Alright, 1 John chapter 2. John says in verse 21, 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. You know that teaching of the
Bible is the one area in life, the only one. It's the one area
in life where people think that truth is relative. It's the one area people think
you can hear lies preached and yet still believe the truth. Now, If somebody possessed a
large amount of money, and you claim that money was yours, their
money was yours, then the truth would matter. But when it comes
to the scriptures, when it comes to the things of God, how is
it that a weak, impotent Jesus can be preached who's nothing
like the Jesus of this Bible, and men know the Jesus of this
Bible, who does as He will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or
say unto Him, What doest thou? How are you going to preach a
weak, empty Jesus who can't do anything except the sinner allows
Him to, and yet know the true Lord Jesus of this Bible? How
is that going to be? Well, God says it can't be done.
God says you cannot preach a lie and men know the truth. He said
this in Romans 10.13, He said, How shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? It's an impossibility. You can't
believe on somebody you've never heard of. It's an impossibility. Now throughout the Scriptures,
God the Father is called the God of truth. That's what He's
called throughout the scriptures. Deuteronomy 32, verse 4 says,
He is the rock. His work is perfect, for all
His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is He. When He showed Moses His glory,
that's one thing He showed about Himself, that He's the God of
truth. God of truth. And God is God that cannot lie. Titus 1.2 says that. He's God
that cannot lie. He has no need to lie. He's not
a man that he should lie. Whatever he's purposed, he can
bring it to pass. So he doesn't have to promise
us one thing and then lie about it. Or, you know, be deceitful
about it. Six things he hates. You know
what the second thing listed is? A lying tongue. A lying tongue. He's the God of truth. And Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, is Himself the truth. He said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And what he's saying there is,
no man can come to God the Father except through the truth. That's the only way. And Christ
is the truth. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We
beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. And then the Holy
Spirit is called the Spirit of truth. He's the Spirit of truth. And the church is called the
ground, the pillar and ground of the truth. That's the church. The scriptures are called the
scriptures of truth. The word of truth. And the God of truth says, right
here in our text, no lie is of the truth. No lie is of the truth. Truth is not relative. This is
what I want you to get tonight. Truth is not relative. You know,
people will say, well, you tell them what Scriptures say, and
tell them this is what I believe, and they'll say, well, that works
for you, but let me tell you what works for me. No. No. What this book says, this is
the only truth there is from the only God of truth there is. Truth is not relative. Truth
is not relative. Our subject tonight is no lie
is of the truth. Now the first thing John tells
us here is by the unction that the Holy One gives to His people.
By being born of Him and be given this anointing, this unction
that we have of the Holy One, it makes us know the truth and
to know that no lie is of the truth. He says there in verse
20, you have an unction from the Holy One. And you know all
things. You know all things. Knowing
Christ, you know all things. And when you hear the gospel,
you recognize it. You know it when you hear it.
And He says, 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. That's two things this anointing
teaches us. It teaches us the truth and teaches
us no lie is of the truth. No lie is of the truth. That
tells us why so many people think that you can preach a lie and
still believe the truth of the Bible. It's because they don't
have this unction. When you have this unction, you
know the truth and you know that no lie is of the truth. Look
down at verse 27. The anointing which you've received
of Him, He says there is truth and is no lie. Is truth and is
no lie. Now the truth can only be known
one way. by God revealing the truth to
us. That's the only way we can know the truth. God has to reveal
it. It has divine revelation. God has to teach us the truth.
That's the only way we can know it. And the God of truth does
not save through lies. He saves only through truth. Scripture says all His works
are done in truth. All His works are done in truth.
No lie is of truth. No lie is of the God of truth. Before this world was ever made
in eternity, God purposed. He determined who He would save
and He purposed that He would save them through the belief
of the truth. Listen to the scripture. 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. The truth. Just one. Where unto? He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of Christ. So He determined who
He would save and He determined that they would be saved through
the belief of the truth before He ever made anything. And so
in time, when the Lord sends forth the gospel, He sends that
gospel in truth. When He sends it to one of His
His elect, one of those that He redeemed, who's still lost,
He's going to send them the truth. Because no lies of the truth,
so He's going to send them the truth. His preachers go preach
the truth. That's what He said, I will give
you pastors after My own heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. Do you think the man who stands
up and preaches, That Christ tried and failed? That He didn't
really redeem His people? That He didn't accomplish it?
