1 JOHN 3-4 3:24-4:6 TESTING THE SPIRITS2010 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 John 3-4 3:24-4:6 Testing The Spirits

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2010.

This morning as we continue our study in the book of 1st John, the Apostle John gives us some things that we can use to verify first internally our own hearts and then externally those things that are brought forth to us. You know, all around us are all kinds of philosophies and opinions and doctrines, religions. There's all kinds of ideas that are being presented to us.

And sometimes you can look at those things and be a little bit intimidated. You can be a little bit confused. How do you really know that you have made the right choice in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ? How do you really know that you are right with God?

How do you really know that what you believe and hold on to is the truth and everything else is error? And those kinds of thoughts and those kinds of questions can be presented to us quite regularly in this world that presents a whole spectrum of ideas and philosophies, many of them contradictory to one another. It can be quite confusing.

And so John gives us here today some things very briefly to check our own hearts. We'll deal with that a little bit. He's been writing a lot about that in his epistle, and so we won't spend as much time on that. But we'll also look at those things that are presented to us.

and those that desire to teach us, those that desire to feed us doctrine or truths or teachings, their perspectives and opinions, how can we verify that they are people we should be receiving from? How can we tell if their message is something we should hold on to?

Well, John will give us some basic tests that we can apply to their message and to their persons that we would understand whether or not we should receive from them. And so there's five things I want to point out to you from this morning's passage. The first is that we know that He abides in us by the Holy Spirit. We know that God abides in us by the Spirit He has given to us. Look at verse 24.

It says,

about whether or not we abide in God, whether or not we are right with God. As I said a moment ago, this is something we've been dealing with for several weeks, and so we won't spend a great deal of time here. But the first thing he gives us is that those who keep God's commandments abide in God, and God abides in that person who keeps his commandments.

We always talk as Christians about Christianity being a relationship and not a religion.

And really this is why we make that statement. This is why we say that that is true. Because Christianity is about abiding in God and God abiding in us. It really is about that relationship, about that intimacy, about that endurance in Him, walking in Him, walking with God.

It's not just about rituals and regulations and rules. It's about abiding, abiding in God, and then God in turn abiding in us. We've seen for the past several weeks the relationship between the child of God and the commands of God. The one who keeps Jesus' commands, we've seen over and over again, that's the one who knows Jesus. You cannot keep his commands without knowing him.

And you cannot know Him without keeping His commands. They go together. They're hand in hand. Knowing Jesus means keeping His commandments. And keeping Jesus' commands means that you know Him.

You cannot know him and disobey him or live in disobedience to him. If you live in disobedience to Jesus and his commands, it shows, it demonstrates that you in reality do not know him. That's what John has been saying for the past several weeks. But he adds on another element to this for us this morning here in verse 24. He says, and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.

And so we know that we are right with God, not only by our keeping of the commandments, but he says we can know that he abides in us. We can know that we have right relationship with God by the Holy Spirit whom he has given to us. The Holy Spirit has been given to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples this.

that He was going away in John chapter 14, but that He would send another Comforter. He would send the Holy Spirit to them. He said that they knew the Spirit because the Spirit was with them, but very soon the Spirit would be in them.

Because of Jesus' work upon the cross, there was going to be a change in their relationship to the Holy Spirit. Not just the Holy Spirit being alongside of them, but because of what Christ has done for us upon the cross in making us right before God, the Holy Spirit now is free to indwell and to dwell within those who have received Jesus Christ and His gift of forgiveness there from the cross.

And so the Holy Spirit indwells those who believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit lives within, takes up residence. And so he says, this is how you can know that God abides in you, because the Spirit of God dwells within you. In Romans chapter 8 verse 9, the Apostle Paul is talking about the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer. And I encourage you to spend some time in that chapter if you're not familiar with it.

But specifically in verse 9, he says, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. And so Paul says there, you are of God if the spirit dwells within you. And if you do not have the spirit, you are not of God. And so every child of God has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them.

