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hello good morning this is tayiba taiwans.com and today we're going to continue our study of the book of first john and last week
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we wrapped up chapter three and in it we talked about the implication of god's love
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and also talked about the command to love one another and john ended chapter 3 and he's made
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the following statement and i'm going to read it off my uh my screen he said and by this we know
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that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us talking about god so today we're going
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to talk about the nature of the spirit of god that he has put in us okay and we're going to look at first john uh
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verse first john 4 verses 1 through 6. and i'll tell you this like this is probably one of the most
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important passages in sacred scripture because it really talks about discerning spirit uh i want to tell you
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a quick story before i get into it like a couple of years ago i was in a conversation with uh this
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lady was really nice she had like a really nice disposition about her she was really
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kind and sweet and she was telling me about her church and all the wonderful things the people of her church were doing so
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how they gave to this charity they did this and they did all this for the community
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and she was really sweet and gentle and as we were talking alice i started to listen to what she
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was saying about her church and i asked her a couple of questions and i told her hey what do you guys believe about
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jesus and she went on to tell me some strange things about her pastor
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and his understanding of god and she basically said that god had
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two sons and one was jesus and the other one was satan and jesus was the one that
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listened and was obedient and then satan was one the one that was disobedient so now here's the lady that is like she
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she believes that she believes in jesus she claims she believes in jesus and she's really nice
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but then she also believed that satan is co-equal with god because calling satan a child of god is
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basically saying that he is co-equal to god okay so no matter how nice and sweet and loving
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and full of acts of kindness this lady and her congregation are they don't believe
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in what the scripture teaches about the nature of jesus so and the nature of the godhead so this
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is the kind of stuff that john is trying to warn his readers about so as we go into first john chapter four
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verse one through six uh we're gonna be talking about that how to to test the spirit okay so i'm gonna go
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ahead and i'm gonna read the scripture of my screen and then we're going to go to analyze each of the verses
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so let me do that right now so basically uh john is saying i'm reading from the esv
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beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirit to see whether they are from god for
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many false prophets have gone out into the world and by this you know the spirit of god every spirit
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that confesses that jesus christ has come in the flesh is from god and every
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spirit that does not confess jesus is not from god this is the spirit of the antichrist
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which you heard was coming and now is in the world already little children you are from god
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and i've overcome them for he was in you is greater than he was in the world they are from
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the world therefore they speak from the world and the world this the world listens to them we are from
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god and whoever knows god listens to us whoever is not from god
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does not listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error now john thought
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that was so important to to teach us these things and it is important because we are
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living in the in in a world where there's so many people that claim to speak for god and we have to be extremely careful to
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know that the people that we are listening to are actually speaking on behalf of the holy spirit and on behalf of god and
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are filled with the holy spirit so now if you take verse one verse one says
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beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see
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whether they are from god for many false prophets have gone out into the world
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so basically john had just told his readers that the way they will know that they abide in god is by the
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presence and fruits of the spirit of god in their lives okay that's in chapter three
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he ended chapter three with those verses immediately after that he follows the statement with a strong
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admonition and a warning he's exhorting his readers to test the authenticity of the people that are
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listening to and this is very important because he's saying to them test the spirit to see if they are from god
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and if you look um in first chapter in in in first john chapter one
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john already told his readers about a false prophet they came into the church and they introduced all kind of heresies
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again he and i talked about the heresy they were talking about how jesus was actually uh another not amanda it
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was almost like a mirage okay and jesus himself also told his disciples that the evil one can
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masquerade as an angel of light so we have to be careful so john has given us the same warning
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he's giving his readers the same warning and we are one of his readers so we we better take heed to what he's saying here so
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basically john is saying put everyone under the microscope don't just be gullible
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okay just because somebody mentions and and says that they're speaking for god or they're speaking for jesus
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don't believe them but test it there is nothing wrong with testing the spirit and we should let our
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guards down okay we must ask for discernment and this is a constant thing that we have to do we want to make sure that the
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people that are speaking to us are legitimate we can't just trust anybody just because they claim they're speaking
