Well, let's open our Bibles to
1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. And while you're
turning, it's great to be here. We've been in Florida on vacation,
and I told everybody, I said, well, we couldn't come down this
close and not stop by here. So it's just a blessing to be
with you. Debbie and I both, we always
love coming here. And we keep in contact all the time, Jim
and I and Randy and I. We talk all the time and they
let me know what's going on and I let them know what's going
on. So it's just, we have a communication between here and Ashland. So
we pray for you and covet your prayers. So let's look at 1 John
chapter two. I'm gonna begin in verse 18. 1 John chapter two, let me read. this passage, or part of this,
I'm not going to read the whole chapter, obviously. Verse 18,
little children, there's a term of endearment. Children of God,
he's saying. It is the last time. The last
time, as you know, refers to the time period. It's an age
between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ.
It's the last age on earth. And he says, and as you have
heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrist. That refers to a spirit of Antichrist. Obviously that means against
Christ. Whereby we know that it is the last time. Then he
hones in on the real problem here. He says, they went out
from us. But they were not of us. That's important. We're going
to understand the word of God. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. And we'll come back to that.
For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us. But they went out. that they
might be made manifest, and that means they might be revealed,
clearly exposed for what they were, that they were not all
of us. Now here's where I'm gonna major
on verse 20, but ye have an unction. That word unction is anointing. It's a power. He says, you have
an unction from the Holy One, from God, from Christ, and you
know all things. Now the all things there has
to do with all things that are necessary for God to bring a
sinner into a saving knowledge of Christ. It doesn't mean we
know everything perfectly. We don't. First Corinthians 13,
Paul said, we know in part. We see through a glass darkly.
A lot of things we don't know. That's why we have to grow in
grace and in knowledge of Christ. But we know the things that we
need to know. That's what he's saying. That
God uses to bring a sinner to a saving knowledge of Christ.
We'll see what that is in just a moment. Verse 21, he says,
I've not written unto you because you know not the truth. The gospel
of salvation by God's grace in Christ, but because you know
it. And that no lie is of the truth. Truth and lies will not
mix. I remember when I used to teach
debate in high school, I'd always tell the kids, I said, you know
what a half-truth is? And they'd look at me and I'd
say, it's a lie. That's what a half-truth is.
It's a lie. And usually it's a lie disguised
with some truth. But he says in verse 22, who
is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, is
the anointed one, the Messiah, the Savior. He is antichrist
that denieth the Father and the Son. In other words, you can't
deny Christ without denying the Father and the Son. Christ is
the Son. He's talking about the Trinity
there. We understand by God's word the
trinity of his persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the
Holy Spirit. He says, whosoever denieth the
Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the
Son hath the Father also. Now verse 24, let that therefore
abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. Again, he's
going back to the basic gospel message of how God saves sinners. How God is just to justify the
ungodly. The gospel that was empowered. Remember Paul wrote in Romans
116 that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. That's
this unction that he's speaking of. He said to the Jew first,
to the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. It points you to the righteousness
of God, which is Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness.
to everyone that believe it. So he says, if that which you
have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also
shall continue in the son and in the father. And this is the
promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life, not half-life,
not partial life, not temporary life, but eternal life. Now the title of this message
is An Unction from the Holy One. An Unction from the Holy One.
Let me give you some thoughts to kind of base what I'm going
to say on. You know, I've often, and you
probably have too, I've often heard preachers in messages or
in lessons or in books written begin to talk about things like
this, like what a believer will do what a believer won't do. What is it? If you're a true
believer, if I'm a true believer, if we're really saved by the
grace of God, what is it we will do by way of evidence of being
a believer, and what is it we will not do by evidence of being
a believer? The grace of God within. And
a lot of times, in fact most of the time, when you hear preachers
talk about what a believer will do and what a believer won't
do, they usually get into trouble. I heard one old preacher say
one time, he said, what will a believer not do or do? He said he'll do anything or
not do anything except by the grace of God, and that's true.
