This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, we're in Day 5 of our look together
through 1 John Chapter 2, Verses 18-29 today, we're taking a chunk of verses
together because I want you to see the hope that's in these verses. The verses
begin by talking about the fact that it's the last hour, now that's a statement
of hope not despair, a lot of people hear it's the last hour, they think oh
that's despair that's terrible, no for us as believers that is a statement of
hope, Jesus is coming again, it's been the last hour since he left, he could
have come again at any moment, he could come again at any moment. When we get to
verses 28-29 at the end of this section we're going to look at how we because we
have hope, but first of all we have to deal with the things that can easily
steal our hope, God wants you to live in hope in everyday life, one of the
things that can steal your hope, my hope as a believer is someone whom John
calls the Antichrist, now who is this, what does the Bible have to say about
this, look at verses 18-19 let me read them for you, "Dear children, this is the
last hour and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many
Antichrists have come, this is how we know that it's 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.

" Who is the Antichrist? Many people think that the Antichrist is the same,
exactly the same as the beast of the book of Revelation, he's this one person at
the end of time who's going to come in an evil way, rule this world until Jesus
comes and rescues the world, that's not true, now that person is the final
Antichrist of many Antichrists, no doubt about that but he's not the one and
only, this passage reveals two things that may be surprising to you when it
comes to who the Antichrist is, number one there's not one Antichrist but many
and number two Antichrists can be people that we know in the church, number one
not one he says even now many Antichrists have come, there's many of them around
you he says, we're going to get to who these people are in just a minute but
obviously you can tell from their very title, Antichrist, they're against Christ
and he reminds them that these were people that they knew, they went out from us
because they didn't really belong to us, these were false teachers that were in
the church, in verse 22 we're going to see who is the Antichrist, he's the one
who denies that Jesus is the Christ, denies that Jesus is the Messiah, denies
that Jesus is who he says he is, that's who the Antichrist is, so how do we have
hope in light of this, when there's a lot of these Antichrists around, when I
might even know one of them, they might even be in the church, in light of this
John writes to encourage them and here's the three encouragements he gives, hang
on to this this week, encouragement the fact that there are many Antichrists
show that it's the last hour and for us the last hour is an encouraging time, it
means that Jesus is coming again, here's a silly illustration of that, when
you're sitting in a movie theater and the movie theater starts to get dark, for
a lot of people they think oh it's getting dark, that's depressing, but in a
movie theater you know when it gets dark that means the movie is going to come
on so it's encouraging, that's a silly tiny illustration of what I'm talking
about here, when it gets dark in this world, when you see the evil in this
world, it's a reminder to you as a believer that this world will not last, that
this world is not what I hang my hope on anyway and I put new and fresh hope in
him and when it seems to be getting worse and worse instead of worrying and
thinking oh things are getting worse and worse, the sky is falling, how do we
have any hope, I recognize that the worse it gets the more we're to realize that
this world is not what we hope in, this world is falling apart, it will fall
apart at the end and then God will put back together everything in his plan, in
his way, antichrists, even people that you know that are false teachers, people
that have fallen away, yes you pray for them, yes your heart goes out to them
but don't be discouraged, recognize that it's one sign that it's the last hour
and that Jesus is coming soon and you put your hope in that, how do I have hope
in light of this false teaching that can go on, these people that are against
Christ, some of us we want everybody to be for Christ but there are those that
are against Christ, how do I keep hope, well I recognize that I have an
anointing from him, first thing I do to have hope is I know it's the last hour,
the second thing I do is I recognize I have an anointing from him and what does
that mean, Let me read verses 20 to 27, 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. These verses tell us
that we have an anointing from God, what does that mean, does it mean I don't
need anybody to teach me, he just says I don't need anybody to teach you, does
it mean I shouldn't listen to a teacher, does it mean well I'm doing a podcast
right now teaching, does it mean I shouldn't be doing this podcast, no that's
not what John is saying, he's not saying that we don't need the spiritual gift
of teaching to help us to understand God's word, what was happening to the
people he was writing to is there were teachers who were coming and saying you
can't understand God by yourself at all, you need us to understand God, you have
no anointing, you have no understanding, so listen to what we say and just trust
it, anytime you hear somebody say that you know there's problems, you know
there's trouble because the Bible teaches us in these very verses, this is one
of the most powerful places it teaches us, that every Christian is given the
gift of being able to understand God's word, being able to understand God's
truth, so anytime you hear a teacher say you can't understand God's truth but I
can, you know they're lying, you know they're wrong, anytime you hear a teacher
say check everything I'm saying by God's word to make sure it's truth, that's a
teacher that you want to listen to.

