Let us open our Bibles this evening
again to 1 John chapter 2. I know one of the theories that you
hear about the inspiration of the scriptures. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God. But one of the theories that
men have taught and believed is what is called the typewriter
theory. And those who hold to that form
of inspiration believe that it was much like a man sitting down
at a typewriter and God through him typing the scriptures. But I don't agree with that because
I don't think you can fail to see, and I thought about this
especially preparing this week and the last few weeks from this
first epistle of John, that there's so much difference between the
writings of Paul and the writings of John. Both inspired, but the
inspiration of these men whom God used to write the word of
God, included their personalities. And so that Paul wrote like Paul
and John wrote like John and Isaiah wrote like Isaiah and
Luke, you know, Luke was a physician and it's always pointed out many
times how many medical terms that Luke uses in his gospel
that the other gospel writers did not use. But John, He was
the apostle of love. That's what he is known as, the
apostle of love. And that certainly comes out
in his epistle here, 1 John. But let's begin tonight in verse
20. And the title of the message
this evening is Three Assuring Truths. Three Assuring Truths. Verse 20. But you have an unction
from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written
unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know
it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar, but he
that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is, and to Christ
that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son,
the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeth the
Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you
which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you
have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also
shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the
promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These
things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which you have
received of him abideth in you. And you 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, you
shall abide in him. 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 you know that he is
righteous, you know that every one that doeth righteousness
is born of him. Three, assuring truths. Now, we stopped last time at
verse 19, where the apostle John wrote of some who who at one
time had professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They had professed
to believe the gospel, and then they apostatized. They went out
from us. Notice that in verse 19. They
went out from us. At one time they had been with
us. They had been a part of us. They went out from us. They denied the faith concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. that once they had professed. Now, it seems to me that they
had professed to believe, of course, that Jesus is the Son
of God. There's no way they would have
been baptized. There is no way that any apostle
of the Lord Jesus Christ would have received anyone as a brother
in Christ as a true believer who did not believe in the deity
of Jesus Christ our Lord. But now it seems that these who
went out, these who apostatized, who turned from the faith which
they had confessed, they either denied that Jesus is the only
begotten Son of God, that he's just a man, and that's all, or
they denied that he is a man, that he is a son of God, but
only appeared to be a man. But it had to do with the person
of Christ. And most heresies that the church
has had to deal with down through the last 2,000 plus years have
always concerned the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Now I said always, that's not,
let me back up. Most of the time, most of the
heresies have always originated around the person and the work
of Jesus Christ. But we have three assuring truths
or subjects in this passage that I want us to think of tonight.
First, the security of the sons of God. the security of the sons
of God. Now it appears to me that John,
the apostle John, was persuaded that the apostasy of those in
verse 19, their apostasy was not and could never be true of
these to whom he was writing. And I see three reasons for this
persuasion. First, they had an unction from
the Holy One and knew all things." Notice that, but you, different
from those who went out from us, but you, in contrast with
those who went out from us, who turned into be Antichrist, you
have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. Now that unction, that unction
that every believer has is the Holy Spirit. That unction refers
to God the Holy Spirit, and the Holy One from which we receive
the Holy Spirit is the Lord Jesus Christ. You know the title Christ,
that's one of His titles. The Lord speaks of His deity,
Jesus speaks of His humanity, that name was given to Him at
His birth in this world, Christ speaks of his office, the anointed. It's a New Testament title or
the New Testament equivalent for the Old Testament word Messiah,
which means the anointed, the anointed one. Turn with me back
to the gospel of John chapter three, just a moment. John was persuaded that these
to whom he was writing would never apostatize because they
had an unction, and that unction is God the Holy Spirit. In John
chapter 3 and verse 34, we read, for he whom God has
sent speaketh the words of God For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. That is the Lord Jesus Christ.
You remember when he was baptized, the Spirit of God came upon him
in the form of a dove. The Holy Spirit had come upon
man all through the Old Testament days, but not without measure. There was always a measure. of
the Holy Spirit that came upon those Old Testament prophets.
