Holy spirit recognition

HOLY SPIRIT RECOGNITION
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 John 4:2 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of
God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is from God,
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
Greek - en touto ginoskete (PAI)to pneuma tou theou pan pneuma o
homologei(PAI) Iesoun Christon en sarkieleluthota (RAP) ek tou theou
estin (PAI):
• every spirit - 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%205.1"Jn HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%205.1"5:1 John
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2016.13-
15"16:13-15 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2012.3"Co HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2012.3"12:3come -
1HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%204.3"Jn
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%204.3"4:3
John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%201.14"1:14 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%203.16"Ti HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%203.16"3:16
• 1 HYPERLINK
"https://www.preceptaustin.org/1_john_4_resources"John
HYPERLINK "https://www.preceptaustin.org/1_john_4_resources"4

HYPERLINK
"https://www.preceptaustin.org/1_john_4_resources"Resources -
Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
• RelatedResource:Critques of Online Resourcesfor First John
THE DIVINE TEST:
CHRISTOLOGICALCONFESSION
NLT This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming
to be a prophet acknowledges thatJesus Christ came in a real body, that
person has the Spirit of God.
Wuest - In this you know experientially the Spirit of God. Every spirit who
agrees thatJesus Christ in the sphere of flesh is come, is of God.
KJV Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseththat Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is of God: (Notice that KJV translates "know"as
an imperative, which a few modern scholars agreewith, but most do not,
instead favoring this as an indicative. The latter feel John was instructing and
not commanding in this verse.)
Hiebert on 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%204.1-6"JnHYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%204.1-6"4:1-6 - These verses
show no close connectionwith what follows and are best viewed as an
elaborationof the reference to “the Spirit which he hath given us” in 3:24.
The conflict now presented forms the final aspectof the conflicts that mark
the Christian life which John has been depicting since 2:18. He has already
dealt with the conflictbetweentruth and falsehood(2:18–28), the conflict
betweenthe children of God and the children of the Devil (2:29–3:12), and the
conflict betweenlove and hatred (3:13–24). This sectionpoints to the
supernatural characterof this conflict as ultimately involving “the spirit of
truth, and the spirit of error.” It sets forth the crucial importance of the
proclamation of a sound Christologyfor assurance andvictory in the
Christian community. (The Epistles of John- An ExpositionalCommentary)
Steven Cole explains why John gives the divine test - A false teachermay be
gentle and loving. He may speak prophecies that come true. He may even
perform miracles or castout demons or speak in tongues (Mt. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Matt.%207.22"7:22;Ex. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Exod.%207.11"7:11, 22;8:7; Dt.
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Deut.%2013.1-3"13:1-3). But,
the question is, does he lead people to follow a false god? (Spiritual
DiscernmentHYPERLINK "https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-18-spiritual-

discernment-1-john-41-6"1 HYPERLINK"https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-
18-spiritual-discernment-1-john-41-6"JohnHYPERLINK
"https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-18-spiritual-discernment-1-john-41-6"4:1-
6)
By this (en touto) - Always pause and asks Bywhat? To what is the author
referring? To something he has statedbefore or something he is going to state
subsequently? In this case by this refers to that which follows. Johngives the
believers a straightforwardtest to prove whether a prophet is energizedby
the Holy Spirit.
A T Robertson- With the clamorof voices then and now this is important.
(Word Pictures)
John uses the phrase by this 12 times in First John (out of a total of 41 NT
uses)- 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%202.3"John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%202.3"2:3, 5;3:10, 16, 19, 24;
4:2, 6, 9, 13, 17;5:2
John Trapp on by this you know - Bring it to this test. Gold may be rubbed or
melted, it remains orient; so doth truth. Whereas error, as glass (bright, but
brittle), cannot endure the hammer of fire. (1 HYPERLINK
"http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/view.cgi?bk=61&ch=4#2"John
HYPERLINK
"http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/view.cgi?bk=61&ch=4#2"4
HYPERLINK
"http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/view.cgi?bk=61&ch=4#2"Com
mentary)
You know (1097)(ginosko)means you perceive or know by experience and
present tense indicates their continual knowing of this truth. Vine adds that
John is saying "'you know byexperience of facts' and so are able to recognize.
The experience is comprehensive and belongs to all true believers."
You know the Spirit of God - That is, the Spirit of God filling and controlling
and enabling proclamationof sound doctrine, specificallythe truth about
Jesus Christ. If a preacheror teacheris truly of the Spirit of God, he must
acceptboth the full Deity and full Humanity both existing at the same time in
the PersonofJesus Christ. As an aside, this underscores the importance of all
preachers of God's truth to be empoweredby the Spirit of Truth! The
preacheris to be a vesselofhonor, but not the one who receives the glory. I
am reminded of stories I have receivedof pastors who are preaching almost
verbatim the words of other men! While they are not preaching false

doctrines, they could hardly be preaching under the influence of the Spirit of
God in their "plagiarizedpreaching!"
Every spirit - That is, this test is to be universally applied, so that all are either
approved or rejectedon the basis of this test. One wonders if modern leaders
ever apply this test to those that are teaching under them? I have been a
teacherfor over 30 years and no one has ever specificallygiven me this test. I
once attended a church where I was suspicious of the teachings of a seminary
trained man and shortly after I begin attending his class (one that he knew I
would not normally attend), he moved on within a few weeks to another local
church! I did not even have to directly test him!
Vine on every spirit - The phrase every spirit does not refer to other beings
than human, but to the personwhose spirit is actedupon by the Holy Spirit,
through whose instrumentality he confesses the truth. (The CollectedWritings
of W. E. Vine)
Confessesis in the present tense which means this is not just a one time
confession, but is their continual confession.
William MacDonald- It is not so much the confession of the historical fact,
namely that Jesus was born into the world in a human body, but rather it is
the confession of a livingPerson, Jesus Christ come in the flesh. It is the
confessionthatacknowledgesJesus as the Christ Incarnate. And confessing
Him means bowing to Him as Lord of one’s life. Now if you ever hear a person
presenting the Lord Jesus as the true Christ of God, you will know that he is
speaking by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God calls on men to acknowledge
Jesus Christ as Lord and to commit their lives to Him. The Holy Spirit always
glorifies Jesus. (Believer's Bible Commentary- HYPERLINK
"http://www.amazon.com/Believers-Bible-Commentary-William-
MacDonald/dp/0840719728"recommendedcommentary on the entire Bible)
(Bold italics added)
Steven Cole on confesses -To confess thatJesus Christ has come in the flesh
means to agree with that statement, but it also means something more. The
demons all agree that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who has come in the flesh
(Mk HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Mark%201.24"1:24;
3:11; 5:7). To confess this truth about Jesus implies submitting your life to
Him as Lord (Ro. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom.%2010.9-10"10:9-10).(Spiritual
DiscernmentHYPERLINK "https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-18-spiritual-
discernment-1-john-41-6"1 HYPERLINK"https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-
18-spiritual-discernment-1-john-41-6"JohnHYPERLINK

"https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-18-spiritual-discernment-1-john-41-6"4:1-
6)
Ray Stedman adds that confessionmeans that "There must be a commitment
of the life to this truth. This is what the word confess means here. It is more
than a mere acknowledgmentor a professionthat this is true; it is a
commitment. It means to actually trust this greatdeclaredfact and this great
historic person. Anyone who does not actually trust it, and live by it, do not
listen to them either. They may acknowledge it, but they must also confess it,
that is the important thing. Remember that back in the Gospelaccounts there
were demons that acknowledgedthe deity of the Lord Jesus? Whenhe
appearedbefore them they said, "We know who you are, the Holy One of
God," Mark HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Mark%201.24"1:24, Luke HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Luke%204.34"4:34). Theyacknowledged
what the Jews were too blind to see, the full deity of Jesus Christ, as well as his
humanity. But, though demons acknowledgedthis, they never confessedit.
They never trusted him. They did not commit themselves to him, they did not
live by this truth. Through the course of history there have been many
religious leaders, popes, priests, and many others, Protestantand Catholic
alike, who have acknowledgedthe deity of the Lord Jesus and his humanity,
but they have never trusted it, they have never committed themselves to it,
they have never confessedit. Therefore, eventhough acknowledgmentis
there, there is failure, and it is the spirit of error that prevails… That question
ought to be askedofevery religious teacher, everywhere. Then:Do you follow
him? Do you live by this? Are you committed to him -- is he your Lord, your
strength, and everything you need? How many would fail if we gave that test?
How many fail, even at the first question? (When Unbelief is Right -
HYPERLINK "http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/1-john/when-
unbelief-is-right"1 HYPERLINK "http://www.raystedman.org/new-
testament/1-john/when-unbelief-is-right"JohnHYPERLINK
"http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/1-john/when-unbelief-is-
right"4:1-3)
John Piper - What Does "Confess" Mean? But this creates a problem for us.
We know that there are people who can saytrue things about Jesus who are
not in fact born of God or indwelt by the Holy Spirit. If we paid him enough,
we could callsomeone off the streetand gethim to make any confessionwe
wanted here in front of the whole church, and it would be no evidence at all of
his belonging to God. And Jesus said, "Noteveryone who says to me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew HYPERLINK

