In his sermon titled 'Test the Spirits,' Scott Brown examines 1 John 4:1-6, focusing on the importance of discerning true from false teachings. John urges believers not to accept every spirit but to test them, particularly emphasizing the belief that Jesus Christ came in the flesh as a key test of orthodoxy. Brown highlights how John provides believers with two tests: the Christological test, which is about confessing Jesus' incarnation, and adherence to apostolic teaching. He underscores the distinction between those who are 'of God' and those who are 'of the world,' explaining that true believers have overcome the world through their faith and the indwelling Spirit. Brown warns against false teachers who appear in sheep's clothing and stresses the importance of righteous judgment, distinguishing it from unrighteous judgment. He encourages believers to be mature, discerning, and rooted in Scripture, as this discernment is crucial for genuine love. Brown concludes by reminding believers of their victory in Christ and the protection provided by God's Spirit.

Our sermon text is 1 John chapter 4 verses 1 through 6. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

You are of God little children and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as the world and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us.

He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of air. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we pray upon your mercy today that you would give us your Spirit of truth to lead and to guide our hearts, to guide the preaching. We ask that your spirit would be present with us or that you would teach us through this word.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, it's been a real joy to sing these songs about the incarnation this morning because that's really what John is focusing in on. He's talking about those who rejoice in the fullness of the doctrine of the incarnation, that they rejoice that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. And so John is using this really as another one of the tests of salvation. And of course, you know, the whole letter of 1 John is written to give tests to whether you are or are not children of God.

And he has given the test of obedience if you obey his commandments then you are a child of God he gave us the test of walking if we walk in the light as he is in the light. It demonstrates that we are the children of God. He gives the test regarding sin. If you say that you have no sin, then you're walking in darkness. And then the test of love for the brethren.

If you say you love God but hate your brother, you're a liar. And this is the test that John has been dealing with in the previous verses. And John is teaching his little children about love. He's defining love. What is love?

How do you know if you love God? How do you know if you love people and and and in this case, you know How do you know about the people who are speaking about God in your generation? How do you know that that movement of God is of God? Interestingly enough, Jonathan Edwards used this very text, this whole chapter, to try to help his readers understand whether the revival that took place in the Great Awakening was a true revival. And he goes into great detail going through this entire section.

He wrote a piece called the distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God. And this it was his commentary on 1st John chapter 4. And so John here in this text is bringing us two new tests. And their first is this Christological test. Do you confess the truth that Jesus Christ came in the flesh?

We'll explain that in more detail later. And the second test is found in verse 6, and that is, do you embrace the teaching of the apostles on these matters? And so you can know by these additional tests. And what what John is making very clear is that the devil is alive in the world. He's like a roaring lion.

He wants to devour those, but a lot of times he devours, he devours by using people who talk about Jesus, but they really are talking about a different Jesus, and you should beware about that. So you see your outline in front of you. Many commentators say that this passage is really sort of a parenthesis. It's a new subject in the line of reasoning of John. And I thought of it that way for a while, but probably in the last 24 hours, I stopped thinking about it that way.

I think John is just continuing to talk about what it means to love. How do you love? And he brings this example of how love is often challenged when you have people who speak about Jesus, but they're speaking really of a different Jesus. So in your outline, I wanna suggest that John is continuing his argument. He tells them to do something along this, he's continuing the thought about what is love and he tells them to go test the spirits and don't believe everything you hear.

That's the first thing. The second thing he does is he tells them that they need to know something and they need to know that Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God You need to know that and then thirdly that He reminds them that they have something. They have something of inestimable value to protect them so that they'll know. They'll absolutely know how to test the spirits properly. And so that's the basic outline that we have here.

Now The immediate context that John is speaking, you know, of course, has been spoken of in chapter 3. And you remember how chapter 3 begins. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God. John is defining the love of God and what it means to be grafted in to his love. And then he says in verse 16 in chapter 3, by this we know love because he laid down his life for us.

