to the first letter of John. Let's continue there in chapter
two. What will you learn today? What is it that you will place
in your heart and mind that will teach you something? And what
does it mean to learn? Does it mean that we have obtained
new information? New data? Does it mean that we
have gathered something in our mind that we can contemplate
that we did not have before? To learn, does it also include
the idea that we are reminded of something? That we're able
to exercise something? Have you ever thought about the
fact that learning goes far beyond the mind? That learning that
the body learns, the nervous system learns. Now, of course, I'm personifying
those things in a way that science or philosophy probably wouldn't.
But I know my body knows its limits. It has learned that arthritis
is restrictive. My mind has learned that. I know
that. There are things that we know
that in certain seasons of life or certain moments of life that
we're reminded of. And it's as if we've just learned
it for the very first time. In the search for knowledge,
humanity has always longed to have all the answers. We have some new kittens in our
house we've had for a couple of months and Abigail loves her
cat. She loves her cat so much that
that cat from its infant stage has been taught to just lay on
its back like a child. You pick up the other cats like
that, they don't like that. But this cat will lay on its back.
This cat will stay in her arms. She can carry it by the chest.
She can hold it by the face and smush its little cheeks and it
swings in the swing set. It hangs on whatever pole she
wants it to hang upon. It'll walk on a leash because
it has learned that that is its life. I think that's all that
it's learned, to be submissive into that form. Yesterday I walked
into the house and Abigail was sitting on the patio and she
had that cat and she was just loving it, loving it, loving
it, all over it. And that cat's just like, help
me please. And I said, you love your cat,
don't you? She says, Daddy, I just don't think I could live without
Zuzu. I said, yes, you could. Yes,
you could. No, she's the only reason I'm
happy. See, that's honesty, right? That's
the honesty of idolatry, the honesty of superficial affection,
the honesty of the very fact that we love things. So I explained
to her, I said, no, you can derive much joy from your kitten, but
she's not the source of it. She can make you happy in this
moment, but she's not the source of happiness. The only source
of happiness that you have, Abigail, is the person and the work of
Jesus Christ. Okay, daddy. I mean, you know. And she learned something with
her mind from a place of, I understand that. And if I were to ask her
today, what is the source of your happiness? The person and
work of Jesus. And what is that? And she could
explain it to me. And sometimes we feel like as
believers, and we've been around for a while, 10 years, 20 years,
30 years, 60 years, 80 years, whatever it may be. Oh, we've
learned it all. We know all the details of the
gospel. We have all the illustrations down. We've got the gospel narratives
down. We've got the histories down.
We've been teaching the Bible and reading the Bible our entire
lives. Many years ago, not too far ago,
but some years ago, a man told me one time that he'd read the
Bible. I think he said 50 plus times. And the very next breath is,
so boy, don't tell me what it says. Yes, sir. I know what the Bible
says. I've read it 50 times. How many
times have you read it? I don't know. My belt notch is just notched
to keep my pants up. I don't really have how many
times I've read the Bible. But you couldn't teach that guy
anything and you can't teach an old dog new tricks in that
sense. But beloved, when you think you know the gospel, then
God can't teach you anything else. Because the facts and the
figures of the theology behind the doctrine is not the point
of learning. Because anyone can regurgitate
data. Anyone can regurgitate information. For those of you who have had
surgery, or medical conditions, or certain types of medication
that you've been prescribed, oh, you got a doctorate in that
particular, in the understanding of that particular thing that's
concerning you. You probably know more than the specialist
that treats you after about a year and a half to two years. And a good doctor will listen
to their patients and say, hey, I haven't looked at that, let
me research it. Beloved, we've gotta learn. And
we've gotta constantly be learning. And we've gotta constantly be
listening. And we've gotta constantly realize that our flesh devours
the very knowledge that we may get today, this morning. Because if we had the gospel
and didn't need to learn it again, if we knew what verse John was
all about and we could just move on. Oh, I studied that book a
few years ago. I don't want to hear what Pastor
Tippins has to say about it. I don't want to hear what I have to say
about it either. I want to hear what John is saying. See, there's a huge
difference, isn't there? It's not my creativity. It's
not my quips. It's not my saying. It's not my quotations that make
a difference. It's what God's Word has to say.
And ultimately, my desire for you is that you would learn this,
that you would learn this in a way that it is effective in
your life continually. So that when you go back to it,
you're like, well, I'm relearning the same thing with a greater
depth, not a greater knowledge of peeling back, you know, like,
oh, we know that there's matter. Oh, we know that there are molecules.
