you back into 1 John, truly an epistle or a letter that I really loved over the years. There's so much biblical truth, so much doctrine and theology here on the pages of 1 and 2 and 3 John. And when you take that to heart and read it, it really helps you understand where you are in your spiritual walk. But it also helps you understand kind of what's going on in the world out there today. So the title of the message that I have for you this morning is, The Criteria for Exercising Biblical Discernment in the Face of False Teachers. How to know when a true teacher speaks and when a false teacher speaks. Let's go to the Lord and ask Him to bless our time in the Word this morning. Father in Heaven, again we praise You and thank You for Your Word. Lord, we just ask that You would guide and direct our hearts this morning, keep all the distractions of the day and the world out of our minds, so that we can truly see what Your Word reveals to us about loving Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. with all of our heart and our mind, soul, and our strength. In Christ's name, Amen. Let's read together this passage of Scripture before we begin to look at it. 1 John chapter 4, verse number 1. Beloved, 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. 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, of which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak as of from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Last week we began discussing and talking about the desperate need for biblical discernment in the church today. We saw the evil nature of false prophets, false teachers that had gone out into the world and were trying to deceive believers. And the primary reason for us to exercise this biblical discernment is because there are all kinds of false teachers and false prophets in the world today. And in light of their large number, the Apostle John here gives us some basic criteria or principles for us to be able to test them, for us to be able to try them, to see where they stand. according to the only standard of truth that we have, God's inerrant word. We must understand that Satan's ambassadors, Satan's priests, they're not just pimps and politicians and evil drug lords or power brokers, but they are men that are masquerading as pastors and teachers. You see, Satan's priests do not peddle a different religion. They peddle a perversion of the true one. His troops do not make a full frontal assault against the church and Christianity, but they work like spies. They're like secretly sneaking into the opposing army. Satan's agents, though, we need not take them too lightly because they are studied, they are clever, they are predictable, sometimes they seem to be loving, but most of all, they are deadly. This is why Jesus reminds us in, again, a verse we looked at last week on the Sermon on the Mount, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. And then he says, you will recognize them by their fruit. You will recognize them by their deeds. You will recognize them by the way they live their lives. Not on what they live their lives on the TV or in the front of the congregation, but the way they live their lives behind the scenes. The word beware always warns of danger. It is not a call here to Just pay casual attention to this. You know, just give it little attention of your time. Something that's not that significant. No, it is a call to be on alert, to be on guard because of what is about to happen. what is happening, what is harmful within the realms of Christianity today. False prophets are more than just a little wrong on their doctrine or theology. They are dangerous, they are wicked, and malignant. Therefore, we should not expose our minds to them, because they will pervert our thinking, and they will poison your soul. See, a false teacher or a false prophet is more dangerous than a rattlesnake or a mountain lion. Why? Because a rattlesnake and a mountain lion can only harm your body. False prophets are spiritual beasts, and they're infinitely more deadly than any physical beast. This is why both the Apostle Peter and Jude call them unreasoning animals. And it is significant and striking that every cult or every deviant group, every word-faith movement in our day, in our society, that seeks support, that seeks monetary support or religious support, does it in the name of love. You'll notice that love is a word that can be stretched many different ways. and many different reactions or impulses. Yet so many people in our society are utterly gullible, if you want to put that, to the true meaning of love. If someone comes talking about love in the church, in talking to the undiscerning person, they think, wow, this person, he must be of God. He must be of the truth. But you have to realize, this is the oldest trick that Satan has in his bag. To show a spirit that's friendly and has concern for you, and it appears to offer fulfillment of your needs, fulfillment of the physical needs that you need, the monetary goals that you want, your desires to be prosperous in this world. Therefore, we must be discerning. We must listen carefully and evaluate the message and the messenger against the Word of God. So knowing this, John gives us the first of two criteria for testing the spirits to see whether they are from God. The first is the content of their message. The content of their message. The solution to false teachers and deadly doctrine is to have a biblical understanding of their falsehoods. You must remember that you may not recognize their kind of error right off the bat. You may even read about them and not recognize it. Because many of their books, many of their messages, they sound clear, they sound convincing, they sound logical. taken by themselves. But this is the way Erah wants to approach you. It wants to come to you. And the only way you can discover Erah is to do what John says, is to test it. To see if what they are saying is of the truth. Test the spirits, try them. Lay what they say alongside a truthful measuring stick. If you're talking about measuring something, you want to use a truthful ruler, don't you? You're going to get it wrong. So you've got to lay what the false teachers are saying against a truthful measuring stick. And if they don't match up, you throw them out. You get rid of them. Because the church that remains faithful to God is the church that remains faithful to the Word of God. As children of God, if you're a Christian here today and you've been born again, as children of God, we must never forget that He has given us His Spirit. 