TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES?
1 John 2:18-27
INTRO: John teaches us in these verses that we can either ground ourselves in the truth or suffer the consequences. It is important for us to understand the days we live in.
ILLUS: I heard about an old farmer that had a grandfather clock that went haywire and chimed fourteen times one midnight. He jumped up and said, “Wake up, Nellie, it’s later than it’s ever been before.” I want to tell you folks, it’s later than it’s ever been before. I believe that we are living in the last times of the last time.
This passage of Scripture deals in particular with those who profess the Christian faith and then abandon the church (v. 19). Every church anywhere that I know anything about has an inactive roll. There are three characteristics in these verses which help us recognize those who go away and really don’t belong to the Lord.
I. THEY DENY THE CHRIST.
Christianity is not merely a set of doctrines, it is a relationship with a person. If you do away with Jesus Christ, you’ve done away with Christianity. Notice what he says in v. 18 “...and you have heard that Antichrist shall come.”
Probably you could understand that a little better if you put a capital “A” at the beginning of the word “Antichrist” He is talking about a personality. We know the Bible predicts there will come, at the end of the age, a personality known as the Antichrist. The word anti means instead of and opposed to. Antichrist...instead of Christ, a counterfeit Christ. John continues by saying that even now there are many Antichrists, plural. Keep your place right there and flip over to 2 John 7.
It was already happening in the days of John. It has continued down to this very time. That’s why in every age sincere Christian believers have looked at personalities in history and have mistakenly identified them as THE Antichrist; because they take on the characteristics of the Antichrist, and they oppose Jesus Christ. Go back to 1 John 4:1. Now look at v. 3.
That spirit of Antichrist, is that atmosphere that opposes Jesus Christ. And, of course, we are experiencing that today.
II. DESERT THE CHURCH (v. 19).
This desertion is at least three-fold in its nature.
1. Physical Desertion — People who at one time were physically present in the church but have now deserted the church and have gone their own way. Some people come in and set the world on fire for Jesus for six months then you never see them again. John said they went out from us because they were not of us. One of the tragedies of the Christian faith today is that everywhere there are people with their names on a church roll and yet they haven’t darkened the doors of their church in years. Can you imagine what would happen next Sunday morning if everybody came whose name was on the roll?
Well, what about those people? Some of those people we call backsliders have never been born again.
2. Moral Desertion — They will morally depart from the faith also. Doing anything and everything that the lost world does (See 2 Corinthians 5:17). Those who depart always take the stand on the opposite side of the church. When a moral issue comes up in a community, if those who name the name of Christ and belong to churches would take the right stand, that would be the end of the matter right there.
The sad thing is, there are people who profess to be saved members of churches that if the church stands for purity, they stand for impurity. If the church is on the side of righteousness, they’re on the side of unrighteousness. They depart from us, they were not really of us.
3. Intellectual Desertion — We call it apostasy. That is a person who departs from the faith, a person who deserts the doctrines of the Christian faith.
ILLUS: In our Southern Baptist Convention we pass resolutions every year. A resolution is a position statement, on certain moral and ethical issues that arise. One of the things that the Southern Baptist Convention did a few years ago was to pass a resolution about Jesus being the only way to salvation. Listen to what one pastor said:
“In regard to the resolution, I understand God to be a gracious, life-giving mystery who, for me, is most clearly encountered in the human Jesus, the Christ. Therefore, I am Christian. I assume that there are other lights, other understandings of God’s movement of love and justice in our world. To judge with certainty another person’s relationship to God is for me the height of arrogance.” (SBC Annual Meeting June, 1994)
What he is saying is Jesus is not the only way. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me.” Look at 2 John 9. “Whosoever transgresses, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” The way I read that, if you depart from the doctrines of Christ which are revealed to us in the Word of God, then you don’t have God, you’re not saved. When you get a genuine experience with the Lord Jesus in your heart, you won’t have any trouble believing the Bible.
III. DECEIVE THE CHRISTIAN (v. 26).
“These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” That means to lead you astray, that lead you into error. That’s what those who go away from the faith do, they deceive the Christian. The cults that we deal with today are not engaged in winning lost people to Jesus. They are engaged in seducing professing Christians.
ILLUS: Look at the history of the tragic Jim Jones affair and just see the people and where they came from. Check the rolls of the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
I want to show you three ingredients in these verses that will help you stay straight and not get confused by the false teachers and the spirit of Antichrist in the world.
1. Stay in the church of God. “They would have continued with us.” (v. 19). Stay in the church, and make sure it is a Bible-believing church. Some people will say, “it doesn’t matter what church you go to just as long as you go.” It DOES MATTER!!
2. Stay in the Word of God. (v. 24). You stay in the Bible and let the Bible stay in you. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2:13. People who deny the inerrancy of the scripture say it is the words of God and men, not just the words of God. If you’ll just get that Bible in your life everyday it will do wonders in your life.
3. Abide in the Spirit of God. (v. 20). Now drop down to v. 27. The word unction in v. 20 and the word anointing in v. 27 are the same Greek word. The reference here is to anointing with oil. In the O.T., they would anoint a prophet, a priest, a king.
When you’re saved, according to 2 Corinthians 1: 21, you are anointed. That simply means that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your heart. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the anointing. The filling of the Spirit is to make you spiritual. The anointing of the Spirit is to make you successful. It is in the anointing of the Holy Spirit that you receive power and victory in the Christian life.
In light of hearing error and those who go away, who seek to seduce Christians, notice what he says in v. 27. He is not denying the gift of teacher. He’s not saying that you ought never listen to human teachers. That’s not the point. But the point is you are not dependent on teachers in order to learn the Scriptures.
ILLUS: When you Read a book you have a desire to ask the author what he meant. The Holy Spirit, the Author of the Bible, is in your heart. When you’re studying the Scriptures and you get into something you don’t understand, you’ve got the privilege of talking to the Author and asking the Holy Spirit to explain His word. The Holy Spirit will tell you whether or not what you are hearing from a particular teacher is a lie or the truth.
CONC: John makes it clear that these people are going to be in the church until Jesus comes. But in this and other verses in the Scripture the Bible teaches that as the time draws near for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ they will intensify and increase. Look in Matthew 24:8. The word sorrows is the Greek word odin and it literally means “birthpains.” We see today the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy.
NOTE: This message is a revision of a sermon preached by my late father Ted Wood. It appears (though I can’t be certain) that he may have used Warren Wiersbe’s book "Be Real" for some of his inspiration.
