To refer to Mr. Lowe's imagery, I wonder
whether the Apostle John ever thought that his
epistle would be expounded to skaters.
However, it's good to see so many of
you having been able to join us this
morning, and we turn again to St. John's
First Epistle and to the passage that begins
with the 18th verse in the second chapter.
Now this passage is rather a long one.
It continues to the end of the chapter,
and we indicated last Lord's Day that there
are three main threads of thought that are
interwoven here.
We dealt with one last Sunday morning, namely,
the Apostle's understanding of the times.
He starts with that in verse 18.
Little children, he says, it is the last
time, or literally the last hour.
Looking at a time, not from the viewpoint
of creatures upon earth with calendars and clocks
and watches, but rather as God judges and
reckons time, John said 2,000 years ago
that the world had moved into the last
hour in God's purpose.
Time has ticked since then.
How much nearer the consummation of the age
we must therefore be at this time.
In a day that you think not, the
Son of Man shall come.
I think it is necessary that all of
us coming to this passage this morning should
come in the realization that at any moment
our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory,
can return.
May there be an echo in our hearts
of the words uttered by John in another
place, even so come Lord Jesus.
It is the last hour, the Apostle's understanding
of the times.
Now this morning we come to the second
main strand interwoven into the pattern of things
in this paragraph, namely his unmasking of the
heretics.
One remains, one main strand, namely this, his
undergirding of the saints.
He tells them about terrible things that have
already begun to happen and will happen as
the great Antichrist himself comes, but he doesn't
leave them there.
The Apostle will undergird their faith.
He will comfort, he will solace, he will
encourage them and he will tell them what
to depend upon as they move into the
closing moments of this age of grace.
Now this morning then we turn again to
this particular theme before us, John's unmasking of
the heretics.
Do keep your New Testament open because I
think you will find it helpful to turn
to it from time to time as we
proceed.
One thing that needs to be said by
way of introduction is this.
We must not think of the Apostle John
here in terms of a heresy hunter.
I don't know whether you have that breed
here in Canada at all, but I have
met them from time to time in other
places.
You know, the kind of person that's always
on the lookout for something that's wrong in
another one's belief.
Rarely looks in the mirror, but very often
at other people.
Heresy hunter, a kind of McCarthy in the
church.
Don't say that too loud.
But you know, there have been people of
that order.
Now John doesn't fit into that category at
all.
Let us be quite clear about that.
That's not what we have here.
In chapter 1, verses 3 and 4, John
has already told us what his motive is
in writing this epistle.
And that motive precludes this kind of spirit,
that is, the heresy hunting approach.
He told us there, may I quote, that
which we have seen and heard we proclaim
also to you, so that you may have
fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father and
with His Son, Jesus Christ.
John's purpose was to bind people together, not
to separate them.
Not to split the fellowship up into odd
little groups and drive a wedge between man
and his brother, or man and his sister.
John's goal, John's motive was to bind the
community together into a fellowship.
Now if that is your motive, you will
not become a heresy hunter.
At the same time, this is where the
balance of truth is so necessary, at the
same time.
There are certain doctrinal aberrations that we must
never allow to go unchallenged.
Howsoever timid we may be, however much it
may hurt us temperamentally to do so, it
is our bounden duty to stand and to
speak and to challenge those who would undermine
the fabric of the Christian church and the
doctrines of our Christian gospel.
Now that's what John is doing here.
The heretics abroad are not just referring to
something that is incidental.
On the contrary, they're attacking the very person
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At a time like this, John, a parcel
of love that he was, becomes the aggressor.
The glory of his Savior is at stake.
When the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
is at stake, it behoves every Christian man
to become defrozen at the mouth and to
speak and to stand and to be counted
among those who are loyal to the Son
of God and to the gospel of His
grace.
It needs to be noted, therefore, I think,
that the motivating spirit behind the exposure of
the heretics is not hatred, not even the
hatred of heretics, but love for God and
love for His Son and love for the
fellowship and love for the truth that it
is revealed in Jesus Christ.
And it is because of that, because of
his passionate concern for the glory of God
and for the truth revealed and for the
excellent name of His Savior, John becomes embroiled
in controversy and uses very strong language, albeit
under the reticence of Christian grace.
Now, that needs to be said.
But against that background, let us come to
what we have before us today.
There are three key words here, I think.
I know there are some young folk who
are taking notes.
Well, now, these three key words may be
helpful if you want the main divisions of
the message this morning.
The first word is the word departure.
You don't find that word precisely in our
English version, not in the King James Version
anyway.
You may find it in another.
They went out from us, the departure.
Then the next key word is denial.
They're denying that Jesus is the Christ.
And then the last key word this morning
is the word deception.
I write, says John, at the end of
the passage to you, concerning those who would
deceive you or lead you astray.
That is the pattern that we are going
to follow briefly this morning.
First of all, then, we turn to the
departure from the Christian Church, of those whom
John is here branding as antichrists.
The departure from the Church.
Let's read verse 19.
They went out from us, says John, but
they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they
would have continued with us.
But they went out, that it might be
plain that all are not of us.
Now the historical fact is very briefly stated
there.
I like the reticence of John.
He simply says they went out from us.
Now you use your imagination.
You use your imagination for just a moment.
They went out from us.
Is that all?
Not on your life.
Behind that simple fact there lay an awful
lot of wrangling and an awful lot of
arguing, of heart-breaking and heart-searching and
what-not.
But John doesn't refer to it.
He buries it all in the sea of
oblivion.
He forgets about that.
He doesn't go into the details.
He doesn't exacerbate the wounds.
He doesn't open up the wounds again.
But on the contrary, he says they went
out from us.
That's the historical fact.
Now this needs to be qualified a little.
These folk to whom John is referring didn't
simply absent themselves from Church.
Neither, indeed, did they leave one Church in
order to start another Church.
It's not what they did.
What they did was this.
They broke rank from the Christian Church in
order to found an opposing group with doctrines
that were inconsistent with the Christian faith.
So then, this is a very sinister thing.
They went out from us, not just to
be absent and keep themselves aloof.
They went out from us, says John, in
order to do something wholly contrary to the
revelation which we have of God in His
Son, Jesus Christ.
Now the next thing I want you to
notice here, still looking at this first point,
still looking at their departure from the Church,
I want you to notice a theological principle
that comes out in verse 19.
A biblical principle, if you like.
They went out from us, says John, but
they were not of us.
Why, John?
Well, he says, this is the reason.
If they had been of us, they would
have continued with us.
Now, have we got the force of that?
Following his reference to the departure of these
people from the fellowship of the Christian Church,
John proceeds to enunciate what is a vital
biblical and theological principle.
That principle can be simply stated in this
way.
Those who are truly Christian belong to the
people of God, and because they belong to
the people of God, to the fellowship of
the Church, to the Church of Jesus Christ,
they will not secede from it in order
to establish something that is contrary to it.
Now, this is a principle.
Had they been of us, says John, had
they been Christian at all, they would never
have gone out to establish something that is
contrary to the Christian Church.
Now, the great doctrine, if I may so
speak, that is referred to here is the
doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.
And it is a most important doctrine that
they who are Christ will endure to the
end of the road.
Salvation is essentially a work of God, a
work of God in the souls of men.
God is responsible for your salvation, Christian.
He started it off.
He continues it, and he alone can consummate
it.
If we were left to ourselves, if the
Spirit of God had not come to convince
us of our sin and to lead us
to the wounds of the Lord Jesus and
to apply the merits of the Savior to
us, we would still be dead in trespasses
and sins.
We loved our sins.
I loved my sins, didn't you?
But the Spirit of God comes and convicts
and drives a wedge between us and our
sins, and he uproots us from the world,
and he separates us.
This is salvation.
It is something that God began by his
Word, by his servant, by his Spirit, however,
whatever agent he used.
