Beware of ANTICHRISTS! | 1 John 2:18-19

The Apologetic Dog

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So 1 John 2, remember the writer is the

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Apostle John who wrote the gospel, three epistles, and the book of Revelation. He's not the only one named

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John, right, Josiah? There's other Johns in the New Testament, especially John the Baptist, right, there's another one.

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So we've been learning a lot about the Apostle John. He wrote this, and since he wrote the gospel of John, we expect many things to be similar, right?

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Remember we talked about an old commandment that's also a new commandment, talking about love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus fulfilled that perfectly and said go and do likewise.

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And we found that he said that also in John chapter 13 when he washed the disciples' feet.

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So I'm just saying we make a lot of connection between this epistle and his gospel. But we always talk about context.

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We always do a little bit of a review. Last week, we talked about the love

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God hates. Y 'all remember us talking about that? What is the love that God hates?

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The world, right? You're exactly right, Laurel. I look at verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world.

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Now, let me ask y 'all a trick question. Y 'all did fantastic last time. Remember John 3, 16 says for God so loved the world, right?

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Well, does that not go against what he's saying here? Do not love the world or the things in the world?

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And yet, for God so loved the world. What's going on there with John 3, 16 and verse 15 here?

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Delaney. Well, I thought when it said God so loved the world that it was about the people, not the world as in the flesh and then all the spiritual things going around it.

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Do you mean I have to look at context over in John 3 and then context over here in verse on two? We laugh at that because it's so obvious, but I'm telling you in my apologetics ministry, interacting with tons of people, people abuse

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God's word left and right. And we're all privy to it, right? But since we care about truth, since we're called to rightly handle the word of truth, we have to look at context.

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And that's why we preach the way we do expositionally, going line by line, letting the apostle

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Paul build his case, letting Jesus get his whole thought. And so we don't just isolate a single verse and build a whole theology on that.

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We look at any verse within its context. And we let the clear passages help interpret the less clear passages.

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Scripture interprets scripture. So it's one of the best principles I was ever taught. And so that's what we do pretty much every

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Wednesday here as we talk about context. We've been talking about the fellowship that we have with one another, right?

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This new commandment where we can actually love one another in the spirit and be pleasing to God, right?

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That new commandment that Christ gave us. That's in the context of Christian fellowship. What's something else that we've talked repeatedly about throughout 1

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John? Justin, what do you think? Look at verse five, if you don't care, in chapter one and read that one for me.

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This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and there is no darkness in the world.

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Thank you, Justin. So the Apostle John's saying, look, we proclaim this message to you, which would be the gospel.

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Something that they saw Jesus live out and preach. And then he summed it up in kind of one statement.

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He is light and there's no darkness in him. God is perfect. God is holy. God cannot sin, right?

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He's pure perfection. He's light. He is love. What's something else that we've talked about, we have been talking about in 1

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John? The blood of Jesus. Oh, why is that important? Because that's the only thing that can save you.

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Yes, that's the only thing that can save you. It's the only thing that can cleanse us of our sin. Some people mistake that our baptism literally washes away sin.

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Ceremonies can't wash away sin. Your works can't wash away sin. Only the blood of Jesus, meaning that if you put your trust in him, then his blood that was shed at Calvary can be credited to your account.

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He was satisfying the wrath of the father, right? We talk about the great exchange all the time. When you look to Jesus in faith, all of your sin gets put on the cross, and in exchange you get the perfect righteousness of Jesus.

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So the verse that Josiah was referencing, look back at chapter one, verse seven. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us of some of our sin.

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Is that what it says, Josiah? Of some of our sin? No. No, all of our sin.

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And so there are legalistic groups that say, well, when you do the right works that quote -unquote

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God commands, only your past sins get forgiven. Well, is that what this verse says?

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I was saying certain legalistic groups say, well, at the moment of your baptism, the moment that you do the right amount of works, your past sins get forgiven.

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Well, that's not what the Bible teaches. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all of our sin, and God sees the entirety of our life.

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And one objection is, well, then can't I just continue to live in sin since all of my sin's forgiven?

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And it's like, well, good question, because we are saved by grace, and grace far surpasses the amount that we could possibly sin, but we've been changed from the inside out, so we don't desire to live in our sin.

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And when we do sin, when we do fall into temptation that leads to sin, we have an advocate, right? We go to him and confess our sin.

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We repent, we confess our sins to one another. We desire to live our lives to the glory of God, right?

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So we've been talking about this, the new heart disposition of Christians. And so that's something we see all throughout 1

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John is we see those who are walking in the light. And it's not that one day you can walk in the light, and then one day you walk in darkness.

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That's impossible. Someone who's walking in the light is permanently on that path, even though that means we can fall into sin, but we combat it.

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If we are walking in the light, then we desire to confess, we desire to repent, we desire to reconcile, we desire to live our lives to the glory of God, right?

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And so we've also talked about those spirits, those false teachings that rival the gospel messages.

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Anybody remember the two L's that try to say, hey, this is actually what the gospel is?

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Legalism. Legalism. And what? How'd you know? My goodness, some of y 'all are paying attention out there.

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I'm impressed. So you can't answer, since you know. But somebody help me with what does legalism mean?

