Prohibiting Belief #1
1 John 4:1?6

A. 1 Jno. 3:24, the apostle John, makes this statement, "... by this we know that He abides in us,
by the Spirit whom He has given us."
Notice, John says we know by the Spirit. That means God’s will is given to us by the Holy Spirit.
a. The one primary function of the Holy Spirit is to impart knowledge.
(A) By the work of the Spirit we know about Jesus.
We know what to do to be saved because the Spirit inspired the writers of the Bible to tell us how to do that.
Jno. 16:13, says the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles to guide them into all the truth, and we have that truth in our New Testament. We know the truth of God’s will by the words the Spirit taught to the New Testament writers.
That thought is developed further in 1 Jno. 4:1-6.
Talks about false prophets in the world, the anti-christ in the world and he who is in the world.
What’s he talking about? Satan and those who live in the world with him.
That’s who Paul talks about in 2 Cor 4:2?5.
This deals with a very unpopular subject today.
False teachers, and the necessity of distinguishing between truth and error.
False doctrines, not taught in the Bible by the Holy Spirit are not new to our day and time. They were present in New Testament times. False teachers sprang up in the life time of the apostles.
One particularly false and evil teaching was the false doctrine of the docetists. They taught that Jesus did not really come to earth in a fleshly form.
They were teaching a new doctrine not taught by the inspired apostles and this is the problem that John is dealing with here.
Today people get upset when you point out religious doctrines that are not in the Bible.
But, even Jesus condemned unauthorized doctrines. Mark 7:6?10.
Today everyone wants to believe that it’s ok to teach different doctrines and we don’t have to believe alike when it comes to the doctrines already taught in the Bible pertaining to salvation.
But the Bible says there is this important distinction between truth and error, between God's Word and the innovations, perversions and traditions of men
that are taught in the place of the Word of God.
(2) In the Old Testament there were the prophets of God who revealed divine truth, but there were also false prophets who taught error. False doctrines that caused people to be spiritually separated from God.
(1) We know that because 2 Peter 2:1?2, tells us that.
(1) Mal 4:5?6, says, that was the work of John the Baptizer. Turn the Jews from man made traditions back to God so they can hear and obey Messiah’s true message of salvation.
(2) How do I know that’s talking about John? Jesus said so in Matt. 11:12?15.
John’s work was to lead the people back to the word of God.
(2) When John the Baptizer came to introduce the New Testament Kingdom he dealt directly with the sin of doctrinal error among the Jews.
(1) Jesus drew very clear lines separating truth from error, and He warned about

false doctrine, false teachers who led people to be disobedience to God.
(2) Matt. 7:15.
(3) Jesus warned us about it long before it happened, Mark 13:22-23.
(1) Titus 1:13-14, “This testimony is true. (What testimony? Paul’s Holy Spirit inspired testimony), Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, (How do you remain sound in the faith?) not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.”
(2) We are commanded to learn God’s Word, know the difference between truth and error. We are to “Test the spirits to see whether or not they are from God.”
(3) And that is why I always leave you with the words of the apostle Paul in
Acts 20:32.

Spur - 10/14/2001 am