The Christian And The Anointing

[0:00] Let's turn now into 1st John, 1st John chapter 2, and we just want to look at the passage we looked at earlier today.

[0:18] Today we were reading, we may just read again, where we were thinking this morning in verses 18 and 19 of 1st John 2, about clear and present danger of Antichrists working within the Church.

[0:41] 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.

[0:55] 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.

[1:11] And then our text for this evening, but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I want us just to think about this, particularly verse 20, the subject being the Christian and the anointing.

[1:34] The old English version had, you have an anointing from the Holy One, but happily the newer translations now tell us quite simply that that word anointing means an anointing.

[1:53] And the context shows us that this anointing is divinely given, and it's given to those who are the true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2:10] It's divinely given, and we have to emphasize that. It's not given by anyone who claims special powers, or indeed anyone who fits into the category of some priesthood or other within the church.

[2:29] It is divinely given. You have an anointing from the Holy One. We'll look at that specifically when we come to it, but I'm simply setting forth that the context here tells us that whatever this anointing is, we receive it as a divinely given anointing.

[2:51] And it's given to those who truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ. As we were thinking earlier today, we're not antichrist, we are for Christ.

[3:06] And as John says here, we are those who are called the folk who are for Christ.

[3:17] Verse 19 says, in contrast with the antichrist, they, verse 19, went out from us. But they were not of us.

[3:29] And those who are designated of us are those who are the followers of Christ, who are committed not only to the biblical doctrines as to his person and his saving work, but to walking in his precepts according to his word.

[3:48] And earlier on, we read, as you know, in John 14, and there it was clear from the Saviour's teaching that those who really do love him are committed to going in his way and to keep the moral standards that he sets before us.

[4:09] But we might say, with regard to verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. What does this really mean to us?

[4:22] What has it to say to us? Who does this anointing specifically? And how does it relate to me? How can I know that I have this anointing?

[4:38] It's true, you may say, well, yes, I believe what you're saying, that the apostles had this anointing. The early church, the apostolic church had this. But what does it do with me?

[4:50] Should I be aware of such an anointing? Well, we might say very much, yes, we should be aware of it. That's the whole point of the teaching here.

[5:00] And so what we want to do is look at the subject of the Christian and the anointing that John refers to here. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.

[5:16] Our starting point, then, must be simply on the anointing. What does it mean? What does it mean?

[5:27] Well, the first thing to be said about this is that the word behind this anointing is charisma, and it simply means anointing. But it's anointing in the context of what God does, and what God does to those whom he decides to anoint.

[5:49] For example, if you go back to the Old Testament, actually where we need to go to understand this expression, anointing, if you go back to the Old Testament, you find that the anointing is really that which is bestowed by God upon people who are set apart for some purpose or other in his work in this world.

[6:28] The Septuagint, that is the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, it translates the word that's here, anointing, by the word Mashiach, the word we get Messiah from.

[6:48] That's why, of course, just to dwell on it for a moment, Christians are little anointed ones. They are, that's what they are, they are anointed ones.

[7:01] And so, we're going back here and looking in the Old Testament, we're looking at the origin of this whole idea of those who are anointed.

[7:12] And in the verbal form of the word, we find that God anointed priests and prophets and kings who had special tasks within the covenant community of Israel.

[7:32] And they were anointed, of course, by the anointing oil. And the action was symbolic of receiving the Spirit of God for this or that task that God had appointed.

[7:49] And you find, for example, in the early part of the Old Testament, in the book of the law, in Exodus, that people had this anointing to equip them for various tasks.

[8:05] For example, in the making of the parts of the tabernacle, the priestly garments, people were empowered by the Spirit.

[8:21] They were given skills to work in needlework. They were given skills in making intricate gold threads and silver threads and so on to be woven into the coloured needlework.

[8:39] They were given all sorts of skills and abilities in order to equip them for putting together the staff of the tabernacle.

[8:49] And the Spirit of God came upon these people to equip them and they were anointed. They had this filling by the Spirit for the work.

[9:05] Sometimes this was seen in terms of the prophet would come and anoint a little bit later on in the history of the prophets.

[9:18] 1 Samuel 16 and verse 13. For example, Samuel took the horn of oil and went down and anointed David, the son of Jesse.

[9:32] And in that reference I've just given you, 1 Samuel 16 and verse 13, we're told that when Samuel anointed David with that oil, from that day the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.

[9:50] So there was something special there with reference to David. Because he was more than just someone who was anointed with the oil, he was someone who was empowered by the Spirit.

