Beware of Antichrist’s Antichrists | 1 John 2:17-19

The Christian Life Under the Lordship of Christ

Okay, so I want to begin by tying up a few loose ends first. Last week I had preached some pretty hard things about welfare, and so I wanted to kind of bring some balance to that and encourage us a little bit.

And the reality is that scripture goes against much of our society, much against the grain of our society, because it goes against the world. It goes against sin and unrighteousness. And this is why you can see from the front of your bulletin, one of our church's rallying cries, our mottos, is where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all our faith and life.

All of it. Leave no stone unturned. And it's very important to recognize that we need to submit everything to the Lordship of Christ, including those things. Everything from God to man to salvation to society and to welfare as well.

We have to have a biblical perspective of all of these things and beyond. We all have a duty as Christians to tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, as 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5 says.

And we also need to understand how God works through the preaching of the word. Which warns, reproves, corrects, rebukes, exhorts, and encourages us, according to 2 Timothy 4, verse 2. So we need to think and discern carefully through all of these issues as individuals and as a church as well.

So therefore, that's why I was preaching last week that it is better and biblical to rely on each other. To bear each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, as Galatians 6, 2 says, right? And rather than to depend on government welfare and handouts.

Because we have to consider the fact that these choices carry consequences and they come with strings attached that we need to consider carefully for us and for our families. We have to be very mindful of those things.

And if you turn with me to James, chapter 2, this will hopefully cement this point home for us a little bit better. James, chapter 2, verse 15. So in James, chapter 2, we see this is actually within the context of faith without works being dead.

And in verse 15, it says, God's word says, If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, go in peace, the government will take care of you, right?

And yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body. What use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead by itself. So there the word says pretty clearly that we are our brother's keeper and sister's keeper.

We should be looking out for each other and bearing each other's burdens in that way. We should not rely on the government for those kinds of things. We need to just be mindful and think biblically of these issues.

I know that they're challenging because society is so structured against this. It goes against a lot of what the word says. So I just want to put this before you to consider and so that we can think critically and biblically through these kinds of issues.

Therefore, do not be foolish or thoughtless, but understand what the Lord's will is according to Ephesians 5, 17.

Amen.

But test and approve what God's will is. Romans 12, 2. For your particular situation, we have to test and approve, discern the Lord's will. And if you do need any help, please be encouraged to share your concerns with us as a church with your fellow brothers and sisters who are covenanting together and walking together in unity with you.

That's really what the church and the Lord Jesus said in the Gospel of John that in his prayer, let them be known by their love for one another. That's how we show those things. It's a very practical outward expression of the love that we have for each other as adopted brothers and sisters in the Lord.

So I just wanted to bring a little bit more of that out because it is important. Now, regarding this past Thursday, I also hope that you all had a blessed Eucharist. And remember, if you all didn't attend, maybe the sermon I preached two years ago on Thanksgiving, the word Eucharist is not a Roman Catholic invention.

It doesn't come from the Roman Catholic Church, and it does not mean what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about the Mass.

Okay.

It comes from the Greek word Eucharist. Eucharist. It is the usual verb that means to thank, to be thankful for, or to give thanks in both the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, and the Greek New Testament.

Because God calls us to be a Eucharistic people repeatedly, a grateful and thanksgiving people. In other words, Thanksgiving, in fact, is the very substance of the Christian life. It's the DNA of the Christian.

It is the lifeblood. It's what defines in many ways the Christian life. And Thanksgiving is also built into the very DNA of our Reformation heritage, such as the Heidelberg and Orthodox catechisms, which we recite every Lord's Day.

Question two says, What must you know to live and die in the comfort, in the joy of this comfort, this comfort of the gospel? Three things. It says, first, how great my sin and misery are, my guilt. Second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery, grace.

Third, that's third, not fourth, how I am to thank God for such deliverance, gratitude. Guilt, grace, gratitude, or thankfulness. Thanksgiving, that is the Christian life. That is the transformation of the Christian life.

Guilt, grace, and gratitude. And in light of what I preached on the Reformation these past few weeks, when Martin Luther was reforming the Roman Catholic Mass in the liturgy, the liturgy is the order of worship, how you structure your services on the Lord's Day.

He taught that the Mass is not a sacrifice. You're not re-offering Christ as a sacrifice, but a thanksgiving to God and a communion with believers, a fellowship, a koinonia, as 1 John explains, as we've covered before.

It is not a sacrifice in the sense of placating God or appeasing the wrath of God because he does not need to be placated, at least not anymore, because Christ has already propitiated the wrath of God on the cross once and for all.

Amen?

Like Hebrews 10 clearly teaches in other places. It is finished, Jesus said, loudly, boldly, and clearly as he perished on the cross for us. And it is not an oblation, Luther continues, in the sense of something offered because man cannot offer to God but only receive.

Amen?

Right?

This is law and gospel. Although, to add a little bit to what Luther stated, we do nevertheless, by the mercies of God, as Romans 12, 1 says, present our bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.

So it's not that Christ has sacrificed for us in the mass. It's that we ourselves, our entire lives, are a sacrifice of worship unto the Lord, not just on Sundays, not just on the Lord's Day. And while the Lord's Day is a day set aside for specifically the corporate congregated gathering of worship of God, we nevertheless primarily receive from God his means of grace with thankfulness, like Luther said.

Right? We receive the word of God sung, prayed, and preached corporately. And the sacraments, the Lord's Supper, and baptism as well. So then, do not let worldly society, culture, philosophies that are false dictate their own truth and reality to you, which often distorts this Thanksgiving holiday by vilifying the pilgrims and victimizing the Indians.

They tend to twist or revise history. But see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, as Colossians 2, 8 says, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world.

Remember that the world, the flesh, the devil, that the Apostle John also warns us about, and not according to Christ. Because those two are diametrically opposed to each other, the world and Christ. It is good to celebrate Thanksgiving if we so choose to.

It's a good thing. Do not let liberal, ignorant society twist and redefine the significance of these days. Because this is about church history. Thanksgiving is about church history and about celebrating what God's provision.

Right?

God's provision. Because God calls us, once again, to be a Eucharistic, a grateful, a thanksgiving people. So it is a very beautiful way of celebrating and doing those things that the word says, as a family, with friends and family.

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil in First John

So now I want us to jump back over to 1 John in chapter 2. And the last time I was on this epistle, I was covering verses 15 through 17 and started a series on knowing your enemy, on the unholy trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The very anti-Christian, and note that word, allies that conspire to steal, kill, and destroy us. We also learn that the world, in these verses, specifically refers to unregenerate civilization that is under the domain of darkness and dominion of the devil.

It refers to ungodly, unbelieving society and culture as a whole, as well as the sinful lusts and lifestyles that it promotes and that tempt our flesh, even as believers. Which is, of course, in direct contrast to who we are and what we represent as the church of God, as John's letter explains to us.

In contrast, darkness versus light, truth versus falsehood and lies, and so on. We learned about the devil and his schemes, who he is and what he does. He who tempts us through our flesh and our weaknesses, if we're not careful.

The devil is, among other things, a liar and a false teacher who uses false teaching and teachers and even compromised Christians as well to spread darkness and anti-Christ agenda. Keep this in mind.

Keep this in mind, beloved, as we continue wrestling through this very powerful letter. Every single one of us must also wrestle against these mortal enemies that we all must face, including our besetting weakness that we all struggle with.

And that is, of course, none other than the flesh. The flesh that we all still have and need to crucify. And I drew from great men of God and a bold like John Owen to help us grasp these vital truths from Scripture.

The flesh in this particular passage, because we understand that it can have different meanings in Scripture, but here it refers primarily to the physical body that hasn't been redeemed yet. OK, it is primarily our physical bodies because they have not yet been resurrected and glorified by Christ upon his second, his final return.

OK, we need to understand these things. It's not exclusively the physical body, but primarily right. There's still aspects of our mind that make up the flesh of our brain and all of those things. But the flesh, nevertheless, as Romans and various other places clearly teaches, points to the physical body primarily.

And I was very pleasantly surprised, you might say, that Matthew Henry, our good friend, the Puritan Matthew Henry, agrees. And if you all are not familiar with this commentary, I highly commend it to every one of you.

It's free online. You can get it in one volume, unabridged. I recommend the unabridged version. It's an excellent biblical commentary. In which our good friend Matthew Henry says regarding the flesh, he says the flesh here being distinguished from the eyes and the life referring to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life imports the body, the physical body, the lust of the flesh is subjectively the temperament and appetite of indulging fleshly pleasures, carnal pleasures, and objectively all those things that excite and inflame the pleasures of the flesh.

Our senses, right? Our physical senses, as I touched on as well. And as our good friend John Bunyan also says, explains and depicts in his allegory, his spiritual allegory, the holy war about the sense gates.

This is very much in line with the Protestant faith as taught in scripture. This is what we need to understand carefully. We need to know our enemy. So it is therefore now fitting to conclude this series with John's own conclusion in verse 17, if you turn with me there.

And which serves as a reminder that the New Testament is not really new. It could because it builds from draws from comes from and fulfills the old because in the same way that King Solomon over a thousand years before the Apostle John, he was around 1035, 1035 BC.

The way he sums up the vanities of life in his God breath philosophy in Ecclesiastes. Chapter 12 verses 13 through 14. This is the final conclusion to the book that he wrote. The sum of the matter then all that has been heard is to fear God and keep his commandments because this is the end of the matter for all mankind.

For God will bring every work to judgment. Everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. So likewise, John says in his letter in chapter 2 verse 17 and the world is passing away vanity and also it's lusts.

It's vanities. But the one who does the will of God abides forever. Forever. Same basic message here. And how do we then fear God, keep his commandments and do his will like these two passages say and so countless others.

We must first and foremost begin with the gospel.

Amen.

The gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. The very first words that came out of the mouth of our Savior in his public ministry. The time is at hand. The kingdom of God is nigh. Repent and believe the gospel.

That's the first step. But then we must also come to recognize that the night is almost gone. Like Romans 13 12 says, and the day is at hand.

Therefore,.

Let us lay aside the deeds of darkness. Like first, John also talks about and put on the armor of God and of light. Memorize and meditate on this, that armor of God. It's critically important. We need balance and discernment as well.

And remember to take hold of God's remedies and means of deliverance. The six S's, which I preached on several weeks regarding the series on knowing your enemy. Recall what they were, what they are. Scripture, sound doctrine, the sacraments, including the word of God, God sung,.

Prayed,.

And preached corporately.

Very important.

Not just individually, but corporately. Self-awareness and self-denial. Sage counsel and spiritual warfare, including prayer and intercessory prayer. I highly encourage you all to go back and listen to that series if you haven't had a chance to do so.

It's very important to understand who the enemy is. Especially considering what John, the apostle, tells us in the following verses. Turn with me now to those verses 18 through 19 where God's Word says to us.

So in 1 John 2, verse 18, God's Word says, Children, it is the last hour and just as you heard that Antichrist one is coming.

Even now,.

Many Antichrist have appeared from this. We know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. These Antichrist, 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.

I want to draw your attention to something as well because it's going to be important later on in verse 19 in particular. But when you see italics in the translation, particularly in the Legacy Standard Bible, that's why it's good to use a translation that uses the italics because the italics are not in the original.

They are added in there to help explain or elaborate what the text is saying. So bear that in mind. Bear that in mind. Now, this passage is loaded with important truths and serious warnings that we need to unpack carefully.

And it has been controversial. These are controversial matters throughout the history of the church. The beloved Apostle is setting the end time stage for us here in this drama because it is the last hour.

It is the last hour as well as the characters of this drama, including the good guys, the children, and the Apostle, us. The church, in other words, collectively. The church being the good guys and the bad guys or the antichrists, right?

And the antagonist, the arch nemesis or the antichrist as well. And he gives us, he reveals to us the plot of this drama that they, the many false Christians who have appeared among us in our church, in the church, but they went out from us to make it known that they were actually antichrists and therefore were never really of us.

This is critically important stuff to understand. The doctrines that we need to unpack here. And who might the hero of the story be? Think about this. Who might the hero of the story be? Look no further than verse 1 where we find Jesus Christ, the righteous.

Amen?

The only righteous one. Powerful stuff that the apostle is telling us here. Recall too how John addresses his readers with several terms of endearment like beloved, my little children and children. And previously, if you look at verses 12 through 14, he directly addresses believers in every spiritual stage of life from little children to children to young men to fathers and elders in the faith.

Here, however, he says children, which it might refer to those who are younger in the faith or to everyone in general, believers in general, because these are things that we all need to know and understand regardless of the stage of life we are in, as we will see.

This is very important. Now, of course, there's a lot of important phrases in this passage that we need to step one. What's what's always the rule? Step one is we must always define our terms, right? We must define what then is the last hour.

What does that mean? What is the Apostle John telling us? The phrase in Greek you will find does not have the definite article. The it the Greek expression is a Scott, a order as Scott, a order from which we get the Spanish word order as well.

Our or our. There is a Scott, which is from eschatology or the study of last things, right? The last hour. There is a clear sense of finality then in this last eschatological hour. But what kind of finality are we talking about?

Especially considering the fact that almost 2000 years have passed since John, the Apostle, penned these words. Now, one very good. Another very good friend of ours that I want to introduce us to is FF Bruce.

Very good Protestant scholar. He wrote a commentary on this on 1st John, and he explains for us that the days between the first appearance of Christ on Earth and his coming advent in glory when he returns, his final return, are the last days in New Testament parlance.

The days which witness the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament prophets foretold as destined to happen in the latter days. OK, very important to understand. That's what the New Testament is talking about.

Everything from the last hour, the last days, is from the coming of Christ, his incarnation, to when he returns, to his final return, to bring about the final millennium, the millennial reign. That's what...

So, therefore, this brings us to a question. Where are we now? Where are we in the here and now, beloved? Well, the obvious reality is that Jesus has not yet returned to resurrect the living and the dead and to glorify us, right?

So we are, therefore, still in this same last hour that the Apostle John is describing. And, therefore, what he says regarding this last hour, we still need to take very careful consideration of because it is still applicable for us today.

Now, F .F. Bruce also explains that the last hour might be an alternative expression for the last days, but it may specifically point to the last phase of these last days, like the last time of 1 Peter 1 .5, the kairos eskatos, kairos being time, a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Okay?

The reality of this is that this passage warns us. It is a warning. It warns of an hour of danger, of a present time of trouble because our deceptive enemies have appeared from within our gates, from within the church.

And even now,.

Many, not one, many antichrists have appeared even back in the apostles' time who disguised themselves as Christians. These are like Trojan horses. You remember from the Trojan War where they brought in a Trojan horse with soldiers hidden inside so that they would infiltrate within the gates, within the walls of the enemy, and then came out of the horse and attacked and ransacked Troy.

So, in like manner, these men are ravenous wolves who come to you in sheep's clothing.

Right?

They disguise themselves as sheep, as believers. Like Christ says in Matthew 7, they need to be exposed. We must discern and expose them. Be on the lookout for them. Turn with me now to Jude 17. We will hear more about these deceivers that we need to watch out for.

In Jude, the letter of Jude, in verse 17, we read,. But you, beloved, must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ that they were saying to you in the last time there will be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts.

These are the ones who cause divisions. Worldly-minded. Worldly-minded. Remember that. The world, the flesh, and the devil. They are worldly-minded, not spiritually-minded or heavenly-minded. Not having the spirit, then, and instead live according to the flesh, as Romans 8 .13 says and explains.

Right?

This is so critical to understand, beloved. Notice how it says they were spoken beforehand by the apostles. This was something that the apostles preached emphatically.

Okay?

We'll touch more on that later on. Emphatically. Ask yourselves, then, this question. Is this a problem that we still face today in our churches? Because you will find, if you survey many churches, that they act like it's not a problem anymore.

Because they don't watch out for the many antichrists, heretics, false teachers, and false prophets that infiltrate and plot against churches, against them, against us. And instead, they welcome them.

Not necessarily in person, but their teaching into their church. Sadly, these same churches.

End up.

Facing consequences. They end up compromised and apostate. They fall away from the faith and die. Just like we see in the book of Revelation and the churches, the seven churches of Revelation. Most of them fell away.

And the Lord rebuked them. This is what John is warning us against. This is the very thing that John, and several, and in his book of Revelation, and so does Christ, and the rest of the apostles throughout the entire New Testament.

So if you're not preaching this stuff, what are you preaching? Because the entire New Testament, the entire tribe of the apostles, all of them, and Christ himself, they all preach this. Emphatically. So think with me now.

If back in John's day, there were already many antichrists that have appeared, how many more antichrists have appeared before us now? With the same dark agenda 2 ,000 years later. How many more? Because the things were just getting started back then in one sense.

Right? But now, boy, how things have like the apostles say, in the last days, there will be a great falling away, and that's why it's so important when I preached on the last few sermons on the Reformation, and Martin Luther that we need to embrace these Reformation truths about Semper Reformanda, being reformed and always reforming, and not allowing for false teachers to corrupt our fellowship, our doctrine, our life, our practice, any of that.

Oh, but we don't want to be offensive. We don't want to offend people. We want to be charitable, right? That's the ecumenical, the false ecumenical, false Catholic spirit of the day. It's considered rude to call people out.

Well, how.

Charitable was the apostle Paul when he said that he wishes the Judaizers, the false teachers would emasculate themselves?

That's not...

Are you... I mean...

Woe.

To you Pharisees, hypocrites! This is what preaching is supposed to look like, according to the word of God. Not exclusively, but emphatically. Emphatically. I want us to think on these things carefully, beloved, because this is something that we must use to measure and to weigh biblical preaching.

It is an important criteria. Now,.

Uh,.

What.

Else? This brings us to the next phrases that we must define. What does antichrist and antichrists, plural, mean? Who exactly are.

They?

Right? That's why the sermon, um, which I thought was very cleverly put, beware of antichrists. Antichrists! Right? Beware of the antichrists, of THE antichrist. The one in the many, singular and plural.

Turn with me now to 2 John, verse 7, the following letter. We will find out a little bit more about these antichrists. Okay, in 2 John, verse 7, the apostle continues to warn us, for many deceivers, many have gone out into the world.

Into the world. So not just in the church, but into the world. Those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Okay? This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Very important. Notice how they are often, the apostle describes them together. Now turn back over to 1 John, chapter 4. In his first letter, chapter 4. I want to read the beginning of that chapter, verses 1 through 3 for us.

The apostle here elaborates further. Beloved, all of us. So see, notice he's addressing everyone. Beloved, all of you in the Lord. Believers, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether they are from God.

Because many, once again, many, many deceivers, many antichrists, many false prophets have gone out into the world. 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, that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. Singular. Of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world.

Wow.

So notice how all of these things are coming together.

Okay?

They come together in a very important way. And take note of how John emphasizes both. Not just one antichrist who had not yet come during the New Testament era, but also the spirit of antichrist, which is already operating in the many antichrists, in the many false prophets, in the many deceivers, in the many false teachers, in the many Judaizers, in the many Romanists, in the many Mormons.

All of these are of the spirit of the antichrist because they do not confess the true doctrine of Christ and his incarnation.

So.

They are already operating in many antichrists to this day who seek to undermine churches by attacking the pure doctrine of Christ, his incarnation, his gospel. Because why did Christ become flesh? Why did he become a man?

It was to die for our sins, to satisfy the wrath of God, to propitiate and appease the wrath of God on our behalf. And by destroying the faith of believers.

Even now,.

Even now, beloved, this runs contrary to what many believe about the end times. It runs contrary to what's known as futurism or dispensationalism and preterism as well. Because they'll say, oh well, antichrist already came.

It was Nero or somebody else. Therefore we don't have to worry about him anymore. Antichrist already came. He's not a problem anymore. Or no, no, no, don't worry. Antichrist hasn't come yet. So we don't have to worry about him yet.

He's some future ruler, world ruler, you know, Nicolae Carpathia, right? According to the novel series, the, what's it called?

The.

Series by Jenkins. It escapes me right now. But the famous novel series. Oh, it's some future ruler. Nothing to see here yet, right? Don't worry. There's nothing to see here yet. And this sadly is very destructive to the life of the believer because it fails to recognize that antichrist, the spirit is already here.

And there are many, many antichrists operating in the world and in the churches of Christ.

So,.

We will unpack that a little bit more later on. But these antichrists and the antichrists are obviously on the same team and they work for the same boss, right? None other than the devil himself. Antichrists, plural, are religious deceivers who push the spirit of antichrist, the spirit of the world and of the devil into the church, into the church to entice our flesh and draw people away from the truth.

The.

False prophets whom Christ warned about who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. These are also false teachers who call themselves Protestants. It's not just the ones that.

Are more.

Readily identified as cults but even false teachers who bring in false gospels like John Piper, Doug Wilson. We have to be careful for people who are supposedly in our own camp because that is not always the case.

We need to examine them. We need to examine their life and their teaching with the Word of God like the Bereans did, like the church in Ephesus did who exposed the apostles who claimed to be apostles but were in fact proven to be false.

So.

We.

Must understand.

That.

The Antichrist, singular, is the representative head of this kingdom of darkness on the earth. Not to be confused with the devil himself. Okay? But the Antichrist is an agent of the devil whose coming is in accord with the working of Satan according to 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 7.

Now I want to leave you with those things to dwell on and to meditate on as we continue to tackle this very dense passage, very important passage in understanding what the enemy is that we're facing and in many ways this is an extension of what I've preached on the extended series on knowing your enemy.

The world, the flesh, the devil. Because Antichrist and the Antichrists.

Are.

Everywhere in the world and they seek to infiltrate the church. We've even witnessed this to some extent in our own church. Sadly, the spirit takes advantage of those who are weak, those who have compromised and to try to cause divisions as we read earlier in the scripture.

They cause schisms and divisions. They are very dangerous and we need to be watchful. Be always on the lookout for these destructive heretics and schismatic Antichrists. They will arise from among us and they will try to look like us.

No wonder then if you recall from 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11. We can end on that verse if you turn with me there. In 2 Corinthians you will find this everywhere in scripture. These warnings against these deceivers.

2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11 where we read God's word. So that no one would be taken of us by Satan for we are not ignorant of his schemes. We are not ignorant of his devices. We can identify them.

Amen. Now, when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ. Yes, that was yeah. I thought it was here. I might have missed earlier. Where Paul also warns us that.

It is.

No wonder.

That.

The devil disguises himself as a minister an angel of light. So it should be no wonder then that his ministers disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. These are the same men. These antichrists that we need to look out for beloved.

So.

With those.

This.