that there was NO other way to God. They knew the prophecies of the Messiah and how Jesus had fulfilled those prophecies.
They knew that Jesus had died for them and had risen from the dead! John knew that these believers KNEW the truth… he was making sure that they understood that what they had WAS the truth and that they were not deceived by this ‘new’ teaching!
John follows up in v.22-23
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
John teaches that denial of Christ as Messiah reveals that the person is a liar! He also shares that denying God the Father and Jesus the Son reveals the ‘anti’ Christ or anti-Messiah agenda by these people.
I believe v.23 really drives home the teachings of Jesus in John 14… John teaches that those who deny Jesus cannot know God… but that those who KNOW Jesus…have a relationship with the Father as well… Jesus taught that he was the only way and that, “No man comes to the Father except THRU me!”
For anyone to deny Christ they were against Christ and to be against Christ is to be against the truth… and to be against the truth meant that you are a LIAR! John warns these believers to cling to the promise and to the Gospel of Jesus!
The world will try to sell itself as a suitable substitute for Jesus or God, but it NEVER EVER can replace God… it can NEVER replace Jesus as Messiah and Savior!
And for anyone to claim that they CAN, they are a liar and the truth is NOT in them! Let us NEVER fall prey to the Enemies attacks on the Truth of Christ… on the SOLE EXCLUSIVITY of Jesus as Savior and Redeemer! THEre is NONE like Him… and as Luke tells us in Acts 4:10-12,
10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
We have Jesus… we need no other!
