Into the Light: Test It

Good morning. Welcome to Eagle Creek Church. We’re in a series of messages from the book of First John. We’re going to be in chapter 4, starting at verse one.

So, I’m going to let you get ahead of me if you want to open the Eagle Creek app and start reading. You could do that. And my notes are on there as well. And if you don’t know me, I’m Matt. I’m the pastor, if you’re visiting for the very first time. And people always say, “How long have you been around?” I’ve been around since the church has been around. My wife and I started the church 22 years ago. And we love it. This is family. This is home for us.

One of the cool things I get to do now and then, well, now and then, every single week, all the time, is I get to meet all the new people that are visiting Eagle Creek Church. And a few weeks ago, I was standing at the back door, greeting people as they left. And as I was standing there, this amazing couple came past the door, and they had all sorts of questions about our church. And as I got to know him, he talked to me, and I said, “What do you do?” He said, “Well, I do some recording work.” And I’m like, “Oh, okay, that’s really cool.” And I saw our worship pastor walking past, and I was like, “You need to meet this guy, he’s into music too, you should meet this guy.” And he kind of laughed and walked over and shook his hand. And he said, “Hi, David.” That’s David, that played the piano and sang this morning. He’s like, “Hi, David.” He’s like, “I know David.” He’s like, “Yeah, he’s been around.” He said, “I grew up as a kid in youth group listening to him lead worship at conferences.” I’m like, “Oh, well, didn’t you just say you need someone to fill in for you right after you have that sinus surgery? You guys should talk.” I walked away, and so we got David Fortuna leading worship this morning.

So anyway, I’ll just say it pays to be nice to people at the door, right? You got to talk to folks. So I was thrilled that David stepped up and gave John a little bit of a break. John said, because he’s newer, he had the surgery coming up, and whenever he came here, he knew that, and he felt bad. He’s like, “I’m not going to take any time off. I’ll take off like the first Sunday.” And I’m like, “You’re doing what kind of surgery?” He told me again, I’m like, “No, you’re not taking off one Sunday. You’re going to be off for like three or four weeks. I don’t know how long, but if you want to stand up there and play the guitar, great. But you’re not going to blow your surgery out up here singing in front of all of us. You got to get it together first.” So anyway, sorry, it’s a little too picturesque right there, I’ll continue on here.

How many of you have a side hobby that you don’t get to do as often as you wish, but something you love doing, but you just don’t? Maybe your time doesn’t work out. How many of you are like, “I have tons of time to do my hobby, I do it all I want.” Okay, we’re jealous of you, we’re happy for you, go do your thing, Adam. Your wife is saying, “You get to all the time,” and he’s nodding. No, it depends on what side of it you’re on. I’ve learned that my wife sometimes thinks I do hobbies more than I actually do them. I’m like, “I don’t do them that much.” She’s like, “Yes, you really do.” “No, I don’t.” Anyway, and no one else has that disagreement either, right, over how much you spend on your hobby.

But one of mine that I literally have not done for a few years that I love doing is sailing. Now, whenever you say sailing, people are like, “Wow, that takes a lot of money.” Let me tell you my version of sailing. In my mid-40s, I got the bug. I said, all I’ve done is run kids to sports, pastor a church, be a husband, and I have not had any side hobbies, and I need to do something fun. So I thought, you know what I should do? I like working with my hands, I like fixing things, and I like figuring new things out. So what if I figured out how to go sailing or fix up an old sailboat? And I looked them up and they were too much money. So then I went on Craigslist and I was like, “Does anyone have one they’re giving away?” And I found an old farmer that had four of them in his field for $200 for four sailboats.

So I went and got all four and stuffed our garage full. And my wife thought I was having like a midlife crisis, and I probably was. And I was like, “No, no, they’re these little skinny ones, they’re called Sunfish, and I’m going to give them to my brothers and they’re going to fix them up, and we’re all going to go sailing,” and so on and so forth. It didn’t quite happen that way. I did get one fixed up. I did take it out. She thought I was going to kill her when I put her on there, and that boom swung around, and she’s ducking, and by the time we were done, she’s like, “Maybe this is a one-person thing, this is really stressful.”

So I had fun, and then I found an old wood sailboat that was at a dock and had been left for years and was rotted out. Turns out it was rotted out, I learned that when I went out sailing and all the things pulled loose, and I was flapping in the wind, and I was like, “How do I get back to shore?” Fortunately, I put a little motor on the back.

