Discern truth and error by listening to Jesus’ disciples
“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1st John 4:4-6).”
Last week we dealt with the myth of the all loving God. At the core of every false prophet is a denial of the nature of God and His Christ. False teachings of a “non-judgmental and everything goes god” spread like wild fire. The Lord Jesus warned of false prophets because they lure God’s people towards worldly choices that corrupt His gifts, exalt sin and waste the precious joy Jesus died to give us.
Sin divided people into two groups: those who trust God and those who do not. It is ironic that while division started with sin, God’s people are accused of being divisive. And as God’s people are vilified, they continue to introduce other people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ so to unite more people into true worship of the one true God.
Greater is He Who is in you
Jesus said a lot about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak…He will glorify Me (John 16:7-14).”
The Holy Spirit of God guards the Christian from deceiving spirits. To know the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to have complete assurance of being born of God. Jesus is God and a Christian is born of God. Therefore, a Christian knows Jesus intimately and trusts what He says.
Listening and trusting His words
When Jesus invited listeners into an intimate spiritual relationship, He described Himself as the Bread of Life. Many received His message as too strange, intimidating and risky. In the end, they rejected His words. Here we see how rejecting His words and His deity go hand-in-hand. Knowing His message was not received, Jesus said, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? (John 6:62).” In other words, “if you can’t believe My words, then you won’t believe your eyes when you see Me ascend to heaven!”
When a man is determined to reject God, he is ready to deny any supernatural event using whatever dopey Dan Brown theory he can find. That is why the Apostle John ties the denial of Jesus in the flesh to false teachers. Those who reject the incarnation of Jesus Christ as God entertain each other with empty, abstract and heretical theories of moral relativism, sexual perversion and atheism.
Children of God follow Jesus. Like Simon Peter, who rhetorically asked, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and come to know, that You are the Holy One of God (John 6:68-69).” Simon Peter trusted in Jesus’ words. To him, these were words from above, not earthly words. Although Peter’s understanding was limited, trusting in the words of Jesus was sufficient to associate him to eternity and things eternal. Indeed, Peter placed his trust in Jesus because God was working in him (Matthew 16:17).
Public, not private
Peter’s personal relationship with Jesus was public, not private. He did not hold to a private interpretation of truth and reality nor did he keep his knowledge secret. His witness was public and thus, verified by others. God’s truth is for everyone to discover “knowing first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation (2nd Peter 1:20).”
Unlike the clever myths found in the circles of higher critics, Peter’s “eyewitness of His majesty” was broadcasted, known and tested by public scrutiny. He tells what he saw and heard and tied it directly to the messianic prophesies. No one in his day refuted him because the life of Jesus was common knowledge.
Discernment necessary and applied
The trend of the home church is thriving as families and individuals choose to meet in homes rather than church buildings. Reasons for the pull out of conventional churches include a lack of strong biblical preaching from the pulpit, a low view of Scripture and lifeless worship. While the home church movement serves a need, it is not fool proof. More home churches mean more teachers which leads to an increase number of false teachers.
Years ago I was in a bible study when a guest teacher introduced an idea concerning the person of Jesus Christ. It turned out he rejected the fact that the Son of God had a body like ours. The Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus’ baptism and the Father’s voice from heaven (as recorded in Matthew 3) and helped expose the teaching as erroneous and heretical.
To know God in truth demands a personal relationship with Him. The good news is that God has come into our world in the Person of Jesus Christ. The incarnation of the Son of God is indeed the greatest love act of all time. While many try to misrepresent His love in Christ and
offer reasons to doubt His word, Christians apply discernment and Christ guards them from destructive teachings.
Our Godly Heritage Quote of the Week
“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’” Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln, 1865