Well, I gave just a brief introduction this morning to the seminar that we will begin tonight. The seminar is entitled Clouds Without Water, and Clouds Without Water is a reference in the book of Jude, verse 12. Jude refers to false teachers in a number of different ways. He says they are hidden reefs in your love feasts. They feast with you without fear, caring only for themselves, and that is one of the hallmarks of a false teacher. A false teacher does not care about you, does not care about God. He cares only for himself or herself. And then Jude says that they are clouds without water. And the picture there is that false teachers have the appearance of having some nourishment, but nothing ever falls from them. They just leave the ground below them dry and parched. And this seminar, Clouds Without Water, specifically is dealing with what is called the Word of Faith movement. The Word of Faith movement is the proper term given to a movement that's more commonly known as the health and wealth gospel. Name and Enclaimment Gospel, the Prosperity Gospel, basically the doctrine that says it is always God's will for a Christian to be wealthy, and it's always God's will for a Christian to be physically healed. You should never be sick. Or if you do get sick, physical healing is guaranteed, provided that you have enough faith, provided that you sow a seed into someone's ministry. You sow a seed so you can reap a harvest. By the way, if you ever hear a preacher ask you to sow a seed into his ministry, So you can reap a harvest, run like the wind. You know you're dealing with a false teacher. So as long as you have faith, as long as you sow a seed, reap a harvest, then you are entitled to health and wealth. This movement is led by people such as Benny Hinn. Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Joseph Prince, you know the names. And this movement dominates what we see today on Christian cable and satellite television, TBN, the Inspiration Network, Daystar, La Silla Broadcasting, the Word Network, and any other number of local outlets. It's not 100% of what you see on Christian television, but it is the vast, vast majority of it. I would say easily upwards of 95% of what you see on Christian television is this health and wealth, name and acclaim it, prosperity gospel. Just briefly, a little bit of background information, how I first became interested and exposed to this movement. My first exposure to it came as a teenager. There was a neighbor of mine who came up to me, one day 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 as a teenager. I wanted to do all the things that my friends were doing. I wanted to be able to run and play football and do all those things that I thought were so important at that age. And this neighbor of mine, he's one of these guys, passed away just a couple of years ago, but he's one of these guys that God seemed to talk to him more than he ever did to Moses. Always getting a dream, always getting a vision, just one of these individuals. And he told me about a faith healer who was coming to my hometown of Vicksburg, Mississippi by the name of Nora Lamb, L-A-M. And she was scheduled to come to the Holiday Inn there in Vicksburg on December the 3rd, 1989. In the weeks leading up to her arrival in Vicksburg, this neighbor of mine spent a lot of time with me. He would have me over at his home, he would spend a lot of time with me and he was showing me verses in the Bible that seemed to support his belief and his teaching that it's always God's will to be healed. Isaiah 53, four and five, by his stripes we are healed. Third John two, beloved I pray that in all you might prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers. And so, you know, it seemed to me that Yeah, that is what the Bible taught. Now, what he was doing is he was taking these verses out of their context. And at age 16, I didn't know that's what he was doing. I didn't know anything about hermeneutics and never even heard the word. And I thought I was a Christian at that age. I wasn't I wasn't saved until years and years and years later But thought I was but he hold he had me completely convinced that I was going to be healed and so the big night finally arrived Nora lamb came into town or lamb wrote a book entitled China cry and she was quite popular there for a while, but I went to see Nora lamb and Obviously, you know was not healed I went to see R. W. Schambach and some others you probably wouldn't have heard of. So that was my first exposure to the Word of Faith movement. I didn't even know that it was a movement at the time. It wasn't until years later as a seminary student that I began to study this movement at a more academic level. And what I came to realize is that the origins of the prosperity gospel are not Christian at all. The origins of the prosperity gospel can be traced back directly to the metaphysical cults, like Christian science, New Age, New Thought, Gnosticism. And so what you see on Christian television, when you turn on TBN, when you turn on Daystar and INSP and all these others, You're not getting Christian theology, you're getting cultic theology. Cultic theology that has been wrapped in some Christian lingo. wrapped in some Christianese to make it appear to be Christian when it in fact is anything but. So that was kind of my first exposure to it. Now, some have made the charge against me that the reason that I do these seminars, the reason I travel all over the United States and around the world teaching against this stuff is that I'm bitter. I'm bitter that I wasn't healed when I was a teenager and so I've just got this personal vendetta now and I'm just bitter about it. Dear friends, let me 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. I've got all of eternity to live without it. So there's not a bitter bone in my body about not being healed. I do what I do because I'm driven by the truth of God's word. The poor, the sick, the desperate, the widows are being exploited by these multimillionaire preachers. And worse than that, worse than that, is that the gospel itself is being distorted. The name of Christ is being sullied by these false teachers. And that is what drives me, the truth of God's Word. Now, we're not going to get into the Word Faith movement tonight per se. We will do that in earnest tomorrow night. But what we're going to do tonight is just lay some groundwork. This will be the introductory session to Clouds Without Water. And the introductory session is entitled The Duty of Discernment. So we're going to lay some groundwork. We're going to talk about what discernment is, what the Bible has to say about discernment. And then we're going to answer some of the objections that people will raise if we exercise discernment and we call others to do that. A lot of people won't like that, and they'll have some criticism. And we'll look at some of the more common criticisms that they'll raise, and we will answer those from Scripture. So that's kind of where we're headed tonight. So what is discernment? Well, the Bible has a lot to say about discernment. 