Let me offer you a word of scripture,
and let this be our prayer to God as we start. This is from
James 1, verse 5. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally, and reproaches
no man, and it shall be given. As we get into our topic this
morning, as I read the texts for the morning, I think you'll
see why we need wisdom. I don't mean to be controversial,
but the mere topic will be. Our texts for the morning come
from 1 and 2 John, towards the back of the Bible. The first
text will be 1 John 2, verse 18. It is the last time, and as ye
have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many
Antichrists whereby we know it is the last time. Then 1 John
chapter 2 verses 21 through 23. I have not written unto you because
ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is
of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ? The same is Antichrist that denieth
the Father and the Son. Whoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father. Third text, third verse will
be from 1 John chapter 4 verses 2 and 3. Hereby shall ye know
the Spirit of God. Every spirit which confesseth
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Every spirit
that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God, but this is the Spirit of Antichrist, of whom
ye have heard, how that he should come and now already is in this
world. The fourth verse is from 2 John
chapter 1 verse 7. Many deceivers are entered into
this world which confess not that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. He that is such a one is a deceiver and antichrist. What led to this sermon this
week I hate sometimes that sermons
are driven by recent events, but it happens. And we have to
address recent events. Things in the world are escalating. There's rumors of war now. We're heightened to the sense
of urgency. The situation in Ukraine with
Russia and all that that may or may not bring about for the
United States. And if you turn on the Christian
TV, Everybody's abuzz. The Antichrist will be known
soon. Time is focusing to that end. Who is the Antichrist? He's here
now. He's ready to come about. Well,
that got me to thinking. And the only place to find answers
is in the scripture. And that's where I began, and
that's where hopefully we'll stay today in my comments. I drew from the letters of John
for a reason. John is the only author in the
New Testament that actually uses the word antichrist. It comes
from the Greek compound word, two words, anti meaning against,
and Christos, Christ. John is the only author in the
New Testament that uses this word. So it seemed to me that
that is where we must go to begin the search, to begin to gain
our understanding. The epistle of John, the letters
of John were written by John, the disciple, apostle. The exact audience is unknown
to us. It was a letter or a series of
letters written by John as all of the letters in the New Testament
were written by somebody and then copied and circulated among
all of the churches. The exact target church, the
body that John originally wrote to is uncertain. But we assume
from the text that these were people that John knew personally,
because the letters are of a very intimate nature. They're not
generic. They're not general. He uses
terms that indicate that he had a close relationship with these
people. He speaks of them as beloved. As always, the letters were copied
and distributed all over the place. The date that the letters
were written, appear to be between 60 and 65 A.D. And John wrote the letters to
deal with false teaching in the churches there. Most of the New
Testament was written to deal with false teaching. Within 30
years of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
the church was inundated with false teachers. People who took
the message of Christ and added to it, subtracted from it, went
different directions with it. The church was covered up with
those people. Paul wrote about it. Jude wrote about it. John
wrote about it. Peter wrote about it. John, in
this instance, is writing to deal with a theological problem
in the church. Again, a people that he was close
to, a people that he had a personal relationship. He had an interest
in making sure that these dear ones, these brothers and sisters
in Christ, knew the truth. He was dealing with primarily
two errors in doctrine. One is what has historically
become known to us as Docetism, and the other was what was the
very beginnings of Gnosticism in the early church. Each of
these had some similar aspects to them, and John addresses these.
But basically, Docetism denied that Christ came in the flesh. The word docet is a word that
means spirit, phantom, or illusion. The Docetists did not believe
that God, being pure spirit, could or would inhabit the flesh. But he did, in Christ, have the
appearance of a man. Jesus was not really flesh, according
to them. The Gnostics held to some of
that. They held that the truth was
the higher reality and that the flesh was insignificant. So we did not need to pay attention
to the flesh. And as that viewpoint came in,
it split into two extremes. One is that Gnostics tended,
extreme Gnostics tended to deny the flesh completely. They wouldn't
partake in fleshly things. They were against pleasures of
the flesh because they were so devoted to the spirit. And then
the other extreme was that they would Encourage the flesh in
every possible way because the flesh was insignificant, did
not matter when compared to true spirit, so it didn't matter what
you did. So indulge the flesh. Indulge
the flesh. And this is what John has written
to correct. Now let us remember And I say
this always, and Brother Bill tells us this too, there is a
context and we must look at the context. This letter was written
to real people at a real time and a real place. And it meant
something to those people. And it's that that we want to
get into today because we are secondary readers. We are far
removed from the original letter and it would help us understand
and to know the truth if we can read it and sense it as they
did, and then bring the principle forward. Now, John had to address
these issues because bad theology will always result in bad practice. That's a given. You can't separate
that. If you have bad theology, it
will result in bad practice. And it was in that church. We talked about what the errors
were. Dosettis said that Christ was not a real person. He was
a spirit that had the appearance of a person, but he was not a
person. And then those of the Gnostic
elements that were creeping into the church there held that the
flesh was insignificant and really there is no sin. There is no sin. Whatever you
do one way or another does not matter because the flesh is completely
insignificant when compared to the spirit. John writes to correct
these things. If you look at the very beginning
of John's epistle, in chapter one, verses one through four,
you see how John begins his letter. John, of course, was an eyewitness
to Jesus Christ. And that is where he begins stating
his authority as a witness to Christ. But notice what he says
and how he addresses the Dosettist viewpoint. John was there in
the beginning. We heard. The Docetist would not argue
the point that they heard Christ. Wouldn't argue that. We saw.
