Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. To those online, welcome to you as well. Looking forward to our time in the Word here this morning. If you'd take your Bibles, please, and turn to 1 John chapter 4 as we continue our series, looking at reasons to write that John gives throughout his epistle. We'll be reading once again verses one through six. While you're turning there, I was thinking about the old American folk hymn that we just sang, What Wondrous Love Is This, and that last verse, and through eternity I will sing on, I'll sing on. Elder Matthews was commenting about the setting that he has in mind whenever he hears that. Sitting around a campfire, people who are oppressed and suffering and affliction and yet singing and you'll notice for the, you musical types, it's in the minor key and much of the hymn speaks of the sorrows and afflictions and the onset perhaps of death and all of those kinds of things and yet it ends on this glorious confident note that I'll sing for eternity. And I thought, I almost changed the hymn today because I had actually chosen it thinking that I was going to be further along, so we might sing it again next week depending on how we go because I was thinking about it for the next section. I'm glad I didn't change it because it really highlights exactly what we're talking about here, both last week and this, regarding John's final reason that he gives of writing, which is that you may know that you have eternal life. That statement is not made in a cultural or situational vacuum. It's not just a theory. It's spoken to people who are beginning to suffer persecution for their faith. It's spoken to people who have found their congregation divided because of heresy. And yet John is saying to them, you can be confident that you have eternal life. so that you and I, in the various afflictions and trials that we go through, both in society, within our homes, families, church, places of employment, our personal lives, all of those things, within that context that is impacted negatively by the fallen condition of our world, we can still know that we have eternal life and have it more abundantly. and rejoice, even if we sometimes need to sing in the minor key. So as it turns out, in God's providence, it was very appropriate that we sang that today. I was thinking about the things that are impacting us in our life, even here in Boundary County. You know, have you noticed that this year, it seems in particular, and perhaps late in last year as well, the culture wars, in case you didn't know it, have come to Boundary County. The days of the idyllic thinking that we're the last bastion of righteousness in the world, really need to get out of our thinking. Wickedness has always been here because Satan's been around a long time. Fallen people have lived here for a long time. But recently the gloves have come off and various things that have to do with City of Honors Ferry especially and Boundary County and we're in the midst of this battle now with the whole library situation and what is permitted, in fact more than permitted, encouraged to be on its shelves. And oh, the veneer is off and the claws are out. Are they not? And it can be easy to become discouraged. Can it not? When the things that you do to try to fight that are thwarted, and the powers that be do what they can to derail the efforts of those that would say enough to the wickedness. But do not be discouraged. You're not just fighting and standing for today, for this moment. You're standing for the kingdom of God, which is for eternity. So do not be weary in doing well. But walk confidently in the midst of that trial, in the midst of these challenges that we find ourselves in, knowing that we are safe in our Lord Jesus Christ. and our lives are secure in Him for eternity. Remember, as we began last week, that this section here, beginning in verse 1 of chapter 4, is really the opening portion of the final push that John is engaged in in his letter. And if you may remember in chapter five and verse 13, we find there that final reason that John gives for writing this letter, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And he begins this discussion, all of the various aspects of this knowledge of eternal life that we have with grounding everything in recognizing the proper source of that confidence. In the context of heretics who are trying to call God's people away from the Orthodox true understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what he did, to know who really is the one who is speaking, not the heretics who are claiming to speak for God because whether they, it's not told here, but whether they say they had a vision, whether they say that somebody told them, or that God spoke to them, or whatever else, the fact that they are not speaking what God has spoken The fact that they are not submissive to those whom God has raised up is a clear indication that they are no servants of God, no matter how loudly they protest otherwise. And so the command is given here in verse 1, which is where we spent our time last Lord's Day. The command is given to not believe every spirit, to not be gullible, to ask the hard questions, to scrutinize, not with indifference, but with a purpose of saying, we're going to figure out whether you're truly a God or whether you're not. And that takes hard work, takes some courage at times, We don't want to be offensive, we don't want to be obnoxious, we want to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, and yet at the same time we need to be bold in our striving for the truths that have been handed down to us by our Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the prophets and the apostles. So we took a look at that command about gullibility and examination scrutiny. We're going to move on now to the tests. It's one thing to examine and ask questions. Now, I do this a lot, and it's gotten to a point of, in our family, My wife is so much better at what I'm going to tell you here than I am. I tend to, when I go to the doctor, she has no idea what I'm going to say here, when I go to the doctor, but now she's