INTRODUCTION…

We’ve spent the last 6 weeks learning how we can know that we have eternal life. Today we are going to take some time to address the enemy of our souls and unpack why deception and confusion in all of this actually exists

1. THERE IS AN UNSEEN, SPIRITUAL WORLD ALL AROUND US…AND WE ARE INTRICATELY INVOLVED IN IT…

— SPIRITUAL WORLD REALITY:
Here’s the point…there is a lot going on around us that we do not see. There is a spiritual, invisible world around us that is just as real as the visible world, yet it is far more powerful.
--- An Example… READ 2 Kings 6:8-23 || Elisha and his servant…

— ANGELS GOOD AND BAD:
The Bible teaches there are vast numbers of angels, both good and bad, spirits that exist all around us. There are glorious beings right now, all around us, that would take our breath away if we saw them. And there are evil beings that would horrify us right now if we could see them.

— STRANGE ENCOUNTERS:
Maybe you have heard of people having encounters with supernatural beings…maybe that stuff just seems crazy, or at the very least uncommon or weird. You might think it only happens séances or Ouija boards or tarot cards, or maybe in some remote parts of the world—but not in everyday, middle class American life. And that’s the point. We don’t live in the everyday reality of the unseen spiritual world all around us. I have experienced it personally…I can attest that it is real. Just think about the way the Bible talks about the spiritual battle going on in our lives every day…

Ephesians 6:12
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.”

Hebrews 12:4
"In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood"

1 Peter 2:11
"Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul."

Philippians 1:29-30
"29 For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are engaged in the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I have || Jude 3 || 3 Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all."

1 Timothy 6:12
"12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you have made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses."

2 Timothy 4:7
"I fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

James 4:7
"Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

— DON’T IGNORE SPIRITUAL REALITY:
We cannot ignore this reality in our lives. If you try to avoid this war or act like it isn’t real…if you sit back in a lazy, lackadaisical, comfortable, cultural Christianity, pretending like there is no struggle to be had or war to be fought…then you will not stand. You will waver, you will falter and you will fall. Why? Because our enemy is strong.

2. OUR ENEMY IN THIS SPIRITUAL WAR IS STRONG, STRATEGIC AND DECEPTIVE…

— HORNS AND PITCHFORKS:
He does not appear with red tights and a pitchfork in hand, announcing himself as the deceiver. That’s not how the devil tempts us. He comes in much more attractive ways than that. Look at how he deceived Adam and Eve…

Genesis 3:6
“The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

— SPIRITUAL DECEIVERS:
There are all kinds of things and ideas that look good in this world that will steal you away from God. This is why the Old Testament is filled with stories of false prophets. The New Testament is filled with warnings against them.

1 Timothy 4:1
“Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons…”

Matthew 7:15
“Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.”

Ephesians 4:14
“…tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

Ephesians 5:6
“Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things.

Galatians 6:7 & James 1:16
“Do not be deceived . . .”

Acts 20:29-31a
“29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them. 31 Therefore be on the alert…”

— FRUSTRATION:
As a side note, one of the things that’s so frustrating about the way the enemy works is that he keeps many of us from even acknowledging the spiritual world even EXISTS, or that it has any bearing on OUR day to day life. But then, when we do acknowledge the spiritual, he tempts us to think, speak and act in all kinds of weird ways about spiritual things. C.S. Lewis said it best:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”-- C.S. Lewis

3. IN LIGHT OF THIS SPIRITUAL WAR…WE HAVE TO TEST EVERYTHING & TRUST IN THE TRUTH OF JESUS…

1 John 4:1-3
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but TEST the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that CONFESSES THAT JESUS CHRIST has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.”

— DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING:
TEST it to see if what is being taught about Jesus is TRUE || The whole point of 1 John 4:1-6 is to make it clear that we don’t have to be confused/deceived—if we do these two things…TEST AND TRUST…

A1. TEST EVERYTHING…—> TEST Everything you HEAR…
[INCLUDING FROM ME AND OTHER PASTORS YOU LISTEN TO…don’t believe everything]
— TEST THE SPIRITS:
There are spirits from God and spirits from this world; we need to know which is which. There are “MANY FALSE PROPHETS”…So we “test.” In the GREEK "test" MEANS…purity of a metal…to examine something to find out its quality and origin…where does it come from? Is it a spirit from God or not?

