Our Daily Duty to Discern Spirits | 1 John 4:1
0 views
Lord's Day: June 15, 2025 Preacher: Carlos Montijo [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/sermons/preacher/p/19307/carlos-montijo] Series: First John [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/sermons/series/first-john] Topic: Discernment [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/sermons/topic/discernment] Scripture: 1 John 4:1; Acts 20:30; 1 Timothy 4:1–3; 1 Kings 3:7–13; 11:1–6; Matthew 7:9–11; 1 Corinthians 12:7–13; 2 Timothy 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22; James 1:5; Matthew 5:37
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1
I. “…TO SEE…”
II. WHO OR WHAT ARE THESE “SPIRITS”? ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΑ
III. DISCERNMENT DEFINED
* Discernment, in part, is to “know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave us.” (1 John 3:24)
* Discernment is to “test the spirits to see whether they [too] are from God” (1 John 4:1)
IV. DOES DISCERNMENT REALLY MATTER TO GOD?
* King Solomon
* Wisdom is not “knowledge applied”
V. DISCERNMENT IS A GOOD GIFT FROM GOD
* 1 Corinthians 12:7–13
* The gift of discernment is a blessing and benefit of our Union with Christ and His Spirit, the anointing of truth, whereby God equips us with His means to teach us the truth and distinguish it from error
VI. WHO THEN HAS THE DUTY TO DISCERN, AND HOW OFTEN MUST DISCERNMENT BE EXERCISED?
* As “good soldiers of Christ” (2 Tim 2:3), we must know both our friends and our foes, allies and our enemies
VII. ANALOGY OF SCRIPTURE
* 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22
* Discernment is a powerful weapon, and a lifestyle
VIII. WE DISCERN GOOD FROM EVIL, TRUE TEACHERS FROM FALSE PROPHETS, GOOD CHURCHES FROM BAD ONES...
* “All congregations in the Christian Reformed Church in North America may allow women to serve in the office of minister, elder, deacon, or commissioned pastor.”[1]
* “God’s Chisel,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqGIHpiqkjg [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqGIHpiqkjg]
We meet on Sundays for worship at 10:00am:
* ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/]
4712 Montana Ave
El Paso, Texas 79903
Contact us at:
* web: ThornCrownCovenant.Church [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/]
call/text: (915) 843-8088
email: [email protected] [[email protected]]
Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org [http://lsbible.org/] and 316publishing.com [http://316publishing.com/]
[1] ‘Women in Ecclesiastical Office | Christian Reformed Church’ <https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/position-statements/women-ecclesiastical-office> [accessed 14 June 2025].
- 00:03
- All right, let's begin by turning to our Bibles in 1st
- 00:08
- John chapter 4 now. 1st John chapter 4 verse 1. 1st
- 00:22
- John chapter 4 verse 1. God's Word says,
- 01:02
- So, before I start here, I wanted to again wish everybody a happy Father's Day.
- 01:10
- You know, you can often tell the spiritual maturity and quality of a church by its men, by the men in the church.
- 01:20
- And I'm grateful for that because I think we pass with flying colors.
- 01:26
- We got some really good strong men in here who do not go with the flow and the tide of this world, especially with the spirit of feminism that's rampant in our day.
- 01:39
- And so, it's so important to emphasize strong masculinity, masculine fatherhood like the
- 01:48
- Bible does. And that's going to be relevant in these verses as well. So, as you can see from the sermon title,
- 02:02
- I'm going to be covering primarily our duty to discern spirits, our daily duty to discern the spirits.
- 02:13
- And we're going to examine what discernment is in 1st
- 02:19
- John 4 .1, line by line and phrase by phrase. There's a lot to unpack here.
- 02:26
- I don't even know if I'm going to finish verse 1 in this sermon, but I think you'll really appreciate what
- 02:34
- God's Word has to say to us in this verse. First thing,
- 02:41
- I want to cover some technicalities, some interpretive issues here. You'll notice in verse 1 that it says,
- 02:49
- Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Now, I was a little surprised here because the
- 03:00
- Greek does not actually use the word see. That actually was added in for clarity in the
- 03:08
- LSB and several other translations as well. But you'll notice also that it's not italicized in the
- 03:15
- LSB. Usually when the LSB adds words for clarity, they italicize them, but this wasn't italicized.
- 03:24
- So that took me by surprise because I was going to go somewhere with that, but it's not there, so I didn't go there.
- 03:38
- Some modern translations have similar phrases to draw out the meaning of the words, like the the
- 03:46
- Net Bible and the HCSB, they use determine. They use determine, so dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone into the world.
- 04:00
- But it's the older translations that actually do a better job of translating the verse more precisely, more exactly.
- 04:09
- The King James and New King James, for example, say, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, test the spirits, whether they are of God, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have are gone out into the world.