Do you think that man is after God's own heart? Is that a man
after God's own heart? Is that a man who's feeding his
people with knowledge and truth? I give you to understand, Paul
said, no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus a
curse. He can't call the blood of Christ
common. He can't say Christ's blood was
shed for everybody, but He didn't really redeem anybody. He can't
call Jesus a curse, not speaking by the Spirit of God. And it's
only by the Spirit of God that a man can call Him Lord, and
bow to the Word of God in truth, and preach it in truth. And the
Lord doesn't use liars. Listen to this from Jeremiah
23, 32. Better yet, let's go over there and read it. Jeremiah
23, 32. Look at this. Look at verse 30. Let's start in verse 29. Is not
my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that
breaketh the rock in pieces? It breaks that hard heart in
pieces. Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words, every one
from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,
saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he saith, that
claim God said what he didn't say, He said, Behold, I am against
them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them,
and cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them. Therefore they shall not profit
this people at all, saith the Lord. That narrows down Right
now in our day, that narrows down those Christ has sent and
those He hasn't sent, doesn't it? It narrows it down. Those
He sent are going to preach the truth. And the God of truth regenerates
His people through the truth. James said, Of His own will begat
He us with the word of truth. Not lies, with truth. If it was
lies, it would be a corruptible seed, a corrupt seed. This is the Word that's incorruptible,
whereby the Gospels preached unto you. This is the incorruptible
seed, the Word of truth by which we're born again. And the God
of truth sanctifies His child through the truth. When our Lord
interceded for His people, He said, sanctify them through thy
truth. Thy word is truth. That's what
He said. That's how we're sanctified.
Through the word of truth. Where are we sanctified from?
Lies. And it's going to take the truth
to separate us from lies. You can't separate a person from
lies by telling them lies. It's got to be the truth. And
the God of truth brings His child to believe the truth as it is
in Christ. He said, When He, the Spirit
of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. That's what
Christ said. For He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He'll
show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, Christ said. He's going to receive of mine,
He's going to hear from me, and I'm going to dictate to the Holy
Spirit what to declare to you, and He's going to show it unto
you. He's going to guide you into all truth, because He's
the Spirit of truth. The Word says we only know the
truth when we've learned Christ. And by hearing Him, and having
been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus. That's how we know. And the scripture says, "...in
whom ye also trusted after that you heard the word of truth."
The gospel of your salvation. It's not good news if it's not
true. It's only the gospel if it's true. So those that are
born of God, those that are taught of God, they've been separated
out by truth. They believe the truth of the
gospel of Christ. And this is what makes us renounce
the hidden things of darkness and not use craftiness and have
truths. This is what makes us declare
the truth because we believe the truth. We've been saved by
the truth. We know the truth is the only
thing God uses. We know and believe by the unction
we've been given that we are sinners and we have no ability
in ourselves to earn our righteousness. We don't even have ability to
give ourselves life and repentance and faith in Christ. It's all
of God. And He's the one who regenerates
us. And He's the one who brings us
to Christ. And Christ is the only one by
whom the law has been fulfilled in righteousness, by whom we're
made the righteousness of God and accepted of God. Only Christ. And we believe this. Because
Christ's book teaches it. That's right. And He's taught
us in our heart through this unction. And so now, we don't
take some experience that we've encountered in the past and try
to use that as the filter whereby we determine whether or not what
we're hearing is the truth. If you do that, you're going
to fall away and be led away into lies. No, we use only the
Word of God. This is what we use. Only the
Word of God. Sometimes a lie is mixed with
an element of truth. And so it's difficult to discern
it. The Lord said if it was possible, they would deceive the very elect.
