1 John 4 - Testing the Spirits
Tom Shrader examines 1 John 4:1-6, teaching believers they must test every spirit and teaching against Scripture to discern truth from error. He emphasizes that false prophets often come wrapped in love and good intentions, making the incarnation of Christ the crucial test - does the teacher confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh as God? Shrader calls Christians to be both believers in truth and unbelievers in error, equipped by the Holy Spirit to discern and reject false doctrine while maintaining love for those who are deceived.
“We're called to be believers and unbelievers too - believers in the truth and called to reject error.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 John
Recorded: March 23, 1989
Duration: 44 min
Themes: discernment, truth, deception, testing, false teaching, incarnation, holy spirit, love, new believer, questioning doctrine, pastor, teacher, facing false teaching, spiritual confusion, church member, young adult
Scripture: 1 John 4:1-6, 1 John 3:18-24, Acts 17:10, Matthew 1:18-21, Mark 10:17-22, Philippians 4:13, James 1:5
Theological Themes: false prophets, biblical authority, christology, incarnation doctrine, pneumatology, spirit discernment, doctrinal purity, biblical testing
Full Transcript
With that, let's turn to 1 John, a little book almost all the way to the back of the Bible. Written by the Apostle John, we've got a barrel of material to cover this week. We got sidetracked last week somehow, and we're going to cover quite a bit of material, but for a very specific reason. I want you to see how this whole letter flows, and I want you to see that John writes a little parenthetical insert in the middle of this discussion.
God Knows Our Hearts
We pick up in verse 18 of chapter 3, verse 19, really. John said this: "...we shall know by this..." By what? Well, that refers back to where we were last week, "...by the fact that we don't love just in word or in tongue, but we love in deed and in truth." John said, "...by that we know we're of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him, and whatever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our heart and knows all things."
John said there are times in your life when you, in fact, may feel guilty when you're not guilty at all, and there are times in your life when you won't feel guilty when you need to feel guilty. God is there, and God is greater than all of us, and God looks and knows your heart. Now that is an incredibly scary thought to me. God knows your heart. You cannot fool Him. There's no way to get around it. There's no way to beat Him. Everywhere you go, He's there, and He knows your heart.
I'm going through the Old Testament, doing some reading, and we just came to the part of 1 Samuel where God is telling Samuel that He wants a king, or since the people want a king, He's going to give them a king. He gave them Saul. Saul was a stud—a great, big, tall, handsome guy who probably looked like some of us in this room. He just towered above the people, a head taller, and the people said, "Oh, that's what we want. That's the king. Get him." So they gave him to them, and Saul didn't work out too well.
So God says to Samuel, "I want a guy, and I don't particularly care if his hair is perfectly styled, and if he's got the right clothes on, and the right watch, and if he's got a monogram, and if he drives the right car. I don't care about that. I care about the guy's heart. That's what I want." God knows your heart, and that's very comforting to the child of God, the believer, who's involved momentarily in some sin. God knows your heart. He knows that's not where you are. He just knows that you're there sinning.
But by the same token, it's incredibly scary to me to know that God knows exactly my motive and exactly what I'm all about, and He can dress me down like that if He wants to. John Paul Sartre, who is neither a theist nor a Christian, but an atheist, existentialist, said this: there would be nothing that would be more scary to man than the possibility of an infinite God meeting him and looking at him eye-to-eye. Well, Sartre was exactly right. God, in fact, is infinite, and He looks eye-to-eye. He knows exactly what we're thinking. He knows our heart.
Confidence Before God
Verse 21: if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Whatever we ask, we receive from Him. He said, whatever you ask, it will be given to you. Now, let me tell you, that verse has caused a great deal of confrontation, a great deal of concern.
Now, I want you to know that we're not going to deal with that verse, only because we're going to deal with it back in chapter 5. We're going to look at that verse and say, what in the world does that verse say? Because the Bible says, and Jesus Himself says on several occasions, whatever you ask, you're going to have it. Well, what does He mean? Well, about three weeks from now, we'll look at that.
"Whatever we ask, we'll receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing to Him." Here's the whole nutshell of the epistle of John, 1 John, up to now. It's in verse 23: "This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as He commanded. And the one who keeps His commandment abides in Him, and He in Him. And we know by this that He abides in us by the Spirit which He's given us."
The Source of True Confidence
Now, here's what John said up to now, because we've got issues all over the table. But the letter flows beautifully, and he says this: You should be confident. You should have confidence today. Verse 19, he said, I want you to know. Verse 20, he said, I want you to have confidence. Verse 24, he says, I want you to know. He said, I want you to be confident. I want you to be assured.
Here's the case, here's the question: where's your confidence? I have absolutely no confidence in myself. I really don't. And I know that's not some sort of false humility—I just don't have any confidence in myself. I mean, I know exactly where I would take this life if I could. In fact, I took it there for 30 years. I watched me run my life for 30 years. I don't have any confidence in that.
I don't have any confidence in my ability to get up here and to speak to you. If I got up here and I just laid out my philosophy of life, we would clear this place out in about 15 minutes. Ten. Five. Except for a few of you that are so nice that you feel sorry for me and hang around.
See, I don't have any confidence in me, and yet I think I live a very confident life. A very assured life because I have confidence in my Lord Jesus Christ. Any confidence that I have in me, any confidence that I have to get up here, any confidence that I have to face today is based on His strength, not on mine.
The SC football team this year had those little towels that they wore. We all said, "Hello, Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." You know, that's cute and that's clever and that worked. Until they met Notre Dame, anyway. And it worked for a while. But see, there's a great verse.
a great picture of this. We grab that verse, and there aren't a half a dozen people in the world that know what comes before that. I mean, we all got that verse memorized, and we got plaques in our locker rooms, and we got plaques in our homes, maybe some on our desk, but it says right before that, here's what I can do, all things. I learned to live with a lot, I learned to live with a little. I don't think that's what Rodney Pete had in mind when he put that baby on his pants.
See, my confidence is I've learned to live the life that God would have me live. And so do you. That's where real confidence comes from. That's the source of confidence in life. That's all he's saying. He's saying you can be confident not based on who you are, you get confidence based on who He is.
I have assurance in life not based on who I am, but based on who He is. I can face tomorrow not based on the fact that I've got confidence in the Fed, and they're going to get control of interest rates and inflation and all the other things, and that's going to allow me to live a full life. I don't have any confidence in that. My confidence is based on God being in control.
Our Confidence Comes from Who God Is
And that's what he's saying. He's saying you can live a confident life because God is God, and you're a child of God, and here's how you know it. You love one another. Now, that's the summary of what we looked at last week. He said, look, if you're a Christian, you're going to love the brothers. There may be Christians I can't stand, but I'm going to love them.
And he said, in word and in deed, I'm going to be there. I'm going to be available. I'm going to be able to meet needs. My time is available. My time isn't mine anymore. I don't have that luxury.
I had last night three-time microwaved cold cod because every time I sat down, the phone rang from somebody that needed something. And I got to the point where my mom and dad visited us last week. My mom said, finally, do something about the phone. Just turn the thing off. It rings all day long. And so does yours. With people who are saying, I need your help. I just need somebody to talk to.
He says, here's the measure. I love the brothers. Now, when we think of love, we think a lot of things. And John's going to pick up the theme of love when he gets to chapter 4 and verse 7.
Love and Truth Cannot Be Separated
But the first six verses of chapter 4 are a parenthetical insert. And it almost looks like John's going strong to the right and moves straight back to the left. Because all of a sudden, he starts talking about truth. He was talking about love, and now he talks about truth. And I want you to see we can never separate these two things.
Here's what he says. 1 John 4, verse 1: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they're from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming. And it is now already in the world. Verse 4. You're 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're 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."
Now, John says in verse 6, we can know the Spirit of truth and we can know the Spirit of error. Back over in chapter 3, verse 10, he said the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Well, they don't always look obvious to me, but John says they are obvious. Here's how I know they're obvious. There's a test.
Faith Is Believing What Is True
John says you and I are to have faith. Let me give you my definition of faith or at least a command or a part of faith. Faith is not convincing yourself that something is true when you know it isn't or when you're unsure of it. Faith is believing something that is true.
I want you to understand this. We have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a matter of you and I convincing each other and conning each other and going back and forth and saying, boy, I hope this is true. I'm not sure whether it's true or not. So I have faith that something that is untrue is true. That's not what it is. We have faith in the truth. We have faith in the real thing.
And John says, beloved, do not believe every spirit. Do you understand that we're called to be believers and unbelievers too? Sometimes we forget that. We're called to be believers in the truth. And we are called to reject error. And John says, in the midst of love, I want you to understand something. Truth is crucial.
Never Put Experience Before Doctrine
I was listening to a tape of a guy the other day. It was a tape of a man that was recommended by John MacArthur. Now, MacArthur is a fairly solid source in my mind. And in the middle of this tape, this guy says, I just have some things that I can't find chapter and verse for, but I've experienced them, and I'm willing to put my experience before my doctrine. Well, MacArthur is doing pinwheels if he hears this. We can never put our experience before our doctrine.
And let me tell you why I think John wrote those six verses in the middle of love. Because if love is the true test of Christianity, and John says it is, then the evil one is going to counterfeit love, isn't he? He's going to make love a barometer.
Satan Counterfeits Love
That's what happened in the Garden of Eden. There's Eve. There's Adam. There's this tree. And it's not just a single tree. There's a whole orchard of trees. But there's one, and God has told Adam, and Adam has told Eve, we're not to eat from it.
Satan comes, and he says, Eve, let's eat from this tree right here. And she said, I can't. God doesn't want me to eat from it. And Satan said, isn't that amazing? I thought God loved you, Eve. If God really loved
You, Eve, wouldn't He let you do just about anything you wanted? I mean, that's kind of a mark of real love. It's just total freedom, isn't it?" No. Eve says, "No. He said I can't eat from it." He said, "I'll tell you why He doesn't want you to eat from it. Because He's a jealous guy, and He knows the day you eat from it, you'll be just like Him. And I'm telling you, Eve, I'm telling you," Satan says, "out of love, I'm telling you, eat from the tree." And she does.
See, a false doctrine comes so regularly wrapped in love. Jim Jones is a great example. We have a vision of Jim Jones and Guyana and how Jonestown and how it ended, but everybody forgets how it started. It started as kind of a love feast in San Francisco. I mean, he received award after award from city planning and from housing and development and from the city council, and there were pictures of him and the mayor because of what the good things he was doing. In fact, there's a very embarrassing picture that came out with Jim Jones and Rosalyn Carter. Here's the first lady with Jim Jones. And I mean, he was taking the city by storm with love. And he was telling these people, "If you really love me, you're here just to meet my needs. Forget what this says. This is just kind of a jumping off point."
Real Love Tells the Truth
Men, you can't forget what that says. John says, "I want you to be a believer, and I want you to be an unbeliever." And if I really love somebody, I'm going to lay out the truth for them.
I want you to remember the story of the rich young ruler. I don't know why, but maybe I see myself or saw myself as a rich young ruler. I don't know, but that story has had such an impact on me. Jesus is walking along, and a rich young ruler comes up and kneels down in front of Him. He said, "What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said, "Well, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't kill. Honor your father and your mother." And remember what he said humbly? He said, "No problem. I got it in the wheelhouse. I've done all that since my youth."
Now, there's a next verse in Mark's gospel that's pretty important. It says this: "Jesus looked at him and loved him." That's really important.
A Modern Illustration
Have you ever been in this situation? It's just you and some guy, and you're sitting in Coco's. It's about 10:30. If you ever, anybody here, are a sociologist, or you just want to do a great study on people, blow into a Coco's around 10:30 and around 2:30, because all you have in there are people with problems. They all go to Coco's to solve their problems. There's always two people in a booth, two women over here and two men over here, and there will always be a man and a woman who obviously are separated, and they're solving their problems at Coco's. Every Coco's in the world is like this. So you go into Coco's about 10:30, and that's where they meet.
Now, you're sitting there, and this guy is somebody you've worked with, and you really care about this guy. And he came to you and said, "What must I do to be saved?" You didn't say it that way. He said, "I don't understand it. How come in this business world that's so competitive, in a life that's so hard, in a life that even you've had troubles in, maybe even more than me, how come you have peace and I don't?" Now, men, that's somebody saying to you, "What must I do to be saved?" You just need to understand that.
So you say, "Well, let's get together at Coco's at 10:30." And you sit down with him, and now you start to talk. And you get to talk for a while, and you say, "What must I do to be saved?" And you say to him, "Well, you know, there's just a lot of things you've got to do, and it's really important that you're squared away with God, that you've got everything squared away with God." He said, "Oh, I've got everything. No problem. I've got everything squared away with God."
