It's so good to be with you tonight. I am so thankful to be able to be here. First John chapter four, where
Gabe read those three verses. I'd like for us to look at those
three verses for just a few minutes. And as we were singing, I was
thinking over on these scriptures. And I was looking at that first
word there in verse one. And the apostle John began speaking
to those that he loved. Beloved, you know, you want to,
for those you love, for those you care for, You want to be
truthful. You want to be honest. And in
this case here, the Spirit of God through the Apostle John
is giving us a blessed warning of something to be careful of. Be cautious right here. So he
begins and he says, Beloved, believe not every spirit. That is Don't believe every person,
every man that stands up in a pulpit. Every spirit here is talking
about a preacher. Don't believe every preacher. Believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits, whether they are of God. John is saying, I
want you to test what you're hearing by the Word of God. I want you to be like those in
Berea who would take their scriptures and they would search those scriptures
daily to see if these things were so. And here's the reason
why. He said, because many false prophets
are gone out into the world. It matters what we hear. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,
by the Gospel. It matters what you hear. So, when you hear, whenever you
hear your pastor preach, I know this, you trust him, you love
him, You appreciate him, but you're gonna try exactly what
he says by the word of God, and you'd do well to do that, whoever
you hear, whether it's me, brother Bob, Gabe, Luke, whoever you
men that preach. Listen to what these men say,
but you try the spirits to see if they be of God. Our Lord gave
warning, Matthew 24, 4, Jesus answered and said unto them,
now here's the Lord, giving us warning, take heed that no man
deceive you. For many, have you noticed how
many times, many, when he starts talking about false preachers,
he said there's a lot of them, many shall come in my name saying
I am Christ. There were many imposters then,
many imposters now. Everybody that stands in a pulpit
and says, now I'm preaching the way to Christ. I'm preaching
the true gospel. You try what they're saying by
God's word. That's the only standard by which
we're going to know. Matthew 7, 15, beware of false
prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing. I love you. I just, I love everybody, and
God loves everybody. They're coming in sheep's clothing.
But the Lord said inwardly, they're ravening wolves. Beware, beware. Philippians 3, 1-3, Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same things to you.
To me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you it's safe. How many
times have you heard the glorious message of God's grace in Christ,
the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ? Every
time that you hear the gospel preached, Paul said to say the
same things to you. It's not grievous to me. It's
safe to you. Tell me one more time. Tell me
again. how the Lord's been pleased to
put away my sin. Tell me one more time how there's
no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. Tell me that
one more time. Tell me again about electing
grace and particular redemption. Tell me, you it's safe, beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision that
the legalist those that are gonna make the works of the law to
be necessary for salvation. For we are the circumcision,
those who are circumcised in the heart, not in the flesh.
Heart, opened by the grace of God to believe that the putting
away of our sin was by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
and that our righteousness before God is not ours, that we've earned,
but it's by the faith, the faith of Jesus Christ, not of works. Why? We're gonna boast, boast. So I know from the scriptures
right here, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they're of God, because many false prophets are
gone out in the world. Now, there's got to be a standard. There's got to be a way that
I can know, that you can know. There's got to be a touchstone
by which the truth is truly set forth. What is the acid test? I want to know. I know that there's
many, according to these scriptures, that are lying. I know that. I want to know something. I want
to know what Almighty God has to say concerning knowing that
which is right and that which is wrong. Verses two and three,
hereby. Now, you know, you think about
that word right there. Hereby, this is it. This is the
way. THIS IS HOW YOU'RE GOING TO KNOW.
HEREBY KNOW YE THE SPIRIT OF GOD. JOHN IS SAYING HERE IS THE
WAY THAT YOU CAN PERCEIVE AND RECOGNIZE THE WORKING OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT. NOW LISTEN, EVERY SPIRIT, EVERY
PREACHER 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 you have heard that it
should come and even now already is in the world. Now you know
if we just read that and just consider that scripture in a
general way, as a man would generally hear it, we would probably come to this
conclusion. Well, if every preacher, every
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is of God, well, do you know very many that are not? proclaiming that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh. Most people would say, well,
just about everybody I know is saying that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh. But obviously there's something
that I'm saying. When I just said what I said,
I did not say what the scripture said. There's a lot of people
that's saying that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. A lot
of people saying that he has. But obviously from the warning
in verse 1, something is being said that we don't immediately
get. Now let's consider what that
scripture is saying and may the Spirit of God give us some understanding.