It's not possible, but He said if it were, that's how difficult
it is to discern sometimes because truth is mixed with it. But remember
this now, what he's telling us here is nothing false, no deception,
no compromise, no half gospel is truth. It's not true. No lie is of the truth. It's not of the God of truth.
That's the first thing we know by this unction. We know the
truth and we know no lies of the truth. And then secondly,
We know that no lie is of the truth because the Holy Spirit
has taught us who a liar is. He says there in verse 22, Who
is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He
is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Before God,
before the eyes of God, and before the eyes of His believing people,
the test The touchstone is, what think ye of Christ? Christ is everything. He is saying
there, Christ is how we determine whether or not somebody is preaching
the truth. What are they saying about Christ? Some people deny
Christ by denying who He is. There are people in our day right
now who deny who He is. They will not say the Lord Jesus
Christ is God. in human flesh. They won't say
that. They won't say He's the eternal Son of God, one with
the Father. They've even rewritten the Bible,
their Bible, so that it doesn't say that. He said, I and my Father are
one. His name is Emmanuel, God with us. He's the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. He's the express image of God. That's who Christ is. And that's
the gospel He declared. That's the truth He declared.
That's who He is. He's the only prophet, priest,
and king of His people. The only mediator between God
and His people. But some people deny who He is.
Then some people deny what He accomplished. This is more common. People deny what He accomplished.
Christ Jesus didn't die for all sinners, without exception, so
that He only made salvation available. That's not the Christ of this
Bible. That's a lie, and no lie is of
the truth. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. That's what He said. I lay down
my life for the sheep. And He looked square in the face
at some people that day and said, you don't believe me because
you are not my sheep. He said, I'm not laying down
my life for you. I haven't given you the Spirit.
I'm not even doing anything for you. If I had, you'd believe
like my sheep do. He prayed to the Father and he
said, Father, I pray not for the world. I pray for them that
Thou has given me. You think He would lay down His
life for people for whom He would not pray? He said, I don't pray
for the world. Scripture says, Jacob have I
loved, Esau have I hated. He only laid down his life for
those he loved. He didn't lay down his life for
those he hated. That's the true Christ. That's the truth of this
Bible. Truth is not relative, brethren. Christ laying down His life for
the sheep does not mean that He laid down His life for the
goats. It can't mean both. Either He laid down His life
for the sheep and He did not lay down His life for the goats,
or else He lied. But He's the God of truth, He
cannot lie. And Christ died only for the elect and accomplished
their salvation just like the Scripture said He would. Why
is His name Jesus? Why is He even called Jesus?
Remember what the angel said? He should be called Jesus for
he shall, he shall without a doubt save who? His people. From what? From their sins. That's
why he's called Jesus. This Jesus that men are speaking
about who didn't save his people from their sins? Who's depending
on men to let him save them? His name doesn't even mean the
same thing as the Jesus of this Bible. That's not a Savior. He's Jesus for He shall save
His people from their sins. Daniel said 70 weeks are determined
upon who? Upon Thy people. Thy people. Thy holy city. What did He accomplish? He finished the transgression.
He finished the transgression. He made an end of sins. He made
reconciliation for iniquity. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He sealed up the vision and prophecy
and He anointed the most holy. The Lord Jesus Christ manifests
the righteousness of God by upholding the law of God and honoring the
law of God by His obedience unto the death of the cross. That's
what He did. He declared God just and the
justifier of everyone that's brought to believe on Christ.
That means those that He brings to believe on Christ. We're not
going to glory in our faith and say our faith is what justified
us. We're going to glory in God and say it was only God that
justified us. It's Christ that died. He alone
justified us. He accomplished what He came
to accomplish. The Scripture said, Now at the
end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. And that's what He did. That's
what He did. How is iniquity purged? There's only one way. By mercy
and truth meeting together. Mercy and truth. There's a scripture
that tells us the law of God, His commandment is only fulfilled
in truth and in righteousness. It has to be fulfilled in truth.
And Christ is the only one who fulfilled the law of God in truth.
