Check Your Source
Notes
Transcript
Announcements
Announcements
serving others: mowing lawn for lady whose husband had stroke (I need a couple/few guys and I can drive)
4th of July from 5:30-7:30pm slot
Recap
Recap
1 John 3:19-24 Assurance and How to Find It
1. Start by humbly remembering God’s character.
2. Continue by honestly addressing the reasons for doubt.
3. Finish by faithfully re-centering on the gospel.
Intro
Intro
Sharing facts that you end up finding out are false
embarrassment
failure
harm
knowing the right facts, the truth, can save you a lot of embarrassment, failure, and harm
You know who you can trust and you know facts from fiction
There are many things you need to know, and you need to know where you should get that information, and there are things you need to know that matter more than anything else, and it matters where you get this information.
There are things you must know of eternal significance
YOUR ETERNAL SOUL IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF A SAVIOR, OR YOU WILL EXPERIENCE ETERNAL SEPARATION AND JUDGEMENT FOR YOUR SINFUL CONDITION.
It matters what solution you find, and who gives you that solution.
You need to know who you can listen to
You need to know what they’re saying
You need to know where it will take you
Now remember, a group of people has left the churches that John is writing to, and they are speaking about biblical things, they’re talking about living out their spiritual walk, but the things they are saying are twisted, they conflict with the truth. So, John is writing a warning...
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
John has just said, “if you’re abiding in God and keeping His commandments, you’ve been given the Spirit of God as a sign that God is abiding in you”
As a seal of the promised inheritance
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
To help us pursue holiness
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
To help us to know God
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
SO...
The Indwelling Spirit is a source of assurance/a promise of our inheritance
The Spirit helps us pursue holiness
The Spirit helps us know God
THIS IS A VERY TRUSTWORTHY SOURCE, WE’D WANT TO RELY PRETTY HEAVILY ON THAT, WHICH IS GOOD!
How do we rely on and trust this source?
Listening to Teaching of the Word of God
The Spirit gives Understanding
The Spirit Changes our Desires
BUT!!!
BE CAUTIOUS, BE WARNED. Not every spirit is from/of God.
Not everyone who “teaches the Word of God” is from God
Not every interpretation/understanding of God’s Word is right
Not every desire/feeling is a God-given/Spirit-given desire
John is saying, be careful, test the spirits.
1. Exercise discernment in deciding who you will listen to and what you will believe (v. 1).
1. Exercise discernment in deciding who you will listen to and what you will believe (v. 1).
WHO WILL YOU LISTEN TO?
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
There are TWO primary voices/spirits speaking in this world
The Spirit of God (The Holy Spirit)
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
The Spirit of this World (Satan)
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
So how does this work TODAY...
We don’t hear God or Satan directly speaking to people
They work through people
They work through messages
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Lies are meant to resemble the truth, they’re meant to be believable
In John’s context, people claiming to be prophets, inspired by the Spirit of God, were teaching false doctrine. Not confessing the true Christ and not upholding righteous living
The same is true today.
So, John is saying, be careful.
Don’t just blindly believe every spirit/every person who claims to be from God,
proclaiming the words of God,
instructing how to live for God.
Test it.
EXERCISE DISCERNMENT in deciding who you will listen to and what you will believe
What’s the difference between the two?
The Spirit of God will
Help you to know God
Help you to love God
Help you to bear the image of God
Help you to pursue holiness
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
The spirit of this world (Satan) will
Blind you from knowing God
Stir up hate for God
Corrupt and distort the image of God
Prevent you from holiness
What does that look like today??
People who distort truth about knowing God
Undermine humanity
Undermine deity
overemphasize a particular feeling (give example of worship)
People who distort truth about loving God
lack of relationship with God
keeping other idolatrous loves involved
lack of obedience (if you love me you’ll keep my commandments)
People who distort truth about living for God
All grace, no holiness
All works, no grace
Reliance on self instead of on God
Loss of salvation
So it’s clear we need to exercise discernment, how do we get it?
