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Alright, so we're continuing there in 1 John 4 and look at verse number 6. It says, We are of God, he that knoweth God heareth us, he that is not of God heareth not us, he by know we the spirit of truth. The title for the sermon this afternoon is the spirit of truth. The spirit of truth. When you talk about the spirit of truth, what comes to mind? What is the spirit of truth? The Holy Spirit. Yeah, the Holy Spirit of God. And so knowing this, in fact, what you understand in this whole chapter, we're kind of determining whether someone is being driven by the spirit of God or by other spirits. Because when we begin there in verse number 1, 1 John 4 verse 1, it says, Beloved, believe not every spirit. Okay? So which spirit should we believe? Should, of course, believe the Holy Spirit. Well, the Holy Spirit teaches each one of us. But we're being commanded here not to believe every spirit. You know, if there's something that I leave with you when I go back to Queensland, I don't know when I'll be able to travel, I hope I can travel every week like in the past. But one thing I really want to leave with you over this past year and over that I've been here is not to believe every spirit. Okay? We all know not to believe the mainstream media. We all know it's full of lies. We all know there's an agenda. But one thing that I feel that we're still struggling as a church is to identify alternative media as a place of lies as well. We kind of think that just because it's contrary to the lies we hear on the mainstream media, therefore it must be truth. No, brethren. It says here, believe not every spirit. Meaning that whatever you listen to, whoever you want to build your knowledge and understanding and trust, you need to determine is this person coming with the right spirit? Now, first of all, isn't the majority of people not saved? I mean, if you're not saved, you don't have the Holy Spirit. So don't assume the person that you listen to that's not saved is going to tell you the truth. You don't know what spirit they've been influenced by. Okay? There are people that fall under the Christian umbrella and they give you what they consider truth. Yeah, you got to try every spirit. You need to test those spirits because it keeps going to verse number one. But try the spirits whether they are of God. Look at this. Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Many false prophets are gone out into the world. How do you know if I'm a false prophet or a true prophet? Do you guys know? Hopefully, try the spirits whether they are of God. I'm hoping that, you know, now I've been passing this church for over three years. I'm hoping at some point you've come to realize the spirit that is being used by, that's using Pastor Kevin to preach God's Word is the Holy Spirit. It's not some false spirit. I trust that. I trust that's the case, okay? But whoever it is that you listen to, you need to learn to try the spirits. That means to test the spirit. You need to figure out who's influencing this guy. Is he saved? Is the Holy Spirit speaking through this guy's mouth? Or is it some other spirit? Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. You know, there are many, there are more unsaved false prophets in this world than there are truly born-again, spirit-filled preachers in this world. That's just how it is, brethren. And so you need to be able to identify who's of the truth and who's not. I'm going to quickly read to you from Proverbs 14, 15, which reads, The simple believeth every word. I don't want you to be simple. What's simple? Kind of unlearned, okay, without knowledge. It says the simple believeth every word. I don't want you to just hear something, you know, and just, I believe it. Must be true. One thing I definitely want you guys to get in the habit of is when you hear something, figure out, do your research. Is this really true or is it not true? Because there are so many lies. We are living in a deceitful, lying world. It's lie after lie after lie. And I don't want you to be simple. I want you to be smart. I want you to be educated. I want you to be in touch with the Spirit of God and work out, Lord, I'm going to investigate and determine whether this is true or not before I send it out and share it with other people. It's so important that we do this because simple believeth every word. I do not want you to be simple. It keeps going by saying, but the prudent man, prudent means to be careful, all right? The prudent man looketh well to his going, okay? We want to be prudent. We want to be careful. We want to make sure that the information that we receive is true, that we learn to do the research. Can you please just go back to one chapter there in 1 John 3, 1 John 3, verse 24, it says, Brethren, each of us have been given this Holy Spirit of God. We've all received the Spirit of truth. You know, we all should be truthers. But did you know there are lies in the truther movement? Because the truther movement is not made up of spirit-fuelled, born-again Christians. But there's a lot of truth, but there's a lot of lies. Mainstream media, there's a lot of truth, but there's a lot of lies. You know what's great about the Bible? There's a lot of truth and no lies. It's all truth, okay? So as long as I stay preaching faithfully the word of God, you're always going to receive the truth. You know why this is such an important thing for me? Like, why is it that when I hear information, I want to go back and dig in, is this legit or not? I just want to be annoying to people. No, you know why? Because every week, you know, I prepare a sermon, now I'm preparing four sermons a week, because I'm preaching twice for New Life, twice for Blessed Hope. I spend maybe five, six hours, maybe, on a sermon, okay? Sometimes up to eight. Sometimes maybe as little as four hours. Just depends on how much is within the sermon. But I would say that if all I did was just put down my thoughts, and as I read the Bible, just put down my thoughts, I reckon I'd get the sermon done within two hours. I spend at least 50% or more of my time making sure that what I'm about to say is true. That's why. I go back and fact check. I go back and compare Scripture with Scripture. I've got all these references that you don't even hear in my sermon, okay? I go back and I say, before I even open my mouth, I want to make sure that I'm telling the people of God the truth. And I'm scared, brethren. I've got a fear of God to lie to you, because you're God's people, you're God's children. I don't want to stand behind the pulpit and say, Thus saith the Lord, and lie to you. I spend most of my time just fact checking, comparing Scripture to Scripture, reading the context once again. Am I taking the right application here? Am