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Sermon

Test the Spirits by the Spirit

Speaker
Mark Twombly
Scripture
1 John 4:1-6

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This passage from 1 John 3:23–4:11 teaches us to test every spiritual influence against the person and work of Jesus Christ. We are reminded that false teaching is more prevalent than sound doctrine, even among professing Christians, and that the Holy Spirit within us enables us to discern truth from error. The call is to believe rightly about Christ, know the truth personally and relationally, overcome falsehood through the victory already won at the cross, and speak truth faithfully even when it costs us.

Key Lessons:

  1. Truth is not abstract information but is personal and relational — truth is found in Jesus himself, and knowing truth means knowing him.
  2. False teaching is far more prevalent than sound teaching, even within professing Christianity, and we must actively test every influence by the standard of Scripture and the identity of Christ.
  3. Victory over falsehood and the spirit of antichrist is already assured through the indwelling Holy Spirit — greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.
  4. We must not be swayed by eloquence, appearance, wealth, knowledge, or relationships over faithfulness to Christ and his word.

Application: We are called to actively examine every teaching and influence in our lives — including from trusted leaders — by measuring it against who Christ is and what Scripture says. We must resist the pressure to accommodate worldly values for the sake of comfort or relationships, and instead anchor our identity and loyalty in Christ alone.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What influences in your life have you accepted without testing them against Scripture, and how can you begin to evaluate them more carefully?
  2. Of the things that tend to sway people — eloquence, appearance, wealth, knowledge, relationships — which one most easily impresses or influences you, and why?
  3. How can we practically encourage one another to hold fast to truth even when it costs us relationally or socially?

Scripture Focus: 1 John 3:23–4:11 provides the main framework, teaching that the Holy Spirit enables believers to discern truth from error and that the ultimate test of any teaching is what it confesses about Jesus Christ. Supporting passages include John 16:33 (Christ has overcome the world), 2 Corinthians 2:14–17 (we are a fragrance of Christ), and Psalm 119:97–104 (loving God’s word as the path to discernment).

Outline

Introduction

Would you take your copy of God’s word this morning and turn with me to First John chapter 4?

It’s four four books before the last book of the Bible, which is Revelation.

And if you’re following along in the Pew Bible, you can read along on page 12:20.

To give us a little bit more context today, I’ll be reading starting in chapter 3 23 and reading through chapter 4 11.

This is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us. 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.

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. By this 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 of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world. 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.

They are from the world. Therefore, they speak as from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested to us that God sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Would you pray with me?

Father, I pray that we would see, seek, and savor your love in Christ as we see it in your word. That our hearts would love and see the truth because we love and see you.

Grant us a growing spiritual discernment and a desire for more discernment as we navigate all of the influences in our lives, particularly for those falsehoods that claim to be Christian.

Show us, Father, where we have believed lies. Free us from those lies and use us to free others.

Help us to overcome lies and the attacks of the enemy with gospel love and truth.

And finally, Father, make us more like Jesus.

As your word says, we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed from one degree of glory to another, even as from the Lord the Spirit. Father, would you do that even this morning? Amen.

The Danger of Being Deceived

Don’t believe everything you hear or in this age of AI, everything you see. The A in AI is a warning, right? Artificial is telling you something, right? All that glitters is not gold, right? Don’t be so naive.

These are common expressions that I’ve heard throughout my li lifetime. Maybe maybe you’ve heard them as well. And they are meant to help us. They are meant to protect us from danger and deceit.

Now being someone who is tends to be a bit more perfectionistic and idealistic I could be a little bit on in on the naive side particularly as a child. One of the common practical jokes that people would pull would say did that they took the word naive out of the dictionary? I was the guy who said really I remember one particular time where I was I was fooled by a friend to my detriment. It was really humiliating and I expressed my frustration to my mom and she said to me as only a mom can say, “Honey, you’re not naive. You’re just trusting.” No, mom, I’m stupid.

So, we understand that it’s sometimes easy for us to be fooled.

These words are very and these these experiences stay with me. But let me ask you this. Have you ever been lied to?

Do you remember when you’ve been when you were lied to? Maybe you don’t remember when you were lied to, but you remember when you realized later that you were lied to.

It’s very unsettling. And I know that for me as life as life progressed, I became less and less amazed at people’s ability to deceive, their skill and ease with which they do it.

“I became less and less amazed at people’s ability to deceive, their skill and ease with which they do it.”

Given all that, who do you believe?

What do you trust?

Do people trust you?

Why or why not?

I have trust issues and sometimes those trust issues are wellfounded.

In that context, why should we believe Jesus?

John stated this purpose in his gospel in John 20:31.

But these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

Background and Context

Well, as we proceed, let me give you just a little bit of background and context for this passage. The author of this letter is the Apostle John, one of the 12 disciples that Jesus called.

In Mark 3 starting in verse 14, it says that he appointed 12 so that they would be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons. And beyond that, Luke 10:1 tells us, “Now after this, the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of him to every city and place where he himself was going.” So when people ask, “How many disciples did Jesus have?”

That’s not necessarily an easy question to answer. We know that he had 70. We know that he had 12. We also know that he had particular three that were closest to him, Peter, James, and John to whom he would reveal himself more personally, for example, at the transfiguration when he would reveal his glory to them. You can read about that in Luke 9:es 28-36.

