John 2 verse 21, I have not written
unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know
it. The people I'm writing to, John said, they know the truth. You see, the gospel is written
to believers. The promises of God's Word are
made to believers. There are no promises in the
Word of God to rebels. of God's Word. The instructions
are directed to those who believe. If you'll open your Bibles now
to 2 Corinthians, hold that place there, I'm coming back to 1 John,
but 2 Corinthians, or 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, clearly,
clearly states in verse 14, 1 Corinthians 2.14, but the natural man, as
opposed to the spiritual man, the natural man, the man on the
street, the unbeliever, he receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. They are foolishness to him.
This which is precious to you is foolishness to him. This which
is comforting to you is foolishness to him. And neither can he know these
things. He can't understand them because
they're spiritually discerned, they're spiritually understood.
Verse 15, but he that is spiritual, he that's been begotten of God,
born of God's Spirit, redeemed, he judgeth or discerneth all
things, yet he himself is not understood. He's not understood. understood of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?" We
have the mind of Christ. So these opening words here in
my text, 1 John 2, 21, John says, I do not write, what I'm writing
to you, I do not write to convince you of this truth. You know this
truth. I'm not writing unto you because
I suspect you don't know these things. You do know these things.
You know them well. You know these things. We know
the Father. Our Lord Jesus said this is eternal
life that they might know Thee, the true and living God. We know
the Father. We know of His majesty and His
greatness and His power. We know the Father, God of truth. We know the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Hebrews chapter 1, this is what we believe about Him. Listen
to it. Hebrews 1, in verse 1, Paul says,
God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, why, he hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son. Whom he hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom he made the world." That's who Christ
is, we know that. Who's the brightness of his glory,
the exact image of his person. Upholdeth all things by the word
of his power. When he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
We know him. We know the Spirit of Truth.
You don't need to turn to this. Let me read it to you. You're
familiar with it, but I want to read it. Spirit of Truth.
We know the God of Truth, Father. We know the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the Truth. And our Lord Jesus said in chapter
16 of John, verse 13, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come,
He'll guide you into all truth. He shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. He'll show
you things to come, and he'll glorify me. For he shall receive
of mine, show it to you." John says, I don't write these things
to you because you don't know them. Because you don't know
the truth, I write because you do know the truth. You know the
gospel of truth. In Ephesians 1, listen to what
Paul says here in Ephesians 1 verse 13 and 14. In whom you trusted after you
heard the word of truth. That's when you trusted God when
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
I don't write to you and I'm not preaching to you because
you don't know the truth. You know it. You know Him. God of truth. You know Christ
the truth. You know the spirit of truth.
You know the gospel of truth in whom you trusted after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. And you know the scriptures. You here in this assembly, you
know the gospel. You know the grace and mercy
of God in Christ Jesus. And you know this, listen, 1
John 2, 21, and you know there's no lie in the truth. There's no lie in the truth.
What's that mean, preacher? That means it's not a mixture
of lies and truth. A man doesn't know part of the
gospel. A man or a woman knows the gospel. I hear people say, well, this
fellow preaches some things that are true. You can't preach part
of the gospel. You preach the whole gospel.
Christ is the truth. And there's no lie in the truth.
It's not a mixture. You see, let me show you something
over here. And I believe it's in 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, listen
to this. In 2 Corinthians 1, verse 18,
But as God is true, our word to you was not yes and no, yes
and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among us, even by me, among you, by us, even
by me and Silas and Timothy, was not yes and no, but in him,
yes. For all the promises of God in
Christ are yes, and in him amen to the glory of God. There's
no, it's not a mixture of truth and error. There's no lie in
the truth at all. So, that verse 21, John says,
I have not written unto you because you don't know the truth. You
know it. And there's no lie in the truth.
The truth cannot tolerate a lie. Our Lord Jesus Christ is, he's
all that he said he is, or he's an imposter. He's all that he
said he is. I and my Father are one. He that
hath seen me hath seen God. Jesus Christ is all that he said
he is. Eternal deity, eternal God from
the beginning, all things in him, or he's an imposter. And if he is all that he said
he is, and we deny any part of it, we're imposters. You catch what I'm saying? There's
no lie in the truth. The truth cannot tolerate a lie.
I can't preach a part gospel. I can't preach Christ Jesus as
a prophet if he's not king. Or king if he's not priest. He's
prophet, priest, and king. He's all that he says he is. All things are in him. Or he's
an imposter. Now if I take away some of those
things because they are offensive to me or to my hearer, then I'm an imposter. Now that's
very important. There's no lie in the truth.
