All right, we're in first Corinthians chapter number 12.
And the first Corinthians is the book that we've been studying on Thursdays, pastor Anderson
was here on this Thursday.
So I decided to go into first Corinthians chapter 12 this Sunday, and a lot of interesting
stuff in this chapter right here.
And a lot of things that people misunderstand and misinterpret a lot of false religions
use this particular chapter to prove their false doctrine of healings, miracles, and
even speaking in tongues.
We'll start in verse number seven, it says, But the manifestation of the Spirit is given
to every man to profit with all, for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom,
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles,
to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues,
to another the interpretation of tongues.
But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally
as he will.
And the title of the sermon this morning is healings, miracles, and discerning of spirits,
healings, miracles, and discerning of spirits.
Now look at verse number one, it says here, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren,
I would not have you ignorant.
So he starts off the chapter and says this, look, I don't want you guys to be ignorant
in regards to the subject, okay?
When it comes to healings, miracles, tongues, discerning of spirits, words of wisdom, words
of knowledge, I don't want you to be ignorant of these things.
Now isn't that the opposite of what we see today?
Don't we see a lot of churches and Christians that are just ignorant of what the Bible says
in regards to these things?
You know, you'll get people who supposedly believe the right gospel, but they even, they'll
say that yeah, tongues still exist.
And the tongues that they're referring to is the tongue flapping weirdos that we see
in the Pentecostal movement.
You know, this challah shalaballah and the six pack dollar type thing, okay?
That's a bunch of nonsense.
And you'll take them to verses, clear scriptures in the Bible that teaches us that tongues
means what?
Languages, okay?
Tongues simply means a different language and that can be proven up and down.
We're going to look at that tonight.
What specifically the Bible is referring to when it talks about tongues, but there is
a lot of people who are just ignorant about this and Paul the apostle, specifically the
Lord does not want us to be ignorant.
You know, he doesn't want us to come across some charismatic Pentecostal and stump us,
right?
What about this?
You know, first Corinthians chapter 12, you know, and he's like, oh no, that's true.
I got to look up a sermon or something, you know, no, don't be ignorant about this.
You know, you ought to know what the Bible says about these things and not be afraid
when someone approaches you regarding this doctrine.
Now, as I mentioned, it's mainly this charismatic Pentecostal type churches who want to hold
to these false doctrines that they believe that there's like modern day apostles, you
know, modern day prophets and these people who like to make merchandise off of the flock
of God.
Okay.
There's a lot of charismatic movements like this, not just the Pentecostals.
One of them in particular is a religion called La Luz del Mundo or LLVM, which they literally
have a modern day so-called apostle.
Now their religion has like a succession of different apostles that goes from father to
son to grandson and it just keeps going.
Now all of those guys are false prophets.
Well, don't judge, no, I'm judging them, spiritual judges of all things, okay.
And this is how we judge.
They are false apostles because number one, they're teaching a false gospel.
That's primarily the reason why.
Number two, they fit the bill of second Peter chapter two perfectly.
They want to make merchandise of people, they're pedophiles, they have eyes full of adultery
that cannot cease from sin.
You say, well, you're just accusing them.
No, look it up.
It's proven facts that these people who are false apostles are involved in these wicked
acts.
They're the same ones who say, you know, hey, tongues exist.
You know, as far as like the heavenly language is what they like to call it and healings
exist, miracles exist.
Now, let me say this.
I believe that healings, miracles and tongues exist, but I don't believe it's manifested
in the same way that it existed back then.
Okay, and I'll explain to you what I mean in just a bit.
Look at verse number three.
Let's get some context here.
It says here, wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God
calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost.
Now these are our diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord, and there are diversities
of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
Now, you say, what is verse three and four have to do with verse five and six?
Well, what it's basically saying there is that the Spirit will always say the same thing.
Okay.
So the Spirit will not say that Jesus is accursed and then at the same time call him Lord.
No, the Spirit will say the same exact thing.
Why?
Because he bears witness of the truth.
Okay.
So there is no diversity or difference of messages that we get from the Holy Spirit.
You know, have you ever heard someone say this?
Well, that's what the Spirit is speaking to you about, but he's speaking to me about something
different.
You know, that's false.
That's not how it works.
The Spirit says the same thing to every single person.
Why is that?
The Bible tells us that there's no prophecy of the scripture given of any private interpretation,
but holy men of God spake as they're removed by the Holy Ghost.
And the Holy Spirit will always say the same thing to every single person using the Word
of God.
Now, contrast that to verse four, five and six, it says, now there are diversities of
gifts.
You know, there are different abilities that people have, but what?
But the same Spirit.
Right?
There are differences of administration.
There are diversities of operations, but it's the same Lord, it's the same God.
Now what does he mean by differences of administration or diversities of operation?
Well, every church operates differently.
Okay.
And we can't expect every single church to be in lockstep with our church or with faithful
word or with Verity or anybody like that.
Look, if they have the same doctrine, they're preaching the same gospel, they have the same
doctrines, then guess what?
There's nothing wrong if they have a different administration, a different operation of doing
things.
You know, they might run a soul winning program a little differently than we do.
Okay.
So we have our order of service a little different than we do, but you know what?
It's the same Spirit, same Lord, same God.
And that's what he's saying there in verses five, excuse me, verses three through six
there.
Now, he gets into the abilities and the gifts in verse number seven, look at verse seven
says, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all.
So it's telling us that these gifts are a manifestation of the Spirit.
Okay.
This is very similar to what we see in Galatians chapter five, which are the what?
The fruits of the Spirit.
When we walk in the Spirit, we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh and what happens?
The Spirit begins to manifest those fruits in our personal lives, like love and faith,
meekness, temperance, so on and so forth.
Now I find this interesting because it says there, the manifestation of the Spirit is
given to every man to profit with all.
So what's the purpose of these gifts?
What is the purpose of these abilities?
It's to profit people.
It's to profit us.
It's to profit the church.
But you know what?
A lot of people want to use these so-called gifts to basically puff themselves up to glorify
themselves that they can speak in tongues and they can, you know, have this weird conversation
with God, with this angelic language and what do they do?
They want people to look at them and be in awe of how spiritual they are, you know?
No, the Bible says it's supposed to profit people.
And look, let me say this is the interesting thing.
You go to these charismatic churches, which I don't recommend that you ever do, but you
look them up on YouTube, for example.
Okay.
The spiritual gift that they emphasize the most is like speaking in tongues.
Right?
And in fact, they determine your level of spirituality based on your ability to speak
in tongues.
Now, I got a funny story to tell you with this, okay?
We're going to veer off the Bible just a little bit.
I'm going to tell you the story.
So in my old church, there was a guy, you know, he got saved at our old church and,
you know, he got into the Bible and he tells this story how before he was saved, he went
to this Pentecostal charismatic church.
And he was just like, man, they're all like speaking in tongues and just doing that.
And then they call him and they're like, come on, you're going to speak in tongues.