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for god and i want to give you a strong warning here i'm going to read you a story in first kings uh verse chapter 22
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because he pretty much captures what john is trying to warn us against here so i'm going to go to first kings 22
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and we we're going to read the entire chapter and then uh we're going to go for on to
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verse two and three after that so let's go to first kings 22. so you can go on my screen and you can
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you can follow my screen i'm gonna give you the quick um background basically jehoshaphat and uh and ahab
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ahab was married to jezebel and we all know jezebel was probably one of the most evil women in the old
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testament so basically jehoshaphat goes to visit um ahab and ahab tells on jehoshaphat hey
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why don't you go to war with me i guess against a rim of gilead and jehoshaphat says to him well my
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horses are like your horses and my army is yours basically jehoshaphat without even
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thinking and consulting god basically engages and he wants to be uh kind of like
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because ahab was his father-in-law so i guess he wanted to be nice and so he makes a rash uh comment and then now he gets
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into some kind of a trouble there because now he he gave his word to ahab and after that
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he says to ahab why don't we consult our god to know that this is what he wants us to do
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so i'm going to take it from there from verse five i'll just give you a quick background and jehoshaphat said thank you to the
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king of israel inquire first for the word of the lord then the king of israel
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gathered the prophets together about 400 men and said to them shall i go to battle against the rim of
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gilead or shall i refrain and they said go up for the lord we give
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it into the hand of the king now let me stop for a second and make a comment here now these prophets are all false prophet that ahab
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has brought to himself okay we if you go back to the earlier chapters
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um um elijah had just killed 450 prophets of baal so this this
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remaining prophets are also false prophets so basically ahab goes and consults people
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that are going to tell him what he wants to hear now listen to what jehoshaphat says what jehoshaphat said is they are not
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here and other prophets of the lord of whom we may inquire which means jehoshaphat knows listen these guys are
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fake man they are not speaking the word of the lord even though they said uh they said to
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unto ahab go for for the lord will give it into the hand of the king so they must have heard something so
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let's keep going and the king of israel said to jehoshaphat there is yet one man by whom
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we may inquire of the lord my care the son of imla but i hate him for he never prophesies good
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concerning me but evil so basically ahab agrees that there's another prophet
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a legitimate prophet but he doesn't like what the legitimate prophet says and the name of the guy was my care
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so and jehoshaphat said let not the king say so then the king of israel summoned an
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officer and said bring quickly my care the son of imran now the king of israel and jehoshaphat
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the king of judah were sitting on their thrones are wearing their robes at the thrashing floor at the entrance
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of the gate of samaria and all the prophets were prophesying before them and zedekiah the son of
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shananna made for himself horns of iron and said thus says the lord with these you will push
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the syrians until they are destroyed and all the prophets prophesied so and said go up the rim of gilead and triumph
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the lord will give it give it into the hand of the king so basically they're all telling ahab
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what he wants to hear now let's see what happened next and the messenger who went to summon my
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care said to him behold the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king let your word
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be like the the word of one of them and speak favorably but michael said as the lord leaves what the lord says to
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me that i will speak and when he had come to the king the king said to him
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mike here shall we go to rim of gilead to barrow or shall we refrain and he answered him
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go up and triumph the lord will give it into the hand of the king but the king said to him
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how many times shall i make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the lord
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basically my care you can see this sarcasm just coming out of his mouth he told the king
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oh yeah yeah go to war you're going to win this you're going to win this and and then ahab says how many times am
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i going to tell you only tell me the truth because he knows that my care has been sarcastic and in my
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care said us all israel scattered on the mountains a sheep that have no shepherd and the lord said
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these have no master let each return to his home in peace and the king of israel said to jehoshaphat
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did i not tell you that you not prophesy good concerning me by evil
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and my care said therefore hear the word of the lord i saw the lord sitting on his throne and
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all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left and the lord said
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we will entice ahab that he may go up and fall at the rim of gilead and once said one thing and another said
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another then his spirit came forward and stood before the lord saying i will entice him and the lord said to
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him by what means and he said i will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all
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these prophets and he said you are to entice them and you shall succeed go out and do so
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now therefore behold the lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets
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the lord has declared disaster for you now i'm going to stop here now i want you to see this picture here
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my chair has a vision okay and the vision the lord is sitting on his throne and there's like
