According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): Have you ever read something online, received a strange text or email, or even had someone you trust present to you some sort of truth claim, but it just didn't quite sit well with you? It seemed off. Not everything we hear or read is true, so it is incumbent upon us to test what we hear with the truth of God's word.

Pastor Damian Kyle will help us with that here today on According to the Scriptures, as we go deeper into 1 John. The early part of chapter 4 gives us a marvelous test for truth. Let's find our place there now for today's According to the Scriptures.

Damian Kyle: Thankfully, John does not leave us to come up with a test of our own. He provides us with a test in verses 2 and 3. He says, in the light of all of this, by this you will know the Spirit of God, that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is behind something that's being said about God or on behalf of God.

The two doctrinal tests that the apostle Paul gives us were aimed at specific doctrinal errors of that early church. But again, these errors remain in wide circulation today. First, he tells us, "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. That's legitimate. That is of the Holy Spirit.

This doesn't mean that if a person stands up and declares that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, I am then to believe everything else that comes out of their mouth. It means that if a person preaches or teaches this particular truth about Jesus, then we can know that on this issue, they're accurate. They're in line with what the Holy Spirit teaches on this, and vice versa.

In this, the apostle John emphasizes two things concerning Jesus. First, that He came in the flesh, speaking about His incarnation, His birth into human history, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, the very event that we celebrate every December. John emphasizes first of all that Jesus came in the flesh. When we talk about His incarnation, incarnation is a word that means "in flesh."

Jesus, while remaining fully divine, became fully human by taking on human flesh. He was born into human history as both fully God and fully man all at the same time in order that He might fulfill prophecies that were made related to the coming Savior of the world, in order that He might reveal the nature and character of God the Father on a level that we could understand.

John put it in his gospel this way in John chapter 1, verse 14: "And the Word, speaking of Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." He also was born into human history in order to redeem us. As God, Jesus in His divine nature could not die.

Thus, He had to take on human flesh to die as a substitute for the sins of mankind. He needed to be fully God and fully man to meet the needs that we have in our lives because we are fallen individuals all the way from Adam and Eve.

Second, John tells us that it wasn't just anyone who came in the flesh and was born into human history, but Jesus Christ. Jesus being His name, the name that was appointed to Him. Joseph and Mary did not name Jesus. Jesus was named from heaven. The angel came to both of them separately and revealed that His name would be Jesus because He has come to save His people from their sins.

His name is His mission. Jesus is a contraction of Jehovah Shua, one of the names of God, and it means "Jehovah is salvation." His very name speaks of the fact that He is divine. It speaks of His deity. When Jesus is referred to here by John in this technical but important way, it refers to Him as Christ.

Christ means the Anointed One, the Messiah. Jesus was set apart under God as the one to provide us with salvation because He is the only one in His humanity and in His deity who is qualified to do so. That's a lot to take in if you're new to the Bible. That's a lot to take in even if you're not new to the Bible.

John is saying in essence, don't believe any voice that contradicts in any way Jesus' incarnation and His virgin birth, that He was born into human history fully God and fully man, and that He died on the cross as both fully God and fully man. A denial of that uniquely qualified Him to provide us with the forgiveness of sins and salvation. Any voice that contradicts those two things is to be completely rejected.

All of this is contrasted with false doctrine that John is coming against in writing this letter and false doctrine that exists today. The idea that all matter is evil, so it would be preposterous, as these false teachers were teaching, that God would take on human flesh, as the Bible teaches for good reason for Jesus doing so.

Then there were those that rejected Jesus' death and His resurrection, teaching that the Christ was a spirit. He was not born Jesus Christ. He was born merely a man named Jesus, and the Christ spirit came on Him at His water baptism and then left Him before the cross, and that the Christ didn't actually suffer or die, and that His resurrection was not a physical one, but a spiritual one.

There are many others today who are unwilling to accept Jesus' virgin birth. They do not accept, though claiming to be a Christian, the incarnation of Jesus as the Son of God. They deny His deity, mostly in liberal denominations, and the rejection of the fact that He is the sole means of salvation.

They will condescendingly say that while we deny Him what He has clearly represented to be in the Scriptures, we will deign to call Him a great teacher in human history, a great example in human history, a great miracle worker in human history. But from the vantage point of heaven, that is to damn Him with faint praise in comparison to who He was and has always been and will forevermore be.

It's a very dangerous game to redefine Jesus away from the Scriptures, given the eternal implications of holding those views. All of this error, John says, is not of the Holy Spirit, but is the spirit of Antichrist. Such teachers and advocates of these views of Jesus, John says, are cut from the same mold as the coming Antichrist.

They're empowered by the same demonic realm that the Antichrist will one day be empowered by in offering this false Christ and false doctrine and gospel that they preach. The thing with Antichrist, his name is not some random name. He is Antichrist. He will be many things that are evil, but his main endeavor will be against Christ and to redefine Him away from who and what He actually is.

He will then deceive the world into believing the new definition that he comes up with, a demonic definition. This is the realm that is involved in all of this, and any attempt to redefine Jesus Christ away from the Scriptures is Antichrist. Whether a person is a secularist, a Mormon, a Christian Scientist, a Jehovah's Witness, or an Islamist.

Anyone who feels free to come in and diminish Jesus by redefining Him away from who and what He actually is, as revealed in the Scriptures, is Antichrist. John uses the language and the power of it with a determination to be absolutely clear. In verse 4, John also speaks of a further protection that we enjoy as Christians, as little children.

We navigate all of this spiritual deception that goes on in the world around us. This further protection, in addition to the Scriptures, is the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us. Notice verse 4 again: "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them," that is, these voices for the Antichrist, "because He," that is the Holy Spirit who is in you, "is greater than he who is in the world," that is the devil.

John instructs and reminds us that in the midst of this sea of spiritual deception all around us, not only are we protected by the Scriptures by testing claims made related to Him by the Bible, but that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. The Word of God gives us the wisdom that we need to navigate this very clever spiritual deception that is around us, and the Holy Spirit gives us the power that we need to be victorious as well.

There's not a need for a single Christian to ever fall prey to these false voices claiming to speak on behalf of God and for God. When we became Christians, we surrendered our lives to God, and our lives became His possessions. One of the purposes of the Holy Spirit coming into our lives at that spiritual birth is that He is the earnest within our lives.

He's the down payment. He is the guarantee that from the moment we put our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, we're born again. The Holy Spirit came into our lives. He is the divine guarantee that He will take us from that moment of our spiritual birth and safely deliver us one day into the very glory of heaven. His grip is very firm upon our lives.

Everyone appreciates 1 John 4:4, and I think everybody should appreciate it. It's very handy that this lands on chapter 4, verse 4 because it gives rise to the clever saying of anytime the devil begins to hit us or come against us in some kind of intense spiritual warfare. "You're not saved," or "You're not going to make it through this trial," or whatever lie that he tells.

We can feel free to whoop him with this four-by-four and let him know, for our own benefit, that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. There's no other explanation that any of us have made it this far in our Christian lives except that that is true. Additionally, verse 4 makes it very clear that no Christian can be demon-possessed.

We can be oppressed by the devil. He can come against us and endeavor to withstand us externally from our lives, but never come into our lives. The Bible teaches that we constitute the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We are living stones in that temple.

God the Holy Spirit will never share not one living stone that constitutes the temple of God with the devil. It simply isn't going to happen. There is that which belongs to God, and there is that which is of the world, and they are two entirely different things. That is the assurance that we possess in our lives.

Finally, in verses 5 and 6, John gives us a final test for determining what is true and what is false, what is of God and what isn't, and whether someone is speaking faithfully for God. He tells us to take careful note of the particular audience that any message or teaching attracts. Notice verse 5: "They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

In essence, John declares what Jesus taught in John chapter 15, verse 20: "Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, then they will persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also."

John also makes the point that not only will you be able to identify a false teacher by testing their doctrine, but also by noticing the character of the audience or the following or the congregation that they attract. The first congregation John points us to is in verse 5.

Because the false teachers are of the world, it's no surprise that they speak as the world and that the world hears them. The world refers to people whose values and goals in life exclude God, and whose values and goals are actively contrary to God, to His truth, and His instruction about what life is all about and how life is to be lived.

It's a world system that is marked by rebellion toward God and His commandments, and a world system that instead exalts man. Of course, a teacher who feels perfectly free to reject Jesus as He's plainly put before us in Scripture, in order to fashion some imaginary Jesus out of their mind, is then going to attract a whole world of people who want to feel free to do that very same thing without incurring correction or condemnation when they do.

They end up with a congregation that is interested in some element of spirituality in their lives, and yes, even to believe in God, as long as He doesn't act like God. As long as He doesn't claim to be authoritative about right and wrong and how we are to live, much less to tell us that we're sinners and in need of a savior, and that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved.

Feeling free to define God as they choose based upon the example of their teachers, they end up fashioning a God in their minds that's not worthy of the title at all. They could go to any close friend of theirs, and in describing what they believe about God and what God is like, and the close friend could be honest with them upon looking at this God that they've produced out of thin air, would then comment on what a remarkable resemblance their God is to them. It's always the case.

The second congregation is described in verse 6, and it's a congregation made up of Christians who've come to a place in their lives where they're no longer interested in creating God in their own image. They are interested in God as He actually is and as He's actually described in the Bible. They have trusted in Jesus for salvation and now live to glorify God and to enjoy Him.

They have no interest in assembling together to hear some teacher try to explain away some clear command of God in the Scriptures, nor to assemble together with God's people to hear someone exalt mankind and his wisdom over God and over God's wisdom. Those who know God would never be able to endure such an assembly.

Instead, they seek out a place where God is exalted and where His word is taught. It is taught without apology but with the full confidence that in teaching it, the teacher believes that what they are doing is not only a great thing for God but a great thing for his or her audience. Thankfully, there are many such churches and congregations. John declares that what we have an appetite for spiritually reveals a lot about us. Who we choose to listen to and who we choose to congregate with reveals an awful lot about us as well.

Guest (Male): We've been encouraged to put everything we see and hear to the test here today on According to the Scriptures. Thankfully, God has given us His Word and Spirit to help us in this endeavor. Pastor Damian Kyle's message, "Beloved, Test the Spirits," can be heard again at accordingtothescriptures.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

For resource requests like today's message on CD, call 209-545-5530. That's 209-545-5530. We also have a church app where you can listen to Damian. Search for Calvary Chapel Modesto in the App Store or Google Play. If you would like to partner with us through a financial gift, you're more than welcome to do that through our website, accordingtothescriptures.com.

Let me also give you our mailing address: that would be According to the Scriptures, 4300 American Avenue. That's 4300 American Avenue, Modesto, California. The zip code is 95356. Don't miss our next study when Pastor Damian Kyle will again open the Word, helping us to live our lives according to the Scriptures. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Modesto.