Authentic Christianity #10: Testing the Spirits

How do we know what's true in a world filled with competing voices, opinions, and spiritual claims? In this message from 1 John 4:1–6, we explore the biblical call to “test the spirits” and develop spiritual discernment. The sermon emphasizes that our lives are shaped by the ideas we believe, making spiritual truth more important than ever. Using Jesus Christ as the ultimate standard of truth, we learn how to recognize deception, overcome false teachings, and confidently navigate life's spiritual battles. Discover why spiritual discernment is essential for authentic Christianity and how victory comes through trusting Christ, who is greater than any force of deception in the world. 

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Good morning. Good morning. So again, this morning, I ask the question, how important is our spiritual well-being? How important is it for us to be spiritually right? We as a people have placed a great deal of emphasis on physical well-being, and I think rightly so. Health care has been a driving issue in recent decades, and clearly, as a people, physical health and well-being has been a high priority in and among, our people. But how important is our spiritual well-being, that part of us that is immaterial, that part of us that is not spiritual, not physical. That part of us that doesn't weigh anything. What does it take to be spiritually healthy? What does it take to be spiritually right? And what's more important, to be spiritually right? Or to be physically right, to be spiritually healthy or to be physically healthy? How we answer that question is, is, really based on how we view the nature of reality? If we see reality is primarily just, physical, material reality, we obviously will see our physical health. In fact, we won't even understand the idea of spiritual health. We'll see physical health as being everything. But what is the nature of reality in terms of the physical and the spiritual? You all know that famous quote, the the pen is mightier than the sword. What exactly is that saying? And do you agree with that concept or reality that that ideas are more powerful than weapons? That, in the end, thoughts are more powerful than any physical force. If we believe that that is, that we believe that the spiritual realm is dominant over the physical realm, that the physical realm is actually dominated by that which has matter, is dominated by that which doesn't have matter. If we really believe that, then being spiritually right will definitely be, a primary of a of primary importance in our life. Now, I know that a lot of you may be irritated when you drive through, for example, road construction, but I actually love it. I may drive my wife crazy, but I love driving through freeway construction. And the reason why I love it is I try to figure out what on earth do these people have in mind with this big mess that's going on around here? I love to watch the overpasses as they're being built. I think it's actually. I think it's beautiful. I like to see the placement of the pillars and watch all of the, infrastructure all fitting together perfectly as it's developed. And these big arching on ramps and off ramps. And I love to see, you know, ideas that are entering into empty space come into reality. And, you know, the thing I see in that is that somebody had an idea ahead of time of exactly how everything was going to be, put into place, how everything was going to fit. And as that idea unfolds, it becomes physically apparent what was immaterial to begin with, what the idea was. And that's why I like it, because I wonder, what were these guys thinking? This is such a huge project, and how is it that, we could conceive of all this stuff fitting together before it ever happens, and somehow it comes together and it fits, perfectly together. And in the end, it's, a combination. It's a really a beautiful combination of form and function where, it's useful art, so to speak. And, as I thought about that, I thought, you know, there's probably a lot of times where, something goes wrong and some calculation is wrong, and all of a sudden there's things that don't match up quite right, and there has to be a readjustment. But what if somebody were to get in into the plan, into the idea, and corrupt the idea ahead of time? And so, the placement of the pillars weren't in the right place or the coming together or the bridges didn't match, all those things were corrupted because the idea to begin with was flawed. This is an analogy I'd like to use in terms of the importance of the spiritual realm. The, the, physical realm is a is predetermined by the spiritual realm. A good idea results in a good outcome, and a bad idea results in a bad outcome. Our lives are built on the spiritual. Our lives are built on the ideas that we hold to be true. And if we want a good future, that good future will be based on truth, on good thinking, on right ideas. As we continue to, go through our series entitled Authentic Christianity Reflecting the Love of Christ, today we're going to look at the importance of being spiritually discerning, being able to test ideas, being able to test, between what is true and what is false, and being able to spiritually discern what is right so that we might be spiritually right. And so this