Test the Spirits
Truth Taught- We are called to exercise discernment when we encounter people claiming to preach or teach God’s Word
There is the human tendency to always desire something new and more improved. We often think new is better. What happens when new is preferred over the old, old story or God’s Word and God’s message of the Gospel is the inevitable drift into chaos while trying to be modern and relevant. We must see together that this attitude leads us to false teaching and will always lead to chaos within the Church. It takes us away from the Gospel truth and distracts us with man centered heresy. So, what we should be about is preserving and treasuring God’s Word and guarding against our fallen nature mentality of seeking the new.
We can see this very clearly with our original parents. Adam and Eve drifted away from God’s truth because they thought the NEW teaching was better. Satan brought into question the old teaching and presented a new teaching that he promoted as better than what God said. Adam and Eve followed after this new teaching and fell into sin. The result of leaving God’s truth and chasing after false doctrine was that they formulated their own truths they left God’s paradise and entered into curse and chaos.
Adam and Eve had changed from believing and obeying God to worshipping themselves and what they felt was best for them. In essence, what they really did was they changed Gods. This is what false teaching always does. It’s not a new twist on God but leads us into the worship of false gods which are really demons.
This is the human tendency to exchange God for man or self. Romans 1 explains the downward spiral into man centered demonic worship.
I want us to look at an OT passage briefly that shows us what the reality is when humans trade truth for heresy…they actually are changing Gods. They go from the true and the living God with His truth to a made up god with made up teachings that are not true at all.
Jeremiah 2:11–13 (ESV)
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
C.H. Spurgeon said, It is a remarkable fact that all the heresies which have arisen in the Christian Church have had a decided tendency to dishonor God and to flatter man.
Whenever we find ourselves lowering our view of God and elevating our view of self, we should stop and examine our beliefs.
John, writing to his Church has a deep concern, he wants the believers to have the ability to discern truth from false teaching. The successionists have been teaching false doctrine within the Church. They were bringing into question the deity of Christ and the humanity of Christ. They were teaching that their faith only changed their position but did not change their behavior. To them, there was no burden to live a different life than before they were saved.
John, being led by God, writes how the Church can, in fact, discern between truth and error.
Why is it important for the Church to be able to discern between truth and falsehood?
It’s the difference between worshipping the true God and a made up god based on human agenda and sin.
We must be completely convinced of this. No one can worship the true God without His truths found in Scripture. Deviation of biblical truth is a deviation from the true God. No manmade god can save us.
One of God’s great calls for the Church today is to be able to separate truth from falsehood. God is going to teach us how we can discern truth from heresy…
1 John 4:1–6 (ESV)
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for 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, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 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. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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.
1. God’s Warning to the Church (4:1)
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Don’t believe everything you hear. This is basically John’s warning to the Church. Just because someone says, thus says the Lord, don’t just assume they are genuine but use your God-given discernment. Look to the Scriptures and test every spirit to see whether or not it is from God.
Here, John gives us the reason why the Church must exercise discernment… for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Beloved, there are many strange teachings in this world. In context, John is specifically referring to the ones that used to be in his Church but due to their differences were now out in the world. These he called Anti-Christs. These false teachers were not compatible with biblical truth so they left the Church.
What John and others within the pages of Scripture are referring to is not someone who seeks to teach the truth but on one minor point has made a mistake in their interpretation. Those John refers to here, are false teachers who teach their heresy on purpose. Their goal is to deceive and lead astray.
The false teacher seeks to deceive those who are within the Church. They seek a following and promote themselves over truth.
If we are going to get this, we must go deeper. We must see what false teaching really is…
When someone teaches or preaches within the Church, they are either promoting truth from God which saves or lies from Satan which damn the soul. It is either the doctrine of God or the doctrine of demons. It is either that word which is sent and energized by the Holy Spirit, or it is that which comes from seducing spirits. And teachers are either the true teachers of God or hypocritical liars, espousing the doctrine of demons fostered by seducing spirits. We must know the difference because of the malignancy of error, because of the power of truth. The truth gives life; error kills.
