In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: 1 John chapter 2. We came as far as, in fact, we finished verse 17. We'll pick up in verse 18 this morning. But let's—and hey, all of this stuff you just did, it's not taking away from my time as teaching. So I'm redeeming my time. Clock starts now. Amen.

Father, we thank you this morning. We're living in some of the most exciting times that the church has ever lived in. And Father, what we need to see today, we're going to see this morning that we're living in a very difficult time, a time of increased spiritual warfare. We're going to hear words like "seducing spirit," "doctrines of devils," "a falling away from the biblical faith." These are the times that the prophets and apostles wrote about.

And Lord, you need to give us eyes to see, spiritually speaking, and ears to hear what it is the Holy Spirit is saying, and hearts to understand it. We've come to the final moments of it. We could be gone at any moment. Lord, help that to sink in. The early church lived with that doctrine of the imminent return of Christ. When John writes about the return of Christ, when Paul writes, when Peter writes, he says "we," because they believed it could be that close.

And Lord, things had to happen as we're going to see, and are happening as we have seen. And we are the church that's living in the final moments. So speak to us this morning, Lord. If there be a religious spirit in here where we're just going through motions without any emotion, rid us of that, Lord. You never called us to be religious; you called us to have a relationship with the one who made us.

That we could hear your voice, sense your presence, feel your touch, be comforted by you, Lord. To walk in relationship with you like Adam and Eve, that you would come down in the cool of the evening and fellowship with them. So speak to us this morning, we would pray, in the mighty name of Jesus we would ask. And all God's kids would say amen.

You know, there's an interesting pattern in chapter 2. Chapter 2 is one of my favorite chapters in 1 John because it's warning us of several things. And I will tell you, the struggle to be a Christian is real, is it not? The fight is constant. You know, they asked Spurgeon one day, "What is the most difficult thing about being a Christian?" You know what he said? "It's so daily." Because the god of this world constantly wants to blind our eyes, constantly wants to dumb us down and dull our hearts and our ears to not be able to see and understand.

Listen, I'm telling you right now, as a student of prophecy for over 40 years, we're living in the final moments of the church. And there are all kinds of indicators. Not one thing—there're so many things I could take a whole year and do prophecy updates and just go through one after another after another that are indicators that we're living in the last days.

Now, I'm going to do my best on Wednesday night as we go through Ezekiel chapter 37, 38, and 39. We got to include 37 in there, maybe even 36, for you to understand. This is not a time to be running fast and loose with the things of God. This is not a time to let your heart grow gross and hard. This is not a time to leave your first love. This is not a time to allow the god of this world to lead you astray and deceive you and take you from that relationship.

One of the things that's the theme of John is always "abide in Christ." He brings it to the fore in chapter 15 of his gospel. We're going to see it again this morning in 1 John. There is this thing of relationship. John has served the Lord for over 70 years. He's an old man now, probably in his late 80s, early 90s. Started to serve the Lord when he was in his teens, early 20s. And he's still as passionate, as we saw as he opened up chapter 1, he's still as passionate about his relationship in his 90s as he was in his teens and 20s. In fact, it's grown and it's grown deeper, like any relationship should.

Now, as we finished up last week, there was a warning here by John, because he knows one of the things that will take you out of a relationship with the Lord is carnality. Carnality. And so he warns us there in verse 15. We'll just back up a few verses and we'll read it. Actually, in the Greek, it's—here in the English, in our translation, it says "love not the world," but in the Greek, it's much more potent than that. It is: stop considering the world to be precious and valuable. Stop looking at it as though it's something to be pursued, something to be admired, something to wrap your hands around and grasp and hold on to.

He says, "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world, because if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Here's the warning: if you get too attached to this world, and so you're allowing it to come in your eye gate, your ear gate, it comes into your heart, it will drown out, it will squeeze out the love of the Father. That's the effect the world has.

And then he describes to us what the world is. He says, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh," this desire to fulfill this flesh, whether it's sexual, whether it's drugs, whether it's alcohol, whatever it is. The lust of the flesh is you seeking to fulfill only what God can fill. You're seeking to fulfill it in fleshly, carnal appetite, the desires of this world, whatever they may be. And so he says, "All that is in this world, all this world has to offer you is temporal and it will only satisfy your flesh for a season."

Sin is fun. You know, the Bible never has to warn us about broccoli or hitting your foot with a hammer. Don't do that. No, it warns us about things that are pleasant, like root beer floats and ice cream. So you need to understand that there is a fleshly component to your Christian experience, and it's always trying to draw you into those things. That's why it says "the lust of the flesh," "the lust of the eye," materialism. You think the things of this world could satisfy you?

