Debunking The Blessed Life by Robert Morris - Part 2

Here's the deal. Like I've claimed in just recent episodes of Fighting for the Faith, Robert Morris is quickly becoming the number one go-to guy on the topic of tithing and American evangelicalism and in other places that are more geared towards evangelicalism around the world.

The problem is this. There isn't anything that he says that's actually biblical regarding the topic of tithing or money. His so-called principle of multiplication, which we covered earlier in the week, when you go back and you actually examine his teaching in light of what Scripture says, what you find is that his so-called principle of multiplication is not based on the Bible.

Instead, it's based upon his imagination. Not the Bible, but his imagination. We demonstrated that earlier this week. Now, in Robert Morris' book, there's kind of some key foundational assumptions and certain principles that he teaches.

Key foundational assumptions have to do with blessing and cursing. The idea is this, is that God wants to bless you, but he can't bless you unless you apply particular principles. If you don't apply those principles, then unfortunately, God must curse you.

What that means is blessing is when God is supernaturally in your corner and working in your favor, and cursing is when God's supernatural powers are actually working against you. For Christians, apparently, there's no neutral ground.

You either apply the right principles, and that means obedience to those principles, and you will be blessed. Otherwise, you're going to be cursed. This is what Robert Morris teaches in the book, The Blessed Life.

Now, past two Sundays, Robert Morris has been preaching at Elevation Church. This is Stephen Furtick's church in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is not the first place that Robert Morris has preached at in the Seeker-Driven Movement.

In fact, he's preached at LifeChurch .tv, Saddleback Church. You're going to be hearing Rick Warren giving him kudos and putting him forward as a money expert, but I'm going to hang on to that for just a little bit.

I said Perinobles Church. The list goes on and on and on. He makes the rounds, and when he shows up, it takes him two weeks to do his stick. The reason why Seeker-Driven pastors bring him in is because he's the money man.

After his two weeks of preaching, the money starts flowing. The thing is that none of this is actually what the Bible teaches, and all you have to really have is an open Bible and a little bit of understanding of the concepts of law and gospel, and you'll be able to see his duplicity very easily.

What we're going to do is we're going to dive into it. Like I said, this is going to run a little bit longer than normal here, because I've got to do this justice. With that, here's Robert Morris from this past Sunday at Elevation Church teaching what's called the Power of the First.

Remember, earlier we talked about the power of multiplication or the principle of multiplication. This is going to be the principle of the first.

Robert Morris’s “Principle of the First” and Prophetic Posturing

Here's Robert Morris. You're very blessed. We just celebrated Thanksgiving. We're thankful for things, but I would like to say this. I'd like to ask you to do something, and then the Lord just spoke this to me just a moment ago, and that is...

Now, did you catch that? There's a reason why I.

Started there. I could start just a little bit later, but I wanted to hear this because there's a little bit of manipulation going on right here. Robert Morris, by saying, oh, the Lord just spoke this to me, is now basically, without saying it, claiming for himself prophetic status.

To challenge him is to challenge God. He hears directly from God. This is a form of manipulation that you're.

Hearing. It's that every time you bless the food or thank the Lord for the food, would you pray for Pastor Stephen Hawley? Would you just simply say, and Lord, bless Pastor and his family. Lord, bless them.

Can you imagine if every member of Elevation Church just prayed three times a day a blessing? And the reason is, is because he's a great leader in the kingdom of God, but God's going to do more with him, and he needs our prayers.

So, I just want you to just pray for him, all right? Just lift him up and his family. And I'm honored to be here, Pastor Stephen. All right, I want you to turn to Exodus chapter 13. Okay, you need to do that.

Now, remember what.

William Tapley did, taking these disparate ideas out of context and weaving them together as if they were one solid teaching, okay? You saw it simple there. Watch what he does here. Okay,.

You need to open your Bible. Go to Exodus chapter 13. Exodus chapter 13, and last weekend we talked about the principle of multiplication. This weekend, we're going to talk about the principle of first.

Thus far, the Lord has helped us. His banner over us is love. We saw such an incredible demonstration of people's lives that have been changed. God changes the banner over our lives. Well, there are some principles that when we live by these principles, then the Lord helps us.

He wants to help us, but he is bound by principles he's put in place in some ways.

Okay, now, got to put down a little bit of a marker here, okay? And what I mean by that is, is that in just a little bit, I'm going to disprove this and just blow it out of the water using the part of the story of Jacob, okay?

Remember Jacob and Esau? Okay, now, listen to, let me back this up and listen to what he says. God wants to help you. He wants to bless you, but, you know, he can't, okay? That's kind of the gist of it.

