From God or from the World?

1 John 4:4–6 | Pastor Christopher Powers

What is Kingstree Sermons?

The official audio library of sermons preached at Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.

Christopher: 00:00

If I have said, I've seen the Lord in glory cast out of Jerusalem on the peripheries, on the cross, then when the world comes with offerings of glory, fame, social media recognition, whatever advancement at work, where that doesn't stick anymore because we've seen glory, and it's a glory the world can't comprehend.

Caleb: 00:25

The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

Christopher: 00:37

If you recall, last week, we were looking at John's call to discern the spirits or test the spirits. And remember the context in which John is writing.

Christopher: 00:55

So he's writing to a church that has been infiltrated by false teaching. There's false teaching going on inside the church, and John is writing to them to put them on guard against this. And he's into that moment of, you know, they're wondering, who's telling the truth? Who's speaking for the apostles? Who's who do I commit myself to?

Christopher: 01:21

Which of these teachers do I follow? There's confusion, and into that confusion, John is writing, and we saw last week he writes to say, test the spirits. Don't just take what someone says to you as coming from the spirit of God as though it does. Discern. Test.

Christopher: 01:39

And I said, even test, you know, what I'm saying. Don't just take what I'm saying. And what John says is that the Spirit, someone speaking from the Spirit of God, will confess Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ himself is the litmus test, as it were, to discern as someone speaking by the spirit of God or by the spirit of the antichrist. If someone is speaking by the spirit of God, they will confess Jesus, crucified, truly crucified, truly raised as himself the divine King through whose death and resurrection, the kingdom of Yahweh God has broken in, has come, has begun. That's all bound up in John saying, Jesus, the Christ, having come in the flesh.

Christopher: 02:31

That's what the spirit of God confesses. The spirit of the Antichrist isn't able to confess that. That's what we looked at last week, looking at how we discern the teaching we're receiving. This week, the focus is going to shift a little bit from the teacher to the people. So just as what a teacher teaches shows to whom they belong, so to what a people listens to, what a people accepts, what a people believes shows to whom they belong.

Christopher: 03:04

And that's the emphasis John is going to be switching to in the second half of this passage of discernment. John Fukcha, one John four:one-six. He's So switching to this idea of discerning the people who are listening. But before he gets there, and this is really where the most of our time is going to be this morning, before he gets there, he talks about the nature of the division. So we see that there's a dualism or a division between from God, from the world.

Christopher: 03:35

Spirit of Christ, spirit of antichrist. And John's going to be talking about the nature of this division. What's it like? What is this division like? And then at the end, he's going to talk about and how do we discern which people fall in which area of this division.

Christopher: 03:52

So that's what we're going to be looking at today. We're spending the most of our time on the nature of that dualism, the nature of that division because we are enmeshed in that still in our time, in our life, in our world. We live Many things have changed, but what hasn't changed is that there is still a sphere that is from God and from the world. There is still light and dark. There is still the spirit of Christ, the spirit of antichrist, and we are still in one or the other of these two, and we have to discern between the two.

Christopher: 04:26

So we're going to be looking at that this morning. Let me read for you the text that we're going to be drawing from. It's one John four, starting in verse four through verse six. It says this, Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world.

Christopher: 04:51

Therefore, they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Christopher: 05:11

Okay. So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning. Let me pray for us as we go into the text together. Father, if we know ourselves and if we know this life, we know that we are desperately dependent on you at every moment. There are things that we feel like we can control and things that we don't feel like we can control, but ultimately, Lord, we have decisive control over nothing.

Christopher: 05:42

You are the one into whom we cast all that we have and all that we are, all that we hold dear, all that we love and cherish and treasure, we cast into your hands. And we know, Lord, that this moment now is completely dependent upon you. And so, Father, we pray as we come to your word that you would give me grace to be faithful and clear in my unfolding of your word and to align with John's intentions, to give your people grace to hear with discerning ears and to receive what is from you, and, Lord, to give downstairs the the children grace to receive what's being taught, and Haley grace to teach and to direct them in the way that they should go. So, Lord, we place completely in your hands now this coming few minutes that you would overshadow us and lead for the sake of your name, guard and direct for the sake of your name. We commit this time into your hands, Lord, and we look to you for good that we ask for and more, Lord, the good that we couldn't think to ask for, but that you give because you are a generous father.

