Test the Spirits
1 John 4:1-6
In 2013, Shai Linne’s song “Fal$eTeacher$” went viral. He challenged those outside of America not to embrace all the theology that was coming from inside our borders. He writes,
And I ain't really trying to start beef
But some who claim to be part of His sheep got some sharp teeth (they're wolves)
You cast at me when you criticize them
But Jesus told us: Matthew 7:16, we can recognize them!
And God forbid that for the love of some fans
I keep quiet and watch them die with their blood on my hands!
So, there's nothing left for me to do except to speak to you
In the spirit of Jude 3 and 2nd Peter 2
And I know that some would label me a Pharisee
Because today the only heresy is saying that there's heresy:
"How dare they be specific and drop some clarity
On the popularity of the gospel of Prosperity"
Turn off TBN, that channel is overrated
The pastors speak bogus statements, financially motivated
It's kind of like a pyramid scheme
Visualize Heretics christianizing the American dream
It's foul and deceitful, they're lying to people
Teaching that camels squeeze through the eye of a needle!
Shai broke the unforgiveable American sin: he disagreed with people. Shai experienced pushback for being judgmental and intolerant, but it wasn’t because of his lyrics above, it was because he named the heretics.
Joel Osteen – false teacher! Creflo Dollar is a false teacher! TD Jakes is a false teacher! Joyce Meyer is a false teacher! Paula White is a false teacher!
The song dropped in the 2013, but more names could be added today. Jen Hatmaker is a false teacher. Bill Johnson is a false teacher. Steven Furtick is a false teacher. It feels different to say, “Beware of false teachers,” and “Beware of Steven Furtick who is a false teacher.”
When the Apostle John penned his first epistle to the church, he did not need to drop any names because everyone knew who he was talking about. He was talking about those who were in their community, part of their church, who left the body denying that Jesus was the Christ. We do not live in the 1st century; in a world without smart phones and social media. We live in an age where false teachers can be carried in our pocket with their podcasts and YouTube videos. John warns us of false prophets. Jesus warned us of false prophets. Paul and Peter and Jude warned us of false prophets. Are you testing for false prophets?
The Testing of the Spirits
John begins this new section with his common appeal to the church, “Beloved.” I believe it is important to remember calling out false teachers and false doctrine is not judgmental or hateful but it is for love. John writes to the, “Beloved,” I preach to the, “Beloved.” I pray that you hear this message with a heart of love and it will create in you a heart of love for others. 1 John 4:1-3,
[1] Beloved, 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. [2] By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
John just reminded his readers that we know God abides in us by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. John wants the people to be discerning between the Spirit of God vs. the spirit of the antichrist, the Holy Spirit vs. an earthly spirit. John writes, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone into the world.” I believe John is using spirits as Paul does in Colossians 2:8 when he writes, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” The spirits may have a demonic or Satanic root but are expressed in ideas and philosophies that are against Christ and his Word. Jesus is the Incarnate Word, John evens identifies him in chapter 1 as the word of life that was made manifest to us. To stand against the Word of God is to stand against the Word of Life, Jesus Christ.
John provides a test for us. “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is [the Christ] is not from God.” There were false teachers in John’s day that denied that Jesus was truly God and truly man. They denied the incarnation. They denied the virgin birth. Therefore, they denied salvation. They denied the forgiveness of sin. They denied the true hope of eternal life and the resurrection from the dead. They denied the clear teaching of Jesus Christ and the apostles. The great test of faith of whether you belong to God is if you confess Jesus as the Christ. There two ways to confess Jesus Christ. You confess with the right doctrine and the right response to that doctrine. You need both. For example, demons believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Holy One of God. They have the right doctrine, but they do not worship Him as the Christ. Others like Mormons may live a good and moral life, but they do not believe that Jesus Christ was the eternal Creator made flesh to save us from our sins. One’s life may appear righteous but there is no righteous apart from the Righteous One. Right doctrine with a wrong response equals denial. You must believe in the right Jesus, as revealed in the Bible, and you must respond in the right way.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? Do you believe he is the eternal second person of the Trinity? Do you believe he became flesh and dwelt among us? Do you believe he was born of a virgin and lived a perfect life? Do you believe he died on the cross for the propitiation for our sins? Do you believe he satisfied God’s wrath against sin? Do you believe he rose from the dead on the third day? Do you believe that if you confess Jesus Christ is Lord that you will be saved? Do you believe that if Jesus is the Christ he deserves your full and complete allegiance in every area of life? If you truly answered yes to all of those questions, you know the Spirit of God. If not, you have the spirit of the antichrist. Any spirit or philosophy or tradition or teaching that does not teach that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the World, the Author of life, the only hope for sinners, is not of the antichrist. It stands against the Lord Jesus.
