Testing the Spirits – Part 2

1 John 4:1-6

May 18, 2003

 

            God has always been concerned with truth. From the beginning of creation until eternity God will be the source and fountain of all truth. As the source of truth, God is also concerned that His people know and understand the truth. He wants His children to understand reality as it really is, as He sees it. He wants us to see things through His eyes, so to speak, and to know reality as He knows it, as it really is.

            Because God wants His people to know the truth, one persistent theme throughout the Old Testament was discernment. God wanted His people, Israel, to be able to discern between the true prophets and the false prophets. He wanted them to know when He had given them a vision or a prophecy, and when a deceiving spirit was trying to destroy their understanding of reality with false prophecies and lying visions. In the book of Deuteronomy, as Israel was preparing to enter the Promised Land, Moses gave them final instructions. One issue that he dealt with was false prophets and lying seers. In Deuteronomy 18:20, Israel was given explicit instructions on how to discern between the true prophets and the false. Moses wrote, But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. Now the question naturally arises, which we see in verse 21, You may say in your heart, “How will we know the word which the Lord has spoken?” “How do we discern this? How can we execute justice correctly? How can we discern the true prophets from the false?” is what Israel was asking. God gives them a test, When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. It was a test of truth and accuracy – if the prophecy came to pass, then it was from the Lord. If the prophecy did not come to pass, then it was not from the Lord. God was so concerned that they understand truth that any prophet who falsely prophesied was to die! This was not a three strike program. One false prophecy meant the death penalty.

            In Deuteronomy 13:1 another situation is described in which God says that He is testing the Israelites to see if they will love Him and follow Him or not. What is the test? With what will God test the Israelites? Look at verse 1. 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. Now it’s very important that you see that. Here we have a miracle that takes place. The situation is that someone comes to the assembly of the Israelites, claims to be a prophet or a visionary, and performs a sign, a wonder, a miracle, in a similar way that Moses did in Egypt before Pharaoh. This is powerful material here. This is something that would be very persuasive. But even this is not the ultimate test of the prophet’s authenticity. Look back at verse 2. 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. If someone comes and does a miracle and then says, “Let’s go worship another god besides the Lord, your God,” what are they to do? Not listen to them. Don’t heed the words of that prophet even if he performs a miracle in your presence. If he is going to take you away from worshipping the true God, it doesn’t matter what sign he performs, he is a liar and a false prophet!

            Now, why would this happen? Look at the second half of verse 3. 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. Who do you love more? Do you love the Lord your God or do you want to follow a charismatic, powerful man who speaks lies? Do you love the simplicity of following the true God, or do you want to follow a man who will dazzle your senses with signs and wonders? That’s the question. Who will you follow? Who do you love?

            To make it perhaps a little more applicable, bring it into a modern context of a church. Where does your chief allegiance lie? Does it lie with a denomination, a pastor, a specific church, or does it lie with Christ? If your favorite denomination or pastor or whoever begins to depart from faithfully upholding the Word of God, will you follow Christ, or will you be loyal to your denomination, to your pastor, to, fill in the blank. Who has your allegiance, your heart, your soul? It appears that God may, at times, test us to see whether we love Him, or whether we love to follow someone who is just a man.

            The reason we can bring something like Deuteronomy 13 into a modern context is because that is what John does in 1 John 4. In 1 John 4:1-6 the whole issue is discerning who is from God and who from the world. In 1 John there is a very sharp distinction drawn between Christ and the world, and in these six verses this morning John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, outlines how we can discern the true from the false, the spirit of truth from the spirit of error. This type of discernment is not something that only relates to the New or the Old Testament; it is something that God has required of His people from the beginning of time. Although the tests are different now that God’s written word is complete, like Israel we also are to test the prophets and, in the church, elders and pastors and teachers, to see whether or not they are of the Spirit of God.