I speaking the truth? That's what I spend most of my time when I prepare a sermon. And so that's become my norm. That's become my, you know, just how I operate. You know, whatever I hear, I'm going to have a critical ear, and I want to try the spirits. I want to see whether this is of the spirit of truth, or whether it's a lie, okay? Now look, you know, obviously, I'm not saying that you should get to the point where, you know, you just come to church, and you just accept everything I say as the gospel truth. Because I'm still a man, aren't I? I can still make mistakes. I can still say the wrong thing. I can many times even misspeak. And as I misspeak, even though I didn't mean to say it like that, it could come out and cause people to be a little bit confused. I could still say something wrong, okay? So I still want you to listen to me with a critical ear. I don't want you to get to the point where I'm just going to trust everything the pastor says behind the pulpit. That's not a good place to be. But listen, once again, if you've been in this church for some free, you would have long ago determined whether I'm operating from the spirit truth. Because what you don't want, you don't want to be the complete opposite, where you come to church and all you do is just criticize. You know, you're just like, I don't know if your pastor kept saying, it's true. It's like, well, then you're not going to get anything out of the sermon, okay? You should have determined a long time ago, whether I'm a preacher of the truth or whether I'm not. And if you've determined in your heart, yes, this is the preacher of the truth, then I hope you have to have trust and confidence. You come to church, you're willing to receive what is being preached, but always just have a little bit of a critical ear. You know, I've gone to church my whole life and, you know, most of the times with the pastors I'm under, yeah, I just, I know they're going to do the best they can. I know they're going to preach the truth. But then every now and again, they'll say something, they'll preach something and I'll be like, oh, that's new. Oh, I've not thought about it like that before. Oh, I've never thought of that verse in that way that he used, okay? And then what have I done after the service? I'm not going to criticize the pastor. I've just gone back and done my own research, read it over again. And boy, if he's right, man, I learned something new. That's awesome. All right? And if he's a little bit wrong, well, it's a little bit wrong. We can maybe have different views on that. It's not a big issue. It's not a major doctrine. Oh, sometimes I've had to go to the pastor and say, pastor, look, you said this or that. I want to understand better. Can you clarify what did you mean by this or that? Okay? So we should still have that, a little bit of a critical ear. You know, making sure that what we're hearing is the truth, but we don't want to be so critical that every time you come to church, you're like, man, I don't know what, if this pastor is going to say the truth or not, okay? You should determine a long time ago whether I'm operating by the spirit or truth or whether I'm not. Let's keep going. Verse number two. He by know ye the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. I used to really struggle with this verse when I was young, okay? Because it says here every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Well, don't the Catholics also teach that Jesus Christ came in the flesh? Don't the Orthodox teach that as well? Does that mean they're all operating from the spirit of God? Are they all sent by God? Now, one thing that I've learned to understand about this chapter is that it's not really teaching us, it's not really pointing to us who the real spirit-filled preachers are, but rather, as it said in verse number one, because many false prophets are going into the world, it's helping us identify the false prophets. That's kind of the main reason why this chapter exists, and I'll explain it all to you soon. Let's keep going. Verse number three. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. Okay, so we know that the antichrist, this beast in the book of Revelation, will come, but notice there's already a spirit of antichrist in this world. Okay, so when people say, you know, oh man, I think the antichrist is walking this earth right now. I think we're near the end times. Like the spirit of antichrist has always been in the world. There's nothing new. Okay, you know, I'm not going to get carried away with end times things because I know what Christ said to me. He says that in the midst of the week, when we see the abomination of desolation, then we'll know we're in the end times. So until that happens, I'm just going to be, yeah, I'm going to have an open ear, I'm going to look around, watch, but at the end of the day, I'm just going to go, well, the spirit of antichrist is always here. I mean, it's nothing new. You know, even in 2 Thessalonians 2, 7, it says, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. This was in the time of Paul. Only he who now leteth will let until it be taken out of the way. The mystery of iniquity, the spirit of antichrist, was already on the scene at the beginning of the New Testament. Okay. Yes, we're getting a little bit closer every day that goes by, every time there's a change in power and kingdoms. And you know, people talk about the New World Order. Yeah, maybe there's a New World Order around the scene. There's always been New World Orders. Every time kingdoms rise and fall, there's a New World Order. It doesn't mean that the next New World Order is the antichrist kingdom though. There could be another five New World Orders before the antichrist kingdom comes on. I'm not saying it could be the next one. I don't know. Okay, I don't know. Until I see the abomination of desolation. But I'm not going to get too carried away because the spirit of antichrist has already been at work from the very beginning. Okay. So we're looking at the spirit of the antichrist. We're looking at the spirit of lies. Of course, the spirit of the antichrist is the devil himself. And also comparing that with the Holy Spirit of God. Now, can you keep your finger there and go to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1, verse number 23. Because I do, granted, these verses that we just read can be difficult. Okay. Let me just read. You turn to Mark 1.23 and I'll read verse number 2 again. Which says, Hereby know ye the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Christ is come in the flesh is of God. So does everyone that say that Christ came in the flesh, does that mean they're of God? And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ come in the flesh is not of God. And the spirit of the