Testing the Spirits - 06/30/1991
Ep. 09

Testing the Spirits - 06/30/1991

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Episode description

I John 4:1-6

  1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
  2. By this you know the Spirit of God : every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
  3. and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
  4. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
  5. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
  6. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Lords Day 18

  1. Q. What do you confess when you say, he ascended into heaven? A. That Christ, before the eyes of his disciples, was taken up from the earth into heaven, 1 and that he is there for our benefit 2 until he comes again to judge the living and the dead. 3 1.Mk 16:19; Lk 24:50, 51; Acts 1:9-11. 2.Rom 8:34; Heb 4:14; 7:23-25; 9:24. 3.Mt 24:30; Acts 1:11.

  2. Q. Is Christ, then, not with us until the end of the world, as he has promised us? A. Christ is true man and true God. With respect to his human nature he is no longer on earth, 2 but with respect to his divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit he is never absent from us. 3 1.Mt 28:20. 2.Mt 26:11; Jn 16:28; 17:11; Acts 3:19-21; Heb 8:4. 3.Mt 28:18-20; Jn 14:16-19; 16:13.

  3. Q. But are the two natures in Christ not separated from each other if his human nature is not present wherever his divinity is? A. Not at all, for his divinity has no limits and is present everywhere. 1 So it must follow that his divinity is indeed beyond the human nature which he has taken on and nevertheless is within this human nature and remains personally united with it. 2 1.Jer 23:23, 24; Acts 7:48, 49. 2.Jn 1:14; 3:13; Col 2:9.

  4. Q.How does Christ’s ascension into heaven benefit us? A. First, he is our Advocate in heaven before his Father. 1 Second, we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that he, our Head, will also take us, his members, up to himself. 2 Third, he sends us his Spirit as a counter-pledge, 3 by whose power we seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and not the things that are on earth. 4 1.Rom 8:34; 1 Jn 2:1. 2.Jn 14:2; 17:24; Eph 2:4-6. 3.Jn 14:16; Acts 2:33; 2 Cor 1:21, 22; 5:5. 4.Col 3:1-4.