Title: Be Shrewd as Serpents
Text: 1 John 4:1-6

I read this week about American astronomer Percival Lowell. He was born in Boston, in 1855 and educated at Harvard University He is best known for his belief that there were canals on the surface of Mars and that these canals provide evidence for the existence of intelligent life there, possibly older and wiser than our own. From 1877 until his death in 1916 he spent his time looking through the eyepiece of a giant telescope in Arizona mapping the canals on Mars.

Of course later research has revealed no canals on Mars. Lowell was so convinced and adamant about their existence no one dared to contradict him. Because of his prominence, his observations and belief gained wide acceptance.

How did he see what wasn't there? There are two possibilities: he wanted so much to see them that he did and/or he suffered from a rare eye disease that caused him to see the blood vessels in his own eyes. Today this disease is known as "Lowell's Syndrome."

What does this have to do with what John wrote? Many times we see what we want to see. In 2 Tim 4:3-4 Paul gave Timothy this warning: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but {wanting} to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." (NAS)

When Jesus sent the disciples out in Matthew 10 He warned them to be shrewd as serpents. The serpent isn't necessarily more intelligent than other species but it doesn't take unnecessary chances. It's always alert and aware of what's taking place around it always on guard you might say. In the same way we are to always be on guard. We are to examine what we hear and what we're taught against the absolute standard of God's Word." We must be shrewd as serpents in discerning truth from falsehood.

John wrote: "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." (NAS) Spirit can be seen in two ways. As a metaphor for the teaching itself, whether the teaching is truth or error and the source of the teaching whether it is the Spirit of God of the Spirit of Antichrist. Christians are to live by faith and believe by faith but we are not to be naive. We are to exercise discernment. We often refer to this as being  Berean Christians. We get that from the record of Paul's second missionary journey found in Acts 17:10-11 "And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, {to see} whether these things were so." (NAS)

That's what we are to do. We are not to just accept any teaching because the teaching claims to be Christian, but we are to examine the source of the teaching and we do that like the Bereans by checking it against the Word of God - the Bible.

False teachers come in many different forms, but not everyone we disagree with is a false teacher. There are many areas of Scripture where genuine Christians have differing interpretations and understandings. Things that are not considered the "fundamentals" such as rapture theories and tribulations theories and things such as that. There are areas of practice where Christians disagree. Some believe communion should be observed every Sunday, others observe it once a month or once a quarter. Some say worship should be reverential and structured, others say it should be more spontaneous and celebratory. There are doctrinal differences that divide believers into denominations that don't necessarily make false prophets out of those with whom we disagree.

I'm a Baptist and a Southern Baptist because I believe the doctrines held by Baptists in general and Southern Baptist in particular to be biblically sound. That doesn't mean that Methodists and Presbyterians and Anglicans are all false teachers. A couple of my favorite theologians and pastors are John Stott a conservative Anglican and D. James Kennedy a Presbyterian. And not all Baptists nor all Southern Baptists are in agreement with me doctrinally but they are not all false teachers.

That doesn't mean truth is relative or subjective. Truth, God's truth is always objective. It means what God intended it to mean. It can have a variety of applications but it's meaning is absolute. In some cases we simply struggle with understanding what that absolute meaning is.

There are other areas, however, where that absolute truth is not so confusing or confounding, that are not as open to interpretation, where we must be more discriminatory and more demanding in determining truth and error.

John shares with us the most important area where that is true in verses 2-3: "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; and this is the {spirit} of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world." (NAS)

In this passage we again see the importance of the word confesses. Confessing is not simply a recitation of words but to be in agreement with, in this case every spirit that is in agreement with the revelation of God.

What is it that the spirit from God confesses? Three areas of importance found here. The first is the confession of Jesus. Jesus means Savior. In Matt chapter one it is revealed that Joseph was in turmoil because Mary was going to have a child. The Bible describes him as a righteous man who didn't want to sin against God and didn't want to disgrace Mary either. He had decided to divorce her privately when an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and said to him in verse 20-21: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." (NAS)

Jesus is His human name. To confess Jesus is to agree with God concerning his humanity, the nature of his conception and His birth. To confess Jesus means we affirm His humanity - He was fully man and agree with God about His earthly purpose - "He will save His people from their sins."

The term Christ is not a personal name, but a title. The more accurate confession is Jesus who is the Christ. But early on the two terms were brought together as a confessional name. Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah which means anointed. To confess Jesus Christ then is to affirm not only His humanity, but also an affirmation of His divine nature as well as the divine nature of his mission. He didn't come to be a physical king or ruler, he didn't come to deliver Israel from the Romans, His kingdom was not of this world, He said. (Jn 18:36) He came to deliver us from the bondage of sin.

The teaching of Scripture is that Jesus of Nazareth, the historical person who grew up, lived, ate, slept, walked with men, prayed with them and taught them, is the Messiah of the Old Testament, the predicted One, the Son of God who was to come; God himself come into human history through the incarnation. This is the Spirit of truth. Jesus is the Christ, come in the flesh. Jesus of Nazareth who is called Christ is identical with and indivisible from the promised Messiah of the Old Testament.

John further strengthens that affirmation with the phrase. "Has come in the flesh." We need to go back again to John's gospel to understand the full impact of what John wrote. 

John 1:1-5, 14 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.  3 All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  

14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (NAS)

The key test of Christian teachers is they must have a sound biblical Christology, acknowledging the true nature of who Jesus was and is. That He was fully Human fully divine. They must acknowledge the truth of the incarnation - born of a virgin, sinless, full of grace and truth that He alone can save people from their sins through His atoning death on the cross and His glorious resurrection.

While that should be a given for all who claim to be Christians it isn't. It wasn't in John's day and it isn't in ours. Increasingly so called theologians are not only questioning but denying the nature of Jesus. These persons are not in the majority they are not the tops in their fields, they are not evangelical but they are the ones getting the coverage and notoriety. Their views are almost always presented as factual and accurate and accepted.

There are pastors who are very charismatic in character some who are building large ministries whose teachings are becoming popular and widely accepted and respected who are teaching errant views of Christ and the nature of salvation.

There are churches who no longer teach or preach Jesus Christ as the answer to the problem of sin. There are denominations who have forsaken His teachings and who are debating the very nature of salvation and the place of Jesus Christ in salvation.

This, however, is the paramount doctrine of the Christian faith which can never be compromised, the divine-human person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the one thing that is basic and fundamental to all Christian faith. He appeared in history, in the flesh. He came as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto the death of the cross.

The fundamental questions we must ask of every group, or any teacher of religion today:

Do you acknowledge the entrance into history of the Son of God as Jesus of Nazareth?

Do you acknowledge the incarnation of Jesus Christ? -- that he who was with God from the beginning, and was God, became man and lived among us, died on the cross and rose from the dead as the only means of salvation?

Do you follow him?

Are you committed to him -- as your personal Lord, your strength, and everything you need?

It is not enough just to attend a church or have your name on a church roll. It isn't enough just to use the name Jesus when you teach or preach. There are those who call themselves Christians who say that the Jesus of history is not important; that his virgin birth, His miracles, His resurrection, even His crucifixion are myths, legends gathered about the man Jesus of Nazareth, highly exaggerated ideas that the churches added to the facts. They tell us that these things are not important and it doesn't make any difference if he rose from the dead, or if he died on the cross, or if he was born in a manger, of a virgin. These do not make any difference, the great thing is the truth he taught, the things that he said -- those are the important things. But John says if they do not confess that Jesus is the Christ, come in the flesh, this is the spirit of error, of antichrist.

But By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; (NAS) Will you confess Him today and confess Him as Lord of all in your life?