Wednesday after the Last Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Scripture: 1 John 2:18-29 (NKJV)
18 Little children, it is the last hour; 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. 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 they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life. 26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
Devotion
Our reading for today is most encouraging for the Christian who holds to the belief that God’s Word is the inerrant, infallible Word of God; and that not only certain parts of the Bible, but the entire Bible is the Word of God; that it not merely contains the Word of God besides some ideas, views, and even mistakes of men, but it is the Word of God in all its parts, and is therefore the source book for all Christian knowledge, the foundation of our faith, and the rule of our life (Koehler, Ques. 7). Therefore the Word of God cannot contain lies, untruths, myths or contradictions.
The person who rejects this teaching cannot have saving faith, for to reject the Word of God in all its purity, is to reject Jesus the Christ, Who is the Word made flesh, begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. So to reject the Son, also means to reject the Father. Sadly, those who reject the Christ are fitted appropriately with the term anti-Christ.
John writes how we should not be shocked but realize that in these last days there will be those who will reject the Christ and not be saved. In fact they will with every ounce of their soul deceive the believer into questioning the validity of the Word of God as Satan did in the Garden of Eden. Therefore abide in His Word and you will not be disappointed when Christ returns.
We pray: By grace! Oh, mark this word of promise when thou art by thy sins opprest, when Satan plagues thy troubled conscience, and when thy heart is seeking rest. What reason cannot comprehend God by His grace to thee doth send. Amen.