And then yet within that inner circle, John was the closest to Jesus. John is described some four times in the gospels as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And even in a conversation with the risen Christ, Peter the Apostle recognized the special relationship that Jesus had with John. And so given all this, the Apostle John is uniquely qualified to speak to us today about knowing and loving Christ.

“The Apostle John is uniquely qualified to speak to us today about knowing and loving Christ.”

Now, John wrote this as an old man toward the end of his life. And when he uses the phrase little children in verse four, that is appropriate both with reference to his age and his maturity and the relative immaturity of the churches he was writing to. And the audience of that letter was not one particular church but living in Ephes Ephesus at that time. It was to the existing churches in Asia Minor which is modern Turkey. Interesting that we heard from someone from Turkey last week. And it was before the great persecution of the church under the emperor dimmission.

The Cultural Context: Syncretism and False Teaching

Now with regard to the cultural context, the Greco Roman world at this time was in a state of cultural, philosophical and religious ferment.

Religious synretatism and inclusivism were the watchwords of the day.

Commentator Donald W. Berdick notes this. Apart from the Judeo-Christian sphere, the world was religiously inclusivistic.

There was always room for a new religion, provided, of course, that it was not of an exclusive nature.

Syncratism, however, did not merely express itself in a mood of tolerance toward other faiths.

Its characteristic expression was in the combination of various ideas and beliefs from different sources to form new or aberrant religions. This was the age of the developing mystery religions, the age of the occult, the age of proliferation of monostic sects.

“This was the age of the developing mystery religions, the age of the occult, the age of proliferation of gnostic sects.”

And as John MacArthur puts in his commentary, nowhere was that more evident than in the Roman church province of Asia located in western Asia Minor in modern Turkey. So the main challenge to the church at this time was not direct persecution but cultural falsehood externally and the resulting threat of false teaching internally.

Our Task: Testing All Things

Brothers and sisters, so it is for us today, is it not? Yeah. So each of us has a task before us today. Mine is to preach the word of God faithfully to you by teaching what it means by what it says. As an overseer candidate, God’s word tells me that I must both exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.

We see that in Titus 1:9. And as I preach 2 Timothy 4:es 2 and 3 tells me that I must reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time has come when people will not endure sound doctrine.

Well, it says the time will come. I’ll say the time has come, has it not? When people will not endure sound doctrine, but will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. Is that not the world we live in today?

So, that’s my job to preach this faithfully to you. But you have a task as well. If I’m reading this passage correctly, your task today is to not believe me or at least not to take what I say at face value, but to be testing what I say with the eternal word of God today.

You have your Bibles open or your devices, whatever it is that you are looking at the scripture as we walk through it together. I’ve asked some of you for input ahead of the sermon. Thank you.

And I’ve asked some of you for specific feedback following the sermon. And I’m counting on you to do that as you examine what I say according to the word of God. So give it to me straight, boldly, and directly from God’s word. So our purpose statement today, our purpose statement is this. By measuring all things by Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, God intends that we believe the truth, know and grow in our knowledge of the truth, be victorious in the truth, and speak the truth.

“God intends that we believe the truth, know the truth, be victorious in the truth, and speak the truth.”

Believe: Do Not Believe Every Spirit

So with these things in mind, let’s explore together. Let’s look at verse one with me. Our first our first point is believe.

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. You look at this and as as I read through the end of chapter 3 and through a bit of chapter 4, you might wonder what is this passage doing here?

First John is all about love, right?

About God’s love for us, us loving him, and us loving one another. This passage seems to be out of place because it’s a stark warning. Something maybe more negative than the rest of the book.

But God calls us to speak the truth. Am I going in and out? God calls us to speak the truth in love. And that’s exactly what’s happening in this book.

This is truth surrounded by love in the very scriptures. God calls us to that.

Proverbs in Proverbs it says, “Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an of an enemy.” And I experienced that in a very deep way this past week. A friend gave me a kind of a stinging rebuke and I appreciated it because I knew that it was nothing but love for God and for me in it. And that’s what we must do with one another. That’s what John is doing here today.

God has described himself as abounding in loving kindness and truth. Christ himself as God being described this way, full of grace and truth. And truth is personal. Now, when when I say the word truth, I don’t want you to associate it merely with the words on a page, the words of your Bible, that is true. But truth is personal. Ephesians 4:21 tells us that truth is in Jesus, and in him are all the treasuries of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3, “And he himself said that he is the truth.” And so, when you hear the word truth, think of Jesus.

“Truth is personal. When you hear the word truth, think of Jesus.”

Well, let’s proceed to our passage.

Let’s not skip over the first word.

Beloved. Beloved. Loved by God and his apostle. What is about to be preached is an expression of God’s love. It’s an expression of God’s love. And so, right after that, he said, “Beloved, do not believe.”

And this is emphatic. This is an emphatic command that essentially is saying, “Stop believing. There are certain things that you should stop believing.” The implication here is that the audience is already believing things that aren’t true.

Isn’t that true of all of us? You and I need to recognize right now at this very moment, we believe things that are not true. And we need to come along with the truth. And so the word belief here is the same word that we see used for faith.

