Now, let's turn back in our Bibles
to the passage that Brother Jim read in 1 John, chapter 2. 1 John, chapter 2. I've entitled this message this
morning, Christ and Antichrist. Christ and Antichrist, obviously
from verse 18 there, the term Antichrist is used. That seems
to be a popular subject in religion today, antichrist, who is or
what is antichrist. And I'm going to deal with that
in just a moment. But first of all, I want to introduce this
message by making some statements and imposing some questions. Now, it seems to be an obvious
statement to say that the true Christian life here on this earth
is not an easy life. It's a very difficult life. And
one of the reasons is that this world is not our home. This world
is sort of typified, the life of a Christian, the life of the
church on this earth, this sojourn is sort of typified by the journey
of the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. before they got to the promised
land. The number 40 is a symbol of
testing. Remember, our Lord went up on
the mount to be tempted of Satan for 40 days and 40 nights. It
rained 40 days and 40 nights back in the days of Noah. That's
a number of testing. Well, this life here on earth
for the church, for a believer individually, is a time of testing
so that When we ask the question, when is this trial going to be
over? The answer is never. Not in this
life, is what I mean. Never in this life. Or when is
this trial going to end? I've often told people, it's
as soon as the next one begins. That's the way it is. I've heard
people say, well, I just want to worship where there's peace.
Well, where is that? I'm serious. I'm not being facetious
here. Now, we have peace with God in
Christ. That's the peace that passes
understanding. That's eternal peace brought
about by Him. But as far as peace on this earth,
we just don't have it. Christ said it to His disciples
in Matthew chapter 10. He said, I didn't come to bring
peace. Now, what was He talking about?
He's the Prince of Peace, isn't He? He's called the Prince of
Peace. In Isaiah chapter 9, that great
prophecy of Him, of one whose name is Peace, the Prince of
Peace. He's the reconciler. What is it to reconcile? Well,
you take two parties who are at odds, enemies, and you bring
them together. And there's peace. Well, Christ
is the great reconciler. And He brings, He has brought
peace between God and His people. That's what he was doing on the
cross when he died for the sins of his sheep and made them a
right standing before God by his righteousness. That's what
2 Corinthians 5.21, what the whole chapter actually is about.
Peace made between God and sinners. And then he brings peace between
us who know him. Now, that peace is challenged.
The peace that we have with one another, as believers, as brethren
in the faith, is challenged by many things. First of all, it's
challenged by ourselves. You know, I'm the greatest hindrance
to my peace with you. Did you know that? You're the
greatest hindrance to your peace with me. And that's called the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit. You say, how can you
have peace in any warfare? Well, first of all, we know the
victory is already won by our Savior. We're going through a
warfare, and it's not easy. And I'll tell you, it takes a
lot of work. And I'm not talking about working for your salvation
now. Because if that's it, then we're goners, as the old guy
said. But it's hard. I mean, it's just
tough. You know it is. Having to deal
with each other. Having to deal with ourselves.
So it's not an interrupted peace that we have with each other.