Let me back this up so you can.

Kind of hear this. Our lives, well, there are some principles that when we live by these principles, then the Lord helps us. He wants to help us, but he is bound by principles he's put in place in.

Some ways. So God wants to help us, but he's bound by principles. So if you don't apply these principles, you don't live by them, think of the word, let's do a little synonyms here, okay? He's picking his words very carefully, okay?

He's saying the word principle rather than saying the law, but don't you think law would be the right synonym here? Let me rephrase it. God wants to bless you, but he's got certain laws that, well, if you don't obey them, then he can't bless you.

Notice he's trying to avoid speaking it like that. Instead, he's saying God wants to bless you, but he's bound by certain principles and he can't bless you unless you live by these principles. This is about obedience to the law, okay?

But he's carefully crafted his message in such a way as to find a way to cover that up so it's not quite as bold and in your face, but this is about obedience to what he thinks are commands and laws. And truly, these are commands found in God's word, but we're going to have to do a little bit of teasing out of what, when we look at the what are we bound to and what are we not bound to?

And when we say we're bound to it, what do we mean by saying we're bound to it? You'll get what I'm saying here in a minute. So.

Hang on. So I want to talk about principle first. So let me just make this statement before we read the scripture. If God's first in your life, everything comes in order.

Okay, now technically that's true, but here's the deal. Which of you can say today that you have not sinned? None of you can. I can't say it. You can't say it. So every single time that you sin, you prove that God is not first in your life.

And if, well, things aren't going to pan out for you until you make God first in your life, then really that means that you've got to stop sinning. In other words, God's going to be against you until you obey Him perfectly because the law.

Demands that you obey Him perfectly. Everything. But when God's not first, everything will be out of order. Everything. So we're talking about our finding. So we're.

Talking about blessing and cursing based upon your obedience to the law. Isn't, is this not the first commandment? The first commandment basically you can summarize it as love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.

Right? Isn't this what he's just said? Make God first. Well, that's the same thing.

Right? Listen in. But you have to remember that Jesus said where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So let's look at this. All right. The principle of first Exodus chapter 13. I know this is probably not what you've been memorizing lately, the book of Exodus, but it has great principles in us for us to understand.

All right.

Principles. He keeps saying that word. The book of Exodus has a lot of laws in it and commandments.

In it. Principles. What's that? Exodus chapter 13. Look at verse one. It says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both the man and beast.

It is mine. Now this phrase, it is mine in the Hebrew is repeated a few times in the old Testament. And I'm going to talk to you about what it refers to, but the first day refers to the firstborn, the firstborn.

He says, it belongs to me. It's mine. All right. And then look down at verses 12 and 13. Then you shall set aside apart to the Lord, all that opened the womb. That is every firstborn that comes from an animal, which you have the males shall be the Lord's very similar.

Same phrase. It is mine shall belong to the Lord. Verse 13. And this gets a little old Testamenty, but just, just follow me. Okay. We'll explain it. But every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb.

And if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. In other words, you're going to lose it anyway. It's very important to understand this and all the firstborn of man among your sons, you shall redeem.

All.

Right. Three points. Yeah. Stop. Okay. Before we let him go on, we have to apply our three primary rules for sound biblical exegesis. Okay. And those three rules are context, context, and context. Now, as he read through select portions of Exodus chapter 13, you should have noted if you were following along that he omitted whole sections of Exodus chapter 13.

Okay. So first of all, let's take a look at the context of what's going on here. What does he mean that this is a principle? Notice he says there's an important principle being taught here. And yet he taught the principle by taking out an exacto knife and slicing out certain verses and using those and omitting the rest.

This should have, you should have had a red flag going off in your, in your mind, basically saying, wait a second, something's going wrong here. Okay. Let's take a look at the context of Exodus chapter 13.

Here's what it says starting at verse one, by the way, you'll notice that where we are in the story is Israel is just about ready to leave Egypt. The nine of the 10 plagues have now occurred. Okay. Pharaoh has dug in his heels and he will not let God's people go.

And so now the final plague is about ready to be unleashed on Egypt and Pharaoh and the children of Israel are about to be released from slavery by the mighty hand of God. Okay. And so what we find ourselves learning about here in Exodus chapter 13 are commandments that pertain to and have their context in the Passover.

Okay. The Passover, that would be God's destroyer, working through all of Egypt and killing the firstborn of everybody and whose house he does not find the blood of the lamb sprinkled on the lentils. Okay.

The blood of the lamb, this sounds messianic, right? All of this is a type and shadow that points us to Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. By the way, the way the destroyer passes over you, and I'm not allegorizing here.

And what I mean by that is this, the way it is that you avoid death and destruction in hell and the lake of fire is if you are covered in the blood of our Passover lamb, Jesus Christ. See the connection?

Okay. Let me continue here though. So Exodus 13 verse one, the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast is mine.

That's verse one. Then Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand, Yahweh, the Lord brought you up from this place.

No leavened bread shall be eaten today in the month of Abib. You are going out. And when the Lord brings you into the lands of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give to you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day, there shall be a feast to the Lord. Notice the context here. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread shall be seen with you.

And no leavened bread shall be with you in all of your territory. You shall tell your son on that day, it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth.

For with a strong hand, the Lord has brought you up out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb.

Got to pause here. Notice Robert Morris quoted Exodus 13 .1, Exodus 13 .12, and Exodus 13 .13. Notice that Exodus chapter 13 verse 12 begins halfway through a sentence. He purposely omitted verse 11. And if he had put that in, he would have not been able to teach this teaching that he's teaching.

Here's why. Because Exodus 13 .11 makes it clear that this doesn't apply to me and it doesn't apply to you. Listen again, verse 11, when Yahweh the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, you shall and shall give it to you.

The sentence continues, you shall set apart to the Lord, all that first opens the womb, all the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck.

Every firstborn of a man among your sons you shall redeem. Stop. Who was this written to? Who received these commands? The children of Israel received these commands. Not me, not you. And here's the deal.

Christians are not bound by any of these commands. And here's the reason why. The reason is, is because in the Mosaic Law, there are three different divisions within the Mosaic Law. There are three. And to help kind of flesh this out, I'm going to call upon Philip Melanchthon, the contemporary of Martin Luther.

He's quoted in his Loci Communis in Martin Chemnitz's Loci Theologicae regarding the different divisions within the Mosaic Law. And listen carefully here. There's a reason why Christians are not required to keep kosher laws, they're not required to keep the Passover, they're not required to appear before the Lord three times a year in Jerusalem for the Passover, the Feast of Booths, and the Feast of Tabernacles, okay?

There's a reason because when we look at the Mosaic Law, there are three divisions within it, okay? Here's what Philip Melanchthon says. He says, thus there are three general divisions of the Mosaic Law, the moral laws, the ceremonial, and the civil or judicial laws.

This distinction must be carefully studied because even though the political structure established by Moses has now been destroyed, yet the distinction of the laws must be taken into consideration. The ceremonial laws of Moses and the civil laws are not commanded to other nations, nor are they binding upon us.

They were given to the people of Israel for that time in order that the political structure might continue for a definite period of time so that there might be a specific place in which the Messiah, the Christ, should be born and reveal Himself, be proclaimed, and become the sacrifice and openly complete the work of our eternal life.

But there is still another classification of the laws which are called moral laws, which are the eternal mind and rule of God and are not changed by the passing of time. Always and from all eternity God has willed that His creatures should love and fear God and that the rational creature be pure.

There are also moral laws which give commands concerning the acknowledgement of God in our hearts and our obedience toward God and concerning good works toward men, as well as concerning righteousness, chastity, truthfulness, and temperance.

The moral laws have been summarized by God in a remarkable way on one small table, which is called the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments. It is common to call it the Decalogue when we are referring to the moral law, a term which can be easily understood without any war of words.

Since these laws are the eternal rule of the mind of God, they always sounded forth in the church even before the time of Moses, and they shall remain in force forever and apply also to the Gentiles. So, to kind of summarize it, these divisions within the Mosaic Covenant between the civil, ceremonial, and moral laws explain why Christians are not required to keep a kosher diet like Leviticus 11 verses 1 -47 teaches, but we possess the freedom to eat bacon and shellfish, see for instance Mark 7 verses 14 -19.

These divisions also explain why Christians are not required to circumcise their male children, despite the command in Leviticus 12 verses 1 -3 to do so. You would cross-reference that then with Romans 3 verses 27 -30.

Nor are Christians required to sacrifice animals for their sins. See Leviticus 4 verses 1 -35 and then cross-reference that with Hebrews 7 verses 1 -9 verse 28. Simply put, those particular Old Testament laws were part of the civil and ceremonial codes of the Mosaic Law and are either not binding on other nations or have been fulfilled by Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice on the cross for our which those sacrifices point to.

These divisions within the Mosaic Law also explain why Christians are not free to steal, lie, and engage in sexual immorality because the moral laws they continue on forever. So, that's the idea. Now, what Robert Morris is doing here, and this is important to note, he is quoting from a portion of the commandments given in the Old Testament that are not in the moral law but are in the civil and ceremonial laws that were binding only on the nation of Israel.

