PREWARNED & PREPARED - I JOHN 4:1-6
I came across a list of ANAGRAMS(rearrange letters of one word or phrase to form another)
DORMITORY – Dirty Room/DESPERATION-A rope ends it
THE MORSE CODE-Here come dots
SLOT MACHINES-Cash lost in em
ELEVEN PLUS TWO-Twelve plus one
ASTRONOMER-Moon Starer/PRINCESS DIANA-End is a Car Spin
MOTHER-IN-LAW-Woman Hitler
YEAR TWO THOUSAND-A Year to Shut down
Missed prophesy which was a concern to all of us.
Somebody missed it and most everybody to one degree or another was effected.
· Our passage this morning is John’s warning about our believing what isn’t true and that one test as to whether we are truly born again might be called THE DOCTRINAL TEST.
· It is interesting that part of what it means to be a Christian is not just what you believe but what you don’t believe. Faith is no better than it’s object.
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. 4:1
· Share four spiritual truths with you this morning
WE HAVE A COMMAND WHICH IS BASED UPON A FACT – Test the Spirits……many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1. Every Christian is commanded to be discerning about what they receive as truth. Not just Pastors/teachers /school professors but every Christian.
George Whitefield asked a man, ‘Sir what do you believe?
I believe what my church believes.’ What does your church believe? It believes what I believe. And what do both of you believe? We both believe the same thing!
a. It is a command and not a suggestion.
Why is it so important?
b. GOOD & BAD NEWS:
BAD: World is filled with false messages.
In both the religious and secular world.
At the turn of the century the world’s most distinguished astronomer was Sir Percival Lowell. He was esteemed for his study of the solar system and had a particular fascination with Mars.
He was certain that he had determined that there were CANALS on the surface of the Red Planet and that these canals were proof of intelligent life there.
The balance of his life was spent squinting though a giant telescope in Arizona mapping the channels and canals he saw. He was so esteemed his teachings gained wide acceptance.
Since that time our space probes have orbited mars and even landed on it’s surface. Entire planet has been mapped and no one has seen even one canal.
It is now assumed that Percival Lowell had a rare eye disease which is now called ‘Lowell’s syndrome’ which makes a person see the bulging blood vessels in their own eyeballs.
Man from his limited perspective has brought to us many error-filled ideas that one day will be exposed as foolishness.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY. Among those who profess to have a belief in Jesus?
Mt 7 Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheeps clothing
2 Pet 2 There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies…
Acts 20 After my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock
GOOD: False messages are meant to distort what God is trying to communicate to us.
THE BEST LIE IS THAT WHICH LOOKS THE MOST LIKE THE TRUTH.
John affirms that God is communicating His truth to us and we need to hear it.
A mark of spiritual maturity is not just belief but unbelief. Not just what you agree to be right but what you discern to be wrong.
A spiritually immature person is described in Eph 4 ‘tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting’.
Jude 4 For certain person have crept in unnoticed… That tells me that they are CREEPS and that we need to find ways to notice them.
‘Sit down spirit, you are going to take a test. Answer these questions and see it they fall in line with the revealed Word of God’.
WE ARE CAUTIONED ABOUT WHAT THE KEY ERROR IS IN A FALSE MESSAGE: (2-3) 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; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
1. A false message is always wrong about one thing: Jesus.
Our Home Mission Board has a two phase test for a cult:
1) Do they have a different Bible?
2) Do they have a different Jesus?
2. What does a different Jesus look like?
a. Good man – great teacher – example to follow – More modern ones: My Santa Clause or ticket to any blessing I want.
b. John says the right confession of Jesus is that HE IS GOD IN THE FLESH.
A right message will teach that Jesus was fully God and fully man in His incarnation.
Common in John’s day to see the physical body as a prison from which one desired to escape. Two wrong beliefs in John’s day:
DOCETISM: Jesus only seemed to have a body but was actually just a spirit that cast no shadow and left no footprints.
GNOSTICISM: Jesus didn’t have a physical body but matter was evil and only the spirit was good.
JOHN starts off this book arguing that he was with Jesus and saw Him, heard Him, touched Him, handled Him.
JESUS SAID I and the Father are one….He who has seen me has seen the Father.
