And we will turn to the book of 1 John 2. It's been a couple of weeks now since we've been into our study of 1 John. We did take off from this and talk about God our Father. And I've started reviewing again just that tremendous disciples' prayers. Not really the Lord's prayer. He didn't pray it. He taught us how to pray. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, in this church, in my heart, as it is in heaven. And so what a blessing that was to see that we could call him, because as little children, we know the Father. And this is what John is wanting us to realize here, is that he's not trying to make you doubt your salvation. Now, I do want to challenge people as to if they've got their salvation, but I don't wanna cause those who are little children growing in the Lord to have to doubt their salvation. And Paul, or excuse me, John here, And I keep saying Paul, I just got through with Paul in Sunday school. But John here is talking to little children. Remember what we said about little children, that they know their sins have been forgiven and that they know the Father. Why do they know the Father? Because they know the Son. I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And so if you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your personal Savior, and you have come to Him, you realize that you're a sinner, and that He was the only way to salvation, and you cried out and said, Lord, be merciful and let me be a sinner, and come into my heart and save me, then my friend, that was the moment of your birth. Now, what John is doing here is saying there's a lot of people who have given mental assent to that, but they have not really taken it into their heart. And that's why Paul says, back in Philippians, he says, work it out, make sure that you have it. One of the doctrines that I believe with all my heart is once saved, always saved. I don't have any problem with that. I don't think John teaches that. But the problem with that is that one doctrine is sending more Baptists to hell than any other doctrine. What I mean by that is the misappropriation of it. Oh, I got saved, I went to Sunday school back when I was nine years old and I went forward and got a Bible and got baptized and whatever. Well, how old are you now? 50. Well, have you been back to church? No. Well, I'll go when it's something special. Well, is that salvation? Is that discipleship? Is that being a child of God? Is that a relationship? Now, I'm not gonna get into that and judging people because there are people in this church, this church is 150 years old, it's 160 years old almost. And I meet them all the time. Oh, I used to go to that church when I was a kid. And they're not going anywhere now. And their kids haven't gone anywhere now. And unfortunately, I grew up in a generation, and I remember in my first ministry, the people that were my age, childbearing, they were having kids growing up, but I'm not going to church day four. My parents made me go to church, and I'm not gonna make my kids go to church. Now their grandkids don't know anything about the Lord, and I'm meeting men all the time that are concerned about their children that they never took to church. You know, it's sad to see that. And now all of a sudden they say, hey, listen, life is real. You know, I'm gonna meet the Lord one day and my kids are lost and on their way to hell. And are they saved? I mean, was that person saved? I'm not gonna get into it. I'm not the judge. One of the things I learned a long time ago, and the Lord showed, I would ask a pastor there, you know, you look on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And I say, yeah, that's true. And all I could do is look at the outward appearance because I'm not God. And so I can't tell you whether that person is saved or not if they're living like the devil. It's like Dale Moody met a guy, a drunk one time, walked up to him and said, hello, Mr. Moody, remember me? I'm one of your converts. And he said, you must be one of mine, not God's. You know, so there again is, I can't, I'm not gonna get into the judging of what's going on in a person's heart because I don't know. I can't judge your heart. I can judge by your works. I mean, by your fruit. I mean, I could say, if that person's not saved, boy, I'm gonna really be surprised because of what you tell me, what you profess with your mouth. And what you believe in your heart changes your life. What's saved always saved, I believe that. But what's saved always changed. You become a child of God, which means that Jesus Christ is living within you. Now, this is what John is bringing out now. As he starts, as we see now, he's gonna talk about the times in which we live. And of course, this is the last days. These are the last days. and he's going to be talking about the trials that we go through as far as the attacks on the gospel. And then he's going to be talking about the truth we know and how that we've got to stick with that truth. And so we're going to be looking at that. And pardon me, I'm going to be having to take glasses on and off all during the service because I just had cataract surgery. And I could, I could, I can't, I can't, I have to read the Bible with my glasses, but then I can't see you when I look back up. So it'll be one of those things off and on, off and on. Okay. The first John chapter, to verse 18, little children. And remember who the little children are. Back in verse 