1 John 2:15-23 (Teaching)

[0:00] Morning. Good morning. We'll be back in the book of 1 John. Last week we got around halfway through the second chapter of 1 John.

[0:16] We hit him in verse 14 last week. And we covered from verse 1 where John is describing Christ as the propitiation for our sins.

[0:34] He writes to us that we sin not, and then he gives us some encouragement because writing to us that we sin not condemns us all.

[0:45] But then he says that if any man is sinned, we have an advocate with Christ. So there's the encouragement in that. But we covered through verse 14 last week.

[0:58] And we'll pick up verse 15. I don't know that we'll finish this chapter today. I'd like to think that we can, but we'll just wait and see. So 1 John, the second chapter in verse 15, says, Love not the world, neither of the things that are in the world.

[1:16] If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

[1:28] And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So back up to verse 15. It says, Love not the world, it's spoken as a commandment.

[1:42] Love not the world, neither of the things that are in the world. Folks, us as human beings, that's a difficult thing to do. Very difficult.

[1:53] We have to look at this like John was meaning it, though. John was meaning in a spiritual manner. You can't take this to extremes and say, well, my children are in the world, my spouse is in the world.

[2:09] All these things are in the world. We can't take it to an extreme like that. We have to look at it in a spiritual manner when John says, Love not the world, neither of the things that are in the world.

[2:21] If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He goes on to describe in verse 16 specifically what he's talking about. He's only got three things here. He says, 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.

[2:41] He says, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's the three main things that will get us into trouble.

[2:54] All these things will cause them, will lead to them. Folks, it's been like that from the beginning. These are the very things that caused Eve to sin and rebel against the commandment of God back in the garden.

[3:09] And if it worked then, I can promise you that Satan and his little minions and demons will use these same things and these same tactics to entice us into sin and to tempt us.

[3:24] We have the lust of the flesh. What's the lust of the flesh as far as Eve goes back in the garden? She saw the fruit. That's the lust of the eyes, the very next thing she saw the fruit of.

[3:37] And it was desirable to her. It was desirable. It would please her flesh to eat. It would please her tongue, please her taste buds. She just knew these things.

[3:49] Of course, it goes on to say in verse 16, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And this was a factor for Eve, and it's a factor for you and I, all these things are.

[4:04] As far as sin and temptation goes, the pride of life. When Eve was tempted by the serpent in the garden to eat of the forbidden fruit, which is commonly thought of as an apple, although the Bible doesn't say that.

[4:21] But when she was tempted to eat of that forbidden fruit, how did the serpent tempt Eve? He said, you shall be as God. You shall be as God. You shall have the same knowledge.

[4:35] You'll have the same ranking. You'll be just like God was the very one that gave you the commandment to eat of this forbidden fruit. You'll be just like him. That was pride. That was pride that got into Eve.

[4:46] He said, I would like to be like that. I'd like to be on the same plane, on the same level, on the same ranking as God. So all these things, once again, they were like that from the very beginning.

[4:59] They were like that in the time that Jesus walked the earth, and it's like that now. The lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life is what will get us in trouble.

[5:10] His force temptation goes and his force sin goes. These are the three things that have been used from the very beginning to entice man and they're still being used to this day.

[5:21] In verse 17, the world passeth away and the lust thereof, that he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. The world passeth away. What did he begin verse 16 with? For all that is in the world, talking about the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, he says, all these things are going to pass away.

[5:39] The world and the world passeth away and the lust thereof. Everything that is in this world is going to pass away. That's why we can't let our money. That's why we can't let one of our prestige that we might get of men.

[5:54] That's why we can't let cars and homes and good jobs and anything else get in the way of our relationship with God. Almost this entire chapter of chapter 2 is talking about fellowship with God from verse 1 all the way through verse 29 of chapter 2 of 1 John.

[6:13] It's referring to fellowship with God and these things will get in the way of our fellowship and our communion and our relationship with God. The world will pass away and the world passeth away and the lust thereof.