And he's like, I don't know how to speak in tongues.
Like, no, no, where are you willed?
Spirit willed, you know, manifest and all this stuff.
And he's like, I don't know how.
So he's like, I don't know what to do.
So he goes, I did the only thing I knew I could.
So he brought him up and he goes, you know what I did?
I did the Street Fighter sound.
He goes, I went up there and I said, the entire time.
He's like, I didn't know how to speak in tongues.
So I just did the Street Fighter sound, but you know what, that it's funny, but it's true.
You know, and by the way, there's as much doctrine in aratataktugam than there is in
what they say.
Okay.
It's basically the same amount of doctrine that he was teaching right there.
So here's the interesting thing is, is that they emphasize tongues so much and they determine
your level of spirituality based on your ability to speak in tongues.
Whereas the Bible does not place that same emphasis on tongues.
In fact, the Bible tells us that the most important ability, the one that we ought to
covet the most is the ability to prophesy.
Now you say, what do you mean like tell the future?
No, prophesy in the Bible means to preach.
Preach the word of God.
That's the most important.
Look at first Corinthians chapter 14, hold your place there in first Corinthians 12 and
go to first Corinthians 14.
In verse number three, it says, but he that prophesyeth speaketh unto men to edification
and exhortation and comfort.
So it's telling us there that those who prophesy are those who are actually profiting people.
Why?
Because they're edifying, they're exhorting and they're comforting people.
Now out of these 11 abilities or spiritual gifts, four of them are no longer manifest
in the same manner that they were in the Bible.
I mentioned that.
Now look at verse number one of first Corinthians 14, it says, follow after charity and desire
spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.
So he's saying there, look, you ought to desire spiritual gifts, but you know what?
More than that, you should desire to be able to preach.
You say, well, I'm a lady.
I'm not allowed to preach behind a pole, but you could preach the gospel.
You know, you ought to desire to be a great soul and to be able to preach the gospel to
every creature.
Okay.
Look at verse two, for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue, speaketh not unto men,
but unto God.
For no man understandeth him, how being in the spirit, he speaketh mysteries.
Now someone would say, well, there you go, see, he's speaking them to God because it's
a heavenly language.
No.
In other words, it's saying, if no one understands the language you're speaking, there's only
one person who can.
Who's that?
It's God.
He's speaking them to God because he's the one who knows the language you're speaking.
No one knows what you're saying.
If I were to get up here, does anybody know Chinese?
Anybody know Chinese in here?
Okay.
If I got up here and I just started like preaching the word of God in Mandarin, that would not
profit you at all.
You don't want to call you and be like, wow, brother Bruce really knows Chinese, I guess.
He knows more than combo A and combo B. He can, he can do a lot, but would it edify you?
No.
Would it, would it teach you doctrine?
No.
Okay.
Look at the Bible says in verse three, but he that prophesied speaketh unto men to edification,
to exhortation and comfort.
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifyeth himself, but he that prophesied edifyeth the
church.
I would that you all speak with tongues, but rather that he prophesied for greater is he
that prophesied, then he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpreted that the church
may receive edifying.
He said, look, if you were to take tongues and preaching, God says preaching is way better.
Preaching saves people, preaching edifies them.
Preaching is profitable.
Okay.
Whereas tongues, you know, it's only profitable if you know what I'm saying in that language.
Okay.
Now look at first Corinthians chapter number 12 and verse 28 says here, and God has sent
some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles,
then gifts of healing, helps governments, diversities of tongues.
By the way, what's a help?
It's a servant.
You know, some people in the church do have a desire just to serve.
They don't want to, they don't even want to be in the limelight.
They don't want to be in the spotlight.
Sometimes they just want to serve the Lord behind closed doors, behind the scenes.
They don't even need the credit.
They just enjoy doing the menial tasks that's needed in the church.
Okay.
The helps.
People who are servants, people who are rulers, people who are able to organize an event,
people who are able to organize things in the church.
This is important.
Okay.
Verse 29, are all apostles or all prophets or all teachers or all workers of miracles
have all the gifts of healing?
Do all speak with tongues?
Do all interpret, but covet earnestly the best gifts and yet show I unto you a more
excellent way.
Now the Bible tells us that we ought to covet to prophesy.
Okay.
And forbid not to speak with tongues.
So tongues is not bad.
Being able to speak Spanish is not bad.
Being able to speak, you know, just different languages to preach the gospel in different
languages, there's nothing wrong with that, but we ought to covet the best gift, which
is the ability to preach and to prophesy.
Okay.
And in fact, even Moses, you think about Moses when Joshua, I think it was Joshua or Caleb
that came to him, they're like, Hey, there's people prophesying outside of the camp.
And he's like, I wish that all God's people would prophesy.
And the spirit of God were upon them.
I wish that everyone would get the gall and the boldness to open their mouth boldly to
make known the mysteries of the gospel.
I wish everyone, every Christian, say person would preach the gospel.
Okay.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Now, here's the interesting thing about this matter of prophesying.
Okay.
Because again, these charismatics, they like to uplift the people who are able to speak
in tongues.
These people were able to do miracles.
Well, guess what?
You know what Jesus said, who Jesus said was the greatest man to ever be born of a woman?
John the Baptist.
And you know what the Bible says in John chapter 10, in regards to John the Baptist, he did
no miracle.
He did no, he didn't multiply any fish.
He didn't raise anybody from the dead.
He didn't speak in tongues.
He didn't heal anybody.
He didn't do some great miracle exploit action or anything like that.
What did he do?
All he did was preach the word of God and what did Jesus say of him?
He's the greatest, but he did no miracle.
So don't think you're like a second class citizen because you're not able to do miracles
or heal people.
No, you know what, if you're able to preach, you're greater than these false prophets.
You'll do more work, more for God through preaching than anything else.
Now go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
Let's look at the first two mentioned, these abilities mentioned here in verse number eight.
Now let me just say this, is that I don't believe even these first two right here are
even gifts.
I believe they're abilities, but I believe they're abilities that can be attained, that
you can grow into, that you can learn.
Look at verse eight, for to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom, to another
the word of knowledge by the same spirit.
Now I've heard people say this where they're like, well, I have the gift of the word of
wisdom.
Okay.
You know, I used to know a guy, he would like encourage me or whatever, you know, he would
say something, encourage you.
I'm like, hey brother, thank you so much for that.
He's like, well, I have the gift of the word of wisdom, that's why.
God's given you that gift.
And it's just like, you're so prideful.
Like, are you serious?
That's your gift to be able to just say like a wide, like God just miraculously, without
you studying, without you praying, just by osmosis gave you the ability to just spew
wisdom out of your mouth.
You know?
Yeah, that happened to Solomon, but you know what?
He had to write the Bible.
You know, he had to write the book of Proverbs, okay.
And he asked for it.
And the Bible tells us in James that we have to ask for it, right?
Now let me go through some verses here.
