1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2: Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4: Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5: They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6: We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Introduction

On February 16, 2020, a man in Oregon was arrested after he allegedly used counterfeit money to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies outside of a Walmart. On March 20, 2021, another man was arrested after he attempted to use counterfeit money at a grocery store in Boca Grande. He was also accused of making and using counterfeit money. Counterfeiting money is not just a problem today. It has been going on since people began using money. In fact, one of the serious and troubling problems of bankers and business establishments in the 19th century here in the United States is counterfeiting of money. Through the years, our government has developed many techniques and tests so that bankers and business establishments are able to identify counterfeit money. Today, spiritually speaking, we Christians find ourselves in a similar situation as bankers and others who need to be able to discern between that which is genuine and that which is not. And here in this chapter the apostle John will show us how to deal with counterfeit spirits. So, this morning consider with me the Command to Test, the Cause for the Test, and the Criteria to Test.

I – The Command to Test

The apostle John opens this 4th chapter with these commands, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.” There are two commands here: one negative and one positive.

1. The command against gullibility

“Beloved, believe not every spirit.” Some says that you need to be open-minded. To a point that is a good advice. But there is also a saying that says, “Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.” In other words, do not be gullible. Keep your minds open but not so open that you no longer think and exercise discernment. Some people want you to be “open-minded,” but what they really want you to do is to believe what they say without thinking. That would be a very bad idea and dangerous thing to do, because like counterfeit money there are also counterfeit spirits.

There are false spirits that oppose the true Spirit of God. There are people whose spirits are influenced by demonic spirits or the spirit of the antichrist. The apostle Paul also spoke about this in 1 Timothy 4:1, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” So, don’t believe every teacher or preacher you hear for they may be teaching heresy. Do not believe everything you hear and do not believe everyone who claims to be from God. To do so would be unwise, because you would be like a sailboat caught in a storm that is tossed to and fro. If you believe everything you hear, or everyone who claims to be from God, you would be in constant state of confusion, believing one thing one day, and another thing the next day. And so here John warns and commands his readers not to believe every spirit.

2. The command to be discerning

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God:

The word “try” means to test, to examine, to prove, to scrutinize. The “spirit”, as John is using the word here, is not referring to the Holy Spirit. Here, he’s referring to evil spirits that is behind all false teachings and false teachers. Behind all false teaching is “the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6), influenced and controlled by Satan.

So, here the apostle John commands the believers not to believe every spirit but rather try the spirits whether they are of God. We are not only commanded not to be gullible but also we are commanded to be discerning. We are to test every teaching to see whether it is of God or not. Don’t just accept what some teacher or preacher is saying, examine what is being taught. Be discerning. Be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11, where we are told that they “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” When the Bereans heard Paul teach, they didn’t just blindly accept his teachings. What did they do? They went back to their Bibles, and they checked, and searched, to see whether God is truly the Source of what he is teaching.

I like how one preacher puts it, “Christians are to test all teachings they hear or read in order to approve of their content that it is from God. The test is not to condemn the teacher but to approve of him, providing he is teaching truth.”

II – The Cause of the Test

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

This is the reason we must “try the spirits”—“because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” The reason for the command not to be gullible and to be discerning is because there are many false prophets already in the world and are active and busy at work, seducing and deceiving the believers by their lies and false teachings. Understand that God’s Spirit is not the only spirit at work. There are many false spirits that are at work today opposing the true Spirit of God. I believe when John wrote, “many false prophets are gone out into the world”, he especially had in mind the false teachers who had left the church and were drawing others after them.

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

1 John 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. 23: Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

In the church that John was ministering, there were those who had left the church and they are now out in the world attempting to convert others to their false beliefs and doctrines.

The Bible is filled with warnings about false teachers and their counterfeit doctrines. Our Lord Jesus had clearly foretold the coming of such false prophets. In his discourse on the end of time, Jesus warns us, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Matt 24:24) Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Other apostles have also warned us of this fact. Peter in 2 Peter 2:1-3 “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” Then Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:1315 “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

Even from the very beginning Satan, the evil one has been about the business of deceiving and counterfeiting truth. He has his false prophets and false teachers seeking to seduce and to deceive. The Bible makes it perfectly clear that there is a spirit of truth and there is a spirit of deception. And the reason we are to test the spirits today is because many false prophets, doctrines, and religious ideas and opinions have gone out into the world today. You and I cannot afford to just blindly accept and believe every so-called preacher or teacher we might hear on television or radio or internet. We must try, test, examine, prove, and scrutinize teachings and preachers to see if they are from God. But how?

