Authentic Christianity #6: Lie Detectors

Discover how deception and false ideologies can become our greatest spiritual danger, and how believers are equipped through Christ—the Anointed One—to discern truth, stand firm in faith, and resist the lies that seek to lead us astray. 

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Good morning. Good. Well, anyway, this morning, I'd like to begin by asking the question. You know what? How can we be protected from harm? We spend a lot of time thinking about what it is that's going to harm us, or potentially could harm us and and trying to be safe from those things. And this morning, I'd like to just begin by, causing everyone a great deal of anxiety. By asking the question, you know, let's think about what it is that, potentially can bring the greatest harm into our lives. What presents the greatest threat to our well-being? Well, is it is it crime and violence? Is is the thing that we're most, frightened about, especially in the recent events. Natural disasters or, accident, dental death or injury? Human error, illness, poverty. Well, what what do we face that is most potentially harmful to us? Well, you know, I think that, these things that we most often think about as being the most harmful to us, are things that we do well to seek to protect ourselves against. But the point I'm going to be trying to make this morning is that they pale in comparison with the one thing that really, threatens us far more than these external, dangers. The one thing that threatens us more than anything else, that endangers us more than anything else is, false ideas and false ideologies. Allies, bring us into more harm than any of the external threats that we face. A vast majority of the harm that we experience, are that, that we cause as a result of, false ideas or false ideologies. Most of the harm that we either cause or the harm that we receive is caused by somebody as a result of believing in a wrong idea or a wrong thought or a wrong ideology following a lie. The truth is that the most, powerful, defender in our lives is the truth that our, greatest fortress and our best insurance against destruction is knowing the truth and living in the truth, and it protects us from our greatest enemy, deception, our most destructive enemy. And while external threats, need to be protected against, we are much more likely to remain defenseless against, deception and seduction and, and, the evil of false ideas and ideologies. Think about this this week, even this week. When, right now, many people in California, evidenced by the run on potassium iodine, are worried about, the possibility of being exposed to, the radiation that's emanating from the nuclear plants that are, in distress over in Japan. We have other things that are far more threatening to us in the Inland Empire. I know that as we drive by big billboards with ideas on them, we don't feel particularly threatened by the ideas that are on those billboards. But, let me just ask you to think about this thing for a second. There's one billboard. I'm not sure if it's still up or not, but it was a billboard that it was at the Guthrie Exchange there in Colton. On the ten, 215 exchange. That was a billboard for San Manuel, casino. And it said, thousands come and millions leave the idea that you, the idea behind the billboard is that if you go and gamble, you'll leave with more money than what you came with. Now, the idea that you can go to a casino and then go home with more money that you went with, has brought, a lot of anonymous gamers into great despair. But it's not something we're particularly threatened by when we see that idea. It's not something that causes us any anxiety yet. I would propose this idea to you that the idea that we can go to a casino and come home, with more money than we came with, is an idea that has caused more harm than all of the damage the tsunami has done recently in Japan. Now, when we think about the power of this wave coming in and destroying whole cities, it's hard to imagine that, the idea that going to a casino and coming home with more money is more destructive than this wave here, but, if you thought about, people one at a time, over time in the various casinos throughout this country and the loss of homes and the loss of equity and the loss of property that occurs every single day, and all of these, places that have the idea that you will go home with more money than you came with. I think over time, it would clearly add up to more than the destruction that we've witnessed in, Japan. And I think probably even over time, you'd have more suicides as a result of despair from gambling than you would have even in the death toll that we currently have in one moment in time. In Japan, it might take a while for that, level of destruction to surpass the destruction of the tsunami, but it certainly will. And it's just one of innumerable ideas that bring destruction. Just this one idea. You know, you can think of endless ideas that bring harm, but just this one idea that if I go to the casino, I'm going to come home with more money has destroyed, innumerable lives as we, continue in our series, today, sorry. As we continue in our series today, and entitled Authentic Christianity Reflecting Christ's love, we're going to be continuing in our study of First John. And, some of the questions that we're going to be looking at is, you know how it is that we protect ourselves from this, harmful deception that is always seeking to seduce us into, behavior that either harms us or seduce other people into behavior that harms us. And so we want to ask this question as we approach, the word this morning is how powerful is the power of a lie? How powerful is the power of lies and