Turn to 1 John, and make sure
I was in the right one, chapter 2. We'll look at verse 21 through
29. Let me read the verses, and we'll
seek the Lord in prayer and look at this. 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. Does it come
from the truth? Who is a liar, but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist that denieth
the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father. that he that acknowledges 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
teaches 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 a confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His
coming. If you know that He is righteous, You know that everyone
that doeth righteousness is born of Him. Our Father, thank You
for Your Word. We ask that You bless Your Word
this morning. Bless it to our understanding.
Feed us out of Thy Word. Instruct us, teach us. Help us
to worship You in spirit and in truth. Forgive us our sins
for Christ's sake. And for those among us who are
not able to be here, who are sick or under affliction, Father,
we pray for them, pray you'd bless, pray you would make them
to know that grace is sufficient. Help us to give unto you the
glory due unto your name this morning. And what we pray for
ourselves here, Father, we pray for your preachers and your people
throughout this whole world. In Jesus Christ's name we ask,
and amen. That song was on my mind when
I woke up this morning. Thank you, Lord. I woke up 4.30.
I woke up 4.30 and started preaching to myself. I wish I could preach
this morning like I was doing when there's nobody listening. But I thought of a sermon I'm
going to have to work on for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. But it was such a blessing to
me and I could not just get that song out of my mind. Thank you
for saving me. Thank you for saving my soul.
We have a Savior. That's really what we have right
here. What I'm going to give you this morning is this. Jesus
Christ is the Savior. He is the Savior. God has provided
us with a Savior. How humbling that ought to make
us. How that ought to make us to
walk before God with true humility. You know, humility is not walking
with your head down. That's not humility. Humility
is walking in a real, true recognition of who God is and what He's done
for us in Jesus Christ. That's true humility. Now John
says here in the latter part of this lesson that our Lord
Jesus Christ is the Christ. In spite of all the false preachers
that have gone out, many have went out in that day, and we
have many, many, many of them in this day. There are many,
he says, antichrists. There are many who are against
Christ, who stand in the pulpit using His name. That's what's
scary. Standing in the pulpit this morning,
throughout this whole community, are many antichrists using the
name of Christ. There is one real Christ. There
is one real Savior that God has provided for sinners. And Jesus
Christ is the Christ. You know, we call Him Jesus Christ,
not like, you see, my last name is Chapman, but His last, we
call Him Christ because that's His office. That's an office.
That's a positioning. Oh, that means Messiah. It means
Savior. That's who He is. And the reason
John writes to these believers is because they know the truth.
Think about that. You, you who believe. You know
the truth. God has revealed to you the truth. You know the truth. There'd be
no use in writing to a group of rebels that hate God, that
hate the truth. One of the charges against the
Antichrist is that they receive not the love of the truth. You
love the truth. If we, if John were writing this
to a bunch of unbelievers, that would be like casting pearls
before swine. And we were told not to do that.
He said, but I'm writing to you because you know the truth. You
know it. These antichrists, here's another
reason he writes here to encourage and establish us against these
deceivers. These antichrists, they're gonna come And they're
going to mix a dash of error. They're not going to just walk
in and deny it. They're going to walk in and
mix a dash of error with the truth. And when you do that,
you don't have the truth no more. If you add anything to the Gospel,
or if you take away anything, you don't have the Gospel no
more. You don't have it no more. I've been told, I don't know,
I'm not a scientist, But I've been told that rat poison is
99% good food. It's that 1% poison that kills
the rat. He said, no lie is of the truth. It didn't come from the truth.
And he wants us to understand that. Now the point in verse
22 and 23 is this. Is this thing echoing? Yeah,
it's echoing to me. It just sounded like it was shooting
right back in my face. But here's the point, okay? Here's
the point, verse 22 and 23. The point is this, Jesus is the
Christ. He's the one anointed and appointed
by the Father before the foundation of the world. God our Father
has appointed Him, and He has anointed, He said, this is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear Him, listen to
Him, receive Him. God has not said that about any
other person in this world. He said that about Jesus Christ.
This is my son. This is the one I have provided. This is my lamb. John said, behold,
the lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. This
is God's lamb. This is the lamb of God's appointed.