It's not just, you know, a reservation for those who are extra spiritual or really obedient or really good or anything like that. Every child of God has the Holy Spirit dwelling within. And anyone who does not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within is not a child of God. It's very clear. Now picture this for a moment. God is the Lord God Almighty, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Creator of the universe.

You once were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God made you alive. He gave you new life, regenerated you by the Holy Spirit when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. Not only did he regenerate you by the Holy Spirit, but now this God, God Almighty, creator of the universe, abides in you, takes up residence within you.

Now picture for just a moment, here you are, dead in your trespasses and sins, and then a few moments later, putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, now the King of Kings and Lord of Lords has taken up residence within you, and you have new life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you think there's going to be a radical impact upon who you are and what you do? Oh yes, of course.

dead in your trespasses and sins, and then bam! New life in Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, Holy Spirit indwelling within you, there's going to be a substantial impact on your heart. There's going to be a substantial impact in your life. Where there was once death, now there is life.

And John says, look, we know that we abide in God and that He abides in us by the Spirit because before it was just deadness, but now we have spiritual life and the Spirit is indwelling within us and God is at work by the power of the Spirit within us. And so the effects of the work of the Spirit in our life are going to be dramatic. There's going to be radical changes in our hearts. It's going to be an amazing difference as God, King of kings and Lord of lords has taken up residence within us.

And so Paul tells us some things that we can recognize as the product of or the result of the Spirit being at work in us. In Galatians chapter 5, he talks about the fruit of the Spirit or the product, the result of the Spirit. What does it look like? What does the Spirit dwelling within us produce?

Well, he says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He says here's what it's going to look like when the Spirit is at work in your life. Here is what's going to be produced as the Spirit is dwelling within you. There is going to be produced within you love, agape love.

Unconditional love. Love in the same way that God loves us is going to be delivered by us to others around us. We're going to love others as God loves us. Joy. This is not happiness based on circumstances, but this joy that comes from the hope of eternity with God. This joy that comes from knowing that we've been redeemed and set free. The joy that comes from having relationship with God.

And peace, oh, that comes from trusting in God and knowing that He is almighty, that He is on the throne, relying completely upon Him. Long-suffering, that's suffering a long time, but still being patient, having kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. We can't spend a lot of time on all those things, but those are the areas that are produced in our hearts. They're produced in our lives by the Spirit dwelling within us.

And so we know that He abides in us by the Spirit and by the fruit of the Spirit, by this evidence. What John is doing is he's giving us some practical things so that we can verify in our own hearts and lives that we indeed have relationship with God. Now if you say that you have made a profession of faith and you prayed the sinner's prayer, however you want to express the idea of salvation,

But there's never been a radical impact on your heart. There's never been a real change in your life. Then there's reason to question and to say, well, did I really give my heart to God? Did I really receive what He has offered to me? Because the kind of thing that John is talking about here is such a radical change that, well, we keep His commandments.

And that the Spirit is at work within us, producing this fruit, producing these results. The word abide that John uses here, that we abide in Him and He abides in us, and we know that He abides in us by the Spirit. The word abide, it means to endure or to remain, to live or to dwell. But the idea here is of longevity. It's long-lasting effects.

we know that He abides in us. Not that it's kind of touch and go, day in, day out. You know, sometimes He's with us, sometimes He's not. No, that God is with us continually over a long period of time. There's long-lasting effects that result from God dwelling within us. Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 15, that we were to abide in Him. He's the vine, we're the branches. If we abide in Him, we'll bear much fruit.

And if we don't abide in Him, we can't bear any fruit. We can't do anything apart from Him, Jesus explained. A little bit later on in the chapter, He says that when we abide in Him, and that fruit is produced, that it's fruit that will remain. John chapter 15 verse 16. Abiding in Christ produces in us fruit that remains.

And that word remains is the same word as abide. It means to endure. It means to last. And so the idea here, the understanding is that the thing that is produced within us by the spirit dwelling within us is not a flash here and a flash there, but it's a long-lasting change.

