May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the first epistle
of John, chapter four, and we'll read the first three verses.
The epistle of John, chapter four, and reading the first three
verses. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
But try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby, know ye the
Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist,
whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already
is it in the world. The Apostle John, as we know,
wrote the Gospel and also the three short epistles and especially
in these epistles there is very much gracious and necessary instruction
for the Church of God. And it spells out really, as
we've read together in these two chapters, something of what
the love of God is. Again how often people speak
the love of God in a very glib way without realising what it
really, really meant. And yet it is a wonderful and
glorious thing to know that Almighty God should love an unworthy people
and that unworthy people loved of God return that love. to someone who they've never
seen. These things are indeed a mystery
but what they show to us is the power of God and the evidence
that we do come before a living God who is able to do great things
for us. Well we read together this evening
these first three verses in this fourth chapter. And the first
verse is really an introduction. And then the second relates to
those that confess the Lord Jesus Christ and are His. And in the
third verse, those who do not confess and are not His. So we see that they are very
relevant, really, to every one of us. And so the Apostle starts
off by saying, Beloved, believe not every spirit. That is a clear
word of advice and instruction and command, really, that we
are not to believe every spirit. There are many, as he says here,
false prophets. And he tells us, therefore, that
we are to try the spirits, whether they are of God. That means we
are to test whether the spirits are of God or not. And then he
says, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. There always have been false
prophets. There always will be false prophets. But probably
we live in a day and age when there are many, many false prophets
and in a very subtle disguise. Because they pretend to be a
true worshipper, they pretend to be a servant of God, they
pretend to proclaim the truth of God and the word of God. The
reality is they really preach another gospel. They do not preach
the whole counsel of God. And that really is the difference
and the necessity we need in a day and age in which we live,
of having the whole counsel of God proclaimed. And so there
are many false prophets and we are to try the spirits to see
whether these are false prophets or not just because people may
pretend to be a very great orator and sometimes they are a great
theoretical knowledge of the Word of God and sometimes they
have and that's where the knowledge really stops they don't have
the evidence and the personal work of the Holy Spirit within
them So therefore they speak purely from their mind and their
head rather than the heart. And how important it is therefore
that you and I have a heart religion and not just a head religion.
I know knowledge passes from the head into the heart but we
do need that which is of God, given by God and not something
which we've just learned in a physical or natural way, not to learn
God's word as the hymn writer says, as school boys or school
girls learn their task. It's good to learn the word of
God, nothing against that at all, but not to think by our
natural learning that we prove that we are a true believer and
a true child of God. So we're told then to try the
spirits, And then there's the two tests, really. The first
one is, hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And on the face of that, that
seems a very straightforward and simple request and a very
easy thing to do. But the reality is, that the
Spirit of God shows to us what the true God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is. It's not just a mere figure,
but He is, first of all, the eternal Son of God. And we are to believe that. You may say, well, how are we
to believe that? Well, we only believe that if
God gives us faith to believe it. Because naturally, we cannot
understand how anybody could be eternal, that anybody could
have always lived, and that someone would always live. It's just
beyond our natural comprehension. So if we are, therefore, to confess
and to believe that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, it's as
the Spirit of God, therefore, gives us a right understanding. It's not of the flesh, because
to realize that this gracious God is eternal our natural minds
cannot fathom we cannot understand eternity past or future it is
just beyond our ability we can get some idea but we can never
really understand the greatness of it so if we are then to believe That's what the Word of God is
instructing us in to believe and to confess that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh, is of God. We have to believe that he is
indeed the eternal Son of God. And not only do we have to believe
he is the eternal Son of God, we also have to believe that
he is the second person in the Trinity. And again, people don't
like to believe the Trinity, and the Trinity is the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And in the next chapter, the
fifth chapter of this epistle, we have a very clear statement. John tells us this in the seventh
verse. He says, for there are three that bear record in heaven. the Father, the Word and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. So again,
this is something that our natural mind cannot comprehend. But how
can it be possible that there are such three in one? And yet you see here, we have
this grand and important statement for us to believe. And then the
Lord Jesus Christ is described as the Word. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the Word. And if we go back to the first
chapter in the Gospel of John, this is what we read. In the
beginning was the Word. The beginning of this world,
the Lord Jesus was there. In the beginning was the Word.