You know, you can't wait to buy the new car, and you buy it, and a month later somebody puts a ding in it at B&C parking lot, and then the next thing you know, things are starting to fall apart. You got to put it in a repair shop and you realize you bought a lemon; you should have bought a Toyota, not a Chevrolet. And now you got problems.

Listen, materialism will never satisfy you. The second law of thermodynamics is in play. Things go from a better state to a worse state. Things are corrupting. And so he says, don't buy into materialism or the pride of life, that where you think you're smarter than God, you think you're wiser. This humanistic philosophy that you can fix yourself, that you can fix your problems, that we can just by our collective desire somehow fix the things that are going on. All of that, he says, is of the world. And the world is passing away, but he says this, "and the lust thereof, but he that doth the will of the Father shall abide forever."

We are spiritual beings. We are born of the spirit, we are regenerated by the spirit, we are renewed in the spirit. We've been given a new mind, a new heart. And so we have different goals, we have different aspirations, we have a different worldview. We understand that this present schema of things is rapidly passing away. So we touch it just as lightly as possible because we understand as Christians the promises of God. And the promise that God has given us is that he's coming back for us. He's either going to send for us by the grave or come for us by the rapture, but we're going home. This is not our home.

We have a home. We're just away from home. Jesus promised in John chapter 14, "I go away to prepare a place for you, and if I go away, I will come again, receive you unto myself, that where I am, you might be also in our Father's house." This ain't it. And we were never meant as Christians to settle down and become comfortable here. So the first warning John gives us is don't settle in here. "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world," because if the love of the world be in you, it will drown out, like Jesus said, "You can't serve two masters." It will drown it out, it will squeeze it out.

And the next thing you know, you'll become religious. You're just going through the motions, but your heart is not there. What was the first thing or the first church that Jesus wrote to, and what was the first thing he wrote about when he writes his seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3? He said, "You got all this stuff going on—good Bible teaching, solid doctrine, discernment, good works, lots of humanitarian things." He said, "But nevertheless, I have one thing against thee: you left your first love. Now, you need to repent, go back and fix that, lest I come and remove my presence from you."

How many sense God's presence here this morning? Yeah, because we beg for him to be here. Because in his presence is fullness of joy. At his right hand are pleasures evermore. They're never to be found in this world. And so he warns us about the physical world. Now as we move into verse 18, he's going to warn us about the spiritual world. That there are things that are at play that want to draw you away from Christ.

And so he begins in verse 18 by saying, "Little children," again that's the word *teknon*, which is you little born-again ones, those of you that are born of the spirit, those of you that open your heart to the lordship of Jesus Christ. He came in, you're born of the spirit, he's given you a new heart, new mind, new eyes, new ears, all of that. My little children, it is the last time. It is the last days.

Now, how could John say that? Because John said that almost 2,000 years ago. Well, John is referencing something, and it's interesting in Hebrews chapter 1. Because on Pentecost, when the church was birthed, that began the final time God would deal with people. 69 weeks of Daniel's vision in chapter 9 were fulfilled when Messiah was cut off. There's one week left, and it has to do with Israel. But in between the 69th and the 70th week, which is about to kick off again, that's why Israel's back as a nation again, they got control of Jerusalem, because the clock is about to swing, the pendulum thereof is about to swing back to Israel and the church, which was a mystery hidden in times past, is about to be removed.

And so he tells us in Hebrews chapter 1, the first four verses. He said, "God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past to our fathers through the prophets, hath in these last days," the last time God is going to speak. We have it in writing, we have it canonized and organized. We have chapter and verse. We have books so that we can understand what the will of the Father is. This is the inerrant, inspired, authoritative word of God. And may I say it's simple. It's written at a sixth-grade level.

And God told us what he desires of us, gave us his promises, told us how we can safely navigate from this life to the life that is to come. He said, "hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he made the worlds." He is setting up in our minds and hearts to understand that Jesus is God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is the second person of the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. He's not a created being; he is the creator.

And that's important because so many religions, 4,000 religions, 4,200 religions today. But there's only one that says that Jesus Christ was God in human form. That Jesus Christ was the eternal word that took on human form. He became incarnate in human form. That he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death on Calvary's cross to pay for the sins and remove the power and penalty of sin from us. He rose again the third day to prove that he is a life-giving spirit. He ascended to the Father. He ever lives to make intercession for us. And whoever puts their hope and faith in him, he pours his grace out upon them and gives them the gift of eternal life.

