Antichrist in the Church
1 John 2:18-23
By Sean Kelly

Your church family loves you and cares for you. It makes you feel really, really special. So that's why.

Thank you. Let's go ahead and get into the lesson this week titled this Antichrist in the church. We're going to talk a little bit about some false doctrines of currency.

What you watch out for what we can do about it. So let's go ahead and we'll open prayer and then we'll get started in lesson today. Father, we just thank you for this day.

And I just pray that you would help Sean clearly teach today. Thank you. Yeah, it's a little weird teaching from down here, so I'm used to being able to see it running pretty well.

Somebody in the back I can't see very well. So if you want to read today, make sure to raise your hand nice and high. Let's start off by leaving our Passover in first John, chapter two, verses 18 to 23.

Nathan, thank you to see you there. Middle children, is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now, many antichrists have come by, which 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. But they, without that, they might be made manifest that none of them were of us.

But you have an anointing from the holy wine, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it. And that no lie is of the truth.

Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ, he is Antichrist. Who denies the Father and the Son? Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the Son as the Father also.

So last week we talked about the way the world influences us. The lust and flesh. The flesh, the lust of the eyes of private life.

And how you can't love into the world and love the Father. You have to give a choice in that. John makes a very rough turn here from that, and all of a sudden he talks about Antichrist.

And let me assure you wonder, well, where is he going with this? I think after John warns us about the issues that we have with our own heart, the issues that draw us away from God and how he's turning towards the issues that the church faces, what's going on that would cause the church to walk away from God, to turn away from the things of God. And so he's going from a personal warning to a more corporate warning of the church here. So I wrote in my paragraph here, John now gives a warning about Antichrist who have infiltrated the church and are teaching, teaching false doctrine.

In particular, the false doctrine that is being taught is that Christ did not come into. So this is what he's dealing with specifically in the church at this time. While the doctrine may not be prevalent today, we still deal with the antichrist and the church as a whole who teach the things which are not of sign doctrine.

So while John sees a very specific doctrine here that's being taught, that's not right. We can see this. And I use the trigger.

Church here is not necessarily us. And I'm hoping that most of the people are teaching here or not all are teaching good doctrine, but the church as a whole, we see there's a lot of bad doctrine, non biblical things, things that are just wrong, that are being taught as right. And, you know, we need to be careful what kind of teaching we're associating with.

And we get our teaching from our pastor, from our traditional teachers, those people. But you also may listen to people on radio that are teaching. You may see people on TV that are teaching.

You may read books and people are printed. And just because it says Christian on it doesn't make that sound doctrine. There's only sound doctrine when it lines up with the principles of the word of God.

So we can be influenced a lot of different ways and not just, you know, somebody coming into the church and speaking to give us the wrong things. We can be influenced from all kinds of outside sources of things that sound good but really aren't. So this is a very important warning to us at John's giving.

We're going to go through this a little bit here. David, your hand went up for a second. It's a different angel.

I think there's different angel. So we're going to start with verses 18 and 19. It generates little children into the last hour, or as you have heard that the antichrist is coming even now.

Many antichrists have come by, which we know that this then it is the last hour. They went out from us, so they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would continue with us, but they went out with the way you make manifest, and none of them were of us.

So here we get an interesting phrase. This is, John uses this phrase, antichrist and antichrist. Antichrists are basically, in general, those who are opposed to the teaching of Christ, those who are against it.

We teach contrary to what Christ teaches, what the Bible teaches during antichrist. Now, this term is a term that's only used by God. One of the other Bible writers use the term anti Christ, just like you can see in English.

Like, if somebody is, you know, they use this term a lot for us. I prefer life, but abortion believes. Anti abortion.

What does that mean? It means you're against abortion. So if you're Antichrist, you're against Christ. You're not seeking to do what Christ wants you to do.

You're on the teaching of Christ, wants to be taught. And here, you know, you maybe read this. You see that there's a capital antichrist in verse 18 followed by a lowercase antichrist.

