Ryan is such an unassuming fellow. Unassuming. I appreciate his humble spirit. We've missed him around here this week. He and Mike and the kids have been on vacation and they got back in on Friday and then he went to his monthly drill service obligation and appreciate his service in that regard. And so good to have you back. Glad you're here. All right. He's gonna be giving the message tonight. Get your Bibles ready, all right? And let's hear from the man of God through the word of God tonight. God bless you. Yes, it is good to be back. Feels like a long time. And then having a drill weekend, it's like I didn't even go on vacation. I forgot it all. But it's been good. It's a fun time. My twin sister lives in Tennessee, so I got to see her for a while and kids to play together. It's always fun. If you would please turn to 1 John 3. And just way of introduction, I'll just talk about the writing of the book, the purpose of it. And the passage or the book itself deals with the, it was written in reaction to a heresy that was actually pulled some church members away. It's called Gnosticism, as you've heard of it before, but it is, it's just, if you want to define it, it's a weird word. It starts with a G, but there's actually a Greek word that is the, the foundation of that word, the root word, and it means knowledge. It's gnosis. It's actually in the Bible, in the Greek. What was pulling away people is Gnosticism. It is, in a summary, forgive me, it's wordy, but I have a Ryan Hubbard definition in a moment that's a lot easier. But this is the definition. Jesus, identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring this knowledge to earth, while others adamantly deny that the Supreme Being, or God, came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be merely a human who attained enlightenment through knowledge and taught his disciples to do the same. The Randhuber definition is, Jesus was not born God, but was imbued or filled with God, but it was merely knowledge of God, not deity, so Jesus was not God when he died. It's confusing, yeah, it's dumb. It's not biblical. But it had drawn people away. And you say, that's crazy, how could people believe that? We'll look at that in chapter 4. We're going to read some of chapter 3 here, but just know that that's what John's talking about. That's what he's writing to the people. That's the purpose of the book. That is what he's facing. That's what these people are dealing with. It'd be like if some of us in here, if we had some loved ones from brothers and sisters in Christ that were drawn away, pulled away by something like this. You know, if a pastor wrote a letter or something like that, it's personal. It's personal. I mean, it's under the inspiration and direction of the Holy Spirit, of course. It's inspired scriptures. But, that's the purpose of the writing. So, if you would look at chapter 3 and verse 10. So, I'll summarize the first nine verses there. He's just speaking about if you are a believer, you should be fighting against your sins. Now, it says, there's confusing wording in there. It says, like, doth not commit sin and things like that. We know that we still sin when you're saved. but that you're not content to sit there. One of my favorite things I've heard from a preacher just sticks in my head. The mark of a true Christian is not that you are sinless, but that you are not content to stay there. You are continually fighting against your sin nature. That's the true mark of a Christian. So look here in verse 10. In this, all that we just summarized, in this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." We all know that story. Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. And then he says, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. who's encouraging the brethren, look, people are going to dislike you when you speak the truth. He said, we know why Cain killed his brother, because he looked and he said, Abel's works are righteous and mine are not. But I'm not willing to repent of that, I'm not willing to change. I'm gonna hate him because of his good works. So marvel not my brethren if the world hate you. Verse 14, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. So in verse 14, if you are a Christian, if you've been saved, then you should be transformed. The gospel is transformational. You see people come out of addictions, people that change overnight, they come out of these things, they break their addictions because the gospel is transformational. It can change you for the better, and it should. So he's saying if you're hating your brothers, if you're hating your brothers and sisters in Christ, Careful. Careful with that. Verse 15, "...whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him. So you should be loving your brothers and sisters in Christ. That's what he's saying. A mark also of true believer is you are loving each other. If you see someone with a true need, and it says you shut up your bowels of compassion, you just, you don't feel that. You're cold to them. how dwells the love of God in you. You should be transformed. Your love should be different. You should be inspired. You should be transformed even to love differently, to love people differently. Verse 18, my little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. So you're not just loving people with