antichrist, wherever you have heard that it should come, even now it already is in the world. All right. So is this saying that only saved, born again, spirit-filled people can claim that Christ has come into this world? Is that what it's saying? Now, when it says, He that confesseth Jesus Christ, if you don't know the word Christ is the word Messiah, or messiahs. The word Messiah means the holy one or the anointed one. Okay. This is Christ. This is Messiah. We identify him as Jesus Christ, as Jesus. He is the Messiah. But is it only spirit-filled Christians that can say that? This is why I want you to turn to Mark chapter 1, verse number 23. Mark chapter 1, verse number 23. It reads, And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. So this unclean spirit is not the Holy Spirit. You wouldn't call the Holy Spirit unclean, right? It's a spirit of a devil. Okay. And he cried out, saying, Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, O Jesus of Nazareth? So who is this devil acknowledging? Acknowledging Jesus, right? Thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. So the Holy One of God is referencing what? The Messiah. You know, Christ, as I said, means Messiah. It means the anointed one. The Holy One is the anointed one. This unclean spirit is identifying Jesus Christ, basically, Jesus as the Christ, Jesus as the Messiah, as the Holy One of God. I mean, these are words that you would hear preachers say. So what do we learn there? That even false prophets can testify that Christ has come in the flesh. Even false prophets can testify that Jesus is the Christ. So how do we understand this passage? This is challenging, isn't it? I think it's challenging. I think it is challenging. Okay, I believe I have the answer. Okay. Well, number one, there's two ways to look at this. Number one, it helps us definitely identify false prophets in one sense. Because if someone says to you, Jesus is not the Christ, Jesus is not the Messiah, like what religion in the world believes as a Messiah to come, but it's not Christ? It's not Jesus, sorry. The Jews. The Jews. Judaism. Judaism, okay. So what do we learn about Judaism? Is that of the Holy Ghost? No, it's a spirit of Antichrist, isn't it? Okay. If someone says to you that Christ did not come in the flesh, that immediately helps you identify this is a false prophet. Okay, this is a false religion. This is a false prophet. But it doesn't guarantee that everybody that claims these things are actually saved. So that's number one. It helps you identify false prophets. But the second thing that you need to consider is not to lose the historical context of this book. Okay. This is at the beginning of the early church. Okay. It's not like the world today where no matter what country you go to, everyone's heard of Jesus Christ. Okay. Jesus has come on the scene. He's left it up to his disciples, his apostles, his prophets to go out and preach about Jesus Christ. People are still learning about Christ. There are many Jews that they weren't even aware that Christ had come because they were in other places of the world, right? They didn't have the internet. They didn't have newspapers. They didn't have easy access to news like this. And so you have John, you have the other apostles going through teaching people, no, the Messiah has come and it's Christ. Let me teach you about Christ. Then you would have other Jews on the scene at this point in time saying, no, this is a lie. This is not true. Okay. And so those that were denying that Christ had come to this earth, yeah, they would be the spirit of Antichrist. These Jews were not saved. And so we can't remove the historical context here because it was a different world, right? People are starting to learn about Christ. And if people are saying, no, that's not Jesus, then you can definitely claim that person to be a spirit of Antichrist. Okay. Let's keep going. Verse number four. First John took the four verse four. It reads, ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them. So if you're of God, you have overcome who? The false prophets, the spirit of Antichrist. Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. I think when I tend to sometimes speak to people in Christians that are maybe afraid or fearful, this is probably the verse that I quote the most. And I remind everyone, greater is he that is in you, who's in us? The spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, than he that is in the world. Who is in the world? The devil. Who's the God of the world? The devil. The spirit of Antichrist. We're greater than the devil, brethren, but not in his flesh. You know, we can overcome the wicked one. You know, when the devil comes trying to hurt us, trying to tempt us to sin, you know, trying to hurt our families, trying to hurt our church, you know, one of us who has the Holy Spirit of God is greater than that devil. Praise God. Okay? We don't have to be afraid of, you know, I'll tell you the truth when I was a teenager, partly because I went to a Christian, Baptist, charismatic, Pentecostal type church, right? And sometimes you would hear about the cast of devils and these things that I found out later on to all be frauds that were going on, okay? But I had this kind of fear. I'm thinking, man, the devil must be so powerful. Like, how is it that, you know, people come to these churches and the so-called, you know, they're demonic and they could be. They could be fueled by some devil. And then you've got this great charismatic preacher that pulls out the devil. Brother Les, you shared a video recently where the preacher fixes someone's arm. He got, you know, just a little bit of work. And, you know, was able to fix someone's arm because it was too short. You know, it's all make-believe. It's fake. It doesn't exist, these things, right? But I used to be like, man, the devil must be so powerful. Because that's what these charismatic churches try to make it seem like. We're just, it's constant war with the devil. But, you know, we've got the Holy Spirit of God, though. It's greater than the spirit in the world. We can overcome the wicked one. We don't have to be afraid of the devil. We should be aware of the devil. We should understand that he goes around like a lion that goes around... How does the passage go? He's a roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour. Sorry, brethren. That verse, okay? Yeah, he's a roaring lion. But you don't have to be afraid of the lion if you've got the Holy Spirit of God. Yeah, if you're away from the Lord and you walk in the flesh and you walk in darkness, you'll be an easy target for the devil. But as long as you are faithful to the Lord, abiding in him, walking in him, having close fellowship with the Lord, the devil can't do anything to you, brethren. Really, okay? And when you sin, it's not because of the devil. You sin because of the lust of your heart. Just blame yourself. Stop blaming the devil, okay? He's not that powerful, all right? They can, you know, he's not holding a gun to your head to make you sin. You choose to sin, okay? It's not the devil. Anyway, it says here, you have overcome them. So how have we overcome them? Yes, by the Spirit of God. But also, please go to the next chapter, 1 John 5. Go to 1 John 5, verse 4. 