The Spirit of GOD

"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." -I John 4:2 [KJV]

“You study too much, it will kill you,” says one and another. What! the study of Christ, Who is the life, health, and joy of the soul, kill one? Precious death, to die in such sweet exercise. It is only to fall asleep in Jesus, and awake with Him in glory. I am sure, (through grace) this delightful study will kill the life of sense, the power of sin, and the delusion of Satan. Christ help us to study Him more and more. The apostle here warns us against false spirits, which are not of God. He bids us believe not every spirit, but try (-test) them. For many false prophets are gone out under a spirit of delusion. 

We are in danger of being deceived by them. Here is a fixed rule to know whether they are of God or not. (1st.) Know ye the Spirit of God. Many pretend to have received Him: to preach by His inspiration: to glory in ecstasies of comfort and revelations from the Spirit. Look at them with a godly jealousy. Be not hastily carried away by them. Do not condemn your own state, because you feel yourself a burdened sinner, groan under your burden, and though from day to day you are looking unto Jesus, yet have not these ecstasies and transports they pretend to. 

(2d.) Know the Spirit of God hereby, “every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God.” This is the true testimony of the Spirit of God. Keep your eye steadily on this. What is implied in it? 1. That God and man in one Christ, is come to save us. 2. The end of His so coming was “to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel 9:24.) Christ hath perfectly and everlastingly done all this in human flesh, for our souls. Therefore, 

(3d.) If the whole of this is not confessed, if any part of this is denied, then the “vision and prophecy is not allowed to be sealed up and finished.” And if comforts and joys arise not from the firm belief of Christ’s finished work for us, but from what we have done, or can do towards our own salvation, such comfort and joy flow not from the Spirit of God, but from another spirit the spirit of pride, delusion, and antichrist. 

For it is against confessing that Christ is the Alpha and Omega—the first and the last—the all in all of a sinner’s salvation. O beware of that spirit, which bears witness of any thing in you for righteousness to justify you before God, or as the ground of your acceptance in His sight. Away with it all as filth and dung. Reject such spirit and his testimony. Know ye the Spirit of God beareth witness, because the Spirit is Truth (I John 5:6.)

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CHRIST OUR ONLY AND PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS

" The flesh lusteth against the Spirit." —Galatians 5:17 [KJV] Christian experience fully proves this apostolic truth. Hence the children of God cannot do the things that they would: nor have we any authority from God's word to conclude this lusting ever ceased in any of the saints till they got to glory; none are delivered from it while in the flesh. For, as the renewed soul or spirit loves to enjoy spiritual and heavenly objects, so the flesh, or unrenewed part, lusts after those objects it is naturally conversant with, and from which it derives its happiness.  Here is thy conflict, O Christian. Hence the necessity of thy Lord's command, "Watch always." This is the use of the doctrine. What woeful effects have fulfilling the lusts or desires of the flesh produced in eminent saints! Thou standest by faith, be not high-minded, but fear. The conceptions of lust are the productions of sin.— see James 1:15 . The commission of sin contracts fresh s
Read more

Incoming GOOD NEWS!

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands   (17-19SEP21) Heads-Up   ---   Please find enclosed encouragement in   SO GREAT SALVATION   by the perfect and finished work of   our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace - God's unmerited favor to save us  from our sins and from Hell: HOW GOD SAVES SINNERS In Genesis chapter six and seven we have the story of the flood and how God  saved Noah and his family from the horrendous destruction by putting them  into an Ark. We see the righteous judgment of God against sin and the mercy  of God revealed through Christ. The Ark of God is a worthy picture and  pattern of how the Lord is pleased to save sinners and justify them in Jesus  Christ. Here are five things to remember about how God saves sinners. 1). The grace of God , "Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD" (Genesis 6:8) .  Noah did not earn, merit or deserve grace, he found God to be gracious. It  was the sovereign
Read more

3 LIES ABOUT GOD & 3 TRUTHS ABOUT GOD

 I want to share three lies about God I’ve recently seen tossed about on social media as truth by professed believers: (1) God can move in your life.......if you permit Him. (2) Christ can be Lord.......if you confess Him. (3) God can do anything ........except overcome a man’s will. Friends, if God doesn’t even have sovereignty over the human heart (without being granted permission, of course) who is serving who? Who really has all power in this universe? Many of you reading this post pray to God for the salvation of your loved ones. Yet you believe it is your loved one who has to grant God permission to save! God is left only to making their life miserable in the hopes they come to Him. Such foolishness! Such powerlessness! Truth #1 : God moves in the lives of His children without human permission . Truth #2 : Men do not make Christ Lord. He IS Lord. Your current opinion of Him no more changes His Lordship over you than if you declared a boiling lava pit to be a s
Read more