In Jude 17-25, Jude gave four instructions to follow if we would stand firm, not stumble, and resist the apostates: (1) Believe God’s Word (17-19), (2) Build our Christian life (20-21), (3) Battle for backsliders (22-23), and (4) Behold the Lord (24-25).
If we are to keep from stumbling in this age of apostasy then we must remember that the Lord warned us through His apostles, remembering what the apostles said (17) - that in the last days, mockers would come who would deny and depart from the word of God (18), and remembering why the apostles said it – because the apostates want to divide and deceive the church (19). We must believe the Word of God if we are to keep from stumbling.
Not only are we to believe God’s Word if we are to keep from stumbling, we must also build our Christian lives (20-21). With forces at work to tear us down and destroy us we must always be at work repairing and building up. Each Christian must be involved in building up his own spiritual life and also that of the local assembly. In these two verses we are given how to build our Christian lives so that we can keep from stumbling.
Study and know God’s Word (20a) – the foundation for our Christian life is our “most holy faith,” which is the same as “the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3). It is the body of truth that has been delivered to the saints which gives us faith in Jesus Christ, instructs us in righteousness, equips us for service, guards us from deceivers and nourishes our spiritual life. “Building yourselves up on your most holy faith” isn’t talking about some totally subjective, mystical, flesh powered ability to believe more but is talking about your faith being built up from the objective revelation of truth as found in God’s Word – faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. So if we are to build ourselves up on our most holy faith then we are to study and know God’s Word.
The Word of God is central in spiritual growth. There are no strong fruitful Christians who ignore the Bible and who ignore sound preaching of the Bible. People who don’t know the Bible cannot operate in faith and cannot be built up in the faith. They become prime candidates for deception and destruction. It is through God’s Word that we grow in respect to salvation and in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is our responsibility to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints – after all – God isn’t going to force feed us! We need to study and know God’s Word.
Pray in the Holy Spirit (20b) – the material for building the Christian life comes from studying God’s Word; the power for building the Christian life comes from proper prayer – praying in the Holy Spirit. The Word of God and prayer go together in spiritual growth. We read the Word to grow in faith, then we use that faith to ask God for what we need and for what His Word tells us we can have.
We are told that “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (1 John 5:14-15). This is what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit - that our prayers are in line with God’s will because our prayers have been born out of the Word of God and therefore our prayers are prayers of faith. So then, praying in the Holy Spirit is to pray according to the leading of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit leads in line with the Word of God. The opposite of praying in faith or praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in the flesh. Someone who isn’t in God’s Word and doesn’t really know God’s word is going to pray in the flesh if they pray at all. And we are told that praying in the flesh goes unanswered – “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3).
Also as Christians we may pray in solitude but we never pray alone; the Spirit of God joins with us and helps us as we pray in faith because He knows the mind of God and can direct us. When the believer is studying the Word and is yielded to the Holy Spirit, then the Spirit will assist him in his prayer life, and God will answer his prayers. One of the things the Spirit will prompt you to pray for as you study God’s Word is discernment. You will realize that you don’t have the ability in and of yourself to know who is true and who is false and so you will pray for God to reveal that to you. This is what the Lord was talking about in Matthew 7:7-8 – praying for discernment.
To build our Christian lives we must study and know the Word of God and pray in the Holy Spirit. But we must also keep ourselves in the love of God (21a). This entails obedience. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love…” (John 15:10). Put another way, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments"(John 14:15). Jude tells us that we are being kept for Jesus Christ (1) and that Jesus is able to keep us from stumbling (24) but he also tells us that we are to keep ourselves in the word of God and keep ourselves in the love of God. Christians are to be marked by knowing and obeying God’s Word. Apostates are marked by departing from and disobeying God’s Word. Christians obey God because they love God – “But whoever keeps His Word, in Him the love of God has truly been perfected” (1 John 2:5). It is the obedient Christian who keeps himself in the love of God.
To build our Christian lives we must study and know the Word of God, pray in the Holy Spirit and obey. But we must also wait with hope (21b). The believer’s eyes must be looking for Jesus to come. We must be living for and longing for His glorious appearing. This will give us motivation to live righteously and sensibly in this present age.
“Waiting anxiously” means “earnestly expecting.” It describes an attitude of life that is motivated by the promise of the Lord’s return. On that day the apostates will receive judgment but God’s people will receive mercy and deliverance and eternal life.
