1 John 4:1-6 | "Trust but Verify"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Well, very good morning to all of you.

Brian and I bonded in a unique way yesterday.

We talked about South African food.

He had a South African exchange student stay with him, and he also went to South Africa.

But I never asked you, did they ever give you Mupani worms to try there?

No.

And Biltong?

Have you tried built?

That's good stuff.

Yes, jerky cannot compare to Biltong.

But nevertheless, this morning we will open God's word in 1 John chapter 4.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

And this morning I'm going to talk a little bit about lies and also about truth and the nature of each.

I want you to take a moment and think about the past six months, maybe even the last year or so, and count in your head every time you heard a lie being propagated, whatever form.

And I would venture to say we will be greatly underestimating the times that we've been lied to.

Research professor Dr.

Daniel Arielli of Duke University conducted much research on the idea of lying.

And he says unequivocally, it's proven that the default position in society is lying, not truth-telling.

In his book, Dishonesty, The Truth About Lies, he shows that only the degree of lying seems to change, not the frequency.

On the other hand, I've also found the research of Malcolm Gladwell, he's a well-known journalist, very fascinating.

His book, Talking to Strangers, was very informative.

And he did an investigation into trust and deception.

And he shows in his book very effectively that we are generally poor judges.

We trust by default.

We are a trusting people.

Humans are trusting.

Even when things don't seem to line up with logic and common sense, we still seem to trust.

It is strange, but it's true that people often what they see in visual media like television or YouTube or whatever the case might be, it somewhat has a spellbound effect on them.

And thinking what they see is reality and it and it must be true.

And there's no no doubt about what they see to be reality.

But Francis Schaeffer, way back in the 70s, already saw this, and this is what he said.

He said, for many, what they see on television becomes more true than what they see with their eyes in the external world.

But this is not so.

For one must never forget that every television news report has been edited.

It is an edited form of the event.

It is not the event itself, but an edited symbol thereof.

Very interesting.

You see, we get a sense of objectivity and truth in what we see in the media.

And we think there are no biases.

And everything we hear and see is true, but that's not the case.

Proverbs 14, 15 warns against that.

It says there the naive believes everything, but the sensible man considers his step.

And you see, President Ronald Reagan back in the 80s learned this the hard way.

Being naive almost came back to biden.

And dealing with the Soviets, he expected whatever they told him to be true.

But what he later on discovered was that Kabanese politics was a layer cake of deception, one layer of lies on top of another.

And so Reagan learned to verify whatever he heard.

And hence there was that phrase that was birthed out of the Reagan era called Trust but verify.

Trust but verify.

That's the title of my message this morning.

And it's based on uh 1 John chapter 4 and the first six verses.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

Trust but verify.

You see, the Berean church trusted Paul's preaching, but not after they went back to verify the truth of this and the accuracy of Paul's preaching.

They would trust it, but they went to verify.

Acts 17, 11.

Now, as we looked at the world unraveling at Wart's speed the past year, I wonder how many churchgoers blindly trusted whatever they saw and heard on the news and in the community.

Now I want to say here, true to trust but verify does not mean we are skeptical and cynical or even hostile towards the world.

For the world, after all, is our mission field, and we are to be, we are called to be gentle as doves and wise as serpents.

But we should be more discerning.

Not that I'm saying that every politician and every journalist out there is a liar, but what I'm saying is trust but verify.

You see, the Church of Jesus Christ should set themselves apart from the world who has no ability to really discern truth from error.

We are, after all, as the church, the what?

The pillar and support of the truth.

1 Timothy 3 15.

As we delve into John's world here in 1 John, what will hopefully strike a chord with you is the antithetical language that John uses.

John is very antithetical.

He categorizes things and distills things in such a way that you can only be on one side of the fence.

You cannot sit on the fence.

You see, John here in chapter 4 speaks about two spiritual realities, two epistemologies, one being true, the other being false, one of God and one of the world, one of the spirit of God and one of the spirit of Antichrist.

But in the end, what John is aiming at is there for us in verse 6, to discern truth from error.

By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

You see, if we trust and verify, we will be in the end be able to say, this is true, this is false, this is the spirit of truth, and this is the spirit of falsehood.

Let's walk through the passage, and I think we can outline the passage as follows.

We trust, but we verify the source, we verify the message, and we verify those following.

The source, the message, and the following.

Let's look there at verses one and two.

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 we know the Spirit of God.

You see, our job is to determine the origins, the character, and the following of all those red-herring block spots we have read, those fertile fallacies propagated on social media, those self-contradictory scientific reports we hear on TV, and of course the straw man fallacies that's often portrayed on network news.

Of course, we should not also forget the double talk that we often hear of politicians and preachers alike.

Once again, not to say that every blog, uh, new post or news report is a lie, but we are certainly every time to call to discern.