Anybody can look at the list in Galatians chapter 5 and say, okay, I'm going to work on some love and I'm going to really demonstrate love. I'm going to show some unconditional love. And for a little bit, they can do their best to show this kind of love. But it won't be long lasting if it's not powered by a real relationship with God. If the source of that love is not God dwelling within, abiding in God and God abiding within. You can work really hard to be joyful today.

And always put a smile on your face. But if that's not a joy that's produced from a real relationship with God, it will not endure. It will not abide. That fruit will not remain. You see, the idea here is that we abide in God and He abides in us and the fruit that is produced continues to abide. It continues to remain because we're living in Him, He's living in us and the fruit is continually being maintained. And so there's long-lasting effects

We're not just talking about a weekend here or a weekend there, but something really that impacts our life over a long period of time. And it's by this, by seeing the results of God having worked in us these things, by seeing God having worked in us the obedience to follow His commands,

Now, as I've said week after week, we're not talking about perfection and that we do all of this without fail, but that the general state of our heart, the general rule of our life is that we're walking in obedience to God. And this fruit is being produced in our life. Not that we never fail, not that we never fall short, but that it is the general rule of our life. It's the general lifestyle that we have chosen. We walk in obedience to Him. And this fruit that is produced remains in our life.

And so we can know. It's awesome. We can have the confidence. We can have the confirmation that we have God abiding in us because of the Spirit whom He has given to us and the radical impacts of the Holy Spirit upon us from the inside out. Well, the second thing he deals with now as we go on is...

Testing the spirits. So looking at the commands and how we are obedient to them, looking at the spirit dwelling within us, those are internal tests so that we can verify that we are right with God. Now on the outside, we're looking at some external tests to verify that what we're being fed, what we're receiving, if it's from God or not. Look at verse 1.

He says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. John says, Beloved, reminding us, Hey guys, you're part of the body of Christ. You're beloved to me. I love you dearly. And here's what I want you to know. Here's what I want you to do. Test the spirits. Don't just receive everything that is given to you.

Don't just believe everything that is presented to you, but test the spirits to make sure that they are of God. Now, if you consider for a moment the circumstances of those that John is writing to, at that time, there was not in one volume the scriptures bound up together that they would have as a resource. In that time, there was, of course, the scrolls of the Old Testament.

But they were expensive and so they weren't found in every home. Maybe the church would have one of them or a piece of the Old Testament or letters here and letters there, but they wouldn't have the entire volume of the scriptures.

They would have parts of the New Testament, the letters were written and circulated, the Gospels were circulated, but they weren't everywhere, not everybody had copies, and they weren't all bound up in one volume like we have today. And so they relied, those churches relied heavily upon those who would speak on behalf of God. For example, the Apostle Paul, as he would go from church to church throughout the regions, bringing forth the truth and the message of God.

Or the Apostle John who is writing this letter. He would go around and he would share the Word of God. Or people like Apollos that we find in the book of Acts. There were those who would go around and they would minister at the churches and they would proclaim the Word of God and the truth of God.

And so they relied heavily upon those who would bring forth the message of God. And John is saying, now as there are those who are bringing forth the message of God, you need to understand and pay attention because there are also those who will bring forth the message that is not of God.

And so don't just believe everyone who comes and says, hey, I have a message from God. Hey, God has sent me and he's put this upon my heart and I'm supposed to share it with you. He says, no, don't just believe everything that someone proclaims in the name of God, but you're to test the spirits. Don't just believe every spirit. Don't just believe every message or messenger.

Now today we have the Bible and what a wonderful gift it is. We have multiple translations. Probably all of us have multiple copies of the Bible and some at home and some at work and a couple in the car. We have extra Bibles on the table in the back here at the church and there's an abundance of scriptures available.

And yet still, there are many who claim to speak for God who really do not. And still, there are those who believe and receive those messages that are not of God. And so John is giving us a warning. He's giving us an exhortation to be careful, to not just believe every spirit, but to test the spirits. Don't just believe a person because they say that God told them.

or that an angel appeared to them, or that they had this incredible experience. We need to test the spirits. David Guzik puts it this way, We are never to assume every spiritual experience or every demonstration of spiritual power is from God. We must test spiritual experiences and spiritual phenomenon to see if they are in fact from God.