And if you walked in this gathering today as one who stands against Jesus, friend you can repent of your sins today and be saved. You can confess that Jesus is the Christ. To confess is not merely verbalizing the words, but confession is to believe with all your heart that Jesus is the Christ and then to respond in worship to Him as your Lord and master. Christians identify our faith with Jesus in baptism when we publicly make repentance towards God and put faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus renouncing Satan and all his ways promising to live for Christ in the fellowship of the Church. It is not mere words, but it is a life given to Christ. Would you consider confessing that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of sinners? Feel free to talk with me at the door or the person who invited you or any of our members.
John provides a general test for the truth. Every spirit that confesses Jesus is the Christ is of God and every spirit that does not confess Christ is of the world. We need to be on guard for false teachers. Notice this is a command. Do not believe every spirit but test the spirits. And that command is not written in singular form but plural. “We” are all responsible to protect sound doctrine and to avoid false teaching. This is a community project. False teaching and false teachers are not usually wearing signs but if you know where to look for they are easy to discern. What is harder to discern is if you are following or believing in false teaching or following a false teacher. We need each other. We need to foster humility and honest dialogue if we are going to protect one another from the serious dangers of false teaching.
Christian author Tim Challies wrote a series a few years ago called Deadly Doctrines helping to provide wisdom from the Bible on how to identify false teaching and false teachers. Not every false teacher is the same, but they “take on many forms, custom-crafted to times, cultures and context.” Here are seven he warns of today:
The Heretic - The Heretic is the most prominent and perhaps the most dangerous of the false teachers. Peter warned against him in his second letter. “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1). The Heretic is the person who teaches what blatantly contradicts an essential teaching of the Christian faith. (Oneness Pentecostals, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses)
The Charlatan - The Charlatan is the person who uses Christianity as a means of personal enrichment. Paul charged Timothy to be on guard against him. “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Timothy 6:3-5). The Charlatan is only interested in the Christian faith to the extent that it can fill his wallet. (Simon the Magi, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar)
The Prophet - The Prophet claims to be gifted by God to speak fresh revelation outside of Scripture—new, authoritative words of prediction, teaching, rebuke, or encouragement. In reality, though, he is commissioned and empowered by Satan for the purpose of misleading and disrupting Christ’s church. (Joseph Smith, Sarah Young of Jesus Calling)
The Abuser -The Abuser uses his position of leadership to take advantage of other people. Usually, he takes advantage of them to feed his sexual lust, though he may also desire power. Both Peter and Jude were aware of the Abuser’s lechery: “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed” (2 Peter 2:2). “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).
The Divider -The Divider uses false doctrine to disrupt or destroy a church. He gleefully divides brother from brother and sister from sister. Jude warned about him: “‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.” This false teacher brings strife, not love. He generates factions, not unity. He desires discord, not harmony.
The Tickler -The Tickler is the false teacher who cares nothing for what God wants and everything for what men want. He is the man-pleaser rather than the God-pleaser. Paul thought of him as the ear-tickler: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). The Tickler craves popularity and praise from the world. To maintain his follower’s respect, he preaches only the parts of the Bible they deem acceptable. Therefore, he speaks much of happiness but little of sin, much of heaven but nothing of hell. He gives them only what they want to hear. He preaches a partial gospel which is no gospel at all. (Joel Osteen and Steven Furtick)
The Speculator- Finally, the Speculator is the one obsessed with novelty, originality, or speculation. The author of Hebrews warned his church of these “strange teachings,” while Paul told Timothy to protect the church against any “different doctrine” (Hebrews 13:9, 1 Timothy 1:3). (We may add controversies into this categories that are destroying the church)[1]
Are you able to identify these kind of false teachers? They do not all look the same. We as a body must be on guard and heed John’s words, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits.”
After we look at the category of false teachers, what about false teachings? Here are 5 quick tests to determine if something is true or false.
Test of Origin - Sound doctrine originates with God. False doctrines originates from someone or something created by God. So when Paul wrote to the church in Galatia he said: “For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12) Test 1 - Does this doctrine originate with God or has this doctrine been fabricated by someone or something else?
Test of Authority – Sound doctrine grounds its authority within the Bible. False doctrine grounds its authority outside the Bible. We believe as Christians that the Bible is God’s inerrant, infallible, complete, authoritative revelation of himself to humanity. Any doctrine that originates in the mind of God is recorded in the Word of God. Test 2 -Does this doctrine appeal to the Word of God as its authority or does it appeal to another scripture or another mind (or experience) for its authority?
Test of Consistency – Sound doctrine is consistent with the whole of Scripture. False doctrine is inconsistent with at least some parts of Scripture. See, there’s a sameness, a familiarity to true doctrine, and there’s a strangeness, or an unfamiliarity to false doctrine. Test 3- Is this doctrine established or is it refuted by the entirety of Scripture?