1 John 5, verse 4, which reads, For whatsoever is born of God, remember what was born of God, the flesh, not the spirit. For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. Praise God. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, you've placed your faith on the Son of God, on his death, fear, and resurrection, then you have overcome the world. You have the power to overcome the wicked one. You can overcome the Spirit of Antichrist. Okay? But isn't it interesting that you've got to believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Not that I want to go on oneness over and over again, but then those that claim, well, Jesus is the Father, or Jesus is the Holy Spirit, look, they have not overcome the world. Again, it hurts me to say these things, because there are people that I care about that actually believe these things, but it proves that they've never been saved. They don't have the Spirit of God. They don't have the Spirit of Truth in them. They've been influenced by other spirits. This is why we need to test and try the spirits whether they are of God. That's what the Bible says. We are here to testify, to speak of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is what helps us, or this is what causes us to overcome the Spirit of Antichrist. Let's keep going, verse number five. They are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. You know why the Baptist Church will never be a megachurch? You know why we'll never be in the thousands, in the tens of thousands? It's because we're not of the world. We're not of the world, okay? Yes, the false prophets, the Spirit of Antichrist, they are of the world. They know how to attract the world. They speak of the world. You know, they speak about temporal, carnal things that pleases the flesh. They're not interested in eternity, and the world heareth them. Brethren, you know what they're saying? The world does not hear me. If an unsaved person is listening right now, or online on YouTube, that they're not saved, they're not going to understand a word I'm saying. They're not going to hear me. They're going to think I'm just rambling on about nonsense. But if you've got the Spirit of God, you will understand when a preacher is preaching by the Holy Spirit of God. Okay, you'll be able to identify that. You know, I've been to these megachurches. I remember I was part of a, I was in a Baptist Union church growing up, and one, I don't know why, but the youth group that I was part of, they said, hey, let's go. I'm pretty sure it was Hillsong. I don't know if it was Hillsong 100%, but I'm pretty sure it was, or it was a church like Hillsong. Okay, and I was like, wow, I've never been. All right, well, it must be good. All right, we went there. It was the rock concert, the rock band. I'm like, am I in church? What is this? It was dark. I couldn't see my Bible. I couldn't read my Bible. Okay, I couldn't see the person next to me because their faces were dark. And then eventually, once, I don't know, the band kept playing, then you had a whole bunch of young people go to the front and start dancing, and there's all these girls in their miniskirts, and I'm thinking, this is church. I think this is a nightclub. Like, if I wanted to go to a nightclub, I'll go to a nightclub, right? If I wanted to go to a concert, I'll go to a concert. I'd rather go to a worldly, wicked, sinful concert where I know I'm in disobedience to God than use God's name and blaspheme him, you know, using the word and, you know, bringing all these young people together. Say, why do we come here? Why did we come here? I'd say, we're here to pick up the girls. Honestly, I don't know. Like, that was my one experience. I was like, I'm never going back. I'm never going to these sinful, wicked places ever again. This is not church. If I want to go to the concert, I want to go to the clubbing scene, I'll do that, all right? I'll do that and I'll happily do it as disobedience to God. But I don't want to use God's name and think I'm doing something righteous by being part of something like this. Something so worldly and so wicked. And so, you know, I hope this church continues to grow. I hope Jesus Christ keeps building this church. But we're not going to do it with worldly tactics, okay? We're just going to be obedient to God's word. Let him add, you know, people leave, people come and go. That's how the nature of churches, unfortunately. That's how it is, right? Fortunately, people come. Unfortunately, people go, okay? But that's how it is, brethren. You know, we just do what is right and we let the Lord Jesus Christ build his church. Let's keep going, verse number six. We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So we learn just different ways of, you know, the spirit of antichrist is also the spirit of error, okay? So basically, the Bible is saying this. If you are saved, you have the ability to determine whether you're listening to the spirit of truth or the spirit of error, okay? You're able to determine. This is why it's so important as preachers that we use a lot of Bible because we know the Bible is true, okay? The more Bible we use, the more expound God's word. You know you're hearing the truth of God's word and not hearing the spirit of error. Can you please keep your finger there and go to John 14? Go to John chapter 14 and verse number 16. John 14, 16. As I said, the title for the sermon today is Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Truth, okay? And even though, you know, 1 John chapter 4 doesn't really identify the spirit of truth as the Holy Spirit. And again, I've said to you that in order to understand the book of 1 John, you really need to understand the book of John, okay? So we go back to the book of John, verse number 4, chapter 14, please. John 14, verse 16. John 14, 16. In fact, Jesus Christ spoke a lot about the spirit of truth, okay? John 14, 16. He says, And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. We notice there in John 14, again, the Trinity, Christ speaking about the Father, sending another Comforter, which is the Spirit of Truth, okay? It's not Jesus Christ. Christ says it's another Comforter, okay? The Holy Spirit is not Jesus. It's another Comforter. And it's not just the power of God. Some people think the Holy Spirit is just the power of God. No, the Holy Spirit is another person that makes up the triune nature of God. Please go to the next chapter. Go to John 15. John 15, verse 26. John 15, verse 26, it says, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me. What is the job of the Holy Spirit? To testify of Christ, okay? Again, I went to the Christian school, a lot of different people, Charismatics, Pentecostals, and they would often say to me, and yes, I was kind of confused for a while, they'll say, all you guys do is talk about Jesus. You never talk about the Holy Spirit, right? I mean, you go to the Pentecost churches, instead of like a cross, they'll often have like a dove, or like a fire or something like that. And they'll say, you know, this is like a church of the Holy Spirit. And it's almost like, what's wrong with Jesus? The Holy Spirit's coming to testify of Jesus. Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of the whole Bible. We only have the Holy Spirit because of Jesus. We only have access to the Father because of Jesus. Yes, the Holy Spirit came not to be, not to take on the preeminence, okay? But he's there to point us to Christ. Go to the next chapter, John 16, verse 13. John 16, verse number 13. John 16, 13. It says, Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth is come, look at this, he will guide you into all truth, but he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. So the Holy Spirit did not come to reveal some new truths about himself or about the Bible. No, the Holy Spirit has come to reveal to us the same things that Christ has already taught us through his word, to teach us to be that spirit, to help us understand the difference between truth and error. Please be people of the truth. Don't be people of the truthful movement. Be people of the truth. Please, whatever it is that you learn, that you accept, that you share, that you've done your own diligent work, you've done your own research to determine whether it's true or not. And here's the thing, you're not going to know until you listen to it. You're going to have to listen to some lies and then to determine is this a lie or is this truth, okay? We have too much information. We have YouTube, we have Bitchute, we have, what are some other platforms? Facebook and TikTok and what else is there? I don't know. There are so many platforms with so many videos, so many stories, so many fables, so many lies, so many false prophets. It's a minefield out there, okay? When you listen to something, stop and say, is this the spirit truth? Now, here's a good thing. If you find a safe person, you've increased your chances that this person's going to speak the truth. But it still could be false. Like the safe person still could be a novice. The safe person might still be prioritizing their biases and their preferences over the word of God. One of the challenges of the pastor is you've got to be as faithful as you can be to God's word and even when it's contrary to my own thinking. I'm going to say, you know what? My thinking then, if it's contrary to my thinking here, God, I'm wrong. And I'll come to church and I've got to preach the truth, you know? And I understand where people might not like what I'm saying because I don't necessarily like what I'm saying, but I'm here to speak the truth. I want to be used by God. I want the spirit truth to use me, right? To teach people God's word. Back to 1 John 4 verse 7. 1 John 4 verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. So as I said to you last week, another way of knowing that you are saved is basically whether you have love for the brethren. Do you love the brethren? Do you love your brothers and sisters in the Lord? Once again, we're not always going to get along. We're not going to always see eye to eye, okay? But one thing that we should definitely have is our love for each other. I want every brother and sister to succeed. Whether they're part of this church, whether they're not part of this church, if they're my brother in the Lord, I want them to do well. I want them to do great things for the kingdom of God. Let's keep going. Verse number 8. Hear that loveth, hear that loveth not, knoweth not God. So if you don't love, you don't really know God. What is it saying? In order to have a greater love, we need to know God more. Why? For God is love. God is love. You know, we have these freaks right now. You know, the LGBT, the homosexuals, the sodomites, with their Love is Love campaign. Love is not love. They don't have the love of God. God is love. You know, the only way we can truly love somebody is to understand the love of God. We're commanded to receive the love of God and to love with the love of God. We're to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. You know what? If you hate what God hates, yeah, you love what God loves. God is love. You have the true love. God wants to perfect this love in each one of us. The love of God. God is love. You cannot have love without God. Yeah, there might be some attraction. There might be some even feelings of emotions, but it's not truly the love of God, okay? You know, husbands, if you're having marital issues, you need to get the love of God. God is love. Go to God and say, God, you are of love, and I want to have the love that you have for me, and I want to give that to my spouse. All right? You want to love your children? Lord, help me love my children with the love that you love, Jesus Christ, your only begotten son. We need to receive God's love and to love with the love that God has given us. That term love is love. I just looked it up. You know, it says, I gave you a definition here online. It says it's a phrase meaning that the love expressed by an individual or couple is valid regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity of their lover or partner. Rubbish. Rubbish, yeah. These freaks, they don't know what love is. They don't know what love is, okay? God is love. Let's keep going. Verse number nine. And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. So God manifested. He shows his love toward us by sending his only begotten son to die for us, to come into this world that we might live through him. God wanted to give us life, life abundant, eternal life. We can only have that through Jesus Christ by believing in his sacrifice. This is very similar to another passage that we're probably familiar with, Romans 5-8, which says, But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's an amazing love, okay? Like I can kind of understand that God may send his son for people that love God, that are trying to live godly. God goes, No, I'm going to send my son while ye were yet sinners, while you're transgressing my law, while you don't care about offending me, God still says I'm going to send my son and this is how I'm going to