You read the Bible, and Genesis to Revelation, and you see God's
record of his saints, you might be, you know, some
people might stand amazed at how could a true believer do
this or act that way? And it just amazes you. Of course,
the natural man doesn't understand, savingly, the grace of God, so
he probably concludes, well, he lost his salvation. That's
the natural man, right there. In other words, he was saved
on the day that... Take David, King David. Everybody
uses King David because he's such a glaring example in the
scriptures of one of God's choice saints, one whom God chose, one
whom Christ redeemed, one who who was washed in the blood of
Christ and clothed in his righteousness, one who had a marvelous gift
from the Holy Spirit. Well, he was born again by the
Spirit, and he was gifted to pen many of the Psalms. And so you might say, well now,
when David wrote the 23rd Psalm, that day he was saved. But when
David committed adultery with Bathsheba, that day he was lost. And so then he didn't get saved
again until he wrote Psalm 51, the penitent Psalm, back and
forth. And that's the way, now that's
an extreme example of that kind of thinking, but that's really
what it says. Now we know that's not what happened, because we
have God's testimony of that. Is it possible for a believer
to fall in such scandalous sin and still be a believer? It is.
David didn't lose his salvation. He says that in Psalm 51. He
lost the joy of it. He lost sight of it. Can a believer
stray from the ways of the Lord? Yes, he can. We know that. But
we also know this. God will not let that person
go. And so with that in mind, here's
what I want to show. I can say without any reservation
at all that I know that there's at least one thing, one thing
that no true believer will ever do. One thing. What is that? And that's this.
He will never totally and utterly forsake Christ unto damnation. He will not do that. Now why
is that? Verse 20 of 1 John 2. Because
you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. That's why. Why is it that no
true believer, true believer now, now there are a lot of false
professors There are those who claim to believe Christ, to follow
Christ, even the true Christ, and then who forsake him totally
unto what the Bible calls apostasy. Well, what happened to them?
Were they saved and then lost? Well, that's not what does the
scripture say? That's what I'm interested in.
I don't want to know what the denomination says or what so-and-so,
I want to know what God says about that. And that's what this
passage introduces here, what it deals with. The reason that
no true believer, no sinner saved by the grace of God, saved by
the sovereign grace of God. I preached a message on television
called Grace All the Way. It's not just grace start me
off and then finish up with war. It's grace all the way. And the
reason that no true believer will ever forsake Christ totally
is because of the grace of God in Christ and because he's kept,
preserved by God's grace in Christ. We're a kept people. And this
is why a saved sinner cannot lose salvation. Salvation is
an eternal thing. That's why he says here in verse
25, and this is the promise And all the promises of God, the
scripture tells us, are in Christ, yea and amen, 2 Corinthians 1.20.
Well, that means in Christ they're sure and certain. You see, Christ
is the surety of his people. And a true believer who's saved
by the grace of God in Christ could no more lose salvation
than Christ himself could fail, and he cannot fail. Salvation
is eternal. So he says that he has promised
us even eternal life, everlasting life. Let me give you these three
things. First of all, the reason that
we can't lose our salvation is because salvation is of the Lord.
It's not of you. It's not of me. It's not conditioned
on you. It's not conditioned on me. Well,
aren't there things that we have to do, need to do, and will do?
Yes, there are. We seek the Lord. We come to
a saving knowledge of Christ and we believe in him. You know
the argument, it's kind of strange that one of the main arguments
when you preach real grace, one of the main arguments that people
will use, but you've got to believe, but you've got to believe. Well,
yes, you have to believe. You know why? Because the grace
of God brings a sinner to faith. It's the gift of God. You didn't
believe because you're better than somebody who doesn't believe.
That's not grace. That's qualification. That's
conditional salvation. It's of the Lord. And what I
mean by that is this. Christ can never fail because
he's able and Christ will never leave or forsake any of his sheep.
Look back at John chapter 10 with me. Look at John chapter 10. This is the shepherd, Christ
revealing himself as the good shepherd who laid down his life
for his sheep. That's the ground of salvation.
And listen to what he says here in verse 27 of John chapter 10. Who are his sheep? He said, well,
my sheep hear my voice. What is his voice? It's the preaching
of the gospel, empowered by the Holy Spirit, wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. Now, that's important if we're
going to understand why a true believer cannot lose salvation.
He said, I know them. That's an intimate knowledge.
