How to Test the Spirits - Tim Conway

1 John.

My sermon this morning is entitled:

How to Test the Spirits.

1 John 4, the first six verses

deal with this: testing the spirits.

We might just pick up the
last sentence in chapter 3

because there is no break here

as John penned this.

And since he does
introduce the Spirit to us

in the second half of v. 24 of chapter 3,

let's read that.

"And by this we know that He abides in us,

by the Spirit Whom He has given us.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit,

but test the spirits to see

whether they are from God.

For many false prophets have

gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God,

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.

This is the spirit of antichrist,

which you heard was coming

and now is in the world already.

Little children, you are from God

and have overcome them.

(That would be the false prophets

who are moved and motivated

by the spirit of antichrist.)

You are from God and have overcome them.

For He Who is in you

(and we see that that's the Spirit of God

Who abides in us - 1 Jn 3:24),

He Who is in you is greater than

he who is in the world."

The devil is in the world.

This is the spirit of antichrist.

The Spirit is stronger than the devil.

"They (the false prophets)
are from the world,

therefore they speak from the world

and the world listens to them.

We are from God."

Now that may be
collectively we: Christians.

Probably John is speaking
about the Apostles here.

"We are from God.

Whoever knows God listens to us."

The Apostles, the Apostles' doctrine,

and any of those that
propagate that doctrine.

"Whoever knows God listens to us.

Whoever is not from God,
does not listen to us.

By this we know the Spirit of truth

and the spirit of error."

Now this applies to us.

And I don't think it's very difficult

for us to fathom the nature of the problem

that John has in mind here.

Look at verse 1.

"Many false prophets

have gone out into the world."

That's what John sees.

The world.

Guess what? When we
look out into the world?

Many false prophets.

Many.

These are the same people

that if you look back in 2:18,

they're called antichrist.

In 2:22, they're called liars.

And here's what John sees:

he sees us Christians
in the midst of that.

So what he sees is we are in the middle

of false prophets - many false prophets.

And guess what happens?

Guess what happens when you drop

a child of God in the midst

of many false prophets?

He recognizes we are going
to interact with them.

We're not isolated.

That's what he recognizes.

You drop a Christian

in the midst of this world,

this world is full of many false prophets.

That means liars.

Men and women who speak lies.

We're dropped in the middle of that.

And he doesn't see us as isolated.

He sees us as rubbing shoulders with them.

He sees us communicating with them.

He sees them in the same
church building even.

He sees us in the same
workplaces with them,

on the same campuses with them,

in the same families with them.

That's the problem.

John sees something else here too.

(incomplete thought)

Did you notice how much

spirits are spoken about here?

What John recognizes

is that when somebody comes along

and they speak lies,

there are spirits involved.

When somebody speaks truth,

there is a Spirit involved.

That's what you see.

(incomplete thought)

There's a spiritual realm out there.

The spiritual realm is actively involved.

He sees the Spirit of truth.
He sees the spirit of error.

The Holy Spirit of God.
The evil spirit of antichrist.

He tells us that what
men and women believe

comes from somewhere.

It comes from somewhere
outside themselves.

You remember this,

Paul: "The Spirit expressly says

that in the later times,

some will depart from the faith

by devoting themselves
to deceitful spirits

and teachings of demons."

And here's the thing,

church, (incomplete thought)

I want you to get this.

Some people are afraid of this.

Some people don't like this.

Some people don't like churches

that take this seriously.

But I want you to catch this.

The very first thing John
says in chapter 4

is an imperative.

This is a commandment.

Notice, by commandment,

John prohibits gullibility.

He charges us.

He commands us

under the inspiration of God:

Do not be gullible.

Don't believe every spirit.

Don't believe every person
that comes along.

Test them.

Don't believe them.

John prohibits gullibility.

Just because somebody comes along

and says they speak for God

does not mean that they speak for God.

Just because somebody comes along

and claims to be a Christian

does not mean that they are a Christian.

Just because someone says something

concerning Christ, concerning the Gospel

does not mean it's true.

And the very reason we
need to be on guard is this:

there's many people - many -

who are going to claim something

that is not right.

That's what he says

that there's many of them.

"Many false prophets have
gone out to the world."

And here's the thing,

it's not like:
"Oh, there's one over there!"