Oh, we know that they're what the atom looks like. Oh, we know
what the nucleus looks like. Oh, we know what DNA is. Oh,
and then we're going to pull that apart as the generations
That's not what we do with the scripture. It's surface level
simple, but divinely instructed, divinely infused into our mind
and into our hearts. But it is not the will of the
Lord that it be planted there one time in the context of our
learning. And then we're done and we move
on. And we just go with it. Because what is it that we really
want from the truth of scripture? We want hope and peace. We want rest. We want love. We want intimacy. the shepherds of the New Testament
and the apostles of those shepherds. They didn't come around here
and show up to a church and give them a theological treatise on
something and then walk away saying, look at there and I've
equipped these people. I've given them what they need. Not that I think it would be
a bad idea, but when someone's hungry in the body and then I
sit there and give them an hour lecture on superlapsarianism,
I think it would be well suited for them to have food first. What are you learning today?
I'll tell you what you'll learn. You'll learn that which you have
been preparing to learn this week. You will learn what John's
intentions are concerning this letter and you will agree with
what he says through this exposition this morning and continually
because you will have been in the scriptures even in a small
sense throughout the week. That they will begin to become
synergistic. Oh, that's a dirty word, but
no, it's not a dirty word when the Bible is congruent. The Bible
is synergistic. The scriptures are synergistic.
It's the same author. It's the same purpose. It's the
same message from beginning to end. All the books that we call
the Bible, there are 66 individual writings. It's a collection.
And they all have a singular purpose, and that is to reveal
to God's people to his elect the reality of his eternal and
effectual love for them for the sake of his name, that is his
glory, being known for who he is and seen for what he is. Through
the giving of his son in time into the world that he created
in order to redeem his people and so on and so forth, the hows
and the whats and the whys. The Bible is not about life's
lessons. The Bible is not about theological
power. The Bible is not about the spirit
moving and giving us things that we want. The Bible is not about
the genie-in-the-bottle mentality. The Bible is not about nationalism.
As a matter of fact, it calls it Antichrist. The Bible is not
about politics. The Bible is not about medicine.
The Bible is not about science. The Bible is about seeing the
face of God in the face of Christ. by the will of God for His people
alone. So that when we have intellectual
minded people who are unconverted by the Spirit, they spend their
lives defending the academic portion of theological things
by saying, thus saith the Lord. But God on the mountain of Sinai
never spoke to Moses in theological things. He commanded him divinely. And he's commanding us divinely
today through the written word that John has posed in this little
teeny tiny postcard of a letter. The therefore of the gospel of
free and sovereign grace. What Christ left his disciples
to do was to live together and to love one another and to give
as they've been given by the mercies of God in his grace to
empower each other, to be encouraged, to be intimate, to be loved,
to have hope and peace and rest. That's the point. That's why
you're here today. Not only that you receive it from the word,
but then you also share it with each other. In Romans 12, we read the entire
chapter this morning as an introduction to our service, and it talks
about all of these things, these qualities, these desires, this
focus of the church to be inwardly focused because of the grace
of God. Therefore, by the mercies of
God, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. You must learn again that which
you learned yesterday. You and I both must learn tomorrow
what we learned today. And then we next day, we must
learn it again and we must learn it again. And we must keep simple
grace on the table simply. To realize that the promises
of God through the word of God are just that the only instrument
of efficacy for the church, for the assembled ones. For the body
of Christ. There is no other promise. There
is no other way. There is no other power under
the sun or above it through which God will establish His people
in a state of rest mentally except to continually learn what He's
done to establish their state of rest spiritually in Jesus
Christ. Last week, verse 15, 1 John 1.
I first John 2, sorry. Do not love the world or the
things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Remember we talked about
that. I can't give you the love. I'm not loving you as the Father
loves. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh
and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from
the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away
with its desires. But whoever does the will of
God abides forever. Children, verse 18. 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 went out from us. They were
not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would have continued with us. But they went out so that it
might become plain that they are not of us. But you have been
anointed by the Holy One, and you have You all have knowledge. 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? This is the Antichrist. He who
denies the Father and the Son. I'm going to stop there because
I'm not going to get into all of that this morning. Now, just
ask yourself this question. When have I ever heard a sermon
on the Antichrist that wasn't about some futuristic ruler coming
from some futuristic place to rule over a United Nations with
power? If you've ever been taught that,
the person that taught you that lied. If you ever read that in
a book, that book is no better than Winnie the Pooh. I would
say that Milne is a better writer than that. than he would be. It's garbage. There is no such teaching in
the Word of God about some futuristic figure that's going to come on
the scene as the Antichrist. You got it? Be careful. But I mean, I was
scared to death as a child Sitting always on the front row. There
was never a back row Baptist for children and youth you were
front row or you were in the parking lot with a switch and
You were quiet and you sat still and you had a tie on it was a
clip-on but buddy it was there When the pastor said amen you
could pull it off But when it was preaching it was on I mean
that was that's high church folks. I Oregon prelude, Oregon postlude,
Oregon midlude. Didn't matter. The heavens opened
up. The pastor descended from the
presence of God. Open your Bibles. Antichrist. I mean, you know, you know there.
