as he preaches your word so that your children would be edified in your word
in Jesus name we pray amen.
Man, 1st John chapter 2 is such a great chapter I'm going to try to cover as much of this I possibly can
tonight but beginning verse number one we already talked about this last week so
I'm not going to talk about this because we covered these first parts here my
little children these things write I unto you that you sin not and if any man
sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous talked about
that last week but verse 2 says and he is the propitiation for our sins and
not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world now this is one of
the many verses in the Bible that talk about the fact that Jesus Christ died
for the entire world and what that means is that he died for everyone now when it
comes to certain false doctrines or false religions it seems like they all
have their Achilles heel or that point that just makes them so obviously and
blatantly wrong when it comes to the Word of God and when it comes to the
false doctrine of Calvinism I think that the limited atonement doctrine is the
Achilles heel because it is the most scripturally indefensible garbage that
they believe in when their Tulip doctrine the L stands for limited
atonement and what they mean by that typically and you know you'll talk to
different Calvinists that mean different things by this but in general what they
usually mean by this is that Jesus didn't die for everyone and they have
all kinds of logical reasons why they believe that they have all kinds of
philosophical reasons why they believe that they write entire books explaining
how Jesus didn't die for everyone but the fact is that the Bible explicitly
says repeatedly that Jesus died for everyone and so at the end of the day
that's what the Bible says period end of story and it's not just this verse
because obviously if it were just one verse they could explain it away and say
well he's not the propitiation for our sins only but also for the sins of the
whole world he means you know it's not just for the Jews but it's for the whole
world or something but look folks you've got other verses like for example
Hebrews chapter 2 where it says that he by the grace of God should taste death
for every man I mean how do you get any clearer than the fact that Jesus tasted
death for every man that's pretty clear but then you also have 1st Timothy
chapter 2 that God gave Christ a ransom for all right the Bible says who gave
himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time and that's in the same
context as he will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come
to repentance he will meaning he wants to have all men to be saved and to come
into the knowledge of the truth he gave himself a ransom for all he tasted death
for every man he's not the propitiation for our sins only but also for the sins
of the whole world why because God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life so there are two groups you got the world and you got whosoever believeth
now the only ones that are saved are the whosoever believeth those are the ones
who have everlasting life but when it comes to God giving his son he so loved
the world that he gave his son meaning that he loved the people even that
aren't going to get saved he died for the people even that aren't going to get
saved he so loved the entire world that he gave his only begotten son okay and
so that's the context of world here when it says he died for this is the whole
world it's the same context as John 3 16 that he died for all the people in the
world he tasted death for every man and of course Calvinist would love to point
out verses that talk about Jesus laying down his life for his friends or you
know that he died for many but here's the thing about that if he died for the
entire world that includes his friends that includes many all these other
things fit into that and they're just flat-out wrong and they've got all these
arguments about how well if Jesus died for everybody then everyone would be
saved no because that's not what the Bible says the Bible says he so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believeth in him
would not perish but have eternal life and so whether that fits your
philosophizing and your logic and you can talk about double jeopardy and if
if Jesus already paid for their sins how can they pay for it take all that
philosophical garbage and hang all of it because we need to start with what the
Bible says here's the Bible says Jesus died for everybody here's what else the
Bible says you have to believe to be saved why don't we just take those two
things and just kind of start there and build our theology on that not on man's
wisdom man's logic and man's positive and honestly I can't even figure out
what the problem is like what is confusing about or what problem does
this create Jesus died for everybody he paid for everybody but the payment is
only applied to your account when you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead then the
payment that's already been made gets applied to your cat I mean we could use
all kinds of banking examples where funds are just kind of floating around
in la-la land until somebody you know actually receives those into their
account there are transactions like that out there my friend unclaimed rewards
unclaimed funds that are out there things that have been paid for but they
never get claimed they never get picked up Amazon's probably got a whole
warehouse like that I've stuff that's been paid for and it's never been
received well guess what salvation has already been paid for for every single
person but it's up to them to receive that free gift by believing on Christ I
got to move on because there's so much great stuff in this chapter but I just
wanted to show you that this is a powerful verse about Jesus dying for
everybody he's not just a propitiation for our sins but also for the sins of
the whole world verse 3 says this and hereby we do know that we know him if
we keep his commandments now this is not talking about salvation okay knowing him
is not salvation you see the Apostle Paul who had already been saved for a
very long time and had already been serving God for a very long time said in
his epistle to the Philippians that his greatest aspiration in life was to know
Christ that I may know him and the the power of his resurrection and the
fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death the Apostle
Paul was on a lifelong quest to know God because of the fact that that's not
something that's just automatic for the Christian you see being saved is when
God knows you being known of God because you don't want him to say depart from me
I never knew you okay he knows you but getting to know him is a lifelong
