WWUTT 431 Beloved Test the Spirits?

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. It is a loving thing to instruct a person in the truth when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the book of 1 John.

Today we will be in chapter 4, and I'll be reading verses 1 through 6. The apostle, writing to the churches in Asia Minor, 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. So as we've been going through this study of the book of 1

John, we've had several instances where John will provide ways for his readers to test themselves to see that they are truly in the faith, giving them assurances of the salvation that they have in Christ Jesus.

Here in this particular section he not only provides those assurances once again, but he also gives them ways that they can test the false teachers to see that they're really not in the faith.

So to test whether somebody is in the spirit of Christ or in the spirit of the Antichrist.

We come back to chapter 4, verse 1, and we have that wonderful, loving, affectionate address that John gives to his readers, beloved, do not believe every spirit.

So he is, this is a loving, impassioned appeal to those whom he is writing, beloved, don't believe every spirit.

And it is a loving thing to call a person to correction or to teach them and show them how they can know the difference between the truth and a lie.

We have it said to us in Proverbs 12, 1, whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Now whenever we read a proverb like this, and there's several throughout the book of Proverbs that sound just like that, we'll tend to think of it as the person who is receiving the correction.

So a wise person who's being corrected, well, he'll love the correction. Thank you. I want to know the truth.

I want to be disciplined in the truth. So, so thank you for correcting me. He is wise because he loves discipline, therefore he loves knowledge.

Nobody knows everything. So everyone needs discipline in order to rightly know the truth and handle it rightly.

Okay. So the fool, whenever he is corrected, he's going to hate the correction.

No, no, no. I'm right. You're wrong. All right. And they believe in the truth according to what they feel.

They are their own moral compass. Their their understanding of truth is entirely subjective.

It is not built on anything fixed outside themselves. It's not objective truth.

It's subjective truth. It's what they want to believe is the truth. So that's the fool. He won't stand to be corrected, but the wise person will be corrected, desiring to walk in the truth.

So that's the way that we tend to consider a verse like this, Proverbs 12 one, that it has to do with the person who is being corrected, but this also has to do with the person who issues the correction.

A person who loves knowledge will also discipline somebody else to walk in the truth.

Okay. So this is the person who is issuing the correction, not just the person who is receiving the correction.

The fool, by contrast, will not correct anybody. All right.

They're basically just sharing their own truth. And I don't want to offend anybody by telling them that their truth is wrong.

So I'm not going to correct them. That person hates reproof, too.

It's not just a matter of the fact that they haven't. They're unwilling to receive correction.

They're unwilling to give correction. So that makes him a fool as well. Whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge.

He who hates reproof is stupid. Consider Proverbs 13 24, where it says whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

If you do not discipline your kids, you hate your kids. And the same thing applies in the body of Christ as well.

If we refuse to call our brothers and sisters in Christ to correction, whenever we see them stumble or we see them go away, that is contrary to the instructions that we have in Scripture, contrary to the commands of Christ.

If we refuse to issue correction, we hate our brothers and sisters in Christ. And it's nothing but pride because you don't want to offend them.

You don't want to lose a friend. You don't want to have to deal with the drama that would ensue because you tried to correct somebody else.

All of that is very selfish. It's all self -centered. It's just too much trouble for you. But you're not actually putting the needs of the other person ahead of your own feelings.

And so if we refuse to correct one another in the body of Christ, that's hateful.

That's hateful to not issue correction. We have it said for us in Hebrews chapter 12, borrowing from what is said in the book of Proverbs, that the

Lord disciplines those he loves. So therefore, in the body of Christ as well, we are going to discipline the brothers and sisters of Christ whom we love.

But we do this gently. We do this very lovingly. This is not lording yourself over somebody else. I know better than you.

I'm smarter than you. I've been a Christian longer than you. And so therefore, you need to listen to me. That's not the way that we address those things.

We do it compassionately, sensitively, as Paul talks about in Colossians chapter 3, with encouragement, encouraging and admonishing one another in the

Lord. And so it's because we love one another that we will issue correction. It's because John loves the church that he is writing to, that he is offering this test to know who is of the spirit of Christ and who is in the spirit of the

Antichrist. So he says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

And we're going to have people that will come up to us and say that they've received a vision from the

Lord or a word or a prophecy or God has revealed something to them.

How do you know what they are saying truly is from God? We test it according to the scriptures.

And I'll tell you straight up, if somebody comes to you saying that God has revealed something to them or appeared to them in a vision, you can very confidently respond to them.

No, we didn't. How? How can you respond to them that way? Well, because it says in Hebrews one long ago at many times and in many ways,

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

So after Christ did this, he went back, he sat down, he is upholding everything by the word of his power.

What is the word of Christ? But it is the Bible that we are reading. It is the word that was given to his apostles, which they wrote down.

And we now study this is the word of Christ. So there was a time before Christ came, before his first coming, when

God spoke through the prophets. And he did this in various ways. He spoke to the prophets through burning bushes.

He spoke to the prophets in a cloud. He spoke to them through a donkey, all right.

He spoke to them in a whirlwind, you know, various ways, dreams, visions, personal appearances, all these kinds of things, the ways that God communicated to his prophets.

That was before Christ came. When Christ came, he has spoken to us by his son,

Jesus in his earthly ministry taught what he was going to teach. It was written down by his apostles in the gospels.

And then he commissioned his apostles to go into all the world, teaching all that he had commanded them.

And so we have in the rest of the epistles, the same things that we see Jesus teaching in the gospels.

It's just been expounded upon, but they are still carrying the word of Christ. What they are saying is exactly what

Christ has told them to say. They're speaking the words of their king. That is what an apostle does.

An apostle carried the word of the king. So this is what we have in the scriptures.

We have the word of Christ. So somebody who comes to you and claims that God has revealed something to them.

God spoke to me, showed me something. And now I'm going to tell you if it doesn't line up with the word of God, it did not come from God.

But even if what they're revealing to you does line up with the word of God, there's no need for their word or vision because it's in the

Bible. So we don't have these special revelations and things like that that come to us from God.

God has spoken through his son, through his son's apostles given to us in the word of God, the

Bible, everything that we could want to hear God say is already right here.

So when someone comes to you and says, I have a word from God, you can say, okay, give me chapter and verse.

I want to hear it. That's what their word should be. I have a word to you from the

Lord. All right. I want you to quote it to me right out of the Bible. If they're quoting something that is not in scripture, it did not come from God.

It's a very simple way that we can test the spirits. But nonetheless, those who are not as mature, who do not have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice that's talked about in the book of Hebrews, does not yet know that a person who, who claims these things is not really speaking the word of God.

Everybody needs to have discernment. We all need to be discerning. We all need to know the difference between right and almost right.

Okay. That that's right. That sounds close, but I know that it's not okay.

We need to, we need to be able to hone in on that skill to be discerning, knowing the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

But some are going to have a greater helping of that spiritual gift in discernment. That's talked about in first Corinthians chapter 12, the ability to discern between spirits.

I remember an instance that happened recently with a pastor friend of mine, just down the road a little ways on Facebook.

He was telling his congregation, okay, coming up this Sunday, we're going to have communion. We're going to gather at the

Lord's table. It's going to happen at this such and such a time during the service. So just letting you know about it, prepare your hearts as we come together for a communion this

Sunday. Well, there was a woman, I didn't know who this woman was. I think the, I think the pastor did, but hopped on his

Facebook page. And she said in the comment section, God appeared to me in a dream last night.

And he told me that I need to tell you this. And she, she gave like this exact wording of the way that he is supposed to serve the

Lord's table. I don't remember anything about what she was telling him to say being off, like it wasn't heretical or anything like that.

And what it was that she was saying, but it was, it was silly because she was saying, this is the way that you need to conduct yourself at the table of the

Lord in order to do this in a proper way. And no, nobody has to do it the way that she was spelling it out.

And so he, he very politely responded to her and said, I'm sorry, I believe that you had a dream and that you dreamt something, something that has led you to believe that God needs you to say this, but it wasn't

God. It was just a dream that you had that night, but this is not the way that we do the

Lord's table here at our church. And it is not necessary for me to follow this wording that you've said that I needed to follow.

And then she came firing back at him with this, uh, you know, you reject God, the sort of language just because he wouldn't listen to what it was that she dreamed.

It's totally silly. It's totally foolish when a person comes forward and says, God dreamed something or I dreamed something that God gave to me to tell you and you need to follow it.

And then they have this approach that's like to reject me as the same as if you're rejecting God. That's not the case at all.

We have all the instruction from God that we are going to need from the Bible. And we receive continued encouragement and admonishment from our brothers and sisters in Christ, but all rooted in the word of Christ, because Paul is giving those instructions in Colossians chapter three, along with saying, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.

And so this is, uh, this is how we have proper instruction with one another is when our instruction is rooted in the word of God.

And it is by the word of God that we're able to test to see whether the spirits come from God or they come from the antichrist.

And once again, John making a very loving appeal to his readers, that they not be fooled, that they not be led astray by those who would come to them and claim that they have something from God.

And, and it's, it's a total lie beloved. Don't believe every spirit.

Don't believe every person that comes to you saying that they've got something from God. And I'm, I continue to be baffled at the number of Christians that do get fooled by that.

But I can't be disparaging in, in my bewilderment because there was a time when I was like that.

I would listen to a person who said, God told me to tell you, uh, you know, I, I think even in my youth, there was still something about that that seemed a little off to me, but I didn't really know what the problem was with it.

