1 John chapter 4. We've been in
the book of 1 John for a while now. Let me get to the right page here.
The book of 1 John It starts out, I'd like to read
the first couple of verses of this. In chapter one, the first
few verses, it says, that which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life.
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear
witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the
Father. and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with
us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Right we unto you that your joy
may be full this then is the message which we have heard from
him and Declare unto you that God is light and in him is no
darkness at all and it goes on but Those few verses, as he started
out this, speaking of the Lord himself, who they've been with,
and it says, had handled of the word of life. And that is the
thinking and the thought that's gonna be through this book as
all of the scriptures are, speaking of the Lord himself. And this
is dealing with those that had issues to deal with, as all of
God's people do, down through the ages and through time. But
this portion that we're going to look at in chapter four, and I'd like
to read the first six verses of it. We're going to be looking
primarily at verse four. First John chapter four, first
verse says, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets
are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesses
not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And
this is that spirit of antichrist where you have heard that it
should come and even now already is it in the world. You are of
God, little children, and have overcome them because greater
is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are
of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world
heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us.
He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error. And as we spent some time in
the book of Jude prior to this, and they were dealing with those
that came with error into the church, and it said they'd crept
in unawares and perverted the gospel of the Lord himself. that
it's not just something that was back in their day, but we've
seen it in our time that people have crept in unawares that appeared
to believe the gospel and stand for the gospel, and then they
veer away from it at very important points sometimes that, and it's
not any different than what they dealt with back in this time.
There are those that, do not believe or preach the
gospel of the Lord himself. They preach another gospel that
it says in Galatians there, it's not another gospel, it's just
plain error. And anyhow, John here is speaking
to them, dealing with them, and standing in the Lord, And it
said prior to this and other parts of John, the book of John
speaks about Christ as the light. And it speaks about that we bring
our deeds to the light or not to the light to see and to determine
if they're true or not. And it primarily says that those
of error don't bring their gospel to the light because it will
shine on that and will show the error. And so in that thought,
that thinking, that if the gospel doesn't substantiate what's being
said, it's not the gospel. And the only difference between
truth and error that is brought out is, the spirit that brings it out,
the spirit of God brings it out through his people, it's going
to withstand the light. It's going to withstand what
the gospel said. Those that are not, that it's their own gospel
or another gospel or not another gospel, as it says in Galatians,
it's not going to bear up. And that there's a statement
I read, and I don't have it right in front of me, but that a man
speaking about what antichrist is, is anything that takes the
gospel of Christ and the person of Christ and lowers it down
to a human level or a lower level, is Antichrist, no matter among
whom it's found. And we've, like I say, we've
been surprised at some people that some of the statements that
have come out about the Lord himself from those that claim
to be speaking for him. If it's contrary to what the
word says, I don't care who they are. And as that statement said,
it is antichrist, and not a big A antichrist as a person, but
the doctrines or teachings, and they're simply the doctrines
and teachings of the world, of the ungenerate, unregenerate. So I'd like to look here in verse
four of chapter four, 1 John, it says, year of God, little
children, and have overcome them, speaking about the errors and
the heresy and those that teach error, have overcome them because
greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
I was discussing this with Norman a little earlier, and we could
summarize this and say, If you have the son, you have life.
He who has not the son has not life and you must be born again. And then we could go get a cup
of coffee. That summarized what it's talking about there. Uh,
and the new birth is the only way that we can understand or
see or have any of the truth revealed to us. The scripture
reveal a lot. Um, but it has to be by the Spirit
revealed to it. Well, we're gonna look at three
thoughts from this verse for a little bit today. In verse four, first one is, ye
are of God, little children. And we're gonna look at a few
things that speak to that. And the second part, and have overcome
them. second part, and the third part
is, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in
the world. We'll look at a few verses that
speak to that. Turn to the book of Jude. The book of Jude, I'd like to
read just a few verses here. And we spent a number of weeks
in the book of Jude. earlier, but the first few verses of the book
of Jude, it says, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of
James to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved
in Jesus Christ and called mercy unto you and peace and love be
multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, It was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.