Christopher: 06:58

And we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So the first thing I wanna talk about here is this concept of dualism. You heard me use that term before. Dualism, just dual is two.

Christopher: 07:14

It means a distinction between two things, a worldview that sees things divided into two, light and dark, good and evil. And you can hear that dualism in the passage we just read where John says, they are from the world. Therefore, they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us.

Christopher: 07:38

Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So you see how he's dividing the world into these two camps or these two categories. And we've seen John do this before when he talks about walking in the light or walking in the dark. He talks about loving or hating.

Christopher: 07:57

He talks about Christ and antichrist. So John has what we could call a dualistic worldview. However, we need to be careful about speaking that way because typically dualism means two equal and opposite things, yin and yang. They're balancing, light and dark, balancing one another out, and they're equal. They're held consistently in tension.

Christopher: 08:21

That is decidedly not the kind of dualism that John envisions here. He does see the world divided very clearly, but this is what you could call an asymmetrical dualism. Symmetry means it looks the same on this side as it does on this side. Asymmetry means there's a difference between the two sides. So John has what we could call an asymmetrical dualism.

Christopher: 08:47

And you see that because he says he says, You are from God and have overcome them. Little children, you are from God. You're in this sphere, but this sphere is not just on equal footing with the other one. You have overcome them. For greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

Christopher: 09:07

So for John, it's it's not that the world and God are warring spheres and they're back and forth and it's who's gonna win. There are two spheres, but one is clearly the victorious one. To be from God is to be having overcome the world, to be in victory over the world. So there's a distinction, but it's not an equal distinction. He wants to be very clear.

Christopher: 09:32

There's no halfway house there is of the world or of God, but he also wants to be very clear that the two are not equal. So see those two as we're getting started here. See those two things that John lays out in the text. There is a right and a wrong. There is a light and a dark.

Christopher: 09:52

There is a good and an evil. There is being from God or from the world. And we need to rightly distinguish between the two. That's clear in the text. The second thing that's clear is that these two are not equal.

Christopher: 10:07

These two are not equal. There is a side that's victorious. There's a side that comes out winning as it were. There is it is to be from God is to have overcome the world. Those are the two things John's making clear here, and we need to hear both those things.

Christopher: 10:27

We need to hear both those things in our context because John's words come to his audience and to us as something of a splash of cold water on our faces in case we were sleepy sleeping and imagining that there's some kind of fuzzy gray middle that we can live in between God and the world. Maybe I can just live there in between and kind of do a God thing sometimes but do a world thing sometimes and kind of have my allegiance between the two. And John's words make it very clear there there is no such thing as that fuzzy gray space. Now in certain matters, when we're trying to deal with issues of what do I do in this situation, there can be some ambiguity. There's wisdom.

Christopher: 11:14

We have to try to figure that out. But in the matter of allegiance, with whom have I cast the lot of my life, there's no there's no fuzzy middle. There's with Christ or with the world. And John's saying, wake up to this and choose a side. As it were, get off a fence and choose a side.

Christopher: 11:36

We need to be in one or the other place because they're distinct. That's the first thing we need to hear. But then the second thing John's saying is, and to be from God is to overcome the world. To be from God is to be on the side that is finally victorious. To be from God, to be in Christ is to be moving along with the grain of the universe, to be moving along the the current of where reality is going because Christ is where reality is going.

Christopher: 12:07

Even if the little eddy of our world is rolling backwards and feels like it's pushing against him, actually the tide of reality is flowing toward Christ, and to be in Christ is to be in the winning side. And it's important for us to hear that because often it does not look or feel like being on the winning side to be in Christ. It doesn't look he says, you've overcome them. You've overcome them. You've overcome the world.

