Lesson 6

Lesson #6:  Identification of False Spirits, pp. 40-46

Text:  1 John 4:1-6

Introduction

The context of 1 John 4:1-6 centers on the source of true and false teaching.  Notice the phrase “of God” is used by John six times in these verses.  The source of true Christian teaching/preaching is God working through the Holy Spirit.  Please note, as well, John’s use of the word “Spirit”/”spirit”.  When capitalized it is in reference to the Holy Spirit, while in the lowercase use is referring to demonic spirits.  This perhaps brings up something we don’t like to acknowledge.  The supernatural is real, but not always sent from God.  Satan and his demons are just as real as God, and they are the source of all false teaching/preaching.  The Bible is the absolute final authority on what is truth and what is not.  When read, studied, meditated upon and interpreted correctly, a Christian can know and understand the truth of God.  This is absolutely critical because it is the truth that shall make you free.  (John 8:32)

I.  Try the Spirits (1 John 4:1)

As we examine this section of scripture, I would encourage you, if you missed Bro. Holland’s Wednesday night lesson, to go back and watch it.  He, while teaching on Romans 16:17 (mark them which cause division and offences), covers some ground that is very applicable to his lesson.

                John begins with the word “Beloved”.  This is the adjective form of loved.  John truly “loved” those to which he was addressing, and this is why he warns them so strictly.  John was concerned.  He did not want to see these people get hurt or to be lead astray by false teachings.  When any pastor loves the flock they are shepherding, he will always sound the alarm to warn of impending dangers.  No doubt there will always be some who think it unloving if a pastor is critical of their teaching error.  However, I would submit to us that such thinking fits right into Satan’s plan.  Satan would love to have free reign, convincing people that pointing out error is unkind, unloving, and unchristian.  The exact opposite is true.  Giving warning is in fact a sign of love.  It would be unloving for any pastor to fail to warn the flock of dangerous untruthful doctrines and allow the wolves in sheep’s clothing to devour the sheep.

                Next John writes “believe not”.  This is an injunction against an ongoing action.  In other words, if anyone was listening to these false teachers, or being tempted to do so, John writes for them, as well as us, to stop that action immediately.  We as Christians are not to be moved or persuaded by every passing teaching of the day.  Only teachings confirmed by and through the Word of God are to be believed.

 So we are to believe not “every spirit”.  This phrase translated as “every spirit” refers to the spirit behind the person or persons who are espousing false doctrine.  Before the Bible was completed, God communicated His word at times through prophetic utterances. (Hebrews 1:1, 1 Cor. 12:28)  Even then Paul says, “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge”. (1 Cor. 14:29)  It looks to me as if when a prophet did speak, there were others who would confirm or deny their validity.  We find this same type of problem within the church at Thessalonica.  “Be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us.” (1 Thess. 2:2)  Apparently there have always been those who claim to be lead by the Holy Spirit who are actually being lead by demonic spirits.  This is why John writes expressly “but try the spirits whether they are of God:”.  The word “try” means to put to the test.  The idea here is as in the use of testing metals for purity to see if they are alloyed or genuine.

So what does it look like for a Christian to “try the spirits”?  When we hear a sermon, read an article or book, or go to a seminar, we are not to automatically believe everything that person says just because he/she has preacher, pastor or Christian attached to their name.  What John is warning us about here are those counterfeit/false teachers that appear as angels of light or as ministers of righteousness. (2 Cor. 11:13-15)  Either a preacher/teacher is operating from the Holy Spirit of God or from some demonic spirit.  Trying or testing is how we go about determining if something is genuine or counterfeit.  The idea is to determine if God is the source of this teaching or is it a demon spirit behind it.  Why?  Because many false prophets are gone out into the world.  Throughout the Bible as well as church history, there have always been false prophets.  God gives us very specific and strict standard for dealing with false prophets in the Old Testament. (Reference Bro. Holland’s Wednesday night study in Romans)  Bottom line is that Israel was to stone to death such prophets.  Today, however, false prophets are to be discerned, their teaching condemned, the individuals marked, and we are to avoid them.  The purpose of trying or testing is not even to discern whether their motivation is from God, but rather is the message they speak from God.  Is it true based upon the written Word of God, or is it false.  This is one of the reasons Bro. Blake always encourages us to follow him in the scriptures.  We need to test what he’s saying against the Word of God and see if the message he is teaching is according to God’s truth.

