Introduction
Not long ago, while visiting Bangkok, Thailand, I walked into a bank to exchange some of my money into the local currency and happened to notice several US $100 bills on the wall. One of them was real and the other was labeled as a counterfeit. I was fascinated, because on first glance it was difficult to tell the difference between the real thing and the fake. So I asked the girl working behind the counter and she began to point out the differences between the two bills. One of them was not worth the paper it was printed on and the other one was worth a hundred dollars. They looked the same but they were fundamentally different. The fake one was posted in plain sight for all to see, so as to warn the unwary against being duped.
In the first century, in the early church, to which John writes, there were counterfeits. There were counterfeit teachers and counterfeit Christians. Folks who had all the external appearances of belonging to the Body of Christ, but who, upon closer examination, would prove to be false.
John's letter to these young Christians is written to warn them against those who would seek to deceive them into believing a false doctrine. He writes to caution them against those who would intentionally lead them astray.
Now, as then, there are those who look the part, say the right words and have all the externals we would normally associate with Christianity, but who are fakes.
This morning as we walk through these 9 verses I want to show you three things John says, things which are just as applicable today as they were some two millennia ago, when they were written.
Let's begin by reading 1 John 2:18-27.
The first thing God says to us through His servant John is that we can recognize the spirit of anti-Christ.
I. Recognize the spirit of Antichrist
You need to be aware of your enemy, to be aware of his tactics and his strategy. So, The first thing John tells them is that what they had heard was coming to pass, and in fact, had already come to pass. He wants them to have an awareness of Spiritual deception.
A. Awareness of spiritual deception
It is evident from the tone of the letter that John is writing to a church which was being infiltrated and besieged by those who sought to teach a message other than that which Jesus taught. Church history tells us that the Gnostics were a major threat to Christianity in its early years. You'll recall that the Gnostics taught that Jesus was merely a spiritual being who had not really come in the flesh. The way to climb their spiritual ladder was through secret knowledge, or gnosis, thus the name Gnostics.
As we read this portion of John's letter, there are two things which warrant special attention. One is the phrase, "last hour," and the other is the term "antichrist." In verses 18-19 John clearly proclaims that "it is the last hour," and that not only had they heard that Anti-Christ was coming, but that, "many antichrists have come."
When John uses the term "last hour," undoubtedly he is speaking about the last days, the days before the second coming of Jesus. In order to properly understand what he is saying we need to put things into perspective. Remember that from the time Jesus told the disciples He would return, devout Christians have always looked for and been desirous of His return in their lifetimes. This time period is often referred to as the last days or the end times. The last hour, or last time period, speaks, not to a fleeting moment or literally the last 60 minutes of time as we know it, but to a period of time between when our Lord came the fist time and when He will come the second time. During this time period, or dispensation, God is working to draw men and women, boys and girls to Himself, to save them and bring them into His kingdom. John wants the church to recognize that it is in these days we are living. In fact, we have been living in these days since Jesus ascended.
The second word here which demands our attention is the word "antichrist." It is a word which, in scripture, is found only in John's writings. But while John's letter may have been the first place the word was written, the concept behind the word was well known.
In Mark 13:22-23, Jesus warned about those who would claim to be Christ but were not. He said, "For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and will perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect. And you must watch, I have told you everything in advance."
So, by pointing to the antichrists and mentioning the last hour, John is not necessarily saying that the day of Jesus' return was at hand. Rather he was saying that what Jesus had foretold, the coming of false prophets and false messiahs, was coming true.
He says, by virtue of the fact that these false prophets are popping up, by the presence of those who deny the divinity of Christ, we know that we are living in the last days. Within this context, John is not speaking about The Anti-Christ who Paul mentions in 2 Thessalonians 2, as much as he is warning about the spirit of the antichrist.
He says there are two signs of those who are of this spirit. One is the abandonment of steadfast discipleship. Look at verse 19.
