Latest / HBCWestminster / 1.15.20 1 John 4:1-6 Pastor Nathan Anderson

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1.15.20 1 John 4:1-6 Pastor Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  We'll go over some review, remind ourselves where we have been to this point. We are obviously continuing the study of the first epistle of John. We're going to go through these remaining verses and chapter of John, and then we're going to head into the second and third.
• 0:20
  epistle as well this will take us through should take us through till the end of the semester I think we've got like 10 weeks so what was going to be last semester we're going to do for this full two semesters so hopefully you guys are enjoying it I'm enjoying and have been enjoying the study I'm excited to get back into it I really have enjoyed this letter from John which
• 0:47
  I don't know if you guys have sensed it as we have gone through this, but I don't know what view you guys had of the epistle of John leading up to this study, but I hope that you guys have really started to gather the love that John has for his people and the care with which he writes and the...
• 1:11
  the knowledge, the knowing, the removal of doubt that comes as we have gone through this study. So as we get started, we'll go back through here, cover some of our synopsis from these first weeks that we've done the study. John is writing to combat heresy, which was sneaking into the church and was causing a disruption of the certainty of the believers.
• 1:37
  mainly around the humanity of Christ, which would then strip him of the ability to save, right? If he was not fully human, how could he pay for our sins? And we have seen and know that we Christians are very willing to deceive ourselves and to live a fiction as we have gone through this study. The enemy wants us to live in the bondage of this fiction rather than independence and openness with our loving Heavenly Father.
• 2:03
  causing us to hide away rather than live in the freedom that comes in Christ. We can live in openness because Christ the righteous has paid all for our sins, which means we can now live in loving response to Him and walk redemptively towards the perfection that is in Christ and His sacrifice. And we do this by growing in our knowledge of Him, which leads to a love for God.
• 2:32
  as we move closer and closer to our appreciation and understanding of what grace and love is from God in expression through his son Christ, we are led into love for God and for each other as his children. As we get to know him more intimately, find the perfection which he offers us in his son, brings forth a strength and courage.
• 2:58
  As we know, he has already won. You guys remember that, that we know he has already won. He has already defeated Satan. There's a quote in there from Brant Hansen from a book I just love called Unaffendable. It says, oh yes, the heart is deceptive. And that calls for humility above all else because my heart isn't deceptive because it fools other people. It's deceptive because...
• 3:24
  It fools me. John repeatedly warns us against ourselves. And the defense, he says, against this deceiving heart and spirit is simple, straightforward, but really easily forgotten. It is to abide.
• 3:41
  Right. Abide in the word, abide in Christ, abide in the spirit. As even he writes in the gospel of John, John continues to dive deeper into the truth, which he used to build. You guys remember as we've gone through this, I've used the analogy of the house that John was building. He was building that foundation in the beginning stages. Then he was building the walls and then he built the roof that we are now in. We're in this home. And as we go forward, John continues to adorn those walls, build out in a deeper.
• 4:10
  fashion the truths that he spoke of and wrote about in the beginning chapters. Abide is the best defense against the deceiving heart, our own and others. We saw in 1 John 3, 1 through 10.
• 4:35
  that the Trinity shone forth where the Father's love is expressed in the coming and dying of Jesus for us and the gift of life which comes from the Holy Spirit, which is the power which regenerates the believer through Christ's sacrifice. And we looked at by this sacrifice, by this love expressed through Christ's sacrifice, we know love. Therefore, let us love because of Christ's love and his expression of action in love.
• 5:04
  Therefore, let us love not in word or talk, but in deed and truth, so that the church is equipped and working properly, which will make the body grow so that it builds itself up in love and stands strong against the lies the enemy comes after it with. Just a couple more reminders as we set our stage for what we're going to be in, which is chapter 4, verses 1 through 6.
• 5:31
  As we dive back into the study after our break, if you remember the first portion of John, really there was an emphasis on fellowship. This is how we know we have fellowship with God. And then the second section we are now in, he transitions in the end of chapter 2 to a focus on sonship. This is what a son of the Most High looks like.