[10:02] The Spirit came and dwelt upon him in power. Another interesting reference that we have, we can only select a few, we understand, but another interesting reference has a forward look.

[10:21] And that is in Isaiah 61 verse 1 with reference to the Messiah, that great personage that was spoken of as a servant of the Lord.

[10:34] And the hope was held forth that he would come. And in Isaiah 61, 1 we're told, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and so on.

[10:53] And you may well remember that in Luke 4 verse 16, we have it recorded of Jesus when he stood in the little synagogue in Nazareth, and he read from the scroll these very words, in fact the full passage, concerning the anointing of the Messiah, for proclaiming the good news of salvation.

[11:18] And he said when he finished, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing. And this is, of course, something that is connected within the gospel writings, that the Spirit came and rested upon Jesus, so to speak, for his official ministry.

[11:44] There are two levels here with reference to Jesus. Jesus was, of course, filled with the Spirit and never lacked the presence of the Holy Spirit from the very conception in the womb.

[12:02] But for his official ministry, there was a visible, as it were, coming down of the Holy Spirit upon him. And all that he did in his ministry was done in the fullness of the power of the Spirit.

[12:19] And he knew that. That's why he could say, as I've just referred to there, in the synagogue in Nazareth, this has come to pass. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.

[12:34] If for a moment we put that on hold and go back to the Jordan where Jesus was baptized by John at Jesus' own insistence, the heavens opened and the Spirit descended in bodily form as a death.

[12:52] This was the official anointing of Jesus for his ministry. And our Lord Jesus Christ himself had such a lot to say about the work of the Spirit of God both in this world and in Christian believers.

[13:14] We read there in John 14 about Jesus anticipating going back to heaven after his death and resurrection. And he said, I'll not leave you orphans, I will come to you.

[13:27] And when he says, I will come to you, he comes through his Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come in my name. And I will ask the Father and he will give you the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, the Helper, and he will be with you forever.

[13:51] And so on. with reference to the world in John 16 verse 8 we're told speaking about the Spirit he says, when the Holy Spirit is come he will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.

[14:10] and then he elaborates on that. It's the Spirit's work to convict the word convict is more than convict it's convict convincingly.

[14:26] And to bring a person to realize the reality of God God is and what he is and how he requires of us repentance and the acknowledging of our need of salvation.

[14:40] The Spirit convicts of sin of righteousness that we lack and he provides and of judgment to come without Christ we will never stand there.

[14:55] That's the work of the Spirit in this world. And here tonight I can remind you that the Spirit convicted you convincingly if you're a believer tonight he convicted you convincingly as a worldling and brought you to see what he would have you see.

[15:18] So Jesus himself had much to say about the Spirit's work in the world and in Christian believers in their development. Now Paul tells us interestingly that it was God's good pleasure to give us the Holy Spirit as a seal as a guarantee a pledge of our redemption and that means that when everything is wound up and the Saviour returns then we will receive the fullness of what is pledged to us here and what we have because if we're Christ's we have by the Spirit.

[16:02] We read in Ephesians 1 there and we read to verse 14 and he talks here about the seal of the Spirit that you received when you believed the good news in Jesus.

[16:17] He sealed us, he gave us the pledge the guarantee of our eternal redemption and that will be seen at last when history as we know it is wound up.

[16:33] So the Spirit is seen as a guarantee a seal of ownership that's a good way of putting it. He is a seal of ownership upon believers. He is given to us and heart and mind are to be assured that he dwells in us.

[16:54] he is the deposit of what will at last be seen to be ours.

[17:07] And the Spirit therefore is given to Christian believers. And whether it is not Ephesians 1.14 reference or 2 Corinthians 1.21 the Spirit is regarded as the anointing.

[17:24] and it's traced back as we've tried to show into the Old Testament and how the Spirit equipped people and the Spirit indwelt the Lord's people.

[17:42] He is the one also who confirms the word of God to us. And that's important. there's a sense in which you'll never convince a person who won't be convinced that the Bible is the very word of God.

[18:04] People who have, for example, may believe that the Koran is a Bible in the sense that it's the very word of God, or a book of Hindus, or Buddhists, or the Confucianists, or some other philosophy, their book is equally valid, they'll say.

[18:26] And when all is said and done, and when we demonstrate as we can why people should believe that the Bible is the word of God to us, the living word, you're not convinced a man against his will.

[18:42] He's of the same opinion still. and I think John Calvin, of all the reformers that I can think of at the moment, John Calvin was right in emphasizing what he called the need of the spectacles of revelation.