journey it's a lifelong process and it involves keeping God's commandments now
if we have to keep the commandments to be saved then Christ is dead in vain
because the Bible says if righteousness comes by the law then Christ is dead in
vain why would Jesus even have to die on the cross if you just go to heaven by
obeying commandments and being good and living a good life well then you just
waltz into heaven on your own merits the whole point of why Jesus Christ had to
die for everyone is because everyone is doomed because we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God and so when the Bible says hereby we do know that we
know him if we keep his commandments this is talking about a walk with God a
relationship with God closeness with God being a friend of God not just simply
being saved and we'll get to why that's important in a moment let's keep going
he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the
truth is not in him but who so keepeth his word and watch this in him verily is
the love of God perfected so you notice how the one who keeps God's word and
keeps God's commandments in him verily is the love of God perfected so this is
a sign of not just salvation but of maturity and of being perfected in the
love of God achieving a higher level of spirituality and a closer walk with God
who so keepeth his word and him verily is the love of God perfected right
because salvation is just the beginning of our process of sanctification
salvation is a one-time deal once you're saved you have eternal life you shall
never perish but then you're supposed to be growing in grace and the knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that's gonna take a lifetime and that's
a perfecting process as you get closer to God he that saith he abideth in him
ought himself also so to walk even as he walked so he's saying look if you say
that you know God and you don't keep his commandments you're lying and if you say
that you're abiding in him you ought to also walk even as he walked and you know
I feel like this is such an important scripture today in 2023 because there's
this huge movement today of saying well Christianity is not a religion it's a
relationship and how we need to get away from the do's and the don'ts and just
focus on just loving Christ and just being close to God and we've got this
kind of emotional type of relationship with God being emphasized and then
religion and Commandments being de-emphasized but here's what God says
to all of this crowd that says that they know him but keepeth not his commandments
he says you guys are lying when you see a bunch of sinful worldly people
disrespecting disregarding not caring about not following God's Commandments
but then claiming like well you know maybe we don't have all the do's and
don'ts but man you know we're just we just we just love Jesus so much and we
just we're just so close to him and we just know him on such a deep level and
and we're just having revival over here and it's just an outpouring of God's
spirit well hold on a second how do I know that they're lying because when I
see them blatantly disrespecting and disregarding the Commandments of God the
Bible says he that sayeth I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar
says I oh I know Christ let me tell you now again this isn't to say that they're
not saved there are lots of saved people who don't keep God's Commandments there
are lots of saved people not walking as Christ walked but when they go around
claiming to be spiritual and claiming to know God and claiming to be walking with
God that just simply isn't true my friend because keeping the Commandments
is one of the tests of whether or not you're walking with God whether you're
walking in the light as he is in the light has to do with whether you're
keeping his command I mean what does the Bible say verse 4 he that sayeth I know
him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar so so much for de-emphasizing the
do's and the don'ts so much for it's not a religion it's a relationship that's
garbage my friend I know what kind of logic is that you know I have a
relationship with my wife right so what if I just what if I just went out and
just committed adultery and stopped providing for my family but just said
hey why you hit me with all these do's and don'ts are you legalist I just want
to have a relationship with you what kind of a relationship are my wife and I
gonna have if I'm not providing and if I'm being unfaithful or if we flip that
over and said she was out being unfaithful and and not doing her job as
a wife and as a mother and then she just said bro I'm trying to have a
relationship what kind of a relationship is that you know Jesus said you're my
friends if you do whatsoever I command you John chapter 14 and so this whole
thing of it's a relationship is that first of all the word relationships not
in the Bible the word religion is and the Bible says pure religion and
undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world sounds like
some do's and don'ts do visit the fatherless and the widows in their
affliction don't get all spotted with the world and we're gonna get to that a
little bit later in this chapter as well but the Bible says in verse 7 brethren I
write no new commandment unto you but an old commandment which he had from the
beginning the old commandment is the word which you've heard from the
beginning again a new commandment I write unto you which thing is true in
him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shines now
now the old commandment that they've had from the beginning is the commandment to
love one another that's the commandment that's always been around they've known
it from the beginning but then he's saying you know in one sense it's an old
commandment but in another sense it's a new commandment because of the fact that
you can always put a new angle or a new spin on something that's so maybe
rudimentary or basic or obvious but it's it's something that we need to hear
again as it were and so he says the new commandment I write unto you because the
darkness is past and the true light now shines verse 9 says this he that saith
he is in the light hated his brother is in darkness even until now he that
loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling
in him but he that he that this brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness
and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness had blinded his eyes so
another test of our fellowship with God our walking with God if our
relationship with God if you will walking in the light as he is in the
light is what gives us fellowship with him the Bible says is that not only do
we keep the commandments but also if we have love one for another if we love the
