Introduction: There used to be a television game show entitled “Truth or Consequences.” Most people who are old enough to remember will associate that show with Bob Barker. He was the game show host for approximately twenty years. The contestants on the show were given the responsibility of determining the truth about people, places, events or things by answering questions. At the conclusion of each show they would reveal the truth about the topic of discussion. You and I have been given the task of discovering truth or facing the consequences.
In I John, John teaches us the importance of knowing the truth. “My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world. Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God.” (I John 4:1-3 TMNT) John’s readers were facing false teaching. John encourages them to test the truth of what they are hearing.
Tests are common in many areas of life. Students must pass an ACT or SAT test in order to enter college. When I call my credit card company to make a payment or secure information they put me to a test. They ask for the last four digits of my social security number, my zip code and if they have any questions they ask for my mother’s maiden name. The test is designed to weed out inappropriate callers. Teachers are required to pass a teachers exam in order to get their teachers certification.
Joke: There’s a story of a young American engineer who was sent to Ireland by his company. It was a two-year assignment. He had accepted it because it would enable him to earn enough to marry his long-time girlfriend. She had a job near her home in Tennessee. Their plan was to put their money together and put a down payment on a house when he returned. They wrote often, but as the lonely weeks went by, the girlfriend began expressing doubts about his being true, exposed as he was to the beautiful Irish lasses.
The young engineer wrote back. He declared 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, the engineer received a package. It contained a note from his girl 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.”
The engineer replied, “Thanks for the harmonica. I’m practicing on it every night and thinking of you.” At the end of the two years, the engineer 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, she held up a restraining hand and said sternly, “Just hold on there a minute, Billy Bob. Before any serious kissin’ and huggin’ gets started here, let me hear you play that harmonica!”
(Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, pp. 17-18. Contriibuted by: SermonCentral PRO)
Why is it important to test our beliefs to determine the truth of what we believe? Satan is a deceiver. We must know the truth!
I want to show you three tests that will verify the truth of what you believe. We should examine our faith by each of these tests.
I. The first test is to test false teaching.
The Message translation of verse 1 in our text clarifies this truth. “My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.”
From this verse two truths should be embraced.
1. We should be a student of the word.
2. We should evaluate all speakers, teachers and preachers by the word. Do not take what they say at face value.
What do we look for in a false teacher?
A. They will deny Christian doctrine. They will claim to have a new teaching or new revelation. Peter said “there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them”. (II Peter 2:1 NKJV). They will claim they are the only ones who hold the truth.
B. They will display an exclusive spirit. They will pull away from other evangelical groups. John spoke of this. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” (I John 2:19 NKJV)
Illustration: In November 1978 US Representative Leo J. Ryan of California visited the People’s Temple (a California-based cult) in Guyana. His group went to investigate reports that some of the people there were being held against their will. The congressman and his party were ambushed and killed.
A few days later, at Jonestown, Guyana, soldiers were horrified to find hundreds of bodies of cult members who had been shot or committed suicide by drinking cyanide based Kool-Aid. Rev. Jones, 47, lay near the altar with a bullet wound in his head.
The death count was 780. Here is a brief report of what happened in those final moments:
“As Jones talked over the loudspeaker on the beauty of death and the certainty that everyone would meet again, several hundred cult members gathered around the pavillion. They were surrounded by armed guards, and a vat of Kool-aid mixed with cyanide was brought out. Most cult members drank it willingly—others were forced to. They started with the babies. At least 80 infants and children were fed the deadly potion, and then the adults took it. Everything was calm for a few minutes and then, as the cyanide-induced convulsions began, it got all out of the order. Children were screaming and there was mass confusion. Shortly afterward, everyone was dead.” (Illustration 1552 in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan)
C. They will minimize the authority and person of Jesus Christ. There was a false teaching in the first century called docetism. The word comes from a greek word, “to seem.” The docetics said Jesus only appeared to have a human body. He was somewhat like a mirage. This illustrates how false teachers minimize Jesus person.
D. They will generally have a strong charismatic leader.
Illustration: Jemima Wilkinson is one such example. She was born in Rhode Island in 1752. She was raised by Quaker parents who provided a religious education, but she later became a religion unto herself. She was a very capable speaker who convinced a following of 350 people that she had been raised from the dead at age twenty. They thought she was the Messiah. At one point in her ministry she took her flock to a lake and begged the question, “Do you think I can walk on this water like Jesus did?” They affirmed she could, so the “spiritual leader” said, “Then there is no point in me doing it.” When she died in 1820, the sect followed her strict orders, “Don’t bury me, because God is going to raise me from the dead.” As Wilkinson’s body decomposed, her following died off as well. (Illustration 300, p. 95, Something to Think About, edited by Raymond McHenry)
D. They will emphasize a salvation by works. They minimize the grace of God. I call this Jesus plus salvation. They will speak about Jesus but emphasize good deeds and works as a part of their experience.
