much. Well good morning everyone and to those who are online with us this morning or who will watch this on sermon audio we are thankful that you're here with us. Sorry we're a little late starting today on the live stream only because we had some preliminaries here this morning. We're happy to hear from the Gideons today and our Sunday school children had a presentation so we're thankful for that. But we're looking forward to continuing on in our study of the book of 1st John. So if you are in possession of a copy of God's Word, by all means open it to the book of 1st John, chapter 2. And if you need one, there is There should be one close by in the chairs there for you as well. 1 John 2, we're going to read again the passage that we began to look at last week. 1 John 2, beginning at verse 18 and reading on down through verse 25. And if you are able, I would invite you please to stand with me in honor of our Lord's word. as I read it, 1 John 2, beginning at verse 18. Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us, that you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us, eternal life. God adds his blessing to the reading of his holy word. Please be seated. There's a lot of confusion surrounding the use of Jesus' name or perhaps that of the Father or just the word God in general. And this confusion is not just in the world at large. In fact, in some ways I think there's less confusion in the world at large among those who do not know Christ and are maybe not even interested in doing so. I think there's less confusion there because at least they're denying they're clearly denying the one who has his claims upon their life as creator and Lord. Now the more the confusion is among the professing believers who constantly in this day of confusion that we live in affirm error in songs, in literature, in various people and ministries. They hear the word Jesus and assume it must be good. They hear the word God and assume it must be good. They hear some spiritual reference to the Bible and they think, oh, well, it just must be, this must be Christian, this is wonderful. Perhaps one of the best known examples of recent time would be the song by Leonard Cohen called Hallelujah. which, as you know, I've written some new words to because the ones that he wrote are blasphemous error. Besides the word hallelujah, there's not a single redeeming factor about the whole rest of it. But hey, it says hallelujah, and I've seen lots of Christians just get all emotional and weepy because, what a gorgeous thing, and we're singing hallelujah to Jesus, and it's like, no you're not, you're singing hallelujah to a false god. And the fact is, is that that is just one example among many of the kind of confusion that there is. And when you make such statements, I've had people look at me like I had two heads when I told them that sort of thing. And I dismiss anybody who might warn about that error, because after all, they feel great about it, they've had this experience, and that trumps everything. Well, emotions and experience from fallen human beings do not settle what God's word is, and what God's truth is. And particularly when it comes to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, We need to be affirming who he is as he has revealed himself in his word and not make up our own version that satisfies our sense of what is right and wrong. And John is dealing with that kind of confusion back in his day, back in AD 90, all right? 2,100 years ago. Errors of of spiritual nature, regarding the proper theology of who God is, understanding who Jesus really is, down to not just if what he said was true, but if his very being is what he claimed it to be and what he revealed it to be in his ministry. And we looked last week, and you can see there in the notes I've provided there in the italic portions, for those of you who weren't here last time, The italic stuff is what we talked about last week. But you'll see some of the heresies that John was dealing with and the believers of that day were dealing with regarding the person of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has always been the pivotal person in history. He's the one that, and this is why I say that sometimes there's less confusion among the pagans than there is among believers. Because at least pagans are at least saying, nope, he's not it. He's not, we recognize that he's claiming to be God and we're saying, no, he's not. Or at least if he is, he's one among many and he's just no better or worse than anybody else. But among the church, there was a lot of discussion back then in the first century after his earthly ministry about, well, is he really fully God? Is he really fully man? Is he somewhere in between? And it all has a real impact on whether or not his claims have any merit whatsoever. And if he really is, the Son of God then we better be paying attention to him and we better note that what he did on the cross and then when he rose again from the dead actually has something to say to us today because it is we either are going to acknowledge that he is who he said he is in which case then we need to humble ourselves before him, repent of our sins, and trust his finished work on the cross and proven by his resurrection that it is of God that we have our redemption through him. If we're not going to do that, then let's just, you know, we're just playing games. We need to go do something else. John is trying to deal with this confusion. He's trying to deal with people who are wrestling with all of this stuff that's going around as they're trying to figure out what is really true. And he said, and particularly I think he is kind of right in that period of time at the end of the first century when the whole Gnostic movement was really gaining some traction. And