The Power and Mystery of Biblical Fasting by Susan Gregory

The Power & Mystery of Biblical Fasting by Susan Gregory from The Daniel Cure Biblical fasting is always about abstaining from food — not refraining from activities such as using Facebook or watching television. Biblical fasting means refraining from all food or certain foods for a spiritual purpose for a limited period of time. The Hebrew word for “fast” is tsôwm (twoom), which means “to cover the mouth.” The Greek word for fast is nēstěuō (nace-tyoo-o), which means “to abstain from food.” A fast is a highly focused period of time when we examine our lives and seek to align ourselves with the ways of God. We do this by separating ourselves from our typical patterns and routines and entering a spiritual experience for a given time. Fasting is a spiritual discipline and the practice has tenets that we want to follow so we can be assured a successful experience. Fasting is temporary, which means it’s doable.Setting aside a specific and limited amount of time for fasting sharpens our focus on God. We then can enter more deeply into His truths. As we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit and purpose ourselves to learn from Him, our Father is able to minister to us as His precious children. The spiritual power we experience through fasting is a mystery. In the Bible, the term “mystery” refers specifically to insights and truths we understand only when God reveals them directly to our spirit. When we fast, we fully surrender ourselves to God — spirit, soul, and body. We submit our will to God, follow a set of guidelines about food, and open our hearts to this mystery. God miraculously uses our submission to strengthen us, empower us, fill us, and change us. We get a taste of what Jesus meant when He said, “You are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). When we fast we focus more of our attention on God through prayer and study. One can pray without fasting... but you cannot fast authentically without praying. Without this spiritual dimension, a fast would be no different than a typical diet. But since a fast is first a spiritual experience — made to draw us closer to God — we aren’t dieting. Instead, we are placing ourselves into holy submission. On a diet, we might occasionally cheat or fail to keep the promises we made to ourselves. But a fast is different. Because when we fast, we are partnering with God for a spiritual outcome. We are expecting Him to impact our lives, so we maintain our commitment to Him. Here’s another difference: When God’s Spirit empowers our spirit, we experience His support and become steadfast in our commitment. Suddenly we have the power and the desire to say no to things not allowed on the fast. Our motivation to succeed becomes so much stronger than the temptation to drink a can of soda or eat a slice of pizza. This new-found discipline is part of the powerful mystery of fasting. For many, the demands of everyday life are so packed with activities, responsibilities, and to-do lists that feeling overwhelmed is normal. With so many pressures, few have time to feed their soul. The result is spiritual and emotional starvation — a deep inner hunger for peace, rest, and security. And this hunger is pervasive. At every age, in every walk of life, too many of us are starving for the nourishment that only God can provide. When we fast, we come to the Lord’s table and feast on His love, care, and wisdom. We change our behavior. We slow our pace. We focus intently on spiritual matters and enjoy what our souls are truly hungry for — Jesus, the Bread of Life. Unfortunately, too many of us try to satisfy our hunger with the spiritual equivalent of “fast food” — self-defeating behaviors, relationships that have more to do with feeding carnal hunger than the longing of the soul. Author and pastor John Piper writes, “Do you have a hunger for God? If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. If we are full of what the world offers, then perhaps a fast might express, or even increase, our soul’s appetite for God. Between the dangers of self-denial and self-indulgence is the path of pleasant pain called fasting.” Truly, the call deep within us beckons not for physical food or pleasures. What our souls are truly hungry for is the Bread of Life — the Lord — who said, “People do not live by bread alone” (Matthew 4:4). And Jesus responds to our hunger with this invitation: Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. — Matthew 11:28–29 * * *

Charles Spurgeon on the place of excitement and emotions in the Church

Excitement will accompany every great movement. We might justly question whether the movement was earnest and powerful if it was quite as serene as a drawing-room Bible-reading. You cannot very well blast great rocks without the sound of explosions, nor fight a battle and keep everybody as quiet as a mouse. On a dry day a carriage is not moving much along the road unless there is some noise and dust; friction and stir are the natural result of force in motion. So when the Spirit of God is abroad, and men’s minds are stirred, there must and will be certain visible signs of the movement, although these must never be confounded with the movement itself. If people imagined that to make a dust is the object aimed at by the rolling of a carriage, they can take a broom and very soon raise as much dust as fifty coaches, but they will be committing a nuisance rather than conferring a benefit. Excitement is as incidental as the dust, but it is not for one moment to be aimed at. When the woman swept her house she did it to find her money and not for the sake of raising a cloud.

Do not aim at sensation and “effect.” Flowing tears and streaming eyes, sobs and outcries, and crowded after-meetings and all kinds of confusions may occur, and may be borne with as concomitants of genuine feeling, but pray do not plan their production.

It very often happens that the converts that are born in excitement die when the excitement is over. They are like certain insects which are the product of an exceedingly warm day, and die when the sun goes down . . .

To win a soul it is necessary, not only to instruct our hearer and make him know the truth, but to impress him so that he may feel it. A purely didactic ministry, which should always appeal to the understanding and should leave the emotions untouched, would certainly be a limping ministry. “The legs of the lame are not equal,” says Solomon, and the unequal legs of some ministries cripple them. We have seen such an one limping about with a long doctrinal leg, but a very short emotional leg. It is a horrible thing for a man to be so doctrinal that he can speak coolly of the doom of the wicked, so that if he does not actually praise God for it, it costs him no anguish of heart to think of the ruin of millions of our race. This is horrible! I hate to hear the terrors of the Lord proclaimed by men whose hard visages, harsh tones, and unfeeling spirit betray a sort of doctrinal desiccation: all the milk of human kindness is dried out of them. Having no feeling himself, such a preacher creates none, and the people sit and listen while he keeps to dry, lifeless statements, until they come to value him for being “sound,” and they themselves come to be sound too, and I need not add sound asleep also, or what life they have is spent in sniffing out heresy, and making earnest men offenders for a word. Into this spirit may we never be baptized. Whatever I believe, or do not believe, the command to love my neighbor as myself still retains its claim upon me, and God forbid that any views or opinions should so contract my soul and harden my heart as to make me forget this law of love. . .

A sinner has a heart as well as a head; a sinner has emotions as well as thoughts; and we must appeal to both. A sinner will never be converted until his emotions are stirred. Unless he feels sorrow for sin, and unless he has some measure of joy in the reception of the word, you cannot have much hope of him. The truth must soak into the soul, and dye it with its own colour. The word must be like a strong wind sweeping through the whole heart, and swaying the whole man, even as a field of ripening corn waves in the summer breeze. Religion without emotion is religion without life. But, still, we must mind how these emotions are caused. Do not play upon the mind by exciting feelings which are not spiritual. . .

A young preacher once remarked, “Were you not greatly struck to see so large a congregation weeping?” “Yes,” said his judicious friend, “but I was more struck with the reflection that they would probably have wept more at a play.” Exactly so: and the weeping in both cases may be equally valueless. I saw a girl on board a steamboat reading a book and crying as if her heart would break, but when I glanced at the volume I saw that it was only one of those silly yellow-covered novels which load our railway bookstalls. Her tears were a sheer waste of moisture, and so are those which are produced by mere pulpit tale-telling and death-bed painting. If our hearers will weep over their sins, and after Jesus, let their sorrows flow in rivers, but if the object of their tears is merely natural and not at all spiritual, what good is done by setting them weeping? There might be some virtue in making people joyful, for there is sorrow enough in the world, and the more we can promote cheerfulness the better, but what is the use of creating needless misery? What right have you to go through the world pricking everybody with your lancet just to show your skill in surgery? A true physician only makes incisions in order to effect cures, and a wise minister only excites painful emotions in men’s minds with the distinct object of blessing their souls. You and I must continue to drive at men’s hearts till they are broken; and then we must keep on preaching Christ crucified till their hearts are bound up, and when this is accomplished we must continue to proclaim the gospel till their whole nature is brought into subjection to the gospel of Christ.

C. H. Spurgeon, The Sword and Trowel: 1879 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1879), 141–145.

Reading through the Bible in a Year by Chuck Lawless

By Chuck Lawless

I struggled for years to find a Bible reading plan that works for me. A few years ago, though, I developed a plan that now works well for me. I share that strategy not because I think it’s a perfect one (it’s not), but because I hope it helps you think about reading through the Word in 2014. Here are the steps I follow:

1. I purchase a new study Bible each year. A good study Bible is not inexpensive, but it can help you understand the Word without requiring other devotional resources. Look for one with good introductions to the books of the Bible and strong study notes that accompany the text.  If you don’t have a copy, consider the HCSB Study Bible.
2. I choose a daily reading plan from an online source. My preference is to follow a plan that includes both Old Testament and New Testament readings each day. My goal is to read the entire Bible each year, but you may choose a different plan. Be sure to read daily, even if your plan does not take you through the whole Bible in a year.
3. Each year, I prayerfully choose a set of topics to study throughout the year. This step is the one that has been most important to me, as these topics guide my reading. In the past, some of these topics have been prayer, spiritual warfare, evangelism, and missions. I always remain open to studying other topics as I read through the Bible, but I especially watch for texts that speak to my selected themes for the year.
4. I purchase a new set of Bible highlighters for the year (preferably Zebrite highlighters that are less likely to bleed through Bible pages). I then assign one highlighter color to each of the chosen topics, and I note the colors/topics on the inside cover of my Bible. In 2014, my plan is to study the topics of holiness, leadership, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, the inside cover of my 2014 study Bible will show:
• Highlights in green: holiness
• Highlights in pink: leadership
• Highlights in blue: Holy Spirit
• Highlights in yellow: other topics or notes that just grab my attention during my reading (sometimes these topics become my studies in future years)
5. As I read each day, I watch for texts or notes related to the above topics. I highlight the text, pause to meditate on it, prayerfully consider how it might apply to my life, and perhaps write a few notes in the margin to help me reinforce the application.
6. With each highlighted text, I pray briefly in response to what God teaches me. Prayer ought to be our natural response when the Word of God becomes so real to us.
7. At the end of the year, I then have a study Bible with every text related to particular topics highlighted. Whenever I teach on those given topics, I simply pull that Bible off the shelf and use it as a resource. Remember, the notes on the inside cover quickly show me what topics are highlighted in that Bible.

