Okay, 1 John 2, read with me
verses 18 through 26. Little children, it is the last
time, and as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even
now there are many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the
last time. 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, they were not all others. But
ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because
you know it. No lie is of 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. He that acknowledgeth the Son
hath the Father also. Let that, therefore, abide in
you which ye have heard from the beginning. That which ye
have heard from the beginning shall remain in you. Ye also
shall continue in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise
that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have
I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. We'll stop
there. We didn't get very far. We kind
of summed up these verses, and we might not get too far this
time either, but this is very important. He says in verse 18,
you've heard antichrist shall come. Well, he says even now
there are many antichrists. Anti-Christ means against Christ. Our Lord said, our Lord Jesus
Christ said, he that is not with me is against me. Now listen to Acts chapter 4.
Acts chapter 4. And John wrote these things I
write unto you concerning them that seduce you. Acts chapter
4, I'm going to try to be very plain from God's Word here about
this subject of Antichrist. Acts chapter 4 says, David spoke
this, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? Now this was written a long time
before Christ came, but Antichrist was there then. The kings of
the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against
the Lord and against his Christ. You have that? That's anti-Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, that means Christ anointed, Herod,
Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, the people of Israel were gathered
together against him. The God of this world has been
against Christ from the beginning, from the garden. And Scripture
talks about his seed, his people. Romans 8 verse 7 says, The carnal
mind is enmity against God. And in our text he says,
There are many antichrists. Many antichrists. Verse 22, who
is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he
is antichrist. Whoever it is. Whoever it is. Many antichrists. Not one person. And he says, I'm writing this
concerning them that seduce you. They're trying to tell you to
look for one person. No, but there are many. There
are many. Our Lord spoke in Matthew 24
of the last day. He gave a summary of the last
day. Turn over there quickly. We're
going to look at this a little bit in the next message. But Matthew 24, our Lord spoke
of the last day and the end times, okay? He never mentioned one
person, did he? He never mentioned one big war. to end our war. Now isn't this
what people are all taken up with? They're looking for a fellow
with 666 on his head and there's going to be a great war over
in Israel. You know, the Armageddon. That's what they're looking for.
Our Lord never mentioned that. He never talked about a war. He
said you hear of wars and rumors of war. But he said, that's not
the end. It's always going to happen.
He never mentioned one person. Matthew 24, verse 5, many shall
come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. Many. Verse 11, many false prophets
shall arise and shall deceive many. You see that? Many, many,
many, many. All right, so this is what John
is telling us. There are many anti-Christ. As I said, in the Garden of Eden,
just as soon as our Lord created man, and you know, some believe
that Satan came to him the very day that Adam was created. That very day. And there's nothing
to tell us that that's not true. As soon as man was created, and
woman, Satan showed up. All right, just as soon as our
Lord left this earth, his church was established, Satan comes, according to God's
purpose, against Christ's church, against his church. And he says
in verse 19, they went out from us, they went out from us, and
I showed you last Sunday, tried to. The early church, you know,
there were false brethren crept in unawares. And Rome and so
forth. And this spirit of anti-Christ
started at the very beginning. And Paul and John said that it
might be made manifest or revealed to not all others. Our Lord talked
about tares and wheats. Did it? Wheat and tares, goats and sheep,
it's always going to be. He said there must be heresies
among you. It's always going to be. When
our Lord was here, he had 12 disciples. One of them was Antichrist,
the son of perdition. That's what Paul wrote of the
Son of Perdition in 2 Thessalonians 2, didn't he? Well, Satan was
using Judas, the Son of Perdition. So, there have been many anti-Christ. And this is one of his deceptions,
is to have everybody looking for one fellow. Brother Joe Terrell, you know,
was a pretty sharp fellow. And he said the Antichrist, the
spirit of Antichrist, is leading the search for Antichrist. There's
an old deception by thieves. Thieves would come and they would
steal, and rather than run away from the crime, they'd stay there
and mingle with the people. And then when the authorities
come, the thief would go, he went that way. When he's standing
right there. He's standing right there. It's
like the Christ, he came and he recognized it. He said, the
kingdom of God is right here. The kingdom of God doesn't come
with observation. He said, the kingdom of God is
among you. Who's that? Pilate said, what
is truth? Standing right in front of him. God blinded their minds. And
he's blinded the minds of many. In 2 Thessalonians 2, he said,
all deceivableness and unrighteousness of them that believe not the
truth. So he sends strong delusions,
but not God's people. We're not in darknesses of it.
