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TranscriptIntroduction
It’s good to be meeting with you again. Of course, if this is your first time with us, please be sure to start on session 613 for Part 1 of this family devotional.
Otherwise, I’m glad to have you joining me as we step through the book of I John to better understand what it takes to have a Biblical Family. As always, today’s session comes with free notes, a transcript, LifeWork assignments, and links to related resources. But you already knew that, so let’s get started. Topic
So far in our study we’ve learned that God is the groundwork of a biblical family. We start becoming a truly biblical family when everyone in our family is a born again believer. You’re not a biblical family because you have saved parents or you’re trying to keep the Ten Commandments. To be a Christian family means that everyone in your family has to be a Christian, and to have a biblical family, it means that everyone in your family needs to be submitting to the Bible. And that—obviously—begins with salvation.
Then we learned about the necessity of sanctification whereby we’re transformed into the image of Christ. This requires that we stop hating and start loving as we should. Then John showed us who our real enemies are—the most dangerous of which is our own sinful flesh. But he also promised that God would be our shelter in difficulty and that we have a future hope that motivates and empowers our lives. Then John wrapped back around to the battle we fight every day on this earth—the battle against our sinful flesh. And then—as John will over and over again—he dips back into a discussion about love, and we learned how our family life needs to be defined by the consequences of love if we’re to truly be a biblical family. Well, today, John is going to unpack another exceptionally important characteristic of a biblical family—discernment. But before we read the passage together, I really hope you’ve accomplished your LifeWork this week. And I want to get a little nosey. Dad and Mom, if you have children participating in these devotionals, but they aren’t doing their LifeWork, why is that? Are you providing leadership, accountability, and reproof for them? Are they receiving consequences for not doing their LifeWork? We have plenty of resources that will help you better learn how to biblically parent your kids when they don’t want to obey. I’ll link some of them for you in the description of this episode. My point is, if I’m going to love you, I need to keep you all accountable just like you need to keep your kids accountable. The fact that your kids might not be submitting to the expectations is a call for you to get involved in Christ-honoring ways. And that’s why this podcast exists. We want to equip you to do that. Of course, if you’re not doing your LifeWork, that puts your kids in a really awful place. If they’re not doing their LifeWork, and you’re not doing yours, honestly . . . it’s completely appropriate for them to wonder why you’re even going through the motions of listening to the sessions. If they are doing their LifeWork, but you’re not, then the message you’re sending your kids is that it’s important for them, but it’s not important for you . . . which—of course—is a lie. That’s really poor leadership and probably a very good reason your family isn’t a growing biblical family. Now, if any of these scenarios are true in your family, I get how uncomfortable this conversation may be at the moment. But—listen—if I didn’t say anything, it would be because I hate you. But I don’t hate you. I love you. I want God’s best for your family. And—as always—there is hope. All any of us need to do is submit to God’s commands. We need to live in the light as He is in the light. Love God. Love others. And we need to do so for God’s glory in His power. We all can change. Of course, your family may be sitting there with your LifeWork all ready to go, and I appreciate your patience if that’s the case. This is important stuff, so I’m glad we’re all being reminded how important it really is. Alright, let’s read I John 4:1-6, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are from God. The one who knows God hears us; the one who is not from God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” In all the time we’ve been meeting, have you asked yourself whether or not you should be listening to me? Am I—Aaron Brewster—being faithful to the Bible? Have you asked yourself whether or not I’m a false teacher? Is it possible I’m telling you things about God, the Bible, and His expectations for you that aren’t true? How could you know? Well, that’s what we’re going to discuss today. 1. What is Discernment? To discern can refer to simply detecting with the eyes, identifying something, or coming to know or recognize something mentally. It also refers to seeing or understanding the differences in things. And that is almost always what the Bible is communicating when it talks about discernment. Psalm 94:8 states powerfully, “Discern, you senseless among the people; And when will you have insight, you fools?” In Psalm 19:12, David asks, “Who can discern his errors?” Hosea 14:9 reads, “Whoever is wise, so let him discern these things; Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of Yahweh are right, And the righteous will walk in them, But transgressors will stumble in them.” And Hebrews 5:14 tells us, “solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern both good and evil.” Can you tell the difference between good and evil, between light and dark, between truth and lies? That’s one of the reasons John wrote this letter, precisely so that our biblical families would be able to discern such things. Here John is telling us not to believe every spirit, but that we should instead test the spirits to discern which are from God, but what is he talking about? 