It's good to have the ferals back from their travels. Some of the assorted ferals are still out there. And Poythress's as well. Brian's graduation. Brother Micah is gonna come and speak to us this morning. We had a talk with Dr. Gonzalez not long ago about his schooling, and so I'll continue to pray for Micah in that regard, as he seeks to finish out the program by spring of 2020, all right? And so I've been praying for him. trying to make sure he has time for studies and not overwork him, but I'm glad he's always ready to go when I ask him to preach. So Micah, if you will come, and I'll clear out my library. I thought Pastor Lewis was going to make it easy on me and leave Pastor Downing's lectures up here. I guess that's not going to be the case. Really, the Sunday School message that our pastor brought coincides well with the text that we're going to be considering in 1 John today as we continue our survey of the book of 1 John, short little epistle. We left off in verse 17 the last time. 1 John 2, verse 1, the apostle writes, 1 John 2, verse 1, "'My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.'" He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, in him truly, The love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His namesake. I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour. And as you've heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you receive from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in Him so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we have come into your house today on this your day to worship you. We have come as your people. We have come with your word to worship you, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is unto your name we would give glory, O Lord. We pray that you would forgive us of our sins, cleanse us by your blood, forgive us according to your great grace and mercy, that the worship that we offer may be pure and acceptable and pleasing to you. Pray that you would bless the message this morning, that it would be of benefit spiritually to your people. Pray that you would strengthen our faith in your son, Pray that you would strengthen our wills in your cause, oh Lord. Pray that you would encourage us, oh Lord. Show us your glory in this, your word you have inspired. We pray all these things for the glory of your own name, amen. So our text this morning, Pastor Little was in Malachi chapter three, dealt with the false religious teachers in Israel who were serving in a religious capacity just for monetary gain. They were not interested in spiritual gain for the people, but in filling their own coffers, as it were. We have before us in 1 John this morning another text that deals with false teachers, many antichrists that have come. We're going to consider today. The Apostle, in our consideration of the Epistle thus far, he's already set forth two tests whereby we may know we are the children of God. The first was a test of obedience in chapter 2, verses 3 through 6, where the Apostle wrote that by this we come to know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Some may say that it's impossible for us to ever know that we're a child of God. That's not at all a biblical idea. The Holy Spirit bears record with our spirit. We're the children of God. Verses like this tell us we can know that we know Him, that we know God, if we keep His commandments. That was the first test. The second was a test of love for the brethren. In chapter 2, verses 9 through 11, The apostle told us that if anyone says they're in the light and yet they hate the brethren, they hate their brothers and sisters in Christ, you can be sure they're not in the light. They are in darkness as they hate the people of God. That was the second test the Apostle set forth. And this morning we're going to consider two verses as part of a third test the Apostle sets forth and that is the test of endurance. Originally I wanted to consider verses 18 through 27 As I got into the text, I was only able to get through two verses, and I realized I had probably more material than we'll get through. We'll see how that goes. But we'll consider verses 18 and 19 and begin this consideration of the third test, one of endurance of the people of God. And we pick up in verse 18 of chapter 2. of this epistle which John wrote to the universal church. He did not address this epistle to any church specifically as some of the apostles did. He wrote this to the universal church because the church was being harassed, assaulted by false doctrine, false teachers coming up in the ranks of the church and then disseminating heresy among the people of God. And so the apostle John, to give as wide a readership to his epistle as possible, does not address it to anyone specifically that it may have as wide dissemination as the errors it sought to combat. So, the portion before us in 1 John, this closing of chapter 2, is of a darker nature. We pick up some strong denouncements here from the Apostle. We have reference to a mysterious spiritual enemy. And the whole passage is painted over with ominous warnings from the apostle. There is a sense of urgency that's carried upon waves of smoke from the battlefield. We kind of pick that up as we read. This is something born out of warfare, a warning from a leader in the church. And these warnings, these words of the apostle, they remain as stark and contrasted as ever before. And his warnings lose none of their edge even as their antiquity grows. This passage is just as relevant for us today. The Apostle continues to use stark terms. He's contrasting light, darkness, good, evil, hate, love. He's throwing down the contrasts and we're going to have more to consider today. So verse 18, the Apostle begins with, children, it is the last hour. And on this note of children, we see that he's already addressed in chapter two, verse one, my little children. And then again, in verse 12 of chapter two, I'm writing to you little children. And then again, in verse 18, he uses this phrase, Children, it is the last hour. The apostle seeing himself as a father in the faith, having something of a spiritual responsibility for these churches that he has no doubt labored in, perhaps planted some, he sees a responsibility as their father in the faith to warn them, to encourage their hearts with this epistle. So, his audience, little children, it is the last hour, or the last time in the King James. The Greek word there is ora, which the King James has 108 uses of, and 89 of those it translates hour. In the King James this is time. It's referring to an undefined period, an amount of time, The Apostle here, in verse 17, we have him closing with, whoever does the will of