1 John 4

Sa have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in his grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood in the soul Cleansing blood Are your garments spotless?

Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin and be washed in the blood of the Lamb There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean O be washed in the blood of the Lamb Are you washed in the blood in the blood in the oh, cleansing blood of the Lamb Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Oh, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Up to the hill of Calvary my Savior went courageously and there he bled and died for me Hallelujah for the cross and on that day the world was changed A final perfect Lamb was slain Let earth and heaven now proclaim Hallelujah for the cross Hallelujah for the war he fought Love has won, Death has lost Hallelujah for the souls he bought Hallelujah for the cross.

What could I have done? Could never save my debt too great for deeds to pay But God my Savior made a way Hallelujah for the cross A slave to sin My life was bound but all my chains fell to the ground When Jesus blood came FL going down Hallelujah for the cross Hallelujah for the war he fought Love has won Death has lost Hallelujah for the souls he fought Hallelujah for the cross Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

And when I breathe my final breath I'll have no need to fear that rest this hope will guide me into death Hallelujah for the cross Hallelujah for the war he fought Love has won Death has lost Hallelujah for the souls he fought Hallelujah for the cross Hallelujah for the war he fought Love has won Death has lost Hallelujah over souls he Hallelujah for the cross Hallelujah for the cross Hallelujah for the cross Bless the Lord. O my soul. O my soul Worship his holy name Sing like never before O my soul I worship your holy name.

The sun comes up It's a new day dawning it's time to sing your song again Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me Let me be singing when the evening comes Bless the oh my soul oh, my soul Worship his holy name. Sing like never before oh my soul Worship your holy name.

You're rich in Love and you're slow to anchor. Your name is great and your heart is kind. For all your goodness I will keep on singing 10,000 Reasons for My heart to find. So bless the Lord. O my soul.

O my soul. Worship him his holy name.

Sing like ever before. Oh my soul. I worship your holy name.

And on that day when my strength is failing the end draws near and and my time has come still my soul will sing your praise. Unending 10,000 years and then forever more. Forever more blessed, O Lord. Oh my soul, oh my soul. Worship his holy name.

Sing like never before. Oh my soul. I worship your holy name.

Bless the Lord. Oh my soul, oh my soul. Worship his holy name. Sing like never before. Oh my soul.

I worship your holy name. Yes, I will worship your holy name.

Lord, I worship your holy name.

Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your mercy and your blessings. And Lord, we thank you that even in the deep valleys that you are still a shepherd and that we still will not want and that you will still be with us. Father, I pray that as we go to your word tonight that you'll hide us from the distractions of the world and let us focus on what your word has to say.

Father, I pray that we will be transformed into the image of your son and I pray that your word will wash and renew our minds. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Good evening everyone. Welcome back to Church of the Bible.

I'm sorry, last week we had a cancel for some reasons, but in the way of announcements or mobile if you have an iPhone. So for iPhone users, our mobile app is out. It's ready to go right now. I've sent most of you a link directly, but I can't remember everyone who has which phone. So it'll be on our website this week.

If I haven't sent you the link directly, then you can download it. Android users, I'm still waiting for Google to say it's okay, the app is done, it's built, it's ready to go. It's just still waiting for Google to say that they approve it to be on their platform. So once that happens, everyone that I do know who has an Android will send you a link. And then just like with the iPhone, there will also be a link on the website for anyone to download.

And I'll also put links up in our slides with QR codes as well for people if that's gonna be. If that'll be an easier way. With that said, we're gonna continue our study today. In the book of First John. And as we continue in our study in First John, just remember the things that we're focusing on and emphasizing on in the book of First John is fellowship with God, right?

Do I know God? Do I have a spirit with me? Am I obeying him? Am I loving one another? These are central to the theme of First John.

We also saw one of the central points of First John in chapters one and two is whether or not. Not that you're deceiving the church, but are you deceiving yourself? Right? If anyone says he has no sin, he is a liar, right? And deceives himself.

If anyone says they walk with God yet walk in darkness, they deceive themselves. But also the promise of forgiveness, right? Not just forgiveness, but the cleansing of sin.

As we move into the fourth chapter today, John is going to take a slightly different. A slightly different turn. And he's going to turn from, are you sinning and saying you walk with God or saying you walk with God and are sin this? To knowing and testing those who are preaching to you. You.

So without me talking anymore, let's go ahead and just start here. We're going to start in First John, chapter four today. Sorry. He says, dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is how you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you have heard as come and even now is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them.

Because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore what they say is from the world. And the world listens to them. We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us.

Anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

Okay, so a couple things going on here. He begins with, do not believe every spirit. This is critical. I've talked about this. I probably mention this in some fashion in every single message I've ever delivered in the past six years of being a pastor, right?

There are false churches, there are fake pastors, fake priests, fake bishops, fake apostles, fake whatever title you want to put on it. There are people out there who are fake. There are people out there who seek to use religion for their own financial gain or their own status gain. And because in some societies, religion is big in some cultures in Utah, religion is a big thing culturally, just because of Utah's unique history, right? But there's other places where outside of Utah, even outside of the US where religion culturally is a big thing and there's status to be had with it.

So he says, do not believe every spirit. Right? But test the spirits. So what he is saying is anyone, whether they claim to be a prophet or a pastor or a priest or a bishop or an apostle, an evangelist, whatever he says, test them. So if you're testing them to see if they are from God, how do you do that?

Right? There's. He doesn't exactly tell you exactly how to do that here. So we rely on the fullness of the Scriptures to know how to do that. And the first way you do that is you know the scriptures yourself.

Here we are blessed to live in a day where the Bible is so accessible. It's so accessible that every single person can have it for free. Right? There's mobile apps such as YouVersion and the Bible and Bible.net, olive Tree, all of which offer various versions of the Bible for free, Right? And anyone who wants it printed, it's cheap and accessible.

I mean, so cheap you can buy some Bibles for as little as a dollar, right? So we are very blessed by God. Now, we live in a time that the Bible is so accessible, there is no reason for somebody to say, well, I can't know if this pastor is preaching the truth because I haven't read it. Right? Throughout history, access to the Bible has been limited.

You had to rely on what you have known, what you have been taught to make a determination. We can compare it directly to the word of God because it's so available, but also not just comparing it to the word of God. But does it. Does it contradict God? Right.

I had a very, very long discussion slightly over a week ago with someone that centered on whether or not God is a liar or not. And this conversation went way longer than it needed to be. But here's the thing that we know about God. If we believe in the God that is described in the Bible, he is unchanging and cannot lie. So if I am, I'm going to pick on a doctrine.

I pick on a lot. Polygamy, right? And I pick on this doctrine because it's one of the most obvious. Throughout the Bible, God commands that marriage is between one man and one woman. Right?

But even more so in the New Testament, specifically. In the book of First Timothy, chapter three, God commands that if you want to be a leader in his church, right? That's a pastor, an apostle, right? You know, an evangelist is kind of what we see apostles as today, right? Evangelist, a teacher, a bishop, whatever, that you could only have one wife.

And that is consistent with what we find God saying throughout the Bible. But now let's say that I come along and start teaching to you that God has given a new commandment and that is that men are to start taking on more than one wife, right? But they are to have multiple. And not only that, but if you want to be a leader in his church, that you have to take on multiple. And if you don't, then you are refusing the commands of God, right?

So John writes, do not believe every spirit, but test. The reason I use this example is because it's not a far fetched idea that someone would come and say that. In fact, in the 1830s, a guy named Joseph Smith did exactly that thing. And an entire religion that defines Utah's culture centers around that so called prophet Joseph Smith, who came and taught a plurality of marriage and said that God commanded it. So I pick on it.

Not to pick on the Mormon, but to show how easy it is, right? And what John means when he says to test the spirits. So here's the thing, that's not just testing other people, that's even testing me, guys, right? A lot of, a lot of pastors or prophets or evangelists or whatnot, they'll want to leave themselves out of this because they don't want to point to the hard truth that they themselves may be misleading, especially the ones who know they are misleading, right? But that includes me, right?

Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see if they are from God. Guys, you are to test if what I tell you is from God or not, right? You are to determine if it's from God or not before you listen to me, before you trust me and believe me. So he then says this, he says, you know the spirit. This is how you know the spirit of God.

That everyone who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and the spirits that do not confess is not from God. This is more nuanced than it sounds, right? This sounds very easy. Okay? I believe that Jesus has come in the flesh, so that makes me from God, right?

And you say you do not believe, so it means you're not from God. It's not actually that simple. We know it's not that simple because the New Testament tells us this, that even this is what Christ will tell us. Even the demons acknowledge him and shudder. So even the demons can acknowledge that he came in the flesh and shudder and are yet sent to hell.

In fact, there are many atheists who believe that Jesus himself existed, came in the flesh. So what does this mean? To confess that Jesus came in the spirit means a couple of things. When the Bible says to confess Jesus, what it really means is that we acknowledge that he is God. We're not confessing that some man existed.

We're confessing that God came in the likeness of man. And we are confessing that he is not just God, but our God and our King. And we make him ruler over our lives. It's one thing to acknowledge, yes, God came. It's another to say, God, I want you to govern my life.

