Understanding Antichrists: A Call to Discernment

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

All right, we're going to go ahead and jump right into our Bible study here this evening.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to First John.

First John.

And we're going to be in chapter number two.

I know it's been a couple weeks since we had vbs Last week we didn't have our normal Bible study here, but we're going to try to go back and review a little bit here tonight so that you can be refreshed in what we were studying.

And we're looking at the book of First John, and we're looking at the idea that the Bible says that with salvation comes a relationship with Christ.

It's more than just having a ticket to heaven, but it's having fellowship with Him.

It's more than just knowing that he exists or recognizing that he is God.

It's understanding that not only is he is God, but that he is my God and that I have a relationship with him and I can know Him.

So the book of First John is written to those who.

Who believe.

We know that through multiple places.

He talks about this idea of knowing God in a personal way.

He calls the reader here little children.

And we know that that's speaking specifically to the idea that they are children of God.

And we're going to even look at that here this evening, the concept of being a child of God.

And he talks in chapter one about what it means to walk in the light.

What does it mean to walk in fellowship with God?

And so a lot of people say, well, I'm a Christian, but I can't say necessarily that I'm walking in fellowship with God.

Well, chapter one discusses how we can walk in fellowship with God.

Part of that is loving him and loving others.

He says the proof of our love for God is our love for others.

And he goes on to say that there's going to be times in our life where we do fall into temptation, we do fall into sin.

What do we do, verse nine of chapter one, if we confess our sins and remember what that word confess means?

Confess means to say the same thing.

Literally, that word in the Greek means to say the same thing.

So to agree with God about our sin.

So if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That's not talking about the idea that we have to keep getting saved over and over again every time we sin.

It's talking about this idea that even though we are a child of God, there.

There might be instances or periods of time in our Christian walk that we have broken fellowship with our Savior and we need to have that fellowship restored.

And how do we have that restored?

By recognizing the wrongdoing in our life, recognizing our rebellion and falling into repentance.

And with that repentance comes restoration.

And so.

So that's what he's talking about there in chapter one.

But then if someone reads chapter one, they might be tempted to think, well, what.

What about me?

I sin, I fall short.

Do I have to confess every time I sin?

Well, he says there is a process that we must follow.

He says in verse one of chapter two, my little children.

So again, he's speaking to believers, these things write I unto you that ye sin not.

So now he makes us even feel worse.

So now I'm not supposed to sin at all?

Well, yeah, that's the goal.

The goal is for us to strive to live a life of righteousness.

But in the process of that life of striving for righteousness, we have the flesh, we have issues, we have temptation.

And so he says, if you do sin, so he says, don't sin.

And if any man sin, so there's a reality here that it is going to be a problem in our life.

Still, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.

The righteous meaning the way to find restoration, the way to find righteousness.

Really, the way to find fellowship with God is through Jesus Christ.

He's the one advocating for us.

He's the one pleading for us.

Someone recently said, you know, Pastor, when.

When I fail, I just feel like sometimes God turns his back on me.

That's the complete opposite of what the Bible says.

There's multiple places in scripture that says that God cannot deny himself.

And so if God says that I am his child, he's not going to deny that.

He's not going to contradict himself.

The truth is, is that the Bible even teaches us that even when we are unfaithful, he is faithful.

And so the idea here is that God is not expecting us to be perfect, but there is that recognition of the fact that I cannot save myself, I cannot restore myself.

It must go through Jesus Christ.

Now, how can that happen?

Verse 2 of chapter 2.

And he that's Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.

Now again, that word propitiation is not a word we use ever in our vernacular in our language today.

But that word propitiation, propitiation means a satisfaction of wrath.

So, so God must pour out his wrath upon sin.

But Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross.

And therefore Jesus satisfied the punishment.

And therefore when we trust in him, we then have forgiveness and righteousness and restoration.

So really that's how we can have fellowship with God.

And so then he goes on this discourse about how we as believers have a new commandment.

Verse 8.

Again, a new commandment.

I write unto you.

What is that?

Verse 10.

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling him.

But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whether he goeth, because that darkness hath blindeth his eyes.

And so the Bible says here again, if we want to walk in fellowship with God, we have to be aware of the things that hinder our fellowship with God.