And you really love this guy. Men, you're at a crucial moment in that meeting. What do you do then? See, that's one of those silent moments. Can I suggest to you, that's one of those moments that may come but once in a life to that guy sitting across from you. See, and there's something in us that says, "Gosh, let's see. He said he's right with God. I'm just going to drop this thing. He's obviously right with God. Different dictionary and different terms, but he's just right with God."
Jesus's Response to the Rich Young Ruler
If you really love him, you're going to do what Jesus did. Here's what Jesus said to him: "Ah, you kept all those. One more thing. I forgot. Sell everything that you have. Give it to the poor and follow me." I want you to understand. Jesus loved this guy, which means He was willing to tell him the truth. And it says that the man's head dropped and he walked away because he was very rich.
Now, Jesus is not teaching salvation by philanthropy. He's not teaching that for me to get to heaven, I got to give everything I have to you. Because if that's true, what have I done? Well, I just condemned you to hell. So, you got to pass it over here. So, we just keep passing it around and hopefully you got it when I die. Now, that's not what He's saying. That makes no sense. That's not what He's saying.
He's saying this: "Look it. You're telling me you got all this stuff squared away. You're telling me you kept the Ten Commandments. Let's start at the first one. Any gods before you?" And for most of us, He has hit the nail on the head. Money has become a god or objects or possessions have become a god. And He's saying, "I want you to understand something, rich young ruler. Out of love, I want you to understand something. I want you to really get this square. You're nowhere. You think you're everywhere and you're nowhere. You're no more square with God than this obvious degenerate over here in the corner." And Jesus said, "I love you."
The Need to Test the Spirits
Now, I want you to bring that background to this verse because here's what he says. He said, "I want you to test every spirit." He said, "I want you to find out if it's from God." And here's why. Verse one: "Many false prophets have gone out into the world."
The Reality of False Prophets
Jesus warned us that false prophets have proliferated into the world. He said there's a proliferation of false prophets in the world. They're everywhere. Jesus has been fighting this since He was on earth. In fact, here's what He said: there are going to be false prophets who come in my name, and He said don't have anything to do with them.
Men, I want you to understand that the process of questioning and testing the spirits is of God. It's not of Satan. It's healthy, not evil.
The Noble Example of the Bereans
Luke records for us in Acts chapter 17 that Paul and Silas were blown out of Thessalonica and landed in Berea. Here's what Luke says - let me read it to you. Acts chapter 17, verse 10: "The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the synagogue of the Jews. Now, these men, these people in Berea, were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with great eagerness. They examined the scripture daily. Here's why: to see whether it was true."
You and I are to test these spirits to see if they're true or not. We need to understand that there's false doctrine running around all over the world. It's everywhere - in the pulpits and on TV.
The Problem of Human Nature in Ministry
Let me just tell you, I am more and more convinced that the one thing we can bank on is the sinfulness of man. Man is a predictably sinful, greedy, slimy little creature. I hope I didn't hurt your self-esteem, but that's kind of where we are.
When you've got a TV ministry or radio ministry and you're dealing in millions of dollars, the sinful part of man really creeps in. When the bills are 30 days past due, it's really hard to stand up there and tell somebody that they're lost and sinful. I want to tickle their ears. In fact, that's what Paul says - I want to have my ears tickled. There are a lot of guys around that will tickle them. He says watch out for this.
The First Test: The Incarnation of Christ
Here's the first test of a false prophet. Verse 2: "By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." He said here's the first test: Where do they stand on the incarnation of Christ? Where do they stand on the person of Christ?
Joseph is confronted by the angel in Matthew's gospel, and he's told that Mary is going to give birth to a boy. Joseph is not particularly excited about this. Here's what the angel said to him: "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary your wife. For that child which she has conceived is of the Holy Spirit." He said first of all, that other carpenter is not the father - the Holy Spirit is. So don't worry about that.
Secondly, understand this: "She'll bear a son, and you shall call Him Jesus, for it is He who will save the people from their sin." That's the whole point of Jesus Christ. He was born to die on the cross to save you and I from our sin. That's what we do tomorrow - we celebrate the crucifixion. We celebrate the only perfect man that's ever lived. We celebrate His agonizing death on the cross, because in it we have freedom from sin.
