Alright, now let's go back there
to 1 John. Now Christ warned us that in the
last days there would be antichrists. Antichrists, those opposed to
Christ, adversaries of Christ. And we know that we're now living
in those days because there are many antichrists. There were
already many antichrists whenever John, the last apostle, before
he went to be with the Lord, there were even already antichrists
in his day. Look here in verse 18. Little
children, it is the last time As you've heard that Antichrist
shall come, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know
that it is the last time. When he says it's the last time,
that word time means hour. It's the last hour. And John
is the last apostle and he's the aged apostle here. This is
somewhere around 60 to 70 years after our Lord was crucified
and arose, around 60 years probably. And He is the last apostle and
He is soon to depart. And He knows that when He departs,
it's going to be what Paul said over in Acts 20. Look over there
with me, Acts chapter 20. He knows what's going to happen
when He departs. Acts 20 verse 28. Paul said, take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers. He's speaking to the preachers
from around that area there at Ephesus. And he tells them, take
heed. and feed the flock over which
the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that
after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not
sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore
watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease
not to warn everyone night and day." When my grandfather passed,
well I think it was the next day after his funeral, a preacher
showed up and was going to try to take over. He was going to
try to take over the church. And finally the men had to, they
asked him, who even asked you to come take over? And it's like
that, when an elder pastor, an elder preacher that's been around
for a long, long time, especially one that's got some glory, people
are fond of him and people know him, as soon as he steps down
from the pulpit or he dies, Men start jockeying for that position
and they want it. They want the glory and the following
and all of that. I was reading history of Ralph
Barnard. When he died, all this division occurred. Men trying
to come in and and take his place, you know. And that's what John's
talking about, the apostle's talking about right here. He
saw many antichrists already. They'd already entered in. They
were already scattering the flock and drawing away disciples after
themselves. Speaking perverse doctrine, perverse
doctrine. They were opposed to Christ.
They were adversaries of Christ. We're going to look at some of
their doctrine later in the study of John at another time. But
these antichrists we know were living in the last days because
Christ said they would come in these last days. And when I say
last days, I'm talking about the days that began when Christ
came in the flesh. The Hebrew writer said, he said
that God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. We've
been in the last days since Christ came. And he says, John says
to us right here, as you've heard that Antichrist shall come, even
now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the
last time. The reason they had heard, and
we can look and see it ourselves, is because Christ warned His
people that Antichrist would come. And that's comforting to
us, brethren, because Christ told us it was going to happen. That means it's only happening
by His permission. We're told in the Scriptures,
Christ told us this, that the tares that are amongst the church,
there's tares and wheat, and the tares are sown by the devil. And Peter told us that the devil
can only do what Christ permits him to do. And so Christ permitted
the devil to sow tares amongst the church. And that tells us,
brethren, that wherever there's Antichrist, they're under the
power of Christ. And they're serving His purpose.
And that's comforting to His people. They're going to accomplish
His purpose. Now John here doesn't speak of Antichrist as one person
that's going to appear at the end of this world. He speaks
of many Antichrists that had already appeared. He says even
now are there many Antichrists. But you know, Paul, when he spoke
about it to the Thessalonians, he spoke of Antichrist as one
man, the son of perdition. Why does he speak of it as one
man and John speak of it as many? Paul is describing the great
falling away. That's what he called it. What
we see in our day, a great falling away. and he's describing the
men and women who together, as one man, oppose Christ. All the people in the world today
may have all these different things, they have these differences
on, and they don't see eye to eye on, but one thing the majority
in this world, in religion and out, agree upon is they oppose
the Christ of this Bible. That's the one thing they all
agree on. They oppose the Christ of this Bible. Now what I'm saying
is, you can be turning there, 2 Thessalonians 2, I'm going
to show you this. Look here in verse Three, let
no man deceive you by any means. For that day, he's talking about
the day of Christ's return, it shall not come except there come
a falling away first. And the man of sin be revealed
and the son of perdition. He speaks of it as one man, the
Antichrist. Now listen to how, here's the
common characteristics of the devil and his body, right here.