And the sense here is that it literally means to be believing, trusting or firmly persuaded by. You do know that what you believe impacts what you think and what you do.

So while you can say that you believe something, I can really tell what you believe by what you do, right? What are you relying on? What are you basing your life on? What are you acting on? That tells us what we believe.

And so belief here is not simply something that impacts our thoughts, but how we live out our lives. So beloved, do not believe every spirit. What does this mean, every spirit? And in context, we understand that this refers to those who profess to speak or act under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit or by divine inspiration.

Right? These are people who claim to be from God. And in this context, it may have referred to those who claimed credibility through non-biblical prophetic utterances. And given the proliferation of such people in the ancient world and in our world today, do we not see this in our world today?

It’s essential for us to not believe these spirits, these influences, these claims at face value. Vitally important that we do that, but to have a basis upon which to test them, to discern their source. You see these direct comparisons in the scripture. Is this of God or of the world? We need to be able to discern that at all times.

Test the Spirits by Scripture

And so it says next, test the spirits to see if they are from God.

The sense here is that we be on the alert actively proving and examining them. And an early example of this is found by the the Bereans in Acts 7 11. Paul says this. Now these were more nobleminded than those in Thessalonica. For they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

Acts 17:11: “They received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

With their Bibles or scrolls or whatever they had open, examining what Paul said.

This is Paul the Apostle.

So when anyone resists you challenging them with the word of God, that is a red flag right there. Some of my Eastern Orthodox friends, for example, you can’t talk to them from the Bible because they don’t see that as an authority. The Bible isn’t what I can read in it. It’s what my priest says that it is.

No, we And so in that sense, we have spiritual leaders putting themselves above the Apostle Paul. Think about that. And think about the humility of Paul ex asking people and demanding that they examine his teaching. So this was the apostle Paul affirming those who did not take his words at at face value. So the scriptures are always always our standard. And why do we do this? The next phrase tells us for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

The Prevalence of False Prophets

And the sense here is that there are many false prophets in the world that remain in place and are even among believers, professing believers. Jesus warned of false prophets some five times in the gospels.

He said, “They come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Matthew 7:15. They will mislead many.

Matthew 24:11. They are also described as false Christs, working signs and wonders and leading many astray, if possible, the elect. We see that in Matthew 24:24 and Mark 13:22.

And they are spoken well of by all people. Luke 6:26. So that these churches had heard such warnings earlier. Paul said this to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:es 28-30.

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. It just hit me that early on in my life in spiritual leadership in the church, this became very real.

I had to point out a wolf that was among our leadership.

And that was hard, but the church benefited from that. This person left, became a pastor at another church, and I don’t think I have to tell you how that ended up. They did not know that he was a wolf.

The Apostle Peter would later warn, “But false prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies.” That’s in 2 Peter 2:1. So the sobering reality, brothers and sisters, this was amazing to me as I studied this as I’ve studied this over year over the years.

The sobering reality is that false teaching is more prevalent, far more prevalent than sound doctrine, even among professing Christians. That’s overwhelming to think about, but that is true. It was true then, it’s true now.

“False teaching is far more prevalent than sound doctrine, even among professing Christians.”

Know the Truth: The Spirit of God

So, how are we to identify and overcome it? Well, like Jesus and like the apostles, with love and with truth. Look with me at verses two and three. Going to talk for a bit of time here on knowing the truth. What does it mean to know the truth?

By this 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 of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world. As I read through First John, I’m amazed at how much the word know shows up.

That you can know certain things for certain. That of itself is countercultural these days when we are told in this postmodern age that you can know nothing for certain which is a is a statement of certainty oddly enough.

“You can know certain things for certain — that is countercultural in this postmodern age.”

Can’t get away from it.

Truth Is Personal: Knowing Christ

What is truth? Pilate asked Jesus.

Listen to this from John 18 37-38.

Therefore, Pilate said to him, “So you are a king.” Jesus answered, “You say correctly, that I am a king.

For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in him.” This has been going on for a long time.

But truth as we’ve talked about is again always associate truth not only with the written word of God but with the incarnate word of God Jesus. So truth is not abstract but it’s personal, it’s relational and it’s experiential.

Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17 that we would have a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

That’s not just head knowledge. That literally means the active participation in acquiring and personal involvement in applying the knowledge of God. It’s personal. It’s relational. It’s not simply information.

“Truth is not abstract but personal, relational, and experiential.”

And as John said in 1 John 5:20, “And we know that the son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true in his son Jesus Christ.

This is the true God and eternal life.

So brothers and sisters, it’s all about knowing him.

The Internal Witness of the Holy Spirit

With that in mind, let us proceed with our passage verse two.

By this the spirit of God.

Now for those of us who are in Christ, Jesus promised that he would be with us through the indwelling Holy Spirit. He actually said with his disciples that it is better that I go away because the Holy Spirit will be with you and be in you. It’s amazing.

That’s better than if Jesus was physically standing in front of us. God is so good to us. So in unpacking the realities of our salvation, the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 1:13-14, “In him you also after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.”

So how do we know? How do we know? Chapter 3:23 told us tells us the one who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him. We know by this right the Holy Spirit that he Christ abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. That’s how we know.

