1 John Chapter 2 Verses 18 – 19

 The authoritative direction on how to know who is or who is not truly

in the faith… Over time, they will select the Word of God, thus

overcome the spirit of anti-instead of-Christ, and they will remain…

Not without bumps and bruises and not without failures for sure…, but

in the end, here they are…, still walking with Jesus… so how can we

know? Well, if we are honest, we won’t until the end! So, stop

worrying about judging everyone else’s faith! Judge your own!

 I had this conversation with the Lord a long time ago! “God, how

about I judge them and You love them!? I’ll make sure they’re on the

straight and narrow so you can love them!” Well, that doesn’t work at

all because that’s not what the Lord would have me to do. Over time,

over failure after failure, guilt after guilt, broken relationship after

broken relationship, his response to me, when I could finally hear Him

say it, “How about you love them and leave the judging up to Me.”

Ok, I can do that… Harder…, harder for me for sure, but I can do

that…

1 John Chapter 2 Verse 20

 Fourteen words this verse is and they are more than fourteen miles

deep in meaning! Let’s take in the next verse and then talk about the

importance of what John is saying…

1 John Chapter 2 Verse 21

 You know all things and you know that no lie is of the truth and you

KNOW the truth! And what is that source of truth? The mark of a

Christian! The anointing from the Holy One!

 We throw this word “anointing” or “anointed” around like it is

something that always is so special for specific people and times, like

“he’s so anointed, or she’s so anointed, or that worship service was so

anointed,” and that’s not wrong in and of itself but it can leave you

with the wrong idea about anointing in general!

 The Word in the Greek is “chrisma” and it’s related to the word

“christos.” All “Christo” or Christ in the Greek means, (the Messiah

as it were in the Greek), all it means is, “the anointed!” And so, we

could say that John says here, “You know all things because you have

been Messiah’d!”

 The idea is oil or emersed into… When a priest was commissioned, he

would be anointed with oil. When David was names a king, 1 Samuel

16:13 tells us, “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in

the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David

from that day forward.” So it is for the Christian that when you came

into the faith, (or for the seeker, when you come into the faith), you

essentially are Messiah’d, anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit and

He Himself, God Himself, comes to abide within you and God within

you indeed does know all things… You bunch of know-it-alls… HA!

 This is what we call discernment. And just like any ability, capability,

intrinsic skill, it can be dulled and it can be sharpened… which leads

me to ask… So, what’s my problem then?! If the Holy Spirit, God

Himself abides within me and He knows all things and will lead me

into all truth as Jesus said in John 16, what’s my problem then? Well,

to quote the great prophet G.I. Joe, “Knowing is HALF the battle,”

HA! The fact is that I possess the resource for knowing the truth AND

hold that thought as John continues to warn us against the deception

that was among the church then and has only increased in our time…

1 John Chapter 2 Verses 22 – 25

 BIG statements there by John and HUMONGO road sign to give you

notice of this very dangerous, but honestly quite obvious, potentially

disastrous deception! There are tons of people out there that say that

Jesus is the “Christ” as defined by them, or as defined by the man or

the woman that began their movement, but John says we must define

Jesus as the Christ as the Bible defines Jesus as the Christ which is

fully God and fully man, One with the Father, God Himself, the

Second Person of the Triune God, who was manifested, He came in

the flesh, died on the cross in the flesh, was buried in the body and

rose physically from the grave.

 John warns that anything else, anything else is not some sort of

insignificant variation but is rooted (if not itself is) the spirit of

antichrist! It’s like this. If you leave out of an airport in California

flying to Hawaii, if that pilot sets his flight path 1 degree off, he will

miss Hawaii by over 300 miles!

 “He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.” Define Jesus by

anyone or anything other than the Son of God… AND, whoever

denies the Son cannot, does not, have the Father. So, if you get Jesus

wrong, and here is why it is so important and also dangerous, if you

get Jesus wrong, you miss the Way to the Father. And in that, doesn’t

matter how good you are, how sincere you are, how wonderful you

are, how devoted you are, according to the authority of the Word of

God, not only are you not saved and still in your sin (because only by

the Son of God, the biblical Christ is the forgiveness of sin) but you

are walking and living and being deceived by the spirit of antichrist!

Heavy stuff, Marty!