And here's the other thing that he's doing. I'll kind of explain this to you here and demonstrate it when he does it. He's going to basically claim that this is a text about tithing. This is not a text about tithing.

Tithing texts are other texts and there are particular reasons why the nation of Israel is supposed to tithe. And you have to think of it as like a tax that was exacted so that the Israelites could support the Levites in their ministry in the temple.

Let me give you a passage to kind of help you out with this. Numbers chapter 18 verses 21 through 24 explains something regarding the tithe. Here's what it says, "'To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting lest they bear their sin and die.

But the Levites shall do their service of the tent of meeting and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. And among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

For the tithe of the people of Israel which they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.'".

So here's the idea. The purpose of the tithe in ancient Israel was because the Levites were not given a land inheritance like the other tribes of Israel. Instead they were to serve the Lord perpetually generation to generation as Levites in the tabernacle and then later in the temple.

And the tithe was a tax to support them. That's what it was for. So the idea is this, is that what's going on in Exodus chapter 13, it's not a tithe. Instead it is a redemptive sacrifice. It is a redemptive sacrifice.

There are two totally different things. In fact, when you look at the passage, the simple fact that a person could break the neck of an unclean animal like a donkey rather than redeem it and thus fulfill this command is proof positive that this is not a command about tithing.

Because you would ask the question, what good or use would a little Levitical priest make of a donkey with a broken neck? None whatsoever, right? So look at these commands again. Let's go back to Exodus 13.

Let me continue. Verse 11, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, he shall give it to you. You shall set apart to the Lord all the first that opens the womb.

All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of a man among your sons you shall redeem.

And when in time to come, your son asked you, what does this mean? You shall say to him, by a strong hand, the Lord brought us up out of Egypt from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals.

Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us up out of Egypt.

Get it? This is not a command for Christians. In fact, you will note, not anywhere in all of Christian history have Christians redeemed the firstborn by either breaking its neck or sacrificing a lamb.

Why? These laws and commandments, the specific law, is from a division of the Mosaic Covenant that does not apply to Christians. And furthermore, what you're going to hear again, Robert Morris is going to claim that this is about the tithe.

This is not about the tithe. This is a redemptive sacrifice that calls to mind the Passover and their exodus by God's killing of the firstborn. They were redeemed from the killing of the firstborn by the sacrifice of the Passover lamb.

All of this is a type and shadow that points us to Christ, and Christ is the fulfillment of this. He fulfills this type and shadow, and that's why this is unbinding. But what Robert Morris is trying to do very desperately is create the misimpression that this is about tithing, and that because there's a principle here, a principle that no one else has seen but him, that now we're bound by this principle, and we as Christians, we don't break the necks of donkeys or are redeemed through the sacrifice of lambs.

Instead, we can fulfill this principle by giving money to a church. But I would tell you, there is this command given here, there are only two ways to fulfill it, only two, and it has nothing to do with money.

Because nowhere in these commands does it say that you can redeem the firstborn with money. Instead, you must either kill it or sacrifice another animal in its place to redeem it. Money is not one of the options.

So what he's going to try to do by making this a principle that allows him the leverage and leeway that he needs to create the false impression that this principle then is fulfilled in our time by us giving money.

But this isn't about anything that any of us need to worry about or even fret about or try to fulfill. All of this has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We continue.

The Firstborn, Clean and Unclean, and the Fulfillment in Christ

Again, if you're taking notes, I want you to write these down. If you're not taking notes, write these down. Okay. Here's the first one. Number one, the firstborn must be sacrificed or redeemed. That's what we just read.

The firstborn. Right. And my money isn't born.

It doesn't open a womb. Only animals do this. And like I've pointed out from this text, the reason for this particular command given to the children of Israel was to recall to mind in the youngins of Israel, their release from slavery and captivity by the Lord.

Must be sacrificed or redeemed. Now, how do you know which to do? Well, God uses two examples. He uses the lamb and the donkey. What he's doing is he's using examples of a clean animal and an unclean animal.

If you had a clean animal, if you're... No, no, no. He's not using examples.

See, that's got to stop there. Did you hear what he said? He's using examples of a clean and unclean animal. No, he's giving specific commands regarding clean and unclean animals that are firstborn. See, this one word makes the difference.

He says, oh, God's using examples. And the reason he's saying that is so that he can smuggle this into a teaching regarding tithing. This passage has nothing whatsoever to do with tithing, and Christians are not bound by this.

