As we turn again in the epistle of 1 John, you may have noticed in our reading today that John has another one of those transitions or movements that he's known for. Remember that 1 John is sort of cycle and we go in a new direction and then we'll come back to that later. Today we see another one of these shifts and as he's shifting, he's transitioning to what he calls the last hour and the place of false teachers within the last hour. And what I want to do today is to just look at a portion of 1 John 2.18. And I think that this is something that's important to do because if we looked at the whole section together as one sermon, we wouldn't be able to adequately define what John is looking forward to. So we're slowing down, we're slowing way down. The train is squealing as we're slowing down today, but we'll pick up speed again next week. So we're looking today at 1 John 2.18. I'll read that again. It says children. It is the last hour and as you have heard I Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard, that Antichrist is coming. So now many Antichrists have come. What I'd like to do today is to explore in the scriptures this idea of that Antichrist. Now, when that phrase is given, that antichrist, you may have ideas that pop into your head. You may think of a beastly, terrible monster that will be very obvious to everyone. Or if you are more culturally savvy, at least in the 1970s, you may think of Rosemary's Baby. Now, if you don't know the cultural reference, that's fine. You don't have to go figure it out. I'll give you another one from a later date, Damien from the Omen. That may be what you think of when you hear the Antichrist. Or you may think of really bad Christian fiction and have some idea of the Antichrist that comes from really horrible, horrible Christian fiction. What I want you to see here is that John uses this phrase, that antichrist, and he mentions it several times throughout the book. So I think we need to just pause and take a look here at what is being said, and then we can continue in the epistle. John is quite bold in putting this phrase before his hearers. He just comes out and he says, that antichrist. But really what I want you to consider is that the phrase or even the word Antichrist, that this is the first time in all of the Bible that that word is even mentioned. So John writing and he says, that Antichrist is coming. You have heard this. Where's John get that idea? Like, what right does he have putting this idea down on paper? And we're all scratching our heads saying, this is the first time I've ever seen this word. And you're telling me that I should know something about it. As we look today, I want you to remember that that preaching a whole book verse by verse sort of forces the preacher to talk about things that he might not normally preach about. And I think that's good. It causes us to hear the whole counsel of God. And at the same time, I want to issue you a disclaimer this morning. This might just be your least favorite sermon ever. Just putting that out there. But also, this might be your favorite sermon ever. And that sort of depends on where you are in your Christian life. Many people want to hear really practical sermons like we had last week. And that's good. We need really practical sermons. We need practice to come from the Word of God. And there are others that love the obscure, dark corners of the Bible. And they may cheer on the idea of a sermon on Antichrist and say, well, pastor, give us a whole series. We don't just want one. So either way, whether you're looking forward to hearing about that Antichrist or you're not looking forward to hearing about that Antichrist, I want to remind you that God uses his word and the preaching of his word to conform us to Jesus Christ and to build up the saints and to give us that what we need. So let's begin with that little disclaimer. The, that Antichrist. 1 John 2, 18. As we begin this morning, we do want to ask the question where John, from where John gets this idea. And you may not know this, but as I mentioned already, John is the first and only writer in all of the Bible that uses the phrase antichrist. So he's not just making this stuff up. He's not just saying, hey, here's a great idea that this really bad guy is going to come and he's going to try to hurt the church. So our first heading is the history of Antichrist. The history of Antichrist. And when I say history, I mean exegetical history, the history in the Bible. Where does this idea come from? Now notice the way that John structures his sentence in 1 John 2.18. He says, this is the last hour and you have heard that Antichrist is coming. So now many antichrists have come. John is saying this is something that you have already heard. This is something that you've already received teaching on. It's something that was taught even before John teaches them. And notice he makes that distinction. He says there is that antichrist coming and there are many antichrists coming. Sometimes when we're talking about that Antichrist or the Antichrist, people will want to play the many card. We'll say, well, there's many Antichrists sort of as a way to shut down the conversation. John doesn't shut down the conversation. He says there's one. He says there are many. This is something that's clearly taught by the Apostle John. Now, I mentioned that John is the first to write the word down on paper, but, and we know that, that First John is pretty far into the New Testament. Almost all of the scriptures comes before First John. But John says, they have heard this. This is part of the apostolic teaching. We look at 2 Thessalonians that we read, and Paul also teaches here on the doctrine of the Antichrist. He uses some different words. He says, the son of perdition or the son of destruction. He calls him that man of sin. He calls him the lawless one. But we can be assured that what Paul is teaching is the same thing that John is teaching. Now, most conservative Bible scholars put 2 Thessalonians around the year 52 AD. So if you do some quick math, the resurrection, if you want to say 33 AD, that's good. 2 Thessalonians written 52 AD, that's really, really early, isn't it? Within Christian history. And notice what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2.5. He says, do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? So sometime between the planting of the Thessalonican church, the church in Thessaloniki, and the writing of Second Thessalonians in 52 AD, there was teaching given on this doctrine of Antichrist. So it's taught by Paul, it's taught by John, And this is something that's really interesting to me. Here's a new church plant. It's probably less than 20 years old, or it is less than 20 years old, maybe 10 years old. And Paul is teaching on the doctrine of Antichrist. And he's later calling it to their attention. And he's saying, this is important. Listen to this. Now, I've been pastoring here just under a decade. This week, actually, is 10 years from when, starting our 10th year from when we arrived. And I think this is the first time I've ever even mentioned Antichrist in preaching. Ever. But for Paul and for John, it's something clearly part of the New Testament doctrine. And it's important for them to have their people understand what is being taught. Now, why is that? Well, it's because the early church understood the historic nature of prophecy. Let me say that again. The early church understood the historic nature of prophecy. The New Testament church is looking at the prophets of the Old Testament and they're seeking to find their place within the writings of the scriptures. So Paul, as he's writing in 2 Thessalonians 2 and in verse 7, he says, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Did you hear that? Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Man, that is so cryptic. Isn't it? Like, what are you talking about, Paul? Who is restraining? Who's got to be taken out of the way in order for the son of lawlessness or the son of perdition, the Antichrist, to be shown? And he's taking us back to Daniel 7. He's taking us back to Daniel 11. He's taking us back to Daniel 2. Daniel 7, 8 talks about the little horn coming up after the other horns were plucked out and the horn is taken out by the root. So this fourth beast comes and this fourth beast needs to be taken away and broken into these 10 pieces. And this little horn arises that has a big mouth. And Paul is referring back to Daniel 7, where that must be taken out of the way in order for that little horn to rise. Daniel 7, 8 says, the little horn is going to come after the other are plucked up. You might say, well, what are you talking about, Pastor Nathan? Where are we going here? You know, doesn't it feel like I should pull down like a big chart and explain the way the way some explain end times prophecy? I understand that it's difficult. But here we see the Apostle Paul pointing us back to the prophecy of Daniel, where there's four beasts, that will arise. And I want you to understand that the interpretation of the four beasts of Daniel, there's hardly any controversy in how that is interpreted. You can read Jewish scholars And you can read Christian scholars. You can go in the Reformed camp, and you can go in all of the different directions for eschatology. And the four beasts are understood by all of us in the same way. The four beasts are each kingdoms. They're called both kings and kingdoms. And Daniel even tells us what the first three are. He interprets it for us in Daniel 2. He tells us of the four kingdoms. The lion with the eagle's wings, that's Babylon. So the kingdom of Babylon is going to rise up. And then a kingdom is going to come and take down the Babylonian empire. That's the bear with three ribs. That's the Medo-Persians. Then the four-headed, four-winged leopard is going to swiftly come in, and that's the Greek Empire as it sweeps across the world. Then the 10-headed beast with iron teeth, the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire will replace the Greek Empire in the history of