Some people are just gullible.

Gullible written on the ceiling!

“Don’t be such a sap!”

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Dear friends, do not believe every spidrit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is how 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 the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

1 John 4:1–6

FALSE PROPHETS AND EVIL SPIRITS

This has always been a problem, since the beginning of time.

1. This is not a new thing.

Spiritual scams may the longest running in the history of the world.

“The prophet who presumes to speak a message in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die. You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the Lord has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”

Deuteronomy 18:20–22

John has already dealt with false prophets who have come into/left the church in C2:

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

1 John 2:19

1. This is not a new thing.

2. This is a demonic thing.

The antichrist may not seem anti-Christ at first glance.

• People catch on quickly if you come out and say the most heretical thing you believe at first.

False teachers/prophets come from within the church, not without.

Demonic

3. We must fight these things.

Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all.

Jude 3

People don’t like it when you call a spade a spade.

And God forbid that for the love of some fans
I keep quiet and watch them die with their blood on my hands…
And I know that some would label me a Pharisee
Because today the only heresy is saying that there’s heresy

Shai Linne, Fal$e Teacher$, 2013

CURRENT DANGERS AMONG OUR FLOCK

“Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.
So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.”

Matthew 10:16, NLT

As a shepherd, I try to think about this on a fairly regular basis. To get up on a little hill overlooking the flock, so to speak, get some binoculars out, and survey the area to make sure there aren’t any wolves circling the flock, licking their lips.

Getting fooled by short term fruit.

Just because a teaching/teacher/church is the “hot” thing in our day doesn’t mean that it will turn out to be the right thing on that day.

Online Dangers

Anybody can claim to be anybody and say anything.

In 2019, 19 of Facebook’s top 20 pages for American Christians were run by Eastern European troll farms overseas, internal documents leaked to MIT Technology Review reveal. The data shows the vast spread of Facebook misinformation is largely powered by coordinated efforts among foreign professionals working together to spread provocative content in the U.S. These groups, based largely in Kosovo and Macedonia, have been particularly successful when it comes to targeting American Christians. Though they split their efforts among multiple pages, they were mostly operated by the same groups. Collectively, their Christian Facebook pages reach about 75 million users a month—an audience 20 times the size of the next largest Christian Facebook page.

Relevant Magazine, Sept 2021

• Discernment bloggers, just waiting for someone to stumble.

Making secondary issues primary.

False Saviors

If they/their message/their theology/their ideology/their candidacy is the only hope for … then their hope is in the wrong place, and they’re wildly misguided at best, or outright lying to you at worst. Jesus is our hope.

It’s all about Jesus!

This is how 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 the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

1 John 4:1–6

Not just say, confess. Believe. Act like it.

A.W. TOZER, HOW TO TEST THE SPIRITS

Strange as it may seem, the danger today is greater for the fervent Christian than for the lukewarm and the self-satisfied. The seeker after God’s best things is eager to hear anyone who offers a way by which he obtain them. He longs for some new experience, some elevated view of truth, some operation of the Spirit that will raise him above the dead level of religious mediocrity he sees all around him, and for this reason he is ready to give a sympathetic ear to the new and the wonderful in religion, particularly if it is presented by someone with an attractive personality and a reputation for superior godliness.

While dealing with these matters we should keep in mind that not all religious vagaries are the work of Satan. The human mind is capable of plenty of mischief without any help from the devil.

1. How does the teaching affect my relationship with God? Is He magnified and glorified, or diminshed?

The heart of man is like a musical instrument and may be played upon by the Holy Spirit, by an evil spirit or by the spirit of man himself. Religious emotions are very much the same, no matter who the player may be.

2. How does the teaching affect my attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ? Does it magnify Him and give Him first place? Or, does it subtly shift my focus onto myself or some experience?

He must stand at the center of all true doctrine, all acceptable practice and all genuine Christian experience… no matter how delightful or satisfying it may for the time seem to be.

But—and this is the greatest test—the true Spirit always glorifies Christ; He is always in the center; He is always given the preeminence. The true prophet is not the man who talks about experiences and visions and what he has done and seen, but about Christ. And when you have heard him you do not say, “What a wonderful man”; you say, “What a wonderful Savior!”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

3. How does the teaching affect my attitude toward Scripture? Did the teaching come from and agree with the Word? Does it increase my love for the Word?

Whatever originates outside the Scriptures should for that very reason be suspect until it can be shown to be in accord with them.

Beware of any man who claims to be wiser than the apostles or holier than the martyrs of the Early Church.

A growing acquaintance with the Holy Spirit will always mean an increasing love for the Bible. The Scriptures are in print what Christ is in person.

4. How does the teaching affect my self-life? Does it feed self or crucify it? Does it feed pride or humility?

Nothing that comes from God will minister to my pride or self-congratulation. If I am tempted to be complacent and to feel superior because I have had a remarkable vision or an advanced spiritual experience, I should go at once to my knees and repent of the whole thing.

5. How does the teaching affect my relationships to other Christians? Does it cause me to withdraw, find fault, and exalt myself in superiority? Or, does it lead me to genuine love for all that truly know Christ?

Any religious experience that fails to deepen our love for our fellow Christians may safely be written off as spurious.

6a. How does the teaching affect my relationship to the world system? Does it lead me to pursue the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life? Does it lead me to pursue worldly riches, reputation, and pleasures? Or, does it crucify the world to me?

I would add something to that; 6b if you will, from L.M. Wilson, not A.W. Tozer.

6b. How does the teaching affect my relationship with the people of the world? Does it cause me to grow cold to them, to hate them, or to think of as my enemy rather than my mission field? Or does it cause me to weep over them, like Jesus over Jerusalem.

Preached on missions in hard places in a church in SOILL, and one of the deacons said to me afterward, “I’ve never thought of Muslim people as a mission field before, just people that the United States needs to bomb into oblivion until they’re wiped off the map.”

• Standing not on my opinion but the word of God, that kind of thinking is demonic.

I believe that the a constitutional, democratic republic is the best form of government in the history of the world. Not perfect, but better than any of the alternatives. But being assigned by the King as an ambassador of His Kingdom to a democrary brings its own unique set of challenges.

In every election year, I’m going to remind you: the men and women who sit on the other side of the aisle from you, have yard signs, FB posts that are different from yours, are the very people God has sovereignly placed you in proximity to, for you to be a light in the darkness and salt

7. How does the teaching affect my attitude toward sin? Does it cause me to tolerate sin in my life or to turn from it and grow in holiness?

Any teaching that makes holiness more acceptable and sin more intolerable is genuine.

Anything that weakens his hatred of sin may be identified immediately as false to the Scriptures, to the Saviour and to his own soul.

My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal
life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

John 10:27–28

Make sure the Spirit of God is in you, and then make sure that it is the Spirit of God and not some false, evil spirit that you are listening to.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones