That hymn that we just sang was written over 200 years ago. And I believe that the Lord brought
a tune to it in the present day. And just as many of the tunes
that we use and sing did not originate from what we might
call holy sources, many of the tunes that we sing were tunes
that were common tunes of the day that were sung to songs that
were not Christ-honoring songs. They were just songs that men
sang in bars and different things. And so it is with that tune,
and each time that I sing that song to that tune, It seemed
so perfectly set to it. I mean, I can't imagine,
you know, a better tune that could be given to that song.
And thank the Lord for it. We know that all things belong
to Him and all things belong to Him. do occur according to
the good pleasure of his will, and we're thankful for that. We're in 1 John chapter two,
and we're looking in verse 15. It says, love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, The love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the
world. And the world passeth away, and
the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. Little children, it is the last
time. And as ye have heard that antichrists
shall come, even now are there many antichrists, whereby ye
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, that they were not all of us. But ye have an unction from the
Holy One, and ye know all things. 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? He is Antichrist that denieth
the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeth the
Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you,
which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye 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 ye have received of him abideth in you. And ye
need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth and is no lie, and even as it
hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children,
abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that
he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness
is born of him. Now, we looked at this to some
extent last week. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. And of course, we know that the
things that are in the world are those things that we see.
They are those things that we hold on to in the flesh. And you know, nothing is more
real to a man than the desire of life. Now every man will do
whatever he can do to extend his life. It's like a man was
saying one time, He told a fellow how old he was. He was like 96
years old. And he was speaking to a younger
man. And the younger man told him, says, I wouldn't want to
be 96. And the older man said, that's because
you're not 95. And so, you know, man naturally
clings to life. You can't, that can't be explained. It's just the way that it is.
I mean, every man desires to live. The Lord has given us that
desire. And so we can kind of see that
as a natural function of ourselves. Sadly, included in the Bible,
that function of ourselves is also these things that he describes
here which do pass away, because the flesh does indeed pass away,
as is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, These are the things that pass away, but they're things
that are rooted in us. It's amazing when we consider
that the Lord Jesus Christ walked among men as a perfect man and
was not hindered by these very things. The lust of the flesh was not
in him. The lust of the eyes and the
pride of life. Because he had one purpose. And
that purpose was to do the will of his father. And he was without
sin. Now we can't, I can't imagine
how that is, but it is true nonetheless. Because see, we can't conceive
of what it is to be without sin. If you can, then you are sadly
mistaken, because you can't understand that. You can't comprehend it,
because sin comes from within us. And so when he says here
that the lust of the eyes of pride of life is not of the Father,
but is of the world, where does sin come from? comes from us,
comes from within. We had a discussion here a few
weeks ago with a gentleman, and you know, speaking about the,
we were talking about the reality of Satan, and one of his problems
with his understanding of Satan was he could not conceive you
know, how that men would consider that Satan might cause them to
sin. And I told him, well, Satan doesn't
cause men to sin. Because sin doesn't come from
Satan. Satan didn't cause Eve to sin.
He didn't cause Adam to sin. But sin comes from within. I mean, it's a natural occurrence.
And so we're not to be in love with that aspect of our life. We're in the world, the scriptures
of the Lord said, but we're not of the world. In other words,
that's not the place that we gravitate ourselves to. That's
not the thing we want to embrace. We're not happy about those things. Now, the world, in general, is
happy. about walking in the lust of
the eyes, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh. I mean,
those things are very appealing to the world. They're the things
they live for. I mean, just look around you.
I mean, look at the things that men pursue. Day after day, their
whole life is spent loving the world. because he can't love
anything else. They're natural men. And so it
is that a man, unless he's born again, he will love the world. Now we, on the other hand, if
we're born again, we have a love of the world also. But we're
told not to love the world. And rather than that being a
burden to us, And we say, oh, well, we want to love the world.
The Spirit of God works in us, and he causes us to say, Lord,
help us. Not to love the world, because
we know what the world is. We know the world's not our friend.
I mean, anything that the world brings before us that tells us
this is the answer to our problems, this is gonna make us better
off, is never the case. Never the case. Now it might
give us quick temporary relief in ways, but it's not the answer. And at the end, it bringeth forth
death, when it has conceived, as the scripture says. And so
it says, now I did want to touch on one thing, and it says, this
is not of the Father, but is of the world. You know, the will of God is
something that is a hard thing for men to grasp in many ways,
and I don't claim to be able to describe it adequately, but
we know that God created the world, and it's exactly like
He wants it to be. He made it. And he looked at
it and he said, it is good. So we know that all things occur
in the world according to the good pleasure of Almighty God.
Nothing occurs here that is not according to the will of God.
And yet, there is a will of God that the scripture speaks of
that it is possible for men to not walk in. Because the Lord
said he gave to Moses a law which was the will of God. He said,
do this. He gave to Adam. He said, Adam,
don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Told
him not to do it. Then he turned right around and
told him what he was gonna do. And Adam did that. Now did Adam
do the will of God? Yes. But did Adam disobey the
will of God? Yes. Now, you know, men spend
a lot of time trying to rectify that and trying to understand
it and trying to explain it. There is no explaining of it.
God is an absolute sovereign. And he does according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And only the Spirit of God can give a man rest in that. But it is possible in the sense
that men don't walk according to the commandments of God, that
they disobey the will of God. But yet the will of God is done.
And so when we read this and it says that all of these things
are not of the Father but is of the world, we do not mean
by that, or the scripture does not mean by that, that all of
these things occur without God being willing. It's like God's
not sitting there saying, oh, I wish I could just do something
about this, but I can't. Now that's how a lot of people
view God. They see him as somebody who's trying to put out fires
over here and do things and solve problems all the time. God doesn't
solve problems. God makes problems. I mean, he
makes problems in order that he might teach his people things. Nothing's a problem to God. You
see, he never has a problem. All these things are in his will. Now, Paul writes about that,
and it's an argument that is real in the mind of men. They
say, well, you know, if God's will's being done, how can we
be held accountable? Paul said, nay, but O man, who
art thou that replies against God? And so, you know, that's
a frustrating thing. to the natural man. But it's
of great comfort to the people of God because we rest in him. You know, what a great, what
a sense of peace there is to be in the hands of him who does
all things according to the good pleasure of his will, who does
all things well, who does all things for the benefit of his
people. Where else would we want to be? than in such a place as
that. And so, when it says this is
of the world, it means that it is of the natural occurrence
that happens naturally among men. It's not, the Lord doesn't
have to say to a man, go lust. Go steal. No, he doesn't have
to direct a man to go steal, because men will steal. Men will
lie. Men will commit murder. Men will
do all these things. And except the Lord restrains
them, we'd all do those things, and we would destroy one another
in a moment. So, when we understand, When
it says it's not of the Father, that it does not mean that it's
not in the totality of His purpose and will, but it means that it
is not that which we are, what's the word I'm looking for? We're
accountable. We're accountable before Almighty
God. for those things, because they
don't arise. As he said, we'll let no man
say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God, but he's led away of
his own lust. That's the way that sin occurs. Little children, it is the last
time. Now we've talked about that many
times. People talk about different ages
and the earth and all these different things and you hear them say
yeah i think this is the last time well it is i mean when you
read the scripture the last time is the age in which we presently
live it is the age in which christ has come into the world to establish
his kingdom to manifest that kingdom and there's not coming
another time this is the day of salvation and so John writes
here he said it is the last time and as ye have heard that antichrist
shall come now you know there's a lot of people write about this
in these books about what's gonna happen in the end times and they
take the book of the Revelation and the book of Daniel and Ezekiel
and they put all these things together and they've got a roadmap
here. They've got charts and things
that can tell you day by day what's gonna happen, when you'll
know this is gonna happen and all this kind of stuff. And they
mention that the Antichrist is coming. Well John said the Antichrist
is coming. Because the Antichrist is not
a person. The Antichrist is a mindset. It is the culmination of man's
hatred of who the Son of God is. And that's what he describes
here. Little children, it is the last
time, and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists. Bunch of them. They're all over
the place. Open your eyes, look. False religion. Now there are many antichrists
whereby we know it's the last time. Because the antichrist
will come in the last time. They went out from us. Who's
he talking about? Who went out from us? The antichrist.
In other words, they could not abide the gospel. Now what he's
speaking about is in that day. Now think about this. This is
the first, many people believe, I mean, we don't really have
any way of knowing this, but historically and traditionally,
that John was about up in his 90s when he died, and this was
supposedly one of the last of his writings, the three epistles
of John. And so he had been with Christ
from the beginning of Christ's ministry. and through his death,
through his resurrection, through his ascension, and then here
they are, without the Lord Jesus Christ, who made Walt with for
three years, and all of a sudden, he's not with them anymore. Now,
he did send his spirit as a comforter to them, and he ministered to
them through his spirit. And Peter stood on the day of
Pentecost and declared the gospel. And we see many people swept
into the kingdom of God in that day. Well, from that time then,
the gospel went all over the known world. I mean, you know,
in just a short period of time, The gospel permeated the countryside. But the sad thing is that because
of men being what they are, there were terrors among the weak.
And the terrors often got in positions of leadership and perverted
the truth of God. And so from the very beginning,
you read the writings of Paul, from the very beginning there
were those that were preaching false doctrine in the name of
Christ. Now if you ask these who are
preaching false doctrine, do they believe in Christ, they
would tell you, oh yes. But they're not believing the
same Christ that John's speaking about here. And so it is, there's
many varied false doctrines that are set forth in the world and
have been from the beginning. But all of them come back to
a perverted view of Jesus Christ, who he was, and what he did. Somewhere or other, they depart
from what the The truth is. I heard the other man the other
day, a very articulate Muslim guy. An average person would listen
to what this man said about Christ. And they'd say, you know, that's
good. Because he believed that Christ was a great prophet of
God. I mean, he believed that what
Christ said was true. Except the reality is he did
not believe what Christ said was true. Because Christ said,
I and the Father are one. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. But you see, his idea was that
because Christ is great prophet, he's sitting right alongside
Muhammad, who's also a great prophet. And so we all really,
he's saying, we all really believe the same thing, because we believe,
you know, the commandments of God, and we're all good, if a
man's a real Christian, or if he's a real Muslim, he's trying
to live a righteous life. And it all sounds real good,
except it's a lie. And that's what he's talking
about here, and I'm not just talking about just the Muslims,
I mean, there's manifold religions in the world, it just boggles
the mind to think of all the false doctrine that is out there. And it's not just the doctrine,
it's the fact that they deny who Christ is. See, there's the
error, and that's what he says here. He said, they went out
from us because they were not of us, for if they had been of
us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But he said,
they said, no, you're wrong, we're going out of here, because
we're gonna preach something else than what you're preaching. Paul said, though an angel from
heaven preach some other doctrine than that which has been delivered
to me, and I have delivered you, let him be accursed. That's strong words. Paul said, if it's not what I'm
telling you, it's an error. They went out from us because
they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no
doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us. It's a good thing,
he said. Just like he told the Corinthians,
or Paul told the Corinthians. He said, I hear that there are
heresies among you. That is, departures from the
truth. There's divisions among you. And he said, it's a good
thing. Because he said that those who
are approved might be made known. Now, who might they be made known
to? To the people of God. To those who have been taught
by the Spirit. To those who have been given an understanding of
who Christ is. But ye, he says, they were not
of us, but ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know
all things. Do you know all things? No, I mean, inclusively, we don't
know all things. What's he talking about? You
know all things about Christ. that he is the absolute God,
that he is an absolute man, that he has walked among men as a
man, that he has offered himself up as a substitute for our sin,
and that he presently lives, rules, and reigns in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. He's the King of
kings and the Lord of lords. And that he comes again to receive
his own unto himself. That where he is, there we may
be also. And we believe that he is the
Son of God. We believe that he is a man. Now there's a lot of alterations
of that down through time. And some people believe that
he's a God. but they don't believe he was
really a man. Some people believe he was a man, but he wasn't really
God. All of those things are aberrations, and there's no mixture
of those things. In other words, you can't deny
one and have the other, and then have fellowship with those who
fit in with that. with either one of those. I mean,
you know, if a Muslim, though he be as men would consider a
righteous and upright man, who says he believes in Jesus Christ,
that he is a great prophet of God, but he denies that he is
the only begotten Son of God, then We can have no fellowship
with him. Why? Because he denies he's an
antichrist. He's against the very thing that
we hold dear, that we believe to be true. And you know all
things. I have not written unto you because
you know not the truth, but because you know it, and no lies are
the truth. See, he says don't fall for it, because you know
what the truth is. No lies are the truth. Now here
he's gonna tell you what a liar is. Who is a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ. Now who is the Christ? The Christ
is the Redeemer. He's the Messiah. Now how can he be the Messiah? except he be a man who comes
among men to pay the sins of men. And how can he be a Messiah
if he is not God who is over all things and able in his
power to procure the redemption of his people? You read in the book of Revelation,
fifth chapter, I believe it is, and John said, I looked, and
the book of God was there. And he said, I couldn't, I wept, because there
was nobody to open the book. But he said, oh, but an angel
came and he said, there's one who hath prevailed to open the
book of God, which is sealed on the front and the back with
seven seals. It's written on the front and
the back with seven seals. It's a complete book. And who is it that's able to
open that book? but Jesus Christ, this one of
whom we speak. He's that one who came to fulfill
the will of God. And there is no fulfilling of
the will of God apart from that which Christ has done. You can't
do it. I can't do it. Now, when I'm
speaking of the will of God, I'm talking about, we know that
we're gonna do the will of God, but I mean, we're not willingly
going to do the will of God. He has willingly performed the
will of God. He has done all things well for
us. Who is a liar, but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ, he is Antichrist that denieth the
Father and the Son. Now, that's interesting. He denied
the Father and the Son. Remember what the Lord told Philip?