For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of
old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes, verse five says,
I'll put you in remembrance of these things. But here we're
going to look at these things that help keep it in remembrance,
those things that we have seen. And then also the last two verses
of And I think every time we had a lesson in Jude, just about,
we read these two verses and I just, I'm impressed by them,
what they say to us. It says, verse 24, now unto him
that's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with the exceeding joy, to the
only wise God our savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power
both now and ever, amen. And I think this reminds us of,
When we are in the scriptures, when it speaks of those things
that we have, or as it says, little children have overcome
them and greater is he that is in you than the world, speaks
to here to these things. that he is the one that keeps
us, he's the one that any strength we have or any grounding we have
or any position we have to claim that we are little children of
God or that we have overcome, it's all in him and because of
him and that it's not It's not a pat on the back that you've
gotten the strength to take care of these things, especially when
it talks about there in Jude and also in 1 John has spoken
quite a bit about error in the world. It's going to speak an
awful lot more in days ahead in the book of 1 John about love
of the brethren and love of God, and those are things that people
like to gravitate to, but I think the way they grab those thoughts
about what love is, is not from the perspective necessarily the
scripture shows it. But both things, dealing with
error and the love of God. rest of the book, a lot with
the love of God and love of the brethren, are not things that
we can muster up the strength to do of ourself. They're because
of Him in us. And where it says Him in us is
greater, we're gonna look at that in a bit, that's part three
down here, but that's the only way that anything is overcome
or anything is accomplished is Christ in us, the hope of glory. And we'll get to that a little
farther down. But in the book of John, if you turn
to the book of John, The book of 1 John, John repeats and covers
a lot of the same ground and areas that he does in 1 John.
He covers again from a different slant sometimes, but I'd like
to look at the first chapter of John, starting with verse
six and reading down just a bit here.
Verse six, John chapter one. It said, there was a man sent
from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light, with a capital L, that all men
through him might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was
in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew
him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which
were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God." A lot of people stop a little
short of this and just say, as many as receive him become the
sons of God. they make light of it, actually,
of what that's speaking about, just saying, if you say the words,
that that is a magical formula that gets the job done, and it's
not. You have to read down here what it says in verse 13, which
are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. And it's God who, as we have
seen, Time and time again, it's God who draws his people in.
It's God who redeems his people of his doing and not of any doing
of their own. And we've seen many examples
of that, of ourselves, obviously, but in the book of Hebrews, the
ones there of the faith, you read that in chapter 11 of the
ones of the faith, that are faithful ones, and then read, the history of the story of those
people in the Old Testament, and you'll see that in Hebrews,
they're held up a little higher than we see, and that's because
of him in them and by the will of God. First John, back to First John
again. We're going to be back and forth a bit, but in First
John, And chapter 2 of 1 John, the place we've been by here,
but chapter 2 of 1 John and verse Verse 13, not to just cut in
the middle of a portion, but this verse here, it says, 1 John
2, 13, I write unto you fathers because you have known him that
is from the beginning. I write unto you young men because
you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little
children because you have known the father. And here it speaks
about you have overcome the wicked one. And again, being overcomers,
being children of God, the overcoming has been on his behalf for us
and not our behalf. We have not overcome the wicked
one or the nature that we are born with by our, there's no
way to, we can't bring ourselves up to that level. We can't do
that. The Lord only can put life in and speak about those who
have overcome. I might have to pick some of
these to look at, I've got quite a list. In Matthew chapter 11, Matthew chapter 11, let me see if this is what I, I think
it's what I want. those that are of God, little
children, those that he has revealed himself to and has redeemed.