            Let me briefly remind you that last week we learned that this is the duty of every Christian. This is not something that only a pastor does, or only an elder, or a deacon. This is something that all Christians are to be doing whenever they hear someone claim to have a message from God. We as Christians, all of us, are to test the spirits to see if they are from God. Discernment is not optional, and it is sinful for us to ignore this command and allow false teaching to creep into our lives and churches. That is why John commanded the church in verse 1, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Every one of us is to test the spirits because many false prophets have gone out into the world. There is an abundance of false teaching and false doctrine, so we need to test what we hear to make sure we are not led astray.

So the question now is, “What are the tests? How can we know?” It is the same question Moses said the Israelites would ask in their hearts in Deuteronomy 18:21, How will we know the word which the Lord has spoken? How can we know?

            I suggested that this text gives us four tests by which we may try the spirits to see if they are from God. The first test was the Christological Test. The Christological Test. This test asks the question, “Do they confess the truth about Jesus Christ?” Does this teacher confess the truth about Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world? This is the foundational test. If they fail this test, there is no need to go on to tests two through four. When all else fails, this is the bottom line. What do they confess and believe and teach about Jesus? That is the starting point, but it is not the ending point. There are three other tests that we must apply if we are to diligently and accurately test the spirits.

 

The Conquering Test (v. 4)

 

            Let’s look at verse 4. Verse 4 explains the second test, and this test asks the question: Do they overcome false teaching? Do they overcome false teaching? Now what does that mean? What does this test look like? How is it applied?

            The first thing you have to see to understand this text is the people this verse refers to. Who is the subject of this verse? Look at verse 4. John writes, You are from God, little children. The subject is Christians. It is those who are from God, which is just another way of saying those who are children of God. So John is addressing this verse to believers in general. Everyone who is a Christian is from God, born of God, a child of God.

            Notice, then, the characteristic mark of the children of God. The children of God overcome false teachers. John writes, You are from God…and have overcome them. The characteristic mark of those from God is overcoming false teachers. The false prophets of verse 1 are the ones to whom John refers with the word them. The children of God are characterized by overcoming false teachers, false doctrine. They are not swindled, beguiled, or tricked. They resist the solicitation of false teaching.

            The idea of overcoming here does not necessarily imply victory from an outward perspective. It does not necessarily mean that the true believers stamped out the false teaching and were able to expose it to everyone, and thus have everyone return to the truth. It does not mean an external, outward victory over the false teachers. The idea is simply resistance. They do not succumb to false teaching. They stand for the truth, and they are unmoved. However much they may be pulled this way or that, ultimately they stand in the truth.

            In Romans 6:17 Paul is praising God for the salvation of the Roman Christians, and he describes their conversion like this. He writes, You became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. The way Paul saw their salvation was that their hearts were shaped and formed to obey a system of doctrine, a system of sound teaching. The picture is of God taking these people, and moving them from error into truth, and then giving them a heart to obey the truth they were put into. The fact is that when we become Christians, we do not bring the truth to ourselves have the truth delivered to us; rather, we are delivered into the truth. We are in the truth, and God gives us a heart to obey it. And so when John says they overcome the false prophets, he is saying that those who are children of God stay in the truth. They do not leave the truth into which God put them and delivered them. They resist all solicitations and temptations to leave the realm of truth and move into the realm of error.

            A perfect picture of this can be found in Revelation 12:11, which we read this morning. John writes that there is a voice in heaven saying, And they, being the brethren from verse 10, overcame him, being Satan, the accuser of believers in verse 10, because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. That is it! That’s the picture of overcoming. Even when faced with death from false teachers and false prophets, we overwhelmingly conquer by standing firm for the truth! We love the truth more than even our own lives, and so we will not compromise God’s Word even if it means we have to die. Even if it means we get a sword through our gut or our head chopped off, we stand firm. That’s why Paul could say in Romans 8:37 that we overwhelmingly conquer over tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword. It’s not because we don’t fall under tribulation, or we use the sword rather than being thrust through with it. No, we overwhelmingly conquer because we stand firm in Christ, and even if they chop off our head, we still are victorious because we are in Christ and He is victorious and will someday destroy all those who do not believe the Gospel. We overcome when we stand firm. We conquer when we do not compromise.

