WWUTT 1980 Q&A Deadly False Teaching, Reformed Apps, Generational Curses, Power in Our Words

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Why is it so necessary to warn against false teachers? What is one book that I would recommend you read outside of the

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Bible? And can we issue generational curses? The answers to these questions and others when we

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Understand the Text. This is

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When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, so that in season and out of season we may be equipped with great patience and teaching.

00:35

Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is

00:41

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Okay, I adjusted that mic on you so that you would be louder, and now it's popping your peas.

00:49

Oh. Hang on. Make an adjustment. Adjustment. Adjustment.

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Yeah. It's not an exact science. Eh. It's a give or take. Yeah. It's somewhat of an art form.

01:02

It's somewhat luck, you know. However I'm sitting. And I will readjust my sitting all night.

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Yeah, right. She's not always sitting in the same chair. The whole time I'm recording. I can sit right here, and I'm happy.

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No. I'm fine, but yeah. I don't have as cozy of a chair, though. You don't. So you got that nice seat cushion.

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Yeah. I got it. I don't have a seat cushion. If I move in this thing, I just make all kinds of noise in this chair.

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I just make squeaks squeak. All right. Real quick. Before we get to some questions here, I wanted to come back to the

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Sermon on the Mount. Okay. Which I just finished this week. Mm -hmm. This was my third time teaching through it in as many years.

01:42

Oh, wow. In 2020, I taught through it the first time. Did you really? Yep. And then it was two years ago,

01:48

Tom and I taught through it together. Oh, yeah. Okay. And then I just did it on the podcast. Yeah. So three times through the

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Sermon on the Mount. And as I came to the conclusion of this, you have those warnings from Jesus about beware of false prophets.

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So Matthew 7, 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

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And he says that you will know them by their fruit. Yeah. A good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit.

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And you've heard us talk about that many times if you've been a regular listener to this broadcast. Mm -hmm.

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Look for the fruit. Yes. You will know if they are a good teacher if they are producing what they're teaching.

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If they're teaching godliness, they're producing godliness. That's what you're going to see in their lives. Right. But if what you see in their lives is ungodliness, if maybe there's something in the teaching you've missed, well, the conduct of their lives are going to point you to recognize, okay, there might be something bad in the teaching.

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Right. Now, that's not always a one -to -one because you can have sound teachers who end up with some great sin in their lives.

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Right. And it doesn't mean that that sin is now revealing the fact that they were teaching falsely.

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It's revealing the fact that they were not consistent. They were being hypocrites. They were saying one thing, but they were doing something else.

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Yeah. But regardless, you will recognize them by their fruit. Will the way they live be consistent with what it is that they teach?

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If not, then they're a false prophet. They may even teach things that are true, but in their lives, not living out what it is that they are saying.

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Yeah. So, anyway, this warning that is given to beware of false prophets. Come to you in sheep's clothing so they look like us, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

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And whenever I teach on this, you know, I tend to be even keeled or have the same sort of tone as I teach on any kind of passage.

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But I always come away from that wondering, could I have given a greater emphasis than I did?

03:56

Yeah. I mean, do you not realize that false teaching is deadly serious?

04:03

Yeah. I mean, because isn't it like heaped on you, on teachers? Well, you're thinking of maybe

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James 3 .1. I think I'm combining too many. Maybe you're thinking of James 3 .1.

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Not many of you should aspire to become teachers because you know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness. Yes.

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So there is a greater weight, a greater responsibility on teachers. Yes. And a greater judgment on them for getting this wrong.

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Or leading astray. Leading astray. The blood of the people that you lead astray will be on your hands.

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This is like Ezekiel 33 where God says to the watchman. Yes. If you see the sword coming against the land and you don't sound the alarm, then when the sword comes against the people, all of their blood is on your hands.

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Right. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and sounds the alarm, and then there are people that don't take the warning and they die, well, the blood is not on the watchman's hands.

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He did exactly what he was supposed to do. Right. So many preachers out there not warning people about the judgment that is to come.

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If they're not warning about judgment and that the way of salvation is through Jesus Christ, even in that they're a false teacher.

05:24

Yeah. You have warnings about false teachers in every book of the New Testament except,

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I think, Philemon might be the only one. Oh, okay. That's interesting. There's a warning about false teachers in every one.

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You think that might be something we would need to look out for. That's a pretty important thing.

05:42

Yeah. When Jesus addressed the churches at the beginning of Revelation, in Revelation 2 and 3, there's warning about false teachers there.

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Yeah. Christ is warning about false teachers. They look like you. They will come in sheep's clothing.

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They will claim to be Christians. But they will devour you and destroy you if you listen to their teaching and follow in their ways.

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So this is just such a deadly serious thing. Something else that I was thinking about, I think, after I gave the lessons that I gave on Tuesday and Wednesday, which were at the close of the

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Sermon on the Mount, even a couple of days after that, I'm thinking about that and I'm going, should

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I have given more oomph there? Like giving more warning, giving more caution.

06:26

Guys, false teaching will lead you to hell. And yet this is one of those things that pastors will do, sound teachers of the word will do, warning about false teachers that often gets the most pushback from people in the congregation.

06:41

Yeah. Well, you got to be nice. Yeah, right. Why do we need to call them out? Just preach the gospel.

06:47

We'll be good with that. Yeah. Jesus is love. Yeah. I mean, we also have to say who we're not aligned with.

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Yeah. That's part of teaching soundly. Like those who teach the true gospel are on this way.

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Remember the narrow gate that we read about previously in Chapter 7? The narrow gate.

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And then all of these folks on the broad way that appeal to your flesh, that sound like the world, that are going to lead you to death if you follow after them, which is why, as a shepherd, we warn you.

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Yeah. Don't go that way. Don't go after that teaching. Yeah, because, I mean, you might hear the same thing that your preacher has told you from someone else, but then they go on to a totally different way.

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Different application. Yeah, and you just follow them down that way. Because you don't know.

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You don't know. It's not familiar. If you're not telling them what not to know,

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I mean, what not to follow. Yes. Then you're like, oh, well, this sounds good.

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You know, I like this. And it tickles your ears and you go that way. And it sounds like something my pastor has said.

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You know, something like that. And I've said this before with various congregations that I have preached to.

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I can tell you, follow sound doctrine. Everybody nods their head. Right. Yes, we should follow sound teaching.

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Yes. But then you name something. Stephen Furtick is not a sound teacher. You follow his teaching, it'll lead you to hell.

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And then suddenly everybody's like, whoa, wait, wait, wait. I was on board with you. Until you said that. Until you said that.

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And I kind of like Furtick, you know. Then it starts to offend people. Yeah. But that's necessary.

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It's necessary for us to call out false teachers. Jesus is calling out the Pharisees while they're right there in front of the people.

08:41

True. That's very true. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Sons of hell, producing sons of hell that are twice as much sons of hell as yourselves.

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Yeah. That's pretty huge. Yes. Yeah, wow.

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So we've got to be careful about the teachers that we listen to. And you hear these warnings from pastors who care about you because it's deadly.

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It's serious. Yeah. There is a teaching that will lead you to hell. And there is a teaching that will lead you to everlasting life in Christ.

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Amen. So be on the narrow path. The way that leads to life.

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The way of Christ. And be on guard. Be on guard against all the different lies, the different snares.

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Yeah. Because, I mean, they're sneaky. Some of them. Yeah. The schemes of the devil.

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Yeah. Watch out for the way that he works. Exactly. He is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, as it says in 1

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Peter 5. Yeah. And beware of those who say, well, you can bind Satan. No.

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See, they're not on guard against Satan's schemes if you think that you've got the power to bind

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Satan. True. Anyway, I don't want to spend too much time on that, but that was just something else that I was thinking about coming to the conclusion of the

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Sermon on the Mount and thinking, should I spend more time on the false teaching warnings, put a greater emphasis on some of those things.

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But I hope you understand and you continue to hold fast to the true word of Christ. As warned about in 1

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Timothy 6, those who go away from the sound words of Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

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And he has a craving for controversy and quarrels about words which produce dissension, slanders, evil suspicions, and constant friction by those who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

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So, if you go away from the sound word of Christ, that's the result. Yeah. It's going to divide people, break people up.

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There will not be unity, and even worse than this, it will lead to their own destruction. Yeah.

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2 Peter 3 .16, there are the ignorant and unstable who twist the word to their own destruction like they do the rest of the scriptures.

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Well, we're here to answer some of those questions when you hit those confusing parts and hope we're able to provide some clarity for you.

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This is the Friday edition of the broadcast when we take questions from the listeners and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

11:19

We've got a couple of false teachers to respond to here. Oh? This first one has been sent to me by several people.

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This happened just yesterday. Okay. And so, there were folks that were asking me, did you see this clip? This is

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Russell Moore, who's the editor of Christianity Today, in an interview with Karen Swallow Pryor, who at the present is unemployed, but was previously a professor at Southeastern Theological Seminary in North Carolina.

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Okay. So, they're talking here, and Karen Swallow Pryor tends to be one of those persons that is consulted about like her literary expertise.

11:57

Okay. And Russell Moore likes to do book reports in his basement while the rest of us are losing our religious freedoms in the midst of a pandemic.

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Huh. Yeah. That's kind of Moore's character. So, the two of them are sitting down and recently did an interview on Russell Moore's podcast, and they got to ripping on Pilgrim's Progress.

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What? Yes. Not even kidding. Okay. So, listen to this. That's interesting. I don't like John Bunyan.

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I like the person of John Bunyan. I like the life of John Bunyan, but Pilgrim's Progress leaves me cold, and Grace Abounding to the

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Chief of Sinners even more so. And I think because I've seen so many people who started reading some

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Puritan literature from that time period who became so morose and so introspective and believing there's no way they could really be a

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Christian, and all of the tests that they were giving to themselves that they would test whether or not they had the objectivity to go through the tests, you know, all of that.

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That Puritan era, I think, brought some things that just really creep me out.

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But you talk about in the book just how significant Pilgrim's Progress really was in terms of shaping everything around us, which

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I don't think I'd ever thought about before. I mean, I knew it was at one point the most popular book other than the

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Bible, but I didn't really think about how the story actually changed the way we see things.

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I'm going to be completely honest here. I mean, the Pilgrim's Progress is kind of a drag to read.

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I mean, even teaching it, my students love to hate it, and I love to teach it to try to hate it with them and help them see it.

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And I'm so glad, actually, that I came to it as a student of literature before more than a

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Christian. I mean, I was a Christian, but I approached it as literature. Becky's eyes, like, right away when we opened that clip with Moore going,

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I don't like John Bunyan. Oh, man. Your eyes rolled all the way up there,

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I think. They went up the wall. Oh, my goodness.

14:28

Yeah. I'm tortured along with all of you. The number one book

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I recommend when people ask me, what is one book you would recommend outside of the Bible? For decades, my number one answer has been

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Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Yeah. It's a good book. That is the book you should read.

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And as I understand it, it is the most printed book other than the

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Bible in the history of the world. Wow. If you would ask me point blank, like, what do you think is the most printed book other than the

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Bible? I would probably say the Book of Common Prayer or the Koran. I would assume it might be one of those two.

15:09

All right. But my understanding is, I mean, you know, because it's been several centuries that Pilgrim's Progress has been around, that that is the most published book in the world outside of the

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Bible. It has been translated in over 200 languages. And the Koran is never translated.

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I won't say never, but it's hardly ever translated to other languages because they believe that it has to be in the original language that it was written in to be a genuine

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Koran. Anyway, that's a false book. But with Pilgrim's Progress, I mean, what a great book.

15:44

I'm going through Pilgrim's Progress with the kids right now. And I was unaware of how well they knew it.

15:51

Yeah. Because as we're going through it, they're like, is that this part? And I'm like, how many times have I read this to you guys?

15:58

And we've watched the movies. We've done the movies. Several versions of it. Yeah. There's the old cartoon that I remember watching when

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I was a kid. There was the computer animated version that came out a few years ago. Right. We've watched that one.

16:11

Becky and I have mentioned on this show before an app called the Monergism eBook

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Library. Oh, yeah. Over 900 free books in this app.

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Okay. The Monergism eBook Library. Look that up on your iPhone or Android, download it, and you've got a library of books there.

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Now, one of the books that he mentioned that I had not read from John Bunyan when he was talking about books that he did not enjoy from John Bunyan, Moore said

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Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. I don't think I've read that one from Bunyan. Okay. So as soon as I heard him say it, I pulled up my

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Monergism eBook Library and I downloaded it and I'm reading it. Nice.

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And there's also, look at this, The Pilgrim's Progress in Modern English. Hey. Right here on that.

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That's helpful. Yep. It's right here on the app. So you don't even have to go buy a print copy, you just download this app and it's right there.

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And then I'll keep looking in the glossary for what's the meaning of this phrase and what's the meaning of this word. Yeah, that's right.

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Since it's in modern English, you get past the King James language a little bit. A little more updated.

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So that's a great app. I would highly encourage you to download that app. And another one that I keep meaning to mention, the last few weeks,

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I've forgotten about this one, but there is a Reformed app. And I think that's just the name of it. I think it's the

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Reformed app. And it's got on there different Reformed confessions, like the

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Westminster Confession of Faith, the London Baptist Confession of Faith. Oh, cool. I think both the first and second editions.

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And the Heidelberg Catechism is on here. There's also several different catechisms that you can read.

17:57

And I've been going through this with the kids in the evening. There is an Easy Kids Catechism on here.

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And that's a question we get a lot. Yes. Like, I love the Baptist Catechism. I love

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Keech's Catechism. But sometimes the questions can be a little advanced. Right. A little complicated, especially in their language, for kids to understand and memorize and recite and even get what the question and answer are supposed to be.

18:25

Right. But there's an Easy Kids Catechism on this app. You guys will love it.

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And it's like 150 questions or something like this. And it will even, like it'll come up like this.

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I'm showing it to Becky here. But it comes up like this where it has the question and it won't show you the answer.

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See that? It has a blank space for the answer. Yeah. So the kids can use this. As like a test kind of thing?

18:48

Yeah. Nice. And so the very first question, who made you? And then you click Show Answer.

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God made me. Nice. And there's the different Bible references there. Oh. And you can click on the reference and it will even give you the scriptures right there.

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Oh, that's awesome. So you don't have to go look it up. It's all right there. Let's see, next question is, what else did

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God make? Okay. Answer, God made all things. And there's the scripture.

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That's a good way to summarize it. There you go. But you know, these are questions. The kids are memorizing the questions and the answers.

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Yeah. This is a big deal. It's a big deal to be teaching. That is awesome. Teaching these things to young kids that are, you know, four, five, six years old.

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Yeah. They can learn that. They can recite that. And trust me, they can work a phone. Yeah.

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Or a tablet. Or a tablet, yeah. If you got a Mac, I guess you got to have it.

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You got to have apps on your Mac, too, right? You can. Yeah. Becky's a Mac user. I'm a PC user. Yeah, you know. Can't all be perfect.

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And we still get along. That's right. Until she's got a computer problem. That's true. And I have no idea.

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Like, babe, I don't know. That's not my problem here. So earlier this week, she had called me with a computer issue.

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She got that spinning wheel of death. Yes. And I couldn't get out of anything.

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Yeah. It wouldn't do anything. So I had to go into the office of the next pastor, Pastor Andrew.

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Yeah. He was awesome. Who is a Mac pro. And he knew exactly. Yeah, he knew. He was like, yeah, that happens.

20:21

You need to push this and push this, and it'll get you out. Yeah. Thanks, Andrew. I would not have known what to do there.

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But there you go. All right. Next question here. Oh, I've closed my questions now. I closed out of all my apps.

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And now I don't have any questions. So we were done listening to the video? Yeah, that was it. That was all.

20:38

Okay. I was holding my breath there. I'm like. But it gave me yet another warning as to how these guys are completely untrustworthy.

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And then also a springboard to be able to recommend the ebook app from monergism.

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And then the other reformed app. What did I say that was called again? Reformed app. Yeah. I think it's just called reformed app.

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That's what it's labeled as on my apps. So I think it's reformed app. I think I found it because I was looking for an app that was just the 1689

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London Baptist Confession of Faith. Okay. Because I have it in bookmarks in my webpages.

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Yeah. But I didn't actually have an app that had the 1689 in it. To easily pull it out.

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Yeah, just easy and be able to turn pages in it and stuff like that. Oh, I even have it as a book in my Kindle. But I was looking for something that was an app.

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Yeah. A quick little poke of the finger, you know, sort of a thing. And I found that app, the reformed app. I was like, wow, that was even better than what

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I was looking for. I love it when that happens. It has the 1689 in it, but also

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I saw those kids' catechism questions. I was like, oh, this is just awesome. So look for those.

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The Monergism ebook library and then the reformed app. Okay, now I'm pulling my questions back up here.

21:55

There we go. This is from Matt. And by the way, this being the Friday edition of our broadcast, we take questions from the listeners.

22:04

Yeah. And you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. Matt says, hi,

22:09

Pastor Gabe and Becky. I really appreciated the response that you gave over the weekend. This would have been last week.

22:15

Okay. To the gentleman who is attending separate churches from his Pentecostal wife. Yeah. I will oversimplify my circumstances by saying that in our home, there are similar issues.

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One of the hard things that it might be necessary to add to your comments to that gentleman are that it may actually never get any better.

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In fact, it may actually continue to get worse, possibly every day. But also to remind him that his hope is not in things getting better, but is ultimately in Christ.

22:49

And someday it will be better. Oh, so much better. Thanks again for all that you do.

22:55

So true. And thank you for adding that bit of reality and clarity to the answer that I gave last week,

23:01

Matt. That is indeed true. And it's something that I've said to many couples that I've counseled.

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When they come to me with a problem, no matter how serious the problem, saying to them, this situation might get worse before it gets better.

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And you just need to be in it for the long haul. You need to continue to draw near to Christ.

23:22

Both of you need to do that. And as both of you draw near to Christ, you will draw closer to one another.

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And then the closeness that you experience is dependent upon not you. It's dependent upon Christ.

23:38

So, you know, common encouragement that I give to many couples that have gone through difficult trials.

23:44

And it's going to get worse, but you've got to hold fast. You've got to continue to hold fast to Christ. And even if your significant other is not holding fast to Christ and that's not their.

23:58

Maybe not progressing like you're progressing. Right. It's still hard.

24:06

And you might have to end up getting some extra counseling or something like that to help you through that hard time.

24:14

I mean, first folks to go to. We like it when we get questions from people. And there are some questions that Becky and I never read on the broadcast because it might be too personal.

24:24

Right. Definitely. And we don't want some of those details to come out and get somebody in trouble. You know, something to that effect.

24:30

So, the first place we tell you to go is your pastor. Very, very true. Yes. Hey, I appreciate that you trust us and you would ask us those kinds of questions.

24:40

And we're going to give you answers according to biblical wisdom. But you need people that know who you are.

24:48

Yes. And they know your situation and your circumstance. And they're going to work with you through the trials that you have.

24:55

Not giving you like just a simple one -off answer. Yeah. Like, here you go. All right, go on.

25:01

Yeah. Good luck. Take two of these. Call me in the morning. Yeah.

25:06

No, it doesn't work that way. Yeah. But we'll actually labor with you through those things.

25:12

Yes. So, now in this particular circumstance with the question that we answered last week and with Matt, you know, there's the difficulty of one person wants to attend this church and the other person wants to attend the other church.

25:25

So, when you need that help, who do you go to? Yeah. Because one spouse won't go to the other spouse's pastor.

25:32

You know, something like that. Right. And I've encountered that a lot, too. Yep. Where one spouse wants to come to me, but the other spouse is going,

25:38

I don't really like him very much. I wish we could go to this other person. I've been there as well. So, but continue to meet with somebody who knows who you are, even if your other spouse is not in agreement with that being the best pastor to go to.

25:53

If it's somebody who knows you, that's your church, they're biblical, they will pour the gospel into your life.

25:59

Yeah. They will preach Christ. They'll tell you the truth. They'll call out your own sin. Mm -hmm. And show you areas where you need to repent, things like that.

26:06

Yes. Continue to meet with the person who shepherds you. Yes. And let them walk with you through this trial and doing that together.

26:15

Mm -hmm. Next question comes from GC, or I guess this is a comment. Dear Gabe and babe, again, a great thank you for your podcast.

26:25

I'm out working wildfires in Northern California. Oh, wow. I have a young Mormon firefighter and an investigating so -called

26:34

Christian with me. Mm. So one who's a Mormon and one who proclaims to be a Christian is what it sounds like.

26:40

Mm -hmm. I was playing podcasts 1251 and 1252. Both firefighters sat up and started to ask questions about the gospel of Christ.

26:49

Thank you so much for the amazing work and help. I don't remember what episodes 1251 and 1252 were about.

26:59

We'll have to look them up later. I know by the numbers, that was a Monday and a Tuesday. Nice. So it was

27:07

New Testament. Yeah, it would have been New Testament study. That's right. But I don't remember what I was in back in the 1250s.

27:13

I will. I'll have to look those up now. I'm curious. But that's wonderful. I'm glad to hear that.

27:20

Love hearing the testimonies from some of you guys. We'll read the questions and answer the questions, but I love the testimonies, too, to hear how the podcast is ministered to you and even how it's ministered to other people around you.

27:34

Amen. Such a great thing. Thank you so much. And I'm amazed. Praise the Lord for that. Yeah, absolutely. I'm amazed at where we will go and people will be like, oh, yeah, listen to your podcast.

27:44

That's true. I did not expect to meet somebody here that. You really sound like that.

27:50

Yeah, that's right. You get that a lot. I get that one a lot. Wow, you really sound like that. Well, it is my voice.

27:57

I don't know. I don't know what else you were expecting there. Yeah. On the last what video that I did, or it was the one that I did on a wrinkle in time.

28:06

Okay. That book. There was somebody in the comments who was dogging on my information and they said, just because you use an

28:14

AI voice. Yeah. That doesn't make it more credible or something like that. I'm going, I don't know whether to be insulted or complimented by that.

28:24

Sorry. The AI can't imitate this voice, folks. This is one of a kind. All right.

28:32

Yeah. I love it. Spare me a little foolishness, as the Apostle Paul would say.

28:39

All right. This next question is from Sarah in Texas. She says,

28:45

Pastor Gabe and Becky, my sister and brother -in -law are recent converts out of the charismatic

28:50

Word of Faith movement. They are in the process of leaving their old church where they served as leaders in multiple ministries and have been seeking to share the true gospel and reform theology, both with their fellow leaders and friends.

29:04

Oh, wonderful. Questions that have frequently been raised are the idea of blessing and cursing, whether we as Christians have the ability to bless and curse others, and the idea of generational curses.

29:17

Their Word of Faith counterparts draw upon the examples of the patriarchs blessing and cursing their descendants,

29:25

Noah, Jacob, Joseph, and others, as well as God blessing and cursing. This is a video that one of her friends shared with her as biblical proof.

29:33

I'm going to play the video here in just a moment. And so she goes on to say, could you offer a true biblical perspective on these topics as well as resources to research them further?

29:44

Thank you so much for your ministry. Now, I know Sarah, and Sarah, I've got something for you, which

29:50

I'll mention here at the end of my answer. But first, let's play this video. This is the video that she linked to me.

29:57

I'm guessing something circulating around on Facebook. It has a TikTok format to it. So it might be on TikTok as well, and perhaps even

30:05

Instagram. But here's the video that she shared. You may not like this, but this is the truth.

30:11

Parents, you might be frustrated with your children now. But what you don't know is what you're seeing is probably the result of the curse that you spoke over them yesterday.

30:20

They made several mistakes. And instead of you being patient, you would say things like, why do you never listen to anything anyone ever say to you?

30:27

What you don't know is what you just did was use your spiritual authority through your words to invite the spirit of rebellion into their heart and for unclean spirit to lead them instead of God.

30:39

Remember. Okay, let's stop there for a second. What were you thinking? I'm thinking, okay, yes, our words are very important.

30:47

Yes. And the Bible tells us they are important. Yes. And we need to be.

30:53

We should be gracious with our words, building each other up instead of tearing each other down. That's Ephesians 429.

30:58

Right. But I didn't realize that I am that significant that I can.

31:05

You're a spiritual authority. Yeah. He says there. Yeah. The scriptures never call us a spiritual authority.

31:12

That's so wrong. The spiritual authorities are referred to as angels and demons. Right. And I'm neither.

31:19

Right. And you cannot control angels and demons. No. You do not have that kind of authority.

31:25

No. Now, it is true. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been scared of them. Like the shepherds would not have been scared. Of the angels.

31:31

Yeah. Right. Right. Can you imagine the shepherds commanding the angels? Yeah. I mean, no.

31:37

Get out of here. Hey, you guys are scaring us. You're scaring the sheep. Go away. Did not even think of that.

31:44

That did not happen. You know, we don't have that kind of spiritual authority.

31:50

Now, it is true that there is power in our words. For sure. To a certain extent. Yeah. If you're going to cut your children down.

31:57

You can totally tear them down with your words. That's going to have a serious effect. Yeah. If everything you're speaking to your kids is constantly negative.

32:04

Becky and I have talked about those kinds of things before. Yes. But the example that he gave was saying, why don't you ever listen to anything

32:11

I say? You never listen to me. That's just a foolish over -exaggeration. Right.

32:16

But it's not speaking a curse into a child's life. No. And I mean, it may be you are exaggerating, but there probably will be some truth to that when you...

32:28

Yep. I think we've said it. I believe a lot. Why don't you ever listen to me? Yeah. I mean, when it happens...

32:34

Don't listen to me anymore. When it happens the 12th, 13th, 14th time in a row. Yes. That seems to be the pattern.

32:39

So, yes. There are occasions where saying such a thing is not going to eternally damage your child.

32:47

No. And you need to qualify that. You need to show them what their error is and give them correction.

32:53

It's also raising awareness that they're doing wrong and not listening. Yeah. They need to know that.

32:59

You have to show them that they were doing wrong. Yes. Just like we were talking before about false teachers. Right.

33:05

Exactly. You need to do more than say, don't follow false teachers. You even need to say who those false teachers are.

33:12

Right. So that people will not go after them. And we're supposed to be asking specific forgiveness...

33:18

Asking for forgiveness for specific... I can't spit this out. Specifically.

33:26

Pacifica. For specific sins. Yes. There you go. Not just an overall, hey,

33:34

Lord, I've sinned. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. But a true, honest,

33:40

I really failed at this. A genuine repentance. Yeah. And so,

33:46

I don't know. If I came to you, if I did something wrong and I offended you in some way, if I come to you and go, babe,

33:52

I'm sorry. And then just, whatever. I mean, are you going to accept that as a genuine apology if I just say

33:58

I'm sorry? I don't even say what it is that I've done wrong. No. I remember somebody in my congregation slandering me one time.

34:07

Oh. And they came to me once and said, hey, man, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the way I've been acting lately and everything.

34:13

That was terrible of me. And I forgave him. And I said, well, I forgive you, brother. And then he said, yeah,

34:20

I shouldn't have said da -da -da -da -da. But what he said was like, no, that wasn't what you did wrong. When you said this, that was the problem.

34:30

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, then when he got the specifics, I realized you don't actually understand what it is that you said wrong.

34:36

Yeah. You don't get where the error was. So, we do need to be intentional, deliberate, specific when we ask forgiveness.

34:45

Yeah. Or when we correct our children. Or when we give correction to our children. And, I mean.

34:51

As Becky and I have shared before, too, don't just get mad. Right. That's what I'm thinking. Because then the kids just.

34:57

I knew where your train of thought was going. I'm so glad. My brain is tripping. It's like, oh,

35:04

I've got a thought. Nope. Nope, I don't. So, you need to show them where they've done wrong.

35:12

And you need to be specific about that. And don't just get mad. Because then the perception they have is, well,

35:18

I just made mom and dad mad. Yeah. But you need to show them, like, this was sin, what you did.

35:24

I don't know what I did. But they're mad again. They're mad again. Right. Yeah. I just need to make sure

35:29

I don't do this. Then I don't get paddled. Whatever. Discipline means there's work on your part when it comes to disciplining your kids.

35:37

Yes. And you do have to be intentional. You do have to be specific so that you're guiding them away from error and to the truth.

35:46

Mm -hmm. You're trying to direct them to the righteous thing to do. You're trying to direct them to Christ.

35:51

But you're not blessing them or cursing them. Yeah. That's weird. Sometimes punishment is necessary, and the

35:58

Bible tells us. Yes. He who spares the rod spoils his son. Yes. So, yeah, let's continue with this.

36:05

Next part. Whatever you curse with your mouth in some way or form will start to die because your words have power.

36:13

In Genesis 49, 3 -5, and in verse 7, Jacob cursed his sons

36:18

Levi and Reuben, saying they will not excel and cursing their anger and declared that the instruments of cruelty would always remain in their house.

36:27

This caused the tribe of those two groups of children to be buried alive hundreds of years later, all because of the curse spoken by the words of the father in anger.

36:36

If you speak this way over your child, do not be frustrated when you see it come to pass. After all, you did say it in faith, right?

36:43

Repent for not regulating your tongue. Break the word curse over your children. Renounce it.

36:49

Speak life over them from now on, and do it also through prayer. Don't be the reason why your children carry evil loads that were placed on them by your tongue.

36:58

This is a common false teaching in the Word of Faith movement, and I've addressed it a couple of times in Q &As.

37:05

I don't recall which episodes we did where we've talked about these kinds of things. Speaking power with your words.

37:12

Speaking curses or speaking blessings. So you always have to be positive. That's like Ken Copeland's wife.

37:19

What's her name? Gloria Copeland. Gloria, several years back, had that whole thing of, you're going to get the flu because you keep talking about how you're going to get the flu.

37:28

Oh, okay. I'm going to get the flu. No, if you stop talking about it, you won't get the flu.

37:33

That's what she said. Oh, okay. That was her power -in -your -words moment.

37:40

Right. And she said, Jesus is your flu shot. I'm not going to get the flu. Do you remember that?

37:46

Now you're back on that. Yep. Yeah, that's very, very common in the Word of Faith movement.

37:52

If you speak it, then it comes into existence. Then I'd have a lot less problems right now, and I wouldn't be sinning.

38:01

I mean, it just never works. And you could test that just so very easily.

38:07

I'm a flying monkey. Didn't happen. No power in my words.

38:13

Sorry. You didn't believe it, Barry. I didn't believe it hard enough. Now, what we call generational curses, like what we refer to in Scripture even as generational curses, are not about cursing someone, and then the power of those words that came from the curse continues on through a person's bloodline or something like that.

38:35

Okay. A generational curse is a prophetic declaration connected to the effects of sin.

38:43

So consider, for example, God's declaration of himself in Exodus 34, 6 -7.

38:49

Okay. The Lord, the Lord, or if we're reading it from the LSB, Yahweh, Yahweh, a

38:55

God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generations.

39:16

Okay. Now, this is clearly about the effects of sin and how when one generation rebels against God, it has a ripple effect throughout the generations.

39:27

Sure. This is not a blanket curse on the third and fourth generations just because a father sinned.

39:35

Right. Because Ezekiel 18 -20 says, The soul who sins shall die.

39:41

The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor will the father bear the iniquity of the son.

39:47

Right. Yeah. We're each our own. Yeah, right. We're responsible for our own sins.

39:53

Yeah. I think it's Romans 14 -23. Each person will have to give an account of himself before God. Yes.

40:00

So. I mean, you got to work with what you got, but. You got to work with what you got.

40:08

What you've been blessed with. Your family. You know what I mean? Well, okay. Okay. I get what you're saying.

40:14

Yeah. The sins of your parents. I mean, you do deal with some of that.

40:19

Absolutely. Yes. I mean, the sins of your parents do have an effect on you. Sure. Have an effect on you.

40:25

Have an effect on your circumstances, but not your response to that.

40:32

Yeah. You're not going to be judged for their sins. Right. Each person has to give an account of himself.

40:37

Okay. Now, if we take a more specific example, like some of the ones that Sarah had mentioned.

40:43

So, Noah cursing Ham's son Canaan in Genesis 9. Okay. There are three possibilities with this curse.

40:51

Either Noah really possessed the power to afflict Canaan. All right.

40:56

Okay. Maybe Noah had power to make Canaan miserable with this curse that he gave to him.

41:03

Or, God cursed Canaan, and Noah as a prophet was his mouthpiece.

41:09

That's more believable. This was really a curse that came from God. Or, this was a prophetic declaration about Canaan, given the type of man

41:18

Ham was, and who his son would turn out to be. So, I tend to believe in some combination of the last two.

41:25

Yeah. That's kind of what I was thinking. It's a curse from God. Noah is kind of a prophetic mouthpiece in that sense. But, it's also a declaration on the kind of man that Canaan would turn out to be, given who

41:36

Ham was. Right. Now, that's not to say that Canaan is paying for his father's sins.

41:42

Right. Canaan is still responsible for his own sins. But, it's still, yeah, that prophetic declaration of how that would work through a bloodline.

41:51

Yeah. It's not because Ham was cursed, then all of his children after him would be cursed. Whether or not they, you know,

41:59

I didn't want to be cursed, but hey, I can't help myself but do this because my dad got cursed.

42:06

That's not the way those generational curses work. Yeah. Each person is going to be accountable to himself before God.

42:13

Now, when Jacob, Jacob was another example that Sarah used. So, Jacob, he blessed

42:19

Joseph's sons in Genesis 48, and he gave the greater blessing to the younger.

42:25

Joseph tried to correct him, because as we know throughout the Old Testament, the blessings are supposed to go to the oldest son, right?

42:32

Right, the oldest. So, Joseph, when Jacob crossed his hands, he crossed his hands like this, but one hand on the younger and one hand on the older, so that the younger was receiving the blessing, the greater blessing.

42:44

Oh, okay. And Joseph, because Jacob's eyesight was bad, Joseph tried to correct him, but Jacob said to him, no, this is

42:52

God's decision. Jacob was revealing what God had chosen. He said that Manasseh will become a people, and he will also be great, but his younger brother

43:03

Ephraim will be greater than he, and his seed will become the fullness of the nations.

43:10

Jacob is saying something that God decided. Yeah. This is not just because Jacob put his hand on the wrong person and gave the blessing to the wrong person.

43:18

He's being prophetic in that sense. Yes. Giving the blessing to the one that God had chosen.

43:25

Right. Okay? I mean, he cursed Adam and Eve and the devil.

43:31

Yeah, God's curse is upon Adam and Eve and Satan. So, he's the only one that I know of that can curse or bless.

43:38

Yeah, right. Right. Nobody can curse or bless anybody beyond who God has cursed or blessed.

43:43

Right. So, with that in mind, the blessings and curses that Jacob issued in chapter 49, okay?

43:51

So, this guy was talking about here, like, he cursed two of his sons, and they died later, and then there were all these descendants of theirs that were killed because Jacob said something in anger.

44:03

That's what the guy made it sound like. Right. Okay. But it's not as if the trajectory of those sons would have been any different if Jacob had just spoken positive words rather than negative.

44:15

Jacob, again, is being prophetic. He's speaking something that God has revealed to him. This is what each of these sons are going to turn out to be.

44:23

Yeah. Remember, the blessing that he gave to Judah, who was going to be a lion, it's from Judah would come the

44:29

Christ. Yeah. The Christ did not come through the line of Judah because Jacob declared it.

44:35

True. It's because God had chosen. Yeah. So, Jacob doesn't have the power of these words to give blessing to this son and curse to another so that thousands upon thousands of people died.

44:47

If Jacob wouldn't have been in a bad mood that day, then maybe something would have gone better for them. That's not how that goes at all.

44:53

No. And, in fact, what that guy is saying is very pagan. Yeah. When he takes Jacob's words and describes them that way, it sounds like a magician that's casting spells.

45:03

It does. Yeah. And he just said the wrong words. He put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable.

45:10

And it caused all these people to fall, you know, hundreds of years down the line. Yeah. Your children are not unruly because you said, why are you always like this?

45:19

They're unruly because they're sinners in need of biblical correction. Yes. Amen. Now, again, there is power in our words, just as Becky had said earlier.

45:29

It's just not the kind of power that this guy is talking about. So, the Bible does talk about and warns about the things we say with our words and how we need to be careful.

45:38

There was a video that I did on this. It wasn't on, you know, this is a little bit more broad a topic that we're talking about here.

45:46

This was in response to something that John Gray taught at Stephen Furtick's church.

45:51

Since we've mentioned Furtick a couple of times in this episode, John Gray was formerly of Joel Osteen's church.

45:58

Okay. And then he planted his own church, I think in North Carolina. I can't remember where. But then

46:04

John Gray comes as a guest speaker to Furtick's church, which is also in North Carolina. And it was at that church, at one of his

46:11

Code Orange revivals, I believe was what it was, that Gray said the following. And then

46:16

I gave a biblical response to these words from John Gray. What? Words do three things.

46:25

I want you to write these down. Words create. They create your reality. Speak that which is not as though it is.

46:30

Words convene. When you speak what's on God's mind, everything connected to that has to show up.

46:36

Words create. Words convene. Finally, words conquer. It was the sound of a shout that made those walls fall at Jericho.

46:44

Okay. So first he said that words create reality and then butchered Romans 417, which says God gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

46:54

God does that. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we declare reality. Second, he says words convene.

46:59

And when you speak what's on God's mind, everything connected to that has to show up. Where's he getting that? The Bible says nothing of the sort.

47:05

Third, he says words conquer like a shout brought down Jericho by the miraculous power of God, not the powerless noise of Israel.

47:13

Do you know what kind of power the Bible does say our words have? It says the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

47:18

It stains the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, set on fire by hell. Every beast has been tamed by man, but not the tongue.

47:26

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it, we bless God and then curse those made in the image of God.

47:32

On the day of judgment, we'll give an account for every careless word we speak. By our words, we will be justified and by them will be condemned.

47:39

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So let us surrender to God as David did. Set a guard,

47:45

O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart incline to any evil when we understand the text.

47:54

Now, that false teacher from the video that we played from Sarah is doing damage with his words.

48:02

Oh, definitely. He is not unleashing some sort of powerful blessing with his words.

48:08

He's leading people astray with his words. Yes. So there's another example of power in words.

48:15

Yeah. There's also, you know, the fact that you don't want your husband to end up on the roof trying to get away from you.

48:23

So you're talking like the proverb, it's better for a husband to be on the corner of his roof than in a house with a quarrelsome wife.

48:29

Yep. Those are words, people. Those are words. Good one.

48:36

Good one. I like it. Okay. So, Sarah, I mentioned to you that I have something for you. She had asked in her email, do you have some resources that you could point to?

48:44

Uh -huh. Well, I got in touch with Justin Peters, and I asked him if he had ever done anything on this before.

48:51

Have you ever done something on, like, curses, generational curses? I kind of explained the whole thing to him without reading him the whole email.

48:58

And he said, no, I've never done something on that. I've talked about it before at, you know, various seminars, but I don't think

49:03

I have, like, a long video where I go into curses. Do we have the power to curse somebody, or are there generational curses that stick and I just can't get out from this generational curse?

49:15

You know, that sort of a thing. But he put me in touch with his former pastor, Jim Osmond. Okay. And so I contacted

49:22

Jim, and I said, Jim, do you have anything? And he said, yeah, I talked about this in my book, Truth or Territory?

49:28

A Biblical Approach to Spiritual Warfare. Hmm. Jim is sending me several copies of that book.

49:34

Oh, that's awesome. And so, Sarah, I've got copies for you, one for you and one that you can pass on to your family as well.

49:44

That's wonderful. Now, they haven't come to me in the mail yet, but when I get them, I'm going to make sure you get them.

49:49

Sweet. So, yeah, there you go. There's a resource for you that I hope is going to be beneficial and will definitely help to guide those that are coming out of this charismaticism and some of this false teaching that, you know, there are all kinds of things that are surrounding the power in our words.

50:07

It's very common in charismaticism. It reminds me of, like, a new twist to the victim mentality.

50:14

Hmm. Okay. Yeah. What do you mean? Like, you know, oh, I'm having this horrible life because I'm cursed.

50:22

You know, like, it's not my fault. It's because of a curse. Oh, yeah. I see what you're saying. Right. You know.

50:27

Yeah. There's something like when somebody says, well, I mean, you should expect me to have a short temper. I'm a redhead.

50:33

Yes. You know, I can't help it. Yes. I'm Irish. I'm Irish. Yep. Something to that effect. Yeah. That's.

50:39

Yeah. There's all different kinds of. It's in my nature. Yeah. Exactly. Right. All different kinds of ways that we.

50:45

It's not my fault. Kind of excuses. Exactly. Right. That's really what it is. Yeah. Yeah.

50:51

It's not my fault. It's. I'm dealing with that. I was born this way. With a 12 -year -old right now. Like, nothing's his fault.

50:58

Everything is his sister's fault. Of course. Or his brother's fault. Yeah. Yeah. Not his. And I have to tell him.

51:03

So, this comes back to when you have to discipline your children that you're specific.

51:09

Yes. You know. Very. Sometimes he will get in trouble because he's watching TV and he hadn't finished doing his chores.

51:14

Right. So, I'll tell him, turn the TV off and get back to your chores. And he immediately turns to one of his siblings to get mad about something.

51:21

And I stay there because I'm ready for that with how many times he does that. Yes. And so,

51:27

I'll get on him right away. No. This is not their fault. Uh -huh. You don't turn and take your anger out on anybody else.

51:34

This is on you. Right. Take responsibility for it. Get back to your chores. Mm -hmm.

51:39

So, yeah. On that thing of being specific so your children learn right from wrong.

51:45

Yes. Now, we're really at the end of our broadcast here today. I've got some other questions.

51:52

Mm -hmm. But you and I are not gonna be here next week. Right. We are going to be in Arizona.

51:58

I'm preaching in Casa Grande. Mm -hmm. And since we have to record ahead, if we're gonna keep the broadcast going even though we're gonna be on the road.

52:07

Yes. Then, let's save these few questions. I think we can fill up at least another half an hour with the questions

52:13

I got left. All right. So, let's save these. It'll be a little shorter episode next week. Uh -huh. But that way you still get a

52:19

Q &A from us. That sounds good to me. All right. We'll hold on to these. And yeah, God willing, we'll be back on next week.

52:26

You can always send your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. Yes. All right.

52:32

Let's finish with prayer. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the good word that you give to us and may we desire to understand the way that we are to go according to what your scripture says.

52:45

As it says in Romans 15, 4, what was written in former days was written for our instruction so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.

52:57

So we desire to know the right answer and we follow along with what Jesus has said in your word.

53:03

And we need discipline as well. As we read in Hebrews 12, God disciplines those he loves. And so, may we receive that correction from God.

53:12

May we be convicted in heart by your Holy Spirit so that we will stop going the way that is contrary to righteousness and we come back to the path of righteousness and put people in our lives that know us and are able to offer those kinds of corrections and give us the right way that we are to go.

53:31

And I pray, Lord, for some of these questions that we've answered today. We pray for Matt. We pray for GC and the witnessing that he is doing with a couple of firefighters that he works with.

53:41

We pray for Sarah and the answers, the ministry guidance that she's able to give to members of her own family.

53:48

May the books that I receive from Jim be helpful to them and continue to guide them according to your truth.

53:55

As Jesus prayed in John 17, 17, sanctify them in your truth.

54:01

Your word is truth. And it's in the truth of Christ that we pray. Amen. Amen.

54:11

What? Where did this come from?

54:17

Why did this? I bought it for this room and for the van.

54:23

You bought this? Yeah. Like recently? Yeah. And well, not recent, recent. It's been a few months.

54:30

Well, I know, but I mean, I only saw it in here, what, like a few weeks ago and now I'm tripping over the cord and it's...

54:35

That's the kids. Excuse me. Yeah.

54:41

It comes... Oh, whoa. I didn't realize.

54:47

I just thought the cord was just all over. No. I didn't realize it was plugged in. Like I said, the kids.

54:52

Hang on. Nope. Nope. Nope. Don't you. Don't you. Don't you dare. Stop it. Now we're going to have fun.

55:00

Great. I just gave you a new toy. Hang on. Let me get your... No. Your toes are a little dirty.

55:07

Stop it. Anyway, it has like a whole thing, so it can be like a standing push one.

55:18

It's really flimsy, but it works. And then... This can be a standing push? Yeah. It has...

55:24

What do you call those? A handle? No. I mean, yes. An extended handle.

55:31

And then it has like a bottom piece that hooks into the other end. Oh, I see how that goes right there.

55:38

All right. Yeah. It's pretty cool. I thought so anyway. The kids think so too. And apparently you like it.

55:45

Well, now I do. I don't know. It was just funny. I came in here one day and there was a corded

55:51

Dust Buster plugged in. It's like I haven't seen a Dust Buster in years. You're welcome. I thought it was used, but that's a brand new thing.

55:59

Yeah. Because I thought you bought like some contraptions 20 years old or you came... Like one of these estate sales around here.

56:06

You found it there and like, yeah, this would be great for Gabe's office. And you just dropped a hint by sticking it in here, like, hey, do your floor.

56:17

Hey, babe. You know, no, I stopped giving you hints a long time ago.

56:24

And I even tell you outright what I want and you still don't get it for me. All the room has to be as functional.

56:31

I mean, if I can get in there and sit down and, you know. I know, but it's not functional with a dirty floor. Yeah, it is.

56:38

I can still record with a dirty floor. I can't think. I can't think. Having a clean floor does not affect my recording at all.

56:45

It makes me just so much more relaxed. I don't get it. When the floor is clean?

56:50

Yes. It's so weird. When everything is put away and there's no clutter, I can breathe.

56:58

Well, I get it. I mean, you feel like your life's in order. Yeah. I get it. I understand.

57:03

It's weird. It's why every Saturday I clean the garage out and I put it back together again.

57:10

And somewhere in that process, I've thrown something away. And organized something else.

57:16

But that's not on your to -do list. It's necessary. It is necessary.

57:21

But it's not up there. It's all right.