1 John 4:1-6 The Spirit of the Age

Welcome to Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service.

This is a message from the series called In the Light out of the book of 1st John by Pastor Don Filsack. If you'd like more information about our church, please visit us on the web at www .recastchurch

.com Here's Pastor Don. Well, good morning.

Welcome to Recast Church. We're gonna go ahead and get started here. I'd love to hear the conversations, but now I'm trying to kill them and get you to your seats, so I'm Don Filsack.

I'm the lead pastor here and welcome. I'm glad that you're here. I hope that part of your intention of being here this morning is to grow in faith and we talk often here about growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service.

That component of growing in faith is one of the primary reasons we get together on Sunday morning, that we actually get an opportunity to take in God's Word, believe it is true, and then go out in our lives and actually live it.

So we're here together at the start of the week for the purpose of worshipping God, certainly, connecting with each other, certainly, but that component of growing in faith is primary to what we're trying to accomplish this morning, and I hope that you've come with that intention.

Be sure to fill out connection cards. Turn those in in the black box back there. Go ahead and wave, Jay, right behind you is the black box right there.

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And anything that's marked expansion fund is going to go towards our plans to eventually build a building or towards the expansion of our church facility in some way or other.

We're going to be in 1 John chapter 4 this morning, and I just kind of want to, what I like to do is introduce the message so that we're kind of getting the juices flowing in our brains, thinking about what the text is about, and then read it and then go to worship and then really dive in after that.

So, but the fact of the matter is I really think that we live in a time and an era that's flipped on its head regarding skepticism.

We tend to be skeptical about those things, most established and less skeptical of things rooted in emotions.

So if somebody comes to us and kind of tells us how they're feeling, well, we're not going to be skeptical about that. But there's often, we often turn things on their head.

We live in an era where the ancient time -tested Word of God is held under scrutiny.

Would you agree with me on that? So the Word of God is held under scrutiny, but really any hack who has a blog that writes halfway decent in a semi -intellectual way, we hold up as an authority, right?

I mean, how many of you ever, I mean, we're teaching our kids how to cite sources from the internet, right? And do we sometimes joke?

How many of you have ever like kind of told a joke or been joking about, well, I heard it on the internet, so it must be true. And yet, raise your hand,

I want you to legitimately raise your hand if you, if you have ever looked up the definition of a word online.

Okay, so we'll joke. Are you seeing, are you seeing how we can be inconsistent about this? We joke, oh,

I heard it on the internet, so it must be true. But then we go look things up on the internet to find out what's true.

So do we have a little bit skewed? Would you guys agree with me that sometimes, I mean, we buy into this notion kind of going back and forth of what is and what isn't true?

And where do we hold our skepticism? Our day and age has an intense, I would say, intense revulsion towards established religious institutions.

Would you, would you agree with that? Do you think that that's true? We live in a day and an age that is opposed to religious institutions and kind of has, well, they must have it out for us, or they must be tricking us or deceiving us or something.

And yet, we're also equally a culture that turns to Wikipedia to gain knowledge. And we, we go to, we tend to think that, like, groupthink is the best way to accomplish things.

But in our text this morning, John is going to suggest that a level of skepticism is actually helpful in the Christian life, that there's a healthy dose of testing the teaching that's around us, of actually observing it and kind of running it through the ringer of some tests to see whether or not it's accurate.

Where is it, where is it coming from? What is the source of any teaching? Do you, do you find yourself thinking on that level?

Are you sitting in a class, listening to your teacher? Do you think, what's the source of their, where are they getting this from?

Are you listening to a preacher, like you are right now? Where does he get this from? What is, what is the angle that this is coming at me from?

And John is saying that that's, that some sense of that is good, of thinking those things through at that level.

We ought to test the spirits, is what John is going to call it. And Christians tend to be both gullible and skeptical, both, and sometimes about the wrong thing.

Sometimes we're gullible about things we should be skeptical of, and sometimes we're skeptical of things that we should be rock solid about.

But John is going to suggest some criteria for testing spiritual teaching. And as the pastor of a church that had passed through the fires of a theological brouhaha, his, his church had been, had been broken up by a group of people who ultimately said,

Jesus isn't the Christ. And so there was a theological issue at play in his church that ended up dividing people and causing all kinds of problems.

And so he's the pastor of this church, writing to them to be discerning about what is and isn't theologically sound teaching.

Can you understand why he, as a person, as a pastor, might be motivated that the remnant of his congregation has some way to understand what is good, sound teaching and what isn't?

His church has been divided by false teaching and by error. And so that's what's going to motivate him.

So I want you to open your Bibles to 1 John 4. The first six verses is what we're going to be looking at, page 878 in the

Bible in the seat back in front of you. So if you turn to 878, and then it's going to go over to 879. And again, if you don't own a copy of the

Word of God, we ask that you please take that one with you. We want everybody to have a copy of the Bible that they can read at home, put it on your nightstand, read it, have it there.

And we've got a box full of Bibles to replace whatever's taken. But follow along as I read 1

John 4, verses one and one through six. 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 the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

They are from the world. Therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God.

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. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship.

Father, I'm grateful for the power of your Holy Spirit alive in us to guide us into the truth. Father, I pray that for us this morning that as we even have an opportunity to hear teaching from your word, we have an opportunity to dive in ourselves.

Father, that you would open our eyes and open our hearts and that you would bring application from this word into our lives. I know that I'm very limited in my ability to really cause any life change in anyone, even my own family.

And yet I recognize the immense power and authority of your Holy Spirit to be able to bring to us the notion of the truth and not just merely the understanding mentally of the truth, but actually the power to change our lives with the truth.

And so, Father, I pray for that for each one of us. I don't know where everybody is. I haven't been with everybody this week, but you have and you know exactly what they need.

So I ask by the power of your spirit, you would speak to each person sitting here where they're at in their life, in their week, to bring about life change and transformation this morning.

And then, Father, as we have an opportunity to worship you, I ask that we would worship you in spirit and in truth, that it would be both an engagement of our minds, but also equally an engagement of our hearts, that we would not be shy to express the joy that we have in Jesus Christ, and equally that our hearts would be impacted by the words of these songs and the things that we say to bring honor and glory to you.

Receive our worship even now, I ask in Jesus' name. Thanks a lot to Rob for filling in.

Josh is taking a week off and just very grateful for the band and the time and energy that they put in.

Encourage you to have your Bibles open to 1 John 4, page 878 in the Bible and sit back in front of you. I know that maybe in the shuffle or some of you came in later and you didn't necessarily know where we're at, but 1

John 4. My goal this morning is to interact with the very words of God. That's one of the reasons I want you to have the

Bible open in front of you. What I'm attempting to do every Sunday is to make that word of God become more clear into our cultural context, but it's really the words of God that I hope that you're paying attention to, and that you're really gleaning from that.

Certainly I'm trying to illustrate it and make it come alive for us, but it's powerful in and of itself, and so it's the words on the page that matter the most, not the words that I speak.

John has been tender towards his hurting people. I've mentioned a few times, a couple times already this morning, that he was pastoring a church that had been broken in half by false doctrine and error, and so he's tender towards his hurting people.

He calls them, right off the bat, you see in verse 1, beloved. We've seen him call them little children, not as a condescending term, but as a term of responsibility for them and desire to care for them, and then we see him intersperse the phrase beloved in there as well to say that ultimately he's saying,

I love you guys. I'm glad for you, and he's tender towards them, but I want to point out that as tender as he can be at times throughout this, he's a very, very direct individual.

I mentioned before that he was called, he was given a nickname by Jesus, Son of Thunder. Okay, so the creator of the universe called this man

Son of Thunder. Do you think that might have some significance about his personality? Most likely, yes. I imagine him to be a very passionate man, a fiery disposition, loud, boisterous, intense, you know, the kind of guy moved to extremes in emotion.

Okay, probably you, if he had an opinion, you probably knew what it was. You probably talked with his hands, and you know,

I mean, do you picture these people that wrote scripture and the people from biblical times as real people?

Do you realize they had emotions, they had personality, and you get to know a lot of John because he wrote the gospel for us, he wrote the book of Revelation for us, and he also wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

John for us, and so we have a lot of content, and we can kind of see, and then the other gospels talk about him to some degree as well, so I feel like you can get to know him.

But he starts out into new territory in chapter 4 by addressing his people as beloved.

He wants his people to know that they are loved even as he's been interspersing encouragement to them with stern warnings.

Have you gotten that from the book of 1st John so far, those of you that have been here? He's been like stern warning.

Have you heard some of the stern warnings in here? You hear stern warnings, and then you also see him sprinkling in encouragement for his body saying, be careful, be cautious.

You've just gone through a detrimental time, a hard time as a church. There's been a split, and so he's saying, you know, be warned, be warned, and there's all kinds of warning signs going off, and at the same time, he's encouraging them to walk in what is true, and what is right, and what is what is best.

But just like we've come to expect from John, he's going to run off on a new tangent. So we saw him at the conclusion of chapter 3.

You can look there with me for just a second. He said this, whoever keeps his commandments, whoever keeps God's commandments, abides in God, and God in him, and by this we know that he abides in us, and then he threw in this phrase, by the spirit whom he has given to us.

He wants his people to know that they are loved, but he is ultimately tying this in, and he's going off on a tangent.

He's launching out into a discussion now about the Holy Spirit, where he has this kind of this train of consciousness way of writing about him.

I mentioned that a couple weeks ago, or maybe it was just last week, that as he writes, it's like he picks up a thought, and then runs with it, and so now he's going to run with the concept of the

Holy Spirit, and how do we know the Holy Spirit? Well, he just mentioned the Holy Spirit, that the

Holy Spirit has been given to us. The Holy Spirit somehow addresses our confidence in Christ, and our assurance in Christ, and by this we know that he abides in us, by how?

By the spirit that's alive in us, and so now he's going to say, how can we identify whether or not it is the work of the

Holy Spirit that we are following, whether it is not, whether it is the teaching of the Holy Spirit we are following, or if it is the teaching of other spirits, and so that is the context into which

John is going to caution us, that not everything we hear from religious people comes from the

Holy Spirit. Did you already know that? Not everything that you hear from religious people comes from the

Holy Spirit. The implication of this message is that we do indeed live in a dangerous spiritual climate.

Believe it or not, we live in a dangerous spiritual climate. John's readers went through a church upheaval centered on false doctrine, and so he doesn't need to get into the nitty -gritty and details to convince them that they live in a hostile spiritual environment, because they were living it, right?

You understand? In their context, he's writing a letter to them. They've been broken in half as a church, and they are shattered and going through, you know, personal loss and struggle as a church, but for us,

I mean, how many of you think, I mean, you're here this Sunday morning, and you're kind of like, I kind of like my church, you know, it's okay, and I mean,

I feel like I've got good relationships around me, and things are going okay from that perspective. At least

I kind of hope you do. You can talk if you don't. Set up a time, we'll talk. But there is a reality in which we live in a dangerous spiritual climate, and so the people in John's time didn't need that direct reminder, but we might need that reminder before we dive in, that we live in a dangerous spiritual climate.

We can become lulled into complacency in our spiritual life. We can run to the Christian bookstore and buy a book on just about any topic that we want from a

Christian perspective. We can listen to all kinds of preaching. We can podcast. We can listen to sermons from some of the best speakers in the nation, and even globally, we have access to.

How many of you think we've got some access to information? Do we have access to information? Is it possible, would it be possible for you to completely isolate yourself in a nice Christian bubble?

Only read Christian authors, only listen to Christian radio, only listen to, and you could, could you really literally do that?

You really could in our culture and society that we live in. So we could be lulled into the notion that there's very little hostility toward our faith, and with tons of information and from a

Christian perspective available, we could begin to grow in the thoughts that everything is beneficial to us, right?

It's kind of water, you know, water down our notion to, you know, bring the radar down, so to speak, take the thinking cap off.

Oh, this is Christian radio. Take the thinking cap off. Oh, I'm at church now, and I trust the pastor.

Oh, take the thinking cap off. This is, this is a preacher from that church, so everything is going to be okay.

Do you see what I'm saying? We can let our guard down because we, we just, we feel safe. But are we safe?

