And we're going to be in chapter
3 again today, moving into chapter 4. So for those of you who are
reading and paying attention, you will see where we are. I'll
encourage you again, beloved, read the Bible. Read the Bible. Be in the Bible, not just trying
to get through it this year. It's not a problem to do that. Read it. Spend time with it.
Spend time in the stories of scripture. The Bible was not
composed as one book. So it shouldn't be read as one
book. It should be read as this book and that book and this book.
But it is one story. So the Bible supernaturally has
come to become one story because that is the intention of God
and that is how we need to approach it. I'm learning more and more
as I research and talk to people and just recognize some trends
that we are truly in a state of illiteracy when it comes to
scripture in most places in the world. Not that we can't read
the words, it's that we don't know how to approach them, and
we make it way too complex. So please read it, and through
the reading of the word, you will agree with what you hear
when it is taught rightly, because the Spirit of God in you will
testify to the truth of it. Outside of that, we can debate
till the cows come home. And 1 John, We know the story,
we know the point, we know the story of Christ. We know what
John is trying to illustrate and to show and to teach the
saints here to whom he is writing. And we understand that there
is a level of uncertainty in our spirit, in our heart, in
our conscience when we are sinning against God. We know that even
though we have strong assurance That our confidence should always
and can only be in the finished work of Jesus Christ. That we
hurt ourselves when we sin. Because we terrorize ourselves,
really. We become little mini terrorists
to ourselves. We do that which is not required of us. We do
that which is commanded for us not to do. And we don't do that
which is commanded for us to do. And we wonder why we stay
in a blender in our hearts and minds. Then we try to approach
the Word of God, but we feel like we're unworthy to read it.
We want to come be with the saints, but we feel like we're unworthy
to be in fellowship. Then we want to pray, but we
don't know how and we can't because our mind is just all tangled
up. So the more we engage in unloving
The more we do things that separate us relationally from one another,
the more or the less we actually are truly in a real practical
way loving the Lord Jesus, and less and less and less we'll
be fruitful. Last week I think I tried to
entitle the message, I can't remember what it is, but a fruitful
conscience. A fruitful conscience is a conscience
that is free because of the gospel of grace, that is sovereign and
free. But a fruitful conscience and
a relationship is that which puts away sin so that we can
confidently not take that war upon ourselves. My wife has a
phrase she's always told me from the very beginning of our marriage,
and it's, why are you always? She'll say, don't borrow trouble,
James. There's plenty of it. Quit borrowing
it. You're worrying about things that are outside your control.
You're worrying about things that are not here. You know, God is
sovereign. God is not sovereign. Which is
it? You can't have it both ways. Either it's all on you or it's
all on Him. Quit borrowing trouble because
I worry about the minute details of everything. Everything. There are things that I have
misplaced that as I am speaking this very moment, I am walking
through my house looking through cupboards. I'm not kidding. I'm
walking, I'm looking now and I'm thinking, oh, I haven't looked
there. As I was saying that, I was like, I haven't looked
there for that. Has nothing to do with the word or the teaching,
but I have this picture, this mini movie going on in my mind
and I'm looking through my house. That's how I think. That's why
you should be scared of me. You should be very, very afraid.
I'm very, very damaged, and I'm a very, very dangerous guy. But
anyway, truly. But we get back to this this
morning, and we're about to get to a place where we are told
by John, look at chapter three, verse, oh, let's see, verse 23. Let's just start there as we
move into verse one of chapter four. He says, and this is the
commandment. that we believe in the name of
his son Jesus Christ and love one another. Whoever keeps his
commandment abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know
that he abides in us. That is by the spirit whom he
has given us. Beloved, do not believe every
spirit. but test the spirits to see whether
they are from God. Now, I'm gonna stop there for
just a second. I may not get past the introduction this morning,
but we've got to get, this is sometimes what we even had this
conversation on the road yesterday. We went up to see a brother in
the faith who's looking to come here and some of us brothers
rode together and we had a good conversation in the truck and
we talked about sometimes how it's very almost impossible to
teach topically. Because not only is it not safe,
but it requires a lot of work. Because no matter how you teach,
if you're teaching topically, you have to have exegeted that
from somewhere. So if you've got to exegete 11
texts to teach one topic, you've got a lot of homework. And if
you've never done it, you're 70 hours that week to preach
one. You're 70 hours of work to preach one. Whereas typically,
you're 30 to do this. And most of that is spending
time in the scripture in and of itself dealing with it as
it comes. But this is one of those times
where the scripture in and of itself presses a topic that doesn't
necessarily work within its context because John does not give us
the understanding of what these spirits are. But I'm willing
to bet that we have been programmed to think
about what these spirits are. I bet that if I were to say to
you, take out, you know, we don't have communication cards or offering
envelopes or anything to write on the back of the seats, and
don't write on the new hymnals, please. But anyway, so we, you know, if I
were to say right now, what is this, what are these spirits?
And we would probably go, I don't know. Most of us would say, I
don't really know how to answer that. But if I'd say, now what
have you heard? What have you been told that
they are? A lot of us would have an answer or two. And we're programmed
to that. We can finish sentences, right? We can finish songs. I mean,
for example, a song that one of my grandmothers used to sing
when I was a little boy. She'll be coming around the mountain.
You know the rest of it? When she comes, I don't know
where she's going, where she's coming from, or what time that's gonna be,
but when she comes, she's gonna, you know, and then it's like a two-hour
song. It never stops. It's verse after
verse after verse. And I've even been told that
that has something to do with the coming of the Lord. I'm like, well, they got
the gender wrong. But either way, You know, we
know that song. Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
You know, you know the story. You know the song. We're conditioned.