I want you in me. So this is the acknowledgment. So every spirit, every person who confesses in the way I just described that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And those who do not are not from God. In fact, they are the spirit of the Antichrist who is now even in the world.

We talked about this last time we met the Antichrist. What does the Bible say about the end of times? Do we know when it's coming? Do we know when God will wrap everything up? Jesus says that not even he knows that.

Only the Father knows that. Which also means that Satan does not know that. Which means that from the time of Christ until now, there has always been somebody on the earth to take on the role of the Antichrist. Now that does not mean one person who has existed the entire time, but somebody who can be used in that capacity. So yes, the Antichrist is in the world even right now.

Now he says this. The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. This is a very unique statement because we can, we can take it two ways. And I am not perfectly sure which way that John meant for it to be taken. To be honest, when I read commentary on it, other pastors thoughts, it's split right there.

Some people go one way, some people go another, and some go both. So I'm going to take the route today of going both ways. This could be read and taken. I'll leave it up to you and your relationship with God to determine which of the two routes it should be or if it should be both. So the one who is in you is God, right?

The spirit of God indwells your personage is greater than the one who is in the world. The first route this can go is the most obvious. Who is the one in the world? You are, right? So the person in you, God who is in you is greater than you, you who is in the world.

And this is a great thing, because if God is greater than you and he indwells you, then you can conquer through the power of God, right? Through this greater power you can conquer sin, not because you are great, but because God is in you. You can do what is right, not because you are good, but because God is in you. And you can please God not because you are pleasing to him, but because he is in you. But the second way that you can take this and that you can read it, and like I said, I'm not perfectly sure which way John meant it, but is that the one who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

And who is in the world? Satan. Satan is in the world. So we can also read this as that God who is inside of you is greater than Satan who is roaming the world, right? His demons who are roaming the world.

And for that reason you can conquer and you can overcome.

He then says they are from the world, referring to people, specifically people who either have lost, left the church or who are not of the church. And he says, therefore what they say is from the world and the world listens to them. Here's how you can tell if somebody's a Christian or not. Like really tell. And this takes more than a five minute conversation.

But do they listen to biblical thought? Right? If you get into a very deep conversation with them, do they say what the world says or do they say what a believer says? And if you get into a deep theological conversation and somebody is constantly regurgitating what atheists say or what people who do, there's this new thing going around called deconstruction, where people are saying, I'm deconstructing my faith to rebuild it back up, right? That doesn't work.

That's a world thing to deconstruct your faith, right? So how can you tell what they're saying, what the world says? And they listen to the world and they don't listen to us. And no matter what you say to them, no matter what evidence you give them or signs or miracles, they will not listen because they are of the world.

And then he says, anyone who is from God listens to us. Now listen to us is several ways that this needs to be read, especially 2000 years later. When Paul says listens to us, he's being literal. He's saying listens to us, as in and Paul and Barnabas and James and Peter and Matthew. He's saying this in the literal sense, us, and is expecting them to know who the us is.

So today we can still listen to them because what they said is written down. We have it. So the way that we need to read this is different from the way they read read this. The way they read this is they need to physically listen to those people who are there. The way we read this is we need to listen to what the scriptures say.

Accepting what they say, what the scriptures declare about God declare about you, is vital to even knowing that you have the spirit of God. Well, let's take this one more way as well. Listen to modern pastors, this was not the intent of the passage. When John wrote this, he didn't write this for me to sit here and say, if you have the spirit of God, he will listen to me. However, if I have the Spirit of God and I am called to be a pastor, and I am called to preach the Word, and the word that I preach is indeed true, and you are from God, then you will listen to me.

But it comes with the same caveat that he told us in the very first verse. Do not believe in every spirit, but test the Spirit to see if it is from God. So you will compare what I say against what the Scriptures say and put me to the test. And if I am from God and a pastor from God, then you would also listen to me. Let's look at the next verse.

Here he says, dear friends, let us love one another because love is from God. And everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God.

Wow. The one who does not love does not know God because God is love. God's love is revealed among us in this way. God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this.

Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us.

He has given us of His Spirit and we have seen and testified that the Father has sent His Son as the world's Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God and we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us, okay? So, dear friends, he says, let us love one another. I want to focus on the word love because love is said, you know, I'm just thinking about it, and I should have counted it before. So I'm going to count it real quick.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13, 14. In this small passage that we read, the word love is said 14 times.

So if in nine verses the word love is used 14 times, what does that tell us? That tells us that the. The concept of love, especially as John is right, and it is very important, very vital.

