[Darris McNeely] Prior to getting into my sermon today, I'm going to give you folks a test, all right? So just on whatever scrap of paper you have on your lap, just number 1-5, very short test, five questions and it's a true and false. So you don't have to think too much and right off the bat, you got to 50% chance of getting it right or wrong, depending upon your outlook, okay? Here they are, five questions true or false: The antichrist is an end time personality that will persecute the Church and oppose Christ at His return. True or false? Okay? Number two, the antichrist is an offspring of Satan, the devil, through a human mother and will plot to become a world dictator in the end time. True or false?

About this time the ABC students in the audience are wondering, "I thought classes ended yesterday for the weekend," because we give a lot of tests at ABC. Number three, the antichrist is a political leader that will arise in the end time. True or False? A political leader that will arise in the end time. Number four, the antichrist is a third figure along with the beast in the false prophet who will rise in the time. True or false? Okay? And then the last one. The antichrist is the Michigan football team. Sorry Chris, I'm in Ohio okay? If I were speaking in Michigan today, we'd change that around, but. All right, here… that's all. Now, it's real simple to grade this test because the answer to all of those questions is false, okay? The answer to all those questions is false and if you thought there were some of them might be true, then you're wrong.

The antichrist is a concept that is spoken of in the Bible. Today we're going to talk about the antichrist. It's interesting it is a subject that inspires more confusion just… than just about any other point of Bible prophecy. In the popular conception of the term "antichrist", it has been popularized in our time, it's a dark and malignant sinister-sounding term, and it's been applied to many different people throughout history. The Roman emperor Nero was called an antichrist. Muhammad the prophet, founder of Islam, was called the antichrist. Various emperors of the Holy Roman Empire period were called the antichrist. Genghis Khan coming out of the steps of Asia was called the antichrist. Various popes have been called the antichrist, some by other pope's themselves who were vying for and contending with them for that papal authority. Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran faith, was called an antichrist. More recently, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini have all been…  shared this dubious distinction of the antichrist.

Were they? Or were they only forerunners of the one to come? What's the real meaning of this term "antichrist" and the idea of the spirit of antichrist? I think after today's sermon, you will be able to answer these questions and know exactly what the Bible does say about this. And after today's sermon, you'll be better able to see what the Bible really does say about the term "antichrist" and what it means most importantly for our life — our life today. Let's first look at these passages in the Bible where the term "antichrist" are mentioned. There's four locations, four scriptures in the Bible, and let's very quickly look at those where we find this term "antichrist". And again, by definition, essentially what we are using with the term "antichrist", it is a term that literally means "against Christ", and it takes various forms, but antichrist, "against Christ" is essentially what it means as a Greek term antichristos, and it means "against Christ".

The first scriptural passage that we should turn to is in 1 John 2:18. 1 John 2:18. Here the apostle John writes, "Little children, it is the last hour;” Now remember he's writing this toward the end of the first-century A.D., probably in the late '80s or into the '90s A.D. "and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour." Now he's writing this to an audience in the first-century, that's nearly 2,000 years ago, keep that in mind, and he mentions an antichrist and plural, antichrists. He again mentions it in verse 22. "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” Meaning the Messiah, the one prophesied to come, this Jesus of Nazareth. "He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son." All right, so you can deny the Father and be an antichrist, you can deny both the Father and the Son, or just the Son and be against Christ. Chapter 4 of 1 John verse 3. "every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist, where you have heard that it should come, and even now already it is in the world."

So again, as John wrote, he's saying that the this spirit of antichrist was present in the world and by implication, obviously impacting the Church, because the Church is not completely shielded from the world then as it is now. Now the fourth place where this is used is in 2 John 1:7. 2 John 1:7, "For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." And so these are the four places in scripture where the term is used, and it is used exclusively by John.

Now, here's what we learn. Number one, that as he writes, John says that there are many antichrists, and that has to be at that time and place. There were many who are against Christ. That's very important. It's not one person, it's not just one person. He says, secondly, we learn that antichrist is even now already in the world. He wrote this nearly 2,000 years ago that the spirit of antichrist or the antichrist was already in the world. And if it was in any one person then, or at any time since then, those people are long since dead. Thirdly, we learn that in the Bible usage the term "antichrist" does not refer exclusively to a single political or religious leader, yet to arise even in our time in the modern world. It doesn't only apply to exclusively to a single political or religious figure. John wrote what he did concerning the antichrist late in the first-century. Now he says very little about the subject and he almost writes as if the Church already knew what he was talking about, he doesn't give a lot of exposition on it. They knew what he was referring to, it was not a point in question.

I was… through the years after the time of John and the first-century church, when the the Church of God changed and became more of a gentile-dominated church, and no longer the Church that we recognize from the Bible as being the Church of God. It was in those years in the second, third, fourth-century and on that the other ideas about the antichrist being this evil sinister figure residing in a political figure, residing in a religious figure began to take shape. You can find from histories all kinds of descriptions by many church theologians writing in the second, third, fourth, fifth-century A.D. with their ideas about antichrist and how it would appear. And they're all very interesting, fascinating to read.

There are some that actually portray the antichrist to be a Sabbath keeper, one who espouses the Law of Moses and the commandments. One statement even restoring the commandments, which from their point of view, it's probably talking about restoring the commandments to their proper order. So, very interesting how deceived ideas even about this antichrist teaching, and antichrist spirit and figure was developed and changed through the years subsequent to the writing of the apostle John. When we look at these scriptures, when we look at the historical development of it, and we look at it even in our modern day, and probably why some of you may have written true to my questions is because even we in the Church have been influenced by the modern cinematic versions of the antichrist that have been popularized by Hollywood.

Back in the '70s, there was a trilogy of movies made called The Omen. The Omen 2 and I think the final something was the third of that trilogy. And even in the '60s, there was a movie called Rosemary's Baby that depicted the idea of Satan impregnating a woman and this antichrist figure being born, this child of Satan who was destined to be the epitome of evil in the world. And The Omen, this Damien Thorn I think was the name that was given popular credence in those movies, had the number "666" written across his forehead. And there's been a great deal of popularization about that, and frankly, it's all wrong when you look at what the scriptures do teach about the subject of antichrist and the figures then, the spirit of antichrist, and what we see to come in the future.

When we look at these scriptures, when we look at the history of it, we can see that in its true biblical sense, the idea of antichrist has a very wide application. It can refer to persons and it can really refer to powers, attitudes, and behaviors. The spirit of antichrist can be found in individuals, and institutions, and religions, and societies, and even in governments. At the time of the end, "the end of the age", as Christ called it, the spirit of an antichrist will blanket the earth, holding nations in its grip, according to the prophecies that we understand from the book of Revelation especially. And when you look at it very carefully and parse the scriptures, various individuals in the time of the end identified as biblical figures such as the beast, a political figure or the false prophet, a religious figure, these will personify the spirit of antichrist in a very powerful way. And in a time of great natural distress of the nations, men will turn to other men to offer solutions. That's what we find from Bible prophecy, and that will be the characterization of this and even the personification of it in the time of the end. But it's spread over the nations and over more than one individual when you really look at it very, very carefully.

Now, for the purposes of my sermon today, I will not focus and do not want to focus on just on the end time figures of the false prophet, or the beast, religious or political that are going to rise and oppose Christ, and the Church as we see from the book of Revelation. What I would rather do today is look at what is before us today in our world, and always has been, as a spirit of antichrist identified here in these passages in John. A spirit that can deceive the elect, the Church, the saints of God, and diminish the power of Christ to work in the individual and certainly collectively through the Church. That's where I would like to focus on today and show how you and I are… can be impacted by a spirit of antichrist. And as the title of my sermon is, “We All Need to Be Aware of the Spirit of Antichrist” because as we read here in John, it is at work. It was at work in his day, it has not ceased to work, and it is at work today. And any of us can be susceptible to it which is why we need to be able to biblically identify what the spirit of antichrist really is.

