[0:00] Take out your Bibles with me, please, and turn to 1 John 2, verse 18. 1 John 2, verse 18.
[0:16] Very appropriate passage considering this day that we think about truth recaptured. We think about the gospel recaptured.
[0:30] And confession. Confession of what is the truth. Jesus says, whoever confesses me before men, I will confess them before my Father.
[0:49] But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Are you a confessor?
[1:01] That's our subject today. In 1 John chapter 8, chapter 8, chapter 2, verse 18.
[1:13] I'll get it eventually. We come to a new subject for John. Remember this whole book, this whole book John wrote. In order that you might know that you have eternal life.
[1:26] He's writing tests, criteria, gauges by which we might measure our own life to see whether we are an authentic Christian. And a true Christian, not just a professing one.
[1:40] So here we come. So as I read, I welcome you to stand in honor of the word if you're able. 1 John 2, verse 18 through 27.
[1:56] Children, it is the last hour. And just as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come.
[2:07] Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
[2:22] But they went out that it might become plain that they are all not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One.
[2:36] And you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it. And because no lie is of the truth.
[2:49] Who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist. He who denies the Father and the Son.
[3:02] No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you have heard from the beginning abide in you.
[3:18] If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us.
[3:31] Eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you have received from him abides in you.
[3:45] And you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is not a lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.
[4:00] So reads the word. Let us pray. Father, teach us today. May your Spirit teach us and clarify and illumine us today on what John is saying.
[4:12] Build us up. Encourage us. Correct us. Teach us. Exhort us.
[4:25] We look to your word alone. Through your Spirit alone to understand it. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Thank you.
[4:37] Confessing Jesus as the Christ or denying Jesus as the Christ.
[4:49] Are you a confessing Christian? I don't mean confessing as in I confess my sins, right? Chapter 1, verse 9. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us.
[5:02] I'm not talking about that confessing. I'm talking about public confession. Verbal confession. Are you a confessing Christian? Do you confess Jesus before others?
[5:17] So this concept, this idea that Jesus began, John picks up on, the early church picked up on, has become a marker of the historic church of Jesus Christ since Pentecost.
[5:37] So in the back of our hymnal, we have some of the creeds. We have the Apostles' Creed. We have the Nicene Creed. The Apostles' Creed was attached all the way back to the first century.
[5:50] Simple statements, clarifications of who God is, who Jesus is, and what we believe. In 325 AD, the church, in response to many divergent errors that were going around, once again sat down and hammered out the Nicene Creed, which is, again, a very simple summary of who God is, and a more lengthy description of who Jesus is to counter the errors that were coming in, and then to begin to express who the Holy Spirit is, because we're starting to define the Trinity as Jesus had taught it, trying to unpack some of those things, as well as defining who the church is.
[6:36] So those were the first three centuries of emphasizing who Jesus is, clarifying what we believe. Now, skip forward in history, another, what, from 3rd century to the 1500s, however many years that is.
[6:54] In comes this little monk, like I said, Martin Luther. And he was not alone. He was not the first man to discover these things. John Huss, Wycliffe, others had discovered these things from the scriptures before, these errors that had crept in.
[7:11] God chose to use this little German monk to start things growing. And so because Luther and Swingley and these, Busser, all these other guys, men, godly men who were studying the scriptures, saw these errors of the traditional Roman church, they began to define, well, what is the truth?
[7:40] What is the gospel? So they talked about grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, scripture alone, not the councils, not even what men say, but what is it according to scripture?
[7:58] And so just maybe 20 years after Luther tacked those theses on the church door, this reformation began to grow and spread, and people began reading the word.
[8:10] Luther himself translated the word from Latin into German so the people could actually read the word and not just take it from the priest.
[8:22] And so people began to read the word of God for themselves and study the word and see what it said. And so then the church by 1530, just 19 years after Luther, started this thing, began to compose confessions, written documents that described this gospel.
[8:47] Adding on to what the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, had established early on, not changing that in any way, but then redefining some other things that had become question.
[8:59] How are we saved? Right? What is faith? What is grace? Right? And who exactly is this Jesus? Right? So they began to do that.
[9:10] Then following the Reformation, come up with the Helvetic. Everybody know who the Helvetic? No? No? The Swiss reformers wrote that one in 1536 and then 1566.
[9:23] And the Presbyterians had to get into the act. They wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith, which still stands today.
[9:36] Still stands today. Hasn't really been improved upon except by the Baptist Confession, which was written 40 years after the Westminster Confession.
[9:46] Because, you know, the Baptists have to get into it too. But if you read those two confessions, if you read the Westminster and the Baptist Confession of Faith, I mean, the Baptists, guess what they changed?
[10:01] Baptism. Everything else is the same. Everything else is the same. Same truth. They disagreed on a minor issue.
[10:15] Minor issue. Confessions are a big part of the historic faith. They're a summary of what we believe according to the Scriptures.
[10:28] Not what we believe because, oh, I want to redefine what church is. I want to redefine who Jesus is. I want to... And that's what is happening in chapter 2 of John. Other people have come out of church and they're redefining who Jesus is.