III – The Criteria to Test

How shall we test the spirits? How can we know whether or not a preacher or teacher is truly from God? How can we know for sure that someone who claims to speak or prophesy spiritual truth is truly speaking from the Spirit of God? In our text, the apostle John shows us how we can “try the spirits”. He gives us several criteria to determine whether or not the one who claims to be a teacher of Christ’s Word is, in fact, is teaching the truth of God. Actually, there are other tests we can use but I just want to focus on the tests that John gives us in these passages. Three basic questions we need to ask: What do they believe? Who do they listen to? Who listens to them?

1. What do they believe

1 John 4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

What do they believe and teach about Jesus Christ? The best way to tell if a teacher is of God or not is to compare what he believes and teaches about Jesus Christ with the claims of Christ which are recorded in the Scriptures. Does he confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? John here focuses on the incarnation because that is the doctrine that the false teachers in his days was attacking and denying. There are many teachers and religious groups that claim the name of Christ but deny the Christ of the Bible. They deny the Deity and Humanity of Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His sacrificial death, and His victorious resurrection. If they deny these basic doctrines about Christ, according to John, they are not from God and the spirit behind their teaching is the spirit of antichrist. They are not preaching the true Jesus. As Guzik says “True prophecy, and true teaching, will present a true Jesus.”

2. Who do they listen to?

1 John 4:6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Here the apostle John gives us another criterion to distinguish between “the spirit of truth” and “the spirit of error.”  Listen to how John says it, “he that knoweth God heareth us.” To put it in another way, “those who know God listen to us.” Who is “us”? The apostle John is referring to the apostles. So, what he is saying is that teachers and preachers, who are truly from God will listen to the apostles’ teaching. Those who are not from God will reject them. Now the question is, “Where do we find the apostles’ teaching?” The apostles’ teaching can be found in the Word of God. In other words, John is making it clear that one test of a true prophet and a false prophet is whether that prophet believes and obeys the Bible. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. By this we know, by this criterion, we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error—do they listen to the apostles of Jesus Christ? Do they believe and submit to the Word of God?

3. Who listens to them?

1 John 4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

Another criterion to know a false teacher is, “who listens to their teaching?” John writes that false prophets and false teachers are from the world; therefore, they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. Why? The world listens to them because they are saying what the world wants to hear. That’s what false teachers do. They speak the things the world wants to hear. They cater to those who will not and cannot endure sound doctrine and just want their ears tickled. And according to the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;” There is coming a time and it’s already here, that many people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. Then Paul goes on to say in verse 4,  “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” These false teachers will turn the ears of these people who will not tolerate sound teaching away from the truth and turn aside to fables, to myths.

False teachers draw big crowd. When you tell the world what it wants to hear, you will not lack an audience. The practical application for us is, don’t judge the success of a ministry by its size! Don’t judge a local church by the number of its member. Judge it by its faithfulness to the truth of the gospel as revealed in the Bible.

Closing Thoughts

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

There are many voices seeking your attention these days. Everyone believes something and many seek to influence you today. We believers and followers of Jesus Christ must be sober and be vigilant. More than ever, we need spiritual discernment. We need to be settled in the truth of God’s Word. We must know what we believe and why we believe. When we know truth, we will not be lead astray with error. The best weapon against error is the truth of God’s Word. Brothers and sisters in Christ be in the Word. Saturate your mind with the precious Word of God.

Now, let me speak to those who are outside looking it. There are only two kinds of people in the world today—those who are in Christ and those who are outside of Christ. Those who are in Christ confesses “that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” They confess that Jesus Christ, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Ph 2:6-8)

So, if you are outside of Christ and you are not in Christ. If you are outside of Christ, you are not of God, but of the wicked one. If you want to be delivered from the gripped and bondage to Satan, you must be brought to Christ by faith in Him. You must believe and confess Him as your only Saviour. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Ac 16:31). I pray that you will call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ today before it’s too late!

AMEN!