1 John 3.24 says that. This is the next chapter back, the last verse in chapter 3. John says, the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us. However, we must be aware and be on guard because there are other spirits active in the world around us today. Evil spirits that are not seeking to glorify God and what they're doing. They're seeking to glorify themselves. Mankind, unregenerate mankind seeks to satisfy himself and he is number one. So the question that we have to address this morning in concerning this passage is, how did John's readers protect themselves from false teachers? And how can we, how can you and I, protect ourselves from the threat of false teachers today? See, John gives us a good example of what any godly shepherd would do by calling his readers to examine the individual speaking to see if they're from God. But the point to take home here is how and what the child of God believes is not to be done carelessly. Because true faith, true saving faith in Jesus Christ will examine what's going on around them before placing confidence in it. True faith shows discernment in everything. Because every prophet, every preacher, every teacher or individual is speaking in this world by one spirit or the other. There's no in-between. There's no gray area. It's either black or white. And we said before, the Apostle John, he only paints with two colors, black and white, and that's it. There's no gray area here. So they're either true prophets, true teachers, true preachers or individuals. They are indwelt by the Spirit of God. And we're going to look at that when we get to verse 2. And then there are false teachers and false prophets, and they are indwelt by the spirit of the Antichrist, who in verse 6 is called the spirit of error. They are full of lies and heresies and deceptions. So behind every teacher, every prophet, is a spirit. They're either inspired by the spirit of God or the spirit of the devil. Therefore, it is an imperative that we test them. Because what is important is their origin, whether they are divine or diabolical. Now look at verses 2 and 3. John is giving us here the first distinguishing test, how to be able to distinguish those who are from God and those who are not. This test is the confession of faith in the person who claims to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. He says, by this you will know the Spirit of God. By this. When he says by this, Usually that means the next statement, but it could be in the statements previous. But here it means, by this you can recognize the Spirit of God in the believer. That every spirit, every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Every spirit that ongoingly, continually confesses, that is in the present tense, confesses that Jesus Christ in the flesh has come from God. And then the negative side of that is in verse 3. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist of which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. So therefore these tests This criteria, if you'll notice, is both what you confess and it's both Christological. The issue is, what do we confess and state with our mouth and believe in our heart about the person of Jesus Christ? See, this is the ultimate litmus test, if you want to put it, of the legitimacy of your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12 3 that nobody can truthfully state and confess that Jesus is Lord except by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Therefore he says, therefore I make known to you that no one by speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is a curse. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So here in verse 3, John states the positive test. Every spirit, that is every human being that confesses that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh is from God. This word confesses, this word confesses literally means to say the same thing, to admit, to agree with, to acknowledge. John is saying that the one who continually admits that Jesus is the Lord, Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is He who came in the flesh, is the God-man. He is from God. But it goes a little further than that, the word confession. It means that we know from Scripture that there are evil spirits that will also confess that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the Holy One of God. In Mark, chapter 1, verses 23 through 24, we read, Just then, there was a man in their synagogue who had an unclean spirit, and he cried out. He cried out. He confessed. He cried out, saying, What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. in Luke 8, 27 and 28. And when he, that is Jesus, came out into the land, he was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons. There's more than one demon. And who had not put on any clothing for a long time and was lying in a house not lying in a house, but in the tombs. And seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him and said in a loud voice, What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. And in James 2.19, James says, You believe that God is one. You do well. But the demons also believe and shudder. You see, these demons, these evil spirits, they confess the truth. They confess the truth that Jesus was truly the Son of God, yet they are not from God. So how do we put this test of confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of God that John is talking about, how do we put it in the right perspective? Well, the word confess or confesses carries a dual meaning. You not only confess certain facts about Jesus, but it also means to profess faith in those facts and to show allegiance to Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior. See, so many of the false teachers today will confess that Jesus is God. They will confess that Jesus died on the cross. They will confess that Jesus is the God-man, but they will