I John 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3  And every spirit that confesseth 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 is it in the world.
4  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.
5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Well, it has been a few days now since we have communicated. Monday they took out my left kidney. They say it was a successful surgery. Tuesday was a rough day. Wednesday was quite an improvement. Was supposed to go home Wednesday but they got their wires crossed and it did not happen. Maybe today. I am thankful for the prayers of God’s children.
My room is close to the common sitting area. Of course people go sit there and there is a T.V. there as well. Yesterday morning someone turned it on to a “devotional”. I could hear it from my room. It sounded like it was natives talking, a man and a woman. They took the prayer Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 6 and mixed in their language with it. That would be fine, but what they said in English was so far from the truth.
The reason we put these devotionals out is to be sure to add to others who are speaking the truth. I know we are not the only ones speaking the truth, but I also know there are many who are corrupting the good Word of God.
In our text we are told not to believe every spirit. We need to try the spirits to see whether they are of God. I often tell people in our church to open their Bibles and follow along with what I am reading and preaching. We will never know the truth if we go by our feelings. We will not know the truth it we limit ourselves to our opinions.
We need the Word of God to know the truth. God knows that, but so does the devil. God calls him the “god of this world”. He is very active in trying to keep people from the truth. That is what he did in the Garden of Eden and Jesus said he is a liar and the father of it.
In our text, God warns us there are many false prophets gone out into the world. That should be a concern to those who are saved. We should be praying for those who are speaking the truth and appreciate the effort they put into seeking to guide us on our way. Of course a true, Bible believing church is important for this. There is a man who sends me stuff at times, but he rejects the local church and so he has no voice with me. He claims to be saved but finds fault with all churches. He assumes it is his duty to critique churches. If he were to obey the Lord and be part of a true church, he might have something to say. Since, he is ‘better’ than everyone else, he has nothing to say.
In verse 2 John was directed to tell us how we can know the Spirit of God. The next phrase cannot be taken in isolation. What does it mean to confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? Mark, Luke, and Acts all record individuals who claimed they knew Who Jesus was. In each case, they were possessed of the devil. In our text, God is certainly not telling us we should believe the devil.
John was directed to write further about this matter. It is obvious from verse 3 that groups like the J.W.’s are on the wrong path. The Catholics also deny the deity of Jesus Christ. They put Mary above all others, including God! Mormons and many other groups also deny Jesus’ deity and incarnation.
Going back to our opening illustration, the North American Indians are spiritists. They have a false belief that keeps them from the truth. They, like many others, including the Charismatics, like to take license with the Word of God and make it say what it does not actually say.
Those that are of God, have overcome the false teachers. We do not go to battle against them. We do not tell them to get lost. We submit to the truth and are first of all born again, and then we read God’s Word and ask Him to guide us to a good pastor that can help us to understand His Word.
John tells us that we can have confidence in the truth if we will believe it. The world will reject the truth and they will embrace the many false teachers out there. That is certainly what we are seeing all around us.
It is important to have God’s Word and to read it and believe it. Again, the devil has been very active in promoting perversions of God’s Word. Most people don’t believe that, but that does not make what they believe right. There is a body of Truth. God tells us this. He also helps us to know where the Truth is. If we insist on not listening to Him, there is no hope.
Native spiritism is not the truth. Invoking the name of God and inserting His name into whatever we want to do, is not truth. Humbly submitting to the Word of God will protect us from error. For those who are saved, it is not that we think we are better than others. That competitive spirit is not of God. It is just that we are thankful we have the truth and the love of God in our hearts motivates us to seek to encourage others to believe the truth as well.
Pastor Bartel.