[10:42] And we have people today redefining who Jesus is. We have people today redefining what Christianity is. We have people today redefining what truth is. What gender is.
[10:55] What lines are or are not. What pronouns are. Right? It's getting ridiculous.
[11:06] But this was happening in the first century. What we're going through is nothing new. The terminology might be a little bit different. The lack of science might be a little different. I'm sorry. Science or lack of science.
[11:22] But John's dealing with that same thing. He's talking about people that were in their church that were part of them and then left the church. Not because they didn't like how the carpet was and how, you know, or they didn't like the pastor.
[11:38] They left because they didn't believe the message. Okay? We're not talking about people that leave churches today and go to another church or whatever. That's different.
[11:49] That's not the same thing. Right? This is a whole different ball of wax. Because John calls these people Antichrist.
[12:01] Okay? Antichrist. So, to remember where we are, as I said, John is writing to give us assurance.
[12:13] He's writing to believers. So that you might know that you have eternal life. That you might know you are truly saved. How do I know I'm a real Christian?
[12:24] How do I know I believe the right things? Do the right things? Right? So, John gives three tests. So, we've seen the first test back in chapter 1, 5 through 2, 6.
[12:35] Walk in the light versus walking in the darkness. He says, God is light. If you say, I have fellowship with God, but walk in the darkness, then you're a liar. If you know God, you will walk in his light.
[12:49] It's very simple for John. You're either walking in the light or walking in the darkness. And a genuine Christian walks in the light. That doesn't mean he cleans himself up before he walks in the light.
[13:00] When he walks in the light, that's how he gets clean. Because the light reveals who he is. And so, he's able to confess to the Lord. But those who are not of the faith will hide in the darkness.
[13:13] They don't like the light. The light exposes them. But a true believer wants the light to expose them. So that we can be clean. So that we can be washed. So that we can become conformed more to Christ.
[13:26] Second test we saw in chapter 2, 7 to 17. Love your brothers versus hate your brothers. So one is a moral test or an obedience test.
[13:36] Do I walk in the same way that Jesus walked? The second test is a love, a social test. Do I love my brothers or do I hate my brothers? Now notice John doesn't say love your brothers or not love your brothers.
[13:49] He puts it as opposite things. You either love your brother or you hate your brother. And hatred he's defining not as you're an enemy.
[14:01] But you're one who just is treating your brothers as lesser priority. Right? Same way that Jesus said if you're going to follow me, you need to hate your family.
[14:15] Well, did he mean literally hate your family? No. He means by priority. By comparison to your love for me, you look like you hate your family. But of course he doesn't.
[14:25] He wants husbands to love their wives. He wants parents to love their children, et cetera, et cetera. It's about a priority thing. So do you love your brother? Who are your brothers, by the way?
[14:37] He says the one another. You love one another. And if you don't love one another, then you hate your one another. And a true person walking in the light of Christ will love their brothers just like Jesus loved them.
[14:52] Okay? So that's social. Now we come to the third test. Okay? So here's his third test. Confessing Christ or denying Christ. So that's what he talks about. It's a belief test, a doctrine test. Because by denying Christ, we're saying he's not the Christ.
[15:07] Christ. We're saying that this Jesus is not the Christ, not the Son of God, not who he said he was. We're saying he's something less. We're redefining that.
[15:18] Or we confess Christ. We say, yes, Jesus is the Christ. What the Old Testament and what Jesus meant by that whole phrase, the Christ, the Messiah, the King.
[15:29] And which flows, he's also the Son of God. Okay, so let's look at this third test. Denying Christ or confessing Christ.
[15:41] As I said, this denial or confessing is a public thing because Jesus said in Matthew 10, everyone who confesses me, where? Before men.
[15:54] I will confess before my Father who is in heaven. But everyone who denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. So that's the way in which John is using confess and deny.
[16:08] Do I confess before men? It doesn't mean you're preaching. It just means when you have the opportunity to say, are you a Christian? You say, I am a Christian. Or you have an opportunity to speak up.
[16:18] You don't be silent about what you believe. I'm trying to find more and more clever, silly ways to do that. Just to kind of start a conversation. And I think I've told you some of those.
[16:30] That, you know, I walked into the bank, meet a banker, and he's like, how you doing? Well, I said, my King's on his throne. How are you doing? You're King? Yeah. This is the middle of COVID.
[16:43] My King's on his throne. You know, or I got a new one because we were saying, this is my Father's world, right? So we're talking about how bad things are going in the world. Yeah, it's pretty bad, but this is still my Father's world.
[16:58] The wrong seems off so strong. But he knows what it is. This is my Father's. He'll take care of us. He knows what he's doing. So anyway, it's just a little conversation starter.
[17:09] Just, I just like to kind of, you know, I don't really care anymore what people have to like me or anything. So I don't mind throwing that out there. And it starts conversation.
[17:19] That's what Jesus used to do, right? He used to say these things that people go, what? Living water? What do you tell me? Where do you get this living water? You know, that kind of thing. Not being clever, I'm probably stealing from someone, but it doesn't matter.