We can have genuine emotional experiences that are not of God. There are spiritual experiences that are not of God. Just because it's spiritual, just because it's emotional, just because it seems powerful, doesn't mean that it's of God. And so John says, don't believe every spirit. Don't just receive whatever is given to you blindly, but test it.

The word test, it means to try or to approve or to examine. He's saying, look, use your brains and investigate. Use some critical thinking and analyze this message that is being given to you. You should never feel like you cannot question spiritual experiences or teachers. We don't check our brains at the door. We don't just...

receive whatever is given to us. You know, this is one of the reasons why never, you will never find me in one of those restaurants, have you heard about those where it's all dark and you can't see what you're eating? I will never eat there. Never, ever, ever. Don't even try. I will not eat whatever is put in front of me. I'll disobey the word on that count. Because I need to verify what I'm going to be putting in my mouth.

I want to see. I want to check it out. I want to know if that's something that I really want to be putting in there. In the same way, we don't just blindly receive. Okay, feed me. Whatever you want to say, that's what I'll receive. No. Never do that. He says, test the spirits. Don't feel like you can't question.

Now, in cults and various types of things, you know, it's looked down upon. Well, you just have little faith and that's why you don't receive it and that's why you have so many questions. No, that's not what the Bible teaches. There's reason to our faith. There's reasons why we believe. There's reasons why we receive. And so we are to test the spirits and not just blindly receive everything that someone speaks in the name of God.

John says, look, we need to test the spirits because many false prophets have gone out into the world. How many? Many. Not just one here or there. You know, there's been a couple of false prophets and we wish those guys wouldn't have happened. And he says, many false prophets have gone out into the world.

And it has continued. There's many false doctrines. There's many false religions. There's many false teachings and philosophies and worldviews and perspectives and opinions. There's lots that is not according to God. And so he says, don't just believe everything, but test it. Even within the name Christian,

I heard a statistic recently that 50% of seminary students, evangelical seminary students, 50% of them do not believe in the essentials of the faith, like the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the authority of the scriptures, some very basic principle things for us. 50% of those in evangelical seminaries don't believe those things. And so there's much...

Under all kinds of titles and names and denominations and religions, there's much that is not of God. And so he says, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. Point number three, we find the first test here in verse two and three, the test of Jesus or the Jesus test, I call it. Whether or not Jesus is fully God and fully man. Look at verse two.

He says, by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And so John gives us some criteria. He says to test the spirits. And then he gives us, well, here's how you can know if that is from God, if that message or that messenger is from God. This test, this comparison. If they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh,

They are of God. And he'll go on to say, if they do not confess that, then they are not of God. So every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Now please understand that he's not just talking about the name Jesus.

But the person that the Bible describes as Jesus. Let me give you a quick example. Let's say after service today, you go out to lunch. And there at lunch, you happen to start talking to the person next to you at the table next to you. You meet someone new. And you're talking with them and you're telling them, you know, I was just at this church and a good-looking pastor was sharing the word. And...

And you're talking about the things that are being shared and they say, oh, wow, that sounds really interesting. Who's the pastor there? Who is that guy? Oh, it's Pastor Jerry something. I can't remember his last name. It starts with an S or something, I think. It's Jerry S something. And you're talking to the person and saying that and they go, oh, I think I know that guy. Wow, I didn't know he was a pastor. That's pretty amazing. And you say, well, really, you know him? Oh, yeah, you know he had that TV show with George and Kramer and...

No, that's Jerry Seinfeld. That's a different Jerry. That's not the same Jerry that I'm talking about. Oh, is he the guy then that the audience would chant his name as he went on to this? No, no, no. That's a different Jerry altogether as well. Just because it's the name Jerry doesn't mean that you're talking about the same person. Just because it's the name Jesus, understand that it's not necessarily the same person that's being talked about. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 4 says,

Paul the Apostle is concerned about the Corinthians. He's concerned because, well, there are false teachers and he's concerned that they will receive them. He says in 11 verse 4 of 2 Corinthians, If he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, he says, you may well put up with it.

