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Discerning the Spirits (1 Corinthians 12:10) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I'm your host and I have our
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resident theologian here in the studio.
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Today we are going to take a deep dive into some pretty heavy
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source material. Yeah, I am really looking
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forward to this one. So think about this for a
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second. When a seasoned art appraiser
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looks at a supposed Renaissance masterpiece, they do not just
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stare at the canvas. You know, sip a cup of coffee
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and wait for a warm feeling in their chest to tell them the
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painting is authentic. Right, they definitely do not do
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that. No, they bring out the heavy
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machinery. I mean they use high-powered
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magnifying glasses to check the brush strokes.
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They run chemical tests to date the pigments.
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They even put the canvas under ultraviolet light to see what is
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underneath. Yeah, because they are looking
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for objective truth hidden under the layers of paint.
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A clever forgery can look absolutely beautiful to the
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naked eye. A masterful fake can make you
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feel inspired and moved. But those subjective feelings do
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not make the painting genuine. And the feelings are real,
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right? But the object generating them
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is a total lie. I mean, buying a painting out of
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the trunk of a car just because the frame looks nice and the
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colors give you a rush is, well, it is a guaranteed recipe for
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losing millions of dollars. Absolutely.
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The art world demands rigorous verification.
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But when we shift gears and look at the Christian life, suddenly
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a large segment of the professing church throws the
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magnifying glass completely out the window.
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Which is terrifying when you stop and think about.
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It it really is. We are told constantly by modern
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culture, and sadly by a lot of pulpits, to just trust our
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feelings. We are conditioned to look for a
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spiritual rush or to chase an emotional high.
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People are told to accept any voice, any teaching, or any
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supernatural claim as long as it sounds vaguely religious and
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makes them feel good. So today we are bringing you a
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very deep dive into a theological concept that
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addresses this specific vulnerability.
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We are looking at a highly debated phrase from the Apostle
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Paul's letter to the church in First Corinthians chapter 12,
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verse 10. Right, the gift of
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distinguishing between spirits. Or as some English translations
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call it, the discerning of spirits.
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We are going to look into what this miraculous gift was, why
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the 1st century church needed it so desperately to survive, and
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how the closing of the biblical Canon shifts that massive
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responsibility to scriptural vigilance for believers today.
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It is a huge shift and we really need to understand it.
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OK, let's unpack this. In a modern world flooded with
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subjective feelings, emotional manipulation, and wild claims of
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direct divine revelation, understanding how to test the
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spirits is an absolute necessity for you.
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You cannot afford to get this wrong because the stakes are
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eternal. They really are.
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And to understand why this matters so much for you right
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now, we have to reconstruct the historical reality of ancient
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Corinth. I mean we cannot just project
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our quiet, air conditioned modern church experiences onto
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the 1st century. Right, it was a totally
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different world. Completely different.
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Corinth was a massive, chaotic, roaring commercial hub.
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Geographically, it sat right on a narrow isthmus, which is a
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strip of land with dual harbors. His major shipping choke point?
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Exactly. Well, yes, precisely.
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You had the port of Lacayum facing the West toward Rome and
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Sink re facing the east toward Asia.
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Because of that strategic location, merchants would
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literally drag their ships across the land on a paved
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trackway called the Diolkos. Wow, just dragging entire ships
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across the dirt. Yeah, they did that to avoid
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sailing around the really dangerous southern coast of
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Greece. So the city was absolutely
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packed with sailors, merchants, freedmen, slaves and wandering
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philosophers from every corner of the Greco Roman world.
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It was a total Boomtown A. Completely cosmopolitan melting
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pot. I like to think of it as a
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mixture of 1st century Wall Street in Las Vegas.
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That is a very accurate sociological picture.
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And with that cosmopolitan population came a massive,
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overwhelming influx of Pagan idolatry.
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The city was physically dominated by the Acro Corinth.
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That was the giant mountain right next to the city, right?
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Yeah, a massive rock outcropping towering nearly 2000 feet over
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the city, and it housed the infamous Temple of Aphrodite.
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But the idolatry did not stop at the top of the mountain.
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Down in the city center, you had prominent worship Centers for
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Apollo, for Dionysus, for Ascuppius, the God of healing.
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And a bunch of Egyptian mystery cults too.
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Right. And they were all operating
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simultaneously, competing for followers.
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So for you listening at home, the people the apostle Paul was
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writing to these new Corinthian converts, this was the oxygen
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they breathe before they came to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
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They grew up entirely immersed in these Pagan practices.
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They did not come from a background of quiet synagogue
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Torah reading. They came from a background of
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absolute sensory overload in these Pagan temples.
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We should probably talk about what those Pagan practices
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actually look like on the ground.
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Good idea. Take the Pythean Oracle at
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nearby Delphi, for example. That Oracle exerted a massive
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cultural influence over the entire region.
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The priestesses there, known as the Pythea, would descend into a
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subterranean chamber. Like a basement case kind of
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thing. Yeah.
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And they would sit on a tripod over a geological fissure and
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just inhale noxious hydrocarbon vapors venting out of the
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Earth's crust. Oh, wow.
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Yeah. Under the influence of these
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gases, the priestess would enter this frenzied, altered state of
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consciousness. She would begin to Babble,
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shriek and deliver ambiguous, unintelligible vocalizations.
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And. People thought this was normal.
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Not just normal, it was sacred. A separate cast of priests would
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take those chaotic noises and interpret them into prophetic
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poetry for the paying worshippers.
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That is wild. They were literally getting high
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on subterranean gas leaks to manufacture a religious
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experience and society view. That is the highest form of
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divine communication. It was the accepted standard for
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supernatural revelation. We also see this in the cults of
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Dionysis, the God of wine and ecstasy.
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The worshippers of Dionysus engaged in wild physical
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contortions, violent dancing, induced trance States and these
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crazy ecstatic frenzies. So basically losing your mind
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was the goal. Yes, to the Greco Roman Pagan
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mind, maintaining control of your faculties meant you are
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just a normal human. Entering into a chaotic,
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irrational, out of control state was the ultimate proof of divine
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possession. And there was a specific word
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for that, wasn't there? Right.
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The Greeks used a specific philosophical term for this
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state. The word is enthusiasmos, which
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is where we get the English word enthusiasm.
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But in the 1st century, it literally meant the state of
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having a God inside you, completely taking over your
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vocal cords and your nervous system.
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I think we need an analogy here because the culture shock is
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staggering. It is as if the new Corinthian
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believers were treating the Holy Spirit like a highly contagious
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virus. That is a great way to put it.
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Right in their minds, the Wilder the symptoms, like the more you
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shook, the more you shouted, the more irrational you became, the
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more or infected you were with the divine.
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It is like taking the loud, aggressive, chaotic rules of a
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heavy metal concert and bringing them straight into the quiet,
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ordered environment of a courtroom.
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And Paul had to step in and teach them that the Holy Spirit
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is not a virus. He's an architect.
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He is recognized by order, structure, logic, and the clear
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blueprints of the exultation of Christ.
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But they were dragging all that Pagan baggage right through the
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church doors. They assume the Holy Spirit's
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activity should look just as wild and ecstatic as their old
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temple rituals. They possessed 0 framework for
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ordered rational worship. Because of their Pagan
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conditioning, they could not differentiate between the
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supernatural work of the third person of the Trinity and the
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demonic, psychological or fleshly counterfeits that
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perfectly simulated those old Pagan ecstasies.
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Which creates A monumental theological crisis.
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I mean, if everyone in the room assumes that shaking, shouting,
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and acting utterly chaotic equals the presence of the Holy
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Spirit, then false teachers or demonically influenced speakers
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have a free pass. They absolutely do.
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They could just stand up in the middle of a Christian gathering,
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act like they're in a deep trance, claim to speak directly
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for God, and introduce massive damnable theological errors and
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nobody in the room would stop. Them because they would be too
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afraid of quenching what they assumed was the Spirit.
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The Apostle Paul warns elsewhere in his epistles that Satan
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disguises himself as an Angel of light.
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So the greatest threat to the Corinthian church was not just
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the overt persecution outside the walls.
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No, it was the infiltration of the gathering itself.
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Demonic forces were using pious sounding language and ecstatic
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behavior to mask the doctrines of demons.
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They needed a mechanism to stop this infiltration immediately.
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But wait. If this supernatural
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infiltration was so subtle and the Corinthians were so
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conditioned by their Pagan past, how did Paul go about fixing it?
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He doesn't just write a quick angry memo, does he?
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Not at all. He constructs a highly specific
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argument. He utilizes deliberate grammar
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and a massive literary blueprint to rebuild their understanding
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of worship from the ground up. So to grasp Paul's solution, we
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have a look at the broader literary context of First
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Corinthians chapters 12 through 14.
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He is systematically correcting a whole host of corporate
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worship abuses. Right just before he tackles the
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spiritual gifts in Chapter 11, he issues a blistering
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correction regarding their chaotic handling of the Lord's
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Supper. Yeah, that situation was a mess.
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The wealthy members were gorging themselves and getting drunk
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while the poor working class members were going hungry.
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It was a complete failure of love and order.
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So he establishes a firm tone of corrective discipline regarding
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the gathered body. Then, as he opens Chapter 12, he
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pivots to cataloging the spiritual gifts, and this is
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where we have to look very closely at the Greek syntax of
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verses 8 through 10. Let's get into the grammar.
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Paul uses a sophisticated rhetorical device called
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anaphora, that is the deliberate repetition of words at the
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beginning of successive clauses, and he combines it with a rapid
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list like flow of parallel spiritual manifestations.
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So he is not just throwing gifts against the wall randomly, he is
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categorizing them, grouping them together with strict logical
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precision. Yes, and he relies on specific
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Greek pronouns to execute this logical grouping.
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He alternates between the word allow, which means to another of
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the same kind, and hetero, which means to a different kind.
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OK, so that subtle grammatical shift creates distinct
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categories of gifts. Correct.
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First he groups intellectual or speech based gifts like the Word
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of Wisdom and the Word of Knowledge.
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Then he shifts categories using hetero to group dynamic sign
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gifts like faith, gifts of healings and the working of
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miracles. And then he shifts again.
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Right. He shifts again to group
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prophecy and the distinguishing of spirits.
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What's fascinating here is the exact placement of the phrase we
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are examining today, Deacrysais numatan, the distinguishing of
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spirits. It sits immediately,
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inextricably right after Prophetia, which is prophecy.
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Wait, so this wasn't just a general ability to read a room
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or sense a bad mood, it was tied strictly to judging spoken
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prophecy? The Greek text demands that
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conclusion. It was never intended to be a
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personality trait, A mystical intuition about people's moods,
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or a heightened sense of empathy.
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Because today people constantly claim to have the gift of
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discernment, and they usually use it to mean they pick up on
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negative vibes from someone they don't like.
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It becomes a spiritualized excuse for being highly
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suspicious of people. Right, but the etymology of the
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Greek word diacrysis proves that modern usage wrong beyond any
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doubt. It is a compound noun derived
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from the verb diacrino. Bring that down for us.
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The prefix dia means through or thoroughly, and the root creno
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means to judge, to evaluate, or to separate.
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So it literally means to thoroughly judge or meticulously
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separate one thing from another. It signifies a highly
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specialized judicial separation. Paul deliberately chose this
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intense analytical noun instead of a simpler, more generic word
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for everyday judgement. It functioned as an immediate
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supernatural diagnostic tool. I'm trying to picture what this
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looked like in a house church back then.
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OK. Try to picture the scenario.
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A man stands up during the gathering and claims to have a
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direct spoken spoken revelation from God.
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He begins to prophecy. In that exact moment, the person
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possessing the gift of diocracies pneumaton would
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activate their gift. Like a reflex.
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Yes, they could instantly, infallibly, and supernaturally
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detect the origin of that spoken word.
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They could separate whether that prophecy originated from the
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Holy Spirit, whether it was just the speaker's own human
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imagination and emotional excitement, or whether it was
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being driven by an unclean demonic spirit.
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Wow, it was a supernatural lie detector test for spoken
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theology. That is a perfect way to
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describe it. The gift functioned as the
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logical and grammatical handmade to prophecy.
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It acted as the direct divine filter to ensure the
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congregation did not swallow a demonic counterfeit wrapped in
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Christian terminology. But the Corinthians were not
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using their spiritual gifts as protective filters or tools to
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serve the church, were they? No, they were entirely infected
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by the Roman patronage system, where everything was about
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social climbing. Right.
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They were using these flashy, visible gifts to boost their own
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social status, demanding the spotlight and looking down on
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anyone with a less spectacular function.
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Which forces us to look at the theological bedrock Paul lays
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down next. What is the actual source of
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these gifts and what is their intended goal?
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And Paul answers that by grounding the entire discussion
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in the nature of God himself. In First Corinthians chapter 12,
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verses 4 through 7, Paul lays out a strict, beautiful
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Trinitarian structure. He declares that there are
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varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, varieties of service but
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the same Lord, and varieties of activities but it is the same
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God who empowers them all in everyone.
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He takes the doctrine of spiritual gifts, which the
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Corinthians had turned into a chaotic circus, and places it
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directly inside the massive, immovable doctrine of the
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Trinity. Furthermore, in verse 11, the
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text heavily stresses the theology of monarchism over
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synergism regarding the distribution of these gifts.
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OK, I need to jump in and play the skeptic here for a minute.
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If we define monarchism as God acting entirely alone to
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accomplish something without human cooperation causing the
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final outcome, doesn't that turn human beings into passive robots
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and worship? How did Paul reconcile A
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monarchistic distribution of gifts with his later command to
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eagerly desire spiritual gifts? If God just forces the gift on
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you, why should you desire it? That is a crucial distinction,
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and we really must differentiate between the sovereign
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distribution of the gift and the faithful stewardship of the gift
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once it is given. Walk us through that.
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The tip states explicitly that the Spirit apportions these
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gifts to each one individually as he wills.
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The Greek phrase is katos balati.
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The Spirit distributes them according to His own sovereign,
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uninfluenced choice. So you don't get a say in the
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matter. Right.
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You do not cooperate to receive the initial assignment of the
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gift. That is pure monarchism.
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God the Spirit assigns your function in the body.
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However, once you are sovereignly assigned that
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function, you are commanded to synergistically steward it,
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cultivate it, and desire its greatest effectiveness for the
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Church. Which completely shatters the
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entire modern industry that suggests human beings can
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manufacture, demand, or manipulate the Holy Spirit.
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It really does. You cannot attend a weekend
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seminar, learn a specific vocal formula, whip up some emotional
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pressure in a room, and suddenly activate a miraculous gift.
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The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal cosmic force like
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gravity that you just learned to harness.
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He is a sovereign divine Person who distributes gigs entirely as
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he decides. And this doctrine is designed to
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completely obliterate human pride.
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You cannot boast about possessing A spectacular gift
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because you did not earn it, qualify for it, or generate it.
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And on the flip side, you cannot despair or feel useless if you
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have a seemingly less prominent gift because the sovereign God
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of the universe personally assigned your specific place in
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the body. Exactly.
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And the goal of that sovereign assignment is explicitly stated
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in verse 7. Paul writes that the
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manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good or for
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the profit of all. Think of these gifts not as
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individual trophies polished and displayed on a private mantle
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for everyone to admire. Think of them as heavy
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utilitarian tools in a shared community toolbox meant solely
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for building a house that protects everyone inside from
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the elements. I love that analoger, and if we
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connect this to the bigger picture, this principle of the
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common good governs Paul's entire argument, stretching all
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the way through the famous chapter 13.
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Oh, chapter 13, The chapter that gets read at every single
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wedding but is actually a severe rebuke of chaotic church
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worship. It really is.
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Contextually, Chapter 13 is a devastating critique of
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Corinthian pride. Paul argues that spectacular
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signs without love are meaningless, irritating noise.
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He compares them to a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
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Which would have hit home for them given their background.
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Oh definitely. The Pagan cults of Sibyl and
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Dionysus literally use crashing cymbals and gongs to whip
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worshippers into a frenzy. Paul is telling the Corinthians,
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if you exercise your spiritual gift without a sacrificial love
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for the brethren, you sound just like the Pagan temples you were
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saved out of. So if a gift is not actively
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building up the church in sound doctrine, a holy living and
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ordered worship, it is not being used according to the Holy
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Spirit's design. It has mutated into an
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instrument of fleshly pride. It's just a very dangerous place
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to be. So if the ultimate goal of the
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Spirit's work is to build up the church in truth, and if demonic
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spirits can mimic spectacular signs to tear the church down,
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what is the absolute unbreakable litmus test?
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How did the early church know with absolute certainty if a
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spoken prophecy was genuinely from God?
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Well, the text drives us straight to the Christological
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center of Paul's argument, found right at the beginning of the
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chapter. In First Corinthians 12, verse
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3, Paul lays down an objective doctrinal standard.
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Let's hear it, he writes. Therefore, I want you to
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understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says
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Jesus is accursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in
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the Holy Spirit. It is entirely focused on the
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person and work of Jesus Christ. But wait, why would anyone stand
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up in a Christian Church and say Jesus is accursed?
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That seems crazy. In a normal setting, yes, but in
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the chaotic ecstatic frenzies we described earlier, when people
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lost control of their minds, demonic spirits could easily
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hijack the speaker. Alternatively, early Gnostic
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heretics who separated the divine Christ from the human
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Jesus might curse the physical human Jesus while claiming to
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honor the spiritual Christ. So Paul cuts through all the
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chaos and says the true Holy Spirit never under any
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circumstances bypasses the sun. He never diminishes Christ's
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deity, He never degrades Christ's humanity, and he never
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replaces Christ's finished work on the cross with human boasting
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or. Ecstatic gibberish.
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The Holy Spirit acts the divine spotlight, and that spotlight is
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always exclusively pointed at the exalted Lordship of Jesus
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Christ. Always.
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So what does this all mean for us today?
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If the genuine Holy Spirit never bypasses the cross of Christ,
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how does this expose modern religious movements that focus
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entirely on spiritual phenomena, chasing miracles or
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manufacturing emotional eyes, but barely mention the bloody
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crucified Savior? It exposes those movements as
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fundamentally fraudulent. Wow, fraudulent.
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Yes. If a movement promises you glory
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without the cross, if it promises supernatural activity
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without a demand for personal holiness, or if it promises
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victory and wealth without deep, agonizing repentance for sin, it
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is not speaking with the voice of the Holy Spirit.
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Because the Spirit of God does not exist to give us a temporary
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adrenaline rush. Right.
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He exists to lead dead sinners to Christ, to unite them to
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Christ, and to conform them to the cruciform suffering pattern
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of their Lord. And we see this perfect pattern
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of discernment in Jesus himself, don't we?
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Jesus is the ultimate prophet, priest, and king, and true
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discernment requires all three of those offices working in
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harmony. If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, during his earthly ministry Christ displayed
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flawless, perfect spiritual discernment.
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Consider the Gospel of John, chapter 2, verses 24 and 25.
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What does that text say? The text tells us that Jesus did
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not entrust Himself to the crowds because He knew all men
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and needed no one to bear witness about man, for He
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Himself knew what was in man. He possessed an intrinsic,
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unclouded divine ability to read the absolute truth of human
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hearts. And we see him utilize this
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piercing discernment with his own disciples too.
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In Matthew chapter 16 verse 23, Jesus tells the disciples he
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must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die.
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Right. And Peter tries to stop him.
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Exactly. Yes.
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Peter, acting out of what he thinks is protective love, tries
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to rebuke Jesus and Jesus instantly discerns the dark
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spiritual influence operating behind Peter's well meaning
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words and says get behind me Satan, you are a hindrance to
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me. He unmasked the demonic source
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instantly, even when it came from his closest friend.
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Furthermore, the Apostle Paul points to the cross itself as
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the final definitive act of cosmic discernment.
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In Colossians chapter 2, right? Yes, verse 15.
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Paul declares that Christ disarm the rulers and authorities,
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making a public display of them, triumphing over them in Him.
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The cross was the ultimate judicial separation, the final
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day of crisis dividing the children of Light from the
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Kingdom of darkness. But wait, if this supernatural
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lie detector test was so absolutely crucial for the
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survival of the 1st century church against false prophets,
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taking it away seems like leaving the modern church
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completely defenseless. Why would God strip the Church
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of this miraculous diagnostic tool?
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Which brings us to the core Reformed cessationist argument
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regarding how we evaluate spirits today.
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To grasp the historical Protestant cessationist
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position, we have to recognize the unique, unrepeatable nature
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of the redemptive historical era of the early Church.
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OK, lay that out for. Us the 1st century church was in
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a transitional foundation laying phase.
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They did not have the New Testament.
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Right, they could just open a letter bound Bible to the book
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of Romans to check a wandering prophet's theology because the
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book of Romans hadn't been written yet.
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Spot on. The Apostle Paul explains this
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architecture in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20.
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He states that the household of God is built on the foundation
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of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself being
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the cornerstone. So during that specific
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historical foundational period, God authenticated the authority
22:45
of the Apostolic message through signs, wonders, and various
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miraculous manifestations. Including the miraculous gift of
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distinguishing spirits. It was a temporary scaffold used
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to build the permanent structure.
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I see the Reformed cessationist position argues that these
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extraordinary revelatory sign gifts belonged exclusively to
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that early building phase. The logic is simple.
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Once a foundation is laid, you do not keep laying the
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foundation year after year. You finish the foundation and
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then you build the house upon it.
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This principle is famously codified in the Westminster
23:19
Confession of Faith formulated in the 17th century.
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Chapter 1, paragraph one, deals with the doctrine of Holy
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Scripture. And what does this say?
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It affirms that God revealed himself in various ways in the
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past, but then it explicitly states that God's former ways of
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revealing his will and his people have ceased, making the
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written Holy Scripture most necessary.
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That sentence represents the historical Protestant consensus.
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The supernatural diagnostic tool of First Corinthians 12
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fulfilled its historical redemptive task.
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Once the final word of the New Testament was penned by the
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Apostle John, the Canon of Scripture was complete and
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closed. The foundation was finished.
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Let me jump in here and play proxy for a skeptical listener,
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because when people hear the word cessationist, they often
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panic. They think we are arguing for a
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deistic universe. Yeah.
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That is a common reaction. Are you saying that God just
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wound up the universe like a clock, handed us a book, and
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walked away? Is the Holy Spirit less active
24:15
today than he was in the 1st century?
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I am extremely glad you brought that up, because that is a
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massive, highly destructive misconception.
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The Reformed position is absolutely not that the Holy
24:26
Spirit has become inactive or that he has retired to heaven.
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The Holy Spirit is constantly overwhelmingly active in the
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world today. He is regenerating dead human
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hearts, giving them the faith to believe the gospel.
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He is actively sanctifying believers, putting their sin to
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death. He is comforting the afflicted.
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But regarding revelation, the Spirit is actively illuminating
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the text of Scripture. Let's break down the mechanics
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of that. What is the difference between
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having your mind illuminated by the spirit versus just having
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high reading comprehension? I mean, if an atheist scholar
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reads the Bible, they can understand the grammar.
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What does the Spirit actually do?
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Illumination is not the impartation of new, extra
25:05
biblical data. The atheist scholar can
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understand the syntax, the historical context, and the
25:10
logical flow of the arguments, but because of total depravity,
25:14
the atheist's heart is completely hostile to the truth.
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They view the cross as foolishness, right?
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Illumination is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit where he
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removes the scales of spiritual blindness from the mind and the
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heart. He does not change the text, he
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changes the reader. He allows the believer to see
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the written word as supremely beautiful, utterly
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authoritative, and entirely sufficient.
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So the Holy Spirit is still working mightily to give us
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discernment, but the method of authenticating truth has
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fundamentally shifted. We have moved from relying on
25:45
miraculous on the spot signs from an individual to relying
25:49
entirely on the completed closed objective Canon of Scripture
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illuminated by the Spirit. That is the vital historical
25:56
shift. We no longer require an
25:58
individual with a miraculous gift to stand up in the middle
26:01
of a church service and declare if a teaching is false.
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Because we have the written, objective, unchanging Word of
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God to evaluate every single theological claim, every moral
26:10
decision, and every spiritual experience.
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Yes, but since we now rely on the written word as our soul
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magnifying glass, the church faces severe danger when it
26:19
abandons that objective standard in favor of subjective feelings.
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And when we look at the sociological data regarding
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modern evangelicalism, man, the sheer scale of the abandonment
26:28
of the Scripture is terrifying. The statistics are honestly
26:31
alarming and reveal a massive crisis of discernment.
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Extensive surveys indicate that approximately 58% of self
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identified evangelicals believe God is pleased by any form of
26:42
worship, regardless of whether it aligns with the commands of
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Scripture, as long as the worshiper is sincere 58.
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Percent of people who claim to be Bible believing Christians
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think human sincerity overrides divine command.
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That is wild. And the data regarding moral
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decision making is even worse. Over 60% rely primarily on
27:02
subjective feelings, personal intuition or a sense of inner
27:06
peace rather than objective biblical texts when making major
27:10
moral and ethical decisions. We are witnessing a massive
27:13
resurgence of subjective mysticism.
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It is a complete abandonment of the magnifying glass people who
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are just going off spiritual vibes.
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You hear this phrase constantly today in Christian circles.
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God told me people use it for everything.
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God told me to marry this person.
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God told me to quit my job. God told me to preach this
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specific doctrine, but using the phrase God told me in a
27:32
conversation is a massive manipulation tactic.
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It really is. It functions as a trump card
27:38
that no one else is allowed to look at.
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It shuts down all biblical testing.
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It places private intuition beyond ordinary scriptural
27:46
correction. Think about the mechanics of it.
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If I sit across from you and say God told me to do this, how can
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you possibly argue with me? You cannot argue with God.
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It is the ultimate conversation ender.
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This raises an important question concerning the
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structure of church leadership and accountability.
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Elders are called to be shepherds, and the primary duty
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of a shepherd is not just to feed the sheep, but to actively,
28:09
fiercely protect the flock from wolves.
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Right, in Acts chapter 20, Paul addresses the Ephesian elders
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and warns them with tears that fierce wolves will come in among
28:18
them, speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples.
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True biblical love is not gullible.
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We have this modern idea that love means endless tolerance and
28:26
never saying anything negative. But a shepherd who refuses to
28:30
warn his sheep about a wolf because warning sounds negative
28:32
or judgmental is not being gentle.
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He is being criminally negligent.
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Elders must actively protect the flock by rigorously exposing
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false gospels and evaluating the mechanics of how these errors
28:44
bypass the biblical standard. Take prosperity theology, for
28:47
example. The mechanism of prosperity
28:49
theology bypasses the biblical doctrine of suffering and the
28:52
sovereignty of God by teaching that faith is a force you wield
28:55
and words are containers of energy.
28:58
It functionally turns the sovereign God of the universe
29:00
into a celestial vending machine who must respond to your
29:04
positive confessions. And elders must expose that
29:07
mechanism using the text of Scripture.
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The same rigorous exposure applies to liberal theology.
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Liberalism empties the concept of discernment of all
29:15
supernatural reality. It reduces the gospel to mere
29:19
ethical sensitivity or social perception.
29:21
Certain modern movements, like critical theories or secular
29:24
social justice agendas, operate by substituting the biblical
29:27
gospel of substitutionary atonement and individual
29:30
repentance with a framework of collective systemic political
29:34
activism. And the core issue in all these
29:36
frameworks is the subtle but absolute denial of the final
29:40
authority of the Bible. We must also apply this
29:43
objective standard to Roman Catholic sacramentalism.
29:47
True biblical discernment rejects any theological system
29:50
that adds human merit, earthly priestly mediation, or a
29:54
treasury of merit to Christ's finished sufficient atonement.
29:59
So the overarching point is that elders must evaluate every
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doctrine, every worship practice, every song, and every
30:04
counseling method against the strict, unyielding standard of
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the written word. Absolutely.
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But this vigilance isn't just a professional hazard for church
30:13
elders standing in a pulpit on Sunday morning.
30:15
It has to happen in the home. It has to happen in the living
30:18
room, around the dinner table, and in the pews.
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How does the average listener hearing this right now actually
30:24
develop and apply this level of biblical discernment in their
30:27
daily life? The first, most critical
30:29
application is family discipleship.
30:32
Children and teenagers are constantly, relentlessly being
30:35
catechized. Even if we don't realize it.
30:37
Exactly. If Christian parents are not
30:39
deliberately catechizing their children with the objective
30:41
truths of Scripture, those children are being catechized by
30:44
algorithms, media, entertainment, and secular peer
30:47
culture. And a vast majority of those
30:49
cultural messages are incredibly slick, well produced lies that
30:54
promise them identity apart from creation, or love apart from
30:59
biblical truth. Therefore, parents must train
31:02
their children to ask critical worldview level questions.
31:05
It is entirely insufficient to simply point at a movie, a video
31:09
game, or a pop song and lazily label it bad.
31:13
That does not teach a child how to think.
31:15
You have to engage with the material.
31:17
Yes, parents must train their kids to analyze the mechanics of
31:20
the media. They need to ask, what does this
31:22
story teach about the nature of God?
31:24
What does it teach about human nature?
31:26
What does it define as the ultimate problem of humanity?
31:28
And what does it offer as the ultimate solution or salvation?
31:32
You are handing them the magnifying glass.
31:34
You are training them how to detect the forgery themselves,
31:37
so when they leave your house they don't get swindled by a
31:40
beautiful lie. The next vital application
31:42
focuses on the corporate gathering of the church,
31:45
specifically analyzing our worship practices through the
31:47
lens of the regulative principle of worship.
31:50
Let's define the regulative principle worship clearly,
31:52
because it is the backbone of Reformed liturgy.
31:55
It is the conviction that the corporate worship of God must be
31:59
governed solely and exclusively by what God has prescribed in
32:02
Scripture. As opposed to the normative
32:04
principle. Right, the normative principle
32:06
says you can do whatever you want in worship as long as the
32:08
Bible doesn't explicitly forbid it.
32:11
But the regulative principle says if God didn't command it,
32:14
we don't do it. The gathered church must never
32:17
pursue an emotional, subjective atmosphere at the expense of
32:20
objective truth. The Holy Spirit is not a
32:23
theatrical phenomenon that is summoned by dimming the
32:25
sanctuary lights, running a smoke machine, playing swelling
32:29
chords on an electric keyboard, or utilizing psychological
32:32
manipulation through repetitive choruses.
32:35
True. Spirit filled worship is
32:37
governed strictly by the elements God ordained.
32:40
It is the word read aloud, It is the word preached
32:42
expositionally, is the Word sung through psalms, hymns, and
32:46
spiritual songs, and it is the word seen in the visible signs
32:49
of the sacraments, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.
32:53
You don't need a fog machine to make the Holy Spirit show up.
32:56
You need the faithful proclamation of the Gospel.
32:58
Finally, we must highlight the absolute necessity of heavy
33:02
humility in this entire process. Biblical discernment is not a
33:06
synonym for cynicism. Yeah, that is a huge point.
33:09
It is not walking around with a proud, suspicious temperament,
33:12
taking perverse delight and finding minor faults with
33:14
everyone around you. It is not about turning yourself
33:17
into the theology police on the Internet, spending your life
33:20
hunting for controversy, or destroying people over secondary
33:23
issues. The apostle Jude provides the
33:25
perfect balance for this. He commands believers to have
33:27
mercy on those who doubt and to save others by snatching them
33:31
out of the fire, showing mercy with fear, hating even the
33:34
garments stained by the flesh. So true discernment requires a
33:37
theological backbone of steel when dealing with objective
33:41
truth, but a heart of immense tenderness when dealing with
33:44
confused, wandering sheep. Some people are genuine wolves
33:48
who must be forcefully driven away from the flock, but many
33:52
people are just deceived sheep who need gentle, patient
33:55
scriptural correction. We have covered a massive amount
33:58
of theological and historical ground today.
34:00
We started in the chaotic sensory overload environment of
34:04
ancient Corinth, looking at how the new believers drag their
34:07
ecstatic, irrational Pagan temple rituals right into the
34:11
heart of the Christian assembly. We analyzed Paul's strict
34:14
Trinitarian guidelines for spiritual gifts, seeing how the
34:18
Holy Spirit sovereignly distributed the gift of
34:20
distinguishing spirits to protect the vulnerable early
34:22
church from demonic deception and false prophecy.
34:25
And we examined the specific Greek grammar of First
34:28
Corinthians 12, noting how that gift acted as a rigorous
34:31
judicial separation, a divine diagnostic tool tethered
34:35
directly to evaluating oral revelation.
34:37
And we traced the redemptive historical timeline, showing how
34:40
that specific miraculous gift fulfilled its purpose during the
34:44
Apostolic Foundation laying era. And finally, we brought it to
34:47
the modern believers daily duty. The miraculous sign gift has
34:51
ceased, but the moral obligation to test the spirits remains as
34:55
urgent as ever. We just use a different tool
34:57
now. The completed, objective,
35:00
sufficient Word of God the Holy Spirit protects the church from
35:03
spiritual disease by illuminating the Scriptures to
35:06
our minds, not by bypassing the Scriptures with private voices.
35:10
The Church does not need less discernment in the name of a
35:12
shallow cultural love. It needs a sacrificial love
35:15
governed by rigorous biblical discernment.
35:18
Which leaves us with a final thought for you to Mull over.
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In a culture that constantly, aggressively tells you to follow
35:24
your heart, to trust your inner voice, and to embrace your
35:27
truth, how are you measuring your own spiritual health?
35:31
Are you measuring it by the intensity of your emotions, the
35:34
volume of the music on Sunday morning, or the subjective,
35:37
fleeting feelings in your chest? Or are you measuring it by how
35:40
faithfully you subject every single one of those emotions,
35:44
thoughts, and experiences to the quiet, unyielding truth of
35:47
Scripture? The magnifying glass is sitting
35:49
right there on your desk, right there in your Bible.
35:51
It is up to you to pick it up and use it.
35:53
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
35:56
Stay vigilant, keep reading, and we will catch you next time on
35:59
Reform Thinking.