You've been there. And all the kids are listening
and they're thinking about this monster coming out of the ocean
and all this other stuff and this big ruler and if you don't
eat your vegetables you're going to go to hell and you're going
to suffer seven years of tribulation. You know. And I'm being a little
comical with it because it's just that comical of how continually
worse the teaching gets extra biblically and hyperbolically
to the point that we've created this incredibly scary person. To the point that God's people
begin to think, Oh, Jesus wins. We better help him. Get the arsenal. Let's pray that the Lord Jesus
survives it. He is the victor. He created
the enemy. He created every reprobate person.
He created every elect person. He created every government,
every nation, every king, every queen, every monarch, every gentle
servant, every maniacal crazy person that ruled with the sword. He created them all and He created
them all for His purpose and He put them on the earth to fulfill
His purpose. And you want to read the revealed
things? Apocalypse, which means the revealed
things. Revelation, things understood
and seen finally. That's what that means. It's
not a hidden message. John was John was told not to
write the hidden message because it wasn't important to the people
of the time. There's nothing else to learn
there. Here we have to learn something new. And sometimes
when we learn something new, we have to do so for the sake
of our joy and our peace and our intimacy and our rest. How
much rest do you get when there is a colossal hurricane descending
upon your house? But you don't know when and you
don't know from which direction. Just be any moment. And in preparation for that,
you have to sit there and worry and labor. You can't do anything. You can't go anywhere because
you just don't want to be caught off guard. You know, Jesus said
something about that with the virgins and their candles and
their oil lamps. Remember that? Completely out
of context. You better be ready. Antichrist
is coming. See, that's not good news, is
it? What is the point? Why was John
all of a sudden decided to start teaching about Antichrist? Because
it's so important in the context of what he just said. Beloved,
my little children, you who are elect, you who are safe in the
hands of Christ, you who have been born of God, you who are
satisfactory to the father who has been propitiated through
the blood of Jesus. You need to love one another
as Christ has taught us to love. We should love one another. This
is the law that the believer obeys. The law of Christ. And we can't take chapter 18
out of the middle, it's a parenthetical. to verse 28 through the end of
chapter 3, verse 12. So we can't take these things
out of its source and out of its context. We must read that
in the sense in which John wrote it. So he says, you have overcome
the evil one, beloved. You are growing and strong in
the faith. You are abiding in the will of
God because you are abiding in the son of God because you cannot
be taken away from him. You are strong because you know him who was
from the beginning. You know Him. But do you know Him, know
Him, know Him? Or are you still learning about
Him? You're still learning. There's not a new thing. There's
not going to be a new subject in your study notebook. Oh my
goodness, I got a new word describing God. I just learned it. found
it in the back of my Bible, under a piece of tape, and I just never
saw it. Here it is. No, you're going to know the
same information, but you're learning it more and more and
more, the same thing over and over again. You need to learn
that which you know, that which was from the beginning. And part
of that learning is to understand the essence of his righteousness,
who he is. He is set apart, so therefore
we are set apart in him. And because we are set apart
in him, when we live as he has called us to live, when we put
away the things of the flesh, when we labor to serve one another,
thus serving the Lord Jesus, we are doing the will of God.
And in that will, we find rest. Temporally. See, the temporal
promises of this life are just that, they're temporary. The
eternal promises cannot change. If you don't put your hand in
the fire, you will not burn yourself. Doesn't that make sense? If you
do not cause strife, you will live at peace with one another. So when we hate, when we just
throw caution to the wind, when we just go, I don't care what
the Bible says, Can a believer do that? Yes. And some people's mouths may
be agape. And I can't see your faces, beloved. And those of
you who are online for the last three or four months, I can't
see your faces and it burdens me. I see your faces in my dreams.
And I wonder what you're looking like. I wonder if you're smiling,
if you've got a disgruntled face, or if you're worried, or if you're
tearful. I wonder if you are concerned about today or tomorrow,
or you've given up on yesterday. I don't know. I can't see. I
can't tell. So I have to trust in the eternal promise because
the temporal promises are always going to pass away. The temporal essence of this
life is going to pass away and what the world has offered is
going to pass away. But what will not pass away is
the Lord Jesus Christ and his redemption of his people so that
when we are together, guess what? As we're practicing this beautiful
eternal future, The relationships we have in Christ will not pass
away. Our own family will pass away. Our relationships with
our spouse and children, they will pass away, but those who
are in Christ, we will forever be the children of God. And ultimately,
it is the only eternal investment that we can make right now in
this world that is temporal. This is John's purpose. And so he says, don't love the
world. You're to love one another. Don't love the world. Remember
we walked through that last week. If you weren't here or didn't
listen to it, please go back and listen. I don't want to preach two hours
today. But there are things that the
world has and things that the world thinks and things that
the world does and things that the world offers that are not
of God. And we need to know how to discriminate
so that we know the difference. That's why Romans 12 is so fitting. In verse 18, he's continuing
in this same idea. Children, it is the last hour. And as you have been hearing
and have heard, as people have been talking, that Antichrist
is coming. So now many Antichrists have
come. So let's talk about Antichrist. What is Christ? What is the word? It's the English transliteration
of the Greek Christos, which is a Greek word for the Hebrew
word Mesheach, which the English would be Messiah. So Messiah
and Christ are the exact same term. What does it mean? The one who is set apart by God.
