1 John 4:1-6
There are a lot of things in our world that hold high value. Diamonds, gold, memorabilia, and many other things. Because of the world we live in, counterfeiters have been able to make millions of dollars creating and selling fake “valuables.” Because of this, experts have come up with ways to authenticate whether or not these items are real. There are a lot of tests you can run to see if your gold is real. You can grab a magnifying glass, put it in water to see if it sinks, scratch it on something, hold it in your hand and see what color your skin turns, and a few other ways as well. Similarly with a diamond, throw it in some water, breathe on it to see how long it stays foggy, scratch it on something, weigh it, grab a black light, and others as well.
See there are ways to test the authenticity of something of high value, and what holds more value than a genuine relationship with Jesus? Go ahead and turn to 1 John 4. As John continues to draw lines of separation between the young believers in the church in Ephesus and those who are claiming to be believers but are preaching a false gospel, he provides them with another test to be able to discern for themselves. This time it is a test of who’s voice is most prominent in the truths that they hold. I want to start by posing a question this morning:
Big Question: Who are you listening to?
1 John 4:1-6
Big Idea: As children of God, we have the ability to hear and listen to the voice of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
John begins by imploring his beloved readers to be cautious, to tread carefully when encountering any person who claims to follow Jesus. Remember there were people actively trying to pull people out of the fellowship into a belief system driven by false gospels. But instead of just telling them to be cautious, he lays out 2 different ways in which they can test to see who’s who. Let’s start, though, by talking about the “spirits” that John mentions here. “Test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” He is directing the mind of his readers to the realm of the supernatural. There is a driving force behind whatever gospel is being preached. If it were the natural, John could have simply said to test those who are speaking, or test the false teachers, but his focus was not on the individual, but on the spirit that was driving their teaching.
His reasoning for this is because “many false prophets have gone out into the world.” These false prophets are driven by evil spirits, and are being deceived into believing and teaching a false gospel.
Test #1 – What Is Their Confession? (vs. 2-3)
It seems like a simple test: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as Messiah, Jesus as the Incarnate Word, is from God. Every spirit that does not confess this, is not from God. At first pass it seems simple, but, when digging deeper into the language, it’s a lot harder than it sounds to discern between the 2.
The key word here is “confess.” The verb tense implies a continual confession, not simply a one-time statement of belief. But it’s more than mere words. It’s not enough to just say we believe. Our statement must be backed up by a convictional belief that Jesus is Lord, and a submitting of ourselves to His Lordship. We see in the gospels that upon encountering Jesus, even demons acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God Incarnate, but there must be a submission to Him as Lord.
Jesus affirms this is in Matthew 7:21 when He says that “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
John Piper has a great paraphrase of John’s meaning here. He says, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which sincerely confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and which has a corresponding disposition of loving reverence and submission to Jesus Christ, is of God."
Specifically, here in this verse, John says their confession must be that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” This is a key doctrine that sets Christianity apart from other world religions, that Jesus is fully God and fully man all at the same time. He is 100% of both. And this is one of those doctrines for us that can be hard to wrap our minds around.
John lays it out in his gospel. In John 1:1 he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word that John is talking about is Jesus, so we can say that Jesus has been since the beginning, was present with God, and was Himself fully God.”
Then a few verses down in John 1:14 he says, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus, who is fully God, put on flesh and lived among His creation.
And while Jesus walked this earth, He was absolutely perfect, without sin. He did, however, experience all the effects of the Fall in Genesis 3 on his human body. He experienced pain, exhaustion, hunger, temptation, frustration, sadness, happiness, empathy and sympathy. But never once in his full humanity did He sin. It was a supernatural blending of God and man, and we call that the Incarnation. The Word become flesh.
So, back in 1 John, those who acknowledge with their mouths AND confess by submitting to the truth of Jesus as God in flesh, Word dwelt among us, Jesus as Lord are from God. Those who say it but have not believed it in their hearts, are not.
We’ve talked a lot about what that lifestyle looks like over the last couple of months.
· Walking in the light instead of darkness
· Keeping the Lord’s commandments, specifically loving God and loving others
· Loving God instead of loving the world
· Abiding in God rather than abiding in the world
· Practice righteousness rather than lawlessness
· Loving our brothers and sisters in the faith.
· Loving those who are not believers, sacrificially
So you want to know if someone who SAYS they are a believer really is, run their life through these standards and see how they stack up. Perfection? Of course not! But a desire to grow, conviction at wrongdoing, seeking accountability to fight forward, absolutely.
