To discern the truth of God is critical, absolutely critical. That's why there's so much instruction in the New Testament about the mind. If you want to know what God approves and what God wills and what God has said, you have to have your mind renewed. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When you face a decision and you're not sure which option most honors God, how do you determine what to do? The fact is, you'll probably face a situation like that soon, maybe even today. And thankfully, Scripture helps you navigate those gray areas. Find out how today as John MacArthur continues to make a plea for discernment. This is a series he originally preached to students at the Master's University in Southern California, where John serves as chancellor.
But no matter your age, the time is always right to ask yourself, how can I become more discerning? So with the lesson now, here's John. We've been talking about how important it is if we're going to represent the truth, which is so precious to God, that we understand discernment, that we be able to discern the truth.
Now let's go back to our text. First Thessalonians chapter 5, just a couple of looks at the verses that we've been using in these days. Verse 20, do not despise prophetic, do not despise preaching. Don't look down on preaching. I could preach a message on don't look down on preaching because today preaching is looked down on.
Don't look down on preaching but don't just accept everything, examine everything carefully, do that dakimadzo, that assessment and whatever is good, hold on to it and whatever is evil, shun it. You have to be discerning. You have to be discerning.
Now I want to talk about the positive side of this. What is discernment? What is it? Basically this, discernment is the skill in distinguishing truth from error, and here's the more important part maybe, and from half truth. Discernment is the skill in distinguishing truth from error and from half truth.
It is a facility to distinguish. And therefore, as I told you, Martin Lloyd-Jones says, when the church loses its willingness to engage itself in such a distinction and to engage in the polemics of argument to save the truth, the church will go out of existence. You must guard the truth, Paul says to Timothy. You must guard the truth.
That is your responsibility, to be a guardian of it. Second Timothy 1.14, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. The treasure, of course, is the truth which had been committed to him.
That guardianship is also noted a couple of other times as Paul writes to Timothy in chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you and don't fall prey to knowledge falsely so-called. So discernment again is the skill in distinguishing truth from error and from half truth. Two principle terms are used in the Bible for discernment, the Hebrew word bin and the Greek word diakrino, both in etymology and usage are similar.
The Hebrew word bin is used about 250 times in the Old Testament. It has been translated in various ways, understand, discern, publish. And it is related...this is a good thought to keep in mind...it is related to a Hebrew noun bayin, bayin which means space between something. It means literally an interval.
The preposition bin, another form of that same root, means between. It is the ability to put space between two things. That is to not let them blur together, to be distinctive. The process by which you come to separate things that differ. Discernment is then reaching understanding and knowledge of the truth by a process of separation. Meaning Christians know how to separate, to make a space between the thoughts and ways of God and the world, between a true interpretation of Scripture and a false one.
The Greek term diakrino is the same thing, means to separate, being able to discriminate between different situations. The Pharisees looked up in the sky and they made a discrimination or a distinction between the weather based upon what they saw. Spiritual discernment then is the ability to distinguish God's truth from everything else. The ability to distinguish God's truth from everything else. Let me tell you something, there's no greater way to honor God than to make that distinction because God is honored when His Word is believed.
When you don't get it right, God is dishonored. To discern the truth of God is critical, absolutely critical. That's why there's so much instruction in the New Testament about the mind because this is a mental process.
This is a cognitive process. If you want to know what God approves and what God wills and what God has said, you have to have your mind renewed. Otherwise you're just going to fall victim to the thinking of that which dominates the society around you. Listen to Philippians 1.9, I pray that your love may abound still more and more...that's good, we want you to love...but in real knowledge, not false knowledge, real knowledge...and I love this...and in all discernment. Love and truth in perfect balance. Love and truth in perfect balance.
Colossians 1, 9 and 10 essentially are the same thing. I pray for you that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And the result is you'll walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Truth is critical to the preservation of that truth for the next generation. It's also critical for your testimony and your witness. It's also critical for your own spiritual life.
Well that brings us to the last point and just want to give you some things to think about. How can I become a discerning person? How can I become a discerning person? Number one, desire...desire.