Showing posts with label Bible-study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible-study. Show all posts
Monday, January 26, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
How to Keep from Stumbling...Believe God's Word
Apostates are a perilous and dangerous presence among God’s people. Apostates are stealthy, creeping in unnoticed, secretly introducing destructive heresies, and turning the grace of God into licentiousness. Apostates are easily misidentified as part of the body while all the while they are destroying and defiling the body. Apostates are a major cause of stumbling for the people of God as they enter in among us and soil and stain the bride of Christ with their sensuality, carnality, and rebellion all disguised as spirituality.
God in His love, mercy, and grace has warned us in His word of these apostates, their characteristics, the certainty of their entrance among us, and their dangerous influence as a little leaven will leaven the whole lump. But God in His love, mercy, and grace has also told us in His word how to keep from stumbling in these days of apostasy. In Jude 17-25, Jude gave four instructions to follow if we would stand firm, not stumble, and resist the apostates: (1) Believe God’s Word (17-19), (2) Build your Christian life (20-21), (3) Battle for backsliders (22-23), and (4) Behold the Lord (24-25).
Believe God’s Word (17-19). From the very beginning Satan has attacked God’s Word. “Indeed, has God said?” (Genesis 3:1) was his opening attack against God and it is still his primary method of deception through the apostates today. Once we begin to question God’s Word, we have no other recourse for determining truth, and we become vulnerable to Satan’s lies, for only the truth of the Word will protect us from the lies of the devil and his ministers. Doubting God’s Word and departing from God’s Word is what characterizes apostates who would cause others to stumble, so believing God’s Word and heeding God’s word is a sure antidote to apostasy. Knowing and believing God’s Word is what protects us from would-be-deceivers. “To the law and to the testimony [to the word of God]; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world….They [false prophets] are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We [true prophets] are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:1, 5-6).
In believing God’s Word there are three things we should remember – who, what, and why: who gave the word, what they said, and why they said it.
Remember who gave the Word (17) – the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word apostle means one who is sent with a commission. The Lord committed the faith, the body of truth to His apostles that they were to guard, teach, and preserve. Wherever the truth of God’s Word is proclaimed, the devil and his ministers go to work twisting, distorting, corrupting, and counterfeiting in order to steal, kill and destroy. In the early church false apostles and teachers began to appear and in order to protect the church from false prophecies and forged letters, every truth claim had to be evaluated in the light of not only the Old Testament Scriptures but also in light of apostolic teaching. One of the main tests in the early church to determine if something was true was, “Is this what the apostles taught?” Apostolic teaching was and still is the test of truth.
Jude said to “remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ” because at first there were no New Testament letters. However, over time and of necessity the apostles wrote letters that were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The apostle Peter acknowledged the trustworthiness of apostolic writing by declaring that what the apostle Paul wrote was actually Scripture – “And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and the unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15-16).
Since we now have the completed Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, we no longer depend on tradition and we resort to the Word of God to know and verify truth. Whenever someone offers a “new revelation” we test it by what the prophets taught, what the Lord Jesus taught, and what the apostles of our Lord taught. If you do what you are supposed to and believe God’s Word you will not stumble over these apostates and their so-called “new revelations” but will discover that it is actually a lie.
Remember what they said (18) – that in the last days, mockers would come who would deny and depart from the word of God. We have recorded in the Bible for us what the apostles said about the apostates of the last days. The apostle Peter said, “Know this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3). The apostle Paul said, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). The apostle Paul also said, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). The apostle John said, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). The apostles of the Lord warned about the apostates many times and when a warning is given so many times we should take it seriously.
Apostates mock God’s Word by denying it and they deny it because they don’t want God to tell them how to live – instead they want to “follow after their own ungodly lusts.” They want to satisfy their own sinful desires and God’s Word condemns their selfish and sinful way of life. Therefore apostates distort God’s Word, they doubt God’s Word, and they darken God’s Word to their own destruction. And they will cause many to stumble who don’t remember what the apostles said about this subject. Before Satan can substitute his own lies, he must get rid of the truth of God’s Word and we have been warned by the apostles of the Lord that he would attempt to do that through the apostates.
Remember why they said it (19) – the apostates want to divide the church and lead people out of the true fellowship into their false fellowship. “And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). Through the apostates the devil wants to defile the church, harm her testimony, steal her power, kill her influence, and destroy her reputation. The apostates offer a “higher quality of religion” than that of the apostles as found in the Word of God. Theirs is a mystical, mysterious, relationship to God that doesn’t have to be based on the Word of God and many will follow their sensuality.
