1 John 4, verse 1. John writes, Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of
God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Now the word John uses, spirit, here, he doesn't mean a ghost
or a spirit. He means a preacher, someone
who claims to have the gift of the Holy Spirit, to teach the
Word, preach God's Word. And that's a good word to use
for God's preachers, for God's servants. God's servants are
called by His Spirit. They're given gifts by the Spirit.
They're taught by the Spirit and they're led by the Spirit.
So that's a good word to use for God's true preachers. But
what John's telling us here is don't blindly follow the teachings
and believe just the teachings of everybody who calls himself
a preacher just because he claims to have been sent by the Holy
Spirit. Because that may not be true. You've got to be awful
careful because John tells us there are many false prophets
going out into the world. It's not just that there are
false prophets in the world, but there's many of them. And
you've got to be careful. The battle is in the pulpits. That's where Satan attacks the
church, is in the pulpit. The easiest way to lead people
astray, to take people's attention away from the Lord Jesus Christ,
is in the pulpit. And that's where the attack's
at, so John tells us now, be careful. And this has always
been the case. There are false prophets in Moses'
day. As soon as the children of Israel left Egypt, Moses led
them out, false prophets arose. When our Lord Jesus Himself was
ministering on this earth, there were false prophets. And people
followed Him. In the days of the apostles,
immediately after our Lord's crucifixion, the apostles went
out founded churches and immediately false prophets came in among
the people. All throughout church history,
there's been false prophets and today's no different. We can't
expect our day to be any different. Most things never change. And we need not to be careful,
not to be dazzled by these religious ringleaders who put on a good
show. And all they are is part of the traveling circus, a carnival
that comes through. They put on a good show and their
goal is to steal from you. Carnival's main goal is not to
come through to entertain you. It's to steal from you. And these
fellas' goal now is to steal from you. It's not just your
money, although that's a big concern of theirs. They'll steal
your peace. They'll steal your joy in Christ.
They'd steal you away from Christ if they could. They'll take you
away from Him, take your attention away from Him. So you just be
mighty careful, because these fellows have a lot of natural
gifts. They'll have a way with people.
They have a way of speaking. They're very gifted at speaking.
They have a high degree of intelligence, probably, and they use those
gifts and put things together and make things sound awful good
to the natural man. But here's the problem. They
may be awful gifted in speaking, a wonderful orator, a way to
grab your attention, and a way with people to make you feel
awful good, but there's one thing missing. The Spirit's not in
their message. That's what's missing. So you
try the Spirit's. And the way to tell if the Spirit
is in their message, if their message is the gospel, is by
testing their doctrine. By comparing their message to
God's Word. See what John says in verse 2?
Hereby, here's how you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.
Now you test every preacher by this one test. Does what they
say match God's Word? That's the test. Look over in
Acts chapter 17. Whatever else they do, you test
them by this test. Does their message match what
God's Word says? In Acts 17, verse 10, our pastor
preached from this not too long ago. And the brethren immediately
sent away Paul and Silas by night into Berea, who, coming thither,
went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble
than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with
all readiness of mind, and they searched the scriptures daily,
whether these things were so. Therefore many of them Also,
of the honorable women, which were greats, and of men, not
a few. They believed because they received the Word with all
readiness of mind. And even Paul and Silas were
put to this test. Did their message match God's
Word? And it did. And they believed. That's the test. Look over in
Isaiah chapter 8. Even in the Old Testament. See,
it hasn't changed. Isaiah had to give this very
same warning in Isaiah 8. Verse 19, And when they shall
say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and
unto wizards that peep, and that mutter, should not a people seek
unto their God for the living to the dead? To the law and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them. It's not just that they're
wrong on this one thing and they've got all these other things to
learn. It's that there's no light in
them if they don't speak according to this Word. Now, that's the
test. And a special mark, a special
test of the message of the gospel is, is their message a person? Is their message the Lord Jesus
Christ? Is it Him? Not, is their message
a doctrine? Is it doctrinally sound? Although
it will be if the message is Christ. It's not just, well,
do they preach the five points of Calvinism? It's not, well,
do they tell me how to live better? Or, you know, how to follow the
law? Here's the question. Is their
message the Lord Jesus Christ? A person? Is it Him? John says,
is their message Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? And when
he says He's come in the flesh, he means a whole lot more than
just Believing the historical fact that a man named Jesus lived
in Nazareth, raised in Nazareth, he lived a life and then he ended
up dying on a cross. That's a historical fact. You
can believe that just like you believe George Washington was
the first President of the United States and not be saved and not
know God. It's not just believing that
that man lived. It's who is he? It's to declare that that man,
Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ. He's God's Messiah. He's God's
Savior sent into this world. And He existed long before He
was manifested in the flesh. He's eternal. He's the eternal
Word of God. He's the eternal Son of God.
