1 John chapter 4. Every true preacher sent from
God must declare to sinners three things. First of all, we must
preach the gospel of salvation by God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ. That's a must. We must preach
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. Salvation
by grace alone, by Christ alone, through faith alone. And secondly,
we must preach the necessity of hearing the gospel. There's
a need that we be born of God. There's a need that we be brought
irresistibly by God to believe on the Lord Jesus. And God said
He's pleased to do this through the preaching of the gospel.
So we must preach the necessity of hearing the gospel preached. And thirdly, we must warn brethren
of false preachers. Now some people do not like to
hear preaching, that is, warning folks about false preachers. But Christ did it. Every true
preacher must do it also. Christ said, Beware of false
prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly
they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. You hear that? A good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit. Scripture says no man speaking
by the Spirit of God can call Jesus a curse. That means you
can't preach a lie on Christ when speaking by the Spirit of
God. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can
a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down, cast into the fire. Wherefore
by their fruits you shall know them. Today folks like to say
things like, well that's your truth. That's your truth. There's only one truth and it's
God's truth. And you find that truth in this
word right here. It's salvation by God's will,
by Christ's works, according to the Word of God. So if a man
is preaching man's will and man's works, he is preaching man's
word. And it is not true. This is the
Word of God. This is where we hear the truth. Every believer must try preachers
by the Word of God. We must try preachers by the
Word of God. God commands us not to believe
every preacher. Look here in verse 1. Beloved,
believe not every spirit. Every preacher or teacher is
a spirit. Every believer, every teacher
that stands in the name of God to preach or teach is a spirit. And he's either speaking by the
Holy Spirit of God or he's speaking by the Spirit of Antichrist.
It's one or the other. That's right. He's either a preacher
sent from God or he's one of the devil's ministers. That's
a sobering thought, isn't it? Beloved, believe not every spirit. Folks will say, oh, you ought
to hear him quote Scripture. He can quote Scripture. He knows
his Bible. But does he know Christ? That's
the question. Does he know Christ? It's one
thing to know the Bible and be able to quote scripture. It's
another thing to know the Lord and preach Him. We must try the
spirits. He says there, try the spirits
whether they are of God. Now this does not mean that we
need to have a critical spirit towards God's preacher. That's not what he's talking
about. Finding fault for every little thing. Preaching is hard. I've never done anything this
difficult before. And it's a pressure upon you
that's just immense. Because you have people you're
preaching to that you're going to spend eternity somewhere.
And God has sent me and given me the responsibility to declare
His Word to you. And I have to give account to
God. And that weighs very heavily on you. And you realize real
fast that you can't make anybody believe God. You can't plant
anybody. Man, I always talk about planting
churches. We can't plant a church. You
can't plant one believer, much less a whole church full. God's
got to do it. And He does it through preaching
of His Word. So we're not critical of every
little word, but it means try His doctrine by the Word of God. Isaiah 8 verse 20 said, ìTo the
law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this
Word,î to this Word, Holy Word. If they speak not according to
this Word, it's because there is no light in them. That's just plain and simple.
Now, I insist that you try me by God's Word. I want you to
try me by God's Word. I want you to open this book
and I want you to look into these Scriptures and I want you to
see if what I'm telling you is true. Every God-sent preacher
wants that and would love nothing more than for those that hear
him to do that. Go home and study the Word. I
send my notes to you to try to make it easier for you to search
the Scriptures to see if what I'm saying is true. I want you
to do that. And if the Word that I preach
is according to Scripture, if what I'm preaching is according
to God's Word, And it's declaring to you that some doctrine that
you've believed is false. You've believed something for
a long time and you come and you hear it preached and you
go to God's Word and there it is. It's in God's Word and it's
exactly contrary to what you always thought. Drop what you
thought and bow to God's Word. Bow to God's Word. Paul said,
God forbid, yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. As it's
written, thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome
when thou art judged. You know when we don't bow to
God's Word, we judge God? When we don't bow to God's Word,
we judge God. We might as well be saying, this
is what we're saying, that we don't think God's Word is fair
or it's right. We're calling God a liar if we
don't bow to His Word. But when you see something that's
contrary to what you've always believed, don't get mad at the
preacher. Don't get mad at the preacher when you rebuke the
Word spoken. The Word preached is for our
profit. None of God's people want to
be in ignorance. We don't want to go through this
world ignorant of what God teaches. We want to be instructed. We
don't want a man to stand up and tickle our ears and just
pander to us and tell us what things that we know and just
that's all they tell. We want to be taught things and
to grow in the knowledge and grace of God. We want that. So,
if you hear something, spend as much time as the preacher
spent praying for God to give the message and preparing the
message, spend that much time searching the Scripture and asking
God to give you an understanding. We need to learn to try the preacher
by God's Word and then bow to God's Word. Folks will hear you
preach the gospel and they'll run up and they'll say, are you
saying my grandmother's lost? It's always a relative. They
never say, are you saying I'm lost? That's what they mean,
but they don't say that. They'll say, are you saying my
grandmother's lost? Well, if grandmother meets the
description of God's Word as He describes a lost person, or
if you meet that description, then yeah, you're lost. But I
didn't say it, God's Word said it. I'm not preaching my Word,
I'm preaching God's Word. You see what I'm saying? We need
to learn to bow to God's Word. Another popular thing I mentioned
to you recently is folks like to come up and say, well you
know Spurgeon said, but you just read in the Word of God what
God said. Are you going to put Spurgeon
against God? You see, I don't care if Spurgeon
said it, or who said it. I don't care how many of them
said it. If God says something that's opposite to what they
say, let God be true and every man a liar. We bow to God and
trust God. Now the reason we must try the
spirits is because there are many false preachers. Here in
verse 1 he says, at the second part he says, because many false
prophets are going out into the world. He doesn't say a few,
he says many. Many. Some receive a preacher
and believe a preacher just because he's a preacher. Just because
he's a preacher of a so-called church. And they just receive
Him and believe Him. And the same is true with brethren. Some call everybody that professes
to know Christ and believe Christ, they call them a brother or a
sister. And brethren, I'm telling you something. God's preachers
are rare. And God's people are rare. And
I'm not saying that I know all of them. There's probably some
I don't know. But they're rare. I do know that. They're very rare. He says many
false prophets have gone out into the world. Our Lord said
narrow is the way and few there be that find it. You get that? That means there's many that
have not found it. They don't stop them from being
religious and that don't stop them from standing in the pulpits.
But He said there's few. that truly know the Lord and
believe on Him in truth. Few. Few. But at any given time
in history, you read this book, and at any given time in history,
God has always had fewer ministers, true preachers, than false preachers
in this world. Isn't that so? Don't you see
that in the Scripture? There's always fewer true believers
and true preachers, then they are false. And by that, God shows
that He is sovereign against all of His enemies in all of
this world. He is sovereign to bring His
gospel to cross the path of His chosen redeemed child and He
is sovereign to plant them in his church where they're going
to hear the gospel. No matter if the whole world
is an enemy, he's able to do that for his child. Go over to Exodus 15, let me
show you. Exodus 15, verse 13. Moses said
this, He said this concerning the children
of Israel, but this is true concerning God's elect Israel. Thou and
Thy mercy has led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed. Thou
hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation. Look
at this concerning all those mighty men. Look down at verse
16. He said, Fear and dread shall fall upon them. By the greatness
of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone till thy people
pass over. O Lord, till the people pass
over which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in and
plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place,
O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the
sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. That's
His church. That's his church. That's Christ
and his church, which are one, where they dwell. False prophets
never profit God's people. Ever. They never profit God's
people. He said in Jeremiah 23, 32, Behold,
I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord,
and do tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and
by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them. Therefore they shall not profit
this people at all, saith the Lord. Now that's just That's
just the truth of it. They will not profit, saith the
Lord. Well, how do I know the true
God-sent preacher from a false preacher? How do I know that?
What's the true test? Well, the test is not whether
or not he preaches the law. That's not the test. Some would
tell you that's the test. That's not the test. Almost every
false preacher preaches the law. He preaches morality, preaches
legalism. Because that's what men, by nature,
dead in sin, that's what they want to hear. How they can do
something to be saved or contribute to salvation. And no marvel,
Satan himself is transformed as an angel of light. Therefore,
it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness. But whose righteousness? They
don't preach Christ our righteousness, they preach in man's righteousness.
That's who the devil's preachers preach. They preach man's righteousness
whose end should be according to their works. What did God's
true preacher say? What did he preach? Apostle Paul
said, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the
concision. You know who he's talking about?
Preachers that come preaching the law. preaching salvation
by the law, preaching righteousness by the law, preaching holiness
by the law. He said, beware of them, for
we are the circumcision. We are the true circumcision.
We are the true Jews that have been circumcised in the heart
that do what? That worship God in the Spirit.
This thing's not outward in what you can see. This thing's inward. It's a heart matter. It's where
God has created a new spirit. We worship God in spirit. And
we rejoice in Christ Jesus the Lord. He's all our salvation.
He's everything we need. And we have no confidence in
our flesh. That's what God's true preacher
preaches. That's three points right there that He's going to
preach every time He stands up and preaches. We must be born
again because we worship God in the Spirit. We must be saved
by Christ. We rejoice in Christ Jesus the
Lord. And we're totally depraved, ruined
sinners. That's why we need Christ to
do it all. We have no confidence in our flesh. Every time God's
preacher stands in the pulpit, you're going to hear him preach
those three things. The three R's, ruined by the fall, redeemed
by Christ, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The test is not
if he preaches church history. Men who hate the gospel of Jesus
Christ will put flowers on God's true preacher's graves while
they call the living preacher an antinomian. That's always
been the case. The test is not if he preaches
the gifts of the Spirit or claims to have healing powers. If you
look in the scripture, those gifts were passed along by the
apostles. They could put their hands on
people and pass that gift to somebody. So when they died,
that was it. They died out. They were just
so that the beginning of the gospel, when Christ came and
and they were switching from the old covenant system to the
new covenant so that men could really behold and see that Christ
was working in men. But those outward works that
the Spirit did and the works He did in giving blind men sight
and making lame men to walk and all those things, those are pictures
of spiritual miracles that He still works in His people when
He calls us and gives us sight. makes us to walk after Christ.
Trust Him. We're just that, we're worse
off than that in the spirit. Worse off than a physical disability
in our spirit by nature. And so the miracle he works is
far greater than that. The test is not if he has degrees
from a seminary. As brother Don says, he could
have more degrees than a thermometer and still not know the gospel.
That's not the test. And the test is not your experience. That's a favorite of men. All
that what you're preaching, my experience differs from what
you're preaching. Well, your experience might have
been given you by the devil. But I know this right here comes
from the Word of God. And if my experience don't line
up with this, I'm going to have to drop my experience and believe
God. Now here's the test. 1 John 4 verse 2. Hereby know
we 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. Now that's the true test. The
true test is what does he preach concerning Christ Jesus. That's
the test. That's the test. Every spirit
that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. That man's preaching by the Spirit
of God. What does that mean? John was
dealing with Gnostics, primarily. He was dealing with Gnostics.
And I've told you about the Gnostics. They believed that if Christ
was made flesh, then that meant He would change. that there was
a change in God who said, I change not. They believed that if Christ
was made flesh, because all things are sinful, then Christ would
be a sinner. And so they said that it only
appeared as if Christ was made flesh. And God just treated Him
as if He was made flesh, treated Him as if He was made under the
law, treated Him as if He was made sin, treated Him as if He
was made a curse. And so everything that he accomplished
for his people is just only as if he accomplished it, but it's
not a reality. That's, in a nutshell, what the
Gnostics believe. And the devil is subtle. If you
think about that, that is some subtle trickery. He can trick
people into denying one part of Christ's work and make them
think they're doing it for the glory of Christ. You know, you see what I'm saying?
The Gnostics of old denied that Christ was made flesh because
they wanted to protect the glory of Christ. So they said He was
not made flesh or else He would have been made sin. You see what
I'm saying? Deny the work that God the Son was made flesh and
came, truly came in human flesh, denied that in the name of preserving
the glory of Christ. That's deceit, isn't it? That's
the devil's deceit. What is it to declare Christ
came in the flesh? Doesn't everybody preach that?
No. Not everybody preaches that.
It's to declare He is eternal God. It's to preach He is eternal
God. If He came in the flesh, that
means He was somewhere before He came. And that means He was
in another form before He came. He's God the Eternal Son. He's God who is Spirit. He's
the second person in the Trinity. But He's now God come in the
flesh. All God and all man. Your Mormons,
your Jehovah's Witnesses, I can't remember who else, they don't
believe He's come and that Christ is God. So you might as well
not even talk to them because they don't believe He's God.
Declaring Christ came in the flesh is to declare what He accomplished. And for whom? He's Jesus Christ. That means He's the successful
Savior who's anointed of God. Whenever the Holy Spirit announced
His birth, He said, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save. He's the successful Savior. He
shall save. No doubt about it. That's what
He did. He shall save. It's to declare
He came to save a particular people. His name should be called
Jesus for He shall save His people. He has a people He saved. It's
to declare He saves His people who cannot save ourselves because
we're sinners. His name should be called Jesus
for He shall save His people from their sins. That's what we have to be saved
from, our sins. And that means that God's righteousness,
His righteousness is manifest in Christ. We haven't preached
the gospel, we haven't preached Christ come in the flesh unless
we declared how Christ manifests the righteousness of God. That's
the purpose why it came, how God can be just and the justifier
of those who believe on His name. Now, the fact that He's the Son
of God come in the flesh tells us He's sinless God. And when
He took flesh, He's sinless. He's the Holy One of Israel. He did not sin. He would not
sin. He's the Holy One. He maintained
His holy character, His holy nature, even while He hung on
the cross. He's God. He's the sinless, holy,
high priest of His people. But Scripture also says He was
made sin for us. Scripture also says He bore in
His own body the sins of His people. Scripture says the Lord
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And I can tell you something
about this. There's nobody, I don't care
who you are or what you believe that means, there's nobody, none
of us have even scratched the surface of what that means. We
haven't plumbed the depth of that. I guarantee you that. But I do know this, He was manifesting
the righteousness of God. And God is so righteous, He would
not pour out justice on His Son until He laid the iniquity of
His people on Him. Why not? He said in Proverbs
17, 15, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth
the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Are
we to believe that God laid aside this righteousness? What he just
said, he that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth
the just, they're both an abomination to the Lord. Are we to believe
the Lord laid aside His righteousness when dealing with our substitute
on the cross when the very purpose for which Christ was on that
cross was to manifest that righteousness? What do you mean by righteousness? When you have a child that comes
before a judge, and that judge, there's no sin whatsoever to
charge your child with. And that judge charges your child
with sin. Anyway, are you going to call
that righteousness? I'm not. Or if there's a guilty person
who's done something to your child, and you know they're guilty
without a doubt, and that judge says, well, we're going to find
you innocent. That's not righteousness. That's
what God means. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination
to the Lord. Are we to side with the Gnostics
and deny that He was really made flesh and really made under the
law and really made sin and really made a curse? Are we to deny
that or to believe the truth of the Word? Are we to say that
that would make Him change and He's Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today and forever? Scripture also says He increased
in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. That
doesn't mean He changed. And to say He was made sin doesn't
mean He changed. In Himself, He died the just
for the unjust. He remained the sinless, holy,
spotless Lamb of God in Himself. But as our substitute, His obedience
unto the death of the cross was that He presented Himself to
the Father to be made sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's the shame
that he despised. That's the shame that he endured
to save his people. Therefore, he's the righteousness
of God. He's the righteousness of his
people. The holy one who established the law for his people and declared
God just and the justifier. Declaring Christ has come in
the flesh is to declare he's risen and successfully working
in his people. There's a work to be done in
His people, too, and that works Christ, too. And there are some
that deny this work that He does in His people because they say,
well, that gives Him more glory to say that our only righteousness
is Christ. Well, that's true. He is our
only righteousness. But He's the righteousness in
His people, too. If Christ be in you, the body's
dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
And that life and that righteousness is Christ in you. That's right. Look at verse 4. You are of God,
little children. See that? You are of God. And
have overcome them because greater is He that's in you than He that
is in the world. Look over at 1 John 5 and look
at verse 4. What's John declaring to us when
he says you are of God? Look at 1 John 5 verse 4. Whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world. That's what he's talking
about. You've overcome them because
greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. He's
saying you've been born of God. You are of God, little children.
What did He say in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 29? He said that no flesh
should glory in His presence, but of God are you in Christ
Jesus. who of God is made unto us, righteousness,
and sanctification, and wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that as it is written, He that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. It's of Him that we're in Christ. It's of Him that Christ is made
all unto us. You've overcome them because
greater is He that's in you than He that's in the world. Who's
He talking about? Go to Colossians 1. Look here,
Colossians 1. What is he talking about? Colossians
1.23, he says you are He's going to present you unblameable,
unreprovable in His sight, if you continue in the faith, grounded
and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
which you've heard, which was preached to every creature which
is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. Look down
at verse 27. What's he talking about? Verse
27. He says at the very end, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. That's the hope of righteousness.
Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach. That's who we
preach. That's who we preach. And look
what he said, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching
every man in all wisdom, that is according to God's Word. that
we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto our
labor striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily.
Why is it that God's true preacher preaches Christ? How does he
preach Christ? How does he get a message and
discern these scriptures and then come and deliver that message
in the boldness and speak as he ought to speak glorifying
Christ and humbling sinners. How does he do that? And how
do you, sitting there, hear this word and discern the truth from
a lie? How is that? Paul said, I do
it by Christ working mightily in me. And that's how you do
it. Christ working mightily in you.
Look what John said, verse 5. They are of the world. They are
not of God, 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. And hereby know we the Spirit
of truth and the Spirit of error. We do not deny Christ's work
for us on the cross, neither do we deny His work in us whereby
He creates in us a new man in righteousness and true holiness.
We don't deny either because both are necessary. Psalm 32,
2 said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no guile. Both those works are
of Christ. Now lastly, those who don't preach
Jesus Christ has all the salvation of His sinful, helpless people.
Those that do not preach Christ, those that go out, they may have
come in for a while, they go out, and become divisive and
try to make disciples after themselves. They deny either Christ's righteousness
and God's righteousness manifest in Him. They deny He was made
in the flesh somehow. They deny the new birth somehow.
Somewhere along the way, they deny or just don't speak of it. And He says if they do that,
they're not of God. Verse 6, I mean verse 3. Every spirit, 1 John 4, 3. Every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,
or every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist
where if you heard that it should come and even now already is
it in the world. And we can make excuses for our
loved ones and for those that go out from us, but God's Word
settles the matter, doesn't it? Just plain and simple, He says,
verse 5, They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world,
and the world heareth them. What keeps God's people united
with His people under the gospel? What saith the word of the Lord?
Verse 6. We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that is not of God, heareth not us. And hereby know we the
Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error. Amen. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Pray that You bless it now to our hearts. Make us truly
hear what is preached and compare what is preached to the Word
of God. Make us do this, Lord. And make
us bow to Your Word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.