Once again, we're looking in
the book of 1 John, moving to chapter four, keeping in mind the message that
John is bringing in this letter, that we are found in Christ and
that Christ alone is our righteousness. that we have no righteousness
of our own, and that if any man say that he has not sinned, then
he is a liar and the truth is not in him. But then, if any
man sin, and that if is not a question,
but it is set forth as a statement could be said when any man sin. We have an advocate with the
Father Jesus Christ the righteous. We're called upon by the Word
of God, the Lord's direct commandment to not sin. Sin is that wherein
a man has come short of the glory of God. have sinned and found themselves
in that place. And to come short of the glory
of God is to not have proper regard to him against who we
have sinned. Everybody pretty much in the
world would confess or say that they have sinned, that they have
done wrong things. You'd be hard pressed to find
anybody that wouldn't say that at some point in time in their
life that they've done something wrong, but it's not a common
thing to find someone who recognizes that their sin is against a holy
and righteous God and there is no excuse that they have before
him. Now that's what David came to
understand. He said, against thee and thee
only have I sinned. That's all that makes any difference.
And that's the place that the Spirit of God brings God's children
is to realize that they've not just sinned, they've not just
done wrong things, but that they have done it against the very
God who created them and the very God who is holy and will
not look upon sin. A glorious God. And it is not
a light thing. when men commit sin. And John
is setting that forth very plainly. And he has described for us,
those who are the children of God, that we do not sin in the
same fashion as we sinned before we knew him. For our sin is covered
in the blood of Christ. and we are made pure by him. Now that doesn't mean that our
flesh is not still our flesh. We still are what we are. And
if any man say he has no sin, the truth's not in him. But in
Christ, we have no sin. In Christ, we're free from sin.
Now those are things that are hard to come to grips with because
the man that the Spirit of God teaches that he's a sinner, he
can't hardly believe that. Now a man out here who thinks
he hasn't done anything wrong, he doesn't have a problem believing
that he's not a sinner, that it's okay, not a big deal. But for God's people, it's a
big deal. You know, it's a big deal. We
see ourselves to be what we are and we lament it. We repent. And yet the gospel brings us
back to this, that Jesus Christ is our substitute. That he has
paid the price for our sin. And so that we stand before him
as those who have not sinned. Now that's a glorious thing. a glorious standing for the sons
of God. And so with that in mind, he
said, let's begin reading here in verse 23 of the prior chapter,
and then we'll move right on in to chapter four. It says,
and this is his, this is 1 John chapter three, verse 23. And
this is his commandment. that we should believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ. He that keepeth the commandments
of God is of God. This is the commandment. This
is it. That we should believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ. So any man that does not keep
the commandment of God is not of God. He that keepeth the commandment
is. And love one another as he gave
commandment. Those things are, they go hand
in hand. You can't separate keeping, you
can't separate believing in the Lord Jesus Christ from loving
those for whom Christ died, our brethren. We're knit together
in one, we're made one. The Lord prayed, Lord, Father,
make them one, even as we are one. And so it is that he does
that with the work of his spirit. And he that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the spirit which he hath given us. And then he starts
off this chapter this way. Beloved, believe not every spirit. Now remember what he said, hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given
us. And then he says, believe not
every spirit, because there are many spirits in the world, but
try the spirits, whether they are of God. Now how would we
know whether or not a spirit is a spirit of God? Because it would teach us to
believe the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Spirit that He has
given us to cast ourselves upon Him, to trust Him. He's our hope. We don't have anything else.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether
they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into
the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist,
whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already
is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore
speak they of the world. and the world heareth them. We
are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein 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 ought also to love one another. No man has seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God
dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. We love him because he first
loved us. If a man say I love God and hateth
his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. So he tells us not to believe
every spirit. Now there are a lot of people
who are very spiritually minded in the world when I use that
term loosely. There are a lot of people, you've
got people of all kinds of walks of life that speak about being
spiritually minded and that they are in touch with the spiritual
side of things. We're not interested in the spiritual
side of things. We're not interested in spirits.
There's one spirit that we're interested in. One spirit that
we hold on to, and that's the Holy Spirit of God. And that
spirit will guide us into all truth. All these other spirits,
whatever they are, they may sound good. Somebody may be able to
make your shirt tail run up and down your back like a window
shade, like a good friend of mine used to say. You know, with
the things they say that are supposedly spiritually oriented.
But if it's not this testimony, that the Spirit of the Living
God, the Holy Ghost of God is brought to His people, and John's
setting forth here, then it is not to be believed by the sons
of God. We're to cast it away. We're
not to entertain it. uh... for a moment now the word
spirit uh... in the uh... appears in the new
testament this this greek word for spirit and i believe it appears
about three over three hundred eighty times three hundred eighty
five i believe to be exact the the greek word for spirit spirits
uh... and that is the word pneuma Now,
that word is a root word of a English word that we use, pneumatic.
