Are You the Antichrist?

We're going to be looking at 1 John 2, verses 18 through 25 this morning.

1 John 2:18–25

1 John 2, verses 18 through 25.

1 John 2:18–25

And this is what God says to us through the letter of John.

Children, it is the last hour.

And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come.

Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.

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 it might become plain that they all are not of us.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it,

and because no lie is of the truth.

Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

No one who denies the Son has the Father.

Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.

If what you heard from the beginning abides in you,

then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

And this is the promise that he made to us.

Eternal life.

The Antichrist, that title has immediate effect in our culture

to conjure up images of the ultimate evil.

Even people who care nothing about Jesus Christ

can find themselves intrigued and spooked by the idea of the Antichrist.

Pop culture, especially horror movies or TV shows,

love the scary potential of the Antichrist.

He's often portrayed as some kind of human-demon hybrid

or maybe even the child of Satan himself.

Here are a few examples.

The TV show Supernatural features a version of the Antichrist.

In the horror movie series The Omen,

little Damien is the son of Satan,

destined to rise up as the Antichrist when he's older.

Antichrist mythology is used in

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,

in Hellboy comics and movies,

in Stephen King novels.

And if you've been around American Christian subculture long enough,

you probably remember Nikolai Karpathia,

the charming and evil Antichrist of the Left Behind novels.

Now what all of these Antichrists have in common

is that every time they're portrayed,

it's as a singular apocalyptic figure

who is spawned from or somehow empowered by Satan himself

and who threatens ultimate destruction to goodness in the world.

And it's probably no surprise

that these images don't capture the biblical vision

of the Antichrist very well.

When we turn to what God says in the Bible about the Antichrist,

most of us probably think immediately of the book of Revelation.

And thanks to Pastor Mike's sermon series through Revelation,

last year we know that as God carries out His plan

for the fullness of time,

He's going to be unsuccessfully opposed

by the unholy trinity

of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.

And I think it's fair and accurate biblically

to say that's the ultimate expression of the Antichrist.

But you might be surprised to know

that the term Antichrist is found only in John's letter.

And what we learn about Antichrist here

is quite different than what we expect.

Now the main point of our text this morning

could simply be summarized as don't be an Antichrist.

And that would be an accurate portrayal

of what John is saying.

Don't be an Antichrist.

But I think it would also be accurate

and maybe more edifying to say

that John is urging us to stick with Jesus for life.

That's what he ultimately wants

for anyone who reads this letter

is that we stick with Jesus for life.

And in this text,

he shows us three essential elements

to sticking with Jesus.

Three things that have to be realities in our life

if we're going to stick with Jesus for the long haul.

We have to be somewhere.

We have to confess something.

And we have to know why it matters.

So first of all, we have to be somewhere.

We see this in verses 18 through 19.

In verses 18 through 19,

there are two major surprises about the Antichrist.

The first one is in verse 18.

Children, it is the last hour.

And as you've heard that Antichrist is coming,

so now many Antichrists have come.

Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.

The first major surprise about the Antichrist

is that there's many of them.

In fact, we can't even really say

the Antichrist anymore

because there's more than one.

And they're not just coming at some point in the future

to bring about the end of the world.

By the time John wrote this letter,

they'd already started rolling out.

So right away, if we're going to think rightly

according to God's Word

about the reality of Antichrist,

we need to recalibrate

from thinking about one person

to thinking about a stream of people

or a category of people throughout time.

You notice that John also says

that we are in the last hour

and that these Antichrists are an indication

that we are in the last hour.

What does he mean by the last hour?

He means that we are in the final stage

of God's redemptive mission.

Jesus, the Son of God, has come

and no greater revelation will be given.

There's not some newer covenant coming

than the one that Jesus brought.

There's not some greater salvation coming

than the one that Jesus has accomplished.

All that remains at the end of this last hour

is for God to finalize

what Jesus has already begun.

So the last hour is this time in history

begun in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus

and completed at the end of his work

when he finishes all that he's begun.

And everyone who lives in the last hour,

the most fundamental thing about them

is their relationship to Jesus.

Jesus is the defining reality of the last hour.

And we're going to see more about this idea shortly

because it's central to what John

is trying to say here to this church.

So the first major surprise,

there are many Antichrists.

