Hello Dear brethren , this is the message that I preached yesterday at the Church. May the Lord bless you as you go through it.
If we examine the aspect of Truth, we come to understand that Truth is always painful. It is painful because it seperates falsehood. So truth is like a magnet, when you throw down on the land it attracts the iron ore it does not attract the dust itself. At the same time Truth is like a fish by the name of Salmon that swims upstream. Meaning this fish swims against the force of the flow. I watched some videos on the Youtube and they are really good and I could see how this fish swims upstream; goes against the current of the water.
And I believe God has called us to be swimmers upstream. The Salmon fish always swims upstream; i.e. it swims against the current. It swims against the flow. And that is what God has called us to do as Christians. We are to be the people who swim upstream. Like Salmon we are to swim against the flow of the false teaching that is going on around us.
Speaking about John and his readers; they also were surrounded by such a people that were professing to be Christians but did not reflect in their lifestyle. John’s readers could see that the world was going in one direction and they were going in exactly the opposite direction. The world around them was full of immorality and evil; but John was telling his followers to swim opposite to the current. He was telling his readers to swim opposite to the flow of the world.
Therefore the messages that we have so far heard are all about swimming opposite to the current. Because the call for discernment is not just so that we would become good Biblical Discerners but so that we would follow where ever the discernment leads us. So, once again the title for today’s message is.
A Call for Discernment Part-IV
As we begin this message let me give you a recap of the last Sunday’s message. So that we understand the context in which John was writing this letter.
Last Sunday we examined vs. 5. In this verse we looked at 3 aspects of the false teachers that John told his readers to be aware of. Those 3 aspects were; 1. The origin of false teachers; 2. The origin of their message;
Their Audience: vs 6b
Notice the second part of the verse. “Whoever knows God listens to us...” once again if you compare vs. 5 with vs. 6 John is saying the same thing. But this time it’s in relation to the Truth teachers.
However, the important words in this verse we need to consider are the words ‘knowing’ & ‘listening.’
Meaning of the word ‘knowing’ in Greek language is: Ginosko. To be aware of something, or to feel something, to perceive, to be sure, or to understand. So what’s important about this word is it has understanding in it. You canno know something unless you understand something or someone.
E.g. If a doctor has had the knowledge of how to treat a patient he knows how to handle a patient. But even if a doctor has a knowledge of treating a patient and if he does not practice his knowledge; nobody will know him as a doctor.
Therefore, if we ‘know’ something our behaviour needs to change by it. If our behaviour does not change by that knowledge then we have not acquired that knowledge. Therefore the knowledge that John is talking about is not just an outward knowledge of somebody or something. It is an in depth knowledge of God that John is talking about.
This tells us that the audience that John was talking about was an audience that has a deep knowledge of God. Those who have the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.
Similar thing applies with listening. In the original Greek language the word ‘listen’ is a verb (ik`xyaapad) ‘akouo.’ Now if a word is a verb then there is some activity involved. That’s why it’s called a verb.
Imp: This tells us that the kind of listening John was talking about was active. You might say what is active listening? Active listening means listening by your ears and understanding by your mind and getting influenced in your heart and then doing according to what you have heard with your ears, understood with your hearts. This is the kind of listening John was talking about.
Example:
E.g. many years back we had a boy coming to our Church. Whenever we had teaching sessions with him; he would always nod his head in agreement at the same time he would be looking somewhere else. I was wondering if whatever was taught was understood by him or not. Because he was hearing with his ears but his mind was always wandering. One day it was clear to us when he told us that he wanted to leave the Church.
In John’s words he is saying that whoever knows God not only listens outwardly but understands inwardly and then does accordingly. That is active listening. So this makes us to examine our own listening to the messages at Kolhapur Bible Church. Is it just about listening by our ears or understanding with our hearts? Therefore our prayers have always been that we would not only become hearers of the Word but the doers of the Word as well.
Just to give some more examples about knowing and listening. Matt 13:14-15, “In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, And will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, And will in no way perceive: For this people's heart has grown callous, Their ears are dull of hearing, They have closed their eyes; Or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their heart, And should turn again; And I would heal them.'
So in the end what John is saying is: whoever knows God listens to God or listens to His people. And John was the one who had seen Jesus Christ face to face; therefore he had the first hand knowledge about who God is. And he had not only known Jesus Christ but he had experienced His power in his own life. And then he had listened to His words face to face.
