Well, good evening. Good evening. Am I on? Can y'all hear me? You can? OK. Hope everyone is doing well tonight. And it is a joy to be with you tonight. It truly is. I've really, really been looking forward to this time with you. Dax and I got to know one another back in our seminary days. And so it's a joy to be in this church here. And I'm so very grateful for the opportunity and the invitation, Dax, Open up your pulpit to me. It is a joy to be with you. I would also say, though, that what I'm about to do is terrifying. It is a terrifying thing to get up and to preach God's Word because of the weight of the task and the one whom it is we are representing. God is spirit and he must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. And so it is it is no light matter when a man gets up and preaches the word of God. It's very solemn task. It is a joy to do it, but it is it is a great responsibility. And I read an interview by Paul Washer. Not too long ago, and he said that he said preaching is a dangerous thing. It's dangerous for the preacher. Because, again, of the weight of the task, and James says, let not many of you desire to be teachers, my brethren, knowing that we will incur a stricter judgment. So it is a dangerous thing for the preacher. It is also dangerous for the hearer. Because what you hear, provided that you are hearing God's word rightly divided, what you hear, you will be responsible for. You'll be accountable for that. for what we know. So it is a task that I take very seriously. I want you to know as we begin, as we go through the next few days together, in all likelihood, I may name some names, possibly name some names of some people that you may like. And from time to time, I may teach something that goes against some commonly held beliefs. Maybe goes against some things that we've kind of accepted in church tradition and just assumed to be true, but not necessarily really grounded in Scripture. And so as we go along, I may step on some toes. I may ruffle a few feathers. I want you to know, though, that that is not my intention. I am not deliberately setting out to ruffle any feathers or step on any toes. Not at all. But I want you to know that everything that I teach over these next few days, I will be teaching from my very, very best understanding of God's word. my very best understanding of God's word. And so I do pledge that to you. I am looking forward to our time together. And I thank you so very much for coming. I think we have a number of visitors from other areas. And I hear maybe some folks even came across the state line to get here. So any visitors certainly want to welcome you. Thank you for driving a ways to get here. I'm honored that you came. Let's let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer and then we'll begin. Father, we do thank you for this day that has fallen from your hand towards us. And Lord, I thank you for all these that have gathered. Lord, I believe that we are all here because we desire to know truth, and in so doing, we come to know You more because You are truth. And so, as we go through these next few days, we would pray that Your Holy Spirit would guide us into the truth of Your Word, that He would sanctify us in Your truth, that He would illumine the meaning of Your Word that You have sovereignly provided for us over these many centuries that You have preserved for us. Pray that Your Holy Spirit would illumine that Word to us, to our minds, to our hearts. That we would embrace these truths. They would become emblazoned. on our hearts and minds. And in so doing, we would live lives of obedience to Your Word. We would live lives that glorify You, bring honor to You. We would carry Your name well. And so, Lord, as we go, we pray that everything that's done and said would bring honor and glory to Christ. It is for Him that we are here. We do indeed have an audience of but one. In these things we ask in His name, Amen. OK, well. What we will be doing over the next few days I will be presenting to you this seminar entitled clouds without water and God is graciously opened up for me a ministry of evangelism. I almost hesitate to tell people I'm an evangelist because when you think of an evangelist. More often than not, you actually think about the kind of people that I will be critiquing over the next few days, so. Sometimes I just say I'm an itinerant preacher, something like that, but my first love is preaching, just preaching God's word. Verse by verse, but another aspect of my ministry is ministry to which God has entrusted me is a seminar entitled Clouds Without Water and Clouds Without Water is a reference in Jude, verse 12. Jude's a short little book. And in verse 12, Jude refers to false teachers in a number of different ways. He says they are men who are hidden reefs in your love feast when they feast with you without fear, caring only for themselves. And he says they are clouds without water. And the picture here is that false teachers have the appearance of some sustenance, have the appearance of having something to offer something to give, but there's no nourishment. There's no there's no true nourishment that falls from them. It leaves the ground below them dry and parched. And so that is kind of the picture here that Jude. Draws for us in this reference to false teachers, clouds without water and the seminar specifically is dealing with what is known as the word of faith movement. The word of faith movement is the proper name given to a movement that's more commonly known as The health and wealth gospel, the prosperity gospel, name and acclaim it gospel. Basically, the doctrine that says it is always God's will for a Christian to be wealthy and it is always God's will for a Christian to be physically healed. We should never be sick or if we do get sick, physical healing is guaranteed, provided that we have enough faith. And Word Faith Theology dominates today what we see on Christian cable and satellite television networks such as TBN, the Inspiration Network, Daystar, La Silla Broadcasting, the Word Network, and any number of local outlets and affiliates all across the United States and indeed around the world. And sadly, word of faith theology, prosperity theology is the face of Christianity in most of the world today around the world today. Christianity is really known by one of two things, unfortunately, either Roman Catholicism. or word of faith or a mixture of the two. And I can tell you from my travels overseas, I've been to a number of different countries preaching this same seminar. And as popular as the prosperity preachers are here, it's even worse overseas. It's far worse in Africa, in Central and South America, in Asia and the Philippines. It's far worse over there than it is even here. And so this is something, unfortunately, the United States of America has created this theology and we have exported this theological poison to the rest of the world. And now what we see today, there are indigenous preachers, prosperity preachers who have learned the tricks of the trade by watching American television and they are exploiting their own little flocks, if you will, in countries all around the world. And you might notice I have the abbreviations here. N.A.R. What that is, that stands for New Apostolic Reformation. New Apostolic Reformation. It's basically the same thing as Word of Faith. It's kind of a little