In the apostolic age there was the greatest outpouring of the Spirit of God that ever was, both as to His extraordinary influences and gifts, and His ordinary operations in convincing, convicting, enlightening, and sanctifying the souls of men. But as the influences of the true spirit abounded, so counterfeits did also abound. The devil was abundant in mimicking both the ordinary and extraordinary influences of the Spirit of God, as is manifest by innumerable passages of the apostles’ writings.

This made it very necessary that the church of Christ should be furnished with some certain rules, distinguishing and clear marks by which she might proceed safely in judging the true from the false without danger of being imposed upon. The giving of such rules is the plain design of this chapter. The words of the text are an introduction to this discourse of the distinguishing signs of the true and false spirit.

Before the apostle proceeds to lay down the signs, he exhorts Christians, first, against an overcredulousness and a forwardness to admit every specious appearance as the work of a true Spirit: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God."

And second, he shows that there were many counterfeits, "because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

My design, therefore, at this time ‘is to show what are the true, certain, and distinguishing evidences of a work of the Spirit of God by which we may safely proceed in judging any operation we find in ourselves, or see in others. I shall confine myself wholly to those marks given US by the apostle, in the chapter wherein, is, my text; where this matter is handled more plainly and fully than anywhere else in the Bible. I shall take them in the order in which I find, them in the chapter.

I. When the operation among a people is such as to raise their esteem of that Jesus who was born of the Virgin and was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem; and when it seems more to confirm and establish their minds in the truth of what the gospel declares to us of his being the Son of God, and the Saviour of men-this is a sure sign that it is from the Spirit of God. This sign the apostle gives us in the 2nd and 3rd verses, "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."

This implies confessing not only that there was such a person who appeared in Palestine, and did and suffered those things that are recorded of Him, but that He was also Christ, i.e., the Son of God, anointed to be Lord and Saviour, as the name Jesus Christ implies. That this is implied. in the apostle’s meaning is confirmed by the 15th verse, where the apostle is still on the same subject of signs of the true Spirit: "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God; God dwelleth in him, and he in God."

The word confess as it is often used in the New Testament signi- fies more than merely allowing; it implies an establishing and confirming of a thing by testimony ; so Matthew 10 :32, "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." And Philippians 2 :l 1, "That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." That this is the force of the expression, as the apostle John uses it, is confirmed in the -next chapter, verse 1, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him." And by that parallel of the apostle Paul, where we have the same rule given to distinguish the true Spirit from all counterfeits, 1 Corinthians 12:3: "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."

But the words of the, apostle are remarkable; the person to whom the Spirit gives testimony; and for whom he raises their esteem, must be that Jesus who appeared in the flesh and not another Christ in his stead; nor any mystical, fantastical Christ, such as the- light within.

II. When the Spirit that is at work operates against the interests of Satan’s kingdom, which lies in encouraging and establishing sin and cherishing men’s worldly lust, this is a sure sign that it is a true, and not a false spirit. This sign we have given us in the 4th and 5th verses : "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them." Here is a plain antithesis: it is evident that the apostle is still, comparing those that are influenced by the two opposite kinds of spirits, the true and the false. The one is of God and overcomes the spirit of the world; the other is of the world and speaks and savors of the things of the world.

What the apostle means by the world, or "the things that are of the world," we learn by his own words, in the 2nd chapter of this Epistle, 15th and 16th verses: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." So by the world the apostle evidently means everything that appertains to the interest of sin and comprehends all the corruptions and lusts of men, and all those acts and objects by which they are gratified.

We may safely determine, from what the apostle says, that the Spirit that is at work amongst the people after such a manner as to lessen men’s esteem of the pleasures, profits, and honors of the world; and to take off their hearts from an eager pursuit after these things; and to engage them in a deep concern about a future state and eternal happiness which the gospel reveals; and to put them upon earnestly seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness ; and the Spirit that convinces them of the dreadfulness of sin, the guilt it brings, and the misery to which it exposes, must needs be the Spirit of God.