How badly do you want it? How important is it to you? Because this is what separates, if you will, the men from the boys. Proverbs 2, look at Proverbs 2. Proverbs is all about wisdom, it's all about understanding, it's all about discernment, it's all about knowing the mind of God, the truth of God, it's all about loving knowledge, the knowledge of God. And so in chapter 2 verse 1, my son, if you will receive my sayings and treasure my commandments within you, if you really want to know what I'm saying, then make your ear attentive to wisdom. Incline your heart to understanding. In other words, something's got to happen in you that says, I want to know God's truth. I want to know it that I can honor Him by the belief in it. I want to know it so that I can proclaim it accurately.
I want to know it so that it will have an impact on my life. I know you probably often think that God is pleased when you do what's right, and He is. God is pleased when you obey Him. God is equally pleased when you understand His truth.
And the more of it you understand, the more pleased He is. Now how are you going to get to the point of real discernment? Verse 3, you start by listening to the truth, that is exposing yourself to the Word of God, read, preached, taught. But look at verse 3. You want discernment? Then cry for discernment. Lift your voice for understanding.
If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. How badly do you have to want it? You have to want it more than you want anything else. Now it's pretty typical for kids to go to college with a view to getting silver, right?
You want a job, we understand that. You'll even make a great investment to prepare yourself so that you can have a career and prosper. And you might even commit yourself to searching for hidden treasure, trying to figure out ways to get wealth.
It's amazing what people will do. What level of passion do you have toward discernment? Well where does that fit in the scheme of things? Some of you are trying to achieve things scholastically, achieve things musically, achieve things economically, achieve things athletically. I mean, how much do you cry for discernment? How important is it to you? How much does it drive you? Because if it doesn't, you're not going to get there.
I mean, it's the same old thing. If you don't run that race, you can't win it. If you don't pursue that goal, you can't get it.
If you're content with the minimal knowledge of the truth, if you're content with a kind of a sloppy theology, if you're content not to pursue the deep things of God and the glories of His truth, then I'll promise you you're not going to get them because they're not sitting on the surface. There's a great chapter in Job chapter 28 which we can't read the whole chapter, but just a couple of comments about it. You can read it on your own. It points out Job 28, there's a mine for silver, a place where they refine gold, iron is taken from the dust, from rock, copper is smelted.
It's kind of interesting to think about the fact that Job is probably written in the patriarchal age, maybe the first book in the Bible. So you're way, way back in early human history and they already had silver mines, they already had gold mines, they already had iron ore, they were already smelting copper out of the rock. I mean, you're talking about...you think man is smarter today than he was then? Wrong.
You're on the decline. And in order to mine the treasures that God had placed in the earth, man put an end to darkness, that is he dug down into the earth to reach these things and literally brought the light down to the farthest limit. He sank a shaft and amazing, what kind of drill did they use to sink shafts into the rock? Forgotten by the foot and they hang and swing to and fro far from men.
They put a shaft in the ground in Job's day and they sent people down there in some kind of an elevator contraption and they were swinging around down there trying to find whatever was there. They brought up...this is amazing...they brought up sapphires in verse 6 and gold. They went to places where the bird of prey doesn't even know the falcon's eye has never caught sight of it and they used the falcon as an illustration because they have such a credible sight.
Falcon never saw this. No proud beast ever trod in that area. Verse 9, overturned the mountains. How do you overturn the mountain at its base? You have to have dynamite to do that. Are we saying that in Job's day they had that kind of sophisticated ability to overturn mountains?
That's what it says. They cut channels through the rocks. They dammed up the streams.
What are they doing? Mining for gold, all this in the primitive time of Job. But I can do all of that but verse 12 says, where can wisdom be found? Where can wisdom be found? Where's the place of understanding? Man doesn't know its value.
It's not in the land of the living. The deep says, the ocean says, it's not going to find it in me. The sea says not with me. Pure gold can't buy it. Silver can't get it. The gold of Ophir can't get it. Precious onyx, sapphires, gold, glass can't equal it.
Coral, crystal, copas goes on. You can find all...man has incredible, incredible genius to find all of this stuff but he can't find wisdom. The reason he can't find wisdom is because he doesn't look where it is in the Word of God. Verse 23, God understands its way, He knows its place. Verse 28, behold the fear of the Lord, that's wisdom. Now if you want wisdom the way people want gold and silver and sapphires, if you want to give your life to the pursuit of wisdom, then you'll be discerning...then you'll be discerning. And your discernment will lead to greater worship because you won't be worshiping out of a shallow understanding of God but a full and rich one. It will give greater impact to your life and testimony because you'll bring the Word of God, the truth of God to bear upon every circumstance and the lives of the people you influence. It will make you a more effective obviously teacher and preacher if that's what God calls you to do and it will profoundly enrich your own life because living in the truth, living out the truth brings the flood of the blessing of God upon your life.
