"The Antichrist"
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A popular misconception—perhaps a Christian urban legend—is that the United States Secret Service never shows bank tellers counterfeit money when teaching them to identify it. The agents who do the training, so the legend goes, show bank tellers only examples of genuine money so that when the phony money appears before them they will know it by its difference from the real thing. The story is supposed to make the point that Christians ought to study truth and never heresy.
The first time I heard the tale as a sermon illustration I intuited its falseness. On checking with the Treasury Department's Minneapolis Secret Service agent in charge of training bank tellers to identify counterfeit money, my suspicion was confirmed. He laughed at the story and wondered aloud who would start it and who would believe it. At my request he sent me a letter confirming that the Secret Service does show examples of counterfeit money to bank tellers.
I believe it is important and valuable for Christians to know not only theological correctness (orthodoxy) but also the ideas of those judged as heretics within the church's story. One reason is that it is almost impossible to appreciate the meaning of orthodoxy without understanding the heresies that forced its development.
In 2011, a story was told about a retired pastor who began noticing that his former congregation was sliding away from orthodoxy. The pastor saw this as his fault, noting the one thing he thought he did most poorly as a pastor. The pastor stated, in two sentences, his great failure as a pastor: "I always told people what to believe. My great mistake is that I never clearly taught my people what NOT to believe."
Many of this is the reason why I am so careful about the kind of teaching and the kind of influence we have at the church. But over the years things have gotten out of control and really out of hand. Because as elders today we have a humongous problem… discipleship just does not happen in the church any more.
9 marks ministries came to a conclusion. “If you’re looking for a root cause for why it seems so many Christians are going off the rails these days and why so many churches are falling apart, here it is in one sentence: The internet, not the local church, has become the primary place where Christians are formed today.
One pastor writes, “The primary context of discipleship should be the local church.” Certainly the internet can supplement the local church in the task of discipleship. But when it replaces or is prioritized over the church as the place where Christians live and learn, things go awry.
And the internet… is inundated and I mean inundated with false teaching. And it is getting into our churches today. The Bible teaches us some very important things about false teaching. And the Word is very clear. Let’s take a look.
I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
The Antichrist
Watch Out
The Way, the Truth and The Life
The first thing we will look at today is the identity of a false teacher. The second thing is the heads up to watch out for these deceivers. Finally, we see why the truth of Christ is the true life and life more abundant.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to be deceived by the many deceivers in the world telling us what we want to hear, it is the truth of the scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit that will open our hearts and mind to recognize that Christ is all and must be all that we will ever need.
I. The Antichrist
- Many deceivers have gone out into the world.
A. Trust in the words of Christ and the commands that you have from the beginning. Trust in the word of God and the truth you have learned though proper interpretation and the histor-christian faith. Do not go beyond it. And why do I remind you of this truth. Why do I remind you of your command? Because there are deceivers, lots of them, who have gone out into this world.
B. Clearly we see an amount … polus planos. Not just planos deceivers, but polus planos. Polus a large but indefinite number. A great deal. A large number. Numerous. So we are not talking about 1 or 2, we are talking about a-lot of them. And alot of them with a mission… a mission to deceive. Alot of them with purpose. A purpose to deceive. Purpose? Really?
C. John says that these deceivers have “gone out into this world.” John is using the familiar phrase to signify a sending mission.
Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.
So as you can see just like the apostles were sent into the world by the Lord to preach the truth for Christ is truth, the deceivers are sent into the world by the devil to preach their lies, for the devil is the father of lies. They are on mission to deceive. They had the purpose to deceive. Sure it may not have been a direct mandate from the devil, but their deception had a reason.
In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.
D. Does this not sound like the many false teachers we have today? Deceive to build ministries. Deception for success. Deception for more money. Deception to build build build for themselves. They deceive with stuff they make up.
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
E. They make stuff up. They rely on their own imaginations and creativity. Remember when I said many times, I’ll say where in the world did you hear that? Where did you get that from? And they will continue on their destructive path for Greed, vanity, selfishness, self-centeredness, success. And we need to understand that this is destructive and lives are gonna be destroyed.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
F. And the key word here for us today… is the destructive heresies are gonna be secret. It is gonna sneak itself in. We are not gonna be aware. They are gonna destroy you with their teaching and they are gonna be super sneaky about it. It is not gonna be obvious. Its gonna sneak in there and you will be destroyed. Almost all of the heretics in church history have their scriptures and called themselves believers of Jesus. People will call them christians they will appear to be christian, but their teaching is gonna destroy you. And you will be destroyed because of their message. They slander Christ. Secretly and subtlety.
Dr. John Stott writes, “At all events, we are to think of them as itinerant false prophets, travelling along the great Roman roads of Asia Minor, seeking to insinuate their error into the churches they visited. ‘From their own point of view, they were Christian missionaries. From the standpoint of the Presbyter they were impostors’
G. And family, the heresy taught by these teachers was that they do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a denial of the humanity of Christ. This is not the truth about Christ. If Jesus did not come as a man, then he does not represent man, he could not truly die, he could not be a perfect sacrifice, and if these are the case then we are not saved and there is no salvation for us. There is no redemption. There is no hope and God is a liar.
For,
There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.
To believe untruth about Jesus shows that you have gone beyond the teaching and to wander away from this shows that you have no relationship with God.
H. So Shane is it important to believe the truth about Christ? Yes, if you don’t you do not have a relationship with God.
Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.
No salvation. No redemption. No Life abundant. This is why these heresies are destructive. If you do not believe what is true about Christ you are going to Hell. This is the Word of God. Do you believe what is true about Christ? Are you sure?
I. What was happening during the early years of Christianity was an ecumenicism or a blending of all worldviews and religions, philosophies, science ect. Many were taking what they liked about the various philosophies, religions, ideologies and worldviews and they were blending them together. The early stages of gnosticism collaborated ideas from dualists who believed that anything that was made of matter was evil and what was made of spirit was good. So they did not want Jesus to be seen as evil so they taught that he was not really human. He just appeared to be human and one of the many emanations that came down from heaven from the great logos or the great abyss.
J. John is forcefully stating that this teaching is a destructive heresy that will destroy you and it is being secretly and subtlety taught to you. If Jesus did not come in the flesh we are all still in our sins and there is no salvation. If you go along with these teachings you do not have a relationship with God. The false teachers have no relationship with God and their followers do not have one either.
K. These people who teach this… they are deceivers and they are antichrists. We need to see this… they may be the nicest people. They may be really moral and sincere. They may be polite and generous. They may be passionate about Christ and gifted. But if they do not preach the truth about Christ. John calls them deceivers and antichrists. Remember we do not take our cues from the world … our directives come from the scriptures. The scriptures call them deceivers and antichrists.
L. Danny Akin writes, “The elder was well aware of the fact that what one believes about Jesus will impact other areas of his theology. Indeed it will shape his entire worldview. The beliefs one holds about the Bible, God, humanity, creation, sin, and salvation will be shaped by what is believed about Jesus Christ. These traveling missionaries were false teachers who posed great danger for the church.
J. Polhill asserts, “They are assuming the guise of Christian teachers but are actually the enemies of Christ.”
II. Watch Out
- You will lose.
A. John give us another imperative here. It is not a suggestion. He is command you and me today. We have to Blepo… we have to Watch out. We are to be on the lookout. We are to be vigilant. We are to examine. We are to be careful. Be aware of the false teachers that went out into the world.
B. You know Jesus warned his disciples, including john, about false teachers and antichrists that were coming.
For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. Watch out! I have warned you about this ahead of time!
C. John is showing us here that what Jesus said was true. It is happening. So now he is telling us to watch out.
Danny Akin writes, “The elder’s audience must be on constant guard. There is no place for complacency. There is always a seductiveness to false teaching that can lure one into a stupor if he is not careful.”
D. We gotta watch out still. All of this is kind of like what is happening today… blending cultures, ideals, philosophies, religions, politics, entertainment, social groups and trying to blend them together. JACK STOP.
