This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. Hi, this is Pastor Tom
Holliday, and we are in week four of our look through 1 John, chapter four this
week. We're going to be looking at verses one to six today.

And as we've been walking through 1 John, we've been noticing together, and I
think it's probably been dawning on you, that this is a book about how do you
know that you're a follower of Christ? We talked about the first week that the
word know and the word love are at the center of this book. How do I have
assurance?

How do I know that I'm a follower of Christ? What do I see in my life when I'm a
follower of Jesus Christ? And we've been talking about three things.

We've been talking about do I obey his commands? That's how you know you're his
follower. You do what he asks you to do.

That's what it means to be a follower. We've been talking about do I love his
people? Love is one of his commands, but John settles in on it as a primary
command that lets you know if you're a follower of Christ.

And today we're going to focus on a third way that you know. Do I believe his
truth? Not just do I know his truth intellectually, but do I believe it with my
life?

In fact, as we look through these first six verses of 1 John four, we're going to
be looking at three keys for beginning to let God's truth get a better hold on
your life, for coming to a greater assurance of your own faith. We're going to talk
about things that have to do with false teaching and things that have to do with
truth. The three keys are this.

Don't believe everyone who talks spiritually. Key number two is learn to
recognize God's spirit. And key number three is learn to handle false spirits.

Let's walk through those three things. Number one, you want to have a good sense
of God's truth in your life, a good confidence in God's truth in your life.
Don't believe everyone that talks spiritually.

Now, why shouldn't we? What should we do instead of automatically believing
everyone who says spiritual words or who says they're talking about God? Well,
here's what John says about this in 1 John 4.

1. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the
world. Don't believe every spirit.

Don't just ask how spectacular and impressive or emotional the message is. Ask
yourself what the source of the message is. Test the spirits.

Now, what's he talking about here? What are spirits? He's not talking about
ghosts here.

He's talking about the spirit of a person. He's talking about the passion that
you experience through a person's personality. He's also talking about the
connection to the spiritual that we all have in our lives.

We're either connected to God's spirit or we're connected to the self-centered
spirit of this world. And John says, test the spirits. And by the way, he's not
only talking here about what somebody says, but also how somebody acts.

Test the spirits. Just because something seems supernatural doesn't mean it's of
God. In our experiential age, we are set up to believe that there's this
prideful false teacher out there who does something very supernatural and we
think, oh, he must be of God because he did something spiritual.

No, the fact that he's prideful and the fact that he's not teaching the truth
about Jesus, that speaks far more than any seeming miracle that somebody could
do. John is saying here, always check the teaching. Now, how do you test the
spirits?

How do you do this? We're going to get to that in just a moment in the next verse,
but before that, let me talk about the attitude with which you test the spirits.
The Greek word here for test the spirits, has to do with testing metals.

It has to do with testing with the idea of approving. You're testing it, but you
think it's strong. It's like when you test a chair, you think it's going to hold
you up, but you test it and you expect it to be strong.

He's saying here, test this way. He's not talking about doubtful testing, but
hopeful testing. You don't listen to every teacher with a critical spirit
thinking, oh, they've gotta be terrible.

You listen with a hopeful spirit thinking, they're a teacher about Jesus. I
believe that what they have to say to me is going to help me, but I'm going to test it
too to make sure it's coming from God. John is saying here, I don't want you to
be spiritually naive, but I also don't want you to be spiritually paranoid.

So how do you do it? How do you test? How do you keep from getting caught up in
a lie?

Because oftentimes, spiritual lies can seem so sincere. They can seem so
attractive. How do you keep from getting caught up in it?

Number two, here's the second thing that brings confidence. You learn to
recognize God's spirit. Verse two to the verse three, John says this.

This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does
not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,
which you have heard is coming, and even now is already in the world.

How can I recognize God's spirit? By what somebody says about Jesus. Acknowledge
that Jesus has come in the flesh from God.

If I point to Jesus as God in human flesh, I am teaching by the spirit of God.
That's what he's saying here. If I point away from Jesus as God in human flesh,
I am a false prophet.

I am teaching by the spirit of the antichrist. That's a powerful test. It's a
very simple test.

John, in his gospel, John 1:14, gives testimony to Jesus coming in the flesh.
John 1:14 says the word Jesus became flesh, and he made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father
full of grace and truth.

That's John 1:14. Augustine, the early church father, once said that in the
pagan philosophies, he could find parallels to Christianity in all aspects but
one, this one. The word became flesh.

You see, you can recognize a cult. A cult is a group that says they're teaching
Christian truth, but they're actually teaching their own truth. You can
recognize a cult every time by this test.

They'll recognize Jesus, but they won't recognize Jesus for who he really is.
This began back in John's day. There was a false teacher in his day by the name
of Sorinthus, who taught that God's spirit entered Jesus at baptism, and he left
at the crucifixion, 'cause he just couldn't stomach the idea that God himself
died on the cross for us, that God sacrificed his life for us and his son.

And so he had this false teaching. He said that Jesus isn't really who he says
he is. He was not God in human flesh.

Today, cults like Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons teach that Jesus is a creation
of God, not Almighty God in human flesh. If you ever wonder about what someone
is teaching, you ask them the question, who is Jesus? You don't say, do you
believe in Jesus?

You can say, I believe in Jesus and mean a lot of different things. I believe in
him as this. I believe in him as this.

I believe he lived once. You ask, who is Jesus? And if their answer isn't clear,
there's a problem.

If the answer isn't clearly, Jesus is God come to this earth in human flesh,
there is a problem. You will find that false teachers will often say nice words
about Jesus. Oh, he was a great teacher.

Oh, oh, he served God. Oh, he was God's representative, God's prophet, but they
will not recognize him for who he really is. Now, as we talk through this as
false teacher, recognizing by what somebody says about Jesus, you may be
thinking, I know people that will acknowledge Jesus, but their lifestyle doesn't
match.

Well, what do you do then? You follow what their words say, you don't follow
their lifestyle. Paul had a very open attitude toward people who acknowledge
Christ as God, but might even have the wrong motives for acknowledging Christ as
God and teaching that.

He tells us in that case to judge their teaching as good, but not to judge their
motives because we really can't understand the motives of the human heart. Over
in Philippians chapter one, Paul talks about this, and he says there's some who
are teaching from false motives, but I don't care. I just care that in every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed.

This is pretty powerful. It's a new way of thinking for many of us. Paul is
saying that even people with the best of seeming motives should not be listened
to if they don't acknowledge Jesus as God, 'cause there's false teaching at the
core of what they're teaching.

There's selfishness at the core of what they're teaching. And this goes for a
Christian teacher in a church. This goes for some person you might see on a talk
show on television.

This goes for some popular radio personality that you might listen to. Anyone
who purports to be a teacher, a teacher about God, if they don't acknowledge
Jesus as God, there is something false at the core of their teaching. And Paul
also says in Philippians that even people with the worst of seeming motives can
be used of God if they acknowledge that Jesus is God.

Pretty powerful. How do I recognize God's spirit? By what the person says about
Jesus Christ.

So how do I handle these false spirits? Somebody that's teaching a false truth.
John talks to us about that as well.

It's the third thing he talks to us about here that gives us confidence in the
truth. Let me share with you what he has to say with us in verses four to six.
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is
in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

They are from the world, and therefore they speak from the viewpoint of the
world. And the world listens to them. We are from God.

And whoever knows God listens to us. But whoever is not from God does not listen
to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

These verses are all about what's the difference, the difference between truth
and falsehood. What's the difference? In fact, these verses four, five, and six,
Paul uses an emphatic pronoun at the beginning of each of them.

In verse four, he says, "You. " This is what the truth is about you. In verse
five, he says, "They.

" Here's the truth about them. And in verse six, he says, "We. " Here's the
truth about us.

And in all of this, he talks to you and I about two keys to handling false
spirits. Don't be frightened. And number two, don't be discouraged.

Don't be frightened. He says, "You have overcome them. " The one who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world.

You should be wary of Satan, but you should not be frightened of Satan. You
should be wary of false teachers, but not frightened, because God who is in you
through his spirit is greater. You hold onto that.

In fact, we're going to come back to God being in you at the end of this chapter.
Don't be frightened and don't be discouraged. He says, "The world listens to
them "because they speak from the viewpoint of the world.

" Sometimes we get discouraged because false teachers get a lot of listeners.
Why? Because there's a lot of selfish people in this world, and I'm one of them.

And it's easy to be drawn in by a false teacher when I want to follow my selfish
inclinations. Don't be discouraged, John says. Just realize the reason people
listen is because they're looking from the same viewpoint.

And remember that whoever knows God listens to the truth, listens to us. Whoever
doesn't know, doesn't listen. Don't be frightened.

Don't be discouraged, because God's truth is truth that's going to last. These are
verses today all about God's truth and how it works in our lives, how it works
in your life. As we end this time together, let's talk to the truth, the way the
truth in the life.

Let's talk to Jesus. Jesus, we thank you for your truth. And it's not always
easy to live.

There are many times when we are tempted to be selfish. There are many times
when a false teacher sounds good because they appeal to that selfish part of us.
But we know that your truth is what will last.

So we pray for strength today to understand your truth, to see it, but then also
to live your truth. And we ask for this strength. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, join us tomorrow. We're going to be looking at verses seven to 10 and begin a
look at five truths that unlock real love in your life.