Let's be turning to 1 John chapter
four. This chapter begins with a warning
from the apostle. He warns us saying in verse one,
beloved, all right, he's speaking in love to you. He's speaking
in love, he loves you and so he's, He says, Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of
God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. So this spirit refers here to
the man. Just think of the man and what
he's saying here, that man who claims to speak in the name of
God. That doesn't mean that he's wrong.
He may be, but he's just saying not everyone who says that they're
speaking in the name of God is. We all speak by a spirit. I think
I heard Henry Mahan say that once. Every man speaks by a spirit,
but we want to speak by the Holy Spirit. And that doesn't mean
that a pastor is infallible. This is why John says, try the
spirits. He may hold a certain belief,
but in time, against the word of God, against the testimony
of the spirit, it'll be tried. People will hear it, and people
will say something, or you'll be in your study. It'll be tried,
and it'll be proven either to be of God or not. And if it's
not, be done with it. Be done with it, because it's
antichrist, and that's not Nobody wants that wicked spirit. So,
it refers to the men, such as a pastor, such as a teacher,
a preacher in our day. Back in this time, it could have
been an apostle, it could have been a prophet. Paul himself
had to defend his apostleship, often times, and to one of the
most educated and wealthy churches of all, the Corinthian church.
He had to defend his apostleship because of false apostles that
were leading the churches astray, that were shutting Paul out and
trying to shut down the influence of Paul, even though he was the
one used of God to go and preach Christ and to bring the gospel
to those Gentile churches. He said in 2 Corinthians 11,
In verse 13, he begins, for such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel. for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. He's the deceiver.
He's a liar. He's a liar. Therefore, it is
no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. And it's very sad because Peter
even brought this out. He said, because of them, the
truth will be evil spoken of. And you think of how many people
won't even hear the truth. because of the wicked works of
men that sow deceit, that sow lies, that sow division, that
promote great fleshliness in the worship. And so it just turns
people off. I mean, people get turned off
for all kinds of reasons. Often it's their own flesh. There's
always flesh involved, but even we don't want to be the ones
sowing anything that causes the way of truth to be spoken evil
of. And there were many teachers,
Paul was saying to Timothy, who turned aside unto vain jangling. just worthless speech, worthless
words that could profit no one, no one. He went on to say they
were desiring to be teachers of the law. These were not people
that were turning people to wicked works, to indulge in the
lusts of the flesh, these were law mongers. They dealt in the
law. They were, as he said to the
Corinthians, they were ministers of righteousness, so to speak. That's how they projected themselves. We're going to get you guys all
cleaned up. You guys are going to be right.
You're going to be righteous under the law. And they were
law workers, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they
affirm. And the more I study the word,
the more clear it comes. It gets more and more clear that
Christ is our righteousness. And he works righteousness in
us. Well, he makes us righteous.
We're as righteous as we're ever going to be in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. But he bears fruits of righteousness in us by his
power. through this word. He bears his
works of righteousness, his fruits of righteousness in his people
because it pleases him. And he does it in grace, never
ever turning us back to the law. And it When people turn to the
law for righteousness, what they're doing is they're withdrawing.
They're drawing back unto perdition is what they're doing. They're
turning back to the law because they don't believe that Christ
is able to bear righteous fruits in them. They think they've got
to fix it. Something's wrong. We've got
to turn to the law. They're being tried. And rather than turn to
Christ, they're turning to the law. to wicked works, to wicked
works. And so, as it was in the days
of the apostles, so it is in our day. They were not at all
exempt from sex and divisions and the sowing of lies and deceit. They had it there just like we
have it today. Let me take you to one more passage
in Acts 20. I just want to show you one more
because I believe it sets the stage for what we're going to
focus on here with what John is saying in chapter 4. Acts
20, we're going to begin in Acts 28, verse 28. This is Paul on his way back
to Jerusalem before he's taken into bonds again. And he says,
verse 28, speaking to the church at Ephesus that came out to meet
him, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock
over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed
the church of God, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood. And tonight we're going to be
looking at what it is to feed the Church of God, to feed the
blood-redeemed Church of God. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the flock. They're going to come in. They're
going to say, we're going to take over here. We're going to fix
this. We're going to straighten things out and make everything
right. And what it does is it scatters, it divides, it sows
deceit and the flesh. It's flesh. It's flesh. It's
turning from trusting the Lord. and seeking his grace in the
matter, and it's taking up fleshly works. Also of your own selves
shall men arise, speaking perverse things for this purpose. And it's one thing to have something
wrong, and it get tried, and it's corrected by the grace of
God, by his spirit. But they're doing it to draw
away disciples after themselves. They see an angle. They see something
open. and they're going to fill it
in and draw people away after themselves. That's their angle. That's what they want to do.
They want to get a big following. Therefore, watch and remember. And when we say watch, Just think
of, be prayerful about it. Be mindful in praying to the
Lord about this. And remember that by the space
of three years, I ceased not to warn everyone night and day
with tears. And then from John's epistle,
we'll see, he warned everyone to the day of his death. He was
warning us. And now, brethren, I commend
you. And this is important, this verse. Now I commend you to God
and to the word of his grace. To the word of his grace. That's
what we are commended to by Paul, the word of his grace, which
is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among
all them that are, which are sanctified. And so that last
part is what we're gonna carry back with us, that understanding,
this word of grace, back to 1 John, and so that we see and understand
what we are feeding the church of God, that church of the blood-redeemed
saints. the word of his grace, the word
of his grace, and the Spirit testifies to the new man which
is wrought in us by that same grace, by that power of our Lord. He shows us it is not the law
of Moses which is able to build you up. That's not going to build
you up. It's not the law of Moses that
will give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified.
It's not the law of Moses that sanctifies you. I mean, it sanctifies
people. It sets them apart in some sense,
not unto God, but it sets them apart in the eyes of many. And they have so many choice
words for you that are sanctified in that sense by the law of Moses,
because it turns you to the flesh. And all it does is stir up enmity,
enmity between men in that flesh. That's not the sanctification.
we need, it's Christ sanctifying us, separating us unto himself
for his own use, and he uses the word of his grace. He uses
words of grace. That includes, there are instructions
in that word of grace, there is some application in that word
of grace, there is exhortation in that word of grace, but by
and large, that word of grace is always anchoring us You'll
see it's always anchoring us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who
he is, why he came, and what he accomplished for us through
his redemption, and is accomplishing for us by his grace and power,
seated on the throne of God. So this is the word of grace. This is what John would call
in 2 John, verse nine, the doctrine of Christ. We're to abide in
the doctrine of Christ. It's the word of God's grace
unto us in the face of Jesus Christ. We're not to not declare
this doctrine, to not abide in the doctrine of Christ, to depart
from the words of grace and to draw back unto perdition, to
draw back to Mount Sinai, to draw back to the law, seeking
for the law to work these things in us. to bear fruits of righteousness
in us. That's wicked works. Wicked works. Our hope is always going toward
Christ. Our hope is that the Lord is
doing everything. He's done everything necessary.
He does it all. All of it. He has made us righteous,
fit for heaven, and he's the one who is revealing and bearing
his will and works of righteousness in us. through grace, through
grace, through grace, through grace, through anchoring us in
the doctrine of Christ. It's all of Christ. And so to not declare Christ,
that is the spirit of antichrist. Now look at 1 John 4, 3. 1 John
4, 3. Did I? I just want to make sure I didn't miss something there for
you. Yeah, so let me read verse two. Let's read verse two there. Hereby, know ye the spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof
ye have heard that it should come, and even now is already
in the world. And so the word of his grace
is the confession. I had to go back. It's the confession that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh. And so what I want to do is make
sure that we understand that this confession that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is not just a saying. I could walk into
many houses in America. I grew up going to visit one. And I could go and see this picture
that was supposed to be Jesus, a picture of him. And he had
a heart, like a flaming heart there. And it had the cross in
it, and maybe the thorns or something, and a banner. And that person
would confess Jesus Christ came in the flesh. There's a lot of
people that confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. That's
not what John is saying. That word, that confession, is
the word of grace which we preach, which is the Lord Jesus Christ,
all that he accomplished, who he is, why he came, what he accomplished,
that work that he finished, and then works this out in us, bears
this out in his people. That's the doctrine of Christ,
and to not preach that is antichrist. To turn men to the flesh. To
turn men to the flesh is Antichrist. To draw back unto perdition.
To turn from Christ and run to the law of Moses to try and work
something that we think needs to be there that's missing. No,
we press forward toward the mark, which is Christ, in the hope
that He works His will in us. He bears fruits of righteousness
in us. If we're consumed with covetousness,
some lust in the flesh, we keep looking to Christ. We confess
that sin to Christ. and ask him, Lord, take it from
me. Lord, keep my heart. Lord, keep my steps. Lord, keep
me content with godliness with contentment is great gain. Keep
me content in you. That's what we do. We're always
looking to Christ, never drawn back to the law, never going
back to those wicked works. So then, who is this Christ come
in the flesh, right? Because this is the word of grace.
