Please turn with me tonight to 1st John chapter 2. 1st John chapter 2 as we read verses 18 through 27. 1st John chapter 2 and when you have found that please also then turn to page 19 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. Lord's Day 12, page 19. As you can see, there are two questions and answers with Lord's Day 12. The first one dealing with why we call him Christ. The second one dealing with why are you, why are we called Christians? And it is my hope, my intent to consider the first tonight with this passage from 1 John. The first question and answer. And the Lord willing to consider question and answer 32 also with this passage. next Sunday evening, the Lord willing. We will recite together what we believe with regard to question and answer 31 of Lord's Day 12. Why is he called Christ, meaning anointed? Because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who perfectly reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God for our deliverance, our only high priest who has set us free by the one sacrifice of his body and who continually pleads our cause with the Father, our eternal King, who governs us by His Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom He has won for us. 1 John 2, beginning in verse 18, as we now hear the Word of God. 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 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 He promised 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. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, I remember telling you a few years ago about a true story with regard to Dr. R.C. Sproul that happened to him when he was in college many years ago. I heard him talk about it on his radio program a number of years ago. And he talked about he was in a particular class, I don't remember the class, but he had a woman professor. And in that class, somehow they got to talking about the subject of salvation and a Savior and those kinds of things. and it seemed to be her task to publicly embarrass the young R.C. Sproul to somehow force him to say, which he did in the midst of his class, that he believed that there is only one way of salvation, that God only provided one way, and that way is Jesus Christ. In her arrogance, she wanted him to have to publicly admit that in front of all of his classmates who probably were not believers, But then privately at the door, she backed off a little bit and sort of apologized, but simply said, I really can't believe that you could believe something like that. How could it be that you would believe in a God who would provide only one way of salvation to be saved? And the very wise young R.C. Sproul answered, the question is not why didn't God provide many ways of salvation to be saved? But why did He bother to provide even one? Beloved, we profess to believe in Jesus Christ, His, God the Father's, only begotten Son, our Lord. We call Him Jesus. And boys and girls, I trust you know that Jesus means Savior. As we said last week, it means one who saves. That was His personal name, His human name, a name that was given to Him by Mary and Joseph. of course, because the angel told them to. Another name tells what he came to do. He would save his people from their sins. But he is also called Christ. Now boys and girls, that's not his last name like you and I have a last name. That was not the last name of Mary and Joseph, but the name Christ is his official title. It tells why he came to save his people from their sins. That official title describes his official calling and official responsibility. It's a little bit like many of the titles that we are familiar with today. For example, President, Doctor, Senator, Captain, Reverend, Pastor. All these and many other titles you see are official titles that describe an office. Now many have and many continue to deny the truth of Jesus Christ. Some say that he was a good person, that he was a powerful teacher, he was a great example, but he's not God. And they say that He is not necessary in order to be saved, or at least not Him alone. And we know that that has gone on throughout the history of the New Testament church from the very beginning. The church from the very beginning has been called upon to defend the truth of Jesus Christ. And the fruit of that defense, we know, we have in our creeds, especially the one we confess tonight, the Apostles' Creed or the Athanasian Creed, the Nicene Creed, among other faithful creeds. in which we give expression to the truth that Jesus Christ is both God and man. And the church, we know, has been built on Peter's confession when he said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And still today, we must continue to stand on the believer's confession that Jesus is the Christ. Very simply. And that is a true confession, beloved. It is a challenged confession and it is a glorious confession. First of all, it is a true confession. John says, beginning in verse 20, 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. Now, very clearly, John contrasts here the truth with the lie. And the lie, very simply, denies that Jesus is the Christ. But the truth, on the other hand, is very simply that He is the Christ. Well, boys and girls, what does that mean, that He is the Christ? Well, Christ, we know, means anointed. And it comes from the Hebrew word Messiah, which means anointed. And therefore, Christ is the anointed one. And that anointing finds its background in the Old Testament practice of pouring oil on an individual. And that pouring of oil on that individual was a sign that that individual had been set aside, ordained for a special task. And that pouring on of oil signified the promise of the gifts and the giving of the gifts necessary to fulfill that office or that task. And the Old Testament offices that required the anointing of oil were that of prophet, priest, and king. And an individual who was anointed to one of those offices was an anointed one of the Lord. He was an anointed one set apart by God who had been given the authority of heaven to do his work. And we know that that anointing, then, was true of the Son. The catechism rightly says that he was ordained, he was set apart, appointed to be the Messiah, and he was anointed. He was equipped to fulfill his God-given office. Jesus Christ was set apart, he was equipped as officially the Savior sent of God. And we know, too, that the idea, the belief in an anointed one was true for Israel. They looked forward to the anointed one. Old Testament history tells us that Israel knew of a great Messiah to come, of the true and the anointed servant of the Lord who would deliver Israel with divine authority and supreme power. And we find a confirmation of that in the New Testament that Israel was looking for that. As Andrew said to his brother Simon Peter, we have found the Messiah. And the Samaritan woman said to Jesus, I know that Messiah is coming. They expected an anointed one. They expected a Messiah because of its prophecy. Now we know of many messianic psalms and passages in the Old Testament. Psalm 110, which we just sang, is one of them. These psalms and passages that point forward to the Messiah to come. And these were not just empty hopes and promises, but they find corresponding fulfillment in the New Testament. For example, we read in the Old Testament about the Anointed One. In Isaiah 42, verse 1, the Lord says, Here is My servant whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom I delight. I will put My Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. And then in Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2, The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. And Jesus applies that very passage, Isaiah 61, to himself. We find that recorded in Luke chapter 4. And as well, we can think about all the suffering servant passages of which Isaiah 53 is a part of that details the crucifixion, not only clearly talking about the physical aspect of the crucifixion, but also the spiritual aspect, if you will, that our iniquities were laid upon him. And one more Old Testament passage pointing to his anointing, to this anointed one, Psalm 2. The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. And there are also Old Testament prophecies pointing forward to the threefold office, prophet, priest, and king. In Psalm 2, verse 6, we read about his kingship. I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill. And then in Philippians 2, Paul talks about Christ in this respect. And he says that God exalted him to the highest place, gave him the name that is above every name, that every knee would bow before him. his prophetic office was also prophesied. In Deuteronomy 18, verse 18, the Lord says to Moses, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And again in Acts 3, verse 22, we see that Peter applies those very words to Christ. His priestly office was pointed to. In Hebrews 7, we see that he was a priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was a king-priest. And the writer of Hebrews says that unlike the other high priests pointing back to the Old Testament ceremonial administration, to the high priest there, he sacrificed for their sins once for all when he sacrificed himself. Now we might say, well, what's the big deal with all this? We see this promise, this prophecy in the Old Testament, this fulfillment in the New Testament. Well, beloved, the truth that Jesus is the Christ was prophesied throughout the Old Testament and finds fulfillment, clarity, throughout the New Testament because of its confirmation. And its confirmation happens by the Holy Spirit. And that confirmation was seen first in Christ's baptism. We know what happened. We read that the heavens opened. The Spirit of God descended as a dove and came upon Him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. On that very occasion, Jesus was ordained, set apart by God the Father before the eyes of men, and He was anointed, He was made fully qualified by the Holy Spirit in His human nature to do the saving work that He had been sent to do, to take on that threefold office of prophet, priest, and king, as He fulfilled perfectly these Old Testament offices that pointed forward to Him. And the Catechism talks about that perfect fulfillment when it calls Him our chief prophet and teacher, our only high priest, and our eternal king. You see, beloved, these define the Messiah's office to which He was appointed. Confirmed by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who also then confirms the truth of this confession through Christ's believers. Again, John says in verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One. And all of you know the truth. As if to say, all of you know the truth because you have that anointing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says of the Holy Spirit in John chapter 16, when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. You see, it is the Holy Spirit of God who brings one from spiritual death to spiritual life. It is the Holy Spirit of God and Him alone who removes the blinders of sin from you and me that only allow us to see the lie, those blinders. And He removes those blinders of sin that we might see and recognize and confess the truth so that, for example, John's readers could confess without a doubt that Jesus is the Christ. Of God. So that Peter could affirm, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And later, that he could preach with confidence, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. No other name given by God. Appointed by God. By which we might be saved. You see, beloved, the truth of this confession that Jesus is the Christ is confirmed in you and me only by the Holy Spirit. There's no other way. Only by His powerful work. The one of whom Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3, no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus, be cursed. No one in whom the Holy Spirit is living and dwelling can ever say, Jesus, be cursed. And Paul goes on, And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. No one can make this true confession about