Will You Also Beg Jesus to Leave?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Have you ever wondered why we talk about revival so much, pray for revival so much, yet experience it so little? That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on today's Line of Fire. I believe you're going to be encouraged, strengthened, blessed, stretched as always as we talk once more about revival.

But I think from an angle that may be a little different, an angle that may be something you've not considered before, and it has to do with God dealing with us and working in our lives in general. So prepare to be informed. Also, I'm going to open the phone lines for any subject, any question, like we do on Friday. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-34-87, 884, any subject of any kind that ties in in any way with the Line of Fire. Once I get through sharing some things I want to present to you today, then we'll get to the phones. 866-34-TRUTH.

And of course, as always, if you differ with me on anything, if you have some issue that you want to discuss with me, that is the number to call. Just to give you a heads up on what's coming this week, God willing that everything stays on schedule, tomorrow I'm going to be speaking with Chris Broussard. Many of you who are into sports know his name and face.

He has been a sports commentator on ESPN and other networks for many years, large social media following. And he reached out to me, oh, maybe eight months ago, wanted me to speak at a leadership summit he was doing and then wanted me to review a document he had written on a very controversial subject in terms of biblical righteousness and the subject of reparations. And it got me thinking about a lot of issues I hadn't thought about. So we should have a fascinating discussion tomorrow. And in particular, I'm going to invite you to call in if you differ with what my brother is sharing in his perspective, because he is more than able to represent his viewpoint. And I think I think we'll have some really lively, interesting discussion. Thursday and Friday, we're going to have specially prepared broadcasts for you.

I want to give you further updates on what is happening in Israel with the new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, and the new government and the warnings and even threats from outgoing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And then Friday, we're going to be tackling a bunch of your most difficult questions on the broadcast. And there's something I'm going to be doing. It's the first time in my life I'm going to be doing something on Friday, kind of a very unique ministry, kind of ministry situation setting.

But I don't want to share about it until until it's done. And then either on social media or just on the broadcast on Monday, I'll catch up on things. OK, if you are watching, I am about to type something on my computer saying, well, why are you doing that? Well, it's it's because my system did an update right before we started the broadcast and it shut everything down. And my computer came on just as we started, which meant I have to add into the password to get in.

So just did that if you're watching the broadcast. OK, why should we even care about the subject of revival? What does it matter? Why why is it one of the three Rs in our own ministry?

Why is it something that I often talk about so much? Very, very simple. America is in a moral and spiritual collapse, downfall, slide. America is being torn apart in many, many different ways. And it's it's not only one side of the equation. We're being torn apart from all different sides.

There's no there's no denying that. At at the same time, I look at the ultimate issue in America as the state of the church. As I've said repeatedly, that my biggest issue is not so much the presence of darkness, but rather the absence of light. And that's what I'm concerned about when the church is backslidden, when the church is compromised, when the church is worldly, when the sins of the world are now the sins of the church, when we who are supposed to be the salt and the light are very much like the world and at times indistinguishable from the world. And there's even this perception that being a follower of Jesus means just professing certain things and saying certain words. And you can keep living the way you've been living when that state of the church. Of course, America is going to be in a spiritual and moral crisis. Remember, Dr. King indicated that the church was not to be the the thermometer that just told you the temperature, but rather the thermostat that set the temperature.

Well, obviously, that's not how we have functioned. So the critical need in America today is true revival in the church, true transformation, true coming back to first love, first devotion, back to the word, back to holiness, back to loving our neighbor. But in a radical way where God visits, it's not just a matter of we're doing a little better. No, I'm talking about the patient is in critical condition. The patient, the patient is an ICU.

The patient is not going to make it as things are. We'll never get back to normal without some type of divine intervention. That's what I'm talking about in the church. That's what revival is. Question is, why do we see it so little, so infrequently? Why do we read about the Great Awakening in America in the 1730s and 1740s, the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening in the first decades of the 1800s, or the prayer revival of 1857-58, or the Welsh revival of 1904-1905, or Zeus' Street in the years following that, or the Hebrides revival from 49 to 52, or the Browns revival from 95 to 2000?

Why do we talk about these things historically as opposed to see them all the time? Well, one reason is lack of hunger, lack of desperation. And I talked in yesterday's broadcast about the need for honesty and humility, to have an honest assessment of our spiritual state, recognizing this is really where we are.

Okay, we need to make serious changes. And then with that, the humility to act on it. And then that leads to the hunger. That leads to the thirst. That leads to the desperation.

But there's another reason that we don't see God move more, and that is that often the outpouring of the Spirit or the presence of God is too intense. It's more than we wanted. It's more than we were expecting.

It's different than we were expecting. And many would rather have things the way they have always been than be shaken by God. All right, so let's go through some scripture about this. But first I want to start again with the same definition of revival that I read to you yesterday. So when I use the term, this is what I mean. And for those watching again, we've got some slides we're going to put up for you.

So we can put those up. And again, when I speak of revival, I'm speaking of a season of unusual divine visitation resulting in deep repentance, supernatural renewal, and sweeping reformation in the church, along with the radical conversion of sinners in the world, producing moral, social, and even economic change in the local or national communities. We're talking about something massive.

All right, so what's the problem then? The problem is that revival is often messy. Revival doesn't always paint within our lines.

Think of it. If we become stiff, if we become stagnant, if we become religiously traditional, meaning we're just doing things by tradition and not connecting with God, and God comes in the fire of revival, it's going to shake things, isn't it? As I said yesterday, or previously, I'd rather have the noise of the maternity ward than the quiet of the cemetery. Let's take a look at some scripture. Luke, chapter 2, verses 34 and 35. The ministry of Jesus himself shook things up and was not exactly tidy.

Let's not even think about revival for a moment. Let's just think about this idea of Jesus and his ministry, Jesus coming into the world. What does the scripture say in Luke 2, 34 and 35? He was destined to be a sign spoken against, and not only so, the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed.

How about this? Jesus goes into a synagogue, and what happens as a result? Demons cry out in his presence, kind of like quiet, like the reverence of the synagogue.

I don't like demons crying. Jesus, why don't you go to some other synagogue? When Jesus comes in, things get messy. When Jesus visits our church, things shake up. Yeah, it's nice, quiet, somber, sanctified-sounding service. And hey, I'm all for awe, reverence. Tradition can be beautiful, powerful. There are times when we're not jumping up and down and singing and shouting and reverentially reading scripture or bowing in the presence of God.

So be it. Yeah, I mean, everything is just like a hype-up Christian rock concert in church. I understand that. Lights show and the whole bit.

I understand that. So I'm all for holy tradition that connects us rightly with God. But then Jesus walks in and things start shaking. What?

Here. Why did Jesus let the demonized man cry out? Why didn't he just stop?

Well, obviously it was a sign that the man was getting delivered, and things are not always going to be a little pristine, sweet tie-it-up-in-a-little knot. How about this? Other cases, people shook violently, convulsed, and shrieked as demons left them. What if you say, I tell you what, Jesus, I want you to come into our midst, but I don't want anybody getting delivered from demons.

I mean, just think. Maybe you've been sharing the Gospel with a local banker, a very distinguished man, respected in the community, the head of the banking industry in your area, and he and his wife, some Christian background, but don't know the Lord, and you invite them to one of your services, and he and his wife come, and you're the pastor, and you've got one of your finest sermons you think is really going to speak to his heart, but will also impress him with your seriousness and all of that. And some demon-possessed guy walks in off the street, and during the worship gets miraculously set free from 20 years of bondage and spiritual and mental torment, and begins to cry out, convulse, and shake, and then collapses like a dead person, and then sits up and says, I'm different.

I was crying out. I was asking Jesus to help me. I just felt I had to come into this meeting, and I felt like all these demons left me. You know, I think it's like not on a Sunday morning, not when this guy's visiting, but of course in God's economy, that could be the very thing that gets this guy set free, and he also might be demonized, but in a very different way. Are we willing to let Jesus come into our meetings? Are we willing to let the Holy Spirit do what he wants to do?

That's one reason we don't see more revival, because when God comes, we don't welcome him. Telling you the truth, friends. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to The Line of Fire.

Will you beg Jesus to leave like the people of the Gadarenes did? Too much. Too much. Too intense. More than they wanted. More than they were asking for.

Thanks, but no thanks. You can leave. We'd rather have things the way they were, rather than you come with your holy presence that shakes things up and convicts us of our sin. 866-34-truth.

A few minutes. I'm going to go to the phones. Any question of any kind, just like we do on Friday.

Phone lines are open. 866-34-truth. I mean, just look at the ministry of Jesus in the Bible. Here's another thing that got the religious leaders upset. Little children shouted his praises in the temple.

Matthew 21. Little children shouted his praises. Like, get them to be, Jesus, Jesus, you're amazing. Jesus, we love you. It's like, come on.

Get the children to be quiet. And Jesus said, They're quiet. The rocks will shout praises to me. You know, the lame man that was healed in Acts 3, he goes into the temple walking and leaping, praising God. You don't leap in God's holy temple.

He's been crippled his whole life. When God really begins to set people free, friends, you're going to see some emotional responses. A lot of people have a problem with that. And the arrows of conviction when they start to hit deeper and deeper and deeper. Hey, if my family is lukewarm and I'm not quite as lukewarm, man, I'm like burning bright. I'm red hot. I'm on fire for Jesus. I am holy.

I am going for it. I mean, because I'm measuring myself, comparing myself to them. So I'm I'm a man of God.

You know, look at me. But if suddenly my family gets red hot, then my lukewarmness is exposed. If my family gets red hot, then my spiritual boasting quickly evaporates. If my family gets red hot, then I become much more conscious of the time I'm wasting or the sinful habits I'm justifying or the lack of passion that I have. And often we would rather write them off than repent ourselves. Friends, I've seen it over and again for decades.

It's it's human nature. And unless we're really hungry and serious for God and willing to let change come deeply, we won't see real visitation. Here are some more things from the ministry of Jesus. He healed a blind man by turning dirt into mud by his spittle and applying it to the man's eyes. You don't do that. Not on the Sabbath.

Do that on another day. What? Well, he was challenging some of the traditions of his day that had grown up. He healed the deaf man who could barely talk by putting his fingers in his ears and then spitting and touching his tongue.

Could you imagine if the hyper critics were around then? They put out whole videos that have somebody following Jesus and take a look at this now. Look at how he heals. Is this crazy? This is utterly ridiculous. Look at this. He puts his fingers in the ear. Guys, he spits and he touches his tongue.

This is gross. He's supposed to be the Messiah. Oh, yeah, right. Why did Jesus do things like this? One reason was was to challenge dead traditions and to see if people wanted God's power coming in ways that were different than they expected. And also to say there's not just a little method.

You just do the same thing every time and get the same results. He healed a blind man. That was just Mark 7.

Now Mark 8. He healed a blind man by laying hands on him and spitting on his eyes. I mean, really, when you think of of hyper critics having a problem, this one falls, this one shakes. How could that be God? Or these tongues aren't real or this or that? They would have had a field day with the ministry of Jesus. And it wouldn't have mattered to them that the people were miraculously healed. Well, we're not going to look at the miracles.

We're going to look at the methods and the methods. Show me in the Bible where it's ever commanded. Show me where Moses ever did that. Show me where Isaiah ever did that. Jesus.

Who is that? That's that same spirit. Constructive criticism is wonderful, life giving, helpful. But destructive criticism, hyper criticism has has ended many a move of God. Hey, the modern Pentecostal movement, as it began to spread around the world, came to Germany in the early nineteen hundreds. And people were being miraculously touched and miraculously changed and encountering God. But it very much was was outside of the traditional Lutheran evangelical churches in Germany. And it was very much not coming through the senior leaders. And it was very much different in form than what they were used to. And, you know, the official words of the Berlin Declaration, the official verdict of this powerful outpouring of the spirit.

Oh, yes. Through human beings who were flawed and thus having flaws and shortcomings, just like every church on the planet and every leader on the planet. You know, the verdict of the German leaders in the Berlin Declaration, not from above, but from below. That was their verdict on a powerful outpouring of the spirit. G. Campbell Morgan, great Bible exposer to Westminster Chapel.

G. Campbell Morgan, who was awed by what God did in the Welsh Revival in 1904, 1905, when he heard about what was happening in Azusa Street, referred to as the last vomit of Satan. So he accepted one thing God was doing and then something else came differently. And either the reports he heard or his own assessment led him to a terribly wrong viewpoint of what the Holy Spirit was doing. And that movement has brought more people to faith in the last 110 years than anything in church history. More people have been converted in the modern Pentecostal charismatic outpouring than any church movement in history at any time by far, by far. And yet, because of the newness and the rawness, just like 1 Corinthians, the Holy Spirit was poured out, there were all kinds of problems. There were all kinds of problems in the Pentecostal charismatic movement worldwide. And yet, so many reject what God's doing because, well, we don't like this, we don't like this, and it's too loud and it's too noisy, and show me that in the Bible. Same kind of thing. You could raise the same objections to the ministry of Jesus.

Okay, just a little bit more, and then I want to transition over to your calls. How about this account, Mark 3. At one point, things got so wild that his own family, Jesus' own family, Yeshua's own family, thought that he was out of his mind. Well, at the same time, the religious leaders claimed he was operating by the power of Satan.

That's one account, Mark 3, 20 to 22. His family says he's out of his mind. We've got to get him. And the religious leaders say he's demon-possessed. Think of that. This is Jesus. Do you think that it's going to be much different today when Jesus moves in power in the midst of his people that you won't have people saying this of the devil?

And you won't have other people saying you're crazy? Friends, it's happened in the history of revival. Hey, the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, Acts 2. Right, the Holy Spirit's poured out, and what happens? Some of the crowd hears the praises of God in their own language, and other parts in the crowd think the people are drunk. The Holy Spirit was poured out, and not everyone accepted it when it happened.

Yeah, and it's not surprising that revivals can be, quote, messy. Listen to this great statement. Let me just see who said this. OK, hang on, let me move up here.

John Bonar, Scottish leader. It is too much for the clay to assume to itself the judgment on how it befits the potter to work. If the careless are brought to repentance, the profane to holiness, the unclean to purity, if the old man with his deeds is put off, and the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness is put on, that is the work of the Spirit of God, the fruit of the truth, as it is in Jesus. He said, The manner in which these things may be wrought in us or in others may be designed by God to try even his own people as to whether they will know his hand, amid the imperfection with which every work of God is marred, when it passes through the hands of men. Someone has said that God will offend the mind to reveal the heart.

How about this? Daniel Rowland's Welsh revivalist was replying to the criticism of John Thornton of England in the early 1760s. This was as there was an outpouring in Wales. He said, You English, blame us, the Welsh, and speak against us and say jumpers, jumpers.

They would jump up and down with religious enthusiasm. But we, the Welsh, have something also to allege against you. And we most justly say of you, sleepers, sleepers. So you're accusing us of being too enthusiastic. We're accusing you of being dead. Believe it was Brother Andrew who said it's easier to cool down a fanatic than to warm up a corpse.

And again my question, which would you prefer, the quiet of the cemetery or the noise of the maternity ward? Even when you look in the prophetic books like Jeremiah 1, God uproots first before he builds implants. Sometimes he has to shake down that which is wrong, reveal our sin, reveal our corruption, reveal our pride, reveal our carnality, reveal our compromise, reveal the things that are wrong in our own lives, our wrong beliefs, our wrong foundations. He's got to shake that up and reveal it and then rebuild based on scripture. And how do you test whether something is really of God? Jonathan Edwards laid this out.

I've followed suit with a slightly simpler statement. But this, if as a result of something that claims to be a move of God, the Jesus of the Bible is mightily glorified and people are drawn to him. The authority of scripture is magnified and people are drawn to the word.

People turn away from sin to holiness and there is now a burden to reach the lost. If this is the clear, overwhelming fruit that is produced in something that claims to be a move of God, then it is a move of God. Satan will not produce it.

The flesh cannot produce it. That is the work of the Spirit. I urge you, friends, when God's moving in power, look past the things that surprise you or seem a little different and look at the word and look at the Spirit and look at the fruit.

