The Reign of Error — Don Wilkerson

If you have your Bible, flirt with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. I met a couple of sisters on the elevator, and one of them said to me, Are you speaking? I said, Yes. He said, Well, I'm looking forward to it, I think.

The Reign of Error and the Father–Son Relationship

I want to speak to you this afternoon, a message entitled, The Rain, R-E-I-G-N. In fact, if you write this down, you'll get it better. The Rain of Air, E-R-R-O-R. Is that how you spell air? The Rain of Air.

In John, chapter 14, Philip said to him, verse 8,. And Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. And Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip?

He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works.

Now, Philip asked, seemingly, a worthy question, when he requested a revelation of the Father. But nevertheless, it revealed ignorance. Even though the disciples had been told over and over again that the Father is manifested in the Son, they never grasped it.

And since his first public appearance, more than three years had elapsed, prompting Jesus to say to Philip, Haven't I been with you so long a time? And still you don't understand? You still ask? You don't understand that if you've seen me, you've seen the Father?

For the Father is in me, and I in the Father. Now, not only did Philip not understand this, or the meaning of it, neither does much of the church today. And this lack of understanding lies at the root of some of the error that I see in the church, which prompts me to share with you this afternoon the fact that there are saints who are reigning in error.

You see, little emphasis is given in teaching of the Father, particularly the relationship between the Son and the Father. Yet Jesus spoke numerous times of that relationship. 245 times in the New Testament, God is called Father.

But some 50 times in chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17, Jesus talks about the Father. And one cannot read those words without understanding the intimacy between Father and Son. In fact, when Jesus began His ministry, when we first hear of Him in the New Testament, where is it?

It's in the temple. His parents have lost Him. And when they find Him, they of course reacted, and He's surprised at their reaction, and He says to them, What's wrong? I must be about my Father's business.

Sonship, Obedience, and the Responsibility of the Father's House

And again, the last words that He utters at the cross and at Calvary, and He says, Father, into thy hands commend I my spirit. Now, the importance of a study of the Father and Son is that it has so much to teach us about subordination and surrender and obedience and holiness and reigning with Christ now.

And also what it means to be a son in relationship to a father. And in a time when the popular message, one of the popular messages in the body of Christ is about claiming our rights as sons of God. But little is taught on living up to the responsibility to the Father.

Living in Father's house is not only enjoying the robe of righteousness or the fatted calf or the gifts of the Spirit or a festival of praise. It is also to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

And when we look at the Father, we are not only looking at the One who gave us His Son, we are not only looking at the blessings of sonship, but we also look at the goal of the Christian life when the church and its kingdom and all of its members are brought to completion to the will of God.

The Father is the One who according to Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24 desires, he said, I desire to sanctify you through and through or sanctify you wholly that may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And every time Jesus spoke in John chapters 14, 15 and 16 about how we should abide in Him, He used the example of how He obeyed and abided in and related to the Father. Because the appropriate relationship of a son to a father is one of dependence.

In fact, Satan's attack upon Him in the wilderness was to defeat the Son at this very point. And I'll come to that a little bit later. Now in recent times, we've had or gone through both a Jesus movement and a charismatic or Holy Spirit movement.

The Charismatic Movement and the Need for a Father Movement

I'd like to start a father movement. But in respect to the Jesus movement and the charismatic movement, one is gone and the other has splintered into a variety of teachings characterized by one as charismania.

But both movements, each in a different way, espouse an inadequate gospel. And what is needed is a father movement. You see, the charismatic movement failed to see that Christ received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

And this means that there is responsibility that goes with a Spirit-filled life. But the charismatic movement has been in large part responsible for spawning the strange children that David talked about last night and Bob referred to this morning.

Now don't get me wrong, the charismatic movement was a great move of God, especially among mainline churches that previously had a dead orthodox religion. They had a theology in which God was a concept and Christ simply an historical figure.

And the renewal brought people into a now living relationship with Christ by the Holy Spirit. It's kind of like what... We had a psychologist came to Teen Challenge one time. We've had people come from all over the world have beat a path to our door to find out about drug addicts being cured.

And we had a psychologist came one time and very skeptical and he was trying to analyze what was going on and find an explanation for it other than the fact of what we call the... It's the Jesus factor that brings about the curing and the transformation of drug addicts.

And he asked me a lot of questions. And finally he said, I want to talk to one of your residents privately. I said, OK, and I knew what he was up to so I picked out the right young man and I said, Here, you go in this room with him.

He's going to ask you some questions and you answer them. And so he threw all these questions at him and again he kept driving the point home. What did you get here that you didn't get in a hospital or a therapeutic community or wherever you went for help?

And the young man thought about it for a few minutes and his answer is a classic. He said, Well, sir, they give us God in the morning, Jesus in the afternoon and the Holy Ghost at night. The psychologist didn't have the same reaction you did.

He said, Don't you think you're using God as a crutch? He said, I don't know, man. If I am, give me two of them. But that young man understood basically what happened in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is that Jesus is in the now.

And He is God in the morning, Jesus in the afternoon and the Holy Ghost at night, a 24-hour day Jesus. But on the other hand, the movement has failed to subject itself to the Father and to the Son. And instead, the emphasis has been the Spirit as a sovereign source of renewal, power, spiritual gifts and fruits.

Testing Spiritual Experiences by Holiness and Sound Doctrine

And certain truths are ignored. For example, it says in John 16, 15, it says that the Spirit does and brings nothing of Himself or on His own authority but simply takes the things of Christ and shows them to us.

Just as the Son also does nothing on His own authority but only what He sees the Father does. And so it's the Father, Son and Holy Ghost working in concert one with the other. Now, as a result of this neglect, the standard of practice in the body of Christ today and in some circles of the charismatic movement has become manifestations of the Spirit and spiritual experiences with little regard for holy living or purity of heart.

The claim was and is that the experiences speak for themselves without reference to anything outside themselves. In other words, if it feels good, it must be of the Spirit. And thus, it must be of God.

And in this realm is an interest in our spiritual experiences, our religious experiences, in and for themselves. And the more satisfying and sensational they are, the more they become the norm of church practice.

And thus, the validation of what is of God and what is the movement of the Spirit becomes this. Does it make me happy? Does it draw a crowd? Does it cause church growth? Does it make you successful? Does it make you dance or jump or fall down or have spirits cast out of you or heal your innards?

And in the process, the criteria of church life and practice evolves from within inside itself, building on its own experiences and developing its own techniques. It no longer does it glorify God. Does it conform to the image of God?

Is the will of the Father the highest gold that's thrown out the window? Does it conform to sound doctrine? And listen to me, there is nothing more seductive as a good praise and worship service that appeases the flesh but never deals with the sin in a man's heart.

They that worship me must worship me in spirit and in truth. It is only as we look to the Father and learn disciplines as sons will we come under godly, scriptural and fatherly authority that shapes us inwardly and makes us responsible outwardly to others within the body.

Jesus’ Temptation and the Testing of Sonship

Again, Jesus is the model. One of the major themes of Luke's account I made reference before about the temptation in the wilderness. One of the major themes of Luke's account of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness is the attack that it launched on this consciousness of sonship that came to him in his baptism when the Father said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And the casting of doubt on his sonship is the starting point of the first and the third temptation which begins. And Satan said to him, the devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, do this and do that.

And Satan challenges the authority of the voice that spoke to him as he emerged from the waters of the Jordan. And in the first temptation, Jesus is attacked at the point of obedience. And he is invited to use charismatic power, if you please, to meet his own need rather than to be in obedience to his Father's Word to him.

You see, to fall from sonship is to fall from a life that has God and His Word at the center to a life that either makes its shape from its own human need, its own ministry to its own needs. And against this temptation, Jesus affirms that He draws His strength and His meaning from His obedience to His Father.

And He said, Man shall not live by bread alone. In the third temptation, the attack is on the trust, the trust of what His Father has said to Him. It is a temptation to prove His sonship by signs and wonders.

Satan says, If you don't do this, it shows that you don't really believe you're the Father's son. It's not enough that the Father has said it. You've got to establish it. You've got to prove it. You've got to show it by signs and wonders.

But this temptation is exposed and is defeated. And Jesus says this, God is to be trusted, not to be tested. Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Because you see, if Jesus fails at this point, if He fails here, His whole mission is defeated before He has started.

And that is that He is totally dependent upon the voice and the will of the Father. And these are two classic charismatic temptations. One, it is made up of those who misuse spiritual power to satisfy their own need.

Bob referred to it this morning, to satisfy our own need for healing or for peace or for prosperity or for excitement or for sensation. Or secondly, the temptation is to establish our status as sons of God by the fact that we are possessors of gifts and blessings or performers of signs.

And people that are into this do so because they have not really believed or obeyed their sonship. In other words, well, let me put it this way. The hyper-faith people really in the end don't have true faith.

They cannot accept the fact that God said it, that settles it, and I believe it. They keep needing and asking God to turn stones into bread or they ask for ridiculous things like throw yourself down and see if God doesn't perform a mighty sign and wonder.