 By the way, what is the definition of “eternal life?” It’s actually not

only speaking of forever life but also about quality of life! In the

Bible, eternal life is always associated with knowing God. John 17:3

says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God,

and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” God is the source of all

goodness…, He is THE source! And so, to abide in Him, to know

Him, is to continually increase/upgrade your quality of life and that is

what is meant by eternal life when spoken of in the Bible.

1 John Chapter 2 Verses 26 – 27

 John tells us exactly why he has written this portion of scripture. These

things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you…

Is it possible for a Christian to become deceived? Absolutely! Peter

talks about it, John talks about it, Jesus talks about it…, why would it

be talked about so much if not!? Not deceived unto condemnation, but

deceived unto error and all that can come with error. Division, strife,

contentions, agitation…, joy killers! And the word for deceive is

actually, “seduce.” That’s far more of a subtle thought because

deception we can defended against (to me this makes sense) far more

effectively than seduction…

 Seduction is the thought meaning that no matter how mature you are

or how much you know, seduction is going to work… And guys, it

really always does. That’s why its seduction… So how do you

overcome seduction? Well, in the flesh, good luck! Situational,

momentary, impulse? Following your heart as the modern music

would indoctrinate you to do…, you have no chance! Just being real

with you! To overcome and win against seduction, you have to love

something more, be committed to something that is allowed even to

cause you pain, than to be carried away by the emotion and draw and

desire of something else… (Picture)

 And John gives us that statement of commitment as protection against

being carried away, protection against setting aside truth, and that is

the anointing of God on your life! God will do the things, He will do

the protecting and the guiding and the securing and the opposing and

the preventing because it is His anointing of His strength within

YOU, our play alone is to abide in Him!

 And I love the fact that he says, “You do not need anyone to teach

you!” It’s true! You have the greatest resource in all of eternity within

you! The truth is not me, its not any teacher no matter how convincing

they are or how great of an orator they are. The truth is the Word of

God! Jeremiah 31:33-34 even tells us, “But this is the covenant that I

will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I

will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will

be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man

teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the

Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest

of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I

will remember no more.”

 So, what am I doing up here!? Why are you listening to me!? First of

all, not to reveal anything new to you that you couldn’t know on your

own! It is the height of arrogance for anyone to say that they have the

inside scoop on the scriptures! So called prophets, deconstructionists,

apostles, and the like. That is the height of arrogance! We need

teachers and I’ll tell you why/how, that are skilled in confirming the

Word of God. When you walk away from a teaching, the Holy Spirit

should be confirming what you heard. If not, watch out…!

 Paul said it this way, for every father we have they are worth 10,000 (1

Corinthians 4) teachers. So, one reason we still need teachers today is

because teachers that are called care more about you than they do

about teaching you. Sorry if you don’t like that. That’s Biblical.

AND, just because you can know it, doesn’t mean you do! The only

thing common about common sense, right…!? So, my job, and any

teacher’s job, is first to care about each and every one of you. If I

don’t, I have no biblical business teaching you. Second, is to confirm

the scriptures through the power of the Holy Spirit, and third, to prod

you towards truth and away from error – which we all need!

(Remember common sense – give the traffic story)

1 John 2 Verses 28 – 29

 Ok, some folks take these verses one way and others take them

another… When the Lord returns for His church, when He appears in

the clouds at the time of the deportation of Christians before the

judgement of God, the Great Tribulation, comes upon the earth, Paul

tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We

shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the

twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” And at that moment, Paul

explains in 2 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord Himself will

descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and

with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we

who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the

clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

 AND 1 John 3:2 tells us that, “We know that when He is revealed, we

shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is…” So, these three

truths together, when we are taken into the presence of Jesus at the

rapture of the church, John calls it, “His coming,” in our scripture set,

we will be changed, perfected and become like Jesus. Without the

constraints and burden of our fleshly nature any longer. And so, shame

at that moment… I can’t get there. So, what must John mean?

 Not sure. But some translations give this as, “We may have confidence

and not be ashamed before His coming.” This may be a statement of

eternal life, that quality of life where shame is defeated and confidence

calls the shots. However, I’m flexible, perhaps there will be tears of

shame when I stand in front of Jesus, although I know that no shame

can be in His presence…, He defeated shame…, so do with this what

you will…

 And, John gives us this last thought of this chapter, if you know the

Lord, you can see the Lord in those that know the Lord. The kids

today say it this way, real recognizes real. The one that is close to the

Lord, abiding in Him, in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, we light up

when we see others who love the Lord also. We enjoy love, joy, peace,

long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-

control…, force multiplying each other unto the glory of God!