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 about 250 times throughout the Old Testament. Discernment is a prominent theme in the Old Testament. You see a lot of it in the book of Proverbs. So being able to sift through truth from error, right from wrong. The primary word for discernment in the Greek language in the New Testament is the word diakrisis. And diakrisis 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, 1 Thessalonians 5.21. We are to test all things and hold fast to that which is good. We are to test ourselves, are we not? We are to even examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith. We are to test everything through the lens of Scripture. Discernment is not an option for the Christian. It's not an option. It is our duty. It is our mandate to exercise discernment. Because one of the things that makes false teachers so appealing and yet so profoundly dangerous at the same time is that not everything that false teachers teach is false. Some of it's right, but there's enough error and heresy mixed in with it to corrupt the entire thing. And I have here a glass of water. This water is fine. I could drink this water. I have drunk a little bit of it. But what if I were to put in just a couple of drops of strychnine into this water and let it dissolve? Then should I drink it? No, it would kill me. Graveyard dead. 99.99% of it would be perfectly fine, but there would be enough poison in it to do me great harm. And the same can be said of the word-faith movement, though the percentage of error and heresy in the word-of-faith movement far, far higher than in this illustration that I just gave you of the water. Now, the quintessential passage for discernment in the New Testament, undoubtedly, Acts chapter 17, verse 11. For the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in the Greeks pronounced Thessaloniki, 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 the gospel, and they came to the city of Thessaloniki. But in Thessaloniki, Paul and Silas were not received well at all. There was some people who did, but there was a group of rabble-rousers there in Thessaloniki that I guess had nothing better to do, and they kind of formed a mob there and they were trying to get to Paul and Silas and so the other brothers there shepherded Paul and Silas out of Thessaloniki for their own safety. And so Paul and Silas left Thessaloniki, they went about 50 miles down the road and they came to the city of Berea. And in Berea, Paul and Silas were received much more warmly than they were in Thessaloniki. And notice that the Bible says that the Bereans were considered more noble. They were more noble than those in Thessaloniki. Well, why? Why were the Bereans more noble than those in Thessalonica? I think we have three indications in this one verse of scripture, why the Bereans were considered more noble. Number one, they were considered more noble because they studied the law. They were students of God's word. Dear friends, 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 yet for the vast majority of people who call themselves Christians, they might bring their Bibles with them to church on Sunday, maybe. But chances are during the week, they'll rarely, if ever, pick it up. Or if they do, it's just kind of in a casual sense. They might read some little Diddy out of chicken soup for the soul or something like that, and they think they're getting their nourishment. If that's your spiritual nourishment, you're starving. Friends, we must be students of the word of God. And yet for so many today, it is a tragic testimony that for so many people who call themselves Christians, the terms doctrine and theology have almost become bad words. Oh, I don't need doctrine. I don't need theology. I just love Jesus. That is a foolish statement. That is a foolish statement. If we truly love Jesus as much as we profess to love him, then don't you think we would 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. And when our knowledge of God is deepened, then that enables our love for God to be deepened. And yet so many people today, they've somehow separated these things. They'll say, oh, well, you got your knowledge of God over here, your doctrine and your theology, you know, that's just for the seminary professors and the preachers. But over here, you see, is your love for God. And that's what's really important, your love for God. No, the Bible never separates these things. Never separates them. In fact, look at what Paul says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 9. Paul says, in this I pray that your love would abound still more and more in what? Knowledge and discernment. The Bible never separates knowledge of God and love for God. The Bible always combines these things. And so all these people talking about how, oh, I don't need doctrine. I don't need theology, I just love Jesus. Well, I would submit to you that these people with that kind of mindset do not love Jesus nearly as much as they profess to love Him. Because if we truly love Him, we should want to get to know Him. And the only way to get to know Him is by knowing Him in His Word. Knowing Him in His Word. And men, I want to address the fellas here for just a minute. Men, it is our responsibility to be the spiritual leaders in our home. It's our responsibility to be the spiritual leader in the home. And men, being the spiritual leader in the home does not just mean taking your family to church on Sunday morning. That's not being the spiritual leader. And yet most men today think that. They think, oh, if I bring 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 and to our children. That's our responsibility. Do you know statistics show that some 70 to 75% of kids who make professions of faith at very early ages, six, seven, eight, nine years old, they make professions of faith and they get baptized and they're raised in evangelical homes. Once they grow up and they leave home, they start their own family or their own careers, go off to college. 