B. Abandonment of steadfast discipleship
Evidently there were those in the church who had been seduced by these false teachers. Once seemingly strong members of the church had now denied the Lord Jesus Christ and had turned away to false doctrines. This was disconcerting and discouraging to these early Christians. If others could abandon the faith, if others could deny Christ and walk away, how could anyone have assurance of their own salvation?
This is where John continues to enumerate the attributes of authentic Christianity. So far in this book he has said that those who truly love God will obey Him and will be possessed by and practice His love. Here he says, a third evidence of genuine conversion will be perseverance. If you are really saved, you will not be able to walk away from Jesus. As one scholar says, "a Christian is one in whom the process of sanctification never completely stalls."
Throughout John's writings we have this concept of perseverance, of overcoming or being victorious.
In Revelation 2:7 Jesus says, "I will give the victor the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."
In 2:17 the victor is promised a new name,
In 2:26 he is promised authority
In 3:5 he will be clothed in robes of righteousness
In Revelation 3:11 Jesus tells the church at Philadelphia, "Behold I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."
And in Revelation 21:7 the overcomer is promised an eternal inheritance.
John says that one of the ways you know someone is authentically a believer is that they never abandon steadfast discipleship, they persevere to the end.
Nearly every Christian I know can tell you a story of someone they know or knew who was once an outstanding member of the church, maybe they taught Sunday School or was even ordained to be a deacon or a pastor, but then something went wrong. Somewhere along the way they begin to step out of fellowship with God and with His people till one day whether by words or deeds, they outright denied God and abandoned the profession of Christ they once held.
As I stand here I can think of several men I have known along my pilgrimage who fit that description. And, had I fixed my eyes on men, had my faith and confidence been in the flesh, I would have quickly become disillusioned. But, as John says, "if they had belonged with us, they would have remained with us."
Folks, someone who has genuinely been born again, in whom a transformation has taken place, will not be able to walk away from the One who died for them, they will not be able to abandon Jesus. To the contrary, they will persevere, even in the face of death.
Prominent in the news last month was the story of Abdul Rahman - a 42 year old Afghan who was arrested March 16 for rejecting Islam and embracing Christianity. In Afghanistan it is an offense that could warrant the death penalty.
The thing which so infuriated the Muslims is that Abdul would not renounce Christ. Rahman converted to Christianity 16 years ago while serving alongside Christian aid groups in Pakistan. His wife divorced him when he became a Christian, and custody of his two young daughters went to his parents. After years of applying for asylum in European countries, Rahman was deported to Afghanistan, where in recent months he sought to regain custody of his now teenage daughters. After being tortured and threatened with death, Abdul remained confident that Jesus is the Lord and refused to recant his faith. It was only after international pressure was applied that he was declared mentally incompetent and released to Italy, where he was granted asylum.
But the reason he could remain steadfast in the face of death is because something happened inside that he cannot deny. Jesus changed him; Jesus is real to him. The apostle Paul was in a similar situation. Arrested for his faith and taken to Rome, Paul chose to face death rather than renounce Jesus.
John says, one of the ways you can recognize whether or not you are really saved is this: those who really know Jesus will not renounce Him.
But third, and this is of absolute importance, not only should you be aware that spiritual deception is out there, and can you recognize the spirit of antichrist by those who abandon steadfast discipleship, but those who have been deceived by the spirit of antichrist are marked by an absence of sound doctrine.
Look at verses 22-24
C. Absence of sound doctrine
Look at verse 22 - The one who denies Jesus is the Messiah is the liar, the antichrist.
John sums it up here clear and simple. Those who deny that Jesus is the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God; those who deny His deity are under the control of the spirit of antichrist.
You don't have to look far these days to find people who deny Jesus is the only begotten Son of God; the Messiah. This is one of the hallmarks of all cults: that they deny the distinct doctrine of the divinity of Christ.