words, but you're proving that you love them by the action that you take. It's easy to tell people you love them. It's a lot harder to actually put that into action. to actually help them when you're going through a hard time. Recently, my cousin, her mother passed away and they're not people of faith. And we went to her funeral and she had not been able to see her mother because she had passed away during COVID. She wasn't able to be there. She was very bitter about that. And she didn't really have a lot of friends and our family was trying to, you know, draw close to her and uplift her. But I remember my dad, not in a mean way, but he just went to her and said like, you know, this is why you need a church family. because we're not close to you. You don't have that foundation. It wasn't being mean. He was trying to encourage her. Look, there are people that love you. Church, you know, as part of our community is we lift each other up, we help each other. So you shouldn't be shutting up these bowels of compassion. You prove your love for each other when you help each other in that way. And that demonstrates not only your testimony of living a holy life, but you're showing the world, hey, these people have something here. They're helping each other. So that was verse 18, sorry, verse 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. He's talking about prayers, asking the Lord for the things. If you're aligned with him, You're loving him like you should. You're doing these things. You're loving the brethren. Then when you ask, you will receive because you're aligned with his will. Not that there's not free will in your prayers, but if you're aligned with him and you're living the right way, you're going to be asking for the right types of things. Verse 23, "...and this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave us commandment. And He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in Him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath given us." So He's telling us the key to the whole chapter there in the very last verse. The Spirit which He hath given us. You want to be empowered to love people like you should. You want to be empowered to show the love of God to the world. You must have His Holy Spirit indwelling you. I talked about going on vacation and then, you know, my family, I love my kids. And we watched my sister's kids too. So we had my three-year-old and then Rosie's about eight months. And then we had a four-year-old and a year and a half or so, 18-month-old little girl. So it was four of us in this little, you know, hotel room together. And it's like, I needed a little more love. I needed to stretch a little bit more, chasing all these kids around. We took him out and did some things. My sister and her husband were on a different trip in South Carolina, so we were watching her kids on our vacation in Tennessee. But God can help you love more. You say, I'm too stretched. I cannot do this. I can't help these people with their problems. Don't shut up your bowels of compassion. And the key to that is then the Holy Spirit, that's the key. So in verse four, rolling right into it, or chapter four, rolling right into chapter four, this is where I'm gonna park mostly. But it's important to see all of that leading into chapter four. You know that the Holy Spirit, everything is gonna give you spiritual discernment for chapter four, but all of that, it's all together. And it's all written in the same purpose of refuting this false teaching that's pulled the brethren away. So He's not telling them, okay, cut off completely, don't love them. Maybe you're not fellowshipping with them like you were, but don't shut up your bowels of compassion. Don't stop loving them. So we roll into chapter 4 here, just the first 6 verses. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. So He just told us, You'll be able to do these things. You'll know this by the spirit which he hath given us. And he directly says after that, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. So God gives the Holy Spirit to aid our discernment, but there are false counterfeits in the form of false prophets. How can someone convince you outside of the Holy Spirit? The thing about that, say that could never happen to me. Well, it happened to people here. And you're talking about the first century. Some of these people might've even seen Jesus, and they're drawn away by this. I don't say that to question anybody, but it's just, you stay close to the Lord. We'll keep looking here, but there's false counterfeits, false prophets out here, false spirits. If you notice the spirit in 24 is capitalized, the spirit in verse one here is not, because it's not of the Lord. Verse 2, Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Ryrie, I was reading his book. He summed it up pretty well, this verse here. Verse 2, A true teacher openly confesses the reality and permanence of the incarnation of Christ. That's pretty direct. If someone claims that Jesus is not God, you should be skeptical of that. You should question that. You should, you know, I should park up your antennas or whatever you want to say. That should get your attention. Verse 3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist wherever you've heard that it should come. And even now already is it in the world. So the opposite