We might even take it to the furthest extreme, and I think some of our, in our culture have, and if we're honest, a lot of the church has adopted this notion that we're tempted to go so far as to vilify anyone who would oppose another person's preaching.

Criticizing the teaching of another could be seen as one of the worst sins a preacher could commit from the pulpit, as if, as if disagreeing with someone else would be in and of itself almost the unpardonable sin, like to actually say, and you know what, you know what

I'm getting at by that? That to actually disagree with somebody is in and of itself like a big problem for a preacher, and yet John starts with this.

John wasn't shy of this. He starts with, do not believe every spirit.

John said that to his church, and I want to say that to this church. Do not believe every spirit.

Now, does that suddenly like kind of strike you like as a pretty direct statement? Do not believe every spirit.

He's commanding them. It's direct. It's pointed. It's a wake -up call that is being issued here.

It's not a common message, not a common message in our culture. Everybody in our culture has their own brand of truth, right?

Isn't that what the world is telling you out there? Sure, you know, you believe what's true for you, and everybody's got their own, you know, flavor of truth and all of that.

He says, do not believe every spirit. Now, I want to point out that in my modern scientifically oriented western mind,

I want to restate, I want to reinterpret, retranslate what John says here to make me more comfortable.

So he says, do not believe every what? What does he say? Spirit. Why not say, do not believe every teaching?

I mean, that'd be more comfortable for me and my scientific mind and my western thought. Do not believe every teaching.

Do not believe every teacher. Can you leave the spiritual out of this, John? Do you get what I'm saying by that?

I mean, how many of you would be, if you're just honest, you're kind of like, well, I get it if somebody says, don't believe every teaching. But now when you say, don't believe every spirit,

I don't talk to spirits very often, right? How many of you regularly, routinely talk to spirits?

Set up a time, I'd like to sit down and talk with you, but do you talk with spirits on a regular basis?

Don't believe every, don't believe every spirit. And there's something significant here to what John, John uses the word spirit intentionally.

He here is identifying that there is a spiritual agenda at work in this world.

There's a spiritual agenda at work in this world all around you. And what

I want to point out and what I think John is addressing here and moving towards is that we are not as far removed from the spiritual battle as some of us have been lulled to think.

We are to be engaged in a spiritual battle. I want to suggest to you that Satan would love to fly under the radar in your life and get behind your defensive walls.

Do you believe that? He would love to get behind that and get in there and take you out from the inside.

There's a spiritual battle going on. And I preached on Ephesians.

It was the first series that I did here at Recast Church. We actually, at one point, we were meeting in Greg and Jen Nitzel's basement before we even had this facility available here.

Did some of you know that we actually met in a basement? We were actually a house church for a period of time. Some of you maybe knew that, some of you didn't.

We've gone through different phases of as a church in a house here. Just to be straight up, there's the potential that we could eventually be meeting in a school for a period of time.

And we don't know what God has for us, we're just kind of working through that. So be in prayer about that. But at this point, and so I preached through Ephesians.

And at the end of Ephesians, there's this section about the, does anybody know where I'm going with this? The armor of God, okay?

The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, all of those, the belt of truth, all those things.

Are you familiar with those? Spiritual warfare. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and authorities and heavenly places.

It is not primarily talking here that we're in a battle against false teachers, like, you know, get them.

It's, there's a spiritual force that's behind these things. And although we might know that in our head, do we live in such a way that we identify and genuinely believe that there is a spirit behind this age?

John is making it clear that every teaching has a spirit that underwrites it. This doesn't mean that every professor or teacher or preacher who states something wrong is possessed by evil or something like that.

Don't, please, don't stone me. Once in a while, we'll say something that's wrong. And I mean, if you, if you catch it, let me know and we'll walk through that together.

But, but I think it's more like sponsorship, if you will. Like as if any brand of teaching has a spirit, one of two spirits that sponsors that teaching, that endorses it, that encourages it, that wants to promote it and help it to grow and, and nourish it.

Every spiritual teaching is endorsed by one of two spirits, either the spirit of Antichrist, who is Satan, or the

Holy Spirit himself, the third member of the Trinity. And every teaching is undergirded by one of those spirits.

And he says, test the spirits to figure out which one it is. So we are to test those spirits.

John is giving a significant authority to each believer here, okay, in his church.

He's not saying that it's the, it's primarily the pastor's job to test the spirits for you, that like, as if it's my job to tell you, read this author, don't read this author, watch this movie, don't watch this movie, do this, don't do that.

You see how it'd be, that's, that would be kind of like, some churches, some denominations have done that over the course of history, right?

They've basically let all the authority and all the tell you what to do rest in the leader. And they basically said, we don't even want you to know, we don't want you to be discerning, we'll do the discerning for you, thank you very much.

Does that sound like what John is saying here? The opposite. John is saying, test the spirits.

He's speaking to his congregation, saying that, test the spirits and see what's going on. We should be thinking for ourselves.

We should not be taking off your thinking cap when you're watching TV, not taking it off when you go to the movies.

I want you to know that you're pretty, you're pretty susceptible to falsehood when you're at the movies. Would you, would you admit to that?

The glitz and the glamour and the awe of the big screen and the, the, the graphics and the sci -fi and all the, all the different things that are going on there has a way of breaking down your barriers.

Did you, did you realize that? We're not, I'm not preaching against going to movies. I'm just saying, be aware.

Observe that, that TV has, is, has an agenda that it's promoting. Did you know that TV shows, the writers of those have a worldview that they are trying to sell to you?

Do you think about that? Do you, do you analyze it? Are you trying to figure out what's going on under the surface? I, I think,

I don't only bring this up, this is an old movie that I watched, but when I, I just realized that this is, I use it as an illustration.

I maybe have used it before, but how many of you have seen the movie Oceans 11? Older movie. I realized at one point,

I mean, it struck me in that movie that I was cheering for bank robbers. I was cheering that theft, that the law of God, no, literally, the command of God would be broken.

I was like, yeah, get it. Oh, this is so cool how they orchestrated this and the creativity of, what?

The creativity of breaking the laws of God? Is that what we're cheering for?

