Learn to discern and learn to love

--- 1 John chapter 4 has two main parts and two main themes, and they are how important it is to really know Jesus, how important it is to really love the way that Jesus modeled for us, knowing and loving. So this is gonna be a super simple message today, simple, right? This was hard. This was a hard week's passage. So in order to stay true to what John taught, we are gonna talk about what does it say, what does it mean, but this is almost 100% application for us, didn't you find that this week? So we're gonna talk a lot about how does this affect my life, how does this change my life? And these two themes stem from a verse that we read last week that we studied in chapter 3, verse 23. I'm gonna put this up on the board to remind us. This is his commandment that we first of all believe in the name of Jesus Christ, his son, and second of all that we love one another. And those two elements are what we're gonna talk about today. So this chapter kind of expands on what he told us there. So let's start with verse 1, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they're from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. So right away we have two commands in this first sentence for us as children of God. First of all, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. We are not to be gullible or naive. We are to be aware that there are many different spirits in the world coming at us. So many voices, so much information, and it can make life confusing, particularly when someone that you know or respect or a family member begins to embrace something that you're just like, I don't know about that. It can get a little confusing. And you go back now, what do I believe? What is, what is this centered on? But we have a responsibility according to this passage to be discerning, not gullible Christians. Verse 2 says, by this you know the spirit of God. John tells us how to figure this out, it's super simple. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ that has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, but is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already, because this is the last hour. These are the last days it will be marked by Antichrist teachings. So it's not complicated. We like that phrase, it's all about Jesus, it all centers on Jesus, which we have studied. The fact that Jesus is the son of God, he was with God in the beginning, he came in flesh to be our representative, and he's God's only choice for redemption. This passage though, John is telling believers to expect other inputs, expect other spirits in the world, expect other voices, voices that will either ignore who Jesus is, deny who he is, or skew the truth about who he is. And we have inputs coming at us all the time. Some we have some control over to put up borders, others we just really don't have control over. And I was thinking about this last week. Maybe in the last seven days in your life, maybe you didn't spend a high percentage of your time thinking about orthodox Christian doctrine, like making sure that I believe everything the way the Bible teaches about Jesus. Maybe you had to spend some of your time doing dental appointments, and blowing out sprinklers, and paying taxes, and running around, and doing jobs, and having sickness, and all those types of things. And yet, in doing all of those things, there's input coming at us, and there's chatter coming at us, and there's a spirit behind all of the input that comes at us as we go about our days. It either ignores Jesus, it denies him, or it changes the truth about him. So there's a spiritual emphasis behind the music that we had in the car while we were going to the dentist appointment. I was in the dentist this week. I can name off all the groups I listened to, and I can tell you what was on the, right? There's a spiritual emphasis coming behind that, behind the Netflix series that we watched, behind the textbook that we had to read, behind the news, the advertising, the cartoons for our children. So this is super relevant, to be aware of the fact that there are spirits in the world, spirits of the world. It doesn't just only pertain to our Bible time, and what our Bible says. So we would be foolish Christians to not apply at least some level of discernment over all of that input, and fortunately, God has given us a way to do that. Pick up the next verse, verse 4. He says, little children, you are from God, and you have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. We have a secret advantage to discern where the spirits are coming from. But also I want to take a look at that verse, because how many of you, before you even opened up your study guide this week, you knew that verse, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, right? But how many of you knew the verses before it, and the verses behind it, and could say the context of it, because we might think that the verse is all kind of like, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He who is in me is greater than he, you know, it kind of sounds like it's just a I'm strong in the Lord kind of verse. And it's true, however, look at what we're talking about. The blessing that we have, because we possess this Holy Spirit, the blessing that we have in discernment. We can discern the spirit of God, and the spirit of the world, because of this radar, this truth radar that he has put in us. And sometimes as a believer, we all have it, if the Holy Spirit lives in us, we all have the truth radar, but it can fall into rusty, dusty, unused, if we don't practice it. And this tells us we need to practice. We need to practice discerning, testing the spirits. So verse four, again, little children, you are from God, and you have overcome them. For he who is in you, the spirit of truth is greater than he who is in the world, the spirit of error. They, the antichrist spirits, are from the world, and they speak from the world, and the world listens to them, but we are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, whoever