"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. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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."
There are many deceiving spirits in the world today. It is easy to confess with the lips that Jesus has come in the flesh and yet, not be of God. This creates a problem for many of us as believers. Therefore, Christians must be on their guard to distinguish between spiritual friends or spiritual foes. You need to know how to walk in the Spirit of God and test the spirits ,
because there are many deceiving spirits in the church today.
Perhaps the only thing more widespread than the financial scams today are spiritual scams. Everywhere you look, false religions are luring millions of people into their traps, promising them fulfillment, happiness, and even more. Mormonism, Catholicm, Buddhism, and Islam continue to peddle their heresies in just about every country of the world. Even among those claiming to be Christians, who say that they believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, false teaching abounds.
False teachers have gone out into the world to established themselves within the churches, pretending to speak by the Holy Spirit, when in reality they speak by an evil spirit, attempting to imitate those who actually speak for God. Many pastors now say that we don’t need to emphasize doctrine or theology,
because its too divisive. We need to come together on the areas
where we agree upon and demonstrate love, tolerance, and unity to the world. They rather tend to make a great deal of the subject of love, and less of a deal about God’s truth. Every deviant group makes its appeal in the name of unity and love. God reveals the truth in the world and Satan counters with lies. All throughout the pages of the Bible, we are continually warned against error and the corruption that comes with it.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we again thank You for Your Word. Lord, I thank You for this calling, and the tremendous honor and privilege of teaching the truth, help me to always be faithful to the task, regardless of whatever hostility it may bring. Father, we grieve in our hearts that so many are unwilling to contend for the faith.
I pray for those leading the flocks, that they would understand that proclamation of the truth is absolutely essential to the salvation of each generation.
Lord, as we engage in this battle, fighting for the truth, we know that we are unable to stand in our own strength, we stand in the strength of the truth which is given to us through Scripture, we stand in the strength of Your church, shoulder to shoulder, prepared for battle. We pray that Your true church will not defect and depart from their commitment and conviction. May we earnestly contend with grace and love, bringing honor and glory to Your name.
In Christ's name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: Do You Believe?
Though many Christians seem not to realize it, there is a great spiritual battle going on. A battle of the mind. A battle between the truth and error. It is the responsibility of the church, to bring the truth to bear on people, warning those who live in damning error. Every lofty thought lifted up against Christ has to be torn down and in
its place there has to be obedience to the truth of God in Christ
revealed in Scripture.
Over the years that I've been teaching the Word of God, I have come to realize that those people who don’t want their teaching scrutinized, who don’t want
their teaching brought to the test of Scripture are assuredly those
people who are teaching error. Because error cannot stand the test of biblical scrutiny. False teachers do not like the fact that what they are proclaiming is being scrutinized. They do not like the fact that they are being exposed.
One of the ways Satan attacks the Word of God is by creating doubt. The second thing he likes to do twist the truth, so that it’s a misrepresentation of what God has said. The third thing he likes to do, is to flatly deny what God said. All of these strategies add up to deceit. That's what Satan does!
Every religious idea, every religious ideology has a spiritual source. And, there are only two spiritual sources, one is the Spirit of God and the other is the demon spirits of Satan. Who by propagating all kinds of deception, wages an endless counter attack on the truth of God.
When hen Satan came into the Garden of Eden, he approached Eve, and attacked God’s Word by asking "Has God said?" to which Eve responded "God said we shouldn’t eat of this tree, neither should we touch it." Satan comes along creating doubt, distortion and outright denial. When he said to Eve "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Satan's desire is to make people ignorant of the truth, to cause them to doubt the truth, to distort the truth or out right deny the truth. In Acts chapter 20, Paul was saying to the Ephesians "Grievous wolves are going to come in not sparing the flock,
and they’re going to come in with lies that will destroy this church."
In Matthew 7, Jesus Himself warned "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
God’s truth has always been under the assault of Satan’s lies. The Bible continually presents the issue of deceit as over against God’s truth.
As we begin our study of the Word of God, open with me your Bibles to I John chapter four, today we will be looking at verses 1 through 6. John’s words in our text are absolutely vital for the preservation of God’s truth. We are therefore, challenged to learn how to distinguish the Spirit of God from false spirits.
Discernment is essential because Satan and his forces are at work in the world.
I invite you to follow along with me as I again read to you the entire passage to set the text in our minds, while we prepare our hearts for what the Spirit of God has is saying to each of us. Listen for the voice of our Lord. I John 4:1-6.
