A Difficult Truth and A Wonderful Hope - 1 John 2:18-29 - July 21, 2013
Series: That We May Know – Life With Jesus - #8
This morning we are continuing in our series from the book of 1 John so I’ll ask you to open your Bibles with me please, to 1 John, chapter 2, and we’ll begin reading in verse 18. Today’s message is going to be somewhat shorter than usual, not because there isn’t much to say, but rather because we are going to have the privilege of hearing a number of personal testimonies, and witnessing a number of baptisms today, as well.
Now in chapter 5, of this book, John says that he has written these things “to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13, NIV84) This is John’s purpose in writing this letter – he has done so that we might have the assurance of eternal life. What does that mean? What does that look like? He answers those questions, saying, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:12, NIV84) If you want to cut straight to the essence of Christianity, it comes down to Jesus. You either have Him, or you don’t, – there is no middle ground. So let me ask you: Do you have the Son?
If you’re walking with Jesus, and loving on Jesus, and worshipping Jesus, and obeying Jesus and doing life with Him, as John has been talking about in the earlier verses of this book, then you have the assurance of knowing that your sins are forgiven, you’re a new creation, and you have eternal life. But if that’s not you, if you’re messing around in the darkness instead of walking in the light, if you’re living in rebellion to Jesus’ commands, if you’re just going through the motions of religion, then you are in a precarious position, because even though you may have the appearance of salvation to man’s eyes, in the eyes of God you are still dead in your sins and transgressions, and you do not have the eternal life that John is talking about. You need to get right with God. You need to repent of your sins, believe upon Jesus, and let God’s word become the guide for your life.
And maybe you’re here this morning and you’re not sure – you just don’t know if you have Jesus or not. If that’s you, you need to find out. When we’re done here today, go home and start reading in 1 John, verse 1. Go through it deliberately examining yourself against what John has written there. What he writes of isn’t the exception, it’s not just for the super-saint, it’s for each and every one of us who has the Son. And he’s going to tell you that you need to check three things: you need to check your attitude towards sin, to examine your response to God’s words, and to consider if you’re growing in love for God and for others.
If the things he writes of, are not true of you, then you don’t have Jesus, and you don’t have eternal life, and you need to get down on your knees in surrender before God, crying out for mercy, and forgiveness, and the new life that only He can give.
Why? Because the truth is this: not everyone who comes to church, or who calls Jesus, “Lord,” is a genuine Christian. Many are Christians in name only, but without the reality of new life. They are not saved; they do not have Jesus. I can say that because I used to be one of those. In my earlier years I would have called myself a Christian. I believed there was a God, I believed the stories I read in the Bible were true, but it turns out I didn’t have Jesus. I just knew a bit about Him, liked the idea of Him, but didn’t have Him in my life. Which brings us to 1 John, chapter 2, verse 18 …
“Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” (1 John 2:18–19, NIV84)
John is talking about, what he calls, “the last hour.” Now this was written some 2000 years ago, and here we are today, and we’re still waiting. How do we understand that? Does that mean that John was mistaken? That the Bible is unreliable? Not at all! The “last hour” refers, not to a literal hour, but to an indeterminate period of time, characterized by a particular opposition to God, and to His Kingdom.
Since the resurrection, we have been in the last days. The whole Christian era has been lived in the last hour. Jesus could return at any time. And maybe you’re wondering, “Why doesn’t He? Why doesn’t He come right now then?” And He could. As far as I can tell there is nothing that keeps Him from returning immediately, but the grace of God Himself. Peter writes, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.” (2 Peter 3:15, NIV84) The fact that Jesus hasn’t returned yet, is God’s gift to us. He’s given us time to turn to Him. But one day His patience will run out. One day our time to come to Him, and to respond with love and thanksgiving, will have come to an end, and all that awaits at that point, is the fearsome outpouring of His judgement against all wickedness. Time is short, if not from man’s perspective, then certainly from God’s, for we are in the last hour, and we are that much closer today, than John was in his!
