February 1, 2024 • 40 mins
This sermon dives deep into 1 John Chapter 4 to navigate the complex world of spirits and prophets, encouraging believers to discern the nature of each spirit. The speaker explores various types of spirits symbolized in biblical scriptures, including the Spirit of God, the Spirit of man, beastly spirits, and satanic spirits which are further categorized into unclean spirits, familiar spirits, and the spirit of the antichrist.
Interweaving verses from Genesis, Job, and Revelation among others, the speaker reflects on the prophet's role in speaking in the spirit of another. Echoing 1 John's wisdom, he urges vigilance upon his congregation towards false prophets who embody and espouse spirits not aligned with God's teachings. As a key takeaway, the sermon illuminates the necessity of evaluating all actions in the light of Scripture.
This sermon ultimately presents the Spirit of God as a beacon of truth and a shield against spiritual fallacy, and concludes with an empowering affirmation that every believer is an overcomer through God’s grace. By celebrating the power of Christ residing within us, it serves as a reaffirmation of faith that's resilient in the face of trials and tribulations, and a call-to-arms for believers to remain vigilant in spiritual warfare.
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Episode Transcript
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Amen. You may be seated. We're working through getting people plugged in to
different ministries, and I'm excited that people want to be a part.
And I'll tell you, it's awkward for me because for eight years,
I get up here, I start the service, I give the announcements,
I lead the singing, and I go home and I'm exhausted.
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And I was just standing down there singing. I was like, I feel like I ought to be doing something.
I walked back there, did something on the computer, probably messed up everything for the night.
But anyway, I'm so grateful to have a church where people want to be involved.
Amen. And people want to do things. People want to work.
People want to minister. 1 John chapter 4 this evening, as we're jumping into our 1 John study.
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We've been in 1 John for quite some time now. I think this is the 12th message.
Well, there's been more than 12 messages, but this is technically the 12th message.
Some of them tend to take a little longer, which is okay.
And so I understand how that can be.
I can throw off my number some. I need a water if somebody could help me out.
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Tim, could you give me a cup of water, please? I appreciate it, bud.
All right. 1 John 4. four, we're going to begin our study tonight with a warning
to not put our faith in every spirit.
Now, we live in a culture, we live in a culture and in a Christian society that
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likes to focus heavily on spirits.
Now, they'll take the S off of the plural, right, and make it spirit because
because they'll think any time the Spirit moves or any time there's a Spirit
of anything, it must be of God. But the Bible warns us of false spirits.
And so in these first four verses, first six verses we're going to look at tonight,
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if I were to title it, I would title it, The Ugly Truth About Spirits.
The Ugly Truth About Spirits. So 1 John 4, and starting in verse 1,
thank you, bud, I appreciate that.
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.
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Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.
And this is that spirit of Antichrist, Christ
whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the
world and ye are of God little children and have overcome them because greater
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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.
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Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening,
and we thank you for the opportunity to serve you. Lord, I am so grateful that
church is not about a building. It is not about a place.
It is not about any of those things. It is about your people gathering together,
serving you. And Lord, we are so grateful that you have identified that for
us in Scripture, that where we are, you are with us, Lord, and that you are an ever-present help.
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And Lord, we do pray now as we study your Word, as we look to your Scripture,
that you would lead and guide us through truth. Lord, help us not to preach our opinion.
Help us to be faithful to preach your Word. We pray that everything that is
said and done this evening, whether it be from the pulpit or from Master Club
with the teachers and the Bible teaching and the book time and the game time
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and the rally time and awards.
Lord, I just pray that everything that is done here tonight is for your honor and your glory.
Lord, I pray that you would help us to be aware of some of the false spirits
that have infiltrated our day and even in many Christian circles.
And Lord, I just pray that you would help us to stay true to your word.
Help us to look to your scripture for help and for guidance.
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We love you, Lord, and we thank you so much for loving us. It's in Christ's
name we pray all these things. Amen and amen.
Spirits and scripture are broken down into four categories. If you're taking
notes, I don't have these four on the slide.
These aren't the four points, but I wanted to give you these.
There are four categories of spirits in Scripture. There's a spirit of beasts.
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Ecclesiastes 3, verse 21, there is a spirit of beasts.
And in the context of Ecclesiastes 3, the
preacher is pointing out the vanity of
man's life because at the end of the day our spirit
goes up the beast spirit goes down but
we're both dead and it's kind of an interesting thing when
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you read it it's very encouraging amen and all these plans for the future and
then you get to ecclesiastes chapter 3 and it's like it's all vanity it's all
vanity and then you realize wow maybe i need to focus on my eternal plans for
the future amen not just salvation but some spiritual investment ecclesiastical
you got it it up there for us.
Let's read it from there. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and
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the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
And so we have the spirit of beast. All right. Second spirit.
And again, this isn't an exhaustive dive into the four categories,
although that would be a neat study.
And we may do that at another time. But the second one that we see,
and these are in no particular order, we see the spirit of God.
That's a no brainer as Christians, right? You have the spirit of God.
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Genesis chapter one, Genesis chapter one,
and verse number two and the earth
was without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep and the spirit of god moved upon
the face of the waters genesis chapter 6
and verse 3 and the lord said my spirit shall not always strive with man for
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that he also is flesh yet his days shall be 120 years and so we have reference
to the spirit of god the third category of spirit Spirit is the Spirit of man.
The Spirit of man. If you will, turn to Job 32.
I want you to see this verse. It's an interesting verse in its context. Job 32.
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And it is from Job 32 in verse 8 that we understand something about this word
inspiration and tying it with the Spirit in chapter 33 in verse 4.
But in Job 32 in verse 8, we see but there is a spirit where oh that was weak,
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got to help me. Amen. I already fell off because I didn't lead singing or do
announcements. Now, I know that's my fault, but I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for it. Didn't Elijah do a wonderful job?
Amen. I'm grateful for it. I probably should have got up first and said,
welcome, instead of just throwing it, but I was so nervous for him.
Amen. I just wanted him to do so good. I was like, go ahead,
get up, go on, start strumming. Amen. Go ahead and do it. He did a wonderful
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job. All right. Let's look at that verse again.
Job 32 and verse eight. There is a spirit Spirit where?
In man. So there's the spirit in man. And the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
Now here's verse nine. Look at this. I love this. Great men are not always wise.
Oh, praise the Lord. Amen. If there's ever a verse that you could ever say, that verse will preach.
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We just stop right there. Great men are not always wise. Amen.
Notice what it says. Neither Neither do the aged understand judgment.
So age doesn't always mean wisdom. Amen.
We just saw that here, right? There's a respect that's due to those that have
aged, those that have gone through.
But if aged people reject God, there's no wisdom within them. Amen.
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Because wisdom comes from God. All right. Look at just by way of reference, chapter 33 and verse 3.
