Grace Church exists to glorify our Heavenly Father by
 continually making more disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Countering Counterfeits 1 John 2:24-27 Get Real: A Study of 1 John Sermon #12 Do you have Neophilia? Well, are you into energy drinks? Avid about American Idol? Has part of your language in recent years been any of the following: “Wassup? Who let the dogs out? or Not!” Did you actually learn how to do the Macarena? Do you have a DVD player in your car? Do you have Tivo? An MP3 player or ipod? If you find that you love new things, trends or novelties – you might be a neophile. A neophile is an individual who is unusually accepting of new things and excited by novelty. While there is nothing wrong with liking new trends or novelty items in most areas, when it comes to the spiritual…when it comes to the truth, orthodoxy, doctrine and Biblical values…it can be deadly.   John was dealing with spiritual neophiles in 1 John, those who loved “new truth.” False teachers of his day were teaching heresy. Since the days of the early church, Satan has aggressively opposed the truth of God’s Word, especially with regard to the gospel. Through the millennia he has raised up false teachers within the church in attempts to deceive God’s people. Remember, the apostle Paul warned the Ephesian church leaders, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” (Acts 20:29-31). A major theme throughout the entire New Testament is that God’s people need to develop discernment so that they can avoid spiritual deception.   In our last study of 1 John we saw that to avoid spiritual deception, we must be discerning of people (2:18-21), today we want to work on some defense measures. Turn to 1 John 2:18-27 (p. 862). We’re focusing on verses 24-27.   Satan loves religion. He loves to use the Bible and Christian terms. That’s why we must be so wary of any who leave the true church to form a new group with new theology, or of anyone offering new truth that others have missed. John urges us to know our theology, (vss. 22-23) yet many believers are terribly ignorant of doctrine. Sound doctrine matters because it is inextricably linked with a personal relationship with God. Sound doctrine about the person and work of Christ can mean the difference between heaven and hell. That’s why Satan consistently attacks Christology.     Heresy is not just the stuff of the cults. A few years ago Bible-believing churches across America had to get rid of their Weigh Down small groups because founder, Gwen Shamblin, was teaching heresy, that Jesus was not God. It was fresh coat of paint on an ancient heresy, Arianism.   1 John 2:24-27 continues the theme of keeping snakes out of the church and avoiding spiritual deception. John shows us how to develop the discernment we need to persevere in the faith and how to Counter Counterfeits. Let me read our text in the NASV It’s a little clearer. “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 in 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 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 has taught you, you abide in Him.”      John’s defense plan is two pronged. Here are two weapons that should always be available and ready in the Christian’s arsenal. Objectively, John believes that the right belief is rooted our firm grip on the doctrinal/historical facts of our faith. Subjectively, we need to hone our skills of spiritual discernment so that those who come across our path with some compelling doctrine are evaluated by the Spirit of God within us. Our weapons are the Word “that we have heard from the beginning” and “the anointing we received from Him.” So how do we Counter Counterfeits? 1. We counter spiritual counterfeits as we develop spiritual discernment by staying in God’s Word and have a firm handle on the Gospel. Less than ten years ago over a hundred Evangelical Christian leaders endorsed a new statement affirming a common commitment to the central message of the Christian faith. The list of participants includes representatives from a wide range of Evangelical denominations and organizations and reads like a virtual "Who's Who" of the Evangelical community. Among those endorsing the statement were: Bill Bright, Bill Hybels, Walter Kaiser, Kenneth Kantzer, D. James Kennedy, Woodrow Kroll, Max Lucado, John MacArthur, Beth Moore, Luis Palau, Charles Colson, Kay Arthur, John Stott, Joseph Stowell, Joni Eareckson Tada, Bruce Wilkinson and Ravi Zacharias…and many, many more. Titled "The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration," the document took more than a year to write. Why was it necessary? Because there is a major concern that even in evangelical circles we are losing the bedrock convictions about the Gospel which we hold in common. It’s critical that we have a firm grip on the central beliefs which all true Christians share. While there are differences among us in details of doctrine, worship and forms of church government, the goal of this statement was to reaffirm the historic center of Evangelicalism. Nothing is more important than getting the Gospel right. As theologian, J. I. Packer, noted “History has shown that the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone, which is the heart of the biblical message, regularly gets distorted or forgotten and needs constant restatement.” The 3,400 word document begins by identifying the Gospel of Jesus Christ as “the central message of the Holy Scriptures...the best and most important news that any human being ever hears.”   John writes “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you” (v. 24). What’s he talking about? He’s talking about God’s Word and specifically the Gospel. John was fighting for and defending the same truth  we’re still fighting for today. Phillips renders this, “For yourselves, I beg you to stick to the original teaching.”   