1st John 2:18-27
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye 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 denieth that
Jesus is the Christ? He
is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father
also. Let
that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the
beginning. If that which ye have heard shall remain
in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised
us, even eternal
life. These things have
I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received
of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach
you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,
and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught
you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:18-27).
“Let’s
open in our Bibles to 1st John chapter 2. Let’s
once more say a word of prayer, and we’ll get started. ‘Lord
I thank you that we can once again study your Word together. And of course, Lord, as we have been studying
1st John, well we sense your exhortation to us. You certainly have made strong statements
to us. You don’t
want us to be comfortable and complacent or slack about our
walk with you, that’s for sure, as Christians. You’ve
made some strong exhortations to us about what it means to
walk with you, Lord. But you also have given just words of
comfort and encouragement. You
don’t want us to be discouraged. You
want us to be encouraged in this battle that we find ourselves
in. But I thank you Lord as we continue to
study your Word, just the nuggets you give to us, the tools
that you give to us, the reminders. And
we just ask now as individuals, of course we’ve come
from different communities, different families, different
experiences this week, but you have a word to say to each
and every one of us, in our own hearts, in our own lives. There’s things we certainly need
to know and to understand, for the week that’s ahead
of us, for the time that’s ahead of us. But
also Lord I just would like to say a prayer, if there is
anyone here this morning that has never asked Christ into
their heart as Lord and Savior that you’d speak to
them, as they need you so much, they need you so desperately. It’s
about knowing you in a personal and intimate way, and that’s
only possible as we place our faith in Jesus Christ. So
Lord, as we look at your Word, I ask Holy Spirit that you’d
be upon all of us and upon myself now as we go through your
Word. In Jesus name, Amen.’
Well,
so far in 1st John, we have seen the importance
of having of course fellowship in an intimate relationship
with God. John has been making that point to us
really clearly, the apostle John. God
isn’t interested in religion, he’s interested
in a relationship, and a close walk with him. So
he’s been speaking to our hearts about that. John
has made that real clear. But
as it’s so important, he’s also laid out and
listed for us hindrances, things that can potentially hinder
our fellowship with God, he’s laid them out for us,
specifically issues of the heart. Just
a bit of a summary as we get started, he’s talked to
us about darkness, when there’s darkness in our lives,
there’s sin. Sin
can hinder our fellowship with God. God
is light and in him is no darkness, as he’s told us. But
also he’s talked about other issues at heart, such
as disobedience to God’s commandments, of course that’s
also sin [1st John 3:4,
“sin is the transgression of the law.”] But
he’s told us about knowing God, and those that know
God are those who obey the Lord’s commands. He’s
also talked about too, a love for our brethren, if we don’t
have a love for our brethren in our hearts, if that is lacking,
that’s a statement about our relationship with God. Because
if there’s an intimate relationship with God, certainly
it’s going to be seen also in love for the brethren. Then
last week he noted to us the dangers of the love of the world. If
there is a love for the world, he made it very clear that
to love the world is not to love the Father. So
if there is a love for the world and the things of the world
in our hearts, it’s certainly hindering our love for
God and our fellowship with God. So John has been showing us these things,
because fellowship with God is so important. And
here are some of the things, issues at heart that can hinder
that fellowship. Last
week, with that we noted then this struggle, this battle
we find ourselves in. We want to be near the Lord. There’s all these things that are
seeking to catch the attention of our hearts, there’s
these struggles. Paul talks about in Galatians the battle
between the flesh and the Spirit. So
we talked about this battle within, this battle to want to
be near to the Lord in close fellowship, but we find ourselves
struggling and fighting against these different things. But
now as we continue in 1st John, as believers in
Jesus Christ, he wants us to know that there’s not
only this battle within, but there’s also an important
battle we need to consider that is taking place around us. And he focuses now on that, this battle
around us which is the battle of truth. At
this point in time I could, those of us that listen to our
radio station, I could just play for you Ken Grave’s,
Pastor Calvary Chapel, his intro to his teaching program “God’s
Sword”. If
you’ve heard him, as most of us have that listen to
our radio, you know it starts with the music, and then Jim
comes on, the announcer, and says that there’s a battle
going on, and it’s a battle against truth and error,
this battle around us. And
that’s where John now brings us.
