"This is where your faith must lie: in the last and final, perfect prophet, Christ Jesus and in the Holy Spirit Who gave us the only true prophecy that still exists, the scriptures."
[This message is part of a series through the book of 1 John, entitled "Salvific Assurance Through Testimony," preached by Pastor Senter].
In the previous sermon post, we talked about loving others. We found, specifically, that God answers prayer while we are struggling through obedient love toward others, especially brethren in the Lord. When we are trying our best to obey God’s commandment–to love one another–we pray, and can count on answers to those prayers.
Please look at 1 John 4 and verse 1. Today we take a turn. We should continue to consider the context; however, we do move somewhat away from dealing with people on the level of loving them. Although within the whole context, this is a piece of the focus. It is actually a focus that encourages us and provides us with tools to discern certain things.
So, you might wonder: What does testing the spirits (a common view of this passage) have to do with what we have just studied–loving one another and understanding that we will not always be well-received? Ladies and gentlemen, I have to take you back to the focus of the letter. There are many false prophets around at this time who are espousing a heresy. They claim to know Christ, but they do not. They are known in many commentaries as secessionists. These false prophets are leaving the church and trying to take others with them in the process. Part of what they are doing is to berate others, to hurt them, to persecute them, and to treat them with contempt. This contempt is an attempt to indicate that Christians have an ignorance that requires their higher intellectualism of Christ–that it is knowledge, not Jesus, that saves.
Because they espouse another gospel, another way to eternal life, John has labeled them antichrists. John, in many ways, has just finished giving you tools to discern these antichrists from those who truly know Jesus as Savior. He has told us of fellowship one with another in the love of Christ. He has told us of our giving of one another out of the love of Christ. John has also told us of the hate and contempt that unbelievers will have for us because they do not have Christ in them. Additionally, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit of love, where the world has nothing of the sort. John is still giving us more tools; only now he gets more specific.
Equally, there seem to be people that are not easy to get along with, who are being mistaken for some of the antichrists. They stay in the church, but they are not very nice in their discussions and how they deal with people. Recently, Chris received some free books from Bob Jones University. One has the title, “How to Get Along With Prickly People.” I am not endorsing the book here, (we have not completely read it); however, the title is appropriate for the discussion in the scriptures we have just studied. It deals with how we should be dealing with some of our brothers and sisters who are difficult, socially.
John is trying to teach through these difficulties in the church, instructing their hearts and minds that it is not all intellectual; but that salvation, Christ Jesus, faith, belief–all of these things are in your heart and your spirit. Also, he is continually reminding people that it is a matter of when God actuates your life, how He works through you, and the changes in you that mark you as a Christian. You do, because He did. The more you find yourself seeking Him and His desires in your life, the more you exhibit these attributes; therefore, the more you should be assured of your salvation. Now, though, we take the turn. Later we come back to God and our testimony and beliefs; but today we look at discernment of others. This discernment is based on something you already know, specifically how to test whether a spirit is Godly, or of the evil one.
I. What you know (verse 1)
The most interesting word in this entire passage is the word for spirit – “pneuma“. There are many connotations associated with this word. It is used, in fact, to display a great number of things from wind, to the spirit of man. The reason for the interest in this word is that the Gnostic belief depended heavily upon the spirit being the only thing that was sanctified. Their belief was that only the spirit can be pure, the flesh is corrupt; therefore, the two cannot be joined. These Gnostics believed, therefore, that Christ Jesus could not be both God and man; therefore, He could not be God. The word is used two times in this verse, but seven times throughout these six short verses. In their beliefs, originally developed through Hellenists, the soul that comes from God is trapped, basically, in the body. Upon death of the body, the soul is then released to God. Hellenists were Jewish Christians who spoke the Greek language. We find them in scripture in Acts 6:1 –and in a positive fashion, pointing to the need to care for the elderly. This precipitated the appointment of Stephen and Phillip. Interestingly, in the persecution suffered after Stephen, mostly Hellenists were scattered and spread the Gospel wherever they were. For the Gnostic then, the redemption that is provided for the spirit is a rescue from matter, or flesh, which is corrupt. This word “spirit” used here is vital. Since John is combating this heresy, and attempting to educate those in the churches around him about a proper spiritual discernment, the focus is not necessarily on testing spirits you might see, such as an apparition, or appearance. No, the question is the spirit as presented by, and as present in the secessionists. What spirit are they believing in? Another aspect of this word and its normal usage is the testimony of others, their true spirit. We find this as the “anthropological” spirit. The true spirit of man. There is an aspect of this involved here.
The second word is rather qualified by the first. If these folks are talking of some other spirit than the Holy Spirit, and if they are in fact holding the view that the spirit of God and man cannot occupy a body, then they are “pseudoprophatai.” The word is a compound from the two words “pseudo” and “prophet.” The first, pseudo, indicates a liar, a falsehood. We find this form in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, where we see deceitful spirits and demonic teachings being conveyed through liars presenting insincere doctrine. The other word, prophet, is defined in the Louw & Nida lexicon as “one who proclaims inspired utterances on behalf of God.” This is a prophet, an inspired preacher. For these reasons, we find abhorrent those who hold to their being active prophets in the Mormon Church. Therefore, we see this word clearly as a lying prophet or false prophet, as it is translated here.
Prophecies are utterances from God. We have a more sure prophecy in scripture. This is where your faith must lie: in the last and final, perfect prophet, Christ Jesus and in the Holy Spirit Who gave us the only true prophecy that still exists, the scriptures.
What, then, are we to do with our knowledge? How about using it?
A. Using the Holy Spirit
At first this may appear somewhat abhorrent–”using” the Holy Spirit. However, He indwells us for a reason. We are told here specifically to not believe everything we see or hear. Do not believe every spirit, every spiritual testimony, whether in the body or not. Try these spirits, look at them, ask them whether they are from God or not. The point is that these are false people, these people have spirits, and their spirits are testifying of lies – falsehoods bent upon leading you astray. We go back to our original focus that John is writing to educate churches against a sect. This sect says there is another way to heaven and Jesus Christ is not really “it”. This sect has members and the membership is growing by taking others away from good churches that are teaching the truths of Christ and His atonement for sin through the cross at Calvary. We were warned of these things in Galatians 1, and John and his people were too, since it was written 30 years before this epistle.
Use the Spirit within you by asking for enlightenment and discernment.
This Spirit then gives you an ability to see other things such as false spiritual testimonies.
B. Seeing the False Prophets
Look at Matthew 7:15, please. We are pointing specifically to people who are trying their best to convince believers of another way to eternal life, to eternal existence with God. This is not a visual spirit, but the spirits inside those who are performing this testimony. These are people; and their spirits can either just be their own spirits born in depravity, or an indwelling evil spirit–a demon, drawing others away from Jesus Christ and His salvation. Many had been released into the world by the time of John; therefore how many more even now roam about? We see them in this Black Theology, we find them in Mormonism, we see them in Jehovah’s Witnesses, and we find them in churches that claim Christ, but say you must speak in tongues to have the greatest measure of the Holy Spirit. They are found in churches that would have you subordinate yourself to a system, a Pope, or the organized church itself. They are found in churches that claim they can pray and open the gates of heaven for those caught in purgatory. These false prophets and false teachers are everywhere. All of these are aberrations of the truth of the Gospel of Christ Jesus–the only Savior, the only way, the only truth, and the only One who provides eternal life.
Beware of false prophets who claim to be directly connected to God, and therefore able to proclaim the direct word of God. They worship a god for sure, the prince of the power of the air, the prince of evil, the self-claimed god: Satan. Ask them who is their savior and ask them to define him as man, or God, or both.
The reason you know God is because of what is within you. How you know what you know is a key element to this understanding.
II. How you know (verses 2-3)
God is directly referenced three times in these verses. Each instance is tied either to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit. We also find our word “ginosko” here indicating you can learn and experience the facts you understand. This is not just an intuitive belief; this is a factually-based knowledge. We find also three occurrences of our word for “spirit.” This is all tied together with a verb for confession, testify, to make an emphatic declaration. We also find this in Romans 10:9 where we are called upon to “confess with our mouth” to be saved. This is not just some flippant admission, this is a declaration that is clear, understood, unequivocal, and leaves no doubt as to its veracity. This word is also tied with Jesus Christ, His name, and His messianic title, positively. We also find one of the rare uses of antichrist, which provides the identification or label for the individuals denying Jesus as the Christ, Jesus as God. The subject of verse two is “God” referenced twice.
We can then know because we have the Holy Spirit in us, through our acceptance of Christ Jesus the Son. We confess and, in fact, declare clearly that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God, Jesus is man, and only Jesus saves man from condemnation. Those who will not declare these things, those who deny this truth, those who say there is another way are false prophets and antichrists.
What can we then know?
A. What they do (verse 2)
We begin with a common term of John– “by this” or “in this”– which normally indicates that what follows explains the subject. Since the subject is God, we are going to know something that qualifies a spirit as being either of God or not of God. The key active verb is “confess,” as we previously noted. Individuals therefore who confess, without equivocation, that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the way the truth and the life, that Jesus is God in the flesh, this person is of God. Conversely, anyone who does not confess these things is not of God. Either you confess it, or you do not. This is pass-fail.
Anyone who comes to your door and asks you to listen to their gospel, or about their church, or about their savior–ask them if Jesus is the Christ, if He is man, and if He is also God.
Who are those who will not confess, and what do they do?
B. What they will not do (verse 3)
There is indication that this reference is talking of the coming antichrist, the one who will fool many. This scripture very clearly states they are “of” or “from” him as the genitive case indicates. These individuals represent the coming antichrist. The word after your colon in the King James Version, “spirit” is not in the Greek. The writers take it as implied in the passage. This is a constant in most of the conservative translations. Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that this section is not dealing with spirits in your homes, or spirits in haunted houses. This is dealing with people who have spirits in them. This is a very logical conclusion. Every spirit in man or otherwise that will not therefore confess, that will not unequivocally hold that Jesus Christ is God, that He came in the flesh; this person is a representative of the antichrist – an other-than-Christ professor.
This denial of Christ as God leads to many other things. This Gnosticism actually began with the Hellenists in about 100AD with Cerinthus, who was a disciple of John in Ephesus. He claimed that Jesus was not one with the Spirit of God at birth; but that it descended upon Him after His baptism by John the Baptist. Consequently, this spirit also left Jesus before the crucifixion. They actually deny God was born of a virgin – they deny the virgin birth. They actually deny then the crucifixion of God on the Cross for our sins – they deny His atoning sacrifice for us. They also deny that God was resurrected on the third day as man and God–Christ Jesus coming from the tomb–defeating death, hell, and Satan. They also deny the truth of scripture and make it a lie.
If you talk to these individuals, give them these verses. Memorize these verses and quote them. The scripture literally says, “This is the antichrist” indicating these people are individuals that stand for and support the “imposter Christ.” However, your focus, as it always should be, is to esteem others higher than yourself, and reach out to others in love. Do not, as we have said before, spit these verses out at them. You are talking to a soul that may have been brought to you for the witness of the truth in scripture. Take the opportunity to show them the true love of the only God and the salvation provided in Christ Jesus.
Use scripture, just as Jesus did, in His rebuttal of Satan. John says they were already warned in 1 John 2:18. When you are confronted with these individuals who want to testify anything other than Christ and Him crucified, do not merely tell them, “That is not what I believe.” Tell them “the scriptures say…” and take them to the truth in love.
There is a reason we understand and comprehend what it is we have here. There is a reason we are “enlightened” why we “walk in the light.” Now, let us look at that reason.
III. Why you know (verses 4-6)
The word for “world” (“cosmos”) appears four times in verses four through six. We find our word for “spirit” twice and “God” four times. In this context, the word for cosmos certainly represents the temporal world. However, because of the first reference and its modifier, the inference also talks about the spiritual demonic influence that is here “he that is in the world.” Therefore, although we see this as our temporal space, clearly the reference is for those things – demons – and people – sin filled hearts influencing our surroundings – and specifically Satan, who has direct influence in this world. We should break these verses down a little more carefully.
A. A believers perspective (verse 4)
We have a power, because of where our spiritual focus now comes from, that no one else is going to completely comprehend. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us (Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 1:22; 3:18; Gal 4:6; Eph 3:16-19; Titus 3:5-6). Since we are “out of ” or “from” God, (literally the word “ek” in Greek is here conveying these ideas specifically) we see things and experience them on a different level. You who know Christ Jesus is the Savior, that He is the way the truth and the life, and that Jesus is both God and man, as testified in the scriptures, have a unique perspective on things. All that you have in your life because of Him gives you great perceptive power over others. You are from God. You are not from the earth. God sent His Son to die for you. You are a chosen people.
This verse also tells us that we have overcome them – those who are of the world. The word translated overcome literally means “conquered.” It is a word denoting a military victory, supremacy, or success. We find it used frequently in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, when referring to military successes. We also find this used in verses we recently studied 1 John 2:13-14, where the believers have overcome the evil one. We know who will win, and we are on the winning side. They are on the losing team and have taken the wrong side.
So that we should never get haughty, we must be mindful of the origination of this power: God. We are not of ourselves capable of these discernments; but only through the righteousness provided in the blood of Christ Jesus the Savior.
Use the power you have because God is greater than you are and greater than anything in this world. Use the power provided to you for discernment.
Conversely, the people of this temporal world have hearts that are from this perspective–a worldly one. They exist focused on a wholly different place as well. They are not from God.
B. An unbelievers perspective (verse 5)
These antichrists and these false prophets, being from the world, people understand them and people will flock to them. This is a scripture that should ring true in our political world so much today. Many people flock to the leaders of this world for their provision. Many flock to them as a form of salvation. People want to be around, associated with Kings, and affiliated with the affluent. These people speak the language of the world. They speak of money, they speak of great opulence, and they covet more of it. Everyone who lives among them and desires to flock to them is hearing their brethren call to them. In politics, the best way to make yourself look better is to bring your opponent down. This spiteful bickering is what we see very prevalent in the world. People vote for the individual who seems the most righteous in his or her denunciations. In man’s distorted sense of morality and fairness, the people of the world flock to the most sanctimonious candidate.
The same happens with sports figures. There were a number of fights on baseball fields this past year. The managers claim that emotions are high because of tremendous pressures placed on these players to perform. It is not their fault they lose their tempers and act like uncontrollable children. Ladies and gentlemen, these people brought these pressures upon themselves in their contractual obligatory agreements. They covet the monetary reward for their service. A service that is based on the high expectation of 30% success rate at batting and pitching should not have very high pressures, especially if this is a game. Because man is attempting to hit a round object, with another round object, and predict where the sphere will travel…because they cannot predict the improbable, and perform the nearly impossible, they get upset with others who mess up their plans in the process. Yet, this blaming others for the pressures they bring upon themselves is a common thing in our world, and we just have to understand it. The world listens to their complaints and agrees with them. Hiebert, in his commentary, makes the point that they draw all their teaching from the philosophies of the world.
We certainly have a more common-sensical view than any of these examples. We should stay grounded in a more concrete truth and admit the limitations of our abilities, as well as that of others.
We have these understandings, and we have these common-sense views only because we have a God who reveals Himself to us for the purpose of our edification.
C. God’s perspective (verse 6)
Once again we find a very common-sensical statement. We, being brought to salvation through Christ Jesus, are from God. We are from God because He has chosen us as His and brought His children to Him. He called upon you. He asked that you join Him. He knew you before the beginning of time. You have always been His. Because we know these truths, we listen to Him and to those who know Him and love Him.
Those who know God listen to one another. We come here to church to worship God, to worship our Savior, to worship the Holy Spirit and His great gift of indwelling our souls. We come here because we know Him, not necessarily that we have yet to know Him. We come here to learn more about the One we know. In this fashion, in fellowship, in relationships, in support for and to one another–in all these ways we listen to each other.
In addition, because those who do not know God cannot comprehend our devotion to a loving Savior they do not listen to us. They have no reference point, and they therefore cannot grasp the significance of His sacrifice. Those people do not listen to us because they simply cannot understand. They are incapable of grasping the totality of His sacrifice. God has not shown them His great mercy. They know He is there–many will admit it. They just do not see His great grace, His great mercy, or His great love. They cannot see it because they have no reference. They think everyone is inherently good, or has some good in them that needs to be encouraged. Their reference point is with man; therefore, they listen to man. Our reference point is with God; therefore, we listen to God, the things of God, and the people of God.
By listening to God, by listening to the people of God, by attending to the things of God, we therefore have the discernment to determine the spirits of truth and error. We do not bite and bicker between one another. We love one another. We do not think of spiteful things and reasons to hate one another, but rather of things, reasons, and ways to love one another. We do not do things in our life, bring pressures upon ourselves, and then blame others for what goes wrong. Instead, we focus upon God and seek to correct those things that we have developed wrongly in our lives. For these reasons and many more, we do not then flock to royalty or affluence. We see any affluence or wealth we attain as a gift of God and treat it as something special to be cared for and used specifically for His glory. Ladies and gentlemen, we do not seek more, but as we receive more and are proven good stewards of those things, we know God trusts us with more – “do” again– do more for His glory.
To tie this all together then, John encourages us to believe and have faith in what we know. He encourages us to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in what those things are, in order to see false prophets for who they are and what they represent. It is important for us to know how we know and are able to discern these things. We know what these false prophets do and what they will not do. The simplest test is to ask them to confess Jesus Christ as Lord, as Man, as God, and as the Savior of the world. Then we go back to the basics: why you know what you do, and why the world is so lost in what they do not know and why they have no idea how to relate to you. Remember, marvel not at the world that persecutes you. They are lost in their own things, they are lost in their own gods, and they are lost in what is important to them individually; and they have no concept of a great and glorious God. They are just lost.
In order for you to be able to discern these false prophets from the real thing, you have to have a right perspective with which to begin. You have to start with the Savior; you have to be with and in Him in order for Him to be with and in you. This is not a one-way street, but a two-way freeway where both should share in the greatness of each–you, in the greatness of God and His salvation through the Son, and Him, in His delight at creating you for His glory–which you seek in your life always.
The questions for you to consider today are, “What is your perspective? What is your focus? Where are you laying most of your efforts, energies, time, and money? Is all you do for God?” Alternatively, you may ask, “Is all you do for you, here in this world? What is your all? What is your focus?”
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