- 04:27
- Young's translation, literal translation, also similarly says, beloved, every spirit believe not, but prove the spirits, if of God they are, because many false prophets have gone forth to the world.
- 04:39
- So the reason I'm bringing our attention to this is because sometimes the
- 04:46
- LSB hides these things, and I wasn't expecting it to, so you just want to be aware of that.
- 04:52
- It's still good to consult other versions and the Greek if you can, because I thought that was a little like, it's kind of misleading, that I didn't at least italicize it, but it doesn't change the meaning of the verse or anything.
- 05:08
- It does help to explain what it means, but if we're going to be more exact, then it wasn't really necessary to add it there.
- 05:18
- So now, the next interpretive question here that I'm sure you're all dying to find out the answer to is, what are these spirits that John is referring to?
- 05:31
- What are these, the spirits? The neomata. Neomata is the
- 05:38
- Greek word for spirit. It's like, pneumatology is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. So that's, the issue is not a translational issue.
- 05:49
- It does say spirits, and to test every spirit, and so some think that the spirits in this verse refer to angels and demons.
- 06:05
- So angels and demons, to supernatural otherworldly beings.
- 06:13
- Others think that it refers to men. To men. So either men who are from God, and therefore confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, like the passage later on says, or to men who deny this doctrine of Christ, and instead are speaking perverse things, like Acts 20 30 says, when
- 06:41
- Paul warns against the savage wolves that are creeping into the church. So Gordon Clark had, in his commentary, says this about the verse.
- 06:54
- The spirits whom John has in mind are not the demons and satanic angels.
- 07:01
- I thought that was interesting too, how he distinguished, he distinguishes them. He distinguishes demons from satanic angels, which is actually biblically correct.
- 07:12
- He continues, though Satan no doubt inspires them. Satan no doubt inspires these men, but rather these spirits are men.
- 07:24
- They are preachers, religious leaders of whatever sort, who teach error, who teach lies, falsehood.
- 07:35
- Now I need to kind of clarify, add a little bit to Clark's definition here, because it could refer to both.
- 07:44
- We have to, we can't lose track of the fact that the verse here refers to both kinds of spirits.
- 07:52
- The ones that do come from God, and the ones that don't. So it's not just referring to evil men, or you know, or evil spirits.
- 08:01
- It's referring to both kinds, and it's for that reason that it cannot refer to angels and demons.
- 08:11
- It can't refer, at least not directly, refer to angels and demons because they are not the same kind of spirit, right?
- 08:20
- Angels and demons are different kinds of spirits. Angels are angels.
- 08:26
- Demons are the spirits of the Nephilim, the giants who were hybrids of the fallen angels, the satanic angels like Clark refers to them, and human women.
- 08:37
- So that's a different kind, but Paul, but the apostle here is using the word spirits to refer to the same kind, but in a different sense.
- 08:48
- Some are good, some are bad, right? So that's why this is referring to good and bad men, because they're all men.
- 09:03
- They're all the same kind of nature or spirit, okay? So these warnings in this passage are therefore against the many false prophets, because we obviously, it says right there, it's because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
- 09:23
- So it's against many false prophets who are men, who are nevertheless inspired by deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, right?
- 09:35
- Against antichrist teachers and the spirit of antichrist, which the passage also refers to, because the spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits, doctrines of demons, by the hypocrisy of liars who have been seared in their own conscience, who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which
- 10:05
- God created to be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth, right?
- 10:11
- So 1st Timothy chapter 4. Notice too, the repeated contrasting pairs all throughout scripture and here as well, how the
- 10:25
- Bible often pairs up, this pairing up of lies and those who blindly follow them and sometimes willingly follow them, but blind in the sense that they don't, they reject the truth and are therefore blind, and of the truth and of those who discerningly follow the truth and therefore follow
- 10:56
- God. So John here, and I've talked about parallelisms before, and John here is employing a type of parallelism between the spirits and the many false prophets, okay?
- 11:13
- And that's back in verse 1 of chapter 4. The Amplified renders it this way, the
- 11:21
- Amplified Bible. Beloved, do not believe every spirit speaking through a self -proclaimed prophet.
- 11:28
- Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets and teachers have gone out into the world.
- 11:37
- Now, like I just covered, the Amplified is kind of, it's not quite right here because it's rendering spirit as like supernatural, otherworldly spirits speaking through a self -proclaimed prophet.
- 11:53
- No, this verse refers to the actual men, primarily, directly. So all those technicalities being established now, we can continue in our unpacking of discernment in this verse, in this passage.
- 12:14
- You'll recall that discernment, in part, is to know this, that he abides in us by or from the spirit whom he gave us, which is what 1
- 12:28
- John 3 24 says. It is to know the truth about ourselves being united to Christ and the truth about God, and to know the source of truth, which is, of course,
- 12:45
- God himself, his son, his spirit, from his spirit, like the verse says, and his revealed word, his revealed word, holy scripture.
- 13:01
- That's the source. So, and likewise, discernment is also to test the spirits to see whether they too are from God.
- 13:17
- We know we are from God by the spirit abiding in us and bearing witness that we are children of God, but also we have the spirit of discernment that empowers us to test the spirits to prove whether they too are from God.
- 13:39
- Now, okay, so I want to ask ourselves this question now.
- 13:54
- Does discernment really matter all that much to God?
- 14:01
- Is discernment really that important to him, to God, or is it a lesser, minor, you know, secondary issue?
- 14:12
- And I've already given myself away if you sat in any one of my previous sermons, probably, but humor me here.
- 14:23
- I want to explore this because this is really fascinating. Remember, remember though that the
- 14:29
- Bible, while the Bible defines discernment in different ways, the particular definition of discernment based on this verse is the ability to perceive, distinguish, or judge something clearly and accurately.
- 14:45
- It involves a deep understanding and insight that goes beyond mere surface level observation.
- 14:55
- Discernment is often associated with wisdom and spiritual insight, enabling individuals to differentiate between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, good and evil.
- 15:07
- Discernment is a recurring theme in the scriptures, emphasizing the importance of spiritual insight and understanding.
- 15:13
- It is considered a gift from God. Take note of that. Take note of that. Essential or necessary for making wise decisions and living a life that aligns with his will.
- 15:25
- Okay, so that sounds pretty important, right? That does not sound insignificant or trivial or minor, but what sayeth the scripture?
- 15:37
- What sayeth the scripture? And that brings me to my correction here that I needed to make from last week.
- 15:45
- I said Isaiah 14 .9, my wife caught me, and I think all of you caught me too, because you were confused that I was reading a different verse.
- 15:54
- I meant Hosea 14 .9. Hosea 14 .9 says, whoever is wise, so let him discern these things.
- 16:03
- Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them.
- 16:12
- Okay, very important verse there, that speaks to this issue of discernment, but let's dig a little deeper now.
- 16:22
- Turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 3. 1 Kings chapter 3, starting in verse 7.
- 16:35
- Remember here what Solomon asked
- 16:41
- God for and how God responded to Solomon's request. 1
- 16:52
- Kings chapter 3, starting in verse 7, God's word speaks. So now,
- 16:58
- O Yahweh my God, you have made your slave, this is Solomon speaking, your slave king in place of my father
- 17:08
- David, yet I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.
- 17:14
- In other words, I lack knowledge, I lack discernment, and your slave is in the midst of your people which you have chosen, which you have chosen.
- 17:25
- Note that too. A numerous people who are too many to be numbered or counted.
- 17:32
- So give your slave a listening heart to judge your people to discern between good and evil.
- 17:42
- For who is able to judge this glorious people of yours? And it was pleasing in the sight of the
- 17:47
- Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. I'm going to repeat that.
- 17:53
- And it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this very thing.
- 18:02
- And God said to him, because you have asked this thing, that is for wisdom and discernment, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, in other words to kill them, his enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to listen to justice.
- 18:29
- Behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, given you, take note once again that it's a gift from God, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall no one like you arise after you.
- 18:54
- I have also given you, given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.
- 19:08
- Amen. This is a powerful word from God. Now ask yourself again, does this sound like God puts a high premium on discernment or what?
- 19:25
- God has always considered discernment to be a high priority in the
- 19:31
- Old and New Testaments, in both. But there's an important reflection here that we need to take to heart in the life of Solomon, in the object lesson of Solomon and his life, because he's a particularly sharp example, an extreme example that helps us to see more clearly that while discernment is extremely important to God, extremely important, high priority, high priority, among the highest of priorities, it is not the only thing that matters to God.
- 20:14
- It is important, but it's not the only important thing that matters to God.
- 20:20
- You know, and I've often heard, I've often heard Christians explain or define wisdom as knowledge applied, as knowledge applied.
- 20:34
- You may have heard that as well, that knowledge is one thing, but wisdom is the application of knowledge, right?
- 20:41
- But then I was thinking about this, and I'm like, well, but Solomon contradicts this definition, like horribly.
- 20:49
- Solomon completely contradicts his definition of wisdom, because God gave
- 20:55
- Solomon more wisdom and more discernment than anyone else, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you.
- 21:10
- So, okay, that's interesting. But nobody had more wisdom than Solomon, except for Christ himself, who is
- 21:18
- God, the God -man. Yet, sadly, what happened to Solomon?
- 21:25
- Solomon catastrophically failed to personally apply his wisdom and discernment, for King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women.
- 21:50
- He just had the whole buffet of pagan women from the nations concerning which
- 21:55
- Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not go along with them, nor shall they go along with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods, their false gods.