• 5:54
  fellowship, and sonship. John, as we recall, is all about contrasts. Light versus dark, hate versus love, righteous versus sin, forgiveness versus condemnation, doubt versus knowing. Contrast is all over this letter from John. As John has transitioned to sonship, he has really fixed
• 6:17
  On the statement now. By this we know. By this we know. In my study and in my Bible. I have by this we know. By this we shall know. By this we know. Just underlined over and over and over again. In these sections that we're in. He has transitioned to the statement of. By this we know. And John has.
• 6:40
  as we ended in our study last semester, writes of the Holy Spirit for the first time in his epistle. In verse 24, he identifies him by name in that, as he talks about the Spirit whom we have been given. And then we also saw, when we studied that out, that we're told in verse 24 that we know...
• 7:04
  that he abides in us by the spirit, that we have been given the spirit and he abides in us. And we looked at John 3, 34 and saw that the spirit has been given to us without measure. There is no measure to the fact, the indwelling of the spirit in the believer. We have been given beyond measure. Well, as soon as John is inspired to write about the Holy Spirit in verse 24, as soon as he does that, no sooner does the spirit come on the scene, but then John gives us
• 7:34
  an example for why the Holy Spirit is so important in the Christian's life and what one of his purposes are for indwelling the believer. This gives us a good reminder at this point of where we have been and sets us up for where we're going to go tonight. Let's read our six verses and we'll pray and begin. 1 John 4, verses 1-6 says this, Beloved,
• 8:04
  Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone 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 have heard was coming and is now in the world.
• 8:36
  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. I'm sure all of us at some point in our childhood have memorized that verse. 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.
• 9:05
  Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And God, I pray tonight, God, that you would direct our minds, Lord, that we would have calmness in our spirit, Lord, as we many have come from work directly here, Father. The busyness of the week already in full motion, God, I pray.
• 9:36
  now that you would calm our spirits, calm our minds, Lord. Give us attentiveness to your word. God, direct our minds, direct our hearts. Guide us to your truth, Lord. Help us to understand this passage and its meaning and its application for us today. Father, I pray that we would be encouraged by the statements from John tonight. Help us to live the truth that we are taught and that we learn from your word.
• 10:09
  We pray these things in your name. Amen. Well, if you are a parent and you have traveled any distance, then you know that on these travels, you will often hear a very repeated question from your kids. Back in the back. Are we there yet? Right? Every, I mean, even if it's like 45 minutes.
• 10:39
  It doesn't have to be any longer than that. The kids will ask that question, and depending on how many hours, they will ask this question many times over. Are we there yet? Carla and I years ago came up with, I think, a pretty good way to combat this constant barrage of questioning. We did a little reading, and the suggestion was to make each hour a trip.
• 11:02
  of the trip a square on a piece of paper or something like that, like a tile, that could be checked off. So if you have a 10-hour long trip, you put 10 squares that represent an hour, and every hour you kind of celebrate the checking off. Well, what this does then is every time the kid asks how much longer, you can ask them how many squares do you have left. So you ask them a question to their question.
• 11:30
  It actually works pretty well because it gives them a little bit of a visual and a guidance to know before they even have a concept of time to understand what is coming and how many more squares they have. And I honestly would highly recommend you use this method. But as I thought about us as Christians, we can be a bit...
• 11:59
  like kids traveling on vacation, often asking God as we anxiously await heaven, are we there yet? When is this sinful body going to just die so I can get on with eternity? The troubles of this life, the difficulties, we can get tired of them, I think, often.
• 12:20
  Yet we are still in this present age. We are not home yet. We are still in the world and the world is still in the hands of the enemy. As soon as John introduces the blessed hope, truth and promise of the Holy Spirit, he is reminded of the enemy because this world is in the lap of the enemy. And we know that the enemy is out to deceive, to seek, to devour and destroy.
• 12:50
  John was so very aware of this as he had seen many times the spiritual battle right in front of his eyes as Christ cast out demons and heals the afflicted throughout his ministry here on earth. Because of what John had seen and was aware of, he must warn these believers of the enemy's attempts to deceive in the area of the Spirit's power and manifestation.
