"The Anointing" (Sermon)

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Lord's Day message from March 3rd, 2024 -Biblical Text: 1 John 2:15-27

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Turn in your Bibles to the book of 1st John, 1st John chapter 2, and the title of this message is
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The Anointing, The Anointing. On the one hand, this is a very basic concept in the
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Bible. It's something I was taught very early on, and I never really had any confusion about what the anointing was or who was anointed.
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I never had any confusion until I started hearing this term used in a different way, mainly by people on TV and the internet.
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For example, I heard a promotional video one time put out by a church, and they said,
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And it was implied that our pastor is anointed and all these others are not.
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And I thought that was odd because I remember being taught and reading that all of God's people are anointed.
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And by the way, I have a direct pipeline to God. It's called this book along with prayer.
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But this is what some people are saying, that there are these people that are special because they have, quote, the anointing.
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But in the Bible, every true believer who has the Holy Spirit is anointed.
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So if you're saved this morning, you are anointed. You have the anointing.
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So I kept hearing this over and over again, and it came up a couple weeks ago, and this is why
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I'm doing the message. It just seems to be a growing trend. There's a woman right now who is starting to gain a massive following.
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And the whole reason why people are being drawn to her and flocking to her is because she has this special anointing.
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So they say, if you want to experience breakthrough, if you want the power of God, if you want this, if you want that, you have to go to this special person who has this special anointing.
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So I thought it'd be good to see what God's word says about this. And I think you'll find by the end, this is a very encouraging message, a very encouraging idea, that all of God's people are anointed.
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1 John 2, starting in verse 15, the apostle writes, Do not love the world or the things in the world.
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If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
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It is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it.
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But he who does the will of God abides forever. Little children, it is the last hour.
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We're saying this is the last age before Christ comes back. Little children, it is the last hour.
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And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have already come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
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They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
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But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us.
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And look at verse 20, he says, But you have an anointing from the
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Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
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So just a few observations about this passage. First, let's define this term anointing.
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What does it mean to anoint? Well, the Greek word is chrisma, and it originally referred to pouring or rubbing, the rubbing on of oil onto someone or something.
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You think of the story in the Old Testament when Samuel anointed David as king.
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What did Samuel do? How did he anoint David? Well, he took oil and he poured it on David's head.
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Also, when a Levite would go through the ceremony to be made a priest, they would apply oil to him and to the priest's garments.
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So basically, to anoint something, you're applying typically oil.
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So pouring, smearing, anointing, oil. And that would be a way to set that person apart to the work and service of God.
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So that's what anointing was in the Old Testament. I mean, that's still what the term means.
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By the time you get to the New Testament, however, it becomes more of a spiritual concept.
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So in the Old Testament, there was a physical anointing. Taking olive oil, pouring it on the person, applying the oil.
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In the New Testament, it's more of a spiritual concept. So when a person believes the gospel,
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God, the Holy Spirit, changes the person's heart. They experience regeneration.
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And now the Holy Spirit comes to indwell each believer personally.
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You're aware of this, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Every true
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Christian has the Holy Spirit within them. So in the New Testament, the oil symbolizes what?
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The Holy Spirit. So every Christian is anointed because you have the
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Holy Spirit. So again, it's a very simple concept. And in reading this passage, it's obvious.
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John is writing to believers. And he just says this flat out to all the believers in verse 20.
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You have an anointing. He's not saying this to a select few.
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He's saying this to everyone who's reading his epistle. You have an anointing.
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Now, if you have the King James Version, for those of you who read that, it says something different.
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It says you have an unction. Well, unction is just an old -fashioned word. It means the same thing.
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You have an unction. You have an anointing. So if you take notes, write this down.
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The first point about the anointing. Every true believer, certainly this is true under the
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New Covenant. Every true believer is anointed by God. So that means you this morning, if you know
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Christ, you what? You have the anointing.
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And of course, Jesus is the anointed of God. Jesus is called, the
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Hebrew or Old Testament term would be Messiah. What does that mean? It means
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God's chosen or God's anointed. In the New Testament, the Greek word is
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Christ. And that's what it means. The anointed one of God. So Jesus is like the anointed.
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And if we are in Christ as Christians, we're elect, we're chosen.
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We are anointed as well. Okay, so again, very simple concept. I think you all get it.