This is what it is to confess that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. Who is he? Who is this Jesus
of Nazareth? Well, he is the son of God come
in the flesh. This was the confession of Peter
and the other apostles, the other disciples. They said, thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. The Son of God laid aside
His glory and took upon Him flesh and was even born of a woman. He didn't just appear here in
the flesh. No, He came into the world just like us. just like
us, and yet without sin, and he came with a purpose. He came in a purpose. This is
the chosen servant of God. This is the one whom the Father
chose to serve him in perfect righteousness to fulfill all
his will in the earth. to accomplish his will in the
earth. This is the prophet that Moses spoke of. This is the seed
promised, recorded for us in Genesis. This is the Christ,
the Savior, the salvation of God, spoken of by the prophets
to the people, warning every man and teaching every man and
showing them, this is Christ. When he comes, this is who he
is. This is who he is. And this is what he's accomplishing. And so all of God's word bears
witness to Jesus Christ. From the very first verse, Genesis
1.1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. God
did that. The word of God spoke all things
into existence and Jesus Christ is the word of God. He made all things for his glory,
for his honor, for his name. And then all the way throughout
the book, all the way to Genesis chapter, or rather Revelation
22 verse 21. That last verse, you know what
it says? the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. It's all of Christ and
it ends in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Word to preach, grace words. Word to anchor everything to
Christ. Everything is Christ is all. It's all of him and so Everything
in this word directs our hearts to Christ, to Christ, not to
other things, not to dead letter religion, not to pictures on
the wall, not to crosses around the neck, not to going and doing
this, not to stopping that. Everything directs us to Christ.
and trusts Him, and looks to Him to teach us, and lead us,
and keep us, to instruct us, and to help us in our hours of
need, which is always. We need Him always helping us.
When we read 1 Timothy 3.16, go to 1 Timothy 3.16, the whole
subject of that verse is Jesus Christ. It's literally all pointing to
Christ in every phrase, the object is Christ. Every phrase of that
verse is the object is Christ. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. There's your righteousness. There's
your godliness. I want to be godly. Look to Christ. This is the mystery of godliness.
This is the one who makes his people righteous before God in
himself. This is the mystery of godliness
here. God was manifest in the flesh. That's Christ. Justified
in the spirit. That's speaking of Christ. He
was justified in the spirit. Seen of angels. That's Christ.
Preached unto the Gentiles. Jesus Christ is the word that
was preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, that's
Christ, received up into glory, that's Christ. Jesus Christ is
the mystery of godliness. You want to be godly? Look to
Christ. Look to Him. Cry out to Him.
Beg Him for mercy. Seek Him for His forgiveness. Jesus thou son of David, have
mercy on me. The blind man Bartimaeus cried,
have mercy on me. And so the mystery of godliness
is revealed, it's understood, it's anchored in Christ. It's
all Jesus Christ whom we preach and declare unto you, brethren,
because that's how we feed the church of God. That's where you
are safe from the wicked workers and the will workers and the
law mongers. It's anchored in Christ. And all those other things take
your eyes off of Christ. They have a flavor, there's a
little savor, there's a little label of Jesus, but that doesn't
make it Jesus. Jesus is all, Christ is all. He did everything and does everything
for us. So it's not the law that you
need if you are looking to be righteous and justified of God,
for the law made nothing perfect. But you know what did make us
perfect? The bringing in of a better hope
did. And that hope is Christ. It's
all Jesus Christ. By the which will, or rather
by the which we draw nigh unto God. We draw near to God through
Christ, by the Lord Jesus Christ. What you need is Christ. What I need is Christ, and that's
what we need, brethren. And so, this is why, this gets
to why he came into the world. The reason why the Son of God
took upon him flesh was to accomplish in his people that which the
law cannot do. Romans 8.3, for what the law
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, this
flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and force him condemned sin in the flesh. And what that's getting
to is he destroyed its power. He destroyed its dominion over
us. He took it out of the way. For
this purpose, the son of God was manifested to destroy the
works of the devil. That thing he did there in the
garden in deceiving Eve, and bringing us, when Adam sinned,
bring us all down into rebellion, just bringing us all down into
sin, that work that he did in bringing all this filth and wickedness,
the sin into the world through that one man, Adam, that work
is destroyed now, so that so that nothing can stop the light
of Christ, the darkness of sin, the prison that we're in, bound
by the strong man, bound in deception, destroyed in death. We were dead
spiritually in trespasses and sins. None of that can prevent
