Last week, we looked at the previous passage of John’s message, which was not to love the world, nor the things of the world. And we learned that the world was not speaking of creation, nor of the people of the world, but he was speaking of the world system. We learned that this world system is orchestrated by Satan, to deceive the people of the world, to mislead them, to hold them captive by it’s deceptive philosophies, until it eventually leads to their destruction.
We said that the world system is in opposition to the heavenly system. The divine plan of God is diverted to serve the system of this world. It’s a demonic plan designed to mislead and deceive, and ultimately to overturn the plan of God. And it does so by enticement of the things of this world, things which the world values, that look attractive, that look fulfilling, that promise to bring happiness, but the end results in not a more abundant life, but in fact is death.
So John warns us not to be deceived, and not to fall for the seductive siren of the world system, because he adds in vs 17, that the world is passing away, and also it’s lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
Now to give a sense of immediacy to that warning that the world is passing away, John says, “children, it is the last hour.” The fact that John refers to us as “children” hearkens back to vs 13 in which John had given three characterizations of spiritual maturity. In that analogy of spiritual maturity, John had addressed children, young men, and fathers, each designation representative of a Christian’s spiritual maturity. This particular word for children is “paidion” which was used to describe a young child of teachable age. Not an infant, but still a young child that was able to be instructed.
As parents, in fact, generally speaking as a society, we have a protective attitude towards young children that is appropriate. We know that children of a young age are particularly vulnerable. We teach our children not to talk to strangers, not because we want them to be anti-social, but because they are particularly naive at that age, and that naivete makes them especially vulnerable to predators. And it’s a sad reality that the world is full of predators that prey upon the weak.
So it’s apropos that John calls Christians “children” in this general way, because we are particularly vulnerable, especially in the beginning stages of our spiritual maturity. There is nothing wrong per se with being spiritually naive at the first stages of our spiritual growth. A certain degree of that is normal and to be expected. But it makes us especially vulnerable to predators in the spiritual realm. To people that want to take advantage. To people that pretend to be friends, but in fact they are foes.
The Bible tells us therefore to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves. It warns us to be on the alert because the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We are in the world, and the world hates us, even as it hated Jesus Christ. And furthermore, we are told that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so that he might deceive the world and take us captive. Satan doesn’t come dressed in all black, with hooded face, and fangs and a pitchfork that we might recognize him. Satan comes like a messenger of God, robed in a false piety and false knowledge that beguiles the unwary.
So when John speaks to us as “children” it is not just a term of endearment, but it’s a term that implies a warning not to be naive, not to fall victim to the predators that prey on the church. And that warning is particularly pertinent because John says it is the last hour. When he says it’s the last hour, he is speaking not of a literal 60 minutes, but of the last age, or the last day, or last season. When you study the New Testament, you will see that practically all the writers spoke of the time in which they were living was the last age, or the last day, or the last hour. It simply refers to this age between the first appearing of Christ at His incarnation, and the last appearing of Christ which is the consummation of this age.
I believe John references this shortness of the time which is left in Rev. 12:12 which says "For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has [only] a short time.” So the fact that it is the last age is yet another aspect of the warning that John is giving to the church. It’s the last hour, and Satan is doubling down, knowing quite well the theology which says that his time is short. The consummation of this age is quickly approaching, and Satan’s time is limited, so we should expect his fury to be fearsome in these last days.
His wrath is focused on us, by the way. We that are Christians are the focus of Satan’s hatred. That’s why the world hates those who are Christ’s. And because the world hates us, we should be on our guard against the schemes of the devil.
Now the great scheme of the devil ultimately is to deceive and devour, and if possible to deceive even the elect. Jesus said in Mark 13:22, “for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.” That doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible to lead the elect astray. It means that by all means possible Satan’s plan is to lead the elect astray. Not to perdition, but to confound God’s will for their lives, to make them impotent as Christians. To ruin their testimony perhaps. To cause them to fall into sin and ruin their lives and become stumbling blocks to others. To retard their spiritual growth. I”m told that in battle strategy, it costs the enemy more to take care of the wounded than the dead. So if Satan can’t kill us, then his goal is to wound us, and thus take his toil upon the church.
So John warns of the same thing that Christ warns of in Mark 13. That false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. Like the child who is approached by the friendly man at the bus stop and lured away with offers of candy, or with a special message from Mommy, we should shudder at the deceptive approach of false Christs. John calls them anti Christs. He says, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”
Jesus warned us that in the last days false Christs and false prophets would abound. John says that they have already appeared. And because they have already appeared, we know that it is the last days, the last age. Now when we read John’s warning we notice that he calls these false Christ’s antichrists. And immediately in many of your minds the word antichrist conjures up a picture of this figure that according to a popular understanding of end time theology is supposed to come during the tribulation and for three and a half years appear to bring the world peace, and then after 3 1/2 years be revealed for who he is, the enemy of God and he will persecute the world and bring about all sorts of tribulations.