The third thing that John lays out about the Truth teachers is:
Their Opponents: vs. 6c
Notice the next sentence in that verse, John says, “...whoever does not know God does not listen to us...”
To give a simple description of this sentence. It’s everything opposite to what John had said in the previous sentence. “...whoever does not know God does not listen to us...”
When Jesus was confronting the Jews and the Pharisees in John 8:47 He also said the similar words. He said, “Whoever is of God (meaning, who knows God) hears the Words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God (meaning, you do not know God).”
Now there words of Jesus to Pharisees and the Jews were a slap on their face. Because all their lives they had claimed to have known God through Abraham. It was too much for them to face this.
At the same time Jesus said something very important about listening, when he was brought to Pontius Pilate; he asked Jesus the question about the Truth. John 18:37, “Then Pilate said to Him, “so you are a King? Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world- to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
In conclusion what John was saying in his letter was: those who do not know God will not hear the Words of God. The reason why many people do not listen to the Word of God is because Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “Now the natural man doesn't receive the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can't know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Speaking about the people who were causing confusion in the Church. John says they are doing what they are doing because they do not know God. That’s why he says if they knew God then they would listen to God and His apostles.
And that’s the detection; that is the measuring scale that those who do not listen to God are not from God and if they are not of God then they are of the devil.
Application:
As I bring this message to conclusion I remember a story of two men. They had an argument. To settle the matter, they went to a Sufi judge for arbitration. The plaintiff made his case. He was very eloquent and persuasive in his reasoning. When he finished, the judge nodded in approval and said, "That's right, that's right."
On hearing this, the defendant jumped up and said, "Wait a second, judge, you haven't even heard my side of the case yet." So the judge told the defendant to state his case. And he, too, was very persuasive and eloquent. When he finished, the judge said, "That's right, that's right."
When the clerk of court heard this, he jumped up and said, "Judge, they both can't be right." The judge looked at the clerk of court and said, "That's right, that's right."
Now, my question to is: what are you going to do with the truth that you have received today? You cannot be like that judge saying that both the parties are right just because both sound convincing. You have to discern the Truth.
You cannot serve the world and Jesus at the same time. The truth that you have heard here must be understood by you. It must be applied by you to your own life.
To do that you must be born again. Have you been born again? Have you given your life to Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sins and pleaded for forgiveness to Jesus Christ?
And I believe God has called us to be swimmers upstream. The Salmon fish always swims upstream; i.e. it swims against the current. It swims against the flow. And that is what God has called us to do as Christians. We are to be the people who swim upstream. Like Salmon we are to swim against the flow of the false teaching that is going on around us.
Speaking about John and his readers; they also were surrounded by such a people that were professing to be Christians but did not reflect in their lifestyle. John’s readers could see that the world was going in one direction and they were going in exactly the opposite direction. The world around them was full of immorality and evil; but John was telling his followers to swim opposite to the current. He was telling his readers to swim opposite to the flow of the world.
Therefore the messages that we have so far heard are all about swimming opposite to the current. Because the call for discernment is not just so that we would become good Biblical Discerners but so that we would follow where ever the discernment leads us. So, once again the title for today’s message is.
A Call for Discernment Part-IV
- The Origin of Truth Teachers: vs. 6a
- Their Audience: vs. 6b
- Their Opponents: vs. 6c
As we begin this message let me give you a recap of the last Sunday’s message. So that we understand the context in which John was writing this letter.
Last Sunday we examined vs. 5. In this verse we looked at 3 aspects of the false teachers that John told his readers to be aware of. Those 3 aspects were; 1. The origin of false teachers; 2. The origin of their message;
3. Their Audience.
In verse 6 John gives the opposite aspects of what he had given in vs. 5.
Notice verse 6, “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.”
Again, if we compare vs. 6 with vs. 5; John is giving the similar aspects of those people who are of the Truth. In the sense that they also had origin and they also had the audience.
So the first aspect John gives about the Truth teachers is, “Their Origin.” Notice John’s words in the first sentence of the verse, he says, “We are from God...” in the first part of vs. 5 he said, “They are from the world...” the word ‘they’ in vs. 5 refers to the false teachers and in vs. 6 the word ‘we’ refers to John himself, the other apostles and his readers. Because one verse earlier in vs. 4 he did the same thing. He assured his readers that, “...you are from God.”