[6:28] But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. We're going to live forever doing the will of God and it's not because of our doing that's given us eternal life.

[6:43] It's because of Christ's doing on cross at Calvary that we have eternal life. But because of that sacrifice and because of the salvation that's imparted unto us when we repent and we believe we will abide forever.

[6:58] Because we as Saviour individuals we're going to deny the world. We're going to deny the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And if we're not doing these things folks, there's only one reason for it.

[7:13] It's because we're not saved. We don't have eternal life abiding within us. Like I said we can't look at verse 1 saying love not the world, neither of the things that are in the world. We can't take that to an extreme level and say I can't love my life and I can't love my children because they're in the world.

[7:30] What did Christ say about his disciples? He said they're in the world but they're not off the world. I'm in the world and I hope y'all love me. I'm in the world, even though I'm in the world, but I am not off the world.

[7:44] And if you're a born-again Christian you are not off the world either. The world and the lust thereof is what's going to pass away. The entire world is going to pass away. It will burn up in the fervent heat according to what I read in the writings of Peter.

[7:58] The entire world will. And everything that I own here on this side of eternity is going to pass away. It's the salvation that God imparted to me through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ his Son.

[8:11] That will abide forever. That is eternal life and it is living within me and form of the Holy Spirit. If you're born again it's living within you and form of the Holy Spirit.

[8:22] And that has been from eternity and it will be to eternity. Praise God for all that. The world passes away the less there are but he will do it to the world of God about it further.

[8:34] 18. Little children. I'll stop right there for just a second. Now this isn't in your Bibles, but it is in a lot of church history that you read about the Apostle John.

[8:47] And the Apostle John's final days, really his final years, it said in church history that he was basically unable to walk and he was carried around on a stretcher by other men.

[9:02] And when he would refer to the church and he would refer to congregations he was speaking to, according to church history, he always referred to him as little children. And his most common thing that he would say was little children love one another.

[9:17] Little children love one another. Speaking to fully grown adults saying little children love one another. And I said I've read that in more than one account of church history.

[9:32] So there's a lot to back that up. And he refers to believers as little children several times throughout this epistle that he's written. So I have no reason to not believe that that's true.

[9:45] But anyway, verse 18 in 1 John chapter 2 says little children it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrist.

[9:59] Whereby we know that it is the last time. So I want to point out real quick is the Bible does not refer to an Antichrist or the Antichrist.

[10:16] The word Antichrist is only found four or five times in Scripture. That being said, will there be an Antichrist in the future?

[10:27] Of course there will be. The Scripture describes the Antichrist whom we refer to as the Antichrist in several different ways. The first of them is the Son of Perdition, the Man of Sin.

[10:42] The first of them is all kinds of things, but there is no reference in Scripture to anyone being called the Antichrist. And I want to get that out of the way real quick because a lot of the church world, they concentrate on who the Antichrist is going to be.

[11:01] I believe that there will be an Antichrist, but Scripture does not say it in those terms, particularly. Verse 18 again, little children, it is the last time, meaning it's the final days.

[11:18] Folks, this was written 2000 years ago by the Apostle John. He said, it's the last time, it's the final days. This thing is wrapping up. That was John's take on the entire situation.

[11:31] Christ is coming back and he's coming back soon. Folks, I've heard that all my life, that Jesus is coming soon. You've probably heard it all your life. Jesus is coming soon.

[11:43] I said this was written 2000 years ago. Folks, Jesus is still coming soon. With the thought of eternity in mind, soon is going to happen.

[11:56] And Christ is going to return very soon. I wouldn't dare try and put a date on it. No man knows the day nor the hour according to what I read in the Scriptures.

[12:08] I would dare try to prophesy what day Christ is going to return. No man knows. But he is coming soon. And John was looking at his life and he was looking at Christianity.

[12:23] Remember, this is the first and part of the second generation church that John is talking to here. And he's saying it is the last time. It's the final time.

