Join Pastor Matt and the Christ-followers as we Learn to REACH OUT and REACH DOWN. 1 John 4:1-13 Exposes the FALSE PROPHET Harold Camping for what he truly is; anti-christ (not THE anti-christ, but one in whom is the spirit of anti-christ). Embarrassment on the part of Camping followers is unecessary for true belivers.
Download Pastors Notes for this SermonThe Power of Charity
ROOTED IN LOVE
John 4:1-13 NKJV
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
John 4:1-13 NLT
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet* acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.
- I. BEING ROOTED Requires You to Do Your HOMEWORK - Don’t Swallow Any FISHHOOKS (4:1-3)
- A. CENTER on Your Responsibility to Not Be Deceived (cf. Matt. 24:5)
Matthew 24:5
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
- B. CLARIFY Who is of God (cf. 1 Cor. 12:3)
1 Corinthians 12:3
3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
- C. John CAUTIONS Against the Spirit of Anti-Christ
- II. BEING ROOTED Requires You to TUNE into the RIGHT Spiritual Network – God’s Knowledge is POWERFUL (4:4-6)
Trust the SPIRIT (see also v. 13) (cf. 1 Cor. 2:12-16)
1 Corinthians 2:12-16
12 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. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
- III. BEING ROOTED Requires You to REACH DOWN & OUT - LOVE is the Key (4:7-13)
- A. Love as an Action PROCEEDS From God (v. 7)
- B. Love That is MISSING in Action is Not of God (v. 8)
- C. Love in Action is Jesus Christ Dying for our Sins (v. 9; cf. Rom 5:8)
Romans 5:8
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- D. Love Acted and Paid the DEBT for our SIN (v. 10; cf. Tit. 3:5; 1 John 2:2)
Titus 3:5
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
1 John 2:2
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Note: Propitiation: Bringing of two different money types together - appease
- E. Love in ACTION is REACHING OUT to the SAINTS and “DOWN” to the Lost (vv. 11-12)