brotherhood if we love our brothers and sisters in Christ it's wicked for you to
hate any of your brothers and sisters in Christ for any reason okay the Bible
teaches that we should love all of our brothers and sisters in Christ period
and so he says he that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in
darkness even until now and it says he walketh in darkness verse 11 and know
it not wither he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes I write
unto you little children verse 12 because your sins are forgiven you for
his name's sake I write unto you fathers because you've known him that is from
the beginning I write unto you young men because you've overcome the wicked one I
write unto you little children because you've known the father I've written
unto you fathers because you've known him that is from the beginning I've
written unto you young men because you're strong and the Word of God
abideth in you and you've overcome the wicked one now that's kind of an
interesting little section there it's it's kind of poetic isn't it and he
talks to the fathers he talks to the little children and he talks to the
young men so you could think of this as three stages of life right you can think
of children and then maybe teenagers young adults and then fathers is like
maybe the guys that are you know 30 40 50 or even older than that and these are
the groups that he's writing to and I think part of what we can learn from
this little poetic section here about the three groups that he's writing to
and the the repetition of each group is that you know God's Word has something
to say to you at all stages in your life right God's gonna speak to you even as a
little child and and even a little five-year-old six seven-year-old could
learn from the Bible learn from church and get teachings that are relevant for
them at that age and so John is saying hey I'm writing to you little kids and
then when you're a young man just starting out in your adult life God has
advice for you you need to listen to what God's saying to you at that stage
and then even as you get older and even though you've known him that is from the
beginning and maybe you've been saved for 30 40 50 years there's still
something for you to learn from the Word of God even though you've heard that old
commandment well receive the new commandment and and learn something new
from God's Word at all ages of life but not only that what I see here is that
these three different groups they all have something to offer they all have
something to contribute to the work of God as well we want to make sure that in
our church we have all ages if you walk into a church and everybody's ancient
that's a bad sign about that church because the church is dying because the
next generation isn't there and what will happen is eventually as those old
timers pass off the scene the church will literally cease to exist and there
are all kinds of churches even here in Arizona where there are like three to
ten elderly people left and they're sitting in some million-dollar building
or two million dollar church building or three million dollar church building
and there's like five of them and they're like okay what do we do now because
we're all dying and what do we do and there's no next generation and then they
have to try to figure out who to donate that to and you know what's so funny
about that is that you got all these young guys across America starting up
brand-new red-hot soul-winning Baptist churches and they're meeting in strip
malls they're meeting in office spaces they're meeting in backyards and
people's houses you know trying to figure out how to have a facility and
then you got five old codgers and a draft dodger sitting in some palace of
a building that's worth millions of dollars and they're just like you know
we don't have a pastor anymore we don't know what we're gonna do but if some
young guy went in there and started preaching and and and ripping some face
and you know they don't want it they don't want that because they don't want
to learn anything new they don't want to hear real preaching that's why their
church is dying because guess what if those and people are always coming to me
with these opportunities like hey pastor Anderson there's this church and they
don't have a pastor it's just like five old people but they've got this
wonderful building they've got tons of money in the bank do you have a young
guy that you could send to come and take over this church we get emails like
that all the time but you know what it never works out and I don't even bother
trying we've had we've had people come to the church before and visit our
church and say yeah we got $700,000 in the bank we're just we're looking for a
new church home there's only three of us and we got 700 grand of the Lord's money
and we're just kind of looking for a church and then you preach in one
sermon and they're just like their church died for a reason and you know
what God doesn't need their money anyway because God owns the cattle on a
thousand hills we don't need money I need $700,000 like I need another hole
in my head what do I need $700,000 for what does our church need $700,000 for
nothing I got my daily bread we got everything we need right here you know
what and people often ask hey are you still meeting in office space and I
always tell them yep and we're gonna rent office space until Jesus comes why
not we're never gonna buy a building sorry boomers we're never gonna buy a
building we're never gonna have a big fancy palace and a high steeple few
people stained-glass situation it's not happening we're just gonna keep on
preaching hellfire and damnation in an office complex and will you know what
we'll do as we get bigger was get a bigger office complex and the ceiling
just stays the same height it just goes it just goes this way same I've been
preaching under this same height in fact this ceilings a little lower than the
height I started preaching under the ceiling that I in the building where I
started preaching was two feet higher than this one I don't know maybe by the
end that it'll be an 8-foot ceiling but it'll go on for a city block I don't
know but you know what I'm more focused on growing this way than growing this
way I'm not talking about my physical body now although I'm for sure done
growing this way anyway so I guess this is really the only way that I could grow
at this point so all right be sure to have something ready for me to eat when
I get home I'm gonna start the new growth program but you know we want to
have all ages don't we now look I'm glad that our church does have some older
people you know very few and they're not that old but you know we've got some
older people in our church and I thank God for that because we want to have the
