Therefore, let's start verse 4, the famous verse.
Year of God, little children, and have overcome them,
because greater 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 heareth them.
We are of God.
He that is not, or I'm sorry, 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.
You say, John, how do you know the spirit of truth
versus the spirit of error?
How do you determine here who is of God
and who is not of God?
He said, well, that's easy.
He said, I'm of God.
I'm preaching the word 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.
Jesus said the same thing to the Pharisees.
He that is of God, heareth God's word.
He therefore heareth not, because you're not of God.
So the people who were saved into the Old Testament,
they're still saved.
And when Jesus came, they heard and believe
and knew that it was him.
They recognized him as their savior.
Okay, those who were not saved,
either got saved or rejected him.
You know, that was their choice.
So that's a key doctrine.
That's really important.
You may not think it's important,
but as you study the Bible,
you see how important that doctrine is.
A lot of people don't get that.
They don't understand that, that when Jesus came,
there were a lot of people that were already saved.
You know, because they're mixed up
in dispensationalism as part of it.
But this is a test of salvation right here.
This is the test.
You know, because people say,
"How do you know people are really saved or not?"
Well, you can never really know for sure
that anybody's saved except yourself.
You know, you know you're saved, right?
'Cause you know that you believe in Christ.
Sometimes it's hard to tell whether other people are saved
and you're not always gonna know, you know?
You can only really go by what they say.
But sometimes you'll look at people
and they live a really sinful life and you'll say,
"Well, there's no way that person's saved
'cause I've seen him drinking
or I've seen him with his girlfriend fornicating."
But you know what?
That doesn't mean that he's not saved.
'Cause he could just be a backslidden believer
and he'd still be saved.
But you wanna know the real test
of whether somebody's saved too,
that God gives here,
is when they don't hear God's word.
I mean, when you walk up to somebody
and they claim to be saved
and you just show 'em something really clearly in the Bible
and they just don't get it.
They don't see it, it doesn't make any sense to 'em,
they don't believe it.
You can just show 'em point blank, "This is the truth."
And they just, "Oh, I still think it's this other way."
Now if that happened one time, you know, maybe they just,
that's their little stubborn issue
that they don't wanna face or something.
But then when you show 'em something else,
and then when you show 'em something else,
it just seems like everything you show 'em,
they're just not getting it.
It's just going straight over there.
And they can hear God's Word preach,
and they just don't get it, they're not saved.
Now when you just show somebody something,
they comprehend it, they get it, they see it,
they read the Bible, and it makes sense to 'em,
and they understand it, that is the proof
that they are saved, okay?
And so basically, when you show, let me give you an example.
And I may wonder why I'm dwelling on this point,
because this is an important point, okay?
When we're out soul-winning, we don't show everybody
everything in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, do we?
Well, let me start here with Adam and Eve,
you know, going through that, and then Cain and Abel,
and then, okay, then there is the flood, you know,
just a couple, have you got a few more minutes?
Okay, the Tower of Babel, you know, Abraham and Isaac,
and Jacob, you know, so then Joseph is sold into slavery,
you know, we don't, you can't teach the whole Bible, right?
Nor can you teach them every doctrine of the Bible.
So does a person have to believe and know and understand
every doctrine of the Bible to be saved?
No, they just have to believe on Jesus Christ.
They just have to believe in gospel, right?
Just that Jesus Christ is going away to heaven
and put all their faith and trust in him
to save him from hell and to take him to heaven.
You know, it's the basic death, burial, and resurrection.
But here's the thing.
Let's take, for example, the virgin birth of Christ, right?
Now, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin.
That's an important doctrine, isn't it?
He's not the child of Mary and Joseph, no.
He was born of the virgin, okay, conceived of the Holy Ghost.
Okay.
Now, let me ask you something.
Can a person be saved without even knowing about the virgin birth?
Absolutely.
Because, you know, sometimes you just might explain to them, "Hey, he was God in the flesh.
He's God for us."
But you may not have explained exactly how he was born of a virgin.
They might not have heard that fact, right?
But let me ask you something.
Do you think anybody who's saved denies the virgin birth of Christ?
Because once they're shown it from the Bible, they're going to hear God's Word.
Okay, now if I show someone, let's say Matt here claims to be saved, right?
He says, "Oh, I'm saved.
I believe in Jesus Christ."
And I say, "Hey, did you know Jesus was born of a virgin?"
"What, really?"
"Yeah, let me show you right here."
And I show him like three verses that say he's born of a virgin, and Matt says, "I don't
believe that."
Do you think Matt's saved?
I think Matt's saved.
I'm just kidding.
But not if he believes that he's not saved.
You're right.
I'm just teasing.
Yeah, you're right.
If he said like, "Well, no, the virgin birth is false," he's not saved.
Okay, what about this?
Do we necessarily go into some creation seminar at every door when we're soul hunting?
We may not even touch upon that.
But if a person believes on Jesus Christ, right, maybe they never even thought too much
about evolution versus creation, right?
And maybe they just got saved just by believing on Christ, and maybe they don't know how old
the earth is.
They might think it's still millions of years old.
They just haven't thought about it.
They just don't know about it.
But then what if I say, "Hey, did you know that the earth is not millions of years old?
Look at Genesis 1.
See how evolution isn't true because everything brings forth after its own kind?
You see that?
So wait a minute.
If I show them that and they say, "No, I still believe in evolution," are they saved?
No.
Because they're rejecting God's Word.
They're rejecting the truth because they are not of God and they don't hear God's Word.
Okay.
Now, people get up and say, "Yeah, you can be an evolutionist."
I don't believe evolutionists are saved.
No, they're not because they're denying God's Word.
And that just shows that they don't believe it anyway and that it's a lie to them and
they're calling God a liar.
Therefore, they are not of God.
The Spirit of God does not dwell in them.
You know, they have made Him a liar and the truth is not in them.
And Jesus Christ is the truth and, you know, His Word is not in us if we call Him a liar.
That's what it says in 1 John 1, 8 and 10, you know, and, you know, there's more context
there.
But the bottom line is that, you know, we don't have to explain everything to people
when they get saved.
They just have to be trusting Christ.
But the true believer will hear the truth on these issues when they see it in the Bible
and not say, "Oh, I still believe in evolution," and whatever.
Does everybody comprehend that?
Because I want that really to sink in and understand it, because that's an important
object.
Because a lot of people say, "Well, all you have to believe in is Jesus.
You can believe in evolution, and you can believe that, you know, you can deny the virgin's
birth and still be saved."
Well, not if you've heard the word on it, not if you've seen it.
You better hear that word or else something's wrong with you.
You are not saved.
That's why you don't hear God's word.