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. Unless he's
in the desert and there's no water spouts. So we sometimes
are programmed to just remember things and we can answer them.
We can answer theological things. You know, he's got the whole
world where? In his hands, you know. It's deep and wide. I can never do that. You know,
it's like this. We know that story. We know the song. The
story, the song that we can fill in the blanks and by that we
think we are taught truth. And that's just in little kids
music. We're taught truth every day in the context of marketing,
jingles, Saturday morning cartoons, 1970s and 80s. You know, you
sit there and you, wow, you know, we know Mr. Clean, we understand
Spick and Span. We understand that these products
do what they do because the songs taught us that. Well, well-meaning
pastors, Sunday school teachers, pamphlets and everything else
in between, cassette tapes, 45 LPs, eight tracks, whatever it
might be, we've been taught a lot about the Bible and a lot about
God that is not necessarily true concerning the Word of God. So
when we see things like test the spirits, we start to think
weirdly. So in the context, then, of what
John is saying, it's right after he just said by this, we know
that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So in the
very simple sense, John is saying God, the Holy Spirit, he is with
us. He is indwelling us. This is the picture. Now people
have made millions of dollars discovering how this works. People
have sold books and videos and conference tickets, spirit conference,
prophecy conference, spirit moving conferences, and you name it.
I mean, there has been so much nonsense in the name of the spirit,
so much so that some of my brothers through the years, we've all
said, you know, we've never done a conference on the Holy Spirit. So we did
one last year. We did one, a conference on the
Holy Spirit, and it was very non-spiritual to so many people
who watched it on the internet. There's no Holy Spirit at all
in this thing. They're in the Old Testament. They're talking
about God. Exactly. We're talking about
the workings of God, the power of God, the presence of God,
the person of God, the persons of God. We're talking about the
very guidance of God and the wisdom of God. The Spirit of
God. The very person who will teach
you the truth that I'm teaching you today. But no, we'd rather
understand how to manipulate Him. How to call Him. How to empower Him. How for Him to empower us. How
that we might be filled. And these pictures are to teach
us about the operation of God in the life of His people. So
when the scripture says that He put His Spirit in us, it doesn't
mean that sometime in the last season of our lives when we came
to know the truth that God sort of, in a spiritual sense, hypodermic-ed
the Spirit of God in our veins. And the Bible doesn't teach that
the Spirit of God is a force. The Bible doesn't teach that
the Spirit of God can be commanded or told or called or doing anything. The Bible teaches that the Spirit
of God is a person. He is God. And He does as He
wishes, you see. When He wishes, where He wishes.
God the Son said this very same thing to Nicodemus in John chapter
three. Because isn't this, isn't Nicodemus
the quintessential religious person in America? Well, I've
been studying the Bible my whole life. I know a lot of Bible verses.
I'm dressing pretty biblical. I mean, look at me. I'm a Pharisee. I'm part of the Sanhedrin of
the ruling 70. I'm the teacher of Israel. And
I'm coming to find out what this knucklehead Jesus is all about,
but we know he's not a knucklehead. We know that he is the one come
down from heaven, for no one can do the things that you do.
Oh, Jesus of Nazareth, and let God be with him. And Jesus says,
I'm going to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell you the truth.
You can't see the kingdom until you're born again. And Nicodemus'
mind went, he doesn't know what to do with it. He doesn't know
how to approach it because it didn't fall into his religious
understanding. Huh? Well, I've got the precepts. I've followed them. I've got
the wardrobe. I've worn it. I've got the prayers.
I've prayed them. I've got the tithes. Well, I
don't have to give tithes. I receive them. You know, and
so on and so forth. And I've got it all that. Where
is the born again portion? Where is that? Where is that,
Nicodemus? I mean, Jesus, Nicodemus asks. And Jesus says very clearly this
way. Well, you know, the wind, it blows. We see it blowing. We don't see the wind, but we
see what it blows. The Spirit's the same way. God, the Spirit,
he blows where he wishes. And until he blows, you're not
alive. But when he blows, you're alive. That's the rebirth. So the Spirit of God is doing
the work of God, just like the Son of God is doing the work
of God. Jesus says numerous times in
the Gospel accounts, I come to do not my will, but the will
of the one who sent me. God, the Holy Spirit, in the same
manner, does the will of the one who sent him. And we could
talk philosophically and have, there are thousands of pages
concerning the philosophical theology, which is necessary.
I mean, we're going to think about things, right? But we always
surrender our thoughts to the context of scripture so that
we don't learn what we learn based on a song somebody wrote.
Rain Down. You remember that song? Rain
Down. Back in the 90s, you know. These
big churches and you know thousands of people singing and rain down
Holy Spirit rain down And I used to get upset about that song
and I'd be standing there going That reminds me of Sodom and
Gomorrah What are we asking God to do here? Rain, I don't want
God raining down on me hellfire brimstone sulfur You know Drown
me, Lord. You know, that's what he did
with the flood. I'm thinking, what are we praying for the Spirit
of God to do? There's this weird experiential
mindset that God the Spirit is going to perform something incredible
that we can see that's going to fulfill us. And that's not what the New Testament
teaches. The New Testament teaches, plain and simply, Yes, there
is a lot that the Spirit does, regeneration, sealing, the guarantee
of our inheritance. Remember Paul talking in Ephesians?
