We are reading again from 1 John, this time chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. This will be the fourth message in this little epistle. We have entitled this message, True Christians Avoid the Love of the World, Reject False Teachers, and They Abide in the Truth. Join in with the reading of God's word. Ready? Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof. But he that does the will of God abides forever." Little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that 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 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 denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. Whosoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father. But he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him." You may be seated. We ask again that you keep your scriptures open, as we will be making several references to them. basing our exposition upon the statements found in these scriptures. John has carefully exposed the false teachers by testing their claims with that of apostolic Christianity. The false teachers had once been a part of the Christian community known as the Church. And John has tested their theological beliefs, found them to be false. He's tested their moral behavior, found it to be inadequate. He's tested their social life of love and found it to be lacking. And he has concluded that they were not Christians and were still in the realm of darkness. Now, while exposing the apostates, John was careful not to question the spiritual status of his readers. He believed that they had experienced the forgiveness of sin, that they possessed an intimate knowledge of God, and that through the Word they possessed the strength to overcome the wiles of the wicked one. They had fellowship with God and they loved their fellow Christians. This is much commendable that John is making of his readers. Now let's look at starting in this section with verses 15 through 17. that true Christians avoid the love of the world. I found this section extremely profitable, and particularly from my background in a circle in which that worldliness was defined in a far different way than I think what John would understand it to be. So I profited from this. I hope that we can communicate something of that to you this afternoon. Now, John, as a good pastor, changes the topic as well as the mood now. The topic that he is addressing now is no longer assurance but a warning. The mood is that of command and duty, and there is a place for that in the Christian community. Duty is something that characterizes biblical Christianity. It's expressed in the words, Love not the world. That's in the imperative mode. Love not the world. It's a command. Neither the things that are in the world. And he gives two reasons for not loving the world. One, that love for the world and love for the Father cannot coexist. And two, love invested in the world will not last since the world is what? passing away. This temporal world is leaving us, and you're leaving it. If you invest all your life in temporal things, it's going to be in vain, for it's passing away. Two words are important if we are to understand this portion of Scripture. They are world and love. Now, John used the word world more than all. all of the other New Testament writers combined. The word world appears 185 times in the New Testament, of which 105 occur in the writings of John, 78 times in his gospel, 24 times in his letters, and 3 times in the book of Revelation. But John uses it with a variety of meanings. and often moves from one meaning to the next without explaining his meaning. And it's the role of the Bible interpreter to examine the context to discover the meaning of the word world. In other words, you can't just take the word world and see how it's meant one way here and say that's the way it will be meant everywhere in the Scripture. The Greek word for world is kosmos. The general meaning of that is an orderly arrangement, an organization. It's translated over in 1 Peter 3.3 with the English word adornment, and there it refers to a woman's clothing arrangement. Try to get that in your mind. Translated, world, her clothing arrangement. The word has seven or eight different meanings of which we will only refer to four for time's sake. Sometimes the word world or cosmos means the physical universe or the planet itself. In Acts 17.27, God that made the world and all things therein. It also is used to describe the human world of mankind. John 3.16, For God so loved the world. There, it's mankind. It's used in reference to this present temporal life. In John 9.5, Jesus said, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. In other words, it's descriptive of just the length of time that you're allotted here in this present life. Turn over with me to the gospel of John chapter 1 and verse 10, and in this one verse here, John uses the word world in three different ways and doesn't stop to explain the distinction. John 1 verse 10. He was in the world, temporal life. And the world was made by him, the universe. And the world knew him not, fallen, sinful humanity. In one short sentence, three different usages of the word world with three different meanings. And John doesn't stop. to make any distinction. So it is the role of the Bible interpreter to try to seek what is meant by each usage of the word, world. John's use of the word here in 1 John 2.17 is in an entirely different sense than the three that we just alluded to. In this text, it refers to