From God?
1 John 4:1-6
July 3, 2022
As you know the overarching purpose of the book of 1 John is assurance.
• John is clearly writing to people whom he believes to be redeemed people.
• And John’s main objective is that by the end of the letter, they believe it too.
HIS GOAL IS ASSURANCE!
1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
And John has given no shortage of tests
To help us validate the genuineness of our salvation.
• We’ve talked about obedience…
• We’ve talked about purity…
• We’ve talked about brotherly love…
• We’ve talked about endurance…
And these are all VERIFIABLE things we can examine in our lives
By which we DETERMINE whether or not we are saved.
John even said that these things are concrete evidence that will overrule even our own CONSCIENCE.
1 John 3:19-20 “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”
It is clear that John is not interested in feelings.
JOHN IS INTERESTED IN TRUTH.
He wants you to know if you are saved
And if you are, he wants you to enjoy it.
LAST TIME we took a simplified look at Christianity and assurance.
While there are in fact many aspects we can look at in our lives to examine the genuineness of our salvation, all of those aspects in reality flow from one source.
There is really 1 actual proof of salvation
And that is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
• He is the One who causes us to walk in obedience.
• He is the One who causes us to live pure lives.
• He is the One who causes us to endure.
• He is the One who causes us to love.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is the absolute chief evidence of salvation.
John ended chapter 3 by making that point.
1 John 3:24 “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
John concluded chapter 3
With a concrete and absolute proof of salvation.
“We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
For all those who have the Holy Spirit
John has given absolute confidence
That you now know that you are a child of God.
You have the Spirit.
You belong to Him.
You are of God.
That is absolute fact and that is the very basis of our assurance.
AND AS YOU WILL SEE,
John is still building on that truth even here in chapter 4.
Look at (4:4) “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”
That verse is packed full of encouraging truth
For those who have the Spirit of God.
Those who have the Holy Spirit
• “are from God”
• “have overcome” the false prophets
• Have a Spirit “greater…than he who is in the world”
Having the Spirit of God is the source of tremendous assurance and confidence not only before God but also in this world.
SO JOHN HAS BEEN RELENTLESS in imparting assurance to believers by reason of the indwelling Holy Spirit in their lives.
BUT…
But false prophets are relentless too.
Just as John would impart assurance to the church,
The false prophets had done their work to take it away.
Specifically the Gnostics with their supposed “inside knowledge”
Had done a devastating work on the church and had caused these believers to question everything including their own salvation.
And this is what false prophets do.
THEY WRECK EVERYTHING.
Ezekiel gave a tremendous synopsis on their work.
Ezekiel 13:17, 22-23 “Now you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who are prophesying from their own inspiration. Prophesy against them…“Because you disheartened the righteous with falsehood when I did not cause him grief, but have encouraged the wicked not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life, therefore, you women will no longer see false visions or practice divination, and I will deliver My people out of your hand. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.”
We understand the threat false prophets pose TO THE LOST.
THEY DISTORT THE GOSPEL
• You can’t call on Him of whom you’ve not believed
• And you can’t believe in Him whom you’ve not heard of,
• And you can’t hear without a preacher.
So a prophet who distorts the gospel
Effectively removes the opportunity for salvation.
Jesus said of the Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
They do this by offering a false gospel which cannot save.
But the lost man then thinks he is saved
And now he is twice as hard to reach with the truth.
THEY WORK TO ASSURE MEN IN THEIR SIN
That’s what Ezekiel said. They “encourage the wicked not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life”
Jeremiah noted that:
Jeremiah 6:13-14 “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.”
That is to say that they commonly tell men in their sin
That they are fine and are at peace with God. But that is a lie.
Certainly you understand the horrific effect
That false prophets have on the unredeemed.
But John’s concern is NOT PRIMARILY that tragic effect.
JOHN’S CONCERN is the horrific effect that
False prophets have on those who are saved.
False prophets don’t just attack the unredeemed,
They also attack the church.
2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
• Peter said that false prophets lead God’s people into destructive heresies.
• Peter said they that they exploit you with false words
THEY ARE A TERRIBLE PROBLEM EVEN FOR THE CHURCH.
Was it not Balaam who counseled Balak to seduce God’s people into sin, for which God’s people suffered the punishment of God?