It's the very thing that John writes in the third chapter of
his gospel where he says, Nicodemus says, we know that you have come
from God for no one can do that which you do except God be with
him. He called him the one come from God, the holy and the anointed
one. When the Pharisees called up
with John the Baptist, And they say, by what authority
do you baptize? Are you the prophet? He says, I am not the Christ. They couldn't see it. They didn't.
They're talking about Messiah, talking about the prophet. The
only prophet to come was Christ, the true prophet, the eternal
prophet, the eternal priest, the eternal king. So Christ is the Holy and the
Anointed One. He is Jesus, the English transliteration
of Esu, which is in the Greek. Yeshua would be the English translation
from the Hebrew word to Joshua. So Joshua and Jesus are the same
name, the same word, different roots, different language, linguistic origins.
It means Yahweh, God, saves. Jesus means Yahweh saves. So
His name is God saves from Nazareth. He is the one who God sent. And it's a common name. Everybody
had it. A lot of people had it. So what is Antichrist? Well,
something is something. And something else is the opposite
of that or is not that, then that's not. So anti means not.
Anti also means against in this context. So something that is
not Christ is not Christ. Simple as that. Antichrist means
that it's not Christ. Can that be a person? Yes. Can
it be a people? Yes. Can it be an idea? Yes.
Can it be a truth? Yes. False Gospels are Antichrists. False worship is Antichrist. False revelation is Antichrist.
Get it out of your mind, individuals, and put in your mind the world.
The world is Antichrist. The world is opposite of Christ.
The world is against Christ. The religious world. Judaism
in the first century could be labeled Antichrist. The Pharisees
could be labeled Antichrists. And many of the so-called believers,
like the Judaizers, were Antichrists. And that's why John's letter
gives that understanding. You have heard that that Antichrist
is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. So you've been looking for the
one, but they've already shown up many times over and over again.
Now this is inclusive of those who came as false messiahs. Hey,
I'm the messiah. Okay, whatever, died, moved on,
next messiah, next messiah, next messiah. Oh, this one raised
from the dead and spoke with the power and the authority of
God and had the power of God. He was the word of God and the
work of God. By the will of God, he's God. Wow, we see God now. We have seen the glory of God
face to face, Jesus Christ, the man. from Nazareth. So antichrists have come, many. Therefore we know that it is
the last hour. What does it mean with the last hour? The idea
that the whole of human history, the pinnacle of human history,
the pinnacle of creative history, the existence of all that we
know that exists, the infinite immeasurable cosmos and why it
is And that third rock from the sun we call home and the life
thereon, the point of it all is that Jesus Christ would hang
on a cross to save His people from their sins by His mercy
and blood. And at that moment, the last
hour began. Because Jesus says it's finished.
The movie's done, the act is finished, the play is over, the
curtain has drawn, and we're just rolling through the credits
for the last 2,000 years. It's over! It's finished! And so while it's finished, all
these credits that's just Jesus' name one after the other, He
gets credit for it all. It's just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
It's the Sunday school answer. What time is it, Jesus? What's
for lunch? Jesus. In a spiritual sense,
that's true. He's the bread of life. He's
the living water. Let's eat and drink Him. That's His imagery. That's His figurative language.
That's His expression of what the Spirit does to cause you
to believe and understand. When you long for that which
is temporal, even though it's necessary for life, the only
true life you have is to eat of Christ. Because you're not
promised something to eat today. You're not promised something
to drink today. You and I may die of thirst or
hunger before the week's out. But we won't die. Even though
our body dies. We will live forevermore because
Christ is our life, he is our life, so we are in him and we
cannot. So it's the last hour. We're
awaiting that moment when God has determined to say, this is
it. Enough is enough. The credits are done. But because
so many people love to see their name in lights, they keep looking
on that big screen and they're waiting to see, oh, you know,
I've just served the Lord on the mission field. Missionary
associate. Jesus. He gets all the credit
for everything. Where's my name? And so throughout
human history, there have always been a person or persons of groups
of people or ideologies in the so-called Christian or religious
or evangelical even, which is a more contemporary term. Every
few 30 to 60 years, maybe 100 years, there's a new coined phrase
for a new identity to paste over groups of people who hold fast
to certain specific or distinctions. And it never fails that somebody
wants credit for what they're doing for the sake of Christ
and His kingdom. And so they're looking and when
they don't see their name on the credit roster, they create
their own storyline. It's like fan fiction for the
gospel. And the sad thing is it's not
fan fiction, it's Antichrist fiction. And a majority of Antichrists
are Baptist pastors. Baptist deacons, Methodist pastors,
Methodist deacons, Sovereign Grace pastors, Sovereign Grace
deacons. Just because we use that term doesn't mean everybody
who uses that term agrees. And the list can go on and on
and on. Antichrists. Those who would
do anything in any way to take glory for themselves because
taking glory for oneself is to rob God of what is his. That
is against Christ. That is the opposite of Christ.
