1 John

We've got 2 readings from the scriptures this morning. So if you'd like to turn first of all to 2 thessalonians chapter 2, on page 1189 and then be ready to turn on to 1 John chapter 2 18 to 23. This is a series that we've been doing in 1 John. And, it's always worth reminding ourselves that as we come to god's words and hear it read and then preached. God's voice is heard.

God speaks to us through his living word, and we need to ask him that we would have ears to hear it as that. So 2 thessalonians 2. Verse 1. Concerning the coming of our lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you brothers and sisters not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us, whether by prophecy or by words, of mouth or by letter, asserting that the day of the lord has already come Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day, will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called god or is worshiped so that he sets himself up in god's temple proclaiming himself to be god. Don't you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things. And now you know what is holding him back so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the 1 who now holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless 1 will be revealed, whom the lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

The coming of the lawless 1 will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, god sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed truth, but have delighted in wickedness. Read verse 18 to 23 of chapter 2, 1, 1 John. Dear children, this is the last hour.

And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belonged to us, but you have an anointing from the holy 1 and all of you know the truth.

I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the Antichrist, denying the father and the son. No 1 who denies the son has the father Whoever acknowledges the son has the father also.

Well, good morning. My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm the pastor of the church, if you are visiting or you're back again, it's it's it's great to have you with us. Let me pray. For the help us now as we look again at 1 John, this little letter by this apostle.

Please help us these strong stuff here. And, we pray that As we look at this strong stuff, you would help help us to buy your spirit to digest it so that it would be great. Benefit to us and bring great love to the lord Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I guess I'm not the only 1, but there have been times in my life where friends who I've considered close, even colleagues in Christ have turned against against Christ and and then against me.

20 years ago, 1 of my best friends, great colleague. We saw terrific things happening together. In, in Australia, turned against the lord and then against me. Betrayal is a very tough thing. That's what I'm trying to say.

And a lot of us have had that. Betrayal is 1 of the hardest things to take, and it's 1 of the hardest things to come to term terms with. When you find out that the promises were false. When you find out those times of laughter were just hollow. It weren't real.

And then the lies, as you go over, the years, becomes clearer, and as you call the events, you see that truth fades very, very quickly. Betrayals are a very, very tough thing to handle. And it's very, very easy to do a number of things. Why was I so gullible? Why didn't I see?

Or it's very easy to become very cynical. You harden up. I'm not gonna trust anyone. The old the old saying, you know, once bitten twice shy. Do you know what I'm saying?

It's very, very easy. Think think of the disciples of Jesus. Losing 1 of their best friends as a betrayer, Judith. You know, who would have known? It was Judith.

You know, why why why would they be so gullible to have not really got it? But they didn't. Their best friend. 1 of their best friends is a betrayer and they really didn't get it that he was the 1 who was stealing the money and and gonna become the betrayer. And even if you know the story in the last supper, where Jesus really gives a very big hint that it's judas.

Who's gonna betray. The disciples didn't get it. They didn't understand that it was going to be him. And it was only after he betrayed that they write the gospels, that they look back, and they they could notice. How could they have been so gullible?

Now John, who wrote this little letter to churches, was a best mate of Jews, and so he had experienced betrayal firsthand And now he's writing to the church, to churches, and look what he says in verse 19. They went out from us but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belong to us. He's talking about people that were in the church and they're walking they've walked away.

They've given up on truth, and they've given up on true fellowship. He's talking about betrayal, really. This is these are hard things. And it's unsettling. And it makes you ask, and I guess it was making those Christians that John is writing to to ask, well, who can I trust then?

You know, how how do I know watch is true and how do I know who is true? How do I know that? And what about me? Perhaps I'm not true. Can I even trust myself?

If he or she is the 1 that betrayed. Then, of course, on top of that, you've got this not only personal betrayal that goes on that's very hurt We're living in a world, aren't we? Of frauds and scams? I mean, you've just gotta be very careful with phone calls and emails, haven't you? And texts.

I keep getting a text saying, your investment, Peter, has has got you, 44000 pounds. It's amazing because I haven't invested in anything. I keep getting that. I don't know where who's done that. I click it off.