2 Timothy 4:3-4
“For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

— DANGEROUS TERRITORY:
All of us have a bent to listen to what we want to hear, to ignore the stuff/truth that doesn’t suit our preferences, our passions, our lifestyles and our loves. People want to hear things that reinforce their own sinful beliefs and behaviors. || Make no mistake…False prophets/teachers, are active today…not just cults and false religions, but pastors and teachers that claim to be ‘christian’

A2.—> TEST EVERYTHING…—> TEST Everything you THINK…

2 Corinthians 10:4-5
“…since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ . . .”

— OUR MIND IS THE BATTLEFIELD:
The spiritual battle happens in your mind…everything starts there…it is where information is processed, arguments are made, temptations are planted, opinions are raised against the Word of God and decisions are made to obey and follow or disobey and do our own thing. SO we have to take every thought captive to OBEY CHRIST!
--- This is spiritual warfare: examining our thoughts, examining everything we think.

B. TRUST IN THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS REVEALED IN GOD’S WORD…

1 John 4:2-3
“2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.”

— JOHN’S EXAMPLE:
Remember he was trying to refute gnosticism (flesh is evil) that taught Jesus didn’t have a physical body. This was a specific example that referred to any teaching that distorted who Jesus was.

— Q: SO HOW DO WE TEST WHETHER A MESSAGE OR MESSENGER IS FROM GOD? By doing the same thing > testing what the message is about Jesus according to what he has revealed in his Word. And this is the true message about Jesus: HE is FULLY HUMAN and He is FULLY GOD and HE ALONE is able to SAVE us from our SINS and restore our relationship with God.

John 1:1-4, 14
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men…14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

1 John 2:2
“He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.”

Ephesians 2:8-9
“8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift ​— ​9 not from works, so that no one can boast.”

--- If anyone twists and distorts this truth about Jesus, they are not from God but Satan.

— FALSE RELIGIONS:
Again, John was correcting the wrong beliefs that were plaguing the churches around Ephesus (Gnosticism) but the principle still applies today in all religions that distort the truth about Jesus. I want to be clear…every religion and every teacher that distorts the person of Jesus is not from God but from Satan. And that means pastors who claim to be christians teaching from the Bible. We have to be discerning…I don’t have time to do a ‘COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS’ class right now, but lets just look at a few…

-- ISLAM: Muslims completely deny that Jesus is God in the flesh. They believe that Jesus is a prophet, but He is not God. That is false teaching about Jesus. But it’s not just Islam. It’s many who claim to be Christian as well, specifically Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

-- JEHOVAHS WITNESS: Officially teach that Jesus was created as the archangel Michael before the world existed, that Jesus is a created man and a lesser God Who never physically rose from the dead and has already come back invisibly to the world in 1914.

-- MORMONS: Officially teach that Jesus was the firstborn spirit child of the heavenly Father and a heavenly mother. As such, Jesus is a secondary God, under God the Father. He didn’t possess deity in Himself, but He progressed to deity in the spiritual. In a similar way, you and I can also become gods by keeping particular Mormon rituals. There are billions of people who believe false teaching about Jesus, many of whom are giving their lives far more zealously than we are to spread it.

— ONLY ONE TRUTH:
(Jesus said he is the truth) and we need to trust the truth about what Jesus revealed about himself in his Word. We need to believe it, compare everything to it and be discerning…

4. BUT GREAT NEWS! OUR WEAPONS IN THIS SPIRITUAL WAR ARE STRONGER!…

1 John 4:4-6
"4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the WORLD. Therefore what they say is from the WORLD, and the WORLD listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.”

— WE ARE NOT ULTIMATELY TRYING TO WIN…JESUS HAS ALREADY WON!
You’re in a spiritual war every day… in your home, your workplace, your every word, your every desire, your every thought. BUT…In this war we have to trust in the truth about Jesus.Trust in the power of God’s Spirit. Trust in the Word that God has spoken to you and know that this week, in all of your battles with temptation, in all of your struggles with trials…

You’re not fighting FOR victory. You are fighting FROM victory!

— and there’s a big difference, because we know the end of this war is already set.

Revelation 12:9-11
9 So the great dragon was thrown out ​— ​the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down. 11 They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives to the point of death."



TRUST IN THE TRUTH about God’s Son.
TRUST IN THE POWER of God’s Spirit.
Then TRUST IN THE WORD GOD HAS SPOKEN knowing ultimately that the outcome of this spiritual war is sure.

RESPOND, REFLECT & COMMUNION

I would like to give you a chance to respond to God…

-- What did God reveal about who he is to you today in our time in God’s word?
-- What did God reveal about what he has done or is doing in our time in God’s word?
-- What did you learn about who you are as we looked at these stories today?
-- What did you learn about what you are supposed to do?

—> Let's take a minute to thank Him, respond to Him, confess our sins to Him, examine our hearts before we take communion...

—> WHAT IS JESUS SAYING TO YOU TODAY?
—> WHAT IS JESUS ASKING YOU TO DO?