2. Develop discernment by learning biblically sound doctrine (vv. 2-3).
2. Develop discernment by learning biblically sound doctrine (vv. 2-3).
WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
John says, look, you can’t believe every spirit, test the spirits.
People can say they’re from God
People can say they’re speaking the truth
People can say they’re walking in holiness
BUUUUT, Let’s check the source of what they’re saying
THIS IS HOW YOU TEST THEM
Check WHAT they are saying
If it’s of the Spirit of God
“it will confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh”
If it’s a spirit of the world/antichrist
“it will not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh”
TEST TO SEE IF THE MESSAGE ALIGN’S WITH GOD’S CHARACTER, GOD’S COMMANDMENTS, AND THE GOSPEL
EXPLAIN THE HERESY OF THEIR DAY of Jesus appearing to be human but not actually (the idea that spirit is good, flesh is bad)
What’s at stake if that was true?
Jesus didn’t live the perfect life we could never live
Jesus didn’t die in the place of sinful humanity
Jesus didn’t rise from the dead giving us victory and hope of resurrection
IT’S A BIG DEAL.
If the Spirit of God intends to help you know the one true God, He will lead you into confessing the true Christ, the true gospel, etc.
Listening to the Spirit of God will lead to right doctrine and right living.
Listening to the Spirit of God will lead to believing the right thing and doing the right thing
How do you fact check all of this, how do you know that you’re listening to the Spirit?
Know your Bible (and not just parts of it)
false worship of God can happen when you don’t worship God as he has revealed himself in all of Scriptures
Live the Bible
Surround yourself with people who know the Bible
Surround yourself with people who live out the Bible
The Fruit of the Spirit vs. the Fruit of the Flesh is a helpful test as well:
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Are the teachings you’re listening to encouraging fruit of the Spirit or the flesh?
Are the teachers showing fruit of the Spirit or the flesh?
How can you know? You know God, His Word, and His ways.
It’s not enough to just discern who is saying the right thing and who isn’t
It’s not enough to just discern the truth from falsehoods
That discernment, if applied in wisdom, will lead you to living in the light, living in the truth.
3. Use your discernment to know, love, and follow Christ (vv. 4-6).
3. Use your discernment to know, love, and follow Christ (vv. 4-6).
WHERE DOES IT LEAD YOU?
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
If you know the truth, commit to following and living it out, no matter what everyone else is doing.
The discouraging, apparent success of false teachers
Lots of people listen
The message is appealing
It looks like they are succeeding
You may doubt and start to question your own message
John gives clarity and encouragement.
If you are from God, you have overcome them (false prophets, spirit of antichrist, lies, spirit of the world)
God/Spirit of God is greater than the spirit of the world
Has conquered, overcome the world
Of course they’ll seem successful
Broad is the way of destruction
All have sinned, the world does not want to follow God
These false teachers/false message, they are from the world
They speak to the world
The world listens to them
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
The world speaks to the world
The world listens to the world
The world loves the world
John says, don’t worry about the world, don’t be anxious, defeated, or discouraged
You have overcome the world BECAUSE
God is greater than the world, and God is indwelling you
Realize, believer, you were of the world, dead in your sins
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
You know the truth, you know who to listen to, so follow through.
Application:
Who you listen to reveals who you know/who you follow
The Spirit of God
Wants you to know God truly
Wants you to love God wholeheartedly
Wants you to obey God faithfully
Are the people you listen to teaching you to do that, even when it’s challenging and uncomfortable?
The Spirit of the World (Satan)
Wants you to forget God
Wants you to hate God
Wants you to oppose God
Are the people you listen to teaching you that you can “know God” and hold onto your sin? Are they people who make you feel comfortable with sinful living while still feeling good and spiritual?
The worst place to be is in a place where you feel spiritually secure while also comfortable with your sin and lacking a true relationship with God. This is a huge error (the spirit of error)
The Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, will give you spiritually security while also uncomfortably exposing your sin, but in such a way that drives you closer to God and a greater life of holiness.
Who will you listen to? What are they saying? Where will it lead you?
Use discernment.
Closing
Closing