Ramsey Creek Baptist Church

Test the spirits and teachers around you (vs. 1). In Matthew 7 Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” In 1 Corinthians there is reference to a gift of spiritual discernment, discerning perhaps by what spirit or type of spirit a person spoke in order to recognize imposters. A true believer affirms Christ’s full humanity and His full deity (vs. 2-3). By testing the spirits we can know if a teacher or a doctrine is from God; those who confess Jesus has come in the flesh are from God. The church has overcome false teachers because of the Father in us (vs. 4-6). In Matthew 7, Jesus directs us beyond the words of the teachers, pointing us to observe the lives of the teachers. Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Those who know the voice of the Shepherd abandon everything so that they can be with Him.

One evidence that a person is truly saved is that they genuinely & actively practice Christian love. For the believer, even when you’re convicted of sin and you’re broken-hearted about it – when your heart condemns you – the God who knows everything certainly knows the desires of your new heart even when your flesh fails to follow through. Our confidence is not based on performance, but on the evidence of His work in our hearts. When love for the brethren consistently springs out of our hearts, we can know & be confident that God is doing the kind of thing only He can do – changing a heart. The heart of a Christian asks according to God’s will [1 John 5:14]. - We know God’s love because of the person & work of Christ. - We know God’s presence because of the person & work of the Spirit. An encounter with Jesus takes us from death to life, and from separation from the body to love for the body.

John explained the kind of love that God hates in 2:15-17 (the patterns & desires of the world), and describes the kind of love He loves in 3:11-18 (the love that serves & sacrifices for another). No matter what a person says, how they love reveals what they really believe because practice/actions follows belief. The real test of having new life in Christ is loving the brethren. o Real love is seen in Christ laying down His life for us. o Real love shown in us laying down our lives for another. We know what real love looks like because we know what Jesus did. We practice real love by doing what Jesus did. Christ has not only set the example of sacrificial love, He enables Christians to love others the same way by His death on the cross.

According to John in this text, when we make a practice (commit/abide) in sin its because we don’t see Jesus for who He is or have a saving knowledge of Jesus. New birth in Christ means a new/changed relationship with sin. The substance of sin (v. 5), the source of sin (v. 8) and the self of sin (v. 9) are dealt with through the effort of Christ on the cross.

Jesus is coming again and every believer can have confidence before the throne of God on judgement day. No child of God is confident in themselves or their own work, but in the confidence they have by abiding in Christ. But the Spirit’s work doesn’t take the responsibility for right living out of the Christian’s hands, it gives power & perseverance to those hands. God’s action of regeneration causes the reaction of continued righteousness in a Christian. But our own righteousness is predicated on a recognition of Christ’s righteousness. If the action of regeneration has not happened, there will not be the reaction of pursuing or practicing righteousness. • Because Christ is pure, He is holy. • Because He is coming again. Pursuing holiness is the expected reaction to His action of salvation.

John's phrase " the last hour” signifies the period of time between Christ’s first coming and second coming. But we shouldn’t participate so heavily in a kind of "end times feeding frenzy" that we lose the perspective that Christ came to give us: “Go into all the world and preach the Good News, making disciples of all nations…” The fact that Jesus will come again SHOULD have an effect on us, but not of despair or wacky theology. Knowing and believing that Christ’s return is imminent should change the way we live. The anointing of the Spirit, the abiding Word of God, and the person & work of Jesus should give the believer confidence.

In this text John refers to perhaps the most talked about thing in the world: love. There's talk of love everywhere, but lots of times the kind of love referred to in our culture is NOT the same kind of love that God talks about in the Bible. When John says "Do not love the world..." I think he's referring to the lifestyle that is led by the “evil one” and is characterized by what he says in v.16 – the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. If a person is controlled by those things, then John makes it clear in the end of v.15 that they have fallen in love with the very thing that Gods hates. Love of the world & it’s sinful patterns is the kind of love that God hates, and it’s the love that we should hate, too. We need to believe God when He says in v.17 that the world & its desires are passing away, and it can never really satisfy us. - The one who loves the Father and not the world – that’s the one who’s eternity is se

The apostle John answers a really common question that most Christians ask themselves at some point: “How do I KNOW that I’m saved?” & “How do I KNOW that I know God?” [2:3]. John’s answer: “we keep His commands”. You know you know God if you do what He says, if you keep His word. And John goes on to explain what that looks like lived out: you will love others. There are plenty of things that are complicated and beyond our grasp of understanding, but I don’t think John’s teaching here is one of them. Comprehension is generally not our problem with living this out - motivation is. We aren’t convinced that the effort is worth the inconvenience of obedience. But it is, for the sake of Christ. Many of us are looking for assurance of salvation, and John is revealing 2 great principles: obedience and love. These are proofs of a person who is abiding in Christ. The sins of God's children are forgiven because of the atoning work of Christ

Christ, our Advocate.

There is no sin in God - there is no darkness in Him at all. This sounds so basic and simple and yet, all of Christian doctrine hangs on this truth. John uses the word "light" here to contrast God’s eternal holiness with mankind’s inherent darkness. If we are going to think correctly about God & Jesus, then we have to think correctly about sin. John addresses three unresolved sin problems when we: - we lie to others by our inconsistent walk - we lie to ourselves by our refusal to admit sin - we lie about God when we claim to be without sin For the person who recognizes their sin and confesses it, verse 9 tells us that God is faithful to forgive that person’s sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness, every bit of it.