He is with the Father in the beginning, before time was. He
was daily as Father's delight. And that man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is God. He's equal with the Father in
every way. In every attribute of His being,
He is God. He's not trying to do anything. He's God. He's not trying to
save a people. He came and He accomplished His
Father's will. He accomplished the eternal salvation
of God's elect. He's the successful, victorious
Savior. He's not trying to do anything
because He's God Almighty. He does according to His will.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, if He's our message, is the sole
object of our faith. He's the foundation of our faith.
He's everything to the believer. He is our all and in all. He
came in the flesh as the prophet to reveal the Father to us. We
haven't known the Father except through Him. He came in the flesh
as our priest to offer the sacrifice of His humanity for our sins
and to make intercession for us. That's what the priest's
job is. He came in the flesh because He's God, He's King.
He gives commandments because He's King. How often do He speak
of ruling in His kingdom? My kingdom, He says, is not of
this earth. He has a kingdom. He's King. He's our King. God,
whom the heavens cannot contain, came in the flesh. He came manifest
as a real man. He assumed a real human body. Flesh and bones, just like you
and me. He assumed a real human nature. yet without sin. John said in his gospel, the
eternal word was made flesh and dwelt amongst 100% God and 100%
man, the God-man. And he is the gospel. He's the message. Look over Romans
chapter 1. You know this verse very well. Here is the gospel. And it's defined as the Lord
Jesus Christ. Romans 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under the
gospel of God, and he defines that gospel so you know what
he's talking about, which he promised to for by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. And this gospel concerns his
son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which is made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead. He was made to be what he was not and declared to be
who he is. Made of the seed of David, declared
to be the Son of God with power. He's our message. He's the gospel. And the gospel is everything
concerning the person of Christ and the work of Christ. As long as I can remember, I've
known this outline Brother Henry's given us. Who is He? What did
He do? Why did He do it? And where is
He now? It's all about Him. Christ is the test by which every
preacher is tried. It's not the Christ of our imagination,
who we think He could be or the way we think He ought to be now.
It's the Christ that is revealed in the Scriptures according to
God's Word. And I tell you, search the Scriptures. Be like those Bereans and search
the Scriptures. Read the Scriptures. Become familiar
with the Scriptures. So you'll be able to judge. So
you'll know when you're hearing truth and when you're hearing
error. I thought this week, it's good our children learn memory
verses. When my children were little,
they learned those memory verses. We worked with them through the
week and they learned memory verses. And it comes time for
Bible school and they learn memory verses. They learn a whole chapter.
They'd be able to repeat a whole chapter. And I'd sit there and
listen to them say those memory verses. They'd say a whole chapter
at a time. I mean, impressive minds. And
I'd look in those little faces and my heart's prayer would be,
you'll know what that means. It's not just coming out of your
mouth one day. You'll know what that means.
Pray that God teach you what these things mean. What the Scriptures
mean. And then you'll be able to tell.
whether the Spirit's in a man's message or not. Because listen
now, the Holy Spirit will never speak contrary to God's Word,
because He is God. He's not going to contradict
Himself. And if you hear something contrary to this Word, I don't
care if you like the fellow, and I guess in this day you should
say woman, it's not a God. First of all, if it's a woman
preaching, it's not a God. But if something contrary to
this Word I don't care what you like about them. I don't care
how dynamic they are. I don't care what other good
things that they might have to give you as advice. I'm telling
you, God's not in it. It's not according to this Word.
Look in verse 3. 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. Wherever you've heard that it
should come. And even now already is it in the world. Any preacher,
I don't care who he is, who preaches something that takes anything
away from the Lord Jesus Christ, from who He is, is not sin of
the Spirit. He's an anti-Christ. He's opposed
to Christ. If He takes anything away from
who the Scripture says the Lord Jesus Christ is, if He takes
anything away, any part of who the Scriptures say He is, if
He takes anything away from the fact that He's God, that He says
whom He will, when He will, through His blood and His righteousness
alone, He's not of God. If He takes any part of who the
Scriptures are, what the Scriptures say Christ came to accomplish
for His people is, if He says that salvation is in any way
up to you to make what Christ did effectual, He's not of God.
If he takes any part of why the Scriptures say that Christ came
manifest in the flesh, he's not of God. If he takes any part
of where the Scriptures say that Christ is, take any part of that
away. And what it is he's doing there,
it's not just that he's there in glory, sitting at the right
hand of God. What's he doing there? Is he begging and hoping
and pleading that somebody will accept him? Or does he ever live
there making intercession for his people, calling his elect
to himself? Oh, that's glorious. And if a
man takes any part of that away, he's not of the Spirit. If he
takes any part of the results of Christ's substitutionary work
away from his people, he's not of God. The Spirit of Antichrist
puts a question mark somewhere on the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They'll put a question mark somewhere
on God's Word. That's really not what that means.
That's putting a question mark on God's Word. And that spirit
of Antichrist is nearly as old as man himself. King, Adam's
son, the first one from Adam, rejected the blood sacrifice
because he thought he could bring something as good The spirit
of Antichrist. Wolves in sheep's clothing snuck
in to the church at Galatia and preached Christ plus. Christ
plus circumcision. And people followed him. People
who were in a church that was founded by the Apostle Paul,
who heard the Apostle Paul preach, and as soon as he left town, were led away. Catholics for
centuries, I suppose, I don't know how long have preached Christ
plus. Christ plus Mary interceding for you. Christ plus church membership
of the sacraments that there are favors. Free wheelers preach
Christ plus you believing. Jesus has done all He can do.
Now it's up to you. Won't you accept Him? Won't you
let Him save you? Won't you let Him into your heart? Baptists
will preach Christ plus Baptists. And all those things, some of
them subtly, Some of them not so suddenly detract from Christ
that the Scriptures declare. And listen, this spirit of Antichrist
has always been in the world. And it hasn't gotten any better
since. I was talking to my cousin yesterday,
and we talked about Adam falling. And men have degenerated since
then. We've not gotten any better.
We've gotten worse. These things are not going to
get any better. Like I said a little bit ago, even in the days when
Christ Himself was ministering, the spirit of Antichrist was
all around. In the days of the apostles,
it existed. And we shouldn't be surprised
when we see it, because it exists in our day. Now, most of us have
spent a long time living sheltered lives. We have. I've grown up
living a sheltered life, honestly. Living a life that's been sheltered,
especially concerning these false prophets. I grew up hearing that
these men existed. And to me, they existed in some
far off place that you see on TV or something. It wasn't really
real to me. And you know why? Because the
pulpit was so carefully guarded. Our former pastor and our current
pastor guard this pulpit so carefully. And we live a sheltered life.
But now, don't be surprised, even when in this day, awful
day that we live in, even when this pulpit is guarded so carefully,
when you see it firsthand, when you see this spirit of Antichrist
firsthand, the things that are said here
are sacred. They're sacred not because we're
saying them, because it's God's Word. Thus saith the Lord. The
glory of the Savior and the well-being of our souls are at stake. That's
why the pulpit is so carefully guarded. We live a sheltered
life, but when we see this awful perversion firsthand, don't get
discouraged. Don't get so discouraged that
you just want to quit religion. I put that in my notes and I
thought, well, do quit religion, but don't quit Christ. Be like
Peter said, to whom coming. Don't quit coming to him. Keep
coming to him. Fit religion, but don't quit
coming to him. When we see this spirit of antichrist
firsthand, it will scare us to death. It will kindly depress
us, but don't get discouraged. Don't lose your confidence in
the gospel. Don't lose your confidence in
God's Word and in His servants. It ought to give us more confidence.
Because God Himself in His Word told us it would come. When we
see it, we say, yep, that's what God said. It gives confidence
in the rest of it too. There's good news here too. Because
when a child of God sees this Spirit of Antichrist, you'll
hate it, you'll be scared to death, but take comfort. Look at verse 4. 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.
Believers are born of God. You've been born a child of God.
The Spirit of God dwells in you. So be of good comfort. In the
new birth, the old man, that nature that we're born with,
Adam's nature, doesn't get any smarter. He's not given light. He's not given some sort of spiritual
understanding. Some mystical thing is not put
into you. A new man is born in you. John doesn't say greater is it
in you than he that's in the world. He says greater is he
that is in you than he that's in the world. Who's he talking
about? He's talking about God Almighty being in you and the
he in the world is Satan. Now that's who he's talking about.
He's not talking about a thing. He's talking about a person. Our message,
the gospel, is a person. Matthew Henry wrote this. He
said a mighty preserver is in you. The Holy Spirit. And He's
mightier than all of our enemies. Men and devils both. I remember
my mom used to paint. She still does, but I'm not around
when she does. And she'd put preservatives in those things,
you know, and seal them up. And they would keep them. You'd
open them up a year later and they'd still be good and wonderful.
There's a mighty Preserver. Preserver in God's people. God
the Holy Spirit. And He is greater than all our
sin. Aren't you glad He's greater?
The Lord Jesus Christ is greater than all of our sin. He's greater
than this world. All the things in this world
trouble me. I just, at any moment, think
our country's going to implode and crash in on itself, but be
of good comfort. Our Lord said, I've overcome
the world. This thing's not out of His control.