Why Jesus Went to the Cross
That becomes a pretty important question: Who does that teacher say that He is? Does he say Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets?
Men, remember why Jesus went to the cross - not theologically, but humanly. Why did they take Him to the cross? Here's why: because He went to the synagogue, He stood up, and He began to read from the Old Testament, from Isaiah. As He read, He was reading a passage that told of the coming Messiah. Mark tells us in his gospel when He was done reading, He closed the book, He sat down (which is the position of teaching), He sat down and He said, "Today it's fulfilled."
They said, "Wait a minute. You just said You were God." And He said, "That's right." He came along to a kid on a pallet and said, "Your sins are forgiven." Remember, they said, "I don't like that. Only God can forgive sin." And He said, "Bingo. That's absolutely correct. You got it."
Time after time, they came after Him and finally decided to kill Him because He said He was God. Now we've got to decide: was He? I'm suggesting to you the only logical answer is to say absolutely yes. He was God come in the flesh. That's why Jesus died on the cross.
Testing Religious Leaders Today
There are all kinds of people out there that don't believe that. It was nine years ago last week that I became a Christian. About a year after I became a Christian, I thought God had called me to meet with every religious leader in the valley to see where they stood on this very issue. So I started to call these guys - in love.
I sat down with this one guy. Some of these guys you would know, and others are high up in their denomination - priests, bishops, all this. I said, "Why did Jesus die on the cross?" The first guy said this, and I've never forgotten it: "He was a political prisoner. You need to understand that that's what they did with political prisoners in that day."
I said, "I don't think so. But let's accept that's true. Did any other political prisoners ever rise from the dead?" He said, "Well, you've got to understand something. That is not to be taken literally. That is a figurative analogy of what will happen to all of us."
I said, "Well, I don't believe that." He said, "Hey, do you know anybody that's risen from the dead? Have you ever seen it?" I said, "Well, no." He said, "Well, I rest my case." I said, "Well, that didn't sound right."
Various False Teachings About Christ
So then I went through this. I heard, "Well, he's a picture of God. He wasn't God. He was a picture of God." I heard he was a great teacher. Here was the one I heard: "He was the Christ spirit" - that he wasn't God, that at the baptism he became God, and prior to the crucifixion - I heard all kinds of stuff.
Here's the first test of whether a guy is of God or not of God. What does he say about Jesus Christ? Does he say He's the Messiah? And men, can I say this to you with all of the sincerity I can muster? You need to go to the guys that are teaching you and ask them this question: What do you say about Jesus Christ?
And men, if they don't answer that correctly, then you need to get out of there. And I got nothing else to teach you. If they're going to lie to you about a fundamental truth like that, then you can't be trusted with anything else. Now that doesn't mean you stay in a vacuum. That means you find a church that's a Bible teaching, Bible believing church. And there's a billion of them around, and there's good ones.
He said there's the very first test. And he said, "I want you to understand something. There's going to be a time when there's false prophets. And you better just belly up to the bar and understand it. And you better be willing to ask the tough questions."
False Prophets in High Places
I don't know how many of you saw Larry King. It's Easter week. So Larry King decided that he'd do a series on the inerrancy of the Bible, which I thought was pretty noble. And he had a fundamentalist. And then he had a man representing a major denomination.
And the fundamentalist simply said what we would say all along. And this other guy who's very, very high up apparently in his church—a church that many are involved in—he said this: "No, this is not. You're going to believe this thing cover to cover? No way. He said there's no way. How are you going to believe that cover to cover? He said it's a chauvinistic document that puts down women and encourages slavery."
Hey guys, this guy's a false prophet. He had on a collar and everything. The man's a false prophet. Jesus said guys like that are like whitewashed tombs. They look real good on the outside and they're dead on the inside. And Jesus told you and me to get away from guys like that, to not have anything to do with guys like that.
The Deception of Similar Language
I sat down with a guy who is from a church here in town. And he came to our office. We talked for three hours. And we got done. And here's what he said—you ever heard this one? He said, "You know what's interesting, Tom? We're not saying the same thing. We're just saying it a little differently."
