INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Truth is becoming a lost art in our country these days.
• When a person decides to go on a search for truth, a search to find God where do they turn?
• If you are trying to grow in your relationship with Christ, where do you turn, who do you listen to?
• When the critics attack our faith, when the liberal scholars launch another attack on the faith who do we believe?
• When Time Magazine, Newsweek and the other major publications trot out with their annual, “I do not believe the Bible or Jesus” I mean their feature on Jesus issue, who are we to believe?
• How can you tell if a person is telling you the truth or lying to you? Some give it away by their body language, some by the tone of their voice. Sometimes what a person says is so incredible it is hard to believe them.
• How do you tell if a person is giving you the truth concerning spiritual matters? Are we to just be gullible and believe whatever we hear? If a person tells you they are educated, or if they hold a religious sounding title, does that mean they are proclaiming the truth?
• How can we determine if a person is a false prophet or in today’s vernacular, a false teacher?
• Today we are going to look at 1 John 4:1-6. As we study this text this morning I hope what we learn today will help us to be able to determine if a person posses the spirit of truth within them.
• Let’s begin with verse 1!
• SLIDE #2
• 1 John 4:1 (HCSB) — 1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. The Logic test.
• The logic test is simple
• One thing that complicates the search for truth is the fact that there appears to be so many different truths out there to believe.
• The problem is, all of these “truths” cannot be true. As bad is it is to say today, someone is wrong no matter how sincere they are.
• So who are you to believe? There are a lot of forces out there trying to lead you astray.
• It defies logic to think that EVERYONE is right and that EVERYONE has truth.
• Who do you believe and why? How about basing belief on evidence?
• A young American engineer named Billy was sent to Ireland by his company to work in a new electronics plant. It was a two-year assignment that he had accepted because it would enable him to earn enough to marry his long-time girlfriend, Irene.
• She had a job near her home in Tennessee, and their plan was to pool their resources and put a down payment on a house when he returned. They corresponded often, but as the lonely weeks went by, Irene began expressing doubts that he was being true to her, exposed as he was to lovely Irish girls.
• Billy wrote back, declaring with some passion that he was paying absolutely no attention to the local girls. “I admit,” he wrote, “that sometimes I’m tempted.
• But I fight it. I’m keeping myself for you.” In the next mail, Billy received a package. It contained a note from Irene and a harmonica. “I’m sending this to you,” she wrote, “so you can learn to play it and have something to take your mind off those girls.”
• Billy replied, “Thanks for the harmonica. I’m practicing on it every night and thinking of you.” At the end of his two-year stint, Billy was transferred back to company headquarters. He took the first plane to Tennessee to be reunited with his girl.
• Her whole family was with her, but as he rushed forward to embrace her, Irene held up a restraining hand and said sternly, “Just hold on there a minute, Billy.
• Before any serious kissin’ and huggin’ gets started here, let me hear you play that harmonica!”
• There are a lot of snake oil salesmen out there. It is up to us to test the spirits. The literal reading of the verse is “STOP BELIEVING EVERY SPIRIT. We would say do not be so gullible.
• All claims were to be put to the test and the teachers were not to be trusted until they passed the test.
• The young lady in the story wanted to test the spirits before she took the leap! She wanted to make sure her man passed the test!
• When this passage speaks of testing spirits, is speaks false teachers and the spirit behind their teaching.
• The word TEST comes from a Greek verb that refers to an examination and evaluation.
• Much like a metallurgist uses an acid test to determine if his metals are genuine or fake.
• Before an Athenian was allowed to hold office, he was subjected to an examination (same word as our text) as to the origin of his character before being able to hold office (GRL, 131)
• Everyone can get things wrong but some are bent on perverting the truth.
• You need to test the spirits before you simply accept a proposed truth at face value because…
• Not everything you hear is from God. A lot of what we hear are lies that come from Satan.
• SLIDE #4
• 2 John 10–11 (HCSB) — 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don’t say, “Welcome,” to him; 11 for the one who says, “Welcome,” to him shares in his evil works.
• A prophet is one who speaks for another. If a person claims to speak for God, they are literally a prophet of God. If you are speaking for God, your message better line up with God and be from God!
• A messenger who makes up their own message is not a prophet; they are using God a cover for delivering their own message.
• False prophets are those who are not in accord with the truth.
• OBSERVATIONS
• Notice who is called to test the spirits, all Christians, not just the leadership.
• Now, in order to test something, there must be a standard for truth. Truth is truth there is no such thing as truth for you and truth for me. 1+1=2 for all of us!
• Let’s examine a second test found in verses 2-3
• SLIDE #5
• 1 John 4:2–3 (HCSB) — 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. 3 But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.
• SLIDE #6
II. The credibility test.
• We are given a test in verse 2 by which you can determine if what is being spoken has any chance of being true.
• I will call it the spirit of truth rest. It is simple.
• One must confess that Jesus came in the flesh.
• This seems simple. If a person will not confess that Jesus came in the flesh, they are not to be listened to as a source of truth.
• Some seminary trained people who will not acknowledge this fact.