Abba Father and the Meaning of Adoption

They haven't learned yet to rest in the arms of the Father and trust Him explicitly, apart from anything else. Now let me examine one event which reflects the son's relationship to the Father and how a misinterpretation of it leads to adopted sons reigning in error.

Turn with me to Romans 8. And here Paul tells us that the work of the Spirit is to produce within us a cry and a confession, Abba, Father. And let's take a look at the meaning of Abba, Father here. Romans 8, verse 14,.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and of children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

And again I read over in Galatians 4, 6 and 7, you don't have to turn there, but it says,. And because you are sons, God has sent forth His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and then an heir through God.

Now I want you to note that this cry is a name not of our own choosing. It has its origin in the language of Jesus who alone spoke of God in this way. We approach the Father and we call Him Abba through the Son and by the Spirit.

Now just what does this mean? Does it mean that I have a heavenly daddy who invites me to sit on his lap and ask for whatever I want? Is this what it means to be heirs of God and joint heirs of Jesus Christ?

I've heard the most perverted, distorted, and shallow interpretation of the believer's cry, Abba, Father, and what it means to be a son of God. Now first of all, this cry was uttered in a society whose idea of fatherhood is quite different from and alien to ours.

You see, in our culture, it's almost a virtue to express one's independence. One's independence of father. And like the prodigal son to go out and make it on one's own. Fathers in Western cultures are proud of sons who move out from under their parental care.

It's a sign of adult maturity in this culture. But this is far different from what a father was in the Old and New Testament days. In that culture, the father was absolute disposer and sovereign protector of his children all of their lives.

And we must understand this in order not to place modern cultural ideas into our interpretation of the doctrine of God's fatherhood. Father is not the indulgent daddy of the 20th century who fears imposing his will on his sons lest they rebel.

That means that pastors or shepherds are afraid to preach the truth. That's what Bob was talking about this morning. Father in the Bible is not the indulgent daddy of the 20th century who fears imposing his will on his sons lest he rebel, but one who holds authority and absolute right to the obedience of his children.

God’s Fatherhood as Authority and Covenant

Turn to Isaiah 63, and verse 16. You see, when the Old Testament speaks of the fatherhood of God, it's careful to avoid the sentimental use of a metaphor, but rather it affirms that the relationship between son and father is one in which God is our Father because He is the ultimate origin of our being, and thus He has free authority over His sons.

He has established His covenant relationship and His covenant responsibility to protect and care for His children and can expect their obligation to trust and obey Him in return. Isaiah 63, and verse 16.

It says, For thou art our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not recognize us. Thou, O Lord, art our Father. Our Redeemer from of old is Thy name. In other words, He said, you're not living like children.

You call yourself the children of Abraham. If Abraham came, he wouldn't even know you. He couldn't even identify with you. Though Abraham does not know us, but still that does not change the fact that thou art our Father.

Or in chapter 64, in verse 8, and it says, And thou, O Lord, thou art our Father. We are the clay, and thou art the potter, and all of us are the work of Thy hand. And you can find a cross-reference there where in effect it says the same thing as one of the Scriptures Bob used this morning about can the axe head dictate to the axe?

And he says here, can the clay dictate to the potter? He said, no, you can't. Turn to Deuteronomy 32, verses 5 and 6. We see it again here. It says, They have acted corruptly toward him. Deuteronomy 32.

They have acted corruptly towards him. They are not his children because of their defect, but are a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who brought you?

He has made you and established you. And the thought here is of His freedom and His authority as Creator, which makes for a claim on His children's obedience rather than any natural bond between them.

And therefore, Jesus' use of Abba has all of this behind it and only can be understood in this context. Now follow me please. Our right to call God our Father, Abba Father, is a conferred right. We have been given the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father because it was first uttered from the lips of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Gethsemane, Suffering, and Obedient Sonship

Abba Father is a Gethsemane word. It's a Calvary word. It can only be prayed by sons who've had a Gethsemane experience and who themselves have gone to that cross and died to themselves and died to their flesh.

Mark 14, verses 35 and 36, going a little further. And this is what this conference is all about. Mark 14. Mark 14. Let me show you what this conference is all about. Verse 35. I think in the King James, I have it here also in the King James, I think it says, going a little farther.

Here it says, and He went a little beyond them. And I don't know about you, but I find that Jesus is a little bit beyond me. Going a little farther. And that's what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to a body today.

Go a little farther. Not father, further. Excuse me. Going a little further. He fell on the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. And here it is, Abba Father. He says, everything is possible for you.