deception? What protects us from the harm of, caused by deception? And how good are we at detecting deception? Are we good lie detectors? Are we good at, anticipating deception? And its consequences? Those are things that we're going to be looking at as we, look at today's message entitled Lie Detectors. And we'll be looking at first John chapter two, verses 18 through 27. Pray with me, if you would. Heavenly father, as we approach your word this morning, we see something very interesting in it, and that that you have, given us a, you have conferred upon us through the truth the power to be protected from deception and from the seducer who would seek to seduce us away from the protection of the truth and the protection of your love. And we pray today, Lord, that as we look into, your words, that we would become ever better at detecting the lie and his lie, the liar and his lies, that we would be guarded against the devil, schemes that we would take our stand against, that which really, truly threatens us and help us armor ourselves against, our foe, the liar. And may we walk in the truth and in the freedom of your counsel. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Beginning at verse 18 of chapter two of First John, we read this, 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 that 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 belong 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 the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the Antichrist. He denies the father and the son. No one who denies the son has the father. Whoever acknowledges the son has the father also. 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 the, what he promised to us. Even eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you receive 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. Now John explains in verse 26 why he, is writing this section of his book, why he was writing the whole whole letter, but why he is also writing this particular section, and he says, I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. There is an ongoing effort, a continuous effort to try to lead the children of the truth out of the truth and trying to lead us astray into deception. There's an effort to seduce us and to lead us astray. And, this is, this is what typifies the end times. This this attempt to attempt to to deceive the children of God is what makes the end times. The end times between the time of Christ's first coming and and the time of his return will be the end times. And in that time, it's a time of, of a contest between truth and deception. And there'll be an ongoing attempt to to deceive us as long as we're in what is called these end times. And these end times are evidenced by what is called the existence of, the Antichrist or Antichrist. And these Antichrist are seeking to lead us away from the true Christ and seeking to deceive the followers of the true Christ. Now, to understand this battle between truth and deception, we have to understand the idea of the anointing. We have to understand the concept of what this word anointing means. Now, this word anointing comes in various forms. In this in this passage, it actually appears eight times, in these nine verses, the word for anointing. And we see that it appears four times and is translated four times by the English word anointing. But it also comes four more times, translated by the word Christ. It's the same word, the word for Christ and the word for anointing, comes from the same word. And so we see one time it comes as Jesus Christ, and the other time we see that this word comes in the context of the Antichrist. So we need to understand the word anointing, what it means to anoint what the anointing is in order to really understand this passage. So what does it mean to be anointed? And how does the concept of being anointed relate to who Jesus is? And how does being anointed reflect who we are? And how does the anti anointing or the false anointing that is the Antichrist, relate to those who are deceiving and being deceived. So we need to know what it means to anoint, what the anointing means. And the best place to go is an example in the Old Testament. Here's a, oh. I guess I was going to read verse 27, but, here is a picture here of, Samuel and Samuel. Here is anointing the young David. Now, what happened in this picture was that, God had been displeased with us, Saul, because he had disobeyed him. And Saul had then become illegitimate to continue on as king. And God told Samuel to go, to a man's house, a man named Jesse, and to find which one of Jesse's sons that God preferred to be anointed as king over Israel. And so Jesse shows up with his seven oldest sons, and, all of them looked like good candidates. In fact, some of them. Samuel thinks that guy must be it, or that guy must be it. But as each son is brought before Samuel, the Lord does not confirm that this is the one that's supposed to be anointed. And he runs for all of Jesse's sons. There's no one left. So finally, Samuel says to Jesse, is this it? I know I'm supposed to anoint one of your sons, but it's none of these. And, Jesse says, well, I do have one more. The youngest one. He's out there tending the sheep, and, so, Samuel says we'll bring him here. And so when, David shows up, he's just this young kid. And, the Lord says, this is the one. And, Samuel takes this, horn full of oil and spices, and he pours it on top of David's head. He anoints him with this solution that's in the horn. And what the anointing is, is a conference upon, a person in this case upon David, the rights and the authority in this case to be king. God is conferring upon David, the rights and the authority to be king over Israel. And, it's interesting because it