Here is why this approach works for me. First, it’s a plan; that is, I know each day what I will read. If I wait until that day to determine the reading, it’s too easy to get busy and neglect reading. Second, I enter the text excited about what God might show me that day. I don’t always find something related directly to the chosen topics, but I can always find something that teaches me (and would thus be highlighted in yellow). I love reading the Bible with the knowledge that God speaks through His Word.

Third, this approach gives me a resource for later use. The highlights allow me to do a quick topical review on a number of themes studied through the years. Fourth, it’s just nice to finish the year knowing I’ve reached the goal of strategically reading the Word. Imagine, for example, a Bible with every text about holiness—from Genesis to Revelation—highlighted in green. I can already imagine how my heart will be challenged in this next year!

What is your plan for reading the Word in 2014? What Bible reading strategies have worked for you?

Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary.

You can connect with Dr. Lawless on both Twitter andFacebook.

Merry Christmas 2013

The Hopes and Fears of All the Years by Tony Reinke

Bethlehem was, is, and likely always will be, just a small town — a small town steeped in ancient history.

In the first century, the historical marker at the center of town — if they posted such historical markers — would have commemorated it as the birthplace of the mighty giant killer, King David. The cherished son of Bethlehem put the town on the map 1,000 years earlier, and perhaps, perhaps, one day the village on top of the quiet hill will pull off the feat again. Dusty scrolls left by ancient prophets told of such a thing (Micah 5:2).

But tonight, silence.

The prophecies are distant memories. All is now hushed and quiet, the hope of a king only a memory muffled by the pressing priorities of life: raising grain, raising sheep, raising children, and paying taxes.

But this night the town finally sleeps, though crowded. The hustle and bustle of census travelers, returned home to be counted, now has dissipated.

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.

So quiet and still and peaceful is the town, it’s hard to capture on a blog, a place where most of us read so quickly. So imagine for a moment a slower pace and quieter place. No iPods, no headphones, no surround sound. No jets, no traffic, no trains, no ambulances racing down streets. In perfect stillness, we witness a silent invasion, like a storm of chicken-feather snowflakes twisting silently to the ground, carpeting the dirty world in brilliant holiness.

And so during Advent, we slow our pace to his pace, and we read the holy story more slowly. We don’t skim. We watch the new King of Bethlehem enter into a barn-like cave to rest softly in a rough feeding furrow. In the quietness of night, the new King enters into the hay and manure of a broken world in desperate need of fixing.

This is the Christ child, who will one day die in daylight that becomes darkness. But right now he rests in Mary’s arms in a dark night that becomes starlit day. Stars and angels pierce the night’s silence.

This same Christ enters lives like he entered this barn. He enters the mess of sin, and it catches us off guard. You’re surprised? You’re not ready for him? It all seems so sudden. This is the best place to be — taken by surprise, like the little town of Bethlehem.

Advent means Christ invades where the preparations are incomplete. You’ll be tempted to first warm up the barn with space heaters. Don’t. You’ll want to sweep out the soiled hay and mouse droppings. Don’t. Don’t roll out a comfort controlled mattress or fluff a pair of feather pillows. Don’t disinfect the walls and floor with an aerosol fog of Lysol or Febreze. Don’t set out a crib with fluffy dolls and cotton onesies and baby powder. Don’t fill the bathtub with warm water and soft suds.

When the Savior draws close, there’s no time to clean up the mess of sin. He comes, not to place crisply wrapped boxes around a cleanly decorated tree. No. The Holy One lands unexpected in the middle of the stench of our lives.

It is with this thought that we are prepared to sing the final verse of the famous hymn. We cringe a bit. Maybe the lines are too individualized or too cheesy.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Immanuel.

But this is the message of Christmas. Here on the second Sunday of Advent, we praise Christ who broke into the stillness of a little town to descend to sinful humanity. We implore Christ to break into our lives and cast out the sin that cannot be bleached white by self-cleaning.

Now we know when the Buddha died, but when was he raised? by Sam Storms

In the USA Today edition of Tuesday, November 26, 2013, writer Traci Watson reported that scientists have allegedly “uncovered the first physical evidence showing when the great religious leader known as the Buddha passed away, a date crucial to scholars and adherents of Buddhism” (5a).

Excavations conducted during the past two years imply that he died (or, as Buddhists like to put it, he experienced his “great passing away”) in the sixth century b.c., roughly 100 years “earlier than the scholarly consensus” (evidently most have, until now, believed he died between 420 and 380 b.c.).

As Watson notes, this is more than just an academic debate: “Buddhist countries such as Thailand use a dating system pegged to the year of the Buddha’s death.”

What I find most interesting is that no Buddhist scholar or anyone of any religious inclination has ever spoken of the date when the Buddha rose from the dead. There is good reason for that: he’s dead! We may not know when and where he died, but we can be certain of one thing: he’s still dead!

We who identify as Christians happily declare that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was likely born around 4 b.c. He died some 30-33 years later, and was raised from the dead on the third day! Apparently Buddhists have no problem being Buddhists in spite of the fact that their leader is dead. But 

if Jesus Christ be not risen, then the preaching of Christians “is in vain” and our “faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). If the dead are not raised, and Jesus is as dead as the Buddha, our “faith is futile” and we are still in our “sins” and “we are of all people (even more than Buddhists) most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:17-18).

But praise be to God who “raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24). Buddhists can manage fine with a dead leader. Christians cannot, and are themselves better off dead if Jesus was not raised.

What Does the X in Xmas Mean" by R.C. Sproul

The X in Christmas is used like the R in R.C. My given name at birth was Robert Charles, although before I was even taken home from the hospital my parents called me by my initials, R.C., and nobody seems to be too scandalized by that.

X can mean so many things. For example, when we want to denote an unknown quantity, we use the symbol X. It can refer to an obscene level of films, something that is X-rated. People seem to express chagrin about seeing Christ's name dropped and replaced by this symbol for an unknown quantity X. Every year you see the signs and the bumper stickers saying, "Put Christ back into Christmas" as a response to this substitution of the letter X for the name of Christ.

There's no X in Christmas

First of all, you have to understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas. We see the English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek for Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a shorthand symbol for the name of Christ.

There's a long and sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its origin, it has meant no disrespect

We don't see people protesting the use of the Greek letter theta, which is an O with a line across the middle. We use that as a shorthand abbreviation for God because it is the first letter of the word Theos, the Greek word for God.

X has a long and sacred history

The idea of X as an abbreviation for the name of Christ came into use in our culture with no intent to show any disrespect for Jesus. The church has used the symbol of the fish historically because it is an acronym. Fish in Greek (ichthus) involved the use of the first letters for the Greek phrase "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." So the early Christians would take the first letter of those words and put those letters together to spell the Greek word for fish. That's how the symbol of the fish became the universal symbol of Christendom. There's a long and sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its origin, it has meant no disrespect.

Adapted from Now, That’s a Good Question! ©1996 by R.C. Sproul. Used by permission of Tyndale.

      

Sunday Sermon, December 15, 2013

I preached this past Sunday, December 15, 2013 a Christmas message "The Wounded Woman at Christmas" from Luke 1 and 2.

Here is the audio of that message:

Prepare Now for Your Pain - by Brian DeWire

Suffering has a way of pressing us to go deeper with God.

It’s sadly not the case for all, but many have testified that their embrace of God’s sovereignty and goodness was catalyzed during a season of profound suffering.

Sometimes it’s fresh truths about God intersecting with our lives in the hardest of times. But often suffering becomes a testing ground for what truths we’ve already built into our lives in the easiest of days. Such was my experience.

Wrestling with Hard Truths

It took me several years of “normal life” to believe that such truths — like God’s sovereignty, predestination, and election — should be called “truths” at all. I wasn’t sure they were biblical. I wondered, if God desires all to be saved (2 Peter 3:9), then how can he be in control of who is saved and who isn’t? And if God can change his mind (Exodus 32:14; Jeremiah 26:19), then how can he truly be in control of all things?

These are tough questions to wrestle with. But over time, with help from the writings of men like James Montgomery Boice, R.C. Sproul, and John Piper, I came to gladly embrace, as faithful to the Scriptures, the doctrines of grace and the absolute and exhaustive sovereignty of God. These men and others were willing to ask the hard questions I was asking, and they gave compelling answers from the Bible.

As I began embracing such truths, God became bigger and greater in my eyes. We Christians worship a God

• who purposes everything throughout all creation, or “who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11);
• who decides what happens anytime something as small as dice are rolled: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Proverbs 16:33);
• who not only knows, but makes known, the future: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my pleasure’” (Isaiah 46:9–10);
• who “is in the heavens [and] does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3), so that “whatever the Lᴏʀᴅ pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Psalm 135:6).

And as I began discovering more about the power and the glory of God, and realized that it was inevitable that I would someday, sooner than later, suffer some kind of affliction in this fallen world (1 Thessalonians 3:3–4; Acts 14:22), I knew I needed to prepare for suffering — so that God’s bigness would not merely be some doctrine that I believed with my mind, but one that would sustain me through life’s pain.

Getting Ready for Hardship

With such preparation in mind, I set myself in 2006 to read the book Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. In it, I read life-changing truths like these:

• “Scripture is clear that nothing arises, exists, or endures independently of God’s will” (page 41);
• “God not merely carries all of the universe’s objects and events to their appointed ends, but he actually brings about all things in accordance with his will. In other words, it isn’t just that God manages to turn the evil aspects of our world to good for those who love him; it is rather that he himself brings about these evil aspects for his glory (see Exodus 9:13–16; John 9:3) and his people’s good (see Hebrews 12:3–11; James 1:2–4)” (42);
• “From events as small as the fall of the tiniest sparrow (see Matthew 10:29) to the death, at the hands of lawless men, of his own dear Son (see Acts 2:23 and 4:28), God speaks and then brings his word to pass; he purposes and then does what he has planned (see Isaiah 46:11). Nothing that exists or occurs falls outside God’s ordaining will” (43);
• “And so it is not inappropriate to take God to be the creator, the sender, the permitter, and sometimes even the instigator of evil” (44);
• “Scripture repudiates the claim that God does evil while at the same time everywhere implying that God ordains any evil there is. To say that God ‘ordains’ something is to say that he has planned and purposed and willed it from before the creation of the world — that is, from before time began” (47).

The authors quoted Bible text after Bible text. I couldn’t escape God’s complete sovereignty — and I didn’t want to!

When Tragedy Strikes

The following year, in December of 2007, tragedy struck when my Dad died suddenly at the young age of 44. To this day, the single most terrible memory I have is of my Mom calling me at two in the morning, crying, “They’re losing him, Bryan! They’re losing him!” Not long after, my uncle called to let me know that he died.

What then do you make of God’s sovereignty? Was it tempting to become bitter and angry at God? Perhaps, but only slightly. No, the main comfort for me since Dad’s death has been that God works all things — including that death — according to the counsel of his will, that he does all that he pleases, that he knows all things, including that death, before it happened.

Both Sovereign and Good

But the book also taught me about God’s goodness, not just his sovereignty. Picture heaven with me, in the words of Joni Eareckson Tada:

I think at first the shock of the joy that will come from reveling in the waterfall of love and pleasure that is the Trinity may burn with a brilliant newness of being glorified, but in the next instant we will be at peace. We will be drenched with delight. We will feel at home as though it were always this way, as though we were born for such a place — because we were! (202–203)

And so, I commend to you, if these are your easy times before some coming trial, prepare now for the pain. This book — available free of charge in PDF — is one way to start. Learn now that your suffering is not even worth comparing to the glory that will one day be yours (Romans 8:18), and that the suffering indeed produces or works or prepares the weight of glory that you will experience in God’s presence (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Begin preparing now, in the “normal days,” knowing that some portion of suffering is coming, and God has made available the resources to get you ready.

Stopping An Affair Before It Begins by Tim Challies

At one time or another, most of us witnessed the devastation that comes through infidelity in marriage. We have seen marriages stretched almost to the breaking point and we have seen marriages destroyed by an unfaithful husband or unfaithful wife.

Affairs do not begin with sex. Falling into bed with a man who is not your husband or a woman who is not your wife is simply one step in a long chain of events, one decision in a long series of poor decisions.

Last weekend I teamed up with Denny Burk to speak at a conference about sex and its cultural counterfeits. Denny preached a powerful message about the blessing and importance of sexual intimacy within marriage and as he did so, he referred to one of his favorite preachers, Tommy Nelson, who provides 6 “e’s” to describe the “ease” with which people fall into extra-marital affairs. They are worth considering. (Note: I am writing from the perspective of a man, but this as easily applies to women.)

1) Eliminate

Affairs do not begin when you experience sexual intimacy with someone who is not your spouse. An affair begins much farther back, when you begin to eliminate intimacy in your marriage. This is not only the intimacy of sex, but the intimacy that comes by dating, by long face-to-face conversations, and by physical affection. Instead of pursuing your wife, you grow hard and complacent. The joy fades, the discontentment rises.

2) Encounter

As you eliminate the intimacy in your own marriage you will inevitably encounter someone else who is attractive to you. She may be physically attractive, she may be attractive in character, she may be attractive in seeming to provide what your wife is lacking. Regardless of the specifics, there will be something about her that will draw you and promise to offer the very things you are missing in your own marriage.

3) Enjoy

After that encounter, you will find that you soon begin to enjoy your relationship with that other woman. Your enjoyment of this woman allows her to move into the emotional space formerly reserved for your wife. It is here that the wise man will immediately identify the danger and back away. Yet the enjoyment is pleasurable, of course, and too many men neglect to take the wise and godly course of action.

4) Expedite

If you do not take action against the enjoyment, you will soon begin to expedite opportunities to be with her. You will linger where you know she is likely to be. You will hurry to get to the place where your paths may cross. You will time your lunch break to coincide with hers. You will generate opportunities to talk through the phone or through Facebook or through text messaging or face-to-face.

5) Express

Inevitably, this growing relationship will lead to a kind of intimacy so strong and so exhilarating that you will have to find out if she feels the same way. You will express your feelings. You won’t come right out with the full expression of your feelings—you are too clever and too subtle for that. Instead, you will test the waters a little bit. “I really enjoy spending time with you.” And she will reply, “I enjoy spending time with you as well.” “I wish I could talk to my wife the way I talk to you.” And she will say, “I wish I could talk to my husband the way I talk to you.” And then you will advance to, “I wish my wife was more like you” and she will reply “I wish my husband was more like you.” And at this point you’re caught. You’re in. Tommy Nelson says, “You’ve built a bridge to Fantasy Island,” and it’s now all but certain that you will walk across it. The emotional bond is already there and it is now only natural to give that emotional bond a physical expression. And that leads to the final “e.”

6) Experience

All that remains is to experience the physical consummation of that enjoyment, that expression, and that emotional bond. And then you are in bed together as adulterers, entwined in a full-fledged affair.

Through it all, John Owen’s insight remains so crucial: Sin always aims at the uttermost; the smallest sin is but one step to the biggest and most treacherous sin. That decision to neglect dating your wife, that surrendering of marital intimacy, these were but the first small, sinful steps to the destruction of your marriage.

I’ll give the last word to John Owen who reflects on Hebrews 3:12-13: “Take heed, says he, use all means, consider your temptations, watch diligently; there is a treachery, a deceit in sin, that tends to the hardening of your hearts from the fear of God. The hardening here mentioned is to the utmost—utter obduration; sin tends to it, and every distemper and lust will make at least some progress toward it.”

Sunday Sermon, December 8, 2013

Last Sunday, December 8, I preached a Christmas message "Is Jesus Enough?"

Here is the audio of the message.  For some reason the recording began about 4 minutes into the message.

Making Discipleship a Habit by Josh Hunt

Making discipleship a habit Most of life is on autopilot. Your life is largely about habits you have made. We don’t make decisions about most of the things we do. We develop a habit, and the habit determines our life. As the old saying goes, “Choose your rut carefully; you are going to be in it for the next 25 miles.” Choose your habits carefully; they are going to determine the quality of your life. Let’s look at a couple of examples. Your walk with God is largely about habits.  The book of Hebrews speaks of people who don’t go to church much. The writer of Hebrews says that we are not to neglect meeting together, “as is the habit of some.” Neglecting to meet together is simply habit, as are many of our spiritual disciplines. We either get into the habit of reading our Bibles every day, or I’ll bet you didn’t read your Bible this morning. You probably never even thought about it. If you did read your Bible this morning, you probably didn’t think too much about that either. It is just a habit. A habit that will either draw you closer to God, or push you further and further away. Changing habits What if you could change your habits so that they lead you in the direction that you actually want to go? What if you could put success on autopilot? What if you could put it on autopilot to exercise every day, read the Bible every day, eat no more calories than you burn, spend no more money than you make, and any of 100 other things you would like to do to lead you to the life you’ve only imagined. Josh Hunt

"Christmas: Now and Then" this Saturday and Sunday, December 14 and 15 at CrossRoads

Pride and Humility by Jay Adams

When pride comes disgrace follows; But with humility comes wisdom.     Proverbs 11:2 (CSB)

What a wonderful verse—so clear; so cogent. Everywhere around us people speak proudly.  How the warning of this verse needs trumpeting about!

But it’s the second half of the verse that I wish to emphasize: humility is the way to wisdom. How is that? What is the writer telling us?

