32. 1 Jn218-28 Truth vs Falsehood Pt 4 Discernment in Our Conflict

Truth vs Falsehood Pt 4: Discernment in Our Conflict

1Jn 2:18-28 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so 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, and because no lie is of the truth. (22) Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. (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. (28) And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

1) The Reality and Time of the Conflict 2) Our opposition in the Conflict 3) Our tools in the Conflict 4) Discernment in the Conflict and 5) The Means of Victory in Our Conflict

Introduction:

For the last several weeks I have been engaged in a conversation with a friend from high school. He is Catholic and the first person I shared the gospel with after God saved me. He made a profession of faith and it was not long after that his parents sent him to the priest and he was convinced that the Catholic church was the ultimate means of his salvation. I haven’t seen or talked to this person since that time. But he chose to engage on facebook over something I reposted from John MacArthur. I will not do a play by play of the exchange here this morning. But I want to use it as an example of discernment and the lack thereof. Catholics believe that you can lose your salvation. Even after providing Scriptural evidence to prove otherwise but he was not moved to the truth. My point in the whole exchange was to point him to the gospel of Christ and to read the Bible for himself. This morning is not about the false teaching of the Catholic Church because they have not cornered the market on false teaching.

As of 2022 the Catholic church claims 1.39 billion adherents. Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church boasts 52,000 attendees on a weekend service. How many more are influenced by his books? We could accumulate quite the list of heretical teachers and be aghast at the number of followers they have. Why because there is a scarcity of spiritual discernment. People do not read and study their Bibles.

This text this morning lays before us the foundational truth that all Biblical doctrine is based either directly or indirectly.

The last time we were in 1 John we saw the resources in our conflict: The Spirit and the Word of Truth. These are the essential elements in spiritual discernment. What then is there to be discerned? There are 2 points this morning. 1) Discerning the truth from the lie 2) Discerning the Liar and the antichrist.

I. Discerning the Truth from the Lie

The lies are clearly stated: The denial that Jesus is the Christ and denies the Father and the Son.

A denial of Jesus as the Christ is also the denial that Jesus is the Prophet, Priest, and King that was spoken of in the prophecies of the OT. Each of these offices were anointed with oil. Christ literally means anointed. It is a denial that He is our Lord and Savior

Jesus is the Prophet whom we need to instruct us in the things of God so as to heal our blindness and ignorance. Moses declared in Deu 18:15  “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. It is this very text that Peter references in:

Act 3:20-22  that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,  (21)  whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which R26God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.  (22)  Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

God speaks from heaven in Mat 17:5  He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Jesus, as the prophet foretold in the OT, revealed in the New, revealed the mystery of God’s redemption promised so long ago and displayed at His cross.

Eph 3:8-12  To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,  (9)  and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things,  (10)  so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.  (11)  This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,  (12)  in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

Denying Jesus is the Christ of God, first and foremost is calling God a liar. Because it was the testimony of God through many signs and wonders that Jesus was the fulfillment of the covenant made so long ago.

Jesus is also Priest

Heb 10:12-18  But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,  (13)  waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.  (14)  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.  (15)  And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,  (16)  “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”  (17)  then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”  (18)  Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

In the words of the 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 8 p9, “because of our estrangement from God and the imperfection of our services at best, we need his priestly office to reconcile us to God and render us acceptable to him”

Salvation is only in Jesus Christ because there are two conditions that, no matter how hard we try, we can never meet. Yet, they must be done if we are to be saved. The first is to satisfy the justice of God through obedience to the law. The second is to pay the price of our sins. We cannot do either, but Christ did both perfectly.

Romans 5:19 says, “By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

Romans 5:10 says, “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” There is no other way to come into the presence of God than through Christ alone.

Jesus’ sacrifice took place once only, but He still continues as our great High Priest, the One through whom all acceptable prayer and praise are made to God. In heavenly places, He remains our constant Intercessor and Advocate (Rom. 8:34; 1 John 2:1).

Jesus is the King, ruling over all things. Over His church He reigns by means of His Holy Spirit (Acts 2:30–33). He sovereignly gives repentance to the impenitent and bestows forgiveness on the guilty (Acts 5:31). Christ is “our eternal King who governs us by His word and Spirit, and who defends and preserves us in the enjoyment of that salvation, He has purchased for us” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A. 31). As the royal Heir of the new creation, He will lead us into a kingdom of eternal light and love.

Eph 1:20-21  that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,  (21)  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

What does the Word of God promise us? It promises that those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It promises us that the world will hate us because it first hated Christ. In this life we will know suffering, we will know pain, we may know hunger and poverty but we can rest on this assurance. The Jesus Christ is King. That He will never leave us or forsake us. And that He has sovereignly supplied all that we need and in the infinite glory of His name has brought us into His kingdom.

A denial of Jesus as the Christ of God is a denial that He is the prophet that reveals to us the mystery of God’s redemption. It is a claim that God did not speak to us through His Son in these last days. All His words which he spoke are therefore not the words from God. All that Jesus spoke in the gospels then becomes

A denial of Jesus as Christ is a denial of His high priesthood. The practical implications of this the rejection of the once and for all time sacrifice of Jesus. It is a denial of that He is our advocate and that He is our intercessor.

A denial of Jesus as Christ is a rejection of His authority over all that the Father given Him. It is a rejection of His headship and authority over the church.

The second lie is the denial of the Father and the Son

There is no true knowledge of God apart from the true knowledge of His Son Mat 11:27  All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

The Father cannot be known apart from the Son. Joh 1:18  No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Where the Son is denied all the revelation of God in and through Him is set aside. God has given Himself to us to be enjoyed only through Christ, He is sought in vain every where else. Upon the Jews rejection of the Messiah their religion must necessarily be false. The Muslims who say the worship the God of Abraham, because they have rejected Jesus Christ as the Son of God must necessarily be false. This is the testimony of Jesus

(John 5:23) so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

(John 8:19) So they were saying to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”

(John 8:42) Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.

This passage is especially interesting as Jesus is addressing an audience of Jews who have professed to believe in Him (Jn 8:30-31). Jesus proceeds to demonstrate that their so-called belief (faith, trust) was nothing more than intellectual belief. In other words, their faith was not authentic saving faith, and thus their claim that God was their Father (Jn 8:41) was erroneous. In a sense, they denied Jesus and so the denied His Father just as John explains in the present section! Jesus went on to say that if they really knew His Father, they would love the Father's Son! Instead, as their subsequent actions proved, not only did they not love the Son, but they even sought to kill the Son! (See Jn 8:40 and compare with Jn 8:58 -- For the full context read John 8:30-58).

(John 10:30) “I and the Father are one.”

(John 12:44-45) And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him (God the Father) who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One (God the Father) Who sent Me.

(John 14:9) Jesus said to him (Jn 14:8), “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

(John 14:6-7) Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

(John 14:9-10) Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.

(John 15:23-24) “He who hates Me hates My Father also. “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

We read this list of Scriptures and as many as we read it is not comprehensive. This is the Biblical record, and the lie is what God has said in His word is not true.

II. Discerning the Liar and Antichrist

John the Apostle of Love does not shy away from declaring that the one who denies what the Scriptures clearly teach and what he himself witnessed and testified to is not just a liar but his is the antichrist. He uses such strong words and in our day and time when we will not speak the truth for fear of hurting someone’s feelings or making them feel uncomfortable, we stand shocked. In our desire to be one big happy Christian family we really miss the danger of the lies.

These liars and antichrists who deny the truths John states in these verses deny that Jesus is the One who God sent to accomplish the redemption of His people, those whom He shoes before the foundation of the world. This is not just an overt denial that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah but also a denial that He accomplished that which God purposed for Him to do. If you believe that you are not saved by grace through faith alone. If you think that you must add works to merit your salvation you are a liar and antichrist. If you believe you can lose your salvation when God has sent His Son to secure our complete salvation then you are a liar and worse yet you accuse God by implication of being a liar because you do not believe that He has done what He said He has done.

Jesus said on His cross, “It is finished”.

When John calls them liars and antichrists he is referring to people who deny the truth not those who are ignorant of it. These are the ones who have the mindset to undermine the foundations of the faith. To lead, if possible, astray the elect. These must be met with and in the same spirit that John displays here. He warns in his second letter:

2Jn 1:6-8  And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.  (7)  For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.  (8)  Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

There is a difference in how we should approach a Joel Osteen and someone who sits in ignorance in his church. The former should exposed for the antichrist he is, the later should be met with a degree of compassion and understanding while pointing them to the message of the cross. The same goes for any trapped in the false teachings of the Mormons, JW’s, and any other religion that denies the true faith and the true doctrine of the Bible.

But that requires each of us to be good students of the Bible. To be ready in season and out to give an account of the hope that we have within us. We live in a dangerous world today. I do not mean the danger of increasing lawlessness around us. I mean the danger of the increasing departure from the sound doctrine of the faith. The things so called believers post on Instagram, facebook, and other social media platforms make me cringe. More and more people are buying into the cult of personality. Wed yourself to sound doctrine. Cling to the cross and keep your eyes firmly fixed on Christ Jesus.