So he's talking about this manifestation of the glory of God through his son who came to the earth and he laid down his life, he laid down his body. He's making this argument about the body of Jesus Christ and the act of love that God was was inaugurating by his by his laying down his life and then he says well That's that's the way that you ought to love one another by laying your lives down for one another The way that Jesus Christ laid down his life is the way that we love each other. That's what love looks like. Love isn't just words and feelings. Love is actually laying your life down for someone.

And so he's defining this world of love that is the kingdom of God. And then he gives some specifics. Whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, and he hardens his heart. He shuts up his heart. Remember we talked about that.

What has happened when your heart has shut up for someone? It's just shut down on them. And John is confronting this problem among his people. But then he is continuing to encourage them to love, not in word and tongue, but indeed in truth, in verse 18 in chapter three. And then he begins in the last verses of chapter three to speak of how the Holy Spirit reveals to you whether you love God or not, whether His love actually resides in you.

He gives you His Spirit. And His Spirit cries out within you. His Spirit cries out, Abba, Father, that's how you know when your spirit is crying out within you, that you want God, you desire his fatherhood, you desire his leadership, you desire his love, you desire his law, you desire his ways. You know, I remember so distinctly when I was, you know, in the process of becoming a Christian, I was just so sick of my ways. And I thought, I don't want to live like this anymore.

I don't want to live like me anymore. I don't want more of me. And this is what happens in the heart. You cry out, Abba, Father, you want something different than yourself. And this is the work of the Spirit of God.

And then in the final verse, verses here, he speaks of this matter of the Spirit in verse 24. Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. So John is clarifying something in chapter four that the readers or the hearers are beginning to think about. And I think they may be thinking, okay, so the mark of a Christian is love, right?

So what about the people who preach another Jesus? Do I, am I supposed to love them? Do I love everybody? How do I, how do I love, how do I love the false teachers that are around here? And so he's continuing this instruction about love.

How do you do this? And he's defining what Christian love is. And I think that John is designing to protect his little children from a wrong view of love. A wrong view of love is really to neglect false teaching and to recognize that there is a way that you deal with false teachers and it is a loving way and you test the spirits. That's what you do.

And so he's teaching them how to live in an evil world and how they are how they are supposed to love. And the first thing that he mentions here in chapter 4 is that they test the spirits by comparing their message about Jesus Christ. Do they exalt Jesus Christ in his incarnation? Do they believe that he is the God man? Do they believe that he came in the flesh and he walked on this earth and he died and his body was raised from the dead.

Do they preach this doctrine of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and his suffering on the cross for their sins and do they confess it? Do they love it? Do they love that message? That's the issue that he's dealing with here. So John is explaining what love means and what it does not mean.

And he's saying here, it doesn't mean you accept everything you hear. In other words, you know, there is a way of love where you do not accept what you're hearing. It is love to reject false teaching. That's the proposition That he's making here. So he begins to speak about testing the spirits By the way, just a little parenthesis all throughout John He's talking about what it means to have fellowship with God and how how fellowship with God protects you It will and and And true fellowship with God will protect you from false teachers.

He will. And he uses various words to explain what has happened to the Christian, like you are abiding in him. You're abiding in Jesus Christ. And this qualitative and quantitative and time-lapsed abiding, it takes you all the way to the end of your life. And in abiding in him, he protects you.

And he uses words like fellowship with God, even abiding in the Word, abiding in the Spirit. He uses this word all over the place, but he's talking about this gift that God has given his people to identify the things that would harm them, the false teaching that's around them, and there's always false teaching around us. So, so John is teaching about love, and so in order to do that, he tells them to do something. He issues a command, and he says, test the spirits and don't believe everything that you hear. This is a command and it's very clear, you know, it doesn't take a rocket theologian to figure it out.

Do not believe every spirit. Now again John introduces this command with his signature terminology, beloved, beloved. He's teaching his beloved children. Remember he's an aged man. He's probably 80 or 90 years old.

His body has been wracked by suffering. Tradition says he was boiled in oil and he survived. So here's this man. He's seen it all and he loves the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He glories in it, he confesses it with all of his heart and he's teaching his children to love these things of the incarnation.

And this is characteristic of the entire letter. He is speaking words of love toward his children in order to grow them in love as they're walking through this world. And he's saying that they ought not to believe everything they hear and not believe every spirit. What is the spirit? Do not, he says, test the spirits.

He either means utterances that people make or the people themselves. I don't know if it matters that much. It has to do with the things that people say. And you cannot separate the spirit from the person. The spirit is manifested in the words of people.

And here John is urging his little children to judge. And you might be asking, I thought Jesus said, judge not, lest you not be judged. Well, this is where we bump into that great hermeneutical principle. Scripture interprets scripture. If you want to know what Jesus meant when he said, do not judge, you better read the rest of the Bible.

And don't take that out of context and think that all you have to do in your life is unscrew your head and put it on the desk and never use it again. You are actually called by God, commanded by God to make judgments about things. So when Jesus was talking about do not judge, he was talking about a different kind of judgment that John is talking about here. It was a different category, a different classification. The Bible makes it really clear that we should not unrighteously judge one another he speaks of this in Matthew 7 Luke 6 Romans 2 and James 4 there are There are ways that we unrighteously judge one another.

We're relentlessly judgmental toward one another as Christians, and that's sinful. He's not talking about that. He's dealing with not unrighteous judgment, but righteous judgment. The Bible makes it clear that you're supposed to test your leaders. Deacons are supposed to be tested.

Elders are supposed to be qualified. In other words, you have to judge them, okay? You have to create, you have to lay out the criteria and you have to make judgments. So when Jesus says judge not, he's not talking about what John is talking about when he says test the spirits, judge them. Two totally different categories.

And so he is speaking about this matter. The Apostle Paul makes it clear that God actually gifts certain believers with the gift of discerning of spirits. And This is something that God does. He gives us a sense of discernment of the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Now, John is rebuking tolerance of this kind.

He's rebuking of those who would accept false teachers in the name of love. Okay, let me say that again. He's rebuking Christians who receive false teachers in the name of love, because it ain't love to accept a false teacher. So he's trying to clear up any confusion about love. He's been speaking about love in verse 7.

Next week when we get into verse 7, he'll just continue to talk about what love looks like. But I think what he's saying here has everything to do with love. And so there's a healthy intolerance that Christians are supposed to possess, and some teachers are to be discarded. And that keeps us from being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, every new angle that comes down the line. And what John is saying is, look, church, you need to grow up.

Be mature. There's a healthy intolerance that you must possess as you conduct yourselves in the household of God. And so he says, test the spirits. He uses a word for test. That's a very graphic and beautiful term.

It has to do with with testing of metals melting down metals, you know, applying high levels of heat in order to expose the impurities of the metal and to bring it down to its fundamental nature. So in other words, turn up the heat. Turn up the heat on the false teachers and test them according to the Word of God. You know, The Berean Church was a beautiful example of how this worked out in the New Testament church. It was a church that really tested the spirits.

And the story is recorded in Acts chapter 17 beginning in verse 11, and it gives a really practical description of how a church ought to be. It ought to be a testing church and so we read there in Acts 17 these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica and that they received the Word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. The church in Berea is a marvelous example for us, so that we would search the scriptures, that we would go from Genesis to Revelation to test any doctrine. This is what we ought to be doing in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here the Apostle Paul is contradicting a relativistic way of thinking and that it's wrong not to test and it's wrong not to reject and it's not love to accept false teaching in the name of love.

John gives the reason why the testing should happen. Do you see it there at the end of verse one? Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So now we know this already about the church that John is speaking to some have already gone out from them There's been kind of a church split and they've gone out Some that they have some some have gone out into the world and they continue to speak about God and what? What what do we do about them?

There are many. Matthew chapter 24 says that there will be many false teachers. The Apostle Paul warned the Ephesian elders that this would be a problem, that men will arise from among you, speaking perverse things, seeking to draw men to themselves. In Acts chapter 20 verse 30, the Lord Jesus Christ said that, many will come in my name. And he said, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves In other words, they speak of Jesus they talk about the gospel they use the Bible.