So let's look at that and let's focus on this personal application for it today. It's very appropriate as we are here two days prior to the Feast of Trumpets, the time picturing the appearance, the second coming of Jesus Christ, heralded by the meaning of that day, the Festival of Trumpets, and we begin to focus upon Christ's work on this earth from that point forward as these next sequence of Holy Days show what God is going to be doing with this earth through His Son, Jesus Christ. And let's make sure that we are not in any way, shape, or form impeding the power of Christ and the Father to work today in us as individuals and understanding how that means.

Let me first take you to a scripture for… that's a little more off the topic, but still really important for us to understand when it comes to a matter of sound doctrine and sound teaching about God. Turn, if you will, over the 1 Timothy 1. Let's look at a scripture here in 1 Timothy 1. The apostle Paul writes to Timothy beginning in verse 3. I'm going to read this from the NIV translation, the New International Version, this one scripture here at this point, I think it puts it quite well.

1 Timothy 1 beginning in verse 3, we'll read through verse 7. Paul writes to Timothy, "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command a certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer…” A major theme of 1 Timothy is to give Timothy, pastor of Ephesus, instruction about the Church, and how to conduct himself as the pastor of the Church, and especially to to resist false doctrines, and here… and he jumps right into it. He tells him in his… one of his first statements, "Don't allow people to teach false doctrines," “or” verse 4, "to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God's work — which is by faith."

False doctrine impedes the work of God in so many ways, and this passage really does encapsulate a lot of the New Testament teaching from Paul, Peter, from Christ Himself, about false teaching and what it will do. It will impede the work of God. It will sap energy by taking time to combat false doctrine, by teaching and writing of articles, and hours and hours to combat its impact upon people's lives as it infects, demoralizes, and distracts from the work that has to be done by faith. Going on to verse 5, "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." Paul actually gave this direct command to a another fellow minister in love. And brethren, let me say this at the outset, what I'm going to say today is, God willing, in that same spirit of love for all of us, for each one of us that we are anchored and grounded firmly in true doctrine, sound doctrine from the Bible, and that it is done, and given, and should be taken in a spirit of love, the love of God hopefully, as I give it and as we all consider it among ourselves because that's that's the goal.

United Church of God especially, we have gone through great lengths in our years of existence to ensure our doctrinal integrity. Since I have the privilege of teaching our fundamentals of belief every year at Ambassador Bible College, I learn a great deal about them each year as I teach them and take students through the fundamentals of our belief. And have been very familiar from the beginning of the Church of United how we have… we came to believe what we do and to defend our faith, to teach it, and what its value is to the integrity of the Church.

I love… you know, I love doctrine. And, you know, doctrine is… it's not a boring staid thing, it can be presented that way, but you have to get beyond the scriptural chains that are there to substantiate our belief in our teaching and really focus on the depth of the teaching that the Bible has about all of these to appreciate God's love for the Church, and for His people, and giving us teaching and belief that is true, that is accurate, and what it does for our individual lives. It does give us a healing of so many aspects of our life, emotional and spiritual, when we are all believing the same thing, agreeing the same way, and working in the same direction.

This is why Paul was so insistent that… to Timothy that this not be found within the Church, and it be combated in rooted out at every term. Verse 6 he says, "Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm." This is a very powerfully worded here as Paul shows Timothy, that the importance of sound doctrine be maintained within the Church. And this teaching about antichrist and what this does reveal to us is a part of maintaining sound doctrinal teaching within the Church of God.

So let me ask you a question, can the spirit of antichrist be at work in today's world? Well yes, it can, just as we read from scripture. Another question, can the spirit of antichrist then have an impact upon the Church, and upon you and I? Well yes, it can. John warned the first-century church, we should be warned today by his teaching, and by what the Bible has to say. The spirit of antichrist opposes the authority of Christ as the head of the Church, and of His power to act both in the Church and the individual member through the Holy Spirit. This spirit, the spirit of antichrist, can deny the power of Christ to come and to live His life in us through the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20. He said that “…The life that I now live, I live by faith of the Son of God, who lives within me," highlighting just how important that reality is, that Christ lives His life within us, within a baptized believer of the faith.

Back here in 1 John, just to keep this within the context that we are, 1 John 3. 1 John 3:24. John writes here, "Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. By this we know that He abides in us," meaning God, "by the Spirit who He has given us." Christ lives in us and He lives in us by the Holy Spirit that is given to us as repentant believers, by faith being bound into the very Body of Christ at baptism, the laying on of hands, that whole process binds us into the Body of Christ and He lives within us by that Spirit that He has given to us.

Let's look now at five areas where this spirit of antichrist can manifest itself within the Church, and that we need to be aware of. Five areas that are very easy to understand and put it together in a way that will hopefully enlighten us as to its impact upon us. Number one, the spirit of antichrist can manifest itself in the subject of Christ's divinity. Christ's divinity, that Christ was God in the flesh. This is a very fundamental belief, it's embodied in our first fundamental belief by the way, that Christ was God. That in His pre-human existence, He was God. John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God." Speaking of Jesus Christ who was identified as the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. First chapter of John is very important in regard to that.

Now either Christ was divine and He was God before His human birth or He was… or not, is really… that's the question. He either was or He wasn't. And He claimed that He was, the Scriptures testify very clearly to that, that He was God, that is the clear teaching of the New Testament writers, from the gospel accounts all the way through. Now what we've already read here in 1 John is that we see John kind of parts the curtain on one of the questions that was in the Church at that time, and that is that He had not come in the flesh. And he said whoever declares that He has not come in the flesh is antichrist, or against Christ. He's really talking about a teaching there called Docetism, an idea that is… takes that the belief that “Jesus only seemed to be human and that His human form was an illusion.” And that's in 2 John verse 7 that we just read, is an idea called Docetism. It's one of the early heretical ideas about who Jesus was. The major question that arose as we see it here in the time of John toward the end of first-century and got a… got some very large legs in the next several decades and few centuries, was who was… it was the question, “Who was Jesus? Who was He? Was He God? Was He merely a human being who lived a good life and became God? Or was He God who came down and dwelt among us?” And this was the great question and with the the passage of time and the influence of a lot of Greek thought, eventually by the fourth century, the Church that was at that time no longer God's Church, had developed the idea of the… essentially the trinitarian, teaching about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all being this triune God.

And that is a fascinating story from history even of itself as to how they came to that, and they settled that question by creating the fictitious doctrine of the Trinity. But the whole question was “Who was Jesus?” And this is what we see beginning to come in. One of the other ideas that had to be subtle was the idea called Arianism. There was a theologian, a bishop, named Arius whose teaching essentially was that Christ was not God before, that He was a created being in one form or fashion, or a human being, and He became God only after His death and resurrection. This was early on looked at as a heresy even by those who fabricated the trinitarian teaching. They did not deny that Jesus was God. But any teaching that denies the divinity of Christ who… in general, that teaching of Arianism claims that Jesus either to be a created being who came to earth, or a good teacher, a good human, who somehow through living a good life became divine.

Arianism has different forms, all of them wrong. All of them heretical, because they deny Christ to be divine prior to His human birth to be fully God. It is Arianism in its various forms is a pernicious heresy, but this is part of what developed. Holding a clear true teaching and understanding that Jesus was God before His divine… before His human birth is critical and it is essential. Without that, we have no Savior. And we have no hope of eternal life. That's how important that the true teaching of who Jesus was from scriptures really is. You can't have it any less than that.

And this is what He said, He was God, He said, “Before Abraham I was, I Am.” And this is what got Him on the wrong side of the the Jewish leadership at that time along with other things. But He claimed to be God and that was worthy of death in their eyes, in the Jewish eyes at that time. And so the teaching here that any teaching that denies the divinity of Christ is, again, antichrist. That's the first manifestation of it. Here's a second manifestation of the spirit of antichrist, and it deals with the teaching about Christ and the gospel. Christ and the gospel. What Christ preached, what gospel the… was preached by Christ, what gospel was preached by the apostles in the early church, and what gospel we preach today.

In 1995, the United Church of God created a mission statement that is very biblically correct, and the part of it that applies to this, we say that we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. There's another part to it and I won’t go through all that, but it opens with that phrase, we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. This is what we defined and set ourselves as part of our reason for being in 1995, and it is a true statement. It is a biblically defensible statement at every turn and in every way. When we look at what the early Church, the Church we read of in the Book of Acts, what they preached, they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.

Beginning with Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost in chapter 2 and all the way through to the last reference in the book of Acts, where we find Paul in Rome under house arrest, and he is preaching the Kingdom of God to all who come under. And in-between, they… Peter and Paul and the others, they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. It's what got Paul run out of Thessalonica because he was teaching a message that was against Caesar. They said those that have turned the world upside down have come here preaching that there is another king other than Caesar. They were preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, but a few verses before that, you'll find that Paul was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ as well. It's a complete gospel.

And we have biblically and accurately determined that within our mission statement, within the Church, Christ is central to the gospel of God. In the book of Romans, the first chapter, Paul opens by talking about the gospel of God. And that's another term to talk about it and it is correct, but Christ is central to the gospel of God. He is central to the gospel of salvation, of our salvation, He is central to the gospel of the Kingdom of God. He cannot be separated from that truth. And so what we do and what we set ourselves to teach as our mission is correct. We don't need to change that. We don't need to apologize for, we don't need to fear that somehow we've got to tweak that a little bit, is we've had a few attempts to do that in the last 21 years in the wisdom of the general conferences has kept it as it is, and that is biblically correct. So the…  Christ and the gospel is very important.

A third way that the spirit of antichrist can be manifested is in regard to Christ's priestly office. Anything that diminishes Christ's priestly office. There is no substitution of anything for Christ's atoning work for sin and for justification with God the Father. There's no substitution for that. In Hebrews 9, let's just look at that ninth chapter of the Book of Hebrews. Let's begin at verse 11. Hebrews, in this part of the book, goes very deep into defining the priestly role of Jesus Christ. And Paul takes great pains to not diminish it or take anything away from that at all. In chapter 9 verse 11, "Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with a greater more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."

Christ was accepted as the wave sheaf offering, He entered into the holy place once for all, by His blood that we might obtain eternal redemption. "For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." Very plain and very clear as to Christ priestly role, what He did by His shed blood for all of humanity.

Down in verse 24, "For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with the blood of another —“ and this is a reference to the Day of Atonement which we'll keep in a few days, and we'll keep with the proper understanding of Christ as our High Priest, "For then He would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world;” Paul writes then, "but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” And that is the means by which we have atonement in sin, forgiveness of sin. “As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. For those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

Now these few verses that I've just read encapsulate the efficacy, the wonderful work of Jesus Christ as our High Priest. And it is by His blood offered once for all that any and all who claim that in faith and in repentance can have forgiveness of sins according to God's purpose and plan. Christ, what He did, and His sacrifice, and His role as our Priest, our High Priest before God today is sufficient for the forgiveness of sin, for the strength, and for the power of His life within us to live a righteous life. Christ, brethren, is sufficient. And we don't need to add to that. Sometimes that happens.