old people around we want to have the elders around we want to have the
seniors right I'm careful not to look at anyone you know you know we want to have
elders but the thing is it's there's a problem when everybody's old but you
know what it's also a problem when you show up and everybody's young everybody's
young that's that's sad that could just kind of some of that could be a
commentary on the older generation a little bit but you know what it's good
in a church to have a nice healthy distribution right some kind of a nice
bell-shaped curve where you got people of all ages you've got the elderly
you've got the the babies the children you got families you got middle-aged you
got singles you got teens you got every you know we want to have all
demographics everybody has something to offer the older people have wisdom to
offer life experience to offer you know they can talk about the past and they
can shed light on things from that perspective of having lived through
other periods of history and other churches that they've gone to and other
things that they've seen both good and bad they have that life experience that
wisdom that comes with age right and then the youth has the energy right the
Bible says I've written unto you young men because you're strong and the Word
of God abideth in you you've overcome the wicked one right the youth have that
strength and stamina and energy to go out and do the missions trips and to go
out and do great works for God with their physical stamina and then the
elders they've known him that it's from the beginning what does that mean God
never changes he's from the beginning and so Jesus Christ is saying yesterday
and today and forever and so the elders can give timeless wisdom and timeless
truths right and then the children they're the future they're the next
generation they've known the father meaning what it means that they're saved
you know a lot of people have this attitude that kids don't get saved or
that kids can't get saved but you know little children can be saved I got saved
when I was six years old are you sure that you were old enough to understand
yes I am you know and lots of lots of Christian young people get saved when
they're five six seven eight years old it's different for everyone but I got
saved as a little kid and it's wonderful when little children get saved because
the sooner in life that you get saved the better the longer you wait the worse
it is so get saved immediately no matter how old you are if you're smart enough
to understand if you're if you've gotten to that level of comprehension and
maturity then you need to get saved immediately and call upon the name of
the Lord and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved and so all ages are
being written to all ages have value in the church we want to have a healthy
church that has all demographics all ages red and yellow black and white if
we're living in an area that has red and yellow black and white which we are you
know we want to have a church that's reaching everyone possible and bringing
in a variety of people so the Bible says in verse 15 love not the world and
we touched on this a little bit earlier when we talked about the fact that true
religion pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father involves
keeping yourself unspotted from the world and here the Bible says love not
the world neither the things that are in the world if any man loved the world the
love of the Father is not in him now this is not when it says love not the
world in this context we're not talking about the people obviously we should
love lost people what it's talking about is just loving this present world system
like for example the Apostle Paul talked about how Demas had forsaken me having
loved this present world you know there are people who are just caught up in the
joys and the pleasures and the achievements of this present world and
they're just caught up in everything that is temporal everything that's
temporary everything that's carnal at the expense of that which is spiritual
so instead of living for Christ and loving God and loving his word they're
living for things like money fame power entertainment those are the things that
they live for instead of loving God they love this world and they want to get
everything that they can out of this life instead of maybe sacrificing some
things in this life so that they can keep God preeminent in their life and so
he says love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man
loved the world the love of the Father is not in him so this is kind of a
zero-sum game the more you love God the less love you're gonna have for the
things of this world and the more love you have for the things of this world
the less love you have for God you can't serve two masters you can't really do
both and so one takes away from the other and this is why it says in verse
16 for all that is in the world and then he kind of sums it up in three things
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 passed away and the lust thereof
but he that do with the will of God abideth forever and so what the Bible
saying here is that the people of this world they either live for gratifying
their physical flesh right and this could be through you know gorging
themselves with foods maybe fine dining or just gluttony of some kind or other
you know just kind of living to gratify the flesh obviously this could also be a
gratifying of the flesh through fornication or adultery or taking drugs
would also definitely fall under this I'm just wanting to feel good whether
that's drinking smoking doing drugs fornicating whatever is sinful thing by
which people just want to gratify the flesh and just feel good right whatever
makes them tingle in whatever way is the lust of the flesh and then the lust
of the eyes you know they want to look upon physical beauty they they live to
just see things and this could be obviously looking upon a woman to lust
after her and committing adultery with her already in your heart that's
probably the big one that we would think of with the lust of the eyes but it
could also just be covetousness in general just looking at houses looking
at cars because yes you're not supposed to covet your neighbor's wife but you're
also not supposed to covet your neighbor's house or his ox or his ass
or his car or anything else that is your neighbors right and so the lust of the
eyes is the constant desire to possess more so the lust of the eyes is the love
of money right seeing things like oh I've got to have that outfit I've got to
have that vehicle oh I got to have that toy I've got to have that motorcycle
I've got to have that whatever and just wanting all the things that money buys