That's not just an awareness of them. He's not just saying,
I know who they are. He's saying, I know them. He
chose them. He loves them. He gave his life
for them. Their names are written on his
heart. That's what that is. And he says,
and they follow me. They follow Christ. Not a counterfeit. Not anti-Christ. Not religion. But they follow him. And he says,
and I give unto them, what kind of life? Eternal life. And how
do they get it? He gives it. They don't earn
it. They don't deserve it. He gives it freely, all things
in Him. Just as sin demanded death, Christ,
because of righteousness, demands life. The scripture says the
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. Who is our righteousness? Christ,
Jehovah Sid Canu, the Lord our righteousness. He said, I give
unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. You
see that? They shall never perish. Now,
he said that. I told a fellow several years
ago, I said, well, your argument's not with me on this issue, it's
with the Lord. He said they'll never perish.
You say they will. You say they can't. He said they
won't. And then he says, neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand. Now, I had a fellow tell me,
this was a long time ago. He said this, he said, that says
neither shall any man pluck them out of his hand, but the devil
can do it. But I want you to notice there,
you might notice the word man is in italics, if you've got
a King James Version. Now what does that mean? It wasn't
in the original document of the Book of John. It was added by
the translators. The reason it was added by the
translators, because that any there is a masculine pronoun. But here's what it really says,
and here's the meaning of it. It says, neither shall any pluck
them out of my hand. And it's the same thought that
Paul was inspired to write in Romans chapter 8 when he wrote,
who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ? And that
great list that he gives and he comes down to the end of it,
he says nothing shall be able to separate. Not even Satan.
Satan does not have the power to pluck them out of Christ's
hand. And the proof of that is this,
Satan doesn't even have the power to accuse one of Christ's sheep. That's why the scripture says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. God's the one who's declared
me righteous in Christ. He said, who can't condemn us?
It's Christ that died. Will a believer persevere in
the faith? Will he continue in the faith?
Yes, he will. Why? Because he's preserved by
the grace of God in Christ. And then he says, I and my father
are one. Let me read you some scripture.
Philippians chapter one and verse six. You won't have time to turn
to all these, but you mark them down if you want. Paul wrote
in Philippians one and verse six, being confident of this
very thing, Now this is faith, he says, that he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
God began the work in you and he'll complete it. Philippians
chapter 2 and verse 12, now people read verse 12 but they don't
read verse 13 with it sometimes. And here's what it says, Philippians
2 and verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you've
always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And
everybody will holler, work out your own salvation. See, it's
there by works. That's not what Paul's teaching
at all here. Read verse 13 with it. For it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Yes, we're
to do our best. Yes, we're to persevere and continue. But it's only by the grace of
God. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 12, he said, I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able, Christ is able,
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He's
able to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by him. Jude 24, listen to this, now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Now you remember
back there in John 10, he said, my sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. Now the ground that secures and
guarantees that his sheep will come to him and follow him is
this one, one fact, this one work. And what is that work? He said in John 10, I think it's
verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Now what is it that we need as
sinners to secure for us eternal life? What do we need? to secure for us eternal life. Exactly, I'll tell you what,
we need righteousness. Because without it, there is
no eternal life. Now Adam had righteousness before
the fall. Adam was created as a righteous
man. But the righteousness that he
had was a human righteousness. Human by creation, and it's changeable. subject to change, and of course
he did change. He fell and brought the whole
human race into condemnation and sin and death. So whatever
righteousness we need in order to be saved and to be saved eternally,
it's got to be more than the righteousness of man. even more
than the righteousness of the best man. Adam before the fall. You know, Christ said in the
Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew 5 and verse 20, He said, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom
of heaven. And you think about that. Now they were the most
dedicated religious men in their day. They read the Bible, what
they had. They wrote commentaries. They
discussed it. They prayed in the streets. It's
like bumper sticker religion. They let everybody know who they
were serving. And he said, your righteousness
has got to exceed theirs. Well, think about this. Take
it a step further. Think about Adam before the fall.
in his righteousness as a human. Your righteousness, my righteousness,
in order to have eternal life that can never be taken away,
never change, has to exceed Adam's before the fall. Now, where are
we going to find such a righteousness? Well, remember what I said in
Romans 1, 16 and 17? Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God. There's that unction again. It's
not the same word now, but it's the same meaning. It is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
to the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it is written, the justified
shall live by faith. The righteousness of God. That's
what we need. Well, what is that righteousness
of God? Well, Romans 10 and verse 4,
for Christ is the end, the fulfillment, the finishing of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believe it. And that's the second
thing. The reason that a true believer
cannot lose his salvation because it's all in Christ. Our life
is hid with God in Christ. It's what Colossians 3 says.