• 13:16
  Ephesians 6, 11 through 12 tells us that we must put on the full armor of God in order to be able to stand against the schemes of the devil because we wrestle against authorities, cosmic powers, present darkness, and spiritual forces of evil. The battle is real, brothers and sisters. The battle is real, and the opponent is very adept at deception.
• 13:47
  The year 1665, the Great Plague broke out in London. In just one week, 12,000 people were dead. The mortality rate was so high that trusts or inheritances would sometimes pass through three heirs in a single day. The scene was gruesome, the outlook bleak. The College of Physicians announced that
• 14:14
  the fresh air was the culprit. They advised people to retreat into their homes, close everything up, even their chimneys, and burn stinking messes on their hearths, telling the people to breathe deeply the stench of smoldering filth. And this was supposed to help them. I don't think that that real story could illustrate better
• 14:42
  The enemy's attempts to call good evil and evil good. To say what will actually kill us will set us free. As we begin to dig into the verses, into verse 1, let me give you a basic outline for tonight. Be aware of false teaching, verse 1. Be a confessing Christian, verses 2 through 3. Be aware of who has the power, verse 4. I love that one.
• 15:12
  And be sure, verses 5 through 6. In verse 1 of chapter 4, John tells the reader, do not believe every spirit and to test the spirits. Be aware of false teachers. Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. As the story I told about the great plague exemplified, the enemy is dangerous as he desires to entice us.
• 15:37
  towards what will destroy, what will poison us, all while calling it truth and healing and good. Our modern culture scoffs at the idea of a sovereign God who is in control. More offensive still is the idea He has come down to earth and infiltrated this place to save it. Rather, in their opinion, man is evolving.
• 16:05
  We are free to explore whatever spiritual practices meets us and our personal needs. The most important thing is that you explore and find what works for you, just as long as that is not Christ. We are told that Christianity is a lie and evil, yet the weird...
• 16:28
  and yet very real world of the occult is studied, explored, and even celebrated, even celebrated within our movies. I don't want to get on a huge soapbox here. You can watch whatever Disney movie you want to watch. That's fine. But it's not a coincidence that in kids' movies, often magic and all of these things is explored from an early age. Satan knows how to deceive. Just talk with your kids.
• 16:57
  Make them aware of his deception. New Age and many Eastern forms of spiritual practices are becoming more and more well-known and popular within our culture today. The truth is that the thought that there is something out there is felt.
• 17:17
  We all know that there is something beyond what we experience here in our physical realm. We sense that there is something greater than us out there, and we want to explore it. The enemy knows this. He knows he cannot veil God's existence completely. Thus, the enemy entices people to explore the unknown realms, entices them with the feeling of power.
• 17:46
  power offered in things like spiritism. He works diligently at removing the apprehension from people as we all poke fun at things like horoscopes in the newspaper and spiritism present in many cultures, making it feel harmless and unoffensive and maybe even safe.
• 18:07
  John was very aware of these lies Satan was telling and would tell. And as I said earlier, John had seen this war firsthand. He had seen the devil and his demons at work and knew they were not to be trifled with, that the Christian must be on guard against such evil. This is why in verse 1 he says, Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
• 18:37
  God. To John, the occult world was real. Serious perils awaited those who took this in a lackluster manner. John knew that even Christians were not immune to the enticement of the false representation of God's power.
• 18:57
  As I think of this warning from John and the reality of the enemy's power, I think of Janus and Jambres from the Pharaoh's magicians who were able to replicate many of the signs that Moses and Aaron did. Did they not? Right? They threw down a snake just as Aaron did. They did things that appeared to have power behind them. In fact, I think had the power of Satan behind them. John is aware.
