We pick up in our exposition of 1 John in the 3rd chapter and verse 18, reading through the 4th chapter and verse 6. This will be the 6th message in the series and we're entitling it, True Christians Need Assurance from God and Need to Test the Spirits to See if They Represent God. Would you join with me in the reading of God's Word? Ready? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abides in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already it is in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He that knows God hears us. He that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. You may be seated. Looking first this afternoon at the subject of Christian assurance. In verses 18 through 24, John now continues to enlarge upon his definition of love as being a test of true Christianity. And in doing so, he seeks to give assurance to his readers wherein they may have confidence to approach God in prayer. I would pose a question for my hearers, is that if you have a struggle with the question of assurance, invariably you will have a struggle in your prayer life. Those two are found together. While our salvation ultimately depends upon God Himself, John insists, nevertheless, that to consciously enjoy this assurance we must continue to keep his commands to believe in Jesus and love one another. When we do this, the Spirit inwardly assures us of our spiritual position before God. John says that we can know that we are in a true relationship with God by our deeds of action and truth. The false Antichrist teachers were saying that they possessed the knowledge of the truth by special inner insights directed or received from direct revelations from God, but their lives were models of selfishness and hatred. John then countered this impression by claiming that the mark of truth is a lifestyle of high moral character and good deeds flowing out of one's commitment to Christ. This is how the knowledge of God is to be seen, not from direct revelations from the third heaven. Love for other Christians is a test of genuine membership in God's family. The existence of such love enables the believer then to know with assurance that they are walking in the truth and is confident to the point that they can enjoy a prayer life with God. Look in verses 21 and 22. If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we what? Keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. In verses 19, 20, and 21, John makes reference to the believer's heart. What's he mean? I believe that by the expression of heart, he means the entire moral consciousness of man. It is our desire to live lives of high moral character and good deeds. But in that desire we will often fall short of our own ideals, let alone God's. And sometimes the believer's heart or the conscience will accuse him to the point that he may question whether he is a true Christian or not. Remember, Satan is also known as what? The accuser of the brethren, Revelation 12 and verse 10. Now, John, though, states here that there is a way to pacify and put our troubled heart or conscience to rest, and it is through the knowledge that God, follow me, understands our spiritual state better than we do. Verse 20, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Well, you might be saying, so what? I knew that all the time. Sure, God's greater than I am. He can create worlds I can't. Sure, He's greater in every aspect than me, so what does that do to my confidence? Well, I think an understanding of this will perhaps help us. The question is, in verse 19, if that we love in deed and action rather than in theory or word and tongue, When we know that we love in that area, we know that we belong to the truth. And when we belong to the truth, our hearts assure us that we're in a right relationship with God. But if our heart condemns us, what do we do? God is greater than our heart. Let's reflect upon this. It is through the knowledge that God understands my own spiritual state better than I do. Now listen carefully. Your human conscience is not the final judge in the matter. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ today, and you love to be around Christians, and you believe the commandments of God are for your good and His glory, and yet you feel like you're lost, don't listen to your feelings. They are not to be the final judge in your spiritual position and standing before God. And when you listen excessively to those They'll turn you upside down and put you in and out. God is the final judge. And Paul says that he will not only allow other people not to judge him, he won't even judge himself, but that God will be the final judge of a matter. God knows in His infinite knowledge and omnipotence that we believe in Christ. God knows that we strive to love our brothers and yet regret falling short. But the forgiveness that is found in His mercy is greater than our imperfection. And our consciences will constantly seek to point out our imperfections. But God's mercy and knowledge is greater about us than what our imperfections know about us. So who are you going to listen to? And if you prefer to listen to that old drowsy me and my imperfections, then get alone in a room and turn off the lights and enjoy yourself, because that's what you're going to partake of. Or you can start reflecting on the grace of God and the mercy of God in the gospel that where your imperfections abound, God's grace