The blood of Christ has put away all my sins and they cannot be
charged to me. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. You know who wrote that? The
same man who committed adultery with Bathsheba. Well, what was
he trying to do? Just trying to excuse his sin
or get out from under it or just trying to say he didn't, no,
not at all. He was just simply taking his
place before a holy God and saying this, Lord, if you gave me what
I deserve at my best, let me tell you something. When David
sat down and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit penned the 23rd
Psalm, he was no closer in his own works to being righteous
before God than when he was committing adultery with Bathsheba. Now
can you get hold of that? You say, well surely, surely
he was more righteous. He was acting in a more moral
way when he penned the 23rd Psalm. He was acting in a more godly
way. But as far as the righteousness that you and I and David need
in order to be saved and preserved eternally, there's not the best
of men cannot produce it. At their best moments, Lord,
if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, who among us would
stand? That's the issue. And Christ
earned for us by his obedience unto death as our substitute
when he was made sin, when our sins were charged to him. And
he brought forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value
that cannot change and cannot diminish or weaken, that's charged
to us, imputed to us, accounted to us. What did he do? He brought
forth and earned for his sheep an inheritance incorruptible,
it says, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, and it's reserved,
Peter wrote, in heaven for you. second first peter one point
it's reserved we've got a reservation and that doesn't change and i'll
say it this way no matter what it doesn't change now does that
give believers an excuse to sin or to go out and act act like
fools no no why because we have an unction from the holy one
We don't earn the inheritance and we'll never deserve the inheritance. Do you know in heaven when we
are made perfectly righteous in ourselves without the presence
or the influence or the contamination of sin, we still cannot say at
that time that we deserve and have earned our place in glory. Can't do it. You know what the
song of the redeemed in heaven is? Worthy is the lamb that was
slain. It's the death of Christ. He is the Lord, my righteousness.
We don't even have to qualify ourselves for the inheritance
because it's God, Colossians 1.12, who has made us meet, which
means qualified, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in life. And this is why all who do the
will of God, who believe in and follow Christ, will abide forever.
They're submitted to Christ and his righteousness. as the only
ground upon which God will save me, bless me, forgive me, preserve
me, and bring me to glory. We cannot die. And then thirdly,
it's by means of the Holy Spirit. Now go back to 1 John 2. He says,
but you have an unction, verse 20, from the Holy One, and you
know all things. The Holy One there, I believe,
is Christ. It speaks of His work on the cross for us, speaks of
our redemption, how? By the blood of Christ. It speaks
of our justification in Him through His righteousness imputed. It
speaks of everything that God placed upon Christ as the Savior
and the Redeemer of His people. And this unction here, speaks
of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit within his people. It's this unction, this anointing,
this power is evidence that the gospel has been empowered unto
our salvation. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. You see, there'll be people who
come and hear the gospel and it won't affect them. Won't affect
them at all. Doesn't mean anything to them.
They don't need it. There'll be people who'll come
and grab hold of it for a little while and then leave it. This
is one of the issues of 1 John. Remember, look over at, look
at verse 26 of 1 John 2. He said, these things have I
written unto you concerning them that seduce you. What he's talking
about there is false preachers who had come in among these churches
that John was sort of the overseer of, and they would seduce people
away from Christ. How do you do that? Well, there's
several ways. You can think about, for example,
not to belabor the point, but think about the parable of the
sower and the seed. The sower and the seed. The seed
is the gospel preached. Christ gave us a commission.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel. We're to preach it
to everybody. Anybody who'll sit and listen
to it, I'll preach it to. I'm not here trying to point
out this one and exclude that one. No sir. I want everybody
in this building this morning to believe it. To rest in Christ
for all your salvation. And so you go out and you preach
the word. Now some people will believe it. How? What's the difference? The grace of God. For by grace
are you saved, through faith. That's not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now
all of you are commanded to seek the Lord. You say, how do I know
he'll give me faith? You don't think that way. That's
not what the Bible tells you to do. The command is for you
to seek the Lord. And then some people will grab
hold of it and then they'll leave it for whatever reason. It could
be persecution over the word. It could be even boredom. They
get tired of it. It could be like the church at
Ephesus. They lose their first love. It
could be like the stony ground here when persecution came over
the word, then it didn't take root. That unction wasn't there
and he leaves it. could be like the thorny ground
here, the cares of the world. That's one of the biggest rivals
to your heart. The cares of this world will
take you away from it. The pursuit of riches, other
things, you see. And you just get diverted from
it. There are those who seem to believe it, and then who turn
totally against it and call Christ accursed. That's apostasy. You
know what the Bible says about them? Number one, they were never
saved to begin with, and number two, there's no hope of them
ever being saved. Look at verse 18 again. Now listen to this.
