This Is A Test
(I John 4:1-6)
1. A teacher sent home a letter to all the parents after the first day of the new school year. It read, “If you promise not to believe all that your child says goes on at school, I will promise not to believe all that your child says goes on at home.”
2. When it comes to politics, people can be very particular. When it comes to buying a home or car or even decorating, people take their time and do research. Yet when it comes to doctrine or churches, many people just go with the flow.
3. The most important thing about us is what we believe. Yet, for many, doctrinal and ethical issues are for the eggheads, idealists, and people who love unimportant details.
4. Can you be a true follower of Jesus Christ and embrace gay marriage? Switching genders? Abortion? Cohabitation? Child abuse? Corrupt money-making? Using God’s Name in vain?
I don’t think so, but may would disagree with me.
Main Idea: We need to test what we are taught and what we hear, based upon God’s revealed objective truth.
I. We Must Reject Pollyanna-like GULLIBILITY in the Spiritual Realm (1).
1. Some people think any religion/church is good & that we are all trying to do same thing, make the world a better place. That is exactly what I mean by Pollyanna-like gullibility.
2. “Pollyanna syndrome, the name being taken from a book of the same title, means an excessively or blindly optimistic person. ... when the situation does not necessarily warrant such an attitude” [sciencedirect.com].
3. Some people get particularly Pollyanna-like when it comes to churches, religions, theology, or doctrine, even people who are more discerning in other areas of life.
4. Something bad happened in this congregation, and it may have happened throughout the churches of the time. We simply don’t know for sure, but it seems like there was a significant defection back to mainstream Judaism or religions acceptable to Judaism.
A. Choosing to be SELECTIVE and diligent rather than passive and instinctive.
Deuteronomy 13:1-4, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.”
B. TESTING what is taught.
When I was a kid, maybe 10, I built a homemade ladder to climb a crab apple tree in our yard. The ladder broke and I landed on a catch-basin/sewer lid that tipped, and I fell in up to my armpits. I hadn’t tested the ladder; it couldn’t hold me. That’s how false teaching is.
C. Testing the SPIRITS.
1. Prophetically
2. Instructionally
3. By example/lifestyle
“The distinction between prophecy and teaching is often fuzzy in New Testament times, and at I John 2:27 we have already seen the hint that these antichrists are in fact false teachers… it seems they saw themselves as inspired an authoritative teachers about Jesus…” Ben Witherington III
Matthew 7:15-16a, ” “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits.”
D. We should constantly anticipate the THREAT of false teaching.
We need to test what we are taught and what we hear, based upon God’s revealed objective truth.
II. We Must Use Major DOCTRINES as Criteria (2-3a).
A. We must seek what the Spirit of God endorses, so we must believe in the SPIRIT.
B. We want agreement regarding the major doctrines that ACCOMPANY the Name of Jesus.
Some people weigh all doctrines the same. This is not very wise. The fundamentals.
John 9:22, “His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.”
1. That He came from God, pre-existent deity.
2. That He became incarnate as a man.
3. That He is completely pure and sinless.
4. That He is the promised Christ, thus recognizing the authority of the OT.
5. That He provided propitiation on the cross and rose again.
6. That we cannot save ourselves by commandment keeping or Jesus would not have had to offer propitiation.
7. That we have eternal life simply by believing in His Name.
8. That the sign of regeneration is an obedient life characterized by love.
9. That He will suddenly appear at His second coming.
10. That those who do not believe in Jesus will experience spiritual death.
11. That evil spirits do exist, and that the world, the flesh, and the devil are real enemies of the believer.
C. No matter how persuasive, helpful, or winsome, the real issue is a high and complete view of JESUS.
We need to test what we are taught and what we hear, based upon God’s revealed objective truth.
III. We Must Understand that a Spiritual WAR with Plenty of Espionage is the Norm (3b-6).
A. Satan’s strategy may be to PERSECUTE believers, but SABOTAGE within the church is universal.
• Studying denominations; some the result of sabotage, some the result of needing to regroup, drawing the faithful.
• We are in competition for the souls of men (sometimes).
B. The spirit of ANTICHRIST means evil forces now oppose Jesus and true churches.
• Do false teachers know they are false teachers? Sometimes. Often not.
• Some false teachers have great egos or a lust for attention; but some have simply been deceived and believe they are teaching the truth. Paul the Apostle, when he was Saul of Tarsus, spoke out against Jesus & Christians, and he thought he was serving God.
• John deals more with the first kind, who act unethically & deceptively.
C. These false teachers MANIPULATE based upon worldly wisdom.
D. The Holy Spirit indwelling us is GREATER than Satan and his hordes (4).
E. Overcomers are grounded to the teachings of the APOSTLES.
1. The only accurate source of these teachings is the New Testament.
2. The Scriptures are a complete and sufficient blueprint for belief and practice.
F. We TRAIN in counter intelligence by becoming more fluent in Bible and doctrine.
We need to test what we are taught and what we hear, based upon God’s revealed objective truth.