Alright, look at verse 22. Now this is so important here. This is the issue. Always has been, is now. Who
is a liar? But he that denies that Jesus
is the Christ. What are we talking about? Jesus
of Nazareth. Now listen, here's what we're
talking about. Listen to it. of Nazareth, virgin born son
of Mary. He is that seed of woman that
the eternal God spoke about in Genesis 3.15. When man fell, when Adam fell,
when this whole terrible situation started, when this whole corruption
and depravity of the human race began, One voice spoke out of
the darkness and out of the depth and said, the seed of woman will
conquer the serpent and bruise his head. And Jesus Christ born
in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, son of Mary, virgin born son
of Mary is that seed. Secondly, Jesus of Nazareth born
in Bethlehem He is that Lion of Judah, of which the prophets
faith. L-I-O-N, Lion of Judah. Conquering Lion. He is that Root
of Jesse. He is that Son of David. He is
that Branch. He is that Lord of Righteousness.
From Genesis 3, 15 all the way to Malachi, when the Lord shall
enter His temple, that's who He is. Anyone who denies that
is a liar and an antichrist. That's right. Jesus of Nazareth,
thirdly, is that, as I said, virgin seed. Isaiah 7.14, Behold,
the Lord himself will give you a sign so that you'll recognize
him. A virgin shall bring forth a
son and call his name Immanuel, God with us. God with us. And that child born, that son
given, has the government upon his shoulders. His name is wonderful. My name is wonderful, God said,
secret. Counselor, he is the mighty God. Preacher, he's the Son of God.
I well know that. And he is God. He's God the Son. He's the mighty God. He's the
everlasting Father. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. He is the Prince of Peace. He
is the King of Salem. He is the Great High Priest.
He is all things. Anybody who denies that is a
liar. No matter who the person is,
no matter how high his position, no matter how prominent his credentials,
no matter what praise or claim he may give to Jesus Christ.
If he denies these things, he's a liar. He's an imposter. He's an antichrist. To deny any
part of his attributes is to deny them all. To deny any part
of his character, person, and work is to take away from his
glory and to be antichrist. Fourthly, Jesus of Nazareth,
that man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, that man who hungered
and wept and died and was buried, rose again. That man is Abraham's
seed, in whom all the promises are
made. That man is the Passover, lamb
slain. That man is the smitten rock. That man is the brazen serpent
lifted up. That man is the tabernacle wherein
dwelleth the Shekinah glory. That man is the high priest.
He's the slain lamb. He's the atonement. He's the
mercy seat. That man is all and in all. To deny it is to be an Antichrist. That's what he's saying here.
Who is a liar? in the pulpit or the pew, in
the classroom, in the seminary, in high religious offices. It's an antichrist. And I watched on the television
just a little while ago, and I saw the thousands of people. I'm telling the truth. In that great stadium where this
man called himself the Pope, he calls himself the vicar of
Christ. You know what a vicar is? Substitute. You know what a vicarious is?
Takes the place. The vicarious sufferings of Christ. He calls himself that, and he
wears the replica of the high priest garments. He's not the high priest. My
Lord's the high priest. He wears the robes. And he was standing there, and
these other, what they call clergymen, were coming by and kneeling before
him and kissing his ring. And when they did that to the
Apostle Paul, he said, get up, I'm a man like you. Don't do that. Don't bow before
me. Even an angel of God, in the
book of Revelation, when John was overcome by the presence
of that angel, and he knelt to worship, and the angel said,
see that you never do that. Worship God. This man visiting
our country and riding in the bulletproof car. That ought to
tell you something. Shouldn't it Bob? That ought
to tell you something. The vicar of Christ has to ride in a bulletproof
car because God can't take care of him. Can't keep somebody from
shooting him. He's an antichrist. He's a liar. And he's deceiving
a multitude of people. And most preachers in the pulpit
tonight cannot say that. Because they don't have a free
pulpit. God's servants have a free pulpit. Even if they're in jail,
they have a free pulpit. Because they're not going to
compromise the truth. This is what John says, I've written
to you. Not because you're ignorant, you know the truth. And there's
no lying to truth. You say, well just, these people
are serious, they're sincere. The people who nailed our Lord
to the cross were sincere too. That's right. If they had known
who He is, Paul said, they would not have crucified Him. If the
princes of this world had known who he is, they wouldn't have
crucified. No, they were ignorant. They
were sincere but ignorant. This man is ignorant. It's awful. And the people who deceive. He's
an antichrist. Denieth the father and the son.
Now look at verse 23. And young people listen to me
now. This is so important. Whosoever denieth the son, The
same hath not the father. If there is no eternal son, there
is no eternal father. We sing that song, eternal father
strong to save, whose arm hath bound the restless wave. God
is an eternal father? Yes sir. Who is the eternal son?