But this one, the one that God sent, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one that God confessed to, this is my beloved Son, hear
ye Him, He received the Spirit of God without measure. And this
fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy concerning Him. And it is found
in Psalm 45 and verse 7, It says, thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. And that verse is quoted in Hebrews
chapter one, I believe it is. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Now listen, therefore, therefore
God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. In other words, the Lord Jesus
Christ In Him there is a fullness of grace, a fullness of God the
Holy Spirit. And He is the one, as our text
tells us, these believers had an unction from the Holy One. In other words, the Holy Spirit
was given unto them from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want
you to look at a beautiful picture of this back in Psalm 133. Psalm 133. The text I want us to see especially
is verse two, but let's read verse one first. Behold, Psalm
133, verse one. Behold, how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious
ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard that went down to the skirts of his garments." Aaron, the
first high priest, was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this verse tells us that when he was anointed to the priesthood,
the oil was poured on his head and there was such an abundance
of oil, flowed down to his face, his beard, and all of his garments. And let me read you a comment
on that verse by John Gill. This was typical, this that we
read here about Aaron. This was typical of the grace
of the Spirit, the unction from the Holy One, which has been
poured on Christ the head of the church without measure, and
from him is communicated to all his members, to every one of
which is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ." This is a beautiful picture here, a type of the fullness
of the Spirit in Jesus Christ our Lord, and that Spirit is
given by him to each and every one of his members. You know, one of the miracles,
as I was thinking about this, one of the Old Testament miracles,
and I remember preaching on this many years ago, and it was such
a blessing to me, but it was that miracle of Elisha. When a woman came, she had two
sons. Remember the story? She had two
sons, and her husband died and left her in debt, and he had
been a prophet. He'd been a prophet of God, and can you imagine that? He died without any money. A
little bit different from these so-called prophets today, right?
Fly around in their jets, live in a million-dollar home. little
bit different. This man was a prophet of God,
and he died, left his wife with two sons in debt, and the creditors
were coming to take her two sons. That's how his creditors, now
her creditors, were going to be satisfied. They'd take her
two sons into slavery. And so she came to the man of
God, Elisha, and told him her predicament, and he said, go
back to your house. He said, what do you have in
your house? She said, I have just a little cruise with a little
oil in it. Well, go home and borrow every
vessel you can find. Go to all your neighbors, send
your boys out, your sons out, and just borrow all kinds of
bottles and containers, every one that you can find. And I
thought about the fact that some of these containers were long
necked, Some were wide-mouthed. I mean, all different kinds,
right? And they brought them into her house, and they started
pouring out that oil, and the oil just kept coming, kept pouring
it out, kept pouring it out until every vessel was full. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy
One, pours out anoints gives an unction to everyone that the
Father has given Him sometime in this world, and He's not going
to quit giving until the last one has received that unction
from Him. What a blessing to think about
that. The vessels of mercy. That's
what we're called, isn't it? In Romans chapter 9, vessels
of mercy. Vessels. You know what a vessel
is? That's what we are. Vessels. And we've been filled
with mercy. Vessels of mercy. Unction from
the Holy One. There's a fullness of the Holy
Spirit in Christ. He was anointed without measure. And look at this text in 2 Corinthians
with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
21. Now he which establisheth us
with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed
us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. You see, the reason that John
was persuaded that these to whom he was writing would persevere,
they would not apostatize, is because they had received the
unction, the Holy Spirit, from. And that verse tells us those
who have received the Holy Spirit have been sealed, and we have
received the earnest of our inheritance, which is God the Holy Spirit.
Remember Paul in Romans 8 said, If any man have not the Spirit
of God, he is none of his. This unction, or anointing, of
the Holy Spirit teaches. You know, John said, you have
received, look back in our text now, 1 John chapter 2 and verse
20. But you have an unction from
the Holy One and you know all things. Well, this unction teaches. This unction that comes, it teaches
us. And of course the all things,
that doesn't mean that when a person's saved he knows all about medicine
and all about physics and all about chemistry. People sometimes
look at this and I'm talking about those who do not believe
the word of God is the word of God and they use that to make
fun. You mean a believer knows all
things? A believer knows all things necessary
for salvation. Whatever is necessary for you
to be saved, when you are anointed with God the Holy Spirit, you're
taught. You're taught all things that
are necessary. And you know, one of the promises
of the new covenant is, they shall not teach every man his
brother saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the
least to the greatest. There are those who try to seduce
you. John warned them about that.
