1 John 4:1-6
Introduction:
Mention two more sermons from 1 John to review and wrap up.
Text: 1 John 4:1-6
Theme: Do not Believe every Spirit
Verses 1-6
The believers that John wrote this letter to were having a group of false teachers and prophets come to them contradicting the teaching of John and the other apostles.
This group would later come to be known as the gnostics. Gnostic means know. Gnos, know, sound similar. You can think of them as the knowers or gnostics, whichever you prefer, same thing.
The teaching of the gnostics had a heavy emphasis on knowing, especially secrets. They were also fascinated with angels and prophetic visions.
Basically everything that John talks about in this letter was a problem with the gnostics. The gnostics were not concerned about sin, they were concerned about ignorance. They believed all matter was inherently evil, wood, carpets, your hair, your skin, etc., this was all irredeemably evil. Spiritual things were good. And so, their lifestyles weren’t particularly holy because in their reasoning the body and spirit were separate anyway, if my evil body does evil, that doesn’t touch my spirit. And my spirit will be saved from my body eventually anyway because of my secret knowledge.
They taught that Jesus was merely human and he achieved knowledge and thus salvation. Jesus was then freed from His body to become a pure spiritual being. And he taught others how to as well.
In one way or another, they denied that Jesus was the Son of God. They denied that He was the Messiah. They didn’t live righteously. They didn’t love others as they ought.
Because they believed the spiritual realm was inherently good, they believed every spirit. They were fascinated with angels and prophecy. From them is where a lot of those fake books of the Bible started popping up around 200-300AD. Books claiming to be written by Thomas or to be written by Mary or Peter or some such. And they always have really outlandish stories that contradict the rest of the Bible.
A couple people have asked me, and probably more have wondered than have asked, “Well, how do we know those books shouldn’t be in the Bible?” I used to wonder that too so I’m not surprised if you have or still do! I’ll give you several reasons why they aren’t in the Bible.
First:
If the book was written around 200-300AD, then I can assure you that it wasn’t written by Thomas or Peter or Mary or whoever. Those people had died and gone to heaven long before. We can actually date when books were written with a high degree of confidence. We have extremely early fragments and copies of several books. We have very pieces of each of the Gospels, from 150AD. We don’t have anything nearly so early for the fake books.
We also have several early Christian writers who lived between 100-200AD, and they often quote things written in the New Testament. It’s clear they had copies themselves even if they hadn’t read them. They didn’t quote these fake books.
Another Reason:
The fake books contradict the Bible and say strange things. If you have not read the Bible a lot, you might read one and not see that it’s an obvious forgery. If you have read it a lot, you’ll say “wow, this sure isn’t like the other books!”
Just for illustration, here are a couple passages from what’s called “The Gospel of Thomas.”
___
Jesus said to his disciples, “If you were to compare me to someone, who would you say I’m like?”
Simon Peter said to him, “You’re like a just angel.”
Matthew said to him, “You’re like a wise philosopher.”
Thomas said to him, “Teacher, I’m completely unable to say whom you’re like.”
Jesus said, “I’m not your teacher. Because you’ve drunk, you’ve become intoxicated by the bubbling spring I’ve measured out.”
He took him aside and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked, “What did Jesus say to you?”
Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the things he said to me, you’ll pick up stones and cast them at me, and fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”
___ — From https://www.gospels.net/thomas/
So in this story, it appears that Thomas has become drunk by the alcohol that Jesus has given him. In his drunkenness, he calls Jesus his teacher. Which Jesus condemns him for. In this story Jesus is comfortable being called an angel and a philosopher, but for some reason can’t stand for teacher.
But the real big problem with it is that it contradicts the rest of the New Testament. Jesus is our teacher. He is called that many times. In John’s Gospel, they call Him teacher and He says “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.” And none of the other books in the New Testament call him an angel or a philosopher. They call Him the Son of God.
In fact, while in one way humorous, it is also not at all funny because it is very definitely antichrist. Whoever wrote this obviously had a problem with what the New Testament has to say about Jesus. They didn’t like the biblical Jesus so they wrote things to try to reinvent him to become their own personal Jesus. That is very definitely antichrist behavior.
—
His disciples said, “When will you appear to us? When will we see you?”
Jesus said, “When you strip naked without being ashamed, and throw your clothes on the ground and stomp on them as little children would, then [you’ll] see the Son of the Living One and won’t be afraid.”
— From https://www.gospels.net/thomas/
How absurd to imagine that being able to see Jesus is dependent upon nudity!
But really, probably the best reason of all that these books are not in the New Testament is because of what the other New Testament writers had to say about their beliefs.
As the false cult began to form in the later days of John’s life, and the false prophets began to appear bringing teachings like these, John writes to contradict them at every point.
If someone says they are a Christian, but does not believe Jesus is the Son of God, they are not telling the truth. If they don’t confess that Jesus is the Savior, then they aren’t a Christian. If someone says they have no sin, they are a liar and the truth is not in them.
John writes that he has seen and heard Jesus from the beginning, even touched Him, and this ungodly, unbelieving, unloving teaching that is beginning to pop up is absolutely not from God. In fact, the false messages are spoken by evil spirits, false prophets, and antichrists.