So I never confronted it or never tried to figure out why this person didn't really hear from God. But, uh, but nonetheless,

I knew something wasn't quite right. I don't think he really heard from God, but I'm going to listen to what it is that you have to say.

Anyway, I've since, uh, honed in on my skills of discernment a little bit more, uh, anyway.

Uh, but, uh, once again, I, I continue to be baffled at the number of Christians that are fooled by those who claim to have a word from God.

They, they clearly did not receive a word from God. Now maybe they had a dream or maybe they heard something in their mind that they are attributing to God.

I don't think that they're necessarily being deliberately deceitful, but because they have not tested their own word or vision against the word of God, uh, that does make what it is that they are doing deceitful.

I don't think that that's what they're trying to do. They're not charlatans. They're not lying to you, whereas in their mind, they know that, that they're just making this up.

Uh, I think they truly think that they've heard something. It just didn't come from God and any and every thought that we have, we cannot automatically attribute to God.

Well, because I had it and it was a godly thought that it must've come from the Lord. All of this needs to be tested according to the scripture because we have it stated for us in second

Corinthians chapter 10 to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. How do you make your thoughts obedient to Christ?

According to his word, the more of his word you fill up in your mind and heart, the more that's what comes out of you whenever you are, uh, whenever you're speaking or sharing the things of God, what comes from you is the actual word of God.

Not some idea that you had that you are attributing to being from God. So once again,

John, very lovingly warning his readers to not believe every spirit, but testing the spirits to see where they're there from God for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

There's many of them out there. There's going to be all kinds of false teachings that are going to come your way.

You have got to know how to test those claims with the word of God.

Uh, you've got to get really familiar with the real and then you know the counterfeit whenever it comes by.

This is the way that a person who works for the FBI who is looking for counterfeit money, they know when a bill looks fake because they've gotten really familiar with the real.

Now that doesn't mean though that they only study the real and they don't also know the false because I've seen the binders.

I had a guy show me, here's, here's the counterfeit money. Here's the kinds of counterfeit money that we, that we sometimes will confiscate.

And I mean, it was stuff as silly as somebody taking a piece of construction paper and just writing five in the corners like it was a $5 bill.

It was stuff that silly and that obviously fake all the way to bills that looked so pristinely real that my untrained eye,

I was unable to distinguish between the real money and the counterfeit stuff that they had confiscated.

But they've got binders full of even the counterfeit money. So they know the kinds of techniques and the things that people are using and trying to put out there into circulation.

So they know what it is that they need to apprehend, where it came from, you know, the region, the

United States that it was found, those kinds of things. And so they, they don't just study the real, but they first gotten really familiar with the real and then it's easier to spot the fake.

And so that needs to be the same with us when it comes to training our powers of discernment. You get really familiar with the truth of God's word, store that word up in your heart.

Let it be the thing that guides your thoughts, your mind, your, your listening.

When you listen to something and something comes in, you know, whether it comes from the word of God or, or whether it was from the spirit of the antichrist.

I've got a deacon in my congregation, Archie, a wonderful man. I love Archie. And he's talked about how, and this is a man in his seventies now.

He's talked about how difficult it is for him to memorize scripture. He can't always do the chapter verse reference, but he knows when something sounds wrong.

Like if you quote a verse to him, he wouldn't be able to tell you what the chapter and verse is. But if you just made up something and tried to say it was from the

Bible, he would know immediately that it wasn't from the Bible. So he's given so many years to the scriptures that he knows the difference between what's true and what's false, even though he may not be able to give you the scriptural reference.

And we need to have that kind of familiarity with the Bible. We need to be that familiar with the voice of our shepherd.

Jesus said in John 10, the sheep hear my voice and they know me. I know them.

I call them by name and they follow me. They won't follow the hired hand.

They will follow me because they know the voice of the good shepherd. We're going to talk about that some more as we continue to study this portion of first John tomorrow.

First John chapter four verses one through six. Let's close with prayer. Our great God and Savior, we thank you for rescuing us out of a domain of darkness.

We thank you for giving us ears that hear the word of God and we know it when we hear it. That there was a time when we were hard in our hearts and our ears were dull of hearing and when the word of God was proclaimed to us, we didn't want to listen to it.

But it is by your spirit that our heart has been changed. Our mind has been changed to be able to receive it and understand it.

And so Lord, I pray that we not get too full of ourselves in an ability to discern between right and wrong, but we give praise to God.

We have been rescued out of our ignorance, our former ignorance by the spirit of Christ. And so let us lovingly, as you were loving and patient with us, let us lovingly and patiently instruct others in the truth of God's word and teach them how to recognize the false teachers from the true faithful ministers of the word of God.

Help us to latch onto those who likewise love your word and teach it faithfully and keep us faithful in this as we walk.

And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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