In this sermon, the speaker discusses the idea of Christians being unbalanced in their faith. He uses four volunteers to illustrate different ways in which people can be unbalanced. One volunteer, Brandon, is portrayed as someone who watches terrifying movies and justifies it under the idea of having liberty in faith. Another volunteer, Aaron, is shown to have a television but only watches "pretty good" programs, yet it still influences his life. The speaker also mentions the concept of the body of Christ and how some people can become unbalanced by focusing too much on it. The sermon emphasizes the importance of finding balance in our faith and not allowing certain aspects to consume us.

Okay, stand next to me. Which of us, this is not a joke, but which of us is bigger? More heavy? I know I'm the only thin person in this hall, but I mean, between us two, thank you very much. It's an obvious, obvious thing. Now, if we were to have a scale, and I don't know how these pens work, but if you were to have a scale, I don't know how they make scales in America, something like that, and if you had Roy Daniel on the one, and you had Brandon on the other, then obviously Brandon's one would be lower down, and I would be higher up. Okay, there's a verse from the Bible, Proverbs 11, verse one, and it actually has nothing to do with that, but it says, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight, and as I understand, I might be wrong, this is a hard verse to interpret, but a false balance is not an imbalanced balance. I mean, the fact that he was heavier than me, and he still is heavier than me, and he always will be heavier than me doesn't make it a false balance. A false balance is, I think, when someone says it is five pounds, and it's only four pounds, and they balance it wrong, and that is an abomination to the Lord, which actually has very little to do with what I'm gonna talk about, because today I'm gonna talk about balanced theology and Christianity. Balanced theology and Christianity, and there is no verse in the Bible which directly says we should have balanced theology, or Christianity, but I think it's something that we should have, because we should seek the truth, and balanced theology would be the truth, as opposed to unbalanced theology. With that thought, let us go over to prayer. Father, I thank you from my heart for thy word, which is truth, and I just ask you these few thoughts, which me and my wife, sitting downstairs, gathered together, or that I gathered together next to my wife, I just ask you that you'll bless them, Lord, and give me wisdom as I speak, and just show us thy will for our lives. Lord, we need thee this night. There's not one thing on earth that we don't need thee for. We can't do anything without thee, and I can't preach without thee, and so I just lay myself at thy feet, and say, Father, remember me this night, and speak through thy servant. In Jesus Christ's name, amen. Balanced theology and Christianity. Now, you'll read in Genesis chapter 11 of the Tower of Babel, and the Tower of Babel was when man decided he was gonna build, I think it was King Nimrod or so, decided that he was gonna build a large and amazing tower, and this tower was gonna reach up, up, not down the floor, but up, up to heaven, and of God, of course, while they were building this tower, God changed their languages, and very soon, they couldn't speak to each other, and they got scattered all over the world, but to me, this is a picture of many people who are not saved, and it's also a picture to me of many people who are saved, because many people are not saved, if they try to work their way up to God. Now, Brandon, every single time I ever come to the Rhinelander Church, he's very good at preaching that we shouldn't work our way up to God. In fact, it's his favorite topic, he says. I know you've got other topics, but I haven't heard them, but basically, and it's very clear from Scripture, we're not supposed to work our way up towards God, and you can't get saved that way, but now, let's say you got saved by grace through faith. You are wonderfully saved, and God's changed your heart. Is it possible to live a life as a Christian whereby you're not working out from God and what he has done, but you're working towards God? Is that possible as a Christian, for you to work towards God and not work out from God and what he has done? Let's read this verse in Hebrews chapter four, verse 10, 11. For he, you can look it up, Hebrews chapter four, verse 10 and 11. These are, this sermon, by the way, is different to the sermons I'll bring at the camp, which is more, you could call it evangelist type sermons, but this is more of what me and my wife, as I sat on the bed, just praying and asking God, wrote down a few points just to bring tonight. Genesis, Hebrews four, verse 10, 11 says, for he that is entered into his rest, that's Christ's rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works. Yeah, we have two extremes. Again, you've got a person who's working towards God, and you've got a person who's working out from God and what he's done. You've got a person who has ceased from his own works, you've entered into the rest in Christ, or you've got a person who's working towards God. I'd like to give a very simple example of that. I'm reading my Bible. And as I'm reading my Bible, as a Christian, I know that God is only gonna bless me when I've read 10 chapters of the Bible. I have to read about 10 chapters of the Bible before he starts blessing me. What am I doing? Am I working out from God or am I working towards him? I have to read an amount of the Bible before he starts to bless me, before he starts to speak to me. That's working towards God. But let's say I pick up my Bible as a Christian, as a born-again Christian with Christ in my heart. And I know according to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, that the Jews used to have a veil on their heart when they read the Bible. As unsaved people, there was a veil on their heart. But when it shall turn to the Lord, that veil shall be taken off, it shall be taken away. And I know because I know Jesus that that veil is gone, that veil is away. Then I know that the moment I start to read the Bible, not after I've read for three chapters, or 10 chapters, or 20 chapters, or 30 chapters, the moment I open the Bible, before I've done anything, because I know God, he can speak to me. And there's a rest in Christ, very clear in Hebrews. And it's not an apathetic rest like the Hindu people. They rest, they meditate, you know, they go, ooh. And when they meditate, they go into this meditation state where they're in trance or something, and they're resting, you know, from about everything on earth. That's not the rest of the Christian. We have a dynamic rest, where all our works spring out from Christ-completed work. All our works spring out from Christ-completed works. And so, when we cease from our own works, sorry, I sound like a lecturer. But we, and this is such an important, simple point. There's people who've been 10 years as Christians, 20 years as Christians, they're really born again, but they struggle with the fact that they're trying to please God by the amount of things that they do before he can bless them, instead of working