• 19:23
  of the power of the enemy. John Phillips, there's a quote there that I really love. It was at the top of the first page as well. He says, the devil does not destroy God's wheat because that's impossible. So he imitates it. Wheat and tares look very similar in their early stages of their growth, but tares are not only worthless, they are poisonous. They will corrupt an entire crop. This is that quote,
• 19:55
  illustrates the importance of understanding where people are at, what spirit things are done in. God sows believers into this world and Satan sows counterfeits. This is seen throughout history. It's really mind-boggling. When I was doing this study, it's crazy when you think about how God is sowing
• 20:22
  and Satan is coming along and sowing a counter-truth, a counterfeit alongside that the entire time. No sooner had God brought along the apostles into the world than Satan sows Judaizer legalism and Gnosticism, along with a plethora of false messiahs. The interesting thing about Jewish history is that the Jews had never had a false messiah until they rejected the true one.
• 20:47
  God brings Martin Luther onto the scene and Satan brings Ignatius Loyola at the same time, which brought about the counter-reformation. Martin Luther brings the reformation. This man brings the counter-reformation. John Wesley comes on the scene, a man who loved...
• 21:07
  The Bible immensely. And then all of a sudden. Deism and Voltaire come on the scene. Which brought about agnosticism. He and Thomas Paine even launched. An incredible attack. On the Bible itself. Spurgeon and Moody. Come on the scene. Incredible pastors. Leaders of the church. And then who does Satan.
• 21:32
  So he sows the tares, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Charles Tace Russell, the JWs, and Mary Baker Eddy, all in the same time, leaders, pastors of churches. God brings a man whom many call the father of modern missions onto the field to plow, William Carey, alongside David Livingstone and Hudson Taylor, and Satan sows who? Karl Marx.
• 22:01
  whose teaching many of you know sowed the seeds which brought about the Soviet and Chinese communism, which did what? Closed countries to missionaries. Many more could be named, but you get the idea. God sows good seeds and Satan sows tares to try and combat. Satan, in his attempt to distract and replicate what is of God, must sow the contrast and call it good.
• 22:33
  He must deceive and at all times must attack the person of Christ, denying his deity and humanity fused together. And if you guys were here Sunday, Denny illustrated this beautifully when he grabbed that piece of tinfoil and he wrapped it around that bat. The humanity of Jesus wrapped around the deity of his godhood, put together the God-man. Because of the reality and darkness of the enemy in his spiritual realm, John calls for the...
• 23:04
  the believer to be aware, to be on guard, to test the spirits. If you guys see throughout that short history, you guys see that we must be aware of the fact that Satan is about deception to test the spirits. We might not, if we do, we might not fall victim to the deceptive power of Satan and his magicians.
• 23:31
  John does not just leave us here. He does not just say test the spirits. Make sure that you know that they're from God. Because there's going to be many false prophets out there he says. He doesn't just leave us there. He actually gives us the test.
• 23:45
  To prove that somebody is from God. Verses 2 and 3, the title of the point is, Be a Confessing Christian. This is the test. He says in verses 2 and 3, he says, By this you know the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses what? That Jesus Christ has come in the flesh from God. And any spirit, he says, that does not do that is not from God.
• 24:14
  The Bible and the Holy Spirit demands that we apply it to everything which claims to be spiritual, to be supernatural. Who do you say Christ is? John was facing the heresy that Christ was not fully human. The denial that Christ had come in the fullness of God and fullness of man. This heresy was called, and I practiced this all day and I'm going to butcher it again. Lance, do you know, I'll lean on you when I get to these words.
• 24:46
  It's basically deception. It's the Greek word for deceit. Yeah, something like that. Not only was he facing this heresy, this false belief that Christ did not come in the fullness of humanness, but these people who were claiming this to be true were apparently propagating it by using things such as tongues and spiritual utterances. This is why he calls for the church, the people to test the spirits.
• 25:14
  To this, John says, test them. Ask them, what do they say about Christ? This word comes from a Greek word called dokeo, which means to seem. This is the teaching that Jesus only seemed to be human. He only had the appearance of human. He never actually became fully human. This heresy was one of the earliest to creep into the church.
• 25:41
  And why would you think that Satan would attack this form from so early? The first known champion of this was Corinthus around 85 AD. But why would you guys think that Satan would attack his humanity so early in the formation of the church? You know what I mean? Yes.
