The Word of God that we're looking at today is 1 John 3, the latter part of what is designated verse 24, through the first six verses of what's designated as chapter 4. You do know that the chapters and verses of the Bible are not inspired. They're simply markers so that we can find our way in the text. but I want us to listen to the word as it is read. I'm gonna ask Sister Rachel, as she will bless us by reading this word to us. Amen.

Now let us pray together. Our Father God, we come to you with gratitude that you have made yourself known to us, that you come near to us, in your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we thank you for the word that your spirit has caused your prophets and apostles and their associates to write down, that you've guided them as they wrote these words, that you have superintended them as they have come to us through the ages. Help us, Lord, as we look into the word to understand it, to grasp its meaning, and most of all, to believe it, to trust in you, to simply let go of our desire to somehow control you or to know everything. Lord, we need to know what you reveal to us. We need to know your word, your son, whom you have sent to save us. Grant us the knowledge of Him, the increasing knowledge of Him, as we look into Your Word today. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

The Apostle John writes to a church or churches, very much like our church and the churches that are around in the world today. We're surrounded by persuasive teachers, preachers, and religious claimants, those who claim religious truth and spiritual enlightenment. They're everywhere, especially in America and in the West, on the radio, on television, in the internet, in papers and magazines, even on billboards. We are surrounded and bombarded constantly with religious messages about purported truth. And the early church was like that, especially the churches in Asia Minor, the churches in the Roman Empire. And John is writing to the churches in Asia Minor, the same ones that are mentioned in the book of Revelation. And the principal one was the Church of Ephesus, of which he himself was the pastor for many years.

And when I say pastor, we have to recognize that these churches met in various locations in the cities because they didn't have the buildings that we have here in America or in Europe for church meetings. They met in homes or public places. but he was like the lead minister, the lead pastor called the superintendent, called the bishop. He has a love and a care for the churches that are underneath his jurisdiction, underneath his discipling them as one called of the Lord. So, he's concerned for his churches, and he writes to them as a spiritual father to his spiritual children, whom he deeply loves.

Some of the background of John's time is captured in words that we can find in 1 Corinthians 12, verses two and three are chapter 14, verses 29 through 32. I'll not read all those to you, but let's look at the first one, 1 Corinthians chapter two, chapter 12, beginning at verse two and three, because I think it gives us a little understanding of some of the environment of the churches They had services of worship, seemingly, at least the Corinthian church did, more open than we would have some of our churches today. But here's what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, and beginning at verse one. Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed So he's writing so that they'll be informed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus is accursed. And no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit.

So, notice that he's speaking about the fact that they have come from a pagan environment in which they had been led astray to worship mute idols. A mute idol is one that he doesn't really hear and he doesn't really speak. He's both dumb and deaf. unable to hear and unable to speak. That's the nature of idols. You can look at them, you can dress them, you can put them up in the morning and put them bed at night. I visited a Hindu temple not too far from here several years ago, and I stayed for the nighttime ritual of putting the idol to bed.

And so, what John, what Paul writes is very much a description. Notice that the passages that we read in Deuteronomy talks about the Hebrews, they were living for 430 years in Egypt. Now, when the dynasty changed, their lot changed. At first, they were honored guests, but when the second Pharaoh in his dynasty came, they were no longer honored guests, but they were immigrants that were being tolerated and then put to good use by means of a slavery. They were sort of hired, involuntarily hired to do the work that the Pharaoh wanted done.

And, but they were influenced by the religious worship in Egypt. And we see that when they come out of Egypt, even in the wilderness, they had the tendency to try to make Yahweh God into an idol that they could worship at the foot of Mount Sinai. And so when they got into the land, Moses tells him, you must not adopt the religious ways of the world into which you are entering. because you have the revelation of the true God.

And the Roman Empire in Jesus' day and in the years after was very much a religious empire. Religion was everywhere, including in what we would call the politics of the day, which was the worship of the Caesar, the worship of the emperor himself. So both Moses in the Old Testament and Paul in the New Testament, as well as John, writes to the churches, writes to the people of God, speaks to the people of God, and says that when you were pagans, before you came to know God in Jesus Christ, you were led astray to religious idols, to mute idols, however you were led. But you must not be influenced by them now. You've come to know the living God.

