Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
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now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm continuing the study that I've been doing
on 1 John, and today we're gonna look at 1 John 4, actually beginning
at verse 4. I'm gonna refer to some verses
before that. 1 John 4 and verse 4, and a few
verses afterward. The title of the message is Overcoming
Antichrist. That may sound interesting to
you. Overcoming Antichrist. And that's from 1 John 4. But
last week I preached on testing the spirits. Let's just read
these verses. 1 John 4 and verse 1. He says,
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try or test the spirits.
whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone
out into the world. The spirits there are talking
about preachers, claiming to preach by the Spirit of God or
in the Spirit, and you test them by the Word of God. I dealt with
that last week. If you didn't hear that message,
listen to it on our website or order it. But he says in verse
two, hereby know ye the Spirit of God, Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Now, confessing
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not just repeating
those words. It's not just a saying, like
if these were magical words. But it's confessing the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ as being our only way
of salvation. And as I've said, this is the
gospel, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of God's grace, the
gospel of forgiveness by the blood of Christ, righteousness
in Him, the imputed righteousness of Christ, the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel. And seeing that Jesus Christ,
who He is, God manifest in the flesh and what he accomplished
when he died on the cross as the surety, the substitute, and
the redeemer of God's people, his sheep. See, the Bible teaches
in the gospel now, the gospel message, is that it's by God's
grace conditioned on Christ, not conditioned on you or me,
not even conditioned on our believing. Now, we must believe, but that's
not the condition. Christ fulfilled the condition.
The condition was perfection of the law and justice of God,
satisfaction. Christ did that, and that ensures
the gift of faith to all of God's elect, His people, the sheep. My sheep hear my voice, Christ
said. They all come to me. And that's
all that God gave him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will no wise cast out. So that's the gospel. And so
he says in verse three, and every spirit that confesseth not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. So those who don't
preach the gospel, don't believe the gospel, they're not of God. And he says, and this is the
spirit of antichrist. Now, Antichrist, you know, there's
a lot of things that people say about the Antichrist, the Antichrist. The only time we see those words
in the Bible is in the epistles of John. I think it's two or
three times in 1 John and one time in 2 John. It's never referring
to one specific person. It's never referring to a political
figure. It's always referring to a spirit
which I believe is in a succession of preachers, leaders who preach
a false gospel that is against Christ. That's why the term Antichrist
is used. That's against Christ. And every
spirit that confesseth not, does not preach the gospel, is a spirit
of antichrist. And John says in verse three,
where of you have heard that it should come, and even now
already is in the world. Remember John said that back
in first John chapter two, if you'll look with me there. He
said, talking about in verse 18, first John two. He said,
little children, it is the last time. the last age. Now that last age refers to the
New Covenant, the New Testament age in which we're living today.
We've been living in that New Testament age since the death,
burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. And he says, and as
you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there
many Antichrist whereby we know that it is the last time. And
then he went on to talk about those who claimed to believe
the gospel, but then left it, completely turned against it. They claimed to be disciples
of Christ, lovers of Christ, and then they turned against
Christ, and he says they never were saved to begin with. They
didn't lose their salvation. They were never saved to begin
with. Well, back over here in 1 John 4, when he's talking about
testing the spirits, he tells them. that when you test the
spirits, try the spirits according to the word of God, and you find
that a man or whoever it is, a woman or a man, is not preaching
the true gospel of Jesus Christ crucified, risen from the dead.
Not just those words now, not just those historical facts,
but what they mean in the gospel of God's grace to save His people
from their sins, to justify them, through the blood and righteousness
of Christ. Anyone who's not preaching that,
that is the spirit of antichrist. But now look at verse, and it's
already in the world. So look at verse four. Now here's
where I wanna go. Are we all, do I have to be afraid
that I can be deceived by antichrist? Well, listen to what he says
in verse four. He says, talking to believers now. He says, you
are of God, little children, and have overcome them. You've
overcome the antichrist, that spirit, those false preachers,
false prophets. That's what antichrist is, false
preachers standing in pulpits preaching a false gospel of salvation
conditioned on sinners, salvation by works or the wills of men.
That's the Antichrist. And he says, you've overcome
them. Now, how have we overcome them? Did I overcome them because
I'm a better person? Well, no, I'm a sinner, sinner
saved by grace. Did I overcome them because I'm
smarter? No, absolutely not. Did I overcome
them because I'm more dedicated, more sincere? Did I overcome
them because I made a decision? No, listen to how we've overcome
them. You are of God, verse four, you
are of God, little children, and have overcome them because
greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Bottom line. The God of my salvation,
is greater than Satan and his followers. Christ is the victory. It's not me. I'm not victorious
because of anything I've done or decided to do or tried to
do. I'm victorious because of what Christ did for me. He did it for me on the cross.