Satan's organized system of opposing Christ's kingdom work here on earth. Love not the world or the things that are in the world. It is the very opposite of what is holy, spiritual, and godly. John clearly defines his usage of the word over in 1 John 5.19. Would you flip over there? where he makes this statement, and we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. See, it is the whole organized system headed up under the power of Satan. Jesus calls Satan the prince of this world. John 12.31. Unsaved people belong to this world. Jesus called them in Luke 16.8, the children of this world. And these unsaved people, unregenerate, whether they realize it or not, are energized by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," Ephesians 2. So just as the Holy Spirit uses people to promote the kingdom of Christ, Satan uses people to promote his kingdom. And Christ's kingdom is built upon humility and servitude to God's while Satan's kingdom is built upon pride and dominion in the exercise of one's own self-will. And the kingdoms of this world are built upon achieving authority over others. Look at our economic world of competition. McDonald's, Burger King, all of these are in it to be the number one, to out-compete the competitors. Jesus said over in Mark 10, verse 42, You know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones, that is, their rulers, exercise authority upon them. And then he went on to explain, But it will not be such in my kingdom. all of the kingdoms of this world are organized upon and under the control of Satan and his kingdom. Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness by offering him, quote, all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, unquote. Matthew 4, 8. It has been debated among Bible teachers. How could Satan offer something that wasn't his? Well, he does have something. He does have a kingdom, very real. It's a fallen, worldly, evil kingdom. And every kingdom in this world, every person in that kingdom that's unregenerate is under the power of this worldly system. Now, a Christian is a member of the human world. And we live in the physical world, but we do not belong to the spiritual world that is Satan's system for opposing God. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Jesus said in John 15, 18, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. See, humility and servitude is what he came teaching, and the world is looking for dominance in its pride. Jesus' message and his person is hated, or it's opposed by the satanic empire. In our everyday conversation, we use the word world in the sense of a system. Have you ever heard the TV announcer come on? We now turn to the world of sports. You heard that? What does he mean, he or she mean? Isn't it amazing that we hear things and we don't even stop and question what we mean by them? Now you know what it meant, but could you define it? He or she is not talking about some separate planet out here. But they are referring to an organized system made up of people in the world of sports, ideas in the world of sports, activities in the world of sports, plans that are made, scheduling of events in the world of sports. The world of sports is an invisible system which keeps things going. What makes it operate? In John's thinking, then, the world is the invisible spiritual system opposed to God and Christ. The second word in our text which needs to be understood is the word love. Love not the world. The word is agape. It's the same word that's used back in chapter 2 and verse 10. Look at that text. We looked at it in the last message. He that loveth his brother abideth in the lie. It's a word there that is used in reference to loving the brethren. But here in verse 15, it must mean something different than what it does in verse 10. Why so? Because in verse 10 we are to love, and in verse 15 we are to love not. But it's the same word, agape. So we've got to do some work here. How do we understand these expressions, love and love not? We can do so in distinguishing the two ways in which that we give meaning to love. In verse 10, love your brother, it refers to loving other people. And there it signifies an outgoing care and compassion. I think we can all grasp that, can we not? It's a concern for another person or another thing, another object. It's a giving. But meanwhile, here in verse 15, love is viewed as the pleasure which the person hopes to be received from the object of their love. to love in the sense of verse 15 is to be attracted to someone or something so as to enjoy it. For example, I love ice cream. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that I'm going to give myself and make sure that that ice cream is going to have its Most tender loving care. No. When I say I love ice cream, I mean I love it for what it will do for me. It will give me pleasure. So there is a sense in which we use the word love, agape, to give of ourselves, and there is another sense in which we use the word love, agape, to receive a benefit for ourselves. love, love not. Before I proceed on, it should, though, be emphasized that the desire for pleasure and self-gratification is not, I repeat, is not necessarily selfish and wrong. We are created by God with appetites and desires which need to be satisfied. And the satisfying of them produces pleasure. You drink a glass of cold water on a hot summer day and that appetite, that thirst that God put in there is satisfied and it gives you pleasure. That is not sinful because you are not enjoying it. You are