"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Matt%207.21"7:21). In other words, merely
saying right things about Jesus is no sign of the Holy Spirit's presence… Signs
of the Spirit's Reality- My conclusionis that what 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%204.2"4:2 means is this: "By
this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which sincerelyconfesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and which has a corresponding disposition
of loving reverence and submission to Jesus Christ, is of God." So the sign of
the Spirit's reality is not merely the truth of the words coming out of the
mouth of a prophet, but also the disposition corresponding to that truth.
A T Robertsonon confesses - describes Jesusas alreadycome in the flesh (his
actualhumanity, not a phantom body as the Docetic Gnostics held[What is
Docetism?]). See this same idiom in 2 HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/2%20John%201.7"1:7 with erchomenon
(coming). A like testis proposedby Paul for confessing the deity of Jesus
Christ in 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2012.3"Corinthians
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2012.3"12:3 and
for the Incarnation and Resurrectionof Jesus in Ro HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom%2010.6-10"10:6-10. (WordPictures)
RelatedResources:
• What is Christian Gnosticism?
• What is the definition of the term Gnostic?
• What is Docetism?
Confesses(acknowledges)(3670)(homologeo fromhomos = one and the same
or togetherwith+ lego = to say; confess from con = together, fateor = to say)
literally means to saythe same thing as another and so to agree with another's
statements. As discussedabove (see especiallyRay Stedman's remarks), this
confess is not merely a verbal acknowledgement.
Marvin Vincent on homologeo - The fundamental idea of confess is that of
saying the same thing as another; while profess (pro = forth, fateor= to say)is
to declare openly. Hence, to profess Christ is to declare Him publicly as our
Lord: to confess Christis to declare agreementwith all that He says. When
Christ confessesHis followers before the world, He makes a declarationin
agreementwith what is in His heart concerning them. Similarly, when He
declares to the wicked“I never knew you” (“then will I profess”), a similar
agreementbetweenHis thought and His declarationis implied. The two ideas

run into eachother, and the Rev. is right in the few casesin which it retains
profess, since confess wouldbe ambiguous. See, forexample, Titus
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Titus%201.16"1:16-note.
NIDNTT notes that in the secularuse of homologeo "The legalconnotationis
dominant. A man agrees with another’s statement, concedes orconfesses
something (e.g. his guilt before a judge), agreesto something (e.g. another’s
wish) and so promises. This agreementexpresses itselfin an actof
commitment, promise, or confessionin a court or legalcontract. The religious
use of the words is probably derived primarily from their use in the language
of treaties and the law-courts. The man who binds himself by an oath
(homologeo)enters into a treaty relationship with the deity. This conceptwas
then transferred from the solemnconfessionofwrong-doing before a court of
law to the confessionofsin to the deity. These concepts were usedespeciallyin
the orientalcults, as may be seenfrom Lydian and Phrygian expiatory
inscriptions. In modern Gk. the concepthas come to mean sacramental
confessionto a priest: exomologeomai, Imake my confession;ōexomologe, I
hear a confession. (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT
Theology. HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/0310332389?v=glance"1986HYPERLINK
"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310332389?v=glance".
Zondervan)
Vine makes a point that in John's day most did not have accessto the full
canonof Scripture so that "believers were encouraged, by the promised
guidance of the Holy Spirit, John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2016.13"16:13,to compare utterances
claiming to be spiritual, 1HYPERLINK
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%202.13"2:13-note,
and so to test the prophecy and the spirit that prompted it, 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.29"Cor HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.29"14:29;1 HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%204.6"4:6;Revelation
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rev%202.2"2:2." (The
CollectedWritings of W.E. Vine)
Pilate askedthe correctquestion "What is truth?" but failed to see and
confess that Jesus is the Christ the very personificationof Truth.
Jesus Christ (6x in 6v in every chapter - 1HYPERLINK

"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%201.3"1:3, 2:1, 3:23, 4:2, 5:6,
5:20 [cp 2HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/2%20John%201.3"1:3, 7], twice John uses
the phrase "Jesus is the Christ" - 1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%202.22"2:22,5:1) - Jesus
emphasizes His humanity and Christ His deity.
Jesus (2424)(Iesous is transliteration of the Greek Iesous, whichin turn is the
transliteration of the Hebrew name JehoshuaHYPERLINK
"http://www.studylight.org/lexicons/hebrew/hwview.cgi?n=3091" (Yehoshua)
or Jeshua (Yeshua) which mean Jehovah is help or Jehovah is salvation. Stated
another way the Greek Iesous corresponds to the OT JehoshuaHYPERLINK
"http://www.studylight.org/lexicons/hebrew/hwview.cgi?n=3091" (Yehoshua)
which is contractedas Jeshua (Yeshua).
Christ (5547)(Christosfrom chrio = to rub or anoint, consecrate to an office)
means one who has been anointed, symbolizing appointment to a task. The
majority of the NT uses referto Jesus (exceptions = "false Christs" - Mt
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Matt%2024.24"24:24,Mk
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Mark%2013.22"13:22).
Wuest adds that "The name “Jesus”is the English form of the Greek Iēsous,
and this is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Jehoshua”whichmeans
“Jehovahsaves.”“Christ” is from Christos, “the Anointed One.” (Word
Studies from the Greek New Testament)
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh - John's first testof the spirit of a teacheris
whether they acceptand proclaim the doctrine of the incarnation, Godrobed
in humanity. Fully Godand at the same time Fully Man, in a real flesh and
blood physical body.
Laurin remarks - Had there been no incarnation, Christ would have been an
apotheosis, a man moving toward God. Christianity would have been only
another approachtoward God. Christ would have been only a godlike man.
But there was an incarnation, God moved toward man. Becauseofthat
Christianity is in reality God’s approach to man. Christ is in facta manlike
God. The incarnation is what makes Christianity distinctly unlike any other
system. (First John- Life at Its Best-Roy L. Laurin)
In John HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%201.1"1:1 the
apostle writes "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God." All orthodox writers would agree the Word refers to

Jesus Who has always existedand always been God. Then in John
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%201.14"1:14 he writes
that "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
glory as of the only begottenfrom the Father, full of grace and truth." So in a
sentence Johnsums up the incarnation of the Word. Any spirit which denied
(or denies today) the reality of the Incarnation was not of God.
Has come (erchomai) is in the perfecttense which signifies the permanent or
abiding effectof Jesus having come at a point in time (incarnation) in the
flesh. In the Revelation, Johnuses the perfecttense to describe the Christ "as
if slain" (Rev HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rev%205.6"5:6,
12-note)indicating He continues to bear the scars (immutable marks of the
New Covenant-see discussionunder The Oneness of Covenant - Co-mingling
of blood) of Calvary and will do so throughout eternity. In fact it has been
said that “the only man-made thing in heavenwill be the scars ofthe Savior!”
Hallelujah!
Wuest adds that has come is "in the perfect tense in the Greek text. From the
foregoing it follows that the statementspeaks ofthe God of the Old Testament
Who in the Personof His Son became incarnate in human flesh without its sin,
died on the Cross to satisfy the just demands of His law which man broke, and
raisedHimself from the dead in the body in which He died, to become the
living Saviour of the sinner who places his faith in Him in view of what He did
for him on Calvary’s Cross. The person who teaches that, John says, is
actuatedby the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the teacherwho does not agree to that
doctrine is not of God. He is actuatedby the spirit of Antichrist who denies
and is againstall that the Bible teaches regarding the person and work of the
Lord Jesus. This is Modernism." (See DiscussionofModernism; since
"modernism" was followedby "postmodernism" see What is post-modern
Christianity? and What are the dangers of postmodernism?)
Vine on in the flesh - As the Gospelstates, “the Word became flesh” (Jn
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%201.14"1:14-note).
Christ “was born of the seedof David according to the flesh” (Ro
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom%201.3"1:3-note).Cp.
Galatians HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Gal%204.4"4:4.
Christ partook of flesh and blood (Heb. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Heb.%202.14"2:14-note)… All the Gnostic
sects denied this truth. They maintained a distinction between Christ (whom
they calledan aeon)and the man Jesus. The apostle maintains the truth that
Jesus Christ is one inseparable personand that He has become flesh.
Compare ColossiansHYPERLINK

"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Col%202.9"2:9-note - "For in Him all the
fullnessof Deity dwellsin bodilyform." (The CollectedWritings of W. E. Vine)
Hiebert observes that "In saying that Jesus Christ came “in flesh” (en sarki),
rather than “into flesh” (eis sarka), Johnrepudiates Cerinthian Gnosticism.
Cerinthus (c. A.D. 100), a late contemporaryof John the Apostle at Ephesus,
separatedJesus from Christ. He taught that the “Christ spirit” came upon the
man Jesus, the son of Josephand Mary, at his baptism and empoweredhis
ministry but left him before his crucifixion; it was only the man Jesus who
died and rose again. Cerinthus thus rejectedthe doctrine of the incarnation
and consequentlyobliterated the Christian doctrine of the atonement… This
permanent union of the divine and the human in the person of Jesus Christ
qualifies Him to be the mediator betweenGod and men (1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%202.5"2:5). He is the all-
sufficient Saviour. The Apostolic teaching concerning the incarnate Christ
“gathers within its total significance the other greatdoctrinal truths such as
the Virgin Birth, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. The Incarnationis the
essentialcreedof Christianity; on this doctrine all else which calls itself
Christian stands or falls.”" (The Epistles of John- An Expositional
Commentary)
Kistemaker- Sixteenth-century German theologianZacharias Ursinus asked
whether these two natures are separatedfrom eachother. This is his answer:
"Certainly not. For since the divinity is not limited and is presenteverywhere,
it is evident that Christ's divinity is surely beyond the bounds of the humanity
he has takenon, but at the same time his divinity is in and remains personally
united to his humanity." (New TestamentCommentary - James, Epistles of
John, Peter, and Jude)
Craig Keener - The issue may be the secessionists’denialthat Jesus has come
as the Christ (if the opposition is Jewish);more likely it is a Docetic denial
that Jesus was actuallyhuman and actually died (see introduction), a heresy
an eyewitness would be well positionedto refute. It may simply be a
relativizing of Jesus’role to the position of a prophet like John the Baptist,
which allows enough compromise to avoid persecution. Whateverthe error,
the secessionistsare claiming the authority of inspiration for it, as do some
similar cults today. John does not deny the reality of the inspiration; he
merely denies that the spirit working in them is God’s Spirit. (The IVP Bible
BackgroundCommentary- New Testament)(Bolding added)
MacArthur - John accentuatesthe crucialimportance of sound doctrine
expressedin God's Word as the only absolute and trustworthy standard (cf.