For years now the Mormon church, deceptively calling themselves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has denied the unique nature of Jesus. Just like a counterfeit $100 dollar bill, they have all the external things to deceive. They use the same terminology as true believers. Their buildings are constructed to look like churches. Many of their moral teachings are similar to those taught in scripture, but upon closer examination, one finds that they teach we can be God just like Jesus is God, or like the Father is God. They look real, but they offer a counterfeit gospel.
And cults don't have a corner on the market when it comes to denying the divinity of Christ. The spirit of the age in which we live and the culture that spirit dominates are all driven by the spirit of antichrist. Consider Dan Brown's popular book, The DaVinci Code. It is causing many people to question everything they have ever been taught about Jesus. One of the central messages of the book is that Jesus is not God, but that He was merely an ordinary man whom the Roman Emperor Constantine deified for political purposes. While Brown is a terrible historian and a worse theologian, and his book is nothing but pure fiction, there are many people who will read it and buy into what he says.
And we shouldn't find this surprising. When we live in a culture where people get parenting and marriage advice by watching Oprah, should we be shocked when they turn to a fiction murder mystery to get their theology?
But you don't even have to leave the realm of the church to find those who deny the divinity of Christ. Liberal theologians, for more than a hundred years, have been trying to sell the idea that Jesus was just a good man who came to speak about love and goodness but was nothing more than an ordinary man. In fact, many institutions of higher education, like Yale and Harvard, which were originally founded to train men and women for the gospel ministry, have today become bastions of liberal theology and scoff at Neanderthals like us who believe in the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection and the deity of Jesus Christ.
John says that this is one of the tell-tale signs of the spirit of antichrist, that they deny that Jesus is the anointed one, the Messiah who came to be a propitiation for our sins.
No doubt many who denied Christ did not deny the Father. But John says that you cannot have the Father without the Son. (Vs. 22-24)
There are many people today who claim to believe in God. Perhaps you've heard them speaking with some degree of ambiguity about their belief in God or about their faith. But folks, belief in God will not get you to heaven. James tells us that the demons believe and tremble. Those who rejected Jesus and nailed Him to the tree believed in God.
Belief in God is not the thing which determines whether or not someone belongs to God. It is belief in Jesus the Son. Remember that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no man comes to the Father but through Him.
We live in a world of pluralism and tolerance; A world which can stand anything except someone who claims to know the truth. But friends, I'm here to testify before you today that you can believe in God and still go to hell. You can keep the Ten Commandments and bust hell wide open. You can have your name of the biggest building of the largest church in town and still be drowning in your sins. Unless you confess Jesus as Lord, receive forgiveness for your sins and place your trust in Him as God, you cannot be saved.
Someday Buddha will bend his knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Someday Mohamed will bow before the King of Kings and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Someday Joseph Smith will bend the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
John says, those who operate under the spirit of antichrist will not confess that Jesus is God. They will not confess that He is Lord. But friends, don't fret about it. Folks, all of us will bend our knees on that day. But only those who do it in this life will have eternal life. Scripture promises us that every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
But John is writing to keep the rest of the flock from being deceived. Look in verse 20 where he counsels us as to how we can resist the spirit of antichrist.
II. Resisting the spirit of Antichirst
As John counsels them about remaining steadfast in their faith, in the face of these deceivers, he gives them several things to hold on to.
A. The assurance of eternal life
Most of the time there is a marked difference between someone who is alive and someone who is dead. This is true both in the physical world and in the Spiritual world. There are physical signs of life that indicate someone is alive. For one there is breath, a pulse beat, brain waves, activity…..you know, signs of life.
The same is true of those who are spiritually alive. Jesus tells us that by their fruits you will know them. In the life of every true believer their should be tangible evidence of spiritual life. Do you love like Jesus loved? Do you see evidence of His Spirit living in you? Are you different than those who do not know Jesus?