Christopher: 12:40

And you might say, well, it doesn't feel like it. It doesn't look like it. It doesn't look like Christ is winning when darkness or idolatry or violence is spreading over the world. It doesn't feel like overcoming is happening. Just as it didn't look like Christ was overcoming when Christians were being burned at the stake or fed to the lions in Rome, that doesn't look like they're overcoming.

Christopher: 13:11

But in fact, that was how the Roman Empire was overthrown, was through the faithful continual witness of the church until this whole devouring beast of an empire was thrown at its face and bowed to Christ. That's how it was overcome. It didn't look like, it didn't feel like Christ was winning when he was hanging on the cross being mocked by every passerby. You would you would be cried down as a fool to point at him in that moment and say, there's the victory of God over the cosmos. There's the conquest of God over all authorities and powers.

Christopher: 13:53

It doesn't look like it. It doesn't feel like it, but it is. He's overthrowing every enemy. He's conquering every authority. He's overcoming the world in that moment.

Christopher: 14:04

He was, and in him, we are. As he said in John sixteen thirty three, I have overcome the world. In this world, you will have trouble. In me, you will have peace. I have overcome the world.

Christopher: 14:17

And that's what I wanna spend a good bit of time on this morning. So we we've seen the distinction. There's distinction between the world and God, and John says they're not the same because, in fact, to be from God means to overcome the world. And and I want us to take some time to ask, what does it mean though to overcome the world? What does that mean?

Christopher: 14:36

What does that look like for the church, for us to overcome the world? So let's take a moment and consider that because he says in verse four, little children, you are from God, and you have overcome them. That is those speaking from the world, those anchored in the world. You've overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So just very quickly, I'm gonna hop around to a few verses.

Christopher: 15:02

Don't feel like you need to turn here with me. I just wanna give you a sense of John's vision of what it means to overcome and specifically to overcome the world. I already mentioned this one, but in John 16 verse 33, at the very end of near the end of his his farewell discourse, Jesus says to his disciples, I have said these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Now Jesus says that as he's going to the cross.

Christopher: 15:39

He knows it's not going to look like overcoming the world here in a moment. And he doesn't say, I will overcome the world eventually when I return. He says, I have overcome the world. He's looking at his death and his resurrection as a completed work, and he's saying, my disciples, as I go to Golgotha, here on this mount, here on this cross, I have overcome the world. So overcoming the world in John's gospel is tethered to the cross work of Christ.

Christopher: 16:13

And then again, in Revelation chapter five, we see this same idea only given with a bit of a symbolic imagery. Revelation chapter five verse five, John is before the throne weeping because it seems no one is able to fulfill the purposes of God. Open the scroll that will bring about the purposes of God, And one of the elders says, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, he has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. Okay.

Christopher: 16:45

So lion has conquered. Awesome. Conquered there, overcome. It's the same word. The lion has overcome.

Christopher: 16:52

What's that look like? John looks. And in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. So he hears, The lion has overcome, and he looks and he sees the lamb who has been slain. And to make this point even more clear, in verse five, the elder says, The lion can open the scroll because he's overcome.

Christopher: 17:22

What's that overcome look like? Down in verse nine, they say, Worthy are you to receive the scroll and open its seals because, and in the place where we would expect you have overcome, we read, because you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God. So the overcoming of the lion, the way the lion overcomes is through the lamb being slainte. You could say that the mortal wounds of the lamb are the ravening mouth of the lion of Judah by which the world is overcome. That's how Christ overcomes the world through his death and his resurrection.

Christopher: 18:05

And our overcoming is the same. A little bit later on in Revelation chapter 12, it says this about the Christians. Revelation chapter 12 verse 11. They have conquered or overcome him. That's Satan.

Christopher: 18:22

They have overcome him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony for they loved not their own lives even unto death. So the vision there, that what's being talked about there is the martyr, the person who lays down their own life, the person who confesses Christ as Lord unto death. And John says that death, that joining in the death of Christ, that's how they overcome the world. That's how they overcome the serpent. And we could go further in first John chapter five verse four.

