to 1 John chapter 4 and look at verse number 6.
We are of God, and he that knoweth God heareth us,
he that is not of God heareth not us, hereby know we
the spirit of truth. The title for the sermon tonight is the spirit of truth,
the spirit of truth. Now you should already know who the spirit of truth is.
You know we've gone through the book of John very clearly the spirit of truth
was outlined and you know named as the
Holy Spirit. You know the comforter that Jesus Christ
would ask his father to send is that Holy Spirit truth.
And so this Holy Spirit we all have it's not just
in a past Pastor Kevin or it's not in just the most faithful members of the
church. Every believer has the Holy Spirit of
truth living in them. And the Holy Spirit that is our Lord God
dwelling in us and will confirm to you that what you
hear is truth or if it's a lie. Okay and the Holy Spirit of truth will
help you identify what church should I be part of,
what preacher should I be listening to. And so we have the beginning of this
chapter sort of outline some some basic principles of identifying
a true prophet from a false prophet. Now before I read
the first few verses one thing that I want you to understand
you know when you read the bible the first thing you want to do
is think about what is the first application
of these verses. And then of course the bible is a very deep book
how can then I apply that to my life. Okay
when you understand the primary application to the next few first few
verses it's going to help you understand what
the Apostle John is teaching. Because if you take
the next verses at face value and apply it as a primary
principle to yourself today you might get a little bit confused.
And let me explain to you why because it says here in verse number one
beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits to try the spirits
there is to test the spirits to try the spirits whether
they are of God because many false prophets are gone out
into the world. Do you believe that there are many
false prophets in the world there are many preachers there are many pastors
that do not have the truth and so you can't just
make the assumption oh well that church I'll just attend that random church
you know I'll just I'll just listen to this random preacher
the instruction here is to try or to test
the spirit by which that man preaches is the spirit of God or is it not of God
because there are many false prophets that have gone into the world.
Now the reason this is important is because I'll just read it to you very
quickly from the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 14
15 it says the simple believeth every word
the simple the what does it mean to be simple
to be a little bit not so intelligent a little bit of a base person
someone that doesn't have a lot of smarts someone that doesn't have a lot
of discernment they're going to believe every word
they're going to go to church any church any random church oh that's a great
sermon that's a great preacher and just believe
everything that he said listen that ought not to be us now look
ideally you've been coming to a new life of the church you've had pastor Kevin
as your pastor for almost six years I think by night by now you've
determined if you haven't determined by now there's
something wrong with you whether I'm preaching by the spirit of
truth the holy spirit or some other spirit whether it's truth
or whether it's a lie and the fact that so many of you have hung around for many
years should already be that confirmation
that I've already decided where this past is preaching the truth
okay so I'm not saying that every time you come to New Life Baptist Church or
you have identified another great church you know open door bible church and
every time I'm just going to sit there and just analyse and criticise
every single sentence of every single word every single week that I go there
because you'll be overwhelmed I mean look at some point you need to decide
all right you know I'm comfortable with this preacher
I know he's a man of God I know he's been utilised by God but at the same
time you don't want to be just completely comfortable with everything
you need to test what is being preached and what is being taught
by God's word because even great even good men of God even men that are trying
to do the best we stir the flesh we can still make
mistakes we can still have biases we can still make assumptions you know
and things that may not necessarily be you know outlined clearly by the word of
God and just could you just could be opinions
that don't measure up to the same level as of course God's word
and so you know yourselves you're to decide when you hear something taught
you have the Holy Spirit of God within you too you know is this true
is this a lie you know okay you know how do I apply how do I apply this
you know to my life the things that I heard today how do I apply that
now if you can just backtrack to the previous chapter then first John
chapter 3 just as a reminder verse number 24 first John chapter 3
verse number 24 it says and he that keepeth that his
commandments dwelleth in him and he in him
and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he have given us
all right so the spirit of God confirms to us
that God dwells in us the spirit of God confirms
that you are saved you know I don't have to be the person that makes a judgment
call on whether you're saved or not you know if you've placed your faith on
Jesus Christ his death and resurrection you know what
you yourself know whether you're saved you the Holy Spirit of God dwells in you
but you see as you keep his commandments as you walk with the Lord
you're going to have a greater realization of the presence of the Holy