We'll do things. We'll say things. We'll take
things wrong. We'll wear our emotions on our
sleeves. And anything anybody says will
just hurt us or take it wrong. Or we may just get downright
mean sometimes. You ever done that? We just do. And we know it's wrong. that
our salvation is secure in the hands of Christ, but that's no
excuse for any bad behavior. Any person who uses grace as
an excuse for sin doesn't know God. And that's so, because grace
is not just a doctrine now. It is a doctrine, but it's a
powerful principle within that takes hold of us. That's what
John's talking about here. He speaks of that which remains
in you. That unction, that word unction
means anointing. Verse 20, you have an unction,
we have an unction from the Holy One. We have an unction from
Christ. It goes back to pictures like the anointing oil in the
Old Testament that they used to anoint the priest with. It's
the same word that he used over in verse 27, but the anointing
which you have. Now you know you might hear that
word anoint thrown around on television. so-called Christian
circles today, and what the anointing is to them is like a virus that
one Christian catches, and he's got to try to spread it to everybody
else. That's not what that's talking about. This is an unction
and anointing that every believing sinner has. If you don't have
this anointing, you're not regenerate. This unction, you're not born
again. You're lost. You're unsaved. So this is common to all believers,
this anointing here. It's not just for a select few,
or it's not for the super-spiritual or the religiously obnoxious. And there's plenty of that to
go around. And it spreads pretty quick,
too. But the thing about it is, this
thing of the Christian life, it's a hard thing. Not only do
we have to deal with our own sins, remaining sin, in the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit, But we have to deal with the
attacks of Satan upon the church here on earth. Now Satan, in
some sense, is a finished being. When Christ died on the cross,
he removed all of the valid accusations that Satan could bring against
his people. Because he took those sins, God
the Father laid those sins upon the person of Christ. He was
our substitute. He is our substitute. He is our
sin-bearer, our sin-offering. And so that when Christ took
our sins to the cross and He finished them off, He made an
end of them, Daniel said. So that the full penalty of God's
just and holy law against our sins can never bring us back
under condemnation. Now that is the peace that passes
all understanding. That is the blessedness of all
who look to Christ and who rest in Him and who see Him as their
all in all. He is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our redemption. So that when Satan brings his
accusations, in God's law books, you might say, or in God's court
of justice, those accusations cannot stick. Because I stand
before you today as a justified sinner, made right in the sight
of God, not by any of my works, not by who I am, but by the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we can say, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Now, when we look at each other,
we see many faults. When we look at ourselves, we
see many faults. But in God's sight, through Christ,
based on His blood and righteousness, we're holy, unblameable, and
unreprovable in His sight. And that's peace now. But Satan,
even though he is in some sense finished, he's still allowed
by God to work and to deceive, to attack, to bother, to Buffet,
there's all kinds of words in the scripture that use for it,
and he will not stop until the end of this age, when the Lord
comes back and puts him away. And then we have the onslaughts
of the world, they attack too. So this is not an easy thing.
But you know, one of the saddest, one of the most upsetting situations
that we read of in the Bible, is when those who profess to
know Christ, those who give some evidence for a while that they
know Christ, that they are regenerate, and those whom we have embraced
as brothers and sisters in Christ, when they fall away unto apostasy,
when they leave the gospel, that hurts, doesn't it? That's a sad
situation. And that's what John is dealing
with here. Now, given that, I want to ask
you this question, and you can pose it to yourself. Have you
ever considered yourself, and I know this is not a bad thing
to consider if we end up in the Word of God, but have you ever
asked yourself this question, well, could I be a false professor?
Could I be one of those who, at a later time, Now, today we're
sitting here and we claim to believe the gospel, but could
I be one of those who at a later time that I forsake it? Could I be deceived right now
about myself? Could I be one who just knows
Christ in name only and not in heart? Okay. That's the question. Now, if
you've ever asked that question, and if that question ever comes
on your mind, And if it bothers you, if it really worries you,
there's several things I want you to consider. First of all,
I want you to consider studying the verses that I'm going to
be preaching on today and throughout the coming weeks, because they're
important to you. Now, you know, if that question,
if you say, well, I don't really care, well, I can't do much with
you, but if this is an issue of importance to you, all right,
I beg you to study the Scriptures here in 1 John without confusion,
just as simply as I can put them to you. Now, the second thing
I want you to understand is this. According to God's Word now,
I'm not talking about some preacher in the Reformation, I'm talking
about according to God's Word, not only is it God's will that
we have strong consolation strong comfort, strong assurance of
our own salvation. We're also commanded to seek
it. 2 Peter 1.10, or 1 Peter 1.10, I can't remember, but you
can look it up. It's God's Word. Give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. That's a command. That's a command. That's not
a suggestion, is it? Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. And then we also find that that's
the reason these scriptures were written back over here in 1 John
5 and verse 13. He says, these things have I
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.
Look there, verse 13 and 1 John 5, we read it before. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God that you may know. That you may know. that you have
eternal life. Can we know it? Well, these things
were written that you may know. Now, who were they written by?
I'll tell you who they were written by. They were written by God.