So we have an internal witness of the Holy Spirit which enables us to discern the external witnesses which come at us which claim to be from God. Jesus refers to this indwelling spirit as the spirit of truth who would guide you into all truth. John 16:13 Romans 8:15 reminds us that this Holy Spirit bears internal witness that we are the children of God.

“We have an internal witness of the Holy Spirit which enables us to discern the external witnesses which claim to be from God.”

And in the first chapter of this book, 1 John 3-7, the Holy Spirit resonates with the Holy Spirit in others and is the basis of our fellowship. A rich basis of our fellowship, is it not? So by the spirit we come to know and gain continual assurance of our identity as one of his.

Confessing Christ: The Litmus Test

Let’s let’s move on. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And so the when it says this, it refers to the discernment of external influences that claim to be Christian that claim to be of the Holy Spirit. And so what does it mean to to confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? It’s not merely to acknowledge that Christ was a literal person who existed. It’s not merely that. The sense here is that we confess and concede Christ’s true identity, that he is both fully human and fully divine.

We confess that he is fully divine, that he is God and came from God the father and is one with him and he is eternally preexistent with God. This is a doctrine that’s been under attack from the very beginning.

John 1:es 1-2, in the beginning was the word. That’s Jesus. And the word was with God. And the word was God. Amen. He was in the beginning with God. So we don’t compromise on the nature of Christ as being God incarnate.

This was a mighty battle in the early centuries of the church as you may know. But we also acknowledge that he is fully human and and this is a mystery that we take God’s word as truth on and that he took on flesh forever. Right?

In the beginning of 1 John 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. And the life was manifested and we have seen and testify and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the father and was manifested to us. That we have seen and heard and proclaimed to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father with the son Jesus Christ.

John MacArthur says this. A person’s understanding and acceptance of Jesus identity is the ultimate litmus test of the legitimacy of his professed faith.

“A person’s understanding and acceptance of Jesus’ identity is the ultimate litmus test of the legitimacy of his professed faith.”

We must believe this about him. When every spirit that does not confess Jesus does not confess the reality of who he is is not from God. The person who does not confess and conceit Christ as he is for what he himself and that the apostles testified is not from God. So we measure all things by Christ. He is the limous test of our faith.

The Spirit of the Antichrist

Passage goes on to say that this is the spirit the spirit that does not confess Christ as he is. This is the spirit of the antichrist. The sense here is the one who opposes Christ, who usurps the place of Christ and deny that he is the Messiah, essentially making themselves and not Christ an authority or influence.

And so while knowing that there is a final antichrist coming in the future, you can read about that in 2 Thessalonians 2 and Pastor Bobby has been preaching to us about that from Revelation and that we are learning about the spirit of antichrist precedes him through false religion and aberant doctrine. You notice the the many antichrists that we’ve been talking about pave the way for the final antichrist. So this has been happening for quite some time for centuries now.

John goes on to say of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world.

No doubt the believers were certainly aware that the antichrist were coming.

They may not have been as aware as they should have been of the antichrists which existed among them.

So they were anticipating they were anticipating the antichrist coming. They needed their senses awakened to see the antichrists that were coming that were already among them. So the apostle Paul had already detailed some of this in a previous chapter in 1 John.

If you look back with me to chapter 2 starting in verse 18, children, it is the last hour. And just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, from now even many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be shown that they are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

Who is the liar, but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist. The one who denies the father and the son. Whoever denies the son does not have the father. The one who confesses the son has the father also. So we see that many antichrist will precede the final antichrist. That false prophets show up as true believers. This is a sobering reality.

1 John 2:22: “Who is the liar, but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist.”

Have we not seen people fall? People even we would say from our own tribe right people who claim to be even reformed Christians who have a high view of God and a high view of scripture even some of them have proven to be antichrists as they’ve fallen away the apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 11 13-4 says for such men are false apostles deceitful workers disguising themselves as apostles of Christ and no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. We must recognize this sober reality.

But we have the Holy Spirit to enable us to discern. And the litmus test of truth, may we never forget it, is what one believes about Christ. So one of the things I love about this passage is that it’s a very trinitarian passage. You notice this? We notice the presence of the spirit confessing that Jesus is from God the father.

Overcome with the Truth

God in his glory is revealing himself to us. So having discerned the truth, what do we do with it? Well, that leads us to our next two points. We overcome with the truth and we speak and listen to the truth.

Overcome with the truth. Read verse four with me. 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. What assurance that is.

Satan, our enemy, is much stronger than us. We cannot fight him in the flesh and win, but he is no match for God, and we have the Holy Spirit within us. I loved how pastor Dave explained to us that story from Pilgrim’s Progress about Pilgrim fighting Apolon.

I love that victory through the word of God. He was not powerful enough in his flesh. But with this word of God illumined by the spirit of God, he overcame. And so it is with us. So you are from God, little children.

John reassures them as an elderly apostle and shepherd that they are from God and they can know this by the evidence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and have overcome them. And the sense here is that they have already been victorious and would continue to have victory over God’s enemies. These antichrists who seek to oppose and even replace Christ as authorities.

“Satan is much stronger than us, but he is no match for God, and we have the Holy Spirit within us.”

