Who Appointed Me the Gatekeeper of the Charismatic Movement?

The following is a pre-recorded program. We're going to have an interesting, edifying, helpful discussion today.

I won't be taking any calls or responding to posts on social media, so sit back, enjoy the broadcast. I believe you'll find it helpful not because I'm talking about me, but because I'm going to be talking about us, about you and me, about others. And I think the principles we're going to lay out are really, really helpful. So there is a perception – I've been told this to my face – there is a perception that I am, quote, the gatekeeper of the charismatic movement. Yeah, I've been told this to my face, and the perception comes especially from those who are critics of the charismatic movement, critics of the Pentecostal movement, those who say that the sign gifts, tongues and prophecy and gifts of healing, that these are not for today, that they are not normative for today as they were in New Testament times, and those that may also oppose modern revival movements and things like that and other trends in the church. And there is a perception among quite a few of these critics that me, yours truly, Dr. Michael Brown, I am the, quote, the gatekeeper of the charismatic movement. In other words, I am the one that God has appointed to keep the bad stuff out, to give approval to this and disapproval of that, to spend a lot of my time calling out error in the movement, exposing this one, that one, and that's what I should be doing.

Because I'm not doing it to their satisfaction, I am therefore being lax or I'm being double-minded or whatever. Now, what I find really interesting is the question, who gave me that role? Who appointed me to do that? I can assure you God didn't.

The one to whom I give account didn't appoint me to do this. The one with whom I commune daily, the one from whom I take my marching orders, the one who burdens me with things that he wants me to do and I seek to follow as best as I understand, did not call me to do that. In fact, there is no such person on the planet, not in America, not anywhere.

Now, look, let's be realistic. And I'm going to get into some spiritual principles today that, as I say, I think everyone will find helpful. Now, on the one hand, I can find it flattering that someone thinks of me that way, that I have that much influence, but let's be realistic. There are worldwide about 600 million people who would adhere to various Pentecostal Charismatic doctrines, beliefs, experiences, et cetera. There are some among them that hold to outright heretical beliefs but still identify as Pentecostal Charismatic.

That would be a smaller number. But the overall number, about 600 million, and the vast majority would be those who hold to Orthodox Biblical doctrines of salvation found only in Jesus and the deity of Jesus and God's triunity, et cetera, et cetera, and the inspiration of Scripture. So they would be fellow believers. God's given me a great platform. We reach a lot of people through radio, through TV, through intranet, through articles, through books, through speaking, through our schools. We reach a lot of people. But I feel very confident in saying that the vast majority of Pentecostals and Charismatics worldwide have no idea who I am, no idea whatsoever who I am, and I am somehow the gatekeeper.

You say, oh, no, no, no. They don't have to know you. You just have to know them.

Okay, let's turn it around in this way. I am quite sure that I don't know the vast majority of Pentecostal preachers, teachers, leaders, Charismatic preachers, teachers, leaders worldwide. I'm quite sure that I don't. You could name country after country after country and say to me, okay, who are the 20 best known Charismatic Pentecostal leaders in this country, in Nigeria, in Brazil, in India, in this country, in that. Some I can't even name any because I'm just not that familiar with what's happening in those countries. And yet, somehow, I am the gatekeeper of all of those. So they don't know me.

I don't know them. You say, no, no, no. We're just talking about America because America influences the whole world. And a lot of the bad doctrines that have spread around the world to other countries have come from America. But there's a lot of truth in that.

Absolutely. America is very influential, not just nationally in terms of the American people but spiritually in terms of the American church. And no question about it that a lot of doctrinal error has been exported and it's come from Charismatic Pentecostal leaders in America.

It's been exported around the world, most notably the carnal prosperity message that Jesus died to make you rich and being rich is a proof of your spirituality. Yeah, that error is having terrible impact in many countries. Absolutely. No question about it. Of course, I've addressed that for decades. Loudly, clearly, in writing, publicly, on radio, in other forums. Yeah, absolutely.

Spoken against that. And my materials have been translated into other languages to get into other countries to help with these things. But even in America, all right, I don't know the number of Charismatic Pentecostals in America, but I'd be very surprised if most of them knew me. Some, for sure, many, but even most. And here's the biggest thing. I've been talking about me, but I want to apply these things to each of you and open up the Scriptures in a moment.

It's quite a notion that people think of me in this way, but it is completely out of proportion, it is completely unrealistic, and it's contrary to my calling. Now, here's where this is going to be relevant for each of you listening. What I'm about to say is going to be relevant if you're in ministry, if you're an individual believer seeking to follow the Lord. I want to read to you from Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 14, and he's talking about that a different subject but a major principle emerges. He says, Romans 14.1, as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions or disputable matters. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. So it's not saying eating vegetables makes you weak, but if you think, oh, I can't eat other foods because they'll defile me or they'll hurt me, and it's a spiritual thing, so I have to eat only vegetables, that's a position of weakness, not realizing that what you eat physically doesn't defile you spiritually. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. And then Paul brings out this principle. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?

It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. What a tremendously important message here. We're not talking about making moral judgments or doctrinal judgments. We are called to do that in the body. We are called to test fruit. We are called to examine the lives of leaders, what they teach and how they live. We are called to do that.

But we are not called to judge what another servant of the Lord is called to do. One night – well, it's late at night for me, early in the morning for others – it was 4.30 in the morning, and I was about to go to sleep. When I say I'm a late night person, so if I get in a role really writing or working on something, the time flies and I look and it's super late. I get an email from a colleague, 4.30 in the morning, and I said to him, what are you doing up? He goes, what are you doing up? Well, he had just woken up and I was about to go to sleep. And I said, okay, we've got the world covered. I can rest now that you're up.

We were joking about it. Well, I could say, what in the world do you get? 4.30 in the morning is a crazy time to be up, and you can't be writing late at night if you're up at 4.30 in the morning. And he could turn around to me and say, what are you doing up so late? How can you get up early in the morning to pray if you're up so late?

You should be sleeping for hours now. I'm on one schedule. He's on another schedule. There is one person, and they are really, really called. Their whole ministry is a ministry of prayer. Sure, they live their lives, they do other things, but the biggest calling on their lives is to get alone with God and pray. And if they don't pray, a lot of things won't happen. That's their role.

That's their calling. Why are you praying all the time? You should be out evangelizing more. Or the one that's praying all the time says to the evangelist, why aren't you praying all day? Why are you just spending all your time talking to people?

Spend your time talking to God, and then he'll show you the one person to talk to. Well, no, that's not their right to do that, because each one gives account to God. So Paul goes on, he's talking about esteeming one day better than another, and a lot of this came up because you had Jewish and Gentile believers together in Rome working these things out. So he says this, verse 6, the one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord.

The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Messiah died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother?

Or why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

So friend, on that day you will be called to give account to God for what he gave you to do, not what I think you should be doing. Let me say again, we are to judge doctrine and we are to judge morals. So if there is a leader saying you don't need the Bible because I'm here and I am the living word, that person is a heretic and should be marked as such and called to repent. It's called to repent so if they refuse to repent, then marked as a heretic. If they say hey, the Lord's given me permission because of the burden that I carry and the hard work I do to have multiple sexual partners just like the Old Testament believers, the men had concubines, well that person is in sexual immorality and should be called to repent and if they refuse to repent and want to stay in the church, then they are put out.

We are to judge that. But it's not for you to tell me what God's called me to do and it's not for me to tell you what God's called you to do. When we come back, I want to tell you a story about John Hyde who was known as praying Hyde and was one of the great praying missionaries in recorded history. I'm sure there are many others but his story is well known.

I want to talk to you about what happened when he went to India and some of the misunderstanding that he endured. In fact, I'm going to tie it in with an Aesop's fable. But I want to help you find freedom, not as an outlet for laziness, not as an outlet for rebellion, not as an outlet to make all kinds of excuses, but rather freedom to do the will of God and take the expectations of others off of your plate. All right? You may be serving in a ministry somewhere and you have to do a lot of things you don't like to do, but that's your job.

