“Christ vs. Antichrist” Pt. 2 (1 John 2:18-27)

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1 John, 1 John chapter 2.

As you’ll hear more this evening, the conference that we were at, the Founders Conference this past week. The theme of the conference, the focus of it, was Remember Jesus Christ from 2 Timothy, where Paul encourages Timothy, his young pastor who he trained and ordained for the ministry, that he needed to remember Jesus Christ. And that was an encouragement as all of the messages we heard were focused on doing just that. And one of the statements that really stuck out to me, even just from the very first sermon, was that the preacher was saying that oftentimes, even as Christians, we assume Jesus Christ.

We just assume, we know Christ and we know of him and often we just, we assume the things we know. Meaning we don’t often think deeply about Christ. Sometimes we don’t remember who Christ is and what he does or has done to empower us for our Christian life. But that we do need to remember Christ. And that is exactly what John is encouraging these believers to do.

In this letter of 1 John, he is encouraging them to remember what they heard in the beginning, what they’ve known from the beginning. As I mentioned earlier, we started this passage last Sunday. And as John shifts the focus a little bit, he had encouraged them, he had come through all the different things that they knew, and had been giving them these tests where they had to be reassured that they were Christians. And coming through verses 15 through 18, John encourages them to not love the world, or the things in the world, because those things are passing away along with the world. And then as we saw in verse 18, he comes to a different focus.

And he says, children, it is the last hour. And you’ve heard that the Antichrist is coming. And even now, many Antichrists have come. And by this we know it is the last hour. So that is his focus in this passage, Antichrists. alongside true Christians. And really, he contrasts the two. So we began looking at this passage by focusing in on what the Antichrist is. And we saw that, yes, there is an Antichrist coming, one who is spoken of as an eschatological figure who will come and ultimately be the figure set up in opposition to Christ. But that is not the specific individual John is focusing on here. Because he mentions that one, you’ve heard the antichrist is coming, but even now many antichrists have come. And he wants them to know that this one who will be opposed to Christ or set up in place of Christ is not just a one-time occurrence.

It isn’t just something that will happen eventually, but it is already happening. And this was in the very first century of the church. It is how they have come to know that it is the last hour, that many antichrists have come. And we saw that all that is required to be identified with this spirit of antichrist is to be against Christ. That’s what the word means. to be in opposition to Christ, either blatantly against Christ or even setting yourself up in the place of Christ.

To John, an antichrist is simply another way to describe an unbeliever, a Christ rejecter, someone who does not believe in Christ, who does not believe the truth of Christ. Again, remember, John is trying to assure these believers of their salvation. These false teachers had come in teaching other things that were not according to what John had taught them originally of the true gospel. And so John has been setting up these tests in order to reassure them, if you pass these tests, you are a true believer.

We saw in chapter one, verse eight, the test of what you believe about sin. If anyone says he has no sin, he’s a liar. So we all have sin. So if you were saying, I don’t have sin, I have nothing to worry about, you’re a liar. And you don’t walk in the light and you don’t know God. Then we saw the test of obedience in chapter two. Chapter two, verse four, he says, whoever says I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. You cannot say you know Christ and not live like you know Christ. Jesus Christ himself said, if you love me, keep my commandments. So if you make no effort to keep the commandments of Christ, you are showing you don’t love him.

Then we saw the test of love in verse nine of chapter two, where John says, whoever hates his brother is in darkness until now. He’s not in the light. In verse 15, we saw the test of worldliness. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. These are all tests that he’s giving them, not to make them doubt their salvation, but actually to reassure them, because he knows these things are true of them. He was there when he preached the gospel to them, and they believed. And he had seen evidence of Christ in their life. And he’s reassuring them, these things that you see in your life, these are proof that you are in Christ. And no matter what these false teachers are telling you, you don’t need what they have in order to truly be saved. You are saved if you believe in Christ. And that’s what we’ll see as John fleshes out this topic of antichrists versus Christians this morning. And what we really see in this passage is the test of Christ, or the test of what you believe of Christ.

Once again, he’s showing them, because you believe these things about Christ, you can be assured of your salvation. So this morning, as we saw last week, verse 18, and kind of the topic, an introduction to antichrists, this morning we will begin looking at what are the marks of a true Christian and one that John calls antichrists, or those who are opposed to Christ.