Because he just comes
strutting down the road

with horns sticking out of his forehead

and beady red eyes.

That's not how they come.

They don't have 666
stamped on their forehead.

Do you know what they look like?

Here's what Jesus says:

"Beware of false prophets..."

He says this in Matthew 7:15.

"Beware of the false prophets

who come to you in sheep's clothing,

but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

Guess what they look like?

If they come in sheep's clothing,
what do they look like?

They look like sheep.

By their very nature, they appear genuine.

When they walk through that door,

we don't all say:

"Oh, there he is, false prophet!

Look at the scowl on his face.

We've got him pegged."

Nope. He comes through the door

and he looks white and pure and fluffy.

That's how they look.

That's what Jesus says.

They come in sheep's clothing.

They're nice people.

They look good.

They look good... I was just telling Seth,

I told my wife this earlier too,

I've been reading Martyn Lloyd-Jones'

two-volume biography.

And do you know what he says?

He says I think the true
preachers of God are ugly.

He believed that.

And you probably can say "Amen" right?

But I was talking to Ruby

and I thought John MacArthur's not ugly.

Now John Piper... you know.

But I'm in that ugly category too.

(incomplete thought)

But we can't tell.

We can't tell them by what they look like.

And the fact is, a lot of times,

the smoother, the whiter, the purer,

they look good, they sound smooth,

and what John says is not a few.

Many such people come claiming

to speak in the name of God

who in reality do not speak

in the name of God.

And Peter puts it this way,

2 Peter 2:1,

"There will be false teachers among you

who will secretly bring in

destructive heresies."

We really need to realize
what's at stake here.

Destructive heresies.

Those heresies don't destroy houses.

They don't destroy cars.

They destroy souls.

That's what's at stake in all this.

That's why we need to beware.

People speaking such destructive heresies

don't look destructive.

They look smooth.

They claim to speak God's truth

and they come in sheep's clothing

and they look soft and white.

So we must test the spirits.

We must.

And here's how:

Here's the test - 1 John 4:2,

"By this you know the Spirit of God..."

And obviously what he's saying is

you know that you're dealing

with an individual.

Remember? John has this idea

that those that hold the truth

and those that hold to error,

there is a spiritual
realm behind all of it.

He says when I come across a person,

I can tell that the Spirit of God

is actively at work here.

I can know the Spirit of God.

I can know where He's at work.

How? "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."

There it is. That's it.

What think ye of Christ?

We need to be asking people

what they think about Christ.

This is how you test the spirits.

It's not whether you like
to go to church or not.

It's not whether you had
an experience or not.

The test is Christ.

The test is theological.

Those churches, those people,

those teachers who would
say "doctrine divides,"

"we don't need it,"

beware.

Beware.

Many false prophets have
gone out into the world

and when you diminish doctrine,

that means you diminish
the teaching about Christ.

Our Christianity is based
on the facts of Christ.

It is based on truth about Christ.

That's what we have.

That is the test.

Find out what a man believes about Christ.

I'm not talking about
what he flippantly says.

I'm talking about what he really believes.

At the deepest level,
what he believes about Christ.

What he thinks about Christ,

what he confesses about Christ.

And you know what?

I can tell exactly

what that man is or is not by that test.

And that's what John's saying to us.

The thing is, why does
this test always work?

Now maybe some of you are thinking,

well, I don't know that
that test always works

because you can come across
people who are orthodox.

Yeah, but I'm talking about
what they really believe.

Listen, what's the problem
with every lost person?

They don't really believe.

Right? They're unbelievers.

That's what it is to be lost.
It's to be an unbeliever.

That means they don't really believe

the things about Christ.

This is an infallible test.

You find out what a man or a woman

really believes about Christ -

now, I know, I know people

can articulate truths

that they don't really believe.

That's not the test - what they can say.

But when you look at their life,

what do they really believe?

What do they really confess?

What do they really show by their life

is most valuable in their life?

Those things are a dead giveaway.

And the reason that this
test always works is this:

He that is in us is greater
than he that's in the world.

That's why the test always works

because the Spirit of God is there.

Because the spirit that is in the world,

he deceives.

That's always it.

Men and women who are lost,

they don't believe, they don't see,

they don't recognize,

they don't understand

the Christ of Scripture.

They don't believe in Him.

That's deception.

They've been led to believe

something else about Him.