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. Oh no. No, they may have been baptized, but they were not saved. Because if you truly belong to Christ, a genuine Christian may stray from the Lord for a season. For a season. But not indefinitely. If you truly belong to Christ and you stray from Him, you know what He's going to do for you? He's going to put you right smack dab in the middle of Hebrews chapter 12. That's what He's going to do for you. He's going to discipline you and He will bring you back. And so all these kids that are making professions of faith at very early ages, they get baptized, but they grow up and they go off and they start their own careers, start their own family. No evidence of conversion in their life. They were never saved in the first place. They got baptized, but they were never saved. And men, the responsibility of this, in large part, not in totality, but in large part, lies at our feet. Because what has happened is that most Christian men, professing at least, Christian men, they have exported their spiritual responsibilities to the Sunday school teacher or to the youth group leader. And they think, oh, 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. Look at what God says in 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 talking of the things of the Lord with your kids? Are you teaching them the gospel? Are you teaching them the Bible? Talking of the things of the Lord with them on a regular basis? This is our responsibility, guys. The primary source of biblical instruction should not be the Sunday school teacher. The very best Sunday school teacher with the very best of intentions cannot do what God has designed you and me to do, man. Can't do it. God has designed us to do this. Now, don't hear me wrong. I'm not against Sunday school. I'm not against that. But Sunday school and all these other things, these are supplemental. The primary source of biblical instruction, men, should be coming from you. Should be coming from me. We're the spiritual leaders in our home. Teach the word of God to your wives. Teach it to your children. And men, guard your marriages. Guard 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 false teachers actually encourage you to disengage your mind when it comes to the things of God. 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 your mind. Put the old noodle up here and park. Watch this from, quote unquote, Apostle Guillermo Maldonado. Watch this. 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, that 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. You cannot move in the supernatural by the reason. You've got to disconnect your head. Is that what the Bible tells us to do? No. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. God gave us a mind for a reason. He wants us to use it. And we are to study to show ourselves approved unto God. You want to show yourself approved unto God? Read, study, and obey his word. Read, study, and obey His Word. It's that simple and that difficult. Read, study, and obey God's Word. The Bible never enjoins us to disengage our minds when it comes to the things of the Lord. This morning, if you were here this morning, you heard me talk about this church, Guillermo Maldonado. I mentioned him and Bill Johnson. They have the gold dust that appears in their church services. And I've talked with a lady who was in this church. God saved her out of it. But before she got saved, she was in this cult. And she says it was her responsibility to dump stationary glitter, gold stationary glitter, in the ventilation system that would then blow out on the congregation. It really helps if your mind is disengaged to fall for this kind of stuff. The disengaged mind is the friend of the false teacher. It's the enemy of the believer. The enemy of the believer. And I have this term Apostle in quotation marks for a reason because dear friends there are no more apostles today Revelation 21 verse 14 describes 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 you're not Thank you very much for applying, but the quota has already been filled so No more apostles today. We'll talk more about that, Lord willing, on Tuesday 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 were preaching 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 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 that 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 tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine that comes along. Do you know where Mormons get almost half of their converts? Baptists. Do you know almost half of the people who convert to Mormonism come from Baptist backgrounds? Do you know why that is? Because as Baptists, we call ourselves people of the book, people of the Bible. We believe the Bible. But many of us as Baptists know just enough Bible to be dangerous, just enough to be dangerous. We at some level may kind of sort of know what we believe, but we really don't know why we believe it. And you ask many Baptists and many evangelicals in general today, well, why are you a Christian? Why do you believe the Bible? Well, 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. And if we don't, we will be tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, Paul says. Just because someone has a popular Christian television show, just because someone can write a popular best-selling book that Lifeway sells, does not necessarily mean that that person can be entrusted 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'm going to chase a rabbit here for just a minute. To whom does the Apostle Paul compare those people who were easily tossed to and fro? Who does he compare them to? Children. The Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, calls people who are easily tossed to and fro to children. Why? Because children are easily tossed to and fro. Parents, you know this. You can tell a very young child just about anything you want to tell him, and chances are he's going to believe it. 