Isa HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Isa%208.20"8:20).
(MacArthur Study Bible)
Ray Stedman - Jesus is his human name. He never was calledJesus when he
was the eternal Son of God, before the incarnation. It was only when he was
born as a babe in Bethlehemand grew up in Nazareththat he bore the human
name of Jesus;Jesus ofNazareth. But the whole teaching of Scripture is that
this Jesus ofNazareth, this historicalJesus, this man who grew up and lived
and ate and slept and walkedwith men, who prayed and talked and taught
them, is the Messiahof the Old Testament, the predicted One, the Son of God
who was to come, the eternal One, God himself, who would come into human
history -- they are one and the same. This is the Spirit of truth. Jesus is the
Christ, come in the flesh. Jesus ofNazareth is identical with and indivisible
from that promised Messiahof the Old Testament. Have you noticed that
Jesus makes this claim about himself? In John 10, he says of certain who have
gone before him,"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the
sheepfoldby the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a
robber [i.e., if someone comes to you by another process than the predicted
way, the way that has been announced, he is a thief and a robber; he is a false
prophet, he is a false Christ, he is an antichrist]; but he who enters by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeperopens;the sheep
hear his voice, and he calls his own sheepby name and leads them out," (John
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2010.1-3"10:1-3 RSV).
Then he says, "Iam that goodshepherd. I came in the predicted way, the way
the prophets announced. I was born in the right place, at the right time, in the
right way. I came exactlyas it was announced. I am the door; I am the
shepherd of the sheep," John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2010.14"10:14 ff). Now any teacherof
spiritual matters who confessesthis, John says, is of the truth, is of God. But
any teacherwho stands up and professes to teachmen about God but who
does not confess this, is not of God. Do not listen to him, pay no attention to
him. Regardless ofhow beautifully he talks, he is not of God. He is of the spirit
of error, the spirit of antichrist, that has alreadygone out into the world. Plain
language, is it not? It is amazing how we have forgottenand neglectedit. This
is the paramount doctrine which can never be compromised, the divine-
human personof the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the one thing that is basic and
fundamental to all Christian faith. He appearedin the flesh, he came as a
man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto the death of the cross…
Now, measure some of these voices today: Here is the Christian Scientist, who
says that Jesus -- as a man upon whom the Spirit of Christ came -- the Spirit

of Christ is the eternal One and he came upon Jesus at his baptism and left
him againbefore he died upon the cross. Jesus, therefore,was born as a mere
man and died as a mere man, and the only part of his ministry that is worth
anything to us is his public ministry of teaching when he was influenced by the
Spirit of Christ. That is not what John says. Johnsays that the spirit which
confesses thatJesus is the Christ, that the two are identical, one and the same,
never to be separated-- that is the Spirit which is of God. Anything else is the
spirit of error and of antichrist. Take the gospelof the Mormons. They say
that Jesus neverwas the eternalunchangeable God, but he was a man who
became God and came to show us how we, too, might become gods some day.
Is that the gospel? Ofcourse not. It is the spirit of error, of antichrist… There
are even many who are orthodox in doctrine and who say, "Yes, of course we
believe Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh. We have that in our creed, we can
show it to you. It is written in our hymn books. We confess it every Sunday
morning when we stand up in church, 'We believe in God the Father
Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord.'" But do they confess Him,
do they live by Him? Have they committed themselves to this One in whom
they profess to believe? This is the searching question John asks. If they do
not confess Him, if they do not live by Him, then do not follow them, their
error is as deadly as those who deny that he came in the flesh. Many young
people are finding today that dead orthodoxy has no more powerto deliver
than heresy and apostasyhas. It is those who live by him, follow him, obey
him, live by his life -- these are the ones to follow. If you do not do that you
can never be my teacher. I do not want to listen to any voice that professesto
talk about the inner things of man's life and his relationship to an eternal
God, which does not confess thatJesus is Christ come in the flesh, or who does
not demonstrate in his life that he lives by that principle. Testit. (When
Unbelief is Right - HYPERLINK "http://www.raystedman.org/new-
testament/1-john/when-unbelief-is-right"1 HYPERLINK
"http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/1-john/when-unbelief-is-
right"John HYPERLINK "http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/1-
john/when-unbelief-is-right"4:1-3)
"What think you of Christ? is the test
To try both your state and your scheme.
You can never think right of the rest
Until you think highly of Him."
As Paul wrote
And by common confessiongreatis the mystery (mysterious and even
foolish to the unregenerate world and made visible to the eyes of one's

heart ONLY be the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, cp Eph
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Eph%201.9"1:9-note)of
godliness:He who was revealedin the flesh, Was vindicated in the
Spirit, Beheld by angels, Proclaimedamong the nations, Believedon in
the world, Takenup in glory. (1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%203.16"3:16)
Below is an excerpt from Dr Wayne Grudem's outline on the The Humanity
of Christ. (Listen to Dr Grudem's MpHYPERLINK
"http://archive.scottsdalebible.com/assets/audio/christian-
essentials/20070603WGrudem.mp3"3 HYPERLINK
essentials/20070603WGrudem.mp3"formore detailed discussion)
The Incarnation: deity and humanity in the one person of Christ
1. Three inadequate views of the person of Christ
a. Apollinarianism (Apollinaris became bishop in Laodicea about A.D.
361)
(1) Christ had a human body only
(2) mind and spirit of Christ were from divine nature
(3) example: meeting “MickeyMouse”atDisney World (see Fig.
26.1)
(4) Problem: our minds and spirits need salvationtoo! (such a
Christ: not really true man to representus)
(5) Christ had human mind, spirit: Lk HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Luke%202.52"2:52;Jn
HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2012.27"12:27;13:31;
Heb HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Heb%204.15"4:15;5:7, etc.
(6) Rejectedby severalchurch councils (362-381 = page location
in Grudem's excellent Systematic Theology-An Introduction to
Biblical Doctrine)
b. Nestorianism(Nestorius was a popular preacherat Antioch; after
428:bishop of Constantinople)
(1) Christ was 2 distinct persons in one body: (a) the human
person; (b) the divine person

(2) Example: circus “horse” (see Fig. 26.2)
(3) Problem: Gospels show Jesus as “I” not “we”--never seenas
two persons in Gospels
(4) Nestorius probably never taught the hereticalview that goes
by his name
c. Monophysitism (Eutychianism) (Greek monos, “one”, and physis,
“nature”)(Eutyches - 378-454)was the leader of a monastery at
Constantinople)
(1) Human nature absorbedinto divine nature
(2) Something entirely new resulted (greaterthan human, less
than divine)
(3) Example: drop of ink in water(see Fig. 26.3)
(4) Problem: both humanity and deity are lost!
2. Solution to the controversy:ChalcedonianCreed(see below)
(Chalcedon:a city near Constantinople)Affirmed by Catholic,
Orthodox, and Protestantchurches ever since
3. Combining specific texts on Christ’s deity and humanity
a. One nature does some things that the other nature does not do (“the
property of eachnature is preserved” … see below for Chalcedonian
Creed)
(1) Jesus’human nature ascendedto heavenand is no longerin
the world, but His divine nature is everywhere present. (John
HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2016.28"16:28;17:11;
Acts HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Acts%201.9-
11"1:9-11;Mt. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Matt.%2028.20"28:20;Jn
HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2014.23"14:23)
(2) Jesus was 30 years old (Luke HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Luke%203.23"3:23), but also
eternally existed (John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%201.1-2"1:1-2;8:58)
(3) Jesus was weak andtired in his human nature (Mt.
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Matt.%204.2"4:2;
8:24; Mk HYPERLINK

"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Mark%2015.21"15:21;Jn
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%204.6"4:6),
but his divine nature was omnipotent (Mt. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Matt.%208.26-27"8:26-27,Col.
HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Col.%201.17"1:17;Heb.
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Heb.%201.3"1:3)
(4) While Jesus was a sleepin the boat (Mt. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Matt.%208.24"8:24)he was also
“continually carrying along all things by his word of power”
(Heb. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Heb.%201.3"1:3).
(5) Jesus’human nature died (Lk HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Luke%2023.46"23:46;1
HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor.%2015.3"Cor.
HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor.%2015.3"15:3), but
his divine nature did not die, but was able to raise himself from
the dead (John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%202.19"2:19;10:17-18;
Heb. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Heb.%207.16"7:16)
b. To preserve the reality of Jesus’human nature, we must saythat
Jesus had two wills (a human will and a divine will) and two centers of
consciousness(human and divine)
(1) Jesus’human consciousness did not know the time of his
return (Mark HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Mark%2013.32"13:32), but his
divine consciousnessknew all things (John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2016.30"16:30)
(2) Jesus’human will was tempted (Heb. HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Heb.%204.15"4:15)but his
divine will could not be tempted (James HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/James%201.13"1:13)
4. Anything either nature does, the person of Christ does
Jn HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%208.58"8:58
“Before Abraham was, I am”

Jn HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2016.28"16:28 “Iam leaving
the world”
Matt HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Matt%2028.20"28:20 “Iam with you
always”
1 HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor.%2015.3"Cor.
HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor.%2015.3"15:3 “Christdied
for our sins”
(Excerpt from The Humanity of Christ.) (Listen to Dr Grudem's in
depth MpHYPERLINK
essentials/20070603WGrudem.mp3"3)
THE CHALCEDONIAN CREED (451 A.D.) "We, then, following the holy
Fathers, all with one consent, teachmen to confess one and the same Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godheadand also perfect in manhood;
truly God and truly man, of a reasonable souland body; consubstantial
[homoousios--“same nature”]with the Fatheraccording to the Godhead, and
consubstantialwith us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us,
without sin; begottenbefore all ages ofthe Father according to the Godhead,
and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary,
the Motherof God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son,
Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledgedin two natures, inconfusedly,
unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no
means takenawayby the union, but rather the property of eachnature being
preserved, and concurring in one Personand one Subsistence, notparted or
divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God
the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have
declaredconcerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us,
and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.
RelatedResources:
• Is Jesus Godin the flesh- Why is it important that Jesus is God in the
flesh?
• Why is the humanity of Jesus important?
• What is the meaning of the Incarnation of Christ?