• 26:16
  why, this was an interesting thought to me, why would he not attack his deity? Why would he go after his humanity? And if you think about that, we're so close in proximity to time to when Christ actually was on earth doing the miraculous signs and wonders that there was still a ton of people who were still alive who had seen this with their own eyes.
• 26:44
  So to attack his deity first would have been much harder because there have been so many people who had seen him exemplify his power over things like demons, over things like sickness. And so rather than attack that, you go after his humanity because that's the thing that you could call into question more easily. So because of its proximity to Christ on earth, I think Satan attacks his humanity because it is a thing much more easily.
• 27:13
  Now that we're much further away, often when we hear the opposite, right? He wasn't really God. He never actually claimed to be God. He actually was just a really good man. So there's a flip-flop. Satan is very wise in his proximity to Christ walking on earth of what he attacks. None of that's in your notes, but I think that's interesting. I think that's why he chose to start with the humanity of Christ.
• 27:45
  John knows the importance of the truth of Christ fully God and fully man. Thus makes it clear that anyone who does not confess this truth is not of the truth. There have actually been cases where people throughout history are claiming to be speaking in tongues or to be from God speaking new truth.
• 28:07
  And the knowledgeable Christians on the scenes have asked these people in these situations to confess Christ or asked, who do you say he is? To which, in some of these instances, the person will have nice things to say about Christ, will speak affectionately of him, but when they're pushed to confess him as Messiah or as God and man, the Son of God, they will be evasive and refuse to speak.
• 28:40
  Confession of God coming in Jesus Christ and being fully God, fully man, the Messiah is the test. Someone claiming to be from God and yet not confessing Christ is of the evil one, John says. Being used by the enemy to do what the enemy does best, deceive.
• 29:02
  John does not mince words on where the spirit comes from and names this deceiving spirit in verse 3. This spirit, this is the spirit of the Antichrist, he says. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. He says that of this spirit, John says, it will come and is now already here. This is an interesting statement.
• 29:28
  At the end of verse 3, he says, This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you have heard was coming and now is in the world already. We know in Revelation, John actually predicts that the man, the Antichrist, is going to come. He prophesies about him coming in the future. Here he says the spirit of the Antichrist has already come. So what's the deal, John? What are you saying? Maybe you have any idea? Yes. Yeah.
• 30:20
  Yeah, I would say it's what John is saying that the spirit of the rejection of Christ is present now and throughout eternity. The rejection of Christ is always present. We know that there will be a man ultimately that comes as the Antichrist. There is a difference between the person of the Antichrist, which is a physical person, and the spirit.
• 30:49
  which is that which denies Christ. Brothers and sisters, we must be aware, we must be confessing Christ and call others to do so as it speaks to whom our hearts and spirits belong to. We also must be aware of who has the power. This is my favorite point, and only because I get to make a reference to an 80s cartoon. Also because this is incredibly important.
• 31:21
  But verse 4, verse 4 says, 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. John made it clear in verse 24, as I said earlier, that we have the Holy Spirit living inside us. And in John 3, 34, we know that we have been giving him.
• 31:44
  in an immeasurable fashion. John gives a warning in the first three verses. He now wants to encourage the readers who have confessed Christ and know that they have the Holy Spirit. He does so by reminding them who has the power. If you guys grew up in the 80s, you guys probably know where I'm going with this, but does anybody remember the really muscle-bound hero who there was all of these...
• 32:12
  cartoons and characters of, and he had a sword. I don't remember if he had the sword. He said, He-Man? Nobody He-Man? Come on. He-Man was a cartoon in the 80s. I just had this conversation with Danny earlier this week. He was like, if you had... Say that a little bit louder.
• 32:40
  He had a sword, and whenever he pulled the sword out, it would, I have the power. No, okay, anyway. That was just an excuse to make an 80s reference. The reality, though, is, brothers and sisters, Satan is a creature of great power and skill of deception.
