finger in the 15th chapter of
Acts, because we're going to refer to it some this morning
as we get started in 1 John chapter 2. I want to thank Trey again
for those weeks in laboring for you, and moreover, laboring for
me, giving me an opportunity to hear the Word and to refresh
and to enjoy your position of learning. It's always good when
he and Brother Jesse preach. This is part of what we're called
to do. Even pastors must sit and learn and listen. We've talked about a lot of things
in the context of John's first epistle. We've used the idea
that John's gospel as it is written and published and disseminated
is indeed the gospel account, is indeed holistically the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And we need to understand that
as the Bible even teaches, the apostles themselves, Peter and
Paul and John and James and others, will talk about the faith or
the truth. And they're not dealing with
just a line or a phrase of truth. They're talking about the full
counsel of truth. They're talking about the entirety
of a doctrine of Christ. They're helping us to understand
that the gospel is not just some event. It's not just some statement
of part of what Jesus has done or who he is. The gospel is the
fullness of everything that is taught specifically in the New
Testament concerning the finished work of Christ. So that when
some people would argue, you might say, well, why are you
repeating this? We know this. Because it's very, very common
for us in our daily routines is to think, well, the gospel,
just as Paul says, 1 Corinthians, you know, Jesus died, rose, was
buried and rose. That's it. It's just that he
died and he rose. But see, that in and of itself
is superficial. That in and of itself, as a premise
is not sufficient because it doesn't say that. Paul doesn't
say the gospel is that Jesus died and was buried and rose.
Yada, yada, yada, moving right along. Because everybody believes
that. Historians believe that. The
witnesses of Christ believe that that is true. So knowing that
that is true is not faith in the person of Christ. And as
we've been going through on midweek, I would encourage you all to
listen to the last two weeks of Hebrews. We moved in to chapter
11, dealing with the context of what faith is and then what
faith does. But we need to remember what
Paul does say, that the gospel in simple terms is this, that
according to the scriptures, Christ died, that according to
the scriptures Christ was buried, that according to the scriptures
Christ was raised alive according to the scriptures. And so we
see the totality of the scriptural witness being the gospel of grace. Not just pieces of it. Many people
have believed pieces of gospel truth. Many people have believed
certain portions of gospel truth. And a lot of those have sort
of been segmented out and well-meaning mid-19th century evangelists. But they were not born of God,
for they did not have the foundation of who God was and what God did
and for whom God did it. So we like to call certain aspects
of these discussions, well, you're trying to say you have to know
all things. Now, why am I saying this? Because
you heard me read in the beginning of our service that John tells
these Christians that God has taught them all things. That
God has shown them all things. And that they have all knowledge
of the truth. That means that they understand
the gospel in its simplicity. That there is teaching that takes
place and John's gospel narrative is sufficient for salvation. Sometimes we think the saving
faith is mimicking the words of others, mimicking the lives
of others, mimicking the prayers of others. mimicking the phrases
of others, or the doctrine of others, or the theology of others,
or the history of others. But saving faith is a divine
gift of God through the Spirit that you, as a believing one,
are caused to be a believing one. And only by the Spirit of
God can anyone be a believing one. But your belief is yours. It is granted to you. The outcome
of repentance is that your mind has been changed to no longer
think about the worldly and humanistic ways in which you could come
and stand righteous before the Father, but have been given the
right to understand the truth and the substance and the efficacy
of Christ and His work for His elect. And so when we see Jesus, we
see the synoptics, what we call the Great Commission. This is
a practice that God has ordained for the body of Christ to be
busy about every person, every child, every man, every woman
who claims to believe in the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His mercy for them and His imputed righteousness to them.
We are to be about the business as God has set forth for us in
our daily lives, as we have opportunity to teach each other the scripture.
See, Jesus does not say, go make disciples by telling them what
I did. Go make disciples by teaching them to obey all that I have
commanded you. So when someone comes in the
center of our cultural Christianity and says, I believe the gospel.
Wonderful. You believe this about Jesus? Let me teach you in the gospel
of John. Let me teach you in the gospel
of Luke. Let me show you what Paul says to the church, to the
believing ones, to the saints, to the elect, to the saved. And
then that person goes, well, no, no, no, no, I don't really
believe that. They haven't been taught of God. They haven't been
born of God. It's one thing to say, well,
I didn't really know that, or I'm sort of puzzled by that,
or I'd like to learn more about that. But to say, I will not
believe those words. These are rejection of the gospel. This is because that person has
not been born again. And so we, oversimplify the gospel
in some sense, and then we complicate the gospel in other senses. Repent
and believe is not the gospel. Christ died in the place of His
people by the will of the Father as a plan for the fullness of
time that He would come into the world as God, the Creator,
being part of the creation, taking on a human body for Himself and
living obediently unto the Father, unto death, on a Christ, on His
death on the cross, paid for the sins of His people that God
has loved before the foundations of the world. And the list goes
on and on and on and on. And this is good news. God has
created his people for salvation. That's good news. And the theological
or the philosophical implications of the antithesis of those things,
we like to argue and debate, but ultimately we do not get
to say to God, why? We do not get to say that's not
fair. Because it is just. It is just. And justice is righteousness. So in that sense, we're here
in this letter. This letter of 1 John is indeed
the therefore of John's gospel. Because God has done what he
has done for his people in and through the person of Jesus Christ.
Because we can see all the teachings of Jesus so intimately in John's
gospel. So we can see it and know what
he says concerning those who cannot apprehend the basics of
what he's trying to say to them. He says to them, you cannot believe
because you do not belong to me. You are not mine, you have
not been given to me. And because of the gospel. And
because of all of the iterations of men's ability to come to their
own terms. With their own iteration of the
gospel. John writes this letter. And
I've been reading this letter for years, years, years, years. And now I am starting to see
I'm going to change some things, not that I taught it wrongly,
but I want to teach it more clearly. I want you to understand that,
yes, the audience is believers, but the audience, I believe more
specifically for John's first letter, is the elders of the
church. Are the elders of the church. Why? Because he put special emphasis
on the oversight of the body. He put special emphasis on the
unity of the body and affection and love and mutual interest.
He put specific interest on the idea that you, beloved, you fathers,
you young men, you who are the children of God, as we'll see
in chapter three. You have a responsibility to
pay attention to these antichrists. You have a responsibility to
teach the church differently. You have a responsibility to
guard the witness of the cross. You have a responsibility to
be careful not to be overrun by these deceivers. You have
a responsibility to recognize when people are in spiritual
trauma, having spiritual trauma, and you have to understand that
only you who are spiritual among you should be able to restore
each other. So I think that above all things,
the elders of the church. Surely it was read to the whole
assembly, but I think the elders of a church need to pay closer
attention to 1st John than any of the letters that they've received
throughout the New Testament. I would say that pastorally,
John's first epistle is more pastoral than 1st Timothy and
2nd Timothy. So with that in mind, I want
you to think about this for a moment. As we receive the word of the
Lord through all these weeks, this might be week 12 or 13.
I can't remember of 1 John. We are hearing what the world
is. We have heard what Christ has
done for us. We have understood that we know
the Father intimately through the Lord Jesus Christ. But then
our knowledge of God increases. And it increases not by having
a large appendix of theological things. It increases not by having
a large list of memorized verses. Our knowledge of God increases
by our living out the gospel in gospel unity and intimacy
with the people of Christ. So that when we get to the place
where we have this fork in the road of our lives, I want to
live for me or I want to live for Christ. Everybody always
says, I want to live for Christ. But guess what the road of living
for Christ is all about? Living for one another. We live
for one another, thus we live for Christ. We love one another,
thus we're loving Christ. And living together has transformed
over the last six months. I don't even know what it looks
like anymore. It's baffling to me. Everything that I've ever
known about life together has changed. It's strange. It's different. Fellowship is
different. Intimacy is different. Taking care of needs is different.
So what are we going to do? We'll do what we need to do and
we will adapt to the circumstances, but we will never lose this core
focus of why we do what we do, even if it is, as Trey would
say last week, in disassembly. Welcome to the disassembly of
Grace Truth Church. Because we're not together. We're not together. We're apart. If my hand showed
up to teach in a little sock puppet, I mean, maybe the message
could come out, but it wouldn't be me. And that's the way I feel right
now. I feel that way. I feel disjointed
and broken, and concerned, and burdened, and worried, and scared,
and frustrated, and fearful, and aggravated, and angry, and
joyful, and blessed, and patient, and calm. And all the other things just
up and down and ebb and flow left or right like a leaf toss
in the wind. But the one common thing is true
is that I am not forsaking the truth of Christ because the word
of God holds me. The spirit of God seals me. And
by the mercy of God, he seals and holds you as well. The world
and everything that comes to the world and everything that
is in the world is not of God, we've learned that verse 15 through
17. We've learned that the world and everything in it is passing
away. The world that we live in is temporary. These days are
for the purposes of God. I want to remind us, beloved,
that God is sovereign. That means He's controlling the
narrative. We are not panentheists that
believe God just went and spun the world in and then stood back
and sort of kicked some rocks in there every now and then to
see what might pop out. He's not waiting to see what
we're going to do so that maybe he'll have to put a hand in.
God's hand is in everything. Even the volition of man and
the context of our day-to-day choices, God has a sovereign
purpose in them. and the world and everything
in it. Of course, we understand the sinful things of the world,
the wicked things of the world as we grade wickedness. But how
does God grade wickedness? Anything that is not himself
and flows from his glorious, perfect picture. Not his glorious,
perfect plan, because this is God's glorious, perfect plan.
Every maniacal tyrant that has ever walked the face of this
earth on two feet. They are all part of God's glorious, perfect
plan. This virus by the creator himself is part of God's perfect
plan. And if this economy falls apart
and civil rest ensues, it is part of God's perfect plan. And
so where are we going to be, beloved? Maybe we, for the first
time in our lives, could take first hand when the Bible says,
to my beloved in the dispersion. You ever thought about that?
that none of the New Testament letters were ever written to
a church that was settled and satisfied. Never a place to always
meet. Never a building to always assemble
in. Never a region that they could
call their home. Never a sign on the side of the
wall or out on the marquee. Never a website or a landing
page. Never anything but just a dispersed
people who were assembling the best they could to meet the needs
of one another, and most importantly, to continue in the faith of the
fullness of the gospel of grace and all that it teaches us about
who Christ is for us. In verse 18 of 1 John 2, let's
read there. Children, it is the last hour.
And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists
have come. Therefore we know that it is
the last hour. They, these Antichrists, went out from us, the apostles,
but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would have continued with us. But they went out that it might
become plain that they are all not of us. But, verse 20, you
have been anointed by the Holy One and you all have knowledge. And I write to you not because
you do not know the truth, but because you know the truth and
because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar? But he who denies
that Jesus is the Christ. Now let's stop there for a moment.
Let's look at this. Because if we were to take a poll in our
present community, in the community surrounding us, we would ask
the question, who is or what is the Antichrist? And we would
have an incredible, overwhelming majority of people say, it is
this great man of lawlessness that one day will come upon the
earth and create havoc for three and a half years. after which
the elect of God who are alive will vanish from the earth, and
then all heck and potatoes will break out for another three and
a half years, then Jesus is going to come down with His minions
and His soldiers, and they're going to wipe the floor with
the Antichrist and he's going to beg for mercy and God's going
to throw him in a cage for a thousand years and put chains and ribbons
all over him and he's not going to be able to do anything and
we're going to dance a dance of superlative happiness for
a thousand years and then after that time he's going to let him
out again and God's going to punch him in the nose and he's
going to cry and the crybaby is going in the lake of fire
hallelujah then the judgment and I'm going to tell you this
that's a horrifying reality not because I care about tribulation
I'm living in it And so are you. But it's a horrifying reality
to think that when He does finally come back, I've got to wait another
thousand years for judgment. That is not good news for anybody
who doesn't have enough time in the 168 hours a week that
he or she has already. 168 hours a week times 52 weeks
times a thousand. I don't want that. And the Bible
doesn't teach that. And John is the only one to use
the term Antichrist in the context of any of his writing. And ultimately,
here's what he's teaching, that anything that does not, anyone
that does not, any belief that does not believe in the fullness
of the knowledge of the truth of the gospel in its completeness
is against Christ, is not Christ, doesn't belong to him, and is
Antichrist. I want you to hear that. That's
the purpose of this teaching. And with that, this is the legend
for revelation. I write these things that you
may know what is taking place and what is about to take place.
That you may understand and that you may perceive the blessings
of God and the promises to you in the time of tribulation that
you're now experiencing. Let me show you through pictorial
revelation, John says. the things that have been shown
to me, to remind you of what has been done in the gospel,
in creation, in the fall of the enemy, in the birth and the incarnation
of Jesus Christ, in his death, in the persecution of the church,
and in the culmination of the bride and her groom. This is what you have. This is
the hope you have. See, it's about hope. It's not about parsing
out a movie script. This is the last hour, last days,
last hour, last season. There is no season. Once Christ
hit the scene, the last days began. The last days began. There is nothing left to do to
redeem the people of God. Yes, we long for glorification,
but it's good as done. And if you know anything about
physics, if you know anything about time, if you know anything
about Einstein, and I'll just say it that way, you understand
that time is relative. And so much so that it is a created
thing that exists for the sake of us. And in some way, which
I have my theories, it does what it does and it ticks the way
it ticks and it moves the way it moves because of the fall
and because of the curse of sin and the wage of death. But that's for another coffee
time talk. It is not popular, nor is it necessary, nor is it
profitable to deal with these things, though we could chase
those rabbits straight to the moon if we wanted to. What's
important is that it is the last hour. Beloved, we're in the last
days. 10 decades on earth, if you're
really, really blessed in health, that's all you get. Nine years
ago last week, we moved to Claxton. And it feels like two years ago.
Some of you have been here since the beginning. Some of you have
been here that you think only a couple of months and you've
been here three years already. Some of you have seen your children grow
up in the body of Grace Truth. And it blows my mind. I'm thinking,
really? It's 2020, I'm just now getting to where I can write
it on a check. And it's gonna be 2021. I wrote COVID-19 in
the date of a check the other night. I'm like, what is wrong
with me? But I guess it would fit, wouldn't
it? It's the last days. And it says,
and you've heard, you've heard. People are talking about this
great, maniacal, godless thing that's going to show up in Antichrist.
You've heard. that He's coming and you're worried
about it. But I'm going to tell you right now, beloved, John is saying
many Antichrists have already come. You're not looking for
the one. You're seeing them all. And the
Antichrist and all that he is and all that everyone who is
Antichrist will ever be is the world. The world in every nation of
the world is Babylon. in ideology, in spiritual essence,
in the direct approach to judgment and justice, Babylon will receive
her due. And there are only two kingdoms
in the world, one that is the world and one that is not of
the world. And we've seen many Antichrists.
We've seen many people blaspheme the name of Jesus. We've seen
many people say, you must be circumcised. Remember I said
I was going to talk about Acts 15 for a minute? Remember what happens over there? There was some division going
on in Acts 15. at the Jerusalem council there,
says some men from Judea were teaching the brothers, unless
you're circumcised according to the customs of Moses, you
cannot be saved. And after Paul and Barnabas had
no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas
and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the
apostles and the elders about this question. So being sent
on their way by the church, They passed through both Phoenicia
and Samaria, describing in great detail the conversion of the
Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they
came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the
apostles and the elders, and they declared that God had done
with them. all that God had done with them.
But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees
rose up and said, and I want you to hear what Luke just wrote
there. Some of the believers who were
part of the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary
to circumcise them and to order them and to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and the elders
were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there
had been much debate, Peter stood up and said, Brothers, you know
that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my
mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
And God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them
the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no distinction
between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore,
why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the
neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been
able to bear? But we believe that we will be
saved through the grace and the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ,
just as they will. And everybody in the assembly
fell quiet. And they listened to Barnabas
and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done
through them among the Gentiles. And after they finished speaking,
James replied, Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how
God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for
His name, and with this the words of the prophets agreed, just
as it is written, After this I will return, I will rebuild
the tent of David that is fallen, I will rebuild its ruins, I will
restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who were called by my name, says the Lord,
who makes these things known from old. Therefore my judgment
is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn
to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted
by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what is being strangled,
and from blood. For from ancient generations
Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read
every Sabbath in the synagogue." Then it seemed good to the apostles
and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among
them. And they sent to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas, they
sent Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the
brothers, with the following letter. The brothers, both the
apostles and the elders, are the brothers who are of the Gentiles
in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. Greetings. Since we have heard
that some persons have gone out from us, hear that, have gone
out from us and troubled you with words unsettling your minds. Although we gave them no instructions,
it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose
men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves
will tell you the same things by the word of mouth. For it
has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater
burdens than these requirements, that you abstain from what has
been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has
been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourself
from these, you will do well." Farewell. So they were sent off,
and you know the rest of the story. Then after some days,
Paul and Barnabas parted ways. And that's the context of Paul
and Barnabas's issues. Paul was going back to certain
places. There was this context here.
It doesn't mean that they weren't brothers and didn't love each
other. They just decided, you know what? God's calling us in
different directions. God didn't call them to do different
gospels. It's important. Now, why did I read that? Because
the same verbiage is found here in John chapter two, first John
two is found in Acts 15. The same idea of those who were
walking with the apostles and the construction of their truth
and the counsel of their teaching. In order to walk with the apostles,
you had to believe what they believed. And there were a lot
of foolish things taking place in the first century here when
John wrote this letter. There were people who did not believe
that Jesus was tangible, that He was a material being. They
believed that He was metaphysical or ethereal. And they also believed,
and they weren't necessarily Gnostics, these were just people
who had adopted that type of mentality to the point where
they knew that the physical world was neutral because it was all
going to be passing away. It was not worth anything. So
in that sense, they believed that you could just go on and
sin and sin and sin. We see Paul dealing with this with the Church
of Colossae and some other places. Ephesians, sensuality, things
of that nature. And so it was a common thing
at the time of John's writing, which was in the 90s, for people
to have taken the gospel, pieces of it, sort of develop their
own system of theology, and then begin to bother the saints of
God with all of these infusions, whether it be you need to be
circumcised, You need to obey the law of Moses. You need to
attend this church. You need to drink this wine.
You need to do this. You need to do that. You need
to pray these prayers. Or whether it was something else. Oh, don't
worry about your sin. It's okay, you can live in adultery.
It's okay, you can live in idolatry. What's the parting shot of John
in this letter? Beloved, keep yourself in my
house. That's the last thing he says. And what was happening is that
people who were with them at one time had gone away from them. And he says there in verse 19,
they, these antichrists, have gone out from us. What does that mean? That means they are no longer
walking in the unity of the faith. They are no longer walking in
the counsel of the apostles. And beloved, I'm going to say
this and I want you to listen very carefully because it's important
for us, for me and for you to hear. We need to be careful that
our doctrinal positions, that our theological positions, that
our gospel is the gospel of the apostles and not the gospel of
James Tippens. Not the gospel of a historical
pastor. Not the gospel of a famous pastor.
Not the gospel of a book we read. Not the gospel of a song we sing.
But the gospel of the apostles. And when these other things agree,
yee-haw! Have you ever seen anyone put
someone else's painting of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre? No,
because it's already been done. And all the others are just copies.
Even if it's perfect, it's not original. So why do we ooh and
aah over the commentary of somebody who can read and say what they
read? Like me. I'm just copying what I read
out of this book. So oh and awe over the power
of God in the life of the apostles to pin this stuff by the Spirit
of God that we may know that we are with them. And if we're not with them, we're
not with Christ. See the leap. Do not take my word for anything,
beloved. It is a dangerous practice. It
is a lazy practice. And we need lazy Christians.
But we don't need you to be so lazy that your brain has fallen
out on the floor and you're not discriminating what I say. Discriminate
against what I teach. And the litmus test. The Scantron. Remember, you used to put them
in a machine, but before the machines, you had the bubbles
that you filled out in the template that went over. And you just
put a red mark over the hole where you didn't see pencil.
And you take that and you counted it and you added it up. And if
you're not a math guy, so the grade was always wrong. You had
to get somebody to fix it. And that's the way it works. You
want to test what I'm teaching, you put that template up, you
put that answer key up, and you look, and when you see holes,
not only do you dismiss it, the jury will dismiss that comment.
You know, it's real easy to do. It's not. But you'll inquire,
you'll call me on it, and vice versa. What does the apostle
say? What does the scripture teach?
Now, you may not realize this, but there are a lot of people
who do not hold to the sufficiency of scripture. And in doing so,
they do not hold to the self-attesting authority of scripture. And this is the moniker, this
is the heartbeat, this is the blood, the flow of the people
who are not with the apostles. And so what they do is they go
out from us. Now, in the context of that,
we know people leave the assembly because they refuse to lay down
certain sinful things. Some people leave the assembly
because they just don't like the doctrine. That's inclusive
of that in that context. But ultimately, what are they
doing? They're divorcing themselves from the apostles of Christ.