But the very first time I went sailing was out at Lake Chaccomo, and I thought when I arrived I hit the jackpot. Whenever I got there, literally tons of wind and no one on the lake. I’m like, “What is wrong with everyone? Perfect day, you need wind and you need water, and I got both, and no one else figured it out today.” So I got out there, my first time sailing, and I thought this was amazing because I did not want to embarrass myself in front of all the people that really knew how to sail, so I could go learn on my own without making a fool of myself in front of other people.

And of course I got my sailboat out. Any of you know something about sailing, know there’s a point where it’s too much wind for tiny boats. And what happens when there’s too much wind for tiny boats? Tiny boats turn over. I learned that as I leapt into the lake as my boat turned over, two minutes in, and I jump off the side and I’m holding on to the side trying to pull my sailboat down, and finally it whips around and the wind, it’s just called lofting, it’s just lofting and the wind just blowing. I climb up on the thing, I’m learning like on the spot, how do you lower a sail so that it doesn’t tip me over again, and I’m blowing to an end of the lake I don’t want to be at. How am I ever going to get back again? And my heart is pounding out of my chest.

And I finally got like a little piece of sail about that big, and that was enough to sail on, that’s how windy it was. I sailed just fine with a little thing like that. And I managed to figure out how to get back to shore and drag it over to my car and get out and just be so glad that I was alive. I really was. I was like, “Oh, I don’t know if I want to.” And of course, you have to go home when your wife’s like, “How’d it go, your first big day sailing?” And you’re like, “It’s great, I loved it, I’m going to go back sometime. I think I’m going to watch a lot more YouTube videos first, you know.”

Oh, but here’s the thing. Why did I say all that? Because when you arrive at a place spiritually and you think you have some great revelation, some wonderful piece of knowledge, you have it figured out, but there’s no one sailing those waters but you. You’re the only one with this wonderful, amazing, neat understanding of God, of prophecy, of the future, of what God is doing today. And no one gets it but you. And the waters of Christianity are empty of all the theologians, preachers, teachers, people in your church, but you have arrived at some great biblical knowledge that no one else has. I would be concerned that you’re sailing into a storm, or that you’ve arrived at the beach where someone has just before you got there yelled “sharks in the water,” and everyone got out of the water, and you’re running in because you’re brilliant and you figured something out unique and spiritual.

And John deals with people like you and me. People who want to understand and want to tell people, “We get it.” Want to tell folks, “I understand what God is doing, and this is what God wants to do in our home and our marriage and our finances, we need to be doing this.” And maybe no one’s speaking up because they’re trying to be nice. But the fact is, you’re not getting a lot of support, and no one’s jumping in the water with you.

At some point, you have to learn how to tell and test whether something is from God or whether something is just making you feel special because you think it’s God. That happens, and it happens too often. So, what I’m going to do is help you understand from John how to know whether this is a God thing or this is a you thing that really is not from God. So, as we go through this, we’re just going to learn a few ways to approach new spiritual ideas in our life. Hopefully, some healthy ways to look at them.

Don’t Believe Everything

So, the first one I’m going to give you from 1 John chapter 4 and verse one is this. It’s just don’t believe everything. Don’t believe everything. “Oh, but I read this online, but I watched a YouTube video, but I heard this preacher, and you know what he’s saying.” Everyone say, “Don’t believe everything.” Don’t believe everything. How many of you know for every preacher you can find out there saying something, you can find another preacher saying something else? And if you want to find some really crazy stuff out there, how many of you know you can find some really crazy stuff out there? People are saying, I’ve heard a lot of nonsense in my time.

So 1 John 4:1, let’s read it. It says this, “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.” Now, I want to pause right here. He’s dealing, remember, he’s dealing with false prophets that have come into the church and tried to get people to believe false things, and it worked. A bunch of people believed him, and they’ve left the church, and they followed the false teachers. But what he’s saying is behind the false teaching, there was something else. It wasn’t just that it was false teaching and it was the wrong thing and I shouldn’t have believed it. It says there was a spirit behind that false teaching. But test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because some of the spirits behind the teaching are false. It’s a false prophet, and it’s a wrong spirit. It’s not a spirit from God.

Now, I’m going to just do a little commercial break here in the middle, which I didn’t plan on doing, but I thought it, so I got to say it. Now, here’s the thing. A lot of people like to imagine that there’s a neutral spiritual ground in this world. That there’s like Christians that serve God, and there’s the spirit of God, and then there’s, yeah, like obviously some bad stuff, like Satan worship, or the devil, or that kind of stuff. That’s bad, everyone knows that. But it’s not. It’s so much bigger than that. It’s so much bigger. And there’s so many ways to connect with God. And there’s so much of just getting in tune and becoming one and becoming connected. And how many of you heard those terms?

That’s a foolish lie. And you did not test the spirit, because there in fact is only two spirits you can connect with, outside of just talking to another human who is a spiritual being, created in the image of God, spiritual beings. But outside of that, which is, by the way, not going to be at the same level of spiritual connection, you have the spirit of God. And how will he manifest himself? Through his son, Jesus Christ, who came and was a revelation of God here on earth, God, Emmanuel, God with us. And through Jesus sending the Holy Spirit, saying, “I’ll send the Holy Spirit to be with you always.” If it is not that, it is not holy, it is not good, it is a different spirit, and it is a wrong spirit. Okay?

And how do you find that? Well, there’s so many different ways. No, there’s not. There is one way to the father. It’s Jesus Christ, right? It’s only him, only him. You’re like, “Well, that’s pretty narrow.” Well, then Jesus is not someone you want to pursue, because Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the father but by me.” And so if you’re thinking there’s another way and another spiritual pathway to God, you were in fact following another spirit. Well, what’s the other spirit? It’s Satan.

And a third of the angels of heaven followed Satan. And when they were cast down by God, degraded from heaven to earth, they became evil spirits, which we call demons, which were originally angels, which rebelled against God with Satan, and have fallen. They’re very powerful, they’re very knowledgeable, they’re very deceptive. But we know from the scripture we’re going to be reading today, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, right? So we don’t have to live in fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So we don’t live in fear, but we have the ability to test the spirits, right?

We test the spirits and we see, is this God or is this Satan? And if you think it’s a middle ground, it’s probably Satan. Why would it probably be Satan if you think it’s a middle ground? Because God has no problem being forthright and direct about what is true. That’s why he wrote it all down in the Bible. Whereas Satan is a deceiver and will try to present a lot of middle grounds. God doesn’t need to present any middle ground because he’s presented all the ground there is in the Bible to us. Amen. It’s right there, read it, you’ll find out the way to approach God. If you’re not sure, it’s probably not God. If you’re not sure, it’s probably not God.

I’m not going to say that 100%, because I know there are people that walk into good Bible-preaching churches and they get stressed out, nervous, and they don’t know. And normally that’s because they’re under conviction for sin in their life, and it’s stressing them out, and they’re wanting to run for the back doors because they either got to confront the God who’s convicting them with sin and deal with their sin, or they got to run. And so some people, there’s another thing going on in their life they’re just not wanting to deal with. And so, yes, sometimes people feel unsure because of that.

So, as we walk through this, we start saying, “Here’s the truth. There’s all these spirits out there, and we’re supposed to test the spirits.” Test the spirits is the word dokimazo, and it means you’re just testing the mettle of something. You’re kind of hitting it hard and saying, “Is this God?” Testing the mettle to figure out whether this is what God wants. And so, you’re being just suspicious enough to verify something and say, “Let me check this out. Let me look into this guy.” I have people say, “You need to read this guy, you need to listen to this, this guy is amazing, this guy’s awesome.” Over the years, people hand me books, and I don’t read all the books you hand me. I love you, but I look him up, and I check into him. I do a little background research on an author before I spend, before I waste my time reading one, okay? Because I don’t want to fill my head with garbage. And if this guy’s half right and half wrong, that’s not good enough for me. You’re like, “Well, you got to eat the meat and spit out the bones.” I’m like, there’s so much meat to eat in the world without a lot of bones in it that I’ll go for that kind of meat. I’ll go for the good stuff, I’m going to go for less bony kind of meat. In other words, good books from good, spiritual authors that really have their stuff straight.

So, many of us assume that nice spiritual people all bring something from God. And we want to believe that, it’s our heart to believe that people are genuine. But how many of you know that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? And David says in Psalms, well, both in Psalms 139 and in Psalms 51, he indicates that he was formed in iniquity, in sin, that he was sinful from birth, that the sin nature was part of his nature from the time he was a baby. You’re like, “Oh, that can’t be true.” Yeah, it is. That’s a sin nature. That’s what’s happened with mankind since the fall of Adam and Eve. So, how many of you know that as much as you want to assume everyone’s good-natured, everyone still has a sin nature? Okay.

And so, we’ll look at a teacher and say, “But they smile so friendly, and they seem so sharp, and they’re so flattering of me, and they always say such positive things to me, and they’re such an encourager.” How many of you know you could be all those things and still preach something that’s false? Okay, in case you still are out on that, you haven’t weighed in and you’re like, “No, I think if you really think they’re a good guy, they probably are telling the truth.” Okay, so what’s the Bible say about that specifically?

In 2 Corinthians 11, it says this. It says, “These people are false apostles.” Everyone say false apostles. How many say if someone’s categorized as a false apostle, you probably should not listen to them? Okay, these people are false apostles. What about these people? Well, they’re “deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.” So, they’re trying to look like the real deal. They want you to believe they’re authentic. They’re doing their best to do that. He says, “But the Apostle Paul says, I am not surprised. Even Satan disguises himself as” an angel of light.

So, how many you’d say trying to look good when you’re evil is a pretty old trick, right? And so, it’s not about how they make you feel. It’s not about how they look, how they flatter. It’s not that they prophesied a really amazing word over me. Did you know that there was a whole movement of people prophesying really good things over people and no negatives, all positives, and they were gaining lots of followers. Are you surprised to hear that they gained lots of followers by prophesying lots of good things, and God is going to bless you and open up a door before you and you will be a multi-millionaire and blessing the kingdom of God. And everyone lined up behind because they wanted to be next and hear what he had to say for them. They didn’t line up behind the prophets that said, “God knows your sin and is calling you out, and until you repent, his hand of blessing is removed from your life.” No one lined up behind that guy.

And so, it’s our nature to be drawn to angels of light, even if they’re demons. And it says, you have to learn how to test the spirits before you buy in. You need to get sensitive, like, is this from God? Is this not from God? This is John just trying to work really hard and help people understand something really critical in their life. And not everyone gets that.

For me, right at the back of our property is a woodland area, forest preserve area, something like that. And whenever I go back there, I don’t go back there a lot. It’s a beautiful, beautiful area, but there’s so much poison ivy. Any of you allergic to poison ivy like I am? Okay, I get it really bad. And so if I go back in there, you can’t hardly avoid it. There’s so much of it that it’s almost not avoidable. But you know what? It looks just as green and pretty and beautiful as everything else. And if I take my grandson back there, he would be absolutely covered in it because he has no clue the difference between poison ivy and anything else. Doesn’t even know that there is such a thing as poison ivy. He’d literally be covered in this stuff. But me, I’m alert and I see it. And if Sherry goes for a walk with me, I’m all the time when we’re walking, “Hey, don’t touch that. Right there, that’s poison ivy.” She’s like, “There?” “Yeah, right there, look at that, that’s poison ivy, that’s poison, that’s poison ivy, yep, that’s poison ivy.” So, it’s no fun to walk with me because that’s all I do. I’m like, I don’t see the birds or the deer or anything, I see poison. I’m just trying to survive the hike.

But to some degree, spiritually, we have to be alert. We have to be aware of what’s happening around us and understand how it’s going to impact us.

The Test Is Always Jesus

Let me give you the second one here as we’re learning how to be perceptive. The second thing is this. The test is always Jesus. Everyone say Jesus. Jesus. It’s always Jesus, okay? And it’s what do they think about Jesus, who is Jesus to them? Because people make Jesus into a lot of things that is not really who he is. They make him into a person that is just there to bless our lives and make our lives better, not the Lord. In Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10, it says, “If you confess Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

When Thomas saw Jesus for the very first time resurrected, he doubted that he had resurrected. But when Thomas saw him for the very first time resurrected from the dead, do you know what Thomas did? It says he fell to his feet and he cried out, “My Lord and my God.” He didn’t say, “My provider who takes care of every one of my needs in 10 minutes after I pray each prayer. The God who beckons to my every desire and gives me everything I ever wanted. Thank you for rising from the dead so you could serve my purposes.” Is that what James or John or Peter or any of those that were close to Jesus thought of who Jesus was? No. They died in obedience to surrendering their lives to following him anywhere and everywhere he sent them. He was not there to serve them. They were there to serve him. And they understood that the moment they saw his resurrected form, they understood it meant lordship, not a free ticket to everything they wanted.

And so, what do people do with Jesus? Who do they say he is? Because that tells you about the spirit of the person. That tells you that’s a test behind them.

In 1 John 4, verses 2 and 3, it continues here. “By this you know the spirit of God.” Every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh, now John is particularly dealing with a whole group of false teachers that got a bunch of people to quit attending the churches by telling them that Jesus was not flesh and blood but he was only a spirit being, because flesh is evil, spirit is good. And so they were lying to them and saying that. And so he’s dealing with one false doctrine here in this passage. There are many false doctrines, but he’s dealing with the one that says he didn’t come in the flesh. And that “Jesus has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is not from God.” This is the spirit of what? Of “antichrist, which you have heard was coming,” and what’s the word right there, “is in the world already.”

Is in the world already, saying it’s been prophesied that when Christ comes, evil spirits, antichrist, Christ-hating spirits. What are those Christ-hating spirits? I said there are only two kind of spirits essentially in the world. So what would these antichrist spirits be? Fallen angels who had rebelled against God. They’re demons, okay? He says, “You’re going to test these spirits because if it is against who Christ is, who he’s been described to be, the truth of who God is in the Bible, then that is an antichrist spirit, and it’s come into the world.”

Okay, so he’s giving a definition, and he’s saying, “So when you see this, when you hear this, when these teachers get up and say these things, I want you to recognize this is an antichrist kind of spirit.” When you reshape Jesus into a worldly view that appeals to humanity to get followers of you rather than followers of God, can I tell you there are many preachers in the history of the church that tried to create followers of them rather than followers of God. And whenever you do that, what have you become? You become an antichrist spirit, because you’re pulling love and loyalty away from Christ to yourself. You have become like the spirit of Lucifer himself, who saw God seated on the throne and wanted to rule and reign as he did, and he wanted to unseat God and to sit there.

And did you know that many humans, even preachers, want to unseat people’s love and loyalty to God? You can do that as a worship pastor, where you want the glory for you rather than the glory for God, and I’m not saying that David did not do, but anytime someone is pulling everyone to them and they become the powerful, attractional figure, and their teaching becomes the ultimate teaching, and everyone hinges on them, in fact, people even go to them and ask for permission. “Is it okay if I do this? Could I do this?” And they become this super leader among Christians. How many understand that becomes incredibly unhealthy?

I don’t think any human should carry that level of leadership. We have to trust the work of the body of Christ. Other brothers and sisters to counsel us, not just a pastor, right? Other brothers and sisters in Christ in your small group, the men in your men’s group, the women in your women’s group, the couples in your Bible study. How many say lean on the family of God, not one man of God? Amen.

Now, you know what? I love that, because it makes me replaceable. And I’m just fine with being, I’m not going anywhere, folks. But I love being replaceable. I love being replaceable because John the Baptist said this, when everyone said, “Oh, everyone’s leaving us, they’re following Jesus,” he said, “That’s wonderful, I must decrease that he might increase.” Every single person in this room, if people start clamoring after you because you know how to pray for the sick better than everyone else, and they’re clamoring after you now instead of Jesus, you need to bow out real quick and say, “I’m going to have someone else pray for you. I’m going to ask them to pray for you. I think so and so can give you wisdom.” Because we never want to get that antichrist spirit over this church and over our lives, right? We want to step clean and clear of anything related to that.

Anything that smells of it, and I’m preaching on way too many things, way too long, I’m just running all over the place, but I’m going to keep going here. I’m going to pick on a couple groups for a minute. I’m going to pick on some folks, but it’s not really picking on, it’s just a warning.

What about the spirit of antichrist that denies who Christ is? The Mormon church has the spirit of antichrist over it. I know that’s a controversial statement for some people, but it’s actually biblically and factually true. They say that Jesus Christ at one point was non-existent and that God, his father, Elohim, created him as the brother of Lucifer after he physically impregnated Mary. Well, Jesus was pre-existent according to Mormons before that, and that Jesus was perfected in his ways and is now become a god. How many of you understand that is anti-Christian, non-biblical?

In case you don’t know that, Isaiah 43:10 says this, “Before me,” God is speaking here in this passage, “no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.” So could Jesus have been formed into a god? According to this passage, he could not have been formed into a god. So either the Mormon has to say he is not god, or that he always was God, because there’s not another option. Their doctrine is not an option. It takes away essentially the eternality of Christ’s deity. He is no longer the God who was and who is and who is to come. He’s just a god who is and who is to come. They’re taking away his eternal past.

