The Dangers of the Christian Radio

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We do have an anchor. Well, thank God, tonight I want to thank everyone for responding to the little plea on Sunday morning. I really appreciate it.

I want to share something this evening that I believe will be a real help to you, to some of you, I believe it will be an enlightenment to you. To some of you, it might be like sandpaper a little bit this evening, but I just would plead with you to let me be a shepherd this evening and teach you something that I've learned that I believe will help you. So before we go on with the topic, why don't we just kneel for prayer and we'll open it up for two or three brothers to pray and then I'll close.

Let's look to the Lord in prayer together. Praise the Lord. All right, this evening, this little lesson has been on my heart for some time and I needed to take some time to prepare it and that took a little time to find the time to prepare it.

But I'd like to share with us this evening this little subject, the dangers of the Christian radio. The dangers of the Christian radio is my topic this evening. I spent some time listening so that I could share with each one of you this evening firsthand, not something that I heard from someone else, but something that I heard with my own ears.

So I spent some time listening to the Christian radio station so that I would be able to share with you. Now, I want to say this before we get into the subject this evening. I'm not saying that everything there was bad.

I heard many good things on it, but I would have to say the bad far outweighed the good and it would be my desire this evening to convince you to lay the thing aside. Some of you, I know, you listen to the, quote, Christian radio station. In 2 Thessalonians 5, Paul tells the Thessalonians that they should prove all things was the admonition that he gave them there.

And that word prove means to test and to try it. It means to take a good look at it. It means to look at it with a discerning eye.

And what you see to be good, hold fast to that. And what you don't see to be good, leave that lay aside. I believe that's what Paul was saying there to the Thessalonians, that they should be people of discernment.

That they don't just take everything as it comes their way, but they prove it, that they look at it with a discerning eye, with a careful eye, with a questioning heart, and they prove it and test it and try it and find out whether it's good or not. And after they've done that, if it's not good, throw it away. If it is good, hold fast to it.

That's something good and you want to hold on to it. Also, if we could turn to 1 Corinthians. I just want to share a few verses of Scripture here that I believe have to do with what I'm doing here this evening.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I trust the Lord will give me grace not to be nervous and just share my heart with you this evening. It's a little bit of a nervous subject for me, but that doesn't matter. We do what we're supposed to do, not what we feel like doing.

1 Corinthians 15, Paul used most of the chapter 15 to correct a doctrinal error. And I'd like us to notice two verses that he shares in the middle of that chapter as a warning to the people. He said in verse 33, Be not deceived.

Evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness so that you won't sin. And sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God.

I speak this to your shame. Now, Paul was speaking specifically there about a doctrine that was not sound and he called it evil communications. Unsound doctrine is evil communication and it corrupts good manners or it corrupts the way we live.

That's what Paul was saying. And he was saying, Brethren, don't be deceived. Don't think that you can leave unsound doctrine among you and not be corrupted by it.

That's what he was saying in those verses. Don't be deceived. You will be corrupted.

And also, 1 Corinthians 2. I'm not sure how all this is going to come out. Can I tell you how I wanted it to come out? Then we'll see how it all comes out. I just wanted to be able to stand up here and just gently talk to you this evening.

That's my heart. I'm not sure if it will all come out that way. 1 Corinthians 2. Verse 14 and reading.

The Scripture says, and Paul is saying here, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth or discerneth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

And what he's saying is, we have available to us the mind of the very Christ who walked upon the earth. What a beautiful discerning tool that is. The mind of Christ.

And then also, over in Philippians. We want to read there, Philippians chapter 1 and verse 8. Philippians 1 verse 8. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, I'm burdened for you, and this is what I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment or discernment.

Why? That ye may approve things that are excellent. Why? That ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. And I can say this evening, that is my heart as I share these things with each one of you from my heart to your heart.

My prayer to God is that you would abound in judgment and discernment, that you would be able to approve or discern the things that are excellent. Now, this is something that's excellent. And have that in your life.

I do believe it's God's will that we as God's people, we should strive for that which is excellent. Not just so-so, not the middle of the road, but we should strive for that which is excellent in our lives as individuals and as a congregation so that we can be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ. Alright, with those Scripture readings, I'd like to move in to the things that I learned as I spent some time listening to the Christian radio.

And most of this was done in one afternoon. I had a long trip that I needed to make and lots of driving, so I listened to the Christian radio station for the whole time. And these are the things that I learned.

I'd like to put it into four categories. Category number one, music. Category number two, teaching.

Category number three, the programs that are on the Christian radio station. And category number four, the advertisements that were on the Christian radio station. First of all, I noticed about the music on the Christian radio station.

A lot of the music had a rock beat in it. Now, this was a conservative Christian radio station and I'm refraining from using any specific letters on purpose, but this is the conservative Christian radio station that I noticed much of a rock beat in the music. Now, there was no hard rock on there, but there was a lot of rock beat in the music as I listened to this radio station.

Number two, I also noticed that there was a lot of country gospel music on this radio station. And by that I mean, it's just simply country music with gospel storytelling put into it. That's what country gospel is.

It's storytelling put to music and it's gospel or country music that they put the stories to. I noticed a lot of that on the station. Number three, something that I noticed while I was listening, they had on there a contemporary choir and by that I mean it was a modern choir, not a chorus like what we would have here, but a contemporary choir singing live somewhere.

I'm not sure where it was, but it was a live presentation. It was such and such a choir live. And if you were in the world, that would make you sick on a Christian radio station, but that's the way it is.

It was live. Such and such a choir live. As I listened to the music that they were singing, of course it was contemporary music.

During the songs and at the end of the songs, there was cheering, screaming, clapping, carrying on. It reminded me of a rock concert that I went to when I was a hippie. Same kind of an attitude.

Everybody just carrying on and screaming and hollering and praising the people that just sang the song. That was what I noticed. Another thing I noticed on this station, they had a song by B.J. Thomas called Jesus is My Friend.

Now, I don't know if you know who B.J. Thomas is, but I do. How many of you know who B.J. Thomas is? Let's see if I can spot him. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh. Let me see your hands. Let me see your hands.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. You shouldn't know. B.J. Thomas is a worldly entertainer.

That's all he is. He's no Christian. He's anti-God.

But here he is singing. Jesus is My Friend. And you know, it was just a simple, sentimental little song about Jesus.

And I know there are a lot of musical artists who sing Christian songs. But this was on the Christian radio station. I noticed that most of the songs that I listened to were new ones.

They weren't the old ones. The old solid hymns that are packed with doctrine. But they were new songs.

Songs that I'd never heard. They were weak in doctrine. And they were filled with sentimental love for Jesus.

And I'm not sure if you realize what that is, but it's yuck. You know, sentimental love for Jesus. You know, it's just unsound.

You can take the same songs and change one word, the word Jesus or the word Lord, and sing the same song to your girlfriend. And that's a little bit how a lot of the songs were that was on there. I noticed also, one song that I listened to, it was a foolish, silly beaver song.

I hope none of us know about the song, but it was a silly, foolish beaver song. It was supposed to be a song to promote character, but it was just a nonsense, goofy thing. I guess it was for children.

Also, while I was listening, there was a very famous, quote, Christian singer on there. I won't give her name, but a very famous Christian singer on there singing the Star Spangled Banner for the troops over in Saudi Arabia. She recorded this song specifically for the troops over in Saudi Arabia.

It was highly emotional. I mean, it was idolatry. That's all it was.

You know, the Star Spangled Banner. Oh, how wonderful it is to be part of America. It just grieved my heart.

Highly emotional. Star Spangled Banner. And then last of all, in the area of music, I noticed throughout a constant spirit of entertainment, a spirit of entertainment.

Isn't this wonderful what's going on? Isn't this wonderful who's going to be speaking down here? Go on over here and you'll hear such and such a group sing and you'll really enjoy yourself and you'll have a good time. Everything was promoted in the spirit of entertainment. You know, what are you going to get out of it? You'll like it.

It'll be good. You'll enjoy yourself. It was all given in a spirit of entertainment.

Okay, that's category number one. Now, category number two is teaching. I noticed in the teaching a constant and an underlying emphasis always on Christian America.

Christian America. We're part of America and America is Christian and most of us are Christians in America. That was the underlying constant emphasis on the Christian radio station.

Christian America. Well, we don't believe in Christian America around here. America is not Christian.

America is more heathen than it is Christian. And a lot of the Christians in America are heathen and not Christians. But I noticed that all the way through there.

America and Christianity were wedded together on the Christian radio station. And the two that talked about the two, they were synonymous back and forth. Also, I noticed the basic thrust of almost all of the teaching was Protestantism.

And by that I don't mean the Protestantism of 300 years ago. I'm talking about American Protestantism. You know, the kind you hear in the Presbyterian church.

The kind you'll hear in the Methodist church. The kind you'll hear in a liberal Baptist church. I didn't hear anything like the kind you'd hear in one of them hot Baptist churches.

You know, one of them fundamental kinds. I didn't hear hardly any teaching like that. It was mostly Protestantism and loose evangelicalism, which means you believe in Jesus.

Jesus died for you. He's your Savior. Everything is okay.

That's a lot of what I noticed. And I might also add that American Protestantism is slowly but clearly remarrying Catholicism. I'm not sure if you're aware of that or not, but slowly and surely American Protestantism is remarrying Catholicism.

I have a real concern on that one. I also noticed constant mention of Christian politics. Many, many encouragements to get involved in the government, to get involved in the political system, to get out and vote, to get out and march, to make your petitions, to do this, to go here, to go there, write your senators, go see your senator, show up at this rally.

There's constant bombardment on the radio station to get involved politically because that's how we're going to save America. We're going to bring Christian America back where it was 200 years ago. If everybody would just get involved in the political system of America, we could do it.

That is what they believe. That is what is being clearly taught on the Christian radio station. I noticed also, these first few are just general statements.

I noticed also a whole lot of psychology all the way through the teachings. Psychology. I don't know if you know what psychology is.

Some of you do. It's too bad, but a lot of psychology has its roots with Sigmund Freud. Now, quote, the Christian psychology would never give any blessing to Sigmund Freud, but it's amazing how much of Christian psychology goes right back to the roots of Sigmund Freud.

And Sigmund Freud's teachings were these. That we have these desires inside of us and we can't help these desires being inside of us and we just have to learn to live with these desires and sometimes we need to vent these desires and it's not right, but it's okay. That's the basic teachings of Sigmund Freud.

And he taught that the way to get free from mental illness is to shake off all restraints that have been put on you by, quote, religion. That's what he taught. Now, Christian psychology would surely not put their blessing on Sigmund Freud, but it's very interesting how much you can smell the roots of that in the psychology that permeates the radio teachings today.

And by the way, many of the books that are read, some of the books that some of us have read in this room, it's the same old stuff. It's just psychology. It soothes you in what you're in rather than teaches you to repent in order to get freedom.

It soothes you in it. Midlife crisis. Well, it's not right to fall into an affair in a midlife crisis, but that's just the way it is.

That's Christian. Quote, that was a Christian book. A Christian book written by a Christian psychologist.

A famous person. He even probably has a radio program somewhere. But it's okay.

I mean, it's not okay to fall into an affair, but you know that's some of the struggles of midlife crisis. That's just the way we are. That is heresy.

That's nonsense. It's poison. It's just poison.

So I noticed a lot of psychology throughout the teachings. I also noticed this, and I believe it's worthy of note. Not a word about Catholics.

Not a word that Catholics need to be born again. Not a word that Catholics are not going to heaven. Not a word on there.

And some of you that may flip your Christian radio station on, I think you'd agree with that. You've never heard any messages about the Catholics. There's a reason for that.

Because the Christian radio station is along the same line as the, quote, Christian bookstores around here. We're making money. We've got to stay on the air.

We want to reach as many people as we can. We want to reach the broadest scope as we can, so we don't want to say anything that will offend anybody, so we don't stand for anything, and we don't believe anything, but we believe in Jesus. That's it.

And that is Protestantism. That's all it is. You can fill all kinds of churches up with that.

Not a word about Catholics. I noticed all the way through little programs here and there, a message here, an illustration and a message, throughout, I noticed, pro-war input. Pro-war.

It's, our boys did a great job over in Saudi Arabia. This is the Christian radio station. Our boys did such a great job over in Saudi Arabia.

Also, one evening, as I was listening to a question-answer program, the pastor who was answering the questions gave a blessing to the Catholic priest and acknowledged him by his blessing that he was part of the Christian community. There may be a few Catholic priests who've been born again, but most of them are not part of the Christian community. They are not.

