Episode Transcript
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Will please remain standing if you're able, and let's turn our attention to first
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John, one of the last letters
of the New Testament, a small letter,
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and then a little collection of letters
by John. This one the first
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of those first John, and I'll
be reading chapter four, verses one through
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six. This is God's word.
Let us hear it and heed it.
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Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether
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they are from God, for many
false prophets have gone out into the world.
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By this you know the spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesses that
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Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is from God, and every spirit that
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does not confess Jesus is not from
God. This is the spirit of the
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antichrist, which you heard was coming
and now is in the world already.
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Little children, you are from God
and have overcome them, for he who
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is in you is greater than he
who is in the world. They are
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from the world. Therefore, they
speak from the world and the world listens
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to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us,
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whoever is not from God does not
listen to to us. By this we
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know the spirit of the truth and
that are or rather by this we know
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the spirit of truth and the spirit
of error. Amen, maybe seated well.
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I'm going to spend a few sermons
on this passage. Want to begin
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by just a going through it with
you briefly. I'm seeing in sort of
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its basic elements what is said here. First, we notice that John Addresses
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his readers again as beloved. This
is one of the ways in which he
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seems to change sections or notify another
section. He kind of comes at them
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again and says, Hey, remember
who you are. I have something else
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to say to you, beloved,
and then he gives them this warning.
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He says do not believe every spirit, and that's going to be our main
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focus for today, just this reality
that there exists true things and false things
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in the world, false spirits,
true spirits, things that are from God
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and things that are not from God. John Recognizes this reality and speaks to
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these Christians in light of that.
He speaks to US and he says here's
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how you know by this you know
the spirit of God. Every spirit that
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confesses that Jesus has come in the
flesh is from God. This word confess
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could also be profess. Sometimes it's
used as a way to show a kind
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of exclamation or a pronouncement, an
official teaching in light of a and light
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of some authority behind it. Either
way you take it, here it is
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what is the spirit saying, what
is this person saying? Here? Spirit
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is used in a kind of a
way that describes this principle or action of
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people, a speaking it's a spirit
that is not merely an action or a
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principle, but it's connected to either
the spirit of God himself or to the
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world, as he says, or
the Anti Christ, and he's talking to
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them. Finally, all note about
this passage. He's talking to them in
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a situation that is very much a
now moment and an ongoing thing. First,
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notice the way he says that Jesus, every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ
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has come in the flesh, is
from God. That little word has is
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important. The verb is a perfect
verb and basically that means that it it's
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a word that expresses something in the
past that has continuing significance. In other
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words, it's not just that Jesus
came, and that's all I want you
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to know, but Jesus came in. It has ongoing consequences. Will come
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back to that. Later, the
same kind of word or the same kind
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of verb is used when it's talks
about the spirit of antichrist. This is
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the spirit of the antichrist which you
heard was coming and is now in the
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world. Already there's this thing that
is happening now, something that was expected,
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but it's not purely in the future. It's happened and it continues with
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that. In the situation, they
have to be discerning people. They have
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to decide what is true and what
is false, and you have to do
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that as well. Let's step back
in time for a moment and imagine a
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scenario, if you would with me. Let's imagine a young man in the
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first century. He's come to Ephesus, here, where John was. Maybe
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he was going to train in a
medical school there. will say that he's
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far away from home. He's learning
to be a man, he's hoping to
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make his way in the world and
in this new city he's made a new
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friend, a Christian friend, a
neighbor who doesn't live too far away.
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He tends to shop in the Agora
around the same time of day. They
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get together, they talk, they're
becoming friends, and this neighbor, this
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Christian friend, invites this new young
man to Ephesus, to church. He
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decides to go there. They sing
and they pray, they hear God's word
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read and expounded, just as we
do today. But while he's there he
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hears some very peculiar things. He
hears about this man named Jesus. He's
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heard about him before, but in
some more detail. On this particular day,
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he hears that this there is this
Jesus, and he is believed by
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these Christians to be a god,
or rather the God for they Christians,
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that the Christians, they reject all
other gods and they give only their allegiance
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to this Jesus. I'll from his
perspective. He thinks about this and he
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says well, in some ways they
are very much like the Jews. Their
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services are nearly the same. The
their services are the same. And this
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Jesus said to have been a Jew
himself, even the son of an ancient
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king, King David, the father
of their faith, Abraham. He's talked
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about as a new Moses, a
new Elijah. The whole thing sounds very
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Jewish in fact, but it's not
centered on the ancient fathers or the temple
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or Israel or the sacrifices or the
purity laws, and in that way it's
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also very different from the Jews.
