A Denial of Jesus is a loss of Eternal Life and a Relationship with God I John 2:22-23

 A Denial of Jesus is a loss of Eternal Life and a Relationship with God

I John 2:2-23

Denial of the truth is a problem in John's time and in ours as well.  One of the most popular murder mysteries that captures this is " Murder on the Orient Express"  Of course everyone denied it.  Someone had to be guilty. There was the matter of the body on the floor.  Someone was lying.

A little girl was being read to by her father. He had a book about animals at the zoo.  They came to the giraffe.  She had never seen anything like that before. So she said she did not believe it really existed.  Her father took her to the zoo to prove it.  They came to the giraffe section.   She exclaimed, "  Look at the horse with a long neck!"

Denying was also a problem in the Church at the earliest days after the Resurrection of Jesus.  Vs 22 talks about those who were denying Jesus as the Christ.  They were called antichrists by John, that is false prophets.  Now the evidence was all around them---Jesus had a real body.  I John 1:1-1 Jesus was real for we have seen Him, our hands have handled Him , and He has been manifested (revealed to us).

1.  Take a deeper look at this problem.  Remember we are in the middle of the Belief test.  Earlier we had taken the obedience test 2:3 (" And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments"), and the love test 2:10 ( "He that loveth his brother abides in the light")

But who do we believe Jesus to be? Is He only a man--a great teacher?  The antichrists believed that the "Christ" descended upon Jesus early in His ministry, and left Him at the Cross.  They were denying that Jesus and the Eternal Son of God were the same person. 4:2-3 emphasizes this too.  2 John 7  as well ," For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh..."

Today people too are looking at this only from a human perspective.  How can a man be God?  Not accepting God's Revelation and Word is the deeper problem .  They want to change it to make it more acceptable to them.

1:6 we lie " If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth>"  

2:4 is a liar " He that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments , is a liar, and the truth is not in Him."

But here 2:22 the person that denies Jesus is the Christ is THE LIAR!  The arch-lie

---it is a fundamental doctrinal test of the professing Christian

a false view like this is more than defective. It is diabolical.

But carry this further. 

2. Do we not do the very same thing the gnostics do when we say, " I do not understand this in Scripture---therefore it cannot be true, and I cannot accept it." !  Instead of submitting to the Revelation of God, we put our pre-conceived ideas on top of it.

" man can know God only in so far as God actively makes Himself known....it is not human reason that discovers God, but it is God who discloses Himself to the eye of faith..by the application of sanctified human reason to the study God's Word man can under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, gain an ever-increasing knowledge of God." Berkhof

3.  We deny Jesus in another way when we fail to mention Him and our belief in Him.  Nancy Cochran tells of her conversion to Christ from Judaism.  She is troubled because Christian friends waited so long to share the gospel with her. She accepted Christ immediately after hearing the story of Jesus. She wishes she had heard it 9 years earlier.  Some believers had shown concern for her family, but didn't follow through to the point of personal witness.

---we too often tend to assume that everybody hears the message through radio or TV, but we forget that most people don't watch religious broadcasts.  They will not be reached except by a  personal witness from someone who cares for them.

4. Another way in which we deny Jesus is when we are not acting on what we know in Scripture.  Col. 3:16 " teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns , and spiritual songs"

There should be change when lovingly confronted by others.  It is not easy to admit you are wrong, but is the first step to repentance and forgiveness.

What is the result of a belief that John calls the lie? 2:22

Conclusion---We are antichrist if we deny the Father and the Son.  2:22b 

23 a- John says " whosoever denies the Son , the same has not the Father"

Mt 11:27 " no one knows the Son except the Father, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him"

---only the Son can reveal the Father.

Luther before his conversion had only intellectual belief.  He was not an agnostic.  He found that there were 3 elements to saving faith 

--knowledge, assent and trust.

The person who confesses ( means say the same thing in orig lang) the Son has the Father also.

So we say as Jesus did, " Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before me, I will also confess Him before My Father who is in heaven."