LIVE IN TRUTH
1 John 2:18-27
I. THERE WILL BE CHALLENGERS IN THE LAST HOUR
A. AN APPEARANCE OF ANTICHRISTS
1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1. The Emergence of Many Antichrists
--Although there is to be one great and final antichrist of the ages, there have been and will continue to be many antichrists who arise to challenge the core of our faith, Jesus Christ.
When His disciples asked Jesus "what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world ? Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. For MANY shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."
--Every age has its own batch of antichrists to deal with and a fresh new batch of heresies to content with.
2. The Enticements of False Prophets
--There are several methods used by these false prophets and antichrists:
* They work from within the body (1 John 2:19)
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
* They prey on the weak
* They promote themselves as "Protectors of Truth"
* They attempt to embrace God as while rejecting Jesus as Son and as Christ - 1 John 2:22
B. AN ABUNDANCE OF DEFECTORS
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
--I am all for unity in the body of Christ, but not at the expense of truth.
--If there are those who depart from the faith because they cannot affirm that Jesus is Christ the Lord, we in the body of Christ are under no obligation to be joined together with them.
--According to John, many will prove to be defectors, traitors to the faith and will prove by their departure that they never belonged to Christ, "they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us."
--However, some will remain like wolves among the sheep looking to devour as many as possible while pretending to belong to the flock.
--Jesus refers to them as tares, or weeds, among the wheat, which will not be separated until the last day of harvest.
II. THERE MUST BE CORRECTIVES AGAINST CUNNING DECEPTIONS
--How can we protect ourselves against the false teachings of these many antichrists when they sound so convincing and their arguments so thoroughly supported by the opinions of the day?
A. THE ANOINTING OF THE HOLY ONE UPON US
1 John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
--If you know Christ, you have received the Holy Spirit who dwells within you, anointing you with His presence and with the ability to understand and discern true from false even in some cases when your reason fails you.
--The presence or absence of that "ring of truth" comes from the leading of the Spirit who guards our hearts and minds from what is false.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:
B. THE ABIDING OF THE TRUTH IN US
1 John 2:21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
1 John 2:24 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.
--The anointing of the Spirit is not intended to stand alone as a corrective and protective power over us--we are given an objective standard by which to measure the teachings we receive, the ideas thrown at us.
--We have been given the truth and the ability to know it, to have it abide in us...the testimony which you heard from the beginning, the Word of the Lord!
--Check it out in the scriptures before you believe any teaching you hear.
--The Spirit and the Word provide the necessary correctives we need to repudiate the lies of the antichrists around us.
III. THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES IN THE FINAL VERDICT
--For those who believe that it does not matter what you believe about Jesus Christ, the ultimate consequence of that belief will be catastrophic.
A. MANY WILL ABANDON THE FATHER
1 John 2:22-23a Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father:
--If you choose to deny that Jesus is Christ the Lord, you not only lose Him but the Father as well.
--There is only one way to the Father, and that is through Jesus Christ.
--For those who feel intellectually superior or that they are independent thinkers because they have refused to believe the supernatural character of the incarnation, the true nature of Jesus Christ as God the Son, the price to be paid is tragically more than anyone can afford...they pay with their lives and abandon God.
B. MANY WILL ACCEPT THE SON
1 John 2:23b-24 he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. 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.
--If you allow that truth that you have received to abide in your heart, you will find that Jesus is the Christ and that you have life in His name...and in His name alone!
IV. REASSURANCES FOR THE CHRISTIAN
A. OUR FAITH AND OUR HOPE
1 John 2:25"And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life"
Despite the conflict, we operate from a position of victory. We know who will win the war, because we have His promise. As we have stated the Word of God is needed for victory in this life, but over and above all that is the final victory that John reminds us of.
B. ANOTHER REMINDER
1 John 2:26,27"These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him"
The danger of the antichrist teaching is that John’s readers would turn from what the Holy Spirit has taught them, to a new teaching which is in fact a lie. Once taught by the Holy Spirit we need only to abide in the truth. Paul said "I have fought a good fight, finished the course and kept the faith".
C. THE REWARD OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE
1 John 2:28,29"And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him"
Does your conscience ever bother you ? How can we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, discern what is right or wrong? John says "abide in him". If we walk with Him each day and are sure He is with us, we simply ask ourselves: What would Jesus do in this instance ? Can I ask Him to go with me ? Can I ask Him to bless me in the doing of it ? Can I pray about it ? Would it be o.k. if everyone else in the church did this same thing? Are there some people I would prefer not know about it if I do it ? Abiding with Jesus means that we consider that He is
right along-side us every step of the way. He is watching and He knows what we do and why we do it. John says, one day we shall stand before him and when He looks at us we shall know that He knows all. Can we then say with Paul in
2 Tim 4:8 "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."