Christopher: 19:00

It says, the one who over the thing that overcomes the world is our faith. So our faith union to Christ, our belief in the one who died and rose again, that is overcoming the world. So let me try to pull these things together because it's a lot of pieces. Pull this together for you. John's vision of overcoming is not built on the world's vision of overcoming, like kicking down, beating, strong, now you all see that I'm the best.

Christopher: 19:29

John's vision of overcoming is built on the cross. It's built on the cross where Jesus supremely overcomes the world through his death and resurrection, and we, our overcoming, is joining him in that, whether that means really laying down our lives, dying in his name, or whether it means being united to him by faith and so leaving our life, letting our life be lost as it were, and living unto him. But in one way or another, it's union to the slain and risen Christ that is overcoming the world. And you might say, okay. Well, how is that overcoming?

Christopher: 20:09

Overcoming means dying like Christ. That doesn't make sense. How how is that an overcoming of the world? Let me read you another passage that might start to pull this together. First John first chapter two verse 14, it says this, I'm writing to you, young men, because you're strong, the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Christopher: 20:36

Right after that, he says, do not love the world or the things in the world. So there's a connection between having overcome and not loving this world, not finding our home in this world, not anchoring our hopes to this world. Overcoming is tethered there to not being bound to the things, the offerings, the treasures of this world. For John, overcoming means being freed from the allure of the world. It means being unmoved by the offers and promises of this world.

Christopher: 21:15

It means being unaffected by the threats of this world. It means that the hooks of the world have fallen from me, and now you're living in Christ. To be freed like that is to have overcome the world. You've overcome, he says to the young men, you've overcome the evil one, the ruler of this world. And then right after that, he says, don't love the world.

Christopher: 21:38

Don't follow the world's ways. Don't desire the world's desires. And we see that overcoming on the cross. How? How?

Christopher: 21:48

Think about what Jesus is doing on the cross. Many things, but at least one of the things he is declaring with his whole being is that nothing this world offers to me has one ounce of power over me. Nothing this world could give me. All the power I could get by wielding my authority, all the honors, all the accolades, all the he could have had anything in the world. Jesus could have had anything in the world he wanted to have.

Christopher: 22:20

The top, he the whole world was open to him. Every pleasure, every joy, every pursuit this world can give was open to Christ in his authority, and he ends his life naked, stripped, beaten, cast out on a cross. And by doing that, he says, there's nothing this world can give that holds one ounce of power over me. I I am living unto my father. My heart, my mind, my body are unbound by this world.

Christopher: 22:56

My father is my life, and I belong to him, and all that I have comes from him. His will is my joy. His word is my law. His love is my life, and this world is nothing to me. And in doing that, Jesus breaks the spell of the world for his people, for his followers.

Christopher: 23:19

The word made flesh on the cross breaks the spell of the world of flesh over us. Because if we confess that within this world my God and King appears in his glory on the cross, then how can the promises of glory that this world gives have any more power over me? If I have said, I've seen the Lord in glory cast out of Jerusalem on the peripheries on the cross, then when the world comes with offerings of glory, feign, social media recognition, whatever advancement at work where that doesn't stick anymore because we've seen glory, and it's a glory the world can't comprehend. If if we've seen and tasted the food and drink that satisfies our soul spread out on the table of Golgotha, then how can the wax food and the ashes that this world gives us have any more control over our appetites? If if I've seen and tasted my true food in him, then how when the world spreads a platter of wax food, honor, praise, advancement, possessions, how can that hook me if I've my soul has tasted and been satisfied here?

Christopher: 24:53

Now I'm saying, I want this to be true. It is true. But may it be true for us. May we live into this. May we have this freedom, and it's found by finding the fullness at the cross.

Christopher: 25:08

If our eyes have seen the king and his beauty on the tree, then how can the perverse offerings of this world's beauty hold our gaze any longer? We're free of it because we've seen him there. We're free of it. God make us free of it. So to be freed from these things and bound to Christ such that the world is revealed to be powerless and empty and death doomed, that is to overcome the world.