Do you get what I mean? I was broken down at that point, like, in the sense of, like, my, my wall was completely gone. Satan was already inside plundering at that point.

Because, I mean, I was like, this is awesome. This movie is great. And then I was like, what was I just cheering for again? What was that about?

So I use that as an illustration, but are you getting what I'm saying? How things can get, none of this is in my notes, by the way.

Not, not, Oceans 11 isn't even in here, so we're, we're a little off track. All that to say, we are not to sit back, slack jawed and take in media without thinking and discerning.

And certainly we are not to leave spiritual understanding and discernment to the professionals.

One of my, one of my responsibilities is to bring the word of God alive to you. I certainly believe that as a pastor and as a preacher,

I should have a good hand on the, in the culture and a good hand in the word and try to bring this to bear in this.

Bring the word of God to bear in your real life where you live. But that can't be the extent.

I'm not following you to the movies. I'm not watching the TV show with you. I'm not going to hold your hand and discern for you.

All of us, and that's what John is saying here, test the spirits and see if they are from God.

John says that many false prophets have gone out into the world. Do we believe that? Do we believe that there are false spirits that are out in the world?

Some of them in John's age and some of them in our age have infiltrated the church. They've landed in churches, false prophets.

I want to point out are dangerous because they are like wolves in sheep's clothing. It's the very nature of them deceptively coming within the walls and, and infiltrating.

And that, that picture of them looking like one of us, they look like the real deal. They sound like the real deal.

You know, no false prophet adds to their LinkedIn profile, false prophet. Okay. And they don't put that down for endorsement.

Like I've been endorsed by 16 people as you know, my, my, one of my skills, one of my endorsements is false prophecy. Is that,

I mean, do you see that? Or is it on a business card? Hey, I'd just like to introduce you. I introduced myself here.

Take my business card. I'm a false prophet. There's my number. If you've got any teaching opportunities, let me know. You're not, you're not going to see that, are you?

And that's part of the nature of the, of the, the problem is that there's deception involved in it.

Now, some of us, some of you may be sitting here and you literally are doubting the existence of these people. Like prove it to me,

Don. I've never, I've never met anybody who literally headed out for the church. I've never met a false prophet or somebody who was destructive in their hearts towards the church.

Others of you have met people like that and you're going, I know exactly what you're talking about.

I've seen it firsthand and I've been there and I've lived it and I'm sorry for you. And some of you maybe are even right now are still struggling through the vestiges of spiritual abuse that's happened to you in the past from people like this.

And I would love to walk through that with you if you'd give me the chance. But if you've never met one of these people, then you're going to have to take on faith that what

John is saying here is true. And there really are people out there who have an agenda of spiritual destruction for those around them.

They're intentional about it. But I also equally have to say this. I believe that the majority of false prophecy comes through men and women who do not even know they're being used by the evil one.

That's the majority of it. You know what I'm talking about? They don't even know they don't have an agenda. They couldn't speak out.

Oh, my goal is to bring this church to its knees. They wouldn't say that. Now, some would. There are people like that out there.

But the majority of them are people who are either given so much over to the culture that they just want to please everybody around them.

But ultimately, they're watering down the truth or bringing down the truth or bringing down the standard. Let me just say this.

And this is important. If you're taking notes, I'd want you to write something. Get this paraphrased or whatever. It's not the words that matter.

It's the concept. It is not the intention of the speaker or teacher that vindicates whether or validates whether they're false or not false.

But as we're going to see in a moment, it is the content of their message. Everybody should rise and fall based on the content of their message, not the intention of their heart.

So in other words, they might have the best intentions, but if they're teaching falsehood, they fall in this category of false prophet.

You get what I'm saying? Not their intention. How many of you have met somebody with good intentions that was inadequate?

Have you met somebody like that? Maybe some of us are there ourselves.

In verse two, we find the first test then for spiritual teaching. The first test.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God, John says.

Now, we've got to remember that he's speaking into a cultural context. It's obvious that in verses eight, 18 through 22 of chapter two, chapter two versus 18 through 22 is where he basically describes those who have broken his church.

He basically walks us through that they have gone out from among you and they have left and departed and are still trying to win some of you over.

And that's in that section. And it's obvious that what they used to tear apart the church was denying that Jesus was the

Christ. Probably even denying that he had come in flesh. They were just saying either one of two things.

Either they were saying he was a good guy who wasn't God and didn't come down, but he was just a good guy.

Or they were actually saying he didn't even, he wasn't even a physical, physical being. He was just a spirit being. And it's hard to tell which one.

I think it's the latter one. I think they were actually saying he was just a spirit being. They were buying into some of the notions and philosophies of their age that I'm going to spell out here in just a little bit.

But they were denying Christ. And so John makes a culturally adapted test for orthodox teaching.

He says this is how you know what right teaching is. If you can say that Jesus pre -existed with God and then came in flesh, then you are affirming what

John sees as the central understanding of the nature of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sound doctrine.

That Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, came in flesh is vital.

Okay, so you have the humanity of Jesus, right, in flesh. He was genuinely 100 % human.

But you also have that phrase, came in the flesh. Now, how many of you speak of yourselves that way? Yeah, January 24th, 1973,

I came in the flesh. Would that be a little bit weird? That a little bit weird? We didn't pre -exist.

We were not pre -existent. We came into being our souls created at a point in history.

You know, that whole mom and dad thing and stuff. But Jesus came in the flesh, like a willful, volitional choice.

You see what John is affirming here? He's saying if you can genuinely say that Jesus pre -existed in eternity, volitionally, of his own will, chose to come in flesh and become one of us, then there's some sound teaching in it.

Right? Is that good? That's good. And certainly for his era and for his day and age, because of some of the heresies that were flying around during the time of John, he's attacking it head on and giving them a test.

So John holds up both the divinity of Jesus and the humanity of Jesus as core to our faith.

And notice that when John speaks of central things, when he gets down to what is most important, who is there in the middle?

Christ. Jesus is there. If we find ourselves listening to some spiritual teaching and we find that Jesus is not in it, we need to start raising some red flags.