[17:33] In other words, do you take those opportunities to, and I'm an introvert, okay? So it's not like I'm natural at that stuff. But I'm getting more bold about those kind of things. Because I think we should be.
[17:49] So, do we deny Christ or confess Christ? So John, like usual, sets up a contrast. He sets up two different groups. There's the deniers and there's the confessors, right?
[18:01] He talked about walking in light or walking in dark. He talked about loving your brother or hating your brother. He talks about lying in truth, right? He sets up these contrasts. So here's another contrast from a different point of view.
[18:12] There are those who deny that Jesus is the Christ and there are those who confess. So one group or the other. In this text, he talks about they, verse 19, they went out from us, right?
[18:25] Verse 20, but you, right? You, I'm writing to you, right? So he's talking about a them and an us, a you and a them. So these two groups.
[18:36] So let's look at these two groups. The first group we'll call the deniers or the deceivers because they also deceive. And this is what describes them, how John describes them.
[18:50] The deceivers are those who deny Jesus is God's son. They deny that Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah.
[19:00] And that reveals that they have the spirit of Antichrist. Those that deny that Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah, reveal that they have the spirit of Antichrist.
[19:17] Because that's exactly what he says in verse 22. Okay? So let's look at that group first. They have three marks about them. Verse 18, they are defiant.
[19:28] They have a defiance. They are Antichrist. They are opposed and against Christ. Right? And then verse 19, they defect.
[19:39] They're defectors. They've been in the church. They've left the church in a willful, defiant way. Okay? They've not just moved on.
[19:49] They have left and not going to return. Right? And why? Verse 22, the third mark. They're defiant. They're defectors. And they're deniers. Because they deny what we believe about Jesus Christ.
[20:02] What the churches always believe about Jesus Christ. So that's good outline because it's all D's. Right? So defiant, defector, deniers. Don't let them want to put in deceivers.
[20:15] You can do that if you want. All right. So first of all, they're defiant. So he calls them, he names them Antichrist. Verse 18, children, it is the last hour.
[20:27] As you have already heard, you've already heard about this, that the Antichrist is coming. Singular. Antichrist is coming. That's the very end.
[20:37] Right? The Antichrist is coming. So now many Antichrists have come. So there is still one yet to come that's the ultimate final, right?
[20:49] Beast of revelation. Right? But many have come. And John says, so that's how we know it's the last hour. That's the sign of the end.
[21:01] When the beast comes. When the Antichrist comes. Now John is the only one that terms this person Antichrist. You'll only find that in the literature of John. Paul calls the Antichrist.
[21:12] He doesn't call him Antichrist. He calls him a man of lawlessness. In 1 Thessalonians 2 or 2 Thessalonians 2, I think. He talks about the man of lawlessness that will bring about the end that God is restraining for now.
[21:28] Right? When he lets him loose, then comes the big rebellion. Then comes the day of the Lord, etc. What we've studied in Revelation. But now he talks about many Antichrists. And I think this goes along with how John taught in the book of Revelation.
[21:41] Remember? Because he talks about these things, these cycles that start over and over again. Right? The four horsemen come. These things happen. Things get bad. Looks like the very end.
[21:53] But it's not. It starts over, you know. Rome gets wiped out. Thought that's the end. And then it's Attila the Hun. And then another group. And then another group. And another group. So how many times will that go on?
[22:05] Well, it's been going on for 2,000 years. But every Christian community has believed they're in the last days. John believed he was in the last day.
[22:16] Paul believed he was in the last day. Because the beast was there in their day. Nero was the beast in their day. Luther's day. Guess who the beast was? Pope.
[22:28] They just called him the Antichrist. Why? Because he was Antichrist. And he's trying to kill people like Luther.
[22:39] Who are going according to the scriptures. Instead of according to tradition. Poor Luther. He thought the Pope was a good guy. He thought, well, I'd just show him this.
[22:51] If I'd just show him what the Bible says. He was shocked. I don't care what the Bible says. Okay. Where are we?
[23:02] So they're defiant. So John says this is the last day. That's, we know we're in a time of history when the end is imminent. It can come at any time. We're not waiting for any significant event.
[23:13] John believed that. Paul believed that. Jesus taught that. Right? Jesus taught that you'll be working in a field. One will go and one will stay. You know, it's going to come so sudden.
[23:25] It'll be like the flood. It'll be like the days of Noah. Everybody thinks everything's going fine. They're having, eating, drinking, being merry. And suddenly, boom, the flood comes.
[23:35] And Jesus said the last day will be just like that. But it's not going to be like, oh, this is the end of days. It'll be like, no, things are fine. Believers will see other signs that it's not good.
[23:47] We see in our own country an incredible decline that has happened. We see the mark of the beast working in our own community.
[23:59] We see the false prophet who is spinning all this stuff. Right? It's not one person. It's a whole community of people. Right?
[24:10] So, we know the end could come at any time. We're not waiting for anything. So, who are these antichrists? So, he goes on to verse 19.
[24:20] He says, they. Who are the they? They, these many antichrists. Who are they? They're people who went out from us, but they're not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
[24:32] But they went out. They left us. They abandoned us. They forsook us. That it might be plain that they were not of us. See, when they were with us, it's like the wheat and the tares.
[24:43] It's like the seed that falls on the rocks and the seed that falls on the weeds. Right?
[24:54] They start good. Right? They look good. They start growing. And then what? And the rocks, they don't have the soil. They don't have, you know, they can't grow anymore.
[25:06] And they stifle out. And then the weeds get choked. The ones in the weeds get choked by the weeds, which Jesus defines as temptation. And the ones in the rocks as the persecution.
[25:18] They fall away. They fall away. So that might have been who these people were. They were in the congregation. They looked like one of us. But the fact that they left and how they left and why they left proves that they were not really of us.
[25:31] They were superficial. They left. They abandoned us. And the fact that they left shows that they were never part of the church.
[25:48] They defected. And that reveals who they really are. They're not real believers. Well, why did they defect? So then we come to verse 22. Okay, now we skip down to verse 22 where he talks about them again.
[26:01] Verse 22. Who is the liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. So there's the confession. Jesus is the Christ. You either confess that Jesus is the Christ or you deny that Jesus is the Christ.
[26:15] They do not believe Jesus is the Christ. Now why is that statement so important? What does it mean that Jesus is the Christ?
[26:26] Not a Christ. There's a lot of people today. A lot of people call themselves Christians who do not believe that Jesus is the Christ. We have cults that talk about, oh, we believe in Jesus Christ.
[26:40] He is a prophet. He's a good man. But he's not the son of God. I mean, that's ridiculous. He's not the son of God.
[26:52] He's not the savior of the world. So what does the Christ mean? In the Old Testament, what does the Christ mean? Christos means anointed one.
[27:04] Go back to Hebrew. Help me, brother. Messiah. We'll just say Messiah. Try not to do the Hebrew and mess it up. Anointed one.
[27:17] So when David comes along, Samuel's told, take your anointing oil and go over to Jesse's house and I'm going to have you anoint the next king of Israel. And he goes through seven sons.
[27:29] They're not here. No, he's out in the field, the little ruddy one. You know, he's all dirty and everything. The only one working, apparently. Bring in little ruddy David. There he is.
[27:42] Pour your oil all over that guy. He's my man. He has a heart for me. He's so anointed. So the priests got anointed. The kings got anointed. Right?
[27:52] Which was a picture of God's power upon them. Remember, Saul was anointed. Right? Until he, Samuel anointed Saul. Saul was God's king.
[28:03] Right? Head and shoulders of barbarian. Looked like a great guy. Man, that must be a good king. He defied the Lord. And God said, okay, take his spirit away from him and put it on another.
[28:16] So the anointing is the picture of the Holy Spirit, presence of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, that was Samson. Right? Spirit would come upon him.
[28:27] He'd be empowered. Right? David was empowered with the Holy Spirit. Prophets were. So that's the picture. So when Jesus was baptized, remember?
[28:38] The picture of Jesus' baptism? Remember, John baptized him, right? Reluctantly. When he came up out of the water, what happened? The dove. Which is a picture of what?
[28:50] World peace. No. What's a dove to a first century Jew? As a sacrifice. For the poor.
[29:03] Joseph and Mary gave two turtle doves because they didn't, they couldn't afford a lamb. That's what they would think about. That's the first thing that would come to mind. They see doves in the temple all the time.
[29:15] They're doves. That's for sacrifices. For the poor. Jesus is baptized. And the dove comes down, which John says that the Holy Spirit is landing upon him.
[29:30] Why a dove? Because he's going to be a sacrifice for the poor. He's empowered to be that sacrifice for the poor. So that's the anointing. Why am I going to the anointing here?
[29:45] Oh, the Messiah. Okay. Sorry. Well, that'll save time when we get to the other side. Sorry. I have notes here. So the Messiah.
[29:57] In Isaiah 53, the Messiah is the Savior, the Redeemer. In Zechariah 9, the Messiah is the King who will be mounted on a donkey. In Psalm 110, Jesus said to the Jews, who is the Messiah?
[30:10] And they said, he's David's son. And Jesus quotes Psalm 110 and says, then why does David say, why does David call him Lord if he's his son? How can he be his son and also the Lord and God's son?
[30:26] So the fact that the Messiah was the son of God was already an Old Testament truth. The Jews just didn't understand it that way. Of course, even the disciples didn't understand. You know, nobody understood it that way until Jesus explained these things.
[30:43] So, but it's even more. So verse 22 says, says, who's the liar? Well, the one who denies Jesus is the Messiah is the anti-Christ, the enemy of Christ, the opposer of Christ.
[31:02] He who denies the Father and the Son. Ooh, not just the Son, but denies the Father. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Father, whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
[31:15] Okay, this just got to another level. Did you see it? You can't say, I have the Father, but I don't have the Son. That's what John's saying. You can't say, I confess the Father, but I don't believe this Son of God stuff.
[31:30] I just want the Father. I just want God. He's saying, you can't have the Father if you don't have the Son. Why? Because he's biased and he's, you know. No, because why?
[31:42] Why can't you have the Son, can't you have the Father if you don't have the Son? Because the Father sent the Son. That's his Son. I sent my Son.
[31:54] God so loved the world, he sent his Son. Because it's the Father's idea. It's the Father's expression of love.
[32:06] It's the Father's remedy for sinners. If you don't accept the Father's Son, you can't have the Father. You don't get to pick that.
[32:19] The real Father has a Son whom he loves and gives up for you who don't deserve that.
[32:31] Grace alone. Unearned. Christ alone. The Son of God. So that's kind of like, wow, okay.
[32:45] I don't get to redefine my Christianity. This is my Jesus. Well, your Jesus is either this Jesus or he's not Jesus. My Jesus is just a Jesus of love.
[32:58] Well, he's absolutely full of love and mercy and compassion. He's also, in Revelation, full of wrath and justice and holiness and terrifying things if you stand opposed to him.
[33:14] You don't get to redefine. I mean, you can do that. Paul calls it you suppress the truth. You know God exists, but you... No, no, no.
[33:24] I believe in evolution. I really have to. God will believe in evolution because I don't want to believe the other thing. Even though evolution is not evident in provable evidence.
[33:36] By the way, who's a mathematician? Math... Do you know that math disproves evolution?
[33:50] Because it doesn't evolve. It's always been. If everything evolved, where'd math come from? One plus one has always been two. I think they're trying to change that now, right?
[34:02] The new math. How did that... Talk about the universe. Go listen to Jason Lyle and listen to the universe, to the evidence of the planets.
[34:16] They're so young. There's no evolution in the universe. It's impossible. Science has proved it. Physics has proved it.
[34:28] But we want to cling to what we want to cling to because we don't want to believe the other alternative. The one that's so evident everywhere. Right?
[34:38] Romans 1 says it's... They know. Everyone knows. No one is without excuse. You're going to stand before him one day and go say, I didn't believe it.
[34:50] I couldn't see the evidence. He's going to go, you're an idiot. You're just an idiot. You're just an idiot. Well, what he calls him in Romans 1, he calls him a fool.
[35:00] You're a fool. Because you've taken what's evident and true and clear and suppressed it and twisted it and renamed it and whatever. There's no such thing as an atheist or an agnostic.
[35:17] Confused, maybe. All right. How did I get into that? What is going on today? I am sorry. So, these deniers, these who try to deceive, how does the church respond to those who contradict the truth?
[35:37] I'm not talking about people that are just unbelievers and they don't believe. I'm talking about people that have left the church that were apparently Christian and then have left and now taken the opposition side.
[35:55] I'm talking about those. I'm not talking about how do we do it. I'm talking about people who are intentionally contradicting the truth. How do we respond? So, Paul talked about that in Titus 1.
[36:07] When he's talking about, first of all, he's talking about elders, how elders need to be qualified. One of the qualifications of an elder is they should hold, Titus 1.9, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as it was taught.
[36:22] Okay, not make up new stuff. He's holding to the trustworthy word as it has been handed down. So that he may be able to, one, give instruction and sound doctrine and, two, also rebuke those who contradict it.
[36:40] That's the responsibility of an elder. To teach sound doctrine as it has been taught. And know it well enough to refute those who contradict it.
[36:54] Because he can simply go, right here. Right here. What has Jesus said? Right here. Not, this is my understanding and the way I see it.
[37:07] I don't care how you see it. What does the word say? Right? So, four, why must elders be able to do that? For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers.
[37:22] Especially those of the circumcision party. In other words, the Jews that were trying to make the Gentiles into Jews. They must be silenced. He said, wow, that's strong language.
[37:32] They must be silenced. Since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain. What they ought not to teach. So, he's talking about clear truth and error.
[37:44] One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own says, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Paul says, I agree. This testimony is true.
[37:54] This testimony is true. Especially about the liars part. Therefore, rebuke them sharply. That they may be sound in faith. So, he's talking about people that are in the congregation and contradicting the truth.
[38:08] Your first step is to rebuke them, silence them, and rebuke them in such a way that they might be sound in the faith. In other words, you're trying to recover them. Right? You're trying to teach them. To the pure, all things are pure.
[38:20] But to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing's pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. So, there's professors.
[38:33] But by their life, they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.
[38:44] Back to sound doctrine again. So, very early. What I want you to recognize here, what Paul's writing to Titus. Very early in the church, there was a standard of sound doctrine.
[38:57] There was already a measurement of what the truth was. What the faith was. Because he talks about it as being sound in the faith.
[39:09] Or people who turn away from the truth. Not just truths, but the truth. The faith. In other words, that set of doctrine. That set of teaching.
[39:22] Right? Like the Apostles' Creed. Like the Nicene Creed. Like these confessions that the churches gathered after the Reformation to begin to redefine things.
[39:33] Not, redefine is a bad word. Clarify the truth that always was. The truth according to the scriptures. That began with Jesus.
[39:45] Okay? Jesus established the doctrine. Right? Whoever hears these words of mine and acts upon them is the wise man who builds his house on the rock.
[40:00] The solid foundation. When the storms come, he can survive those storms. Because he's built on the rock which is the words of Jesus. Which Jesus claimed, they're not my words, they're the Father's words.
[40:13] I only speak what the Father tells me. I don't even speak of my own initiative. So he's claiming that everything that he said was the Father's word.
[40:26] Paul does the same thing. When Paul talks, Paul writes his letters and John's writing his letters. They're saying, this starts with Jesus. Okay? Builds with us.
[40:36] He's the cornerstone. Remember, we got this stone building over here. When they built that tower, do you think they just threw rocks together and mortared them together?
[40:47] Is that how they do it? Anybody a mason here? No? They do a plumb line, don't they? They do a chalk line, don't they? To get it straight. Right?
[40:58] And you start with the corners, don't you? Unless you're me. You start with the corners. Right? So that you can line it upright. Right? That's how they build things.
[41:09] And so when they talk about Jesus, the cornerstone, he's the corner, so he determines not only both of the side angles, but he determines the up build of the building.
[41:22] He's the cornerstone. We are the individual stones built upon that cornerstone. How do we know we're the right stones? Because we can look down and see the cornerstone and say, yep, I'm in line with the cornerstone.
[41:37] The apostles built the church the same way. Paul talks about that. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ being the cornerstone.
[41:48] So the apostles and prophets built up from Christ were built on that. If I'm over there, am I in the building? If I'm not in the building? If I'm not in Christ, if I'm not following the apostles, I'm over there and I'm not in the building.
[42:04] Does that make sense? No? All right. Sorry. Sound doctrine. So that's the deniers. They deny that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, the confessors.
[42:16] So we should be able to skip some stuff here, right? Because I already did. So the confessors are those that confess Jesus as God's son. Those who confess that Jesus is God's son identify themselves as a true Christian.
[42:31] So the difference, verse 20, is that real Christians, the confessors have an anointing. What's the anointing? So there's a play on word. So Christ, as I said earlier, Christos, Christ, means anointed one.
[42:47] Right? So then you have the antichrist who are against the anointed one. And then you have us. So you have Christ who's the anointed one. And now us who have an anointing.
[43:00] So we have a Christ anointing. But anointing isn't just, it's sent by Christ to us. But the anointing is our empowerment. And how are we empowered?
[43:11] Through Christ. What does Christ give us to empower us, to guarantee to us? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our anointing. He's our empowerment.
[43:25] And He's the one that helps us to know and recognize truth. He says, verse 20, you have been anointed by the Holy One. You have been anointed, you have been empowered by the Holy One.
[43:36] The Holy One is Jesus giving the Holy Spirit to you. And you all have knowledge. Because you have the Holy Spirit, you know things that you didn't know before. You are suddenly awakened and illumined to things that you could not see before.
[43:52] Because once the Spirit comes, He puts on those glasses so you can actually see. Oh, now I get it. Right? Those kind of things. The Spirit does that.
[44:03] Okay, so let's talk about, and He says, verse 21, it's all you need to know. I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you already know it.
[44:13] You already know the truth. Because you have that Holy Spirit in you, you already know the truth. You don't know everything comprehensively, but you know what matters to be known. As soon as you become a believer, as soon as you're born again, you receive the Holy Spirit.
[44:28] Well, I think you receive the Holy Spirit so that you become born again. But that opens your eyes. It awakens you, and all of a sudden you see what you could not see before. You can see the face of Christ.
[44:40] Whereas before, you were blinded. Right? So, then He says, verse 24, what do we do? Right? So, if I have this anointing and I know all this stuff, then I don't need the Bible.
[44:54] Right? If I become a Christian, I have the Spirit, then He teaches me all things. I don't need the Bible. I don't need the... I don't need church. I don't know. I could stay home and watch the game.
[45:06] Or sleep in, or go have coffee. I don't know. What do you do if you don't? Okay. Right? It sounds almost...
[45:16] You could take John's words almost as... So, if you have the anointing and teach you all things, then I don't need a teacher anymore. I got the Spirit. It's also... But that becomes subjective.
[45:28] In chapter 4, He's going to say, you have the Holy Spirit, but don't trust every spirit. Don't believe every spirit. So, wait a minute. So, which spirit do you have?
[45:40] How do I know I have the Holy Spirit? Chapter 4, He's going to tell you. And it's basically the same thing here. Every spirit from God confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh.
[45:57] Still back to Jesus. The only spirit you can trust is the spirit that teaches you Jesus is the Christ who came in the flesh so that He might take your place on the cross.
[46:12] And then rose from the grave and now sits on the right hand of the Father in heaven. And my King is on His throne. He ain't done. By the way, still saying, Bill, you're talking to me, aren't you?
[46:26] You better talk to me, man. Not better, but I want you to talk to me. Because when you don't talk to me, you get in trouble a lot. Anyway.
[46:37] So, now in verse 24, He's going to talk about abiding. Let that which you've heard from the beginning abide in you. So, we already have this anointing, but now He's saying something that we've heard.
[46:52] So, it's not just something that teaches us within. Now, it's something else that we've heard to abide. Something that you've heard from the beginning abide in you. What is it that we heard from the beginning?
[47:02] The gospel. It's the same thing that John started this book with. Chapter 1, verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, we have looked on and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.
[47:17] Though life was made manifest, it was revealed. We have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which this life was with the Father and was made manifest to us.
[47:30] That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
[47:43] So, John defines it right at the beginning of the whole book. Here's the truth. It's not a new truth. It was from the beginning. This life was manifested. It wasn't some intangible life things.
[47:56] It was something we saw, we heard, we touched. So, in other words, God in the flesh. Jesus, the eternal life, come in the flesh. We could verify.
[48:07] We're witnesses. We saw Him. We heard Him. We watched Him. Right? We saw Him die, and then we saw Him alive. We saw it, and we'll die for that.
[48:25] That's the God. So, that's what He's talking about. What you've heard from the beginning remain. That core truth, that who Jesus is. Not just who He is, but why He came. And that's why we talk about the pure gospel.
[48:36] The pure gospel is not just who Jesus was and that He died for us. What's the purpose of the gospel? He saved us from sin. But what did He save us to? That's where the prosperity people distort the gospel.
[48:48] He saved me to get rich. He didn't save me to have my best life now. No, He saved me to suffer. Right? He saved me to grow.
[48:59] He saved me to be a light to the world. He saved me for all kinds of reasons that aren't about me. That's where the prosperity gospel people turn.
[49:13] They believe in Jesus, but they twist why He came. He didn't come to make me better. He came to put me in His kingdom and to put me in His train to follow Him and walk like He walked.
[49:31] You know, to be hated and scorned and slandered. But every once in a while I have the opportunity to lead somebody else to know Jesus.
[49:41] So what you've heard from the beginning.
[49:53] Abide in it. So abide. What's abide mean? Sherry, what's it mean, right? What am I going to illustrate, Sherry? What do I illustrate all the time? What's abide mean?
[50:04] I know. You know where this comes from? John 15, the vine and the branches. What's abide? Abide in me and I abide in you. You will bear much fruit, right?
[50:18] Apart from me you can do nothing. I'm the vine, you're the branches. How do you abide in Jesus? So how does a branch abide in a vine?
[50:30] It's attached, right? It's connected. If you cut the vine, cut the branch off the vine, will it bear fruit? No, apart from me you can do nothing. It's going to be thrown away.
[50:42] It's going to dry up. But if it's attached to the vine, it's more than just attached to the vine. What is the branch doing getting from the vine to bear fruit?
[50:52] It's drawing all this resource, right? It's drawing its strength. It's drawing its moisture. Because once it's apart, it can't live.
[51:04] So I'm living in Christ. So if I'm abiding in what I've heard from the beginning, what does that look like? Yeah, I believe that. I always believe that. Never stop believing that. Well, okay.
[51:17] But that's not really abiding. Abiding. Abiding is I'm drawing from it. I'm engaged with it, right? This is where I get my strength.
[51:29] This is how I can bear fruit. Because I can't bear fruit by myself. I'll try to produce some and it's really, you know, rotten fruit. Right? And I try to make it happen. But when I'm abiding in Him, that love, peace, joy, and then there's that other stuff.
[51:46] Patience. Endurance. Self-control. Those are fun. See, how in the world am I going to bear fruit of self-control without clinging to Him?
[52:03] Yeah. Patience? No. Just be patient. Thank you very much. Okay?
[52:15] So that's what He means. Engaged. Abiding in that truth. Because you take that and the anointing that we have and the Holy Spirit takes that and takes this and He deepens our understanding because He wrote this and then He illumines us with that.
[52:34] And then when we forget, He reminds us. He reminds us. And He guides us back. Right?
[52:44] So He becomes our advocate. Why is it important? Verse 26. Because there's people that are trying to deceive you.
[52:55] I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. That's all He says. They're just trying to deceive you. And then He says, but you. That's them.
[53:06] But you. You have the anointing. They're going to try to deceive you, but you have the anointing. In other words, you're protected.
[53:19] You're protected by the anointing. Because when you see people trying to deceive you, the anointing is going to go, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. You know the truth. You know the truth.
[53:29] You know who Jesus is. Don't buy that. Don't buy that. Those prosperity guys are going on the TV or on whatever they're on. They're trying to get you to believe that stuff.
[53:40] That you've got to have that faith. And it's your fault if you don't. Holy Spirit's going, uh-uh. Hey, what did Jesus say? Hey, hey, what did Jesus say?
[53:51] Oh, by the way, how rich was Jesus? Hey, hey. Did Jesus have His best life? Picking on Joey again. Did Peter, Paul, and John have their best life on earth?
[54:08] How about Jeremiah? He had a lot of fun. Read Lamentations. Job. Jesus. Come on.
[54:20] The Holy Spirit, if you hear that stuff, the Holy Spirit's going to go, just look at Jesus. Okay? And those people go away. Well, they don't go away. But you can say, turn on that channel.
[54:34] Don't need to hear that. And there's more subtle ways that they do it. Okay? So, what is this anointing?
[54:46] How does it teach us? So, Jesus taught about this, right? In the upper room in John, Gospel of John, same writer, chapter 14, 15, and 16.
[54:57] All that night before Jesus was crucified the next day. All that night at the Passover meal, Jesus is teaching them and teaching them and teaching them and preparing them.
[55:07] Because He's going to go away. He's going to go die. They're still not totally buying that. But He's teaching them and preparing them. Telling them what they need to do. To do. And so, over and over again, He kept talking about this Spirit.
[55:18] The Spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth. Okay? So, here, let me just summarize what He says about the Holy Spirit. John 14, 13. Jesus says, I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever.
[55:35] Even the Spirit of truth. So, who's the helper? It's the Spirit of truth. The Spirit who is truth. The Spirit who gives truth. Whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him or knows Him.
[55:47] But you know Him because He dwells in you. And He will be in you. And a little later in chapter 14, 26. The helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.
[56:00] He will teach you all things. And bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Again, in chapter 15 of John 26 and 27.
[56:11] He says, but when the helper comes. He's telling them about all this trouble they're going to have. But when the helper comes. Whom I will send to you from the Father. The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, will bear witness about me.
[56:29] In other words, the Holy Spirit. I will send you the Spirit. The Father is sending. Everybody is sending the Spirit, right? Father and Son are sending the Spirit. They're both in on it. He will send you the Spirit to you.
[56:40] And the Spirit is not only going to teach you and guide you and remind you. The Holy Spirit is going to bear witness to you about who Jesus is. When you hear about Jesus for the first time, the Holy Spirit is going to go, yep.
[56:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah. You need to grab that. Grab that. See that? That's who He is. And so He's going to confirm to you.
[57:08] It's an inner confirmation. And then again in chapter 16, He says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It's to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.
[57:19] But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Because that's the first step of how you come to me.
[57:32] Before you knew me, the Holy Spirit was already working on you. The Holy Spirit was already convicting you about your sin. About what real righteousness looks like. And that there's judgment coming.
[57:44] He convicts the world of that. Everybody is convicted of that. That's your first step. And when the Holy Spirit comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He, watch this.
[57:56] Now who is this Holy Spirit? He will not speak of His own authority. That's just like Jesus said, He wouldn't do that either. He listened to the Father. The Holy Spirit is the same way.
[58:07] He will not speak on His own authority. But whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will declare to you the things that are to come.
[58:18] He will glorify me, Jesus said. Just like Jesus only lived to glorify the Father, the Spirit lives to glorify the Son.
[58:29] See how that works? How do you know when the Holy Spirit is at work? If the Holy Spirit is getting all the attention, it's not the Holy Spirit. He doesn't want to glorify Himself.
[58:44] Just like Jesus kept pointing to the Father. The Holy Spirit is going to point to Jesus. If Jesus gets all the credit, guess who's working? Holy Spirit.
[58:57] He seeks to glorify me. For He will take what is mine and declare it to you. So what the Holy Spirit tells us is what Jesus told us.
[59:09] It all comes together. And what Jesus told us came from the Father. Every genuine Christian is given the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who will teach them, remind them, guide them into all truth.
[59:29] He will not speak new things. He will repeat what Christ said. He takes from Christ and teaches and trains us. Clears up. Illumines us. But we also know that the Spirit is one who anoints, who empowers, enables us.
[59:44] When we're born again, we become a new creation. We become, we are in a process of transformation. So how do you know you have the Holy Spirit?
[59:57] Are you a new creation? Do you have new life? Do you have things that you didn't have before? Like values.
[60:09] And desires that are different than you had before? That's the mark of the Spirit. Do you understand Jesus different than you understood Him before? Do you love Him more than you loved Him before?
[60:21] That's the mark of the Spirit. Are you still learning about Him? I mean, I still know the same thing when I first came to Christ. I still know who He is.
[60:32] But now there's like a breadth and a depth. Right? It's like I appreciate Him so much more because now I see Him from more perspectives. He's still the same Jesus.
[60:42] By the way, He's not on that cross anymore, is He? That cross reminds me of everything, though. That's what brought me to Him. Do you have a changed mind, changed desires?
[60:56] Do you actually want to deny yourself and take up a cross and follow Jesus? Because only a born-again person will want that. Because if you're not born again, you don't want to deny yourself.
[61:07] Who in the world would do that? And take up a cross? I want my best life now. Okay? If you believe in Christ, do you confess Him before others?
[61:20] Do you find ways to let people know? Or when you have the opportunity, let them know? Not in, you know, annoying ways. But genuine ways.
[61:33] No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. And abide in what you have heard from the beginning.
[61:46] By abiding in Him. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for John, Lord, that just sets up these clear contrasts between truth and false, light and dark.
[61:59] Confessing Jesus and denying Jesus. Help us to be those who openly, publicly, appropriately confess Him. We pray in Christ's name.
[62:12] Amen. Amen.