or the adverse of verse 2 is verse 3. If someone is not confessing Christ, you should be skeptical. This is the spirit of Antichrist. And we heard Clarence Sexton talk about this. So, obviously, this is not the Antichrist. Remember, he's writing to this first century church. The spirit of Antichrist. You say, what is that? We're talking about false prophets, people that are drawing away true believers. What would that be? It's not just that it's unbiblical teaching. It's anti-biblical. It's Antichrist. So it's working directly against the goodness of the Gospel, the goodness of God, His Spirit, the Spirit of Antichrist. Verse 4, You're of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. He that is in you, God, is greater than he, Satan, that is in the world. You don't have to fear false teachers. You should be aware. and skeptical. You should beware. Verse 5, They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. Spiritual deception, false teaching, is more attractive and plausible, palatable to non-Christians than truth of the gospel. And he said in chapter 3 in verse 13 there, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. One of the last things Jesus said to his disciples was what? The world's gonna hate you, but it hated me first. And John's reiterating the same thing here. If you speak the truth, he said it when he's there in verse 12, talking about Cain and Abel, people that don't wanna get saved, people that are rebellious to God, they don't wanna humble themselves, they're gonna hate when you rebuke them. Pastor said, I was at drill weekend, there are some hard cases. They're respectful to me, never been mean to me, but there are some that just, they don't wanna hear it. They don't wanna hear it. And I know that, and they'll tell me that. We have conversation, we converse back and forth. They like to ask questions, they like to hear my answers, but they don't really, they don't want it. There's some people that are going to be like that. Some of them are going to be farther than others. But some people are seeking a message to justify the way they live their life. In the current age of the internet, you can find anything to justify anything. You can find anything you want. Recently, I had to do a religious exemption for soldiers can grow beards for certain things. Jewish rabbis, there's a certain sect that they can grow a big beard because it's something with their sideburns or whatever. And Norse pagans. So the Norse mythology. So there's one of the guys in our unit, apparently converted to Norse paganism, whatever. And it's not that I'm not pushing that religion. It's just we write a memo that says, does he actually believe this or not? And they send it up, and the brigade commander makes the final decision. But in that, we interviewed him. We spoke with him. It was interesting to talk to him because he'd grown up, I believe Nazarene. He'd grown up as a Christian. And I was kind of feeling out the situation. How did you get to this? And he said, well, I was looking for a religion that fit my beliefs better. That's what this is talking about. How are you drawn away by heresies when they are something that you like already? What does James say? When you're drawn away of your own lust and enticed. There are things out there. You can find them that will justify what you want to believe. But it's not the truth. So that's what John is writing here under the inspiration of Scripture. He's writing against this heresy that's drawn people away. He said, how could that happen? Because they liked it. It was something that they liked. Verse 6 here. 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 you read that, you might think, that sounds kind of condescending. We are of God, they're not. But what is he saying? It doesn't mean holier than thou, but what John's referring to is the truth of Scripture. The truth. We have the truth. It's absolute. It's black and white. If you read it, you will know that. If someone denies the truth of Scripture, their beliefs are false. It's false. If they deny that Jesus is the Son of God, He's already said, it's false. Save people know the truth of God and the discernment given by the Holy Spirit keeps us from spiritual error. So that's what we're talking about here. So we've broken down all these scriptures. You say, yes, that's true. I believe all of it. What does that have to do with my day-to-day life? I've got three quick points. I'm just applying this. The first one is obvious. You must have your relationship with God established to have the power discernment of the Holy Spirit. If you're unsaved, you can't discern, or you don't have the Holy Spirit to discern. And I'm not questioning anybody's salvation, but that's the first step to this. If you want to protect yourself, you want to be close to God, you want to be aware of these things. I don't want to fall to anything like this. Firstly, make sure you have your relationship with God established. It's very easy, Romans 10, 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in that heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. So the very first thing, just make sure your relationship with God is established. The second thing. It's everything that John has talked about. God's people should be known for their love. In chapter three, we're talking about that. We're