Grosey's Messages

It is the last hour

The Imminent Second Coming

"waiting for his Son from heaven" (1Cor1:7)

"we look for the Saviour"  (Phil 3:20, Heb 9:28)

 "Looking for that…glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13

The Antichrist Attacks Christ (2:18)

Antichrist is a Particular Person

2 Thessalonians 2 "the man of sin."

Revelation 13 "the beast."

Matt 24  'abomination of desolation'

18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour

Have you ever heard about the Antichrist? A particular individual who will be the leader of the final rebellion against God. This person is referred to by different names in the Bible. In Daniel's prophecy, he is the little horn, and the prince who is to come. In 2 Thessalonians Paul calls him "the man of sin." In Revelation 13, he's called "the beast." He will be a one-world ruler who will control a global monetary system.

 The Antichrist will revive the Roman Empire of old – rebuild Babylon to its former greatness and literally deceive untold nations and millions of people into believing that he is the incarnation of God on earth . . . and he will attempt to wipe out Israel, thus nullifying the potential fulfilment of a literal kingdom on earth with Christ on David's throne.  The Antichrist will fail and Christ will succeed.

We're given a few clues as to this coming world dictator – he will survive a moral wound to his head; he will rise to great political power, his acceptance by world religions, including both Muslims and Jews will be something short of miraculous; even the clue that the numerical equivalents to the letters in his name add up to 666.

Hundreds of books and tens of thousands of sermons and essays have been written about the Antichrist.

Throughout history, many individuals have been identified as the Antichrist - Martin Luther, John Wesley, identified the Pope in Rome as the Antichrist. They believed this because the pope had called himself the vicar of Christ.  A substitute Christ. Christ here on earth!  Anti –doesn't just mean against and opposed to, it can also mean substitute for.  And this was the concern of the reformed churches at the time of the reformation, that the Roman Catholic church had moved so far away from the Bible and the gospel, that it was presenting the Pope as the substitute for Christ.  And so he was opposing Christ.  If the there is salvation in the Pope, you don't need salvation in Jesus!

Antichrist has a Particular Period

By the way, almost every American President has at one time been called the antichrist. Other identifications of the Antichrist have been Nero, Napoleon,  Hitler, Stalin, Mikhail Gorbachov (Some people said he had the mark of the beast on his head – doctor's call it a vascular birthmark), Idi Amin, Ayatollah Khomeini, Yasser Arafat, and even Papa Smurf, and Barney the Dinosaur. It can't be Barney because Revelation 12 speaks of a great red dragon and Barney is a Magenta dinosaur, – actually, none of those were the Antichrist.

I believe, along with most evangelical scholars, that the final Antichrist won't show up to lead a One World Government until AFTER the church has been caught up to be with Jesus. Next Sunday, week we will be saying more about the second coming of Jesus. So with all this interest in the Antichrist. HOW MANY TIMES DOES THE WORD ANTICHRIST APPEAR IN THE BIBLE? It is only found a total of 5 times. And three times were in the passage we are going to read, again in 1 John 4, and once in 2 John.

John makes an important distinction between many antichrists who are already here and the Antichrist who is coming at the end of the age. This counterfeit Christ will come on the scene of world history and, amazingly, the whole earth will marvel and follow him. Satan will indwell him and give him "his power, his throne, and great authority" (Rev 13:2-3). The Bible teaches that the nations will even worship him as God (Rev 13:4).

Now you may ask, "When is he coming? Could he be alive right now?" Whether he is alive or not, I cannot, will not, and should not speculate, and neither should you. That is God's business. What I do know is he will come, and the spirit of antichrist is alive and well. So, be on the lookout for those who attack the biblical teachings about Christ. They will do you no good.  They substitute themselves for Christ.  One group approached me this week wanting to infiltrate our growth group studies. The New Heavens New Earth group believe that their pastor is the Lord Jesus come back to earth to select his 144000 from their church alone to go to heaven.  They believe their pastor is God the Son, the Christ!  He is just a substitute for the real Christ.

 

The Antichrist Attacks Christ

Antichrist is people and a principle

"many antichrists have come"

Matt 24:23,24  "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."

They deny the faith .

    1Jn 2:22-23  Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

You can't have God the Father without God the Son? Look at verse 23. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

In other words, you can't belong to God the Father if you reject God the Son as the anointed, sovereign Messiah, prophet, priest and king. To these heretics, and that is what they were, Jesus was important but not preeminent. He was significant but not the Saviour. However, the New Testament scholar I. H. Marshall is right on target when he says, "to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny that He is the Son of God" (1 John, p. 158). He further notes, "to reduce Jesus to the status of a mere man, or to allow no more than a temporary indwelling of some divine power in Him is to strike at the root of Christianity. Modern thinkers may have more refined ways of stating similar denials of the  reality of the incarnation. It may be doubted whether they are any more immune to John's perception that they take the heart out of Christianity" (p. 159)

To reduce Jesus to the status of a mere man, or to allow no more than a temporary indwelling of some divine power in Him is to strike at the root of Christianity. Modern thinkers may have more refined ways of stating similar denials of the reality of the incarnation. It may be doubted whether they are any more immune to John's perception that they take the heart out of Christianity. (The Epistles of John, 159)

The issue is denying the Person and the Work of Christ.

Some deny Christ by diminishing His work on the cross.  Another group rang me this week demanding the use of our buildings for their church. They have rung many times, and sometimes very abusively. They add seventh day Saturday observance as necessary for salvation.  Faith alone in Christ alone by Grace alone is all that is necessary for salvation according to the Scriptures. This time I made a police report.  Abusing and harassing Linda verbally is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.

A Gnostic false teacher named Cerinthus was teaching during the days of John that Jesus was an ordinary man upon whom the Christ – this spirit of anointing – descended at His baptism. And the Christ spirit empowered Jesus until Jesus was crucified, upon which time the Christ spirit left him.

 

Antichrists Assault the Christian Church

  19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

-Members of the church

-Abandon the church

 

Antichrists Can't Stop the True Church

True disciples love God's church.

True disciples learn from God's Word.

21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie is of the truth

 

True disciples listen to God's Spirit.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things….. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true,

True disciples Lean on God's Son.

24 Therefore 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.25 And this is the promise that He has promised us --- eternal life."

The Gospel was God inspired, God designed, and God carried through, and there is sometimes a danger for men to move away from the simplicity of that. John urges them to let the Gospel remain in them, that Gospel which they heard from the beginning "hold fast to that" he says. It was the Holy Spirit who led you to see your need of Christ and Christ as the answer to the need - hold on to it. Don't let it go. And so he envisages the counteracting influence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Christian holding steadfastly to the Gospel.

 The antichrists of our world are passionate to deny Christ.   Are we passionate to obey Christ?

 The antichrists are committed in ignoring the church;       Are we as eager to worship together as a church?

 The antichrists are determined to dishonour the character of Christ;   Are we as passionate to honour Christ as our Lord and Saviour?

 The antichrists are committed to undermining the belief that Christ will one day return;   Are we equally as committed to believing and communicating the message that just as He departed from His disciples, He will one day come back for them.

Herman Bavinck was a Dutch churchman and theologian in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He also was an insightful teacher concerning the person and work of Christ. Concerning the centrality of Christ to the Christian gospel, he simply and concisely said,"Christ is Christianity itself; He stands not outside of it but in its centre; without His name, person and work, there is no Christianity left. In a word, Christ does not point out the way to salvation; He is the Way itself" (quoted in Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 319). This is what the apostles taught. This is what the Word says. This is what the Spirit affirms. This is what we believe. This is where we abide. This is what we confess. Eternal life is what we are promised!