the world. Children, you probably know this. from your world history, don't you? The lion, Babylon, the bear, Medo-Persians, the leopard, the Greek, and the beast, the Roman Empire. This isn't our text. You can go home and check it. You can read it. But the way the fourth beast is understood is that it is the Roman Empire, And from that empire will come a little horn. That's Paul's language in 2 Thessalonians. He's reminding the church that the fourth beast must collapse or be taken out of the way before the little horn arises. There's this time of apostasy that's going to come. And the people of God in the time of the New Testament era are understanding prophecy, they're interpreting prophecy, and they're looking out at the Roman Empire and they're expecting it to collapse. And they're expecting that from the ashes of that empire would arise one who is called the Little Horn. That teaching of Antichrist or the history of Antichrist in the word, it's first extensively taught by Daniel, and then it's taught in Matthew 24, and then it's taught in 2 Thessalonians 2, it's taught in 1 John 2, it's taught in 1 John 4, and then in the book of Revelation chapter 13, chapter 17, chapter 18, 19, and 20. all using the same language of Daniel, tying all of these chapters of the scripture together as a unified teaching on a particular doctrine. Now, that's heavy. I get that. It's a lot of Bible passages. But I want you to know that this teaching from the Word of God unfolds in this way. And this is why we must look at the Word of God systematically and show the connectedness of the scriptures. We use the clear passages to help interpret the less clear passages. And this is the history of Antichrist. So that's that's some of how the doctrine unfolds. in the history of the church, and that may still be really confusing to you, but we're going to dig deeper. Let's move on from the history of Antichrist to our second heading, the character of Antichrist. The character. of Antichrist. This week I went back and forth on how to best handle this text. And as you know, my style of preaching is probably like my style of jogging. It's very slow. And I like to unfold slowly what the Bible teaches rather than doing that Red Bull squirrel approach that is here, and then here, and then here, then here, then here. I'll admit that's a deficiency of mine. I'm not good at pulpit gymnastics. But what I've done to help reduce some of those pulpit gymnastics and hopefully allow you to go back and to meditate on all of this information being given is that I've provided you with a bulletin insert that you can go back and you can go home and you can look at this insert and you can fact check me and make sure that I'm not fake news. And as we look at this, as we look at this character of the Antichrist, I'd like to just define the word. I haven't even done that yet, have I? The word Antichrist is a word obviously made up of the word Christ and a prefix, anti-, And the word anti is a word that can mean two things. It can mean either against Christ, or it can mean in the place of Christ. So two ways that this is translated. And John doesn't tell us which way he's going, but it's either against Christ or in the place of Christ. Now, with that definition, what else do we have in the Word of God? The first thing that we can say about the Antichrist is that he is the leader of a nation, or he is an office within a kingdom. We see that in Daniel 7-8, as he's called the little horn. Now the horn in Daniel's prophecies of the beast is a king or a kingdom. He interprets it both ways. This is a king and this is a kingdom. So it's not just necessarily one particular king. It's a succession of kings that it can be as well. And we're able to know that this kingdom from which Antichrist arises is a kingdom that comes from the Roman Empire. That's Daniel 7, 8. The little horn comes up from the fourth beast. The fourth beast breaks into 10 kingdoms. Again, going back to world history, you can learn about the 10 kingdoms that the Roman Empire broke into. This little horn comes from that. We know that the Antichrist comes from the Roman Empire and that tells us that He doesn't come from China and he doesn't come from North America or South America, but he comes from a nation that breaks off from the Roman Empire. Now, we also learn that this king or this office of a king that comes out of the Roman Empire, he speaks great words. We see that in Daniel 7, 8, or pompous words. The word means domineering in Hebrew. He's domineering as he speaks big things. He seeks control with the way that he speaks. There's claims of dominance that come from his mouth. Now, what else do we learn from Daniel? In that same chapter, we have verses 21 and 25. They teach us that Antichrist will make war against the people of God. make war against the church, and will change times, and change laws. The nations of the world will be changed under Him. And the church will be changed under Him. And this is true again, that the church will suffer persecution under this