12 of chapter two, I ran into little children because your sins are forgiven, I'm forgiving you for his name's sake. So do you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your personal savior? Have you taken him and believe in his name, the Lord Jesus? There's no other name, give it under heaven, give it among men, whereby men must be saved. What name is that? And what only name? Jesus Christ. And so you know, and as a result of that, you know that your sins have been forgiven. But then down in verse 13 specifically says, in the last part of that verse, I ratted you little children because you have known the Father. So that means that you and I, as a result of knowing Jesus Christ, we have been introduced to the Father. So you and I can say our Father, which art in heaven. An unsaved person can't save that. And now they could pray it, but they don't have it. They don't have that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and his father and our father. And so we see that Christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship with a living person. I serve a risen savior. He's in the world today. I know that he is living. Whatever men may say, I see his hand of mercy. I see his, It's his care. And just the time I need him, he's always there. So if you learned, one of the ways that I know that I'm saved is God answers prayer. How about you? And so little child, I'm still a little child. I've been preaching for over 40 years and I'm still a little child. I want to come to the Lord with the faith of a child. Don't you? So little children. is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come, by which we know that in the last hour, 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 they might be manifest that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is in the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is. And he is antichrist. who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Therefore, let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us, eternal life. These things I have written unto you concerning those who try to deceive you. but the anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is truth, and is not a lie, and just as it is taught you, you will abide in him. Now, Father, we pray that you will preach the reading and the preaching of your holy word. May we realize, Lord, the great comfort that we have in knowing you, the great joy and the great promise of eternal life, the eternal riches better far than gold. We thank you, Lord, for even if there wasn't a heaven, the better life and the good life that you give to those who truly love you, the joy, the peace, the strength that you give us to live. But we thank you that there is, Lord, that this is just a down payment of better things to come. Lord, we are concerned, not only for our own selves, that we would stay right with you in a very unright world, that we would be strong on salvation, in a world that is watering down the message. May we see, Lord, and may we remain faithful in spite of those who would walk out from us because they were never with us. Oh, Lord, we pray that the light of the gospel will shine brighter and brighter, and that souls will be saved and lives changed as a result of the gospel, that simple gospel that we've known from the beginning. that it would go forth, and Lord, the same thing that you taught to Philip Bliss, the same salvation that D.L. Moody, and we can name the great men and women that have gone before us. We thank you, Lord, that one day we'll see them in heaven, because they were saved just like we were, and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Bless this time we have together now, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So we see that we're little children, I want to have the faith of a child. I want to be able to trust my Lord and know that if I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. We have stressed that, 1 John 1, 9. and that we want to have fellowship with him. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another because our fellowship is with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have a horizontal relationship and we have a vertical relationship. And John wants us to maintain that. But he says, there are people there that are gonna creep in. And this is nothing new. We'll see that the church has always had problems with the Ananiases and Sapphires. They've always had problems with the Demetriuses and the, and the Judases that have walked with other Christians and yet were not. And so he says, these are the people that I want to make sure that you can differentiate between. Not everybody who calls themselves a Christian is a Christian. Now, in politics, whenever anyone says I'm a Christian, we have to kind of leave it alone, and I do. I mean, I'm not going to say, well, I'm not going to get in there and preach to them. Now, I will if I can, but you understand that's not something politically that you're going to get into because you're going to get into religious wars. But I highly question though, many of those, about 90 percent of them that say they're Christians today. By just their fruit, by their fruits you shall know them. But Christianity, the name is very superficial. but the depth of it and the destiny and the results of Christianity are eternal. And so he says, these times we're in. Now, the word, the King James has time, the last