            Where does this power come from? From what source do we get such strength that we don’t love our lives even when faced with death? John tells us at the end of verse 4. He says that we overcome them because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. This is a profound statement. The One in us is greater than the one in the world. There are three implications, at least three, in this statement.

            One is that the Spirit indwells us. We are indwelt by the Spirit and He is at work in us. He empowers those who are from God. He causes them to be strong, so that they can overcome the false prophets and false teaching.

            The second implication is that there is another spirit at work in the world in a similar way that the Holy Spirit is at work in us. The wicked one is in the world. He inspires the world. He works in the world. Jesus called Satan the ruler of this world three times in John chapters 14-16. Satan is the one in the world, working in the world. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 he is called the god of this world. Paul tells us there that one way that he works in the world is by blinding the eyes of unbelievers so they cannot see the truth of the Gospel of Christ.

            There are two spirits at work in the world, ultimately. One is the Holy Spirit who opens men’s eyes to the truth of Christ, and the other is the spirit of error, the spirit of antichrist, who is ultimately inspired by Satan himself. The spirit of Satan is at work in this world, and he closes men’s eyes to the truth of Christ. That is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, and then in Ephesians 2:2 he reiterates that we who are Christians at one time lived with the spirit of error and of this world working in us. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. There is a spirit working in the sons of disobedience, and that spirit is the spirit of Satan.

            But the glorious truth of the gospel is that the Spirit at work in us is greater than the spirit at work in them. We overcome, we are victorious, we stand firm because the Holy Spirit is stronger than Satan. God is more powerful than Satan, and if God is working in us, then it doesn’t matter what spirit works against us, because God is greater than all. May we never forget this wonderful truth! God is in us, and He is working in us, and He is greater than all else! What encouragement this should bring to us when we are in the midst of battles! How much should we be encouraged when life seems difficult and we feel as if we are about to sink! The one who is in us is greater than the one in the world! There is nothing and no one too strong for the children of God because the Holy Spirit is in them, and nothing can stand against Him. We are able to overcome error, and we do overcome error with truth because the Spirit of God is greater than the spirit of antichrist.

            Let’s call this second test the Conquering Test. You can discern false prophets when you see whether or not they conquer error. Do they overcome error, or are they overcome by error? The Conquering Test. Are they able to stand firm when confronted with false teaching?

           

The Crowd Test (v. 5)

 

            So we have the Christological Test and the Conquering Test. Now thirdly, then, when testing the spirits, we must ask the question, “Do they disagree with the world’s mindset and philosophy?” Do they disagree with the general course of the way the world operates, or do they fit right into the world’s way of doing things?

            Look with me at verse 5. John writes, They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. John now changes his focus from the children of God to the false prophets. They are from the world. This is clearly referring back to the false prophets of verse 1. And the defining mark of these prophets is that they are from the world. They are worldly. They fit right into the world system and the world’s mold.

            At once there is a thought we must dispel from our minds. That thought is of the world as the place of immorality and drunkenness and abject depravity. Yes, the world is full of those things, and that is certainly part of the world system, but I don’t believe that is primarily what John is talking about here. Some of these false teachers were quite immoral and carnal, but others were completely moral and well-behaved outwardly. John is not here referring to the world in the sense of being moral or kind or “good.” And we are often quick to think of that when we see this idea of the world. There are many in the world outside of Christ who are moral; they are not promiscuous, or drunkards, or on drugs. In fact, they may live quite moral lives, yet they are still of the world. Many members of various cults are congenial and well-mannered, moral people. We must not think of the world here in the sense of unrestrained outward evil. That is not the world as John means it here.

