If you have been in attendance at any point during our study of 1 John, then you will be aware that the theme of 1 John is fellowship. Fellowship with God and fellowship with His church. This is what we were saved for; fellowship, or communion with God and with His body. Fellowship is one of those old fashioned words perhaps. It is part of the proper name of our church. And we chose that name because it encompasses the full spectrum of the purpose of the church better than simply the word church, which in most people’s mind today indicates a building. Fellowship is about a relationship, communion, loving God and loving one another. It has nothing whatsoever to do with a building.
So we were made for fellowship with God and with His body. We were made to love God and love one another. That’s the outcome of fellowship. And throughout this epistle, John has been giving us a series of tests as evidence of whether or not we have fellowship with God. Now I don’t want to review months of messages this morning in order to remind you of all the various tests of fellowship John gives us. So if you don’t remember these tests, then I would encourage you to go to our website and review some of the messages posted there which will help refresh your memory. But suffice it to say, that John has provided certain moral, social and doctrinal tests which give evidence as to whether or not you are in fellowship with God.
John makes it clear from the very outset, that many people claim to have fellowship with God, and yet they are not, because they do things which are contrary to God’s commandments and His nature. So it’s important that we examine ourselves and our faith in light of this epistle, that we might know that we have fellowship with God, that He abides in us, and we abide in Him.
Now as we finished the last chapter, John gives us another test, or another evidence that we have this fellowship. In chapter 3 vs 24 he tells us what this evidence of fellowship is; “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Now actually it sounds as if John is giving two evidences; he who keeps the commandments abides (or has fellowship) with Him, and then secondly, we know He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us. But we have already looked comprehensively at the first evidence in previous studies. Today we are going to look more closely at the second evidence; that of the Spirit of God. We can know we have fellowship with God by the Holy Spirit who abides in us. Our inner conviction of the Spirit of God is evidence that we have fellowship with Him.
Now this thought introduces one of the most simple and yet most important principles in Christianity, and one that is especially apropos to the modern church. In vs 1 of our text, John declares that there are many spirits at work in the world which are not of God, so consequently we need to test the spirits. Now this is very important because the devil is a deceiver, first and foremost. The Bible says that he goes around pretending to be an angel of light. He is described in many places as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He is in his nature a liar, a false prophet. And again and again in scripture, from the ministry of Jesus to that of the apostles, we are warned repeatedly that there will come false prophets who will ravage the church, and lead people astray.
John says that already, just a generation removed from Jesus, many false prophets had gone into the world. From the very beginning of the church, there was a battle for the hearts and minds of the church against the deceit of Satan. And the thing about deception, is that it doesn’t have to be a major doctrinal issue to be effective and ultimately destructive. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A one degree mistake in setting your compass will put you far off course eventually. So the devil is adept at deception, mixing a lot of truth with a little lie, and if we are not on guard against it we can end up in spiritual shipwreck.
Let me tell you something that is taught right at the beginning of Creation. Satan comes as a beguiler, as a deceiver. He comes as someone who seems to be a citizen of Paradise. He comes not so much to deny God, as to deceive by twisting the truth, and subtly denying the word of God so as to get man to rely upon his own judgement more so than God’s word. In the third chapter of Genesis we see Satan come to Eve, first of all disguised as someone beautiful, someone wise, some great thing of God’s creation. And notice how he tempts Eve: he tempts her by saying if she disobeys God’s commands, she will be wise like God. He tempts Eve to sin by telling her she will be like God. Isn’t that what we are supposed to want to do? Aren’t we supposed to be like God? Yes, the Bible teaches we are to follow in Christ’s footsteps, we are to be conformed to His image. So this temptation doesn’t even sound like a temptation. It sounds like higher knowledge. It sounds like it is beneficial to godliness. Except that you have to deny God’s word in order to be like God. That’s a contradiction, and God does not contradict His word, and neither can we without subjecting ourselves to peril. And of course we know what disastrous consequences came from Eve’s seduction.
So John is warning us that though we have fellowship with God through His Spirit, we must be wary, we must be wise, we must examine the spirits because not all that claim to be of God, are of God. Vs.1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
You know, one of the most well known verses in the Bible quoted by unbelievers as well as believers is “judge not lest you be judged.” We hear that all the time whenever we question some doctrine, or teacher or principle. The “Bible says not to judge!” But actually, right here in vs1 John he is telling us essentially to judge between that which is of God and that which is from the devil. Don’t believe every spirit.
I remember one time many years ago when I was in my 20’ss, I had a neighbor who was half deranged from taking some serious drugs, and he came knocking at my door late one night. And when I answered the door I could see that he was really messed up. He looked as if he was possessed or something, half crying and half laughing, and he said to me, “God told me to kill you.” Well, though I was a Christian, I wasn't living for the Lord at that time. But I can tell you I was suddenly very interested in renewing my relationship with the Lord again. However, though I was startled, I had the presence of mind to answer him by saying, “Well, I don’t know what God you are talking about. Because the God of the Bible would never tell you to kill someone.” Now this guy was obviously under the influence of drugs. But it’s also evident that he was under the influence of a false spirit. Just because he thought it was God did not mean that it was of God. By the way, the Bible uses a Greek word for sorcery which is pharmakea. It’s the same word we get pharmacy from. The drug store. And the Bible translates that as sorcery. So there is a connection between drugs and the spiritual world. But as John says, we should not believe every spirit, because not all spirits are from God.