not live in obedience to His Word. They will confess Him as their Savior, but they will not live in obedience to Him as their Lord. That's the big difference. We have to be aware of that. We have to try to look at behind the scenes of what we're seeing on the surface. See, John repeatedly emphasizes in his teaching the deity of Christ that teaches the truth, and it has huge implications. No one can honor the Father without honoring the Son, because they share the same divine, perfect nature. See, Jesus is not merely a created being. Contrary to what many of the false teachers taught back in Jesus' day, the Corinthian Gnostics. And many of the false teachers, even today, even in this town, teach that Jesus is a created being. There are many false movements here. See, these false prophets in John's day, they thought that Jesus was just an ordinary man. An ordinary man whom the divine Spirit of Christ came upon him at his baptism and then left him in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion. But see, this kind of heresy consists of a denial of the permanent assumption of the human nature of the eternal Son of God. Therefore, the supreme heresy is to deny the Incarnation. and the full deity of Jesus Christ as a God-man. See, if someone holds fast to that belief, and this is what I ask them, if you hold fast to that belief, I don't say heresy, but that is a heresy, if you hold fast to that belief, then who will you or who will deal with your sins? Because you're going to have to, the Word of God tells you, you're going to have to deal with your sins one way or the other. You'll have to deal with them as dealt with on the cross with Jesus Christ, or you will deal with them yourself before you stand before a holy and righteous God. See, in verse 2, we see the word here that you know that the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ, has come in the flesh. Has come is a perfect tense verse. Has come describes a completed action that occurred in the past, but is producing a state of being that exists in the future and continues in the future and in the present. So the emphasis here, not so much on the past, but what's happening currently. Jesus has come and he is here. He is the Son of God. But the false prophets will admit only part portions of this truth, they will not submit themselves fully to Jesus Christ as the true divine Son of God. Any teaching that denies that Jesus is truly God and truly man is a doctrine of demons, and it is spawned by the spirit of the Antichrist. So the warning here in John's passage and his message today is the content of our doctrine in theology matters greatly. This is where you really want to find out what's going on in a church, when you are searching maybe for a new church. What do you do? You look at their doctrinal distinctives, you look at their doctrinal statement, and their constitution. Those are the first things you would examine. And then you hear it, listen to the preaching. And then you have your word, the word of God, to compare that. So the warning here in John's message is that the content of doctrine and theology matters greatly. Because you can see someone that's trapped in a cult, unless God brings them out of it, they are going to suffer eternity in hell. But the true believer he is going to truly trust in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and his theology, his doctrine of Christ will be sound. Now, does correct doctrine and correct theology, does that save you? No. Only Jesus Christ saves, putting trust and faith in Jesus Christ alone as your Lord and Savior. That's the only way to obtain salvation. But that in turn will give you sound biblical doctrine and theology. Even on the most basic levels. What is theology? What does that mean? It's the study of God that will give you a sound understanding of who God is. So John gave us some basic criteria for testing in verse 2. In verse 3, he gives us another test, and he states it negatively, that every spirit that does not confess Jesus God, this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that is coming and is now already in the world. So what John is saying here that every spirit, every person, every false teacher, every false believer that does not, every person that does not confess Jesus Christ as the Christ come in the flesh is not from God. So what John is putting forth here is what a teacher even refrains from saying about Jesus Christ is significant because it reveals the content of their heart. See, there are many people that think all roads lead to heaven. There are many roads to heaven. You have to decide on which road you want to go on. We're all worshiping the same God. The Muslims have Allah. That's just another name for God. The Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses say they're Christians, say they're worshiping the same true God. But really, are they? No. See, then there are these people that say, we do the best we can for society. We help people. We help little children. We do all that we can to help people. But that's not enough. See, you must believe and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, according to what Scripture says. If you do not obey and live in obedience to his word, then you can't be a child of God. Therefore, any world religion, any TV preacher, or any cult that attempts to redefine or dismiss, fails to proclaim the correct doctrine about Jesus Christ, he is not from God. John tells us, this is the spirit of the Antichrist. That means you have the spirit of the Antichrist in your heart, not the spirit of God. See, John is the only writer in Scripture that uses the word Antichrist. There are many other references to Antichrist in the Scripture, but John specifically names him. And in chapter 2, verse 18, John wrote, children, it is the last hour. And just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have appeared. From this we know it is the last hour. So Antichrist is instead of Christ, taking the place of Christ. So false teachers and false teaching principles are found throughout the church today. And there are serious deviations from the truth of the Word of God. And so, but many times they're accepted by the masses as Christianity. It's just phenomenal. You can turn on your internet, you can watch all these different churches and you can see them, you see their worship, their praise, the way they handle the Word of God. And they all deviate from the truth of the Word of God. Many will require you to speak in tongues as a genuine sign that you are a true Christian. Some, we have false teachers like Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon. They have all this extra biblical garbage that they want to bring to the table. So they all deny the sufficiency of the Word of God, the complete revealed Word of God. At the core of all false religions and all false teaching lies the belief that the Bible is not enough. They're always in need of new prophecies, new revelations, new experiences, new techniques, and new requirements to enable them to reach God. See, John talks about these antichrists quite a bit, even here in verse John 2, 22 and 23. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father. And then here in this passage here, we're talking about being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. See, in both cases here, in chapter 2 and in chapter 4, the person of Jesus Christ is central. No religious system can be tolerated that denies that Jesus is coming in the flesh. And as we read this morning in 2 John, for many deceivers have gone out into the world that do not acknowledge Jesus is coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. So we're talking about all of these deceptions about the person of Jesus Christ, but there is far more than that. And what I'm trying to do is bring the implication of all of these these teachings that John has given us here, because we have to look at the consequences of being taken in by a false doctrine, by a false teaching, or even being taken in by the world and not even listening to a false teaching. See, false doctrine confuses the difference between truth and error. But sound biblical teachings, sitting under sound preaching, distinguishes or confirms truth over error. False teaching or false doctrine always fails to distinguish between what God has revealed in His Word and what has been fabricated by men in their minds. False doctrine prevents godliness, while sound biblical doctrine promotes godliness. False doctrine undermines godliness by promoting what is novel or what is appealing to the flesh. The Apostle Paul warned Timothy again in 1 Timothy 1, 3, and 4. He says, not to teach strange doctrines. Don't pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation. So false doctrine promotes sin as well, while sound biblical doctrine prevents sin. False doctrines allow sin to take root in our hearts and works its way out in our lives. And when I speak of false doctrine, I'm not just talking about some deviation here of the Word. I'm talking about the way Satan speaks to your heart to keep you from worshiping God, to keep you worshiping yourself. Self-worship is a false doctrine. False doctrine elevates ungodly leadership, while sound doctrine qualifies godly leadership. See, positions of leadership within the church, within the true church, are reserved for those who will teach sound doctrine. Remember, we looked at this passage last week when the Apostle Paul was writing to Titus and telling him to select men for the ministry there. And he gave them the criteria that they must have in order to hold fast to the faithful word, hold fast to the faithful word of God. They ought to be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. See, if you cannot exhort in sound doctrine, and also confront false ideas and false areas, then you cannot be a leader in the church. False doctrine will weaken your church, and it will weaken the future church, the future generations that follow after people that are teaching or leading false doctrine. Christians are responsible for both the present and the future of the church. We are responsible for the generations that come after us. Remember, our Lord's final charge to his disciples included not only evangelizing and baptizing the nations, but also teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. That means the future. So we got false doctrine that confuses truth and error. False doctrine prevents godliness, promotes sin. But sound doctrine is just the opposite. It promotes godliness, and it prevents sin, and it qualifies godly leaders, and it protects against false teachers. And I'm sure John was teaching his people that were listening to him, his little children, the same kind of truth that we see here. But in their humanity, as many of us in our own humanity, if you were involved in a false teaching, and you may have heard the word of truth, and you see that all these false prophets being empowered by the spirit of the Antichrist, by the devil themselves, spreading false religion, spreading false doctrine, They were very concerned. Maybe they had even got caught up in a false teaching. And so, they would have, as we would have done, they would have pleaded for someone to give us some help to get out of this teaching. And that's what John does in verses 4 through 6. We read in 1 John 4 through 6, "'You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. John's point here is any godly shepherd would want his readers to know that they should never despair despite our weaknesses and our failures. Because we have the Spirit of God residing in us. This Spirit is greater than the Spirit of the Antichrist, the Spirit that is in the world. It's greater than the Spirit that these false teachers have. So here in verse 4, When we're looking at this, these are the marks of a true believer. You'll notice how John has listed these out, these three marks. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. When John says, you are from God, that is pointing back to the doctrine of regeneration, of the new birth. And as we said before, Christianity is just not a matter of ascribing to certain creeds and doctrines. It is a matter of being born again, so that you will receive new life from God and become His child. 