That's why I've said this through the years, it's so important to protect the doctrine of Scripture because if you ever equivocate on the veracity and authenticity and authority and inerrancy of Scripture, you've just cut yourself off from an absolute source of wisdom. So you start at that point. Let me give you a second point. First you want to desire, you have to have that desire in your heart. Ask God to grant you that desire and that takes me to the second point, prayer...prayer. James 1, 5, any of you lacks wisdom, let Him what?
What does it say? Ask God who gives to all men generously without reproach and it will be given to Him. But don't ask in faith doubting or you'll be like a seed driven and tossed with full confidence that God is the source of wisdom. It starts with a passion in your heart. And I don't know, I grew up, you know, as an athlete. You know, in high school I didn't take my education seriously at all, it was just a way to stay eligible to play. I came into my college days and I was involved in athletics and...but there was in my heart, in my days in college, even though I was consumed with so many activities and being involved in leadership and a lot of other things, there was this growing passion to know the truth. In fact, I had a hard time having daily devotion because people would say to me, you know, read the Bible fifteen minutes a day, read the Bible half an hour a day and say a little prayer, it's really important. That was the most frustrating thing I did because I'd read it and I'd say, I don't understand that. And then when I shut the Bible and went away, I was frustrated because I didn't understand what I just read. So if you mean by daily devotional, reading the Bible and not understanding it, that's not helpful.
I found out, however, as I read it more and more and more it began to be clear to me. But the Lord started developing in me a passion for the truth and I started trying to feed that development by my own prayer, Lord, I want to understand Your Word. I never went to seminary, in all honesty, I never went to seminary to be made into a preacher. I never went to seminary to be made into a pastor.
I went to seminary because I was frustrated because I didn't have the tools to interpret the Word of God and I had such a desire to know His truth. And that's never changed. It's a matter of prayer. It's a matter of passion. Thirdly, it's a matter of pattern.
You need an example. So hang around people who have discernment. That's one of the great realities of being here. Hang around people who have discernment, just like a leech, you know, suck everything you can get out of them. Now, today, as always, according to 1 Corinthians 12, 10, there's a gift of discernment. 1 Corinthians 12, 10 talks about the gift of discernment. The gift of discernment is related, I believe, to an understanding of Scripture which is how you become discerning. This gift becomes a watchdog gift for the church. Though it may have in the early church had some element of being able to discern false spirits, false spirits could easily be discerned by anybody because they spoke false and not the truth. Hang around people who have discernment, people who know how to answer heresies and hypocrisies, who know how to identify error, who understand the subtleties. This is one of the great experiences of your life is to be in an environment here with those kind of people all around you. These people are the watchmen for the church.
They are your teachers. Another thing to do, and this fits right into it, is follow the example of mature Christians. Follow the example of mature Christians.
The writer of Hebrews, and this without going into a lot of detail in chapter 5 of Hebrews and the last verse there, solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern. Find mature people who have been around a while and who have their senses trained to be discerning. Pastors, youth pastors, faculty members, sit under discerning people. Really important when you choose the church, not just now but throughout your life. Find those people who demonstrate maturity in discernment.
Make them your pattern. So you start with asking God to give you the passion, asking God to give you the desire, the hunger for the truth. You support that constantly in prayer, asking God to show you the truth, to reveal the wisdom to you as you study His Word.
Find those who are gifted in that area who are mature, follow them. And then I think just one other thing has to be said and that is this, depend upon the Holy Spirit...depend upon the Holy Spirit. First John 2, this verse I know you know, verse 20, you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. I have not written to you because you don't know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie is of the truth. The reason you know the truth, he says, is because you have an anointing from the Holy One. The anointing is the Holy Spirit.
Verse 27, you received from Him the anointing who abides in you so you don't have any need for human teachers, but as His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, you abide in Him. So here again, the truth contrasted to the lie, the truth teacher, the anointing, the Holy Spirit given to you at the time of your salvation. You have a resident truth teacher.
