Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The First Epistle of John: Lesson Forty-Three

"But the manifestation of the Spirit


is given to each one for the profit


of all...But one and the same


Spirit works all these things


distributing to each one


individually as He wills."




1 Cor 12:7-11




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Good day! Let's seek the Lord in prayer...




"Holy Father God, creator of the universe and all that is in it....I seek You this day because I know without You I am nothing. Only You deserve our blessings, honor, and praise. Only You have spoken the word and created all things. We praise Your holy name upon all the earth.




Father, I pray for the forgiveness of my sins. I pray that You will search me for the hidden sins in my heart that I am not even aware of, that You may purge me of these sins and wash me clean. I pray that You will fill me this day with Your holy Spirit. Guard my speech and give me wisdom to stop and think before I speak.




Thank You, Father, for all Your many blessings. I pray for each lady reading this study that You may bless her with every spiritual blessing. I pray that You will lift her up and set her on Your path of righteousness. I pray that You will speak to her through Your word this day. Walk with her, guide her, and hear her cries for help, Lord.




In Jesus' name...amen."




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Last time we completed our study of chapter 3 of 1 John. In that chapter, we discovered more about sin and its origins as well as what sin does to the Christian. We learned more about what love is and how it is manifested in a true believer.




In this lesson and the next lessons to follow, we begin our study of chapter 4 of 1 John.




Please read:




1 John 4




After you have read the entire chapter, slowly read it again and look for the word: God in this chapter. If you have a yellow highlighter and do not mind marking your Bible, mark the word "God" with your highlighter including "Spirit of God".




Now go back and re-read the chapter highlighting even the pronouns for God (He, His, Him) as well as Jesus, Christ, and Son.




Now, re-read the whole chapter again with all these words highlighted. As you read, you are taking a glimpse of what this chapter is about: God, His love for us manifested through Christ Jesus, and that we are to love because He first loved us.




Overview




In chapter 4 of 1 John, the word "love" is written 27 times. The word "know" is written 7 times and the word "abide" 6 times in this one short chapter.




If you look back over the last 3 chapters, we have seen the words: know, sin, , love repeated over and over again. Now in this chapter, we see the word "love" repeated again for emphasis.




John obviously wants his readers to have complete assurance of what love is, what sin is, and who God is when they are finishe reading this book. That, ladies, is our goal as well.




But the book doesn't begin with love as its theme. Instead, John leads us into more about testing spirits that come our way.




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The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error




1 John 4:1-




"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."




John, like Paul in 1 Cor 12, wants Christians to be able to distinguish between prophets of God and false prophets who spread opposition to Christ throughout the world.




This topic is so relevant to us today because we are being inundated with false teachings now more than ever with the advent of technology and civilization. After the Dark Ages, where man was blinded to the things of God, man began to seek things of the Lord. Technology gave us the printing press and that gave us the written Bible in English. Once that happened, people were enlightened to what the Bible was saying about Jesus and His sacrifice.




But technology has taken us further away from the things of God and closer to the worship of human beings, animals, and material things.




Please read:




Matt 24:5-11


Here Christ paints the portrait of the end times where many bad things will happen to believers. I, for one, do not believe we will be spared the horrors described here by Jesus. I believe we will suffer persecution for our faith before we are called away to meet Christ (24:6-9). Once all Christians are gone, then all morality will be gone from the earth ushering in the tribulation period with the Antichrist leading the way.


Imagine the world without any morality of any kind. Talk about Dark Ages! It is to come.


We see so many false teachings out there that are leading Christians astray. Some will return because they truly belong to Christ....but others will never return and are condemned. John understood this because he was there when Jesus spoke the words of Matt 24...and he remembered.


Now, we are to hear the words of God and heed them.


Mark 9:7


Acts 3:22




"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits..."


John tells us to "test the spirits" so how do we do this?


1 Cor 12:13-14

1 Cor 14:29-33

Deut 18:21-22


By God's word we are to test the spirits that come before us.


Heb 4:12


God's word is the discerner of the thoughts of man. Thank the Lord we do not have to discern all by ourselves! Look how easily we would be deceived.


But we were given John's letters, Paul's letters, Jesus' words to study and memorize so that God's word will discern for us. Praise God!


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"Because many false prophets have gone out into the world."


I know I have mentioned this new book study Oprah is doing on her show and her web site. It is disturbing how this trend is spreading. It is so sad that she is peddling these lies and filth to an undiscerning crowd of desperate people searching for wholeness. They think they will find it in a book written by a man who is finite.


So many people are still searching and are groping in the dark for something to fill them and make them whole. We have been given the sight to see the Jesus is the only way to completeness, but many are still blinded and are being led astray by wolves in sheeps' clothing.


Ladies, this is why we must stay in the word of God. We will learn more about this in chapter 4 in the coming weeks.


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Life Application


When I watched Oprah's show on her website where she discusses the book, "A New Earth" with its author, I couldn't help but see a woman desperate to be rid of all her guilt that she has inside her. She has deceived herself into thinking that by giving away money, by doing good deeds, by reading New Age religious books that tell her there is no sin, she can get rid of that guilt...that "debt" she owes to God.


But you and I know that there is no other way to be rid of that guilt of sin other than surrendering to Christ and being washed clean.


Acts 22:16


Oprah calls upon the name of a man who is dead in his sins. She calls upon her money and gives it away but it leaves her cold. She can try all she wants to rid herself of that debt she owes, but nothing she does will ever work.


It is like the credit card debt we may have. We can use other cards to try and erase that debt but it is still there. There is no greater feeling than paying it all off and finally being cleared of all that debt.


Jesus came and settled our debt with God. We were enemies with God and Jesus reconciled us to Him. Now we can approach a holy God and He hears us.


Take that with you today, Oprah may have more money and power than you or I do, but one thing you have that she does not have is this: your debt has been paid in full. All her money cannot pay off that debt she owes.


Meditate on what Jesus did for you and does for you daily. Take that with you into your day today.


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Until next time....


"...Jesus' words were life in more ways than one. They could sustain physical life and restore physical life. But more important than that they were the indispensible way to eternal life. It is a wonderful thing to be raised from the dead- but not if you are simply going to perish later in hell. The most precious thing about the words of Jesus, and the most important reason to listen to him, is that his words lead to eternal life."


John Piper (What Jesus Demands from the World, 2006, p. 58)


Blessings,

Ruth











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