known for our love. We're loving the brothers and sisters. He said, if you hate your brothers, that's a mark that you don't love the Lord like you should. And that's important for testimony, not even, I mean, your personal testimony obviously is very important. We live pure lives, holy lives around, but also the way we treat each other. We don't think about that one as much. the way I treat the people in the church, the way we talk about each other outside of the church walls, the way we talk about each other inside the church walls. And I'm not saying that I think crazy gospel is going on or something, but he's warning against it. He's warning against it. Not because I think something's happening, but just that people looking in are gonna see that and say, why would I wanna go over there to that? They're worse than my coworkers. I don't wanna go to people that are backbiting like that. So John is saying is, if you're hating your brother, you're hurting the faith. You're hurting the church. So there's three kind of sub points there. If you want to say number two, God's people should be known for their love. A, love for God should be priority number one. Matthew 22, you don't have to turn there. 22. 35, there's a lawyer comes in and says he tempts Jesus. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question. He's talking to Jesus, tempting him, saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Which is the best one? Trying to trip him up. And Jesus says, in verse 37, Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. We see that, I mean, John doesn't state directly in that way, but we see that in chapter three, he's talking along those lines. You love God and you love others. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ. So letter A, love for God should be priority number one. Letter B, love for God's people should be priority number two. You love God and you love his people and you treat them with respect. It says in here, you know, Verse 18 that we read, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth, in what you actually do. In the way that you actually treat each other, that's what matters. Not the way you talk about it. Not what you say you believe. What do you actually do? What are you showing forth? Are you showing forth the love of Christ or something else? And then letter C would just say under, known for your love, love for the unsaved. Now, there are those that are truly lost, have never heard the gospel. Of course, we want to love them, we want to reach out. But also, what happened in this church? People fell away to heresy. When Brad McBride was here, he preached about, or he told the illustration of the family that prayed until midnight for their prodigal sons to come back. That's the kind of love John's telling them to have. I was telling them to beware, of course. In chapter one, or chapter four, he's talking about it. Beware of false teachers. Beware of these things. Know that it's coming. Expect it. But if they fall, your brothers and sisters, if they're saved people, they just, they were drawn away by this. Love them back. Bring them back. That doesn't mean that you're a pushover, but you want them to come back. That's the goal. And number three, so it is God's love. Number three, a loving person does not mean you're meant to be a fool. That's what chapter four is talking about. Chapter three says you should be loving. You should love your brothers and sisters, whatever. That doesn't mean you're a pushover. It doesn't mean you continually get taken advantage of. On the contrary, it says you need to be sharper than that. Because there are false teachers out there. There are false spirits out there. There are things that are trying to pull you away. So you should be all the sharper because of that. And he's telling us how to do that. We're oftentimes, and I'm not gonna get into this, but like, you know, politically, we're painted into a corner of being hateful people for holding people accountable because the gospel is harsh. And if people are rebellious and they don't wanna believe it, it angers them. I remember, you know, just different times doing like soul winning or visitation or whatever. You start witnessing the people and they get mad. They get angry. You start talking about the Ten Commandments. Well, I kept, you know, I'm trying to live a good life and I think I'm going to heaven and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You ever lied to your parents? Well, you know, you start bringing it up and they get mad. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear that. But if they were actually to read our Bible and know our God, farther down in chapter four there, he says, God is love. You can't separate our God from love. So then why are they painting us that way? Because it's the truth. And they don't want to hear it. They don't want to humble themselves. They don't want to accept that. Our God demands holiness and change in sinful humans. All of us resist that change. It might be to a different level. Some resist to a point of rebellion, even heresy in this extent. But this is all the more reason to try the spirits. You should be aware of, you know, spiritual get-rich schemes. Especially, you know, we talk about the social gospel or prosperity gospel, something like that. That's obvious. What are the ones