E. This blending and pressure for greed, self-indulgening, relevance, whatever is what leads to the false teaching that God is not a God of judgement and denies the exclusivity of Christ in Rob Bells teaching of universalism that no matter what everyone is going to heaven no matter what they believe. This is a destructive false teaching. Benny Hinn teaches tritheism that there are three separate God’s who share the same essense and parts. It is the denial of the unity of Christ and the Father and teaching a form of poly theism. Destructive. How Joyce Meyer taught and I quote, “"He could have helped himself up until the point where he said I commend my spirit into your hands, at that point he couldn’t do nothing for himself anymore. He had become sin, he was no longer the Son of God. He was sin." "He became our sacrifice and died on the cross. He did not stay dead. He was in the grave three days. During that time he entered hell, where you and I deserve to go (legally) because of our sin. He paid the price there.” (The most important decision you'll ever make, by Joyce Meyer, second printing, may 1993, page 35)
F. How Bill Johnson from Bethel and evangelical churches all over the world sing their songs and support their teachers wrote in his book “He laid his divinity aside as He sought to fulfill the assignment given to Him by the Father . . . (Johnson : 79).” This is the kenosis heresy… God cannot lay aside His divinity… it would mean God was no longer God and if God could no longer be God than He was not God in the first place. If Jesus was not God when he died then it did not pay the price for the world. TD Jakes is a modalist and denies the persons of the trinity. He believes that Jesus the Father and the Spirit are all one and the same. If that is the case then Jesus did not really die on the cross and we are all still dead in our sins. Destructive heresy. Brian Maclaren denies that Jesus died to pay for our sins. Paula White believes that Jesus death on the cross was enough and we still need to make sacrifices for our sins on the day of atonement.
G. Victoria Osteen siad jesus was a man until God touched him and put the spirit of the living God in Him. Richard Rohr denies original sin, the atonement of Christ and his exclusivity. But finds his way into our churches through his enneagram teaching which found its origins in the work of occultist, Óscar Ichazo, who connected Enneagram the symbol of the cosmos to personality. Ichazo claimed to have discovered the personality type meaning of the Enneagram when it was taught to him by the Archangel Metraton while he was high on mescaline.
H. What this short list is showing is that we are not watching out for the destructive heresies. These things are creeping in the church hand have been for a while. And if we continue to allow the internet and parachurch ministries to do our spiritual formation instead of Central Baptist Church, then things will go awry. And it will go fast. JACK START
I. And if you say… hey Shane, so what. I like them, i’ll keep listing to them and support their ministries. Next week we will see what the Lord will do to those who support these deceivers and antichrists
III. The Way, the Truth, and the Life.
- No one come to the Father except through Jesus
A. And why is this a problem for us today. Because if you really think about it, these false teachings appeal to our flesh. These false teaching give us a false sense of security. We can do what we want, believe what we want, and there will be no consequences. We are in control of our lives, we are in control even of God. We need to understand that this lowering of God to human standards is the reason why a popular SBC preacher will say that God made mistakes and that God sinned.
B. We love it when preachers make God more in the image of man, because it makes man more godlike. And what we have is a being who has supernatural ability on our side and we can control. Which leads a popular teacher to say that she believes that the Holy Spirit is a lot like the genie from Alladin. In sin we even desire more and more experiences in life that we will even manufactor experiences and cause self induced deception, hypnosis, and even suggestion. Leading one popular teacher to say if God is not talking to you, then just make it up. Better to have a false experience then no experience at all.
C. We fall into these deception traps because of the is awful thing lingering in our lives. Its called the flesh. It is called sin. And today we need to be reminded that to love and like these kinds of teachings and to be led astray by them, it is an affront to the Lord and it shows that we have no relationship with God. The wages of sin is death. We are all by nature children of wrath. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. What an absolute terrible thing to desire lies about our Lord Jesus.
D. But we can be saved. Because we know that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We can find life in the forgiveness and grace of our Lord. Jesus has come to seek and save that which was lost. The Son of God, Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried… The saying is trust worthy and deserving of full acceptance… The Son of man gave his life as a ransom for many. Jesus the God man made all things new.
E. And today we should rejoice because our lord Jesus is the Everlasting God. But Shane we just cant explain him. We just can’t get it straight when it comes to understanding all that he has done. We cannot explain the trinity. Did you know that every single example and illustration that we give to explain the trinity is a heresy. So can we not explain the three in one dynamic. We cannot use anything in all of creation to compare to the living triune God. And we don’t want it… I am glad that I cannot explain God in anyway using the creation or human language… because then I would have to conclude that He really is the everlasting and eternal God who is able to exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine. He is not to be explained He is to be extolled.