[19:04] You and me, folks, who depend on our specs, you'll know that things are far clearer with them on. Yes, whether it's for reading or distance, they're far clearer with them on.

[19:20] And Calvin's idea of the spectacles of revelation, reverently, the Holy Spirit of God was there depicted as the spectacles. He gives us the sight we haven't got, so that we see, we are convinced that the Bible is what, of course, it claims to be, the very word of God to us, albeit through holy men of old.

[19:49] We are shown, and we are convinced that he is the real author of it, that is the Spirit, that is the anointing. He is the one who confirms the word.

[20:02] And my very first sermon among you, back there in May 2005, the text in 1 Thessalonians 1.5, Our gospel came into you not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much assurance.

[20:26] And it is the Holy Spirit who confirms to us, this is the word of God. The Spirit seals the truth of Scripture to us.

[20:39] And let us recognize therefore what this anointing is about, how confirming it is, and how reassuring it is. Let us recognize this wonderful anointing for what it is, or should I say what he is.

[20:59] Don't be slow to ask for his ministry in your heart, for his guidance, and for his assurance that you have received the truth of God.

[21:17] The second thing we want to consider then is the anointing and the question by whom. Now I've been saying along the way, if you've been listening, God gives this anointing.

[21:32] But specifically in the text, it is, you have an anointing from the Holy One. Now, to be precise on this is not straightforward, because there are references in both the Old and New Testament to God himself, the Father, as the Holy One.

[22:00] And whether it is something, for example, like Psalm 71, verse 22, or going back to the New Testament reference I gave you, where the Father is referred to as the Holy One, 2 Corinthians 1, 21.

[22:20] At some usages it's clear that God, that is the Father, is referred to. But the situation is complicated, because we have to remember that Jesus is referred to more than once by the apostles as the Holy One.

[22:44] We could say, but we won't argue it, we could say that even the devils themselves called him the Holy One of God, but we'll not use them.

[22:54] But in the book of Acts, the apostles saw Jesus as the Holy One.

[23:05] Acts chapter 2, verse 27, is referred to as the Holy One. From the reference going back to Psalm 16, 10, you will not leave your Holy One to see corruption.

[23:22] And clearly the reference there is, the Father does not leave his Son, the Messiah, to see the tombs decay. And the Acts 2, 27 reference takes us back to Psalm 16, verse 10, you will not leave your Holy One to see corruption.

[23:44] But the church in prayer refers to Jesus as the Holy One. Acts 4, 27, when they are pleading that God would not leave them to those who were against them and persecuting.

[24:03] They've done all this to your Holy One, your servant Jesus. And therefore, to answer the question on the anointing, by whom?

[24:16] it seems to me that the best way of thinking about this is that the Father anoints through the sin.

[24:30] I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter. The Father and the sin work together on this.

[24:42] the Father works through his sin. We have an anointing from the Holy One. And of course, if you think about it, Jesus said as much as we've already noticed.

[24:57] When he was anticipating his return to heaven, and the glory he had with the Father before the word was, he was going back in a new way, can we say, as the incarnate Lord.

[25:14] And he talks himself about the sending of the Holy Spirit to empower the fledgling church, so that it can go and evangelize the nations.

[25:28] And you remember they were told to wait for the promise of the Father, and he said, I will send the Holy Spirit. And that Spirit then, whose anointing we so need, and who is referred to here, is an anointing from the Holy One that is the Father, through the Holy One, the Father's own Son, who himself is the Holy One, and God's salvation.

[26:04] And the important thing here in this answer question, the anointing, by whom, is the place that Jesus is given in all this.

[26:18] Because the anointing, that is the Holy Spirit, his business is to glorify Christ. He, John 16, 13, says, Jesus says, he shall not speak of himself, he shall glorify me, he shall take what's mine, and show it to you.

[26:45] And here tonight, there's a place, you know, for being thankful to God, Father and Son, for giving the Holy Spirit in this way, as the blessed anointing, that anointing which enables us to experience eternal truth, the reality of God working in us.

[27:16] And that's where I want to finish. I'll just hold on, put on hold, I think Christine's not just feeling too well.

[27:29] Thank you. Thank you. don't worry about it. Well, we'll just conclude then with this last point on the anointing and what are the effects.

[28:03] That's important to us as we finish. The anointing, what are the effects of this anointing? And we have really the answer to that in the passage itself, particularly in verse 21, where we have these words.