He's concerned for the Corinthians that someone would come preaching another Jesus and that they would put up with it, that they would entertain it, that they would hear them out. You see, there's not just one Jesus. Of course, yes, there's one person who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But many people talk about Jesus and mean something entirely different than who the Bible presents to us as Jesus Christ. And so there's other Jesuses.

There's others who, when they talk about Jesus, they mean something completely different than what the Bible refers to as Jesus Christ. The Jesus of the Bible is fully God and fully man. And that's really what John is referring to here, that Jesus Christ is God who became man in order to die on the cross for us.

The phrase Jesus Christ is something that's, well, it's important and significant. To say Jesus Christ is not just saying, you know, like his full name, his first name is Jesus, his last name is Christ. No, it doesn't work like that. The word Christ is a title. It means anointed one. It's the same as was referred to in the Old Testament as Messiah. It's Jesus.

When you say Jesus Christ, you're saying that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the Anointed One. Jesus is the Savior that was promised all throughout the Old Testament for thousands of years. God has been promising and prophesying that this Savior, this Promised One, this Anointed One would come. And to say Jesus Christ is to say that Jesus is that One that was promised.

Which also means then that Jesus has the characteristics of the Messiah. And there's some specific things about the Messiah that Jesus fulfills. One of those in particular is that the Messiah that was expected would be God.

Remember Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6? We're familiar with it because of the Christmas season. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The son that would be given, Jesus Christ. His name is Mighty God. Jesus Christ is God. That's what the Bible teaches.

That's what was expected of the Messiah. That's what Jesus declared himself to be. But there are those who talk about Jesus and the way that they talk about Jesus or the Jesus that they're talking about is a Jesus that is not God. That's not the same Jesus. That's another Jesus. And so he says, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Now, Jesus Christ, he's the Messiah, the anointed one, he is God, but

but he's also come in the flesh. The word flesh there means meat or body. He's saying he had a physical body. Not only is he God, but he also became man. He added humanity to his deity. And so he's fully God and fully man. Remember in John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Then later on in verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus Christ, being God, became man. He had skin, he had bones, he had a physical body. As Paul said in Colossians 2.9, in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And so we understand that Jesus, as the Bible presents him, is God, but also is man. There's lots of other doctrines that we might disagree about. But if we can agree on the person of Jesus Christ...

If we can agree with the scriptures on who Jesus is, the fact that he is God and that he, in order to redeem us, became man, to die on the cross, to pay the penalty for our sin, to receive the judgment that was due to us, that we might have the opportunity of forgiveness, that we might have the opportunity of eternal life to be redeemed and have the inheritance of eternity along with him. That's who Jesus is.

If we can agree on that, there's lots of other doctrines we may not agree on, but we can have fellowship. And so he gives us the Jesus test. Now here's the other side of the Jesus test in verse 3. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you've heard is coming and is now already in the world.

So every spirit that confesses or that agrees that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, he says, well, you can trust that that spirit, that is of God. That message is from God. That's something worth receiving and something worth paying attention to. But the spirit that does not confess, that does not agree that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, he says, well, that is not of God. Instead, that's not the spirit of God, that's the spirit of the Antichrist.

Now in John's day, there was a particular doctrine, particular heresy rather, that was being promoted. And that was that Jesus did not have an actual physical body.

but that he had a spiritual body and that it just appeared like he was human. It just appeared like he had a physical body. And it was something that was being taught and that's one of the reasons why John is writing. It just looked like he had a body, but in reality he was just a spirit or like a phantom and just had the appearance of humanity. John says that's not of God.

There was another doctrine that taught that Jesus was a man and that the Spirit of Christ descended upon this man, Jesus, when he was baptized, but ascended off of Jesus before he was crucified so that the Spirit of Christ was not involved in the crucifixion. The Spirit of Christ left and then just the man, Jesus, was crucified. John says, no, that's not of God. If you don't agree with what the Bible teaches about Jesus Christ, you're not of God. That's what he's saying.