In
verse 18 of 1st John, chapter 2, this is important. We have this battle within, this struggle
of the flesh against the Spirit. But
what is also important to notice and to consider and to learn
is about the battle that is around us, and it is this battle
against truth. Now one interesting thing that John
is going to share with us about this battle is where it also
takes place. Not only is it taking place in the world,
but also right in the midst of the walls of the Church is
this fierce battle against truth, and he’s going to
show us that this morning. We could say that this is an all out war
against the Church. It’s
a great battle, and we’ll talk about that as we go
through these verses. Now as he exhorts us, as he does consistently
about this battle, he doesn’t want us to be discouraged
as he makes some strong statements. He
wants to also encourage us and give us comfort, and you’ll
see that, he does exactly that, he balances everything out
as he makes strong exhortations about just giving us those
clear lines, separating line, that line in the sand. Yet
he comes also to encourage the Church with words of comfort
and encouragement. And
we’ll also see that he gives us some great insight. You
know, we’ve got this battle around us, battle against
truth, and he’s going to give us some great insight
that will help us to stand and be victorious. Let’s begin with verse 18.
What is the antichrist, three ways
the term is used
“Little children, it is the last hour,
and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even
now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it
is the last hour.” So here we have this danger. John has told us a lot about the danger
within, now he focuses on this danger around us. And what is this danger? It is what he calls “the antichrist”. Now what does he mean by “the antichrist”? As we study further into this Epistle,
and we’ll see it in the other Epistles, he actually
uses that term in three different ways, this term “antichrist”. One
way, he refers to it as meaning the spirit that’s
in the world, the spirit that exists that is opposing in
every way possible Jesus Christ and denying Jesus Christ. There’s
this spirit in the world. We’ll
see this more in chapter
4, verse 3 where he says “And every spirit that does not confess
that Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God. And
this is the spirit of the antichrist which you have heard
was coming, and is now already in the world.” So
this spirit of antichrist, this
spirit that’s in the world. That’s
one way he uses it. A
second way that he uses this term “antichrist” is
to refer to those false teachers that have been influenced
by that spirit of the antichrist. I mean, it’s within them, influencing
them. In fact,
he refers to that, right here in verse
18, “even now many antichrists have come”,
these folks that have been influenced by this spirit in
the world and they have it within them. A third antichrist that he’s referring
to is this one particular individual who in the end time
is going to come and just lead the world in rebellion against
God and against Jesus Christ. He is called “The Antichrist”,
and you see that in verse 18, “We have heard that the antichrist
is coming”, and he talks about that a bit more as
we go on, the antichrist. Now
the Greek word for “anti” here, this prepositional
prefix, means “in lieu of”, which means the
Antichrist will seek to present himself as the Messiah
in lieu of Jesus, in lieu of Christ, exalting himself as
God. So he
tries to exalt himself as the Messiah in lieu of Jesus
Christ. But
that word “anti” also can mean “against”,
and there’s no doubt, as this man gets established
in the second phase of his activities, he is going to ferociously
set all his energies in the world against Jesus Christ. As
Paul told the Church in Thessalonica, 2nd Thessalonians
chapter 2, verses 3-10,
“Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day
will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the
man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes
and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is
worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God. The coming of the lawless
one, that is the Antichrist, is according to the working of Satan,
with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous
deception among those who perish, because they did not receive
the love of the truth that they might be saved.” [look
up and read this in the king James version as well, it’s
basically the same, but there’s a little bit missing
in the version he’s quoting, or he left it out.] So, the Antichrist is this man that the
Bible tells us is really completely possessed by Satan himself. [Adolf Hitler, as observed by a British
Naval intelligence officer once, went into a classic case
of demonic possession right in front of this man and the
others within the room. I firmly believe that possession “incident”
was by Satan himself. It
terrified everyone in the room. Hitler
probably had Satan entering and leaving him throughout WWII. Satan hates the Jews with a passion. Look what happened at that time, the Holocaust.] And
he will seek to control the world through a one-world government,
and as he does that, he will also seek to have all the world,
all the people worship him, in fact he’ll even go to
the temple, to get all the people to worship him as God,
placing himself in the position, at least declaring himself
to be God. But what Paul also tells us there in Thessalonians
is that this man will also be able to perform miracles, and
with that he’ll do signs and wonders, and with that
deceive the masses of the people. In
fact, God will even say, as he says in Thessalonians there,
that God will allow them to be given over to the deception,
because of issues in their own hearts. Well, the antichrist, you see, John mentions
there in verse 18, we have the three different ways the term
is used, and the last one being that person the Antichrist. Now
John is a true shepherd, so he here now wants to warn his
audience. And
he starts with this way of referring to his audience, when
he uses the term “little children”. He’s done that multiple times. Of course, being as old as he is, he could
call anybody “little children” when you’re
like 100 years old. That’s about what he is. But it’s just an endearing term,
it’s a very shepherding, a very loving term that this
man has towards the Church. But he warns about this great danger,
this danger of being deceived by such a spirit, one of these
false teachers. Now I think it’s interesting, and
you are probably considering it, many of you might be, and
that is, he says “Little children, it is the last hour” [King
James “the last time.”]. Well he said that 1900 years ago. It is the last hour? 1900 years ago? That doesn’t seem like the “last
hour” to me. Did
John actually think that the return of Jesus Christ was imminent,
1900 years ago? And if so, I mean, and we believe these
Scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit, if he believed
that, there seems to be a problem, because Jesus didn’t
come 1900 years ago. Here we are today, he still hasn’t
returned. So
what does he mean by this “it is the last hour” [“last
time”]? Well,
the Greek term that John uses here doesn’t necessarily
refer to the end time in that sense, when Jesus will come
back. But it actually refers to the period of
time since the 1st coming of Christ, it refers
to the Age of the Church. In
fact, the King James, when it renders that, I’m reading
from the New King James, if you have the King James, it renders
the Greek as “it is the last time”. So
it is the last time, it’s kind of time, it’s
not so much a duration of time. So
in the New King James, the NIV, when he says “the last
hour”, he’s referring to just this period of
time, this kind of time, he’s not so much referring
to time in the sense of the last time. But
even if John, and I bet he did, and also Paul, I mean, John
did believe that the return of Jesus Christ was imminent. Although
that’s not necessarily what he’s referring to
here. But he
did believe that. And
as he did, I think we can also remember, Peter’s words
in 2nd Peter chapter 3, verse 8. Peter
said
“But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with
the Lord one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years
is one day.” So
the Holy Spirit could certainly say “here it is the
last hour”, because God is outside of time, and in
his perspective it is the last hour, it’s been the
last hour since Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead,
I mean, it’s a done deal, because of what he’s
done. And this
truth is certainly important for the Church throughout the
ages, realizing indeed the shortness of time. So
as readers, you and I, any time, any generation would read
it as the last hour. I think there is that sense of conveying “time
is short”. That
is something that is so important for believers to remember,
even though it’s been 1900 years. It
was short for them, and it’s short for us. There
is this sense that, you know, the world is passing away,
as he mentioned before. And we need to be living for the things
of the Lord with all our hearts, all our resources and all
our time. When you start to think that ‘Well,
there’s plenty of time’, that’s a danger
because it starts to cause complacency in the Church. And
there’s no time to be complacent, that’s for
sure. And the
reality is, I’m only going to be here so long. And
that time goes pretty quickly. I’ve
only got so much time. So,
there is a sense of urgency, of getting the Gospel out to
the world that is around us. So,
it is the last hour indeed.
