Transcript Spiritual warfare - Friends in Faith

1John 4:1-6
Discernment
 We
need to be discerning
 Dr. Sam talked about
authentic I.D.’s
 Real Church
 Real Believers
 Real Teaching
Discernment
 John
has been exhorting the
believers to be discerning…
 In the face of persecution
 In the face of opposition
 In the face of false teaching
Discernment
 Bottom
Line…
 We are responsible for our own
relationship with God
 We need to do our own
homework…
 We need to view all things
through the standard of the
Word
Discernment
 Warren
taught last week…
 The final verse of his lesson
spoke of the Holy Spirit
 The Spirit that indwells us
 The Spirit that gives us
evidence of our salvation and
faith
1 John 3:24
“The one who keeps His
commandments abides in Him,
and He in him. We know by this
that He abides in us, by the
Spirit whom He has given us.”
Everyone!!!
 How
does the Holy Spirit give
us evidence of our salvation
and faith?
Let Us Read Our Text For Today…
 Notice
how John transitions
from the indwelling Spirit to
testing spirits…
 Not every Spirit is from God
 This is yet another warning
 God reveals truth – Satan
counters with lies
Spiritual Warfare
 Truth
or Lie
 We need to know
 What is Spiritual Warfare???
Spiritual Warfare
 It’s
not chasing demons
 It’s the battle for the mind
 The battle between truth and
error
 The objective of the Church is to
bring truth to bear on people
who live in damning error
2 Corinthians 10:4-6
“for the weapons of our warfare
are not of the flesh, but divinely
powerful for the destruction of
fortresses. We are destroying
speculations and every lofty
thing raised up against the
knowledge…
2 Corinthians 10:4-6
…of God, and we are taking
every thought captive to the
obedience of Christ..
Spiritual Warfare
 Anyone
who discredits
discernment or who objects to
your questioning of their
teaching and comparing it to
scripture – is probably a false
teacher
The Strategy of Satan…
 Genesis
3:1-4
 “Indeed has God said…”
 1st attack the Word – create
doubt
 Eve responds – (Gen. 3:3)
 2nd distort God’s Word
The Strategy of Satan
responds – (Gen. 3:4)
 3rd – outright lies…
 Doubt
 Distortion
 Lies
 Satan
Spiritual Warfare
1
John 4:1 tells us that this is
not a human strategy…”do
not believe every spirit”
 Every religious idea has a
spiritual source
 There are only 2 spiritual
worlds
Spiritual Warfare
 The
Spirit of God
 Then there are all the rest…
 These are the doctrines of
demons
Spiritual Warfare
 This
is a theme that is
imbedded throughout
scripture
Moses
David – Bathsheba -Solomon
Matthew 24:4-5
Acts 20:28-30
Spiritual Warfare
 Wherever
you go in scripture
– God’s truth is under assault
1 Timothy 4:1
“But the Spirit explicitly says
that in later times some will fall
away from the faith, paying
attention to deceitful spirits and
doctrines of demons,”
Spiritual Warfare
 Men
will pay attention to
deceitful spirits
 Behind all false doctrines are
seducing spirits…
 And men whose consciences
are seared preach lies without
remorse
This Is Key!!!
No
false teaching No attack on scripture –
Is benign!
There Are Only Two Possibilities…
 Either
teaching is from God
through His Word…
 Or the teaching is demonic
 Causing Doubt
 Distortion
 Denial of truth
James 3:15
 “This
wisdom is not that which
comes down from above, but
is earthly, natural, demonic.”