Look down to verse 26. These things have I written unto
you concerning them that seduce you. We saw this in Ephesians,
those who lie and wait to deceive. We saw this last week. And yes,
John warns that while they had this unction, they would be in
an environment where there would be false teachers, and they would
be confronted with these false teachers. But notice verse 27,
but the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you,
and you need not that any man teach you. Now that doesn't mean
that God does not use pastors and preachers, because in that
passage in Ephesians that we looked at, God raised up. Pastors and teachers, apostles,
prophets are gifts that God, the Lord Jesus Christ has given
to his church. And he's not saying that we do
not need, that we do not benefit. I've been blessed in so many
different ways. I mean, I couldn't even begin
to name them. One of the ways, and I'm so thankful
for this, one of the ways that God has blessed me is hearing
other men preach the gospel. And I've been listening to some
man just recently, I haven't recent, I haven't listened to
in several years. And I just think to myself, thank
God there are some good preachers in this country. There are there
are some men who know the gospel who love Christ and who preach
the Word of God. But what are you saying here,
we do not have any one We do not need anyone to teach us that
Christ is God. We know that. We know that. And no one will ever convince
us differently. And you know all things, and
is truth. The same anointing teacheth you
of all things, all things necessary for salvation, and is truth,
and is no lie. And even as it hath taught you,
you shall abide in him." So that's the first assuring thing that
John mentions. I believe that these men that
he's writing to, this individual, not just men, men and women,
they were not apostatized because they had an unction. Second,
they knew the truth. Notice that in verse 21. I believe
he's convinced that they were not apostatized, not only had
they received their sanction, but they knew the truth. I have
not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because
you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. They knew the
truth. They knew God, the Father, who
is the God of truth. They knew Christ, who is essential
truth. Remember, he said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. And they knew God, the Holy Spirit,
who is the spirit of truth. And they knew that those denying
that Jesus is God are liars. Verse 22. They knew this, you
know the truth. And you know that anyone who
denies that Jesus is God is a liar. Verse 22. Who is a liar? But he that denieth Jesus is
the Christ. He's the Antichrist. And they
knew this. They knew this. And they knew that when one denies
the Son, he also is denying the Father. You cannot deny the Father
without denying the Son. You cannot deny the Son without
denying the Father. Why? Because they are one. Because
they are one. We're not talking about two gods,
we're talking about one God who exists in a trinity of persons.
Verse 23, whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. And notice those next words are
in italics, which tell us that in the text that the translators
of the King James use, they're not found, but they are found.
These words are found in many of the old manuscripts, and certainly
they are the truth. But he that acknowledgeth the
son hath the father also. He that hath seen me, remember
what our Lord told that disciple of his in John 14, he that hath
seen me hath seen the Father. Because they're one. And to deny
one is to deny the other. How could he be a father if he
did not have a son? And not a son by adoption either.
Not a son by creation either. You know, we've got these Antichrists
today, they're called Jehovah's Witnesses, they're called Oneness
Pentecostals. They deny the Father and they
deny the Son. But God's people know we have
an anointing and we know those people who teach that are liars. That's what John said, they're
liars. The Father did not become the
Father when He raised Jesus Christ from the dead either. This day
have I begotten thee. That's speaking of the day of
eternity. It's not speaking of the day
he was raised from the dead. There are many antichrists in
our day, which did not deny the Son. They say, well, he was a
good man. And they may even say he was a God, but not equal with
the Father, not one with the Father and with the Holy Spirit.
