Testing Everything

Intro

Bible Paper Pen —> 1 John 4 —> Mid Term Week —> Cheating test story

Tonight we are going to look three test that appear in 1 John 4 that we better be confident administering.

Test the spirits

Last week we concluded chapter 3 with the promise (v. 20) that God is greater than our hearts. And (V. 24) the assurance of our salvation through the gift of the Holy Spirit abiding in us, manifest through our love.

Thats the Spirit we can trust and hope in, yet in ch 4 John warns of other spirits… How can we tell the spirits apart?

1 John 4:1–6 “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.”

Pt. 1 Test the spirits v. 1

What is the first test? V. 2-3 tells us…

Test the spirit… Who is Jesus… Christ in flesh… Both

(v. 3) 1 John 2:22 “22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.”

Jesus most be both God and Man… “Hypostatic Union”

This was a real danger… Nicia 325 & Calcedon 451

Some are going to deny Jesus’ authority, some are going to deny his authenticity, we must again and again affirm “Christ came in the flesh”

1 John 4:4 “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.”

They must have felt otherwise… they may have felt lesser than.

Ephesians 6:17 “17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”

Psalm 119:105 & Acts 17 the Bereans

Second Test… V. 6, “Who will listen”

2 Timothy 4:3–4 “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.”

Do you ears long for the gospel… does it pour out of you mouth?

Pt 2. Test Yourself

Test yourself

1 John 4:7–12 “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

After the instruction to test spirits the application isnt a witch hunt it is reflection… Scalpel vs Club

2 Corinthians 13:5 “5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

What tests are there for us?

1 Our love v. 7… a love characterized by initiation (v. 10)

Christmas presents with siblings story… Thats not love!

Test God

1 John 4:13–21 “13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

v. 16-19 Test God …

Deut 6:16 16 “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test,

vs

Psalm 34:8 “8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

Closing

So what now? v. 21 continue to examine your love