Jesus Christ came to give glory to the Father. He is God, yet
he did not take it. How does Paul say it? Equality
with God, something to be grasped, but he made himself nothing. Obedient unto death like a slave
on the cross. Antichrists. So what does it
look like? Well, I could spend the next
30-something minutes and just off the top of my head just rip
out word after word, phrase after phrase of all the different types
of Antichrist. We understand the idea of false
Gospels. We understand the idea of world
religions. We understand the idea of adding and subtracting
to the gospel. We understand the idea of works
and free willism, decisionism and prayers of salvation. We
understand all this other historical stuff that's going on, this works-based
assurance and all this other baloney. We know what it looks
like to add to the gospel as a body. Now somebody else that
may watch this teaching later on, years away, they may think,
well what's he talking about? Because they might not understand.
So for us, as a body, we would have to go beyond that. Now what
else is Antichrist? We've got a good guard around
us. We know what is Antichrist, but we don't. John is saying
the world and everything in it is Antichrist. And there's a specific reason
he writes this. If you go down to verse 26, he
says, I write these things to you about those who are trying
to deceive you. So that's the point. What does
the Antichrist do? He lies. Who is the liar but
he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? That's the centerpiece
of it. That's the obvious. But in the
context of loving the world and everything in the world that's
passing away, we need to realize that the Antichrist is not just
so bold to come out with horns and a hay fork. I'm the Lord. No, you're not. I see you. You're
the devil. You're red, man. That's not how he presents himself.
He's an angel of light, the bright morning star. So close to God
as a creation that he exemplified the essence of the radiance of
the mirror of God, but he wasn't in himself holding that essence. He just radiated it in some sense. and thought, look how I look,
I should stand with him. I deserve to be glorified in
the same way because look at me. Abigail was making some Plato
figures yesterday and I use this every time I teach younger children
about that. What if you were drawing a picture
and the pen or the crayon took over and you're drawing a cat
and it draws a kite? How many times are you gonna
let that happen? before you break that pencil. We don't get to tell God how
He does what He does. And when God establishes the
revelation of His glory, we don't get to add to it. We don't get
to say, well look how good I'm doing, looking, being, preaching,
teaching, serving, offering, et cetera, let me get some glory
for it. That's Antichrist. Humility is almost absent in our world. And the lack of humility, pride
is Antichrist. Even among the elect, it's an
antichrist attitude. See what I'm saying? We are not
antichrist, but can we act that way? Yes, we can act that way. Don't believe me? Disagree with
that and let me be. Let me just keep saying it and
you keep disagreeing. You figure out what an antichrist
attitude looks like because you have one. It's just that simple. And you'll understand, many antichrists
have come. John is not talking, he's talking
about fakers, he's talking about deceivers, he's talking about
those who've come into the fold of the gospel in proximity and
said, oh yeah, believe the gospel, believe the gospel, believe the
gospel. And division comes through some type of what? Deception. You know what, in order for you
to really be right with the Lord, you need to do this. In order
for you to really honor God, you need to act like this. But
it's not what's written here. It's funny how so many people
are easy to look at the Bible and say, okay, you're not doing
that, and you're not doing that, and you're not doing that. When
the whole time, what does the scripture tell them to do? Pray. John deals with it in a minute.
Because we've already talked about the fact that nobody in
the reading of this letter, nobody that received this letter was
without sin. And the specific sin he wants these Christians
to understand that they need to press into is the sin of not
loving. They need to press into the,
not into that, but they need to press against that because
of the love of God for them in Christ. And so this antichrist
ideology is worldly. Therefore we know we're in the
last hour. People are trying to steal glory from the Lord.
Then he says in verse 19, they went out. Who? The Antichrists. So the Antichrists
always claim to be in Christ. Not they claim to be Christ.
They claim to be in Christ. Antichrists come in and say,
I want to join Grace True Church. I'll be part of your family. We're going to learn here, and
we're going to love each other here, and we're going to live
here. Well, I got the learning. I'm not doing the loving in the
living part. Or they say, well, I know how
I'm supposed to love, and I'm going to love my way. No, the
Bible says how you're supposed to love. Be long-suffering, be
quiet, be patient. Those who are spiritual, submit
to the authorities given to you. That's chapter 12 of Romans.
Chapter 13 of Romans says the very same thing. Ephesians chapter
5, Colossians chapter 3, I mean it's just everywhere. Just be
quiet, shut your mouth and be simple. Live simply, love each
other and thus doing so fulfill the law of Christ and you love
the Lord. This is what 1 John is trying to instruct us to do.
But Antichrist can't get with that program because they hate
the gospel. They say they love the gospel,
but they love the idea of the gospel from a theologically academic
point of view. They love the data, but they've
not learned it. Because if you've learned it,
you will long to know it more. Why? Because we know ourselves,
don't we? We know the sin that is set in
our hearts. And in our minds, we know the
very nature that if God was not merciful, we would either be
a tyrant or a theologian, both probably going to destruction. Some of the brothers and I, through
the years, we've always not joked, but made the real statement that
had God not saved us, we probably would be apologists for the cults.
Because we can get the data and we can argue the debates. But the argument, the debate,
is not what God uses to win souls. As a matter of fact, it's what
antichrists use to segue away from the gospel of free and sovereign
grace, away from the simplicity of the work of God, away from
the love of God, and away from we staying put and being still
and loving one another. They went out from us because
They were not of us. They will not stand this teaching.
What's the example of John 6? Did you see it there? They follow
Jesus around. They get this miraculous meal.
They stand out on the seashore. He vanishes, you know. They stand
on the seashore. The disciples and their boats
are there. God sends a storm and blows all the boats from
Capernaum. over to the shore. Then they get on the boats the
next morning and they follow after the disciples. And halfway, three and a half
miles on a seven mile journey, Christ enters the boat, teleports
the boat onto the shore of Capernaum. And then when all the other people
get there, they see Jesus says, how'd you get here? We stood
outside the world and watched all night long. How'd you get
here? And Jesus rebukes them. And if we're going to use John's
language, Jesus would say it this way, you all are antichrists. Because you're coming after me
in order to establish what you want for your flesh. Instead of eating of me as your
eternal rest and hope. And then he later says, and the
reason you can't, because you don't belong to me. Because I don't
feed myself to the dogs. Now, that's harsh, isn't it?
That's what Jesus says to the woman who was calling after him.
And I think it's in Mark's gospel. Teacher, send her away. This
unclean thing. And he turns to the woman who
was begging him to heal. He says, woman, what am I supposed
to do? The bread is for the children of Israel. Am I supposed to throw
the food for the children to the dogs? What a wicked, wicked
parent to feed the morsels for the children to the dogs. Now
keep in mind that imagery, throwing it out on the street so that
the stray dogs eat it. It's not feeding your pets. And that woman says, but even
the dogs, see, get the scraps from their master's tables. Antichrists. They're in the world,
they're of the world. They like to put on the airs
of theological things and gospel things and Christian things.
And they like to walk in the circles of those who do. And
they have large followings and large platforms and large loud
voices in many publishings. It is the way of God and His
sovereignty to deceive the nations who think they're following Christ
when they're following Antichrist. You look at 2 Thessalonians and
you can see that very clearly. And so when they get tired of
the simplicity of grace, we've been learning on Wednesday nights,
the finished work of Christ that compels us to love one another,
it's not easy. And it's not required. for us
to stand perfected before the Father, but it is something we
ought to do if we want to live a life of rest and hope and peace.
Because if you want to know one thing that will cause your life
to turn upside down internally, it's drama. It's unloving people. It's unloving words, unloving
attitudes, unloving mindsets, selfishness, greed, envy. arrogance. These things fight
against the fiber of the grace of God and the Spirit of God.
Christ is none of these things, never has had any of these things,
yet is worthy by His authority to claim all these things for
Himself. Yet He did not. He died for His people and we,
in turn, ought to die for one another. And when these things are pressed,
and what happens? Excommunication takes place from
the family, doesn't it? We've helped raise six other children that weren't
ours. I had teenagers when I had toddlers. Helped get them through school.
help get him a car, get him a driver's license, help get him into college,
counsel him through this, counsel him through that. He stayed in
our houses for years. And it's interesting because
there was one of those young men who just could not do right. And we loved him dearly, and
we loved him to the day he turned 18, but when he continued to
do that, which was wrong and illegal, we told him he could
not stay with us anymore. And it was hard to take this
young man and put him out. And I know people have had to
do that with their own children. You cannot do these things because
it is ruining the marriage. It is ruining the siblings. It
is ruining the family. It is ruining. You're putting
us in danger because what you're doing is illegal. What you're
doing is immoral. What you're doing is causing
other people to take notice of our home. And it hurts, but you
put them out for the safety of the whole. And sometimes it's what they
need, that swift kick in the butt to, I don't want to be away
from my family that loves me. I'll get help. And they come
back and they say, I won't help. See? That's what church discipline
does. It allows us to quit worrying
and laboring in such a way for someone who refuses to be loving. and refuses to submit to that
simple thing. While everyone loves them and
they hate everybody else, what does it do? It turns the entire
body up on its head. It's like a cell of cancer. If
you had blood work and they found cancer in your blood, or the
possibility of cancer, and you had cancer in your pinky nail.
