The Test — 1 John 4

0:00 Let's read the text. First John chapter four verse one through six. So so glad that y'all are all here today. I hope you feel at home and kind of fun trying to learn new songs or or to sing better. I'm not a singer myself but I enjoy trying to learn how to sing.

0:19 So, let's look at first John chapter four verse one through six. 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. By this, you know the spirit of god, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from god. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from god and this is a spirit of the antichrist of which you have heard that is coming and now it is already in the world.

1:00 You are from god, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he who is in the world than he who great, I'm sorry. Let me do verse four again. 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. They are from the world, therefore, they speak us from the world and the world listens to them. We are from god.

1:30 He who knows god listens to us. He who is not from god does not listen to us because this by and by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Okay, let's pray. Dear god, we thank you for your word. We pray that the spirit of god would give us insight and be our teacher as we seek to learn what you have for us today.

1:56 Pray that it would you would guide my my words. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Okay. Now, I haven't I entitled this particular study, the test, the test and obviously, you can see why, because it says, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

2:16 Now when when I lived in Michigan, we lived there for eleven years, and as you know, it's, the car industry is there, and it's all about cars. And several people in the assembly we were at worked in GM, Ford, and, Dodge, and someone worked for Cadillac. And so they would always... We would always talk about cars, obviously, that was the big subject all the time. And, I remember one guy, he was always traveling, and I said, well, where are going?

2:41 He said, we're going to Thunder Bay. Like, why are going to Thunder Bay? He said, we're gonna test the cars. He happened to work for Ford. So they would go up there.

2:50 They would send him up there for two, three weeks at a time. Hang on a minute. This is one of those divided lenses, and I'm... It's better if I just take him off for now. So so he went up to Thunder Bay, they were up there for three weeks at a time, and they would get the new car, whatever car it was, and they would, test it and run it over and over again day after day.

3:08 And as soon as, you were done with like a one or two hour shift, the next guy would come, get in the car, and keep going. And they would do that for several days straight or up to several weeks at a time because they wanted to make sure that the product that they were gonna present to you or to us, passed the test. Now, I think all of you would agree that you don't want to buy a a vehicle that hasn't been tested. It's very important. So then when they would come back from Thunder Bay from up there in the cold...

3:38 Did it work? Yes. Alright. When they would come back from the cold, then they would send them to to California, to the to the desert, and they would do the same thing with the same vehicle, but this time they would run it in the heat over and over again with the air condition running, and they would do that to test the vehicles. And they do this every year with every car that they put on the market.

3:59 It's been through the test. Right? And so no one wants to just make up a car and I say, here, buy this car. Give me $40,000. Well, has it been tested?

4:09 It's very important that that we test it to make sure that it it qualifies. Another thing you need to keep in mind as we look at today's study is that during the second world war, the Germans came up with a very clever plan, and that is to to get their men and and and train them to speak very good English. And in fact, some of them were defectors. They were, you know, were in The US even studying here, they went to Germany to take up their cause, kind of what ISIS does today. You know how they take people, recruit people.

4:42 So Germany did the same thing. You had guys educated in The US that knew the language, and they would... What they would do is they would come into an American camp, right, And they would infiltrate it and they would get inside and then it would cause a lot of damage. Well, one day, a particular German tripped and when he fell, he hit himself real hard and he forgot to curse in English and he cursed in German. Right?

5:08 In other words, what it really was came out. What it really was came out. When he tripped and hurt himself, he forgot that he was a a fake. Right? And and they were able to capture this guy.

5:42 Now, notice why he says that we should do a test. Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirit to see whether they are from god because many false prophets have gone out into the world and so the the text teaches us immediately that we're we're not to believe every spirit. In other words, you're not supposed to believe everyone who speaks. But we're supposed to be, we're supposed to be aware and testing them. Why?

6:09 Because many false prophets are in the world and so we have been warned of this throughout history even from from the apostle from the very beginning. They were warning. There's gonna be a lot of false prophets and you look at church history and you can say, yes, I I I can see where that's true. There's been so many arguments and so many fights because false prophets try to infiltrate the church and teach their philosophy. Now, here what he had said in chapter two and verse 19, these people left our churches, but they were never really belong with us, otherwise they would have stayed with us.

6:48 When they left, it proved they didn't belong to us, that's the New Living Translation. The amplified put it this way, when they went out from us, seeming at first to be Christians, but they were not really of us because they were not truly born again and spiritually transformed, but they went out teaching false doctrines. Now, I wish, I wish personally that that verse was not there. I wish it wasn't there. It's saying that there's going to be many false teachers.

7:19 You need to be careful who you're listening to. We need to test the spirit. Why? Because there's a lot of false teachers and here's the sad part. Where do they come from?

7:28 From within the church. There's another text that said that some of them come in and they sneak in to bring in their their wrong teaching but the majority of them many times are going to be coming out from from right here from the benches. And that's so heartbreaking to me because throughout my Christian experience when I was in Texas and in Michigan, several men who grew up with me came up and said, I no longer hold to what I used to believe. And they started embracing and teaching a different philosophy. The Bible tells us this is true.

8:05 That's what's going to happen. And so this this the reason for the test is so that we can make sure we understand that not everyone can teach the Bible that we need to test them first. Okay, so having said that, let's look at the the first test. First of all, let's look at the verse again. Beloved, do not believe every spirit.

8:28 So, we're not supposed to be vulnerable and just believe anyone. We have to be careful who we allow to teach but test the spirit to see if they're from god So, they're not out from god because many false prophets have gone out into the world and by this, you know the spirit of god. So, the first test, here's how we know if they're from god or not. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from god. So, what is the first test?

9:00 How do we know if somebody is from god or not? How do we know if they're not a false prophet? Okay, very simply. What do they say about Jesus Christ? What do they say about Jesus Christ?

9:12 It doesn't say, if they mention him or not but what are they teaching about him? This is very important. Notice, have they openly and fully embraced Jesus Christ and made it publicly clear. And so one of the tests that we're supposed to have are are make of anybody who's teaching the Bible whether be at your home or from the pulpit or wherever you're at. Someone's teaching the Bible.

9:36 Have they openly and fully embraced Jesus Christ and made it publicly clear that it's about Jesus Christ. In other words, that that is the agenda. Why are you preaching? Why are we doing this Bible study? Because I want to preach Jesus Christ.

9:50 I want him to be glorified. I want him to to believe. I want him to to be taught. It's all about Jesus. So, have they fully openly embraced Jesus Christ and made it clear but that's just the beginning.

10:03 Now, here comes the the the more stricter test is this one right here. Have they openly confessed that Jesus being full deity, god, became a man thus embracing his humanity and his deity. This is the ultimate test right here. Have they openly confessed that Jesus being full deity, that means 100% god, full god, and full man and you had to embrace his humanity and his deity. Otherwise, they are not from god.

10:39 So, says, this is your test. It's right there in our text. So, let's look at this more. Have have you right here listening to me openly, clearly confess that Jesus Christ is lord, that is god, repented of your sins, and take him in, taking him as savior by faith. Have you done that?

11:01 Have you done that? William McDonald explaining this text says this, it's acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Christ incarnate and bowing down to him as lord of one's life. He goes on explaining a little bit more. It's not just saying nice things about him, about Jesus, but to confess him as god in the flesh. It's not saying that Christ is divine.

11:28 Notice, it's saying that he is god. Because someone's gonna come and knock on your door. Someone's gonna get up and say, you know, he's divine but we're not sure he's fully god. The Bible said, watch out. He didn't pass the first test.

11:45 It's not saying that he was a great prophet or a king or it's not just saying that, it's that he is the king of kings and the lord of lords. It's not saying he was merely a historical person though we acknowledge that but he is the only way to god and so in this first test, this has to be a reality in their life. The true nature of Jesus Christ is inevitably going to be denied by false teachers and the system that they promote. So, how we doing in test number one? Let's continue with test number one.

12:25 John McArthur puts it this way in this first test. Jesus Christ proceeded from the father as the living word of god who became flesh. He is the one, he is one with the father, manifested to humanity as a second person of the trinity. By the way, little pause before I continue, any true believer in Jesus Christ as full god and full man will eventually or inevitably have to accept the teaching of the trinity. So, he's manifested to humanity as a second person of the trinity, the son of god.

13:00 According to the plan of God, Jesus came in the flesh so he might die a substitutionary death as a man for the sins of other men. That is the only way he could redeem all who believe. So, this is part of the first test. Let's continue. Alright.

13:22 So, the first test was quite obvious in verse two. By this, you know the spirit of god. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from god. It's from god because you know the false teaching that was going on to these people in first John was that how could god who is perfect be a man because man is sinful and we understand that but we believe that he was born of a virgin and born without sin. Full humanity, fully man.

14:05 He who knows god listens to us. He who is not from god does not listen to us and by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So, what is the second test? What is test number two to see if someone is from god or not? He listens to and accepts the apostolic teaching both Old Testament and New Testament.