We'll be right back. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire. It's really instructive to read Mark, the fifth chapter, where Jesus drives out demons from the man terribly possessed in the Gadarenes, who says his name is Legion, the demon speaking through him. About 2,000 pigs, then, into whom the demons are driven, run off in embankment into the water and die, and the people, when they hear what happened, they see the man clothed in his right mind. They hear the whole report and they beg Jesus to leave. I don't think it's only because of the upheaval and the shock and the pigs and all of that. I think it's also because they saw how radically Jesus could change someone and seeing this guy who was out of his mind, now clothed in his right mind, that was unnerving for them.

That was more than they could handle. Jesus, please leave. Friends, that's the way a lot of us are when it comes to the gospel.

You can only go so far, Lord. Not that area. No, not that relationship. No, not that habit. No, not this decision. No, not uh-uh. No, not that goal. No.

That's going too far. Well, friend, if that's the case, then Jesus is not functionally your Lord. He said, Many will say to me on that day, Have we not done this, that, all these miracles? And he said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Only those who do, the will of my Father. 866-34-TRUTH. Let us go to the phones.

We'll start with Samuel in Crestview, Florida. Welcome to the line of fire. Welcome. Thank you, Dr. Brown, for having me.

It's a pleasure to listen to you. I've been reading the Bible for a little bit now, and I haven't made it to the New Testament, but my church just had a split over, I believe, whether gays did marry or be pastors of the Methodist Church. And it made me feel kind of funny, like maybe I'm on the wrong side of history here. I felt like, I feel like that's not welcoming. And it seems like scripture would say that homosexuality is wrong.

But I wanted to ask you, if they do find a gene for it, if they do find it's a natural variation across species that might even have a purpose for the greater good, is the argument going to still hold up to say, Don't identify as gay? So I just want to ask you if you could deal with those issues to help sort them out. Yes, sir. All right.

Sounds good, Samuel. OK, first, I'd encourage you, if you're able to get my book, Can You Be Gay and Christian? Can you be gay and Christian? You'll find it super, super helpful.

Can you be gay and Christian? Also something you can watch for free online in his image dot movie. In his image dot movie. I highly recommend it. You can watch it for free. If you don't even want to give your email address, which it's asked for, then just look it up on YouTube. It's free there as well.

In his image dot movie. I think you'll find it super helpful. OK, number one, the Bible is 100 percent clear that God made men for women and women for men, that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, that that was God's ideal and plan that it was to be a lifelong union, that only a man can be joined to a woman and a woman can be joined to a man. So to speak of same sex, quote, marriage, even though it's been legalized by the Supreme Court is a complete misnomer. It is not marriage. When I when I go through the ABCs, that is not math. That's the alphabet. When I say two plus two is four. That's not spelling.

That's math. And the same way man plus man or woman plus woman, according to the Bible, is not marriage, is not a couple. The Bible presupposes only heterosexual marriage from honor your father and mother to husbands, love your wives and wives, submit your husbands. That's the only thing that God planned for marriage.

It's number one. Number two, every reference to homosexual practice in the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament. It's not mentioned a lot because it was you didn't need to because the only norm was heterosexual. But when it is mentioned, it is categorically condemned. It is sinful. It is wrong in God's sight.

Doesn't matter how loving, doesn't matter how committed, doesn't doesn't matter how long term. It's always sinful and wrong in God's sight. Number three is that the human race is a fallen race, according to the Bible. And Jesus said we must be born again. Every human being is fundamentally flawed. Every human being is is fundamentally flawed from birth.

And we need transformation from the inside out. Now, there is no scientific evidence to this day that there's any such thing as a gay gene. The very best that you can say from nature is that some people might be more predisposed to go in a certain direction than someone else. But predisposition is not predestination.

Correlation is not causation. There is no scientific evidence that anyone is, quote, born gay. But even if someone was, that would be no different from other things that may be genetic. There is a scientific argument that there may be such a thing as an obesity gene or there may be such a thing as a violent gene or ruthless gene. I read a study some years ago that there could be an adulterous gene. Some are now claiming more and more commonly that pedophilia, that pedophilic desires are inborn and you can't change them. Well, did we therefore justify pedophilia or say, hey, it's OK if you have these feelings?

Obviously not. And if some guy in a bar beats up a gay guy and gay guy says, hey, I didn't do anything. I was born this way. And the other guy says, I was born this way, too.

