If we open your Bibles to 1 John
chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. Today I have
a unique experience about preaching on preaching. I'm going to preach
about preaching. That may seem kind of odd to
a lot of people. There's a whole lot of people in this world that
wouldn't have anything to do with me. Listen to me. What experience
do I have? I don't have any. What experience
has someone that's been doing it 50 years have? They don't
have any. In consideration to eternity,
that's a glimmer. But the scriptures tell us. Scriptures
tell us about these things. Have you ever been told a lie
and not known that you were told a lie? That happens. It's an outright lie. You can
rebuke it right then and go against it. But if somebody tells you
a lie and you don't know it, that can be a sad and dangerous
thing. But have you ever been told a lie and the person telling
you that lie, they didn't know they were telling you a lie?
That happens. A lot of people tell things as
truth and they don't know what the truth is. But there's so
many preachers out there. You young people listen to me
today. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of preachers
and what people call churches all over this country. You can
turn on television and have multiple channels full of it. Who are
we supposed to listen to? How can we tell the ones that
are telling us a lie boldly? They know they're telling a lie.
And how can we tell the difference between somebody that's telling
us something that they don't know is a lie? How can we distinguish
what the truth is? How can we tell what the truth
is? First off, get you a King James Bible and follow along. Turn to those scriptures. Look
at them. So let's do that today. 1 John
chapter 4 verse 1. 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 has come in the flesh is of God. And every
spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has 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." The world receives 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. The top of my message today is
who to hear? Who are we supposed to listen
to? Every true preacher The Son of God, Lord's messenger, is
going to declare to dying men and women, they're going to declare
to sinners, anybody that listens to them, three things. The first
thing they're going to declare, those sin of God, is that the
gospel of salvation is by God's free and sovereign grace in Christ
Jesus, His Son only. They're going to declare that.
Second thing they're going to declare, every faithful preacher,
they must preach the necessity of hearing the gospel. The necessity
of being born again of that incorruptible seed of the Lord doing a work
in someone and believing on Christ. And the third thing they're going
to preach, the true preachers, sin of God, they're going to
warn brethren of false doctrine, of false preachers, of false
gospel, just like Paul did. Now, some people get mad about
that. They say, all he does is preach
against people. They hear one thing in a 45-minute
message and they say, he's just preaching against those folks
down the street. He shouldn't do that. Our Master did. The cross did that, and we must
also. Master said in Matthew 7, beware of false prophets which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are raving
wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. That's how we're going to know. Do men gather grapes
of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, a good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
That's how we're going to know. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
If a preacher's sin of God, and the Holy Spirit's gave him a
message, he can't tell you a lie. He can't go against the Lord's
Word. But if a man's not sin of God, he doesn't know the truth,
he can't tell you the truth. We'll see it a little bit later.
Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down and
cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye
shall know them. You're going to know them by
what they preach. Now today, a lot of people say,
well that's your truth. That's your truth. There's only
God's truth. Man doesn't have one. Salvation
is by God's will. It's by Christ's work according
to God's Word. And if they preach man's will
and man's works, they're false prophets. It's as plain and simple
as it can be. But we are to try the spirits.
You've got to listen to them. Let's look here at verse 1 again.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether
they are of God. Who are these spirits? What's
he talking about? Is he talking about ghosts walking around or
angels or something we can't see? No, every person has a spirit
in them. Every preacher, every teacher,
they are a spirit. And that spirit, that person
talking, they either speak by the Holy Spirit of God or they
speak by their own spirit. a spirit of man, a spirit that's
against Christ, that's anti-Christ. And he's either a preacher sent
from God or they're sent of the devil. And folks say, oh, this
man is so educated. He knows the Scripture so well.
He can quote so many verses. He knows his Bible. Or he's fun. We have a good time when we go
to church. Or he's a great speaker, a wonderful author. He's so easy
to listen to. I just love the sound of his
voice. Any kind of great things. But does he know and preach Christ? Does Christ get all the glory?
Or does man have something to do in any of it? But we must
try the spirits. Try the spirits whether they
are of God. Now this doesn't mean that we listen to every
faithful priest with a critical ear. We don't listen to them
trying to find something wrong. Trying to find fault in every
little thing. Our mission is not to go out
and find false doctrine. We're not to go find something
that's wrong, a false teacher. But the child of God's been given
discernment to know the truth from a lie. We hear those things
and we know the difference. Now we might not be able to put
our finger on it, but those taught of God will know something's
off. I don't know if that man didn't say anything wrong, but
there's something he ain't saying right. Child of God's given that
discernment. The Lord gives us that spirit
to be able to tell. So why do I tell you not to pick apart
every word of faithful preachers. Preaching the gospel is hard.
Believe me. It's life and death that pressures
real. It's heavy. And it's so easy
for me to get carried away on something. I stand up here, I
get off my notes, and I start talking. I may say a word wrong.
I may word something backwards. I may quote a different part
of scripture wrong. But I stand here before you,
at least an hour and a half every week, talking. I'm probably going
to say something out of step a little bit. And it's possible
to hear me the wrong way. way I word it and the way I meant
it. And that's easy to do. But John's does not mean that
we're to be critical of every little word. God's people are
not. They're forgiving, aren't they?
They're understanding. It means to try the doctrine.
Try what they're preaching by the word. Look in your Bible. See if that's what it means.
Get you a Bible, follow along, and see if what that preacher's
telling you is the truth. In Isaiah 8, it says, to the
law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. Try what I preach by the word
of God. I send out my sermon notes and get your Bible. If someone's listening to this
for the first time, get your Bible and see if what I'm telling
you is true. Follow along. And if what I preach
is according to the Word of God, but it conflicts with what you've
been told, it conflicts with what you think, what your experience
is, bow to the Word of God. Bow to His Word. Don't bow to
yourself, what you think, what grandma says, or what experience
you've had growing up. Bow to the Word of God. Paul
told us in Romans 3, God forbid, yea, let God be true and ever
man a liar. as it's written that thou mightest
be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art
judged." Let God be true. Every man a liar. When we do
not bow to God's word, when we see something and we don't like
it, we don't want to hear it, we want to ignore it, we are
judging God. That's a strong statement and
it's a true statement. When we do not believe God's
Word, we're essentially saying that God's Word is not right.
I don't think that's good enough. I don't think it's right. People
that do that call God a liar by not believing what His Word
says. We need to learn to try the preacher by God's Word and
then to bow to God's Word. We look in here, make sure he's
telling us the truth, and then whatever that truth is, bow to
it. bow to his word. Folks, so here you preach the
gospel. I've had a few people I've told the gospel to over
my life, and they say, you're telling me that my grandpa's
lost. You're telling me my grandpa's
not in heaven. And it's normally a relative
that they're talking about. And very seldom do they say,
you're telling me I'm lost. They don't put it on themselves,
but that's what they mean. That's what they're getting at.
I'm not declaring that anybody's lost. I'm not judging people. I'm declaring God's Word. And
if you or somebody you know meets the criteria, the qualifications
in God's Word, that they're lost, then they're lost. But God's
Word declared it. I didn't declare it. I just preached
His Word. His Word says it. Or some cling
to a man and not a word. I've heard that a lot. Well,
Spurgeon said, what Gill told us, Hawker told us it was that. I don't care who said it. I don't
care what they said, how many times they said it. If it's not
according to God's word, let it go. Pay no attention to it
and bow to God's word. But there's many that don't do
that. There's many false prophets in the world. Let's look at verse
1 again, 1 John 4, 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. The reason we must
try these spirits, test this, is because there are many false
preachers gone out into the world. He didn't say there's just a
couple. And nothing's changed in the Apostles' Day and our
day. There's not just a few, it's as many false prophets. Now some people, they'll receive
and cling to and believe anybody that says there's a preacher.
And I talk to people and we'll have a normal conversation and
then they'll say, what do you do? How come you live out here
in Southern California? And I'll say, I'm a pastor. And
all of a sudden, their body language changes, their voice changes,
their demeanor changes, what they tell me changes. Changes. Because they elevate that office
of somebody. Some people will bow to anybody.
And others will call a brother or sister, they'll use those
words, to anyone that says they believe Christ. Or anyone says
they believe in God. Any of them. Call them all brother
and sister. But God sent pastors and brothers
and sisters in Christ are true brethren. Brothers and sisters.
That's a rare thing. It's a remnant. That means a
tiny bit. A small percentage. Is that me telling you? People say, this isn't a Christian
nation. That's true. It ain't the majority. Our Master said in Matthew 7,
narrow is the way and few there be that find it. Few. Narrow. That's what He told us. Now, at any given time in history
throughout, since the creation of the world, God's always allowed
the devil to have more ministers in this world than He has. It
says many false prophets are gone out into the world. Many.
Why would He do that? Why would God allow that to happen?
Allow so many false witnesses to be prevalent in our nation
or in any nation throughout time. Why would He do that? He can
show His sovereign power in the midst of all that chaos, the
midst of all that false preaching, all that nonsense. He can pull
His people out of that. He still saves His people. He
alone plants His people in the church that He plants. Let's
turn over to Exodus 15. Exodus 15 verse 13. Thou and Thy mercy has led forth
the people which Thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided them in Thy
strength unto Thy holy habitation. The people shall hear and be
afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall
be amazed, and the mighty men of Moab, trembling, shall take
hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them." Fear and dread is going to fall upon all those leaders,
all those mighty men, those dukes. "'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." There's so many people, now it's a big movement
to plant churches. Does that sound like we do it? That's His hand, His mountain,
His habitation. The Lord does it, don't He? The
Lord saves His people, He gathers them, He preserves them, and
He uses the foolishness of preaching to accomplish this. Now, He doesn't
use foolish preaching. A false preacher will not be
profitable to God's children at all. I was saved when I was a kid
in that free will church. And then when I grew up, I eventually
learned the doctrines of grace, but I was saved way back then.
Lord used that false preacher, that minister of Satan to teach
me the gospel. Now, is that me disagreeing?
Try it by the Word. Jeremiah 23, 32 says, a man had
asked, I heard a man ask this question. He said, can God save
someone through the preaching of a lie? That's not that good
of a question. The best question would be, does
He? Does God save people through the preaching of lies? Jeremiah
23, 32 says, 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. Those that tell us lies, the
Lord didn't send them. He didn't command them. And he
says, Therefore, they shall not profit this people at all, thus
saith the Lord. That's an answer to a question. I didn't say he doesn't do it.
He said he doesn't do it. He doesn't do it that way. Well,
how am I supposed to know if a preacher is a sin of God? What's
the true test? What's the test of it? The test
is not whether he preaches the law. Does he get up and talk
about the Ten Commandments? Give us a moral law? Does he
tell us stuff to do? Every false preacher preaches
the law. Here's what the Apostle Paul
had to say. He said, "...and no marvel, for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore,
it is no great thing if he ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works."
They're going to say a lot of right things. They're going to
read out of the Scriptures, say a lot of correct words, say some
truth. But whose righteousness are they
going to preach? their own righteousness, their
own works. That's what Paul told us. They
preach the lie of man's salvation or holiness by man doing something
himself. They're not a true preacher.
They're not the Lord's preacher. Paul also told us in Philippians,
beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of concision.
For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. That's
our three R's. We have no confidence in the
flesh. We're ruined by the fall. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. He
redeemed us. And we worship in the spirit.
We've been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. That's the true
circumcision. Circumcision in the heart. That's
the Lord's true people. The test of someone's a true
preacher is not if he preaches church history. They know all
the men of old, the faithful men of old, and they quote them
all the time. I remember a faithful, faithful
pastor, Lord's servant, he died. And there was so many people
that was against him for years and told people not to listen
to him. They just put him down, wrote articles against him. And
they went to his funeral and just wept and cried and said,
oh, what a good man he was. Now the same man that's preaching
the same gospel that man preached, they're still against him. And
I bet whenever they die, they'll show up for their funerals and
cry and say how much they loved him. That's not the test. The test is not if he preaches
the gifts of the Spirit, claims to have healing powers. That's
a lot of big to-do in our day. The ability to heal people died
out in the apostolic era when that last apostle died. Those
apostles could go and put their hands on people and give them
the ability to do that. They'd go out and heal the sick.
But whenever they died, those gifts died with them. That was
gone. The test is not if he has a degree from a seminary. Don
used to tell us that a man can have as many degrees as a thermometer
and still not know the Lord. Don't do you no good. And the
test is not your experience. The devil may give you a false
experience. The devil may give you a good,
warm, fuzzy feeling that you had for a long time. The test
is not the experience. Now back to our text here in
1 John 4. What's the test? How do we know true faithful
preacher? 1 John 4 verse 2, Hereby know ye
the Spirit of God, Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. What
does that mean? What does the preacher say about
Christ? What does he think of Christ? What think ye of Christ? The
true test is what does he preach concerning Christ Jesus. It says there, every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.
He preaches by the Spirit of God. What does that mean, come
in the flesh? Just that he came to the earth?
Many, many people believe that. Many people tell you there's
a man named Jesus that was born in Nazareth. Many people celebrate
Christmas, don't they? They don't deny that the Lord
came in the flesh. Does that mean that all those
people that believe that are saved? What John's talking about
in his day was the Gnostics. G-N-O, Gnostics. It took me a
long time to look that word up. I can't spell it. But the Gnostics,
that was a heresy that was taking place in that time, and they
said that this world's corrupt. This world's evil. Man's evil. And so when Christ came, He didn't
really come and wasn't really made a man. He was made as if
He was a man. It just seemed that He was made
flesh. And they taught that God treated Christ as if He were
made flesh. And He treated Him as if He was
made under the law, as if He was made sin, as if He was made
a curse. It was all as if, that's what
the Gnostics preached. And they did that because they
were claiming that they were doing it for the glory of Christ.
They said their doctrine, their theories gave more glory to the
Lord. Their way did better. That's
what they were saying. But the devil's subtle. He's
not going to sway men from the truth by telling them little
green people from Mars is coming or Bigfoot is going to come preach
to you or something. It's not going to be something
crazy. He's subtle and he can trick people into denying a very
small part of Christ's work. makes them think that they're
denying that part of his work, of what he accomplished, his
person and his work. He convinces them that they're
doing something good, that they're helping the furtherance of the
gospel. It's for the glory of Christ. Those Gnostics of old,
they denied Christ was made flesh because they wanted to protect
the glory of Christ. They said He was not made flesh.
And they denied that essential truth and they did so in the
name of protecting God's glory. That was their excuse. That's
what their motivation was. But John says, "...hereby know
ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is not of God." Does everyone declare that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh? All those people celebrate Christmas?
All those people say, yeah, He was born and Nazareth? No. What does that mean? Declaring
Christ has come in the flesh is to declare that Christ Jesus
is eternal God. If He has come in the flesh,
then He has come from somewhere other than here. He came here
from somewhere else, and He was in another form before He was
born here. Christ is God. the eternal Son. He is the Son of God who is Spirit
and who is now God come in the flesh. Christ is all God and
He is all man. The God of man in one body. That's
what the scriptures say, the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
That means the fullness of the Godhead in a body. Declaring
Christ as come in the flesh is to declare what He accomplished
and for whom He accomplished it. He's crossed Jesus, the successful
Savior. Scriptures tell us, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save. He's a successful Savior. It's to declare that He came
to save a particular people. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people. He came for an elect people.
It's to declare He came to save sinners who could not save themselves,
those ruined by the fall. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Declaring Christ
has come in the flesh and to save His people from their sins
means God's righteousness is manifested by Him. He reveals
how God can be just and the justifier of those who believe on His name. That's important. Christ came to this earth to
declare God the Father's holy. He will punish sin. He will in
no means clear the guilty. Christ came to withhold that,
stand up in that law, fulfill it perfectly for His people,
and then that righteousness was put on us. God's holy the whole
time. Proverbs 17, 15 says, He that
justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even
they both are an abomination to the Lord. In Himself, He died
the just for the unjust. He remained sinless and faithful
to God on the cross. And as our substitute, His obedience
unto 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. That is the only way consistent
with the righteousness of God. And bearing the sin and the curse
of His people is the shame of the cross which our substitute
despised yet endured. He said, Father, if you will,
let this pass from me. Nevertheless, your will be done.
Therefore, He is the righteousness of God, the righteousness of
His people, the holy one who established the law for his people
and declared God just and the justifier. Declaring Christ as
coming to flesh is to declare he is risen and successfully
working in his people. Because 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." John declares that you
who believe have been born of God, and that's why you've overcome
the world. In 1 John 5, verse 4 says, "...for
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." He says, ye are of God, little
children. The children of God are born,
they're saved by God, they're born of God, saved by God, and
kept by God. Why did he do it that way? Why
would he even make us go through all this, if he does everything?
1 Corinthians 1 says that no flesh should glory in His presence,
but of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That, according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. The
Lord shows you this work. Does this work in you, you will
glory in Him and Him alone. Alright, back to our text there. 1 John. Four, the children of God have
overcome them, those that preach lies. Those that come preaching
man's works, man's will, man's wisdom. How do we do that? How
is it that a believer is overcoming of these things? Look here in
verse four. Because greater is He that is in you than he that
is in the world. Christ is in you. The Apostle
Paul declared to Colossians, said, If ye continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which ye have heard, and was preached to every
creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. What was that hope of the gospel
Paul was talking about? Which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Whom we preach. Not what we preach,
we preach a person. whom we preach, warning every
man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present
every man perfect in Jesus Christ, whereunto I also labor, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." It's
working by the Spirit. It's the Lord working in you. Our text declares that Christ
working in His preacher is the reason that His preacher preaches
salvation through faith in Christ, apart from man's works. And Christ
and His people is the reason His people hear and know the
truth from air. He's the reason. It's because
we are of God, born of God, taught of God, with Christ dwelling
in us. that he that knoweth God heareth
us. A cross preacher preaches due
to the Spirit of Christ working in him. And cross people know
God and they hear a true preacher preaching the truth with spiritual
discernment. They're given those ears to hear
due to the Spirit of Christ working in them. That's given. So he's working both sides. If
someone's blessed by His message, He gives me the message, makes
it effectual in you, and gives you a heart to receive it, hear
it, and rejoice in it. All these things are included
in declaring that Christ has come in the flesh. He was successful. We don't deny Christ as God that
came in the flesh. We don't deny His work for us
on the cross. And we don't deny Christ's work
in us. in our hearts, creating a new
man in us and holiness and true righteousness. David wrote in Psalm 32, blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in
whose spirit there is no guile. But there's many, there's many
that have not had their iniquity taken away. There's many that
have guile in their mouth. that deceit, those lies, those
that knowingly or unknowingly tell lies about the true God
of the Bible. That's when John refers to His
Antichrist. We look there at verse 3, 1 John
4, 3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist. Whereof ye have heard that it
should come, and even now already is it in the world. That spirit's been in the world
about 2,000 years ago. You think it's still here today?
It's grew, got stronger. Those who do not preach Christ
Jesus is all the salvation of his sinful, helpless, hopeless
people. Those that don't preach that
Christ is all and in all. Man's nothing. That's anti-Christ. It's against Christ. We can make
excuses for those that go out from us, that depart from us,
that turn to those things, but God's words settles the matter. It says, "...they are of the
world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth
them." They're received by those. What keeps God's child united
with His people under the true preaching of the gospel? What
saith the Scriptures? You want to answer? What keeps
us bound here together? Look into Christ alone. What
keeps me preaching Christ alone? Look here at verse 6. We are of God. He that knoweth
God, heareth us. And he that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of
truth and the Spirit of air. He keeps us. His Spirit keeps
us. He enables us in all things.
And if we see that, we witness that throughout our lives. Those
that have walked with the Lord for many years, you've seen the
ups and downs, and it's His hand keeping us. If we see that throughout
our whole life, everything's led up to the point of us hearing
the Gospel, through all the trials Christ kept us, looking to Him
only throughout the whole trial, why we worry. Why do I worry He won't keep
me forever as He has promised He will? It's His hand that keeps
it. And if He can keep me forever,
my soul eternally, present me faultless and unblameable. You
think He'll feed me? You think He'll let harm come
to me? It's like we read there in Psalm 33, He'll keep harm
from His people. be his chastened hand will judge
it, but he'll preserve us. I have nothing to worry about.
Amen. Let's pray together.