Prove All Things

Introduction: The Sufficiency of Scripture and the Context of 'Prove All Things'

0:04 We return again this morning to our studies in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

0:19 As we considered together last Lord's Day, the basic principles which were the spiritual fuel of the Protestant Reformation, we focused upon one of those principles couched in the two Latin words, sola scriptura. And as men began to take seriously the fact that scripture alone has a right to bind the conscience in matters concerning our relationship to God and the worship of God and the activity of the church, out of that grappling with the word and its all-encompassing teaching in every area of life and experience came a statement which is often found in doctrinal statements of churchgoers, of mission boards, of other Christian groups, and it goes something like this. We recognize the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament to be the only and sufficient rule of faith and of practice. The only and sufficient rule of faith and of practice. And the word sufficient is a key word.

1:35 Does the church need to look anywhere else but, to Holy Scripture to find out what she must be and do to please God? The answer is no. The scriptures are not only the exclusive rule of faith and practice, but they are a sufficient rule of faith and of practice. And that conviction deepens in my own heart the more I have to study to prepare for these expositions in 1 Thessalonians.

2:08 What I often regarded as just sort of a miscellaneous jumble of commands that the apostle sort of jotted off as the hour was getting late, I now see to be a very careful and studied setting forth of principles so necessary for the well-being of the church of Christ. We're studying some of those little commands in the latter part of the paragraph in chapter 5 beginning with verse 12 and closing with verse 22. We have considered together the command quench not the spirit, the command despise not prophesyings, and now this morning we come to the first of the three closing commands, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from every form of evil.

3:01 I've indicated in recent studies that these commands quench not the spirit, despise not prophesyings, prove all things, though they may have a legitimate general application, are specifically geared to the whole matter of the life and worship of the gathered people of God. Just as the previous commands rejoice always in everything, give thanks, pray without ceasing, have to do with the individual believer and his relationship to the Lord, and the ones before have to do with the believer and his relationship to fellow believers, and the ones before have to do with the individual believer and his relationship to fellow believers, and the one before, the believer and his relationship to his overseers. So these parts of the series of commands relate particularly to the life of the gathered people of God. When we gather together there's to be given full reign to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Don't quench his movings by such a structured liturgy, or by such an inflexible form of service, or by an unwholesome, fear of the unusual that you can always count on it that at 10 after 11 the preacher will be praying, at 11.17 the people will be singing, at 11.32 the ushers will be ushering.

4:21 If you can count on that in any church service week in and week out and predict with absolute accuracy what the people will be doing and saying at every moment of time, you can mark it down, the Holy Ghost has long been quenched. He's long ago been quenched. So he says, Don't quench the Spirit. But lest some should be carried away with enthusiasm for the experience of the Spirit's presence, he comes right back with the word, Despise not prophesying.

4:50 With this concern for the life of the Spirit must be a jealous regard for the purity of truth. Don't treat lightly those inspired utterances of divine truth. Don't despise prophesying. Have a heart that loves the preaching and teaching, of the word of God.

5:10 Have a mind ready to receive the pronouncements of the living God. Now he comes and caps both of these with the command before us today, Prove all things. Don't despise prophesying. Give honor to the word.

5:27 Don't quench the Spirit. Give full reign to the Spirit's ministry. But in your exposure to truth and in your openness to the Spirit, don't become uncritical. Don't become naïve.

5:42 Don't become gullible. Prove all things. And that's the connection of the command this morning. It's tied in this context of the life of the people of God.

Defining 'Prove All Things'

5:55 Now, what are the meanings of these two words? Prove and all things. The word prove is a word which literally means to test or to examine. To see.

6:10 To scrutinize. To see whether a thing is genuine or not. It's the word used in Luke 14 where this fellow had bought some oxen. And he said, I've bought me five yoke of oxen.

6:21 Now I want to go out and prove them. When I was down there at A.B.'s ox market, these fellows looked real fleshy and broad-shouldered and real ripply with muscles and looked like they could work.

6:34 But I want to put a yoke on them and see if they can produce like they look like they ought to. He was going to prove the oxen. He was going to put them to the test to see if they were in fact what they appeared to be to the eye. It's the word used in 1 Peter 1.7.

6:53 Gold which is tried by fire. Here's a man. Someone comes to him and says, Here's a hunk of gold. It's worth such and such.

7:01 He says, Excuse me for a minute. I want to know if it's all pure gold. You might have some alloy in the middle. So he throws it into the fire.

7:08 And it melts. And if there's any alloy, the alloy will be burned off and only the pure gold will be left. Gold can't be consumed with fire. There's a combination of a couple acids that can corrode it, but that's about it.

7:19 It's almost indestructible from that standpoint. And so after he's thrown in the fire and he forms into a ball that's only half the size, he says, Wait a minute. There was something else other than gold. He's testing to see the reality.

7:31 That's the same word used in the original. It's the word used in 1 Timothy 3.10. But let the deacons first be proved Don't put men into office bearing responsibility who haven't been put to the test.

7:46 All right. So much for these illustrations of what the word means. I think these are sufficient to clarify its meaning. It's the whole concept of testing, examining, scrutinizing, analyzing with this specific end in view to see if the product is genuine.

8:05 Now he says, Examine, scrutinize, put to the test all things. Now here's where preachers can just have a heyday. Disregarding the context, they can say, Well, it's a very general word in the original. It's a neuter plural.

8:20 All things. Anything that's a thing and all that's a thing, put it to the test. So for morning to night, all you'd be doing was testing everything. You'd send the air to the lab to be analyzed to see how many hydrocarbons are in it and figure out how much pollution you're sucking in.

8:37 And then you'd send your milk off to be analyzed and see how much unwanted bacteria was present. Why, you'd spend all your life. Well, it says all things. And now what the Bible says, yes, that's what it says, but is that what it means?

8:52 You see, we're dealing with words that must not be wrenched from their context. Prove all things in what sense? In the sense of which the apostle's been speaking. Don't quench the Spirit.

9:05 Give full reign to the Spirit's operation. Don't despise prophesying. Regard highly those enthusiastic pronouncements of truth. But in all things, that is, all apparent manifestations of the Spirit, and in all supposed pronouncements of truth, put them to the test.

9:28 The things refers primarily to the work of the Spirit in the midst of the people of God and the pronouncements of that which is supposed to be truth in the name of God. So, having considered the meaning of the words, do you get the essence of the command? All of you believers at Thessalonica, seeking to give full reign to the Spirit's moving, seeking to give high honor to the pronouncements of inspired truth, don't be naive and gullible. Put everything to the test as to its genuineness.

The Significance of the Order of Commands

10:05 Then, when you determine what is genuine, hold fast to that which is good and avoid that which is evil. And those last two parts of the command will come, the Lord willing, in our study a week from Sunday. Now, will you notice the significance in the order of these things? Now, follow closely.

10:26 Don't be mentally lazy. Until a person knows what it is to give full reign to the Spirit's work, and until a person has been brought to love the truth, he's in no position to prove anything. First of all, he says, quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying. Then he says, prove all things, indicating that the only person who is equipped to assess things from a spiritual standpoint is the one who himself is no stranger to the ministry of the Spirit and no stranger to the love of the truth.

11:07 For a man who's a stranger to the work of the Spirit and a stranger to the love of the truth, for him to try to prove the genuineness of things, all he does is impose his prejudice upon everything. That's what the Pharisees did to our Lord. Everywhere he went, they dogged him with these accusations, things are happening that are obviously supernatural, but they're so strange and so contrary to our pet traditions, he must be activated by a devil. Say we not well that thou hast a demon and art a Samaritan?

11:41 That's what they said of him. And they had such a narrow, humanly devised concept of truth that when our Lord began to preach the real truth, they said he's a heretic. They were in no condition to prove all things, because first of all, they were strangers to the work of the Spirit and strangers to a love of the truth. And that order is absolutely important at every stage of the Christian life.

Doctrinal Implication 1: A Fixed Standard of Truth and Reality

12:08 And I trust we'll take note of it. So much then for the meaning of the words, the essence of the command, now we come to the heart of our study this morning. What are the implications of this command? Here we've looked at it, what it says, what it means, the order.

12:24 I would suggest that there are both doctrinal and practical implications, or not to set doctrine and practical in opposition to one another, let me say there are doctrinal implications and then there are implications for our duty. You'll notice in the first place the whole implication of this text, doctrinally, is that there is a fixed standard of truth and reality. Prove all things to see if they are genuine. Well, what the apostle is saying is that certain things are genuine and certain things aren't.

13:07 If every metal was gold, the poor man would be hard put to prove what was real gold. If every measurement was an inch or a foot, you'd be hard put to prove anything was a foot long or a yard long. If every color was white, or red, or any other color you might, then you could never distinguish between colors. You say, what in the world are you driving at, pastor?