And so he gives us this test that we can recognize and we can determine whether or not a particular philosophy or religion or worldview is of God or if it's not. Jesus used this same criteria. If you remember there in the road to Caesarea Philippi in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks them, who is it that men say that I am?

Now, this is a really good question to ask still today. Who do you say that Jesus is? Well, the disciples respond, well, some people think that you're Elijah, and then others think that you are John the Baptist. Some people think that you're Jeremiah, or maybe one of the other prophets. All of these are wrong. Jesus was not any of those people. And so then Jesus asks, well, who do you say that I am? That's what other people say about me, but who do you say that I am?

And here's Peter with great boldness as he usually has, this time getting one right. He says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. You are the Messiah. You are the son of God. He's recognizing Jesus Christ is God and he's the promised savior. And notice what Jesus says back to him. He says, oh, blessed are you, Simon's son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying, "Peter, you did not get that from men. That is of God." See, it's the same criteria. What did men say about me? What does the world say about me? Oh, they have all kinds of ideas. What do you say? Peter says, "You are the Christ, the Son of God." And Jesus says, "You are of God, Peter. You got that from God. That's a message from God. That is not a message of the world. It's not a false message. It's not a message of man.

He says, that's a message of God. So who do you say that Jesus is? Because that determines whether or not you are of God. And that's one of the criteria we can use to look at, well, others who promote their religions or their ideas, and we could say, well, what do they say about Jesus? Let's just run through a couple examples here. What does Islam say regarding Jesus? What do Muslims believe about Jesus? Well, they believe that he was a messenger of God,

They believe that he was born of a virgin mother. They believe that he did miracles. We would agree with them so far, right? But they do not believe in the triune nature of God. They do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And they do not believe that Jesus was killed on the cross and then resurrected. So clearly, the Jesus that they talk about is different than the Jesus that the Bible presents. You can run down the list. Judaism,

What do they believe about Jesus? Well, very clearly they believe that Jesus is not the Christ. So the Jesus that they talk about is a different Jesus than the Bible presents. The Jehovah's Witnesses, they talk a lot about Jesus. And they'll come and they'll say, we believe in Jesus. But the Jesus that they're talking about, well, they say that Jesus is a created being. Not the creator, but he is created. That's a different Jesus. That's not who the Bible says that Jesus is.

That's another Jesus. And Paul said, I'm concerned that you might put up with that. Don't put up with it. That's not of God. Scientology, the Church of Scientology teaches that Jesus was one of many good teachers. Again, that's not who the Bible says Jesus is. That's not of God. The Mormons, well, they teach that Jesus is a son of God, but not the only begotten son of God. That Satan also is a son of God, that they were brothers and

That's why they're fighting continually. We're just experiencing sibling rivalry. That's a different Jesus. It's not the same Jesus. It's not of God. Who do you say that I am, Jesus said. It's a question that is valid still today. It's the question that John uses to say, look, here's how you test the spirits. Here's how you recognize whether or not something is of God or not.

By looking at the person of Jesus Christ and what they teach about Jesus Christ. He says, look, if they teach something other than what the Bible teaches, then they're not from the Spirit of God, they're not speaking by the Spirit of God, but they're speaking by the Spirit of the Antichrist. And we talked about the Antichrist a couple of weeks ago. He's coming in the end of the age. He's going to be a world leader. He's going to be powerful. He's going to lead the world in a revolt against God.

He's not on the scene yet, at least not in the role that he will finally play. But the spirit of the Antichrist is already in the world. There's already in the world right now messengers and messages that are contrary to, that seek to replace the message of Christ. And so they're Antichrist. There are those who speak by the Holy Spirit and there are those who speak by the spirit of the Antichrist. And so John says we need to test the spirits.

Don't just blindly receive. Don't just blindly believe. But examine what they say about Jesus Christ and use that as a criteria for receiving or rejecting the message that they bring. Well, he gives us a little point of comfort in verse 4. Point 4 is, you have overcome.