so number one the lust of the flesh gratifying physical appetites whether
that's food drink drugs fornication whatever number two lust of the eyes is
covetousness right and whether that's women whether that's cars clothes houses
whatever and then the pride of life is what else the world lives for we're
talking about people who are not living for God if you're not living for God
what are you living for I mean think about people that aren't living for God
what are they typically living for they're living to make money or they're
living to have experiences to gratify their flesh they're just living from
bowl of ice cream to bowl of ice cream you know and that's just that's just
life ice cream is life and the rest is just details for them you know or
they're just living to go on a trip somewhere and see stuff right it's just
it's all about travel and whining and dining gratifying the flesh gratifying
the eyes and of course the eye is not satisfied with seeing their net it's
never gonna be enough but then also if they're not living if you say well I
know unsaved people or Christians who aren't living for God and they're not
really living for the flesh they don't seem to be hedonistic and they don't
seem to be materialistic right because lust of the flesh is like hedonism and
lust of the eyes is like materialism right wanting to get all these
different things that you see with your eyes and covet but that's where the
third one comes in the pride of life many people are living for ego so some
people yeah maybe they're not into gratifying the flesh or covetousness
but you know what maybe their whole life is just wrapped up in athletic
achievement because guess what athletic achievement could feed into ego right
and I'm not against sports at all I'm not against having athletic
achievements but you know I am against that being your life that being an idol
in your life you know it's good if it's a hobby if it's just something to stay
healthy if it's just something you do on the side but if your life I mean look
I've read I'm pretty into running and endurance sports and stuff like that
and so I've read so many books about running I can't even count how many
books I've read just learning about the sport and trying to get motivated and
everything like that and so I've read so many running books and and and so many
of them read like this like oh my life was so meaningless and then I discovered
running and now my life has purpose and I'm just thinking like yours life still
has no purpose you know because just running some race I don't care how fast
you ran I don't care if you're the best at a certain distance at the end of the
day it really doesn't mean anything it's just vanity you know I mean it's it's
great if it's just for fun it's good clean fun swimming laps running lifting
weights it's good clean fun keeps you healthy I'm a hundred percent for it I
think it's something that in our modern life we probably need in our lives some
form of exercise just so we don't die okay and just so we can eat more food
and not get overweight that's my biggest thing but the thing is that you
know a lot of people is just ego oh I'm gonna go climb Mount Everest to for my
ego or I've got I've got to do this triathlon for ego I've got to run this
this running event for ego I got to be in the Olympics and get that gold medal
for my ego or whatever and so not only athletic achievements but what about
just people who just want to be famous whether it's famous online or famous as
a musician famous as an actor or actress singer whatever you know these are the
type of things that the world just lives for and here's the thing is that the
lust of the flesh is not how God wants us to live our lives the lust of the
eyes is certainly not how God wants us to live our lives and guess what he
doesn't want us to be filled with pride either God commands to be humble humble
and so it's great to have achievements but you know what if you're feeding into
pride and ego then it becomes sinful and maybe it's not athletic achievements it
could be education achievements it could be you know the pride of having that
PhD right having those degrees and accolades and things those type of
things could become what you live for when you ought to be living to serve
Christ and again I'm not again just I'm not against education I'm not against
sports but these things can become a God for people where education is their God
sports is their God you know the Bible talks about people whose God is their
belly and what is that that's the lust of the flesh the Bible talks about
people whose God is mammon that's the lust of the eyes right there and so we
want to make sure that we're living for God not living for the world we need to
be laying up treasures in heaven and storing up spiritual achievements more
than worrying about the carnal achievements of this world and look
obviously we're all gonna have some carnal achievements in our lives but at
the end of the day we get the judgment seat of Christ you're not gonna get any
rewards for that marathon you're not gonna get any rewards for that 5k you're
not gonna get any rewards for that you know deadlift record set okay you're not
gonna get rewarded because it's not like oh we're the judgment seat of Christ you
have a PhD you have a master of divinity you're you go to the front of the line
over here sir you know it's not like that because those things are known as
wood hay and stubble now wood hay and stubble have their place in our lives we
all have to work we all have to make a living we all have to exercise or you
know learn stuff or whatever but hey that's not the gold silver and precious
stones that's going to be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ it's what we
do for God that really matters and so we need to love God with all our heart mind
soul and strength and not be in love with this world be in love with this
world system and just live for money or gratifying the flesh or earthly
achievements whether they be work achievements business achievements
academic achievements sporting achievements those aren't what life's
ultimately about and want to make sure that we don't love this world and we
make sure that we love God and you know that's why the Bible says that we should
be willing to die for Jesus Christ well you know if you if you're in love with
this world if you love your life so much you're not gonna be willing to die for
Christ but God expects that level of commitment from us that that if it came
down to it and and hopefully it will never come down to it for anyone in this
room thank God we've been blessed to live in 2023 America where we're not
facing any real persecution but you know if it ever came down to it we need to be
ready to die for Christ and so we got a love God not love this world because we
