05 How to Recognize Essential Doctrine (1 John 2:18-28)

Speaker 1: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word, a serious Bible study applied to real life. Today is October 9th, 2013. Our passage is 1 John 2, verses 18 through 28, and our teacher is Krisan Marotta. This is the fifth message in our series on the book of 1 John. Krisan Marotta: We're in 1 John chapter 2, verses 18 to 28. And as we've been studying so far, we've been asking the question, whose voice should you listen to? So what out of all the voices that say, believe this, don't believe that, this is true, this isn't true, how do you know which one carries weight? And today we're going to ask a related question, and that is, how do I know what's essential and what's non-essential? It's kind of a good question to ask during our government shutdown. But we're going to take it from a theological perspective. So on what issues should I take a stand and refuse to compromise? And on what issues should I say, okay, we can agree to disagree? So what do I do when I disagree with another genuine believer? What matters? What issues are so critically important that I should draw a line and say, you must believe X or your faith is in doubt? On the other hand, on what issues should I say, okay, one of us is right, one of us is wrong, or maybe both of us are wrong, and one day God will straighten us out, but we can agree to disagree in the meantime. So where do we draw the line? And from our study of 1 John, we can answer these questions. And I think so far we've seen there are two critically important questions. Questions that are so fundamental that you have to get them right. And the first one is what he's been talking about from chapter one up to this point, and that is your view of sin and your view of righteousness. So this is everything we've been talking about in the first couple of chapters. He says the one that claims to know Jesus is going to have a certain view of sin. And if you don't share that view of sin, it's a red flag, it's a problem. And the second issue is the one we're going to start today, and the which he picks up in verse 18, and that is who is Jesus? So I would say, and I'll just give you the punchline. Now the two essential questions about which we dare not compromise are who was Jesus and what did he do for you. And we've been looking at what he did for you in terms of our sin, and now we're going to look at who he was in the passage today. So let me just review how we got here. So remember, and and he started in the beginning of this letter saying, uh, we are the ones you should trust because we apostles were eyewitnesses to the life and ministry of Jesus. So he says, We're the we saw, we heard, we touched, we were there. You can have absolute confidence that we have faithfully transmitted the message of Jesus. And then in one five he says, God is light or God is completely good. Therefore, genuine believers will have a certain view of sin. And that's what he talks about through the end of chapter one, that they will recognize sin, they will call sin sin, they won't justify it, they won't deny it, they will recognize it, and then in the beginning of chapter two, he says they will love the things of God, so they will love righteousness and holiness as God is righteous and holy, and those who claim to know Jesus will value the things Jesus valued, strive to live the way he lived, and conform their lives to his teaching. And remember, part of his purpose and writing is to teach his readers how to recognize the true gospel from the false gospel. And the Gnostics were claiming that that everything physical was is bad and everything spiritual is good, and therefore it didn't matter what you did with your body, you could be sinful all you want as long as your spirit was forgiven. And John saying, No, that's not right, you can't do that. You it what you do matters. Your view of sin is critically important. And then in this passage we looked at last week, he says they will genuine believers will not love the things of the world. So he does the other side of the coin. In the first part of the chapter, he says, We will love the things of God, and then in the middle part of the chapter he says, and we will not love the things of the world. And that brings us to our passage today, and in this passage, he's gonna say, genuine believers will confess that Jesus is the Messiah. And that I think is the second critical issue we have to be right on. So let me read our passage for us. We're in first John 2, we're gonna go from 18 to 28. Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out, so that it would be shown that they are not they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. 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? That is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, and the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it is taught you, you abide in him. Now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming. Okay, this raises a lot of questions. Anytime you hear the word Antichrist in the New Testament, it's like, oh, what's going on here? So let's talk about that. So, children, it's the last hour, just as you've heard that the Antichrist is coming. Even now, many Antichrists have arisen from this we know that it is the last hour. So this is verse 18. So the last hour, let's just deal with that first, I think refers to the time from Jesus' first coming to his second coming. So this is the last phase of history, it's and is synonymous with the last days. So I don't think he means, okay, it's five minutes to midnight on the doomsday clock. That's not his point. It this is an age. So, like we talk about the age of the patriarchs or the age of the