Fine. But only God can tell you what you're calling. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome friends to a special edition of the Line of Fire. I'm not taking calls today responding to social media posts, but I'm seeking to interact with scripture and scriptural principles that will help free you from the expectations of others, from other people dictating to you what you're calling is, or them judging you by what they think you should be doing, even as parents, even in other aspects of life. You may know that you know that you know, sir, that God called you into the business world, and that your calling is to be a Christian witness in the business world, and to generate funds that can support the Gospel around the world, and someone else is judging you. Look, now I see a call in your life to preach and you're living in compromise.

You got that thing hanging over you. Friend, if with all your heart you want to obey the Lord, if with all your heart you say, Lord, not my will, but your will be done. If that's your heart, if that's your attitude, and you pursue him, he will guide you in the right path. He'll show you the right things to do. He'll help you understand and discern what his will is as you walk in the light that you have. And some people have had expectations for you. You know, it could be your family always said you're going to be a doctor, you're going to be a medical doctor, you're going to be a medical doctor, and now you're not even going to a traditional college, you're going to a ministry school because you feel compelled by God to be a missionary and reach a particular people group that's been unreached, and it's what God's telling you to do.

You tell your mom and dad, I would love to honor you and see your dreams for my life fulfilled, but I have to honor the Lord, and he's calling me to do this. So John Hyde, known as Praying Hyde, you can read his biography, there are a few different ones, there's one like two or three in one, I think the author's last name is Carey, C-A-R-R-E, and then some of the other bios are put in with that, John Praying Hyde, or just Praying Hyde. Very, very moving, very, very compelling because of the prayer life that he lived. But when he first got to India, he was misunderstood because he was not as active on the field as the other missionaries. And he spent a lot of every day in prayer and spent a lot of time fasting and would sometimes not sleep at night. Ultimately he broke down his health, living the way he was living, but he did it willfully and died younger, saying, hey, I'm not going to stop this prayer pattern, he died in his 40s. But he pushed himself to that degree, self-denial, being with God in prayer.

They're just like, we're out here working more, and you're here praying, you need to be out in the field more. But they discovered that the more he was out on the field, the weaker their work got, and the more he stayed in prayer, the stronger their work got. That their evangelism, their missions work, was more effective. And Hyde made a covenant with the Lord that he would win one soul to Jesus every day. That he would find that person, and not just say, hey, the Lord touched you, go ahead and be blessed.

No, no, get down on your knees in public on the street, on the dust, and say, God, save me, I'm a sinner, I need redemption, I need mercy. Before he left the field – and he served northern India, Pakistan area, it'd be Pakistan now – before he left the field, he had covenanted with God to lead five people to Jesus every single day, so he became a very effective evangelist. But they realized, the other missionaries there, they realized that the most effective thing he could do was pray.

But initially they judged him, because he wasn't as busy – he wasn't lazy, he was doing the harder work. It's a lot easier, actually, to go and talk to others than to spend all day in travail and prayer and fasting, and skipping meals and skipping sleep and things like that. It's the ultimate spiritual battle. It reminds me of this Aesop's fable, that the members of the body got very resentful towards the stomach, because the feet and the legs would have to walk all the way out into the woods to hunt the animals. And then the arms would get weary, pulling back the bow and shooting out the arrow, and then preparing the meal, and then the shoulders would get weary, carrying this thing back, and then clean it, cook it, do all of that. And then the teeth, chewing. The stomach just sat there and ate.

It didn't do anything. It just sat there and ate, enjoyed the food. So the members of the body decided to boycott the stomach. It says the stomach that's driving us to do all this hunting and all this, well, just stop feeding it. But after a few days, the arms started to get a little weak and the legs a little heavy and the mind a little – ah! They realized they needed the stomach to do what it did. So there's diversity in the body. You may really be called to be a teacher of the Word.

Here, I'll give you a little story here. And I'm talking about diversity within the body and recognizing and honoring one another's calling rather than trying to fit everybody into the mold that we think is their mold and do the job that we think they should be doing. So again, for those who say that I'm the gatekeeper of the charismatic church, my question is, who appointed me in that role? You don't have the right to. Critics of the charismatic movement don't have the right to. Again, they may think, well, Mike Brown, you're one of the few that speaks out and you've got scholarship behind you and even your own – you hang out with these weird and wacky people that your own theology is sound, so you're the man to do it.

What? I appreciate that vote of confidence in the midst of a criticism, but who called me to do that? Isn't it God who has to call me to do that? On the day you stand before God, I stand before God, who are we giving account to? If you're a pastor, you're not ultimately giving account to your congregation or to your board or to your spouse or to your denominational head, although you want to honor and respect and work with everyone you can, but you're giving account to God.

Yeah. And that's going to be an awesome and very intense day. Paul talks about it again in 2 Corinthians 5, how each of us give account to God. This is not for justification of our sins. Our sins have been forgiven through the cross. This is to give account for what we did with our lives.

Yeah, absolutely so. So as we think about this, I'll give you a little analogy. A pastor decides that the people in his church, in his congregation, a few hundred people, they don't really know each other well.

So he tells his elders, listen, I made a decision and I want to share it with you and I want you to interact with me on it because I believe it's the right thing to do. I want to take the first Sunday of every month and we call for a potluck dinner. So when the service is over, we clear out the chairs, we bring in the tables.

It won't take long to do it while the people are preparing their food, getting their kids and all this. And then every week we encourage people to sit with people you don't know and we'll do it once a month. And I think it's a great way to build fellowship. Well, one of the elders who is an evangelist at heart, he said, pastor, I feel like that's immoral. I mean, you know how many people there are right outside our building within walking distance that don't know Jesus, that haven't been born again, that have never even come in through our church doors and they're in walking distance from us? How can we be sitting feasting while those people are dying without Jesus? No, pastor, what we need to do is every Sunday after service send people out into the neighborhoods and when we've done that, then we can come and have a meal.

Well, another elder who's got a real strong prophetic sense, burden, he says, pastor, God's never going to bless this. You know how much sin there is in the camp? You know how much gossip there is? You know how many men into porn? And you know how many kids are watching polluting things on social media? You think we're going to gather together and God's going to bless us?

No, no, no. Let me preach a message and call people to repentance first. And then when we thoroughly repent it, then we can enjoy fellowship together. And then another elder who's really a teacher, he's called by God to be a teacher, he said, pastor, would it be okay if I could do a series of teachings on the Greek word koinonia fellowship and explain that, what that means so that we could really have some good fellowship when the time comes?

Well, each one has a particular gifting and a particular calling and a particular way of seeing things. You know, in our household, I am the helium balloon, meaning I am so full of optimism. I am so full of today is good, tomorrow is going to be better. And Nancy is this absolute realist and can see what's wrong a mile ahead or what's going to go wrong a mile ahead. And we often joke about it, that she's the lead weight that keeps my helium balloon from flying away.

So together it's a great match, all right? So everybody has to serve in general. We all have to make sacrifices. There's stuff we all do that we wish we didn't have to do, but it's just part of life, right? Like, you know, as a mom, you want to have a bunch of kids, but not everything about raising a kid is like your favorite thing. Like changing a kid's diaper that has diarrhea and it's the fourth diaper change as you're trying to get the family out the door for Sunday service.

It's not like, that's not your favorite thing about parenting, but it comes with the territory, right? You know, you have a goal to have a certain profession. You may have to go through five years of rigorous study and internship. That's pretty tough, but that's how you get where you're going, right? You may want to be an athlete and to be at the top of your game.

You have to do all kinds of things repetitiously over and over and okay, but that's going to get you where you want to go. So we all have to generically serve and do things that we'd rather not do. That's just part of life, part of ministry, part of parenting, part of having a job.

That's the reality. But when it comes down to the ultimate purpose for your life, you may be called to be single for a period of years. You may be called to have a large family or a small family. You may be called to have no children of your own. You're unable to, but you're called to adopt children. You may be called to pastor a megachurch. You may be called to plant a house church network. You may be called to one-on-one evangelists. You may be called to street preaching.

You may be called to mass evangelism. Everybody's got to be faithful to the calling that God gave them. And the mass evangelist can't look at the street preacher and say, you should be doing what I'm doing. The megachurch pastor can't look at the house church leader and say you should be doing what I'm doing.

