Warning of the Antichrist (1 John 2:18-20)

Good morning.

It's good to be in the house of the Lord, right? Hope you're enjoying your summer. It's beautiful out there. Little warm, but hey, I'll take it. Let's get started with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your love for us.

To be able to come and to fellowship with the saints and to be around your word is a privilege. It's an honor that we are free to be able to do this and to come together and worship and sing songs of praise, look into your word, and just enjoy you, Lord.

We just thank you for that. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for Christ's salvation. And just go before us this morning, Lord. Penetrate the hearts and minds of all that are listening. And we just pray that you would get all the glory and all the praise, Lord, because you certainly deserve it.

We just praise you now, amen. I was thinking today that the world has a lot of, a lot of ways that they view Christians, don't they? They always look at them in a number of different ways. And I think what's nice about the scriptures is it crystallizes what really is the truth.

Not what people think the truth is, but what it really is. And so John, he's really addressing three kinds of believers or three kinds of Christians, I should say, people in the churches today. He's definitely dealing with unbelievers in our midst.

There are warnings to those unbelievers that there's danger ahead. You cannot claim Christ, he says, and hate your brother. He said also you cannot say that you have no sin or that you've never sinned.

That is definitely an unbeliever in our midst. And we see those kinds of people in the churches today. They simply are attending the church, but it's never gonna provide any kind of lasting fellowship, is it?

Because they don't have the spirit of God with inside of them to really connect with the believers that are here. Because you have to have fellowship, don't you? You have to have that repentance. You have to have that faith in Christ to have true meaning, true fellowship with the saints.

And then John also is talking about what I've been calling the impostors. These are the Gnostics that are bringing false teaching and destructive doctrines into the church. These are the ones that are actively leading the sheep astray.

And I just think about this because they know what they are doing. They know it is false. But what they may not know is that the wrath of God is coming for them if they don't repent of their destructive behaviors.

The wrath of God is coming to them. Because in John 3, 36, it says this. He who believes in the Son has eternal life. You have to believe in the Son to have eternal life. But he says this, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

This is the Gnostics. This is the destructive heresies that they bring in. These are the people that are going to eventually see the wrath of God on them if they do not repent. It's clear that some of these false teachers do know what they are doing.

But some of them are deceived themselves, as we know in 2 Timothy 3, 13, it says this. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. So some of the false teachers are deceiving.

They know exactly what they are doing. And others are deceived themselves. They may not know. And then John talks about the third group, which is the authentic believers, right? These are the ones that know the truth.

They love the word of God. They are about his business. They abide continually in the light. They love to be around the faith and the truth. They love their brothers and sisters. They teach their families this truth.

And they are about the work of the Lord and the fruit in their lives really proves that out. And throughout the book of 1 John, I hope that it becomes crystal clear that there are warnings to the church about these groups.

Believers are to be aware of the impostors, aren't they? We're supposed to be knowledgeable and understanding and knowing. But we also have to understand that there are people in our midst that are unbelievers that may not know anything that we're talking about, and they truly are seeking and understanding the truth.

But there are also another kind where they're unbelievers. They say that they are believers, but they are really not, that they're sitting in our midst and we have to know kind of the makeup and the body of the church that we see.

And we have to pronounce these warnings and we have to understand who they are. We're moving into a key passage here today with another warning to the church. And if you'll turn in your copy of God's word to 1 John, we're gonna be in chapter two, and we're gonna be looking at verses 18 to 20 this morning.

It is a warning passage to the church. And we're gonna read that right now if you're there. 1 John chapter two, 18 to 20. Says, children, it is the last hour. And just as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have appeared.

From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they were of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out. So that it would be manifested that they all are not of us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. So I'll draw your attention to the first part there. Children, he says, it is the last hour. John, remember, he's up in age, he's 90 years old.

And so everybody to him is probably a child. You know, he's looking at it. It's kind of like a picture in your mind that Jim's 90 and he's just finishing Hebrews. Everyone's younger. And he says, children, it is the last hour.