How wonderful is that? You have a permanent faculty member, more astute than all of us combined, infinitely so. And that truth teacher dwells in you and promises to disclose to you the truth of God as you expose yourself to the written Word. And that takes me to the last point, diligently study Scripture. You have to end up here, folks, diligently study Scripture. Like in Acts 17, the Bereans who searched the Scripture to see if these things were so.
As you study the Word of God, as you expose yourself to the Word of God, prayerfully, passionately, dependent on the Holy Spirit to be your teacher, discernment will develop. And then you find those who demonstrate maturity and have experience through the years of practice who are the models of that discernment and make those people your spiritual heroes. Don't make the stylized people your heroes. Make the discerning people, those who have the deep and wide and broad and high grasp of divine truth. They're your heroes. I'm afraid it's like our world around us and many young Christians' heroes are in the Christian pop culture field.
Make the heroes the ones who have the most discernment. And God will be blessed and honored by your faithfulness to His truth. You will be able to worship Him in the highest and purest form because the more you know about Him, the more glorious He is, the more of His truth you know, the greater will be your worship, the greater will be your ministry, your witness and the greater joy and blessing will come to your life as you live out that truth. So maybe to end, look at Philippians 1.
I mentioned it a minute ago, but let me just make this my prayer for you. Philippians 1, 9, this I pray, that your love may abound still more. I don't want to make this love for truth become hard-hearted or hard-headed.
Paul didn't either. He says, no, I want your love to abound still more and more. But I want that love to be the product of real knowledge and all discernment. And I'll tell you this, the more you know of God's truth, the more legitimately you love. The less you know of God's truth, the more superficially you love. So I want your love to abound still more and more, but in real knowledge with all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent.
You can make the distinctions. And when you make the distinctions, here's the wonderful reality, you will be sincere, that is without hypocrisy, and blameless in your life until the day of Christ, the time when the Lord comes for His own. I want your life to be without hypocrisy, sincere, without wax, no hypocrisy.
I want it to be blameless until the day of Christ. And in verse 11, I want your life to be filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ and gives glory and praise to God. I want you to live a life that praises God, a life that glorifies God, a life that honors Christ, a life that's fruitful, a life that's blameless, a life that's without hypocrisy because you can choose what is excellent because you have all discernment because you have real knowledge. You can go forward and backward through those verses.
You're blessed, people are impacted, God is glorified when you are discerning. Father, I pray that You will grant to us even as we said earlier from James that You would grant to us the wisdom that we need. May we not wait as if somehow that's going to occur in a vacuum, but may we know that the wisdom awaits us in the pages of Scripture as we faithfully pursue it, reading it repeatedly, studying it, listening to it being taught, reading books that explain its meaning, following the example of those who are mature and have their senses heightened through practice to discern what is right, what is true.
Give us the deep passion. Give us an unending prayer for discernment that causes us to come before Your throne and plead and cry for discernment, wanting it more than silver, more than gold, more than anything. For then we will have the knowledge of God and then we will have an appropriate fear and worship of You. I pray, Lord, that You will make us guardians of the truth as well as proclaimers of it, as well as living out that truth and enjoying all the fruits of righteousness which shall be to our own blessing in time and eternity and to Your eternal praise. These things we ask in Your Son's name.
Amen. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary. John's lesson today on Grace To You is from a study he first preached in chapel services at the Master's University. It's titled, A Plea for Discernment.
Friend, if you'd like more information about the Master's University, including the degrees offered or athletics or its commitment to Christ and scripture, you'll find a link to the school's website at gty.org. And if you want to download the study we've been airing this week called, A Plea for Discernment, you can get it for free from our website, Get In Touch Today. You can find all three messages from A Plea for Discernment at gty.org.
Again, those lessons are available to you for free, both the MP3 audio and the written transcripts, and our website again, gty.org. Also while you're online, remember you can download any of John's 3,600 sermons for free. You can also learn more about the Grace To You app, which gives you access to any of John's sermons wherever you take your mobile device, and be sure to read the Grace To You blog. Every week, John and the staff write about some of the most discussed issues in the church today, and all of that and more is free at gty.org.
As I mentioned earlier, if you'd like more information about the Master's University, you can find a link to the school's website at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace To You television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378. Then be back Monday when John helps you see what the future holds and how you can find comfort in knowing what's to come. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