The answer is simple: unless one is humble enough to day “I don’t know,” he will not learn the facts and skills that are a part of God’s wisdom. Until a person admits his lacks, he is not ready to receive anything from anyone else. That is true in everyday life among men. But it is particularly so when it comes to learning the true wisdom of God.  You can be filled to overflowing with such wisdom if you are only willing to submit to the humble discipline of going to the Scriptures with an open heart and mind, anxious to be taught those things that you don’t—but need–to know.

Think about this the next time you open your Bible!

"Christmas: Now and Then" - Saturday and Sunday, December 14-15 6:00 pm

The Verse That Saved by Life by David Jeremiah

"That Verse Saved My Life"

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

Proverbs 1:10

Recommended Reading Proverbs 1:8-15

Referring to Proverbs 1:10, Barry Black, Chaplain of the United States Senate, wrote: "This simple Bible verse saved my life during my early teenage years when I refused to follow two friends who eventually murdered someone. The same morning I memorized this verse, I refused to go with them. The refusal kept me from going to jail for life -- the penalty they received for the crime. God's warnings are designed to protect us, not to destroy our joy. He challenges us to refuse to follow sinners."¹

When we accept the Word of God, it ultimately affects our decisions, our walk, and our entire life. It provides rules when we don't know where the guardrails are. And it's a fountainhead of strength when we're overcome by fear or weakness.

Are you currently memorizing a particular verse or passage from the Bible? If not, find a verse and begin today. You might start with Proverbs 1:10. You never know when the right verse at the right time will save your life.

¹ Barry C. Black, The Blessing of Adversity (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2011), 100.

Thanksgiving

“It’s impossible to be grateful and unhappy at the same moment in time. Any moment, hour, day, or week that you are unhappy, you have chosen to let your focus rest on something other than the gifts you have been given. Let your unhappiness serve as an alarm to redirect your focus and energy. If you want to increase your happiness, follow Solomon’s example: Make a list of all the things that you should be grateful for. Then, every time you notice unhappiness creeping into your thoughts, redirect your focus to those wonderful gifts”–Steven K. Scott, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived.

“The more you practice feeling grateful, the more grateful you become. Gratitude is a muscle you strengthen through daily use—an exercise, not an emotion. It’s not something you feel, but something you do. And like most things, the people who are best at it are the ones who do it even when they’re tired and worn out and don’t much feel like it”–Jeff Goins.

“To Americans usually tragedy is wanting something very badly and not getting it. Many people have had to learn in their private lives, and nations have had to learn in their historical experience, that perhaps the worst form of tragedy is wanting something badly, getting it, and finding it empty”–Henry Kissinger.

“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge”–1 Corinthians 1:4-5.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”–1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

Their Abortions—What Do These Abortion Testimonies Really Reveal? by Albert Mohler

A signal event in America’s long trial over the tragedy of abortion occurred this week with the publication of a cover story in New York magazine that was simply titled, “My Abortion.” As the cover advertises, the article features “twenty-six personal dispatches from a culture war without end.”
The issue is riveting, offering testimonies from women who have aborted their children—some of them repeatedly. Meaghan Winter begins the article by setting the context in 2013, forty years after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision, believing that it has settled the issue.

As Winter explains, “Of all the battles in our half-century culture war, perhaps none seems further from being resolved, in our laws and in our consciences, than abortion.”

That statement, taken on its own terms, is incredibly revealing, even as it is self-evidently true. The advocates of legal abortion are particularly perplexed and frustrated by this fact. Their confidence had been that Roe had settled the issue and that abortion on demand would become a central part of the nation’s moral consensus. But Roe did not settle the issue. Indeed, the abortion issue has been a central and unavoidable moral conflict in this nation ever since.

Prior to Roe, the pro-life movement was not much of a movement at all. It can be argued that Roe actually sparked the rise of the pro-life movement as a powerful moral and political force in America. The nation’s conscience on the issue of abortion is far more conflicted now than in 1973. Pro-life arguments and the rise of prenatal imaging technologies have shifted the nation’s understanding of abortion to the extent that younger Americans are actually more pro-life than their parents. More Americans now identify themselves as pro-life rather than as pro-choice.

On the other hand, a slim majority of Americans supports Roe and the availability of legal abortion, at least in the early months of pregnancy. America has a divided mind and a divided heart on abortion. But that must be seen as a pro-life victory of sorts, for the very fact that abortion remains such a controversial and morally troubling issue refutes the claim that abortion on demand is a settled fact. It is not, as this important cover article reveals.

New York magazine is a leading barometer of the nation’s urban cultures. New York City is socially and culturally liberal, and abortion on demand is supported by dramatic percentages of the population. In some neighborhoods in New York City, a majority of pregnancies end in abortion. But this cover story makes clear that abortion is still an issue that can trouble the conscience of New Yorkers.

Meaghan Winter reports on the fact that several states have adopted abortion legislation, especially in the last two years. In that period, she explains, “26 states have passed over 111 provisions restricting abortion.” After decades marked by endless legislation and court challenges on abortion, “we seem no closer to consensus on when, where, how, and if a woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy.” She notes correctly that Roe “was qualified in its judgment.” We did not hear that admission when the decision was handed down in 1973.

Winter then drops this bombshell: “But for all the regulations and protests, despite ‘safe, legal, and rare’ and ‘abortion is murder,’ abortion is part of our everyday experience. Nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended; about half of those—1.2 million—will end in abortion each year.”

That is the tragedy of abortion. The pro-life movement has made gains and states are adopting new restrictions, but the death toll of aborted babies continues to rise with millions added to millions since Roe v. Wade.

The twenty-six testimonials published in the New York article are heart-wrenching and deeply troubling. It is clear that many of the women telling their stories have still not come to terms with what abortion really is, and how to think of the baby whose life was ended. Nicole, writing from Kentucky, was 19 when she was emotionally coerced by her boyfriend to get the abortion. “I don’t think abortion is killing,” she says, “but I’d always been against it.” After a month had passed, she says that both she and her boyfriend regretted the abortion. She then states this: “When I cry about it, I cry alone. He thinks it would make me sad to talk about, but I don’t want our baby to think we forgot. I’ve never heard of anybody else having an abortion here.”

Note carefully how she refers to the child: “our baby.” The fact that the life within her was indeed a baby, and not just a mass of tissue, comes out even in how she remembers the baby in her regrets.

Anya, on the other hand, says she has no regrets. She had abortions in 2003 and 2006. When going to get the second abortion, her boyfriend was emotionally distressed, so she told him to pull over so she could drive. “I respect that it was an emotional experience for him. I never think about the abortions. When I tell people, they respond with a panic face, and when I say I’m truly okay with it, they make a second panic face. I end up comforting them.”

Alex, age 24, also had two abortions. “Sometimes you regret and sometimes you feel good,” she says. “You think, ‘the baby would be a year old now.’” Once again, the baby is still on her heart as a baby, and nothing less.

Maria, on the other hand, had an abortion in Pennsylvania in 2003. As she was cramping in the clinic after the abortion, her husband asked her where she wanted to go on vacation. “We booked a trip to Spain,” she says. Did her conscience follow her to Spain?

Why did New York publish this cover story? Meaghan Winter asserts that “abortion is something we are more comfortable discussing as an abstraction.” She may be right. Pro-lifers reading this important article must come to terms with the fact that so many women find themselves in such personal distress that they see abortion as the way out, even if that means the death of the baby. This underlines the noble and essential work of crisis pregnancy centers and the necessity of ministering to and assisting these women long after they choose life for their babies.

If the purpose of this article was to assist women to overcome the stigma of abortion, it is hard to imagine that it succeeded. The fact that this article appears four decades after Roe is proof that the decision failed to reset the nation’s conscience on abortion.

The pro-life movement faces huge challenges in the task of reaching the nation’s conscience, but there are also great opportunities. This article reveals both in full force.

For the advocates of abortion, these testimonies offer a clear refutation of their strategy of doing everything possible to speak constantly of a “woman’s right to choose,” while avoiding any reference to the baby. The baby refuses to disappear. When these testimonies of abortion reveal the very women who had an abortion speaking of “our baby” and noting that “the baby would now be one year old,” the moral bankruptcy of the pro-abortion argument is there for all to see. The baby refuses to leave the picture.

That essential point is powerfully revealed in Bryce A. Taylor’s eloquent poem, “How to Have an Abortion,” originally published at First Things:

Don’t think about the freckles he, or she,
Might have, or how much hair, how big a grin,
Or whether swimming would come naturally,
Or whether–it?–might play the violin.
Don’t think of prom, don’t think of puppy love
Or calculus, or snow, or spring in bloom,
Or anything that might remind you of
The future now contained within a womb.
Don’t feel anxiety, don’t feel regret,
Don’t fret about some otherworldly guilt.
Don’t feel the bond of parenthood, don’t let
Insane outmoded Don Quixotes tilt.
At private windmills–don’t spill any ink
Examining yourself. Don’t feel. Don’t think.

Meaghan Winter says that Americans prefer to speak of abortion as an abstraction. But, as that poem makes so clear, the baby will not agree to remain an abstraction. For that reason we should see this important cover article as proof of the urgency and the enormity of our challenge in the defense of life—and as evidence of our opportunity as well.

I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/albertmohler.

Meaghan Winter, “My Abortion,” New York magazine, Monday, November 18, 2013. http://nymag.com/news/features/abortion-stories-2013-11/

Bryce A. Taylor, “How to Have an Abortion,” First Things, November 2013.