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 and says, Mommy, Daddy, I've asked Jesus into my heart. I want to be baptized. Be very, very careful. Remember the statistics? 70 to 75% of these kids who do that, once they grow up, no evidence of conversion ever having taken place in their lives. 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 have really lost sight of the impact of those words from Jesus, take up the cross. Nowadays, when we think of taking up the cross, we just think of making it through some hard times. Just kind of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and just kind of, you know, making it through some tough times. I've had several people over the years come up to me and they've said, Justin, you bear your cross well. Referring to my handicap, my cerebral palsy. Dear friends, my cerebral palsy is not a cross. Your cancer is not a cross. Arthritis is not a cross. Having your house burned down is not a cross. Losing your job, that's not a cross. Are these trials? Yes. Tough times? Absolutely. But is that what Jesus meant when he said, take up the cross? Not at all. When Jesus said, take up the cross 2,000 years ago, people knew exactly what he meant. They had seen crosses in action. They knew what a cross was. A cross was a place of death. A cross was an instrument of execution. And Jesus was saying, you must be willing to die for the gospel if called upon to do so. We've really lost sight of the impact of those words. Luke chapter 14, verse 26, Jesus says, whoever does not hate his own father, mother, wife, sisters, brothers, children, even his own life, cannot be my disciple. Now, was Jesus saying we literally have to hate members of our own family in order to be a Christian? No, of course not, because that would contradict everything else in Scripture. But what Jesus was saying, if we truly belong to Christ, if we are in union with the Lord Jesus, then our devotion to Him, our surrender to Him should be so complete, so unconditional, that it would make the love that we have even for members of our own family look like hatred by comparison. by comparison. That's a high bar. But we can't pretend like Jesus didn't say these things. He did. That's what a Christian looks like. And the Bible uses very adult metaphors when it talks about our union with the Lord Jesus. It says we are soldiers. We don't send little kids off into battle. It says we are slaves. We're slaves of Christ. complete and total surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It says we are betrothed to Christ. Uses a marriage metaphor to describe being in union with the Lord Jesus, a marriage metaphor. Now, if your little eight-year-old daughter were to come home from school one day and say, Mommy and Daddy, Billy's my boyfriend, and Billy and I are gonna get married, would you think that that was cute? Sure, that's cute. Would you think your little eight-year-old girl is sincere about that? As sincere as a little eight-year-old girl could possibly be about such matters, but chances are you probably wouldn't be picking up the phone, calling the church, reserving the sanctuary for the happy occasion, right? It's adult-sounding language. The language of salvation is adult-sounding language. I'm not saying God cannot save a child. God can and does save whomever he wishes to save. What I am saying is this. It is very easy because of the nature of children. They're easily tossed to and fro. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, when I was a child, I used to think like a child, reason like a child, speak like a child. But once I became a man, I did away with childish things. There's a difference. You have to be very, very careful. I'm not saying throw cold water. If your child professes faith in Christ, you don't want to discourage that, not at all. You want to encourage that. You want to nurture that. You want to be grateful for that. And you nurture that, but wait on their baptism. Wait until they are older. Wait until they bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Has there been a change in their life? Do they love the Lord? Do they love the things that God loves? Do they hate the things that God hates? Do they have a desire for His Word? Are they growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ? Are they standing up to temptation? Are they standing up to persecution? A seven-year-old kid doesn't face temptation and persecution. You're not going to tempt a seven-year-old boy with alcohol or extramarital, you know, being careful here because of young years. You're not going to tempt a seven-year-old boy with those things. Now, you add 10 years to that age, then it's a different ballgame. Then it's a different ballgame. Wait and see. One of the marvelous things about salvation, when God saves someone, God changes that person. And whether God saves a young person or an old person, If God saves a young person, that young person does not get a junior Holy Spirit. He receives the same Holy Spirit whom we all receive. And salvation should look the same in everyone regardless of their age. There should be a change, a love of the things of the Lord, a love of His Word. a desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, a love for the brethren, all these things should be there and someone has truly been converted. Wait. Give them an extended period of time and see if they bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Why do we need discernment? Discernment is one of the marks of spiritual maturity. Let's look at what the writer of Hebrews says. He says, concerning him, referring to Melchizedek, we have much to say and it is hard to explain. Why was it hard to explain? Because the content was so difficult? No. It's hard to explain because his readers had become dull of hearing. And he says, 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? To discern good and evil." One of the