[12:35] It's the final days that we're living in. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrist. Where about we know that it is the last time?

[12:46] He says we know that it's the last time. We know that it's the final days because of this wickedness that's in the world. Because of all this evil that's around us. Because of the persecution that the church is experiencing.

[13:00] This is how we know that many Antichrist have come. Many Antichrist are about and remember in the first chapter of John, those of you that were here when we went through that.

[13:13] He kind of touched on a little bit of false teaching folks. That's a mark of an Antichrist. Somebody that comes in and knowingly teaches falsely. Now I may stand up here before you all and be teaching something out of the Scriptures.

[13:29] And I may get a name mixed up. I may say Jesus instead of Joshua. Or I may say Daniel instead of Noah or something along those lines. And is that false? Yes it's false.

[13:41] Is it intentional? No. That happens, especially when you get names of some that begin with the same first letter. I'm not intentionally saying something wrong.

[13:53] But for Jesus to have made it as plainly as he did in saying I'm the way and the truth and the life. And for another person to come in and teach or preach to the church.

[14:07] There are many ways unto God. That is heresy. That is false teaching. And that's the mark of an Antichrist. Someone who intentionally teaches something falsely when the truth is laid plain out before them.

[14:22] When they have the Scriptures. That is the mark of an Antichrist. And Antichrist simply means opposite of Christ.

[14:33] Or instead of Christ. That's basically what Antichrist means. And these folks out here that will teach things like what I was just talking about. That there is more than one way unto God.

[14:45] There's more than one way unto salvation. Folks that is the mark of an Antichrist. And that's something to be steered clear of. He says where about we know that it is the last time the cause of these things.

[15:00] He says they went out from us but they were not of us. If they had been 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.

[15:13] Who is they? He's referring to they here. That's the Antichrist. I mean that's the only they that you can go to the previous verse and find.

[15:26] So in context the they is the Antichrist. He said the Antichrist's plural. They went out from us but they were not of us.

[15:37] If they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us. This is John is referring basically here to perseverance. He's referring to perseverance of the saints.

[15:49] Perseverance of those that have truly been born again. He says these may have been in your congregation for a little while. They may have been in your congregation for a year or for two or for five years.

[16:00] But eventually they went out from you. Now listen I ain't talking about people that might be in a local congregation such as our church here at Freedgear. And you know something happens and they leave to go to another church.

[16:15] And it's nothing bad, nothing wrong happened. But God opens a door. God does something where they can minister in a different way. And God is the very one that leads them there.

[16:26] I'm not saying the local assembly. I'm saying they have left their fellowship in the body of Christ that they may have had with believers in Christ.

[16:38] But like I said, he says, John here says they went out from us but they were not of us. These people were never saved to begin with is exactly what John is saying in this verse. They went out from us but they were not of us.

[16:50] They were never saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. They never truly repented of their sin. And that is why they're not persevering. That's why they're not continuing on in the faith.

[17:02] And he goes on to say, if they had been 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.

[17:17] He says they went out that they might be made manifest. In other words, they went out that they might be, it might be known that they were never of us to begin with. That they might be made manifest that they were not of us.

[17:31] But you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. This is a verse I've seen taken to some pretty far extremes here.

[17:42] You have an unction from the Holy One and I praise God that we have an unction from the Holy One. This word unction, you could about substitute that.

[17:53] I'm not adding to or taking away from the word of God at all. But you could about substitute that with the word anointing. You have an unction from the Holy One. We have an anointing from the Holy One. We have something from Almighty God.

[18:06] But what is that? And some other English translations of the Bible outside of the King James actually had that word for unction translated as anointing. But what is that?

[18:17] Folks, that is nothing more than the Holy Ghost. And I've seen people take this verse and take, especially with other translations that use the word anointing instead.