My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart, and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.
The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
And so we have the Spirit of God giving the breath of the Almighty,
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breathing within man, giving him a spirit as well.
What does the word inspiration mean? God breathed. How do we know that?
Job 32 and verse 8 and Job 33 and verse 3, 3 and 4.
That's where we get that. That's how we understand that.
Inspiration is the breath of God. It's an interesting concept.
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But then there's also the spirits of Satan. And this is the fourth and final
category, just by way of introduction to help us.
And we ended with these because we're being warned in 1 John 4 of spirits that
are not spirits of God. God. We have spirits of Satan.
And in scripture, you could see those broken down into three subcategories.
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You have Mark chapter one.
We see a reference to unclean spirits, unclean spirits.
Leviticus chapter 19, you have a reference to familiar spirits, familiar spirits.
And then here in our text, first John chapter four, we have the reference to
the spirit of antichrist. Look at verse 3. 1 John 4 and verse 3.
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And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God,
and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should
come, and even now already is it in the world.
For the sake of keeping with the text, we're going to focus on three key issues
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pertaining to the trying of the spirits. If you're taking notes this evening,
point number one, I want us to recognize a Spirit spoken.
A Spirit spoken.
There should be no doubt that the Spirit mentioned in the first verse of chapter
4 is directly tied to the prophet.
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Look at 1 John chapter 4 and verse 1 again. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false spirits,
is that what it says? What's it say?
Prophets are gone out into the world. The prophet is directly tied to the spirit, the false prophets.
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It's important to recognize that not every spirit or prophet that moves,
speaks, or works is of God.
It's interesting how quick we are to take any movement and just naturally lump
it into a movement of God.
And yet, if the movement itself is contrary to Scripture, we know that that
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movement cannot be of God. Amen?
We know that God does not contradict Himself.
In Him is no darkness at all. He is light, and He will not contradict His Word.
He will not contradict His Son. He will not contradict His promises.
And so, when we study a prophet, a prophet is one that comes and speaks in the
spirit of another. Look with me at Revelation chapter 16, very briefly if you
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would please. Revelation chapter 16.
That spirit being tied to the innermost part of a person, a creature.
We see that a prophet is one that comes and speaks on behalf or in the spirit of another.
Revelation chapter 16, we see the false prophet of Revelation.
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon
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and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
What do we have in Revelation 16?
We have the Trinity of hell. That is literally the trinity of hell,
the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.
When you study out that trinity of hell, you recognize that the dragon is who? Lucifer.
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That's identified for us in chapter 13. That's identified for us again in chapter 12.
That great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world.
And then you have the beast. The beast is the one that they will worship.
And then you have the false prophet, and he is the one that will go out and
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convert many, speaking on behalf of the beast and the dragon.
Look, if you will, now at Matthew 7.
Matthew 7. There is a lot of Scripture that is used, especially on Wednesday
nights. It's just Scripture after Scripture.
But to be honest with you, there's really nothing extra that I can give you.
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Scripture is where it's important. Amen.
It's Scripture that can affect change. It's the Word of God that does something, not the Word of man.
Matthew 7 and verse 15.
Matthew 7 and verse 15, beware of false what? Who's speaking?
That's Jesus. You know, God. He wrote the Bible. That's all Him speaking, right? That's Jesus.
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And what is He telling them? All the way back to the very beginning of His ministry
around the time of the Olivet Discourse, you have Him warning them of false prophets.
Now, I don't know if we recognize sometimes the effect of false teachings in our own lives.
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One of the things that identified that greatly in my life was the invention of TikTok.
Amen. Because anybody can post anything they want on that. Oh,
they could do that on YouTube.
Yeah, but these are only like 30 second clips. My ADD can handle that. All right.
It's like every 30 second, there's some new thing happening.
And most of my TikToks are guys doing lawn care.
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I'm not kidding. That's what they are because I'm just mesmerized.
They're sitting there weed eating and they're edging those sidewalks and I'm
just sitting there drooling.
Look how clean that sidewalk is, like a barbarian. Amen?
And every once in a while, there'll be some food that'll pop up.
I'd be like, oh, that's a good looking cake right there, man.
Look how they cut into it and you can see all that.
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But every so often, Houston, there are going to be people that pop up that have
things to say about the Bible.
One of the most talked about that seems to pop up is this reference to a book
of the Bible that's been removed called the book of Enoch. How many of you have ever heard that?
I'm going to go ahead and help you with that. Amen. That is called a false book.
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Oh, there's stuff in there that matches is the Bible. Yeah. Okay.
And Paul even warned of people who at the time he was alive,
that was writing letters, pretending to be Paul.
You don't think Satan has a plan of attack to cast out on the word of God or
to try to pretend like there's books that aren't supposed to be there. Amen.
And so what if it was written by Enoch? Well, the Lord didn't want it preserved
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in a scripture for us or it would have been there.
Amen. That's important for us to understand.
Why are we we dealing with that because where we're at we have
to recognize that there are false prophets in the
world there are false spirits that are leading false
prophets to speak things that sound good and yet they're nothing but a distraction
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from the truth of god there's warnings of false prophets look at second second
peter chapter two second peter chapter two if you you with me? Say amen.
All right. She's making sure. Told you I'm out of my element right now because
the whole, you know, it's all, it's going to take some time getting used to that.
I love it. It's just going to take time for my head to get wrapped around it. All right.
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That's how petty my flesh is. Listen, I'm one of those pastors.
I'm open and I'm transparent. That's how petty my flesh is. I feel like everybody's mad at me right now.
And I know you're not. Well, some of you may be. Keep it to yourself.
Tell my wife. Amen. Don't tell me. 2 Peter 2, verse 1. Look at it.
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false what?
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Look at that. They use teachers and prophets interchangeably.
Among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord
that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Here's the sad statement, verse 2. Many shall follow their pernicious ways by
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reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
And through covetousness shall they with fain words make merchandise of you,
whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not.
And their damnation slumbereth not.
Do you know what the Bible is warning of? Not just false prophets,
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but false teachers whose desire is to turn you into their avenue of financial gain. False teachers.
I want us to recognize we've looked at the Spirit spoken. Point number two,
we see Christ versus Antichrist.
Now this will be a quick point, and point number three may take us a little
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bit of time. We'll just follow the leading of the Lord and going where we go with this.
But there are two different identifiers for an Antichrist.
If you're taking notes, the two different identifiers. I want us to look at
chapter 4, verse 2 very quickly.
Let's read it to get a look at it. Hereby I know we the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.
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Verse 3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.
And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Where have ye have heard that it should come?
And even now already is it in the world. Go back with me, if you will, to 1 John 2 and verse 22.
1 John 2 and verse 22.
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Who is a what? But he that denieth that Jesus is the what?