You can't have a father without a son. God can't use the name
Father if He doesn't have a Son. So back in eternity, back in
the council halls of eternity, He's the Eternal Father. I ask,
who's the Son? Who's the Son? Christ. See what I'm saying? You can't
have a Father if you don't have a Son. He can't be the Holy Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ prays,
Holy Father, glorify the Son. How can He be a Father if He
doesn't have a Son? But you say, we're sons of God.
We're not eternal sons. He's the eternal Son. He's the
eternal Father. And Christ is the eternal Son.
And the man who denies the Son hath not the Father. It doesn't
matter who he is, or what position he holds, or how prominent he
is, or what his credentials are, if he denies who Jesus Christ
is, and what Jesus Christ did, and
who he is to the Father. He does not know the Father.
Ask him sometime. If he's not the eternal Son from
the beginning, turn to Hebrews 1 again. Listen to this. Then
how can you have a Father? He doesn't have a son. Oh, you
know the answer. He has a son. This is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. He's called the son of His love.
The only begotten son. The first begotten of every creature.
By whom He created the world. Listen to Hebrews 1 verse 5.
For unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art
my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, I'll be to him
a father and he shall be to me a son. Who's that talking about? And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let the holy, let
all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he saith,
who maketh his angels spirit, his ministers a flame of fire.
That's what he said to them, you're my ministers, you're my
servants. But unto the Son, he saith, all
my friends read this. Unto the Son, the Father saith,
thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, both ways, ever and
ever. The Eternal Father said to the
Eternal Son, Thy throne, O God, that settles the issue, doesn't
it? He is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness. Holiness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. That settles it. That one verse
right there. Who is Jesus Christ? He's the
eternal Son of the eternal Father. Father, Son, Holy Spirit are
three that by record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Spirit. And these three are one. One God. And we know, turn back
to our text and then a few pages over, 1 John 5 verse 20. What
do you know about all this, preacher? You sound like you think you
know something about it. I know a little bit. You do too.
You do too, you know. I'll tell you why, 1 John 5,
20. I'll tell you why we know. We know that the Son of God has
come into this world and has given us an understanding that
we may know Him that is true and that we're in Him that is
true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. This is eternal life. You just
grab hold of scriptures like that and when all of this He's
being preached around you in all this befuddlement and confusion
and half-truths and semi-truths and mixtures of truth and error,
and they don't come right out plainly. It's the simplicity
of Christ. You just hang on to that verse.
The Father said to the Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever and
ever. And the Son of God has come and
given us an understanding that we may know Him. That is true. We're in Him. This is the true
God. This is eternal life. Alright,
our text, verse 24. Now listen. I want you to see four things
here. Let that therefore abide in you which you've heard from
the beginning. Somebody said to me just a little
while ago, I tremble for our young people who are growing
up in this difficult world, terrible times, and this time when religion
has departed so far from the Scriptures. I do, too. I tremble
for them. But all you've got to say is
this right here, verse 24. Let that, therefore, abide in
you which you heard from the beginning. From a child, you've
known the Holy Scriptures. From a child. Paul said to Timothy,
your grandmother and your mother, Eunice and Lois, taught you the
Scriptures, Timothy. You abide in what you've heard
from the beginning. You abide in what God gave you
through your faithful parents. You abide right there. And in
this modern world, and in all when you go, when you move in
the circles of of intellectualism and philosophy and psychology
and career and all these things. You abide in that which you heard
when you were a child. You can't improve on it. That
which God gave you in the early days, the early dew of morning. And that doesn't mean that only,
it means this too. Abide in that which you've heard
from the beginning from the apostles. What I'm preaching tonight is
what the apostles taught. You young people, you can go
to some places of religion and they don't read the scriptures. They don't dare go verse by verse
through the scriptures because they do not believe the scriptures.
They twist the scriptures. They rest the scriptures to their
destruction. They take them out of context. They don't teach what the apostles
taught. And that's what he's saying here.
You abide now in what you've heard from your tender years.