• What does incarnate mean? How was Jesus Godincarnate?
• How can the Incarnation be reconciledwith God's immutability?
• What is the hypostatic union? How can Jesus be both Godand man at
the same time?
• Cerinthus - Wikipedia
Steven Cole notes that - John’s test requires believing in the true deity and
humanity of Jesus. “Has come” implies His preexistence as the eternalSon of
God. Jesus statedHis own preexistence whenHe told the Jews, “Before
Abraham was born, I am” (John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%208.58"8:58). Or, as John begins his
gospel(John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%201.1"1:1), “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
When John states (1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20John%204.2"4:2)that “Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh,” he is referring not only to His true deity, but also to His
true humanity. The Docetiststaught that matter is evil; thus Jesus was only a
spirit-being who seemedto be a real man. The Cerenthian Gnostics, whom
John was probably combating, taught that Jesus was a mere man, but that
“the Christ,” a divine emanation, came upon Him at His baptism, but left just
before His crucifixion. John’s test refutes both of these heresies. Jesus is the
Christ (the Anointed One, or Messiah)who was conceivedsupernaturally by
the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. He had a human body,
although apart from sin.
To deny that Jesus is true Godand at the same time true man is to deny the
Christian faith. To deny either Jesus’deity or His humanity is to deny that He
is our Savior. If He were not God, He would have been a sinner and His death
on the cross couldnot have atoned for anything beyond His own sins. If He
were not man, He could not have assumedour sins on the cross (Heb.
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Heb.%202.14-17"2:14-17).
Thus faith in Him to save from sin would be worthless. Thus any teaching that
denies that Jesus is true Godand true man, that as the secondperson of the
trinity, Jesus took on human flesh in the incarnation, is a doctrine of demons.
It is the spirit of antichrist.
Implicit in John’s warning here is that the content of our theologymatters
greatly! The difference betweena person in a false cult who is going to hell
and a true believer in Jesus Christ, who is going to heaven, is largely one of

theology. Cultists are often more zealous and more knowledgeableabout what
they believe than we are. But, they deny that Jesus is true God in human flesh;
we affirm it. John Calvin observes (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on 4:2, p.
232), “Yet he only repeats here what we have met with before, that as Christ is
the objectat which faith aims, so he is the stone at which all heretics stumble.
As long then as we abide in Christ, there is safety; but when we depart from
him, faith is lost, and all truth is rendered void.” So I encourage youto study
sound doctrine, especiallywith regardto the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Thus John has shownus why we must be discerning, because Satanand his
forces are actively trying to deceive us on essentialbiblical truth. He has
shown us that the basis for discernment is a person’s confessionaboutJesus
Christ as true God and true man. (Spiritual Discernment HYPERLINK
"https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-18-spiritual-discernment-1-john-41-6"1
HYPERLINK "https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-18-spiritual-discernment-1-
john-41-6"JohnHYPERLINK "https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-18-
spiritual-discernment-1-john-41-6"4:1-6)
John MacArthur illustrates the danger of drifting from the solid foundation of
the truth about Jesus Christ - ''There once was an old church in England. A
sign on the front of the building read ''We preachChrist crucified.'' After a
time, ivy grew up and obscured the last word… ''We preachChrist.'' The ivy
grew some more, and motto read, ''We preach.''Finally, ivy coveredthe
entire sign, and the church died. Such is the fate of any church that fails to
carry out its mission in the world.''
William Barclaygives us an interesting historical context for John's warning
about the spirit of the world - Behind this warning is a situation of which we
in the modern church know little or nothing. In the early church there was a
surging life of the Spirit which brought its own perils. There were so many
and such diverse spiritual manifestations that some kind of testwas necessary.
Let us try to think ourselves back into that electric atmosphere.
(i) Even in Old Testamenttimes men realized the perils of false prophets who
were men of spiritual power. Deuteronomy HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Deut%2013.1-5"13:1-5 demands that the
false prophet who soughtto lure men away from the true God should be put
to death; but it frankly and freely admits that he may promise signs and
wonders and perform them. The spiritual poweris there, but it is evil and
misdirected.
(ii) In the early church the spiritual world was very near. All the world
believed in a universe thronged with demons and spirits. Every rock and tree

and river and grove and lake and mountain had its spiritual power; and these
spiritual powers were always seeking entry into men's bodies and minds. In
the time of the early church all men lived in a haunted world and men were
never so consciousofbeing surrounded by spiritual powers.
(iii) That ancient world was very consciousofa personalpower of evil. It did
not speculate aboutits source, but it was sure that it was there and that it was
seeking formen who might be its instruments. It follows that not only the
universe but also the minds of men provided the battleground on which the
powerof the light and the powerof the dark fought out the issue.
(iv) In the early church the coming of the Spirit was a much more visible
phenomenon than is common nowadays. It was usually connectedwith
baptism; and when the Spirit came things happened that anyone could see.
The man who receivedthe Spirit was visibly affected. When the apostles came
down to Samaria, after the preaching of Philip, and conferredthe gift of the
Spirit on the new converts, the effects were so startling that the local
magician, Simon Magus, wishedto buy the powerto produce them (Acts
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Acts%208.17-18"8:17-18).
The coming of the Spirit on Cornelius and his people was something which
anyone could see (Acts HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Acts%2010.44-45"10:44-45). In the early
church there was an ecstatic elementin the coming of the Spirit whose effects
were violent and obvious.
(v) This had its effectin the congregationallife of the early church. The best
commentary on this passage ofJohn is, in fact, Corinthians 14:1-40 . Because
of the powerof the Spirit men spoke with tongues. Thatis to say, they poured
out a flood of Spirit-given sounds in no known language, whichno one could
understand unless there was someone presentwho had the Spirit-given power
to interpret. So extraordinary was this phenomenon that Paul does not
hesitate to say that, if a strangercame into a congregationin which it was in
action, he would think that he had arrived in an assemblyof madmen
(1HYPERLINK
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.2"14:2;
1HYPERLINK
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.23"14:23;
1HYPERLINK
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.27"14:27).

Even the prophets, who delivered their messagein plain language, were a
problem. They were so moved by the Spirit that they could not wait for each
other to finish and eachwould leap to his feetdetermined to shout out his
Spirit-given message(1HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.26-27"Corinthians
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.26-27"14:26-
27; 1HYPERLINK
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.33"14:33). A
service of worship in an early Christian congregationwas very different from
the placidity of most modern church services. So diverse were the
manifestations of the Spirit that Paul numbers the discerning of spirits among
the spiritual gifts which a Christian might possess(1HYPERLINK
We cansee what might happen in such a case whenPaul speaks ofthe
possibility of a man saying in a spirit that Christ is accursed(1HYPERLINK
When we come further down in Christian history we find the problem still
more acute. The Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is the first
service order book and is to be dated not long after A.D. 100. It has
regulations on how to deal with the wandering apostles andprophets who
came and went amongstthe Christian congregations. "Noteveryone who
speaks in a spirit is a prophet; he is only a prophet if he walks in the ways of
the Lord" (Didache 11 and 12). The matter reachedits peak and ne plus ultra
when, in the third century, Montanus burst upon the Church with the claim
that he was nothing less than the promised Paraclete and that he proposedto
tell the Church the things which Christ had said his apostles couldnot at the
moment bear.
The early church was full of this surging life of the Spirit. The exuberance of
life had not been organizedout of the Church. It was a great age;but its very
exuberance had its dangers. If there was a personalpowerof evil, men could
be used by him. If there were evil spirits as well as the Holy Spirit, men could
be occupied by them. Men could delude themselves into a quite subjective
experience in which they thought--quite honestly--that they had a message
from the Spirit.
All this is in John's mind; and it is in face of that surging atmosphere of
pulsating spiritual life that he sets out his criteria to judge between the true

and the false. We, for our part, may well feelthat with all its perils, the
exuberant vitality of the early church was a far better thing than the apathetic
placidity of so much of the life of the modern church. It was surely better that
men should expectthe Spirit everywhere than that they should expect him
nowhere. (William Barclay's Daily Study Bible)
Warren Wiersbe - George Whitefield, the greatBritish evangelist, was
speaking to a man about his soul. He askedthe man, “Sir, what do you
believe?” “I believe what my church believes,” the man replied respectfully.
“And what does your church believe?” “The same thing I believe.” “And what
do both of you believe?” the preacherinquired again. “We both believe the
same thing!” was the only reply he could get. - A man is not savedby
assenting to a church creed. He is savedby trusting Jesus Christ and bearing
witness to his faith (Ro HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom%2010.9%E2%80%9310"10:9HYPER
LINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom%2010.9%E2%80%9310"–
HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom%2010.9%E2%80%9310"10). False
teachers will often say, “We worship the Father. We believe in God the
Father, even though we disagree with you about Jesus Christ.” But to deny
the Sonmeans to deny the Fatheralso. You cannotseparate the Father and
the Son, since both are one God. Jesus says, “Iand My Father are One” (John
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2010.30"10:30).He
also makes it clearthat true believers honor both the Father and the Son:
“Thatall men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that
honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Fatherwhich hath sent Him” (John
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%205.23"5:23). If you
say you “worship one God” but leave Jesus Christ out of your worship, you
are not worshiping as a true Christian. (Bible Exposition Commentary)
BIBLE HUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Spirit Of Truth And The Spirit Of Error
1 HYPERLINK "/1_john/4-1.htm"John HYPERLINK "/1_john/4-1.htm"4:1-6
R. Finlayson