Six times in these verses John uses the same verb, usually translated remain or continue. The KJV renders it abides. It’s used three times just in verse 24. John loves this verb which means “to take up a permanent address…to have a settled home.” The Gospel must have a settled home in our minds and hearts. Our first line of defense against false teachers is the Word of God, specifically the Gospel. We must let God’s Word abide in us and therefore guide us and shape us. It’s a common theme throughout the  New Testament. “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:13). “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3). “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it” (Tit. 1:9). “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet. 3:2.) Written toward the end of the apostolic period these all counsel holding fast to the teaching given in the past which constitutes “sound doctrine” and “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3).   Two points, however, must be noted. On the one hand John is not suggesting that anything handed down from the past is true and reliable simply because of its antiquity. He regards the teaching given at the beginning as issuing from the Lord through the apostles and thus bearing the stamp of divine revelation. It is “the word of Christ” which is to “dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16). On the other hand, while John is clearly opposed to novelty and new innovations in doctrine which are false, he would no doubt allow that what has been handed down as "truth unchanged, unchanging" may need to be re-expressed in fresh ways if it is to make the same impact on modern readers as it made on its first readers. To put it another way, the message never changes but the methods of communicating the message must continually change. The art of translation is to reproduce by means of the receptor language the same impression on the readers as was made by the statement on its original readers in its original language. What is true of different languages is also true of presenting the gospel to people in different ages and cultures.   Friend, do you cherish the Gospel? Do you appreciate God’s Word? Countless men and women have given their lives in order to give you a copy of the Bible in your own language. Do you appropriate the Bible? It’s not enough just to read it; you must let the Bible influence your daily life. You have to appropriate its truths in your home life, social life, business life. Has God’s Word changed you?   a) The Gospel is our foundation. Christians should always be conservative in their theology. To have “itching ears,” to be running after new teachers, looking for the novel, listening to anybody and never arriving at a knowledge of the truth, is a characteristic of the “terrible times” of the “last days” (2 Tim. 3:1). A continuous obsession for some new thing is a mark of the pagan, not the Christian. Remember that in Athens Paul found that “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” (Acts 15:21).   Christian theology is anchored not only in certain historical events, culminating in the saving life of Christ, but in the authoritative apostolic witness to these events. The Christian can never weigh anchor and launch out into the deep of speculative thought. Nor can he forsake the “primitive” teaching of the apostles for the novel ideas of new teachers.   “Practice makes perfect” we often say and it’s obvious in many areas of human activity. I see it (and even hear it!) as children practice the piano or some other instrument. If you want to be a good tennis player you must practice that swing or that serve until it becomes a part of you, so that it is there to call on every time you need it…so that you’re in the groove. Why don't we think of the Christian life like that? John is telling us that it’s only as we make time to let God's Word work deeply in our lives that we shall remain in God. Leith Samuel put it this way, “The Spirit of God takes the Word of God to make children of God.”   b) The Gospel only comes to us through God’s Word. “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.” We have a hard time imagining a world without a written Bible but that was the case with the early Church. While they had the Old Testament, most believers didn’t have a written copy. Knowing that helps Paul’s words in Romans 10:17 make a lot more sense, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”   At the end of the 1st century false teachers claimed to have special revelation apart from the Word, but their revelations were subjective philosophical nonsense. By way of contrast, the apostles had been with Jesus Christ. They’d heard His teaching and seen His miracles. They saw Him rise from the dead. They knew that the entire Old Testament pointed to Jesus Christ and that He fulfilled all of its prophecies and its Law. Even Paul, who was not one of the twelve, had a personal encounter with the risen Christ and said that he received the gospel that he preached directly from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:11-17).   The point is that the gospel is not the result of philosophic speculations or mystical revelations. It’s the witness to Jesus Christ Himself, written in the New Testament by men who had seen the risen Lord. You can't learn the gospel by going out into nature and having some mystical, aesthetic experience. You can't attain a knowledge of the gospel through philosophy or logic. You can only learn the truth of the Gospel from God's Word, which tells about Jesus Christ. Any deviance from the truth of the gospel then is heresy. It’s spiritual deception, coming straight from Satan himself.   c) The Gospel introduces you to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. John continues,“If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.” Remaining in the Message is evidence that we are truly born-again and as a result, we will remain in the Son and Father. This abiding, as the KJV translates it, is proof that we are truly Christians.   