And the very first thing that's mentioned there in verses 10 through a 12 would be this.

Our relationship with others.

If we allow bitterness and division to rise up in our midst, that is going to limit our fellowship with God.

If I'm at odds with my brother, I am at odds with God, whether I recognize that or not.

So he says, the way that we can prove our love for God is by loving others.

Jesus even taught that.

He says, how are people going to know you?

How are they going to know that you are my disciples, that you love one another?

And so the idea here is that there can be things that can seep into our lives that can cause the fellowship to be broken between the Lord and the believer.

And it doesn't mean that God himself just looks down and says, well, you're a failure.

I'm leaving you.

No, it's this instance in which we are the ones that are deviating from the truth.

We are the ones that are deviating from fellowship with him.

So we.

We saw that one of the aspects of a hindrance to the Gospel hindrance to fellowship would be that simple fact of rebellion to God and rebellion to others.

But then we see that another hindrance to fellowship with God would be a love for the world.

Worldliness.

We call it worldliness today.

And we looked at verse number 15.

It says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

The warning here is to not grow in our love for the things of this world, but grow in our love for the things of God.

And sometimes what's taught within Christian circles would be, you know what, you just need to stop loving the world, stop wanting the world.

And I understand that, but that's an incomplete statement.

Because what we need to understand that in the Christian life, it's not just stopping loving the world, but it's loving God in place of the world, right?

And so, so love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

So we see that the contrast of loving the world is loving God.

So the way that we grow, reject or reject the world, the way that we grow in our dislike for the things of the world and the way that we reject those dark things is by loving God and turning to him more.

And he tells us why we should do that.

Verse 16.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.

He says, so you want to know what the world is going to bring you?

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

It's not of God.

And those things that are in the world, it says in verse 17 that, that they are going to pass away.

The only thing that will last forever is this.

But he that do it, the will of God, abide it forever.

And that's where we ended last time.

He says, there are some hindrances to your fellowship with God.

One would be division and bitterness and hatred towards other people, specifically our other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Number two, another hindrance to our relationship with God.

Our fellowship with God would be just loving the world, worldliness, allowing ourselves to be more like the world.

I had an interesting conversation this week with someone who is not involved with our church, but they do go to another church.

And they were talking to me and they were saying, you know what?

The leadership had said this statement, and this is a very interesting statement.

It's so alarming because it's so anti biblical.

They said, you know what?

We need to change the church to be more like the world so that we can reach the world.

That, and that wasn't just from a member of the church.

It came from the leadership down.

And this, this fellow was like, there's something wrong with that.

That doesn't sound biblical.

I said, that's anti biblical.

Right, because it's the total opposite.

We must be different than the world.

Right.

Everything in the New Testament that Jesus teaches that we see in Paul's epistles, even Peter mentions it, that we have to be distinct, we have to be different, we have to be unique.

Why?

So that the world can see the difference in the belief in Jesus Christ and what that means, and ultimately so that we can change the world to look more like the things of God.

And so what we have to understand within our life is that worldliness is one of those huge, huge hindrances to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and our fellowship with him.

But then we get to verse number 18 and, and I want to tell you that there's another hindrance.

It's not just worldliness, but we would even say here it would be the dangers of false religion, the dangers of believing the wrong things in a religious fashion.

You know, you can be religious in a lot of areas in your life.

I, I've heard even people say, you know, I religiously go to that place for breakfast every day.

I'm religiously watching this TV show.

We can be religious about all of the wrong things.

And so again, we put up on our sign out by the road, religion doesn't save you.

Jesus does.

And I stand by that.

And the concept of anyone can be religious, but religion doesn't save.

And he's going to address that here in verses 18 and 19.

And the reality is that there's going to be times in our life where we can get to a place where we might not even notice that what is being taught or what is being done is actually anti biblical or antichrist.

And so I want you to see this with me in verse number 18.

This is a very interesting verse.

I don't know how far we're going to get here this evening.

I'm looking at the time.

We might just cover a few verses and that's okay.

But we look at verse 18, he says, little children.

Again, we see that he's referencing believers here, and we see that he's warning them against another hindrance to their fellowship with God.

He says, little children, it is the last time.

Now some of us might say, what is he talking about there?

He wasn't in the last times.