Ah, it's just pinky nail cancer. Three months from now, your pinky's
eating half off. Oh, it's just pinky cancer. No big deal. Then
your pinky's gone. Oh, it's just hand cancer. No
big deal. Well, that's wrist cancer. Next thing, they're calling you
Bob. Well, it's just body cancer. I don't have to worry about it.
No, you get it out. And when people refuse it and
they walk away, chances are they were not of us to begin with.
Church discipline correction, love, investment, spiritual. John's going to tell us the essence
of how that looks over in chapter 5. But right now he's saying,
listen, this not loving one another is the Antichrist. See the context
now. And this attitude is like them
saying Christ didn't come in the flesh. He didn't give his
body. He didn't die for anybody. He didn't love a soul. Christ
did very well die in his flesh. He did descend from heaven and
come down and take a body that he created for himself. And he
grew and he learned and he suffered in the flesh. And when we don't love each other,
it's as if we're going, Jesus didn't really die. like the Gnostics. We've got to understand that
John's letter is not specifically dealing with some external heresy. It's dealing with the internal
heresy of refusing the gospel because of people who refuse
to listen to the reason of love. Because if you don't love me
and I don't love you, we can go nowhere together. But if we love each other, That
love covers a multitude of sins and there is nothing that you
could do that would cause me to stop serving you for the sake
of the Lord. Let me show you what that obstinance
looks like if it were done in the pastorate. You know what,
I'm not preaching today as long as they're sitting here. You
think, what? That's why that man would be
disqualified. And if I ever say that to any of you and then I
get up here and you haven't seen me retract it, you better stand
up and call foul. in the middle of the service
during the live stream you better say foul pastor pastor your heart's
unloving foul don't say heretic but just say foul heretic don't wash off he's not talking to these beloved
people look at verse 20 but you you've been anointed by the Holy
One And you all have knowledge. So he's not teaching them something
new, is he? He's already said, I give you a new commandment,
but it's not a new commandment. It's one you had from the beginning.
This is the subject matter of everything he's writing. Love,
love, love, as Christ shows us, love as Christ loves. And in
doing so, you will learn and know the Lord in a deeper way,
you will learn and know each other in a deeper way. You ever gone through drama or
turmoil or tragedy with a person that you weren't necessarily
close to, then after that you're so close, nothing can separate
you and your affections? It's pain on the front side,
joy on the back side, like birth. 10 months of horror, 10 to 24 to
48 hours of I don't even know why they call it labor. They
ought to call it many death and then maybe 60 years of this. But not you. You've been anointed
by that. You all have knowledge. I write to you, verse 21, not
because you do not know the truth. You know what I'm telling you.
You know Christ. This is not a get on to you letter.
I said that last week. This is an encouragement. So when this is preached, you
shouldn't sit there, beloved, and go, I'm just a horrible person. You should sit there and go,
Christ is such an amazing Savior. God is such a patient God. Thank
you, Lord, that I'm not counted by my doing, but I'm counted
by Christ's doing. I write to you not because you
do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie
is of the truth. Who is it that lies? The liars
who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist,
he who denies the Father and the Son. He who denies that relationship. He who denies that intimacy.
He who denies that sending. He who denies that incarnation.
He who denies that sovereign grace. He who denies that free
love of God. He who puts upon himself the
credit for the glory of God. He who does not love his brother
and sister because he loves his doctrine more than he does his
Savior. And he'd rather be right in the
counsel of none than quiet in the counsel of the beloved. Teaching
with all what? Patience. Do you realize that very few,
and I'm going to say this and it's going to sound very odd,
but very few believers have the authority because of their maturity
level in the faith to correct another person in the faith. When we are not spiritually mature,
we don't need to be going around trying to help everybody else
become spiritually mature. In the moment, it's there. It's
simple. You think that was good? No. It's no problem. Some people have it, their motive,
their daily bread. Here I am. I'm the holy warrior. Get on my holy keyboard. and tell everybody who is my
brother and sister how much I hate them. That's what they do. The liar. Whoever confesses the
son has the father also, has learned the father, is learning
the father, is intimate with the father. Jesus cries out in
his prayer. He teaches the disciples, John
16, 17. He prays to the Father, I pray that they may be one as
we are one. I want you to listen to this
because this is the point of John's teaching. I want them to love each other
as you have loved me and as I have loved you. So you want to know
the example of human affection in the context of the gospel
is to love as God loves Jesus and as Jesus loves the Father. That's the standard. Beloved,
we're never gonna match it. We're never gonna match it. We're
never gonna match it. But that is the constant. Why
does that matter? Because that's the glory of God.
