Do You Listen to the Apostles?

It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of God's Word as it relates to the life of the believer.

I.  The believer's identity.  (1 John 4:6a)

     We are "from God."

II.  The believer's appetite.  (1 John 4:6b)

     Those who know God listen to the apostles.  The idea here would really speak to the whole of the Word of God.  Those who know God hunger for His Word.

III.  The unbeliever's lack of appetite for the Word of God.  (1 John 4:6c)

     Beware of those, who like the early Gnostics, demand more than what God has revealed in the Scriptures.  These people are very often promoting the religiousity of those who are lost rather than the true spiritual growth of the redeemed.

IV.  The believer's discernment.  (1 John 4:6d)

     "By this [i.e., by the fact that we long for the words of the apostles] "we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error."