You struggle to walk in victory sometimes to recognize that the victory actually is already yours. This is an amazing thing to think about it. It’s as if playing a great contest, a great war, a great battle, a great sporting event, knowing that the outcome is sure, no matter what the score is on the scoreboard. We know this. We know this.

Greater Is He Who Is in You

And times are dark now. They will be getting much darker, but victory is assured. Greater is he who is in us.

Amen. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. The Holy Spirit within is greater than he who is of the spirit of the world, namely Satan.

1 John 4:4: “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.”

If you look a little further at 1 John 5 18-19, it reassures us the evil one for us, the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

So now we’re starting to get in the point of the passage where it’s talking about the world contrasting what is from God and what is from the world. And that’s explained to us very clearly if you look back with me at chapter 2 verses 15-1 17. I trust these are familiar verses to many of us. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world. The world is passing away and also its lusts. But the one who does the will of God abides forever.

What assurance we have.

How We Overcome

So how is it that we have overcome such overwhelming power. How is this true?

The first way we overcome is by being in him and doing his will knowing that this will last forever as the verse said. And while the world’s values are passing away, Jesus said that he has already overcome the world in the midst of tribulation.

John 16:33, “In this world, you have tribulation.” Amen. We do. That’s obvious. But take courage. I have overcome the world.

And he is in us. So, we overcome through the cross. Jesus has disarmed and publicly humiliated both the rulers of this world and the demonic rulers who rule. We see this in Colossians 2:15 what a former pastor friend of mine called the divine beatdown. It’s a decisive victory.

“We overcome through the cross. Jesus has disarmed and publicly humiliated the rulers of this world.”

And we notice even in 1 John in chapters 2:es 13-4. It tells us we’ve overcome. I am writing to you fathers because him who has been from the beginning. I’m writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one.

I’ve written to you children because the father. I’ve written to you fathers because him who has been from the beginning. I’ve written to you young men because you’re strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. Interesting.

The word young men comes up a few times. I have a specific word for you young men a little bit later. My heart is with you and your desire to be strong in the Lord. So in the ultimate sense we overcome false teachers because we are alive in Christ. The false teachers are not. And we overcome Satan because he is headed for eternal destruction, but we for eternal glory.

With that, let’s go to our last point.

Speak the Truth: The World vs. God

Speak the truth. Speak the truth. Read with me verses five and six. They are from the world. Therefore, they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. But we are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Sometimes this is obvious.

Often it’s not. When professing Christians use the language of the world that shows up sometimes in pretty obvious ways, but it is often veiled and deceptive, maybe even clothed with scripture. You do know that Satan used scripture to tempt Jesus.

The basis of falsehood is truth. Truth twisted. We must know that.

“The basis of falsehood is truth — truth twisted. We must know that.”

So when it says they are from the world, the sense there is they are ruled by the values of the world and its ruler.

In contrast, Jesus said in John 14:30, “The ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me.” Just elaborate a little bit on this. They are from the world. We can know this sometimes by the simple words that someone says that are worldly and in contrast contradiction to the scriptures.

But we need to look deeper than that. To the extent that we can, we need to look at their lives. So what’s going on there? Right? Even as undersheperds, right? The scriptures tell you to examine us. Hebrews 13 it says look at the outcome of their way of lives of their of their way of life and imitate their faith. Don’t follow everyone. Don’t imitate everyone but look look more deeply.

This is one of the things I love about this role is the examination and the protection that comes with that. It’s with it. It’s very very sobering. So they are from the world. Sometimes you can tell by the words often you can tell by the actions. And therefore they speak as from the world and the world listens to them. And the language here is very interesting.

The Echo Chamber of the World

The sense here is that of an echo chamber. We hear that phrase a lot I think these days. An echo chamber babbling randomly and continually with the failed values of the world. You notice there’s a there’s a unique old stale familiar familiarity with what the world says. The same arguments, the same phrases so often over and over again.

It’s interesting as people talk about, for example, issues related to marriage and sexuality. I’ve been hearing these same phrases and arguments since I was a student in college. It’s nothing new.

It’s nothing new. It’s nothing clever.

And the world is understanding.

They’re just kind of nodding, affirming what is being said. They follow the same old playbook. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. We know the folly of these lusts. What is lust? I think the best definition that I can come up with from scripture is lust is an overwhelming desire that is way out of proportion with the value of the thing desired. Right? You desire something that’s just not going to be of benefit either in this life or the next.

“An echo chamber babbling randomly and continually with the failed values of the world.”

And so that’s really what lust is. And false teachers exper experience apparent success in the world because they are accommodating to the values of the world. As the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:14, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.

These false teachers are coming after you are coming after us. They may even be among us. Don’t think that we’re immune from that. We have a strong commitment to the truth here. But the word of God is sober and straightforward that false teachers arise from among you. I was I was amazed. Some of you might know the name who’s the Mars Hill pastor who wrote Love Wins? Rob Bell. Some of you might know that name Rob Bell. Rob Bell was a sound teacher until he wasn’t. And at our former church, I met a young man who was a student at Rutgers who grew up in that church.

And it was going well until it wasn’t.

And fortunately, he was grounded in the word of God and his family was as well.

And so they began to recognize things as they were drifting away from the truth.

