Good evening.  Tonight, we are going to continue looking at the book of I John.  Tonight we are going to look at I John 2:18-27.  Here we see another warning for the church from John.  Last time, in verses 15-17 John warns that a love of the world can be a danger to our faith.  Tonight’s warning is concerning false religion that draws people away from the saving faith in Christ.

To illustrate this warning, in these nine verses, John has some great thoughts, which we will look at tonight.  First, we see the Antichrist, the father of false religion and those in his spirit.  Second we will see how to avoid the dangers of false religion, by abiding in Christ.  Lastly we will look at some advice to not being deceived.

Let’s go ahead and look at our text for tonight.  In I John 2:18-27 it says, “1”

Now the first thing that we come to is in verse 18 when it mentions the Antichrist.  Does anyone know what the word Antichrist means?

Well the word anti means against, or in place of.  We find the word Antichrist mentioned only 4 times in the entire Bible.  Could I get someone to find I John 4:3?

Someone else find II John, verse 7?

In I John 2:18 it says, “1” and later in verse 22 it says “1”  Then later in I John 4:3 it says…  and over in II John verse 7 it says…

So how would you define Antichrist?  Someone was once quoted as saying, “There is going to be an ultimate anti-Christ, one person, able to do such wonders that he almost deceives the elect themselves.”

So is this antichrist that John speaks of here possibly the devil himself?  Let’s look on.  In a book that I have it provided this definition for the word Antichrist, “Opponent of Christ.  Anyone who denies through words or actions that Jesus is the Christ.”

So John here is simply referring to any belief system or individual that disputes the teachings of Christianity, especially the fact that Jesus is the Christ.

Many people put the antichrist and the number 666 together, however they are never used together in the Bible.  In fact the word antichrist is not mentioned in the book of Revelation.  There is no reason to believe that the antichrist is the one that is going to destroy the world and cause the end times to come.

John doesn’t want us to get too surprised about spiritual betrayal and the antichrist.  Now some have understood John to mean in vv. 18-19 that he expected the end of the world to come in his lifetime.  The reasoning goes like this: "John and the other New Testament writers thought they were living in the last hour, that Christ would return again in their lifetimes, yet now we know that they were wrong about that."  Of course if they were wrong about something as important as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, what else might they have been wrong about?
However a close reading of these words reveals something very different.  John could have either used the word "hour" literally to describe a 60-minute period of time or figuratively to describe a longer period of time.  I doubt anyone believes that John thought that Christ would be returning in 60 minutes from when he wrote these words, after all it would take longer than that for this letter to get delivered to the Christians living in Asia Minor!  So he must be using the word "hour" figuratively to describe a longer period of time than 60 minutes.

So the "last days" or the "final hour" is the final chapter, the final stage in God’s redemptive plan that will climax with the second coming of Jesus Christ, when he will right every wrong and ushers in God’s Kingdom on earth.  John is reminding us that we as Christians live in this same final chapter, just like the Christians in the first century did.

John’s friends knew that an antichrist figure would come shortly before the close of this final hour.  Now antichrist simply means "against Christ", and broadly it describes anyone who opposes Jesus Christ and what he stands for.

So we know who they are, but where are these Antichrists that John is talking about from?

In verse 19 it talks about how these people have come out from the church to deceive others, but that they were not really of the church to begin with.  So these people that John is talking about actually have left the church and are now deceiving others.

The key word here is in v. 19 that word "remained."  This verb "remain" is used 7 different times in the verses we’re looking at today, and it means to "abide," or to "continue."  What John is telling is that those who truly know Christ are those who abide with Christ and the Christian community.  People who abandon the Christian community and become opposed to Jesus are people who don’t remain, they are the people who never truly abided in Christ in the first place.

Spiritual betrayal is not something new, but it’s part of life in the last hour, life between Christ’s first and second comings.  John is trying to soften the sting by reminding his friends that they live in a time when these things happen.

Jesus once told a story that illustrates this, a story about a guy who planted wheat, but while he was sleeping an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat.  As the wheat began growing, so did the weeds.  The thing about this type of weed and the wheat is that they look exactly the same until it was time to harvest, and then you can tell the difference.  We live in that period of time before the final harvest, when both weeds and wheat grow among us--even as a church family.

So we know who they were, and where they came from, and we also find a hint about what these former church members were now teaching.  Somehow they were denying that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah or the Anointed One.  Most Bible scholars believe that these former church members had separated Jesus and Christ into two different people, as if they were two different things rather than being fully God and fully human joined in on person.  For the apostle John, being wrong about Jesus’ identity is the same as denying Jesus.  We can’t just claim Jesus was a good guy or a clever moral teacher or a gifted rabbi, but according to the Bible anything less than viewing him as fully God and fully human is denial of who he truly is.  And denying him means denying God the Father, since the Father sent the Son into the world to provide for our salvation and forgiveness of our sins.

Verse 20 we see that he Christ or the Messiah is actually the Anointed One that John mentions.  And also that it is the Holy Spirit that helps us to know the truth.

Ok I am going say a word and I want you to give me the opposite of that word.  For example if I would say hot, you would say cold.  So here we go.  Heaven (Hell)     Love (Hate)    Saved (Lost)     Truth (Lie)

It is in verse 21 that we see that now lie can come from the truth that the people John is writing to know.

In verse 22 we even see more to the fact of who the antichrist is.  The Bible even calls him or her a liar.  A liar is one who denies that Jesus is the Christ.  That person is the antichrist.  They are obviously opposed to the belief that Jesus is the Christ, so that makes them into an antichrist.

Now the next thing here I like.  It says that know one who denies the Son has the Father.  So no one who says that Jesus is not the Christ has the Father or God in their life.  This is not just a one-time confession with our mouth.  It is our whole life.  We must live a life that acknowledges Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Now all of this isn’t to suggest that spiritual betrayal is no big deal.  When someone we love and trust walks away from Christ it can devastate us.  Just this last week I was told about a student at a major university who was raised in the church--his dad’s an elder at their church--and after taking a philosophy class this young man has announced to his family that he’s an atheist now.  Those parents are devastated, as well as that young man’s home church, they are torturing themselves with questions about what they did wrong.  Spiritual betrayal is painful for those that it effects.

Moving on, in verses 24-25 John says, “1”

What is it that John is talking about here in verse 24?

(The Word, the teaching of Christ)

We also learn that Eternal Life will be ours if we abide in the Father and the Son in verse 25.  Clearly John views Eternal Life as an incentive to remain faithful.  The words suggest to Christians the promise of heaven, and rightly so.  One of the New Testament’s best know verses promises Eternal Life to all those who place their full personal trust in Jesus.  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Later Christ Himself promised to prepare a place for His followers where they would join Him in the afterlife in John 14:1-3.  Could I get someone to read John 14:1-3?

He has eternal life planned out for us, and we need to abide in Him and not become deceived in order to receive this Eternal Life.

Then ending up in verses 26-27 it says, “1”

These verses point out that we must be on guard not to be deceived.  It also mentions that we must receive the anointing at our Baptism and not be led astray. 

Now verse 27 is tricky.  It says that they do not need anyone to teach them.  In part this is a figure of speech.  If his audience literally needed no instruction, John would not be writing them now.  So this is verse is intended to be taken figuratively.  They have the Holy Spirit, and if they believe in that, they need no other teachers telling them that Christ did not exist.

So what does this passage of Scripture deal with?  Every church anywhere that I know anything about has an inactive roll.  There are three characteristics in these verses, which help us recognize those who go away and really don’t belong to the Lord.  Who are these antichrists.

First, THEY DENY THE CHRIST.
Christianity is not merely a set of doctrines, rather it is a relationship with a person.  If you do away with Jesus Christ, you’ve done away with Christianity.  Notice what he says in v. 18 again “...and you have heard that Antichrist shall come.”

The word anti again simply means instead of or opposed to.  Antichrist therefore means instead of Christ, or a counterfeit Christ.  John continues by saying that even now there are many Antichrists, plural.  We already looked at II John verse 7, where it mentioned that there were many deceivers in the world.

It was already happening in the days of John, and it has continued down to this very time.  That spirit of the Antichrist is the atmosphere or the person that opposes Jesus Christ.

The second point is that they DESERT THE CHURCH

This desertion is at least three-fold in its nature.

First it is a Physical Desertion — People who at one time were physically present in the church but have now deserted the church and have gone their own way.  Some people come in and set the world on fire for Jesus for six months then you never see them again.  John said they went out from us because they were not of us.  One of the tragedies of the Christian faith today is that everywhere there are people with their names on a church roll and yet they haven’t darkened the doors of their church in years.  Can you imagine what would happen next Sunday morning if everybody that was in our directory actually came?

Second is a Moral Desertion — They will morally depart from the faith also.  Doing anything and everything that the lost world does.  Those who depart always take the stand on the opposite side of the church.

The sad thing is, there are people who profess to be saved members of churches that if the church stands for purity, they stand for impurity.  If the church is on the side of righteousness, they’re on the side of unrighteousness.  They departed from us, they were not really of us.

And the third way would be Intellectual Desertion — We call it apostasy or false religion.  That is a person who departs from the faith, a person who deserts the doctrines of the Christian faith.

In the Southern Baptist Convention they pass resolutions every year.  A resolution is a position statement, on certain moral and ethical issues that arise.  One of the things that the Southern Baptist Convention did a few years ago was to pass a resolution about Jesus being the only way to salvation.  Listen to what one pastor said:

“In regard to the resolution, I understand God to be a gracious, life-giving mystery who, for me, is most clearly encountered in the human Jesus, the Christ.  Therefore, I am Christian.  I assume that there are other lights, other understandings of God’s movement of love and justice in our world.  To judge with certainty another person’s relationship to God is for me the height of arrogance.”

What he is saying is that Jesus is not the only way.  Jesus said in John 14, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me.”  Or look at 2 John verse 9.  “Whosoever transgresses, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.”  The way I read that, is if you depart from the doctrines of Christ which are revealed to us in the Word of God, then you don’t have God, you’re not saved.  When you get a genuine experience with the Lord Jesus in your heart, you won’t have any trouble believing the Bible.

So how do we not be deceived?  Well I want to show you three ingredients in these verses that will help you stay straight and not get confused by the false teachers and the spirit of the Antichrist in the world.

Number one is to Stay in the church.  It says that, “They would have continued with us.” In verse 19.  Stay in the church, and make sure it is a Bible-believing church.  Some people will say, “it doesn’t matter what church you go to just as long as you go.” Well guess what, It DOES MATTER!!

The second thing that you can do is Stay in the Word of God.   You need to stay in the Bible and let the Bible stay in you.  Could I get someone to read I Thessalonians 2:13?

People who deny the truth of the scripture say it is the words of God and men, not just the words of God.  If you’ll just get that Bible in your life everyday, it will do wonders in your life.

And finally number three is to Abide in the Spirit of God.  When you’re saved, according to II Corinthians 1:21, you are anointed.  That simply means that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your heart.  The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the anointing.  The filling of the Spirit is to make you spiritual.  The anointing of the Spirit is to make you successful.  It is in the anointing of the Holy Spirit that you receive power and victory in the Christian life.

I want to wrap up our look at the Antichrist and those in the spirit of the Antichrist with a thought.  Many people hear antichrist and think that everything this individual goes about doing will be opposite to Jesus.  I think here again, Satan has succeeded to confuse us in this area.  They think that where Jesus went around doing good, this individual will go around doing evil.  I think nothing could be further from the truth. 

This individual will do much good, working miracles, and bringing peace, as the Bible tells us.  He will disguise His false religion with charity, love, and good works.  It will be attractive to those on the earth.  Think about this; what makes the Mormon church so attractive?  Do they tell you on their TV commercials that they believe you can become God?  Do they tell you that they believe Jesus and Satan to be spirit brothers?  Do they tell you about the “new revelation” Joseph Smith got in the book of Mormon?  The answer is a resounding No!  They do talk about love, prosperity, and happy families.  In the same way, but I believe even much more effective, will this false religion be.  Jesus warns us in Matthew chapter 24, starting in verse 4 :4  “And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, ’I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”  Now, Look down at verse 23 and 24, “Then if anyone says to you, ’Look, here is the Christ!’ or ’There!’ do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

Also consider this, if John thought that he was living in the last hour, then we must be living in the last minutes or possibly even the last seconds.  I want to close with the simple warning Jesus gives us in Matthew 24:4 4 “And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you.”

Let’s pray