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Why is that not the gospel, JD? So it's kind of taking the Bible and taking it to extremes, but not the good extremes.

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Right, right, right, because we want to be balanced. The truth is a tightrope, like I've heard

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Pastor Nathan talk about. It's a narrow edge, right? So it's easy to kind of go left or right.

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And so if we're walking in the light, the gospel of grace, looking to Jesus and faith alone, that's right. But some people twist that and say, well, if you love

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Jesus, Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And they'll say, see, you got to obey.

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You got to keep the commandments. And that kind of tends towards legalism, thinking that your right standing before God is contingent with how well you do certain works and how obedient you are.

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That's legalism 101. It's trying to earn salvation, whether someone says, well,

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I'm just trying to be obedient, but I'm not earning it. It's like, that's what that means. You know what

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I mean? So that's legalism. That's a distortion of the gospel. What is licentiousness?

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It's the complete opposite extreme. Somebody else, JD, you already know everything.

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Anybody else over here? Licentiousness or antinomianism? Lauren? It's the complete opposite of legalism, where you can live in sin and like, the grace of God will cover whatever

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I do. Yeah. This person says, I have a license to sin. I'm no longer under law, I'm under grace.

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Why not just sin so grace may abound? Well, that's just distortions of Christianity. That fails to take into account a loving heart relationship that we have with the

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Lord. Because if you're flourishing in the fellowship, then you desire to be obedient, right? And when we do fall into sin, or we do fall into temptation that leads to sin, that actually breaks our heart.

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Because if you have the indwelling spirit, if you're actually saved, then you can't just nosedive and live it up in a life of sin.

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It's just not a part of your nature, right? So that's a little bit of the context we've been talking about.

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We've talked a little bit about spiritual maturity. Does anybody remember the stages of spiritual growth?

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Little children, I write these things to you. Then he talks to younger people, young men in the faith that have overcome the wicked one.

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And he talks about those who are grown in the faith, fathers that know he who is from the beginning.

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Y 'all remember talking about that? One principle we took from that is we need discipleship.

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We need people to look up to in the faith. Remember, a lot of us have said, a lot of our parents disciple us.

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We look up to them. That may not be everybody's story, okay? Well, what is someone to do if they don't have parents in their life that they, maybe they have parents that are unbelievers?

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How can they get spiritual parents in the faith? Where should they look to and go? Their elders.

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Elders to the church, right? That's where you're gonna find that Christian fellowship. Those that are like us and a similar level of spiritual growth, we can disciple other people and we can have mothers and fathers in the faith.

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I love this. Jesus talked about this in the Gospels. His mother,

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Mary, and his half -siblings were seeking him and someone said, Jesus, your mother and your brothers are seeking you.

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And he said, who are my mother and my brothers? And they're kind of looking at him confused. And he said, it's everyone that does the will of God.

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And so he's talking about a spiritual family. And so I think John is very pastoral. He's constantly writing to us as little children.

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He cares deeply about us, right? He's trying to shepherd us in the truth and guard us from false teaching. And we also learn about all the works of others.

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Yes, yeah. So elders, we see this term in Scripture and it doesn't necessarily refer to someone who's old in physical age, but someone who's spiritually mature.

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And one good example of this is Paul told Timothy, do not let others despise you of your youth.

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Timothy was probably 30 years old when he said that. And so I just think that's neat. I'm almost 31, by the way.

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And I serve as an elder here. And so I have to be on guard because sometimes it can be intimidating to talk to someone who's so much older than me.

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But we're talking about spiritual truths, right? This is a particular calling. This is a way to serve in the body. So you're absolutely right.

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We've talked about spiritual maturity. And then last week, like we were saying earlier, we talked about a love that God hates.

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God does not love sin. We are to hate the things that God hates.

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We are to hate sin. We are to love the things that God loves. And so one of those things that we talked about, love not the world or the things in the world, and then we kind of got three highlighted examples, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

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What do y 'all remember about those things? What is it? Awkward silence.

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Let's see here. The lust of the flesh. Remember the word lust, we're talking about just a deep desire.

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And this desire is to love the things of the world, which instantly makes you an enemy of God.

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Either in one or the other. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said you can either love

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God or love wealth, one or the other. Your heart can't be divided. And so lust of the flesh literally are all the things that you want to indulge in apart from glorifying

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God. One example is food can be a God -glorifying thing, right, a blessing, or it can be used for fleshly indulgence, where you're overeating and you're not honoring

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God or being a good steward of your body, right? Lust of the flesh could be anything. Remember we see in Galatians 5, the fruit of the spirit is contrasted with all these sinful works of the flesh.

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And we actually went to Romans 1 and talked about all the things that are just debased. Man chose to worship the creature rather than the creator, and God gave man over to a reprobate mind.

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Lust of the eyes is where it kind of starts. You know what I mean? You see something desirable, you covet it, meaning that you want it and that person not to have it anymore, and it's just sinful.

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And then we talked about the pride of life. Pride is ultimately saying, I want to be God. I want to choose to live my life how

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I want and in opposition to God. That's the world. And verse 17 says, and the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

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That reminds me of what Jesus said. What would it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his very soul?

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It's foolish to try to invest only in this temporal world.

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The things that you accumulate here now, clothes, housing, power, influence, whatever, you can't take it with you.

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How are those things gonna help you on judgment day? Those aren't gonna help you have your sin forgiven, right?

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But what we're doing here, we are spending time with one another in Christian fellowship, which has eternal value.

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Many of us will be in eternity together, right? Something that's everlasting.

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Well, how do we know that? Whoever does the will of God abides forever. So we're talking about eternal truths.

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So here's a shift in the context I'm really excited to look at.

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Look with me at verse 18 and follow along with me all the way to verse 27.

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Before I start, what's a caption that someone has above verse 18? Lauren?

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It's a warning concerning antichrist. That's gonna be one of the major things that we're about to get into today is warnings about antichrists, okay?

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So have that in the forefront of your mind. Verse 18 says, children, it is the last hour.

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And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

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Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us.

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For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they are not all of us.

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But you have been anointed by the Holy One and you have all 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.

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Who is the liar but he who denies Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the

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Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the

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Son has the Father also. Let what you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the

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Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has made to us, eternal life.

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I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you have received from him who 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.

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So it's kind of a mouthful. But one of the things that he brings out here is he warns us about antichrists.

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And so that's what John is ultimately writing these things to Christians, reminding them to rest assured that they may know that they have eternal life, what it looks like to walk in the light, and to beware of false teachers, antichrist.

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But look how he starts out in verse 18. He says, children, it is the last hour. So remember a couple weeks ago we talked about spiritual maturity.

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Children, remember back in verse 12, I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.

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So he's talking to the family of faith here, right? If we are in Christ, it's like, okay, he's talking to us.

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Even though this has a first century context, the principles still apply to us today. He says, children,

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Christians, those who have their sins forgiven, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come, therefore we know that it is the last hour.

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So I have a question. What's the first thing that you start thinking of when you hear the word antichrist? Anybody watch any movies that kind of depict the end times with the antichrist and people getting raptured or anything like that,

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JD? Well, I think of someone like an antichrist as like a really bad person. Absolutely, absolutely a really bad person.

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For me, growing up, I was really interested in books that tried to predict who the antichrist was.

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Is it the president? Is it the Pope? I read a lot of crazy stuff online. So I think in all scripture, when we see the word antichrist, it only comes out in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

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John, essentially. And so notice what he's saying here. Children, it is the last hour.

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And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

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Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. So like JD said, just makes us think of a really bad person.

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Think about the word antichrist in itself. It's saying those who are opposed to Christ, right?

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You're either in Christ, have the spirit of Christ, or you're against Christ. And so I'm saying you can only fall into two categories when it comes to Jesus.

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Jesus said you're either for me or you are against me. Everyone falls in one or two of those categories.

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And we're born, we're born in opposition to Christ. As we're gonna see in 1st John chapter three, you're either a child of God or you're a child of the devil, okay?

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So I want us to start thinking about antichrist are those people that oppose the truth about who

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Jesus is. Now, false teachers aren't gonna say, hey, I'm an antichrist over here, right?

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No, we have to understand Satan masquerades or disguises himself as an angel of light.

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And so those who he works through, essentially, it's gonna be the same tactic. And so John is saying, children, the last hour is basically now, how do we know that?

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Because antichrist have already come. So that's an interesting phrase when he says it is the last hour.

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Because in scripture, we kind of get two big timeframes, this age and the age to come.

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And there's a lot of debate about what that means. And I think the best way to understand this is we are living in this age, this temporal age, this world that's going to pass away.

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But then there's an eternal age, an age to come in which God reigns forever. And there's a sense where God is ruling and reigning right now.

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But we're still living in this temporal age, right? And where John is saying the last hour, almost to say, we long for the return of Jesus.

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And he says, man, it seems like it could happen at any moment. It's the last days, it's the last time period.

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It's the last hour. Because look at all the evil and all the things that Christ has to ultimately vanquish.

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And I'm excited to say in a few weeks, we'll be talking more about the second coming of Christ because that's what he gets into at the end of chapter two and end of chapter three.

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So I look forward to that. So when he says the last hour, I think he's just talking about the age that all of us

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Christians share together and how we long for the second coming. But he's saying it's the last hour and antichrist, false teachers are already among us.

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So John is not saying there's not one particular antichrist or false teacher, but it's many.

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It's kind of the spirit of the age. It's the secular ideology that's rivaling the knowledge and truth of God.

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Look with me at verses 22 and 23. This is kind of what he says about the antichrist.

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Talks about who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the

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Christ. This is the antichrist. He who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the

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Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. And so the big thing here is he says, who is the liar but the antichrist?

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And the only way to detect who is opposing Christ is ultimately to test what they're saying, what they're teaching with God's word.

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And so we always want to examine things in context. First John was written in the first century. So the major false teaching of this time was

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Gnosticism, which taught that, yeah, we believe Jesus came, but not as a person.

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That's ridiculous. Jesus is God, but God could never take on flesh. So what he accomplished in his earthly ministry and what he accomplished on the cross was spiritual.

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He didn't actually come in the flesh, right? We talk about the word incarnation. Does anybody remember what that word means?

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Incarnation means to take on flesh. Y 'all remember in John chapter one, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God.

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That's verse one. And verse 14 says, and the word became flesh. This means as the second person of the

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Trinity, Jesus, the eternal word, took on flesh. He added humanity to his person.

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Jesus is God in man. Doesn't mean he was eternally man. Means he was eternally

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God and then added flesh, humanity to his person.

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That's the incarnation. And so Gnosticism in the first century was opposing the doctrine of the incarnation and said

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Jesus was pretty much only a spirit. Well, to say that Jesus is only a spirit, that's misrepresenting who

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Jesus is. Jesus has to represent humanity. We need a representative, an advocate that intercedes on our behalf perfectly.

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Why do we need someone perfectly representing us? Because we're sinners, right? We deserve God's justice and his wrath.

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And so we need literally God to atone for our sins. And someone who is perfectly righteous is the only one that can do that.

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And so false teachers, the antichrist spirits, you know, is all in the first century in trying to distort who

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Jesus is. Because if people believe in a wrong Jesus, then they can't have their sins forgiven. Look with me at chapter four in the opening verses.

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Let's see here. So beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits.

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Let me pause. Is it kind of weird that we keep using the word spirits? Are y 'all thinking like ghosts kind of floating around?

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I think what John is saying is false teachers, antichrist spirits, persons that teach, or that are trying to deceive us, right?

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That are teaching us lies. Back in 2 .26, John says,

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I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. So antichrist or false teachers, it are those spirits, those persons that are trying to malign or distort who the biblical

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Jesus is. So back in 4 .1, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

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Okay, so how do we test the spirits? Someone help me. How do we test the spirit to know that what they're saying is right or wrong?

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Lauren? They confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Yes, and so we know that based on God's revealed word, right?

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And so we test what they're saying with the objective standard of how God has revealed truth to us.

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Just like you said, if they deny that Jesus came in the flesh, Lauren, we can look and be like, oh,

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John warned us about him, right? That's a false teacher. You gotta believe in the right Jesus. John said this about himself in John 8,

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I believe it's 24, he says, unless you believe that I am, then you will die in your sins.

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Does anybody know the significance of the I am? Why Jesus referred to himself as the great

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I am? So do y 'all remember

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Moses in the burning bush? So Moses was talking to God.

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And God said, I want you to go to, I want you to lead my people out of Egypt.

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And then Moses said, well, if they ask who sent me, what shall I say? And he said, tell them that I am has sent me unto you.

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Okay, and so the point is, I am is referring to God everlasting.

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I am that I am. I'm the one who was, the one who is, and will always be the eternally existing one.

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And Jesus is the I am. And so the point is, you have to believe in the right

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Jesus in order to be saved and have your sins forgiven. And even the demons believe that Jesus is

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God. Now, you're exactly right. They believe that. Does that mean that they're saved?

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No. They believe in the facts about who Jesus is. They know the facts to be true, but they don't believe from the heart and trust in him.

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Right, because for God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, whoever believes in Jesus, believes in me, believes in him, will not perish by everlasting life.

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That type of belief is different. That means to have repentant faith, trust from the heart. But the demons believe in the sense that they know facts.

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So what does that tell us? It's not enough just to know facts about who Jesus is. That's not gonna save. But to trust in who he is and what he's done on our behalf.

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Right? Sound good? So look with me at verse two. By this you know the spirit of God.

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Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

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And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the

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Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now in the world already. So I'm just wanting you to see we share something in common now, 21st century, with first century

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John. Meaning that there's false teaching already about trying to distort the truths about Jesus.

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You're gonna have the spirit of Antichrist being manifested in a lot of different ways.

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Some people have said, Jeremiah, well the spirit of Antichrist in the context is just people that deny the flesh of Jesus.

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I'm like, that's one Antichrist, right? But you're either with me or against me, Jesus says.

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And you can be against Christ in a lot of different ways. Is that fair? And pick whichever one you want.

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That's a type of Antichrist. You're either in Christ or you're against him.

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And so the reason why that's important is because, as we're gonna see here in a little bit, false teachers, they deny

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Christ with what they actually teach. And then we see some people being deceived and following false teachers.

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And then they leave the faith that way. And then you got some people that just throw up their hands and say, I'm tired of all this stuff.

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And they prove to have the spirit of Antichrist. So I'm wanting you to see that Antichrist is firstly a false teacher, but it could also be anybody that opposes

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Christ with their life or what they say or what they do. Sound good? So look back at verse 18 in chapter two.

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John says, children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many

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Antichrist have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. Now verse 19 is very interesting.

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I want y 'all's thoughts on this. They, who's the they here, you think? What? Antichrist. Antichrist, right?

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So we're talking about the false teachers. This is the primary context, but I want us to also make application.

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So they, the false teachers, the Antichrists, went out from us, but they were not of us.

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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.

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So what are some first thoughts that come to mind when you hear this verse? What does it mean that they were not of us?

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Lauren? I don't know if this is necessarily what you're asking, but in the thing that we listened to today, the...

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Pastor Gabe? Yes, Lauren, listen real quick. Anybody else listen to Pastor Gabe? Got a hand over here?

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Come on, Ayla. Anybody else listen to it? Shame on you, shame on you guys.

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JD already knows he's a heathen. Thank you. I don't even have to talk about it. That's okay, we love you.

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So go ahead, Lauren. Oh, you're saying like church, and it was so that they would not be associated with us.

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Yes, okay, I'm so glad you brought that out. No, you're exactly right, because my big two main points this evening,

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I wanted to talk about what is Antichrist, and how do we make sense of people leaving the church?

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Because isn't it discouraging on one hand when maybe we've grown up with people we've known for a long time in church, and they've left the faith altogether?

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That's discouraging on one hand, like what happened? And I want us to think about it in two levels.

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You've got false teachers, and then you have people that are deceived by false teaching, okay?

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And so we're gonna kind of talk about both. And so on one hand, it's very sad. And we almost are,

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I think about John's audience, maybe they get discouraged, like oh no, what if I fall away from the faith too?

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Like how can I know that I have assurance of my salvation that this won't happen? Well, false teachers, we have to understand that they're not believing in the right

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Christ, meaning they're not truly saved. And yet they're gonna say, I'm a

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Christian. I believe in Jesus. But just because someone says they believe in Jesus, what

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Jesus do you believe in? Do you believe that Jesus was the first of all created things?

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That's what Jehovah's Witnesses believe. They believe that Jesus was created by God the Father. Well, that means that that's a different Jesus than what we believe.

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We believe that he's the second person of the Trinity who's been in eternal relationship with the Father and Holy Spirit, okay?

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You got Mormons that say, well, we believe in Jesus. But when you ask what Jesus, oh, well, he's the brother of Lucifer.

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And you're like, whoa, that's way different than what we believe, right?

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Muslims believe in Jesus, but they don't believe he died on the cross. Well, that's a different Jesus.

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You know what I mean? So it's important to say, what Jesus do you believe in? Josiah?

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And all this whole everything about trying to figure out who

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Jesus is and if he correlates to God, it actually goes all the way back to the

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Council of Nicaea when they resolve if Jesus is God or not. Yeah, and I think that's a good point.

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And I think we would agree and recognize that even that council is a fallible human council, but they were trying to use the scriptures to say, hey, who is the right

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Jesus? And I think they were right. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity and he is truly

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God and truly man. God the son took on flesh and dwelt among us in his incarnation.

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And so I agree with that council. So I think that's a good point. But that's something we hold near and dear to our hearts.

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We don't get swept away by these other spirits, right? That try to come in and say, well,

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Jesus could be created. No, he's the creator, right?

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I was actually gonna, I didn't find it quick enough. I was, oh, here it is.

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Paul actually warned Christians at Corinth to beware of false Jesuses.

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Well, how are we gonna know what a false Jesus is? We gotta know the real one, right? How do you detect a counterfeit bill?

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You gotta know what the real one looks like. So let me read this verse to you real quick. Paul is kind of rebuking the

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Christians at Corinth, okay? And he says, for if someone comes and proclaims another

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Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you've received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, he says, you guys are putting up with all that, essentially, like he's rebuking them.

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And so that's what John is writing to little children, Christians who have been forgiven, and says, you have to beware of false teachers, the teachings of Antichrist that are gonna distort who

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Jesus is, okay? Now here's something you can rest on. If you believe in the biblical

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Jesus, the Trinity, Jesus being the second person who took on flesh, dwelt among us, if you believe in that Jesus, and when

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I say believe, not like the demons and just facts, but trusting in the heart, then that'll never be taken away.

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That's why he's trying to give assurance to his audience, because later, he's gonna say, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the

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Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life. But what do you think when you see people in the church leave, and show that they're actually not of us?

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Well, they didn't believe in the right Jesus. They were led away by false teachers. Or they maybe looked at the things of the world, which we're gonna talk about here in a moment, and they cared more about those things, proving that they didn't have the spirit of Christ dwelling in them, but the spirit of what?

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Antichrist. So, because this is a huge point.

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If we love the biblical Jesus, then that'll never be taken away from us.

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Not because we made the right decisions, not because of how smart we are, but because that was gifted to us from above.

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And God is going to purge his church. Does anybody know what purge means? What? Just build.

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Yeah, he's the one building his church, and there are gonna be people that come into the church that aren't truly saved, right?

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And over time, it's gonna be made known a lot of times. And false teachers, they go out from the true church, and they're gonna have a crowd.

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They're gonna have a following that's deceived also. And so I'm saying from a human perspective, it can be discouraging to think, oh man, what's going on?

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But like Justin said, Christ is building his church. He is purging his church. He is pruning the vine, right?

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And so John is saying, well, they were actually never saved to begin with.

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They had the spirit of antichrist. They didn't actually have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Does someone have their hand raised?

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Just, Joseph? And one of the other reasons why some people, you see some people in the church is they probably lose interest in religion.

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Right, which proves what? They were actually never of us. They may have looked like it, but their heart was never changed.

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They never had genuine saving faith in the biblical Jesus. So if you would, turn with me to Mark chapter four.

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So I wanna read the parable of the sower. But before we do, I wanna make sure we understand the context of what

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John was saying back in what we just read about 1

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John 2 .19. Because like Lauren said, Pastor Gabe was teaching about what he is primarily talking about, they, the antichrist, those that are teaching

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Gnosticism and that Jesus didn't come in the flesh, well, they are not of us, right? They went out from us, proving that they were never truly rooted in the truth.