But how then do we know when a spirit is of God or when a spirit is not of God? And how this can be affected even in the ministry of the church is that Paul gives some instructions in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, where he says that two or three prophets speak and that the others weigh what is said because the prophets are speaking from what they declared to be the spirit of God is leading them. But he says to them, let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh what he said. Let them test it. Let them discern whether the words that they're speaking comes from God or not. If a revelation is made to one or to another setting there, let the first be silent. for you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets." So he's speaking about the fact that when people speak under religious inspiration, that if it is of God, they still have control so that they can stop if another one has a revelation. What I'm wanting you to see is the dynamic nature of the religious worship of the first century. And that is laid down for us in the word of God. That's our biblical background for what Paul, and I'm gonna say Paul and John almost interchangeably today, it seems like, what John writes when he says, we must test the spirits. We must discern where the message is coming from, where the religious or spiritual message is originating.

Double agents, you know what a double agent is? Well, we have another name for them, they're called what? Spies. Another name is moles. Now, I'm not talking about the little moles that dig in the ground, although that's exactly where the concept is coming from. Well, a double agent, a spy, is someone who is in a particular country or situation pretending to be that agent. people. At the same time, his allegiance is elsewhere, and he is secretly gathering information and passing it along to the enemies of the state that he's pretending to be loyal to. We have a number of well-known, you know, we call things famous or infamous. Famous means that they're positive, but infamous means they're not positive. But we have a number of infamous spies in the history of our nation. And there are many in all nations of significance in the world.

Double agents, or what we call espionage, a spy who infiltrates an organization to gather secrets and to pass it along to the enemies of that state that he's pretending to be a part of. So, you see, he's an enemy within. but not detected because he is pretending to be that which he is not. Now, this is known to be the case in Bible days as well, including in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ in the early church. In the apostolic band chosen by Christ himself after diligently prayer, to the Father, there was a Judas. In fact, there was more than one Judas in the Apostolic band, one of which was loyal to Christ, and one of which was a betrayer.

Listen to these statements. Mark 3, 19, giving a list of the apostles that Jesus chose, and he says, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. or Matthew's account, Matthew 10 4, Simon the zealot and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. And John writes, during supper, the Passover that Jesus is having with his disciples, during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus said to them, I've loved you. and I will love you to the end. And he got up and washed their feet.

Here's the problem that John presents in the passage of Scripture that we are considering that Rachel read to us. Now, the beginning of that passage points back to the very end of verse 24 of chapter 3, which reads, and by this we know that He, that is God, abides in us by the Spirit whom He, that is God, has given us. So, we know that God abides in us by the presence of the Holy Spirit whom we have given to us by God. 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.

So that's the problem. The problem is that there are spies in the midst of the Christian camp, that there are double agents, people who are in the camp at one point, or at least on the fringe considering the camp, but who depart from the Christian group and become the opposite. They become enemies, though they pretended to be friends, or they were misled and they have really loyalty to another party rather than to God as he's revealed in Jesus Christ. This is a problem in the Christian community. And it has been the problem since the beginning. The Lord Jesus Christ himself pointed it out.

So, here's the problem. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they're from God. Why? Because many false prophets, these are false prophets who are what? Given words to say, not from God, not from the spirit of God, but from some other source, have gone out into the world.

Paul wrote in 1 Timothy chapter four, verse one. Now the spirit expressively says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith. How will they depart from the faith? By devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.

Believe it or not, there are people associated with the Christian community who are insincere. and who are basically liars. They're pretending, we call them sometimes hypocrites. I'm not so sure that's the exact or best word for them. They are actually people who are deceived maybe, or who are actually motivated by not the spirit of God, but the spirit of the enemy of our souls. and they have associated themselves with us for a period of time, but then they leave us. And when they leave us, they seek to bring harm to the body of Christ by false teaching primarily.

Paul also wrote in Colossians 2.8, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. You see, we always have the danger of possibly being deceived when we take the attitude of the world in worldly wisdom and judging things that are revealed to us in the Word of God.

All philosophies are not of equal significance. and all philosophies do not have truth. Or if they have some kernel of truth, the elevation of that one kernel of truth can become so distorted that they teach things contrary to the word of God. The word of God in both Old and New Testaments give us the Christian or at least the Judeo-Christian philosophy of life, which is different in many ways from the philosophies of the world. We must be careful in adopting foreign philosophies of thought when we approach our faith.

Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus Christ issues this warning. Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ. And they will lead many astray.