The second major surprise is in verse 19.

He says,

The second major surprise about these Antichrists

is where they come from.

They don't come from some bizarre union

of a human and a demon.

They aren't unleashed from some pit in hell.

They aren't sitting in some Satanist cult meeting right now.

They come from the church.

Who wants to own that?

A church members meeting,

someone's giving an update.

They say,

You know, it's been a tough year.

We've been working our way through the pandemic.

And unfortunately,

three Antichrists went out from us

into the world this last year.

Sounds kind of absurd, right?

But that's what John is saying.

John is saying that there were participants

in the life of the church,

people who we would assume professed to be Christians,

who at some point left the church

and left the faith.

And it's their departure from the church

that identifies them as Antichrist

and proves that they never truly belonged to the faith.

When these people left the church,

it indicated that there was something wrong all along.

And now by going out from the church,

they are identified as Antichrist.

And we're going to see in the next section

what it is that made them Antichrists.

What is it that constitutes an Antichrist?

But it's their going out that identifies them.

So the first essential element

to sticking with Jesus for life

is that you've got to be somewhere.

And that somewhere is the church.

No one should expect that they or anyone else

can stick with Jesus for life outside of the church.

And particularly, I mean regularly gathering

with a local church.

When you read the New Testament,

it is clear that the church is ordained by God

as the gathering of His redeemed people

where His gospel is proclaimed

and where we learn to follow Jesus faithfully.

The church is the community

where the identity of God's people is revealed

and sustained.

And so to abandon the church,

to leave the church,

is to call into question your status

as a follower of Jesus.

According to John here,

your location is indicative of your identity.

To leave the church is to indicate

that you never belong to Jesus.

So we need a few clarifying questions

because it's really easy to get this turned around,

what John is saying and what he's not saying.

So here's the first question.

Does going to church then make you a Christian?

No.

It's possible, of course,

to be part of a church and not a true Christian.

In fact, that's what was going on

with these people here that Jesus,

or sorry, that John was talking about.

They were part of a church.

It wasn't being part of a church

that made them a Christian.

They were part of this church for a time,

but eventually they went out.

They left the church.

They left the gospel that it proclaimed.

And so the issue is,

over the long term,

one major indicator,

not the only indicator,

but one major indicator

of whether you are sticking with Jesus

is whether you are located in a church or not.

Here's another question.

Am I saying that you have to stay

at Christ the King Church forever,

or else you're not really sticking with Jesus?

Am I saying that if you leave

Christ the King Church,

are you an antichrist?

No, not necessarily.

We have some wonderful examples

of people who have left recently.

Matt and Elise Sear and their family left,

not because they were leaving the church,

not because they were abandoning

the gathering of God's people,

not because they were rejecting Jesus,

because they felt called by God

to join another local church for a time

in anticipation of eventually

planning a church themselves.

So they did not go out from the church

like John is talking about.

They went out from our church

for the purpose of following God's leading elsewhere.

There were some people from our church

who lived in Racine.

They left our church,

not because they were abandoning

the gathering of God's people,

but because they said,

hey, we live in Racine.

We need to find a church

that's closer to home

so that we can be more engaged.

So I'm not saying

that you have to stay

at Christ the King church forever

in order to be

a faithful follower of Jesus.

But I am saying

that you do have to be part

of a church.

You do have to be part

of a church that preaches Jesus

if you want to stick with Jesus

for life.

And right now,

and over this past year,

we faced a lot of pressures

to abandon the church.

We've been dealing with COVID-19.

Initially, it meant

that we had to move

to Zoom meetings.

And then we were meeting

outside for a while,

and now we're meeting

back in the building,

but we have increased distance.

We have mask wearing.

And any one of these things

could lead someone to say,

you know what?

Maybe it's not worth it.

You know,

I've been watching church

on Zoom for a while

or on live stream,

and I don't really think

there's much difference

between being there

and watching.

Now, I think about it.

What's the difference

between watching the church

on live stream

and just watching

any random sermon

once in a while?

And what's the difference

between just watching

a sermon on my computer

and just not getting

out of bed at all?

What difference does it make?

So some of the ways

that we've been separated

may lead some people

to think it's not worth it anymore.