that kind of pique your interest? What are the ones that pique your interest? What are the ones that you, I would like to believe that. It's not true. It sounds nice. Be careful. Try the spirits, whether they are of God. Make sure they're lining up with Scripture first. You always come back to the absolute truth that we know. I read an illustration recently, I thought it was good. He was talking about spiritual growth, but he was using trees. I thought it was interesting. He said, a pine tree grows and matures very quickly. An oak tree grows and matures very slowly. But you don't go to the store and ask for pine furniture. You want oak, you want quality. It looks nicer, but it takes longer. The same way in the spiritual life. It's longer. It's slow, but it's an incredibly rewarding path. It's to be walked every day, and there's great protection to your spiritual state by daily walking with God. The farther you are away from Him, the more easily you are going to be deceived. If you're not in the book every day, if you're not in the Bible every day, if you're not communing with God every day, then how are you going to know when He's talking to you? Or when He's not? How do you know when it's your emotions pulling you away or when it's actually the Holy Spirit speaking to you? How are you gonna love your brothers and sisters like you should if you don't see them? If you don't love them like you should, what's the problem? Is it your relationship with God? Check that first. Is there an issue? Go and talk to him. I always think it's funny when Paul talks about going and talking to Peter and he says, I withstood him to the face. I talked to him, I confronted him to his face. And you have to be, have an established relationship with somebody to do that. You have to know them. Charles Spurgeon said, right is right, they'll all condemn, wrong is wrong, they'll all approve. Don't go with the flow. In our current state of right and wrong, our spiritual strength is all the more important. The current state of how things are with right and wrong. Your spiritual state is all the more important. Your strength, your discernment is all the more important. So in conclusion here, I'm trying to pull it all together. I've said a lot of stuff all over the place. The Holy Spirit empowers our love, protects us from error and false teaching. He grants us an immense power of clarity and discernment, but we must be careful that we are listening to him and not some other spirit. If a brother or sister falls away, some false teaching, false spirit, we're called to love them, love them back if possible, but hold them accountable. Beware of that. If you're grounded in the faith, do not fear false teachers, but beware of them. You don't have to be afraid of that. God will protect you. If you're communing with Him every day, you're coming to church, you're hearing the preaching, you're asking questions, you're leaning into your relationships, there's protection in that. The speakers that come here, they're vetted. I don't say that, you know, I'm not involved in that a whole lot, but our pastor is, and you can trust that when he brings somebody in here, they're gonna be telling you the truth. There's protection in that. We should appreciate that. If you're grounded in faith, do not fear false teachers, but beware of them. Their threat lies in deception. If you're grounded in what you know, you're faithful to God, they cannot hurt you. I'll leave you with this last verse. We like to quote the end of it. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. What's the beginning of that verse say? Jesus is speaking. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. God has given us immense power in the Holy Spirit of protection. He's given you protection in the church, in this community of faith. There's protection. So lean into that, lean into your relationship with the Lord, stay safe and all of the craziness that's going on. Don't fall away, don't get pulled away into something crazy. I'm not saying that anybody is or anybody does, but it's just, this is what the Lord laid on my heart. I've been studying through the first time with the teenagers and this just struck me. So there's the message brought this evening. I'll pray and we'll turn it back over. God, we thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for the ability we have to look at it for ourselves, receive help and guidance. God, I ask that you continue to be with our church, Lord, and just guide us as we move forward. God, just help us to reach our communities and to love each other. In your name we pray. Amen. Get your songbook, please, and let's go to I Know Whom I Have Believed. What page, Brother Holtzclaw? 370. As we stand together, please, acknowledge that God's word is truth. We must ingest it so that it will flow out of us. Here's a West Virginia-only reference. When you eat ramps, it flows out of your pores. Believers, we ought to take in the Bible like ramps so that it just oozes out of our pores and becomes a characteristic that people, as they said of the believers in the book of Acts, that people would take note of us that we have been with Jesus. Take note of us that we've been in the written word by our experience from the living word. Let's sing this song of confident faith in the Lord. I know whom I have believed, 370. you