            John defined the world for us in chapter 2, verse 16. He defined it as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. The lust of the flesh is simply living to please your fleshly desires, whether they be inherently moral or immoral. We said that what our bodies desire is not necessarily sinful. We all desire food for our flesh, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to eat and be full. But when we live to eat rather than eating to live, that is the mark of worldliness. When our lives revolve around this body and what this body wants rather than what God wants and His body, the church, the bride of Christ needs, then we live like the world. So that can mean sexual immorality, or it can mean gluttony, or laziness, or any other physical indulgence. The world lives to make this physical body comfortable and happy. We live to build up Christ’s body and bring God glory. These are opposites.

            The lust of the eyes is desiring what your eyes see. It is wanting bigger, better, newer. It is gratifying your heart’s idolatrous desires. The lust of the eyes is more of a spiritual nature than a physical nature.  It is allowing your eyes to desire something, whether it be a material possession or anything else, and allowing your mind to believe that thing will satisfy you, rather than desiring God who is invisible. You see something you want, and you desire it because your eyes think it looks good and would be satisfying. This is not simply looking at a woman or man, as the case may be, with lust. This is having idols of the heart and coveting, and wanting things you see rather than seeking after that which our eyes cannot see.

            Then there is the pride of life. Wanting worship. That is the pride of life. Wanting others to look at you and admire you and worship you. It may not always be expressed that way verbally, but it is in the heart that way. The world lives to be admired and adored and worshipped. The world admires and lives for the externals. Now, this is the world. Living for the flesh, desiring some thing or things more than God, and wanting to be adored by other men rather than to be pleasing to God. So you can see how a very moral person may be of the world, and this is what John means by the world. These false teachers live for the praise of men, they prize externals, and they seek to satisfy physical desires over spiritual needs. The emphasis of their lives and teaching is completely wrong.

            Notice, then, their characteristics. John says in verse 5, they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. Those who are from the world speak as the world speaks. The talk the language of the world. They say what the world wants to hear. And not only do they say the right things, they draw a crowd. The world listens to them. The world heeds what they are saying. The world is drawn into the message they have. Why? Why would the world listen to false teachers over true teachers? Because the world lives for what the false teachers offer!

            The world is not looking to die daily, so false teachers promise a happy, trouble-free life now. The world is not looking for a narrow, difficult road, so false teachers point toward the broad, easy road that leads to destruction. The world is not looking to suffer for the glory of Christ, so false teachers promise comfort, ease, and safety now. The world is like rebellious Israel in Isaiah 30. They cried out to the prophets, in Isaiah 30:10-11, You must not see visions…You must not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel. The world cries out, “Give us illusions! Speak to us pleasant words! Don’t come in here and talk about sin and hell and suffering and carrying a cross and a narrow, hard, difficult road! Let us hear no more about Jesus and His cross and His death and His resurrection and His judgment upon sin! Let us not hear about the holiness and sovereign majesty of the Holy One of Israel! Tell us what we want to hear!” So, the false prophets do just that. They don’t speak the truth about Christ. They cease to condemn sin. They leave out hell and all of its terror and torment. They do not teach about judgment. They do not call people to deny themselves, to die daily, and take up their cross and follow Jesus. Ease, comfort, a better family, better kids, bigger house, a business that succeeds, a place to belong, safety – that’s how the Gospel is offered today many times, isn’t it? Where is the preaching about the Holy One of Israel? Where are men who will thunder about wrath and hell and destruction and judgment upon sin? Many false prophets have gone out into the world.

            Because these false prophets speak the pleasant words the world wants, because they teach an illusion that ends in destruction, the world listens to them. They will have a following, a big following. That’s not to surprise us. John told us it would happen right here in this text. Those who are from the world speak according to the world, and the world hears them. Let’s call this the crowd test. What crowd follows the teacher? What crowd listesn to the teacher? Is it the world? Or is it those carrying their cross, choosing to deny self, and dying daily?

            So we have the Christological test, the Conquering test, and the Crowd test. What do they teach about Jesus? How do they handle false teaching? And who is listening to them?