- 22:11
- But what does it say next? Solomon clung to these in love.
- 22:17
- Oh boy, Solomon is in trouble here. Solomon clung to these in love, and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
- 22:33
- Why? Because they were mostly pagan. They were heathen, pagan wives who had detestable idols, and they brought them into Israel with them.
- 22:48
- Now, it happened at the time that Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh, his god, as the heart of David, his father, had been.
- 23:02
- Ouch. So even though King David had less wisdom and discernment, King David was better able.
- 23:11
- He applied the wisdom he had better than King Solomon did.
- 23:18
- For Solomon went after Astereth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the detestable idol of the
- 23:26
- Ammonites. And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and did not follow
- 23:34
- Yahweh fully, as David, his father, had done. Man, oh man, if you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.
- 23:46
- Solomon messed up royally, catastrophically, right? He had wisdom, but he didn't apply it, okay?
- 23:59
- Now, don't misunderstand me, and don't misunderstand the Word of God here. This does not mean that we should instead become pietists, rejoicing in humble ignorance and emotional upheavals instead, and not worry about knowledge.
- 24:15
- Oh, because knowledge puffs up, right? No, that's twisting the scripture. Knowledge in that same chapter rejoices,
- 24:23
- I mean, love in that same chapter rejoices with the truth. You can't have love without truth.
- 24:33
- So Solomon's problem was not that he had too much too much wisdom or discernment.
- 24:41
- We have to be careful when people say things like this, because who gave it to him? Who gave
- 24:48
- Solomon all this wisdom and discernment? Was it not God? God gave it to him, and God does not give us stones in the place of bread, right?
- 24:59
- He's a good father who gives us good gifts to those who ask him for them, and that's what
- 25:05
- Solomon did. He asked God for wisdom and discernment, and God provided it to him in abundance like no other man before.
- 25:15
- Now, so what then was Solomon's problem? Well, if you remember the series that I preached on,
- 25:25
- Knowing Your Enemy, Solomon's main problem was his flesh. It was his sorry, out -of -control flesh, a lack of self -control, a lack of flesh control, and a lack of self -restraint, a flesh restraint.
- 25:44
- It is a failure to apply all the wisdom to his own life, to his own life, because remember
- 25:52
- Solomon was wise, and people would come from him to him from all over the world, and he was able to wisely judge between difficult situations for other people, but when it came to himself, he was a big jolly hypocrite who indulged his flesh and got in trouble with God because of it, right?
- 26:11
- There's so many lessons here, but I want to just chew on that and move on and continue to build on this passage in 1
- 26:23
- John 4. So now we understand that discernment is a good gift from God.
- 26:32
- It's a good gift that comes from God. The unbelievers, people who reject
- 26:37
- God, don't have discernment. They reject it because you can't have discernment without the truth.
- 26:45
- You can't. Those are not, those are not, you can't have one without the other.
- 26:52
- Turn with me then to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we'll start in verse, in verse 7.
- 27:08
- So here in the passage on 1
- 27:16
- Corinthians 12, we find some insight into this discernment, what this discernment is, starting in verse 7.
- 27:30
- But to each one is given, note that again, is given, is gifted the manifestation of the
- 27:38
- Spirit for what is profitable, for what is edifying. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the
- 27:45
- Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to someone else faith by the same
- 27:51
- Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the workings of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, or the discerning of spirits, to someone else the various kinds of tongues, and to another the translation of tongues.
- 28:13
- But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills, not as we will, but as He wills.
- 28:29
- For even though as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is
- 28:41
- Christ. He has many members, but has one body in like manner, and we ourselves are united to Christ.
- 28:50
- For also by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body in Him, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and where and we were all made to drink of one
- 29:02
- Spirit. Okay, so this gives us a little more insight into this matter of discernment.
- 29:10
- The gift of discernment is a blessing and benefit of our union with Christ and His Spirit, the
- 29:18
- Spirit that manifests these gifts to and gives them to us. So, and likewise the anointing of truth, which 1
- 29:31
- John also talks about in at length, whereby God equips us with His means to teach us the truth and distinguish it from error, right?
- 29:42
- So discernment, again here, is the distinction, differentiation, or discernment of spirits, okay?
- 29:55
- A gift given to the church by the Spirit together with the other gifts of prophecy, miracles, healing, and and the like.
- 30:06
- Now, there's a connection here, right? Because the distinguishing or discerning of spirits in 1
- 30:15
- Corinthians 12 10 refers primarily to what 1 John also says, especially to the ability to discern true and false teaching, true and false teaching, and true and false teachers.
- 30:33
- That's who the spirits are. They are men. They are men who are inspired either by the devil and his antichrist spirit or by God and His Spirit, and therefore lines up with in alignment with His Word, right?
- 30:50
- They all are one in Christ. So, and whether it is from God or from antichrist, whether it comes from God or from the devil, right?