1 John 3, verse 1 says, See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God, and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be We know that when he appears we will be like him because we will see him just as he is And here's the clincher and everyone who has this hope that hope of seeing Jesus Christ This hope fixed on him purifies himself Just as he is pure So if you are truly a child of God, you will strive to purify yourself of any sin that's in your life. This is so important because John repeats this phrase, from God, from God, from God, six times in this passage here. So these are indicating the distinguishing marks of a child of God. that they have been born again by God, and they are now God's children. But he also says this word, have overcome them. What does he mean by overcome them? If you look in chapter 5, flip over to the very next chapter. 1 John chapter 5, verse number 4. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. So John really has used this word overcome to show that you have defeated the deeds of these false teachers or false prophets. You have tested them. You have examined them and their message and have rejected them and their message. And that is a mark of a true child of God, to overcome them. So John is saying that believers have a divine enabler dwelling inside of them, someone that is enabling them to fight a false teacher. You see that in the last part of, I mean, in verse 4, where he says, Because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Who is the he that is in you? That is the Holy Spirit. And He is greater than Satan and his followers and his demons and all that are in the world and all that represent the world. See, believers are not to be overtaken by Satan and his schemes, but rather to overcome them. And the only way we can do that is by the power of God, granting us the ability to discern the truth from error. But John has a contrast here too now, because he spoke about believers, you are from God, but then he goes into the next verse, and he says, they are from the world. So he's giving the marks of believers and the marks of false teachers or unbelievers. In verse 4, he used the emphatic pronoun you. In verse 5, he begins with a different pronoun, they. In the world, John says that three times in this verse. And what is the emphasis? John is speaking of the world. What world? You know, we hear the word world used in the Bible all the time. God created the world. And God was blessed, and it was very good. But John is saying, these guys are from the world. What world is this that they're from? They're from the world, that John is speaking of here, is the godless system that is in defiant rebellion against God, which Satan is the prince of this world. So, you'll see the three things in this passage here. First, John says, they are from the world, indicating their essential orientation in their character. This is where they're from. This is where they come from. And then John says, they speak from the world. They draw their substance of their teaching from their godless philosophy, from their fake sermons. They draw it from the world. And John says, then the world listens to them. Their message arouses the interest of unbelievers. It stimulates their basic, their base attitude, just like that, and desires. Remember last week we did some quotes. We did some quotes of a false teacher and some quotes of what the Word of God says. Here the false teacher says, I am prosperous, I am successful, I am talented, I am healthy, I am positive, I am beautiful, I am attractive. This man wrote a book called The Power of I Am. But Scripture says, O wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? See the difference there? In the false teacher and the Word of God. But when you hear that, I am beautiful, I am free, I am prosperous, the false teachers, they always seem to gather a big crowd for that. because they want to appease the appetites and the desires of fallen mankind. See, false prophets are always ready to scratch the unbelievers' itch, or to tickle their ears, as some passages of Scripture say. People who are not true believers will resist the truth of the Word of God. They will give you lip service, that they are listening to the Word, that they are reading the Word, that they are praying. But really, if they're an unbeliever, the Word of God is foolishness to them. Now, they may agree with some portions of the Bible, but they will not want to be held accountable for all the Scripture. At best, the full truth of the Word of God will bore them. Which is why unbelievers are found, are so comfortable and flourishing under a false teacher or a false leader. What does 1 Corinthians 2.14 says? Paul puts it right here, but a natural man, that is an unbeliever, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him. and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. Therefore, any ministry that is built around a man and not Jesus Christ and the Word of God should be questioned and rejected." See, Jesus spoke about this attraction to the world. Jesus spoke about this attraction to the world, speaking to his disciples, in John 15, verses 18 and 19. He said, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. See, the world hates a child of God. I'm talking about this unbelieving world that is driven and orchestrated by Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air. So John is saying we have to look at the message and look at the audience. You can go on, God has given us the ability to go on the internet and look at all the false teachings and the charismatic movements and all this stuff. But years ago when we first moved here and we were first introduced to the danger of some of these movements, I went around to some churches in the Tucson area just to see how they handle their morning worship service. And what I drew from it is, when you look there, are they clapping? Are they yelling? Do they have a rock concert? Are people rolling around on the floor, kicking and jerking, saying they're being filled with the Holy Spirit? Brother, you're here to be filled with the Holy Spirit! Or re-baptized with the Holy Spirit. I've heard that too. But is that how one is filled with the Holy Spirit? by going to one of these events that they have. Now, seeing things like these should tell you everything you need to know about whether a teacher and his message are