But the Spirit that inhabits Christianity

is more powerful.

And what does that mean?

Well, what that means is this:

The Spirit of God is going to
come along to God's people

and convince us of the truth about Christ

even despite all the false prophets

and the spirit of antichrist

that is out there working against it.

The Spirit of God is going
to keep us on track.

The Spirit of God is going to keep us

believing the right thing about Christ.

He who is in us is greater.

And this greater Holy Spirit,

what did He do?

He gives us ears to hear.

And hear who?

Well, did you realize
what was said here in 4:6?

"We are from God.

Whoever knows God, listens to us.

Whoever is not from God
does not listen to us."

And those pronouns throughout there,

I would argue that John is probably

more than just referring
to Christians in general.

He's arguing for the apostolic witness.

And the reason I think that

is you take those pronouns there

and you just compare those pronouns

to the ones he spoke in 1 John 1.

Flip back to 1 John 1.

Let's read these first three verses

of the whole letter.

Because you have to recognize,

when John starts this letter,

he has all these things in mind

that he is wanting to
confront by this letter.

Listen to how he starts.

"That which was from the beginning

which we have heard,

which we have seen with our eyes."

Now he's not talking about
all Christians in general.

He's talking about the Apostles.

He's talking about these disciples

that walked with Christ
and talked with Christ,

witnessed His sufferings,

that were there from the
days of John the Baptist

all the way through His ascension.

"...Which we looked upon

and have touched."

See, you and I haven't touched Him,

but they did.

"...Touched with our hands,

concerning the word of life.

The life was made manifest

and we have seen it

and testify to it and proclaim
to you the eternal life."

See, they proclaim to us what they saw,

what they touched, what they beheld.

"...Which was with the Father

and was made manifest to us,

that which we have seen and heard,

we proclaim also to you

so that you too may have
fellowship with us."

You see what he's saying there?

The Apostles' doctrine -

that's the issue.

Do we listen or don't we listen?

What the Spirit of God does

is the Spirit of God gives us ears to hear

the apostolic testimony about Christ

and to believe it.

I ask you this,

what do we really know about Christ

other than the apostolic witness?

We know nothing!

People can invent all sorts of things,

but we don't know anything

besides the apostolic witness.

Someone is always trying
to reinvent Jesus.

But the test is this:
it's the Apostle's doctrine.

It's Scripture.

Those who are motivated and moved upon

by a spirit of error, they don't listen.

You can show some people Scripture;

you can speak to them about Scripture.

"Well, that's your interpretation.

That's your opinion."

They don't have ears to hear.

They will twist. They will reinvent.

They will ignore. They'll deny Scripture.

The Apostles are witnesses.

They state the facts.

Do we listen or don't we?

That's the question.

Now, that's the test.

Brethren, we need to speaking

to one another about Christ all the time.

People come in,

we need to speak of Christ.

The facts of Christ.

That's the test.

We are commanded to test the spirits.

We are commanded to not be gullible.

But you know what?

I was thinking,

there may be more than this,

I just thought of three difficulties.

Three things that tend to make

testing the spirits difficult for us.

I have three "E's" here.

One, the ecumenical spirit of our day.

That can make it difficult.

You know what?

We're told it's not acceptable

to find fault with people

about their religious convictions.

We're supposed to be accepting.

And you know what?

That's what we don't like.

You know, we don't like that -

that title given to us.

We don't like those adjectives used.

Well, that church is judgmental.

They're mean.

(incomplete thought)

Now look, a church can be mean.

I'm not saying on the scale
of niceness and meanness,

then everybody in this room is

all over on the nice side.

(incomplete thought)

There can be mean Christians.

There can be mean people

who profess to be Christians.

But I'll tell you this, you know this,

if we test the spirits

and we did it perfectly,

we're going to be hated.

And you know how I know that?

Because Jesus was perfect

and He was hated, and He told us

that if we strive to be like Him,

we're going to be hated as well.

If you seek to test the spirits,

you are going to be labeled as judgmental.

This world is going to label you that way

and especially in our day.

Narrow.

Bigoted.

See, we're told that there's truth

in every religion.

This is a day of the
whole relativity thing.

Everything's relative.

We say this is truth;

"well, that's your opinion."

"I have my truth."

"You can't call what I believe error.

Because it may be error for you,

but it's not error for me."

