December 20th

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Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Chris.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is the 365 Bible Reading Plan. Today is December the twentieth. And our chapter for today is 1 John chapter 4. Let's get right to it. Beloved, this means he's talking to believers. He's talking to those who are special in the eyes of God. God loves all men, and we are to love all men, but especially those of the household of faith. Beloved do not believe every spirit, but test, put to the test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Now this is a warning, a warning not just for those who lived two thousand years ago, but for all of us who are alive at any point in time in history. You see, there are many spiritual beings in the world. God, of course, is the creator of all things. But sin entered into Satan's heart and many evil spirits followed him because you see an angel is a spirit, a created being, and those angels that are fallen are called demons. They are called demons. That is just a transliteration of the word that is given in Greek demonion. And so this is exactly what we're dealing with is demonic spirits, spirits of every rank and of every stripe. And so when we are spoken to in our spirit, you see, man is body, soul, and spirit. With our body we relate to the world around us, the fleshly world that we live in, the physical world that we live in, the natural world that we live in. And we relate to it through our senses that God has given us the five senses. But then there is the soul. A soul is a complex entity that involves our mind. That's not our brain, but our mind. Our mind controls our physical anatomy, our brain. Our mind, our will, our volition, that is, our intellect, our volition, and our emotion. So mind, will and emotion, all of that is in the soul. It's a complex entity, and we cannot even divide between the soul and the spirit. Only the word of God can do that according to Hebrews chapter four. We are not able to say, okay, that's a soulish act or that's a spiritual act. With our soul we relate to ourselves. We are self-conscious. With our spirit we relate to God. Why? Because God is spirit and he created body, soul, and spirit, a tripartite being, three parts. Anything that relates to God is in three parts if it is complete and whole. The tabernacle had three parts. The temple had three parts, the outer court, the holy place, and the most holy place. Man is a three part being, body, soul, and spirit. God is a triune God, one yet three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We could go on and on, but that you get the idea. And so with our spirit we relate to God, but there is more than just the Spirit of God that we have to deal with. We have an enemy, the enemy of our souls, that wants to destroy us. He cannot destroy God, so he wants to try to ruin our lives and to get us to rebel against God, his children. And so we must test the spirit. So how do we do that? If we have left our own, we couldn't figure it out, but God tells us, by this you know the Spirit of God. Notice that's a capital S in your English Bibles, because it's related to the Spirit of God, the Hagias, the holy, the set apart spirit. Every spirit that homologo that confesses, agrees that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Now notice John uses Jesus Christ often together. Jesus Messiah, Jesus the anointed one. And the reason he does that is because you cannot separate Jesus from the Christ. Now that's what Serinthius tried to do, and this is what John is writing about, which I told you just a couple of days ago when we began the book of first John. Serinthus was a man who taught that the Messiah, that the Christ came upon Jesus after his birth, at his baptism, when he began his ministry. Some would teach before that time, but that he left him before the cross. That is, that the Messiah was separate from the man, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ. And John says that is heresy. That's deviation from the truth. That's what heresy is. It means a divider, a deviation from the reality and the truth of God's word. You see, every spirit that does not agree, that's what the word confess means, homologo, that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that he is a real person. He is the God man. He is all God, all flesh, not half God, half man. He's not some Greek fable. He's not some Roman scimitar. He is all God and all man. He's 100% God and 100% man. And that was from his conception onward and is still true today. Jesus is still Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, resurrected from the dead with his body, a physical body, the same body he was given at his conception and his birth, and he will have throughout all eternity. He is the God man. He is also still a Jew. According to the book of Revelation, the last chapter, he said, I am the root and the offspring of David. I am the root and offspring of David. He said that still in the future. It's been two thousand years since he resurrected from the dead, and he is still of the root and offspring of David. So he is still a Jew, was born a Jew, he lived a Jew, he died a Jew, he was resurrected a Jew. He is the God man. He really came to earth. Every spirit that agrees that Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the anointed one, has come in the flesh, is of God. And every spirit that does not agree that Jesus Christ has come, that's perfect tense. That means he came as the Christ. That's what the perfect tense says. In the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist. Antichristas is the word. That's the word Antichrist is a transliteration of the Greek word antichrist. He is against God. He's not of God. He is of the enemy. He is of the devil. He is Satan come in the flesh, which you have heard was coming, and now already is in the world. That is, the spirit of Antichrist is already with us, and he is roaming about, seeking whom he may devour. He said, You are of God, little children. This is this term of endearment. And have overcome them. That is, overcome these evil spirits, overcome the Antichrist, overcome the flesh. And the perfect tense again is you have overcome. That is, there was a point in time when we were born again, when we became part of the family of God. And at that point the Spirit of God came to live in our hearts, and at that point we overcame the world. Now we might not do that on a daily, hourly basis all the time, but we have overcome the world in Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors, we are more than overcomers. We are more than victors. The word is Nike, where we get the word Nike today, the victor, the overcomer. Because he who is in you is Mega. That's the word. He that is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The devil, his demons, his minions have no way to overcome the power and person of God himself. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. You see, Mega is within us, Mega God. He is the one that has overcome, he is the creator of all. They are of the world, therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. John was talking about he and the other apostles. If you follow God's word, then you know that what they say is true. If you reject what they say, then you're going to fall for anything, and you are not of God. You see, God's word was spoken by the apostles to us. It was spoken in the Tanakh through Moses and the prophets. And if we reject the word of God and the witness of those that were sent by God, divine ambassadors and emissaries, then we will go astray. Beloved, here again this term of endearment. Let us agapeo, let us love one another, for love, agapeo, is of God. God is the source of all love. And everyone who loves truly loves in the agapa, not the arao, as I talked to you about last podcast yesterday, but everyone who is born of God, Agapao, agape, has the ability, the supernatural ability to choose to love people because of the character that is within us, the spirit of God that is within us, because of the volition, the choice of our own will. It is far above Phileo, a love that's based in pleasure, far above Storgas, natural affection, or natural common love, and certainly greater than the self-consuming Arao aras love. Beloved, let us love one another, for agape is of God. God is the source of all agape, and everyone who loves is born of God, is a child of God, and knows God, is intimate with God. We cannot love the way he does without him empowering us. He who does not agape, he who does not agape, does not know God, for God is love. God is the source of all love. In this the love of God was made plain toward us, in that God has sent his one of a kind son, his monogone son. This is the same language in John 114, this is the same language in John three sixteen, this is the same language that John wrote about earlier and is now writing that God so loved us that he sent his son to be the propitiation. Yes, there's that same word that we encountered in first John chapter two, where he says that our advocate, Jesus, the righteous one, is the halasmas. He is the propitiation, he is the offering, the blood sacrifice on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. That is, if God loved us enough to give himself for us, we ought to love one another and give ourselves for each other. No greater love has any man that he lay down his life for a friend. Now no one has seen God at any time. This is the same love that John talked about in the Gospel of John, chapter one and verse eighteen, where he says, No man has seen God at any time, same language. If we love one another, God remains, abides, lives in us, and his love has been matured in us. That's the word perfect is the word for mature. By this we know that we remain in him, we live in him, we have our being, uh we move and have our being in him, and he in us because he has given us his spirit. The spirit of God is the seal of redemption in our hearts. He is in us because he has given us his spirit. And we have seen and testified the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. We cannot get away from that. Jesus is the savior of the world, the entire world. There is no other one that can save. Jesus offers his salvation to everyone in the world. The scripture says that this is God's doing from start to finish, and that God testifies this to us and to the world. Whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he that one that confesses in God. And we have known and believed that the love of God that he has for us, God is love. I mean, God has made it plain to us through the Apostle John, the apostle of love, as he is called. Just notice how many times in the Gospel of John, in 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, that the word love, God like love, is mentioned. And so he says, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Now he says, love has been matured among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that is, that we might stand open face. That's the whole idea, face to face, not ashamed, because as he is, so are we in the world. Jesus came and overcame the world, and he gives us the power within us to overcome the world. There is no fear in love. Read that again. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect, been made mature in love. We love him because he first loved us. All John is simply saying here is that when we love God and know that he loves us, we don't have to fear anything. And if there's fear in our life, that is not from God. And if we really understand his love, there is nothing to fear. And this is a great problem solver in our lives. If we'll just understand that we're not going to be overcome by anything, nothing can touch us, harm us until God says it's okay. And listen to me, friend. If God says it's okay, it's okay. People say, well, you know, I'm asking for God to heal me and not take me at this time. Well, that I understand that, and you should pray that. If you believe that's what God wants you to do, then pray that. But let me just tell you, you're not going anywhere until God says you're going somewhere. And if he says you're going somewhere, then it's okay. If someone says I love God and he hates his brother, he's a liar. Now I don't know of a plainer statement anywhere in the Bible. You say, well, I love God but I don't love his church, then you don't know the God of love. Because God will enable you to love anybody, even those who say they are brothers and sisters and they act like the devil, you can still love them. Now you may not be able to have fellowship with them, but you love them because you desire them to come to know God in a personal way, and God will take care of that mess that's in their life. It's his business. You can't do it anyway. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? Now to live above with those we love, all that's going to be glory. But to live below with those we know now that's a different story. See, that's where the shoe leather meets the road, not in the sweet by and by but right here. If we can't love people here, there's a good chance that we've never known the love of God to begin with. You say, well, wait just a minute, you mean I'm supposed to love people that don't treat me like they should, that don't respect me, that don't admire me, that don't talk to me the way they need to. That's what true love is. It's loving people that are unlovable, unlovely, unloving. All of those things. You see, anybody can love people that loves them. It's only the Spirit of God that enables us to love someone that is unlovable, unloving toward us. May God grant it. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

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Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.