from God or from the devil. So, we've seen the marks of believers, and now we've seen the marks of false teachers and false believers. Now we've got to look at the marks of a true teacher. A true preacher. A true person bringing the Word of God. And that is in verse 6. John says here, we are from God. He who knows us listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. See, to understand what's going on here, we have to look at verse 4. We have to look at the pronouns in each one of these verses. Verse 4 says, you are from God. That is, you are a believer. Verse 5, they are from the world. That is, false teachers and false prophets and unbelievers. And then verse 6 says, we are from God. Who is the we? Who is John talking about here when he says, we are from God? And you can read different commentaries and there's different debates about it. Some say it refers to all believers. And that would be true to the degree that they're all faithfully preaching and teaching God's Word. But I think the reference here is to the apostles. What John is writing is the last living apostle. And the reason is, and we'll look at it, because it's not the first time John has used this pronoun we in this sense. So look back in the very first chapter of 1 John. 1 John chapter 1. What was from the beginning? What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, and what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life. And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. what we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete. Some virgins may say, your joy may be made complete, and it's all right. So the we here, you see who the we here is, has got to be speaking, when John is speaking here, about somebody that has seen Christ, that has touched Christ, that has witnessed Him, that has heard Him, it has to be the Apostles. And so back here in 1 John 4, we're in the same time frame that John was teaching this, writing this letter, So the pronoun speaks to the apostolic community. See, John is speaking as an apostle who has the full authority of Jesus Christ behind him. And only a true apostle can write like this. And so John is saying, he who knows us, knows God, listens to us. The word knows, every time you see the word knows here, we are from God, that is, we are from God, we have been regenerated, we have been born of God. He who knows us listens to us. So knows is a salvific word, it means it talks about salvation. And then John says, negative, he who does not listen to us, he who does not listen to us, is not from God. So the one who has been born of God has eyes and ears to hear and see the Word of God, but the one who has not been born of God is spiritually blind. Only the one born of God has the ability to understand and live in obedience to God's Word. By this, the last thing there, by this Here's that word again, by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. By this is referring, in this case, by everything that we've said, down to verse 6. That we can test the spirits, we can get to know what's being said, we can examine their messages, we can understand the character of the believers. John says, test the teachers, see what they're saying, because there are many false prophets out in the world today. We must test them. We must hold them accountable to the basic criteria of Christ, Christ's Christology. Because any deviation or alteration from the person and the work of Christ is a major implication on the gospel. And as we said at the beginning of this lesson, just last week and today, if there's ever been a need for critical biblical discernment, it is in the church today. So we must pray that God would give us the ability, as the faithful Bereans did, to examine everything that is taught and spoken in the name of God, to examine it and hold it fast to the word of truth. We're to reject all error. More than that, those that are in error, we are to pray for them, that they will come out of the error and see the truth of the Word of God. Many at the Truth Matters Conference were talking about how they came out of the Word Faith Movement. Others have come out of even worse cults because of the Holy Spirit regenerating them and giving them new life. Because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Knowing this, we have divine protection. The Lord is with us and that should comfort us because we live in a world that is so out of control as far as false teaching goes and false religion and false preachers that we have to be able to discern truth from error. I am thankful that I am part of a church that stands on the truth of the Word of God. As we said earlier, the church that stands on the truth will be solid on the Word of God. To truly preach the truth, you have to preach it expositorily, and that is the hallmark of Christ Church of Tucson. Let's pray. Almighty God and Heavenly Father, as we contemplate this battle for the truth, this engagement, we know, Father, that many times we may not think about it. But then when we do, Lord, we know we cannot stand in our own strength. We can only stand in the strength of the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God. We stand in the strength of the knowledge of the truth, which is given to us through the pages of Scripture. We stand in the truth of Jesus Christ, who is our Lord, who is our Savior, who is our Master, who is our King. Lord, we stand on the truth of Your Word, the sword of the Spirit. Lord, we praise You Father, for giving us new birth, so that we as your child can ready ourselves for the battle. Your Word gives us the shield that we need to fend off false teaching. But Lord, we know we must pray for those people that are bringing even false teaching to our door. We must pray, Lord, for those that are on the TV that are deceived and deceiving themselves. Because Your Word has told us, Father, that every human being has a never-dying soul. And they will either spend eternity in the lake of fire, or they will spend it praising You and Your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, may we stand firm. May we never waver. May we glorify you, Father, in all that we say and do, and that Christ would be honored in our lives. In Christ's name, amen.