In fact, scripture encourages us to put teachers and doctrines to the test. In the Old Testament, we find counsel in the law of Deut. 13 that if someone prophecies and that prophecy does not come true they were to put such a person to death. That shows how severely God considered false teachers.
Jesus said in Luke 12:57 that we should judge what is right. The Bereans in Acts 17 were called more noble minded because after being taught, they searched the scriptures to see if those things were so. That’s an important point we will come to later; they compared prophecy with scripture to prove whether or not the prophecy was true. Paul said in 1Cor. 14:29
“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.” And John quoted Jesus speaking in Rev. 2:2 “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false.”
So it is abundantly clear that we are to examine or judge prophets and teachers. We are not to give attention to those who are false teachers, and we recognize that many false teachers have gone out into the world. Jesus said in Matt. 7:15-16 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?” And also Peter warns in 2Peter 2:1 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”
So these false teachers obviously are of another spirit. They are not of the Spirit of God. And if we are to judge our fellowship with God by the Spirit who abides in us, then we must be certain that it is the Spirit of God. Now that sounds simple enough, but the problem many times is that people encounter something “spiritual” or supernatural, and don’t examine it but accept that because it is spiritual, it must be of God. We see this happen in a church setting quite often. Someone makes a prophecy; “The Lord told me so and so…” or someone has some sort of experience and the automatic assumption is that it is from God because it happened in the church, or in a religious context. Or we simply believe it because the person who had the word of prophecy, or who exhibited the spiritual experience, claims to be of God. And so we don’t examine it. We blindly accept it as the truth, when in fact many times it is a deception from the devil. As Dr. SL Johnson said, “to identify the supernatural with the divine necessarily is a perilous mistake.” Just because it is supernatural, or spiritual, does not mean it’s necessarily of God. Don’t forget, that when Moses caused some supernatural event to come about, Pharaoh called his magicians and sorcerers who also replicated the same supernatural event. Just because it is supernatural, does not make it of God.
Now John tells us to test the spirits, and he gives the means of testing. First he gives us the means by which we can know the Spirit of God and then he gives the test by which you can know the spirit that is not from God. First the positive; vs2, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.”
I want to remind you of something here. John is speaking to believers. He isn’t giving a definition of salvation. He is giving a general principle for recognizing the Holy Spirit. And the key is not simply saying the name Jesus. But it’s confessing Jesus Christ. The key is the word confess. It comes from the Greek word homologeĊ, which means to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent. In other words, to say the same thing as Jesus Christ. To agree with His doctrine, His teaching, His word, is to confess Jesus. It’s not just to acknowledge that He existed. But to agree with all the doctrine of Christ. The teachings of Christ.
You will find this principle again and again in scripture. Phrases like “believe in the name of Jesus, and confess Jesus as Lord, and so forth, are all phrases which were intended to comprehend all that the name of Jesus signifies, all that Jesus claimed to be and all that He taught. Satan certainly knows who God is, He knows who Jesus is. The demons cried out that He was the Holy One of God. They know who He is. They may say His name. The devils believe in God. But they do not confess Him, they do not agree with His teaching and with His doctrine. They have rebelled against His word.
So that’s the positive test; to confess, or agree that Jesus is the Messiah, and as John 1 tells us, that the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. To confess then is to agree with His word, agree with His teaching. Then John gives us the negative side. Vs.3, “and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”
See, here in this negative test, it is a little more clear. The emphasis is not on His coming in the flesh, but on confessing Jesus. These believers John was writing to knew what it meant to confess Jesus. They knew the gospel. They were already believers. So when he said, those who do not confess Jesus, they knew it meant those who do not agree with the gospel. They have a different gospel. They may believe Jesus lived, and died in the flesh, but they do not agree with what He taught.
And John uses the word antichrist to emphasize that. Antichristos, the opponent, or opposite of Christ. The adversary of Christ’s gospel. The spirit that does not confess Christ is the antichrist. Now it’s interesting in light of all the attention of the media and eschatology books out there, that 1 and 2nd John is the only place the Bible that the word antichrist is found. It’s not found in Daniel, it’s not found in Revelation. It’s only found 4 times in these two little epistles. And note that John says that the antichrist is not singular but plural, and are already in the world. That was 2000 years ago. Look at chapter 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”
He goes on to say who the antichrists are in ch.2 vs.22, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” Once again, that means those that deny the word of the Father and the Son. Not the existence, but the word. The devils believe in the existence of both the Father and the Son. But to confess them, is to believe in their word.