is not from God does not listen to us, and by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And so we also learn from this passage that there is a camaraderie in the world with the spirit of the world. Look what John said, they are from the world, they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. There is a familiarity and a camaraderie that we should expect. So as we process this, first of all, let's take it regarding our spiritual thinking, our spiritual training. This passage gives us insights that there is going to be a popularity to antichrist teachings. They will be popular in the world, okay? So a false teacher merely needs to set aside some key elements to what the Bible teaches, for example, about the fact that we are all in sin, we are all born in sin, have need of a savior. Let's set aside that key element, and rather than that, let's just teach that you are so wonderful, and God just lives to make your life even more wonderful, to empower you. It's rather than self-help, it's a God-help kind of a concept, to be successful and fulfill our dreams. The world will listen to that, it will be popular, because it is a teaching of the world, and the world listens to it, okay? So don't be surprised when teachings that are antichrist are very popular. Now about our daily life that we talked about, all the things that we did in the last seven days, this also gives us insight that the lyrics of the music, there's a spirit behind it. Does it promote immorality? Does it promote honoring Christ? The advertisements, did they promote a discontent in your life, a materialism? Or obviously, the textbooks, does it promote the pride of life, or the truth of God? Now we can't escape all those things. Part of them are just like, you gotta take that class, you gotta sit in the dentist chair, you can't escape these things. But how wonderful when we can at least say, I have tested that spirit, that is not a spirit of the Lord, and be able to put up those boundaries. It's not about escaping, it's about discernment. And so I hope you enjoyed that passage on page 29 in your study guide from A.W. Tozer, How to Test the Spirits. It's timeless. It was written a couple decades ago, but I thought that it was just a really great group of questions to ask. about some sort of philosophy or teaching that's coming my way. How can I test whether this is from God? So let's move on into the next section, which we titled Learn to Love. And remember, again, that this chapter is expanding, again, on 1 John 3-23. That we believe in the name of Jesus and we love one another just as he commanded us. And John says, just as he commanded us. I wanna read you something about John. The church father, Jerome, said that when the apostle John was in his extreme old age, he was so weak that he had to be carried into the church meetings. At the end of the meeting, he would be helped to his feet to give a word of exhortation to the church. Invariably, he would repeat, little children, let us love one another. The disciples began to grow weary of the same words every time, and they finally asked him why he always said the same thing over and over. And he replied, because it is the Lord's command. And if this only is done, it is enough. I loved that. And so we don't grow weary either of the exhortation. And it tells me why, on my computer, I had to paint the word love 27 times now in this chapter as we go through this. So let's start reading in verse 7, you'll have a song in your head.

And would you allow me to take the last three verses of this chapter too and bring it up into this conversation? So 19 through 21 says,

Okay, so if we read those passages intentionally enough and bring it into the scope of what we've learned in 1 John, the fact, it's very logical, the fact that first of all, God is light and him is no darkness. Second of all, that we are darkness and we need to be able to step into the light. And since we have been saved and brought into the light by God's gracious act of love, then we also ought to love one another. And finally, if we don't love one another, maybe we're not honest about where we're at in loving God. When I told you to mark that last phrase, whoever loves God must also love his brother, tells us that love is a command to us, and so we learn it's not as much of a feeling as it is a decision, a continual way of life where we make the choice to deny that which comes first in our life to be self-centered, self-focused. And instead, turn it to be for the good of the person in front of me. So it is a command, and even though I titled this section, Learn to Love, we don't wanna be confused and thinking that learning to love is something that we just try hard to do, like you try hard to learn to play the piano, you just grind out those lessons every day for years and years until finally it happens, that's not the point here. And so John goes into the next passage that we're gonna do in our study guide, it's called Learn to Abide, and he uses the word abide six times because this gives us the key for how we learn to love. We learn to love when we learn to abide, so we wanna go into that passage. Verse 12 says,