Now, if you open up the pages of early Christian history in the first century, and you can learn this by reading from Josephus and other sources, many people came after Jesus Christ, claiming to be Messiah, claiming to be a Messiah, and they would lead various rebellions against the Roman Empire. Jesus forewarned us that false Christs would appear. And they were not only in the first century, they've appeared in many centuries since, including in our own. We might not think about them, but there are some Oriental sex world religions who have taken an inspiration from wordings of the scripture and their leaders claim to be the Christ. They claim to be the Messiah or they claim to be the incarnate God.

False teaching is not rare. In fact, it is common. It's mobile, that means it moves around. It's fluid, and it is very active in its effort to persuade others to leave or to not accept the truth that's found in the Bible and in Christ, but to accept their distortion of the truth. Many false prophets, people who speak, people who teach, people who claim spiritual authority. Now, you notice that he says that many Spirits, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. And then he talks about because many false prophets had gone out into the world. So what is he saying? He's saying that the prophets speak by the inspiration of a spirit, but not every spirit is the spirit of God. In fact, there are many spirits, they're not spirits of God. Nevertheless, these people claim to have the Spirit or by the inspiration of the Spirit. They claim spiritual authority.

Now, when John writes, they've gone out into the world, you can think of missionaries. That's what mission's about, isn't it? Christ told us to go into all the world with a message of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's what the false teachers also do. And the false religions that come from their teachings. They go out into the world with missionary zeal to convert people to their false religion, to their false claims. Many times, false claims about Christ. And they have often been founded by someone who is considered a prophet of God.

We can think of some of those that we may be familiar with. Mormonism. Mormonism is a religion that claims to be the original Christian. They used not to use the term Christian, now they call themselves Christian, but they came from a prophet, from prophets, Joseph Smith with his dreams and visions, followed by Brigham Young and the leaders of the church today. They claim to be speaking by this very spirit of God, but the language that they speak, The Christ that they present is not the Christ of the Christian faith. It's not the Christ that's presented to us in the pages of the New Testament or in the pages of the Bible itself. They may speak, especially in their original founders, by a spirit, but it is not the spirit of God. But they have great missionaries, too.

Are Jehovah's Witnesses. They began as a Bible student association. but not really guided by the wisdom of the Christian wisdom that has been there from the beginning or being bound by the revelation of God that has come down from the New Testament, but they have sought to understand in different terms who Jesus Christ is. But the Christ that they present is not the Christ of the New Testament, nor the Christ of the Christian faith. He is a created being, not the uncreated one. So he had a beginning in time. He had a beginning in eternity, but once you begin something in eternity, you created what? Time. So, in the past, he came into being. Great archangel, but he's certainly not the Christ of God.

We can go through others, not only in Christian history, but even outside of the faith. And even in today's world, there are those who claim to be Christ. They claim to be an anointed one of God. Here's what John wrote in earlier part of his epistle. They went out from us. We're talking about their origin. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us." So, the origin is usually within the church, usually within an organization or a grouping of people classified as Christians who may be Christians, and they may be members of that church, or they may be inquirers concerning it. But they did not continue with the body of believers that are devoted to Jesus Christ, the Jesus of history. So, John is confronted, John the Apostle, with the claimants, or the claims of his opponents, that their teaching rests on inspiration by the Spirit. That's their claim. It's tempting even in our day to ascribe unusual phenomenon to the power of God. So human beings are gullible. We're gullible. We see something that's strange. We see something that's unusual. We see something that seems to be a manifestation of a power beyond our ability to understand. And we are gullible and often will ascribe without examining it to God when the source may not be God at all.

So, this is a temptation that is common to mankind to ascribe unusual phenomenon to God. And this was very common, especially when it came to prophetic utterance. Now, prophecy is a gift of God. it's given to us in the New Testament; it's detailed for us in the list of the gifts that God has granted to His church. Spirits are behind prophets. In other words, prophets, either they're false or true, but they speak by inspiration of a spirit. So the test comes, what spirit is guiding their utterance? Every teaching, every prophetic utterance carries a spirit behind it, especially every religious teaching. But its origin is one of two, it's either diabolical or divine.

Now we often think that diabolical will present itself as being evil. but that's a misconception. The diabolical never presents itself as being evil or seldom does so. It presents itself as what Paul writes in another one of his writing is an angel of light. If you go back and look at the, phenomenon that spurred some of the false religions of the world. It came from visions of some being of light that gave them a message to carry. My only point is that there's a spirit behind every religious teacher, every religious prophet. And it's either the spirit of God or the spirit of Satan.

