Debunking Robert Morris The Blessed Life - Experience vs Scripture

It's time for another edition of Fighting for the

Faith, Thursday, November 15, 2012.

This is going to be one of our more complicated editions of Fighting for the Faith, at least first hour. I'm literally rolling up my sleeves.

Yeah, no joke. Like doing it right now. Rolling, rolling, rolling. Thank you for tuning in.

You're listening to Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ. And this is the program that dishes up a daily dose of biblical discernment.

The goal of which, help you to think biblically, help you to think critically, help you compare what people are saying in the name of God to the

Word of God. There is no shortage of crazy and bizarre things being said out there in the name of God.

And listen, these are dangerous times. You need to listen to this program, slow things down, and open your

Bible. No joke. These are treacherous times. There are a lot of folks saying a lot of crazy things, and they're making merchandise of good folk.

Well, not that we're not sinners. We're all sinners by nature. But what I mean by that is like people who, for the most part, would seem to be wanting to know something about Jesus, about God, about Christ, about the gospel.

And instead, rather than being taught what God's Word says and being pointed to the biblical gospel, the biblical

Jesus, biblical salvation, biblical sanctification, instead they're being made merchandise of.

And Jesus and their religious ideas have become products that are being sold.

So, with that in mind, I've got to tell you, we're going to only do two things on today's edition of Fighting for the

Faith. The first hour is literally dedicated to an entire topic, and I've got an interesting foil for that.

And then in hour number two, I'm going to be playing an interview I recorded earlier with Michael Burgos, who has a book out there called

Kiss the Sun, which is a refutation of the primary book being used by Oneness Pentecostals, those who follow the

Oneness heresy. And so it's a good interview. So we've got two distinct things that we're doing on today's edition of Fighting for the

Faith. I do not have music for this first segment, for the first hour.

I just don't. Instead, we're going to have to just dive into the topic proper.

So let me go ahead and set that up for you. I apologize that we don't have a lot of the normal things that we do on today's edition of Fighting for the

Faith, but I really wanted to make sure that we covered this topic well. Okay, so with that,

I would like to open with a biblical text, a biblical text from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24.

Particularly, I want to read to you verse 24, but I also want to make sure that I read it in context.

And so let's do that. If you have your Bible, open up to Matthew, chapter 24.

I'm going to start at verse 3. And remember, the target verse we want is at verse 24.

I'll be reading from the ESV, the English Standard Version, the one I lovingly refer to as the

English Sanctified Version. This is a great English translation to be working from, very faithful to the original text.

But here's what it says. Okay, so, as he, that would be Jesus. So, Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verse 3.

As he, Jesus, sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

Okay, a little bit going on there. In fact, quite a lot going on there. You'll notice that the disciples are asking two questions that somehow get braided into one concept because Jesus had just noted the fact that there's coming a time when the temple, not one stone will be left on another.

In fact, the whole thing will be thrown down. And that's exactly what's happened. I mean, there's a rubble heap of what used to be the temple on one of the sides of the

Temple Mount in Israel to this day. And so, Jesus' prediction came true. He correctly prophesied the future that would take place in 70

AD. So, Jesus is talking about the destruction of the temple, and the apostles, the disciples at this time, they hear

Jesus' words, and they hook together the concept of the destruction of the temple along with Jesus' second coming or his return, the end of the age.

So, here's what Jesus said. See to it that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying,

I am the Christ. That they're anointed, that they're a Messiah. And they will lead many astray.

So, right out of the chute, first warning, make sure that no one leads you astray because there's going to be false teachers who come not dressed up in devil costumes, not dressed up in black.

They're not emo, and they have the black eyeliner going on and the major piercings and tattoos and stuff like that.

Jesus says, they're going to come to you in my name. So, hey, I'm a Christian teacher. And they will lead many astray.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See to it that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

Nation will rise against nation. Kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

All of these are but the beginning of birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

Then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another, and many false prophets, listen to this, false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand it.

Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is in the housetop not go down and take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back and take his cloak.

But alas for women who are pregnant in those days and are nursing infants, they pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on a

Sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation such as not been seen from the beginning of the world until now, no, not, never, and never will be.

And if those days had not been cut short, no human would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

Here's the verse I want, you know, we're getting right to the, actually verse 24 is the one I want to get to, but here we go. So then if anyone says to you, look, here is the

Christ, here's the Messiah, or there he is, don't believe it.

Now watch. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

See, I have told you beforehand. There's more to this, but the, the, the verse

I want to key in on, so that here this is Jesus is all of that discourse. Okay. Talking about the destruction of the temple and the end of the age.

Right. Okay. And Jesus is warning and listen to this carefully in verse 24, false

Christ and false prophets will arise. And what are they going to do? They are going to perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

So here's the concept that I want to kind of work with you today. And that's this. Your experiences do not determine truth.

Your experiences do not determine truth. In fact, if you are relying on your experiences or somebody else's experiences to determine whether what somebody is teaching is true or not, you have set yourself up to be deceived, deceived in a way that could cost you your very soul.

Now I know that sounds, well, kind of panicky, but work with me here for a second. Okay. And that's this idea.

We as Christians can trust God's word, right? But we can't necessarily trust.

In fact, we ought not to trust the experiences that are put out there, that are put out there in a way to validate a particular person's teaching.

Okay. So Jesus warns false Christ and false prophets, they're going to arise and you know what they're going to do?

They're going to actually pull off performing signs and wonders.

So by all intents and purposes, the experience that you would see, let's, you know, let's postulate this.

Let's say this is going to happen a thousand years from now. And the reason I'm doing that is to get you out of this idea that Jesus has to return today.

I have no clue when he's coming back. So we need to be prepared for him to return today, as well as be prepared for him to return a thousand years from now.

So let's pretend for a moment, a thousand years from now. Okay.

The birth pangs have gotten so severe. The world is in turmoil and getting ready to give birth to the visible kingdom of God here on earth.

That's Jesus's metaphor, birth pangs, right? Okay. And at that time, a major false prophet arises and he literally calls down fire from heaven.

It is literally, and this is televised across the world on whatever new medium or technology that they're using to broadcast these types of events.

And everybody in the world is able to view it and watch it and see it and all this kind of stuff.

And so he stands up and he goes to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is now by a thousand years from now, probably sitting in mostly ruins itself.

I mean, how long can those stones survive, right? So he's up on the Temple Mount and before all of the world, he says,

I say by the power of Jesus, notice Jesus said they come in his name.

I command by the power of Jesus and in his name and by his authority for there to be sulfur and fire come down from heaven and burn up the enemies of God.

And wouldn't you know what happens is, is that, right? Huge roaring sound in the cameras or whatever their technology they're using at that time.

Look up into the sky and sure enough, just like Sodom and Gomorrah, down comes rainings, fire and brimstone and sulfur and, and then, you know, this horrible stuff happens.

Okay. Right. Okay. Now Jesus warned us ahead of time. They would perform great signs and miracles and wonders so as to lead away, if possible, even the elect.

So Jesus said, I have told you this ahead of time. So everybody watching, everybody experiencing this event would conclude, unless they knew their

Bible, they would conclude, unless they paid real close attention to Jesus's warning, they would conclude that guy is

Jesus Christ himself or he is truly a prophet of God. And is he?

No, he's not. Because just because he can call down fire from heaven doesn't prove nothing.

It doesn't actually prove anything. The only thing it proves is that Jesus's warning is true.

The question as to whether or not he is a true prophet or a false prophet or a false

Christ is in the pudding of his teaching. Okay.

So to kind of flesh this out today, this is kind of like the nub of sola scriptura.

Okay. We can trust God's word as for the stories and experiences of other people that are put forward as the miracles that validate a particular teacher's teaching.

We must, must, must never decide whether or not somebody's doctrine and teaching is true based upon experience.

So to kind of flesh this point out today, what we're going to do is we're going to be listening to a segment, a portion of James Robison's television program called

Life Today. Okay. The name of the program is Life Today. We've covered James Robison here, and this is a very well -watched program in the

United States and across the world on religious broadcasting stations. And what we're going to be listening to today is the life experience and story of Bill and Jessica Cornelius.

Bill Cornelius is a, well, he's kind of like a one -star general in the seeker -driven movement.

In fact, to kind of give you an idea of where he ranks, he is the person who is the direct coach of, well,

Eric Dykstra of the Crossing Church up in Elk River, Minnesota. And I must sadly report that Eric Dykstra's stint into sound theology and a proper understanding of law and gospel appears to be fizzling.

I'm just saying, okay? So just be advised, but that's for another topic on another program, okay?

But Bill Cornelius is Eric Dykstra's direct coach, okay, in the seeker -driven movement.

And he appeared with his wife on James Robison's program Life Today to discuss a book.

The name of the book is called The Blessed Life, written by Robert Morris.

Now, we have covered on this program a lot of the concepts and teaching in the book

The Blessed Life as they were presented by Robert Morris at different venues within the seeker -driven megachurch movement, okay?

For instance, I did a sermon review when he preached the concepts of The Blessed Life at New Spring Church, which is

Perry Noble's church. I also addressed it when Robert Morris appeared at Saddleback, okay?

So we've addressed this here on the program, but I wanted to not only address some of the content of the book, which we will actually do in this first hour, but I also wanted to use it as the foil of somebody's experience does not, absolutely does not, come into play in determining whether or not the doctrine taught in the book

The Blessed Life is true doctrine versus false doctrine, orthodox teaching versus heresy.

Somebody's experience does not determine that. But see, the way false teaching is pitched, oftentimes, the template goes something like this.

You know, I was struggling with such and such a problem. I was suffering from lack or low self -esteem or whatever, and then

I picked up Pastor XYZ's book, and I began to apply the principles taught in his book.

And wouldn't you know it? All of a sudden, I started experiencing these amazing results.

God came in, and God did this, and God did that, and God did the other thing.

And see, if you want to have God do the same things in your life too, just like he did in so -and -so's life, then you need to pick up Pastor XYZ's book.

See, that's how the sales pitch goes. And because Americans are geared toward things that produce results, things that get the job done, we are particularly susceptible to these types of sales pitches.

But this is not what we should be doing. We should not be buying somebody's book because so -and -so had a great experience and applied the principles, and blammo, it worked in their life.

See, that's the same thing as Jesus warned us about. False Christs and false prophets would arise and perform wondrous signs and miracles to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

So to show you what the first part of this false idea is, and this is one of the slick and subtle ways in which

Satan operates, he gets you to look to your experiences or somebody else's experiences as a way of getting you to not, not think biblically and critically about the claims being made in a particular pastor or teacher's book.

So to kind of demonstrate that, here is a segment from Life Today.

You'll hear James Robeson and his wife, and you'll hear a story told by Bill Cornelius regarding his experience in applying the principles of the book,

The Blessed Life. Here we go. This program is sponsored by Friends of Life Outreach International.

Coming up, a pastor and his wife share how the teaching of Pastor Robert Morris and The Blessed Life transformed their lives.

See, there it is, right off the bat. You'll hear how the teaching of Robert Morris transformed somebody's life.

This is no way to determine truth. As well as the lives of an entire church. So I call home.

She's at home with the kids. I said, this isn't going to make sense. It's going to be crazy. But God spoke to me. I think the

Lord has told me to give our car away. Are you okay with that? She says, which car? The simple secret to growing the blessed church.

The simple secret. Secret. See, that's Gnostic language.

Already you should have red flags and whistles blowing all over the place in your head. On Life Today.

Sometimes there's a moment that just changes everything for the rest of your life. This could be one of those moments. There's the pitch again.

There's a moment, an experience that changes your life for everything. Beware of moments and experiences, especially if they get your nose out of the

Bible. And looking to those experiences to determine whether or not a teaching is true or false.

I'm James Robison. Betty and I welcome you to Life Today. This Life Today program could change your life every day for the rest of your life.

Wow, don't you want your life to be changed? We're going to be talking to our pastor, Robert Morris, who taught a series that has literally gone...

Yeah, you heard that right. James Robison and his wife, Betty, they attend Robert Morris' church.

So Robert Morris is their pastor. ...around the world, and he actually started it here.

He actually shared it years ago because God put it on my heart to ask him to, because I knew what

God had deposited deep down inside. And it really led not only to the book,

The Blessed Life, but to a series of messages on the subject to Gateway, which is one of the largest churches in the

United States, by far, and yet a very young church. And it is a church that's being used of God to impact the church, all the churches on earth.

Now, I don't doubt that Robert Morris is impacting churches all over the world.

In fact, I think back to a conversation that I had with a listener months ago in Japan. And he was really concerned because the leadership in his church bought into the concepts taught in the book,

The Blessed Life. And so he asked me for advice on how to confront the leadership in his church and challenge the things that were taught in The Blessed Life, which, by the way, is doubly hard in Japan.

It's a cultural thing there. It makes it very difficult for you to do any kind of, you know, in -your -face, bold, black -and -white apologetic work.

That's not how the Japanese mind works. But let's continue. ...for the glory of God and for the benefit of the people.