I I block the number and it comes through another way. I've I've I've got 44000 pounds, isn't that amazing? Yeah. Waiting for me. Yeah?

But, you know, we know those simple ones, but there are tons of very clever scams and false promises and fake news and there's liars absolutely everywhere. And in fact, John introduces us to some very sinister lying figures. He he introduces us to the the spiritual world of liars, false teachers called Antichrists, That's something to scare you, isn't it? And they're only a foreshadow of the ultimate antichrist. And he says, these antichrists are prowling around, even in John's day.

Look at verse 26. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. See, they're they're working hard. They're trying. They're putting effort in to leading you astray.

Spiritual liars, deliberate deceivers that they can do more damage, more damage, even than those that break our hearts. They can do more damage, even than those that break our minds. They can do more damage than those that break our banks. Because we fell for the money issue. They can crush your very soul, an abusive cult.

Those that have been in that, it's very hard for them to trust anyone. A hypocritical pastor. False teaching. These things are dark, their miserable deceptions. They can do long term damage.

They can bring a cynicalness upon ourselves as we self protect ourselves. And then we mistrust even genuine people. So the question is, how do I know that anything is true. Very, very easy that question when we look at the circumstances. How can I cope with the dangers of a lying, fraudulent world full of antichrists and deceivers?

How do we know what and how do we know who is true and who's a false Christian and who's authentic and what about me? How do I know? Well, this is what he's dealing with. And the first thing He says you need to learn to tell the time. You've gotta remember the times you're in.

You need to learn to tell the time. You talked about the last hour, and that's my first point. The last hour. Look at verse 18, dear children. You see how sensitive he is on this issue.

He's not blustering in. He's coming. Dear children. Dear children. This is the last hour.

Read the time. And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come This is how we know it is the last hour. The last hour. The last hour has struck. Now if you go through the Bible and you look up that term in the New Testament, the last hour, the last days, the last times, those sort of phrases, You'll see that it's talking about the whole period between Christ's first coming when he came as a baby born in Bethlehem.

It's a fantastic song, by the way. That we were singing singing about. So right from then to the his second coming, he he died, he rose again, he ascended to heaven, and he's coming back again. So the last times, the last hours are between those 2 events. So we're in them now.

Now there's lots of text I could give you, but Hebrews is another letter in the new testament. The writer says this in chapter 1 verse 1. In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe. We're in the last days. You see the scriptures, the Bible teaches us that there's an old age and there's a new age to come.

The old age is not yet ended, but the new age to come has begun, and that begun when Jesus came into this world. And so there's a sort of overlap, and we're in the time of overlap. And so the new age has begun and the old age is passing away. We're in the last days of the old age even though the new age has begun. The new age has spelt the doom of the old age.

In fact, John's sort of said this before. Just have a look at chapter 2 and verse 17. We've seen this before. Chapter 2 verse 17. He says the world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of god lives forever.

So you've got this passing away of the world and this new age that it's the people are doing the will of god. Or go check back to chapter 1 and the last bit of verse 8. We saw it then when we looked at that. He says the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. The light's already shining and the darkness is passing.

So this period that you and I are in now is a very interesting period. Where it's called the last days, the last hour. So if god's got a calendar, The only thing on his calendar that he's waiting for, the only thing that remains that's of any significance on his calendar is not the elections It's not world politics. That's not the big thing on his calendar. The big thing on his calendar is not the twelfth of December unless that's the date that Jesus is returning which would save us a lot of problems.

The date on his calendar is that Jesus returns. That's the day. That's the next thing that he's he's got down as the big thing on his calendar and the night before that is that the Antichrist would come. But the big thing is the is the day of Jesus coming. So look at verse 18, dear children.

This is the last hour. And as you've heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many anti Christs have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. The proof that we are in these last days according to the apostle John is that Antichrist has come. And he says, as you have heard, the antichrist is coming.

So don't be surprised. You're in these times. It's been taught When the disciples asked Jesus about the end times, Jesus answered, watch out that no 1 deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming I am the Christ, I am the Messiah, and they will deceive many. Watch out, he says.

You shouldn't be surprised, sir John. You've heard this stuff. Paul, the apostle Paul writing to 2 thessalonians chapter 2. We read it. He calls the Antichrist the man of lawlessness.

It seems to me they're the same sort of same thing. And, he said that I've taught you this that he will come just before Christ comes. And so John is saying, look, But before the antichrist comes, many like him will be around. And that's often the case, isn't it? Before an important dignitary comes, all his emissary comes, all his little, you know, lackies come.

They they have the same message to declare when the great 1 comes. It happened with Jesus. John the Baptist paved the way. For the lord Jesus Christ. You see the Antichrist only mimics and and copies Jesus.

So Jesus had John the Baptist paving the way and the prophets and the law paving the way for the coming of the of Christ and Messiah, and the ant the antichrist has many antichrist paving the way, teaching his doctrines, preaching his message before the antichrist comes. So we're in the last hour, and you should know that, he says. And you need to know that. Otherwise, you'll be unsettled. He says.

By the way, I mean, there'll be wars and rumors of wars. And by the way, there'll be earthquakes and floods. Why are we so surprised that there's earthquakes and floods and this planet is is cracking. Why are we so surprised? I have no idea.

Well, I have an idea because we don't read the Bible. So that's the first thing. Read the time. We're in times of deceit and liars and lawlessness. Here's the second thing.

Who are these antichrists that John is particularly talking about? Well, verse 18 again, dear children. This is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come This is how we know it is the last hour, then down to verse 22, who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.

Such a person is the Antichrist denying the father and the son. No 1 who denies the son has the father, whoever acknowledges the son, has the father also. Now let me just remind you before we panic that Satan is defeated. The victory was won on the cross. He's been fatally wounded by the cross cross stamped, Christ stomped on his head on the cross.

Satan bittered, Christ, Christ stomped on his head. He's a serpent crusher. He's not dead, but he's fatally wounded. But the trouble is with fatally, fatally wounded things is a very dangerous You get those mad dictators, don't you? That are coming to the end of their age, you know, they they've gone bonkers.

They're in their nineties and they're still a dictator and they wanna you think why don't they repent? They're gonna meet god soon. But they don't and they wanna take down as many people as they can and and the their last years are the most horrific, aren't they? Or you get a an injured dog or an injured animal and you corner it and it's more dangerous. Now it's injured because it has a last bite in it.

Or if because we've been thinking about the war, you had d day. The war was 1 on d day. Basically, everybody says that. The war was basically 1 on D Day, but it took 10 months before Hitler died. Fatily wounded, 10 months before he died.

And that's the sort of thing that's going on here. So there's he's wounded, but there's battles going on. His he's he's mad with rage, and he sends his emissaries out. And that's what these antichrists are. But remember he's defeated.

So the antichrist, that means 2 things. Anti can mean against, I'm against something, or it can mean in place of. I place myself in place of. So John is saying that these people, there are people against Christ, And there are people that are in place of Christ and sometimes the 2 come together and sometimes they're separate, but they're they're antichrist. You see how dangerous this is?

So the war is won by Christ, but it's still dangerous. So people lost their lives between d day and, you know, victory. So it is dangerous that that, you know, these scammers are not just, you know, peddling false Rolex watches. They're not just doing that. It's it I always loved, Andy Broans.

He he went to I think he he went to, anyway, was on holiday somewhere. And a bloke came to sell him a Rolex watch, but he said, this is a real false Rolex. That was brilliant. It's so brilliant and it was it was spelt differently but he bought it and I don't blame him. I would have bought that because I want a real folks.

Anyway, forget all that. But you know they're not just peddling they're not it's not just scam investments that are going on here. This is counterfeit truth. This is masquerading as Christ. This is coming as someone that's gonna do you benefit.

These agents of Satan, at first, Doctor. Finally, they may sound good. They may even talk about Jesus. They may talk about their love for Jesus. Historically, they may say you have all of the sort of integrity of a historical believer or they may come of course caring, but actually they're peddling false righteousness and a false Christ and a false knowledge of god and a false hope and their liars.

So we need that to know this. So the last hour, that's the time we're in, who are these antichrists How do I identify them? Here's here's the third thing. They're anti Christ, they're against him or they're in place of him. But how do I identify them?

Well, he tells us very clearly, and it's quite strange. We identify the Antichrists because they've left us. They've left us. Look at verse 19. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.

For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belonged to us. Now, who is the us in this? Well, I think the us is the the whole church that believes the truth, absolutely. But I think in particular, he's talking about the apostles when he says us, John is an apostle.

He does the same thing in chapter 1 and we saw it when we were looking in those early verses of chapter 1 where he uses the word we. He says what we what you need to believe in is what we heard and we passed down to you and the we we saw was the apostles. So this is stolic teaching. You don't go away from the teaching of the scriptures. That's what he's saying.

And so the us, I think, is the apostolic church and the apostolic teaching. They went from us. He says. They went away from us. It's a departure from the truth and the true way.

They went out from us a departure. And so this is gonna get this. Because this is the thing that surprised me reading this through. The antichrist that John is speaking about here in 1 John are not the great antichrist that he talks about in the book of Revelation. If you wanna know about them, we did a series on Revelation.

They're not the big political powers here. They're not the big religious powers here. They're ordinary people. That were members of the church that have gone out from us. Now, listen, just because someone leaves Cornerstone doesn't mean, you know, we start going like that.

But but they've left the apostolic teaching. They've left the apostolic teaching. That's why. That's the thing. Now throughout history and even today, many of the cults and the false teachers started formally in good bible teaching churches.

That's where they started. It's interesting that Paul when he's talking to the apostle Paul when talking to the Ephesian elders and he's warning them about wolves. He says about wolves, in acts chapter 20, they'll come in in from outside to destroy the church, but then he also says, but there'll be some that are from among you and they're the ones John is talking about here. These people haven't come from outside in. They've actually come from within and left.

And They've left, he says, because they never really belonged. So look at verse 19 again. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belong to us.

If they leave the apostolic teaching and authentic apostolic church, and they want non apostolic teaching, they were never of us. John Calvin, great theologian of the reformation, obviously, she said about them. He said, they have fallen away but had never been thoroughly imbued with the knowledge of Christ, but only had a light and transient taste of it. Oh, they did taste. They tasted something of Christ.

They tasted something of true and fellowship, but now they've gone as Peter says back to their vomit. It's like the parable of the sower that Jesus said. And sometimes it just takes time for you to know. It's like the parable of the sower, isn't it? The word goes out, and it falls on different grounds and different soils.

And there's some receive it with joy. And you think, wow, I got no roots. They don't remain. It's those who will remain and produce fruit that are the true. They never were true.

True Christians, of course, absolutely, can can fall away and in 1 sense we're falling away every day. Aren't we as true Christians? That's why we're repenting every day. So true Christians can fall away but they never fall away permanently, and they certainly don't become false teachers and antichrist. Of course, we can fall away.

And that's why we need to be careful with talking about, oh, I'm a backslidden Christian. Hey, be careful. Cause you might slide further than you wanted to. Now the fact is that these become false teachers and they were not real. See, in verse 19, that that that little bit where he says, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us That word showed means revealed.

In other words, their true colors have been seen. It took a bit of time. We didn't know. We we didn't know they were hollow in the middle. We believe their facade of, of, of of Judith.

We thought he was genuinely godly when he said, you know, why are you why is that woman wasting her money on devotion to Jesus when she broke the the pot of the al pastor jar of perfume? We thought he was being godly and serious at that point. But actually we didn't know he was hollowed out. But actually now his colors were revealed in the end, at the crucifixion when he was gonna take up his cross, in the end, his colors were shown. And it's not it's it's not just doctrine, it's life.

There's hints of that in this verse. But they're going showed it revealed the true colors their life and their doctrine have been uncovered in the end. And that's 1 way of identifying an antichrist. Not just great big authorities, not just false religions like Islam, but that they are antichrist. But just people.

I don't know about you. That's frightening, isn't it? Cause they could be in this room right now. But he spells it out clearer. He wants us to to see that they actually become false teachers.

And, it's a false doctrine of Christ. Look at verse 22, to 23. Who is the liar it is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the Antichrist, denying the father and the son. No 1 who denies the son has the father and whoever acknowledges the son has the father also.

It's all about Jesus. Now At the time, so the historians tell us, although we don't find this in the bible, it's quite an interesting, thing to know some of the history. There was a bloke called, Serenoth, sir no, what is this? Sarynthias, and, he was sort of a heretic and people think John was battling with him and probably was. He separated the Jesus, the man Jesus, and the Christ.