Okay, before we talk about abide, let's talk about perfected. What does it mean that his love is perfected in us? Perfected means to bring something to its intended goal. I have been, for the last ten years, perfecting my drip line system at my house. And my goal is that we could actually be gone for seven days in July, and my plants wouldn't die. It is still being perfected, but that is what the word means, bringing it to its intended goal. Sunday, we were in 2 Corinthians 12.9, I love this pulling it together. My power is made perfect in weakness. God says my power is being perfected through your weakness. The more you understand that you don't have it, the capacity, my power is perfected in that. And does this happen in one day? No, this does not happen in one day. This did not happen the day you got saved. This did not happen the day I got saved, being perfected. Okay, now we're ready to talk about abide. We'll come back to perfected again. But again, in verse 13, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he's given us of his spirit. And we, now hear this pronoun he's talking about, he and the apostles here. We have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. But now you, anybody here, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we've come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love, abides in God, and God abides in him. Okay, John has been so good to us to bring us definitions to his vocabulary throughout this study. When he used the word love, last week we talked about the fact that if we went through this room, we'd get 30 different definitions of what love is. But John defined it for us in 316. He said, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. So we learned that his definition of love was agape, sacrificial, sacrificing love. When he used the word commandment last week in 323, he explained it to us. This is his commandment, believe in the name of his son, love one another. Well, now that he uses the word abide, we have definitions in these passages. What does it mean to abide? Because if I started over here, we'd get 30 definitions of what a girl looks like when she abides in God. We might think that she's very ethereal, and she speaks in a library voice, and she never has a bad hair day, and she memorizes whole chapters of the Bible at once, she abides in God, right? But John told us, verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. There's our definition. Also in verse 13, we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. He has imparted something into us. We now have his spirit. So it's not very mysterious. This is how we abide in God. But it says, he's given us of his spirit. We are, I wanna go back to what we talked about last week, born of God. The seed of God is in us. Remember, we talked about that sperm, that which is sown. You do not sow a seed into the ground without an expectation for it to grow. And to produce something, if it's a flower seed, you want beauty. If it's a vegetable seed, you want food. A baby does not be born into our house without an expectation that it will grow. And the same thing is true in our life. So abide gives us not only this Jesus believing, but it takes us to fruit bearing. And I wanna show you where we get that from. Because the other place in our Bible where we have the word abide multiple times congested into a passage is in John 15. You don't have to turn there. I'll just put it on the screen for you. But this is where Jesus, on the night after the last supper, they left the upper room and Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches. And I always picture in my mind that as they were leaving, there was a very large vine that had grown up on the building. Because Jesus always used examples that were right in front of him. But anyway, John is reiterating in his gospel the words that Jesus talked about that night, and it gives us another concept about abide. So Let me read through this. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. So we get to the point here of fruit, and we know from Galatians that love is a fruit to the Holy Spirit, it is the first one listed, love, joy, peace. And so the fruit begins with the seed of God which is within us, the seed grows and it shows itself in bearing fruit. So abiding again has implications beyond Jesus believing into fruit bearing. It is an attachment, it is an awareness of our attachment. So this passage to us today, the first John chapter four, reminds us that we are attached to the Lord, us to him, he to us, and it brings us to an awareness of that attachment, an awareness of God in me to be able to grow and to bear this fruit and to love others. So how does this affect me today? What does this mean to me? Well first of all, this helps us to take a spiritual inventory. When we read through a portion of scripture like this, we take a spiritual inventory and we say, how am I doing on this loving others? Because that's the fruit of growth, that's the fruit of the seed growing and flourishing in my life. How am I doing? It is good for us to take a spiritual inventory and be honest and say, here's where I'm at. For 25 years I homeschooled my kids and almost all of those years we started the first day of school with the Morrison-McCall spelling test and they would just have to spell the words and it told them exactly where they were at. Okay, you're at second grade month four, you are at fifth grade month seven, you are at seventh grade. And if you know kids, you know you can have a fifth grader doing seventh grade math but their spelling is bad, third grade. And it was an assessment and it's like, you know, the test doesn't lie. This is where you're at. But it's good because assessment, the point of taking an assessment is to say, well I don't want to stay in second grade spelling as a fifth grader, you know, I need to grow. This passage tells us, do we need to grow in our loving others? Also the other thing that I personally just got out of this is the energizing. I love passages that remind me, especially if I'm studying or meditating on that, that remind me, God is here, God is in me. Isn't it so easy to perceive God from without? He's in heaven, he's outside, we pray to him, we have to get in a special, but that reminder, no, no, no, no, no, we're connected right here. What are we going to do today? What do you want to do today? You know, who are we going to love? What are we going to? I just love that reminder of the awareness of abiding in the Lord. Okay, the last section is learning to abound in God's love. Verse 17 says, by this is love perfected with us, here we have that word again, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. So just as Jesus can't be condemned because he conquered sin and death, so also are we in this world because we have him. We also now can't be condemned because we are tucked