Or conversely, unless it's doctrinally wrong, unless it is morally wrong, unless the practices are destructive, we don't have the right to say this is what you should be doing or shouldn't be doing. To quote Paul again, who are you to judge another man's service? I'm so glad on the day of judgment I won't give account to you, and I'm sure you're glad you won't give account to me. Let us all hear from God.

Well done, good and faithful servant. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. So I want to return to this subject about people saying, hey, Dr. Brown, you're really the gatekeeper of the charismatic church, which is completely false notion. Again, completely false notion, exaggerated statement, and absolutely not what God has called me to do. It's a primary aspect of my life in calling and time and effort and energy. But some have said that, and they said you should be doing XYZ.

Now here's what's interesting. And you could do this with someone who's telling you what you're supposed to be doing and what your calling is, and it's not what God's called you to do. It's not what he's spoken to you to do. Because, listen, for me, I just want the will of God. I want the will of God. I want the praise of people. I'm blessed when people send us testimonies of how our ministry has impacted them. I'm blessed to know that the word of the Lord working through us is bearing good fruit to the glory of God, just like you'd be blessed and encouraged. But my goal is not to please people.

I want to serve people, but my goal is to please the Lord, so Lord, whatever your will is, whatever your purpose is. There were times in my life when I spent a lot, a lot of my time birthing new schools, putting together curricula, hiring faculty, putting together programs, pouring into students, and less time traveling. There were times where I spent a tremendous amount of time on the road, in country after country, and all I did basically was traveling and writing. I've been doing live talk radio now later this year.

God willing, it makes 14 years of daily live talk radio. There were other times when I was just in the midst of an outpouring of the Spirit. We were in meetings day and night and day and night.

There were the times in college and grad school studying multiple languages and earning degrees and doing all the technical academic work to prepare for things after that. So there are different seasons, but I imagine, like you, if you love the Lord, you want His will. And from the heart, with everything in me, all I want to do is please my Father. All I want to do is live in such a way that on that day He says those words, well done, good and faithful servant.

All that matters. And if it means being hated and thrown in a jail, if it means being President of the United States, that's not going to happen. I'm just using an example. That is not going to happen, nor does it resemble anything relating to God's calling on my life.

But if His will was serve the Lord in India, in obscurity the rest of your life, if His will was give yourself day and night to debating rabbis, if His will was spend all your time pouring to the next generation of students, whatever pleases you, Lord. But here's what fascinates me. So our ministry has a number of major emphases, but it takes a lot to do a daily live talk, radio show, internet stream. It takes a lot of effort, takes a lot of team effort, takes finances. And for some, that's all they do. I mean, the radio show is all they do. They're only on more hours than we are. But understandably, because there's a lot of work that goes into this. Okay, so that's what we do.

But that's not all that we do. I'm constantly active in Jewish outreach and Jewish evangelism. As a Jewish believer, it's been part of my calling for 50 years. So we've written book after book on answering Jewish objections to Jesus and Jewish outreach materials and books to educate the church about anti-Semitism in the past and God's eternal calling and purpose on Israel.

So those things, it takes a mass amount of time. The five-volume series answering Jewish objections to Jesus over 1,500 pages, that is decades of work that's poured into it. So that's what we do. We're actively involved in it. If you haven't checked out our newly completely revamped Real Messiah website, go there. RealMessiah.com, RealMessiah.org, go there.

You'll be blessed. Tons of free material, multiple debates with rabbis, series on answering the rabbis. Our TV shows, Think It Through, two years of Jewish outreach TV shows, really creative, fascinating, well done. Over a hundred objections answered there online, excerpts from our books, video answers.

Check it out. That alone could be our entire life, our entire ministry. On a daily basis, there are different things I'm doing that involve Jewish outreach, right? That remains a major part of what we do.

I'm teaching now in two different schools, once a month for four days, three days at one, one day at another. So doing that, ministry school, pouring into those students, oh hang on. Now I'm saying this for a reason. You're busy too. Your plates are full too. I'm not saying look at how busy I am. You're busy too. You have a lot on your plate too. So hear what I'm saying. I normally write five op-eds a week.