Gnosticism is a movement, I have it there in the notes there about what they said about Christ, but in general it comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge, and these these folks essentially were taking the tack that they had a special knowledge that nobody else had and you couldn't question it. Because after all, I have this experience, I have this knowledge, whether I got it from a vision, whether I got it from my own reality, whether I got it, my reason I mean, or I got it through, you know, from this teacher, that teacher, whatever, but this, the rank and file don't have this stuff, only the special chosen few have this, which goes completely contrary to what Jesus said about how the Spirit would work and teach among his people with what Paul said about the gifts that the Spirit of God gave to his people so they could all edify one another. And what we read here in John is John is saying this idea that only a select few have all the knowledge and everybody else doesn't. goes utterly contrary to the reality that the Spirit of God has been given to His people, all of them, so that they might walk in a way that is mindful of who God is and walk in a way that can be approved by God because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. So as we walk mindfully in the truth, we need to recognize that it's a truth that you already know. Now that doesn't mean that you know it all, but if you are in Christ, you know enough. You don't have to have a, we see in charismatic churches today, a number of those various denominations basically operate under the premise that some have the truth, in a little bit, but there are others of us because of particular gifts or whatever that we have more and that you have the whole idea of the second blessing and all those sorts of things that, you know, you gotta have more if you're gonna really please God. And not everybody has that. that's really not much different than the Judaizers were saying to Gentile Christians in the first century, saying, well, no, it's fine if you believe in Jesus, but you gotta do all this other stuff, too, in order to please God. And that, of course, was vigorously fought against by the apostles. So here, we need to find less confusion and more confidence in who Jesus is and as he's revealed to him He revealed Himself to us in His Word. So, I began to look at this passage last week in verses 18 and 25. The bookends of this section speak of matters of eternity. Matters of eternity. There may be confusion in this present time, but there is absolute certainty as we are on the, as I mentioned last time, on the doorstep of eternity. This is the promise He's made to us, eternal life. And we need to all walk with that in mind. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the confusing, conflicting messages that are just flung at us all the time. I think I mentioned this before, I'll mention it again because it's life changing. I took Facebook off my phone. How have I survived the past month without Facebook updates every five seconds? I'm not sure, but I tell you that my heart rate is, my heart's calming down. We are flung, just, this stuff is just coming at us so fast. And to try to process all of it, you can't. And of course, so much of it is, I'm making a statement so that I can see how many people like it. And then when people don't like it, or don't like, as many people don't like it as you think they should, I'm not sure that came out quite right grammatically, but anyway, I think you get my drift. You know, we feel depressed, because after all, this is a life-changing thought for me that I just thought up 30 seconds ago, and now, if somebody doesn't affirm that, there must be something wrong with me, or something wrong with them. When, you know, the fact is that they're probably busy living life, and didn't have time to go, like. You know, we are such people of the moment, is my point. But living that way is like a hamster on a little wheel. You know, and we just, we never get anywhere. But boy, we're busy. We need to approach this question about what we know about God and Christ with an eternal frame of mind. To recognize that God is not working just for the moment, but he is working for eternity. We need to walk mindfully in that manner. with eternity in mind, and to walk mindfully with discernment, discerning who the Antichrists are, those who are walking in opposition to Jesus Christ. And discerning, on the other hand, who the disciples are. We saw that in verse 18 and also verse 24, again, as we move towards the middle of this section. To be able to have that kind of discernment and recognize that those that deny Christ, working in opposition to Him, no matter what kind of religious-sounding words they say, we need to have some discernment together. And as we exercise discernment given to us by the Holy Spirit in accordance with His Word, we stack up teachings and claims and personalities and all of that according to the principles that were found in God's Word, and we'll have will not be yanked around so much by the latest book, the latest preacher, the latest evangelist, the latest revelation, the latest whatever, that often tears up the old landmarks that are given to us in God's holy word and have been affirmed and shown to be true throughout the centuries. So we have to have a discerning mind and then walk in relationship with one another with the same mind. And this section, verses 19 and verse 23, this pair of verses, recognizing that basically by their works you shall know them. In verse 19, it's kind of a sad verse, that they went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might be plain that they are not of us, a rather long way of basically saying, if they'd really been true to Christ, they wouldn't have left. If