Test of Spiritual Growth - Sound doctrine leads to spiritual growth. False doctrine leads to spiritual weakness. Test Number 4 - Does this doctrine lead to spiritually healthy, spiritually mature, spiritually knowledgeable Christians or does it lead to spiritually unhealthy, spiritually immature, spiritually ignorant Christians who really may be no Christians at all?
Test of Godly Living - Sound doctrine leads to godly living. False doctrine leads to ungodly living. Truth never stands on its own, does it? Truth always has implications in our lives. Doctrine is always meant to lead to worship. Doctrine is always meant to lead us to ways that express love to God and love to our fellow man. God says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (1 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV). God doesn’t mean for us just to know the facts of the Bible, though that is very good. We’re also to mediate on the Bible and to apply it to our lives. The Bible is meant to go from our heads to our hearts, then to work itself out through our hands. We don’t just know doctrine as Christians, we live our doctrine. Test number 5: Does this doctrine lead us to live in a way that pleases God or does it lead us to live in a way that dishonors God?[2]
There are many false doctrines that are trying to work their way into our churches. We must test the spirits, but there is no need to fear.
The Triumph of the Spirit
John is not writing to those who have fallen to false teaching but to those who have stood for the truth. Hear these encouraging words. 1 John 4:4, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” The church is born of God and it overcomes the evil and false teaching. Mark 13:22–23, “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.” The false prophets will go for the saints, but Jesus will not let the enemy have them. Jesus says of his sheep, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them tome, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-29) Think of what Jesus said to Peter who denied him before the crucifixion, “ “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, [32] but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” He who is in us is stronger than he who is in the world. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)
Question…do you belong to God? If yes, then you have no reason to fear. We have not been given a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind. A brother texted me this week telling me he has been starting the power of God and said, “You can’t do a study on God’s power without feeling empowered and secure by Him.” He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. You are safe in Christ. Jesus wins. If he has won your heart, he will keep it safely in his grace.
The Truth of the Spirit
John continues to show the difference between the world and the church. The world and the church are diametrically opposed to each other. We have different masters, different authorities, different origins. 1 John 4:5–6, “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Our final authority is the word of God. One of my hopes is that we would be a 1 Thessalonians 2:13 kind of church, Paul writes, “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” Do we receive the word of God as what it really is, not the word of men, but the very words of Almighty God?
Let me conclude with one illustration that I am reminded regularly during pre-marriage counseling and weddings. During a wedding sermon, I usually teach on Ephesians 5 and the roles of husbands and wives in marriage and how it ultimately points to the gospel of Christ who laid down his life for his bride and how the church joyfully responds by submitting to him as the Bridegroom. The Bible is very clear. Ephesians 5:23-24, “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ love the church and gave himself up for her.” It is a very clear statement from one of the apostles, “The husband is the head of the wife…wives should submit in everything to their husbands…husbands, love your wives.” It is very clear statement from the “us” in 1 John; the apostles. Remember, “Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us.” Inevitably when I speak about submission in marriage at a wedding, the very clear teaching from the apostles, the very clear teaching from God, from the Holy Spirit, there is usually at least one couple there who are visibly unhappy with my words with rolling their eyes and scoffing under their breath. Why? They have not accepted God’s word as what it really is, not the word of man, but the Word of God. They are from the world and not of God. Does that sound too harsh? What does the denying of the clear teaching of Scripture mean?
Beloved, we do not merely want to obey God’s word, we want to rejoice in it. We want to receive the Word of God with glad submission and great joy because our God loves us and knows what is best. He is good and compassionate and kind. He speaks from love and for our good. The world does not love God and will constantly try to challenge the word. Liberal feminism, unbiblical wokeness, the aggressive push of the sexual revolution, gender confusion, abortion as birth control, wedding Christianity with nationalism all speak from the world and the world listens to them. But beloved, we are from God. We know the spirit of truth from the spirit of error. My fear is we will breathe in the cultural air day after day, week after week, and we will be seduced by world thinking to scoff and reject and deny the very clear teaching of the Word of God.
Beloved, he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We have been born again by the Spirit of God to love God’s word and gladly to submit to it. We do not listen to the world… or at least shouldn’t. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Christian, if you ever find yourself believing false teaching, or if you are beginning to follow a false teacher, turn back to Christ. Satan wants to sift you like wheat, but Jesus is praying for you and your faith will not fail. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.
[1] https://www.challies.com/articles/7-false-teachers-in-the-church-today/ accessed 12.6.20
[2] https://www.challies.com/articles/vlog-the-5-tests-of-false-doctrine/ accessed 12.6.20