I've been thinking for a long
time about bringing the message that I plan to bring this morning.
I've been looking at this scripture and considering a message on
this subject. And I want you to listen very
carefully to me and very prayerfully. And I want you to consider these
things. Now here's the title of the message. What are we to
believe? What are we to believe? There's
so much religion in this day, so many voices, so many preachers,
so many denominations, so many churches. Just what is a man
to believe? And John the Apostle, writing
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in 1 John chapter
4, verse 1, makes this statement. He says, Beloved, believe not
every spirit. Beloved, believe not every spirit. Now the word spirit here, anyone
can tell you this who knows anything about the scriptures. The word
spirit here signifies men, preachers, teachers, who claim to be endowed
with the gift of the Holy Spirit or claim to be endowed with the
Spirit of God in order to perform the office of prophet, preacher,
or teacher. Now God does speak through men. He does speak to us by men. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. And God does speak through men.
Paul said we have this gospel in earthen vessels. God hath
entrusted us with the gospel. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? So God does give his spirit to
men. And he does endue them with power
to preach and to teach. But my friend, what John is saying
is every person who claims to be sent of God is not sent of
God. Everybody who claims to be God's
preacher is not God's preacher. And he's saying here, beloved,
believe not every preacher. Believe not every teacher. Believe
not everybody who comes to you saying, I'm sent of God. John
says, read on, But try the spirits. What does it mean to try something?
It means to test it. It means to examine it. And John
is saying to us, try these preachers. Examine these preachers and teachers. Try them and see if they are
of God. For he said, many, note that
word, many, false prophets, false preachers are gone out into the
world. Peter tells us that. He said
there were false preachers in Israel, even back in the days
of Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah. There were false preachers in
the days of the apostles. The Apostle Paul was always complaining
about the false teachers that had crept in or risen up in the
church at Corinth, in the church of Galatia, in other places.
And even as there were false preachers in Israel and there
were false preachers in the days of the apostles, There are many
false preachers today. And he's telling us here, brethren,
beloved, believe not every preacher, but try the preachers. Try the
teachers, whether they be of God. We must not be dazzled. We must not be impressed by everybody
who claims to be holy. We must not be dazzled by everybody
who claims to work wonders and do miracles. Our Lord said at
the judgment, many are going to say unto me, Lord, we preached
in your name and cast out devils in your name and did many wonderful
works in your name. We're not to be impressed by
everyone who claims to speak for God, who uses the name God,
who carries a Bible in his hand and preaches from a pulpit through
a microphone. John says we must try the spirits. We must test and examine these
men, whether they be of God. Now let me tell you something.
A false preacher, who is usually greedy and covetous and opportunist,
will not tell you that he's a false preacher. But our Lord said,
beware of false prophets, they come to you in sheep's clothing.
They come to you disguised as sheep, but on the inside they're
ravening wolves. And Paul says that these false
prophets, he calls them apostles of Satan. He calls them the ministers
of Satan. He says, they'll come to you
as ministers of goodness. They'll come to you as ministers
of righteousness, for he said, watch this, even Satan himself
is changed into an angel of light. Now my friends, sometimes it
takes a discerning eye It takes a discerning ear, it takes a
discerning spirit to determine the counterfeit from the genuine. It takes spiritual understanding
of the Word of God to expose false preachers and false teachers. But, I'll get to that in a moment,
but there are many obvious signs that anyone ought to be able
to detect. There are many obvious signs
of false preachers and teachers. It's so obvious that even a person
who knows nothing about the Word of God, but has some concept
of the holiness of God, and the majesty of God, and the glory
of God, can detect a false preacher. I'll give you a few. First of
all, God's prophets, Old and New Testaments, God's prophets
have never lived lavishly and luxuriously in the world. Now
write that down. God's prophets, you go through
the whole Bible, and God's prophets and God's preachers have never
lived lavishly and luxuriously in the world. They've always
been plain men with simple taste. I'm telling you the truth. For
example, in the Old Testament, the Levites, they were God's
men, God's prophets, God's priests. They never owned any land. All
the other tribes had land, owned land, and had homes, but not
the Levites. They never owned any land. They
ministered about the temple of God. They never owned any estates
and any property. They lived with the things of
the temple. You know that so, and I do too. And even so, the
Apostle Paul said, they that preach the gospel are to live
by the gospel. God meets their daily need in
a plain and simple fashion, but abundantly. God's preachers do
not wear diamonds, live in mansions, own properties and businesses,
nor do they require bodyguards. God's preachers are simple, plain
men. with simple taste, who walk before
their God, who supplies their daily need. Now that's an obvious
characteristic of God's preacher, a prophet of God. The Apostle
Paul made tents to take care of his livelihood and those with
him. And when you see these personalities living in their lavish style
and luxury, you can mark it down. They're not plain men with simple
taste whom God sent. Stay with me now. These are obvious
traits. We talk about man says, God sent
me and I got a message from God, I'm going to deliver it to you.
Secondly, God's preachers, God's preachers, I'm not talking about
preachers in general, I'm talking about God's preachers, never
promote themselves. Never promote themselves. They
never exalt themselves. Read the Scriptures. They never
exalt themselves. They never put their names on
buildings and monuments and memorials. Not God's preachers. No, sir. They are concerned only for the
glory of their Lord. They want their names forgotten
and His name remembered. They came to John the Baptist,
and they said, Who are you? Are you the Christ? Oh, no. They
said, Are you Elijah? Oh, no. But who are you? Well,
he could have said, I was supernaturally born of Zacharias and Elizabeth
when they were old people. It's a miracle of God. Everybody's
always talking about the miracles that got them where they are.
Or he might have said, I was filled with the Holy Ghost from
my mother's womb. Or he might have said, the Lord
said I was the greatest man born of woman. But he didn't say any
of those things. He didn't put out a brochure
glorifying himself, bragging on himself, telling of his accomplishments.
He said, I'm a boy. Who are you? I'm a boy. Crying
in the wilderness makes straight a path for our God. John the
Baptist said, I must decrease. I must go down. And he must increase. The Apostle Paul said, I'm nothing. That's right. He said, Apollos
is nothing. Peter's nothing. I'm nothing. He said, I'm not
one whit behind the chief apostle, though I do nothing. He said,
I'm less than the least of all the saints. He said, I'm not
worthy to be a preacher. He said, I'm the chief of sinners.
That's Paul. And he never took a title. He
never referred to himself as Reverend Paul, or Dr. Paul, or
Bishop Paul, or Cardinal Paul, or Pope Paul. He just said, Paul. Watch it now. A bond slave of
Jesus Christ. Now you want to know who God's
preachers are? I'll tell you this. They're plain
men with simple tastes. And they're men who never exalt
themselves. They never project themselves.
They never promote themselves. They never seek to leave memorials
to themselves. They never brag on themselves.
They're concerned for the glory of God. Now, these are obvious
traits. These are obvious characteristics.
You say, well, there's a mighty few preachers in this day of
sin, but you're zeroing in on the truth. Yes, sir. I'll tell you something else
about God's preacher. God's preachers always have wives
who are in subjection to their husbands. Always. They're in
submission, they're in subjection, and they keep silence in the
church. Absolutely. God has never, from Genesis 1
to Revelation, ever called a woman to preach the gospel, or to lead
a church, or to usurp authority in any way over the men of the
church or the ways of the church or the program of the church.
That's the Word of God. Same Bible says you must be born
again. Same Gospel declares God is God
and Christ is the only Savior. It says, let your women keep
silence in the churches and let them learn in silence with all
subjection. God said, I suffer not a woman
to teach nor to usurp authority over a man. Let your women keep
silence in the church. It is not permitted for them
to speak or preach." 1 Corinthians 14, 34, 1 Timothy 2, Ledmond
12. 1 Timothy 2, 9, in like manner, and it's talking about the bishop
or the pastor, and tells him to be a man of sobriety, and
a man of simplicity, and a man of sincerity, and a man of honesty,
and a man grave and sober, and a man in the Word, but said also
in like manner, the women, his wife and other women in the church,
let them adorn themselves in modest apparel, modest apparel,
not with elaborate hairstyles, neither gold nor silver nor expensive
clothing." Watch the preachers of this day.
Their wives have more to say than they do. They're generally
more elaborately decked out and showing the worldliness of their
whole existence and their whole taste. And they use the takeover. And it says in the Word that
God's prophet has his home, his wife, and his children in subjection
and sanity. And his wife is a homemaker,
keepers at home. who is an example to the other
women who are believers. Now write that down. There are
no co-pastors, man and his wife. There's no such animal in the
Word of God. God said, I will that men pray everywhere, lifting
up holy hands to God. There to be the preachers and
there to be the leaders and the women of the followers. That's
what Scripture says. We're going to go by the Word
of God. And God's prophet always goes by the Word of God. And
if his wife knows God, she'll go by the Word of God. But we've got these evangelists
and pastors paired now. The women are doing more leading
and preaching and testifying and teaching and causing more
turmoil than anyone else. Now stay with
me. There are too many obvious signs
that some of these preachers are false preachers. Here's another
one. God's preacher is not a clown. He is not a clown. He's not a
joker. He's not an entertainer. He's
a preacher of the Word of the Lord. Most of the church programs
today are about 80% music and fun and hallelujahs. and clapping
their hands and dancing around and there's very little preaching
of the word going on and yet God had chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. God's preacher is not
called and sent to be a clown. He's not called and sent to please
men, to make men laugh and clap their hands at his antics and
his jokes and his entertainment. God's preacher is not a singer,
he's a preacher. He's a preacher, a teacher of
the Word of God. He comes declaring, thus saith
the Lord. Can you imagine Elijah behaving
like some of these fellas today who claim to be preachers of
God? Can you imagine the Apostle Paul putting on a show, decked
out in the fancy duds and diamonds of today's preachers, dancing
up and down the aisle, slapping people on the head? Talking like
these fellows talk? I can't imagine that as the longest
stretch of my imagination. I can't put Paul in this character. He was a sober and a sincere
man of God who came teaching the Word, that men might have
something to hold to and to build upon and to rest in, and where
to find some kind of hope. If I please men, Paul said, I'm
not the servant of Christ. If I'm in the men-pleasing business,
God's preacher is not ashamed of the gospel. He's not ashamed
of the testimony of God. He's not ashamed of the cross
of Christ. His chief concern is not to be
successful, but to be truthful. He has no ambitions to be successful. When God saved him and made him
his child, that's as high as he can go. There's nothing the
world can add to him with all of its glitter and glamour and
fashion that fadeth away. You can't add anything to God's
blessings. When we have Christ, we have
everything. We're complete in him. God's preacher's not concerned
about numbers. He doesn't count people. One
of the severest trials that God ever put David through was because
he numbered Israel. He went out there and counted
Israel. And we're in the counting business now. If we didn't have
numbers to report, and numbers to brag about, and numbers to
impress people, we couldn't get anybody's ear. But God's preacher
doesn't care whether they're two or two thousand. He wants
men to know Christ. And God's preacher will preach
the truth. He'll preach the Word of God. He's not ashamed of the
absolute sovereignty of God. He tells who God is. He knows
who God is. And he talks about the glory
of the Lord and the sovereignty and power of the Lord as revealed
in the Word of God. His prayer is a lot like the
prayer of Elijah on Mount Carmel. He says, Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God, that
thou art God, and I am thy servant, that I have done these things
at thy word. God's preacher will preach the fall and sinfulness
of the human race. He's not ashamed to declare the
truth about men. He's not trying to impress anyone.
He's not trying to win their influence or their favor. He's
not trying to get a raise. God supports him. He's not trying
to keep a lot of unsaved people together in a religious organization. He wants God's people to be manifest
and the tariffs to be manifest. And when he preaches the truth
about God and the truth about men, that scripture accomplishes
his purpose. He doesn't apologize for the
power of God, nor make excuses for the sinfulness of men. He
knows there's none good, no, not one, including himself. He knows there's none righteous,
no, not one. He knows there's none that seek
after God. He knows there's none that understand it. He knows
they all together become unprofitable. He knows that man fell in the
garden and the consequences of that fall have reached to every
human being. He knows we're shut up to the
mercy of God. God's preacher will preach God's
covenant of grace in Christ. He's not afraid to use Bible
language. He'll talk about God's predestination. He'll talk about
God's elective grace. He'll talk about God's covenant.
He's not ashamed of those words. He doesn't try to slip up on
people and surprise them. He doesn't try to cloak the truth
with some kind of intellectual words that nobody understands.
He knows salvations of the Lord. He says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, according as he chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, through Jesus Christ to himself
according to the good pleasure of his own will, and he's not
a coward. He says, I thank God for you, beloved, because God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Now, you'll never find
one of God's preachers compromising with anybody. They can kill him. He'll still preach the truth.
They can fire him and he'll preach the truth. He'll go out singing,
All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. He can lose every friend in the
world, but God's the friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
That's God's preaching. That's God's preaching. He's
no compromiser. He'll preach the Lordship of
Christ. in no uncertain terms. He'll preach the walk of faith
and holiness in no uncertain terms. He'll preach obedience
to the commands of Christ by the power of God's Spirit. He'll
preach the effectual call of God's Spirit. He'll preach the
perseverance of the saints, and he'll preach the return of Christ.
And he won't copy and mimic and imitate the preachers of this
world. He got his message from God. They don't influence him. He doesn't preach anything because
Luther preached it, or Calvin preached it, or Spurgeon preached
it, or anybody else. He preaches it because God says
it. And he's not convinced by the logic and reasoning of human
wisdom. His message comes from the Word
of God. And he'll preach the gospel. Now listen to me. It's
obvious. God's preacher will preach the
gospel, and he'll leave conviction in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
And he'll leave conversion in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
And he'll leave salvation in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
He won't drag false professors down an aisle in order to report
a lot of converts. He's not in that kind of business.
He'll not drag people down the aisle and drag professions of
faith out of centers in order to brag about the success of
his ministry. He'll just preach the gospel
and leave that gospel to be made effectual by the work of God's
Spirit, like Paul in Acts 20. He said to those people, he said,
I commend you to God. I commend you to God. I commend
you to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up
and give you an inheritance. To me, these are obvious characteristics
of those who are sent of God to be His prophets. Pastors and
teachers are sent of God, and it's obvious who many of them
are, but the cheap evidence given here in 1 John 4, as to how we can determine who
is a prophet of God, the chief evidence is what they preach
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look back at my text. He
says, Beloved, and I know this is serious business, but we're
going to have to face our day. We're preaching in 1985 and we've
got issues to be dealt with in this day, people to be dealt
with, God's Word to be dealt with. He says, Beloved, believe
not every preacher, spirit, but try the preachers, whether they
be of God. For many false prophets have
gone out into the world. Now watch this. Hereby know we
the spirit of truth or error. Hereby know we the spirit of
God. Every preacher that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth
not, not, that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. Now my friend, Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh. Jesus is the Old Testament name
Joshua. God is my Savior. It was a name
given to this person born of Mary at his birth. thou shalt
call his name Jesus. The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, and that
holy thing born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And
thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins, which is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. Call
his name Emmanuel, God with us." Jesus is God with us. Christ, Jesus Christ, that's
the Messiah. Every Old Testament promise,
prophecy, and picture of the Christ, the Messiah, the Redeemer,
is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He's the Lord from heaven. He's
Jesus, the Son of Man. He's the Christ, the Messiah,
the Redeemer. All the Old Testament is fulfilled
in Him. He died according to the Scriptures.
Now, He has come into this world. What does that mean? Jesus, God,
Emmanuel. The Messiah, the Christ, the
fulfillment of all Scripture, has actually come into this world. Not born only, but He who is,
and He who was, and He who always will be has come into this world. God has visited this world in
human flesh. He came into the world. He was
in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew
Him not. He came in His own, and His own
received Him not, but as many as received Him. To them gave
he the privilege to become sons of God, which were born not of
blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man,
but born of God. Jesus Christ is come into this
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. The Father ordained
him, anointed him, commissioned him, and sent him. And He came
down here through His perfect life and through His sacrificial
death and through His great resurrection and His ascension and mediatorial
work to redeem a people the Father gave Him in the covenant of grace.
And God's preacher will tell the truth about Jesus Christ
uncompromisingly, boldly, truthfully, and in simplicity so that men,
as they are taught by the Holy Spirit, will turn their faith
not to the preacher, but to that Son of God who must increase
while we decrease. Now this has been a plain message,
but I have it on tape. If you want to hear it again,
give it to a friend. I wish you'd write me. What are
we to believe? What are we to believe? The two
messages on this tape, Where's Your God and What Are We to Believe?
You'll write me this week, send two dollars, I'll mail you this
tape. Until next week, God bless you,
everyone.