I also want to remind you guys, as I've reminded you many times, that in English there is only one word for love, right? And that's love. I can say I love you to my mom and I love you to my wife, and I love you to my daughter and mean three entirely different things, right? And in English, in order to understand what I mean when I say I love you, you have to have context, right? When I say it to my wife, I mean it a whole lot more intimately than when I say it to my friend, in which case I mean it in a brotherly kind of way.

In the Greek, there are seven words for love. So depending on the context and in who you're talking to and in what way you love them, you would actually choose a different word, but they all translate into English to the one word love. So when he says, let us love one another, because love is from God, whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. We need to think of this in the biblical sense, right? From the language it was written in, in Greek, in Aramaic, where there were multiple words for love, and not in our 21st century English dictionary definition of love, right?

Because in our English version of love, we could just about say, well, then everybody is from God because everybody loves. So we need to contextualize it. When we look at this phrase love here, he tells us how he wants us to love one another.

And he tells us it by showing us this verse nine. It says that. I'm gonna bring it up big, so you can all read verse nine here with me. God's love was revealed among us in this way that he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. And love consists in this.

Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement, sacrifice for our sins. Therefore, if God loved us in this way, we must love one another. So John defines love here. And he even defines it in such a way that in the translation process from Greek and Aramaic to Latin to English, that we still know exactly what he means. The word love here is a especially that he uses, is a very particular word.

It's called agape. And what agape means is unconditional love. So if I agape you, that sounds weird saying I you and agape in a sentence with, you know, English and Greek. But still, if I agape you you, then I love you unconditionally. So my love for you is not conditioned on whether or not you love me back, on whether or not you thank me for my love, on whether or not you do anything for me, on whether or not you are good, bad, or or indifferent.

If I agape you, I love you with all my being, 100%, regardless of who or what you do or are. That is the love that God has for us. He has agape love. He loved us so unconditionally that even in our sin, even when we were enemies with him, even when we fought against him, that he sent his son to die for the murderers, for the liars, for the thieves, for the adulterers, Right? Now, that doesn't mean that he approves of those things, but his love was so unconditional that he died for those things.

And it's so unconditional that whoever would trust in Jesus because of that would live in Him.

So back to verse seven, back to the start of this passage. Dear friend, let us love one another, because love is from God. And everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

This takes on a different meaning than if we just read it with the English word love, right? If God loved us in this way, he says love, then we must love one another. We are to have agape love for each other, right? We're commanded to love each other without obligation. And when I say obligation, I mean to the other person.

We are to love each other the way that God loves us. And for context, let's look at John 13 and John 15. I put them both on the same slide here. John 13, verse 34. Jesus says, I give you a new command to love one another as I have loved you.

You are to love one another, and by this you will be known as my disciples. If you love one another. Key into what he said here, right? So sandwiched in between, the new command is to love one another. And by this is how people will know that you're my disciples.

You love one another. Is this Short phrase, as I have loved you, you are to love one another.

And then look at John 15, verse 9, as the Father has loved me, I have loved you. So let's take a big step back. He just said, as I have loved.

Weird feedback echo. He has just said, as I have loved you, you are to love one another. And now in John 15, so not even a whole two chapters later, he says, as the Father has loved me, I have loved you.

Right? So think about that. How did the Father love Jesus unconditionally? And then he says, remain in My love, and if you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commands and remain in his love. And I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy complete.

This is My command. Love one another as I have loved you.

So when we look at what John is saying here, when he says, let us love one another, because love is from God. This is unconditional love. I'm going to love you unconditionally, whether you love me back or not. Whether you sin against me or hurt me or hate me or throw insults at me, I'm going to love you unconditionally. Because God loved me unconditionally.

And he loved me in such a way that he gave Himself to be my atonement, sacrifice.

Let's look at what's next. He says, God is love. The one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love.

Instead, perfect love drives out fear because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

And we have this command from Him. The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister. Okay? So God is love. If there's one way to define God, and only one way, period, is love, we can sum God up in that word, right?

Not in the English word love, though, right? But in the biblical love, in the unconditional, God is love. Now, I'm going to point out here because I know someone somewhere along the way is going to hear this and say, well, if he unconditionally loves me, that means that he would never allow me to go to hell. And I'm going to say that you're wrong because he unconditionally loved you to the extent that he died for you so that you would not go to hell if you followed him. But if you decide to reject his love, he also loves you unconditionally enough to allow you to walk yourself to hell.

And to that point, I want to make a comment on something that this here says. It says, perfect love cast out fear, and there is no fear in love. That same very long conversation I had just more than a week ago that I told you all about, the person that I was talking with says that God uses fear to get obedience.