time. Actually, the word is hora, the word we get hour from. And this is a word that is, the idea, John is right now in the middle of the Neronian persecutions. Remember later on, he's gonna be, He's going to be boiled in oil, as tradition says, and then exiled to the Isle of Patinovus. And so this is during this time. And so the hours come of great persecution on the earth for Christians. This is their hour. And it's a time of crisis. And he uses this term much like Winston Churchill used it when he said, though, of course, when the Germans were bombing England and England was standing alone, he said, even if England lives another thousand years, men will still say, this was our finest hour. That was a tremendous speech, but he gets that idea of hour from the Bible. It's the idea of the hour of crisis, the hour that this was the time that we passed the test. And so, of course, the Battle of Britain lasted for over a year. And then, of course, the whole war lasted six years. So he's talking about that tower crisis, that time span where you're really going through some troubles. He says, as far as he knew, this was going to be the end because they were already taking people to Rome and throwing them to the Lance. And so he says, this is our hour. And as far as he knew, this is the final hour. Just like we think if the United States falls, you know, the rapture's got to come before then. I hope it does. But then again, no guarantee. And so he says, you have heard that the Antichrist is coming. Anybody hear that the Antichrist is coming? It's kind of interesting that the world knows that the Antichrist is coming. And we see that the Lord says, be also ready for such an hour as you think not. The Son of Man comes, but we know that the Antichrist is gonna come also. We know that the church, what are we looking for? What's the next thing that we're looking for with the church? What's the next thing that as far as we know, God has a circle on his calendar up there in heaven. And he says, no man knows the time or the seasons, but there's a time that the Lord Jesus is coming back. And of course, we call that the rapture, when the church is gonna be taken out of the world. And we know that that, according to 2 Timothy, or 2 Thessalonians, that that's when the man of sin is gonna be revealed. And this is the only part of the Bible, or the only phrase that John is the only one that uses the term antichrist. He uses it three times in the book of 1 John here in this passage we read, and he uses it again in 2 John. Now, Paul calls him the man of sin. John later on in the book of Revelation calls him the beast. And of course that beast has a number, and what is it? 666. It's interesting, I keep hearing that from these people that are not Bible believers, they're Bible rejecters. And they'll talk about 666, and they'll get into mocking it and so forth, and use it as a symbol for witchcraft or whatever else. It's kind of interesting how that number is there. And yet we know it's going to be a number that we see how easy it's going to be. All you got to do is attach it and put it, embed it in your forearm or your hand and you could go out to Walmart and slap that with your credit card number up against and just scan it and you don't even have to have a credit card anymore. We're there, aren't we? Just about. In fact, I quit using a certain bank because now they've gone into records of people and if they don't like your political interest or if they don't like your stand on certain issues, they will cancel your card. There was a lady that, her husband, she went down to Florida and the credit, Chase Company, I don't use Chase anymore, but they found out that she had certain political leanings. Not all of them that I agree with, but they didn't, but Chase didn't like them. And so right there on her, before she could get back home, she only had one credit card and they canceled it on her. I mean, if they could do that then, just imagine what they gotta do is adding 666 to it. And all of a sudden you can't buy or sell. Isn't that exciting? We're living in that day. Scares me to death, but it's exciting, isn't it? It's one of the, so we don't know the hour. I mean, I'm scared to death, but yet I know I read the last passage. I just don't know how I'm gonna get there, right? Now I know where I'm going. but I'm not sure what God's gonna lead me through before I get there. So I know I'm in the last days and so do you, right? And so it's exciting and scary at the same time. I can see as in days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. And what were the days of Noah? Every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually. Are we not living in that world today? I mean, people just can't think straight. And it's not that they don't believe something. If you don't believe the truth, you'll believe anything. And the world is believing about everything. Who would ever thought that people could think that they had a choice of their gender? And we're talking about, the thing that scares me, it's not these poor little children that are getting all this misinformation, but their parents are teaching it. Their parents are taking them to the drag queen things, shows and all this stuff. And you're going, Lord, here I am praying for the children. And we got a whole generation of people that are living in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the days of Noah. And so I'm