Everything is so focused. Instead of on
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these old institutions, it's so centrally
focused on Jesus. This Jesus says he's
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distinct from God, the father,
but also one with him. He's promised
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to send his spirit, which they
claim has happened, who is also God.
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But though they make these distinctions between
these three persons, they don't make
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any divine distinctions and they say that
each of them, the each of these
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three persons together are one God.
It's a lot to take in, but
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at the core of it all is
this central belief that God and the purpose
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and of Jesus has come into the
world to save the world. Though Ephesians,
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these Christians, and this church that
he attends, they're not proud,
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like many of the other Ephesians are
a concerning artemis and our temple in particular.
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In fact, regarding that particular temple, they refuse to worship there.
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They won't even go and in some
of them have even quit their jobs there.
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They have a kind of humility to
it's a weird thing. Instead of
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just transferring sort of Artemis, the
great pride of the Ephesians, to Jesus,
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the great pride of the Jews.
Maybe hard to know. They love
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him and they have confidence in him, but at the same time they're marked
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by a humility instead of pride.
They're happy to be Christians, they're willing
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to die for it, but they
see themselves not as great ones. They're
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not filled with the kind of worldly
patriotism that the Ephesians have. They see
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themselves as sinners, as needy people, as broken people, as lost people
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who have been found. This sounds
intriguing at least. Sounds lovely and remarkable
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in other ways, but at the
same time you know he has his friend
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when he knows that the this community
is not a perfect one. It's got
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problems. His friend tells him that
the church recently lost several members who claimed
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they were Christians but in fact aren't. In fact there's divisions and struggles within
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the church. John has been speaking
to this issue. They recently received this
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letter teaching them how to deal with
this situation, what they are to do.
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They are to hold to the Gospel. They are not to believe a
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different gospel like these other people have
who say they're Christians and talk about Jesus,
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but but aren't they preach a different
Christ from a different spirit, and
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in some ways, honestly, it
sounds kind of mean headed. Aren't they
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supposed to be known by their love? What's with all the division? What's
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with all the these people are Christians, in these people are not Christians,
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and all of that? Why can't
they just get along together rather than adding
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yet another God to the Pantheon and
then dividing over how to worship him?
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And besides that, how do they
know who's right and WHO's wrong? How
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do they know the ones who left
weren't the right ones? His friends a
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nice guy, but he doesn't sound
very nice when he says other people aren't
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Christians. In fact, he says
that John has taught them that they have
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the spirit of antichrist. Those are
pretty strong words. So what's this young
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man supposed to make of all of
this? There's our scenario, or first
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century scenario, or maybe it's a
twenty one century scenario. Right, there
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are some of you here who day
today, who have been in this young
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man's shoes before. I know this
because I've talked to you, I've heard
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your stories and maybe you're even here
today asking the very same question. How
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can I know the truth? What
is to be believed? Maybe, like
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our young man, a friend invited
you. Maybe you've lost a family member
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recently and you're trying to figure out
how to process that. Or maybe you're
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here because you just have a school
assignment that's been given to you and you
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have a report that's do Monday.
There are a thousand reasons why you might
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show up here on any given Sunday, but at the end you and all
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of us have the same kind of
question to answer that this young man had.
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Is it true? Is it from
God? How can I know if
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this describes you? Let me start
out by saying good for you. Being
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open and honest, being a listener, having humility is not an easy thing
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to do. Being uncomfortable is not
easy, unless, of course, you're
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desperate for salvation, and then no
amount of does comfort attends to hold us
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back. Nevertheless, I do want
to recognize that for most of us,
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coming face to face with our uncertainties, with our doubts, with our core
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beliefs and unbeliefs, that can be
a very unnerving thing. This is true
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for Christians as well well. You
might be surprised to learn, then,
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is that the Bible actually invites this
kind of questioning. God himself has written
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down in his very word this reality
that we all experience as human beings,
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this reality that there are different and
competing truths in the world and that we
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all have to process that and come
to conclusions about it. Now you might
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say, well, I don't really
need to come to a conclusion about it
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and we can delay these things,
perhaps for a little bit of time.
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We like to delay, maybe even
the hard work of truth testing because,
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well, it's hard, I'm unnerving
and scary and life is busy. But
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let me remind you that life is
also short. Even if you don't believe
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in an afterlife, doesn't truth matter
right here, right now? Think about
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the basic questions which we operate on
in just our everyday lives. Doesn't it
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matter whether racism is really evil or
not, if theft is a real crime
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or not? Is God really powerful
and really good or not? Is Love
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something that we owe one another and
should give to one another or is it
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not? These kinds of core things, these central things, truth with a
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capital T, we might say,
are essential for living our lives and we
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might not necessarily know them or have
all the answers, but the fact is
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is that we are operating on them, whether we like it or not.
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We have to on the basis of
these things, we make decisions every single
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day. They are the lane markers
we drive our cars in. They're the
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winds into which we open our sales, they're the ways and they're the reasons
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behind why we say that's not fair
and you shouldn't have done that for me
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or to me. They shape our
priorities. They teach us about how to
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interpret our experiences. The truth of
love, for example, makes a hug
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from a friend in a time of
sorrow deep and meaningful, because love is
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not an abstat and abstract idea or
social construct. It's real and it's meaningful
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and you feel it when your friend
embraces you. The Truth Matters Love.
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The truth of love makes a hug
from a friend have importance and significance and
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not just be physical bodies moving like
robots. It's a truth thing, it's
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a wonderful thing. Or take another
example, the truth of justice makes things
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like forgiveness and reconciliation more than just
arbitrary constructs. They make them things worth
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pursuing, worth fighting for, worth
Eve in dying for. The truth that
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God is good and powerful as our
creator gives us value outside of our circumstances
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and talents. The truth that God
is good and powerful makes us obligated beyond
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our personal proclivities. The truth that
God is good and powerful gives us out
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its hope outside of our experiences of
this world, when he sends his son
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into the world and says that we
can have eternal life in him. So
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you see what I mean. I'm
saying that truth matters. Of course it
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matters. We live every moment of
our lives on the basis of what we
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believe about the truth. So while
it's hard to face our doubts, I
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know that, and all the possibility
of saying that we're wrong or being humbled
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or being a sir or being uncertain
is hard to deal with, we have
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to face it at some point.
We have to ask these kinds of questions.
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What is true and what is not? We ask this in really simple
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things. Right, you get a
cupe on and your email. Is this
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legit or is the spam right?
It makes a difference and if it makes
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a difference for something as simple as
whether you're going to say fifteen percent at
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the department store. Shouldn't it matter
for what whether or not you will go
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to heaven or hell? So I
find it remarkable that the Bible doesn't Swish
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all of this away, sweep it
under the rug, this reality of our
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lives about truth and falsehoods, the
reality of our struggles in needing to know
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and yet unknowing or not knowing.
The Bible speaks in truth to the necessity
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of finding truth and it invites it. Bring it on, bring your questions,
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bring your concerns. Beloved the apostle
rights do not believe every spirit,
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but test the spirits to see whether
they are from God. The Apostle John,
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in this letter, inspired by the
spirit of God, does not simply
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say believe me, listen to what
I say and God will abide in you.
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Now he does make that claim,
as he says at the end.
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He says whoever knows God listens to
us. That's verse six. And if
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that wasn't clear, whoever is not
from God does not listen to us.
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Right. So he certainly says you
must believe me, you must hear me
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if you are to know the truth
and to abide in God. But he
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doesn't only say that, he makes
a claim. He makes a promise of
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eternal value and he says test it, not just believe me, test the
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spirits. He recognizes the fact that
there are competing voices out there, false
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prophets who have gone out into the
world, and many of them, or
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and all of them, all of
these false prophets, aren't speaking lies.
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There are people who call themselves Christians
but are not. Isn't that just common
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sense, whether you're a Christian or
not? Wouldn't that just be an obvious
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truth? Why? Because people are
liars, people are hypocrites. It's a
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part of this world that we live
and it's one of the things that Jesus
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is saving us from. But John
is warning. If you listen to these
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people, you will fall back into
the darkness. If you listen to us,
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you will abide in God. Now, before you form any conclusions about
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that, you have to recognize that
what John says about their being multiple and
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competing voices is true, and it's
the same back then, or is the
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same today, as it was in
the early Church Urch. This is undeniable.
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John is right and honest for saying
it. There's no way around this.
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Reality and necessays. The necessity of
a test is required. Think about
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it this way. Let's say you're
given two hundred dollar bills. One is
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real and one is a fake.