[18:29] And they turn that into something special that's referring just to them and to no one else. That's no one else. He's talking about the common ground that we have in Jesus Christ. The common ground that we have in the blood of Christ and in salvation itself.

[18:44] If you're sitting there saved this morning, you are no more saved than what I am and I'm no more saved than what you are. I have no more salvation than what you have. But I've seen people take this verse and apply it just like that.

[19:00] And that is not what John is getting at. He says, but ye have an unction from the Holy One. Pay attention to that word, but, that this begins with. He had just gotten through talking about the Antichrist and how they went out from us, but they were not all of us.

[19:13] Now he's talking about the true believers in Christ and the local congregations and the local assemblies of God, the local assemblies of the church itself.

[19:24] He says, but ye have an unction from the Holy One. You have got an anointing. You have the Holy Spirit and they never had it. He says, and ye know all things.

[19:35] This is the part that's taken to very far extreme sometimes. I can assure you that my wife will testify. I do not know all things.

[19:46] What? I do not know all things. You know what? Neither do any of you. We do not know all things. That is not what John is getting at.

[19:57] Once again, we have to look at this from the spiritual aspect that John is writing about here. He says, ye know all things.

[20:08] Well, y'all have heard me say before in Scripture, the word all means all. Does it not? Yes, it does. But what is he referring to here?

[20:19] Well, first, in the same verse that we're reading about here, he says, you have an unction from the Holy One. And because of this unction, because of this anointing, because of the Holy Spirit of God, we know all things.

[20:31] All things as far as what goes. As far as salvation goes, we know that salvation only comes from God. We know that salvation is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

[20:43] We know that without faith and without repentance, that there is no salvation for any man or woman or boy or girl that walks on the surface of this planet.

[20:55] We know these things. This is the all that he's referring to. He's not talking about how I could sit down and write an arithmetic book or instructions and astro-engineering or anything like that.

[21:11] I don't know those things. I'll be the first to know it. But I've seen people say that if we don't know these things, we must not have the Holy Ghost. We must not have the anointing.

[21:23] That's not what John is saying here at all. We know all things as far as salvation goes. I don't know everything about Jesus Christ, and you don't either, but I know Jesus Christ saved my soul.

[21:34] I know that there was a change made at me. This is the all things that John is referring to here. Once again, if you go back to these other things that I use as pretty drastic examples, but examples nonetheless like astro-engineering or rocket science or something along those lines, if you consider what we read just a little while ago, that this world passed away.

[21:59] It was passing away or passing it away. And the less there are, all that stuff is included in the world. I don't think I'm going to have any use for mathematics when I get to heaven. I don't think I'll have any use for chemistry when I get to heaven.

[22:13] I don't think I'll have any use for any of that. It's all going to pass away. It's all going to pass away. So that cannot be what John is referring to. He was referring to the spiritual realm of things. And folks, I ain't sitting here telling you or standing here telling you that I know everything about this Bible.

[22:29] As spiritual as this Bible is and as alive as this book is that I hold in my hands. I'm not telling you I know everything about the scripture at all, but I know that God saved my soul. And I know there was a change that took place in me.

[22:44] I have not written unto you, verse 21, I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it. And that no lie is of a truth. Now we need to couple this with the previous verse, what we just read.

[22:56] But you have an answer from the Holy One and you know all things. I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it. How do they already know in the previous verse?

[23:08] You know all things. You know all things that are spiritual, all things that apply to this matter. I've not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it. And that no lie is of the truth.

[23:21] This can go back to the false teaching that we're just referring to. There's a lot of that goes on nowadays. There was a lot of it going on in John's day while he was writing this.

[23:33] No lie is of the truth. So if you hear something come from a pulpit or come from a teacher that is 99% right, but some of it is contrary to what the scripture says, folks it's all wrong at that point.

[23:49] We can't trust something like that. That's broken. That's not usable in the walk of a Christian now. Now I said we can argue back and forth about silly stuff all day.