He's greater than all of our enemies, both physical and spiritual. He's greater than the strong
man armed who once ruled us. Look at that in Luke chapter
18. I'm sorry, Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, verse 14. And our Lord was casting out
a devil and it was done. And it came to pass, when the
devil was gone out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered.
Some of them said he casteth out devils through Beelzebub,
the chief of the devils, and others, tempting him, sought
of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thought,
said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to desolation, and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan
also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?
Because ye say, I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by
Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out?
Therefore they should be your judges. But if I with the finger
of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon
you. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods
are at peace. The unregenerate man is at peace. You were, before you knew Christ,
you were at peace. But a strong man armed dwelled
in you. That old nature, Satan, dwelled
in you. But he is strong, he is armed,
and all his goods are at peace. But, verse 22, when a stronger
than he shall come upon him, and overcoming, he taketh from
him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. There was a strong man armed,
but one stronger than him came. When greater than him came the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he cast him out, and Christ took the
throne. He took control. But now look
at verse 23. He that is not with me is against
me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. Now when
the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through
dry places, seeking rest, and finding none. He saith, I'll
return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth
it swept and garnished. Now here the unclean spirit wasn't
cast out, he left. One stronger than him didn't
come, he left. Maybe religion came, and that
spirit left. He decided to come back, because
he could. He wasn't cast out, he came back. And he found it swept, it was
all cleaned up, it was garnished, it was decorated, and he said
this is a good spot to live. So look what he did. Then he
goeth and taketh to him seven spirits, other spirits more wicked
than himself. And they enter in and dwell there.
And the last state of that man is worse than the first. See,
that's what happens in man's religion. They might sweep the
place up and garnish it for a little bit. But the last state will
be worse than the first. But if Christ comes, one greater
than that strong man armed, He takes control. He's greater.
Greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is great and greatly to be praised," David said. He's
able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before His glory with exceeding joy. He will finish the work
begun. You can count on it because you're
of God. Now, verse 5, they're of the
world. Therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth
them. Now, these false prophets are of the world. They're cut
from the same cloth. They're part and parcel with
the world so the world hears them. Because the world understands
them. And there's no reason for us to get overly disturbed when
great numbers of people flock after these fellas. It's just
natural. Even though they're speaking
contrary to the Scripture, they're speaking according to man's natural
wisdom, so the natural man is going to follow them. They speak
of worldly blessings. That's all the natural man's
interested in. He doesn't know anything about any other world
So he follows it. They speak with words of man's
wisdom. Words that men can understand or be impressed by. But neither
the false preacher nor the natural man that listens to them will
be impressed with the simplicity of Christ. And they never will
be unless God gives them life. Christ is the wisdom of God.
But the natural man is not going to be impressed by that. They'll
be impressed by the wisdom of men, though. These false preachers
will try to motivate you for another week to live a good life.
Motivate you enough to get you to come back next week rather
than feed the sheep. See the difference? And they
won't hear the gospel of Christ because Christ's kingdom is not
of this world, but they are. And we just don't need to be
overly upset when big crowds follow after these false preachers.
I hate it. I hate to see people just on
that broad road rushing to hell. You'd hate to see that. You have
compassion on men's souls, but you don't need to be overly upset.
Someone told me one time about at their church the crowd's growing
and people are being baptized and it's, oh, the Lord must be
in it. John said, the size of the crowd's no indication of
the presence of God. Billy Graham had more people
And more people make a confession last time he was in a stadium
than they had. And the Spirit of God wasn't
with him either. So don't get overly upset now. Because look
at verse 6. 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.
Now the we, you know, John, he's writing here to believers. We,
believers, are of God. We're born of God by God's unspeakable
grace. We have been born of God. And
true believers, now they know the gospel when they hear it.
You may not be able to define every little doctrinal point,
and you don't need to, but you know the gospel when you hear
it. Now you know. You'll know God's preacher, his
true preacher when you hear him. Now the unregenerate man will
never know it, and he'll never love it. Unless God gives him
life. Gives him ears to hear and faith
to believe. Unless he reveals Christ to him.
And you recognize that because God's given you life. You're
a God. You recognize the difference between truth and error. Why? Because the spirit of truth dwells
in you. That's why you recognize the
difference between truth and error. My friend Jim Meadows,
he used to tell me But he liked to hear man preach. The way he
described it is this way. He said, I like hearing him preach.
He said, my spirit beareth witness with his spirit. They're saying
the same thing. Well, why is his spirit saying
the same thing as my spirit? It's the same spirit. The very
same one. God's spirit. And the answer
to one question will almost always reveal truth and error. It's
the same question our Lord asks His disciples. He asked him,
who do men say that I am? Then he asked him, who do you
say I am? Who am I? What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? The answer to
that question will tell you a lot about truth and error.