Not eternal as God is eternal. No, He had a beginning. Maybe
the first. Maybe the first of God's creation. He was created first. You know,
that's the way the agnostics looked at this because they couldn't
understand how there could be evil in this world if God is
the creator of the world. devise a scheme, you know, he
created one a little lower and one a little lower, lower, until
finally, he got down to the place where someone could create the
world, you know, no, God created the world. And man brought sin
into this world. And by the way, sometimes people
will say, Well, I just don't understand how a God of love
could do this. Have you ever thought about how
a God of love could give his son to die for rebels, for God
haters by nature? He is a God of love. Man has
brought sin into this world by his actions. And I know it was
ordained of God, but man cannot blame God for the condition of
this world or for his own condition. God is a good God. He's good. That's all you can say. All right,
third, first of all, they had an unction from the Holy One,
God the Holy Spirit. Second, they knew the truth.
And third, They had received the truth. Notice in verse 24,
he said, let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard
from the beginning. Now for John, think about this.
You say, what's the difference between knowing the truth and
receiving the truth? For John, now to exhort them
to let the gospel Let the gospel, which they had heard from the
beginning, abide in them, tells us that they had received it. It could not abide in them unless
it was in them. And it wasn't always in them.
When we come into this world, the gospel's not in us. Somewhere
along the line, if the Lord has mercy upon us and saves us, then
the truth is in us. Well, let it abide in you. Let
it abide. in you. When they first heard
the apostles preach from the very beginning, look at the verse
again, verse 24, let that therefore abide in you, which you have
heard from the beginning. When you first heard the gospel,
when you first heard the truth from the apostles, what did you
hear? You heard that Jesus is the son
of God. That's our message. That's our
message. Jesus is the Son of God. Now,
let that abide in you, that which you have heard from the beginning. The apostles, you know, that's
one reason, no doubt, in the book of Acts, in the early chapters,
the theme of the message of the apostles was almost always the
resurrection. You know, today we preach on
the crucifixion. Their main emphasis was, it seems,
on the resurrection. They didn't deny the crucifixion.
I'm sure they preached that too. But their emphasis, their main
focus was on the resurrection of Christ. Because you remember
the apostle in Romans 1 tells us that he was declared, declared
to be the son of God. by the resurrection from the
dead. No one is saved who does not
believe that Jesus is God. You've heard that John said from
the beginning, now let it abide in you. Don't listen to these
who would seduce you. You were baptized, no doubt,
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This truth is what they had received
and what they had confessed. Now let it abide in you. Well, how, here's a good question,
how are believers to let this abide in us? Well, first of all,
we hear it. We hear it preached, we read
it, we meditate upon it, and we give thanks continually. for
the gospel of Jesus Christ. All right, here's the second
point, the promise of eternal life, verse 25. And I'll be very
brief on these next two, but the promise of eternal life.
The apostle Paul wrote these two things about the promise
of eternal life. In Titus chapter one and verse
two, the apostle tells us that this promise of eternal life
was made before the world began. It was made before the world
began. And then in 2 Timothy, Paul tells us that the promise
of life, which is in Christ Jesus. So this promise of eternal life
was made before the foundation of the world, and it was made
in or to Christ. He as a head and representative
of all of his chosen people. We were promised eternal life
in him and eternal life. Remember this eternal life. You say, well, when you die,
that's when eternal life began. Oh no, no. If a person doesn't
die with eternal life, he's going to have eternal death. That's
what he's going to have for the rest of his existence. Eternal
life begins in this world. When we hear the gospel and when
the Lord in mercy saves us, we have new life, which is a spiritual
life. And when we die, that spiritual
life is just going to be carried on in eternity in grace. It's grace begun in this world
and glory in the next world, eternal life. That's what it
is. And it was promised before the world began and it was promised
to our head and our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the
last thing the assurance of not being ashamed when the Lord appears,
verse 28. 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. The Lord has promised
that he will come again. And those of us who abide in
him will appear with him in glory. And we shall not be ashamed.
How could we be ashamed dressed in his robe of righteousness? We will not be ashamed with the
wedding garment on, which is his righteousness. And we will
stand before his throne without fault, without wrinkle, without
spot or any such thing. Well, I pray the Lord bless his
word to us here this evening. Brother Parker, if you will,
I know.