Antichrist spirits may promote a false Jesus to divide Christ and His church

The Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Antichrist

(1 John 4:1-3, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 4, 2016)

[1] Beloved, do not believe every spirit,

but test the spirits to see whether they are from God,

for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

[2] By this you know the Spirit of God:

every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

[3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of the antichrist,

which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Test the spirits

John instructs his beloved brothers and sisters in the church that they must test what different teachers are saying. He says specifically that the church should “test the spirits.” We want to follow the teaching that comes from the Spirit of God, but not every spiritual teaching is true.

John insists that many false teachers have gone out into the world. This was an accurate assessment in the first century and it has been true throughout the New Testament era. Not every spiritual teacher brings the truth. They need to be tested.

Jesus and the Spirit of God

How then is the church to “test the spirits” of those who claim to bring a message from God? John's answer is disarmingly simple and very important for us to take to heart. The Spirit of God is known by the way that He confesses the one and only Jesus.

Specifically, the Holy Spirit is intent on bringing this God-glorifying message: “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” The name “Jesus” was heaven-sent—a name for the One who would be the Lord's appointed salvation for real live sinners in the flesh. The I-AM—the Lord is our salvation.

The title “Christ” means Anointed One or Messiah. He has been chosen by the Father and marked with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. He is the long-awaited Prophet, Priest, and King. All of Old Testament history pointed to Him and prepared Israel to receive Him in the flesh as the only hope of God's chosen people.

“The I-AM is salvation” and “the Anointed One” has become a real man who knows you. He is the church's eternal Lord in human form now forever. Anything less than this confession is not a message that the Holy Spirit of God can ever endorse.

For this reason, the real Jesus of historic biblical Christianity is central to all true spiritual confession and all honest Christian living. He is the God/Man of all Christian light and heat.

While some may deny Jesus by a direct assault against His Name, this is not the only false antichrist spirit that may come to the church or emanate from the church. Some would confess the Word “Jesus” but then deny all the biblical content regarding His true being and His saving work. This can never be tolerated among those who claim to be the true teachers of the church.

Deny His Being: Some might affirm Jesus, but insist that He was not the I-AM. Others would suggest that the being Jesus was the Lord God, but that He only seemed to be a man.

Distort His Mission: Some might ignore the question of Jesus as both fully God and fully man, but insist on co-opting His Name to turn Him into a promoter of their own favorite agenda.

The only safe haven for the church is to receive the Word of the Scriptures as the absolute truth of God. Jesus is who the Word says He is. He has done what the Word says that He has done.

John insists that there are many spirits in this world. How are we to distinguish between the Spirit of God and some other spirit? The true Holy Spirit promotes the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Every spirit that will not bring glory to Jesus as our Lord and Messiah come in the flesh cannot be from God. But is the church in our day adequately discerning concerning the spiritual influences that fill our hearts, minds, and lives?

False prophets have brought us Jesus the Social Revolutionary Leader and Jesus the Positive-Thinking Inspirational Speaker. Neither of these false Christs knows anyone's name. Neither is the husband of the church. Such deceptions will undermine our right thinking of Jesus as the I-AM Lord, the Christ, who came in the flesh, and who has died, risen, and ascended into glory.

John uses the term “antichrist” in connection with false prophets and teachers. What exactly does he warn us about antichrist spirits in the two other passages in 1 John that contain “antichrist?”

First, a spirit of antichrist insists on Jesus without the church:

[2:18] Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. [19] They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Second, a spirit of antichrist insists on the church without Jesus:

[2:22] Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. [23] No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. [24] Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

The real Jesus is with the church, and the real church is with the living biblical Jesus. What God has joined together let not man separate. We must insist on Jesus and the church being together forever.

If we would be careful to protect our marriages from those who would want to divide us from husband or wife, and we should, how much more should we be zealous for the union of the true Jesus and His church!

False teaching about Jesus will undermine the tender bond between the Lord and His beloved bride. We need to fight for the truth of our glorious husband and resist anyone who would make Him anything less than the center of our existence together as His people.

Old Testament Reading—Haggai 2:1-9 – The Spirit and the glorious house of the Lord of Hosts

Gospel Reading—Matthew 5:13 – You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.