sister movement to it. It's everything that Word of Faith is, even worse, has even more emphasis on miracles and signs and wonders, healing. They have a real emphasis on modern day apostles. We'll talk about that as we progress through the seminar. So when you think of Word of Faith, N.A.R. New Apostolic Reformation basically the same thing they have. There's a little bit of a distinction but not a great deal of difference if that makes sense. Word of Faith Theology, Prosperity Theology is what's that popping? Is that me? Is it? Okay. Led today by people such as Benny Hinn, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, Joyce Meyer, Paula White, Joseph Prince. These are some of the big luminaries of the Word of Faith movement. By no means are they the only ones who teach it. These are just the people you see on television. They're just the big guns, if you will, and we'll be looking at that. Just briefly, to give you a little bit of background information as to how I became interested and exposed to this movement, I was born with cerebral palsy. And when I was 16 years old, a neighbor of mine came up to me And he said, Justin, God has spoken to me and he's told me that he's going to heal you as long as you have enough faith. And at age 16, this really resonated with me. I wanted to be healed. You know, I wanted to be able to run and play football and and do all the things that my friends were doing. And so I really latched on to that. And at the time, I wasn't even a Christian. I thought I was, but I wasn't. But I really latched on to it. And he told me about a faith healer who was coming to my hometown, Vicksburg, Mississippi, named Nora Lamb. Nora Lamb wrote a book entitled China Crime, which she detailed supposedly how God brought her out of communist China. Basically, the whole story was made up. Nora Lamb was a liar. But at any rate, so I went to see Nora Lamb. I was firmly, fully believing that I was going to be healed. And so I went to the meeting and obviously, I was not healed and that is not something about which I'm bitter. Some people say that the reason I do these seminars now is that I'm bitter that I wasn't healed when I was a teenager. But dear ones, I can tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. If I have to live the rest of my life with cerebral palsy, that's fine. You know, I've got all of eternity to live without it. So, you know, it's really neither here nor there. But in God's sovereignty that is what he used to to kind of expose me to it and open me up to the to the deception of it. It wasn't until years years later that I actually began to study this movement at a more academic level. And what I came to realize is that the prosperity gospel is not Christian at all. It is actually rooted in the metaphysical cults. like Christian science, New Age, New Thought, Gnosticism, even some Kabbalah, if you can believe that. And what you see on Christian television, when you turn on Christian television, upwards of 95% of what you see on Christian television isn't Christian. It's cultic doctrine that has been wrapped in some Christianese, some Christian lingo to make it appear Christian when it is anything but. And so What we will do is tonight, we're not going to really look at the Word of Faith movement per se. What I want us to do tonight is just kind of lay some groundwork. What I want us to do tonight is talk about discernment. Discernment in general. What does the Bible have to say about discernment? The biblical precedent for discernment? And then we will answer some of the common objections that people will raise when we encourage them to exercise discernment themselves, or if we warn others about false teachers, a lot of people won't like that and they'll have some objections to it. And so what I want us to do is we'll look at these objections and then we will answer them from scripture. Okay. So if you have your outline, you can just kind of follow along here. Discernment. What does the Bible have to say about it? Well, the primary word for discernment in the Hebrew language in the Old Testament is the word Ben. And Ben means insight, understanding. It means to separate things from one another at their points of difference in order to make a distinction. And this word Ben is used some 250 times throughout the Old Testament. So discernment is a prominent theme in the Old Testament, as it is In the new, the primary word in the Greek language in our New Testaments in the noun form is the word diacrisis. And diacrisis means a distinguishing, a clear discrimination, judging. Oh, well, I didn't think we were supposed to judge as Christians. Well, we'll look at that in just a little bit. And in the verb form of the same word as the word anachrono, it means to distinguish, to separate out, to test. Dear friends, we are to test all things. First Thessalonians 521, we're to test all things, and that's not written there just to take up the white spaces. It's there for a reason. We're to test everything through the lens of Scripture. We're to test ourselves. We're to examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith. Discernment is not an option for the Christian. It's not an option. It's a duty. It's a mandate. Now, there is a spiritual gift of discernment. Some people upon their conversion are given by the Holy Spirit of God the gift of discernment. And so for some Christians, that comes very naturally or very supernaturally, if you will. But for most people, for most Christians, they don't have the gift of discernment. And contrary to what a lot of people think of me, I don't have it either. I don't think it's my primary spiritual gift. I think it's my wife's, but I don't think it's mine. But just because it may not be your gift. That's not an excuse not to exercise discernment. OK, you may not have the gift of mercy either as your primary spiritual gift, but guess what? What can we all do? We can all still exercise mercy. We can all still show people mercy. So it's a cop-out to say, oh, discernment, that's just not my spiritual gift. I'm going to leave that for somebody else. No, that's a cop-out. That's an excuse. It is incumbent upon all of us to exercise discernment, to test all things through the lens of Scripture. It's not an option. It is a mandate. And one of the things that makes discernment, excuse me, one of the things that makes the prosperity gospel so appealing to people, what makes false teachers so appealing to people in general, is that not everything that false teachers teach is false. Some of it's right. Some of what Benny Hinn teaches is right. But there is enough poison in it, enough error to corrupt the entire thing. Given illustration, I have a, this is actually diet Mountain Dew, but I have some diet Mountain Dew here and you know, it's fine. I can drink this and have been drinking a little bit of it. What if I were to put in some, just a little bit of strychnine into this diet Mountain Dew? Let it dissolve. Then should I drink it? No. It would kill me. Graveyard dead. Ninety nine point nine percent of it would be perfectly fine, but there would be just enough poison in it to do me great harm. And the same can be said of the word of faith movement, though the percentage of error and heresy in the word of faith movement is far, far higher than in the illustration of the strychnine that I just gave you. Far, far higher. The quintessential