judges or the age of the kings or the age of the exile or something, this is the last age. So the time between Jesus' first coming and his second coming is the last stage in what God is doing in the world and in redemptive history. So it may be thousands of years, but it's the last big stage of redemptive history. So I think that's what he's talking about there. So now he says, you heard the Antichrist is coming. And as good Bible study students, we want to say, you did, where would they have heard that? Who would they have heard that from? Is that something in the Old Testament? Is that in the New Testament? Where would they have figured that out? What could John have expected his readers to know about the Antichrist? And I think probably the best guess is in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And if you have your Bibles, you can turn there, but if not, I'm going to read a section for you. Because this is Paul talking, and he's warning his readers against wild speculation about the return of Jesus, and he basically says, it's not here yet. Now, there's a lot of things in this passage I don't understand, but I think this is at least one place we can look to to say this is what John's readers would have heard. So this is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 3 through 10. Let no one deceive you let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself his God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you I was telling you these things, and you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all the powers and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of truth so as to be saved. Okay, don't ask me what all that means. I don't know, but I but I think we can say where when John says you heard that the Antichrist was coming, where would they have heard it? Well, one source is the Apostle Paul, because in verse 5 he says, Do you not remember that while I was still with you I was telling you these things? So we can assume that Paul had taught about this, and he's talking about a day when the restraints of lawlessness will be removed and evil will break forth with intensity in a figure called the man of lawlessness, and he will meet his final destruction at the coming of Jesus. So, as best I understand what Paul's saying at this point, there is an Antichrist figure yet to come, but I haven't studied the end time passages very well, so I don't really know. But when John says, just as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, he's probably referring to something like this, Paul's teaching. So the question then is what is John's point here in 218? And I don't think he has a particular person in mind. That is an interpretive option, but I think what he's saying is, you heard that there's one person coming, but I tell you there are lots of deceivers here already. And that seems to be his point here. So he's more concerned not with what's going to happen in the end times or who that person might be or when he's gonna come or how we would know. Instead, he's saying, there's this phenomenon here and now where people are coming and deceiving you. There are many people out there preaching in the name of Jesus who aren't really speaking in the name of Jesus. And those are the people you need to be concerned about right now. So there is this phenomenon at loose in the world of this opposition to Jesus. They persecuted Jesus, they're gonna persecute you. You're gonna be ridiculed for your belief. You're gonna be seen as ignorant and gullible, and you're gonna be mocked when you stand up for the things of God, and that's this spirit of the Antichrist that's loose in the world. So his concern is there are people here now who are trying to deceive you. This is this opposition to Jesus and his message is happening just as Jesus protected it. So I'd say he's saying, if I paraphrase this, I'd be something like, you've heard about this figure who's coming and will deceive you, but I tell you there are many deceivers here already. So I don't think his point here is who's the Antichrist or when's it going to happen, but be aware the people are trying to deceive you. So who are these people? Look at 19. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out in order that it might be shown that they are not of us. So when you come to a verse like this in the Bible and it's all full of pronouns, you want to ask yourself, who's they? Who's us? Who is he talking about? And context is the key to answering those questions. You don't want to just assume it's us believers versus um non-believers or something. I think here he means they are the false teachers, these people who are out to deceive, and the us are primarily the apostles or those who remain faithful to the teaching of Christ. So perhaps these teachers identified themselves as followers of Christ. They might have even been leaders in the church, but eventually they left the truth, and that revealed them for who they were. And you, I mean, this has happened over and over in church history. You know, you can see scholars in the church get innovative and they come up with a new spin on the gospel, and sometimes they push it so far as they're inventing a new gospel and they no longer are faithful to the apostolic truth. So what John's saying is they're claiming to know better than the gos than the apostles. They're claiming we represent the real meaning and teaching of Jesus and we know better, but they have departed from the truth. I think that's what he means by they went out from us. They have left the truth, they weren't really of us. So they aren't teaching the same message. So they claim they are, they claim they know best, but they aren't. So they aren't cut from the same