So I want, and I'm going to counter that. And this person's not here to debate and argue with me, but I'm going to counter that with this. When has has fear ever driven obedience?

It hasn't. Everybody knows about heaven and hell. And the fear of hell does not cause everybody to obey God. In fact, everyone knew the flood was coming and that did not cause everybody to obey, right? In the same way, this person set up bless you by putting the tree in the Garden of Eden and telling them to not eat it, otherwise they would die.

That it was fear of dying that kept them from eating it until they were tempted by the serpent. And to that I'm going to say, just because God tells us there's a consequence to something does not mean he is trying to to fear Mongol us. I'm going to give you an example. And let's just assume that you and I and let's just assume that I'm talking to each of you individually. So for this, you and I are going to the Grand Canyon.

And when we get to the overlook, I tell you, do not jump from this overlook or else you will die. Do you fear dying when I tell you that? Probably not. Because you probably don't have an intent to jump over to begin with, right? So me telling you the consequence of jumping over or getting too close to the edge does not make you fear and it does not make you obey out of fear of the consequence.

In the same way, if I tell a kid, do not beat up on your brother or else you will be grounded for a week. Fear of being grounded for a week is not going to cause or not cause this kid to beat up or not beat up on his brother, right? Fear will make absolutely. No, it's going to be his intent to be on his brother, not be on his brother anyway. But here's what we need to know.

Perfect love casts out fear. If you have the love of God in you, you don't obey God out of fear of going to hell, because you don't fear going to hell if you've got God in you. You already know I belong in hell. I deserve hell, I've earned hell. And yet my payment, my debt with God is already paid up or settled.

And so I'm not going to hell. And if I know that I'm not going to hell, I have no fear of hell. And so the perfect love of God does that. It drives out the fear of hell because God is love and he loved you where he settled the debt himself. There is no fear.

And anyone who fears, he says, does not have the love of God because the love of God drives out that fear of hell. And then finally on our, as we close on this tonight, he says one other thing that we need to use to test. Do you hate your brother or sister? Right? We can take this literally as your literal siblings and we can take this also symbolically as your neighbor or your brother or sister in Christ or a co worker, right?

If you cannot love the people you physically can see, then you cannot love somebody who you cannot see and have not seen. So God tells us this, that if we love him, we are to love our brother and sister. We are to love one another. So we come to an end tonight. There are some of you out there and you do have fear.

You fear death because you might not even believe in afterlife and so you fear not living this life out to the fullest and getting everything. Or you fear death because you really just don't know, right? You're on the fence between I believe in God or don't believe in God and I don't want to die because I don't know. Or maybe you fear because you do believe and you know you're going to hell and you have just done nothing about it.

I want you to know that fear can be cast out out. Regardless of what that fear is and what is driving that fear, it can be cast out for it says that God loved us in this way, right back in, back in verse 10. That he loved us and sent his son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. If you can believe that Jesus Christ really did come here, really did die for your sins, really did raise again the third day. If you can admit that you really are a sinner, that you really do deserve hell and death, but can also trust in God, in His character, in his integrity, who he's said Himself to be.

If you could, as this started out at the very start, confess that he is the Christ, confess that he is God, confess that he is your king.

Then you will have the perfect love of God inside of you and your fear can disappear. I also, one more time, just remind everybody that we are not to believe every spirit, every preacher we hear on YouTube, every preacher we hear in a church building. But we are to test them, to see if they are, are or are not from God and only listen to them who are from God in our closing prayer. If you are ready to cast out fear, if you are ready to receive Jesus, I will invite you to verbalize that to him in our closing prayer with me. After our closing prayer, we'll partake of the Lord's communion.

I'll give everybody a minute after we end to grab your stuff for those who are virtual and then I'll see everybody else here Wednesday at 6:30 as we continue our study through the book of Luke. Let's pray. Father, I admit that I am a sinner. And I admit that I cannot save myself. And I admit that there even is fear.

Whether that's fear of just death or fear of the unknown or fear of hell. But your word says that you can take that fear and cast it away. Because you died for me, because you rose again for me, because you agape me and give your love unconditionally to me. And so, Father, I ask you for that love. I ask you for that gift.

And I confess you, Lord Jesus, as my God and King, my Lord and Savior. Father, I pray that especially today it's so easy for there to be false spirits out there with different YouTube videos, different TV preachers, different just all sorts of ways that false spirits can get out there. I pray, Lord, that. That we will not be deceived and led by them, but we will be led by you and your spirit and your truth. And I pray that you will be glorified as your perfect love indwells us.

And then we give that same perfect love to other people and love our brother and our sister and our neighbor as you have loved us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.