Spirit within you it's true you know if you say pastor I
just the spirit of God I just don't seem to
grasp him within my life I just don't know
you know pastor you know his power in my life let me encourage you
keep his commandments the closer you are with the Lord in your walk
in your faithfulness in your holiness you will experience a great presence
of God living in you and when you when you live that life and you open God's
word you're going to have a greater understanding of the scriptures that you
read because it's the Holy Ghost that teaches
you these things it's the Holy Ghost that teaches you whether it's true
or whether it's a lie help you understand the scriptures
and look at verse number two this is why you need to when you get to verse
number two you need to apply the historical application here okay
because it says hereby know ye the spirit of God so the
apostle saying this is how you're going to know that the preacher is actually
preaching by the spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is of God
now let me just read the next verse and every spirit that confesses not
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God
and this is the spirit of antichrist where of ye have heard that it should
come and even now already is it in the world
what is it saying so everyone that confesses
every preacher that says Jesus Christ is coming to flesh
they're of God save a past even the Catholics
will confess that even the orthodox Christians would confess that I'm sure
you can name many other you know uh umbrellas of you know well
sects of Christianity that would claim that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and
you would know full well but they're not even saved
so how do we apply this verse and again you know firstly start with that
historical setting you know don't forget that in these are
the early days of Christianity and the apostles are going out you know
that they're going out in a in a world that's full of idols and
and worship of false gods and we are understanding the reality of what God
has done for them by sending his son and they're going out
there and they're what the biggest thing they're trying to convince people of
is that Christ Messiah the anointed one has come into the world
like today we we bear the benefits of the great work that these men have done
because today you don't really need to convince you know convince people about
Christ people know of Christ like our calendar
is based on Christ coming into this world you know
80 and bc and there is an understanding today
that you know Christ whether you believe it exactly or not but the understanding
is you know that Christ came into this
world but going back to the historical setting there
this is a new truth that is being taught to the gentiles to the new churches that
are starting out you know preaching to to to our unsaved
people and of course there are others going around saying no
Christ has not come in the flesh how do we apply that today
well one simple way is that what it says there every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is coming to flesh sorry every spirit
that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God and this is the spirit of Antichrist
and look I you know I'm not trying to just go on and on about
Judaism but Judaism is the spirit of Antichrist
that's what it is because it says here they don't confess that Jesus Christ
Christ is the Greek term for the Hebrew word what
messiah messiah messiah does Judaism teach that Jesus is the messiah
do they teach that messiah has come in the flesh or they still believe messiah
is yet to come at some point they believe their messiah is still yet
to come at some point that he has not come in the flesh and
that it is definitely not Jesus this is the spirit of Antichrist Judaism
is not old testament Christianity it's not because if they believed in
Moses they would have believed on Jesus that's what Jesus Christ said okay to
the unbelieving Jews so we can apply that today one thing that
we can know for certain if someone denies that messiah has come
in the flesh and that messiah was Jesus anyone that denies that
is definitely not of God but I don't want you to remove the first
verse there you know out of the historical context
otherwise you might start applying that today and go hold on the Catholics admit
Christ came in the flesh so they must be of God okay
so you need to just understand that when you read your read your bible
now one thing very quickly if you can just um oh look I'll just read it to you
because even devils can speak some element of truth
for example in mark chapter 1 verse 23 and there was in their synagogue a man
with an unclean spirit does that unclean spirit sound like the
holy spirit the spirit truth unclean nah definitely not the holy spirit right and
he cried out saying let us alone what have we to do the to the to do with
thee thou Jesus of Nazareth thou come to
destroy us I know thee who thou art the holy one of
God that's a pretty true confession isn't
there the unclean spirit saying this Jesus is
the holy one of God
and Jesus rebuked him saying hold thy peace and come out of him
and when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice he came out
of him what I'm trying to say there that if you
take the application that anyone that confesses Christ has
come in the flesh or that Christ is the holy one of God they're
they're automatically believers they're automatically saved well I just want to
show you an example there that even an unclean spirit can
testify even what is true and Jesus Christ rebukes
that spirit but the points behind this brethren is
we need to make sure we identify preachers that are filled with the