Go with me to Proverbs chapter four, I'll read to you from Exodus chapter 31 and verse
number three where the Bible says, And I have filled him with the Spirit of God in
wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship.
Chapter 36 verse one says, Then brought Bezalel and Aholyah and every wise hearted man, in
whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for
the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord had commanded.
So throughout the Bible, we see that God does endow men with wisdom and understanding to
do what?
Work, to work more efficiently, to get things done, to work smarter, not necessarily harder.
You know, working hard is good, but you know what, working smarter is better.
Why is that?
Because then you can be more efficient, you have more time to do more work.
But you need wisdom for that, okay.
Now, let me read to you one more scripture and we'll read from Proverbs four, Isaiah
50 verse four, you don't have to turn there says, The Lord God had given me the tongue
of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned.
Proverbs four, seven says, Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom, and with all
thy getting, get understanding.
So the Bible is commanding us to get wisdom, it's not saying don't worry, you already have
wisdom.
You already have, unless you have that spiritual gift of wisdom, you know, no, it says you
need to get it.
And look, wisdom according to the Bible is greater than rubies, all the gold and silver
doesn't even match up to the wisdom of God.
So do you think God's just going to hand it out to you just without you doing anything?
No, you have to work for it.
You have to do something to get wisdom.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs two verse six, for the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth
cometh knowledge and understanding.
What is that referring to?
The Bible, because out of his mouth is referring to the words that are coming out of his mouth.
Well, the word of God, that's how we get wisdom.
You want to grow wisdom?
Get the Bible over and over and over again.
You want to avoid failures and sin and destruction and misery in your life?
You get into the Bible.
That's how you can get wisdom.
You want to avoid being a fool in your life?
Then get wisdom, get into the Bible, learn it, learn the concepts and precepts.
That's how you can gain wisdom.
Now go to James chapter number one.
The Bible tells us that we gain wisdom from the Bible, but we also get it from experience,
don't we?
You know what creates wisdom is when we make a mistake and then we learn from that mistake.
When you make a mistake, don't do it again.
When you make a mistake, learn from it.
Life gives you wisdom.
There's certain wisdom that we can only get with years of experience.
By doing stupid stuff and saying stupid things and doing it the wrong way, we learn from
our mistakes and we gain wisdom from that.
But look what the Bible also says in James chapter one in verse number five.
It says there, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men
liberally.
That means generously and abraighteth not and it shall be given him, but let him ask
in faith, nothing wavering for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the
wind and tossed for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
So the Bible tells us if you're lacking wisdom in regards to a certain situation, pray.
If you don't think God can give you that wisdom, then don't even bother asking because
he's not going to give it to you.
But you know what God says?
Let him ask in faith.
Lord, give me the wisdom.
He doesn't abrade you.
What does that mean?
You know, you ever have someone just ask you for something over and over again, you're
just like, all right, stop asking me, you're not going to get it.
You know, my son does that every once in a while, you know, that's what it means to abrade
someone.
God says here, he won't abrade us if we keep asking for wisdom.
He's not going to be like, hey, Chris, stop asking me.
All right.
I've heard it.
I heard you the first time.
Right?
No.
He'll say, keep asking.
I'll give to you generously, liberally, all the wisdom that you need.
You don't need the gift of wisdom.
Okay.
And by the way, if you're just given wisdom, you wouldn't appreciate it.
You know what makes you appreciate the wisdom that God gives is the fact that you're working
for it.
You're reading the Bible, you're learning from your mistakes, you're praying for it.
There's a great satisfaction in praying for something and getting an answer to prayer.
It's like, wow, that increased my faith.
Amen.
Now go to Ephesians chapter number three.
So that debunks the whole, you know, gift of wisdom that people like to say that they
have.
And most of these people, they're just, no, they don't have the gift of wisdom, they have
the gift of pride.
Yeah.
A bunch of prideful people that just want to, you know, bond themselves and make themselves
out to be these spiritual giants.
Now how do you get knowledge?
The Bible says to grow in grace and in the knowledge.
There is no gift of knowledge where God just miraculously by osmosis gives you knowledge.
No, you have to get knowledge.
You have to learn things, not just the Bible, but from different books.
Okay.
Different subjects to help you to increase in wisdom and in knowledge.
But look at Ephesians chapter three and verse two says, if you have heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God, which has given me to your word, how that by revelation, he may
know unto me the mystery as I wrote a four and few words whereby when you what, read,
you may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ.
So how do you understand wisdom, revelation and knowledge by reading?
You know, that's why when you read the Bible and you come across something you don't understand,
keep reading, you know, and you go, I've read the Bible so many times, how many?
Two.
So how do you expect to know anything in the Bible?
You know, reading the Bible is a lifelong commitment of reading it day in and day out
and just understanding precept by precept, here a little, there a little, and giving
you understanding.
But how do you get understanding?
By reading the Bible.
Okay.
It doesn't say you get, you get understanding by watching YouTube clips all day.
That helps and praise the Lord for that.
But you know what?
God has commanded us to read the Bible.
Oh yeah, but my reading is not too good.
Then keep reading so you can get better.
You know, it's not a marathon.
It's not a sprint.
It's a marathon.
Read, read out loud, do what you can to increase your reading ability so you can learn the
Word of God.
Okay, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9.
So these people, you know, I got the Word of Wisdom gift and the Word of Knowledge gift.
No, you don't.
Okay, you need to work for those things.
You know, the Bible says to study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that
means not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
That's a commandment that God gives us to increase in knowledge.
1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9 says, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another
the gifts of healing by the same Spirit.
Now I do believe, obviously I believe that everyone has faith, okay.
You know, obviously sometimes you're running, you'll go to someone and you run into people
like, I just don't, I can't believe, you know, I just don't have a faith.
You know, I'll often tell that person, you do have faith.
And I said, by the end of this illustration, you will believe me that you have faith.
I said, have you ever been in an airplane before?
They're like, yeah.
Did you ever meet the pilot?
No.
So you trusted that guy to get you from California to New York and you never met that?
You don't even know his credentials?
Did you even think about the pilot?
They're like, no, I didn't.
That goes to show you, you have faith.
You exercise faith all the time.
When you go drive your car, do you know all the 50 drivers that are on the road with you?
You know how good they are?
Do you know if they're drunk or not?
No, but you exercise faith saying, well, you know, these guys must know what they're doing.
In fact, you exercise faith without even knowing it.
No one thinks about those things when they go on the road and when they fly on an airplane.
I said, do you understand now that you have faith?
And they're like, yeah, that's true.
I got faith.
I said, now, I said, some people have more faith than others.
Okay.
But God does not require you to put a large amount of faith, to have a large amount of
faith to believe on him.
You just got to place whatever faith you have in him for salvation.
Okay.
But everyone does have a measure of faith.
And in fact, in Romans chapter 12, you don't have to turn to verse three, it says, for
I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think
of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has
dealt to every man, the measure of faith.
Now go to first Corinthians chapter number 10.
So God has dealt with us a measure of faith.
Everyone has a certain amount of faith.