Christopher: 25:40

And we do it through the cross, through Christ's cross, just as he overcomes through his cross. So let me give an example to help pull this together. Imagine that there's a woman who's trapped in prostitution, And imagine that her handler keeps her under his thumb with alternating threats. You do this and that's gonna happen. And promises.

Christopher: 26:06

If you do this, I'll give you this. Insults. I can't believe you. I can't believe this. And compliments, oh, so nice.

Christopher: 26:12

So good. And and he's just keeping her under control. And all of these are just going straight to her heart, and she is in his bondage. Imagine that woman. And then imagine that this same prostitute is redeemed out of that place and wed to the king, married to the king, and she becomes the queen of this whole land map.

Christopher: 26:41

Then imagine as the queen, she's walking with her king through her kingdom with her courtiers all around her and cowering there in the refuse of the streets is her old handler, her old master. And he looks at her and he says, I'll take away your food. I'll take away your food next week if you don't do what I want you to do. Or I'll give you an extra blanket to stay warm so you don't have to get cold if you go to this person. Can you imagine how pitiful, how shallow, how empty, how laughable this squirming little man's threats are now and his sick little promises.

Christopher: 27:26

If we are if she is with her king and she is the queen and this man's power is broken over her because she's wed to the king. That's a glimpse, a little glimpse of the victory over the world that Christ gives us. See that woman, shake her head, look to her king, and move on. That moment, that moment of unfettered indifference to those things that used to hold her in their power, that moment of holding fast to her king and moving on, exposing the old master as powerless, that is overcoming the world. And that's what Christ gives his people.

Christopher: 28:15

That's the relationship to the system of the world that Christ brings us into as we pass with him through the cross, dying to the world and being raised up again. And specifically, John points out in today's text, you've overcome the world because greater is the one who is in you than he who is in the world. Christ is in us by the spirit. The world overcomer who conquered the world at the cross dwells in you, Christian, by his spirit. And so you've overcome the world.

Christopher: 28:52

Just as in that analogy, remember, the former prostitute overcomes her master precisely because she's united to the king. She's wed to the king, and the king goes with her. So too Christian, we are united one flesh with Christ, one spirit with Christ, and he goes with us, in us. So when the world comes and uses its old threats, uses its old promises, uses its old condemnations against us, We have the Lord in us, and we're not swayed by it any longer. We don't jump when it says jump anymore.

Christopher: 29:36

We belong to Christ. So let me wrap this up then, this this section. There's one more quick section after this, but let me wrap up this section about overcoming with something of a pastoral word. We were all and we were all and in ways we all continued to be prostitutes under the master of this world. We all jumped when that master threatened us.

Christopher: 30:06

We all hungered for the gifts and the praises that master would give us. We all acted, Lord, forgive us, on his promises and found them empty. We all smiled when he said we did a good job and we did more things to get more of those smiles. And we all cowered when he raised his hand and said, Do that again, and this happens. We were all under the control of this world.

Christopher: 30:37

And some of us perhaps continue to be, but we are free from that in Christ. We have overcome that in Christ because Christ tramples that damned master, and I use that word in its theological truth. Christ tramples that master who is headed for damnation, tramples him down at the cross and says, my bride, none of this has power. None of this brings life. None of this is ultimate.

Christopher: 31:11

I have overcome the world. Find all in me. Hold fast to him, Christian. Walk with him. Cling to him up to and through death because he is true.

Christopher: 31:27

He's the true master. His word is true. His promise is true. His blessing is true. And it's pure and it's good and it's healing.

Christopher: 31:36

So let us hold fast to him as he says to the church in Smyrna, Walk with me, be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. That's overcoming the world. Now, let me bring us in for a landing by looking at this duality, the duality between the world and those who are from Christ. So remember, there's a division and we and and it's not the same. To be in Christ is to have overcome the world.