We're not blinded. John wrote this, I've written
unto you because you know the truth. You know the truth. What's true? Come on, somebody. Don't be afraid to say it, okay? Christ is the truth. That's not oversimplifying things.
Alright, look at this. In verse 20, he said, you have
an unction from the Holy One. You know all things. How can that be? Paul said we
preach in part, we know in part. What do you mean we know all
things? Well, all right, look at John, where do I go? John 14, go over John 14. All right. Our Lord said in John 6, 45,
they shall be all taught of God. Who's that? He's quoting Isaiah
54. All thy children shall be taught
of the Lord. And great shall be the peace
thereof. Christ said this, shall all be taught of God, all his
children, and every man that hath heard and learned of the
Father does what? Cometh to me. All that the Father giveth me,
chosen, elected, given to Christ and covenant, come to me. You believe what I just quoted?
Why, you know these things. Our children have known them,
and let children know them in their heads. A people in a covenant
before the world began, elect the elect. Christ called them
His elect. He'll send His angels to gather
His elect. That's what He calls them. In
case somebody doesn't like the word, you must not be one of
the elect. Because that's what Christ said.
That's who He calls them. He said if the days hadn't been
shortened for the elect's sake, there would be no flesh to be
saved. It all started with that, God's covenant of election, sovereign
electing grace before the world began, gave a people to Christ,
who is the elect, who is the covenant head, who is the surety
of this everlasting covenant, who came with these people, given
to him by the Father, and he laid down his life for them,
he paid their penalty of sin, he paid for their sin, and he
went back, sat down like the high priest of old, the work
finished, done, nothing left to be done. He sends the Holy
Spirit to every single one of these people given to him by
the Father in this covenant. I'm talking as fast as I can. This is the truth. Anything more
or less is not the truth. No lies of the truth. All right? The Holy Spirit comes. Christ
said, I will sin. He'll come in my name. He'll
take the things of what? Mine and show them unto you.
He's the Spirit of truth and He leads and guides in all truth. What's all truth? Christ is all. The whole truth. Nothing but
the truth. So help me. The Word of God.
That's what it says. All right, John 14. Look at John
14. I just quoted that partially. And John 14, our Lord said, to
his disciples. He's talking to his disciples.
John, the apostle, is writing, he said, I'm writing to you that
know the truth. Isn't it? All right, John 14
in verse 16. Our Lord said, I will pray the
Father, he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide
with you, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive. It seeth him not, neither knoweth
him. They don't know him. They talk about him, but they
don't know him. But you know him, he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. Look at this. This is mysterious,
yet I will not leave you comfortless. He's talking about the Holy Spirit
in him. I will come unto you. Who? I thought you were sending
the Holy Spirit. Yes. He's the Spirit of Christ. Just
as the Father will witness to the Son, the Son will witness
to the Father, the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Son. That's
what the Holy Spirit does. When the Holy Spirit comes to
His people, He reveals Christ to them. He reveals Christ in
them. He makes a new creature in Christ
in them. The Holy Spirit's whole work
is to take the things of Christ and show them, to convince of
sin, John 16, 8, and 11. Sin, righteousness, and judgment. This is the Holy Spirit. This
is what he does. And Christ said, it's all concerning me. That he was made sin, brother.
Righteousness. He's made righteousness and judgment. He faced it for us. There is
therefore now no judgment, no condemnation of them. They're
where? In Christ. Salvation in one word, in two
words, is what the Holy Spirit convinces, plants, puts in the
hearts, the minds, in God's people, that salvation is to be in Christ. Not the no doctrine, but it's
the doctrine of Christ. All right, look at John 16. John
16, verses 13 and following. When he, the spirit of truth,
this is what John's been talking about, truth, spirit, antichrist. When he, the spirit of truth,
has come, he will guide you into all truth. All truth. You know
all things. He shall not speak of himself.
Whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. He will show
you things to come. John said, you know all things.