They're divorcing themselves from then what? The word of God.
And by divorcing themselves from the teachings of scripture, they
have divorced themselves ultimately from Jesus Christ. And so they went out for months.
But where were they? With these people. See, that's
the problem. They left the apostles. They
left Jerusalem. They went over there. Now they're
wherever John is writing. And they're mixing amongst the
other churches. They're causing havoc. They're
digging in with their heels and trying to infuse other doctrinal
practices, legalism, antinomianism, whatever it may be. They're teaching
something other than what the apostles have taught. And so
that is one of the reasons that John opens this up, not just
for the intimacy of the reality of the intimacy that they had
with Jesus Christ on earth, but to point out the fact they saw
and touched and heard. They touched Jesus. Because He
was a real man. He did incarnate. He was incarnate. He did come and live as a human
being, as God. So that knocks that out. And
if you don't believe that, you're not with the apostles. And if
you don't believe that, you've not been taught by God. And if
you don't believe that, I don't care what iteration of gospel truth you
may know in part, you are not born a God. You are not born
again. If you deny the humanity of Jesus
Christ and or His divinity, you have not been born of God because
the apostles attest to this over and over and over again. Jesus
says that He is, I am. And there's no way around it.
And it frustrates people. Well, maybe I'm not saved. But
beloved, if God hasn't revealed to you that Jesus Christ is the
God man, you are not saved because that's the foundation of his
work. Anybody can believe in a martyr.
Anybody can believe in an example. Anybody can believe in a teacher.
Either through substance or discipline or doctrine or life. But only
those who are the elect of God, whom God the Spirit has caused
to see the truth of Christ, can believe in the absurdity that
God can create Himself a body, God the Son, and come and live
as a man and still be God. And there is no evidence and
there is no arguments that can cause you
to see that the scripture attests to it. The scripture declares
it. Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins, Jesus
says. Because if he's not, I am. We're
all dead in hours. And so we leave the apostles
when things when people leave the apostolic teaching, they
have left the scripture, when people leave the scripture, they
were not of Christ. How many people have come to
Christ not of the scripture? That was my opening issue. How
many people have come to Christ by other means, by tertiary means,
by external resources, by muses and poetry and commentary, but
never having been born of God by the teaching of the word of
God? A lot of people have come, but they don't really know. And then when we come to the
knowledge of grace, we come to the knowledge of Christ, we are
to grow. Remember, we've talked about
this over the last few months. We're supposed to grow. We're
supposed to learn over and over again. We're supposed to understand.
We're supposed to live our lives. We have to be taught to tie our
shoes and to walk and to speak and to wash our hands and to
brush our teeth and to comb our hair. We have to learn to do
these things. We have to learn language. We
have to learn discipline. And there's nothing different
in the spiritual sense that we also have to learn these things.
We're not just, we don't wake up a Christian with all understanding. We must grow. And beloved, I
know each of us have had seasons of our life where like, man,
I could not be closer to the Lord, only to wake up a week
later to go, where is God? Is this even real? Like David
at the dentist. Is this real life? That dates
me. I mean, that's what happens. Because the further we remove
our discipline from the word and its instruction, the worse
it becomes. I don't know why my hand is charred
black. I just, every night when I get
home, I stick it straight in the fireplace, and I cannot figure
for the life of me why now it's burned off. I'm gonna stick the
other one in there, see if I can find the other one. James, don't put your hand in
fire. What? I should have put my hand
in fire? Okay, I'll put my foot in the
fire then. Where's my foot? Why is it burned off? You get the point. You want to
grow in your knowledge of grace? You want to grow in your confidence?
You want to grow in your assurance? You want to grow in your knowledge
of love? You want to stay with the apostles? Then stay in the word of God.
Isn't that the craziest thing in the world? We got phones that are connected
to billions of people. trillions of people, almost everybody
in the world's got, but let's just say millions of people.
I probably say this phone right here, and all of its connectivity
is probably connected about 65,000 people. And I'm being conservative,
of which probably only 1000 I know. All right, if I had notifications
and they went off, some of you do, I see. Notification, notification,
notification, everything. I mean, it's unbelievable. You
would never, you would never get through. You would never
get finished. You would always be looking and
doing and looking. And we have time to pick this
up. And if you look at your screen
time averages, I promise you in a day's time, you're on that
thing more than an hour. And if you're not, I'll give
you a dollar. And I don't have but one dollar. Oh, pastor, I just ain't had
no time to look at the Bible today, y'all. Yesterday, or last
week, or six months from now, I haven't had time. I'm just
busy, busy, busy! I know, I see your average on
eight ball on Facebook. And back on those angry birds,
I see all them coins you got, and the worms you got, and all
the other stuff. I see, because y'all post that stupid stuff.
I'm so busy. Pray for me, Lord. Pastor, pray
the Lord will multiply my time. And then, you know, three in
the morning, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You got all these awards
you're winning for the games you're playing at three in the
morning. We're all in it. It's not a guilt trip. It's an
obvious statement of reality. We choose. Because I'm going
to tell you this. I got six Bible apps on the phone
and I ain't even opened up but one of them. The other five,
if I opened them up, they'd make me log in. Oh, that'll be neat
to use. Never used it. Oh, but I'll spend
an hour looking at the stars with the new app. And you know,
you've seen that app, right? With the stars. You're looking
at a video of stars through your camera as if you're seeing them.