He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son.
There are two antichrist identifiers
that we see in scripture now there's there's many more if we study scripture
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that we can look at but two based out of first john chapter two and then chapter
four and the first one that we see if you're taking notes letter a is an antichrist
spirit denies the father and the son.
The spirit of Antichrist denies the Father and the Son. Why?
Because they deny that Jesus is the Christ. Now what does the word Christ mean?
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The word Christ is, in the Old Testament, the word for Messiah.
We've seen that before. We've studied that before. We see in the New Testament
the word Christ, meaning the anointed one, the one that is chosen of God.
And the Bible even tells us that there are false Christs that have come into
the world. And yet the spirit of Antichrist denies that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ.
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Well, that's an easy one. But the Bible tells us that to deny the Son,
look at verse 23 of the same chapter, 1 John chapter 2,
whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth
the Son hath the Father also. soul.
Do you know what happens when someone denies Jesus? They're denying the Father because they're one.
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Jesus is the only begotten of the Father. And we have to recognize something
when we study this. And I've heard this said even this week.
Well, us and the Lord, you know, I love God. I love God.
Do you know what you have to really? And I have to be careful.
I really have to be careful because there's part of me that wants to go, which one?
Amen. Well, I love Jesus. Which one? What do you mean, which one?
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There's multiple ones that have existed. Amen.
Why? Because when we make Jesus into something that he's not identified in Scripture,
then we're serving another Jesus, a false Christ.
Oh, Jesus is love. Yes, but Jesus is also a judge, a righteous judge.
But he's also merciful. And aren't you glad that Jesus is wonderfully balanced?
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Because God in the flesh is wonderfully balanced in His righteousness,
His judgment, His mercy, and His grace.
Wonderfully balanced. I'm not balanced. Amen?
If anything, I'm a little off balance.
But so are you. When it comes to understanding the love of God,
we recognize that there are people that we love, and yet the moment that they
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do something we don't like, we're quick to judge and cut them off. Right?
Why? Because we're not balanced. Because we're not God.
But yet we have Him abiding in us to help us and to lead us and to guide us.
How do you forgive someone that's done something that seems so unforgivable but for the grace of God?
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That's the only way. And so we have this warning that to deny the Son is to deny the Father.
And so the spirit of Antichrist denies the unity of the Father and the Son.
Anybody ever heard someone say there's no Trinity, there's only one God,
there is no God the Son or God the Holy Spirit, it's just one God?
That's someone who denies, denies the Son. And so who are they denying?
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The Father also. You have to be cautious with those things biblically.
Get wrapped up. Oh, we'll see. Here's a great illustration of how that can't happen.
Well, the Bible says that there's the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.
Right? Actually, let's look at it. We're in the book, 1 John 5.
We're almost there anyway. Sometime in the next two years, we'll get to 1 John 5.
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Look at verse 7. There are three that bear record where?
In heaven. The Father, the Word. Is that lowercase or capital?
So who is the Word? Oh, it's Jesus. Jesus
the Father the Word and the
Holy Ghost and these three are
what do you know what you have to do in order to try to say that there is no
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Trinity you have to remove that verse from the Bible amen and so to deny the
Son is to deny the Father letter B 2nd John chapter or well there's only one chapter.
2 John verse 7. 2 John 7.
For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
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This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Letter B, an identifier of an antichrist is one that denies that God came in the flesh.
So if someone denies the Son, they're denying the Father.
That's the spirit of antichrist. If someone denies that God came in the flesh,
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that's the spirit of Antichrist, and they are a deceiver, a false prophet, a false teacher.
Because Scripture is very clear that God put on flesh and dwelt among men.
He who knew no sin became sin for us.
And to negate that, to downplay that, to deny that, That is to deny the very
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redemptive power of the blood that Jesus shed for you.
Because if Jesus isn't God in the flesh, then the blood that He shed is as worthless as yours.
Amen. And yet we know that Jesus is God.
We know that He is conceived of the Holy Spirit. He was born of a virgin and
lived 33 and a half perfect years.
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And He gave Himself willingly and He bled and He died. and He allowed man to
lay his body in a borrowed tomb.
And on the third day, He got up of His own volition and of His own power and
is seated right now at the right hand of the Father in all authority, waiting till what?
Till the day when it's time to call His children home.
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And that's where He's at right now. But yet if God didn't come in the flesh,
then none of that is true. We might as well just go home. Amen?
We're of all men most miserable.
Do you realize that that is the very foundation of what it means for us to be
able to call ourselves a church?
Because we are the body of Christ.
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We've said it before for the past eight and a half years. We've said it before.
These walls aren't the church.
That's why we say good to see everyone in the meeting house. Why?
Because this is where the church meets. hates what's the
church you are we're the
church we're supposed to take
that message of jesus christ into a lost and dying world and when someone says
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oh yeah i love jesus that's great what is jesus to you what jesus do you love
oh well you know the the the the man is a good man well he's a good man spirit of antichrist.
Well, he was a great teacher, had a lot of good things. Well,
he worked a lot of miracles. God really used him.
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No, no, no, man. My Jesus is God.
He's God in the flesh.
That's who he is. And to deny that is to speak in the spirit of Antichrist.
Now, that brings us to point number three.
Truth versus error. 1 John 4, verse 4.
You are God's little children and have overcome them because greater is he that
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is in you 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 know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
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Notice we're We're encouraged by this verse, ye have overcome.
Now, as we get to chapter 5, and if you were with us a few years ago when we
started Revelation, I haven't forgotten about it.
We're working out the, honestly, I'm just trying to follow the Lord on that.
I'm trying to, as I have opportunity, when I get the green light to go.
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I know a lot of people think, oh, you got slides and you study.
You don't follow the Lord on anything.
Yeah, well, that's not how it works, man. Amen?
I'm trying to be obedient to the Lord, what our church needs.
What we need is a people. But what I'm trying to help us, remember we talked
about this in those first three chapters, we see overcomers.
You have overcome. You have overcome.
You shall overcome. Who are the overcomers? That's found in 1 John 5.
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And the Bible tells us in 1 John 5, in verse 4, whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
How are you or how does one become an overcomer by being born of God.
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Do you know when that happens? The moment of salvation. He must be born again.
That's why Jesus said that. That's why it's so important. Because you need to be an overcomer.
And then the truth, the greater is he that is in you. So what an encouragement. You've overcome.
If you're saved here this evening, you're an overcomer. Why,
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pastor, sometimes it doesn't feel like it. Oh, man, I know.
Sometimes it feels like the whole world's against me. Oh, hey, great news.
They are. are sometimes it feels like the burdens and the weight of this life
i just can't bury and can't carry and yet the bible teaches us that he'll never
put on us more than we can bear because his friend that sticketh closer than
any brother because god is there because you're born of him,
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and he is in you so we have an encouraging reminder ye have overcome how have
we overcome come? Well, the verse continues.