cloth, they're not children of the truth. If they had been, they would have left the truth, uh, or would not have left it. And I think what he's the given in this section is that the gospel is the truth. So, and John is in a unique position to know. He has first hand knowledge, he was there, he saw, he touched, he was part of the inner circle, he walked with Jesus. So he can have the utmost confidence that he has been taught the message that came directly from Jesus, and I think he is in a unique position to make this claim. So he can look at these people and say, they have left the truth, they are not really of us. Those who depart from the truth expose them to for what they really are. So not everyone who claims to be a Christian is in fact seeking God and his truth, and those who aren't will ultimately reveal that fact because they will leave the truth. So, regardless of how sincere they are, if they're not motivated by a desire to embrace the truth, they they will leave it and reject it. Now, I think I keep using the word truth because I that if we reject the truth, we're rejecting God. Truth is important in that sense become because it becomes a litmus test of the state of my heart. If I embrace the apostolic gospel, that is the truth, that I am seeking God and Jesus, and if I reject it, I'm opposed to God and Jesus. So it's not some philosophical exercise, it's not, you know, a theological debate, it's a spiritual and moral issue. And that's not a very popular idea today, because tolerance has become our highest virtue. And some of you will remember this. When I was growing up, uh tolerance meant that I might vigorously disagree with the content of your ideas, but I would vigorously uphold your right to have those ideas. And that was tolerance. I mean, just the whole message of the 60s was this kind of I'm okay, you're okay, and we may disagree, but I vigorously uphold your right to believe whatever you believe. But now tolerance has come to mean all ideas are equal. And if I say this idea is better than that idea, or this idea is right and that idea is wrong, I'm intolerant by today's standards. So we don't have the right to vigorously disagree anymore. To vigorously disagree is to be intolerant because all truth is relative and all ideas have merit. And I think we can look at a passage like this and say, John would disagree with that. He would say there are truth and there are there is truth and there is lies. All ideas are not equal. There is a gospel message that's been faithfully transmitted from the apostles or from Jesus to the apostles through the scriptures, and there are gospel impostors out there. And those who preach a different gospel are preaching lies. They've departed from the truth. And we are not to hold those ideas as equal. There's no reason to tolerate them. Now, that's not to say we have to be offensive in our disagreement, or we have to be arrogant, or in some way rude with people we disagree with. That's we're we're not justifying that kind of an attitude. It's probably true that if you disagree, you will be called arrogant and narrow-minded and intolerant, no matter how nicely or politely you disagree. But the reality of the gospel is that there is truth. Truth matters and it's important, and we don't tolerate opposition to it. We don't compromise on the essentials. So we can respond with humility, we can respond with mercy and compassion and a desire to persuade and to appeal, speaking the truth in love, but you know, there's nothing to be gained by kind of a punitive, angry response. So we want to be humble in our response, but we want to be clear. Some ideas are right and some are wrong. Okay, the other thing to notice is he is not talking about church membership here. He's not saying they left our particular church and went to another, so they aren't really Christians. And I've heard this verse applied that way. Church membership is not an accurate predictor of your spiritual status. So we just want to be clear. It's arrogant to claim that there are no members of a particular denomination that are saved, and it's naive to claim that all members of a particular denomination are saved. That's not the standard. The standard he's talking about is abandoning the true gospel and turning to lies. And this isn't a new idea. We talked about this when we did the parable of the sower and the seed. Remember from last fall that there are people who will hear the gospel, they'll make the spectacular response to it, but then when life gets hard or when when the uh life challenges them, they will turn away. And I think it's the same idea. If they'd been genuine believers, they would have remained faithful to the truth. And uh or if you have the gift of saving faith from God, he won't let you go. Now, why is that important? I think content matters. We the pendulum can swing too far either way, and we talked it last week about getting too caught up in knowledge and understanding and turning Christianity into an intellectual endeavor. But there's a danger on the other side as well that you turn it into a relationship with no content. You know, you've probably met people who've gone so far as into the Jesus is my buddy that they say things like, Well, my relationship with God is just fine, and I'm not gonna stop sleeping with my boyfriend. You have to think, wait, there's some content here you're missing, or you know, we Jesus is my role model, so I can do whatever I want because I think he would agree. So, or that leads into this, I can be righteous now completely attitude. So truth matters, doctrine matters, we can swing too far intellectually, we can swing too far in the fuzzy relationship aspect, and um, we want to be clear that God communicated his plan