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So it's so basic. It's almost like the gospel, part of the gospel itself. If you're saved, you have this anointing.
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The same spirit which anoints us. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer.
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The Holy Spirit empowers the believer. The Holy Spirit leads and guides the believer.
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The Holy Spirit also seals the believer until the day of redemption.
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2 Corinthians 1, 21 and 22 says now, He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is
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God, who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
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So if you're in Christ, you're anointed by God. The anointing is now changing our heart.
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Now we have a desire to obey God. We want to serve God. And this is what the
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Holy Spirit does with this anointing. He changes our thought patterns, our lives, and our desires.
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Now, when you became a Christian, when you received this anointing of the
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Holy Spirit, was it automatic in the way you lived life? When you got up in the morning, was everything automatic?
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That now I'm just obeying God 24 -7 every day. It's easy and everything just comes automatically.
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Is that the way the Christian life is? No, it's not automatic. This is a common misunderstanding that people have.
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And it kind of feeds into these people who claim this special anointing, where they're kind of the haves and we're the have -nots.
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So this is a common misunderstanding that a lot of people have about Christianity. A lot of Christians, I think, they're sort of waiting for this divine zap.
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I don't know what else to call it, but the divine zap. You know what I'm talking about? All of a sudden,
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I don't know if they think the Holy Spirit's going to come upon them. Something's going to happen where I'm not going to have to struggle anymore.
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I'm just waiting for that moment where it's not going to be an issue. Maybe I'll be cured of all my sickness and disease.
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But all of a sudden, everything should just come easy. I'll get that divine zap.
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And this is what people are now teaching, that if you get this anointing, yeah, everything is going to be easy.
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Everything will be automatic. And what they're talking about with this special anointing, that there are these people who have the ability to impart this spiritual power to you.
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So if you are struggling in your Christian life, it's because you're part of a ministry that doesn't have the anointing.
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So if you just go to these certain people, if you could just go to this church, if you just listen to this pastor, if you just listen or have their hands laid on you, you will get this zap.
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You will get this anointing and everything will be going great. This is really fueling this movement right now.
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So listen, I acknowledge there are some preachers that are more effective than others.
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There are people who are Christians, they're teachers. They have more wisdom and give better advice than others.
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But there is no one person who is like a guru that if you just go to them, if you just do this, if you just do that, you'll obtain this special power or special anointing, that everything's just going to be going great.
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Some of you have probably figured that out by now, I'm sure. But this is a great allure, especially if you watch
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Christian television or listen to so -called Christian YouTube, there are people claiming to give this special anointing or this special divine zap.
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And they can share it with you. And usually it includes if you follow them and give a donation.
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I mean, that's usually wrapped up in it as well. Can you reach another level in your spiritual life?
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I hope that there's at least, it shouldn't be a misguided desire, but that we should all have a desire to reach that next level in our spiritual walk with Christ.
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Do you want to reach another level? I hope you do. But again, there is no guru, there's no shortcut.
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You can't go and get some special anointing that's going to give you the power to do that. Getting to the other level, it's called sanctification.
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Really, it's a process. Becoming more like Christ, it happens over time.
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So what you have to do is you need to worship God and read the Bible and pray and serve and give victory over sin and in some ways, yes, put in the work and it takes time.
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And yes, you can over time reach a higher level maybe of spirituality.
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But again, there's no shortcut. There's no special anointing that's just going to give that to you to where it clicks all of a sudden.
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But that's what a lot of people are looking for. I think it's just part of our culture. We're all, maybe not all, but many of us would love to have a shortcut.
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There's that commercial, is it Staples with the easy button? Hey, Christianity, we just need an easy button.
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Hey, let's just make this easy and everything will be fine. Everything will be great. I won't sin.
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I won't even want to sin anymore because I'll just have this special anointing or divine zap.
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That is not the way it works. Look at verse 18. And I don't think it's any surprise that in the same passage where John is talking about this, the real anointing that he brings this up, he says, little children, verse 18.
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It is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now, many
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Antichrists have come. And we'll just stop here for a moment. Many Antichrists have come.
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What does that mean? On Wednesday nights, we're going through the book of Revelation and we're approaching chapter 13, which the
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Apostle John is going to mention two figures. One of them is known as the beast, and the other is known as the false prophet.
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Well, we believe that the beast, there's another name for the beast.
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And that name or title is what? The Antichrist.
