Good evening. As we continue our study of the book of I John, we come to a new chapter tonight. What we have before us is a critical passage from the standpoint that it is important to discern the spirits. Whenever anyone comes to know Christ as their Savior, they are immediately transported into a relationship with God. It is a love relationship. They have moved from being enemies of God to being friends with God. Could I get someone to read Ephesians 4:30 for me please?
The mark of that relationship with God, or using the biblical term we just hear– the seal of that relationship is the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God is our assurance of a relationship with God Himself. John makes the point that not every spirit gives the kind of assurance we received at salvation and we are to make sure that we are following the right spirits!
John wanted to let us know that if we follow what is right we will never go wrong!
From out passage today we see to test to look at. Test 1 is what do they say about Jesus, and test 2 is do they adhere to the message of the apostles.
Before we get into our text for today, let’s look at the issue at hand. In I John 4:1 it says, “1”
With that said, how do you tell a false teacher from a true one? (Satan can be very subtle, it is not how they sound, but what they say.)
Well, let’s go ahead and take a look at our text for tonight. It will be found in I John 4:1-6. Here in I John 4:1-6 it says, “1”
So, John says, "Do not believe." There are two imperatives that he uses here in the Greek. "Do not believe," is one imperative. In other words, don’t get sucked in. "Don’t just automatically get sucked in. But, instead of being sucked in, I want you to test. I want you to see if what you are looking at is the genuine article." And this word that is used here, the Greek word that is translated ’test’ is a harsh word. It’s one that you would take, for instance, some ore that was allegedly containing gold, and test it. They do this process where they figure out the purity, or the amount of gold, the percentage of gold in that ore. They go through this process to see if, in fact, they are looking at gold or they are looking at iron pyrite. You may have seen, if you watch an old western movie, somebody will flip a guy a twenty dollar gold piece. And what does he do with it? He bites it. Well, why does he bite it? Because gold is rather a soft element and you will be able to dent it. If it was iron pyrite, well go chew on a pipe and you’ll see how much good your teeth do on that. So, he’s testing it. These are the imperatives. Don’t believe everything, but test it first.
The first test that we see here is what do they teach about the incarnation, about Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. We see this in the first 5 verses.
Would someone look up and read Matthew 22:42 for us?
What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He? The what is answered by the whose. And in verse 1 it tells us to test them. Does anyone know how we can to that?
Well, in Acts :17:10-11 it says, “2”
Examine the scriptures to see if what is said is true. Don’t rely on how you feel in the situation, but look at what the facts are.
However, it isn’t always easy, is it to know what’s true and what’s false? We hear these rumors. We hear these things that are reported to be true – that JFK is still alive, living on some island in Greece, or that Elvis was spotted at a Laundromat in Kalamazoo, Michigan. We hear these things, but we learn, don’t we, to decide who it is that’s telling us these things. We look at what the source of that truth is, and we learn to decide what’s true and what’s not. It’s a little more difficult, sometimes, when a person is doing something, and something is happening, and they are reporting that it’s God at work and there are signs and wonders and there may be a stadium full of people. And we say, "Man. Is this God? Or is this man? What’s at work here?"
And then when you add to that confusion is only gets worse. In our day, there is a movement that some people are actually calling "Post-Modernism" which is that there is a broadening of truth, so that truth has become relative. "I mean, whatever is true for you is truth. And I don’t want to impose my truth on you."
There was one pastor that I read about in Christianity Today, he teaches an introduction to Christianity class for seekers and inquirers after the faith. At the beginning of the class, he shows them a jar that’s full of beans and asks each participant to guess how many beans are in the jar. Then, he asks each participant to write down the name of his or her favorite song. And then when the lists are complete, he reveals the actual number of beans in the jar, and each class participant looks over the guesses to determine which one of them is closest to being right. Then he asks the class, "Now, which one of these songs that you have chosen, which one is the closest to being right?" Well, of course the class answers that there’s no right answer to a person’s favorite song because favorite songs are simply a matter of personal taste and preference. Then the pastor asks this group of seekers, "When you decide what to believe in terms of your faith, is it more like guessing the number of beans, or choosing your favorite song?" And every time the majority of the class participants respond by saying, "It’s more like choosing your favorite song. It’s relative. The right answer is what I think is right." That’s the world that we live in today, and the world of the people to whom John was writing to in the first century. They were also living in a world where there were people who were saying, "This is true," or "This is true and not that."
There are people out there and there are movements out there that look good. They’re very popular, perhaps, and there’s excitement and there’s enthusiasm, but sometimes when you dig down you find out that that’s what they have is excitement and enthusiasm and a people movement, but not a God movement. We see that on TV, don’t we? We see healings. We see excitement. We see creative teachings. And we see much more.
I heard just the other week on TV that Satan was the physical father of Cain. How can that be true? Or the fact that you can pray a prayer and be saved, and nothing has to change in your life. We’re confronted with these things all the time. Flip through the channels, you see them all of the time. So, how do you know what is of God and what is not?
Look at verse 2, "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God." Here, he just says, "Now, here’s how it happens." And he’s done that over and over again in this book. It’s a very practical book if you will look at it. This is how you can tell if a person is speaking by the Spirit of God. He goes on to say that, "Every spirit that recognizes that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God." Wow. That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? That word ’acknowledge’ means ’the recognition of the identity of a person and the commitment to that person. It doesn’t just say, "He can say, ’Jesus Christ came in the flesh,’" but that he acknowledges it, that is that he recognizes that it’s true and he has made a personal commitment to it. So, there is this acknowledgement that is more than just being able to say it. They believe it and their life is committed to this fact.
You’ll notice what it says specifically in verse 2. It doesn’t say, "who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." That’s not the test. The test is that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. In other words, the doctrine that is central here to the ability to discern from one spirit to another, is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Now, we have come up, over the years, with a lot of phrases to use to describe the coming of Christ.
We say He was born as a baby. It just isn’t enough. But, that Jesus Christ - Jesus being His human name, Christ being the designation of His deity (the Sent One, or the Anointed One) – He is the one who came in the flesh. And that implies something, doesn’t it? It implies that He was before. I mean, we didn’t come into the world. We were born into the world. We didn’t exist, except in the mind of God, before that. But Jesus did. And so, when Jesus came and when it says, "has come in the flesh." The tense there is important. He came in the past. John talks about this in John 1 when he says, "The Word became flesh." That’s the best way to describe the incarnation.
The whole gospel hinges on the truth of the incarnation that God the Son became flesh. It means that He did not just appear to be a man, as some early heretics used to describe it. They felt that He only looked like a human being. He only seemed like a human being. He wasn’t really a human being. That He was fully God and appeared to be a man. But we know that He became flesh. He did not just appear. But, without losing His divine nature, He took upon Himself permanent humanness.
Moving on. In verse 3 again it says, “1”
Here we learn that the spirit that denies the incarnation of Christ is the antichrist. Now we have looked at the idea of the antichrist in the past, so we won’t spend time on this. However, I do have some implications of denying the incarnation of Christ. What would it mean to us, if Christ did not come in the flesh?
If Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh, then it means...
That God has not loved us enough to reveal Himself to us (1 John 1:2).
That God has not loved us enough to send us the Word of life (1 John 1:1).
That God has not loved us enough to show us eternal life (1 John 1:2).
That there is no eternal life (1 John 1:2).
That there is no fellowship with God (1 John 1:3).
That the messages of hope and of the Scriptures are not true (1 John 1:3).
That there is no joy beyond this life, no fulness of joy (1 John 1:4).
That Jesus Christ is not our Advocate (1 John 2:2).
That there is no forgiveness of sin (1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:2).
And That there is no perfect sacrifice for sin (1 John 2:2).
If we deny the incarnation of Christ, it takes away the meaning of our Christianity.
Moving on, people being mislead can be discouraged. What encouragement does John give for every faithful Christian?
In verse 4 John tells us, “1”
Here John tells us that we are overcomers through Christ. He also tells us that greater is He that is in us, then he that is in the world. With this, we know that the Holy Spirit is in us. Throughout the book of I John we find four things that the Holy Spirit does for us.
Could I get someone to look up I John 2:27?
Someone else get 3:24?
If someone would find 4:13
And Someone else look at 4:2 for us?
We find that the Holy Spirit lives in us in I John 3:24 where it sasy… and also in 4:13 when it says….
In I John 4:2 it says… here we learn that the Holy Spirit points to Jesus
And here in chapter 4:4 it says that the Holy Spirit is in us, and this is John’s way of encouraging us.
As we move on, If verse 4 is an encouragement to us, then how is verse 5 a reminder to us? Verse 5 says, “1”
From this we are reminded that just because a group has a big crowd, it doesn’t mean that it is the right way. People who are, as John calls them in verse 5, "from the world." are just that, they are from the world. They are from the world and they listen to each other?
Moving on, now we come to the second test. The second test is does the teacher adhere to the message of the apostles? We find this in verse 6 when it says, “1”
We can recognize the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of falsehood by the way that they listen to the apostles who know Christ. The Spirit of Truth follows the Bible and believes that Christ was incarnated in the flesh. On the other hand, the false spirits are those who do not believe in this and listen to the apostles of Christ.
Wrapping things up, we can see some marks of a true Christian form this passage. First a true Christian has a right response to Jesus in verses 1-4. He or she believes that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the Living God, and that He came in the flesh.
Second, a true Christian has a right reaction to scripture in verses 5-6. They will follow the apostles messages. And finally, as we will look at as this text moves along, a true Christian has a right relationship with others inverses 7-8. Here we learn that, “1”
These people will have the love of God acted out in their life.
As we continue next week, we will begin looking at that idea again.
In conclusion, the world can be trusted to parade before us tricks and images and enthusiasm and lies that look like the truth. But, here’s the good news. We have been freed from following the world. We don’t have to follow the world any longer. We don’t have to just suck up those lies. We don’t have to be dragged along by the image and made to think that it’s good because it costs more than this other one or because it’s got a different name. We’ve been freed. We get to see the truth underneath it. Now, there’s no two ways about it.
Sometimes, and many times, the life we live and how we live in this world doesn’t look very victorious, does it? Sometimes everybody else has the big buildings. Everybody else has all the money. Everybody else has all the people following them. it all doesn’t look very victorious does it?
You say, "Man, where is the victory here?’’ Well, the victory is here. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God who came in the flesh? If you believe that, you’re the winner. No matter what else is going on in your life, you are a victory because of that one truth. We have found what the Bible calls the Pearl of Great Price and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. John is telling us what is real and telling these people in the first century church, who are watching their church probably dwindle as people left to follow the Gnostics or the people who were into something else and thinking, "Man, what’s wrong with us?" And John says, "Are you grabbing hold of the apostolic doctrine. If you do, then you’re good. You’re a winner. You’re victorious."
Don’t go looking for something not of Jesus. And if you’ve not acknowledged Him yet for who He is, don’t go any further. He said it Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me." We believe and we know that Jesus Christ is a God who took on flesh, died for us, lives for us, and someday we will be with Him forever.
Let’s pray |