So there's actually two different figures being talked about in this passage. And the one that we're focusing on this morning is the antichrist, the little a antichrist. And these are just people that are teaching contrary to the things of the Bible.

So first of all, John starts off little children. You have to remind us, John is addressing believers. This is not telling non Christians that, hey, watch out and be taught the wrong things.

You gotta get things right. No, this is still believers in the church. This is a real warning for us.

This is not that stuff out there outside the church, but this stuff is coming into the church. This stuff is being taught in the church that we need to be aware of it as believers. He says, little children, it is the last hour.

When does John write? Anyone have any idea what John writes? This book? Yeah. So the first century ad. So John says, this is the last hour.

That sounds kind of dramatic, considering we've been around 1900 some years since then. That's the last hour. This is a long hour.

Right. But this is a term that is used, and this refers to the time from Christ's resurrection to the second coming. It's considered the last hour by many writers.

It's a term they use often, say, these are the last times, the last hour, the kind of last idea. And as a dispensation list, if you don't know what that is, I'll talk to you. I don't want to take time to play it now, but there's different phases in which God will work with his people to reveal what his plan is.

And we believe we're in the last dispensation and dispensation grace. And so this is the last kind of. What's the word I want to use here? The last method God's working with his people.

This is through the church. Who is using this word? Teaching the church, teaching people. This is the station.

So in this kind of this last hour idea, this is the last thing before everything plays out anymore. Hebrews one, one and two is a good example of an author using this idea of the last times or the last hour. So let's have someone read that.

John. Go ahead. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, as in these last days, spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the worlds.

So you see, there's the time passed which is previous to Christ, and then he spoke in these last times by his son. And that's what we have in the word of God. So it is a common thing to say that this age of grace, this age of the church, is the last time.

Its the last hour, its the last the way God is going to deal with his people before he comes to the end time progress. So we are in the last hour, even though the last hour has lasted thousands of years. Does that make sense? So he's not being normally dramatic, saying this is the last hour.

This is kind of a common thing to say. He says that the next big point that he has is that the Antichrists are among us. And the first thing he grabs about that is they heard Antichrist is coming.

Now, this is capital A Antichrist. This is, you know, as I'm reading through revelation, which is very interesting, reading all the imagery about the end times and stuff. This is the beast, this is the devil, this is Satan coming.

The Antichrist. He's the ultimate one, who Christ. And he's part of God's end time plan here.

And the church have already heard this. They've seen this teaching that Antichrist is coming. And I'm going to look at one passage.

I left a couple more there for you to look at, if you want to, which talks about when Antichrist comes and uses a different name, obviously, because John is the one that does this. But Daniel 926 27, who would read that for us? And after the 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince, who has their crumbs, shall destroy the city in sanctuary.

The end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the desolations are returned. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the way of abomination, showing what he makes desolate, even until the conservation which is determined is poured out on the desolate.

So here in Daniel, you see these weeks here. These weeks are weeks of years. So there's in the prophecy here, there's 70 total weeks.

There's seven weeks that start with captivity until Israel comes back to Israel. But 62 weeks of years, 62 times seven. Do a map from when Israel returns to Israel until the Messiah comes and sacrificed on the cross.

Well, that leaves 69 weeks. There's a 70th week. The 70th week is in the future.

The Daniel's prophecy deals with the nation of Israel. We're encountered this cause situation of the church where this is in countless times, but this is what we call the tribulation. So I'm just giving you a big overview so I'll talk more about it.

We can do that too. And this is what he's talking about in verse 27, this last week here, the tribulation ye shall concern. Yeah, this is Lauren.

So this is some guy. This is going to be Antichrist here. He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.

So he's going to act like he spreads with the Jews, making a covenant with them. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring sacrifice and offering. So he's going to break that covenant with the Jews and on the wings of the imagination shall be the one who makes desolate.