And he says, hear him. And John is telling us, he is
the Christ. especially in that day, but you
can go over there right now in the Middle East, and they deny
that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. They deny it to this day. He
is the Christ. This is the one spoken of by
the prophets. I don't want to be guilty of
reading Isaiah or Jeremiah or any of those prophets and missing
Christ. I had a man tell me years ago,
years ago, when I first heard the Gospel, he said, in the Old
Testament, they were saved by the lambs, all those lambs that
were slain. He said, they were saved by those
lambs. Nowadays, we're saved by Christ. You missed it. I want to scream
to him, you missed it. The first sinner God has ever
saved or the last sinner God has ever saved will be through
Jesus Christ. He's the Savior and He always
has been and always will be. And that message will never change.
There'll never be another gospel. There'll never be a change to
the gospel. There'll never be anything added to it or taken
from the gospel. Truth, God says, shall endure to all generations.
My truth. When you and I are gone, my grandchildren
are gone, If God is pleased to save anyone in my family, your
family, it'll be through the same gospel that you and I believe
right now. It's the same gospel that Abraham
believed. He said, Abraham saw my day and was glad. We'll believe
the same God Abraham believed. I don't care if it lasts for
another 10,000 years. This gospel by which God saves
sinners will not change. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Christ. He is the Christ. There's no
other way. This is the only God-man mediator. There is no other. There is no other mediator between
God and men. The Pope is not a mediator. There
is no other mediator between us and God, but Jesus Christ.
He's the one God has set up. He said, no man comes unto the
Father but by Me. How hard is that to understand?
You know, it's not hard to understand. The Gospel of our Lord is so
plain in preaching. Come unto Me, all you that labor
and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. That's not hard to understand. The Pharisees understood exactly
what He said, and that's why they hated Him. They understood
what He said. He said, I'm God, and they hated
Him for it. They understood the message.
He told them what they were, and they hated Him. He said,
you're white as sepulchers. That's who you are. Nobody ever spoke
to them like that. Nobody ever told them the truth.
That's the truth. The Lord just told them the truth.
You're just white as sepulchers. You're full of dead men's bones. Truth is offensive. And I'm telling
you, truth is offensive to this flesh. It's not offensive to
that new nature that's born of God. That new man loves the truth. Child of God loves the truth.
But there's a time, there's a time it was offensive. To be told
what you are, that's offensive. But He is the Christ. This is
the one the prophet spoke of. This is the one whom the Father
set up. This is the one whom the Father set forth. He's the
Christ. And any person who denies that
Jesus is the Christ in all that that means, he says, does not know the Father
nor the Son. They said, the Jews said, we
have one Father, even God. Standing there, talking to Jesus
Christ and denying who He is. How deceptive is our hearts? The scripture says that the heart,
the natural heart is wicked, it is desperately wicked above
all things, who can know it? Who can really know the human
heart? It's so deceitful. You think
you know it and then it's over here. You think you know it and
then it's over here. It's always changing. Always
moving. You're never able to grasp what's
going on inside you. Not that human heart. It's deceptive. It's deceitful. If Jesus is not
the Christ, then He's the greatest, the biggest phony that ever lived.
Ever. If He's not the Christ. But if He's the Christ, then
we are to bow to Him, receive Him, and give unto Him the glory
due unto His name, and follow Him. Follow Him. If people really, really do,
people who call themselves Christians, as far as just what we call a
nominal Christian, if they really knew what that meant, they wouldn't
do it. It's to deny yourself. You know,
when he walked by the boat, there was Peter and John, he walked
by and said, follow me. He didn't explain anything to
them, he just said, follow me. And you know what they did? They
got down out of the boat, They left their father, Zebedee, left
him right there in the boat. I thought about that, I guess
because I preach, but I thought about that, and I thought, man,
they just got out of the boat to see you, Dad, and followed
the Lord, and left him sitting right there in the boat. But
that's what it is. He that loves mother and father,
this is one of the things that was on my mind. a lot in coming
down here. He that loves mother, father,
sister, brother, son or daughter more than me is not worthy of
me. Where I am, there will my servant
be also. That's what it is to follow Christ.
It's to completely deny yourself and be totally, 100% committed
to Him. That's what it is. It's not getting
fixed up so you don't wind up in hell. It's following the Lord. is following on to know the Lord.
That's what it is. It's being totally committed,
just like this group right here. The only reason for this ministry
here is to be totally committed to preaching the gospel to the
open doors that God gives us. To make Him known, to glorify
His name, and preach Christ to every open door God gives us.
We're not just here on Sunday. There's a lot of people out there
on Sunday. There's a lot of people doing what we're doing this morning.