"...who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the
temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Now why does
Paul speak of Antichrist as one man and John tells us that Antichrist
is many? There are many Antichrists. It's
because you think of Christ and His body. The scripture says
Christ is the head and then His church is the body. The universal
church in heaven and earth, that's Christ's body. The true church,
it's His body. And when every elect child is
called into the body, Scripture says, we're going to be a perfect
man. The stature of the fullness of
Christ. In other words, Christ's body will be complete. It'll
just be one new man that Christ has created. Christ is the head
and that body is one. But in that body, every believer
is a member. There's a bunch of members in
that body. Well, the devil imitates, tries to imitate Christ, and
the devil is the head in opposing Christ. He's the head antichrist,
and his body is so united to him in opposing Christ that it's
just like one man. It's just like one man. Though
there's a bunch of members, it's just like it's one man. And they
all agree in opposing Christ. And that's that one body, that's
that one man made up of many antichrists. And he sits as one
man in the temple of God. And what does he do? Now when
we read that description, it does describe one man. It describes
the Pope. It describes him to a T. Sits
in the temple. And he exalts himself and opposes
all that's called God. He even calls himself God. Literally,
the Pope calls himself God. That's what vicar means. He's another mediator, he said.
There's one mediator between God and men. That's the man Christ
Jesus. There's just one. There's just
one. But in our day, we see the same
thing, brethren. And you have so-called churches
and everywhere they're preaching the message of will worship. And it's truly the worship of
man's will. That is the number one thing
that men want to defend is their will. That's the weakest thing
about you and me is our will. It's according to the scriptures.
And that's what men want to defend. My will. And they do it by preaching
universal redemption. Preaching that Christ died for
everybody, but He really didn't accomplish salvation for anybody.
And the reason they preach that is, it puts it in the sinner's
hands. So you have to make Christ's
blood effectual. And by that, they exalt the sinner
over God. The Scriptures don't know a God
like that. The Scriptures speak of God as
doing what He will in heaven and in earth and nobody being
able to question Him. The Scriptures speak of God as
whoever He's chosen to redeem, Christ redeemed them and the
Spirit regenerates them and gives them life and He preserves them
and He won't lose one of them. It's all salvation is of the
Lord. That's how the Scriptures speak.
But you see, when churches put it in the hands of men, and this
is the, most churches just differ a little bit in practice. And
some little something, usually it's in their name. And whatever,
they differ in a little bit. And there's really no difference
in doctrine. Because when it comes down to
it, it's the doctrine of works. It depends on you. And that is
man, all together, as one man, Antichrist, opposing Christ,
exalting themselves above God, saying God can't save you now
unless you let Him. If you want a God that you have
to let Him do something, you can have Him. I don't want a
God like that. I don't want a God that I can
manipulate and control. I want the God of this Bible.
So that's what he's talking about. These are antichrists that preach
opposing Christ, preaching up man, preaching down God. And
the worst of the bunch, the most subtle, are those who preach
the gospel. But then they mix in lies that
aren't according to the truth. Those are the most subtle. And
when they mix in those lies, they disannul everything they
said. Every bit of truth they said is disannulled. None of
it's true when you mix in just a little lie. Another case that's
subtle are those who preach the truth, but they live contrary
to the gospel. They are making merchandise of
men's souls in private. They're looking for personal
gain and seeking glory for themselves and sowing discord along the
way. And this is what's dangerous in our day is there are folks
who leave the gospel, leave the gospel where the gospel is being
preached and they think they can go out and be alone and just
listen to the internet or watch the internet. You're not going
to learn that preacher's character listening to the internet. And
he'll be speaking on the internet and he'll be speaking very smooth
words about how he wants unity and yet be the very one who's
so in discord and looking out for himself and trying to get
personal gain. And you won't get that hearing
him on the internet. God's put his people together
in a local church to hear the gospel preached to us so we're
all together experiencing this grace together. So we know we're
living in the last days. We're living in the last days.
You know, false religion, they have these folks that talk about
prophecy and they always have you pointed down to the end of
time and there's going to be this antichrist, there's going
to be some big scary creature that's going to come and you
know, well that's very convenient for false religion because it
keeps you from looking at them. And John says here, they're the
antichrist. Look down there at verse, look
down there at verse at verse 22. Who is a liar? Who's a liar? But he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ, he's antichrist, that denieth the
Father and the Son. That's it. And any time you don't
preach the truth concerning the Father and the Son, you deny
Him. You deny Him. Now, our text teaches us that
the Spirit of God, when professing believers leave the gospel, it's
not a loss to the church. It's a game. When professing
believers leave, it's not a loss to the church. It's a game. I've
titled this, If They Had Been Of Us. Now, first of all, we
learn where Antichrist comes from and why. Verse 19. They, speaking of Antichrist,
they went out from us. 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. Now this is a scripture that
folks like to quote whenever Whenever one of God's saints
leaves a church where the gospel is preached, and they go to another
place where the gospel is preached, and if somebody's feelings are
hurt, something like that, they'll say something like, well, they
went out from us, but they weren't of us, or they wouldn't have
went out from us. If one of God's saints leaves where the gospel
is preached, and goes to another church where the gospel is preached,
he hadn't left us. He hadn't left the gospel. He just relocated to a different
place. They went out from us, that includes
those that leave the gospel to preach lies or to sit under lies. They leave the gospel to preach
a gospel that's contrary to this book or to sit under a gospel
that's contrary to this book. And it also includes those who
leave and they leave for the world. They don't go anywhere.