And I said, "Well, let me ask you something. Do you believe Jesus is the only son of God?" He said, "Well, no." I said, "Do you believe when Jesus died on the cross, that alone was sufficient to pay the price for our sin?" And he said, "No." I said, "Do you believe that there is but one God with three personalities?" He said, "No." I said, "Do you believe this is the total word of God inerrant cover to cover?" And he said, "No."
I said, "Let me tell you what I think is scary. What I think is scary is we're saying totally different things in almost the same way. That's what I think is scary." And man, that is scary. You need to be sharp and you need to be shrewd. That's why you need to know this baby cover to cover. And man, you'll never grow spiritually until you get into God's word. And that's what He says. He said, "I don't want you to accept this stuff on face value. I want you to understand that if somebody doesn't confess Jesus is the Christ, they're not of God."
Greater Is He That Is in You
Now, that can be overwhelming. Here's the good news. Verse four: "You are from God, little children, and you've overcome them because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."
Let me be as transparent as I can be at this point. I really believe this false prophet thing. And sometimes I think people look at me and kind of think I'm a spiritual Joseph McCarthy, you know, that everybody's a false prophet. And sometimes you look at it and you say, "How am I going to know? I mean, this guy is so good. I would have never picked that out."
I want you to understand something, man. Greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. If you come to Christ in repentance and faith, God's living inside of you in the Holy Spirit. In fact, Paul says this—I want you to grab a hold of this. There's no temptation in life that you're going to encounter that you can't overcome, because greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. Do you understand that, man? That the Holy Spirit lives inside of you?
You know, sometimes I think we get this sense of God that God's got a will for our life and God's got a plan for our life, but it's kind of like an Easter egg hunt. He really doesn't want to show it to us. So we run over to see if it's up in the tree or down in the cactus or over here in the bush. Man, God says, "I want you to understand my will." In fact, He says in James, "I want you to be wise. Here's what you've got to do to be wise. Just ask me."
The Cost of Biblical Truth
Man, we need to really pray that God gives us eyes to see leaders as they really are and to understand that this is the Word of God and that we cannot alter the Word of God and we cannot change the Word of God. Can I just say one other thing? You're not going to be very popular with this philosophy.
Donahue had on a group not long ago, and so Phil had it pretty balanced like he always does. So he had his five guys up there, and the first one is a fundamentalist, an evangelical, all the buzzards. So they're going on, and Phil's going, "Let me make sure I understand here. Now, who gets to heaven?" And he said, "Well, Jesus said, 'I am the way and the truth and the life, and nobody comes to the Father but through me.'" Phil said, "My, that sounds like spiritual bigotry." And he said, "Well, I'm sorry, that's the way it is." And I mean, the hands are flying, and everybody wants to tell this guy what a jerk he is.
But Phil said, "Look, this is just the introduction. We'll get back to you." Now he comes over to this guy, and this guy's from the Unitarian Church of Northern California or something. And he said, "Let me ask you the same question I posed to him, who gets to heaven?" And he said, "Well, I want—"
Life as a Journey and the Challenge of Truth
I want you to understand something. Life is a journey. We're all children of God, and as we move on this journey, and as we sojourn along, it's a process where God, day by day, teaches us more and more. And I'll tell you who gets to heaven—all of us will one day get to heaven. Well, the people are going, yeah, right on. I mean, I want to hear that, don't I?
But I confess this. I've been there. I'm here to tell you the day that I walked out of watching the movie "Oh God" with George Burns. I watched that movie, and I walked out of that thing, and I said, "Bingo, that's got to be it." George isn't God, I'm sure of that, but I'm sure what he's saying is right.
I watched Gandhi, and Gandhi said this—I want you to understand something. He was on his way to confront the Muslims, and the Hindus were saying, "Don't go, don't compromise with him." And Gandhi said, "Wait a minute, I'm a Muslim, I'm a Hindu, I'm a Buddhist, I'm a Christian, I'm a Jew." There's no way.
The Definite Article and Exclusive Truth
Men, when you say Jesus Christ is the way and the truth, if you take that sentence back to your fifth grader, and you say, "Diagram this sentence," he's going to say to you, "Hey dad, we got what we call a definite article here. It's the word 'the.' And 'the' precludes and excludes anything else but the object that follows it. The only way," is how that reads. And then it puts you at odds with the world.