God abides forever. You have an infinite amount of time. And then you have, in verse 18, an undefined period of time. It is the last hour. And the last hour in scripture is an unspecified length of time before Christ's return. We'll look at some text to support that in Acts chapter 2. If you will, turn to Acts chapter 2. Biblically, the last hour or the last time refers to the period of time between Jesus' ascension that we sang about earlier and His second coming. He's coming back. He's come the first time. He's coming back. In Acts chapter 2, biblical writers make use of this. Peter, in his sermon, refers to this period as the last days. Acts chapter 2, he quotes Joel and as a As infallible scripture, this usage of the prophet here is a divinely inspired use. He says in verse 17, in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Here at Pentecost, that was fulfilled. And the The Apostle Peter makes use of that phrase from Joel. And the author of Hebrews, again, makes use of the phrase in the book of Hebrews 1.2. If you will turn to Hebrews 1.2, we'll see it there again. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2, we'll start reading in verse 1. Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. So there we see the idea biblically of the last time, the last hour, is the intermediate period between Jesus' first and second coming, a period in which each of us lives, a period which has lasted thus far almost 2,000 years, over 2,000 years if you start from his birth. So, Jesus has come the first time. He's bound up the strong man, Satan, and now the plundering is taking place. Now the church is being built up. Now the people of God, the elect, are being called out, saved, as the preaching of God's Word goes forth. The plundering is taking place by the risen Savior. And John moves from the last hour to his warning of The Antichrist, back to 1 John 2, verse 18, says, children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. And this was a passage that, the reason I preached John 2, the wedding at Canaan last time, was a passage I approached with much trepidation. The Antichrist is something of a mysterious personage, Among those who have just a basic level of Bible understanding, they have some concept of the Antichrist figure. And fascination levels are usually pretty high regarding the Antichrist figure. Daniel Aiken, in his commentary on 1 John, cites a Newsweek poll from November 1, 1999, almost 20 years ago, that found 19% of Americans believe that Antichrist was alive on the earth. Maybe 20 years later, some still believe that, hold to that. Of course, we all know Americans today who claim that Antichrist is most definitely alive on the earth. They can tell you their name and they can tell you what political office they hold. So the fascination around Antichrist and the labeling of Antichrist on different political figures, other figures perhaps, shows that the idea is one that is at least alive among the ideas of society. In John Calvin's day, he held very strongly to the idea that the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church was the Antichrist. If you read Calvin's commentaries, he hammers that out every opportunity. The Pope is the Antichrist. The Pope is the Antichrist. Calvin was a product of his time. You've got to give him that. He was, during the time of the Reformation, That was a big thing they were challenging was the Pope, who is an Antichrist. I make no apology for that. He teaches false doctrine, mocks the Lord, seeks to glorify his own self, and he's an Antichrist figure. No doubt about that. Our own London Baptist Confession reflects this thinking. If you take your hymnal, you can go to chapter 26, paragraph 4. That's reflected there. that the Pope is the Antichrist, our own confession holds to that. 1689, over a hundred years after Calvin, that idea is still alive and well and even founded into our beloved 1689. But if we're going to have a biblical idea, a biblical understanding of who Antichrist is, we need to do something of a clearing away of popular conceptions of the Antichrist figure, and we want to look at the biblical witness. Calvin can have his idea. The 1689 can say what it says. We want to go to the Scriptures first and foremost. We'll let Calvin in 1689 have their turn to speak later. The voice we want to hear from is the Scriptures. So we turn in the Scriptures to all the usages of Antichrist. We're only going to have to go a couple of pages because John is the only human author of Scripture that makes use of the term Antichrist. And it is only used five times. It's only used in his epistles. little bit of trivia there concerning the usage. We have here in verse 18, two of those usages, two of the five usages, 40% of the usages of the term Antichrist are in this one verse. He says that Antichrist is coming, many Antichrists, there's a plural form, have come. And then you probably caught it in verse 22, who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. And then it's used one more time in 1 John, if you want to turn a page or two over to 1 John chapter 4. In verse three, the Apostle uses this term again. He says, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. And then one more usage of the Apostle, from the Apostle, in 2 John, a few more pages over, we see this term appearing for the final time 2 John, in verse 7, we read, "...for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist." And there you have it. Those are all the biblical usages of the term antichrist. Through the years since the Apostle wrote these epistles, many have associated the Antichrist figure mentioned here with another end times character, one who's supposed to come perhaps at the end of the last hour, such as the little horn of Daniel in Daniel 7 verses 24 through 26. You may remember the little horn we went through. Daniel, or maybe the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 1 through 12. The Apostle Paul goes on a lengthy discourse concerning a man of lawlessness who's going to rise up and oppose our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then in Revelation 13, we have a couple of mythical beasts arising that seek to glorify themselves and set themselves against the Lamb of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And the Antichrist may very well be one of them. But John does not focus on the identity or the character of Antichrist here in verse 18. He focused more on the character of Antichrist than many Antichrists that have come. make some remarks on it in 2 John 7, but his focus is not on the identity or the time of coming of the Antichrist. His focus is more on the plurality of Antichrists, how they reflect the