Legalism, legalistic works, and even our misunderstanding at times of the works that we do accomplish, the good works that we are to accomplish as a result of the forgiveness of our sins, and becoming…  coming under that sacrifice being reconciled to God. We are created, Paul said in Ephesians 2, to good works. We do have to obey, we do follow the teachings, the commandments, the laws of God. But we must always be careful that we do not mix in any taint of legalism, thinking that by our own works, our own righteousness, we somehow merit God's grace. Because to do so, if that's what we think we are doing, even innocently and in all sincerity, we could breach into a wrong spirit that diminishes the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

We all need to examine ourselves on that, even as we rigorously obey. It's one of the issues that any law keeping body of people who want to obey God's laws, the Commandments, must always be on guard against, that we think that somehow by our obedience we merit God's grace and forgiveness, we don't. It's by grace that we are saved. We are created unto good works, and that fine distinction is very important to maintain so that we don't get into legalism. Beware of thinking of any works that we do as part of God's teaching can bring by those works themselves forgiveness of sin.

We must always understand why we do the things we do. Why we keep the Sabbath day holy, why we put leavening out for seven days during unleavened bread and eat unleavened bread for seven days during that period of time. It's the why that we do it that is so important, and there are things that we do. There is a reason that we are literally baptized, immersed in water, as a symbolic outward confession of our faith and the inner change that we've already come to. But it's understanding why we do the things that we do that is so critically important; how we keep the Sabbath, how we keep the holy days, or any other part of God's law that is important as we do that. Sometimes physical works can become crutches or substitutions that diminish this priestly role reserved only to the work of Christ in us through the Holy Spirit, and we have to be careful for that.

One of the things that I've noticed in recent… actually the last 21 years since the… in our forming of the United Church of God and all that has taken place throughout the the wider church of God with so much of a scattering of people into various groupings, and fellowshippings, and ideas for actually more than 20 years. One of the things that has crept in… there's been a lot of things that have crept in we always have to be on guard for, but one of the things that I've noticed is a particularly interesting custom among some people that have led people… led well-meaning people astray, are various teachings about Judaism and Jewishness.

Messianic Judaism has made certain inroads among the people of God in the last three decades or so to influence people in some of the things that they might do, where people feel that they have to handle and wear various physical pieces of clothing, like a tassel, or a head covering, or a prayer shawl, or some way as a part of their worship. And I've seen this and you've seen this, we know this. And it's not to question anyone's sincerity. Because I've seen some very sincere manifestations of this and I understand very well how and why this becomes a part of a person's thinking, if they are using these Jewish aspects of worship to aid somehow their worship of God, and their relationship with God, even under the guise of the Christian walk as well. They are sincere, but those things are not necessary.

If you have a proper understanding of this atoning work of Jesus Christ and His work in us through the Holy Spirit, we don't need those things, you do not need them. The Bible does not sanction them or have them as part of the New Covenant. They are not needed. And they can lead one away from further truth if that is the focus as so many of these things have. They've always been a part and you go carefully into some of the teachings of Paul to Timothy in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, and he tells them to even avoid Jewish fables and myths. That has to be understood in the proper context of the times and even how we come about it today. I've lived with these things through the years.

Sometimes I've noticed I've had members of my congregation in the past where I pastored get caught up in messianic type Jewish music, to where that's all they wanted to perform. And after a couple of times with some, I remember saying, "Look, we're not Jewish. You can continue to do special music, but let's balance it out a little bit." And we're not, we keep the Sabbath, we keep the Holy Days, but one of the misconceptions that we can fall into is thinking that we're Jewish. We're not. We're Christian. And Judaism is a completely different theology from even what we read in the Old Testament. Anything that… brethren, that can somehow impinge upon Christ's priestly office, we should be very, very careful about, because they can lead us off into something that is, in the end, against Christ.

