Welcome to Day 2714 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Day 2714 – A Discerning Life – Dealing With Deceivers 1 John 2:18-27
Putnam Church Message – 09/14/2025
Sermon Series: 1, 2, & 3 John
“A Discerning Life: Dealing with Deceivers”
Two weeks ago, we explored 1 John 2:12-17 as we learned how to live a ‘Clean Life’ with “Strong Warnings About the World.”
This week, we continue through the letter of 1 John, and we will explore how to have A Discerning Life: Dealing with Deceivers” from 1 John 2:18-27 from the NIV, which is found on page 1900 of your Pew Bibles.
Warnings Against Denying the Son
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[a] 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 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.
Opening Prayer
As we continue in John’s first letter, the tone shifts from serious to severe. The warnings against sin and the world in the previous section now give way to portents of spiritual dangers—often invisible—that can lure unbelievers to hell and send a Christian’s faith skidding into the ditch.
The specter of spiritual deception doesn’t have to win. Just as Spirit-enabled fellowship with the Father and the Son produces a joyful life (1:1–10) and a clean life (2:1–17), it also produces a discerning life (2:18–4:6). A close relationship with God requires an understanding of His truth. All too often, though, even seemingly mature Christians struggle to discern between true doctrine and false teaching, between right and wrong, between walking in the light and walking in darkness.
In this third section, John warns about the coming of “antichrists” (2:18), urges his readers to diligently “test the spirits” (4:1), and reminds them of the “anointing” of the Spirit that seals them with deep-down conviction of the essential truths of the Christian faith (2:20, 27). In our deceptive world, filled with demon-led deceivers, discerning Christians must stand together in fellowship around the truth.
Think about a time in your life when you were deceived. Some of you might think back to a time when you were deceived by someone close to you. A friend, a family member, a long-term boyfriend or girlfriend, a spouse, or a business partner proved to be someone other than who you thought they were. And the pain of living with that deception is almost more than you can bear to think about even today.
Maybe you have been deceived by a marketing or sales scam. That happens all the time. Sometimes people get cheated out of just a few bucks; other times, people lose their entire life savings to smooth-talking charlatans who get fat and rich by swindling hundreds of people. Sometimes you buy something you think is genuine only to learn later that it’s a cheap knockoff. The “great deal” you thought you got turned out to be a total rip-off.
Then there’s spiritual or religious deception. This is the worst kind. Any deception can break your heart, mind, and bank, but this kind can crush your soul. A hypocritical pastor … an abusive church … or an outright cult—these can cause long-term psychological and spiritual damage in a person’s life. Such toxic deception can even lead to a disavowal of all religion, a rejection of God, and a hatred for His authentic people. How tragic!
1 John 2:18–27 introduces a new set of sinister figures in the world of spiritual darkness. False teachers called “antichrists,” who foreshadow an ultimate end-times “Antichrist,” were already on the prowl in John’s day. This was a sure sign that God’s final countdown toward judgment had begun. Now, more than ever, believers must live with their eyes wide open to the wiles of the devil and their feet firmly fixed on the solid rock of God’s truth. Only then will they be equipped for dealing with deceivers.
2:18–19
I’m speculating here, but if we could have caught a glimpse of the goings-on in the spiritual world as John dipped his stylus in his inkwell and scratched out the words of 1 John 2:18-19, my guess is we’d see a host of demons going from rattled to panicked. Why? Deceivers hate to be exposed. They love to operate under the radar, spreading false doctrines, twisting the truth, and exploiting the spiritually weak. But the apostle John boldly launches a tell-all exposé of the devil’s cunning strategies of deception.
John begins by reminding believers that with the coming of false teachers, dawn is on the horizon because, as he said in 2:8, “ For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.” John can thus say in 2:18, “Dear children, the last hour is here.”
Warren Wiersbe explains the image of the “last hour” well: All Old Testament history prepared the way for Christ’s work on the Cross. All history since that time is merely preparation for “the end,” when Jesus will come and establish His kingdom.… “The last hour” began back in John’s Day and has been growing in intensity ever since. There were ungodly false teachers in John’s day, and during the intervening centuries, they have increased both in number and in influence. “The last hour” or “the last times” are phrases that describe a kind of time, not a duration of time.… In other words, Christians have always been living in “the last time”—in crisis days.