John was just the instrument. So this is not, you know, when
I went to seminary, they used to talk about Pauline theology. You know what that is? That's
Paul's theology. Then they talk about Johannine theology. You
know that? That's crazy. What a word. That's
John's theology. Well, let me tell you something
about John and Paul's theology. It's God's theology. That's right,
because God's the one who wrote this book. He just used a man
named Paul, a man named John, a man named Peter, a man named
James as instruments. So this is the Word of God. So
these things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life,
and that you may believe, that is, continue to believe on the
name of the Son of God. In essence, the only way you
can know that you have eternal life is by continuing to believe
on the name of the Son of God. Now, go back to 1 John 2. Now,
I'm going to take some time in these scriptures here, because
they are so important. Not that other scriptures aren't,
but these are questions that believers struggle with. And
these are questions that even unbelievers need answered so
that they might be encouraged to flee to Christ. Because I'm
telling you, that's your only hope. If you're sitting here
today and you don't know Christ, lost in your sins, your only
hope of salvation, your only hope of real, lasting, eternal
peace, your only hope of eternal life and glory is to flee to
Christ. Don't depend one moment on yourself
and on your own works or on some past profession that you made. You know, that's common today.
You ask people, are you saved? And in many, they go back to
some way, past profession, back when they were young. I'll tell
you what, number one, don't go back except for one reason. You know, the only time the Bible,
God's Word, tells us to look to the past as far as assurance
of salvation is concerned. We look to the past when we study
the Old Testament and the New Testament. But as far as assurance
of salvation is concerned, you know, the only time and the only
way and the only place where to look to the past is when Paul
said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, His finished work in the past. So if you go
back to your profession when you were 12 and walked an aisle
and got into a baptismal pool, you haven't gone back far enough.
If that's your assurance, then I'm telling you right now, it's
not good enough. It's not good enough. And plus the fact, too,
you know, people they'll try to say that we used to talk about
our spiritual birthday in false religion. I don't know when my
spiritual birth. I don't know. I can't tell you
a day in a time I was born again. It doesn't matter. The question
is, am I looking to Christ today? Am I resting in Christ today? That's the issue, isn't it? We'll
look here in 1 John 2 and verse 18. Now, he'd already said in verse
17, the world's passing away, the world's not going to last,
it's corrupt, it's dying, but he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever. What am I doing the will of God?
Well, what's he talking about there? Somebody said, well, he's
talking about being perfect. Well, if that's true, then none
of us are going to abide forever. What's he talking about, doing
the will of God? He's talking about what Christ taught him
to talk about. You know, I've often said, if
you want to know what these apostles meant when they used these terms,
go back to where the Lord taught them and use the same term. And
you remember when he said in Matthew 7 on the Sermon on the
Mount, he said, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of
my Father. You remember that? And then he
used the example of those false preachers who were lifting up
what they thought God had enabled them to do. as their righteousness
before God. Look at what God has enabled
me to do. That's just as much a boast as
if you would stand up here and say, I did it without God. Because
I'm going to tell you something. Now listen to me. God does enable
his people to do some marvelous, miraculous, great things. I'll
tell you the greatest of all. He enables you to believe. Because
you wouldn't do it apart from God's power. Let me tell you
something. None of what God enables us to
do makes up our righteousness before God. Only Christ and Him
crucified is our righteousness before God. Now, if you have
any other, you're in trouble. I'm telling you. Think about
it. But here's the thing. Now, what
did He say there in that passage of Matthew 7? What did the Lord
say? Immediately after that, do you know what He said? He
said, he used the parable, here's a man, he's building his house
on sand, and the rains come, and the winds come, and it goes
against that house and it falls, because it's built on sand. But
he that builds his house on what? The rock! The rains come, the
winds, and it stands because it's built on a rock. Now what
is it in that context to do the will of the Father? It's to build
your house on the rock. Now, who's the rock? Christ Jesus. Are you looking to Christ? He
that looks to Christ and follows Him and rests in Him, He abides
forever. You say, well, I'm just disappointed
in myself. Well, you will be. And if you're
not, I'd probably worry about you. I'm disappointed in myself. We used to talk about, well,
we just need to do the best we can do. I've never done anything
that I didn't feel like I could do better. Have you? You say, well, I'm disappointed
in others. Well, that's self-righteousness. That's when you're trying to
remove the splinter out of their eye before you get rid of the
beam in your own. So these things come about now. So who's going
to abide forever? Those who do the will of the
Father, those who do the will of God, those who look to Christ.