Take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. And you see, Gethsemane cannot be understood except in understanding this cry, Abba Father. Now what's going on here? It's at this moment that we understand what the Father means to the Son.

It is here that the Old Testament meaning of fatherhood is affirmed. To be the Son of this Father is to be able to have such secure trust, such confidence in the Father's will, such intimacy between Son and Father that He is willing to drink the cup of immeasurable suffering, making the sacrifice of life itself.

There's no rebellion here. There's no hesitation here. There is no privileged exemption from the obligation of obedience which the Father imposes and the Son accepts. And there is neither a picture of an indulgent Father shielding His Son from suffering, nor a vengeful, demanding Father threatening the Son.

This is not an enforced obedience. The Son has been with the Father from the beginning. He has known Him to be abundant in His provisions, reliable in His promises, and faithful in His love. The Son can obey the will of Abba whose love has been so proved that it can be so trusted so fully by being obeyed so completely.

But too many today have a daddy relationship with the Father. This is a teaching and a concept that we are king's kids living in a rich father's house who has given all of his children access to all of his credit cards, all of his wealth and just about anything they want when they want it.

And therein lies the reign of error. When Jesus cries to the Father, it's not a cry of a casual word of familiarity, but it's the deepest, most trustful reverence. Abba is the intimate word of a family circle where obedient reverence was at the heart of the relationship.

While daddy is a familiar word of a family circle from which all thoughts of reverence and obedience have largely disappeared. And today we have a church that has turned the Father into a twentieth century daddy.

If you don't believe it, listen to the language of preachers today. Listen to the music that's written where it treats God in this manner without respect to His authority over us as His sons. Now this is not to say that we're not heirs.

H-E-I-R-S. This is not to say that our Father is not rich in mercy and in grace. We do have access to the privileges of Father's house. Christ ordained that. He obtained that for us. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

Heirs of God, Servants of Christ, and the Danger of Triumphalism

I never forget what my brother said one time. We were in an office. With our office we were talking about this last message of judgment and the fact that what's going to happen when economic chaos breaks out in our land and everything that can be shaken will be shaken.

I like what he said. He said when that happens and when fear strikes the heart of the church, he said we're going to become the prosperity preachers. Yes, there is truth there that we are the sons. We are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah! But the meaning of this being preached today is so shallow and so carnal and so corrupting that it's turned believers into prodigals. The inheritance of the saints, the reign of heirs of God must reflect the likeness of Jesus Christ.

It's to possess a unique combination of obedience and authority, humility and greatness, weakness and power, suffering and glory, dying and rising, serving and reigning. Anything less is cheap charismatic triumphantism which is only interested in a painless solution to all of its problems.

Conversion from “Give Me” to “Make Me”

Now this brings me to another point of my message and that is that I believe what is needed is a conversion experience for saints who are reigning in error. I think they need to be converted. It's not a conversion from your sin, but it's a conversion from your error.

I remember in our third conference, a young couple came to me. Well, I'll tell you about that later. I didn't purposely try that to keep your interest. I just got ahead of myself. Turn with me to Luke chapter 22.

Luke chapter 22, verse 31. Leave it open there. I'm going to go back to some other parts of it. But let me begin with verse 31. It says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.

He said, But I prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when once you have turned again, I think King James, doesn't King James say converted? He said, Once that you have been converted, strengthen your brethren.

Now, I believe the kind of conversion that Peter needed is the kind some in the church need. And some of you, maybe this afternoon, you need this kind of conversion. It's the kind of conversion that the prodigal experienced.

You don't have to turn to it, but remember in Luke 15, when the story begins, he says, Give me. And then he goes out and he squanders his inheritance in riotous, charismatic living. And when he came to himself, I want to tell you, when you don't have Jesus and you just come to yourself, you're in trouble.

And he says, I will go, I will get up and go to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men.

What a conversion from give me to make me. And I challenge you to do something. Go across the dial of the radio preachers or the television preacher. Go across the dial and rate them, if you will. And you can tell very quickly which are the give me ones and which ones are the make me ones.

Don't come asking me for a list. It's very simple. It's a very simple deduction. You'll hear them very quickly. And they come across as this right that we have, a give me attitude towards God, not a make me.

Peter’s Political Kingdom Expectations

Now, Peter needed a similar conversion, if for different reasons. Peter had a wrong concept of salvation and what it meant to be a member of Christ's kingdom and to be a son who reigns with him. Peter was reigning in error.

You see, all along the way, he was looking for a physical, a material, a political, if you please, an earthly kingdom. He and the other disciples kept wondering, when is this Messiah who raises the dead, who opens blind eyes, that has this power, when is he going to use it to kick those scoundrels out of the White House?