From the beginning in the Garden, until the last days, when the final antichrist will deceive the world, evil spirits have promoted false teaching to lead people away from the living and true God. Satan has been concocting lies to assault the truth of God, the doctrines of demons. You cannot consider any attack on Scripture, any assault that causes
people to doubt, distort or deny the truth of God to be benign. False doctrine has literally been cauterized by the powers of hell.
Revelation chapter 16, "And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty."
The dragon by the way is symbolic for Satan. The beast is symbolic for the Antichrist. And the false prophet is the religious figure, the cohort of the Antichrist. The frogs are symbolic for the spirits of demons. This is very vivid imagery. In the end of the age, the demons come out, seduce the world to come and make war against God, this is of course the Battle of Armageddon.
In the meantime, Satan and his demons use many different approaches. Everything from atheism to perversions of Christianity, and every other form of false religion. All of these are the deceptions of the devil. He will seduce you by whatever religion dominates a particular region. He will adjust his deceptions to suit the environment.
In II Peter 2, Peter uses some very strong language, listen to his words, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."
Verse 1, "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."
We should realize that these were not sinister, evil looking characters that John is talking about, these are people who professed to believe in Jesus. In II Corinthians 11, Paul warned that these men disguise themselves as apostles of Christ and servants of righteousness. And, Satan even disguises himself as an angel of light.
John is very concerned about these false Christians assaulting the church. This is a very critical passage, because salvation is dependent upon what you believe. The most important things that occurs in the church is the proclamation of the truth. I believe that this is a very important message to get across to the church today. It is a passion of mine, week after week, relentlessly proclaiming the truth. Ministry is all about proclaiming the truth. It’s about countering the lies and deception of Satan. The more truth you know, the more critical you are going to be to the battle. You need to understand that. You need to realize how important it is to hold on to the truth, to guard the treasure.
Christ represents the truth incarnate. That is why Satan is in opposition to Christ. Antichrist. So, John is saying "Don't be gullible." Then he says, "Test the spirits to see whether they are from God."
In I Thessalonians 5:20-22, Paul said a very similar thing. "do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil."
True faith examines its object carefully before putting trust in it. Spiritual discernment is important because Satan and his forces are alive and well, promoting error at every opportunity. The word test is the word "dokimazó," it means to put everything through the fire. It should be the continuing practice of every believer to put everything to the test. There is only one way to test everything, and that is by the Bible, which is the standard.
Revelation 1:3 says "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near."
In verses 2-3, John tells us we need to know how to know that something comes from the Spirit of God. "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; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world."
To confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh means to
agree with that statement, but it also means something more. The demons
all agree that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who has come in the flesh. To confess this truth about Jesus implies submitting your life to Him as Lord. In other words, the Holy Spirit testifies to the reality of God in our
lives by causing us to confess that Jesus has come in the flesh, so that
when somebody confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh, you have
evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work and is real in
their lives. Every generation seems to fall into error, you have to avoid teaching that opposes the Scripture. It is so critical to be able to discern the difference.
So, the confession of the divine Lord. There is one thing demons will inevitably deny, and that is the deity of Jesus Christ. They deny the incarnation.They deny God in the human flesh. That's the first test. You have to test their Christology. That includes Trinitarian doctrine as well. If someone denies the Trinity, you have a problem.
In I John chapter 1, John said "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we 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."
John's language is very clear, Jesus Christ emanates from God as the very living Word of God. The One John says that was from the beginning that we heard, we saw, and we touched. John is expressing the very deity of Christ.
In chapter 2, verses 1-2, he affirms Jesus is sinless, He is the satisfaction, "And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world."
Christ provided the fitting sacrifice to satisfy the righteous judgment of God. John makes this point over and over again, how very important one’s Christology is. He says in verse 19, of the those who deny this truth, "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us."
By the way, "Has come" implies His preexistence as the eternal Son of God. Which Jesus
stated of His own preexistence, in John 8, when He told the Jews, "Before Abraham was
born, I am."
If one errors on the identity of Jesus Christ, on the Trinity, that is not from the Spirit of God. False teachers may talk about Christ, redemption, the cross, and the resurrection, by using these "trusted terms," this is just appealing rhetoric, in order to deceive believers, to appear to be being true to the Bible. You must test the spirits who use the doctrinal bait-and-switch method to deceive their hearers.
When someone has the right Christology, they are speaking a message that comes from the Holy Spirit. To be clear, that doesn’t mean that everything they say is accurate. Because their human, and humans make mistakes, human err. But if their Christology is right, they meet condition number one.