morning, I ask you this question. Are we spiritually right? How do we know if our lives are being built according to the truth? You know, the freeway construction, I think is a great analogy because it looks like a big mess. You know, when you're driving down the, 215 freeway are the 210. What is it? 215 freeway. And it's under construction right now. It looks a lot worse than it did the six, seven, eight months a year ago. It's a big mess. But as you're driving through, you have confidence that the people that are making that mess have an idea of how it's all going to, come together in the end and be better than it was before. And in the same way, you know, our lives might be incomplete and, we don't need to be all that burdened about, the mess that we see around us. If we're building on the right ideas, if our plan in the end, is a good plan, we can be confident in its outcome. If our plan, however, is distorted, by error or deception, the result will not be what we hoped it will be. So it's important for us to be able to test ideas, test the spirits. And that's what we'll be looking at this morning. This morning's message is entitled, Testing the Spirits. And we'll be looking at first John chapter four, verses one through six. Heavenly father, Lord, you have given us a standard by which we can test ideas. And I pray, father, that you would enable us to become skilled at discerning, what is true from what is false. Before we act on those ideas. Lord, we pray that you would bless the reading of the word this morning, and that we may be lifted by it. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. First John chapter four, beginning at verse one. It says this. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the point of view of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. So John starts out here and says, he starts by addressing, his his readers as dear friends. Dearly beloved, beloved friends. And he instructs his beloved friends to be careful, to be careful about what they believe, to test between falsehood and truth, to make sure what they believe comes from God and comes from the truth. The world has many lying spirits here, according to John, and we need to be able to identify those and avoid them. The theme of this morning is this we need to be able to test the spirits. Look at verse one of chapter four again. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Just because a person claims to speak God's truth doesn't mean that we should believe them. We need to test the spirits. Now what does it mean to test the spirits? To test means to judge or to discern, or to be able to evaluate between one thing or another. So where to test what is called here? The spirits were to be able to discern and evaluate between, what is called spirits in this passage, what claims to be true and what actually is true. The word spirit here is the word pneuma. You know, we get it. We use it in English for pneumatics. Air pressure. The word pneuma means spirit or wind. It is referred to in Greek as anything that is of the immaterial realm, anything that has to do with that which is nonphysical, that which doesn't have, you know, isn't dimensional, doesn't take up space, doesn't have height, width or depth or weight. And so, the word spirit is referred to, in terms of God is the Holy Spirit, God's perfect spirit. Perfect and holy. Essence. We use it in terms of our own soul. We say, you know, the spirit of a person. We're talking about the immaterial part of a person. A person's will, his mind, his soul, the part of him that doesn't have any weight. And in this case, spirit is also refers to that which doesn't have any weight in terms of doctrine or theology or ideas. Ideology is considered part of the spirit realm. And that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about the difference between truth and deception. We're talking about the spirits when it comes to ideas, doctrines and ideologies. Are they or are they from God or are they not from God? Is the question that we're to look at. How do we know if a spiritual idea, if, non-material thought, is a thought that God thinks is true or is a deceptive thought that is false, And we're told here to be discerning that not everyone who claims to be teaching God's truth actually is we have to be able to test and discern and to judge who is of God and who is not of God. So how do we test between ideas? The question is, how do we discern between one thing or another? Do we do we just use our own common sense? Do we just use our own inclinations? Well, that's really a good start. But but the problem is with our own inclinations is that we're all biased. We're all biased in many ways. We we have a problem that we all have several, biases that we start out with. And so our own common sense isn't always a good indicator. One of the many biases that we have, could be called is called, in fact, the confirmation bias. The confirmation bias describes something that's true about all of us, which is that we tend to, incorporate into our thinking the, evidence or the data that confirms what we want to believe. We favor, that which supports or confirms what we desire to be true. And so we are biased in that way. One of the most evident ways you see the confirmation bias is in sports. You have two people watching a close call in sports