passage for discernment in the New Testament has got to be Acts chapter 17, verse 11. Acts 17, verse 11. For the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, searching the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. The Apostle Paul and Silas were out preaching Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of all the Old Testament Messianic prophecies. And Paul and Silas came to the city of Thessalonica, but in Thessalonica, Paul and Silas were not received well at all, nor was their message. And so they left there and they came to the city of Berea. And in Berea, Paul and Silas were received quite well, as was their message. And notice that the Bible says that the Bereans were considered more noble. Now, why were the Bereans considered more noble? Why does the Bible call the Bereans noble people? Well, I think we have three indications in this one verse of scripture why the Bereans were considered noble people. Number one, the Bereans were considered noble because they studied the law. They were students of God's word. Dear ones, we must be good students of the word of God. God has revealed himself to us in his son, Jesus Christ, and we have a perfect, inerrant, infallible, all sufficient record of that in his word. And we cannot know God apart from knowing his word. So we must be good students of the word of God. And it's tragic today that for the vast majority of professing Christians. Doctrine and theology have almost become bad words. And you may have heard somebody express a sentiment Something kind of like this. Well, well, I don't I don't need doctrine. I don't need theology. I just love Jesus. That is a foolish statement. That is a foolish statement. Dear friends, if we love Jesus as much as we profess to love him. Then don't you think we'd want to get to know him? And the only way to get to know Him is by knowing Him in His Word. And it is sound doctrine. It is right theology that deepens our knowledge of God. It deepens our knowledge of God. And when our knowledge of God is deepened, that enables our love for God to be deepened. It's tragic today that most people, they don't want doctrine. They don't want theology. Oh, they'll profess their love for Christ till the cows come home. They'll shout it from the rooftops. But they don't spend any time in this book. They don't study the word. And so many professing Christians, they may show up to church on Sunday mornings and they may bring their Bibles with them. But chances are during the week. Rarely, if ever, pick it up. Or if we do, it's just kind of in a casual sense. We don't really study the Word of God. A lot of people pick up the little open windows or read some little ditty out of Chicken Soup for the Soul and think they're getting their spiritual nourishment for the day. If that's your spiritual nourishment, you're starving. Friends, we must study the Word of God. Man, when you fell in love with your wife, you studied her, right? You wanted to know, how does she like her coffee? What's her favorite food to eat? What does she like to do? You wanted to know what pleased her. You studied her. The more you studied her, the more in love you fell with her. And so if we truly love Christ the way we say we do, why are we not studying His Word? That's the only way to get to know Him. That's it. There are no shortcuts. to getting to know God, it comes through studying His Word. And it's tragic today that so many people have somehow, in their minds, they have somehow divorced knowledge of God and love for God. Most people have separated those things. The Bible does not do this. Philippians 1, verse 9, the Apostle Paul writes, "...in this I pray that your..." What? "...love may abound still more and more in what? Knowledge and discernment. The Bible never separates knowledge of God and love for God. Never separates those things. Always combines them. Always combines them. And men, I want to address you for just a minute, fellas. And guys, I'm about to make some of you really uncomfortable. because I'm about to challenge you in front of your wives, maybe in front of your kids. Men, it is our responsibility to teach the Word of God to our wives and to our children. It is our responsibility to be the spiritual leader in the home. And men, being the spiritual leader in the home does not simply mean taking your family to church on Sunday morning. That's not being the spiritual leader in the home. A lot of men think it is. A lot of men think, oh, if I take my family to church on Sunday, that's being the spiritual leader. Or if I say the blessing over the evening meal, that's really going the extra mile. You've barely scratched the surface, guys. Being the spiritual leader in the home means that it is our responsibility to teach the Word of God to our wives, to our children. It's our responsibility to do that. Do you know that studies show, and these numbers are a little hard to quantify, but most studies show that somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of kids who are raised in Christian homes And we're not talking about Catholics here. We're talking about evangelical Christian homes. And they make professions of faith in Christ at very early ages. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. They make professions of faith in Christ and they get baptized and they're raised in church. Once they grow up and they leave home and they go off to college or they start their own adult lives, start their own families. Once they leave home, guess what else they're leaving? They're leaving the church, and they're not coming back. Oh, but they got saved. They got baptized. They may have been baptized, but they were not saved. Because, dear ones, if you stray from the Lord Jesus, if you belong to Him and you stray from Christ, you can do that for a season. But not indefinitely. If you stray from the Lord Jesus, He will discipline you, Hebrews chapter 12, He will discipline you and He will bring you back. So all these people running around, professing their faith and crying, Oh yeah, I'm a Christian. Yeah, I may be living like the world and I'm out there doing this, doing that, and I'm No difference between how I live and the rest of the world lives. But I prayed that prayer when I was six years old. I got baptized. Well, you may have. You weren't saved. And men, the responsibility of this, in large part, lies at our feet. It lies at our feet. Because what has happened in the last, say, 70 years or so, It's gotten worse and worse all the time, but starting about 70 years or so ago, what's happened is that the vast majority of Christian men have exported their spiritual responsibilities to the Sunday school teacher or to the youth group leader. And men today think, well, my kids are getting everything they need in Sunday school. My teenagers are getting everything they need in the youth group. No, they're not. No, they're not. Men, the very best Sunday school teacher with the very best of intentions cannot do what God has designed you and me to do. Can't do it. I'm not against Sunday school. I'm not against, you know, youth groups, most of them, aren't any good, but you know, in and of itself, I'm... But man, those things should be supplemental. Supplemental. Don't shoot the messenger, guys. Deuteronomy chapter 11. This is God speaking. You shall therefore impress these words of Mine on your heart and on your soul. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you rise up." Men, are you doing this? Are you teaching the Word of God to your wives? To your kids? Are you talking about the things of the Lord with them on a regular basis? That's your job. It's your job. Now, it is possible that a man can do everything right. And I've seen this. I've seen this. It is possible you can teach your kids the Word of God. You can teach them. You can teach them the ways of the Lord and teach them the gospel, read Scripture to them, do everything right. And when your kids grow up, they still rebel. That does happen. But the vast majority, the vast, vast majority of what's going on today is that men aren't doing this. They're just not. They leave it to the Sunday school teacher. It's not the Sunday school teacher's job, guys. It's ours. Teach the Word of God to your family. Live it out. And men, protect your marriages. Protect your marriages. That's being the spiritual leader in the home. Also, the Bereans were considered noble because they received the gospel with ready, engaged minds. One of the things that you'll notice about false teachers is that false teachers, they actually encourage you to disengage your minds. And they'll say, if you really want to go deep with God, if you want to get to the deep, secret, hidden things of God, you've got to disengage rational thought. Put the old noodle up here in part. Watch this video clip from quote-unquote Apostle Guillermo Maldonado. And I can give you a list. Faith has been supplanted by reason. Today, we don't do anything unless we understand it. If you go to the scripture, every act of miracle of God, it cannot be explained. That's what supernatural means. Something that cannot be explained. It's beyond your head. It's beyond your reason. If you want to receive your miracle now, you need to disconnect your head. And your reason has its place. I'm not saying you're stupid. We have to be stupid. That's not what I'm saying. But you can't get into the supernatural. You cannot move in the supernatural by the reason. So Maldonado says that if you want to receive your miracle, if you want to move in the supernatural, you've got to disengage your head. Is that what scripture tells us to do? Absolutely not. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind. He gave us a mind for a reason. He wants us to use it. We are to study to show ourselves approved unto God. You want to show yourself approved unto God? Study his word and obey it. Don't forget that part. Doesn't do you any good to study it and not obey it. Study it and obey it. The Bible never enjoins us to disengage our minds when it comes to the things of Him. Not at all. And by the way, you might notice I have this term, Apostle, in quotation marks for a reason. Dear friends, there are no more Apostles today. We'll talk a lot more about that tomorrow night. But there are no more Apostles today. Revelation 21 verse 14 describing the New Jerusalem which is built on twelve foundation stones on which are inscribed the names of the twelve apostles. So all these people running around today calling themselves apostle this and apostle that. No, they're not. Thank you very much for applying, but the quota has already been filled. No more apostles. And when you think through the implications of there not being any more apostles today with a capital A, getting ahead of myself, we'll talk about this tomorrow night, but there are Big, big, big implications of that dealing with what I'll leave it for tomorrow. Saturday night, actually, Saturday night. Also, the Bereans were considered noble because they tested what they heard by the scriptures, even though they received Paul and Silas, they received what they were teaching. Notice that they did not take what Paul and Silas are preaching to them at face value. It says they searched the scriptures to see if these things were really so. To see if what Paul and Silas were preaching about Jesus really did plumb with the Old Testament, Messianic prophecies. I would encourage you not to take what a preacher preaches to you at face value. Search the Scriptures to see if these things are really so. I would encourage you not to take what I teach you over the next few days at face value. Search the Scriptures to see if these things are really so. Because I'm not the authority. God's Word is. Why do we need discernment? We need discernment so we will not be like little children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men. Dear friends, we are living in a day and age today in which there are many winds of doctrine blowing about us. And if we do not have discernment, We will be blown about by every wind of doctrine that comes along. Do you know where Mormons like to get a lot of their converts? Southern Baptists. Over half of their converts, adult converts, people who convert to Mormonism as an adult, over half of them come from Southern Baptist backgrounds. No, we're, you know, Southern Baptists, we're people of the book, people of the Bible. How does that happen? Because so many Southern Baptists and so many professing Christians in general, we know just enough Bible to be dangerous, just enough to be dangerous. At some level, we may know what we believe at some level, but we really don't know why we believe it. And you ask a lot of people today, well, why are you a Christian? Why do you believe the Bible? Well, because I was raised that way. I hope you got a better answer than that. Friends, we need to know what we believe and we need to know why we believe it. We are to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us. We've got to know what we believe and we've got to know why we believe it. And if we don't, we will be blown about by all of these different winds of doctrine. by the trickery of men, Paul says. Just because someone has their own quote-unquote Christian television show, just because someone can write a popular, best-selling book and maybe use a little bit of Christian lingo here and there, does not necessarily mean that that person can be trusted to be a faithful expositor of God's Word. There are a lot of men and a lot of women out there who are trying to trick us. And notice too, I want to chase a rabbit here for just a minute. Notice to whom does the Apostle Paul compare those people who are easily tossed to and fro? Who does he compare them to? Children, right? Children. Dear friends, nothing in the Bible is there by mistake. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, compares people who are easily tossed to and fro to children. Why? Because children are very easily tossed to and fro. Parents, you know this. You can tell a little child something, just about anything. Chances are he or she is going to believe it. And what captures a child's attention one week? may be completely disinteresting to them the next week. They're easily tossed to and fro. Parents, be very, very, very careful when your little 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 year old child comes up to you and says, Mommy, Daddy, I want to be saved. I've asked Jesus into my heart. I want to be baptized. Be very, very, very careful. By their nature, children are easily tossed to and fro. By their nature. They don't have any life experience to look back on, to evaluate things. It's just the way they are. When you look through the language of salvation in the New Testament, it is rather adult sounding language, is it not? Deny yourself. How many little kids do you know who deny themselves? How many adults, for that matter, do you know who deny themselves? Take up the cross. We've really lost sight of the impact of those words from our Savior. Nowadays, when we think of taking up the cross, we think of just kind of making it through some tough times. You know, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and just kind of muscling through some tough times. I've had a few people over the years, well-meaning but misguided, I've had a few people tell me, they'll say something like this and say, Justin, you bear your cross well. referring to my handicap. Friends, that's not a cross. Your cancer is not a cross. Your arthritis is not a cross. Losing your job is not a cross. Having your house burned down is not a cross. Are those tough? Yes. Are they trials? Yes. I don't mean to make light of them, but that is not what Jesus was referring to when he said, take up the cross. When Jesus said, take up the cross 2000 years ago, people knew exactly what he meant. Because they had seen crosses in action. A cross was a place of death. A cross was an instrument of execution and a horrific one at that. Jesus was saying, you must be willing to die for the Gospel if called upon to do so. That's what He meant. Luke 14, verse 26, whoever does not hate his own father, mother, wife, sisters, brothers, children, even his own wife, cannot be my disciple. That's a high bar. Was Jesus saying that we literally have to hate our own family members in order to be a Christian? No, of course not, because that would contradict everything else in Scripture. But what he was saying is that if you truly belong to Christ, If you have been redeemed, if you are a new creature in Christ, regenerated by God's Holy Spirit, then your love for Christ should be so complete, should be so unconditional. That even the love that we have for our own family members would look like hatred by comparison. By comparison, that's a high bar. But friends, we can't pretend like he didn't say it. He did. He did say it. That is what a Christian looks like. The language of salvation in the New Testament is rather adult sounding language. Now, don't misunderstand me. Am I saying that God cannot save a child? I'm not saying that at all. Am I saying that God doesn't save children? I'm not saying that either. However, what I am saying is he's not doing it nearly as often as what our baptismal records indicate. I am saying that. Nowhere near. We've reduced salvation to intellectual assent to a few basic Bible facts. Admit you're a sinner, believe in Jesus, confessing you're in. You know what's interesting about salvation conversion? Conversion should look pretty much the same in everybody. Regardless of their age. OK, whether we're talking about a child at age 8 or a senior adult at age 80. Salvation should look pretty much the same. There should be a change in that person's life. There should be a godly sorrow over sin. Not just intellectual ascent. Yeah, I admit I'm a sinner, a godly sorrow over sin. When we understand that our sin is first and foremost against God, his person. There should be a we should have a hunger and thirst for righteousness. We should have a hunger for the word of God. We should desire to grow in holiness. We should have a love for the brethren. There's got to be a change in that person's life. It's got to be. If God saves a child, that child does not get a junior Holy Spirit. He gets the same Holy Spirit that everyone else gets. Salvation should look the same in everybody. Now, don't discourage your children, OK? Don't discourage them. Encourage them. Teach them the gospel. Teach them about repentance. Teach them about faith in Christ. Teach them all of these things. And if your child professes faith in Christ, my word to you, parents, watch them. Watch them. See, give them an extended period of time to see if they bear fruit in keeping with repentance. See if you see these things in their lives. But if your child professes faith on Wednesday morning, he or she is not going to lose his or her salvation if you don't get them in the baptistry next Sunday morning. If God saves your child, they're not going to lose their salvation. Watch them. And these things are hard to ascertain in children, because as we read, by their nature, they're easily tossed to and fro. Watch them. I promise your child's baptism will mean much more to them later down the road. Wait until they come up against some real temptation. You're not going to tempt a seven-year-old kid with pornography or alcohol. Just not. Wait. Watch their lives. See if they bear fruit in keeping with repentance. See if there's a change. Their baptism will mean more to them later when they're more able to understand it. You have to be very, very careful with children. Very careful with children. We need discernment because the last days will be marked by false Christ and false prophets. Now, this verse is eschatological in nature, but but the principle nonetheless is true. Christ says there shall arise false Christ, false prophets shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect just because someone has the apparent ability to perform a sign and wonder. Does not necessarily mean that ability is coming from God. Not at all. Not at all. Also, we need discernment for spiritual maturity. Hebrews chapter 5. The writer of Hebrews says, Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain. Why was it hard to explain? Because the content was so difficult? No. Because his readers, his listeners had become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, You have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid food for everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to do what discern good and evil. One of the marks of a mature Christian is a discerning Christian. You cannot be mature in Christ and lack discernment at the same time. OK. You cannot be mature in Christ and lack discernment, and please don't shoot the messenger. I'm just reading this to you. One of the signs of a mature Christian is a discerning Christian. A couple of years ago, I got an email from a gentleman And long story short, I have some gospel tracks that look like a million dollar bill on the front, shaped like money, look like money, million dollar bill. But there's a caricature on the front of Joel Osteen. And on the back is the gospel, the real gospel. And somebody, I have no idea who, but somebody had some of my tracks apparently in Las Vegas, Nevada, of all places. And this guy or whoever was apparently passing my tracks out on the the strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. And this gentleman and his wife were given one and they looked at it and they were very offended by it. And I have my website on there. And so the guy looked me up and he emailed me and he said, he said, my wife and I are both 72 years old. We have both been Christians for over 50 years. He said, we love Joel Osteen. And I emailed him back and I said, Sir, I'm concerned for you. I mean, Joel Osteen is a false prophet. He has repeatedly, not once, not twice, not three times, he has repeatedly denied that Jesus is the only way to be saved. I watch him preach almost every week. I can honestly tell you, I have never a single time ever heard him clearly present the Gospel ever. He's a false prophet. And all of his sermons are just alike. They're all about you. You're a victor, not a victim. God loves you. He wants to prosper you. And blah, blah, blah. They're all alike. I would leave this church out of sheer boredom. And I emailed him. I said, sir, I'm concerned for you. This man says he and his wife have been saved for over 50 years, for over half a century, and they like Joel Osteen. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Dear friends, if the Holy Spirit is strong enough to save us, He is also strong enough to deliver us out of deception. If God has saved you, he will put in you a desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that comes by studying his word. And so all these people that say they've been saved for 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And they seemingly have no discernment. Something wrong, something's wrong. And we're not talking about brand new Christians, you know, somebody right out of the gate with no background of Bible knowledge, you know, right out of the gate. They're not going to have a great deal of discernment. But as you grow in Christ and as as the years go by and you read and you study the Word of God, you know what? If you're studying the Word of God, you know what you're going to have? You're going to have some discernment. You won't be able to avoid it. It'll just come. You won't be able to avoid it any more than you would be able to avoid getting wet when you jump into a swimming pool. Let's look at Romans 1. This is a sobering passage of Scripture. Romans 1. The Apostle Paul writes, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. Sometimes God's most fearsome acts of judgment is not fires and earthquakes and famines and pestilences. Sometimes God's most fearsome acts of judgment is when He gives people over. When He simply gives them over to a debased mind. And when God gives people over, there's no hope. Now look at this list of sins to do those things which are not fitting being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. Undiscerning. Undiscerning. Notice in this same list of sins, horrific sins, sins that many of us would recoil from. I mean, the sexually immoral, the murderers, people who hate God. Undiscerning. Is that not a sobering passage? Friends, a lack of discernment is a sign of spiritual immaturity at best. At worst, it's a sign of spiritual death. Because as I said, if God has saved you and you are reading and studying His Word, over time, you will grow in discernment. So if you profess to be a Christian, a person has professed to be a Christian for a humpteen years and they have got no discernment, there's something wrong. This is a list of sins. Paul here was not talking to backslidden Christians. He was talking about lost people. This is a list of sins that marks the lives of lost people. They've been given over to a debased mind. And friends, if your life is marked by one of these sins, one or more of these sins, if your life is marked by it, good reason to take inventory. Examine yourself to see if you're in the faith. We're not talking about an occasional stumble into sin. All of us do that. I do not believe. I do not teach sinless perfection. None of us will ever reach sinless perfection this side of heaven. But a Christian can stumble into sin. A Christian does not swim in it. A Christian does not live in it. A Christian does not enjoy it. sobering text. Also, we need discernment because the last days will be marked by unsound doctrine. The Apostle Paul says, for the time will come when people will no longer endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall turn aside to fables. Paul tells us that the time will come when people will no longer endure sound doctrine. And you know what? That's exactly where so much of the church is today. Most people today don't want to hear anything about sin, righteousness, repentance. Most people today just want to be told what they want to hear. They want to be told they can have their best life now. They can have their purpose-driven life. God's going to give them a better car and a better job and a nicer home, and He's going to help them to lose weight the Jesus way Bless their socks off. But they don't want to hear anything about sin. They don't want to be told to take up the cross. They don't want to be told to deny themselves. They don't want sound doctrine. They just want teachers to tickle their ears. And I would submit to you the most prominent ear tickler of our day today is indeed Joel Osteen, pastor of the largest quote-unquote evangelical church in the United States of America. I want to show you one brief clip of Joel Osteen. Watch this from Joel Osteen. This is a it's brief, but it's a good little snapshot in his overall theological framework. Watch this from Osteen. And in dealing with people for several years, thousands of people, one thing I can tell you is 99.9% of people are not bad people. They may make poor choices, but deep down, they've got a good heart. Joel Osteen says that one thing he can tell us is that 99.9% of people are not bad people. Well, what does the Bible have to say about this? Paul says there is none righteous Not even one. There is none who does good. No, not one. Friends, 99.9% of people are not good people. 100% of people are bad people. You're a bad person. You are. You're a bad person. So am I. Now, most people, like to think of themselves as good because what we like to do is we like to compare ourselves to other people. And if I were to compare myself to Saddam Hussein, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mussolini, not so bad. If I were to compare myself to Adam Lanza, remember Adam Lanza? Young man who went into that school in Connecticut about a year and a half ago and murdered all those children. Oh, I would never do something like that. Dear friends, I'm going to say something and bear with me. Some of you, this may not set well, but bear with me. If it were not for the restraining power of God's Holy Spirit on us, Each and every one of us would be fully capable of doing something just like that. If it were not for God's restraining power of His Holy Spirit, we would all be fully capable of doing something just that horrific. We underestimate just how sinful sin is, just how depraved we really are. Dear friends, God does not evaluate our goodness by comparing us to other people. He evaluates our goodness by comparing us to himself. And none of us compared to God are good. We are all liars, thieves, blasphemers, we are adulterers at heart, at least. We're not good people. You can think of the nicest, sweetest little old gray haired lady, you know. She is just sweet as pie. She bakes cookies and she knits mittens and just as sweet as she can be. She's a bad person. Now, I know we'll say things like, you know, old Billy Bob over there, he's a good old boy, you know, and Sally Sue, she's a good old lady, you know. I understand that. You know, we all know what we mean by that. But theologically speaking, there's only one who's good. And what of this when Osteen says they may make poor choices, but deep down they've got a good heart? Well, the prophet Jeremiah would beg to differ. He says the heart is deceitful above all things and is desperately what? Wicked. Who can know it? I heard a preacher not long ago encourage his entire church