“Dueling Spirits”
1 John 4:1-6
Introduction: How can you tell if someone is lying to you? [ASK] How do you spot a lie? Some people give it away in their body language--not making eye contact, for example. What about spiritual things? How can we recognize a “false prophet”? This is more difficult, for a false prophet may be completely convinced that what they are saying is true. So how can we know if someone is speaking spiritual truth or spiritual falsehood?
[READ 1 John 4:1-6]
ILLUS: 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 lasses. 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!”
>>She was testing him! In the same way, we need to test ideas & teachings before we embrace them, for John makes clear that there are counterfeit spirits in the world trying to lead God’s people astray. John gives us two ways we can know if someone is speaking spiritual truth.
I. We can know by what they say about Christ (1-3)
A. False prophets speak from false spirits.
1. A prophet was a person who had come under the influence of a supernatural power, whether good or bad. His message came from that power, so that what the prophet spoke was actually the message of the spirit who inspired him.
2. These “pseudo-prophets” were not merely teachers as we might understand them. They were actually inspired by a spirit—the spirit of antichrist (3) or the spirit of deception (6).
3. In contrast, John speaks of the Spirit of God, i.e., the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and leads us (cf. 3:24).
4. It is significant that almost every deviant form of Christianity in some way diminishes or distorts the Person of Christ. The test is so simple: was Jesus truly God’s Messiah, the Word made flesh, fully man and fully God? If not, whatever the source of the denial, it cannot be called Christian.
B. True prophets confess the true Christ
1. The word “acknowledge” is the Greek word omologei, which is better translated “confess” or “profess allegiance to.”
2. The way John puts the nature of the confession is all one direct object: “Jesus-Christ-come-in-flesh.” Thus it is a confession not of the fact of the incarnation, but of the Incarnate Christ.” A true view of Jesus is the key.
C. True Christ followers follow the true Christ
1. For us also, this confession is crucial. It stands at the very heart of our faith. Do away with the confession, and you do away with everything. The Savior must be both human and God.
a. He must be completely human in order to take our place and bear our punishment for sin. If he is to represent us, he must be like us.
b. On the other hand, it is equally necessary that the Savior be God. Were he merely human, his death would have limited value. It could only pay the penalty for one sinner, no more. If the Savior is to be able to atone for the sins of millions, His death must have inestimable value. Only God could fulfill such a requirement. Therefore, the Savior must be both God and human, or he cannot save.
2. ILLUS: Alexandra Flynn of Fremont, Nebraska, was looking forward to the 2002 homecoming dance. She left home in high spirits, but she did not have her high school ID with her. When the man at the door refused her admission without her ID, she went home to get it. Unable to find it, her mother went with her back to the dance to identify her and to explain. Again, the daughter was refused admission without the ID. Alex had the tickets in her hand but still was not admitted. Even though Alexandra Flynn of Freemont High is Student Body President, plays cello in the Allstate orchestra, is on the Honor Roll, is the school’s number one cheerleader, and she spent hours decorating the gym for the Homecoming Dance, she was still not admitted.
Did I mention she was homecoming queen?
But, she never did get in.
In a similar way, getting into heaven isn’t a matter of our good deeds and accomplishments. Without Jesus Christ, we have no ID to get into heaven.
3. APP: There is a need for discernment among Christians. We are too often gullible, and exhibit a naïve readiness to credit messages and teachings which purport to come from God. There is such a thing as misguided charity and tolerance toward false doctrine.
II. We can know by who listens to them (4-6)
A. Lying spirits can never ultimately conquer God’s Spirit
1. ILLUS: As Operation Iraqi Freedom raged, Mohammed al-Sahhaf, Iraq’s Minister of Information, daily refuted clear evidence that Iraq was losing the war. On April 6, after coalition forces seized Baghdad’s Saddam Airport, renamed it Baghdad International Airport, started flying planes in, and ventured into Baghdad itself, the Miami Herald quoted al-Sahhaf saying, "We butchered the force present at the airport." On April 7, after U.S. troops penetrated central Baghdad and stormed Saddam’s Republican Palace, the Washington Post quoted al-Sahhaf saying, "There is no presence of the American columns in the city of Baghdad at all.…We besieged them, and we killed most of them."
Referred to as Baghdad Bob by the media, his efforts to explain away coalition force victories as illusions were comical. In the same way, our spiritual enemy is already defeated at the cross of Christ, yet he continues to hurl out lies, insults, and condemnation at the saints
2. APP: The biblical teaching concerning the demonic consistently subordinates the powers of evil to God and stresses the victory of Christ over his adversaries. The Bible conveys a sense of assurance and confidence that is absent from much contemporary teaching on spiritual warfare.
B. The world listens to lying spirits (5-6)
1. A teacher’s doctrinal position is revealed by not only by his teaching, but also by the character of his audience. If his followers are from the world rather than being born of God, he also is from the world. The world is the source of his teaching, and he is inspired by the spirit of error. On the other hand, if a teacher’s following is made up of those who know God and are born again, this is evidence that he also is born of God and inspired by the spirit of truth.
2. ILLUS: In the classic "Twilight Zone" episode from 1960, "The Howling Man," an American on a walking trip through central Europe gets caught in a raging storm. Staggering through the blinding rain, he chances upon an imposing medieval castle. It is a hermitage for a brotherhood of monks. The reclusive monks reluctantly take him in.
Later that night, the American discovers a cell with a man locked inside. An ancient wooden staff bolts the door. The prisoner claims he’s being held captive by the "insane" head monk, Brother Jerome. He pleads for the American to release him.
The prisoner’s kindly face and gentle voice win him over. The American confronts Brother Jerome, who declares that the prisoner is actually none other than Satan, "the father of lies," held captive by the Staff of Truth, the one barrier he cannot pass.
This incredible claim convinces the American that Jerome is indeed mad. As soon as he gets the chance, he releases the prisoner—who immediately transforms into a hideous, horned demon and vanishes in a puff of smoke!
The stunned American is horrified at the realization of what he has done. Jerome responds sympathetically. "I’m sorry for you, my son. All your life you will remember this night and whom you have turned loose upon the world."
"I didn’t believe you," the American replies. "I saw him and didn’t recognize him"—to which Jerome solemnly observes, "That is man’s weakness…and Satan’s strength."
3. John references his apostolic authority in v.6. He was not being arrogant here—this man had walked literally with Christ. He had peered, in the murk of the morning, into the empty tomb. He had preached the Good News for a lifetime. He had suffered for the faith. He was the last living Apostle, who knew all the facts. When John dismissed those who opposed him as enemies of God, he could do so in God’s name.
Conclusion: (BIG IDEA) How do we recognize false prophets? By what they say, and by who listens to them.
We have the Holy Spirit; we have God’s word; we have each other. With all these resources at hand, we can discern the dueling spirits.
ILLUS: During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand.
When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, "Thank you."
But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?"
She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds."
Like the contents in this package, the resources for growth, strength, and discernment are available for every Christ follower who will take advantage of them.