fulfilling and satisfying a pleasure or an appetite that God has created. So not all self-gratification is sinful. In fact, God himself received pleasure when he looked upon his creation and saw that it was, those of you who have been in our Bible study, it was good. It was good. Every day it was good. It was good. We are also told in 1 Timothy 6.18 to trust in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. God has given us that. However, a desire can be sinful and evil if it violates a precept of God's word. The bed is undefiled, but adulterers and what, whoremongers, God will judge. God defines the perimeters of these desires and how they are to be utilized. So from this, in John's sense, to love the world is to love what is opposed to God by definition. And love for the world and love for the Father are incompatible and cannot coexist. You cannot love God and the devil at the same time. If you love what God stands for, you can't love what the devil stands for. I've made a statement several times in one of my former churches where I pastored. We had people there. Bless their heart, they'd been in the church for thirty years. And I sincerely believe this, that Jesus could preach on Sunday morning, and the devil could preach on Sunday night, and they wouldn't know any difference. I really believe that. No discernment whatsoever, just so long as you opened up with the Bible. Remember, the devil used the Bible in the wilderness. So just because you use the Bible doesn't mean that you are of God's kingdom or that you're promoting the kingdom of God. To put this in the words of James 4.4, Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. Say, John's a black and white fellow. You're either on this side over here or on this side of the aisle, but you can't sit in the middle of the aisle with John. You're here or here. That's why, as we have had in our question and answers and in the books that I read and my own questions, that's why Bible teachers struggle with this, because John does not seem to fit into some of our doctrines. The doctrine of the carnal Christian, for example, doesn't fit in with John. And the deeper Christian life doesn't fit in with John, even though men try to bend it and make his statements fit in. It just won't fit. Now in verse 16, look at it. John lists three ingredients which drive, it's the gas in the gas tank, which drive this worldly outlook for self-gratification, and it's what keeps it going. It's the fuel supply. He lists them as, one, the lust of the flesh, two, the lust of the eyes, and three, the pride of life. If you recall, these are the same three ingredients to which Eve was exposed in the Garden of Eden. when Satan introduced his kingdom to her. And they're the same three ingredients which Satan used to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. In Matthew chapter 4, Paul says we're not ignorant of Satan's devices. He doesn't have to come up with new He just used the same old fuel over and over to every generation that comes on the scene. You drop a match in this fuel, and you'll get self-gratification. It'll explode. Now, to what do these refer, these three things? In my past, if it was asked, what is a worldly person, and the preacher preached announce in the morning message, come back, I'm going to preach on worldliness tonight. I'm going to preach on a worldly Christian, which is a contradiction, an oxymoron. A worldly Christlike person? Think of it. So in the past, Christians have compiled lists not to do of things not to do in order to avoid becoming worldly. These have included such things as don't go to the movies, don't dance, don't smoke or drink alcoholic beverages, don't play cards, don't listen to secular music, don't let your hair grow long if you're a man, and don't cut your hair, wear makeup or jewelry if you're a woman. Summary, as a man, I don't smoke and I don't chew and I don't go with girls that do. That was a proud statement of a godly Christian man. Now, these actions may or may not be wise to participate in. But now hear me, they do not get to the root of the worldliness. You can continually chop them off by participating in these activities or not, but you'll never get to the root to get it out of the ground. While the fruit of worldliness is manifested in our actions, the root of it exists in the attitudes of our heart. And John lists three dominant attitudes. which drive, which put this thing in gear, or energize the worldly-minded person. Now remember, the world is the system of living based on self-gratification. With that to go on, John now gives the first of three human desires or attitudes flowing of the root of man's selfish, fallen nature. He calls the first one the lust of the flesh. In this context, flesh does not refer to the human body, but to the entire moral nature of man separated from and opposed to God. So when you read about the flesh in the Bible Don't think that ever context is referring to the physical body. Here it refers to the fallenness of the old man, our moral nature which we inherited from Adam. There are sins of the flesh and there are sins of the spirit, the attitudes. The lust of the flesh is an attitude which seeks independence of God through the means of self-sufficiency. Say it again. The lust of the flesh is an attitude which seeks to be independent of God's control through the means of becoming self-sufficient or in self-control. Now, all of you can relate to that. Take something away from you where that you can no longer control the scene and