II. The second test is their belief about Jesus Christ. John teaches that the real test of truth is what a person believes about Jesus Christ.
Illustration: "Jesus. It’s a little name. It is a small word. Say this little name in public, however, in a way other than an obscenity, and stand back and watch the fireworks. This little name is like a tiny detonator that triggers a nuclear warhead.
You can say "God," and you won’t get a squeak.
You can say "Our Father in Heaven," and few will flinch.
You can say "Great Spirit," and people will nod in approval.
You can say "Allah" and you will be deemed tolerant.
But say "Jesus" and just wait for the sonic boom.
Articles will appear in the paper. Reprimands will be posted from the home office. Suits will be threatened by the civil liberties block.
So don’t say Jesus.
Jesus is divisive, and now is a time for unity.
Jesus is an extremist, and that must mean right wing.
Jesus is exclusive, so His name amounts to hate speech.
Keep His name to yourself. Cloister it in your church. Lock it in your prayer closet. Close it between the covers of your Bible. But for God’s sake, don’t voice it in the public square! It’s immodest. It’s immoral. It’s unloving.
Only one problem. Jesus is God. Only one problem. Jesus alone brings salvation.
Only one problem. All other gods are nothing. So speak His name aloud. Shout it from the mountain. Whisper it in the dark. Write it in the sky. That’s not hate, it’s hope."
SOURCE: From The Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, KY, Newsletter, www.southeastchristian.org/. CITED IN: "The Question That Condemned Jesus - (Whose Line Is It?)": Matthew 26:57-68 by Jeff Strite. www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.
What should we believe about Jesus?
A. Jesus is eternal. He was not created. He was the creator.
In Genesis 1:1 the phrase “God created” is plural in the Hebrew language. What does that mean? When God created the world Jesus was there. He was a part of the process.
In Colossians 1:16 we read “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
John refers to “That which was from the beginning.” (I John 1:1 NKJV)
B. Jesus is God in the flesh. (4:2)
Illustration: The story is told of Daniel Webster when he was in the prime of his manhood. He was dining with a company of literary men in Boston. During the dinner the conversation turned upon the subject of Christianity. Mr. Webster frankly stated his belief in the divinity of Christ and his dependence upon the atonement of the Savior. One said to him, “Mr Webster, can you comprehend how Christ could be both God and man? Mr. Webster promptly replied, “No, sir, I cannot comprehend it. If I could comprehend him, he would be no greater than myself. I feel that I need a super-human Savior.” (Illustration 2689 in 7700 illustrations, edited by Paul Lee Tan)
C. Jesus is God. John touches this truth several times in his book. (See 1:3,7; 4:2)
D. Jesus is the only way to God. (2:22)
III. The third test of truth is your personal faith.
Illustration: R. G. Lee told about walking down the street and a drunk staggered up to him and said, “Oh, Preacher, I’m one of your converts.” The preacher looked at him and said, “Yeah, you look like one of mine. You certainly don’t look like one of the Lord’s.”
(Pastor’s Conference at CNC in 1974, Contributed by: Ed Wood) That man failed the test of faith. What do you look for in evaluating and testing personal faith?
A. Personal faith involves a confession. “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God” (4:2 NKJV).
Has there been a time when you by faith confessed Jesus as the Son of God who came to die as for your sins?
B. Personal faith involves a new character. John repeatedly discusses the signs of a new character. He mentions obedience, love for others, love for Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s testimony. The Bible says “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation.” Every person who has been genuinely saved has been given a new character.
Illustration: Not too many years ago newspapers carried the story of Al Johnson, a Kansas man who came to faith in Jesus Christ. What made his story remarkable was not his conversion, but the fact that as a result of his newfound faith in Christ, he confessed to a bank robbery he had participated in when he was nineteen years old. Because the statute of limitations on the case had run out, Johnson could not be prosecuted for the offense. Still, he believed his relationship with Christ demanded a confession. He voluntarily repaid his share of the stolen money! (Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 13. Contributed to Sermon Central by Mark Hensley)