So this is going to be when Antichrist persecutes the Jews for the second half of the tribulation. And we see that this is who it's talking about. So the church would have had this teaching in Daniel, as I said in Matthew, Matthew and first, 2nd Thessalonians would also have been written by time John, where John is one of the later letters in the Bible.

So they would have all this teaching about who Antichrist is. So when John says, you have heard that Antichrist is coming, he's speaking the truth. They've heard this teaching before.

This is not new to them. And so he's making a point here. Now you know that Antichrist is coming.

Why is it so hard to understand if there's small a antichrist in the church that are already working and already opposing the things of God? You know that if we had the big guys that come and really oppose God, why aren't there little people now opposing God? It makes a lot of sense, right? So he says, you've heard that Antichrist is coming. Even now, many antichrists have come. They're already here.

These people that are opposing back, they're handling. So basically saying they're present, they're already men in the churches. There's already people in the churches teaching false doctrine leading the church astray.

This is not. Shouldn't be a surprise to the church because there's always people that are going to oppose the program of Christ. And so because of that, he adds on, it is the last hour.

Everybody says by this we know that this is the last hour. We know this is the last hour because Satan's forces are opposing the church. The people that do not love God are opposing the church or teaching false into the church.

You know that we're in the last hour. You see this working out right now. One thing else that Satan knows that time's coming.

So he's trying to get as much time as in before his time's up, basically. Yeah, yeah. He's working hard.

He's opposing the church. In the church, we see God's salvation is revealed. God has given us the truth.

We're going to talk about it a little bit, but it's through the work of the church, through their ministry, that people are saved. See, if they can build some false doctrine and some false teaching, lead the church off its path, that he can get us away from doing what God wants us to do. And ultimately that should be saving people from his glory.

So they're present, they're working in the church, and this is the last hour. Let's look at one Timothy four one three. Just either way.

Now, the spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to the saving spirits and doctrines of demons who can lies in concoction, having their own punch and sear of hot iron, forbidding to marry. So you can hear Paul saying that the spirit revealed that in the last times there's going to be people departing from the faith. They're giving ease to these bad doctrines.

This is going to be happening. This is not something you can ignore. Just because we're in Dorset Baptist Church doesn't mean that everything's going to be glorious and wonderful in the teaching that we're going to get.

We got to be watchful and beware because there are going to be people that are going to want to come to the church and lead us off the path that God wants us to be on. And we're in that last hour. We're still in that last hour.

We're still facing Antichrist. So when they are like, what are these Antichrist like? Verse 19 tells us that they went out from us that were not of us, but they were not of us, they would have to continue with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest and none of them were of us. So there's lot of us there, right? So they went out from us.

What does this mean? Well, I think this carries the idea that they were among the church, acting as part of the church, doing church things. So they were in our fellowship. They were just normal people in the church, doing church things, doing church ministries.

And at first, you don't see that this is who they are, that they are Antichrist. They are infiltrated in the church. I think of the parable of the wheat and the tares, right? That Jesus says that somebody has sown tares among the wheat.

And the workers say, well, should we dig out the tares? And Christ is like, you can't do that without the energy of the Wheatley. You gotta leave them there. And then in the end, we'll judge them and separate them.

That's true of the church. You know, we want the church to be all week. We want the church to be all good.

But Satan's gonna try to infiltrate us. Satan's gonna try to bring people in to lead us astray. And so they went out from us.

That carries that idea. But they were not of us. They were in the church.

They were doing church things. They were acting like church members, but they weren't really saved. They weren't part of us.

They're Antichrist. So they were not part of the church. They were not saved there, number three, there.

They did not continue with us. So as things go on and they're exposed and their false doctrine, their false teachings exposed, you know, they take their ball and run because they're seeing that this isn't working, this isn't going off. So they didn't continue with us.

They went away from the church and did not fit in what the church is doing as the church does what's right. Let's look at Colossians 1:21 through 23. And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked words, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and bleeding and above reproach and sight, if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I call in the Holy Spirit.

So here Colossus is talking about how we were once alienated enemies, but now is going to blame us. Verse 23 says, if you continue in the faith. So the idea for the church is that we continue in the faith, that we continue doing what's right.

And what's true? That we believe in the things that God has told us, that we were grounded in steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel. As we're doing that, as we're focusing on the word of God, as we're doing what God says, it's going to be easy to differentiate between those who are saved and those who are Antichrist because they're not going to be doing those things. And because of that, they're not going to continue.

They're going to find someplace else when they can't have their way to church. Our goal is that we need to know the truth. We need to be living the truth.

We need to be believing the truth. We need to be grounded in the truth. We need to be steadfast as the verse is talking about, continue in the things of God.

And then you see a clear distinction at the end of this verse. It says that they might be made manifest. So they were made apparent because they were not continuing to repay.

They're not properly true. They're not being right raised. They went out, but they were not among us.

And so that's their nature. These anti tribes, they're present, they're in the church, they're infiltrating the church, but they don't fit in. They don't act like true Christians when true Christianity comes to the full front.

And so our goal here is that we ought to live the way God wants us to live so that we can be exposed to the truth. Let's move on to .2 here.

.2 the nature of the true Christian. So we look at the nature of the Antichrist.

What's the nature of the true Christian in this scenario? Verses 2021 says, but you have an anointing from the holy one and you know all things. And I've written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and have no lies of the truth. But here you go.

If someone says, well, what are you so kind of know it all? You can say, yes, the Bible says, I know all things, so you're good, right? So we will talk about that because that's what that means. So the first thing he says, you have an anointing from the holy one. I don't remember being anointed.

Were you anointed? Well, we all were anointed when we were filled with the Holy Spirit. That's the anointing from the holy one, that God's spirit is in us. Let's look at two Corinthians 3:14-18.

But their minds were blinded, for until this day, the same veil remains unlimited in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is bread, a veil lies. And there are nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Now the Lord is a spirit, and when the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding that is intermediate with the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. This is the spirit of.

So here this passage is talking about unsaved Jews. Let's begin with it says their minds are blinded. There's a veiled every means of their eyes.

Even when Moses is read today, even when the truth of God is read, they can't see the truth because they're veiled. Understand what's going on? What do you mean? To be unveiled according to passage here, the gospel. Because the gospel gives you what it does.

Freedom of liberty is in there, gives you the truth. The middle is made from being Christ. Yes.

Because of what? Because of what coming into you, the holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. The reason why we can even look at the word of God and understand and comprehend them to talk about in just a second.

Because the Holy Spirit working in us, without the Holy Spirit, we're as veiled as the unsaved Jews that can't understand what Moses is saying. And so the knowing of the Holy one, what that does for us is that helps us to know what the truth is, that we can read the word of God and go, oh, I know what that is. Oh, look, this person is teaching something contrary to that.

They're not teaching what's right, because I can see the truth, and I know the truth. The Holy Spirit has revealed that to me. So we have that.

And all the things you said, you know that there is liberty. The gospels read, when one turns to the Lord, that's the accepting of the gospel. There, the veil is taken away.

So all this happens so that the Holy Spirit can work in us and help us to see what is the truth. So we have that anointing of the Holy one. And because of that, we know all things.

Now, like I kind of joke around, we don't know all things. I don't even know what we're having for lunch today. So that's a pretty simple thing to probably know, because I could probably look on every little board and show all our meals for the week.

I could probably look there and see if that's only for not there. But I don't know. I don't know all things.

I don't know how to fix my car all the time. I don't know all things. I don't know how to talk correct sometimes.

So what does it mean to know all things? Well, what is the context of this passage? This context is people teaching truth and people teaching lies. Right? So guess what? As a Christian, you know enough to know what is the truth and what's not the truth. You have that ability.

You have the resources to be able to discern between truth and lies, to be able to discern between what's right and what's wrong. God is doing everything he needs, and you know all things for that. Let's look at two Corinthians 2916.

A little bit longer passage, Nathan. That jumps up there. But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the spirit searches all things. Yes, the deep things of God.

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in them. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

These things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness in him. Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For he who has known the mind of the Lord, that he. May I read that one? For who has known the line of the Lord, that he may instruct him.

But we have the line of Christ. Okay, so this last eye is not seen, nor hear his heard, nor have entered into the hearts of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. So in the heart of man, we don't know anything about what God is doing.

We don't know anything about how God cares for us, how he's administering to us, anything like that. We don't know that. But verse ten says that God has revealed unto us through what his spirit.

The anointing that we have is in the spirit. So we know the things of God, the things that God has prepared for those who love him because we have God's spirit. In fact, he goes on to say the spirit searches all things of deep things of God.

So even the deepest thoughts of God is spirit of God knows that it makes sense because the spirit of God is God, right? It's not, of course, he's a person, it's the Holy Spirit. So he knows all the things God. What man knows the things of man except the spirit of man, which is in him.

Do you know what I'm thinking? You don't because you can't. You know, I can be sitting, and I've been sitting a lot this week. It's been ridiculously a lot of sitting and my mind is drifted and I've thought things and none of my kids are in the room knowing what dad was thinking about because they don't know the heart of what I'm thinking.

Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. So man on his own doesn't know the things of God because we can't know nothing. But the response says, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who's from God, that we might know the things that haven't really given to us by God.

So how do we know the things of God is because the spirit working in us, he opens that world to us. He helps us to see what is true from God's word. I'm going to skip down to verse 14.

The natural man here refers to an unsaved person. They can receive the things of the spirit of God. They are foolishness in them, they can do them.

They are spiritually discerned. Unsaved person can't know the things of God. One of the things that I talk about when sharing the gospel with people is you don't need to focus on getting a drunk person.

Not just not to drink anymore, or someone who's folks, not to smoke, or someone who's morally to stop sleeping with their girlfriend because they're not going to understand that what they need to know is Christ. They need to know that Jesus died for them and he rose again for their sin and that they need to put their faith in him to be saved. That's what they need to know.

After you get that, then you can go back and go, hey, look what God has said about these things. These are bad things. Let's change it.

Let's do what God wants to do and who made sense to them. So oftentimes I've seen people get off on sidetracks when they're sharing the gospel, they're going to these other side issues and they're not important. I don't care if a drunk person is getting drunk every night.

That's what they're going to do. Unsafe people do sinful things. That's their nature.

What I care about is that they understand who Christ is and they come to know him as savior, because without that, they cannot know the things of goddess. Verse 15 says, he who spiritually judges all things. Now, this isn't like I'm going to judge.

My family's good at judging people. It's not that kind of judging. It's judging what's true and what's not true.

We judge all things. Verse 16 says, who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct them. This is a quote.

This is from the Old Testament. Who has known the mind of the Lord? We know he has right, but we have the mind of Christ. Why? Because of the Holy Spirit that's in us.

So we know all things. We know everything that God feels is important for us to know that we can discern what's true and what's not true, what's right and what's wrong. God has given that to us through this year and through his word.

And we can know that. So we know the truth. And here in the statute one, John 220, it says, because you know it, I have not been here, because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, you know the truth.

Even given the spirit of God, you have the word of God. You know the truth. That's even more so true for us because we have the full word of God at this time in John didn't have everything written out yet.

We know the truth. We have the resources God wants for us to have. And because you know that no lie is of the truth, you distinguish between lies and truth.

So he starts off by more than saying Antichrist upon the church. They're teaching these false doctrines. They're leading the church astray.

That's a scary thing. But God has given us the resources to do something about that. We have the truth.

We know the truth. We can discern what's right and wrong, so we can be visual, we can be wise. And we say, wait a second.

That's what your teaching is not correct. What your teaching is not good. I know this because I have the word of God.

And we can point that out. So the nature of the true Christian, we have the truth. We have those resources.

Third point here, the doctrine of the Antichrist so I'm going to jump right into verse before I explain this, Cassidy, because I think June 4 is just so interesting, that fits so well with this passage. So Judah, verse four. Go ahead.

For certain men have preferences. And I noticed a while ago for this condemnation on that event, return of grace to God into newness and deny the holy Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So here Jews dealing with the same issue about men coming into the church and teaching things that are wrong.

We talked about turning the grace of God as eluding assist the idea that you're under grace of God and do whatever you want. It doesn't matter, you're forgiven. Go to sin as much as you on.

That's a wrong doctrine. That's not what the word of God teaches. And then also they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I think that fits in very well with John sees it here. So we're going to go back to John, verse two, or John chapter two, verse 22. And remember he just said that, you know, that no lies are the truth.

So I say, who is a liar? And he's going to give us a specific doctrine. That's a lie. Who is a liar? But he denies that Jesus is the Christ.

He is Antichrist. Who denies the father and son, who denies the son does not have the father either. He acknowledges the son as the father also.

So he's calling them, these people, these antichrists. They come in, they're liars. Why are they liars? Because they're teaching what's not true.

They're teaching things that are not of the word of God, and it makes them liars. They're not teaching the truth. What's the lie they were teaching? They deny that Jesus is the Christ.

What does that mean? What does Jesus mean? Jesus. I wouldn't say it means all three. I think he, you know, they're all three in one.

So I think that's true. But Jesus specifically is who? Son of God. Okay? He is the son of God.

That's true. Who is he specifically? When does the name Jesus come into play? When does Jesus rejoice? Okay. He was given the name Jesus when he was born as a man.

Right? So Jesus here is reflecting his humanity. It's reflecting that he was a real person. I'm not a real person.

God is a real person. He is a real human being who walked on the earth, who lived on the earth, who died on the earth, and goes, yeah, this is the Jesus. Right? Okay, so they're denying that Jesus.

They're not denying Jesus himself, but they're denying that Jesus is the Christ. So what's the price? So it's like God is in flesh. Christ here.

Is that the idea of the messiah, the promised one from God, the holy one from God. If you go to psalm two, if you've been here on Wednesday nights, we talked about psalm two way far back. But there's a prophecy where the son is the authority of God.

He has the rule over all the nations. He's God's representative. In this case, when John says Jesus is the Christ, he's saying they're denying that Jesus is God.

They're denying that Jesus is God in the flesh. Now, this is heresy called Gnosticism. This basically the principle of this is that anything that's physical is evil and anything that's spiritual out there is good.

And so in order for Jesus to be good, he wasn't really there as a human. He didn't come into the flesh. God came upon Jesus, but he didn't become Jesus and then left before the cross because the flesh stuff is.

So if Jesus came in the flesh, he has to be evil and the spiritual going to be the good part. That's what they're teaching here. And John is saying, you denying that Jesus the man, the person was God, that's a heresy.

That's wrong. That's wrong teachings that will lead you to the wrong place. So he's addressing that very specifically here.

I'm not even giving you every passage here, but we're going to look at three passages where John continues to talk about Jesus and God being one that's saved, that Jesus is God, God is Jesus the father and the son being one. So let's look at beauty's passion again. There's many, many more.

I'm giving you three this morning, 1030 through 33. Who would like to do this? Olivia, go ahead. I and my father are one.

Though the Jews took up stones again to stone him, Jesus answered them. Many good works I have shown you from my father, the rich of those. First you stone me.

The Jews answered him, saying, for a good word, for do not sow you, but for blasphemy. And because you, being a man, made yourself nothing. The point here is, the big point is Jesus speaking.

Says, I and my father are one. We're one and the same. We're united.

We're the same person. And this is true. When you understand the Trinity, God in one essence reveals himself to three persons.

They're all God the God the father, God the son, God and the Holy Spirit. I'll talk more about the Trinity. We'll do that Friday.

No, this is what I don't know all things. I know what the Bible tells me about it. But he's saying, I and my father number one.

Now, in case you think. Well, maybe he's not saying what you think he's saying. Did you just get what he's saying? Because look at their responses when he says, you're going to stone me.

What bad works have I done? I've done all these good works, all these miracles. Why are you stolen? They say it's not for the works. It's because you, being a man, make yourself worked.

So the unsaved Jews even understood what Jesus was saying. They're saying, you said you're God. That's why we're stoning you, because that's blasphemy.

No man is God, but Jesus is goddess. And so this is core to the teaching of Christianity that Jesus is God. John 14, 710.

If you have known me, you would have known my father also. And from now on, you know him and Palestine. Philip said to him, Lord shows the father and is sufficient for us.

Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and yet you have not known me? Philip. He who has seen me have seen the father. So how can you say show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father of the Father? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority.

But the father who loves me does the first. So Jesus makes a statement. If you have known me, you will know my father also.

And now you do know him because you see me and I really. Jesus is obviously the perfect man. But if I were thinking with Philip, I would be exasperated.

I'd be like, what are you picking, Philip? Philip's like, just show us the father, we'll be content. I just told you that. I showed you the father.

Come on. That he teaches. Johan, how can you say this? Do you not believe that I am the father and the father, me? There it is, right there.

Jesus and the Father are one. They're one essence. They're God.

And Jesus, being the man, is also God. That's apparently abundant in the teachings of the church. One more passage.

Second. John seven. For many, deceivers have gone out into the world who did not confess Jesus Christ as the coming in the flesh.

This is a deceiver. So what do deceivers confess? That Jesus Christ, again, Jesus, who is God, has not come in the flesh. That God did not come into flesh and he's saying that that makes that person receiver and the demon in Christ.

The teaching of the church is that Jesus Christ the man is fully God, that God came to earth as a man. And people that are denying that these are the Antichrist that John was given. So letter C here.

Thus they deny the father and the Son. If you can't say that Jesus Christ is God, then guess what? You're denying who the father is also because they're one of the same. And he says if they deny the Son, they do not have a father.

If they can't come to the point of believing that Jesus Christ is God, then they can't know the father. They have no part of that. Only those who acknowledge the Son have the father.

Couple more verses, we'll look at. Matthew 1127. Go ahead.

All these have been delivered to me by my father. And no one knows the Son except the father, nor does anyone know the father except the Son. And the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him.

Father and son work together. You can't know the father, don't know the Son, and only the Son knows the father and only those he reveals it to you. Guess who? He reveals it to us as a church.

Right? Because we know all things. We know the truth. 522 and 23.

Wait, go ahead. Honor the Father. Thank you.

Sorry. Look at that last phrase there, Eve. Does not honor the Son.

Does not honor the father. You can't honor the father without. You can't believe in the Father without believing in the Son.

If you don't believe that Jesus is God, then you're being alive. And that's what John is teaching here. So again, this is a specific doctrine that John is dealing with, that Christ did not come into flesh, that Christ was not a human being.

He was kind of overshadowing this Jesus person or whatnot. And John is saying that's wrong. That's not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches that Jesus is God. He is Christian. Because I don't know about you, but I haven't dealt with Gnosticism very often, talking to people.

Most people, like I said, are here Gnostic. It's not something that we see a lot today. There is a little bit of an out there, but not really in the mainstream church.

So what are the takeaways? Well, let's look at the first one. I think I want to start with the positive one here. We have the truth and we must start the truth in our lives within the church.

So if you have the truth, you have all resources. God has given you to do that. No one is right.

You have the spirit living in you. You have the word of God. You can understand the word of God because of the spirit.

So guess what? That makes you responsible. You need to embrace the truth. You need to understand the truth.

