Testing the Spirits: Discerning Truth in a World of Deception

Introduction

A Pew Research Study says we live in a world where over 70% of adults identify themselves as spiritual in some way. The question is not do we believe in spirits, the question is, what spirits do people believe in?

As Christians we believe that the world is made up of things seen and things unseen. There are spiritual forces in this world and it can be tough to distinguish the Holy Spirit and other spirits.

“Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right.” - Charles Spurgeon

For most Christians, its much easier to spot evil than almost right. Evil happens in our world often. School shootings, abortion, the drug culture, rapes, suicides, etc. We see evil often and it’s easy to spot. One of the easiest ways to see evil, is to join us on our prayer walk to the abortion clinic in June.

But what about what Spurgeon is talking about how do we tell the difference between right and almost right?

Today we are continuing our series in 1st John called True Christianity, where we are looking at what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. Today we are going to be looking at the topic of Discernment.

If you have your bibles, turn to 1 John 4. We will read the first six verse. The words will be on the screen and I have the notes loaded in your app.

Main Text

1 John 4:1–6 ESV

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for 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 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. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from 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.

The Apostle John in writing this letter is talking big picture about discernment. This is a popular subject, but to help you understand it better, I have pulled out four main points about discernment from our passage today…

Discernment Is Testing The Spirits

“Do Not Believe Every Spirit” - This is a negative command. Don’t do this. Don’t believe every spirit. This tells us…There is more than one spirit in this world. Other spirits are deceptive. They are not truthful. Not every spirit is from God.

“Test the Spirits to see whether they are from God” - This implies a couple of things.

The Truth Is knowable - There is no reason to test for something if you can’t know the truth. The truth can be discovered. There is a way to know it.

The Spirits are either from God or they are deceptive. There are no neutral spirits. There are none who are just fun loving or innocent. There are “good” spirits who will tell you what you want to hear. Spirits either push you toward God or they pull you away from God. That’s it.

“For many false prophets have gone out into the world.” - John here is giving us the reason for testing the spirits. There are many, notice he says many, false prophets. These are people who say they speak for God, but in reality, it’s a deceptive spirit speaking.

Spirits speak through people.

Spirits have an agenda.

Spirits are global.

Discernment means we have to test the Spirits.

Don’t ignore them.

Don’t pretend they don’t exist.

Don’t entertain them.

Illustration: Counterfeit money.

Testing requires a test. There must be a way to know where the spirit comes from. There must be a way to determine what is true and false.

Truth Is Discovered By Knowing Sound Doctrine

The test is knowing Jesus. We have to know the truth in order for us to be free from deception. We have to be able to spot the counterfeit. Knowing the truth means knowing about Jesus.

Historical Background - John is writing to his church and they are being told by these spiritual leaders, these false prophets, that Jesus never had a body. This is an early form of gnosticism, which says that the material world is bad and the spiritual world is good.

John says not all spirits are good, we shouldn’t believe them. This is contrary to what they were teaching.

John is writing this letter as an encouragement to not believe these false teachers.

1 John 1:1 ESV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—

John is saying, I touched Jesus. I saw him with my own two eyes. He was a flesh and blood person. So don’t believe the lies.

“By This you know the Spirit of God” (V.2) - John has to write this because of how he ended chapter 3, telling us how we can know we are a True Christian, by trusting the Holy Spirit who God sent to us as confirmation of what we believe.

1 John 3:24 ESV

Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

“Every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” (V.3) - This is the test he is giving his church. You will know if the person speaking has the Holy Spirit in them and they are teaching truth because of what they say.

If they speak the truth, that Jesus has come in the flesh, that he wasn’t just a spirit or a ghost, but that he was a flesh and blood man, then they are true and trustworthy. But if they don’t…

This isn’t a universal test though. This isn’t meant to be. This is a test for his church going against a particular false teaching. But this does tell us what our test should be.

We test based on sound doctrine. We need to know what the truth is, because the lie is pretty convincing sometimes. It’s the difference between right and almost right.

Every Christian should have an insatiable appetite for sound doctrine.

John Blanchard

We should desire to study the word so that we can be sure that we aren’t deceived.

It’s our test.

We need to know Him. Part of this points us to the idea that while it’s great to know about Jesus, it’s even better to know Him. John is able to spot this false doctrine because he knew Jesus personally. We have that same opportunity. We can know him. We can have relationship with him.

Jesus is the truth. Therefore, he points us toward the truth.

Illustration: A Compass, putting “Red in the Shed” - Jesus is our true north. He is the one we align our lives around and he alone determines what is truth.

Discernment Means Reliance On The Holy Spirit

“…He who is in you, is greater than he who is in the world.” - (v.4) We have the Holy Spirit in us and he will lead us into all truth. 1 John 2:27 “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.”

It’s not just about book knowledge. Some lies are so deceptive we could struggle to tell the truth without the Holy Spirit leading us and guiding us.

We need both - Knowledge of Sound Doctrine and The Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Knowledge of someone is not as good as actually knowing them. Knowing of Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Knowing of the president is different than knowing him. In one you may know he was born in Queens, in the other you are eating shrimp with him at Maralago.

How Does the Holy Spirit lead us into all truth?

Prayer

Fasting

He speaks.

Internally, through others, through nature, through circumstances and through his word.

It Comes Down To Authority. We must decide who or what is going to be the authority of our lives. We must decide if it’s going to be “the science”, our teachers, our government, our parents, textbooks or the Holy Spirit. It’s an authority question.

John gives an authority answer. He that is in you is greater…That means he should have the highest authority. The greater authority always wins. If a county court decides a case and it’s challenged. They take it to district courts or federal courts, then it may go further up the chain if it’s challenged and finally it would get to the Supreme Court. That court has the highest authority of all other courts, so they would have the ultimate say in the case.

Jesus is or should be our ultimate authority. The Holy Spirit is our guide and that means we have to rely on him. Think about what it says in Proverbs.

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

The key is Trust in the Lord. Do not trust in your own understanding. We must fully rely on God. We must make him the foundation for our lives by trusting in his truth and his ways.

We speak from the vine we are connected to. “They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them.” (v.5) This is Johns way of saying whoever you are connected to, you will speak from their agenda, their worldview. If you are from the world or the world is where you draw your identity from, you will talk like them and your audience will be those that are like you.

If we are abiding in the vine (John 15), then we will speak like the one we are connected to. We will speak the words of Jesus. We will speak his agenda and those that are his sheep will listen.

Discernment Means Listening To The Apostles

“Whoever knows God listens to us… (V.6)” - This isn’t me telling you to only listen to me. That’s cultish. Don’t trust anyone who says that.

Take what I say and line it up to word of God.

Goes back to the first verse. Don’t believe every spirit. Just because someone says they love Jesus doesn’t mean they actually do.

Listening to us means the Apostles. It’s the ones who saw Jesus and walked with him. It’s a call back to the original message.

If someone preaches a new message, don’t believe it. There’s only one gospel and it has been delivered to us by those who knew Jesus personally and we can rely on that gospel. Any other gospel is false.

Galatians 1:8 ESV

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Paul says to not believe a different gospel even if he preached it. Hold fast to the gospel that was delivered to you.

“Whoever is not from God does not listen to us…” - People who do not listen to the apostles and do not trust in their gospel are false teachers. They are liars and deceptive.

Think about Mormons. They tell you that Jesus didn’t finish his work (which the apostles say that he did) and you need to words of Joseph Smith to be saved. These are lies.

Think about other false teachers. Prosperity Gospel, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientologists, Muslims, Buddhists, Catholicism (aka works righteousness).

Catholics think they have a direct line from Peter to the Pope. That it’s an unbroken chain of succession. I like what Martyn Lloyd-Jones says about that…

The man who is in the direct line from the Apostles is the man who preaches the doctrine of the Apostles, the man who has the spirit of the Apostles in him.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

• Teaching the Apostle’s doctrine - This is the heart of what John is saying at the end of this passage. If we are truly listening to the Apostles, we are listening to their message. Their message has been recorded for us in the Bible.

We Can Trust it.

We Can Rest In It.

We Can Teach It.

To sum all of this up -

Discernment requires you to know sound doctrine.

Discernment Requires You To Trust The Holy Spirit.

Discernment requires you to know and believe the Apostle’s teachings.

Conclusion

There are a lot of false teachings, false gospels and false information in this world, but God doesn’t want you to be deceived. He wants you to know the truth, because the truth will set you free.

If you’re here today and you’ve been swayed by false teachings or unsure of what to believe, come back to the gospel delivered by the Apostles: Jesus Christ, crucified for our sins, risen from the grave, and reigning from the right hand of the Father. Trust in Him alone for your salvation. If you need prayer or guidance to grow in discernment, we have people here who will pray with you and walk with you in this process.