out from God in what he's already done 2,000 years back. When I read my Bible, it is not how much I read, but the fact that 2,000 years back, Christ died, and he rose again, and because of that, because of what he has done, I can turn to the Bible and know that the Bible is an open book to me, and God will bless me. Now, in 1 Peter 2, verse 5, it says, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. It's very clear from the Scriptures that we are to keep certain commandments of Christ, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And the commandments of Christ are things like honor your parents, that's to do with money, that's to do with every single area of your life is the commands of Christ. But why does God accept these sacrifices? The sacrifice of obedience. Why, when we honor our parents as God accepted, or I disobeyed my parents when I was younger, why would God accept it now? When I was younger, I broke about every commandment in the Bible, why does God accept our obedience right now, when we choose to obey him, due to our love? Well, it's because it's acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Every single command of Christ that we keep is not acceptable to God because we do it, or how much we do it. It's acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now, I'd like to, I'm just giving different thoughts now, and it's gonna come into in this sermon a bit haphazardly, but it's gonna come into basically the idea of a few ways in which people are unbalanced as Christians, and I'd like to have four volunteers, but I'd like to pick them if that's all right. Aaron can have you, Jason can have you, Brannon can have you again, and Doug, we would like you to, could you bring chairs to the front, and I'd like four chairs right over here. Ezra, you can't come because you're getting married, sir. You've passed the stage of volunteering. You are married, he's in the middle. I ask forgiveness for that. Okay, now, we have four young, three of them eligible young men, and they all at one stage of their life watch television. Isn't that terrifying? But now we've got a situation where later in their life they've changed, or they haven't changed, and we've got four different people. Jason? Okay, now, Jason, he doesn't have a television. He says that's a no-no, and he, like the Tower of Babel, is trying to impress God and impress people, and the higher he climbs up the Tower of Babel, the more he looks down at other people and thinks that they're stupid and unholy, and he says, I don't have a television. I really don't have a television, and anybody wants to know, I don't have a television. And it's very important that everybody knows that I don't have a television, because you guys are all sinners. You have televisions, and you're going to go to hell. Now, Doug, he's slightly more balanced. He also doesn't have a television, but the difference is Doug doesn't have a television, not because he believes the television is sinful and in and of itself is a box. He believes that we shouldn't have a television because what's on the television is harmful to people, and he doesn't want to defile himself, his wife, and his children, so as the priest of the home, his child is coming, as the priest of the home, he's decided he's not going to have a television. But one day, the Twin Towers falls down, and what does Doug do? He runs off to a restaurant, and he says this is a great, amazing occurrence in history, and he looks at the Twin Towers falling down, and he doesn't feel sinful at all for watching the television in that stage because it's a big occurrence in history. And he goes home and never watches it again. Okay, great. Then you have Aaron. He's a mechanic. He's a friend of mine. And he does have a television. He believes that we have a liberty in Christ Jesus. Do you, by the way? He believes we have a liberty in Christ Jesus, and because of this amazing liberty, it's fine for us to have a television. And he has some good arguments, like the boxes and sin and a few other things. In fact, his arguments are pretty similar to this person's argument, except that he does have a television. And his poor kids grow up, and they're only allowed to watch very good programs by his standards. And it does influence his children's life, and it does influence his wife's clothes just to a degree, but it doesn't ruin them totally, but it does influence them for wrong. And yeah, you have Brandon. He's a total sinner. He has television, and he watches the most terrifying stuff on television. He gets movies that are just absolutely terrifying. And he says, oh, I didn't think of this one, but he says that it's under faith. We have a great, great, great, great, great, great liberty, and we can do whatever we want. Okay, but you don't say that. Don't worry. So, we have these four people. Now, the reason I got them all together is not so that you could look at them and judge them, it's so they could judge each other by my standards of what they would do. Yeah, we have this guy and this guy. Remember what they had. Aaron, Mr. Mechanic, Baker. They, he had a television, but he only looked at pretty good programs, but it still influenced his wife, clothes, dress, and a whole lot of other things. He had a television. He watched the most terrifying things. They look at these two people, and they say they're exactly the same as each other. You and you are absolutely terrifyingly legalistic. But this guy says, no. Wait a minute. I'm not the same as him. He's totally liberal. He watched the Twin Towers. And so, this poor guy sitting over here gets put with those two by him, and this poor guy sitting over here gets put with him by them as legalistic. When all that he's doing is trying to have a standard that protects him, not as a legalistic burden. If he happens to walk past a shop and the Twin Towers is falling down, he'll stand for half an hour and watch it because it's a huge historic occasion, but to protect himself, knowing what's wrong in the television, he has a standard in his life which does not have a television in his home. But he's called a liberal by the legalist, and he's called a legalist by the liberal. You may now sit down at your own seat. Now, when I was sitting on my bed preparing the salmon this afternoon, I wrote down, and I get sayings very wrong. I said, don't throw the chickens out with the eggs. But my wife, after about 30 minutes or so, I called my wife. I started to doubt the saying, and I said to her, is there such a saying as don't throw the chickens out with the eggs? And she said to me, Roy, I think it's you don't throw the baby out with the, what washing? Bathwater, something like that. So I got that wrong. But that is pretty typical of Christianity. What you've got there, when I once, at my mission a long time back, there was an issue about music. And some very legalistic people came and started bashing people and whatever. And I just stood up and I said, nothing to do with those legalistic people, but shouldn't we deal with some of this wrong music that was happening at one camp? You know what happened? They immediately put me in the boat with the guy who was carnal. They were like these two people, and they said, you're exactly the same as that guy over there. Holier than