Now John is going to take the principle of these two opposing spirits and unpack them further. He does so by assigning people as belonging to either one of two groups. You are either of the Spirit of God, or you are of the spirit of antichrist. And notice that he equates the antichrist with the world. The world system is under the dominion of Satan, the supreme adversary of Christ. And so the world system is working against the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is superior, it is above all power in heaven and in earth, but as the author of Hebrews said in chapter 2:8, “we do not yet see all things subjected to Him.” The world is still in rebellion against the Lord. But in the last days, when Christ comes the second time in judgment, it says in Revelation 11:15 “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” That is at the end of the age when the Lord comes in judgment. But for now, the Lord has come in love to win the world to Him. But one day He will come again, and this time He will come in judgment, and subject all the world to Him and rule them with a rod of iron.
But for now, we do not yet see everything subjected to Him. The world is still under the dominion of the prince of this world, the devil. So once again, John gives us the characteristics of the people who belong to the Spirit of God. Look at vs.4, “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” The children of God have overcome the world because they have the Spirit of God in them. He is able to deliver us, to help us, to lead us, to guide us and comfort us. He is able to teach us the truth, and that is the means by which we overcome the captivity of the world. Jesus said in John 8:32 “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” That is the way we overcome the snare of the devil and overcome the captivity of the world forces - through the truth, taught us by the Spirit of Truth through the word of God. He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Satan and God are not equal. Satan is a created being, who has been given some authority for a while, but whose power is overcome by the Spirit of God who is in us.
Now look at the opposite side. Vs.5, “They (that is, those of the antichrist, those of the false spirit) are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.” So what John is saying is that these false teachers are not from God, they are of the dominion of Satan. They are worldly, they are from the world, and so the world is attracted to their words. Paul warns of this very thing in 2Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, [because] they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn [their] ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
Listen, the devil knows your nature better than you do. He knows what men want, how to appeal to their flesh, to their pride, to their lusts. And so his false prophets prophesy what people want to hear, in order to satisfy their lusts, the pride of life. And those that preach such false doctrines get great crowds, they get a great response because they are telling people what they want to hear. And yet how often do we qualify whether or not something is of the Lord because it has a great crowd. I have news for you, a great crowd is often a reason for concern, not for boasting. If you are pleasing everyone, then chances are you aren’t preaching the truth, you’re preaching health, wealth and prosperity. That’s the doctrine of the world. That’s the doctrine of demons.
Well, once again, John emphasizes the positive. He closes this argument by characterizing the Spirit of God. Look at vs.6: “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Remember John is speaking to believers, and he says, we are from God; he who knows God listens to us.
Now it’s important to realize who he is speaking to; that is the church, but also who he is speaking about. When John says, “we” and “us”, most conservative commentators believe that he is speaking of the apostles. The church was built on the apostles word and doctrine. The apostles were eyewitnesses of Christ’s ministry. They were given the words of Christ. And as such, those words were later brought to mind under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that they might write the New Testament scriptures. So when John says, “he who knows God listens to us, and he who is not from God does not listen to us,” he is referring to the scriptures. They don’t regard scripture as authoritative. They are guilty of the same sin as Eve. They disregard the word of God for the sake of their own wisdom. They consider themselves as equal to God in determining right from wrong. I can’t tell you how many people I hear go against the plain meaning of scripture and say something to the effect that “I think it’s ok to do this,” or “I don’t think that is applicable today in our culture.” Their excuses may be different, they may sound sincere, but in effect they are putting themselves above God and saying that they know better than He does.
And that’s the same thing false prophets do as well. They are basically putting their word above God’s word. But we are to test the spirits to see if they are from God. So John says, by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. What does he mean by “this”? He means that those that are of God hear the truth of the apostles. They listen to the truth of scripture. They obey the word of God. They submit to the word. John says we can discern the spirit of truth and the spirit of error by the scriptures. The Spirit of Truth is the title that Jesus gave His Holy Spirit which He was sending to the world. We know the Holy Spirit because He is in union with the word of God. God will not contradict Himself. We test spirits by scripture. We test experiences by scripture. We test prophesy by scripture. God has written His word so that we might know the truth and that the truth would make us free.
Finally, notice how John characterizes the spirit that is not from God. In vs.1, he says it is the spirit of false prophets. In vs.3 he says it is the spirit of antichrist. In vs.5 it is the spirit of the world. And in vs.6 it is the spirit of error. There it is. The spirit of antichrist is not necessarily this giant red dragon that appears at the end of the world breathing fire and smoke. No, it is the spirit of error. Just a little leaven which leavens the whole lump. Just a little taking away here, and a little adding there. Just a slight course correction that sets the ship on a perilous course, and that little error ends up costing shipwreck of souls.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you are of the Spirit of God, then God has given you the gift of discernment through the Spirit, that nothing would defraud you from fellowship with God. Eph. 1:18-23 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Let nothing defraud you of your prize. Let nothing separate you from the fellowship of the Spirit. Test the spirits by the scripture, to see if they are of God. And may the Holy Spirit lead you and guide you into all truth, and may the truth set you free.
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