According to John, this “last hour” between Christ’s first and second comings is like an inky predawn inhabited by shadowy agents of evil. He calls these figures “antichrists” (2:18). The Greek term antichristos [500], used here for the first time in Christian literature, is a compound of two words: anti [473], meaning “in place of” or “against,” and christos [5547], “Messiah” or “Christ.” The ambiguity may be purposeful. While all “antichrists” are opposed to Christ and His teachings, some antichrists go so far as to claim to be a messiah, thus opposing the true Christ by seeking to replace Him.
Whereas the apostle Paul dwelt on the future Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2, the apostle John emphasizes the current antichrists in 1 John 2. What can we learn about these deceivers from John’s letter?
First, false teachers are plentiful (1 Jn. 2:18). By the end of the first century, the apostle John could say “many such antichrists have appeared.” Already by John’s day a well-educated man named Cerinthus had taught that this physical world had been made by a lesser god, much inferior to the primary God. Concerning Jesus, Cerinthus taught that He was just the natural son of Mary and Joseph. He asserted that though Jesus was more righteous than others, He didn’t become infused by the spirit of Christ until His baptism, when the heavenly “Christ” descended upon Jesus to use Him as a mouthpiece to proclaim the unknown Father. What rubbish!
The Apostle John was familiar with Cerinthus and his false teachings, and he responded to them boldly and decisively. In fact, Irenaeus of Lyons, a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna, who had himself been a disciple of John, relayed this account from his former teacher: “John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, ‘Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.’ ”
We know from historical accounts and the warnings about false teachers in the New Testament that numerous additional heresies already existed in the first century. Since that time, the antichrists have continued to multiply, spreading their seeds of false teaching far and wide.
Second, false teachers usually come from within the church (2:19). John says these antichrists “went out from us,” indicating a departure from the true, apostolic churches. Throughout history—and even today—many cult founders formerly belonged to strong, Bible-believing churches. But they rebelled against their orthodox upbringing, failing to be either discipled or disciplined. They broke away to teach different doctrines and embrace contrary lifestyles.
Third, false teachers never truly experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 2:19). The fact that these false teachers so drastically departed from the core teachings of the true faith demonstrates that they “never really belonged with us.” Had those antichrists been true fellow-members of the body of Christ (not just physically but also spiritually) and had they been truly united to Him by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, they “would have remained” with the true church. Their departure makes it clear that “they all are not of us.”
I’m not talking about Christians who entertain doubts, backslide into sin, or even stray from the right path for a season. John’s definition of “antichrists” is much more pronounced and radical than the everyday struggles of faith experienced by all believers—the ups and downs of our process of sanctification. “Antichrists” are guilty of outright heresy. “Heresy” in this sense is defined as “conscious, willful departure from the faith’s foundational tenets, such as the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), Christ’s deity and humanity, His atoning death and resurrection, and so forth. Heretics, by definition, are not Christians.”
2:20–21
On the heels of his warning about antichrists, John suddenly shifts attention to their opposites: true believers. By shining the light on those who “the Holy One has given you his Spirit,” (2:20), John shows what it takes to deal with deceivers. What does he say about genuine believers?
First, genuine believers have the Holy Spirit. The metaphor of “an anointing from the Holy One” most likely refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit given to those who are truly saved. Acts 10:38 says that “And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.” Similarly, Jesus said to the disciples regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” (Acts 1:8). It is this permanent anointing of the Holy Spirit that antichrists lack.
Second, genuine believers know God’s saving truth. In the upper room prior to His arrest, Jesus promised His disciples, “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). Ephesians 1:13 says, And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own[a] by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. So, it’s clear that the presence of the Spirit brings a permanent spiritual knowledge and discernment concerning the key tenets of the gospel of salvation, the “message of truth.” However, this knowledge, though not exhaustive, is sufficient, as Peter said, By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. (2 Pet. 1:3). It is this true knowledge of the gospel that antichrists reject.
Third, genuine believers are able to discern lies. Because the Spirit has impressed the gospel of the person and work of Christ upon our hearts and minds, He enables us to tell the difference between truth and error. The Spirit prepares our minds for discernment as we dig deeply into the Word of God, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16)
SIX BENEFITS OF TRUTH
- Truth gives stability to our faith.
- Truth strengthens us when we’re tested.
- Truth enables us to understand the Bible accurately.
- Truth equips us to detect and confront error.
- Truth allows us to live with confidence.
- Truth releases us from fears and superstition.
