What Is Authentic Faith In Jesus Christ? pt.8 | Roche Coleman, Ph.D.

Text: 1 John 4:1-6 Pt8
Title: What is Authentic Faith in Jesus Christ?

Vital Verse:
4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Nugget to Nibble:
Only two versions of spirits are active within the world:
1) the spirit of truth (1 John 4:6)
2) the spirit of error (1 John 4:6)
John’s message in chapter four encourages authentic Christ followers to evaluate the individuals who proclaim to know or serve Jesus. God equipped the church with the tools necessary to accomplish the task. Chapter two in 1 John reminds the reader that at conversion, every believer receives an "anointing from the Holy One" that "abides" within them constantly (1 John 2:20, 27). The anointing or indwelling Spirit provides the unique ability to discern truth from false teachings. Discernment requires two operating principles in the daily life of a Christian:
1) commitment to prayer, reading, and meditation on the word of God.
2) cultivating a greater dependence, listening, and obeying the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Many frequent church attendees are deceived on account of their unwillingness to develop the daily disciplines. As a result, many faithful church members lack the spiritual discernment to unmask false teachers. Immature or uninformed Christians adopt erroneous teaching because they depend on the knowledge of the world instead of the knowledge of the word of God. Therefore, the Holy Spirit that informs Christians of the incorrect teaching is silent or ignored due to a lack of daily cultivation and commitment (Ephesians 5:15-18). False teachers easily manipulate the scriptures for profit and prominence by appropriating a combination of cultural wisdom and humanistic philosophy. Both cultural and humanistic concepts appeal to a life lived under the “world” influence, which constitutes the spirit of error.
Worldly wisdom subtly or directly affirms the opposite of scriptures. Note just a few from John’s epistle:
1) Christians may walk in darkness yet claim to have fellowship with God.
2) Believers may claim to live without sin. Therefore, confessing sin is unnecessary.
3) Christ followers may verbally acknowledge God, but do not obey God’s word.
4) Christians claim to live in the Light yet hate their brother.
Such belief contradicts the divine truth.
Worldly (non-believers) individuals “speak as from the world, and the world listens to them" (1 John 4:5). Truth must find its basis in the words of scripture. Discernment is enhanced by the power of the Holy Spirit combined with a knowledge of the word of God. Both empower and guard the follower of Jesus Christ from the "spirit of antichrist" (1 John 4:3).

Four examples of authentic Christians:
1) authentic Christians have a discerning spirit. 1 John 4:1-2
2) authentic Christians confess Jesus Christ came in the flesh and He is from God. 1 John 4:2
3) authentic Christians listen, and obey the word of God. 1 John 4:6
4) authentic Christians cultivate an intimate knowledge of God by committing to daily prayer, reading, and meditation (2 Thessalonians 5:17-19; 2 Timothy 2:15; Psalm 1).

Outline of Text
1. The test of the spirits. 1 John 4:1-3
a. purpose of the test- many false prophets

b. pronouncements of the spirit-confession of Jesus Christ.

What is antichrist?

2. The truth of the spirit. 1 John 4:4-6

a. Christians have power from God.

b. Each proclamation reveals the source.

Impact Fact:
God > Satan!

John confronts the claims of the false teachers that created a schism among the community of believers. By using a series of conditional clauses and direct denials, the writer rejects false teacher’s claim to know God:
1. 1 John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1 John 1:6).

2. 1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

3. 1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

4. 1 John 2:4 “The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).

5. 1 John 2:6 “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

6. 1 John 2:9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

7. 1 John 2:11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

8. 1 John 2:22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

9. 1 John 2:23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

10. 1 John 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.

11. 1 John 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

12. 1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

13. 1 John 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

14. 1 John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

15. 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

16. 1 John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;

17. 1 John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

18. 1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

19. 1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

20. 1 John 5:6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

21. 1 John 5:9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son.

22. 1 John 5:10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.