He put away my sins. And that reveals that I'm one
of God's elect, one of His sheep, because my sins are put away
and God will not charge me with my sins. My sins are not imputed
to me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Romans 8, I believe it's 33.
It is God that justifies. I cannot be condemned. I have
a perfect righteousness that has been charged to me, imputed
to me. I didn't produce it, Christ did
by His obedience unto death. And His righteousness, the merit,
the value of His work, the payment for all my sins, has been imputed
to me, charged to my account. And I cannot be condemned. Why? Because it's Christ that died.
I think this is Romans 8, 34. Christ died, yea rather is risen
again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to
make intercession for me. That's how I've overcome Antichrist. It's not by my works, it's not
by my will, it's not by my anything. It's all by what Christ did.
That's how you overcome the world. That's how you overcome the Antichrist. Because, verse 4, greater is
He that is in you. Who is in us? Christ is in us
by His Spirit and by His Word. And that's how we overcome the
evil one. That's how we overcome Satan. Look over in Revelation chapter
12. In verse 9, he speaks of the
great dragon. That's Satan. And it says here
in verse 9, this is Revelation 12, the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world. Now there, you know, a lot of
people, they go to passages like John 3, 16, where it says, for
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. That's not talking about every individual in the world. We'll see in this that we're
not of the world. And people say, well that means
we're not of some system or anything. We're not aligned with the people
of the world who are deceived by Satan. Now let me make this
clear too. Even God's elect start out life
dead in trespasses and sins and deceived by Satan and the world. But they don't stay that way.
Because at some point in time, whenever God is pleased to do
this, He's going to send the Spirit to give them life and
bring them to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works.
And they won't be deceived anymore. So that's the new birth. Well,
this Satan, this serpent, the devil, which deceives the whole
world, talking about all in the world who are deceived, all who
are connected to this world, unbelievers, those who live in
unbelief and die in unbelief, the non-elect, you could say.
And this great dragon, he was cast out. Now, when was he cast
out? He was cast out at the death of Christ. And he's bound for
a while, but the Bible tells us in Revelation and other places
that he's going to be loosed to deceive the whole world. And
it says here in verse nine, the great dragon was cast out, that
old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. And verse 10 says,
John is talking about the revelation he's receiving. I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation. and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ, His
Messiah, His appointed Son. And he says, for the accuser
of our brethren is cast down. Now who is the accuser of the
brethren? That's Satan. And what does he accuse us with?
Sin. Sin, that we're sinners. And
in reality, Being sinners, now listen to me, we deserve nothing
but death and hell. But it says here that the accuser
of the brethren, Satan, he says, for the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accuse them before our God day and night.
So Satan accuses us how we're sinners and we deserve nothing
but death and hell, that's right. So how do we defeat Satan? How
do we overcome him and his antichrist? Verse 11 of Revelation 12, rather. And they overcame him, listen
to this, they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. And it says by the word of their
testimony. And they loved not their lives
unto death. Well, what is the word of a believer's testimony? Well, we could state it several
ways. And go back to 1 John 4 here.
We overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. We plead the blood
of Christ. Paul stated our testimony this
way in Galatians 6 and verse 14. He said, but God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. by
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. What
is the cross? It's the person and work of Christ. It's the death of Christ for
the sins of his people. When Satan accuses me of being
a sinner, which I am, his charges do not stick because my sins
were imputed to Christ, charged to Christ. My sin debt was put
upon Christ. He's my surety. And he went to
the cross and paid that sin debt in full for me. So therefore I'm not charged
with any sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Christ
was made sin. The Father made Him sin, to be
sin. What does that mean? This is
2 Corinthians 5 21. It means that the Father charged
or imputed or accounted the sin debt of His people to His Son,
Jesus Christ, who knew no sin. Who did no sin. He was a substitute. And He was made sin. in order
that we, his elect, his sheep, might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Our sins imputed to him, his
righteousness to us. Now, that testimony in the gospel
that we plead the blood and righteousness of Christ is how we overcome
Satan, it's how we overcome Antichrist. Look back at verse four again.
You are of God, 1 John 4, 4. and little children and have
overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he
that is in the world. Christ is greater. You see, my
hope is not built upon me. My hope is not built upon what
I do. It's not even built upon my faith
in the sense of my believing. My believing is the fruit of
my hope. Did you know that? My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's
the key. Christ is greater. He's the impeccable
Christ. He's the sovereign Lord of this
universe, controlling all things, working all things after the
counsel of His own will. You know, most people who call
themselves Christian today, they really believe in a God of unfulfilled
desire. God wants to do this, God wants
to do that, but you won't let him or you won't cooperate. That's not the God of the Bible,
my friend. The God of the Bible is the one who works all things
after the counsel of his own will. He does as he pleases in
the heavens and in the earth. He's not a failure. Christ cannot
fail to save every sinner whom he loves. And those he does not
love, He sends them to hell for their sins. That's what the Bible
teaches. So look at verse five. Now this
is 1 John 4 and verse five. They are of the world. They're
tied to this world. They're not united to Christ.
