Sermon Tone Analysis
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Prayer
Last week we looked at the comfort that God brings to the conscience of the believer through the fact that He is greater than our hearts.
We saw how our own consciences can and will condemn us, and the wonderful truths to we must speak to ourselves.
But this week, we are turning from addressing ourselves inwardly to discerning those outside of us.
If I told you that you have an enemy of the soul that rages against you night and day.
What would you think about that?
For some, it wouldn’t be shocking.
You probably would be pretty normalized to the idea.
For others, it would be a new thought to consider.
But I think for both sides, it is common to slip in and out of recognizing this.
Since this world is filled with false prophets, we must test the spirits to determine if they are from God.
By testing their message, and audience; we will increase our love for the Truth and so walk in the way of obedience.
Abiding in God
“You in Him, and Him in You”
1 John 3:24 (NKJV)
Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.
Like we saw in the previous section, to keep the commandments is to believe in the Son Jesus Christ, and to love the brothers and sisters.
John’s claim here is a bit staggering, he says that the person who keeps these commandments abides in Him.
He goes a step further and says that God abides in Him.
John’s answer here is similar to what Paul says when he talks about the life of the believer being “in Christ”
I find it interesting that John does NOT say...
He doesn’t say that the believer knows God abides in him because he is perfect.
He doesn’t say that the believer knows God abides in Him because he speaks in tongues.
No, it’s none of these other things, rather it is obedience which shows if God abides in us and we in God.
The Presence of the Spirit
John says that it is “by this” which is referring back to what was just said which is keeping his commandments.
The Spirit is the test of Christ’s abiding in us, because even Paul says..
Romans 8:9 (ESV)
Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But the way the Spirit is manifested in the life of the believer is objectively in his life and conduct.
It is the Spirit’s working in the life of the believer which allow them to confess Jesus.
Again notice, what John doesn’t say about The work of the Spirit in the life of the believer is
NOT just an inner light within a person.
NOT just an inner feeling.
He doesn’t say that the believer knows God abides in Him because of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
John doesn’t say we know God abides in us because His Spirit abides in us.
I think too often, we make abiding in the Spirit an activity which is based upon feelings.
We feel as though the Spirit is abiding in us, but John is more concrete than that.
When this happens, we waffle between knowing God loves us and unsure of God’s love for us.
He says that we know the Spirit abides in us, when we keep the commandments.
It is keeping God’s commandments as the evidence that we are abiding in Him!
Picture with me a person who is sitting in Bible study and they pipe up…
They say, “I know God loves me because he tells me all the time.”
You ask, “How does he tell you that?”
They respond, “He tells me all the time when I am alone with him.
Sometimes I even skip out on gathering with God’s people because they just distract me from God telling me he loves me.”
How should we think about this person?
The devil can counterfeit all the saving operations and graces of the Spirit of God.
We need to recognize that the supernatural realm is real, and that is true.
But at the same time, we need to recognize that it does not always mean it is from God.
What John is about to say reveals something that was likely happening in this church.
They were receiving and tended to be uncritical of all teaching which claimed to be inspired.
They were embracing anyone who stood up and said, “God said to me...”
It’s in this kind of a context that John gives the exhortation to us...
Testing the Spirits
“The Need for Discernment”
John now turn his attention to those things outside of the believer which are a threat to him.
And he gives two overarching commands for us.
1 John 4:1 (NKJV)
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God
Don’t believe Every Spirit
I want you to notice something too as you’re looking at this passage…
Notice the way your translations capitalize or lower case the word “spirit” to help the reader understand who John is talking about.
If you pay attention to your Bible’s the translators are helping us see the intended meaning here from John.
What does John mean by a spirit?
You may be thinking, “I don’t remember the last time I interacted with a spirit...”
Calvin along with others have understood the term to be metaphorically speaking.
Spirit for John here is a person claiming to be speaking under the prompting of the Spirit of God.
Anyone standing up amidst our gathering and saying, “God told me __________”
Which means it refers to a person and the spirit is what is operating behind the person.
John’s warning is, “Don’t believe every spirit!”
Believing for John here means to deem worthy of a person’s trust.
The first step is to NOT entrust yourself to the spirit.
When he says, “Don’t believe every spirit”, he is essentially saying don’t place your trust that every spirit is actually from God.
When we hear the word discernment, we should also hear the word testing.
The testing comes in the second part…
1 John 4:1 (NKJV)
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God;
What does John mean by testing?
The word for proving something to be genuine by means of testing.
We are making a critical examination of something to determine authenticity or not.
The same word which is used for testing is used for testing of metals in the first century.
In the first century, testing of metals happened in an extremely hot oven.
Take gold for instance.
You would take the gold and melt it down, and something called dross would come to the surface.
This dross was the impurity from the metal and was to be scrapped off and removed.
John is impressing that this is the kind of testing that needs to be done.
This means that we should not be quick to believe a person because they were told that God said something to them.
At the same time, we are not to be so suspicious that we reject every spirit.
John is calling us to hold up and examine every teaching.
There is no direction to consult your feelings about these persons or to expect any subjective promptings or checks.
It is their teaching that must be examined.
A call to hold up and examine every teaching.
To not simply give ourselves to every spirit that may come to us.
So John is urging us to not simply trust every spirit, but to examine them to see if they are worth trusting.
Implication
This means for us that when we hear people expressing that God has told them something, we need to test it.
We need to test if it holds up against the Word of God.
We live in a generation that hates criticism and questioning.
So to hold up a person’s message against the Word, they may want to buck against this.
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