starting to, I go in, if I've got some issue, you know, I've got an ache or pain or something, it's unexplained or whatever, I'm trying to figure out what's going on. I'll go in there and I come out and I have every good intention. when I'm there to ask a whole bunch of questions about things. And I invariably forget, or I don't want to take time, or it feels awkward. And I come out, and she goes, well, what did he say? I was like, well, did you ask him? No. So now, when I go to the doctor, she goes, now, remember to ask. Ask this, ask that. Yes, OK, OK, OK. And I appreciate it, because I get there, and it's like my mind just goes, ping. and I ask him maybe a few things, but I don't really ask the questions I need to ask. Anybody feel that question? You go home and you go, oh, man, I was going to ask that, I was going to ask this, and I completely forgot. And then I have to call Stu. Stu, I forgot what. It's one thing to examine, but it's another thing to know how we're examining and by what criteria we're asking these questions. I have people that tell me stuff all the time about, well, you know, usually when they're objecting to some very often obvious, at least to me, teaching of God's Word, and they'll say, well, you know, I've thought about this a long time. I've really thought through this. A standard answer is, your thought's only as good as the data you're putting in. If you don't, you can think for 100 hours on something, but if you don't have the right data to think with, or know which questions to ask, that 100 hours is utterly wasted. But many, many put confidence in the fact that they've thought about it. That's really not the criteria. We need to think about things and ask the hard questions of those that claim to speak for God based on God's criteria, on God's test. What is the test? In other words, how do we really know when God is speaking? It's not just going to be by our feelings or, well, I've thought about it and that makes sense to me and my worldview. That's utterly irrelevant. Let me say that again. Your worldview, your perspective, your agenda, your will, your likes and dislikes, your preferences are irrelevant when it comes to truth. What counts is what God has said. And we need to get in line with that. But in order to do that, we need to ask some specific questions. And in this, in this, passage here that as John is dealing with this and really dealing with false teachers, heretics that are coming in and they're saying false things about Christ and they're encouraging the church in wrong directions, yet with some apparent success, John is saying you need to ask them questions. You need to give them God's test. There have been numerous times in my teaching career through many decades, when I've asked students if they would like to contribute to the test, they want to come up with some questions. Give them a little skin in the game. And particularly with younger students, I would mostly do that as an exercise just to point out that they're not thinking right. Because they all just want to ask, you know, just softball questions that slow-pitched softball questions that are really easy to knock out of the park in their estimation. But they're not really too interested in actually testing their real knowledge. So John gives us some tests, there are three of them in fact, and we're going to look at verses two through four to begin with. This first test is The Christological test. Okay, big theological term. Simply means the words about or the thought about Christ. We think of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and certainly it's no surprise that that is mentioned first here, because that is, in this particular instance, John is dealing with the doctrine of Jesus Christ that is under attack. It's under attack. So in verse 2, many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know, verse 2, the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. 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. 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." It just occurred to me that we never did actually get to the reading of the passage. This term Antichrist is only used by John in his epistles. The first time was in chapter two and verse 18, where we read, children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come, therefore we know that it is the last hour. Anti means either substitution, or opposition. Opposition would be the most usual way of working against. But if you're offering substitutes, you are working against, if you're looking for other Christs. But there can only be one. Throughout this book, so far as we have seen, John insists there's only one Holy Spirit. There are many lying spirits out there. I have to say that this issue, coming to this at this time, is extremely interesting in God's providence. I think it is not too much of an overstatement to say that the whole question about when God is speaking is perhaps, I'll just say it's one of the seminal issues of our day. And I feel pretty confident in saying that as it is something that is foretold not only here but in other places that as the days move on there will be more and more of those who claim to speak for God and yet do not. And I am not at all opposed to or dismissive of the idea when people want to say, well, a spirit spoke to me or I saw a vision or whatever. There's lots of lying spirits out there. There's lots of substitutes. There's lots of fakes as far as pretending to be, that kind of fake, not that it wasn't real and it was just a figment of their imagination. There may be figments of the imagination as well, but it's very true that there are lying spirits out there and there's a bunch of them. We are engaged in a spiritual battle of incomprehensible proportions, beloved. And we need to have confidence in who we listen to. Are we listening to God himself and to our Savior, or are we listening to some false messiah, false spirits that claim to speak for God, but are not? In chapter 2 and verse 22, John had asked the question, as you might remember, who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. When those spirits are working contrary to the purposes of God and the Son, who want to find excuse not to listen to what the Father and Son have had to say, who want to claim that God has said something that He hasn't, who wants to lift up some other in a more obvious fashion, some other deity or some other human being or something else to whom we should look for our deliverance besides God himself. All of that is the spirit of the Antichrist. And it is rampant in our day. And even in the visible church of Jesus Christ, There are those within her ranks that want to stand up and say, I've had a vision from God, everybody needs to listen to me. And many, being of the desire to serve God and hear what God has to say, will listen, instead of doing what John has already commanded, testing the spirits. Many years ago, I knew a gentleman who, after a lifetime of rebellion against God, came to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Late in life, his wife had been praying for him for many many years, the entire time of their marriage, that he would come to know the Lord Jesus. And when he finally did, she was pretty excited. But what she wasn't excited about is that he, as he started going to her church, which happened to be a Pentecostal, quite charismatic congregation. The longer he sat there, well, he immediately started reading his Bible. And the longer he sat in her church, the more he realized that what they were doing didn't have anything to do with what God was talking about. So he would go to church with her just out of love for her and to show support for her. But while the congregation was doing their thing, he would be sitting in his pew with his Bible open and just reading. And it infuriated her. And at one time she asked him, don't you want to hear what God has to say? He lifted up his Bible and said, this is what God has to say. You know, it can be lots of noise. There can be lots of yahoo, there can be lots of things that really have the appearance of righteousness and power, but if they are not consistent with what God has already revealed, it is not of God. And we have to know this well enough so that we can ask the questions. To be able to say, thus says the Lord, why are you doing what you're doing? Why are you saying what you're saying? You know, this is, I think you've probably, as I've gone on here now, as I look around here, I'm pretty sure that all of you know exactly what I'm talking about and have witnessed it yourself. And it's something that we just need to be ready to deal with. And yet it could seem overwhelming because there are false teachers everywhere. And it's, you deal with one, then you got another one to deal with. And you deal with that one, then you got another one to deal with. And then you're dealing with the latest book that everybody wants you to go read. It's the hottest thing since, I'm mixing my metaphors, since sliced bread. Anyway, yeah, that's a horse of a different feather, right? whatever the latest and greatest thing is. And boy, if you don't read it, how can you possibly criticize it? Well, I'll tell you how I can criticize it. All I have to do is know what the general premise is and compare it to what this is, and if it's not the same, I'm not even going to give it the time of day. Because it's not of God. But I'm thankful that verse 4 is here. If not, this would be a, I wouldn't say hopeless, but it would be a daunting passage here, about trying to compare all these folks out there that say they're of God, but really aren't. And how do we know? Remember, John is writing not to further discourage them, but to encourage them that they can know that they have eternal life. that they can know that their souls are secure in the truth that's been delivered once, faithfully, unto the saints. So he says in verse 4, Little children, you're from God, and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. A.T. Robertson, great Greek scholar, commenting on this verse, and particularly this phrase, you have overcome them. I made this observation in light of the ongoing current struggle, even within supposedly faithful churches, he says. How can John say this? How can John say, you've overcome them? Hasn't John already been talking to this congregation as those who have been smacked around and ripped apart and beat up by the false teachers? But he says, you've overcome them. He says, John is speaking with calm confidence of final victory. He refers back to chapter 2 and verse 13, where we read, I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who was from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I'm writing to you, children, because you know the Father. Again, look at how much that confidence in our Lord is based upon a sure and certain knowledge of who God is. Constant theme throughout this book. John goes on to say that the reason for the victory lies in God who abides in them. God is greater than Satan, greater than the one that is in the world that John references here. He's the prince of the world, the god of this age. As powerful as he seems, Robertson points out, that he's defeated because of who God is. God is greater than he who is in the world. So when there are those that call into question the person and work of Jesus Christ, who want to say that he is less than God reveals him to be in the Word, fully God and fully man, not created, not some man who managed to make good and become godlike. not an empty spirit, but without any real flesh. The argument here that John, I think, is really looking at, if you look at what he's saying, he's arguing against the docetic heresy of the time, which said that Christ was only a spirit. They didn't want to have any corruption of flesh somehow. And so their answer to that was that Christ himself is only a spirit, not really a man. And John says, no, as he reveals himself, or nothing. It's all or nothing. None of this false teaching. Because this incredible plan of redemption that's ours is utterly dependent upon the full humanity of Jesus Christ, as well as the full deity. Without those two things together, our salvation is pointless. It's to talk about. It's empty, it's nothing. Paul says in Galatians 1 verse 8, 8 But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. There's really no way to sugarcoat that. But God means what He says when He speaks through His prophets and His apostles. So the first test, anytime someone gets up and claims to speak for God, the first thing to do, whether it's an individual, whether it's a cult, whether it's somebody in the evangelical church who stands up in the name of Jesus and yet proclaims a gospel that's not what Jesus proclaimed, we need to ask the hard questions and put this test to them. What do they really think about Jesus Christ? What do they really know? That's one leg of the three-legged stool that we have here, this test. The second one, I'm gonna call the semantic test in verse five. They, that is the false teachers, are from the world. Therefore, they speak from the world and the world listens to them. I want you to think about this. This is really not too complicated. I'm going to read you a few verses, just to give us some larger scriptural context, and then we'll make the application here. Psalm 109, verse 2 reads, For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me, the psalmist says. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. If you've ever had anyone lie about you, you know the pain of that. But the world is all too happy to believe a lie, or believe something at least, they may not recognize it even as a lie. If it coincides with their way of thinking, they're all too happy to hear it. We see that every day in the news, When people hear something about prominent figures in the news or some event here in town or whatever, as long as it matches, if it matches whatever is being asserted, matches what they already believe, we're good to go. That must be the truth. The world's more than happy to receive those kinds of things, even if it's a lie. Peter says in his second epistle, chapter three, there shall come in the last days scoffers who walk after their own lusts. We're all aware of the whole idea of itching ears and people heaped to themselves in the last days, teachers who are willing to say to them whatever tickles their fancy. And scoffers, as Peter says, those who want to walk after their own lusts will say what they're going to say. And those who are with them in spirit are happy to receive it. But the wicked can only hear things that condemn them, the things that could save them apart from God's redeeming power and regenerating spirit. They cannot hear. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So how does all that apply to verse five here? They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. Bottom line, beware if the world loves what you say about God. If the world is just content to hear everything you have to say about God, you need to say to yourself, why is this going down like a spoonful of sugar? It could very well be that we're not speaking the truth. How many times have you seen somebody say, oh, God must really be working there. Look how big that church is. Heard lots of reports when I was in more heavily involved admissions, but no. maybe not quite so often, but still, oh, there's all kinds of stories about revivals here, revivals there, revivals everywhere you can imagine. Thousands of people coming and making professions of faith and so on, and yet there is no appreciable difference in the life of that culture as a result of these people who are supposedly coming in to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. who very likely, which has been the case, Mike would bear this out, very likely what you have when people are making their public professions is they're just simply adding God to the rest of their gods, to the rest of their deities. Well, just want to make sure we got them covered, kind of like the Greeks. in Athens there, Paul addressed when they looked at all their gods and they had the one to the unknown God, and he pointed out the fallacy of that thinking. There is only one true and living God. There's lots of false ones, there's lots of false spirits, there's lots of false teachers, but there's only one. And the minute you start getting exclusive on the world, Oh, then the gloves are off. The minute you start saying that there is a righteous God who does not tolerate the perversity of this age, you're a close-minded, bigot, vigilante, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all of these terms that we've heard in God does not share His glory with anyone else. And if you have any teacher out there, any church, any pastor, I don't care how prominent they are, that starts teaching the things that God has said are anathema and saying that, well, maybe it's not so bad, that person has ceased to be a reliable spokesman for our Lord and should be disregarded. Oh, but he's done so much through the years. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. So I'm calling this the semantic test. What's being said? Is it truly what God has said? And is it something that the world likes? We do this a lot in our normal, communication, do we not, about all kinds of things. Particularly when we get to the news, we go, well, consider the source. Or we go, well, if that person likes it, or that organization likes it, it can't be good. There's certainly an element of truth to that, but this is more than an element of truth. If the world loves what you say, then you are speaking of the world and you're not speaking of God. particularly when it comes to who Jesus Christ is and his claims upon your life. And that brings me to the last aspect of the test. Now we've done two legs of this three-legged stools, and now we're gonna get the third one in here. In some ways, well, I won't say it's the most important, but without this one, it'd be hard to know what to do with the rest. Verse six. We are from God. Boy, there's people who said that out there, right? Here's John, under the authority and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, claiming that he is from God, and in between the lines here is, as opposed to the false teachers who are claiming that they are of 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. On