And He did it for His people. So that now mercy and truth are
met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. It's by mercy and truth that
iniquity is purged. It's by fear of the Lord that
men depart from evil, that they depart from lies. When He gives
you a fear of the Lord and He saved you by the truth, you can't
stomach to hear lies spoken against your Redeemer anymore. You just
cannot stand it. You can't sit under that anymore.
There's a difference. There's a marked difference made
in what you can and cannot hear. Then some people deny the Lord
because they deny where He is now and what He's doing now.
They deny Him for who He is, they deny Him for what He accomplished,
and they deny Him for where He is now and what He's doing now.
He's just as powerful right now as He was when He walked this
earth. In fact, He's more powerful. because all power is given to
Him over all in this world and the world to come as the God-man. And so, He's sending forth His
gospel in truth because He can. And He's sending forth the Holy
Spirit to regenerate those that He brings under the sound of
the gospel so that they are brought to worship God in spirit and
in truth. because he can. He's the sovereign
savior. He does not fail. Now anybody
who compromises, denies or takes away any aspect of his deity,
of his humanity, of his office, of his work or his glory denies
Christ. And he's a liar and he's an antichrist. That's what the book says. That's
what the book said. No lie is of the truth. Christ
said liars are of the devil, and there's no truth in the devil.
He was a liar from the beginning, and when he speaks, he speaks
of his own self. He doesn't get it from God, and
neither do the people who speak lies. They're preaching, and
we read there where the Lord said, I didn't send them, I didn't
give them that word to preach. They're preaching of themselves,
just like the devil. And Christ said, the children of the devil.
That's not too hard. I'm going to tell you why it's
not too hard. Our Redeemer taught us that. That's why it's not
too hard. It's true. Anything that's true
is not hard. It's truth. And we bow to it.
We bow to it. Now lastly, we know that no lies
of the truth because of the truth that we've heard from the beginning.
It abides in us and it causes us to continue in the truth.
The truth we heard from the beginning abides in us and causes us to
continue in the truth. And this is how we know that
no lie is of the truth. Look at that verse 24. Let that
therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning.
If that which you've heard from the beginning shall remain in
you, he also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. It's
just a certainty. It's a certainty. Look here.
And this is the promise that He's promised us. And He can't
lie, remember. This promise is true. And this
is the promise He's promised us, eternal life. Look at verse
27. The anointing which you have
received of Him abideth in you, and you need not that any man
teach you. You know the truth. We are not starting over here
and telling you something you don't know. You know it. But
as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth,
and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, then you shall
abide in Him. He says, if that which you heard
from the beginning shall remain in you. Now this is important.
This is very important. The Apostle Paul's beginning
was not when he was with the Pharisees and when he was teaching
lies and promoting lies and persecuting the Lord's people. That's not
when his beginning was. You hear people all the time
say, and they will expose what people preach and believe and
say that it's a lie. And then they turn around and
call them a brother and a sister in Christ. Don't throw that word
around lightly. Not everybody is a brother and
a sister in Christ. Scripture says they speak not
according to this word, there's no truth in them. Period. Christ makes His people speak
the truth. No, Paul's beginning was when
Christ called him in spirit and in truth. That's when the beginning
was. And brought him to hate that that he once rejoiced in. And put no confidence in anything
that he once rejoiced in. That's when his beginning was.
The believer's beginning is not when he's hearing lies and worshipping
his will and his works. That's not his beginning. The
beginning is when the Spirit has sent the truth of the gospel
to you and made you hear it and given you repentance in your
heart from all those vain works and from all that confidence
you had in yourself. That's when your beginning starts,
when He's brought you to faith in Christ. That's the beginning.
And that's important now because He's not saying that everybody
has begun who's setting on their lives and putting some confidence
in their works. They haven't even begun yet.
They don't have the unction of the Spirit. But you who have
begun, you who have heard the gospel and been granted repentance
and brought to faith in Christ, He says, if this same unction,
this same Word of God, this same Spirit of truth and Word of truth
abides in you, then with all certainty, you're going to continue
in the truth of the Father and the Son. You'll continue in Him. When the Apostle John said, hold
to that which you've heard from the beginning, he's saying what
he preached in truth. That's what he's telling them
to hold to. Paul told The Lord said, the hour cometh and now
is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is the spirit and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So believer, whatever you do,
continue in this gospel of truth. Continue in this word of truth.