got to be ready to kiss this world goodbye at any moment so the Bible says
he the do with the will of God abideth forever and then we switch topics a
little bit here but it makes sense that we would change to this topic because
talks about the world passing away and the lust thereof but he that do with the
will of God abiding forever mean that we you know we that are saved we're gonna
live forever and this whole world is gonna be gone everything that we see is
gonna be gone someday the things that are seen or temporal the things that are
not seen or eternal so then that leads naturally into a discussion of
eschatology or end times because we're talking about the world passing away and
God's people abiding forever little children it is the last time and as you
have heard that Antichrist shall come notice that that's singular there's one
guy coming who is Antichrist right you've heard that Antichrist shall come
even now are there many Antichrists plural 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 they might be
manifest that they were not all of us now what the Bible is saying here is
that Antichrists or false prophets false teachers you know later on this is going
to be defined by John as someone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah okay so
anyone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah is Antichrist according to the
Word of God that's how John's gonna define it in this very chapter and so
these people 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 what the Bible saying is that if
someone claims to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ but then at some future
time they're saying that Jesus is not the Messiah that they don't believe in
Jesus Christ this means that they were never saved in the first place because
the Bible says if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with
us now this is not necessarily saying that every saved Christian is gonna stay
in our church or stay in a good church or keep serving God because we know that
saved Christians do sometimes get backslidden fall away get sucked into
the cares of this world and so forth what are we specifically talking about
when we talk about Antichrists we're talking about people coming to you with
a false doctrine right the Bible talks about people you know not abiding in the
doctrine of Christ and coming to you bringing some other doctrine you know
and these people who 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 been manifest that they were not all of us these people that go out
and deny the essential doctrines of Christ after being a Baptist or after
being an evangelical Christian of some kind and they're going to a church where
the gospel is being preached and they're claiming to be a saved Christian but
then all of a sudden now they're denying Christ maybe they're teaching Judaism or
Islam or they join some apostate fake Christian cult that teaches a different
gospel it just means that they were never saved in the first place it's not
that they lost their salvation because it's impossible to lose your salvation
it's that they were never saved in the first place and this is what the Bible
says they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of
us manifest means it's open it's plain to see it's exposed nothing changed with
these people they were never of us but they went out so that everybody could
see them for what they really were all along that's what the Bible is saying
and so there's a big Antichrist coming one day but even now there are many
Antichrists Antichrist now what is the word Antichrist literally mean the is
could be a little tricky for some for some people because the word anti and
Antichrist is not the prefix that means against because we have in our modern
English vernacular this prefix anti-abortion means you're against
abortion right or I'm anti whatever that is not what this is this prefix anti is
a prefix that means in the place of or instead of okay so the Antichrist is a
guy who is impersonating Christ or one who follows one who would impersonate
Christ and this makes perfect sense because the Bible says let's just jump
down here since we're talking about this anyway to verse 22 it says who is a liar
but he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ he is Antichrist that denies the
Father and the Son now what is this saying in order to deny that Jesus is
the Christ you have to believe that there is a Christ and that it's not
Jesus I mean just look at the sentence who is a liar but he that denyeth that
Jesus is the Christ this person is not saying there is no Christ he's saying
that Jesus isn't the Christ there is a Christ but it's not Jesus that's the
spirit of Antichrist okay and so if you think about it if we take that prefix
anti for what it actually means which is instead of or in the place of little
children you've heard that Antichrist shall come there's gonna be a guy who
comes saying that he's Christ now the real Christ already came 2,000 years ago
his name's Jesus and Jesus Christ came in the flesh but the Bible says that if
you deny that Jesus Christ has already come in the flesh then that's the spirit
of Antichrist that even now already is in the world okay so someday there's
gonna be a fake Christ and that's really what Antichrist means it means a fake
Christ the impersonator of Christ the stand-in for Christ the one who comes
instead of Christ the one claiming to be Christ who isn't now here's the thing
the biggest Antichrist faith is Judaism because they believe there's a Messiah
and that it's not Jesus and when the Antichrist shows up they will say this
is our Messiah they will receive him as their Messiah and that's the spirit of
Antichrist is the spirit of Judaism that's why the Bible says right here who
is a liar verse 22 but he that deny it that Jesus is the Christ he's Antichrist
that denied the Father and the Son so anyone who says that there's another
Messiah besides Jesus is of Antichrist because they're looking to accept this
imposter that's coming that's why the next verse really has the Jews number
though doesn't it whosoever deny at the Sun the same hath not the Father now
this is one of the most important verses in the New Testament underline it
memorize it highlight it put it in a Xerox machine on like 300% and blow it
up real big it says whosoever denied the Sun the same hath not the Father but he
that acknowledged that the Sun hath the Father also you say well pastor Anderson
why are you making such a big deal about that verse when that verse is so basic
and so rudimentary well duh everybody knows that no no my friend because would
you please explain this to 99% of Baptist churches in America because let
me tell you something 99% of Baptist churches in America are not
understanding what first John chapter 2 verse 23 says so if it's so basic and so
rudimentary please explain to me why 90 some percent of Baptists across America
this is what they say the Jews have the same God that we do they're praying to
the Lord they're praying to Jehovah they're praying to God they're the
people of God they're the chosen people of God that's 90 some percent of Baptists
that's that's a fact I don't care if we're talking about independent
fundamentalist Baptist I don't care we're talking about Southern Baptist
North American Baptist most of them are just cuckoo for cocoa puffs about the
Jews and they will say oh look at this Israeli soldier praying and God answered
his prayer and and you know defeated those Arabs or whatever
darn those Arabs you know Ishmael you know no the Jews are Ishmael if you
actually read the Bible if you actually read the New Testament you'd find that
God specifically says the Jews the Christ rejecting Jews are Ishmael
they're Ishmael they're Hagar and we're Isaac we the Christians are Isaac Christ
rejecting Jews are Ishmael that's what the Bible actually says read Galatians
3 & 4 but the Bible says that if you deny the Son you don't have the Father
so how in the world could somebody say that Israeli soldiers praying to God
he's praying to a false God he's praying to a fake God who doesn't exist because
there's only one real God there are all kinds of fake gods out there lots of
false gods my friend there's only one true God and you know who that God is
he's the father of our Lord Jesus Christ so if you don't believe in the Son you
don't have the Father but if you acknowledge the Son you have the Father
also you see if you believe in Jesus you believe in the true God if you don't
believe in Jesus you don't you can't say like well we got the Father we just
don't have the Son if you don't have Jesus you got nothing it's I don't know
how else to explain this but how can you say the Jews have the same God as we do
when the Bible says they don't have the Father so if they don't have the Father
then who do they have someone else everybody understand this whoever
they're praying to at that Wailing Wall is not the God of the Bible he's not the
God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob he is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ look there's only one true God and that true God exists eternally as
Father Son and Holy Ghost these three are one the only real God is a
Trinitarian God not a oneness God one this God is fake he doesn't exist he's
for the Muslims he's for the Jews he's for the Hindus he's not for Christians
the only true God is the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and if you
don't acknowledge the Son you don't have the Father but if you acknowledge
the Son you have the Father also verse 24 let that therefore abide in you which
you've heard from the beginning if that what you've 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 see
eternal life is promised to those who believe in the Father and the Son these
things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you but the
anointing which you have received of him abideth in you and you need not that any
man teach you but as the same anointing teaches you of all things in his truth
and is no lie and even as it had taught you you shall abide in him now this is
another super important verse so many great verses in this chapter I'm trying
to jam in as much as I can in the short time that I have but the anointing which
you've received of him abideth in you this is key what's that anointing that's
the Holy Spirit right and you need not that any man teach you but as the same
anointing teaches you of all things so the Holy Spirit inside of us will guide
us into all truth and the Bible says we have no need that any man teach us but
as the same anointing teaches you of all things and is truth and is no lie and
even as it had taught you you shall abide in him now here's the key thing we
need to understand is that if there's any teaching or doctrine that you cannot
get from just reading the Bible on your own with the Holy Spirit then it's false
if it's like well you have to have somebody explain it to you in this other
and we're talking about saved people because obviously unsaved people they do
need someone to explain it to them because they don't have an unction from
the Holy One they don't have that anointing do they are unsaved people
indwelled by the Holy Spirit so they can't understand the Bible so it's like
how can I accept some man should guide me and so we have to explain to them the
gospel now obviously God has given us teachers and pastors and evangelists
he's given us people to teach us the Bible but here's the thing we don't need
them in order to understand the Bible so look if you come to Faithful Word Baptist
Church and you're coming on Wednesday nights and I'm opening up the book of
1st John and I'm breaking it down to you verse by verse you know I'm helping you
understand stuff and I'm teaching you stuff that hopefully can help you learn
faster but there is absolutely nothing that I am teaching you in any service at
Faithful Word that you can't get on your own now obviously you're supposed to
come to church because you're commanded to come to church we're commanded not to
forsake the assembling of ourselves together obviously having someone
explain things to you helps you learn a lot faster and you know there are so
many things that took me months or even years of just studying the Bible and
praying and trying to figure out things that now I get up and explain them in
like 20 minutes from the pulpit and everybody's just like oh yeah easy piece
of cake but it's like it took me like years to figure that out it took me
months to figure out because it's so easy when somebody explains it to you
sometimes and then sometimes things are really hard to learn on your own but
here's the important doctrine is that everything is possible to learn on your
own you don't need the church or a certain denomination church pastor
prophet whatever other book or text or something to teach you the Bible the
Bible and the Holy Spirit are all you need to know to learn everything you
don't need any man to teach you this is really important because you say well
again don't we all just kind of know that and take that for granted but folks
there are religions out there who don't believe this because if you think about
the Roman Catholic Church they tell you hey you can't interpret the Bible on
your own you can't study this on your own and you need us to guide you you
need the priest you need the Pope and you need people to break these things
down to you and give you teachings instead of the Bible alone being enough
