The Spirit's True Work (Conclusion)

Pulpit Magazine December 4, 2009

(By John MacArthur)

This week, we’ve looked at the characteristics of a true work of the Holy Spirit, noting that it exalts the true Christ, opposes Satan’s interests, points people to the Scriptures, and elevates truth. Today, we will conclude this series by looking at a final mark of the Spirit’s work.

This material, again, is adapted from Jonathan Edwards’s The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.

It Results in Love for God and Others

“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” [v. 8].

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 last mark which the apostle gives of the true Sprit, he seems to speak of as the most eminent. He devotes more space to it and so insists much more largely on it than all the rest.

When the spirit that is at work among the people brings many of them to high and exalting thoughts of the Divine Being and His glorious perfections; when it works in them an admiring, delightful sense of the excellency of Jesus Christ, representing Him as the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely; when it makes Him precious to the soul, winning and drawing the heart with those motives and incitements to free love of God and the wonderful dying love of Christ — it must be the Spirit of God.

“We love, because He first loved us,” verse 19 says. The spirit that makes the soul long after God and Christ must be the Spirit of God. When we desire the presence and communion of the Savior, acquaintance with Him, conformity to Him, a life that pleases and honors Him, we must be under the influence of His Spirit.

Moreover, the spirit that quells contentions among men gives a spirit of peace and good-will, excites to acts of outward kindness, earnestly desires the salvation of souls, and arouses love for all the children of God and followers of Christ; I say that when a spirit operates after this manner, there is the highest kind of evidence that this is the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, 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. It is occasioned by their agreeing on issues where they greatly differ from all others and for which they are objects of ridicule from the rest of mankind. That naturally will cause them so much the more to prize those peculiarities that make them the objects of others’ contempt. (Thus the ancient Gnostics and the wild fanatics that appeared at the beginning of the Reformation boasted of their great love to one another — one sect of them in particular calling themselves “the family of love.”) But this is quite another thing than that Christian love I have just described.

There is enough said in this passage of the nature of a truly Christian love to distinguish it 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 Jesus Christ. It is attended with a sense of our own utter unworthiness (see vv. 9-11, 19). The surest character of true, divine, supernatural love– distinguishing it from counterfeits that arise from a natural self-love — is that the Christian virtue of humility shines in it. It is a love which above all others renounces, abases, and annihilates what we term self. Christ’s love is a humble love (1 Cor. 13:4-5).

When, therefore, we see a love attended with a sense of one’s own littleness, vileness, weakness, and utter insufficiency; when it is united with self-diffidence, self-emptiness, self-renunciation, and poverty of spirit — those are the manifest tokens of the Spirit of God.

He that thus dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.

Conclusion

These marks that the apostle has given us are sufficient to stand alone and support themselves. They plainly show the finger of God and are sufficient to outweigh a thousand such little objections as many make from oddities, irregularities, errors in conduct, and the delusions and scandals of some professors. But here some may object. After all, the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:13-14, “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

To which I answer that this can be no objection against the sufficiency of these marks to distinguish the true from the false spirit in those false apostles and prophets — even when the devil is transformed into an angel of light. After all, the very reason the apostle John gave these marks was so that we could test the spirits. Therefore try the spirits by these rules and you will be able to distinguish the true spirit from the false — even under such a crafty disguise.

Categories: Theology | 


4 Responses to
Comment Avatar
1 John Hunsucker Sun, Dec 6, 2009 08:44.2 AM

Great series of posts. I appreciate it.

Reply
Comment Avatar
2 Daniel Henderer Sun, Jan 3, 2010 08:11.34 PM

comment was removed by user

Reply
Comment Avatar
3 Daniel Henderer Tue, Jan 5, 2010 07:01.36 AM

Not sure what the doctor’s aim was in these pieces, but just a reminder to any who may not know that Edwards design was to show what are the marks of a revival and not the infallible marks of the regeneration. Though the marks of the former will be found in one who has been born of the spirit they are not conclusive as to our spiritual state, the latter requiring much careful inquiry on our part to determine our own case.

It requires a great deal of diligence and labour to make sure our calling and election; there must be a very close examination of ourselves, a very narrow search and strict inquiry, whether we are thoroughly converted, our minds enlightened, our wills renewed, and our whole souls changed as to the bent and inclination thereof; and to come to a fixed certainty in this requires the utmost diligence, and cannot be attained and kept without divine assistance, as we may learn from Ps. 139.23 and Rms. 8.16. - Mathew Henry

Beloved, do not be your own betrayers. Do not deceive your own hearts, nor set your hands to your own ruin by a willful blinding of yourselves. Set up a tribunal in your own breasts. Bring the Word and conscience together. ‘To the law and to the testimony.’ Hear what the Word concludes of your state. Oh follow the search till you find how the case stands. Make a mistake here, and you perish. And, such is the treachery of the heart, the subtlety of the tempter, and the deceitfulness of sin, all conspiring to flatter and deceive the poor soul; and so common and easy it is to make a mistake, that it is a thousand to one that you will be deceived, unless you are very careful and thorough and impartial in the inquiry into your spiritual condition. Oh therefore be diligent in your work; go to the bottom, search with candles; weigh yourself in the balance, come to the standard of the sanctuary; bring your coin to the touchstone. Satan is a master of deceit; he can draw to the life; he is perfect in the trade; there is nothing which he cannot imitate. You cannot wish for any grace, but he can fit you with a counterfeit. Be jealous; trust not even your own heart. Go to God to search you and try you, to examine you and prove your reins. - Joseph Alleine, (1634-1668)

In prosecuting the business of self-inspection, it is of importance that we be guided aright in our inquiries into our spiritual state; and we know of few works better fitted to assist the honest inquirer in his search, than Mr. Guthrie's "Christian's Great Interest." It is divided into two parts, "The trial of a saving interest in Christ," and "How to attain to a saving interest in Christ;" and we think it impossible to peruse this valuable Treatise, with candor and sincerity of an honest mind, without arriving at a solid conclusion as to our spiritual condition. His experimental acquaintance with the operations and genuine fruits of the Spirit, and his intimate knowledge of the workings of the human heart, fitted him for applying the tests of infallible truth to aid us in ascertaining what spirit we are of - for exposing and dissipating the false hopes of the hypocrite - for leading the careless Christian to investigate the causes of his declension in godliness, and to examine anew whether he be in the faith - and for detecting and laying open the fallacies and delusions which men practise on themselves, in regard to the state of their souls. He faithfully exposes the insidious nature of that deceitfulness of the human heart, which lulls men into a false security, while their Christianity is nothing more than a heartless and hollow profession, and they are standing exposed to the fearful condemnation denounced against those who have "a name to live, but are dead." -Thomas Chalmers' (1780-1847) introduction to THE CHRISTIAN'S GREAT INTEREST, by William Guthrie (1620-1665)

The ab

Reply
Comment Avatar
4 Daniel Henderer Tue, Jan 5, 2010 07:03 AM

The absence of holy fear is a damning mark in the souls of unholy professors. That religion which has no awe in it, which never makes us tremble before the Most High, is not the religion of genuine faith, for there is a fear which even perfect love casteth not out, but it rather increases and deepens that holy fear which is the very essence of true piety. – Spurgeon

Reply
You must be logged in to add a comment click here to log in