So what is wrong? Well, they're there They are in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Inwardly, they do not totally embrace everything that the incarnation implies. He says, you'll know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

Even so every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit A bad a good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them." And then he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. And he says, that he who does the will of my father in heaven. He says many will say to me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name? And then the Lord says to him, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

So John is making this very claim that many have gone out into the world. Let's be really clear about this And let's be mature in our thinking. There will be many, not a few. We should expect many false teachers in the world today. And you know, false prophets, false teachers, They always have a big story to tell just like the Egyptian magicians, you know, who had these manifestations.

Deuteronomy chapter 13 verse 1 talks about the fact that, yes, some of these false seizures, you'll see amazing things happen. Stuff will happen. It'll be incredible. People will follow it. They'll like it and they'll believe it in Acts chapter 8 verse 9 Simon the sorcerer was doing some pretty incredible things in other words It's not like nothing is happening, but it's what what is behind what is happening That's the issue that John is dealing with here.

Peter says the same thing, you know, that false prophets will come among the people and they will secretly bring destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. That's 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse 1. He says, and many will follow their destructive ways because the way of truth is blasphemed. So people that are doing remarkable things, they connect with the Bible, they connect with Christianity, and they're amazing things that might come, but test the spirits and be mature. John is teaching us about love.

It is loving to test the spirits. It's unloving not to do so and to proclaim the truth of it. Then John tells them to know something. And here he begins to get into the details of discernment. And he says that they need to recognize that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

So in verses two and three, John tells them something that they must know. And so that's why we read in verse two, by this you know. He's talking about something they need to know, something that's residing in their minds. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

And this is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. Now, I said at the beginning that there were two tests that are embedded in these verses, verses 1 through 6. And here is the first test. It's a doctrinal test. It is the test of Christology.

It is the test of exaltation in the incarnation of the eternal Son of God. And so that's the first test here. Now I want to make a just a comment about that. This this is not the only test of orthodoxy. It's just one of them.

John by the way has been giving many tests already and here is another one. You don't want to isolate this to be the only test. This is not the only test that you give to false teachers. But what we find here is that this test wipes out most most of the cults that are around today. It just destroys them.

OK, but it doesn't destroy all false teachers, but it sure does whack out a whole lot of them in our generation. And then the second test exists in in verse six. And but here here, John is is urging his his hearers to do what the apostles do over and over again, like the apostle Paul to Thessalonians. He said in 1 Thessalonians 5.21, test all things and hold fast to what is good. In Revelation chapter 2 you have this church that tested and they found men liars.

And you use the Bible to do that. That's how you call men liars is when they contradict the clear teaching of Scripture. But here he speaks of this matter of confessing. Now what does it mean to confess? Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

Now he obviously is not saying anybody who blabs those words you know, is a true teacher. That's not what he's saying. Jesus has already said, many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, right? So it isn't primarily the words of the mouth. That might include that for sure.

But he is speaking of those who exalt the incarnation of Jesus Christ in all his glory. They see it as glorious. The true Christian, the true Christian cannot get over that God sent his son to die for their sins. And he walked and he was so remarkable. You know, when you were first saved, didn't you just think how remarkable Jesus Christ was he was so wonderful he was so good what a shepherd what wisdom and you can't and you never get over that that he is the incarnation of God, that he who has seen him has seen God himself.

But he's talking about people who have a false idea about Jesus Christ. You know, I was so thankful for the songs that Mike chose this morning. They were all about the glory of the incarnation. It was it was such a happiness to sing them. But just so you know he chose those songs because of this verse right here.

Because he's talking about confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is very God of very God. And So that's what he's dealing with and now of course we know you know false religions always have a false Christology John was dealing with the heresy that was sweeping the church the heresy of dosatism where God where Jesus Christ was a phantom. He didn't have a real body That's what they were saying is he was just a spirit And so the things of the body don't really matter. It's just spiritual things that matter. In other words, you can do anything you want in the body, it's just the spirit.

It's really just your heart that matters. It doesn't really matter what you do with your body. That's what they were teaching. And John is attacking this teaching. It was a licentious teaching that was entering into the church.

But almost all of the modern cults can be identified by this test. Mormonism can be identified by this test. Jehovah's Witness is identified by this test. Christian science is identified by this test. You know, it's really remarkable the Christadelphian movement is identified by this test.

And there are more than that. I mean, what movements, what philosophies, what institutions deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and came in the flesh and died to save sinners? Who denies that? Well, almost everybody denies that. Almost everybody falls under this category of false teaching.

I mean, you know, the entire environmental movement embraces this idea that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh. God did not create the world. Our whole federal government's education is by definition anti-Christ. It rejects Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In fact, it wants to obliterate any mention of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

In fact, it wants to obliterate any mention of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of the world and the need to repent of your sins and be saved from this perverse generation. You will get thrown out in most public school systems for proclaiming that. And, you know, the ecumenical religions are like this. The whole what people call the new atheism, it's not the new atheism anymore. It's kind of old now.

Richard Dawkins and, you know, some of the others, you know, we were just at the arc that that can hand-built You know which Bill Nye is making more and more famous every day by his statements But the new atheism is really the an exact exact replica of the false teachers who deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. And you know the whole New Age movement, the whole you know movement of theological liberalism rejects this. And so you know one is Pentecostalism rejects this there 24 million one one is Pentecostals in the world today it's called modalism and and it really rejects the whole doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son of God. The councils of Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381 AD destroyed, you know, modalism even in its modern form today. But here's what John is saying.

Jesus Christ came into the world with a human body. He was born of a woman. He walked on this earth. He spoke words. He was hungry.

He denied himself. He was crucified. His body suffered the weight of the sins of mankind and he in his body was buried and he was raised from the grave and Is now sitting at the right hand of God and so that's what John is saying If you don't believe that it's the spirit of Antichrist and you have to ask how comprehensive is the spirit of Antichrist in this world? Well, it's everywhere. And so that's what he's saying.

You might want to go to our confession of faith, the Baptist Confession, and read the chapter on Christ the mediator, because the authors of that confession bring the language that really supports everything that John is contending for here in this passage of Scripture. And so it's easy for minds to be corrupted and turn away from the simplicity of Jesus Christ, the simplicity of the glory of the gospel that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. And he died and he rose again and he will raise you again to eternal life. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And John is just saying, don't put up with these people who teach anything different than that.

You know, mark them. It is the spirit of Antichrist. Make sure you understand. Test those spirits and you can test them many ways. One way is their doctrine of the incarnation.

And so he's speaking of this responsibility to rebuke those who teach these doctrines. And then, you know, as John continues to teach his little flock about love, what it means to love, and that you better know something in love so that you can promote love in the world. And that is you need to know that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Then he reminds them that they have something in verses four through six. And he says this in verse four, you are of God little children and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Now John is turning to a word of encouragement. I hope you can feel it and see it this morning, what he is saying to you. If you are a child of God you are of God little children." In other words, you have been born of God. John likes to use that phrase, born of God. He talks about things of God, things that come out of God.

You actually were born again of God. You are a new creation. And so he brings this encouragement again as he has before many, many times. You are of God little children and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Now John has already said some things like this earlier.

Remember when we were in chapter 2 verses 13 and following he said, I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. He's talking about the victory that's in the church of Jesus Christ, that the old men and the young men, they have victory. And I've written to you, he's just speaking of this remarkable blessing of being born of God and what happens to you. And so he's speaking of that here.

And so he says, you know, whatever is born of God overcomes the world. He says that in the next chapter, in chapter five, verses four and five. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the son of God again, that's in chapter Chapter 5 now John is his bringing a word of encouragement He's saying there are many false prophets out in the world test them. Here's how you test them but here's what you need to know.

I'm with you. You've been born of God. You have come from God and you have victory. God will see you through. He will hold you fast.

He loves you. He'll carry you to the end. That's what he's saying. And you know, the Lord Jesus Christ said things like this all the time. You know, in John 16, he said, these things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." And this is the message that John is bringing to his little children. They're in the midst of this culture of radical false teachings, the church is being torn apart in different ways, but he's saying I'm gonna protect you because you are overcoming the world. John is saying he is going to preserve his church and he is going to keep them and what he's saying is you know with with the Lord Jesus Christ spirit in your heart with with your Bible in your hand and with Jesus Christ By your side you you will prevail you will overcome and you'll be able to know what is false and what is true and he will keep you he's already said but you have an anointing and that anointing is a protection God designs to protect his people and he says you have an anointing you don't even need anyone to teach you. Again, he's not saying you don't need teachers.

He's just saying, look, God is so kind. In the new birth, He imparts His Spirit to you, and His Spirit teaches you, and you have the Word. You have both of these things to protect you. So it really is a word of encouragement that He's bringing. And what God does in the new birth is he gives these things to his children.

He gives them a desire to repent when they are living or thinking wrongly. He gives them a desire to hate sin. He gives them, as we've already read, a spirit of forgiveness, a spirit of love. He reveals the delights of becoming a slave to Jesus Christ. He's fostering the love of God in the world through his children.

And one of the ways that his children love those they encounter is that they test the spirits and they don't put up with false teaching. It's a way that you love. But God preserves you in the midst of all that and he produces his life in you and he makes you like Christ. And then he begins in verses five and six to talk about this matter of being of the world. He's talked about being of God.

You are of God, you have been born of God. And then look at verse five. They are of the world. In other words, those who do not rejoice in the incarnation, those who do not have a happy confession of the incarnation. To confess means to say the same thing.

You confess that Jesus Christ is born in the flesh. In other words, you're saying the same thing that God has said in His Word. You rejoice in what He has said. You love to recite the things that he has said, you confess it. That's what he's saying.

But now he's talking about those who, well they're doing it for another reason, but because they're of the world. Yeah, they speak about Jesus, they quote their Bibles, but they are of the world. And he says, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. But then he says, but we are of God. He who knows God hears us.

He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." So he's talking about those false teachers who are of the world, and he's talking about fallen humanity that lives apart from the government of God. And they are without God, and they are without love in the world. And that's why they speak the way they do. That's why John earlier said, do not love the world or the things that are in the world.

For the love of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of God, but is of the world. And so here John is doing it again. He divides the world into two groups, those who are of the world and those who are of God. And so he's talking about being a product of the world. In the same way that a Christian is a product of God so is a worldling a product of the world and here John is distinguishing the spirit of Antichrist.

Now the spirit of Antichrist tells people what they want to hear. And the world hears them. They talk of the world and the world listens. The world likes it. And who you hear determines who you belong to.

Whose voice do you like to hear? If you like to hear the voice of the world, you know who you belong to. If you like to hear the voice of God, then you know who you belong to. Because you will either hear the world, or you will hear God. Has it ever astonished you how some people, they just can't hear, I mean, they just can't hear from God.

You know, I've encountered a number of people like this, they just can't hear it. It's impossible. And you walk around sometimes and you think, there's no way that person can be elect. They just can't hear. Well, at least they can't hear now.

But who you hear is who you belong to. Who you like to hear from is who has your heart. That's really critical. You must understand that. And John is exposing that reality.

And if you if you hear the world and you relate to the world and you want more of the world, you belong to the world and that should terrify you. And if you hear from God and you relate to God and you want God and your spirit cries out within you, Abba Father, then you are of God. That's the distinguishing matter that he brings out here. And he's talking about this, it's really an explanation of the advantage the believer has. He is of God, he has the Spirit of God, and he has the teaching of the apostles.

Now, he's saying also that there are those who listen to the teaching of the apostles and those who do not listen to the teaching of the apostles. And that's a further mark to expose false teachers. Do they believe that scripture is sufficient? Not that they just believe that it's inerrant, but that it is absolutely sufficient, that it's all that you need. Do they rely on Scripture and on Scripture alone?