with the Holy Spirit as your teacher they do teach that you must have their
human interpretation of it and that God has appointed the church to explain it
to you and if you try to do it on your own you know you're gonna get all messed
up and folks any religion that is discouraging you from reading the Bible
and studying on your own is wicked and it's not just the Roman Catholics
because we could also bring up the Amish is another great example the Amish warn
you about not reading your Bible too much can be dangerous for you to read
the Bible on your own and come up with all these ideas on your own without them
explaining it and breaking it down and because it's all about you following
their fake made-up religion that doesn't match the Bible because Amish is a wicked
false religion you say well they're just kind of quaint and and they don't you
know use technology folks I don't care if they're driving around like Fred
Flintstone with giant granite wheels in their vehicle that's not the problem I
don't care if they want to go back to the Stone Age they could go back to the
Stone Age all they want if they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ the problem
with the Amish isn't the fact that they don't want to use technology more power
to them if they want to live a simpler life who cares the problem is that they
teach a false gospel they teach all kinds of heresy and they discourage
people from reading the Bible on their own and they do not teach salvation by
grace through faith they teach a hardcore works based salvation and many
other heresies into the bargain did someone else mention another religion
like this besides Roman Catholicism and Amish that came to mind I thought I
heard someone call it out yeah I mean the East Orthodox Church is the same
thing I mean the East Orthodox Church is just like the Roman Catholic Church
except a little worse but other than that it's pretty much the same thing
which is a little weirder yeah the Jehovah's false witnesses I mean you
have to you out you need all their literature and you have to use their
special version of the Bible and the Jehovah's Witness Bible it's not a
translation of the Bible it's their own made-up fake Bible that is unlike any
Bible that existed in the history of Christianity because guess what the New
Testament never used the term Jehovah one time the Greek New Testament doesn't
say Jehovah or it doesn't have the tetragrammaton in it not even once and
yet if you open up their fake Bible they've inserted it because they don't
believe the Greek New Testament's the Word of God they've rejected God's
preserved word the Greek New Testament which has been translated into English
for us in our King James Bible they don't believe that so they had to
reconstruct the text out of their own imagination because there is no
manuscript of the Greek New Testament that has the tetragrammaton in fact if
you get their New World translation in the back they have a picture of a
Hawaiian Bible from the 1800s that says Jehovah that's their evidence for the
New Testament Hawaii in the 1800s because we all know that that's where
the the events of the Bible took place and when they took place in the 19th
century in Hawaii but you hey if I'm lying I'm dying open up the New World
translation go to the back and there's a picture of a Hawaiian New Testament and
they said see the New Testament says Jehovah and they just figure that their
people don't know Hawaiian from Greek that they won't be able to tell the
difference because it's just letter it's like sometimes I'll be at home you know
reading a Greek New Testament and my kids walk up and they're like is that
Hebrew or I'm reading Hebrew and they're like is that Greek it's like
they don't even look anything alike what are you talking about is this Greek but
you know I might as well be reading the Hawaiian New Testament I don't know any
Hawaiian because if you don't know you don't know right I mean a lot of people
wouldn't be able to tell Chinese from Japanese from Korean now to people who
know they look a lot different brother J's like give me a break it's wrong with
you people Koreans the one with all the circles and lines lots of circles lots
of lines but I'm telling you if you don't know you don't know and they you
know I see him all the time standing around in public places with the with
the Tower of Doom the Temple of Doom what's that what was it what did you
call it the Tower of Doom okay I had it right the first time but folks they
discourage it and you know what the JW's discourage their people from going on
the internet they can only go to Jade they got set their homepage to jw.org
okay it's the first thing you got to do when you become a Jehovah's Witness you
gotta reprogram your homepage take it off of Google and put it on jw.org you
know Mormons you know teach their people that is the you know they'd be better
off probably looking at porno than looking at an anti Mormon website that
actually explains the garbage that they're being taught in that religion
but here's the thing the truth fears no investigation and real biblical
Christianity trusts you and the Holy Spirit and the Bible to be guided into
all truth and so yes I'm up here to help you and I'm gonna teach you stuff
but you don't need me to teach you see the difference me teaching you is just
icing on the spiritual cake you don't need there's nothing I teach that you
can't figure out on your own and if I do teach something that you could never
figure out on your own that that's obviously just my opinion that's not a
biblical doctrine anything biblical you can figure out on your own and now
little children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before him at his coming if you know that he is righteous
and verse 29 we're gonna cover as part of chapter 3 because it rolls in very
nicely to chapter 3 so I'm gonna save that for next week if you know that he
there that he's righteous you know that everyone that do with righteous is born
of him we're gonna cover that in chapter 3 what spires in a border prayer father
we thank you so much for your word Lord and this great chapter and Lord we're
thankful for all of the clear teachings that you've given us in your word
because there's so much false doctrine out there Lord the Judaizers that expect
us to believe that the Jews are worshipping you even though they reject
Christ and Lord all the the people out there teaching us to be sinful and
worldly and that commandments don't matter and Lord there are just so many
false teachings out there and and Antichrists in this world Lord God help
us to be grounded in the truth by studying the book of 1st John and other
books of the New Testament Lord so that we're not tossed to and fro with every
wind of doctrine and in Jesus name we pray amen