Antichrist, how they are in league with one another and setting themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. Needless to say, of course, the little horn in Daniel, the man of lawlessness, the beast of revelation, they're all anti-Jesus Christ. So we want to think of this term anti-Christ. It may refer to one specific character. It does say that anti-Christ is coming. But we want to think of it, there's also a spirit that characterizes someone that is anti-Christ. And we want to bear that in mind. We'll flesh a little bit of that out later. And John's focus, as we mentioned, is not focused on a coming archenemy of God's Son, but on false teachers and liars whom John labels Antichrist. There's a strong denunciation behind the term that the Apostle uses to call out these false teachers who deny the Father and the Son in verse 22, and then over in 2 John, who teach that Jesus Christ does not have humanity, that He may be the Son of God, but He hasn't come in the flesh. There are Christological doctrines that are being twisted, or distorted, or outright denied. And the Apostle is saying, one who does such things, they are anti-Christ. They are exhibiting an anti-Christ spirit. A spirit that is anti, or against, Jesus Christ. And so John's focus is, again, not so much on Antichrist, the proper noun, but more toward the anti-Christian disposition indicative to all false teachers who deny these things that the Lord has set forth for us clearly in His Word. And the church would do well to follow John's focus instead of being overly fascinated with, well, who could be the Antichrist? The church should seek to hold to orthodox doctrine and warn about those who don't, because we care about souls. We care about believing what God has told us we ought to believe and hold to, hold fast to. The church, Baptist churches, especially here in the Deep South, have had a fascination a long time with who the Antichrist is, when the end of the world is, all these things. When's Armageddon going to take place? Personally, I don't care about any of it. My Savior's going to lead me into battle and we're going to take the day. That's all I care about. He's got the rest of it. I'm going to trust in Him. He's going to slay the foes. I don't care when the end comes. It'd be awesome if it'd be today, because I'm ready to go home. I don't know about you, but I'm not worried about when Armageddon is going to be. And Jesus tells us, no man knows the day or the hour. What a vain, futile thing to spend your time on wondering when the end of the world is going to be. Go about proclaiming the gospel so that when the end of the world comes, people are ready. That's where the focus ought to be. So I frankly get tired of Fundamentalists who get up in pulpits and just beat out end times over and over and over and over again ad nauseum. Get on TV and talk about blood moons and Russia's doing this and everything else. Who cares? Who cares? Jesus has got the whole world in His hands. He's going to lead His saints into victory. I think we sang about that in one of these hymns as well. So, we are concerned about holding to orthodox doctrine, proclaiming that doctrine, because men's souls are at stake. More importantly, the glory of God is at stake in these matters. Daniel, when we went through Daniel chapter 12, he asked a question about being able to tell the end of time. After the angel goes through the discourse there in chapter 12, Daniel asked, so when are these things going to be? A question a lot of people have. And what was Daniel told? Go your way, Daniel. These things are sealed up. Nice try, not giving you anything. We have to content ourselves with what the Lord has given us. He's given us a duty. And he's given us futility. And we know we're supposed to do that duty before our time is up, before the vapor that we are vanishes in a moment. And so, would it be about our duty, not about, you know, Chicken Little running around the skies, falling, skies, falling, skies, falling? No, it's not. Our Savior's got all this. We're to follow Him and to obey His commands. So, whoever Antichrist is, Jesus will deal with him. We'll get to some of that again in a moment. But we're called to oppose false teachers, these many Antichrists that have come, that John warns us about. There in verse 18. John is calling his readers to remember. He says, as you've heard, Antichrist is coming. There are warnings of Jesus that he gave. We read some in Mark 13. If you want to turn back to Mark 13. The Gospel of Mark. Jesus warned that false Christs were going to come. False Christs were going to come to deceive many. Of course, we can call out some proper names. Jim Jones and Sun Ming Moon or whatever the Oriental fellow was who got a bunch of people to follow him. But in Mark 13, we have a warning from Jesus. Mark 13, 6. In verse 5, Jesus began to say to them, see that no one leads you astray. In other words, there's going to be people that try to. Verse 6, many will come in my name saying, I am he and will lead many astray. When Jesus comes back, the clouds are going to rip open, we're going to hear a trumpet, we're going to know. The dead in Christ are going to rise first. Man goes around saying, I'm Christ, I'm Christ, I'm the son of God. You go find a plethora of fellows saying they're sons of God. God has a lot of sons. Apparently, He does. He has adopted sinners whom He's redeemed. But there's many that go about today claiming to be the Christ. In verse 22 again, we have another warning from our Savior. For false Christs and false prophets whom we heard about in Jeremiah 23, they will arise, they'll perform signs and wonders. Whoa! They're going to carry some street cred in the form of miracles maybe. And false prophets will arise, perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, oh, clause there, the elect. God's gonna keep his elect. That's not a call for spiritual laxity on our part. We're to endure, called to endure. But there are false prophets that are gonna rise, perform signs. We know in Matthew 7 where the Lord says, There's gonna be many that stand before me and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied, done great wonders in your name? And the Lord's gonna say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Call them out for what they are. I never knew you. So, just because somebody's performing signs and wonders, that doesn't mean that they're ministries of God. We know people can deceive magic and all that sleight of hand stuff. It's possible for... folks to be deceived. So we need to heed the warnings of Scripture about these matters. It's not miracles that should cause us to follow after a certain one. The miracle