Protecting Our Fellowship With God In The Last Days | 1 John 2:20-25 | 10-11-26 | Sunday AM

Andrew Montoro (0:00)

Okay, let's find our place as 1 John, 1 John chapter 2, and we'll begin reading in verse number 18 We got halfway through the message last week. We just dealt with the times in which we live and did not really get to deal with the answer. And so we're gonna pick it up, verse number 18 again, read down through verse number 25, as John is writing to the believers. He's not writing to the brethren, he's not writing to the teachers. He's writing to those who have been saved, who are in the church there. Most churches of East Asia, most likely the church in Ephesus would be included in this letter. He is writing to these believers. They're struggling, but he is addressing them with help from God. The Bible says, little children, it is the last time. It's the last days. It's the last period of time. It is the last time. And as you have heard, that antichrist shall come even now, are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time? 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. So here's what he's dealing with. There's the teachers. There's the brethren. And that word, but, means a change of direction. But he's now contrasting those he's writing to with what he's just discussed. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it and that no lie is of the truth.

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son.

Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Let therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning, if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. And so here's our title, just what we're focusing on this morning, Protecting Our Fellowship With God In The Last Days. This section he's dealing with, Fellowship With God For Christians In The Times In Which We Live. But there are threats to our fellowship, but there's also, God has given us, supernatural, through the power of God. We don't have to be swept away with what's coming. We can have fellowship with God today through what he has given us. Protecting Our Fellowship With God, Believers Who Rely On The Holy Spirit And Abide In The Word Can Maintain Fellowship With God Despite The Realities Of The Last Day. Let's ask God's help, and we'll get into the message. Dear Heavenly Father, we do come before you this morning. Lord, I'm thankful for each one who's here. I'm thankful for Lord, just how you work in our lives. I pray for your help in preaching, Lord. I cannot do it without you. I pray, Lord, that it would be an encouragement to each one who's here, or it would be helpful. I pray that your word would speak. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Probably one of the greatest, the most common lives, let me put it that way, told in our society, how you doing? Fine.

Now, most of the time, you're not supposed to say something else. It's basically saying, hi, good to see you. Good to see you, right? Hey, how you doing? And you're supposed to say, fine. Whether or not it's fine, they really don't want to hear it, right? They just want to say, I greeted you, we're good. Yeah, keep going. I know who you are. This is good.

But I'm glad God doesn't just pretend everything's fine.

I'm glad that God doesn't look at life and just say, what do you want? It's fine. No, God knows what's going on and God gives help. Really what John is doing as he is addressing these true believers in this, they're dealing with the pressures, they're dealing with the realities of the day in which they lived. There was pressures from the world that was trying to suck them in. There was pressures from teachers trying to suck them away. There was the compromise or the betrayal of those who they thought were Christians but had left, showing that they were not Christians. And so there was just that punch in the gut, so to speak, from those who were their friends, stabbing them in the back. And they're just going, are we the ones that are crazy?