You say it can't be that simple. I'm going to tell you something,
that is the hardest and most complicated thing for the natural
man to understand, because he can't. And it is that simple. It's really not even high theology. It's just impossible to receive
because the natural man thinks so highly of himself and his
accomplishments. So he says in verse 18, he says,
little children, that's a term of endearment, a term of love.
Little children means exactly what it says, little children.
It's the last time. That's the age. The time that
John speaks of is the time that we're living in right now, 2007. It's the time period between
the Lord's ascending unto his Father after his death and resurrection,
and the time that he comes back again. John is describing our
age. This is like a current events
passage. Because what was going on in
his time, in principle, is going on in our time, and will continue
to go on until Christ comes again. And he says, and as you have
heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists. And this is the way we know it's
the last time, he says. Antichrist. What a term. What
does it mean? It's a compound word. Anti. You know what anti means. If
you're anti something, it means you're against it. Christ. That's the Messiah. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. Antichrist against the Lord Jesus
Christ. Pretty simple, isn't it? Now,
when we hear the term antichrist or antichrist in most circles,
it sets people out to try to find some political figure who's
going to rule most of the world in a religious way from Jerusalem
and set up a kingdom in the temple. That's not yet built. But that's
not what John's talking about. John's talking about anything
that is against Christ. Specifically, he's talking about
this. Now, think of antichrist this way. It has to do with those
who profess the name of Christ and come claiming to preach in
the name of Christ, but who actually deny Christ. They actually deny. They say they love Him, they
say they know Him, they say they believe in Him and trust Him
and rest in Him, but they actually deny Him. Well, how did they
deny Him? Well, there's a lot of ways to
deny Christ. First of all, look over at 1
John 4, verse 3. He's talking about false
prophets. Incidentally, John is just... Talking about false preachers
and false prophets is just another way of saying Antichrist to John. And he says in verse 3, in every
spirit that confesseth not, verse 3 of 1 John 4, that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh, is not of God. Now that's directed at
a specific heresy in that day. It was called the Gnostic heresy.
It was a mysticism. And I'll show you something about
that in a moment. But here's what they would say. Well, they'd
say flesh is evil, material is evil. And therefore Christ, because
he was not evil, he could not have had a fleshly body, because
flesh is evil. Therefore they denied that he
actually came in the flesh. John says, well now anybody who
preaches that is not of God and this is that spirit of antichrist. Where have you heard that it
should come? And even now already it is in the world. Now, what's
going on here? Well, you've got people who claim
to preach Christ, who claim to trust Christ, who claim to love
Christ, but they're denying the doctrine of Christ. They're denying
the truth of Christ, who He is. You see, He had to be made flesh. Flesh in itself is not evil. He's talking about the human
body there. Our flesh is evil. That's talking about the inward
sin, human sinful nature. That's what that's talking about.
We fell in Adam. And we were born spiritually
dead, without God, without hope, without any knowledge spiritually,
without any desire spiritually. That's why we have to be born
again. That which is flesh, that which is born of the flesh is
flesh. We have to be born of the Spirit. You must be born
again. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. We have
to be regenerated, the Scripture says. Incidentally, you notice
it says regenerated, not generated? Think about that a while. We
have to be born again. We have to be made anew. And I can't describe that to
you other than to say that it is the impartation or the infusion,
if you will, of spiritual life, spiritual knowledge, the graces
of the Spirit, faith to believe Christ, repentance. They're all
the gift of God by the power of the Spirit. The fruit of the
Spirit that's listed in Galatians chapter 5, love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, all of those things. are spiritual principles that
are implanted in the heart of a born-again person. How the
Holy Spirit does it, I don't know. He hasn't let us in on
that. If you can find it between Genesis
to Revelation, bring it to me and I'll preach on it. What's
the nature of that operation? I don't know, but it's not in
this book either. If I claim to have knowledge
of that that is not in this book, you know what that makes me?