on a Sunday morning. He said, follow your hearts. Please don't do that. Don't follow your heart. Your heart will deceive you. Don't follow your heart, live in obedience to the word of God. Now, I want us to look at some of the criticisms when we exercise discernment and when we warn people about false teachers, some folks aren't going to like that and will be criticized for it. So I want us to look at some of the more common criticisms that will come our way and we will answer them from Scripture. One of them is this judge not. Judge not, lest ye be judged, one of the most often and misquoted passages, taken out of context passages in all of God's Word. I read something not long ago, it said that judge not, lest ye be judged is now the most well-known verse in the Bible. It used to be John 3, 16. It's not anymore. It's judge not. Everybody knows that. Well, Jesus does warn us not to judge. But the kind of judging against which our Savior warns is hypocritical judging, judging somebody for doing something that maybe we're really doing ourselves. That's what he warns us against. But the answer to this criticism is that, in fact, we are to judge safely within biblical parameters when it comes to matters of doctrine, when it comes to matters of theology. We absolutely are to judge on these things. Safely within biblical parameters. Another criticism is this you shouldn't name names. Well, it's one thing to warn somebody about a questionable teaching, but don't ever call somebody a false teacher by their name publicly, don't don't ever do that. Well, the answer to this criticism is that, in fact, there is a biblical precedent for calling out false teachers by name. The Apostle Paul did so himself on several occasions and did so quite publicly. So did John. So did Jesus, by the way, Herod that fox. So there is a biblical precedent for calling out false teachers by name. Now, this is not something that we should do lightly, OK, and we shouldn't go around calling somebody a false teacher if they differ with us on some relatively minor theological point. You know, some secondary, tertiary issue. You know, maybe you're pre-trib in your eschatology, and you know some cat down the road, and he's mid-trib, and he is, and you know, oh, that heretic. No. We're not talking about things like that. But when it comes to the fundamental doctrines of historical Christianity, the pre-existence of Jesus Christ, the virgin birth, the sinless life, the atonement on the cross, bodily resurrection of Christ, coming again of our Lord, salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. On these issues, we do draw a deep line in the sand. And all the individuals that we'll be looking at in this seminar, all of them have been teaching jaw dropping heresies for years, some of them for decades. They have been called on it, and yet they remain unrepentant. So there is a biblical precedent for calling out false teachers by name. We must warn the flock about wolves in sheep's clothing. The apostles did it. Christ did it. Another criticism is this. Well, we should just follow Gamaliel's advice. Well, who in the world is Gamaliel? Gamaliel was a Pharisee and he was Saul's instructor before Saul became known as Paul, before Saul was converted, became known as Paul. And in Acts chapter five, this was before Saul's conversion, Acts chapter five, Peter and the apostles were in Jerusalem and they had been warned by the Pharisees, the religious leaders, not to preach the name of Christ, but they did so anyway. And they were thrown into prison. God delivered them out of prison. And they went back to preaching the gospel. So they're causing quite a stir there in Jerusalem. And the Pharisees got together and they had a little meeting. They had a little powwow to try to decide what they're going to do with Peter and the apostles. And so they brought him in for a little while talk to him and put him outside so they could talk to talk about him. And we read of this, Gamaliel got up and he addressed the council. Acts chapter five, he says this, or the scripture says this, but a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all of the people, stood up in the council and he gave orders to put Peter and the apostles outside for a short time. And he said to the men of Israel, take care of what you propose to do with these men. For some time ago, Thutis rose up claiming to be somebody and a group of about 400 men joined up with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, drew away some people after him. He too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. Or else you may even be found fighting against God. And so even though a lot of people may not know to call this Gamaliel's advice, a lot of people kind of have this general approach when it comes to questionable teachers. They'll say, well, you know, if if these prosperity creatures or whatever, you know, if if they're not of God, they won't last. You know, there'll be a flash in the pan, but they won't last. God will take care of them. But on the other hand, If they are of God, then we should not oppose them. Because in so doing, we would be found fighting against God himself. So let's just kind of have a hands-off approach, you know, a laissez-faire approach. If they're not of God, they won't last. God will take care of them. But if they are, we shouldn't oppose them. Now, that sounds like reasonable advice, doesn't it? You could even say that sounds like spiritual advice. But Gamaliel's advice is bad advice for two big reasons. Number one, Gamaliel was not a believer. We have no indication that Gamaliel ever came to a saving knowledge of Christ, and we can safely say at this time he certainly was not. So to follow Gamaliel's advice is to follow the advice of a lost person. Generally not a real good idea to do when it comes to matters of spiritual importance. And also, Gamaliel's advice doesn't even pass the common sense test. Because false religions abound. If Gamaliel's advice was good advice, why do we still have Mormonism? Why do we still have Jehovah's Witnesses? Why do we still have Buddhism? Why do we still have Islam? I mean, name your favorite false religion. Been around for hundreds, some of them for thousands of years. Clearly, they're not of God. And yet they're still here. So. It doesn't even pass the common sense test, and they sound real spiritual to say, but when you think think it through, it's doesn't make any sense. Another criticism is this. Now, this is one of their favorites. When a false teacher comes under some criticism. This is almost always how he responds. This is almost always their knee jerk reaction. Touch not my anointed. Touch not my anointed, don't criticize me. So when you hear this, this is how you can respond. OK, that's fine. Take not scripture out of context. Because that's what they're doing. Now, touch not my anointed, is it biblical? Well, in a sense, because it is in the Bible, but what does it mean? It can be found in a couple of places in the Old Testament. One of them is Psalm chapter 105. He permitted no man to oppress them, referring to Israel. He reproved kings for their sakes. Touch not my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm. So it is in the Bible, but what does it mean? Well, briefly, the anointed ones refers to Israel's patriarchs and their descendants, not to today's modern preachers. OK. Not to