But not everybody did and not everybody does.

So in contrast to this speaking as from the world, we recognize what James pointed out to us that friendship with the world is hostility toward God.

Listen to this harsh warning to us. Very important that we recognize you adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. That’s James 4:4.

A Word to the Youth

Let me just say a word or two to the youth on this. Pure pressure and strong.

You can’t be one of the cool kids and be faithfully following Christ. You can’t given the choice between pleasing God and pleasing people. You must choose God.

This is real. When our kids were entering the teenage years, typical thing to talk about is areas of sexuality and marriage and the birds and the bees talk, right? If you will.

We didn’t start with that. We started with peer pressure. What will you do if your friends want you to do something that is against what God says and you have to choose? What will you do? Will you go along with the herd?

Interestingly, I thought of this phrase that I I heard a pastor say this and I thought it was really helpful. He said, “You can’t make a difference by being like everyone else.” After which this pastor became like everyone else eventually.

So it happens.

So settle that. Settle that in your mind. Please God, that has a much longer shelf life, an eternal life for you. I noticed as a young person as soon as I came to Christ at the age of eight, I began to notice that the things that my friends enjoyed doing had no appeal to me.

“You can’t be one of the cool kids and be faithfully following Christ.”

And the things that bothered me didn’t bother my friends. I felt very out of place.

It was hard . And then I soon recognized this was because I have the Holy Spirit and I am out of place.

You and I are out of place in this world. If we feel comfortable in this world, there’s a problem. If you’ve read the book Pilgrim’s Progress, you may know that sequence where they travel through Vanity Fair. So interesting.

There’s a magazine called Vanity Fair.

It’s not a good thing. Not a good place.

And they just wanted to travel through and the people there would not let them because they not only could could just not participate. They were they had to participate. They had to go along with the sin that was happening. And because they wouldn’t do that, they were tortured and one of them was killed.

That’s how the world is. It’s not enough for you to just do your own thing. No, you’ve you’ve got to you’ve got to go along. You’ve got to along go along. We we must know the truth. Who must know him and resist that.

And so, while we seek to love and to bless people in the name of Christ, Christ himself warns us in Luke 6:26, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.” And I noticed the phrase, “When all men all men speak well of you.” So, not all approval from people is a warning, but the approval of all certainly is. If you’re getting no push back, you’re doing something wrong.

You’re doing something wrong. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Settle that in your mind. What do you love and who do you love? 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 reminds us that the Holy Spirit is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who’s from God that we might know the things freely given to us by God, revealing truth to us, spiritual thoughts and spiritual words.

Second Timothy, I’m sorry, 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, let’s turn there together. I think this is worth looking at together. Is a wonderful reminder of these truths that we’re discovering today. And it’s something that I think about really almost every day as I go into the world and as I interact mostly with people who are far from God.

Second 2 Corinthians 2 starting at verse 14. But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. There’s that victory again. Amen. And manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like me many pedalling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

Interesting. We are a sweet fragrance to whom? To God among the world. Some will be drawn to that, but most will not.

Most will oppose. We do not pedal the word of God. We don’t use it as a commodity to reinforce the world’s values, but we speak his word sincerely and truthfully to please him. You do know that a lot of people, particularly politicians these days, are abusing the word of God, co-opting it selectively to promote their agenda. We ought not that is pedalling the word of God. And preachers who go along with that are pedalling the word of God. They’re not preaching it.

We ought to recognize that.

We Are From God

Let’s move on. We are from God. Now, that sounds like a really presumptuous statement. We are from God. And often I’ve heard this throughout my life. Who speaks for God. Who are you to speak for God? Well, I’m nobody. But I’ve got something that I can share with you from his word. How do we know that we’re from God? As established earlier, it’s by his Holy Spirit that testifies within us.

This is not an assertion of our power or our goodness, but of Christ in us. And we ought be confident in that. It’s not about you and I, but it’s about him. He who knows God, as we continue, listens to us.

When we perceive God properly, we understand and obey him together. We’re all in this together, brothers and sisters, aren’t we? Yeah. He is our king and our father. We are family in Christ, submitting to his loving rule, his loving shephering, his loving fathering.

“This is not an assertion of our power or our goodness, but of Christ in us.”

We need, bro, brothers and sisters, we need help. We need to help each other in doing this and encourage each encouraging each other to do this day after day. It says in Hebrews as long as it is called today, we are to encourage one another to obey.

He who is not from God does not listen to us.

It’s a sobering reality as Jesus said, “If they hate you, know that they hated me first.” Those who hate God hate us.

That’s how it goes. If we’re living rightly, I do want to qualify that the Apostle Peter says there’s no benefit if you are if you suffer for doing wrong, right? We’re not we’re not making an excuse for sinning as Christians, but if we do right, and we are persecuted, we are blessed. Amen.

Knowing the Spirit of Truth and Error

So by this as the passage ends we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error because we have the spiritual perception by the indwelling Holy Spirit. We certainly know and continue to understand truth. Truth really means the unveiled reality and the veritable essence of something. You have to look below the surface very often to see what is true. Truth is very often not on the surface. So we know the truth and we know error what is deceiving, seductive and fraudulent.

“We have spiritual perception by the indwelling Holy Spirit to know truth and to know error.”

