Testing the Spirits

Worship Service: Announcements, Benjamin Brubaker

Call to Worship, Offering

Singing Evan McGurrin

Reading and Pastoral Prayer James Groff

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Scripture Reading Marlan Showalter

Sermon James Groff

“Testing the Spirits”

“a Christian life is a discerning life”

Read Text:

“Do not believe every spirit”

A “spirit here is a proclamation, or a proclaimer of truth”

He promises that “many false prophets have gone out in the world”

There are those who teach a gospel that is different from Jesus’ gospel, and this has been this way from the beginning

The gnostics - appeared before the apostles died

ostles died

Claimed unique mystical insight

The runaway popes

Used spiritual authority to enrich and empower themselves

Promised eternal life in exchange for money

Modern “Spirits”

Easy believe-ism

It’s all about what feels and seems right to you

It’s all about what feels and seems right to you

Highlights the helpful and loving nature of God - God exists to bring fulfillment and happiness to you

My feelings trump scripture

Place the wisdom of man over the wisdom of God - certainty is found in how one feels about God

Fundamentalist

It’s all about adherence to a system

Represented as obedience

Highlight the instruction and judgement of God - God exists to represent truth, and will judge those who fail

The “system” trumps scripture

Place the wisdom of man over the wisdom of God - Certainty is found in what one knows about God

Relativists - post-modernists

It’s all about personal experience - what’s true for you may not be true for me

Highlights the inclusiveness of God

Individualism trumps Scripture

Places the wisdom of man over the wisdom of God - Certainty is found within ones own being

These are just some of the “spirits” that we face in our time....but what is our protection?

Why are these all so attractive? vs 5 “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

“Test the spirits to see whether they are from God”

Determine the genuineness-test to see if they are true

Fake items for sale - how do you tell? Do you know the original - do you know the truth?

It is your duty to do this. As we saw in , Paul commends the Bereans because they did not listen to him without going bact to what they knew was true to see if Paul’s teaching lined up.

And, John gives us the criteria for testing

Vs 2 - “By this you know” this is the original, this is what you hold every spirit up to to be sure it is true

Is Jesus central? DO they “confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh from God”

I find it interesting that he does not say “that Jesus has died and been risen”....that fact is assumed and known among the early church to be true due to the number of eyewitnesses. So even the early gnostics did not deny that as they do today. they all tried to argue that Jesus was not divine, or that the divine portion of Jesus came on him at baptism and left in the Garden of Gethsemane. They don’t argue about the fact that Jesus dies and was risen.

So, the first question you need to ask of every “spirit” is if it come bearing the truth of Jesus as the Messiah

How are you to develop this sense?

Like the Bereans, you must test every spirit

Don’t listen to anything without attempting to determine it’s truth claim - every message bears a truth claim if you look at it closely

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Like the Bereans, you must know your scripture or be able to search them and discriminate between what is scriptural and godly, and what is merely human.

If you are not regularly searching the scripture, and placing them in your heart, you will have no anchor to keep you from leaving orthodoxy, you can’t rely on the church for this, you can’t rely on your parents for this, you can’t rely on your culture for this. All of those can be of great benefit, but you must develop the understanding of God’s truth in your own heart and mind.

What is the source of power for this?

vs. 4 “You are from God, and have overcome them”

The result? “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”