Some people may be frustrated,

frustrated by distance,

frustrated by having to watch on Zoom

if they have to stay

at home right now,

frustrated by having to wear masks,

and they say,

you know what?

I'm tired of all this COVID stuff.

I don't like the decisions

the elders are making

about how we're going

to deal with this.

I'm just going to give up.

We've had political pressures,

a significant election year.

You've probably seen some things

in your fellow church members

that you don't like

online or in person.

You don't like what they've said

about the election.

You don't like who you think

they voted for.

And you know

that you're closer to Jesus

than they are

because of who they voted for

and who you voted for.

And in fact,

you're so close to Jesus

that you just need to give up

on this group of people.

They're so much farther away

from Jesus than you are.

The best bet

for your relationship with Jesus

is to get out of here.

there's a lot of pressures

and temptations

to abandon the gathering

of God's people

to leave the local church

right now.

But we need to remember

that our preferred political party

or faction

has not been ordained by God

as the vehicle

of His redeeming the work

in the world.

Only the church has.

And no precautions

we may take,

even if you agree with them

or not,

no precautions we may take

are going to stop

God's work in the world

and in His church

in particular.

So continue gathering

with a local church.

If it's not this one,

that's okay.

But find a local church

that preaches the gospel

of Jesus

and continue gathering

with them.

If we're going to stick

with Jesus for life,

we have to be somewhere.

That somewhere is in the church.

Secondly,

if we're going to stick

with Jesus for life,

we have to confess something.

We may ask,

in light of these things,

in light of the fact

that antichrists

aren't coming from

this evil world,

they're coming

from within our gatherings,

how can we have

any confidence?

if even some

who seem to be part

of the church

are antichrists,

how can we have

the ability

to sort these things

out rightly?

How can we know

if we're a faithful follower

of Jesus

or if we're an antichrist?

Well,

John helps us out

in verses 20

and 21.

How can we figure

these things out?

He says,

but you have been

anointed by the Holy One

and you all have knowledge.

I'll write to you

not because you do not

know the truth

but because you know it

and because no lie

is of the truth.

The way we can sort

these things out

is through the testimony

of the Holy Spirit.

The anointing

of the Holy Spirit

given to us by God

gives us knowledge,

which is exactly

what Jesus promised

that the Holy Spirit

would do for us

when He was telling

His disciples

about the coming

of the Holy Spirit.

The anointing

of the Holy Spirit

on our lives

given to us by Jesus

as a guarantee

of our salvation

gives us the knowledge

necessary to distinguish

between faithful follower

and antichrist

both in our own hearts

and in those around us.

But here's the thing

John says,

sometimes that Holy Spirit

deposit of knowledge

needs reactivation

by teaching

and by reminder.

And John says,

that's why I'm writing

to you.

I want these things

that I'm writing

to you to align

with the testimony

of the Holy Spirit

in your hearts

and reactivate

what He's already

given to you.

It's kind of like

an SOS pad.

You've got a piece

of steel wool

infused with soap.

It's really good

for cleaning things.

Let's not activate it

until you get it wet.

You've got to suds it up.

And so John is writing

to suds up

the Holy Spirit anointing

so that these believers

can effectively

apply that truth

in their own situation.

And what happens is

as we hear the truth,

the Holy Spirit

given to us by God

testifies to it

and says,

this is true.

We see it for what it is

because of the Holy Spirit.

And John knows

that because of the testimony

of the Holy Spirit,

he can write to these believers

about the realities

of Antichrist

and they will acknowledge

it as true

and they'll be able

to apply it.

So with the Holy Spirit

anointing

and with the truth

of God's Word,

we can competently

and rightly judge

between faithful follower

and Antichrist.

Again,

beginning with ourselves.

So the Holy Spirit

helps us distinguish

the truth

to recognize it.

But what is that truth?

What is the content

of the truth?

What does the truth entail

that John is talking about?

If we have to confess

something in order

to stick with Jesus

for life,

how do we know

what to confess?

Look at verses 22-23.

Who is a liar

but he who denies

that Jesus is the Christ?

This is the Antichrist,

he who denies

the Father and the Son.

No one who denies

the Son has the Father.

Whoever confesses

the Son has the Father also.

If I were to ask you,

what is the opposite

of the Antichrist?

If you were like me,

you would be inclined

to say,

well,

the opposite of an Antichrist

is obviously Christ

because he's Antichrist.

But according to John,

the opposite

of an Antichrist

is not Jesus.

it's a confessor

of Christ.

A confessor of Christ

is the opposite

of an Antichrist.

And what does it mean

to confess Jesus?

Well, first,

we probably have to understand

what it means

to deny Jesus.

Because he says,

who is a liar

but he who denies

that Jesus is the Christ?

What does it mean

to deny Jesus?

It doesn't mean

to deny that Jesus existed.

That wasn't really

an issue

when John

was writing this letter.

Jesus was with

many of these people

not that long ago.

Some of them

had seen him.

Some of them

had heard from others

who'd seen them.

It was not a question

of does Jesus exist?

So denying Jesus

does not mean

denying that he existed.

It doesn't even mean

denying that he had

some divine power.

People that John

was writing to

would have been

willing to accept,

you know,

people can come

with divine power,

empowered by God

or the gods.

to deny Jesus

is to deny

that he is the Christ.

Christ means

Messiah

or anointed one.

To deny

that Jesus is the Christ

means to deny

that he is the one

sent by God the Father

to accomplish

his plan

for the redemption

of creation.

To deny

that Jesus is the one

who died for the sins

of the world,

rose in eternal life,

ascended to the throne

of God,

and will one day

return to fully

establish his kingdom.

In other words,

to deny

Jesus as the Christ

is to deny

that he is exactly

who God has revealed

him to be.

A generic Jesus

is not an option.

That's why

John is so anxious

at the very beginning

of his letter,

chapter 1,

verse 1,

he says,

that which was

from the beginning

which we have heard,

which we have seen

with our eyes,

which we have looked upon

and have touched

with our hands.

The life was made manifest

and we have seen it

and testified to it.

It was made manifest

to us,

that which we have seen

and heard

we proclaim to you.

John is saying

something specific

has happened.

Someone specific

has come.

And we want to tell you

about that.

We want you to believe

that a generic Jesus

isn't an option.

Any version of Jesus

that doesn't include

all that he claimed

about himself

isn't an option.

anyone who confesses

a generic Jesus

is actually

an antichrist.

Because John says

you have to confess

that Jesus is the Christ,

that he is the anointed one

from the Father.

There has to be

specificity

to our confession

about Jesus.

In order for our confession

about Jesus

to be true,

it has to align

with the reality

of who he really is.

And the more we see

clearly what this means,

to confess Jesus

means to align

with who he really is,

we begin to realize

that we can deny Jesus

with our lives

as well as with our words.

In fact,

Paul says in Titus

that it's possible

to profess God

with our mouths

but deny him

by our works.

So here's a working

definition of denying Jesus.

to live

or to speak

against the reality

of who Jesus is.

To live

or to speak

contrary

to who the Father

has revealed Jesus

to be.

To contradict

what God has revealed

about the Son.

An antichrist

is someone

who refuses

to confess

Jesus

for who he really is.

Things like

Jesus is not

God's anointed.

He is not

God's only plan

for solving

the problem of sin

and making the world

right again.

Things like

Jesus is optional.

I can have

a meaningful

spiritual life

or connection

to God

apart from Jesus.

Or things like

I can claim

the name of Jesus

or the name

of the Father

but live in a way

that lies to the world

about who he is.

To deny

Jesus as the Christ

means to live

or to speak

contrary

to who God

has revealed him

to be.

And so if that's

the definition

of denying

the definition

of confessing

Jesus

is the opposite.

To confess

Jesus

is to live

and speak

in agreement

with reality

as revealed

by God.

To confess

Jesus means

that when people

hear your words

and see your life

they see more

clearly who Jesus

really is.

They see that

he really is

God's single solution

to sin

and evil

and suffering.

They see that

he's not optional

at all

when they see

your life

and they hear

your words.

They see in your life

what it means

to put your hope

in Jesus

and they see

a reflection

of who the Father

and the Son are.

To confess

Jesus means

to live

and to speak

in alignment

with who he

has revealed

himself to be.

Now a true

antichrist

denies that

Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus is not

the anointed

of God.

He is not

the one

who accomplishes

God's plan.