They are not born again. They have a religion of works. They believe a religion of works.

They live a religion of works. And they teach a religion of works. And there's a lot of corruption in the middle of that also.

But, this pastor blessed the Catholic priest, and by his blessing and the things that he said, he was just receiving him and acknowledging that he was part of the Christian community. And evil communications do corrupt good manners. They do.

Also, I noticed a lot of women teaching and even preaching on the Christian radio station. Now, the Scriptures clearly teach us and warn us that women are not to be teaching, nor to usurp authority, nor to do any preaching to men. And there's a reason for that, because women are easily deceived.

It's not wise, it's not good to sit at the feet of a woman teacher and hear her teachings. Now, I want to give a little clarification there. If you have a tape by a lady, and she's teaching you sisters to be keepers at home, and lovers of your husbands, and lovers of your children, and those kind of things, I think that's just fine.

I have no problem with that. But, women are not to teach, nor to usurp authority, nor to preach to men. And I notice a lot of that on the Christian radio station.

I feel that's a danger, and could lead to deception. Also, in the middle of a sermon, I noticed vulgar words used. In the middle of a sermon, the man was giving an illustration.

It was a joke. He was giving it to make the people laugh, and he used vulgar words, not real filthy ones, but they were vulgar words, in the middle of his joke, in the middle of his illustration, and everybody laughed. Oh, it was so funny, when he used those words.

This one, I did not hear, but it was shared with me, on a question and answer program. A certain individual asked, whether it was alright to wear a covering, and the pastor who was answering the question, told the lady, that that's legalism. If your church tells you that you should cover your head, that's legalism.

We don't have to do that anymore. That's part of the customs of the Corinthians, the Eastern customs, but it's not a custom here in America, so we don't have to do that. Put the lady at ease, and put her at rest, and that's an interesting story.

It might come closer to home than you think. Also, I noticed, throughout the programming of the Christian radio station, a fighting spirit. A militant attitude of, get out and fight against abortion, get out and fight against pornography, get out and fight against this, get out and fight against the money being funded in our taxes to the homosexuals, and let's get out there and stand up for what's right, and fight for what's right, was the attitude that is often on there.

Also, one time that I was listening, there was a famous speaker from California. He writes many books, and very well known, real likable personality, just as sweet, and positive, and a vibrant type of a speaker. If what he was saying wasn't so filled with poison, it would be real pleasant to listen to him.

And a lot of people do listen to him. They like him. But this particular time that I happened to be listening, he was teaching on divorce.

And he just, I mean, he didn't even wiggle around the verses. He just simply said that divorce was okay. That God knows that we're weak, and God knows that we're made of flesh, and He's provided for our failures.

Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we just can't get along with our mate, and God knows what we're made of, and He knows how weak we are, and so He's made provision for us that sometimes if we just can't get along with our mate, we can go get another one. It's okay.

God doesn't mind. He made a provision for that, and that's why it's okay to divorce. Because, you know, we're weak.

Also, another occasion, I heard another famous preacher, and these are famous radio preachers, another famous preacher, he was sharing a message on being a testimony for Jesus. And in his message on sharing, on being a testimony for Jesus, being a light in this world, he used as an illustration the blessing that he had the week before of going and having the opening ceremony for the Dodger baseball game. You know, they call different preachers to come and sanctify the baseball game.

They sing, My Country, Tis of Thee, or Star-Spangled Banner, I'm not sure what, but they sing a song, and then after the song, they call on the so-and-so famous preacher, and he gets up there and he prays God's blessing on the meeting, and asks God to help all the players to be good and kind and all those things, and he sanctifies that heathen coliseum game. And he brought that out in a very positive light, and he was just rejoicing at the opportunity that he had to be a testimony for Jesus there at that Dodger baseball game. And I just thought, my, is that being a light? He had a lot of good things to say.

There were some good things there in the sermon. You know, good things. Things we believe.

Things we'd say amen to. Another occasion, I had the opportunity of listening to a testimony about God's blessing on a certain individual. A famous statesman's wife.

And this statesman is in the news all the time. He is big time. Big time statesman.