manifest my love to the whole world. Jesus Christ is the love of God. His sacrifice is the love of God. And eternal life is through Jesus Christ. Verse number 10. Herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us. Like we can't say, Yeah, the reason I got saved is because I just love God so much. No, you don't love God. God loved you. God sent Jesus. Praise God and you accepted that free gift of salvation and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. The word propitiation, a big word again, it just means to fully satisfy. Jesus Christ did everything to fully satisfy the punishment and the payment for our sins. I was just talking to someone on the phone just before the service and he asked me, Do we believe in once saved, always saved? And absolutely we do. We believe that Christ did everything necessary. That salvation is simply by Christ. And if we say we can still lose our salvation or we still have to say something like, Well, we still have to play our part. We still have to do our works and try to live godly. Then you're basically saying that Christ was not the propitiation for our sins. That Christ was not enough. That his blood was not enough. That his sacrifice was not enough. Jesus Christ was enough. It's all we need to be saved. Salvation is a free gift again. You can't believe it. Salvation is just by placing your faith on the finished work. That's it. And then you're saved. You call upon the name of the Lord for salvation and he gives it to you. Salvation is God's love to us. It's not our love to God. Now we should love God. I'm not saying we shouldn't love God. We ought to love God. But God has given us a church. God has given us blessing about this church and brethren here. To help us grow in love. To help us perfect in love. Okay. Verse number 11 says Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another. And you know this is what 1 John is largely about. Not just the fellowship with the Father. Not just fellowship with the Son. But fellowship with our brethren. And you know this is the thing. It's hard to love God. Because I mean like let's say let's say about my wife. You know I'll give you an example. My wife likes to write in notebooks. She writes a lot of things like birthday presents and things. Anyway I kind of thought you know what I want to give my wife a nice gift here. And I found this sort of tablet. It's not really a tablet like an app an iPod or anything. What do you call them? An iPad. It's not like that. It's like a tablet that looks just like a book. Looks just like a notebook. And you can take a pen and write on it. And it looks like you're writing like with pencil. And it feels like you're writing with pencil right? It's a little bit expensive. But I thought you know what? I love my wife. This is something that I can give her because she's always writing. And then she's losing her books. This is one place she can have everything. And I bought her one right? Just to show her that I love her right? This is my gift to you. But how do we kind of love God though? Like what is that we can do for God exactly? Because God got everything. Like does God really need us? Not really. You know it's kind of hard to understand. Now should we love God? Absolutely. But it's kind of like how do we do that? How do we accomplish that? And again it says in verse number 11 Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another. This is really interesting because I'll quickly read to you in Matthew 25 verse 40. It says and the king shall answer and say unto them Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me. You know something that we can do is more easily than love God is to love each other. To help one another. To bless one another. To pray for one another. To show each other that we appreciate each other's company and fellowship. And if we do it to one another we're doing that as unto the Lord God. That's what's amazing about it right? You want to love God? You want to show that you love God? Well love this church. Love your brethren. Love your brothers and sisters in the Lord. And by doing so you are showing that you love God. Let's keep going verse number 12. No man have seen God at any time. So that again references the father. No man has seen the father. If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. Brethren this is what we need to keep working toward. We want God's love to be perfected in us. Meaning that if you are saved yes you have a measure of God's love in you. But again there's probably things that are earthly, sinful, wicked that you love as well. Guaranteed you love him because you still sin. Guaranteed there's a part of you that still loves sinful selfish things because you have the love of the world. But the father wants to perfect his love in us. And again it can't come through his flesh. It comes by the new man. That which has been born of God. But God is constantly doing this work in us to perfect us in love. There might be things in the Bible that you find to be a little bit harsh, a little bit difficult. You're thinking I don't know if that's, is that right? Does God really feel that way? But you find that as you mature and grow in the Lord as God's love is perfected in you you'll be like yeah. That's right. I love this. I'm on God's program now. Even though it makes me feel uncomfortable in the flesh but I'm on God's program. This demonstrates that the father is perfecting his love within you. We need to love what God loves. The more he perfects that the more you'll love the things that God loves. Let's keep going verse number 13. He by know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. So if you're saved the Holy Spirit of God should testify in you whether you are saved or not. Like I don't live my life thinking am I saved? You know wow man am I really saved these days? You know if I really mess up in life and I do you know I make a big mistake I'm going through some difficulty you know I don't any when I was newly saved I used to sometimes wonder am I saved? But not anymore. Like as I've grown and matured in the Lord as the love of God has grown in me and I have the Holy Spirit of God working my life I never, never once in my mind do I think am I really saved? Maybe I'm not saved today. Okay this is something that needs to develop in you you need to understand and once again that Christ is the propitiation for your sins. Christ has done it all. If you trust that there's nothing that you need to do. Okay nothing that you need to do but look there's no need to doubt your salvation. Okay the Holy Spirit of God is that which confirms whether you were saved or not. Okay and if you say to me Pastor Kevin I still struggle with the idea of whether I'm saved or not then please talk to me after the service. Okay well sometime during this week if you're still struggling I just sometimes I wonder if I'm saved I don't know please talk to me after the service because this should not be the case. Okay now I do believe maybe someone that is newer in the faith or maybe under extreme pressure you may have some doubts at times. Okay but generally speaking the Holy Spirit of God testifies that we are saved. You know I don't need to prove it to anybody that I'm saved I know I'm saved because of the Holy Spirit of God that is within me. What am I up to brethren? I've lost my place. Sorry? I read verse 13. Did I read verse 14? I don't think so. Okay verse 14. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. So once again verse 13 and 14 once again you see the triune nature of God. He's given us His Spirit the Father sent the Son and yes the Father sent the Son. Christ did not become the Son at Bethlehem's manger. He was already the Son of God. God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The Son was sent. Sometimes people don't understand this they think well if we believe that Jesus Christ became the Son at Bethlehem's manger then what about the Father? If there was no Son there was no God the Father. I mean think about that. Okay there was no Son there was no Father then because the Father obviously He's the Father because He's got the Son and He's the Son Jesus Christ is because He's got a Father. Let's keep going verse 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in Him and He in God. Verse number 16. And we have known and believed the love that God have to us. God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in Him. All right. So this idea that you know sorry and he that dwelleth in God dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. Okay so this dwelleth in love basically is the main theme of all of 1st John. Okay. But it's mentioned to us in many different ways. You know in the previous chapters that we've gone through you know you may recall that some other ways that this was said is that we ought to have fellowship with the Father and fellowship with the Son. You know some other ways it says that we ought to walk in light. Okay. Obviously if we walk in light we are dwelling with God we are dwelling in love. Other ways was to keep His commandments keep His word abide in Him abide in the light doeth righteousness. These are all talking about the same thing that we abide in the Lord we stay close fellowship with God you know we abide in the light we do His commandments we do His will we stay in His love. The closer we are to God the greater ability God will have to perfect His love within us. Verse number 17. Hearing is our love made perfect that we so what is the reason why does God want to make our love perfect? Once again if our love is perfect we're going to love the things that God loves we're going to hate the things that God hates if our love is made perfect in the Father we're going to be able to do the commandments keep His will walk in His ways. Why does God want to perfect this in us? That we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as He is so are we in this world. This tells me that some Christians when Christ comes back and we stand before God in judgment some of us are going to have the boldness to go before God and say God I'm ready to be judged. Some other Christians are not going to have that boldness they might even be ashamed okay why would they be ashamed? Because God was never able to perfect His love within them God never was able to complete that because that person was far from the Lord never grew in the Lord never walked in His way did not do His commandments did not ever try to win a soul to the Lord or anything like that these people will be ashamed at the coming of Christ but God does not want us to be like that He wants us to stand before Him in judgment in boldness keep your finger there please go to Romans chapter 14 go to Romans chapter 14 let me remind you judgment day is coming okay now if you read your Bibles you understand the Bible there are two types of judgments there's one judgment for the non-believer the one that has rejected Christ the great white throne judgment okay that person you know when God opens the books they're going to find that person's name is not going to be written in the Lamb's book of life and they're going to be cast in hellfire okay now we're not going to stand in that judgment because we're saved we're children of God our names are written in the Lamb's book of life okay but there is another judgment for the saved okay and let's read it together here in Romans 14 verse 10 Romans 14 verse 10 but why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set at naught thy brother for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ so we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ that is not the same as the great white throne judgment that we read about in Revelation okay this is the judgment seat of Christ we're all going to stand before Reverend we're all going to stand before Christ one day he's going to judge us for what we've done in our life in our Christian life are you ready for that? do you have the boldness? are you right? yes I can't wait I hope so but I think in honesty we're probably all like oh man not yet I still got some work to do in my life this is not about salvation okay this is not about salvation okay let's keep going verse 11 for it is written as I live say for the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God wow are you ready for that? you know what I'm going to have to give an account for myself as the head of my house I'm going to have to give an account for my family as the head of this church on the head of this church but as the pastor of this church Christ is the head of the church but as the pastor of this church I have to give an account for this church and the people that are in this church I don't know if it's all going to happen at the same time or there's going to be a different way I don't know exactly brethren but we're all going to have to stand before Jesus Christ one day and he's going to ask us what did you do for me? we're not going to stand before him and confess our sins it's been taken care of okay God's not going to put a big tv screen as you see in some places and show you all the wrong sins that you've done and you're like oh man I'm sorry God no you're just saved your sins have been dealt with okay God has not just forgiven our sins he's forgotten our sins okay we're not going to stand before God in our sinful nature but he's going to ask us and ask you know what did you do for me? what have you done for me? what have you accomplished for me? you know I've given you eternal life I've given you the gospel I've given you blessing up at this church what have you done for