A fourth area of the antichrist, the spirit of antichrist that can manifest itself is anything that detracts and takes away from Christ's prophetic role, His prophetic role. Now we're up to the Feast of Trumpets here in two days and I wouldn't anticipate Zechariah 14:4 will be read. "In that day, He shall set His... He shall stand on the Mount of Olives." Speaking of the Messiah, a messianic prophecy of the work of the Messiah to stand on the Mount of Olives, "And the Mount will cleave in two," we even sing a song about that. That prophecy is about the Messiah and Jesus Christ, the Christ, was the One who will fulfill that, literally, at His second coming. And the New Testament scriptures very clearly show that in Acts 1 when Christ ascended from the Mount of Olives for the final time, the disciples looked at all this. Two angels came and said, "Why do you stand looking up? The same Jesus, will so come in like manner for a second coming." Paraphrase that, He will come in like manner to the Mount of Olives.

And so Acts 1 connects to Zechariah 14:4 and Revelation 20, shows that the… at the coming of Christ, the saints will live and reign on the earth for a 1,000 years with Christ. Revelation 11:15 says, “…The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." It's Jesus Christ of Nazareth who returns at the sounding of the seventh trumpet. And that's what we will be observing Monday as we keep the Feast of Trumpets, that day which symbolizes and points to that event. And so any teaching that diminishes from that, takes away from Christ's prophetic role and can lead off into, again, in a spirit against Christ, it diminishes that.

Lastly, number five. A manifestation of the spirit of antichrist can be anything that diminishes Christ's preeminent role. Christ's preeminent role given by the Father. The Father has placed Christ in the role that He has within the cosmos, and within the purpose and the plan of God. Back in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 3, Paul writes this, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” right here, Paul frames it, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us" the Father has blessed us, "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." And what Paul begins to do as he unfolds this chapter is the work that the Father is doing with the preeminence of the role of Jesus Christ. And if we diminish that in any way, we are playing with the very fabric of eternity that we hope to share with the Father and with Jesus Christ.

"Just as he chose," in verse 4, "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself." And verse 10's the clincher, "that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ,” the Father has purposed to bring together in one, all things in Christ. All things. All things physical, this entire universe. Ultimately, it rests upon the person of Jesus Christ to be brought together there, "both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him."

Paul goes on to say a lot more about the role of Christ. But this through verse 10 is quite a bit, to show what the Father is planning and is doing through Christ. He's going to gather all things together in Christ which are in heaven and are in earth in Him. He puts another way in Colossians chapters 1 and 2. Colossians chapters 1 and 2. And I won't have the time to read all of that, but you could begin reading in about verse 15 of Colossians 1 through chapter 2 and verse 10 to get the same thought, as Paul put it to the Church of Colossi.

But I want to bring down… bring you down to chapter 2 of Colossians verse 15, and notice something here that Paul adds to this… in this letter, as he speaks about the the preeminent role of Christ and what he does. In verse 15 of Colossians 2 as he speaks here, he says, having what Christ has done, “Having disarmed principalities, and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." Verse 15 is a powerful verse of revelation telling us that Christ has disarmed principalities and powers. The spiritual powers of darkness of this world that he speaks about back in chapter 6 of Ephesians and verse 2. The principalities and powers of the... of this world that we wrestle against, he says, back Ephesians 6:2.

"We don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers." You know that verse. Here, Paul is saying that Christ disarmed him. He knocked their swords out, He took their guns away, He took their power, any power that they have to influence, to actually control or thwart the plan of God. He disarmed all those powers through His sacrifice through His life, and His death, and His resurrection, and He made an open show of them.

You know, in the Roman world, when an emperor had a great victory for the state, he was given a triumphal march on his return to Rome. It was... had be a... it's a high... highest honor any military official could have. That's why when you go to Rome today you see these triumphal arches that still stand. But he was allowed to enter the city with garlands, and great hurrahs, and a parade, as a triumphal march. And what Paul says here… uses that imagery of what Rome did, the people in Colossi and the readers in the first-century knew that it was a great victory that Christ has, even greater than any Roman emperor could ever imagine. Christ has subdued the spiritual principalities and powers that are arrayed against God through Satan, his demons, and all of their various manifestations.