The Bible says, ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them in your
own strength because you're awesome. Is that what it says?
It's not what it says. Look what it says. Because greater is he that is in you,
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that's God, than he that is in the world, that Satan.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that God that died for you,
that resides within you, that cut away your spirit from your flesh and identifies you with the Son?
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Do you believe that He is greater than all of your circumstances,
all of your temptations, all of your trials,
all of your hardships do you believe that
he is guess what believe it or not you're still an overcomer because greater
is he that is in you than he is in the world remember what we looked at last
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week let's let's go back chapter 3 very quickly i know what you're thinking
oh man now Now we're backtracking.
Chapter 3, verse 19.
And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him.
For if our heart condemn us, our heart, if our heart condemn us, what does it say?
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God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. God.
So what did we recognize? What did we talk about last week? What are we trying to remind you of?
The fact that even when your faith is lacking, greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world.
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Truth is revealed by the spirit of God that dwells within you.
John chapter eight and verse 31.
Let's look at first Corinthians chapter two. I'm going to read you John chapter
eight for sake of time. And then we'll be in first Corinthians chapter two, very, very briefly.
First Corinthians chapter two, John chapter eight, verse 31.
Then said Jesus to those Jews, which believed on him, if you continue in my
word, then are ye my disciples indeed.
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And ye shall know the truth truth, and the truth, most of you can finish it,
shall what? Make you free.
The truth is the liberating factor.
It's the truth that's revealed by the Spirit of God. That's 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9.
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.
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But God hath, what? what? Revealed them unto us.
All those things that ear hath not heard, eye hath not seen,
all those things that had not entered into the heart of man,
that God had prepared for them that love him.
The Bible says in verse 10, God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit.
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For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
What is it that God has A lot of times we hear that verse quoted in reference to heaven, right?
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That's not true. The Bible tells us that we know God's revealed to us by His
Spirit what He has in store for you. Do you know what that is?
Eternal peace, rest, joy, and righteousness.
That's what it is. Well, are we going to live in a mansion? None of that's going to matter.
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Amen. No, that's going to matter. Am I going to live next to my best friend?
No, that's going to matter. What matters now? Why? Because we're carnal.
We think carnally. No, that's going to matter. Why? Because the things that
have been revealed to us, what's been revealed? An inheritance.
What's the inheritance? First Corinthians chapter 15, I believe it's Philippians
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chapter four as well, tells us what the inheritance is.
It's a new body, a new physical body like Jesus's body.
Body the mind of christ as well we will serve him perfectly as he intended and that's the promise,
that's what's in store for those that love him oh i
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thought i thought we'd get a big old mansion and get to sit and drink sweet
tea all day man what god has in store for you is much better than the greatest
thing you could ever consider why because it's his way now i want us to recognize
Recognize something, this that's been revealed. Let's keep reading.
Verse 11, what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man.
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There's that spirit of man again, which is in him.
Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.
There's a spirit of God and the spirit of man.
Now, verse 12, we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit which is of God.
What's the spirit of the world? Who do you think that falls under?
Satan, spirit of the world, because he's the prince of the power of the air.
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The Bible says the earth is his. The world is his. Right now, it's his.
That's what the Bible teaches us. 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 the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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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. You want to know why so many people
have trouble understanding the Word of God? Because they don't know Christ.
I'm not talking about when you struggle over a passage. I'm talking about people
that don't understand why in the world you read from a book written over a period
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of 1,500 years by three different continents and a multitude of languages by a plethora of authors,
and the one that we use in this church is at least 400 plus years old, right?
I don't understand why you do that. I don't understand why you meet and you
put your faith in one who a book tells you that was written by a man that he
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died for you 2,000 years ago.
They don't understand that. Why? Because those things are spiritually discerned.
Things are spiritually discerned. Those can only be understood because the Spirit
gives truth to those who seek truth.
And those who come to it looking for error, oh, they'll find error because they're foolish.
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Why? Verse 14, 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.
Just comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we see in 1 Corinthians,
gives us an exercise in and biblical knowledge, and how we can do that,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
John 6, in verse 63, Jesus said, The words that I speak unto you,
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they are spirit, and they are life.
What do we compare? Why do we study the way that we do?
Because we're comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
I don't care about your experiences.
Your experience is not what truth is founded on. Amen?
I don't care about the miracles that you went through. I'm not downplaying them.
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I'm just saying that the foundation of truth is not dependent upon your existence
and whether you experienced something or whether you had a miracle occur.
All of that could just be a cherry on the cake.
The foundation of faith is the Word of God.
And comparing the spiritual things with spiritual, the words that I speak,
Jesus said, they are spirit and they are life.
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Life you want to run things through and find out
if it's of god you have to compare it with the other things
that we know are of god scripture and then error is
revealed by the false spirit of antichrist first john chapter 4 and verse 5
and we're almost done first john chapter 4 and verse 5 they are of the world
therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them not every spirit
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that claims supernatural powers or miracles or even to be of Christ is of Christ.
We need to be aware of the warfare of error and be able to defend against it.
This is how egregious it has gotten. Look at Romans chapter 15.
And while you're turning there, my brother-in-law sent something to me this
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morning or this afternoon, and it was a preview of a new show,
kids show, kids show about the devil on Amazon Prime, which I know is a wonderful
place for Christian truth. Amen.
It's a great place to find Christian truth. but essentially the
entire thing the entire premise of the show starts off with
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a young girl in hell who is the
daughter of satan who's reading the story
of how satan was misunderstood in heaven and
all of the evil elders of heaven this is this this is
their words and this isn't this isn't one
of those things like oh he just found that because he's searching in that deep
queue no no this is this is being pushed for young people this is being pushed
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spiritual warfare if you don't think that's spiritual warfare you got your head
in the sand amen because they're coming.
Have been coming for our children trying to perpetrate some false thing that
in the beginning god created adam and some other girl i think i think her name
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was lilith and lilith fell in love Satan and they had a baby.
God created Eve to replace Lilith.
And so Lilith and Satan decided they wanted Eve who was being controlled by
the elders of heaven and by God himself being kept from all of this wonderful
imagination and magic and mystery.
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They wanted to have a part in mankind coming to the knowledge of good and evil.
Change the story. You say, well, that's not going to that's not gonna matter
oh it will it will why because the spirit of antichrist doth already work 2
000 years ago all right romans chapter 15 verse 8 romans chapter 15 and verse 8.
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Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers and that the Gentiles might
glorify God for His mercy.
As it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name.
And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
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And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud him, all ye people.
And again Isaiah saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, And he shall rise to
reign over the Gentiles. In him shall the Gentiles trust.
