Sermon Tone Analysis

The Last Hour

From the time of Christ’s death and resurrection, the apostles have described this age as the last hour or the last days.

This signifies that we are waiting for the completion of the work of God in this world, and Scripture reveals the truth that we are awaiting the Christ’s return and the creation of the New Heaven and New Earth.

Many theologians have varying opinions as to exactly how this will take place.

There are many theories as to the order of events, whether Christ’s return is immanent or merely impending.

I personally believe it is unwise to be dogmatic about such things, as it is difficult to discern specifics from prophecy.

What we do know is that Christ is coming, at some future time, to make all things new.

This of course is only possible because He first conquered sin and Satan through His death and resurrection.

John is warning us in his letter of the presence of false teachers and the danger of adopting their distorted beliefs.

Antichrist and Many Antichrists

They had been taught previously that antichrist is coming.

This is a word that is not used anywhere in Scripture outside of John’s Epistles.

However, this Antichrist, is widely accepted among theologians to be the same one who is spoken of as the first beast in Revelation 13, who will appear at some future date, deceiving many with his blasphemous words, to believe that he is the messiah, the savior who will save the world.

But this isn’t the main focus of John’s comments here.

You see, in the middle of verse 18 it says, “so now many antichrists have come.”

and then he continues on, explaining who they are, and why they are antichrists.

They had already come at the time John wrote this letter, which was within a relatively short time after Christ’s death burial and resurrection.

These false teachers were creeping into the church and I would suggest that even more false teachers are present in our present world today.

Be Watchful

Watch for false teachers.

Watch for “anti- christs” who will speak with deceptive lips, and hardened hearts.

We need to be attentive to the people around us.

Listen carefully, using the filter of the Word of God as a standard for truth.

Alistair Begg’s golf story-

When we hear false teaching, we need to decide to “go in” after the lost.

Remember John just told them not to love the World (belief system of Satan, His demons and sinful man, that is fundamental and foundational to these antichrists)

Be Wary

Wary is defined as feeling or showing caution about possible dangers or problems.

In light of what we are told in verse 18 and following, it would be wise and prudent of us to be wary.

We ought to have a sense that there are possible dangers or problems in our midst.

Not the least of which are the presence of some who do not speak truth and are either turning us from Christ, or attempting to replace Christ.

For the sake of the false teachers/antichrists

For the sake of God’s glory

For our own safety and security

We need to be wary about being lead astray ourselves.

Look at John’s words in verse 19 very carefully.

They went out From Us

These antichrists may be sitting here today.

We might be tempted to minimize and excuse those around us that don’t have faith in Christ, who worship false gods, like comfort, material things, reputation, or anything besides the one true God.

Sometimes there are people whom we love and respect, but those same people may very well be “antichrists” who have gone out from us, or will go out from us.

But we have to guard our hearts and minds and be watchful and wary of their false belief systems.

Often their words and ways are so very close to the truth, that it may be difficult to discern the deceptiveness of their lies.

They were not of us

We may have people in our church (Calvary Baptist Church of LeRoy, NY) who are officially recognized as members of our church.

They may profess to trust in Christ as their salvation.

They may have taken the step of publicly declaring their faith and trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior, even to the point of baptism.

Baptism is an act that we are commanded to participate in in Scripture.

Again, it is a public acknowledgement by an individual, that they, by faith have been crucified in Christ, buried and have risen again with Him to new life, by faith in the work of Jesus Christ’s death burial and resurrection.

But they were not genuinely saved.

This is clearly not teaching that it is possible to lose our salvation.

He is saying, in this phrase, that they were not of us, and why would he have to explain that?

It is because “they” must have appeared to have been a part of the fellowship.

When you heard me talking this way about people within our church, did you begin to think, “I wonder who he’s talking about?” or “I wonder who that might be?”

This is a sobering thought for us.

I want to encourage you to all think about this for a moment, but not about others, though that is something we can and should do, in a spirit of love and edification, and with a goal of seeing someone come to Christ.

What is just as important, I think is that we ought to ask ourselves the following questions:

What about me?

Is it possible that I too would “go out” from us?

Is it possible that I would ever choose to deny Christ as the Savior I now claim Him to be?

Well, that is a possibility only if I am not genuinely a child of God.

I don’t say that as if I have doubts about my salvation, but because what I see John saying is that some who were appearing to the church to be a part of the body, evidently were not in fact in Christ.

If they were of us they would not have left

This phrase confirms, that those who are truly in Christ, will remain in fellowship with the body of Christ and in Christ.

But they left, so we could plainly see that they were not of us.

There is no need for doubt the security of our salvation, unless we deny the message that was from the beginning (vs.

24).

Those who do not proclaim Christ and Him crucified, are not “of us”.

They are not a part of the family of God.

They are not part of the body of Christ.

They are antichrists!

Be Watchful

Be Wary

We have to realize that there are many antichrists who have already come, and we need to align our hearts and minds with the Gospel, so closely, that we can readily identify any inconsistencies or flaws in doctrine that may lead us from worshipping anyone or anything other than the One True Triune God of the Bible.

We have seen in recent weeks and months, a couple of prominent evangelical spiritual leaders, publicly renounce their faith in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

This is real, and it is a concern we have to be watchful and wary of.

One never knows what will come next; but of this we are pretty sure, that every now and then a new doctrine is brought forth which turns out to be an old heresy with a fresh coat of varnish on it; or else some new method of saving souls is found out, and the work blazes away like a house on fire till it dies out in smoke.