“A Key Test” – FBC Morning Light (11/27/2023)

Well, a good Monday morning to you. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. This past Thanksgiving weekend was a good time for you with family and friends and especially getting together with God's people yesterday on the Lord's Day.

Just a great time of spiritual refreshment, I trust. I'm sure it was also a good time of social refreshment and enjoyed some good food and so forth. I also hope it was a good time of spiritual refreshment for you as well.

The Book of Daniel and 2 John for Discernment

Well, today we are reading, we're finishing up the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, reading Daniel chapters 11 and 12. And then we're also finishing up, starting and finishing a little book in the New Testament, the book of 2 John, just one chapter, a few verses long.

And I want to focus on a couple of verses in 2 John because in those couple of verses we get some help in discernment. I'm focusing especially on verses 7 and 9. Verse 7 says, For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is a deceiver and an antichrist, John says. And then in verse 9 he says, Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. So here you have a couple of points of analysis, of evaluation.

Who Is Jesus Christ?

We're coming up on, we're in the Christmas season now. I always think of post-Thanksgiving as the beginning of the Christmas season. And let's see, today is the 27th, I think tomorrow would be technically the beginning of the Advent season, the 28th.

But anyway, nevertheless, beginning of the Christmas season, and of course as Christians we celebrate the birth of Jesus. But who is he? Who is he? Who is it whose birth we celebrate in just a few weeks?

I always say Jesus, and the world will also acknowledge that, that the Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. But who is he? See that's the question. Well, yeah, he's Jesus Christ, I mean that's his name, and you hear it all the time, and not in very good context usually.

But who is Jesus Christ? You see verse 7 says, Deceivers have gone out into the world, they do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Now you have to understand that the word Christ is the Old Testament equivalent of Messiah, so deceivers deny that Jesus is the messianic fulfillment of all of the Old Testament messianic prophecies.

Well, to deny that is to be an antichrist, it is to be one who is against the Messiah, who is Jesus, who was born in that manger a couple thousand years ago, who is God become flesh and dwelt among us.

So there's that simple statement that the deceiver does not confess Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh, it really is a pregnant statement, in other words it has a lot of meaning attached to it. So it's not enough for somebody to say, well yeah, I believe Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, I believe that, therefore you can trust me.

No, do you also believe that this Jesus who was born in a manger in Bethlehem is the fulfillment of a couple thousand years of messianic prophecies? Do you believe that this Jesus is the seed of the woman who is to crush the head of the serpent and who actually did so on the cross?

Do you believe that Jesus as the Messiah is our Savior and our only Savior, which therefore demands that you acknowledge your sinfulness and your need of a Savior, and that this Savior who died on a cross is God who became flesh, who took the penalty of your sin upon you and bore it on that cross?

You see, if a person just affirms that Jesus was born in a manger, he was a good man, he was a sweet baby, and all the rest of that kind of thing, but does not affirm that he is the fulfillment of a couple thousand years of messianic prophecies, that he is God who became flesh, he doesn't believe that Jesus, Messiah, has come in the flesh.

Testing Teachers by the Doctrine of Christ

And then verse 9 says, whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ or the doctrine of Messiah, he does not have God, doesn't have God. So you can evaluate. You can evaluate churches.

You can evaluate preachers on the radio, the television, the internet. You can evaluate books that you read. You can evaluate religious leaders who are commentators on news programs this time of year when newscasters want opinions about the birth of Jesus and so on and so forth.

Is this the only point of evaluation for such people? No, it's not the only point, but it is an extremely critical one. This is fundamental. This is foundational. Do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the one who fulfilled all of the Old Testament messianic prophecies, either has completely fulfilled them or is the one who shall yet fulfill those that are not yet completely fulfilled yet?

Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus is God who became flesh, God incarnate? Do you believe that Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty of your sin, even as it was prophesied in Isaiah 53?

Do you believe these things about him? If there's any hedging, any fudging, then turn it off. That's somebody you don't need to listen to. He may very well be simply a deceiver and perhaps be more strong in the wording an antichrist, one who is against Messiah.

Don't need to give heed to him. Need to turn him off. All right. Well, listen, let's have a good rest of our Monday. Let's ask God to give us wisdom and discernment as we begin to celebrate the birth of Jesus Messiah who has come in the flesh.

A Prayer for Wisdom and Discernment

Our Father and our God, we do thank you that Jesus is our Savior and he is the fulfillment of these messianic prophecies. We thank you that you give us this insight in your word that helps us evaluate those who would teach and preach and spiritual things today.

We pray that you give us that wisdom. We ask these things now in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right. Well, listen, have a good rest of your Monday. Hope your week gets off to a great start.

God bless.