So here's the thing. Now think about this a moment. If the church, which the

New Testament says is the body of Christ, it's the family of faith with the heavenly Father as personal

Father. And if that family, God says, that know me as Father and God, are blessed to bless the families and the nations of the world.

Hmm. That would be the seed of Abraham that was promised to be the blessing to the world.

I would point you to the book of Genesis and also the book of Galatians, especially chapters 3 and 4 that kind of lay this out very clearly, that it's a seed singular, and that's

Christ. So already we've got a problem here. How important would it be to that Father for you to understand what the blessed life that he offers and promises would look like?

Now we want you to get what Robert's been teaching. And by the way, at this point they're selling the product.

The product is Robert Morris' unique spiritual insight that gives us the secrets to unlocking financial wealth in your life and abundance and God's blessings.

So the product is the book and the DVD series. So right now they're selling the product.

And what better way to sell a product than with a testimonial, which is coming up. Hold on.

Hear from a pastor who says it totally transformed his life, his marriage, his church, his community.

Incredible. In one of the more challenged areas of the state of Texas. And where people are challenged.

And it's just been amazing. So how do you know it's true? Well, God transformed an entire church in a difficult part of Texas because of the teachings of Robert Morris.

See what's happened. You can know that this is true based upon the fact that somebody experienced life change or congregational change.

It transformed everything. And that is the trap.

That's the subtle, seductive trap. You sit there and go,

I want to be part of what God's doing. I want God to change my life and to transform things in my life and my congregation too.

I bet it would happen if we just apply the teaching of Robert Morris.

So you already at this point are emotionally being whipped into a frenzy based upon somebody's story that isn't found in the

Bible. And this is no way to determine truth because Jesus himself warned that false Christ would perform great signs and wonders to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

So experience does not determine truth. We continue. ...to welcome the author and the one who teaches the series that you can get.

And I really plead with you to get it because God wants you blessed, and we want you blessed. We want you to welcome our...

God wants you blessed, but apparently you can't get that on your own just by reading your Bible. You have to buy Robert Morris' book. Pastor at Gateway Church, Robert Morris.

Robert, we're glad you're here. The pastor of the

Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi and all over South Texas where they've got eight campuses, 8 ,000 people.

I mean, you know where he's like, so if you've got 80 people, it might be good. 800. 8 ,000 and growing and impacting people that so often feel...

See, now that proves that God's doing something because they have 8 ,000 people. Imagine if Bill Cornelius only served a congregation of 100.

Would he be on this program at this point? Nope. Totally overlooked. Not blessed.

And it changed his life and his church and his family. Would you welcome Bill Cornelius and his wife,

Jessica, to life today? Bill, Jessica. Thank you. Glad to have you. Well, I know you're glad to be sitting here with Robert.

Yeah. And I know you've actually come up to hear him and to be up at Gateway Summit and the conferences. But what happened with the blessed life?

Because something happened to you. Well, first I just want to say, honestly, I mean, sincerely, it's an honor to be sitting in front of heroes of the faith, both of you.

Just what you mean to the body of Christ, all of you. Thank you so much. It's an honor, and I really mean that. You guys have impacted so many lives.

So grateful to be here, really. What happened was we were in the middle of a church building campaign.

So now this is the story, okay? This is the testimonial. He's going to tell you his experience.

And the idea then is that his experience validates the teaching in Robert Morris' book,

The Blessed Life. Not whether or not it squares with God's Word.

No, his experience. Think of this as the grand miracle, the great sign being put forward to validate the teachings of the prophet

Robert Morris, if that helps you. So notice, experience is in the driver's seat.

God's Word is nowhere in sight. We're needing to raise some money for our church.

And I was really focused on that, like most pastors. When you're in a need and you've got to get this building built, we were doing six and seven services a weekend.

We needed space desperately. It was obvious. But we live in south Texas where there's not a whole lot of income going on.

There's not a lot of large corporations. People really aren't bringing in big money, that kind of thing. And so it was a struggle.

And frankly, people were giving, I mean, really being generous. And so we were doing everything we could give.

We were giving everything we could give to the Lord. Our people were, our staff, I mean, everybody was. And in the middle of all that, the construction costs went up tremendously.

And you may remember this around, I guess it was 2004, 2005, all of a sudden construction just almost doubled.

It was crazy. And so our whole project just exploded in cost. We lopped off this portion, that portion.

But even with that, we still just were way shy financially. The builder called me one day, and he said,

Listen, we're really tight, and we need to get the next draw. I said, How much is the next draw?

The next draw is going to be $3 million. And I went to my comptroller.

We had nothing. And went to the bank. We had taken all the loans we could take.

We were maxed. There was just this huge gap. And I was freaking out. I called my mentors and said,

What do I do? And they said, You've got to go back to the well. You've got to go back to your people. And I literally had a moral problem with this.

I was like, I cannot go back to single moms and people who are earning $20 ,000 a year and ask them for more of a sacrifice.

I mean, I felt bad. I was like, Lord, I can't do this. I'm supposed to be shepherding people. I don't want to do this.

But I was going to listen to my mentors and do what I could. And so I prepared this sermon series like pastors do and tried to be creative and do all these different elements.

That's what we do as pastors. We try to make it creative. How do I make this really look cool before asking for money?

This is not easy. And so I'm trying to create this whole deal. And I polish up the message.

And I've got this. This is kind of how it works. I had the professional fundraisers and talked to them. How do you do this? Get the card.

They've got to fill out the card. And they commit to this much amount every week. And I did the whole thing. I had all that. But I was like,

We just did that a year and a half ago. And now we're having to re -up, basically, ask people to give more and sacrifice more.

I just didn't want to do it. So now it comes down to the night of our first service to introduce this new series.

It's an hour before service. We have two Saturday night services and three or four on Sunday. I don't even remember anymore.

And so I had these two services coming up. It's an hour till. I'm tweaking my message. And as I'm tweaking it,

I just think, I don't know what else to say here. I think I'm ready. But, you know, a friend of mine sent me this book. It's supposed to be on giving.

Maybe I can get some kind of good story illustration. I don't know. So I grabbed this book off the shelf called

The Blessed Life. And I've got an hour, and I'm thinking maybe there's a good verse or some antidote or something. There's something like that.

So here's the setup. He was in a pinch. He needed $3 million, and he needed it yesterday.

I don't know how many of you all have been in a situation like that. That sounds like dire straits. But see, now all of a sudden,

God led him to the book, The Blessed Life. He was skeptical about it, which is always a part of the template.

Oh, and so he thought, oh, what have I got to lose? And so he read it anyway. It looked like it was a quotation book or something.

There was something good in here. I start reading the first chapter, and no lie, halfway through this.

Now, you have to understand, I was raised in a conservative denomination. So when we talk about the

Holy Spirit showing up, that was when everyone left. We didn't do that. So now we got the obligatory nod to the work of the

Holy Spirit. See, the fact that he has recognized that this is the Holy Spirit working, well, that means it's the

Holy Spirit, right? It can't possibly be anything else because he experienced life change and transformation, right?

I'm just being honest. We didn't do that kind of stuff. It was like, don't get weird on me.

So here I am, and I'm reading this book, and I hear the story of this guy that I don't know, who

God spoke to him about teaching the body of Christ about giving. And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,

I've heard that before. I keep reading, and then he talks about giving his car away, and then God gives him another car, and then he gives that one away, and another one, and he just keeps giving.

And then he gives his house, drains all of his savings in his checking account. So I'm thinking, okay, I need to quit reading this.

I don't want to be convicted about that. That's just crazy. So I'm reading this, and I'm just blown away.

And right there, it's the craziest thing. I felt like the Holy Spirit just filled the room up.

So here we go now. This validates. It has to be God. He felt the Holy Spirit, right?

How can it not be the Holy Spirit? That's his experience. I can't even explain it.

I don't have terms for it. I really don't. People say, oh, Bill went charismatic. I don't even know what charismatic means.

I just know I got hijacked. That's all I know. I really don't know all the terms or anything. Basically, I'm sitting here.

The Spirit just speaks to me so clearly. He says two things. He says, which is one of the core messages of the book, instantly obey me.

Then he says something else to me, and I will not share my glory with anyone. Instantly obey me.

Now, by the way, I will take time to work through the theology that's presented in the opening chapters of the

Blessed Life on this program. Already, you should be suspicious because something doesn't sound right, and it has to do with the proper biblical distinction between law and gospel.

We continue. I didn't even know what that meant yet, but I knew

God was saying, I'm taking over this problem. You need $3 million. You don't have it.

And God was saying, I'm taking over. You just obey me. And so God began to speak to me, and he said, chunk the message.

I was like, Lord, I worked hard on that message. Can we just? So this is direct revelation.

This makes him a leaky cannoneer. Check previous broadcasts to understand what that means. Can we use part of it?

And he was like, no, chunk it. He said that. Instantly obey me. You obey me. Chunk it. Share the story from this book.

And I was like, okay, Lord, I'll do that. So God the Holy Spirit told

Bill Cornelius not to preach a biblical passage or to teach a biblical text, but to teach from the book the blessed life.

That doesn't sound like the Holy Spirit that's discussed and revealed in the

Bible, because the job of the pastor is to preach the Word. So another strike here.

But notice, all of this is based on experience. And he says to me, and privately,

I want you to give away your car tonight. And I was like, Lord, I really like my car.

Can we negotiate that? I was thinking, you've got to be kidding me. First of all, I'm thinking, we're giving everything we can away.

And so I made a deal with God. You've probably done this. I said, okay, God, I'll do it if my wife agrees. So I call home.

She's at home with the kids, and she normally comes on Sunday mornings. And so I call home. It's like, at this point,

I have no time left. Service is about to start. And that was really important, so I didn't have a chance to talk myself out of obeying

God. That's good. And so I had no time. They're micing me up, and I just got off the phone with my wife, and I just said, honey, she says, what's going on?

Because she knows, why are you calling minutes before service starts? I said, this isn't going to make sense. It's going to be crazy. But God spoke to me.

I think the Lord has told me to give our car away. Are you okay with that? She says, which car?

I got to tell the truth, baby. It's the truth. Mine or yours? Exactly.

I said, not yours. We have payments on yours, okay? Mine. I knew God was telling me to give him a car. And then she said,

Bill, you know what we're giving right now. We don't have money to go out and buy a new car right now. You know what we're committed to. We can't do it.

And you know, sometimes just words come out of your mouth you can't really explain, but you knew it was from someone else. I just said,

I know, but Jesus is my ride. We're not buying another car. God's got that. And she said, if God told you and you know what the

Holy Spirit told you, then okay. So I was like, oh, she agreed. So now, you know,

I'm like, all right, Lord. So I get up. So now I just, I walk out onto the platform. The last song, they're like, pastor, your time.

They're basically going, what are you doing? This is not what you normally do. So, cause I wasn't even looking at my message. I wasn't even in the green room. I just walk out on the stage with a mic on and I say, hi, how you doing?

And I remember just saying, okay, I had a great message to share with you and God won't let me say it.

So I want to tell you a story instead. So I shared the story from your book about how you just gave it all away and what

God did, which was miraculous. And so I shared that. And then I said, guys,

I would love for you to fill out a card and commit more to the giving campaign. We have a need.

It's a big need. This is a need. But God told me I'm not supposed to do that. So I'm not actually going to ask you to do that.

I'm just going to ask you to instantly obey God. This is no longer a giving campaign. This is a faith campaign.

And so whatever God tells you to do, do it. If that means you give to someone else, give to someone else.

If that means you need to go seek forgiveness from someone, then do that. Whatever it is you need to obey, just obey God. At the end of the service, we have a little time of offering and just kind of announcements and that kind of thing.

And we don't really do a walk up. At this point in our church, we didn't have like a walk up time. People made decisions at their seats, filled the card out, put it in the offering plate, that kind of thing.

So I'm just going over announcements, just kind of finishing up. And I say, OK, thanks, guys, for being here. You're dismissed. So I walk off the platform.

And as I dismissed, I looked around and people weren't leaving. I was like, what's going on?

And people start coming forward and crying and huddling up and praying. And I realized they're instantly obeying

God. And I got to, for the sake of time, speed this up. In between the two services,

Holy Spirit, after I talked to several people, says to me, go clean out your car. Now, normally the Holy Spirit doesn't say, go clean out your car.

He probably should say that to more people. However, that's not normally what we're told, you know. So I was like,

OK. But I knew what God was saying. He was saying, get ready because you're going to give your car away. So I grab a plastic bag and I go start, you know, dumping all the kids' toys from the back of my 4Runner in it, you know, just emptying out the car.

And as I'm out there, I didn't tell a single person other than my wife about the car thing because it wasn't supposed to be a public deal.

That was about my personal obedience. So like, OK, God, so I'm in the back of my car sweating now in South Texas, you know, throwing all the stuff and trying to get it clean.

And I say to God, God, who gets my car? At this point, once you get past the crazy faith step, now it's fun.

So I start saying, OK, God, who gets my car? This is going to be cool. Maybe there's a single mom that needs it. Maybe there's a college student. Maybe there is a couple that just needs a leg up, you know.

And God says to me, no, quit manufacturing this. I'll tell you who.

So I said, OK, God, how am I going to know? And God says to me, clear as day. He says, because they're going to walk up in the middle of the next service.

I was like, God, that's kind of funny. Lord, I don't know if you know how our services work.

We don't have a walk up. So the next service happens. And at the end of the service, during the offering time,

I'm just going over announcements. Some guy I've never met before in my entire life walks right up to the front of the platform and hands me $100 bill.

Now, our platform is a very short platform, so he's right in the way, frankly. I mean, everyone can see him.

We have all this on video. I mean, it's right there. There he is. So he walks right up, hands me $100 bill. I immediately take it, and I just say, thank you.

You know, and people begin to applaud. They saw that he brought up his offering rather than putting it in the offering plate. He goes to sit down. Now, I'm Mike, but he's not.

Now, if I'd have known this was going to come, I would have been like, get that guy in makeup. Let's get lights on him. You know, I didn't know this was coming. So I immediately,

I said, come here. And he walks back up, and I said to him, you know, I can't believe this.

I was freaking out. I pulled the key out of my pocket, and I handed it to him. And he looked at me, and he said to me, because it's a

Toyota key. He said, I don't need your car. And he said, I don't want this. And I said, no, it's yours. He said, I don't want this.

And I never talked about, no, folks, here's what I'm doing. I'll give you my car. I didn't do that. It wasn't about that.

I just said, it's yours. So he goes and sits down, and people are like, what's going on? They have no idea at this point. So service ends.

I beelined to this guy, never met him before in my life, and said, what in the world made you come forward?

He said, you're not going to believe this. It's going to seem crazy. I said, try me. I'm living in a crazy world right now. Okay, now,

I'm going to stop there, okay? He goes on to talk about his conversation with the gentleman who he was told by God to give the car to and how

God then, almost the next day, replaces the car that he had just given and then how they were able to, within the next week, raise literally $2 .8,

$2 .9 million of the $3 million that they needed to raise. Now, here's, again, what

I need to point out to you. All of this is being told as confirmation of the truthfulness of Robert Morris' book,

The Blessed Life. Let me read, again, Jesus' warning from the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24.

For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

See, I have told you beforehand. So, here's the question. These are great signs.

These are great miracles that are being put forward to validate the teaching of the book,

The Blessed Life. I mean, after all, Bill Cornelius experienced God the Holy Spirit speaking to him directly.

He experienced transformation in his own life. He experienced a great need that was then met by God as a result of the book,

The Blessed Life. Their congregation experienced transformation on a level that they had never experienced before.

And all of that is being told as proof that the teaching in The Blessed Life is from God.

Was there a single mention of God's Word? Did Bill Cornelius do what the

Bereans did and tested the teaching of The Blessed Life against the Word of God? No.

His experience is being put forward as the thing that confirms the teaching of the book,

The Blessed Life. We're going to take a break. And when we come back, just so you know, we're going to go really long on the first hour today.

It's going to be more like the first hour and 20 minutes, maybe hour and a half. But the idea here is that we're going to do the work.

I have a copy of the book, The Blessed Life. And have been spending time writing, literally writing what's going to become a

PDF, an EPUB, and a Kindle book that rebuts the primary claims within the book,

The Blessed Life. And it's going to be done biblically. So far, where we're at right now is a bunch of experiences and miraculous signs are being put forward to confirm the teaching of the book,

The Blessed Life. And James Robison and his wife, Betty, are out there telling you, you need to buy this book.

You need to have this kind of transformation come to you. We need to slow down.

And we need to ask ourselves, is the teaching in the book,

The Blessed Life, biblical? Does it square with what God's Word teaches?

Or is it false doctrine? Because the devil will use experiences, signs, and wonders as the means by which to ensnare your mind and get you out of God's Word and thinking biblically and critically and comparing what people say in the name of God to the

Word of God. It's one of his primary weapons. So we'll take a look at what The Blessed Life teaches on the other side of this break.

If you'd like to e -mail me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the Faith, you can do so.

My e -mail address is TalkBackAtFightingfortheFaith .com. Or you can ask to be my friend on Facebook. It's Facebook .com

forward slash PirateChristian. Or follow me on Twitter, my name there, at PirateChristian. We will be right back.

No itching ears are scratched here. You're listening to Fighting for the Faith. Holy cow!

You're listening to Pirate Christian Radio. We'll be taking your false doctrine now.

Ha ha ha! Itch!

A heretic and I'm okay. I scheme all night and I lie all day. He's a heretic and he's okay.

He schemes all night and he lies all day. I twist God's Word, I put on shows,

I do better on Broadway. Have you seen The Lion King?

It'll be here on Sunday. And he twists God's Word, he puts on shows,

I do better on Broadway. Have you seen The Lion King?

It'll be here on Sunday. He's a heretic and he's okay. He schemes all night and he lies all day.

I twist God's Word, I take your tithe and spend it on private jets. Have you seen my bank account?

It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. He twists God's Word, he takes your tithe and spends it on private jets.

Have you seen his bank account? It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. He's a heretic and he's okay.

He schemes all night and he lies all day. I twist God's Word, I write bad books that will land you all in hell.

I'll never say I'm sorry, cause I'll be there as well.

He twists God's Word, he writes bad books that will land us all in hell. He's a heretic and he lies all day.

I twist God's Word, I take your tithe and spend it on private jets. Have you seen my bank account? It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. I twist God's Word, I write bad books that will land you all in hell. Have you seen my bank account?

It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet.

It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours,

I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. It's bigger than yours, I'll bet. change and so -called results. Okay? That falls into the category of signs and wonders that could be there to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Okay? No. You determine whether or not something is true and biblical based upon whether or not the teaching of somebody stands or falls when you compare it to God's Word in context.

Now, I have a copy of the Blessed Life and I am currently working on what's going to become a

PDF that'll be available in our stream for free. It'll also be an EPUB and a

Kindle book eventually, not a very long one at that, but the name of it is, Is Your Money Cursed Until You Redeem It?

Is Your Money Cursed Until You Redeem It? A Biblical Rebuttal of the Blessed Life by Robert Morris.

Okay? And here's the document thus far. It's not completed, in fact there's more to it than I'm gonna be adding, that I'm gonna be discussing here on the program, but we're gonna just demonstrate what discernment looks like.

So, you've heard the hype. Bill Cornelius, this book changed his life. Right? Okay? It changed the lives of the people in his church in Corpus Christi, Texas.

I mean, and so you've got stories of life change. God, the Holy Spirit, speaking directly to Bill Cornelius and all of that is being put forward as the reason why you need to get this book.

Okay? So, here's what I write. Robert Morris's book, The Blessed Life, is rapidly becoming the number one book on tithing and evangelicalism.

Morris is a popular and highly sought after speaker on the topic of money and tithing in many of the most successful megachurches in the

United States. Aside from pastoring his own megachurch, Gateway, in the Dallas -Fort Worth, Texas area,

Morris has preached on the Blessed Life at Saddleback, Willow Creek, LifeChurch .tv, and New Spring to name a few.

The problem with this is that Morris's message, despite its appeals to Scripture, is not what the

Bible teaches regarding tithing, especially as it pertains to Christians. As you will see,

Morris's book twists God's Word and fundamentally confuses the biblical distinction between the

Mosaic Law and the Gospel, and by doing so, Morris has introduced a new works -based theology that is incompatible with biblical and historic

Christianity. Okay? First sections, called Blessings and Curses and the so -called

Principle of the First Fruits. The fundamental premise of Robert Morris's The Blessed Life is the concept of blessings and curses.

Here is how Morris defines this idea. Being blessed means having supernatural power working for you.

By contrast, being cursed means having supernatural power working against you.

The days of the blessed person are filled with divine coincidences and heavenly meaning.

A blessed man may or may not be wealthy by the world's standards, but he enjoys a quality of life that most billionaires would envy.

At four separate points in the Deuteronomy, God tells those who will obey

Him that He will bless everything to which they put their hands to. See Deuteronomy 14 .29,

Deuteronomy 15 .10, 23 .20, or 28 verses 8 and 12.

That's what the blessed life is like. Everything you touch does well. Blessing permeates every aspect of a person's life, health, relationships, work, family, emotion, and thoughts.

That's a direct quote, by the way, from the opening pages of the book, The Blessed Life. So, I continue.

The Principle of the First Fruits, by the way, is the central teaching in The Blessed Life, and it's directly related to the teaching regarding blessing and cursing.

It says, this is the Principle of the First Fruits, says that God will either bless your life by having

His supernatural power working for you if you obey the Principle of the

First Fruits by redeeming your finances and income by giving the very first 10 % of your income to the church.

If you do not redeem your income by tithing, then your income will be cursed and God's supernatural power will work against you.

Here's how Morris teaches this Principle in his book. Okay, so I'm going to quote now a large section from the opening chapters of the book,

The Blessed Life. Here's what Robert Morris says, The very first principle that you must grasp if you are to understand giving is the

Principle of the First Fruits. It can also be called the Principle of the Firstborn, or the tithe.

We find an important financial precedent established in the 13th chapter of Exodus.

In this passage, God says, Consecrate to me all the firstborn.

Whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both man and beast, it is mine.

This is Exodus 13, verse 2. Here, God plainly declares that the firstborn is mine.

It belongs to Him. In fact, you'll find God declaring that the firstborn is His 16 times in Scripture.

For example, Exodus 13, verses 12 -13 says, That you shall set apart to the

Lord all that open the womb. That is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have, the males shall be the

Lord's. But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck, and all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.

It is vital that you understand something about the Principle of the Firstborn. According to Old Testament law, the firstborn was to be either sacrificed or redeemed.

There was no third option. Every time one of your livestock animals delivered its firstborn, you were to sacrifice it, or if it was designated unclean, if you have to redeem it with a clean, spotless lamb.

To summarize, the clean firstborn had to be sacrificed, and the clean firstborn had to be redeemed.

With that in mind, think about the account in the New Testament in which John the Baptist meets Jesus on the banks of the

Jordan River. John was baptizing one day and looked up to see Jesus walking toward him. At that point,

John cried out, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. With that inspired declaration,

John perfectly defined the role Jesus had to come to fulfill. Jesus was

God's firstborn. Jesus was clean, perfect, and unblemished in every way.

On the other hand, every one of us was born unclean. We were born sinners with a fully active sin nature.

Think back to the Principle of the Firstborn in Exodus. Remember, the law stated that if the firstborn animal was clean, it was to be sacrificed, but if the firstborn was unclean, it was to be redeemed with a clean animal.

Do you see the symbolic parallel? Jesus was God's firstborn

Son, and He was born clean. He was born a pure, spotless lamb, but every one of us was born unclean.

Therefore, Jesus was sacrificed to redeem us. When He redeemed us by His sacrifice,

He bought us back for God. He was literally a first fruits offering.

In a very real sense, Jesus was God's tithe, and God gave His tithe,

Jesus, in faith before we ever believed. I'm going to stop there for a second.

Notice that there were a lot of true statements regarding Jesus' redemptive work that preceded the false teaching.

The false teaching started to occur, by the way, when He said that Jesus was

God's tithe. That's where things start to go really wrong here.

I just wanted to point that out along the way. So, God gave His tithe, Jesus, in faith before we ever believed.

Notice that God gave Him to us before we believed. Romans 5, 8 says, God demonstrates

His love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We have to give our first fruits offering, our tithes, in much the same way.

Before we see the blessing of God, we give it in faith. God gave Jesus in faith that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

In this sense, Jesus is God's tithe. God gave Jesus first in faith, even when we were sinners, even as we were mocking

Him and spitting in His face while He was dying. By the way, nowhere does it say that God gave Jesus in faith as a tithe.

That's not what these texts say at all. Okay? It's a very subtle twist going on here. We continue.

The principle of the first fruits is very, very powerful. I have heard it said that if any first thing is given, it is never lost, and any first thing not given is always lost.

In other words, what we give to God, we don't lose because God redeems it for us, but what we withhold from God, we will lose.

Jesus echoed this principle when He said, whoever wants to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Matthew 16, 25. The first belongs to God. We find this principle all through God's Word.

We can give God the first of our time. We can give Him the first of our finances. That's what tithing really is, giving our first to God.

It's saying, God, I'm going to give to you first and trust you to redeem the rest.

Put another way, when a firstborn lamb is born in a flock, it is not possible to know how many more lambs that you might produce.

Nevertheless, God didn't say, let your you produce nine lambs first and then give me the next one.

No. God says, give me the first one. It always requires faith to give the first.

That's why so few Christians experience the blessing of tithing.

It means giving to God before you see if you're going to have enough. By tithing, it is as if we are saying

God, I recognize you first. I'm putting you first in my life and I trust you to take care of the rest of the things in my life.

That's why tithing is so important. It's the primary way that we acknowledge that God is first.

The first portion is the redemptive portion. In other words, when the first portion is given to God, the rest is redeemed.

In the same way, coming to church at the first of the week is a way of giving the Lord the first of your time.

Consecrated or cursed, that's exactly what the tithe is all through the

Bible. The tithe is consecrated to the Lord and for the Lord's house. But if we take it for ourselves, it becomes a curse because it's stolen.

So that's where Robert Morris lays this all out. So here's the question.

Is it true that God will either bless your life by having His supernatural power working for you if you obey the principle of the firstfruits by redeeming your finances by giving the very, very first 10 % of your income to the church?

Well, is it also true that if you do not redeem your income by tithing, then your income will be cursed and God's supernatural power will work against you?

Answer, no, not at all. There are two significant problems with Morris' handling of the biblical text.

First, Morris fails to properly teach the Bible's own distinction between the Mosaic Law and the

Gospel. Second, he invents his own unique and fallacious interpretation of Christ's death on the cross.

Once you understand this, you'll see Morris' teaching for what it is, false doctrine.

I then continue. The next section is called the biblical distinction between the Mosaic Law and the Gospel. It is significant to note that Morris has drawn his concept of being blessed or being cursed by redeeming the firstfruits from the fine print of the

Mosaic Covenant with no reference to the fact that the New Testament teaches that Christians are not obligated to keep the civil and sacrificial demands of the

Mosaic Law. The reason for this is because they have been made obsolete by Christ's fulfillment of them for us.

This is why Christian males are not obligated to be circumcised despite the clear command in Scripture which states,

If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as at the time of her menstruation she shall be unclean, and on the eighth day the flesh of his shall be circumcised.

Leviticus 12 2 -3. Morris quotes

Exodus 13 12 -13 out of context, as if it is binding on Christians today.

But Morris conveniently omitted verse 11 which sets the context for this passage. And once that context is put back in, it becomes clear that this specific command was for the children of Israel who were about to be released from slavery in Egypt.

Here's the passage with the omitted context in bold. So I'll just read, okay, verse 11.

I'm going to point this out. Here's what it says. When the Lord brings you into the land of the

Canaanites as he swore to you and to your fathers and shall give it to you, that's the part he left out.

So when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites as he swore to you and your fathers and shall give you it, you shall set apart for the

Lord all that the first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the

Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck.

Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. Now, as soon as the context is put back where it belongs, it becomes clear that by citing this passage starting at verse 12,

Morris began his teaching with a sentence fragment. The reason for this is easy to understand.

Had Morris quoted verse 11 along with verses 12 and 13, there would have been no way for him to create the false impression that verses 12 through 13 were teaching a timeless principle that Christians must abide by today.

But they're not. Instead, this passage lays down a portion of the Mosaic Covenant that applies only to the ancient nation of Israel and was directly connected to the historical events surrounding the

Passover and the children of Israel's exodus from Egypt. What Morris also fails to point out is the fact that this specific command is restated in Exodus chapter 34 verses 18 through 20 when all of the details and the fine print of the

Mosaic Covenant were laid out by the Lord at Mount Horeb. This is in fact what the

Lord said that He was doing in Exodus 34 verse 10 when He says, I am making a covenant.

In other words, here's the idea. What's stated in Exodus 13 verses 11 through 13 is restated at Mount Horeb in Exodus chapter 34 in which

God says specifically that what He's doing there is making a covenant with the children of Israel.

This is the Mosaic Covenant. So everything said in Exodus 13 is restated as part of the

Mosaic Covenant. So, the covenant that God was making was not with Christians but with the ancient people of Israel.

It came to be known as the Mosaic Covenant and Christians are not bound to keep it as you will see.

In order to help us understand a Christian's relationship to the Mosaic Covenant, it would be helpful at this point to review the controversy within the early church regarding circumcision that was stirred up by the

Judaizers and how the apostles resolved this conflict. The details of this controversy are recorded in Acts, in the

Acts of the Apostles chapter 15. Here's how the scripture introduces this controversy.

Acts chapter 15 verses 1 through 5. But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem.

On their way, by the church, they passed through both Venetia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the

Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.

So here's the setup. A group of Jewish Christians who were also Pharisees rose up in the church and claimed that you cannot be saved unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses.

New Testament scholar R .C .H. Lenski, in his commentary on the book of Acts, explains exactly what was at stake as a result of this doctrine of the

Judaizers. Said Lenski, this teaching was not stated merely as doctrine in a general form, but practically, personally applying the doctrine, you cannot be saved unless you shall be circumcised after the custom of Moses, all the uncircumcised

Gentile Christians in Antioch were thus pronounced to be unsaved.

Faith in Jesus Christ was not enough to save, circumcision had to be added.

Okay. In other words, the stakes couldn't be higher. The Judaizers taught that you were cursed by God, i .e.

not saved and heading to hell unless you were circumcised.

But if you were circumcised, then you were blessed by God, i .e. you were saved and on your way to heaven.

This concept of blessed versus cursed by observance of the

Mosaic law was eventually flipped on its head by the Apostles and particularly the

Apostle Paul. However, the details of that will be explained in just a little bit. Before we can explore that topic, we need to note another observation that Lenski makes regarding the

Judaizers and that is that they were inconsistently applying the

Mosaic law. Said Lenski, the issue was centered on circumcision alone with a kind of inconsistency.

For if circumcision was essential as required by the uses of Moses, then what about all else that Moses had required?

Consistency would have introduced the entire Mosaic legal system.

So, to help you understand the point that Lenski is making, consider these facts. Not only were men required to be circumcised by the

Mosaic law, they were also required to appear before the Lord three times a year.

See Exodus 34 verse 23. They were required to observe the Passover, Deuteronomy 16 1 -8, keep the

Feast of Weeks, Deuteronomy 16 9 -12, keep the Feast of Booths, Deuteronomy 12 15 -19 and 14 3 -21, keep the

Sabbath, Exodus 34 21, build houses with parapets, Deuteronomy 22 verses 7 -8, not wear clothes of mixed fibers,

Deuteronomy 22 verse 11. In other words, if the blessings and cursings of God depended on keeping the law of Moses, it does not depend on keeping only select, cherry -picked portions of it.

Instead, it depends on obedience to all of it. As you will see, Robert Morris is guilty of making the same mistake as the

Judaizers. In The Blessed Life, Morris teaches that God's blessings or curses are earned by obedience to the cherry -picked principle of redeeming the first fruits found in the

Mosaic covenant rather than obedience to the entirety of the Mosaic system.

But before we explore Morris' inconsistent use of the Mosaic law, let's first look at how the apostles resolved the issue raised by the

Judaizers regarding circumcision. We continue reading in Acts chapter 15 starting at verse 6.

Now the apostles and elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate,

Peter stood up and said to them, Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the

Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the

Holy Spirit just as He did to us, and He made no distinction between us and them. Having cleansed their hearts by faith, now therefore why are you putting

God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus just as they will. And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders

God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they had finished speaking, James replied, Brothers, listen to me,

Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for His name.

And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the

Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord who makes these things known from of old.

Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled from the blood.

For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he has read every

Sabbath in the synagogues. Now, from this account in Acts, we learn that the doctrine of the

Judaizers was utterly and completely rejected by the Apostles. Instead, they affirmed that all

Christians, Jew and Gentile, are saved by grace alone through faith alone. This is exactly what the

Apostle Paul would go on to explain in greater detail in his letter to the church in Galatia. In fact, in Galatians, Paul pronounced a curse on the

Judaizers because they were teaching a different gospel. See Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 -9 which says,

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Paul's pronouncement of curses for the Judaizers does not end in chapter 1. In fact,

Paul reveals that those who think that they can earn God's favor and blessings by their law -keeping are not blessed by God, but are in fact cursed.

Said Paul, For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written,

Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and continue to do them.

In other words, Paul was acutely aware of the inconsistency of the Judaizers who had cherry -picked select portions of the

Mosaic law, namely circumcision and dietary restrictions, and had added them as appendages to Christianity while ignoring the other requirements of the

Mosaic system. But Paul will have none of it and reminds the Judaizers that if they want to be blessed by God through their law -keeping,

Deuteronomy 27 -26 demands obedience to the entire Mosaic law and pronounces a curse on anyone who doesn't abide by all of it.

This is why Paul pleads with the Galatians, calls them foolish, and reminds them that God's blessings are not the result of their law -keeping, instead they are given by God to those who have faith.

Says Paul, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. So let me ask you this, did you receive the

Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish?

Having begun by the Spirit, are you now trying to be perfected by the flesh?

Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, the reason for this is because Jesus set us free from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

Galatians 3 and 14 read, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Jesus Christ the blessing of Abraham might come to the

Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

This is the central doctrine of Christianity, Christ's penal substitutionary atonement.

It teaches that Jesus, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, had our sins, every infraction of the law that we've committed, placed on Him, and He suffered the wrath of God in our place on the cross.

When we are brought to repentant faith in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, His sinless righteousness is placed on us like a garment, all of this as a gift from God, see

Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9. In other words, our right standing before God is not based on our keeping of the law, either in whole or in part, but on Christ's perfect keeping of the law for us.

Jesus' righteousness is then imputed to our account by faith alone. The passages that are reproduced below bear this out clearly.

For instance, 2 Corinthians 5 verses 18 -21, which read, "...all of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God, for our sake

He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Other passage, Isaiah 53 verses 4 -11, "...surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed

Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to His own way, and the

Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not

His mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its years is silent, so He opened not

His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and as for His generation who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, living stricken for the transgression of My people, and they made

His grave with the wicked and with the rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and yet there was no deceit in His mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him, for He has put Him to grief when His soul makes an offering for guilt.

He shall see His offspring and shall prolong His days. The will of the

Lord shall prosper in His hands, and out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied by His knowledge.

Shall the righteous one, My servant, make many to be accounted or credited as righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities.

Or Romans chapter 9 verses 19 through 25 which read, Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by works of the law no human being will be justified or declared righteous in God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. Or Galatians 2 21, for if righteousness were through the law then

Christ died for no purpose. And then lastly Philippians chapter 3 verses 2 through 9. Pay close attention to this because this was written against the

Judaizers. Look out for those dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a

Hebrew of the Hebrews as to the law, a Pharisee as to zeal, a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

But whatever gain I had I counted as a loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I counted everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them, my good works under the law, as rubbish, as scuba law, in order that I may gain

Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes by through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

The long of the short of it is this. If you've been brought to repentance and faith and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you have already a right standing before God and are blessed.

And all of this is a gift that is given by God by grace through faith. But if you're trusting in your law -keeping or your principle -keeping and are trying to earn

God's blessings, then the Bible is clear, you are still under the law and you are under a curse unless you obey all of it.

This is why Paul says of the Judaizers, you are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, and you have fallen from grace.

Galatians 5, verse 4. So the long and the short of it is this.

The blessed life has cherry -picked pieces of the

Mosaic law and told you that your money is cursed unless you obey this principle, then your money is redeemed and you will experience

God's supernatural blessings in your life. In other words, Robert Morris is guilty of committing the exact same error and heresy as the

Judaizers did in the time of the apostles, and they were soundly rebuked and their doctrine condemned and overturned by the apostles.

That's the problem. So, let me end the segment here.

We'll take a break and then we'll listen to my interview recorded earlier regarding Oneness Pentecostalism in a new book that refutes it.

But let me ask you this. Do you now see how important it is to never ever determine the truth or falsity of anyone's teaching based upon someone's personal experiences and claims regarding the supernatural and the miraculous?

Bill Cornelius was there to tell everybody his life has been changed by the book

The Blessed Life by Robert Morris, that his congregation has been changed, that he's experienced and witnessed miracles.

And yet, if you put all of that experience aside, and you open up your

Bible, and you read it and compare what Robert Morris is teaching, it's clear that Robert Morris is a modern day

Judaizing heretic who's teaching false doctrine and making merchandise of people, and teaching falsely regarding what the

Bible teaches for Christians when it comes to something like tithing. You see, all it takes is an open

Bible, but see, the sales pitch was based on the experience. And here's the deal. Over and over and over again, you'll find in so many places in the

American church and abroad, that people will gravitate towards the personal experience and the story as the being the definitive answer as to whether or not something is true or false based upon whether it worked in somebody's life.

And yet, Scripture says to test against God's Word. That's the idea.

You want to be protected from false teachers, then number one, sola scriptura.

God's Word and God's Word alone determines what is true doctrine and sound doctrine, and it must be understood and read in context.

If what somebody says cannot be squared with what Scripture says, it doesn't matter how many people's lives have been changed miraculously through that teaching.

It's still false. All right, we're up on our second break. If you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the

Faith, you can do so. My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com, or you can subscribe on Facebook, facebook .com

forward slash PirateChristian. Click on the subscribe button or follow me on Twitter, my name there, at PirateChristian. Quick break, and when we come back, not a sermon review, we're going to be listening to an interview

I did earlier regarding a book out refuting oneness Pentecostalism, the heresy of TDJs.

We'll be right back. If you want advice on how to have your best life now, you're in the wrong place.