you'll see how fleshly you are. And I don't want to put that into you. I say that is we. That is us. Adam. It's a desire to be in control of one's life and one's plans so that one's own way is always coming to pass. It can be expressed in what I have coined in this way, the attitude of getting my own way. The lust of the flesh says, I want to get my own way so I can gratify my nature. Now, the second human desire is described as the lust of the eyes. Now, this is an attitude which originates in the mind. When we talk about the lust of the eyes, we're not just talking about the physical eyes, because blind people can commit this sin. Our eyes enable us to see, but we also see with our understanding. Do you see it? Do you understand it? The lust of the eyes, then. is an attitude in my mind or my understanding which sees certain goals or objects as being necessary or desirable to accomplish my own way. If I want my way, how am I going to get my way? Well, there's something I need. I've got to have it. And it can be summarized in the expression of getting everything I want. The lust of the flesh, getting my own way. The lust of the eyes, getting everything I want to enable me to get my own way. Gain power, Brother The third human desire is expressed as being the pride of life. I found this interesting. The word life here refers to things that are used to support life, namely possessions. And the word pride is a reference to boasting, particularly a braggart. Now you put those two words together, the pride of life, and they describe a braggart who exaggerates what they are and what they possess in order to impress others. Of course, you and I never do that. It can be expressed in the attitude of exalting my reputation above others. I'm a better football player. I'm a better golfer. I'm a better fisherman. I'm a better American. And I can prove it by how many automobiles and how big a house I have and the clothes that I wear. And I enhance my reputation in the eyes of others to where others always are having to look up to my exalted place. And I'm excessively talking continuously about me and my possessions, what I am and what I've achieved, my goals, in order to make me look good in the eyes of others. Now put all these three together. In order to achieve self-gratification, the worldly-minded person always seeks to get his own way, get all the things he wants in order to produce a status symbol of importance that he is something superior to others. You remember Satan's original fall? What was it all about? I will exalt. I will ascend. I will. God says, No, you won't. You're going down to the dust. You're going to crawl out of your belly like a serpent. And those two kingdoms have been at odds with each other since the ongoing of Satan's sin from the beginning. So John lists two reasons then for not loving this worldly lifestyle. You cannot love God who loves humility and servitude and the world of pride and dominion at the same time. See that? And the second reason why we should not love the world is that the world and its lusts or desires are temporal and they are passing away. Verses 15-17. You don't believe about it, go look in the mirror. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of us all? And that mirror was very kind to us in earlier years. And now the wrinkles are showing up and all the blemishes and the faults. And so the queen destroys the mirror. The mirror's honest with her. the Hollywood beauty queen, the world's passing away. The football players, Brother Asa, coming out of high school, great bodies, big goals, big ambitions, contracts waiting, and suddenly one wrong move and a knee blows and the world has passed away. The stock market, The whoremonger, with all of his lustful pursuits, becomes impotent, and his world is passed away. Don't invest your life in temporal things. It's all going down the tube. Invest it in the kingdom of God, for he that does the will of God shall keep on abiding forever. Well, let's move now to verses 18 through 23, that true Christians seek to identify and reject false teachers. Little children, it's the last time, as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many Antichrists, whereby we know it's the last time. 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, they might be made manifest, but they were not all of us. But you have an unction, or better translated, you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things, not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, that no lies of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. Whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also. In these verses, John identifies the apostate teachers for the first time of whom he has been warning his readers. If some of you have been wondering where, Pastor, have you been getting all of this information you've been bringing up until this point, it's because it's not to this point that John clearly identifies who he's been upset with back in chapters 1 and the early part of chapter 2. Now then, he identifies them. They are antichrists, they are false prophets, they are deceivers. It is those who have left the fellowship of apostolic belief. He refers to them as antichrist. The term antichrist is used in the Bible only by John. no other Bible writer refers to the term Antichrist. And it is used by John only in 1 John 2.18, 1 John 2.22, 1 John 4.3, and 2 John 7. The prefix anti- has one of two meanings, or can have one of two meanings. First, that of hostile opposition, that which stands