And the word was with God. Jesus was with God. And the word
was God. It's a very comprehensive and
glorious statement that we're able to read. And he goes on,
the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made
by him. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
creator. all things are made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made in him was
life and the life was the light of men and the light shineth
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. Those first
five verses in the first chapter of the Gospel of John are very
wonderful very comprehensive and it sets forth something of
the greatness of this God who the apostle speaks of here, hereby
know ye the Spirit of God when God gives you and me faith to
believe and to confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh and
he is of God and that he is the second person in the Trinity. People deny this great and important
truth and he's co-equal with the Father and with the Holy
Spirit. Again you see our mind cannot
absorb such important and tremendous truths. But it's wonderful when
God gives us faith, which he does, to all his people to believe
that this is true and this is the Word of God. And what does
it do? It really should elevate the
greatness of God. It should really show to us how
great God is. It doesn't reduce God. It shows to us the wonder of
God's work and the wonderful God that you and I are able to
come to and able to speak to in prayer. And so hereby know
ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God. So what it boils down
to is this. You and I need to come and to
confess that we believe in this God, that we believe in this
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we believe how wonderful
and great and glorious he is. And then to consider the wonderful
work that he was commissioned to carry out for the Father,
and to realise that work involved the Lord God Almighty, the Lord
Jesus Christ, coming down to a babe. Indeed, being born of
the Virgin Mary, Another mystery which natural man cannot understand,
does not want to understand, but by faith we receive that
great and glorious truth to realize that the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
was born into this sinful world and He was born into this sinful
world so that He might carry out the will of His Father. And the will of His Father was
that through His life and His death He might redeem His people,
pay the price for their redemption. Now the Lord Jesus Christ willingly
came into this sinful world And as you can follow his life in
the New Testament, what he had to endure, what he went through,
and his gracious work, the many things he did, the many parables
he spoke, were all there to instruct and to bless the Church of God. And so here we have then the
evidence of this blessed Saviour. that the true Church of God confess
as such. We don't come and think, well,
I don't really think the Lord Jesus Christ really did all those
things. I don't really think he lived
on the earth. I don't really think he was born
of that Virgin Mary. I don't really think he died
that Sinatonian death upon the cross at Calvary. Well, that
is a condition of our salvation. that we do believe in these great
and glorious truths, and hereby know ye the Spirit of God. That's how we know it, when the
Lord enables us. He gives us faith to believe
these great and glorious truths. And then, not only that, we have
wonderful illustrations of what He is. We're told He is the Good
Shepherd. John speaks about that, doesn't
he? The Lord is the Good Shepherd. We can read that in his Gospel
and that speaks to us very wonderfully and very simply and very clearly
that He is the Good Shepherd. And what a wonderful thing it
is to know the truth of that, the 10th of John tells us this.
And we're told, he that entereth in by the door is a shepherd
of the sheep, to him the porter openeth. And the sheep hear his
voice. And he calleth his own sheep
by name, and leadeth them out. Now, the illustration is that
all the people of God are the sheep of God. And all the sheep
of God hear the voice of God. And how important it is that
you and I therefore hear that voice as an evidence that we
are a sheep. And if we are, then we can believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. This is the Good
Shepherd, this is that which the Spirit of God directs his
people to understand and to love and to appreciate and to know
and that my sheep hear my voice and have the evidence that God
has spoken to us. What a wonderful blessing that
is. We all need to ask ourselves the question, don't we? Has this
Good Shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ spoken to us? And if he has, have we heard
his voice? And if we have, well, can we
not confess that he is the Good Shepherd and he is my Good Shepherd? My sheep, hear my voice. And
I know them, and if that is true, then the word goes on to tell
us, and they follow me. You see, the true sheep of Christ,
they follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They follow his gracious and
wonderful example. Having heard his voice, having
heard his call, and having known that he has looked upon them
and loved them, Well, it's a wonderful truth. And if we do know the
voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, my sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me and says the Lord Jesus and I
give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. What a great blessing
that is to realize that This applies to all of his sheep.