says from this point on, the Spirit of God was with David and gave him in power. But there's many, many, many years to come before he becomes king. He's anointed as king at this point. He's acknowledged by God and King before the prophet, acknowledge before God and before, the people there that day that this is the one God has chosen to be king. But he went back out and watched the sheep. And then, he spent many years, and many years, even many years, running from King Saul. And, an interesting thing happened over the years, even when he was really of no official position. Men, mighty men, mighty warriors, recognized something about him, recognized the calling, recognized the anointing, and came to him even when he wasn't yet king. And eventually, of course, he became king. And, the anointing proved, true. True. Conference on to him of the position of and the authority of king over Israel. Now, we're not going to go into any great detail, but the same kind of ceremony was conferred upon the priests. Not only was an anointing given to those who would be king, but an anointing was given to those who God would choose as his priests. The same idea. The Conference of Authority to function in the office of both King and priest was preceded by this anointing. The anointing, acknowledged and gave the legitimacy for somebody to serve in the office of king or priest. Now, when we call Jesus the Christ, the word Christ is anointing. It's the anointed one. When we say Jesus is the Christ, we're saying Jesus is the one in whom God has anointed. And in Christ case, he's anointed him to both be King of kings and Lord of lords. And and as I was reading in Hebrews today, priest forever, by whose blood we, receive, real atonement for our sins. So the word Christ, or Christos is the word for the Anointed One. He is the one that, father, that the father has conferred all legitimate power and authority, both as king and priest, forever and forever and for all and for all, with now the Antichrist would be the anti anointing. When we use the word Antichrist, it would be a false anointing or a pseudo anointing, or a usurping of legitimate power or authority. Jesus is the anointed of God. He is the king and priest, the lion and the Lamb of God, acknowledged by God the Father forever. And they who seek to usurp that truth and gain unto themselves the authority to both rule or to be priests, are what you would call anti-Christ or illegitimate, usurping of the function of Christ. And we know that in the end times there'll be, all kinds of Antichrist, and they'll be the Antichrist who the ultimate usurper of the position of Christ, the illegitimate, king and priest. The theme this morning is this Jesus is the anointed one. Let's take a look at, verses 22 through 23. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. It is the man who denies that Jesus is the one that God has anointed, to be king and priest forever. Such a man is the Antichrist. He denies the father and the son. No one who denies the son has the father. Whoever acknowledges the son has the father also. This is the central truth of all history. If you could tell one one truth to anybody, anywhere, at any time, that would make more impact on them than any other truth, it would be this simple truth that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the one in whom God has anointed to be King and priest over all humanity, both now and forever. Jesus has conferred the ruling authority of the whole of heaven and on earth, the whole of heaven and earth. On to Jesus, his only begotten son. This is history, central and most important truth. Jesus is the line of God. Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords, and he is also the atoning priest for all all man. He is the atonement. He is the son. He is the eternal priest, the Lamb of God, the anointed to to sacrifice for us to atone for us and for our sins. Jesus is the Christ. He is the eternal lion and the lamb, the priest and King over all now and forever. Now think about it for a second. When David was anointed king, Saul remained the illegitimate king for many, many years. After that. But David's ascension to the throne was irreversible and unavoidable. David was the anointed and he was the legitimate ruler, and his, ascension to the throne was certain. From the time David was anointed to the to the throne, his becoming king was certain. Now God has anointed Jesus and to to die, that is, to deny history's most central reality. It is to be a liar, to deny the anointing, the one thing a lie can never do is it can never change the truth. The whole time Saul remained king, it could not overcome the truth that David was a legitimate king. He and the to deny the truth about Christ Jesus being the Christ does not change the truth that Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We are living in the last hours, and the last day is the day between the moment Christ was anointed King and the moment Christ will be Coronated King. That coronation is coming. That coronation is described as the moment in which every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ will be Lord, that Jesus Christ is Lord. It's an undeniable, acknowledgment of the reality that we already know is true, and the truth that we remain in ourselves even now. And it is the truth that protects us. The truth that protects us is Christ is King. Christ is our priest. And that's irrevocable and unavoidable. And nothing, deceiver or denier can do to change the reality that one day Christ will be anointed, and not anointed coronated as, as the undeniable king over all creation. There are liars who said seek to seduce us and to reduce our confidence in, this truth. And it's dangerous if we fall into those