He says in verse 4, You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. I like this little glimmer of comfort or glimmer of hope here, right in the middle of this passage. You know, he said in verse 1, that there's many false prophets that have gone into the world. There's many false religions. There's many who promote things that are not of God and are leading people astray. But,

He says, you, well, you, as a child of God, you who have believed in Jesus Christ, you are of God, little children. He says, look, you belong to God. You partake in Him. He abides in you. You abide in Him. And so you've overcome them. There's all these false things going on, but listen, you're on the winning side. You're on the side of truth.

We have victory in Jesus. We have the hope of eternity that is valid and right in Jesus Christ because we are of God. And he says, and you've overcome them. Who's the them? Well, it's the false prophets. It's those who speak by the spirit of Antichrist. You've overcome them. Does it ever bother you to see false religions growing?

Does it ever irritate you or just, oh man, why are they being so successful? Why are people driven to it and desiring those types of things? I drive past over here on Park Ridge, that Kingdom Hall, pretty regularly. And you know what I do? I pray. And you know what I pray? I'll just be honest with you for a moment. I say, Lord, take that property from them and give it to us. Let that which was meant for evil be used for good. Because the message that they bring is not good.

The message that the Bible gives. It's false. It's leading people astray. Sometimes it bugs me. False religions. Those who are going astray. Why do people believe those things? Why are they drawn to those things? Or do you ever get intimidated by others who are promoting their false religion? You know, they come and they have all of their great sounding arguments and positions, but they're contrary to the things that the Bible teaches.

they can be very intimidating. They can be very persuasive. They can sound very impressive. John says, listen guys, you are of God. You have the truth. You have a relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You have overcome. It doesn't mean that you necessarily will win every debate or will have the convincing arguments to turn everyone to Jesus. But you have overcome. You have the truth. He says, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

You're on the winning side. You're on the side that is right. You know, you don't have to defend the truth in the sense that, well, it's up to you. No, the truth is true and it's right. And that's what you have. And so you and I, we can share with authority. We can share with confidence. We can share with power. Jesus Christ is God and he did become man.

He did die on the cross for us. By faith in Him and only by faith in Him, we have forgiveness and salvation and the hope of eternity. We can share that with confidence. We've overcome. It doesn't matter what arguments are given to us because we are of God, because we have relationship with God. We've overcome. False doctrine will not prevail. It will not win.

false Christ, anti-Christ, false prophets, teachers, religions, they will all go by the wayside. They will all be proven false. You are of God and God dwells in you. And although Satan may be powerful and his lies may be persuasive, God is greater and he is in you. You have overcome. And so he gives us this great boost of confidence right here. Like, yeah, there's a lot of opposition. There's a lot of false teaching, but

But you have God on your side. You're in Him. He's in you. You've overcome. And finally, we look at the last test, the test of the Word of God. Look at verse 5 and 6. He says, They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

Here John explains why false prophets are received. You know why they're received? You know why they're so popular? You know why people are drawn to them? Because they are of the world. It's very simple. They're of the world. And so the world receives them and the world hears them because they're just like them. They belong together. They're both of the world. They are of the world, John says. We are of God. Big difference to be of the world and then to be of God.

The world does not receive the message of God and we are of God and so of course they don't receive the message. They reject it. But because they are of the world and the message that they bring is a worldly message, it's not of God, the world in general receives it. You ever wonder why it's okay to promote any other religion besides Christianity here in the United States? You ever wonder why people get all upset if you mention the name Jesus?

Why can you mention anybody else but name Jesus and boy, you're in political trouble now because, well, they're of the world. And so they receive the messengers of the world and it's okay to talk about the things of the world. But you start talking about Jesus. You start talking about who the Bible presents as Jesus Christ. And now you have great opposition because we are not of the world. We are of God. And he says, by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Here's how we can know.

If it's truth or if it's error. Here's how we can know. He says, he who hears God hears us. And he who is not of God does not hear us. Whoever is of God, John says, receives our message. Whoever is of God receives the word of God. Those who are not of God do not receive the word of God. They do not hear it. They will not put up with it. This is the test of truth and error.