does much more abound. He is greater He's the final judge of whether you're in a spiritual state or not, not your own conscience pointing out your imperfections. Thus our hearts can be reassured, not by our feelings, but by the knowledge that God knows us better than we know ourselves. I hope that will sink in to our inner man, our inner consciences. God knows me better than my conscience knows me. And when my conscience puts me on the witness stand and starts pointing out my imperfections, there is a higher judge that I need to listen to than my own conscience. After Peter denied his Lord three times, Jesus later asked him three times if he loved him. What did this do to Peter? It grieved him and upset his heart. His heart was troubled. And then he finally said, Lord, You know what? All things God is greater. You know all things. You know that I love you. And Jesus said unto him, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. You know that I love you. And each time Jesus would say, feed my sheep. Go about your service. You know all things. John says God's greater than our conscience. God's greater than our heart. And when the heart starts to condemn us about our imperfections and our shortcomings and our sins, if we have sinned, how are we to remove that guilty conscience? We've already had that pointed out to us. We confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. The blood of God's Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness. But if you find one of those times in which the heart takes advantage of your imperfections, then you flee to the character of God that he knows better than your heart. Really, the root issue of this, folks, is not how well you know your imperfections, but I don't say this to chide us, but it really reflects how little we know of the gospel. The more your heart condemns you, the less you are availing yourself of the forgiveness that's found in the gospel. And you'd rather think on your imperfections rather than the grace of God in the gospel. And I say again, not to chide us, that cast reflections upon our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming to the world to save sinners. Paul says, he came to the world to save sinners of who I am what? Chief. Then do we sit around reflecting upon how great sinners we are? When we do, our heart condemns us. And when it starts that, we need to shift our focus from what a great sinner we are unto what a great God He is to send such a great loving Savior and has done such a marvelous transaction in delivering us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. You see, the gospel is the way to deal with guilt. The gospel is the way to deal with loss of assurance and lack of assurance. A knowledge that God knows that we still love Him even though we often fail Him will assure our hearts to further serve Him. Peter, go feed my sheep. I like that. And thus it is through the means of objective knowledge of the gospel rather than subjective feelings that our hearts can be assured. When our hearts no longer condemn us, we can have confidence before God, and this confidence leads to fruitfulness in prayer. When a Christian becomes confident of his place in God's family, regardless of any emotions of guilt or unworthiness, he can now communicate with his Father in prayer with the assurance that he's being heard. You don't have to get rid of all of your guilt feelings and your sense of unworthiness before you're ready to pray. Realize that God loves you with all of your guilt feelings and all of your sense of emptiness and set out to pray. John states it in absolute terms, verse 22, I use the translation in the NIV here, we receive from him anything we ask. This is another one of those astounding statements which ranks with the statement statement regarding the believer's sinlessness in chapter 3, verses 6 and 9, the believer's perfection in love, chapter 2 and verse 5, and chapter 4 and verse 17. John is teaching the same thing, though, which he heard Jesus teach. In John 14, 14, Jesus said, If you shall ask anything in my name, I will what? I'll do it. John's not teaching something that his master didn't teach. John 16.23, Jesus states, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. He'll give it to you. Whatsoever. Look over in the Gospel of John chapter 15 and verse 16, though. John 15, verse 16, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you ask of the Father in my name He may give it you. Now, what's Jesus wanting out of His disciples? Fruit. What should you want out of your life? Fruit. Then don't you think if you ask for it, God just might be inclined to give it to you? Because you're asking for that which He wants you to have. because it's going to glorify him and benefit you and other people. But how, though, are these passages to be understood? Some passages of Scripture do seem to give assurance that we will receive anything for which we ask. Matthew 7, 7 and 8, "...whatsoever ye ask in my name, believing, ye shall receive." Ask and it shall be what? Given to you. So there are passages which seem to indicate, ask whatever you want, God will grant it. But there are other passages which place qualifications to answered prayer. The assurance of answered prayer assumes that the person has a knowledge of the qualifications. Now this is where many people get in trouble with their praying, that they hear these statements But