III. The Spirit that operates in such a manner as to cause in men a greater regard to the Holy Scriptures, and establishes them more in their truth and divinity, is certainly the Spirit of God. This rule the apostle gives us in the 6th .verse: "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." We are of God; that is, "We the apostles are sent forth of God, and appointed by him to teach the world, and to deliver those doctrines and instructions which are to be their rule." The apostle’s argument here equally reaches all that in the same sense are of God; that is, all those God has appointed and inspired to deliver to His church its rule of faith and practice; all the prophets and apostles, whose doctrine God has made the foundation on which He has built His church, as in Ephesians 2 20 ; in a word, all the penmen of the Holy Scriptures.

IV. Another rule to judge of spirits may be drawn from those compellations given to the opposite spirits, in the last words of the 6th verse, "The spirit of truth and the spirit of error." These words exhibit the two opposite characters of the Spirit of God and other spirits that counterfeit his operations. If, by observing the manner of operation of a spirit that is at work among a people, we see that it operates as a spirit of truth, convincing them of those things that are true, we may safely determine that it is a right and true spirit.

For instance, if we observe that the spirit at work makes men more sensible than they used to be that there is a God, and that he is a great and sin-hating God ; that life is short, and very uncertain; that there is another world; that they have immortal souls and must give account of themselves to God; that they are exceeding sinful by nature and practice ; that they are helpless in themselves ; and confirms them in other things that are agreeable to some sound doctrine-the spirit that works thus operates as a spirit of truth. He represents things as they truly are.

V. If the spirit that is at work among a people operates as a spirit of love to God and man, it is a sure sign that it is the Spirit of God. This sign the apostle insists upon from the 6th verse to the end of the chapter : "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God ; for God is love. . . ."

In these verses love is spoken of as if it were that wherein the very nature of the Holy Spirit consisted; or, as if divine love dwelling in us, and the Spirit of God dwelling in us, were the same thing; as it is also in the last two verses of the foregoing chapter, and in the 16th verse of this chapter. Therefore this last mark which the apostle gives of the true spirit he seems to speak of as the most eminent, and so insists much more largely upon it than all the rest, and speaks expressly of both love to God and men-of love to men in the 7th, 11th, and 12th verses; of both together in the last two verses; and of love to men, as arising from love to God, in these last two verses.

There is a counterfeit love that often appears among those who are led by a spirit of delusion. There is commonly in the wildest enthusiasts a kind of union and affection, arising from self-love, occasioned by their agreeing in those things wherein they greatly differ from all’ others, and from which they are objects of the ridicule of all the rest of mankind. This naturally will cause them so much the more to prize those peculiarities that make them the objects of others’ contempt. Thus the Gnostics and the wild fanatics that appeared in the beginning of the Reformation boasted of their great love one to another; one sect of them in particular, calling themselves the fanzily of love.

But this is quite another thing than that Christian love I have just described; it is only the working of a natural self-love, and no true benevolence, any more than the union and friendship which may be among a company of pirates that are at war with all the rest of the world.

There is enough said in this passage of the nature of a truly Christian love to distinguish it thoroughly from all such counterfeits. It is love that arises from apprehension of the wonderful riches of the free grace and sovereignty of God’s love to us in Christ Jesus; being attended with a sense of ‘our own utter unworthiness, as in ourselves the enemies and haters of God and Christ, and with a renunciation of all our own excellency and righteousness. See verses 9, 10, 11, and 19. The surest character of true divine supernatural love-distinguish- ing it from counterfeits that arise from a natural love-is that the Chris- tian virtue of humility shines in it : that which above all others re- nounces, abases, and annihilates what we term self. Christian love, or true charity, is a humble love. When, therefore, we see love in per- sons attended with a sense of their own littleness, vileness, weakness, and utter insufficiency-and so with self-diffidence, self-emptiness, self- renunciation, and poverty of spirit-these are the manifest tokens of the Spirit of God.