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And so I want us to think in layers. John is firstly talking about false teachers. And then what do false teachers do?

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They deceive people. And then John's writing so that doesn't happen to us, for us to be informed of the truth.

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And I want us to also think about the principle of antichrist, you're either with me, Jesus says, or you're against me.

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And you can be against Christ in many different ways, false teaching, and with how you live your life.

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And so the parable of the sower, talks about different soils that have the spirit of antichrist, okay?

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So I want you to be thinking, I wanna ask this question here in a minute, but I want us to be thinking about which of these soils has the spirit of antichrist, and which soil actually has the spirit of Christ, which would actually have the

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Holy Spirit that would regenerate a dead heart, okay? So Mark chapter four, let's look at verse one.

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Again, Jesus began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.

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And he was teaching them many things and parables. And in his teaching, he said to them, listen, behold, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

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Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil.

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And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and yielded, and it yielded no grain.

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And other seeds fell onto good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding 30 -fold and 60 -fold and 100 -fold.

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And he said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parables.

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And he said to them, to you it has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.

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And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all parables?

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The sower sows the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown.

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When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.

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And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.

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And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then, when tribulations or persecution arise on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

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And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those that hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

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But those who were sown on good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 30 -fold and 60 -fold and 100 -fold.

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So this is really neat. If you actually look back at verse 13, this is interesting verse because this parable is in all three synoptic gospels,

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Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John is a unique gospel that just emphasizes the deity of Christ.

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But you'll see a lot of similarities between Matthew, Mark giving a synopsis of Jesus' life.

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Point is, this parable of the sower is in those three gospel accounts, but this verse is only mentioned in Mark.

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Look at verse 13. Jesus said, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?

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Jesus is saying, if you don't get this parable right, then you're not gonna understand the other parables that Jesus gives.

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So what does this tell us about this parable? It's really important. We really need to understand what Jesus is saying here.

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And it's gonna relate back to 1 John 2 .19. Remember, they went out from us, proving that they were actually not of us.

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So as we go through these four soils, I want us to pick out which ones had the spirit of Antichrist and which ones actually had the

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Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ, okay? So raise your hand. Does anybody remember the four soils that Jesus was talking about?

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Make sure y 'all are awake out there. You can cheat, peoples.

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J .D.? I remember two. There's rocky and thorns and then the good soil.

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Okay, that's three of the four right there. The rocky, the thorns, and the good soil.

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What was the very first soil, Justin? They were like birds.

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Yes, birds were related to it. Does anybody remember what the birds swooped down on the first soil it was referred to,

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Lauren? This is along the path. Along the path. So a pathway, kind of like what you were saying, you know, you kind of have a roadway, like a path where people would walk on, okay?

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So let's think about it. You have a pathway, you have the rocky ground, the thorny ground, and the good soil, okay?

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So let's kind of break this down. And remember, we're after trying to figure out which is going to be a spirit of Antichrist and who would have the spirit of Christ.

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So let's kind of look at all four of these. So look back at verse three. Jesus said, Listen, behold, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

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So what's the seed that's being sown? What's the seed? Do y 'all remember? Jesus gave the explanation of the parable in the second passage.

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It's the gospel. It's the word of God. So who's the sower? Jesus, you're actually right.

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Jesus is the sower, right? Capital V. But this is also talking about Christians evangelizing, sharing the gospel with others as we go.

45:08

Right, Josiah? And the path, if you think about it, the path is where it's the hard heart of...

45:18

Yes. You're absolutely right. So all these soils represent the heart.

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Okay, so if you can think about it like that. So each one of these soils are representing a type of heart a person has, okay?

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But I want us to think of the parable, and then I want us to also think about the explanation that Jesus gave, because you got a pathway, and a sower is sowing seed.

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He's preaching to people the gospel. And then look with me at verse 15.

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And these are sown along the path where the word is sown, and we pause.

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Remember it said birds. Justin mentioned this. The birds swoop in and pick up the seed, right?

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Because when these seeds fall on the pathway, they're not gonna be able to flourish and grow, right?

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But they're subject to things coming along the way and knocking it off the path, or destroying it.

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Like birds. So what does that mean? Jesus said. So let's let him explain.

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So verse 15 again. And these are the ones along the path. So we're talking about a person with a certain heart, like a path, where the word is sown, the gospel's preached, they hear the right gospel.

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And when they hear it, Satan immediately comes in and takes away the word that is sown, okay?

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Now this is talking about spiritual warfare. Have you ever tried sharing the gospel with somebody or seen the gospel being spread, explained to somebody, and them just being like, that's cool for you.

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I'm not really sure I can get down with that religious stuff. And they just kind of come up with a bogus answer and kind of just walk away.

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In some ways, that's the heart that represents the pathway. There's spiritual warfare going on that we can't always see.

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They may have heard the word, but does it mean that they're necessarily going to receive it? So what do you think?

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Spirit of antichrist or spirit of Christ? With the first soil being the pathway.

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Is this someone who is for Christ or against Christ? Against. Right, so this first soil, the pathway, represents someone who is antichrist, right?

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They're not receiving the gospel and it taking root and trusting in Christ and their whole life changed.