If you're listening to a podcast and you just all of a sudden are recognizing that Jesus is not there, or maybe he's just a sub, you know, he's like a second bit character to the storyline, that'd be throwing up some flags, just kind of figuring out, is this profitable?

Is it beneficial? Because every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

Notice that it's not just that we should have our ears open for a direct denial of Jesus. That's more than a red flag.

You're done at that point, right? Somebody says, Jesus is not the Messiah. He's not the one. You're kind of like, okay, done, off.

Right? I mean, if that's the case, but how many of you know that Satan isn't that often that direct in his attacks, in his assaults?

It's the ability to listen to a man preach for an hour and never mention the name of Jesus. Now, somebody could probably get by with that in our culture, right?

They could get away with that. That's subtle. Is that subtle? And yet you kind of listen and you think back to that sermon and you're like, there was really no cross in that.

There was really no Jesus there. And you go back and listen the next week, and the next week there's just no

Jesus there. And the next week, there's no Jesus there. And the next week, and on you go. Should what is absent from the message be important to us?

John is saying if Jesus isn't in it, it is not of the Holy Spirit. If it's not about Jesus, then the

Holy Spirit is not behind it, especially routinely. As a preacher, let me just say this, because I stand up here and so now

I could be guilty of like selling you guys on my brand of teaching. Like, you know what

I'm saying? I mean, I could be saying, you know, okay, well, I try to bring everything back to the word and back to the center. So is that what, I hope you're seeing this from John and not from me, okay?

Let me start there and just say, when it comes to my preaching, I'm trying my best to follow the word of God and walk through this.

But I acknowledge that I can lay an egg from time to time, okay? Once in a while, once in a while, I light the match to the fuse, and it doesn't go off, okay?

There are duds, and I'm trying to shoot rockets every week, and sometimes it's a dud. And I want to say this just in all honesty, ironically,

I don't know which is which. That's just kind of, I'm letting you into my heart, I'm letting you into what it's like to be a preacher.

But it's like, you think of the public speaking down, do you know when you know when you've hit it and when you haven't? And I'm like, no, I just can't even see the ball once I swing the bat.

It's like, I don't, I don't really know. You know, I mean, there are times when I'm like, well, that didn't work.

And I stepped down, you know, and I'm going over towards the door going, well, okay, we just serve communion. And fortunately, they got something out of this.

And then, you know, then somebody comes up and is like, man, that was just really, it really hit my heart. And I'm like, God, thanks.

I mean, it's totally him. And then there's other times where I'm like, whoa, you know, I get done. And I'm just like, that was awesome.

And somebody's like, well, good luck next week. You know, you got you got, you got next week to try harder and better, and that'll be good.

And so sometimes I need to be knocked down a peg. And then other times, it's like I need to be lifted up. And I mean, all that.

But here's what keeps me going week in and week out when it comes to this context of thinking about what is true, and what is good preaching and what is not good preaching.

And I'm certainly not going to just be on every week and you're going to be like, oh, well, I canceled my podcast for John Piper, because I got to hear

Don this week, or don't expect that to happen anytime soon. But I'm waiting for his invitation to come to one of his conferences and speak, of course, but you know, hey, not gonna happen.

But this is what keeps me moving. So it keeps me getting up here every week. And that's this conviction that I believe it's better a lame message about Jesus.

Better that I drop a dud, but it's still about Jesus, than a brilliant, charismatic, enthusiastic message absent of the

King of Kings. Better that I try my best, and I keep Jesus at the core, and I drop a dud.

Because my conviction is that ultimately, our only hope is that we encounter God through the text.

That's my hope for all of us. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is the spirit of Antichrist.

That's what John is saying. Now, John already spoke about Antichrist earlier in the book of 1

John. He's one of the authorities. I mean, you think about this. Okay, the guy who's writing this letter is also equally the guy who wrote the book of Revelation.

He's in essence going to be speak very authoritatively on the power of the Holy Spirit about end times.

Do you think he has some notion or some understanding about the Antichrist? He's speaking under the authority of the

Spirit himself, and he told us back in chapter 2 that Antichrist is coming. He's a real person, a real political figure, singular, the

Antichrist. But equally, here he is saying that his spirit is already active and alive and at work in this world.

He's a real guy who's coming in the future, but right now his spirit is alive and at work.

And I believe that that's the spirit of Satan. That's what he's getting at there. This work of these spirits of Antichrist, I think, show themselves in subtle ways in our culture.

So I think one of the most subtle ways that I think we can all relate to is the way that the mention of the name of Jesus makes almost everyone in our society uncomfortable.

Would you say that that's accurate? So there are a lot of things you could probably get away with saying at your workplace.

As a matter of fact, there are things that you could get away with saying at your workplace that ought to make people blush that they won't blush at, because we live in a brash and brazen culture that to speak of sin openly is acceptable in our culture.

Would you agree with me on that? So people will have conversations around the water cooler that are like, ah, their mom wouldn't like that conversation.

But mention Jesus in that context, and watch how people blush. Watch how they get uncomfortable.

You know what I'm talking about? The spirit of Antichrist alive in our culture and in our age, an opposing of anti, against Christ.

Now, it's acceptable to profane the name of Christ, right? That acceptable? No, no, it's not.

But I mean, in our culture, it is, right? And so profaning the name of Christ, as long as you say it in a derogatory way, you can get away with it.

It's the greater sin in our culture to say his name in an endearing, meaningful way.

Right? And I don't know if you've ever identified this, but in the subtle way in our broader culture, have any of you ever been to pluggedinonline .com?

Plugged in? I think it's just pluggedin .com now. But I'd encourage you, especially if you're parents right now of children, you need to write that down, pluggedin .com.

And it basically is a movie, a Christian movie review website. And they do a pretty good job of just remaining neutral.

They're going to just give you facts about the movies. But have you ever recommended a movie to somebody?

Maybe you saw it when you were a kid, or you saw it a dozen years ago, and you're like, oh, that was a good movie, man. You should watch it. And then you're like, oh, no.

And you realize how many times it uses that word. And plugged in online actually shows you just in a very direct way, how many times does this word appear?

How many times does this word appear? How many times do they use the Lord's name in vain? How many times do they mention God in an inappropriate way?

And it just kind of walks right through. And then the philosophy of the movie is kind of expounded. What is the core worldview that this movie is espousing?

It's a very good website. But all that to just say, I mean, how many times do you hear the Lord's name in vain on a given day?

You watch a movie, how many times does it use the Lord's name in vain? The spirit of Antichrist is alive and well in our culture and in our community and in our media.

He is having his heyday right now. There are also other overt ways that our culture demonstrates the spirit of Antichrist.

Again, some subtle and some more overt, but go to the self -help section of any bookstore and browse it looking for the name

Jesus. You're going to get some help, but Jesus is not there.

Go even to sections of the Christian bookstore. You can find a lot of books that barely even give a nod to Jesus Christ, the

Son of God, who is our Savior. Barely even mention him. Some churches in our culture have abandoned the belief that Jesus is indeed the incarnate

Son of God, just directly said, no, he was a good man, taught us good principles, you know, taught us the principles of sacrifice in the end and all of that.

And many self -proclaimed Christians have a theology that amounts to what Mark Driscoll calls therapeutic deism.

Any of you ever heard that phrase, therapeutic deism? It's basically, God is my therapist. His primary concern is my self -esteem, and he is seeking to bring about a better well -being in my emotional state.

And that's the sum total of him. He's basically detached from our world except for when I need him,

I'll give him a call, just like my therapist or my counselor, and he is my primary therapist.

That leads to that notion is that our emotional health is the only primary thing, and that Jesus was a good man who lived a good example.

And John is not merely saying, here, watch out for people who insult

Jesus. That's a huge red flag. Somebody insults Jesus, you're like, okay, I think I know where they stand.

He's saying, watch for the spirit of antichrist. It will seek to leave Jesus out of the picture entirely.

What is not there in teaching is important. But John encourages followers that they have been born of God.

He has woven into his letter a theme of the children of God. And as children of God, they have overcome the spirits of antichrist.

I want you to look at verse four with me. Go ahead and look down at the page for just a second. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, them being the spirits of antichrist, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

How did they overcome? Did they overcome by having a quiet time in the morning? Is that what it said?

They overcame by church attendance, right? By being in church every Sunday. That's how they overcame.

Or did it say they overcame by tithing. They gave 10 % of their income to the church and to ministries around the world.

And that's how they overcame. Is that what it says? No. The second half of verse four tells us, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Who is in us? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit within us.

Who is in the world? The spirit of antichrist or Satan himself.

I've said this before, but as we consider this battle, this battle that's going on for our souls, and there's a genuine spiritual battle that we are to be engaged in, and you are engaged in it, whether you acknowledge it or not, you could be a broken down wall, you could be a broken down fortress, but you're territory that the evil one wants.

But how we think about the battle matters. It's essential that we start with the understanding that it is not an equal battle.

It's not yin and yang, half black, half white in this battle, you know, and who's going to win this epic cosmic battle that's going on.

It's not equal opposing forces locked in an epic cosmic battle. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

Greater is he who is in you than the one who is out in the world.

How's the greater than? Well, if I do it this way, then the

Holy Spirit needs to be over here, and the evil one needs to be over here. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

The power of the universe at work with you and in you to give you victory over sin and to guide you into all truth.

Holy Spirit alive in you. On what basis do we test the spirits? On what basis do we overcome the evil one?

Not on our own strength. Don't go out on your own, but the power of the Holy Spirit that resides within us.

So verses five and six give us a final test for orthodoxy that I believe is also going to apply to us fairly well.

The first one is a test of Christology, is a test of the nature of Christ, him come in flesh, both 100 %

God, 100 % man. But the second one, the spirit of antichrist at work in the false prophets of our age and false teachers, he dovetails his message with the world and gives them back what they want to hear.

So he listens and he basically hears what the world wants to hear and then adopts that as his message and gives it back to them.

How many of you think that that has some appeal to the world? You take what they're already saying and just make it your message.

Like a church who just wants to be, I do not like this word as it's applied to churches, relevant.

Just wants to be relevant. Let me just tell you my firm conviction is that this is relevant.

It is relevant. Okay? This is relevant. Now, certainly there's a way to bring it that sounds irrelevant.

And I understand what churches are getting at when they name themselves that or when they walk through that. So don't hear me bashing churches named relevant or anything like that.

But what I am trying to say is that if your goal is to just make the world like what you have to say, if that's what you mean by relevant, then you're beginning to compromise.

Do you understand what I'm saying by that? It's taking what the world has said and trying to spit them back the same thing.

And that's not going to cut it. Let me give you an illustration of this.

When a teacher teaches that the loving thing to do is to let two people live together. I've actually heard that taught before.

The loving thing to do is just let two people live together. How many of you know that the word fornication is not used often in our churches anymore?

You realize that? I don't use it very often myself. And yet this idea, this teaching, how many of you know that that ship, many people in our culture would say that ship has already sailed,

Don. Why are you addressing that anymore? People live together before they're married. That's just the way of life.

That's what happens in our culture, in our society. Is that pretty accurate? Am I overstating the case?

Or is that really where our culture has gone, is already? And some people would say, why are you even, I don't even address that anymore.

People are already there. Why? Because the world, you know, somebody teaches that and the world likes it.

Why? Because it's giving them back exactly what they already think and feel anyway. So you're not challenging any of that.

Taking the word of God is true and challenging the world with it. But instead just going, you know what? We're just going to preach what they want to hear.

When our culture, we live in a world that espouses a sexuality divorced from God's loving, compassionate decrees.

And I mean, you know, he has a way he would like for us to live. And that's a compassionate, loving way that he, there's good reasons why he wants us to live that way.

Or what about when a preacher stands up and preaches that God wants us to be healthy and wealthy and prosperous? Well, a pastor who preaches that has a good chance of becoming a pastor at one of the largest churches in America, right?

I mean, the largest church in America has about 50 ,000 people in a given

Sunday. And this is the nature of the teaching at that church is health, wealth, and prosperity.

If you have enough faith, God will make you wealthy. Make you filthy rich if you have enough faith.