Philip said, Lord, would you show us the Father? He said,
Philip, have I been so long time with you and you have not known
me? He said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. I don't wanna go into any lengthy
explanation of that because I don't have any lengthy explanation
of it. I just believe what it said there. He and the Father
are one. And if a man doesn't believe
Jesus Christ, he cannot be believing the Father. And if he does not
believe the Father, then he has no place where he could believe
the Son. Because if we're just talking
about a carnal man walking among men and doing good deeds, then
that's of no value. How's that gonna help us? But
you see, he that denieth the Father and the Son is an antichrist. That is, if he does not see that
there is one God and that Jesus Christ is the revelation of God
to men, then he's denying who the Lord is. He's denying Christ. Whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father. And then, of course, this is
in parentheses. It wasn't actually in the original, but it completes
the thought. But he that acknowledgeth the
Son hath the Father also. So there is that great connection
between the Father and the Son. They're one. And I know many have written
many books over the years to make that simple, but it's not
simple. Not meant to be. God dwelleth
in the light to which no man can approach. But we do fall
down and worship him. And we give praise unto him and
we read the scriptures to be what it says. And whether or
not we can fathom those things in our mind or not, doesn't matter.
We believe it. So whosoever denieth the Son,
the same hath not the Father. It's impossible to worship God
apart from worshiping Jesus Christ. Impossible. You know, when you
look at all the religions of the world, and there's a lot
of good folks in the world, I mean, as far as men are concerned.
A lot of folks that are very religious and walk in, you know,
harmony with what their religion teaches them and all that, and
they're very sincere and all these things. But if they deny
the Father and the Son, Then they're anti-Christ. I mean,
that's what the scripture says. They're liars. Now they, can they deliver themselves? No. Because only the Lord can
show a man the deception of his own heart. You know, deception's
a terrible thing. Because if you're deceived, there's
not a thing in the world that anybody can do for you. Most
especially yourself, you cannot deliver yourself from deception.
Why? Because you're deceived. And
nobody else can deliver you from deception because you're deceived.
There's only one hope, only one avenue out of deception, and
that is the mercy of God in Jesus Christ showing you who Christ
is. And when he does, But then all
things are new. And all things are plain. And we know all things. Because that's the only thing
that's needful. Remember what the Lord told Martha? He said,
Martha, you're cumbered about much serving. You're cumbered
about many things. But he said, one thing is needful.
And Mary hath chosen that better part. What was that part? To
sit at the feet of Christ. I mean, that's the better part.
And that's antithetical to what we began with. The lust of the
eyes, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh. May the Lord
give us a mind to seek after him and to rest
in Christ. I mean, that's our place of hope. And the world, you know, they
would think it's an empty hope, but those of us who by the grace
of God have been given the grace to know the Father and the Son,
the place we rejoice in. And we don't want any other place.
I'm not interested in another place. I'm not interested in
any kind of religion a man might have in this world if it's not
Jesus Christ and him crucified. I don't wanna hear it. I don't
wanna be around it. It might be narrow-minded, but
that's the way it is. I've often thought about this,
and that is this, and it's borne out by what John said there,
you know all things. And that is, can you not believe If the grace of God has come
to you and you've been born again and you've been made to understand
who Christ is, can you not believe? I mean, you can't stop believing.
Well, you may have doubts and fears and somebody may say something
that might cause you to question something in your mind, but you
can't depart. What's that song we sing sometimes? It says, you know, he will not
leave us and he won't ever let us quite leave him. I mean, that's
just the way that it is. What a precious savior we have.
A faithful savior.