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Right. So depending on your faith tradition, if you attend here, you know we believe that there is going to be an actual man in the end times known as the
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Antichrist. I think John is saying this. You've heard that the
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Antichrist is coming, but many Antichrist lowercase a,
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Antichrist plural, have already come. So long story short, John is warning about the false teachers.
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So the Antichrist is coming someday, but many Antichrist plural, they're already here.
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And of course, John was writing this in the first century, and that's been true throughout church history.
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So you see this brought out in your translation, Antichrist with a capital A, singular, then
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Antichrist lowercase a, plural. So one is that figure of the end times, but the others are the false teachers that John is referring to.
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I think it's implied here that many of these false teachers were claiming to have a special anointing.
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There is something special about them. Paul refers to them as super apostles in his letter to the
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Corinthians. Of course, that's sarcastic, but it's people who think that they're so high and mighty that they're above Peter, James, and John.
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They're above Paul. There's people that, again, have this direct pipeline to God where Jesus is just talking to them, and God is speaking to them every moment of every day.
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John is warning about such people, and I'll just tell you, they exist now, these same types of people.
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Jesus had to deal with people like this. Paul had to deal with them. Now John is look at verse 19.
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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.
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But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us.
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In other words, these teachers that probably were claiming the special anointing from God, they were formerly members of maybe even
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John's church, but they were part of these true churches that were scattered about.
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They believed the Bible. They believed the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, but they went out.
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They left the church, and they started their own thing. Typically, back in those days, men like this, you could identify them because they didn't have a church.
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They would roam from here to there. They were like free agents going from place to place, trying to draw disciples after themselves, but they were rarely, if ever, part of a local church.
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Because here's the thing. When you're part of a local assembly with elders and deacons and a congregation, there's accountability.
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Because if you're doing something crazy or wrong, people are going to hold you accountable and say something.
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But these guys are kind of off on their own, and they're not accountable to anyone. So John says they used to be members of our churches, but they have gone out, and the fact that they left and they're doing this, this proves they were never really one of us to begin with.
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In other words, they're not true Christians. Now, do these people claiming to have the special anointing, do they have the
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Holy Spirit based on what John is saying? No, they don't have any anointing.
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That's the irony. They claim to have the special anointing. They don't have any anointing at all.
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Who has the anointing? You do. You do. If you're saved, you have the anointing.
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Just think about that, that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells within you.
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The same spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost is within me.
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And if you know Christ, He is within you. Is that an encouragement to you today?
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Now, people can grieve the Holy Spirit. People can resist the Holy Spirit.
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But yeah, if you're saved, we can also be led, and He seals us. It's just a wonderful teaching.
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That's what John is trying to get through. Like, tune these people out. Don't listen. They're not even part of the church.
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Don't listen to them. You have the anointing. Don't let them fool you.
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So, that's part of what John is doing. Look at verse 20. He says it right out.
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But you have an anointing from what or who? The Holy One.
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And you know all things. Now, this last statement here.
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Do you know all things? Do I know all things? Well, you have to kind of allow for a little, yeah,
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I don't know what the word is. But don't take that overly literal. It doesn't mean that John's church members knew everything there was to know.
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Obviously, that's not what he's saying. In other words, I think what he means is you know everything you need to know.
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Why? Because you know Christ. You know the doctrine of Christ. You know the Holy Scriptures.
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Remember when Paul said that to Timothy. From a very young age, you know you have been taught the
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Holy Scriptures. That doesn't mean that Timothy had everything memorized and he could get 100 on every exam if he were to get a theology.
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That's not the point. The point is you know Christ. You know the Scriptures. You have the truth.
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Those of you who are saved, you have the anointing. You have the truth. That's why you're a
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Christian. That's why you're saved. But these false teachers who pretend to have this special anointing, they don't have the truth.
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Instead, they try to fool people by having what they might call hidden truths or secret truths.
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It's something if you read any commentary. Most people believe that the people
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John's referring to, the false teachers, were known as the Gnostics. So they had special secret powers and secret teachings that they could unlock the real power of God.
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But you had to go to them and they wouldn't tell you right up front. You would have to get initiated into their group.
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They would reveal a little bit here, a little bit there. Obviously, you've got to give your time and your money.
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They would give you a little more, a little more, a little more. But they would never really tell you the full truth. There's a word for a group like that.