Okay.
He said, well, that's the problem.
You know, some people just, God's gifted them with more faith, but here's the thing.
God has not limited your little faith.
Okay.
So you may have a little bit of faith, but you don't have to stay having a little bit
of faith.
Okay.
Look what first Corinthians 10, 15 says, not boasting of things without our measure that
is of other men's labors, but having hope when your faith is increased, that we shall
be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly.
So the Bible tells us we can increase our faith.
So if you're just always doubting, you doubt God, you doubt all these things, you doubt
his provisions, you know what?
You can increase your faith.
All right.
You say, well, how do I increase my faith?
This is how you do it.
I'm going to give you the key to increasing your faith in God.
Okay.
This is how you do it.
When you doubt God, just do what he tells you to do and then your faith will increase.
So obey God when you're in doubt and your faith will increase.
Why?
Because doubting, everyone has doubt.
It's what you do with that.
It's what your actions do.
Okay.
You know, if you doubt and then you decide not to do something because you're doubting,
okay, then you have doubt, you have no faith.
But if you doubt, but in spite of that doubt, you take action, guess what?
You just increased your faith.
Why?
Because God is true.
God will provide.
And so when you get at the end of that action and you see God provided, you're like, wow,
God can do it.
I just saw him do it.
And what does that do?
That increases your faith.
So we can, but it takes work on your end.
Not a spiritual gift of faith, no, it takes you stepping out in faith and doing that what
you believe is pleasing unto the Lord according to the Bible.
The Bible says that we go from faith to faith, as Pastor Anderson mentioned on Thursday.
Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse number nine says, to another faith by the
same spirit.
Now here's where we're getting to the crux of the message.
To another the gifts of healing by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles,
to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues,
to another the interpretation of tongues.
Now I'm going to couple healings with miracles together, because they're almost one and the
same thing.
You know, obviously healings is when you're healing someone of a sickness, a miracle could
include multiplying fish, something that is extraordinary, an event that is extraordinary
that takes supernatural intervention, that's what a miracle is, which healing, that's what
that is as well.
So I'm going to couple those together.
Now healings is a, modern day healing is a false doctrine.
And you study any, you look up any YouTube clip of any charismatic church.
First of all, if you want a good laugh, go ahead and watch one, go ahead and pop in Benny
Hinn and you'll see how funny that is to see these people doing these things.
I remember when I was like 12 or 13, I have an aunt who's charismatic, she's a Pentecostal,
hardcore.
And she brought me to one of these Pentecostal churches.
And I remember like they were casting out devils and stuff and people like falling to
the floor and just like sizzling bacon.
And it's just like, this is crazy.
And my aunt told me, she's like, you should go up there.
I'm like, for what?
And they're like, you know, to see if you have a demon or something.
I'm thinking to myself, I don't need them to tell me I got a demon, you know?
So I go up there, you know, so they can pray over me or whatever.
And you know, they're putting their hands on the forehead kind of thing, right?
And they're just like, you know, they're speaking in tongues.
I couldn't even understand what they were saying.
And then, and then all of a sudden you begin to like feel pressure on the head, you know,
and he's just like pushing me back.
And he literally leans against me and says, you're supposed to fall.
Exactly.
I was like, well, I don't want to fall, you know, he was like, okay, you can go sit down
or whatever.
I was like, what?
You know, that's, but these are, you said, what do you call these people?
charlatans is what they're called.
Okay.
These people, these false teachers and prophets who, by the way, I'm not saying these things
don't exist, that Satan doesn't empower certain people because you see even in end times,
the false prophet will be doing stuff like that, where he's raining down fire and such.
But you know what?
I think stuff like that, as far as the, the, the, the real manifestations are only for
real life, false prophets and devils who actually, you know, embodying these people.
But as far as these other people, these are charlatans.
These are people who are trying to make merchandise off of people.
Okay.
So it was, I was, I was weirded out.
I remember thinking to myself, this is stupid.
I don't ever want to come back here again.
It was like, the service is like two hours long.
They had the tambourines and everyone just dances for like an hour and a half or whatever.
You learn nothing.
Okay.
So there are those who pray themselves as being modern day apostles and have these special
gifts.
You know, the faith healers, the televangelists, Benny Hinn, of course, is one of them.
All right.
Teal Osborn, Kenneth Copeland.
Now there's one that I recently just found out about that they said is the greatest faith
healer in the last 2000 years.
This guy trumps Benny Hinn.
Yeah.
He's the most famous in all the world.
In fact, he's so famous that Oprah like had to interview him and stuff and like, go talk
to him.
They call him the John of God.
How many have ever heard of the John of God?
Anyone ever heard of him?
Look him up on YouTube.
Okay.
The John of God.
Now he's from Brazil.
This guy's Brazilian.
He, he, he, he refers to himself.
Yeah.
I told him, I was like, I got to warn you.
You know, we got a guy over here.
He calls himself a spiritual medium.
Okay.
Now this guy claims to be able to heal people and he has this compound, you know, surprise
where all these people from all around the world come to him to be healed of their infirmities
and they all wear white.
He claims to be this, the spiritual medium doctor and all these things.
And then when they ask him, well, how do you, how do you heal people?
He goes, he said this, I evoke the 10 spirits of dead doctors, you know, to heal these people.
So he's like, I channeled the spirits of 30 dead doctors to heal these people.
You know?
Yeah.
What's your devils?
Exactly.
Okay.
And they, he, he said, I don't know.
He said this, he goes, I don't believe in death.
And Oprah, you know, she's interviewing him and she's like, you don't believe in death?
No.
So he goes, so what happens when you die?
And he said this, you have everlasting life.
So he's teaching people who are listening to him, don't fear death because as soon as
you die, you have everlasting life, you know?
I mean, red flag number one right there.
Okay.
And he's like, what's God to you?
God is love.
You know, just the same stupid message that all these other false religions have is just
God is only love.
He's not judgment.
He's not wrath.
There's no such thing as hell.
Good God, good devil, good sin.
Everything's all good in a bed of roses.
That's what he is.
And you look at the, you look at the, the videos of, of the surgical, cause he actually
cuts people open and like, you know, these people, but these people are so stupid.
And I'm thinking to myself, you know what?
You deserve to go there to that compound, you know, you delusional idiot.
What's wrong with you?
You know, all the people with rocks in their head will go, you have this lady, she goes,
I have this, this illness.
He gropes her looking for the illness, gropes her, her parts in the front and everything
like that.
And then he cuts her chest open, just massages the inside and just lets her go.
This is the kind of foolishness that's out there.
Oh, you shouldn't judge people.
No.
You know what?
He's already judged.
He's already condemned.
That guy is twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
He's a reprobate.
And you even look at his facial expressions.
It's like, man, this guy, he's a reprobate, you know, some reprobate is just like, you
know, they come in unawares.
You can't really tell.
No, this guy, you can tell.
This guy's a reprobate, you know, the John of God is what he calls himself.