spirit of truth we have to I mean what I love about
church growing up in church is I can come to a place where
truth is being taught like it's it's nice isn't it
we live in such a misguided world such a misguided world and I was just
speaking to someone recently this week who shared with me his experiences and
some things that sound supernatural and and but I can see there was a sincerity
there you know wanting to understand the Bible
wanting to understand God wanting to fully grasp what Christ had
done and you know I basically positioned it like this you know you've got you
know because people have strange experiences
and sometimes you don't know are they true are they
look I'm not going to insult someone's intelligence if they've gone through
something they've experienced something I'm just going to believe them but
here's the thing and I gave the example because we were
having I think it was lunch together it was lunch
and there was a piece of salt just tiny piece of salt on my plate
and I said to the guy look if this plate represents if this plate represents
everything there is to know about life everything there is to know about the
world and the universe everything there is to know about the
physical and the spiritual how much of your experience and
knowledge would fit on this plate he said to me probably just a tiny
speck I gave you for example let's just say that
piece of salt represents what you know that little
grain of salt okay which is probably still more than
what's on the plate so if you want to know the truth are
you going to interpret
the world in your life based on that piece of salt
or is it better to know what the plate holds
who knows all of that plate and then to interpret your experiences and your
knowledge based on all the knowledge that's
contained in the universe well obviously interpreting your little
bit of experience with the greater knowledge is the way to
go and who's got all that knowledge only god and god has given us his word
so then whatever it is that you've gone through whatever is that you've
experienced must be interpreted in light of the bible
and not the other way around
and that's how you come to the truth and i could share look your experience is
not true you may have experienced something but
in light of the bible i'm not going to at all
you know this is most likely what you experienced based on what the bible says
and so god has given us his spirit of truth he's given us his word
there is a spirit of antichrist in this world
you know sometimes we think about the end times and look the end times is
interesting topic we know the antichrist is coming at
some points but brethren there is a spirit of antichrist even right now
you know and it's it's it's confusing the world with with lies and corruption
and we have the beautiful word of god we had a great sermon
on the king james bible recently didn't we what what an honor
what an honor i just went back just this week listening to uh new world bible
versions documentary if you guys maybe just as a
reminder you know just i mean i know the truth of god's word but it's just
it's so beautiful to know god's given us his truth
his word is truth the spirit of god is truth
god's given us these this ability to be able to just work through the lies
and know what god's word says it's just i mean what could you want in life
you know when when god asked solomon what he wanted
he could ask for money and and uh power and influence he just said lord give me
wisdom to judge your people so great a people
and you know what god's given us his wisdom in his word
and his presence that lives each in each one of us
you know i i strongly encourage you look i i love bible questions coming to me
pastor what about this passage what do you think of this
but what i really want you to do is say you know what i'm not going to ask my
pastor lord i'm going to ask you because you've
got you are the spirit of truth lord and i'm i'm ready i'm just waiting
for you to give me that answer and lord look if this takes me uh 12
months and i still can't figure it out then i'll go ask my pastor
how about that give god the time to teach you to god it's beautiful when god
teaches you and shows you things
let's uh drop down let's go back to first john to the four if you're not
there first john to the four verse number four ye are of god
little children and have overcome them who have we overcome
the false prophets those that preach through another spirit we've overcome
them we've defeated them okay we're
victorious over the lies because we're little children we're
children of god i love the next verse the next passage
there because greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world who's in the world the devil
say look we should be concerned about the devil i understand that
the devil attacks when you just just seemingly you know just
you know i've underestimated the devil in my life
but you know what i'm not afraid of the devil honestly i'm not
because greater is he that is in me the holy spirit
spirit of truth
and we've overcome his lies we've overcome
his corruption you know we've come to the truth
and we've accepted jesus the messiah who's come in the flesh
the devil doesn't like that the devil knows that he can't stop us
we're saved there's nothing you can do about our salvation but he's definitely
going to try to destroy our testimony he'll try it he'll try to stop us from
being influential and a blessing to other people
he floods the world with lies brethren we have the truth there's not many like
when you think about how many people actually have the truth it's not
many really i mean how many what percent of
people do you think are truly saved in the world
you know i don't know for sure but i reckon it's about
