Will you please turn to 1 Corinthians 2:14-15?
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him;
and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man.
Turn also to Philippians 1:9-11.
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment;
so that ye may approve the things that are excellent;
that ye may be sincere and void of offence unto the day of Christ;
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for gathering us together unto Thy name. We want to thank Thee for Thy precious promise: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” We thank Thee for Thy presence with us.
Lord, we pray that Thou wilt create within us a clean heart, an open mind, and a right spirit. We pray that when Thy word is given, Thy Holy Spirit will quicken Thy word to our hearts. Thy word is life and spirit, and we believe it. We pray that Thy word would do its work in each one of us.
We thank Thee for promising us that if anyone lack wisdom, let him ask and doubt not, and Thou wilt give it to us. So, Lord, we do come and confess that we need wisdom. Give to us according to Thy promise. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together again this year. I really feel that every time we meet together, it is a tremendous mercy of God.
As we are approaching the end, such gatherings become more and more precious. Thank God, He still wants to speak to us. He still wants to bless us.
Now, the theme for this conference is spiritual discernment. I think everybody knows how we need, especially in our days, spiritual discernment. We do look to the Lord that He will give us such discernment that we may be able to live a life that will be pleasing to Him.
In Philippians, we find the Apostle Paul praying for the Philippian believers. As you know, the church in Philippi was noted for its love.
In Acts 16, God led Paul and his companions to Macedonia, to Philippi. There you find a woman from Thyatira. She listened to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and she was touched. She believed in the Lord Jesus, and her whole household believed.
Then, you remember, she said to Paul and his companions, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there.” She constrained them to live in her house. As soon as she believed in the Lord Jesus, the love of God filled her heart, and she expressed that love in a practical way.
Then you remember how a woman with an evil spirit was delivered. Because of that, Paul and Silas were imprisoned. Yet, while they were in prison, in the midst of the night, they were praying, singing unto the Lord, and praising the Lord.
There was an earthquake, and all the gates of the prison were opened, but nobody moved. The jailer thought that all the prisoners had escaped. He tried to kill himself, but Paul said, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.”
Then he said, “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.” The jailer and his household believed in the Lord Jesus. He took Paul and Silas to his home, washed them, and fed them.
Paul and Silas were ordered to leave Philippi, but they left one man behind: the beloved physician, Luke. So Luke stayed with the Philippian believers, and under his loving care this church in Philippi was noted for its love. They expressed their love in very practical ways.
After many years, Paul was in prison in Rome, and the church in Philippi sent their love to him. In writing back to them, he prayed for them.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is the prayer that we all need not only to hear, but to pray:
That your love may abound more and more
in full knowledge
and all spiritual discernment.
Brothers and sisters, in 1 Timothy 1:5, the Apostle Paul says that the end of the charge, the end of instruction and teaching, is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith.
Love is the end of all things. God is love.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
The first and foremost commandment is to love God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The next is like it: love thy neighbor as thyself.
As we are told in Romans, love is the sum of all the commandments of God. We should not owe anybody anything, but in love we are always in debt. That is the importance of love.
Here you find the Apostle Paul, knowing that the Philippian believers had love, and yet his prayer for them was that their love might abound more and more.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, anything that is living continues to grow. The moment it stops growing, death comes in.
Love is living. It is life. Because of this, love must grow. We cannot be satisfied with the little love that we think we have. The moment you are satisfied with your love, spiritual death comes in.
Love is something that grows and grows and grows. Love must abound more and more.
But it must abound not only in measure, in depth; it must also abound in every area—in judgment, in understanding, and in knowledge.
Because if love is not directed by knowledge and governed by discernment, it will be very shallow, and it can be misdirected.
Sometimes we think love is blind. But love is not blind. Love must abound in full knowledge and all spiritual discernment.
Knowledge. When we talk about knowledge, we often think that knowledge and love are opposites. We can quote from 1 Corinthians 8:
Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.
So here you find knowledge as something opposite to love. But it is because the knowledge there is mental knowledge—something you know in your mind.
That knowledge, even if it is scriptural knowledge, even good knowledge, if it is only mental knowledge, puffs you up. Is that not true?
The more we think we know the Bible, the more we think we are knowledgeable in the Scriptures, does that not give us a little bit of pride? You think that you are more knowledgeable than anybody else, and therefore you are always right and other people are always wrong.
Knowledge puffs up, but only love builds up. A little knowledge is very dangerous.
But here, what Paul prayed for the saints in Philippi was that their love might abound more and more in full knowledge—real knowledge, as some versions say.
Now, what is full knowledge? Epignosis. What is the difference between full knowledge and knowledge as such?
Full knowledge in the Scripture is the knowledge of the eternal will of God. We know God in such a way that we know what His mind is, what He desires, and what His will is. That is full knowledge.
If you have such full knowledge, it will help you in your Christian life, because you know where to go and what to choose.
Full knowledge in the Scripture is not mental knowledge. It is heart knowledge. It is experiential knowledge—something that you experience in your life, something you know in your heart. That is the difference.
Furthermore, full knowledge is practical. Oftentimes we think anything that is spiritual is not practical, and if it is practical, it is not spiritual. Therefore, people want to be spiritual and become very impractical.
But actually, if it is spiritual, it is highly practical. It can be practiced, it is practiced, and it will be manifested in word and in deed. So this is full knowledge.
Love needs to abound more and more in full knowledge. With such knowledge, love knows where to go.
Otherwise, you may love that which you should not love. Otherwise, it is just a matter of tolerating everything, thinking that you love because you allow anything—even tolerating sin—and you consider that as love because it has no boundary and no direction.
But when you have full knowledge, you know where your love should be applied and should increase.
And then, all intelligence—all spiritual discernment. This word has been translated in many different ways. In the King James Version, you have “all judgment.” Some versions say understanding, insight, perception, or spiritual discernment.
Now, what is all understanding? What is spiritual discernment?
Spiritual discernment is not a natural endowment. Some people are born with sharper perception, but that is not what the Scripture means.
Spiritual discernment is not the wisdom of those who are deep in worldly knowledge. In Chinese, we have a saying: if you are very deep in earthly affairs, then your heavenly discernment disappears.
If you are very deep in earthly affairs, you know human nature, you are very observant, and you have much experience with the world. But for such a person, spiritual discernment begins to disappear, because it is all rational and not intuition.
Spiritual discernment is not being deep in worldly affairs. Spiritual discernment is not psychic; it is not mind-reading.
Some people may develop a kind of psychic power. Our soul has much power. Think of Adam. When God created Adam, without going to any school, God brought all the animals before Adam, and Adam looked at them and gave them names. That is tremendous. He was a natural botanist.
Our soul has tremendous power. But because of sin, it is out of the control of the spirit—the Spirit of God. Therefore, it is not God’s will for us to develop soul power. We need to develop spirit power.
Yet the enemy is trying very hard to develop soul power, and you find psychic power everywhere. Spiritual discernment is not psychic power. It is not mind-reading. No.
Spiritual discernment is the opposite of any kind of information or knowledge that comes from the enemy, the devil.
What, then, is spiritual discernment? Spiritual discernment is the ability to discern things that are different. You are able to see through all appearances.
Sometimes, in appearance, things may look alike—very confusing. In such a confused situation, everything seems to be mixed up; yet you have the ability to look through all the darkness and come to a right conclusion, to make the right moral and spiritual choice.
That is spiritual discernment. Spiritual discernment is the power to discern between the true and the false.
It is the power to discern that which is of the spirit and that which is of the soul. Spiritual discernment is the ability to distinguish between that which is of the flesh and that which is of the spirit.
Spiritual discernment is the ability to discern all things spiritually. It is the ability to discern what is within, not to judge by outward appearance, but to touch the spirit that is within.
Spiritual discernment is the ability to discern what is the will of God and what is not His will. Not only that, but it is also the ability to make the right and proper moral and spiritual choice.
Is this not something in which we are greatly in need? How often we are surrounded by situations in which we find it very difficult to know what is right and what is wrong, what is of God and what is of man, what is of the spirit and what is of the soul, what is of ourselves and what is of God.
Oftentimes we are confused, we are puzzled, and in our daily life we are faced with such situations all the time. Under that kind of situation, how important it is that we have spiritual discernment.
Spiritual discernment is in the spirit. It is not trying to discern merely by what you hear or see in the visible realm. Spiritual discernment is to see and to hear in your spirit, and it is by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
So, brothers and sisters, this is a spiritual function, a spiritual exercise, that is most necessary in our days.
Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers was that their love might abound more and more in full knowledge and all spiritual discernment. In other words, this spiritual discernment must be an all-around one, a total one.
Sometimes we may have some discernment in certain areas, but in another area we are completely blind. What we need is all-around spiritual discernment.
With that kind of spiritual discernment, we are able to walk rightly before God. Without it, how can we walk pleasing to our God?
So we need to pray that our love may abound more and more in full knowledge and spiritual discernment.
Now, with this spiritual discernment, we will be able to judge and approve the things that are more excellent.
A. B. Simpson has a very good explanation of this spiritual discernment. He said that the word “understanding,” as some versions render it, is a word used many times in the realm of commerce.
Yet in Isaiah 11, we are told that the Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. The understanding there, he says, is quick understanding. It is a quick sense.
If someone is deeply in love, he or she will be very quick in detecting anything that may hurt or offend the one whom he or she loves. Is that not true?
Now, if you are not in love, you may hurt and offend people without sensing anything. But if you really love a person, then even a gesture, even a slight movement, even a little expression that may hurt or offend the one whom you love—you sense it. You know it.
So, to one who is in love with God, he will sense in his life, in his habits, in his behavior, and in his way of life even a slight deviation that may hurt the God whom he loves. He will sense it.
You know, the power of smelling is mysterious. You cannot explain it. Even before you see anything or hear any voice, you already can smell something. That is spiritual discernment. You have a quick sense of that kind of scent in you.
With spiritual discernment, love can go in the right way. Otherwise, you will love what should not be loved.
“That ye may approve the things that differ.” If you get that kind of full knowledge and spiritual discernment, then you can judge these things. You can understand, you can distinguish, and not only that, you can prove and approve the things that differ.
The phrase “the things that differ” is rendered in different ways in different versions because the original contains both ideas. Some versions say “the things that differ.” It is the same word that you find in 1 Corinthians 15: one star differs from another star in glory.
Other versions render it, “the things that are excellent.” In Matthew 6, our Lord Jesus said that you are of more value than the birds and the lilies for which God so cares and to which He gives such glory.
Whether it is “the things that differ” or “the things that are more excellent,” brothers and sisters, things are not the same. Things are different. There are things that are more excellent.
It is the will of God that we should not be bogged down with things that are merely acceptable. He wants us to choose the excellent. It is only if you have full knowledge and spiritual discernment that your love can choose the things that are truly different and more excellent.
Do you know that we as believers are not supposed to be ordinary? We are supposed to be extraordinary.
That is what you find in the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord said that if you greet only those whom you love, the world does the same. You are just ordinary. But if we can love our enemies, that is extraordinary.
God wants us to be extraordinary. How can we be extraordinary unless we know how to direct our love, to choose the things that differ and are more excellent?
So, dear brothers and sisters, spiritual discernment is very, very important to our spiritual life. Without spiritual discernment, our spiritual life will be in a mess.
Now, do we really see the need of it? Do we really desire it? We are living in a very dangerous world.
Remember, even at the time of Peter, Paul, and John, in the first century, there were many false teachers and false prophets, even denying the Master who bought them at such a price.
Paul, in 2 Timothy, said that we are living in perilous times because people have become lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure, instead of lovers of God and lovers of good.
Remember, he is speaking not only of the world as such. He is even speaking of the religious world—the so-called Christian world. People become lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure, instead of lovers of God and lovers of good.
The Apostle John, in 1 John, says, “Little children, ye have heard that antichrist cometh.” Yet he says that the spirit of antichrist is already here. So, you see, we are living in a very dangerous world.
This world is temporarily under the usurpation of the devil. Satan is called the prince of this world.
When you read Revelation 12, you find that the dragon, that old serpent, deceives the whole world. He is a liar. There is no truth in him, our Lord Jesus said. He is a liar, and he deceives the whole world. He makes the whole world one great lie.
Deception is everywhere. People live in this great lie, under this great deception, and yet they think they are wise, clever, right, and going the right way.
Deception is one of the strongest tactics of the enemy. Do not think that you can never be deceived, because if you think you can never be deceived, you are already deceived.
We are living in such a world. Even in the so-called spiritual world, you find the war between spiritual discernment and spiritual deception going on all the time.
Not only that, but the principle of the world in which we live is relativity. Everything is relative. There is no absolute standard. Everything is gray.
You cannot know what is white or black because everything is gray. How easily we are deceived when we are under such circumstances. We make wrong right and right wrong, false true and true false.
That is the reason why, brothers and sisters, we need spiritual discernment.
Thank God, James says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,” who is wisdom, and He will give. But doubt not. This is what we need.
Spiritual discernment is not only necessary because we are surrounded by lies, deception, the enemy, and the world. Spiritual discernment is also necessary for something positive. It is not all negative.
Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers was that their love might abound more and more in full knowledge and all spiritual discernment, in order that they might approve the things that are more excellent, in order that they might be pure.
Brothers and sisters, we as believers must not only be delivered from all the lies and deceptions around us; it is the will of God that we should live on this earth pure.
What does the word “pure” really mean? We are told that the word carries the meaning of bringing something—perhaps a garment—into the light of the sun. You put it under the sunlight so you can see whether it is stained or soiled, or whether it is clean.
In darkness, you do not know whether there is any spot or anything there. But if you put it under the sunlight, then everything is clear.
Therefore, the word pure means spotless. Under the sunlight, it appears to be without spot. Because of that, this word can also mean transparent.
What the Lord desires is that we may be pure—so pure that we are transparent.
Now, brothers and sisters, is it not true that our lives are often opaque? We dare not be transparent. There are things in our lives that have to be hidden. We would not allow people to look into us. Transparency is dangerous, because where can we hide?
But God’s will is that we may be transparent. All the opaqueness, all the darkness, all the hidden things of life must go. Just as the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, he renounced all the hidden things that would affect the testimony of God, that he might be manifested to every conscience.
Brothers and sisters, God’s desire is that we be transparent. If you are transparent, anything that appears before you will be discerned in its right color. That is spiritual discernment.
The reason we lack spiritual discernment is because we are not pure in spirit. God’s will is that we may be pure, transparent, spotless, and without offence.
Some versions say blameless or without blemish, but the word itself means that you do not cause anyone to be offended, nor are you offended by anything.
Brothers and sisters, in human life in this world, it is almost impossible that there will be no offence. Sometimes we become a cause of offence; sometimes we are offended by other people.
But if you have spiritual discernment, you will not be a cause of offence to anybody. Oftentimes we offend people without knowing it. It is because we are in darkness.
If we really have spiritual discernment, brothers and sisters, we will not be a cause of offence to anybody. We will not knowingly or deliberately put anything before our brothers and sisters that would cause them to stumble.
Neither will you be offended. Why? Because you know Him too well to be offended.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” What does He mean? Sometimes the Lord does something that you do not understand, or you expect Him to do something that He does not do, and you are offended.
Why? Because you are lacking full knowledge and spiritual discernment. If you really understand the Lord, you will not be offended by Him. You know that what He does is best for you, even if you do not know how to explain it.
Brothers and sisters, we are living in a world—even among Christians—in which you find offence everywhere. Is there anyone here who has not been offended? Is there anyone here who has not offended someone?
How we need to be delivered, that we may live a life without offence. You can only come to such a life if you have spiritual discernment.
The day of Christ. Brothers and sisters, what is the day of Christ?
In the Scripture, the day of Christ has a very special meaning. Every time you find in the New Testament “the day of Christ,” “the day of Christ Jesus,” or “Christ’s day,” it points to the day when Christ shall return and when we shall all appear before Him at His judgment seat. That is the day of Christ.
If you really love the Lord, if you really follow Him, if you live a life pure and without offence, then you will be looking forward to that day.
If you read the epistles written by Paul, you will find that it was his heart’s desire—longing and waiting for that day to come.
But if you are not living a life pure and without offence, probably you will be like the evil servant and say, “My lord tarrieth.” He delays. He is not coming. You are afraid to see His face.
How can we be prepared so that when our Lord Jesus returns, and when we all appear before His judgment seat, we welcome that day and look forward to that day? It is because we live as we should live.
Brothers and sisters, how do you live your day every day? Do you live your days as one who thinks that you can live two hundred years? Or do you live your days with the light of Christ’s day in view?
Are you looking forward to that day when Christ shall return and you shall see Him? Is it in that light that you live every day? How can you do that without spiritual discernment?
Being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which is through Jesus Christ. Living such a life—a life of love, with full knowledge and all spiritual discernment—you will bear the fruit of righteousness.
Not by yourself, but by Jesus Christ. Such fruit of righteousness is your wedding garment.
In Revelation 19, the bride has made herself ready, and she is clothed with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
The righteousness of Christ is being constituted within you. So, in turn, you also bear the fruit of righteousness, and that becomes your wedding garment, fitting you to attend the wedding feast.
It is all to God’s glory and praise. Brothers and sisters, the ultimate is God’s glory and praise. It is not that you may become a spiritual giant.
Oh, how we want to be spiritual so that we may be looked up to and put on a pedestal. No.
Your desire to have such love, with knowledge and discernment, and to live such a pure life without offence, full of the fruit of righteousness, is not for yourself. It is for God. It is for the glory of God and for His praise, because it is all His grace. You have nothing to boast of.
This is spiritual discernment. Now, I would like to illustrate it. Let us look at our Lord Jesus.
When our Lord was on earth, He was a man full of wisdom and spiritual discernment.
When Andrew led Simon, his brother, to Him, do you know what our Lord did? The Lord looked at him. In the original, it means that the Lord looked him up and down.
Have you ever had anyone look you up and down? You tremble, do you not? The Lord looked at him up and down, and Simon was speechless. Is that not strange? The Lord looked through him.
He said, “Thou art Simon.” That is what you are. “Thou shalt be called Cephas,” which is Peter. The grace of God can transform you into a stone, a living stone, to be built into the house of God. That is spiritual discernment.
Nathanael. The Lord looked at Nathanael and said, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” Nathanael said, “Whence knowest Thou me?”
The Lord said, “Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” The fig tree symbolizes the nation of Israel. Nathanael was thinking about Israel—a true Israelite—and the Lord saw through.
So Nathanael said, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art King of Israel.” The Lord said, “Thou shalt see greater things than these. Thou shalt see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
Brothers and sisters, when our Lord performed miracles, many believed in Him. But when you come to the end of John 2, you find that the Lord did not commit Himself to them because He knew what was in man. That is spiritual discernment.
Nicodemus came with very courteous, flattering words. The Lord pointed directly at him, saying, “Ye must be born again.” There was no need for pretense.
The Pharisees and scribes put on a form of godliness, but the Lord looked through them and said, “Ye hypocrites, woe unto you!”
Peter confessed the Lord, and yet he held the Lord, saying, “Lord, this shall never be unto Thee. Thou shalt never go to the cross.” The Lord was not deceived by this self-love. The Lord said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.”
Think of that. Why did our Lord have such discernment? Before the disciples asked Him anything, He already knew what they were talking about behind Him. Was He a mind-reader? No.
He was so transparent, and everything that came into His presence had its reality laid wide open. Nothing could be hidden from Him, because all things are naked and laid open before God. That is spiritual discernment.
But His discernment was exercised with humility and with love.
Peter denied the Lord three times. By the shore that morning, the Lord said, “Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these?”
Simon Peter knew his weakness. He dared not boast anymore. He said, “Lord, Thou knowest that I have affection for Thee.” The Lord said, “Feed My lambs.”
Such love, such humility. Even in the way He treated Judas, we see it. He knew Judas was a hypocrite from the very beginning, yet He treated him in such an honorable way.
He knew Judas was a thief, but He gave him the money bag.
Even at the last Passover supper, when He said, “One of you shall betray Me,” the disciples asked, “Lord, who is it?”
The Lord said, “He it is, for whom I shall dip the sop, and give it him.” This was an act which, according to custom, honored the honorable guest.
The Lord used a symbol entirely opposite to what Judas really was, so that the disciples never suspected Judas. When Judas went out, they thought the Lord wanted him to buy something or give something to the poor.
Discernment exercised with love. Brothers and sisters, that is what we need.
The apostles, because of their life with the Lord, also had spiritual discernment.
In Acts 3, John and Peter went to the temple to pray. A lame man from birth was asking for alms. Peter and John looked at him and saw that there was faith in him. That was spiritual discernment.
Then Ananias tried to deceive the Holy Spirit, and Peter knew at once.
Simon the magician tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter saw through him and said, “Thou art in the gall of bitterness.”
The same happened to Paul in Acts 13. He was in Paphos, where a magician, Elymas, tried to resist, and Paul could see how he was bound by the adversary.
Well, brothers and sisters, spiritual discernment is the need of our time.
I cannot say more this morning, but I do want to lay this matter before you. Take it up very seriously. Go to the Lord. Ask for spiritual discernment.
I desperately need it. We all desperately need it. The Lord is ready to give to us. Ask, and it shall be given. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, Thou art all wisdom and all spiritual discernment. Lord, Thou art the source of spiritual discernment.
We come to Thee and humble ourselves before Thee, acknowledging that we are lacking—greatly lacking—in spiritual discernment, almost nothing.
Oh, have mercy upon us. Lord, give to Thy people, in these perilous days, spiritual discernment, that we may be able to be delivered from all deception and confusion and be able to walk pure, spotless, transparent, and righteous before Thee.
Lord, have mercy upon us. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.