Christopher: 32:13

And we just looked at how that doesn't mean we trample on the world, we have victory over the world all the time and like it doesn't look sometimes like it. People might not point to us and say, Wow, how victorious. It means we're freed from its bondage. It means it doesn't have power over us anymore. It means we follow Christ without being, bound to this.

Christopher: 32:34

That's what overcoming the world means. Okay. But now how do we discern between these two spheres? How do we discern between who is from the world? Who is from God?

Christopher: 32:46

That's what John gives us here in these next verses. Look at it. Verse five. They are from the world. Therefore, they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

Christopher: 32:58

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So the decisive point here that I want to focus on in the last few minutes we have, the decisive point comes in verse six.

Christopher: 33:18

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. Now the us there, when when you see whoever knows God listens to us, it seems mainly to be John and the people who are teaching with him. He's he's he's not saying inclusive all Christians us here.

Christopher: 33:41

What he means is we, me disciples, me the author of this letter, the apostle John, I am writing to you from God. And whoever knows God listens to what I'm saying as an apostle. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That's what's going on here. He's saying the apostles have this or John has this authority, and it can be expanded then to the apostles, those that Christ has appointed to preach and teach his gospel and to the extent that they continue to teach that, those whom the apostles appoint.

Christopher: 34:20

That's the us in view here. And what John is saying is that whether or not someone listens to, accepts, believes, acknowledges the teaching of the apostles, whether or not they listen to the apostles, that reveals whether or not they are from God or from the world. That's the very simple point he's making. Now we can be uncomfortable with authority, especially religious authority, which we have seen, whether you've experienced it personally or you know of it or you just see it in history, religious authority can be horribly twisted to manipulative ends. So we become a little uncomfortable when we talk about religious authority.

Christopher: 35:06

But as an apostle, that's exactly what John is claiming here. John is saying, I have authority from God. Those from God will listen to what I and the other apostles say about Jesus. That's the point, about Jesus. John's saying, Those who are from God will listen to what we're saying about Christ.

Christopher: 35:30

And if someone opposes what we're saying about Christ, says the apostle, then they are not of God. So just as the sun is shining and if you look at it and you can see it, that bears witness that you have sight. And if the sun is shining and you look at it and you can't see it, that bears witness that you are blind, that you do not have sight. So too the apostolic witness of the crucified and risen Jesus as Lord and God shines from their teaching as we now have it in scripture, shines from this teaching. And those who see it and say that's true, they're bearing witness that they are from God, while those who see it and they say there's nothing there.

Christopher: 36:22

It's empty. It's boring. It's religious jargon. It's a false gospel. They're bearing witness that they're from the world.

Christopher: 36:31

Now bear in mind, this can happen differently over time. You can have this light shining on you a thousand times, and finally it clicks, and you bear witness, I'm from I'm from him. So it's not a one shot thing, but there is no there is no being from God unless we acknowledge what the apostles have said of Christ is true. And to say what the apostles have said of Christ is not true is to say I'm not of God. Bear witness that I'm not of him.

Christopher: 37:03

So those who hear and believe the apostolic preaching of Christ, they overcome the world in the way we talked about it earlier, through union to Christ's death and resurrection. Those who hear that same witness and ignore it as irrelevant or dismiss it as false or correct it as an error, they prove themselves to be of the world and are on their way toward condemnation with the world. That's the distinction John gives here. So how do we know who's from God and who isn't? Who listens to what the apostles have said and who doesn't?

Christopher: 37:40

Now wrapping up, let me be clear about this because I I want you to be crystal clear on this point. I am not saying this about my teaching right now. Okay? No one today is able to say, if you are from God, then you will listen to what I say. No one can say that as an individual today.

Christopher: 38:04

If you have someone, a pastor or spiritual authority who says, Well, if you're from God, you'll listen to me. That's a cult, and you need to get out of there. No. This authority belongs to the apostles and specifically to the apostolic proclamation of Jesus Christ. And so the fitting question to ask is, where do we hear this voice today?

Christopher: 38:28

Where do we hear today? If it's not from, you know, apostle somebody over here, where do we hear it from today? First and most simply, most necessarily, we hear it from scripture. We hear it from scripture. And you might say, well, of course, but take it seriously.