we seek is the regeneration of dead souls. That's the miracle we're looking for. We're not looking for, you know, healings and all that hoopla that these faith healers go about trying to promote. There's plenty of documentaries out there that expose that nonsense for what it is. And so the church has no need to be overly fascinated with trying to come up with some way to perform miracles to draw people in. If the gospel of free grace of God and salvation, the forgiveness of all your sins through Jesus Christ does not attract you, then there's no hope for you. You got two eyes full of the world. You're in love with the world. That's the best thing. That's what everybody's seeking for. How am I right with the one who made me? How do I be right with the one who made me? So, we as saints of God have no need to fear those false teachers who have an anti-Christ spirit. We don't have any need to fear them. We've been warned. And while we do not need to be afraid of them, we do need to be aware of them. We do need to be aware that they're out there. We do need to heed the warnings of Scripture that they are going to teach blasphemous things. They have not the fear of God. Jews in particular deny that the Messiah that came is really God the Son. Don't believe that He is. And Muslims deny that the Messiah that came, the knowledge of the Messiah came, but He wasn't really God the Son. He wasn't really deity. He wasn't really God of very God, the God not created. So there are religions the church has done war with for millennia, for centuries, that hold to these things the apostle wrote about 2,000 years ago. So, there are other splinter cults, of course, that deny the deity or the humanity of Jesus Christ, or they're founded on a cult leader that claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God, God incarnate. Jesus warned about following these. We read in Mark, there's again warnings in Matthew 24, verses 24 through 27, kind of a parallel passage with Mark's gospel that we read. And the Bible teaches that Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. One of the things I'm looking forward to doing, It gives me more opportunities to preach. I want to do a series on the humanity and the deity of Jesus Christ. I've already got lots of thoughts going in that direction. But the Bible teaches clearly that Jesus is 100% God, 100% man. He's not some odd mixture of the two. He is both. We've talked about this in some messages past. 100% man, he's the second Adam. He comes that he can represent us. If he wasn't a man, fully a man, he couldn't represent any one of us. He's fully God. He has the righteousness that we need to stand before God. That righteousness is imputed to us when we believe the gospel and credited to our account instead of our sin. Our sin is expiated and put away, and the righteousness of Christ, the holy life that he lived, never breaking one of God's commandments and always glorifying him at all times, is imputed to our account. And we're not guilty. Not only are we not guilty, we're righteous saints. We're righteous. Considered righteous by the grace, the mercy of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. And so you cannot deny either the deity or the humanity of Jesus and still have the Jesus that the Bible represents, the Jesus that the Bible sets forth. So we warn others. We show them from the text of Scripture, Jesus is the God-man. I'm always excited when the Aryans, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, whoever else, comes to my door. I love going to the Scriptures again and showing the divinity of Christ. That's something wonderful. I'm rejoicing to see it again, even if they're not. There's plenty of texts. We have John 1, of course, that our brother Jim has taught through. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. Same was in the beginning of God. Without Him, nothing was made that is made. Well, if Jesus is a creation, how could He have made Himself if He wasn't created? That's a real logical checkmate they have to deal with. Titus 2.13, the coming of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Romans 9.5, again, teaches the deity of Christ. Hebrews 1.8, where Psalm 45 is ascribed to Jesus Christ. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, ascribed to the Son. You have Joshua 5.14, where Joshua bows before the commander of the Lord's host, worships him, a Christophany. You have Colossians 1.15-17, kind of parallels John 1. where Jesus Christ made all things. Well, if he's a creation, he couldn't have made himself. He would have to exist first, and then he could make himself. That's logically impossible. 2 Peter 1, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and then verse 11, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He's called both God and Lord. Revelation 5, 12 through 14, we have all the hosts, all of creation being called to bow before the Lamb and worship Him. And just previous to that in Revelation, John the Apostle, the same John that wrote our epistle we're considering today, tried to worship an angel. The angel said, oh, no, don't do that. Get up, because I'm a created being, too. You won't worship only the Lord. Well, here in Revelation 5, we have the Lamb receiving global praise. All the creatures bowing, the planets, the plants, everything bowing before the Lord Jesus Christ and worshiping Him. So the deity of Christ is all over scripture as well as in humanity. There's just a smattering of texts. And our time on earth as Christians is not to be spent caught up looking for an insurrection led by a notoriously wicked anti-Christian leader so we don't get something stamped on our heads and foreheads. or foreheads and hands. Our job here on earth is to adhere to and proclaim the true doctrine of scripture and to have our doctrine filled out by right teaching of scripture and the right study of scripture as the Bereans, Acts 17 11. Jesus has given it to us to oppose false teachers and teaching. The church is the pillar and ground of truth. Church is the pillar and ground of truth, not the autonomous individual, not the elite, not the consensus of society. The church is the pillar and ground of truth, of truth. We have the truth. We've been entrusted with the truth. Pilate asked Jesus, te est in elatheia, what is truth? John 17, thy word is truth, Jesus says to his father. It's given to us to oppose false teachers by setting forth the truth, by preaching the word, in season, out of season, when it's convenient, when it's not. Jesus deals with the Antichrist. What does he do with the little horn of Daniel 7, 26? He takes his dominion away, the one who has all dominion, to consume it and destroy it to