2:22–23
In 1 John 2:18-19, the spotlight shone on the antichrists. / In 2:20–21, John illuminated the true believers. /Now, John shifts back to the antichrists in 2:22–23. He adds to his description of the antichrists, providing more detail about their doctrinal deviations. Allow me to pick up again our earlier discussion with another characteristic of false teachers.
Fourth, false teachers deny who Jesus really is—the incarnate God-man. John says they deny that “Jesus is the Christ” (2:22). In doing so, they deny “the Father and the Son” because to confess the Son is to have the Father, but to deny the Son is to deny the Father (2:23). Notice that these false teachers are not only denying that Jesus of Nazareth is the long-expected Messiah, but they are also denying the essential sonship of Jesus in His personal, eternal relationship to the Father (see John 10:30). In another letter, John would note that these antichrists They deny that Jesus Christ came[a] in a real body (2 Jn. 1:7).
This denial of the full deity and full humanity of Christ shows a failure of the fundamental test of the genuineness of a person’s claim to be a true Christian. Whoever “denies the Son” by rejecting His identity as the Messiah who is God incarnate “does not have the Father” (1 Jn. 2:23).
2:24–27
Once again, John shifts the spotlight from the antichrists to the true believers, demonstrating the black-and-white difference between the two groups. John wants his readers to know they have nothing in common with the deceivers—those anti-Christian false teachers who dwell in the darkness and spout nothing but lies about Jesus. John wants to set up two guardrails against the influence that false teachers have on the spiritual stability of true believers.
The first guardrail is to stick with the truth of sound doctrine. John instructs his readers to “you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning.” so that they “you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.” (2:24). In addition to this, he reminds his readers that only through adherence to this sound doctrine do we have the promise of “eternal life” (2:25). We should recall the opening words of John’s letter: “We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning,[a] whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.” (1:1–2). If we stick with the truth about Christ as revealed in Holy Scriptures, continually proclaimed in the church, and always believed by orthodox Christians throughout history, we will never be lured away by false teachers—who want to lead you astray. (2:26).
The idea that God’s Spirit accomplishes through us all that God asks from us is not unique to John. Paul also taught this notion in Philippians 2:12-13: Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Yes, we obey, will, and work, but we must also remember that we do so by the power of God working in us through the Holy Spirit.
APPLICATION: 1 JOHN 2:18–27
Triumphing against False Teachers (Bulletin)
How can we walk in triumph, overcoming the numerous antichrists that have been unleashed in this “last hour”? Let me present you with three simple principles that will help you avoid stumbling and enable you to strengthen the faith of others.
First, spend time in God’s Word. I know you’ve been told this repeatedly, but that’s because it’s vital. The devil and his evil ones would like nothing better than for you to say, “I’ve been reading my Bible year after year. I’m tired of it. Give me something new to do.” Don’t let the sun set on any day without spending some time reading His Word. Those inspired writings aren’t just words of men long dead; they’re the living Word of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who abides in you and enables you to abide in Him. Think of your Scripture reading as filling your tank with fuel so you’re able to reach your destination without running dry. It’ll enable you to discern between truth and falsehood. It’ll give you direction for decisions you need to make—not just moral choices but also everyday, practical decisions. You’ll find hope in its promises and inspiration in its examples. Renew your commitment to the Scriptures.
Second, stand firm in your convictions. When false teachers come your way, stand strong. Don’t flinch. Continue to confess the God-man who died and rose again … the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit … the salvation that comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—all the essential truths of the Christian faith. Of course, if you stand firm, you’ll stand out, like a light shining in a dark place. So be ready to give voice to the gospel. Don’t be shy about it. Be gracious and loving, but don’t be afraid to be yourself. Tell the truth. Stand up and be heard.
Third, stay focused on Christ. We’re called to be followers of one Shepherd,/ disciples of one Master,/ servants of one Lord./ Let your mind, like a laser,/ be pointed wholly and solely on Christ as Savior. /Examine His life, /obey His teachings, / follow His examples,/ meditate on His person and work, /and proclaim Him far and wide. Yes, antichrists will try to convince you that a focus on Jesus is far too narrow. They’ll try to distract you from “pure and undivided devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). Don’t let them. Remind yourself every day that Jesus is the center.
Do these things—not in your own power, but always dependent on the Holy Spirit. Then you’ll be able to triumph over false teachers.
Next week, we will continue our exploration of 1 John. Our message for next week is “A Discerning Life – Living in Light of the Lord’s Return. Our Core verses for next week will be: 1 John 2:28-3:3
Closing Prayer
Transcript
AccessDenied
Leave a Reply