Error looks good. It’s very persuasive.

Let’s talk about that a little bit. I won’t read through this, but in 1 Timothy 1 chapters 3-7, a faithful brother just pointed this out to me Friday. Tells us to avoid certain people.

I’ll just read a a couple phrases from it. Instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths andless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. Speculation takes on various forms. Some of it is clever philosophy.

Some of it is as one preacher often says, “Well, I don’t know.” Well, if you don’t know, maybe you ought not preach.

Just a thought, right? And this and this says that many have turned aside to fruitless discussions wanting to be teachers of the law even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. People can say very they can say nonsense very eloquently and confidently.

We need to be on the alert for that. So we must recognize how appealing and how seductive error can be. I mentioned earlier Ephesians 4:14, our warning that we not be tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

And then what we read earlier in 2 Timothy 4 that the time will come and I said the time has come when men will not endure sound doctrine but wanted to have their ears tickled. They will accumulate for themselves teaching teachers in accordance with their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. As I interact with some of my Christian brothers and sisters people say well people don’t want that.

You need to give people what they want.

Really really the mind on the flesh is hostile toward God for it does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so. But we preach the foolishness of the cross don’t we?

Guarding Against Deception

Because through it God saves some. We don’t back down. But we we can easily turn aside right if we are not careful if we are not on guard we will drift toward deception. Nobody drifts toward truth right it doesn’t happen.

Hebrews 2:1. I was at an apologetics conference early this year, and I love this emphasis from Hebrews 2:1. For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it.

Pay much closer attention. I hope you’re really paying attention today. I hope someone points out something that I missed today. That would be really a blessing to me to know that you’re paying attention.

I didn’t put anything I’m not tricking you. I didn’t put anything intentionally wrong to do that, but I’m sure I didn’t get everything right. So, I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Hebrews 2:1: “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it.”

So, we must always be looking beyond deceptive appearance to underlying reality and truth. Jesus reminds us in John 7:24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” Right? I love I love that sequence with David and Goliath do not look or this is actually prior to that with with David and his brothers.

Do not look at his appearance, nor at the height of his stature. Good news for us short people.

Some of you caught that. Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature. For God sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Even in Isaiah 11:2-4, as Isaiah prophesied about Christ, he said that Jesus would not judge by what his eyes see or by by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he would judge.

And so here we in summing up we note both the internal and external tests. The internal assurance assurance of Christ in us through the Holy Spirit and the external assurance of our faith and measuring all things by Christ. So with that let me get to our conclusion and application.

I’m going to get a little specific here.

Application: What Are You Swayed By?

In any influence that’s coming at you, we need to ask ourselves, what does that have to do with Christ?

Someone claims to come in the name of Christ. Well, h how much is that person like Christ? How much are his words like Christ? We we need to be so familiar with him and his words that we can spot that. But we can still be fooled. Ask yourself, what what are you impressed with?

What are you swayed by or attracted to?

Is it eloquence?

Proverbs 26:24-25 says, “He who hates disguises it with his lips, but he lays up deceit in his heart when he speaks graciously. Do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart.” When we preach, we try to be clear, but we don’t rely on on eloquence as a tool, as a persuasive tool. Paul didn’t do that. We saw that in 1 Corinthians 1, did we not? I did not come to you with eloquence. And I don’t know if that was because he couldn’t or he wouldn’t. But we know that he didn’t. And God used him powerfully.

“In any influence coming at you, ask yourself: What does that have to do with Christ?”

How about appearance or style?

Again, we read from Jesus, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” John 7:24. It’s worth noting that both John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul were distinctly unimpressive in their appearance. Yet, Jesus said of John the Baptist, “There was no one greater among men.” And God used the Apostle Paul to write most of the New Testament. Maybe not most, a lot of it.

I’d have to look that up. I remember the the verse where it says that of Paul that his words are are weighty, but his personal appearance is unimpressive and his words are contemptable. Praise God.

So, are you impressed by eloquence, appearance, or style? How about wealth?

This is a big one. James 2 reminds us that we should not be partial to the wealthy. I love how it begins. Says, “Do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus with an attitude of personal favoritism.”

Glorious Lord Jesus. If we know his glory, we’re just not that impressed with people. And it’s important that we not be. Psalm 49 16-20 read this. Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased.

For when he dies, he will carry nothing away. His glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives, he congratulates himself. And though men praise you when you do well for yourself, he shall go to the generation of his fathers, they will never see the light.

And I love this. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding is like the beasts of the field which perish.

Isaiah 2:22 says, “Stop regarding man whose breath is in his nostrils.” We should be we should not be so impressed. In fact, in many in many ways, we should be distinctly unimpressed if we know God. How about knowledge or skill? This is one we read earlier in 1 Corinthians 1. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the message preached.

The foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

It’s beautiful stuff. The foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men. And we should boast in him. So, there’s a godly sense in which we should not be impressed with what the word world is impressed with.

Are You Swayed by Relationships?

But here’s one that might be a little bit more subtle that I want to talk to you about. Are you swayed by relationships?

This is a big one, an important one, because we want to be at peace with people. We want people to like us. We want to have healthy relationships.