Antichrist. And we see that again in Revelation 17. So as we leave Daniel behind, we see that the Lord Jesus speaks of the one who is called the abomination of desolations standing in the holy place. That's Matthew 24. So he speaks of it as well. And then Paul picks up on that same language in 2 Thessalonians 2, 4, where he says that the Antichrist would be in the temple of God. That's important. The Antichrist claims to be a part of the visible church. The temple of God, the New Testament teaches us, is the church. that Antichrist will be among those who count themselves as part of the church. So Daniel connecting Matthew, connecting 2 Thessalonians 2. He's in the church, but there's something more we see in 2 Thessalonians 2.3. It calls him a very specific name, the son of perdition. Or the son of, what's the pew Bible has a different word? The son of perdition or the son of destruction, I think it is. And that's a title. Paul is calling our attention to somebody, isn't he? When has that phrase been used before in the Bible? It's used for Judas. It's used for an office bearer who deceives the church. An office bearer who deceives, at least from the perspective of us, deceives Christ. So we see that this man, this lawless one, is in the church, and he's someone who holds office in the church, and is attempting to deceive those who are in the church, And that connected to that deception and that office, Matthew 24, 24, and 2 Thessalonians 2, 9, tell us that he's in the church, that he's deceiving them from office, and he's going to do signs and wonders and miracles that are attempting to show the church something about who he is. This lawless one, this son of perdition, exalts himself over the church. He claims a position of authority over all others in the church. He lifts himself up to that place So we see a lot of church-related connections to the Antichrist. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2.4. This verse tells us that he shows himself to be God, or he sits in the place of God. Does that mean that he personally claims to be God? Or does that mean that he takes the authority in the church that only belongs to God? Now, as we pause and breathe for a minute, and as we're overwhelmed, maybe, you might be thinking, you know, there's more than one Antichrist, Pastor Nathan. And again, that's true. That comes in 1 John 2, verses 22 to 23, and then in the next epistle as well. But John does tell us that there are more than one Antichrist. And he says that all heresies are connected, pointing us back to that one. Their sort of heresy is in the spirit of Antichrist. These deceptive heresies are already in the church. Paul says, and John says, deceptive heresies developing and slowly opening up in the New Testament church. And if you just look and read the New Testament and ask yourself, what heresies are developing? What is the spirit of Antichrist that we see even within the New Testament church? We could talk about the influence of Greek philosophy on theology. We could talk about Judaizing that says that we're saved by law keeping and works rather than by grace. We could talk about the spirit that elevates one leader over another leader in the church. That's something already there in the early church. Oh, I'm not of Paul, I'm of so and so. Well, I'm not of him, I'm of such and such. That spirit is the spirit of Antichrist. And it's already developing in the church. These heresies are the spirit of Antichrist. But that's not where the teaching on Antichrist ends in the New Testament. Remember, Daniel saw the most prominent of prophets who speaks of Antichrist. He's used in Matthew. He's used in 2 Thessalonians. But he's also used in the book of Revelation as well. And in Revelation, we find familiar language coming from Daniel. in chapters 13, 17, 18, 19, and 20. And it's important to remember that language, that apocalyptic language, it's not something that's new. You don't read Revelation and say, well, I've never heard anything like this in the history of Christian writings. Well, it's driving you back to Daniel. It's driving you back to other prophetic literature. Revelation 13 teaches us something we've already discussed. The Antichrist is connected to both the civil magistrate as well as the church. There's a political office and there is an ecclesiastical office, both institutions there in the church. And then things get really interesting in chapter 17, when the beast and the woman, again, are persecuting the church, like Daniel 7, 21 and 25 told us. And John says, the mystery of Babylon is revealed. 