of salvation through a message, and we want to get that message right. So John's gonna go on to say, who's the liar but the one who denies Jesus is the Christ? And that implies we need to see Jesus as my savior and my Lord, not just my buddy, not just my guru, not my role model, but my savior and my Lord. Okay, so remember Satan's goal, we talked about this last week too. Satan's goal is unbelief, and if he can't distract us entirely with the things of the world, as we talked about last week, he'll deceive us with counterfeit gospels. And he'll give us all kinds of gospels that look like the real thing and sound like the real thing, but are mixed in at critical points with lies, and therefore they're not the real thing. And there are certain things we must agree on. So it's yes, doctrine does not save us, but truth matters, and there are certain basics we want to understand. So that's the question we're looking at today. What are the essentials that we have to get right? Okay, so let's look at verse 20. This is one of those confusing ones if you take it out of context. But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know, or some variations say you know all things. So, what does he mean by this anointing from the Holy One? Well, anointing in general is a sign that God has chosen you for something. So it was a ritual, like the high priest was anointed as the high priest. He was given that role to play or that particular way to serve, and the anointing was a sign of that service. The king was anointed as king as a sign that he had been given that job, the prophet anointed as prophet, and so on. So an anointing was a visual sign that God had chosen you for a particular role or a particular service. And I think what he's saying here in verse 20 is you have a sign from God that you are a genuine believer. You have an anointing in the sense that you have a sign, you have confirmation that you have been chosen for God, and that is your faith. The very faith that you have. The fact that you have responded to the gospel and you're still here is a sign that you are in fact a believer and you know the gospel. So, you know, you've gone through trials, you've gone through hardships, you've gone through challenges where you think, what is God doing? And you're still here trusting Him and clinging to your faith. And that anointing, that sign is a sign that you're a genuine believer. Because none of us would believe the gospel unless God had worked in our lives to open our eyes to see it and our ears to understand it. So both the false teachers and the believers heard the apostolic teaching, but they responded differently, and that different response is a sign. So the false teachers or the false believers eventually left when life got hard or when things changed, and those that remained, it is a sign that they are genuine believers. And I think that's really all he's saying. Now that assumes that faith is a gift, that my response to the gospel is a sign because it is a gift from God. If I have to work it up, then it's how could it be a sign? Because I could deceive myself, or I could be a hypocrite, or I could be faking it. But if my response is a gift from God, along with the gospel and grace, and that saving faith itself is a gift, then it is truly a sign because God has given it to me. I can stand on it and I can have confidence in it. unknown: Follow me. Krisan Marotta: So then he says, and you all know or you know all things. I think what he's saying there is truth is accessible to everyone. You know everything you need to know about the gospel. So I think this is kind of a swipe at the Gnostics who were claiming, well, yeah, you've heard that stuff about Jesus, but we have the secret stuff. You join our club and we'll give you the extra secret stuff that will then you'll really understand, then you'll really be enlightened. And I think John's saying there is no more to know. You know who Jesus is, you know what he did for you. There is no secret knowledge, there's nothing that you need to know. You know all you know all you need to know about the real teaching of Jesus. So you don't have to be part of this inner circle, you don't have to have a secret decoder ring, you know, or or some ritual or golden glasses or something. You don't have to have an advanced degree or be part of the inner circle. It's you know God has given you faith, he's opened your eyes to see, and you can trust that you understand it. Now, we still need to be biblically literate. Truth is out there and you can learn it. Uh, and I think that's his point. You don't need, you know, the Dakota ring as I mentioned, but there's no special ceremony, no secret knowledge, nothing's been withheld from you that you have to join some group to find out. I think that that's his point here. Okay. 21. 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. Again, I think he's reiterating the encouragement that he gave earlier in the chapter to say, I'm not writing to you because I'm really worried about your status. I'm really worried that maybe you aren't, in fact, believers. I have confidence that you're believers, so that's why I'm writing you. I'm wanting to encourage you. And then he adds this no lie is of the truth. And I think the idea is a warning not to try to mix and match different versions of the gospel. So they've got these heresies going on in their church, uh, Gnosticism and Marcionism and Dacetism and so on that we talked about the first day. And he's saying, don't try to make all those mix and fit, don't try to mix and match. No lias of the truth. There's no point in trying to harmonize those gospels with the real gospels. So false teachers have nothing to teach you. They're fundamentally opposed to