thou. And that's what people do. They throw out the baby with the dirty bathwater. I added a word there. The devil loves extremes. The devil loves extremes. There was a missionary in South Africa that I know very well. And it's a lady. I know quite many lady missionaries, and this one lady missionary years back used to be reasonably legalistic. That's that guy over here. And one day she found out that she was legalistic. God showed her that she was wrong. That she'd been having all these extra-biblical rules which had nothing to do with standards to protect or anything else. It was just basically rules that she had because she believed this was right. And when she found out that she was legalistic, it was such a revelation to her, and it was so freeing to her, that she went into a life of, even though she didn't drop all her standards, of liberalism as far as what she stood up for. If anybody ever, I remember once coming to the house of this missionary and saying, something about, isn't it sad, the dangers of this one thing? And she would say, no, I've been there. Don't ever name something in and of itself as wrong. Because then you're making a rule which will be legalism. And I looked at her. I don't know how to look at her right, but the problem was, and this is a typical of many people, when they find out that there's an error in their life, and they come out of that error, they so react to that error that they don't, that they neglect scriptures, and they neglect other standards and scriptures in the Bible. Because they hold on to one truth as being the most important truth in the Bible. I'd like to ask a question. Are we ever to preach? And by the way, Brandon, thank you for your message this morning. It was a very good message. This is not against your message. I love your message. I know what you mean. I understand, and it's very good how you put it out this morning. Are we ever to preach any standard practically? More question. Are we ever to say, this is a standard that God wants for a Christian, and it's that thou shalt not do this. Or thou shalt do that. Many people argue about that. Many godly people argue about it. Many people with beautiful modest dresses say that you should never talk about modesty practically. You shouldn't say that this or that is modesty. You shouldn't say that thou shalt do this or thou shalt do that. There should be nothing of that, because after salvation, there's a relationship between a Christian and God in which the Holy Spirit will shine a light upon you and step by step, he will show that individual what is God's will for that person in life, and you are not to preach definite standards. Well, I've seen so many people fight about this. I think it's like the man and woman that was once in their house, and I go into hundreds of people's houses, but I was in this one house, and I never forget about this. It is so brilliant. This man, husband, and wife were fighting, and it was about a spoon in a drawer. And the husband was saying, I think the spoon is in the bottom drawer. And the wife was saying, I think the spoon is in the top drawer. And the husband was going, and honestly, when they were fighting, and it took about five minutes, they were still just going on. I believe, no, I think it's in the bottom drawer. No, I believe it's in the top drawer. And I just sat there, and I watched this comic television show, I don't know what you call it. And eventually, I just put up my hand. I thought I could silence it. I thought I had enough wisdom that I could just tell them the answer. Look in the drawer. And so I said, why? Why don't you just look in the drawer? You know, they ignored me. I think it's in the top drawer. No, I can tell you, I remember it was in the bottom drawer. And they were serious. So if we talk at something like this, is it ever right to preach a standard practically, instead of fighting about it and saying, is it? I think so. No, I don't think so. Yes, I think so. No, I don't think so. And going around in circles, why don't we just open up the drawer and see what the apostles did? What did they do? Well, if you look at the books of Paul, you will see very clearly that he used to split up his books into two sections. Sometimes three quarters of every, almost every single one of Paul's books, depending if you believe Hebrews was written by Paul or not, which I doubt. But every single one of the books we know to be Paul's books is split up into about three quarters or half, which is heart's religion. That which happens through faith. And then the next portion of the book was, thou shalt do this, thou shalt not do that. In this situation, do this. In that situation, do that. Thou shalt not, thou shalt. Now, why did he do that? Well, this is not in the Bible, but just to coin a phrase. He said, rules without the heart is an empty box. Rules without, I'm not talking about pharisaical rule, but any godly rules, that which is God's will, without the heart's experience through faith is an empty box. I don't know if any of you know what a box is. Empty. But a heart without rules, not pharisaical rules, but God's will rules as revealed in the scripture is an engine or passion without direction. I'd like to repeat that. Rules without a heart's experience is an empty box. It's a frame. It's nothing. But, a heart's experience without rules or direction is an engine or passion without direction. That is why we know from scripture, and the great old theologians used to preach this, and they used to take it out, if you take any good commentary in the Bible, you'll find this, and if you just read the Bible, you'll find it yourself, that suddenly in Paul's books, like in Romans, he was talking about what happens in the heart, and what happens in the heart, and it suddenly turns around in a chapter for the last few chapters into thou shalt, thou shalt not. In this section, you shall do this. In this situation, you shall do that. He was getting practical. He was giving direction. He said, first, you have to have a heart's change. You sinners, you're on your way to hell. Though you're a Jew, though you're a Gentile, you're on your way to hell, and you need to be saved through faith. Then afterwards, he says, now that you're saved, now that your heart's changed, this is what you should do in everyday practical life. And he wasn't being legalistic. He was giving direction to an engine or a passion. And if you don't have direction, there's gonna go, imagine putting a little car, you know, around in circles. Of course, we love God. Therefore, because of that love, we wanna do God's will. But even though we love God, there's so many voices in life that we need direction, and that's why Paul got practical. And it wasn't wrong, and it wasn't legalistic to know that in this situation, do that, and he'll give you grace to do it. Then we have Matthew 28, verse 19, which I've spoken many times, but which most Christians ignore. It says, go therefore, and I've, I've mentioned earlier, I said, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe. What? What the Holy Spirit in relationship with you tells you every day is God's will, slowly through light, more and more light coming upon your pathway. No, Jesus Christ just says it. Whatsoever I have commanded you. Whoa. Now what did Christ command? He commanded a lot of things. Generally, he repeated laws from the Old Testament. Go to the Sermon on the Mount. That is, not all of the commands of Christ, but about 11 sections of them. And basically, or about 1 20th of the commands of Christ are in the Sermon on the Mount. Mark chapter seven, Jesus repeats the fact that we're to honor our parents. Right through scriptures, Jesus is commanding, not the law, but that which he considers to be important of the law, and which is the commands of Christ. Christ himself repeats eight of the 10 commandments. He misses out the fourth one and the second one. John 15, verse 26, the apostles, it says that the apostles be reminded of what Christ has said. And you'll find that they mention quite a few laws that Jesus didn't mention, or that aren't mentioned in the gospels. A lot of the books written by Peter and by Paul, and by Titus in the New Testament, or not Titus, sorry, by Paul and by Peter and so on, are simply direct quotations from the Old Testament law, thou shalt and thou shalt not. Why does God do this? Because it's important to know God's will. Not just for your heart to be changed, it's important after you save, because many of these books, Paul didn't say to the unsaved, thou shalt, thou shalt not. He said to the saved, he commended them for being saved, and then he said, thou shalt, thou shalt not. He was talking to Christians. They needed direction. They needed to know God's will for their life in a certain situation. And that's very, very important. In fact, by disobeying, by not teaching practical Christianity, we don't not bring people into legalism. By not teaching practical Christianity, we directly disobey God, because he said, teach them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. And I've rarely ever seen anybody that has taught from the commands of Christ, from a pulpit, balance. We need the heart's experience and we need direction. Now, also, I'm just gonna, these are different things where people can get unbalanced. And obviously, if you've gone for hours and hours and hours, you know of my sermons, love to deal with different things. But you can have what is known as a runaway train. People who are so fascinated by one doctrine or verse that they sacrifice another doctrine or verse. I've already mentioned one runaway train, that missionary in South Africa. So fascinated with the fact that we are not to be legalistic that any rule is not of God. Even if I, as a father, decide not to have a television, because to protect my children, just to protect them and just because it's right, the wrong things on the television, that's a rule, we can't have that. But you also get people right through history who have the truth. And these people, in spite of the fact that they've got the truth, that truth becomes everything to them at the cost of other truth. Now, I'm not saying the Calvinist or the Wesleyan Minnist or any of those people have the truth, but let's just look at a few of the organizations of history or movements of history, the Calvinist. I'm not saying everything they say is wrong. I'm not saying anything they say is right. But Hebrews 13, verse five, let's just take one verse in the Bible. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he hath said, that's God, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Which part of that verse do Calvinists normally quote? I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's the part they quote, which is true. But they're so taken up with this truth that God will never leave you nor forsake you that they never almost ever, unless they're the Bible teachers who preach verse for verse, they never almost ever sit down and tell you what that verse is actually talking about, which has nothing to do with salvation. It's a wonderful truth concerning the fact that when you go through hard times financially, God will never leave you nor forsake you. So be without covetousness. Then you have the Wesleyan Minnist, John Wesley. They used to have multiple verses through the Bible which backed their doctrine. They were so taken up with the doctrine of holiness and the fact that you need to have a second work of grace that every single verse that ever said sanctify or be holy or anything like that, they said, this is talking about sanctification and they missed the whole point of that chapter. And so they missed out on so much that God could have meant for them through that verse. Let's read one verse, 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 3. And this is the will of God, even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication. Which part of that verse do they normally quote? Because they're so taken up with one doctrine. It might be even in a way a true doctrine because there is a rest in Christ according to Hebrews. According to Romans, there is a victory in Christ that can set us free from the flesh. But they're so taken up with this one, they twisted a truth to sinless perfection which doesn't exist in the Bible that every time they see a verse, all they see is this, all right through the Bibles, where's the word holy or where's the word sanctify without seeing what God's intending for that verse. They never teach, I've never heard. I've heard many, when I say, I'm not talking about the American sinless perfection people, but I've heard many holiness people on tape and preaching on this verse. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. They go straight off for one hour on the fact that we're supposed to have a second work of grace. But they never mention that you should abstain from fornication. What this verse, God, in simplicity is trying to tell people is that we're supposed to abstain from fornication. And they don't teach it. And you might say, well, I'm not one of that. I'm not a Calvinist, and I'm not a Wesleyan or Minniest or the more liberal, normal types of them that aren't sinless perfection. I'm not one of those. But I've rarely met a Christian. And I'm not saying individuals, yeah, because I don't know what you do, but in my own personal capacity, as I talk with missionaries, as I talk with Bible college students, as I talk with Christianies, especially Christians who are on fire across the world, they're so taken up with one doctrine or one idea of scripture, one thing that God has taught them recently that they don't see any of the other stuff that God teaches through the Bible. And they often take verses without seeing what God is really talking because they want to bring it across their point. And just to bring it down to earth, evangelists, there was a teacher in our mission called Mr. Till. He was my prayer partner before he had a heart attack. He didn't have a heart attack because he was my prayer partner, but he died a few years back. And I remember him saying he was a very good teacher. Yeah, Dan talked on the different parts of the body of Christ, which is wonderful. But Mr. Till was a definite teacher. And he used to stand up and say, and I appreciate this. He said, when evangelists take the Bible that on fire for God, they write through the Bible because this is their passion, because they want to preach the gospel, repent and believe every single portion of scripture that they can find. Anything that