I. NEED FOR TESTING. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits,
whether they are of God:because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
Again, at the thought of danger, his heart warms toward his readers as his beloved.
It is necessary to bear in mind the circumstances in which they were placed. They
had the help of true prophets. The apostolic age had not come to an end. John was
still living; and there were others who had inspired utterance. They had that for
which some minds still crave - infallible guidance on the spot. But they were not
placed beyond danger, as minds never are in this world. Many false prophets had
gone out into the world, and were in their neighbourhood, as they are in all
neighbourhoods where Christ's truth is published and finding acceptance. The false
prophets are Satan's counterpoise to the true prophets, and, as the true prophets
were really under Divine inspiration, the false prophets claimed to be under Divine
inspiration too. Forthat lie best succeeds which is made to bear the closest
resemblance to the truth that is active. Christianity was at that time wonderfully
active in many places. How was it to be counteracted? We can understand that
forming the subject of evil counsel. One way was to incorporate Judaism with
Christianity. Another way was to incorporate Gentile philosophy with Christianity,
to which the name of Gnosticism is given. The general drift of Gnosticism is to
substitute, for the plain facts of the gospel, philosophic myths. Cerinthus, who was
a contemporary of John in proconsular Asia, is described by Neander as "the
intermediate link between the Judaizing and the Gnostic sects." "As a Judaizer,
Cerinthus held, with the Ebionites, that Jesus was only the sonof Josephand Mary,
born in the natural way. As a Gnostic, he maintained that the Christ first
descended, in the form of a dove, on the carpenter's son at his baptism; that he
revealed to him the unknown Father, and worked miracles through him; and that at
length he took his flight, and left him, so that Jesus alone suffered and rose, while
the Christ remained impassible." There is reason for believing that this was the
particular danger, or something not unlike it, which beset the circle or circles to
which John writes in this Epistle. There therefore arose a necessity for
discriminating between the true prophets and the false prophets, that the one class
might be followed and the others shunned. How was this necessity to be met? Only
by the action of the Christians themselves. The duty of discrimination is here laid
upon them. Forthis they were not specially inspired; but they had the ordinary
assistance of the Holy Spirit. Observe the language in which the duty is described.
"Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God:because
many false prophets are gone out into the world." They were not enjoined to sit in
judgment upon the prophets as individuals, but in respect of their prophetic
teachings, which they claimed to have received from God. There were spirits of
God to whom afterward is attributed the confessing of Christ; and there were
spirits not of God to whom afterward is attributed the refusal to confess Christ, the

organs of the latter being the false prophets. How are we to understand this
plurality of spirits? Are we to think of the spirits of the prophets as objectified? or
are we to think of spirits as connected with separate movements, finding their
organs in prophets true or false? The latter view is not excluded by the language;
but we know very little of the sphere in question. The practical thing is that there
are true teachers and false teachers, between whom a discrimination has to be
made. The Christian ministry should be in the service of truth; but it would be vain
to think that the teaching from every Christian pulpit is true. There are times when
many go forth from our theological halls with rationalistic tendencies. What are
Christian people to do?They are not to believe every spirit. Whoever the Christian
teacher is, the influence resting upon him and giving character to his utterances
must be tested, to see whether it is of God. There are teachers rising up from time
to time of commanding ability. They are, or seem to be, burdened with a message
for their age. Their influence extends beyond the readers of their books or listeners
to their orations. It is soonto be found in novels, in magazines, in newspapers, in
conversation. What are Christian people to do. They are to discriminate, they are
not to believe every spirit; they are to satisfy themselves that the influence present
in the teaching is of God before they yield themselves to it. If they are not satisfied,
then they must do what they can to make themselves impervious to, or vigorously
to counteract, the influence. Forvery much depends on what teaching we receive
through all channels, it being either for our spiritual advancement or for our
spiritual deterioration.
II. THE TEST TO BE APPLIED. "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God."
1. Positive. "Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
of God." Teaching is to be judged in relation to Christ. It is due to Christ that there
should be an open declaration in his favour. The object of confessionis (strictly)
Jesus Christ come in the flesh. It is to be borne in mind that Jesus is the historical
name. It is admitted on all sides that "one Jesus" lived about nineteen hundred
years ago, and that his influence has extended far and wide. What accountis to be
given of this Personage? The right teaching is that which confesses him to be the
Christ. This is in agreement with 1 HYPERLINK "/1_john/2-22.htm"John
HYPERLINK "/1_john/2-22.htm"2:22. Cerinthus taught that the Christ had a
temporary abode in Jesus; the Christian teacher declares Jesus to be the Christ. But
the Christ refers us to Divinity, eternal Sonship, with which we associate ideas of
immateriality, invisibility, impassibility, exemption from death. This was virtually
the understanding of Cerinthus, and his way of accounting for the ordinary
manifestations of humanity in Jesus was that he was only apparently the Christ.
This was the usual solution of the difficulty by the Gnostics. The right teaching is
that Jesus is Christ come in the flesh. That is to say, the true solution is the

Incarnation. Christ is Divine, and as such we can think of him as essentially
immaterial, invisible, impassible, undying; and. yet he is human, and as such there
could be connected with him materiality, visibility, suffering, death. The
Incarnation is well worthy of being made the great object of confession. For it
proclaims the wonderful and indissoluble union between God and man with a view
to human redemption, which sometimes tends to repel by its strangeness. It
proclaims a new and unexpected outlet for Divine love, transcending all finite
power of thought, to be estimated adequately only by him in whose heart the love
burned. In this view we obtain facts which are rich in meaning. We first stand in
presence of his birth, when the mysterious union commenced. We are amazed as
we contemplate him growing up to manhood. We behold him setting himself to his
work, and proving himself in a threefold encounter with the tempter. We are
overwhelmed with awe to think of him, in death, passing under the eclipse of the
Father's countenance. We are profoundly interested to behold him rising from the
dead, and to think of him as passing into the heavens in our glorified nature. That
is the right kind of teaching which deals with these facts, puts them forward for the
grasp of faith, uses them for the clearing of thought and the stirring up of love.
2. Negative. "And every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of God:and this is
the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in
the world already." The true confession has been defined; this is its contradiction.
There is implied a certain knowledge of Christianity. The news has gone forth that
God has become incarnate for human salvation. It is news which is fitted to arrest,
and leaves no excuse for want of inquiry into the question of fact. Every teacher
especially should have his mind made up with regard to it. The apostle lays it down
as the test of a true confession. By this Cerinthus and other Gnostic teachers were
to be condemned. They found a way of avoiding the Incarnation, and thus took
away the impression of the great love of God manifested toward men. The same
thing is done by the Unitarians now. They withhold acknowledgment from Jesus.
Many of their teachers plead for warmth of feeling toward Christ. "Without the
passions which move incessantly, like glittering and intense fire, around the Person
of Christ, religious teaching will not make men's hearts so to burn within them as
to bring them in crowds to hear and to obey, and to be impelled to become teachers
in turn" (Stepford Brooke). They do not, however, leave room for the calling forth
of such love, inasmuch as they represent Christ as a mere man, only transcending
other men in excellence of character. They do not accept the Incarnation; it is not
credible to them; it takes away from the simplicity of the faith. Their declaration
must go forward to judgment; a Higher than man will one day pronounceupon its
worth. It is an important consideration for our guidance that Unitarianism stands
clearly condemned by the apostolic test. It confesses not Jesus, admits not the

higher view of his Person and work. There are teachers of great eminence "who
occupyrather a negative and undefined position in relation to Christ and
Christianity. They have written upon almost every subject of human thought - upon
government and the Church, upon history and biography, upon morals and destiny.
They have gone round the world to find heroes and representative men, and have
said many true and striking things about them; but, strange to say, they have never
clearly informed the world as to what they think of Christ. They are unaccountably
reticent upon a subject that is the most important of all. They allow a painful
silence to brood over a Name that is above every name. What can be the meaning
of this? Is it because they have no faith in Christ, but do not think it prudent or
necessary to profess their unbelief? Can they have faith without professing it? The
fact remains that they have thought it their business to act as guides to the world,
and have thought it necessary to publish many volumes of their opinions, and. yet
have never directly told the world what they think of Christ. That fact remains; and
alongside of it the truth remains, 'Every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of
God'" (F. Ferguson). Of the Corinthian Gnosticism, which set aside the
Incarnation, John says that it was the presence of antichrist. So early had the
announced opposition to Christ commenced; it still exists under other specious
forms. The most radical opposition is that which is directed against the central fact
of the Incarnation, which would reduce Christ to the position of a mere human
teacher.
III. SUCCESS IN APPLYING THE TEST.
1. The fact of victory. "Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome
them." This is another occasionon which the apostle is so affectionate as to call
them his little children. He thinks of something which was greatly to their honour.
They had overcome the false prophets. We are not told the wiles which were used
by these prophets. They pretended to be under Divine inspiration. Very probably
they pretended to work miracles. We do not know that they held out the
inducement of false pleasures. Whatever the wiles were, in vain were they tried on
those to whom John is now writing. They held tenaciously to the fact of the
Incarnation, and to its blessed import. Nay, we can understand that they succeeded
in separating from their communion all who were not in sympathy with the
Incarnation, who for the fact put some fanciful idea. "They went out from us," it is
said of these prophets in chapter 1 John 2:19, which, taken in connection with what
is said here, gives us an impression of their moral defeat. There needed to be no
recourse to the disciplinary power of excommunication; they went out when they
could no longer endure the power of the truth.
2. The ground of victory. "Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the
world." The Divine Personis left undefined. We naturally think of Christ in the