We're in the last times.

I'm going to argue, argue and say that biblically speaking, it started the end times, right when Jesus ascended to heaven.

Right.

What he's talking about is that these are the times.

And so this is another argument towards an imminent return of Christ.

The fact that we don't know the day and the time it could be tomorrow, it could be another 20 years.

We don't know for certain.

But ultimately we even see here that the apostle John recognized that it could be any time.

He says it's the last times.

Paul mentions it's the last times.

And so the way that we can understand this is that really from the New Testament age on until today, we see things getting worse and worse, but ultimately it's been the last times.

And one of the things that I can say with, with certainty, and people laugh sometimes when I say this, or they scoff or whatever, but I can guarantee you one thing, we are closer today than John was to the end times.

Okay, but we are in the last times.

And he's going to describe what will happen during these times.

What we would say is in the church age.

And he says something interesting.

He says it is the last time.

And so John lived with a constant expectancy of Jesus return.

And I think we should do the same.

This is the expectancy that knowing that the Lord could return at any time, that this could all be it.

And seeing the nature of our times, the Bible tells us to be ready to redeem the time.

Why?

Because the days are evil.

So he says, because of the situation you find yourself in, be ready.

And he says, and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come.

Now when you hear that word Antichrist, you probably have some things pop up in your mind.

Even popular culture has portrayed the Antichrist in movies and books and whatever, from Christian circles and non Christian circles for that matter.

And so what John here is referring to in this case is he's referring, I believe he's referring to the Antichrist, the one, the man who will come, that is prophesied in scripture.

John refers to that one who is going to be the manifestation of evil in the end times.

But then he goes on a little bit further and he says, you've heard that the Antichrist shall come.

Even now.

Are there many Antichrists?

Now that's an interesting way to put it, because there's a lot of people that might say, well, does that mean that there's going to be multi multiple Antichrists?

Really, that word Antichrist just essentially means opposite or instead of Christ, opposite of Christ.

And so what is he saying here?

I, I believe what he is saying is this one day we know that there is going to be an Antichrist who comes, a person who personifies the spirit.

But in the meantime, there's going to be a lot of that happening, a lot of things that are anti God.

Antichrist, anti Bible that are going to be pervading your culture, be aware of that.

And we would think, yeah, of course that Antichrist stuff is going to be coming from Satanists, it's going to be coming from the outside evil people that are open in their rebellion.

You know, all these people that we picture in our mind to be anti God.

But what we're going to see in the next verse is that this actually is within the church.

He warns a be aware because the spirit of the Antichrist, the spirit of rejection, the spirit of rebellion can be in your midst and you could not be aware of it.

He says, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time.

And so I believe that there is a distinction between the capital a Antichrist and many lowercase Antichrist.

There, there is that spirit of Antichrist already within the world today.

And many of you see that through open public rebellion of the truths of God.

It's the world system.

Why, why do you think so many people get uncomfortable when we talk about Jesus?

Not so much uncomfortable about religion.

You, you can talk, I mean, they say don't talk religion or politics, but the average person that you come across in the world system doesn't necessarily care if you say, well, I'm, I'm a religious man, I'm a man of faith.

Okay, great, but what happens when we take it a step further and say, my faith is in Jesus Christ, he is my Savior.

That's when we start to see people in the world system squirm.

They get nervous, they reject that.

And he's actually going to talk about that here in this next verse.

And so essentially what he's saying is, is that though the world is waiting to see the ultimate revelation of evil in the Antichrist, there are going to be previews, there's going to be little snapshots of this man and the mission that he is going to come about with here in this world today.

And I think that most of us, if we're honest with ourselves, wouldn't have to look very far to say, yeah, I can definitely tell that there is the spirit of the Antichrist in our world today.

And so what I would say is this, that, that John is, is indicating that the presence of evil and the presence of a rejection of Jesus is something that we need to be aware of within our circles today.

And so we, we go a little bit further and we see verse 19.

And you can't help but link 18 and 19 together because he says there's going to be these people that have this antichrist philosophy.

Verse 19, they went out from us.

And so he says they leave and they reject Jesus.

This shows that many of these people that have this focus of Antichrist at one time or another identified themselves with Christian communities.

And if they were able to identify themselves with Christian communities back then, we know that by extension it could happen today.

