Do I believe the Truth? (Grace in the park)

1 John 4:1-6

1 John 4:1–6 ESV

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.

Introduction

In 1848 James Marshall was the first to find gold

The men used a greek word (Eureka—I have found it).

To them, this word meant riches, retirement, no longer surveying for gold

For a lot of them, they ran into different scenariors

Instead of finding gold they were so eagerly hoping for, they instead continued to run into fools gold

This fools godl was called pyrite

Experienced miners were able to differentiate between the ogld, but sometimes it was too hard. The feel was different, they left different marks when scraped across a rock, but they looked similar a lot of the time

For us as christians, there is a lot of times when we have the Eureka moment with fools gold.

Different religions

Our culture is filled with different ideas of trtuh

Some say truth is unattainable

SOme say truth is relative (post modernism)

What do you believe to be truth?

How do yuo distinguish if something is truth or not?

What do we believe is truth?

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is truth incarnate

For us to believe that truth comes from anywhere else apart from God is heresy

John 17:17 ESV

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

God’s Word is also totally true

Every part of it has been uniquely given and preserved so that we can have the truth

No other book has the same resume as the Bible…

The archeaological evidence (thousands of copies of manuscripts maintained, findings in cities that proclaim it),

The Scientific evidence (Yes, science proves teh Bible).

Bible describes the conservation of mass & Energy, gravity, THe pleiades adn Orion as gravitationally bound star groups, wind blows in cyclones NOT straight, blood is the source of life and healing, every star is different and not the same, Earth is a sphere, number of stars exceeds a billion NOT 1100, Air has weight and is not weightless…etc.

Prophetic evidence—~2500 prophecies 2000 have already come to pass

The chances of that happening are astronomical

100 years in advance Isaiah prophecised the israelites would be captive adn then he also prophecised they would be released, Cyrus did this.

Look at the prophecies (7) that Ezekiel made about Tyre (Lebanon). They all have come true even ones that came true in modern times

No other spiritual book can boast 100% accuracy. Because no other book is totally true

So if we realize what is truth, how do we recognize with is truth and what is not truth?

A command to test

John knew his readers were being bombarded with false teachers (as are we)

He gave them 3 tests to discern if these teachings were true or not

Test 1—Theological—What does the person believe about Christ (2-3)

Does this person believes what the Bible says about Christ?

Would they say Christ is the Son fo the Living God, but also God incarnate?

JW’s Mormons believe Jesus was the son of God, a good man, someone we can aspire to. NOT God incarnate

Jesus proceeded from God as teh Living Word of God who became flesh. (Luke 1:31)

He is also one with the Father (John 10:30)

2 Peter 2:1 ESV

1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

recognizing Jesus as the Son of God who came to die for our sins> being perfect and Holy, and the bearer of truth incarnate is the ultimate litmus test for truth!

Test 2— Behavioral— Is the person bearing the fruit of the gospel? (4-5)

John makes it clear… what they love is what they sound like

Do they sound like jesus or the world?

If we are of God, we have a supernatural insight to truth from the HS (Luke 10:21) and a love for the truth (Ps1:2), and also a discernment for the truth (Mark 13:22).

There may be room to talk about secondary matters that don’t matter for salvation,

Truth will permeate from the Christian and will be seen in each aspect of their life!

Test 3—Presuppositonal—Is the person devoted to teh Bible as truth (v.6)

Each religion changes the Bible, adds to it, or has something different completely

The one who knows truth clings to the written word of God

God’s word is powerful

God’s word changes heart

God’s word quickens people

God’s word is sufficient

God’w word satifies

There is a difference between knowing these truths and living by these truths.

WE must cling to the bible as truth

We must allow God’s word to speak to us

We must trust that it is right and there is no need for anything else

Conclusion

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?” (C.S Lewis)

Have you discovered how much you trust the truth of God?

Is it something you hope in?

Have you had to risk it all to trust in it? E