The word abide gives a clearer picture of what John is expressing. It means that we must let the truth of the message of the life of Christ take root in our very being. It must dwell in us in such a way that it impacts and revolutionizes our life. This is where we see the difference between an intellectual understanding of the Gospel and a personal commitment to trust and live out the Gospel. Far too often in the American Church, we’ve thought that if we only understood the truth, it was enough. After all, didn’t the Bible say that we would know the truth and that knowing the truth would set us free? While that’s what the Bible literally says, It means far more than many people understand it to mean at this point. When the Bible says that we will know the truth, it means far more by that word “know” than most of us understand. What’s in view here is not a casual knowledge of the truth but an intimate, life-changing commitment to obey the truth. It’s a deep, personal knowledge which impacts every area of our life. Unless we know the truth in this way, we will never experience the life-changing power of the truth. If you know that you are free and never live in that freedom, you’re still enslaved.   d) The Gospel centers on God’s promise of eternal life. “And this is what He promised us—even eternal life” (v. 25). According to F. F. Bruce this phrase “eternal life” carries with it the fullness of the “resurrected life.” The promise of the “resurrection life is already realized” and we are to enjoy it in the here and now. Eternal life is a lot more than just having your ticket punched for heaven. The essential factor about eternal life is quality, not quantity. What John is talking about is not merely something we’re going to have in heaven…in the sweet bye-and-bye. It’s something we can experience and enjoy now. It’s fullness of life; the full quality of divine life lived out right in your situation, right now, and increasing in fullness of enjoyment forever. In other words, eternal life, as John is using it here, is the daily adventure of experiencing God's solution to every problem, instead of yours. It’s the discovery of God's program for every opportunity, instead of yours. It’s living in and out the fruits of the Spirit. It’s what hymn writer, Isaac Watts, was speaking of when he wrote, “The men of grace have found glory begun below.” Eternal life begins now as the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the child of God, planting the life of God within his/her soul. Folks, we can know God – not just know about Him. The future inheritance is already, in part, a present possession. It’s living out that wonderful verse from Isaiah 40 “those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (v. 31). It’s living in the realization of Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.” We can ask a lot of life. We can dream and imagine a great many wonderful experiences we’d love to have to bring satisfaction to our hearts and lives. When we walk in God’s strength, it will be far above and beyond all that we could ask or think. God wants our lives to be an abundant fulfillment of this promise. If we’re ready to give ourselves to the Word of God, to let it possess us, to understand it, and to obey it, if "that which you heard from the beginning abides in you," you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. The experience of that is the eternal life John is talking about!   e) Satan’s main artillery is aimed at the Gospel. “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray” (v. 26). From the birth of the Church, even while the apostles were still living, the enemy has sown confusion about the gospel. In his last letter before his death Paul warned Timothy “evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). If Satan can cause confusion about the gospel, everything else is contaminated. It’s the domino that causes all the others to fall. Tragically, there are some in evangelical churches who teach that believing in Christ for salvation does not include repenting of sin or submitting to Jesus as Lord. As a result of this false teaching, there are tens of thousands in evangelical churches who claim to be born again, but habitually live in sin. They've been assured that because they said a prayer, that they received Christ and are going to heaven. But as Paul describes such people “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good” (Titus 1:16). Horribly, they will be shocked when they stand before the Lord and hear Him say, “I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!” (Matt. 7:23).   Some seeker churches advocate church lite, that we should ask lost folk what they want in a church and then give it to them. Everything should be upbeat and positive, making people feel good about themselves when they leave, teaching them how to succeed in their families and careers. But keep it light and on the short side. Going easy on the doctrine and avoiding controversial subjects like sin, judgment, or righteousness. The “gospel” is packaged as, “If you've got problems, try Jesus. He’ll help you become all that you've ever wanted to be." But where is the message of Scripture, that our sins have alienated us from a holy God and that we must repent? Where is any careful verse-by-verse exposition of Scripture? It's not there. It’s the emasculation of the Gospel and falling for Satan’s lie.   John’s point is that it’s not enough for us to realize that there are heretics out there. We must realize that they are a danger to us and want to lead us astray. They are not just out there like the JW’s or Mormons, they also creep into the church and fly in under the radar. We must be on the alert and at our battle stations, confronting anyone who waters down the Gospel. They’re not trying to win the lost but mislead the faithful. 2. We counter spiritual counterfeits as we develop spiritual discernment by abiding in the Spirit. “As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in Him” (v. 27). A. W. Pink suggests that John has three purposes in verse 27: to explain, to comfort and to warn the flock. John explains that the reason they have remained in the truth is not due to anything in them, but rather it is due to God's gracious gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Thus, they should ascribe all glory to Him and not boast in their own intellect or grasp of doctrine. John also wrote to comfort them in the face of many of their friends leaving the church for this new, heretical teaching. He tells them that the anointing they had received would abide with them and teach them all things, so that they would not fall into these errors. John also wanted to warn them to continue in vigilance. Comfort should never cause us to let down our guard.   