He washes you in his blood to the extent and to the degree it's as though you never were a sinner, so that one day you could stand before a holy God. That's the message. He said, "I'm going to give you the message, these are the last days, you get this last message, that Jesus is the Christ, he is the Messiah, the redeemer of the world." There is no salvation in any other name. There's no name given among men in heaven or earth by which you must be saved. This is the point he's making. This is the last message.

"Who hath in these last days spoken by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he made the worlds; who being in the brightness of his glory," equal to the glory of the Father, the express image of his person. That's why Jesus said to Philip, "If you seen me, you've seen the Father. I and the Father are one." Upholding all things by the word of his power. In Colossians, it tells us that by his will everything has its cohesion. And one day he will speak again and everything will go up in a big ball of flame. Listen, we believe in the Big Bang theories, Christians; it just happens at the end, not the beginning.

And so he says, "upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself," by himself, Jesus purged, he drained us, he cleansed us of our sins and then sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high. Listen, "being made," this is so important as we move through because most of the false teaching is always around angel worship. Billy Graham wrote a great book on angels, and you ought to get it and read it. On worshiping spiritual beings. It's one of the big deceptions.

Because he says here, "being made much better than the angels, as he have by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." You look at the Mormon church, Moroni. The Mormons believe that Jesus is the brother of Lucifer, that he's a created being, that he's no different than an angel. You look at the Jehovah Witnesses, they believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel. And there's this worship of spiritual beings, but the problem is most of these spiritual beings that they're worshiping are fallen angels. That's why the Bible says beware, because Satan, the prince of darkness, can transform himself into an angel of light.

When Jesus was asked the question—this is very important this morning, I want to enlighten you—when Jesus was asked the question by his disciples as they were there on the Mount of Olives, they asked him two-pointed questions: "What will be the sign of your coming when you come back, and the end of the world?" The first thing he mentions is deception.

When Paul addresses the last days, the latter days—we're living in the last of the latter days—he also mentions deception. Let's read this and then I want to back it up with some other verses. He said, "Little children, this is the last days. This is the last time. And as we have heard that the Antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time."

Now, "anti" doesn't mean opposite. "Anti" means against Christ. In fact, a better word to use there would be the counterfeit Christ. The devil always has a counterfeit to what is real. Jesus called us to be born again. He said, "You must be born again. You cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven unless you are born again." Jesus didn't say join the Baptist church or join Gold Country Calvary Chapel or join the Assemblies of God or join some other church. He didn't say that.

In fact, if you're coming here because this is a Calvary Chapel, you just need to stop. Because I'm not "rah-rah Calvary Chapel." We have to be accountable to somebody, and I think that Calvary Chapel stays as true to the word of God as any man-made organization. But I serve Jesus Christ. I'm his servant. And I've often told my—my pastor was Chuck Smith's nephew, and I've told Chuck, "Chuck, you deviate from the word and I'm gone." He said, "You deviate from the word and I'll make you go."

Because we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to convict men and then lead them into truth. We believe the word of God is the truth. And it's never to be compromised. It is to be taught, the whole word of God. But there's this counterfeit. And it's in every religious system. The Pope is not like Jesus. What he says does not become the word of God. You understand that?

If I were up here teaching anything that didn't line up with the word of God, you have every right to reject me and call me a heretic. If I ever deviate from the teaching of God's word, then leave. Vote with your feet and get out of here. Because we're living in a time where there's going to be deception. In fact, let me read you a few passages by other of the apostles that warned us. Paul writing in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 5, and if you can't get there fast enough, they'll put it up on the screen because I'm going to move kind of quickly through these things.

He says, "This know also." Now, Paul is fading from the scene. He knows his time is short. He's being poured out like a drink offering, that he's going to go be with the Lord. And a few weeks of the writing of this epistle, he was taken out to the Appian Way and beheaded for the faith. And he's actually, as it were, passing the baton to his young left lieutenant, Timothy. He's putting Timothy in charge of the churches, and he tells Timothy, "know this also, that in the last days"—this speaks of the time you and I are living in. Is Israel birthed as a nation again? That's one of the things he said in chapter 24. Are they in control of the city of Jerusalem? Are the players of Ezekiel 38 and 39 in place? Are you seeing Psalm 83 happening right now? Do you see the direction the world is going?