Spirit. Forthe victory lies in discrimination; and John's conception of their
qualification is their having an anointing from the Holy One. As qualified in the
same way, Christ had to fight. He was brought into conflict with him that is in the
world. All attempts were made to delude him, to lead him to abandon the Father's
cause; but he conquered. "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince
of this world be cast out." As the hour approaches, he announces his victory for the
encouragement of his followers: "Be of good cheer; I have conquered the world."
John's friends conquered too, because greater was he that was in them than he that
was in the false prophets, and in the world to which properly these belonged,
though they had once been connected with the communion of Christians. Christ is
in us by his Spirit, to unmask all designs on us, to exposeall fallacies, to disclose
all the beauties of truth. He that is in the world has great power of delusion; but we
can think of it as vanquished, and we can think of the victory as sure for us in the
power of his Spirit which is within us as our equipment. Therefore let us be of
good cheer.
3. The manner of victory.
(1) Discrimination in respect of the false prophets. "They are of the world:
therefore speak they as of the world, and the world heareth them." How are false
prophets to be known? They are the birth of a worldly state of society, they give
utterance to worldly sentiment, they gain worldly applause. As for the Incarnation,
it is remote from their thoughts; it is too high for their low origin; it is too self-
abasing, too self-restraining. Let a field be sought where looser sentiment may be
uttered, or where there may be a grim handling of abuses and unrealities and
failings, and, if there is only sufficient vis in the teacher, certain men will loudly
applaud.
(2) Discrimination in respect of the true prophets. "We are of God:he that knoweth
God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not." How are true prophets to be
known? They may be said to be the birth of a quickened Church; they are here
represented as the birth of God. They teach about God, and they set forth the
Incarnation as the grandest manifestation of what God is - as the fact of facts and
the truth of truths. He that is in the schoolof God, and seeks to advance in the
knowledge of God, is attracted to them; while he who is not yet born of God is
repelled from them. "I have set thee," says God to Jeremiah, "for a tower and a
fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way." Marking of
the discrimination. "By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." We
are to understand the principle laid down. By it we discriminate between the spirit
of truth resting on the true teachers, and the spirit of wandering resting on the false
teachers. There is implied the test of the Incarnation. According as teachers are

attracted to it do they come into the light of God;according as they are repelled
from it do they wander themselves, and lead away others, into the darkness. - R.F.
END BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
JOHN MACARTHUR
I want you to open your Bible, if you will, to 1 John chapter 4, 1 John chapter
4, and I want to read to you a portion of Scripture that is directly applicable
to the subject at hand. First John chapter 4, let me read the opening 8 verses.
“Beloved- ” 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 confessesthat
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. You are from
God, little children, and have overcome them; because greateris He who is in
you, than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they
speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he
who knows Godlistens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By
this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
“Beloved, letus love one another for love is from God; and everyone who
loves is born of Godand knows God. The one who does not love, does not
know God, for God is love.”
I want to draw you back to verse 1, “Testthe spirits.” A mandate, a command
from the apostle John, “Testthe spirits.” “Spirits” meaning “persons,”
persons. “Test,”dokimazō, a term used in metallurgy to assessthe purity of
metal. Testthe persons, whether they be human or whether they be angelic.
Testthe persons.
We are reminded to do this also in 1 HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Thess%205.21-22"Thessalonians
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Thess%205.21-22"5:21-
22, “not despise prophesying. But to examine - ” and the same word is used, to
test what we’re hearing. This is critical. It is critical because Satanexists, and
because demons exist, and because they operate a kingdom of lies that
dominates the world.

Satanis the god of this world, the prince of the powerof the air, the ruler of
spiritual darkness in heavenly places, and he has been allowedto run loose in
this world, going about as a roaring lion, seeking who he may devour. He and
his agents are disguisedas angels of light, according to the apostle Paul in his
letter to the Corinthians. And we should not be surprised that Satanoperates
99 percent of the time in false religion, in lies and deception.
Satanisn’t the one behind the wretched, corrupt, sinful behavior of any given
society. The flesh takes care ofthat. Satanis behind the corrupt religion, the
false systems of belief. It’s really important to understand that. For a moment,
turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. People talk about
spiritual warfare with regard to Satanand demons and I think almostalways
they getit wrong. They come up with the idea that we’re supposedto be
chasing Satanaround. I remember being at a Pastors’Conferenceone time
and a prominent wonderful church and the pastor gotup to begin the pastor’s
conference with severalthousand men and he said, “Let’s pray,” and the first
words out of his mouth were, “Satan, we bind you.” And I almost fell over.
What? “Let us pray,” and the first word is “Satan” and he’s talking to the
devil, telling the devil what he can or cannot do? Maybe he thinks that
spiritual war, and maybe he thinks he has the power to do that. That’s a
delusion.
Spiritual war is described in 2 HYPERLINK
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/2%20Cor%2010.3"10:3 with
these words, “The weapons of our warfare,” so now we know we’re talking
about warfare, talking about weapons. They’re “not of the flesh,” that is
they’re not human. We are “in the flesh” in the sense verse 3 says that we are
human. When it says “we walk in the flesh,” not talking about sin but, just
talking about being human, we can’t war, however, “according to the flesh.”
Our weapons can’tbe human. It can’t be ingenuity, cleverness. It can’t be
anything concoctedby man, no matter how noble our desires.
We cannotfight this war with human weapons. It takes a lot more than that.
They have to be, according to verse 4, “divinely powerful.” They have to be
divinely powerful. We’re engagedin a spiritual war which cannot be fought
with human weapons, no matter how noble, and well-conceived, andwell-
crafted we might think they are.
Why? Because we must be engaged, end of verse 4, in the “destructionof
fortresses.” And the imagery here is that human weapons are no match for a
massive fortress. The word “fortress” means exactlyyou would think it meant
in the ancient world, a “stone edifice,” impregnable. By the way, the word for

“fortress” is the word for “prison.” We’re assaulting formidable edifices. We
cannot use pea shooters. We cannotuse human weapons.
What are these fortresses?At the end of verse 4, the “destructionof
fortresses,” the beginning of verse 5, “we are destroying speculations,”in the
NAS. The fortresses are defined in the next verse, destruction of fortresses,
destruction of speculations. The Greek wordthere is logismos, ideas,
ideologies,theories, viewpoints, beliefsystems, psychologies,philosophies,
religions. This is what we’re engagedin in spiritual war. It’s a battle for how
people think. It’s a battle for the mind. It’s not about chasing Satanaway. It’s
not about running off demons. That’s not within the purview of our abilities.
Ours is a war for the mind.
Why? Because the world is imprisoned in belief systems. They are fortified
there in the sense that they are impregnable in their ideologies. Those
fortifications in which they live become their prisons and end up their tombs.
And the architect of all of these fortifications is none other than Satan himself.
He is the father of lies. He is the arch-deceiver. He is the ultimate angelof
light. And he purveys his great work through false belief systems.
In fact, they are further defined - look back at verse 5 - as “every lofty thing
raisedup againstthe knowledge ofGod.” What does that mean? Every high
idea, every apparently noble idea, intellectual idea, greatinsight, anything and
everything that is raisedup as an ideology - listen carefully – against, “against
the knowledge ofGod.” People are fortified in systems that are anti-God.
They’re anti-God. To use the language ofJohn, they’re antichrist. And as I
said, people are fortified there. They are imprisoned there. And they are
entombed ultimately there.
So what is our responsibility? Our responsibility is to smash these ideologies,
to crush these fortifications. And to take every thought captive to the
obedience of Christ. This is a battle for how people think. Again, Satan is the
architect, the designer, the engineer, and the builder of these ideologies.
People are fortified in them and ultimately doomed by them to eternalhell.
And it all seems so wonderful because it is operatedby the ultimate angelof
light.
In the Old Testament, people were warnedabout false prophets. In the New
Testament, againwe are warnedabout false prophets. In the sermonon the
mount, Jesus warns about false prophets, Matthew 7. Paul warns about false
prophets repeatedly. Peteressentiallywrites an entire epistle, 2 Peter, to warn
about false prophets. Jude follows up, essentiallythe Holy Spirit delivers to

Jude with a different verb tense, the same thing he gave to Peter in 2 Peter2,
and another warning comes.
And the New Testamentends before the apocalypse, before the greatbook of
Revelationwhich looks at the future, the lastmessage ofthe New Testament,
two little postcardepistles, 2 John, 3 John. Five times in the opening verses of
2 John, five times in the opening verses of 3 John, the last word, one written to
a man, one written to a woman, the final word before the apocalypse is a
warning to continue to be faithful to the truth. You find the word “truth” used
five times in the beginning of both of those little epistles. The last word from
the lastapostle in the lastdecade of the first century of the church is to live for
the truth. And Jude then, throws in also “earnestlycontendfor the truth.” It’s
a truth war. I think I wrote a book about that. It’s a truth war. This is
spiritual war.
And part of being able to fight that war is to test the spirits. We can’t go
blithely along accepting anything and everything that people aver or affirm or
avow. We need to testthe spirits. This passagegives us the principles to do
that, so let’s go back to 1 John chapter 4.
And by the way, when the Great Awakening broke out 1730 to 1740, there
were questions about the legitimacy of that. There were things going on in the
GreatAwakening that were clearly the work of the Holy Spirit. There were
some things that appeared not to be the work of the Holy Spirit. And
JonathanEdwards assessedthat movement, and he did it on the basis of this
same text. So last night Steve LawsonraisedCalvin from the dead, and today
we’re going to raise JonathanEdwards from the dead, and we’re going to let
him talk to us a little bit.
JonathanEdwards wrote a work calledThe Distinguishing Marks of a Work
of the Spirit of God, The Distinguishing Marks ofa Work of the Spirit of God.
And he based it on 1 John chapter 4, and it was published in 1741. Edwards
assertedthat this passageis foundational to assessing anything that is claimed
to be the work of the Holy Spirit. And these are timeless tests given to us not
by Jonathan Edwards, he merely lookedat them as we’re going to do, but by
the Holy Spirit. Timeless tests by which we are to measure all spiritual
movements, all preaching, all preachers are to be evaluated by these tests.
What is truly of the Holy Spirit will conform to these. It’s wonderful that the
Spirit of Godhas given this to us. All the lines of examination converge in
these eight verses. It is the responsibility of every pastor, every teacher, every
preacher, every Christian to examine all claims and test all persons, and
prophecies. Like the noble Bereans, examine everything to see what is true.