You need some sort of test. Is
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because I said so going to be
good enough? Well, maybe, depending
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on the source and WHO's saying it. But what if you don't know?
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What if you haven't yet spent in
time with the source, it's going to
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be difficult to know how to test. So John doesn't just say because I
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said so or because someone, some
other man, says so. He says
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here's the test, here's how you
know which is true and which is false.
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Does the person profess that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh or not?
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If he professes this, then he
speaks the truth and is therefore from
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God. If he denies that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh, then
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he does not speak the truth and
is from God. Now I know what
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you're thinking. You're thinking, well, of course John gives this test right.
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What gives John the right to give
this test? What if the other
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person said the opposite thing? What
if they said the way to the know
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the truth is to see who denies
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
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I'm just right back to square one. Yes, it's true that there
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are competing voices. Yes, it's
true that we need a test, but
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of course you're given going to give
me this answer because you want me to
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believe what you're saying. Well,
how do we think about that? Well,
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the first thing I want to say
is that, while it's true that
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two people can give opposing tests,
it doesn't mean that both are equally right.
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And is the person who is telling
you the truth and telling you about
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the true test wrong for offering that
to you? In other words, if
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a person says this is true and
here's how you know, are they to
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be judged by that and say how
could you possibly do that? Of course
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you would say that. I don't
think so, and there's a lot of
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reasons for it. For example,
for for one reason, what else is
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a person supposed to say? Let's
say someone steals your identity and you have
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to go before a judge and there's
another person there standing right next to you.
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There's another Christopher, Christopher Chalka me. One says he's the Real Christopher,
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or the other says he is the
Real Christopher. What am I supposed
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to do? I could say believe
me. The judge would say, okay,
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I can give a test. Right. I can say, look,
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here's my birth certificate. Whoever was
born on this day, on my birthdays
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the Real Christopher. Or I could
go to my mother and I could say,
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listen, here's the testimony of my
mother. Now, this May or
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may not convince the judge, but
here's the point I'm wanting to make.
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Would you blame me for offering my
birth certificate, the testimony of my mother
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other documents as proof? What else
is of an supposed to do other than
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offer legitimate tests to test the truth? Is he supposed to lie and give
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false tests? Is he supposed to
not give you any test at all?
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No, he's doing the only thing
that can be done. You want to
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know the truth, good test the
truth. How do I test the truth?
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By this a true test. Obviously
a liar is going to make a
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counterclaim, but that doesn't mean that
the truth teller is wrong. It's not
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right to scoff at somebody WHO's trying
to defend the truth, and we shouldn't
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scoff at John as he speaks this
way, as he says, believe me.
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And here's the test. He's testifying
to what he knows is true.
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John does nothing wrong in being one
to give us a test and to back
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up that claim. Now what about
the test in particular? Now we're at
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the really hard stuff. John says
that the way to know a true spirit
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is to God, is from God, is to see whether or not he
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professes Jesus, Christ has come in
the flesh. So here's the question you
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have to answer. Is this a
good test? Is it true? Should
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this be? Is this a valid
way to decide this? Well, it
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is, and for many reasons.
One is that John is not unique in
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giving this test. Throughout the New
Testament there are there's a deep concern that
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Christians be able to know and have
confidence in their knowledge of the truth,
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because there are liars out there.
It's essential that we be able to discern
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and John is not claiming something unique
here. In other words, we can't
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Impune John's character and say, well, of course you did that. There
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were lots of people that were doing
this in the same way. They were
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testifying together of the truth. His
message about Jesus is the same message that
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you hear from the other apostles who
knew Jesus, who were sent out by
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him and taught by him. It
was a message also that these men and
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women and children who follow Jesus would
suffer for, would die for, people
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from different backgrounds, different places,
different races, Different Ages, all willing
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to die for Jesus who had come
in the flesh. You have to explain
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the personal motivation is not a key
here. Paul says similar things. He
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says, am I preaching this Gospel
to you of self promotion or gain?
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If that were the case, why
would I be sitting in jail, beaten,
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flogged and all the rest? A
second thing to note here is that
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they're not saying things about Artemis,
the goddess of the Ephesians. They're not
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saying this test about this one who
only lives in statues and myths and rituals.