in contrast. And second, that of substitution, or that which stands in the place of another. So Antichrist can refer to someone or something who is openly opposed to Christ, or it can mean someone or something which stands to represent the place of Christ. thus becoming a counterfeit Christ. And this is the sense in which John is using it. Not that which brazenly says, we don't want anything to do with Christ, but someone says, we represent Jesus Christ. When in reality they don't. They're a counterfeit Christ. They are anti-Christ. The anti-Christ of whom John speaks have come out of the ranks of the believers. Now, that's important. Let that sink in for whatever your belief system has been up until now about the Antichrist. These Antichrists were not out here in the pagan world rising up in hostile opposition to Christ and his followers. They had been in the community of believers and had apostatized from them and went out, but still claiming to represent Christ. Verse 19, he says, they went out from us. That is, they who at one time professed apostolic doctrine were now rejecting John and his teachings. The expression went out, as we pointed out in the previous message, is the same verb that described the departure of Judas from the disciples on the night of Jesus' betrayal. In John 13.30 we read, ìHe went out and it was night.î Apostasy. The Antichrist of whom John speaks are not some invisible, evil, spiritual creatures, but are the false teachers or the false prophets, which he later refers to over in chapter 4. Turn over there, chapter 4 and verses 1 through 3. Many false prophets are what? Gone out into the world. You see that? They had an origin. What was their origin? Formerly an orthodox position. But they have abandoned it and have gone out into this system of pride and dominion. Hereby, or by this means, know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist. Whereof ye have heard that it shall come, or should come, even now already it is in the world." So John asserts that the falling away of these individuals proved them to be false brethren who had never truly shared in the same spiritual fellowship with that of John's readers. These were not regenerate people who lost their fellowship or their communion with God. These were individuals that John says, if they had been true, they wouldn't have left They went out from us. If they had been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us. So the origin of these antichrists is they come out of orthodox apostolic backgrounds. That's sort of scary, isn't it? Lord, is it I? Is it I? A true union with Christ will manifest itself by abiding in him. The perseverance of the saints is a biblical doctrine. But while the saints' perseverance rests upon their preservation by Christ, the evidence of Christ preserving them is their abiding perseverance to apostolic doctrine and practice. I hope you caught that distinction. It is not by persevering that they keep themselves saved, but it is the evidence that Christ is preserving them, that continual abiding in the truth of the gospel. While it is Christ who began a good work in them and will bring it to completion, it is the ongoing maintaining of that good work which provides the evidence that the good work was ever begun in the first place. So the believer's present and future faithfulness gives evidence of an experience having begun with Christ in the past. So what I want to see out of you today, and you should desire to see out of me, is not necessarily that I have to place all of my confidence in some day and hour of some experience that happened here in the past. But if something did happen here in the past, you have a right to expect to have seen that that has continued on and that it's going on right now and it will continue to go on, and you can expect that out of Jim Gables. So in light of the preceding context, the people who love the world and its desires have placed themselves in opposition to the Spirit of Christ and His kingdom. mainly by lack of humility and service to others. And in this place they are promoting a counterfeit Christian message which has an appeal to those still under the control of Satan's worldly kingdom. Look over in 1 John 4, verse 5. John identifies the spirit of the message which these false teachers are proclaiming. He says, look at it, they are of the world. Who's the they? The false teachers. Therefore speak they of the world. What's the world? Self-gratification. Getting my own way. Getting everything I want in order to make me look good in the eyes of others. And the world does what? It hears them. When we get to that, which I'm working on it now, it has soberly hit me that a Bible teacher can know where he stands with God by the class of people that are comfortable under his message. And if a Bible teacher has a church full of people which are worldly-minded and they can sit under that message week in and week out and year in and year out, it tells us something of the Spirit that's driving that teacher. I'll have to wait until we get to that message, though. I'm getting ahead of myself. The message of Satan's kingdom promotes a spirit of pride and dominion. While claiming to advance the kingdom of Christ, it replaces the spirit of Christ with the spirit of the world, and the world embraces it as a form of godliness but are strangers to the power thereof. John lists three marks which identify a false prophet or an antichrist. Number one, verses 18 and 19, a false prophet does not love apostolic Christianity and thus departs from the fellowship of apostolic believers. They won't hang around. Secondly, 1 John 2, 22-25, the false prophet denies the faith expressed by apostolic Christianity. 