the end. What does he do with the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians? I love this. In 2 Thessalonians 2, 8, he destroys him with his breath. Jesus has a sword. We know from 1 Chronicles 21, 14-17 that Jesus has a sword. But to defeat the man of lawlessness, he doesn't even get it out, he just breathes. And there he goes, so wimpy. The very thing we are struggling for in a fight, to breathe oftentimes, is the very thing the Lord Jesus uses to defeat his spiritual foes. He made all things. The only enemies that can arise are His creatures that were spoken into existence by Him. So He can very well speak them out of existence. He doesn't need weapons such as His power. So, Jesus, what does He do with the beasts of Revelation 13? He throws them into the lake of fire to be eternally tormented. One in Revelation 17 and 8 and the other in Revelation 19 and 20. And in the midst of describing the beasts in Revelation 13, John says that this is a call. These beasts are coming. They're going to rise up. They're going to gather a host to do war against the Lamb. This is a call for endurance for the saints. Remember, John wrote Revelation. He wrote these epistles. He wrote his gospel. This is a call for endurance, same John. These things are not told us to paralyze us with fear, my brothers and sisters, let that be known. These things are, we're not told about antichrists and men of lawlessness, little horns and beasts, for us to be filled with fear and dread, for us to be stopped in our tracks from proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're not told of these things to paralyze us. What does 2 Timothy 1.7 tell us? We are not given a spirit of fear. We've not been given that. We've been given the gospel that overcomes. That has the power to change the worst of men. Children, it's the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. The false teachers, those who deny the Father and the Son, in verse 22. 2 John 7. deceivers who've gone out in the world who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist, a spiritual enemy of God. Right doctrine is important, my brothers and sisters, lest we be found an enemy of God. John goes on, therefore we know that it is the last hour. His last phrase in verse 18. And we must remember our larger context that John was writing to reaffirm to the saints that Jesus had come in the flesh. Doctrine is important, of course, we've been stressing that all along. Jesus' life and teaching are not up for private interpretation. To take whatever you want to take from Jesus, you can leave the rest, you know, you can beast meal him out. I like the sermon on the mount. I don't like this stuff about, you know, my family's going to be my enemies now. I don't like this stuff about taking up cross, that sounds heavy. You know, we have to take all of Christ, all of his life, all of his teaching. Unless you eat my body, drink my blood, unless you imbibe all of my teaching, you have no part in me. You have no part in me. Our Christology must be built exclusively from Scripture, that by a right interpretation. So John is writing again, mentioned to defend against the error that Jesus did not come in the flesh. He was merely some phantom or a spook, the error of the docetist that we went through. We went through 1 John 1. As you know, of course, truth must logically precede error. You've got to have something factual before you can make up lies about the facts or twist those facts. So Jesus, he had come in the flesh. Got that, that much from chapter one. I'm sorry, chapter four, verse three. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and is now in the world already. I'm sorry, verse two is the verse I was looking for. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Jesus Christ has come. He does have a humanity. That's the truth. The lie that's being distorted is what John's seeking to counter by reaffirming this truth. Christ, of course, must logically precede all anti-Christ. You can't be anti-something that doesn't first exist. That's the whole problem with the atheists. They say there is no God. Well, you have to logically have a God before you can deny it. And as G.K. Chesterton set forth, if there was no God, there'd be no reason to be an atheist. And atheists still have not come up with an answer for that one. So, the fact that the error of the docetist was being spread is in fulfillment of Christ's prophecy that false teachers would come. that would come after his ascension. John MacArthur, y'all are familiar of course with John MacArthur, remarks that one of the validations of Christianity is continuing worldwide hatred of Christ and the multiplied attempts to counterfeit him. They're counterfeiting something that has come. Do you really want to try to go against Jesus Christ, the one who commands the winds and the waves and destroys spiritual foes with his breath? That's a fool's errand if there ever was one, to oppose the Lord Jesus Christ. But Psalm 2 tells us, blessed are all those who take refuge in him. He's the best friend and the worst enemy. So, thereby we know it's the last hour. Christ's words are being fulfilled, because every word he's spoken will be fulfilled to the last jot and tittle. Heaven and earth will pass away, Matthew 24, 35. My words will not pass away. His word is fixed forever in the heavens, and nobody on this earth can negate that, can say this is not God's word. It's fixed forever in the heavens, negated by none on the ground. So, verse 19, they went out from us. They, these antichrists, they, the plural term there, went out from us, but they were not of us. They went out from us. The enemy was at one time in our own ranks, John is saying. And we have more stark contrasts here from the apostle. They went out from us. They were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us, says the apostle. And this verse highlights several important truths, that there is an in and an out when it comes to the church. You're either a part of the church or you're not. There's no gray area. I'm kind of on the fence about this. You're a child of God or a child of Satan? You're in one of two families. So, there is an in and an out when it comes to who are the people of God. The early church had an in and out. They kept track. More were being saved. 3,000 souls in one day from Peter's sermon. They kept track, Acts 2.41. 