14:28 They fully embrace this Bible as he inspired, authoritative, inerrant, infallible word of god. This is part of the test. When he says, do they listen to us? He's an apostle. The apostle John is saying, he listens to me and the other apostles because as you know, the church, Ephesians chapter two was founded on the teachings of the apostles and the prophets.

14:55 So, so what what he's saying is, look, in test number one, they have to fully embrace Jesus and all that he is, full man and full god In test number two, they have to fully embrace our teaching as apostles and and and the fact that the word of god is fully inspired by god and it's inherent and infallible. That's test number two. So, this is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. This person who's going to teach whoever it is, whether it's in your home and in the pulpit or wherever, accepts a literal historical contextual grammatical interpretation of the word of god. What I mean by literal is it it means what it says.

15:41 When when the word of god makes sense, then make no other sense out of it. Right? That's the literal. You we take it literally. Now, what we mean by that is you can spiritualize anything you want and just make it say anything you want.

15:54 That's not good. Hermeneutics. We have to be very careful because this is the word of god. We approach it reverently. We're to make sure we're teaching it literally and historically.

16:05 We do our historical background and and and the test. Contextually within the text, within the chapter, within the book, within the New Testament, and and the whole Bible as as complete and grammatical. The words have meanings and they mean something and so that's how when we interpret the word of god. Okay. So, this is test number two.

16:30 Now, what is the source of wrong teaching? May I draw your attention to verse number three? Every spirit that is a man who speaks, right? Because you're going to hear teaching through to the voice of a of a man. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from god.

16:52 This is the spirit of the antichrist. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from god. So, what is the source of wrong teaching? The spirit of the antichrist. It's already in the world.

17:05 Notice, anti means against, completely opposed to Christ. So, there is a spirit, there is a spirit, a source of wrong teaching. It's against Christ and so these people are are deliberately in the pulpits in many places and walking around opposing Jesus Christ and who he is. Okay. Now, first Timothy, it's right here on the screen.

17:30 You don't have to turn there. It says that some will fall away from the faith. Fall away from the faith means to depart from, to remove oneself from a position originally occupied to another place. It is a purposeful, deliberate departure from a former position. So, I had a friend of mine, we used to teach together in Houston.

17:55 In fact, he was one of the elders of the church. In fact, he was such a good teacher that people got saved through him. Then he comes to me one day and and he says to me, I no longer hold to what I used to preach. I don't I don't know agree with the first 11 chapters of Genesis. I think it's just fantasy and I don't agree with and he kept on this and this and this and he denied the faith and he turned away and and I haven't seen him since.

18:26 Well, I've seen him because his mom was still in our chapel. And he walked away. Having preached it himself and somehow god uses preaching to get people saved. Yet, he himself denied the faith. Those who come very close to the truth that saves only to leave.

18:51 It's not one struggling to believe but one who willfully abandons the biblical faith he has once professed. He has won't professed. What is the root cause? What is the root cause? They're paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

19:41 And these men who begin to teach wrong are are because they were hearing the those doctrines of demons and those spirits and and and they became convinced of the lie and they start to teach it. Now, doctrines come in form of books, movies, school, religion, and even in the what they teach about morality. So, you don't think that there's men who are guided by demons, who write books, you better believe it, they're all over the bookstores. All kinds of false teachings, all kinds of ideas. You don't think the movies have some agenda to them?

20:20 Some doctrine they're trying to teach? And guess who's behind them? Doctrines of demons. So, demons inspire men to write books that are against Christ, demonic books, and and they're also behind men who do movies who are against all that we stand for, all that the Bible teaches and the school, the university, you think the university are saying, oh yes, believe in god and have faith and and and trust in Jesus. He's fully god and fully man.

20:50 You think they're teaching that? And who's behind all of those lies? Doctrines of demons, deceitful spirits, and what about religion? Second Corinthians says that Satan has his false teachers even in the pulpits and you know what they say? You know what they say?

21:09 I'm gonna let you... Hang on a minute. I'll tell you what they say in a minute. But yes, Satan is an expert of religion. He wants you to be religious.

21:18 If you're religious, he's got you right where he wants you. Of course, morality. Oh, come on. We have to be accepting the political correctness. Well, we can't reject someone just because they don't believe in Jesus.

21:32 You're being a bigot and and so forth and so on. What do you think that comes from? From Satan. His demons. And so there's there's men who pay attention to these deceitful spirits and these doctrines of demons.

21:48 These these spirits lead people to to damning error. That is they they they anything but to repent and and believe in Jesus Christ And so they they tell you yes. Listen to whatever you want. Go ahead and attend church and do good. Just don't repent and trust openly confess Jesus Christ as your lord and savior.