seductions. We see that danger in the parable that Christ tells about those who are waiting for the return of Christ, and he tells a parable of, two groups of virgins, one who have oil on their lamp and the others who don't have oil in their lamp. They haven't remained prepared to receive their Messiah. And, those who are prepared receive their Messiah with great joy. But those who have let their lamp go into disrepair, don't have much to look forward to. And so we, in the same way, are waiting. And are we prepared? Do we are we safe in the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed of God? Again this morning, the theme is that Jesus is the Anointed one. Point number one is we have been anointed by the Anointed One. We ourselves are anointed. This is an interesting thing in this passage, because the one who is anointed, been anointed by God has anointed us. Let's take a look at verses 20 and, and verses 26 through 27. First verse 20, we have been anointed by the anointed one. Verse 20 says this, but you have have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. And then verses 26 through 27, I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you receive 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 a as that anointing is real, not counterfeit. Just as it has been taught you, you remain in him. So here we see that every authentic Christian has themselves been anointed by the Anointed One. When we use the word Christian, Christian and ethos, it means little anointed ones. Christ is the anointed one. Christians are little anointed ones, and we as little anointed ones have been anointed by the Anointed One. We've been anointed by Christ. And, Jesus anointing on us is an anointing of truth. We've been anointed and conferred from him with the power to know the truth. It is through this anointing that we are able to see the truth and know the truth, and hold on to the truth. It's an anointing of truth. It's an anointing that gives us the power to see that we what we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. At by the one the father anointed, we have been placed under him and received an anointing. And that anointing gives us discernment. It turns us into lie detectors. We become little lie detectors. The difference between being anointed and not being anointed might be, illustrated by the difference between being literate or being illiterate. Illiterate person can look at the same book on this and look at the same pages and look at the same words that a literal literate person is looking at. The illiterate person could have more intelligence, could have better eyesight, could have, better understanding and perception. But because he's illiterate, the words on the page are are obscure to him. He doesn't understand those words, whereas the literate person has been given the ability to decode the words and understand the content of the page. We have been anointed with an anointing, a truth that gives us the ability to see and understand, the truth in a way that no matter how intelligent a person is without that anointing, they don't have the ability to see that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Anointed One. They have the eye they're not able to comprehend or understand, their human condition, they're fallen state and their need for the mercy of God through Christ Jesus. The anointing enables us to trust Christ and become righteous through faith in Christ. The UN anointed are the anti anointed, anti anointed which would be Antichrist. Can't know the truth. It is un discernible to them. To them no matter how intelligent they are, they can't decode it. They're illiterate to the truth. And, he who denies the son doesn't know the truth, denies the father. Also, if if you don't know the son, it's impossible to know the father. Whatever. Whatever ideas you come up with to try to describe, what is, transcendent. If you don't have an anointing or the truth, you're going to come up with some googly god or whatever. That is gobbledygook. Yeah. You can googly duck. Yeah. Saying, either way interchangeable. And and and we can't be proud of, of this state. We are able to understand not because we're better than anyone else, but because we've received an anointing to be able to understand that Jesus is the Christ. And from that central truth, we're able to understand and discern all truth. The anointing teaches us, when we're anointed, to see the truth. It says here that we don't need a teacher. We have, the Holy Spirit is our teacher. And we do need, you know, the encouragement of the teachers. But God's word is our teacher. His Holy Spirit's our main teacher. And, we, with that anointing, can can see the truth. Again, Our theme this morning is, Jesus is the anointed one. And point number one is we've been anointed by the anointed one, and point number two, our anointing protects us from being seduced by deception. Let's take a look at verses 26 through 27. I'm writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you receive from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as but as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as a taught, just as taught, you remain in him. Christians have been anointed by Christ with the power and the ability to discern the truth. Authentic Christians are little spiritual lie detectors. You are now able, to discern the liar and his deception. It's a power, an ability that you've been given by Christ. Having anointed you and anointed you with the spirit of truth, the Spirit of Christ in us, we are able to see and know and understand that Jesus is the Christ. And when we can see that Jesus is the Christ, we can see that anyone that says Jesus is not the Christ is a liar. We can see how his will