And as I began the sermon last week with the question, who do you say that he is? Because really, that gets to the heart of what John’s talking about here. Who do you say that Christ is? That’s the question Jesus posed to his disciples. He asked them, who do they say that I am? And they said, well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah or one of the other prophets. But then he says, who do you say that I am? So that is our question that we need to ask ourselves as we examine our own hearts in light of God’s word this morning.

I’ll read our passage once again as we examine what it is that John is instructing these believers this morning. And he says, children, or little children, it is the last hour. And just as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, Even now, many antichrists have appeared, and from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us, for if they were of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be manifested that they are not all of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one that denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, and the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you? Let that which you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will also abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which he himself made to us, eternal life. These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you. And as for you, the anointing whom you received from him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true, and is not a lie. And just as He taught you, abide in Him. And now, oh wait, that’s 28. We’ll stop there at 27. So there’s John’s test for them. Really, it centers on verses 22 and 23. Do you deny that Jesus is the Christ? Everyone who denies the Son, And who the son is doesn’t have the father either.

So we see this contrast, Antichrist versus these true Christians. So we’ll look at this passage really in two segments. What’s true of Antichrists? What are the characteristics of Antichrists? How do we know who they are? What then are the characteristics of Christians? What’s the difference? How do we know one from the other?

And so as we covered verse 18 last week, we come to verse 19, and we see our first mark of the antichrist John is talking about. He says, they went out from us. So our first characteristic is they leave the church. He says they, and he’s talking about the antichrist he just mentioned in verse 18. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. So they were in the church alongside these believers, and they went out from us. And John says the reason why they went out from us was so that it would be manifested, so that it would be shown, so that it would be revealed that they’re not of us.

Sometimes people come into a church with the intent to disrupt and deceive. They have their own agenda. They don’t submit to God’s word, to the authority God has placed in the church. And they are troublemakers from the start. But that’s not the only type of antichrist there are. Sometimes people come into the church and they seem very well-intentioned and they seem like they are really genuine. They come in and seem to be doing great. And then eventually they start to tail off and they start to come less and less or sometimes they’re just gone altogether. And then you find out that they’re chasing after things that just aren’t true. They are denying the truth. Apparently these false teachers, these antichrists had already left the church. And John says they went out from us because they’re not of us. That’s why they left.

Now, John is not saying that everyone who ever leaves the church is antichrist. That anyone who ever leaves a church for any reason is not a Christian, that’s not what he’s saying. But what he is saying is that these unbelievers, a mark of antichrists, is that they don’t stick around. They don’t stay in the church where the truth is being taught. They don’t submit themselves to the truth. You see, the true sheep stick together in the fold. True sheep hear the shepherd’s voice and they follow him. And if a church is truly preaching the word of God, there will be implications.

If the word of God is being preached from the pulpit on a regular basis, some different things will happen. Number one, it will draw the sheep. The sheep will hear his voice and they will follow Christ. So if Christ’s voice is coming through from the pulpit, that God’s word is being preached from the pulpit, the sheep will hear his voice. You don’t need fancy programs or marketing schemes. You don’t need to be bringing methods that’ll appeal to unbelievers. You don’t need to be trying to market the church. You need to preach the word. It is God’s Word who has the power to bring people to Christ.

Without God’s Word, you will draw in all sorts. And while that might give you an opportunity with unbelievers, if God’s Word is not in it, there’s no power. There’s no power to bring them to Christ. You might bring them to your church, but you are not bringing people to Christ if his word is not in it.

And the second thing that preaching the word will do is it will drive away those who are not the sheep. It will drive away the goats. Jesus differentiates between the sheep and the goats. John 10 is a beautiful chapter that speaks of Jesus as the true shepherd. He gives the whole chapters an illustration that he is the true shepherd and he is the one who gathers his sheep.

In John chapter 10, you can turn there if you’d like, but in John chapter 10, starting in verse one, it says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs in some other way. He is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he brings all his own out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they will never follow but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. His sheep hear his voice. He is the shepherd and the sheep will follow the voice of the shepherd that loves them. And down to verse 14, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me. Even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, and I have other sheep which are not of this fold, and I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one of the flock with the one shepherd. That is why we need God’s word in everything we do. Because otherwise, how will they hear his voice? But when the sheep hear His voice, they will follow Him.

In this illustration, the sheep are the followers, true believers. His sheep hear His voice. His sheep will follow Him, and the false sheep will not. And that’s what John is saying here back in 1 John 2. He says, they went out from us. They went out from us because they were not really of us. For if they were of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be manifested, so that it would be shown, so that it would be revealed who they truly are, that they are not of us. Now, this should not breed an us versus them, that everyone who’s not a true Christian is an enemy. But it should help to assure us that true sheep hear his voice and follow him.