That's what he's talking about. But what is this last hour? What is this last hour? Because it's an important concept to know. He says, children, it's the last hour. What does it mean? Any ideas? What is the last hour?

First times the doomsday clock was mentioned?

Okay.

Any others, any other thoughts? We often hear about the last days, right? We hear that in the scripture, we read that. It can mean a short period of time. It can mean a longer period of time. But last days is often connected with the last hour.

We see that in a couple different places. We see it in Joel 2 .28 and Acts 2 .16 and 17. Both speak of the last days. Joel 2 .28, Acts 2 .16 and 17 speak of the last days. And I think the last days, from everything that I can understand and read, it's the time that Christ came into the world and when he comes back again.

These are the last days. This is the last hour, as it were. And that's what we're talking about here. And there's a way for us to know that it is the last hour. John provides proof of that in verse 18.

He says this, and just as you have heard, that antichrist is coming. Even now, many antichrists have appeared. So proof that it is the last hour is that the antichrists are on the scene. It's kind of interesting to think about it.

But who are the antichrists that John's talking about? Because if you look at that verse, it says the antichrist is coming and then antichrists are in the world. So there's two that we're talking about.

The antichrist, he is that final dark figure that is going to come on the scene during the tribulation period to deceive and to destroy many in the world at that time. And he is the ultimate enemy of Christ.

He is the antichrist. And so John tells us, hey, remember that the antichrist is coming in the final days. And second, though, he says that many antichrists have appeared already. We know about this from John because he's talking about the Gnostics.

Obviously, they are antichrist. They deny that Jesus came in the flesh. So that's one of the antichrists. Some people point to Nero as an antichrist. Revelation, what verse is that? I think it's two.

Let's see. Do I have that?

I don't think I have that. I think Revelation 2, I can't remember. It's the Nicolaitans, Revelation 2, I believe. So there's a number of them that are coming and are already on the scene. So what's the meaning of antichrist?

Ever thought about that? When you say you're an antichrist, if you're called that, anti can mean a couple things. It can mean against, so you're against Christ, can mean that, or opposition to Christ.

You're in opposition to Christ. Or it can also mean a substitute for or in place of Christ. Antichrist will be someone who not only opposes Christ, but tries to replace him as God. That's what an antichrist is.

And in scripture, we only see this word used in John, 1 John, 2 John, we see it. It's only used four times in this book. And one, it's used in reference to the spirit of the antichrist. So just a couple things here.

In verse 18, as we've read, it's a couple times it says antichrist is coming, and now many antichrists have appeared. And notice in the very beginning, and just as you have heard, it says in verse 18.

So somewhere, his audience had read and understood the prophetic writings that the antichrist is coming. They knew it. Interesting that even back then, that they were anticipating the antichrist coming back.

I mean, that's a long time ago. Think about how much closer we are to that now, because we can see that many antichrists have arisen since then. So the places that it is listed, the word antichrist, if you'll just go down a couple verses into verse 22, you're gonna read this.

Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist. The one who denies the Father and the Son. The language is straightforward here, isn't it? For those that deny that Jesus is the Christ is in fact the antichrist.

What are they denying when they say that? What is somebody denying when they say, I'm denying the Christ? What are they saying? They're denying that Christ is God. Absolutely. They're denying that Christ is God.

Christ here in this passage means Messiah. He's the anointed one. He's the savior of the world. The Christ who died on the cross. They're most likely denying that. That Christ is the Son of God. That he came, right?

Many wanna say that they love God without loving Jesus, don't they? You can see that out in our world today. I love God. I love everything about God. But when you ask him who Jesus is, you get a different answer.

It's clear that a denial of the Son is also a denial of the Father in that verse. You can see it. You can deny the Son. If you deny the Son, you also deny the Father. You can't have that both ways. John says that these people believe this way.

They're liars.

It's hard to hear that, right? Because in our world, in our comfort world, you can't say anything offensive to anybody. Nothing. Can you imagine if you say that to somebody?