Now, if something is pneumatic, if you have a pneumatic tool,
that means you have a tool that is operated by air. And so the word pneuma literally
means breath. It means air. It means wind. It is that which is most often
translated in the scripture as the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost. Every time that you see the Holy
Ghost in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, the word
that is used for Holy Ghost is pneuma, is this word. And so it is that the pneuma
of God, the breath of God, is the spirit of God that speaks
to the children of God. And he's given us his spirit.
We have the mind of Christ. Now, you know, that doesn't mean
that we always think like Christ thought. But it does mean that
the same mind that is that rod in Christ is working in us. He has given us his spirit. That's what he said, very plainly.
That we have his spirit. We love him because he first
loved us. Try the spirits, whether they
are of God, because there are many false prophets gone into
the world. World's full of them. And there'll
be more that arise. We haven't seen all the false
spirits, all the false doctrines. They've not been told yet. There's
plenty more of them coming. And there's plenty more false
prophets in the world. And who do they come speaking
under? Not the spirit of God of which
we talk about here, but the spirits. which are in the world, of which
there are many. Many false prophets gone out
in the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Here's how you know it. Every
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
of God. Now does that say everybody that
comes saying that? It says every spirit that confesses. You see, What he's saying here
is not just a man comes along and confesses and says Jesus
is the Son of God, but that the Spirit of the living God has
enabled him and given him a mind and a heart to believe that and
to set it forth in such a way as that he believes it, not just
in some offhanded way, but that it is the very substance of his
soul. See, when a man confesses, that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, it's more than just saying it.
Confession is made with the mouth. But if that's all that is involved,
then it's not a true confession. Because a true confession must
begin in the heart. And the only way it gets in there
is that the Spirit of God puts it in there. so that a man confesses. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." Now that's
important because one of the things that John is writing in
response to is already the idea had arisen and the false
prophets had gone into the world even at this early stages of
the unfolding of the gospel in the earth. False prophets had
gone out saying that Jesus Christ was God but that he didn't really
come in flesh. Now that doesn't sound like a
grave error but it is a grave error because of exactly what
we have right up here. Because what we remember and
what he told us to remember was that he shed his blood and gave
his flesh for us. And so it's vitally important,
dear brethren, that we understand that Jesus Christ came in the
flesh. He walked among men in a flesh
and blood body. He was born of a virgin. Just
like the scripture says, this is not some myth or something
that is secondary to what it is to believe in Jesus Christ,
but it is the very essence. Because if we don't believe that
he was a man, then we don't, there's no way that the sin of
man could have ever been put away. He came as a man in order
to satisfy the law, for the sins of his people in a flesh and
blood body. And in his flesh, he died. In his flesh, he rose again. And in his flesh, he is seated at
the right hand of the Father in heaven. How do we know that? What did the angels tell the
disciples? When they saw him go up, they
said, how did they see him go up? Did they just see a spirit
float up? You can't see a spirit. He was
in a flesh and blood body. And he went up into the heavens,
and the angels said, this same Jesus, the same one, whom ye
have seen go into the heaven shall so come in like manner.
So where is he now? He's seated. He's the great high
priest. He's there. Is it just some ethereal
spirit that's floating around that just, you know, is offering
up some kind of a prayer for us? No. That which our great
high priest has is hands and feet. And the wounds
are there. And they ever plead for the people
of God. And so it is a grave error to
deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. that he died in the
flesh, that he rose in the flesh. What did he, you know, one of
the things whenever he prepared a meal for the disciples by the
seashore after he had risen from the dead, but before he had descended.
He fixed a meal of fish and bread, and the Scripture says that he
ate with his disciples. Spirits don't eat. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. The man
that believes that, that states it, that says it, that lives
upon it, that is of God because that is the truth. And every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. Now that's pretty plain. And
this is that spirit of Antichrist. Whereof ye have heard that it
should come, and even now already is it in the world. So anybody
that would confess that Jesus Christ came not in the flesh,
or came not in the flesh to perform what he came to do. See, it's
not just that he came in the flesh, but that he came in the
flesh to perform something. Now, the Muslims actually believe
that there was a man named Jesus Christ came into the world as
a great prophet. What they don't believe is that
in that same body, he died for the sins of his people. Now see, that's what it is to
confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is that he came
in the flesh to do the thing that he said he was gonna do.