And this is the climate that we live in.

We're made to feel bad

that there's so much disunity.

I hear this. I hear Catholics say:

"See, all of us Catholics, we're in unity.

That's how you can tell
we're the real church

because all you Protestants,

you all fight against each other.

You're all divided."

Brethren, we know over
at the abortion clinics,

the Catholics want us
to put down our Gospel

and hold hands with them.

(incomplete thought)

Other Protestant churches are doing that.

They're holding hands with the Catholics

there on the frontlines.

Why aren't we?

"It's because they're a cult."

People love to throw these accusations

if we're going to stand for truth

and we're actually
going to test the spirits.

Jason and I were just down in Mexico City.

We went to a Christian hostel -

it's a bed and breakfast kind of place -

that caters to Jewish backpackers.

And the guy that runs the place told us:

well, we tell the Jews,

your God and our God - the same God.

That's not true.

That is not true.

Jesus said if you deny Me,

you deny the Father.

It is not true that we have the same God.

They deny the God of Scripture

because the God of Scripture

holds up Jesus Christ as
the only hope for mankind.

Jews - they deny that.

See, we're expected to swallow this.

We're pressed to accept
the relativism of our age.

We're criticized.

We're expected to receive anyone

and everyone who comes along

talking about God.

And we just need to say, church,

wake up.

There's many false prophets.

Our truth is going to
constantly be under attack

even from within,

even from people that sit within.

(incomplete thought)

There's a test.

And we have to be good to this test.

We have to test the spirits.

John commands us not to accept

anyone and anything without testing it.

"Oh, but we'll be criticized

for being critical and mean-spirited."

Don't we hear all the time:

"Judge not, lest ye be judged."

"Love believes all things."

Well, we might just recognize

if you go study Matthew 7,

when Jesus says,

"Judge not, lest you be judged,"

He goes on to clarify what He means.

He doesn't say that we shouldn't judge.

He's talking there about
judging hypocritically.

And He says get the beam
out of your own eye

so that then you are
able to see things right

and help your brother

get that splinter out of his eye.

But you are supposed to look

for splinters and beams,

just don't do it hypocritically.

And as far as "love believes all things,"

look, love believes all things

as long as there aren't facts

that show us that we shouldn't believe it.

The proverb says the simple
believes everything.

If I come along right now and I tell you

Jesus Christ did not raise from the dead,

well, love believes all things!

You see, love believes all things

as long as there's reason to believe it.

The idea there is it's not constantly

jumping to suspicions.

But it's not blind.

It weighs out the facts.

Doesn't Paul say he doesn't want us

to be like little children who are

blown about by every wind of doctrine,

by human cunning, by craftiness

and deceitful schemes?

How are you ever going
to diagnose situations

and actually see what a scheme is

unless you're evaluating things?

Of course, we're supposed
to be discerning people.

Of course we are.

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit."

Don't believe them.

So that's the first one.

That makes it difficult

because we live in an age

where we're expected to accept everything,

and if we don't accept it,

then we're labeled as something

that we don't like to be labeled as.

We need to be kind to people,

but you know what?

The greatest kindness is
if somebody comes along

and by their ideas about
Christ and the Gospel

you can recognize this guy
doesn't know the Lord,

what's the kindest thing you can do?

But you see, when Jesus shined

the truth on mankind,

they didn't take kindly to that at all.

Here's the next thing.

Experiences of individuals.

This can make it difficult
to test the spirits. Why?

Here comes a guy. He walks in the door.

"Praise God, I've been saved!"

Really? Tell us about it.

"Well, I was a drunk.

And I did crystal meth.

And I had a bad marriage.

And I had all this, and then,

I had this experience with God.

I came under Paul Washer's preaching."

Whoa! See, sometimes we hear that:

"Oh, Paul Washer?
Got to be the real deal."

Be careful.

Then you start to get to know him.

Nice guy. You like him.

He's had this experience.

His life is truly transformed.

It looks like something
really has happened.

But you get talking to him,

and the guy's modalistic.

He holds to oneness ideas about Christ.

You see, people's experiences

oftentimes make it difficult for us.

Because we hear this experience.

Supposedly they were converted

through this kind of preacher.

There's a place for
people to have ignorance

and we come to the Apostle's doctrine.

Guess what? If the Spirit of God

is operative in them

what's going to happen?

They're going to hear us.

We are from God.

This is John speaking: We are from God.

Those who hear us,

well, they're from God.

You see, you take them there

and you begin to show them this.

We don't want to fall into this trap.

People have all manner of experiences.

I'm sure you've heard it.

People have been healed.

Oh, how often do you get that?

People are healed.

I've heard stories about
people who see angels.

I've heard people come along

and, "I don't sin like I used to."

Ten months later, they're back

sinning like they used to.

People have all manner of experiences.

You know what?

Test the experience.

Test the individual.

Don't let the experience

dictate to you what they are.

John doesn't say that's the test:

look at their experience.

He says test the spirits

and you test it by this:
by their theology of Christ.

That's where we have to go.

They can have all manner
of wonderful experiences.

I had a guy stand at my front door.

And he tells me what a wonderful thing

God did to him

and how his life is changed

and how he's got this peace.

He had this wonderful
feeling come over him.

But he's Mormon.

What does he believe about Christ?

Not what the Apostles'
doctrine says about Christ.

So we have to be very careful.

Experiences can be very convincing.

People love to tell you their experiences.

We all love to tell our experiences.

We all like to have experiences.

We do.

I do.

And you know what?

God gives His children many
wonderful experiences.

But the thing is,
the devil can imitate those.

Remember, John's talking about spirits

all the way through here.

He's talking about supernatural things.

People will come along and they'll say:

God healed me.

God delivered me from this accident.

When I should have died, I didn't die.

(incomplete thought)

I started coming to this church

and God gave me a job.

I started coming to this church

and my marriage got better.

The thing is most of the time

these people really had those experiences.

They didn't just make it up.

Their experience is genuine.

It's not from where they think it's from,

but it's a genuine experience.

And they're excited about that experience.

Be careful.

Be careful.

There's something
supernatural in all this.

That's true, but test the spirits.

Brother, sister, we have to be discerning.

John doesn't say test these experiences.

What is their thinking about Christ?

This is it. This is
the test. It always is.

Not whether they spoke in tongues;

not whether they had specific gifts.

You know what? You can hear a man

stand up in the pulpit

and he can preach eloquently.

And not only are we automatically

convinced he's a Christian,

but he's called of God!

But you be careful.

Supernatural experiences,

ability to preach, even preach eloquently,

to look good, to sound good...

remember Lloyd-Jones.

Typically it's the ugly guy.

But we have to be careful.

Because there's a lot of
talk about experiences.

And I hear it. I hear it among you.

You know what? Like I say, we experience.

I've had experiences.

But that's not the test.

That's not what you want to test me by.

You can come and ask me:

What are the experiences?

I could ask you, but in the end,

that's not conclusive.

We must test the spirits.

Evil spirits can do miracles.

Evil spirits can do the supernatural.

Evil spirits can give experiences.

Test the spirits.

Now, here's the third thing.

Not just the ecumenical spirit of our age

that makes it difficult
to test the spirits.

Not just other people's experiences,

but our own feelings.

You see, certain people
make us feel a certain way.

And I'm not saying that
there aren't people

who have tremendous discernment,

and the way they feel

often is a gift of God,

but we have to be careful
of our own feelings.

Sometimes we can put too much stock

in the way our impressions are

about certain individuals.

What I mean is we can meet people.

We try to figure out

where they're at spiritually

by the way we feel.

We walk away from our interaction.

We talk to people that way.

"Oh, I met so-and-so."

"What's your take on that?

Where do you think
they're at spiritually?"

We want to be very cautious

about attaching greater importance

and significance to the way
we feel about somebody

than to what people say

about the Christian faith

and say about the Christ of that faith.

(incomplete thought)

I was looking for a Martyn
Lloyd-Jones sermon on faith

a couple weeks back.

I didn't find what I was looking for,
but it was interesting,

I stumbled on a sermon that he did

from Romans 3 where he stated

some examples of exactly what

I'm wanting to communicate
to you on this point.

Listen to this. This is Lloyd-Jones:

"On a visit to London some years ago,

I went into a certain book room.

To my astonishment,
I found they were selling there

a second-hand book by a man

who had written a well-known
book about Christianity

in which he virtually denied

all the cardinal articles
of the Christian faith.

As I was looking around,

the secretary came to speak to me.

So I called his attention to this book

and expressed my amazement.

'Ah,' he said, 'Wait a minute.

You know we must be very careful.'

(This is Lloyd-Jones)

'What do you mean?' I asked.

(The other man said)

'Have you ever met this man?'

And when I told him that I had not,

he replied, 'Well, I have.

I stayed with him a few months back.

He entertained me for the night.

And the next morning, we went

into a little chapel attached to his house

where he took family prayers.

And you know, I don't think

I've ever been in such
a spiritual atmosphere.

It was a blessing to my soul

to hear him taking family
prayers on that occasion.'

(This is Lloyd-Jones)

'Yes, but my dear sir,' I said,

'What does he say in this book?'

'Oh, I know that,' he said.

'But you see, if you had heard him

taking those prayers,

I've never known a more devout man.

I've never been in a more
devotional atmosphere.'

My reply was this,

'But I don't care what you felt.

This is what the man says

about the Lord Jesus Christ and His work

and it is a denial of the Scriptures.'"

See, that's getting right to the heart

of what I'm trying to say here.

You be careful about how you feel.

Brethren, this test works every time.

Now again, you have a young convert.

They have some wrong ideas.

You take them to the Word of God

and you see the genuine believer:

They look here.

They find truths about Christ.

You can see them light up.

The Spirit is teaching them.

The Spirit is bringing them along.

We have to allow for ignorance,

but I'm talking about when people

know what the Scripture says

and they deny it.

That's what I'm talking about.

Lloyd-Jones actually had

four different accounts
that he dealt with.

I'll just give you one more.

He says, "A few years ago,

there were various campaigns -

(these Christian campaigns,

evangelistic campaigns) -

at which all kinds of people
had come together

who had never been together before."

I think what he's talking
about here is people

from all manner of
different denominations.

"And evangelical Christians were saying,

'You know, these others
are such nice people.

They're much nicer people
than we ever thought.'"

That's what they were saying.

These people at these religious
campaigns, very nice.

Lloyd-Jones makes this remark:

"Why they should ever imagine

that people who are
wrong in their doctrine

are of necessity not nice,

I do not know."

You see the point?

People walk through that
door with bad doctrine.

They can be the nicest people

on the face of the earth.

And sometimes we attach niceness

to the fact that they must
believe the right thing.

It's mean people who must
believe the wrong thing.

And he's saying why they
ever would have thought that...

it's not right.

He says I don't know why
they would think that.

"But the argument had reached

the point at which it was being said

that because they were
so surprisingly nice,

it did not matter very much after all

that they were so
wrong in their doctrine."

Can I tell you this?

Being nice is powerful.

It really is.

But it's not the test.

Test the spirits.

This kind of thing is still
going on in our day.

It doesn't matter what
people say and teach.

They may deny the very
heart of Christianity,

but if I like them,

if I'm attracted to them,

if I can talk to easily to them,

that's what counts.

We let our guard down.

We don't test the spirits.

We'd rather test our emotions.

How do we feel?

Those are three of the problems.

We hear people's experiences.

We test it on that.

We see our feelings;

we feel our feelings.

We test it by that.

We don't want to be called narrow,

judgmental,

and so we back off

from testing at all.

And I think we all feel
those three things.

We all feel those.

Because we feel!

We feel certain feelings

when we interact with other people.

And we hear what people say

about their experiences, and obviously,

to become a new creation in Christ

is to have an experience.

We are looking for experiences

that line up with the kind of experiences

that we would expect in Scripture

that is going to happen with somebody
that is genuinely converted.

But sometimes we can take that experience

and we can just leave that by itself

without actually looking at the doctrine.

So away with these ecumenical
expectations of our age.

Look past person's experiences.

Look beyond our own feelings.

And John says this, John says

the first and most important test

of the Spirit at work in any man

is that man's conformity

or lack of conformity to
the apostolic doctrine

concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.

John says in v. 6,

"Whoever knows God listens to us.

Whoever is not from God

does not listen to us."

Whatever a man may claim, we must ask,

does that man listen to
the apostolic witness

and believe it?

These men walked with Christ -

these Apostles - they walked with Christ.

They've given us the facts about Christ.

They have born witness about a Person.

And that is the question:

Do we submit to this?

Do we bow to it?

You see, the true Christian,

the Spirit of God is going to move upon us

to truly bow. We submit.

If my thinking does not
line up with Scripture,

I submit to that.

That is the test.

So let's think here as we wrap this up

about the error.

Look at v. 2.

"By this you know the Spirit of God:

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.

This is the spirit of the antichrist

which you heard was coming

and now is in the world already."

Obviously in John's day,

what were the false prophets saying?

They were saying that Jesus Christ

had not come in the flesh.

Notice, they do not completely deny

the existence of Christ.

What do they do? They misrepresent Him.

That's the issue.

It's not difficult when somebody

comes in here and says - who was it,

Bertrand Russell the atheist, who said

there's not even any proof

that the Man ever even lived

speaking of Jesus Christ.

That's not hard to see.

It's the twist on Who Christ is.

Is Jesus the Christ?

What do we say about Him?

The false prophets misrepresent Christ.

They don't totally deny

the existence of Christ.

When it says there

that they do not confess Christ,

the idea is they don't confess
the Christ of Scripture.

That's the idea.

To not confess the Christ of Scripture

is to not confess Christ.

Because Christ is the Christ

Who's found in the Bible.

To say anything else about Him

is not the Christ of the Bible.

To say anything else about Christ

than what the Bible says,

what the Apostles say about Him

is to deny the Christ.

That's the idea here.

So, 1 John 2:22 says this,

"Who is the liar but he who denies

that Jesus is the Christ?

This is the antichrist, he who denies

the Father and the Son."

You deny Jesus being the Christ,

you just misrepresent who Christ is,

you deny the Son and the Father.

Why? Because the
Father has testified to us

about Who the Son is.

You're denying the Father
if you deny the Son.

And you deny the Son,

not by saying He never existed,

but just reinterpret Him.

That's the idea.

Didn't Paul speak about "another Jesus"?

People like to give the names of Jesus

to somebody who's not Jesus.

It's another Jesus.

And you know the problem
with another Jesus?

No other Jesus than the
One found in Scriptures

is the One Who can save you.

That's why the heresies
are so destructive.

They destroy souls.

John says we need to avoid such heresies.

And I'll tell you this,
as you value your soul,

you must avoid such heresies.

That's why we need to test the spirits.

That's what's at stake here.

Now let's think about
the truth for a second.

The truth.

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

That may just seem so:

Well, of course He has!

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

But think about this:

This is Jesus -

Jesus of Nazareth.

He's a Man. He's the Man Jesus.

Jesus means Savior.

This is the Man Who came to save us.

None other name under
Heaven given among men

whereby we must be saved.
This is it. This is the name.

But remember, the name represents

the Christ Who is proclaimed in Scripture.

It's not just any Christ we dream up

or the false prophet dreams up

or the antichrists dream up.

And believe me, the spirit
of antichrist is out there

dreaming up a million other Jesus's.

That's why the false
prophets are so dangerous.

They come through the door

with another Jesus, but their Jesus

sounds strangely like
ours at first appearance.

And remember what they're wearing.

They're wearing sheep's clothing.

And they come in and they sound good.

Have you ever noticed?

When the JW's or the Mormons

come to your door,

they do not dump out their heresies

concerning Christ.

It's all cloaked.

It's veiled.

As Christians we can walk right up

and we can say to somebody

the moment they come to the door:

Jesus Christ is God.

Unashamedly we can say it.

And there is no other hope!

We can say it all.

We can lay it out on the table.

We don't have to hide anything.

But you know full well,

they do hide things.

Those who come along without the truth,

they hide things.

And you know what, they give

different meanings to words.

That's one of the favorite
tricks of the devil.

Just put a spin on the
meaning of the word.

So you could use terminology

that sounds right,

but what they mean by it

is totally another Jesus,

totally another Gospel.

This Jesus - He's a Man.

He's a Savior.

But then he says "Christ."

Christ means Messiah.

Yes, yes, it does.

It means Anointed One.

But I'll have you know this,

that when He is called the Christ by John,

you go do a search on "Christ"

throughout John's Gospel.

Listen, I'll just give you
two examples here.

John 11:27,

"You are the Christ, the Son of God

Who was coming into the world."

John says as he's wrapping up

the whole Gospel of John

in chapter 20:31,

"These are written so that you may

believe that Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God."

Do you see? The Christ. The Son of God.