Well, you're a liar.

What kind of a response are you gonna get back? You're probably gonna get some pushback on that. But here, it's very clear. It's very simple to understand. And it's nice that it's laid out this way. So if you'll go one book over to 2 John, this is the third or the fourth place it's listed, or fourth place it's listed, excuse me, in the books of 1 and 2 John.

So if you go to 2 John, verse seven, we read this. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Notice something, that deceivers have gone out into the world. They're everywhere. I mean, in just a short period of time, the deceivers have infiltrated the world, and we see that. But notice what that verse is saying.

Those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. Remember, the Gnostic teaching denies that Jesus came in the flesh, that he was, they didn't like the physical world, they thought it was evil.

And so if Christ was God, and he came in the flesh, they said, we can't deny that, we can't accept that. Well, it's pretty clear right here that if you deny that Jesus came in the flesh, you are, in fact, an antichrist.

That's pretty simple to see that, but yet the world doesn't embrace that. They don't really want to recognize that or be about that. Back to 1 John, chapter four. Back to 1 John, chapter four, verse two and three.

1 John four, two and three. If you'll flip back over there. This is the last of the verses that I wanted to highlight about the antichrist. And I want you to notice something here in verse two. By this you know the spirit of God.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess, Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world.

This is the spirit of antichrist. This is the spirit behind the teaching of the antichrist himself in the end days and also the false teachers, the antichrist, that are teaching. It is a demonic spirit that is behind them preaching forth a false gospel and we are to be warned of them.

And to be mindful that they are in this world. But I wanted to come back to our passage and just kind of dig down a little bit in who is the antichrist and kind of just list some of his characteristics.

Just so you can get an idea of what the spirit is, what the focus is, so we can get it in our minds about the antichrist. It says in Daniel chapter seven, verses 25 to 27, this is the little horn. The antichrist is the little horn and he's also called the king in Daniel chapter seven, verses 25 to 27.

But listen to his characteristics. You don't have to go there, but I'll list them out for you. Verse 25, it says he will speak words against the most high. This is the opposition. This is the anti. This is against God.

And it says, and wear down the saints of the most high. He not only hates God, but he wears down the saints of the most high God with the false teaching, the perpetual language and the destruction that goes on into our minds.

He wears us down. But one thing that's encouraging to me is that it's temporary. Because in verse 26, it says in Daniel, his dominion will be taken away. Remember, the antichrist comes on the scene in the last seven years, the tribulation period.

It's for a period of time only and that dominion's gonna be taken away. And what is it gonna be replaced by? It's gonna be replaced by the kingdom of God. Because it says in verse 27, and replaced by the kingdom of God, an everlasting kingdom.

This temporary antichrist is only on the scene for a small period of time. And then we reign with him in eternity in the kingdom, in the millennial reign, in the new heavens, in the new earth. And then in Daniel 11, 36, it says this.

He will exalt and magnify himself above every God. Exalt himself above all and every God. And he will speak astonishing things against the God of gods.

Wow.

And he will succeed until the indignation is finished. That is, until the close of the tribulation period. He will speak so many blasphemous things against our Lord. But these things, it says, for that which is decreed will be done.

It's not caught God off guard. He knows these things must be done. He is also called the man of lawlessness. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verses three and four, he's called the man of lawlessness. It says this in 2 Thessalonians.

Let no one in any way deceive you. For it has not come unless the apostasy comes first. And the man of lawlessness, it says, will be revealed. The son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship so that he even takes his seat in the sanctuary of God, exhibiting himself as God.

Wow.

I mean, that's an antichrist. That's the antichrist. He is the man of lawlessness. But notice that he doesn't come on scene until the great apostasy happens. I mean, there's always been sin and people opposing the Lord.

But I think what they're talking about here is an extraordinary falling away, something that we could probably see. Many people think that is happening today. I mean, I don't know if that's the truth, but it seems like it is because we have an escalation of so many destructive things that are coming at the church.