And if we're not careful, we can allow false religion to seep into the church.

And, and folks, I would, I would caution you to be very careful when it comes to people that just say I go to church or I believe in God or, or I'm a person of faith or even I'm a Christian.

That sounds good.

Like if I meet someone and they go, I'm a Christian too, fantastic.

But then I would say you need to ask if you want to know more, which I believe you should, you might want to ask some more questions.

And he's going to tell us really how to discern whether that person is a true Christian or are they Antichrist?

They went out from us.

And so he says they left.

And John wasn't talking about someone who just leaves a good Bible believing church and go to another Bible believing church.

He's not talking about that.

He's talking about people who reject the faith.

They go away.

They're Antichrist, they're anti biblical.

And he says they went out from us, but they were not of us.

This is a scary verse because a lot of times we often think that if someone's in our church, they have to be Christian.

If someone gets up and says that they believe in Jesus or that they, they love God, they must be Christian.

But what we can see is that there are people who turn their backs.

There are people who go.

And a lot of times we have a hard time reconciling that.

We, we believe in eternal security.

I believe in eternal security.

I believe that if someone is saved, nothing that they can do can get their salvation to leave.

But what we can see here, and, and I'm not the judge, I'm not the arbiter of who is saved and who is not saved.

But what we can see here is that there will be people who say that they are a part of us, but they will leave.

And the Bible says they will leave because they were not of us ever, they were not part of the family of God.

And they will leave when things get rough or they will leave for various reasons.

And he says here they went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of Us, meaning if they were one of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

This is interesting because, you know, there's a lot of people that will argue, what about the backslider?

And again, I, I am not in a role to say that that person, if they've left the church, they're not a Christian.

Okay?

Because I believe that there can be people who fall into carnality, that are believers and fall into a place of being backslidden, but eventually will return.

But at the same time, some people say, well, how far, how long can someone be away from God and church to indicate that they are not of us?

I don't know that answer.

But the only answer that I can completely give you according to the word of God, which we're going to see here in a few moments, is is that person abiding in Christ or are they abiding in anything else?

If they are trusting in Jesus Christ as their Savior, they are saved.

And that's what he's going to say here.

He's going to talk about discernment and how to recognize an individual who is either for Christ in Christ or who are rejection of Christ.

And so in this case, we, we can see that John is ident.

And I, I can't help but think that he's specifically thinking about certain instances that these people would have understood at this time and said, you know what people have left.

And the reason why they left is because though they were with us, they were not of us.

And so there, there is a time and a place for a church to have purging and pruning.

If you have been part of a church long enough, you have seen people go.

And in some cases the Bible says that, hey, that is what's going to happen.

If they're not of us, eventually something is going to expose that and they will turn their backs and go.

And so a healthy church can have this process happen.

Um, the, the, the compromising false teachers will, will not feel comfortable setting the roots down with a church that is unapologetically gospel centric and Jesus focused.

So, so what, what is John really saying?

He's saying that people who are not true believers and people who are Antichrist will not feel at home in a place that is abiding in Christ.

It will not feel comfortable.

It will feel as if there's something wrong.

And if they're Antichrist, which means essentially they're opposed to the truth, they're opposed to the gospel.

And essentially, hey, they like religion, but they don't like Jesus.

That is going to drive people away if Jesus has preached more.

So he says, hey, don't be surprised if this happens.

Be aware of this.

Be aware of the false teacher, Be aware of the false convert.

He goes on in verse number 22 to say, how do you identify the spirit?

Verse number 20.

But ye have an unction or an anointing.

Now, anytime you see the word anointing in Bible, it talks specifically about being chosen or having an opportunity to do something.

And obviously sometimes you'll even see like as a pastor is, is anointed.

Some people say he's anointed.

That doesn't mean that there's like, you know, he's, he's different.

He's like a different entity than another person.

It just means that there's a calling in his life for to do something.

So he says, you have a calling, you have the opportunity.

He refers to this, this thing that all believers should possess, and that's the discernment to understand if a person is antichrist or for Christ.

So he says, you have an unction or an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things.

That doesn't mean that he's saying that you, you can know everything, like you're omniscient.

What he's saying here is that you can have discernment to know the truth of God.

