Safety in The Fellowship

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.

INTRO—

[[WUV— “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” (Gettys)

False Teacher Quotes:

“You are as much the incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was. Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth.” (Kenneth Hagin)

“You don’t have a god in you. You are one. … I say this and repeat it so it don’t upset you too bad … When I read in the Bible where he [Jesus] says, ‘I Am,’ I say, ‘Yes, I Am, too.’” (Kenneth Copeland)

“I am a little God … I have his name. I’m one with him. I’m in covenant relation … I am a little God.” (Paul Crouch)

“Jesus is not the only begotten son of God. [No. No.] He is not. I am a son of God. [He is the first fruit.] he is the first fruit … the first fruit, the first born of many.” (Paula White [w/ Larry Huch])

“So [Jesus] was born through Mary, the Virgin, and then he was born again in the resurrection.” (Bill Johnson)

“For three days Jesus fought with the enemy. It was the battle of the ages, light versus darkness, good versus evil. But thank God Satan was no match for Jesus.” (Joel Osteen)

I think we should stick with the wonderful hymn writer and together proclaim the beauty, majesty, and exclusivity of the matchless name of Jesus.

We find help in doing this as we read, study, and apply God’s word together… IN THE FELLOWSHIP—we have safety to help keep us on track with the truth.

FIRST, a helpful focus for the context of our focal passage—1 John 4.1-6—today:

“Test the spirits” (4.1) = testing the teachers

test the motivation, beliefs, and outcomes of the teaching and lives of those claiming to be biblical teachers (even prophets). This IS NOT some magical, ethereal nor mystical ‘thing’ we are called to do.

The Safety of Collective Examination (1 John 4.1-3)

[Cool thing is…these are group tests and not individual tests.]

Required Test… (4.1) because “many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Clear Test… (4.2-3) no gray; either “Jesus (is the) Christ (who) has come in the flesh” OR Jesus is not.

Principles further applied— whatever is ‘antichrist’ rejects (does not confess) Jesus as the Christ [come in the flesh; one and only Son of God; not in accordance with the world system; et al.]

The Safety of Listening Together (1 John 4.4-6)

WE—who are from God—are promised… (4.4) we’ve conquered them (antichrists, false prophets, the world); greater is he (Holy Spirit) within us than the one in the world.

The World Listens… (4.5) will be willing (more willing) to listen to them than to ever listen to biblical truth. Large worldly following is highly problematic!

We Listen… (4.6) Being born again (a part of the family of God), we KNOW God and listen to his word. We are equipped to hear and obey what God has to say.

[[It is for this reason that if we had a Bible Study class say, “Hey we’d like to do a book study together on … ‘Your Best Life Now' (Osteen); or ‘Something Greater’ (P White); or ‘The Jefferson Lies’ (D Barton); of ‘When Heaven Invades Earth’ (Johnson).]]

CONCL—

I believe that this message needs to come with a few precautionary statements:

Our lives cannot be consumed with ‘discernment ministry.’ [Which means that we cannot live to simply police the theology and practice of ‘everyone else.’]

We cannot be so lackadaisical that we refuse to evaluate the theology of one who claims to be a biblically faithful teacher. [Which means we cannot simply default to the idea that anyone who claims to be teaching Christian doctrine and application actually is.]

The pitfalls of apostasy, false teaching extend from truth claims (doctrine; orthodoxy) to truth lived (application; orthopraxy). [Which means we cannot acknowledge the theological facts and then teach in such a way that we lead others (and ourselves) away from honoring Christ with our physical lives.]

[[I grew up thinking that the downfall of the SBC was going to be a major theological shift (or shift back) to doctrinal compromise. I am more convinced that the downfall of the SBC (Evangelicalism, et al.) will be false application…very practical application…of the truth we hold dear. Once might call it a selling our birthright for a bowl of soup/ a seat at the table/ the applause of part of ‘the world’ of our culture today…]]

1 John 4:6 CSB

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.

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