You know, but the Bible tells us that there are false apostles, prophets.
You know, they come in as angels of light and they had to have a little bit of truth
mixed into their message in order for people to be deceived by them.
And he's making a lot of money, obviously, you know, because the Bible says don't make
merchandise off of them.
Look at Matthew chapter 10.
So don't believe this false teaching of, you know, there's this gift of healing.
And look, Benny Hinn, he doesn't have it as made as the John of God.
Benny Hinn, you know, he has an earpiece.
And as people come in and they're putting their sicknesses, he's got people up top,
pointing them out to him and stuff like that.
And some of these people work for him.
So there's so-called people who are sick, they're actually working with Benny Hinn.
They're like, oh, my back and my back lives.
And then they heal him.
It's like, you liar.
But you know, the people who are involved in these churches, they deserve to be there.
They lack IQ.
They lack any kind of intelligence.
They're just tossed about, carried about with every wind of doctrine.
And look, you know, there's safe people who get sucked into stuff like this and they don't
want to say anything because they don't want to sound stupid.
Well, that's good.
Don't say anything because you will sound stupid.
Oh, I just I've heard a story.
You know what?
All the testimonies of the Lord are my delight and my counselors.
They're my counselors.
That's what teaches me.
I don't go according to no testimony of some person who said they were healed.
I don't believe them.
Let God be true.
Let every man be a liar.
So but here's the thing, the gift of healing was an actual gift that we can see in the
New Testament.
But here's the thing.
It wasn't done by everyone.
It was done only by the apostles.
So even the people who were disciples, people who were disciples, followers of the Lord,
who were saved, not even all of them had the gift of healing.
Only the apostles had these abilities to heal, to do great exploits in regards to these physical
miracles that they would perform.
I mean, you think of like Peter in the book of Acts, his shadow just, you know, just,
you know, went across a group of dead people, but they're sick people and they were healed.
I mean, that's a special power that was given to him.
All right.
Matthew chapter 10 and verse number one.
Let's prove that.
It says, and when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean
spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Skip down to verse number seven.
As you go preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils freely ever see freely
give.
So we see here that they've been given that power unclean spirits to heal lepers, et cetera.
Go to Luke chapter nine.
We'll just look at a couple of verses here to prove this.
Luke chapter nine and verse number one, it says here, then he called his 12 disciples
together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases and he
sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Go one, sick, go, go to one chapter over Luke chapter 10 and verse number one.
So often people get mistaken and they think there was only 12 apostles, 12 disciples,
12 apostles.
But there's actually more than 12 apostles.
Look at verse number one, it says, after these things, the Lord appointed other 70 also and
sent them two and two before his face into every city, whether he himself would come.
Skip down to verse number nine and heal the sick that are therein and say unto them, the
kingdom of God has come nigh unto you.
Look at verse 17 and the 70 returned again with joy saying, Lord, even the devils are
subject unto us through thy name.
So we see here that aside from the 12, there is also 70 apostles who were given this miraculous
ability to do these physical exploits and miracles.
Now go to Acts chapter 19.
So this would include obviously the most popular ones, John, Peter, James, you know, all these
different apostles, but it also included Paul, the apostle.
Now look at Acts chapter 19, verse number 11.
Do you guys remember the story of Jesus when there was a sick woman who had an infirmity
for many years and what did she do to be healed?
She just touched the hem of his garment.
And the Bible says that virtue came out of his body and she was healed.
That was a great miracle, but you know what?
That miracle or that power is also imparted unto the apostles as well.
And we'll see that example over here.
Look at Acts chapter 19 and verse 11 says, and God wrought special miracles by the hands
of Paul so that from his body were brought into the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and
the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them.
And if you read the remainder of that chapter, you'll see the story of the seven sons of
Stephen and the guy who was possessed and he just whoops them all, you know, they came
up and they're like, you know, they came up and they're like, you know, we're a journey
by Jesus whom Paul preaches.
So you know, maybe they were saved.
I don't know.
The Bible doesn't necessarily say or not, but you know what?
That wasn't sufficient to cast out those devils.
The devil was like, well, Paul I know, Jesus I know, but who are you?
I don't even know who you are.
He said, Paul could whoop me, Jesus whoop me, but you can't.
And what happened to him?
He got whooped.
Okay.
So this wasn't an ability that everyone had.
It was only subject to certain apostles and we see specifically, excuse me, it was only
subject to the apostles and we see that Paul the apostle also had that ability, even though
he wasn't part of that first group that we see in the gospels.
Look at Acts chapter number two, excuse me, go to second Corinthians 12.
I'll read to you from Acts chapter two.
Verse 43 says, and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the
apostles.
Okay.
Look at second Corinthians chapter number 12, verse 11 says, I am become a fool in glory
and yet compelled me for I ought to have been commended of you for nothing am I behind the
very cheapest apostles though I be nothing.
Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you and all patients in signs and wonders
and mighty deeds.
So what is he saying?
Obviously I'm confirming the fact that I'm an apostle based upon the signs and wonders
and miracles that I performed.
Okay.
Cause there's people who are questioning whether the apostle Paul was an actual apostle.
It's like I performed miracles and you obviously understand that the only people who can do
this are apostles.
Okay.
Now go to Mark chapter 16.
Here's the thing with the apostle Paul though, okay.
He even said of himself, I was as one born out of due season or due time.
Okay.
He came towards the latter end obviously of the New Testament, he was still used greatly
and we're going to look at what are the qualifications of an apostle because you say, well, why are
we going through these verses?
Obviously we understand that the apostles did these things.
The reason why is to show you that there is no such thing as a modern day apostle.
They don't exist.
And people like to go to Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12 and say, look, it says apostles
and prophets and teachers, teachers exist.
Yeah, but apostles don't anymore.
And we're going to show you why they don't exist.
Okay.
Why did God give the apostles this ability to be able to heal people?
Look at Mark 16 and verse 15, Mark 16 is a parallel passage to Matthew 28 in regards
to the great commission.
The difference is, is that Matthew 28 is to all believers.
Portions of Mark 16 is to all believers, but specifically it's also referring to the apostles.
Look at what it says in verse 15, and he said unto them, go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth in his baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be
damned.
And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out devils and
they shall speak with new tongues.
They shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.
They shall lay hands on the sick and shall, and they shall recover.
Now let me stop right there.
You know what I want to do?
I want to go to these false apostles who say they're apostles and just bring them a black
mamba.
Bring them a cobra and say, so you're an apostle, man.
Great.
Catch.
And look, let it bite you because the apostle that I know, the apostle Paul, a viper jumped
out of the sticks, hung onto his arm and he just shook it off into the fire and he didn't
drop down dead.
You know why?
Because God gave him that special ability.
So because you're an apostle, let me go ahead and give you this coat, King Cobra, this black
mamba rattlesnake you choose.
Let it bite you and prove to us that you're an apostle.
Fool.