Sometimes there are a number, sometimes largely one
or two, but God began the Word.
Paul speaks of it in 1 Corinthians 2
as God revealing to us certain things.
The natural man, he says, can't receive the
things of the Spirit of God because they're
foolishness to him, but God has revealed them
unto us as unto bed.
Jesus said to Simon Peter at Caesarea Philippi,
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood
does not reveal these things to you, but
my Father which is in heaven.
What hath Peter seen?
Oh, that which is revealed and disclosed in
his confession.
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
How did you get that, Peter?
How do you know when others don't?
Ah, says the Lord Jesus, it's my Father
who revealed that.
My dear friends, let us be quite sure
of this.
It is God who begins the work by
illuminating the mind, convincing the conscience, and so
forth.
But he does more than that.
He regenerates the soul.
He brings new life.
He quickens us when we were dead.
He gives us a sensitivity to spiritual things.
He incorporates his redeemed into the body of
Christ.
Now, it is God's work that you cannot
forget yourself to be born again.
None of us could extricate ourselves from our
sins.
We wouldn't want to.
Paul in writing to the Philippians says this,
against the background of what I've said, listen
to Paul's words.
Now he says, He who began a good
work in you will continue it to completion
until he completes it at the day of
Jesus Christ.
Isn't that wonderful?
He who began it will finish it.
I suppose we all know, do we not,
it isn't a matter of age.
We all know what it is to start
things and leave them half done.
Whether we like it or not, it speaks
of our immaturity.
You have some people, even in the Christian
church, they love to start things.
You watch them, they're like butterflies.
But they never see a thing through.
God is not like that.
He never starts building a universe, but he
finishes the job.
He never begins anything, but he finishes.
He sees it through.
As sure as there's an alpha in God's
will, there's an omega to complement it and
complete it.
God sees the thing through.
Now, that is true as far as salvation
is concerned.
He who began his good, saving work in
your heart, Christian, however weak you are this
morning, he will see it through to his
core.
He'll finish it.
That means this.
You will not be able to make a
complete break from the people of God.
You will never be able, ultimately, to separate
from the truth of God.
You will never, ultimately, be able to get
away from the shepherd God has given for
his flock.
He'll keep you.
He'll keep you in the fellowship.
He'll keep you in the truth.
He'll keep you in the hands of the
Son as he keeps you in his own
hands.
He will persevere with his people, and therefore
his people will persevere by his grace.
That's why John says, you see, they went
out from us, but they were not of
us.
How do you know, John, for this reason?
If they had gone out from us, it
means they didn't really belong.
God let them go, and God perseveres with
his own.
By his providence, by his Word, by his
Holy Spirit, by the work and the testimony
of his people, God perseveres.
Don't you know that, good Christian?
I hope you do.
When you try to sin, when you try
to disbelieve, when you try to doubt, when
you go this way, the Lord may allow
you to go so far, and then someone
comes across your way.
Something happens in your life.
God sends a thunderbolt across your path, and
back you go in penitence.
That's true of God's people all along the
way.
He perseveres, and because he perseveres with us,
we persevere because of him.
They couldn't have gone out, says John, if
they'd really belonged.
And this is most important.
It's important for us to understand our own
experience.
It's important for us to understand the providence
of God.
Why does God do certain things in our
lives?
Sometimes, now this is not the only explanation,
sometimes he allows certain things and he does
certain things because he sees that we're trying
to get away from him.
Paul puts it in this way, writing to
the Colossians, chapter 1, verses 21 to 23.
Let me read.
You, he says, who once were estranged and
hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has
now reconciled in his body of flesh by
his death, in order to present you holy
and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that,
and I'm reading from the RSV, provided that
you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast,
not shifting from the hope of the gospel
which you heard.
Turn to the epistle to the Hebrews.
I can only refer to one or two
passages.
In chapter 3 and verse 6, I read
these words, Christ was faithful over God's house
as a son, Moses as a servant, so
we read in the context.
Christ was faithful over God's house as a
son.
