FaithLife with Pastor Earl and Friends
1 John 4:11-17
Marks of a True Christian
'Hi and welcome to another broadcast of faith life with Pastor Earl and friends. You are the friends because we are first of all friends of Jesus, and when we're friends of Jesus we are forever friends. We may be disappointed with one another down here occasionally, but when we all get to heaven and we're with Jesus then we can enjoy a new life, eternal life, with Jesus our Lord and our family, the family of God, those that have received Christ as their Lord and Savior. We want to share with you out of 1 John chapter 4 and what we're looking at in 1 John 4 are several subjects, one is loving one another, loving God, and then also how can we know the difference between a true Christian and somebody that's not. My job and your job is not to be the judge, God is the ultimate judge. This past summer is just amazing to me, several major, major ministries encompassing hundreds of thousands of people have lost their leaders or their leaders have either stepped down or have been replaced due to immorality or sin or whatever and really that shouldn't be named among saints, I understand that none of us is perfect, but particularly when you're in the role of a shepherd, we are called to a higher standard and many ask when they see people that have very, very large ministries and they say, "Well, they have to be a Christian." Well, that's not necessarily so. We're in Matthew 5 through 7, Jesus said, "Many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, haven't we done this and that?' and accomplished many things, and then the Lord said to some of them, "I never knew you." So knowing the Lord is the most important thing and as we're looking at 1 John, we're learning that the word 'no' means to know Him by experience and also to know Him absolutely. We just know Him. And so if you're questioning your salvation, make your calling an election sure. It involves repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ and if you have not, take in those steps stirred by the Holy Spirit who will call you to salvation, then you need to do that. If there's any doubt in your mind, don't doubt, be sure that you are a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. My wife bought a t-shirt and it says, 'I am a child of God.' I think that's just a wonderful declaration that we are not really hung up on our denominations or anything but because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we have been born again. Now we are having God as our Father and we are His sons and daughters and we're His children. So as we look at 1 John 4, let me back up to verse 11, it says, 'Beloved, if God so loved us,' I love that the addition of the word so loved us. He loved us as John 3, 16 says, 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him puts their trust in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life.' So have you placed your trust in Jesus, I hope that you have, I pray that you have. So in this verse it says, 'Beloved, God's loved ones. If God so loved us, we all also,' the word is we have this spiritual and moral obligation to love one another. And the love there is of course the Greek word, the agape, root for the word, which is the highest form of love, the kind of love that God has toward us, agape love. We've heard of another kind of love, Fileto love, that's the love of a brother, but here we ought to love one another with a God kind of love, loving, caring, forgiving, sacrificing, and the one in others I shared with you, there are probably about 20 of the one in others in the New Testament that tell us how to treat one another, love one another, forgive one another, serve one another, etc. and we call that body life, we say what do you mean by that? Well, body life is in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we've been placed into the body of Christ. Body of Christ number one was when Jesus came and He shed His blood and He gave His life for us, and now we make up what's called the body of Christ. And as we are each members one of another Christ is the head of the body, and we see this analogy in 1 Corinthians the 12th chapter. So we ought to love one another and then in verse 12, even though God may be and is invisible doesn't mean that you can't believe in Him and the illustration I use often when talking to children about a God that they can't see, as I said, He's like the wind, can you see the wind, no, but you can see the effects of the wind, and if the wind is in a tornado or the wind is in a hurricane or it's just blowing very strong, you may not be able to see the wind, but you sure may sure will be able to see the power of the wind. When God is invisible, He made Himself visible when He came and became Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. John 1-1 in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and in verse 14 it said the Word, God became flesh and dwelt among us, that was Jesus, and we beheld the glory of the Father full of grace and truth, but in verse 12 it says no man had seen God at any time, of course there's the illustration as we shared the last time of Moses when he saw the back of our Lord, and there's Philip who asked the question to Jesus and said show us the Father, and Jesus said he that had seen me had seen the Father, but if we love one another, see that should be the mark of a true Christian that we genuinely love one another and the family of God. If we love one another, God dwells in us, the word dwell is He remains in us, and His love is perfected or accomplished in us. So God has poured out His love for us in Romans 5, it talks all about that, God demonstrated His love toward us while we were at sinners Christ died for us, and so He gave His life and showed us love, and now He's given us the capacity to love supernaturally. That is the mark of a true believer, we're talking about ministers as well, the mark of a true minister of Jesus Christ, is He's not all in it for Himself, self-glory, self-interest, self-acquisitions, but He's in it to serve the other sheep of the flock. We are under shepherds of Jesus our Lord and Savior and chief shepherd. Verse 13 says that's the indicator that we are believers, true believers, hereby know experientially, absolutely, that we dwell in Him, that we remain in Him. It's kind of something that cannot be separated, that we're in Him and He's in us, and that's the most just hard to explain, and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. Now this is a most important point, if you are a true Christian and have genuinely repented of your sins and received Christ as your Lord and Savior by faith, the Holy Spirit would be placed into your heart and life God Himself, He's called in revelation the seven spirits of God. There's only one Holy Spirit, but Isaiah 11, and I believe it's verse two, talk about the seven dimensions or aspects of the Holy Spirit, but true believers, we're not known by our denomination, we're known by whether or not we have the Holy Spirit in us, and when I see believers who are just mean all the time, unloving, unforgiving, uncaring, then I really question, are they genuinely saved, I'm not judging them, because if you are genuinely saved you have His Holy Spirit in you. Verse two thirty eight, repent and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, also talked about as the Comforter, the one called alongside to help John 14 through 16, and Ephesians 5, though He is now inhabiting us, we must experience His in-filling, the in-filling of the Spirit is every day we ask the Lord, Lord, fill me with Thy Spirit. And it's like a sailboat that doesn't have any wind, it's not going anywhere, it won't be energized, it won't be moved, but all when the wind of the Holy Spirit catches the sails, that's us, that's our openness and availability to the Holy Spirit, powerful things happen. There are some churches that do not speak about the Holy Spirit, do not teach about the Holy Spirit, and do not really allow Him to work. Like a dove, they keep Him in a cage and they tell about Him, but they never allow Him to be released to do what He does best. It says in verse 14, "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." What was the plan of God? The plan of God was to save mankind, and so the Father sent His only begotten, unique one-of-a-kind, virgin-born son, Jesus, into this world to give His life and be our Savior, to be the Savior, a deliverer of the world. In our men's Bible study, we were studying first Peter 1, and in the second verse it says, "We're elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and then because of the blood of Jesus." So there you see the Trinity involved in your salvation, that you have the Father calling us and choosing us, and you have the Son who gave His life for us, and then you have the Holy Spirit who set us apart for salvation and drew us to Jesus. Verse 15 says, "Whosoever shall confess," and the word confess, as we've learned, is Homo Logeto, I'm hoping pronouncing that right, to say the same thing, "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God," and remember in Romans 10, 9 to 11, 9 to 13, "You confess with your mouth Jesus says, 'Lord, and believe God has raised Him from the dead, you'll be saved.'" Well here it says, "Whosoever shall confess, agree with God about who Jesus is, that He is the Son of God." Now there's a certain group, the witnesses, that believe that He's a Son of God, but that's not true. He's the Son of God, and He's God the Son. It says, "God dwelleth in Him," so you must believe correctly, so that you will behave correctly, believing that Jesus is the Son of God. God dwells in Him, and He in God. You take that step of repentance, change your mind, will in direction, turn your heart in your life over to the Lord and put your faith in Him, and lock it in on Him, and you will be saved. And we have known and believed, verse 16, "The love that God hath to us, God is love." One of the things you'll learn as you grow in Christ, though we're living in very difficult times, though God never promised us we would use this cliche, a rose garden. He promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us. He never promised we wouldn't have hard times, He just promised that He would carry us through them, and though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we fear no evil for He's with us. So verse 16, "As we close today and we have known and believed, the love that God hath to us." As you go to sleep tonight, just think about that thought, "How much God loves you." I heard a teaching one time, it says, "When I think about how much I love God, I get disheartened and discouraged because I fail so much, but when I think about how God loves me with His unfailing love that just comforts me and tranquilizes my heart. And we have known and believed, the love that God had to us." See, He's not just some type of religious leader. Our God is a God, see, I don't care if everybody in the world I do care. Every other ministry defects from the faith. My faith is not in ministers or ministries. My faith is in God Himself, and He has never failed me nor will He. And we have known, so see, there's that confidence and believed. When you know something and believe something, nobody can change your mind. If somebody tried to argue with me or convince me that Jesus was not the Lord and not my Savior, they would just be barking up their own tree, another cliche. But we've known and believed, because you can't talk me out of what God has done for me, and that He's a supernatural miracle-working God. And we've known and believed the love that God had to us, God is love. Don't let the devil twist your mind and listen to his thoughts as he's telling you that God doesn't love you, because God is love. It is his very essence, and he's at dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, in God, in Him. So you see this, that God is in us, and we are in God, and because that atmosphere of God is love, we will be loved, and we will have the capacity to love. Well thank you for listening today to Faith Life, and I'm Pastor Earl, and I really want you to come to Christ if you don't know Him, you're not sure. So would you pray this prayer with me, dear Lord, I want to be sure that I'm a child of God. I want to say that with confidence, I want to know that, Lord. And so right now I repent of my sins, I change my mind, my will, my direction, from my sinful ways and my way of thinking. And I receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, help me to live for you, Lord, every day of my life. So this is Pastor Earl, and you can connect with me via email at carrismanchasmlan1234@gmail.com or text me at 386-795-8494. And will you pray for this ministry, and should the Holy Spirit lead you to support us so that we can expand this ministry and go into other markets? You can contact me through email or through the cell. Text only. Well God loves you, and I love you, and have a blessed day. [MUSIC PLAYING]