Look at verse 19, it says, so then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received
up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God and they went forth and preached everywhere,
the Lord working with them and look what it says, and confirming the word with signs following.
You see, God was confirming their message based upon the signs that they were able to
do.
Because they're able to do these miraculous things that Jesus did, they're like, okay,
these guys were actually sent by God.
These guys are actually messengers of the Lord.
I mean, the viper bit his arm and he just shook it off like it was nothing.
I do that to ants and stuff like that, but I ain't doing that to no black mamba viper.
So what was the purpose of these abilities?
It was to confirm the word.
He said, well, and they'll say, well, yeah, but that's why we're doing it today is to
confirm the word.
No, no, no.
The confirmation is already here.
We have all 66 books, faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
They did not have a canonized Bible at that time.
You know, the Bible, the New Testament was still being written during this time, but
now we have all 66 books.
Every miracle that we need is right here.
Look, if they don't believe what the Bible says, though one rose from the dead, they
will still not believe.
So they don't need some sort of special miracle or sign, you know, like the Jews require a
sign or whatnot.
No, they need the Bible.
Okay.
Look at Acts chapter one, I'm going to show you the qualifications of an apostle, okay?
And this is something that I brought to the attention of someone who was part of this
La Luz del Mundo, LDM false cult.
And I said, look, this is the qualifications of an apostle.
You tell me, has your apostle done this?
Has he seen this?
And in context of Acts chapter number one, what is this referring to?
It's actually referring to the fact that obviously they're looking for a new apostle to take
the place of Judas Iscariot, okay?
Now look at verse 21, they're saying what they're looking for in this apostle, it says,
wherefore of these men, which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went
in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto the same day he was taken up
from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
And they appointed to Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus and Matthias.
So in order to be an apostle, you would have to have seen the resurrected Christ, okay?
From the time of the baptism of John until the time he was resurrected, they would have
to have seen that.
Now, he said, well, what about Paul?
Well, if you read Acts chapter nine, he saw the resurrected Christ.
He said, Paul, why persecute us thou me?
You know?
He said, you know, who art thou Lord?
And he said, it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
He got saved.
He was then baptized.
He was taken into Arabia, according to the Bible.
He was taught the word of God by Jesus Christ himself.
He had seen the resurrected Christ.
That's why he said, last of all, me, and by the way, when the Bible says that he was the
last one, it literally means he was the last apostle, okay?
Not Joseph Smith, not La Luz del Mundo, Joaquin, Samuel, whatever their names are, not, you
know, Mr. and Mrs. apostle from this charismatic church in Inglewood or whatever.
None of those people are apostles, okay?
None of them have seen the resurrected Christ.
Now, many of them will claim that they saw the resurrected Christ, okay?
But if you ask them, what did he look like?
Well, he had long hair.
He had a dress.
Well, that's not Jesus.
Jesus didn't wear a dress.
He wasn't a transvestite.
He wasn't a trainee, you know?
And he wasn't light-skinned either.
No, he was in the Middle East.
The guy was probably dark, okay?
The Lord was probably very dark when he...
Why?
Because he was from the Middle East, okay?
He wasn't this Renaissance queer-looking portrait that we see, you know?
All Hispanic homes know what I'm talking about.
The Pantene Pro-V vitamin hair, the brunette hair, right?
He just...
And he's like, his goatee is, like, shaved and just perfect.
And he just...
And he always has his heart exposed.
It's, like, very morbid.
There's, like, a crown over there.
How many of you know what I'm talking about?
There's, like, a heart right here, and it's open in its chest.
And there's, like, a crown, and it's just, like, bleeding.
I hated seeing that thing when I was a kid.
And they're just, like, I'm like, Mom.
But you know what?
You talk to these false apostles, they'll tell you that that's what he looks like.
You know what?
That's exactly who they saw.
Here's the difference.
It's not Jesus.
Some devil is what it was, okay?
So they have to have seen the resurrected Christ.
Go to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15.
In verse number 3, it says,
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins,
according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day,
according to the scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, Cephas is Peter,
and then of the 12, and after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once,
of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
So it's telling us there.
So, by the way, when Jesus resurrected, he wasn't seen of everyone.
Unsaved people did not see Jesus.
He was seen of Cephas, then of the 12, then of above 500 brethren.
Now, there will come a day when he comes back that every eye shall see him.
But at his resurrected state, these are the only people who saw him.
And after that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, so all of them saw him.
And last of all, he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles, that I am not mean to be called an apostle,
because I have persecuted the church of God.
So verse 8 says, and last of all, the last one, no more, after this,
last of all he was seen of me, which is the last apostle.
Now, go to James 5.
So this proves up and down that there are no such thing as any type of miraculous healing today
as far as from the hand of an apostle.
So any person who claims, yeah, you know, I can lay hands on people and heal them, they're liars.
You say, did you see the resurrected Christ?
You should tell them this, look, I got three things for you to prove.
I want to get healed by you.
Here's three things that I require though.
Did you see the resurrected Christ?
Okay.
Number two, hold this black mamba.
Actually, those are the only two we need right there.
Hold this hungry, irritated black mamba in your hand, and then we'll talk.
If you haven't done one of those two things, or both of them, you know you're disqualified,
because it doesn't exist, okay?
Now, healings, miraculous healings, do exist, because here's the stupid thing.
People who watch this video, I guarantee you, like, you're trying to say you don't believe in miracles and healings?
Did I say that?
No, I said I don't believe the people who claim to be able to heal and do miracles.
I believe in miracles.
I believe in healings, but that it comes from God, okay?
Now, look at James chapter five, verse 13.
Here's an example of this.
It says, is any among you afflicted?
Let him pray.
James chapter five, verse 13.
Is any married?
Let him sing psalms.
Is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
So the Bible tells us there that the elders of the church can anoint a church member with oil and pray over them, and they can be healed.
Now, does it happen all the time?
No, but it can.
The Bible says that the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
So you know what can cause miracles and healings?
Prayer, okay?
My father-in-law, I remember there's a couple in the church, they couldn't have children.
They had difficulty having children.
And they went to the pastor and like, we think we're sick, you know?
And he goes, okay, I'm going to anoint you with oil and I'll pray over you that God would open up your womb.
He did that, and they started having kids.
One kid, then two, then three, then four.
And it was just like, the guy came up joking and he said, can you reverse this?
And it's like, man, this is like, you know?
But it works.
It works, you know?
The prayer of faith, but it's a prayer of faith, okay?
And look, sometimes God doesn't heal people just because it's a self-inflicted womb that you created upon yourself.
That you gave to yourself based upon your lifestyle of health or whatever, you know?
And look, we're not against, there's this other train where it's like, it's only praying but you don't visit the doctor.
No, go to the doctor if you have to.
We have a doctor right there, Dr. Rita, she can help you out.
This is the best doctor in the world right here that you have in your church.
Go see her, okay?
We believe in doctors, we believe they know what they're doing, but you know what?
That's not the exclusion of praying, okay?
So you have to have both.