And we, says the writer, are his house,
Christ's house, Christ's family.
If we hold fast our confidence and pride
in our hope.
Did you get that?
We are the people of Christ if we
hold fast the confidence of our hope.
Can I give you one other passage from
the epistle to the Hebrews which is vital
and very eloquent?
It's in chapter 3, verses 12 to 14.
Take care, brethren, writes the author, lest there
be in any of you an evil, unbelieving
heart, leading you to fall away from the
living God.
But exhort one another every day as long
as it is called today.
Do we do that?
That none of you may be hardened by
the deceitfulness of sin.
Why should we do that?
Well, that none of us should be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin, but why should
we worry about that for this reason?
For we share in Christ if only we
hold our first confidence firm unto the end.
What does that mean?
It means this, the ability to persevere by
the grace of God is given us in
salvation.
Perseverance is a characteristic of eternal life.
As sure as a man has eternal life,
he has eternal life, not spasmodic life, not
the kind of life that blossoms today and
withers tomorrow, not the kind of life that
is here now but is gone.
By their severance from the church, then, and
their setting up of a rival to it,
these heretics proved that they never really belonged.
They did not persevere, therefore they did not
belong.
They were simply members of the external institution.
It says Paul in writing of Israel in
Romans chapter 9 and verse 6, he says,
They are not all Israel, but are of
Israel.
My good people, we have to say that
about the institutional church.
External membership is no proof of inward union
with the body of Christ.
Some of us were members of the visible
church long before we were regenerate.
They went out from us, they'd been partaking
of the sacraments, they'd been listening to the
exposition of the word, they'd been singing the
praises of the church, they'd been part and
parcel of the institution under apostolic leadership.
And they were not of us, they didn't
belong.
But now I want you to notice, and
I can only refer to this very briefly,
behind all this there was a purposeful providence.
Notice the second part of verse 19, they
went out that it might be plain that
they all are not of us.
Now literally that reads like this, they went
out from among us that it might, in
order that it might be manifest, that they
all are not of us.
Now what I want you to notice is
those words, are those words, in order that.
They went out, says John, in order that
it might be manifested that they didn't belong
to us.
Who was responsible for that?
These people went out of their own volition,
yes, exactly.
Well, whose purpose is being fulfilled in all
this?
Surely they didn't go out in order to
show that they were not Christian, because after
they'd gone out they still tried to masquerade
as Christians, albeit a little different.
Satan wouldn't do that, no, no.
God fulfills his own purpose.
The hand of God was in this.
They did exactly what they wanted to, just
as Judas did exactly what he wanted to,
when he received the sup from the Savior's
hand to indicate that he was going to
betray the Son of God.
But at the same time, as in the
case of Judas, so in the case of
these people, the purpose of God was fulfilled,
and the hour has come when they must
go out in order that it shall be
revealed that they're not really Christian people at
all.
You know, sooner or later this disclosure, this
revelation must come.
If I am not a genuine Christian, sooner
or later the truth must be told.
If not now, then later.
As Paul writes to the Corinthians at the
end of chapter three, the day will declare
it.
The day.
It shall be declared, he says, so as
by fire, whether or not my life and
my character is consistent with and born of
the Spirit and the truth and the work
and word of God.
I may pass as a Christian here for
a while, but if I'm not a Christian,
sooner or later it will have to be
declared.
They went out from us.
They were not of us.
Their departure from the church, the next thing
is their denial that Jesus is the Christ.
Now, here we come to the heart of
it, the heart of the issue.
Why did they go?
What really separated them from the saints?
Well, it's this.
They denied that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of God.
Not simply, if you read the whole verses
22 and 23 together, you will find that
it's not simply the denial that Jesus, the
historical man, was the Messiah of the Old
Testament.
That's involved.
But read the whole passage and you will
find it is also a denial that Jesus
was the Son of God.
They thought that Jesus was purely a man.
Born a man, died a man, but in
between, and this is confusing, these Gnostics believed
that at his baptism, a divine emanation as
they spoke of it.