- 31:05
- That's the contrast. Some, however, take this to mean that only some receive the gift of discernment but not others because it says individually to individually one is given and to another is given the distinguishing of spirits and they say well that implies not to another, right?
- 31:26
- So not everyone then is required to discern the spirits. Does that sound right to you or does that totally contradict just about every passage the
- 31:38
- Bible speaks to when it comes to discernment? Does God give discernment only to some and not to others?
- 31:48
- Well, that is true in one sense because He does not give discernment to the reprobate, right? He does not give discernment to unbelievers.
- 31:55
- That's why they don't believe the truth, instead embrace the lie.
- 32:04
- But remember, who does John address directly in chapter 4 verse 1?
- 32:11
- Who is he addressing? It says, if you turn back over there with me, it says beloved, beloved.
- 32:21
- Beloved means all each and every believer, every one of us believers.
- 32:35
- That's who first John is referring to. Now, that's not to say that while elders and pastors are especially required to exercise discernment, in part to guard the flock from the savage wolves, the
- 32:54
- Antichrist, nevertheless, we are also as elders and pastors commanded to model and teach discernment to the church so that every one of you can learn to discern rightly for yourself and to judge for your own selves like scripture repeatedly teaches all throughout.
- 33:23
- Now I have, this brings me now to an axiomatic public service announcement.
- 33:30
- That's a big word. Axiomatic means a first principle.
- 33:36
- It's a foundational principle. So this is a very important principle that we need to live by.
- 33:44
- Every one of us, not just pastors and teachers and elders, but discernment.
- 33:57
- So I forgot to ask ourselves this question. Who then has the duty to discern?
- 34:07
- The obligation, the responsibility, who is commanded to discern, and how often must discernment be exercised, right?
- 34:14
- Now we understand now more clearly, I hope, that everybody is commanded to exercise discernment.
- 34:22
- Everyone. Everyone has the same requirement to exercise discernment and to discern the spirits, the teachers and preachers and prophets, whether they are from God or from Antichrist.
- 34:36
- Now, now how often though?
- 34:43
- Is this just once in a while, every now and then, only when something comes up or what? And this is where we must understand, this brings us back to our first principle now, that discernment is a daily necessity.
- 34:57
- A daily necessity and duty that we all must practice.
- 35:05
- All the time. All the time. In order to not believe every spirit, but instead to test every spirit, not some spirits, every spirit.
- 35:24
- Every spirit. To see whether, to prove, to discern whether it comes from God.
- 35:32
- Everyone. Everyone. Including me, including anybody you listen to outside of here.
- 35:42
- Everyone. We need to prove with the scriptures and with sound doctrine, like the
- 35:50
- Bereans did, which we will visit later on. So as good soldiers of Christ, as good, we are all soldiers in God's army, amen?
- 36:03
- As good soldiers of Christ, we must know both our friends and our foes.
- 36:12
- Our allies and our enemies. A good soldier knows both.
- 36:18
- And if he doesn't know one, he will, he will be, he will be a liability rather than an asset.
- 36:25
- You'll do more harm than good to yourself and to others if you don't have both. A knowledge of both.
- 36:31
- A discernment of both. What is good and what is bad. Our friends and our allies and our enemies, our foes.
- 36:40
- So we should therefore test every spirit and especially the ones that claim to come from God.
- 36:47
- Especially those. Because that's the one that will try to deceive you the most.
- 36:53
- The one that claims to come in the name of God. But just in case these verses have not been clear enough, have no fear, beloved, because the analogy of scripture is here.
- 37:14
- So turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 21. I want to commend these passages to your memory.
- 37:30
- I encourage you to commit them to your memory because they are very important. They are foundational to our
- 37:36
- Christian walk. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 21.
- 37:45
- The apostle Paul admonishes us to examine. Examine.
- 37:53
- What was, what's that word here? Examine all things. What? Some things?
- 37:59
- No. All things. Everything. And hold fast to that which is good.
- 38:09
- That which is good and likewise to abstain from every form of what?
- 38:16
- Evil. Okay. Now this word. Notice this word here.
- 38:22
- Examine. The Greek word is the same exact word that 1
- 38:27
- John and other passages use. It's the same word.
- 38:34
- Examine. Discern. All. So not just all spirits, but everything else.
- 38:43
- Examine everything. Everything you look at. Everything you watch. Everything on the radio, on TV that you listen to.
- 38:50
- It doesn't matter. Examine all of it. All of it in order to hold fast to that which is good and abstain from every form of evil.
- 39:04
- Isn't that what discernment is? Knowing good from evil. There you have it.
- 39:12
- It's even more explicit and hardcore here. Discernment is a powerful weapon that God gifts us with, right?
- 39:26
- It's kind of like, you know, in Lord of the Rings where, I forget who gives them the sword, the bright sword, the orc sword that glows whenever bad guys are nearby, when orcs are nearby.