me? and you know what if you want to do a lot for the Lord you need to have the Father's love perfect in you so you can actually love the things that God loves do the things that God wants you to do the more righteous the more holy you live your life the more boldness you're going to have before God in that throne say God I'm ready to be judged you know I want all of us not just me I want this whole church you know man woman child to stand before Jesus Christ and for Christ to say they are good and faithful servants imagine those words they are good and faithful servant you know what I mean if you haven't been good and faithful for him he's not going to say those words you'll still go to heaven but it'd be a little embarrassing it'd be a little embarrassing at the beginning right that man I got eternal life Jesus Christ suffered for me God's loved me so much and I just lived for myself my whole life I did nothing for the Lord that'll be a little bit embarrassing God's going to reward us in heaven you know the more we do for God in this earth the greater our riches are in heaven God says to lay up our treasures in heaven okay that's what we ought to be laying our treasures in heaven doing the will of God let's keep going 1 John 4 verse 18 there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear have torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love now this fear here if we understand the context of what we're reading okay again that we're going to stand in the day of judgment of Jesus Christ this fear isn't like the wrong type of fear it's not like fearing man or fear in the world or fear in the devil this fear that we're reading about here is the fear of God okay should we fear the Lord? absolutely okay absolutely okay but let's consider that in that sense there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear have torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love let me illustrate this from just a father child relationship first and then you'll understand how this applies with God so you know when you have children you don't have to teach them to disobey you don't have to teach your children how to lie or cheat they learn it themselves they're pretty good they've got the sinful nature they tap in it pretty early as children right this is why as parents we're commanded to correct our children to teach them to chastise them all right and sometimes when you start doing or when you do that your children will fear mum and dad so they'll do that which is right out of fear of getting disciplined haven't we all been there? haven't we all done that which is right for our parents because we're afraid of what they might do to us how they might you know even the fear of disappointing our parents might even come on the scene right and so yes many times we do that which is right just out of fear okay but God wants us to grow from that state we ought to start with a fear of God yes but then God wants to perfect his love in us and when God perfects our love in us we no longer do things out of fear okay we do it out of love you know I've experienced that growing up yeah I was afraid of the chastisement afraid of discipline my parents but at some point I realized man you know what there's these rules doing that which is right is good you know and I love my parents so much I don't want them to look at me and feel like they failed as a parent you know I'm just going to do that which is right because I love mum and dad it's not because of the fear of the rod or fear of chastisement anymore it's because love is greater than fear and you do things out of love you'll be more effective in your words for God if you do it out of love than if you do it out of fear okay and that's how it ought to be as a Christian yeah we start with the fear of God I still have the fear I have the fear of God right now in case I make a mistake but honestly more than fear is a love for God is a love for God's people you know the reason I try and study and get my sermons together and dedicate the travel from Queensland back and again is because I love God you know that's really the main driver you know the more God perfects his love you know you're going to be doing things out of love for God rather than the fear that he'll correct you you know the Bible says in Hebrews 10 31 it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God so while God's still perfecting his love in you yes keep having the fear of God it's going to help you to do that which is right but at some point as you continue to grow you're just going to do it because you love God you just you're just going to go soul winning because you just love God you love Jesus and you don't want Jesus' sacrifice to go to waste you want as many people as you can that can hear it to have the free will to accept it or reject it you know you're going to be doing things just out of out of love let's keep going verse number 19 if we love him sorry we love him because he first loved us isn't that true if a man say I love God and hate of his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he have seen how can he love God whom he have not seen and this commandment we sorry and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also so in conclusion to this chapter how much you love your brethren your brother or sister in the Lord is a good indicator to show how much you love God okay some people love God and they're too good for church you know they're just every church is hopeless every church is wrong I'm too holy I just love God too much they don't love God because they don't love the people of God you know thank God we have this church you know I really want this church to have a full-time pastor I want New Life to have a full-time pastor I want us to meet in a bigger building more comfortable I want the building that we meet in to have a grass area with a play gym so the kids can go out and play and that it's fenced and they're protected they don't just walk out and get hit by a car you know I wish we had much more you know available to our church you know but I'd much rather be in this church with the people of God with the spirit of God that works in our hearts to hear the truth of God's word than be in any church that is without the spirit of God a church that is without love or they have the love is love instead of the God is love you know philosophy in that church you know I'd much rather be in this small church with you guys and show you love and if I can love you guys you know then this definitely shows that we love God I want you guys to love God you know but you can start by loving your brethren by loving your brothers and sisters in the Lord for loving the truth you know loving the truth and hating the lies so brethren let's end it there let's go to a word of prayer