marks of a mature Christian is a discerning Christian. You cannot have spiritual maturity and lack spiritual discernment at the same time. It's just not possible. Someone who lacks discernment cannot be a mature believer. It's just not possible. Now, this is a sobering passage of Scripture. Romans chapter 1, 28 through 32. Paul says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. Oftentimes we think of the acts of God's judgment as fires and earthquakes and famines and pestilences and all this stuff wars and No, the most fearsome act of God's judgment is when he simply gives people over Gives people over to a depraved mind You know, three years ago in the United States, the United States Supreme Court manufactured and just all of a sudden discovered homosexual marriage, right? And there was much hand-wringing in the evangelical world leading up to it. Oh, if we legalize homosexual marriage, it's going to bring God's judgment. No, it's not. It's not going to bring God's judgment. It is God's judgment. It is God's judgment. giving us over to depraved minds to do those things which are not fitting. And look at this list of sins. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, gossips, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Undiscerning? Undiscerning. Isn't that interesting? Notice in this list of sins, horrific sins, sins from which hopefully all of us would recoil from, undiscerning. And friends, Paul here is not talking about backslidden Christians. Backslidden is not even a New Testament concept. He's talking about lost people. These are people who have been given over. Is that not a sobering passage of Scripture? A few years ago, I got an email from a gentleman. I have some gospel tracts that look like million-dollar bills, and on the front, instead of one of the presidents, I have a caricature of Joel Osteen. And you know Joel Osteen? I mean, he's pastor of Lakewood Church, quote-unquote pastor of, quote-unquote, Lakewood Church. Joel Osteen, not once, not twice, not three times, but has repeatedly denied the exclusivity of Christ. Repeatedly denied that Jesus is the only way to be saved. Joel Osteen, by his own admission, does not preach on sin. I'm not putting words in his mouth. He'll tell you that. I don't preach on sin. Well, how do you preach the gospel if you don't preach on sin? And all of his sermons are just alike. All of them are just alike. If you've ever listened to, if you've listened to one of Joel Osteen's sermons, you've listened to them all. They're all about you. God loves you. He wants to bless you. You're a victor, not a victim. You just got to stay in faith. That's it. That's all he's got. You just heard the totality of his theology. All of his sermons are alike. I would leave his church out of sheer boredom, if nothing else. But back to my gospel tracts, on the back of the million dollar bill is the real gospel. And at the bottom I have my website. And someone apparently was out in Las Vegas, Nevada on the Strip, you know where all the casinos are. And someone, I have no idea who, apparently was handing out my gospel tracts out on the Strip in Las Vegas. And this man and his wife were given one, they took it, And they flipped it over and read it, and they were just incensed. He was angry. He looked at my website and got my email address and emailed me, and boy, he was just fit to be tied. He said, my wife and I have both been saved for over 50 years, and we love Joel Osteen. And I emailed him back, and I said, sir, I'm concerned for you. You and your wife claim to have been saved for over half a century and you like Joel Osteen? Something's wrong. Dear friends, if the Holy Spirit of God is strong enough to save us, He is strong enough to deliver us out of deception. And when someone is saved, that person is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit of God, one of His primary works in our lives is to create in us a desire for God's Word. He drives us to the Word of God, and He helps us to understand God's Word. And so over time, as we read and study God's Word, enabled by the Holy Spirit to understand it, enabled by the Holy Spirit to obey it over time, you know what's going to happen? You're going to get discernment. You won't be able to avoid it any more than you'd be able to avoid getting wet when you jump into a swimming pool. It's going to happen. Now, we're not talking about brand-new Christians. We're not talking about someone who has just come to faith in Christ and they've got no background of Bible instruction, Bible knowledge. You know, they're brand-new believers. You know, and they don't yet know the difference between Romans and Revelation. You know, someone like that right out of the gate, they're not going to have a whole lot of discernment right out of the gate. They should have some, but not a lot. But over time, you know what's going to happen? They're going to get discernment. It will grow in them. And so all these people who claim to have been Christians for 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, and they've got no discernment? Something's wrong. Something is wrong. They need to examine themselves to see if they're in the faith. Lack of discernment may be a sign of lack of regeneration. Okay, I want us to look at some of the criticisms that will come our way. If we exercise discernment, if we encourage others to exercise discernment, a lot of people won't like that. And so let's look at some of their criticisms and then we will answer them from scripture. One of them, judge not, judge not lest ye be judged, one of the most often misquoted, taken out of context passages in all of God's word. Jesus does indeed 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 Jesus warns us against. But the answer to this criticism is that, in fact, we are to judge safely within biblical parameters. Dear friends, 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. When I first began addressing the prosperity gospel, I wouldn't name a Benny Hinn or a Joel Osteen, obviously I do now, but I wouldn't do it back then. But then what I came to realize as I studied more is that, in fact, there is a biblical precedent for calling out false teachers by name. The Apostle Paul does so on several occasions