Some people, that's just what they do. They write an op-ed a day and that's the major thing they do. They work hard.

That takes time. You're researching, you're learning, you're thinking, you're writing. So normally five op-eds a week and then in the last couple of years we published nine different books, okay, and some are commentaries. You know how many years it takes to write a commentary? How many years I worked on my Job commentary? How many years I worked on my Jeremiah commentary?

Now I'm working on my Isaiah commentary. There's years and years of work to do this and then I'm still traveling and speaking, right? Still traveling and speaking. Been overseas over 150 different trips.

India 27 times, Italy 27 times, other countries multiple times. So we're doing that and then constant doing debates online, doing online interviews, mentoring people, meeting with people, and then running a ministry, right? I don't administrate it. Others handle it but still every day there are bunches of emails to answer. And then married, kids, grandkids, so busy, right?

So it strikes me. And again, some of you, you tell me your schedule is like, hi, how do you do that? How do you manage to make it through the day? I mean, some ministries, some parenting, some working secular jobs, different things, you know, all together a bunch of multitasking, bivocational, etc. Lots of stuff going on. So here's what I find so fascinating. And then we have our missions movement that was birthed out of our school.

So missionaries around the world that we've sent out and that we support and work with, answer their questions and things like that. So I was at one critic's website the other day because I was informed they had a new video out attacking me and I've yet to watch it. The one excerpt that I watched was false. Just what they said was blatantly false and hopefully they'll apologize for it. But anyway, I was looking at all the videos and they're basically all attacking Charismatics, attacking Pentecostals, attacking this preacher, attacking that preacher. And that's what the whole YouTube channel was.

Video after video after video after video. And this extreme in the Charismatic movement that I differ with also. These failed prophecies, false prophecies, I've called those out too. This error in Word of Faith prosperity preaching, yeah, I've called that out too. But anyway, that's what was there.

And I'm thinking, wait a second. What about Jewish evangelism? What about to the Jew first? What are you doing to reach Jewish people? Not a single video there. Okay, what are you doing to support world missions? And where is all that? What's the missions movement you birthed in?

I don't see anything there. Well, hang on. What biblical commentaries have you written? None. Oh, and what would their answer be as I go through? How come you're not doing a daily radio show?

What would their answer be? That's not what God has called me to do. Maybe you're a Baptist. Why aren't you spending all your time exposing error in the Baptist churches? Why aren't you spending all your time exposing sexual scandals in the Baptist churches?

Why aren't you spending all your time exposing spiritual deadness in the Baptist churches? Well, they'd say, well, God hasn't called me to do that. Okay, you be obedient to the call of God, but what goes around comes around. That's the counsel you have to give me as well. Mike, Dr. Brown, you be faithful to do what God's called you to do.

We are not your judges. So that's what I find so fascinating. And the very people who are telling you, you need to invest all your time in the pro-life movement. You need to be giving all your money here. You need to be supporting this ministry. You need to be involved in this outreach.

Well, you turn around to them and say, well, how come you're not doing the other things I'm doing? How come you haven't adopted four international kids in need like our family has? You're obviously out of the will of God. How come you're not giving 25% of your money to support missionaries in Pakistan?

You're obviously out of the will of God. Well, no, no, that's not their assignment. You have your assignment. I have my assignment. That's the beauty of the body. And if we're faithful to our assignment, if we're faithful to our assignment, you know what you're going to have?

Harmony, beautifully functioning body, and a recognition of the importance of what each one is doing. Now, look, I absolutely do have issues with some of the critics. And I would say their methodology is often dishonest, often uses unequal weights and measures, stirs up dissension and strife, does not put forth truth in a constructive way, but rather insults and attacks others. And if you don't believe in me, just go look at the comments section and see how others are savage there and mocked there. And there's nothing Christian about it.