1 Timothy 4, 1 and 2 says this about the apostasy. But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by the hypocrisy of liars who have been seared in their own conscience.

That's an extraordinary falling away that we're seeing and it could be here now. But it is the Antichrist that is the Spirit behind him. He's the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, exalts himself above all other gods, takes a seat where God sits, showing himself to be God.

But the apostasy has to come before we see that. But what's restraining it? 2 Thessalonians 2, 6 and 9 kind of answers that question. There's something holding it back, holding the Antichrist back. And it says this in 2 Thessalonians, and you know what restrains him now.

What restrains him? The Holy Spirit, the saints, the good, is restraining the actual Antichrist from coming on scene. And in 2 Thessalonians, it says this, and you know what restrains him now, so that in his time, he will be revealed for the mystery of lawlessness is at work.

Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end the appearance of his coming, whose coming is in accord with the working of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.

The Antichrist, that's what we're talking about. He is also called the abomination of desolation in Mark 13, 14. But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be, let the reader understand.

This is who we're talking about. This is who John's talking about. He's also called the beast. I had a truck called the beast once, but I think it was a different one. Revelation 13, four. Notice this here.

The dragon gave the beast his power and authority. And if you read Revelation, you're gonna know that the dragon is Satan. Satan literally gave the power and authority to the beast to be able to go out and do these demonic destructive things.

So when you talk about the spirit of Antichrist, you have to understand that Satan is behind the spirit of the Antichrist. He says in 13, six, he speaks blasphemies against God to blaspheme his name. 13, seven, it says he oppresses the saints and wears down the saints just like in Daniel.

He hates God. He hates the saints. He wears us down. He tries to get us to deviate from the path of Christ and follow after false and destructive teachings. He wants to lead as many people astray from the faith as possible.

That's his mission. So why is it critical to know that the Antichrist is coming? Why is it critical to know that? Be on your guard. Yes, anything else? To prepare for persecution. Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I was thinking about through this is that why is this important?

Is that a big part of it for me is so we can warn other people that this is coming, that this deception is coming, and that, like you said, we need to prepare for that because the spirit of the Antichrist is the same spirit that is in the Antichrist that are teaching today.

So we have to be aware of that. We should be far more concerned, though, about the Antichrist that are among us. Yes, it's important to know, but we also have to be aware of the ones that are in our midst and around us now because this is real.

This is now. This is today. This is happening in our world all over the place. We have to be aware of that. So who are the Antichrist then? These ones that do this. They are here now and in John's day, and I think it's interesting that the book was written roughly, 1 John was written roughly 60 or so years after Christ, and he's already talking about Antichrist coming in to the churches and being around and to be aware of them.

I mean, how much more now? I mean, there's more people. There's more influence. There's just gotta be an exponential amount more Antichrist in the world now just simply because of the population and how much more that is exploding, but as I mentioned, it's the Gnostics, it's the Nicolaitans.

I have the verse, too sick. I was ahead of myself, but so they are everywhere, but how many more are we seeing today? I mean, we're seeing them everywhere. I used to go to conferences when I was working in the faith-based market, and I would go to all the conferences and I'd interact with the seminaries and the Christian colleges, and you can see this spirit rising up in them.

There was no reformed conferences at that time, and you see it in the Christian colleges, the seminaries, the books that they're writing, the music that they're producing. You're seeing it in books like Jesus Calling, Purpose Driven Life, all over the place.

We're being saturated in our brains everywhere you turn from the false teaching that is happening all around us, and it's kind of a testimony, or not a testimony, but it's an urging to keep our minds focused on the things that God wants us to focus on, to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, to make sure whether what they are really saying is true or not, and it's work to do that, isn't it?

When you have to study, when you have to spend your time reading God's Word and really parsing it and understanding whether this is true or not, it takes energy, and not everybody wants to do that in their lives, but John said they are liars and deceivers.

They harm the sheep. They harm the sheep. They deny that Jesus is the Christ like we read in 1 John 2 .22, we read that, and in 2 John 7, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus is coming in the flesh.