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That's what cults do. They come knocking on your door. They don't really tell you all of what they believe.
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They just give you a little bit. Try to whet your appetite. That's how they try to draw people in.
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This has just been a perennial problem throughout church history. Again, it's an issue today.
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I could show you people on the internet right now who say the same types of things about the anointing.
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Again, that church promotional video. Our pastor has a direct pipeline to God.
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He is anointed. Well, it's probably the Gnostics who were claiming this back then.
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You know what Gnostic means? The word Gnosis means knowledge.
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The Gnostics claimed to have this secret. They were the ones in the know, and you weren't.
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You had to go to them to unlock these secrets. If you want deliverance, if you're struggling in your
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Christian life, if you face temptation, if you give in sometimes, if you're going through hard times.
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Let's face it, most people do experience that. That's because you're in this group.
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You need to come and learn our secrets. That's how they do it. John is trying to appeal to his church members.
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I preached a variation of this sermon over in Greenfield on a Sunday night. That approach
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I took. I titled the sermon, Abide in Christ. This is what John is telling his church members.
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You know Christ. You're professing Christ. Stick with Christ. Abide in Christ.
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You know the truth. You know what the Bible teaches. So stick with it. I would say that same thing to you this morning.
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If you've been a member of this church for any length of time, if you've been reading the Bible for yourself, you know what it teaches.
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We don't know everything. Nobody does. Nobody's got it all figured out. But you have the truth.
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Stick with the truth. Why? Because there's people that are always trying to draw you away and lure you away.
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So John's trying to get his church members, the people under his, the people, the members of his flock, he's trying to get them, you know, don't do that.
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Realize this danger. You just think about it. How could someone, I mean John is an apostle. John was the apostle that Jesus loved.
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At the last supper, he sat next to Jesus and, you know, he laid his head on Jesus's bosom.
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It says like the point is John and Jesus were about as close as you could get.
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Following John and listening to John's teaching. I mean, that's the next best thing to have in Christ himself.
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I mean, there's a big gap between John and Jesus, but I mean, that's that's about as good as you could get.
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How could a person leave John's church and follow after one of these shysters?
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Like, how does that happen? You ever wonder that? How does that happen? I brought this up in Sunday school, you know, that that huge church out in Ohio for the
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Super Bowl. You know, they had a Super Bowl themed church service and one of the pastors kicked the
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Bible across the stage and everyone's cheering and kicking the Bible across.
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Yeah, it happened. Check it out. Actually, don't. It really made, you know, it made people upset, obviously.
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But my point is you look at a church like that. The place is huge.
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It's packed. Probably 10, 40 ,000 people. That church has like 14 campuses, like 40 ,000 people are members of.
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How do you get into a place like that where the pastor's kicking the Bible around and yet churches that are preaching the true doctrine of Christ?
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I mean, you know, are half empty. How is that even possible? Well, in some ways, it proves that the
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Bible is true, that in the last days there would be a great falling away. But the thing is,
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John is telling his church members stay with the truth. But there were many people leaving John's ministry to go listen to people like that.
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I mean, even back then, the false teachers probably didn't do things that were that bad. But, yeah, people would leave
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John's church to follow after others. Constantly a problem happens all the time.
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Look at verse 24. Therefore, let that abide in you, which you heard from the beginning.
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If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the
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Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has promised us everlasting life.
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So part of what John is saying, if you're a true believer, you're going to stick with a true church.
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If you're a true believer, you're going to listen to the teachings of the apostle John. As opposed to people who leave and it just kind of proves they were never one of us to begin with.
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Verse 26. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.
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But the anointing, we go back to that concept, the anointing which you have received from him, it abides in you.
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And you do not need that anyone teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie.
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And just as it is taught you, you will abide in him. Here's what he's saying.
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If you know Christ and you have the Holy Spirit, you will abide in Christ.
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Here's maybe the greatest thing about the anointing. If you've been anointed by the
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Holy Spirit, you are kept safe and secure in the body of Christ forever.
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That's probably the pinnacle of the whole sermon, so you could probably just go home after all this. Because if you have the
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Holy Ghost, you are sealed. No matter what happens. I've been hearing, people have been misquoting a verse.
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I don't know if anyone here has done it, but I've heard it on TV, online, I've heard it in person. There's a verse,
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I should have looked it up, it's in Matthew 24 I think. Where if it be possible that even the very elect would be deceived.