John says we can know that we’re in the last hour because of the antichrists that have come. Antichrist is a term that could mean either “in place of Christ,” or “against Christ.” And it’s important to note that John differentiates between the big antichrist who is still to come, and the many little antichrists who have already come.
The big antichrist is the one who Paul describes as the “man of lawlessness,” the “son of destruction.” He is one who will set himself up against, or in place of, Christ. Paul writes, that “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12, NIV84) That is the antichrist who is yet to come.
But John also says that many other antichrists have already come. In fact there is a sense in which we could say the majority of the world, is anti-Christ, because anti means “against,” or “opposed to.” If you watch the news, or read the papers, or pay attention to what’s going on in the world around you, this won’t surprise you in the least. Because you only have to look around at what’s going on in the world to know that much of it is anti-Christ. Much of our education system is anti-Christ. Much of our government is anti-Christ. Many of our neighbours are anti-Christ. Some of our friends and family member are anti-Christ. Anyone, or anything, that is opposed to, or sets itself up against, or moves in rebellion to, Jesus, and His ways, is anti-Christ.
And it doesn’t have to be active opposition, or the spewing of hatred, or outright persecution, in order for someone to be an antichrist. Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30, NIV84) If you’re not for Jesus, you’re against Him. If you’re not for Jesus, you’re antichrist. There are a lot of nice people out there who don’t really feel one way or another about God. But all it takes to be an antichrist is indifference to Jesus; an apathy towards God. Go back to those tests that I mentioned earlier. The first was your attitude towards sin. An antichrist, at best, will have an apathy towards sin. Their own sin doesn’t bother them at all. At worst, they will revel in it and celebrate it. The second was your response to God’s word. An antichrist may give lip service to God’s word, but have no desire to walk in obedience, or willing surrender to, God’s ways. They may twist and distort Scripture to their own ends. The third check was a heart check – your love for God and your love for others. An antichrist is going to have no real love for God. At best they could take Him or leave Him. At worst they will curse Him and oppose Him at every turn.
Paul leaves the Philippians with these words of encouragement saying: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8–9, NIV84)
Those are excellent words for us to take to heart and to put into practice because the truth is that antichrists threaten to undermine our love for Jesus, they seek to pull us away from the truth and the light. They may twist and distort the Scriptures for their own ends. They may place the wisdom of man above the ways of God. When they’re in the church, and John says that they can be in the church, they may have the appearance of faith, but none of the reality of the new creation. They’re going through the motions of religion but doing so outside of relationship with Jesus.
They are in the church, but not of the church. In verse 19, John says, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” Now how do we understand that? Well we need to understand that there is a difference between what we call the “visible” and the “invisible” church. The visible church is made up of all of those who call themselves Christians. Here, in this place today, we are the visible church. But it could be that not everyone here this morning is a genuine Christian. But the invisible church is made up of those whom God knows to be His, rather than those who simply claim to have fellowship with Him. Worldwide, the invisible church, is somewhat smaller, than the visible church.
Now I called this message, “A Difficult Truth and A Wonderful Hope.” This is the difficult truth, and it’s difficult because it’s going to hit close to home for some of you: Not everyone who goes to church, or calls themselves a Christian, or who has prayed some prayer, really is a Christian.
How many of us could name someone who grew up in the church, who was taught all the right things and made a profession of faith, but who isn’t here today? …. And it’s not just that they’re not here, it’s that they’re not in any Bible believing, Jesus loving, church. They might have been in the church for years, taught Sunday School, served as a board member, even as a Pastor, but they’ve walked away from God. What do we do with that? It’s confusing! Does that mean that they’ve lost their salvation? No, it means they never had it in the first place. John says they never belonged to us – despite all the appearances to the contrary – they never belonged to us. They were never saved in the first place.
