The Last Hour

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. 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.

1 John 2:18-19

Children, it is the last hour…

1. John affectionately addresses his readers
2. John wisely warns them of the antichrists
3. John repetitively confirms that the last hour has arrived

As you have heard…

1. The sign of the last hour is but the appearance of antichrists
2. The coming of many antichrists
   1. Has been told
   2. Has been heard
   3. Is now public
3. The logical conclusion therefore is that the last hour has come

They went out from us…

1. There were some who left the Church
   1. They suffered the shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19-20)
   2. They deliberately chose to sin against God (Hebrews 10:26ff)
   3. They actually left the Christian common fellowship ( 1 John 1:3)
2. Some reasons why they left us
   1. They were not of us
   2. They were others, compared with us God’s people
3. They left us to prove that they were not part of us
   1. In God’s election
   2. In God’s economy of Salvation

If they had been of us…

1. This ‘if” (Gk-ei) describes that which is contrary to fact
2. The people who left us
   1. are in reality not part of us
   2. though they might have got well acquainted with us
3. If they were part of us, they would have definitely remained with us
4. They left …because they have never been part of us since the beginning