We are going to jump verse 4 and come back to it at the end, but let’s look at the 2nd test that we see John lay out.
Test #2 – Who Are They Listening To? (vs. 5-6)
We defined the world a few weeks back as the belief systems and moral standards that are in opposition to God. It’s the realm in which, for a short time, Satan has dominion and limited rule. Those who carry the spirit of the antichrist find identity and citizenship in the world, and that is what drives their speech. They speak out of the overflow of that which they are taking in. And they have the ear of those who are also of the world.
Their teaching about Jesus is shaped by worldly religion and philosophy, not by the original gospel message. This is why the world accepts their teachings, because they align with their philosophies and value systems.
On the other hand, “whoever knows God listens to us.” “Us” being John, the disciples and apostles, the early church leaders. They are drawing their truth from Jesus, from their abiding in God. They are teaching and preaching the message of Jesus. They are teaching and preaching Jesus as the Son of God, fully man and fully God, Messiah come to bring about redemption to the Father.
Listen, we cannot grow weary when the world rejects our message. We must come to expect that to be the case. Their acceptance of the gospel message, first and foremost, is up to the Holy Spirit, but the message will be rejected far more than it is accepted.
Now, this test, while sometimes easy to run, can also create some difficulty, especially when it comes to leaders in the church. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” They can be charming, likeable, manipulative and infectious. But, when the time comes for fruit to sprout, Jesus continues that “you will recognize them by their fruits…a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.”
Can I tell you about another one of our Core Values here at Family Church? It’s called Expository Preaching. There are different styles of preaching that you will run into depending on which church you go to. A lot of times there will be topical sermon series or messages, which are really important, especially when they are hitting the place where a lot of that particular church family find themselves. Nothing wrong with topical preaching. But one of the dangers, if the pastor isn’t careful, is that they can pull Scripture out of context to fit the topic.
My personal conviction, and the conviction of Family Church, is called Expository Preaching. This is a preaching of specific texts through the lens of the original context, original meaning, and practical application that doesn’t stray from what the Spirit inspired author intended.
So rather than preaching a topic and finding Scripture to fit, we preach Scripture and address topics as the text dictates. Now, again, both great. But, personally, I don’t want MY presuppositions and personal leanings to dictate what I preach. I want Scripture to dictate what I preach. If we can stick to what God intended when He gave these words to the authors, and get ourselves out of the way, then we protect ourselves from straying from the truth. And our desire is to go through whole books, from beginning to end, to get the full scope of what God wanted to communicate through the writers.
So back to the 2nd test, “who are they listening to?” Who is influencing their beliefs about God, about themselves, and about the world? It’s a pretty serious question that we must come face to face with as well.
To sum up the 2:
1. What is their confession?
And
2. What is it that is driving that confession?
Let’s circle back to verse 4. Here is the encouragement, here is the motivation for us to keep fighting forward. Those who are trying to pull you away, those who have taken the truth about Jesus and have twisted it to fit their feelings, God is greater. Your Father in heaven is greater than anything this world throws at you. Any temptation to believe something that isn’t of God, God is greater. Any attack that you may face because of your beliefs, God is greater. Any trial that comes your way, knocking you to the ground, causing you to question God in that moment, He is greater. The fear that can come when we look around at where the world is and where it is going, God is greater. He is greater than the lies. He is greater than the influencers. He is greater than the politics. He is greater than the movements. He is greater than the winds of change. He is greater than this world and the things in it, and we have that same power in us, and His name is the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:11 says, “The Spirit of God, that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.”
And 1 John 4:6 – “By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
So, what about us?
Application
We’ve got to begin with ourselves. We have to ask ourselves the question, “who am I listening to?” This is going to tell you a lot. What voices are shaping what you believe? Is Scripture the foundation? Or do you sprinkle a little Scripture in, with some progressive thinking, with this news outlet and this social media platform. Mix it all up in a blender and drink my truth milkshake. If that’s where you find yourself let me just offer up this warning. Your truth my not be God’s truth. Too many people find their theology in Fox News or CNN. Too many people find their theology in the latest social media influencer. Too many people find their theology outside of the only truth that matters, and that is the truth found in the perfect, unchanging, living, breathing and active Word of God.
And this is a challenge for us! It’s not easy. But the questions that John poses are so important for us, even today:
1. What is your confession?
2. What is driving that confession? Who are you listening to?