the two three percent mark that i actually saved
based on some numbers where i've gone slogging and i've
kept count of how many people are actually saved versus how many people
are not it's about two three percent no more
than that really
and say we're so little though pastor there's so few of us
there are many that are headed to destruction that's what christ taught
but greater is he that is in us we've overcome this world
we can turn this world upside down you know by preaching and teaching by the
spirit of truth that god has given us verse number five
again referring to the false prophets they are of the world
therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them
this is why new life after church is never going to be a five thousand member
hope i mean maybe hope so if it's the lord's will
but unlikely ten thousand member church this is why the hill song will always
out you know be strong be strong we'll always have more people
greater membership than your local baptist church around the corner
because they speak of the world and the world loves the world
the world's attracted to the world
i remember being in a youth group you know i went to my baptist church youth
group you go to youth group to make friends
right you feel lonely sometimes i'm going to
meet other christians you want to get along with other believers
i'm a young man going to youth group just my desire was to hear god's word
it really was i want to know what god has to say to me
and i want to have friends that are christians
and we're going to youth group and well guys uh we're not having our usual
lesson this friday we're going to hillsong
there's a band i don't care what the band is some famous band
playing a hill song we're all gonna you know bus it down there and
and i think we have to pay for it i think from memory it's a long time ago
now and i just thought oh well okay i've
never been there i've never done it i'm curious i mean i'm looking for
friendship this is a big church you get there you sit down
isn't it blessed to have lights what about when there are lights but they
don't use them and it's dark and you've got your bible
and you can't read the words of the bible
and you sat down next to your friend you can't even see your friend's face
because it's that dark and some rock band is playing there and
the purple lights are going off and the smoke machines are going on
and then it's like all right guys let's get down there and dance
yep happened i'm like you know i come to hear god's word
are we gonna get a sermon at least i don't know are we gonna get something
out of this
boys and girls dancing girls in their mini skirts
boys touching them all over in a church no no it's it's not a church it's the
world
and i'm just talking to my friends guys i thought we'd come to church
how it comes to pick up chicks kevin
it's such a shame you know you know as long as i'm the pastor of this church
it's never going to be like the world it's not that i'm just some
old-fashioned funny duddy baptist fundamentalist
you know homeschooling you know dweeb or something
no i've seen how the world corrupts the name of christ
i've seen it and it's it it doesn't fulfill
it gives it satisfies the flesh if you love the world it's going to satisfy
your your desires for the world but if you desire god it's not going to
satisfy maybe a little bit feels good feels fun
feels fantastic but you'll notice at some point
it doesn't feed you it doesn't nourish you
it's the world look if i want to experience the world i'll go to the
world concert that's what i thought as a young person as a teenager
if i want to experience the world i'll go clubbing i'll go to the bar
i'd rather go there where they're not blaspheming the name of jesus
than go to a place that's called a church and they're glorifying god but
it's the same thing as any nightclub to me that's blaspheming
the lord at least if i go to some club at least i'm saying god you know what
i'm just going to the world but at least i'm not taking my god with me and making
it seem holy and acceptable by the lord's standards
these churches grow because they're of the world the world hear of them
just keep that in mind young people go man
it's so much better to go to a large church
it's of the world try the spirits is the preacher even saved can you start
there let's start there is the preacher even
saved and if you start there you'll be
surprised many false prophets you won't be surprised if you know god's word many
false prophets have gone into the world
verse number six we are of god he that knoweth god heareth us
and he that is not of god heareth not us he by know we the spirit of truth
and the spirit of error you know what's saying here as i preach
you will know whether it's coming from the spirit of truth or the spirit of
error i i i've i've listened to other
churches i've listened to the heel songs and the
charismatic and you just know this is the spirit of
error i've picked up the book of warman let's
read chapter one i can't even i can't even take in a few a
few sentences it's a spirit of error i don't even
want to absorb this thing throwing it in the bin
you have the ability if you're saved you're the spirit truth
he'll teach you what is true and what is error
and then it's your call god's done his work
i'm still going to go to hillsong pastor kevin all right it's not that it's not
god's mistake here it's you you said god i don't care if it's error
i'm going to go there because it makes me feel good
if you can quickly come with me to john chapter 14
keep a finger there in first john john 14
the only reason we're turning to these passages just again i'm reinforcing this
over and over again if you want to better understand first