This applies to all of his people. He gives us this great and wonderful
gift of eternal life. And so hereby know ye the Spirit
of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God. So we have then this evidence
that Jesus did come in the flesh and he lived upon this earth
and he spoke wonderful parables and he carried out many miracles. This was and is the only begotten
Son of God. So do we rejoice in that, in
this blessed Saviour? Well, we have a wonderful reference
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's just worth mentioning, and
that's in the Song of Solomon. And in the Song of Solomon, as
Solomon wrote it, he speaks about the bride of Christ, which, of
course, represents the Church of God and he also speaks about
the Bridegroom which represents the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the fifth chapter of the
Song of Solomon we have this picture of the Church of God
represented, as I said, as the Bride of Christ and the Lord
Jesus Christ as her Beloved. And the picture we have in this
fifth chapter is of the Bride of Christ not interested really
in waking up when her beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ, knocks
at the door. We're told, I sleep, but my heart
waketh. It is the voice of my beloved
that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled. for my head is filled with dew
and my locks with the drops of the night. I put off my coat. How should I put it on? I wash
my feet. How should I defile them? She
didn't want to get up. She wanted to remain in her condition
of sleepiness. But then we're told, her beloved
put in his hand by the hole of the door. And then she says,
and my dowels were moved for him. Her love was moved for the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then you see, she rose up
to her beloved. it was her timescale it wasn't
God's timescale And my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers
with sweet-smelling myrrh, and the handlers of the lock I opened
to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was
gone. My soul fainted when he spake."
And so you can read on in this fifth chapter. What I wanted
to come down to was, she was asked a question, she wanted
to find the Lord Jesus Christ as her beloved. And she wanted
to find him. And she was asked a question
by the Church of God. They asked the question, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest among
women. And it would be good, wouldn't
it, really, if sometimes we are asked by the Church of God, what
is Jesus Christ to you more than anything else? What does Jesus
Christ mean to you more than anybody else? It's a good test
of the reality of our religion. Is Christ first in our estimation? Is he the one that we love the
most? Well, the bride of Christ was
asked this. Now, she was able to give a good
account. And you can read the account
that she gave of her beloved. She said, when the asked question
was, what is my, thy beloved more than another beloved? And
she begins by saying, my beloved. And from verse 10 to verse 16,
she gives a very clear description of what her beloved is to her. And the final verse concludes
with this. His mouth is most sweet, Yea, he is altogether
lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. So coming back, you
see, to this question which we have, or the statement rather,
about every spirit, every born-again soul, every true believer, is
one that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. And that one confesses, like
the Bride of Christ, what the Lord Jesus Christ really means
to them. This is my beloved, she concludes
with, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. So, in pondering this, we have
to ask ourselves the question, is the Lord Jesus Christ the
chiefest among 10,000 to us. Is he the altogether lovely? Is he our friend? These are great questions, great
questions to have to answer, but necessary, because you see,
we don't want to place Christ down the list in our affections. Christ will not take second place
He will be the cheapest among 10,000 and the altogether lovely. He will be that one who is the
shepherd of his sheep, the one who has found us, the one who
looks upon us, the one who has indeed loved us, the one who
speaks and we hear his voice. And as I've already read, my
sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And
I give unto them eternal life. And because of that, they shall
never perish, never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me,
is greater than all. and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand." Wonderful security. Once in Him, in Him
forever. What a wonderful truth that is. How strengthening it should be
to our souls. As we realise this question which
was posed really by John in his fourth chapter, when he says
that many false prophets have gone out into the world who come
short of setting before our souls the greatness of the Saviour
and the necessity of the Saviour. And the wonderful blessing it
is to have that love for the Saviour and we love Him because
He first loved us. It's not that we love God. but
that God loved us. It's not the other way around.
Some people very flippantly say, well, I love God. The great question
is, has God loved them? Has God loved you? Has God loved
me? That's a vital question. Because
if he has, then it will be that response. And we shall, indeed,
love God. We shall love the Lord Jesus
Christ. We shall love the Father. We
shall love the Holy Spirit. And we won't pick and choose
because we will realise the importance of each member of the Godhead,
that glorious Godhead, that wonderful Trinity, glorious truth it is,
far beyond our natural imagination and yet you see there it is in
eternity past there they are today and they ever will be and
by God's grace one day we shall view them in glory it's a wonderful
prospect isn't it to look forward to when we pass out of time into
eternity The mysteries that have not been revealed to us on this
earth will then all be revealed. All will be clear. All will be
glorious. My friends, we will be able to
sing the praises of God. through eternity. Well then, what a blessing it
is that if we know then the Spirit of God, if we know the Saviour
and if we know the Father by revelation, what a wonderful
thing then to come and to confess. Confess. That's a condition. What a mercy it is if you and
I do confess the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed our God and that the
Lord Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. He was born as a man
in our form just as we are. Everything the same, nothing
different. Why? Because He had to stand
and take our place. He had to bear the punishment
instead of us. And was He willing to do that?
