The Spirit of Truth and the spirits of Error

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Please remain standing for the reading of the Word. We'll begin reading in 1

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John 3, the last verse, and then to verse 6 of chapter 4.

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I want to remind you that this is God's holy and infallible Word.

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Let's begin. 1 John 3 .24 Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him.

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And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us.

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Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.

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Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the

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Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

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And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

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And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

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You are of God, little children, and have overcome them.

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Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

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They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

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We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us.

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By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

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May the Lord be pleased with our study of his Word. Please pray with me. O Lord, we ask that you would grant us a full measure of discernment, that we would know the truth from error, that we would know the difference between right and almost right, and all of this would be for your glory and for our edification and the peace and purity and the unity of the

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Church. O Lord, even though we be weak, we know that you are strong.

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We know that you have preserved a witness, and there will always be faithful ones who have a singular allegiance to you.

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And O Lord, we take heart and rejoice that we are numbered with them. We ask all this in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Please be seated. The title of the message today is

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The Spirit of Truth and the Spirits of Error. The theme of the message today, very simply, is

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Discerning Truth from Error by Testing the Spirits. Discerning the

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Truth from Error by Testing the Spirits. First, there is an imperative command to test the spirits, and that is the first point of the outline, for those of you who have followed that outline format.

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Secondly, the inevitable question is, how do we test the spirits? And third, what does or what will the testing reveal?

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John has labored to show his hearers and us, under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit, that we are to love each other in a way that is very different than the world's love.

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We've also been called to abide in him, and abiding in him means keeping his commandments.

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And certainly another important feature in 1 John is to flee worldliness and to have a sharp distinction, much like James, between the worldly and the godly.

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The Christian simply has to view things differently. They understand the world differently.

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Let's look at our text again, beginning at verse 24. This section is properly broken off from that which goes before it.

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It seems to go more fitting with chapter 4. It's a little lesson for you. Sometimes the chapter divisions aren't always perfect breaks.

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Now, he who keeps his commandments abides in him. We often talk about our love for God and how pure it seems like it's almost this spiritual thing only, but love for God demands commandment keeping.

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Covenant blessings, which you enjoy, have covenantal obligations. They are not the way we secure blessings.

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They're not the way we have favor with God, but it is fitting for the people of God to respond to God and his word with obedience, with a pursuit and a love of righteousness.

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And this idea of him abiding with the church is so comforting to our souls.

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Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us. Amen. It's such good news.

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We cannot break the love that Christ has for his people. The redemption price has been paid for the people of God, and it's been paid in full, and it's now irrevocable.

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Christ has won his bride. He has purchased her with his own blood.

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Therefore, the church clings to him and abides with him forever.

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Man, it's really good news. It's another element here, and it feeds into our section, and it says the last half of verse 24, and by this we know that he abides in us.

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He's given us his spirit. God indwells his people with his spirit, and as I've said a couple of times, there is a majesty of this occasion.

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God's people have assembled here on Church Avenue in Longwood, and I have absolute assurance that the presence of God is in this place because we who are called by his name have come and have gathered in his presence, heeding his call.

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Surely God is with us. Surely he's here and present with us.

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The spirit abides with us. We know that he abides with us because of that indwelling and the truth of the promises of God as outlined in Scripture.

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Well, now we get to chapter 4 and the bulk of the message. Look again at chapter 4, verse 1.

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Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.

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Spirit is a very complicated word.

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We use this word for the Holy Spirit, but it has a wide range of meanings, and in this range of meanings we're going to get a sense of what

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John is talking about here. This is the vital principle by which the body is animated.

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We might say the spirit of a man. We also might say the rational spirit, the power by which a human being feels things, wills, thinks, decides.

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It's also used of demons or evil spirits who inhabit the bodies and certainly influence the spirits and bodies of men.

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Here, I think the grammar suggests this definition for the spirits.

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One in whom a spirit is manifest or embodied, actuated by a spirit, probably demonic, and one who is either truly moved by God's spirit or boasts that he is.

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We think sometimes that false prophets and false teaching is simply people being mistaken.

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Our doctrine is not perfect. We have holes in our theology.

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Each of us have errors in our belief system. But this is speaking of something very different.

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This is a spirit inhabiting, influencing a false prophet who is leading the people of God astray.

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And very critically, it seems, look at the last part of verse 1. Many false prophets have gone into the world.