john you need to understand what book john okay because this is not the first
time you know the spirit of truth comes up
jesus christ says in john 14 16 and i will pray the father
and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever
even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive
because it's see of him not neither know of him
but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you
another comforter the spiritual you know knowing the truth is comforting
being able to say no that is error that is that is wrong is comforting
come to me in the next chapter there john 15 john 15 26
john 15 26 but when the comforter is come
whom i will send unto you from the father
even the spirit of truth which proceed from the father
he shall testify of me i love that the spirit of truth the holy spirit is
going to testify of jesus the reason why that speaks a lot to
me is because i remember again as a teenager going to these
charismatic pentecostal churches i'm used to going to a church building
with like a cross on it like signifying the the death
and resurrection of christ and then i'd go to these
charismatic churches invited by friends and they'd always have the the dove
or a flame of fire or something fires and doves
signifying the holy spirit and there's nothing wrong with that in of itself
but one thing that i understood from the bible you know what if the spirit of
truth resides in this place it's going to testify of jesus it's
going to testify of what he has done you know it's not going to be a
different message to what jesus taught but you walk in
and people get up i've received the word you know the i've seen the spirit move
and they give you some testimony some prophecy
and even as a child on you that's not what the bible says
that's not what jesus said whatever spirit is speaking is not of god
there's an advantage of being saved when you're young
and here's the thing in my flesh i kind of want to be part of this church
i know these people they're my friends the youth group's a lot more fun and
happening
but i want to be a place where i can be with god i want
i want god to teach me i want to know the truth
see there's an issue when you're saved it's not really it's meant to be a
blessed it is a blessing where god will tell you this is right and this is wrong
and it's hard when you're young you've been challenged by the world and the
lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh
the pride of life and you go but i want this lord
and then in you the holy spirit says no that doesn't glorify me
that's a beautiful thing really when you love the lord and you see later on as we
keep going for this is about loving the lord
and the holy spirit allows us to love the lord properly
as we keep going for this you're still there in john come with me to john 16
john 16 13 john 16 13 how be it when he the spirit of truth
is come he will guide you into all truth
wow for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall
you speak so that shall he speak and he will show
you things to come so the holy spirit's not coming with
some new revelation he's not going to speak of something
brand new no he's going to point us back to the
teachers of christ he's going to point us back to the word
of god and jesus christ of course is the word of god
and that's what you'll notice you'll notice you you go to these churches
and they speak very little bible they quote very little bible
and the bible that they do quote anyway is usually some corruption
it's not truth it's error it might sound good
yeah it does great preachers great oracles
you know tickle those ears makes me feel good
must be of god because it makes me feel good but is it true
it's not about how it makes you feel the question is
is it true or is it false is it right or is it wrong
that's what god's going to do to you give you wisdom
knowledge comfort in knowing the truth
these other churches they're experts at making you feel warm and fuzzy
and because i feel warm and fuzzy must be god
back to first john chapter four please first john chapter four verse number seven
first john to the four verse number seven
beloved let us love one another for love is of god and everyone that
loveth is born of god and knoweth god you know what it's
saying here everyone that loveth is born of god
the only one that can truly love is someone that is saved
the only one that can truly understand love
is one that is saved
and if we're going to love one another we need to have the love of god
and brevin we ought to love one another you know i i i say it but i do love you
like i do you know i i pray for your church you know i pray i i hope that
lord the lord will do a great work in you and that you do you
do a great thing for him in his kingdom you know i want nothing more than to go
to heaven and for god to say thou good and faithful servant
and i'll be rejoicing even more when you go to heaven if god can say about you
thou good and faithful servant i'll be like yeah that's my church member
we've been serving the lord god for all these years yes he is a good and faithful
servant she is a good and faithful servant
and again just reinforcing our love and we ought to love each other
verse number six sorry verse number eight hear that loveth not
knoweth not god for god is love god is love again you can only understand
love if you know god you need to know god
i often pray god can you lord i don't know if i'm loving the way that i want
to love lord give me your love lord i don't have the wisdom lord give me
your wisdom lord i just don't have the mercy or the
or the the long suffering lord give me your mercy
give me your long suffering so in my flesh it dwelleth no good thing