In verse 27, Matthew 11, 27, verse 25, I'm sorry, starting
with. It says, at that time Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father. Neither
knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whom the son
will reveal him. Anything that we have, that we
claim to know or understand or position we have is because of
that, is because of this here. The son and to he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. And that speaks again to our,
that we can we can say, or he, as John was telling the ones
you're speaking to, you're of God, little children. And those,
the only reason that could be said is that of the new birth
and that God had revealed himself to them. In 2 Corinthians, turn
to the book of 2 Corinthians. Second Corinthians chapter four. Second Corinthians chapter four. Oh, where to start? All right, we're gonna start
with the first verse of chapter four, Second Corinthians. It
says, therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received
mercy, we faint not, the ministry of reconciliation and the preaching
of the gospel, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
but my manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us." Here speaking about the, again, not only the preaching
of the gospel, but the truth and how we know that we are in
it and how it says up here, manifestation of the truth, commending
ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And I think
referring to anything that is said here, and we say this, often, anything that's brought
forth and presented here in looking through the scriptures, if it
does not stand the test of what the scripture says, there's an
issue and it's something that we, by God's grace, guard against
mightily. We don't have a thought we want
to say and then hunt around until we find something that that if
you squint right, says what we want it to say, but that says
outright what the scripture says about the Lord himself and about
any things of the gospel that is brought out. That if it doesn't,
as it says there in 1 John, and as it said in Jude, we shine
the light on it. If it lights up a problem, That
has to be brought out. It's not something to just say,
well, you can have your version of it, I'll have my version of
it. That is not, or fellowship and get along with the brethren,
no matter what is said or believed, that doesn't. That doesn't cut
it. It has to be what the scripture
says. And so it's every man's conscience
in the sight of God, I think, is if it reveals a problem, then
that should be brought out. And that's always what we strive
to do is to make sure it's consistent with the scripture. And then
in Ephesians, in the book of Ephesians, Chapter
one, which is often skipped over to get to verses in chapter two,
but in chapter one of Ephesians, I'd like to read starting with
verse 17, Ephesians 1.17. It says that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his
mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
places. far above all principality of
power and might and dominion and every name which is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And
hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." And this here not only is always
our prayer that this be there, but that By the new birth, our
eyes have been opened to a lot of things that He reveals. And
the only way that we can agree with where it says, you are of
God, little children, is what He has shown us. And not of our
own wisdom or doing, as it said, but by His power. And that He
be in us is, by the new birth, is the only way that we can be
assured ourselves of that we are children of God. In the second part of this verse,
of this verse chapter, verse four there in 1 John 4, in the
book of Romans, I'd like to read a verse. In Romans chapter eight. This again is a tough chapter
to break into part of because of the import of the things dealt
with there of the new birth and our standing in Christ because
of him. And let's see. Okay, I'm going to start with
verse 33 and reading down through 37. It says, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. And then it
goes on and says, it goes on more about that, that we cannot
be separated from the love that is in us. And we have overcome
the error and we have overcome the natural man in the spirit
by his doing and by his redemption for his people. Paul speaks about
the inability of the flesh, the inability to do those things
that we would rather do and would like to do and determined to
do, and not do the things that we're determined not to do. And
he says, we just have a problem there. And he says, what's the
answer to this? He says, I think Jesus, our Lord,
that he is the one that He has done this. In the Spirit, we
serve God. Even by the flesh, we don't always.
And that is, the overcoming is through him. It's not that we
have overcome error by being so smart or being so educated
or those type of things, but only by his doing and his self. Turn to the book of Revelation,
if you would, please. Here it speaks about, oh, there's a lot being talked
about in chapter 12, but I'd like to look at, I'd like to read verses 10 and
11 of Revelation chapter 12. It says, and I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God. And the power of his Christ for
the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accuses them
before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they
loved not their lives unto death. And physically true of those
in days past and probably in this day too. But here speaking
that overcame by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their
testimony. And the testimony that we have
has to be according to what the scripture says. that we are redeemed
by His blood, by His action in doing it, and not by our doing.
The overcoming that we have, that it speaks of here, overcoming
error, is because of Him. It's not because of our education
or our determination in those things. Not that those are bad
things, but that's not how we've overcome. Our overcoming has
been in Him and is in Him. And that's the only source of
that. In the book of John, one more
time, a lot spoken in the book of John about how God saves his people and
what his people have in that and in him. But in chapter 16,
chapter 16, the book of John, Chapter 16. It says, speaks of
the, Comforter is going to come, comfort
God's people and be with his people, but in verse 32, 31, it says, Jesus
answered him, do you now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea
is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own,
and shall leave me alone, and yet I am not alone because the
Father's with me. These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."