It makes me a Gnostic. I'll show you what I mean in
a minute. Now think about this. So he says here, they claim to
know Christ, but they deny the doctrine of Christ. Look over
at 2 John and look at verse 7. He says here, he says, for many
deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh. They deny the doctrine of his
humanity. Now, you cannot truly believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ and deny the doctrine of His humanity.
You see, He had to die on the cross. Without the shedding of
blood, there's no forgiveness. There's no salvation. And God
Himself cannot die. He's Spirit. He has no blood,
no body like you and I. Therefore, the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. Now, He was without sin. He was
made of the seed of David according to the flesh. He was without
sin. His flesh was perfect. He suffered the infirmities of
the flesh, the weaknesses of the flesh, but in a sinless way. He died for sins that were laid
upon Him, charged Him. He bore the sin of many. That's
what the Scripture teaches. But if they deny the doctrine
of His humanity, He says in verse 7, this is a
deceiver and an antichrist. They deny the doctrine of his
humanity. Some today deny the doctrine
of his deity. The Jehovah Witnesses. They're
not Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah is God who saves. Jehovah
Witnesses of Christ who is God. Not Christ who is not God. They
claim he's not God. They deny the doctrine of his
deity. That is a deceiver and an antichrist. Some deny the
doctrine of his finished work. What did he accomplish on Calvary?
Did he try to save people? Or did he actually save his people
from their sins? What does the Bible teach? That's
the question. It's not what Pastor So-and-So
says or what the Reverend Dr. Such-and-Such said. What does
the Bible say? Did he accomplish it? For his
name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. He redeemed us with his precious
blood, the Scripture says. He didn't try to redeem anybody. He redeemed. He paid the price.
He said, this is the will of the Father which is sent me,
that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but
raise it up again at the last day. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He didn't try to save anybody.
That's a deceiver and an antichrist. He saved his people from their
sins. Look on in verse 8, he says,
look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have
wrought, that is, that word wrought there means that we have gained,
that we have been given, not that we've worked. but that we
receive a full reward. Now, the full reward there is
not you get a mansion and I get a tent. The full reward is glory
that will be given to all who go to be with the Lord in heaven.
So he says in verse 9, now listen to this. I want you to notice
this very carefully. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. the doctrine of
his person, the doctrine of his finished work. Christ and him
crucified. Now that word transgresseth,
if I can say it here, is an interesting word. Now you know what sin,
the Bible says sin is the transgression of the law. You know what it
really means here? They go too far. Whosoever goes
too far. Now what does that mean? They
go beyond the scriptures. They go where the Word of God
doesn't go. They have ideas. They have thoughts. They have theology. But it's
not according to this Word. You talk to them and say, now
what verse of Scripture do you base that on? Well, I just jerk
one word out of a verse and I'm going to make a denomination
on it. No. They go too far. So he says, whosoever goes too
far and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. Now,
he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father
and the Son. Now, what's John been talking
about? Our fellowship with the Father, our fellowship with the
Son. How do we know we have fellowship with the Father? We abide in
the doctrine of Christ, what God's word says about it. If
there come any unto you, verse 10, and bring not this doctrine.
Receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed." Now
what John's talking about is he's not saying that you can
never have an unbeliever in your house. He's saying you can never
have spiritual religious fellowship with an unbeliever. That's what
he means. He says, for he that biddeth
him Godspeed is a partaker. Now that's another fellowship
word. It doesn't mean that this guy's doctrine is infused into
you. It means you're in fellowship with Him. If you bid Him Godspeed,
you've struck hands with Him. You're in fellowship with Him.
You're a partaker of what? Look at what it says there. His
what? His evil deeds. Now, we would
have no problem if a knock came on our door, and a fellow was
handing out literature, and it was promoting drug use in the
United States. or alcoholism. We'd have no trouble
shutting the door on that fellow and saying, I'm not with you.