saying, Lord, even so, Lord, protect our children, come soon. And yet I don't want to leave. Someone has said, as a preacher, you got to be willing to be. be able to pray, preach, or die in an instant. Well, I think I've learned how to pray and how to preach in an instant, but I'm not so sure about that last one. But we all are like that, right? But boy, it's exciting to see what God's doing and how the Russia's rising up and Iran and Persia and all that's all getting together and how they're all coming against Jerusalem and they're building the, they got the materials to build a temple. Isn't that great stuff? Boy, just read the rest of the stuff around there. And it's downright scary. But this is what John is looking at. He's saying, you know, God says he's coming and we're gonna, they that walk godly in Christ Jesus are gonna suffer persecution. And as far as he knew, Nero was the antichrist. And so he was, he said, we're living in the last hour, folks. And even in this last hour, he says that the Lord told us that there are gonna be many false Christ. Now there's a difference between the word pseudo Christ, which the Lord said, and antichrist, which John uses. And there is a little key word before the antichrist. Whenever there's Greek and there's the before it, that's the one and only. there is the Antichrist, capital A. And then there's Antichrists, which are little a. So, and he says, the Antichrist is coming. And he will be revealed in the last days. John probably thought he was Nero. People thought him as Hitler. Some people thought him as Henry Kissinger. Some saw that the mark on the head of Gorbachev and thought he was the, you know, everybody thinks that they know who the Antichrist is. Folks, if anybody tells you that they know who the Antichrist is, you can write them off because God says he will not, no one will know until he reveals him. after the church is taken to heaven. So I'm not worried about the antichrist. Well, it might be somebody in our government. It could be. But I'm not going to start drawing comparisons other than saying it could be a lot of different people. But I'm not worried about the antichrist. Well, I am. I'm worried about him coming because I want to see people escape him and go to heaven with me. But the antichrist, I'm not gonna know in my lifetime here on earth. Because the Bible tells us that we will, which remain in Christ Jesus, will be caught up together with them in the clouds. That's gonna be the end of the church age. And that's when God is gonna let that man of sin that Paul talks about in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, will be revealed. And that's when he's gonna be turned loose on the earth with no constraining power of the Holy Spirit. And that's when those, except those days be shortened, no flesh will be saved. So I don't think the world can really survive more than about seven years without the Lord's protection. Do you? They'd fall apart. Well, the Lord's gonna give him that hour, Satan an hour, to do some wicked work. So we see that, we know that he's gonna be revealed. But we know that he tells us, but in these last days, perilous times are gonna come. Or this last hour, these last days, perilous times will come, Paul tells Timothy. And Paul, in his letters to Timothy, those pastoral epistles, he repeatedly tells Timothy to be ready for his coming. and he describes what's gonna be happening in the churches and in the world in these last days. And he tells Timothy, and he gives Timothy one of those promises that I don't like. There are certain promises in the Bible that I love, but there's a couple of them I don't like. And one of them is, they who walk godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. That's not a good one, is it? But it tells me I'm gonna know you by your friends as well as by your enemies. I know that I passed from death in life because I love the brethren, but I also know that there are people that don't like me because I passed from death into life. Because if I walk godly in Christ Jesus, the devil's crowd and the devil himself hates anybody who represents God, does he not? And so, yes, we're gonna suffer persecution. Perilous times are gonna come. Evil men are gonna wax worse and worse. And so we've seen that. We've seen the ebb and flow of history all through the church age. And every time that there's another crisis that comes out, it looks like it's gonna wipe out the church, God does something else just to show that he's still on the throne. So there's many antichrists, but he says, and you know, and you've heard that he's coming. and he's called the beast, but also there are antichrists, little a. There's a lot of little antichrists around. And he's gonna have to define that. That's what he's gonna do here. He's gonna define who the anti, those who are truly against Christ. And the most dangerous of the antichrist are those who are within the church. You know, truth plus error is always the most dangerous form of error. If the devil can get us going and liking something, or they could say, hey, listen, we're with you, I believe this, I believe this, I believe this, but then put a little twist in it to throw you off, then truth plus error will always lead you into error. And so he is saying, be careful of those who come as wolves in sheep's clothing. He says, even now, many antichrists have come, as we see in verse 18, the last part of that. How do we know