The ones who left, they were not true sheep. They were not of the flock of the one shepherd, Jesus. Now just think of this situation in this church. John had come and taught there. brought the true gospel to them. We saw that in chapter one. And he knew that they were believers. We’ve seen that as he talks about them and speaks to them. And yet, after John had left, these false teachers come in. And we’ve talked about some of the different things that they may have been teaching, but there was apparently this idea that if you didn’t have what these false teachers have, even though you have the gospel and you know Christ and you’ve heard of Christ and believe in Christ, That’s not enough. You need more. You need what these false teachers have. And now that they’ve left, after all they’ve said, I’m sure they’re wondering, well, if they left and what they were saying was, if we want to actually be saved, we need to have what they have. And if they’ve gone, have they taken the truth? Have they taken true salvation with them? How do we know? And John says, no, they went out because. They’re not of us. And they went out so that it would be shown that they’re not of us. That’s what was happening in this church.

And again, this is not saying that anyone who leaves a church is an unbeliever. But for those who were with them in that church, they were with them for a while, But then they began to deny the truth. And they went out, not only the false teachers, but those who followed them, and who were deceived, and went after this false gospel. They were showing that they’re not truly believers. They were not of us.

So the first mark of these antichrists is that they leave the church. Those are their actions, that’s what they do. But there’s a reason why. We’ve already hinted at it, but the second mark is that they deny Christ. They deny Christ. We see that down in verses 22 and 23. We’ll come back to 20 and 21 when we come to the marks of true Christians, but 22 and 23 show us more about these antichrists. It says, who is the liar? but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. And everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father. The one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

So this is the test of Christ, the test of what you believe about Christ. If you want to know if someone’s a Christian, Tell me what you believe about Jesus. Because that’s the center of our faith. What do you believe about Jesus? Again, this conference we were just at was all about Jesus Christ. And it covered many different topics, but it was such an encouragement for a couple days to sit there and just be filled with teaching about Jesus. And we’ll speak more on that tonight. But as John says here, the one thing that marks Christians and antichrists is what you believe, what you believe about Christ. And he says specifically, this is the antichrist, the one who denies Jesus is the Christ, is the anointed one. He even says, who is the liar? who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ.

We talked about that word Christ last week, the anointed one, the Messiah. It comes from the Hebrew idea of the Messiah, the one that would be coming, the one that was promised, the one that would fulfill all prophecy. And John, right from the beginning of the letter, says, we’ve seen him, we’ve heard him, we know him, we’ve touched him. Trust me, he is the one. He’s the Christ. Don’t let anyone fool you. If you deny Jesus is the Christ, you’re not a Christian. True Christians have the correct view of Christ. We must. To be a Christian is a Christ follower.

How do you follow Christ if you don’t believe Jesus is the Christ? Who are you following? And this is why it’s so crucial to know our doctrine. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your Christianity is all about your feelings and your experience. That’s part of it. But you need to know your doctrine. You need to know God’s word. You need to know what it says about Jesus.

Now sometimes people are mistaken. And they might have an incorrect doctrine, and they need correction. That happens all the time, and it’s actually a beautiful and wonderful thing, because when a true Christian hears correction, they believe it. True Christians hear the truth and believe it. They’ve been given the Holy Spirit, or as John calls it, the anointing, and we’ll come to that here in a few moments. But the Holy Spirit guides us into knowledge of the truth, just as Jesus promised He would.

But the unbeliever, the antichrist, the one who does not have the Holy Spirit, will not be guided into the truth. They will not take this correction. If they have faulty doctrine, doctrine that is not true, when they are given correction, and told the truth, they’ll say, no, I don’t believe that. I don’t want that. Sometimes they set up a Jesus of their own making, a Jesus made in their image. Well, this is what my Jesus is like. But if you don’t have the real Jesus, then who are you following? Not only do you have to believe in Christ to be saved, you have to believe in the real Christ, the Christ of Scripture, not your own version of Christ. You must believe Jesus is the anointed, promised Messiah of God, the Christ. He is both God and man. You have to believe what Jesus taught about salvation, the true gospel, and if you don’t, You don’t know God. You don’t know the Father.