And if you don't confess that, it doesn't make any difference
what else you might believe about him. You don't believe what he
said. And that is the spirit of Antichrist. You've heard that it should come.
He already said that earlier. He said, you know, the spirit
of Antichrist is already in the world. This is the last time.
I tell you, the spirit of Antichrist's already here. been here since
Christ was here. Ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them. Overcome who? Those that say
all of these false doctrines, all of these things come teaching
that Jesus Christ didn't come in the flesh, that say that Jesus
Christ is not the son of the living God, that he's not God
himself. Ye have overcome them. And the
reason you have is because greater is he that's in you than he that
is in the world. See, the spirit of Antichrist
is in the world, but the spirit of God is that which is given
to the people of God. And so that spirit in which we
have confidence is not of the world. We didn't learn it of
men. See, men can't teach you. Men can teach you facts. You
can take somebody, you can teach them what the Bible says. They
can learn what the Bible says. People can memorize the Bible.
People have memorized the Bible. That doesn't mean that they know
anything about the Bible. Because the only way a man ever
comes to know anything about the Bible is that the Spirit
of God has to teach him. Now he might use somebody. as
a means whereby he brings that teaching. But it's the Spirit
of God that teaches a man. You never learned anything that's
true, that the Spirit of God didn't teach you. Because he
has given us his Spirit to guide us into all truth. They are of
the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth
them. See, the religious world is satisfied
with religion. It's satisfied with what people
tell them. It's satisfied with what the preacher says. I mean,
if the preacher says it, it must be true. Brother, don't you,
I don't want you to believe a thing I ever say unless the Spirit
of God teaches you from the Word of God that these things are
actually and in reality true. Don't believe something because
somebody tells you. I don't care who they are. I
don't care how long they studied or what degrees they've got or
whatever they might say they know. Believe not every spirit. There's one spirit that in whom
we have confidence. They're of the world, we are
of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. That's pretty narrow, isn't it?
But it's the truth. I mean, what? Is there something
else, I mean, is there some other message that we have to bring
to men other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Other than
Jesus Christ and Him seated at the throne of glory? I mean,
is there any other message we have or any other thing in which
we would rely or have any confidence? None. So anybody that doesn't
hear us, And when we say hears, they don't have to hear our voice,
but if they don't hear the message, in other words, if they reject
that which we are saying, not because we said it, but because
it's the truth, then they don't hear God. Hereby, know we the
spirit of truth and the spirit of error, because the spirit
of God has taught us. You know, deception is a thing
That's impossible for a man to escape. You can't undeceive yourself. Nobody else can undeceive you.
If you're deceived, you're in trouble. The only one that can
deliver a man from deception is the Lord. The Holy Spirit
of God has to open a man's eyes that he might see. And we don't
have that power to help a man in that. We declare what the
truth is, but the Spirit of God alone can teach a man that those
things that we say are true. And if the things we say are
true, then the Spirit of God will bear witness with it. And
if things we say are not, then he'll bear witness of that as
well. May the Lord help us. That doesn't
mean we don't ever say things that aren't correct. We're all
prone there. I shudder to think of the many
things I have uttered in my lifetime that are not true. But by the grace of God, we hold
on to those things that the Spirit of God has taught us that are
true. And one of those things that we know is absolutely true
is that Jesus Christ, our Lord, came into the world in the body
of flesh and blood, and he poured out that blood, and he had a
broken body for our sake. And he has commanded us to come as often as we do to do this,
to do it in remembrance of him, and that that's what we come
to do today you know not to to remember this somehow is connected with
the church it is connected with the church insofar as the church
for which jesus christ died but it doesn't have anything to do
with any denomination or any uh... ecclesiastical power or
ordination Nobody has a special gift to do something with this
bread or this wine that makes it somehow acceptable, whereas
it wouldn't be otherwise. But we come in a simple thing,
and yet a profound thing, because how can it be that the Lord would
give us such a simple thing as bread, just common bread and
wine to remember him. It's so simple that the wise
men of the world can't grasp it. But it's simple enough that
the weakest of sinners who clings to the hope that is
given in Christ. That in this very symbol of the
broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has the expectation
of eternal life. And that this wine is representative
of the blood that Christ shed to wash away our sins. what a
glorious thing. May the Lord ever give us a mind
and heart to come to this table in a right fashion and to examine
ourselves. Why do we do this? I'm not asking you to examine
yourself to see if you're worthy to come because I already know
you're not. Neither am I. But I'm asking
you to examine yourself and say, why is it that I want to take
this? And if the reason is because
you believe in Jesus Christ and you believe that in his broken
body and shed blood we have salvation, and that alone is where our salvation
is, then by all means, this is for you. is for any man that
comes believing that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners.