"THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST"

2The 2:3-4 Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

2The 2:8-15  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: [Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

In Genesis Chapter 3, the most subtle beast of the field promoted the thought that mankind could be gods, themselves.

• This was the first indication of a spirit in this world that the Bible comes to refer as the spirit of antichrist.
• The serpent was a beast.
• At the first the serpent had legs and so forth, and was then cursed to slither on its belly to the form of the earth.
• This is very symbolic.
• In the end of the Bible we see this serpent/beast grown into a dragon.
• And we read of the mark of the beast.
• Since the BEASTS were created on the 6th day, we see the number of the beast as 666.
• 6 multiplied.

• Adam put the blame on his wife, for Adam would never admit blame due to his newly-imagined self-exalted status.
• The woman, in turn, also put off the blame and accused the serpent.
• "The devil made me do it!"
• But they had none to blame but themselves.
• But an antichrist spirit exalts self.
• You see, if you are a god you do not need another God, and you do not need to answer to anybody.
• You could not be wrong, another must be wrong for your errors.
• (The world is filled with this antichrist spirit.  Criminals are not responsible for their actions, they say.  They are only ill.  That is insanity!)

As believers baptized into Jesus' death, our old lives are forever gone.

• We were alienated from God beforehand, but now we are alienated from our old lives in sin.
• We are now to the praise of God's glory. (Eph. 1:6).
• What a change!
• God did all the work because our lives are to the praise of HIS Glory.
• That means there is nothing we did so far as bettering ourselves goes.

• We only need walk worthy of who we are now.

• We must abide in the vine.
• Stay in reliance upon Him and our union to Him as our only means of having righteousness in the eyes of God.
• Those who feel they must better themselves and become righteous, are gravely mistaken.
• Those baptized into union with Christ have His righteousness the very moment they are joined ot Him.

• We are intended to continue in the faith.
• That means, it is faith in His work that made us righteous, and we must continue in that faith in order to maintain that position of righteousness.
• Just stay in dependence upon Him.
• So long as we remember that we need Jesus' power, we will do alright.
• We are not to think that we should learn to live on our own strength in the Kingdom of God.

1Joh 2:27-29  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

• Man's ways cannot direct us.
• God must direct us.
• Reliance upon Him causes us to be confident when He comes again.

 

 

1Joh 2:22-23  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].

• Christ means ANOINTED ONE.
• He is the one by whom we go to the Father.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

• Christ is the only means to God, and there are not many Christs.
• There is only THE CHRIST.
• And He is Jesus Christ.
• He is the only anointed one.
• Pro-Christ faith is trust in the fact that God sent Christ alone as our means of ever being reconciled to God.
• God provided no other way for mankind to know Him besides Jesus Christ.
• So, to deny the need of the Son is to deny the Father.

So many are concerned over the mark of the beast.

• Sinners who refuse to serve God but say they refuse to accept the mark of the beast is as silly as saying we refuse the red spots on our face although we have the measles.
• The red spots and pock marks are just that... MARKS of the disease.
• The virus, though, is INSIDE the body.
• And the virus is the real problem.
• Not the MARKS or INDICATIONS OF IT.
• If people were only concerned with the marks of the measles, then cosmetic make-up would be a cure.
• But that is ridiculous.
• The same goes with the spirit of antichrist.
• Forget about what the mark may or may not be.
• The issue we need to be concerned with is not the mark of the antichrist, but the spirit of the antichrist.

• But on the other hand, if you get the virus in your system, you  will get the marks.
• This is the same with the spirit of antichrist.
• Those who reject Christ are presently antichrist.
• And they will receive the mark of the beast, unless they receive an inoculation of the blood of Jesus Christ which alone washes away our sins.

• John the Baptist ushered in the New Testament age, and said the axe is laid to the root of the tree.

• The spirit of antichrist is the refusal to rely upon the only means God gave us to know Him -- Jesus Christ.
• Christ is the only anointed one.
• And you might ask me if I feel myself or other ministers of God are anointed of God.
• Yes.
• But that is only because we are IN CHRIST.
• Without Him we have no anointing.
• But He gave us His name, and caused us to be in union with Him, so as to allow us to have His anointing upon us.
• The only reason we are accepted by God is because we are in the Beloved -- Jesus Christ.

• He came in demonstration of the Spirit and power of the Spirit.
• The world can work in excellency of speech and wisdom, but not in God's power.
• Paul was so Pro-Christ that he wanted the very means of preaching Christ to not hinder people from giving their all to Christ alone.


1Cor 2:4-5  And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Matt 12:30  He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.

• The mark of the beast will be something that sinners will not be able to resist.
• There are only two groups of people in God's mind.  Those whose names are in the book of Life and those whose names are not in the book of life.


Reve 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

2The 2:3-4  Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

• In Genesis 11, mankind united to such an extent that nothing would be restrained from them to accomplish.
• Notice the wording God used when He saw it.


Gene 11:3-6  And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

• On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were in one place in one accord, and the Spirit filled them all.
• God needs UNITY in the Church in order to work in His church.
• Likewise, the devil.

• Instead of uniting in dedication to God to see God's will done greatly, they instead united to make themselves a name.
• And had not God confounded their tongues and stopped their work, the spirit of antichrist would have manifested before it was God's time to allow it to do so in the end of the world.
• The next time this unity arises in the world to stand without God, God will allow it.