22:13 Yeah, they're they're more than content with you just sitting there and saying, yeah, I've heard that before. No big deal. They're like, yes, keep saying that. That's exactly what we want. And how how can you be fully god?

22:25 And why do you need to repent? You don't need them. And so the demons are like, yes, keep believing that. That's exactly what we want. Now, notice, notice then, we're gonna take this a little step further.

22:38 Notice the demon's confession and theology. What do you have to do, with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. Notice what the demon say, the holy one of god.

22:54 The holy one of god. Luke four thirty four. Luke eight twenty eight and seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before him. That was the man that had a thousand demons in him. And he said in a loud voice, what do I have to do with you, Jesus?

23:10 Son of the most high God? I beg you, do not torment me. Notice that twice, the demons acknowledge Jesus as god. Twice. There's other verses by the way in in the gospels where where the demons say, you're the son of god.

23:30 Now, how do they know this? Because you remember that Satan and the demons were angels and they were up there worshiping Jesus that their creator and they know Jesus better than you and I do because they've seen him up in heaven. They've been there. And so when they saw him walking on earth, they immediately bowed to him and said, are you going to torment me right now? Are you going to send us already to that eternal pit?

23:55 Do they know who he is? And yet they don't want you to bow to him and to acknowledge him to be saved. Isn't that interesting? Notice this next text. You believe that god is one?

24:09 You do well. The demons also believe and they shudder. Why do they believe? Because they know who god is. They were up there in his presence.

24:17 Before Satan sinned and was thrown out of heaven, he convinced the third of the angels that that they should worship him, right? And and when when that happened, god threw him out of heaven. So, they're down here on Earth and you better believe they know who god is and they know who Jesus is. Better than you and I ever will but here's the difference. They know this truth and they shutter and yet there's no salvation for them.

24:43 Hebrews two says clearly that Jesus didn't come to die for angels but for humans. They can't be saved and so here's the thing, they're not satisfied with the fact that they're going to be condemned forever in the lake of fire. They say, look, what we're to do is we're going to try to confuse and deceive as many people as possible and drag em with us and that's what they do and so they know who god is and they shudder because they know the the truth. And yet their job is to deceive us as much as they can. And to keep people from turning to Christ and believing in him.

25:46 Verse four, you are from god, little children, and have overcome them. Why? Why we overcome these false teachers and and this deceitful spirits? You have overcome them because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Amen.

26:03 Don't you love that verse? It's been one of my favorite verses. I was a young man, right? Greater is he who is in me, the Holy Spirit. Now, first first John in this epistle, six times, he refers to the Holy Spirit and the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives and so he says in chapter two, you have the anointing, you have the Holy Spirit.

26:24 And the holy spirit gives you understanding so you won't be deceived by these false spirits. And then right here he says, now, don't don't don't don't forget that the one that's in you is greater, he's greater. He's got more power and so he's greater than deceitful demons and their doctrines. Greater in power and wisdom and authority and the holy spirit then is in our lives to give us wisdom so we can discern between good teaching and bad teaching. Amen?

26:55 So, praise god for the holy spirit. We would not be able to to be able to to discern and not be fooled by deceit deceitful spirits. We're not for the holy spirit who lives in us. And so the holy spirit then reveals truth. He gives discernment to know when something is not from god.

27:22 Okay. So, having all said said said all this, let's take a test. What do you say? Alright, it's all about our test today, right? How do we know?

27:30 How do we know? So, now, when we do this test, you can't cheat. Don't look at your spouse or or whoever's sitting next to what's the answer, what's the answer? Everybody look straight. Alright, we're gonna do a little test here.

27:43 Let's have some fun. Alright, let's let's see. And I don't know if it's right or wrong. I'm not gonna tell you. You have to decide.

27:51 Alright, number one. We all have regrets. We make mistakes. Draw near to Jesus and begin your journey to discovering god. Is this the gospel?

28:02 Is this what we preach? Alright. No. No. No.

28:06 I told you don't shake your head. Don't tell me. You you you I want everybody has to think. Okay? Next.

28:15 Alright? There's no little hell. How can a god of love condemn someone for all eternity? Let's see. Somebody's cheating but no.

28:26 Alright. Man is basically good. Love god, help the needy, do good to your neighbor and god will see your good works and let you into heaven and turn to heaven, you know, eventually. The Bible was written by men, therefore, it is not trustworthy. Okay, let's go to the next question.