We think about the tragic effects of Hymenaeus and Philetus:
2 Timothy 2:17-18 “Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.”
Paul said that these false prophets “upset the faith” of some of the believers.
And we haven’t even begun to discuss the tragic effect that false prophets were having on the churches of Galatia.
• Leading them to legalism and circumcision so that they would not longer trust Christ alone for salvation, but would instead trust in their own goodness as well.
• Paul said the effect of that message was to fall from grace and for Christ to be of no benefit to you.
Those are horrible consequences of false prophets in the church.
And here in John’s day these false prophets
Were succeeding in steeling assurance from God’s children.
IMAGINE someone coming in to your home and convincing your child that they weren’t really yours and that you didn’t really love them.
That is what is happening here.
And if that happened in your home, what would your advice be to your children?
1) I do love you, you are mine, and here’s how you know that.
2) Don’t listen to everything you hear.
And with that you understand 1 John 4:1-6
(1) “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
Don’t believe everything you hear.
Don’t trust every “so-called” preacher.
Just because someone claims to speak the truth
Doesn’t mean they actually speak the truth.
“many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
That is a just a reality that you need to come to grips with.
In this world there are “many false prophets”
There are “many” people who are telling you things that are not true so “do not believe every spirit”
Don’t believe everything you hear.
“but test the spirits”
In other words, YOU’VE GOT TO BE DISCERNING.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;”
YOU’VE GOT TO DO THIS.
And just a quick comment on this.
I can’t stress enough how true this is for our day.
There is an Old Testament verse which spoke of a past reality that I think fits our day so appropriately that it could be for today.
Amos 8:11-12 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.”
That passage is NOT about America, but that is what IS happening in America today.
You say, “How can that be? There’s preachers on every TV channel, there’s preachers on social media, there’s preachers on the radio, there’s churches on every other street corner.”
• This isn’t like atheist China or life behind the iron curtain in Russia.
• We’ve got all kinds of access to God’s word.
We’ve got all kinds of access to preaching for sure.
Satan isn’t deceiving America through DEPRIVATION.
Satan is deceiving America through DILUTION.
Imagine a man who wakes up in the middle of New York City this morning and decides he wants to inquire about God. How confident are you that he’ll enter a place that will give him the gospel?
You see my point.
America is overrun with false prophets.
SO when John says “test the spirits” you’d better TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY.
WELL WHAT ARE WE TESTING FOR?
Primarily 1 thing.
“test the spirits to see whether they are from God”
That is the point John makes over and over in these 6 verses.
• 6 times John uses the phrase “from God”
• 2 times John uses the phrase “from the world”
His contrast and point are unmistakable.
John says the main thing you need to determine
When someone stands to preach to you is this:
IS THEIR MESSAGE FROM GOD OR FROM THE WORLD?
Is there really anything more important than that?
2 Peter 1:20-21 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
Boy that’s what we want.
We want the men who “spoke from God”
We don’t want those who speak from their own imaginations.
TURN TO: JEREMIAH 23
You see pretty quickly that there is a sin problem in Judah
And God lays the blame for that problem directly at the feet of the prophets.
(READ 9-12)
That is not just true in Judah, but was also the problem of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and her capitol Samaria.
(READ 13-15)
But the problem is that these prophets do not get their messages from God.
(READ 16-22)
You see the main issue when listening to a preacher
Is very simply the source of his message.
Where does he get what he is telling you from?
OR PERHAPS BETTER: Who does he get what he is telling you from?
(READ 25-32)
We notice that definitive statement at the end,
“nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit”
And with that, John’s point rises clearly to the top.
“test the spirits to see whether they are from God”
WE UNDERSTAND THE NECESSITY OF THIS.
BUT HOW DO YOU TEST THE SPIRITS?
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
It sounds mysterious doesn’t it?
I’m going to need a:
• Two way radio
• A 4ft piece of concrete sewage pipe
• A bungy cord
• A candle
• And a live chicken
OBVIOUSLY NOT.
When John speaks of “the spirits”
What he is referring to is THE SOURCE OF THE PROPHET’S MESSAGE.
That is why he applies it by saying “because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
He is talking about their source for their preaching.
For a true prophet or true preacher that Spirit would be the Holy Spirit inside of them who guides them.
For a false prophet, his spirit would be his own intellect or imagination or logic.
When John says “test the spirits” he is simply saying
You need to test the source of every man’s preaching.
• You need to find out the origin of their message.
• You need to discern where their wisdom is coming from.
• You need to find out what authority they are standing on.
And that is what John will discuss with us next.
HOW TO TEST THE SPIRITS OF MEN.
OR: How to tell whether men are truly speaking from God of from their own imaginations.
And there are 3 tests John reveals here.
#1 THEIR DOCTRINE: Is it Orthodox?
1 John 4:2-3
John is again very definitive when he says:
“By this you know”
• There again are absolutes.
• These aren’t hypotheticals.
• These aren’t probabilities.
There is certainty here from John.
“By this you know the Spirit of God”
That is to say, “by this you know that the source is God”
“every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God;”
This is a statement of doctrine.
I know in our current Christian climate the word “doctrine” has taken on a NEGATIVE connotation.
• People like to say, “Doctrine Divides”
• Or, we don’t focus on doctrine we just focus on loving people.
That exactly the type of thing that a false prophet would endorse.
The last thing a liar wants is for you to know the truth.
Doctrine is the standard by which we measure
Whether or not we are being lied to.
John references doctrine here.
SPECIFICALLY John speaks of what we call our “Christology”
That is certainly not the only doctrine we concern ourselves with,
But for John’s purpose and in John’s specific situation
This was the most prevalent.
Remember John battled Gnosticism and since the Gnostics believed everything physical to be evil they had no room for a literal human Jesus.
• Some proclaimed Him to be like a phantom person who wasn’t really human.
• The idea of God becoming a human was nonsense to them and the rejected it.
If you will remember however, it was with this very doctrine
That John opened the book of 1 John.
1 John 1:1 “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life”
• John spoke of a physical Jesus.
• John spoke of a Jesus who was not only heard and seen, but who was
“touched with our hands”
This was the doctrine under attack before John.
And just so we are clear, the doctrine of the humanity of Jesus
IS ABSOLUTELY CENTRAL TO THE GOSPEL.
WHY?
Because Jesus came to save men.
• He came to fulfill the Law as a man.
• He came to bear the punishment for sin as a man.
• He came to die as a man.
• He came to rise as a man.
He didn’t come to symbolically do that.
He came to actually do that.
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
He had to be human to die as a human.
Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
He had to be human to be tempted as a human.
Hebrews 9:11-12 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
He had to be human to shed blood as a human.
Hebrews 10:5-7 “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
He had to have a body to obey as a human.
Romans 8:3 “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”
If Jesus didn’t actually become human
He is no qualified mediator between God and man.
If He was merely a ghost or a phantom or an aberration or a hologram
• He might have been a good example to look at for righteous living,
• But He was no Savior who actually provides righteousness to us.
• That would be no different than what the Law does.
No, Jesus became human.
He took on flesh and blood.
• And in His flesh He fulfilled God’s righteousness on our behalf.
• And in His flesh He suffered God’s wrath on our behalf.
• And in His flesh He conquered death on our behalf.
This doctrine is absolutely essential to the gospel.
And so John says: THERE’S YOUR TEST.
“every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”
You want to see how John expects you to use this test?
2 John 7-11 “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”
So you understand,
• You look at the doctrine of the preacher.
• Are they preaching the true gospel or not?
Remember Paul’s litmus test to the Galatians?
Galatians 1:8-9 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”
The revealed gospel becomes THE STANDARD
For all future gospel messages.
Deuteronomy 13:1-5 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. “But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.”
But I thought a confirmed sign was the indicator that a prophet was true?
– In some cases it was.
But revealed doctrine trumps a confirmed sign.
Do you see that?
If their doctrine does not align with the gospel they are false,
I don’t care how many miracles they seem to work.
AND INCIDENTALLY, John only mentions Christology here and specifically His incarnation, but it would include all true doctrine.
• Things like the deity of Jesus.
• Things like the substitutionary atonement.
• Things like the resurrection and the second coming.
• Things like justification by faith.
• Things like the expectation of holiness.
The true gospel is the test.
If they preach a different gospel or a false doctrine they are false.
In fact John goes on to say:
(3b) “this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”
It’s the second time John has mentioned antichrists.
But it is simply John’s point not to be naïve.
Not everyone who claims to preach the gospel actually preaches the gospel.
Be careful who you listen to and certainly don’t listen to everyone.
• You’ve got to test them.
• You’ve got to check their doctrine to see if they are orthodox or not.
• You’ve got to check the gospel they proclaim.
So the first test is their doctrine; is it orthodox?
#2 THEIR DISCIPLES: Are They Saved?
1 John 4:4-5
First you recognize a contrast or a distinction.
John refers to his readers and says, “You are from God, little children”
That is a statement affirming their salvation.
• You are saved.
• You are God’s children.
• You are redeemed, you have God’s Spirit
“and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”
That is to say, “You have actually already defeated them
simply because you are saved in spite of their lies.”
Their chief goal would have been to keep you from salvation
And they already proved unable to do that.
FOR THE SIMPLE POINT IS: They don’t lead anyone to salvation.
(5) “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.”
John is actually reiterating a truth Jesus taught here.
Matthew 7:15-20 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
When Jesus speaks of fruit there He is speaking of what they produce;
Namely their converts.
When Paul’s apostleship was questioned he responded with proof:
2 Corinthians 3:1-3 “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
The simple point is that you look at their followers.
• Are their followers godly or worldly?
• Are their followers regenerated by the Holy Spirit or still in the flesh?
• Do their followers strive for brotherly love or live in selfishness?
You can tell a lot about a teacher by the people who follow him.
John says
• You know “They are from the world”
• Because “the world listens to them.”
• And the world listens to them because “they speak as from the world.”
This is the modern day WOKE preacher.
The one who is constantly spouting off worldly logic and worldly viewpoints to make sure and keep their worldly following.
[I’m amazed at preachers who came out criticizing believers for rejoicing that Roe V Wade was overturned]
It is a slippery slope that the church was led into when we became worried about being “culturally relevant”.
It is a slippery slope that the church was led into when we started surveying the lost to determine how to “do church”.
I’m just telling you that men who speak for God
Are not concerned about how the world will respond.
So look at who is following the preacher.
• Do they love Christ?
• Do they live holy?
• Do they walk in love?
You’ll figure out real quick where his heart is.
So you test their doctrine and you test their disciples
#3 THEIR DEVOTION: Do They Listen To The Apostles?
1 John 4:6
When John says “we” here he is NOT referring to all believers.
• He used the word “you” when referring to the church.
“We” here is referring to the apostles.
• These men whom Christ appointed and commissioned to preserve for us the New Testament.
• Those men whom God used to bring us the Scripture.
For our purposes we see this is DEVOTION TO SCRIPTURE.
(of which the apostles were authors)
John says:
“We are from God; he who knows God listens to us;”
That is to say the apostles were sent from God
And people whom God has saved listen to their words
Because they came from God.
THE OTHER HAND:
“he who is not from God does not listen to us.”
That is to say the prophet who does not come from God
Has no real interest in the words of the apostles.
They have no real desire for the truth of Scripture.
• They are far more interested in psychology
• They are for more interested in philosophy
• They are for more interested in being clever or cutting edge or WOKE
They don’t rightly divide the truth of God’s word.
There is no commitment to Scripture.
And this is HOW YOU KNOW they aren’t from God.
That’s pretty simple isn’t it?
• Do they cling to God’s Doctrine?
• Do they produce Godly Disciples?
• Do they Devote themselves to God’s word?
If they don’t…DON’T BELIEVE THEM
• Don’t let them upset your faith.
• Don’t let them rob your assurance.
“By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
That makes sense right.
GOD IS speaking truth in this world
AND He is doing so through genuine messengers,
BUT they are not the only ones speaking.
Satan has sent his messengers into the world too.
And just because someone holds up a bible
And stands behind a pulpit
And dresses up their language with religious sounding cliché
DOES NOT MAKE THEM A MESSENGER OF GOD.
AND THEY WILL DO YOU TERRIBLE HARM.
Test them.
• Test their doctrine
• Test their disciples
• Test their devotion
And spare yourself the heartache
Of being led into corruption and a lack of assurance.