You can, you can see things happening.

He says, you, it's evident to you you shouldn't be able to have it, you know, bailed over your eyes.

So he says, verse 21, I have not written unto you because you know, know not the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth.

Meaning this.

He says, I'm writing this to you because you know the truth.

I'm writing this to you because you believe the truth.

And so if you know the truth and you believe the truth, you're able to identify the truth.

Verse 22, who is a liar, but he that denieth Jesus is the Christ.

He says, okay, you want to know who is Antichrist?

Someone who rejects Jesus as the Christ.

Someone who rejects Jesus as Messiah.

It's very simple.

One of the things that I tell people is you want to identify a false prophet, or you identify a cult, or you want to identify a false teaching.

Whatever it is, the very first checkpoint that you go to when it comes to identifying whether or not this is true and this is good, and this is of God is what is said about Jesus, what is said about the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Because we know that in other places in scripture, Paul says there will be other Jesuses taught, brought to you.

You gotta be discerning that it's the Jesus of the Bible.

It's the Jesus who, who is Messiah.

And so what we can see here in this case is he says, you want to identify the truth.

You, you want to know who is the liar and who is truthful.

Go in this context, in the context of being for Christ and against Christ.

Just simply see what do they believe about Jesus.

Do they say that he's the Messiah?

Do they say that he is God?

Do they say that he is Savior?

In other words, someone could say, I believe Jesus is a good man.

I, I believe he's a good teacher.

I believe he's a creation of God.

I believe he's a manifestation of God.

They could say all these things that might sound Christian adjacent, but at the end of the day, if they are not saying, it's Jesus alone for salvation.

It is Jesus who is God.

Jesus is eternal.

Read John, chapter one.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

That he came in the form of man was 100% God, 100% man.

If they don't have Jesus, right, I'm going to tell you they're, they're Antichrist, whether they know it or not, because it's against the truth of the gospel.

And so someone could say, I believe that Jesus existed, but they might not believe he's Christ.

And so we can't just believe that Jesus existed.

We have to believe and trust and live in the fact that Jesus is the Christ.

That's what he says there in verse number 22. Who is a liar, but he that denieth Jesus is the Christ.

He is Antichrist.

He says, you want to know that spirit of Antichrist?

It's he who rejects Jesus.

And I would even venture to say that the Bible says if you reject Jesus, you're going to reject his teachings.

So let's say someone, let's say someone says, yeah, well, that's what Jesus taught.

But I don't, I don't care what Jesus taught.

That's Antichrist.

They're rejecting the teachings of Jesus.

It's one thing to say I'm struggling with what Jesus taught.

I, I believe it, but I'm struggling.

And aren't we all?

Are we, Are we all struggling to be who we need to be in life?

I understand that.

So it's not a matter of am I perfect at Jesus teachings.

But what it really is, is if I'm willingly and knowingly rejecting the teachings of Jesus, I'm willing and willingly and knowingly rejecting Jesus.

And so it says here he is antichrist and denieth the Father and the Son.

So what he's essentially saying is you can't come to the Father, but through the Son.

We know that through John 14:6.

This would be someone who says, I believe in the God of Israel, but I don't believe that Jesus is involved with that.

Folks, the Bible says, the New Testament teaches that that's an incomplete gospel.

When Paul defines the gospel in First Corinthians 15, he speaks to Jesus and the work of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.

And so the spirit of antichrist identifies itself by the denial of Jesus and the denial of the Father.

Because if you deny Jesus, you're denying the Father and really understanding that when we deny, if anyone denies Jesus but then says that they are religious, essentially what we're seeing is they're, they're, they're false.

It's a false religion.

And so one of the things that we can identify is one of the things that holds us back in the Christian life, one of the things that holds us back in our fellowship with God is tolerating and compromising and getting buddy buddy with antichrist teachings.

We have to be very, very careful about that.

And so what we see here at the end of verse 23 is, Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

So he says, it's a package deal.

You can't have God the Father and not have Jesus Christ.

It's by faith and faith alone in Jesus.

Verse 24, Let that therefore abide in you.

So he says, okay, let that sink in.

Let Jesus abide in your life.

Which ye have heard from the beginning, this is what you've been hearing.

If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.