Well, his wife supposedly is a Christian. She was a Christian. She gives her testimony how that she gave her heart to the Lord when she was a little girl.

And for years, she was kind of a nominal Christian, but she always believed in God. He was just kind of back here somewhere. And then, after she got married, a trial came into her life.

She found out that her husband was drinking and he became a drunk. And when he became a drunk, why, she divorced him. Which is what all Christians do, I guess, out there.

She got rid of him. He was drunk all the time. And she got rid of him and divorced him.

And she shared the trials that came into her life, the loneliness that came into her life because she lost her husband. She had three children. She was very lonely.

She didn't know what to do. She shared the trials of that and how that God used that to bring her back to a good, solid commitment to Jesus Christ. And after that, she made this solid commitment to Jesus Christ.

Then she met this famous politician who was a widower. His wife had died and he had four children. And they felt led to marry and they got married together.

The four children, the three children, the woman who had a husband, who was married but divorced him, married this widower. And now they had seven children. And she went on to share the trials of those seven children and the blending of the two families together, how God dealt with her, how God taught her, how God blessed her, how God put His blessing upon her, how God raised her up, and how that now God is using her to speak in Christian meetings all over the country.

She's a very famous person, sought after, speaking in Christian circles everywhere around this country. But she's divorced and remarried. Also, just a few basic doctrines that I noticed over and over again.

I noticed a lot of emphasis on eternal security. I noticed a lot of emphasis on grace that covers. You know, it's okay.

God understands. God's grace covers. God forgives.

Don't worry about it. I noticed a lot of that teaching. I noticed a lot, a very lot of teaching of ecumenicalism.

The Christian radio station is hitting hard all the time to draw the body of Christ together and unify it and get rid of all these differences. And why are you fussing with each other? Let's be one. Let's be unified.

And that's all good and right. And we believe in that. But when you couple that together with no teachings to the Catholics, and you couple that together with American Christian Protestantism, you put all that together and then you put teachings on the unity of the body of Christ in there, and you just have the ecumenical movement.

That's all you have. A lot of worldly Christianity, which I'm sure you can tell. And I guess as I was pondering it all, I had to say this in my own heart.

I guess the biggest problem is all the things that are not said. All the things that are not said. And they're not said on purpose.

Because if you get clear, if you get sound, if you get down to meddling, if you get right down in people's lives, they're not going to listen to your radio program anymore and you've got to have their offerings to stay on the air. And the radio station doesn't want you on there if people won't listen to your program because it will be a bad light to them and they want to stay on the air. So, there's all kinds of things that are not said.

And that's very dangerous. Especially to our young ones, our undiscerning ones. Because if all these things are not being said and all the other things are being said, the evil communication is corrupting them and little by little, whether they realize it or not, they may be thinking, you know, it's not bad.

They're Christian. I'm Christian. They're Christian.

They're a little bit different than I am, but you know, it's okay. That is big time, brothers and sisters. That's big time concern.

Our youth have already begun to develop that mentality and maybe you have. Maybe those are real clear words and they relate to your very heart here this evening if you're a young person. That's big time danger.

Big time. Alright. The third area that I'd like to look at a little bit is in the area of the Christian programs.

I listened to a couple of those. I listened to a story time on there and it was dramatized story time. Do you know what dramatized story time is? Dramatized story time Story time on the radio time would be the biggest boring time you ever listened to if they didn't make it dramatized.

By that I mean, every emotion on story time is probably six times higher than a normal emotion would be. Otherwise, it's no good. It's boring.

When Susie almost fell off of the rock and Johnny was trying to reach her, the emotion of that on the dramatized story time is six times higher. Otherwise, it's boring. That's the same thing with the movies.

Movies would be boring if they showed them to us in normal life. Nobody would want to watch them, but they're extreme. The emotions are really heightened and everything is fast moving and this happens and then this happens and it's all done to keep you interested in what it is.

But I feel it's unhealthy for our children. I listened to a program, children's program, which was nothing but geared to child evangelism all the way through it. And we don't believe in child evangelism.

We don't believe that five-year-olds can make an adult decision to follow Jesus. We don't believe that. So I see a real concern in that.

I listened to the Unshackled program, which is a famous one. It's been on for years and it has changed quite a bit from when I used to listen to it about ten years ago in Hammond, Indiana. But I used to listen to it back then.