The Spirit of God is the guarantee of our inheritance. The Spirit
of God then, according to 1 John 3, is the what? Is the knowledge
that God abides in us. In Romans chapter 8, it's the
knowledge of adoption. We know that we are the children
of God for the Spirit of God dwells in us and allows us. It's actually Romans 8, 16, isn't
it? by which we call him pops, dad,
daddy. There's a spirit of adoption. We know that he loves us in Christ
Jesus and that because he loves us in Christ Jesus, we are gifted
faith and the spirit of God teaches us and seals us and keeps us
in the truth that we know that God will not throw us away no
matter how our lives look and no matter how weak our faith
may be. The gospel is good news because it cannot be undone. and that God in His sovereignty,
to the sovereignty of God by definition, begs efficacy. That means that God is sovereign,
therefore He's doing something that He wants to be done and
nothing can stop Him. And God's will, after His own
counsel, is to save His people through the Son, Jesus Christ,
and He has done that. And then God's will for us as
the elect of God, who are sealed by the Holy Spirit, who are indwelled
by the power and the presence of God the Spirit, who are taught
by the Spirit of God, who are given faith by the Spirit of
God, who are born again by the Spirit of God, who know that
we are the children of God by the Spirit of God, and all that
including thousands of other things that we could walk through
the scripture and learn, all of that is included. I mean, this is included in all
of that, that He wants us to walk in a manner worthy of the
calling and the Spirit that lives in us, which is first and last
love for one another. And we'll watch our mouths if
we're thinking about loving one another. We'll watch our eyes
if we're thinking about loving one another. We'll look after
our hands if we're thinking about loving one another. We will not
destroy the relationships with our neighbor because we love
the relationships of the saints. And if I lose my mind and beat
my neighbor up because I'm angry, every one of you will suffer
greatly. So I'm not loving you as I'm
getting revenge. But y'all can visit me in prison.
And that's about as close as we'll get. You see that? That's what John wants us to
see. But there is somebody that has told these Christians, hey,
you know what? This is who Christ is. Hey, you
know what? This is what God wants. Hey,
this is what we need to be doing. Don't you question my salvation.
Oh, don't you tell me what I should be doing. Don't tell me what
to do. And John says the Spirit in us
abides in us and the Spirit of God teaches us the truth of this.
It's not a feeling. It's an experience. But the experience
is not a feeling. The experience is not the manifestation
of some supernatural presence. The spirit is the presence of
the presence of God that is known through the wisdom and the knowledge
of God. Salvation is the knowledge of God's salvation. Salvation
is the faith that is gifted to His people by the Spirit that
even when we think, am I sure about this? God, the Holy Spirit,
through the word that He's given us, reassures us that we belong
to Him. And we don't work it out by trying
to say, okay, if I look like this, here's the picture, then
I know I'm in Christ. No, but if you look like Christ,
then you will stop fighting that battle. And there are thousands
others. There are thousands of other
battles that we might fight. So this is the Spirit of God
who has taught us not just what John has just said, but everything
that we've learned thus far. That in Him there is no darkness.
There is light, He is light. The message that we heard from
Him in proclaiming to you God is light and in Him there is
no darkness at all. It's forgiveness of sins. In
Him is adoption as children. In Him is propitiation. In Him
is advocacy unto eternal life. In Him is the commandment of
the knowledge of God's righteousness to love one another as Christ
has loved us. And see, John hadn't gotten there.
I'm like, John, you should have put that first. See, I keep, but we're supposed
to hear this letter in one sitting. See, that's why you've got to
read it. The knowledge of knowing how
we ought to walk. The knowledge of knowing what
the new commandment and the old commandment really mean. The
knowledge of the fact that the light of Christ is shining. The
knowledge that our sins are forgiven. The knowledge that we have a
responsibility to one another. The knowledge that God has brought
us out of darkness into the light of Christ and so on and so forth.
And the knowledge of the world and what it is and how it loves,
which is really hatred of God and hatred of God's people, and
the fact that everything in the world is passing away and we
shouldn't love it, this is all by the spirit of truth. The knowledge
that antichrists are in the world and have come into the world
and will continue to come into the world until the world ceases.
And they will come in the spirit of antichrist, but they will
confess to have the spirit of the Christ. But they won't. They'll
have the spirit of not Christ. And everything that is not Christ
is the spirit of Antichrist. And we know them by how they
teach. And we know the lost, not the
religious, but like the lost lost, the ones who don't even
claim to be in the light of Christ. We know them by how they live.
They have no confession, which is a confession. And we see how,
we see what the flesh does, we see how God turns people over
to reprobation, and then we see that same activity in the church,
and we go, ah, please don't do that, that's wrong. Like you
don't put your feet on my mama's table. And you don't put your
feet on my table. Do y'all put your feet on your
tables at home when you're eating? No. Because I can tell you this,
my mama would have saved a lot of money on shoes if I'd have
put my feet up on the table. She'd have chopped them right off.
And then made me eat them. Because we don't waste things.
When I was a kid, you out there shooting sparrows and you get sparrows
for supper. Nasty. Moving right along. The knowledge
of the love of God, the knowledge of glorification, the knowledge
of that eschatology of knowing that one day we will be like
Christ in our flesh, that we will no longer not only just
have the imputed righteousness of Christ, which causes us to
stand firm and secure before the Father in judgment, but then
he will create our flesh as new. So we won't be worrying anymore.
We won't be laboring. We will truly be at rest. Because
could you imagine going into glory with the same old mind
and the same old flesh and the same old junk? You know, I've
got scars on my hands. I've got six scars on this hand
and two scars on this hand. And some of those scars come
along with some stories. I don't want those stories in
eternity. I don't want the anger that came
with some of these scars. And you might think, man, he
was a tough one. I was just like fixing a car. You know, you ever got
angry under the hood of a car and push that thing down real
hard and you slice your hand open and go, huh, I told you.
You know, getting upset on the farm because you have to move
stuff and you're a kid and you don't want to move stuff. So
you get real excited, real strong. You think you're incredible to
Hulk. Incredible Hulk, whatever it is. And you chuck a fence
and stuff and the barbed wire comes up and slices you all to
pieces, but you're too proud to say anything. So you've got
a five-inch scar on your hand. Anger. You know, I don't want
those stories. I don't want to sit there and
worship and then look down at my hands. and say, I'm not worthy
to worship. I won't have that battle in eternity.
Who am I to worship? Who am I to stand in the presence
of Christ? I'm His righteousness. That's who. So this glorification
of the Spirit of God testifies to us that we will one day be
pure. And now we are pure because of
His purity, because of His obedience, because of His death and burial
and resurrection. And so we continue to learn by
the spirit that we ought to love one another. We know that it
isn't about talking, but it's about doing. That love is about
how we serve, and when we serve the least of each other, we are
serving Christ himself. And we can look at proof texts
all over, the synoptics, and we can see Paul writes specifically
about these things in Romans. He writes specifically about
these things to the Church of Galatia, Ephesians. All over
the place, we see it. So this is the spirit of God.
It's the spirit of God. But see, because we've been taught
the spirit of something we feel rather than someone we know that
teaches us the truth of God, we have to test them. So let me give you an example.
Well, let's just use John's example. He says, do not believe every
spirit. but test the spirits to see whether they are from
God. For many, and here's the answer, I'm gonna give it away.
I'm not that smart, guys. John's smart. For many false
prophets have gone out into the world. Now what does a false
prophet do? Preaches lies. Preaches lies
concerning Christ. Preaches lies concerning the
gospel. Preaches lies concerning God. Preaches lies concerning
the personhood of God. Preaches lies concerning redemption. Preaches lies concerning life
together as the church. And brother, I don't know if
y'all, brothers and sisters, I don't know if y'all have seen or listened
to Trey's message. Actually, you didn't preach it
live. You recapitulated it local and then we broadcast it. But
I mean, we talk about what constitutes biblically a true church, a true
assembly. If we were to measure ourselves
by that, by the Lord's grace, we have it all. And it's not
because we have done it right, it's because God, the Spirit,
has taught us rightly. But if you were to measure other
congregations, would they actually be biblical churches? Well, this
is how we test the spirit. It's part of it. We test the
spirit. What is the spirit? See, if we eliminate the supernatural
aspect of this, we're going to miss the point. But if we make
it just mystical, we're going to miss the point as well. What
John is saying is that there are false prophets that have
gone out in the world. So in other words, the spirit of these false
prophets is not the spirit of Christ. It is the spirit of the
Antichrist, who is the enemy, who is the devil, who's the father
of lies. Because that's what they, what? That's what they
propagate. They purvey or they sell. They
continually use their mouths and their platforms to sell false
truths. We were driving through a detour
yesterday, and we ended up in the grit capital of the world.
No lie. The grit capital, where they
say 45,000 people come to this 2,200-person town during their
grit festival. Interesting. But there was a
clock up there that was very wrong. And it just sort of made
me think about it, how the old adage is a stop clock is right
twice a day. But it's on military time, and
it's only once a day. for you critical thinkers out
there. And the same thing is true for false prophets. The
same thing is true for those who teach wrongly. The devil
himself used the true text of scripture to manipulate the reality
that Christ was living in so that he might tempt him to do
something sinful. That's what happens. False prophets don't
come around with fork tongues and horns and fires and a hay
fork and everything that's like, you know, a farmer that's been
working out in the field too long. That's not how he comes off.
He doesn't come off as a dark being. He comes off as a light
being. False prophets are successful because they come along and when
they're selling you a bunch of snake oil, they pull up a Bible
and they say, and you know what, ultimately you need to decide
what you're going to do with your life because the Bible shows that you can't
help yourself, I mean that you can't help others if you haven't
helped yourself first. Do you know the Bible doesn't say that?
But do you know when I was 21 years old, a real slick, very
strong type A guy stood up in front of me and said that and
when he touched the Bible, he hooked me. He touched the Bible,
he picked the Bible up. It wasn't even a spiritual thing,
it was a business meeting. And he went in there and grabbed
a Bible, but he knew his audience. I said, a Bible? Oh, it's a spiritual
situation now. I guess this sales opportunity
must be from God. Sign me up! Bankruptcy, that's
what it did for me. Killed us. Test of spirits. This man is
about the gospel, he wouldn't have been about selling something. Test the spirits. False prophets
use truth to manipulate truth. Every New Testament letter was
written to correct deception that had snuck into the church.
Paul even tells Timothy in his elder training, That there are
going to be people who come in slick talking, slick moving,
slick dressing, slick, slick, slick, slick. And they're going
to trick folks. They're going to trick weak minded people. People who
are looking for leadership. Isn't that what a lot of people,
especially when you're young in the faith, isn't that what we
want? Somebody lead me, teach me, show me, push me, drive me,
tell me where I'm supposed to be and how I'm supposed to live
and what I'm supposed to be doing. I want to honor the Lord Jesus. Praise
God for that zeal. But then we look to a leader
who has what we think we're looking for and they push us in the wrong
direction. And false prophets hold the Bible and stand in the
pulpits and are called pastor, but they're not shepherding anybody
into truth or light. They are actually standing in
the shade. And they may be the most loving
and genuine and sincere people that you'll ever meet. And they
may not even know that they are deceived. That's the whole idea
about deception. If you're deceived and know it,
you're not deceived. And they sneak into the church
and they wreak havoc. That's why the exposition of
Scripture is important. Because I can't get on a 43 week
project I have to this and this and this
and eventually if I'm steering the ship in the wrong way, the
word of God is going to run my toes over. I know that doesn't
work in water, but I'm going to tipple off the side of it.
What happened? We just hit an iceberg, dude. You ran into the
parking lot at the dock. You have really steered this
wrongly. That's what exposition does in safety. It puts us on
a path that we can't veer too far off or everybody's going,
Are we in a different book? Are we? Are we in a cookbook?
Are you reading off the instructions of how to put on that trim? Do not believe every spirit,
but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false
prophets have gone out into the world. In verse two, by this
you know the spirit of God. Okay. Now who's he talking to? He's talking to believers. who
have the Spirit of God. By this you know the Spirit of
God. Jesus has come into the flesh. People who know the Spirit of
God say that. People who know the Spirit of
God confess that. What's the alternative? He's
just a spirit himself. He just came in sort of like
a form, but wasn't a human being. Why is that important? Well,
John didn't take time to teach us about the teaching, the doctrine
of the incarnation, the doctrine of substitution, the doctrine
of all of these things, because they're taught in other places
in scripture. Matter of fact, in John's Gospel, you get all
that, and as someone who's not Jewish, if you've never understood
the Jewish prophecies and the Jewish sacrificial system on
a superficial level, you may go, what's this mean? And then
you can read the Old Testament and you figure it out, or you
can read some in Hebrews and figure it out, or you can ask
someone who's been walking a little bit further in exposition, and
they can show you where to go and you can be taught. But if
Jesus Christ didn't come in the flesh, he's not a representative
of man. If Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh, then God's
a liar. If Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh, then he's
a liar. If Jesus Christ did not come into the flesh, then what
does it matter? I think, who says that? A lot
of people say that. The very fact that he came from
somewhere to the flesh is important. Some people say, well, no, he
was just born. He's a normal guy. He's just a prophet. No, he said he came
from heaven. He said he came from God. He said he prayed to
the Father, return to me to the glory that I had before the foundation
of the world. Return to me to where I once was. This meat suit's
getting a little old down here. I mean, you know, and of course
that's not the heart of Christ, but for comedic relief, I state
it like that. So every spirit that confesses
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and that means also
the work that he did in the flesh. What did he promise to do? He
tells the disciples. I'm going to die. He tells Nicodemus,
I'm going to be crucified on a cross. He tells the multitude
at the feast in John six, he says, you know what? I'm the
bread that come down from heaven. I've come down from heaven. If
you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you'll live forever.
These are synonyms for believing his testimony, the spirit of
God. teaches us this testimony is
true. So no, you cannot say, well, I don't believe, you know,
I believe Jesus is a good man and he died. He's like a martyr,
but I don't believe that he's God. I don't believe that he's
human. I don't believe that he's done anything. Then his death
is ineffectual. Then the sovereignty of God has no efficacy whatsoever.
And we are to be pitied the most. Because if Jesus didn't come
in the flesh, then why, pray tell, did he go into the ground?
And why is the resurrection the apex of redemption? Doesn't make
any sense. If something isn't real, then
how does it die? And if it didn't die, then why would it need to
be raised from the dead? Is this just a show? Is this David Copperfield
in Las Vegas? What are we looking at here?
And that's where a lot of people are. It's just a story. It's
just a metaphor, some people say. Well, Jesus is the example, and
if we follow the example, and he is the example. Paul commands
the church at Philippi, have this mind among you, which is
yours in Christ Jesus. Have the mind of Jesus, which is yours.
Do not think of yourself higher than you ought to. See, he does
in a paragraph what John does in a letter. Jesus did not come into the world,
here I am, God, judgment. He came to the world, became
a human being, died on the cross, obedient unto death. His obedience
culminated unto death. And every spirit that does not
confess Jesus, period, It's not from God. And the idea of confession,
what is a confession? A confession is telling the truth
about something. A confession is saying what is true. If I
say that I robbed a bank and I didn't rob the bank, it's not
a confession, even though they'll say, he confessed, but I'm lying.
If I tell the truth about Jesus according to the spirit of God
in the word that's written concerning him, then I am confessing the
truth about Jesus concerning Jesus. I'm confessing the truth
about Jesus' testimony concerning Himself, about the Father's testimony
concerning His Son, about the Spirit's testimony concerning
the Son. And anyone who does not confess
Jesus and everything that's true about Him, when we find people
in the world, I want you to listen to this because this is important.
I had this conversation yesterday. You know, where do we draw the
line in the context of ignorance? To what degree? Well, we have
to have a relationship with somebody and a conversation with somebody
to deal that out. A soundbite, a Facebook post,
a one-liner, five minutes, sometimes it's not enough for us to peel
through the layers of what people mean because they may be just
where the rest of us are and we think that the itsy bitsy
spider is always climbing up the water spout. We bought the marketing of cultural
Christianity and we just got the answer ringing in the back
of our head and we can't get it out. Give me another song,
please! And I don't dare give an example of things that get
stuck in our heads because I can't stand it. Alright, let me look
for that thing I've lost because it's coming in there, those songs
are coming in there. Alright, so, Spirit of the Antichrist. And the Antichrist, the Spirit
of the Antichrist, those who claim to be in Christ who are
not Christ, those who want to give glory to Christ, so-called,
but do not. Those who tell lies concerning
Christ. Brother Guy, for those of you
who know him, stated something the other day. He says there
have been many men in the pulpit for 20, 30, 40, 50 years, and
the whole time in ministry, they've been lying about Jesus. I'm going
to tell you, brothers and sisters, that's a majority of Christianity
in the world. Lying about Jesus. And the only one that lies about
Jesus is the spirit of the Antichrist. So no matter how good people
are, that's where I was, people can be good and loving. And when
they're, when they're Antichrist and hateful, I mean, that's sort
of the easy formula, right? Hateful. But when they're Antichrist
and loving and they use that truth just enough, It's hard
because we overcome the lie by our adoration of their character.
We do. And listen, I love a lot of lost
people. I love them dearly. I am deeply
friends with a lot of lost people. I love them dearly. But I know
they're not my siblings. And they know that I know that.
And I have said that to them. And I have told them, It is okay
that you do not believe this, but you are not walking with
me in the same Christ. I cannot agree that you are in
Christ, but I still love them and they still love me. Family,
the same way. Beloved, we don't have to become
enemies because there's no such thing as an enemy in the heart
of a Christian. In the context of how we relate
to them in prayer and in affection. Why would we hate and despise
loss rather than mourn and love them in prayer? God is sovereign. The spirit of the Antichrist
is coming into the world and is in the world already. Now,
this scares us, doesn't it? Now, I'm gonna turn the table
here because John turns the table a little bit. He's starting to
give instruction. Because what happens? See, we're worried. We're already
worried. We're worried. Oh, no! Am I anti-Christ? That's always the first thing. Well, I believe if you were anti-Christ
sitting here listening to the gospel that we preach, you probably
wouldn't last very long. You'd probably start smoking,
fire would come out from under your seat, and you'd burst into
flames. No. If it was only that easy. Lock
the doors and let's just preach and see who's real You know We
sweep up the ashes and start over next week The real crazy things if I started
smoking or the preacher, oh, you know, it'd be bad, you know,
but that's what we do We've got that mentality. Oh am I anti
Christ? Beloved let's just rest on that
for a minute and receive this letter as a believer. I And when
God shows you something and if God, through the context of the
next year, the next 10 years, the next 10 minutes, reveals
to you the truth and all of a sudden you realize that the gospel of
grace is yours, then don't worry about what you
were five minutes ago. Rejoice in who you are now. You're born
of God this day, this moment. And not all of us have that experience. Not all of us have that time.
to where we know the moment where we believe the gospel. Some of
us do. Because sometimes it's the moment
we heard it first. It's in the world, beloved, and
it is the sovereign will of God that the Antichrist is in the
world, and it is the sovereign will of God that the majority
of people who who confess Christ are in the spirit of the Antichrist.
It is the sovereign will and purpose of God. We are not here
to stomp that out. The reason the Son of God appeared
was to destroy the works of the devil. Isn't that the first promise
of Messiah that we see in Genesis 3? Through the seed of the woman The seed of the woman shall come.
The serpent will strike his heel, but the seed of the woman, he
will crush the head of the serpent. This is Jesus Christ. And I find
it extremely awesome that God in Genesis 22 used the serpent,
which I don't know where it came from. Why does Moses have a bronze
serpent? Maybe he just collects things.
Because I don't think he forged it while everybody's dying of
neurotoxin. A whole man. What are you doing, Moses? Making jewelry and we dying here.
I mean, you know, he had the snake. We don't get all the details.
But in my mind, I want to know why he had a snake. But that
Jesus ends up becoming like a serpent. The very thing that gives death
in the same manner is the very thing that gives life. Jesus is a snake. I preached
that in 2012 during the Holy Week services when I was asked
to preach on Good Friday. I think it was the last time.
Jesus is a snake. And I preached John 3. The Antichrist is coming to the world,
but the Son of God has already come into the world and has crushed
the enemy. His teeth are gone. His venom
is moot. His power is destroyed. His work is erased. But yet we act like God needs
us. We act like God needs us sometimes
to be the crusader. And we think that when we wake
up in the morning that our main job is to destroy the Antichrist. Christ has already done that.
So if we want to be a part of Christ's ministry, then we proclaim
the gospel, which is the power and the salvation. We proclaim
the truth of Christ and we confess Him continually as we learn Him
continually, as we live out this truth continually together. We
tell the truth about Jesus, who has already defeated all His
enemies. And the more nonsense we see,
the more lies we see, our biggest response should be to put our
face in the Word of God, to get our knees on the floor and pray,
and to walk together in unity while we look at the light of
Christ, not peer into the darkness and how we can throw matches
in there hoping we'll strike a flame. The light never goes into the
darkness. The light overcomes it. The light
is already shining. So imagine it this way, Jesus
Christ on the cross. This is an image, not a theological
truth. Jesus is shining the truth of
righteousness, the power of God. And from that moment in history,
he's continued to grow the light. And the light is always in the
same place. The light is always together.
The light is always in Christ. There is no such time where the
light will take a particle of itself and walk into the depths
of darkness way over there and then start spreading again. We
need to understand that Christ and His truth is overcoming the
darkness. And the world is not from Christ. Verse 4, little children, you
are from God. See, I preach ahead of the text. And you have overcome
them. Who? The antichrists. You have
already overcome them. By the spirit who taught you
the truth of Christ from the beginning, not just his righteousness
to you, but his righteousness in and of himself. And everything that goes along
with salvation. So that when you hear the words, of Peter,
when you hear the words of James, you don't misunderstand them
unless you've been taught the wrong song. But once you hear it correctly,
you'll never sing it wrong again. You'll never fill in the blanks
by the culture. You'll always, that would have
been a good example too, there's some songs that we sing wrongly.
We don't know what the words are. Coming up, you couldn't
get lyrics to songs. You just had to get everybody
together. What'd he say? And we were all
wrong. But we're not wrong when we're
taught rightly. We are from God. We have overcome them. For He,
God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son,
who is in you is greater than He, the Antichrist, who is in
the world. They, the Antichrist, are from
the world. What does the world do? The world speaks from the
world. And who listens to the world?