• "Thou shalt not surely day."
• "Ye shall be as gods."
• When you are a god you do not need to submit to the One True God.
• That is antichrist because God's means of salvation for mankind is through Christ alone..
• His will is that all come to Christ.

• From a thought to a manifested spirit in a man of sin.

1. 2The 2:9  [Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2. 2The 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

• Those who are not in-Christed, and are yet without Christ, are unrighteous.
• The only place of true righteousness is found IN CHRIST.
• In Him, we are given His righteousness.
• And the unrighteousness that is in sinners is an empowering force to the ANTICHRIST SPIRIT.
• The man of sin will feed upon the workings of Satan, and the deceivableness of unrighteousness in sinners.
• This unrighteousness is so deceivable that it will drive one to accept ANYTHING, if need be, other than JESUS CHRIST.
• The world would sooner remove prayer and Christian religion from schools and replace it with HINDU RELIGION OF EVOLUTION.
• Evolution was a tenet of Hindu religion long before it was a so-called science.
• So our public schools teach EASTERN religion and call it science.
• This is the spirit of antichrist.

• That is the spirit of antichrist.
• People will go to any extreme to remove themselves from Jesus Christ.
• And that is the deception in the unrighteousness of sinners.
• The Antichrist spirit feeds upon that.

• The spirit of antichrist.

• They do not want to hear that man DOES NOT have an indomitable spirit.
• They do not want to hear that man is inherently sinful.
• They do not want to hear of their need for CHrist because the idea that we need Christ means that man is sinful and is alienated from God.
• That goes against their self-centred dependence upon nothing other than themselves.

• They say that Jesus Christ became a God just as much as we can.
• And if that be the case, then one day we will not need to praise God, for why praise Him if we are gods ourselves, and will be praised?
• But the Bible says that the Church will be to the praise of God's glory forever.
• That means that we will never attain godhood but will forever be submissive to Him.
• But the mormon doctrine is an antichrist doctrine.


Ephe 3:21  Unto him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

If you are a sinner, you are unrighteous.

• That unrighteousness has deceptive powers.
• And because that unrighteousness in you as a sinner, not saved by Christ, empowers the spirit of antichrist, God hates it so much that He will actually send sinners a strong delusion to believe a lie that they all might be damned.


2The 2:10-12  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

2The 2:15  Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

Forever, rely upon Jesus Christ as your righteousness and holiness and way to God.

• Any grain of, "I don't need Jesus to depend upon," is a grain of antichrist.

• That is a spirit of antichrist working in them.
• Such a life does not give any credence to dependence upon Jesus Christ and a seeking after His will.
• It is basing one's decision, not upon God revealing truth, but upon whatever circumstance and family we were naturally born into.
• We had no choice what family we were born into.
• We had no choice over what denomination our parents may have belonged to.
• And to say one will remain in such a group simply because one was born into it is the spirit of antichrist at work.
• What if you were born into a Hindu family?
• Such an idea destroys all need for the aspect of the Lord's prayer that causes us to SEEK THE WILL OF GOD.
• "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
• Antichrist spirit would state, "Not thy will, but MINE be done."

Another note of antichrist is the refusal to accept one's need to be pastored and preached to.

1Cor 1:17  For Christ sent me ...to preach the gospel:

Ephe 4:11-13  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

• God calls people to PASTOR.
• .PASTORS (plural).


1Cor 1:21  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

1Cor 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

• Even the MEANS to get the truth to us prohibits us from removing glory from Christ.
• All glory belongs to Him.
• ALL OF IT.
• ANTICHRIST HATES THAT THOUGHT.

1Cor 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

• Some may be like dictators, but they are not true pastors.
• Do not think there are not true pastors just because you saw a dictator.

• It is the opposite of relying TOTALLY upon Jesus Christ.
• That is all that we should preach in our churches -- TOTAL DEPENDENCE UPON JESUS' SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS.

• Some churches are having Hebrew men speak in their churches and speaking about the rebuilding of the temple in Israel.
• This is blasphemous!
• I am concerned because these people are promoting blood sacrifice, since Jesus Christ offered the LAST acceptable sacrifice 2000 years ago.
• And to have ANYTHING to do with an alternative sacrifice besides Christ is to be involved in the spirit of antichrist.
• I do not rejoice in the thought of another temple being rebuilt.
• The only Temple God honours is the one He built, called the CHURCH.


1Cor 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Ephe 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Psal 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh [but] in vain.

• Anything else is abomination and denial of Christ.
• Christ is everything.
• The fulness of the Godhead is in Him bodily.
• Without Him we are nothing.
• And for Christians to get behind the efforts of Jews to build a temple, after Jesus cursed Israel's temple due to their rejection of HIm, is to side with the spirit of antichrist.
• Should our brethren understand this, they would be as far from it as they could.

• That is the spirit of antichrist.
• God is in the changing business.
• We need changing.
• Lots' wife could not leave Sodom without looking back, due to something she was leaving that she could not stand to leave.
• So God declared that she will perish with Sodom.
• REMEMBER LOT'S WIFE

2The 2:11-17  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given [us] everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.