Scripture: Charles Spurgeon's Unshakable Foundation by Steven J. Lawson

Throughout his ministry, Charles Spurgeon's preaching rested squarely on this impregnable rock—that the Bible is exactly what it claims to be, the inspired Word of the living God. As he stepped into the pulpit, he spoke with confidence in the infallible purity and saving power of God's Word. For Spurgeon, when the Bible speaks, God speaks.

Spurgeon's strong belief in the doctrines of grace was firmly rooted and grounded in this truth. He did not proclaim the doctrines of sovereign grace simply because the Reformers or Puritans affirmed them. Rather, he believed them because he found them clearly stated in the Bible. Though he considered himself a staunch Calvinist, Spurgeon asserted, "I believe nothing merely because [John] Calvin taught it, but because I have found his teaching in the Word of God." He further stated: "'Calvinism' did not spring from Calvin; we believe that it sprang from the great Founder of all truth. Perhaps Calvin derived it mainly from the writings of Augustine. Augustine obtained his views, without doubt, through the Spirit of God, from the diligent study of the writings of Paul, and Paul received them of the Holy Ghost, from Jesus Christ." Though he agreed, on the whole, with Calvin and other Reformed theologians, Spurgeon's beliefs were founded exclusively on what he saw plainly taught in Scripture. He was, as it were, the embodiment of sola Scriptura—Scripture alone.

Voicing his sole allegiance to the Bible, Spurgeon renounced any confidence in the traditions of men or in the authorities of the church per se. He maintained:

The Holy Ghost revealed much of precious truth and holy precept by the apostles, and to His teaching we would give earnest heed; but when men cite the authority of fathers, and councils, and bishops, we give place for subjection, no, not for an hour. They may quote Irenaeus or Cyprian, Augustine or Chrysostom; they may remind us of the dogmas of Luther or Calvin; they may find authority in Simeon, Wesley, or Gill—we will listen to the opinions of these great men with the respect which they deserve as men, but having done so, we deny that we have anything to do with these men as authorities in the church of God, for there nothing has any authority, but "Thus saith the Lord of hosts." Yea, if you shall bring us the concurrent consent of all tradition—if you shall quote precedents venerable with fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen centuries of antiquity, we burn the whole as so much worthless lumber, unless you put your finger upon the passage of Holy Writ which warrants the matter to be of God.

This fundamental commitment to the Bible was the cornerstone on which Spurgeon built his ministry. Those who stand in pulpits, he contended, must believe that the Bible is not the word of the men who recorded it. Rather, they must affirm that it is the written Word of the living God. Iain Murray explains: "They have a message to announce, that is not their own and they are sure of it. To entertain doubt over whether Scripture is all given by inspiration of God is instantly to lose the true authority that is required of a preacher and evangelist." Murray then emphatically adds, "No man will preach the gospel aright who does not wholly believe it." In just this manner, Spurgeon was convinced that the Bible is divine revelation, the very Word of God.

This excerpt is adapted from Steven Lawson's The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon. Download thedigital edition free through November 30, 2013. 

Sunday after Sunday by by MEverson

Sunday after Sunday, there are scores of church members sitting in pews, listening to preaching and singing songs, believing that they are checking God off their to-do list for the week.  Some are there because they have always done it - they were raised in the South and, after all if you are a good southerner, you are supposed to see the preacher on Sunday.  Others are there because it alleviates a guilty conscious and makes them feel good about themselves.  Still others are there for their weekly hell-insurance:  they believe that doing their weekly duty appeases God and will keep Him from throwing them in Hell.  

But one other group of attendees is probably the scariest of all to me as a Pastor.  This group sits in church, week after week under the Gospel and convinces themselves that they are ok.  After all, they are a good person - certainly better than half the other people in the church.  They attend at least most Sundays and God should take that into consideration.  They prayed "the prayer" when they were a kid at VBS when all the other kids were doing it and they did get baptized.  So, they sit....  They hear the Gospel and used to be convicted by it and question their salvation, but now they stopped feeling anything.  Unless that one great hymn/chorus comes along - that one always makes them cry.  But, the Word of God doesn't phase them.  But, you can't convince them that they are not "ok" - they do or have done what was on the good baptist checklist so God is obligated to accept them.  This group is the scariest of all.  

The material below is from John MacArthur and is a great read on checking up on your salvation and examining yourself.  Every person should confront this in their own lives and welcome this type of self-examination according to Scripture - the question is, would you respond according to what is truly there?  

http://www.gty.org/resources/positions/p06/is-it-real


11 Biblical Tests of Genuine Salvation

In 1746, about six years after the Great Awakening, in which Jonathan Edwards was the primary instrument of God to preach the gospel and bring about the greatest revival in American history thus far, Edwards wrote A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections. He wrote it to deal with a problem not unlike one we face today: the matter of evidence for true conversion. Many people want the blessings of salvation, especially eternal security, but no more.
In the explosive drama of the Great Awakening, it seemed as though conversions were occurring in great numbers. However, it didn't take long to realize that some people claimed conversions that were not real. While various excesses and heightened emotional experiences were common, scores of people didn't demonstrate any evidence in their lives to verify their claim to know and love Jesus Christ, which led critics to attack the Great Awakening, contending it was nothing but a big emotional bath without any true conversions.

Thus, partly in defense of true conversion and partly to ex­pose false conversion, Jonathan Edwards took up his pen. He came to this simple conclusion. The supreme proof of a true conversion is what he called "holy affections," which are a zeal for holy things and a longing after God and personal holiness. He made a careful distinction between saving versus common operations of the Holy Spirit. Saving operations obviously produce salvation. Common operations of the Holy Spirit, he said, "may sober, arrest and convict men, and may even bring them to what at first appears to be repentance and faith, yet these influences fall short of inward saving renewal" (lain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography [Carlisle, Pa.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987], p. 255).

How can you tell whether the Holy Spirit has performed a saving operation? As the principle evidence of life is motion, Edwards wrote, so the principle evidence of saving grace is holy practice (pp. 262-63). He said true salvation always produces an abiding change of nature in a true convert. Therefore, whenever holiness of life does not accompany a confession of conversion, it must be understood that this individual is not a Christian.

In the very year Edwards' treatise was published, popular teaching asserted that, to the contrary, the only real evidence of true salvation is a feeling based on an experience--usually the experience at the moment of the alleged conversion. That teaching introduces the prevalent but erroneous concept that a person's true spiritual state is known by a past experience rather than a present pursuit of holiness. Edwards flatly contradicted that notion: "Assurance is never to be enjoyed on the basis of a past experience. There is need of the present and continuing work of the Holy Spirit ... [in] giving assurance" (p. 265). This is no esoteric theological debate: the substance of your assurance is at stake.

A number of New Testament writers, of course, were very concerned about this matter of true salvation, as was our Lord Jesus Himself. The apostle John dedicated his first letter to the subject, stating his theme at the end: "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). Throughout the letter is a series of tests to determine whether you possess eternal life. If you don't pass these tests, you'll know where you stand and what you need to do. If you do, you'll have reason to enjoy your eternal salvation with great assurance.

Have You Enjoyed Fellowship with Christ and the Father?
This is an essential element in true salvation and the first test John presented. Look with me at chapter 1, which begins: "We [John and his fellow apostles] have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us--what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (vv. 2-3). Obviously he was going beyond just the earthly acquaintance he had with Jesus because he had no such earthly acquaintance with the Father. Rather, he was presently enjoying communion with the living God and the living Christ.

Now at first you might be tempted to think, Well, good for John, but his was not an isolated experience. In 1 John 5:1, he says, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him" (emphasis added). It is characteristic of any believer to love God and Christ. It is a sign of the holy affections Jonathan Edwards spoke of. A relationship with God is basic to salvation. It is what we as believers were called to. "God is faithful," Paul says, "through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9).

Paul described what that fellowship meant to him personally: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20). There's something very experiential about that truth--it's not just a cold fact that we as believers have divine life living in us; there's an experience to be enjoyed in knowing God intimately.

Jesus implied as much when He said, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10: 10). If He had just said, "I came that you may have life," we could conclude He was talking only about His gracious provision of eternal life. By adding that life could be abundant, Jesus was moving into the dimension of experience. The Christian life is a rich life. We're meant to experience joy, peace, love, and purpose. When someone who's about to be baptized testifies about coming to Christ, you won't hear, "The fact is, folks, I'm saved, and I'm just here to announce that." Invariably the person will describe to you the feeling--the overwhelming sense of forgiveness and purpose in his or her life.

Here's a taste of the abundant life Scripture describes in terms of our fellowship with the Lord. The "God of all comfort" (2 Cor. 1:3); "the God of all grace" (1 Peter 5:10); the God who supplies all [our] needs according to His riches in Christ (Phil. 4:19); the God who leads us to speak to one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to Him (Eph. 5:19); the God to whom we cry "Abba! Father!" (Rom. 8:15 ) like little children to the daddy we adore; the God we draw near to in time of trouble (Heb. 4:16 )--He Himself so greatly enriches us. Our fellowship with Him is the abundant life we experience.

