I John, 4:1-3
Josiah Matthews · Mar 26, 2006
1 John, No. 25
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826234725749

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright, well, let's dig in. Let's read the whole passage, in case you didn't have time to study it this week. Let's go ahead and read this together. Ready? Go! 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, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

Okay. So, let's go through this verse by verse and word by word. Beloved, well, we've seen this several times already, agapitas. five times it's used in the book by the Apostle John. And I did a quick little search and noted that God the Father uses this word, beloved, when He refers to Christ. Remember, this is my beloved Son, He said on a couple of occasions. Isaiah, as it turns out, also uses this word.

He, of course, wrote in the Hebrew, but when Isaiah 42.1 is recorded in Matthew 12.18, It's translated Agapitas. Paul uses Beloved, James, Peter, Jude, and the author of Hebrews. So, everybody uses it. And of course, it's a term of endearment. It's a reference of God's love for the individual, their loved ones. But also, it teaches or indicates that the writer or the author also loves these people that he's writing to.

Okay, next is do not believe. The verb is actually do believe. It's pastuo. It means to believe, to trust, and sometimes it's translated to be entrusted with something, a responsibility. It's present tense. It's also in the imperative mood here, so John's telling them, you must not believe every spirit. It shows up ten times. I also noticed that out of the 246 occurrences in the New Testament, John uses Pestuo 108 of those times. So over a third of the times that Pestuo shows up, John uses it. So John has a lot to say about trusting the Lord, believing the Lord.

And then there's a little negative particle in there that makes this a negative command. Okay, so it says do not believe every spirit and it's a neuter adjective, pon. I've put a little picture of Einstein on there, because there's a little technical rule for you. There's several different rules in Greek for this adjective, pon, or pos, and when it's with a singular anarthrist noun, or a singular noun that does not have the definite article, then you translate pon, every.

And that's what's going on here this morning. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. spirit, ta pneuma, and some Greek students, hacks, will pronounce this pneuma, and that may be right, but that sounds too weird, so I just smooth it out like we do in English and say pneuma.

So pneuma, 13 times in 1 John, it shows up, it's one of the key words of the book, so here it is on our key word page. And this is actually probably the toughest word I've come across yet to study and translate. There have been a couple of tricky places in 1 John already in this class, but this was probably the trickiest. It took the most time to figure this out. Spirit can be translated different ways, like several different Greek words can. And here are some of the different ways that spirit can be translated.

Breath, just your breath that comes out of your lungs and mouth. Wind. Spiritual gifts. This is the word that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians when he's talking about the spiritual gifts. He's talking about the spirits, the spirituals. It also can refer to the immaterial part of man. Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 15 to refer to the resurrection body. He uses this word. It also can be used as your aim, your purpose. This was our spirit character. It can refer to someone's character. Bin spirit, this is the word that the authors used to refer to the Holy Spirit. Also demons and angels.

So context is going to be everything in translating this one. Or not translating, but interpreting it. Well, then one more, by metonymy, one who is actuated by a spirit, or controlled or influenced by a spirit. And you notice that I have our passage this morning under this definition, by metonymy. So, what in the world is that? Well, metonymy is a figure of speech, a trope. Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one entity is used to stand for another associated entity. Let me give you a couple of examples that you're familiar with.

The pen is mightier than the sword. Pen is associated with and stands for literature. Does that make sense? is associated with and stands for, in this case, military might. So, whether or not you agree with this, it's not scripture. What he's saying is that literature is mightier or more influential than military might.

Another one, and this is from scripture, the tongue of the righteous is choice silver. is representing words, the words that you speak. The words of the righteous are choice silver. Another, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord. Well, he's obviously not talking about the physical cup part. but he's talking about the contents of the cup. So the contents of the cup are associated with cup, and cup is used in place of the contents. That's metonymy. So this morning, I think I have it here.

Spirit, do not believe every spirit. Spirit, and in the context, it's either going to be the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of the Antichrist. Spirit is used in place of man. Spirit and man are closely associated because the spirit actuate or empowers the man. So when he says, do not believe every spirit, he's actually saying, do not believe every man that's influenced or controlled by a spirit. And there's two spirits in our passage, the spirit of God and the spirit of the Antichrist.