We mentioned several other religions last week that deny Christ. They claim to know God. They claim to worship God. They might even claim to be, oh, we’re all brothers. We’re all Christians. But if you don’t know Christ, if you don’t have Christ, the Messiah, as the Jesus that you follow, the true Jesus of Scripture, You may claim to know God, but you don’t know God. You can’t deny the deity of Christ without denying God the Father. That was the very problem the Pharisees had when Jesus was here on earth, teaching who he was, showing who he was. And the Pharisees said, stone him because he’s making himself God. He’s making himself equal with God. They were right. They just didn’t believe it.

He was making himself equal with God because he is equal with God. He is God. They saw the truth and they wanted to kill him for it. They thought they were protecting God. They thought they worshiped God. They thought they had the Father. But when you deny the Son, you deny the Father also. That’s what Jesus said. If you deny the Son, you don’t know the Father either. You see, the Bible is very clear. It’s abundantly clear on what we need to believe to be saved.

Nathan Buckman is teaching the youth right now, and he taught us on Wednesday about the perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture, and that the Bible is perfectly clear about the things we need to know to be saved. While there are challenging parts of Scripture and parts of Scripture that are a bit confusing to us, when it comes to what we need to know to be saved, everybody can understand it.

Jesus said in John 8, 24, you will die in your sins for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. He’s speaking to the Pharisees. And when He says, unless you believe that I am He, what does that sound like? That’s Deuteronomy. That’s Yahweh. That is the God of the Old Testament, the God of Israel, and he says to them, unless you believe that that’s me, you will die in your sins. It doesn’t get any clearer than that.

Romans 10, 9 and 10, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. In Paul’s book all about the gospel, this is what he says you need to do to be saved. Believe in Jesus and confess him as Lord.

And when he writes to the Corinthians, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, explaining exactly what the gospel is. He says, now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel. So if you want to know what the gospel is, here it is. I’m making it known to you, which I proclaimed as good news to you, and you also received in which you stand, by which you are also saved. This is the gospel that saves. If you hold fast to the word which I proclaimed to you, the good news, unless you believed for nothing, And then in verse three, here it is. For I delivered to you as first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. That’s the gospel. That’s what you need to believe in to be saved. You need to believe that that’s true, that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the one promised from God, and that he died for our sins. And not only that, he was raised again the third day, according to the scriptures. You must believe according to the scriptures. You must believe what the Bible says about Jesus.

And here, in 1 John 2, verse 22, John says, who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? If you deny Jesus is the Christ, you are in opposition of all of Scripture. And Scripture’s not wrong, you are. Who is the liar but the one that denies Jesus is the Christ? If you deny and refuse to believe what the Bible says, you are revealing yourself. You are making manifest that you are of the Antichrist. You must confess the Son if you want to have the Father also.

Here John is speaking to the Trinity. You can’t have one member of the Trinity without the others. You can’t say, well, I believe in God, but Jesus I’m not so sure about. Well, too bad. Jesus is God. Jesus is a Trinity. There’s the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. You can’t take one without the rest of them. There is one God, one being. Shown to us in three persons, but one being, and you cannot divide the being of God. If you deny the Son, you don’t have the Father. So the second mark of antichrist is that they deny Christ.

The third mark is that they are deceivers. They’re deceivers. Not only do they deceive about Christ, but being A deceiver is characteristic of them. You’ll see them deceiving in other ways. They are of their father, the devil, the father of lies. And they try to deceive believers. They try to deceive the faithful, but they’re unsuccessful. Believers will remain faithful, but they do deceive some. They deceive some that follow them and deny Christ. And those are revealed as unbelievers. But they cannot ultimately lead true believers astray. And we’ll get to that when we see the anointing that believers have. They will abide in the Son. They will abide in Christ.

Now, they can shake the faith of believers. They can shake our confidence. They can cause us to raise doubts even. But they cannot take away our salvation, our faith. They cannot take away our eternal life. Scripture says, when we are faithless, he remains faithful. And that is why John is writing to them. He knows they’re facing shaken confidence and doubts and things that we sometimes face. And he’s writing to reassure them This is the gospel. This is Christ. And if you have this, you don’t need anything else. You don’t need these false teachings.

And again, this is why it is so important we know our doctrine, that we know our Bible, that we know what the Bible says. We know what the Bible says about God, about Christ, about salvation. We need to know the truth so that we can remain faithful to the truth. The third mark is that they are deceivers. So now we come to the, well, if those are the Antichrist, well, what’s the marks of a Christian? What’s the difference here? John is contrasting Antichrist versus Christian, so what is the marks of the Christians?