John writes, the reason to test the spirits to see if it is the spirit of God or the spirit of the devil because there are many false prophets that have gone out in the world.
Matthew 24:4–5 (ESV)
4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.
2 Peter 2:1–3 (ESV)
2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
Matthew 7:15–16 (ESV)
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
John has told us that there are many false teachers out in the world. I’d like to emphasize this fact and say that today, false teachers are basically everywhere. We must guard the truth.
2. The Doctrinal Test (4:2-3)
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, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
John gives us a doctrinal test to use to distinguish between those teaching truth and those teaching heresy; those who are from God and those who are the anti-Christ.
Last time we saw that John determines who it is who actually possess the Holy Spirit. Those who are loving one another and those who are living a life different than they once did. The Holy Spirit is seen manifested in believers who are seeking to obey this commandment.
1 John 3:23–24 (ESV)
23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
This being the mark of the believer, John moves forward to show us what the mark of the man of God who speaks God’s Word…
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
How can we know the preachers and teachers who are from God? every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
A teacher who does not acknowledge this is not from God. every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
So, the doctrinal criterion is that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. What is this doctrine John is referring to? If we pay close attention and read carefully, we can figure out what John has in mind.
First, we see John placing an emphasis upon Jesus’ incarnation…coming in the flesh is a vital doctrine that includes so much that the Bible teaches. It includes the fact that Jesus is God’s Son, therefore being deity. Having flesh takes in the fact that He as a human fulfilled God’s Law for us. Coming in the flesh includes the dying on the cross and being buried. It literally, includes all the aspects of the glorious Gospel.
We see here from John just how very, very important one’s Christology is. If one errors on the identity of Jesus Christ, that is not from the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. That’s the first proposition about Jesus, that He is God. He is the eternal life that came from dwelling in the very presence of God the Father and God the Spirit down to earth. You are confessing that Jesus is a person, not just a proposition. You’re confessing that Jesus as a person is God in human flesh, not a created being, as the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others say. You are saying He is come from God. That is implying the necessity for Him to come into this world in human form to carry out His redemptive work as a substitute for men. We believe then that the human Jesus and the divine Christ are one and the same. When someone has that Christology, they are speaking a message that comes from the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean that everything they say is accurate. But if they get that right, they meet condition number one.
Second, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Here, John emphasizes the fact that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). So, a teacher sent by God and manifesting the Holy Spirit will declare that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth is the true and one and only Messiah that the Scriptures declare. He has come.
Christ means the Anointed One, the King, the Messiah. So you have to confess that this is the God-Man who came as God’s chosen King and Messiah and took on flesh to be a substitute for sinners. And on the other side of that, verse 3, “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus in this way is not from God.”
Anyone who denies the incarnation and Jesus’ Messiahship is not teaching in the power and with the endorsement of God through the Holy Spirit but is the Anti-Christ.
3. Those Who Belong to God Are Drawn to Truth (4:4-6)
4 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. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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.
What a wonderful reminder to the Church. John declares that they are not of the Anti-Christ because they are drawn to the truth. They are not of the Anti-Christ but are children of truth. What a wonderful encouragement.
I pray you love to hear the truth from God’s Word.
There is a dynamic here that John brings out for us…watch what he says…
The Church is the little children John refers to. Beloved listen and find comfort in this…you are God’s children. You have overcome the world because He who is in you is greater than the world. The Holy Spirit residing with us changes many things but the one thing in focus here is that He changes what you are drawn to.
Those who are of the world (lost people) are drawn to worldly teaching.
2 Timothy 4:1–5 (ESV)
4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
You, God’s children are not drawn to the world’s teaching but God’s teaching which comes through His Word.
Conclusion:
These verses show us just how important it is to test the spirits. Is the teaching from the Holy Spirit of God or from another false spirit such as a demon. The way we can discern the difference is by their message. Do they lift up and focus on the Lord Jesus Christ affirming His incarnation and affirming His Messiahship. If they do not, they are not of God.
We must do this today more than ever.
Resources Used:
1 John by Kruse
John MacArthur 1 John 4:1-6
1 John by Pierce
Words of Blessing
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