How then do we know which one it is? Well, here's a little rundown. A spirit that exalts God would be a divine spirit. But a spirit that seeks to replace God or to reshape God or to pretend to be God is a demonic spirit. The divine spirit is one that confesses Christ. They confess Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed one promised of God, as the seed of the woman, as the promised son to Abraham, and the son promised to David's dynasty. but a false prophet does not confess the Christ of scripture but seeks to replace him with a different vision of what a Messiah is.

A divine spirit leads us to truth, but a false, a demonic spirit leads us into error. People are often prone to accept teaching if there's a seeming spiritual power display But this can lead to gullibility. Not everything is as it seems. Not all displays of power are from God. Some are downright pseudo-fakes. Others have power not from God, but from the enemy of God and the enemy of our souls.

I. Howard Marshall, in his commentary on the epistles of John, says that the word spirit in 1 John 4 must mean either utterance inspired by our spirit or a person inspired by spirit. Either one is either an utterance, such as the prophetic utterance talked about in 1 Corinthians. It's either inspired by the spirit of God or it's inspired by another spirit. or it can be described as simply a person who is inspirited by a spirit.

Now, what the scripture tells us to do in 1 John 4, one, is to test the spirit. This is the only command given here. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Don't be gullible. But test, that is try, examine the spirits to see whether they're from God. The reason for that, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So we are to examine or test. Now, we're not called to be suspicious. This is not a calling to be suspicious of every teaching or every teacher that we hear or every utterance that is given. We're not called to be suspicious, but we're called to be discerning. That is to perceive or to recognize with sound judgment where this teaching may be coming from. We must then make a distinction between true and false or between God's truth and error.

But our evaluation is not based on our feelings. and it must not be based on the popularity of the person or the group, and it must not be based on the sincerity of the speaker, but it must be based on truth, only truth, and the truth that's found in the objective Word of God, comparing Scripture with Scripture in the light of Christ being the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

Test the spirits. This is the command. Try the spirits. Not every spirit is to be believed. Demonic spirits do exist, and they are active in religious circles, and they are at the heart of all other religions in the world, except for Judaism in its biblical form and Christianity in its biblical form. but they're also active even here in seeking to lead people astray.

So, this brings up the next question. How do we test such people? How do we judge such utterances? Well, here's the answer. He writes, 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 have heard was coming, and now is in the world already. So this is how we know. So the test is presented to us in a positive and a negative way. How do you recognize when a prophet or a teacher or an utterance is inspired by the Spirit of God?

So, the test or the discernment is the confession of faith concerning Jesus Christ made by the person who claims to be inspired by the Spirit. The test is, what is your doctrine, your teaching of Jesus Christ? That is the bottom line. He gives us what the positive test is. The NIV translates it; I acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Other translations, I acknowledge Jesus Christ as come in the flesh. Now, they're saying really the same truth, but from a little slightly different perspective.

To say or to acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is a belief in the incarnation, the historical reality of the fact that the child born of Mary in Bethlehem is the incarnation of God. He is the Word made flesh. the Word who has existed from all eternity with the Father, the Word who was God and who was alongside of God. He's both identical and yet distinguished. He became a human being through the processes of human conception in birth brought about by the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit of God.

So, a true prophetic utterance, a true prophet or teacher of the Word of God is one who believes in the truth of the incarnation, that Jesus Christ is God come among us, Emmanuel, God with us. That is the name that's given to him by Isaiah. I acknowledge Jesus Christ as come into flesh is emphasize the fact that Jesus Christ incarnation was not temporary, but permanent. Again, let me quote from my Howard Marshall. He states, in both cases, the emphasis lies in the reality of the incarnation. The fact that the word became flesh. But it is not temporary flesh, and it is not a pseudo flesh. It is true incarnation. To incarnate means to put in flesh. But you could have a misunderstanding and think that that simply means that God comes in a body, but he's not the body. God in a bod. In other words, that the body is like a phantom, the body is an illusion, or the body is simply a temporary housing for the spirit.

But no, the doctrine is that God the Word became a human. He didn't simply take a human body, a human form, he became a human being without ceasing to be God. He takes to Himself humanity, but He does not divest Himself of deity. God cannot cease to be God. That is a total impossibility. God is God, the Eternal One, and He can never be anything but God.