28:50 You can't really know if you're justified until judgment day. You can lose your salvation. Jesus Christ was a great prophet, very wise, but he was not god. Now, if you paid attention to the other study we just did, you should be able to answer this one. Jesus was created by god.

29:17 Everything in the Bible is true but god gave us another book to give us more understanding. The Holy Spirit told me after fasting and praying. Okay. So, let's see how you did. Alright, let's go through our answers.

29:34 Number one, we all have regrets and make mistakes and so forth. No, no, no. The Bible does not say we we all have regrets and we make mistakes. It says, all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of god, right? So, repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name.

29:53 Not regrets or not, oh, you made a mistake. Let's start this journey with god. Because we can go on and on and on. That's a whole sermon in itself. There's no literal hell.

30:04 How can a god of love condemn someone for all eternity? Well, let let's look at what the Bible has to say. Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew twenty five four. Notice it's called eternal fire.

30:24 Next, all these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the lord and from the glory of his power. Second Thessalonians one nine, eternal destruction. So, the Bible does teach that there is an eternal lake of fire and we will be separated from god if we reject Jesus Christ. Man is basically good and and the other one love god. Alright, there is none who does good.

30:53 There's not even one. Romans three twelve. Psalms 14. I have sinned and fall short of the glory of god. Romans three twenty three.

31:03 Love the lord, help the needy, do good to your neighbor, do good works, and eventually, he's going to let you into heaven. Salvation is a gift from god, not a result of works that no one should boast. The Bible is written by man. Therefore, it is not trustworthy. All scriptures are inspired by god.

31:23 Second Timothy three sixteen, no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of the human will but men moved by the holy spirit spoke from god. Second Peter one twenty and twenty one. You can't really know you're justified until a judgement day. Therefore, having been justified presently now by faith, we have peace with god through our lord Jesus Christ, Romans five one.

31:59 Jesus Christ was a great prophet, very wise, but he was not god and you can lose your salvation. I did this kind of weird but here we go. Can you lose your salvation? First of all, you didn't earn it. It was a gift of god that he gave you and he promises in John ten twenty eight that he's going to keep you and no one can pluck you out of his hands and Romans eight thirty one through 39 says that nothing can separate us from the love of god.

32:30 Jesus Christ was a great prophet but he was not god. The text what we just read, every false spirit will reject Jesus Christ in his deity and or his humanity. He was fully god. And then there's some other text right there. He was declared the son of god with power to the resurrection.

32:52 Romans chapter one. Everything in the Bible is true but god gave us another book and I want to read this to you real quick. Revelation, the very last verses of Revelation. Verse 18. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

33:20 If anyone adds to them, god shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of this book, book of this prophecy, god shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book. So, the Bible says that you are not to add to it. So, this actually was someone came to me and said, knocked on, I was outside working in my yard and told me, we believe the Bible is true but there's another book. The Holy Spirit told me after I was fasting and praying.

33:59 I said, well, it wasn't the Holy Spirit, it was another spirit. It's called the deceitful spirit and the guy started yelling at me and he walked away. I'm like, but but as a revelation says, if if you add to it, you're going to be cursed and then if you take away from it, you know, there's a several translations right now with conveniently take away every text from the Bible that declares that Jesus is god. And so it says right here, if you take away, god's going to take you away because only a false teacher would do such things. Jesus was created by god.

34:41 No way. No way. Bible says, he came from heaven and he's above all. John eight fifty nine, before Abraham was, I am, I am god. I am god Jehovah.

34:54 Colossians chapter one, everything was created by god and for god and he sustains all things and Revelation one eight. Alright, so let me let me let me ask a question. Have you clearly confessed Jesus as your lord, as god, and savior? And have you been born of the spirit? You must be born again.

35:50 That's what matters, right? To live for him, to openly confess to people, Jesus Christ is my lord and savior and I live for him. He saved me from sin. I was lost and now I'm found and he's the reason that I live. Is that your confession?

36:06 Is that true of you? I hope it is. I hope you pass the test. That you are fully embracing the deity of Jesus and his humanity and fully embracing the word of god as inspired by god. Those were the two tests, remember?

36:23 Amen. Okay. I would love to talk to you if you want to know more about salvation. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.

36:33 Thank you for your word. And I pray that everyone here would have passed the test. That they would have confessed openly and clearly that Jesus is fully man and fully God. And that they would have embraced the word of God as the authoritative word of God inspired by God in inerrant. I pray that this would be true of this congregation.

36:56 And lord, if someone has yet to turn to you, I pray that they would do it today. That they would not listen to deceit deceitful spirits that are trying to keep them from salvation. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.