13:33 Well, simply this, you and I live in a day when the concept that truth is objective and fixed is looked upon as something as far out as wide-brimmed hats on a man. We don't live in a day that thinks in terms of truth being something that's fixed. The whole emphasis in our day is what is true to you and what is meaningful to you is true. This is not the thinking of the Bible.

14:08 The thinking of the Bible is that there are fixed and objective standards in the realm of religion and morals. And sincerity doesn't cancel out error. That's why Paul could say in Galatians 1, 8 and 9, Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we preached, let him be accursed. Paul said, when I was with you, I defined the gospel.

14:35 And there it is, a fixed measurement of truth. There's the line on the wall. If anybody comes along to you and gives something called truth and only comes up this far and falls short, Paul says, don't listen to him. Even if he glows with the heavenly presence of an angel, let God's curse be upon him, let him be damned.

14:56 Why? Paul says, I gave you 16 ounces to the pound. I gave you 12 inches to the foot, gospel. And anybody who gives you 11 or 10 inches is giving you a bogus product.

15:10 That's why John could say in 1 John 4, 1, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but put the spirits to the test. There is a genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit. There is a spurious manifestation. Put them to the test.

15:28 And the first doctrinal implication of this is that there are these fixed standards of what is true and what is real in the realm of the Spirit. And the reason there is truth in reality is because God is truth and God is real. To use the words of Francis Schaeffer, he's the God who is there. He isn't there because we think about God and say, wouldn't it be nice and helpful if we had a God crutch to lean upon?

15:57 And so because we have this God consciousness, we'll think that there's a God and we'll act like there's a God. Whether there's one there or not, we'll still get, no, no. He's there. Whether the whole world doesn't think about him or not.

16:10 Whether the whole world says, he isn't there. He is. He is. And he that cometh to God must believe that he is.

Doctrinal Implication 2: Direct Effect of Belief on Life and Destiny

16:18 That's the first principle of all of our approach to him. First doctrinal implication, there's a fixed standard of truth in reality. Second doctrinal implication, there is a direct effect between what is believed and received and one's life and destiny. Why should those humble believers at Thessalonica go to the trouble of proving all things?

16:44 Here someone stands up in the assembly who seems to be under the influence of a certain spirit. And they say, well, we're not to quench the spirit, but we've got to see if this is a...

16:55 Why should the humble believer put himself to the trouble of trying that spirit? Here's a man who says, I have a word from the Lord. And he stands in the assembly and begins to teach and exhort. Why should the humble believer sit there reasoning, thinking, analyzing, comparing what he says with what's his...

17:12 Why should he go through all the bother? Because, listen, there is a direct relationship between what you believe as truth and receive as the spirit. A direct relationship between those two things and how you live and where you go when you die. And that again is...

17:29 Oh, that's just so contrary to the thinking of our generation. I hope you kids will get this in your high. Because you won't get it in high school and you won't get it in college. And you'll get everything to fight against this.

17:42 The idea is it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere. Who said so? My Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2 that God shall send certain people strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they might be damned. What they believe damns them.

18:00 Many people under the guise of giving full reign to the spirit have opened themselves up for a spirit that hasn't been the Holy Spirit. Because they were too lazy to prove, to put to the test. And they were so desirous I want to experience something. So I'll just open myself up and pray that I'll experience something.

18:22 They experienced something alright. And it may have been very emotionally thrilling. It may have brought them into ecstasies emotionally, soulishly. But it's been something other than the Holy Spirit.

18:38 There's a direct relationship between what you believe as truth and receive as the manifestation of the Spirit. And how you'll live now and where you'll live in eternity. Imagine a sea captain at night. He's lost his way.

18:53 He's looking out knowing he might be in the area of a coastal part of a certain country. And he sees a light on the shore and he says I don't know if that's a lighthouse marking the way to the harbor or it just might be the light of one of the homes that's on the edge of the rocky coast. Oh well. I'll just go to bed and by morning I'll know which it was.

19:19 And so he goes to bed with engines full steam ahead. And they wake up in the morning washed ashore with the corpses of all his passengers. You see to know whether or not that thing that there sparkles as a light is a guide to a port or a false indication of safety that's a matter of life and death for the seamen. And when something blinks and says this is truth.

19:51 This is the way to peace. This is the way to fulfillment. You better not carelessly say oh well it sort of looks like the right thing so I'll just close. No, no.

20:02 You better prove all things. You better find out whether it's the light from the lighthouse or just the light from a house on a rocky shore. God says prove all things. Because there is this direct relationship between what is believed and one's practice and one's destiny.

Doctrinal Implication 3: Freedom of Individual Conscience Before God

20:20 Third doctrinal implication is this and this to me is one of the most precious truths in all of scripture. It ties in with last week's study. This text tells us of the great doctrine of the freedom of the individual conscience before God. Notice what he said in verse 12.

20:40 We beseech you brethren know them that labor among you and are over you in the Lord. And admonish you. This wasn't a free for all. There were overseers.

20:54 Elders with the responsibility of ruling and teaching. But we must never conceive of the authority invested in God appointed teachers, preachers, elders, bishops, whatever biblical term we want to use. In such a way that the individual Christian relinquishes his activity of conscience in the light of the truth. You believers sitting there at Thessalonica under duly constituted spiritual rule and authority don't give up the freedom of your conscience to judge whether things pronounced in the name of God are true or not.

21:35 Prove all things. God has given you this freedom of conscience before Him. Now remember he is writing to the saints at Thessalonica. He wasn't writing to people whose minds were not subject to the word.

21:50 Whose hearts were not in love with the living God. No, no. That would be nothing but anarchy. That's the spirit of our day.

21:57 Nobody's going to tell me anything about nothing. I'm going to think my own thing and do my own thing. Oh no, wait a minute. Who was Paul writing to?

22:08 Well he's writing to people whom he described in the first chapter as those who had turned to God from their idols to serve the living and the true God. Their consciences were subject to the will of God. Free but not released from obligation. Free from the tyranny of sin.

22:31 Free from the bondage and the guilt of sin. Set free to be what man ought to be. A servant of God. That's the first thing we know about.

22:41 Chapter 2.13 says, God be thanked that when you received the word you received it not as the word of men but as the word of God. They not only had a conscience submissive to the authority of God but they had a conscience submissive to the authority of His word. Now with those two ingredients a heart subject to God and a mind and a spirit submissive to the authority of His word prove all things.

23:09 Put everything to the test of Holy Scripture. Put everything to the test of God's truth. And don't expect someone else to do it for you. The great doctrine of the freedom of the individual conscience before God is a precious thing.

23:28 Some have abused it to justify anarchy. That's alright. Some have abused the doctrine of justification by faith and have become licentious and have become antinomians. I'm not going to let the abuse of the truth keep me from the proper use.

Doctrinal Implication 4: The Fusion of a Burning Heart and a Clear Head

23:46 Of that truth. The fourth great doctrine that's in this passage is what I'm calling the fusion of a burning heart and a clear head as God's ideal. Don't quench the spirit. Oh you individual believers at Thessalonica know what it is to experience the fire of the spirit in your midst.

24:09 And when that fire would break out in spontaneous manifestations don't quench it. Don't quench it. Have a heart that burns with the fire of the spirit. And now he says have a head that's clear and cool in knowing what is the Holy Spirit and what's another spirit.

24:30 Oh revel in prophesying. Learn what it is to abandon yourself to the prophetic utterance. I hope you know what it is. Do you know what it is to enter into the preacher's spirit as he preaches?

24:42 To me there's nothing more thrilling than to sit where a man is ministering to the power of the spirit and give yourself over to his ministry. Heart and mind. Sometimes you almost find yourself doing it physically. So that when he gestures I almost find myself gesturing with him.

25:00 Enter in. Give yourself to prophetic utterance. Don't sit back like this. But like this.

25:08 See? Ah but he says with all that warmth of a burning heart not despising prophesying not quenching the spirit have a clear head. Prove all things. Oh the beauty when you see this fusion of a clear head and a burning heart.

25:25 You don't see it in many places. You don't see it in many individuals. Let a man start to get his head straight and his heart goes cold. He becomes a theologian and dry as dust.

25:38 Let another man begin to say ah we need the spirit. And he begins to get enthused and wants the warmth of the spirit and he throws theology out the window. And he's welcoming everything else along with the Holy Spirit that isn't the Holy Ghost. And then he'll even do as the Pentecostals recently did.

25:55 He'll even join arms with people flirting with Rome. Big segment of the Pentecostal church in South America just went into the World Council of Churches because it's their conviction that this experience in the Holy Ghost will be the unifying factor of Christendom. I've heard David Duplicy one of the most articulate spokesmen of that movement of Christendom say that this would be the unifying factor not truth but this baptism in the Holy Ghost. Jettison the clear head for the sake of the warm heart.

26:26 May God help us to see his ideal is a clear head and a burning heart. For individuals and then what is a church but a gathered group of individuals. Is it too much to expect we could have that here? I still think a number of us are quenching the spirit something terrible.

26:46 We're so afraid of excesses as old Vance Abner said so afraid of going out on the limb we never climb the tree. So afraid of fleshly enthusiasm we know very little of any kind of enthusiasm. May the Lord keep us from that. Here's the great doctrine of the fusion of the burning heart and of the clear head.

Practical Implication 1: All Christians Should Aspire to Be Theologians

27:09 Don't quench the spirit be open. Don't be gullible. Prove all things. Well these are the four great doctrinal implications that I see and then there are two very practical implications and I want to touch on them briefly in closing this morning.

27:24 First of all the practical or the duties implied along with the doctrines number one all Christians should aspire to be theologians. Yes you should. If every Christian is charged with responsibility put everything to the test and it's to be tested by objected truth and standard you've got to know what a yardstick is. In order to know whether or not something's a yard long.

27:55 You've got to know the difference between an inch and a foot. I wouldn't want to eat at your table if you don't know the difference between a teaspoon and a cup full. When it calls for half a teaspoon of salt and you put a half a cup full I'm going to fast that meal. No, no.

28:14 If you're going to master the culinary art you've got to learn what the weights and measurements are and you've got to know how to handle them. God's command to every Christian is put everything to the test. Well how can you put it to the test if you don't know what the objected standard is? And knowing what the standard is is being a theologian.

28:35 I don't mean you know Greek and Hebrew and talk with big words. By theologian I mean one who is deeply studied in the knowledge of God and of his truth. I'm talking about the kind of theology that humble wash scrub woman gets when on her knees she opens up her Bible and murdering the king's ignorance she says Lord I ain't very smart but won't you teach me? And she knows God and she knows his truth and when someone with very flowery language and with very persuasive subtle personality begins to deviate from that truth that little washer woman sitting out there says uh uh, uh uh.

29:15 He's three degrees off dead center has discernment. That's what I'm talking about. And there's no way to get this. But to be men and women of the book to know what it is to consistently expose ourselves to the word of God to take advantage of the opportunities available to us right here at our own book table to read and to expose ourselves to the ministry of those who've had peculiar gifts to articulate the truth of God.

29:46 When the text says prove all things and this comes to every Christian God is saying to every Christian you've got to be a theologian in your own right. That's his will for you. Don't say oh well I'm just not made that way. Well grace can make you that way.

Practical Implication 2: No Passive Listening or Giving Over to Influences

30:04 For what God commands grace can make you. The second great duty implication of this text is this there should be no passive listening to sermons or passive giving over to spiritual influences. Put everything to the test. And the very meaning of that word as we've described it examine, scrutinize.

30:30 It means a concentrated mental activity. Some people come to a service like this like a blank sheet of paper just wanting to have something written upon it. Others come like a musical instrument hoping that somebody will pull some strings that sound nice and make them feel good. In other words they come to be played upon emotionally or intellectually.

30:56 They do not come to be involved in the exercise. This text says prove all things. As the prophet is exercised in giving forth his prophecy and he's involved in that don't you be passive. Don't you be merely an instrument that he plays upon.

31:14 You be involved in scrutinizing examining, evaluating is what he says true to the word of God. Is the pronouncement in keeping with the objective standard. Through listening to sermons is a very taxing very taxing sometimes exhausting exercise. Because if a sermon is worth anything it's got some intellectual content that can only be grasped as you sweat up here.

31:47 It will make some very stringent moral demands upon you which can be very taxing in terms of the response of your own heart and will and affections. So in true preaching there's no part of the hearer that is in touch the mind, the spirit the affections, the will. Well if you're responding and entering in and proving you're not passive you're active. And the great example of that of course and some of you I'm sure have already thought of that text is Acts 17.

32:16 Where it says that those at Berea these were more noble than they at Thessalonica in that they received the word with readiness they despised not prophesying but they searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. They proved all things. You have both right there. They despised not prophesying received the word with readiness but they searched it out.

32:40 Is this true? I've said it so often it's perhaps become a Martin cliche. You're no friend to your own soul or friend to me if you believe anything simply because it's said across this pulpit. I don't care what your personal regard for me is.

32:56 You're no friend to your own soul no friend to me. If you do not have it confirmed in your own heart by the Holy Spirit and by the supporting evidence of scripture don't receive it. Don't receive it. Don't reject it.

33:13 Receive it in the sense of holding it here until you put it to the test and then he says when you've tested it hold fast that which is good. We'll deal with that in another text. That's the next another sermon. That's the next part of the text.

33:27 Now you just don't hold it up there and say oh well that's nice I'm not so sure so I'll just keep holding everything on the shelf. No, no. No, no. He says put it to the test and the second great duty then in a practical way is that there should be no passive listening to sermons or no passive giving over to spiritual influences.

33:49 You will come into certain situations especially in times when the Spirit of God is poured out in revival and if those times are going to come upon us you may need what I'm going to say this morning. The Holy Spirit never asked us to be passive. There's certain movements that say now just let your mind go blank. Just sort of open yourself.

34:14 Just take away all thought and Bible and doctrine and everything from your mind and just sort of open yourself to some influence that you hope God will bring into you. You beware of anything that leads to passivity. God says prove the spirits. Try them.

34:29 Put them to the test. That's an active thing. It's an active thing. I remember a very almost frightening chilling story of a missionary.

34:37 This is a true story. Over in China and there was an apparent movement of the Spirit of God and people were apparently getting unusually blessed and there were unusual manifestations of tongues and prophecies and this missionary like so many missionaries was discouraged and despondent because of his own lack of power. To cut the story short to get to the point of the principle he was in a meeting where the local Chinese evangelist who was the leader of this movement was preaching and he said the moment he came into this meeting he felt an unusual sense of love and melting and he said he just felt beginning like he wanted to weep. Such a warm glowing sense of something and it was beautiful. Emotionally it was very stirring and then this preacher went on to say now the problem with you people is this you've got a head full of theology and all that you think all of that's got to go dark. You've got to put it out of your mind like in the original creation there was darkness over the face of the deep and then God spoke light. You've got to enter that period of darkness.

35:42 Forget all your theology. Then just open yourself to the Spirit. Well he saw some of his colleagues do this and some of them were in one prostrate and began to speak in tongues and another one shouting for joy and his heart began to say oh I want this too and so he said I began to let myself go to this influence and he said I began to get numb at my feet and my ankles and my legs and my torso and he said when he got about that far I said oh God I plead the covering of the blood of Jesus Christ and he said just like that the numbness left him and he said to himself this thing whatever it is is afraid of the blood of Christ I want no part of it. His fellow missionaries who had this glorious experience glorious in quotes a month later said to him he said to him by his first name this was of the devil and he said oh you better be careful don't attribute what may have been he said no I have no question it was of the devil he said from that night when I gave myself over to that spirit he said I had nothing but darkness and heaviness and the only time I've had any joy is when I was in one of those meetings where everything was whipped into a furor and then like an addict who only has rest when he has his heroin in his bloodstream he said I'd feel some rest and peace but that's all until I had to examine this by the word until I came to the place where I acknowledged it was of the devil and in the name of Jesus Christ

37:08 I rebuked whatever spirit had taken hold of me and he said I'm a free man again prove all things now you may not need that this morning but the time may come when the spirit of God is poured out in such a way that we may need this text the true spirit of God is never offended when an earnest Christian says Lord I want to know if this is you or some other spirit if it's you I don't want to quench if it isn't I don't want to give myself over to it and so the second great duty then is that we should never be passive in the hearing of sermons in the reading of sermons in the so-called religious truth or in exposing ourselves to a quote spiritual atmosphere and planet prove all things hold fast that which is good so the command comes to us this morning the doctrinal implications I trust are clear to us there is a fixed standard of truth by which we examine there is this direct effect between what I believe and what I will be there is this glorious doctrine of the freedom of the individual conscience and there should be this fusion of a burning heart and a clear head the duties incumbent upon us

38:36 all of us should aspire to be theologians to know the relationship of one truth to another if this is true this can't be true and we should seek to be active in our listening to sermons and in our giving ourselves something that is supposed to be the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit prove all things that's your task and if the time should come when over this pulpit heresy is preached and some spirit other than the Holy Ghost is entertained it will be because some of you were too lazy to prove all things may God deliver you from such irresponsible laziness that would turn this church into a synagogue of Satan it could happen here it's happened in places where there have been far more able servants of God ministering the word prove all things it's costly it means self-denial but may the love of the truth drive us to obey let us pray in the name of Jesus amen