Listen, John 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt, He lived among us. And we've seen His glory, the glory as of the only Son, the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now the old term, only begotten, indicates this distinction within the one being of God. The Father has eternally begotten the Son. That is, there's always been this rich relationship, internal relationship within the one God. He is a God who communicates, a God who loves. He loves from all eternity. He loved before there was a creation. God is love. but that does not mean he can only become love after he created. No, he's always been eternally loved because the father loves the son, and the son loves the father, and they love the spirit, and the spirit loves them. God is one God. but he is a God who has distinctions, interpersonal relationships, and communication within himself. God is a community within himself. And we sing that in an old refrain of worship, you know, glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, whose world without end, which means eternally, this is the reality of God.

Listen to Jesus, his own statement about himself in John chapter six, verse 51 through 55. Jesus says, I am the living bread. I came down from heaven. He existed before he was born, okay? That was not true of you or me. We only began to be existing when conception occurred, and then life began to grow within us, and we became born. That marked our beginning. But the Word has always been. Jesus is, I'm the living bread that came down from heaven. I preexisted before I was born. Anything anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. So it can't be an illusion that he's talking about. It can't be some ghost, some outward appearance, but not him. He says he is flesh and blood. just as we are.

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So, Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

What is Christ saying? He is saying that he exists as a union of the divine and the human. He is both fully God and fully man. Again, to quote I. R. Marshall, there was a true union of the divine word, the son of God, with a human personality in Jesus Christ. Jesus' humanity was not fake. He had probably eyes like his mother. He favored his mother. He didn't have a human father to favor, but he did have a human mother to favor. When you looked at him, you saw some reflections of his mother. You saw some reflections of the human from which he came. That's true of us, and it was certainly true of him.

So that's the first. stress is on the historical event of the incarnation. The second stress is on the human state of Jesus and indeed his continuing human state. Now this is very important for our true understanding of whom of who Jesus Christ is.

Jesus Christ The human, the man Christ Jesus continues to exist as the man Christ Jesus. When he was resurrected from the dead, it was his body that was resurrected. His body did not dissolve into gases and his body did not become something that it was not before. It did have new powers because it's now an immortal human body, but it is nevertheless a human body. It is the human, the man Christ Jesus, who ascended into heaven. It is the man Christ Jesus who is our mediator between God and us.

What I'm saying is that the humanity that the Word took to Himself is a permanent union of God and man, not a temporary state. Moreover, to say that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is to say that he was truly united with human flesh rather than that he merely came in a human body and indwelted for a limited time. It is also to deny the teaching that the man Jesus Christ was fully 100% man, but at the point of his baptism, the Spirit came upon him and the Spirit sort of indwelt him. And then later, the Spirit left him just before he went to the cross or before he died on the cross. That is a denial of the Christian faith.

If that's true, then the man who died on the cross had no power to save us. His death would only have been for himself. And even that was unjust. He could not save anyone. If it was only a human that died on the cross, then his blood is no different than the blood of any other human being. But in Acts, I believe it's 20. It says that the church of God is redeemed by the blood of God. Now, God doesn't have blood. He's a spirit. But the incarnate God, Jesus, has blood, human blood, but it's also divine blood. That is what was shed for the remission of our sins.

So, 1 Corinthians 12, 3 says, no one can utter the true confession of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is sovereign. Jesus is master because he is almighty God incarnate. No one can recognize and confess this except by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now, anyone can say the words. Anyone can simply repeat the words, maybe insincerely or even sincerely, but to believe, to confess Jesus Christ as Lord is not to simply confess Jesus outside of us but is to confess a Jesus who has come to be a part of us by the working of the Holy Spirit through regeneration.

We know who Jesus Christ is because the Word of God declares the truth about Him has been made real to us by the Spirit of God who has worked this faith within us. So yes, it shapes our minds and shapes our words. And where it's real, it shapes our lives.

John 1, 14 and 18. I read verse 14 before you. It says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Verse 18 says, no one has ever seen God. Speaking about God in his total essence, his spirit. No one has ever seen the father, Jesus says. But God, the only son, God, the begotten son, who is at the father's side, he has made him known.

I'm going over these passages because it's at the heart of the Christian faith. Christology, that is the doctrine of Christ, the understanding of who Jesus is, which informs what the meaning of his death, his life and all is, must be firmly grounded in us, in our understanding and in our faith and acceptance of him.