on a replay. And, they are looking at that replay with the idea of trying to find the evidence that whatever favors their team is true, and or the ball is either fair or foul. But it's so close you can't tell on the replay. You have the the team that's at bat looking for the chalk mark on the ball, and the other team looking for the the other spam fan looking for the little sliver of green between where it hits the chalk line or whether it doesn't hit the chalk line. And you can be sure that both fans will be biased towards whatever they want to believe. They're going to see the evidence in a biased way towards what they hope to be true. And that's true for all of us. And it's just one of the many ways in which we are biased in terms of our interpretation of reality. We, we tend to see things and evaluate things in terms of what we want to be true. Now, on a societal level, you see this being played out right now in a really big way in the, argument over the budget battle. Depending on your bias or what you want to be true will determine how you view the evidence in the current debate over the budget. And one of the ways in which people separate, in terms of their view of reality is in terms of the role of government and the idea of equality. There's two basic views of the role of government and and the idea of either equality, the idea that came out of the French Revolution and the idea that came out of the American Revolution. One idea of government inequality is that the role of government is to ensure or try to ensure as much as possible, equal outcomes so that there'll be equal result among its citizenry. And, so, the role of government is to try to have everyone, in the end turn out equal. That's the French Revolution's idea of equality. The American Revolution idea of equality is the idea that it's the government's role to ensure equality of opportunity, that everyone starting on the starting line is not, handicapped in any way, that everyone has an equal chance. And and that idea leaves the role of, of of the results up to the individual. Now, not arguing one way or the other. Right now, I'm not even trying to make that point. What I'm trying to the point I'm trying to make is we know how we're going to interpret the evidence by our confirmation bias, depending on which one of those views we want to uphold or affirm. And, either side could, could, could easily attack the other side, for areas that are flawed in their point of view. But we're, we're going to if it's very hard to stand back and just absorb all of the information in an unbiased way, we are biased. So if we're biased, and if that's part of the human condition, how can we test ideas? How can we test ideas in an impartial way, in a way that we can embrace, whether we like the results or not? Well, Jesus, gives us that way. And John points to that way by giving us in this passage our standard, our unbiased standard for how to discern truth and fiction. And this is what he says in verses two and three, how we test whether something is of God or something is not of God. He says this. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming in, and even now is already in the world. So what does it exactly mean, to confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? How is that the standard by which we judge are discern? Between the spirit of falsehood and the spirit of truth? Well, John, the writer of this letter writes in his gospel a full explanation of what it means for Christ to have come in the flesh in John chapter one. And he writes in John chapter one that that the word of God, the mind of God, the Logos of God, was preexistent that it existed before anything else existed in it. It always has existed, and it was out of this Word of God, this Logos of God, that the whole universe, including the world, was created. It was out of the mind, out of the ideas of God, out of the thought of God. That has always been that our physical existence has come into being. And then he makes another absolutely startling claim that this Logos of God, this infinite Logos of God that has preexisted all things, became flesh, became a human being, became one of us, dwelt among us, became a flesh, and Jesus Christ. And this is what it means that Jesus Christ is, is, is the Word of God in flesh. And this is the standard of all truth, that the Word of God became flesh and blood, and in the person of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ became the embodiment of God's truth, and therefore he is the measure, are the standard of God's truth. What he affirms is true is true whether we agree with him or not, whether we like the evidence or not. And what he affirms is false is false. Whether he's affirming something to be false, that we want to hold on to he himself the very embodiment of truth. Jesus Christ, is the standard to measure whether something is of God or something is not of God. What we want to be true may or may not be true. The measure of truth isn't our will. The measure of truth is God's Word. The embodiment of God's Word is visible through the life, teachings, actions, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Jesus Christ is the word became flesh to dwell among us, so that he might by His Spirit dwell in us. We have to set our biases aside and make Christ the standard for testing the spirits. Point number one. Our the theme again this morning is we need to be able to test the spirits. Point number two, point number one under the theme. As we are in a spiritual battle, we're in a contest between truth and deception. And I won't belabor that point because I talk about it all the time. So, I'll just say a few words about that in verse six. Here, we see that, we are we are from God. And whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. The reason is important to be able to test the spirit because we're in a spiritual struggle, of who to listen to, who are we going to listen to, and who are we going to follow? What happens based on the voices we listen to? Our logo here at University Park Church says discovering Truth together. And the idea in that logo is, that if we are able to discern through Christ what is true and embrace those ideas, then those ideas will embrace us. We are led by the ideas that we harbor in our heart. We become mastered by the ideas that we allow in and embrace the ideas we embrace, embrace us, and take control of us. The most important question a person can ask about themselves today is about, what will be the result of their life in terms of what they believe? Today, I said that poorly. What I mean to say is, if you if you want to know what your tomorrow is going to be like, the most important question you can ask about your future is what are the ideas that you are embracing today? Your future will be, written by those ideas that you're following right now. And if you want to know how you got to where you are today, it is the result of the ideas that you have believed in and embraced in the past. We have been led by what we have put our faith in, what we believe in, what we put our trust in. What do I believe? What what do I think is true? What do I rely on? What do I trust in? Today, as a result of yesterday's faith and tomorrow will be a result of today's faith. And Paul describes that choice of what we believe in as a battle of faith. It is this battle that will determine whether we are victors or we are vanquished in the future. Christ said the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come to give life and give it to the full. If you put your faith in the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy, you will experience, the thief success. And, you know, stealing, killing and destroying. If you put your faith in Christ, you will experience that life that he has promised to come and give. Our choice is who to believe in and who to follow. The champion of truth or the champion of deception? Again, the theme this morning is we need to be able to test the spirits. Point number one, we are in a spiritual battle. Point number two is we have victory in Christ. Look at. I can say unequivocally, without any lack of confidence that you will experience victory completely and absolutely. If your faith is completely and absolutely in Christ, and your victory will be to the degree to which, you have trusted in the truth and the embodiment of the truth is Christ. Verse four. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. The word there overcome is the Greek word Nike. You see it on all the sports apparel with the little swoosh, and it means to have victory over them. It's talking about overcoming the ideas of the Antichrist and the false ideas of the world. You will overcome them. And who is them? Who does them refer to? It refers to the advocates of seduction, temptation, and deception, the Antichrist, the false prophets, those who distort the truth. The power of the false teachers and their seductive arts have no power at all. If you don't believe them. The power of a deceiver is only in to the degree to which somebody believes their lie. And, we are set free from that power by a greater power that is within us. If the Spirit of Christ is in us. Let me try to illustrate you. Illustrate it to you with an old, story about an old friend of mine. One of my favorite neighbors at our old church was an old widow and elderly widow named Helen. I really liked Helen. She was a little, feisty at times, but, she really had a good spirit. Good heart. And I enjoyed her very much. There's just something about her I really, really favored. And, the she had one really strong weakness. Helen didn't know how things worked. She didn't have a good conception of how things worked. And it left her vulnerable to, being cheated. One of the very first days I ever talked with Helen to illustrate the point that she didn't know how things worked, and she came over to me, and she. She had a sewer clog in her house. And since we were across the street from her house, she somehow thought our sewer must be causing her sewer clog, and I made. I tried to explain to her that both of our sewers were connected to the main line, but they're not connected to each other. And I wasn't getting anywhere she could. She just was sure that somehow something at the church was causing her sewer to clog. So rather than trying to go at explaining it to her again, I went over and unclogged her sewer line and after I unclogged her sewer line, she trusted me forever with everything. You know, I was I was her pal. And, and over the years, I would protect her when, when contractors would come or workers or plumbers or whatever would come and work, she would always