Well, how can a church get that big with that message? It's what the world wants to hear. It's what we,

I mean, if we're honest, we've even bought into some of that. The world drives hard after unfettered consumerism and inordinate wealth, and they're hearing what they want to hear.

What John is saying is that a good test for orthodoxy is the world's response to us.

If you are preaching the truth, if you're speaking the truth, how many of you know that some people are going to become aggravated with you?

There's going to, at some point, be a kickback from the world if you're speaking truth. If you have interaction at the water cooler with people at work, if you have interaction over the cubicle and somebody's sharing with you what's going on, and you share biblical counsel with them, you might make an enemy.

As a matter of fact, I'd suggest that you will, at some point in your life, have somebody who doesn't really like your advice if you are bringing biblical advice to the world.

And that's what he's saying is that the world's response is, in essence, a measure. If I'm up preaching and everybody always loves everything that I'm preaching, either

I'm preaching to the choir and we're all believers or else somebody's going to get ruffled from time to time.

That's just reality. Spirit -filled teachers and spirit -filled congregants know

God and therefore they listen to and heed spirit -driven teaching. Look at the last verse with me.

We are from God. John's statement. We are from God. 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. Those who are of the world and of the world system do not like sound teaching, and whoever is not from God will not listen.

Unless the spirit is at work in a person, drawing them in, they will be repulsed by sound biblical teaching.

Certainly, John is speaking to a specific context with specific false teachers in mind. He's just watched his church get torn apart by false teachers.

I think it would be reasonable for us to note that there seems to be some gaps in our modern time from these two tests and thinking from our modern perspective.

Is it enough to say, if we just say that everybody who says, Jesus, the incarnation is true, and then they say things that ruffle the feathers of others around them, does that guarantee that they're speaking on behalf of the

Holy Spirit in our culture and in our day right now? Are there people who would maybe say Jesus came in flesh that would be still in error about things?

Yeah, there would be. And so I want to just point out that I believe that the two tests that John is issuing is to his church in a specific context, but he's giving us a model for pastoral counsel to knowing the day and the age that you live in and watching for the means, the methods of the spirit of Antichrist alive in it.

And there's different things in our culture than there were in his that demonstrate the spirit of Antichrist among us.

Let me give an example of what I'm talking about here. In an age of pluralism, would you say that we live in an age of pluralism?

Let me define that real quick for you. Pluralism is that all roads ultimately lead to God. Your truth is the same as my truth is the same as their truth.

And ultimately, whether you're worshiping Allah or Vishnu or Shiva or your dead grandmother or whatever, it's all going to, in the end, you're worshiping the same thing.

Right? And so that's pluralism. There's just multiple roads that lead to God and pluralism dovetails with universalism that everybody's going to eventually get to heaven, just different pathways to the same mountaintop or something like that.

So is our message as offensive in a pluralistic culture? It's not quite as offensive as it would have been in John's times because people are, have you ever like told the gospel to somebody, spoke the gospel to them and they were like, yeah, that's good.

That's great. That's good for you. Well, what's going on there? Aren't they supposed to be offended?

Well, John says that they ought to be offended, but well, in his day and age, they would have been, but in our day and age, they're like, well, that's good.

That's good for you. I'm glad that works for you. You know, maybe I'll try it someday too. I don't know. Right now

I've got what I've got working works for me. So I'll just keep going that way until, you know, I roll into a roadblock and then we'll try something different.

You see what I'm saying? And so that test is not as clear as it would have been in a largely

Jewish and Greek context where almost every point of theology was in disagreement between Christianity and the broader culture.

I mean, just take one simple thing like bacon. Oh, I just threw out bacon. Okay. Christians say bacon in John's time.

They're starting to roll with that. And John and Peter sees the sheet come down and it's like, you can eat what you want now. The old testament law doesn't apply to you because in Christ it's all been rolled up.

And so it's like bacon. And then, um, and then the Jews come along and they're like, no bacon, no bacon.

And you're like, that's a good reason to become a Christian right there. Sorry. That was not right.

But, um, so you're, you're, they're butting heads. That's what I'm trying to get at is that there's, there's constantly at all multiple different ways.

You're saying the Messiah has come. The Jews are saying by no means has the Messiah come. We're waiting for him.

And can you see how just at fundamental levels, there would be multiple disagreements with Christianity and the culture around them.

And you've got people worshiping, um, Artemis and Zeus and Athena. And you've got people in that era, in that time, just all kinds of like prostitution in the temples and all that stuff.

Can you see how maybe Christians couldn't take part in any of that and how there'd be like, well, you're going there on Friday here, but I'm not going there.

So it's, you see how there would be a lot of conflict. That's all that I'm saying. And even the test that Jesus came in the flesh countered a very contemporary issue for the early church.

John talking specifically about this. Uh, there's a religious philosophy called Gnosticism. How many of you have heard Gnosticism?

You've heard of the phrase, the word Gnosticism before it was a, a Greek religious philosophy.

Um, that was very strong during this time. As a matter of fact, many see that John was writing to counter this.

This philosophy was probably what divided and broke his church in half. Gnosticism, Gnosticism in a nutshell basically says the material world is evil and the spiritual world is good.

So in other words, um, uh, the kind of way that they would teach Gnosticism is the idea that you are, you are a spirit imprisoned in a body.

And the goal is that eventually you'll become released from this physical realm and be, and become what you really were intended to be a pure spiritual being who is, um, no, no flesh, no physical, no physicality, no tables, no hard things.

And so a lot of that's been carried over into the Christianity of today. So the notion that God would come in flesh was a huge hangup to anyone who bought into that philosophy.

And so some Christians began to deny the incarnation and say, well, then Jesus wasn't flesh because we know that flesh is evil.

And they bought into basically trying to be more relevant to the culture around them.

What they sought to do is to say, well, maybe we can just water this down in a way that we'll get more followers. So if we just deny the incarnation, then we can go there.

And so a whole branch, a whole heretical group formed called Docetus, um, big word.

You don't need to know that. But, um, the big thing is that they believe they would literally say Jesus walked on the shore of Galilee with his followers, but he didn't leave footprints because he didn't have a body.