It's really neat. GPS. We've got time for the word
of God. We've got time for the apostles
teaching and beloved, you don't need to come here and say, Oh,
I'm just going to, I'll get it in the fellowship. You will,
and you should, but you should be agreeing with what we're teaching.
Not, not coming to the place of what was the first time I've
ever heard that. Have you read first John two this week? Have
you read first John? The Bible declares that everything
we need for the success of life. is found in the Word of God,
because it says that God and His divine power is all we need
for life and godliness. And Paul says in Romans 1 that
the power of God unto salvation is the gospel, is the good news.
News has to be written down somewhere, and there it is in the Bible.
If we just read it, we would have the sufficient things that
we're praying for. Lord, help these burns on my
hands. The Bible says take your hand out of the fire. Oh, I didn't
know. Because we're not in it enough. None of us are. The point and the protection
that we have is that we've been taught and we have all knowledge.
There are people who deviate from the gospel. They add to
it a little bit or they take away from it a little bit or they
add another condition or whatever it may be. These people are not
with the apostles. And when they're corrected and
then they double down and then they walk away, they never were
of Christ. I want you to understand that. But it's like in Acts 15, they
said the brothers who belonged to the Pharisees, they were in
the assembly. They were like, look, we believe in the Lord
Jesus. And then they got really haughty when somebody says that
they didn't have to circumcise these Gentiles. Ah, forbid it! I mean, the Pharisees were the
reformers of Judaism after the Maccabean revolts. I mean, we
know what kind of garbage that was and how horrible that was
and what they did to defile the temple. And so I know they have a zeal.
But zeal is number one, not required, and zeal also without knowledge
is worthless. And with knowledge comes wisdom,
with wisdom comes patience. So zeal with patience is godly
zeal. Keep that in mind, beloved. But
you, I'm not talking about Antichrist. I'm not talking to Antichrist,
rather John would say. I'm talking about them. I'm not
writing to them. I'm writing about them. They
left us and now they're bothering you. They're trying to deceive
you. They're trying to lie about Jesus. They're trying to change
the narrative. They're trying to change the
witness of God, the father concerning his son and his finished work.
That's a lie. They're trying to change the
nature of who Jesus is. They're trying to change the nature of what
Jesus did. They're trying to change the efficacy of the cross.
They're trying to change the doctrine that we've taught you
already. You know the truth. You know
Christ. Now, knowing more, I want you
to know I'm not talking to you. I'm talking about them to you.
And you, but you, verse 20, have been anointed by the Holy One.
Now, the craziest thing about that is that the word Christ,
the word Messiah, means holy and anointed one. And so by the person of Jesus
Christ, his body is holy and anointed. His work is finished. He has sanctified us. He has
redeemed us. He has purchased us. He has justified
us. We have forgiveness. Abigail asked yesterday, she
said, Daddy, or she said yesterday, Daddy, I'm so sorry I did so-and-so
and then lied about it. And that was a month and a half
ago when she did that. And in a way of illustrating
what forgiveness is, I said, honey, I don't know what you're
talking about. I certainly do. I said, I don't I don't remember
that. Yeah, you do, daddy. Remember when I did this and
you asked who did this and I said it was Ruby? Yeah, I guess so. I'm sorry. I said, haven't you already said
you were sorry for that? Yes, sir. I said, then it's forgiven.
It's forgotten. Forgiveness means forgotten.
God's not keeping a list. You know, I've forgiven you,
but buddy, you keep pushing and I'm pulling this list back out.
We are forgiven in Christ. It's over. There's no record
of our wrong. It's been nailed to the cross and Christ's blood
out and satisfied the wrath of God for it. God propitiated himself
through the blood of Jesus. So we have an Advocate of the
Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and there is no other name by
which we can be called but children because of the love that God
has for us. And here is the precursor to that declaration of chapter
3, verse 1, where he says, You have been anointed by the Holy
One, and you have all knowledge. Now does this mean that these
particular Christians and or elders, this particular church
knew everything about all things? No. But they had all knowledge
of the foundation, the simplicity of God's grace in Christ. They
had all knowledge of the person of Jesus. They were taught thoroughly. How did John know? He gave him
his gospel. You see? They had read it. They had studied it. They had
read it again and read it again and read it again. They knew
who Jesus was. They knew what Jesus did. They
understood that the first 18 verses of, what verses? They
understood the introduction to John's Gospel letter was depicted
all throughout all 21 chapters of that narrative. And that everything
that he shared fit right into that outline. They understood
that because they understood the basics of human language.
And when they were read that letter in the Greek tongue, they
understood it. Because the Spirit of God had
given them eyes to see, ears to hear, and a head to believe.
And caused them to believe. That's what the new birth is,
is belief. It's a change of disposition
of mind. That's the word repentance unto
faith in Christ. We repentance unto God and away
from dead works. Dead works is self-righteousness. Dead works is circumcision. Dead
works is doing things that would condition you greater in front
of God. Now, does obedience have a place?
We've already learned that. Yes, it does. We honor God. We please God in our obedience.