You have to have prayer and actually like do something, you know what I mean?
To put that prayer into action, all right?
But prayer does work.
Now, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
So healings do work.
And look, I remember when I first got married, okay?
I thought we were just gonna, you know, I thought my wife was gonna get pregnant like right off the bat, okay?
But she didn't, it took like a couple months.
And I don't think myself, what in the world is wrong?
Lord, is there sin in my life?
Like I want children, I want a lot of them, okay?
And I remember reading my Bible and I remember reading the passage, I believe it was, what was it?
It was Isaac who entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren.
And I was pricked to the heart.
I was thinking to myself, man, I haven't even prayed for my wife's womb to be open.
Shame on me.
And I remember when I read that, I said,
Lord, forgive me for not praying, but can you please open up the womb of my wife so you can have children?
And I want to raise children for you.
I want to raise them to be my soul owners for you.
I want them to do great work for you.
I love children.
Can you please give me children?
And I remember praying and sooner after, my son Bruce came, you know?
And it was just a reminder to me.
Look, by the way, today marks 11 years since I've been saved.
Today, I got saved on July 22nd, 2007.
But you know what?
Even in those 11 years, I still have to grow in faith, you know?
And sometimes I have to check myself and say, man, you know, I need to pray more for the things that I need for these needs.
And so I believe that God gave us that child.
I believe because we stepped out in faith and we prayed that God gave us Bruce, okay?
And look, if ever you have that kind of trial or trouble, you know, pray, be anointed with oil.
But pray, don't go to some faith healer.
Don't throw $20 into, you know, TBN, Totally Bogus Network, so they can send you a prayer shawl and heal you through the screen or whatever.
That's garbage.
You know, pray.
The prayer of faith can save them, the Bible says.
Now, the last thing I want to cover is this, is discerning of spirits, okay?
Now, it says there, where are we at here?
In verse number 10, it says, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits,
to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues.
Now, I don't know if you've ever heard of someone who supposedly has this gift.
Has anybody ever heard of him?
He's like, I have the gift of discerning of spirits.
No one ever heard of him?
Wow.
I've heard of him.
These are the people who are like, and again, it's by charismatic people.
They're like, you're involved in sin.
I know you're involved in sin.
I have the gift of discerning spirits.
And I know that you're involved in a specific sin.
He's like, what?
You're just like, you're just going to accuse me like that?
Like, what in the world?
But this is this false doctrine that says, well, we have the gift of discerning spirits.
Now, look, I personally know someone who did this garbage back in my old church.
In my old church, this was reprobate, false, you know, prophet or teacher, whatever you want to call him, who was there.
And he literally, this idiot, this stupid fool, you shouldn't use that language, he's a stupid fool.
There's this unsaved person who came to our church who was a mechanic.
And he's like, he's been, he was like a blessing to us.
He fixed my car, he fixed different people's cars.
Now, obviously, you know, he was working for us and we were paying him for it and stuff like that to help us with these vehicles.
And he was a good guy.
And the thing is, we wanted to win him for the Lord.
Like, he would come around so often that we kind of not necessarily became friends with good acquaintances and we wanted to win him for Christ.
So this idiot walks up to him and he literally, he's like supposedly trying to witness to him.
And he tells him, you're involved in pornography.
He tells the guy that.
And the guy's like, what?
Like, what are you talking about?
He goes, I know that you're involved in pornography.
You're involved in pornography.
And the guy's like, you know what, I don't got to deal with this.
I'm out of here, I'm never coming back here ever again.
You know, and he took off.
And we found out about it and I was like, what are you doing, you idiot?
I have the gift of stupidity.
No, you have the gift of stupidity.
That's your gift.
You stupid fool.
To say something so stupid to an unsaved person.
What do you want him, what was he expecting for him to do?
Wow, how did you know that?
What must I do to be saved?
You know, you know what he was doing is he was gambling.
You see, maybe he was so that he could confirm and say, yeah, see, God gave that to me.
By the way, this same stupid fool is the one who told me that God taught him the pre-tribulation rapture and he showed him from the Bible.
That God showed me from Hebrews chapter one that there are dispensations in the Bible.
Even though the word dispensation is not even found in Hebrews chapter one, verse one, okay.
By the way, God did reveal it to him, but you know what, it was a little g.
Not the real God, okay.
So what does it mean then?
Discerning of spirits, what does that mean?
Okay, go to Revelation chapter number two.
Because we can discern spirits, what does that mean?
Does it mean like there's a spirit of immorality in this church?
I can decipher the fact that there's a spirit of immorality.
No, that's foolishness and folly.
Okay, look at Revelation 2, what it says here, Revelation chapter two, verse two.
This is a praise that God gave to the church of Ephesus.
Now, we understand that the church at Ephesus had its issues, okay.
They had left their first love, you know, they weren't soul winning, but they had good things about them.
Look at verse number two, it says, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience,
and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they
are apostles and are not, and has found them liars and has borne and has had patience and
for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted.
Go to 1 John chapter four.
So we see this church here, they couldn't bear the people who are evil.
Look, that's the kind of attitude we want to have in our church.
I cannot tolerate any evil person.
I don't, not in my personal life, but especially not in the church.
No reprobates allowed, no evil wicked people allowed here, I don't care what kind of comments
you put on YouTube, you're not welcome.
Point blank.
Why?
Because we don't tolerate that.
We want to be like that and it says, and has tried them which say they are apostles and
are not.
So what is he saying?
They've proven them, okay.
So they've tried those who claim to be these apostles and prophets.
They tried them, they tested them, they proven them, and then they found them to be liars.
Now look at 1 John chapter four, verse number one, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are granted unto
the world.
Now what does it mean to try?
It doesn't mean like, you know, okay, yeah, this is heresy right here, yeah, okay, you
know, you know, immorality over here, that's not what it means.
Try means to test and it means to prove, okay.
Hereby know ye the spirit of God, verse two, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ
is coming to flesh is of God.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh is not of
God.
And this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even
now already it is in the world.
So according to these verses, what does it mean to try them?
It's based upon what's coming out of their mouths.
You see what I'm saying?
So if someone's confessing that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh, they're confessing that
with their mouth, you can, by trying that spirit, the spirit is referring to that which
is coming out of their mouths, you can tell if that person is of God or not.
Now if they deny that, then you can automatically say, okay, this person is not of God.
You're trying, you're discerning the fact that this person is not of God, okay.
The Bible tells us in First Thessalonians chapter five verse 21, prove all things, hold
fast that which is good.
Now go with me if you would to, go to First Timothy chapter number four.
So what does it mean to discern the spirit?
It means that when you're talking to someone, based upon the words that are coming out of
their mouth, you're trying them, you can discern what they believe.
Now at a basic level, this is important when you're out sowing, right?
You know, if you knock on the door and they say this, you know, you say, hey, my name
is so-and-so, I'm from Paper Word Baptist Church, want to give this invite to our church,
you go to church anywhere.
They say, yeah, I go to the Mormon Tabernacle, you know.