He says, therefore, speak they of the world, and the world heareth
them. Back over in the book of John,
chapter 15. The Lord was teaching his disciples
about this very subject. And he says, this is verse 18
of John 15. He says, if the world hate you,
you know that it hated me before it hated you. Verse 19, he says,
if you were of the world, the world would love his own. But
because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world, Therefore the world hateth you. You see, it's all
conditioned on him. And these disciples, and every
one of Christ's disciples since, we're in the world. I'm in this
world, I'm not, you know somebody said that somebody's so heavenly
minded that you can't stand him on earth or something like, we're
in the world, if we're believers, but we're not of it. This world
is not our home. Our home is in glory with Christ,
the heavenly Jerusalem. But if we were of the world,
if we agreed with them, if we were arm and arm with them in
their false religions and false gospels and false ways, they'd
love us. And that's what he's saying over
here in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 5. He says, they're of
the world, verse 5, therefore speak they of the world and the
world hear them. They tell the world, they tell people what
they want to hear, not what they need to hear. But Christ over
in John 15, he said, you're not of the world. And he said, if
you were of the world, the world would love you. But it doesn't,
didn't love Christ. And what is it that the world
hates about Christ and his people? It's the light of truth. The
Bible teaches in John chapter three and verse 19 that this
is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men
love darkness and hate the light because their deeds are evil.
The light of the gospel, the light of Christ exposes the world's
deeds All their religious efforts and all their works as being
evil. You see, they're evil because
they're works of darkness. They're works of pride. They're
works that deny God and deny His Christ. They're works that
are motivated by legalism and mercenary promises of earned
reward. Salvation's not by works, by
grace. In Christ. Look back at 1 John
4 now. He says in verse 5, they are
of the world, therefore they speak they of the world and the
world hear them. We are of God. Now who's the we there in verse
6? Believers, sinners saved by grace. Those who plead the blood
of the lamb. Those who look unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of their faith. And it's all by the work
of God. Greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. So we're of God. He that knoweth
God, heareth us. If a person that I preach to,
or I witness to, truly knows God, he'll hear me, and I'll
hear him. Because the word of God is our
authority. And he said, he that is not of
God, heareth not us. Those who don't hear us, don't
believe the word of God. And hereby know we the spirit
of truth, and the spirit of error. So understand this. Go back to
the first part of this. Believe not every spirit. Those
who don't preach the gospel, those who don't preach the word
of God, they have the spirit of error, not the spirit of truth. And so he says in 1 John 4, 7,
beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Now he's talking
about that love which is from God, which is of God, that binds
believers together in the true faith, the true faith of God. He's not talking about love in
general here. He's not talking about love of
feeling, romance. He's not even talking about a
general love of people. You know, the law says love your
neighbor as yourself. And that is a love. But this
is a special love that binds those who are sinners saved by
grace together in the faith of the gospel, in the faith that
God gives. We're together. And we stand
together against the world, against the false spirits, against the
Antichrist, against Satan. And we together plead the blood
and righteousness of Christ as our only ground of salvation.
And we don't delve into the things of this world in its religion,
in its love. This is a love that is of God. This is love that no human being
has by nature. You know, even lost people. can
love one another, they can love their children, they can love
their country, but that's not this love. This is a love that
enters into the heart of God's people in the new birth as the
Holy Spirit spreads it abroad, causing us to realize we are
a sinful people, that we deserve nothing but death and hell, and
that our only hope is in Christ. This is the love of God. for
his people and the love of his people to God. He says in verse
eight, he says, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God
is love. In verse nine, in this was manifested
the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. You see, God's
love is never unfulfilled. God's love is in Christ. Outside
of Christ, there's nothing but God's hatred, God's wrath. This
love ensures that those whom he loves, the objects of that
love, will live through Christ. And that's for believers. And
he says in verse 10, here's the capstone of it, herein is love,
not that we love God. You see, the love of God is not
reactionary. The love of God is unconditional
towards us. Now there are conditions for
God's love, but Christ met those. And so herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Now what is that propitiation?
It's the sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction. This
is the truth, this is the love of God that overcomes Antichrist,
overcomes Satan, overcomes the world, because greater is he
that is in you than he that is in the world. That's what it's
all about. It's the power, the glory, the
goodness, the righteousness of Christ He is the victor and we
are victorious in Him. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you. you