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Do you know the verse? Lately I've been hearing people misquoting it saying that, oh the
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Bible says that even the elect will be deceived. That's not what it says. The elect will not be deceived.
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So if you have this anointing, you are safe, you are secure, you will never be led astray.
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Here's what the anointing does for us. Here's what the Holy Spirit does. Ephesians 4 .30 says, and do not grieve the
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Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
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See the thing is, I know in my own flesh, people can trick me. I like to think that no one can pull the wool over my eyes, but I know they probably can in some ways.
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People can deceive you, people can trick you. In my own flesh, I'm weak.
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We all are. So it's good to know if you have this anointing by the
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Spirit that we are saved. We will always be saved and secure in Christ.
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So John is dealing with these false teachers who are saying maybe the opposite, the Gnostics.
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Looking at his epistle, some of them seem to deny the humanity of Christ. It also seems that John was dealing with people who denied the lordship of Christ.
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Another group that he might have been dealing with, they're known as the antinomians. Basically, they say they believe, but because they've never had their heart changed by the
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Holy Ghost, they're living lives of open rebellion to God. This is why he says back in chapter 2, verse 4, he who says
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I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.
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So John is saying if you really know Christ, if you've had your heart changed by this or through this anointing, you're not going to live a life of open rebellion.
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And then he says to those who might go in the other direction, you're not a real
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Christian unless you're perfect. He corrects that because he says in chapter 1, verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
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So we acknowledge we have sin, but we don't live lives of open rebellion.
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So, I mean, there is some balance. What's the balance? Well, you see that in 1 John 1, 9, that when we sin, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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So the true believer might get deep into sin even for a season, but the true believer will come back and confess that and be made right.
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So in trying to wrap this up, what's the title of the message? The anointing.
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So again, if you know Jesus this morning, you have this anointing. Look at verse 27 again.
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But the anointing which you have received from him, it abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you.
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I just have to spend a second on this. Does that mean you don't need a pastor? You don't need teachers?
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I don't need to go to church. I don't need to read my Bible because I don't need any man to teach me.
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So I'll just go off on my own. Is that what he's saying? We know that's not what he's saying because Christ ordained teachers in the church.
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Christ gave pastors as a gift to the church. So what's he saying? Who's going to teach you?
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You don't need any man to teach you. Where do we get our beliefs from? The scriptures.
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And the Holy Spirit is the one who illuminates the word. So we all learn from men.
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That's true. But we have to test what men say. I mean, even John needed to be tested against the word.
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John wasn't above the word. But these other men, people in his church, when they hear these teachings about some guy who's got this anointing, and he's hearing directly from God, and God's talking to him all day and every day, we need to take that and, okay, what does the
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Bible say? So we always go back to the word and test all things. But this anointing,
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I'll just end with this. This anointing is for all believers.
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There is no shortcut. There is no divine zap. But if you have the
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Holy Spirit, he has changed your heart to where now you have a love for God and a love for others.
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And John is saying there is going to be fruit. And if you're one of these people, you will abide in Christ.
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This is a very relevant issue because there's people right now claiming to be modern -day apostles, on par with John, if not above John, because they claim some special anointing.
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But the true anointing is for every believer. It is receiving the
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Holy Spirit by faith, him indwelling us. And what does he do? He seals us until the day of redemption.
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Is that an encouragement to you? I hope it is. Let's pray. And Father, how grateful we are for this anointing, the very thought that your
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Holy Spirit indwells each believer. What a privilege that is. And Lord, help us not to grieve the
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Spirit. Lead us not into temptation, as the Lord's Prayer says, but deliver us from the evil one.
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And Lord, I pray this hour of worship was glorifying to you. Please accept our praises and answer our prayers according to your will.
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And Lord, if there's anyone listening today, probably not here in this room, but listening online or on radio,
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Lord, if there's somebody being led astray by somebody with some special anointing, some special pipeline, some special knowledge,
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Lord, I pray that you would protect their heart. If they have received the true anointing from the
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Holy One, I believe you will. You will not allow them to get led astray into error and false doctrine.
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So, Lord, protect your people. Help us to all walk in this truth that we are safe and secure in your arms.
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And because of that, may we come back next Sunday and worship you in spirit and in truth.