Does that make sense? That's a pretty important point. Why? Because most people will not read that that way. They won't see. And I didn't until I dug. My first glance was, oh, he's just talking about man, the immaterial part of man. But then as I did some cross-referencing and dug a little deeper, it seems to be pretty clear that this is what's going on. But you'd be happy, obviously, feel free to do your own study and check me out on that. You don't have to, though. You should, though.

Now, spirit is used similarly in 2 Thessalonians 2.2. I'll show you this one.

This is Paul, of course, writing, and the Thessalonians had been given some false teaching concerning eschatology and time events, and they were told that the day of the Lord has already come. So, Paul says, we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter, as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you. So it's similar, here he's telling them not to be deceived, and in the previous verses John had told them, you know, don't be deceived.

But anyway, here spirit is used, get this one, I can't even say it, metonymically. Spirit represents here the teaching. Alright? That comes from a man. Okay. Or that would come from a spirit through a man. Okay. Remember that, Darvin? Shall I remember that? Because you'll be teaching that. Oh, okay. Especially... I know. Spell check, okay. Alright, so, he says, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. Go. There it goes, a couple.

So, but is Allah, and it's a contrastive or adversative conjunction. This use of Allah suggests a contrast, and it's a sharp contrast in Greek. So, do not believe every spirit, but, on the other hand, and in contrast to believing other spirits, do this. Test the spirits. That's built into the Allah. So, it suggests a contrast or opposing thought to the idea to which it is connected. From what I understand, Allah is the sharpest contrast. contrastive conjunction in Greek.

So, but test. So, test is, but test the spirit. So, this is documento, to test, to examine, to prove, to scrutinize, and in a lot of cases it's used to test with a view toward approval. Go on. What does it mean to test the spirits? So, we're to test the spirits. Well, how do you test the spirit?

So, I thought of that. That's why it's good that you made the understanding that it was autonomy, that's the spirit from a man, or else we're just like, getting around the air, waiting to feel if there's a spirit over there or something. There are demons behind every bush. So it's not that.

Documazo means to test or to examine, to see whether a thing is genuine or not. It's used of testing gold in Scripture. It's also used of testing oxen. Maybe today we would use it to test drive a car. Is this thing really going to hold up? Is this what I want? It's also used of testing persons, and that's how it's used in our context. And this is the only place John uses it, right here. Out of 23 times in the New Testament, John only uses it once this morning.

It's present tense, active voice, also imperative mood here, so this isn't optional. Well, if you feel like it, test the spirits. But he's telling them, you must examine the teaching, the men, what they're teaching. And spirits, it's the same Greek word, pneuma, and pneuma and its spirits here, referring again to the men who are controlled by or actuated by one of two spirits. Test of spirits to see. I thought I just mentioned that to see is not in the text. It actually goes along with this test verb here. Test to see. Weather. It's not that kind. Test to see weather.

And this is if an interrogative particle used in an indirect question after verbs of seeing, asking, deliberating, knowing, saying, and testing this morning. You could tell Darby, Hey Darby, go inside and see if mom needs anything. That kind of if. If mom needs anything.

That's what's going on here. But test the spirits to see if they are from God. That's what's going on. Paul did it here. He said, "...for to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things." There's another example here. We won't look at that one, though.

So, test the spirits to see if they are from God. They are, as Amy, which is an essence verb, describing the nature of the men who are actuated by the Spirit of God or the Spirit of the Antichrist. And, of course, it's our numero uno word in 1 John. They're from God, out of God. It's a preposition showing source, origin, or cause. God is theos. He is 62 times in 1 John.

Because this is hati. because, since, in view and the fact, subordinate and conjunction. And Hati, of course, explains why. In most cases, Hati explains why. So, why? We're going to test the spirits, and we must test the spirits why. What's the big deal? Because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

And many is palus, which is an adjective meaning many, numerous, great. John only uses it twice. And it's kind of funny, because usually John uses words over and over and over again, but every once in a while, we get words that just pop up once or twice by John, like the verb to test, dokimazo, and this one's only used twice.

Okay, so 1 John 2.18, Even now are there many antichrists. Same one, same adjective there. And then in 2 John, verse 7, he says, For many deceivers are entered into the world. False prophets is pseudoprophetes.

There's a big one. Only used one time in 1 John. Here's another one of these. It's anarthrus, which means it doesn't have the definite article. And if you remember from a lot of the teaching that goes on here, if the definite article is lacking, then usually the character of a person is being talked about instead of the specificness of the person. So, that's what's going on here.

So, who is a false prophet and what does he do? That's a question we should ask. First, a prophet, not a false prophet, but a genuine prophet, is one who represents God to the people and communicates God's truth to them, just generally. In the Old Testament, God tells Moses, I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. So that's a pretty good verse showing what a prophet does. God gives him his words and he tells the people what God has said. That's the job of a prophet.

2 Peter 1, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. So a man didn't just wake up and decide, well, shoot, I don't like being a farmer anymore, I'm going to be a prophet. It was something that God did. God gave him the message.

But today we're talking about false prophets. A false prophet is one who pretends to have a divine message to deliver and speaks to the people as if God had sent him. So he's fake. He's a charlatan. And there's other verses in the Old Testament. We'll look at one of them here. There's quite a few verses in the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, that talk about false prophets. In the Old Testament, the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, in other words, I didn't tell him to, but he's acting as if he represents me. Basically, there's the death penalty for this person.

In the Church Age now, a prophet was an individual who spoke God's previously unrevealed truth to the Church. Of course, the church began in Acts 2 at Pentecost. Well, God didn't just hand those boys a Greek New Testament on that day. A lot of those epistles weren't written yet. So what did the church do, the new church? Well, God had prophets in place who would speak to the people the New Testament Church Age truth. So, alright, that's what it did. But also, we see that after the New Testament was written, this gift wasn't necessary anymore, it had served its purpose.

Paul encountered a false prophet, Elemas, on the island of Cyprus during his first missionary journey. At the middle of the tribulation, one who is specifically called the false prophet will deceive those who follow the beast. And here's one place where he shows up. The beast was seized, and with him the false prophet, who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast. And they were thrown into the lake of fire, the beast and the false prophet.

So, this morning, in 1 John 4, John isn't talking about THE false prophet, and that was my point in mentioning that the definite article isn't there. Instead, John is talking of those who have the character, the deceiving character of the false prophet. Many false prophets have gone out into the world.

And this is also what John did earlier in reference to the Antichrist. Remember, we went over this a good month or so ago. He says, children, this is the last hour. And just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, and he's talking about the Antichrist, he says, even now many Antichrists have appeared. And he's referring to those who have the character of the Antichrist.

In 2 John, John also equips the believers to detect liars and deceivers, because that's what a false prophet does. He goes out and he lies, and he's deceiving people. John says, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

So this is actually a parallel passage to our passage this morning. And Paul similarly warns the elders of the Ephesian church in Acts 20. Well, just look at the bottom. He's giving the elders instruction and advice. He says at the bottom, from among your own selves. Wow, that would be the elders. at Ephesus, men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert." So, similar message. To be careful.

To test the teachers. And, of course, John is writing to the same church some thirty years later. Paul was addressing the elders at Ephesus here. And by tradition, John is actually writing 1 John in Ephesus to the churches in Asia Minor around him. So, same group of people.

Have gone out is ex-urkamai, to go or to come out of. Used twice in 1 John. It's perfect tense, active voice, indicative mood, and perfect tense, completed past action with ongoing results into the present. There it is on Hal's Greek tense chart. Translated, argon out.

The false prophets have already gone out into the world, and the effect of their going out is in the present, which would be their false teaching, and they're deceiving. The results of their going out are felt in the present. They've gone into the world, and here's what it looks like graphically, going into the world.

Now Cosmos, we looked at this in detail a couple of weeks ago. Cosmos has several different meanings and I just referenced our study of chapter 3 verses 13 and 15 to get the complete list of various meanings for Cosmos. Here it refers to the ungodly multitude, the whole mass of men alienated from God. It seems to be the best way to interpret it based on context.

At first I thought it was just talking about physical earth. I mean, come on. They've gone out into the world. But it shows up several other times in our passages this morning and in the surrounding verses and it seems that this is the best one to use. And cosmos is another key word. 23 times he uses it. Alright, so let's summarize verse 1. If you remember, this was a long time ago, about seven days, John ended chapter 3 by referring to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Due to the abundance of false teachers and false teachings, he saw the need to caution them. The Christians must not believe a spirit. without first testing him. So he just referred to the Holy Spirit's ministry, but then he wants to caution them. Now, there is the genuine ministry of the Holy Spirit, but now, don't believe every spirit. Men who are actuated by a spirit, but test first. The implication is that it is safe to listen to those who are from God, and it is necessary to reject those who are not from God. Also, notice that John addresses all the believers and not merely the leaders. So he's telling all of them to not believe every spirit, but to test the spirits. So, Mike, Roger, Hal, and Vern aren't the only ones that need to be testing the spirits.

All of us need to be careful and test the teaching that's taught. And the reason is because of the abundance of false teachers in the world. Of course, this is written at the end of the first century, but this hasn't changed today. There's an abundance of false teaching today as well. We must also be discerning. Don't just gullibly believe everything you're taught. Test it first. And how do we test it? What's our standard? Scripture, yeah. For the sake of time, we won't go over this passage, but 2 Timothy 3 talks about God's Word. Alright, verse 2.

By this you know the Spirit of God. By this is just a little prepositional phrase that's used 12 times in the book. And here it refers to the upcoming phrase, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. That's how we'll know the Spirit of God. So that's what by this is referring to. By this you know, this is Gnosko, to know, to understand, to have knowledge of. Present tense, active voice, indicative mood.

It's also a key word of the book used 25 times. By this you know the Spirit of God. And I just put the whole phrase up there because we've already looked at all the words in this morning. Now, the Holy Spirit is referred to ten times in 1 John, in all. And I thought it was good just to mention this. Really, the phrase goes like this.

Every spirit is from God. that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. So it kind of helps to break it down and look at it instead of just reading the whole thing through once. So he's saying every spirit is from God that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. And so I throw that up there because we're going to look at it kind of word by word and not see the whole thing. So every spirit, well this is Pan again, Every spirit, spirit, no need to belabor that. Every spirit that confesses, really it's which or who confesses, being a relative pronoun, confesses.

Literally, this means to say the same thing as another. So every spirit that says the same thing as another, Hamogeo has several shades of meaning. It can mean to concede, that is, to not refuse or deny. It can mean to profess or to declare openly or speak out freely. And that's how it's used this morning. Every spirit that confesses, that declares openly, that speaks out freely. It can also mean to praise or to celebrate.

So, it's good to look at these because, again, this has nothing to do, this meaning has nothing to do with what we're talking about this morning. But, yeah, when you study Hebrews 13, 15, the same words are going to show up, and it won't have really anything to do with confessing or speaking out freely, but it has to do with praising or celebrating. So, confess is used five times in 1 John. Also, in 2 John 7, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. That isn't there. Jesus Christ, Jesum Christan. And this, of course, is the title for the second person of the Trinity, Jesus.

It is used 135 times in the entire New Testament, and six times in 1 John. And we looked at this earlier, but Jesus is a transliteration of the Hebrew Joshua, which means Jehovah saved or Jehovah saves. So that's Jesus. And then Christ means the Anointed One, and refers to his work as Messiah to physically and spiritually save the nation of Israel. So he put it together, you've got a pretty good picture of Christ's ministry in person. He's the Savior, also the Messiah.

Okay, so Jesus has come, this is Urkamai, to come, a participle here, perfect tense, so it could be translated, He is come, He came in the past, but the effect of His coming is felt today. Urkamai is used five times in 1 John. Jesus has come in the flesh. In is the preposition, which you guys probably know very well by now.

It means to be entirely in someone or something. Now the flesh, Jesus says come in the flesh. Sarx, it can mean the flesh, like your physical body. It can also mean the sin nature. No definite article. Flesh is used three times in 1 John. So, does flesh here refer to the physical body, the sin nature, or to something else?

What do you think? Physical body? Yeah. So, Jesus Christ came entirely in the flesh, the physical body, I'm going to throw up on the screen, interpret that correctly. I'm going to put up on the screen, throw up on the screen, all these passages, but we won't look at them. So you have the references. Just check these out.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He who was revealed in the flesh Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he partook of the same in the days of his flesh. Christ suffered in the flesh. So, this one who says this is from God, talking about the nature of the Spirit, the man, the Spirit, I'm sorry, that confesses Jesus has come in the flesh. Amy again. from God. We've seen this already, out of God. The men who profess that Jesus has come in the flesh are from God. That is, they are actuated by the Holy Spirit.

Alright, let's summarize verse 2. So verse 1 told us not to believe every spirit, but to test them first. And now, I'm sorry, verse 1 also told us the reason for the required testing, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Why should we test them? Well, because there's a lot of false prophets out there. So now we have the test in verse 2.

Every spirit, here's the test, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. That's it. So every teacher who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, passes the test, and confirms that He is from God. And what does John mean, that one is from God? In our context, spirit is used metonymically for man who is actuated either by the Holy Spirit or by the spirit of the Antichrist. So, from God simply means that the teacher is actuated, motivated, influenced, controlled by the Holy Spirit. That's what it means to be from God in this context.

Alright, so what's the big deal? Whether or not an individual declares openly, confesses that Jesus came in the flesh. I mean, why is that important? What do you guys think? Very important. Why? It's a central tenet of our faith. It's the only way you can be satisfied with God. Okay, why is that? Because you have to be as a man. You have to be as a man. In order to take upon the sins of the world. Yeah, good point. And that's what satisfied God's judgment. He saw the blood. Alright. Okay, you guys are right, obviously. Also, remember that Gnosticism was gaining ground in the church. We're at the end of the first century, when John writes this. Gnosticism is rampant by the middle of the second century.

And generally, Gnostics believe that matter, physical, stuff, it's evil. If matter is evil, then how could Christ have had an actual physical body? To the Gnostics, that was a problem. Look how shameful that is. Even that picture, Christ all weak and humble, and he ended up dying. Well, there were a couple of ways that the Gnostics dealt with this problem.

One man named Cyrenthius, or you'll see it sometimes as Cyrenthus, he taught that Jesus was born as a normal man, so he wasn't divine when he was born, but then at Jesus' baptism, the Christ came upon him and enabled Christ to perform miracles during his ministry in Israel. But then, just before Christ was crucified, Jesus was crucified, but Christ left him. And then the man, Jesus, suffered shamefully on the cross. So that was taught. Corinthians, by the way, was a contemporary of 1 John, and tradition tells us that the two debated back and forth about things in Ephesus. So this teaching was most likely the very teaching that John's talking about here.

But there was also another shade of Gnosticism called Docetism, This one taught that Christ's physical body was only an illusion. So, what you see here, Christ's suffering, is just an illusion. There wasn't actually anything physically there. Of course, that's silly. Okay, so let's look at the theological significance of Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, which you guys have already answered. And this is it.

Hebrews 2.14, Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those. So, like Ben said, and you guys said differently, Christ had to be a man to be the Savior, period.

So if Christ wasn't an actual man, according to God's Word, There is no salvation. And that's, of course, a problem. If there's no salvation, that is a big problem for us. No man, no salvation. It's that simple. Alright, lastly. This whole phrase, the first part of verse 3, we're going to skip because we've already looked at each one. We'll come back to the significance of it in the summary.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist, the one who doesn't confess that Jesus has come into the flesh. This, demonstrative pronoun referring to every spirit that does not confess Jesus, this is, I already see what you mean, this is the spirit, same word, of the Antichrist.

The Antichrist is one who is opposed to Christ in the sense of usurping the role of Christ. And that kind of, that definition includes both shades of meaning of Antichrist Antichrist is used four times in 1 John. And Scripture refers to the Antichrist, and I'm talking about the actual Antichrist that will be in existence at the beginning of the Tribulation and through the Tribulation. Scripture refers to the Antichrist many times and in different ways. John is the only one to actually use the term Antichrist. Jesus refers to the Antichrist in this way.

He refers to him as another. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. Talking of the Jews and how the Jews will accept and make a treaty with the Antichrist. Paul calls him the son of destruction and the man of lawlessness. Daniel calls him different names. the little horn, the beast, and the king. And again, you can look these up if you'd like.

In summary, the Antichrist will sign a peace treaty with Israel at the beginning of the Tribulation, but will break it in the middle, after three and a half years. At that time, he sets himself up as the object of worship, and the false prophet helps deceive mankind into worshiping the beast. But both the beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire when Christ returns at the end of the tribulation. Okay, so the Antichrist. Now we're talking about the Antichrist.

Of which you have heard, and it's the relative pronoun again, who, which, what. Akuo, you have heard. Perfect tense. Fourteen times Akuo is used in 1 John. And I didn't highlight it. It's up there. You have heard that it is coming. Erkamai. We have already had this one. To come. It is coming. Present tense. It's on its way. And now, this is just an adverb. And now it is, Amun again, already. Now here's another adverb meaning basically now. So John two times here in this phrase puts in adverbs that mean now. He's now already in the world.

The spirit of the Antichrist, that is. Fairly similar to Nun. Okay, in... let's look at this graphically. In the world, the spirit of the Antichrist is now already in the world. And this of course is just Cosmos. And it's referring here again to the whole mass of men alienated from God. The ungodly multitude. And now we'll summarize it and make sense of verse 3.

Now John's going to talk about the teachers who failed the test. Those who passed the test, those teachers are from God. They're according to truth, they're teaching you correctly. But now these who failed the test, they're not from God. Instead, this teacher comes from the spirit of the Antichrist. That is, the spirit of the Antichrist actuates or motivates him. It's not God motivating the false teachers, it's the spirit of the Antichrist.

Then John says, you have heard that Antichrist is coming. And where did they hear this? Well, John himself, I already referenced this in 1 John, the Old Testament we saw is full of teaching about the Antichrist as well as other portions of the New Testament. So the early Christians, they were taught about end times. It was a big part of the doctrine that the apostles and teachers and elders of the early church taught them, taught the believers.

And next John says that the Antichrist is now already in the world. And as I mentioned, he's emphatic about this. He uses two adverbs in the same phrase, now and already in the world. And Paul, interestingly, said something very similar here. He says, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And I think that's talking about the Holy Spirit there in this verse. And that's off right here. Then that lawless one will be revealed. And that's talking about the Antichrist. Whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming at the end of the tribulation. That is, the one whose coming is in accordance with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

So in the first phrase here, why is it similar to what we're studying today? Well, he says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. So Satan's Deceptive activity is going on now through the false teachers. Those who are like the false teacher who will come at the end time. False prophet, I'm sorry, who will come at the end time. These ones are like the Antichrist who will come at the end time.

This mystery of lawlessness is already working. And that's what John is saying this morning by that phrase. And there's other references here, which we are going to skip, because we're out of time. The actual Antichrist is coming, however there are now many like him in the world who deceive and lie. The prevalence of the false prophets and Antichrist-like teachers is the very reason that John warns his brethren, do not believe every spirit. You must not, but test the spirits. It's critical.

Alright? So let's pray. And then we'll go test Vern upstairs. Alright. Dear Lord, thanks for letting us get through these three verses this morning, and just look at your Word in detail, and hopefully put it together accurately in the end. and please teach it to us and its significance to us. I pray that we would, in dependence upon you and through your life in us, be discerning and test what we hear here and what we test in other places. I pray that we would test it according to your word. In Jesus' name, amen.