Where is your Discernment? Part 1

Where is your Discernment?

Part 1

You hear them every day.  False philosophies presented as truth.  Ways that seem right to a man, tickling your ears and tempting your heart.  So many people fall prey to Satan’s deceptions and find themselves in relational ruins.  As a follower of Christ, God has opened your eyes to the truth of His Word.  And with His Spirit, you can distinguish truth from lies.  In this message on discernment, James MacDonald challenges you to let God lead and direct you, developing your ability to choose His will.
 

Part 1 

What if I told you that aliens were coming into the world and that most of the people around you right now maybe even you had been taken over.  Super humans, had special powers they were consuming and that they were seeking to free themselves?  In fact, they were seeking to free themselves in the entire world of anything that is negative in anyway.  And by freeing themselves of the negative, they are insuring that they would have another lifetime to live on this Earth, and that eventually through a series of lifetimes, coming back as super humans, aliens, but taking on the form of humans.  That eventually they were going to free our galaxy from anything negative of any kind.  What would you think if I told you that?  Well that’s what L. Ron Hubbard taught beginning in 1953.  That’s a fundamental doctrine of Scientology.  You say to yourself, “That sounds like something a science fiction writer would say.”  Correct.  Hubbard was a science fiction writer.  And he wrote something and people said that is real, so he said, “Great, then it’s real.”  Where is the discernment?
 

Knowing completely is using discernment.
 

1 John 4 1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try/test the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.  2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of
God:  3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.  4 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.  5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.  6 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.

There it is right there.  That is what we desperately need.  We need to know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
 

First thought, discernment is needed.

 1 John 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.  And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

Every follower of Jesus Christ who has repented of their sin and embraced Jesus Christ by faith and received the free gift of eternal life gets the Holy Spirit, at conversion.  This is what the bible teaches.  

Romans 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, [1] whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

When the spirit of God came into your life by Jesus Christ, he came to stay.  You might try to get away from God, but the reason you can’t get away, if you’re really converted, is because God’s spirit will not let you go.  He will take hold of you.  He has many reasons for coming into our life.  He gives us comfort.

 John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

He gives us strength, assurance, peace.

 John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.

 He gives truth, wisdom, and discernment.

 1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try(test) the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

 Beloved is a term of endearment.  John is so loving using this term.  Do not believe every spirit.  Spirits, which can be a demonic spirit, can mean an attitude or thing that brings destruction to yourself.  When people have a negative spirit it is demonic and draws us away from the will of God.  Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit.  Prove through careful scrutiny.  Do this and keep doing this for the rest of your life.  Test the attitudes, the things that people assert to you.  Why, to see whether they are from God.

Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

That’s what’s going to happen in the last days.  That’s what is happening in these last days.  The spirit said this expressively.  So in those last days discernment will be needed like it’s never been needed before, because the competition for what is right and wrong will become more intense than it’s ever been before.  And many will depart from the faith.  They’re going to get a visitation from a spirit.  The Bible says Satan will disguise himself as an angel of light.  Mormons claim their founder Joseph Smith was directed by an angel to a secret series of golden scrolls that had to be read with a particular pair of spectacles.  Are you kidding me?  He claimed to have been visited by an Angel.  But the spirit expressively says that in the last days many will fall away listening to doctrines of demons.  That one began September 21, 1823.  Muslims believe that Mohammad got the Quaran from the Angel Gabriel.  The angel gave a new Bible called Quran in A.D. 610.  But if they just read the only book God wrote, they’d found in Galations 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.  Paul said though we or an angel from Heaven teach you any gospel other than the gospel you have received, let him be cursed.  Where is your discernment?  Discernment- Is the spirit given ability to distinguish God’s thoughts and ways from all others.  Without the Holy spirit, there is no discernment.  No knowledge of what is right and wrong, to distinguish.

Five unbiblical beliefs pounding people today:

1. Salvation by works- By being a good person, being better than the average person, by being smarter than the average bear, that somehow God is going to accept me someday, and that he’s going to weigh up the good and bad that I’ve done.  I can get to heaven by myself.  That’s a lie.  People think they can get to heaven by being a good person, but by God’s grace and by God’s spirit they are able to discern and know they have been on the wrong program.  And they turn from self-salvation to the free gift of eternal life offered by Jesus Christ.
2. Sanctification by works- I might not have been able to save myself but I can sure make myself righteous.  No you cannot.  If you are trying to get victory over sin in your own flesh, if you’re trying to do the right thing by the power of your will, then you are falling down a lot.  You can’t save yourself.
3. Be true to yourself- That is everywhere!  That is on every poster in every store.  Shakespeare said this, “This above all, to thin own self be true.”  Is that true?  That you don’t have any obligation outside of yourself?  I tell you what, that is the surefire way to set sail to the shore of misery.  Be true to others!  Be true to God!  That’s the way to live life.  That’s not what they teach out there or at school.  They teach you to pump yourself up, to do what makes you happy in the moment.  Where is the discernment?
4. Morality is personal- Personal issue, guy with a guy, girl with a girl, me with her before I’m married, and me whatever I want on the first date.  If it works for me, you shut up about it.  If I feel fine, then why is it any of your business?
5. Truth is unknowable- Let me ask you this.  Is the truth about oxygen knowable?  Why don’t you go for a few minutes without that truth.  How about this, James and His wife, while raising their kids they didn’t wanna mess them up with truth claims and all( just an example) said, “Well if you wanna touch the stove, touch the stove.”  Because what didn’t work for me, who am I to say that might not work for my kids.  And what was an unsatisfactory thing to me to put my hand on that burner, what if one of my kids appreciated that?  They say that the truth is unknowable because it is unfindable, unfashionable.  Jesus said Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away.  They say the truth is unknowable because the truth cannot be fixed.  It’s different from each generation.  No, sin stays the same.  And the solution is the same.  Where is the discernment?