He said, little children, it is the last time, and as you
have heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many
Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. They
went out from us, but they were not of us. They left it, they
never did believe it. They claimed to believe it, they
had a profession of faith, but no true unction. And they left it. You see, if
you ever come to faith in Christ, I guarantee you, upon God's word,
you will never totally forsake him. You can't. You know why? Is it because you're
better than everybody? No, it's because he won't let
you. He won't let you. How does He do that? That unction.
You see, that unction has to do with the Holy Spirit giving
you a hunger and a thirst after righteousness that cannot be
filled and quenched with anything or anyone short. of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, the Lord our righteous. There are a lot of
people who have some kind of a hunger for righteousness, but
not this unction. How do you know? Because they
fill their hunger with religion. They fill their hunger with other
things. They fill their hunger with baptisms. They fill their hunger with all
kinds of things in the world, but they can't listen. Christ
is not enough for them to fill their hunger. If you have this
unction from the Holy One, this hunger for righteousness can
only be filled by Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Your works
won't fill it. They'll leave you hungry. Your
activities, your professions, your experiences will not fill
it. How many people have you said,
you know, they talk about their salvation, and they'll reach
back into their childhood at a time when they walked an aisle
and said some things, they probably didn't have any idea what they
were saying and then got in the baptismal pool. That's what fills
their hunger. But if you've got this, that
won't fill yours if you've got this unction. You must have Christ
and him crucified, his righteousness alone, his blood alone. Nothing
else will do, nothing else. This unction is a conviction. And it's a conviction to the
point that you cannot be unconvinced. Why? Because it's God, the Holy
Spirit, who convicts you. He convinces you of sin, to know
that without Christ, that's all you are and all you have. He
convinces you of righteousness, that in Christ you have all the
righteousness that God requires of you. He provides for you. He convinces you of judgment,
that when Christ died on that cross, your sins were judged
completely, and now you stand before God justified. God the Holy Spirit proceeds
forth from the Father and the Son to do a sovereign, powerful,
invincible, effectual work within through the preaching of the
gospel, and it's the impartation the infusion, if you will, of
spiritual life and grace from God that comes forth from Christ
who died for our sins and was buried and arose again the third
day, for from his life, from his death comes our life. He said that in John chapter
12. It's the implantation of the word of God upon the new
heart, the broken heart, broken over sin, contrite, repentant,
The heart that's being cleansed by the blood of Christ, the application
of that blood to the point that we repent of dead works and idolatry
and turn to the living God. And our hunger is to have Him
and to know Him. And it's the cleansing of the
conscience, that guilty, defiled conscience that seeks relief
in the works of sinners that's cleansed by the blood of Christ.
What about those who fall away? Well, he says it. Verse 19, they
went out from us, but they were not of us. Now, if they had been
of us, if they had been truly saved, true believers, truly
born again by the Spirit, they would no doubt have continued
with us. That's what the word of God says. You know, I know
people will go into certain passages of scripture and they'll read
these things and they'll They'll, and mainly they'll look at people
whom they know they think are saved and then who go off on
a tangent somewhere and they say, well, now that proves to
me you can look, you, listen, you go by God's word. And he
says, they went out that they might be manifest that they were
not all of us. Those who turn from Christ to
the point of apostasy never were of us, he says. They didn't have
that unction. But look at verse 24, and I'll
close. He says, let that therefore abide in you which you have heard
from the beginning. Don't ever leave the gospel.
That's what he's saying. You know, some people say, well,
now I've heard the gospel, now let's go on to other things.
Well, there are other things, but there is nothing worth hearing
without the gospel, without the preaching of Christ and him crucified. And he says, if that which you've
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall
continue in the Son and in the Father. In other words, if the
Word of God has been indelibly stamped on your heart, your mind,
your affections, your will, your conscience, your inner man, if
that Word of God has been implanted by the Holy Spirit with this
power, this unction, you will continue in the Son and in the
Father. You'll worship God in spirit
and in truth. And this is the promise that
he has promised even eternal life.