A couple of Sundays we have explained to you what it means to be from God. But let me do that once again; to have a better understanding of that phrase. To be ‘from God’ means to be ‘born of God.’ To be ‘from God’ means to ‘belong to the family of God.’ To be ‘from God’ means to have the ‘Spirit of God’ in a particular person, who is a believer. To be from God means to have a personal and intimate relationship with God.
We need to notice John’s words carefully because he refers to himself as ‘we’. It is because, so that his readers would understand that John was not the only one who was preaching and teaching the Truth. But there were many other who had gone ahead of him. There were other apostles who preached and taught the same thing John was doing.
Now we need to understand what John is not saying. He is not saying that we are from God because we preach and teach the truth. But we teach the Truth because we are from God.
With all of this information in our mind we need to ask a question. Why was John telling his readers that he and the other apostles were from God? Because by writing these words John was drawing a line of distinction between truth and falsehood. Another reason could be that his readers would not fall into the same trap once again. We have heard about that last Sunday. However, what is important for us to see is what other apostles had to say about it?
I am sure more than any other apostle Paul had a lot to say about the false doctrine than anybody else. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Examine everything, and hold fast to what is good.” In other words Paul told his followers to test everything. And to this test John was calling his reader’s attention. Again In Ephesians 4:14 Paul says, “that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the viles of error.”
So the reason why John was writing these things to his readers was; that they had been tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine.
And by these words John was establishing the truth that his teaching was from God. “We are from God...” John said.
The second aspect of the Truth teachers John was laying down was:
In verse 6 John gives the opposite aspects of what he had given in vs. 5.
Notice verse 6, “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.”
Again, if we compare vs. 6 with vs. 5; John is giving the similar aspects of those people who are of the Truth. In the sense that they also had origin and they also had the audience.
So the first aspect John gives about the Truth teachers is, “Their Origin.” Notice John’s words in the first sentence of the verse, he says, “We are from God...” in the first part of vs. 5 he said, “They are from the world...” the word ‘they’ in vs. 5 refers to the false teachers and in vs. 6 the word ‘we’ refers to John himself, the other apostles and his readers. Because one verse earlier in vs. 4 he did the same thing. He assured his readers that, “...you are from God.”
A couple of Sundays we have explained to you what it means to be from God. But let me do that once again; to have a better understanding of that phrase. To be ‘from God’ means to be ‘born of God.’ To be ‘from God’ means to ‘belong to the family of God.’ To be ‘from God’ means to have the ‘Spirit of God’ in a particular person, who is a believer. To be from God means to have a personal and intimate relationship with God.
We need to notice John’s words carefully because he refers to himself as ‘we’. It is because, so that his readers would understand that John was not the only one who was preaching and teaching the Truth. But there were many other who had gone ahead of him. There were other apostles who preached and taught the same thing John was doing.
Now we need to understand what John is not saying. He is not saying that we are from God because we preach and teach the truth. But we teach the Truth because we are from God.
With all of this information in our mind we need to ask a question. Why was John telling his readers that he and the other apostles were from God? Because by writing these words John was drawing a line of distinction between truth and falsehood. Another reason could be that his readers would not fall into the same trap once again. We have heard about that last Sunday. However, what is important for us to see is what other apostles had to say about it?
I am sure more than any other apostle Paul had a lot to say about the false doctrine than anybody else. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Examine everything, and hold fast to what is good.” In other words Paul told his followers to test everything. And to this test John was calling his reader’s attention. Again In Ephesians 4:14 Paul says, “that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the viles of error.”
So the reason why John was writing these things to his readers was; that they had been tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine.
And by these words John was establishing the truth that his teaching was from God. “We are from God...” John said.
The second aspect of the Truth teachers John was laying down was:
Their Audience: vs 6b
Notice the second part of the verse. “Whoever knows God listens to us...” once again if you compare vs. 5 with vs. 6 John is saying the same thing. But this time it’s in relation to the Truth teachers.
However, the important words in this verse we need to consider are the words ‘knowing’ & ‘listening.’
Meaning of the word ‘knowing’ in Greek language is: Ginosko. To be aware of something, or to feel something, to perceive, to be sure, or to understand. So what’s important about this word is it has understanding in it. You canno know something unless you understand something or someone.
E.g. If a doctor has had the knowledge of how to treat a patient he knows how to handle a patient. But even if a doctor has a knowledge of treating a patient and if he does not practice his knowledge; nobody will know him as a doctor.