might be a picture of repent or believe that even if it's got nothing to do with it, they will find repent and believe in that portion right through the Bible because they're gonna preach the gospel. And he said, but there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with teaching repent and believe because it is the truth. It's not that you're not preaching the truth. The problem, he said, is you're missing so much other truth because you're so taken up with a unbalanced view of the scriptures. You're literally reading glasses of repent and believe. Wow, look, it's again, repent and believe. Amazing, everywhere. Now, I'd like to give another example of a runaway example concerning the body of Christ. As I said, I hear Dan brought a wonderful, everybody's told me you brought a very wonderful message and I have no idea what you preach. So I don't know if I'm gonna preach the same or different. You must forgive me. I'm not actually gonna preach about the body of Christ because the body of Christ is one of the most amazing, as Dan would be able to say to you, the most, as Brandon can say of faith and Dan can say of the body, is one of the most amazing teachings in the Bible and doctrine in the Bible is where we fit into the body of Christ. It's amazing. It's absolutely phenomenal. But there are people who run away with this and it becomes everything to them. So let's read 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28 quickly and then also Ephesians 4, verse 11 before we look at some people out there who are unbalanced concerning the body of Christ and how they apply it to their lives. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28 says, and God hath said some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversity of tongues. Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles. Now the first thing you have to realize is that some people, and this is a wide movement across the world, box people into one of these and they say this is the only gift they have and they may not exercise any of the other gifts. That is one of the most common heresies across the world. You can't have another gift. You can't exercise another gift. It's not as we can biblically put it that mostly you have that gift and you may exercise other gifts. No, that's it, nothing else. And we'll come a little later why this is absolutely impractical, it just cannot work out. I know many preachers who are great preachers. They are great teachers. On Sunday when they teach in the church, it's not evangelism, it's not teaching the gospel in general they are teaching Christians the most amazing things. But those same preachers in the middle of the week are on the streets and they're talking to people about their souls and they're not teaching them, they're talking to them about Jesus Christ, repentance and faith in Jesus. They are witnessing. Now are they doing wrong? Are they doing wrong because they're exercising, I'm not saying they're exercising two of the gifts but to some people that would be exercising two of the gifts. No, they're doing right. They are used of God as teachers and they are used of God as soul winners. Which is actually slightly different to evangelists. Anybody can be a soul winner. People are often deceived as to their gift. You know, I worked for a year with a young guy he's now married and he was a wonderful guy. Everybody liked him but he told me that his gift was definitely not to evangelize. So I said, okay, whatever. He said, I'm a help. I feel a passion in my heart to encourage people, to be there for people, to help people, to whatever for people. And I really don't have a passion to evangelize and I don't know how to do it anyway. And then one day he read a book and after reading this book, his life changed. He suddenly had a passion for evangelism after years. And he would go out and he's preached still today to thousands and thousands of people the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he loves it and he witnesses. And his passion is now to be an evangelist in a sense. And to teach. Or he's mixed up. But at the end of the day, he thought that the fact that he didn't have a burden meant he was not an evangelist. Well, the real reason why he didn't have a burden was he was struggling with whether he was really saved at that stage. And number two, because he didn't have a fire for souls. It wasn't to do with that he wasn't an evangelist and that he wasn't a help. I've met many women who have come into the teaching of people who talk about the different gifts in scripture. Conservative preachers who talk about the different parts of the body, teachers and so on. And they said, I've met so many women who claim to be prophets. They love to be prophets. Especially the type that loves to tell their husband they're wrong. And I'm being serious. I've met many people in conservative homes. The day they found out that there was teaching on the fact that because you had a burden for something that made you it. And quite a few of them said, well, I have a burden to correct people when they're wrong. I'm a prophet. And their poor husband, you know, this one husband came up to my mom at one stage and I know this person and said, you know, it's very hard being married to a prophet. To tell you the truth, and this might shock you but a lack of burden means absolutely nothing. And I can prove it from history. In Canada, you had a revival in the 60s, I think. And the one guy was testifying about the survival and he said he got a whole lot of people together and said to them, who wants to go out witnessing in the street? Guess what? None of them wanted to go out. That was before the revival. So, he didn't ask them, are you evangelists? Are you helpers? He said, well, who wants to pray for revival? I said, well, we all pray because that doesn't sound as bad as, he'd really bashed them about witnessing and they felt bad about that and none of them wanted to go because they didn't have a burden. And so, you got them all together and they started to pray and pray and pray and pray and eventually God broke through, God came down, their hearts were on fire for God and a whole lot of them went on the streets and witnessed. All the helps, all the evangelists, all the healers, the whole lot. What a pity. The whole church on the street. Now, what do you do with that? And God worked in revival. God stopped, he's a help. You can't have the whole lot of the church evangelist. I'm not doing that to God, I'm just showing you how stupid it is, how some people take something to an extreme. I mean, there's been churches where all the youth of the church used to go out on the streets and be used to God. In Acts 8, verse one, it says, all after the persecution of Jerusalem, all except the apostles, every single Christian, basically, I'm sure you missed a few, but basically all the Christians were scattered abroad. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word, not just the helps, not just the miracles and not just the people who healed people, it was everybody, except the apostles. The poor apostles stayed at home. There's something you have to realize, no gift of God exempts you from the command of Christ. And one of the commands of Christ is go into all the world and preach the gospel to every preacher. In fact, many of those who are very obviously not evangelists, they're not people who go around teaching and preaching the gospel. They obviously help, their burden is to help people. They are the best soul women. Some people have a definite gift in healing, are very good soul women. But they've got a definite gift to heal. I'm not talking about Benny Hintopp here, I'm talking about conservatives, they don't seek attention, but when they pray, God heals. They're very good soul women. There is no gift of God that exempts you from the commands of Christ, not one of them. That is imbalanced and very dangerous Christianity. 1 Corinthians 14 verse one says, desire spiritual gifts, plural, oops, covet earnestly the best gifts, Proverbs 31, plural. It is possible to actually, for a person to very effectively manifest more than one gift. Are all apostles, not all of them are. You all speak in tongues, no? But it is very possible, and it's been proven through history again and again that great preachers and great evangelists and great soul winners manifest more than one gift. But all of them are under the authority of Christ's commands, which includes preaching the gospel to every creature. Does that mean that every person has to stand on the side of the street and preach the gospel? No, but it does mean that we have to be witnesses where we can, whether it's hanging out tracks or at work or wherever else. We don't have to be like each other. Aaron is very glad that he doesn't have to be like me, because then he'd be ugly, and he'd have to jump up and down. I had a friend who was a great soul winner, but he used to slowly climb into people's hearts. I've never seen people do that. He had such a nice personality. He didn't go out in the streets and go, I'm preaching to you all, and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ according to the Baptist third denominational book. He didn't do that. He used to come and creep into people's hearts with that nice big smile, and after a while he used to ask them, where do you stand before our holy God, and his own words. And they trusted him because he had that smile. We don't have to be like each other, but we have to all obey the commands of Christ, every single one. Yeah, my friends, if you do all things whatsoever I command you. Oops. Now, if we want to be friends with God, we can't say there's one command of Christ which we don't have to keep. Except when he said to Peter, get thy behind me, Satan, because that was to an individual. There are obviously certain commands which were to individuals. Now, let's say, to cap this off, ooh, I've got one more page, I forgot. Let's say to cap this off, I get on a boat, and I sail across the sea, and I come to an island, and on this island is a very big island called Australia or something. Actually, it's not Australia, but it's a big island with millions of people, and I get onto this island, and it's the 1700s, and there's not one person who's a Christian, but I've got my Bible, and I walk up to these people, and I say, hey, can I teach you the Bible? And I start to teach you the Bible after I've learned their language, and eventually three of them seem to get radically saved. There's a day in their life, one day, when just three, God comes, and he convicts them of sin, and they accept Jesus Christ, and their lives are changed, and they come up to me and say, Roy, teach me about the Bible. And I say, brother, I've got terrifying news for you. I'm an evangelist. I can't teach you, it's not my gift. And some of them come and say, but can you, my leg is sore, can you pray for me to be healed? No, sorry, I haven't got that gift either. I'm only allowed to have one of the gifts. That's evangelism. I'm not allowed to do any of the others. I'm terrified, sorry, can't teach you, can't heal you, can't do anything else, just evangelism. And I can prove it in the scriptures. Some evangelists, no, they're not gonna mind about that. They're not gonna worry about that. Because that's not the point. The point is, there's no church there. The point is, in that situation, there is not the body of Christ. It has to be built up. And I, as a person, have to evangelize, teach, help them, I have to serve them as a helper. I have to do everything, basically, of all those gifts, because I'm about the only Christian who can give an example there at that time. You know, many churches, you can't say when there's a church, and there's only three, really, on five people for God, that are your helpers, where the rest of them, they unsaved, but you three unfortunately helped, so you can't evangelize. You can't pray for anybody to get healed. You can't do anything. Because you, you're a help. If there's a sinking ship, it's all hands on board. Don't care what your calling is. And that's a fact. This is the ideal, that there are pastors, and that there are this, and there are that, and that they mainly focus on these things. That is the ideal. But, very clearly, from history, and from practical situations, there has had to be people who multitask. Like my wife says, I can't do, and she does very well. Now, this has nothing to do with calling, but this is just an example of how scripture works. Did you know that Peter, the Bible says Peter was called to the circumcision? Is that true? Peter was called to the circumcision, and it also says very clearly, Paul was called to the uncircumcision. Now, who was the first person to preach to the Gentiles? Peter. Who preached quite a lot to the Jews? Ezra, Paul. You see, the fact, they never boxed themselves. Yes, in a way, they were more in one direction, but they never boxed themselves. I met people who said, I'm only called to the Muslims. I'm only called to children, I'm only called to this, I'm only called to that. Yes, that can be your main focus, but you must never box yourself, because then you'll start to disobey certain scriptures, because that wasn't my calling. Every creature, oops. That, not only the Muslims, that's not only the children. Oh, Jesus Christ suffered little children to come, and he also had adult disciples. Oh, no. He went to a Samaritan and the Jews. This is confusing. Now, there's one thing you have to realize, and this is where I really appreciate, I have no idea what Dan preached, but I very appreciate that he preached on it, because it's so important to preach on the body of Christ. So thank you, Dan, I wanna get that tape so I can listen to it, I'm sure it's very good. I'm not gonna criticize it, I haven't heard it, I want to hear it, okay? We need the body of Christ. You know, I go to towns, and people sometimes get saved. Sometimes they get saved and they don't stay saved, so obviously they weren't saved. But other places, people really get saved, and their lives are changed, and it's wonderful to see their lives changed. And months later, they don't really know what is right and what is wrong perfectly, because there's not one church in that entire town where, I've been in towns where literally, there's not one church in that entire town where the truth is preached. That's why it's good that we do websites sometimes, but even that, I mean, they don't have internet. And so I long for the pastors to be there to support the evangelists. In that sense, the