Would you? Well, what about when they show
up for prayer, but they bring not this doctrine, the Word of
God? You say, well, they're so sincere.
So is the drug pusher. Ain't that right? You say, well,
they just look so moral. Well, I've seen drug pushers
arrested that certainly didn't look what I thought of as a drug
pusher. I don't know about you. They say cocaine use in the United
States is highest among the affluent, because they're the only ones
who can afford it. See, you can't go by, look, what
do you go by? The Word of God. Now, go back to 1 John 2. That's the spirit of Antichrist.
And there's a lot of ways of denying Christ. There are those
who stand up and openly deny Him. We're not deceived by them.
Remember what John is saying over here in verse 26 of 1 John
2. These things have I written unto you concerning them that
seduce you. That is people who appear outwardly to be Christian. There's a draw, you see. And
there's an outward appearance. You remember Paul wrote in Galatians
chapter 1, though we or an angel from heaven preach any other
gospel unto you than that which we preach, let him be anathema.
They come preaching a gospel of works religion, works salvation,
legalism. What is that? Well, they speak
so eloquently. Though we or an angel from heaven.
They look so good. They've got such a big following.
What are they? That's the spirit of Antichrist.
Sometimes the spirit of Antichrist comes in the form of confusion.
You know, the Bible was not written to confuse us. You know, most
of the time when we're confused by the scriptures, it's not the
scriptures that's confusing us, it's us. You know that? Now, that doesn't mean that we
have a handle on everything in here and that we're just experts
now or anything like that. I know the plain truth is in
every verse of this Bible, Genesis to Revelation. If I'm confused,
you know who's at fault? Me. There's some lazy Bible students
here this morning, aren't you? You're lazy Bible students. Don't even study on your own. I'll study for you. But that's
not good enough, is it? But see, when you say, well,
I just don't know what that means. Well, find out what it means.
It's there. And then there's people who are
confused by preaching. Preachers can't confuse you.
Paul wrote of that in 2 Corinthians 11. You remember he said, I'm
afraid for you, that you might be deceived like Eve was deceived
by Satan's subtlety, by those who would take your minds away
from the simplicity that's in Christ. That single message of
Christ and Him crucified. And remember, he went on down
there, he said, if he comes preaching another gospel, another Jesus,
claim to preach Jesus, but it's another one by another spirit. That's Antichrist. What does
Antichrist do? The first thing Antichrist does
is he leaves the fellowship of believers. Now, understand here,
verse 18, he's talking about apostasy. Look at verse 19. They went out from us, but they
were not of us." Do you hear that? In other words, those who
leave the fellowship of believers. Now, he's not talking about a
believer acting like an unbeliever here. And we can do that now.
He's talking about something else. Now, hold on, let me show
you. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. See, they didn't lose salvation,
they were not of us, he said. Of who? The house of God, the
family of God, the people of God. And he says, for if they
had been of us, if they had truly been born again, truly been saved,
truly belonged to Christ, they would have continued with us. The translator added, no doubt.
They would have continued with us. That they might be made manifest
that they were not all of us. You see, salvation is not the
result of continuing with us. Continuing with us is the evidence
of salvation. So that if those who leave the
fellowship of believers, and he's talking about apostasy here,
that means total falling away. Not just getting sidetracked,
even believers can do that. But he said if they do that,
if they fall away totally, they never were of us. Secondly, they
deny the gospel. Look at 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. Denying the gospel, who Christ
is and what he accomplished on Calvary. Denying his blood as
the only way of forgiveness of sins. Denying his righteousness
imputed as our only right standing before God. That's Jehovah who saves. He
is the Messiah. And then he says, then they try
to deceive or seduce believers. Verse 26, these things have I
written unto you concerning them that seduce you. In other words,
Antichrist doesn't go out alone. He's got to drag other people
with him. Seduce believers. But now look
back at verse 20. Now listen to this, he says,
but you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all
things. This unction, as I said, this
is that power of the Holy Spirit represented back in the Old Testament
of the oil that was put upon the priest, that soothing, healing
oil. And this unction here is the
anointing. of the Holy Spirit in the new
birth. You've been born again. You've been born again. He says
over in verse 29, look at it. He says, if you know that he
is righteous, if you know Christ is righteous, you know that everyone
that doeth righteousness is born of him. They've been anointed.
