(Audio Sermon Clip) Discernment and Slander

When we fail to ask God to discern our hearts, our old nature will seek to disguise itself to avoid detection and subsequent defeat. I'm going to give you some examples of this. There's many more, but I will give you the three or four that God spoke into my heart. For example, the Bible has a lot to say about the gossiping or the slandering tongue. A slandering tongue, a gossiping tongue, works ruin, hates its neighbor, has no other desire but to hurt other people. And very often, God says, I'm going to take you in and I'm going to give you victory over the tongue, because the Bible says in the book of James that no man can tame this thing. It is a little member in our bodies, but it's set on fire by hell itself. That's what the scripture says. And nobody but God can tame this thing, because there has to be a new heart, has to be a gripping of the heart, because the Bible says that out of the heart the mouth is going to speak. So there's got to be truth that's got to get into the inward parts. And if truth is not there, the tongue will be unsurrendered. But quite often an old enemy, like a gossiping tongue, will come with old clothes and old shoes and old bread. Oh, I've come from a long way and I'm outside of the borders of what God would want you to conquer. And you say, well, what is your name? Oh, my name is discernment. And I have seen this, folks, in the church of Jesus Christ, where a slandering gossiping tongue has found refuge in a new word. It's now called discernment. I walk around now and I used to gossip, but now I'm a discerner. And you see an old enemy now has got new robes on. And the discerner says, now make a league with me and call me a gift of the Holy Ghost. Oh, that'd be a good one. Call me a gift of the Holy Ghost. And we're going to run around discerning. You ever seen people like that in the church? You walk up to them and their eyes are like two silver dollars looking at you, discerning, you know, looking into the bottom of your soul. And they're the creepiest people you'll ever meet in your life in the church of Jesus Christ. These discerners that walk around discerning everybody. But I'll tell you, the evidence of a false discernment is that a false discerner, there is a real discernment, but I'm going to talk about the false first. The false discerner speaks to people who are uninvolved in the circumstance. They're uninvolved in the situation. Remember the Bible says, if you observe your brother in a fault, first of all, you are spiritual, restore that one in a spirit of meekness. And also the gospels tell us that we're to go to that person alone and talk to them about what we feel that we have seen in their lives in some area where there needs to be some change. A false discerner will run, not to the person they see things in, but to somebody else. And they will speak to those who are uninvolved and merely to spread a story, but not to seek a solution. They seek no solution. Their whole ministry is to show and tell. That's really what it is. See and tell. And run around saying, you wouldn't believe what I discerned in sister's own self. Or, I'm really troubled. I discerned something. And generally the discernment is applied first to leadership and then it goes down from there. They discern everybody but themselves. Remember the Bible says that love works no ill to its neighbor. A true discernment, a true gift of discernment is an ability that God gives to hear something in speech or see something in action. Sometimes there's no outward sign of anything. And I believe a true discerner is not looking for anything. When I meet you in conversation, I'm not looking for some nasty thing in your life. I'm happy to be with Christians. I might be talking with you. You're talking with me. And all of a sudden it's a word. It's a trigger thing. It's an attitude of heart. Something just comes out that's not right. And sometimes it could be a bitterness. It could be unforgiveness that's in the heart. You're not aware of it. It's made a league with you. And God does give the gift of discernment, a genuine gift. But if I have that gift and hear or see something in your life, the exercise of that gift, the Bible says, is for the edification of the body. It's for the lifting of the body. It's for the strengthening of the body. If I run to somebody else about something I see in you, I'm no longer a discerner. I am now a slanderer and a gossip. Folks, this is a serious issue because this is an old enemy that will try to disguise itself with religious garments and say, make a league with me. Promise we need each other. Don't destroy me. Hang on to me. And boy, we will have a wonderful journey together in the promised land. But folks, I'll tell you something. The slandering tongue is in for an awful, especially the religious one. I have seen people over the years hitting themselves with their own tongue, literally. The discerners never make it. It's like there's a wall in front of them. They can never know the heart of God because the heart of God is not to expose. And like I shared about the Canaanite curse a couple of weeks ago, when the son of Noah Ham walked in and saw his father's nakedness and ran out to blabber to everybody who could hear it. And the other two sons, Shem and Japheth, took a covering and backed in, the scripture says, and covered their father. And then Noah pronounced a curse on Ham. And it's not a physical curse. It's not a curse on a physical or geographical people or location. It was a curse on that type of person that Ham represented. The ones who are part of the promise, but have a delight in running and exposing the nakedness of others. Remember, the fellowship with Christ is a covering fellowship, is a strengthening fellowship. When we come into his presence, he covers us. He strengthens us. He doesn't run to the whole church telling everybody, aren't you thankful about that tonight? That the Holy Spirit doesn't just bring us together so that he can talk about where everybody has failed here this week in the church and expose everybody's weakness. No, the Holy Spirit covers, brings us to Christ and covers us because we all need a covering. We all need the strength of God to survive as Christians. Now, Psalm 52, let me just read it to you for time's sake. Why boasters thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth continually. Thy tongue devises mischiefs like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. God, verse 5, Psalm 52, God shall likewise destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land of the living. And that's what God says, I want to do. That's my heart's desire for the uncontrolled tongue in those who are called by my name. God wants to take that thing and pluck it out of the land of the living. Hallelujah. And give you a new heart and a new tongue. Make sure tonight that you haven't made league with an old enemy.