and i i've really realized this and you know in the last few days or
months and i've known this but just the reality of you need what comes from god
you need his spirit to know the truth you need his love to be
able to love you need his mercy to be merciful
you need his forgiveness to be forgiven to others
it all comes from the lord
verse number nine in this was manifested the love of god toward us
how did god manifest his love toward us because that god sent
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him wow
god manifested his love toward you he sent his son to take your sins and your
punishment
your offenses against god
and put it on his son
and the anger and the wrath and the curse that should have fallen upon you
fell on christ instead
i mean that that should blow you away that's how much you love me god
you'd sacrificed your only begotten son
you know we often quote romans 5 8 at the door and go solely i love romans 5 8
because it says but god commended his love toward us in that
while we were yet sinners while we were yet sinners
so like while we're just transgressing the commandments of god
while we're offending god he sent his son to die for us
it's not while they're trying the best while they're trying to keep the laws of
god while they're trying to go to church and
get around i'll go send this is like even while they're disobeying
me even while they're offending me i'm going
to send my son to die for them i mean what great love is that it's hard
to do good things to people that are doing
harmful things towards you
verse number 10 he ran his love that not that we loved god
but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propit
propitiation for our sins it just means there that what christ has
done is all sufficient there's nothing more
it fully satisfied the wrath and judgment of god
christ paid it all verse number 11 beloved if god so loved us
we ought also to love one another whoa you know i understand that i can
love my wife right i can tell her that i love her
i can be kind i can maybe buy her a nice gift or take her out
you know there are many ways that we can show love
to another human being because we're physically there we're able to do
something right i mean uh we can we can show love
but how do we show love to god
you know he loved us so much and i mean like it's not like lord i mean can i
god can i get you a cup of water or something like lord i mean do you need a
place to stay not like you know how do you how do you
show god love how do you do that i'm sure all of us that are
rejoicing our salvation would love nothing more but to be
generous and hospitable toward our lord god what can i do for you lord
and that's what blows me away beloved verse number 11 beloved if god so loved
us we ought to love one another god says you want to show me love
love your brothers and sisters love one another
that's how he wants us to show his i love toward him
by loving others remember what christ says in matthew 25 40
and the king shall answer and say unto them verily i say unto you
in as much as you have done it unto one of the least
of these my brethren you have done it unto me
who's the least in this church say maybe the little children
let's say and sometimes we come to church and we forget the little kids
and i look adults please don't forget the children
you know what's going to keep them in church when they say you know what i go
to church but even the adults speak to me
even the adults say hello and goodbye and ask me questions and care about me
so they're just children i want to talk to my to my friend over here or
you know we're in deep doctrine that's where you know i don't want to talk about
just little children things and do it do it to the least and you've done
it unto christ what does that mean if you ignore the
least you're ignoring christ
how do we show love to christ how do we show love to the lord
we love each other you know we spend time together we we have
fellowship together say brother what can i pray for how can
i help what do you need
we do that we've given our love back to god
verse number 12 no man have seen god at any time
if we love one another god dwelleth in us and his love
is perfected in us perfected in us god wants to perfect his love in us all
right we need to love one another perfected it means to be made complete
you know we need to learn to love what god loves
and i know we don't always get along in church
there's probably conflicts right now that are unresolved potentially i don't
know
but you know what even if i'm having conflict with
i'll say loki because brody brody gets enough of my brunt
even if me and loki have a problem you know loki is a child of god and if i
don't treat him right you think god's going to be happy with
me with how i treat his kids his children i better love him
i better make peace with loki we better resolve our differences
loki all right i forgive you brother for what all the
horrible things you've done toward me
because that's how we can love the lord love his children
of course we're going to have conflicts because we've got a sinful flesh
and we're not long suffering when we ought to be long suffering we're not
merciful and we ought to be merciful all right we're not forgiven when we
ought to be forgiven
you know how can we say that we love god we don't love our brethren
how
you know what we as a church can do a lot better
honestly and i still think you guys are a great bunch of people
but i still think we can do better i think we can love the lord more
by loving each other more i really believe it
i believe we can improve i believe the love of god can be perfected in us
i don't think it's been perfected just yet i think even more so
we could be more loving and maybe i'm not