In fact, the whole thing of the fig tree is you'll know you're living in the last days in the generation that sees the birth of Israel and the regaining of the holy city Jerusalem. Because the—again, which you understand from prophecy in Daniel chapter 9—that the pendulum of the 69-week vision stopped and the church was opened up, and it's about to swing to that last seven years. We call the tribulation; Jeremiah called it Jacob's trouble. God's about to deal with Israel and the Jews again. The church is going to be gone. You'll see that if you come Wednesday night.

But he's telling us in the time we're living in. I, when you read about Paul's age, I thought that was pretty perilous. I mean, people were being rounded up and arrested by the Roman Empire and tortured and put to death and used for fodder, as it were, you know, in the arenas. But Paul says, "Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." And then he tells us why: "For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents." Any of that going on?

"Unthankful." In Romans chapter 1, the downhill spiral of every human being is when they're unthankful for what God has done. I live in awe of what God has done for me. There are days where I can't even wrap my hands around the fact that he would save somebody like me, that he would love me. When we get into chapter 3, he's going to tell us that this love he has for us is otherworldly. We can't even wrap our hands around him. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has for us, that we should be called or named the sons, the daughters of God." Can you imagine?

He says, "unthankful, unholy." You know, I noticed in Barna's research that the divorce rate is going down. You know why it's going down? Because nobody's getting married. They're just jumping from one relationship to another. Drug abuse, sex trafficking, pornography, alcoholism—all of these things on the rise in our society. "Unholy, without natural affection." Now, we're not even sure what gender we are. Without natural affection. "Trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent," without any self-control, "fierce, despisers of that which is good."

I don't know if you caught it this week, I guess it was a day ago, where there was somebody in one of Kamala Harris's rallies when she was talking about abortion that stood up and said, "Jesus Christ is Lord." And you know what her response was? "You're in the wrong rally," and just waved them on, remove them. Really? And you would vote for that as a Christian? I'm telling you, Trump's got his faults, but he's pro-life and pro-Israel. And right now, that's good enough for me, seeing the choices we have.

And I'm not telling you how to vote because I'm not political, but you ought to vote your conscience. "Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." And here it is: "having a form of godliness," a religious kind of piety, a religious system, the religious speak, "having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof; from such turn away." The power to change your life.

We're born of the spirit. We have the mind of Christ. We have a new heart. We have a new destination, a new direction. We have a whole different worldview. Our worldview isn't things are falling apart; our worldview is things are falling into place. And that Jesus Christ is coming back for us soon to take us to the Father's house. That's our worldview. And I can't wait for it to happen. Now, while I'm here, I'm going to be obedient.

But Paul warned Timothy, and listen, he's describing the time we're living in. Now, in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1, he says this: "Now the Spirit," the Holy Spirit, "speaketh expressly." He's saying, "Listen, the Holy Spirit has warned me as an apostle, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, and they will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." We're living in that time of all-out deception.

In fact, in Acts chapter 20, just as a few verses I just want to read real quickly before we move on so you have the context. In Acts chapter 20, verses 25 through 32, Paul is making his way to Jerusalem. He knows there he will be arrested. He knows it's the last time he'll be in Jerusalem; he will be taken to Rome, he'll be tried and eventually he will be beheaded. The Lord has shown that to him. And some of the prophets are warning him and he said, "Why do you trouble me? I know. I'm not willing just to live for the Lord, I'm willing to die for him."

But as he's calling for the elders of Ephesus to meet him at the seashore of Miletus, because he's in a hurry to get before Passover to Jerusalem, as they're praying and hugging and crying because they know that they won't see his face any longer, he gives this exhortation to them: "And now, behold, I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more." Paul understands that his race is about run. His fight is almost over. In fact, he writes it in 2 Timothy, he says, "I fought a good fight." Are you fighting a good fight, Christian? Are you agonizing a good *agonizomai*? Are you fighting a good fight? Are you staying the course? Is there any quit in you? Don't let there be.

Are you defending the faith? Are you guarding the faith in your heart, that no man would steal that away from you? And not only not steal it away from you, but you would proclaim it because you're not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. I just think of Paul when he was before Felix and Festus trying to convince them to be Christians. And one of them, the two of them, I think it was Festus, said, "You almost persuade me to be a Christian." And Paul said, "I wish you were altogether like I am, only without these chains."

I don't think that the world understands when we're begging them, when we're beseeching them: be reconciled to God. Because we know the terror of the Lord. We know what's going to happen to them if they don't come to faith. We're not looking at them as though we're better than them. We understand what happens to a person. The only sin that will send you to hell is rejecting Jesus Christ. Because once you accept him, he makes you just as though you never were a sinner, and your sins and iniquities he remembers no more. That's the only sin. And yet men's hearts are so stubborn and so prideful and so rebellious that they won't humble themselves and say, "Yes, Jesus, come in, clean up the mess of my life."

That didn't cost you an extra, and I digress, but let me get back to this. "And now, behold, those I've gone among, you shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of any man." Now he's quoting from Ezekiel, because he said if we don't warn people when they're in sin and they die in their sin, then their blood is going to be required at our hands. You know, I thank you for your standing ovation today and your applaud. And I hope you understand my heart. I do appreciate that, I do. But I don't do it for that.

The reason why I'm uncompromising in God's word, well, there's two reasons. Number one, I love my Father and I love his word. And the second one is I fear my Father. Because I know what happens to those people that water it down and compromise it, deceive people to believing they're okay when they're not. And so Paul would say, "Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am clean." And I take you to record this day. Have you not heard in this place for almost 30 years the whole counsel of God? Have I in any way failed to tell you what God requires of you, what God has done for you, how to be saved, what happens after you're saved? In any way have you been neglected as far as the word of God goes?

And I would have to say no, because if you've been here more than seven years, you've gone through the whole New Testament verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. If you've been here the whole length we've been here, we're in our third time through the Old Testament. So he says this: "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and unto the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made thee an overseer." I didn't make myself an overseer here. I've had people say, "You know, you ought to quit." Well, I want to sometimes, but I don't get to, because this is not a job for me. This is a calling. Woe to me when I stand before God if I don't do what he's called me to do, because I'm the servant of God; I don't get a choice in the matter.

The only choice I get is to do it joyfully or just do it. But I choose to do it joyfully. "Which the Holy Spirit has made thee an overseer, to feed the church of God, which hath been purchased by his own blood." You belong to Jesus Christ just like I do, and Jesus said to me, "Would you feed my sheep?" and I said, "Yes, sir, I will do that if that's what you want me to do." But they're your sheep, they're not my sheep. I'm not a lord over you. I'm a helper in your faith, that's all I am. I'm a pastor, I'm a shepherd, I'm a teacher. I'm here to feed God's sheep, and I hope you're well-fed.

"Purchased by his own blood. For I know this," this is what Paul is saying, "I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock." We're living in that time, not sparing the flock. It says this: "Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after themselves." Saying, "It's okay if you're having sex with your girlfriend or boyfriend. It's okay if you're living together. It's okay if you're doing drugs and alcohol. Jesus loves you, just come to church. Celebrate with us." Celebrate what?

When I come to church, I want to hear my Father say, "Well done." I want to hear my Father say, "I watched your struggle this week. I see you got knocked down a few times but you got up. And you were broken and repentant. You didn't settle in and give into it." The two things that John is dealing with is Antinomianism, what we call hyper-grace today or the seeker-sensitive movement. That's nothing new; John is dealing with it right here in this epistle. And he's also dealing with Gnosticism. The Gnostics believe that everything that was spiritual was good and everything carnal, physical, was bad, it was wrong. And so you could live as carnally as you want as long as your spirit loves Jesus. And he's saying no, not true.

"Of your own selves these people will arise. Therefore watch, and remember, that in the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one of you day and night with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to the church, to religion." Are you reading along with me? What is he commend us to? To God our Father, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among them which are sanctified.

Can I read one more? This is so important that we build this because this is the time we're living in. Paul knows that. But Paul even gets more direct in 2 Thessalonians. I'm just going to start in chapter 2, verse 3, and read through. They'll put it up on the screen, you can follow along. "Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day," the day of Christ, the return for the church, "that day shall not come except"—there's something that has to happen first.

"There come a falling away, a falling away first." The word there in the Greek is *apostasia*, a departure from the biblical faith. Not a departure from church attendance, not a departure from religion, a departure from the biblical faith where the Holy Spirit through the word of God changes you, that changes your life, changes your direction, changes your motivation. We're not those who have a form of godliness and deny the power; we believe that when we're born of this spirit, it changes us. We struggle, the flesh struggles with that change. That's how we know we're saved.

You know, he's going to say that as we walk through this epistle. He's going to tell us the way we know we're born again is because the seed remains in us and we can't continue in sin. We may fall into it, but we can't live there. Because it's like falling into a septic tank. All of a sudden your senses are different; you realize this is a septic tank, and I don't belong here.