Christopher: 38:48

If the Scriptures say Jesus is Lord and God in the flesh, crucified for our sin, buried in our grave, rising bodily on the third day, ascending to heaven as Christ and king, reigning now, returning to judge the earth, if scripture says that, then those who are of God believe that. That's it. You can't say, well, yeah, but probably didn't rise bodily. I mean, that's scientifically impossible. Probably never actually going to come back.

Christopher: 39:26

It's just a good idea. Or probably isn't the son of God just a very good then you're not of God. If we're of God, we believe what is said in scripture. If it's declared as true here, if it's commanded to us here, if it's prohibited to us here, if it's promised to us here, those who are of God by grace will listen to it here, and those who are not will ignore it. That's why we labor to understand the author's meaning of the text, like what pastor Sean's doing on the Wednesday night bible study.

Christopher: 40:03

That's why we don't come to the bible and say, well, what does it mean to me? What do I want to make of this today? What can I make this with my creative intuitions? What can I make of this? We want to say, what does the author say?

Christopher: 40:15

Let me find his mind and align mine with it because that is where the truth is to be found. And to the extent that by grace I am able to do that, and you need to be discerning of that, to the extent that I am preaching what is here, then it could be said, those who are of God would listen to that, and those who are God of not of God would not. But even then, there are so many readings. There are so many different takes that we get in Scripture that people will give. You go online and you find a thousand different takes on one passage, and you might be discouraged and think, well, maybe none of it's true.

Christopher: 40:59

I don't know. How can we know that what we're hearing in the inspired word is really the voice of the apostles of Christ and not our own reflected voice. One, this isn't the end all, but this is all we can do with the time we have remaining. One important answer is this. We listen to and we listen as the church.

Christopher: 41:24

We listen to the church over its long history, and we listen as the church, as the bride of Christ. We hear the Jesus that the apostles proclaim together. Right hearing is together hearing. We don't figure things out by ourselves in our prayer closet in front of a YouTube viewing list. We come to the truth together in worship, in prayer, in study, in the Lord's Supper, in baptism, in lives of faith.

Christopher: 42:00

Living the life of the church is how we hold ourselves fast to the central teaching of the church. And not just I'm not just saying, King's tree here. If I did that, we you know, that's how you veer toward the cult thing where it's like, just us here. We were the other ones who got it. The whole church across space and time, the whole faithful church, there has been a faithful body of Christ from beginning to end.

Christopher: 42:24

Christ preserves his people, and to listen to that church is a safe place to be. So the church is not infallible. I am not saying that. The church is not infallible. I'm not saying everything the church says is true.

Christopher: 42:38

But what I am saying is this, the collective voice of two millennia of thought and prayer and study of this book, where that voice unanimously agrees on the central core of the apostolic preaching of Christ, we can be quite sure. We can have a high degree of certainty that what the collective voice of the church is affirming is the teaching of the apostles preserved by the spirit on the lips of the bride. I'm not saying all the things the church has ever gone into. I'm saying there's a central, clear, clean stream of teaching on Christ, and we say, that's where I wanna be. That's what I wanna hear.

Christopher: 43:26

That's what I want to listen to. And that's where those who are from God will be found. And a simple way to do that is through creeds. Through creeds. Creeds like the one we sang.

Christopher: 43:38

You know that song we sang at the beginning, I believe, we believe? That's a creed put to music. Creeds are not infallible, but they are helpful ways of hearing what the church has always said. And so we're going to sing that again now. And as we do, we are joining the church from all ages.

Christopher: 43:56

We are listening to the teaching of the apostles. We are confessing. You're confessing something, something that saves your soul, something that satisfies your longing heart. We're confessing Christ crucified and risen as the spirit declares him, and so we're bearing witness as we sing this together. We belong to God.

Christopher: 44:17

By grace, we are from God, not from the world. May it be so. Let me pray for us, and we'll sing that together. Thank you for listening to this message from King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.