the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in that one. Jesus is the Christ because God said so. Because God proved it. And because God confirms it. Yet this true confession is also a challenged confession. John says in verse 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. He says it's the last hour. And that is the day that we are living in. It's the day that began when Christ ascended into heaven, and then the day that we believe will end when he comes again the second time. And therefore, we live in between. We live in between these two glorious events, His ascension and His second coming. And that in-between time, beloved, is a time in which Jesus Christ continues to build His church. It is a time in which He is preparing His people for eternal glory as well. He is preparing for the final destruction of His enemies. But it is also a time in which His enemies are busy. John speaks of the Antichrist. You have heard, the Antichrist is coming. By this time, the church had been warned of a long and fatal adversary to Christ and his church. And the evidence of Scripture, especially Daniel 7, verse 25, where Daniel talks about the one who would rise up against the Most High, as well as Paul's man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2, who will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God, the evidence of Scripture, beloved, suggests that the Antichrist will be a single person who will rise up before Christ returns. But he is, as Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2, doomed to destruction. Yet he hasn't come yet. Many thought it might have been Nero, or Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or many others like them. But these are more in line with the many Antichrists that John speaks of have already come. And John's goal here, beloved, is that his readers, his audience, including you and me, would know how to identify one who is an Antichrist. Not necessarily the, but those who rise up in our own day. And this has to do with the spirit of Antichrist. Verse 22 says, 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. Boys and girls, the definition of Antichrist, the Antichrist, or the spirit of Antichrist, is that he is one who is literally against Christ. He is a one who is opposed to Christ. The spirit of Antichrist denies the person and the work of Jesus Christ, who he is, that he is both God and man, and that he has come, that he conquered Satan, sin, death, and hell, and that at the same time he has earned salvation for you and me. The spirit of Antichrist embraces the lie that says Jesus is not the Christ, and therefore he is not the appointed one by God the Father. He is not the anointed one by the Holy Spirit to be the Messiah, to save from sin. The spirit of Antichrist rejects the gracious act of God, providing that one, that only, that guaranteed way to be saved from sin. and rescued from God's eternal anger against sin. The believer's confession that Jesus is the Christ is a true confession. It is a challenged confession, still today. And the saddest, most dangerous fact about that is that that challenged confession is that it is a denial of, in the third place, a glorious confession. The believer's confession that Jesus is the Christ is a glorious confession, beloved. It is glorious because of Christ's work. We think again of the threefold office. Chief prophet, only high priest, eternal king. You see, that not only defines the Messiah's office, but it also describes His official work. He is officially the Savior sent of God whose primary requirement was to be faithful to the sender. To be faithful to the one who sent him. To do what he was sent to do. God the Father sent his Son to be, as the catechism says, our chief prophet and teacher who perfectly reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God for our deliverance or our redemption. In other words, he shows and teaches us through his word. He did through the prophets. He continues today to show and teach us through His Word, beloved, of God's desire to rescue and save lost sinners and how He has done it. He is our only High Priest who has set us free by the one sacrifice of His body and who continually pleads our cause with the Father. He has redeemed us. He has set us free. He has opened the way to be saved. He has opened the way to the Father, which is only through Himself. And He is also our eternal King, who governs us by His Word and Spirit, who guards us and keeps us, or defends and preserves us in the freedom, in the salvation. He has won for us. Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ rules over all things. Everything is under His power, under His control, And he rules over all things, making sure that the way to God will never be closed again for his people. Making sure that his believers are safe and secure forever. In Jesus Christ, we must see God himself acting for our salvation. We must see his plan, that it included our salvation, and that it included the one to accomplish it for us and bring us into it. And that is such a glorious confession. Except for those who deny it. The Antichrist, as John says at the end of verse 22, denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Now very clearly we know that man's need, Man's need, his greatest need, is to be reconciled with God the Father. The one whom we have offended greatly by our sin. The one of whom we have become his enemy because of our sin. Our greatest need is to be reconciled with God the Father. And there's only one way, as Jesus said. He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And the intimate connection between the Father and the Son is clearly taught in Scripture. Jesus said, I and my Father are one. And He said in John 14, verse 1, Trust in God, trust also in me. And He said in John 15, verse 23, He who hates me hates my Father as well. And John, in this letter as well, He shows the intimate connection between the Father and the Son. Chapter 1, verse 3, We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Chapter 2, verse 1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, pointing to His priestly office of intercession. Chapter 4, verses 14 and 15. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him, and He in God. That intimate connection once again. And then allow me a couple more verses from chapter 5, beginning at verse 9. We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God which He has given about His Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony. God has given us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Beloved, God the Father gave the Son a task which the Son willingly accepted and the Son fulfilled. He completed it perfectly. And to deny that Jesus is the Christ is a double denial. To deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny that He is the Son of God. It is to deny the Father. It is to call God the Father a liar. It is to deny that His work through His Son, it is to deny that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. And that double denial then points to a double danger. To deny Christ, beloved, is to not have His perfect work, And therefore, to not have God as Father. And therefore, not have peace with God, not have eternal life, which is only through Jesus Christ, the Son through the Father. You see, very clearly, salvation rests on the faithfulness of Jesus as the Christ. The one appointed and anointed by God to be the only Savior. And those, all those, only those, but all those, every last one who humble themselves in the sight of God and look away from themselves and look only to Jesus Christ in true faith. It doesn't matter what you have done. It doesn't matter. No sin is too great for Jesus' blood to wash away. No sin is too great that God is not able to forgive. Whoever humbles themselves in the sight of God and looks to Jesus Christ alone finds Him to be a perfect Savior. Who gives complete salvation. And still today, beloved, as our chief prophet, he calls you and me to faith in his word by the Holy Spirit. And this call is no joke. It's no gimmick. Because as our only high priest, he has given his life as a final sacrifice for sin. And God the Father is indeed well pleased with God the Son, but also he is well pleased with those for whom the Son has given his life. and therefore our comfort is that as our eternal King, He protects and He preserves us eternally because nothing, nothing can snatch us out of His hand. Beloved, Jesus the Christ is our greatest. He's our only hope in a hopeless world that would have us feel defeated or would have us find our comfort in ourselves, would have us say, well, I'm not so bad. I'm pretty good. I'm doing my best. And therefore that should be enough to make me okay with God if there is a God. But that kind of an attitude, beloved, that kind of a belief is nothing but emptiness. It is hopeless. It is vain. But in Jesus the Christ, the Heavenly Father fills us to overflowing with His grace, His mercy, His peace, with His great salvation. And He gives us strength in weakness. He picks us up when we fall. He gives us patience when we are anxious. He gives us hope when everything around us looks hopeless. He gives us the assurance that all of our sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus and the confidence that all things work together for our good. The believer's hope is all and only because of Jesus, the Christ. That's the truth that John speaks of. And that truth is steadfast, it is changeless, of Jesus Christ and His saving love. You see, boys and girls, Jesus Christ alone fulfills His office perfectly. He actually gives definition perfectly to that office. He left nothing undone. And that's not true of us in the offices that we might be called upon to fulfill. Presidents fail to keep their promises. Doctors make wrong diagnoses from time to time. Pastors are sinners too. But Jesus, the Christ, has fulfilled His office and calling perfectly, and therefore those who embrace Him by faith have eternal peace with God the Father. And therefore, beloved, may we never be arrogant. May we never fall into that arrogance and wonder and think, well, why aren't there many options? Why didn't God provide many ways to be saved? Or may we never be so arrogant to think that we deserve many ways, that we should have an option. But instead, may we be humbled that God provided even one. And even more than that, that he has given you and me faith to believe in that only way. And our only response can be with Paul, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, once again as we bow before You in this evening hour, we praise Your name for our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. We praise Your most holy name, Father, as we are humbled as we consider the fact that indeed You had our salvation, planned from the very beginning. And also You had it planned how You would accomplish that through Your only begotten Son. And we thank You and praise You that He did not shrink back from the calling with which You had called Him, the appointment that You had given to Him, but that He fulfilled His calling perfectly. And the result for us is salvation full and free forever and ever. And may we always live to rejoice in Jesus the Christ, our Lord and Savior, and what that means for us. And may it be too, O Lord, that You would give us courage and confidence and a delight to speak of Him to those with whom we have contact. There are so many who do not know, O Lord. There are so many who know that there is something else that is missing from their lives, but they think that they need to do it on their own. May it be, Father, that we would look for them. That You would bring them to our attention. That You would give to us the opportunity to speak the good news of Jesus Christ and His saving love. Trusting that You, O Lord, would give Thee increase. O Father, so many of us are scared to do this. But give us courage. And give us opportunity. And bless us, O Lord, to that end. And may You be praised above all. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.