Good morning. Good to have you here this morning. Welcome to you. First John chapter two is where we will be this morning. We have been giving some of our attention or we have been giving our attention during the Sunday school hour to the Holy Spirit, who he is and what he does. And then we will Towards the end, turn our attention, I think, thirdly, to kind of how we relate to him. A major part is how he relates to us. And so what we're going to do this morning is pretty much confine ourselves to one passage. It tends to generate some confusion and some questions. And it is a distinctive ministry of the Holy Spirit to the Lord's people. So. First John, chapter two. And I want to begin in verse number. Eighteen and just kind of read down to the end, then, of course, we'll look at it a little bit more detail as we go. First John, chapter two, verse number 18, little children. It is the last time. And as ye have heard that the 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, for if they had been of us, they would not, no doubt, have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, Even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now little children abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and be not ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him or out of him. And let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for, again, and deliberately, the ministry of your Holy Spirit to us to teach us the words that you have spoken. and to use them for our instruction and our ultimate benefit in your glory. And so we pray for your health this morning and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. So the particular ministry of the Holy Spirit that is being mentioned here is the ministry of His anointing. To have been anointed by the Holy Spirit. And you'll notice the reason I'm putting it that way, and we'll get to this in a minute and I will explain to you what I mean. Little children, it is the last time, verse 18, you've heard that antichrist shall come. Even now there are many antichrists. And then really what is kind of the end of the section, verse number 27, but the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, abideth in you. So, and it really is all tied together grammatically, and we will take a couple of minutes to look at this. John begins this little section by pointing out that we are living in the last days. He was living in the last days. Verse number eight, little children, it is the last time. And if I could throw the Greek word at you for just a second, it is the eschaton. Little children, it is the eschaton. the time of the last days. And I would take the position that the last days actually began at Pentecost because of what Peter said. If you want to turn to it, you can, but you don't need to. I will read it to you. But Acts chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, this is what Peter said on the day of Pentecost. This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days. Or again, to go back to the Greek, the days of the eschaton, the time period of the last days. It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. So I think that generally speaking, right, to move away from the Holy Spirit for a moment, to talk about the last times, that it is pretty safe biblically to understand the last times being between the first coming of Christ, the incarnation, and the second coming of Christ. These are the last times, and obviously they have been happening for a very a very long time. So there's a very real sense, folks, in which the last days are not coming. The last days are here. And you and I have been born in them and we'll live our entire Christian life in the last days. That will be what characterizes. Back to 1 John 2 and verse number 18. Little children, it is the last time. Statement of fact. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come. And it's important to note there that Antichrist is singular. John doesn't get into this, but Paul dealt with this pretty extensively, particularly in 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2, that one of the end time events will be the arising of the singular Antichrist. And of course we meet him in the book of Revelation chapter 13 and we see his reign of devastation on planet Earth during the Tribulation. And John is just pointing out that the people to whom he is writing are living in the last days. And they have heard about the Antichrist, just like you've heard about the Antichrist. I got saved, Leif and I got saved in 1978. And we began to go to church, went to, got saved through a Baptist church, began to go to a Baptist church. Our very first Sunday school teacher was a godly man. And we start to go to this young adult Sunday school class and he's teaching the book of Revelation. And you know, this is just off the charts new to me. Just completely, all of it is completely off the charts new to me. I had no religious background. And one of the buzzing topics of conversation among the people in our Sunday school class was whether or not Henry Kissinger might be the Antichrist. And, you know, there were people who came, well-intentioned people, good people. You know, I don't know how seriously he took all this. I mean, this was a long time ago for us. But, you know, they had, somebody had devised some way to turn the words Henry Kissinger into 666. And so, you know, and so I did not know this, but evidently there's a mathematical algorithm out there that if you can find out what it is, you will know who the Antichrist is through the biblical numerology. May I just say I don't believe any of that stuff, okay? So just, but there are people out there who do and are very mesmerized with it. All of that to go back to get ourselves oriented to what John is telling us. You're living in the last days, right? And Paul regularly told the people to whom he wrote, who also were living in the last days, to be on the eager expectation for the return of the Messiah, right? He came here once, he promised he's coming back again, It could be any