Brethren, when we understand that we don't need to go into any other teaching, ideas, philosophies, new age thinking, spiritism, channeling, powers of the earth, through crystals, incantations, magic, sorcery, no matter how pleasant it looks, no matter how attractive it might be, we don't need any of that if we have a relationship with the Father and Jesus Christ, and if we understand the preeminent role that the Father has given to Jesus Christ. And Christ lives in us. We don't need any of that because Christ made a public spectacle of all of those. The wisdom of the earth, inner powers even that we need to tap. The only inner power we need to tap is the power of Jesus Christ within us through the Holy Spirit.

Now sometimes people get caught up thinking that they need to add to Christ, that they need to add to this. And they're sincere, and they're seeking. And in our modern climate in the Church, disappointments, schisms, humanity has… will sometimes lead people to other sources beyond the Bible, beyond the clear, and plain, and simple truths of Scripture for understanding, for something to satisfy and to fill a need. I understand that. I understand the why, I do not agree with the method. It is a spirit of antichrist. If we seek to do anything that diminishes the preeminence of Jesus Christ and adds to what is available to us, we are making a mockery of this verse right here in Colossians 2:15, because Christ has triumphed over all of those. And it is that power of Christ within us that we need to be careful about.

Back in 1 John 4. As John was attacking this at this time, this… what he says here in 1 John 4:1 to us is very, very important… to combat any spirit of antichrist and any manifestation, “Brethren" or “Beloved," 1 John 4:1, "do not believe every spirit;” don't believe every… there are other spiritual forces at work in this world, and they hover around the Church. "Don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." Now to go back to what I said at the beginning, all of these manifestations that I've given here, they are part in varying degrees of what John calls and can be a spirit of antichrist, that's been a part of the Church since the beginning. And they can poke their head into the Church in many different guises and forms, seemingly innocent, interesting, alternatives, additions, beware. Beware the spirit of antichrist. Know what it is.

Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" Back in Matthew 16. Let this be our creed. Matthew 16:13. "Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, 'Who do men say that I am? That I, the Son of Man, am? Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?' And they said, ‘Well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' And He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?'" And it's a question for all of us from Christ, "Who do you say that I am?" "Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are the Christ the Son of the Living God.' And Jesus answered, 'Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.'" The Father revealed that to Simon, to Peter, He's revealed it to you and to me. Make no mistake who Jesus was who Jesus is. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

One last scripture, Revelation 3. The message to the Church at Laodicea. The last of the seven churches that are listed here in chapters 2 and 3. Very interesting church. Many different ways to look at this message and to look at lessons from the message here to the Church at Laodicea. And there is reason to believe and to accept the belief that the message… the description of this church has an application for the Church in the age just prior to the coming of Jesus Christ. To all of the people of God. To avoid being lukewarm, to avoid thinking that we are self-sufficient.

But look at verse 20, and remember that this is a teaching from Christ and Christ is giving this message to His own church. And He says this only to this church here at Laodicea. And it has very interesting application for us as we consider this spirit of antichrist and the teaching of antichrist. Christ says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock." He's knocking at the door to this church here, He says. "And if anyone hears My voice" the other side of the door, "and opens the door." Christ said in another place, "You're already with Me, I am the door." "You open the door I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

We will dine with Christ, we will fellowship with Christ if we open the door and let Him in, if we hear His voice. "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’" Let's not keep Christ on the other side of the door knocking. Let's make sure that we're dining with Him. And let's make sure that we understand what the biblical teaching is about, antichrists, antichrist, the spirit of antichrist. And as we prepare our hearts to observe the Feast of Trumpets, and the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles, and the Eighth Day let's all beware of the spirit of antichrist.