Yes, He was. Again, it's wonderful to trace
out the life of the Saviour and see what opposition he had. Sometimes we may think we have
opposition. Well, it was nothing like the
Blessed Saviour endured. Nothing like the opposition he
had. He didn't have any nice comfortable
bed to lie upon. He didn't have a nice home to
go to. No, he only had the clothes that
he stood up in. And he often used rocks for a
pillow. and lay in the midnight air. And he occupied his nights by
praying to his father. What a wonderful, wonderful example
you and I have. And therefore, what a blessing
it is if God has given us faith to believe in this great and
glorious Lord Jesus Christ, who not only was born in those humble
circumstances, but lived a humble life and died a great and glorious
sin-atoning death. As I often say, never weary about
going to Calvary, because there we see, by faith, the suffering
Saviour completing that glorious work the Father gave Him to do. It cost Him His life. How willing
was Jesus to die that we fellow sinners might live the life they
could not take away. How willing was Jesus to give. What a wonderful gift, was it
not? for undeserving sinners. Well, here we have in this great
statement, this great test. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit that
confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. That is really the bottom line,
isn't it? You and I need to know that we
are of God, that we are born of God, that we are one of God's
children, that we're not reprobate, we're
not enemies. We were at one time. What a blessing
to know. And our gracious Savior loved
us so much. He came in this sinful world
and died that death upon Calvary's cross in order to redeem our
soul. And so may this word indeed be
wonderfully true in our case that we confess that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh and he is of God. Faith to receive these
great truths. What a blessing it is to possess
living faith. And then he says, Apostle John
says, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is not of God. That's very clear, isn't it?
If we do confess, and as I've said, if we confess the true
God, the true God, described in the pages of Scripture, which
we've tried to speak of some thing tonight, and then those
who do not confess, do not believe. in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
do not believe they possess a never-dying soul. And if they do, they don't
believe in the Saviour as described in the Word of God. They don't
know anything of the love of God. They don't know anything
of His glorious mercy. They don't know anything of His
electing love. They're strangers. to these great
and glorious truths. But those who possess the life
of God in their soul confess that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh and is of God. Well, may we not be amongst those
who do not confess, who do not confess that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh and those are not of God. How terrible to be
not of God. Because if we're not of God,
we shall spend eternity in hell. You see, all of us have a never-dying
soul. And that soul will either be
found in glory with Jesus forever and ever, or in hell forever
and ever with the devil and all his angels. There's no place
like purgatory, there's no alternative. And what a blessing it is then
to be found amongst those who are true believers, but not to
be found amongst those that do not confess that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh and therefore are not of God. Ponder these
great truths, they're vital to our eternal state. Where shall
we spend eternity? Whereof ye have heard that it
should come, and even now already is it in the world? Well, my
friends, these are great and glorious truths. They're blessed
truths and they're solemn truths. And you and I need to be found
on the right side. You and I need to be found amongst
those who do confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that do confess
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that do confess that
Jesus Christ died that Sinatonian death on Calvary in order to
redeem my soul. to confess that he rose from
the dead, a conqueror over sin, death, hell and the grave, and
that he ascended up into glory. There he is today, when the Father's
right hand will intercede for us one day. Known to the Father,
he will return in all his glory, and every eye shall see him. You will see him. I will see
him. No one will be able to hide from
the church of God. It'll be a most glorious day
because they will all be caught up with him to be forever with
the Lord. And the word of God encourages
us to comfort one another with these great truths. because as
we journey on we have an eternal home to go to a place of eternal
blessing if we are those who have confessed the Saviour and
have been loved by our God and we are able to confirm yes, this
is my Beloved He is to me the cheapest among ten thousand and
the altogether lovely, and he is my friend. To the glory of
God. Amen.