He says, if you want to have fellowship with God, you got to let the fact that Jesus is Lord abide in your life.

A whole reading you can do is go to John 15 and talk about and, and see what Jesus talks about.

When it says, abide in Me, and I in you.

The idea that there's this, he is divine, we are the branches.

Without him we can do nothing.

That's essentially what John is teaching here.

He says, you got to abide in Christ verse 25.

And this is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life.

So he's like, you got to go back to what he's promised.

These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

So the reality here is that he says that these people that have the spirit of the Antichrist, it's not just that they want to come in and keep it to themselves.

The.

The idea is, is that they're going to be.

If they're Antichrist, they're anti gospel, therefore they have their own gospel.

And they're going to try to teach that and they're going to try to seduce people in.

And sometimes what we think about when it comes to this, we think about, well, okay, Pastor, I would know if you're up there preaching anti Gospel stuff, I would know.

And you probably would know if I got up here and said anything astray from the gospel, I would hope that most people at Middletown Baptist Church would wave that red flag and make sure that you didn't misunderstand what I said and make sure that I didn't get confused and really have a really good time of conversation.

And then when you realize that it is anti Gospel, that you would turn and go, or keep.

Kick me out.

And so a lot of times we think that false teaching comes through the front door, through the pulpit.

And certainly it can, and it has in many cases.

But the Bible also says in the book of Jude that sometimes false teaching can sneak in unawares, unknowingly.

And it can come through very.

What we would call minimal or small ways.

Maybe it's just through conversation.

Maybe you're having a conversation with someone about the things of God, and they go, oh, that's.

You don't have to believe that.

You don't have to trust in that.

That's.

That doesn't make any sense.

Whether they know it or not, they are teaching and propagating false teaching.

That's Antichrist.

If it's anti Gospel, it's Antichrist.

We have to be so aware of that.

Because what can happen is that spirit can rub off in our life, that thinking can rub off in our life, and we can eventually unknowingly get to a place in our life where we are living Antichrist, anti Gospel.

And so he goes a little bit further.

He says, but the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, meaning God has given you everything.

You need to read through and see the truth.

If you are open, if you are letting the Spirit guide you, he will give you that discernment.

So he says, but the anointing which hath received of you have received of him, abideth in you.

And ye need not that any man teach you.

Meaning you don't have to sit down and have someone tell you, hey, this is what a false teacher is.

It's like counterfeit money, right?

You just need to know what the truth is.

If you know the truth, you know that something isn't the truth.

I don't need to sit down here with you and tell you every single false teaching that there is in the world.

I can help you and I can point you through some other false teachings.

But we as Christian, you should have those red flags going when you hear people preaching.

And if that is anti biblical Christians have enough information with the Spirit living within them to know that that is wrong.

And so it's knowing God more so that we can know what's not of God.

And so he says, you don't need anyone to teach you that.

But as the same anointing teacheth you of all these things and is truth and is no lie, and even as it have taught you, ye shall abide in him.

And now little children abide in Him.

So he reminds us here live in Christ, abide in him.

That when he shall appear, we may have confidence.

Talked about confidence on Sunday morning.

This idea that we can be assured that he will keep his word and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

Meaning we don't want him to find us not about his business.

We don't want him to find us in a place in rebellion.

That that's the last place as Christians we want to be.

We want to be following Him.

We want to be faithful to him.

Verse 29.

If you know that he is righteous, if you, if you know, not just you think you're convinced, if you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him.

Meaning when we strive for righteousness, it's essentially showing that we trust in his righteousness.

We trust in his goodness.

When we strive after our flesh, when we strive after the things of this world, when we buy into the false teachings, that shows us that we're relying on our own strength and not our relationship with him and his righteousness.

So this is a tough concept because a lot of times, again, we think of someone with the spirit of Antichrist as someone who's, you know, wearing a shirt that has some vulgar thing on it or has some satanic symbols on, on their, on their person.

And we look at them and go, okay, obviously that's someone against Christ, but the Bible says that that's not always how Satan works.

Sometimes it looks good, sometimes it sounds good, and sometimes a hindrance to the fellowship that we can have with Christ is when we allow false teaching to seep into the church, either from the pulpit or from the pew.

And we had to be careful about that.

