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 Gods
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 Gods 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.
Whats he talking about? Satan and those who live in the
world with him.
Thats 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 its ok to teach different
doctrines and we dont 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 Messiahs true message of salvation.
(2) How do I know thats talking about John? Jesus said so
in Matt. 11:12?15.
Johns 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?
Pauls 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 Gods 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
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