Now,
as he says, as he writes this, 19 or so hundred years ago,
he notes that,
“even now many antichrists have come.” You
know, as he’s saying that fifty or sixty years after
Christ, that’s about the time now [90’s AD],
that there’s been many false teachers already, many
false Christ’s that have come. He
is saying that. It’s
continued throughout history, but even at the very getgo
there were many that started to manifest themselves. Of
course, as you remember, as you noted, John is writing against
this heresy of Gnosticism that was already infiltrating its
way into the Church, this belief that Jesus when he came,
you know, ‘matter is evil, spirit is good, therefore
the spirit cannot touch physical matter’, so they had
a real problem with Jesus becoming a man [in the flesh, flesh
and blood human being], God the Son becoming a man. And they had this weird teaching related
to that. So it
began to influence the Church, so indeed he’s writing
against that. Of
course as you look at the New Testament, you know, Paul often
in his letters wrote about the false teachers that were already
starting to abound, and throughout the New Testament this
warning. Many,
many false teachers and antichrists have indeed come. [There are many differing parts of the
body of Christ, many with differing secondary beliefs, and
it is often the way, for one group to attack another due
to the differences, calling other parts of the body antichrist,
and heretic, when they are indeed not so. So we must be careful not to judge what
we don’t fully understand. I
am often reminded of the Sabbatarian Churches of God, often
attacked as heretic, or legalists, when if the truth be known,
they may actually be the remnants of the early Christian
Judeo-Christians of Asia Minor.] And it [these heresies and antichrists]
started from the very beginning, and it’s something
that’s been continuing through the Church. You
know, Paul says to Timothy that this battle against false
teachers, you know, many of them have come, and it continues
to happen. Paul
says in 2nd Timothy that this is going to grow
worse and worse in the latter days. He
says in chapter 4, verse 3 “For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their
one lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the
truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” So
many had come, but also the Bible teaches that it’s
just going to multiply and get worse and worse. In
fact, Paul says to Timothy, it’s going to be so bad
that, as a whole, as a generalization, people won’t
even want to hear the truth anymore, but will heap up many
multitudes of teachers that will say exactly what they want
to say and not what the Bible says. So,
it’s a sign of the end of the age that there’s
more and more false teachers around us. And of course, these antichrists, the
multiplication of them continues to prepare for that one
final hour where the Antichrist, The Antichrist reveals himself.
And I do believe that that hour for the Antichrist is not
far away for sure, as you consider the Scriptures, you see
what’s going on in the world, I believe the Antichrist,
I believe he might even be alive today. And
it’s just a matter of time until he reveals himself. Somebody
passed me an article last Sunday and it seems to tie right
into this message, so I’ll share it with you. But
it’s an article called “The New World Religion.” And it’s about the U.N.’s
Earth Charter, and the significant players that are involved
with this Earth Charter that’s now part of the U.N.—guys
like Mikhail Gorbechov, Steven Rockefeller and Morris Strong,
guys like that, significant players on the world scene are
all part of this thing called the Earth Charter. In
fact they recently had a world summit, this summit was called,
it was on sustainable development, but was called the Earth
Summit too. They had one earlier, a number of years
before, and this is the second one. But
they’ve developed this Charter that they’re seeking
to have permeate all of society. And
the intent is to have it permeate all of society, starting
even at the schools, which they already are doing, the Charter
is already working its way into the schools, it’s working
its way up. But
the idea is to get everybody to adopt this mentality, this
Earth Charter, this type of reasoning, it’s really
to influence the psychology, the psychological state of the
world, in order to prepare really for the one-world government. And they’re kind of wrapping it
up to save the environment. Well
anyway, the Earth Charter, here’s what’s so interesting,
this is what caught my eye, the Earth Charter has been incorporated
into some books they developed, they call them ‘Sacred
Books’, and they’re called, I believe this is
the term, Temenos books. Maybe
you’ve heard about this. “Temenos
is a magical sacred circle where special rules apply, and
extraordinary events inevitably occur when you apply these
rules.” So
what they’ve done, these guys, Mikhail
Gorbechov, they’ve