them? Because they're not with us anymore. He says, they went out from us. Notice they were with us, but they were not of us. Because they were made manifest by their fruits, you shall know them. The word manifest means they were made obvious. They were made visible. And so they were revealed. He says, first of all, they failed. And remember those three tests you'll see all through the epistle. He says, first of all, they failed the doctrinal test. And that doctrinal test is the Lord Jesus Christ. Is he God? Is Jesus Christ God, folks? Is he? Now, if you have a problem with Jesus Christ being God, then you're off base in the first place, and you better check on your salvation. Because he's the Holy One of Israel. He's the Holy One of the church. He is the living way. He is God. Remember, Thomas fell down and worshiped him and said, what? My Lord and my God. So is Jesus Christ God? So first of all, you must pass the doctrine of test. And there are those who say, yeah, Jesus Christ is a God. And notice they throw a little thing in there. For instance, the Mormons will tell you that, you know, Jesus Christ came to earth and he became a God. And as a result of that, he's in heaven today and he's the son of God because of what he did on earth. But if we go to heaven and we could keep promoting ourselves till we become like Jesus Christ. And I don't know how they throw the women in there, but if I married 10 women, I could take them. But the women, their salvation is dependent on their husbands being close to God. I don't know why any woman would want to be a Mormon. I mean, you really get into it. I don't understand why a woman would want to be Islamic. Oh, we're from Allah. Allah is the word for God and all the rest. So, but then what woman would, I mean, I'm talking to you ladies today, but why would you want to be one of 13 women that has to have a man to get you close to God? So do you see how the, oh, but they're using the same term, Allah, and they would say, yeah, that is a term that is used in the Old Testament for God. So what have they done? They've taken one of God's names and perverted it. And of course, Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I knew him from the beginning. I'm not a Latter-day Saint. I knew him from the beginning means from the day of creation. Jesus Christ was God before creation. From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. In the beginning, God created heavens and earth. So God was there right at creation. I've known him in only the beginning, that beginning, but I also knew him from my beginning. The moment I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior, he became my Lord and he hasn't changed. And so you can look at that beginning any way you want to, but the main thing is that you were saved and it never changes, the point of salvation. So if you've known him from the beginning, he's your father. And so he says, there are many, but there are many antichrists out there that they went out from us and they were not of us. If they'd been with us, they would still believe like we do. Remember, we just went through and sang all the songs of Philip, not the song we sang. Every song we sang this morning was from Philip Bliss. I'm looking forward to seeing Philip Bliss in heaven. He died in 1876, almost 150 years ago. But he served the same God I did. Isn't that great? We sing his songs. We're just saying, hallelujah, what a savior. I mean, he's the same savior that was Philip Bliss. I mean, he hasn't changed. And Philip Bliss will be in heaven the same way that I will be in heaven through the blood of Jesus Christ. And so he never changed. There's only one way of salvation, and there's no other name given under heaven, given among men, whereby men must be saved, but in the name of Jesus Christ. Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came. And so we see that that truth is never changes, but there are people that want to add to it, take away from it. There are people that say, you know, God wants you to be free. He wants you to be happy. So just live the way you want to. And God loves you anyway. Remember what we said, there's two tests. There's the doctrinal test, there's the obedience test. When you accept Jesus Christ as Lord, he's expecting something from you. Because when you say, I love you, Lord, love has some consequences, doesn't it? We said relationships have consequences. If I love my wife, we've talked about that and use that repeatedly because that's what the Bible uses as a church. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church. So can I expect something from God because he loves me? But can he expect something from me because I love him? And so if I love him, I will keep his commandments. And so he has sent someone along who is my paraclete, my helper. He said he's gonna send that helper along to help me know him better. And he's gonna comfort me and protect me. And that word comfort carries all the thoughts, strength, comfort, you name it, protection. But he's also gonna convict me. So the Holy Spirit is my comforter and he's my convictor. He's gonna convict the world of sin. And that means he's gonna convict me. And so the Holy Spirit lives within my heart. But what is he gonna convict me of? What is the standard? The standard is the word of God. And so if he's gonna convict me of sin, there's got to be something that he's gonna be telling me that I'm right from wrong, that's right from wrong. Well, you don't have to believe the Bible, because that was written for people years ago, and we got to reinterpret the Bible. No, we've just got to get in there and restudy it. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't change things as far as the aesthetics. How many of you rode to church on a camel today or on a donkey? I mean, things change in 2,000 years, don't they? I mean, how many didn't have air conditioning in their car today? Wasn't that good to have air conditioning even at nine o'clock in the morning or 10 o'clock in the morning? I mean, this church back in the 1870s, and I still wonder, they rode to church and they had big stables out back for people to come to church. What did they do with 200 people down where the bank is now, downtown Belvedere? And what I get into in the building and everything, they didn't have running water, they didn't have electric lights, and they didn't have plumbing. Can you imagine not having plumbing? I mean, I had a minor crisis last night. We had a problem with one of our restrooms back here. I had a big out of order sign. I'm thinking, oh no, we've got all kinds of problems. Back then, they didn't have restrooms like we got all over the building. Aren't you glad we have them? Does that change the way that we believe? No, it changes a little bit the way we act, but it doesn't change a whole lot of what we believe, does it? I hope that I'll see a lot of those people. I want to see that man named Lincoln, not Abraham, it wasn't kin to him, but he and his wife who helped start this church. I want to see them in heaven, don't you? Because they served the same God I did. And so I want to see some of those other people that's on the church rolls. As we talked about Horatio Spafford. Little did he know when he asked Philip Bliss to write that the word or the music to the words of It Is Well With My Soul that Philip Bliss would be dying within a year. and seeing his children around, and so would see Spafford's children in heaven before he would, and so before Spafford would. So it's interesting how that, but folks, isn't it great to have all those hopes? But as a result of that, God doesn't change, but these people, you can know them by their fruits. They change their lives. Things are different now because Jesus lives within my heart. And so it's a test of obedience. And we've seen that. And we can go through and read through the book of 1 John. How many times does he say, he that disobeys the Lord is a liar. I mean, those who just say, I don't have to trust God. Well, you better go back and see who the Lord is. Because you said, King of my life, I crown thee now. Thine shall the glory be. So you've submitted yourself to him if you're a Christian. And so we see it's the test of obedience. And then, of course, it's the test of fellowship. And this is the one that really concerns me. So many people I meet today. I'm not going back to church anymore because of the experiences I had. And there's been a lot of credence to that. I could tell you a few of my own nightmares or struggles. We could all see them. But in the end, we see that there is, as a Christian, there's gonna be a natural desire to be around other Christians. And so we see that great, you know, that fellowship, the test of fellowship. And of course, we see that our Savior, of course, Paul called them all kinds of things, but he said there's gonna be all kinds of people out there. Paul calls them salvage wolves. The Lord calls them ravenous wolves and wolves in sheep's clothing. There can be all kinds of people out there saying, you know, you really, it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe something. In fact, unfortunately, I heard a man that I really liked on the radio, but he had a man on there that talked about faith. And he was talking to, it was one of these inspirational, motivational speeches. He said, you just gotta faith, faith in yourself, faith in faith. I'm going, faith in who? Faith as of an object. And he just kept on going. And folks, if we don't give a person, if we don't introduce them to the reason for our faith, then we're not introducing them to our savior, are we? But unfortunately, there's a lot of wolves out there and a lot of predominant, very prominent wolves in the world. In fact, there is one man and this man could have been a Baptist. There's a lot of Baptist denominations that could have said the same thing here. But there was a man that just a few years ago was in a world conference I think the National World Council of Churches, one world government and all that kind of stuff. But he said, the pastor, he said, we started to commodify the gospel as if we owned it. In other words, we're the only ones that owned it. And he mocked all the missionaries of the 1700s, 1800s, 1900s. He mocked the whole idea of going out and preaching only Jesus. that we should start learning how to bring people in culturally into the love of God. And then he said, at this point, the gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached to all the corners of the world, so knock it off. Once the evangelical notion of the church can be turned down for a moment, the wisdom of other faiths can finally speak. So folks, we don't have all the truth. There's other people that we must bring into our church to help us. People that can teach us their wisdom. I mean, there's a lot to learn about karma and psychology of