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
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
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 going to be preaching from 1 John chapter
two, beginning at verse 18. And the title of the message
is An Unction from Christ. An unction, U-N-C-T-I-O-N, unction
from Christ. And I've taken that title from
verse 20 here, you have an unction from the Holy One, that's an
unction from Christ, we'll talk about that. But the book of 1
John, I've mentioned this before as I'm going through this book
and our messages, the book of 1 John is what we call a polemic. Now what that means is that it
presents situations or people who are poles apart, like the
North Pole and the South Pole, on opposite ends of the globe.
And so it's a polemic. So we've talked about that in
the first few messages out of 1 John 1 and 2, speaking of the
fellowship of believers, that it's the fellowship of light
without any darkness. Light and darkness are poles
apart. And John has made the case that
when Christ saves a sinner, When the Lord God sends the Spirit
to save a sinner, He brings that sinner from darkness, spiritual
blindness you might say, to light, spiritual eyes. I was blind,
but now I see. And what do we see? Well, we
see things we didn't see before. We see the glory of God in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see salvation. We
see ourselves as sinful people. You know, the Bible, when we
talk about people say, well, we've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. What does that mean? You know,
somebody says, well, none of us are perfect. Well, it means
none of us are perfect, but it means more than that. And if
you look at that, that's Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. We say that, that's a great verse.
But that word sin there, for all have sinned, That's the most
common word in the Greek language for sin, and it means to miss
the mark. And what is the mark? Well, the
mark is the glory of God. And where do you find the glory
of God? In the face of Jesus Christ. So what that says is
this, it's not just simply saying that we're not perfect, which
is true, but it's saying this, that no matter how hard we try
to be good, No matter how hard we try to do right, we will always
fall short of the standard and requirement of God's law. We can never, we're so sinful,
and this is what we talk about in sin, that by nature we're
spiritually dead and depraved. What does that mean? That means
that at our best, At our best, we still miss the mark. You pick
the best person that ever lived on earth or ever will live on
earth, other than Christ himself, who is God, manifest in the flesh,
and that person still falls short of the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. And that's why salvation cannot
be by your works. Your works, my works, are not
good enough to save us. They're not good enough to make
us righteous. And then when we hear the gospel,
that brings that truth to the front. We're sinners. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.
And I still fall short. I don't have anything to recommend
myself to God. There's none righteous, no, not
one. None that doeth good in God's sight. When we bring that
to the front and preach to people the only way of salvation, which
is by God's grace, freely given, conditioned on Christ, conditioned
on what He accomplished in His obedience unto death and His
resurrection, when we preach that message that exposes our
best as being evil, by nature, people don't want to hear that.
They don't want to receive it. That's depravity. And so you
understand that. Now, here in 1 John chapter two,
he's speaking to the church and he says, look at verse 18. He
says, little children, it is the last time. The last time. Now what's John talking about?
Is he saying this is the last time I'm going to be writing
to you or something? No. What he's talking about is
the last days. And I mentioned this last week,
how the last days refers, in the Bible, the last days refers
to the New Testament age, the New Covenant age, that spans
from the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ all the way to His
second coming. So we've been living in the last
days for now over 2,000 years. But as that time winds down,
As we grow closer to the end of the end, I say this, the last
days of the last days, the end of time, there are certain signs
that are given by God to show us that we're getting near to
the second coming of Christ and we're certainly nearer today
than what John was then. but we're still living in the
last days. And listen to this. He says in verse 18, little children,
it is the last time. And as you have heard that antichrist,
now there's that term antichrist. And that's an interesting term. John is the only one who mentions
this spirit, antichrist, by that name. antichrist, which means
against Christ. And he says, even as you have
heard that antichrist shall come, even now, now listen to this,
even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the
last time. Now who are these antichrists?
Now It's common for people today to focus in on that term Antichrist
as being one person, one man, who will in the future appear
and be a great political and religious leader and bring all
the world together and all of that. That's not what the Bible
teaches about Antichrist. Antichrist is an anti-Christian
spirit that comes in the name of Christ, but denies the truth
of Christ. Now, do you hear what I say there?
Antichrist, John says there are many antichrists, not just one. The spirit of antichrist, which
manifests itself through those who claim to be Christian, but
who deny the truth. And this is what you need to
be careful of, and I do too. I claim to be a Christian. I
claim to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I claim to
be a follower of Christ. But the Bible tells me in 2 Corinthians
13, five, to be careful. He says, examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith, the faith. Examine myself, do
I really believe the truth? That's what that means, the true
gospel. And how do I examine myself?
Not by just looking within, like some kind of a meditative state,
but by looking to the word of God. Is what I believe according
to God's word? And I know people say, well,
people interpret the Bible differently. Well, there are rules of interpretation,
and I've written a book on that. I mention that book often on
this program, and I'm not trying to sell books, because we give
it away. It's free. But it's called Rightly
Dividing the Word. And what it's talking about,
rules of interpretation for the Bible. And I urge you to get
that book. Or you can read it on our website.