the light of Christ from coming in. None of that can prevent
the word of Christ from going through all that, piercing all
that armor, and going right to the heart, and bam! Revealing life. Just bringing
life right out. Just bringing that out and delivering
you from prison, from darkness, and from death. It has no power
over you to stop Christ. That's the first and foremost
thing of what that's saying there. So this is God come in the flesh,
and he has all power and all authority, and nothing's stopping
him from accomplishing his will. And then when he died, we died
with him on the cross. This is why we hear, why we're
called of him. Romans 6, verse 6 and 7, knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for
he that is dead is freed from sin. And that really gets to
to his deliverance of his people from that laboring in fear, being
burdened and whipped and beaten with the law under the fears
and threats of sin, trying to remove that sin and deliver ourselves
from it, he's saved us from that. In Hebrews 2, I think 14 and
15, he's saved us from that so that now we have a good hope
When it was us under the law, no hope. But the hope is Christ,
that he's put that away and delivered us from that. He saves us from
that. And it gets to what he accomplished
for us and what he is accomplishing in us. Every day, he's pleased
to tarry and leave us here. All right, what he's working
And so Christ came in the flesh to pay the sin debt of his people,
the perfect righteousness that we owe to God, that we did not
pay, that we could not pay even by the law. So he came in a body
prepared for him for the suffering of death. he might suffer in
our room instead, that he might go to the cross in our room instead
and suffer under the wrath of God which was poured out upon
him for our sin, brethren, for the sins of his people to obtain
forgiveness and to reconcile us unto the Father in perfect
righteousness so that God is just and justifier of them which
believe in Jesus. So our God is not hanging on
and looking to see which of us will or won't come to Christ. He's not hoping that we're just
gonna see how wonderful it was which our Lord did for us. He
looks to Christ for everything for you. Christ is your surety. you that hope in him, you that
believe in Christ is your shorty, he's your husband, he's your
savior, he is the Christ of God given unto you for your salvation. That's what he does. He's the
successful savior of his people just as it was told us in the
scriptures. Isaiah 53 11, he shall see of
the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. well-pleased, well-pleased
with what he's accomplished, for by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."
He'll put it away. He'll put it away. Christ accomplished
what he came to do. He did it. He did the work. And
to deny that he accomplished it, to stand here and tell you
that, well, he did the best that he could, is to speak by the
spirit of antichrist. to put him down, to say that
he did not finish the work which he cried from the cross saying
that he finished. It's to deny what he's done. Isaiah tells
us that for those whom he died, he saw the travail of his soul
and was satisfied. Not because, well, enough of
them believed. I got enough of them. I tried.
I tried to get as many as I could. I guess enough of them were saved.
No, no, because all for whom Christ shed his blood, their
sins are washed. They are put away. You are delivered
from death. And sin hath no more dominion
over you. That's not dictating your inheritance. Christ determines your inheritance. It's all in Him. It's all in
Him. And if He shed His blood for
you, what He started, He finishes. He doesn't draw back. He finishes
the work. Our sins are remitted, forgiven
in Him, justified of God because of Him. He saved many. All that were given to him of
the Father, that were promised to him, given to him of the Father,
are the children of promise, and none is lost. He said in
John 6, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down
from heaven. not to do mine own will, but
the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will,
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, all that
he chose before the foundation of the world, and gave to Christ,
Ephesians 1, 4, that I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. All for whom Christ died, they
are saved. they are saved. And so all were
his brethren in verse 40 of that same chapter says, this is the
will of him that sent me that everyone would see at the sun
and believe it on him may have everlasting life and I will raise
him up at the last day. And what that speaks to is it's
not their, their believing that activates all of that. What he's
saying is all who believe are manifesting the power I give
them. The spirit testifying that this
is Christ's work. Christ has done this. This is
his workmanship and he shed his blood for that one. And this
is our confession is that Christ has done it all. Not I saved
myself. Not I made a decision for Jesus. It's not what I did. It's what
Christ did. And the only reason why I cry
out and call upon Christ to save me is because it's his work of
grace. It's his power that makes it
effectual because sin can't stand in the way. It has no power over
it to prevent his word from successfully accomplishing that for which
he sent his word out to do, like Isaiah says in Isaiah 55. So
we're bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath, from the beginning,
chosen you. God did it. This is God's work.