But even

confessors

of Jesus

can be

influenced

by what

John later

calls in

1 John

the spirit

of the

antichrist.

An influence

that pushes

even confessors

of Jesus

to start

drifting

into living

and speaking

in ways

that lie

about who

Jesus is.

And there

are some

antichrist

tendencies

that can

operate

in all

of our

lives.

So I want

to give

some practical

examples

of these

antichrist

tendencies.

Again,

I'm not saying

that if one

of these

is true

about your

life,

that means

that you're

an antichrist.

In fact,

I'm confident

that at

least one

of these

will have

been true

of all

of you

at some

point

in your

life as

a believer.

But if we

want to

confess Jesus

for all

that he

really is,

we need

to see

the

antichrist

tendencies

that can

threaten

even

confessors

of Jesus.

Here's a

big one.

Watch out

for denying

Jesus by

acting as if

what's most

important

for those

around you

is that

they believe

in God

generically

rather than

repenting and

putting their

faith in

Jesus alone

for salvation.

American

Christians can

have a

tendency to

communicate to

the world

that what's

most important

is that you

just believe

in God,

that you're

not an

atheist or

something like

that.

Do you have

Judeo-Christian

values?

Do you have

family values?

Do you give

some credit to

the guy upstairs

but for us

to communicate

to the people

around us

that belief

in God

generically

is all

that's required

is to deny

who Jesus

really is.

To act

like what's

most important

is putting

God back

in the schools

or putting

the Ten

Commandments

back in the

courthouses

or just for

people to

acknowledge God

in their

public speeches

is not

enough.

Believing the

Ten Commandments

never saved

anybody,

believing that

God exists

never saved

anybody,

faith in

Jesus as

the Messiah

is what

saves people.

Here's another

one, watch

out for denying

Jesus by

speaking and

living as if

some political

figure or

outcome is

your greatest

hope.

to say

that any

politician or

election is

the last

hope of

America or

the church

is an

Antichrist

statement.

Because we

should instead

be confessing

that all

authority belongs

to Jesus,

that the

hearts of

all rulers

are like

water in

his hands,

and that

we as

believers have

hope for a

greater kingdom

than the

USA.

Watch out for

denying Jesus

by finding more

brotherhood in a

political faction

than in the

church, as if

the last hour is

defined by

American politics

rather than by

the Son of

God.

Watch out for

denying Jesus by

claiming to

believe that he's

the king of

the universe,

and yet giving

him the least

of your time

and money.

Watch out for

denying Jesus by

living as if

sexual pleasure is

the greatest thing

that life has to

offer.

Watch out for

denying Jesus by

acting as if

wrongs done to

you are more

unforgivable than

those for which

he has forgiven

you.

So as we think

about the reality

of Antichrist and

what it means to

deny who Jesus is

and what it means to

confess who Jesus

is, let's be

careful of speaking

and living in

ways that are

kind of hard to

see but are

contrary to the

reality of who

Jesus is.

And if you felt

that, hey, you

know what, some of

that stuff was

true in my life,

I know I did,

let's ask God's

forgiveness for

lying to the

world about who

Jesus is and

let's embrace the

incredible privilege

of confessing

Jesus for who he

is by speaking

and living in a

way that clearly

shows that he is

the only savior of

the world, anointed

by God who brings

us to the Father.

And let's confess

what the Father is

really like based on

his revelation to

us.

So John says,

hey, children,

don't be an

antichrist, be a

confessor of

Christ.

If we're going to

stick with Jesus

for life, we have

to be somewhere,

we have to remain

in the fellowship

of the local

church, we have

to confess

something, we

have to confess

the Son and

the Father as

they reveal

themselves.

And number

three, we have

to know why it

matters.

Why does it

matter that we

stick with Jesus

for life?

Verses 24

through 25.

Let what you

heard from the

beginning abide in

you.

If what you heard

from the beginning

abides in you, then

you too will abide in

the Son and in the

Father.

And this is the

promise that he made

to us, eternal

life.

When John talks

about what they

have heard from

the beginning, he's

talking about the

truth of verses

21 and 22.

The confession

confirmed by the

Holy Spirit that

Jesus is the

Christ, the

anointed one.

The confession of

what God has done

through his Son.