Now listen, the scripture declares every spirit, every preacher
that, now listen to this word, confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh. Now we're talking about somebody
who is everything. We're talking about the Lord
of Glory. God Almighty. The Word made flesh. We're talking about the Messiah.
We're talking about who has come in the flesh now to confess that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Must mean more than just
acknowledge. As I said a few minutes ago,
everybody is acknowledging. Do you know anybody, generally
speaking, that say that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know anybody that would
say anything other than, I acknowledge that he came in the flesh? But
that's not what John said. The scripture says, hereby know
we the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh. You know, when the Lord met the
demoniac, of the Gadarenes. There was a man there and he
was possessed of a legion of demons and the Lord confronted
that man. He ran up to the Lord and he
bowed down and it was the demons within that were speaking. And
here's what they said in Luke 8.28 What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of God, Most High? I beseech thee, torment
me not. Now, who was speaking? The demons. Did they acknowledge Him to be
the Son of God and obviously come in the flesh? Now, this
is what they said. What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou
Son of God, Most High? They knew who He was. I beseech
thee, torment me not. They knew that He was all-powerful. They knew this is God Almighty. Now, did they acknowledge Him
to be the Son of God, obviously come in flesh? Yes. Did they confess Him to have
come in flesh? No. To confess means more than
a natural acknowledgement. Now you listen to these words
of our Lord. The Lord Jesus in Matthew 10, 32, whosoever therefore
shall confess me before men. Do men not stand in pulpits today
and say, now listen, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, walk
down the aisle, give him your heart. They're speaking about,
they're using the name of. The Lord Jesus Christ, they're
saying something, but there is something that is being said
here that we must understand. Whosoever shall confess me before
men. Let me tell you what confess
means. To ascribe their salvation before
men to be of the Lord. Apart from any works on man's
part, giving him all the honor and glory and praise for salvation
is to confess him. To believe that you have some
part in your salvation is to confess yourself. I looked up the definition. I don't speak Greek, but I can
look up a definition. So I looked up this, when the
Lord said, therefore, whosoever shall confess me, to declare
openly and speak freely, professing one's self to be a worshiper
of, is to confess. to confess, whosoever shall confess
me before men. Not that he merely exists. Demons know that he exists, but
they have cast themselves upon him by faith, trusting him alone
who is God's salvation. Having no confidence in their
flesh is to confess the Lord Jesus Christ, to confess me before
men. is to confess him to be the author
and finisher of my faith. Whosoever shall confess me before
men, him will I confess before my father, which is in heaven. Now, whosoever shall confess
me before men, saying, the Lord is my salvation, he's my hope. Almighty God chose to show mercy
to this sinner. before the foundation of the
world chose me and put me in Him. And Christ has eternally
stood as my surety. He has answered everlastingly
according to God's everlasting covenant of grace. And when He
died, He laid down His life for the sheep. He died and accomplished
that which Almighty God purposed. And the Spirit of God, when it
pleases God, under the sound of the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace, the Spirit of God will move God's elect, vessels
of His mercy, and put them under the sound of the gospel. And
the Spirit of God, when it pleases the Lord, imparts life, grants
them faith, salvations of the Lord. That's to confess the Lord. Whosoever shall confess me before
men, him will I confess before my father. Whosoever confesses
me before men, declaring me by faith to say, this is my Lord,
him will I confess before my father, which is in heaven, this
is mine elect. I died for him. I laid down my
life with sheep, but whosoever shall deny me before men, what
is it to deny the Lord? Well, it's to attribute salvation
to be me. That's denying Him. I'm not saying
it when I deny Him. They don't come out, Chris, and
just openly say, I just, I deny the Lord. Gee, I have nothing.
Oh, no, no. What they're saying is, is the Lord has offered me
salvation. I've accepted it. Whosoever shall deny me before
men, contradict or oppose me concerning his person, his character,
his nature, his office, his grace. Whosoever shall deny me before
men, that man's works must accompany his work. That's to deny him. Him also will I deny before my
Father which is in heaven. I never knew you. I never knew
you. So obviously, to confess Jesus
Christ is to agree in heart with God's declaration, who hath believed
our report. I tell you, those that confess
the Lord Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, they believe the
report of God, who God Almighty says He is, that He is God Almighty. the Messiah, the Promised One,
the Savior of His people, who has come into this earth and
actually accomplished that which God Almighty gave Him to do,
the work that the Lord God gave Him to do. Every spirit, every
preacher that confesseth, that ascribes by faith that Jesus
Christ, God's appointed Messiah, has come in the flesh, that spirit
is of God. Every man that preaches salvation
by the grace of God, that preacher's of God. Who are we confessing? We're confessing Him who is God
Almighty, the Lord God of heaven. And that one who has eternally
been with the Father, Before He actually was made flesh, He
is. Now, O Father, glorify thou me
with thine own self, with the glory that I had with thee before
the world was. Glorify thou me with thyself,
and restore me to majesty and honor in your presence. as I
had with you before the world was. The Lord God speaking as
wisdom himself, the one that we confess. This is who we're
confessing. Not acknowledge. You see the
difference? Everybody's acknowledging. Demons
acknowledge, but to confess him, to confess him in heart and say,
you're the Christ. That's what Peter said. Many
of them, they heard what he said, He said, no man can come to me
except it were given unto him of my father. And they said,
well, that's a hard saying. That's a hard saying. That sounds
like, you know, sovereign grace. No man can come. And they walked
no more with him. And the Lord just turned to his
disciples and said, will you go too? Peter said, Lord, where
are we going to go? We believe you're the Christ.
You're the Christ. We have no place else to go.
That's to confess him. That's confessing him. The scripture
declares him as wisdom. Before he was ever made flesh,
this is our Lord speaking, the one that we confess, when he
gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his
commandments. When he appointed the foundations
of the earth, then I was by him as one brought up with him, and
I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. Every spirit
that confesseth that Jesus Christ, God Almighty, the Messiah, he
who eternally purposed to save a people, he who has an elect,
his elect, My sheep, that's who we confess. Whosoever confesses
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. For unto us a child
is born. Unto us a son is given. The government
shall be upon his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. When we say that he, the Messiah,
is come in the flesh, He is declaring that God Almighty was truly a
man. The God-man of the same nature
with us. To walk before God Almighty,
obeying God's law perfectly, earning the righteousness that
is imputed to everyone that he's going to save. everyone that
believeth whenever we talk about him coming into the flesh what
we want to understand is this very point here why did he come
what was the purpose of Him coming. Why did He come in the flesh? And this is again to confess
the Lord Jesus Christ. When we confess Him come in the
flesh, we are saying that He came to fulfill that which Almighty
God purposed concerning His people. Call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. You know what we confess? He
came to save everyone that the Father gave him. And I'll tell
you another thing we confess. When he cried, it is finished. From the cross, this is what
we're confessing. We're confessing him who has
finished the work. In type, Almighty God promised
salvation to his people by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Garden of Eden. Whenever Adam and Eve ate of
the fruit, God Almighty told Adam in the day you eat, you're
gonna die. You're gonna die. And the very
day that he ate, he died spiritually. And he knew that he was naked.
And to hide his guilt, to hide his shame before God, he did
the only thing that he could possibly do. He got some fig
leaves and he made an apron. He and Eve made an apron. That's
all they could do. That was the extent of hiding
their guilt before God. And Almighty God, in a blessed,
glorious picture and type, did that which only He can do. He showed in the killing of an
animal, the shedding of blood, without which there is no remission,
setting forth the glorious Savior that we confess. and He covered
them with the skins of an animal. Promising life in Christ alone
did Almighty God promise to His people deliverance from wrath
that they justly deserve when Almighty God looked and saw that
every thought of the imagination of every man was only evil continually. Everybody in the earth, including
Noah, every thought of the imagination of Noah and his wife and their
three sons, and their wives were only evil continually. And Almighty God said, it repenteth
me that I've made man and I'm going to destroy him because
God's just. I'm going to pour out my wrath
upon man. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And Almighty God gave him instruction
to build an ark. And in that ark, he promised,
I'm going to hide you in my son. And he did just exactly what
he said he was going to do. He poured out his wrath on every
person on this earth. But there was one glorious difference. Noah and his family was in the
ark. and the wrath of God fell on
the ark. Almighty God promised deliverance in the Savior, in
the haven, in the city of refuge himself. Did not Almighty God
promise that he would provide the substitute? Abraham and his
son Isaac is going up a hill and place a mountain where God
has shown them. Lord had told Abraham, he said,