Look with me at 1 Tim. 4:1.  This passage makes a very important statement about the source of all false doctrine.  Examine the last part of this verse—“giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”.  The source of truth is God, and the source of false doctrine is Satan and his demons.  Satan’s plan is to distort true doctrine by way of false teachers.  We need to consider this source, Satan, but also consider the danger.  The real problem is the souls of men and women.  False doctrines ultimately deny truth, distort truth, and eventually deceive.  Jesus warns us in Matt. 24:4-5, “Take heed that no man deceive you.  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”  Eternity in hell and a lake of fire is what is at stake.  We, the church, must discern both the false teachers and their false doctrines.  We must try the spirits from which they come.  This is not optional.  It is a command to the church.

                As we continue in the rest of this passage, John gives us three tests to help us know truth from error.  He uses a question form to convey his thought.

·         Do they confess Jesus as the divine Lord?

·         Do they possess divine life?

·         Do they profess divine truth?

II.  How to Identify False Spirits  (1 John 4:2-3) [Do they confess Jesus as Lord?]

                “Hereby” means in this or this is how.  What follows is the test whereby we are to determine whether a teacher is of the spirit of devils or of the Holy Spirit of God.  “Know” is to gain knowledge through intelligent comprehension and deliberate understanding.  We are to give careful consideration to what the Bible says as compared to what the teacher says.  So, it is by intelligent comprehension that we are to make our determination concerning the individual teacher, but a genuine knowledge of God’s saving grace does not come from within (our own knowledge), but is rather a gift from God to the believer.  This off-sets the Gnostics false teaching that they had a secret, superior knowledge as a way of salvation.

                When John says that “every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:” he is emphasizing the idea of source and origin.  This phrase “Jesus Christ is come” is speaking to another realm completely (heavenly).  By putting it that way, John is emphasizing the truth of Christ’s unique deity and eternal sonship, both of which were largely denied by the populous of his day.  “Confesseth” basically means to agree with or consent to.  This is more than mere mental acknowledgment of the birth of Jesus.  To confess is to agree with every aspect of Jesus as the Bible reveals.  To biblically confess Jesus is to acknowledge and accept His being eternal, the second person of the God head who came by way of the miraculous virgin birth.  It is to believe and accept Jesus as creator God and sustainer of this present world (John 1:1-3, Col. 1:16-17), to believe in the sinless humanity of His life, His substitutionary supreme death as sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  That no man killed Him, but rather He gave of Himself.  That he was buried and rose again on the third day.  That He is alive and sitting at the right hand of God the Father fulfilling His role as advocate and mediator.  To profess this complete truth concerning the man Jesus is the proof that the prophet, preacher, teacher, is truly of God. 

Conversely, to deny any part is to be of that spirit of anti-Christ.  Consider for a moment some of our modern teaching about who Jesus is by some who many believe to be “Christian”.  The Jehovah Witnesses acknowledge Jesus to be A god not THE God.  Their official doctrine teaches that Jesus was the first creation of God.  Their founder described Jesus as having been Michael the Archangel prior to His divesting Himself of His angelic nature.  They are explicit in their denial of the deity of Jesus.

The Mormons teach that there is a pantheon of gods and that God was once a man.  Jesus, before His incarnation, was a created being and the brother of Lucifer.  They teach Jesus to have been born of Mary but not conceived by either Joseph or the Holy Spirit, but rather that a “heavenly father”, a god of flesh and bones, had relations with Mary and Jesus was conceived.  They teach Jesus to be the husband of both Mary and Martha and have fathered children by all His many wives.  He was thus rewarded for his faithfulness by becoming ruler of this current earth.

Consider Islam.  No Muslim considers Jesus to be divine and certainly not the Son of God.  Literally written on the side of the Dome of the Rock, the mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, are the words in Arabic, “God has no son”.