show me the bit ahead of time, explain what they're going to do. And if they were, legitimate, I'd say go ahead and do it. And if they weren't, I would protect her. And she she seemed to be a magnet for people that were always trying to separate her from her money. Well, one day these guys came to her house and, they were, they were they got her outside of her house, and they took her to where there was some stucco, some old stucco that was, kind of flaking off her foundation, her cement foundation. And they took a putty knife and they popped off the stucco off her foundation. And they said to her, your foundation is deteriorating quickly. And here's the evidence of it. They're popping off this old stucco that was, you know, nothing. It didn't have any part of the foundation. But she thought that she was in a panic because they told her her foundation on her old house was deteriorating quickly enough. If they didn't do something fast, you know, her house would fall down. And so they got went inside and they explained they had this magic paint that, they could paint on her foundation, on her house, on her stucco. That would hold everything together. And they wrote up a contract for $8,000 to paint with regular paint. The exterior of her house, excluding her trim. And then they set up financing for her. And she was in such a panic to make sure her house didn't fall down, that she signed that contract. And the point of the story is, is that she became vulnerable because she didn't take the time and that case to call me over and check it out, she became vulnerable to the deceivers and, she became vulnerable to the scam and entered into a contract with them. And she could have been safe had she stayed in the truth. In that case, an analogous to the truth would be my going over it and and showing her where the error was. Satan is the master deceiver. He knows our weaknesses. Just like con artists know the weaknesses of elderly widows. He knows what we what what how he might appeal to us in ways that he can separate us from life and form what is good and for what is right and for what is wholesome. And we're not able, one of the things that we absolutely have to realize about ourselves is we aren't able to defend against his cunning, crafty schemes on our own. He's just too good at figuring out what will go for. But if. Christ, if we check with Christ ahead of time, if we take the ideas that we're believing and put them and compare them to Christ teaching, if we seek counsel from God's Word, then all of a sudden the power of the deceiver is dispelled. If Helen would have spoken to me ahead of time, she. I would have been able to explain to her that that struggle had nothing to do with her foundation, that these people were trying to cheat her. And as soon as she heard that she would be free from their deception. And that's the way it is with Christ when the Spirit of Christ is in us and we're relying on listening to him, even if he's telling us what we don't want to hear, you know, even if we're telling him, Christ. But I love him, you love him, and Christ says he's not right for you. He's married. He already has, kids don't date a married man. But I was so nice to me. Doesn't matter what you want. It matters what the truth is. And, you know, if we take, what we have to him and match it with what he says rather than our biases. Then we will be safe from the deceiver, and we will overcome the deception and the world. Because greater is he that is in us than the one who is in the world. Again this morning, our theme is we need to be able to test the spirits. Point number one is, we are in a spiritual battle, and point number two is we have victory in Christ. I'd like to conclude this morning by looking at Ephesians chapter six, verses ten through 13. Ephesians chapter six, beginning at verse ten, says, finally, be strong in the Lord, and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil. Schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand the word there for the devil schemes his method here we're take. We're to take our stand against the devil schemes. His crafty, seductive tricks. That's what we're to be armored against. We're to take our stand against the liar and his lie and his his minions. And, that's what we are to stand against. And we can stand against that. According to that passage in the Power of Christ and the power of Christ in us. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we are like sheep, and you're in your fold, and we are completely safe when we're with you, you fend off every predator and you protect us perfectly and completely. But we are vulnerable if we think we are equipped to go out unprotected. In a world of carnivores. So we humbly come before you this day, recognizing that we need you as a standard to judge ideas by. And the standard is the idea that all of truth came and dwelt in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ. Help us to learn what you taught us and apply your teachings and your example and your life, that we might be free, Lord, out of your own mouth. You said that, we if we follow our hold to your teachings, we will be your disciples, and we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. I pray for us. I pray for victory and freedom into our future as we rely on you, Lord, in Christ's name we pray. Amen.