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this spirit uh pretty much bound down on his left and on his right and then he
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says who will entice ahab that he may go and then pretty much perish and then
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many spirits say one thing something some mothers would say another thing and one spirit says i will go because i will be a lying
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spirit in the mouth of his prophet and god said you shall go and succeed
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first thing i want you to learn is this god is sovereign okay satan and his
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demons are not free agent they have to ask for permission they can't just go and do
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whatever they want now in this case ahab loved to listen to false prophets so what god
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did was god allowed him to be shifted basically he loved false prophets so god allowed
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evil spirit to go and lie to his false prophets so here's what i want you to take away
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the false prophets heard the voice but it wasn't the voice of god it was the voice of demons that lied
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to them so it wasn't like they were saying they were just making up the things that they were saying to the king like yes you're gonna go to war you're gonna
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win they heard a false spirit speaking lies into their ears and
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they spoke what they heard so this is why john is telling us test every spirit
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do not believe every spirit because you may hear something but it may not be the voice of the lord
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i've heard of people that say they've had dreams and visions they've had all kind of stuff
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happen and they believe they focus so much on those experiences and they deny
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the the word of god there is nothing wrong with visions and dreams i'm not saying god
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does not speak through visions and dreams but here's what i will say whatever the vision and dream is it better be
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consistent with the word of god if it's not consistent with the word of god and the nature of god then toss it to the side because that is
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not from god okay because god is not going to contradict himself thoughts false prophets their lifestyle
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was not consistent with the word of god they had fruits that were not
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good fruit they didn't bear the fruit of the spirit so there's no way ahab should listen to them and there was
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no way joseph i should have listened to them so we have to look at the fruits in the people's lives we have to look at uh the kind of stuff
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that they are talking about so let's go back and now we're going to look at verse verses 2
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and 3. i just wanted to give you this to give you kind of like a background of what john might have been saying here now in verse
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two and three the scripture says by this you know the spirit of god
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every spirit that confesses that jesus christ has come in the flesh is from god and every
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spirit that does not confess jesus is not from god this is the spirit of the antichrist
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which you heard was coming and now is in the world already so we need to recall the
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background of the first epistle of john and we said in the earlier chapters that gnostic teachers
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were preaching and were promoting heresies and they claimed that jesus wasn't fully
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made they said that he might have appeared as a man but he was almost like a mirage like a floating
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body okay they basically denied that jesus came in the flesh and when we say came in the
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flesh we were talking about his humanity so they did they pretty much say that jesus never was a
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man okay and if you go back to first john 1 verse 1 to 5 john acknowledges both
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the human nature and the deity of christ in the first chapter we say that which we have seen
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that which we have touched and listen to this we proclaim to you concerning the word the word became
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flesh and made his dwelling among us we've seen him and beheld his glory so john both acknowledges the deity of
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christ and also his human nature he was fully man and fully god so john is is basically
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telling the people here by this you know the spirit of god every spirit that confesses that jesus has come in the
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flesh is from god so everyone that recognizes the humanity and the deity of christ is from god okay
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but he's not done and he says also every spirit that does not confess this jesus is not from god this is the
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spirit of the antichrist so john is saying to his readers that any person
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that first acknowledges that jesus came as a human is operating under the spirit of god and he
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also says that anyone that does not confess that jesus that we are talking about is not speaking under the spirit of god and
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we need to dig a little deeper john calls this spirit the spirit of the antichrist
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and why is he saying this because he told us in the previous chapter about the coming of the antichrist he
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said that the antichrist is going to come there's going to be one day the antichrist but by far like so far
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there are many antichrists that have come and we've talked about it so we talked about the meaning of anti
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end time means against and it also means supplanter a usurper so basically the
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antichrist is going to try to first uh take the identity of christ and he
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also he's also going to be against on christ so the antichrist is going to try to
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masquerade himself as an angel of light and this is why john is giving us a pattern for of recognizing counterfeits
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because it's very important we need to recognize the count of it and 99 jesus is not a jesus okay so we
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need to know uh if if people deny the deity of christ and if they deny his humanity then they
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are not speaking from the point of view of the spirit of god and we can't compromise with those
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people we cannot at all because they are operating under the spirit of the antichrist
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but we're not going to stop there we're going to go a little bit further if you look at uh uh the next phrase he