 Any lofty view lifted up against
God’s Word has but one
source – the demonic
Spiritual Warfare
 Untruth
is propagated by
people who listen to deceitful
and seducing spirits
 They are tools of demons
 Behind the human is the
demonic
Spiritual Warfare
 Demons
have a powerful
influence in the world
 It has been a very successful
strategy for Satan
 Most of the world believes in
demonic doctrines – they
have no place with God
Let’s Look At 1 Corinthians
10:18-21
 In
the context of this passage,
Paul is talking about believers
who still participated in Pagan
rituals and sacrifices
 Paul is not concerned with the
practice or the false god
Spiritual Warfare
 It’s
not the food eaten that has
been sacrificed to idols
 Paul is concerned that these
people were participating in a
demonic practice
 There is nothing to gain by
sharing in demons
Spiritual Warfare
 We
are not to play with fire
 Do not maintain any
connection with your former
life
 We cannot make a truce with
error – it is energized by the
forces of hell
Old Testament Examples
17:7 –
 Creating a “goat god” didn’t
make a god – it opened the
door to demons
 Deuteronomy 32:17
 The Jews were sacrificing to
demons
 Leviticus
Old Testament Examples
 Psalm
106:37
 They had even sacrificed their
children to demons…
Spiritual Warfare
 Any
form of religion is
demonic
 Any world religion
 Any animist tribal religion
 Pseudo Christianity
The Future…
 Revelation
16:13-16
 The dragon – Satan
 The Beast – The Antichrist
 The False Prophet – the
antichrist’s cohort
The Future…
 Three
unclean spirits like
frogs come out of them
 These spirits seduce the world
into making war against their
Creator
 What insanity!
Spiritual Warfare
 Satan
will use any world
system to seduce man into
turning against God
 Atheism
 Agnosticism
Hinduism
Islam
Buddhism
Animism
Good Old USA!
2 Peter 2:1-3
 The
false prophets attack:
 The authority of scripture
 The inerrancy of the Bible
 The virgin birth
 The sinless life of Jesus
 The sovereignty of god
Spiritual Warfare
 Some
are blatant like Islam
 Many are subtle working
within the church
 We are to stand for and
defend – the Truth
 If we don’t have the truth –
what do we have…
Spiritual Warfare
 It
is the battle between truth
and lies
 The more truth you know –
 The more vital you are to the
battle
 You will be attacked for
speaking the truth
Spiritual Warfare
 In
1 John4:1 we have the
command…
 Don’t believe every spirit is
the Holy Spirit
 Don’t believe everything you
hear about faith (radio, news,
TV, etc.)
Spiritual Warfare
 Before
you were a believer
what benchmark for faith did
you have
 As believers we have a true
foundation to hold onto
 We have the Indwelling Spirit
Spiritual Warfare
 Satan
does not want to be the
opposition to our church…
 He wants to be confused with
the Christian Church
 He wants to appear pro-Christ
 There are many false Christs
in the world
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22
 We
are not to ignore prophetic
utterances..
 We need to examine
everything carefully
 Many today are too lazy to do
that
Spiritual Warfare
 Today,
with political
correctness, no one wants to
say that anyone is wrong
 We are a Nation that is truly
living in denial
I’m not talking about a river in Egypt!
Spiritual Warfare
 Most
people try to hide from
the truth
 The realities of life today are
overwhelming
 Yet we wonder if Lindsey
Lohan is going to jail
Spiritual Warfare
 This
is a scary time
 People out of work –
 Losing their homes
 Crawling out from under
debris in Japan
 Fighting in the Middle East
Spiritual Warfare
 But
gosh darn it I’ll be ticked if
Lindsey doesn’t go to jail
We Have Three Tests
– The confession of the
divine Lord
 2 – Possession of the divine
life
 3 – Commitment to the divine
Law
1
1 – Confession of Christ
 Demons
will deny the deity of
Christ
 We can test any teacher by
their Christology
 This must include the whole
package
1 – Confession of Christ
 Jesus
is God in the flesh
 Jesus is part of the Trinity
 Jesus is sinless
 Jesus is our satisfaction for
our sins
 In rejecting Christ – you reject
God
1 – Confession of Christ
 Some
theologians say that
other people groups may not
know Jesus
 But they know God and for
what they know it’s the best
they can do…
 They do not know God
2 – Possession of Divine Life
 Look
at their life
 Are they regenerate?
 Are they bearing fruit?
 Do they hunger for the truth?
 Do they have the protection of
the Holy Spirit?
3 – Honor God’s Law
 Do
they uphold God’s law?
 Do they participate in the
Christian community of ideas
or do they parrot the world?
In Conclusion…
 What
do they say about
Christ?
 What is their life like?
 Do they honor God’s Law?
Let Us Pray