Except for the preaching of the gospel worship. But they're gathering
together like this. We're gathered here to give unto
Him the glory, do His name, and to follow Him. Lord, which way
would You have us to go? And this gospel of Christ is
the same, he said in verse 24, which you heard from the apostles,
from the beginning. It hasn't changed. It hasn't
changed. It's the same. There's no need
to add to it. It's complete. It's the everlasting
gospel. It was complete before the world
was created. That's why it's called the everlasting gospel.
It's the same. The Son shifts the same. His
deity's the same. His Lord shifts the same. There's
no change. Jesus Christ, the same. Yesterday,
today, and forever. It's the same. The apostles only had one message.
I've only got one message. I've only got one message. And
that message is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I heard a
man stand up one time and he said, I've got 21 points. I thought,
well, man, you lost me already. I thought if you knew more about
that first point, you wouldn't have so many points. I want to get past the points
and get to the message. God has given us a message, a
message of grace, a message of mercy, a message of good news,
a message concerning his son. We've got a message, I want to
get to the message. And the message is this, Jesus is the Christ.
We have a Savior. He is the Savior. He's the Messiah. And if the Gospel, he says here,
if the Gospel remains in you, which you heard from the beginning,
then you're going to remain. You're going to remain. And he
means this, you will continue. You'll continue in the Son, and
you'll continue to be accepted. And what he's talking about here
is the perseverance of the saints. Now listen to me. The Word of God holds out no
hope for them who draw back, for them who quit. Paul said
over in Hebrews, we are not of them which draw back. We are
of them that believe to the saving of the soul. The believer can fall, can stumble,
and I mean fall hard too. And I mean fall hard. A believer
can get confused. It can happen. but they cannot
fall completely away. Greater is He that is in you
than He that's in the world. He's able to keep us. We are
kept by the power of God, it says, through faith. He keeps
us believing. I don't keep myself believing.
He keeps us believing. But the word of God holds out
no hope for those who turn back. But this is eternal life. There
is eternal life. And this eternal life is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, you do not have
eternal life. You have the life of this flesh.
And boy, that's no fun, is it? Just look in the mirror every
morning. It's no fun. More doctor visits. It seems
like my parents are older every time we turn around. One of them
is in the hospital. Every time. That's the life of this flesh. But eternal life is Jesus Christ. The Father has put the promise
of life and He has put all spiritual blessings in His Son. And if you and I have Christ,
I'm telling you, we ought to leap for joy right now. Because
we have life. I'm not going to die. You're
looking at a man that's not going to die. You say, but sooner or
later you got to. This body's dying anyway. And
sooner or later this body's going to be in the grave, but I'm going
to just transfer. That's the truth. I'm going to
transfer from this body to a new body. But I am not going to experience
death. And you're not either. You know
what we're going to experience? Life. Well, the first time we're
gonna, without seeing, without seeing, we're gonna experience
what life really is. That is more than waking up in
the morning. It's the life of God. It's God
in you. It's God in you. It's the life
of God in the soul. That's what eternal life is. You and I are subject to trials
and heartaches because of these false preachers, these seducers,
he calls them there in verse 26. I write these things concerning
them that seduce you. I warn you of them. He tells us they're gonna rise
up from among us. These antichrists, these false preachers, they're
gonna come right out of our group. That's what he's saying. That's
what John's saying. They went out from us, but what's that
mean? Well, they were here for a while. I've seen some over the years.
I've lived long enough to see this. And I've seen some over
the years leave that I thought would never leave. And I've seen
some of them go off on a tangent that I thought, where in the
world did you, where are you going? And it's heartbreaking. It's
heartbreaking. to watch that. And not only is
it heartbreaking, it's very sobering, because that could happen to
me, if God leave me alone. If God would leave me alone now,
I would go off the deep end, not knowing how to swim. The anointing, though, here,
listen. He said, what's going to prevent this? If you and I have an ounce of
spiritual life, this is sobering. How's this gonna be prevented?
How can I prevent it? How's this not gonna happen to
me? In verse 27, the anointing which
you have received, the teaching, the instruction, is the unction
from the Holy One. You are sealed. You're sealed. Some of you know what canning
is. You seal that. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit.
He's not gonna let that happen. It's his responsibility. You
know, I'm his responsibility. And it's his responsibility not
to let me be totally and completely deceived. Sometimes he allows
us to be deceived or to be confused for a little while in order to
instruct us. Now, see, I told you not to listen
to that. You ever tell one of your kids, don't touch that,
it's hot. Say, well, I don't have to tell your dad again,
will I? Sometimes the Lord is just eager
to teach us by letting us do it. And then you say, boy, I
wish I hadn't done that. Those lessons last a lot longer.
