: While, therefore, St. John affirms that we may have confidence before God, that our hearts may enjoy a state of comfortable assurance, he is very particular in repeating the grounds of that assurance. He that keepeth his commandments, dwelleth in him, and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. When the Spirit which renews and purifies the hearts of God's faithful people, produces the required effect, and directs our lives in the way of his commandments, then we may have confidence. Hereby we know that he abideth in us. His Spirit works in us the disposition to fulfil all his will. And when our consciences bear witness that such is the desire of our hearts and the endeavour of our lives, then have we confidence before God. Observe, however, that though this is a confidence which may be enjoyed, we are not told that it must be enjoyed. The great object is to be secure: not to feel secure. God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. He may often see the faith which he best approves, and the love which he most rewards, in some meek and contrite spirit which shrinks from his judgments, which "trembles at his word," which "smites upon the breast, and dares not so much as to lift up the eyes towards heaven," except to say, "God be merciful to me a sinner."7 7 Luke xviii. 13. LECTURE LXVIII. FALSE TEACHERS TO BE DISCERNED AND 1 JOHN iv. 1—6. 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. A duty is here prescribed, and a reason for it. The duty is, that we believe not every spirit that may pretend to instruct or guide; but prove and examine them, whether they teach what is of God: agreeable to his word. The reason is, that there will always be many to deceive. Many false prophets are gone out into the world. We have an adversary, the devil, who delights to destroy the souls of men as much as Christ to save them. Goodness is his abomination: and he sees it with malice and enmity. He showed in the wilderness what he would have done, if his power had been equal to his malice. But it was then proved, that greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. Still he lies in wait to deceive: still he contends against that which he cannot overthrow: still he is permitted to corrupt what is good, to pervert what is true, to disseminate error, to dis figure the fair beauty of the Gospel. "Lord, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? An enemy hath done this." 1 Hence it comes, that many false prophets have gone out into the world; many who mislead the souls which they pretend to guide. To escape their errors, we are warned to try the spirits, whether they be of God: to employ our reason, our judgment, our faculties, those powers with which God has gifted us, in order that we may know how " to refuse the evil, and choose the good." Rightly using these, we are to discover the falsehood of teachers who would put "bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter darkness for light, and light for darkness." 2 "For if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness?" If that which should enlighten the soul, and conduct it through the wilderness of this world, is really a false and erroneous principle, how sad the end? The man who trusts and follows it, is hastening towards an unsuspected precipice, is hanging on the edge of destruction. Here then is our duty, a duty which God expects us to perform, and has given us the means of fulfilling. Because there will be many who bring in false doctrine, and contradict the true faith, believe not every spirit, every teacher: but try the spirits whether they be of God, whether they "speak sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness." We have the means by which to prove and distinguish them. 4 1 Matt. xiii. 27. 2 Isa. v. 20. 41 Tim. vi. 3. 3 Matt. vi. 23. 2. Hereby know we the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3. 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. This was the heresy of St. John's time. When the Gospel began to prevail, it met with various characters in the different countries to which the apostles went, and, amongst these, with men who had been accustomed to dispute and speculate concerning high matters on which they had no certain knowledge. Like those with whom Paul fell in at Athens who are described as "spending their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing." These would not contradict what many around them were receiving: neither would they altogether give up their own conceits and inventions. One of this sort was Cerinthus, an Egyptian, to whose doctrines St. John is supposed to be here alluding. He made a distinction between Jesus, and the Son of God, or Word. As Cerinthus taught, Jesus was a man, the son of Mary and Joseph: the Son of God, the Word, the Christ, was an emanation from God inspiring him. According to this doctrine, the Word was not " made flesh:"6 did not come in the flesh: God and man were not one person. Jesus was not himself "the light that should come into the world:" but merely bore the light which was conveyed to him. He was not "the true Vine," bearing fruit of himself. Divine fruit was grafted on a human stem. He was not the 5 See Acts xvii. 21. 6 John i. 14. fountain of life, the well of salvation, but the channel through which the water of salvation flowed. This was a fatal error, contrary to the whole system of revealed truth, and destructive of all the hopes on which as Christians we depend. We believe in the forgiveness of sins, because we believe that he who made propitiation for our sins, is himself both God and man: not God inspiring man, but God "made flesh" and therefore capable of offering a full, perfect, and sufficient satisfaction for the sins of all men. To separate Jesus the son of Mary from Christ the Son of God, is to subvert the whole fabric of our faith. And as this was then the dangerous heresy, St. John especially makes it the test of the spirits or teachers, whether they were of God or no. Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus 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 Christians to whom he writes, had been endangered by this error: but they had held firmly to the doctrine of the apostles: and so given proof, that as their teachers were of God, so they themselves also were of God. "There must needs be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest." These had been made manifest had shown that they were filled with the Spirit of Christ, and that Satan "could not pluck them out of his hand." He is able to address them in words of comfort and encouragement. 7 1 Cor. xi. 19. |