Deceptions
of the Last Hour - Reformed Faith Mission Sunday
service
1John2:18-27
Deceptions of the Last Hour
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.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because
you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is
antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who
acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
Let Truth Abide in You
24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If
what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son
and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise that He has promised us --- eternal life.
26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to
deceive you.
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and
you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you
concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught
you, you will abide in Him.
·
A
failure to be grounded in the word of God
·
A
failure to have a vital experience of the Holy Spirit in a community of
believers
When people have
no theological depth and no personal experience with the Holy Spirit, they are
sitting ducks for the anti-christs of our day.
We
have a responsibility as a body of believers to teach the doctrinal truths of
the bible, to live that truth and to be excited by that truth; so that
believers can have depth in them and grow in grace and unbelievers, when they
hear such truth can be granted repentance by the Holy Spirit.
1John is written to a
situation similar to that of ours today.
Two
reasons John wrote this epistle might be:
·
To
deepen the churches understanding of the word of the apostles
·
To
deepen their experience of the anointing of the Holy Spirit
Observations:
1.
We
are in the last hour of deception
2.
The
Word of God and the Spirit of God protects us from deception and lead us to
eternal life
3.
Therefore,
let the Word abide in you and you abide in the Spirit
1.We are in the last hour – verse 18
This was said 2000
years ago. What does the New Testament mean by last hour or last day?
- These
are the days that begin with the coming of Christ.
- When the Messiah entered into history, the last days were ushered into history and only God knows how long the last days will last.
Acts2:16-17
16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ' And it shall come to pass in the last days, says
God, That I will pour
out of My Spirit on all flesh...
1Cor10:11
11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written
for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Heb1:1-2
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the
fathers by the prophets,
2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He
has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
Heb9:26
26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the
world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
1Pet1:20
20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was
manifest in these last times for you
The last days was characterised by
- · the coming of the Messiah
- · the out pouring of the Holy Spirit
- · and the intensified presence and influence of the spirit of anti-christ popping up all over the world (verse 18)
Jesus in Matthew 24, speaking about the end of the
age says in verse 24:
24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great
signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. – Matt24:24
Satan will use every effort to deceive people, if possible even the
elect!
Meaning that if God did not give special protection to His elect,
satan’s deception would be so powerful that even the elect would be fooled by
it and follow it. Thank God we are in Christ!
So while John is seeing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel
being preach, he also sees the spirit and influence of anti-christ moving all
over the place.
If this was seen in John’s day, how much more should we be alert that we
are in the last hour for we are surrounded by many anti-christ.
In verse 18 John says that there will be coming one day the Antichrist.
We see this as the political figure that will bring forth a false peace and
that will be seen as the saviour of the world. He will be the embodiment of
evil and oppose the church until God destroys him, but now John is saying that
as much as there will come the Antichrist, the spirit of antichrist is already
in the world and that are many antichrists deceiving people.
John is the only writer that uses the word
antichrist.
1John2 18Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist
is coming, even now many antichrists have come
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist
who denies the Father and the Son.
3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist,
which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
2John7 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.
What is meant by antichrist?
We can’t just
assume that when a person says he believes in Jesus that he actually believes
in the Jesus of the Scriptures.
We can’t assume
that when someone says Jesus is my Lord, that he means what the bible means.
If
we’re going to use God’s words, we need to use God’s dictionary!
Jesus
says that many will say 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.
Matt24:23
Today
there are many that present a gospel that they say is the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, but it is not the gospel of the Christ of the bible. They’re preaching
another Christ, a false Christ.
The
same thing happened in Exodus32 when Moses was on the mountain with God.
4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it
with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, "This is
your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!"
We as the people
of God have to study theology! We have to study the doctrines of the bible! We
can’t live on catch phrases such as “Jesus is Lord” or Jesus Saves or I
believe in Jesus.
All manner of
people say this, without any idea what they really mean.
Phrases
like God is love – What kind of love?
The Jehovah
witness also believe in Jesus, so does the mormons and the muslims, But what do
they mean when they say so. Surely if you look at what they mean you would come
to the conclusion that these all are following the spirit of antichrist. This
is also true of many so-called evangelicals of which TD Jakes is a good
example.
Why
are so many following deception?
1John5:19
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the
sway of the wicked one.
Thank God we are
of God! Thank God for chapter 4 that says:
1John4:4
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He
who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
2.The Word of God and the Spirit
of God protects us from deception and lead us to eternal life
How?
·
Knowing
the truth about Jesus Christ is a gift of the Holy Spirit
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because
you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
·
Your
knowledge of the truth is dependent on the anointing. Your knowledge relates to
the anointing (verse20)
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and
you do not need that anyone teach you
·
The
anointing enables you to know the truth (verse 20) and it enables you to do
without teachers (verse 27)
What
is this anointing?
It’s the pouring
out of the Holy Spirit in your life when you are born-again. It is the Spirit
by which we cry out “Abba Father.” The Spirit that lives in us and through us
causing us to live the normal Christian life, which is a life
manifesting the glory of Christ. This is the working of the Holy Spirit in us
leading us to all truth. The anointing is the work of the Holy Spirit being
poured out in a believer’s life.
When he talks
about teachers, he is speaking in the context of all these false teachers
popping up everywhere with new teaching and new revelations. He’s talking about
people with the spirit of antichrist teaching deceptive doctrines.
How
does the Holy Spirit enable you to know the truth about Christ and protects you
from deception?
In John’s day and
today many false teachers claim to be anointed by the Holy Spirit.
1 John 4:1
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they
are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
The
answer is in verse 24
24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If
what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son
and in the Father.
Let what you heard
from the beginning abide. The faith once for all delivered to saints
(Jude3). Don’t think you need any new revelation. Anything that is proclaimed
as new is a deception (there is nothing new under the sun). You don’t need
anything new!
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment
which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which
you heard from the beginning.
Verse 24 shows us
that John
did not mean that the anointing will give you additional revelations of Christ
or extra biblical teaching than that which was given from the beginning.
We need to abide
in the doctrines of the bible. Anything beyond that is the teaching of
antichrist.
Paul exhorts the
immoral Corinthian church who were practising various gifts not to go beyond
what is written.
1Cor
4:6
6 I have
applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that
you may learn by us not to go beyond
what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one
against another.
Look
at how serious the bible is about this.
2John1:9-10
9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does
not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the
Father and the Son.
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive
him into your house nor greet him;
11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
- · The work of the Holy Spirit is to help us accept and abide in the teachings of the bible
- · The work of the Spirit is to help us grow in our understanding of the teaching of the bible
- · The work of the Spirit is to strengthen us in our power to practice the teaching of the bible
- · The work of the Spirit is to increase our confidence in the teachings of the bible
- · The Spirit does not add or change the teachings of Scripture.
3.Therefore, let the Word abide in you and you
abide in the Spirit
24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.
If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the
Son and in the Father.
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in
you
We are commanded to let the word dwell in us richly
and to be filled with the Spirit.
Col3:16
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Eph5:18-19
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is
dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
You cannot be
filled with the Spirit and not abide in the word and the word cannot dwell
richly in you if you do not abide in the Spirit.
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