1 John 2:18 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. 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. The antichrist is a false spiritual leader who secretly or overtly is anti-Jesus. How are they anti-Jesus? 1. The antichrist spirit wants to diminish Jesus, or change Jesus, or make Jesus simply a good teacher. 2. The antichrist will attack Jesus. 3. The antichrist will say that Jesus isn’t enough. The antichrist is after things in your life. 1 John 2:19 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. Notice in this Scripture that it is important for the antichrist to pull you away from the church and from the family of Jesus. You 1 John 2:20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 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. 22 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. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. The word “anointed” plays a big part in John’s letter. Here John is telling us that the anointing is actually the infilling of the Holy Spirit. So the antichrist needs to draw us away from the baptism and the infilling of the Holy Spirit in our life because the Holy Spirit can always identify false teaching and false prophets. John even identifies what the message of the antichrist is. 1 John 4:5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life —is not from the Father but is from the world. 1. The desires of the flesh - seeking after pleasure and fulfilling our every desire and our every whim. 2. The desire of the eyes – seeking after possessions and material things to fill our hearts. 3. The pride of life – proudly strutting around thinking that we are something in thinking that we are great. 2 Timothy 2:4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. “We want to hear, what we want to hear!” 1 John 2:20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 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. 22 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. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. And that leads to the last thing that the antichrist is after… 1 John 2:24 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. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. Three times he uses the word abide. Let the message of Jesus abide in you. That will lead you to having a personal relationship with Jesus. And that will lead you to this great gift of eternal life which is heaven inside of you right now. The intentions of the antichrist is to steal your genuine faith and replace it with a counterfeit. 1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. 1 John 5:10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.