Confucius or whatever else. And so we need to bring these things in because we need to compare what we believe and see that there's a lot of wisdom out there from all kinds of religions. You say, well, that's heresy. Yeah, it's bad thing about it. It's heresy, but it comes from the top officials of the Presbyterian Church of USS. I'm not, the Presbyterian Church here in town is not one of those, but you know, there's different denominations. but this is one of the prominent major denominations. I could name a couple of Baptist churches, American Baptist and others that have had the same problem. Just let's all include, hey, listen, we are making enemies needlessly by saying we have the only way to salvation and that's through Jesus Christ. Folks, do we have the only way of salvation? We're not any better, but what does God say? What does Paul say? The Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Yes, he is the only way. I am the way, the truth, the life. So whenever we start including people in, guess what? These denominations have started including all this stuff in, and guess what else they have included? All the sins of the world are coming into our churches today. And someone has said, well, the church, excuse me, the church, how does it go? The world, when you're invited into the church, does it become more churchly? But when the world comes into the church, the church becomes more worldly. And of course, you get to the point where the line and the sand has been erased, and you can't tell truth from error. And this is what Paul or John here is saying. These are the antichrists. These are the people that are watering down and destroying the gospel. From what this man has preached on this, and even though he's a reverend doctor, his name is Randall Bush. He's a doctor and he's probably from one of the great seminaries of our country, a PhD and all the rest. But my friend, based on what he says, he's on his way to hell. because he went out from us, but he was not of us. And so we see that we're living in these days and we must make sure that we keep the gospel clear and plain. Sing it over and over again to me, wonderful words of life, make it clear and plain. And so we see very quickly then, we see the error, we see the trials that we're in as far as the truth, where you see the times we're in, but also let's, now notice he goes back to the truth you know. Just stick to the truth. Anybody who goes off from this, you can know they're wrong. And so notice he says in verse 20, he says, but you have the anointing. Now, the King James has unction. It's the only time in the Bible it's used. And the word anointing, as far as Christians is concerned, is only used again three times in the whole New Testament as far as the anointing. Christians are believer priests. That means that whenever we became Christians and we can go directly to the throne of heaven, remember what the priest had to do to go through in order for him to be able to go before the throne of grace, the mercy seat? He had to be washed. He had to be anointed with oil. which was a symbol of the Holy Spirit. He had to have blood sprinkled, which is a picture of the removal of sin. That was the anointing. I mean, he had to go through all that before he can go before the throne of grace. Folks, our sins now have been washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. Sprinkles now the throne of grace, as Wesley says. We have been washed by the water of the word. We have been, of course, baptized. We have been immersed by the Holy Spirit. We have been anointed with his oil. We have received Jesus Christ as our Savior. And now we are believers and we have access to God the Father, which makes us priests. We are a royal priesthood. Isn't it great that we are all that? So if you are a Christian, you have Jesus Christ living within you, because he says, if anyone listens to me and keeps my word, in other words, accepts my word as what God tells us, then my father will love him also, and we will come and make our home with him. Oh, what a salvation this, Christ liveth in me. We sing that song. Why, you ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. What's saved always changed. And the Holy Spirit comes in, and the Holy Spirit, and who knows Jesus Christ comes in. And God the Father comes in. You've got the Trinity living within your heart. In what fellowship of Christ with Belial? So one of the first things he's gonna start doing in your life if you're genuinely saved is start scrubbing. Isn't he? He cleanses us from all our sins. So he's gonna start working on me. He which hath begun a good work in me will perform it until I see him face to face. Philippians 1.6. And so, and then you too, because he's not through with me yet. I'm not what I want to be, but I praise God I'm not what I used to be because there's spiritual growth. And I won't be totally what I want to be until I see him face to face. And then it'll be forever. But we see that we are anointed. Notice we received that anointing from the Holy One. So from priest to priest, and who's our high priest? Jesus Christ is our prophet, priest, and king, is he not? So I've been anointed by the Holy One. He has washed me, he has empowered me, he has cleansed me, and now I can go before his Father's throne. And he'll go with me, he's my advocate, remember? He'll even tell me how to get there and even pray for me. Hey, listen, you know, don't you