1 John 4:1-6 knowing the Difference between TRUE and False Prophets

Good Morning .. Pause

I welcome you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Out Scripture meditation is from Psalm 117:1-2

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

117 Praise the Lord, all nations!

Extol him, all peoples!

2  For great is his steadfast love toward us,

and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord!

THE LORD CALLS US TO WORSHIP HIM

*God’s Word of Greeting

*Call to Worship……………..………………Psalm 100:4-5

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

5  For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

PLEASE RISE FOR THE SINGING OF GODS WORD

#9 In the Trinity Hymnal

*Hymn of Praise TPH# 22B All You That Fear Jehovah’s Name TUNE - 68C in the BOPFW

INVOCATION:

Father we now call upon you to be with us and be in our presence.

And illuminate our minds by your Spirit and Word.

We thank you Father in all things in Christ name Amen.

PLEASE BE SEATED

OUR RESPONSE TO GOD’S CALL

Responsive Reading……………………………….. TH (828) Psalm 117

Praise the Lords, all you Nations;

extol him, all you peoples.

For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord

LET US PRAY

Prayer of Confession and Repentance

Be gracious to us, O God, according to your love.

According to your abundant mercies,

blot out our transgressions.

Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities,

and from our sins cleanse us.

Create a clean heart in us, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within us.

Do not cast us away from your presence,

and sustain us with your spirit.

We know the sacrifices you require are a broken spirit;

and broken and contrite heart,

And we thank you for you Son Jesus in which you have

made possible for your people to approach you and have

communion with you Father

In Christ Name Amen.

Assurance of Pardon……………...……..………………... Hebrews 8:10-12

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, declares the Lord:

I will put my laws into their minds,

and write them on their hearts,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

11  And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor

and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

for they shall all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest.

12  For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sins no more.”

LET US RISE FOR THE SINGING OF GODS WORD

Hymn of Thanksgiving .......................TPH# 103A Bless the Lord, My Soul TUNE 103B in BOPFW

LET US PRAY

Congregational Prayer

O Eternal, almighty, and most gracious God, heaven is your throne, and earth is your footstool,

holy and revered is your name; you are praised by the heavenly hosts and in the congregation of your saints on earth,

and will be sanctified in all that come near unto you. We are sinful and unworthy dust,

but being invited by you, are bold, through our blessed Mediator to present ourselves and our supplications before you

Receive us graciously, help us by your Spirit; let your fear be upon us: let your Word come unto us in power,

and be received in love, with attentive, reverent, and obedient minds. Make it to us the savour of life unto life.

Cause us to be fervent in prayer, and joyful in your praises, and to serve you this day without distraction,

that we may find that a day in your courts is better than a thousand,

and that it is good for us to draw near to God; through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Father we Pray for _____________ and we ask for all these things in the powerful, glorious, majestic, and wonderful name of Jesus Christ Amen.

YOU MAY BE SEATED

THE LORD FEEDS US FROM HIS WORD

OUR Scripture Reading is from..………………..……..……………..Deut 13:1-18

Hear Now the Very Word of God

English Standard Version Chapter 13

13 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, 8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. 9 But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11 And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

12 “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, 13 that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, 14 then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, 15 you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. 16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. 17 None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers, 18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

LET THE LORD ADD HIS BLESSING TO THIS READING OF HIS WORD

Reflection: Pretty amazing the severity of Gods punishment from trying to stear someone else away from serving the true and living God.

And yet men will continue to try and do this we will see in the New Testament as well.

Becasue All mankind without Jesus Christ are lost and slaves to sin.

With this in mind let us now Turn in our New Testament to 1 John 4:1-6

OUR SERMON TEXT IS ABOUT HP “Knowing the Difference between TRUE and False Prophets”

Point 1 Vs. 1-2 The necessity of Spiritual Discernment

Point 2 Vs. 3-4 False Doctrine and AntiChrist’s

Point 3 Vs. 5-6 Only Believers Can Hear the Truth

Hear Now the Very Word Of God

1 John 4:1–6 ESV

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. 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. 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 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.

Let the Lord add His Blessing to this Reading of His Word.

Verse 1 says

English Standard Version Chapter 4

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.

Vs. 1-2 The necessity of Spiritual Discernment

Don’t believe every spirit because some are false that are in the World.