a great example in that regard maybe i need to work on that a little bit
to be a better example
where are we up to verse number 13
he by know we that we dwell in him and he in us
because he have given us of his spirit and we have seen and do testify
that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world
do you testify of that brethren i know you know that
and you've been saved by that you believe that
but you do testify of that do you go out and tell people what christ
has done and what god has done
god's given us that ability he's given us the ability to have the words of
eternal life you know when we go to our person and
tell them about jesus and the gospel you're not by yourself greater is he
that is in you remember than he that is in the world
god comes with you on the journey you're never so winning on your own
right brother michael sometimes oh i just see you brother michael who you're
going with i'm going with jesus he's right i love that i'm going with
jesus okay he's by himself but not really he knows that right
great is he that is in him than he that is in the world
i would just keep that thought in mind sorry um verse number 15
whosoever shall confess that jesus is the son of god
god dwelleth in him and he in god and we have known and believed the love
that god have to us god is love and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in god and god in him this is the major emphasis of the book
of first john john says the same thing in many
different ways that we've already come across in the
first three four chapters here okay here is talking about dwelling in love
dwelling in god what does that mean again it's having
that fellowship isn't this chapter isn't this book about fellowship with god
we've seen that this is why it's written you know other
ways that the apostle john speaks of this he says he speaks of
fellowship with the father and with the son
he talks about walking in the light talking about keeping his commandments
keeping his word abiding in him abiding in the light he that doeth
righteousness all of these things really is pointing
this to the same most important concept of first john
which is we need to be in fellowship with god walking with him
loving him learning from him keeping his commandments
i was having a conversation with somebody and
and i love this person but the thought is you know it sounds like sometimes you
guys teach that you know we ought not to live holy lives
or clean lives and like yeah not to be saved but of
course once we're saved the bible's a big book
it's not just salvation on every page most of the bible is about how to live
a godly life a life that pleases god
but not to be confused with salvation which is the love of god to us but now
as we live a life we need to live a life that loves god
god what can i do for you not to repay you
you can never repay salvation if you could repay it means you could have paid
it at some point you can't repay it you can't even pay
one cent christ paid for it all only christ could
have paid for your salvation but now that he's expressed his love to
you he's given you his spirit of truth and he wants to walk with you and guide
you say lord how can i love you in return how
can i please you father what can i do
children the greatest love you can show your parents
is keeping their rules obeying their commandments
honoring your parents loving your mother and father this is the best way
verse number 17 herein is our love made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment
because as he is so are we in this world wow and even as he is so we in this world
the holy spirit we've given that power the new man to do things that please the
lord we heard a great sermon about being bold
on the day of judgments
i want that i want to be able to walk up on the judgment day
not we're not talking about the judgment day of unbelievers they're going to be
judged okay their name's not going to be found
written in the book of life but we're going to be judged not for our
sins we're going to be judged for what we've done for the lord
i want the boldness i want to walk up to that front you know yeah
yeah i can't wait lord how are you going to reward me
what are you going to say about what i've done for you lord i want that
boldness you said possibly you have that bonus right now
not really i still feel like there's a lot to do
i still feel like there's a lot that i need to work in my own life
but how can you have the boldness if you've not spent time with him if
you've not done what he's asked of you you'll be timid when you get to that day
it's like oh man it's it's my turn to be judged
like i hope i hope when we stand in line i don't know what it's gonna look like
but if we're standing in line i hope i'm not like behind i don't know the
apostle paul or something
hopefully it's a lot and then it's me
right
so bold in judgment bold to stand before god
have you got that boldness
you need the faith the faith to trust him to trust his word
and then to live for him you say pastor i really messed up the last few years
all right well god's giving you today serve him today
god's gonna give you tomorrow if you wake up tomorrow you go wake up
tomorrow serve him tomorrow i love that about god he's always ready
just you press that reset button you just get back on it and serve the
lord with what you have left
verse number 18 there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear
because fear have torment here that feareth
is not made perfect in love now when we know the topic of fear
there is only one who we ought to fear that's the lord god
you know sometimes if you if you feel the wrong things in life
it's going to stop you from serving the lord if you feel what man will say about
you you're going to be timid you're going
to stop you're going to not do what god wants you to do so
instead of fear you want to develop this perfect love
you know one good illustration of this is
obviously when when when the children are little
and they disobey mom and dad they might be fearful of chastisement
and many times young children will do the right thing out of fear
they'll say well i'll just do what is right because i don't want to cop that
punishment i don't want to cop that smack
and i remember being young and having that fear
but i remember growing up and then becoming a teenager and then a young
adult and the reason i would do what my parents
asked of me was not out of fear anymore it was just out of love
you know what my parents have been there for me they've provided my needs
i know what mom and dad wants i'll just do what they want because i love them
i don't want to let them down you know i don't want them to feel that they failed
as parents so i'll just do it out of love and
it's a really great motivator doing it out of love
nothing wrong with fear i fear the lord i mean that's a great start fear is the
beginning of wisdom fear is being of knowledge
but as the lord perfects his love in you you'll find that really you're just
doing things out of love in the lord
you know i tomorrow i'm going to sydney i don't enjoy the flights brevin i don't
enjoy the flights why do you do it because i love god
i love god and if god's giving me a church to look after down in sydney
then i'm just going to love and serve him the best i can and i'm going to love
those brethren because if i love them i'm loving god
love love just makes you do more doesn't it
like it it really pushes you to do more than what you really felt
thought possible within yourself
so
verse number 19 if we love him we sorry we love him because he first loved us
if a man say i love god and hate of his brother
it's lucky this way we need to fix things if a man say i love god and hate
of his brother he is a liar a liar for he that loveth not
his brother whom he have seen how can he love god whom he have not seen
and this commandment we have sorry and this commandment have we from him
that he who loveth god love his brother also
brevin if there are conflicts if there are problems with other people in this
church and it's causing you to hate your
brother you can't say that you love god sort it out if i've wronged you tell me
i i look i've wronged people with my sarcasm a lot of the times
okay stupid things that i say and i just all right brother i'm sorry
i have no problem when i was young i had a problem saying sorry
i remember being young disobey my my parents
my mom would say kevin go talk to your dad say sorry to your dad
no i'm not gonna say sorry even though i'm no i'm wrong
just hard-headed because you kind of feel like
it's it's pride isn't it's pride that stops you
then i learned you know what one i'm gonna say sorry
and my dad was all right it's all forgiven let's get on with it
oh that was easy then you have fights in school
i'm sorry oh we're best friends now oh all right sin against my lord lord i'm
sorry but i've done wrong he forgives me the
bible says oh wow this is actually really awesome
it deals with my pride and then it fixes everything
i actually have no problem saying sorry these days if i've wronged you if we
have an issue brother i'll tell you now i'm sorry
i'm an idiot sometimes and i say the wrong thing sometimes
but the reason it is for me to say sorry to you is because i love you and i love
my god if i can't make things right with you if
we have some issue then do i really love god
you know i don't like conflicts in church it's
but here's the thing every church that i've been at there's been conflict
that's because god has not perfected his love with individuals in that church
and i'm telling you now if you've got some issues with some brother or sister
in this church and you want god to perfect his love in
you it's not going to happen till you fix those issues till you say
sorry just just get rid of that pride we all
have it
you know love each other there's so few of us
there's so few believers there's so few that are like-minded
you know why are we going to argue and debate and fight amongst ourselves
no we're commanded to love one another that's the whole that's the whole thing
brethren love god god's given us his love by sacrificing
his son i mean god's forgiven you of every sin
and you can't forgive your brother for that one sin they've done toward you
or the one thing you've done against a brother you can't even go up to him and
say look i messed up
even if it wasn't your intention it wasn't my intention but i understand
you understood it that way and were offended by what i said what i did
sorry brother let's just get along
such an important part of you know our our our brotherhood here in church our
fellowship here in church how can god's love be here if there's
hatred and conflict and problems with the brethren
my final point there brevin is how much you love your brethren is a good
indicator to teach you how much you love god
do people in church annoy you
you know do you talk bad about people in church when you're on your on your way
home after church do you think bad about family so and so
and what's your response or when you leave
church are you more like you know what i really had a great time in church
i was really blessed by brother so and so i know family so and so is a little
bit weird but you know what they love god
they love god they're doing the best they can
you know
i like that attitude i like it because it shows love demonstrates love
demonstrates how much you love the lord all right brevin let's pray