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The testing of the spirits is applied to the false teacher, who

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John has already addressed in the epistle. False prophets would boast that they are filled with the

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Holy Spirit while being under the influence of false spirits.

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I don't know if you know this. You should if you've been here for any time. But we are engaged in a spiritual war.

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And if we had eyes to see the spiritual war that rages around us, it would probably be terrifying.

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There are forces, demonic forces at work trying to harm the people of God.

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There are forces at work sowing seeds of discord in the churches.

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And false teachers are instruments and tools in the hand of the enemy to sow discord amongst the body of Christ.

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This is very real. I can tell you, serving in this capacity, the spiritual war is real.

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There is a cosmological battle happening all the time, and we are in the middle of it.

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Now, we have security because we're in Christ. We have security because we're filled with the

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Spirit, but we cannot be naive about the reality of the spiritual battle that rages.

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And the church must be on guard against the enemies of Christ and his cross and the people of God, and we must be able to discern truth from error.

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Now, let's look at verse 2. The question of how do we test the spirits?

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We get an idea of what the spirits are. We have to ask the question, how do we know how to test them?

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And verse 2 says this. By this you know the Spirit of God.

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Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

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Now, when we read this, we already learn that this is the doctrine of antichrist. We learned that in this epistle already.

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To deny that Jesus came in the flesh is antichrist doctrine.

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But it has the weight and the import of the full idea and spectrum of the person and work of Christ.

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The early church waged a big battle for 400 plus years about the person and work of Christ.

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The church always has the doctrine of Christ under attack.

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I have a couple of instances to reveal to you to show you something about this.

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These are historic heresies that have come upon the church.

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I'm quoting from an article written by Coleman Ford. Just a summary of the events for the interest of time.

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The earliest Christological controversies in the early church include

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Ebionism and Docetism. The Ebionites, whose leader was identified as Ebion by various early heresiologists and historians like Irenaeus, were a type of a

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Jewish sect in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries. Of course, the roots of these heresies extend even further back into scriptural times.

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They maintained the authority of the Hebrew Bible and thus held to the necessity of observing the

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Mosaic law. They argued that God adopted Jesus at his baptism, thus rejecting his pre -existence in virginal conception.

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A similar view was espoused by a false teacher named Serentis in the late 1st century.

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He lived in Asia Minor and was deemed heretical by the early church fathers.

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According to these sources, this man denied the virgin birth, taught that Jesus was a normal human who was exceedingly wise, and that he was empowered by the

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Christ spirit upon his baptism. He appeared to affirm many facets of Gnostic cosmology, wherein the world was made by a lesser being, that Jesus spoke of a previously unknown supreme

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God, and that Jewish law was created by the lesser being. This sounds crazy to us, but the church is always experiencing these things.

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Now, we have an error I'm about to read that comes right from the pages of scripture.

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Another early Christological error to arise within the church was Docetism, which challenged the biblical testimony of Christ's full humanity.

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Does that sound familiar? The apostle John warned against this error, noting that some refused to acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh.

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Our text is the cross -reference for this. Ignatius of Antioch likewise warns against this erroneous view, and he warns the church in Ephesus.

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Now listen to this. I love it. It doesn't sound like a church father. It sounds so contemporary.

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He says, and I want everyone to hear this, do not so much as listen to anyone unless he speaks truthfully about Jesus Christ.

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Amen. The church must not listen to anyone unless they speak truthfully about Jesus Christ.

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Ignatius affirms that Jesus was both flesh and spirit, born and unborn,

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God in man, true life and death, both from Mary and from God, first subject to suffering, then beyond it.

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There was no reason to suffer for Jesus, as the apostles and martyrs had done, if Jesus, too, had not suffered in the flesh.

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You say, well, what's the big deal? Maybe we'll get some things wrong about Jesus in our doctrine.

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What the big deal is our salvation and the purity and the truth of the church is at risk.

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We can't tinker with the person of Christ. We can't adopt novel ideas about the person and work of Christ.

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We must hold to the truth about who Jesus is. And John has been helping us do that extensively here in our epistle.

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So when we read these things, we read them like, OK, these are problems. I believe that Jesus has come in the flesh.

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Do you believe he's fully God? Do you believe he really is also a man?

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He's not just a man, but he is a man. He's God in the flesh, but he's man, too.