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says every spirit that does not confess jesus is not from god so what is john trying to say to us here
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john is saying that anybody that does not confess jesus in all his ways
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okay anybody that does not confess jesus in all his ways in in his true identity not just portion
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of his character about the totality of who he is if you confess jesus that does not uh
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speak truth that is not a jesus if you confess to jesus that cannot do miracles that is not a true jesus if you confess
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to jesus that's just a prophet and it's not the son of god that is not the true jesus
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so john is saying any but that does not confess that jesus that i'm preaching to you
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is not speaking from the point of view of the spirit of god and he said two things in in the previous chapter that are very important
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and and then we i'm going to bring that up to you he said in first john 3 verse 8 whoever makes a practice of sinning is
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of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning the reason the son of god appeared was to destroy
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the works of the devil so basically john is saying anyone can acknowledge portions of portions of
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jesus character okay or identity but a 99 jesus is not the true jesus this is what john
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is saying anyone that has not confessed this jesus the jesus that i'm preaching to you isn't from god
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because first of all we need to know what jesus came to do he came to destroy the works of the
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devil and i'm going to go to acts 16 verse 16 to 18 to show you something before we go to the next
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portion so let's go to acts 16 verse 16 to 18. so we read this this is paul and silas
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uh before they went to our prison this is what happened the event that led them to be jailed he said as we were
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going to the place of prayer we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination
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and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling she followed paul and us crying out
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these men are servants of the most high god who proclaimed to you the way of salvation and she and this
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she kept doing for many days paul having become greatly annoyed turned and said to the spirit
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i commend you in the name of jesus christ to come out of her and he came out that
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very hour now this is tough because here's a girl that is speaking
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under a demon but she's telling people these men are speaking to you about the way to be
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saved so everybody will say well yes she's fortune telling but she's also speaking
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truth she's telling people this is the way to be saved by the way by what paul is preaching is the true
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god so what is wrong with that everything see the demons were speaking truth
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they were speaking through the girl and they were speaking some truth and paul and what they said about paul
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was actually true because paul was preaching the true jesus but the difference is what we learned in first john 3
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verse 8 because here's the thing the demon they tried to deceive people into
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thinking that he was colluding with jesus if paul had acknowledged what that woman that girl
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was saying he might have make it seem like he's kind of in collusion with those demons
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but what did jesus come to do jesus came to destroy the works of the devil see
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satan is a counterfeit okay and he always wants to make things that look like they are actually
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authentic they are like from the lord so we need to guard against it so we have to look at the fruits of the
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the people's lives that girl was fortune telling and she was bringing a lot of money to
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the people that she was where she was working for so the demon was used to seduce people
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to say hey listen see fortune telling and jesus yeah they can mingle no the scripture wants against that kind
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of stuff he wants against it and i want us to go to uh galatians 5 22 to 24 and also go to john 16
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verse 5 to 16 and and and i think we need to know that because we need to know what the spirit of god
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does in a person so i'm going to go to galatians 16 right now galatians 5 on verse 22 to 25
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and also john 16 verse five to six first first let's go to galatians
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and we're gonna do that in just a minute i'm just getting it on my on my screen so galatians 5 verse 22
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listen to what the scripture says verse 20 i'm gonna start from on 20 but if you are led by the spirit you are
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not under the law now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality
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impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy feats of
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anger rivalry dissensions divisions envy drunkenness orgies and things like this i warn you
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as i warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of god but the fruit
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of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control
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against such things there is no law and those who belong to christ jesus have crucified the flesh with his
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passions and desires you see that girl was using divination
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okay that was not consistent with the truth of god so under no circumstances shall people listen to
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anyone that is doing those things because those are not the fruit of the spirit those are the fruits of
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demons so and so this is why we need to know what the fruit of spirits are because if you see those fruits
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of the spirit in a person then we can say okay this is a person that is speaking under the spirit of god but then if you don't see that
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then we know that they are speaking under the spirit of satan basically the antichrist
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now i'm also gonna um share with you john 16 5-16
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now listen to what on jesus says um but now i'm going to him who sent me and
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none of you asked me where are you going but because i've said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart
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nevertheless i tell you the truth it is to your advantage that i go away for if i do not go away the helper
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will not come to you but if i go i will send him to you and when he comes he will convict the
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world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin
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because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because i go to the father and you will see me no longer concerning
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judgment because the ruler of this world is judged i still have many things to say
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to you but you cannot bear them now but when the spirit of truth comes he
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will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority or whatever he hears
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he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come he will glorify me for he will take what
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is mine and declare it to you all that the father has his mind therefore i said i say that he will take what is mine and
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declare it to you so you see what jesus is saying here he's saying that when the spirit of truth comes
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he will guide us into all the truth okay he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears from the father
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and from jesus he will tell us he will glorify the name of jesus there's no way that girl was glorifying
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the name of jesus okay she was saying to people these people are telling you to be saved but she was
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also speaking under demons and she was fortunate telling that fortune telling does not glorify
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jesus so we have to look at the fruits of the people's lives if their fruits are contrary to the spirit of god's
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fruits then we shouldn't listen to them don't waste your time they can tell you all day long yes i believe in jesus
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but jesus came to destroy the works of the devil so if they are doing the works of the
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devil and speaking about how they love jesus don't listen to them and this is what john is telling us
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okay anybody that does not confess jesus jesus is not from god because they are
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confessing a a half of jesus okay it's not the true jesus because the true jesus
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will never collude with demons and this is what john is saying to us here we have to be careful who we listen to
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now let's go to the to the next verse we're going to talk about verse 4. so verse 4
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listen to what john is saying little children you are from god and have overcome them for he was in you is
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greater than he was in the world okay who is he that sinners
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the third person of the godhead who is also god the holy spirit and he is co-equal with the father and
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the son so john already said that the way we know that god abides in us is by the spirit he has given us see the
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holy spirit who is also called the spirit of truth okay this is the spirit that lives enough and since the holy spirit
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of god lives in us we shall overcome because jesus gave us an exposition of the work
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of the spirit if you go to john 14 and john 16 which i read to you jesus said he will glorify the name of
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jesus and jesus also say that because because i've overcome the world you
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shall also overcome and how do we overcome we overcome by the spirit of god
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the spirit of god is the spirit that lives in us and because the spirit of god is co-equal with the father
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and the son we will overcome because jesus has overcome and he has put his
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spirit in us and because his spirit is co-equal with jesus we will also
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overcome because the spirit is of the same essence as jesus therefore we will overcome and this is
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what john is saying here okay if you listen to what jesus says in john 16 33
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he said to he said to us i say these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world you will
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have tribulation but take heart for i have overcome the world and how has he overcome by the spirit of
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god even our faith faith comes by hearing him by the word of god okay so because the holy spirit lives in
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us we will overcome it's just something that is true because the spirit of god is co-equal
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with god and the spirit lives in us so he gives us this victory over all our tribulations so this is
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what john is trying to say to us here now in verses five and six the scripture
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says they are from the world therefore they speak from the world and the word listens to them
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we are from god whoever knows god listens to us whoever is not from god does not listen
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to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error see john is saying whoever does not does
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not acknowledge the jesus that i am speaking or i'm talking about is under the spirit of the antichrist
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and that spirit dominates folks that are under the schema of the world and this is what
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john is saying here and because they belong to the world they cannot listen to the words of god because they are spiritually discerned
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remember what paul says the natural men cannot accept the things of god their foolishness to him
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okay because they are spiritually discerned so the natural man the men without the
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spirit of god will never accept the things of god they will always resist it okay my
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own uh god resists the things of the the spirit because he is not yet saved i
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say yet because i believe that god god is going to save him but now when i speak about the things of god
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there is a resistance not only my dad but my own brother when i speak about the things of god they resist it and that's what
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it is because they are from the world and they listen to what other people are saying they won't listen to the word of god because
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without the spirit of god you will never accept the things of god this is why the scripture says also
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no one can come to me unless the father who is in heaven draws him because the spirit of god loves the word