 

The Conformance Test (v. 6)

 

            Fourthly, then, we have to ask the question, “Do they receive and believe the truth of God’s Word?” Do they accept God’s Word as the final authority on all matters of life to which it speaks, even if it means changing the way they do things, the way they believe, or the way they think? Do they conform to God’s standard in Scripture, or do they make their own way? We can call this the conformance test. The conformance test. Do they conform to the Word of God?

            Notice the subject of verse 6. John writes, We are from God. Now, there is much debate as to who John means when he says we are from God. The majority opinion is that he means, as he did in verse 4, Christians. Those born of God. But, with the minority, I think that he is referring first of all to the apostles who wrote God’s Word, and secondly to those who teach it in truth. I think here he is contrasting himself and the apostles and prophets with the false apostles and false teachers and false prophets. It doesn’t seem to make much sense to restate verse 4, and switch pronouns from you to we if he is referring to the same group of people. I think this is an exclusive we, just as he used in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.

            To make the matter of who is true and who is false, then, John makes two absolute statements in verse 6. He says, He who know God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. There is a black and white statement. The one who knows God listens to the true apostles, prophets, and teachers. Anyone who refuses to listen to and obey the apostles, prophets, and true teachers, is not from God. This is the type of statement that you find throughout Scripture, and I won’t take the time now to read all of the references to you, but I do want to show you two of the clearest references to this.

            In John 8:47 Jesus makes a similar statement to this, when He said, He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. This teaching was found in the life and ministry of Jesus. The person who is born of God, the child of God hears the words of God. “Hearing” there implies receiving, believing, and obeying. It is not merely hearing the sounds, but it is believing and conforming your life to the words of God. The one who does that, who hears, is of God. If there are those who do not hear the words of God as Jesus used the word hears, then it is because that person is not of God. There is no other explanation for it. Someone who rejects God’s Word does so because that person is not born of God. That person is not a Christian. He is of the spirit of error; the spirit of antichrist works in that son of disobedience.

            Not only did Jesus make this clear concerning the word of God, but the Apostle Paul expanded on this theme, explaining that the word of God is given through the apostles. In 1 Corinthians 14:37 he makes this plain. He is dealing with the Corinthians and their abuse of spiritual gifts and their lack of love. The Corinthians desired to be on stage and to showcase their gifts to puff themselves up. Paul, dealing with this and the many false teachers in Corinth, said this in chapter 14, verse 37: If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. What’s he saying? He’s simply saying this: If someone comes and claims to be a prophet but rejects God’s Word as revealed by Paul, and by extension the other apostles, that person is a false prophet. He is not recognized, or regarded, as a prophet sent from God. Why? Because the standard is the Word of God, and God’s Word came through these apostles. That is absolutely certain. It is also absolutely certain that God cannot contradict Himself, so if someone comes and contradicts Scripture, we always side with Scripture, because it is clear that God has spoken through His Word in the Bible. Anyone who contradicts the Bible is to be regarded as the liar, the antichrist, the false prophet. As Paul wrote in Romans 3:4, Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar. Even if the whole world rejects the Bible, we regard it as true, even if it makes everyone else out to be a liar.

            John concludes his section by writing in verse 6 of chapter 4, By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Here are the tests. Here is how we know. “These things,” says the Apostle, “which I have just written to you, by these various tests you will be able to discern the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. These are infallible tests which always hold true, and if you have these you need not ever be deceived and led astray.”

            There are four tests: The Christological Test, The Conquering Test, The Crowd Test, and the Conformance Test. If a person passes these tests, we know that person comes with God’s blessing and is teaching and preaching according to the Holy Spirit. If a person fails on any one of these points, he is, at one level or another, a false prophet inspired by the spirit of error.

            Do they confess the truth about Jesus Christ? Do they overcome false teaching by standing in the truth? Do they stand in contrast to the world system? And do they receive God’s Word as revealed in Scripture? May God grant us the grace to diligently apply these tests and thereby to be discerning. Let’s pray.

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