Now what is the issue here? Clearly the issue is a work of the Holy Spirit.
Back up to 3:24. “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and
He in him.” And then this statement. “We know by this that He abides in us,
by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Our salvation, says John, is confirmed
and we are assuredthat we belong to Christ because ofthe work of the Holy
Spirit. That’s what he’s saying. Our assurance - let me sayit again- our
confidence, the affirmation of the reality of our salvationis basedupon the
working of the Holy Spirit.
I know the Holy Spirit is invisible, the Holy Spirit works in a supernatural,
and divine, and imperceptible way within us. However, while the working of
the Holy Spirit is invisible, the results are visible. While we do not experience
or feel the Holy Spirit, the manifestation of His work we do experience. One of
the follies of the charismatic movement is to saythat the Holy Spirit is leading
me, or the Holy Spirit is directing me. You have no way to know that. I have
no way to know that. I don’t have a red light on my head that goes around
when it’s the Holy Spirit and goes offwhen it’s just me. I don’t have any
mechanism to know that I’m getting impulses from the Holy Spirit. That’s
imperceptible, that’s invisible, that’s supernatural, that’s divine.
All I know is that I canexperience the result of His moving in my life. And it
started when I was saved. I immediately had a hatred of sin and a love for the
things that honor God. I immediately was indifferent to philosophy and I took
a philosophy minor in collegeand I studied westernphilosophy. You have
never met a person more uninterested in philosophy than me, but I have a
passionate andall-consuming desire to know the Word of God.
I didn’t see the Holy Spirit do that. I didn’t feel Him do that. But I know the
result of His doing it. I tolerate people in the world with a compassionfor
their lostness. I adore God’s people. I love people in God’s church. I don’t
even know who you are, and if you’ll allow me, I just want to tell you, I love
you in a real sense, notin a sense that I know all about you, but there’s
something about those who belong to Christ, they belong to me. These are
things that are evidences - these are things that are evidences ofan invisible
work by the Holy Spirit within me.
So we know that Christ abides in us because we know the Spirit He has given
us is manifest in us. People sayto me, “How do you know when you’re a
believer?” It’s not your perfection, it’s your direction. It’s what you love, and
what you hate, and what you long for. We’re all in Romans 7, aren’t we? We
don’t do what we ought to do, we don’t do what we want to do. We do what
we don’t want to do and ought not to do, and we hate that about us, and that’s
the evidence of the Holy Spirit in us.

You know, it’s in John HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%203.8"3:8 that Jesus says to
Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it will and you can’t see it, and you can’t
control it, but you can see its effect.” And that’s an illustration even John 3 of
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s work is invisible, the effects are highly
visible. By the visible, manifest, experiential effects of the Holy Spirit’s
invisible work, we know He lives in us.
What is He doing in us? I’ll just give you a quick list. He produces in us a
desire for repentance, a hatred of sin. He produces in us a desire to seek
salvationand forgiveness. He produces in us a belief in the gospel, a love for
the Lord Jesus Christ, a desire to become a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ,
acknowledging Him as Lord. He produces in us a delight in the Holy
Scripture, a longing for obedience. He produces in us joy in trials and
tribulations, love of other believers, desire for fellowship, understanding of the
Bible, illumination of Scripture, inclination to prayer, holy affections, a desire
for praise, a heart of thanksgiving, worship as a way of life, and increasing
Christlikeness. That’s pretty encouraging stuff. And I used to say about that,
“This is what the Holy Spirit’s doing in you whether you like it or not.”
But, there are some other spirits. And it’s really pretty surprising to me. I
think it’s very surprising that in a sudden unexpected shift from the glories of
3:24, the Holy Spirit brings words to John’s mind that move from the glorious
reality of Christ and the true work of the Holy Spirit to the deadly dangers of
the unholy spirits, the unholy persons who are not from God, the anti-God,
the antichrists.
And we’re not really surprised by this because we’ve beenwarned by the Holy
Spirit from the Old Testamenton. Satanic deception is always with us. It was
there in the garden, wasn’t it? It’s always at work. It’s always effective. God
has always warnedHis people, calledHis people to vigilance, calledHis people
to discernment. It’s a long waron the truth, and it rages, and it rages allthe
time, and the true people of Godhave always had to battle the false prophets
and the liars. And what makes them effective is the deceptiveness ofit.
It is a strange irony to me, very strange irony, in the charismatic movement
that if you criticize them, if you endeavorto be vigilant and discerning, and if
you endeavorto contend for the truth, and hold them to Scripture, and expose
their error, they will condemn you as the sinner. You are the one who are
standing in the way of the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus in John 17 for the
unity of His church. How do I know that? I have lived that. I have lived that.

In order for them to succeed, they have to turn discernment into an iniquity.
They have to turn discernment into a transgressionagainstChristand His
high priestly prayer. It is essentialfor the charismatic movement to survive
that it attack truth warriors and turn them into enemies of the Holy Spirit,
because if sound doctrine rules, they do not survive.
Evangelicalismhas largelybeen intimidated into silence. We were discussing
this when we started working on the book. We couldn’t find a book exposing
the charismatic movement for what it is that had been published, a book of
any note at all that had been published in the last 15 years. They have been
very successfulin silencing evangelicalism.
And so, we come back to 1 John, and we are commanded to testthe persons
espousing anything in the name of God and in the name of Christ who see
whether they are from God. We’re instructed at the very outsetof this verse
with these words, “Beloved, do not believe every person, don’t believe it.”
Why? “Becausemany false prophets have gone out into the world.” So “test
the spirits.” It ought to be enough to convince you of the error of that
movement just to know they don’t want examination. If this was a true work
of the Holy Spirit consistentwith Scripture, they would be inviting all the
scrutiny they could get because they would want the affirmation and the
authentication.
So what are the tests? Well, I’m going to give you one, and I have several, but
I don’t know how far I’m going to get. The ones I don’t give you are in the
book. I told Travis I needed three hours today and he said, “No. You can’t
have three hours.”
All right, test one. The true work of the Holy Spirit exalts the Lord Jesus
Christ. The true work of the Holy Spirit exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2,
“By this you know the Spirit of God: - ” here’s how you know, here’s how you
know “ - every spirit that confessesthat Jesus Christhas 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.”
The first testis a Christologicaltest. The first test has to do with the personof
Jesus Christ. Every spirit that confessesChrist is from God, that’s positive.
Any spirit that does not confess Christ is not of God. It all starts with
Christology. It all starts with a clear, true understanding of the incarnation,
that Jesus, Godin human flesh, is understood biblically.
Now what is John writing about here in specific? There were some who denied
that Jesus Christ was really human. This in early years was calledDocetism

from dokeō which means “to appear.” And the idea, of course, came out of
philosophical dualism, Greek dualism, which said matter is bad and spirit is
good. Anything that is material is evil. Anything that’s spirit is good. And so
the Sonof Godcouldn’t really be physical. He would be material and
therefore He would be evil in a dualistic idea. So they said He only appeared
to be human but He wasn’t really human. So they were calling into question
the true humanity of Jesus Christ.
Does that matter? Yes it matters. Yes it matters. Because ifHe’s to be the
substitute who dies in your place, He must be man. If your sins are to be
imputed to Him, and He punished in your place, He must be man.
Furthermore, if His life is to be credited to your account, He must live as a
man, as a human being. His humanity matters. Now this is not a full-ranged
Christologyhere. That is not John’s intent. He’s merely picking out one error
that existedat the time that assaultedthe true nature of Christ as fully God
and fully man. And we cansimply draw from that that everything begins with
a true Christology. Jesus is fully God. He is fully man.
It was in 451 at the Council of Chalcedonthat what was called monophysitism
was declaredheretical. And that was that the two natures of Jesus were
mingled and mixed. This was a big debate, early on. I’m simply telling you in
the history of the church, they settled the issue of the two natures of Jesus
Christ being togetherin one personand unmixed.
Now not all of the elements of New Testamentor Old Testamentrevelationon
Christologyare here, but the first test is an accurate view of the incarnate Son
of God. And if all of it is not explicit here, all of it is implicit here. It’s all
implied here. False religions and hereticalChristian cults you know all have
an aberrant Christology. Theyall have an aberrant, corrupted Christology.
The Mormons think that Jesus is the spirit-brother of Lucifer, who was a
createdbeing, createdby God, who Himself was a createdbeing. All the cults
have an aberrant view of Christ.
The Holy Spirit does not. The Holy Spirit has an accurate view of Christ,
always truthfully presenting the glory of the Son. Any Holy Spirit-filled
preacherwill be Christ-dominated, Christ-dominated, and present Him in an
accurate, and exalting, and truthful way.
It is a matter of sound theology, but it’s also a matter of preeminence, and it’s
also a matter of the gospelclarity. So where you see any deficiencyin the
nature of Christ, or the prominence of Christ, the preeminence of Christ, or
the gospel, this is not the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John
HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/John%2014.15-16"14:15-16,