This is the deceiver and the antichrist. What do they say about Christ today, though? You ask anybody, who is Jesus? What kind of a response do you normally get? He's a good man. Yeah, he's a prophet.

He's a good teacher. You know, he did some good things. I mean, kind of a nice guy. I mean, seemed to love everyone, right? They focus on those things, but when it comes down to actually saying who Christ is, many people deny the fact that, not that he came, but that he was the God of all gods.

That's what they deny. It's like the Jehovah's Witness, right? Denying Christ by their change in John 1 .1. In the beginning, they say, they changed the word of God. In the beginning, the word was, they said, and the word was with God, and the word was a God.

Someone that would go to the length of changing the scriptures to put out this false teaching that Christ came and was the God is the spirit of antichrist. And the fact that they would lead so many astray by this kind of teaching is jaw-dropping, isn't it?

Many people follow after this. You see it in other religions. You see it in the Mormon religion. I was working with a gentleman one time, and I asked him who Jesus is and how to be saved. And you know what he told me?

He said, well, Jesus is a good man, and he paid for our sins. And I'm like, okay, how? Well, they said because when he was in the garden and he sweat great, great drops of blood, that's right there is where he paid for our sins.

That's a denial of Jesus. That's false teaching. This can't be. I think also that what it means to deny Christ is that we can do it on our own. We don't need him. Our good works, all that we are, we don't need Christ.

That's really what people are saying when they deny Jesus as well. And notice in our verse in chapter 19, or verse 19 there, dropping down a bit, it says they went out from us, but they were not really of us.

For if they were of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us. That's interesting, isn't it? Because a false teacher doesn't come in with their little devil suit on with their horns and everything.

They come in, they look presentable, they look nice, they know the lingo, they know the language, and yet they slowly start to lay down the destructive heresies in order to lead many people astray, eventually splits the church, many people leave.

This is what happens. It's a cycle over and over and over again.

Yeah, go ahead.

I mean, I saw it a lot in the emergent church movement because they had a plan. They even laid it out. You take the traditional church, you do all this false teaching, you start to transition it into something other than it is, and you move it to where you want it to be.

It was a plan, it was a structured plan to take it from verse by verse biblical teaching into something other than that, something storytelling, little quips here and there, 25, 30-minute sermons that were fluffy bunny stuff.

That's what they did.

Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of people do just wanna focus on Christ's love all over the place, but just as we talked today even a little bit is that what about the wrath of God is coming to those that don't believe? This is the hard part for people to understand.

They don't wanna really delve down into that because it's too painful. They don't wanna believe that their own sin has an impact in their lives, and I think that's really what I see all over the place is you have to take the whole counsel of God, not just one part of it, it's all of it, and it talks about love, it talks about wrath, it talks about consequences for sin, it talks about all kinds of things that are relevant to our lives, but the ones that care about that are the believers that want to read it and learn it and understand it and move forward in it and not just deny it.

Yeah, I think would those people be considered antichrist? I mean, I think it really depends on the motives behind it. I mean, most people honestly are not, they're not looking to destroy and destruct.

They just may not understand. I really think that's a lot of the case, that people just don't understand. I mean, there's a difference between people that are just trying to learn and grow in their faith from the ones that really know that they're deceiving and destroying.

Yes, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, and that comes back to a lot of the, what we talked about in the beginning. Many people think they're believers, but it's only the ones that actually are, because many are going to say, you know, I know you, Lord, but in the end, Christ is going to say, I didn't know you.

That's what we're looking at there. Did that answer that? Okay, so, but it says in this verse, you know, why did they leave? I think this is an important idea here. Why did they leave? Look at what it says.

They left so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us. It's nice that they left.

Why?

Because now we can see exactly who they are, and we can mark them and avoid them and tell the other people that this person over here is a false teacher and an antichrist. Well, they went out from us, so they were part of us is what they were saying, and they were part of the church, they were part of the body.