they aren't well read enough in the Bible to know that the Bible who gives these statements also in other locations gives qualifications to the statesman. And so they set out to pray and they don't get anything, and then they get mad at God or else they believe that they don't have enough faith. It's not enough faith, it's lack of knowledge that causes problems in the prayer life. Let's look at some of these qualifications. First, answers to prayer are based on our obedience to God's commands. John goes on to say in verse 22, that God answers prayer because we what? We keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. The person who pleases God and keeps his commandments, we have seen in the previous message, is one who has been born of God. These are the fruits. These are the qualifiers that identify a person who has been blessed by God. And that person who seeks to be blessed by God, then, is an obedient person who seeks to do those things which God says are right and please Him. It is to those people that God carries on a relationship with in prayer. Don't enter into this merit system. Then the more I obey, then the more I get, no? obliviate that. That is not what John is describing. He's merely saying that all Christians can ask whatever they will as they are seeking to please God. Now, second, the same letter requires the qualification of asking for things to be quote, according to his will, chapter 5 and verse 14. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything, now here's this qualifier, according to his will he hears us. Third qualification is that we must ask in Jesus' name. John 14.13, 16.23, and 26. The fourth qualifier is that we must be abiding in Jesus, John 15.7 and 15.16. A life submitted to the will of God is the secret of a successful prayer life. The reason believers can expect answers to prayer is that, as far as they know, they're asking in accordance with what? The will of God. They certainly would know better than to ask for something contrary to his will, and the result is that God gives them what they ask for, and if not, something better. There are many occasions in this life when we do not receive the answer we have expected. But when we arrive in heaven, we will learn that every time God answered in a way that was best for us. We must always trust God to do what is right. If He asks us to do what's right, can we not expect Him to do what is right? Oh, how thankful we ought to be in our prayer life that God knows better than what we know in many of the things we ask for, and He either grants what we're asking for, or He does not grant it, and He grants something better. I tell you, that opens up a prayer line. Just start talking to God and just talk to Him all day long, Bitsy. You don't have to have a theology book saying, I wonder this and this and this. Just carry on an ongoing talk with God. And the more you talk with Him, the more you find out that what you're trying to bend Him to do is not the best thing, and you end up agreeing with what He says. Any of you men ever married to a woman? She comes along and presents something and, boy, you balk at that. Don't bother me with that. And then, after you've thought about it four or five hours, why, you realize, you know she's right. And rather than her will becoming your will, why, your wills have become hers. And yet it's your will. You've seen that the suggestion is the appropriate thing. And as you're carrying on an ongoing conversation with God, isn't that what Paul says? Pray what? Pray always. Have an open consciousness of the presence of God all times in the life. If you're carrying that on, why, you'll be amazed at When you delight yourself in the Lord, he gives you the what? The desires of your heart. Not that he changed his desire to do yours, but you find out that your desires are lining up with him. Believers can expect God's help when they are one in agreement with his purposes. The question now arises that if answered prayer is dependent upon keeping God's commands, then what are those commands? And now we might expect the way our consciences would list is pull out the whole Torah, six or seven hundred statements of case law like the Pharisees had developed to tell you what all the commands of God involved. John doesn't do that. He summarizes them up in the twin towers of his epistle, faith and love. We are to believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another. Those are the commands. And I tell you, you get those two down and all the others are fit in right into those categories. So don't be sitting out here in trouble, boy. God's not answering my prayer. have figured out what all his commands were yet, and maybe I'm violating this one, or I haven't thought up this one, maybe this one's standing in the way, come back to those two. Confess the true person of Jesus Christ in the gospel, and love your brethren. When you do those two, you'll find, as John will say later on in the fifth chapter, This is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. They're not a burden. The word believe now occurs here for the first time in the epistle. But from here on, it will be seen more and more as the issue between John and the apostate teachers. The false teachers do not love. But the reason they do not love is that God's love is not in them, because they have not truly believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. To