And many preachers and theologians have imagined that various world leaders down through ages were the antichrist, only to have time prove them otherwise. Over time, we have seen people like Hitler, or Mussolini or dozens of other world leaders be suggested that they are the antichrist.
Now I do not have the time this morning to delve into all the views of eschatology and try to present what I believe the Bible teaches. But suffice it to say that I think this idea of a specific individual who is the antichrist is not what the Bible teaches, but is the kind of stuff that sells books and movies. In short, I think what the antichrist represents is the world system that is orchestrated by Satan himself, that uses false religion and world governments for it’s purposes, and it’s purpose is opposed to the purpose and will of God.
This title of antichrist is only found in 1and 2 John. Jesus calls them false Christs and false prophets. John calls them antichrists in his epistle in four places. We just looked at the first one. The second mention is found in vs 22 “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”
So rather than one individual, it’s anyone that denies Christ, that denies the teaching of Christ, that denies the divinity of Christ. John says there are many antichrists. Jesus speaks of multiple false Christs. And notice John gives another clue about the nature of the antichrist - he says he is a liar. Jesus said to the Pharisees, the false religious teachers of His day, in John 8:44 "You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Now that tells us a lot about how to identify false Christ’s or antichrists. They lie, twist the truth, distort the truth in order to deceive the naive.
The third reference to antichrist is in 1John 4:3 “and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” So here John speaks of a spirit of antichrist that is already in the world. It’s a spirit that embodies many people at many times.
That’s why John says in just a couple of verses prior to that, in ch4 vs 1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” We can assume from that the antichrists and the false prophets are virtually the same, empowered by the same spirit, which is the spirit of the devil. The devil by the way is a spirit. John says not all spirits are from God. But there are deceiving spirits which seek to lead astray the world, and even the elect.
That’s one of the great menaces of this fascination today with the spiritual world. We hear some people say I don’t go to church, but I am spiritual. Or of even more concern, we see and hear of stuff happening in the church that are attributed to the Holy Spirit, but what they are doing causes us to question what spirit they are of. I can assure you that a lot of the strange things you hear of in some churches that are attributed to the Spirit, are in fact not the Holy Spirit at all, but are evil spirits masquerading as spirits of light. When I hear of being drunk in the spirit, or holy laughter, or angel dust falling from the rafters, or barking like dogs, or being slain in the spirit, I immediately think of these evil spirits masquerading as spirits of light. I can assure you that such things are not of God. John says test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. And how do you test the spirits? By the word of God. Not by experience, or supposedly by hearing voices from heaven, but by the word of God.
The fourth reference to antichrist is found in 2John 1:7 which says, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ [as] coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” Notice the primary characteristic is that they are a deceiver. John says it twice, this is the deceiver. And they do not acknowledge Christ as coming in the flesh. The deny His deity and His incarnation.
Now that’s who the antichrists are. They are liars, deceivers, who deny the incarnation, who deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Back in our text, John gives us another clue to recognize them in vs 19. “They went out from us, but they were not [really] of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but [they went out,] so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”
The first thing we should notice is that they come from within the church. He says they went out from us. When the apostle Paul spoke farewell to the church of Ephesus he said in Acts 20:29-30 "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” That’s the nature of the false prophets and antichrists. They come out of the church ranks. They appear to be sons of light. They desire to be teachers, to be revered by the church for their piety, by their power. And by their ability to works signs and wonders will lead many astray.
Now many theologians and commentators want to camp out on these verses and use it as a pretext to talk about the perseverance of the saints. And while I believe in the perseverance of the saints, I don’t think this is really addressing that doctrine. Rather, I think this verse makes it clear these people never really were saved. John says, “but they were not really of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”
In other words, they never were saved. And the fact that they did not abide in the truth but departed from the truth is proof that they never were saved. And that’s what John is referencing here. They departed from the truth, not just from a particular church. Some have tried to use this to indict anyone that leaves a particular church organization. He isn’t talking about a particular local church, but the church universal, which is bound together by the truth. And that is made clear in the following verses. Contrary to popular opinion, there is not an injunction in scripture to join a particular church. But there is an injunction to abide in the truth, to be unified in the truth.
So John says these people abandoned the truth for another gospel. Paul spoke of the same thing in Gal. 1:6-8 “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is [really] not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” So false prophets and false Christs preach a false gospel, which some false Christians show by their adherence to, the evidence of their false faith. And the danger is that they attempt to persuade others to follow them in that false gospel. Paul says that they do that by distorting the gospel of Christ. They distort the truth.
But to the faithful Christians John is writing to, that have not abandoned the truth, he says in vs 20 “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.” Now the translators seem to have a problem with this verse. Many of them add an implied context to the Greek text to help us understand the intent. The NIV says for instance, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.” When you study the context it’s clear that John is speaking of the truth of the gospel, and not just saying that you know all things, or that you are all knowing or something like that. And that’s made even more clear by the next verse.
But don’t miss out on the main point that he is making. He says you know the truth, because you have an anointing. Anointing is another of those words that gets used in the wrong way in a lot of times in the church. The Greek word translated anointing is “chrisma”. The KJV makes it even more confusing and translates it an unction.
But “chrisma” is a word related to the word Christ. Christ means the anointed one, Christos, Jesus the anointed one. So this is an anointing, a christening in one sense. But when you consider all that the Lord said in the upper room, and other parts of the New Testament, it's clear that the the anointing is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, that which the Lord Jesus had promised. He said, "I will pray the Father he will give you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth and he will abide with you forever." That's the unction that comes from the Holy One, the anointing, the indwelling of the Spirit of truth.
And it’s so important that we see that in Jesus speaking of this anointing which was to come in the presence of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus called Him the Spirit of Truth. This is how we as Christians come to know the truth, through the indwelling we have through the Holy Spirit at your new birth. He leads us and guides us in all truth. That is the purpose of the Holy Spirit.
If we skip ahead to next week’s passage we can see in vs 27 it says the purpose of the Holy Spirit, to guide us into the truth. To open our hearts and minds to receive the truth. vs 27 says, “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” HIs anointing teaches you the truth of God’s word. That’s why when you become saved, when you receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we suddenly have the word of God opened up to us. It becomes so clear. Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we cannot know the truth.
So because we have this anointing of the Holy Spirit, John says in vs 21, “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.” John loves to show contrasts in order to teach a principle. And that’s what he is doing here and in vs 22. He is showing a contrast between the truth and the lie. The truth is from God, the lie is from the antichrist, or from Satan, the father of lies.
The contrast in vs 22, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” The Spirit of truth versus the spirit of the world, the antichrist. And the antichrist denies the Father and the Son. The world doesn’t necessarily deny God, or despise the teaching that there is a God. All the false religions of the world believe in a god. Some teach that you are god. But they all teach about god, and they love to teach that god is not exclusive, but inclusive. That all roads lead to God. Allah is god, Buddha is a god. The Great Spirit is a god. Whatever god they teach, they tend to embrace an ambivalent, inclusive God.
But Christianity teaches an exclusive God. That God was manifested in the flesh in the man Jesus Christ, and no one can come to the Father except through Him. Peter preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost said concerning Jesus Christ in Acts 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” That’s pretty exclusive, isn’t it? That’s the truth that will make you free. And that’s what the antichrists want to distort and to change.
But the principle of our gospel is simply stated in vs 23 “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.” To confess Jesus as the Son of God, as God incarnate, as having come in the flesh and died on the cross as a substitute for our sins. To confess Jesus as Lord, as Master, as Sovereign. Romans 10:9-10 says “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” That’s the gospel in a nutshell, its the truth which sets us free from the condemnation of sin and the captivity of Satan. And believing in Him, confessing Jesus as Lord, results in righteousness which is imputed to our account, and that righteousness results in eternal life.
John closes out this principle by saying in vs 24 “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.” What is that which is to abide in you which you heard from the beginning? It’s simply the truth of the gospel, the word of God, which you heard at the beginning of your salvation, at the beginning of your new birth.
Don’t be deceived into thinking that there is another level of truth, a greater body of knowledge that you can somehow achieve or learn about through some mystical, spiritual experience which will really establish your faith and validate your Christianity. The goal of John in this passage is to lead us to maturity, and what he is indicating here is that maturity comes through abiding in the purity of the word of truth.
Peter speaks of it this way in 1Peter 2:2 “like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.” That’s the goal, spiritual maturity. And it can only come through two ways, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit working through the purity of the word of truth.
If you abide in the truth, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. Jesus prayed in the upper room before His death concerning the disciples, which is found in John 17. I will read His prayer as our closing prayer today.
John 17:14-21 Father, "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil [one.] They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, [are] in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” In the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, we pray and believe, Amen.
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