Or are they content to import things into life that are not of God? And so he's talking about reliance on the instruction of the apostles. And this is how you know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Does it correspond, does it agree with the Word of God? Does it agree with the teaching of the Apostles?

The Apostle Paul says we have no other pattern. We only have the pattern of Scripture. And and this is so critical for churches to keep, you know, progressing in the matter of keeping according to Scripture. You never really arrive. It's a process.

It's a lifelong process of continuing to eliminate the things of this world. But churches have to recognize that they really are only lawfully ordered by God and His Word. We have a right to worship, but we only have a right to worship in His name, in ways that are consistent with His ways. And this is why we say that worship should be regulated by the Word of God not by the Word of man and this he's speaking of the Apostles teaching here in this verse. You know the Lord Jesus Christ spoke about this matter of hearing over and over again.

And of course, the Apostle John walked with Jesus and he carried on his instruction. And John the apostle is saying this because he heard it from his master. John, in John 8 chapter, in John 8 verse 47, Jesus said, He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore, you do not hear because you are not of God." You see how Jesus taught his disciples who learned. In John chapter 10 verse 3, Jesus said, to him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out and when he brings out his own sheep he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice but then he says they don't follow a stranger because they don't know the voice of the stranger.

Again, John is just repeating what Jesus taught him, that if you hear the voice of the stranger, the voice of the world, and you follow that voice, you know who you are, you know who you belong to. And Jesus is making this very plain. In John chapter 10, verse 26, he says this, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." John is just speaking about how critical it is that you live your life by the voice of God. You know, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And God has designed that we would apply this test.

Does the instruction that we hear from any teacher, does it correspond with the Word of God? Is it consistent with the Apostles' doctrine? And is it consistent with everything that God has said from Genesis to Revelation? We should test all things by all of scripture. And that's what he's saying.

And it really has to do with loving the world or loving God. Now the big question we should be asking is who do we listen to? Who do we love to listen to? It makes all the difference in the world. And John is so clear about the dangers of this.

He says many Antichrists have come. When you think of the Antichrist, you don't want to think wrongly about it. The Antichrist speaks from a foundation of a rejection of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. You should be very clear about that. You should always be concerned about the roots of things and where they come from, because roots always bear fruits.

And John is making this very, very clear, that who you listen to tells you who you are and he couldn't be any plainer than that but he but he makes us very very plain that he says it like this, we are of God, he who knows God hears us, and who's us? The apostles. That's what he's talking about. Hearing the apostles. And he who is not of God does not hear the apostles.

You think of all the things that the apostles taught. That's what he's talking about. Contradicting the doctrine of the Apostles. So there you have it. John is continuing his disclosure of the doctrine of love.

And then in the very next verse, in verse seven, he says, beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. So how do you love people? Well, one thing is you better be testing the spirits. It is a loving thing to test the spirits.

And that means that you need to know your Bible so that you can test them properly. Not out of your own brain, but test them out of the word of truth in the way that the Bereans did such a thing. And so he issues this command to us, if you want to love in this world, then don't put your head in the sand and don't ignore the false teachers. Test them. It's loving to do such a thing.

And so there you have it. I pray that God would give us a great spirit of love in this world. That we wouldn't define love in our own way, but that we would define it the way God has, and that we would love the world in the way that God has loved the world, and that we would test the spirits. Would you pray with me? Lord, I thank you for the remarkable beauty of your word, how it does tell us who we are.

It pierces to our hearts. It opens up windows into our sins and the ways that we don't think rightly. It shows us the glory of your Son. Lord, I thank you that you have given us this passage to help us to be reminded of the glory of the coming of your Son. How he passed through the heavens, how he came and he walked on this earth.

He suffered and he died for our sins and he was raised up to glory so that we might partake of your heavenly glory. Lord we thank you for this testimony here in John. We pray that you would help us to apply it. Amen.