Philippians 2, 5 through 11 is an early Christian hymn that Paul, I don't know that he have composed it. He may have, or he may simply be reciting it. And it is inspired by the spirit because it's in his writings.

Have this mind among yourselves, which was yours in Christ Jesus. Who, talking about the Messiah Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, to be held on to, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So, God, has a form, that is, there is whatever constitutes God that belong to Christ from all eternity. But he took to himself the form of a human. This is the union of the divine and human. And in this form, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

As a result, therefore, God, he's talking about the Father, has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So, to the name of Jesus, to the name of Yeshua, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Yeshua, Messiah, Jesus Christ is Lord. He's the sovereign almighty to the glory of God the Father.

Colossians 2, 9, for in him, in Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. You can't get any plainer than this. The body of Jesus has full humanity, but also full deity dwells in him.

And here's a great confession, a confession of the early church. It's a creed. Creeds are biblical. They're found in the Bible. Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great. God, he was revealed in the flesh. justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.

This is the Christ that is confessed by any spirit that comes from God. Negatively, if a spirit does not confess Jesus, that spirit is not from God.

So, the crucial question is always, who is Jesus Christ? What Christ is being confessed? It's not just the naming of the word Jesus. It's who you understand him to be that makes all the difference in the world.

What is the Antichrist? Well, John, who's the only one who uses this term in biblical revelation, identifies the one who does not confess Jesus in the way I've declared is the spirit of Antichrist. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. That's Antichrist. It's not necessarily a political figure who becomes a world ruler.

The Antichrist is what John has declared him to be. He's the only one who uses the term. Now, what relationship Antichrist may have with the man of lawlessness in Thessalonians, I don't know. People have different views about that, but I'm saying it's certainly not necessarily so that Antichrist, the Antichrist, is the man of lawlessness.

The man of lawlessness is one who takes the place of God. Perhaps He is an antichrist, I don't know. I'm simply saying that we're not looking for an antichrist to come because the antichrist is already here among us. There are many antichrists in the world and there will be many antichrists before Christ comes again. Little children, verse four, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Now, we often sometimes use this scripture to reply or to indicate that God is greater than whatever problems we may be facing, and that's true, okay? That's true. But what the scripture in this passage is saying is that it's the Holy Spirit within us that overcomes the Antichrist, the spirit of Antichrist and the teachings of Antichrist.

Little children, you are from God and you have overcome them. Who's the them? The Antichrist and the false prophets. Why? Why have you overcome them? Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Well, it moves from the plural at the beginning, you is plural, have overcome them, for he, that's singular, he who is in you, so it's the spirit who is in you, is greater than he that is in the world. Who is the he? Satan, the devil. That's who is in the world.

They are from the world. Who's he talking about? The spirits of Antichrist. They are from the world. Therefore, they speak from the world and the world listens to them. So this is the second part of the test. The first test is who's your Christ? What's your confession concerning Jesus Christ? The second part of the test is who listens to you? Who's your audience? Who is the receptor of the message that you bring?

Well, the message of the Antichrist is a message that originates from the world, that speaks from the world's philosophy and thought, and that's listened to by the world, and it's applauded by the world. Not God. We are from God, he says. And whoever knows God listens to us. But whoever is not from God does not listen to us.

So, who is the way? Who is the us? Well, he's not just speaking about Christians in general. Christians in general are in here when he says, beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits. Every Christian has the responsibility to test the spirits, to try the spirits. That's especially incumbent upon true ministers of the Word of God. But it's true that every Christian has overcome them, the Antichrist, because he who is in us, that is the Spirit of God, is greater than he who is in the world.

When he says in verse six, we are from God, whoever knows God listens to us, whoever is not from God does not listen to us. What is he speaking about? He's speaking about himself and he's speaking about the other apostles. He's speaking about the apostolic witness. In other words, you have to go back to 1 John 1, where he says, we have known him, we saw him, we handled him, we've been eyewitnesses to him, we shared life with him. This is the Christ we know, and this is the Christ we declare unto you.