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And what's one explanation of why here? Spiritual warfare. Satan's at work. In fact,

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I believe it's 2 Corinthians 4 .4 that says Satan is actively blinding the eyes of unbelievers.

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Think about doubly what that means. That means people are born unable to respond to spiritual truths, but Satan is furthering their deception in wickedness and darkness, okay?

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So what's one explanation why some people reject the gospel? Spiritual warfare, right?

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So let's look at verse five. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil.

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So does anybody remember what the rocky ground represents? Remember, it's a type of heart, a type of disposition.

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Anybody remember what the rocky ground represents? Verse 16,

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Jesus tells us. And these are the ones that are sown on the rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, the gospel, immediately receive it with joy.

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Pause. We would almost think this person is saved, right? When someone hears the words of Jesus and they're just really excited.

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But, look at verse 17, because this proves to not be genuine saving faith, but this is a type of superficial happiness that's fleeting with one's circumstances, right?

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They're not convicted over sin. They're not counting the cost of submitting to Jesus as Lord.

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Verse 17 says, and they had no root in themselves, but endure for a while.

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Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. So, spirit of Christ or spirit of Antichrist?

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What do you think, Liberty? Is this rocky ground someone that's with Christ or against Christ?

49:49

Against Christ. Now, from a human perspective, it looked like maybe they were with Christ for a time, kind of like the people back in 1

49:57

John 2 .19, right? They went out from us, meaning that they looked like Christians, but they proved that they were not actually of us, right?

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Meaning that they were not truly Christian. And so, some people are gonna come to church and they get excited about hearing things that are going on in the

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Bible and they're hearing about who Jesus is, hear things about the Spirit, the Father. Maybe they just get excited about all the hype.

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But it's so much, like it's altogether something different. For the seed to take root on a heart that is changed is someone who is convicted and broken over their sin.

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Someone that's trusting in Jesus apart from trusting in themselves. So, yes, there does come joy in the things of the

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Lord, but what precedes that? Brokenness over sin, right? Understanding who we are in light of God's holiness.

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God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. So, this is a type, this is a person who is a type of antichrist.

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Someone who's in the church maybe for a little bit, but because of trials, because of persecution, whatever, they're just like, no,

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I didn't sign up for this. Proving that that joy that they had earlier, superficial, right, was not a deeply rooted, everlasting joy.

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So, let's continue on. We got a one down. Look with me at verse seven.

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Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked the word, and it yielded no grain.

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So, the thorns here, verse 18, Jesus says, the other ones are sown among the thorns. They are those that hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

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So, what do y 'all think? Spirit of Christ or spirit of antichrist? Ayla, what do you think?

52:04

The thorny ground. Do you think they are an antichrist or they possess the spirit of Christ?

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Antichrist. Antichrist, right? Now, they started out from a human perspective, real similar to the rocky ground of saying they look like a brethren, but over time, they went out from us, showing that they were actually never of us, right?

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That's, in principle, something that John's telling us about false teachers, the people that they deceive, and at large, those people that have the spirit that proves that they were never rooted in Christ.

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They never received the Holy Spirit that changed their heart. So, this brings us to the last one.

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Verse eight, an other seed, remember, that's talking about the gospel, fell onto good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding 30 -fold and 60 -fold and 100 -fold.

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And so, Jesus further expounds on this in verse 20. But those who were sown on the good soil are those who hear the word of the gospel and accept it and bear fruit 30 -fold, 60 -fold, and 100 -fold.

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So, someone help me. Spirit of Christ or spirit of antichrist? What do you think,

53:20

Kennedy? Christ. So, let me ask you this. What is the major difference here? What is the major difference between the good soil and all the three soils that came before it,

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J .D.? One is permanent and the rest aren't. Okay, you're absolutely right. One is permanent and the other three are not.

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And so, the one that's permanent produces fruit. Right, because all the soils earlier, the seed was sown, they heard it, but it never took root.

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Spiritual warfare came and took the seed away or the thorns choked it. All of the persecution, the trials that comes with following Christ was enough to push someone away or the deceitfulness of riches and the desires of wealth pull someone away.

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But you notice the seed never took root. If it doesn't take root, there's going to be no fruit.

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Does that make sense? It has to be buried. It has to be cultivated. It has to be real in order for there to be any fruit at all.

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I like what J .D. said. We see that that's permanent. That's why when someone is truly changed by the

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Holy Spirit, their heart is tealed, meaning that the Holy Spirit has plowed their heart into something brand new because we're using a farming parable.

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That is the heart that's ready to hear the gospel for it to go into the soil and flourish.

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So, our job here, we can't control the disposition of people's hearts, can we?

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We are the sowers. We can be faithful to sow the gospel seed, preach the gospel of grace, and we receive the biblical

54:57

Jesus by faith and faith alone, right? We preach that message to people, and so we sow seeds.

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And guess what? That seed's gonna fall on the pathway, the rocky ground, the thorny ground, but you know what?

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In God's timing, it'll fall on the good soil, the heart that's been changed by the

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Holy Spirit. God gives the increase. We may water, we may plant, but we cannot ultimately produce fruit.

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That's up to God. That's a byproduct of the Holy Spirit. And so,

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I want all that to say is we are not discouraged when we see people leave the church.