Not only do the apostates divide the church, but they also deceive the church, because they are worldly-minded, merely natural, devoid of the Spirit. Because the apostates do not have the Spirit of God, they must function on their natural soulish power alone. Therefore they operate by the flesh and not by faith and this must be true because apostates deny and depart from God’s Word and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.
One of the tragedies of today is that many people cannot discern between flesh and faith; between that which is soulish and that which is truly spiritual. There is so much religious showmanship these days that the saints are confused and deceived. There is way too much false fire in the church today and therefore we must exercise careful discernment.
How can we exercise careful discernment and keep from stumbling in these days of apostasy? By believing God’s Word, remembering that the Lord gave us this warning through His apostles, remembering what the apostles said, that in the last days, mockers would come who would deny and depart from the word of God, and remembering why the apostles said it – because the apostates want to divide and deceive the church.
You don’t have to stumble – and it is every pastor’s responsibility to guard the flock from the perilous and dangerous presence of apostates.
God in His love, mercy, and grace has warned us in His word of these apostates, their characteristics, the certainty of their entrance among us, and their dangerous influence as a little leaven will leaven the whole lump. But God in His love, mercy, and grace has also told us in His word how to keep from stumbling in these days of apostasy. In Jude 17-25, Jude gave four instructions to follow if we would stand firm, not stumble, and resist the apostates: (1) Believe God’s Word (17-19), (2) Build your Christian life (20-21), (3) Battle for backsliders (22-23), and (4) Behold the Lord (24-25).
Believe God’s Word (17-19). From the very beginning Satan has attacked God’s Word. “Indeed, has God said?” (Genesis 3:1) was his opening attack against God and it is still his primary method of deception through the apostates today. Once we begin to question God’s Word, we have no other recourse for determining truth, and we become vulnerable to Satan’s lies, for only the truth of the Word will protect us from the lies of the devil and his ministers. Doubting God’s Word and departing from God’s Word is what characterizes apostates who would cause others to stumble, so believing God’s Word and heeding God’s word is a sure antidote to apostasy. Knowing and believing God’s Word is what protects us from would-be-deceivers. “To the law and to the testimony [to the word of God]; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world….They [false prophets] are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We [true prophets] are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:1, 5-6).
In believing God’s Word there are three things we should remember – who, what, and why: who gave the word, what they said, and why they said it.
Remember who gave the Word (17) – the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word apostle means one who is sent with a commission. The Lord committed the faith, the body of truth to His apostles that they were to guard, teach, and preserve. Wherever the truth of God’s Word is proclaimed, the devil and his ministers go to work twisting, distorting, corrupting, and counterfeiting in order to steal, kill and destroy. In the early church false apostles and teachers began to appear and in order to protect the church from false prophecies and forged letters, every truth claim had to be evaluated in the light of not only the Old Testament Scriptures but also in light of apostolic teaching. One of the main tests in the early church to determine if something was true was, “Is this what the apostles taught?” Apostolic teaching was and still is the test of truth.
Jude said to “remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ” because at first there were no New Testament letters. However, over time and of necessity the apostles wrote letters that were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The apostle Peter acknowledged the trustworthiness of apostolic writing by declaring that what the apostle Paul wrote was actually Scripture – “And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and the unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15-16).
Since we now have the completed Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, we no longer depend on tradition and we resort to the Word of God to know and verify truth. Whenever someone offers a “new revelation” we test it by what the prophets taught, what the Lord Jesus taught, and what the apostles of our Lord taught. If you do what you are supposed to and believe God’s Word you will not stumble over these apostates and their so-called “new revelations” but will discover that it is actually a lie.
Remember what they said (18) – that in the last days, mockers would come who would deny and depart from the word of God. We have recorded in the Bible for us what the apostles said about the apostates of the last days. The apostle Peter said, “Know this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3). The apostle Paul said, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). The apostle Paul also said, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). The apostle John said, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). The apostles of the Lord warned about the apostates many times and when a warning is given so many times we should take it seriously.
Apostates mock God’s Word by denying it and they deny it because they don’t want God to tell them how to live – instead they want to “follow after their own ungodly lusts.” They want to satisfy their own sinful desires and God’s Word condemns their selfish and sinful way of life. Therefore apostates distort God’s Word, they doubt God’s Word, and they darken God’s Word to their own destruction. And they will cause many to stumble who don’t remember what the apostles said about this subject. Before Satan can substitute his own lies, he must get rid of the truth of God’s Word and we have been warned by the apostles of the Lord that he would attempt to do that through the apostates.