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They are saying things about Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. There they, that
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is, Christians, and the apostle
here in particular, is saying something about
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a historical event, even something that
has happened in their lifetimes, something that
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they saw. They are resting their
faith on the verifiable facts of history.
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They're not making a leap of faith
and the unknown mythologies. They're saying,
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I knew this man n this is
what he did, this is how he
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died, this is how he rose
from the dead and this is what happened
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when I saw him ascend into heaven. And this is what's happening now,
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as the spirit that he has promised
is now going out into the world and
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turning it over. They're resting their
faith on the verifiable hat facts of history,
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things testified to by multiple sources in
and outside of the Bible. A
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man from Nazareth, born of Virgin, according to prophecy, is a remarkable
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thing. Imagine if you knew a
man who was born from Nazareth, from
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a virgin according to all of the
prophecies of the Old Testament, you would
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probably have something to say about that
too. He was heralded by angels and
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dreams and many other events surrounding his
coming. During his life, Jesus did
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countless miracles, including raising people from
the dead, telling them things that were
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hidden from others. He walked on
water, he fed thousands of people with
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a few loaves of bread and fish. He prophesied about his own death and
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Resurrection Multiple Times. He spoke with
authority on everything. He was perfect and
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gentle and wise in every thing.
He was meek and courageous and wise,
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I said that, and loving.
He was dutiful in all things. He
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was also confusing and mysterious and powerful. He was worshiped by disabled people,
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Thieves, adulterers, all kinds of
sinners who turned their lives around for him.
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He was hated by powerful and self
assured people who were threatened by the
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good that he did. God became
man. And then, after all of
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this, he willingly knew and gave
himself over to death, even crucifixion,
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on across a cursed place. He
suffered a number of other humiliations and sufferings.
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Blood poured out of his body as
he hung heavy on, trying and
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heaving his last breaths. And even
in these moments he was promising eternal life
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to and thief on a cross next
to him, whom everyone could see was
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hanging with him. And all of
this was prophesied for thousands of years by
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profit after profit after profit from the
Lord. He was the Promised Messiah,
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the Christ, the son of David, the king, who had come into
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the world to save their people or
to save God's people from them their sins.
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This is what John saw, and
not just John, but all of
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the apostles and all of the disciples
and people who followed him and people who
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didn't even believe saw these things and
subsequently tried to cover them up. So
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when John says that True Christians profess
that Jesus came in the flesh, he's
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talking about this mission. He's not
nearly speaking about the incarnation or this this
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particular thing that's happening. He's talking
about this Salvivic event in which God comes
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into the world and accomplishes salvation for
the world. It's not just the incarnation,
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it's about the mission of the incarnation, which culminated in the Cross and
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the resurrection and the ascension and the
sending of the spirit. Jesus uses this
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language about coming. He doesn't merely
say I come as a way to point
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out a fact I picked up milk. No, he says I come as
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a way to talk about what he's
doing. I'll give you one example.
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There's ten others throughout the gospel of
John and other places, but in John
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Eighteen thirty seven he says the reason
I was born and came into the world
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is to testify to the truth.
This is the reason I was born and
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came into the world to testify to
the truth. So if this is what
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the son of God did, does
it make sense that the emissaries of that
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son would say here's the test by
which you know the truth? The one
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who professes that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh to testify to the truth,
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to die to the cross to bring
salvation to all of us? John's
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00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:20.400
test is a good one, because
God himself came into the world to tell
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us these things. The mission was
made complete when Jesus rose victorious over the
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grave. In his death, he
was conqueror and as his people saw him,
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after his resurrection and before his ascension, and even by visions in heaven
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itself, the world was put on
notice that the savior has come. Let
357
00:33:46.259 --> 00:33:52.900
me ask this question about this test
in this way. What other possible test
358
00:33:53.940 --> 00:34:02.490
could one use then this? Is
there any other? There isn't to know
359
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whether something is of the truth or
not, whether it conforms to the testimony
360
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of God himself or not. We
must see whether or not it conforms to
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the testimony and the mission of Jesus. Let me say that again. To
362
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know whether something is of the truth
or not, you have to ask does
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it conform to the testimony of God
himself, who came in the flesh to
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00:34:31.590 --> 00:34:37.550
testify about the truth? Does it
conform with what he said, with what
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00:34:37.780 --> 00:34:51.380
he did and with his mission?
John Has Authority absolutely given to him by
366
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God himself, the Holy Spirit working
through him, but only in so far
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as he speaks the truth. Another
one of Jesus's Apostles said the same thing
368
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Paul says in Second Corinthians Eleven.