• We are to accept, trust and teach Jesus to be THE Son of God, not A Son of God.
• John tells us we can know the spirit of God, we can do this by observation and deduction.
• If the spirit of God is in us, it will show in the way we live.
• This confession about Jesus is to be an ongoing agreement. We must believe that He came lived and died for our sins and that He was raised on the third day. If we believe that, we have the spirit of truth in us.
• John says this person is from God. And God is the source or origin of the teaching.
• The false teachers of John’s day and our day questioned Jesus humanity and deity.
• In verse three John speaks of Jesus Christ. This name covers His humanity and His deity.
• In verse 3 we find the spirit of the false teacher test!
• It is also simple, anyone who does not confess Jesus should not be listened to when it comes to spiritual issues.
• IF a person will not acknowledge Jesus, they are not of the truth.
• This shows the spirit of the antichrist we spoke of a few weeks ago.
• Remember the antichrist is one who is against Jesus. John says this spirit was already in the world during his day and it is still very prevalent today!
• God takes this seriously. In Deuteronomy 18:20-22, God said false prophets must die! He even offers how one can tell if the prophet speaks the truth.
• SLIDE #7
• Deuteronomy 18:20–22 (HCSB) — 20 But the prophet who dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die.’ 21 You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
• Let us examine a third test.
• SLIDE #8
• 1 John 4:4 (HCSB) You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
• SLIDE #9
III. The power test.
• This test involves the ability to deliver, in order to deliver, power is required.
• We need to always remember our victory comes through Jesus because God is greater than Satan!
• John emphatically reminds his readers that they belong to God and have overcome the false teachers.
• For John’s readers, when the false teachers appeared on the scene, John’s readers overcame them by remaining faithful, while others allowed themselves to be deceived.
• To overcome means to vanquish, subdue, conquer. The verb-tense of the word “overcome” denotes the readers had gained a previous victory and were still victorious.
• Jesus coming in the past still influences the present!
• It gives them no future promise of victory, but it gives them hope for the future because of the past and present victories they had won over the spirit of error!
• The truth is greater than lies. Truth will always win out over lies. We were won to Christ through the truth of the gospel.
• If we have people who are trying to get you to doubt the Bible as the Word of God, you have to ask yourself why they would do that.
• The truth makes you free, why would you want to be entrapped by things that are not true.
• You are free today because of Jesus, why would you want to let someone try to entrap you again by getting you to listen to lies?
• Some people do not like to hear the truth because it makes them take real action on a problem, and accept real responsibility.
• SLIDE #10
• 1 John 4:5–6 (HCSB) — 5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
• SLIDE #11
IV. The source test.
• There are some real differences between the spirit of the false teachers and spirit of truth.
• The source from which the teacher gains their knowledge reveals what they will teach.
• For instance, if my education consisted of people who are Marxists, what I teach would derive from that philosophy. I would see the world through those lenses.
• First let us take a look at the source for the spirit of the false teacher.
• Verse 5 tells us their source of the world.
• These people come from the world, they are not of God. They do not belong to God
• Today, there are many pseudo-spiritual teachers. They teach that people have God or a spirit within them that only needs to be tapped.
• They claim many ways to discover this “inner” truth or spirit—most of which are not found in the Bible.
• While some may use forms of singing, prayer, or meditation, they are not Bible-based. Instead, they piece together parts of Christian truth and combine it with human teachings from many religions, some of which do not recognize God or Christ at all. (Life App Bible)
• Since they are from the world, they speak with worldly wisdom.
• In John’s Gospel and letters, the term “world” (which can mean “arrangement” or “system”) describes the world system of beliefs and the community of those who stand in opposition to God (see 4:3).
• The world system opposes God’s realm because Satan exerts his influence over the world. The false teachers, being a part of the world system, speak from the world’s viewpoint. (Life App Bible)
• SLIDE #12
• 2 Corinthians 4:4 (HCSB) In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
• As a result, the world listens to them, this is why so many people write off Biblical teachings, they cannot understand it. LOVE YOUR ENEMIES? There are objective standards of right and wrong? God defined marriage?
• SLIDE #13
• 2 Timothy 4:3 (HCSB) For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new.
• It appears that Christians are still not immune to false teachings today.
• Now let’s look at the spirit of truth! It comes from God according to verse 6.
• God is a God of truth. All truth is of God! If we are of God, we will listen to God.
• Who you listen to determines if you are following the spirit of truth or the spirit of lies.
• Reception of the truth depends on the hearer, not the message. In the parable of the Sower in Luke 8:4-15 Jesus tells of a sower sowing seeds.
• The same sower and the same seed had different results; it all depended on the soil in which the seed was planted. The harvest depended on the soil.
• The end of verse 6 we are told we can tell the one who has the spirit of truth verses the spirit of error, it is by who they listen to.
CONCLUSION
• Are you preparing the soil of your heart for the Gospel?
• Are you ready to hear and absorb the truth?
• When someone comes along with a “new” truth, we had better examine both the message and the messenger before we decide to jump on the band wagon.
• Today are you ready to be set free by the truth of the Gospel message?
• Today is the day of salvation!