- 39:42
- That's in a way what discernment is. It's like, it's a spiritual sense of being able to see good from bad, truth from error.
- 39:56
- It's a powerful weapon, therefore, but it is also a lifestyle.
- 40:02
- Discernment is a way of life, as you can see. In order to discern everything, you have to, that has to be a part of who you are.
- 40:13
- You have to make that a part of your everyday life and routine, because that's what it is.
- 40:19
- It's a lifestyle. We should practice discernment on everything, even on what we eat, as I've preached on before, because there are antichrist agendas even in food and stuff that we put into our bodies.
- 40:35
- We got to discern everything. Nothing should be taken for granted in this life, in this world.
- 40:42
- That does not come directly from God. So ask yourselves then, is your lifestyle reflective of what these passages teach us?
- 40:56
- Does your lifestyle reflect one of constant daily discernment of everything, of all things?
- 41:08
- Because I can tell you right now, there's many churches that don't teach this. They will say, oh, you know, only when something comes up.
- 41:15
- You know, if something comes up, then you have to practice discernment. No, I'm sorry, but you are totally derelict and negligent of what scripture teaches.
- 41:27
- It's black and white. This is not something that requires special interpretation. It's black and white, good and evil, discernment required for both, for knowing both.
- 41:42
- But there's good news here, beloved. If you don't find yourself, if you find yourself lacking or struggling in this area, it's yours for the taking.
- 41:52
- It's yours for the taking. Because James 1 .5 says that if any of you lacks wisdom, sophia, wisdom, knowledge, or discernment by extension, like Solomon did, right?
- 42:09
- Solomon lacked it, but he asked God for it, and God gave it to him in abundance. Let him then ask of God, who gives us, gives to all generously.
- 42:23
- Remember, it's a gift. He gives it to us generously and without reproach, without negative consequences, okay?
- 42:33
- Which also sheds light on Solomon's problem. It wasn't his discernment. The discernment was the solution to the problem.
- 42:40
- He just had to apply it, and it will be given to him who asks.
- 42:51
- So wisdom and discernment then are both gifts from God, from a good, from our good heavenly
- 42:58
- Father. And we then, however, need to develop and grow in these gifts by exercising and practicing them, and by taking hold of God's means, which we will continue to see later on, right?
- 43:22
- It's not just, oh, God gives it to you, and you're done. No. We are to grow in the knowledge and grace of the
- 43:30
- Lord Jesus Christ. We must grow. We must grow.
- 43:36
- So that's incredibly important for us to understand.
- 43:43
- Notice, too, that there is a both -and here in 1
- 43:49
- Thessalonians 5, 21 through 22. There's a both -and, not an either -or, just as we've seen all throughout 1
- 44:00
- John and all throughout Scripture. It's not just a matter of knowing the truth.
- 44:08
- It's a matter of knowing the truth, and therefore holding fast to what is good, but also, likewise, abstaining every, from every form of evil.
- 44:19
- It is knowing what evil is, identifying it, and not being ignorant of Satan's devices, like Paul also says in Corinthians, right?
- 44:32
- It's both -and. Both -and. These are one of the most prominent, contrasting themes in John's first letter, and all of Scripture.
- 44:46
- Truth and error, true and false believers, God and Antichrist, Christ and Antichrist, and light and darkness, and so on.
- 44:58
- We know, we know, as believers, we are, we are instructed to know the truth as well as the enemy, as well as the enemy, because to know the truth means that we also reject the lie.
- 45:19
- We, we must. You can't hold to both, because truth is logical and consistent, and cannot contradict them, cannot contradict itself.
- 45:34
- Let God be true, and every man a liar. You cannot hold to what is true and to what is false at the same time, and in the same sense.
- 45:44
- You cannot. You cannot hold to a true, a true gospel and a false one. You cannot believe there is one true
- 45:52
- God, and that there are many other gods. That's, that's nonsense. That's a contradiction. God is not the
- 45:59
- God of confusion, but of a sound discernment, a sound mind, wisdom, knowledge of the truth.
- 46:11
- The truth is logical and consistent, and cannot contradict itself.
- 46:17
- Just like our Lord Jesus Christ taught us, let your yes mean yes, and let your no mean no.
- 46:26
- Do not let your yes really mean no, or your no really mean yes. Do not contradict yourself.
- 46:34
- Let it mean yes and no, without any hypocrisy, or contradiction, or reservation, right?
- 46:45
- Anything more than this is from who? It's from the evil one. It's from Antichrist.
- 46:51
- It's from the spirit of Antichrist, from Christ's Sermon on the Mount. I like how the
- 46:57
- CSB renders that passage. Let your yes mean yes, and not no.
- 47:05
- Don't contradict yourself. The truth, then, is mutually exclusive and incompatible with the false.