Now the God of what? Hope. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and
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believing that ye may abound in what?
Hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
What do we recognize? Recognize we can be confident in the truth of Christ because
Christ came to give the light unto the Gentiles.
And so that the Gentiles would also have joy and peace in believing.
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So when the spirit of Antichrist, which has been working for longer than you've
been alive, longer than any of the traditions that you hold to ever existed,
longer than any type of family background you think you can trace all the way back to,
the spirit of antichrist has been working longer than any of that the bible
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says hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error and we can take
comfort but in comfort may we never become complacent let's stand to be dismissed in a word of prayer.
Amen. You may be seated. We're working through getting people plugged in to
different ministries, and I'm excited that people want to be a part.
And I'll tell you, it's awkward for me because for eight years,
I get up here, I start the service, I give the announcements,
I lead the singing, and I go home and I'm exhausted.
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And I was just standing down there singing. I was like, I feel like I ought to be doing something.
I walked back there, did something on the computer, probably messed up everything for the night.
But anyway, I'm so grateful to have a church where people want to be involved.
Amen. And people want to do things. People want to work.
People want to minister. 1 John chapter 4 this evening, as we're jumping into our 1 John study.
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We've been in 1 John for quite some time now. I think this is the 12th message.
Well, there's been more than 12 messages, but this is technically the 12th message.
Some of them tend to take a little longer, which is okay.
And so I understand how that can be.
I can throw off my number some. I need a water if somebody could help me out.
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Tim, could you give me a cup of water, please? I appreciate it, bud.
All right. 1 John 4. four, we're going to begin our study tonight with a warning
to not put our faith in every spirit.
Now, we live in a culture, we live in a culture and in a Christian society that
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likes to focus heavily on spirits.
Now, they'll take the S off of the plural, right, and make it spirit because
because they'll think any time the Spirit moves or any time there's a Spirit
of anything, it must be of God. But the Bible warns us of false spirits.
And so in these first four verses, first six verses we're going to look at tonight,
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if I were to title it, I would title it, The Ugly Truth About Spirits.
The Ugly Truth About Spirits. So 1 John 4, and starting in verse 1,
thank you, bud, I appreciate that.
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.
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Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.
And this is that spirit of Antichrist, Christ
whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the
world and ye are of God little children and have overcome them because greater
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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.
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Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening,
and we thank you for the opportunity to serve you. Lord, I am so grateful that
church is not about a building. It is not about a place.
It is not about any of those things. It is about your people gathering together,
serving you. And Lord, we are so grateful that you have identified that for
us in Scripture, that where we are, you are with us, Lord, and that you are an ever-present help.
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And Lord, we do pray now as we study your Word, as we look to your Scripture,
that you would lead and guide us through truth. Lord, help us not to preach our opinion.
Help us to be faithful to preach your Word. We pray that everything that is
said and done this evening, whether it be from the pulpit or from Master Club
with the teachers and the Bible teaching and the book time and the game time
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and the rally time and awards.
Lord, I just pray that everything that is done here tonight is for your honor and your glory.
Lord, I pray that you would help us to be aware of some of the false spirits
that have infiltrated our day and even in many Christian circles.
And Lord, I just pray that you would help us to stay true to your word.
Help us to look to your scripture for help and for guidance.
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We love you, Lord, and we thank you so much for loving us. It's in Christ's
name we pray all these things. Amen and amen.
Spirits and scripture are broken down into four categories. If you're taking
notes, I don't have these four on the slide.
These aren't the four points, but I wanted to give you these.
There are four categories of spirits in Scripture. There's a spirit of beasts.
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Ecclesiastes 3, verse 21, there is a spirit of beasts.
And in the context of Ecclesiastes 3, the
preacher is pointing out the vanity of
man's life because at the end of the day our spirit
goes up the beast spirit goes down but
we're both dead and it's kind of an interesting thing when
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you read it it's very encouraging amen and all these plans for the future and
then you get to ecclesiastes chapter 3 and it's like it's all vanity it's all
vanity and then you realize wow maybe i need to focus on my eternal plans for
the future amen not just salvation but some spiritual investment ecclesiastical
you got it it up there for us.
Let's read it from there. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and
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the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
And so we have the spirit of beast. All right. Second spirit.
And again, this isn't an exhaustive dive into the four categories,
although that would be a neat study.
And we may do that at another time. But the second one that we see,
and these are in no particular order, we see the spirit of God.
That's a no brainer as Christians, right? You have the spirit of God.
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Genesis chapter one, Genesis chapter one,
and verse number two and the earth
was without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep and the spirit of god moved upon
the face of the waters genesis chapter 6
and verse 3 and the lord said my spirit shall not always strive with man for
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that he also is flesh yet his days shall be 120 years and so we have reference
to the spirit of god the third category of spirit Spirit is the Spirit of man.
The Spirit of man. If you will, turn to Job 32.
I want you to see this verse. It's an interesting verse in its context. Job 32.
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And it is from Job 32 in verse 8 that we understand something about this word
inspiration and tying it with the Spirit in chapter 33 in verse 4.
But in Job 32 in verse 8, we see but there is a spirit where oh that was weak,
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got to help me. Amen. I already fell off because I didn't lead singing or do
announcements. Now, I know that's my fault, but I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for it. Didn't Elijah do a wonderful job?
Amen. I'm grateful for it. I probably should have got up first and said,
welcome, instead of just throwing it, but I was so nervous for him.
Amen. I just wanted him to do so good. I was like, go ahead,
get up, go on, start strumming. Amen. Go ahead and do it. He did a wonderful
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job. All right. Let's look at that verse again.
Job 32 and verse eight. There is a spirit Spirit where?
In man. So there's the spirit in man. And the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
Now here's verse nine. Look at this. I love this. Great men are not always wise.
Oh, praise the Lord. Amen. If there's ever a verse that you could ever say, that verse will preach.
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We just stop right there. Great men are not always wise. Amen.
Notice what it says. Neither Neither do the aged understand judgment.
So age doesn't always mean wisdom. Amen.
We just saw that here, right? There's a respect that's due to those that have
aged, those that have gone through.
But if aged people reject God, there's no wisdom within them. Amen.
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Because wisdom comes from God. All right. Look at just by way of reference, chapter 33 and verse 3.
My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart, and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.
The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
And so we have the Spirit of God giving the breath of the Almighty,
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breathing within man, giving him a spirit as well.
What does the word inspiration mean? God breathed. How do we know that?
Job 32 and verse 8 and Job 33 and verse 3, 3 and 4.
That's where we get that. That's how we understand that.
Inspiration is the breath of God. It's an interesting concept.
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But then there's also the spirits of Satan. And this is the fourth and final
category, just by way of introduction to help us.
And we ended with these because we're being warned in 1 John 4 of spirits that
are not spirits of God. God. We have spirits of Satan.