The basic understanding of trying the spirits can say, okay, this person is not of Satan.
Based upon that, you know, confession.
So look, if someone tells you they're a part of any kind of church, other than a Baptist
church, automatically, you can just roll into the gospel at that point.
You don't have to say, so what do you think you have to do to be saved?
It doesn't matter, because they're part of the Mormon Tabernacle, they're not going to
give you the right answer.
So by trying the spirit that's coming out of their mouth, because remember, Jesus even
said of his words, what, my words, they are spirit, and they are life.
So guess what, on the flip side of that, there is an evil spirit that comes out of people's
mouths.
It's the words that are coming out of, it's the confession that's coming out of their
own heart.
So if someone says, well, I'm a Catholic, you know, you don't have to say, okay, well,
you know, so what do you think you have to do, you think it's by grace through faith,
you know?
No, you could discern, okay, this person's not saved.
Now, obviously, if they say, yeah, I'm coming from a Baptist church, then you have to probe
a little more to try the spirit and say, okay, what would you say you have to do to get to
heaven?
And if they give you the right answers, you're trying that answer, then you can obviously
tell, okay, this person is saved, or they're not saved, okay?
Now that's at a basic level, but it also works even in the church.
When you meet new people, or when you're talking to people, and they're telling you of their
experiences or what they believe, you're trying the spirits, you're discerning what
they believe.
Okay?
Now, don't have this attitude, this police attitude in our church where it's just like
you're going around trying everyone.
What do you believe?
Tell me what you believe.
Do you believe that Jesus is God, you know?
No, just in casual conversation, though, we have to always be alert, right?
When we're talking to people, and the words that are coming out of their mouth will reveal
who they really are.
Because the Bible tells us now the spirit speaketh expressly, look at verse number one,
that in the light of time, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits,
and look what it says, and doctrines of devils.
So seducing spirits works in tandem with what?
Doctrines of devils.
Doctrines mean what?
What does doctrine mean?
Teaching.
So the seducing spirit is synonymous with that doctrine of devils, where people will
be seduced.
And the Bible also tells us the way people are seduced is with feigned words, okay?
The Bible also says a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth
that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth
that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
So what does it mean to be able to discern?
Well, first, the way you get is by just being a Christian for a while, reading the Bible,
you know, being around other Christians, so you can discern phrases and words and what
people say.
This is the problem with a lot of even old IFB churches, they don't discern anything,
they have no discernment whatsoever.
Anybody can come to their church believing anything they want, and they just accept everyone,
and they don't try any spirit.
You know, they got this guy who's a repent of your sins, straight false prophet, wolf
in sheep's clothing, and what do they tell you?
Well, he's just a little off on salvation.
He's a good guy, though, because he bought me a $50 gift card.
They're good at trying that, huh?
Don't try that gift card.
They're like, call that company, see if there's really $50 on there.
I want to prove all things, hope past that which is good.
But you know what, they don't prove all things from the people who are giving it to them
who are trying to pervert judgment.
These people who believe false doctrine to come into the churches, you know, they'll
say, well, I believe in Jesus.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, he's a little off on some things.
No, you have no discernment whatsoever.
You don't know how to try the spirits, you don't have any discernment to be able to determine
if this person is a legitimate, Christian, safe person.
You know, they'll say, well, you know, I believe it's interesting to Jesus, but you also got
to turn over a new leaf.
You know, the salvation will make you work.
You know, you have to work after you get saved.
You know, a lot of old IFP churches will be like, okay, that sounds about good.
You know, I don't really agree with that last part, but yeah, it's fine.
No, it's not fine.
You need to get some discernment about yourself and try that spirit that's coming out of the
guy's mouth.
You know, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaker.
So what does it mean to discern spirits is the ability to basically pay attention to
what people are saying.
When you're paying attention, you're listening to the doctrines that are coming out of their
mouth and you can discern that.
Okay.
Now I'm not talking about a slip of the tongue.
I'm talking about people who actually come into the church and they consistently, staunchly
believe a false doctrine.
Now that's not going to happen here, obviously, you know, I mean, sometimes we're on the other
extreme where it's just like, everyone's a reprobate here, whatever, by the way, not
everyone's a reprobate.
We don't want to have that atmosphere in our church where we like persecute.
It's just like this witch hunt where we're going around looking for reprobates and everyone,
everything and everyone who disagrees with us.
We don't want to have that attitude, but at the same time, we don't want to be negligent.
We don't want to be careless and we want to be able to discern the words that are coming
out of people's mouths and their teachings and their beliefs, et cetera.
So this is not like, you know, you're involved, you're an adultery, oh, you're cheating on
your wife.
I know you're cheating on you.
You're having problems with your marriage, aren't you?
All these things, it's just like, you know, try that in our church and you're going to
get socked in the face by someone or something, you know, people are going to just be like,
you know, that's disrespectful, you know, and that guy who did that in my own church,
he's an idiot, you know, and it goes to show why he believes such stupid doctrines.
You know, he's a devil himself.
Okay.
But, so what's the message today?
The message is this, look, healing still exists, miracles still exist.
I'm a witness of the miracles and healings, you know, not by my hands, not by anybody
else's hands, but by God's hand, by the prayer of faith, you know, just that I believe it
was at steadfast.
When I went to steadfast, there was a plaque in the back of a woman who had brain cancer.
I don't know if you guys know about that, but she had brain cancer.
They went and they prayed over her.
She went back to get tested and guess what?
No more brain cancer.
She was completely cured.
Oh man, Pastor Romero is a faith healer.
That guy has the gift of faith.
No, he prayed.
You know why?
Because he's a righteous man.
And the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth what?
Much.
So Pastor Romero is just a righteous man who prayed, he had faith, and that's why that
person was healed.
I believe it was Brother Romero, was it?
Brother Romero.
So, you know, that can still happen today.
We just got to have faith, you know, reject the John of God or the Matthew of God or whoever
new comes up on the scene, Benny Hinn and all these other wicked false prophets.
No, we need to go back to the Bible and not disregard healing or miracles, not throw out
the baby with the bathwater, but recognize what is the proper way.
How do we attain these things?
By faith, by prayer.
All right.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for your word.
Pray God that you would help us to increase our faith.
And we want to see miracles.
For me, even last week, the 142 people that were saved, that was a miracle.
But it took the effort of 99 soul winners going out there and obeying your word to see
those 142 people saved.
And so I pray God that you'd help us to increase our faith, help us to be reminded of times
when we need to pray.
Maybe there's someone in here who's sick and they need someone to pray over them.
Maybe there's someone who has a need, who just needs to step out in faith.
Whatever it may be.
And help us to always believe in miracles.
We know that you're a God of miracles and you can do all things.
And there's nothing too hard for you.
I pray God that you'd help us not to limit you, but to believe you, to have faith, and
to be able to discern as well the spirits.
People who come in, who try to bring in false, damnable heresies, help us, Lord, to be able
to concern that.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.