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Do you believe that about Christ? Do you believe that he really suffered? Do you believe that he really died and atoned for sin on the cross?

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Do you really believe that he was buried in the grave? Do you believe that he rose again?

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Do you believe that he has ascended on high and he reigns and rules even now alive?

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You have to believe that. Those are the things that you have to believe.

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So confessing that Jesus has come in the flesh probably has far greater implications than you realize.

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I want to give you one more. Has anyone ever had Jehovah's Witnesses come to their door?

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The church has refuted their doctrine historically.

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In the fourth century, numerous Christological errors arose and required an extensive defense from Christian leaders.

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The first major error was Arianism. Arius was a presbyter, shame on him, in Alexandria.

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And he began teaching in 313 that the son was created rather than being the co -equal eternal son of God.

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We have to believe that Jesus is the co -eternal son of God.

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According to Arius and his followers, Jesus was a created being, not ontologically equal to the father.

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We must believe that Jesus Christ is ontologically equal to the father or we're heretics.

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We can't receive any teaching that compromises. That's what John wants us to understand.

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We have to discern. We have to know the truth. We have to discern the spirits. We have to test them to see if they're from God.

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To help spread this teaching, he even wrote out songs which incorporated his belief about Christ, stating there was a time when he was not.

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The church dealt with this error at the Council of Nicaea in 325. They declared that Jesus is begotten, not made.

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Light from light, true God from true God, and of one being or essence with the father.

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He is one substance, homoousius, with the father.

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They use this to describe the relationship of essence between the father and the son. This word, though not from Scripture, was used to express the biblical relationship revealed in Scripture and to denounce the unbiblical view of the

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Arians. Arianism would take many forms following the Nicene Declaration, with groups affirming doctrines similar to Arius, while seeking to avoid the actual error itself.

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JWs are Arians. They're heretics. They deny

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Jesus Christ. The stakes are very high. Well, let's continue our exposition.

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Antithetically, every spirit that confesses Jesus has come in the flesh, and we have to have more just than the incarnation here.

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The full orbed councils and creeds. We have to have that fuller picture of who

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Christ is. To have orthodox doctrine about him. I should pause and point out this was somewhat pointed out in Sunday school today, but the errors that happen in the life of the church caused the church to sharpen her pencil.

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To be more precise in her doctrine. I wonder what the errors of our age are.

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That the Lord is using those errors for us to sharpen our pencil, to have greater precision about the truth, about who

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Christ is, about Scripture. We should be investigating that because I'm sure in every age there's been that.

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But the church gets stronger when heresy comes. The church always gets stronger.

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So if the false teachers try to make inroads in our church, we can laugh with glee because we know that they're going to be stomped down and the truth about Christ is going to be exalted.

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And we can rejoice in this. Verse three, every spirit that does not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God.

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And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

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We've already learned in chapter two. Little children, it is the last hour.

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As you have heard that the Antichrist is coming. Even now, many Antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour.

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They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.

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But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us.

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There has been a move to assault the church and make the church counterfeit from the beginning.

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As an aside, I think I mentioned to you this. You look into church history. There were 17,

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I believe, identifiable self -proclaimed messiahs around the time of Jesus.

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Totally satanic ploy. If everybody's a messiah, no one is.

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If 17 messiahs, false messiahs come, then maybe the people will be distracted when the real messiah comes.

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Sounds like a spiritual war to me. Sounds like a cosmological battle.

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It sounds like the enemy trying to thwart the righteous plan of God, but it's impossible.

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Hallelujah. Amen. Verse four says this.

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You are of God, little children, and have overcome them.

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Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. What a great comfort that is for the people of God with all the chaos around us.

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Wars and rumors of wars and political upheavals and tensions and all the things that are happening.

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It could cause us to be filled with anxiety. Angst. But our

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God reigns. Christ is on his throne. He has conquered sin and death.

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He will not let you with his father and with the spirit to be snatched out of his hand.

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He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. It would seem to me it would remove our timidness and our fearfulness.

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Our pessimism and give us great boldness and great courage, great hope for the future, because our

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Lord reigns. None of this is a mystery to him. None of this is is hard for him.

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None of this is baffling to him. He's not wringing his hands. He is in control and he is greater than all that is in the world.

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And again, the false teacher, he appeals to the flesh.

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You know, health and wealth is an appeal to the flesh. The prosperity gospel is appeal to the flesh.