They last a lot longer. But you have the anointing, He
says here, you have the teaching of the Holy Spirit. He abides
in you. I'm preaching to a people that's
sealed with the Holy Spirit. I'm preaching to a people in
whom Christ dwells. Jesus Christ dwells in you. Don't always think of Him sitting
way off somewhere. No, He's in you. You believe
the gospel? He's in you right now. He's in
you. And that can't be taken away.
Satan cannot take that away. I can't take that away. I can
take the joy of it away by my sin. I can take that away for
a while. But this abiding, this anointing,
this instruction, this teaching, it's eternal. We'll always have
Him, always. And we depend on Him to guide
us. Lord, don't leave me to myself. You know what the greatest trial
God can give you? Is to let you make the choice.
That's the greatest trial God could ever give to us. Remember,
He gave it to David once. I'm gonna give you three choices,
David. David had sinned. I think it was when he numbered
Israel. He said, I'm going to give you three choices. You know
what David said? He said, Lord, let me follow you. You make the choice.
Let me fall into your hands. That was a wise decision. The
most difficult trial is when God lets me make the choice,
puts the choice before me. And now closing. He says, you
need not that any man teach you after saying that you have the
teaching of the Holy One. That doesn't mean you need to fire
me. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean you don't need
teachers and preachers and pastors. That's not what it means. It
says, you need not let any man, any, not just any man stand here. Don't think just any man that
stands in a pulpit is preaching the gospel. That's why John said,
try the spirits, whether they be of God. God has given us pastors
and teachers doing just what I'm doing right now. But the
real teaching The real teaching comes from Him taking the Word
that you and I are looking at right now, and the instructions
I'm giving through the Word, and applying it. I cannot apply
what I'm saying to you. I can't make you see it. I can't do that. But He can.
I cannot arrest your attention. He can. He can get your attention.
He sure can. He can apply the word. So he
said, you need not let any man teach you. And those who are preaching contrary,
he says, avoid them. Avoid them. Don't argue with
them. I'm not going to argue with a
lie. I'm not going to argue with a
lie. There's something you need to remember. False religion will
always be false all the way to the end. You'll never straighten
it out. Now God's going to call some of his sheep out of false
religion. as he has some here. But false
religion is going to be false. You know, when the Lord said
to Peter, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, Peter was of such a
makeup and character, he'd have been fighting those Pharisees
tooth and toenail, and the sheep would have starved to death.
He said, Peter, feed the sheep. Don't get caught up with those
Pharisees. Don't get caught up with that. Don't get caught up
with fighting something that's false. Henry said one time, he
said, the best way To show how crooked a stick is, lay a straight
one down beside it. That's the best way. So if you
stick to preaching Jesus Christ, who He is, what He did, who He
did it for, where He is now, you keep laying that straight
stick down, and you'll see how crooked those other ones are. Now, He says in verse 28, Abide
in Him. Abide in Christ. Exercise faith
in Him. I don't need the Lord to increase
my faith." He said, that's a weird statement. I don't need the Lord
to increase my faith. I need the Lord to help me to
exercise what He's given me. And that will make it grow. Exercise
your muscles and see what happens. Exercise your body. And you see
how strong your body will grow. It's the lack of exercise that
comes with the lack of faith. And when He shall appear, we
may have confidence. If we exercise faith in Him,
abide in Him, walk in Him, and learn of Him, when He shall appear,
we will not be ashamed. No, we'll have confidence. Confidence. Wouldn't you love the Lord to
come right now? You have such confidence, Lord,
come right now and take me home. That's confidence. Some are going to be confounded.
They were confounded because they had hoped. They thought
they were saved, but they ended up lost. There's going to be
many who are going to hear Him say, depart from Me, I never
knew you. But not those who abide in Him.
No, not if you abide in Him. And in verse 29, If you know
that He is righteous, that He is our righteousness, if you
know that He is the righteous One, that He is your righteousness,
you know that everyone that does righteousness is born of God. Born of God. Everyone who is obedient to Him,
lives upon Him, trusts Him, You know, I want to say this
right. I don't trust the righteousness
of Christ for my salvation. I trust Christ who is my righteousness. And I'm not making a play on
words. But I want to be careful that we don't separate these
things. that we don't take Christ and then righteousness. Christ
is, He's made, the Scripture says He's made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. He is these things
to me. He gives them to me, yes. But
He is this to me. He is my righteousness. He's
it. He's all I need. He's it. And
because of that, Everyone that believes is righteous. Right with God. That's what that
is. It's right with God. Righteous is to be right with
God.