The apostles, you see, were the chosen witnesses of Jesus Christ in his whole ministry, from the time he was baptized by John in the Jordan to the time he was ascended into heaven. There are no apostles in the world today such as these. Now, we may use the term apostle sometimes in a secondary meaning as someone who sent out such as missionaries, but there is none who have apostolic authority. This is claimed in the Episcopal form of government that they are the successors to the apostles. We deny that because the apostles can have no successors in that way. They must have been eyewitnesses to Christ. The only exception was Paul, who was granted a vision and not only a vision, but a visitation of the resurrected and ascended Lord early after his conversion. That's given to us in the pages of the New Testament and was accepted by the 12 apostles that he was presented to.

We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever's not from God does not listen to us. So, the prophets of the Antichrist, false prophets and false religious workers do not carry within the apostolic message. And that's how we know that their message is not from God. because the message from God will agree with the message of the apostles.

This is why it's so important that we know our faith, that we repeat our faith, that we confess our faith, that we sing our faith, that we share our faith, that we adore our God through the words of our faith. This is the ground of Christian assurance.

Little children, you come from God, you are from God, and you have overcome them. This is not arrogance, it's grace. It's God's favor, his rich mercy and grace, who has granted to us a true word from himself. by His incarnation in Christ and by the apostolic witness that's given to us.

Victory over falsehood does not come from superior intelligence It does not come from better logic or arguments. It does not come from strong personalities. It does not come from people who can make great speeches. It comes from the indwelling spirit of the living God. This is the same Spirit who accompanied Christ in all the days of His ministry. It is the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. It is the same Spirit who inspired the writings that are found in the Scriptures. It is the same Spirit who regenerated our hearts as we heard the message of Christ.

One day we did not believe it, but there came a day when we believed it. One day we had accepted it as just words that we didn't necessarily disagree with, but we didn't understand. But that came a day when we understood it, we grasped hold of it, and we made it our own. This is a spirit who regenerates the hearts of men, and this is the spirit who indwells every true believer.

False teachers may be loud, and prophetic guidance from false sources may also be quite a show. but they do not win. We are on the side of victory. Our Lord has already conquered the false. We are in Him who is the truth. And it's knowing this, understanding this, have the assurance of this, that leads us to have discernment, not out of fear, but out of a guarding of the truth and a confidence in what God has already done, what he has done in Jesus Christ, and what he has done and is doing through the Holy Spirit.

When we look at the source of the teaching, it's either from God or from the devil. When we look at the audience, it is those who believe in a message that puffs up humanity, humans, to the neglect of God, but not exalting God above all. When you pay attention to religious teachers or to utterances that may be given in the name of God, who is at the center? Is it God, a God in Christ? Or is it humanity, some exaltation of the human power, of the human abilities outside of God?

The world listens to the false because it comes from them. They recognize their own voice and they approve of it. But John says, we are from God and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever knows God in Christ listens to the apostolic witness and to the true teaching of the Word of God. The dividing line is not intelligence. The dividing line is not the logic of your agreement. The dividing line is who do you belong to? Do you belong to God by the miracle of regeneration? or do you belong to the enemy of our souls? This is a sobering word that John writes concerning the Antichrist. He has written about it in three places. And at the end, I will be giving you a little handout that has those places in it. They're simply the scriptures we've been looking at.

But in conclusion, let's see, what should be our response? What is our responsibility? Well, our first responsibility is to use discernment. when we hear religious teaching and when we hear statements that are reported to be from God. We must not be suspicious and think that anything anyone says is not true. Look, God has His spokesman. He has utterances that He gives. He gives true teaching, and it's this that enables us to flourish in Him.

But we must not be gullible simply believing anyone because they say it comes from God. Pay attention to the message. Our responsibility is to be grounded in the teaching about who Christ is and what the meaning of His death in ministry is. We are to be theologians in this regard. That is students of the word and students of the doctrine of the faith, especially the doctrine of God and Jesus Christ, our Lord. These are the most important doctrines for us to understand, to be able to share them with others. It's our ability to understand and to be able to share them that is our shield. against falseness when it is presented. We can know that it's false and we can turn away from it.

It's also what gives us the, this true doctrine gives us the ability to know that we can advance in godliness by adopting to ourselves the attitude of Christ. both toward the word of God and toward our love toward others. That was a test that Paul gave it, but also John gave in his writings that we are to love the brothers, we're to love the members of the household of faith. How do we know what constitutes love for them? It's because it's self-giving to them as Christ has given to us.

So, these are our responsibilities and what we must do with this truth. We must grow in it. We must understand it. We must be able to share it. And we must use it in our discerning of religious teaching. God grant us the desire and the ability to do this.