The world listens to the world. Jesus said the same thing in
Nicodemus. That which is flesh is flesh. That which is spirit
is spirit. That which is flesh understands
things in a fleshly way. That which is spirit understands
things in a spiritual way. Paul would say that the spiritual
mind can discern the things of God, but the natural mind cannot,
no matter how smart we are. And we may be experts on the
data, but it doesn't mean that we can see it. There are a lot of experts in
physics who don't know anything, because they're experts on theoretical
nonsense, which is interesting. Like energy having a conscience. They're from the world, they
speak from the world and the world listens to them. But we are from God. You see, there's another reiteration
of his audience. We, you and I, us, we are from
God. We are the children of God, beloved. We are to test the spirits in
the world, little children. We have overcome the enemy. There's always somebody. in the
world ready to teach you how to overcome the devil. And they'll give you some good
arguments. And you know the answer to that? Christ has already stomped
him in the mud. As we say down here, stomp the
mud hole in that boy. And if you don't know what a
mud hole is, being stomped on somebody, you are very blessed. Cause some rowdiness. We are from God and whoever knows
God listens to us. So listen to the truth of the
Spirit of God through the Word of God, through the people of
God. Listen to the truth of the Scripture. And do not labor to
try to clean out with Q-tips or whatever those things are
that you put wax in and pull out. All these unique ways of
trying to clean out your ears. Quit trying to clean out the
ears of worldly people who cannot hear. But just keep teaching. It's not our convincing or our
arguments that will matter. It is God the Holy Spirit who
will cause them to hear and to see and then they will be in
unity with us if indeed they are the elect of God because
no one for whom Christ died will ever leave this earth without
the knowledge of the truth. I want you to hear that. No one for whom Christ died will
ever leave this world without the knowledge of the truth. Whoever listens to us, these
are the ones, verse 6, we are from God, whoever knows God listens
to us. Have you ever been there with
your Christian friends and you're teaching them a gospel truth,
you're teaching them the truth about Christ that you've just
uncovered or seen for the first time and maybe you've just been
born again but you've been in the church your entire life?
You've walked the aisle a thousand times. You've rededicated. You're
so wet. Your ears are ringing. I mean, you know, baptism and
we just, and all of a sudden you see things you've never seen
before because God, the Holy Spirit has shown you in his word.
And then you want to share that with enthusiasm. And you're thinking,
wow, these brothers of mine are going to love me now. And what
do they do? The same thing the Pharisees
did when the man of 38 years and invalid walks in and says,
I can walk cha cha cha. And the first thing they say
is who told you to pick up your towel? What are you doing? Who told you this? Or the blind
man coming in and says, I think you've lied the whole time that
you were blind. You've been faking it. Where's your mom and daddy?
They need to testify that you were born blind. And they're
like, we ain't getting in this. He's a grown man now. He can
talk for himself. So they threw him out of the synagogue. Because when we see for the first
time, when we see the truth, we are knowing God, we are understanding
righteousness, we are experiencing the power of the Spirit to teach
us the truth, and when those who say they're in the light
come around us and we're shining, it's the same thing that happened
to Moses, and they're going, oh, you're too bright, turn it
down, shut up, sit down, and go back to Sunday school. You
know? You're too cagey. That's what they would say about
John the Baptist, I guess. Moses comes off Sinai having
been taught of God's righteousness. And they don't even want to hear.
They don't even hear from Moses. They're like, hey, what happened?
Dude, can we go up with you? Nobody has to go up with Moses.
You notice that? Nobody. Moses didn't have to.
Did y'all stay down here now? They didn't want to go up there.
And Moses comes down and his face is shining. And they say,
man, cover your face. Cover your face. We can't do
this anymore. Cover your face. I don't want to see your face,
man, because you've been around God. You are too much for me. Simmer down now and get on with
life. Let's just get back to eating
this terrible bread. You know, we could camp outside
of Egypt. Then we could go on the weekends. That was sort of
their mindset. But when we share this truth
with somebody and all of a sudden they go, hey, I've been seeing
that too. It's like fireworks. It's like
Christmas every day. And I mean from the sense of
we getting a whole bunch of nice prizes and gifts. Not because it's the
birth of Jesus. It's a celebration. It's something,
wow. And then we just become extremely
intimate with that person in a spiritual sense. We want to
talk to them all the time. We want to assemble with them
all the time. We want to get together. And it is why that the trend
is, hey, let's move down there to be with this little country
folks in the middle of nowhere in fellowship around the gospel. And it is the doing of the will
of God, because we who are of God, those who are also of God,
listen to us. But whoever is not from God does
not listen to us. By this, we know the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Someone comes and says, hey,
you know, this is what I think about Jesus, A, B, C. And you
go, A's right, B's weird, C's wrong. Huh, what you talking about?
Let me show you in the Bible real quick, okay? Let me show
you. See right there? See right there? See right there?
Get out of my face with that junk. That's your interpretation.
No, this is what the Bible's saying. And then you explain
that. Listen, you have to explain that to people. And when you
show this, and they go, well, I'll be, the Bible does say that.
I was wrong, praise the Lord, they're listening. But when they
say, nah, I'm not gonna serve a God like that, that ain't the
God I know, you can say, you're exactly right. Well, I have no
husband, said the woman in John 4. You're exactly right, you've
had five. And the one you're with now is
not your husband. Her answer, you're a prophet,
you're wise, man, you see things. Then tell me this, how can I
be righteous in my worship? And what does he say? You gotta
worship in spirit and in truth. Your flesh can't worship in a
righteous position. You must be born of the spirit.
And if you're born of the Spirit, you'll know the truth that the
Spirit teaches, and that is the truth of Christ. In all of his
truth, he is the truth. And in that alone, will you ever
be allowed to worship God in righteousness? In that alone. So that is how we know the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error. And so we need to test the spirits.
We need to test the spirits that tell us to love the world, because
the Bible says not to. We need to test the spirit who
tells us to feed the lust of our eyes, because we deserve
it, because the Bible tells us not to. We need to test the spirit
that tells us to get even with our friends and neighbors and
our enemies, because the Bible tells us not to. And moreover,
let me make that a little more emphatic, the gospel teaches
us not to. Not just that the Bible gives
us the instruction, but the gospel instructs us because it's who
Christ is. The Spirit of God shows us what
is true. We know what? We know. The scripture that says that
you are not forgiven. Or the scripture that, I mean, the people
that says that you are not forgiven. You say, no, I'm going to test
that spirit. The scripture says that I am in Christ. Or the person who
would say, well, you know what? I am not a sinner. Then that's
a lie. We test the spirit. The scripture
says that you are. Or the person that would say, you know what? I don't think I have ever sinned.
Well, that's the spirit of Antichrist because the spirit of God and
the truth of the scripture says that you have. And the list goes on and John
has given us all that. Well, you know what? I don't
have to love Billy Bob. Nobody in here named Billy Bob,
hopefully. The scripture says you should,
you ought to. Why? Because as we see verse
seven, John is about to tell us, God, I mean, beloved, let
us love one another for love is from God. Love is from God. So we test the spirits, and in
the context of this writing, the primary spirit that we need
to be testing is the truth of the gospel and those who say
they don't have to be in intimate affection and service with the
body. These issues. See how I can manipulate
that? I can have fun with this one
as a pastor who loves to see all the seats full. I could really
have fun with this. So if you're not in church, you know what
I mean? Are you of the body? Are you
committed to the body? Because if you're not, you can't
love the body. You can't love. You can't. I think, Trey, we figured out
it was 50% of the New Testament yesterday. I say two thirds of
the New Testament cannot even be obeyed if we're not in the
local assembly, but it's 50% word for word. A mathematician
figured it out. It's 50%. because all the letters are written
to the church by definition who are gathered together and assembled
under the banner of Christ in the intimacy of the faith and
the unity of the gospel sealed and empowered by the Spirit and
the whole function that they are to do is to learn this truth
of grace and how God has done what he's done and why God has
done what he's done and in the in that time of life, in that
span of life, than we are to serve each other, which is our
spiritual act of worship, which is to love the Lord. So we can't
even apprehend the instruction of the New Testament letters
if we're not in the body. And some of our brothers and
sisters who cannot be here, who cannot move, who cannot get away
from their present circumstances, who it's just impossible to relocate
anywhere near a true assembly. God is gracious in that, and
so many of them have said, you know what, I don't, this is out
of the norm, but you are my people. And y'all know these people.
They talk to you, they pray with you, they're on the phone with
you, they're on the phone when we're singing and worshiping
sometimes in the mornings. This is the best they can do.
but they are in covenant in their heart with you. It's the best they can do. But still, it's not enough, is
it? It's not enough that we only meet twice a week. It's just
not enough. But it's just where we are. It's
what we can do. It's the only thing. I mean,
maybe we should try to meet every week, every day. I mean, how
are we gonna do that? Either way, no matter how it
looks, whether we're imprisoned or whether we're sick or whether
we're isolated or whether we're abandoned or whether we're in
the dispersion or whether we are put to death, we are one
in Christ. And the spirit of Christ has
taught us the truth of Christ and the spirit of Christ is teaching
us this very day and in the days prior that we are indeed learning
to love each other. By the spirit of truth, so we
test these spirits. And we grow and we must be patient
with one another as we grow in these things. Because everybody's
not going to get it equally at the same time at the same rate.
If that happened, I'd probably die. Oh, my goodness. It's too
much, but we're going to be patient. We're going to love and we're
going to learn as we live out our lives. Through the liberty
that comes only through the gospel of grace, let's pray. We thank
you, Father, for the truth of this, for the truth of you, To
know that the spirit that you've given us is the spirit of truth
and that through that spirit, through the truth of Christ,
through the fullness of your revelation to us, we are learning
more and more each day about your doings, your being, your
persons, your love, the salvation and redemption that comes through
your hands. And so, Father, the reason that we learn these things
is that we might love one another in them. We might love one another
in a real way. We might love one another in
a sense that is fueled by this good news, is fueled by this
spiritual rebirth. We are siblings like no other.
We have a closeness like no other. And Father, protect us from the
spirit of the Antichrist that would even tell us that we have
escaped the world's church and the world's false gospels. Lord,
let us not lay over each other the aroma of pain or hurt or
judgment or assumption that we have experienced in the past.
Help us to walk clearly and freely, giving each an opportunity. to prove themselves without Lord,
without being tainted in our hearts against them. That's difficult
because pain carries with it scars. And sometimes it's easier
just to stay away and to be isolated for the sake of sanity rather
than to be exposed for the sake of unity. But Lord, ultimately,
our joy will be complete when we begin to see that that you
turn us all into true lovers, into true family, into true servants. And as you have served us through
Christ, as Christ is the lowly, humble slave unto death on a
cross, He submitted Himself and obeyed You in everything, Lord,
and we are credited with His righteousness, Father. Help us to just start and end
there. We thank You for Your Word. We
thank You for Your hope. We thank You for Your love. In
Christ, we pray these things. Amen.