Read 1John 3:18-22… God’s Spirit comes into the heart of everyone who genuinely seeks forgiveness for sin by trusting Jesus Christ to save them, at the moment of genuine faith, expressed by heart-belief in Christ, you are spiritually born-again into the eternal family of God (Romans 10:9-10), "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

John 3:6-8, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

2Corinthians 1:21-22, “He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”

Ephesians 1:13-14, “In [Christ], you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him [Jesus Christ] to them He [God’s Son] gave the right to become children of God, …those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

In 1John 3:1 it says, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are,” and in 1John 3:18, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”

Look again at 1John 3:21-22, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”

God loves to hear the prayers of His people, and God loves to bless His people as they live obediently before Him.

1Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

God has provided forgiveness for sin, eternal life, and adoption as God’s own children, bringing us into a relationship with every true Christian; all this being made effectual through God’s Spirit living in us.

God’s Spirit encourages and equips us to live for Christ; when we fail to do what honors God, God’s Spirit convicts us so that we will ask for forgiveness, resulting in God’s power to know, to pray for, and to accomplish that which pleases Him.

Ephesians 2:10, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

John 15:12, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” 14, “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” 16, “I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”

Read 1John 3:23-24… Anyone born of God will love his brothers and sisters in the Lord. The more you and I express God’s love for one another and serve as His witnesses to the godless world around us, the more God’s assurance of salvation is made manifest in us. God expressed His love for us through the sacrificial death of His own Son; and we who belong to God, will express our love for Him by loving others through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

John 14:15-17, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

John 14:24-26, “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

Read 1John 4:1-3… As God’s beloved children, we have God’s Word and God’s Spirit to guide us; but we must test every teaching and discern whether or not it is from God.

Satan, his demons, and all his workmen (false teachers) seek to dilute and/or distort God’s Word, in order to deceive, if it were possible, even God’s own people. Therefore, God’s people must diligently test all teachings and reprove and/or rebuke any that do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as both the Son of God and the Son of Man.

There are many false teachings being propagated by those who oppose God; but God’s Word is the final authority by which every teaching must be judged. Some teachings say Jesus was a man, some say He was God; but God’s Word is sovereignly clear that Jesus was both - fully man and fully God - and any other teaching is a lie straight from the Devil.

John is speaking here of a future time when Satan will raise up the final world ruler (the Antichrist) who will seek to oppose and take the place of God (during the Tribulation Period, after all Christians, those who have died and those who are still alive at Christ’s return in the air, will be caught up to be with the Lord forever).

John reminds his hearers/readers that many antichrists have appeared, which is part of the birthing pains in the last days; and that there are many antichrists present, these are the false teachers who promote doctrine that is hostile toward God’s Son and contradictory toward the whole counsel of God’s Word.

John specifies (1John 2:19) that these false teachers arise from within the physical church; for although they appeared to be genuine believers, they have departed from fellowship in the true church and now they attempt to lead people out of Christianity into false religions and cults.

2Corinthians 4:1-6, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God, but by the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants on account of Jesus. 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.”

Read 1John 4:4-6… True believers belong to God forever, and are capable of discerning truth from falsehood, because everyone who is born of God has God’s Spirit in them and can therefore overcome the spirit of the antichrist.

Satan’s false teachers will either reject the sovereignty of God’s Word or they will add to or subtract from it. You and I must be diligent about discerning and judging all that is said to be from God.

Revelation 22:18-19, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”

God’s children are to be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11), “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

Those who fail to remain in the truth, those who fall away, believing and promoting Satan’s lies, never belonged to God in the first place.

Both the OT and the NT have been given to God’s people that we might have full confidence of sovereignly and eternally belonging to God, and that we might not be deceived by the spirit of falsehood; but instead, we will know, apply, and proclaim God’s Truth for as long as we have life.

Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

2Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

2Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is [God-breathed] and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be [thoroughly] equipped for every good work.”

I thank God for His Spirit, through whom I am able to know the Truth of God, through His Word, and so not be deceived; if you belong to God, you have the Holy Spirit of Truth to guide you.

God has graciously and powerfully equipped every Christian with the God’s Word of Truth and God’s Spirit of Truth, in order to guide, provide for, protect, and empower us, as we serve Him; we are God’s children, and as such, we are to (1Thessalonians 5:16-18), “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

And all God’s people said? Amen!

Pastor Mike
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