So now we go back to verse 20. As we skipped over that before, we go back now to see the marks of true Christians, and the first mark is, They’re kind of the same opposite marks of Antichrist, only in different order. The first mark is true believers are not deceived. Antichrists are deceivers and true believers are not deceived.

Verse 20 says, but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. So John over and over says, I’m writing that you may know, and here he says, you all know. You have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lies of the truth.” He’s writing to them because he knows they know the truth. And he’s reminding them of the truth. He’s reassuring them of the truth.

And we see this also in verse 27, as he says, and as for you, the anointing whom you received, he just mentioned the anointing in verse 20, the anointing whom you received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and not a lie, and just as he has taught you, abide in him. A true believer knows the truth, and ultimately will not be deceived because of the anointing from the Holy One that abides in Him.

Again, they might be confused, they might have doubts, or they might be unsure of something they have heard, but ultimately true believers, because of the Holy Spirit within them, will believe and follow the truth. John calls this the anointing, the anointing of the Holy One or from the Holy One. They remain as opposed to those who left because of this anointing. The faithful stay, the faithful abide. The anointing abides in you, so abide in Him. To abide is to remain, to dwell, to continue on.

So he’s contrasting here, they went out, but you abide. Continue, stay strong. The anointing from God teaches them all things. And true believers don’t deny the Son because they’ve been taught by God. Later on, as John writes again to these same believers, in 2 John and in 3 John as well, he repeats this same line in those letters. He says, he has no greater joy than to hear that his children are walking in the truth.

So after this first letter where he’s reassuring them of the truth that they know, later on he writes, it gives me no greater joy than to hear that you are walking in the truth. So this reassurance he’s giving them worked. They remained in the truth. They’re walking in the truth because they are true believers.

The second mark is they believe the truth about Christ. They’re not deceived and they believe the truth about Christ. They really go hand in hand. As we saw, they have an anointing from the Holy One and they all know. These false teachers, many people believe they were Gnostics, which is a false religion that says that you need to have this special knowledge. And they spoke of this special anointing that they had been given. As distinct from these true believers, they have this special knowledge. And if you really want to be a Christian or you really want salvation, you need to have this special knowledge that they got from within themselves. And here John is saying, no. You are the ones that have the anointing. You have the anointing from the Holy One.

Again, we’ve looked at this before, but in John 14, 26, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit. He says, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. In chapter 1, he speaks of the difference between worldly philosophy and the knowledge from God and how the gospel, the knowledge from God is foolishness to the world. But then he gets to chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians and starting in verse 10, this is what he says. But to us, God has revealed them, them as the things of God. He’s revealed them through the spirit, for the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the depths of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the depths of God, no one knows except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. so that we might know the depths graciously given to us by God, of which depths we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit. Combining spiritual depths with spiritual words, but a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual examines all things, yet he himself is examined by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

This is what Paul’s talking about. The exact same thing John mentions here, the anointing from God. When you believe in Christ, you are given the Holy Spirit. And through our cultivating a deeper knowledge of Christ through his word, we are given the mind of Christ by the Holy Spirit. That is the anointing John’s talking about.

A couple of verses later in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 21 and 22, Paul says, now he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the pledge of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in all believers, and He is our teacher. And John says here, everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. We have the mind of Christ. And John says in verse 21, I’ve not written because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it. You do know, you have the truth of Christ. You know what is necessary for salvation. That’s why he writes this way, that he knows they’ll understand this. They have the spirit, you know the truth about Christ.

Don’t be intimidated into thinking you need anything else other than the gospel to be saved. Yes, we will grow in the knowledge of Christ and in the knowledge of His word. And that is my prayer as a pastor, that you would grow in the knowledge of Christ and in the knowledge of God’s word. But that will not make you any more saved. Once you know Christ, once you’ve come to believe the gospel, you are saved. And John says, you don’t need anyone to teach you because you have the Holy Spirit.

Now, he’s not saying you don’t need pastors and teachers. Ephesians tells us that Jesus gave pastors and teachers as a gift. But you don’t need any other knowledge other than what we have from God’s Word, other than what we have through the Spirit to have salvation. So the second mark of a Christian is that they believe the truth about Christ.

And finally, the third mark of a Christian is that Christians remain faithful. Or you could say Christians abide. Verse 24 says, as for you, let that which you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which he himself made to us, eternal life. John makes a guarantee here. He says, if what you heard from the beginning abides in you, so if you have the truth, if you believe the gospel and you believe in Christ, he says, you also will abide. You will abide in the Son and in the Father. If you are a true Christian, you will abide. You will abide and you will continue to abide. Well, how does he know that? How does he know that these Christians will continue to abide?