That's the revelation of who he is. He purchased us. Yet sometimes we feel worthy
to be a rear end. And I really believe that the
greatest problem in the body of Christ is a lack of holy affection
for one another. And we're going to struggle with
that. But John wants us to see that those who can't handle it...
You see why it's wrong? It's a sin for a pastor not to
teach his church to love each other. Because they're ignoring
every book in the New Testament. Every book of the New Testament,
everywhere that there's an introduction that says grace to you who are
in Christ. Because it is the grace of God
in Christ that caused us to live. And that is motivated by his love. His love
is His glory. Whoever confesses the Son is
the Father also. Verse 24, let what you have heard, back to
my introduction, what you've learned, what you know, that
what you've heard from the beginning abide in you. You know Christ,
now know Him. You've learned Christ, now learn
Him. You've abided in Christ, now abide in Him. Let what you've heard from the
beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning
abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
So if the gospel remains, if the gospel is learned, if the
gospel is the centerpiece, you will have intimacy. You will
have peace. You will have rest. You will
have hope. in this present life. This is
he's not talking about eternally. He's in this present life with
God's people. And it ultimately does what?
What is the promise of Christ who abides with his people? What
is it? Look at the next verse. And this is the promise that
he made to us. Eternal life. Eternal life. Beloved, we know that it is the
gospel confession, it is the truth given to us by God that
in repentance, that we know the truth of free and sovereign grace.
And out of that divine work, we are called by the scripture
then to exercise affection for one another in a manner worthy
of that calling. And our eye is not on that which
is now. Our motivation for the love is
not so that we can have a wonderful congregation, that would be nice. Not that we can have every chair
full. Not that we could expand our
ministry and our reach and plant churches all over the world and
the nation and the world. Those would be great things,
but the reason that we are motivated to this end is because Christ
did not save us to labor in the flesh forever. There's a moment
where this stops and the true rest comes, where the promised
land in the shadow actually is seen in Christ, where the assembly
of the saints is in the festal gathering of God. And that's
eternal life. So here's a stick in the mud
or in your eye or wherever you think it might be. If we can't
love each other now, it's going to be a real hard eternity. Because
I think God in his humor will put the person that aggravates
you the most right by you. Just a joke. Do you know what's
really awesome about that? You ever felt like you aggravated
God? You know you can't. You cannot
aggravate your father. You cannot bring a place where
God hates you. You cannot come to a place where
God is disdained for you. God can hate what we do. God
hates all sin, even the sin of the believer. And he hates it,
but he's settled it because he's put the guilt of that sin on
his son. And it is finished. So beloved,
you were of the truth and you've learned the truth, and now you've
learned it again. And let that truth be your guide
to loving one another. Let us be patient and kind and
gentle and long-suffering, longing for the day when there is an
eternal unity, never to have disdain or division again. And
that is when we stand face to face with Christ. And John will
talk about those things in this very letter. Let's pray. We thank
you, Father, for the truth of your word. Lord, for the everlasting
love that you've given us and father for just the mercy in
my own heart and mind today, Lord, to be able to parse this
short section. Effectively, not because of me
or my study, but Lord, because of your kindness. And that your
word is written so that by the spirit we can see it and it is
simply seen and it is simply understood. It just flows together
with just great synergy. For the message is singular,
and the focus is singular, and the glory is singular. It is
all for you. It is all about Christ. It is
all about your elect people who give glory to you forever and
evermore. So we thank you for that. Lord,
when we see sin in our life, we know that it divides us from
our love for one another. We know that it causes us to
shirk back in fear, even though we should not. For Christ is
our propitiation and there is no condemnation for us. But Lord,
we know that it changes us. It causes us to fear and think
things that are not true. To listen to the lies of our
flesh propagated by the enemy. So help us to put away that which
is not pure and holy and loving. And help us to be motivated to
do so because of your eternal love. Because of the cost of
redemption through the body and the blood of Jesus. and help
us to remember that body and that blood that was broken for
our account. And all the array of righteousness,
all the greatness of your divine nature, Lord, displayed on the
cross, bloody and ashamed. And Father, he went into the
grave and rose again victorious. He is the victor. There is no
antichrist that will war against him, for he has defeated them
all. And you have purposed them for the counsel of your will.
And we thank you, Lord, that you have purposed us to see the
truth. Help us to love our enemies and to pray for them. Help us
to be patient as we await that day of eternal rest. In Jesus
name, Amen. Thank you, Church.