Preachers in Disguise

1 John 4:1-3 ESV

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

Now this is one of those passages of Scripture where it is critical that we read this in the context of the whole of 1 John, and in the whole of the teachings of Jesus and of his NT apostles, or otherwise we might reach faulty conclusions which are contrary to the Scriptures, as a whole. 

For the Scriptures teach us about false prophets who come to us in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Matthew 7:15) and regarding “thieves and robbers” who are “strangers” who climb into the sheepfold by another way other than through Jesus Christ, so they are under disguise (John 10:1-15). And then we read about certain people who have crept into the gatherings of the church unnoticed who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and who deny Jesus as Lord (Jude 1:3-23) and of those who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

[2 Co 11:13-15; Php 3:2; Matt 7:15-23; Matt 24:11-14; John 10:1-15; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 1 Tim 1:3-7; 1 Tim 6:3-10; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:3-23]

So, what does this tell us? If these false prophets and teachers and preachers are under disguise, and they are pretending to be the Lord’s true servants and messengers, then they are going to outwardly confess Jesus Christ as Lord, and they will confess with their lips that Jesus Christ has indeed come in the flesh, and that he is from God, and perhaps even that he is God. For they want to appear as though they are the Lord’s true sheep, so that the Lord’s sheep will listen to them and believe them that what they are telling them is the truth.

So those who are liars and deceivers by profession are not going to be people that we can trust to tell us the truth, although it may appear that they are telling us the truth. For they will use the Scriptures, and they will make it sound like what they are saying is biblical, but they will often teach Scriptures out of their context to make them say what the Scriptures, as a whole, do not teach. And then they will cleverly blend truth and lies together in order to deceive naïve minds, and in order to give misimpressions to the unsuspecting and to those not well versed in the Scriptures, as a whole.

So, even if with their lips they seem to be professing the truth, we need to have spiritual eyes and ears to listen for what they are not saying, i.e. for what they are leaving out, or for what they are not saying directly, but indirectly. For so much of what is deceptive today is not outright and obvious, but it is hidden and mysterious, and its full intention is to give misimpressions because they are harder to prove deliberate deceit. And since the lies are cloaked, many people accept them without knowing it.

So, if we are going to test the spirits to see whether they are from God or not, we are going to have to look beyond what lies on the surface to see the hidden messages lying underneath. For that is where most of the deception is found these days, although not all is done this way. So we have to look beyond the words to what the words mean and to what impressions we are receiving from what we are reading. And we have to compare it all to the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles, but in biblical context.

1 John 4:4-6 ESV

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

The subject here is still that of false prophets and teachers and preachers who are claiming that they are from God and that they are believers in Jesus Christ. And now we are being told that these liars and deceivers speak from the world and that the world listens to them. And this is absolutely the truth of what is presently going on in these market-driven “churches” (businesses) of today here in America. For they are being led by marketing books and seminars and marketing schemes and tricks and goals.

And their goals are largely to “draw in large crowds of people from the world.” And so they pattern their gatherings and their practices and their teachings around what is pleasing to the people of the world. And so they entertain them and they compromise truth and righteousness in order to not offend them. And so they dilute and they alter the character of God/Christ and of his word and of his gospel to make them more appealing and appeasing and acceptable to human flesh and to the ungodly. And so the people of the world like this, and so they come back.

But that isn’t how it should be. Our gatherings together as the body of Christ are to be for the instruction and encouragement and exhortation of the body of Christ so that we can walk in holiness and in righteousness, and so that we can go out into the world to preach the truth of the gospel to the people of the world so that they will receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and so they will submit to Christ as Lord and surrender their lives to God and no longer walk in sin but now in obedience to the Lord, in his righteousness.

[Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6] 

But since we have so many wolves in sheep’s clothing in our midst who are telling the people lies, and who are diluting the truth to make it more acceptable to the world, many people are believing them and they are making false professions of faith in Jesus Christ, believing that all their sins are forgiven, and that heaven is their eternal destiny, but regardless of how they live. And so if we are teaching the whole counsel of God (the full gospel message, in truth), then not many people will listen to us.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

My Sheep  

An Original Work / June 24, 2012  

Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.

They listen to my voice and obey.

I call them and lead them.

They know my voice, so they follow me.

They will never follow strangers.

They will run away from them.

The voice of a stranger they know not;

They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that

I am the gate, so you enter in.

Whoever does enter

Will find forgiveness and will be saved.

Nonetheless whoever enters

Not by the gate; other way,

He is the thief and a robber.

Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,

Who laid his own life down for the sheep.

I know them. They know me.

They will live with me eternally.

The thief only comes to steal and

Kill and to destroy the church.

I have come to give you life that

You may have it to the full… 

They know my voice, so they follow me.

https://vimeo.com/114938263