- 47:13
- They cannot coexist at all. If you try to do that, you don't have the truth.
- 47:21
- You don't have it. You have a contradiction, and that's a lie. It's false. We discern good from evil, true teachers from false prophets, good churches from bad churches as well, because we are called to discern everything, test everything, including churches, right?
- 47:45
- Which brings me to a very sad and very close local example of a church that I came across recently.
- 47:58
- I was listening to a sermon online from this local, quote -unquote, reformed church.
- 48:08
- It's a Christian reformed church. So, I was so, like, bothered by this because it has the word, their denomination has the word reformed in it, okay?
- 48:22
- And they hold to historically reformed standards, and yet, much to my dismay, within the first 10 -15 minutes or so, a woman gets up there and starts preaching, okay?
- 48:39
- Whoa, that took me by surprise. I was like, okay, she's quite the priest, and she went on for, like, 20 minutes preaching and, you know, giving announcements and having folks sit down and explaining to people what the church is about and who we are and defining the church for folks and everything.
- 49:00
- And I was just, I was baffled. But that wasn't all.
- 49:10
- If that wasn't bad enough, it got worse, because half of this, so there was a pastor who was a man who started preaching, but half of his sermon was videos.
- 49:22
- He played videos, and one of the videos is called
- 49:29
- God's Chisel. I don't know if y 'all have seen this, but, good
- 49:34
- Lord, good Lord Almighty, help us. This video shows a man explaining a message from Ephesians 2 .10
- 49:46
- that we are God's workmanship and all this stuff, and he starts praying to God for discernment.
- 49:52
- And when he prays, all of a sudden this man shows up, and he says, oh, I'm here. God is here.
- 49:59
- And he's like, wait, what? So God shows up as a man. Okay, well, that's not rank heresy.
- 50:10
- Does not God, is not God a spirit and has not a body like men? Even the children's catechism teaches you that basic truth.
- 50:18
- God is spirit and must be worshiped according with the spirit and with truth, in spirit and in truth.
- 50:29
- And yet this kid just shamelessly puts some bald guy up there and calls himself
- 50:34
- God. Oh, God is here. That's blasphemy, okay, in case you all didn't catch that.
- 50:43
- That's blasphemy. That is portraying God as a man, and that is the most basic, gross, second commandment violation.
- 50:56
- And one of the most, one of the traditions that most faithfully holds to this command and most consistently tries to teach the severity of this command is the
- 51:09
- Reformed tradition, which they claim to be. A lot of twisted irony here.
- 51:16
- It's astounding. And then it got worse. It just gets worse. I mean, it's so atrociously heretical and blasphemous that this man said, oh yeah, you know, how did
- 51:29
- I give myself away that I'm God? Oh, because you answered your question with a question.
- 51:36
- Is it, oh, did I do that? Oh yeah, I guess I did. Like God forgets. So God forgets now.
- 51:44
- He forgets what He's like. It's just totally making light of who
- 51:51
- God is. It's not, that's not God. That's a blasphemous idol. This is coming from a church that has the name
- 52:01
- Reformed in it, okay? This is why it is important to know and to discern.
- 52:08
- This is serious stuff. But then
- 52:15
- I come to find out that I was shocked and dismayed for, you know, just because I was ignorant.
- 52:22
- Because I started looking up the denomination, and apparently the Christian Reformed Church in North America allows every congregation in its denomination for women to serve in the office of minister, elder, deacon, or commissioned pastor.
- 52:45
- And this is actually old news, y 'all. This is, this is, this is back in 1995. So shame on me for not being aware of this, but I was just furious.
- 52:55
- And, but hey, this is old news. This is old news. And a lot of people,
- 53:01
- I'm willing to bet that a lot of people don't even know this that go to that church. And that would probably find that false, disagree with it.
- 53:13
- But how would you know, unless you know to discern and to look carefully? Right?
- 53:19
- I mean, it, that, I just saw one. I saw the one from June 8th.
- 53:25
- And that, all that, all that nonsense came out of one sermon. So I can only imagine you're going to get a whole lot of the same thing from any other sermon you listen to.
- 53:37
- But, you know, the sad reality is that churches like that are charismatic.
- 53:43
- They're a lot more charismatic, you know, they have these PowerPoints and these, this, this modern popular music, and they got women up there doing stuff, taking charge and preaching.
- 53:52
- That's charismatic churches. That's what they do. But that's not what reformed churches do. That's not what true churches of Christ do.
- 54:02
- So, you know, and they hold to the
- 54:10
- Belgian Confession. The very first article in that confession states that there is only one
- 54:16
- God. We all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth that there is one only and simple and spiritual being, which we call
- 54:24
- God. And that he is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just good, and the overflowing fountain of all good.
- 54:38
- Okay? Immutable. Because in that,
- 54:45
- I forgot to mention, in that video, God's chisel, he also says, he starts chiseling away with the hammer at the man.
- 54:52
- And he says, oh, that hurts. That hurts. He's like, don't worry. It hurts me more than it hurts you.
- 54:59
- Excuse me? It hurts God? Again, that's blasphemy.
- 55:09
- That is blasphemy. Because their own confession teaches that God is immutable.
- 55:15
- God does not change. And God, like our confession says, has no body, like that bald man that they portrayed, parts or passions.
- 55:26
- God is not an emotional being. He doesn't have emotions. Because he doesn't change.
- 55:32
- He's not in a constant state of flux or change. I am the Lord. I do not change.
- 55:41
- That's God's word. That's God's word.
- 55:47
- And that is who God is. All that, when it talks about the spirit being those are called anthropomorphisms.
- 55:57
- God is expressing himself in human language and emotion to illustrate for us something that he's explaining to us.
- 56:10
- That doesn't mean that he literally is emotional like that. Because God does not change.
- 56:18
- God does not change. And he is not like man that he should repent.
- 56:25
- But boy, this church didn't get that memo. They did not get that memo.
- 56:34
- So it's sad. But churches like these, like the entire Christian Reformed Church, their doctrine of the church, their doctrine of church leadership, their doctrine of worship, their doctrine of God, and that's not all.
- 56:49
- But it's all compromised. And everything else, it bleeds over into everything else. Because these are foundational doctrines.
- 56:56
- You start messing with these, you start putting women up there, again in alignment with the spirit of feminism of our day, which is the spirit of antichrist.
- 57:07
- No movement has done more damage to the church and to society as a whole than feminism.
- 57:15
- Than feminism. One of the most destructive movements our planet has ever seen.
- 57:23
- And including the church. And here you see it. You start allowing women to preach and having authority and stuff.
- 57:32
- And what goes after that? The doctrine of God becomes blasphemy. And so on.
- 57:39
- Worship is completely mocked. Entertainment up there is showing videos of blasphemous, bald men calling themselves
- 57:46
- God. Right? So beloved, I know these were strong words, but they are
- 57:56
- God's words. They are from the mouth and words of God himself. And I hope beloved that we take these things to heart.
- 58:03
- And that we really seek to appreciate and to understand how necessary and important discernment is in our life.
- 58:15
- This is incredibly important stuff. I want to continue to unpack and unravel this doctrine for us because it is so needed today.
- 58:26
- It is so needed today. And because 1st John is all about this.
- 58:33
- It is all about this, beloved. I hope you reflect on your own life and see.
- 58:43
- Apply. Don't be like Solomon. Right? And look in the mirror and forget what you look like and not apply these things.
- 58:50
- Right? Know the truth and seek to apply it in your life. Am I?
- 58:56
- Are there areas of my life that I am not discerning? That I've just turned a blind eye to or that I've uncritically accepted?
- 59:06
- Examine and scrutinize everything like scripture says. All of it. Leave no stone unturned in your life because it will affect you.
- 59:16
- It will affect you. You cannot let your guard down, beloved. But praise be to God that he grants us all the wisdom and knowledge that we need through the knowledge of him and God's means, which we will unpack more,
- 59:30
- Lord willing, next Lord's Day, beloved. Let us go ahead and bow our heads and a closing word of prayer.
- 59:38
- Our precious Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for these amazing truths,
- 59:44
- Lord. These strong hard truths, but these necessary truths that we need to internalize,
- 59:51
- Father, and to apply in our lives, Father. Help us, Lord. Give us and grant us discernment and the power and the ability to discern everything in our life and to discern the things that are good and to hold fast to those and to abstain, to put away anything that is evil in our life that may be that we may have not recognized and that we may need to get rid of or turn away from.
- 01:00:17
- Lord, help us to identify those things and to clean our walk up before you so that we may grow in grace and in truth and seek to please you more and more,
- 01:00:35
- Father God, to be more consistent, to learn from the example of Solomon who failed to do these things, who failed to trust in you and instead let the flesh get out of his control.
- 01:00:47
- Father, help us to not go that route and to be blessed in the truth and walk accordingly by your means and by your
- 01:00:57
- Spirit and by being united to your precious Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you for these precious truths,
- 01:01:05
- Father. Help us, Lord, to also not let these things go to our heads, but these things must humble us because we need, we are utterly dependent on you for this discernment,
- 01:01:18
- Father. Help us to depend on you and your means to grow in this knowledge,
- 01:01:24
- Father, and to not allow sin to turn something that is good that you have given us into sin, into a sinful excuse or reproach.
- 01:01:35
- We thank you, Father, and we ask these things in Jesus' precious, almighty name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the
- 01:01:48
- Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning
- 01:01:58
- Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.
- 01:02:03
- If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.