and does so quite publicly. So does John, by the way. The Apostle John. So does Peter, by the way. And so there is a biblical precedent for calling out false teachers by name. Now, it should not be done lightly, okay? And we should not call somebody a false teacher if they differ with us on some relatively minor theological point. You know, there's a number of theological issues that we can have, you know, there's some wiggle room. We can have some differences of opinion with one another and still have fellowship in Christ. You know, who wrote the book of Hebrews? Some say Paul, some say someone else. Fact of the matter is we don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews because it's not We're not given the author. So, you know, when was the date of the exodus? Thirteenth or fifteenth century B.C.? I don't know. It's an interesting academic question, I suppose, but it doesn't really matter. You know, so there's theological issues there. Eschatology. You know, it's not that eschatology is not important, but it's not an issue of salvation. Maybe you're pre-millennial, pre-tribulation in your eschatology, your view of the end times, but you know some cat down the road down here and he's pre-millennial, mid-tribulation in his eschatology. Oh, that heretic, that false teacher. You know, that's right. You know, so You know, there's some issues like this, but not when it comes to the fundamentals. Not 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, salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, the need for repentance. On these issues, we draw a deep line in the sand. And all of the individuals that we'll be looking at, and you'll see beginning tomorrow night, I'll have video clips of all these people you see on television. You will be shocked at what they teach. All of these people have been called to repent. They've been teaching jaw-dropping heresies for years, some of them for decades. They've been called to repent, and yet they remain unrepentant. So there is a biblical precedent for calling out false teachers by name. We must warn the flock of wolves in sheep's clothing. Another criticism, oh, well, you're just causing division. It's a very divisive thing to do. The answer to this is that it is false doctrine that causes the division. Read Romans chapter 16 with me. Romans 16 verse 17. Paul says, Now I urge you, brethren, mark those who cause divisions and hindrances contrary to the what? To the doctrine which you learned. Turn away from them. Don't coddle them. Don't endorse them. Don't engage in spiritual enterprises with them. Turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting." Dear friends, it is not those who preach the truth that cause division. It's those who preach error and heresy that cause division. Truth does divide. Truth divides the sheep from the goats. But within the body of Christ, truth should always unite. It's those who preach error, those who preach heresy that cause division. Another criticism is this, well, we should just follow Gamaliel's advice. Well, who in the world is Gamaliel? Gamaliel was a Pharisee in Acts chapter 5. And you might remember Acts chapter 5, Peter and the apostles, were preaching Christ. They had been warned not to preach in the name of Jesus, but they said, we have to obey God rather than man. And so they preached the name of Christ. They preached the gospel. They were thrown into prison. God delivered them out of prison. And so they're causing a real stir there in Jerusalem. And so the Pharisees got together. They had a little meeting, a little powwow, to try to decide, what are we going to do with these Christians? We read about it in Acts chapter 5. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law respected by all 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, be careful 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, 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. So even though most people may not know to call it Gamaliel's advice, a lot of people kind of have this general approach to questionable teachers. They'll say, well, you know, these prosperity preachers, all these folks on TV, you know, if they're not of God, they won't last. They won't last. There'll be a flash in the pan. Just leave them alone. God will take care of them. But if they are of God, 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 laissez-faire approach, hands-off approach. You know, if they're not of God, they won't last. God will take care of them. But if they are, we should not oppose them. Now, that sounds like reasonable advice, doesn't it? You could even say that that sounds like spiritual advice. Sounds like a very spiritual thing to say. I've heard a lot of people use Gamaliel's advice. But Gamaliel's advice is very 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 least at this time he wasn't a believer. 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. Number two, 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, you know, Hinduism? Why do we still have Islam? Name your favorite false religion Most of them have been around for hundreds, some of them for thousands of years. Clearly they're not of God, and yet they're still here. So Gamaliel's advice doesn't even pass the common sense test. It's very bad advice. It sounds spiritual, but it's not. Another one of their criticisms is this. When one of these false teachers comes under a little bit of scrutiny, when the spotlight is turned on, the heat's turned on just a little bit, this is almost always how they respond. This is like their knee-jerk reaction. Touch not my anointed. You've heard this before. Touch not my anointed. Don't criticize me. Well, when you hear this, this is how you can respond. Okay, 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, it is biblical in the sense that it's in the Bible, but what does it mean? Well, let's look at it. 