Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
To be wise means to show good judgment in a situation. For an example, let us imagine that you are standing on one side of a deep ravine, and your destination is on the other side. There are only two paths to get across that ravine, one of them being an old, shaky rope bridge with boards that look like they are over a hundred years old, and then you have a train trestle which regularly supports the weight of a train crossing over it every day. Each path is right next to the other. Which option would you choose?
Wisdom tells us that one choice is potentially a very dangerous and risky path to take, so hopefully we would all have chosen to cross on the strong train trestle. We are aware of certain dangers that could possibly happen so we arm ourselves with that knowledge and proceed to act accordingly.
Not everyone in the world is a Christian. Not everyone who claims to be a Christian is one either. To make this determination we need to be wise, testing the spirits to see if they are indeed of God, or if they are not. That is what the word test means, to put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try.
Maybe you have watched a jeweler carefully examine a diamond using special magnification glasses or a magnifying glass itself in order to determine if a jewel is real or if it is a fake. The manufacturing of fake diamonds has gotten so good in recent years that it takes close scrutiny and examination to tell a real one from a fake.
The Bible is our magnifying glass with which we can use to examine whether somebody is truly a Christian or not. Whether they are a sheep of God or if they are a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” It is these types of people whom Peter warned of. False prophets, false teachers, teaching heresies and leading astray the sheep of God.
2 Peter 2:1-3 “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
Thankfully we have not been left blind. Through diligent study of God’s word we will be able to discern right from wrong. We will know the truth from a lie, even if that lie appears at first to be the truth, because we have become wise through the leading of the Holy Spirit. We will be able to examine others, testing them to see if someone truly is of the Holy Spirit, or if it is just the spirit of the devil in disguise.
1 John 4:1-6 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.”
Search the scriptures, for therein lies our salvation. Use that “magnifying glass” and you will always know the spirit of truth from the spirit of error. Use that wisdom and you will always tell the true gems from the fake.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 