Whether it's a politician or a preacher, we must show discernment.

And we do that by firstly trying to figure out the source.

Where is this coming from?

Where are they delving to find these nuggets that is often brought to us?

Verify the source, and this is how we we verify the sauce.

It says there in verse 1, beloved, do not believe.

It's a clear command to stop believing.

Don't blindly believe.

But and what is the but test, or some translations may read, examine.

Examine the spirits.

The Greek word there for test or examine is the word dokymos, which is a test that uh someone who works with metals or gemstones conducts.

Growing up in South Africa, there are many diamonds and there are many fake diamonds in circulation.

But there is a test.

It's called Clarichi's test.

It's taking a highly toxic solution uh based uh on thallium, and that is diluted uh to a specific gravity that will match that of a diamond.

You see, the diamond will sink to the bottom in Claritchi's solution, but any fake thing will stay on top.

That is called Clarichi's test of authenticating a gemstone.

You see, the church itself does have a type of Clarichi test, and that test is not checking for gemstones or gold or something like that.

It is to evaluate what?

The spirits.

Now that's confusing if you think for a minute.

How do I evaluate the spirits?

Are these spiritual people?

Or are these uh spirits that we can't see?

Or rather, is it maybe something that indicates something of an ideological nature, a cultural trend, a teaching, a worldview, anything that carries some intellectual thought or viewpoint.

And in this case, it's either of the world or of the Spirit of God.

Just to keep this in the back of your mind, we must have a reality check here about the frequency of deception.

Look at the word there, false prophet.

Does he say one or two false prophets have gone out in the world or many?

The ubiquitous nature of false prophets must make us a little more cautious when we hear or see something.

But nevertheless, we are to exercise discernment in examining and testing the source and inspiration of everything we hear or see.

The Clareti's test for the church is not a thallium-based solution, but the doctrine and the confessions of the church.

Certainly, doctrine divides, but love unites.

But let me explain what I mean here by doctrine.

I'll give you a very simple example of a doctrine.

Look at verse 2 there.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

That little phrase, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that is doctrine.

That is the doctrine of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the dual nature of the Son of God, both man and God.

Doctrine is then nothing more than looking at Scripture and systemizing various scriptures in a thematic order.

It's correlating one set of scriptures with another.

And hence we can say here with much certainty that the doctrine of the dual nature of the Son of God, that he came in the flesh, can be confirmed with scripture, and it is scriptural.

Now, if the doctrines of the of the church and the confessions of the church are blurred by philosophy, science, sociology, anthropology, traditions, and even psychology, I do think we run a big risk.

Let me just say this: what the reformers used to say.

Sola scriptura.

Let's keep it scripture alone.

Now let me tell you what was happening in John's world.

The time that John wrote this letter, there was this uh this, call it fad, this fake news going around that Jesus did not have a real body.

That thing that you saw is not a real body.

That was a type of a phantom.

It was a Star Wars-like projection.

You remember Princess Leah when she gave the report?

You remember that?

Like a hologram.

They Jesus you like a hologram.

Because this is what the Gnostic philosophers and the alchemists and the prognosticators of John's day pontificated was that from a philosophical, logical, maybe even a scientific point of view, divinity cannot be united with humanity.

In other words, you you cannot take what is God and mesh it together, what is flesh.

So, what do you do with that?

What do you do?

So, what they were saying basically is this notion of Jesus taking up a cross, dying on that cross for the sins of the world, his eventual death and burial, and his resurrection in bodily form on the third day was all but an aura, a projection.

It was not real, though it appeared to be real.

Well, the church spent a few years figuring that out, and eventually this was not incorporated as doctrine but as nonsense.

It was known as the heresy of docetism, which the first council of Nicaea in 325 AD condemned.

Instead, the church came up with a confession, which became the doctrine of the church, which I believe is from Scripture.

Listen to this, you might find this familiar.

He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.

He was made human.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate.

He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to Scripture.

Is this scriptural support for what this doctrinal confession of the church was?

I think so.

John 1 14.

And the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.

Philippians 2.8 speaks greatly about the bodily form of Jesus Christ.

You see, this doctrine about the human nature of Jesus Christ.

And so we need to then make a test.

Where is this coming from?

Is this from the Spirit of God, as verse 2 says, or is this not from the Spirit of God as verse 3 says?

You see, it can only be on one or the other side of the fence.

Either it's from the Spirit of God or it's not from God.

On the 38th parallel, there's a thing called the DMZ, and it runs for a couple of miles.

It's a mile or so wide, and it's a neutral zone that divides what?

North Korea from South Korea.

You cannot set up camp there and say, I'm from the DMZ, I'm neutral.

You see, not in John's world.

John's world, you on either side of the fence, you cannot claim neutrality.

Doctrine is either from God or it's not from God.

And if it's not from God, where is it from?

Look at what John says there.