And John is

saying, let that

abide in you, let

it remain in you,

hang on to that

truth, don't let

it go, don't let

something else take

its place.

Sticking with

Jesus requires that

we remain in the

church, but it

also requires that

the truth of Jesus

remain in us.

And if the truth of

Jesus remains in

us, what is the

result?

We remain in the

Son and the

Father and we

experience eternal

life.

He says, you too

will abide in the

Son and in the

Father.

And this is the

promise that he

made to us, eternal

life.

And as you read

through 1 John,

you realize that

for John, everything

is connected.

He gives us these

three big tests to

identify if you are

in the faith.

Do you believe

rightly?

Do you obey?

Do you love?

But these aren't

three separate train

tracks.

They're always

crisscrossing over

one another and

intertwining and

bleeding over into

one another.

For John, everything

is connected and

when he says, you

will abide in the

Son and the

Father, and then he

says, this is a

promise that he

made to us,

eternal life.

John's talking

about the same

thing.

Pastor Mike

talked about this

at the end of his

sermon last week.

We remain in the

Son and the

Father and we

experience the

eternal life that

God has promised

to us and it's

the same thing

because life is

found in the

Son and in the

Father.

Salvation and

eternal life are

often described as

a gift.

gift.

And that's true.

That's biblical.

Paul says it.

It's a free gift.

But if we're not

careful, if we think

of life, eternal life

from Jesus only as a

gift, it can blind us

to some of what's

really going on.

Eternal life is not

something that Jesus

hands to us like a

present on Christmas

morning.

It isn't something that

passes from him to us

and then we take it

and go.

Eternal life is Jesus

giving us himself,

giving us the life

that he has.

And apart from him,

we don't have that

life at all.

Eternal life is less

like a box to be

opened and more like

a power source to be

plugged into.

The eternal life

that's promised by

God is found only in

union with him.

And this life that

John is talking about

is the life that we

were meant for.

It's not just life

exactly as it is now,

extended forever.

It's a life that

begins now in a

relationship with the

Father and the Son.

And it does continue

forever, but it also

changes and grows and

is transformed.

And there's a promise

of greater life coming

than what we have yet

seen.

And so, when we

think about this

eternal life, there

are a few things we

need to know.

If you are lonely

right now, which I

think a lot of people

are with COVID, if

you are lonely right

now, you should know

that this life is

relational.

Jesus said, this is

eternal life, that

they know you, the

only true God, and

Jesus Christ whom you

have sent.

If you are sick or

weak, then you

or even approaching

death, you should

know that this

imperishable, glorious

life that God has

promised for us is the

resurrection life of

Jesus.

Jesus who said, I am

the resurrection and

the life.

And the life that

Jesus has now in his

resurrection that will

continue forever is the

life that he promises

to share with you.

If life right now feels

boring or meaningless to

you, and the idea of

eternal life just sounds

terrible, you should

know that Jesus right

now is building a

kingdom.

And his promise of

eternal life to you

means that your life and

your actions now are not

meaningless, but they can

have eternal significance

in connection with Jesus.

If your life feels

hopelessly polluted by the

evil of others or the evil

you have done, you should

know that this eternal life

that God promises, it

empowers healing and change

now in relationship with

the Father and it

promises an eternal home

where nothing twisted or

sinful will be allowed to

enter, a place of perfect

peace and justice.

And that's what's on the

line in sticking with Jesus

for life.

And John is saying, don't

miss out on that.

It's been promised to you,

this eternal life.

So stick with Jesus.

Don't be a Jesus denier who

walks away from Jesus'

church.

Be a Jesus confessor who

locks arms with other

confessors and holds on for

the eternal life that begins

now and grows into the full

glory of all that God has

promised.

So Christ the King Church,

let's stick with Jesus for

life.

We're going to need three

things if we're going to make

it.

We need to be somewhere

prayer within the regular

gathering of Jesus'

followers called the church.

We need to confess something

by our lives and our words

showing that Jesus really is

who he said he is.

And we need to know why it

matters because eternal life

is on the line.

So let's pray together.

Father, may none of us here

who have heard your word this

morning be antichrists.

But instead, may all of us

today who have heard your word

remain confessors of Jesus

for life.

Amen.