today's modern preachers, but here's the real kicker. The word touch actually refers to doing physical harm, not to speaking the truth. You might remember that when David had the opportunity to kill Saul, remember that? When Saul was asleep and David could have killed him, but he didn't do it. What did he do instead? He took Saul's garment, remember that? And he cut it off, cut off a piece of Saul's garment and he held it up. He said, I would not touch God's anointed. In other words, David was saying, I would not kill him. So, you know, we may be calling into question a lot of false teachings by a lot of different false teachers, but none of us is chasing Benny Hinn down the street with a baseball bat. You know, we're not trying to do anybody any physical harm. Good thing, by the way, for the false teachers today that they're living on this side of the cross and not in the Old Testament, because had they been living in the Old Testament, Benny Hinn and all these others, they would have been stoned a long time ago. Long time ago. And by the way, this is just a little freebie here. There are three, at least three passages in the New Testament which refer to all Christians as anointed. Did you know if you are here tonight and you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, guess what? You're anointed. And you have the same anointing as does every other Christian. There are no super-Christians with the super-special anointing that the rest of us common knuckleheads just don't have. If you're in Christ, you're anointed. And you have the same anointing The same access to God's throne of grace as does every other believer. There's no classes of Christians. That's Gnosticism. It's not biblical. If you're in Christ, you're anointed. You have the same anointing as every other believer. Same one. Another criticism is this, well, Justin, it's just not very loving what you're doing. It's just not very loving to call out people and to tell people they're wrong. It's not a very loving thing to do. Well, dear friends, let me give you this scenario, this illustration. Let's suppose we were to see a blind man Let's say we were to see a blind man walking towards a 1,000 foot cliff. Now we're in Florida, you're going to have to use your imagination a little bit, but not a lot of 1,000 foot cliffs around here, but let's just, we see a blind man walking towards a 1,000 foot cliff. Who among us in here, if we were to see something like that, who among us in here would just sit back and think, you know, I don't want to offend him. I don't want to hurt his feelings by telling him he's wrong. That might hurt his self-esteem. That wouldn't be very loving for me to tell him that he's going the wrong way. And so we just sit back and we say nothing. And we watch him fall off the cliff and plummet to his death. Would anybody in here do that? Of course not. Every person in here, if we were to see something like that happening, we would be running up to that man as fast as we could go. We'd be shouting at the tops of our lungs, sir, you are in great danger. You're going the wrong way. Turn around. And yet, don't we do the very same thing, only far worse, with far greater consequences? Eternal consequences? When we see people going the wrong way spiritually, and we know the truth, but say nothing about it? If you really want to hate somebody, do that. See somebody going the wrong way spiritually, know the truth, Don't tell them. That's the most hateful thing you could possibly do to somebody. The most loving thing we can do is to tell them the truth. The truth is love. Tell them the truth. That's the most loving thing we can do. It is not up to us how that truth is received. It is up to us to communicate it. And sometimes our own family members can be the hardest ones to speak the truth to, can't they? Our own family members. Sometimes it's a lot easier to speak the truth to somebody we don't know that well or even a friend. But it's our own family members. Sometimes they're the hardest ones to speak the truth to. But if we truly love them, like we should, then we should love them enough to tell them the truth. The truth is offensive. The gospel is offensive, but we don't have to be offensive in communicating it. There is a way to speak the truth. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4, 15, we are to speak the truth in love. Speak the truth in love. That doesn't mean water it down. That doesn't mean compromise it. It means you stand firm and you speak the truth, but you speak it in a gentle way. Speak the truth in love. And finally, the most, the last criticism we'll look at. Well, you know, Justin, maybe, maybe they're wrong in a few things, grant you that, but aren't they sincere? You know, they just seem so sincere. The answer to this criticism is that sincerity is not the issue. Truth is the issue. Friends, the men who flew airplanes into the World Trade Towers were sincere. They were very sincere. But they were sincerely wrong. And right now, they are all too well aware of that. Sincerity is not the issue. Truth is the issue. I hope that this has been helpful for you. This is just my way of introduction, laying some groundwork of where we're headed over the next few days. Just briefly show you, let you know where we're going in the next couple of days here, a few days. Tomorrow night session, tomorrow night at seven o'clock, right? Tomorrow night at seven o'clock, we will do dangerous doctrines. Tomorrow night we will look at the cultic origins of the Word of Faith movement, the prosperity gospel, and we'll look at the standard doctrines that the prosperity preachers teach that deviate from historical Christianity. Tomorrow night I think we'll see that the prosperity gospel is indeed a different gospel. It's a different gospel altogether. They have a different God. They have a different Jesus. They have a different source of authority. They have a different gospel. Tomorrow night you will hear heresies. that will absolutely leave your jaw on the floor. Saturday night, Saturday night session is entitled Mangled Manifestations and Saturday night we will be looking at some of the more dramatic things of the charismatic movement, word of faith slash charismatic movement. We will be looking at tongues, speaking in tongues. We'll go pretty in depth actually, speaking in tongues Saturday night. We'll be looking at false prophecies. We'll be looking at All these people who claim they've been to heaven. 90 minutes in heaven. Heaven is for real. All these people say they've been to heaven, they want to tell you all about it. We'll look at that Saturday night. How does God speak to us? How do we know when it's God speaking to us? How do we hear the voice of God? We'll look at those things. Tuesday night. Tuesday night. Saturday night. And then Sunday morning. I know some of your visitors, you probably have to be at your home church. But Sunday morning we'll be looking at the hurt of healing. And Sunday morning we'll be looking at physical healing. Is it always God's will to be healed? If I'm not healed, is it because I don't have enough faith? Is healing provided for in the atonement? Isaiah 53, 4 and 5. By His stripes we are healed. What's that talking about? So we'll look at all those things Sunday morning, Lord willing. And thank you very much for coming. And Lord willing, we'd love to see you back tomorrow night.