is accomplished in us. We're able to perceive the work of the truth, transforming us from the inside out. We can see and know that Jesus is the eternal Word of God, God himself who became flesh and dwelt among us. That anointing enables us to see that and anyone who denies that we're able to understand is a liar. We can detect that lie. We know that he came full of, of truth and grace. We can see that because we've gained that anointing. We know that truth reveals our need as sinful man. We can see the truth about ourselves, and we can see that truth without fear, because we also can see and know that he is our atoning sacrifice. He is the one who paid the penalty for our sins. We can know that because we've been granted the ability to see it through our anointing, we can know that he died for us and that he is an atonement for our guilt. And we can know that he rose again from the grave. And is at the father's side even now, waiting for all things to come into conformity to his coronation, to his perfect will. That moment when everyone will say, when every knee will bend and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We can already see that time, and we can already see that truth, and we can already know that reality even before it's happened, because we have been protected by the anointing of truth. We know these things because the Anointed One has anointed us with the ability to perceive them, and to know that they're true. Think about it this way a color blind person versus a colored sighted person. A colored blind person might argue this, if there was such a thing as the color red, I would be able to see it. Since I can't see it, it does not exist. But the color sighted person might argue this way because you can't see red doesn't mean my apple isn't red. We can't, cause somebody who can't see the truth that Jesus is the Christ, we can't cause them to see that that is true. But their denial of it certainly shouldn't cause us. Who can see that it's true to deny that it's true? My Jesus is the Christ, whether you see it or not. And he'll be coronated and your knee will bow, whether you know it or not. We see what we see, and we know what we know because we've been anointed to see the truth and we've been commanded to remain in the truth. We're in a time, a struggle where there is an effort to try to get us or seduce us outside of the truth that we know and that we've been empowered to see. There is a liar who desires to seduce us away from the truth and get us out from under the protection of the truth. Again, the theme this morning is Jesus is the Anointed One. Jesus is the Christ. And point number one is we've been anointed by the anointed one. And point number two is that our anointing protects us from being seduced by deception. I'd like to, read this morning in preparation for communion, Ephesians chapter six, verses ten through 12 of Ephesians, chapter six, beginning at verse ten, it says this finally, be strong in the Lord, and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God. Why should we do that? So you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. What are the devil schemes? They're false ideas and ideologies. The word is methodic. They're. They're just deceptive tricks to deceive us and to seduce us out of the truth. We are to take on our full armor of God and protect ourselves against lies and lying ideologies. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Who do I usually think of as my enemy? Other people. Right. The Bible must be wrong there. And that one. My enemies. Other people. It just says my struggle is not against flesh and blood. I have a problem there because I think other people are my enemy. But it says the flesh and blood is not my enemy, but against, my enemy is rulers against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. My enemy is against all of the ethereal spiritual forces of deception that would seek to. To lead me into the devil's schemes. That's who I need to take my stand against. And I've been anointed in the truth that Jesus is the Christ, to protect myself from my enemy. I can gird myself in that truth and, stand and know that he's lying when he's lying our enemy. What we stand against is not flesh and blood. It is not other people. It is deceptive ideas and ideologies that would bring us the most harm. And so today, as we prepare for communion, let us recognize that these elements are an anointing, a truth. When we when we take until ourselves the broken body of Jesus Christ, we acknowledge the truth about our own, brokenness and our need for his atoning sacrifice. And when we take on the blood of Christ and take it into us, we acknowledge the truth that we need, power from above. We need power from on high. We need the anointing of Christ's blood. We need the vigor of his life in us to take a stand against our enemy. The devil and his schemes. And we. It gives us the ability to live in the truth and prosper and do what benefits ourselves and others rather than harms one another. And so, as you're taking communion today, let it be a reminder that you've been anointed with the truth, that you've been anointed to stand with the truth, that you're like David's mighty men who come to David and fight with David and acknowledge David before David ever even has been called the King. Yet because you see something about the imprint of God in David's life, we see that Christ is who Christ is even before the whole world sees it, even before it will be proclaimed universally and forever. We see that Jesus is our King and our priest, and we've been anointed with that truth. And let the communion remind us of that anointing today, and give us the strength to stand against those who would seduce us away from.