[28:26] Of course, verse 20 says, you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things. And you know all things. We'll take that first of all.

[28:40] Now, clearly, when we're told here you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things, that simply doesn't mean you know all there is to know about everything.

[28:52] That would be absurd. John isn't saying by this, you become authorities on everything. Some people like to think they are, of course, but John is not teaching that here.

[29:08] He's not saying you become know-it-alls. In fact, if you think about it, if you think about this in a careful way, Christian believers don't even know all things about one doctrine, we don't know all there is to know about one doctrine of the Bible.

[29:35] Take, for example, the doctrine of repentance. Now, we might be able to give the catechism answer to the question, what is repentance, or the catechism answer to what is saving faith.

[29:50] But, it doesn't follow that we know all there is to know about this or that doctrine. So, when John says you know all things, he's not meaning that we are all knowing.

[30:09] And we recognize our limitations in knowledge, even in Christian doctrine, we know that we gather more knowledge by the steady of the Bible under the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

[30:25] And it seems to me that the clue about what John is getting at here is in verse 21, or in the NIV translation has, that you know the truth.

[30:39] And verse 21 says, 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.

[30:49] And the clue then is in the words you know the truth. It's about knowing the truth, the truth that is to say, as it is in Jesus.

[31:03] You are settled in the truth, in the core truths concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. You know the truth.

[31:17] you appreciate and you receive the truth of the Bible as it is in Jesus. You know how the scripture sometimes refers to the truth of God as a sharp two-edged sword.

[31:34] In the vision of John in the Revelation, the Son of Man is pictured with a two-edged sword proceeding from his mouth. And the simple message of that is he has the whole truth.

[31:51] He speaks it and judges by it. The word of God, Hebrews 4.12, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing of the indivisible, of soul and spirit and the joints and the grizzle.

[32:21] And therefore what he's saying here is you know all things means simply you know the truth as it is in Jesus.

[32:33] After all, if you think about it, we know he is the truth. He said himself, I am the truth. He's the truth about the living God.

[32:46] He's the truth about all the shadows and types of the Old Testament sacrificial system. He fulfills them, he embodies them.

[33:00] He is the sum and substance of all those sacrifices, of the priestly ministry, of the kings and the prophets. that's why our catechism helpfully talks about the offices of Christ as redeemer, our prophet, priest and king.

[33:22] And rightly so. It's entirely biblical. It is the truth concerning him. And therefore I say again when he talks about you know all things, he's really saying you know all the truth as it is in Jesus, the key elements, the non-negotiable elements of the truth of the gospel as to the person and the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[33:53] And my dear friends, we ought to turn these things over, if not daily, regularly, to ponder them and to pray over them and to be seeking to work them out in our lives.

[34:14] This is what's important. If you think about it, life can be really difficult at times. And we can feel at times quite overwhelmed by all that's going on, both within our own head and around and about us, and things that we're responsible for.

[34:38] Life can be difficult in terms of our hopes and dreams that are shattered. And the question arises, and it has arisen among the apostles too, and it arises among us, do we go back from following?

[35:00] Remember the incident recorded in John 6, when Jesus talked to the hard saints, from that time many of the disciples went back from following him.

[35:14] And he asked the question to the disciple band, to the twelve, will you also go back from following me? And Peter spoke, you remember, on behalf of them all, Lord, to whom else shall we go?

[35:28] You alone have the words of eternal life. And we have come to believe for sure and know for certain that you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

[35:47] And that's the answer to the feelings of being overwhelmed and of simply wanting to go back and give it all up. You know all things.

[35:58] You know the truth. Be rooted and grounded in it. And this is what we have to reaffirm again and again to ourselves when we feel life is too difficult.

[36:16] My hope, said the psalmist, is in his word. More than those who watch for the first peep of the sun in the morning, my soul waits for the Lord.

[36:33] And this anointing, this blessed Holy Spirit anointing, enables us to reaffirm again and again that we know all things pertaining to eternal life.

[36:51] That is, we have the core elements in our hearts by faith. We know his promises are sure in Jesus. We know like Paul whom it is we have believed.

[37:05] And therefore, although the antichrists are many, yes, will come and continue to come and even be in the church, working in various forms and guises.

[37:18] promises, let us reaffirm we will not go back, nor turn from him, but depend upon the Holy Spirit of promise whom he has given.

[37:33] But he says, you have an anointing from the Holy One, the Father working through the Son, and you know all things, you know the truth, stand firm in it, and walk in it, and be blessed.

[37:55] Amen.