2. How do biblical families discern? A. What is a spirit? The word “spirit” is used all throughout the Bible. Whether in the Hebrew or Greek, the original word actually carried the denotation of breath or air. It most often refers to the immaterial part of who we are. When you have a body and a spirit, you have a soul. Your spirit is the part of you that will live on for all eternity. Of course, God will give you a new body when He glorifies you, but that’s a discussion for another time. The word spirit is also used to refer to spirits that don’t have bodies—mainly angels which may be fallen or serving God, and the Holy spirit (the third Person of the Godhead). In this passage, John is actually referring to evil spirits and then later to the Holy Spirit. Earlier in our study we talked about our three enemies: the Devil, the World, and the Flesh. We talked briefly about how the Devil and his fallen angels can force unbelievers to believe and do things. And we talked about how the World system can influence us with the Devil’s ideas and their own sinful hearts. Generally speaking, when someone from John’s time period came out with new religious information, they claimed to have gotten it right from God or an angel or a spirit. For example, in Jeremiah 29:8-9 we find that some prophets were claiming to be speaking for God, but the text says, “For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to your dreams which you dream. 9 For they prophesy a lie to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares Yahweh.” In case you don’t know, Yahweh is God’s covenant name. In I Corinthians 12:8, while listing various spiritual gifts, Paul includes “the distinguishing of spirits.” This is the discernment we’re discussing in this passage. So . . . B. What is it to test a spirit? To test a spirit (or anyone else for that matter) is simply to compare what is being said to the truth of God’s Word. John warns that there are many false prophets like we read about in Jeremiah. A modern example of this is people who say things like, “I had a vision,” “I have a message from God,” or a “I have a word from the Lord,” or “The Lord told me (such and such).” We need to be discerning. We shouldn’t just accept what they say because they claim to be speaking for God. I did a whole series on False Parents which is based off the numerous passages in the Bible that warn us about false prophets and false teachers. It happens every single day, all day across the entire world. People are right now saying and teaching and singing and producing things that aren’t true, and a biblical family absolutely needs to test those claims by comparing it to what the Bible says. So . . . 3. How do biblical families know what’s true? Like I already pointed out, we use the Bible for this, but I have to admit that the process is a little more in depth than it might seem. We’ll start with a simple example. In verse 2, John says that “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” That was the necessary test of the day. Jesus was crucified because the Jews didn’t believe He was the promised Messiah, the Son of God. That’s what the word Christ means. It’s the Greek Word for this anointed One. And there are many today who claim that Jesus wasn’t really a man, wasn’t really God, didn’t exist, or a bunch of other heretical claims. But we need to be careful that we don’t reduce John’s teaching to make it say something he doesn’t mean. Let’s say that someone says that Jesus is from God. They make that claim very easily. In fact, they go on to say that He came in the flesh and is the Messiah. They may even say that He died and raised again to save the world from their sins. But . . . they also teach that abortion isn’t a sin, that a person can change their biological sex, and that homosexuality is okay. Are we to believe those statements are true simply because the person who made them claims to believe in Jesus? And this is where this discernment is going to require more from us. The first century believers were generally okay as long the person with the message truly believed that Jesus was God. But even then, Paul’s letters made it clear that there were groups who were preaching lies about circumcision, eating meat offered to idols, and hanging out with Gentiles. Paul even had to confront Peter about his poor choices regarding how he was treating the Gentiles. How were the first century Christians to know it was okay to eat meat offered to idols? Well, by God’s grace, He inspired the biblical authors to write all the truth we would need. In II Peter 1:3 we know that God’s “divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” That full knowledge comes in the Bible. But we have to know our Bibles. We need to know what the Bible says about murder, sexuality, worship, the sufficiency of Scripture, love, and the countless other necessary doctrines and truths presented in it. If we don’t know what the Bible says about an issue, and a pastor or trusted Christian leader makes a claim, it’s too easy for us to just follow right along with their claim. But John is commanding here that we absolutely need to test truth-claims. We need to open our Bibles to understand what God really said. Now, there is one more level that makes this discernment challenging. Even among genuinely born again believers, there are various ways of interpreting the Scriptures that leads them to different conclusions on issues. Some people view the Bible as being more symbolic. Others take it at face value. The example I like to use is end times theories. Some born again believers call themselves premillennialists, others are postmillennialists, and still more are amillennialists. Which is right? It’s possible they’re all wrong, but they can’t all be right. Does God want three different people reading the same passages and coming to three different conclusions about what it means? No, He doesn’t. The Lord tells us that our words need to mean only what they mean. Therefore, we need to pursue understanding the Scriptures the way God intended them to be understood. All of this to say, we need to study hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is a fancy term for how we interpret the Bible. We need to understand whether or not the person handling the Scriptures is approaching their interpretation in a postmodern way, in an allegorical way, or a natural way. So, we see that discernment is a three-fold process. 1. Anyone who contradicts the truth-claims in the Bible is an antichrist. 2. When we encounter claims, and we don’t know what the Bible says about it, we must study them before believing them. 3. We must also study biblical interpretation. We need to be aware of how others (and we) are to interpret the Scriptures. And we need to recognize that this is a big deal. God says powerful things about the people who misrepresent Him. We’re told to ignore them, we’re told to stop hanging around them. In Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, and Luke 17:2 Jesus says that if someone causes one of His children to stumble, it would be better for them to have a giant rock tied around their necks and to be thrown into the sea instead of continuing to lead people astray. This should affect us in two ways. First, we should all be passionate to make sure the person claiming to speak truth is actually communicating what God wants communicated from His Word. Secondly, we should also be more careful ourselves about the truth-claims we make. If we can’t back it up from Scripture with a proper hermeneutic, then we shouldn’t be holding it so closely or communicating it so dogmatically. How many of us parents have lead our children astray because we weren’t careful with truth? And all of this needs to be applied to me and this podcast. I make a LOT of claims. I had one person say that I communicate with a lot of periods. What they meant was that I speak a lot of declarative and imperative sentences. I hope you don’t take what I say simply because I say it. This is why I try—without making these sessions too long—to show other passages of Scripture that support the truth we’re studying. Now, I want to end on a point of hope. 4. Does God help us know the truth? And the answer is an abundant, “Yes!” We don’t have to have a dream. We don’t have to “get a word from God.” He’s given us His full, complete, and sufficient Word. But John also says to all the Christians out there, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are from God. The one who knows God hears us; the one who is not from God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Once again, John is setting out a clear indicator by which a person can know if they’re born again. If you believe that Jesus is God, that’s a great start. But if that’s true, then you also believe that you need to be justified through salvation. And if that’s true, then you also believe that you need to be sanctified by being transformed into the image of Christ and growing in your spiritual maturity. And if that’s true, then you know you need to be studying the Bible so you can access and understand the truth that will help you grow. And all born again believers have the Holy Spirit indwelling and illuminating them. Illumination has the idea of turning on a light. The Bible says that unbelievers are blind. They may be able to physically read the Bible, but they are incapable of truly spiritually understanding it without the Spirit’s help. If we’re born again, we have the promise of God that the Holy Spirit will illumine our minds to the truth of the Word when we diligently pursue knowing, understanding, and believing it. In Ephesians 1:17-18 we read, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of Him, 18 so that you—the eyes of your heart having been enlightened—will know what is the hope of His calling.” II Corinthians 4:6 tells us, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” I Corinthians 2:14-16 explains, “a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually examined. 15 But he who is spiritual examines all things, yet he himself is examined by no one. 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will direct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” This should encourage us greatly. Yes, there are a lot of liars. Yes, it’s easy to believe something that’s not true because a “trustworthy” person said it. But God has given us His Word, the ability to study it, and the supernatural power to understand it. Now, like we observed before, this doesn’t mean that we can’t be wrong or make mistakes, and it doesn’t mean that we don’t need teachers helping us learn and mature in our thinking and interpretation of the Bible. But it should give us hope that God is not what the deists claim—a superpower who set the world spinning and then walked away. No, He is a promise making, personal God who communicates Himself to us. Conclusion
So, with all of that learned today, let’s reread I John 4:1-6, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are from God. The one who knows God hears us; the one who is not from God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
Alright, here’s your very important, super valuable LifeWork for this week. 1. Meditate on I John 4:7-14 at least two times this week. 2. Ask God to help you better understand biblical truth as He intended it to be understood. 3. Practice discernment this week. When you encounter a claim that is not biblical, refute it. When you hear something you can’t prove from the Scriptures, see what the Bible says about it. Also, share at least one of these instances with the rest of your family. By the time we meet again next week, each of you should have at least one example of how you were discerning this week and tested the spirits to see if they were from God. And—as always—please share this devotional with everyone in your life, and feel free to email us at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at (828) 423-0894 if you have any questions or need personalized biblical counsel. And then I’ll see you back next week when we we’ll talk a little more about love. We’ve seen the importance of love and the consequences of love, and now John is going to show us the ultimate purpose of love. See you then!
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