For for if someone coomes and proclaims another
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Jesus than the one we proclaimed,
or if you receive a different spirit from
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the one you received, or if
you accept a different gospel to them the
371
00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:22.829
one that you accept, and then
he chides them, you put up with
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it readily enough. Or listen to
this from Galatians chapter one. He says,
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Paul, say as grace to you
and peace from God, our father
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and the Lord Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for our sins to deliver us
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from the present Evil Age, according
to the will of God our father.
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I am astonished that you are so
quickly deserting him who called you by the
377
00:35:50.170 --> 00:35:53.809
grace of Christ and are turning to
a different gospel. Not that there is
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00:35:53.929 --> 00:35:58.730
another one, but there are some
who trouble you and want to distort the
379
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Gospel of Christ. But if we
or an angel from heaven should preach to
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you a gospel contrary to the one
who we preach to you, let him
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be a cursed. If I,
an apostle of God, say something that
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doesn't conform to this testimony that it
conform that side, that is a different
383
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gospel than the one that Jesus brought. If an angel itself comes from Heaven
384
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and proclaims a different Gospel, let
him be cursed by God. If you
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want a surefire way to know the
truth, you cannot depend on the claims
386
00:36:45.619 --> 00:36:52.849
of men alone, even good men, holy men, apostolic men. These
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00:36:52.010 --> 00:36:58.369
things have no have weight. Of
course, an honest man is an honest
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man and that's good, but the
ultimate authority of the one, the ultimate
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authority is the it comes from the
one who has the eternal weight of glory
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of God, and that's Jesus Christ, who speaks in the world by his
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spirit. Everything must be tested according
to that. Even the apostles of the
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Lord put our obligation first and foremost
here. So what should we say to
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that young man in Ephesus who is
trying to sort all these things out?
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I would say to him this,
as I would say to anyone who wants
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to know what the truth is.
To know the truth, you must know
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God, and to know God you
must know Jesus, and to know Jesus
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you must hear the words that he
has spoken by his spirit, the words
398
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that the spirit has testified about him. And where do you find these words?
399
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You find them in the pages of
the Bible, words that have been
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recorded infallibly by the Holy Spirit in
the pages of your Bible. Open them,
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read them, hear the Voice of
God. If you must hear the
402
00:38:30.739 --> 00:38:37.539
voice of God, in order to
hear God, there must be some place
403
00:38:37.699 --> 00:38:45.889
where he has spoken. He says
that he has spoken here. So will
404
00:38:45.889 --> 00:38:51.250
you just walk away from that before
or even listening? Well, how could
405
00:38:51.250 --> 00:38:57.239
I ever know? Or will you
listen? Well, but here's the remarkable
406
00:38:57.320 --> 00:39:04.280
thing about God. Unlike man,
he can testify to the truthfulness of this
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00:39:04.760 --> 00:39:12.869
himself, directly to your soul.
A friend can tell you truly whether or
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not he said something. You can
go to your friend and you can say
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men did you say this? And
they can say yes or no. Of
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course people lie and what not,
but God doesn't lie. Let me ask
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you this. If a friend can
tell you whether or not he or she
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said something, is God less powerful
than your friend? If a friend can
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testify to you about the truthfulness of
their words? Oh No, I never
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said that. Okay, thanks,
or yeah, absolutely I said that.
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If a friend can do that,
is God less than your friend. Will
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God leave it up to your own
confusion and doubt to figure out whether what
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he says is true or not?
Of course not. The Bible says that
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when God speaks to us in the
pages of his word, he makes that
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word living and active by also speaking
directly to our hearts. When we read
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the pages of the word, they
open up to us. Jesus says,
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my sheep will hear my voice.
That's an amazing thing. Trust him for
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that. Listen to his words,
just as you might have listened to him
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as you were sitting by the sea
hearing him teach, or in a crowded
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market place or in the upper room
before his death. Listen to his words
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and hear the truthfulness in them and
then believe. Do not stand at a
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distance. Don't persecute the one who
speaks in truth and came to save.
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Instead, follow him, trust him, trust him for the salvation that he
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00:41:04.710 --> 00:41:12.110
came in the flesh to bring,
hope for his return. Learn every word,
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conform your life to his loving will, and in this you will be
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called a Christian. Let's pray and
ask that God would make us Christians
