Dear Friends, Do Not Believe Every Spirit!

20 February 2022 Sunday Morning Service

Bible
Numbers 15:22-41
1 John 3:23-5:5

Numbers
15:22 “‘Now if you unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses–
15:23 any of the LORD’S commands to you through him, from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come–
15:24 and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering.
15:25 The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have brought to the LORD for their wrong an offering made by fire and a sin offering.
15:26 The whole Israelite community and the aliens living among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong.
15:27 “‘But if just one person sins unintentionally, he must bring a year-old female goat for a sin offering.
15:28 The priest is to make atonement before the LORD for the one who erred by sinning unintentionally, and when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven.
15:29 One and the same law applies to everyone who sins unintentionally, whether he is a native-born Israelite or an alien.
15:30 “‘But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people.
15:31 Because he has despised the LORD’S word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him.'”
15:32 While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.
15:33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly,
15:34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.
15:35 Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.”
15:36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.
15:37 The LORD said to Moses,
15:38 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel.
15:39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.
15:40 Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.
15:41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.'”

1 John
3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
3:24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
4:1 Dear friends, 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.
4:2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
4:3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
4:5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
4:6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
4:9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
4:13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
4:15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
4:17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
4:19 We love because he first loved us.
4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
4:21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
5:3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
5:4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
5:5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

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