He says that every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ is not from God, but the end of verse 3, but this is the spirit of Antichrist.

Now let's try and find where is Antichrist coming from?

What is that all about?

Well, the Antichrist, we all know, is this uh apocalyptic figure in the uh in Revelation.

He uh himself imposes anything that is so-called God, and he exalts himself as God.

The spirit of Antichrist is under the full inspiration and control of the devil, who, by the way, is the father of what?

Lies.

Thank you.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth because there are there is what?

No truth in it.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character.

He is a liar and the father of lies.

So even when Satan speaks what it is true, it is designed in such a way as to deceive.

Satan can speak the truth.

He's a horde of demons, can speak truth, but they use it in such a way to deceive.

1 Timothy 4 1 clearly demarcates doctrine, not in terms of what is right doctrine or wrong doctrine, because that is way too vague and that is very subjective.

He divides doctrines in the following ways.

He says there in 1 Timothy 4 1, but the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith.

How are they going to fall away from the faith?

Well, they pay attention to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons.

So now you have two types of doctrine.

The doctrine that is from the Spirit of God and the doctrine that is from demons.

It's either or.

There's nothing in between.

Doctrine is divided, and doctrine divides.

Doctrine divides people into two camps the saved and the unsaved.

There is nothing in between.

You're either a child of God, as he says their beloved, little children.

You are either in the camp of the children of God or the not the children of God.

But there's nothing in between.

Doctrine is very antithetical in terms of its source.

It originates and is inspired either by the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Antichrist.

Let's do the next step of verification.

And that is to look at the very nature and the essence of the message.

Verse 4.

Little children, you are from who?

From God.

And have overcome them.

For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Verse 5.

And they are from the world.

Therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

And once again, John uses very anti-calculable language.

He says, Which side are you standing on?

You cannot stand in the DMZ.

There's no neutral zoo.

Where are you from?

God or the devil?

No, I'm in between.

No, you can't.

You gotta pick.

Either from God or from the world.

And when John uses the word world, he's certainly not speaking just of the physical world we live in, but in a sense, the spirit of the age.

I think the Germans have a word Zeitgeist that they use for the spirit of the age.

And the spirit of the age is antithetical to the things of God.

It is opposed to God.

It is anti-God.

It tries to replace God.

You see, people are to be identified by what they produce and propagate.

The messages that they propagate and produce give us an indication on which side of the fence they are and where the inspiration is coming from.

In fact, I love the New International Version's rendering of verse 5.

It says there, they are from the world, but they speak from the viewpoint of the world.

When somebody talks and they talk nonsense, they are speaking from the viewpoint of the world, i.e., representative of Antichrist, the devil.

There's nothing like a neutral message.

Every message in some way has a viewpoint.

It either expresses and supports the viewpoint of God or it expresses the viewpoint of the world, nothing in between.

But he says, we, as the little children of God, we have the ability to cut through the nonsense and lies because we have what?

Or who, shall I say?

We have the spirit within us.

John gives his readers the assurance, as the beloved children of God, they have the ability to overcome and be protected against the error.

And they can actually produce truth, not by their own strength, but by the Spirit of God.

Now tell me, what do I need in order to have the Spirit of God dwell in me?

You have to receive Jesus Christ.

That is the beginning of everything.

In order to be able to discern truth and lies, you need to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, which comes when Jesus Christ saves us and transforms us.

They speak from the viewpoint of the world is very evident in our times.

During all the political chaos and all the things happening in the past few months, I had somebody call me up and say, Well, Anton, I think you need to start listening to the BBC, British News, not American News Networks.

I say, why?

He says, Well, they every time they they open up news there, they say, we are dedicated to unbiased and truthful news reporting.

Well, okay.

But are their messages not maybe biased?

Because it's inspired by the world and will carry the world's viewpoint, not God's viewpoint.

In fact, it will be antithetical and opposing to God's viewpoint.

Neutrality is a fallacy, dear brothers and sisters.

We all speak from what is inside here.

And we will either reinterpret, readjust, refine, and reformulate so that it expresses who and what we are.

And again, we are either from the world or from God.

Much of what is distorted and deformed, readjusted, refined, reformulated, is not only expressing the viewpoints of the world, but it seeks to gain the interest of the world.

Look at the end of verse 5 there, dear brothers and sisters.

It says, and the world does what?

Tune in.

The world listens.

The world likes that type of thing.

Can I make a statement here, a blanket statement?

Lies are more palatable than truth.

You can seal more lies than you can seal more truth.

You can make more profit from lies than from truth.

What John is saying to us here is you need to look and see who tunes in.

Verify the following.

Verify who is tuning in.

Who is speaking and who is tuning in to a certain kind of message.

That will tell you what type of message that is.

Verify the following.

Jesus made it very clear when he spoke to the Jews in John 8.

The truth is liberating.