They just leave and they separate themselves and they live for
their lusts. Now, am I saying that somebody
who's been called of God and born of God, that they can fall
away from the gospel? Absolutely not. That is not what
I'm saying. Why do preachers and professing
believers go out from us? Why do preachers and professing
believers go out from us? Well, they're stony ground hearers.
Christ said this, you can turn there if you'd like, Matthew
13. Some of the, as the Gospels preached,
Matthew 13 and verse 20, He gives the parable and then He gives
the meaning. And for time sake, I'm just going to look at the
meaning. Matthew 13, 20. He said, ìHe that receiveth the
seed, receives the Word,î the preaching, ìhe that receiveth
the seed in the stony places, the same is he that heareth the
Word, and anon with joy he receives it, yet he has not root in himself,
and so he endures for a little while, for when tribulation or
persecution ariseth because of the Word, by and by he is offended.î
He hears the Word, and He immediately rejoices in what He's heard.
And He'll make a profession, He'll join the church, and He'll
appear zealous for the Gospel. We're talking about, Christ is
talking about the truth of the Gospel here. And He'll be zealous
for it. But it's all of His flesh. It's of His flesh, so there's
no root. The Word's not been planted within Him by God. And
so in time, Christ is going to come with His fan, His winnowing
fan. This is a threshing floor. And
Christ is fanning the threshing floor with His fan. He has a
fan in His hand, John the Baptist said, and He throughly purges
His floor. He comes, brethren, and He sends
a test. He sends a test. It might be
dearest and nearest family who oppose oppose you for believing
this gospel. Near and dear family. Oh, don't
believe that gospel. That's a cult. Don't believe
that. Or it'll be that a man's will might get crossed. He wants
something to be done a certain way and the rest of the congregation
don't want it that way because they see it's going to hurt the
congregation, but he just insists he wants it his way and if he
can't, he's gone. Maybe it's a misunderstanding
with the brother. Something like that. Maybe he
can't get the saints to compromise with him on the gospel. Compromise
the doctrine. Or persecution arises. Persecution
arises. The devil starts attacking the
church on some point of doctrine. And he begins to feel the heat
himself. And he sees that the preacher
and the people are being slandered by Antichrist. And he begins
to feel like he's going to be next. And he's thinking, I don't
want that. I don't want to be a part of
that. It would be a lot easier for me to just take the path
of least resistance. So that's what he does. By and
by he's offended. Now, when he was offended at
work, at his job, How many times have you been offended at your
job? He didn't leave that. He didn't leave that. And when
it came to sacrifice, whatever he had to do to keep his job,
keep his business, whatever, he didn't cut corners there. But he got offended with the
gospel. And he went out. Why didn't he get offended with
his job? Because that's his life. And
his gospel is not. Then you got the thorny ground
hearer. Look here, Matthew 13, 22. He
also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the
word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches
choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. This one right here,
he could be a preacher, or he could be a believer, it doesn't
matter, but he receives the word, he unites for a time too. Maybe
it's a long time. But then he comes into prosperity.
He comes into prosperity and he gets a promotion and starts
coming into some money. And he gets all these irons in
the fire and he gets into politics and all these things start interfering
with his church life and he decides, well, I'm going to have to choose
between one or the other. And so he chooses that one that's
given him the prosperity. And a preacher will do this.
A preacher will find a church that's bigger and better and
got a bigger following and a bigger salary. And they'll, all of a
sudden, they just, the Lord's calling me, I just feel it. He's
calling me to that place. And they'll go to that place.
