Fathers Know: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 In 1 John 2:13 and 14 he says the same thing. He repeats himself, and when the Bible repeats itself, it means it’s important. “I write unto you, fathers, because you have known Him from the beginning.” Now we know from past sessions that the word “know” means to understand, okay, to be aware of, to recognize something. We recognize God, we get knowledge of God, but we also know from the Bible that knowing God is an intimate relationship. It’s used as an intimate, personal relationship. And we also know that by this do you know Him: if you keep His commandments. So the fathers know Him. They not only understand with the mind, but they have a personal relationship and they keep His commandments. That is from the beginning.

▶ 1:08 Now here Paul, John is saying that Jesus was at the beginning. Okay, He wasn’t just, when He came, was born of a virgin, but He existed at the beginning, and fathers understand that. They have a personal encounter with that, and they obey that Jesus that was at the beginning. So fathers know Jesus was God. See, the father stage clearly understands that Jesus was God from the very beginning of the world. All right, John chapter 1, verse 1 through 14. We find in John 1:1 through 14 that “in the beginning was the Word.” Now John is going to lay this out very clearly: “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God.”

▶ 2:15 You see, at the beginning of time in Genesis, the Word was with God, but also “the Word was God.” Now this is very important. Now this chapter threw me for quite a few years till I grew in the Word, but it’s very clear. “The same was in the beginning with God.” So God was with God. You got it? The same, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the same, the Word, the God was in the beginning with God. So God was with who? God. He said, well, you have to be a father to understand that. See, you got to get past the little baby doctrines and get into the richness of the Bible.

▶ 3:19 All right, now let’s keep going. “All things were made by Him,” the Word, God, “and without Him was not anything made.” He goes on to say the world was made by Him. So John here emphasizes that Jesus created the world, created everything, and without Him nothing was made that was made, and the Word was God. Number five: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. Now I’m going to throw a few teasers at you, for those of you who are Bible students. The atheists, the humanists, the liberals, our opponents, all say that the Bible contradicts itself, and one of the places they say that it contradicts itself is God said, “Let there be light” on the first day, and there was light, but the sun and the moon was not created till the fourth day. So let me just throw out a little spiritual brain teaser to you. In Jesus was life, and that life was the light of men.

▶ 4:51 Matthew 17:2: Jesus was transfigured before them, and “His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment white as the light.” 1 Timothy 6:16: the Lord Jesus Christ “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” 1 John 1:5: “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” Psalm 104:2: God “covers Himself with light as with a garment, and stretches out the heavens like a curtain.” Revelation 21:23: the city, the heavenly Jerusalem, the bride, “has no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God lights it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Paul, on the road to Damascus, when he encountered Jesus, he encountered a great light. So when God said, “Let there be light,” and the sun was not created till the day before, we have a scriptural reference for light, because Jesus was at the beginning with God, and Jesus was what? Light. Just something for you to think on. See, human intellect cannot understand these things.

▶ 6:26 All right, now we’ll get back to the kindergarten stage and continue. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth.” And John the Baptist bore witness of Him. So clearly it is talking about the Word, who is Jesus Christ. So if the Word is Jesus Christ, then Jesus is the Word, Jesus is God, and fathers understand that. They’re not confused at all. Hallelujah. Now, Jesus from the beginning: is it true that back in Genesis I can find Jesus? All right, in Genesis chapter 1 you’re going to find the God four involved in creation. How many? Four. What are you used to? Three. But see, John very clearly brings out that the Word is also God. Have I got your minds thinking?

▶ 8:07 Now, is it true? And you know me, I always go back to see if what God says is true back there. So let’s go to Genesis chapter 1, and we find the first thing involved is God. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” We got it colored in blue so that you know everything is related to Him. Verse 2, we have the Spirit, the second part, the second one involved in the creation: “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Okay, and see, God continues His truth all throughout the Bible, and so it’s important that we understand it was set at the beginning. All right, so we have God and the Spirit, and then we have the Word. Verse 3: “God said.” God spoke, and this is the power of God. It’s in His spoken Word. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

▶ 9:18 See, when God said, Jesus said, who is God, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Just like when He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. When God speaks something, He backs it up, and if you believe, you will not perish. See, just like He said, “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.” We know what His spoken word is. He accomplishes it, and you can have the infilling, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because God backs up His spoken Word.

▶ 10:03 Hallelujah. Now we know it is the printed Word, but it was only printed because He what? Spoke it. Yes, it’s that spoken Word, and you can have confidence that that Word is God. See, that Bible is Jesus. You can’t separate Jesus in the Bible. And then we have Jesus down there in verse 26: “Let us,” plural, “make man in our image,” plural, “and our likeness,” plural. He didn’t say, “Let me make man in My image.” He said, “Let us.” Why? Because that four-part, of identities and creating the world, is all God.

▶ 11:07 And Jesus. The Bible says in Revelation He was the beginning of the creation of God. The Bible says that He died before the foundation of the world, His blood was shed before the foundation of the world. Well, it wasn’t shed before the foundation of the world, it was shed when it was shed, 4,000 years later, but God spoke it’s going to be, and when He spoke it’s going to be, it’s as good as done. Amen. So Jesus is the beginning. His plan. Somebody, people say, “Well, you know, Adam and Eve sinned so God had to have a plan B.” Uh-uh.

▶ 11:47 He never had a plan B. He had one plan the whole time, and that was Jesus Christ, reconciling people back to God, back to what is right, and filling heaven with people that would repent and turn. That was His plan. All right, so that is Jesus. