A Study On God And Relationships
1 John 2:18-27
English Standard Version
Fellowship With Him And One Another
18 Children, It Is The Last Hour: You Have Heard That Antichrist Is Coming: Now Many Antichrists Have Come.
Therefore We Know That It Is The Last Hour.
19 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 Went Out, That It Might Become Plain That They All Are Not Of Us.
20 But You Have Been Anointed By The Holy One, And You All Have Knowledge.
21 I Write To You, Not Because You Do Not Know The Truth, But Because You Know It: No Lie Is Of The Truth.
22 Who Is The Liar But He Who Denies That Jesus Is The Christ? The Antichrist: Denies The Father / The Son.
23 No One Who Denies The Son Has The Father. Whoever Confesses The Son Has The Father Also.
24 Let What You Heard From The Beginning Abide In You. If What You Heard From The Beginning Abides In You, Then You Too Will Abide In The Son And In The Father.
25 And This Is The Promise That He Made To Us—Eternal Life.
26 I Write These Things To You About Those Who Are Trying To Deceive You.
27 But The Anointing That You Received From Him Abides In You, And You Have No Need That Anyone Should Teach You. But As His Anointing Teaches You About Everything, And Is True, And Is No Lie—Just As It Has Taught You, Abide In Him.
Focus On Attitudes:
Attitudes We Have Reviewed In The Last Several Weeks:
Attitude About Adoration:
Who God Is And What God Has Done;
Attitude About Confession:
Agreeing With God About Our Sin;
Attitude About Thanksgiving:
God Wills That We Be Thankful All The Time;
Attitude About Supplication:
Pleading A Humble Petition To God;
Attitude About Fellowship:
Be Ready To Do Any Good Work In His Name;
Attitude About Joy:
Spiritual Maturity Produces Lasting Joy.
Attitude About Walking In The Light:
A Strong Desire To Know Jesus And Spend Time With Him.
Attitude About A New Kind Of Love:
Our Love For One Another Is Motivated By Our Love For Christ.
Attitude About The Church Family:
Spiritual Growth And Fellowship.
Attitude About The Things Of God: Love The Father Or Love The World.
Look At Another Attitude:
Another Choice For A Person To Make:
Attitude About The Truth: Guard Your Heart And Mind Against Error.
1. The Last Hour,The End Of This Age:
- And Just As You Heard That The Antichrist Is Coming,
- Even Now Many Antichrists (False Teachers) Have Appeared,
- Which Confirms Our Belief That It Is The Last Hour.
It Is Important That We Should Understand When John Speaks Of The Time Of The Last Hour.
The Idea Of The Last Days And Of The Last Hour Runs All Through The Bible;
But There Is A Most Interesting Development In Its Meaning:
(i) The Phrase Occurs Frequently In The Very Early Books Of The Old Testament.
Jacob Before His Death Assembles His Sons To Tell Them What Will Happen In The Last Days,
The Last Days Then: The People Of Israel Would Enter Into The Promised Land,
And Would At Last Enter Into Full Enjoyment Of The Promised Blessings Of God.
(ii) The Phrase Frequently Occurs In The Prophets.
In The Last Days God's Holy City Will Be Supreme;
And Israel Will Render To God The Perfect Obedience That He Deserves,
In The Last Days There Will Be The Supremacy Of God And The Obedience Of His People.
(iii) In The Times Between The Old And The New Testaments, The Last Days Become Associated With The Day Of The Lord.
This Is The More Deeply Interwoven Teaching In Scripture.
The Jews Had Come To Believe That All Time Was Divided Into Two Ages.
In Between THIS PRESENT AGE, Which Was Totally Evil,
And THE AGE TO COME, Which Was The Golden Time Of The Kingdom of God.
The Day Of The Lord, The Last Days, Would Be:
- A Time Of Terror, Of Cosmic Destruction And Of Judgment,
- The Birth pains Of The New Age.
THE LAST HOUR DOES NOT MEAN A TIME OF ANNIHILATION TO NOTHINGNESS AS IT WAS BEFORE CREATION.
In Biblical Thought The Last Time Is The End Of One Age And The Beginning Of Another.
It Is Last In The Sense That Things As They Are Pass Away; But It Leads Not To World Obliteration But To World Re-Creation.
Mankind Has The Choice To Align With The Old World Doomed To Destruction,
OR
To Align With Christ To Enter The New World.
IT DEPENDS ON WHETHER OR NOT WE GIVE OUR LIFE TO JESUS CHRIST.
THERE IS AN ETERNAL RELEVANCE: EVERY HOUR IS THE LAST HOUR: BECAUSE YOUR LAST DAY COULD BE TODAY !!
2, Warning Concerning Antichrists:
The Antichrist: The Spirit of Antichrist OR The Antichrist:
In This Verse We Meet The Concept Of Antichrist,
Antichrist Is A Word Which Occurs Only In John's Letters In The New Testament,
But It Is The Expression Of An Idea Which Is As Old As Religion Itself.
Anti: Against Or In Place Of:
Antichrist is the one Who Seeks to Put Himself in Place of Christ,
In Place of Christ in the Church / Christian Community,
Christ Is The Incarnation Of God And Goodness,
Antichrist Is The Incarnation Of The Devil And Evil,
The Incarnation Of Everything Which Was Opposed To God.
Antichrist May Be Not So Much A Person As A Principle,
All Through History There Have Been These Identifications Of Human Figures With Antichrist:
Napoleon, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Have All In Their Day Received This Identification.
3. The Battle Of The Mind:
But You Have An Anointing From The Holy One,
You Have Been Set Apart, Specially Gifted And Prepared By The Holy Spirit,
And All Of You Know the Truth,
Because He Teaches Us, Illuminates Our Minds, And Guards Us From Error.
I Have Not Written To You Because You Do Not Know The Truth,
But Because You Do Know It, And Because No Lie Is Of The Truth.
WHO Is The Liar But The One Who Denies That Jesus Is The Christ,
This Is The Antichrist, The Enemy And Antagonist Of Christ,
The One Who Denies And Consistently Refuses To Acknowledge The Father And The Son.
Whoever Denies The Son Does Not Have The Father;
The One Who Confesses And Acknowledges The Son Has The Father Also.
John Has A View Of Antichrist Is:
- In The World,
- Is The False Belief,
- The Dangerous Teaching Of The Heretics.
The Church Had Been Well Forewarned That In The Last Days False Teachers Would Come.
Jesus Had Said, "Many Will Come In My Name, Saying, I Am He; And They Will Lead Many Astray"
Fierce Wolves Will Come In Among You, Not Sparing The Flock.
And From Among Your Own Selves Will Arise Men,
Speaking Perverse Things, To Draw Away The Disciples After Them.
John Did Not Think Of Antichrist As One Single Individual Figure,
But Rather As A Power Of Falsehood Speaking In And Through The False Teachers.
Just As The Holy Spirit Was Inspiring The True Teachers And The True Prophets,
So There Was An Evil Spirit Inspiring The False Teachers And The False Prophets.
The Great Interest And Relevance Of This Is That For John The Battleground Was In The Mind.
The Spirit Of Antichrist Was Struggling With The Spirit Of God For The Possession Of Men's Minds.
Force Of Evil Deliberately Seeking To Pervade Men's Minds; And There Is Nothing More Potent For Evil.
JOHN WAS NOT CONCERNED ABOUT THE SAINTS BELIEVING A DIFFERENT GOSPEL BUT TOLERATING A DIFFERENT GOSPEL
4. The Sifting Of The Church:
They Went Out From Us,
Seeming At First To Be Christians,
But They Were Not Really Of Us,
Because They Were Not Truly Born Again And Spiritually Transformed,
For If They Had Been Of Us, They Would Have Remained With Us,
But They Went Out Teaching False Doctrine,
So That It Would Be Clearly Shown That None Of Them Are Of Us.
BUT YOU HAVE RECEIVED ANOINTING FROM THE HOLY ONE AND YOU ALL POSSESS KNOWLEDGE.
As For You, Let That Remain In You keeping In Your Hearts That Message Of Salvation,
Which You Heard From The Beginning and if it remains in you,
You Too Will Remain In The Son And In The Father forever.
The False Teachers Voluntarily Left The Christian Fellowship;
And That Fact Had Shown That They Did Not Really Belong There,
They Were Aliens And Their Own Conduct Had Shown It To Be So.
This passage describes the Sifting Of The Church,
the separation of the genuine from the counterfeit,
the possessors from the professors who do not possess.
In contrast Jesus declared that the wheat and the tares "would grow together until the harvest," and the counterfeit nature of the tares will not be apparent until the final harvest.
Who Is The Liar But The Man Who Denies That Jesus Is The Anointed One Of God !!
Antichrist Is He Who Denies The Father And The Son !!
Anyone Who Denies The Son Does Not Even Have The Father !!
And Everyone Who Acknowledges The Son Has The Father Also !!
JESUS SAID:
- No Man Knows The Father Except The Son And Him To Whom The Son Reveals That Knowledge,
- Believes In Me, Believes Not In Me But In Him Who Sent Me. And He Who Sees Me Sees Him Who Sent Me,
- Everyone Who Acknowledges Me Before Men, I Also Will Acknowledge Before My Father Who Is In Heaven,
- Whoever Denies Me Before Men, I Also Will Deny Before My Father Who Is In Heaven.
Jesus Claimed That A Man's Reaction To Him Is A Reaction To God,
That Reaction Settles His Destiny In Time And In Eternity.
5. The Universal Privilege:
If That Which You Have Heard From The Beginning Remains Within You,
You Too Will Remain In The Son And In The Father,
And This Is The Promise Which He Made To You: Eternal Life.
As For You, The Anointing Which You Received From Him Remains Permanently In You,
And You Have No Need For Anyone To Teach You,
But Just As His Anointing Teaches You About All Things,
And Is True And Is Not A Lie, And Just As His Anointing Has Taught You,
You Must Remain In Him.
I Am Writing These Things To You To Warn You About Those Who Are Seeking To Lead You Astray.
John Is Pleading With His People To Abide In The Things Which They Have Learned and if they do they abide in CHRIST.
Even If We Have Doubts And Difficulties About The Physical Second Coming Of Christ, This Still Remains True.
For Every Man Life Will Some Day Come To An End;
God Will Summons Us All:
- Summons To Voyage Into A Frightening Unknown,
OR
- Summons To Come Home And To Enter Into The Presence Of One Who Is A Friend.
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