I've always been violent and hateful. I mean, the behavior must be judged for what it is. So one, marriage ordained by God is one man, one woman. It is never same sex. Two, homosexual practice is constantly forbidden, spoken against when it is any time it is referenced categorically and clearly. There is not one single positive example of a homosexual relationship every time it's mentioned.

It's mentioned in the strongest negative terms. And those who practice it, live by it, will not enter the kingdom of God. And thirdly, even if someone said, I was born this way, they may feel as if they were. Because obviously they didn't have sexual feelings when they were six months old or a year or two or three.

So as far back as they can remember, they felt different. Even if that was the case, Jesus says, you must be born again. And he says to all of us, you must deny yourself, take up the cross. The loving thing we can do is accept people right where they are. Accept people in their brokenness, in their sin, like everyone else, whoever we are. If you're coming to the Lord as a religious hypocrite or coming to the Lord as a drug addict or whoever you are, or as a Buddhist or an atheist, we come as we are. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin as we cry out to God to have mercy on us and give us new life. And from there on, we now live under the Lordship of Jesus. And that's going to require denial of self for every single one of us. But I know so many ex-gays, I know so many have come out of homosexuality. And the new life they have in Jesus is wonderful. Don't deprive people of new life. And be sure that the church you're a part of does not accept same-sex, so-called marriage.

It is unbiblical and it's not the church you want to be in. All right, let's go over to Jerikiah in Killian, Texas. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hello, Michael Brown. Hey. Hey, I got a question for you. So I've been really struggling with this.

I don't know if you can help me out. I've been really, really struggling with the difference between Calvinism and charismatic. I've been, basically I was brought up in a charismatic church. And I've been studying a lot of Calvinism and I have a lot of Calvinistic friends. And I watched your debate with Dr. James White and stuff like that. And I was trying to find more content.

And I wanted to ask you that, too, if you could give me any material. But what would be your strongest reputation of Calvinism and why you left Calvinism? First thing, you can be a Calvinist and a charismatic at the same time. In other words, Calvinism does not require cessationism. It's the vast majority of Calvinists are cessationists. But there are others like John Piper and Wayne Grudem and Donald Carson that are Calvinists and that are charismatics at the same time. The conflict is between Calvinism and Arminianism. But Calvinism in itself does not require cessationism. Now, to me, the fact that the vast majority of Calvinists are cessationists is an indication of something being wrong. But there are Calvinists who are charismatics at the same time. Second, as far as substance, do you have my book, Authentic Fire?

No, no, no, sir, I do not. That's when you need to get that's when I replied to John MacArthur's book, Strange Fire. But in that book, there's a chapter called Sola Scriptura and therefore charismatic because the scriptures are alone or my guide of faith and life and truth. Therefore, I'm charismatic.

So that book, Authentic Fire, will really help you. The reason ultimately that I left Calvinism after five years as a staunch and zealous Calvinist, the main reason that I left was that it was clear to me. And again, I'm not criticizing my Calvinist friends who came to very opposite conclusions. I'm not saying they're not spiritual or they don't love the Lord.

I'm not saying that at all. I'm simply speaking from from my perspective, as honestly as I can, that the whole the whole of the Bible is saying choose, choose, choose, choose, choose from from Genesis to Revelation. Literally, I mean, right to the end of Revelation, whoever whoever wants to let him come.

So that's given throughout. And everything in the Bible tells me it's a genuine offer and that by the Spirit, everyone has the power to respond and that if we do respond positively, God is pleased. And if we don't respond positively, God is grieved.

That's because he did not preordain our response. And that offer is 100 percent genuine that if I was a Calvinist and if I told someone. Repent, turn to the Lord, put your trust in Jesus to save you and forgive you of your sins and God will receive you. Well, it's actually not true because Jesus didn't die for that person if they're not elect from a Calvinist. And and not only so, they don't even have the power to repent if they wanted to, because God hasn't granted it to them. So even though I might say theoretically, if Jesus had died for them, then they would have been preordained to salvation. The fact is, those words that offer to them is not true. And I'm asking to them to believe in something that's not true because Jesus didn't die for them if they're not the elect and they couldn't repent if they wanted to. It would be like me telling a man crippled from birth to get up and walk and then saying, OK, I'm damning you because you can't walk. So just fundamental issues I have.