And, and it's not like we judge people because there are instances where people just don't know the truth and they need to be taught the truth and they need to be shepherd and discipled.

But again, it's not a justification for false teaching.

And so as a pastor, I had many opportunities to hear people's opinions about the faith and Bible and religion.

And there are going to be some times where I hear someone talking and I recognize they're trying to say the right thing, but it came out a little weird and I might not need to address it right then.

But if someone out now says something anti biblical, as a pastor but as a believer, I have a responsibility to clarify that and make sure that, hey, I don't want that to be propagated within the church.

I don't want that to be hindering your fellowship with God.

And so we need to be careful of that.

Beware of false religion even within our own midst.

If you study church history, it's very.

It's hard to see when it happens, but gradually just there's a drift.

And we don't want to be the church.

We don't want to be the denomination.

We don't want to be the people that drift away from the truth of Jesus Christ.

Look, there's a lot of things that we can differ on with people.

You know, there's some churches that worship differently than we worship.

There's some churches that have different church organization or what we call polity.

Okay?

There's different churches that have different things that they do within their ordinances and all that kind of stuff.

And we can have those differences.

We can have those differences.

But if they believe the right things about Jesus and they teach the right things about Jesus, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We don't have to necessarily be like them.

But what we do is we say, okay, that's different than being a false teacher.

But if there is a place that looks just like us and sounds just like us and does everything the same as us, but they're teaching the wrong things, that they are not of us, that is not who we want to associate with.

And so what, what I'm trying to get to here this evening is that the core of our identification of who we are is what we preach.

That's what John says.

John doesn't say, well, they didn't.

They didn't do this or they didn't.

What.

What's the.

What's the decision?

What's the decider?

He says, verse 22, who is a liar but he that denied Jesus the Christ.

So I.

And I'm going to pause here, and I want to give you one last challenge in love.

Be careful what you take in via Internet or books or radio or whatever mediality you're bringing in, okay?

Because I encourage you to study things outside of the church.

I encourage you to listen to other pastors and preachers outside of this church.

But be very, very careful on what you are taking in and what you are believing and what you're applying to your life.

Because whether we know it or not, everything that we take in affects our thinking and affects our belief.

And.

And so there are people that are very popular that I would just say, be careful.

I'm not saying don't listen to them.

I'm saying be careful and judge the message not by the delivery, not by the fanfare, not by the success, not by the growth of ministry, but by what is being said and then what is being done.

Because what's being said is one thing, but then what is being done is another thing.

And so do your research, do your due diligence, protect your own mind, protect your heart, protect your family.

And ultimately, we want to protect the church and we want to protect the work of the gospel.

So that's what John is talking about here.

We're going to get to verse number one of chapter three next, next time.

And he's going to talk about this beautiful love that God has given to us, that we should be called the children of God.

That's an amazing thing to think about that, that we can be called children of God.

But then he's going to talk about this idea that sometimes children can be misled.

And what we have to do is we have to be on guard.

And the way that we can be on guard is by following what God has said.

And he talks about loving, indeed, and in truth.

And we'll get there later on.

In First John, First John, chapter four, he says, be sure the spirits are of God.

Test every spirit, test every message.

Because there can be people that say, well, I had this miraculous experience and I had this wonderful encounter.

It was a religious and emotional encounter.

The Bible says test everything.

Is it of God and he'll give us the test again.

Is it of Jesus Christ?

Did they preach Jesus?

And so we're going to go through that as we study First John.

First John's an awesome book to go with.

Go through with someone that number one needs assurance of their salvation.

If there's someone who's struggling in the assurance of their salvation, take them to First John.

Because First John.

Is that that standard?

This is what it looks like to be a Christian.

This is what it means to be a Christian.

This is what God expects of us.

This is the warnings of all of these things.

So First John is a good place to go for assurance of salvation.

Another aspect is that even within your own life, I think that it's a warning and a framework of surety that you know what, as a Christian, I can trust in God in the midst of difficulties.

And then he writes at the very end, First John, chapter 5, verse 13.

These things have I written unto you that believe in Jesus, that you can know that you have everlasting life.

I know that I have everlasting life, not because the way that I feel, but because of what Jesus has told me.

When I'm trusting.

That's what we have to go to when it comes to our confidence in Him.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.