They entered into destructive heresies, and it was proven and manifested, and then they left the body of Christ. That's what I think it means there. They were members, they spent time, and they left. And I think I wanted to spend just a brief moment here on the spirit of antichrist, as we read in 1 John 4, 2 and 3.

It says they have the spirit of antichrist. We're to test the spirits. We're supposed to understand who the antichrists are. They deny the deity of Christ, and you see that everywhere. And I think one of the things I've seen through the years is that a lot of the pastors coming into the churches now are actually the ones delivering this.

Not all, I'm just saying some do. And you look at it in the past, people like Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Doug Padgett, these teachers were bringing in these destructive heresies into the church. But how do you know someone has the spirit of antichrist?

How do you know they have the spirit of antichrist? It tells us in our verses. How do they know? How do we know? You have to study the word of God. You have to be a Berean and test what they say. That's 100 truth, but how do we know?

If you read it and you know it, what is it that they're denying here? How do we know it? Yeah, exactly. They say that Christ is not God, and that he hasn't come in the flesh. That's what they're denying.

That's the spirit of antichrist. Anybody that's bringing that forward is the spirit of antichrist. They bring false doctrine into the church. They reject the authority of scripture. Some of the things, the false teaching that I've seen enter the church these days is comes from all kinds of places, but I'll name a few.

Breath prayers in the churches. Labyrinths. Yoga. Yoga is yoked. The word yoga means yoked to a Hindu god. That's what it's about. Contemplative prayer. Mystics and their teaching. They bring all kinds of different information into the church, but we know that they have the spirit of antichrist because their fruit is rotten.

We can see it. We can understand it, but the church needs to be the pillar of the truth. It needs to be that safe harbor for the sheep. This is why we have such a precious church here. It's a safe harbor for the sheep where you can come in, you can get that good teaching and understand who Christ is, but we're not seeing that in the majority of churches today.

Many people call and try to figure out, hey, where can I find a good church? I live here, I live there. How do we find a good church because there just isn't any like a Kootenai community church that preaches sound doctrine and wants to edify the sheep?

I think it's like a witch's brew. You're seeing all kinds of teaching coming in from the world. Mysticism, new age. I mean, the cults. It's like putting it all into a cauldron of faith, stirring it up and throwing it out to the saints and it destroys so many things because people just, we need to know the word.

And that's the hardest thing to do is to really know the word. And the last thing I will say is this, in verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. Yeah, the antichrists are here, but it says you have an anointing.

What is the anointing? What is it? It's, yeah, it's the Holy Spirit what's inside of. Yeah, these antichrists are here, but you know what? The body? You have the Holy Spirit living inside of you to teach you, to help you to understand that this is false teaching, 100 false teaching because God is the one who teaches us and instructs us and gives us the ability to know.

If you'll drop down to verse 27 in 1 John chapter two, look at what that says, 27. And as for you, the anointing whom you received from him who abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie.

See that? The anointing is like the kryptonite to false teachers. It's like the kryptonite because it gives us the ability to laser in and go, yeah, that's false. A lot of times we may not know it's false, but we know something's off.

It's like when I was looking at the emergent church movement way back then, it was so hard to understand and put my finger on it and go, that's what's false because it's like a windy road and I read everything and tried to study everything and it was hard to pinpoint it, but I knew something was wrong.

And many of you probably here have the same experience where you've seen something like, ah, that's just off. I don't know what it is, but it is off. So how do we apply the teaching today? How do we apply this in our lives?

How do we apply? We know there's antichrist, right? We know that the antichrist is coming. What are some things we can do today to drive this home in our own lives? Get in the word. That's the safest bet right there.

Say that again. Get in the word so we can know there's false teaching. Yeah. What else? Stand firm in the faith. Yeah, I love that. Yes, Peter. Preach the gospel. Can't go wrong there. I mean, what about warning others?

We gotta warn others. I mean, I think of Justin. You know, he's in Finland today, but he's out there. He preaches the gospel all over the world. He's warning other people of false teachers. And the thing I like about it is he names names.