We keep ourselves in check through obedience. We need to understand
that when we do what we're told to do by the apostles, that we
are actually doing what Christ has asked us to do. But we are
his beloved, even when we don't. It's like when my children lie,
they're still my children. I write to you, verse 21, you
have all knowledge, you have all the knowledge that's necessary
concerning Christ. I write to you not because you
do not know the truth, but because you know it. Here in this language
is another way of affirming he's talking to believers who are
safe in the grace of God. And because he's talking to people
who are secure in the mercy of God, then there can be no way
that this letter could move them into a place of condemnation.
I told a dear friend on Friday who was studying to be a preacher
teacher. He doesn't necessarily know if
he wants to be a pastor or not, but he's taking some workshops and things. And
I left him with this piece of advice after our conversation. When you leave the pulpit, the
church should always be at peace. I want you to hear that church.
When we leave the pulpit, the church should always be at peace.
Otherwise, what we do, and we're very good at it, by the way,
Bible teachers, pastors, preachers, elders, whatever, we're very
good at it, especially when we're fathers, we get really even better
at it. We know how to say exactly what
we need to say to get you to squirm just enough to get you
into the position we want you to be in, which is for your good
anyway, but that's called manipulation. We were talking about that yesterday,
about how we do with our children. It's what we do. And so we have
to fight against it. We have to declare the Word of
God in its purity and in its fullness, and we have to be patient.
As Trey said last week, we have to encourage more than we rebuke. Because encouragement is the
command. Rebuke is the responsibility, as we see given to the elders,
to teach each other to urge, to encourage each other on to
love and to good deeds. And outside of that, there is
no real responsibility of the church to do anything else but
that. When we get that done and finished, then we can move on
to different things. And beloved, I'm going to tell
you this, when I'm 90 years old, we're not going to be finished.
I may be finished, but we as a people, as God's people, will
not be finished. I write to you because you know
it. And I write to you because there
is no such thing as a lie in the truth. There is no such thing as a lie
in the truth. And I want you to know that there
are people who are lying. I've already come here. And then he
puts it into perspective about the world. What is the world? It's Antichrist. The world's
ways, the world's religion, the world's theology, the world's
doxology, the world's methodology. It's not of God, it is a creation
of God for righteousness and in that sense, wrath and justice,
which is righteousness. Who is the liar? You see, I think
I entitled my sermon today, who is the Antichrist? Well, here's
the answer at the end. Who is the liar? Who is the Antichrist? But he, and I'll make this make
better sense by changing that pronoun, but anyone who denies
that Jesus is the Christ. That goes on the far crazy side,
the weird end of the coin over there who may be some kind of
cultic pagan to the best Baptist sitting on the front row of the
most beautiful church. If we part in any way from the
apostles' teaching, we have left out from them. If we deny how Jesus is the Christ,
if we deny that Jesus is the Holy One of God, He is our righteousness,
He is the One who came from heaven, He is the God-man, He is divine,
He is human, If we deny all or any part of what he's taught
us in the gospel narratives, then we have denied him in full. And in doing so, they, I don't
want to use the personal pronouns right now, they who do these
things are the Antichrist. And many have come and many are
here. And until the day of glory, when
in a twinkling of an eye, we will be glorified, as Paul teaches
the Thessalonians in a twinkling. We were glorified. Antichrist will always be here.
Why? Because it is the purpose of
God and the deception of the nations. For his justice. Not everybody's going to join
a cult. Not everybody's going to join pagan rituals. Not everybody's
going to join atheistic circles. But there's a lot of folks who
will join the singing of an almost Christ. And then they'll stab Christian
on their title. And they'll use Sovereign Grace as their moniker.
And they'll say they're Reformed. They'll say they're this, they're
that, they're the other. But they are not. They are Antichrist. No one who denies the Son. This
is the Antichrist. He who denies the Father and
the Son. Because people will say, wait
a minute. Nobody said anything about God
the Father. John examines that. No one who denies the Son has
the Father. Now what is that? Except the recapitulation of
what Jesus taught very clearly to the Pharisees. You search
the Scriptures. Chapter 5 of John's Gospel. because
you think that in them you find eternal life. Now, the Old Testament
Scriptures were sufficient for eternal life. Paul says that
to Timothy. He says, you've sought out the Scriptures, they were
profitable unto eternal life. From childhood you were acquainted
with these Holy Scriptures, able to make you wise, able to save
you. But Jesus says, you've searched the Scriptures, the Old Testament,
that was the only Scripture they knew at the time, And in your searching of the
Scriptures, you think you're going to find eternal life, but
you cannot because they speak of me. Moses wrote of me. As a matter of fact, they declared
themselves to be in the lineage of Abraham and declared themselves
to be the people who stood on the shoulders of both Abraham
and Moses. And Jesus says, you're going
to die in your sins and be judged in hell forever because you don't
belong to me. And you look in the scripture
and you've created your own way to come to the Father. But the
only way that you can come to the Father is to see me and I'm
standing here. You're blind by the judgment
of God and you will perish. But whoever is confessing the
Son has the Father also. And here's a command. Let what
you heard from the beginning abide in you. What does that
mean? See, we went in John 16, 17,
you know, we flipped back in two from there for some time.