body of Christ is extremely important. Acts 18 verse 26 talks of Apollos. He was a guy who knew the scriptures greatly. He was mighty in the scriptures, something that I long to be. And I wish others long to be, although I'm very far from ever being it. But it's something that I long for, to be mighty in the scriptures. And he was preaching away, and we read in verse 26, and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom Aquila and Presquilla had heard, and they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. Now, this is one of the most precious portions of the scriptures. He has a man who's a great preacher, like Eric. He has a man who's an amazing expounder of the word of God. He has a man who just has it all for him, and here comes a little man and a woman who aren't great preachers. They do win souls, and they teach a few people whenever. They are soul winners, which all of us should be. But they are people who come up to this man, Apollos, and they say to him, listen, can we teach you something? I don't know their words. They might say, we know you're a big preacher and everything, but can we just tell you a little more doctrinally how to be correct? And almost like the mouth and the foot and the eye all need each other, so this part of the body comes and says to you, can I help you out as teachers? And he has taught the way of God more perfectly. Now, there's a person in South Africa I know as a personal friend. He got saved out of Satanism. He got radically saved. He started to memorize scripture for years. He used to, like Apollos, in a way, was mighty in the scripture. He knew chapters and chapters and chapters and chapters and chapters, and I'm not lying, chapters of the Bible off the heart, books and books and books. He used to stand up in times when nobody used to come together for meetings almost. I mean, the little traditional churches used to have 100 people, and hundreds of people came together among the white people, which is amazing. I can't get that right. And he used to preach, and people used to cry, and tears rolled down their faces, and people got saved. One of my best friends was saved under this preacher. And then he started to learn strange doctrines. And he heard from one preacher that if you do one sin, just one sin, then you'll go to hell. And I spoke to him, my dad spoke to him, a whole lot of people spoke to him. But to him, apart from my dad, my dad was the one person he would listen to. But even my dad eventually just rejected. Because we were not used as much as him, because we were just little perscillers and acquisers. Because we were not used as much as him and had as many souls crying and breaking before God. Because of that, we could not know the heart of God more than him. And so he rejected this. And rejected it, and eventually his life was utterly ruined. Because he didn't realize that the different parts of the body need the other parts of the body. History has proven people have been used in multiple gifts. Some are very obvious to have one gift, but not solely that gift. It's one that they more of a teacher than evangelist. They're still a soul winner, and they do other things like they help and they pray for people to heal. But their main focus is evangelism. Or their main focus is a helper, and they do a little bit of the other things on the side. They focus on individual things, but not exclusively. So let's read to end off 1 Corinthians 12, verse 14 to 17. Might actually read a bit further. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the healing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor can the head to the feet, I have no need of thee. And it goes on to say, nay, much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. Sometimes the briscula and aquilas, they are more necessary because they can balance the younger people who so have been used of God in another sense. We have a problem here in Corinthians where people are thinking they're spiritual because they've got amazing gifts, speaking tongues and a whole lot of different things. And they look down at the people who don't have as amazing gifts, the little helps and whatever. And people who don't have as many souls saved and people, whatever, I don't know the situation perfectly Dan Curran. You can surmise and look in the history and a lot of things, but you don't know exactly. And God said, the least of the members in my own word are sometimes more necessary, more honorable. And we have to remember that. We need the body of Christ, but we also need to be balanced in any doctrine in scripture, whether it's as Brandon would say, the faith doctrine, which is a wonderful, wonderful doctrine which he preaches and I appreciate that so much. Whether it's someone who's preaching standards and he gets away from preaching faith. He's unbalanced. Whether it's someone who has standards and you look at them and think, wow, he's a legalist, but you don't realize he's just doing it to protect himself and he's making mistakes. Most people with good standards make a few mistakes. They go a bit too far a little now and then. And I'd like to end off with this. Timothy was saying today that he preached on something. I don't know if a few weeks are back. And he said, no, he wouldn't normally preach that at other churches because it's not the issue in other churches. Somebody else preached here for many years. And then it came up the thought, what direction are you going? What direction are you going? And I know churches and missionary societies in Africa that they threw away, let's say, Sunday worship. Now, you can argue that we don't have to keep Sunday as a Sabbath, and I agree. It's the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the people who were pushing for this, using correct arguments, were people who wanted to throw away modest clothes, dress, who wanted to use worldly music and rock music and a whole lot of things, and they knew that they didn't have scriptural foundation to do that, but they knew if we start going in another direction, legitimately, we can end up with the wrong stuff. They knew that. And so they pushed on the issues where they knew they had scriptures, like the fact that Sunday is actually only a celebration of Jesus Christ. And they started to push and push and push and push. Eventually, they got their way because they had the scriptures behind them. And when they got that, they said, look, we were right there. What about this, this, and that? And eventually, it just fell down, all the standards. The standards fallen are very hard to take back. You know, if you have a public schooler like me, then when you have a certain standard, you might be saved and be going in a direction of becoming more and more conservative and more and more like the Bible wants you to be according to the principles of scripture. And you're becoming more and more like this, but you're not perfect standards compared to a conservative church. But you're still right because you're going in the right direction. But you will get conservative churches where for years and years and years, they've had certain standards, and they started under a rebellion to authority to go in another direction. And so they're going in this direction. They're exactly the same standards as each other. They've got exactly the same standard, but the one is going in the right direction and the other is going in the wrong direction. The one is fine and the other one is in peril. And it's been shown again and again and again that you can churches, they look exactly the same on the outside as far as standards go, but the one is going in the right direction because they're seeking God and they're finding more and more of what is right. But the other church is going totally in the wrong direction. Five years time, they destroy. So it's not just about what is right and what is wrong. It's about which direction you're going in. That's very important for churches. And then lastly, a lot of people say the statement, and this is just basic teaching. But they say the statement that anything extra-biblical is legalism. Now, when the Bible, I'm talking about directly extra-biblical. Anything that's not directly in the Bible, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not marry, I mean, thou shalt not whatever. If it's not directly in the Bible, thou shalt honor thy parents, then it's legalism. When the Bible does it say, thou shalt, I'm not talking about principles. Thou shalt not smoke dacha. Now, in South Africa, we're about the only country in the world that's got a dacha party for a politician. Thou shalt not smoke heroin. How do you spell that? Thou shalt not smoke opium and hubbly-bubblies and whatever else you wanna have. Aaron, what, sorry. Anybody? I know it says that pharmaceutica in the Greek will land up in Lake of Fire in Revelation, but where does it say this? Thou shalt not smoke dacha. Thou shalt not smoke heroin. Thou shalt not smoke opium. Thou shalt not listen to rock music. Thou shalt not. Now, because it doesn't say thou shalt not, does that mean it's a right to smoke dacha? Heroin, opium, and hubbly-bubblies, which is actually a low grab, but I still disagree with it very much. Any answers? I'm being serious. Is anybody gonna answer? The Bible doesn't say when, no, you're not gonna go out there and say, okay, now Roy said that we're allowed to do these things. I'm asking you. The Bible doesn't say that we're not allowed to do it, so are we allowed to do it? And if so, why, biblically? Wow. So if I was one of those Rastafarians who came here with my dacha, and I said to you, why aren't I allowed to do this? You'd say, show me one biblical true reason that says I'm not allowed. Show me in the Bible where it says I'm not allowed to do this. What would you say? Okay, then that's a very good answer, but now I've got dreadlocks, and I say it to you, but I breathe, and I can't live without breathing, man. So there's a lot of things which, I mean, I have to eat. So I mustn't be brought under the power of any. That means I must be in control. It's breaking biblical principles. You can go through scriptures and show a whole lot of principles. In Ephesians, be not drunk with wine, wherein it is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, unto what? Self-control. You mustn't take things which take away self-control. You can go to Revelation and show where it says pharmaceutica, all those who are sorcerers, which is pharmaceutica, will land up in the lake of fire. But ultimately, there are many biblical principles which are broken. So it is not extra biblical. It's not adding to the Bible to say that dacha is biblically wrong, heroin is biblically wrong, opium is biblically wrong, because it breaks biblical principles. And that's exactly the same with something like rock music. It breaks biblical principles. We're not going into a long session now on why it breaks biblical principles, but it does. There are many things. It's not extra biblical to preach against. But, I think Aaron will love this. Aaron, can you come to the front? I have very little idea what I'm going to do. We're talking about balance. Now, he's about the same weight as me. That's not the point I brought him up. We're talking about balance. Aaron, can you say from your experience with conservative Christians, this is one of my friends, by the way. I love it. When he came to Africa, it was wonderful because he was a mechanic, and I had my own personal mechanic for free to drive around as a missionary. It was brilliant. He's a very good mechanic. He told me the car was about to crash. And we dealt with it a few weeks later. So, have you ever met conservative Christians who use biblical principles that don't exist to prove points which don't exist? We have a yes. Yes. Does this include courtship? Bury the past or the past will bury you. Okay. Biblical principles which don't exist. Or they really twist scriptures. Now, there are lots of things we can read into the pictures of the Old Testament. You have Isaac and Rebekah. Wonderful story. You can learn a lot about marriage from that. But can you make it a rule, this is the only way that people can meet their wife, or whatever you like to call it? No, because if you do that, you're not being consequent. If you take the patriarchs as an example of how to get a wife, then we should kiss our wife the very first time we meet the person, because that's what Isaac's son, Jacob, did the first time he met, I'm not gonna kiss you. The first time he met Rachel was, he kissed her. Now, does that mean we can kiss whoever the first time we met them? You might not know it's the right one. That would actually be family and tradition, whatever. You cannot take them as an example of what to do and everything, and take them as perfect principles because they had a nose ring, a house card. They lied. Every single person, almost in the Old Testament, including Abraham and David, had terrifying failures in between their big failures, like adultery in David's case. There was lots of other failures. You cannot take them as an example of what to do. There are things we can learn from their life and be inspired by them, but we cannot put in law biblical principles and say this is exactly what we should act upon. Else we're gonna have the most amazing theology. Aaron, I know you wanna get married, but you can sit down now. Okay, that was my sermon. It's a bit different from my normal sermons. I'll get back to my normal type of sermons at the youth conference coming up, but I just thought I'd do something different for two sermons, and I'd like to pray now, and thank you, Aaron, for wanting to come to the front. Father, thou know'st with this simple sermon that the desire of my heart was just to paint a picture of what it is to be unbalanced in certain areas of Christianity, and there's so much of this across the world, in conservative churches and liberal churches, and I just ask for every one of us that you'll give us wisdom, Lord, to as we journey the life of Christianity after we're born again, those of us who are born again, that you'll give us grace to not go off on one extreme or another extreme, to not have a middle extreme, but to do that which thy word and the principles of thy word would have us to do in every area of our life, and I ask this in Jesus Christ's name, my dear Lord and Savior, that we would have a desire to know thy will in every area of our life, and then to do thy will so that we can please thee, and I ask this in Jesus Christ's name. Thank you very, very much.