And in scripture, you could see those broken down into three subcategories.
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You have Mark chapter one.
We see a reference to unclean spirits, unclean spirits.
Leviticus chapter 19, you have a reference to familiar spirits, familiar spirits.
And then here in our text, first John chapter four, we have the reference to
the spirit of antichrist. Look at verse 3. 1 John 4 and verse 3.
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And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God,
and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should
come, and even now already is it in the world.
For the sake of keeping with the text, we're going to focus on three key issues
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pertaining to the trying of the spirits. If you're taking notes this evening,
point number one, I want us to recognize a Spirit spoken.
A Spirit spoken.
There should be no doubt that the Spirit mentioned in the first verse of chapter
4 is directly tied to the prophet.
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Look at 1 John chapter 4 and verse 1 again. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false spirits,
is that what it says? What's it say?
Prophets are gone out into the world. The prophet is directly tied to the spirit, the false prophets.
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It's important to recognize that not every spirit or prophet that moves,
speaks, or works is of God.
It's interesting how quick we are to take any movement and just naturally lump
it into a movement of God.
And yet, if the movement itself is contrary to Scripture, we know that that
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movement cannot be of God. Amen?
We know that God does not contradict Himself.
In Him is no darkness at all. He is light, and He will not contradict His Word.
He will not contradict His Son. He will not contradict His promises.
And so, when we study a prophet, a prophet is one that comes and speaks in the
spirit of another. Look with me at Revelation chapter 16, very briefly if you
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would please. Revelation chapter 16.
That spirit being tied to the innermost part of a person, a creature.
We see that a prophet is one that comes and speaks on behalf or in the spirit of another.
Revelation chapter 16, we see the false prophet of Revelation.
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon
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and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
What do we have in Revelation 16?
We have the Trinity of hell. That is literally the trinity of hell,
the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.
When you study out that trinity of hell, you recognize that the dragon is who? Lucifer.
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That's identified for us in chapter 13. That's identified for us again in chapter 12.
That great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world.
And then you have the beast. The beast is the one that they will worship.
And then you have the false prophet, and he is the one that will go out and
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convert many, speaking on behalf of the beast and the dragon.
Look, if you will, now at Matthew 7.
Matthew 7. There is a lot of Scripture that is used, especially on Wednesday
nights. It's just Scripture after Scripture.
But to be honest with you, there's really nothing extra that I can give you.
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Scripture is where it's important. Amen.
It's Scripture that can affect change. It's the Word of God that does something, not the Word of man.
Matthew 7 and verse 15.
Matthew 7 and verse 15, beware of false what? Who's speaking?
That's Jesus. You know, God. He wrote the Bible. That's all Him speaking, right? That's Jesus.
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And what is He telling them? All the way back to the very beginning of His ministry
around the time of the Olivet Discourse, you have Him warning them of false prophets.
Now, I don't know if we recognize sometimes the effect of false teachings in our own lives.
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One of the things that identified that greatly in my life was the invention of TikTok.
Amen. Because anybody can post anything they want on that. Oh,
they could do that on YouTube.
Yeah, but these are only like 30 second clips. My ADD can handle that. All right.
It's like every 30 second, there's some new thing happening.
And most of my TikToks are guys doing lawn care.
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I'm not kidding. That's what they are because I'm just mesmerized.
They're sitting there weed eating and they're edging those sidewalks and I'm
just sitting there drooling.
Look how clean that sidewalk is, like a barbarian. Amen?
And every once in a while, there'll be some food that'll pop up.
I'd be like, oh, that's a good looking cake right there, man.
Look how they cut into it and you can see all that.
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But every so often, Houston, there are going to be people that pop up that have
things to say about the Bible.
One of the most talked about that seems to pop up is this reference to a book
of the Bible that's been removed called the book of Enoch. How many of you have ever heard that?
I'm going to go ahead and help you with that. Amen. That is called a false book.
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Oh, there's stuff in there that matches is the Bible. Yeah. Okay.
And Paul even warned of people who at the time he was alive,
that was writing letters, pretending to be Paul.
You don't think Satan has a plan of attack to cast out on the word of God or
to try to pretend like there's books that aren't supposed to be there. Amen.
And so what if it was written by Enoch? Well, the Lord didn't want it preserved
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in a scripture for us or it would have been there.
Amen. That's important for us to understand.
Why are we we dealing with that because where we're at we have
to recognize that there are false prophets in the
world there are false spirits that are leading false
prophets to speak things that sound good and yet they're nothing but a distraction
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from the truth of god there's warnings of false prophets look at second second
peter chapter two second peter chapter two if you you with me? Say amen.
All right. She's making sure. Told you I'm out of my element right now because
the whole, you know, it's all, it's going to take some time getting used to that.
I love it. It's just going to take time for my head to get wrapped around it. All right.
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That's how petty my flesh is. Listen, I'm one of those pastors.
I'm open and I'm transparent. That's how petty my flesh is. I feel like everybody's mad at me right now.
And I know you're not. Well, some of you may be. Keep it to yourself.
Tell my wife. Amen. Don't tell me. 2 Peter 2, verse 1. Look at it.
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false what?
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Look at that. They use teachers and prophets interchangeably.
Among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord
that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Here's the sad statement, verse 2. Many shall follow their pernicious ways by
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reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
And through covetousness shall they with fain words make merchandise of you,
whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not.
And their damnation slumbereth not.
Do you know what the Bible is warning of? Not just false prophets,
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but false teachers whose desire is to turn you into their avenue of financial gain. False teachers.
I want us to recognize we've looked at the Spirit spoken. Point number two,
we see Christ versus Antichrist.
Now this will be a quick point, and point number three may take us a little
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bit of time. We'll just follow the leading of the Lord and going where we go with this.
But there are two different identifiers for an Antichrist.
If you're taking notes, the two different identifiers. I want us to look at
chapter 4, verse 2 very quickly.
Let's read it to get a look at it. Hereby I know we the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.
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Verse 3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.
And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Where have ye have heard that it should come?
And even now already is it in the world. Go back with me, if you will, to 1 John 2 and verse 22.
1 John 2 and verse 22.
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Who is a what? But he that denieth that Jesus is the what?
He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son.
There are two antichrist identifiers
that we see in scripture now there's there's many more if we study scripture
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that we can look at but two based out of first john chapter two and then chapter
four and the first one that we see if you're taking notes letter a is an antichrist
spirit denies the father and the son.
The spirit of Antichrist denies the Father and the Son. Why?
Because they deny that Jesus is the Christ. Now what does the word Christ mean?
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The word Christ is, in the Old Testament, the word for Messiah.
We've seen that before. We've studied that before. We see in the New Testament
the word Christ, meaning the anointed one, the one that is chosen of God.