You need to know the truth in order to guard the truth in your own life. The things that you take in and in the church as people are teaching and to explain doctrine in the church is every believer's responsibility to test the teachings which are being taught and verified, that the doctrine reflects what the Bible teaches. And we'll see that again later on in.

First, John here, it talks about testing the spirits. And we need to understand what is the truth, and we need to know how to distinguish between the truth and laws. That's our responsibility.

But we've been given those resources. It's not up to us willing to figure it out. Is God working in us? So that's an encouraging thing.

The second point I have here is the Antichrist have and will continue to infiltrate the church. It's not going to stop. Again.

It might not be, might not be anybody here in our church, even that's doing it. It might be somebody you hear listening to preaching on the radio on the way to work. It might be a book that you're reading, or some heresy gets in there and it causes to believe the things that are not true.

We need to be able to identify them and then reject their teaching. We have given people to help us to do this, and mainly our pastor. I have asked us, hopefully someday we'll have more than a pastor.

That'd be nice. Not that it's good to have a clear line of elders. I think most of you understand that.

So daily our pastor and pastors that we have them, and then other government in the church, but mainly the pastors have been giving us the help guarding these false doctor. And you say pastors, really? Yeah. Let's look at acts, chapter 21.

More reading. I snuck that one in there, Nathan. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, nothing sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone.

Night and day with tears. Now, this is Paul talking to the ephesian elders. We understand that elders have been termed as, in other words, for pastors.

It's a terminal of an office here. He also talks about here that the holy spirit may be overseers. That's the word bishop.

That's another term for pastor. And that the shepherd, the word shepherd is the word pastor. So in this passage we get this reinforced, that this follows talking to the pastor to lead us.

And he says, after by departure of savage wolves will come in among you, not starting to flock. So the pastors are supposed to fight on wolves. That's all you got out of this, right? Okay.

In a non literal sense, yes. We're the savage books. These are, these are people.

Well, the block is the church. So savage books are people that are trying to destroy the church. And what are the pastors supposed to do? They're supposed to understand that these guys are coming in and also from among yourselves, among yourselves, among your church infiltrating church.

Again, men will rise up speaking perverse. And this perverse is not, we figure perverse as being like sexual, right? But this perverse is just anything that's untrue, that's a lie, that's wrong. So speaking these wrong, evil things and what's their goal? To draw away disciples after themselves, to pull people away from the truth of God's word and the teaching of God's word and have them follow them.

And so Paul tells them, therefore, watch. Pastors are given to us to watch for us, guide us, to guard us, to make sure that our doctrine is here and that we're understanding, we're not to watch. And then he says, and remember, for three years, here's the example, for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.

Paul takes this very seriously. And telling pastors, take this seriously, you're the guardian as a church, you're the shepherd that's protecting God. I believe that every believer ought to know the truth and ought to recognize the truth.

But God is given specifically pastors who have trained in the word of God, who have this authority and this position to help protect us. And we need to rely on that. We need to support our pastor.

We need to listen to him. If he's saying, look, here's something that's come up, this is wrong, you need to be aware of it. Don't go next day looking for sermons about it so you know more about it.

Say, okay, absolutely, you're right, we're going to avoid that. That's wrong, that's going to hurt us, these kind of things. So God has given us a lot of things.

He gave us the Holy Spirit, he's given us the word of God. He's given us pastors to lead us and protect us. And we have all the things we need that we can protect ourselves from Antichrist, from the false doctrine entering the church.

So I'm going to get off my soapbox there. Any other thoughts, questions, comments, concerns? Wow. Okay, great.

Will you close us and pray that Lord, thank you for this teaching for Shawn and how the incoming and deceive us. Lord, have truth and know the truth. Lord, determine how these teachings are true.

Right now looking for Pastor Jordan and others that begin to help guide us. And Lord, thank you for studying teaching. Share the truth, the light with others.

Tell them the good news about you and saving grace, that they can be saved also and have some hope in this life.