Can I give you the key to this whole thing? You need to be of God, in the world, testing the spirits, understanding that you have the spirit of truth. That's what He says in verse six. He said, "We're from God"—the "we" there, in verse six, the personal pronoun in the plural, speaks of the apostles. He who knows God listens to us. He said, if you really know God, you're going to listen to His Word—it's infallible—and you're going to believe it.
Living a Life of Testing in Love
We need to live a life that tests and challenges every spirit, that submits to the spirit of the Lord, and rejects the spirit that is not true. But men, here's the key. Grab hold of this. This is the answer. It has to be done in love. It has to be done in love.
I have to get the ability to sit down with somebody, and to let them know that their doctrine is false, that what God says about them is that they're lost, and I have to let them walk away, and I have to let them say, "Well, he may be right, he may be wrong, but at least he didn't just absolutely turn me off. He loves me." See, now I haven't learned how to do that. Here's how you learn how to do that. Submit to the Holy Spirit, and He provides that.
The Story of Two Pastors
Great story of a pastor who was kind of forced out of a church. They got a new pastor, and one day two guys from the church met on the sidewalk. The one had left the church about six months before the new pastor came, and he met the new pastor, and he said, "What's the new pastor like?"
And he said, "Well, the new pastor's pretty good. He tells us that we're sinful, and we're lost, and if we don't change our ways, we're going to hell." And I said, "Well, that's just like the old pastor." And he said, "Yeah, but the old pastor kind of made us feel that he was happy about it."
That's everything, man. See, that's everything, is to be able to tell the truth with love.
The Challenge of Loving the Sinner
Here's one of these little glib phrases: "Oh, love the sinner and hate the sin." Well, how do I do that? I mean, if you're involved in adultery, how do I deal with your adultery at the same time have you think I love you? I haven't figured out a way to do that.
What I've got to do is I go to that meeting, and I say, "Lord, James tells us in Your Word, so it's got to be true, that if I ask You, You'll give me wisdom. I ask You to give me wisdom, and let this person sense the love in my life for You and for them." That's the only way you can do it, man.
The Test of God's Word
I want you to understand that truth is important, that doctrine is important, that if something works, but it contradicts this, you need to throw it out. Whether something works or doesn't work is not the test. Whether it's of God or not, and agreed upon in His Word is the test. That's the acid test.
We get together next week. John is going to shift back to the theme really he's talked about all along, and he's going to tell us something that we all know. He's going to say, God is love. But he's going to say, "I want you to understand what that means, that God is love."
A Call to Examine Your Life
Let me ask you to examine your life, to take a look at your life, and see if, in fact, you are following a false god. Have you ever come to Christ in repentance and faith? And you need to take a hard look at that.
God said, "Here's the barometer on judgment day: What did you do with My Son Jesus Christ?" Not how long were you in church. That means zero for salvation. That doesn't mean what did you do with your money and how did you give. He said, "What did you do with Jesus Christ?" Have you ever come to Christ? Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of your life?
See, even the demons believed in Jesus. Remember that. As Christ would come along and He'd meet a man that's demon-possessed, the demon would cry out, "I know who You are. You are the Son of God, the Lord Most High." They didn't have any problem acknowledging that. But do you believe it? Has it made that 18-inch journey from your mind to your heart?
The Evidence of True Faith
And if so, men, it will affect the way you live. And here's how it'll affect it. You'll begin to love the brothers. You'll begin to love truth. And you'll live a righteous life.
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that it's true. Thank You that it's real. Father, we just ask right now to just open up our eyes so we can really see in our hearts and our minds so we can understand who You are. God, help us understand that we celebrate tomorrow the death of Your Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross because in it we have eternal life. Father, make us men who test, who question, who know Your Word so we can lay it down next to the teaching that we hear. And if it doesn't match—
Father, give us the strength to reject the teaching. Father, help us get serious about our relationship with You. Not just a play thing, not just something that we do, but serious, dead serious. Father, thank You for each and every guy in the room today. I appreciate so much what You're doing in their life, what You're doing in this group.
Father, help us be men of love. But help us be men who take a stand for Your truth. Help us be men who go into the world and do the right thing for the right reason. God, thank You that Your Word is true and it's real and we can trust it.
More than anything, we thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, for His life and His death and His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven. Father, thank You for Jesus, and it's in His name we pray. Amen.