Read on. He shall glorify me. He shall
receive of mine and show it unto you. All things that the Father
hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you. God's people have a general knowledge
of all things. They know all things are in Christ. of Him, to Him, through Him,
for Him, because of Him, by Him. Christ is all. Give me a subject. Bring up a
subject. Eschatology, soteriology. What's
that? Nobody knows, nobody cares. Big
words, not in the Bible, okay. But the principle of it is salvation,
What is salvation? To be in Christ. In the end times. What's the
end times? Christ is the beginning and the
end. And in the end, He will show
the exceeding riches of His grace toward us through Christ Jesus
our Lord. It's all about Him. It's all concerning Him. All things are mine, Christ said.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and
they that dwell therein. All souls are mine. That's what
he said. And he said, cannot I do with
mine own what I will? Yes, he can and he does. And that's what we know all things. We know God who is all in all.
We know God. Who is it? It's Jesus Christ.
We know the truth. What is it? It's Jesus Christ.
What about God's love? It's in Jesus Christ. Outside
of Christ, he's a consuming fire. God doesn't love all men, but
he loves all men in Christ. What's the meaning of life? Christ.
He is the way, the truth, the life. Name a subject. What about
the Jews? All Israel is going to be saved
in Christ, by Christ. Well, he says you know all things.
Now go back to our text. You know all things. If you know
Christ, you know the truth. You know all you need to know. And so he says in 1 John 2, I'm
not written unto you because you know not the truth. You know
the truth. You have this unction, you have this teaching, you have
this anointing, you have this leadership, the Holy Spirit,
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you know all things because Christ
is God. You know the truth. Verse 21,
this makes up the whole message here. I'm not written unto you
because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and
no lie is of the truth. No lie is of the truth. Now, free will is not true. It's a lie. Anybody believes
that, It's not of the truth. They don't know the truth. They
don't know God. They don't know God. Anybody that preaches that
is not God's preacher. He doesn't know God. This is
not a question of doctrine. It's a question of who God is.
Only one person has free will, God or man. Either man is doing
as he will, because he will, with what he will, when he will.
He has free will. Or God does. Which is it? What's
this Bible say? God's people know. They know
not only from the Scripture, but they know from experience. They know the things that I would,
I do not. I cannot do. That the flesh lusts
against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh, so that we
cannot do the things that we would or will. The will is present
with me, Paul said. But how to do it, I don't know.
I don't have free will. God does. He worketh all things
how? After the counsel of His will. He doeth according to His will.
In the arms of heaven, and in the heavens and the earth. Anything
other than God's absolute sovereign will, predestined, is a lie. No lies are the truth. There's
no half-truths. It all started with Satan, who's
the father of lies. What did Satan say? I will. Isaiah 14. I will. He thought he had free will, didn't he? And he injected this
poison in man. And it pervaded mankind so that
all men think they're born with this free will. No, they're under
the bondage of Satan and their own evil will. Martin Luther
wrote a book, The Bondage of the Will. You choose, you do
what you want to do, what your nature wants to do. That's what
you do. And we will choose only evil
unless there's a new creature created. Satan put this lie, free will,
in man. Then man became anti-God. Man
became anti-Christ, didn't he? My will, not God's will. And
man's been that way ever since. And Satan has his angels who
have transformed themselves into ministers of light, preachers
of righteousness, devils, demons, and they're all robed in preacher
garb. A fellow named Joel Osteen. You
know him, he's very popular. He's the most widely listened
to television preacher on the planet right now. Used to be
Robert Shuler, but now it's Joel Osteen. He wrote a book entitled
The Power of I Am. Let me quote what he said. Listen. If you just say, I am
victorious, I am. Blessed. I am anointed. I am talented. Your words have
created power. With your word, you can bless
your future. Your word. You just say, I am. Is that not anti-Christ or what?
Who is I am? Now, if you'd ask the average
Pentecostal holiness whatever, what about that man? What do
you think about that man? They'd be afraid to say that he's false,
wouldn't they? Southern Baptists would be afraid
to say it. They'd be afraid to say it. Well, he believes Jesus. He's anti-Christ. All right, let me get a little
closer. Billy Graham. The Pope is clearly an anti-Christ. He sits at the temple as God,
thinking he's God. Protestants have their Pope too.
He died recently. He's a man like Billy Graham.
And there's a whole bunch of offshoots. His son has been raised
up in his blood. Billy Graham wrote a book, his
autobiography, Just As I Am. And the picture of him standing
there like this. There's pictures of the Pope
everywhere standing there like him. Glorifying himself. And it's a book full of all of
his victories and all of the people he's saved. And people
like him will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and say, Lord,
Lord, have we not done many wonderful works in your name? And be horrified
and shocked to hear the Lord Jesus Christ say, I never knew
you. You're a worker of iniquity.