time, we don't know when, everybody needs to be ready. These are the last days. And also in conjunction with the last days is the Antichrist. Back to verse number 18. Little children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists. Even now there are many Antichrists. And the word anti to us means opposed, and that's true, but more in the Greek mind, it meant instead of, instead of, in the place of. And John says there are many antichrists. There are many in the place of Christ. And then he says, Because again, folks, this is what he says, and I would argue it's one of several passages that support this idea, that one of the ways you know you're living in the end times is by the abundance of those who are in opposition to Christ. That's what John says in verse number 18. It is the last time. And you have heard that Antichrist has come. And there are many antichrists. And that's how you know you're living in the last time. Verse 18. Whereby we know that it is the last time. We know that it's the last time. Because of all of this opposition. And again, not just opposition in the sense of verbal opposition, but opposition in the sense of providing some kind of alternative. or replacement, or in the stead of. John then goes on to talk in verse number 19 about these antichrists. Verse number 19, they. Not he, not the singular. There is a singular figure that we're all expecting is going to come. For most of us in churches like this, our hope, our expectation is that Christ will rapture us out before he comes, although that is not a universal Baptist belief. But now John goes on to talk about the many antichrists. They went out from us, but they were not of us, 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 that they were not all of us. So John says, right, it's the last time. And how do we know that it's the last time? It's not the last time simply because the singular antichrist is here. It is the end time because many antichrists are here. And what characterizes them is their departure from us. They went out from us because they were not of us. And if they had been of us, and the idea there of that little word of is out of us, if they had been out of us, right, this is the language of the new birth, to be born of the Spirit, to be born out of the Spirit, through the work of the Spirit, or to be born out of God, to be born through God. but they left us so that it might be visible that they were not out of us. Now, here's the thing that you really need to note, folks, about number 19, is that it is not describing a geographical or a physical departure. Christianity would be greatly simplified if every time you walked into a Bible-believing church, the only people in a Bible-believing church were true Bible believers. But what John is pointing out here is not their physical departure, but their doctrinal departure. They went out from us because they were not of us. If they had the same birth that we had, they would not have left the doctrine. That's the point that he's making. If they had the birth that we had, they would not turn on their spiritual father the way that they have. But again, verse number eight, the event of verse number 19, they did go out from us that it might be made manifest. And that has the idea of being visible or apparent or obvious. They went out from us that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Right? They rose up in opposition to Christ And their opposition to Christ makes it evident that they are not of him. Or their willingness to be a substitute for him is evidence that they are not of him. So if they had been of us, they would have no doubt remained with us. And again, that's not all in the same building. That's not all in the same house. That's not even all in the same country. That is all in the same position. Verse number 20, but you have, or ye, because that's a plural, ye, believers, have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. And I just want to kind of, so let's just stop there for a second, and I want to come back and do a little bit of grammatical work. So little children, it's the last time. It's true in John's day, it's true in our day. And we know that there is an antichrist and we need to know that there are many antichrists. And one of the ways that we know we're living in the last days that there are many people who are willing to substitute themselves for or identify away from Christ. And it is their departure from Christ that makes it obvious that they are not of us, right? It is not the theological nuanced differences of sincere believers. This is a departure from a core doctrine about the identity of Christ and the work that he did. So they left and we remain. Why do we remain? In other words, why are we not among the departed? And the answer to that is verse number 20. We have an unction. We have an unction. All right, so now, again, this is why I'm stopping here because there are, John is using words that are obviously connected in the Greek language that are not so obviously connected in the English language. The word Christ. The word Christ. There are many antichrists. Or verse number 22, who is a liar but he that denieth Jesus is the definite article Christ. That word means anointed. The word Christ means anointed. Okay, for those of you who are grammatically savvy, it's an adjective. Jesus is the noun. Anointed is the adjective. The noun is modified by the adjective. Jesus is the anointed. He is the anointed one. Luke chapter 4 and verse number 18, Jesus himself said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. He has an anointing. In Acts chapter 4 and verse number 27, as part of the prayer of the apostles, for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, against thy holy child Jesus, in opposition to Christ, whom thou hast anointed, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel gathered together. That's a whole fascinating subject study in and of itself. But there is the anointing. Acts chapter 10 and verse number 38. Peter says, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. So