17.9 even tells us the city from which the Antichrist would come. Doesn't name it, but John says the city built on seven mountains or the city built on seven hills. And then verse 18 of Revelation 17 teaches us that this antichrist will reign over the kings of the earth from this city. And then Revelation 18 tells us that the nations would live luxuriously with that city over which he reigns. And the nations will cater to this one because he's adored by the world. So that's sort of a short run through of the word of God. And again, it's a very short run through. But you see that it's a teaching that the early church brought to their people because they needed to know the enemies of the gospel. And they needed to know that when the early church would see that Roman Empire begin to collapse, that from that they ought to be looking for one who would raise himself up as a nation and raise himself up as one with authority in the church. And it's a warning. So what do we do with all this? What do we do with this collection of texts? Should we just be overwhelmed and say, you know, that is odd, Pastor Nathan. I just don't know what to do with it. So let's just stop here. It's about time to end anyway. So let's just end. Or maybe you're sitting there thinking, you know, I'm glad I didn't invite a friend today. Right? I see everybody's thinking that, I guess. Or maybe what I was thinking, you know, we are so cosmopolitan and this just seems so back hills to talk about stuff like this. And there's almost an embarrassment. But friends, it ought not to be. It ought not to be. This is a teaching that we find in the New Testament. And it's here for us. So our third heading, we'll call this the applying of Antichrist. The applying of Antichrist. Now as we think of application from this little phrase in 1 John 2.18, John says, that Antichrist is to come. How do we apply that? Well, I think first off we need to think of all the hysteria that we see around the phrase antichrist and how people often will see antichrists on every corner. Now, there's very, very clear things that we have in the Word of God that we can look to. We read through things, just really clear things. So, when someone says, oh, that person's the Antichrist, or that person's the Antichrist, we have to hold up this list and other places where the Antichrist is spoken of in the Scriptures, and say, does he fit the criteria for Antichrist? So your least favorite US president, whether it's the current one or the former one, he's not the Antichrist because he does not fit the criteria of God's word. He does not do signs and wonders. He does not have a kingdom broken from the Roman Empire. He doesn't claim to hold office in the church. He's not claiming to control the church. The Antichrist is not Antiochus Epiphanes. You may not recognize that name, or you might. Antiochus Epiphanes is a type of Antichrist who fought against the Jews and did a lot of destruction among the people of God. But he comes from the Greek Empire, not the Roman Empire. He does not fit the criteria. Some will say that Nero was the Antichrist. Nero misses out on a whole host of theological requirements. Nero, I don't know if he ever stepped foot in the church. We know for a fact that he doesn't claim to have ecclesiastical authority in the church. It's not Nero. Islam is not the Antichrist. Islam is not in the church. Islam does not have the ability to deceive people into thinking that it is genuine Christianity. If you walk down the street and you interview people on Eagle Rock Boulevard and say, is Islam true Christianity? Everyone would know that. That's a ridiculous question to even ask. Islam is not the Antichrist. The Antichrist is not some European leader, because there's this need for deep ecclesiastical connections. The Antichrist is not so much of what people think, because the Word of God sets out so many descriptions that must be filled. The Antichrist must fit the criteria. So who or what office leads a nation that was once part of the Roman Empire, who speaks great words in the church, who holds office, who exalts himself above the church, who reigns from a city on seven hills, who has for centuries made war with true believers, damning to hell those that would believe even in justification by faith alone, who shows himself to sit in the place of God, the Antichrist, Who else controls the city that is also a nation where the world lives luxuriously from her while he deceives the nations with lying, false signs and wonders and miracles. Friends, the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the document that the Reformed Presbyterian Church subscribes to, says this in Chapter 26, Paragraph 5. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ, nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalts himself in the Church against Christ and all that is called God. I'll read it one more time. There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ, nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense behead thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, that son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ in all that is called God. Friends, that is not early Presbyterianism with an ax to grind. It is an exegetically defensible statement based on clear readings of the Word of God. And to this date, there has not been a better or a more clearly seen office or person or institution that fits the description of Antichrist as well as the papacy, the office of Pope in