And so he says, "a falling away, and then the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition." Again, John is the only one that uses the word "Antichrist" or "counterfeit Christ." Here, Paul uses "a son of perdition," "who opposes and exalts himself above all which is called God." See, there it is. He's against God and he's the counterfeit God. You listen—we don't study the Bible to be almost right. You see, Satan knows he can wrap enough truth around the lie. Solid biblical doctrine is not being almost right; you have to be completely right. You can't almost get it down. You can use terms that the Bible uses like "Latter-Day Saints of Jesus Christ." What Jesus Christ?

"Jehovah's Witnesses." What Jehovah are you talking about? Yahweh of Israel? The holy one of Israel? And the holy one of Israel, as John's going to declare, says that if you worship me, then you worship my Son. If you don't worship my Son, you don't have me. So now we're living in a time of deception where words mean things. "Who opposes himself above all which is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God"—see, that's the problem. You know, today you want to be the God of your own life. Or you want to serve a false god or a false religious system. The wicked one is deceiving and seducing us into this doctrine of demons, this doctrine of devils, to worship the creation more than the creator. To think that we're in charge when we're not. What the great deception of humanity is when you think you're in charge.

Man, I made a mess of my life. I don't want to be in charge. So that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself to be God. See, it's not just against God; he's the counterfeit. Religion today, if where you go to church doesn't teach you that you're a sinner in need of a savior, that you were conceived in sin at the very conception, you were conceived in sin, you were brought forth in transgression, that you are completely undone. You are so undone, you can't fix yourself. There is no hope for you outside of Jesus Christ.

And that God, seeing your condition, God your Father, God your creator loved you so much. Behold what manner of love the Father has, that he loved you so much that he would sacrifice his Son, the eternal word of God, the second person of the Godhead, that he would take on human form. Because by one man sin came in the world, it has to be that one man takes sin out of the world. Read it in Romans chapter 5. And so God the Son became a human being. Can you imagine the creator becoming part of his creation? And then watching his creation beat him and reject him and criticize him and call him every manner of wicked thing and ultimately crucify him because he came to bear witness of the truth.

And he took it without opening his mouth. And hanging on a cross, he said, "Father, forgive them. If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't do it." In fact, if the devil knew what he was doing, he wouldn't have done it either, the Bible says, because he didn't understand the plan of God. The wages of sin is death. Somebody had to die. And God stooped down in the person of the Son and took on human frailty and bore our penalty without admixture and nailed to his cross every ordinance written against us and rose from the dead. That's not a religion. That's truth and relationship.

But religion wants to come and deceive, make it about form, make it about emotion, make it about feelings, instead of about truth and commitment. "Remember you not when I was yet with you I told you these things? And now you know that which withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time." There's something restraining the Antichrist from coming on the scene. He said, "For the mystery of iniquity does already work, only he that letteth will let until he's taken out of way." The word "let" in the old King James, your new King James translation might say that is resisting. We're the salt and the light. We are resisting all-out putrefaction of this world because we're light and salt. Can you imagine what this world is going to look like if we were taken out of the way? Do you think Kamala Harris might get elected as a president if the rapture happened today? What do you think this world would look like? Do you think that might be God's judgment?

I don't know, I'm asking these same questions. I know we're living in the final moments. But if the church was removed today, what would this world look like? And so he says, we're going to restrain until we're taken out of the way. Then he says, "And then the wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming." We leave seven years up at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and we return with Christ and he establishes his millennial reign. He destroys the wicked one, "even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders."

Now watch this: "And which with all deceivableness." There's our theme—deception, deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. And here's why they perish, and John's going to say the same thing: "because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved." I've had people come to this church, believe it or not, and say to me, "Pastor, we really like the worship, we like your style of teaching, but if you could, you know, kind of tone it down a little bit and reduce it to like 20 minutes, we would stay."

Well, I've often asked, "Well, how long do you sit in front of your television set in the evening?" "Well, that's beside the point." No, that is the point. The people who come here can only come here because they love the truth. Because we got nothing else to offer. We don't have a slick stage, we don't have a slick band, we don't have fog machines and light shows and lasers. We don't have that. You know what we have? Jesus. And he's enough. What we have is the Holy Spirit and the word of God. And that should be enough. We don't have a slick program. I'm not going to get up in 15 minutes and tell you how to live a better life now. No, I'm going to tell you, man, give your heart to Jesus because he's coming back for his church, that you might have eternal life. Turn away from this world and turn to him. Don't listen to the lies of the wicked one who's trying to seduce you away from Christ.