Understand that popularity is not the test of truth and error. Because something is popular or believed by a lot of people does not make it true. Because a lot of people do not believe it does not make it error. That's not the test. Prosperity is not the test. So you see this group, you see this religion doing well, being very prosperous. Well, that must be true. No, that's not the test.

That's not the validation that it is truth and not error. Government approval, for sure, that is not the test. Some diploma or degree, that's not the test. Even miracles are not the test. Supernatural working, no, that by itself is not the test. The Antichrist, when he comes, he's going to do some powerful miracles in front of everybody. Gold dust, that's not the test. What is the test?

The test is the word of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. Jesus said this as well. In John chapter 8 verse 47 he says, He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore you do not hear, Jesus says, because you are not of God. You know who he said this to? He said this to Jewish religious leaders. He said it to the most spiritual of spiritual. They were very religious. They kept the law.

They held fast to all the minute details of the law. But they missed relationship with God. And so Jesus says, you're not of God. If you were of God, you would hear my words because the one who is of God hears God's words. But you don't hear because you're not of God. Those who reject God's word are not of God. Those who contradict the teaching of God's word are not of God. And by this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

If it agrees with what the Word of God says, if it agrees with what God has already revealed, it's true. If it disagrees, if it contradicts, it's false. It's error that is not of God. And so that's why John says, don't believe every spirit. Because there are messages, there are messengers that are not of God. And so we're to test the spirits. We're to examine them by the Word of God. In Acts chapter 17...

The Apostle Paul, he's doing his circuit as a missionary. He's going through different places, teaching the gospel. In Thessalonica, he shares and some people received the message. He's driven out of Thessalonica to Berea, a city a little bit farther away. And he preaches the gospel there. And the Bereans received the message as well. But it says something interesting in verse 11 of Acts chapter 17 about the Bereans.

It says, these were more fair-minded, or the New International Version says, more noble than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. God says, this is an admirable quality. They're more noble. They're more fair-minded. They heard the message of Paul. He said, wow, this sounds great. Now let's check out and see

Does it match with what the Scriptures say? Never feel, never think that you have to blindly accept whatever is told to you regarding the things of God. It's not a fault if you want to find it for yourself and read it for yourself. It's not something to be looked down upon. It's not something to say, well, you don't have very much faith if you've got to look it up yourself. No. This is an admirable quality. It's an admirable trait.

They searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits. Search the scriptures. Find out. Make sure. Don't just eat whatever is fed to you, but check it out. Make sure that it's healthy and make sure it's not poison. Poison will kill you. There are those who would lead you astray. There are those who would take you away from right relationship with God. John says you don't have to be led astray.

You can have the confidence, the confirmation that you're not being deceived. Testing the spirits. Number one, testing them with Jesus. Who did they say that Jesus is? Does it match up with who the Bible presents as Jesus Christ? And test them by the word of God. Does their message, does their teaching, does their conduct line up with what the scriptures say? He gives us these internal and these external checks and tests. Internally, we can know that he abides in us.

Because the Spirit is indwelling within us. And how exciting that is. You don't have to wait until you enter eternity to find out if you have eternal life. You don't have to wait until you stand before God to find out whether or not you had right relationship with Him. Right now, we can know. Right now, we have the opportunity to know. It's verifiable in our lives by how we keep His commands.

by the fruit, the product of His Spirit dwelling within us. The worship team is going to come up and close us in a last song. I think it would be good for us to end on that thought, end on that note and meditate on that. That God, even though there's false doctrines and false teachings, there's all kinds of heresy and things that would lead us astray, God has given us the confirmation, the ability to know that we are right with Him. He's given us the opportunity to have that confidence

So that we can rejoice that we have eternal life. Because we've been born again. We keep His commands. It demonstrates, it shows that God abides in us and we abide in Him. And there's fruit in our life that remains, that endures. Because God is continually at work within us. Not that we never fail. That God is working. So I want to encourage you this morning. Rejoice. We can sing Hallelujah. Praise God. Because we know we have eternal life. Let's praise Him together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.