The veneration of the Virgin Mary in Roman Catholicism is an example of how false doctrine detracts from the all-sufficiency of Jesus. Inside the famous cathedral in Mexico City (Basilica de Guadalupe) held by many to be the holiest place in the Americas, paintings and statuary of Mary permeate the building. Many of these depictions include Mary holding the dead body of Jesus. Even their Crucifixion shows Jesus still on the cross. Their message seems to be that of a living Mary with a dead Jesus, rather than a Risen Lord with a dead Mary.  

Let me wrap up this section by saying there is a big difference between criticizing an individual and criticizing the doctrinal position of their false religion.  We live in a current world that wants tolerance (P.C.).  They don’t want anybody to criticize anyone.  When a Christian takes a stand on the principles found in the Word of God, they are characterized as bigoted and intolerant.  Let me remind you of Jude 3.  “Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” We, as children of God, have an obligation to the lost of this world to preach/teach the Truth in it’s integrity without fear of what man might say or do.

False Christ’s and false doctrines concerning Christ are prevalent throughout the world today.  Even Judaism denies the person and work of Jesus.  These teachings are entrenched in today’s world and stand ready to fight against any attempt to bring the light of the glorious gospel into their lives.  The sad part is that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  No man comes to the Father but through Him.  (John 14:6) yet the overwhelming majority fail to realize this and will find their solace in these false religions that lead to destruction.

III.  Overcoming the Sinful World (1 John 4:4-6)  [Do they possess divine life?]

Please do not underestimate your foe Satan, his deceptions, advanced by his demonically controlled fallen angels are hard to resist.  Jesus, speaking about false Christ’s and false prophets warns us in Mark 13:22 that if it were possible they would seduce even the elect.  However, John tells us that as children of God we have overcome them.  That word “overcome” speaks to victory or superiority.  John has written it in the perfect tense which emphasizes the ongoing, continuing result of a past completed action.  In other words, because you are a child of God, and Jesus has already overcome the world (John 16:33), through the Holy Spirit of God we too are overcomers, thus we are resting secure in that victory.  Be very careful here as we did not overcome because of anything about ourselves, but rather because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.  The overall war has already been won by Jesus, but the individual conflicts remain as long as we are in this flesh. John’s point is that we as believers, because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, when yielded, will overcome false teachers and false doctrines.  In chapter 5 verses 4-5, John tells us “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:  and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”  The indwelling Holy Spirit is far greater than the spirit of anti-Christ which permeates this present world.  This spiritual battle is real between the forces off Satan and the Holy Spirit.  John later writes in The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ about the source of our victory over Satan. (Rev. 12:11) “And they overcome him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

                While John does not specifically say this here, the Bible makes clear that we must be students of God’s word to learn to discern false teaching.  There is no substitute for a working knowledge of God’s word to combat Satan’s tactics. 

Look at Eph. 6:10-17.  First let it be made perfectly clear, our enemy is not fellow people, but rather the dominion of darkness.  Verse 12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”  In this passage Paul gives us several defensive weapons to use (truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, and salvation) and then he gives us an offensive weapon, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  Our Bible is jam packed full of swords.  Recall how Jesus wielded them in His stand.  His reply was always “It is written”.  If we have no idea what is written, there is no way we can ever do battle and be victorious.  We must know what God has spoken to us that we too might say in our day of battle, “It is written”.

In verse 5-6 we now get to John’s third test.  Do they profess the divine truth.  The “they” of this passage refers to the false teachers, and the “world” refers to the world system as organized under Satan which stands in opposition to God.  Therefore they speak as those who are from this world, and the world hears or listens to them.  As a Christian we should always scrutinize the message of all who claim to speak on behalf of God.  We need to look at things like:

• Do they declare the Bible and it alone as the final authoritative Word of God?
• Do they interpret it within the framework of orthodox Christianity?
• Is their message skewed, twisted and distorted?

                As John says here in verses 5-6, those who know God will hear and adhere to the message of the truth, while those who know not God will not hear and adhere to the truth but rather as Paul wrote, they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from truth and shall be turned to fables:”. (2 Tim. 4:3-4)

                John says for us to test the teaching that is before us.  Does the message align with God’s revealed will through His word, or does it follow the way of the world through cunningly devised fables.  It is our personal responsibility to hold ourselves accountable to God to hear only good reliable teachers/preachers who hold fast to the Word of God as divine truth.