And then he goes on to say this: "because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie." There's a point at which God will say, "If that's what you want to believe, then go believe it." I thank God every day because I was messed up, that he didn't just cast me away. He should have. But he didn't. He didn't. I marvel at that every day. That he saved me, that somehow he got through my thick skull. But there's a point at which he'll say to those people, "Then go." That they might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

I tell you why people don't come to faith in Christ. It's not that they don't know. In fact, it's that they know all too well. What they know is: if I come to Christ, then I have to surrender, like we sang that song this morning. I have to surrender to his lordship. I now become accountable to his truth. And I want to live in darkness. I don't want to come to the light. I thank God that I had a fill of darkness and I knew what it was all about and it wasn't good.

Then he says this in verse 13: "But we, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and a belief of the truth." All through the Bible, there's this theme that runs. All through the New Testament, there's this theme that runs. It's woven into the DNA, into the fabric of the teaching of the New Testament. Listen: you have to be born again to see and enter the kingdom of heaven. But there is the god of this world that wants to blind your eyes so that you cannot see, stop up your ears so you cannot hear, and gross your heart so you cannot believe. It's deception, it's a seductive and seducing spirit. It's doctrines of demons, it's a—and then listen, if he can't keep you from loving the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and pride of life, he'll do the next best thing: he'll make you religious.

Religious people crucified Jesus. He'll make you religious. He'll make you think because you joined a church and you're on the church roll, you're okay. There's only one roll that matters, church. And we ain't keeping it. I've had people walk in here and say, "Hey, we like the church," and some of you are here and said to me, "Well, how do we join?" You can't. "Oh, I get it; it's a clique." No, it's not a clique. "Oh, it's you four and no more." No, it's not that at all. You can't join the church of Jesus Christ. You have to be born into it. You can come to my house this afternoon and say, "Hey, I like your family. I want to join your family." You can't join it. You can be adopted like we were into it, or you have to be born into it. Grafted or born. But you can't join the church.

It's the body of Christ. Not a religion, it's not a club. It's not a list of do's and don'ts. It's a changed heart. It's a new mind. And this is what he's saying. And so if he can't get you up and in the world, then he'll get you to be religious. Now let's read on. I want to say a few things here. I know my time is up. I got through what, two verses? No, one verse.

Little children, it is the last times. And you have heard that the Antichrist, the counterfeit, the against Christ shall come. Paul said a falling away from the biblical faith, perilous times, seducing spirits, doctrines of demons. These are the times we're living in, in the last days. "As you have heard the Antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists whereby we know that we're in the last times. They"—now notice seven times he's going to use the word "they"—"they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." He said these heretical teachers that had gone out and started their own sect, different forms, didn't stay with the truth, didn't stay in Christ.

And I'm so glad I've had people ask me, "Well, you know, what religious system was your family involved in, were you involved in before you became a born-again Christian?" Pagan. We had no religious affiliation. And you know what? In some ways, I thank God for that, because I don't have all those trappings. I was in darkness then in light. I was dead then alive. I was blind and then I could see. I had a gross heart and then I had a new heart. I had not the spirit, then I had the spirit. And it happened in a nanosecond. And I knew God had ripped open my heart, I knew something just changed. I didn't know the vernacular, but I realized I was a new creation in Christ Jesus. That old things had passed away and all things have become brand new.

Nobody had to tell me I couldn't do drugs anymore, alcohol anymore. They went out the window on the way down from the Bible study. Or sexual immorality, or any of the things of this world. There was a detesting of those things instantly. Oh, I battled and struggled and fell back and, you know, got up and how many have done that? But you're—it's different, because you're a live fish now swimming upstream. And sometimes you get, you know, knocked down and you float back, and then you start swimming up again. How many been doing that? How many feel like you're in the same part of the stream? You know, you get back and up. "Come on, I just want to get to that waterfall I see up there and go over that and see what's on the next side."

This is what he's saying. Now, I got to read just one more verse. "But you"—here's where we're going to close—"but you have an unction from the Holy One and you can know all things." You have the Holy Spirit. You are born of the spirit. The Spirit is leading and guiding you in all truth. You ever been alone and read the word, all of a sudden it just pops? Comes alive? It like—it jumps off the pages and grabs your heart. How many have ever had that experience? It just grabs your heart and you know God is speaking.