We should examine the words of those who proclaim they have a Word from the Lord and it should match up with the Word of God.

How do I or anyone come before the people of God with a Word from the Lord would be a good question to ask?

I and any who proclaim the word of God must teach only what the word of God teaches.

and we should not distort the message.

That is why John says : Do not believe every spirit

What does John mean by spirit?

He means either they will be speaking by the power of the spirit of God.

Or they will be speaking by the spirit and demonic power of Satan.

And if we are believers in Jesus Christ

And if we have recieved His Holy spirit.

We will have and should practice using the Word of God and the God given discernment of the Holy Spirit to tell if a minister or a prophet is telling us the truth.

So believers you will know if I am telling you the truth or not.

By matching up what I say with your Bible according to John.

How do we go about this well according to Acts we are to examine the word daily.

Acts 17:11

English Standard Version Chapter 17

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.

So we are to be excited about the Word of God eager to read it and have a working knowledge of it.

According to Philippians our love is to abound in knowledge and discernment.

Philippians 1:9

English Standard Version Chapter 1

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,

And according to Thessalonians in 5:21 we are test everything and hold to what is good and to abstain from evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:21

English Standard Version Chapter 5

21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

So once you know something to be true and have found in the word of God do not let a false teacher deceive you into believing a lie from the devil.

So why should we test the spirits?

Becasue our Lord commands us to?

He commands us in

Deut 13:1-5

13 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

God commands us not to listen to false prophets.

And the remedy is, that the faithful should not receive any doctrine thoughtlessly and without discrimination.

According to John the church was already infested with these false prophets spreading their lies.

according to verse 1 “for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

a multitude were already straying from the teaching of the church and her apostles.

And what was the teaching they were straying from.

“Verse 2 answers the question “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

John gives gives us a general rule, both in the affirmative and negative,

which should suffice for his audience to judge

the great controversy of that time with the Jews,

Whether Jesus was the Messiah?

and whether the Messiah had come or not?

and with the Gnostics, Whether he had really come in the flesh, in true human nature? or not.

And I proclaim to you now as John did to those in his day.

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”

The Messiah had come in the flesh.

And died in the flesh for your sins and the sins of all who would call him Lord.

So why did John says that Christ has come?

If I’m coming from somewhere that means I was somewhere else before.

If I went to the store and I had come from my home then I came from my home to the store.

So Christ had come from somewhere before he came to earth and was born.

Christ had previously been with the Father.

This proves his eternal divinity.

By saying that he has come in the flesh, John means that by putting on flesh Christ became a real man,

with the same nature as we have,

so that he might become our brother, except that he was free from every sin and corruption.

And he came for one reason to be that perfect propitiation for our sins.

So do you believe this

Do you believe that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh from God to satisfy the divine justice that you deserved for your sins? PAUSE

If this is your confession you are a believer.

And the spirit of God dwells in you.

And this is the test of a disciple of Christ.

And this is the test of a preacher of Christ.

We should also notice that the apostle did not say every sort of person ought to be believed;

even though these false teachers claimed the Spirit,

John does not challenge that claim directly.

At the same time, he reminded people that those teachers claims were frivolous.

and their claim was invalid if they did not exhibit what they professed.

We are to know someone not only by what they tell us

We are to judge them by how they live out their faith.

We learnered that back in 1 John 3:11-24.

And those that would deny Christ are AntiChrist meaning they are against Christ.

They are not for him

They don’t believe in him

And there father is the devil.

Verse 3 says

Vs. 3-4 False Doctrine and AntiChrist’s

verse 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.

So who were these AntiChrists.

Well it wasn't one person.

Also John new nothing of the silly Left Behind movies and books that were once popular in America.

John is speaking about the Jews and the Gnostics of his day.

Jesus said the Jews were among these antichrists in John 8:24

John 8:24 says

English Standard Version Chapter 8

24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

So what does this mean for us today?

Who are modern day AntiChrists

I mentioned the Gnostics

Gnostics - who’s belief system is centered around secret knowledge - They don’t believe the word of God is authoritative.