Do not ever, under any circumstances, give ears to lies. That's what
John is encouraging these saints to do. That's what he's encouraging
us to do. There's many antichrists that's
gone forth. There's many out there. He said,
I'm speaking concerning them that seduce you. There's a lot
of them out there. And he says, but you continue
in the word that you heard from the beginning. If it had power
to save you in the first hour, if there was power in Christ
and Him crucified to turn you from all your vain works and
bring you to the feet of Christ, then why wouldn't we just keep
preaching Christ and Him crucified? Why would we think that there's
bigger and better and move on to something else if that's the
message by which we were saved? Christ said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. If you abide in Me and I in you,
you'll bring forth much fruit. But if you don't abide in Him,
you'll wither away like a branch that's not connected to the tree
and just die. It's only being connected to
Him. So continue in this word. Proverbs 3.3 says, Let not mercy
and truth forsake thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake
thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of
thine heart, so shalt thou find favor and good understanding
in the sight of God and man. And Christ has promised us right
here in the Scripture that our continuing in the truth is not
going to be of us. Now we, as Spurgeon said, we
ought to continue in the truth as if it all depended on us,
as if it all depends on us to do it. But as you do that, know
this, it's going to be the Lord that's making you continue. He
says there, this same anointing that's taught you from the beginning,
taught you all things, is truth and is no lie. And this, even
as it's taught you, you shall abide in Him. That's literally
one thing He teaches you, is to abide in Christ. And so you're
going to do it. This is irresistible. You're
going to do it. Thus saith the Lord, I am returned
unto Zion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem
shall be called a city of truth. That's his church. The true church
of God is a city of truth. That's right, it's a city of
truth. God said they shall be my people, and I'll be their
God in truth and in righteousness. concerning heaven. You know what
scripture says about heaven? There shall in no wise enter
into it anything that maketh a lie. Absolutely nothing. It says without are them that
loveth and maketh a lie. Without. Cast out. The thing
that distinguishes the truth from delusion The thing that
distinguishes truth from delusion is faith believes the truth of
God while delusion believes the lies of the devil. That's the
difference. That's the difference. They receive
not what? The love of the truth that they
might be saved. And for that reason, God sent
them strong delusion that they should believe what? A lie and
be damned. So, what I'm saying when, well,
more importantly, what John is teaching here by the Spirit of
God is this. It is a rare and precious thing
to have the Gospel preached to us in truth. It's a rare thing. It's a rare, rare thing. It's not everywhere, brethren.
It's just not everywhere. The mingling works with it for
sanctification. They're bringing men back under
the law, they're teaching morality, they're doing all these things.
And I had a young man at Danville actually say this to me, and
I've been sending everything to him, the notes and the bulletins
and everything. He was so kind and he had such
a good spirit about him. But he said, you know, he quoted
Hebrews, he said, don't we move on past Christ? He said, you know, we don't lay
again the foundation, we move on to strong meat. Well, but
when we move on to stronger meat, we're still going to preach Christ.
And we're still going to preach His beauty and His glories and
His work and His accomplishment. And we're going to preach our
nothingness. We're not going to move an inch from that. We're
going to still preach that even when we're talking about things
that are stronger meat. But we don't move from Christ. We don't move from Christ. So
continue in the gospel of truth, brethren. This is our motive
right here. He's put us together in His church
and this is our motive to forgive one another. This is our motive
to lay aside differences and to endeavor to keep the unity
of the Spirit. There's just one God and one
Spirit and one faith and one baptism. There's just one truth.
And it's not everywhere. He just has not put His Gospel
everywhere. So unless I prepare to move to
where I can hear the Gospel somewhere, then I need to forgive and forget
and endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit so I can have it
in this place. So this Word abides in me, continues in me, and so
Christ keeps me. That's what He's saying. I pray
that's the heart He gives us because this is what we need.
We need the gospel more than we need our daily bread. Alright,
Amen.