Counterfeit Christianity - It's Results

This is the manuscript for the sixth in a  series of messages from John’s first epistle “The Counsel of a Spiritual Father to His Children.” 

(1 John 2:19 NIV). “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” 

What are the results of “counterfeit Christianity”? The denial that Jesus is the God-man, born of a virgin, who was crucified for our sins and rose the third day to overcome death. Those who deny these basic truths about Jesus Christ have a counterfeit religion.

Your local bank tellers know when a counterfeit bill comes their way because they’ve memorized the details of a real dollar. In the same way, believers with sound biblical knowledge will recognize and discard an anti-Christ message or attitude when it reaches their ears.

For an audio recording of the sermon click the YouTube link at the end of this manuscript.

You can see the entire service from September 62020, from the Christ Church patio on the Christ Church YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/G7LtSVL38hY      

​Scripture Reading: 

1 John 2:18‭-‬27 NIV 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. 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.  But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.  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. 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. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.  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. And this is what he promised us—eternal life.  I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 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.

Text: 

(1 John 2:19 NIV). “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” 


Introduction

Today’s advertisers use newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio, television, and the internet to increase their share of the market by showing the superiority of their products over those of their competitors. 

In a sense, that is what John did in the latter part of 1 John 2. As we learned last week, starting at verse 15-17, John referred to phony or false worship, or “counterfeit Christianity”. He warned us not to fall in love with the counterfeits, because they won’t last.  

1 John 2:15‭-‬17 NIV Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

We said that a counterfeit is something purposely designed to deceive, and we said that Satan is the master counterfeiter of all time. He seizes vulnerable people, deceives them, victimizes them, and sometimes makes them agents, by counterfeiting spiritual realities.

2 Corinthians 11:12‭-‬15 ESV And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

We looked at the counterfeiting of spiritual realities, showing how the very love of God is counterfeited. 

We identified the counterfeit spiritual realities.  

First the lust of the flesh.” the desire to have things. The “flesh” refers to the depraved human nature that governs a person’s will, reason, and emotions.   That's why it's impossible for an unbeliever to please God, no matter how hard they try. 

Because;

Romans 8:7‭-‬8 NIV The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

And in order to please God you must have faith 

Hebrews 11:6 NIV And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Then there’s the lust of the eyes”, which can express itself in an extreme desire for material things like, fine clothes, a new car, a larger home, or the power to control everything that you see.   The danger there is that you can get caught up in things that are not the will of God for you. 

1 Timothy 6:10 NIV For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Then the final thing that we talked about last week was the "pride of life" or an arrogant, proud dependence on your own achievements, intelligence, resources, or wealth.

Jeremiah 9:23‭-‬24 NIV This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches,  but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord , who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord 

1.  The enemy is plainly revealed before the church

Now, beginning at verse 18 of chapter 2, John holds up the counterfeit and exposes its inferiority to real Christianity, and he also describes those who promote this sinister deception.

1 John 2:18‭-‬19 NIV 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. 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.

A.  Paul warned in 2 Thessalonians that the “man of sin” (the Antichrist of whom John spoke) will be revealed in the last days.   

You will find Paul's warning 

2 Thessalonians 2:3‭-‬12 NIV Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.  Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Probably this is what John was referring to in verse 18. But just in case the readers of his letter thought that there will be no satanic opposition until that time, John said, “Even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour”

In other words, John meant that those with the spirit of the Antichrist were already at work in the world.

In the church, the word antichrist usually calls to mind the prophesied leader in power during the tribulation. But in the Bible, it more often refers to an anti-Christ spirit—in other words, demonic forces opposed to the truth. 

Examples include false teachers, they have the spirit of the Antichrist 

1 Timothy 4:1 NIV The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

The spirit of antichrist also includes the negative influence of the world system, which is the total of human life that exists apart from God, alienated from or hostile toward God.  

1 Corinthians 2:12 NIV What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

​B.  In verse 19 John was painfully explicit in regard to these pretenders. 

He said 

1 John 2:19 NIV 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.

He revealed that these pretenders hold membership in the church. They go through the motions of worship and participate in church events, but theirs is the same kind of spirit that Judas Iscariot had, who was so deceptive in his role as a disciple that none of the other eleven disciples suspected that he was an enemy of Christ until the night before the crucifixion, in the garden. 

Example;

John 13:26‭-‬30 NIV Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”  But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

It was later that they learned that Judas was a traitor;

Mark 14:43‭-‬45 NIV Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.  Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him.

So you see how deceptive these counterfeiters can be.

John says in this letter that the time had come for these impostors to separate themselves physically from the church because they were never part of the body spiritually.  

At some point they had given intellectual assent to the lordship of Christ, but their hearts had never confirmed their profession.

C.  These people were “apostates.” 

They were unbelievers who had mentally adopted the doctrines of the Christian faith but had never been united to the church by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  They may have said the words never really surrendered themselves.

John said, “They were not of us” (v. 19). Their source was not in the body of Christ, which is composed of true believers only.

2.  John reminded them and we need to be reminded today who we are and what we possess 

1 John 2:20 NIV But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

John was elaborating on something that Jesus had told His disciples;

John 16:12‭-‬15 NIV “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

One of the things that the Holy Spirit does is that of enlightening believers concerning the meaning of God’s Word. 

John was basically saying, you believers, as  opposed to antichrists, are anointed, or consecrated, or declared sacred, by the Holy Spirit,  and you know the truth. One of the defining marks of every true believer is that Christ, God’s anointed Holy One, has touched us with his anointing — his Spirit — and caused us to know. Like John said; “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”

​A.  In verse 21 John expands on what he had just said. 

1 John 2:21 NIV 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.

This was his purpose in writing this letter—not to instruct the ignorant but to remind believers of what they already knew.  They already knew the truth.

B.  The counterfeiter  is clearly and unmistakably identified 

1 John 2:22‭-‬23 NIV 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. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

C.  Who is the liar?

The Bible teaches that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). 

John 8:44 NIV You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Satan's approach is always based on what is false and misleading. The greatest lie Satan has ever perpetrated is that Jesus is not Christ, God's Anointed One. He tries to spread this lie in many ways. In our day, he takes the intellectual, rational approach by denying the virgin birth of Christ, or saying things like "how can Christ be the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit at the same time?  How can He be  both the Son and the Father".   

​D.  What about these blessed names, Jesus and Christ? 

The name Jesus comes from a Hebrew word, Yeshua, which means “Jehovah saves” and proclaims the deity, humanity, and vicarious atonement of our Savior. Christ means “the anointed one” and is a translation of the Hebrew word from which we get Messiah. 

In a prophecy about the Messiah Isaiah wrote;

Isaiah 9:6 NIV For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus was anointed by the Father and designated as Savior; he was the acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Luke 4:16‭-‬21 NIV He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:   “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,  because he has anointed me  to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners  and recovery of sight for the blind,  to set the oppressed free,   to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”   Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Conclusion

What are the results of “counterfeit Christianity”? The denial that Jesus is the God-man, born of a virgin, who was crucified for our sins and rose the third day to overcome death. Those who deny these basic truths about Jesus Christ have a counterfeit religion.

Your local bank tellers know when a counterfeit bill comes their way because they’ve memorized the details of a real dollar. In the same way, believers with sound biblical knowledge will recognize and discard an anti-Christ message or attitude when it reaches their ears.
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Sermon Audio