The Bible says here that we all are anointed and because of that we don't need
anyone to teach us, we don't have to have people teach us, we can understand
God's truth for ourselves. What does it mean to be anointed? Well in the Old
Testament when they anointed someone they would actually pour oil on their head
and that oil would pour down over their hair, even onto their body and it was a
sign of the fact that God had called them, set them aside for a special task.

You and I aren't anointed by oil, we're anointed by God's Spirit. The moment you
became a believer in Jesus Christ he put his Spirit into you. He anointed you
with his Spirit and it remains in you this anointing.

It's God's presence, it's God's person, it's him in you. How can I understand
God's word? Because I have the author present in my life helping me to
understand it.

Anytime you don't understand a verse in the Bible, one of the prayers you should
pray is God give me anointing. Help me to understand your word and what it means
in my life, how to live out this word. How do I have hope in my everyday life?

One of the ways you have hope is recognize I have an anointing to know the
truth. I'm not dependent on what teachers say. They can help me, they can
strengthen me, but I have an inner anointing, the Holy Spirit put into my life
so I can know the truth and based on the truth I can have hope because the truth
is God has an eternity plan for you.

How do I have hope? I recognize it's the last hour, Jesus is coming again. I
have an anointing and I know the truth through God's Spirit.

The third thing I do is this, I need to recognize that it's the last hour and
that Jesus is coming soon. I need to realize I have an anointing and I know the
truth and I also need to remain in Him. We just read that in verses 24 and 25,
let me share them with you again.

See that what you've 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. Remain in Him, trust in Him.

My hope isn't in this world. This world's passing away. My hope isn't even in
myself, I'm passing away.

My hope's in Him. He's going to live forever and He wants me, He's called me and
I will in Him live forever with Him. So I trust in that, I remain in Him, I
abide in Him, that's the idea of this word.

It's like a branch that's attached to the vine. Anytime I'm disconnected from
the vine I'm not going to have hope. Anytime I reconnect to the vine I'm going
to have a new hope in my life.

That means anytime I'm feeling a loss of hope or a sense of discouragement in my
life, it's a sign to me personally that I'm disconnected from Jesus in that
moment. I'm connected more to my own thoughts and my own selfishness and my own
worries than I am connected to Him. It's a reminder I need to reconnect, remain
in Him.

Now all of this leads us back to where the passage began. It's the last hour. In
verses 28 and 29 John talks about what we do, what we live because it's the last
hour and now he says, "Dear children, continue in Him so that when He appears we
may be confident and unashamed before Him in His coming.

If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right
has been born of Him. " How am I to live my life in light of the second coming
of Jesus Christ? Well, live so that when He appears I may be confident and
unashamed before Him in His coming.

Live like He might come at any moment. Live like I'm in His presence every
moment of my life because guess what? You are in His presence every moment of
your life.

There's not a moment when God is not with you. We pretend in our minds that He
doesn't see this that I'm doing but He rejoices in this that I'm doing but God
is with you every moment of your life. And based on my hope, I can begin to live
in a more confident way.

I can begin to live in a more righteous way. Living a confident, faithful,
righteous life as a believer in Jesus Christ, you can't base that on fear. Some
people think these verses are about fear.

I'm afraid He might come at any moment. I don't want Him to catch me doing
something bad. You try to go down that road and you're never going to live a
life of faith.

No, these are verses about hope. He's right here. He's going to be here at any
moment.

I don't have to get caught up in the discouragement of the world or the
temptations of the world as if Jesus isn't coming again. I have the hope that He
might come at any moment so I can live based on that hope as if He will come at
any moment. Let's pray together.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We recognize that You could come at any moment, that
this world's time clock is in Your hands. And Lord, sometimes it seems long to
us and we get impatient and we think this world is winning and we let the
world's ways win over in our hearts.

Lord, give us the gift through Your Spirit, the anointing through Your Spirit to
live each day with the hope of Your coming, to live each day as if it's at any
moment. And out of that hope, not in fear, but in joy, to live the kind of life
that's unashamed in Your presence. We ask for this, Jesus, in Your name.

Amen. Well, join us next week. We're going to continue to learn from the Apostle
John about the faith lessons of a lifetime as we look at 1 John chapter 3.