It's changed quite a bit. Back then it was just simply a man telling the story of his life and how he was a mess and how his life was a mess and how he got converted and how God changed his life. But now, Unshackled is not that way.

Unshackled is dramatized. And the one I listen to, and I'm just trusting the Lord, you know, I didn't listen to Unshackled for ten programs. I just listened to it once.

But this is the one that was on there when I listened to it. A fella that had been converted out of the drug world. He was a pusher.

He had been a pusher for many years. And this whole thing was dramatized. They had him dramatically sneaking down the alley.

They had the gangs coming out after him. They had the gangs screaming. They had the gunshots firing.

They had him hollering, he fell down and all those things. It was all on there. And all it was, brothers and sisters, all it was, was just an evil drama.

That's all it was. An evil drama. That is the same principle of the cross and the switchblade.

Now, I think it's alright for the people off the streets to read the cross and the switchblade, but I don't think it's right for us to read it. Or for our children to read it. Because it's filled with all the evil.

And it has a nice little conversion tacked on the end of it. I don't feel it's right. Alright, the last area that I'd like to bring out is advertising.

Which, by the way, the Christian radio stations wouldn't be on the air if they couldn't advertise. A lot of the advertising was okay. Real calm.

You know, come here, shop at this store, we'd like to help you if you can here. A lot of it was okay, but here's some of the advertisement that I listen to that I feel is not okay. There was an advertisement on quick easy money on the Christian radio station.

You tired of that job? You tired of that low pay? You tired of those low wages? Here's a way that you can get rich quick. It didn't say get rich quick, but it was an advertisement on quick easy money. And you know, every one of those advertisements on quick easy money, there's something not right with it.

And God tells us not to go after quick easy money, but to earn our money by laboring. Here's another one. An advertisement for a red sports car.

I mean, wouldn't you like to have that red sports car? Can't you see yourself driving down the street in that shiny red sports car? Don't worry about the finances. See us! We'll finance it for you. Easy payment plan.

Come and see us. Buy your red sports car. All you Christian boys, go to Dutch Wonderland.

Want to go to Dutch Wonderland? You can do whatever you want. And you can be whatever you want. Go to Dutch Wonderland.

Go there. You don't know what you're missing. You can do whatever you want and be whatever you want.

Go to Dutch Wonderland. How about this one? An advertisement for a Christian movie. This is a real good movie.

This is a movie about a Christian fighter pilot who witnessed to his buddy who was the one behind him in the same plane while they blasted hundreds of people with bombs. He witnessed to his buddy who was not saved and died before he got to see his buddy saved, but after he died in a fighter plane fight in the air, his Christian buddy or his lost buddy in the back, he was injured and the testimony of the Christian fighter pilot in the front caused him to give his heart to the Lord in the accident. That's what the whole movie is about.

Christian fighter pilots. Here's another one. This was very interesting on the Christian radio station.

It began with hot rods on a race track. You could hear them squealing, screeching, loud mufflers roaring down the race track. That's how this advertisement began.

And then it was followed by an advertisement to buy the best and get an exciting ride and buy a Peugeot and see us for the financing at such and such a car dealer. Christian radio. Here's one.

An advertisement for a Christian camp. You want to go to camp? Well, we have a Christian camp and the man who was advertising the camp just happened to bring up the fact that we have a lot of beautiful girls down here at the camp and encouraged the fellas to come and take a look for themselves and see if they don't have some beautiful girls at their Christian camp. That was on the Christian radio station.

And lastly, would you like to build the home of your dreams? Don't wait 20 years for the home of your dreams. You don't have to wait 20 years if you'll just go see such and such a finance program. They'll help you and show you how you can buy the home of your dreams now.

Why wait 20 years when you can have the home of your dreams now? Just go there and their easy finance program. They'll help you. They'll loan you the money.

They'll make about $100,000 off of you while you buy your $80,000 Christian home. That was also on there. Some of these things, honestly, they don't make a bit of sense at all because I know there's some programming on this station, you know, where I know that Larry Burkett is on there and he teaches good Christian finance principles and I appreciated some of the things that I heard when I listened to him, but then this is on the same station as an advertisement.

Well, that's the end of the things that I wanted to share. I'd like to say this in closing. I feel the Christian radio is a deception.

It's a little bit like a lot of, quote, Christian schools are today. You're better off to send your children to the public school than a, quote, Christian school that's filled with evil communications. Because your children go there with their guard down because it's Christian.

And I'm afraid people listen to the Christian radio station with their guard down. And as they have their guard down because it's Christian, and this is a good thing, and that was a good thing on there, they're being fed all kinds of things that really, in the long run, it will corrupt good manners. As I listened to it and just looked at it and then looked down the road and imagined our young people listening to it without the discernment that they need, I just saw them fitting right into Protestantism in ten years and having thoughts in their mind.

What? Christian. We're Christians? They're Christians. We're all Christians.

You don't have to be just like me to be a Christian and some of those things are true. But do we want to go down the road of American Protestantism? I don't believe we do. I don't believe we do.

Another thought that I have for you to ponder, do we dig through the garbage can to find something good to eat? None of us do. Not a one of us. Dig through the garbage can to find something good to eat.

I'm sorry, but it seems to me like there's a lot of garbage in this can. Do we need to dig through that garbage can to find something good to eat? I really don't think we do. I think there are enough tapes, enough sermons, enough devotional books, enough of food from the Word in our own lives.

I don't think we have to dig through that garbage can to get some good food. I don't. My plea this evening is that you put it away.

That would be my plea. As a shepherd, I would plead with you to put it away if you're finding yourself slowly, slowly being hooked by that radio. My plea is that you put it away and it will hook you.

A little bit more. You'll listen to it a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more. And pretty soon, it's on most of the time.

And pretty soon, it's just there. Keeping your mind. Giving your mind something to think about.

And really, what you've done is you've traded your sweet, quiet meditation time and prayer time in for a garbage can with a little bit of good food in it. That doesn't make sense to me. That makes no sense.

I would plead with you to put it away. I would make this plea to the fathers. Fathers, take charge.

Be a man in your house. If you see these dangers, but you're not sure what to do about it, let me tell you what to do about it. Get rid of it.

Be a father. Be a man. Be a man of God.

That's what you should do. Don't just sit back and say, I don't know what to do about it. What can I do? What can I say? Oh, come on.

Let's be a man of God and just say, No. We're not going to have that. I don't want you listening to that.

I would encourage you to do that. The Scriptures clearly teach, I believe it's in Thessalonians, that we should know them which labor among us. And that is speaking about those who feed us the Word of God.

We should know them. How can you know them? You cannot know them. If you did know them, you'd be shocked.

If you went to their houses, you'd be shocked. If you went to their churches, you'd be shocked. I tell you of a truth, you would be shocked.

Know them which labor among you. Don't just open your heart to everything that's coming in, but know them. Know what they teach.

Know if they're sound in doctrine. Know if they're sound in life. Know them.

The Bible teaches us that. And lastly, I'd like to make this appeal. Is there a falling away in America? Is there a falling away in America? Sure there is.

We know that. Are we listening to the falling away? Are we sitting at the feet of the falling away? I tell you, you are. In many cases, you are.

That is the falling away. Don't stand for anything. Believe in Jesus.

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the falling away will believe in Jesus. But, they won't have any sound doctrine. They won't have any sound practice.

They won't have any sound lives. They just believe in Jesus. Are we not listening to the falling away? What will happen to us if we listen to the falling away? What does the Bible say the falling away is? Does it not say that it is seducing spirits? Seducing God's people? Gently, craftily, wooing them away from a holy walk with God? Does not the Bible say that a time will come during this falling away that people will not endure sound doctrine? They won't want sound doctrine.

The issue on the falling away, brothers and sisters, is not going to be Jesus. It's going to be the Word of God. Their time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

So, Timothy, preach the Word. Use it. Make applications with it.

Use it for correction. Use it for instruction. Rebuke.

Reprove with all longsuffering because the time is going to come when they will not endure that sound doctrine anymore. The issue is the Word of God. It will not be Jesus.

It's the Word of God. That's where the issue will be. And if we're not careful, if we're not discerning, we'll just swallow it right up.

For God is my record. How greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.

That's my heart to each one this evening. That we may approve the things that are excellent. Excellent.

Shall we kneel together for prayer?