You don't even have to order it if you don't want a hard copy. But like I said, I'm not selling
books. We don't sell our stuff. This
is a ministry of Christ, a ministry of the gospel. and it's free
to anybody who wants it, so do that. But this spirit of antichrist,
being against Christ, it has to do with people who claim to
be believers in Christ, but who deny the doctrine of Christ.
And I talked about that a little bit last week out of 2 John.
And he said, John says, little children, it's the last time.
Now we're living in the last days, verse 18. And as you've
heard that antichrist shall come, even now, are there many antichrists? whereby we know that it is the
last time. There are many antichrists today. There are many people
who claim to be Christian, but who deny or are ignorant of the
doctrine of Christ. Now, John mentions a specific
group here in verse 19 that left the gospel, left the fellowship
of faith. Now he says in verse 19, look
at, he says, they went out from us. They went out from us. They quit. In fact, they turned
against Christ. Well, now it's common for people
today, many who call themselves Christian and say, well, they
lost their salvation. They were saved, but then they
didn't keep it up and they were lost. My friend, that is a lie. That is not gospel doctrine.
That's antichrist doctrine. And listen to what he says in
this verse 19. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. They never were of us. For if
they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with
us. If they'd been true believers,
truly saved by the grace of God, they wouldn't have gone out.
Now that doesn't mean that a true believer can't struggle and get
messed up sometimes and even sometimes stop coming to the
worship service, all of that. The Bible says don't forsake
the assembling of yourselves. But sometimes we get full of
ourselves and our circumstances and we mess up. But a true believer,
a sinner saved by grace, one who's truly been born of the
Spirit, will not ever leave it totally and turn against Christ.
He will not apostatize, that's the word, and turn against him. But these did. And he said, they
were never of us because if they'd been of us, they would no doubt
have continued with us. Look at verse 19, but they went
out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
They went out and what did that accomplish? It showed forth,
manifest the fact that they never were of us. They never were truly
saved. My friend, if God saves a sinner,
that sinner will be saved eternally. All of salvation. initially,
continually, and finally is all conditioned on Christ. He is,
it's by his righteousness imputed, not by our works, not by our
efforts. And he's continued, he arose
again and ascended unto the Father. He lives forever to make intercession
for his people. He will not let us go. He said,
no one shall pluck them out of my Father's hand. They will be
saved. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day, 2 Timothy 1, 12. He
is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by him. So, John says, he's given a warning to the church here.
Be careful now. He said, we're living in the
last days. And you heard that antichrist
is going to come, but antichrist is here today, he says. Many
antichrist, antichrist, that spirit. And how do you know that
spirit's here today? Because there's many who claim
to believe the gospel, but they went out from us, they never
were of us. If they'd been of us, they would
have stayed with us, but they were not all of us. But now he
gives comfort to believers. Look at verse 20, and this is
where I got the title of the message, An Unction from Christ.
But you, true believers who stayed in the faith, have an unction
from the Holy One, and you know all things. Now think about a
statement like that. First of all, what is this unction?
Well, the word unction means anointing. And the anointing
that he's talking about is that which comes from Christ by the
Holy Spirit in the new birth. You've been born again by the
Spirit. You've been given new spiritual life, new knowledge. You've been given a new heart,
new eyes, new ears. You've been given a power. it's
the power of God unto salvation. Remember the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. It's the dynamite of God in the
hands of the Holy Spirit that comes from Christ. He imparts
the life of Christ into the souls of God's people and gives them
a knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
through the preaching of the gospel, wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. How God can be just to justify
the ungodly. And so you have an unction, you
have the Spirit of God, you have the spiritual life from Christ,
from the Holy One, that's Christ. Christ is the Holy One of God,
He's the Holy One of Israel. He's the one unique person, God
manifest in the flesh. who is able to bring forth life
from the dead. He died, he was buried, but he
arose again the third day, he ascended unto the Father, and
he gives life. He's the life giver. Think about
Christ this way. Christ, before the foundation
of the world, God chose a people to save. And He put all of the
responsibility of their salvation upon His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Christ was made their surety. Now what is a surety? One who
takes responsibility for the debt of another. And that's what
Christ did for God's elect, for His people. He took responsibility
to pay their sin debt. Their sins were charged, imputed
to Him. And in order to pay that debt,
what did He have to do? Well, He had to come and take
into union with His deity a perfect, sinless human nature, humanity. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God manifest in the flesh. And as God-man, He took the place
of His sheep, God's elect, as their substitute and obeyed unto
death, obeyed the law unto death and died to pay that sin debt. And having paid that debt in
full, He established a perfect righteousness whereby God is
just to justify ungodly sinners. And that was proven by his resurrection. He arose again the third day.
And he's always been the life giver to his people, this unction
by sending his spirit. And he ever lives to make intercession
for us. And he says, verse 20 again,
but you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all
things. Now, know all things? Well, I
can tell you right now, there's a lot of things I don't know.
Listen, what is he talking? He's talking about something
specific there. Look at verse 21. He says, I have not written
unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know
it, and that no lie is of the truth. What truth is he talking
about? Is he talking about all knowledge
everywhere? Is He talking about omniscience?
Has God made us omniscient that we know all things? Only God
is omniscient. Only God is a know-it-all, you
might say. A lot of things we don't know,
but here's what we do. We know the Father through the
Son. That's the all things He's talking
about. We know all things pertaining to salvation. Christ said in
John 17, He said, this is life eternal that they might know
thee. God the Father and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. We
know him because he's taught us. He taught us through his
word by the power of the Spirit, this unction from the Holy One. I know who God is. Does that
mean I know every little nuance about God in His glory, in His
majesty, in His infinity? No, but I know what He's revealed. I know what He wants me to know.
Let's put it that way. I know myself. You know, one
old English poet said, to thine own self be true, know thyself. Man by nature doesn't know himself. Let me give you an example of
that. If you think that you can be saved by your works, by your
efforts, or by your decision, you don't know yourself. The
Bible says that man by nature cannot and will not receive Christ. It takes an unction from the
Holy One to do that. Do you know God? God, and as
he's revealed in this book, you'll hear me talk about the doctrine
of election quite often. The Bible says that God is the
God who chose a people before the foundation of the world and
gave them to Christ. You don't know that God or you don't want
that God. The God who is holy, God is love, but his love is
in Christ. Outside of Christ, there's nothing
but God's hatred. Many people today, they won't
receive a God who hates. Well, you don't receive the God
of the Bible. You don't know God. I saw that on the church
sign one time. They said, the God who hates,
we don't believe in Him. And I said, well, you're right.
You believe in a false God. God's hatred is not like your
hatred or my hatred. Our hatred is sinful because
we're selfish. We're sinners. God's hatred is
His just indignation against sin. And so God does hate, but He
loves. God is mercy. God is grace. All of that, but
His mercy and His grace and His love are only to be found in
Christ. Outside of Christ, there's no
grace, mercy, or love from God in salvation. Understand that. Do you know God? Do you know
Christ, the God-man, the one and only Savior of sinners? There was a lady that came to
our church years ago. And she came from another church
here in town. And she told me that she left that other church
because they believe in, quote, progressive Christianity, unquote. And she asked me if I knew what
that was. And I said, well, what I've read about what they call
progressive Christianity, it's those who believe that Christ
is not the only way, but that there are other ways of salvation.
Well, that church doesn't know the gospel. They don't know the
true Christ. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Do you know righteousness? You know, what is righteousness?
Righteousness, according to the Bible, is perfect satisfaction
to God's law and God's justice. Righteousness is the perfection
of the law that none of us can attain by our works and efforts
or our decisions. None righteous, no not one. That's
Romans 3 10. Even goes to far as saying none
good, no not one. That's goodness according to
God's standard. You know what it is to be good? I know we try
to teach our children to be good people. We try to be good people. But I'm talking about goodness
according to God's measure. of goodness. That's why Christ
told the rich young man, he said, why do you call me good? There's
none good but God. That rich young man didn't believe
Christ to be God in the flesh. So why would you call me good
if you don't believe me to be God? Only God is good. Righteousness and goodness is
the perfection of the law that can only be found in Christ. in the glory of His person and
in the perfection of His work. That's why it's called the righteousness
of God. His death, burial, and resurrection,
that's the whole thing of the righteousness of God as He was
the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of His people. The
Bible says in Romans 10, 4, that Christ is the end, the fulfillment,
the perfection, the finishing of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. That means this, if you have
this unction from the Holy One and you believe in Him, you recognize
that you have no righteousness of yourself or by your works. Your righteousness is Christ's
righteousness imputed to you, charged to you. Paul said that
in Philippians chapter three when he talked about how he desired
to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of
Christ, the righteousness of God, which is by faith. So he
says in verse 21 of 1 John 2, I have not written unto you because
you know not the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is
of the truth. You know what a half lie is? Or a half truth, rather? A half
truth is a lie. There's no such thing as anything
in between a lie and the truth. Truth is truth and a lie is lie.
Well, look at verse 22. He says, who is a liar but he
that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? Who is Jesus? That's God our Savior. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. And
if you don't believe this Jesus is the Messiah, the one true
Messiah, the only Messiah, then it says you're a liar. Any preacher
who indicates or implies or preaches that there are other ways of
salvation is a liar. Now mark it down. I don't care
who it is or what his reputation is. You say, well, I've listened
to him for 40 years. You've listened to a lie for
40 years, if that's what he preached. And he says, who is a liar but
he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is an antichrist. There's antichrist, he identifies
it for us. We don't have to look for some
political figure out here. He is an antichrist that denieth
the Father and the Son. You cannot come unto the Father,
but through the Son. There's one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There's none other
name given among men whereby we must be saved. Christ alone
is the way, the truth, and the life. And anybody who indicates
anything else is a liar. And so he says in verse 23, whosoever
denied the Son, the same hath not the Father. but he that acknowledgeth
the Son hath the Father also. You see, that unction from the
Holy One is that which brings us to a true knowledge of who
God is, who we are, who Christ is, and the way of salvation.
And any other way is a lie. I 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
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.