There's nothing Christian about it. Now, in the late 70s, early 80s, I thought I was supposed to correct everything. And you have to understand that with the serious work I was doing and getting my doctorate in New Eastern languages and literatures, we weren't looking at the translations. We were looking at behind the translations. And some of them would, you know, quote some, it'd be the meeting, and they'd say, and if you'll study this in the Hebrew, and Nancy would look at me, and I'd just, she'd be like, no, no.

The Greek means, she'd look at me, no. And I thought, okay, I just got to correct this, and correct this, and correct this. I was sitting in a service one night, this Pentecostal church, and there was a lady speaking, the pastor had this lady speak, and as she's reading these accounts from Numbers, and she seemed unaware of what was written in Deuteronomy that gives kind of a, compliments it and fills out the picture. And she was saying some things that were wrong.

And I'm watching the guy next to me strenuously taking notes, just writing them, taking notes, taking notes, taking notes. And it was bothering me. It's like, that's not accurate. But as the message went on, she was making a great point overall, just the way she got there wasn't right, which I don't like. If I had the opportunity to talk with her, I would have. But the overall point was great, and you could tell the people were getting into it, and the overall point, which is the main thing they'd remember, was a great point.

And I remember thinking to myself, okay, because now this is like the 83, 84, and my mindset had shifted some from when it was late 70s, early 80s. I said to myself right now, so Wednesday night, in thousands and thousands and thousands of churches all over America, one's teaching, and this one's wrong on this, and this one's not using the best translation on this, and this one's making a mistake, and it's not my role to fix everything. It's not my role to do that. You know, I'd write a book with a publisher, and maybe they've published 300 books, and I'd find one book that I differed with. Well, can I still work with this publisher? Well, that's just the world we live in. In your denomination, you're going to have people that you differ with. In your church network, you're going to have someone that you differ with.

If you work with a publisher, they're going to publish books that you differ with. That's the world that we live in. But no, I was going to fix it all. So I address issues when God lays them on my heart. I address error when things rise in a major way and get my attention.

I feel the Lord wanted me to lean into it. Otherwise, I'm not the police chief. I'm not the doctor-in-chief. I'm not the gatekeeper. I work with the Lord to help separate the people we all share. I am not the director-in-chief. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again, it's Dr. Michael Brown. So I want to go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And as in Romans 12, Paul also talks about the importance of the whole body.

And each one has their particular gift. And he says some very beautiful things here using the analogy of the body. 1 Corinthians 12. For just as the body is one, and as many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

This was something unique. This was a unique community of equal status through the blood of Jesus. And he says in verse 14, For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?

If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as He chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be, as it is? There are many parts yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, while our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. One more passage I want to read to you from Ephesians chapter 4, reading from my accordant software with my English Bible on the left and my Greek on the right. When I hover over the English word, it connects me to the Greek word.

This way I can see exactly what it is if I didn't know the Greek, for example. So in Ephesians 4, Paul is explaining why Jesus, who ascended on high, then appointed apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And he says that they are appointed to equip the saints for the work of ministry, so apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, are given by the Lord to equip the saints for the work of ministry, so this equips the body to go out and do the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So this is God's goal for his people on earth, to attain to this, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. That's you and me.

And when each part is working properly, that's you and me, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. I was being driven to the airport in Orlando, and I was talking to the young man that was driving me, and I asked him what his role was, and he said that he is the PA to the executive pastor. And I told him, you have no idea how important your job is. See, God's wired me to carry a lot, to take on a lot, and to be on the front lines where I get attacked a lot.

Of course, I failed to mention in my job description earlier how active we are in the culture wars and all of what that entails. But God's wired me to do this, and probably over the course of these decades, I've carried what could be two or three full-time jobs for others. And I'm good with it. I'm blessed. I'm not stressed. I'm enjoying the Lord. I'm enjoying the work of ministry. I'm not depressed, quite the contrary. I'm full of excitement in the Lord and meeting with him and enjoying his presence and his goodness. But you give me other things to do, or I take on things he hasn't called me to do.

Oh, it's way down, and that was the straw that breaks the camel's back, and I'm discouraged. Why? Because I stepped out of what God called me to do, or things were put on me outside of my calling. And if I did not have the team that I have, I couldn't do a fraction of what God's called me to do. So what each of them do is just as important. They each have their job.