Again, the Docetist would not deny that. The significant factor
comes in, in we touched. We touched. John is clearly stating
that Jesus was no ghost. no mere image, no phantom, no
illusion. He was a man, a real person. We were there with Him. We saw
Him. We heard Him. We touched Him.
We touched Him. Remember, when Christ appeared
again after His resurrection, He sat and ate with them. That's significant. Physical
people, people with real presence eat. Ghosts don't eat. He encouraged the disciples to
touch him. Now, it was a fault in Thomas
that he didn't believe, but Jesus encouraged him. Touch the nail
holes. Touch me. I'm real. I'm real. But those there had
crept into the church and they were saying, yes, we believe
in God. We believe in Christ, but we have a better understanding
of it. And Jesus, yes, you perceived
him as a man, but he was really pure spirit and not so much a
man. Well, this was a problem. And
John writes to correct that. Going further then, in the text,
down on, he addresses the issue of sin. Jesus, as a real man,
at a real time and a real place, addressed the issue of sin in
this world. He dealt with people who were
engaged in sin. He corrected them in their sin.
Ultimately, of course, we understand that he died for our sins. Jesus addressed sin, and John
is recognized that Jesus was a real person. The flesh does
matter. What we do in the flesh does
matter. And John tells us that if someone says that we
have no sin, we do not sin. That one is a liar. Something that comes across in
the epistles of John that I think is wonderful is that John is
blunt. This is not a flowery letter.
It's not to puff anybody up. It is to correct what he understands
is a very serious problem in the church. Something that is
leading people away from the truth of God and Jesus Christ. He just puts it right out on
the table. Look, if these people are saying this, they are liars. We don't hear that much. We're
far too genteel in our day and age to stand up in the pulpit
and say, so-and-so has said this. He's a liar. We won't say that. John puts it out on the table.
This is serious. This is the truth about our Lord
and Savior. John wastes no words. Somebody
says these things, they are liars. And he adds another, the truth
is not in them. John at this point then introduces
a word to the text to describe these people. The ones that are
saying these things Antichrist. Antichrist. John puts it out
there. Those who are saying these things
are Antichrist. Now, it's important to note as we
read these texts that John does not say the Antichrist. He uses it as a descriptive term,
not a title or a noun. It is a descriptive term, anti-Christ,
against Christ. Keep that in mind as we go forward. Keep that in mind even as you
go back and read these texts later, if you do. He is using
it as a descriptive, not as a title. Now, John wrote this about 65
AD to a real people in a real place, and he meant for them
to understand some things. Let's look at some of the things
that John mentions to them. And remember, these are people
that we assume because of the intimacy of the text that he
knew. So these were friends of his, brothers and sisters in
Christ. But look at some of the things that he mentions to them.
In the past, he had already told them that Antichrist was coming. He told them Antichrist was coming. He now tells them Antichrist,
many Antichrists, are there with you now. He told them in the
past, there would be Antichrist. He writes them now and says,
Antichrist is there with you now. Another thing he tells them
is that these Antichrist, these liars, now he uses both terms
to describe the same people. These liars, these Antichrist,
used to be believers, or they were reckoned to be believers.
He says, they were with us, but they left us. They were with us, but they left
us. And then he tells us that they now are back among us, but
they are preaching not Christ. The language is there. They will
talk about God. They will talk about Christ.
But it is not the Christ that we know. Paul warns in another
place of heresy that's coming into the church as well. And
he says, there are those among you that are preaching another
Jesus, another gospel. This is what John is addressing.
This is what John is addressing. Why is this important? Why are
we talking about this today? The reason is because this is
not how we discuss Antichrist today. The current teaching on
Antichrist is completely differently. The first difference you'll notice
is most people do not say Antichrist as a descriptive. It is a title. You talk to most
people and they will say, well, of course, the Antichrist, the
Antichrist. That's not how John uses the
term. And remember, John is the only
New Testament author that uses the term. So it's significant
that we understand how he uses it. The use of antichrist, the
antichrist that we speak of today is actually a composite concept,
a composite character of three separate concepts in the scripture. One is drawn from 2 Thessalonians
2, where Paul speaks of the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition. Then you have the mentions by
John of Antichrist. Then you have in the book of
Revelation, again John writing, of the beast. And in contemporary
theology, we have now taken these and brought them all together
into a composite character, and we call this character the Antichrist. But again, that is foreign to
what John is saying. And when we do that, we miss
the point of John's letter. Context is critical. Context is critical. There are
three concepts presented, man of lawlessness, Antichrist, and
the beast. They are three separate passages
in scripture. They do not reference each other,
and they're written to three different audiences. That's all
very significant. Each one of them has a time and
a place and a proper understanding and is incumbent upon us as Christians
to try and figure out what that is. Then we can begin to understand
how they actually do fit together, because they do, because scripture
is itself a whole, a composite, a complete entity. Again, this is important because
we must understand that John wrote this about 65 AD to a real
people in a real place. And he was not writing about
a future event. Take that to heart. John says
in this letter, Antichrist was coming. I told you that. Then
he says, Antichrist is here now. Now, if Scripture means what
it says, and Scripture is true, and I certainly believe it is,
then we must understand that Antichrist was present at that
church in 65 AD. There's no other way around it.
You can't interpret that any other way. John was not writing
of a future event. So we must understand then, what
is Antichrist? What is he speaking of? He was not speaking of a future
event. What he was speaking of, and as you read the letter, sit
down, if you will, this afternoon, this evening, in a quiet moment,
and read the entire epistle as a whole, just like you would
read a letter from your parents or a dear friend. Read it all
together so that you have it together, and you can see what
he's addressing. Antichrist, as identified by
John, are liars, They're preaching something other than Jesus Christ. And this is important. Antichrist
used to belong to us, but they left us. They left us. Again, John was not speaking
of a future event. He was warning them of a time
and a place. Now to him, now to him. Is it possible that all of this
could describe some tyrannical world leader? Because that is
the current understanding is that the Antichrist is this diabolical
leader that will come up, take over the world, persecute Christians,
kill folks everywhere, bring death and destruction. Is it
possible that all of this could describe a future world leader? It is. It very well could describe
that, but that's not what John is saying. But it could describe
that, and I'll offer as an example two world leaders that we know
of from fairly recent history that fit the bill. Adolf Hitler
and Joseph Stalin. Both of them forsook their original
faith, Hitler being Catholic, Stalin being Orthodox Christian,
They forsook their faith and developed a new theology replacing
God with the state. And both of them were horrible,
tyrannical, murderous leaders. So did they fit this description
of anti-crimes? Yes, I wouldn't deny that. Is it possible that a new world
leader could rise up that fits that description? Yes, to be
honest with you, it could be. But again, I must say that in
65 AD, that's not what John is talking about. He's talking about
a problem within the church of false teachers. People who have
apostatized from the real faith in Jesus Christ and now are coming
back in saying, listen, I've learned more about Jesus and
let me tell you what it is. Paul addressed this issue over
and over and over. and John addresses it here too.
And I keep asking, why is this important? Because the same dynamics
that were present in the church that John wrote to in 65 AD are
present today in our churches. If you will stop for a minute
and think about some of the insanity that comes out of the pulpit
these days. You've got Christian churches
that are standing up there throwing their arms up and saying, you
know what? Homosexuality is okay. You've got churches that are
welcoming environmentalism to its extreme, which is basically
worship of the earth. You've got churches that are
throwing open their arms and saying, look, really in the big
picture, there's no difference between Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam. After all, we worship the same
God. This is all things, stuff, messages
that are coming out of pulpits across the country. What would
John say about these messages? Such that preach these things,
brothers and sisters, are liars. The truth is not in them. They
are antichrist. That's what John said then, and
as we read the epistles of John today, that's still what John
says. He is not telling us to look
out for a future world leader who will dominate the earth and
take things over and kill people. It's not his message. Is that
a pertinent message? Is that something we need to
talk about as we look at government? Yes. Yes, but that's not what
John is saying. What he is saying is there is
something more important than even that. It's the truth of
God in Jesus Christ. And there are those among you
now who would rob you of this truth, that would take the truth
away and hide it and give you something that is not the truth. That is what John is telling.
That is what John is telling, that there are false prophets
among us. And these false prophets are
liars and they are antichrist. I hope that as we've looked at
this, that this has been useful to you. I hope as well that you
will go home and in a quiet moment in the next hours, days, weeks,
You'll look at the epistles of John again, and as I said, read
them as a whole. Sit down and read the entire
passage. All the epistles of John are
short, so they're easy to read. But read them as you would read
a personal letter written to you and see what they say to
you. It is my hope that in this discussion
today that we've seen that there is the truth in Jesus Christ
and there is not the truth of Jesus Christ. There is a way
that John tells us that we can live in the light and we should
live in the light. And John has given us ways to
identify who is antichrist. And I hope that that's what we
walk away from the service today with those things.