And then you go to church and the pastor teaches and you go, "I knew that was true! I just read that! I guess I was right." No, you weren't right. I wasn't right. He's right. And he showed you his truth. Amen? You have an unction. And—I'm tempted, but I can't. Verse 20: you have an unction. How do we get the unction? We have to be born of the spirit. That's why the Bible says that the carnal man, the unregenerated man, the man who is not born of the spirit, he can't know the things of God, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.

In fact, it goes even deeper than that; it says the god of this world has blinded his eyes that he can't see. You know, a couple in this church just, you know, bought me that painting of Jesus standing at the door. The famous painting, I can't remember—I need to put to memory the famous painter's name, but he painted this picture of Jesus standing at the door from Revelation chapter 3, verse 20, where he stands at the door and knocks. And so he had it in a prestigious art gallery and one of his artist friends came over and he's looking at the painting as they're standing there together. He says, "Hey, you kind of messed up." He goes, "What do you mean?" "Well, you forgot the doorknob." And the guy said, "I didn't forget the doorknob. That door can only be opened from the inside."

"I stand at the door and knock. If you will open it, I will come in. I will be your God. You will be my sons and daughters, and I will fix your mess." That's not a religion. That's a doorway into eternal life. Amen. You know, at this rate, we should get done with 1 John somewhere in the first millennium in the kingdom. There's just so much in it. But deception. You have to be on guard. Deception.

See, if Satan can't get you in the world—here's the point, let me tie a knot in it—if he can't get you in the world living for the world, if he can't keep you from pursuing Christ, he'll do the next best thing: he'll detour you into religion. Into form. Having a form of godliness, but not the power. See, I never got religion. I got Jesus. I got the Holy Spirit. I got a hunger for the word. You know, I was an addict in one direction. You know what I became an addict of the minute I got saved? Word.

I couldn't put it down. I literally—it's like some of these kids walking around with their phones. I'm walking around with my Bible. I couldn't wait for lunchtime to go sit in my car and read my Bible. I couldn't wait to get home from work, take a shower and read my Bible. I couldn't wait to get up early in the morning and read my Bible because God was speaking to me, because the word of God came alive.

And I'd go to churches—I went to church every night of the week if it wasn't my home church, somewhere—and I'd hear stupid stuff. I'd go up to the pastor, "That's not what God's word says." I sat in—can I say this? I know I'm over three minutes. I sat in a service where the guy got up and read, "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, it's not entered the heart of man, the things God prepared for them that love him," and then he closed his Bible and went on for like 30 minutes talking about how we can never understand how beautiful heaven is or how great God's glory is or what he's prepared for us. And so you know, I'll be honest with you, I got a little bored, maybe some of you do the same thing, so I read the next verse. "But God has revealed it to you by his Spirit."

What? I sat here for 35 minutes hearing something that simply wasn't true. Out of context. You have an unction. And if you sit alone with the word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you, you will come to the truth. Amen. You will come to the truth. Not a religion. It's a relationship. You and I have a Father and he has a Son, a Son who made us through the shedding of his blood, sons and daughters, adopted into the family. And it's a relationship. Amen.

Well, let's get the worship team up. Let's stand. We'll close in prayer. So, the deception, and we'll be on that a few weeks here. Watch out for the deception. Amen? Watch out for that. Watch out for the thought that you can do better. When I hear people pray that, I think they don't know Jesus. "Oh, I can do better." You—you can do better? If you could do better, then Jesus didn't need to come and die, that's what Paul said. Because the law would have worked. No, the problem is our heart is messed up. It's not our hands or our head; it's our heart. That has to be changed. Then, then we can do better. Amen? But you can't do better until you're saved. You can't do better until your heart's changed. Amen? Then you can do better.

Father, we thank you this morning. Just speak to us, Lord. Speak to us today. Father, there is a religious spirit that's sweeping across this nation and around the world because there is a deceiver and he's trying to seduce people away from you. Away from you, Lord.

But Lord, I pray for another Pentecost. I pray for a fresh wind and a fresh fire. I pray, Lord, for a new reality of who you are. That we would fall back in love with you. Come back to our first love, or come back to that love for the first time. That our hearts would be changed. That we would love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.

So Father, don't let your church in these final moments be deceived into some religious system. If we can't be lured back into the world, Lord, keep us from being religious. We just need to know you. That's what Paul said, a very religious man, "that I might know him." And we thank you that you can be known. That's what John's going to say in the next few verses I didn't get to, that we can know you, Father. And we thank you for that relationship in Jesus' name. Amen.