So we're thankful to him, chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit. The spirit coming and saying,
that's mine. put him aside there, she's mine, put her aside here.
It's the Spirit's work. God sanctified his people through
the Spirit and belief of the truth, revealing that faith in
them that looks to Jesus Christ, confessing Christ came in the
flesh, meaning he did all of it. That's what the confession
of Christ coming in the flesh means. Whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And so our God is not frustrated
by the devil. He's not thwarted by the weak,
fickle will of man. He accomplishes what he will.
That is, they which are the children of flesh, these are not the children
of God, but the children of the promise. are counted for the
sea. He didn't come up short. He didn't
fail. There's none in heaven for whom
Christ shed his blood that he's weeping over. No, he didn't lose
any. To say that he did is anti-Christ. It's to deny the very testimony
of God. It's to say Christ is a failure,
and Christ is no failure. Christ came in the flesh. The
Son of God came in the flesh, and he accomplished that work
which the Father sent him to do. He accomplished it. Anything
less is antichrist. It's antichrist. For he saith
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Mercy. God is first gracious
to whom he will be gracious, and they will believe. They will
be delivered. because sin has lost all its
blinding power over you, and it cannot keep the light and
the voice of Christ from penetrating, piercing down into that dark
heart and that prison of what we are by nature, and swinging
open the door and shining the light in and calling you out.
Come out, sinner, come out, show yourselves, show yourselves.
Therefore, the Apostle John says now back in 1 John 4.4, And ye
are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because
greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."
You see that power there. It overcomes. He's not beat and
defeated by the devil, by us, by unbelief, by anything of this
world. He's overcome it all. And so
we overcome it by His grace and power. Faithful is He that calleth
you who also will do it. He does it. So they that are
of Antichrist hate this doctrine of Christ because Christ gets
all the glory. All the glory. Well, what about
me? What about what I got to do? If you got to do something,
it's Christ's power that's going to do it in you. You don't got
to do nothing. He does it all, and He's going
to bring forth His fruits of righteousness. And so we preach
God, sovereign to save whom He will, whereas Antichrist preaches
it's man's decision and there's nothing that God can do to make
it happen for you. We preach Christ's works of righteousness
in His people by His grace and power, whereas Antichrist does
what? Drives you back. Pull back. You better get back to that law
there. There's some things going wrong. You better go to the law
to fix that. No, that's Antichrist. That's Antichrist. We keep preaching
Christ. We keep preaching him. Having
begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?
No. We preach Christ finishes what
he started, calling his people to faith and then keeping them
in faith firm unto the end. He proves his work. He instructs
them. You'll see us sometimes looking weak and and a bit scattered
and tattered and tried and beat up, but it all ultimately leads
to the glory and praise of Him who does not fail to save His
people to the uttermost. Antichrist says God has done
all that He can and now it's up to you, but only if you let
Him. Thank God it does not come down to what we let God do or
don't do because we wouldn't let Him do anything. So we don't
preach that spirit of Antichrist. So Christ has come in the flesh
to deliver us from our flesh, having any part in our eternal
habitation. He's the son of God, come in
the flesh, and he came for the purpose saving his people because
we cannot save ourselves, and he accomplished what he came
to do. And he's now seated in the heavens
at the right hand of the throne of God in session as Lord, as
King of all. He is Christ, the Lord in Christ,
God declaring it, and no man can deny him or say to him, what
doest thou? because he's sovereign, the sovereign
king. And what he wills, that he does,
and his people and the new man rejoice and say, yes, thank you,
Lord. Keep doing it. Keep doing it.
Don't leave anything with me, because I'll fail. I'm a failure
in myself, but not you. And then John says, in chapter
4, verse 5 and 6, they are of the world, therefore speak they
of the world. That's why they speak of fleshly
things. and the world heareth them, we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us.
He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error." There's God manifesting by His
Spirit those that are his that he chose in Christ before the
foundation of the world. They are given the spirit of
truth and confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,
meaning that whole pregnant statement of what the son of God did and
taking upon him flesh and why he came and what he accomplished
and is accomplishing seated on the throne in heaven. So brethren, It's all of Him. It's all of
His power. That's what it is to confess
Christ. He's all, brethren, all. Amen.