47. And then chapter 5, verse 14. Chapter 6, verse 7. Chapter 11, verse 24. Chapter 16, verse 5. They kept track of their numbers. They weren't overly fascinated like some Southern Baptist are today. Got a post-it over here on the wall, you know, so many in a tent or whatever. It was they wanted to know who was in, who was out. Why? Because God has given responsibility to ministers to keep watch over the souls of folks. Well, how do you know who to keep watch over if you don't have a defined church membership there? There's an in, there's an out. Church discipline presupposes that. You can't excommunicate somebody who wasn't a member. It doesn't fit. And we're told in Galatians 6.10, of course, do good to everyone, especially those of the household of faith. Without a defined household of faith, what do you make of that verse? Yeah, it was supposed to be good to everyone. There's a special priority to those of the household of faith, for us who are of the household of faith. Of course, this idea of joining oneself to a church, that can be certainly no doubt abused, as it was by these on the Antichrist. There are those who tell themselves, well, I'm on a church roll. That's where I was baptized, you know, as a kid, whatever, even though they're nowhere to be found anytime the church doors are open. They don't care about the right doctrine. They don't care about having right doctrine. They don't care about keeping the commandments of God, about loving the brethren, all these tests the apostles have set forth. They enjoy none of the benefits of membership that the members do, the benefits of hearing of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I never get tired of coming to church and hearing about Him. I'm here every time the doors are open. The Lord has made that a possibility in my life. I love coming to the house of God to hear His Word set forth. Oh, it's rich. I'd rather do that than almost anything else, probably more than anything else. If you ask my wife what my passion is, that's probably what she'd say. I hope that's what she'd say. but they enjoy none of the benefits of church membership. Would you expect, consider for a moment, your gym membership to count for anything if you sat at home and watched TV all day? You don't enjoy any of the benefits that that membership has. While you're telling someone you're a member at your local gym, your out-of-shape physique is telling another story. While you're saying, I'm a member of the church, you're out of shape spiritually, that's telling another story. That you're not a member. Your love for the world is telling another story. God is not interested if your name is written on a church roll. He's interested if it's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's where you want your name written down. So according to John, wrong or anti-Christian doctrine concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ puts you outside of the church, outside of the people of God, and indicates your name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. There's a lot at stake here. There's a lot the apostle's setting forth in his contrast. Secondly, move through these kind of quickly, it denies that all kinds of teaching are acceptable within the church. We're not all God's children. We're all his creations. Therefore, we're called to give worship to him as our good creator. For the children of God, we're doubly accountable. We've been adopted. We've been given second birth. Not just first, but second birth. We're doubly accountable now. God does not respect all beliefs and all doctrines concerning his son. The demons believe, and it's not doing them any good. God does not have just a general, oh, man, yeah, you acknowledge my son. Okay, that's cool. Yeah, I'll put a place in heaven for you. Not at all. Not at all. We don't let anyone just storm in here and preach on a doctrinally dubious testimony. We want to know who's setting forth the word of life to us. We can say, well, but he knows the Bible real well. Well, Satan knows the Bible real well. We don't want him standing up here telling us what to think about it. It's got to be more than that. Ask Eve how that went, Satan and his Bible knowledge. This reinforces why it's important for church to have a confession. With a confession you can have an objective standard by which you can identify wrong doctrine. Doctrine is important. Wrong doctrine about Jesus can land you on the wrong side of eternity. So thirdly, first was that there's an in and out with the people of God. Not all kinds of teaching are acceptable among the people of God. Thirdly, the church's worst enemies are often those who are once a part of it. There have been plenty of atheists, you can go find, pull up their debates on YouTube, who were once pastors. Dan Barker. Different ones who now just rail against the people of God. Bart Ehrman, studied under Bruce Manning Metzger. Different ones who've studied and know the Word of God, and they use that as a weapon against the Lord. It's going to be a mighty bad day of reckoning for some of them. But this verse does not teach that everyone who leaves an Orthodox church is an apostate. I want to make that clear. You don't have to be a member of this church to be someone of the people of God. Of course not. And not everyone who leaves an Orthodox church is necessarily an apostate. We've had plenty leave our church for good reasons. Due to they were going to do a church plant. They're going to the mission field. Their job moved them somewhere else. They studied the Scriptures and came to different doctrinal conclusions and went and joined a church that was more like faith with him. They just fit in better in another church. That's okay. That's okay. We're fine with that. There are good reasons to leave a church, but not every reason is equally valid or good. The reason that John is referring to here is that these Antichrists have traded true doctrine of Christ for false doctrine. They have no business being in the church. They're Antichrist, and they're going to pretend to stand up here and be his mouthpiece and teach you guys? Be careful. See that no one leads you astray. And some who've come into the church, they have deviant doctrine that they intend to disperse really subtly. You know, our brother Ben Gardner, love that brother, he tells us that a wolf is never going to come in the church announcing he's a wolf. What does Jesus say in Matthew 7.15? What does he come in wearing? Sheep's clothing. Eh, wolves, they got some smart to them. They gonna be among sheep, dress like one. Costume off and then try to devour the sheep. Others develop deviant doctrinal inclinations in time. That's why we're told again and again in the scriptures to maintain the traditions that have been handed down to us. 1 Corinthians 11.2. Paul writes again in 2 Thessalonians 2.15, So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by spoken word or by our letter. Hold fast to these things. And then in 2 Timothy 1.13-14, we're