when the Spirit comes, He’ll show you Me. His ministry is to point to Me. He
will lead you into all truth concerning Me.
Anyone who is wrong on Christ, or who diminishes Christ, or who pollutes the
gospel, orwho distracts from the Son to the Spirit, is not operating in the
Spirit, not operating in the Spirit. JonathanEdwards saidthe devil has the
most bitter and implacable enmity againstChrist. He never would go about to
begetin men more honorable thoughts of Christ. The devil seeksto twist,
confuse, suppress, and misrepresent the glories of the Son of God. The devil
seeks to draw attention awayfrom the Sonof God to a false image of the Holy
Spirit while pretending to honor Jesus.
A true work of the Spirit does the opposite. A true work of the Spirit exalts
the true Christ in all glorious preeminence and the full and accurate
understanding of His gospel.
If the charismatic movement was being produced by the Holy Spirit, the glory
of Christ would prevail everywhere. It would be Christ-dominated and
everyone in the movement would be bowing the knee to the true Christ in
belief of the true gospel. The people would be humble. They would be joyful.
They would be sacrificial. Theywould be confessional. Theywould be
declaring Jesus as Lord and themselves His slaves. Theywould be denying
themselves, taking up their cross, and following Him wherever He led.
Yet very proudly, a book by Jack Hayford and a gentlemannamed Moore
announce that the distinctiveness of the charismatic movement is the
preeminence of the Holy Spirit. I quote, “In the Pentecostalpotpourri only
one thing is the same for all: The passionthey have to experience the Holy
Spirit presence and power.”
When the Holy Spirit is the person sought, His work has been rejected. Christ
is obscured, Scripture depreciated, and a preoccupationwith counterfeit
experiences imaginedto be induced by the Holy Spirit, but not having
anything to do with Him at all.
Ephesians HYPERLINK "https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Eph%203.14"3:14,
“Forthis reasonI bow my knee before the Father - ” here’s Paul’s prayer “ -
From whom every family in heavenand on earth derives its name, that He
would grant you - ” here’s Paul’s prayer. This is what Paul wants “ - that He
would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthenedwith
powerthrough His Spirit in the inner man.”
Paul is saying, “I’m praying to the Father, and I’m asking Him to allow His
Spirit to strengthenyou so that - ” here’s the purpose “ - Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith. That you, being rootedand grounded in love, may

be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and
height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to
do far more abundantly above all we could ask orthink, according to the
powerthat works in us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations foreverand ever.”
What is Paul’s prayer? It is that the Spirit would lead you to a full
understanding of the love of Christ. It always points to Christ. Here the
charismatic movement fails the test of exalting Christ above all by exalting
that false image of the Holy Spirit that they have created. Show me a person
obsessedwith the Holy Spirit, and I’ll show you a person not filled with the
Holy Spirit. Show me a personobsessedwith the Lord Jesus Christ, never
tiring of learning and loving Him, entranced by His magnificent glory, and
seeking to obey Him and be like Him, and I’ll show you a Spirit-filled person.
That’s what a Spirit-filled personlooks like.
Much of the movement is actually antichrist. Stories about visions of Jesus in
charismatic circles are really terrifying to me. Some have proclaimed Him
dressedas a fireman. Others have seenHim 900 feet tall. Others meet with
Him regularly in the bathroom. Some have seenHim dancing on the garbage
dump. Others have seenHim sitting in a wheelchairat a convalescenthome.
Some have taken long walks with Him on the beach. And so it goes.
One Charismatic author says, “Shortlyafter the Holy Spirit revealedHimself,
I saw Jesus. And then I askedthe Lord to take me to His secretplace. I was
lying in the grass and I said, ‘Jesus, would You lie down next to me?’ We were
right there looking into eachother’s eyes. The Fathercame, too, and reclined
next to Jesus.”
Sappy emotionalism, bizarre fantasy, having absolutelynothing to do with
Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Delusions? Probably. Lies? Surely. But they do not
find their source in the Holy Spirit. But it’s not just those bizarre images like
you read in Heaven Is for Real, supposedlya four-year-old went to heaven
and came back and describedJesus, and Jesus’horse, and Jesus being shorter
than Michael. I mean, that’s bad enough, but even worse are the heresies
concerning Him.
In the book you’re going to read about them. Jesus didn’t come to earth as
God in human flesh. He never claimed to be God, they say. He took on Satan’s
sinful nature on the cross, died spiritually, and went to hell for three days.
Prosperity preacherKenneth Copeland exhibits the blasphemous and
unbiblical wayin which Jesus Christ is treated in the Word of Faith

movement. I quote, “How did Jesus, then, on the cross say‘My God?’ Because
God was not His Father anymore. He took upon Himself the nature of Satan.
And I’m telling you, Jesus is in the middle of that pit. He’s suffering all that
there is to suffer. His emaciatedlittle wormy spirit is down in the bottom of
that thing and the devil thinks he’s gotHim destroyed, but all of a sudden
God started talking.”
Creflo Dollar, another Word of Faith advocate, displaying similar
irreverence, questioning the deity of Christ, I quote, “Jesusdidn’t show up
perfect. He grew into His perfection. You know, Jesus in one scripture in the
Bible, He went on a journey and He was tired. You better hope God don’t get
tired, but Jesus did. If He came as God and He got tired, He says He sat down
by the well because He was tired. Boy, we’re in trouble and somebody said,
‘Well, Jesus came as God.’Well, how many of you know the Bible says, ‘God
never sleeps nor slumbers,’ and yet in the book of Mark we see Jesus asleepin
the back of the boat.” What kind of convoluted, irresponsible, ridiculous
thinking is that? Casting aspersions onthe deity of Christ. He didn’t come as
God.
And the Word of Faith movement is guilty on the other hand of positioning
themselves and all who are in their movement as if they are gods. Kenneth
Copelandpretends to speak for Jesus like SarahYoung does in her silly
books. And he says this. This is Kenneth Copelandspeaking for Jesus. “Don’t
be disturbed when people accuseyou of thinking you are God. They crucified
Me for claiming I was God. I didn’t claim I was God. I just claimed that I
walkedwith Him and He was with me. Hallelujah.”
Rank arrogance, stupidity, gross falsehood, blasphemy. And where are the
charismatics who do believe the truth about Jesus Christ in calling these
people out and shutting down their influence? Only the spirit of antichrist
would inspire that kind of blatantly unbiblical teaching.
You can go beyond silly things about Christ and heresies aboutChrist to
misrepresentations ofthe gospel. And this gets pretty extensive. We know why
the Holy Spirit came, to convict the world of sin and righteousness, and
judgment, that they might believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to bear
witness to the historicaltruth of the gospel, as Acts 5 says. He came to
empowerthose who preach its saving message, 1 HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Pet%201.12"Peter HYPERLINK
"https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Pet%201.12"1:12. We know the work
of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is faithful to the gospel. The Holy Spirit
would never misrepresentthe gospel.

So wherever the devaluing of the gospeltruth is visible, we know that’s not the
work of the Holy Spirit. And let me be very blunt. Any movement that can
fully embrace Roman Catholicismis not a movement authored by the Holy
Spirit because that’s a false gospel.
Why do they do that? Becauseit’s based upon a common false experience.
Sound doctrine is subjugated to spiritual experience. False spiritual
experience, false forms of the gospelare happily embraced. The Catholic
Charismatic Renewalbeganin 1967 whena group of students received, quote,
“The Baptism” and spoke gibberish, non-language.
The movement was officially recognizedby Pope John Paul II. Why? Because
the Catholics absorb. That’s how the system grows. You’ve heard the Pope
recently, “Hey, welcome everybody back to the church. Homosexuals, that’s
fine. Atheists, you’re going to heaven, too, if you do your best.” That’s Roman
Catholicism. Absorb the heretics. Absorb the dissidence. Absorb the people
who are on the outside. Build the system. Why? Because thatsystem has one
king, and it’s the king of darkness.
By the year 2000 - this is the year 2000 - there were 120 million Catholic
charismatics. There are well over 500 million charismatics, so 1 out of every 5
is Roman Catholic globally. Catholic charismatics hold a Catholic theology,
Catholic doctrine, and they deny that a believer is justified by faith alone,
right? It’s by what? Works. Theybelieve in the ex opere operato efficacyof
the sevenRoman sacraments.Theyare up to their eyeballs in the idolatry of
the Catholic mass, that horrendous attempt to resacrifice Christ. They, in an
idolatrous way, venerate Mary and the saints. They have been fully embraced
by protestant pentecostals.
Why would anyone do that? Make a concessionto Catholicism? It’s just
become part of the contemporaryfabric of evangelicalism. Here’s a report.
“Tenthousand charismatics and pentecostalsprayed, sang, danced, clapped,
cheeredunder the common bond of the Holy Spirit during a four-day
ecumenicalconvention lastsummer. About half the participants at the
congresson the Holy Spirit and World Evangelizationwere Catholics. ‘The
Holy Spirit wants to break down walls betweenCatholics and Protestants,’
said Vinson Synan, the theologicaldeanof Pat Robertson’s RegentUniversity,
who chaired the congress.”
If this movement canembrace Catholicism, it’s not a movement of the Holy
Spirit. Roman Catholic theologyis corrupt, it has a false gospel. The spirit
behind the Catholic Charismatic Renewalis not the Holy Spirit.

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