And where it says that we have, and have overcome them, little
children, you have overcome them. We can only say that because
he is the overcomer with the big O. He has overcome all obstacles
and things, and being he has overcome all those things, we
are partakers of that. And not only in the greater sense
as far as regeneration and everlasting life that he gives his people,
but overcoming through the word those errors that come up, that
we know where we stand. And we know where we stand, we
bring that forth by how we stand there. And it's of his overcoming,
of course, that all that overcoming is ever done. One more spot in
the, while we're in the book of John, chapter eight. Turn
the book of chapter, or the chapter eight of John. And here, it's starting with verse 31. It says, in verse 31, Jesus said
to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my
word, then you are my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free. Then they answered
him, we be of Abraham's seed, and we were never in bondage
to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made free? Jesus answered
them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is
a servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth forever. And if the son
therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And
then he goes on and talks about being, I know you're of Abraham
seed, but you see, kill me and Abraham would not have done that.
And you have your father, the devil as he goes on. But here
it says, the son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. The overcoming is that it's finished
when he said it's finished. Everything has been overcome
and in light of that, all error is overcome. All error can be
and is overcome. And then the third part I'd like
to look at for just a couple of minutes of this is greater
is he that is in you than is in the world. And to start that
piece off, I'd like to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 and chapter 2 and others speak mightily of who we stand
in and how we stand and what we have. and any right that we
have to claim to anything is because of him, is through him,
and is him, is the Lord himself. But in 1 Corinthians chapter
two, I'd like to start with verse five. Verse four, and my speech and
my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the spirit and of power. That your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How
be it we speak wisdom among men that are perfect, yet not the
wisdom of this world nor the princes of this world that come
to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified
the Lord of Glory. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, for what
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which
is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the
spirit of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not
in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for there are
foolishness unto him. Neither can we know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ. And I'm sure that's been abused
in different ways where it says we have the mind of Christ. But
we have the scripture in our hands that is the very word of
the Lord himself. We have that, what is in his
mind and he reveals to his people as he will, those things. But
the natural man, where it says here, is greater in you than
in the world, the natural man, is not capable of, it's dead,
spiritually dead. And only by his opening our eyes
by the new birth can we claim to not only be children of God
or overcoming, but that he is our strength. He is the whole
standing we have. I wrote out a couple of thoughts
I'd like to read, and then one more spot in the scriptures we're
gonna look at. It says, you of God are influenced
and directed by the Holy Spirit. Those things that are most surely
believed by the children have come by his revelation through
his word. These make those of error and
unbelief to be not valid. those things from the scripture
that he has shown us by his spirit and influence and directed by
the spirit. The new birth or regeneration
by God the spirit in Jesus Christ is the sure and only defense
against the world and the errors of it. Any errors of any time,
that's always been the defense. The natural man's reasoning and
arguing these things isn't sufficient to it. only as it is argued or
discussed or brought forth as what the scripture says. That's
the only sure defense we have of it. The only sure defense
we have against sin, death, hell, and the grave is the Lord himself
and new birth from that. In 1 Peter, it speaks as children
belonging to God. And also in John, chapter 15
in the Lord's prayer about the church and his people. It speaks
about this and how this comes about. In John, where he speaks
about he's the good shepherd and his sheep know his voice,
will not hear another. They hear his voice. We have the mind of Christ. We
have the voice of the Lord. It's not some inner you know,
something spoke to me and this, you know, came about. That's
not how it happens. It's by, and anybody that sees
God in a burning bush anymore or any other way like that, they've
been doing something they shouldn't probably, they're on something.
Because he doesn't speak that way as he did. He speaks through
his scripture by his spirit to his people. And then turn to
Psalm 124, and just, Psalm 124, and this applies at all times
to God's people. Psalm 124, there's eight verses
here we're gonna read, and then we're gonna be done for today.
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel
say, If it had not been the Lord who is on our side when men rose
up against us, then had they swallowed us up quick when their
wrath was kindled against us. The waters had overwhelmed us.
The stream had gone over our soul. Then the proud waters had
gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who hath
not given us a prey to their teeth. Our souls escaped as a
bird out of the snare of the fowlers, snares broken and we
are escaped. Our help is in the name of the
Lord who made heaven and earth. And with that, we will close
for this morning and have a little time to visit. Thank you for
your.