You did this for your own name, your own glory. It was under
the pretense for God, under the pretense of the glory of God,
but it was for your own name, your own glory. I'm not a good shepherd if I
don't point out the wolf. And wolves come in sheep's clothing,
our Lord said. God the Holy Spirit teaches,
convicts, reveals, quickens. He does all of this for God's
people and they can spot them. They can spot them. No lie is
of the truth. No lie is of the truth. Here's
the truth. Here's the absolute truth, okay?
You know them as doctrine. You know them as five points.
But Spurgeon used to say, Calvinism is the gospel, and the gospel
is Calvinism. Anything less is not the gospel.
It's just a summary of the truth as it is taught in the scriptures,
the truth of who God is. Brother Cody Henson stood up
here and preached his sixth stubborn statement. This is it. This is the truth. So help me.
This book is it. God is God. He's not trying to
be God. He's not trying to be God. It's another God that preachers
say, let God be God. God over and over throughout
Isaiah says, where were you when I said, let there be light? Who
did I ask to let me be God? Has He changed? No, he said,
I am the Lord, I change not. All right, God is God. Anybody
preaching a God who wants to be God and can't be God unless
you let him be God, it's a false God. That's anti-God. That's
anti-Christ. All right, God elected a people. Is that truth? Is it necessary
to believe that? Is it God's truth? This is God's
Glory! Exodus 33, Moses says, show me
your glory. He said, I will be merciful to
whom I will be merciful. Nobody deserves it. But God,
in great love and mercy and grace, chose some of them. He shouldn't have chose anybody. Right? And He did. Unless somebody
says that's not fair. God's people never say that. God's people never say that.
God's people never say, well, I deserve a chance to be saved.
I deserve help. But God, I believe, chose me. Thank God that I wouldn't have
chosen him. No lies of the truth. Anybody that says, let go, let
God, you must choose Jesus, won't you let him? Doesn't know God,
and that's a lie, and that's not the truth. Nobody's saved
under that. All right? Limited atonement,
particular redemption. The truth, the principle, is
all the way through the Scripture. Who did the high priest go in,
holy of holy, and lay down that blood sacrifice? Who? The world. This principle is taught from
the beginning. But he had one man going into
the Holy of Holies with names on his shoulder and on his breastplate. And he laid down his life for
Israel, the sons of Jacob. Not of national people, but of
spiritual people chosen by him. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Why do you hate him? Because
he hates me. Now has Jacob loved you? Because I loved him first.
Election. Particular redemption. Christ
said, I lay down my life for the sheep. Anybody that says
Christ made a general atonement and offered salvation to all
men and shed his blood for all men, if you'll accept it, that's
a lie. That's not the truth. That means
salvation is dependent on what you do with the blood of Christ.
It's not the blood of Christ that saves you. It's what you
do with it. That's antichrist. Christ is
going to get all the glory. It's the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, that cleanses us. It's not what I do with it. What saved the children of Israel?
The children of Israel, not the Egyptians. The blood was on their
doorpost. What saved them? What they thought
about the blood? No, it was the blood. No lies of the truth. All right? Irresistible grace. The Holy Spirit. What's the Holy
Spirit do? We've just said that. The Holy
Spirit comes with invincible power. Our Lord said to Nicodemus,
a master in Israel, a teacher of all things, he knew the letter,
he knew the law, he knew the Bible, he could quote it, he
didn't know God. He didn't know Christ. He didn't know the Son
of God standing right in front of him. He wanted to argue this
and argue that. And our Lord just said, You must
be born again. Once you're born again, you'll know. The law will
be clear to you. And he said, The wind bloweth
where it listeth, Nicodemus. You can't tell the sound thereof.
There's a sign on a so-called church building in town here. It says, Holy Spirit at work.
No, it's right down there. Holy Spirit at work right now.
Oh, is He now? Our Lord said, You can't tell
the sound thereof. You don't know where He's working. He blows
where it listeth. Predict the wind. He said, so
is everyone that is born of the Spirit. He goes where God wills. He goes where God sends him.
He saves whom God will. We can't conjure him up. God
sends him. Irresistible grace. When the
Spirit of God comes, he doesn't make all this phony facade of
spirit-filled That's fake. The Spirit of God takes the things
of Christ and shows them unto you. Like that demoniac who was
talking like that before. The demoniac, the Lord clothed
him, sat him down and he's speaking in his right mind. What was the
demoniac saying? Salvation of the Lord. Salvation
is in Christ. He doesn't make you talk like
an idiot. He makes you talk about Christ. That's what the Spirit
of God does. Makes you talk about Christ.
