June 27, 2010
Morning Worship
Text: 1 John 4:1-7
Subject: Testing the Spirits
Title: Understanding God’s Will for Your Life
You have heard me talk in the past about George Mueller – a great man of faith from the nineteenth century.
George Mueller was a man who knew the word of God, trusted the word of God and acted on the word of God.
He knew that knowing God’s will was the key to living an effective life for God and this is how he began each day to ascertain God’s will:
1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. This is the trouble with most people. Most of our difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do God’s will, whatever it might be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
3. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me.
6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.
I want to share with you today how you can know God’s will for your life.
Read 1 John 4:1-7.
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the church.
I. FALSE PROPHETS IN THE WORLD… 1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Let’s begin by doing a word study on some of the words in this first verse. Spirit – pmeuma - a current of air, breath, or a breeze… depending on the context this can refer to wind, or a spirit (not from God), the human spirit, or the Holy Spirit. In the context in our passage it may have a duel meaning. 1) a wind as in a wind of doctrine. Ephesians 4 tells us that this is the reason Jesus has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to the church… 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming… I got a message on Facebook the other day from a friend who I am guessing had forwarded a link to my sermons to another website and this other website proceeded to accuse me of non - biblical teaching. The truth is that I am very secure in the things I teach from the bible because I know they are just that – from the bible. I don’t have to make anything up. I don’t have to make it sound good. I don’t have to add anything to it. 2) Breath…something spoken under inspiration… For many, this may be a word spoken from the natural man from the natural man perspective. It stems from his surrounds and from his common experience or circumstances. Though it is from the natural man it often has its root in demonic influence. Paul wrote to Timothy about those kinds of teachers. 1 Timothy 4:1-2, 1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3) The Holy Spirit…there is a great difference between a word that is spoken under the influence of a demon, from self or the psuche (human nature) and the Holy Spirit. What is from the Holy Spirit will always line up with the word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 16All Scripture is God-breathed (given under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now look at eh words false prophets. In the Greek the word is pseudopropheôteôs. It is a compound word. The first part, pseudo means, untrue, erroneous, deceitful or wicked. The second part is obvious – propheoteos – a foreteller or an inspired speaker. When you put them together you get the idea of a pretended foreteller or a religious imposter. Many false prophets have gone out into the world…and they are still here today. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. Look at verse 2, Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God… True teaching and true prophets will represent a true Jesus. So many of our world religions recognize Jesus as a real person. The Gnostics of the early church believed that because God is spirit that there was no way that He would come to earth and become something that was less than perfect. Others believed that Jesus was only a spirit that appeared to be a man. Even today religions like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons deny that Jesus was really God in the flesh. The Muslims believe that Jesus was a holy man but not God. Hindus believe that Jesus was an incarnation of God but not virgin born. Still others believe that Jesus didn’t really die, didn’t really rise from the dead, didn’t really ascend into heaven… All of these are holding to beliefs that John says in verse 3, does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. And then he says, This is the spirit of the antichrist… Anti-Christ… against Christ. Every person who denies the Christ of the bible is under the influence of the antichrist.
II. GOD’S VOICE IN THE CHURCH 4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. KJV …greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. Did you hear that? You are from God and you have overcome the lies of the enemy. You have become the prophetic voice of God as you proclaim the gospel message of salvation and stand upon every promise in the bible. Romans 8:14-17, 14 those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ… It is that spiritual connection between the spirit of a man and the Holy Spirit that gives us spiritual discernment to determine what is from God and what is from the antichrist. It is that connection that helps us distinguish the voice of God by His Spirit from the voice of the world from the devil. It is because you are sons and daughters of the most high God that you can overcome the lies perpetrated by and unseen enemy that says that God doesn’t care, doesn’t heal, doesn’t bless, doesn’t deliver, doesn’t provide or doesn’t intervene anymore. 1 John 5:4-5, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. You see, God intends for the church – everyone who believes that Jesus is the Son of God – to rise up and stand upon His Word, never to falter, never to quit, never to doubt, but to believe in your heart that if God said it, I believe it and that settles it. In Revelation chapter 12 the same John who wrote this letter says this referring those who become Christians during the Great Tribulation. 10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. That same salvation, that same power, the same kingdom and the same authority has been given to all believers for all time, not just to get them to heaven but to get them through this life to heaven. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
III. GOD’S SPIRIT IN YOU Many Christians tend to forget who they are in Christ and focus on who they are in the natural. That is the difference between being in the Spirit and being in the flesh. In the natural (Gr psuche) you will always lose the battle you are fighting against the enemy of your soul. For instance, if you are trying to stop smoking and you say I am willing to do whatever it takes for me to stop, it probably isn’t going to happen. Or it may for a season but you leave yourself open to every device of the enemy to lure you back to it. However, if you say, I am going to claim the victory that Christ won for me at the cross and accept the deliverance He has provided for me – not that HE will provide, but already has – then it is yours. Your flesh may crave it but according to experts the physical effects will only last for three days. After that the effects of the nicotine have left your body and there is no need to go back to it. You have already been delivered from every obsession you have in your life if you will allow God to do it. Some say, well you can’t do it without gum or a patch or a staple stuck through your ear lobe… Don’t believe it. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. John was writing this as one who knew the voice of God, the mind of God and the will of God through the Holy Spirit. The words he spoke were the words he had heard from Jesus and from the Spirit. One of the greatest reasons that Christians fail to stand firm on every promise of God is that they are afraid that it will fail. I believe in healing but what do I have to do to get it? I believe that God has set me free from this addiction but how can I get away from it? What if God doesn’t do it? I will tell you this from the bottom of my heart and from a true biblical perspective, if it doesn’t happen it isn’t God’s fault. John 14:13-14, 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. Mark 11:24, 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. He has already done it and is waiting for you to receive it through faith. NO Fear! 2 Timothy 1:7, For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (fear), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
I want to close with this from verse 7, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
What kind of a God would make promises and then never see them through?
What kind of God would promise to save you and then leave you to your own self-righteousness to escape judgment?
What kind of God would tell you that if you are sick that you need to go to the elders of the church and be anointed with oil and expect to be healed and then not heal?
What kind of God would promise you that He would baptize you with the Holy Spirit for power in this life and then give you something less?
What kind of God would promise to provide for every need you will ever have if you would just seek first His kingdom and righteousness and then not do it?
Not the God of the bible! The God of the bible does everything that He has promised.
The spirit of the antichrist speaking through false prophets – even someone in the church – will tell you that you cannot trust God that way. They may be well intentioned who are speaking from their own personal experience. But who are you going to trust – someone else’s experiences or the promises of God?
Verse 7 says that we are supposed to love one another as a proof that we know God.
Why should we do that? Because His word says we should!
How can we do it? Because His spirit dwells in us!
The more you know God the more you will come to realize that you can trust Him.
The more you trust Him the more you can see His will for your life, because his will is revealed by His Spirit dwelling in you and through the Word that never changes