What is it to do righteousness? Somebody said, well, it means
to stop sinning. Well, if that's the case, none of us do it. What
is doing righteousness? Looking to Christ. That's what
doing righteousness is. Following Him. Running the race
of grace, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. That's doing righteousness. Abiding in Him. That's doing
righteousness. That's doing justly before God. How can I say that I, a sinner,
ever do justly before God? I plead the blood and righteousness
of Christ. It is a way of life. It is a
tenor of life. It is a practice that every anointed sinner does. Remember last time I preached
on it, I said, what will a Christian do? He'll do the will to fight.
He'll do righteousness. He'll follow Christ. He'll look
to Christ. He'll rest in Christ and His
blood and righteousness alone. What will he not do? He will
never totally forsake Christ. He may get off on a tangent like
David of old did. He may act like an idiot for a little while, but God will
bring him back. He cannot leave Christ. You know why? Because
salvation is of the Lord. Conditioned on Christ. Based
on his finished work. And because of this unction right
here. The Holy Spirit has done a great powerful work within
you, and he has implanted within your heart the word of God, and
it will never leave you." He says you know all things. You
see, the unction comes from the Holy One. The Holy One there
is Christ. What he is talking about is how the work of the
Holy Spirit in us in the new birth proceeds from the Father
and the Son. The work of the Holy Spirit in
us, that powerful work in the new birth, is the fruit and result
of what God has purposed and what Christ has purchased. He
said in John 16 and verse 7 to his disciples, he said, it is
expedient, necessary that I go away. Then where was he going
away to? He's going to the Father. What way? The way of the cross.
And he said, it's expedient, necessary that I go away, for
if I go not away, the Comforter will not come. You see, if Christ
had not done his great work at Calvary, there'd be no comfort
for sinners, would there? What comfort could we have without
a Redeemer? What comfort could we have without a surety? What
comfort could we have without a mediator? What comfort could
we have without a high priest, a savior to take our place and
do what we could not do for ourselves and stand before a holy God in
our place and plead our cause? What comfort could we have apart
from that? So we have an unction from Christ. It's the power of
the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit. to pour the anointing
oil of spiritual life upon us and in us, and implant the Word
of God within our hearts." And he says, you know all things.
Now, he doesn't mean we know everything, literally. But I'll
tell you what, we know Christ, and He is all. Isn't it? I like that. There's some things
that just hadn't penetrated this old hard head up here, but I
know Christ. And he's my all in all. And I'll
tell you this, all things that I need to know are right here
in this book. And I'm going to explore it and read it and study
it, worship around it. That's why we come to church,
isn't it? You know, really, there's very little in our worship services
to appeal to the flesh. I mean, we sing songs, we have
some special songs, but we're not entertainers here. You know,
we don't have piped in or canned music and movies and all that.
And people come up and say, well, what do you do for our children?
Well, I preach the gospel to them. Preach the Word of God. That's what appeals to the Spirit. And you know all things. He says
in verse 21, let me hurry, 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 Christ. He said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. I'm going to tell you something,
folks. Anything that denies the person and work of Christ, anything
that avoids the person and work of Christ, anything that confuses
the person and work of Christ, you run from it just like you
would run from that old drug pusher who's trying to get your
children hooked on drugs. That's more deadly than the drugs.
Because in this matter, we're talking about spiritual life,
aren't we? Alright. Okay, we're going to continue
in on that. I urge you to study these Scriptures. Because it
will be a help to you. It will be a comfort to you.
And flee to Christ. And keep on fleeing to Him. In
our lives. Alright, buddy. Come on in. I
think we're going to sing, He hideth my soul in the cleft of
the rock. What number is that? 258. 258.