developed these texts, then they put it into little books
they call “Sacred Books”. What’s even further interesting
is these books are housed in what they call “The Ark
of Hope”, they’ve actually built an ark that
looks just like the biblical Ark of the Covenant, looks just
like it when you see the design of it. In
fact, it has poles through it to be carried just like the
priests carried it. And evidently when they started this whole
thing they had kind of a special religious ceremony in Vermont
and carried it by foot with some men to a sailboat and the
sailboat took it to New York City [must have gone down the
Connecticut River] and they had a special ceremony, they
walked with it for a number of blocks and they brought it
to the U.N. and then they brought it to Johannesburg for
this summit. But they’ve got this sacred book,
and now they have this ark, called the Ark of Hope. Now
they also have in this Ark of Hope a papyrus version, and
obviously it isn’t very old, still looks old, looks
spiritual, of the entire text of the Earth Charter. Well,
the Charter’s authors are not shy about the importance
of their handiwork, in fact early on, a number of years ago,
Mikhail Gorbechov put it this way, “My hope is that
this Charter will be kind of a Ten CommandmentsereHereWWg, a Sermon on the Mount, that provides a guide for human
behavior towards the environment and the next century and
beyond.” He said that in 1997 in an interview with
the Los Angeles Times. But
then Canadian billionaire Morris Strong in his opening address
in the Earth Summit put it this way, “The changes in
behavior and direction called for here must be rooted in
our deepest spiritual, moral and ethical values. I could go on and on and talk about the
New Age, this is all about New Age, the New Age religion. But significant players, and already they
have developed texts for classrooms and it’s being
brought into classrooms. If
you read it initially, some of it seems just fine, but the
idea is, it’s set in a way to also have a religious
tone. And there’s
no doubt about it, it is preparing, it potentially will prepare,
but the day is going to come, there will to a one-world government
and a one-world leader, and he’s not a guy I’m
going to follow because the Bible says he’s the Antichrist. And he’s a man completely possessed
by Satan, and he’ll want the whole world to worship
him. We have
the danger here that John tells us about.
Their departure
Verse 19, he says “They
went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they
had been of us they would have continued with us. But
they went out that they might be made manifest that none
of them were of us.” So, we have the danger, and now he
talks about their departure. These
false teachers, these antichrists, he says here were once
in the Church. And he speaks of their departure. They were once part of the Church, they
appeared to be a part of the Church anyway, but in reality
as he says there in verse 19, they were not true believers. They
looked like they were, they were in the Church, but as
time went on it became evident that they weren’t,
because he says they left the Church. And they went out then heralding a completely
different gospel and a different message about God and
about spirituality, so these antichrists, these false teachers. Now
this issue was such a burden to John,
it’s a burden to him. So
he shares it with the Church. But
it was also a great burden to Paul. And
if you read the Bible reading in the back of our bulletin
yesterday, Saturday, it was listed to read Acts chapter
20. And there
in Acts chapter 20 Paul sits with the Ephesian elders,
his last time with them, and he says this to them, he says “For
this I know, that after my departure savage wolves will
come in among you, not sparing the flock”, but then
he says this, “also from among yourselves men will
rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples
after themselves. Therefore watch and remember that for
three years I did not cease to warn you every night and
day with tears.” He says men will come from among yourselves,
they will rise up. And
he says
‘I warned you with tears for three years, day and night,
don’t forget it, it’s so important.’ It
was a real burden to him. And
why was it such a concern? Well just think of the danger that is
placed amongst God’s people when there’s men,
dynamic men, very personable men, very influential men hanging
out in the church, they seem like they’re the real
deal, but all of a sudden they start to teach things that
are a little different, say things that are a little different. They
begin to manifest themselves. But
if there are young believers, not very discerning, in the
church, what happens is they get led astray. So
it’s a great danger, because
so often they start right within the Church. So
there is a danger to those who are not prepared. I think of Judas, Judas is right at the
first 12. Judas
is an example of that, one of the 12, but he was never a
true disciple. Though,