[24:04] And I can stand up here and mess up names or maybe quote scripture and give you the wrong book chapter and verse that it came from. Things like that are going to happen.

[24:15] But as far as teaching falsely, as far as teaching falsely, he says no lie is of the truth. A lie is something that's intentionally told.

[24:27] It's intentionally, it's made a false said. You tell a false said intentionally. That's a lie. We hear that something happened and we go and we tell somebody else, well this happened and we find out a little bit later that it didn't quite happen exactly the way we said it.

[24:49] Have we lied? Well technically yes, but that wasn't an intentional thing that we did. A lie is something that you know, it would be like me looking at you saying that the sky is green and the grass is blue.

[25:03] That's a lie because I know better the sky is blue and the grass is green. He says who is a liar but he did not that Jesus is the Christ. Who is a liar but he did not that Jesus is the Christ.

[25:17] Folks at 39 that Jesus is the Christ that makes him a liar. Period. This is exactly what John is saying here. He is anacross that the not the father and the son.

[25:29] There are a lot of denominational people out there that do not like that verse. He is a liar that denies the father and the son. It's making a very distinct separation between the two of the three people of the Godhead, two of the three persons of the Godhead, the father and the son.

[25:49] He says who is a liar but he did not deny that Jesus is the Christ. He is anacross that denies the father and the son. You are not for Christ if you deny the father and the son.

[26:01] What did Jesus Christ tell some of the folks that he was talking to in their Gospels? If you've seen me you've seen the father. So the father and I are one. The father is in me and I am in the father. But there are still two separate persons that were being talked about when Jesus said it.

[26:17] There are two separate persons that are being talked about while John is saying it here. One Godhead. There are three persons that make up that Godhead. God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit.

[26:30] John is talking about two of them here. That was one of those cases I've been talking about this morning where I got names mixed up. Who is a liar that denies that Jesus is the Christ?

[26:44] Does that mean that anybody can come up to you and say I believe that Jesus is the Christ? No. That does not make them a Christian. How so?

[26:56] Because people make up their own Christ in their own mind sometimes. They make up a Christ that never said take up your cross daily according to Luke's account.

[27:09] Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and follow me. They don't want to take up a cross and they certainly don't want to deny themselves. And they don't want to follow Jesus because the world's leading them another way.

[27:22] Not realizing or not carrying sometimes that this world is going to pass away unless they're off. The world passeth away and the lust they're off according to what we read just a few verses ago.

[27:36] So we cannot just take someone's word when they come up to us and they say I believe that Jesus is the Christ. That doesn't necessarily make them a Christian.

[27:47] What cross are they referring to? What cross do they believe in? Is it a cross that lets them live their life any way that they want to? And they're still going to walk through the gates of glory one of these days.

[28:00] Folks that ain't what Scripture says. That's not repentance. Repentance is turning from the way that you were. Repentance. Up to the point of repentance, we lived one life.

[28:13] We repent. We're living an opposite life of what we were living. Before that, before repentance and salvation came into the picture and came into our heart and our soul, we were antichrist.

[28:26] As John is describing here, we were against Christ. We were instead of Christ. But once salvation comes into the picture and once the Holy Spirit enters into us, we live an opposite life.

[28:40] We live four cross. We try and walk lot cross. Not on the water as Christ did. We covered that last week in the first half of the second chapter of 1 John.

[28:51] That doesn't necessarily mean walking on the water, but we try and live a life that's holy and we try and live a life that's righteous. Just as Jesus Christ lived a life that was holy and righteous and upright for God and to the glory of God.

[29:06] That's how we're to live. Who is a larvae here that denies Jesus is the cross? He is antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. If someone believes that Jesus is truly the cross, what are they believing?

[29:22] They're believing that He was and is the only begotten Son of the Father. They're believing that He was and is the propitiation for their sin, that He was and is the substitutionary sacrifice for their sins.

[29:39] Your sin deserves punishment. My sin deserves punishment. And praise God, Jesus Christ took that punishment on Calvary's cross on your behalf and on my behalf.