Clean animal has a firstborn. You have to sacrifice that firstborn to God. But if it's an unclean animal, it must be redeemed with the sacrifice of a clean animal. Now, I'm going to say that one more time, and then I'll tell you why this is so important.

If it's a clean animal, it must be sacrificed, a clean firstborn. If it's unclean, it must be redeemed with the sacrifice of a clean animal. Now, why is this so important? Well, let me just ask you a couple of questions.

Were you and I born clean or unclean?

Now, what he's doing here is picking up on the types and shadows that are in this Old Testament command. And what he's doing, technically, there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's very good to point us to how this directly ties to Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross.

So, I'm not going to take issue with this, but he's using this, then, to further allegorize and make this symbolic so that he can make it about money rather than about animals.

We were born unclean. We were all born with a sin nature. We were born in sin. Now, I can prove it by just simply asking the experts here, if you're a parent, did you have to teach your children to be bad?

Or did it come naturally for them? We have to teach them to be good, right? Because we're born in sin. We're born with a sin nature. Okay, so we were all born unclean. Was Jesus born unclean or clean?

Clean. Okay, listen carefully. Here's what we just read. Listen, the clean Jesus had to be sacrificed so the unclean could be redeemed. That's what we just read. That's what we just read in the Bible.

Legit. Okay, no problem with that. That's kind of like a gospel-ish nugget there. Okay.

You have to remember, you have to remember, everything in this book points to Jesus. That's correct. I agree with him. There's a reason God said what he did.

And this represents giving the first to God. No, it doesn't represent. See, he's smuggling this word in here. He's trying to make this a representation that now we've got to do the same thing. Well, here's my question for you.

Are you ready? Which of your dollars are born clean and which of them are born unclean? Because you have to use the clean dollars to redeem the unclean dollars, right? Doesn't make any sense when you start looking at it that way, does it?

Just about tithing, we're going to show you in just a moment. Now, this passage isn't about tithing. I'm going to back this up so you can hear what he's doing in context here. This passage is not about tithing.

This is not part of the tithing commands given to Israel. This has nothing to do with that. But what he's trying to do is make this into a tithing text, and it doesn't. Because remember, you can fulfill this command by breaking the neck of an unclean animal.

And the purpose of the tithe, according to the book of Leviticus, is to support the Levitical priesthood. Again, I ask the question, what good is a donkey with a broken neck to a Levitical priest? None.

This isn't about tithing. Let me back this up. You have to remember,.

You have to remember, everything in this book points to Jesus. There's a reason God said what he did. And this represents giving the first to God, which is about tithing. We're going to show.

You in just a moment. No, it's not. This isn't a tithing text. This is about tithing. This is why.

I get so upset when people talk negatively about tithing, because I want to tell you something maybe you've never thought of before. Jesus is God's tithe. No, he isn't. Who was God tithing to?

That doesn't make any sense. Jesus is not a tithe. He is a redemptive sacrifice, the same as the Passover lamb was a redemptive sacrifice, the same as the killing of the first born or redeeming it was a redemptive sacrifice.

That points to God's exodus and Passover. No, this is not a tithing text at all. And what he's doing is criminal, claiming that Jesus is God's tithe. Who on earth did he get this from? Answer, he didn't get it from the Bible.

He got this from his imagination. There's no biblical text that says that Jesus was God's tithe.

He's the first born. He was sacrificed so we could be redeemed. This is all through Scripture. And by the way, it uses a lamb. So we know Jesus is a lamb to represent a clean animal. It uses a donkey to represent unclean.

So we're OK. So but this is why it bothers me because people understand. See, you give the tithe in faith. You don't wait to see if you have enough. You give the first 10 percent. You give the first portion of God so that God will redeem the rest.

And this is what he's saying. If you'll give me the first one, the rest are redeemed. He didn't say wait until your sheep has 10 lambs and then give me one. And he also didn't say give me the defective.

One or the ugly one or the one you don't like. And by the way, this text doesn't say you give me the first and the rest are redeemed. It doesn't say that either. You have to redeem the firstborn. It doesn't say anything about that redemption then applying to the remaining animals.

And not at all. This is not what this biblical text says. He's making these assertions. All of these basically taking all of the stuff, ripping them out of context, putting them together as if there's some unified teaching.

And they're not. And he's smuggling a whole bunch of stuff in not from the biblical text, but once again from his. We continue.

Said you give me. And that's what he was talking to him in Malachi about. He said, you bring me defective animals and I won't accept them. We have to bring the first to God. And this is why this represents Jesus, because God didn't wait to see if we would straighten up to give Jesus.

God gave Jesus what we were mocking him and beating him and spitting on him and.