Have you experienced communion with God and Christ? Have you sensed Their presence? Do you have a love for Them that draws you to Their presence? Have you experienced the sweet communion of prayer--the exhilarating joy of talking to the living God? Have you experienced the refreshing, almost overwhelming sense of grace that comes upon you when you discover a new truth in His Word? If you have, then you have experienced the fellowship of salvation.

Are You Sensitive to Sin?
Let's go back to chapter 1 of John's first epistle, to this declaration in verse 5: "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." John was saying that the message the Lord sent to us is about Himself, specifically that He is absolutely sinless. The Greek text literally says there's not a single bit of darkness in Him. Therefore, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do notpractice the truth" (v. 6).
Light and darkness do not coexist. One drives the other away. John went on to develop that theme: "If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us" (vv. 7-10).

Some people make some pretty amazing claims that hold no water. They claim to have fellowship with God--to be Christians (v. 6), to have no sin (v. 8), and even to have never sinned (v. 10). They think they are walking in the light when actually they are walking in darkness. It is characteristic of unbelievers to be oblivious to the sins in their lives. The individuals mentioned in verse 8 are not dealing with their sins because they think they've reached a state where they have no sin. But they are deceiving themselves. Those mentioned in verse 10 have never even confessed or acknowledged sin. With that attitude they are in fact denigrating God because God says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23, emphasis added). Since unbelievers are so insensitive to the reality of their condition, human sinfulness is the right starting point in sharing the gospel.

Believers, on the other hand, "walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light" (v. 7). We walk a virtuous walk, and what's more, "we confess our sins" (v. 9). True believers have a right sense of sin. They know if they're going to commune with God they have to be holy. When sin occurs in their lives, they know it must be confessed.

John takes this teaching a step further in the next chapter. "My little children," he explained, "I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (v. 1). True believers realize they don't have to sin. But when they do, they know whom to go to--Jesus Christ, the believer's advocate. The intercessory work of Christ is one of the great trinitarian securers of our salvation. That's an encouraging reality to hang onto when confronted with personal sin.
The person who is truly saved is sensitive to the sinful realities in his or her life. That's the example Paul left us in speaking of his heightened awareness of sin's work in his own life (Rom. 7:14-25). Consider how that applies to you. Are you very much aware of the spiritual battle raging within you? Do you realize that to have true communion with God, you have to live a holy life--that you can't walk in darkness and claim to have fellowship with Him? Are you willing to confess and forsake any sin in your life as you become aware of it? Do you realize you can choose not to sin--that you're not fighting a battle you're obliged to lose? But when you do fail, do you go to your divine advocate? Do you sometimes cry out with Paul, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:24 ) because you're so weary of the burden of sin in your flesh? If so, you are obviously a Christian. And since salvation is secure, you might as well enjoy it and be fully assured.

Do You Obey God's Word?
First John 2:3 couldn't be clearer: "By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments." If you want to know whether you're a true Christian, ask yourself whether you obey the commandments of Scripture. That's how Jesus described a true disciple when giving His Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples (Matt. 28:20). Obedience to the commands of God produces assurance--the confidence of knowing for sure "that we have come to know Him." The Greek word translated "keep" in verse 3 speaks of watchful, careful, thoughtful obedience. It involves not only the act of obedience, but also the spirit of obedience--a willing, habitual safeguarding of the Word, not just in letter but in spirit. That's supported by the word translated "commandments," which refers specifically to the precepts of Christ rather than laws in general. Legal obedience demands perfection or penalty, whereas 1 John 2:3is a call to gracious obedience because of the penalty Christ has already paid.

Verse 4 presents a logical contrast: "The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." That person is making a false claim. "But whoever keeps His Word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected" (v. 5). How can you determine if you are a true Christian? Not by sentiment but by obedience.

If you desire to obey the Word out of gratitude for all Christ has done for you, and if you see that desire producing an overall pattern of obedience, you have passed an important test indicating the presence of saving faith.

Do You Reject This Evil World?
We now come to John's fourth test of what characterizes the true Christian: "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15 ). This love speaks of our deepest constraints, our most compelling emotions and goals. Christians won't feel that way toward anything in this world because they know that until Christ returns, this world is dominated by God's enemy. John said, "We know that we are the children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19 , niv). Satan, for now, is "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4).

The evil one has designed a system that the Bible simply calls "the world." The Greek term (kosmos) speaks of a system encompassing false religion, errant philosophy, crime, immorality, materialism, and the like. When you become a Christian, such things repel you, not attract you. Sometimes you may be lured into worldly things, but it isn't what you love; it's what you hate. That's the way Paul felt when he fell into sin (Rom. 7:15 ). As frustrating as it is to fall like that from time to time, we who are believers can be grateful that sin is something we hate and not love. That's because our new life in Christ plants within us love for God and the things of God.

"All that is in the world," John specified, "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever" (1 John 2:16-17). The world and its fleshly preoccupations are but temporary realities. The true believer, in contrast, has eternal life and will abide forever.
Jesus said those who follow Him are not of the world just as He was not of the world. We still move about in it to do His will as long as we are alive, but we are not of it. That's why Jesus prayed specifically for the Father to keep us from the evil one (John 17:14 -16). We're vulnerable to being sucked into this evil world's system now and then, but our love is toward God. That love is what will draw us out and redirect our focus toward heavenly priorities.

Do you reject the world? Do you reject its false religions, damning ideologies, godless living, and vain pursuits? Instead, do you love God, His truth, His kingdom, and all that He stands for? That doesn't come naturally to any man or woman because the human tendency is to love darkness rather than light to mask evil deeds (John 3:19-20). Unbelievers are of their father the devil, and want to do the desires of their father (John 8:44). If you reject the world and its devilish desires, that is an indication of new life in Christ. And since that new life is forever,

Do You Eagerly Await Christ's Return?
Further along in 1 John, we come across a fifth test of salvation: "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And every one who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (3:2-3). If you're a true Christian, you will have hope in your heart, and your hope will be focused on Christ's return. That hope will purify your life.

Do you love Christ so much that you eagerly await to see Him face-to-face at His return and be made like Him? Scripture tells us that is the Christian's blessed hope and supreme joy. Romans 8 declares that the whole creation groans in anticipation of the glorious manifestation of the children of God. First John 3 says that it involves three things: Christ appears, we see Him, and we're instantly made like Him.

"Our citizenship is in heaven," Paul said, "from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself" (Phil. 3:20-21). Are you waiting for that? Do you despise the sin in your fallen flesh and long to be like Christ? Can you feel the thrill of Paul's saying, "Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly"? (1 Cor. 15:49)

Such a hope has ethical power, for John said it purifies the one possessing it. Paul implied as much to Titus: "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus" (Titus 2:11-13). This is a sensible hope leading to sensible living. It is not an inordinate kind of anticipation in which you are irresponsible with your earthly responsibilities. Being so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good is a contradiction in terms. The hope of Christlikeness will compel you to act more like Christ in reaching out to others and fulfilling all that God has set out for you to do.

If you find yourself longing for the return of Jesus Christ, that's evidence of salvation. It's an indication of a new nature within, which longs to be delivered from a body of sin while becoming like the perfect Christ. If you have such holy longings and affections, you've passed an important test indicating the reality of your eternal salvation.

Do You See a Decreasing Pattern of Sin in Your Life?
Another manifestation of holy affections is a decreasing pattern of sin. First John 3:4-10 spells out this sixth test:
Every one who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that [Christ] appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God.

Unbroken patterns of sin are characteristic of the unregenerate. No matter what a person claims about being a Christian, if he or she continues in sin, it is only a claim and not a reality. When you became a Christian, the pattern of sin was broken and a new pattern came into existence. Holy affections took over. Does that mean there's no sin in your life? No, because your unredeemed flesh is still there. But the more you pursue those religious affections, the less you will sin.

Sin as a life pattern is incompatible with salvation. That's because to experience salvation is to be saved from something, and that something is sin. If a person could continue in sin after being saved from sin, that would mean salvation is ineffective. John therefore discussed the work of Christ to demonstrate just how effective it is.

He began by noting that there are people who practice sin and lawlessness (v. 4). Then Christ "appeared in order to take away sins" (v. 5). To say someone had the work of Christ applied to him or her, yet continues in the same pattern of sin is to deny the very purpose Christ came for, which was to take away sins. Continuing in sin is not consistent with Christ's work on the cross. If a saved person could keep on sinning, that would mean Christ's death--while having some efficacy in eternity--is in fact useless in time. Perish the thought! Christ's death served the very useful purpose of taking away not only the penalty of sin, but also the pattern of sin in the believer's life.

John went on to talk about Christ's work through the believer's union with Him: "No one who abides in Him sins" (v. 6). That cannot mean true Christians never sin because John just said, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1:8). Rather, the next two verses in chapter 3 explain, "The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil" (vv. 7-8). John's first epistle is consistent in warning against a pattern of sin.

Now let me clarify something here. I frequently receive letters from anguished Christians who doubt their salvation because they can't seem to break a sinful or unwise habit. They most often write about smoking, overeating, and masturbation. They fear their struggle with such things means they are locked into a pattern of sin. But John is not saying that the frequent occurrence of one particular sin in a person's life means that person is lost. Rather, he clarifies his meaning in saying that a true believer cannot practice lawlessness (1 John 3:4). The Greek term used there (anomia) literally means living as if there were no law. A person who rejects God's authority doesn't care what God thinks about his habits, and is obviously not a Christian.
A Christian, however, has a drastically different way of relating to God. He or she is no longer a slave to sin, but has offered himself or herself as a servant to the Lord (Rom. 6:14, 17-18). A true Christian can still sin, and may even do so frequently, but sinning frequently is not the same as practicing sin. In 1 John we see that a true believer can do the first, but not the second.