Makes you see the glory of God in the face of Christ. And see
through all this other stuff. Alright? The irresistible power
of the Holy Spirit. And they say things like, don't
move a muscle now while the Spirit's working. Don't move a muscle
now, you'll distort the Spirit. How weak is He anyway? Got to strike while the iron's
hot. What iron? The Holy Spirit. If he's working
today, he'll work tomorrow. He's going to get who God sent
him to. Alright, the perseverance of
the saints. Brother Crabtree called it perseverance. Preserved. Kept by the power of God. Those
who are kept will keep the faith. They will hold on. Aren't you
glad? Anybody said, now you can be
saved today and lost tomorrow? They don't know God. They don't
know the truth. No lies of the truth. If God doesn't say that,
He says, I give unto them eternal life. I give unto them eternal
life. And what? They shall never perish. No man
will pluck them out of my hand. I've even heard Southern Baptists
say this, no man can pluck them out, but you can jump out. That's not funny. It's anti-Christ. That means that he's not keeping
us. We keep ourselves. Why did Noah stay in that boat? God shut him in. God made the
door, and God shut the door, and God pitched the door. What's
the door? Christ said, I'm the door. Nobody gets by me. Nobody comes in, and nobody goes
out but by me. To pluck one up for them to...
They're not getting out. They're not going out. Aren't
you glad? Brethren, all my salvation is
Jesus Christ. If I'm saved, He did it. Christ came and Christ did it,
and the Holy Spirit told me that, and he'll keep me forever. So
that means you can live like, no, I'm not even intimating that
for a minute. Not at all. Not at all. No lie is of the truth. Could I be any clearer? No partial truth. There's no
gray area when it comes to the truth. of who does the saving,
of what man is. He's dead. He's in the graveyard
dead. He's depraved. He's in the graveyard dead. He
can't do anything, like that young man that was dead. He couldn't
get up if you asked him to. Christ had to come and raise
him. And you had to be quickened who
were dead. I missed that point there. That's the first point.
Total depravity. What happened in the garden?
My pastor preached a message years ago, and every man I know
has preached it and preached it and preached it and preached
it. Three questions. And all the truth stems from
this and hangs on this. Three questions. You need to
know the answer. All God's people do. They know the truth. And
even our little children know it in their heads. What happened
in the garden? What happened? Did man die? That
he becomes spiritually unable, unable to do anything. Can't even call on God. Did he? That's what God said. Dead. And
you have to be quickened, you were dead. Why does anybody call?
It quickens you. And you begin to call. He calls
you. Alright? What happened on the
cross? What happened in the garden? And religion doesn't know this,
and preachers don't preach this. They don't know this. What happened
on the cross? What happened on the cross? Did
Jesus Christ do what he came to do? Did he save his people
on Calvary's tree? Did he bind the serpent? Did
he crush the serpent's head? Did he? Did he blot out the handwriting
of ordinances against God's people? Did he? Did he fulfill the law?
Was he made sin, and we were made righteous? Was the righteousness
of Christ imputed to God's people? Was it? Did He? Did He do that
work? I'll tell you what He said. It's
finished. He said, I finished the work He gave me to do. There's
no gray area there. Third question. What happens
in the heart of the sinner when God saves him? Is it a cooperative
effort? Does he let go, let God? Does
He give in? He doesn't do nothing. The Spirit
of God comes and moves like He did on the face of the waters
on the earth. An inanimate world moved on the face of the water.
And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And then
God created life. That's what happens. We're passive. We're totally passive. Dead,
inanimate clay. And the Spirit of God comes mysteriously,
miraculously, powerfully, sovereignly upon whom He will, and takes
the Word of God, the seed of God, and plants it in a lifeless
human being. Life. And you can't kill it,
because it's the life of God. It's forever. Anything less than
that, anything more than that, anything in addition to that,
anything that says, well, but, but, but, is a lie. And no lie
is untrue. So help me the Word of God. That's
what it says. And we keep saying these same
things, don't we? Let such as love thy salvation
say, The Lord be magnified, of him, to him, through him. See,
that no flesh should glory in his presence. Right? That God
be the Lord. Great thanks. He hath done. Okay.