The god bit of him. He he said that Jesus was born and then filled with the spirit of the Christ, divine, at his baptism. And then when Jesus went to the cross, the divine Jesus sort of went back to the father or whatever, and it was just the man on the cross. And that was considered a great heresy, and it is. So that was the problem then, but false teachers now, they're always messing with Jesus.

I don't think you'll find a false teacher that doesn't like Jesus. They'll all say, we love Jesus, Everybody loves Jesus. Every religion wants Jesus. Every false prophet wants Jesus. Yeah.

They always want a Jesus, and you have to ask, yeah, which Jesus? Is it the Jesus of the apostolic teaching? Because basically there are 2 camps, aren't there with Jesus? It's Jesus plus or Jesus minus. And they go so plus sometimes it becomes a minus and they go so minus sometimes it becomes a plus so it's quite confusing.

Not so long ago, I went to a meeting by probably the best known preacher of the time, or 1 of them. The best known was Bill Graham, actually, and it certainly wasn't him. So please don't think I'm talking about him. But it was he he was the most popular preacher at the time, and he came to London, I went to a meeting. It was called a Holy Spirit meeting.

Now what would you expect to have at a Holy Spirit meeting if it's genuinely Christian? The Holy Spirit always focuses on Jesus. Always. He's like the limelight person that that that puts the spotlight on Jesus. Even in his divine writing of this letter through the apostle John, he hardly talks about himself He talks about the father and the son because that's what the Holy Spirit does.

He's always pointing. You talk about if you met the Holy Spirit and he was here and say, oh, hello, can I he said, have a have a word with Jesus? Let me introduce you to Jesus, and here I introduce you to the father. The Holy Spirit is the lion. He's always put pointing the spotlight away from himself and to Jesus.

So I expected at a Holy Spirit meeting to hear all about what? Jesus. In 2 and a half hours, the name Jesus was mentioned once The whole concept of the savior was not mentioned, but Jesus was mentioned once in a song. That a girl sang, and it was wrong. It was not a Holy Spirit meeting.

You see? It's Jesus minus. Even though they if you say to them, do you know, I love Jesus. Well, why wouldn't you talk about him then? I mean, I I don't think we could get through a 2 and a half hours without talking about Jesus.

Could we? We we always welcome people in the name of the lord Jesus. Did we do that? I don't know. In heretic, what?

There's the door. Yeah. It's Jesus minus or Jesus plus, isn't it? You know, it's what you need Jesus, but you need this experience, or you need to do these things, or you need this religion. It's always Jesus.

They have forced doctrines. They stand in his place, although they deny him all altogether. So what's happening today is you have this whole thing of the Christ of faith. I don't know whether you heard about that. You get these in into denominational things so that we can all get together and pretend we believe the same thing when we don't.

So I'd never go to them. It's the Christ of faith. It doesn't matter whether he was real or whether he existed or whether He genuinely was the god man who saved us. He's a sort of thing of faith that we can all sort of pretend we believe in the same thing. Some vague faith thing out there.

Or Jesus is my savior, but he's not my lord. We separate him that way. They're the Harris's. I love him as my savior, but I can live my life any way I like because he's not my lord. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 3, the apostle Paul wrote about the very first spiritual con artist.

And he said this, listen, but I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the and I love this. Your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Isn't that beautiful? So the Antichrist are very persuasive. They attack the mind so that you'll get so complicated sometimes into theology, asking all kinds of complicated things.

It moves you away from the simplicity and devotion of Christ. You get it at the moment. There's a there's a big doctrine that's being over emphasized and it doesn't matter if you know what it means called the impossibility of god. And it's all sort of making god as having no sort of love really or anything really. He's just he's just like a rock.

And it's actually a sort of paganism and people overemphasize a lot of truth in it but people overemphasize that and it takes you away from the simply simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ who so loved the world that he gave his life or god so loved the world that he gave his Christ. There's that there's oh, he'll manipulate. He'll get the church into into overthinking over emphasizing, or he'd come through the emotions and attack you that way. That's how he does it. And his goal is to lead us from the simplicity and purity of the devotion of Christ.

Look at verse 24 to 26 of 1 John 2. As for you, see that you, as for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. Get roots down. If it does, you will remain in the sun and and in the father And this is what he promised us eternal life. You'll have eternal life.

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. Force teaching, you see, is not clever. It's not radical. It's not hip. It's not cool.

You're not cutting edge theologians when you have false teaching. It's not fun. It's not Bohemian. It's not the latest trends that we can all get into. It's downright demonic, and it comes from the pit itself.

And the whole point of it is to take you back there. So trends have we gotta be so careful of the trends that go on and the way we express ourselves, we need to get back to the apostolic teaching and express ourselves in those ways. When god says that he grieves, does he mean that? Oh, no. He could What are you talking about?

He doesn't mean that. That's the impossibility argument. We've got to get back to the simplicity and joy of the doctrine of the lord, lord Jesus Christ. Okay. Is anybody this is happy sermon, isn't it?

Well, this might be happier. How do we identify an authentic Christian? How do we know whether you're authentic here? Or I'm authentic. Well, here's the fourth point, the birthmarks of an authentic Christian.

John shifts now his attention to the opposite of the Antichrist to true believers because there are true believers and you can know there's true believers so you don't have to become cynical about everybody. There are true believers, authentic believers with authentic birthmarks. What are they? Well, John Stott says there are 3 birthmarks, and we've seen these already. The first birthmark is obedience.

It's a moral birthmark. So Christians are obedient to the lord Jesus Christ. Now, we said this. Don't panic about this. It's never perfect obedience, but it is real obedience.

Do you remember I did a whole sermon on that? It's not perfect obedience, but it's real. In other words, You know, you send a child to clean the room. That was my illustration and they will try and clean the room. They get distracted and even grumpy about it.

There's real obedience, but it's not perfect obedience, and that's like us with Christ. You wanna follow him. We'll see that again next week in more detail. The second mark is a social mark. In other words, it's the mark of love.

True Christians love Christians. And not just with an ordinary love, but a Christlike love. They lay down their lives for other Christians. Yeah? We don't do it perfectly, but it we do do it really.

And the third mark is this mark. It's doctrinal. It's that you believe the authentic apostolic priced, and that's what John showing us. Verse 20 and 21 again, but you have an anointing from the Holy Spirit and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.

He reminds them that you are genuine Christians if you have an anointing And if you have this anointing, you'll know the truth. It's interesting. He equates the anointing which is clearly talking about the Holy Spirit and doctrine. And most people seem to want to separate those 2. The Holy Spirit is all about feeling, but here, the anointing the holy spirit is about sound, apostolic bible teaching on Christ.

The word anointing is the word chismar. It's where you get the title Christ from, which means the anointed 1. In the old testament, you probably know. In the old testament, people like priests and kings, we saw that last week and prophets were anointed with oil. To set them apart to do god's work.

That's what anointed is. And again, if you read through the scriptures, you'll see the oil represents the holy spirit. So we're anointed with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus was anointed himself by the Holy Spirit. So he is the Christ. The anointed 1.

And we are little Christ's Christians. We are anointed if we're in Christ. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit. Every Christian is anointed by the Holy Spirit. So verse 27, as for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.

Because, but as his anointing teaches you all, but as his anointing teaches you about all things, And as that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as it has taught you remain in him, it's all about teaching. Now these verses then seem to say hold it because they can be controversial. We don't need any teachers. Yeah. What is going back to is is versus chapters like Jeremiah 21 where we talk about the the new covenant, the new age that Jesus brings in and all god's people will have the holy spirit.

So he's saying all god's people will have the holy spirit and therefore there's no second class Christians And so in that sense, no 1 can teach you any new thing that isn't taught already in the scriptures. We don't need new things. We do need teachers Otherwise, I'm out of a job, to remind us of the old things. That's all my job is. Is reminding you of the truths of the old things.

That's what an apostolic preacher will do. They don't come with a new special knowledge. Do you know what? There's this new Peak woodcock knowledge of God. I'm gonna write a book I'll even have a Bible with my name on it.

Always be careful of anyone that puts their name on a Bible with their notes in it. The Peoplecock Bible is coming out, and Jackie Morrowley will be delivering that next week. Now I'm only a I'm I'm I'm only of any use is to remind you of the truths of the apostolic teachings. And you've got the gift of the spirit, and you know if I'm teaching the truth or not because you have the doctrines here, test them. Do you see that?

And by the way, this is wonderful for those of you that feel You know, these sermons hit you. It's a wonderful truth when you're hit by the doctrines of the apostles and you feel like, oh my goodness. I haven't hardly started my Christian life. That is an indication of the anointing. Paul writes in 2 Timothy all scripture is god breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness so the servant of god may be thoroughly equipped with every good work.

Jesus says my sheep know my voice, and the voice and the word rebukes us sometimes. And so you go out of this room feeling rebuked. Well, that a sign of the anointing because the word of god is hitting you. The spirit of god is speaking to you. My sheep hear my voice, the very fact that you've remained and you know what is true teaching And even though it hurts and cuts you sometimes, you stay with it.

Your roots are in it and you know it will do you good and you come back for more. That's a point, a sign of the anointing. You're remaining in the truth force Christians run away. Force Christians say, I don't want to hear false Christians say, don't give me the lordship of Jesus. It's too hard.

So let's just wrap all this up. Dear brothers and sisters, or as he puts it, dear children. We're in the last hours. It actually won't be that long before the next date on Christ's calendar. We're in the last hour, so don't be surprised that there's lots of antichrists.

Actually, when you think about it, those that leave and become antichrist people a proof of the truth of the word of god. So it shouldn't depress us so much, although it it will hit us. As well. That's what you said would happen. This word is true.

It's like wars, isn't it? People are saying, let's, you know, there was a time where people were saying we're we're, what, that people used to say that the Second World War was the war to end all wars. And that Christ got it wrong, but he didn't, did he? There's wars and rumors of wars, and there's earthquakes and It's what he said would happen. So the many Antichrists and deceivers is proof that this word is true.

So turn it into a positive and listen to the word. Watch out though their liars and their frauds and their clever, but learn more than anything be to be committed to the apostolic teaching. Would you plan to do that? I'm not calling you to be a great intellect. But I am saying that you should plan to persevere.

You should plan to remain. And the way you plan to remain is keep the roots going down. Keep growing down into the word of god so that you can grow up and praise his name. Keep don't ever get too old for learning the doctrines of the apostles or relearning. Keep pushing into it.

This is why we're inspired by older Christians that are keep going. They're inspiring, aren't they? They're still excited about the word of god. I mean, you know, they're going blind and their fingers are arthritic and they can hardly turn it. But they're what are you saying?

Oh, yes. Tom was saying about this old man that was interviewed on, on, was it good morning Britain or whatever it was? This old veteran, did anyone see that? And the interviewer woman didn't know what to do. Because he was being because he's 1 of the last surviving people that fought in the war and he's there sort of slumped down as an old man.

And then he started going on about Christ. And the woman was trying to shut him down, but he couldn't hear. He was so deaf, and he was going Jesus. Yeah. Well, that's the trouble with this world.

We need to return to Jesus. And it was brilliant and she was trying to shut him down and obviously people are in the air. Show him up. Show him up. We're an Antichrist channel with a BBC for goodness sake.

He's mentioning Jesus. You know, we don't do that unless it's a swear word. Shut him up and he was just rambling on, well, Jesus. And by the way, let me go on about the Sorry about this. The, anger can church.

Why don't they preach Jesus? They should preach Jesus and shut him up. He's offending everyone. Brilliant, isn't it? You can't stop it.

It's exciting. So learn to persevere, learn that when you're that old man and you have your 5 minutes of fame on good morning Britain that you don't care what anybody thinks and you just ramble on about Christ. Put your put your roots down now. Young people keep pushing into under standing the truth so you can know a liar and you can know a a lever and a deceiver and an Antichrist when they pop up. Sees your mind and put it into the things of Christ.

Betrayals hard, it really hurts. I genuinely do know that. But it shows me that I'm in the world that Christ said, and I need to cling on to the truth and true and have fellowship with true believers. That are anointed, who love, who live, never perfectly let us down, but they are repentant people who return to the lord Jesus Christ. Let's have a moment of prayer, and I'll hand over to Tom.