The care of this world, the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and
he becomes unfruitful. Now go back to our text. Why
does the devil, why does Christ permit the devil to sow tares
among the weak? Why does He allow false preachers
and a false gospel to be in this world? Why does He do that? He
says there in 1 John 2, He says in verse 19, But they went out
that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
That's why. That's why. They're going out,
manifest to his saints that Christ is using his gospel to do his
winnowing work. You know, when I see somebody
leave the gospel, we haven't been here very long, comparatively. We've been here, we just started
our twelfth year. And we've seen a bunch of people
come and go. A bunch of people come and go.
And every time it happens, especially if they stay very long, it just
discourages me. I just walk around for days discouraged
and down because they left. But I shouldn't be that way and
you shouldn't be that way either. Because what it ought to tell
us is God's Christ gospel is doing what it's supposed to do.
That's what it's supposed to do. To separate the wheat from
the chaff. That's what Christ is doing.
And here's another thing. It's to test you and me who believe. It's to prove His people. In
Deuteronomy 13.3, He's talked about when He delivered them
into the promised land and He left some of those heathen nations
there when He delivered Israel in it. He left some of those
heathen nations that didn't know God. And here's why. He said, Thou shalt not hearken
unto the words of the prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for
the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. He's
proving you. He's testing you to see if you
really believe Him. There must be also heresies among
you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. That's 1 Corinthians 11 9. There
must be heresies so that those that are approved are manifest. It's manifest that Christ is
working in you, keeping you when others go out. Now it hurts to
see brethren walk away to lies or to nothing at all, especially
when you've labored for them in prayer and you've sacrificed
to have a quiet place where they can hear. It makes me sometimes,
especially when somebody you've ministered to for so long, and
it makes you think like what Christ said when He said, Have
I been with you so long and you don't know me? You hold me in
suspicion, really? Am I a stranger to you? Honestly. But what he's telling us here
now, brethren, is it's not a loss. It's not a loss to Christ's church.
It's a gain. We're seeing the Lord work. We're seeing the Lord work both
in those that are not His and in those that are His. Listen
to this carefully. The body of Christ never loses
living limbs. Never. There's never a living
member of Christ's church that's cut off. Never. Now, what keeps
God's elect out of the gospel? What keeps God's people under
the gospel? Look here in verse 20. But ye
have an unction, an anointing from the Holy One, and you know
all things. There's the difference. We didn't
make the difference. We didn't make the difference.
You and I didn't make the difference the first hour we believed. We
didn't make the difference. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. We were children of wrath even
as others. Just like Ephesians 2 said. But the Lord sent the Holy Spirit,
the Holy One, and anointed us. He gave us the unction. He gave
us life. And He brought us to faith in
Christ. We didn't do that. We did not make ourselves to
differ. He did it. And we don't make
ourselves to differ from those that go out. Brethren, you can't
boast in this. And I can't either. If the Lord
didn't give us this anointing, we would be gone in a heartbeat. But you've been born of God and
you've been taught of God. Listen, go to 2 Corinthians In chapter 1 and verse 21. And look at this. 2 Corinthians
1.21. He which establisheth us with
you in Christ and hath anointed us is God. That's that same word. He's anointed us. He that did
it and He established us with you in Christ and has anointed
us is God who has also sealed us and given the earnest of the
Spirit in our hearts. Wherever He's done that, a sinner
doesn't depart. Go over with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. When He sent the gospel to us,
Here's what took place. This whole first chapter is about
why he saves through the gospel. And here's why, verse 29, that
no flesh shall glory in his presence. You know, when you're talking
to somebody, and they're talking to you, and if they're bearing
witness to you of Christ, all you're doing is sitting there
thinking about what you're going to say next. And you're not really
listening to them. But God chose this foolish means
of preaching Because when we're being preached unto, we have
to sit there and listen. And that's one of the reasons.
He says, verse 29, that no flesh should gloat in His presence.
And he says the reason he chooses nobodies, right before that he
says he chooses weak things, nobodies to do it. So that the
power will be of God and not of us. And here's what he does
through the preaching of the word, verse 30. But of Him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. When God does that, that's when
what's happened is what John says, you have been anointed
by the Holy One and you know all things. When God makes Christ's
wisdom unto us, this is, none of this is, you don't come about
any of this by study and by taking notes and by, you know, like
you would, like Kristen did to become a nurse. You don't do
that. This is revelation. Now, I encourage you to take
notes and go study, but God's going to have to give us a revelation.