Truth is liberating.

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

John 8 32.

But that's not the way humans like it.

We would rather follow myths because myths make us feel good about ourselves.

2 Timothy 4, verse 4 forewarns.

2 Timothy 4:4

He says, there will come a time that people will no longer endure the truth, but rather turn their ears away from the truth to follow myths.

Look who runs after the pied piper of myths.

I wonder, Paul says there, there will come a time.

I wonder if that time is not now when people's like, I can't handle the truth, but I like myths.

Myths are far more believable than truth.

Jesus says in John 8, 45, he says, but because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.

Isn't that funny?

Have you ever had that?

You're telling the truth to somebody and they're like, I don't believe you.

Okay, I'm gonna tell you a lie.

Oh yeah, that sounds much better.

Thank you for telling the truth.

Okay.

Can I tell you?

We can fill this church.

We can fill this church three, four services.

If only we will embrace myths and propagate myths, we can fill this congregation to the brim.

But lo and behold, myths enslave truth freeze.

Save the unicorn, drive a Prius, rescue Jack Frost, switch over to solar power.

You see, the Pied Piper of Deception has come to town, and many will follow.

For they want the ear tickled by his soothing, tuney place for itchy ears.

And it says in Second Thessalonians 2 11, they follow lies rather than truth.

Why would people rather follow lies than truth?

It's because there's some problem with the wiring and the heart.

You see, who is the prince of this world?

The devil.

And he people are tuned in to hear what he has to say, and the Bible says there is no truth in him.

You see, truth is a bitter pill to swallow, but myths and lies are easy believable.

They are more tasty than bitter pills.

They are like sweet, dainty morsels to the soul.

The character of the message is revealed by the kind of followers it draws.

Look at John 4, verse 6.

John 4:6

It says there, we are from God.

We are from God, okay?

You stand here.

Whoever knows God listens to us.

Oh, you're gonna listen to our message, okay?

Who is not from God, you stand over here, okay?

You will not listen to us.

The world is certainly not drawn to the message of the church.

But the church is often drawn to the message of the world, and that's problematic.

We're called to trust but verify.

Pick side A or pick side B.

Those who listen to us are drawn to the message of the Christian church and respond favorably to the truth and God's worth.

Word, because they know God, they will be gravitating to truth.

Side B.

They do not listen, they do not like what is told, they have no appetite for the truth, and they do not respond favorably to God's truth.

Whoever listens to us is of God.

Now that could be a very, very dangerous statement in the wrong hands.

Because somebody could say, a preacher could say, you gotta listen to me, and if you don't listen to me, you're not of God.

Or you have to listen to exactly this or that church's message, or you're not of God.

John is not making a blanket statement here about blind obedience.

But what he is saying here is we cannot follow a personal message, a preacher's whims, some arbitrary thing.

But rather, the benchmark is what?

Scripture and scripture alone.

Because in scriptures there are no lies.

Scripture alone is what we use as the measuring rod.

And some will be drawn to that, and some will be offended to that.

And we dare not, dear brothers and sisters, make light of biblical truth because there are eternal ramifications.

If we as a church, which is called to be the pillar and support of the truth, if we cannot tell truth from error, and if it's not important to tell truth from error, many people will climb on the bullet train to hell at the conductor's last whistle call.

It's especially important, dear brothers and sisters, that we trust and not be cynical people, but we better verify.

Verify the source.

Is this the Spirit of God speaking here?

Or is this this the spirit of Antichrist?

Verify the message.

Is the can the message be supported by this?

And if it cannot be supported by this, or if it contradicts this, or it denigrates this, then it's a false message.

It's lies, it's myths.

And then number three, verify the following.

See who follows the Pied Piper.

Listening to his soothing message.

Tickles, itchy ears.

Let me wrap it up here, dear brothers and sisters.

Dr.

Edmund Hibbert gives wise comment on verse six.

Let's just close there with verse six.

By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

He says it's vitally important that we get to that conclusion on everything.

Everything we hear and everything we speak, because he says these two spirits represent two distinct moral realms competing for the control of the masses of humanity.

He says it is warfare between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, for they are contending for control over the life and destinies of people.

People's destinies hang in the scales of truth and error.

Let us go to God and ask him to have grace upon us that we will be people of truth.

O God, give your spirit in abundance.

Give us your grace in abundance.

It is said that the Son of Man came in human form, and he dwelt among humans, and he was full of grace and truth.

Yes, Jesus, you came to give us truth so that the truth can free us from slavery.

And I pray, Jesus, that your spirit will work mightily in our discernment, that we will tell apart truth from lies.

I pray, God, that you will save the lost in our community and in our midst.

Bring them to you, Lord, by the truth.

We need no other plan than Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

We need not to improve on an age-old message that have saved millions.

So I pray, God, that we as a church body will stand firm on your truth.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.