I mean, that's the kind of stuff that they would say, you know, Jesus didn't have flesh. And so can you see why

John is here saying, um, anyone who states that Jesus came in flesh is of the

Holy spirit. Well, in his day and age, people were literally saying Jesus didn't come in flesh. Think back to how he started this letter.

Some of you who are here, some of his opening introduction is we touched him.

That's the first thing that John wants to declare to his church. I touched him.

He had flesh and bone. I embraced him. We ate together. I saw him with my eyes.

I studied him. I spent time with him. Can you see why John would be like, kind of like over the top in this testimony that, listen,

I can vouch for this. I was there. Eyewitness handled him with my hands.

So he is testifying that the incarnation is true and said, anybody who denies that is antichrist.

So John could say by these two tests in his generation, they could know the spirit of truth and error. But I want to suggest to you that there's three things in our, in our era, in our time that we need to think about when we're listening to Christian authors, when we're listening to podcasts, when we're watching

TV preachers or listening to fallible humans like me preach the word. And I'd encourage you just at all times, be these three things are things that I've identified in our culture that, um, would be good tests for Orthodox teaching.

The first is, is sin preached as the problem is sin proclaimed as the problem of humanity.

Humanity has one main problem called sin and all of the problems flow from that. The majority of theological error centered around sin results from settling somewhere short of volitional, willful rebellion against our creator and basically settling for something less than that as the primary problem.

So let me ask you some questions. Is low self -esteem a problem? Is it a problem? Yeah. Yep.

Not a trick question. It is. Is it anyone's primary problem? It is not.

Sin is. Is a broken childhood a problem? Yeah.

Yes, it is. Is it anyone's primary problem? Sin is.

Is the lack of material wealth, the lack of ability to provide for your family and for yourself, is that a problem? Yes.

Is it anyone's primary problem? Sin is. So any teaching that treats the symptoms as if they are the primary problem is falling short of biblical teaching.

The prosperity gospel treats poverty as the primary problem. Therapeutic deism treats self -esteem as the primary problem.

And a lot of psychology treats our upbringing and woundedness as our primary problem.

But any spiritual teacher who refuses to address our offenses against a holy and just God as sin and as the primary problem of humanity is not accurately dealing with the word of God.

There are a lot of people who are afraid to use the word sin, are afraid to address the reality that we all have broken relationships with God, our creator.

And so what's the solution? If you get the problem right, then you've got to get the solution still. And the second thing is, is grace or the cross, really grace through the cross, preached as the means of salvation?

There may be someone in our culture who correctly diagnosed the problem and then they misprescribed the cure. Like having a toothache and prescribing

Prevacid, you know, the antacid. So now you're kind of like, well, okay, now I'm digesting fine and my stomach is okay, but I still have this toothache, right?

Like that's not going to solve the problem. And I would suggest to you that a lot of times it's people who really, really get the problem.

Like if somebody, there's, there are churches that are super excited to tell you you're a sinner. Like they really get it.

They're like, oh yeah, you're a sinner. You better believe you're a sinner. And so a lot of times it's churches that get the diagnosis really right.

That then misprescribed the cure. They're like, yeah, we're all sinners. So you better, you better get busy pleasing

God, rules and regulations and laws and all kinds of structures in place to make you a better person.

So is that misprescribing the cure? It is. Yeah, very much.

Our problem is sin and the remedy is the cross of Jesus Christ. God sent us an amazing gift of himself wrapped in humanity.

He suffered for us and died for us so that anyone who would believe, that is anyone who would put their trust in him will be saved.

And that moved a guy named Tullian Chevijan. Any of you ever heard of him? Tullian, try to pronounce it.

If you see it, try to try to spell it. And if you see it spelled, then you're not going to pronounce it right. Tullian Chevijan is the grandson of Billy Graham.

And he wrote a book called Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything because Jesus is a standalone cure.

His remedy interacts with all other remedies to cause his remedy to be inert.

OK, so you take you take a medicine that says caution, don't take this with such and such a thing, because this medicine won't work like it's supposed to if you take it with something else.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything, not well, if Jesus is grace, if this cross doesn't work, well, hopefully

I've lived a good enough life and maybe my good works will supplement what Jesus did on the cross. You getting that?

Any spiritual teacher who spends more time on telling you what to do or not do without reference to the cross is not accurately conveying the cure that is revealed in this book.

And lastly, is Jesus at the center? That's the question. The last test. John identified that anyone who is genuinely speaking to the power of the spirit of God will lift

Jesus high, will lift Jesus high often and with passion. One of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is to glorify

Jesus. And in John 16, 14, he actually said the spirit, the Holy Spirit is coming to glorify me,

Jesus. Anyone teaching, any teaching that comes from the Holy Spirit is going to be saturated with Jesus Christ, not a passing nod, but an entire teaching that will land at the feet of Christ.

And we intentionally bring everything to a landing here on Sunday with communion because it's the strong conviction of recast church that Jesus and his sacrifice are at the center of everything we are as Christians.

If we are anything, we are Jesus people. If we are anything, we are Christ followers.

So we come to communion to remember the one who stands brightly at the center of all sound teaching. Hopefully you leave here this morning with a framework of sound teaching.

John didn't shy away from pointing people to the central role of Jesus Christ in correct teaching.

Let this communion point us all together to come back to his feet once again at the start of this new week.

He shed his blood for us. His body was broken for us. And if you recognize your own sin is the problem, you see

Jesus and his cross as the solution and have been living with Jesus Christ at the center, then please join together in taking the juice and the cracker to remember his glorious sacrifice that brings us together into his family, his family of truth.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you are concerned for our ability to discern.

You recognize that we can easily be snowed, that it's easy to let falsehood in behind our barriers and our walls and to be plundered from within, that we can give ourselves over to wrong thinking and wrong teaching.

And so Father, I pray that you would guide us and direct us into the realm of discernment even this week.

Father, that you would help us as we have an opportunity to come to communion, to come there with joy, recognizing that the sacrifice has been made for us.

Nothing that we earned, nothing that we deserved, that ultimately it is your son and his cross, plus nothing that gives us everything in hope for the future and purpose.

Father, help us to reflect on the cross even this morning, that we would go out from here with joy, with a resolve to be discerning people who do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see what their source is.