John says you’ve heard about the antichrist. The spirit of the antichrist is already in the world, speaking through supposed prophets to try to deceive you. Do not believe every spirit. Many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Helpfully, John tells us the three ways that we can discern whether a spirit or messenger is from God or is not from God.
First and most important: Verses 2 and 3 – what do they have to say about Jesus? Do they teach a Jesus that is different from the one proclaimed by John and the other apostles or do they teach the same Jesus?
Second: Verse 5 – do they encourage worldly, sinful things so that worldly, sinful people listen to them?
Third: Verse 6 – do they listen to the teaching of the apostles?
First: (Verses 2 and 3)
Do they confess Jesus? Let’s talk a little bit about this word “confess” because it has some nuances that are easy to miss. In Greek, confess is “homologeo” it’s combining the word “homo” which means the same. And logeo – which means spoken word. Homologeo then means to say the same thing. When a person confesses Jesus, if it is a true confession, they are professing the same Jesus. To say “I believe in Jesus” is not a confession of Jesus, if the Jesus that you believe in is totally different from the true one.
It’s what it means to confess your sin. You say “I’m sorry Lord, that was a sinful thing.” If you come to God and say “You know, I don’t really think that sin was so bad. Maybe even I was right!” That’s not a confession.
Here’s another example. Let’s say someone is to confess a crime. They are getting tried for shooting the sheriff and the deputy. They get brought before the judge and they say “I shot the sheriff, (pause) but I did not shoot the deputy.” I’m sorry, I had to. If you don’t get the reference it’s all good.
Well did they confess to shooting the deputy? No, not at all. They have something totally different to say about that then what they are being charged with. They do not say the same thing as the judge.
So it is with Jesus, just because someone says “I confess Jesus” doesn’t mean that they do. Is their Jesus the Son of God? Is He the Christ? Is He the Savior of the world? Did He resurrect from the dead? Important things.
And sure enough, the number one way that a false prophet or spirit is going to reveal themselves to be false is based upon what they have to say about Jesus. If they are up to no good, it’s extremely likely that they will use some new idea about Jesus to support themselves or contradict the Bible in some way.
Jesus is at the center of our faith. He is our Lord, Savior, Teacher, Creator, and more. You can be sure that if you examine or test anything diligently, getting to the root of it, to determine if it is in accordance with Jesus or not, that you will be able to know what to believe and what not to believe.
Second: (Verse 5)
Are they speaking from the world? Is what they are proclaiming encouraging you to do something that the Bible calls sin? I have heard of all kinds of claims, all kinds. “God told me to cheat on so and so.” “God told me to kill so and so.” “God told me to lie.” No, no, He didn’t. Any spirit or prophet or pastor or teacher encouraging you to do something ungodly is not speaking from God.
Often the teachings of these false prophets and spirits are accompanied by popularity. They teach the things that people want to hear. There are a lot of teachers out there that will say “send me money, and God will bless you with wealth too.” Lots of people want to be rich, so these teachers are popular! Their popularity does not make them truthful. On the other side, just because something is unpopular doesn’t mean it is right either. But the combination of ungodliness and popularity is very telling!
Third: (Verse 6)
Do they listen to the teachings of Scripture? A false prophet or false spirit is, in some way, going to be unsubmissive to the authority of the Bible. They won’t want to practice what the Bible says they should. They will come with some kind of agenda that contradicts the Bible in some way. There is some doctrine or idea they don’t like or don’t agree with, so they contradict it and accompany that contradiction with some claim to prophetic ability or a special message from an angel.
In these three tests (Confess Jesus? Speak from the world? Listen to apostles?) we can know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
I would also add, just as a bonus, it has been almost 2000 years since this book was completed. I see no good reason why there should be any additions to it. It should be extremely suspect to you if anyone is trying to introduce something new under the guise of prophecy or a special spirit.
To date, every new prophecy that someone has delivered about the world will end on such and such a date has proven false. This happens every year it seems. The Bible does not give a year. So do not believe them. The Bible even says that people will come giving dates and such and tells us not to believe them! And yet many have anyway.
Application:
So, just as John said, do not take at face value everyone who declares themselves to be a prophet with a special message. Or even if you should encounter a beautiful spirit with a message! Paul once said “if an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed!” Both Joseph Smith and Muhammed stated that an angel came to them. And that angel proceeded to contradict the true Jesus. Whether an angel really did or not, I don’t know, I have my doubts. But I know what Paul would say about it!
2 Corinthians 11:4 says “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” Use discernment and the truths of Jesus recorded for us in the Bible to protect yourself from being deceived.
And consider, at the end of time God will make a new heaven and a new earth. If angels are all to be believed, why is it necessary for a new heaven to be made?
I would also say, do not admire such a prophet or spirit, or fear them, or be distressed about them, because what does it say in verse 4? You are from God and have overcome them. You are a true child of God, truly saved, and of the truth. And now God abides in you and you abide in God and the God who is in you is greater than the spirit of the antichrist which is in them.