Remember why they said it (19) – the apostates want to divide the church and lead people out of the true fellowship into their false fellowship. “And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). Through the apostates the devil wants to defile the church, harm her testimony, steal her power, kill her influence, and destroy her reputation. The apostates offer a “higher quality of religion” than that of the apostles as found in the Word of God. Theirs is a mystical, mysterious, relationship to God that doesn’t have to be based on the Word of God and many will follow their sensuality.
Not only do the apostates divide the church, but they also deceive the church, because they are worldly-minded, merely natural, devoid of the Spirit. Because the apostates do not have the Spirit of God, they must function on their natural soulish power alone. Therefore they operate by the flesh and not by faith and this must be true because apostates deny and depart from God’s Word and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.
One of the tragedies of today is that many people cannot discern between flesh and faith; between that which is soulish and that which is truly spiritual. There is so much religious showmanship these days that the saints are confused and deceived. There is way too much false fire in the church today and therefore we must exercise careful discernment.
How can we exercise careful discernment and keep from stumbling in these days of apostasy? By believing God’s Word, remembering that the Lord gave us this warning through His apostles, remembering what the apostles said, that in the last days, mockers would come who would deny and depart from the word of God, and remembering why the apostles said it – because the apostates want to divide and deceive the church.
You don’t have to stumble – and it is every pastor’s responsibility to guard the flock from the perilous and dangerous presence of apostates.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Some Disturbing Trends in the Blogosphere!
First let me say that I am all for discernment and both preach and practice it. Even my blog is to be considered a “discernment ministry.” And not only that, I believe that any ministry which fails to equip the saints to be able to discern the difference between truth and error, light and darkness, and good and evil, is not a genuinely biblical ministry but more like a positive only, stand against nothing, sugar-coated lie. With that being said, it is not the perpetuators of the “non-discernment” ministries that I want to address but my concerns with some of the disturbing trends among those of us with discernment ministries. I have several concerns regarding these disturbing trends that all of us (me included) who are earnestly contending for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints need to beware of and avoid. So I ask for prayers for myself and for others that we would be delivered from these unworthy tendencies.
First, what has come to my attention more than ever is the ungodly spirit of competition among many involved in this kind of ministry. It seems to me that the goal is to be the “first” to sound the trumpet against approaching danger possibly so that we can be considered the “greatest in the kingdom of God.” However we are forgetting that the work is great and extensive, and we are separated on the wall far from one another – and that when we hear the sound of the trumpet, we are to rally together in that place (see Nehemiah 4:19-20).
Next, I’m concerned with the tendency to be contentious rather than actually contending for the faith. Contentiousness is driven by the spirit of competition and especially shows up when we are more concerned with revealing our opinions as though they are God’s truth (see Proverbs 18:2, 13) than we are in not being quarrelsome, but being kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, and with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth (see 2 Timothy 2:24-25).
Finally, I’m concerned with the tendency to be duplicitous and hypocritical rather than being fully convinced from careful Bible study, prayer, and research on the various subjects on which we blog. For instance, if I am not fully convinced that someone is a false prophet/teacher and consider him to be a “brother in Christ” then I cannot say about him in one thread that what he teaches is “wicked, strange” and then in another thread sing his praises for what I perceive to be something good without being duplicitous and hypocritical. For one thing if I consider him my “brother in Christ” then I should never in any form or fashion accuse his teachings of being “wicked, strange” because that does not mark children of God but false prophets/teachers. Actually, this becomes a reversal of Matthew 7 and moves out of the realm of genuine discernment concerning false prophets (which we are commanded to do) and into the realm of the type of judgment that the Lord told us not to do in that chapter. This type of action, speaking out against someone we consider to be a “brother in Christ” using words that characterize false prophets/teachers and then singing his praises later because he helps to further our “opinion” on another subject is tantamount to leading a charge into the battlefield as though we are some kind of great soldier for the Lord and then refusing to fight because we “misidentified” the enemy – it is duplicity and hypocrisy.
You may have other concerns about disturbing trends among discernment ministries in the blogosphere but these are the ones that I see at this time and pray that God would deliver us from.
Amen!
First, what has come to my attention more than ever is the ungodly spirit of competition among many involved in this kind of ministry. It seems to me that the goal is to be the “first” to sound the trumpet against approaching danger possibly so that we can be considered the “greatest in the kingdom of God.” However we are forgetting that the work is great and extensive, and we are separated on the wall far from one another – and that when we hear the sound of the trumpet, we are to rally together in that place (see Nehemiah 4:19-20).