to follow the pattern of sound words that you've heard from me, writes the Apostle Paul. The sound words you've heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Responsibility there, an obligation, stand firm, guard this good deposit. One who has set under good teaching and preaching and spurned it are often the most hard hearted and the hardest to try to witness to and bring back. Because if you come to the house of God, you sit under the preaching of the word of God, it has one of two effects on you. It either draws out your affections after Christ and causes you to love him more, to worship him more, or you hear it and your heart is more hardened. One of two happens inevitably every time you hear the preaching of the word of God. So you've got to ask yourself now, Is my heart being drawn out after the Lord Jesus Christ to love Him, serve Him, obey Him, worship Him? Or is my heart being hardened against the truths that I have heard? Am I going to go home and, okay, I have a nice message, and harden my heart against it, and harden my heart against the gospel, and against the commands of my Creator that made me? One of two things is going to happen. So, harden not your hearts to your own damnation. Pardon them not. Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 verse 29. Hebrews 10, we'll begin reading in verse 29. We'll read a few verses there. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God? and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, sanctified by hearing the word of God, that's a blessing, and has outraged the spirit of grace, resisted the Holy Spirit, blasphemed him. For we know, in verse 30, Hebrews 10, for we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He's a consuming fire. He's a consuming fire. Is your heart being hardened? You must ask yourself that this day. Ask the Lord to give you a soft, pliable heart that He can impress upon His word. He can engrave His word upon that heart. Oh, that that would be your prayer if your heart is hardened. Let it not grow harder this day. Let it not grow harder and harder and harder and harder. Fourthly, it should cause us to exhort one another. Hebrews 3. You're already in Hebrews. Let's go back to Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3 in verse 12. Take care, brothers, or in the Greek, brethren, brothers and sisters, lest there be in any of you, he's talking to the church, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. What does he call us to do about that? But exhort one another every day or daily, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of Sin, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We sometimes ask ourselves about someone who seems to be falling away. Well, what happened? Well, did you stop exhorting them daily? Well, they're gonna drift. This is what the Lord has prescribed for our good, my brothers and sisters, that we exhort one another daily, as long as it's called daily, that none of us be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. This should cause us to exhort one another, that some go out from us because they're not of us. Let us exhort one another. lest we have apostasy. None of us, of course, can turn to the other and declare with an infallible certainty we know they are a Christian, maybe an apostate. We can't declare with infallible certainty. Only the Holy Spirit can convince someone that they are a child of God. Yes, we treat each other as brothers and sisters. We maintain a profession of faith. Yes, that's right and good that we treat each other as brothers and sisters, call each other brothers and sisters. The writers of Scripture, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sometimes they make a declaration their readers were saved. 1 John 2.20 is one of those declarations. Another is 1 Thessalonians 1.4. But for us in this post-apostolic age, while we yet live on this earth, there's the possibility that we might apostatize. That's why daily we need to encourage one another and be encouraged. That's why God puts us in a body. We're not left to ourselves. See how he orchestrated all these things? He puts it together just so that it works, that the whole body works together, builds each other up. We heard Pastor Little talk about that in Ephesians. This is why we must tend with all vigilance to the care of our souls. We put on our armor every day. We pray at all times. We fill our hearts and our minds with the precious word of God. We seek to stir up our brothers and our sisters to the same vigilant care of their own souls. We put ourselves under a faithful shepherd who will keep watch over our souls, who will lead us by green pastures. Care for us. That's how the Lord has designed it to be. He calls us to exhort one another, fourthly. This is the need for saints to persevere. They went out from us because they were not of us. They did not endure back in 1 John. They did not endure. They went out from us. They left the church that was teaching the truth. This is the need for the saints to persevere. No one, of course, whom Christ is atoned for will be given the mark of the beast. None of God's elect shall perish. John's Gospel is all about that. The sheep cannot be plucked out of the hand of the Savior. No one who has Christ, no one whom Christ is atoned for will apostatize and ultimately perish. Christ has procured salvation for us. He didn't procure salvation and leave the rest of it to us, the sanctification up to us to go mess up and all. No, He has procured salvation full and free. And we will persevere to the end. John MacArthur again, salvation is not the reward for endurance, but endurance is a mark of salvation. One of the ways we can know somebody is saved, or can come to know somebody is saved, is that they continue on in the faith. That the storms and trials of this life don't sink them. They carry on. They continue praising the Lord all the day. Therefore we must examine ourselves because there's a need for us to persevere. We must examine ourselves to see whether we're in the faith. 2 Corinthians 13.5. 2 Timothy 2.19 tells us, but God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are His. He knows. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. The doctrine of perseverance, which is the fifth point in our five points of Calvinism that we hold dear. The doctrine of perseverance is not given to us so that we may slip into a state of spiritual laxity. Stop caring for ourselves. Well, I'm gonna persevere to the end. I mean, Jesus said he's begun the work, he's gonna continue it. No, there's a, our part is in this too. It's given to reassure us that as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, that's given to us to do, it's God that works in us. We've given it to us, he's given it to us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it's him that works. You can't take God's part out, you can't take our part out, because God has put them together. We have to take them both together. So, It's God who works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure. That's Philippians 2, 12 and 13. We are not called to rest on a work begun, but to labor for a work completed. There are few things as depressing as an unfinished project. You look at the time, the money, the effort, the mental energy put into something only to see it halted, just dropped. It's sad, all the unfinished work. We're called to labor for work completed. He's begun a good work in us. He's given it to us to work out our own salvation. We have to work it out. He's given it to us so that we can work it out. But we're not to rest on that. It is God that wills and works and is for our good pleasure. We can't tear those apart. We always have to take them together. They always have to be taken. One with the other. Sixth, and finally, we should ask God to purify His church. They went out from us. Now, that kind of sounds ominous in one ear. It sounds like a sigh of relief in the other. They went out from the church. Their doctrine was not going to get spread among those people anymore. That's a relief. I pray that the Lord takes down churches where false doctrine is proclaimed. I do that with a clear conscience. If they're taking God's word and using it to teach lies about him and to mock him, God is not pleased with that. And we should pray for orthodox churches to be established across the land, that the truth of God's word may go forth and not men's lies and imaginations, even if they cherry-pick verses to try and support those things. We should ask God to purify his church, starting with us. We know the scriptures teach that judgment begins at the house of God. He cleans house. He did it once with a whip, flipping over tables. He cleans his house. Nobody housekeeps better than God. John 10, 27, and 28. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, they follow me. I give them eternal life. They'll never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. We should be grateful when the wolves are removed, and our shepherd leads us away from the wolf, or fends a wolf off for us. We should pray for that, hope for that. So, back to our text. They went out from us, they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us. They didn't continue, they didn't endure. They went after false doctrine, they're not saved. Leave them up to God. Let them be in the hands of the Lord. Let them fall into His judgment. Let Him deal with them. in his own time, in his own way. But they went out, he closes verse 19 with this, but they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. Those who leave the church because they want to cling to heretical doctrine, because they want to follow after a man who claims to be God, they make it plain they do not belong to Jesus Christ. They may be shepherded by that man, who claims to be the Son of God. They may worship Him, but they do not belong to Jesus Christ. They make it plain that they are not of us. They did not stand firm. They did not continue in the Apostles' doctrine and teaching. So we have these three tests, obedience, love, and endurance. God has given us the means to rebuke and correct false doctrine with His Holy Word. We have what we need. We have our weapons here. It's given to us to combat that with His Holy Word. He's given us the means to persevere in the faith by believing the promises in His Word, being daily in His Word. Let me tell you, I used to run track and field a long, long time ago. I started when I was nine, ran till I was 16. I got up to where I was running, what was it, like 10 miles a day, five or six days a week. It was nothing. Now I could do that if I wanted to, but how did I get to that point? By doing a little bit every day. And then it increased. And then it increased. You start out by running 800 meters. Then you run a mile. Then you run 1,600 meters. Then you run two miles. Then you run three. Then you run four, and you get up to where you're ten a day, and it's nothing. I would run ten miles a day, then I'd go to PE class and take care of everyone at dodgeball, and then I'd go help somebody move in the afternoon, I'd go home at night, and I'm still ready to go. The Christian life is like that. Endurance is like that. You start by doing a little bit. Get in the scriptures. Start with a little bit. Start memorizing a verse a day. Start reading a verse a day. Then get up to a chapter. Then get up to a book. Then get up to multiple books, multiple verses. Build it up a little bit at a little. And then you'll be reading, you'll be memorizing whole chapters. It'll be nothing. That's how we grow, a little bit, Isaiah 29 tells us. We grow how? Line upon line, precept upon precept, little bits at a time. God doesn't shovel a whole bunch of food at us, it's little bits at a time. Tablespoon here, tablespoon there. So he's given us the means to persevere in the faith by believing the promises in his word. He's given us the means if we'll partake of it, little bit at a time. He's given us the means to stand fast in brotherly love by His example of love in His Holy Word and the grace He freely pours out on all of us. He's given us the means and we still need His grace to make use of these means to stand fast in the age of these antichrists that have come. They have come. They were in John's day and they are in our day. This isn't some storm cloud on the horizon. They're here now. The battle is now. Do you have your armor on? Are you prepared to fight, to stand firm, to stand fast? Are you asking God for grace every day, to make use of these means? I hope so. My brothers and sisters, let us stand for prayer. I thought I was grateful for this day, grateful for an opportunity to come to your house. to read from your word, to consider its truth. We pray that you would help us, O Lord, to persevere. We thank you for the work of salvation that you begin and for the grace that you pour out of us daily, whereby we are enabled to endure, to persevere. Lord, we pray that you would never remove your grace from us, ever smile upon us. Lord, lead us and guide us through green pastures through still waters along the straight and narrow way, that we may arrive at that celestial sea. And we will give all the glory and all the praise and all the honor to you, Jesus. We thank you for your great love for us and for your covenant faithfulness to us. And we pray these things in your name, for your glory.