INTRODUCTION
• I think it for Christians it is sometimes hard to keep in mind that we are under attack on an almost daily basis.
• Some of the attacks we face are direct, coming from people we know, but more of the attacks we face come from the society in general. We see our faith being attacked in the media, in the courts, and in the political realm.
• Some of the attacks we see are very obvious, others more subtle.
• When was the last time you saw an article from Time Magazine or one of the other main stream news magazines that actually backed up the Bible?
• I always like watching programs on the Bible or Christianity on the History Channel or Discovery. They always seem to try to find the most liberal
• The President gets made fun of for believing in Creation or intelligent design as it is put. What are the scientists afraid of?
• The media makes people who believe in Jesus out to be a bunch of backwoods buffoons who are backward in their thinking.
• It is getting harder and harder or us to take our faith public because of the ridicule we many times face.
• Because of the fact that we are hit from so many sides, it could make us feel like what we believe is not true. We could start to think that maybe we are wrong.
• If we are not careful we can allow the world to fool us into forsaking our faith.
• When our children go off to college, they are confronted by many forces that tell them our belief in Jesus is dumb and is not logical.
• This is one of the reasons we need to understand why we believe what we believe.
• SLIDE #2 The title to the message today is, “Don’t Be Fooled.”
• In John’s day, there were many who were working against God by either by being a false teacher or by claiming to be the Messiah.
• I want to encourage you to keep the faith. It is important for us not to leave Jesus; we cannot allow others to influence us to leave Him.
• Let’s read 1 John 2:18-23 together.
• If we are going to maintain our faith, we need to: SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. RECOGNIZE THE TIME WE LIVE IN.
Verse 18 tells us that it is the last hour. SLIDE #4
1. We live in the last hour.
• It is so important for us to recognize that we live in the last hour. If we think we have forever, then we will think we have plenty of time to go back and forth with our beliefs.
• What does John mean when he speaks of living n the last hour, does this mean that we are going to all die in a few minutes?
• Peter and Paul use the term “last days”. These phrases are used figuratively for a fixed period of time preceding the Second Coming.
• The word “hour” is a translated from a word that means “a fixed date or period”.
• This thought ties in with the previous section that speaks of the world passing away in verse 17.
• We tend to think the world is not going to end, but one day it will!
• You hear folks talking about how we are in living in the last days, well, since the resurrection of Jesus, we have been. This age or dispensation will end with the second coming of Jesus, once that happens, game over.
• CLICK #4 Jesus speaks of this age in John 5:25 as an hour that is coming. That hour is here and is in the last stages.
• Since we are living in the last hour, it is not a tie for us to mess around; it is time for us to be serious about our faith. We think that since it has been 2000 plus years since the resurrection, that Jesus will not come back. Quite honestly, that has an affect on how we live our lives and how we conduct ourselves.
• The second thing we need to recognize if we are going to stay strong in our faith is: SLIDE #5
II. RECOGNIZE OUR ADVERSARIES.
Here is where it starts getting interesting. John starts using a term that sounds kind of chilling. We have seen movies that depict this “person” as the absolute personification of evil. John talks about antichrist! SLIDE #6
1. What is an antichrist?
• John speaks of the antichrist in plural form. An antichrist is one who does either one or two things, or both. The first is one who is opposed to Jesus. The second is one who claims themselves to be the Christ or Messiah. They claim to be Jesus.
• CLICK #6 Jesus spoke of many ‘false-Christ’s” in Matthew 24:24. Jesus spoke of those who would claim to be “Christ”.
• John speaks more of those who would oppose Jesus.
• John tells us some other things about the antichrist in this section. John is the only biblical writer who uses the term “antichrist”, Paul uses the term, “man of lawlessness.” They seem to speak of the same group of people.
• There have been many attempts to name who the person is, from Ronald Reagan to the Papacy of the Catholic church. By the way, neither of these fit the criteria given that we will look at.
• It would seem from John there are many antichrists and from Paul it seems like there will be one “big” antichrist at some point in time. That is not important to us at this point, suffice to say, there will be many who will try to lead you away from Jesus. SLIDE #7
2. Their credentials may look good.
• John tells us in verse 19 that these antichrists would come from the church.
• This would make the persons credentials look good. They are from a church, or they call themselves Reverend, so there must be something to what they say!
• Some will take verse 19 to state these people were never saved in the first place.
• A study of the passage does not stand to this thought.
• The word translated “out” emphasizes origin or source, for these people to have gone “out” from, it necessitates them first being of the same origin as those who they left.
• In the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-15, Jesus explains that the gospel falls on different types of soil, some the gospel takes deep root, others it is shallow and a person falls away easily.
• These who left began the journey with Jesus, but for whatever reason, they quit before the journey ended. CLICK #7
3. There are many out in the world.
• Is there one or many antichrists? John says there are many, now it looks as if there will be one main one at some point in time but John says there are many. In 1 John 4:3, John says the spirit of the antichrist is already in the world at the time of his writing.
• There are many who will try to deceive you. I do not know why some folks claim a faith in which they do not believe any of? MOBERLY COMMUNITY COLLEGE. CLICK #7
4. They are liars denying that Jesus is the Christ.
• An antichrist will deny that Jesus is the Christ. This is in verse 22.
• If someone tries to convince you that Jesus is not the Savoir, the Messiah, I would run from them quickly!
• Folks from this school of thinking will acknowledge that Jesus lived, but they will deny He is deity or God. SLIDE #8
5. They deny the Father and the Son.
• Verse 22 also says the antichrist will deny the Father and the Son. Verse 23 tells us that if deny the Son, does not have the Father. If we confess the Son, we have the Father also!
• Jesus cannot be a good teacher, He must be Lord! CLICK #8
6. They deny that Jesus came in the flesh. 2 John 1:7
• This verse adds to the thought by telling us that if we deny Jesus came in the flesh, we are crossways with God.
• The next time the History Channel produces something about Christianity and they trot out a professor of Christianity or the head of some church who denies that Jesus came in the flesh to live as man, or they try to convince you that Jesus is not the Messiah or that He is not from God, remember what John tells us.
• I call that a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
SLIDE #9
III. RECOGNIZE AND UTILIZE THE PROTECTION WE HAVE BE GIVEN.
God did not leave us defenseless as we combat the attacks we endure; we have a couple of items that were meant to protect us. SLIDE #10
1. We have an anointing from God.
• John is not specific as to what this “anointing” is, but it would seem this refers to the Gift of the Spirit that all receive when they are immersed into Christ. (Acts 2:38)
• CLICK #10 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
• What John is saying to us is this, the false-teachers claim some special knowledge, but you have a special gift from God.
• The passage in 2 Corinthians reminds us that God gave us the Spirit as a pledge.
• The Spirit will do many great things in our lives if we are open to the leading. SLIDE #11
2. We possess the truth!
• CLICK #11 John 16:13 One of the things the Spirit does for us is to help us to understand the truth.
• Verse 21 reminds us that we know the truth; this means we possess the truth.
• We are also reminded that no lie is of the truth.
• We should take everything we are told and hold it against the truth of God’s word. SLIDE #12
• 1 John 4:1
CONCLUSION
• We cannot allow ourselves to be deceived into forsaking our faith.
• God did not send His Son to die for us to see us fall for some false teaching or to fall away to follow some false Messiah.
• Just remember when people are ridiculing your faith or when the media takes a swipe at our Faith that God is in control.
• We need to realize what we believe will not make sense to the world; it is our job to show the world that we believe the truth enough to let it have in impact on our lives.
• Our faith can stand up to scrutiny.
• We need to make sure we know why we believe what we believe so that we cannot be shaken!