Rome. Now, the testimony of the RPCNA comments on this section. And it declares and says that many antichrists will be present in the world throughout history. Prior to Christ's coming, the final man of lawlessness will be revealed, and he will be destroyed by Christ. And that's what John says. Many will come. But there is also that antichrist, that lawless one, that son of perdition, Again, there's no other person or agency when you line up the biblical requirements, the prophetic requirements for what must be fulfilled here for the qualifications. There's no one like the vicar of Christ. Vicar in place of ante. The one who claims to stand in the place of our Lord on earth with authority over you as Christians. So what can you do with this? I'm sure you understand that this is not and ought not to be the priority doctrine of your life. It may be something that you put in your pocket and say, I'm never opening that again. Don't make this the priority of your studies. But know that this flows out of a context in the early church. And we must understand that context and give it the weight that it deserves in the scriptures. We are to have a balanced diet of Christian teaching, preaching, and reading. Please don't make this the center of your Christian experience. For the second application, I would like to encourage you along the way to not be afraid of hard doctrines. Even ones that are a little icky. Not all things are equally clear in scripture. And if you see something in the theological standards of our church that you don't understand, even if you don't think you're going to come to that conclusion, at least do the hard work of saying, why do they believe this? The Westminster Standards are not documents that are filled with really strange cultural beliefs. The Hungarian Reformed Confession has a statement that talks about if a man in the church is unable to produce children, that he is to do the following, and then they give this bizarre list of things that he is to do. This is not that. This isn't where you look and you say, oh, isn't that cute how bound to their culture they were. because it's exegetically defensible. And I would argue that you and I are probably more bound to our culture even than they were. I've not looked forward to this all week, I promise you. I have actually, whatever the opposite of looking forward to this, that's what I've been all week. But it's okay to study hard doctrines and to figure out teaching. Thirdly, another application that flows from Daniel in second Thessalonians and the connection there. Daniel taught the church world history, didn't he? That's what Daniel does. He teaches the unfolding of kingdoms in the world. And Paul relies on that teaching of world history for his work on Antichrist. So what's the application? Don't be afraid to study history. History is the handmade to the church. You will not understand this, what we do without understanding something of history. Work through the four beasts. Ask yourself, how does this fourth beast break into 10 beasts or 10 horns? Those are all world history questions. Study world history as a handmade to the church. The fourth application. Do not be afraid to both evangelize and to love your Roman Catholic neighbors. We are not arguing that all Roman Catholics go to hell. That's not what's being argued. But at the same time, do not be afraid to evangelize and to love your Roman Catholic neighbors. In modern America, Roman Catholicism looks a lot like a high church form of Protestantism, doesn't it? It looks like Anglicanism or it looks like Lutheranism. But don't assume that what is being taught from their pulpit is the gospel. And the higher you go in the hierarchy, that assumption ought to be greater. but love them and point them to Christ. Because if the Presbyterian understanding of the Pope, and it's not just Presbyterian, historically, it's a universal Protestant understanding. If this understanding is correct, then there is leadership, high leadership that is seeking to deceive. Love them. point them to the Christ of the Bible. And finally, be encouraged. The word of God teaches us that the mouth, the word of the mouth of Jesus Christ will bring down Antichrist. The gospel will prevail throughout the whole earth. And this ought to encourage us. This ought to be where we cling This is not revealed in the New Testament as a means for us to be fearful so that we would tremble at the thought of the Pope doing this or the Pope doing that. That's not the point. The point is to be encouraged that the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel will go throughout the entire world and will bring down all who stand against it. whether they look like us or not, we are to be encouraged as we cling to Jesus Christ that the gospel will succeed, that Christ will prevail. And I call on you to cling to Jesus by faith. The one who will conquer Antichrist with the word of His mouth. Trust in this Christ who can save that which is lost. That Antichrist. The history, the character, the applying. Amen.