Next, I’m concerned with the tendency to be contentious rather than actually contending for the faith. Contentiousness is driven by the spirit of competition and especially shows up when we are more concerned with revealing our opinions as though they are God’s truth (see Proverbs 18:2, 13) than we are in not being quarrelsome, but being kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, and with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth (see 2 Timothy 2:24-25).
Finally, I’m concerned with the tendency to be duplicitous and hypocritical rather than being fully convinced from careful Bible study, prayer, and research on the various subjects on which we blog. For instance, if I am not fully convinced that someone is a false prophet/teacher and consider him to be a “brother in Christ” then I cannot say about him in one thread that what he teaches is “wicked, strange” and then in another thread sing his praises for what I perceive to be something good without being duplicitous and hypocritical. For one thing if I consider him my “brother in Christ” then I should never in any form or fashion accuse his teachings of being “wicked, strange” because that does not mark children of God but false prophets/teachers. Actually, this becomes a reversal of Matthew 7 and moves out of the realm of genuine discernment concerning false prophets (which we are commanded to do) and into the realm of the type of judgment that the Lord told us not to do in that chapter. This type of action, speaking out against someone we consider to be a “brother in Christ” using words that characterize false prophets/teachers and then singing his praises later because he helps to further our “opinion” on another subject is tantamount to leading a charge into the battlefield as though we are some kind of great soldier for the Lord and then refusing to fight because we “misidentified” the enemy – it is duplicity and hypocrisy.
You may have other concerns about disturbing trends among discernment ministries in the blogosphere but these are the ones that I see at this time and pray that God would deliver us from.
Amen!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
God's Provision for my Dilemma...prayer and Bible study are necessary for discernment regarding false teachers!
Matthew 5 is about true righteousness. Matthew 6 is about true worship. Matthew 7 is about true judgment. But what seems so strange is why did our Lord say these words about prayer at this particular point (Matthew 7:7-11)? Why do these words come at this particular place in the Sermon on the Mount? What does prayer have to do with true judgment?All of these are good questions to which we must find the right answers to be sure that we have the right interpretation of this passage. We must avoid the terrible danger of twisting the Scriptures to our own destruction. The only way to guard against the danger of twisting the Scriptures is to keep them in their context.
There is a theme running right through the chapter and it is the theme of judgment. Therefore this section will also deal with judgment just like the rest of the chapter. But what doesn’t seem to be clear at first becomes clearer and clearer the more we look into the Scriptures seeking their true meaning. The Lord has already given us two opposite statements in Matthew 7:1-6 to which we must be obedient to if we are to live an effective Christian life. He said, “Do not judge lest you be judged” (Matthew 7:1) and “Do not give what is holy to dogs...” (Matthew 7:6). And then again, "Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15).
On the one hand we are not to judge and on the other hand we are to judge. On the one hand we are not to have a critical, condemning, contemptuous spirit and on the other hand we are to have a discriminating, detecting, and discerning spirit. I don’t know about you but I know that I am not adequate or sufficient for these things. How can I possibly know who is true and who is false? How can I know if I am being judgmental or if I am being discerning? I need help and grace! I need knowledge and wisdom that I do not have. Where can I get it?
Here is the answer: “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). It is here that I find God’s provision for my dilemma.
In these verses, Matthew 7:7-11, the Lord was speaking of prayer and Bible-study and persistence in it as God's provision for making a righteous judgment. He has not left us as orphans and we can know who is and who isn't a false prophet or false teacher. Matthew 7:7 is Proverbs 2:1-22 condensed or concentrated into a powerful and succinct statement regarding how to have discernment and discretion.
In Proverbs 2:1-22 the principles of asking, seeking, and knocking in order to have discernment are elucidated. First and foremost the principles of asking and seeking - prayer and Bible-study - are set forth:
"My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding" - there must be a reception and love for the Word of God (Proverbs 2:1-2).
Prayer - "Ask, and it shall be given to you" (Matthew 7:7a) - "For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding" (Proverbs 2:3).
Bible-study - "Seek, and you shall find" (Matthew 7:7b) - "If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and he preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course" (Proverbs 2:4-9).
Then the principle of persistence is set forth:
Persistence - "Knock, and it shall be opened to you (Matthew 7:7c) - "For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul" (Proverbs 2:10).
Then: "Discernment will guard you, understanding will watch over you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things; from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil; whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways" (Proverbs 2:11-15).
Proverbs 2:16-22 deals with the strange woman, the adulteress who flatters with her words - false and apostate religion - and how you will be delivered from her!
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