They each have their role. I liken being a PA to being a golf caddy. So the golfer seeking to win the Masters, win a PGA Grand Slam, he's doing everything he can to get his shot the best way it can be, and fine-tune this and that, and master the course. But the caddy's also looking to master the course with him, and the caddy's going to carry all the bags so he doesn't have to carry them.

If he had to carry them, it would ultimately drain himself over the course of the match. And the caddy is going to know instinctively what's the right club to give him, and then they can confer if they want to do another one. So they're co-working, but then the caddy has a very important role as well, and that's why they get a percentage. If the guy wins, they get a percentage of the winnings over and above their salary. At least in most cases it works like that. Everyone has their important job to do.

And when we recognize it's not a matter of, well, you're important because you're the senior pastor, or you're important because you're the one on radio, or you're important because you're the face on TV, or you're important because you're the CEO, when we get away from that mentality and realize we're all servants, we're all here to do the will of God, and I can't say to the hand, I'm better than you. You can't see. Look, try to see. Just try to see. I'm going to close my eyes and hand, you try to see.

Well, the hand can see, but then the hand can say to the eye, okay, I, let's see how brilliant you are. Type something on the computer. I'll tell you what. Send out a text.

Make a phone call. I, if you're so great, just pick up that fork with the meat on it and get it to the mouth to eat. You can do any of that. Each one has a function. And if we'll give ourselves to our function, then we'll be blessed. But not only that, the body will work well and others will be blessed too. Now, I want to go to one more passage, Proverbs 6. I absolutely believe in correction and rebuke. I absolutely believe in it and have engaged in it privately and publicly many times over the decades. And yes, there are whole books I've written and many chapters and other books, many sermons I've preached and broadcasts I've done that are focused on correcting error. I seek to do it in as biblical a way as possible, which is not mocking other brothers or sisters, not speaking in demeaning, insulting ways, but rather speaking the truth in love. And when there's an urgent need to call people to repentance, to tell them you're destroying your life if you don't get things right, I will do that.

I will do it with tears and with pain. Now, look at this in Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs 6, and there's a list here, alright, because I want to talk about how we do what we do.

If you say, well, God's called me to correct error, and God's called me to expose error, okay, make sure that's not just an immature fleshly reaction, make sure that is a calling, and then that means you're praying, you're interceding for those that you think are in error, you're doing your best to reach out to those that you believe are in error, and then when you're correcting, you're correcting in constructive ways, not mocking other brothers and sisters in the Lord. But look at this, Proverbs 6, verse 16 and following. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him.

The same word used for a man sleeping with another man, it's an abomination to the Lord, it's detestable, right? Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. Sadly, in many critical circles, I find a violation of three things here, a lying tongue, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

I can't tell you how many things have been sent to me over the years, whole websites attacking me, pages on websites attacking me, articles attacking me, videos, and some of you just glance at and see, others because I knew who the person was, I took the moment to read the article, videos where people told me the content because I'm not going to spend my time watching the attacks, and if someone genuinely has a concern, they can always reach out and interact with me. But I've seen these things with blatant lies, blatant falsehoods. I'm not talking about an opinion, I'm talking about a falsehood, a blatant falsehood.

There it is, it's out there. God hates that. I've seen where others bear false witness about others in the body, people I know personally.

I'm not talking about an opinion, I'm talking about false witness. And I've seen continually the sowing of discord among brothers, not marking a heretic who denies fundamentals of the faith, but someone who sows discord among brothers. So how can that possibly be something that God's pleased with? Even if there are good corrections mixed in, there are three things out of the seven that God hates according to Proverbs 6 that are being practiced, so whatever we do, let's be motivated by love for God, love for others, love for truth, and let's speak the truth in love. When I pray for people that are in error, if they heard me praying for them, they would have to smile because I'm not praying a judgmental prayer, and I'm not praying judgment on them. I'm praying a prayer that I can pray for myself, Lord, where they're doing right less than they're doing wrong, correct me. May Jesus be glorified and friend. Run your race to us to please God and win the race to do it. Another program powered by the Truth Network.