if you had ever asked the other eleven, before that day there
on the Mount of Olives, they would have said ‘Oh, Judas,
what a man of God, what a brother.’ But
just think of what the disciples must have been struggling
with and going through when they stood there on the Mount
of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, and up comes Judas
with all these soldiers to arrest Jesus. This
was a guy that they had thought all along was a brother,
one of the disciples, part of the Church, real contributor,
real man of God. Clearly they never would have guessed
it as you read the gospels, but the man was never a Christian
[nor was he ever a Messianic believer in Yeshua haMeshiach]. In
fact, Jesus, as you remember in John chapter 6 when we studied
it, he said “he was devil, he was a devil”, had
an antichrist, a false spirit within him. But
so able to deceive and appear one way. And
then the time came where he manifested himself. And
Judas, what he did, that’s happened throughout history. In
fact, if you investigate the cults, the history of the cults,
most of them around us are, any antichristian religion, you’ll
find that most of them, their founders started in the Church. We
could just list off a bunch of names, most of them started
in the Church, David Koresh kind of guys, they were in a
Christian church, but they never were really part of the
Church, they were in the local church, but they weren’t
part of the Church of Jesus Christ [i.e. the body of Christ,
not born-again]. And then the time came, they began to
manifest themselves and draw away people away unto themselves
[like Jim Jones. He
too started in a Christian church]. But
it goes on and on. I believe Shirley McLain, if I remember
my history right, I believe she was in the Church, child
of a pastor, Charles Darwin all these other things
are anti-Christian in their teaching, in their doctrine. It started with people that were actually
in the Church. You
know, I was reading the local newspaper back in January,
and there was an article about this guy Herald Camping. Maybe
you’ve heard of him, he heads up the radio, I don’t
know if you call it ministry anymore, family radio. And
I’ll be honest with you, I used to listen to him in
San Diego a little bit, because it was a talk-radio and it’s
kind of like the radio program we have “To Every Man
An Answer”. People would call up with any question
and we’d give an answer. And
often, it was interesting, his answers. But
I can remember, even telling my wife, I’d listen to
him, didn’t know anything about him at the time, and
I’d hear some of his answers. And once in a while it would just rub
me wrong, and I would say ‘You know, there’s
something just odd there, he’s got some great stuff
and then he spits out this other stuff’ and I stopped
listening to him. Well,
if you remember Herald Camping at all, his colors started
to be more and more manifested. In 1994 he then predicted the end of the
world, in September 1994, it got world attention. He said “The world was going to
end.” Of course it didn’t. And I remember moving out here, and learning
that his radio ministry had a license in the Boston area,
and I figured he was done, so maybe we could get that application,
I remember calling his ministry and saying ‘Hey, you
guys predicted the end of the world, could we have your license’,
and ah, it didn’t work. [laughter] Now, he’s gone even further. This is what John is saying, they start
out, I mean there are many Church leaders listening to Herald
Camping, and more and more people are saying ‘This
guy is getting bizarre.’ But just recently, and that’s why
it was in the newspaper, he’s been stating that it’s
time for all Christians, God wants all his people to leave
the Church, organized Church, and to just stay at home, have
your Bible study at home---it’s not time anymore for
Church leaders, or baptism or Communion, he says all churches
are of the devil, all churches. That would include this church, it would
include any church. That’s
what he’s saying now. [Come
with me down to Guyana to drink Cool-aid, remember that?] So,
he’s been teaching this for the last two years, wants
people to just leave the Church. But
you know he was originally part of the Evangelical Christian
Reform Church, although he isn’t anymore. Well,
that’s the type of, you know we could give more and
more examples. And
there’s no doubt, even today, in the Church there are
men hanging out, women hanging out, they appear one way,
but in time, give them a little bit more time, their colors
will be manifest, because there’s a different thing
going on in their heart. They
are what we call wolves in sheep’s clothing. They
look like sheep today, but eventually the teeth will be seen. Sheep don’t have carnage on their
mouths and these guys eventually do, and they gobble up sheep,
they are against God ultimately and against the Church. So,
there’s this danger, when he speaks of their departure.
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