And the Bible even tells us that there are false Christs that have come into
the world. And yet the spirit of Antichrist denies that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ.
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Well, that's an easy one. But the Bible tells us that to deny the Son,
look at verse 23 of the same chapter, 1 John chapter 2,
whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth
the Son hath the Father also. soul.
Do you know what happens when someone denies Jesus? They're denying the Father because they're one.
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Jesus is the only begotten of the Father. And we have to recognize something
when we study this. And I've heard this said even this week.
Well, us and the Lord, you know, I love God. I love God.
Do you know what you have to really? And I have to be careful.
I really have to be careful because there's part of me that wants to go, which one?
Amen. Well, I love Jesus. Which one? What do you mean, which one?
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There's multiple ones that have existed. Amen.
Why? Because when we make Jesus into something that he's not identified in Scripture,
then we're serving another Jesus, a false Christ.
Oh, Jesus is love. Yes, but Jesus is also a judge, a righteous judge.
But he's also merciful. And aren't you glad that Jesus is wonderfully balanced?
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Because God in the flesh is wonderfully balanced in His righteousness,
His judgment, His mercy, and His grace.
Wonderfully balanced. I'm not balanced. Amen?
If anything, I'm a little off balance.
But so are you. When it comes to understanding the love of God,
we recognize that there are people that we love, and yet the moment that they
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do something we don't like, we're quick to judge and cut them off. Right?
Why? Because we're not balanced. Because we're not God.
But yet we have Him abiding in us to help us and to lead us and to guide us.
How do you forgive someone that's done something that seems so unforgivable but for the grace of God?
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That's the only way. And so we have this warning that to deny the Son is to deny the Father.
And so the spirit of Antichrist denies the unity of the Father and the Son.
Anybody ever heard someone say there's no Trinity, there's only one God,
there is no God the Son or God the Holy Spirit, it's just one God?
That's someone who denies, denies the Son. And so who are they denying?
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The Father also. You have to be cautious with those things biblically.
Get wrapped up. Oh, we'll see. Here's a great illustration of how that can't happen.
Well, the Bible says that there's the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.
Right? Actually, let's look at it. We're in the book, 1 John 5.
We're almost there anyway. Sometime in the next two years, we'll get to 1 John 5.
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Look at verse 7. There are three that bear record where?
In heaven. The Father, the Word. Is that lowercase or capital?
So who is the Word? Oh, it's Jesus. Jesus
the Father the Word and the
Holy Ghost and these three are
what do you know what you have to do in order to try to say that there is no
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Trinity you have to remove that verse from the Bible amen and so to deny the
Son is to deny the Father letter B 2nd John chapter or well there's only one chapter.
2 John verse 7. 2 John 7.
For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
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This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Letter B, an identifier of an antichrist is one that denies that God came in the flesh.
So if someone denies the Son, they're denying the Father.
That's the spirit of antichrist. If someone denies that God came in the flesh,
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that's the spirit of Antichrist, and they are a deceiver, a false prophet, a false teacher.
Because Scripture is very clear that God put on flesh and dwelt among men.
He who knew no sin became sin for us.
And to negate that, to downplay that, to deny that, That is to deny the very
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redemptive power of the blood that Jesus shed for you.
Because if Jesus isn't God in the flesh, then the blood that He shed is as worthless as yours.
Amen. And yet we know that Jesus is God.
We know that He is conceived of the Holy Spirit. He was born of a virgin and
lived 33 and a half perfect years.
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And He gave Himself willingly and He bled and He died. and He allowed man to
lay his body in a borrowed tomb.
And on the third day, He got up of His own volition and of His own power and
is seated right now at the right hand of the Father in all authority, waiting till what?
Till the day when it's time to call His children home.
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And that's where He's at right now. But yet if God didn't come in the flesh,
then none of that is true. We might as well just go home. Amen?
We're of all men most miserable.
Do you realize that that is the very foundation of what it means for us to be
able to call ourselves a church?
Because we are the body of Christ.
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We've said it before for the past eight and a half years. We've said it before.
These walls aren't the church.
That's why we say good to see everyone in the meeting house. Why?
Because this is where the church meets. hates what's the
church you are we're the
church we're supposed to take
that message of jesus christ into a lost and dying world and when someone says
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oh yeah i love jesus that's great what is jesus to you what jesus do you love
oh well you know the the the the man is a good man well he's a good man spirit of antichrist.
Well, he was a great teacher, had a lot of good things. Well,
he worked a lot of miracles. God really used him.
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No, no, no, man. My Jesus is God.
He's God in the flesh.
That's who he is. And to deny that is to speak in the spirit of Antichrist.
Now, that brings us to point number three.
Truth versus error. 1 John 4, verse 4.
You are God's little children and have overcome them because greater is he that
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is in you 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 know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
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Notice we're We're encouraged by this verse, ye have overcome.
Now, as we get to chapter 5, and if you were with us a few years ago when we
started Revelation, I haven't forgotten about it.
We're working out the, honestly, I'm just trying to follow the Lord on that.
I'm trying to, as I have opportunity, when I get the green light to go.
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I know a lot of people think, oh, you got slides and you study.
You don't follow the Lord on anything.
Yeah, well, that's not how it works, man. Amen?
I'm trying to be obedient to the Lord, what our church needs.
What we need is a people. But what I'm trying to help us, remember we talked
about this in those first three chapters, we see overcomers.
You have overcome. You have overcome.
You shall overcome. Who are the overcomers? That's found in 1 John 5.
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And the Bible tells us in 1 John 5, in verse 4, whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
How are you or how does one become an overcomer by being born of God.
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Do you know when that happens? The moment of salvation. He must be born again.
That's why Jesus said that. That's why it's so important. Because you need to be an overcomer.
And then the truth, the greater is he that is in you. So what an encouragement. You've overcome.
If you're saved here this evening, you're an overcomer. Why,
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pastor, sometimes it doesn't feel like it. Oh, man, I know.
Sometimes it feels like the whole world's against me. Oh, hey, great news.
They are. are sometimes it feels like the burdens and the weight of this life
i just can't bury and can't carry and yet the bible teaches us that he'll never
put on us more than we can bear because his friend that sticketh closer than
any brother because god is there because you're born of him,
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and he is in you so we have an encouraging reminder ye have overcome how have
we overcome come? Well, the verse continues.
The Bible says, ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them in your
own strength because you're awesome. Is that what it says?
It's not what it says. Look what it says. Because greater is he that is in you,
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that's God, than he that is in the world, that Satan.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that God that died for you,
that resides within you, that cut away your spirit from your flesh and identifies you with the Son?
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Do you believe that He is greater than all of your circumstances,
all of your temptations, all of your trials,
all of your hardships do you believe that
he is guess what believe it or not you're still an overcomer because greater
is he that is in you than he is in the world remember what we looked at last
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week let's let's go back chapter 3 very quickly i know what you're thinking
oh man now Now we're backtracking.
Chapter 3, verse 19.
And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him.
For if our heart condemn us, our heart, if our heart condemn us, what does it say?
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God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. God.
So what did we recognize? What did we talk about last week? What are we trying to remind you of?
The fact that even when your faith is lacking, greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world.
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Truth is revealed by the spirit of God that dwells within you.
John chapter eight and verse 31.
Let's look at first Corinthians chapter two. I'm going to read you John chapter
eight for sake of time. And then we'll be in first Corinthians chapter two, very, very briefly.
First Corinthians chapter two, John chapter eight, verse 31.
Then said Jesus to those Jews, which believed on him, if you continue in my
word, then are ye my disciples indeed.
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And ye shall know the truth truth, and the truth, most of you can finish it,
shall what? Make you free.
The truth is the liberating factor.
It's the truth that's revealed by the Spirit of God. That's 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9.
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.
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But God hath, what? what? Revealed them unto us.
All those things that ear hath not heard, eye hath not seen,
all those things that had not entered into the heart of man,
that God had prepared for them that love him.
The Bible says in verse 10, God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit.
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For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
What is it that God has A lot of times we hear that verse quoted in reference to heaven, right?
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That's not true. The Bible tells us that we know God's revealed to us by His
Spirit what He has in store for you. Do you know what that is?
Eternal peace, rest, joy, and righteousness.
That's what it is. Well, are we going to live in a mansion? None of that's going to matter.
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Amen. No, that's going to matter. Am I going to live next to my best friend?
No, that's going to matter. What matters now? Why? Because we're carnal.
We think carnally. No, that's going to matter. Why? Because the things that
have been revealed to us, what's been revealed? An inheritance.
What's the inheritance? First Corinthians chapter 15, I believe it's Philippians
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chapter four as well, tells us what the inheritance is.
It's a new body, a new physical body like Jesus's body.
Body the mind of christ as well we will serve him perfectly as he intended and that's the promise,
that's what's in store for those that love him oh i
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thought i thought we'd get a big old mansion and get to sit and drink sweet
tea all day man what god has in store for you is much better than the greatest
thing you could ever consider why because it's his way now i want us to recognize
Recognize something, this that's been revealed. Let's keep reading.
Verse 11, what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man.
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There's that spirit of man again, which is in him.
Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.
There's a spirit of God and the spirit of man.
Now, verse 12, we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit which is of God.
What's the spirit of the world? Who do you think that falls under?
Satan, spirit of the world, because he's the prince of the power of the air.
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The Bible says the earth is his. The world is his. Right now, it's his.
That's what the Bible teaches us. 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 the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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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. You want to know why so many people
have trouble understanding the Word of God? Because they don't know Christ.
I'm not talking about when you struggle over a passage. I'm talking about people
that don't understand why in the world you read from a book written over a period
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of 1,500 years by three different continents and a multitude of languages by a plethora of authors,
and the one that we use in this church is at least 400 plus years old, right?
I don't understand why you do that. I don't understand why you meet and you
put your faith in one who a book tells you that was written by a man that he
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died for you 2,000 years ago.
They don't understand that. Why? Because those things are spiritually discerned.
Things are spiritually discerned. Those can only be understood because the Spirit
gives truth to those who seek truth.
And those who come to it looking for error, oh, they'll find error because they're foolish.
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Why? Verse 14, 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.
Just comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we see in 1 Corinthians,
gives us an exercise in and biblical knowledge, and how we can do that,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
John 6, in verse 63, Jesus said, The words that I speak unto you,
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they are spirit, and they are life.
What do we compare? Why do we study the way that we do?
Because we're comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
I don't care about your experiences.
Your experience is not what truth is founded on. Amen?
I don't care about the miracles that you went through. I'm not downplaying them.
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I'm just saying that the foundation of truth is not dependent upon your existence
and whether you experienced something or whether you had a miracle occur.
All of that could just be a cherry on the cake.
The foundation of faith is the Word of God.
And comparing the spiritual things with spiritual, the words that I speak,
Jesus said, they are spirit and they are life.
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Life you want to run things through and find out
if it's of god you have to compare it with the other things
that we know are of god scripture and then error is
revealed by the false spirit of antichrist first john chapter 4 and verse 5
and we're almost done first john chapter 4 and verse 5 they are of the world
therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them not every spirit
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that claims supernatural powers or miracles or even to be of Christ is of Christ.
We need to be aware of the warfare of error and be able to defend against it.
This is how egregious it has gotten. Look at Romans chapter 15.
And while you're turning there, my brother-in-law sent something to me this
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morning or this afternoon, and it was a preview of a new show,
kids show, kids show about the devil on Amazon Prime, which I know is a wonderful
place for Christian truth. Amen.
It's a great place to find Christian truth. but essentially the
entire thing the entire premise of the show starts off with
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a young girl in hell who is the
daughter of satan who's reading the story
of how satan was misunderstood in heaven and
all of the evil elders of heaven this is this this is
their words and this isn't this isn't one
of those things like oh he just found that because he's searching in that deep
queue no no this is this is being pushed for young people this is being pushed
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spiritual warfare if you don't think that's spiritual warfare you got your head
in the sand amen because they're coming.
Have been coming for our children trying to perpetrate some false thing that
in the beginning god created adam and some other girl i think i think her name
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was lilith and lilith fell in love Satan and they had a baby.
God created Eve to replace Lilith.
And so Lilith and Satan decided they wanted Eve who was being controlled by
the elders of heaven and by God himself being kept from all of this wonderful
imagination and magic and mystery.
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They wanted to have a part in mankind coming to the knowledge of good and evil.
Change the story. You say, well, that's not going to that's not gonna matter
oh it will it will why because the spirit of antichrist doth already work 2
000 years ago all right romans chapter 15 verse 8 romans chapter 15 and verse 8.
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Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers and that the Gentiles might
glorify God for His mercy.
As it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name.
And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
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And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud him, all ye people.
And again Isaiah saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, And he shall rise to
reign over the Gentiles. In him shall the Gentiles trust.
Now the God of what? Hope. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and
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believing that ye may abound in what?
Hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
What do we recognize? Recognize we can be confident in the truth of Christ because
Christ came to give the light unto the Gentiles.
And so that the Gentiles would also have joy and peace in believing.
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So when the spirit of Antichrist, which has been working for longer than you've
been alive, longer than any of the traditions that you hold to ever existed,
longer than any type of family background you think you can trace all the way back to,
the spirit of antichrist has been working longer than any of that the bible
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says hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error and we can take
comfort but in comfort may we never become complacent let's stand to be dismissed in a word of prayer.
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