To know Him as Christ

is to know Him as God the Son.

This is Man. This is God.

This is the God-Man Who came in the flesh.

He is Christ. God the Son.

That's what this is all about.

And He came in the flesh.

Listen to what this says.

Jesus Christ is come.

Where did He come from?

It's amazing in John's Gospel

how often Jesus tells us:

"I am the living bread

that came down from Heaven."

Or John 8:42, "I came from God

and I am here and I came

not of My own accord, but He sent Me."

Or John 16:28, "I came from the Father

and have come into the world,

and now I am leaving the world

and going to the Father."

He is a Man. He is God.

He has two natures.

Two natures in one Person.

He's come from where?

He's come from somewhere.

Where has He come from?

He came from the Father.

He came from Heaven.

This can be said of no one else.

You did not come from somewhere else.

We were conceived.

That's where we started.

Jesus didn't start when He was conceived.

He came from somewhere else.

That's what he's saying:

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

He's come from outside this world

into our world.

This is the infallible test.

Do we believe on this Christ?

Christ Who is altogether,

in every respect He is Man,

and in every respect

He is the radiance of the glory of God.

Is this the One we believe?

And that He has come?

And that He has come to rescue us?

And that He's come to lay
down His life for us?

And He's come and there is no other way?

There is no other name given.

He is come. Do we believe in this One?

And He has come to give His life

a ransom for many.

He has come to bear the wrath of God

in the place of His people on that cross.

Is this the One we believe in?

You see, there's been these errors

from the very beginning

that somehow He was not fully God;

somehow He was not fully man.

Somehow the fullness of deity

and the fullness of humanity

did not go to the cross.

What John is saying is your soul

depends on believing in the Jesus Christ

that is God and is Man,

and did go to the cross,

and did pay the penalty,

and came from outside our world,

and came from the Father,

and the Father sent Him

and sent Him on purpose,

to give us a Redeemer.

This is the reality.

And any teaching that attacks that,

it never comes from the Spirit of God.

Jesus Christ is come.

Do you see what this is saying?

Jesus Christ lived before He came.

The eternal Word of God
broke into the world

in the womb of a virgin.

Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.

John is describing the miracle

and the wonder of the Incarnation.

He is come.

You say, but somebody's over
there proclaiming Christ.

Yes, but you must ask,

what sort of Christ is it?

That is always the question.

Jesus Christ came from another realm.

Where? From glory.

From the glory He had with the Father

before the world began.

He entered the world.

He entered human history.

There have always been people

that have denied one or the other.

The Word became flesh.

The Word was God.

God became flesh.

Immanuel: God is with us.

And He's come.

He's come in the flesh.

Fully.

Even robing Himself with
the likeness of sinful flesh.

Without sin.

But in that likeness,

with all the likeness of us,

in every respect.

It was necessary.

And that's what He did.

And this is the very thing

the Spirit of God will never deny.

Probe men and women.

What do you really believe about Jesus?

What do you really believe?

See, if you really believe this,

this will be your highest treasure.

There will be nothing else

more important in your life than this.

Because you will see,

this is my only hope.

I don't want to trade
this Christ for another

because I recognize this is my only hope.

And you look at men and women.

They may even speak words

that sound like the truth,

but if they really believed this;

if they really believed Jesus Christ

has come in the flesh,

they really believe that,

they confess that,

they will confess it by a life that shows

there's no more important truth than this.

This is it.

As you value your souls,

test the spirits.

The Word was made flesh.

Born of a virgin.

Two natures in one Person.

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

Man's only hope.

Praise God that sinners
have any hope at all,

and this is it. This is it.

There is no other.

Here it is.

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

Father,

I pray that my brothers
and sisters and myself, Lord,

we pray that You would make us

very skillful,

narrow - yes, we need to be narrow.

There is none other name.

We are a narrow people.

There is one hope.

Make us lovingly narrow

and kind, but oh Lord, make us bold.

Make us unbending.

Make us skillful testers of the spirits.

Father, we pray that Your Holy Spirit

would work mightily in our midst

in just the way that we have read about,

giving us ears to hear
the Apostles' doctrine

and all the glories and wonders of Christ,

coming face-to-face with
this Christ of Scripture

and loving Him and living for Him

and living worthy of Him.

Lord, may it be so.

We pray in Christ's name, Amen.