Well, he knows that because their abiding in Christ is just as dependent on their own doing and their own working as their coming to Christ was. It’s all of the Holy Spirit. God works in them to hear and believe and know the gospel and God also works in them to abide and remain in Christ. It’s all God’s work. Yes, we must remain faithful and discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness and come to know more of God’s word and more of Christ, but it’s only because of the work of the Spirit that we do those things, that the Spirit works with us in our sanctification. If it was totally up to us, if it was totally up to our own doing to abide and remain in Christ, to keep our salvation, we would all fail. It was like Charles Spurgeon once said, if I could lose my salvation, I certainly would, but I can’t. It is the Spirit who keeps us in Christ.

We read from John 10 earlier. Later on in John 10, Jesus, the good shepherd, he goes on and says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And then verse 28, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. The same shepherd who called them and who they follow will keep them from being snatched, from falling away.

So what does this say about those who went out, those who did fall away, those who did not abide in Christ? What does this say about them? Well, if Jesus says, no one will ever snatch my sheep, if they have gone away, if they have been snatched away, they weren’t his sheep. If they have fallen away from Christ, as John says, it’s been manifested that they were not of Him. They were not of us. They weren’t His sheep, because if they were, they would have remained. They would not have denied Christ. John’s confidence of their assurance of salvation is not in them. It’s not because they’re pretty smart. They’re a good group. They seem like they have it pretty well together. They’re a smart bunch that can understand things, so I’m pretty sure that they’re gonna stay. No, it’s all of the Spirit. They remain in Christ because of Christ. Because they are true believers. He knew they would remain faithful.

So our marks of a true believer, the things that we can be assured of, believers are not deceived. Not finally. They may be confused for a while, they may be, have doubts or their faith may be shaken, but they are not ultimately and finally deceived. Because believers believe the truth about Christ. And believers will remain faithful.

That is the contrast between Christians and antichrists. This is the test of our sound doctrine or our doctrine of Christ, what we believe about Christ. And this shows us why we need to know our doctrine, why we need to know what the Bible says about Jesus, why we need to know our Bibles. If this doesn’t cause you to wanna be in your Bible every day, to have a deeper knowledge of God, to have a deeper knowledge of Christ, there are still antichrists in our world today.

There are still those who you will hear things that might even sound pretty good. They sound enticing. They might sound like it makes sense to our minds, but what does the Bible say? What does the Bible tell us about Christ? What does the Bible tell us about salvation? What does the Bible tell us about God? How do we know these things? We need to continually cultivate a deeper and truer knowledge of Christ. We need to be in his word. We need to be around His people.

So, how are you cultivating a deeper knowledge of Christ? What are you doing to get God’s Word into you? So that when you hear something, you can know whether or not it lines up with Scripture. You can know whether or not this is the truth. This is how we discern. This is how we determine what is true and what is almost true, but false. I mentioned earlier that we are beginning a theology class this month, and this is the purpose, so that you will know Christ, that you will have a deeper knowledge of God’s Word, a deeper knowledge of God. So if you are able to, I would encourage you to come and do just that. We need to be together worshiping God and growing in our knowledge of him and of his word. We need to encourage one another to be built up in the faith and in sound doctrine. Those are the things we take from this passage. We need to know God better. We need to know His word better so that we can discern. But if you have the truth, if you know Christ, then you are saved.

However, if you are not a believer, if you are not yet in Christ, if you have not yet come to Christ for salvation, if you have not yet called out to Him in repentance and believed that He alone can pay the penalty for your sin. You need to come to Christ today. You need to come to know the only one who can save you from your sin. So don’t leave here today without coming to Christ for salvation. You can talk to somebody here or even come find me if you’d like to after our service. But you need to know Christ. We see in this letter from John the dangers of not truly knowing Christ. So you need to come to Christ today.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this morning. Our Heavenly Father, we are humbled and We are just in awe of you in a text like this that shows us the only way we may be saved. The only way we remain in Christ is because of Christ. I pray that you would stir in us a desire to know your word better, to know you better, that you would teach us sound doctrine so that we can discern truth from error, that we will abide in Christ. And we know that if we know you, you will work that in us. We praise you, God, because you alone are worthy of praise. You alone draw us to yourself and keep us in Christ. We thank you for your word. We pray that this would just have an effect on our hearts today. We pray all of this in Christ’s name, amen.