He was “from the beginning” and is “the eternal life, which was with the Father”; there is never a time when Jesus has not been. But even more incredible is that the eternal Son of God humbled Himself in order to serve those whom He created. This is the beauty of the incarnation. Its not just some stuffy doctrinal defense of Christ’s divinity & humanity, it’s a full-blown celebration of the unbelievable unity & fellowship believers have with the God of the universe! Real & complete joy is found in the nature & work of Jesus Christ, and it’s expressed (lived out) in the fellowship of believers. Christ completes joy, and because His body is comprised of other believers, we need to be in fellowship with them in order to experience and express this joy properly. Church - God is glorified when we find our joy in Him together.

When we start to consider the things that are really important in life & have eternal value, we find that they are not really THINGS at all – they are the relationships we have. In John’s first letter he plainly tells us the truth about relationships, and shows us how to have relationships that are meaningful & real, for both now and eternity. You can know that you have been reconciled with the Father and have eternal life. His offer of salvation is real and it’s eternal, and according to Jesus in John 3 it hinges on belief. Belief is absolutely necessary, & our works done for the glory of God authenticate/prove our faith. Can we say with James that we show our faith (belief) by how we live (our works)? [James 2:18] 1 John was written so that we might be motivated to live out what we say we believe and so that we can KNOW we have eternal life.

It really is a shame that lots of people look at Ecclesiastes and see pessimism and a downer. As he’s drawing things to a close, Solomon informs us that it was actually written for our PLEASURE. God’s words and commands are intended to DELIGHT us! His words are also intended to “prod” us into action - that's what goads do. Shepherds use them to direct their herd down the proper path, away from those that lead to destruction. Fear God and keep His commands [v.13] – trust Him and obey Him. There’s importance in the order here. The evidence of trusting/fearing God is obedience, but you will never obey God if you don’t trust/fear Him. Why do we obey and why are we gladly wounded by the one Shepherd? Because the day of reckoning is coming. One day every action (deed) and every thought (secret thing) will be brought into judgment by God. The Good Shepherd uses the reality of our sin as a goad to drive us to the cross. Jesus lived the life we couldn’t a

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth” because you’re going to encounter life’s frailty and death’s certainty. “Remember your Creator” means trusting Him, obeying Him, and walking with Him. Remember by setting aside yourself and giving all of your life and all of your future and all of your opportunities to God.

We are not God who makes everything [v.5], so our job is to sow and sometimes to reap, but not to give the increase – only God does that (1 Cor. 3:7). As we trust and obey, we do things now for a reward that cannot be immediately seen. - We prepare and we plan financially, but it’s God who provides. - We do the work of ministry, but only God saves and gives any kind of increase. - We give generously with hope, but only God knows what the future holds. The pursuit of earthly pleasures using earthly gain can never lead to eternal joy. The Preacher is pushing us yet again to consider eternity. God’s judgement is real, and it’s coming. And because of this, we should live differently.

Ramsey Creek Baptist Church

When we’ve got a society that chooses the easy path instead of the right path, error will be found in every corner, from the highest places to the lowest. When wisdom is not valued, structures of authority in every area are affected. The danger for rulers is to unjustly gain from those they are in authority over, and the danger for all of us is the same - attempting to gain from someone else unjustly. What is obvious to the wise is not obvious to the foolish. May we be those who walk in wisdom.

Jesus is the Rescuer of His people, the One who delivered the little city by His wisdom but is not respected or remembered by the foolish. True wisdom is worth not being remembered. Wisdom tells us to speak truth in quiet to the few who are ready to listen rather than shouting our opinions from the biggest platform we can. It’s easy to be drawn into a shouting match these days, but this kind of behavior only reveals the deficiencies in our character, not the strengths of wisdom. Just as one wise man in a city can be its salvation, so one evil person can bring it to the ground. The fragrance of perfume can change from lovely to nasty with just a single dead fly, and the same is said in regards to your reputation with a single act of foolishness. Friends – be careful how you walk. [Eph. 5:1-10, 15]

"That's life". That's what we get told when we encounter a situation that's difficult or confusing, usually with no explanation. Even when we consider death, it's still a part of life. But does knowing that we will die one day impact how we live at all? It should, and it does. Despite how it looks at times, it DOES matter how we live because there is good, evil, and life after death. The reality is that facing the truth about death has a way of making us enjoy life more. Death can make life tragically meaningless or strikingly meaningful.

Believers walk by faith and not by sight [2 Cor. 5:7]. God knows and determines every one of our days, not any of us, no matter how hard we try. If anyone claims to know the mind of God and understand His works, he is a liar [v.17]. Solomon confesses that it seems like the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, but as we know, things aren’t always what they seem to be. The truth is that it will be well with the righteous, but it will not be well with the wicked. In Ecc. 8:10 the wicked person’s funeral is a big deal and they are praised in the city. In Is. 57:1 the righteous person’s funeral is unnoticed and they are seemingly forgotten. Though we don’t understand the times & ends of our life & deaths, undoubtedly God has a reason. For those who fear the Lord and go from us into His presence, remember that they are “entering into peace”, “possessing the land”, and “inheriting His holy mountain” like Isaiah 57 says. What a glorious com