Mormons - The Mormons accept a modified form of the doctrine of the *Trinity, in which Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are believed to be three separate Gods united in a common godhead of purpose and perfection

Jehovah’s Witnesses - The popular name given since 1931 to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society which traces its origins in the 1870s to the *Adventist doctrines of the American lay preacher C. T. *Russell (q.v.). His main claim was that Jesus Christ, a perfect man, had returned invisibly to earth in 1874 in order to prepare for the Kingdom of God which was expected to materialize after the Battle of Armageddon in 1914. The overriding responsibility of believers was to study the Bible and to warn as many people as possible about the impending ‘end time’ so that they might survive on earth, in turn, a First Judgement, Christ’s millennial reign on earth, and a Second Judgement. Only a ‘small flock’ of 144,000 people drawn from the whole of human history were to expect eternal life in heaven.

Witnesses Don’t believe Christ was God and are antichrists as well.

Why do I mention these three groups of people.

What do all three have in common?

They and their followers all teach distortions of the word of God.

They are our modern day AntiChrists.

They are lost and spread their lies to anyone who will listen to them.

And so we should discern and reject their lies and distortions of the True Gospel.

Becasue I am sure you will encounter them coming to your home or at your work place preaching to you another Gospel.

Another Gospel means they are an Anti Christ and their Father is the Devil.

1 Timothy 4:1-3 speaks about those that would distort the truth as well

English Standard Version Chapter 4

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

WHo forbids marriage to members in their church?

The Pope with Priests and Nuns.

That's right the Pope is another Anti Christ.

So to help combat and be able to spot these Anto Christs and deceivers we should memorize Scripture and our Catechism

If you know the truth than you can spot a lie.

So lets be students of the truth.

What do questions 21 and 22 state in the WSC

The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 21

Question 21

Who is the Redeemer of God’ s elect?

The only Redeemer of God’ s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, (1 Tim. 2:5–6) who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, (John 1:14, Gal. 4:4) and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever. (Rom. 9:5, Luke 1:35, Col. 2:9, Heb. 7:24–25)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 22

How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?

Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, (Heb. 2:14,16, Heb. 10:5) and a reasonable soul, (Matt. 26:38) being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, (Luke 1:27,31,35,42, Gal. 4:4) yet without sin. (Heb. 4:15, Heb. 7:26)

All three of these cults Mormons, Gnostics, and Jehovahs’s Witnesses deny these statements of faith found in the Bible.

And so they have the “spirit of AntiChrist” that John is speaking of.

They are the seed of the serpent.

But what spirit is it that believers have?

What spirit can overcome the works of the devil?

The Holy Spirit

And John Speaks about the Holy Spirit and its effect in you in verse 4

English Standard Version Chapter 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.

You being born of God,

and your participation in the Word of God and strengthening influence from Jesus,

keeps you from being overcome by

the alluring persuasive speech of the flesh,

The lies of cults.

the threats of persecution or if you don’t believe them you are not a true follower of God.

used by these antichristian or pseudo-christian cults of Johns day and our day.

You are enabled by the spirit to overcome these temptations,

because the Divine Spirit in them and you is stronger than their lying and antichristian spirit in unbelievers.

John says you are from God and have OVERCOME THEM

The THEM MEANS even during his day their were many groups of people and false prophets who were trying to subvert the truth.

But even though we are told that they are many what does God promise

That we will Overcome them

We are OVERCOMERS

We will not be decieved by these men who would call us devils.

Rather we will over come them the flesh and the devil.

Becasue He who is in you is greater than Satan and his followers who are in the world.

Vs. 5-6 Only Believers Can Hear the Truth

Verse 5 says They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

You may ask yourself why do so many people believe and follow these cults.

Becasue so many people are of the world.

So cults, televangelists, name it and claim it word of faith groups they all have one thing in common .

They are in love with the world and the things of this world.

And if you are of the seed of Satan the Worlds speech sounds great to you.

We see how prone people are to vanity and falsehood in our society.

Hence false doctrines easily penetrate and spread far and wide.

In our society today what is one of the big lies perpetuated in the media.

God is love and everyone can believe that God is whatever they want him to be.

This is another lie and because people are of the world they listen to the lies of the world

You see how the world will twist the truth

Becasue God is Love.

But God by his very existence as God can not be what human beings deem him to be.

If that were true he is no longer God and we have deemed ourselves to be God.

But you know that you are not Gods because what is God according to the Bible and the WSC

The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 4

What is God?

God is a Spirit, (John 4:24) infinite, (Job 11:7–9) eternal, (Ps. 90:2) and unchangeable, (James 1:17) in his being, (Exod. 3:14)wisdom, (Ps. 147:5) power, (Rev. 4:8) holiness, (Rev. 15:4) justice, goodness, and truth. (Exod. 34:6–7)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 5

Are there more Gods than one?

There is but One only, the living and true God. (Deut. 6:4, Jer. 10:10)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 6

How many persons are there in the Godhead?

There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. (1 John 5:7, Matt. 28:19)

But we are sinful human beings.

And we hold none of these attributes.

So God is not what we choose him to be

And so according to John every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist.

And they are and the world is headed to hell if they believe this modern lie that God is whoever you want him to be.

And not all the tears or words said after an unbeliever dies will change who those of the world serve and where they will end up which is hell.

And if you are of the world you think I’m a lier because your father is Satan.

And if your a believer then what I am telling you about Christ sounds true in your ears.

and only those confessing him to be Lord are Christians.

and only those confessing him to be Lord will be saved from the wrath of God when Jesus returns to Judge the World.

Then you are from God as verse 6 points out

Verse 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.

There are useful warnings added in verse 6.

Becasue its by the obedience of faith we are to prove ourselves to be from God.

Those who listen to God and Obey God.

Becasue if you listen and don’t obey then you really were not listening.

It is easy to boast that we are from God, and so nothing is more common among people today.

People will proudly boast that they worship God, and yet they no less proudly reject God’s Word.

Or they will pretend to believe God’s Word, and yet when they are brought to the test they close their ears and will not listen when the preacher touches on something in Gods word that would require them to change how they are currently living.

So the only true evidence of whether you are of the spirit of truth or the spirit of error

is whether when your put to the test you will follow his word and turn your back on you sin.

If you revere God’s Word then it is the evidence that you fear him and Love him and want to obey Jesus

.Everyone who really fears and obeys God must know him in his Word

Becasue beloved we can’t know God in any other way than by his word and spirit

and the two will never contradict each other.

We should also notice that the listening mentioned by the apostle is to be understood of the inward and real listening of the heart, which is done by faith.

Unbelievers will not listen to the Word of God and say that is something I want they will rather hiss at the truth.

Smile and say isn't that a nice story.

Becasue they hate the truth and those who are not from God “Will hate the Words that I am speaking”

Becasue they love the lies of this World

And they hate the truth.

So if you are a Believer I hope you will; remember how to tell “THE DIFFEReECE BETWEEN A TRUE AND FALSE GOSPEL.

That you will now understand

The necessity of Spiritual Discernment

Beware of the False Doctrine of AntiChrists

Understand that Only believers can hear the truth. Which is contained in the Word of God.

So when, false spirits claim to speak in God’s name,

we must inquire from the Scriptures whether this is so.

We should Provided a devout attention to the Word of God.

Which should be accompanied with humility and meekness,

A spirit of understanding will be given to us if we are Gods elect.

And as a faithful interpreter God’s Holy Spirit will reveal to us the meaning of what is said in Scriptures.

SO we can Know the Difference between a True and False Prophet

And a true and false Gospel

And if God be for us who can be against us.

No one

And its

In Christ Name that we pray.

Amen.

CLOSING PRAYER

Father I pray that those who have heard your call to knowing the difference between True and False Prophets have heard your instruction from John and will heed it.

Help us to daily Abide in your Word and Spirit until we meet you face to face at the end of our lives.

Help us lord to Cling to the truth that you are the Christ.

The one who has called us and informed us that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and died on the cross for our sins.

Help us to have a seasoned and wise life in which we remember the things you have taught us from your Word.

Help us to feed on the meat of the Gospel and not stay as babes our entire lives.

Help us Lord to walk with you in this life.

And we thank you for this your day.

In Christ name AMEN.

LET US RISE

Trinity Hymnal #1

*Hymn of Response…..……TPH# 100B All People That on Earth Do Dwell

WE ARE DISMISSED WITH GOD’S BLESSING

*God’s Word of Blessing

*Closing Hymn…………………..……………………….. TPH #567 Doxology