I want you to take your son, your only son, and sacrifice
him unto me as a burnt offering. Let me tell you what a burnt
offering was. The burnt offering, when you'd
go, they'd set that tabernacle up, and it had an outer wall
of skins. It was an open area inside, and
inside that in that court, around the wall there, there was the
tabernacle. And there was the holy place
and the holy of holies within. But out here on the outside,
coming out of the desert, if you'd come into that outer wall
of that camp in the wilderness, there was an opening there. And there was a, to get inside,
inside that place, the tabernacle itself, in the outer court of
that tabernacle, there was an opening and there was a brazen
altar right there at the door. And you had to go past that brazen
altar right there. And the burnt offering, which
was offered on the brazen altar, was a glorious picture of the
satisfaction Received by God Almighty from the precious Lord
Jesus Christ in the giving of himself, the obedience of Christ. That was what the burnt offering
was. The obedience of the Savior to
lay down his life. I laid down my life for the sheep. Honoring the Father who sent
him into this world to save his people. And the only way they're
gonna be saved is if he dies in their place. Substitute, a
substitute. That's the burnt offering. I
want you, Abraham, to offer your son unto me as a burnt offering. As a burnt offering. And the
only offering that Almighty God's going to accept is an offering
of God's providing. A lamb of God's providing. That's
the only one He's going to accept. And Abraham went up, and that
son, you know Isaac, said, Father, here's the wood, and here's the
fire, Where's the lamb? And Abraham said, you know that
glorious statement, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. And Abraham took Isaac and this
sacrifice is going to have to be acceptable to God. It's going
to have to be a perfect sacrifice. It's going to have to be a glorious
sacrifice. And he put Isaac on that lamb,
and Abraham raised his hand with that knife in his hand, and God
stopped him, and he said, I know of your obedience. You take that
boy off, and you take this ram caught in a thicket. Now here's
the beautiful type of the perfect sacrifice, in type. In picture,
this is the sacrifice of my choosing. And he put that ram, a glorious
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one we confess is the one
that promised the lamb of God's choosing is the lamb that will
suffice, only will suffice. Didn't every lamb, every ox,
every sacrifice in the wilderness say Almighty God will satisfy
himself? He was made flesh for a reason. In closing, I want you to take
and turn with me to John 10. John chapter 10. He came when
we confess. He didn't just come to make salvation
possible. When we preach Christ, we're
confessing, we're declaring who God Almighty says He is, that's
who He is, that's who we're confessing, the Lord of glory. John chapter
10, verse 7 to 11. Then said Jesus unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. Whenever
we confess Jesus Christ coming to the flesh, we're confessing
the one who has a people. He said, I'm the door of the
sheep. We're confessing that Almighty God has elected a people. That's what we're confessing.
He's electing people. All that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I'm the door. When we confess,
Jesus Christ come in the flesh. We're saying He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life.
Not me. Not me. Him. I am the door. Not my decision. Not my will.
Not my baptism. Not my walking down the aisle.
Not my praying through. I am the door by me if any man
enter in he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find
pasture the thief cometh not but for to steal to kill to destroy
I am come that they might have life that they might have it
more abundantly I am the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep when we confess Jesus Christ come in
the flesh We preach and confess Him who died on purpose and in
particular for His people. That's who He says He is. Every
spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,
is of God. And then in John, just a few
pages back, John 6, 37, when we confess Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh. Look at John 6, 37 to 40. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. You know what we confess when
we confess him? We're confessing the irresistible
grace. How many is he gonna save? All
of them. All of them. All that the Father's
given me. That's what he said. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. I'm so glad, I love hearing
the message of sovereign grace. It's so true, it's so positive,
it's so wonderful, it's so glorifying to Him. Almighty God has declared every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
that does not confess that salvation is absolutely, totally, all of
grace by God's choosing, by God's appointing, by God's purpose,
by God's Messiah, but declares that man must do or add some
work to make salvation effectual, is not of God. Every man that
confesseth not as God Almighty has declared Christ Himself to
be, is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist,
whereof you've heard that it should come, and even now, already,
is it in the world? Is it not? Is it not already
in the world? I heard Brother Henry say this
years ago, and I thought, this is so true. He said, the spirit
or the preacher that does not confess salvation to be all of
grace, he's not anti-religion, and he's not anti-works, and
he's not anti-morality. He's anti-Christ. He's anti-Christ. Blessed is the man. Blessed is
the woman. that has been given a heart to
confess Him as their all in all. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits to see if they be of God. For many, many
false preachers are gone out into the world, every spirit
that confesseth. According to these scriptures,
what Almighty God has said concerning the Lord Jesus Christ is of God. And every man that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, God in flesh has come into the
world is not of God. May the Lord bless His word to
our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.