they'd really been of one mind with us, they would have stayed. So it's grievous when, there's just a general principle here of life. Of every society, of every culture, of every organization, people come and they go and it's sad to see people go, but just in a general way you recognize that sometimes someone leaving is probably actually a benefit because then at least you have everybody pulling on the oars in the same direction. which is kind of nice. Even if you have fewer people pulling, you get more effort because they're actually of the same mind. There's a relationship that is there. And, you know, we can be so keen on holding on to relationships that are based solely upon emotion and not upon truth. that we get ourselves into a state of confusion or uncertainty or distress. And these words, while it's kind of a sad commentary on the reality of relationships, it also is, in a way, I think John is trying to comfort those who, in his day, were looking at those who were dividing the church and calling people out according to these false teachings and these things that were opposed to Christ, and he's basically saying, let them go. Stick with the one that you know, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that same mind is going to show itself by the declarations that are made, that's in verse 23 there, that they are all declaring who actually, who's confessing the Son. If you have the Son, you have the Father also. If you confess Him as the Lord and acknowledge Him, you can't know God without knowing Jesus. You can talk about believing in God all you want to, but the devils also believe and tremble, the Apostle James tells us. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Him. So He's the one you're gonna be dealing with. Now, that's a rather lengthy introduction because I needed to review, because we've got quite a few who are visiting here today and didn't get any of that. We did start late, so if you'll bear with me, I'll move through these last two points. I'm not gonna try to skim over them, but I thought that the review was important. So, as we come to the center of this passage, we're looking at verses 20 and 22. Take a look there. 20 says, but you have been anointed by the Holy One and you all have knowledge. And then verse 22, who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. So we've been looking at things that have to do with having eternity or expectancy in our minds, of having discerning minds, of having minds that are of one, being of one mind with those with whom we are in relationship. The principle that I'm gathering from these two verses as they work together is the principle of integrity or honesty. We need to walk with an honest mind before the Lord. Now, this I think is a good warning. Because if we look at what we understand about the Lord Jesus in comparison to others, and we can get rather full of ourselves. We can really come to think that we are the people and the truth dies with us. And the fact of the matter is is that there've been a whole lot of people before us, and there will be in God's providence, I expect a whole lot of people yet to come until he comes again, who are going to be regenerated, redeemed, converted, taught by the Spirit of God, grow in grace, be sanctified, be moved from step to step from being called to being justified and ultimately to being glorified. And we're on that spectrum somewhere. So while it would be very tempting for those of John's day to go, oh, great, well, we've identified those lousy heretics. I'm sure glad I'm not one of them. and really get to feel like, well, I now have arrived. I have all knowledge. And after all, doesn't John just say here, but you have, you all have knowledge. That's great. But we need to walk together mindfully with integrity. and an honest mind. Honestly, first of all, pursuing the truth of Jesus Christ. In verse 20, you've been anointed by the Holy One. You all have knowledge. The implication here is use it. Don't just sit on your laurels and be content that we have the truth. Avoid that error of as the scriptures put it, of ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. If you read 50 books about Christ in the Bible a year but you don't really get much from it other than, boy, I'm sure glad I read those and now I know all this stuff, it hasn't really done you a whole lot of good. In that honesty as you pursue the truth of Jesus Christ, Pursue that truth under the authority of the Spirit, not your own. Right? We've received the Spirit. You've been anointed by the Holy One. What does that mean? Again, does that mean that you know everything now? Does it mean that I know everything? I had someone say to me, a few years back, and he meant it as an excuse not to listen to what I had to say. He said, I don't need your seminary degree. I've got God, he's teaching me, so I don't need you. I was like, that's true. You don't need my seminary degree. Spirit of God certainly is able to teach people what they need to know without having them go to seminary. I will say that seminary helps, but nonetheless, yeah, you're right, you don't. Doesn't need me. Doesn't need me. The Lord can use anybody He wants. And He does minister to our own hearts as well. You all have knowledge, that's very true. But we need to walk in submission to the Spirit of God who gives us that knowledge. It does not mean that you no longer are obligated to learn. It does not mean that you are no longer obligated to be taught anything or feel like you have to sit under somebody's authority. After all, you're your own authority under yourself and you don't have to answer to anyone. That's baloney, frankly. because of what the Lord has to say in the rest of the scriptures about giving them apostles and pastors and evangelists and teachers to edify the saints, to do the work of the ministry, and to walk in submission to your authorities, and to listen to what God's word has to say, and that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who believe it is eternal life. And over and over and over again, we are encouraged to sit down, shut up, and listen to what God has to say to the churches upon peril of our lives. So we need to approach this honestly. Yes, the Spirit of God ministers to us. When we open this word, the Spirit of God helps us to understand what's going on here. It doesn't mean that we can think that we no longer need to be taught. in a real way, this all knowledge, or all of you have knowledge, this phrase here, he's speaking about, it means genuine knowledge, and really what's happening here is it's an indirect answer to the Gnostics. There's a larger principle here that John is dealing with, because at the heart of the Gnostic error, that they had their secret levels of knowledge that nobody else had is pride. That's at the heart of it. And it's dishonest pride because it attributes to ourselves more ability than we have. We are thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. So walking humbly before the Holy Spirit, pursue the truth of Christ and rejoice in the knowledge that we have. I like the way a commentator named Barclay put it at this point, the essentials of the faith are the possession of every man. I absolutely love that. Because that really is behind that idea that he has created in the body of Christ a kingdom of priests that stand before God. and His Spirit moves in all of us to teach us. And we can all iron, sharpen iron back and forth as He reveals different things to different ones of us at different times. We can encourage each other in our walk, in what we know, in refining what we know, in figuring out, oh, I wasn't listening carefully to that. I got off on there and get pulled back in the line through His Word and through the encouragement of others who are walking also in the Spirit of God. We live in an era that is way too convinced of its own centrality when it comes to truth. One of the reasons that we do things like reading creeds here, the ancient creeds of the church, is to remind ourselves that we are not the first people that the Spirit of God has ever spoken to. But many today act as if that were the case. As if all of church history that went on and those who had taught before and the traditions of the church and so on that were there. Yeah, there's a lot of error, but there's a lot of stuff that needs to be paid attention to. We do ourselves a disservice and it's really dangerous to think that God is reinventing truth with us. because he isn't. So we need to be honest about that. And honestly then, in verse 22, affirming the truth of Jesus Christ. The lie of all lies, Barclay says, is that Jesus Christ is not truly God. And here, John is saying, the liar is the one who denies his deity, denies his connection with the Father. This is how false Christs, how antichrists are revealed. Jesus made this declaration in Matthew chapter 11. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to honestly affirm that, that He's the one with whom we have to do. We need to have that kind of mind, that kind of determination to walk in integrity according to what He has revealed. No, I know it says that there, but. Just stop it. I know it says that here. Okay, that's what it says. That's what we deal with. And His Spirit speaks to us and affirms in our hearts that we are His. And that brings me to verse 21, which is the heart of this passage. to walk with an assured mind, or if you prefer, a confident mind. As we walk mindfully, we need to have eternity in our minds. There needs to be discernment. We have discerning minds. We need to have a oneness of mind, a unity of mind with each other. To walk in integrity or honesty of mind before the Lord Jesus Christ and with a humble, teachable spirit, It is in that, in the midst of all the confusion, in that context, of that kind of mind together that we will find confidence, no matter what kind of confusion or uncertainty is going on around us, and all kinds of different competing voices about here's a Christ, there's a Christ, there's another one. But no, we take God at His word, what He said, and we are solid. This assurance of mind, this confidence of mind, really is an assurance of what you already know. It's not about looking for some secret thing that God has only revealed to you. It's about being assured of what you know already. A childlike faith, Jesus spoke of it that way. The Spirit has guided you into God's truth. according to Jesus' promise in John 14, 26. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. And we can rest in that. Again, the essentials of the faith are the possession of every man that's redeemed by Jesus Christ. You don't have to have a seminary degree to be saved. Praise God that our salvation is not predicated on how much we know. Or we would all be doomed. So be assured of that. Recognize that we see there. I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it. And that no lies of the truth inherent in these verses is not just an assurance of what you already know, but to actually have enough assurance in the Lord Jesus Christ and His claims upon your life as King and Redeemer. To be able to live that way, not just say you believe. To walk with that kind of confidence in living accordingly. Again, John writes here to encourage believers to walk in the light of what they already know. You may have heard the saying, probably have, if something is good, it's not new. And if it's new, it's not good. Now there's several different versions of that one, but that one we'll do for today. You know, the Gnostics and others that were looking to have some deep, special, metaphysical thing that set them apart in their pride, that they understood something about Jesus that nobody else did, came up with something new. It comes from that, there's a saying of something being really, it's good and new. It's like, well, those things don't usually go together. The old things, the old proven things, That's where the goodness lies. If it's new, and if it's, you may be caught, in my opening prayer, I prayed that we would not be inventors today. Because when we try to be inventors in the presence of God, according to our own understanding, according to our own whims, according to our own preferences, according to whatever's going on in our lives at the moment, and we come up with something that would be really cool to do before God, it's like, whoa, step back, what has God said? He knows how he wants to be approached, he's told us, let's do that. And when we walk according to those concepts, when we come into his presence then, we can do so with confidence that what we are doing will be received by him because he commanded it. If you come up with something new, any of you in your workplaces, if you come up with a fresh way of going about and doing something, there's a certain degree of trepidation that goes along with that. because you wonder if that's going to be accepted. You wonder if your boss is going to think that's okay. You wonder if you might get fired because of something you're going to do. I've had a couple of experiences like that. Fortunately, my boss was gracious and didn't fire me, but I thought I knew a better way to do stuff and it ended up in minor catastrophes when I was younger. Yeah, just because there was a reason why there was an old rule not to do what I thought that I could do, because I, after all, must be better and more capable than those who went before, that were probably the cause of why that rule was made. Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes. This is in Romans chapter 15, verses 14 through 16. I myself, he says, am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. So there's that, having the knowledge. The essentials of the faith are there. They've got them by God's grace. But on some points, he says, I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." Paul describes his office as an apostle and a minister. It's a wonderful model for what every minister should be. I'm not up here to teach you some new thing. I'm not up here in many ways to teach you something you don't already know, though there may be things along the way that you don't know and I'm happy to bring to your attention. But as far as the essentials of the faith are concerned, do you ever wonder why we come to church all the time, week after week, and we hear basically the same thing week after week? Now it's different passages, and it's really not that much the same. But at the core of it, we're talking about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And He's the foundation of our hope and our faith and our security for eternity. Repent of our sins and walk faithfully according to His Word. That's it. Okay, we can all go home now. Don't ever have to come back in, right? No, Paul says, I'm up here to remind you of those things. Cause we do have a tendency to forget and to try to hold all those things together. And we get distracted in our lives because of our fallenness and the confusions of the world around us. And we need that encouragement and we need that reminder so that our offerings may be acceptable before the Lord, which are sanctified by the spirit of God, our offerings of service, our offerings of praise, our offerings of worship, our offerings of, of devotion to our God, our offerings of testimony, our offerings of thanksgiving, our bringing our petitions before Him. The Spirit of God comes alongside, intercedes for us, speaks on our behalf. What does your offering look like before the Lord? Walk mindfully in the truth that you already know about Jesus Christ. And if you don't know this truth, pray God that he would enlighten your mind so that you could know it and trust in it and walk according to it. So that you can walk with expectancy, walk with discernment and a solid relationship with those of the same mind, with integrity, pursuing the gospel of Christ in humility, And then as a result of all that walking in confidence in the one who has revealed himself so clearly in history and in his word. You're not alone in this walk. The Spirit of God guides you every step of the way. I think it's been pretty obvious throughout this whole section, the centrality of the work of the Holy Spirit in ministering to us in this way as we stand against the confusion concerning Jesus Christ. As the Spirit of God guides you, the adversary with all of his antichrist cannot turn you aside from the truth. Praise his name. he will keep all those whom he has called to the day of glorification when all confusion, all cloud, all veils wiped away and we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your great mercies. We thank you that you have called us out of darkness into your light. Help us to walk, Lord, not seeking some greater thing, not trying to make you out to be something in our own image, but to humbly, according to the revelation that you've given to us in Jesus Christ, to walk before you, trusting in his work alone for our salvation and no other, and then walking in holiness before you as you redeem us. We thank you for the confidence that is ours because you do not leave us to do this on our own, but you have promised your spirit to guide us, teach us, comfort us, convict us, move us. And we just ask, Lord, that he would continue to be active in our hearts and keep us from error. We pray these things in Christ's blessed name. Amen.