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We're not discouraged in this since our heart breaks for them, we pray for them, but God is building his church. Justin said it earlier.

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Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 16. He says, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

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So, when people leave the church, pray for them, call them to repentance, things like that, but God's building his church.

55:58

And who knows, maybe they'll come back. At the end of James chapter five, it says, some people that left will be brought back and be one, and love will cover a multitude of sins in the truth.

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Okay? And so, when someone leaves permanently and doesn't come back, well, they weren't of us.

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Because if you're truly in Christ and have the indwelling Holy Spirit, that's permanent.

56:24

I love how J .D. put that. Any final thoughts, comments? Josiah? If you think about the whole parable of the farmer, the sower, and the seed, and how this applies today, the question is, which ground is our world currently living right now?

56:47

I like that. How about we make it more personal for each one of us, and you don't have to answer out loud, but what is your heart?

56:55

Is it the good soil? Pray that it is, the spirit of Christ? Or is there someone that has the spirit of antichrist, and they know it?

57:03

They know that, man, I'm just kinda going to church, playing games, I at least put on a good show that I like the gospel and things like that, but man, the world looks really enticing and the things that it has to offer.

57:18

So what do you think? Is that a good practical takeaway of saying, what does our own hearts look like? Which one of the soils?

57:24

Is there any fruit in my life? Jeremiah, I'm looking at my life and I don't see much fruit. I don't really like going to church,

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I don't really like spending time in the word, I don't really like spending time in prayer. That's not a fruit of the spirit.

57:37

That's the tactics of the devil. Right, that's a good point. So we need to test ourselves, right?

57:44

Because ultimately, you can't play games with God. Any other thoughts out there,

57:55

Delaney? I have a question. Yes, I love questions, by the way. It's my favorite thing. Hey, I was curious.

58:01

So for the person, I was wondering what type of soil it would be for a person, let's say you're sharing the gospel with them, and this is your second time doing it, again, and they're all tracking with you and they're like, oh man, everything you just said, it makes perfect sense.

58:20

That's super logical, but I still don't believe it. Right, immediately, I think, it sounds like the pathway where the seed's being sown, they're listening, but spiritual warfare is going on.

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And for whatever reason, they just immediately reject it. Because the thorny ground and the rocky ground, they actually are invested into the church at some level.

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So the pathway never gets in. And so my point is, that person that rejects, Satan has their heart captivated.

58:53

When I say Satan, I'm just saying the kingdom of darkness. But just because someone is a type of those first three soils, doesn't mean they'll always stay that way.

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Because God could plow their heart at any time by the spirit changing their heart, and then when they hear the gospel, boom, good soil produces fruit.

59:12

But does that make sense why that scenario sounds kind of like the first soil, the pathway? Some serious spiritual warfare going on there.

59:21

Josiah? I think it's interesting, the way I kind of put this, with the rocky soil a little bit, is that a person that is insane gets into the church.

59:34

They learn a lot about it, they accept that, and they go through that.

59:41

But as we've seen currently through after 2020 and forward,

59:48

COVID really shut people down, and they were tempted, and they fell away.

59:57

You're 100 % right. Jesus says, this ground they endure for a while. But when tribulation, persecution, hard times come, they're just like,

01:00:07

I didn't sign up for this. And it's not that they were saved. And so I've actually heard some people say, well, there's a little bit of growth, right?

01:00:17

So doesn't that mean there was some fruit? I'm gonna say no. The only thing that they accumulated a little bit more was knowledge. It's not enough to know facts, right?

01:00:25

That's not real fruit. Now, somebody who's trusting in Christ, that is fruit as they gain knowledge, you know what

01:00:32

I mean? But that's distinguished from the unregenerate, the unsaved that can know facts about who

01:00:38

Jesus is like the devil. That's not fruit. So yeah, I think even life events like COVID purged the church, where kind of the fake

01:00:50

Christians were like almost at home. So interesting, the thorny soil, another analogy for that, or the way

01:01:00

I put it also is that the thorny soil is more the tactics of the devil and they go in the soil and they learn a bit more, they get kind of into it.

01:01:12

But at the same time, all the things they've done in their past comes back and keeps haunting them for like all their time.

01:01:28

And that's what's just all on their mind and they just give away. Yes, you said a phrase I really like, you said a tactic of the devil.

01:01:35

Remember Jesus is describing the thorny ground as they hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for the things enter in and choke the word.

01:01:51

What did we talk about in 1 John 2 last week? That we are to love not the world or the things in the world, because Satan is using the temptation of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life to deceive people.

01:02:06

So I'm agreeing with you is that's definitely a tactic of Satan that he's been doing from the beginning.

01:02:12

Remember with Adam and Eve, tried the same tactic with Jesus and failed big time, right?

01:02:18

So what's wonderful about that and we'll end on this is Jesus was tempted in all ways like we are.

01:02:26

Temptation came at him from every angle, all this satanic schemes that Satan can drum up did not find itself within Christ because he's perfect.

01:02:36

And so that's our, that is our advocate, our high priest who intercedes and we can pray to him because he truly knows what it's like to be in our shoes.

01:02:47

How? Because he was fully human and is to this day. He is still the