PAUL SAID ABOUT JESUS: Col 1 He is the image of the invisible God 2:9 For in Him all the fullness of diety dwells in bodily form.
WE ARE EQUIPPED TO BE ABLE TO DETERMINE THE TRUE FROM THE FALSE (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.
1. Equipped because of our POSITION: from God, little children,…have overcome.
a. Our spiritual life is a life from God and it makes us His children.
From God does not mean that we simply ‘belong
to’ God but that He is the source of all that we
now are. A NEW CREATION.
b. It is a life IN CHRIST which means We fight not for victory but from victory. Our victory is a settled issue and we just have to act on it.
2. Equipped because of His POWER: greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
a. Because we know Jesus we have His power in our life.
A man went one day to see an electric plant that uses water power to turn the gigantic generators. He asked the plant forman how much of the power available from the river do you use? ‘Oh, about 1/100th of the possible power available’. How much of God’s power do we really use? Power of believing faith, of prevailing prayer, of living and walking in God’s truth.
b. Does not say that we have a superior intelligence or a greater bank balance.
THE GROUND OF OUR VICTORY is our identification with the victory that Christ accomplished for us.
1) Greek study on the word, ‘GREATER’ and found that it actually means ….GREATER. Exactly what it says
2) Whatever our struggle or temptation we can know with confidence that God has placed within us a life in the Spirit that is more than able to maintain our victory.
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man and God is faith Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able but with the temptation will provide a way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Cor 10:13
NOTE: Why would God allow us to be tempted by a false message?
· Always bothered by the fact that when Moses first appeared before Pharoah and caused the rod to turn into the snake that the magicians of Eqypt appeared to do the same thing. False prophets seem to be able to always put on a good show, why does God allow this?
· Deut 13:1-4 "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ’Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
· God allows power in deceiving messages because how we respond determines what is true about us.
If sacrificing truth for the sake of power is what we are about
then that says something about us we need to know
· JESUS SAID, My sheep hear My voice and follow Me(John 10)
WE HAVE A CHOICE OF WHOSE TRUTH WE WILL LISTEN TO: The World’s Or God’s (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.
1. There are two types of messages out there to listen to: A godly message or a worldly one.
AM/FM – Transmitting Antichrist Message or Father’s Message
a. There are many worldly messages in the church. A worldly message centers around man and not Christ.
b. You can turn on many ‘so-called’ Christian ministries and turn to infomercials showing get rich quick schemes about real estate or selling some product and find the same spirit at work.
Read this week an article about questions I can ask to determine
whether what is happening is of God or not:
(Many meetings(Toronto Blessing/Brownsville Revival/Pensacola) today they act drunk, laugh uncontrollably, roar like lions, jerk uncontrollably, bark like dogs, roll in the aisles and claim God is at work)
It the teaching of Scripture central to the meeting?
Are those involved behaving in a godly manner?
If Christ were here now would he behave that way?
Does this draw attention to Jesus or to others? Whitefield women
Is repentance of sin one of the main elements at work?
Is what occurring genuine or being worked up by those in charge?
Are the things occurring common practices in false religions?
Does this generate confusion?
Are those in charge under authority themselves?
Is the focus on the physical & temporal or on the spirtual & eternal?
2. A worldy message whether in a church or in a town hall will always:
a. Excuse sin – exalt man – stress ego/self image – give man the right to exercise self will – focus on success, position, money, power, possessions.
b. A worldly message will neglect the cross.
Phil 3:18-19 For many walk, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, who glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things.
For some time our church in Missouri had a radio program which broadcast sermons from St. Louis to Iowa and into eastern Missouri and western Illinois.
For almost a year messages from the book of Romans would go out and almost every week I would get a letter from a man named Harlan telling me how wrong I was.
He didn’t believe in two things: the grace of God and the finished work of Christ.
ROMANS IS SATURATED WITH BOTH THOSE THINGS. Every week I would confront a spirit of works theology that Harlan believed, a theology that removes Jesus as being central.
A COMPASS is a valuable tool because due to the magnetic field of the earth you can always depend on it to point to ‘true north’. You can always know your true position.
A MESSAGE THAT IS OF VALUE will always point the same direction, to Jesus Christ and will provide a true picture of Him that allows a sinner to be saved,
a saint to be strengthened,
and the devil to be disarmed.