the gospel, they're not worth listening to, I think is what he's saying. Now, of course, there's always a place for humility, and when I'm in an area where I know I'm ignorant and I know I have a lot left to learn, of course, I want to consume humbly consider all the arguments and seek the truth. I don't think John would disagree with that, but I think what he is saying is there's no virtue in considering what is clearly and unmistakably wrong. Some ideas are so opposed to the gospel that you just don't want to waste your time on them. And they're clearly, unmistakably false. Again, not a popular idea in our culture where we want to say everything is relative. I think John would say if you know A is true, then don't waste your time on not A. If you know this is truth, then don't bother trying to work to pursue the lie. Many years ago I was listening to a talk by Bruce Waltke, and he was going over all the words for fool in Proverbs. And one of the words means someone who is completely and utterly open. So there's a, I can't remember which one it is, but there's one of the words used for fool is one who is open for the sake of being open. So the person who is so open that they never take a stand and never embrace a position. And I think our culture would say, wow, that person is tolerant. That person, they've achieved the highest virtue because they tolerate everything. And Proverbs would say, that person is a fool. To seek and never find, to seek and never land, that's there's no virtue in that. That's foolish. It's not wise and it's not praiseworthy. And I think that's what John is saying here when he says, no lies of the truth. There's no value in trying to mix and match lies with truth. When you know the truth, then you know there are lies, and you don't need to waste your time on them. Now again, remember the context here. We don't want to go overboard. He's not talking about subtle, complex, esoteric aspects of theology. He's talking about who is Jesus and what did he do for you. Kind of the heart of our faith. And the basic question of what does it take to enter the kingdom of heaven? And that's clear. The scriptures, there may be lots of hard passages to understand in scripture, but we can get that. The basics of the gospel. We can stand on them and we can claim them and we know them, and there's nothing else we need to know in that sense. So he's saying, embrace it, don't waste your time on other gospels. And what is that? So it what is it? I think the next verse clarifies what uh kind of knowledge he's talking about. In 22, who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father. The one who confesses the Son has the Father also. So, what are the lies that we don't want to worry about, that we don't want to mix and match about? We want any lie about who Jesus Christ is and what he did for you. The liar is the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Now we tend to think of liar as someone who knows the truth and deliberately, intentionally tells something contrary to the truth. And I think in this context, John has in mind more the liar is one who's denying Jesus Christ. He may sincerely believe what he's saying is true, so it's not a lie in the sense that he knows it's wrong, but it's a lie in that it is in fact wrong. It is not, it's contrary to reality. So secular humanists, for example, or philosophers who have embraced a different worldview that denies God, they may sincerely believe that worldview is true and that what they are teaching is true, and they are not liars in the sense that they know what they are teaching is wrong, but they are liars in the sense that what they are teaching is wrong, even if they sincerely believe it. So the Gnostics could have fallen into this category, the Pharisees probably fell in, some of them fell into this category. So they were sincere and earnest in their beliefs, but they were wrong. So he's not um so he's saying, look, the false teachers have rejected Jesus as Messiah because they see no need for a savior, which was one of the heresies of their day, that they could be perfect without Jesus. They did not, they don't see their own sinfulness, so they don't think they're guilty, so they don't think they need a savior, or they don't value righteousness as they should. And he's saying these these are the false gospels, these are the ones you don't want to waste your time on. So whoever denies the Son, so whoever rejects Jesus' teaching about who he was and what he came to do. I think that's what he means there. Hello. So whoever denies the son and then has the father, I think, is the he understands the truth that the father revealed through his son. So God revealed himself through Jesus, and if you deny Jesus, you're denying God. And I think he's making that point because the heresies of the day said, We know how to reach God and you don't need Jesus. So we can get you there with our knowledge and our enlightenment, and it doesn't involve Jesus. And John is saying, wait a minute, if they claim to represent the truth of God and they're denying who Jesus was, they're wrong. Because God revealed himself through Jesus, and if you deny Jesus, you deny the Father as well. If you reject the Son, you reject the Father, because this is the way God revealed Himself through His Son, through Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners. And if you reject Jesus as Messiah, who came to pay the penalty for our sins and to be an atoning sacrifice in our place, then you reject the Father. You can't split the two. You can't claim to follow God if you deny Jesus. So the one who confesses that Jesus is Lord and Messiah has the Father. Okay, so that I think this implies what do we check? So we're we're someone's