FBC Morning Light – November 5, 2022

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're in 1 John 2 this morning, and I'm going to read just a couple of verses for you this morning, verses 18 and 19, and this brief message will be geared towards those who have ministered with people that now you aren't sure where they stand.

18. Little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that the

Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.

19. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us.

So what's going on here is the idea of the

Antichrist is now John's taking a step back and saying there are people who are now

Antichrists, little Antichrists, not the Antichrist, but little

Antichrists and ones who once professed to be believers who are now rejecting that and are either teaching heresy or falling away or no longer associated with Christ.

And he says that if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.

And it makes me think of some of the roommates I had in college. Way back, as you can tell, it's not been just a few years, but many years ago,

I had at various times three different roommates who claimed the name of Christ, one of which was the worship leader of our

Christian group in college and seemingly a solid believer.

And he started saying things that were a bit weird, a bit off.

He one time, after he had moved out, came back to our Bible study and told us that he believed that if Jesus were alive today, that he would hold a flame to the

Bible and burn it in front of us, saying that he didn't think the

Bible was the Word of God anymore. And that was the start of a long, tragic road.

I do not know if he names the name of Christ as his Savior anymore.

I would highly doubt it. But the way I've prayed for him has changed through the years.

It went from being a situation where I would pray that he would return to the

Lord to now where I pray that he would come to know the

Lord. Another of the three Christian roommates that I had went into full -time ministry on campus and got so busy and so worn out that he just walked away and, well, come to find out that maybe he was trying to work so hard at the ministry to curry

God's favor. And that's not going to curry God's favor. God is pleased with you in Christ and in Christ alone, and it's through the changing of your nature that you desire to become a servant of his, not through working to become a servant of his, if that difference makes sense to you.

And so my prayer for him has changed through the years. I do pray that he would come back to the faith, that he would perhaps, if he never knew the

Lord, to come to know the Lord, and that God would work in his heart.

And so I think of many of us who have, if you've been a Christian for long, you've known people in the church that you thought were believers, that gave solid testimonies, it would have appeared, who have gone astray, who have fallen into a lifestyle of sin, of who have chosen to love the things of this world rather than the things of Christ, or perhaps they were embittered by something that happened.

And so take a moment today and pray for some of these people that you once knew, that those people could be people in your family, there's maybe people in your family that you thought were believers, that maybe now their behavior says maybe they were, maybe they weren't.

The disciples were fooled by Judas for how long? And then there's the story of Demas that we shared about a few weeks ago.

Just because someone ministered in the gospel or someone gave a strong testimony at one time does not mean that they were walking in the new life that God had gave them.

They could have been pretending. I know this is kind of a sad and somber message this morning, but it is important for us to keep these types of people in our prayers, that the

Lord would potentially work in their lives. Let's go ahead and take a moment and pray.

Heavenly Father, I think of those two of those three roommates that named the name of Christ at one time, and if their calling was not of You, but yet just something on their own that they conjured up to fit into a crowd or whatever their motivation was,

I pray that You would draw them back to You even after these many years, that they would come to know

You and to realize Your love for them. And many of us have had family members or friends or fellow ministers in the gospel who have fallen away in such a way.

I pray that today might be a day where we might get a chance to talk to one of them, to share that gospel again afresh anew, that the power of Your Holy Spirit would be alive and active and at work in their lives.

It's in Your Son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.