Why is that the case? Because the true believer "abides in Him" (1 John 3:6). Not only does Christ's death take away our sin, but also His ongoing life in us breaks the sin pattern. No longer are we perpetual sinners in thought, word, and deed--as we were before we were saved. We now have the option to do good. If we find ourselves sinning, contrary to the good we desire to do inside, we are much like the apostle Paul in Romans 7--and he's a great person to be associated with! Yet because of the abiding presence of Christ, our struggle will decrease as time goes on. We will always be acutely sensitive to sin, for as we have seen, that's one of John's tests of saving faith, but sin will be less of a pattern in our lives. Christ lives in union with us to provide a new pattern--a pattern of righteousness.

A pattern of sin, however, signals a union with the devil: "The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil" (v. 8). The devil is a sinner and nothing but. Everyone who is associated with the devil is a sinner and nothing but. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil by rescuing people who are in bondage to sin. That means those who've really been rescued will not continue in the state they've been rescued from. A habitual pattern of sin indicates that a rescue has never taken place. To claim otherwise is to denigrate Christ by implying His death didn't accomplish what He set out to do--destroy the works of the devil by rescuing people from sin.

In addition, "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: any one who does not practice righteousness is not of God" (vv. 9-10). The believer has been born anew by the Holy Spirit. The seed He plants is a new nature, a new life principle, a new disposition. just as a seed planted in the ground produces a distinct kind of life, God's seed produces a righteous life in us that breaks the pattern of sin. And don't worry: that seed cannot die, for the Word of God tells us it's imperishable (1 Peter 1:23). Born of the Spirit of God, the believer cannot continually sin.

John just provided us with four viewpoints in analyzing the sin in our life: the work Christ accomplished in His death, His ongoing life in the believer, His destruction of the devil's works, and the regenerating work of the Spirit. Every way you look at it, the pattern of habitual sin is broken. What does that mean to you personally? If you see a decreasing pattern of sin in your life, that's evidence of holy affections. The difference between the children of God and the children of the devil is, as John said, "obvious" (v. 10). If you practice righteousness, you're of God. If you don't, you're not. Plain and simple. If you see victory over sin in your life, if you see righteous motives, righteous desires, righteous words, righteous deeds, and if you're not all you ought to be but certainly not what you used to be, then you have eternal life, so enjoy it.

Do You Love Other Christians?
In 1 John 3:10, John mentions two obvious facts. One, as we just saw, is that "anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God." The other is that neither is anyone "who does not love his brother." To amplify that point, let's go back to a key section we missed in our progressive study of John's letter: "The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes" (2:9-11).

To say you're in the light--or you've seen the light--is to claim to be a Christian. If so, your life would certainly show some of the life patterns of Christ. Loving fellow Christians is one very basic pattern. To be in fellowship with Christ is to experience and express love. If you claim to be a Christian but do not even like Christians, your claim is a sham. You are in fact walking in darkness, not in the light.

Loving fellow Christians comes naturally to the believer. As Paul said to the Thessalonian church, "[Regarding] the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another" (1 Thess. 4:9). Nevertheless, he went on to encourage them to "excel still more" in their love for one another (v. 10). As believers, we haven't loved as fully as we ought to love, but we have loved. And we don't need to be taught to love because it's instinctive, implicit, and inherent within our new nature. As we learned in Romans 5:5, "The love of God has been poured out within our hearts."
Jesus went so far as to say, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). It is basic to our Christian life that we have the capacity to "fervently love one another from the heart," as Peter expressed it (1 Peter 1:22). And it's a love that goes beyond mere feeling to encompass dutiful responsibility, sacrificial service, and sensitive concern.

So here comes the test: Do you characteristically love other believers? If you claim to be a Christian but have no love in your heart for those in the church or any track record of meeting their needs, then the apostle John says this to you: You're in the dark in spite of your claim to be in the light. Love is a test of divine life. It signifies you have crossed over from darkness to light. This is how 1 John 3:14-15 putsit: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."

Do you honestly care about other believers or are you cold, uncaring, and indifferent? Do you have a desire to reach out and meet their needs? Those who don't care are spiritually dead, characterized by an ongoing hatred. In our sophisticated age, that is manifested not so much in vitriolic hostility as in an utterly self-centered approach to life. People who continually focus on themselves and couldn't care less what happens to anyone else are of their father the devil, who "was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). As believers, however, "we know love by this, that [Christ] laid down His life for us" quite the opposite of the devil's murderous character. Therefore, "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16).
John defined love as making sacrifices for others, perhaps even to the point of martyrdom. How do you respond to the opportunities you typically have to sacrifice your time, treasures, and talents? Are you happy when you come across a person or ministry in need, and you're able to provide money, time, prayer, a commodity, a skill, or a sympathetic ear?

What about enjoying the privilege of fellowship in general? Do you look forward to being with fellow Christians and talking with them, sharing with them, discussing the things of God with them, studying the Word with them, and praying with them? Do you have a desire to take the resources God has given you and apply them to someone else in the family of God? That's evidence of love, as John went on to explain: "Whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth" (vv. 17-18).

Note the result of such a practical approach to love: "We will know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God" (vv. 19-21). The assurance that you are a Christian--that your faith is the real thing--will come by your love. The Greek word translated "assure" (peitho) means to pacify, tranquilize, soothe, or persuade. You can soothe yourself as you stand before God that you're a true Christian if you see love in your life.

Now your love won't be perfect, but it will be there. Let that bolster your assurance, for John warned that your heart or conscience may try to incriminate you and make you doubt. The fallen flesh has the capability to play games with your mind. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, may seek to exploit that tendency. In whatever your heart condemns you, you can be assured if you see love in your life. You may doubt your salvation, but God never does because He is greater than your heart and knows all things.

Perhaps you're going through doubt and struggling with your assurance. Do as John said and go back to the love of your life: Examine whether you love other Christians as evidenced by deeds of kindness and sacrifice. If that's characteristic of your life, be soothed, be pacified--for no matter what your heart may do to condemn you, you can be sure of your salvation. A condemning conscience can rob you of your assurance because it looks only at failure. But God is greater than your conscience; He looks at your faith in Christ.
The apostle Peter, after denying Christ three times, had a worse time than any of us can imagine with a condemning heart. Jesus came personally to assure him. Three times in a row He inquired gently about Peter's devotion. In desperation, Peter replied, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You" (John 21:17). We too can appeal to the love God sees in our hearts. It's not perfect but, again, it's there. And it will express itself through deeds of kindness and sacrifice to others. Jesus told Peter to reveal his love by taking care of the church. It's natural for the Christian to "do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith" (Gal. 6:10). Your love for fellow Christians is a benchmark of the Christian faith, and solid grounds for assurance. Refuse to let your heart condemn what God does not.

Do You Experience Answered Prayer?
Another source of confidence and assurance is this: Whatever we ask of God "we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight" (1 John 3:22). You can know you're a believer if God answers your prayers. The only way that can happen is if you keep His commandments, and the only way you can do that is if you belong to Him. As John says in verse 24, "The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him."

In a similar passage John said, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him" (5:13-15). God always answers prayers that are according to His will. Obedient believers know His will as stated in His Word, and tailor their prayers accordingly. The answers that result bring about confidence and assurance.

God is more eager to answer the prayers of His children than they are to ask. I suspect there's a certain disappointment in God's heart because He would do so much more than we ever ask Him to do. Think of the blessings and assurance we miss out on!

Now there are many people who pray to God, but don't even know the God they're praying to or what His will is. God is under no obligation to answer such prayers. We learn from the Psalms that He doesn't even hear them (cf. Ps. 66:18). But those of us who see answers to our prayers can know we have eternal life. One of the many good reasons to pray fervently and faithfully is to enjoy the assurance that answered prayer brings.

Some believers struggle with being assured of their salvation because they have scant experience concerning answered prayers. That comes from a skimpy prayer life. What a tragedy! If you're in that situation, reverse it immediately. I don't want you to miss out on the blessing and comfort that answered prayer brings. Looking back on my life, one of my greatest sources of assurance is seeing that God has answered many of my prayers through the years. That He answered is evidence that He hears me, which is evi­dence that I abide in Him and He in me.

Have you had your prayers answered? Is that a pattern of life for you? If so, you have eternal life. Have you prayed for an unbeliever and seen that person come to Christ? Have you prayed for someone in great distress and seen God turn the situation around into blessing and joy? Have you sought God about a void in your life and seen Him fill it? Have you prayed for forgiveness in a clear conscience and received it? Have you asked God to enable you to present His truth to an individual or group and experienced His grace to do so with great clarity? Have you sought power in proclaiming the gospel and experienced it? Have you asked that God would help you lead someone to the Savior, and He did? Have you sought contentment amidst trying circumstances and experienced God's peace as a result? Have you asked the Lord to help you know Him better and experienced greater intimacy with Him after going through some hard lessons? Those are all indications that you belong to Him and He to you.

Do You Experience the Ministry of the Holy Spirit?
First John 4:13 develops that theme of belonging to God: "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit." The first thing the Spirit did was "testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world" (v. 14). If you confess that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and have committed your life to Him, that was the Spirit's doing. Apart from the Holy Spirit, you wouldn't know who Christ is and you certainly wouldn't confess Him as Savior and Lord. Have you experienced that ministry of the Holy Spirit? If so, that's evidence of being a true child of God.

Another vital work of the Spirit is His illuminating your understanding of Scripture. John, speaking of the Spirit, said, "The anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and ... teaches you about all things" (2:27). Paul explained that "the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God ... that we may know the things freely given to us by God" (1 Cor. 2:10, 12). When you read the Word of God, is its meaning illuminated to you? Do you understand what it says? In fact, do you sometimes understand it so well you wish you didn't understand quite that well because of the obvious implications? Is it relatively clear overall? Now I'm not talking about obscure passages that we all struggle with, but consider the effect that reading the Word has on you. Ask yourself, Does it convict me when I'm sinful? Does it make me rejoice when I'm worshiping God and seeking to advance His kingdom? Those are signs of the Spirit's illuminating work in your life.

Let's look at other ministries of the Spirit. What about fellowship with God? It is the Spirit who leads you to cry out "Abba! Father!" (Gal. 4:6) as a sign of your intimacy and communion with God. What about praise? Who is it that lifts your heart to praise and adore God? Who is it that compels you to sing with meaning and devotion? In Ephesians 5:19, Paul explains that the filling of the Spirit leads to "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord." What about the fruit of the Spirit, which Paul describes as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control"? (Gal. 5:22-23) Those attitudes are spiritual graces. Have they graced your life as a whole?

Have you ever ministered in a spiritual way through helping someone, giving to someone, or speaking to someone about Christ? Those are evidences of the Spirit of God. Do you actually experience His ministry in your life? In Romans 8:16, Paul explains that "the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God." Now don't expect Him to whisper into your ear, "You're a Christian, you're a Christian, believe Me you're a Christian!" There's no audible voice, nothing esoteric or mystical, but something very concrete. He bears witness by providing you with evidence of His presence in your life--by illuminating Scripture to you, drawing you into fellowship with God through prayer and praise, producing spiritual fruit to grace your life, and enabling you to minister effectively to others.

If the Spirit is in your life, that's evidence that you abide in God and He in you (1 John 4:13). So be assured. Don't let your heart condemn you, damn you, tell you you're not a believer. Recognize the Spirit's work in you. There's no reason to doubt and be unstable.

Can You Discern between Spiritual Truth and Error?
So far we've taken nine tests for determining the presence of saving faith. In the tenth is the one time John actually used the word test: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God" (1 John 4:1-3).

Every false religious system in the world violates that test. Adherents of such systems consistently attempt to undermine the biblical truth about who Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished--that He is Savior and Lord, who came in human flesh to be "delivered over because of our transgressions, and ... raised because of our justification" (Rom. 4:25). Can you tell when someone is presenting false teaching about the person and work of Christ? That is the watershed issue of the Christian faith.

False teachers "are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:5-6). John was saying a true believer will listen to the truth and not deviate into error about Christ's glorious person and work. Suppose someone says, "I used to believe in Jesus Christ, but now I've seen the light: Christ really was an angelic being--or an emanation from God, a divine spirit without the human element, or just a man and not divine." Any such heresies reflect an unregenerate heart.

From the moment of your salvation, there's one thing you're clear about and that's who Christ is and what He did, or you wouldn't be saved. It's the Holy Spirit who made that clear to you. This test is not moral or experiential but doctrinal. True believers know truth from error because the Spirit of Truth indwells them. "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ," John says, "is born of God" (1 John 5:1). That's the same doctrinal test again. When you believe the right thing about Christ, you're born of God.

It's good to be a believer, but it's also good to be skeptical. As John says, "Do not believe every spirit" (4:1, emphasis added). For the sake of your spiritual life and health, don't believe everything you hear, see, and read. Instead, "Test the spirits to see whether they are from God." That requires the ability to think biblically. The Greek text implies conducting a rigorous, ongoing examination of whatever and whomever you expose yourself to. Why go to all that trouble? "Because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
The conquering of the city of Troy is one of the most famous stories of antiquity. Greek soldiers had laid siege to the city for over ten years, but were unable to conquer it. In exasperation Ulysses, a brilliant strategist, decided to have a large wooden horse built and left outside the city walls as a supposed gift to the unconquerable Trojans. The Greeks then sailed away in apparent defeat. The curious and proud Trojans brought the wooden horse inside their fortified walls. That night Greek soldiers hidden inside the horse crept out and opened the city gates to let their fellow soldiers into the city. The soldiers massacred the inhabitants, looted the city, and burned it to the ground. Ever since, the Trojan horse has been a symbol of infiltration and deception. Throughout its history, the church has embraced many Trojan horses filled with false prophets.
Satan has effectively used enemies disguised as gifts to lure people away from the truth of God and into destructive error. Today's church is in a particularly severe state of confusion because of its weak doctrine, relativistic thinking, worldly methodology, inaccurate interpretation of Scripture, lax internal discipline, and spiritual immaturity. What is sorely needed is spiritual discernment--the skill of separating divine truth from error (1 Thess. 5:21).

Perhaps you are discerning in the everyday affairs of life. You read nutritional labels because you want to be healthy. You read the fine print of the stock market report before making financial investments. If you need surgery, you carefully select the right doctor. Maybe you're highly analytical about politics and can accurately assess a plethora of domestic and foreign issues. Or maybe you're an armchair quarterback who evaluates offensive and defensive strategies. All that is fine, but can you discern between divine truth and error?
To do that, John said to test for two things: confession of the divine Lord (1 John 4:2-3) and commitment to the divine Word (vv. 4-6). If you study the cults, you'll detect a pattern. Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, and the like attack the person of Christ and then postulate a substitute or addition to the Bible, such as Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, The Book of Mormon, or The Pearl of Great Price. True believers won't believe such lies. They have a resident truth teacher in the person of the Holy Spirit (I John 2:27).

I listened to a radio program recently where a man was propagating a religion I never heard of before. It didn't take me long to discover he was not representing the truth. I was immediately put on guard by the way he skewed one brief biblical statement at the beginning of his message. I continued to listen rather intently until he was finished, whereupon he declared the existence of a great prophet who is the instrument of God to bring great truth to humanity. What he said did not square with Scripture. I knew it was error because the Spirit of God has convinced me about salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone and the veracity of Scripture. I knew I didn't need some prophet of modem times to give me the truth.

You don't have to be a seminary graduate or an expert on cults and world religions to distinguish truth from error. If you aren't swayed from the basic truths of Christ's divine person, work, and Word, that's evidence of genuine saving faith.

Have You Suffered Rejection Because of Your Faith?
This eleventh and last test is painful: "Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you" (1 John 3:13). Cain hated Abel and murdered him. Why did Cain do that? "Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous" (v. 12). Have you experienced animosity, hostility, rejection, bitterness, alienation, ostracism, prejudice, or outright persecution from representing and advocating what is right? If so, that's a sign that you belong to One who suffered the same way for the same reason.

The fact is, to the worldly, you as a Christian "have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things" (1 Cor. 4:13). You're a threat to their belief that this world is all that's worth living for."They are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you" (1 Peter 4:4). However, Scripture says, "[Be] in no way alarmed by your opponents--which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you" (Phil. 1:28). When suffering on account of your faith, don't say, "Can I really be a Christian? Things are going so badly--I wonder if God cares." Rather, if the world is persecuting you, say, "Isn't this truly wonderful! It's pretty clear who I am."

I'll never forget one night many years ago when I was called to the church office to deal with an emergency. I arrived to find one of our elders struggling with a girl who was obviously demon possessed. She was evidencing supernatural strength. She flipped a heavy steel desk over onto its top and the two of us together were unable to restrain her physically. Voices that were not her own were speaking out of her. The first thing they said when I arrived was, "Not him! Get him out! Get him out! We don't want him here." It encouraged me to know that the demons knew I was not on their side.

That was a very confirming night for me. When the world and the spirit of Satan behind it come after you, you too have the right to be confirmed if you're hated because of righteousness. Now, if you're hated because you're obnoxious, there's no virtue in that! "But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God" (1 Peter 2:20). Part of that favor is being assured of your salvation.

The apostle John gave all the tests that he did to give the true believer a biblical basis for confidence. Let's review his spiritual inventory: Do you enjoy fellowship with God and Christ? Are you sensitive to sin in your life? Do you obey the Scriptures? Do you reject this evil world? Do you love Christ and eagerly await His return? Do you see a decreasing pattern of sin in your life? Do you love other Christians? Do you receive answers to your prayers? Do you experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Can you discern between spiritual truth and error? Have you suffered on account of your faith in Christ?

If you pass those tests, you can have confidence before God. After all, John wrote what he did so "you may know that you have eternal life" (5:13). There's no reason for you to go through your spiritual experience in the dumps, yet thousands of Christians do. Please don't be one of them.
Copyright 2004 by John MacArthur. All rights reserved. All Scripture quotations, unless noted otherwise, are from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission. Adapted from Saved Without a Doubt, by John MacArthur (Victor Books, 1992).