Jesus says, my word that I give you cleanses you. The word abides
in you. I abide in you and therefore
you abide in me. It's not conditional. If we stay
in Christ, he'll stay with us. No, we are in him because he
has us. I think I said this some about
a month ago, we're stuck to him. And because we're stuck to him,
we're going to abide in him and because he stuck to us, we will
believe what he says concerning himself. We believe what the
apostles have taught. We will believe the scripture
above all that man has to say, including this one. Let what
you heard, let the good news of Christ, let the teaching of
the gospel of free and sovereign grace abide in you. If what you
heard from the beginning stays with you, lives in you, seals
you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
You might think, well, what is this abiding? It's the promises
of God for eternal life. That's what he says there. But I'm not talking about you,
beloved. You have eternal life. I'm talking about, look at verse
26. Those who are trying to deceive you because they're liars, because
they're antichrists. Because they're twisting the
gospel, they're adding to the gospel, they're forsaking the
gospel, they are reducing the gospel. But the anointing that you receive
from him abides in you. And you have no need that anyone
should teach you. But as His anointing teaches
you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as
it is taught you, abide in Him. So what I said in the very beginning
of this little sermon is played out right there. If you are in the Word, and the
Word is in you, and you are learning, God will show you, you will learn,
and you will agree with those who agree, and you will disagree
with those who disagree. Sometimes it's subtle. That's
why discernment is necessary. Everybody's like, yay, I want
discernment. I've got discernment. The word discernment is best
suited in our culture and vernacular as discriminating. We need to
be discriminating against what we hear with our ears out of
the mouth of men and women. When I say men, I mean mankind.
I got called a sexist the other day because I used men too much. It's just a pastoral thing. And then when we discriminate,
we review, we listen, we gauge, we watch. Okay, it agrees. You're with us. When it doesn't,
what you talking about, Willis? And then if they can't fix it,
then they're not with us. But we do give people the benefit
of the doubt. Are you having a verbal typo? Did you fall down
a flight of stairs on the way to church? What's happening? Isn't that even funny? Somebody
across the world is going, I did. Why should we abide? Verse 28. We don't have to fear antichrist. We don't have to fear false teaching.
We don't have to fear losing our salvation. We don't have
to fear anything because God has settled the debt. He settled
the record of our debt in Christ Jesus. And so, and now, little
children, abide in him. Hold fast to your confession
of your hope. That's what Paul says to Hebrews. For he who promises
faith, Go by to him so that when he appears, when you stand face
to face before the Lord Jesus, we may have confidence and we
will not shrink from him in shame at his coming. That's step one. You hold fast to the gospel that
you've learned and you will not shrink back when he steps into
the scene. You will not hide or cower or
stand behind somebody else. You'll be pushing people out
of the way. Excuse me, my last act of self-finish. I'm next
to Jesus first. Hey, Jesus, you see. And I hate to hate to be
sort of joking in that context, but that's the way it is. Get
out of my way. I'm standing next to Christ. We're not ashamed
because his blood satisfied the debt of our sin. And then also. if we know, verse 29, that He
is righteous. And we do. We know that He's
light, right? You may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness
has been born in Him. So there is a certainty in which we watch
one another in the context of our life when we encourage and
rebuke and correct and train in the context of love. And I'll
go through that again next week. But remember, we love Christ
because He first loved us. That's what John's going to say
in a couple of months, in a couple of sentences. And because of
that, then, we in turn, because of gratitude, we love one another.
And any sin whatsoever, word, thought, or deed, or desire,
is unloving to each other. If I put my fleshly desires Above
my gift to you, I am not loving you. And in doing so, I'm not
loving Christ. So because we are secure and
we will abide in him by the grace and the mercy of his work, we
then also ought to look after one another in the context of
our assembly, nitpick and have pet peeves, but to be careful
when we see each other stumbling and falling into sin. John closes
this out with instruction and just a couple of chapters in
this very thing. We need to make sure. That we
reveal a life of righteousness for the sake of our love for
one another. So in that, beloved, there is something that we ought
to do. Because of who we are. So do not fear and rest in the
fullness of the love of God who has called you His child and
purchased you therein. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for just an incredible time of hearing your scripture, hearing
the word, hearing the gospel. Lord, help us as we continue
to just struggle. We struggle. We're not suffering
like other people are in certain areas of the world. But Lord,
even though it's not quite as bad, it's bad for us in some
way. A man's light suffering, though it may be the hardest
he's ever endured, is still hard for him. So help us to be sensitive
to that, to each other's fears and concerns and worries. And
Lord, when we don't have the wisdom of what to say, let us
use the wisdom of Christ. Help us to open up the word of
God and say, I don't know what to say to you, but let me read
you this that encourages my soul, that it may encourage you, that
it may put you in a place where you are abiding in the discipline
of hearing the truth of Christ. Hold fast to what you know, because
you've been taught by God. Lord, help us to be that type
of sibling, that type of caregiver, that type of encourager. Lord,
I myself feel the overwhelming need to try to figure out how
to meet physical needs and emotional needs. And Lord, it is such a
fool's errand. When all that you have called us to and most
of the time, all that we really want from one another is just
a listening ear and a prayerful heart. And to be the mouth of
your word. To the soul that is weary. So Father, help us all to be
that fresh cup of living water through our encouragement and
through our service by your word. Whose name is Jesus. Whose power
and authority and finished work grant us the privilege to speak
to you. And by whose authority we now stand before you. Perfect, blameless, and clean. Amen.