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.

God wants us to know the truth. He wants us to learn what truth is. He wants us to walk in truth. He also knows that we are all born as lost sinners and that most people will remain in that state their entire lifetime. Too many of those lost people will become spiritual leaders who will be false teachers.
Jesus met many false teachers in His short public ministry on earth. They demonstrated their hatred for Truth which included Jesus. In Jesus’ time on earth many people were believing the false teachers. Many stood at Jesus’ trial and cried out “crucify Him, crucify Him”.
Peter shamefully denied Jesus three times in short succession even though he had earlier protested that he would never deny Him. Peter did not know the weakness of his own heart, but Jesus knew Peter. Jesus warned Peter, but he did not take that warning to heart. Due to the love and mercy of God, Peter could find forgiveness and he would become a strong spiritual leader in his time.
In verse 1 of our text, God addressed true saints as “beloved”. God has a special relationship with those who are saved. He loves all people but those who become His children move into a special category. Everyone can be in that place, but most choose not to be there. There are those like Cain of old, who wanted to be in that category, but he wanted to do so on His own terms. God said no then and He still says no today.
John was directed by God to warn us not to believe every spirit. We cannot see spirits. We can identify them by the actions of the person. We can also sense when we are being tempted to go the wrong way. It is not a gut feeling. Lost people can know when they are doing wrong, but they have chosen a path of confusion and thus do not respond properly to the wrong they are contemplating.
The sad fact of the 14 year old young man in Georgia is that he is a lost person who had evil thoughts and did not deal with them properly. At one point a police officer stood before the cameras with the school building in the background. He stated that the image behind him was a picture of evil. He made a statement that he likely did not fully grasp the significance of. Public schools are places of evil. Whether it leads to shootings or not, they are places of evil. It is amazing to observe parents still sending their children into those ‘devil’s playground’. School buses are the ‘devil’s taxis’ and most parents are willfully sending their children to a place of indoctrination. How is it that parents are so blind? The answer is because the parents do not know the Truth and are not interested in the Truth.
The U.S. vice president stood before the cameras and grimaced that it does not need to be this way in the U.S. People cheered her on. She has been in that place of responsibility for over 3 years and has done nothing to change the course of the U.S. for the better. In fact she has been a big promoter of the greater destruction of the U.S.
God told John to warn true saints to try the spirits. We need to try them against the Truth which is God. This is again why it is important to actually have the Word of God. You cannot try the spirits properly if you do not have the Word of God. That is why there is so much confusion today in the spiritual realm. Many people lack discernment and cannot understand what the fuss is all about.
I have family members who lack discernment. One of my brothers was heavily involved in following false teachers. He died in that state. His family is still involved in that poison. I occasionally check on false teachers they are following. This past week they had a big celebration and to the unlearned, it would be possible to come away from that broadcast and think things were good there. They talked about Jesus and they talked about prayer and they had “evidence” that God was blessing them because they had been able to purchase a building and pay for it and start several other outreach groups. For starters the music was of the devil. Secondly they used perversions. There was no discernment there. There was a lot of noise and a lot of hype, but no truth. Sadly, I have another brother who is also steeped in this poison. Yet, I am seen as the one that is in the wrong.
John was directed to warn about the false prophets. Many of them have gone out into the world. Did you read that? Many of them are gone out into the world. You cannot ignore the obvious warnings if you want to catch the more subtil warnings.
When a true child of God becomes complacent with the Word of God, he is in trouble. In verses 2-3 we are given the way to test the spirits. Notice in verse 2 that there is only one Spirit of God. The key is to listen to what the person says and does. Words alone do not equal a true confession. A confession is made up of what a person says and what a person does. I can claim to believe that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, but I can deny that with my actions. If I truly believe that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, I will follow what Jesus said. Those who do not know and follow the Truth, are following the spirit of antichrist. We have been warned that this spirit would come. In chapter 2 we were told that the spirit of antichrist was already in the world.
Those who are truly saved do not need to walk on ‘eggshells’. We can walk with confidence. We can know the truth because we have the Word of God. Those who are truly saved have the Holy Spirit indwelling them. That does not mean that we cannot be deceived. The Holy Spirit will show us the right way, but we need to know which is the right way. We need to be in the Word of God and we need to be in a good church where we can trust the pastor to teach the truth in all things.
God does not waste words. He knows how susceptible we are to being led astray. The solution is to be in the Word daily and to meditate on what we have read from the Word. We need to reject the imaginary thoughts we might have.
In verse 4 we are reminded that true saints are of God. We are also again reminded that we are little children. God’s children need to be humble and trusting in Him in all things. Those who are God’s little children have overcome the false teachers. How do we overcome them? “Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” The Holy Spirit will take precedence over the false spirits in the true child of God. He will remind us of a verse or guide us into further study so that we can discern truth and we can avoid that wrong thought or teaching.
The false prophets are of the world. That must also be understood. When we allow pride to rule, we will refuse to accept that false teachers are lost. We tend to want to try to find some particle of good in their false teachings. When we take that position, we open ourselves up to greater deception. Overcoming the false teachers means to conquer them. We conquer them by rejecting their teaching and laying hold on the truth. We do not try to get into a fight with them. If we are given occasion to speak to them we need to be careful to do so for God’s glory and not just to make a show.
In verse 5 we are further reminded that the world will hear the false prophets. They get a large following. People are quite impressed with men like Kenneth Copeland or Joseph Prince or Joyce Myers, etc. The people that hear them are of the world. They love that kind of stuff because if feels right. It is not right, but the world rejects the importance of discerning truth from error.
In verse 6 John reminded the readers that his teaching and that of other true spiritual leaders will be accepted by true saints because they know God. True saints are God’s “little children”. They are being trained by the Truth. They accept the Truth and they follow the Truth. Those that are lost will not accept what a godly teacher is saying. That is how we can determine the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
The goal is not to knock others down. The goal is to follow Truth. The goal is to become stronger in the faith. We cannot become stronger in the faith if we refuse to listen to the Truth. The broad way leads to destruction. True saints are not on the broad way and must avoid veering into that way. We need the Truth more than we often realize. Unless we are in the Word of God faithfully we will not see the importance of what John is saying here.
Pastor Bartel