Jesus Christ Is The Test

December 2

Hosea 12-14

Psalm 135:15-21

Proverbs 28:22-23

I John 4

Jesus Christ Is The Test

“Beloved, 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.  By this you know the Spirit of God:  every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world.  You are 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 hears them.  We are from God.  The one who knows God hears us; the one who is not from God does not hear us.  From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”  I John 4:1-6  LSB

John lays out very clearly how we can identify false teachers.  If they confess that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him,” (John 14:6)  then they are from God.  If they do not believe that, if they believe and preach that there are lots of ways to get to God, that all the religions worship the same God, or that Jesus is just one way to God then they are not from God and they are a false teacher.  That is the only test.  There are lots of theological issues that are heavily debated between denominations within the Christian faith.  Many of these are important issues but they are not of primary importance.  One of my former pastors, Brad Johnson, used to say, “We have to keep the main thing, the main thing.”  The main thing is Jesus.  We cannot mess that up.  We have to be clear about who He is and that He is the only way to get to God.  Satan has done a great job of muddying the waters.  He has made up many religions to satisfy all the different desires and wishes of men.  He has created many different gods and many pathways to try to appease those gods.  He doesn’t have to get men to worship him, he only has to get them to worship anything other than Jesus and he has succeeded.  None of the other gods are real.  Ultimately, every other god is Satan in disguise.  “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14 LSB 

John then mentions the spirit of antichrist.  He is not speaking of the specific person that will be the Antichrist spoken of in Revelation.  In this passage, he was referring to the spirit of antichrist, which is the teaching that rejects that Jesus is God’s Son, that He came to Earth as a man, died on a cross and raised Himself from the dead.  This teaching denies that Jesus is the Messiah.  This spirit was active when John wrote this letter and it is still active today.  This false teaching will continue until Jesus returns.  The spirit of antichrist has and will continue to manifest in various forms and individuals.  One day the Antichrist will appear and will deceive many.  Until then, we can expect Satan to use many antichrists and false teachers to lead people astray.   We have to remain in the Word so that we are able to recognize false teaching when we hear it and reject it.