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 biblical in the sense that it's in the Bible, but what does it mean? Well, in context, the anointed ones refers to Israel's patriarchs and their descendants, not to today's modern preachers, okay? This is Old Testament. We're in New Testament. We're in the church age. So 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 David had a couple of opportunities to kill Saul. Remember that? On one occasion Saul was asleep, right? On the other occasion Saul was... Nature called, right? Nature had called and so Saul was sitting there reading the paper doing whatever he was doing and David came up behind him and he cut off a piece of Saul's garment. And David held it up and he said, I would not touch the Lord's anointed. See, I could have, here's his garment, but I didn't. David was saying I could have killed him, but I didn't. So touch refers to doing physical harm, not to speaking the truth. We may be calling into question a lot of different false teachings, taught 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 for the prosperity preachers, the false teachers, by the way, that they're living on this side of the cross, because if we were still in Old Testament days, Benny Hinn and all these others, they would have been stoned a long time ago. They'd be pushing up daisies by now. So, you hear, touch not my anointed, you can say, that's fine, take not scripture out of context. And by the way, there are three New Testament passages which refer to all Christians as anointed. Did you know if you are here tonight and you know Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord, you've been born again, guess what? You're anointed. And you have the same anointing as does every other believer. There are no super Christians with the super special anointing that the rest of us common knuckleheads don't have. Oh, he gets dreams and visions and God speaks to him in audible voices. Ooh, he's anointed. But if you're one of these poor knuckleheads and all you've got is the Bible indwelt by the Holy Spirit, oh, you're not so anointed. You know what that is? That's Gnosticism. That's a modern-day version of Gnosticism. That's not biblical. If you are in Christ, you are anointed. We have the same access to the same God through the same gospel. We are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit who indwells all of us. If you are a Christian, you are anointed and you have the same anointing as does every other believer. Another criticism is this, well, you're just not being very loving. This is not a loving thing to do. It's not loving to tell someone they're wrong. Let me give you this illustration. Suppose you were to see a blind man walking towards a 1,000 foot cliff. Who among us in this room, if we were to see a blind man walking towards a 1,000 foot cliff, Who in here would see that and think, you know, I don't want to offend him. You know, I might hurt his feelings if I tell him he's wrong. And, you know, who am I to judge? You know, I might hurt his self-esteem if I tell him he's wrong. And so we just sit back and we say nothing, and we watch that man 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 a blind man walking towards a thousand foot cliff, we would all be yelling at that man as loudly as we could. We'd be running up to him as fast as we could go, saying, Sir, stop. You're in great danger. Stop. 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 we don't tell them? If you really want to hate somebody, do that. Know the truth. Don't tell them. If you really want to love someone, love them enough to tell them the truth. It is not up to us how that truth is received, okay? It's not up to us how that truth is received. It is up to us, however, to communicate it. And if we truly love people, we should love them enough to tell them the truth. And sometimes, members of our own families can be the hardest ones to speak the truth to, can't they? Hardest ones to reach, members of our own family. Way easier to speak the truth to a friend or a co-worker, someone you run into at the grocery store or whatever. Comes to members of our own family, that's hard. Because they know us so well, we know them so well. And there's that investment, there's that relationship. You know, I don't risk a whole lot if I offend somebody sitting in the airport waiting for my plane to arrive. You offend a family member, you risk estrangement from a family member, that's costly, right? But dear friends, if we truly love members of our own family, we should love them enough to tell them the truth. We tell them the truth. And then we trust God for the results. Whatever that is, we trust God for the results. If we truly love them, we should love them enough to tell them the truth. Now, the truth can be offensive. The truth is offensive, but we don't have to be offensive when we communicate it. There is a way to speak the truth. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4.15 we are to be speaking the truth in love. But speaking the truth in love doesn't mean watering it down, doesn't mean diluting it, doesn't mean compromising, doesn't mean fudging on it. It means just what it says. It means to speak the truth, the full, undiluted, unvarnished truth, but speak it in love. And then you trust God for the results, whatever those are. You trust Him for the results. And sometimes it may mean estrangement from members of our family. It might mean that. but at least we'll have the blessing of having a clear conscience, knowing that we spoke the truth and the rest is out of our hands. The truth is love. The truth is love. Another criticism is this. You know, maybe they're wrong in a few things, but they seem so sincere. You know, these preachers, they seem so sincere. My friend, my family member who's in this movement, they just seem so sincere. Joel Osteen, he just seems so sincere. He just smiles all the time. The answer to this is that sincerity is not the issue. Truth is the issue. Friends, the men who flew airplanes into the World Trade Towers were 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. As I conclude here, just give you an idea of where we're headed over the next few nights. That was the introductory session. Now, tomorrow night, tomorrow night's session is entitled Dangerous Doctrines. Tomorrow night we will look at the cultic origins of the Word Faith Movement. We will look at the standard doctrines which the prosperity preachers teach that deviate from historical Christianity. I think tomorrow night you'll see that the prosperity gospel is indeed a different gospel. They