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of god and the spirit of the world loves the things of the world okay so people without the spirit of god
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listen to those who also don't have the spirit of god this is why unbelievers in christ gravitate toward guys like
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richard dawkins walk false prophets that we've seen a lot now work on preachers
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they speak about it certain things they twist the scriptures make it seem like he's speaking from the world and
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um the word of god but no they are not like the blm movement all that the kkks
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you know they they they masquerade themselves they say things that are not consistent with the word of god because
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they don't love the word of god anything that is contrary to the absolute truth found in the word of
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god is not from god okay this is why as people we need to know the word of god we need to soak the
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water we need to soak in the word of god we need to let the word of god change our thinking because romans 12
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verse 1 2 says uh be no longer conform to the pattern
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of this of the word of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind okay
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and john received apostolic approval from jesus himself so when he when he started this epistle
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he gave us a strong evidence about the the veracity and the truth of the his testimony he gave us the
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empirical evidence because he lived with jesus but he also made the words of the
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prophet untrue because he he spoke about the prophecies that came to pass
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as jesus lived his life in front of them they saw those prophecies and they saw the fulfillment of the
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prophecies so we have not only do we have the empirical evidence because john himself lived with jesus
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but we also have uh the world the words of the prophet made true okay so based on this evidence john
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is saying you can listen to me and you can trust me because i'm speaking from the word of god because i am a
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child of god so we can trust uh john testimony and we can trust the words that he writes
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in all his epistles we can trust the bible because the bible is the word of god okay if you go to timothy the
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scripture says all scriptures god grieved and and and this is why we listen to to people like john
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john the apostle telling us these things because we know that he had like i said again he had the empirical
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evidence because he lived with jesus but he also had the words of the prophet made true
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okay he was backed up by the words of the prophet it was authenticated by the words of the prophet
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okay so there's a chain of command legitimate children of god will receive john's words with grace because
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we recognize the pattern of truth okay therefore we receive it as the words of god
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jesus himself said whoever listens to you listens to me and whoever listens to me listens to the father who has sent me
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so if you hate what i'm saying to you this morning is because you are not a child of god not yet and i'm praying that god himself
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will use these words and then and then speak to you because we are saved by grace through faith
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that's not something that we can we can do because by nature we hate god and we don't we resist him
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so if there's anything that i want you to take away from today is this test the spirit and test the people that
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you listen to okay just make sure just like john said do not believe every spirit because many false prophets have gone
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out into the world with social media with all this youtube with everything that's around us now
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there's so many people that claim they speak the truth okay they can twist things up a little bit they make it look like this is real
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but it's not real okay like i said a 99 jesus is not the true jesus
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i i have a website called house of kicks.com in which i talk about differences between fake sneakers and
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authentic sneakers and sometimes i spend hours putting side by side pictures of the authentic and the fake
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one to see uh nuances okay that's that's the same thing here you have to spend time asking the holy
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spirit to guide you because the scripture says you will guide us into all the truth okay and the spirit of god will show us
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when somebody speaking that claims to speak for god he will show us if there are flaws and there are things in the things that he's
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saying that is not consistent with the word of god we will see it but the first thing that i'll say to you is
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before before you listen to somebody look at the fruits of their lives okay the scripture says by their fruits
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you shall know them first thing you need to know this the fruits of their lives if they are fruits the fruits of their life is not
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consistent with scripture i wouldn't i wouldn't encour i would not encourage you to listen to them and the second
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thing is also ask them what do they believe about jesus do they believe that he came as a man do they
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believe that he is the son of god do they believe that he's fully god and fully man and then see what they say about it
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there's always some kind of things that they they want to hide okay they will tell you stuff like jesus was an angel or jesus was the highest
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person the highest of the angels uh he was not truly man they would always have some kind of
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things to say about his deity and his nature and his identity so those are the questions i would
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encourage you to do look at the fruits of their lives and look at what they believe about jesus and his identity
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now these are the things that we have to do because there are so many fake out there there are so many false prophets and
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there's a lot of people that speak under the spirit of the antichrist so i would encourage you to do that okay
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again um thank you for listening to this this morning and it's my prayer that as you go
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through the scriptures god himself will enlighten your mind to understand what the word of god is saying alright have a wonderful day and i see
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you next time thank you