this third leg of the three-legged stool, this is where the rubber meets the road. I'm mixing metaphors again, but hopefully you're staying with me. This is the authority test. Now this authority particularly is referencing those who are speaking on God's behalf legitimately. Without this one, the dissemination of the gospel and God's truth doesn't happen. This authority of the spokesman is based upon the other leg, closely related to the other leg that has to do with who Christ is and his authority. It's authority that is intrinsically embedded in him. So what is John saying? Is he just being arrogant and dismissive of anybody else? No, not at all. But he is recognizing that he, as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, was specifically commissioned by him and anointed by him with the power of the one and only Holy Spirit to preach the gospel to begin with, in Jerusalem and in all Judea, in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. Do you remember what Abraham said to the rich man there who died and woke up in hell and was like, oh, Father Abraham, send Lazarus back to talk to my brothers that they would come to Christ. They would know the truth. And what did Abraham say to him? Do you remember? They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And the guy says, Oh, no, no, no, no. But, but if someone would come back from the dead, well, that'll convince them. And Abraham's response was, if they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not believe, even if one should rise from the dead and come back and speak to them. God has given us his truth in his revelation, in his written word. With the prophets, and with the Apostles, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, that the church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. Because Christ, as I mentioned just a moment ago, is the One who came to those Apostles and said, All power is given to me in heaven and on earth, And then in Acts chapter 1 said to them, you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me throughout the world. That divine commissioning John possessed and the false teachers did not. You know, one of the keystones of the authority of the Roman Church is the claim of apostolic succession that they contend is pure through them and anybody who broke off doesn't get to have any of that. It's kind of funny that the Orthodox Church claims the same apostolic succession and that Rome is out to lunch beginning when they divide. This question of apostolic succession is a biggie, and the Protestants throughout the Reformation argued a lot about it. If you're interested in reading that, just go do some digging. You'll find what they had to say about it. You remember that the Apostle Paul faced a similar argument when he stood before Felix and had to listen to his opponents say, well, he's just part of this way thing, which the argument was is that Paul and the Christians had deviated from the established revelation of the Old Testament, the Torah, and so on. And Paul says, this that you call the way is the mainstream, and you just don't get So Paul didn't buy that argument, and we shouldn't either. Because this goes beyond just who laid hands on who, though there is that aspect to it. For sure, laying on of hands is appropriate for ordination, and it speaks to an understanding that God's truth is passed by the authority of the church upon those who are commissioned to preach in the name of Jesus Christ. But notice here, that this really is based upon not just some external right, but upon, again, who you say Christ is and how you talk about him in the world. So there truly is more here than just ritual. It all has to do with substance of belief and declaration according to God's holy word. Those things have to be there. Even if Rome were right about apostolic succession, and I contend they are not, the fact that they have preached a different gospel for centuries disqualifies them from carrying that commission. Period. And so anyone who claims to speak for God, again, I don't care how long you've been doing it, when you walk away from the truth and you start preaching a different gospel, That you can be saved by works, that you're saved by going through ritual, that you're saved by adding saints or anything else. You no longer have a voice that's legitimate. So we need to apply this test. And you can see this test is not a lightweight test at all. This is not something that one of my junior high students would have included on a test if he were asked to put it on a test. Because this is hard. This doesn't allow man any wiggle room to say, well, it's my idea, so it must be OK. God expects us, dear friends, to use our brains. We're not to be like the gullible and naive youth who meanders his way past the house of the harlot only to be ensnared and destroyed because he wasn't paying attention. So try every spirit. Test the teachings and doctrines of men wherever you find them. Be bound by the scriptures and be true to the person of Christ and submit to his authority as it is committed to those faithful men. Paul, remember, spoke to Timothy. He says, I've given these things to you. You commit these things to faithful men. That's the idea. May God keep you from the snares of the devil as you go through your Christian life with your eyes wide open, and thus be confident that you do indeed have eternal life. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for there is salvation truly in no other name. Help us not to be gullible. Help us not to be led astray, either by our own inclinations of our heart or by the sweet sounds of error that are espoused by so many in this day. Lord, let us truly wield the sword of the Spirit effectively and test the spirits that claim to speak in your name. And Lord, let us Turn our backs on those that would speak contrary concerning Christ and His Word. Help us to be faithful servants at whatever cost. And Lord, let us be full of joy knowing that in Him, by Your power and incredible plan, we are safe. that through eternity we will sing on. In Christ's name we pray these things. Amen.