have a different God. They have a different Jesus. They have a different atonement. They have a different gospel. And I'll have video clips. All these people you see on TV, I'll have video clips. You'll see it right out of the horse's own mouth. You will not believe what is being taught, but you'll see it tomorrow night. And then Tuesday night. Tuesday night's session is entitled Mangled Manifestations. Tuesday night we will be looking at some of the more dramatic, spectacular things of the charismatic movement in general. Tuesday night we will be talking about tongues. What's all that about? Tuesday night I will give you a demonstration of how to speak in tongues. I'll show you how to speak in tongues Tuesday night. I'll show you how it's done. We'll talk about all these people who claim to have been to heaven. And they write books about their trips to heaven. How God does and does not speak to us today. How do we know when God is speaking to us? How do we know when it's the voice of God? We'll talk about all those things Tuesday night. And then, Lord willing, Wednesday night, our final session is entitled, The Hurt of Healing. And Wednesday night, we'll be talking about 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? Isaiah 53 4 and 5 by his stripes we are healed. What's that talking about? We'll look at all those issues Lord willing on Wednesday night So that's where we're headed now just briefly as as we close I want to let you know I do have some resources available for you on the table in the back back there or Yeah in the back This is a DVD set, Clouds Without Water. All of the video clips, all of my commentary, all that stuff is in here. There's two discs in each one of these boxes. It's about eight hours of teaching in here, Clouds Without Water. That's available for you. This is a really good book, and I can say that because I didn't write it, but this is a book entitled Truth or Territory, A Biblical Approach to Spiritual Warfare. All the spiritual warfare experts today say that if you want to do spiritual warfare, you've got to bind Satan, rebuke Satan, break generational curses, do spiritual mapping, pray hedges of protection, put on each piece of the armor of God, you know, and one falls off, I guess you've got to somehow put it back on and all this stuff. So that's what spiritual warfare is about. That's not what spiritual warfare is about. This book is written by Jim Osman, my pastor. It is, bar none, the best book I've ever read on spiritual warfare. It brings a great deal of clarity and honestly just simplicity to what true spiritual warfare is about. But it talks about all those things, you know, binding Satan, rebuking Satan, all that stuff, and dismantles it. I have written one book. This is A book that I've written entitled Do Not Hinder Them, a biblical examination of childhood conversion, and it deals with what I was talking about earlier tonight, how to tell when conversion has taken place in your child, what to look for, and when is it wise to baptize my child. do not hinder them, biblical examination, childhood conversion, so everything I was talking about just fleshed out much more fully, obviously, is in this book. This is a little flash drive that I have. These are little USB flash drives. It's loaded with a bunch of my teaching from my radio program. A number of different series that I've done are on here. I've got a series on spiritual warfare. I've got a series on The Attributes of God, The Personhood and Deity of the Holy Spirit, a series on the shack, you've heard of the book and the movie The Shack, a series entitled Witnessing to the Witnesses. I recorded a two and a half hour witnessing encounter with two Jehovah's Witnesses, the man and his wife, the man was an elder in his church, obviously false church, but But you'll hear me witness to two Jehovah's Witnesses. You'll hear all their arguments, and you'll hear me answer them from Scripture. And it's interesting. I just sat down with them. I hit record. So if you listen to this, next time a JW raps on your door, You'll be ready for them, and they'll probably never come back to your door. I interviewed Costi Hinn, Benny Hinn's nephew. Benny Hinn's nephew, Costi, Benny's brother, Henry. Henry's son is named Costi. Costi used to work for his Uncle Benny, flew all around the world with him, traveled in his private jet, stayed in $25,000 a night hotel rooms. He was literally per night. I didn't even know such a thing existed. But Costi was a catcher. at Benny Hinn's Miracle Crusades. Turns out Kosti and I were at some of the very same crusades together. I was there doing research. He was there working for his uncle. But about six years ago, God saved him. God saved Kosti. And Kosti has done a complete 180. And now he's very clear. He tells the world, my uncle is a false teacher. And it's cost him dearly. But he's now a pastor out in California. And he's become one of my dear friends. Never in a million years would I have ever dreamed that I would become good friends with someone with the last name of Hinn. But anyway, all of that's on there. There's about 150 individual messages on these little flash drives. And I have newsletters out there. Those are free. Help yourself to one of my newsletters. Later this year in November, I've been asked to be a speaker on a tour to Israel. And we'll be going to Israel. We'll be going to a number of different places. If you're interested in that, we'll be going to the Garden Tomb. We'll be going to Masada. We'll be seeing a lot of these places that you read about in the Bible on our trip to Israel. So if you'd like more information, these are free. Just pick you up one of those. The cost of my resources is listed back there, dear ones, but let me also say that if the cost is in any way prohibitive to you, don't worry about it. If you need these resources and money is tight, that's fine. Help yourself. You don't even have to ask me. Help yourself. I want you to be equipped to speak the truth in love, so don't let the cost be a hindrance to you in any way. All right. Thank you very much for coming. I'm looking forward to our time together tomorrow night, Tuesday, Wednesday night. So thank you very much, dear ones. Brother Charles, if you want to...