Christ is the anointed one. And then there are those who are in opposition to him, antichrist, or replacements for him. I can do for you what Jesus would do for you. So this is the tension in the text, and this is one of the reasons, folks, why I say that John here is not raising controversy about things that have legitimate dimensions of controversy to them. Is there a rapture? When will there be a rapture? What is the mode of baptism by pouring or by immersion? Which is the right theological view, covenantal or dispensational? Those things matter. But John has one issue in mind, and that is whether one is for Christ or in some way trying to replace or oppose him, which might come institutionally, which might come psychologically, which might come denominationally. There are lots of ways to replace the person of Jesus Christ and be on the wrong side of that equation, but there's the tension, the anointed one, and those who are in opposition to the anointed one. And that's where the word unction in verse number 20 comes in. Because it is the word anointing. It too is a noun. You have this. You have an anointing. You have an anointing. Jesus had an anointing, and you have an anointing. The Greek word comes from actually a word that refers to a smearing. In the Old Testament, anointing was done with oil, and the oil would be applied. It carries over into the New Testament. In the book of James, is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church who will anoint him with oil. There will be the smearing of oil. There's no power in the oil. There's no power in Old Testament oil. There's no power in New Testament oil. This is a symbolic act of identification, a smearing, a smearing and anointing. So again, back now to verse number 20, but ye have, and I'm just gonna translate it that way if I can for right now, but ye have an anointing from the Holy One and ye know all things. So we're living in the last time, one of the evidences of the last time is that there are lots of people in opposition to Christ. That's not you. Now, again, folks, Think of all of the alternatives that you have to Jesus in this world. Think of all of the people and places that are offering to you a substitute form of salvation, happiness, prosperity, a systematic way of looking at the world. Why have you not bought into them? And the answer to that is that you have an anointing, you have an unction, you have a smearing so that you know all things, which we will come back to that for what does that mean. But it does not mean that you know everything there is to know because I don't think that any of us would say that. I must be realistic. Among God's sincere people, if we all knew everything there was to know, would we really have some of the differences that I just went through? Would we really differ? If we knew all that there was to know, would we really differ about the mode of baptism? Or whether covenantal or dispensational theology was right, or the timing of the rapture? If we all knew exactly all the same thing and we're all on the same page, would we really all have all those differences? So John certainly doesn't mean that we now know everything that there is to know because we have an anointing. Now down to verse number 21. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth. So I'm not writing to you out of a position of ignorance. And again, folks, right, when we're reading a passage like this, context drives it. What is the knowledge that we're concerned with? The identity of Christ. So I'm not writing unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it. And you know this, you know that no lie is of the truth. Lies don't come out of the truth. Lies don't come out of the truth. That's not the way it works. I am writing unto you because you know. In John chapter 16, verse number 13, here's one of the things that Jesus said to the disciples in anticipation of the arrival of the indwelling spirit. I'll be when he the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will shall not speak of himself or out of himself. But whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. This is a ministry of the spirit to us, back to 1 John 2, in verse number 22, right? I'm not writing unto you because you don't know this, I'm writing unto you because you do know this, and you know that the truth does not generate lies. Who is a liar, verse number 22, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. Which again, John is not suggesting that's the only lie that there is to tell. The framework is, who is Jesus Christ? And of course the epitome of opposition to Christ will be that singular, globally influencing individual that we call the Antichrist. But there are lots of people in opposition to Christ on a much smaller scale. No less opposition, no less wrong, no less dangerous. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. So there's kind of the benchmark for identity. As an absolute minimum, this is what makes somebody Antichrist, the denial of the Father and the denial of the Son. And I think again, folks, within the broader framework of the Bible and John's writings and 1 John in particular, right, it's not just the identity. I mean, you don't have to go so far as to deny the existence of God. By the way, the Antichrist himself does not deny the existence of God. Quite the contrary, he claims for himself to be God. And he has divinely given powers, supernatural powers, that he uses to try and validate that claim. Antichrist in the place of God, a replacement for him. So who is the liar besides the one who denies? Verse number 22. Verse number 23, whosoever denieth the son, the same hath not the father. Again, folks, and you can go back to the gospel of John, where John develops this all throughout the course of his entire gospel. right, is that the Father and the Son are equal. And this, of course, becomes the reason that he is rejected by the Jewish leaderships, because he made himself equal. And John opens his gospel by identifying him as equal. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then the Word became flesh, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father. full of grace and truth. So verse 23, whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. You'll notice in your King James Bible a rather lengthy added section that is completely and totally accurate. But you know when italicized words are found, it is because they are supplied by the translators to make the point they understand the text to be making. But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Right? Jesus and the Father are a package. You can reject both or have both, but you cannot pick and choose. You cannot have Jesus, but not the Father. You cannot have the Father, but not Jesus. They are a package. They are a package. John then goes on to give to them some pragmatic, practical instruction. Verse number 24, let that therefore abide in you which he have heard from the beginning. Again, folks, and I'm not just trying to hammer and beat this, but what have we heard from the beginning? We have heard about the identity of Jesus Christ in relationship to the Son, or in relationship to the Father, and the work that he is doing. Retain that. Retain that biblically, not just retain that academically, intellectually. Let that, therefore, abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. Retain what you have heard. Retain what you have heard. And the reason that John is saying those things is because in verse number 26, he is very concerned about them. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. Right, so John is not just looking to fill material. I need a Sunday school lesson, and this is a good one. Or I need a sermon, and this is a good one. Or I need words on the page, and these are good ones. John is looking at the world of the Antichrist, a world filled with Antichrists, realizing that they have their own mission, a mission grounded in deception and lying, and that is to deceive the people of the Lord. To deceive the people of the Lord. So there is a purpose to what John says. It is the protection of God's saints. And we will come back to this, folks, but the protection of God's saints, verse number 26, is the perpetuity of their faith, verse number 24. Not a one-time confession and belief. That is not what John is saying. Verse number 27, John returns to the subject of anointing. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. And you'll notice there that beautiful ETH verb ending in your King James Bible. It stays. That's what it means. Stays. It continues, it remains, it lasts, it endures. The anointing which you have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. Even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. So at the end of this, kind of this section, right? It's a section that begins with being in opposition to the anointed, And then it talks about an anointing that remains. We have an anointing that remains. In verse number 27 then, folks, is giving us some insight as to how God works within his people. How God is accomplishing his purposes in his people. The anointing which he have received, that is passive. You don't go to the spiritual store and buy anointing. The anointing is given to you. It is passive. It is not your doing. It is part and parcel of our salvation. It comes to us in the sealing and the baptism of the spirit. That is passive. On the other hand, folks, back to verse number 24. there is an imperative levied upon God's people. You and I do not go out and obtain the anointing. That's passive. Again, it's clearly passive in the way that John puts it. But verse number 24 is clearly imperative. Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. That is an imperative. Don't let it get away. Right? You have an anointing that came to you and was given to you, and what you have been taught you must cling to. Because the God who is alive is actively at work, by the way, in people who are alive. And I don't just mean spiritually alive. We're living. We relate. Just think of human relationships. They come and go. They ebb and flow. I was talking to a pastor friend of mine. We were talking about the fact that by the time you get to be our age, in our late 60s, or in his case, early 70s, we don't really make friends. You're friendly to people you have acquaintances. But the reality, folks, is that the process of making friends is a process of time and engagement with people, right? They are ongoing relationships that are maintained or sometimes let go. And so we have spiritual obligations, right? I have obligations that God lays upon me with reference to my wife concerning my husbandly obligations within the marriage. I don't have a biblical right to just say, well, I'm married. End of conversation. It doesn't matter what I do. It doesn't matter what I say. It doesn't matter how I treat her. It doesn't matter if I ignore her. It doesn't matter if I betray her because after all, we're married. We don't do that. Or let me back up. You shouldn't do that. You shouldn't do that. Those relationships don't function like that. So we're on the receiving end of an anointing and we have an obligation to continue in what we have heard. And again, folks, this is, if I could be just a little cantankerous for a moment, in conservative, independent Baptist circles, a very common view of eternal security is that you call on Christ and you're always saved. And then, again, we don't do this, and hopefully nobody that you know does this, but then we start to fill the Wednesday night prayer bulletin with long pages of backsliders. Backsliders. I'm not saying people don't backslide. I'm saying that the New Testament expectation is, is that the faith that Christ gave you in his eternal, in his death and eternal salvation is a faith that endures. So that the Bible is never embarrassed to make these kinds of statements to you. Again, look at verse number 24. Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, if that remains in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. Now, I would be the first to admit that sounds perilously like losing your salvation, but that's not what he's saying. But neither is he saying, don't worry about how you live, Because after all, you asked the Lord to save you once. He is tying the past activity of faith with the present condition of living in that faith. And then John goes on to help us in verse number 27. To understand what the anointing is and what the anointing isn't. Again, When we got saved, my wife had grown up in a very dedicated Lutheran home, and I was just an absolute pagan. No church background, no religious instruction, nothing. And so my Bible knowledge, folks, was just non-existent. And I go to Bible college, and my Bible knowledge is still pretty limited, even in Bible college. And for a couple of years, I worked at Indiana State Prison as a guard. And one night, one of the inmates asked me about this verse. What does it mean? And there were a number of guys that had really come to the Lord at the prison and were really trying to live for the Lord, so. What does this mean, folks, verse number 27? Because John makes a similar statement twice in this section. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you. But as the anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And he had said something similar in verse number 21. I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it. I'm sorry, verse number 20. You have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. So let me, I mean, seriously, and I'm being a little bit facetious, but not entirely facetious. Is there really no need for you to be here this morning? Right, if you have an unction from the Holy One and He's teaching you all things, do you really need to come and listen to me, a guy like me? Is that what John means? Does John mean because you have an unction, an anointing from the Holy One, you don't need to read your Bible? Because you know everything. And the Holy One is teaching you. And I think we all, I'm not saying that we all understand exactly what John is getting at, but I think we all understand at some level that John can't possibly mean that. There are so many passages in which going to church is commended and not going to church for the social aspect. I will repeat myself again. I love to just stand here or sit and just listen to the conversations going on before the service. It is a wonderful thing. But every time you find an apostle giving a task, an assignment to a pastor, or you find him discharging some kind of pastoral responsibility, he is doing one thing and pretty much one thing only. He is teaching the people of God the word of God. He is preaching. So what is it that you don't need to know? Let me put it this way. What is it that the unction gives you that I cannot? And that's the difference, folks. That's what's going on. Here's what I can give you. I can give you content. Any pastor can give you content. He can tell you what the Bible says. You can obtain content. You can read the Bible. You can find out what the Bible says. You can get content. But the anointing isn't about content, folks. The anointing is about believing the content to be true. Again, look at the way John puts it. in verse number 27. The anointing which ye have received in him abideth in you, ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, right? The anointing is gonna be consistent whether we're in the book of Genesis or in the book of Revelation. Whether we're dealing with salvation, whether we're dealing with sin, the anointing is going to be this. It is going to be in all things And it is truth and is no lie, even it is hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. The anointing, folks, the unction, the smearing from the Holy Spirit is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us to validate the truth of the Word of God. Anybody can read the Bible. A number of years ago, I really don't remember if he was teaching at Harvard or teaching at Yale. You could go either to Harvard or Yale and take an entire class taught by a PhD on what was wrong with all of the mistakes in the Book of Acts. That was the content of the book, of the class. What was wrong in the Book of Acts? Why the Book of Acts could not possibly be true? Okay, that is not anointed teaching. It is the anointing of the Spirit that validates the content as true. John 16, 13, He will guide you into all truth. So that, do we understand this folks? I mean, what's kind of the final point to this? Do we understand folks that we do not believe the Bible either because we're very, very smart or conversely, because we're very, very dumb. Because there are no shortage of people who would point out to us that the reason that we believe the Bible is because we're not smart enough to believe something else. Is that all it is? Is it just a matter of IQ? It is not just a matter of IQ. The people of God believe the word of God because they have an anointing from the Holy Spirit that it is true. You know, one of the saddest conversations that I ever had was with a young man that graduated from our high school, a nice young man. And he was talking, he said, you know, I just try and read the Bible. I try to read my Bible and it means absolutely nothing to me. I don't get anything out of it. I don't understand a word of what I read. Well, folks, that's not just an intellectual quandary. That's not simply a deficiency in the pulpit or a deficiency in the Sunday school class. It requires a supernatural work to believe the Bible. And we have one that endures. We have an enduring abiding so that when the content comes in, right, You may say, a pastor may speak, and you may say, I never saw that in the text before. That may be a work of God. But we're all together in believing that the Word of God is authentic. truthful, reliable. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. That is the anointing. That is something that he does for us. Okay, I got to stop there. I got to stop there. Happy to talk with you, of course, privately about any of these things. Never hesitate to email me or grab me. We will be back in 15 minutes. We'll be back at 11 o'clock.