When is he going to use his power to overthrow Roman rule, lead a political coup, and fulfill the testimony of the prophets? You see, the disciples were as obsessed with Christ taking over Rome as some of the church today is obsessed with taking over the White House.

Look at it. Look at it in verse 17 and 18 of Luke 22. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.

Now, they were excited about this because they thought when he said, I will not drink it again until the kingdom of God comes, they thought it was around the corner. They thought it was about to happen.

And he went on and he said, this is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. And it's right after this, in the context of this, what happens? They begin to argue. They say, this is terrific.

We've been waiting for this day. He's going to set up the kingdom. And they started to talk among themselves as to who was going to be Secretary of Defense. Who was going to be Secretary of State. Peter, of course, was going to be Secretary of Defense.

You know, Judas, Secretary of Treasure. Verse 24,. And there rose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be the greatest. Hey, they said, we're coming in. We're coming in. We're taking over.

It's interesting. You go on. Jesus did not rebuke them. And he said to them, the kings are the Gentiles, Lord, and over them, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors. And they said, yeah.

They thought, we're about to be the benefactors. But then he said, but not so with you. But let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as a servant. And who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves?

It is not the one who reclines at the table. That breaks my heart. We sit around tables. We sit around tables contemplating our next political move. It is not the one who reclines at the table, but I am among you as the one who serves.

And here again, here again he throws Peter off. And you are those who have stood by me in my trials, and just as my Father has granted me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And then he says this, Simon, Simon, you don't understand. You need to be converted from your concept of what the kingdom is all about. Even up to the very end, this question plagued the minds of the disciples.

They still did not understand that the kingdom of God is within, that Christ's reign is first one of the heart, not of the hand or the flesh. At the ascension, Acts 1 -6, even after the resurrection, and when they were come together, they were asking Him, saying, Lord, is it at this time, now finally, now that you have, my goodness, the greatest thing that happened, now He has conquered death, raised from the dead.

Lord, is it this time, finally now, you are restoring the kingdom to Israel. And He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority. And after this, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

And King James says, and they were gazing up. Do you know what their problem was? Is that the kingdom theory went up in the clouds. Their kingdom theory just went up in the clouds. And I want to tell you, it's going to come back in the clouds.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! This has been a problem for the church down through the ages. A wrong view of the kingdom leads to a reign of error. It produces a church seeking to rule, not to be ruled. It creates a people wanting to be the greatest among us, not the servant of all.

Peter’s Call from Prosperity to Worship

It sees its inheritance as an arrogant right to enjoy, not a privilege or a condition to fulfill. Now, my brother stole my illustration the other night. I wasn't even going to use it anyhow. But I was up just before I came down, and the Holy Spirit gave me another revelation on it.

Listen, I can't help it. I can't help it. God speaks to me through a hanky. You pardon me. But He did. You see, David, if you weren't here last night, you said, you know, some people, they come to the church like this.

Feed me. Tell me what makes me happy. Make me feel good. And that's just like a baby. And when you first come to the Lord, it's your needs that draw you to Him. Yes, there's no problem with that. But then you see, where the Lord is really trying to take us is here.

But the church doesn't want to go there. You know what they want to do? They want to go directly here. From here to here without serving. I want to show you a contrast why Peter needed to be converted.

Jesus was teaching out of the disciples' boat and when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, put out... This is Luke 5 .4. And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for catch.

And Simon answered and said, Master, we're the fishermen. And we've worked hard all night and caught nothing. But at your bidding, I will let down the nets. And when He had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break.

And they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and to help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. And as the boats filled up, and Peter had just seen the greatest catch in his life.

And being a good Jew, he probably was calculating what that catch was. Or he might have done that, but he didn't. There was a spontaneous... He did something very spontaneous. He fell down at Jesus' feet saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

And this is remarkable. For at the moment of Peter's greatest catch, his greatest prosperity, he turns his eyes away from the catch to the catcher. And he worships Him. And when they brought the ships to land, they left everything and followed Him.

And here Peter stands before Jesus, not with a need to be satisfied, but convicted of his own sinful unworthiness. And when Jesus sees it, He calls him and He says, Now you can go forth and catch men.

And I just think what the scene might be if that took place today in some circles. A doctrine of success would be built around it. Peter would hold a seminar on how to fill your nets, your boat, your mouth, and your wallet.

But Peter worships the Lord as an object of worship, one in which he is willing now to follow, to let go of his greatest prosperity in his life and to leave everything and follow the Lord. But Peter did not remain consistent.