You need to understand that even demons recognize that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, they recognize His deity. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes God in human flesh. One must confess Jesus as Lord. This is absolutely critical. This is the decisive test, having the right view of Jesus. Anyone who rejects Christ is fully God, rejects God. If you reject Jesus as God in human flesh, you reject God. No matter what else you claim to believe!
In John 8:42, Jesus said "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me."
And, in John 14:6, He said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
If you go back to I John 1:9, very familiar usage of the word confess, it’s the same word in Greek. "If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness."
Obviously, John doesn't mean just the words spoken that have no real connection with the condition of the heart. If there is no disposition of the heart that corresponds to the offense committed, the mere words alone do not carry the potential for reconciliation. I am convinced that is what John is saying here in verse 2, words are not enough. Today, we like to make everyone feel good, we don't want to offend anyone, even if their beliefs are wrong, but I want to be very clear, if they reject the deity of Jesus Christ, they do not know God at all.
That's why John says in verse 3, "and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world." You cannot get much clearer than that!
In verse 4, "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world."
John is echoing his earlier statement in chapter 2, verse 20, which says "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know." John is saying because you are a possessor of the Holy Spirit, you are the possessor of an incorruptible seed of eternal life, and have not fallen victim to error. Genuine regeneration provides the true believer with an understanding of the truth. The natural man cannot discern the things of God. A true believer understands because he has been given the mind of Christ, that is the second test. As you walk in the Spirit, in obedience to the truth, the Holy Spirit exercises that protective influence.
Which brings us to verse 5, "They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them."
The world John is speaking of, is that evil system under Satan’s dominion that is opposed to
God and His kingdom. The world system is built around the principle of
taking glory from God and transferring it to proud, self-willed man. Because they speak from the spirit of this world, Satan, their messages are very popular. That's a dead give away. They are manifesting evidences of their father, the devil, so the world listens. They are children of darkness. When you tell the world what it wants to hear, you will not have lack of audience. In other words, don’t judge the success of a ministry by its size! Judge it by its
faithfulness to the truth of the gospel as revealed in the Bible.
Verse 6, "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."
Many understand the "we," in verse 6, to refer to all believers, but it acts stands in contrast to the "they," in verse 5. John is talking about the Apostles here as opposed to the false teachers in verse 5. "He who knows God," is synonymous with being born again, which means that they listen to the truth, with understanding and obedience. The Apostles were entrusted with the special authority to lay the foundation of the
church through their witness and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ.
There’s a very close connection between verse 6 and verse 2. The primary he difference between the two verses is that verse 2 makes the criterion
or the test what you say, and verse 6 makes the criterion or the test
what you listen to. If that person listens, he is born of God. People who are not born of God, like to argue with His truths, they attempt to justify their behavior. A true child of God will listen, even though they may not initially like what's being said, they will respond in obedience. That's the third test, whether or not someone responds to God's Word.
Those who are wrong in their doctrine of salvation, have not been regenerated, they are simply speaking seductive doctrines of demons, which is pleasing to those who are not born of God. So, when you bring the truth of the Word of God to bear upon them, they do not respond to it but rather quote verses out of context, such as "Judge not less you be judged." Or "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Leaving off the rest of the passage, which says "who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
In Closing..
The vast majority of the world is swept away in false teaching, the religion comes from demons. Therefore, they have no affinity for the Word of God. They have no capacity to understand it, rather than listen, they become angry, because their theology is from the world. Sinners have an affinity for the error of demons, seducing spirits, and hypocritical lies.
That's what you're looking for, the clear evidence of manifest fruit of regeneration. A teacher who is of God, will themselves submit to the Word of God. Those who believe the truth are a small part of the world's population. No one will ever confess from the heart that God has come in the flesh without the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, by which enables us to do that.
Beloved, I feel a sense of urgency to appeal to you to fight earnestly, contending for the faith. There is a
very real spiritual battle occurring in our world today, that has to be
fought with all our might to guard the truth, not only for this
generation, but for the next generation, as well.
If you are a true believer today, give God the glory. Give God the glory that you have heard the truth and that you have confessed the truth. Give God the glory for your salvation.
If you are yet an unbeliever in the truth, deceived by the satanic doctrine of false religion, I encourage you today, to cry out to the Holy Spirit, "Free me from my unbelief. Open my eyes and ears to the truth. Touch my heart, and soften it that I may give confession that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Don't leave me in my unbelief."
If you cry out to Him, He will answer.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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