• 33:02
  He was the anointed cherub, son of the morning, choir master of glory, full of wisdom and of incredible beauty, able to walk in the midst of stones of fire. We see all of that in Isaiah chapter 14 verses 9 through 14 and Ezekiel 28 verse 12 through 15. In fact, so great was his influence among the angels that a third of the heavenly hosts followed him in his rebellion in order to do his will. Revelations 12, 1 through 5.
• 33:29
  He has since become the father of lies, twisting truth, and he has bent on the delaying of his ultimate destruction whilst trying to keep and recruit all children of Adam that he can to experience his destruction with him by way of deception. He hates humanity. He desires for the destruction of humanity and does so because it is through humanity that he knows his destruction is promised. He is powerful.
• 33:57
  But he does lack omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and seeks to overcome these limitations through the recruitment of humanity and angels into his plan for its destruction. John, as I said, had seen many times over the power of Satan during Christ's time on earth. Demonic activity went off the charts as Christ comes on the scene and as Satan went into overdrive to stomp out the Messiah's plan of redemption.
• 34:26
  It was all in vain, though. Each and every time as he meets Christ in the desert and tempts him, Satan is defeated. Each time Christ met a demon, they met their demise. The devil and his armies were powerless against the Lord. Despite all that Satan is, God is more powerful. God's spirit is more powerful. And John wants us to know that this spirit lives in us. Brothers and sister, this spirit.
• 34:56
  lives in us, we also have the same weapon Jesus used against the enemy's temptations of him, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The promise John makes us here in this verse, as he says that the greater is he who is in the world than he greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Excuse me. The promise John makes in that statement is that Satan might not be afraid of you and I.
• 35:25
  In fact, he's not afraid of us. But he is afraid of God. He is afraid of the spirit which lives inside of us. And he is afraid of the power of God's word spoken by the believer. Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. God has the power. The spirit is...
• 35:52
  God's power residing in the believer, and John wants us to be reminded. John reassures the readers in us, Satan is indeed powerful, but his power is nothing compared to that of God, who now lives in each one of us. Lastly, in verses 5 through 6, he wants us to be sure. To be sure. John continues his theme.
• 36:20
  which we have seen over and over again through our study, by this we know. John again wants no part of a believer being uncertain, questioning their steps, their faith, their power through the belief in Christ. So John ends this section and says, by this we know, as he concludes, he says, by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. By this we know. What is the by this we know referencing?
• 36:48
  It says, whoever knows God listens. Listens to us, he says. This is harkened back to the first chapter in verse 5 where he says, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him no darkness. This is the message we have heard from him. He's saying that they have heard this message from him, from Jesus himself. Satan is the master of counterfeits. He can tell people that shutting themselves in
• 37:21
  And burning filth in their homes will cure them of disease, of sin. Yet it is the Bible that is the cure. The true cure. Yet it is in the Bible that the true cure is found. It is in the person work of Christ, Jesus on the cross. We find redemption, freedom. Satan is a master forger. But that is why it is so vitally important that we study the truth. That is why John wrote that we would know our job.
• 37:50
  our task is to know the truth so well that it's easy for us to spot a forgery so that we can call people out into the open, into the fresh and clean air of the gospel that they might not suffer the poisonous infection of the enemy's counterfeits, that they might not fall for the magic tricks of men like Janus and Jambres. Brothers and sisters,
• 38:22
  The spiritual realm is real. Satan does have power. He is a liar, a master counterfeiter. He wants to deceive and destroy all he can. But praise God in heaven. The one who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. Because of this, we know if we listen, if we listen to God's word, we will be.
• 38:52
  not in error. Let's pray. God in heaven, I pray that your word would be reminding us of truth tonight and in our week. God, that even though we might feel like, God, in this country, in this area that we live, that this war is dull, Lord, that the spiritual realm is dull and not as powerful as it really is, God, make us aware, make us
• 39:21
  in tune with your spirit, make us mindful of the lies, the counterfeit truth that Satan wants us to slowly creep into our lives, into our hearts that might deceive us. Lord, help us to live in the truth. Help us to live out the truth in this culture, in this community, God, in this church and in our homes. God, we pray these things in your good and perfect and glorious name. Amen.