Love's True Test:
Notes
Transcript
I. The Importance of Discernment
I. The Importance of Discernment
A. Setting the Stage:
In a world full of noise, discernment is becoming rarer. Various doctrines claiming to be the truth, yet they clash everywhere. How do we tell the real from the fake in this sea of voices?
The Apostle John's teachings in 1 John 4:1-11 are profoundly relevant today. Just as John warned the early believers about false prophets and misleading spirits, we face there are many false spirits today. These spirits claim to bring knowledge and fulfillment but often disappoint and depress.
False spirits spread half-truths and blatant lies in influential circles, social media, and the economy. They promise happiness through wealth, fulfillment through self-indulgence, and enlightenment through wisdom. They appear charming, yet their sinister side strives to deceive.
In the midst of widespread deceit, discernment becomes increasingly important. Like never before, we must test the spirits and compare every message to God's Word. Discernment protects us against deception and leads us to God's love.
The Apostle's invitation to discernment is important as we explore 1 John 4:1-11's timeless teaching. We anchor ourselves in God's unchanging Word and manage our world's stormy waters with wisdom and clarity. Our fight against falsehood is discernment, because truth leads to freedom and divine love.
II. Discerning the Spirits 1 John 4:1-3
II. Discerning the Spirits 1 John 4:1-3
A. Testing the Spirits: The Call to Spiritual Discernment 1 John 4:1
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.
From last week to this week we can see John jump from talking about what it means to love and how we express that love to the now the discernment it takes to recognize false spirits. This turn though is very important as we consider the context, John ends chapter 3 with these words 1 John 3:24
Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Which then leads to the all important question of what spirit? Love is the obvious evidence of the Holy Spirit, but in a world filled with false spirits discernment is necessary for not every spirit is from God. There are false prophets, false teachers and false Christ who are in the world. Jesus told us there would be so we should not be surprised.
How then can we recognize false spirits? The devil is a great deceive in fact this term devil is exactly what it means a great deceiver.
What does John tell us?
B. The Criteria for Discernment: Confession of Jesus Christ 1 John 4:2-3
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 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.
It sounds so simple, that to know Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, dwelt among us, lived a sinless life, and most importantly he is from God, from God also means is God.
The deception usually starts like this “Did God really say?” We come right back to the garden again where the serpent ask Eve “Did God really say?’ One important thing you learn about the devil is that he is not very creative and in fact we uses this same lie all through scripture, all through our lives that every temptation always starts in the same way, questioning what God said, questioning his word and questioning God himself.
This is the first and foremost lesson on discerning, it is to first recognize the lie, in the garden they had the power to discern the truth, the measure and sadly though Eve and Adam fail at it, it was God’s word, for God said from of all the trees in the garden you are free to eat, except the tree in the midst, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There was another tree the tree of life, they could have eaten from that tree, but knowledge that was more desirable than eternity. Just think about that.
God’s word is the measure, you see if they had listened to God at what he said they would have recognized the lie, but Eve got it wrong, she says that they shouldn’t even touch it lest they die. Then she looked at it saw it was good for food and desirable to make one wise and so they ate.
Test every spirit, if it starts out with questioning God’s word you know its a false spirit. When they come knocking on your door it will be this false spirit and will go something like this can I tell you about our gospel. Paul warns us in Galatians 1:6-9
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
First thing is the lie, getting you to doubt God’s word, then they will try and discount Jesus saying he isn’t really God, they will say that Jesus was just a spirit manifestation, or that he didn’t really rise from the dead, and we could go on and on. In fact if you think about the creeds that we confess, it will always be something that we confess in the creed they will attack.
We are called though to have discernment, like the Bereans:
C. Illustration: The Example of the Bereans Acts 17:11
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
The Bereans in Acts 17:11, who, upon hearing the teachings of Paul, "received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." Their example teaches us the importance of diligent study and discernment.
Like the banker who is trained in identifying counterfeit currency , we study God’s word in the same way. They do not study all the different ways in which currency is counterfeit, instead they study the real thing. The learn all the way in which the real thing is real, from the feel pf the paper, to the ink to watermarks, and the stripe inside, and then they become so familiar with the real thing when a fake comes across it is easily identifiable.
This is why I encourage everyone to study their bibles, to come to church regularly, to get into a bible study group and if you can’t find one, start one, I would be happy to work along side of you to learn the bible, learn the faith, become so good at it when a counterfeit comes along you will say this doesn’t sound right right, let me compare it to God’s word.
This is listening to the Holy Spirit...
III. Listening to the Holy Spirit 1 John 4:4-6
III. Listening to the Holy Spirit 1 John 4:4-6
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.
In baptism you are made a child of God and the Holy Spirit then indwells within you. This Spirit is greater than he who is in the world. This Spirit is where true discernment comes from it opens our eyes, our hearts and our minds to hear God’s word, to believe it, to take it in, to understand it, to see how it is truth and how it is the standard for our faith. We talk about Sola Scriptura, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, and we know all of this through scripture alone. All too often though we do not talk about the fact that it is the Holy Spirit which gives us these Sola’s, proclaims these Sola’s and helps us understand them.
For the world does not have these things...
They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 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 want to know why there are so many false teachers today, why the world seems to be running after all of these things? Why it seems the world seems so deceived, it is answered for us right here. They are from the world. Remember Jesus told us in John 15:18-19
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
The mature Christian will recognize that the world hates truth, and truth is what Christianity stands for, truth at all cost and above all else. We as Lutheran have always stood firm on this foundation, that the truth of God’s word is the central doctrine by which we come to know our Lord and savior. The central doctrine Jesus Christ, who lived and died and rose again, for you.
The gospel is the anti-thesis of the world where it is all about lies, they will lie in so many ways that it is difficult for even the best among us to not be deceived. Again though we should not worry for this tells us right here greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
Do not worry then if the world hates you, because Christ dwells in you. In fact I find it refreshing to rejoice when those troubles come. When people speak ill of you, when they do not like what you proclaim, when the talk behind your back, for it is not aimed at you, but a Christ.
Truth though is love, not love like the world proclaims but true love, divine love...
III. Divine Love Defined 1 John 4:7-10
III. Divine Love Defined 1 John 4:7-10
A. God's Nature Revealed: Love as the Essence of God 1 John 4:7
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Finally we come full circle back to where we began and that it is about love. the world does not love as we love,we talked about this last week how the world defines love is not real love but a skewed kind of love. Love that forces acceptance is not true love.
Love that proclaims truth, however is love that goes beyond understanding. Paul write on this love 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
This is what true love is all about, to discern the truth, to see the truth, to love as God loved us.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
I don’t think I need to even explain this, its pretty obvious God is love. Again when a world has become so skewed, the spirits of this world have become so skilled at deception that then even try to define love as something other than what it is, and that God is love. However the opposite of this is true as well then that love is not god.
Thus the final part of our message.
B. Love's Origin and Expression: God's Initiative and Sacrifice 1 John 4:9-10
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
God so loved the world that he sent his only Son into the world. To bear up our sins, to be our savior, to die and rose again, to give us hope when there is no hope in the world, to give us life when death seems so imminent and permanent, and most of all to forgive us of our sins, so that we to can forgive others.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Amen