Let me talk to you also about the Jehovah’s Witnesses for a moment. They say that Jesus is Jehovah’s first creation. How many say problem already? Same problem right there, Jehovah’s first creation. But Colossians 1:16 says this, it says, this is speaking of Jesus Christ, you can read the whole chapter, Colossians chapter 1, if you want to check it out, “For him all things were created,” for Jesus, “in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. All things were created through him and for him.” In first John, or in John 1, it says, “And without him was not anything made that was made.” What’s that mean? He wasn’t made. It means he was not made, he was eternally existent. He is not the created, he is the creator. Amen, that’s who Jesus is.

And so essentially, you’re worshiping another God. But you’re using a lot of Christian terms. That is by nature what a cult is. It’s something that hijacks Christianity, redefines it, and creates a man, like Charles Taze Russell or Joseph Smith, that you follow. That’s what it does.

The third one, a Muslim says Jesus is a great prophet, but God or Allah has no son, famous saying among Muslims. 1 John 2:23, “No one who denies the son has the father.” They say Allah has no son. The Bible says no one who denies the son, what, the son of God, Jesus Christ, “whoever confesses the son has the father also.” How many say confessing that the son is the son of God would be absolutely essential and critical to faith, right? And to not do so is antichrist.

And then today, as it is presently for the Jew, Jesus was only a teacher and he was not the Messiah and certainly not the son of God. Referred to the verse I just read, it’s a violation of the previous verse, and it’s also a violation of their own Old Testament prophecies. Isaiah 9:6, it tells us that God definitely would have a son. “For to us a child is born, and a son is given.” Now, whose son is this and who is this? “And his name shall be called wonderful counselor.” And his name shall be called “the son is mighty God” that has been given to us. The son is mighty God. Everyone say that one with me. The son is mighty God. That’s what it is. And his name shall be “mighty God, everlasting father.” He and the father are one. “Everlasting father, prince of peace.”

There is no ambiguity in Old Testament or New Testament who Jesus is. And so something that speaks other than both Old Testament and New Testament, and that tries to take away the deity of Christ, is the spirit of antichrist. That’s what it is. And everyone, I know this, I’m going to say this, I know this. They’re the nicest people you’d ever want to meet, I agree, they’re so moral, they’re so good. And even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. And even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. Do not believe the smiling face. Test the spirits. Amen. Amen. I don’t know how much more clear. How many say that’s fairly clear? I think you said it. I think you made it fairly clear. I want to make sure we understand that.

Greater Is the One Who Is in You

And boy, am I going to get through this whole thing? I’m going to rush through a little bit here. I’m going to hit a couple things, I just want to finish this up. The third one is this. Greater is the one who is in you. And this is that I want to give you the positive note on the end of this.

In First John, greater is the one who’s in you. Let me give you this. First John chapter 4, verses 4 through 6. It says this, “We are from God.” Now I know you’re like, well, that’s very prideful to say. It’s only prideful to say if it’s not true and you’re asserting that it’s true. I am a human, was that a prideful statement? No, because it’s true, it’s just a truth. John is saying, now how does John know he’s from God? Because John walked with Jesus. John met him when he resurrected from the dead. John ran to the tomb and saw the empty grave. John wrote the book of John. I mean, if anyone knows he’s from God, John would know, he has a connection with Jesus Christ, the resurrected son of God. He watched all the miracles, and John can emphatically make the statement, “We are from God,” and he would know. Amen. So this is not my assertion, this is the disciple whom Jesus loved.

His assertion, “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us.” The teachers who follow Jesus and walk with him. “Whoever is not from God does not listen to us.” They’re not going to follow the teachings of these scriptures that we’re reading. “By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” This is how we can tell. We can just say, “Hey, are they following the truth of God’s teaching, or are they following the spirit of this world?” And you can look at it and say, “This is what’s going on.” And you’re like, “But everyone’s into this guy and he’s such a great preacher and he gets me all fired up and all excited.” Can I just say, popularity is not proof. It’s really not. You’re like, “Wow, everyone’s into this guy, maybe he’s truthful, maybe he’s right.” Popularity isn’t a lack of proof either, it doesn’t disprove someone. You know, you can have someone who’s a great preacher and he’s right on the money, that’s true, they’re not in conflict, but it’s not a proof because someone’s popular. You still got to test the spirit to see if it’s in line with the word of God. You have to look into those things.

And so godly people, they listen, and they buy in completely to God’s words. That’s, they say, “This is what I believe, this is what I’m following, this is where I am.” John says, “By this, you know the spirit of truth and error.” You can just look and say, “Is this the Holy Spirit that’s leading this person? Are they following the word of God, or is it some other worldly spirit that’s out there that’s going around?” I don’t know what it is, maybe up front, and you just say, “I need to pray, I need to think about this.”

I was talking, this week, actually I think Dave and I were talking on Thursday night, and I was saying, “You know, there’s just sometimes someone sells you something, someone tells you something, someone’s presenting their thing, and they want you in, they want you to buy and want you to be a part of it, and you don’t know what it is, but something doesn’t sit right, and you just, your spirit says that’s not it. I don’t, I can’t tell you what’s wrong, but I can’t go forward with you, because my spirit says something’s off, and I’m going to have to step back and pray and get into God’s word, and I’m going to have to test your spirit a little more. Maybe I’ll meet with you a time or two more, I’ll talk to you again, but I can’t jump in, because my spirit says this is wrong. And I wish I knew why.” I don’t always tell them that, I just smile and I’m gracious, and I say, “Well, thank you so much for talking to me, God bless you, have a great day.” And they can walk out, and they’re like, “So, what are you gonna do?” I’m like, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do, but I’m not gonna tell you, because I don’t know who you are, and your spirit’s wrong, and something’s wrong, and I don’t get it. But I’m not moving forward till I do.”

Testing the spirit, knowing if it’s from God. Being careful about those things in your life so that you don’t get hooked in.

I’m going to give you just, as I wrap up here and pray. A lot of people are not saying, “I’m really struggling with potentially converting to Islam or to be a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness.” A lot of people are not struggling with that. Here’s areas where I do see people struggling to know the spirit of God, the spirit of truth. And I’ll just mention four real quickly. The one I see, I can’t say which one I see more or less, I think maybe the third one I see a little more.

There’s a movement in Christianity that’s a worldly movement that caught up with the church and it got into the church and it replaced an old movement in the church. There was an old movement called the word of faith movement, where people would believe if they claimed a scripture and quoted a scripture in their prayers to God, that somehow you had forced God, and God had to honor his word. God must honor his word, therefore, and then they quote a scripture, a lot of times out of context, and say God must fulfill the scripture, rather than living a life of submission through the spirit to obedience to God. They were trying to use the scripture to make God live a life of submission and obedience to them. How many say that’s messed up, and it’s mostly selfish and worldly. Their prayers were not like, “God, I’m quoting your scriptures and you must do this,” force me to be humble and break my spirit until I am bowed in submission before you, Lord. How many say most people were praying for new cars and better jobs, right? They weren’t praying those kind of prayers.

And so, there’s a new thing that’s called manifesting in the world. It means, like, I’m going to bring good vibes and good people and blessings and raises around me, because I’m going to concentrate on the good things that should be happening in my life, and it’ll magnetically draw good to me as I focus on the good. And then they put it on the church, and they’re like, “That’s what I’m doing in my prayer time, I’m just manifesting God’s goodness.” I’m like, “Oh.” So, it’s kind of a cheat way into twisting God’s arm rather than living it, spending that same prayer time saying, “Lord, not my will, but thy will be done,” as Jesus prayed in the garden, you’re saying, “Lord, not thy will, but my will be done, give me these good things.” What if God’s saying, “No, I’m going to humble you for a season and not provide for you so you can trust me in the storm.”

Okay, so manifesting becomes one. It’s just an old word of faith movement revived in a way that seems more palatable to people today. It’s the same thing.

The other one is prophetic conspiracies. Teachers claim secret revelations about politics, this leader will get in power, and then after him another shall be elected, and blah blah blah blah, and they keep going on, and the end time events is going to be this, and then they excuse and they revise all their failed predictions. But for a while, everyone listened to them, until, you know, you got a 50/50 chance of getting the election right. And if you didn’t get the election right, you lose your followers, but if you did, boy, you got another four-year ride as a prophet. You’re like, “People do that wacky stuff?” Absolutely, it happens.

The one that’s the biggest one is diminishing the local church. This is probably the biggest movement in American Christianity that is antichrist. Why is it antichrist to diminish the local church? Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And the message of diminishing the church is, “I’m a part of the big global church, but I won’t join a local church because they’re all so corrupt and they don’t know the will of God, and I have a fellowship of people that I hang out with, and that’s my church now.”

Here’s your problem, here’s why that doesn’t work, and here’s why that is not the spirit of God, okay? Here’s why. Because when you look at the entire New Testament, you see two dominant figures. You see Jesus Christ, who’s drawing people out of the world to himself to form a body of believers that will spread the gospel to the entire world, and he’s dying to build only one organization on earth, the Church. The Church, dying to build one organization. There’s not a second one you can name and say Jesus built that organization. No, he built the Church.

And the second dominant figure is the Apostle Paul. When you look at the Apostle Paul, what’s the entire ministry of his work in the New Testament? He’s pioneering local bodies of believers. He’s growing them up, he’s raising up pastors, he’s raising up leaders, he’s turning the churches over, he’s going to other places, starting churches, and then he’s writing books back to the churches, telling the churches how to function as churches, as the body of Christ. That’s the entire work of the Apostle Paul and Jesus Christ, the two dominant figures.

What is the problem with the big global church, “I’m part of the big C Church, but not the local church,” is the Apostle Paul’s entire ministry is built around building local churches that are what, accountable, that preach the word of God, where pastors have to be above reproach, and reproached if they’re not above reproach. Where we give, where we tithe, where we serve, where on the first day of the week we bring an offering in accordance with our income, where we pray for one another that we might be healed, where we confess our sins to one another. And if you find a body of Christ that requires nothing of you but to show up on a Tuesday night and then leave, you’ve managed to escape all the “one anothers” almost of the entire Pauline New Testament.

And how many you say that escape is not a biblical escape, that is a worldly, selfish escape. And the reason it’s very quiet in this room is because it in fact is the most popular deception of the church today. It is the most popular deception of the church today. Read the New Testament cover to cover and see what the Church meant to the Apostle Paul and to Jesus Christ, and you’ll discover it’s far more than a Tuesday night Bible study. It’s the entirety of our lives given to one another to build the one thing that can change the whole world. Amen. Amen. That’s what it really is. That’s what it is according to every book of the New Testament. That’s what it is.

And so I want to pray, at the fourth one is a concept of unquestioned revelation. Unquestioned revelation is, “God told me so, therefore, no one can argue with me.” And people just do that all the time. “Well, I was praying and God showed me this,” and everyone around you is thinking, “No, don’t, that’s not God.” But everyone’s nice and no one wants to tell you, because who knows, unless it’s a direct conflict with scripture. But that’s a hard one.

And I know I’m preaching a little bit hard here, but 1 John 4:4, I want to end with this verse as we pray. 1 John 4:4, it says this, “You are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” You are from God and have overcome them. The false teachers that everyone else bought into, you didn’t. You felt it was wrong. And maybe you hung out around a little too long with that group of people or in that church or in that movement, and you’re like, “Why didn’t I get out sooner? Why didn’t I recognize this?”

Can I tell you something? When I was a kid, I was raised in a cult. You’re like, “Oh, you were?” Yeah, I was raised as a little kid in a branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses called the Dawn Bible Students. I was too young to really know anything about what they taught, what they believed. But you know when we got booted, when we got kicked out, is when my mom lost my dad to cancer. And instead of turning to the Dawn Bible Students, she turned to the word of God. And when she started reading the word of God, she met the God of the word. And he so radically transformed her life that she got kicked out for believing the word of God. Amen. Amen.

So when I talk about this stuff, I was saved from this stuff. I was saved from this stuff. My family was saved from this stuff. And I can’t tell you what it means to live in freedom as a family, to know the truth, to be freed to follow the God of truth, to not be bound by a lie any longer, and to be able to see what God can do with a life when he frees a life.

And I believe wherever you’ve been, you may be weighted down and heavy and say, “I fell for a lot of stuff.” Probably all of us have fallen for stuff, but greater is he that is in you than he that is in this world trying to deceive you. Amen. Amen. And I want to pray that blessing over your life. And let’s just pray.

Lord, all across this room, there’s weightiness and heaviness. And some people feel duped and feel fooled and feel down and feel depressed. Just lift it all off. Instead, let them just see, hey, but I preserved you, but I saved you, but I gave you a sense of the spirit of what was right, wrong, and here you are today, freed up and walking away from that and walking into a family of believers and walking into the word of God, walking into worshipful environments. Here I am working in you, Lord. I pray all across this room people would experience the spirit of freedom, the spirit of life, the spirit of grace over them right now. I pray a release from the past, a release from the lies. Uproot anything that’s held us, and any little spirit of antichrist that tries to creep in in our life, let us immediately test that spirit and know by the spirit of God it’s not from you, and by the word of God it’s not from you. I pray that all across this room in Jesus name. Amen.