within Christ. What I want to do is read again something I put in our study guide from Warren Wiersbe, and you can look in your study guide or I'll put it on the screen as well, because I think that he gave us such a great perspective here on just this growth that we're talking about. The perfecting of God's love in our lives is usually a matter of several stages. When we were lost, we lived in fear and knew nothing of God's love. After we trusted Christ, we found a perplexing mixture of both fear and love in our hearts. But as we grew in fellowship with the Father, gradually the fear vanished and our hearts were controlled by his love alone. An immature Christian is tossed between fear and love, and a mature Christian rests in God's love. Did you catch on? What is the difference between the immature Christian and the mature Christian? It is the growth that happens in fellowship with the Father. She learns how to rest in God's love, and we no longer have the fear, and it's a matter of abiding, growing, and resting. So now I want to read verse 18, as this is our closing verse, because we already took up 19 to 21, because I think that the maturing aspect plays a big part in this verse as we read the words now about fear and love, okay? So verse 18 says,

Is that okay to add that? John is not saying that someone who fears isn't saved. They just have not yet been perfected, brought to the intended goal in love. They are on their journey, because this doesn't happen in a day. Maturity and growth in the Lord bring us to a place where His love casts a bigger and bigger and bigger shadow over our fears. Now, in some of our lives, the Holy Spirit actually used the fear of judgment, which is the context of this passage. This is talking about the fear of judgment. In some of our lives, God used the fear of judgment to draw us to Him. That was my, that's my testimony. I was a little girl, and somehow the Holy Spirit revealed to me that, I mean, I knew I really, really wanted to go to heaven. And the Holy Spirit revealed to me that somehow I couldn't get there, and somehow Jesus was my answer. And that's about all I knew, is that heaven was where I wanted to be, I couldn't get there, and Jesus was my answer. And that's where God started with me. So the fear of judgment can be a positive thing in our lives, if it drives us to the cross. I wonder if that's what amazing grace means, t'was grace that caused my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. Like that was, that's my story, grace, God's grace caused my heart to fear and say, I don't think I can get to heaven. And then His love poured into me and showed me the answer, and so His grace my fears relieved. Then I knew, I'm good, Jesus is my answer. You know, and then of course, over the course of my lifetime, I gained even more assurance. But when we are possessed with the love of God, it begins to cast out the fears. So we have confidence for the day of judgment. And back from chapter two, John said, so that you won't shrink back in shame at His coming. And even though certainly judgment is the context of what we're talking about here, I do think that God's love overshadows our fears in general. All of the other fears that we have that are not related to judgment or being separated from God, I think it is God's love. When John gives us the converse of this, whoever fears has not been perfected in love, I do think we can say, yet, because perfected means brought to its intended goal. So what does this mean to me? What is our issue for today about this perfection, being perfected in love? And I think that it's not so much, I wanna be careful how we think about that word perfect. It's not so much perfection as it is direction. Are we pointed in the right direction that will help God's love cast a bigger and bigger shadow over our fears? So here's a couple of closing questions. Are you tossed by fears in your life? If you are, number one, make sure you're pointing in the right direction for God's perfection, for His perfecting love, not shrinking back from that. Make sure that you are connected to the vine, that you are abiding, that you are aware of the shadow of God's love that wants to work in your life, wants to grow us, mature us. Do you have any way to do benchmarks in your life? Like I was talking about the spelling test, that you can look back and say, oh, here's my notebook from 10 years ago at retreat, look at all the things I was afraid of, look how God's shadow of love has cast over my life and I have grown in releasing those fears about everything, right? And then I think it's important for us to stop saying, I'm just a fearful person. Because to me, that is like, if we go back to the illustration of the vine and the branch, and Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. When we say things like that or think things like that, it's kind of like saying, I'm just a disconnected branch laying over there. And yeah, you can do nothing. A branch, you guys all prune trees. The apple doesn't grow anymore after the branch has been pruned. And so when we sort of give up and say, I'm just a worry wart, I'm just fearful, I'm just this, we're that disconnected branch. We have disconnected from our hope, because it is God's love in our heart that gives us hope. So enough about fear, I just thought that that might be important for somebody. I'll let you guys discuss all the ins and outs of this chapter. Father, we wanna thank you for just this really discipleship manual this week. To help us learn to discern, to bring this back up into our mind that we must be discerning, Lord, to help us understand, measure, see your love. And recognize that we too can express and reflect your love in the world as we abide in you. So Lord, my prayer as we close is just help us abide in you. Lord, hold us tight and help us to keep our grip as we abide, as we are aware of that life-giving nourishment that comes only from you, that we can express in our own world. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. ---