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If so be the LORD the HOLY GHOST hath regenerated you, and the SPIRIT witnesseth with your spirit, that you are born of GOD.
For then hath he taught you the plague of your own heart.
And what artifice of men, or devils, can bear up against this divine teaching, when you yourself also daily feel, and know how that heart is for ever interrupting your spiritual pursuits, and warring against your soul!
So, in like manner, when GOD the HOLY GHOST hath taught you who CHRIST is, and the efficacy of his blood and righteousness; when you have felt the sovereignty of his grace, the compleatness and fulness of his finished salvation; have known the love of GOD, the sweetness and suitableness of his promises, and been fed by them from day to day, can an host of heretics persuade you that these precious things are false, and that JESUS CHRIST, the SON of GOD is not come in the flesh?
Oh! how gracious hath our GOD been, to provide such blessed securities for his people against all perilous times like the present!
Last week, we started our little journey through these 6 verses.
We saw in the scriptures how a call for discernment was present in the Old testament and the New.
Coming from Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, and John.
We then saw in verse 1 the command for discernment, and the concern for discernment.
We are called to biblical discernment because many false prophets are in the world.
Not everyone who claims to be a spiritual instructor, or even a Christian, is from God.
I realize that we cannot continue on a one verse per week pace, as we have 5 more verses and only one week to cover them in.
considered using the same time frame - 45 minutes per verse.
But i realized that not many of you want to stay here until 3:30, so i will sacrifice and be as succinct as I can be!
So where are we headed?
Well, if verse 1 was the what and the why for biblical discernment, then verses 2-6 are the how.
If verse 1 lays down the premise and the call to discern, then these next verses outline some principles and clarifications for our discernment.
Why do we need these principles?
Aren’t we capable on our own?
*Give illustration to do CIA trainee having to locate the terrorist who is dressed and appears exactly like the group of people around him.
In other words, John does not simply call us to be concerning because there are many false teachers and pseudo-prophets who are out for the destruction of the church and the blasphemy of the name of God and then just say, “Good luck!”
John really brings us back here to where he started in the beginning of the epistle.
Our call to and method for biblical discernment rides precisely on the person of Jesus Christ - who He is, what He does, what the implications of those beliefs are.
Our discernment is centered around having biblical beliefs and behavior - these are marks of the true followers of Christ, and they are marks that should be looked for in any claimed teacher.
True and false teachers can be discerned by the belief, behavior, and basis of their life.
True and False teachers can be discerned by what they believe, and what is the basis of their life.
1.
The Teacher’s Belief - Vs. 2-3
The first test is theological, or Christological.
Namely, here, what does the person teach about Christ?
“John has already indicated that behind every prophet stands a spirit, either the spirit of God or the demonic spirit of antichrist.
He has spoken of the need to test the spirits by their origin.
But how are they to be tested?
How can a normal Christian know whether the spirit is of God or of antichrist?
‘What do they say about Christ?’ is John’s question.
Do they acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh or do they deny this?
If they deny Christ, they are not of God no matter how marvelous their activity.”
- James M. Boice
John starts by giving the positive example.
What does it mean that they “confess”?
is it some sort of evil that they have to confess of?
Well, of course we know that is not the case.
To confess is to homologeo - same-speaking literally.
It means to say the same thing, to agree.
What are they agreeing with?
The fact that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
and not just that statement, but all the implications wrapped up in it.
Another way of saying this statement is “every spirit that confesses that Jesus is Christ come in the flesh is from God.”
In other words, its more than simply acknowledging a person in history who was called Jesus Christ, as almost all the cults and secular historians will assent to that truth - but its about acknowledging who he is and what he did.
What are the objections?
Here Spurgeon is helpful.
Some say that Jesus Christ was not God.
Others say that He was not man, while some talk as if everything about Him was a mystery.
Those who are truly sent by God declare plainly that Jesus Christ literally came in the flesh; such teachers are “from God.”
If the doctrine of the incarnation of God in Christ is denied, as it was by the first heretics, we may conclude that the Spirit of God is not in such teaching.
Any doctrine that dishonors Christ—whether in His person, or His offices, or His atonement, or in any other way—you may at once conclude is not from God, for that which comes from the Spirit of God glorifies Christ.
Confessing Jesus Christ come in the flesh involves confessing who he is, and what He does.
Who Jesus Is
Who He is.
Jesus is God.
This is the primary and foremost acknowledgement that must be made by any teacher who makes claims about Christ.
And we cannot simply say that Jesus is a god as the cults say, or that Jesus is a form of God as the Modalists say, or that Jesus was not truly incarnated as the Gnostics said.
We must confess that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh.
This
These disputes happened early in church history, and they happen still today.
One example from history - how many have heard of the Council of Nicea or the Nicene Creed?
These events in history, although long forgotten by many and possible never considered by some, give us an illustration of just how important clarity and discernment are.
There was a group called the Arians.
These believed that it was unfit that God should have a son and that son somehow be equal with him.
So the solution was for a man named Arius to propose that Jesus was somewhere between God and man.
There was much dispute and clamor over this belief, but the issue was that the Arians seemed to affirm every scripture that was placed before them.
Obviously their interpretation was flawed, but they claimed to agree with scripture.
Thus came the importance of two words in Theology.
Homoousios and Homoiousios.
Believe it or not, the difference between these two words became the litmus test to expose false teachers.
Homoouios - of the same substance.
Homoiousios - of similar substance.
You see, the Arians could say that they believed the testimony of scripture, but they could not affirm that Christ was Homoousios or of the same substance of the Father.
Rather they would affirm that he was Homoiousios - or of similar substance to the Father.
One minute detail, and let this not seem boring or trivial - but it is of great importance.
Just a few months ago we had a group come in the doors of our church who were much like the Arians in the early church.
They gladly accepted the Bible as their rule of faith, but they interpret it in such a way that they do not believe that jesus is of One Substance with the Father.
So it must be discerned what a teacher believes about who Jesus is, but also what Jesus did.
What Jesus Did
Jesus being God is not to be separated from what He did and what He came to accomplish.
We have already seen that He is God come in the flesh, but consider again what John said in
He is God in flesh.
The incarnation is critical to our belief as the Church.
“According to the plan of God, Jesus came in the flesh so that he might die a substitutionary death as a man for the sins of other men.
That is the only way he could redeem all who would believe.”
- John MacArthur
He came do die a substitutionary death.
It is possible for someone to say they believe that Jesus Christ is God but yet totally ignore why He came in the flesh.
He came because we are alienated from God by Sin.
He came to die for men who were dead in their sins.
He came to pay the price of sin that we owed.
He came to appease a wrath that we had incurred.
He came not to be a good example, a good teacher, a good man, and to give people happiness, but He came to die for us. to ignore this, deny this, or push it under the rug is to ignore the point of the incarnation.
Do you see why this is so important?
Do you see why in Verse 3 John says that those who do not confess Jesus are the spirit of antichrist?
It is not just a mistake or a slight variance in teaching, this is paramount!
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