You see, implicit within this passage is the reality that even as there were those in the early church who were counterfeits, there are those on many church roles today who are counterfeit. Those who claim to know Jesus but do not. Those who profess to be saved, but are not.
John has showed us that obedience, love and perseverance are signs of true spiritual life. These are evidences of spiritual life. Of the assurance that we have from Jesus Christ Himself that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves."
The problem with many Christians today is that they are alive spiritually, but just barely. They can barely fog a spiritual mirror. More than one has been pronounced dead only to slightly stir and give some indication that they are alive.
If we are going to effectively resist the spirit of the age, if we are going to be successful as ambassadors for Christ, it will be because we know we have eternal life and the life we live here will be lived abundantly for the kingdom of God.
But there was a third thing to which John points….look in verses 20 and 27, and notice the word "anointing."
B. The anointing
The word is from the same root word from which we get the word Christ. Remember, Christ is the Greek term for the Hebrew word Messiah. Simply put it means anointed ones. Thus "Christians," are the "anointed ones."
What is this anointing that John speaks of here?
Drawing upon the rest of John's writing, it is clear to see that he is speaking about the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That is, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer to act as a guide, as a discerner, to navigate us away from the rocky shoals of doctrinal error and into the deeper waters of truth.
In the gospel of John chapter 16, Jesus tells us that the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth. In John 14, He tells us that the comforter, the Holy Spirit will bring all things to our remembrance and teach us.
What John is saying here in verses 20&27 is not that we know everything we need to know. Some have interpreted verse 27 to mean that we don't need to learn anything. That's clearly not what John is saying, since he himself is teaching the church through his letter.
What he is saying is that the Spirit of God, living within us will guide us into truth and away from error. The closer we are in fellowship with the Spirit of God, the more surrendered we are to Him in our lives, the less likely we are to go astray.
The Gnostics were promising some secret knowledge that would make them holy and initiate them into the inner circle of true spirituality. John tells them that since they have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, they don't need to be indoctrinated by someone else. Because of His presence in their lives they know the Truth, the living Truth, the Son of God who is the Way and the Truth and the Life.
III. Remain in the Son
The advice John gives these early Christians, and that scripture gives us today is that we remain in Jesus. We remain faithful to the Master and to His message and His mission.
This word, translated "to remain," is an interesting word in the original language. It basically means to be permanent, to dwell, abide, remain or endure.
It is used in the New Testament to speak of the immutability, or unchanging nature, of God. In 1 Peter 1:23 it speaks of how the Word of God stands forever. And in John 6:56 it speaks of how Christians abide in Christ. John says that if we will remain in the message we have heard from the beginning, if we will be faithful to that which was delivered to us and in fact, that message which delivered us from our sins, then we will remain in Christ. This is the goal of the Christian, to remain in Christ.
Just because something is new does not necessarily mean that it is true. The message they had received from him in the beginning, the message of the gospel, how Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died a vicarious death and rose in a victorious resurrection, how He offered forgiveness and eternal life to all who would place their trust in Him. This was the message they had received, it was the message they had believed and it was the message that had transformed their lives.
The best way to keep from going astray was to remain in the faith and the truth they had received from the beginning.
If Adam and Eve had stood by what God had told them in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess created by sin. If you and I will stand firm in the truth as we know it in Jesus, we will save ourselves from a great deal of grief. The problem is not that we don't know the truth, it's that our sinful nature does not like the truth. As Jesus said, men are lovers of darkness rather than light. That's why books like DiVinci Code are so popular. Discontent with the truth of the gospel, because of its strident demands, people are ever searching for what Adam and Eve sought for in Eden's Garden, the knowledge that will elevate them to be equal with God.
John tells us that we know all we need to know, there is no secret knowledge hidden from us. And that we are to remain in this apostolic message, in the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Conclusion
1. Recognize - Be sober and be vigilant
2. Resist - Contend for the faith
3. Remain - Be steadfast in what you know and Who you know