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Everybody wants to be healthy and wealthy. How many want to take up their cross and follow

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Christ? How many want to suffer for the righteous name of Jesus Christ to give their lives as martyrs for Jesus?

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That's a harder sell. What if following Christ means you lose everything you have?

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And I would say it's a good trade to have Christ and to lose all that. The false teachers, you look at their life and their doctrine.

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They are self -willed and they're self -exalting, self -promoting.

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And they appeal to the flesh. They are, verse 5, of the world.

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Therefore they speak as of the world and the world hears them.

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We discern the truth from error. We hear the false teachers because the good shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know their good shepherd.

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We hear his voice when he calls and when strangers call, we don't follow after them.

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The Holy Spirit enables us to discern, to test spirits.

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Well, finally, in verse 6, it says we are of God.

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Let me just stop there. At every turn in our liturgy, we have learned again today that we are

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God's people. And my friends, this is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon a person.

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And it's your possession if you be in Christ. We all have many troubles.

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We all have many hard things. But if we be in Christ, if it can be said of us, we are of God.

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If it can be said of us, we are God's people. We are God's children. We are his workmanship.

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If it can be said, those things can be said of us. Oh, take heart today. Oh, people of God, give thanks, rejoice.

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You belong to him. Nothing better than belonging to him.

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And to those of you, maybe someone here today who doesn't know Christ and hasn't turned to him.

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Today, I would urge you to give Christ the entirety of your life and existence.

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Flee to him. Run to him in faith. Repent of all your sins.

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And cast yourself and your cares upon the righteous one. And you'll find in him salvation and peace.

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And hope and a future. If only you would believe.

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The Christian, the second part of verse six. Knows God. And he hears

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God's servants. In this case, the apostle and the apostolic band and the early church.

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And the faithful proclaimers of God's word today. We hear the truth.

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We discern the truth. We have that Berean mindset. We take what we hear. We look at it in the lens of scripture.

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And we say it is of the Lord. The one who doesn't know

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God does not hear us. Our evangelism and our apologetics often fall on deaf ears.

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Because the people don't know God. We should pray for them that God would give them eyes to see and ears to hear.

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That we might, that they might know him. The section concludes with this is how we know.

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This is how we know the difference between truth and error.

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Let me give you a few words of application and I'm going to close here. First thing

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I'd like you to consider today is how is your discernment?

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Are you discerning truth from error? And I don't think you can just rely on your intuition on this.

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You have to be in the word. You have to be in a church. You have to be giving attention to these things in order to discern truth from error.

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You can't believe everyone who is a self -declared prophet of God.

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You need to put their teaching and their lives to the test. Does their teaching exalt

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Christ or does it exalt them? Does their teaching align with the scriptures?

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Is it a thus saith the Lord kind of teaching? Or is the teaching,

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God talks to me and I'm the prophet and you have to listen to me.

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And I have a different word from the Lord that fits the spirit of this age. Run for the hills.

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Or stone them, even better. Put their lives and their teaching to the test.

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Second, and lest we be naive and ignorant. Often the tests of orthodoxy involve the person and work of Christ.

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That was the battle of the early church. And I suspect until the Lord's return, it will be the battle of the church.

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To deny the reality of the person and work of Jesus Christ. So make sure your

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Christology is high and good and scriptural. And finally today, be comforted.

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There is a spiritual war that rages on.

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There's things happening that might be terrifying if we can see it.

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But the believer has great confidence and hope because he has Christ.

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He has his spirit. And brethren, the sheep hear his voice.

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And this we can take heart. Amen. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, we come to you with hearts of thanksgiving.

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There are intricate, nuanced errors that could be foisted upon your church.

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But you've given us your word and you've filled us with your spirit. That we can discern the truth from error.

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Oh Lord, give us right minds to discern. Give us diligent working arms to explore your word and to meditate upon it.

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And to pray through it. To trust reliable sources. Oh Lord, never let us put our trust in an unreliable source.

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Please, I pray, oh Lord, protect all of our little ones here. Protect our families.

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Protect this church from error that might lead them away from the purity of Christ and his gospel.

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Oh Lord, we say with Paul, if I or an angel from heaven preach another gospel or another

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Christ, do not listen to me. Oh Lord, give them wisdom and discernment.

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Do not be led astray, we pray. And it's in Jesus' name alone that we pray.