[29:51] That's the cross that I believe in. But folks, it goes even further than that. I believe in the book of Revelation, of Christ the Judge. Book of Revelation chapter 19, it says that He's come from heaven riding a white horse and the armies of heaven will be following Him on their white horses.

[30:09] And the Bible describes Jesus Christ and it says He doth judge and make war. I believe in this cross just as much as I believe in the cross that laid in a manger. Just as much as I believe in the cross that was crucified and just as much as I believe in the cross that raised from the dead and ascended unto the Father.

[30:27] It's the same Christ. We've got to believe all aspects of Jesus Christ and all those different areas of His life. We've got to believe all of those.

[30:38] A lot of people don't want to believe that Christ is judge. Folks, the Bible says that Christ is judge and He's coming back as judge and it ain't going to be pretty when He comes.

[30:50] When Christ comes back as judge, we're reading the book of Revelation chapter 6. That men will be running through the mountains and they'll be begging for the rocks of the mountains to fall on them.

[31:01] Who can stand before the Lamb? Who can stand before that judge? No one. I believe in that Jesus Christ as much as I believe in. Amen. Amen.

[31:13] That's right. Whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father. Folks, that's a strong statement.

[31:24] Whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father. Once again, denominationally. There's a lot of people that deny this, a lot of people in different denominations, different belief systems.

[31:38] They'll deny this. They'll deny that there's a sign of the Father. But Scripture plainly teaches it and it teaches it from the very beginning of Scripture.

[31:49] When you read Genesis 1.1 and then beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. He returned there for God in Louis. That's the plural form of God. They're talking about God in the plurality.

[32:02] It's in a multiple. I'm not saying that we're like the Greeks or the Romans or even some of the Native Americans or the Babylonians or Egyptians that we have multiple gods that we worship.

[32:14] The Bible says there's one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. And I understand that and I get that. But our Lord and our God consists of three different persons.

[32:26] The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And you cannot separate them. They've all been there from eternity before and they'll all be there in eternity hereafter. Whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father.

[32:39] But he that acknowledges the Son, hath the Father also. Also, folks, the entire time that Jesus Christ was here, the entire time that you read about his life throughout the Gospels, what was Jesus Christ doing? He was glorifying God.

[32:54] He was teaching people about God. He was revealing God unto man. And God, when he speaks of Jesus, what was he doing? He was glorifying the Son.

[33:06] This is my Son, in whom I'm roughly. This is my Son. Hear ye him. He wanted to cross more of our cross, wanted the Father to more of us.

[33:17] He says here, whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledges the Son, hath the Father also. If we acknowledge Christ, if we acknowledge Christ as Savior and as Messiah, and as the one who suffered and bore your sins at Calvary, if we acknowledge Him in this way, we have the Father too. We have the Father's acceptance.

[33:40] But that's the only way that we can be accepted by the Father. I thought we were not long ago, folks. We've been cast off from God. We've been cast off, cast away. We've been cursed by God.

[33:55] And the garden, God cursed man, and he cursed the entire world. The whole earth was cursed. We just sung about it this morning, and we were seeing joy in the world.

[34:06] Talking about the thorns in the ground. I hope I'm persuaded myself there were no thorns before the curse came. That would have been something that could have hurt man. It was a perfect world.

[34:18] It was a perfect environment. And man missed it all up. But he that acknowledged the Son had the Father also. We acknowledge Christ as Messiah. If we acknowledge Him as the Christ, as the true Christ, as the one that was promised in the Old Testament, and the one that came and defeated death, hell and the grave, in the New Testament, if we acknowledge Him as such, we have the Father also.

[34:45] But once again, and I can't stress it enough, there's two separate persons being talked about there. The Father and the Son. Now wrap it up, we've got about five minutes.

[34:57] If you've got any questions or comments, don't leave me in the chat.