just glad you have a friend that's closer than a brother? He's your brother. He's better than the Marine Corps drill sergeant. Whenever you walk in there and they start saying, all right, I'm your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, and all that kind of stuff. And whenever I say jump, you ask how high all the way up and all those different terms. Well, no, Jesus is your mother, your father, he's everything you need, right? He's everything to me. And so, and the one thing he says now is that the more you get to know him and dwell in him, the more that you'll find that that's true. And so the more that you'll stick with the truth, get rid of all these Pharisees and all these antichrists out there, and just stick with the truth and get into his word, be filled with the word. And he goes, and he's gonna use the word dwell. Several times now in the passage, and we're just, time is fleeting, but it says, therefore abide in you. Let that abide in you in verse 24. And he's going to tell us, as we abide in him and he in us, then we're going to start learning how he thinks. We're going to start learning what he does. We're going to learn that he walks with us and talks with us as he tells, he communicates with us. Because after all, we have fellowship with one another, but also our fellowship is with our Savior, isn't it? And the more we get to know him, the less we're going to need anybody. And then when he says that you don't need to be taught of anything or anyone to teach you, he's saying that, I hope that no one can trick you and make you believe that you need something more than what you've got for salvation. I hope no one could come along. I hope that the word of God that being preached from this church is so strong and that you are so confident in your salvation that when someone comes along and says, no, you gotta add this to your faith, or if you really haven't had this experience, or if you don't know this, or you don't know that, then you really might not be saved. I hope you don't have any problem with that. That's one of the things that God had to lead me through. There's a lot of relatives that today they don't believe I'm saved because I don't believe exactly the way they do about certain things. If I'm not a member of their church or whatever. And I just say, I don't have to worry about it anymore. I've got the word of God teaching me. Isn't that what we want? We got people in the church right here. I've talked to some of your relatives. They think you're wrong because you don't go to their church anymore. Well, I hope their church preaches the gospel, but I hope that what you got here is what you need, and that you're confident that nobody else has to tell you anything except what the Bible tells you, and that you've discerned enough to know when people are telling you the error, and you could run away from them in a heartbeat. So I don't need anybody else to teach me the way of salvation. I know whom I believe. And I'm convinced that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him. And I want you to know that. And nobody else needs to teach you that if you know it. Amen? Do you know it? Can you say amen? Do you know the Lord is your savior? then you've got, like I used to tell my eighth graders, a grammar school. Why do they call it grammar school? Because after grammar school, there's nothing else to learn about grammar. By the time you get into nouns, pronouns, and participles, and gerunds, and monopoia, and metonymy, and a few other things that you say, what are all those? We all forget them, but you don't learn any more about grammar than that. You do learn a little bit later on about how to put it all together, but once you learn it, then you have the tools to do whatever you want to do with it. Well, folks, I want you to know everything about salvation, and then God can start taking it and using us in a message to a lost and dying world. Amen? Do you know it? Do you know the Lord is your savior? You don't need anyone else to teach you. You don't need the preacher to teach you. Does the Jesus Christ live within your heart? And if you do, you got it, folks. But make sure you got it. Because if you do, then you're gonna love the word, you're gonna love people, and you're gonna love his commandments, even though sometimes you don't do them, but you know that you have a way back to him and to fellowship, because he knows you're imperfect. but yet he loves you. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We thank you that we can know, we can know that we can call you father because we are your children. We can know that we have eternal life. We can know that you are the way and that you will lead us in the path of righteousness for your name's sake. And so Lord, may we have that confidence of our salvation. May we have the confidence that we can go to you in prayer, access to the very throne of heaven. And no matter what happens here on earth, we realize that there's a ruler of heaven and earth that knows all about our struggles even before we get there, before we go to you. So Lord, we pray your blessings upon us. May we realize what a great savior we have. But oh Lord, may we want others to have what we have. May your kingdom come. We want to see others go to heaven with us. We want to have fellowship with a lot of people because truly our fellowship is with you. Bless, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.