3, 1 John 2.26, they try to seduce or deceive those faithful to apostolic Christianity. Those who have apostatized from the faith, it is characteristic of them, they spend little time trying to convert the unsaved pagan. But the cults focus their attention where? on getting converts out of the Orthodox churches. When one investigates the history of the false cults and the Antichrist religious systems in the world today, they will discover quickly that in most cases their founders were formerly members of an Orthodox local church or denomination. Go back in the 1840s when nearly all the cults formed here in the United States, and you'll find those people didn't come out of paganism, they came out of churches and denominations which had confessions that were Orthodox. They left them and started their own churches. The Mormons, the Jehovah Witnesses, some of the others, my mind goes out on me for just a minute. Anyway, our point made. They were with us, but not of us. They went out from us and started their own rival group, and now they claim to represent true Christianity. Now, the reality of seeing professing Christians apostatized from the faith was not something that should have surprised this community of believers. It was something that was to characterize the age known as the last time or hour. Now, stay with me. The phrase, the last time here, appears only this one time in the entire New Testament. Only here. But it does seem to be equivalent to the expression, the last days or the last times used elsewhere in Scripture, such as Acts 2.17, Hebrews 1.2. Jesus hath appeared in these last days. 2 Timothy 3.1, these last days. Now, what does John mean when he refers to the last times? Some Bible teachers believe that he was referring to the final days just prior to the return of Jesus, and that's what he meant. This cannot be true, because John believed that he and his readers were then living in the last time. He says, now it is the last time. The Antichrist is here. Now is the last time, you know it, this apostasy has shown up. Nearly 2,000 years of history have expired since John wrote the epistle. We cannot mean just the final few days before Jesus comes back. The correct view is that the last time refers to the entire church age, beginning with the first coming of Christ and ending with his second coming. But the primary idea in the term last time is not a reference to the duration of time, but the kind of time. It refers to a certain quality of time rather than a quantity of time. What are the things that were to characterize the age of the Messiah? The psalm said that the Messiah would rule in the midst of his enemies. The Messianic age would still have opponents to the Messiah. This age was to be an age in which the light of his truth would now be shining, and the past age of the darkness would be passing away, 1 John chapter 2 and verse 8. The darkness has passed and the true light now shineth. Jesus said, I am the what? The light of the world. But at the same time, it would be a perilous time with many leaving the faith which they had initially embraced. So little children, don't be surprised by these who have gone out. from us. And that same thing holds true to us today who have to deal with true apostasy. We're not talking about people getting transferred to other churches or people feeling like they have other reasons for going to other congregations that are orthodox. But when people leave the faith, don't let that surprise you. This apostasy would ultimately manifest itself, now hear in either the appearance of a remarkable person of influence known as the Antichrist, or else the appearance of a principle of belief describing a class of people who deny the truth of the gospel. In either case, the person or the principle associated with the Antichrist, and I'm adamant will be a form of apostate Christianity which is opposed to apostolic Christianity. It will result in a dominant form of counterfeit Christianity which will make the true believers feel like they are in the minority. Do you ever feel like that? John says we know that we are living in the Messianic age because the apostasy has already begun. Don't be surprised, he says. After identifying his opponents as those who have left the apostolic fellowship of believers, John now, for the very first time, gives the primary error of the apostates. He hasn't told us what this error is. He's been giving us a lot of hints. They say they don't sin anymore, they do this, they don't do that. But now here's the primary error. In verse 22, he says they deny that Jesus is the Christ. To deny that Jesus was the Christ meant they denied that Jesus, the Son of God, enjoyed an eternal relationship with God the Father. Thus they denied the incarnation of God the Son in human form. Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist. Where have you ever heard that it should come, and even now already it is in the world?" Verse 15, "...whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." These individuals were denying that God incarnated himself in a physical human body. so that Jesus was neither divine nor human. John calls anyone who denies Christ in this fashion as, in the Greek, the definite article, the Antichrist and the liar. Some of you may have translations to that effect. Do you? This is the Antichrist. This is the liar. touch on that a little bit more in the following messages. I find it interesting here in my Scofield Bible from which I am speaking today, Mr. Scofield has a particular view of the Antichrist that he must protect. And on verse 22 of chapter 2, who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist, a denier of the Father and the Son. Mr. Schofield has a footnote under liar. Who is a liar? Anybody have a Schofield Bible? Not very many. You notice in his margin, what does he have there? The liar. That's what it is in the Greek. Who is the liar? But Mr. Schofield won't come back in the next sentence, he is the Antichrist. He won't put the Antichrist in there. Why not the same Greek text? Because it undermines his position that the Antichrist is a person. John is defining the Antichrist here, in this context, not as a person, but to a class of people who represent a spirit of opposition to God. He is the Antichrist. Who is? the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This gives way to the belief that the Antichrist is a principle characterizing an apostate rather than some particular person. Incidentally, this does not prevent the idea of a coming person out here of extreme evil that Paul calls the man of sin or that John calls the beast. in Revelation. But granted what we have here and other that when we get to this, it's a very weak doctrinal foundation to base your belief on a personal Antichrist, that term based upon this text in 1 John. And it's the only time it's ever used in the Bible. John defines what the Antichrist is, the liar, to any person who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Finally, abiding in the truth. I'm not going to read the text for time's sake. Verses 24-27. How were John's readers to respond to the false teachings of these antichrists, these false prophets? By continuing to believe the truths of the gospel message, which they had already learned six times in these verses, 24-28. John uses the word abide, remain and continue. Rather than accepting the new novel ideas of the false teachers The readers were to permanently hold to the doctrines of one eternal God who in his Son incarnated himself in a human body, lived a life of sinless obedience, died for the sins of others in order that he might be the Savior of the world, rose again the third day, ascended to the Father's right hand, and now then lives to make intercession for all those who come to the Father by him. Get a hold of that and don't let it go. That's how you overcome false doctrine. And you hang on that long, and I guarantee you when they come to your door, they won't stay around long. When you start bringing that up, they'll want to talk on anything and everything, but they will not want to talk on this, because they've departed. But they claim to be the true ones. And they're just not those who come door to door. They're the ones in our seminaries who are teaching there. the ones who are holding offices in our pulpits. By continuing to believe these teachings, John's readers could be assured that they possessed the eternal life promised by God to believers. In doing so, they could overcome those who were seducing them or leading them astray. I tell you, there is nothing that will keep you more in the faith than a sound grasp of the gospel. Get a hold of it. not moralism, not just ethical precepts, but get a hold of the gospel. John assured that his readers could be enabled to discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of error, because at their conversion they had been anointed or consecrated by the Holy Spirit to so learn the truth of the gospel That they would not need additional human teachers to rise up, claiming they've received revelations from God that would come alongside them to teach them the truth. I hope this would have time for you to develop then what it means that you don't need a human teacher. If that's the case, then they don't need John. It means that these individuals that John was writing to did not need these apostate teachers to come along and give them additional revelations in addition to the gospel. They had an anointing that was given to them by the Holy Spirit in their birth, and that would bear witness with their spirit that they were the children of God. They already possessed the truth and the true beliefs of the gospel. Hold on to the truth, Sister Dorothy. Buy the truth and sell it not. This is a life and death, heaven and hell issue. To embrace the belief that Jesus is not the Christ, God in the flesh, is to reject a saving relationship with the Father and His Son. You can't be in fellowship with God when you reject the truth of who Jesus was. So in these verses, 15-17, John has asserted that true Christians will not love the world, that they will reject the false teachers who deny the Son of God, verses 18-23, that they will abide in the truth of the gospel, verses 19-27. I would just emphasize again and again in conclusion today that if God separates us from your fellowship that nothing would give me greater joy, that if we meet again in ten years from now, than what John would say, I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in the just." They are still following the Lord, still following orthodox, apostolic Christianity, which is what is in this book. not dallying with process theology and open theology and all this stuff out here, questioning whether God knows the future or He has the power to do anything about it. Abide in the view of God in Christ as revealed in the gospel.