1 John 5:2 says, “By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and observe his commandments.” At our former church, the preacher took that verse and he said, “We love God by loving one another.” I thought for a minute and I looked at the passage and it says the opposite.

It’s counterintuitive. How do we love one another? By loving God. We love others best by putting him first. That’s how that goes.

I’ve seen people consistently choosing peace in relationships over truth.

Essentially choosing people over God.

This is hard. This happens in our families. I’m looking at some of you and I know this is really hard in your in your own families. Yeah. But to choose people over God is actually not loving.

“How do we love one another? By loving God. We love others best by putting him first.”

People seek or stay in places where they are comfortable socially.

There may be people their age or programs catered to them. These may be helpful, but they’re not primary and they are no substitute for truth. I’ve seen people sacrifice relationships for truth. Yes, doctrine can divide, but doctrinal truth unites us like nothing else. Brothers and sisters, what are we all doing here? I’m looking out at you.

It’s like, why are we even together?

Because we love him and we love the truth. It’s an amazing thing. I’ve seen people compromise in this area in terms of where they fellowship, go to church, they say, “Well, I know they’re not really teaching so strongly, but but my friends are there and or or in a relationship say, “Well, I I choose the relationship.

Which one?

Which relationship? With God or with others?” And again, I’m looking at you.

And I know this has come at a cost to some of you. Is he worth it? Is Christ worth it? He is worth it. He is worthy.

So true unity and deep fellowship can only come through truth that is in Jesus. And unity with each other comes not by focusing on each other but on Christ who unites us all. Calls us into fellowship with with him and with one another.

So as I’ve said, this is difficult, but what we gain in Christ is worth it. So what draws you most? Is it eloquence, appearance, wealth, knowledge, skill, relationships?

What about truth? What about character?

What about Christlikkeness? And for these we must discern below the surface.

Falsehood in the Church: Identity and Design

I’m going to just suggest a couple of areas as we close where falsehood has crept into the church. And I wouldn’t even say crept. It has been intentionally planted into the church by false apostles. Think about God’s design for marriage and sexuality. God’s beautiful design. In his image, he created us male and female. The two shall become one flesh. The man and the woman shall become two. Two shall become one flesh. That is beautiful. When you are when you are at a Christ centered wedding, anything less than that just seems ugly because it is. The beauty of God’s design is on display.

And when we think about issues of identity, Psalm 100 verse3 says that it is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Our identity comes from him. Our greatest flourishing comes from him. We don’t define ourselves. We don’t identify ourselves. He does.

Colossians 3:es 9-11 I think is worthy of our consideration today.

Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, cythian, slave and free man.

But Christ is all and in all. Brothers and sisters, when we make our identity anything other than our identity in Christ and we emphasize that we are in rank sin. We are emphasizing the things that God says don’t emphasize. I’m not saying don’t be sensitive to people’s experiences and backgrounds.

Colossians 3:11: “Christ is all and in all. When we make our identity anything other than Christ, we are in rank sin.”

Vital that we do that, right?

But our identity is in Christ. Do not lie to one another about these things.

Right? There is no distinction in Christ. Praise the Lord. This is an amazing thing to think about. I came from a church that emphasized these differences. We don’t. And we are far more diverse in that church, if I might just say so. Interesting. Why? Because Christ unites us. Because Christ does the work. So, we ought not lie to one another by emphasizing our differences, but our common identity in Christ.

There’s some other things I can mention.

Our Citizenship Is in Heaven

There’s a lot of abuse right now, as I said, in terms of how people view government and abuse scriptures. With regard to that, our citizenship, brothers and sisters, is in heaven. From whom we await a savior. He is our lord.

So we are completely free to evaluate all of this by Christ. And we can say I’m not I’m not aligned or my loyalty isn’t to a political party or a movement or a person. It’s to Christ. So we’re completely free to accept this and say that I think aligns with God’s word and that doesn’t because our loyalty is to him. Critical that we do that. There’s a lot of abuse in that area. And so we ought to think about that and I trust that you will.

“Our citizenship is in heaven. We are completely free to evaluate everything by Christ.”

So the world and increasingly the professing church often says things that are contrary to the word of God.

We’ve learned that friendship with the world is hostility towards God and is spiritual adultery.

That is serious.

You and I cannot serve two masters.

Conclusion: Follow the Voice of the Good Shepherd

Will you choose the world or the word? We can and we must know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

My final question for you today is, will you follow the voice of your great shepherd?

Hear the words of Jesus from John chapter 10.

When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them. And the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Our great shepherd to follow a leader who knows where they’re going. That’s something right there, huh? Wow. So, how do we do this?

Let me close with just a couple verses from Psalm 119, which is a prayer for us, and I think will be instructive in terms of how we do this in our lives. So, pray this with me, and we’ll end our time together. Psalm 119, starting in verse 97.

Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged because I’ve observed your precepts. I’ve restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. I have not turned aside from your ordinances. For you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, yet sweeter than honey to my mouth. From your precepts I get understanding. Therefore I hate every false way.

Father, Savior, Holy Spirit, may you yourself lead us, teach us personally by your perfect word. May this all be true of us. May we believe, know, grow, overcome, and speak and listen to the truth as we know, love, and become more like your son, Jesus.

Amen.

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