That's what this is. When He makes Christ's wisdom
unto us, He gives us a revelation of Him. And I can remember it
so well. I remember when I used to pick
this book up and it didn't make any sense to me. And I would
look through it and I was looking for something to do because I
thought that's what you went to the Bible for. And after He gave
me this unction. I started seeing Christ from
cover to cover in this book. And I realized this book is not
about me and you, this book is about Christ. And it's God's
salvation for His people in Christ, giving Him all the glory. That's
what this book is about. And when He gives you that wisdom,
makes Christ wisdom, then you see. And when He makes Christ
righteousness unto you, that's when you discover you don't have
any righteousness. And you can't earn a righteousness. Do you realize that's where we
really learn that we're sin? It's when we behold the righteous
Lord Jesus Christ. That's when we really learn that
all we are is sinners. When we see what true righteousness
is. True righteousness, the true fulfillment of the law is to
love God and to love your brethren so completely and so perfectly
that you're willing to be made sin for both of them. and to
be cast out and forsaken under the fierce justice of God's wrath
so that you might glorify God to the highest and save your
people to the depths of their depravity. That is righteousness. And you and I see that by the
revelation of Christ and we stop bragging about our righteousnesses. Scripture says our righteousnesses
are as filthy rag. And then Christ is made unto
us sanctification. And then we behold what we sing. Maybe we sing it all our days,
but then we behold the water and the blood. Not just the blood
to justify, the water and the blood. Which from thy wounded
side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from wrath,
and make me whole. Saved from wrath, He justified
me, and He made me whole. He sanctified me. That's what
holy is, is to be made whole. And when Christ enters in, Scripture
says He is by one offering perfected forever, them that are sanctified. And then when He enters in, there's
a new man that's created, a new spirit given, and you're sanctified.
You're sanctified. And then He makes Christ your
redemption. And if the Son sets you free,
that's what redemption is, to be set free from the yoke of
bondage, from the yoke of the law, trying to go to God and
legally work out a righteousness that God will accept. That's
all we did in religion. That's all religion is. It's
telling you to do this and don't do the other thing. And maybe
God will receive you. And He frees you from that. And
He brings you into this liberty of knowing Christ has established
the law for me. I'm under the light and easy
yoke now. Believe on Christ and I've established
the whole law. And just love my brethren. Do
whatever is for their good. And that's easy. That's easy.
That's freedom. That's to be redeemed. By this
anointing, Christ won't let us forget it. You can jot these
scriptures down and look them up when you get home. By this anointing, by showing
us Christ is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
here's how you know all things. You know Christ is all. You know
Christ is all. If I'm in religion and I still
think something needs to be added, I need to add my works, or I
need to add my church attendance, or I need to add something to
Christ's work, then Christ is not all to me. I haven't received
this anointing yet, if that's my heart. But when He's given
you this anointing, you're brought to the place where you realize
it's not Christ plus anything. Christ is all. He's all I need. I'm complete in Christ. Don't
need anything else. And Christ won't let you forget
this. John 14, 26, He said, I'm going to send the Comforter,
the Holy Ghost. And He says, and He shall teach
you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I've said unto you. How on earth can you study this
book for for 30, 40 years, and every time you look into it,
it's just as new to you and exciting to you, and you just want to
call up the brethren and say, look at what I just saw. How
come? He said He's going to give you
the Holy Spirit, and He's going to teach you all these things,
and He's going to bring these things to remembrance, and He's
not going to let you forget them. By the anointing, we know His
voice from the voice of strangers. Go to John 10. We know His voice
from the voice of strangers when we hear the Gospel preached.
We couldn't discern this before. Before, we would hear this Gospel
preached and we'd go hear the Gospel of the street preached
and we'd say, what's the difference? Y'all all sit in pews, y'all
use hymn books, y'all use the Bible, y'all say Jesus and anointing
and grace and mercy and it's all the same. No, it's not. When He gives you this anointing,
now you can hear. Look at this, John 10, verse
4. This is Christ speaking. He's
describing Himself as a shepherd of the sheep. And He says, When
He put forth His own sheep, He goes before them, and the sheep
follow Him, for they know His voice. And a stranger will they
not follow? They'll flee from Him, for they
know not the voice of strangers. Those who can go away from Christ,
those who can argue against Christ, look at what Christ says about
them in verse 26. You believe not, because you are not of My
sheep, as I said unto you. You believe not, because you
are not My sheep. In other words, you don't believe
because I haven't called you. And I'm not trying to call you,
because you are not My sheep. Look here in verse 27. My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them. That's how come they hear Him.
I know them. That's a work of grace in the
heart that it's talking about. I know them and they follow me
and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish,
neither any man pluck them out of my hand. You know, sheep only
follow the voice of our shepherd. We can't stand anymore to hear
the message of works. I can't stand to hear the message
that exalts a sinner and belittles God. I can't, because that's
my Heavenly Father, that's my Redeemer. I can't stand to hear
it anymore and I can't stand to hear somebody putting down
my earthly Father. Well, they don't want to hear
this gospel either. Because this gospel is putting
down their God. which is themselves. It's declaring
their own God to be, their own will and their own works to be
worthless. Christ has to do the work to
save His people. And so they don't like it either.
They don't like this message either. We can't stand the world's
message and they can't stand our message. Look at 1 John 4,
5. I'm fixing the clothes. 1 John 4, 5. Look here. They
are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, 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.
While those who can, they go out from us and they walk no
more with Christ, Christ says to you and me, will you go away
also? What kind of, you know, preachers
today if somebody starts leaving the congregation, they run after
them and they try to get them back. Christ today was preaching
the gospel and a bunch went back and walked no more with Christ.
You know what he did? He turned to his apostles and he said,
you want to go with them? You want to go with them? And you
know what they answered? Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life and we believe and we're sure you are that Christ, the
Son of the living God. We know it. We don't have a choice,
brethren. When He's given you this anointing,
it's not... You go over there and you read
about Joshua. When he says, as for me and my house, we'll serve
the Lord. That's the Lord speaking. It's a quotation and he's the
Lord speaking. And he says to them, choose this
day whom you'll serve. If you have a choice, here's
where your choices are. Choose either those idol gods
that were on the other side of the Jordan or the idol gods that
are on this side of the Jordan. That's what he said. If you have
a choice, you're choosing between idol gods. And Christ said, but
as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Don't
have a choice. The choice is gone. The choice
is gone. Alright, we're kept by the power
of God. Paul said, I persuaded neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
things to come, things present, things to come, height, depth,
nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus. That's why His people don't go
out. They don't leave. So I want to read something to
you. I want to just go back to 1 John and just read this to
you. When He does this work and you, you, the Spirit, there's
just one Spirit, there's one body, one faith, one Lord, one
hope. And He, when He sends His preacher,
Scripture says He brings us into the unity of the faith. The unity
of the faith. And into the knowledge of the
Son of God. And when He's done that, you
realize that though we're many members, we're just one body.
Now if Christ suffered for the members of this body, How dare
I not be willing to suffer persecution for this body? It quits being
about us personally, about me personally. It starts being about
the good of the body, the good of my fellow brethren. If Christ
suffered for them, how dare I not suffer for them? If He laid down
His life for them, how dare I not lay down my life for them? Paul
said, I endure all things for the elect's sake. that they might
be saved too. So this is where He brings you
to brethren. This is the most unselfish gospel
there is. Are you tired of hypocrites in
religion? Find you a church where the gospel
is preached in truth and you won't find that. Because we are
all just a bunch of sinful worms. Ain't nobody trying to exalt
anybody over the other one. You can't exalt yourself when
you are the lowest. And that's what God makes His
people feel like, that we're the lowest. And you just don't
exalt yourself when you're the lowest. Let me read this to you. Here's the word of application.
Give yourselves to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. Verse
24. Let that therefore abide in you
which you've heard from the beginning. That means stay on the gospel,
stay on Christ. If that which you've heard from
the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in
the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise He's
promised us, even eternal life. And He said, I'm writing this
to you concerning them that seduce you. You remember how Eve was
deceived? First thing she did, she gave
ear to the deceiver. Don't even give ear to the deceiver.
He said, Beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware
lest you fall, being led away with the error of the wicked,
you fall from your own steadfastness. A growing grace, knowledge of
Christ. And then know this too, know that while you're seeking
to abide in Him, know this, it's the anointing, it's the Holy
Spirit that's going to keep you. He's going to keep you. We're
not keeping ourselves. Look here, verse 27. But the
anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you. He never
takes it once He has given it. And you need not that any man
teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and
is truth and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall
abide in Him. This is irresistible teaching.
He gets the lesson across every time. So now, little children,
abide in Him that when He shall appear, we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. This anointing
we're talking about here, brethren. It's the only difference between
God's people and the rest of the world. This anointing brings
us out, brings us into the body of Christ, and keeps us there.
We're eternally secure by this anointing. It's preservation
which makes us persevere. As Bruce Crabtree called it,
it's perseverance. It's perseverance. I pray God
will bless it. Amen.