teaching, or you're reading something, or you're listening to something, what's essential to the faith? What's the plumb line by which we want to test? And I think he's given us two. In chapter one up to about verse 211, he said, one is your view of sin and holiness, and the other is your view of Jesus Christ. And the one who's wrong is the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Now, you can you may think this is a cut and dried issue, but I think it's still relevant today. One of my favorite podcasts is The World and Everything in It. I don't know if you're familiar with World Magazine. It's a Christian news magazine, and they have a podcast now that's free, and I highly recommend it. It's News from a Christian Perspective. And on August 1st, it's still on their website, you can look it up, they reported that one of the most popular hymns is not going to be in the next version of the PC USA hymnal. So the Presbyterian Church USA is one of the American Protestant mainline denominations. And I don't want to make I'm not trying to throw stones here, but they are dropping the hymn in Christ Alone from the next version of their hymnal because the authors refused to change the lyrics for them. So you're probably familiar with that hymn on Christ Alone. So they want they asked the authors to change till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. So that was the verse they wanted to change, to Till on that cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified. And the songwriters refused. So they're dropping the hymn, and this was the quote from the head of the of the hymnal committee. We don't want the hymnal to suggest that Jesus' death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice needed to assuage God's anger over sin. Like we don't. We don't? That's the heart of the gospel. So, you know, okay. I would say, John would say, these people are not worth listening to. They've missed the point. That's exactly what we want to suggest. That is the gospel, that Jesus' death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice needed to assuage God's anger over sin. That really floored me because I thought, how could she so perfectly understand the gospel? It was a woman who was the head of the committee, and say, we we couldn't possibly suggest that. Okay, so those are the gospel basics. Well, that's what we got to get right. You may sincerely believe your own falsehood, but uh it's still falsehood. All right, so let's we gotta keep moving on the chapter here. You can still listen. I was gonna play it for you, but it's about two and a half minutes, and I thought it might take too long. But I'll put a link to that podcast on the website, so if you want to listen to the actual recording, you can find it. Alright, so going on in verse 24. So uh what do we do instead? He says, cling to the original gospel. As for you, let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which He Himself made to us, eternal life. So his exhortation then, what do you do? Cling to the original gospel. Remain faithful to what you know is true, to what you heard from the apostles. And again, John is in a unique position to make that claim of what's true and false. So he's saying, don't be blown about by every doctrine that comes along, every new theory, every charismatic, glossy speaker with this impressive credentials and a long list of published books. If they teach something other than Christ crucified, don't waste your time on it. Don't um don't be taken in, remain faithful. And I think that's all he means by abide in you is remain faithful, cling to that. The perseverance of us of the saints that we talked about last week. So your job is to stand firm, be strong, cling to the gospel, what you know to be true. And if you do, the promise is eternal life. So life in the kingdom of heaven, life in the age of ages. So those people that remain faithfully committed to the gospel will receive eternal life in the age to come. So in 18 up to 25, he makes the point that those who accept the teaching of Jesus are true believers, who acknowledged and these are the ones who acknowledge Christ, and those who reject Jesus are not true believers and do not represent what God revealed. And then in 26 through the end of the chapter, I think he's giving an exhortation to pursue righteousness because this is what it me looks like to remain faithful to Jesus' teaching. So let's look at that 26. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. And as for you, the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it is taught you, you abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming. So deceive has the idea of causing to wander or causing to stray, causing to leave the path you're walking on is the idea. And these things that he's written, I think, are the serious charges he made earlier in the chapter about who the false teachers are, that they are liars, that they're not children of God, and then the but as for you, in contrast to these false teachers, you have heard the child you are the children of God, you believe the true gospel, and you stand to inherit eternal life. And then 27 is one of those verses we want to keep in the context of the chapter. Because it's one of those things I've heard people quote in and of itself and make all kinds of rash claims about what they know and don't know. Um so the anointing itself doesn't teach you anything. The anointing is a sign that God is at work in your life to make you open to the truth, to soften your heart, and give you the ears to hear. So we still need to study, we still need to listen, we still need to pray and meditate. And John, I don't think it's claiming that God will teach you through some direct pipeline