Therefore, if we ‘know’ something our behaviour needs to change by it. If our behaviour does not change by that knowledge then we have not acquired that knowledge. Therefore the knowledge that John is talking about is not just an outward knowledge of somebody or something. It is an in depth knowledge of God that John is talking about.
This tells us that the audience that John was talking about was an audience that has a deep knowledge of God. Those who have the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.
Similar thing applies with listening. In the original Greek language the word ‘listen’ is a verb (ik`xyaapad) ‘akouo.’ Now if a word is a verb then there is some activity involved. That’s why it’s called a verb.
Imp: This tells us that the kind of listening John was talking about was active. You might say what is active listening? Active listening means listening by your ears and understanding by your mind and getting influenced in your heart and then doing according to what you have heard with your ears, understood with your hearts. This is the kind of listening John was talking about.
Example:
E.g. many years back we had a boy coming to our Church. Whenever we had teaching sessions with him; he would always nod his head in agreement at the same time he would be looking somewhere else. I was wondering if whatever was taught was understood by him or not. Because he was hearing with his ears but his mind was always wandering. One day it was clear to us when he told us that he wanted to leave the Church.
In John’s words he is saying that whoever knows God not only listens outwardly but understands inwardly and then does accordingly. That is active listening. So this makes us to examine our own listening to the messages at Kolhapur Bible Church. Is it just about listening by our ears or understanding with our hearts? Therefore our prayers have always been that we would not only become hearers of the Word but the doers of the Word as well.
Just to give some more examples about knowing and listening. Matt 13:14-15, “In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, And will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, And will in no way perceive: For this people's heart has grown callous, Their ears are dull of hearing, They have closed their eyes; Or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their heart, And should turn again; And I would heal them.'
So in the end what John is saying is: whoever knows God listens to God or listens to His people. And John was the one who had seen Jesus Christ face to face; therefore he had the first hand knowledge about who God is. And he had not only known Jesus Christ but he had experienced His power in his own life. And then he had listened to His words face to face.
The third thing that John lays out about the Truth teachers is:
Their Opponents: vs. 6c
Notice the next sentence in that verse, John says, “...whoever does not know God does not listen to us...”
To give a simple description of this sentence. It’s everything opposite to what John had said in the previous sentence. “...whoever does not know God does not listen to us...”
When Jesus was confronting the Jews and the Pharisees in John 8:47 He also said the similar words. He said, “Whoever is of God (meaning, who knows God) hears the Words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God (meaning, you do not know God).”
Now there words of Jesus to Pharisees and the Jews were a slap on their face. Because all their lives they had claimed to have known God through Abraham. It was too much for them to face this.
At the same time Jesus said something very important about listening, when he was brought to Pontius Pilate; he asked Jesus the question about the Truth. John 18:37, “Then Pilate said to Him, “so you are a King? Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world- to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
In conclusion what John was saying in his letter was: those who do not know God will not hear the Words of God. The reason why many people do not listen to the Word of God is because Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “Now the natural man doesn't receive the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can't know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Speaking about the people who were causing confusion in the Church. John says they are doing what they are doing because they do not know God. That’s why he says if they knew God then they would listen to God and His apostles.
And that’s the detection; that is the measuring scale that those who do not listen to God are not from God and if they are not of God then they are of the devil.
Application:
As I bring this message to conclusion I remember a story of two men. They had an argument. To settle the matter, they went to a Sufi judge for arbitration. The plaintiff made his case. He was very eloquent and persuasive in his reasoning. When he finished, the judge nodded in approval and said, "That's right, that's right."
On hearing this, the defendant jumped up and said, "Wait a second, judge, you haven't even heard my side of the case yet." So the judge told the defendant to state his case. And he, too, was very persuasive and eloquent. When he finished, the judge said, "That's right, that's right."
When the clerk of court heard this, he jumped up and said, "Judge, they both can't be right." The judge looked at the clerk of court and said, "That's right, that's right."
Now, my question to is: what are you going to do with the truth that you have received today? You cannot be like that judge saying that both the parties are right just because both sound convincing. You have to discern the Truth.
You cannot serve the world and Jesus at the same time. The truth that you have heard here must be understood by you. It must be applied by you to your own life.
To do that you must be born again. Have you been born again? Have you given your life to Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sins and pleaded for forgiveness to Jesus Christ?
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