“OUR AWESOME STRENGTH”

Religion

I John 4:1-6

VOICES! There are so many voices that are trying to get our attention. There are voices at school that tell about how the world functions. Through the media we hear voices that tell us what is going on in the world about us. At home we hear voices that tell us what life is all about. In the community we hear voices that try to involve us in various aspects of life. In church we hear voices that tell us about life’s realities. Behind all of these voices there are only two sources from which they speak. It is either God or Satan. Everything can be traced back to one or the other in terms of truth.

In the first two chapters of the Bible only God is speaking. In the last two chapters of the Bible only God is speaking. But in between the beginning and the ending of Holy Scripture there is another voice that is powerful and permeates everything. It is the voice of Satan. In the lives of fallen humanity the voice of evil allures. All people who accept the biblical revelation of truth accept the reality of this evil voice in our lives.

It is interesting that the Bible only records three times that Satan speaks. But these three times unleashed his power and influence in the world that affects our thinking up to the present moment.

The first time he spoke is recorded in Genesis 3:1. He said, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” Here, Satan is diminishing God to man. He diminishes God’s being as creator, God’s word as law, God’s direction as reliable, and God’s authority as justified. He suggests that God is withholding something that is good. He contradicts what God has said, “You will not surely die…for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4)

Today, Satan is still diminishing God in the eyes of man. He still questions whether God has any right to tell you how you ought to live your life. He still says to us that God is withholding something good from us. He still proclaims that we do not need to feel accountable to God.

The second recorded time that Satan spoke is in Job 1:9. He said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Here, Satan is diminishing man to God. He is telling God that man serves God simply for what he can get out of it. Man does not love God and he will turn on God and curse him when he feels that God is not blessing him anymore.

The third time that Satan speaks is recorded in Luke 4:1-13. “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread…The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you will worship me, it will all be yours…If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here…

In these temptations of Jesus, Satan was trying to divert him from his purpose of redeeming man from his sin. After these sayings, the voice of Satan is never recorded again. But we see evidence in Scripture and in history that Satan is speaking to every generation. And he is speaking to us. This brings us to the teaching of John as to how we are to listen to the voices that are speaking to us.

To protect ourselves, we must know what we believe ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL AND THE DIVINE (V.1)

The apostle John says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because false prophets have gone out into the world.”

A young woman goes to visit a psychic. She tell the psychic that she wants to know about her future. To demonstrate authenticity, the psychic tells her something about her past that no one could possibly know. She then will believe what the psychic tells her will happen. The whole experience puts her life on a certain course. Is this from God because the psychic talks of God? It could not be from God because he tells us in Scripture not to visit those who are used of evil spirits. Leviticus 19:31 says, “Do not turn to mediums, or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.” In Leviticus 20:6 the Lord says, “I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.” In Deuteronomy 18:10 we read, “Let no one be found among you…who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or cast spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.” Isaiah says, “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritist, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God?”

But someone will say, “But my psychic used the name of God and spoke of angels. Is not this supernatural?” Yes, it is supernatural, but it is not Divine supernatural. It is the evil supernatural that has powers to pull our lives away from God. You see, there are only two realms, the Satanic realm and the Godly realm. One of these is behind all of the voices that speak to us.

There is much emphasis on angels today. To be sure, we have not recognized enough the part that angels play in our lives. But we have to be careful. I receive a mail promotion that proposed to tell me how I can know my personal guardian angel. As I read what they had to say, the Holy Spirit impressed me that this was not of God.

The Psychic websites on the internet bid you to call them to find out amazing things about your future. But the reason that God forbids such a practice is that it will take your life out from under his control and give it over to the evil supernatural forces to direct you. The same is true of horoscopes.
WE NEED TO SEE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR (vv.2-3).

But what about a preacher you might hear on the radio or on television or in church? John warns that there are many false prophets. I heard about a man who occupies a Baptist pulpit who does not believe in the reality of our resurrected Lord who showed his hands and feet to his disciples. He said, “That is an old wives tale.” He went on to explain, “There is no such place as hell.” Was he speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

John says, “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every Spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” John was addressing a specific gnostic heresy that said that Jesus could not be God for all matter is evil and God could not have a human body as Jesus had.

Satan’s voice is heard loudly in the land proclaiming on many fronts that Jesus is not the Messiah, that he is not the Son of God, that he is not the Savior of the world. You hear it in the meeting places of various cults, in academia, in the media, in the press, and in unbelieving people in society at large.

George Bernard Shaw wrote: “The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its councils, which should have established the millennium, led directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of missions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.” He wrote that as he saw the devastation of war.

How can we explain what is going on today? In response to the idea that there is no devil, Billy Graham told this story: A certain boxer was being badly beaten in a match. Battered and bruised, he leaned over the ropes and said to his trainer, “Please throw in the towel! This guy is killing me!” The trainer responded, “Oh no, he is not. He is not even hitting you.” And the boxer replied, “Well then, I wish you would watch that referee-someone is hitting me!”

Someone sure is hitting us! Vernon Charlesworth wrote: “Men don’t believe in a devil now, as their fathers used to do, they reject one creed because it is old, another because it’s new.
There’s not a print of his cloven foot, nor a fiery dart from his bow to be found in the earth or air today! At least they declare it so. But who is it that mixes the fatal draught, that palsies heart and brain, and loads the bier of each passing year, with it hundred thousand slain?

But who blights the bloom of the land today, with the fiery breath of hell? If it isn’t the devil what does the work, who does? Won’t somebody tell? Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint? Who spreads the net for his feet? Who sows the tares in the world’s broad field where the Savior sows his wheat?
If the devil voted not to be is the verdict therefore true? Someone is surely doing the work the devil was thought to do. They may say the devil has never lived, they may say that the devil is gone, But simple people would like to know who carries this business on?

Can you tell the difference in the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error? Do you know which voice is speaking to you?

WE NEED TO KNOW OUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES (vv.4-6)
John teaches us, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” Most of us know our weaknesses, but do you know how strong you can be? The One who is in you is the Holy Spirit. He is greater that all of the Satanic forces that are arrayed against you. But some people have never learned to us the power they have. This is what we have to do with the power that is within us. Here are some ways to become strong in the Lord:

First, we have to come into the presence of the Lord. There we are reminded that He is in and with us and that nothing will be impossible for us to overcome. Second, we have to release our inner being to the Lord and focus our spiritual strength on the matter before us. We must do as the early Christians who looked at the cross and said, “In this sign we will conquer!” Third, we must declare in our spirits, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!”

Praise be to his NAME!

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