Verse 27 needs to be interpreted in its context, as well as in light of the entire New Testament. John is not saying the church doesn’t need godly teachers to instruct the flock. Think about it, if that were his meaning, he would invalidate this entire letter which contains a whole lot of teaching! He would also contradict Paul, who taught that God gives gifted teachers to the Church to help believers grow to maturity (Eph. 4:11-16; Col. 1:28).     What John means is that they do not need the elite gnosis of the false teachers to let them in on God's "secret truth." Rather, every Christian has the indwelling Holy Spirit to enable him or her to understand and interpret Scripture. When the Spirit applies the Word of the gospel to the soul, we receive it, not as the word of man, but of God (1 Thes. 2:13). Basically, this is what we know as the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. We don’t need some elite order of clergymen to give us the official interpretation of biblical truth, especially of the gospel. Read the Word for yourself, in dependence on the indwelling Holy Spirit. Now that doesn’t mean that every passage of Scripture is easy to understand or that you shouldn’t read commentaries to try to discover the correct interpretation of difficult texts. It does mean though that on the essential truths of the Bible, any Christian who can read and who makes the effort to compare Scripture with Scripture in reliance on the Holy Spirit, can grasp the meaning. No doubt in John's mind was Jesus' promise (John 14:26), that the Holy Spirit would teach the disciples all things. Jesus also called Him "the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17), which is behind John's words here, that He "is true and is not a lie." This means that the truth of the gospel is not a subjective matter of personal interpretation. It’s not something that I see one way and you see another way…but both ways are right. Rather, it is objectively, absolutely true in every culture and every age. You must believe it to be saved and any contradiction of the gospel is a lie.   One thing should frighten us here. Knowing the truth is not enough to keep us as Christians in the truth. These false teachers, those who departed had also known the truth and chosen to repudiate it. It’s imperative then that we are vigilant about the state of our own souls and those around us.   Years ago Dr. Harry Ironside related that one day while on the streets of Los Angeles he came across a street preacher vigorously preaching to a considerable audience around him. As he listened he soon recognized that the speaker was expounding the heretical views of a well-known cult. As he surveyed the audience he noticed a black man on the other side of the crowd attentively following the preaching. Occasionally the trace of a smile appeared on his face. Dr. Ironside felt sorry for the man being misled by the cult-preacher. When the preacher was finished Dr. Ironside made his way to the man he had watched, and, striking up a conversation, asked him, "And what did you think of what the preacher said?" His reply was, "Well, he sure did tell us, didn't he?" "Yes, he surely did," Dr. Ironside agreed, "but what did you think of what he preached?" With a smile the man looked at him and replied, "I sure couldn't answer him, but all the while he was preaching there was something inside me saying, 'It's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie.'" The Holy Spirit was teaching that Christian brother that he did not need some cult teacher to lead him into the truth of God. As John assures his readers that they do not need the Gnostic teachers to teach them new and deeper spiritual insights, neither do we. Conclusion: National Geographic once ran an article about the Alaskan Bull Moose. The males of this species battle for dominance during the fall breeding season, literally going head-to-head with antlers crunching together as they collide. Often the antlers, their only weapon are broken. That ensures defeat. The heftiest moose with the largest and strongest antlers, triumphs. Therefore, the battle fought in the fall is really won during the summer, when the moose eat continually. The one that consumes the best diet for growing antlers and gaining weight will be the heavyweight in the fight. Those that eat inadequately sport weaker antlers and less bulk. There’s a lesson here for us. Spiritual battles await. Satan is going to attack. Will we be victorious or will we fall? Much depends on what we do now—before the wars begin. The bull-moose principle is: Enduring faith, strength, and wisdom for trials are best developed before they’re needed.   You and I are under attack. It’s a war zone out there. How do we counter counterfeits? It boils down to this. If we have God’s Word in our hand and God’s Spirit in our hearts, we have everything we need to defend ourselves against the Enemy’s attacks. We will also have everything we need to understand truth and grow in Christ.   Please don’t be a neophile. Don’t go on a ceaseless quest for novelty. John says, “see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you...As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you.” We have all that we need. God’s Word is our objective safeguard, while the anointing of the Spirit is our subjective one. Both the apostolic teaching and the Heavenly Teacher are necessary for our continuance in the truth. Both are to be personally and inwardly grasped. But sadly, these biblical weapons are discarded by many believers. While some honor the Word and neglect the Spirit Who alone can interpret it; others honor the Spirit but neglect the Word out of which He teaches. Our safeguard against counterfeits is in having within us both the Word that we heard from the beginning and the anointing that we received from Him.   It’s by these old possessions, not by new teachings or teachers, that we will abide in His truth and that we will not fall for spiritual counterfeits.