to the Holy Spirit that bypasses your mind and bypasses the scriptures. I think he's saying the Spirit removes your blindness. He makes truth accessible to you so that when you see it, you recognize it and embrace it and understand it. And without him, and without him, the spirits are doing that. Truth could slap us in the face and we wouldn't we wouldn't recognize it because we're spiritually blind. So the anointing teaches me by changing me so that I can understand, by removing the obstacles that blocks my understanding. I still need to study, I still need to pray, I still need to go to God and learn. Um, but I can have confidence that the anointing of the Holy Spirit is a sign that God will make these things real to me, will make them understandable. So the temptation is to go the wrong way around and say, because I'm anointed, I know everything. And I don't need to say, so because and because I know everything, what I say is right, usually in contrast to whatever you're claiming at the moment. And um I don't think that's what he's saying. There I don't think you can look at this verse and claim my understanding is without error because I've been chosen. John is saying the other way around. If you know the truth, it's because God has revealed it to you. If you have any understanding of the gospel, it's a gift of God that he has given you the eyes to see and the ears to hear. So I would separate those as two claims. You have an anointing, you have a sign that you are a true believer, and that sign is you know the truth. You've been given the eyes to see. So you will uh you have been chosen and you can trust it. And it's so again, keep that in the context of the chapter. His point is remain faithful to the gospel that saved you. Don't get taken in by these false teachers. And then, if Jesus should return tomorrow, you will have confidence and not shrink away in shame because you know that the blood of Christ covers your sins. And you can approach him with joy rather than shame. You can approach him with confidence rather than fear. So stick with the truth and you have nothing to fear. So I think this section is basically an exhortation to remain faithful to the gospel, and he's very saying simply cling to your faith. Don't look for something new. Don't look, you know, you don't need to reinvent Christianity with every new generation. It's not a contest to see who can come up with the most novel thought. You know, it's not writing a PhD dissertation where you have to say something new and original. You just need to cling to the truth that Jesus taught. So that brings us back to the original question. How do you know what's essential? Where do you draw the line? So if I disagree with another believer, where what issues are we free to disagree on, and what issues ought we to duke it out and come to say no, we we cannot compromise. So let me just review. If this is my quick summary of where we've been so far, in 1.5, he says, God is light and in him there is no darkness. So and then five through ten, he says, therefore, genuine believers will know they're sinful. That's my uh very simple summary of it. So God is good, therefore, believers will know they're sinful. In two, one through eleven, they will love the things of God, so they will long for holiness and love holiness and righteousness. Then in two, twelve through seventeen, they will not love the things of the world. And then the section we just looked at, 18 through 29, they will confess that Jesus is the Christ. So God is good, God is light, in him there is no darkness, therefore we will know we will be sinful, we will long for holiness, we will not long for the things of the world, and we will confess Jesus is Christ. And that's kind of my quick summary of where what he's taught us so far. And I think that implies, as I said earlier, there are two critical issues about which we dare not compromise, and that is who is Jesus and what did he do for you. So your theology of sin and your theology of the cross. And instead of thinking of a line, you know, is there a line and there are issues above and below it? I like, I think a better model is to think of it as a circle. And the center of the circle is who was Jesus and what did he do for you? And that we have to agree on, and that we dare not compromise. But then the farther away you get from the sinner, the more freedom you have to disagree. So issues of say who sings and who prays up front and what kind of music we have, I would put those way out on the edges of the circle. We can disagree on those. Um so and then well now we that doesn't totally answer the question in the sense of now we have to figure out where things are in the circle, but at least it gives us some way to start a conversation. And it and there's a lot we can disagree on. But the two things we can't disagree on are who was Jesus and what did he do for you. So is he God? Did he say did he come to save us and pay the penalty for our sins? Those are that's the essentials. So for to apply this, um, just on the time we have left, I'd like to say, okay, so how would we recognize a cult? So when we speak of cults, I'm talking about a group that claims to be Christian, but in reality is not Christian. So that's probably the closest issue we have to what John was dealing with in his readers. So how can we take what we've learned from 1 John and say, is this group a cult or not? And I what I want to suggest is that there are two doctrine or four doctrine questions and two practice questions we can ask that would determine. So the first question to ask would be, is Jesus Christ God? So in John 2.22, when he says, Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? That's the first question we want to ask about a group to decide. And cults almost always denied the deity of Christ. Some will say he was an angel or he was a man who just had a really, really good understanding, or he was a God, but so are we, which kind of removes him as a God and so on. So is Jesus Christ God? That's the first question to ask. The second question would be how is salvation attained? So think about what we learned in John 1.8. If we say we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Or John 2.1, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins. So John tells us how salvation is attained, but cults almost always add something else. Well, you have to keep these ethical commands, or you have to wear red, or you have to witness, or you have to do certain things with your money, or you have to live a certain kind of lifestyle. So if there's anything else added, that's another red flag. So is Jesus Christ God? How is salvation attained? The third question, is the Bible alone authoritative? So remember how John started this. What was from the beginning, what we've seen, what we've heard with our eyes, what we beheld concerning the words of life. This is what's true, what's contained in Scripture. Jesus says that the Old Testament and his own words and the writings of the apostles were divinely inspired, and cults will almost always deny this. Either they'll say, Well, the Bible's full of errors, or it's outmoded, or we don't need to trust it, or they elevate another book to the same level as the Bible, or another teacher to the same level or above the Bible above the Bible in authority. So that's another red flag. So is Jesus Christ God how salvation attained? Is the Bible alone authoritative and And the fourth one, is anyone outside their group saved? So John 1.9 says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous to forgive us. John 2.1, if anyone sins, the Bible says that true believers are part of the body of Christ, regardless of what denomination they may be affiliated with. But cults almost always say, if you're not in our group, you're not saved. And that's a red flag. Okay, so those are the doctrine questions, I think. And then I came up with two practice questions. And that is, how does how does the group treat its members and other people? So remember, John spent a lot of time saying, and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. And that's 2.3, and in 2.9, the one who says he's in the light and yet hates his brother is in darkness till now. That implies how we should treat each other. The Bible says teachers and leaders should be servants of high moral character, and 1 Peter 5 specifically prohibits leading for personal gain. But if you look at cult leaders, they're often out to fleece the flocks. You know, they're often guilty of financial exploitation of their followers or sexual exploitation of their followers. Or they have this excessive kind of authority where the leader dictates things that are not scriptural. Now the Bible does teach that Christians can be disciplined by other Christians, but that discipline is always over scriptural issues. The person is always free to leave, and the leaders are always subject to the exact same discipline. And cult leaders violate all that. They impose non-scriptural issues, so they dictate, you know, where you can live or who you can marry or what job you can take or can't take. And the person is coerced and disdained. You're not free to leave. And usually the leader has no accountability. They're not subject to the same rules. So I don't know. That would be, I guess, the fifth question. The sixth question was it would be then does the group have any secret or private teaching which only the privileged can learn? I think that's the section we just looked at today. 227, as for you, the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. I think the point of that is there is no secret teaching. The message of the Bible is open, it's free, it's clear, but cult members are often will refuse to answer doctrinal questions, or they say, Well, you have to come to this class to really learn that, or you have to go on a retreat to really learn that, and you won't get the true understanding until you join the club. So I think just from 1 John then we can look at that and say, how would we recognize the true from false? And hopefully those questions will help you. So then just to wrap it up, because we're running out of time, then what's where do we draw the line? I'd say we don't really draw a line, we stand in the center of the circle. And the center of the circle is who was Jesus and what did he do for you? And the rest we can uh disagree on. See, I bet you didn't know theology was so simple. That. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you that you do teach us and that you do give us the gift of faith and you open our eyes to see. And we confess that apart from your grace and your mercy, none of us would understand the truth. We would still be lost in our in our darkness. And we just pray that uh if anyone here is struggling or anyone here is confused about who you are and what you've done, that you would open her eyes and give her the eyes to see, and that you would give us the words to say to come alongside and um encourage and exhort and uh shine a light onto the truth. We just pray that anything that was confusing or wrong or just not in accordance with your word, that you would blow away like the chaff and leave only what is true, and that you would write that truth on our hearts. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word. For notes and study questions related to this message or more talks in this series, please visit our website, wednesdayintheword.com. We hope you'll join us again.