It's not easy to explain what this means.
I'm not sure that they knew themselves.
But something different came upon him, something divine
came upon him at his baptism, left him
before he died, so that the early part
of his life was the life of a
man and he died as a man.
Now, you notice what this does.
It denies the doctrine of the incarnation.
If that is true, it is not right
to say that God became incarnate in Jesus
Christ.
Secondly, it denies the doctrine of redemption.
Jesus died as a man only, nothing more
to it than that.
You see, this heresy is really vital.
It gets at the heart, it gets at
the foundation of the Christian faith.
It severs the main artery of our faith.
And John, of course, proceeds to expound what
is involved when you deny that Jesus is
the Christ and Jesus is the Son of
God.
He says, John, if you do that, he
says, can I read, who is a liar
but he who denies that Jesus is the
Christ?
This is the antichrist.
He who denies the Father and the Son.
No one who denies the Son as the
Father.
He who confesses the Son as the Father
also.
How can I summarize this?
You simply cannot have the Father without the
Son, according to the Christian revelation.
Neither can you have the Son without having
the Father.
Why can't you?
Because the Father and the Son are one.
And this is a tremendous challenge, you see,
and it is a very relevant point today.
We are involved with many heresies, and people
say we have the Father, we know the
Father, we pray to the Father.
Unitarianism is still in vogue.
They believe in the Father but not in
the Son.
They believe in a Father who has no
Son.
Mohammedanism and Judaism come into this category.
There is so much elevated truth in their
respective systems.
But they do not believe that Jesus is
the Son, and yet they claim that they
know God.
Now, Jesus says, and John the Apostle re
-echoes what Jesus said, you cannot have the
Father when you don't have the Son.
Why?
Because the Father and the Son are one.
I and my Father are one, in this
sense, at least.
I can't explore this fully this morning.
Jesus said, no man knows the Father except
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him.
You can't know the Father save through the
Son.
Now, you can know the deity of God
and his power.
Paul tells us that in Romans 1, even
from the creation.
Some things are known from the very creation
of the world, God's eternal power and Godhead,
but you can't know him as Father.
Some things are known from our own consciences,
that God is judged, that there's a right
and wrong in his estimates, and he makes
us uncomfortable when we sin.
I can know that God is not pleased
with me, but I can't know him as
Father that way.
If I am to enter into a knowledge
of God as Father, I must come to
him through the Son, says John in his
Gospel, as many as received him.
To them gave he the right to become
the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name, who were born not
of water, nor of blood, nor of the
will of man, but of the Spirit of
God, born of God.
You cannot have the Father without the Son,
and if you have the Son, you've got
the Father also, because Jesus Christ, according to
the Gospels, is never, may I say so,
a cul-de-sac, or never an end
in himself.
When Jesus Christ attracts men to himself, he
always brings them to the Father.
I am the way, he says, not the
end of way.
The way leads somewhere.
I am the truth, and the truth is
about something.
I am the embodiment of the truth concerning
the Father.
Jesus Christ never simply calls attention to himself.
They that have seen me, he says, have
seen the Father.
So that the Father and the Son are
inextricably bound up together.
You have the one, you have the other.
You cannot deny the one and not dishonor
the other.
Just think of it in a simple illustration.
You are a father and you have a
child.
If I came around and I said, this
is not your child, who am I insulting?
You may say the child, insulting the father
too.
If I insult the child, I insult the
father.
If I insult the father, I insult the
child.
You cannot dishonor the one without the other,
because they're bound together in terms of father
and son.
Says John, they deny that Jesus is the
Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, therefore
they can't have the Father, they haven't got
him.
And so John calls them, who is the
liar?
Not a liar, but the liar with a
death in a darkened tomb.
The arch-liar declaring the life, our excellence.
What is that?
That Jesus is not the Son of God,
Messiah.
You can get away with many things.
You can't get away with this.
By getting away, I mean this.
You may make many errors, primarily, and yet
in due course you may come back into
the way, the right way.
All of us have had wrong notions at
some time or another.
But in the grace of God, he kept
us within the fellowship and we learned a
little better.
But my friend, if you deny that Jesus
is the Son of God, there is no
way in.
And so he speaks of the deception of
Christians in verse 26.
I write to you, he says, about those
who would deceive you, in other words, who
lead you astray from the historic Christ-centered
faith, from the richness of the Christ-exalting
Christian fellowship, and from the Christ-sending, world
-loving Heavenly Father.
Now what's all this got to say to
us?
What a dismal story.
How very challenging.
This is Satan's master lie, that Jesus is
not the Christ.
And here we simply cannot strike a bargain
with anyone.
The doctrine of the person and work of
Christ is not up for negotiation.
There are some things in this world that
are non-negotiable, and this is one of
them.
It is the foundation upon which the Christian
church is built, and out of which Christian
character and Christian experience emerges.
What then has this got to say to
us practically?
I close by just referencing one or two
things.
One thing it tells me is this, that
I need to study the Scriptures as a
Christian, to know exactly what does it say
about the Son of God.
Are you sure you know what the Scriptures
say about the person and work of Jesus
Christ?
How much time do you give to this
subject?
How much discipline?
My friend, I tell you, you're open to
all the spiritual germs in the air if
you don't know what the Bible says about
the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Will you allow me to make a caveat
here?
Now, I do not mean to disparage anyone
or anything when I say that not even
the person and work of the Holy Spirit
must come before the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're not divisible, in the last resort, any
more than the Father and the Son can
be divided.
But you know, we have come into an
era in the Christian church when there is
a tremendous emphasis upon the ministry of the
Spirit, especially in terms of Christian experience, producing
experience.
Now, we need this.
Our experience must match the glory of God
and its demands in a world such as
ours.
Please don't misunderstand me.
Everything that the Bible says about the ministry
of the Spirit in producing experience that is
valid, I am for.
But wait a moment.
It is possible for Christian experience to be
simulated, and it is possible for me at
last to say, I work miracles in your
name, I cast out devils in your name,
I did this and I did that in
your name, and I believe I have the
gift from you, when Jesus has to say
to me, I never knew you.
He says that.
Depart.
It is fundamental that we do not allow
any other doctrine to eclipse the doctrine of
the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
This is the foundation.
He is the giver of the Spirit, and
if the Spirit comes, he glorifies the Lord
Jesus Christ.
We need to know all that Scripture tells
us about the Savior.
Next thing is this.
We need to learn as Christian people to
come to a knowledge of the Father through
the Son, to know God as Jesus knew
him, as Father, Father, Father.
You read through the Gospels and see how
often he turned to his Father and said,
Father, Father, Father.
In all sorts of circumstances, he knew his
Father.
We should know him as Jesus knew him,
through the Son.
We should also learn to make our own
calling and election sure by the development of
Christian character and the prerequisites of perseverance, and
we should test every modern deviation by such
tests as these.
Does it give its rightful place to Jesus
Christ, or does it push him out of
the center and have another foundation in his
place?
Does it lead men to the Father by
the Son or simply to Jesus?
Does it bear the stamp and the fruit
of the Spirit?
Does it acknowledge the Church to be the
Body and the Bride of Christ from which
we must never depart?
Does it build on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, or on a foundation laid
by a modern apostle or a modern prophet
whom we are not sure about?
God grant us in these days that demand
our total allegiance to Jesus Christ, that we
shall not be found lacking.
Oh, may the Spirit of God come afresh
upon us, not to create hatred of any
man, but love for the Savior and a
jealousy for his glory.
Such a knowledge of his word as will
enable us to minister to him and to
represent him amidst all the calamitous things that
are said in his name.
To his name be the glory.
And the praise.
We conclude now by singing our last hymn,
which is number 245.
O Jesus King most wonderful, thou conqueror renowned,
thou sweetness most ineffable, in whom all joys
are found.