believe in Jesus Christ means, in this context, to believe the gospel about Jesus, that he is God's Son, that he came into the world of humanity to save men and women from their sins, and that believing in him they can have eternal life. John 3.16 and 3.18, God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The joining of faith and love in this section of Scripture into a single command shows just how closely connected the two are in John's mind. He doesn't play faith against love. He doesn't do like the conservative who wants to so uphold the truth of Scripture that they major on the doctrinal issue of faith and ignore the practical application of love. And then, on the other hand, the modern liberal who doesn't know what love is, but thinks he does, then wants to talk about love, but he says that doctrine is not important. John won't have that. But God is joined together. I let no man put asunder." Belief precedes love because it is the basis for love. But love is the expression of true belief. Now John in verse 24 mentions the person of the Holy Spirit for the first time in his little epistle. The evidence that we abide in Christ our threefold, our doctrinal purity, our love for the brethren, and our obedience to his commands. The evidence that he abides in us is the presence of the Holy Spirit whom he hath given to us. Verse 24, Paul would put it in this way. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. Now how can you be assured the Holy Spirit's presence is in your life? Look at verses 23 and 24 again. We can be assured that the Holy Spirit has come to make his home in us as evidence, number one, by our correct doctrine. That's seen in the words, Believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. Number two, we can be assured that the Holy Spirit has come to make up his abode within us by our love for the brethren. Verse 23, the words, Love one another. And we can be assured that the Holy Spirit resides within by our obedience to His commands, verse 24, in the expression, keep His commands. Correct doctrine, correct love, and correct obedience. When all those three are found, it is the infallible assurance of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life. Let's move to the testing of the spirits. John won't leave now. His assurance based upon these three tests, he'll come back again. But now then, he's going to change his subject. Verses 1 through 6 of chapter 4. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby, or by this means, know ye the Spirit of God, that every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. This is that spirit of Antichrist, for as you have heard it, should come and even now already is in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them. We are of He that knows God hears us, he that is not of God hears not us, hereby know we the spirit of truth, the spirit of error." This is a wonderful section right here. Now, in these verses, John now moves from the test of love to take a second look at the test of doctrine or belief. This section here, chapter 4, verses 1 through 6, parallels that of chapter 2, verses 18 where he warned of the presence of Antichrist who had been among them, but who had gone out from them." Do you recall that? Chapter 2 and verse 19, they went out from us. They were not of us. If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, etc., etc. And he refers to them as Antichrist. The Christian community to which John now is writing is in the midst of controversy. The opponents to whom John was engaging were not professing pagans, but people who were still claiming to be Christian. And their goal was to place doubts in the minds of the people who were remaining in the Church, and to lead them away from apostolic doctrine to the new higher doctrine that they were receiving, supposedly, directly from God. In this type of setting, John needed to teach his readers how to discern between true and false teachers, and he described that this could take place in two ways, and you can use these two ways today. We're not going to enlarge upon a great theological discourse that will cause you to leave in wondering, well, what are these tests? I'm going to give you the tests, and then we'll go over them. John has stated that all believers have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, chapter 3, verse 24. That all have believed the truth concerning the person of God's Son, Jesus Christ, chapter 3, verse 23. But there are other spirits with which to contend. There's the human spirit, and then there's an evil spirit, which we had time to reflect upon that, but we don't. There's the Holy Spirit. There's your human spirit, there's the human spirit that exists in other people, and then there's the evil spirits. So when somebody makes a claim, now this is what the Holy Spirit has shown me, you need to raise the question. How do you know it's the Holy Spirit, your human spirit, or an evil spirit? All of these spirits seek a hearing from our human minds. The words, believe not every spirit, set forth both a duty and a warning. Christians are to stop listening to every spirit or spokesman which claims to receive their message from a supernatural source. Not every spirit represents God. Instead of being gullible Christians need to try or test the prophet who claims to speak as a mouthpiece for the Spirit of God. It's your duty, it's my duty to test the spirits. A large number of false prophets had already gone out from or abandoned the apostolic faith and had modified their message to accommodate the spirit of the world. namely that which we covered back in chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. Remember what that was? Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. The false prophets will adjust their message and call it the gospel, but it will be custom-fitted to remove the offenses of a cross to make it acceptable to the self-gratifying spirit that is at large in the world and in the Church. Here, then, are the spokesmen, or how, then, are the spokesmen claiming to represent God's truth to be tested? First, by the content of their message. John lists two contrasting spirits which exist in the world. They are, verse 2, the Spirit of God. You see that? And the Spirit of Antichrist, verse 3. These are described as he that is in you, the Spirit of God, verse 4, and he that is in the world, the Spirit of Antichrist, also found in verse 4. And John further describes these opposing spirits as the Spirit of Truth, Spirit of God, he that is in you, and the spirit of error, the spirit of antichrist that is in the world. So behind every human spokesman which is seen lies an unseen supernatural spirit. You are looking at a spokesman today that you can see, unseen to you. There is a spirit that is at work, and it's your responsibility to determine whether that spirit, be it of a supernatural origin, is good of God or whether it is evil. Else, if you do not make that effort, you're going to be gullible and be deceived by spokesmen who claim to represent God. So what separates a true spokesman of God from a false one? John says, notice, it is in what they believe or confess about Jesus Christ. What a person confesses about Jesus Christ exposes his spirit as being either a spirit of truth or a spirit of error. I had a humbling experience this past week of sitting down across the table in a Bible conference with a brother that I'd never met before, didn't know him, and got to talking with him and found out that he had all kinds of degrees, not only in the Bible, but in psychology and in social work, understanding the complexities of human problems and everything. I never thought that much about it. I was impressed with his background. He wasn't giving me this information because he wanted to make a show. I was drawing it out of him. What's your background? And then he started asking me, well, tell me something about you. And I started talking and I'd get out about ten lines and then he'd describe what I just said in a better way than what I just said it. sat and listened to me, and if he could have written, was writing a book about me quicker than what was coming out of my mouth. It was scary in that I was afraid he'd discover something about me I didn't want him to know. He was that knowledgeable. There was a spirit about him, and I would say that I had I was going to do this, and he would then take me out, and then you'll need this, and this, and this, and this, and here's what you'll encounter here, and here, and here, and I'd sit there and say, how did you know I was going to have to do all that? He knew it, even though he had never met me before. When a person confesses Jesus Christ, it exposes their spirit. Whether that spirit is a true spirit, that is of Christ or whether it is of Antichrist. In John's conflict, which may not be our conflict, but in John's conflict it involved the question of the incarnation. Did Jesus come in the flesh or not? That was the issue. If a teacher has the Spirit of God dwelling in him, then he confesses the incarnation. When you read then somebody who questions or denies the virgin birth of Christ, put it down, the content of the message is exposing their spirit. It's not a holy one, not a true one. Or any other aspect that would undermine the incarnation of God in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. So if a teacher has the Spirit of God dwelling in him, Then he confesses the incarnation, the wonderful truth that God did become man and came to earth on a saving mission to redeem lost sinners. The Spirit of God cannot confess anything other than the truth. Therefore, every teacher who has the Spirit of God will confess this same truth, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. True Christianity then can be examined Hear me, by the objective doctrine it teaches. I don't have to pit my subjective spirit against this teacher's subjective spirit. Whatever his subjective spirit claims, I can expose him to objective doctrine. Tell me what you confess. If you don't confess objective, apostolic doctrine, there's a false spirit. That marks him out with suspicion. Right doctrine, right spirit. Wrong doctrine, wrong spirit. Now, note the confession in detail in verse 2, chapter 4. Here is a confession of faith that existed among the early churches. The true teacher confesses, Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. First of all, the true teacher confesses Jesus. The name Jesus means what? Everybody know? Savior. What does that mean then? It is believing that Jesus Christ did come from God to seek and save men who were lost. He came to be the Savior of the world. And if your teacher will not confess Jesus at his saving mission, he's got a wrong spirit, a deceptive spirit at work here. Man, he may or she may come forth as an angel of light, but if they will not confess the Saviorhood, that Jesus is the Savior, men need Jesus to be their Savior. The red lights ought to start blinking. The second thing, the true teacher confesses Christ. The name Christ means Messiah, the anointed one of God. To confess Christ is to believe that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament Scriptures, that He is the fulfillment of all the prophecies of Scripture, that He is the anointed Savior sent from God to the earth. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, you believe that the Old Testament Scriptures are inspired of God and reliable. You're not going to believe that Jesus is the Messiah if you don't believe in the inspiration and authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. Thirdly, the true teacher confesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Chapter 3 and verse 23. This is believing that this Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, came out of the dimension of the spiritual world into the dimension of the physical world to save men in fulfillment of Scripture. It means that by his life, death, and resurrection and exaltation to the throne of God, he now ever lives as the God-man to intercede for repentant sinners. is the Son of God. That's a confession of faith. In contrast, the false teachers deny this confession. That is, they refuse to confess this about Jesus. In their actions they distort the gospel. And this departure from the truth of the gospel is the spirit of the Antichrist which they had heard was coming. The spirit of Antichrist is the spirit seen in apostasy or departure from the apostolic faith. A sample of such a spirit or a principle exists in every person who identifies themselves as a Christian but refuses to confess the true gospel of Jesus Christ. A person out here is pastoring a church down the street. They have an influential facility where they meet. They're influential in the community, but they will not confess Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They will not confess that he is the Savior that is fulfilling the Old Testament scriptures to come into the world to save lost men and women. That person is anti-Christ. That's the content of their message. They may claim to be Christ, but you remember a few weeks ago when we defined anti-Christ, anti can either mean that which is against or that which is in the place of Christ, a counterfeit one. How are you going to know the counterfeit from the true? You know, those that are gifted by our government to discern counterfeit money, do you know how they are so good at identifying counterfeit money so quickly? They know the real stuff, exactly. They don't have to study all the different imitations out here. They just study the real thing and hold that up and quickly they can point it out. Study the real thing, the gospel. Get a hold of that and you will be able to identify the spirit of Antichrist in a book, in a message, or in a private one-on-one conversation. Something is at work, either the Spirit of God or the Spirit of error. This is the Antichrist, the falling away, which John readers had heard was coming. And John says it was already occurring in the lives of the false prophets. If you will note in verse 3 that John's use of it rather than he indicates, at least in this context, that he is referring to a class of persons who deny Christ rather than to a single person. John's statement in chapter 2, verse 22, clarifies this. Let's go back there again. Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? Definite article. Follow me. He is, definite article in the Greek, the Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. Not as in our authorized version, he is Antichrist or he is an antichrist. He is the Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. Over in 2 John, chapter 2 and verse 7, it's even more clear that it's referring to a principle rather than a person. where John says, many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Verse 7, this is, and in my translation, a deceiver and an antichrist. That won't hold up in the Greek. It should be, this is the deceiver and the antichrist. The Antichrist is any deceiver who refuses to confess the truth of Jesus Christ. As I stated earlier in one of the messages, that does not necessarily destroy some theology about a future man of sin and a beast, as John describes in the book of Revelation, but I do believe that you cannot erect a doctrine of the person of the Antichrist from John's teachings. You can get a principle, but not a person. Now, these false teachers could not only be identified by the content of their message, but by the character of their hearers. This is seen in verses 4 through 6. We bring this to a conclusion here. Conclusion with two more pages, all right? The fact that John's readers had not left the apostolic faith proved that they had overcome the teaching of the apostates that they had belonged to God. But the power to overcome came not from their own natural willpower, but from the Holy Spirit's indwelling enablement. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." See, they didn't do it on their own willpower. They did it by God's power and the indwelling Spirit. The spirit of error and the spirit of truth cannot coexist peacefully side by side. This is why apostates cannot fellowship with apostolic Christians. You won't find them coming and seeking out Bible-centered They'll seek out another kind of a teacher. They must separate from and form their own fellowships, and these fellowships have a common bond. They're under the control of the world system. The system is headed up by Satan as its ruler. It's that system which John has described back in chapter 2, verses 15 through 17, the system that is built upon the creature's pride and self-gratification. As we saw in those verses, it expresses itself in three attitudes. The lust of the flesh, a desire for self-sufficiency and self-control so that one can always get his own way. The lust of the eyes, a desire to get everything I want, to enable me to get my own way. The pride of life, the desire to be able to brag about one's own being and achievements so as to gain a reputation above that of others. I call your attention to something. You have your Bibles there. Note that John begins verses 4, 5, and 6 with a personal pronoun that identifies three representative groups, ye describing his readers in verse 4, they describing John's opponents in verse 5, and we describing John and the other apostles in verse 6. John's conflict with the theys is over apostolic truth or not. They were rejecting the apostles. John rejects them. Ye, John's readers, ought to listen to John and not they. Now, the false prophets had a worldly, man-centered message. They had taken the gospel. removed its offensive elements, restated it in such a way to make it acceptable to worldly-minded people. Its message allows the proud, self-gratifying spirit to use God as a means to advance its own temporal, earthly plans, purposes, and pursuits. The message does not crucify the flesh in its lust, and thus worldly-minded hearers hear me, select worldly-minded teachers. Got it? How do you identify a false teacher? By the kind of hearers that listen to him, the character that are attracted to him. Paul instructed Timothy to be aware of this. 2 Timothy 4, 2 through 4, he charged Timothy to remain faithful to the doctrine which he had been taught. He said, preach the what? The Word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they gather or heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables." The truth of the gospel requires reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all patience and doctrinal line upon line and precept upon precept. And those who are worldly minded will not seek out teachers who use that as their method of approach. They'll seek out someone who's always rounding off the gospel a little more to make it acceptable to the natural man. This is humbling. It's humbling to me as a religious spokesman. But a religious teacher can determine much about himself by observing what class of people are pleased with his teaching. This is especially true of Jesus. John 8.47, he told a group of unbelieving Jews who had just rejected his message He that is of God hears God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." As a representative of apostolic doctrine, John could say without apology, quote, He that knows God hears us. He that is not of God hears not us. John knew that he believed the gospel. John knew that he loved God and he loved his people. He had a pastor's heart. John knew that he obeyed God's words of command. If this be admitted, John could then conclude that those who feared and loved God would receive what he taught them, and those who did not would not abide in his apostolic teaching. So in conclusion then, the type of people who welcome a message give a clue to its nature. The proud, the rich, The ambitious, the selfish, the sensual will insist on a message or a ministry which enhances their desires. People who love truth will respond to a spirit characterized by truth, and those who are deluded by error will respond to a spirit of delusion. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. I love the Gospel. I love people who love the Gospel, the children of God. And I love His commands to believe in the name of Jesus Christ and to love the brethren. I don't have any problem with that. I don't find that grievous. What grieves me is my imperfect ability to believe and love as I would want to love and believe. But one of these days that's all going to be changed. I have a hope of that. Things are going to get better in that area. And I'm going to be able to love as Jesus loved. Believe as Jesus believes. and obey as Jesus believes. I don't know about you, but I don't need a voice from heaven saying, Jim Gables, you're mine. I've had a foretaste of it. These are the evidences. What more would God, what more rather would we have of God to assure us? You want a lightning bolt from heaven? What would that tell you? That just tells you that maybe something supernatural happened, but it wouldn't tell you what. I'd rather have a gospel message, Jesus. I'd rather have brethren surrounding me who believe the same thing, who love one another, love the gospel. And I'd rather have good, wholesome commandments that God has instilled for the good of His people. to do right, that's the kind of people I want to be around. So, I'm assured everything's alright, okay? In spite of my imperfections, in spite of my lack of perfect love, in spite of my lack of perfect obedience, God knows my condition better than what my conscience or my feelings know about me. I'm going to listen to God, alright? Let's close in prayer.