Again, my Calvinist friends have their responses, but just very fundamentally, it's against the nature of God, as I see presented in scripture. It's The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire, 866-34-TRUTH. Before I go back to the phones, one more point about revival. Something that we often saw happen in Brownsville is that parents would be coming to the church visiting. Maybe they were in other local churches.

So they were, you know, lifelong Christians or long term Christians and known as Christians and things like that. And they were concerned about their teenage kids sleeping around and doing drugs or in gangs or just whatever. And they would they would come in and we had like this big fishbowl up in the front where people would put pictures of of loved ones who's just always, you know, piled in. And before the service, people would gather around and pray for God to work and save those people and have mercy.

And so we had this happen where the kids would start visiting the services. Maybe they live locally also and parents would bring them or they just show up on their own and they get radically touched. I mean, they get saved. They would get born again and they would be changed and they would be on fire for Jesus. And maybe they go home after revival service, get home around 1230, something like that, one in the morning. And they see mom and dad at home watching a movie, maybe some unclean sex scenes and bad language. You're like, mom, dad, I thought you're Christians.

Why are you watching this? I mean, you're praying for me. You want me to get saved? And they're like, we didn't want to get this saved. We just wanted you out of trouble.

We didn't want you doing drugs anymore and, you know, sleeping around and all that stuff. But we don't want you to become a religious fanatic. A youth pastor during those days in Nebraska told me that he ran into this problem in his own youth group, his own church, that parents would say, hey, my kids aren't saved. Could you reach out to them? And so he'd go to the local high school and, hey, can I hang out with you during lunch? And sure, get to know them and then lead these kids to the Lord. And they got really, really serious for Jesus. Like, hey, I want to go on the mission field.

I want to give my life for the gospel. And the parents would come to him and say, well, we didn't ask for this. We just didn't want him messing around the way he was. But, you know, we didn't ask for him to become like this.

We wanted to go to college and get this degree and become an engineer and have a nice home in the suburbs. We don't want him on the mission field. He goes, what do I do? I said, tell the parents next time.

Say, OK, before I talk to your kid, understand. Understand that that it could be very radical that that don't ask me to talk to them unless you're willing for them to really follow Jesus. It's the same with us. Oh, God, come and visit us, you know, because we know things aren't right. And people aren't getting saved in our community and our building's half empty or it's full, but God's not really moving. And, oh, God, move. And then he starts to move. It's like, whoa, we didn't want that. That's a little more than we asked for.

Sorry, friends. When God comes, it's his habit. He fills the place. He takes over. He is Lord.

And revival means Jesus coming to his centrality as Lord in our lives. All right. Back to the phones.

Let's go to William in Wilmington, Delaware. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi.

Good afternoon. My question is. I'm not a Calvinist, but I do know they use this.

But it's also my personal question. When they spoke in tongues, they heard people. People heard them in their own native human language. When we speak in tongues, we don't speak in those languages. We speak angelic tongues. Why is that?

Why we don't. Yes. So that that happened right there at Pentecost as a sign because you had people with multiple languages from around the world. Right. So let's just say in our own assembly that that you've got all English speakers and someone is speaking in French or German or Italian.

You're not you're going to understand it. It's going to it could just as well be a heavenly tongue. That was a sign the first time around. But the pattern of tongues that was common for all believers was not that it was not a foreign language. Paul talks about it in First Corinthians 14. And he says, when you speak in a tongue, no one understands you. You speak mysteries in the spirit to God and you edify yourself and that the one that can understand it has the gift of interpretation. They also have a spiritual gift. So that was just a one time event at the Book of Acts, the second chapter.

It's not an ongoing pattern. It doesn't say that there were foreign languages in the 10th chapter when tongues are mentioned. It doesn't say there were foreign languages in the 19th chapter when tongues were mentioned.

And again, when you're praying by yourself at home. Why would it would it matter to you? Like if I was praying in Chinese or Japanese or Spanish or Hungarian or I don't understand those languages. Right.

It would be all the same to me. I'm speaking something I don't understand. But read First Corinthians 14, William. That's the pattern, that it's a language that no one understands, that we speak mysteries in the spirit to God, that it is a unique language. And, you know, what's what's interesting is I've traveled around the world and heard people speak in tongues in all different settings.

I mean, jungle settings in India and outlying places in Africa and and, you know, all these other parts of the world and Europe and so on. That the tongues always sound similar, interestingly enough. And I don't mean blah, blah, blah.

I mean, articulate words. And and sometimes if I'm in a new country and I'm and I'm hearing tongues and then their language. OK, which was tongues? Because it was it was clearly the language that I think that was tongues and that was the native language. But they're both clear languages. So read First Corinthians 14.

That's the pattern. Acts two was a one time event as a special sign because of the people there from all around the world. There are times, by the way, to this day, I know people to whom this has happened where they've spoken a foreign language or understood a foreign language. But that's not the the norm of tongues. First Corinthians 14 lays it out clearly. All right.

Let's go to Alex in Buffalo, New York. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello. I had a question about Romans eight. So some translations like the amplified and like the living translation say Romans eight one. There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Period. Others say that live by the spirit, not after the flesh. So I got to get confused.

Like, is it work? Like, I'm trying to live holy, but like. Yeah.

Am I condemned if I do something wrong? You know. Got it.

All right. So, Alex, first, that's a difference between different Greek textual traditions that the King James, New King James and other versions follow one particular. You know, we have thousands and thousands of Greek manuscripts and you have basically two different traditions.

One has some of these extra phrases and the other doesn't. So a translation like the NIV or the ESV or others that that won't add the words who don't walk after the flesh, but after the spirit, the King James and others will have those words. But either way, it's the same truth, because Paul makes clear in the chapter, Alex, that to to be truly in Christ means that we don't live after the flesh, but after the spirit.

But but here's here's the thing that's important to understand. It's not a matter of works. In other words, it's not a matter of, OK, I had a really good day. So I'm in Christ today because I had a really good day.

I didn't download porn. I didn't lose my temper. And I prayed for a half hour.

I had a good day. So I was in Christ today. And the next day, I didn't pray at all. I lost my temper at my job and I got discouraged when I got home.

And I looked at porn for a few minutes. I wasn't in Christ. No, being in Christ is a result of our salvation, of forgiveness, of of coming from death into life. And unless I make a determination that I will deny Jesus and walk away from him and no longer want him as Lord, so I cast him out and deny him, unless I make that that decision, then I am in Christ, which means that every day the Holy Spirit is leading me to say no to sin and yes to God. And that as a true believer, that ultimately I will live for God. So it's not I had a good day versus a bad day, but the pattern of my life will be a life wanting to do the will of God. Even if I'm stumbling and falling, the proof of the new birth is that I hate my sin. The proof of the new birth is that I come back to God for cleansing as opposed to just going on in my sin and boasting about it.

The fact is that that I don't want to live like that. I want to live a new life in God. What I would encourage you to do is is meditate on Romans six, seven and eight.

Keep going through it. Romans six, laying out the victory that we have. We've died to sin.

We no longer live in it. We've died to sin. We've risen a new life in Jesus. Therefore, I consider myself dead to sin, alive to God. Romans seven, I now live a new life by the spirit. But if I go back under living under the law and just trying with human effort, then it's going to be futile. The things I want to do, I can't do things I hate. I do.

What's the solution? Life in the spirit. Life in the spirit. God, show me.

Show my brother. Show us the power of living in your spirit. Show us the the power of your grace at work in us, that we are new creations and not who we used to be. Hey, Alex, may the grace of the Lord be yours. God bless you.

Appreciate it. And if you wanted to read something that really gets into this, my book, Go and Sin No More, I think you'll find helpful. I've got whole chapters on no condemnation.

And it's all grace. Go and sin no more. You can get that. You'll find it really helpful. Read a lot of scripture, a lot of practical application as well. So that may be a blessing to you in your own life. Go and sin no more.

A call to holiness. All right. We are out of time and have a special broadcast tomorrow. God willing, with Chris Broussard talking about some important and controversial issues. Also, do you get my emails? If not, please sign up today. You don't want to miss out on the great material, great information we send your way. Go to AskDrBrown.org. A-S-K-D-R Brown dot org. Sign up for the email so we can be in regular contact with you. Back with you tomorrow.