And you abide in what you've heard from the apostles, from
our Lord Himself and His apostles. They taught the truth. You can't
improve on what John said. These preachers said, I'll tell
you what I think. And the Samaritans said, well, this is what we Baptists
believe. This is of no significance what we think, what we Baptists
believe. What saith the Lord? What saith the Scriptures? Abide
in what you have heard from the beginning. And thirdly, it means
this, abide in what you have heard from Him who is from the
beginning. Christ in the beginning was the
Word. And the Word was with God and
was God and all things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. He was with God and was God. You abide in what was said from
the beginning. Is that right? And if you do that, listen to
verse 24. If you do that, that which you
heard from the beginning shall remain in you. Then you'll continue
in the Son and the Father. There it is. You're alright. We want a new revelation. The revelation is complete. It's
complete. We don't need any. If it's new,
I don't want it. If it's new, I don't want it. If this gospel rests and remains
in you, then you'll continue in the Son and the Father. Let
me read you what our Lord said about that in John 17. Listen. Father, I pray that they all may be one
as Thou art in me and I in Thee. that they may be one in us and
the glory which you gave me I've given them that they may be one
as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect
and one and the world may know that you sent me and you love
them like you love me I've got to move on listen verse 25 and
this is the promise that he's promised us even eternal life Who promised it? He did, the
Father. One scripture, I'll have you
read Titus, like just a few pages. This is important here. Titus
1, verse 1 and 2. This is his promise, eternal
life in Christ. Titus 1, 1 and 2, Paul, a servant
of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness
in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. Who promised it? The Father.
What did he promise? Eternal life. When? He promised it before the world
began. Where? In Christ. in Christ His Son. He that believeth on me hath
eternal life, and shall never come into condemnation. And verse
26, now our text, verse John 2, 26, And these things have
I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. Don't you hate the thought of
somebody deceiving you? Seducing you from the simplicity
of Christ? And this is the reason he's writing
these things to you, to keep you from being deceived and being
seduced and being led away from the simplicity of Christ. Don't
turn to this, let me just read it to you. What Paul said over
here in 2 Corinthians 11, he said, I fear. lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtlety, Satan's behind all of that subtlety
and craftiness and deception, that your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity of Christ. For he said in verse 13, such
are false apostles and deceitful workers, and they transform themselves
into the apostles of Christ, and that's no marvel. Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Satan occupies the
pulpit. That's where he does his devastating,
deadly, deceitful work, the pulpit. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers come to you transformed as ministers of righteousness
and seduce you and deceive you. And God's elect may be staggered.
They may be tempted. They may be tossed to and fro
and perplexed. They may be subject to doubts
and fears. But they cannot, they cannot
and will not leave Christ. They will not. But these people
won't leave Him alone. They keep trying to seduce Him.
And that's the reason I'm writing these things to you. But here's
the promise, and I close with these verses here. But the anointing
which you have received of him abides in you. What is this anointing? Look down at verse 20, that same
chapter, 1 John 2 verse 20. You have an unction from the
Holy One and you know these things. You know the gospel, you know
all that. What's an unction? An unction is an endowment. It's
an endowment. It's an anointing. And that's
what he says in verse 27, the anointing, the unction, the endowment
which you have received of him abides in you. It's in you, this
Spirit of God. This anointing is in you. And you need not that any man
teach you. That doesn't mean you don't need
a pastor, you don't need teachers, you don't need people to instruct
you in the word. That means you don't need anybody
to tell you who Christ is. The Holy Spirit tells you who
Christ is. You know the truth. The Holy
Spirit reveals to you who Christ is. I didn't reveal Christ to
you. He did. The Spirit of God. And
that same anointing teaches you. That's what I read a while ago.
When He, the Spirit of Truth, is coming, He'll guide you into
all truth. He'll teach you. And He is truth, and He does
not lie. He is the truth. There is no
lie in the truth. Man is not our authority. God
uses men to proclaim the Word, but the Spirit of God does the
teaching. Listen. And even as He has taught you,
you shall abide in Him. You are going to abide in Christ.
Yes, you are. And then you know the strange thing in the next
verse, and then the next verse he said, and little children
abide in him. He says you will, and then he
commands you to. And you know I found the answer
to that. If you'll read with me Jeremiah 32, here's the answer. Right here. In Jeremiah 32. It takes two directions. is preservation
and perseverance. He will not leave me and I will
not leave Him. Yet you will abide because He
will keep you. And then He commands you to abide. Now listen to Jeremiah 32 verse
38. Jeremiah 32 verse 38. And they shall be my people and
I will be their God. And I'll give them one heart
and one way, Christ said I'm the way, that they may fear me
forever for the good of them, for the good of their children
after them. And I'll make a covenant, an everlasting covenant with
them that I will not turn away from them to do them good. And I will put my fear in their
hearts and they shall not depart from me. That's what he's saying. He will and they will. He will
never leave them and they will never leave him. And that's what
he says in my text. And I'll close with this. He
said in the last phrase of verse 27, you shall abide in him. I'm
confident that he that hath begun a good work will finish it. Now
little children, abide in him. That when he shall appear in
that great coming of our Lord, When He shall appear, we may
have confidence and not be ashamed before Him that is coming. If
you know that He's righteous, you know everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of Him. That's our confidence. He's our
confidence. He's our comfort. All right. I pray that'll be a blessing
to you.