This is very difficult for us to wrestle with because it’s very personal. It touches on people we know and love. For some of you it’s a son or a daughter, you raised them to love Jesus, but they’re not in the church today. For some it’s a spouse, for others it’s a parent. And it hurts because they’ve gone out from us, and, despite what it may have seemed at one time, their going out shows that they were never saved in the first place. In each case there is a sense of hurt, in some, particularly if it was a pastor or a teacher that walked away, a sense of betrayal is there as well. This is hard to accept, but it’s what Scripture teaches us. And it’s what my own personal experience has taught me as well. I grew up in the visible church, but I was not a member of the invisible church. And when I was old enough to not have to go to church anymore, I went out from the church. Now, if pressed, I would have claimed to be a Christian, but looking back I would have been antichrist. Why? Because I did not have the Son. I did not have Jesus. And so I was pretty much apathetic about anything to do with God.
So that’s the difficult truth, but John also gives us a wonderful hope. And we’re not going to be able to read the rest of the passage in it’s entirety this morning, but I encourage you to do that later this week. For now we’re just going to focus on a few verses. Here’s the wonderful hope – if you have truly been redeemed, verse 20 tells us that you have an “anointing from the Holy One.”
That means you have the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do for you? Among other things the Holy Spirit acts as a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance. In 2 Corinthians we are given this assurance when Paul tells us this – “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (2 Corinthians 1:21–22, NIV84) If you’ve been truly saved, you don’t need to worry about losing your salvation, because it is God who makes both us, and you, stand firm in Christ, because He has anointed you with His Spirit as a guarantee.
Well what about if I go right off the rails, and leave the church, and walk away from God – am I still saved? If you do those things you were never saved in the first place! You’ve gone out from the church, and your going out shows that you never belonged in the first place. And if you are saved, you’re not going to do that, because your desire is to live for God, to walk with God, to draw close to God. You hunger after Him, you want to be more like Jesus. His Spirit is given you as a guarantee and it is God who makes you stand firm in Christ!
But the Holy Spirit also teaches us. Verse 27 … “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.” (1 John 2:27, NIV84) If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who died for your sins, and that through faith you have eternal life in Him, that has been taught you, not by man, nor woman, but by the Spirit of God. Another person may have spoken the word of God to you, just as I am doing today, but if you come to faith today, it’s not because of what I have said, as much as it is because the Spirit of God is revealing the truth to you. The Spirit of God opens our eyes to see Jesus, our ears to hear His word, our hearts that we might come to Him. He convicts us of sin, moves us in repentance, and leads us in righteousness. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to believe, and proclaim, that Jesus is Christ!
Do you know what Jesus Christ means? Jesus means “savior.” Christ means “anointed.” Jesus Christ is the Savior anointed by God to deliver us from our sins and into eternal life. He is God in the flesh. He is “the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through” Him. (John 14:6, NIV84) For “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36, NIV84)
Do you have the Son? Can you say that Jesus Christ is the Savior Anointed by God to deliver you from death into life? Or does God’s wrath remain on you? The difficult truth we are presented with today is that not everyone in our churches really is saved. That means some of our loved ones and friends do not have eternal life in Jesus. Unless they repent and believe, God’s fearsome wrath will remain upon them.
But we also have a wonderful hope and that is this: If you have Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit. And that’s true of every believer because the Spirit is God’s deposit guaranteeing what is to come. And through the Holy Spirit we receive the assurance of salvation and we are taught the truth about Jesus.
How do you know you if you have the Spirit? Because you love Jesus. You believe with all your heart that Jesus is Lord; that He is God. When you sin, you’re convicted of it, you are filled with a godly sorrow that leads to repentance, you’re walking in the light and turning away from the things of darkness. Your desire is for the things of God, to grow in your faith, to mature in Christlikeness, to know God better, tomorrow, than you do today.
Can you say that of yourself? Can you say that Jesus is your God today? Or have you made yourself god of your own life? You need to figure it out, and get right with God, if you aren’t already, because the consequences are enormous; they are eternal.
Let’s pray …
This morning we have the privilege of hearing 3 young people declare that Jesus is their God. We are going to watch them as they enter the waters of baptism. We’re going to rejoice with them and we’re going to pray for them. [In Church if weather is poor / at poolside if weather is good.]
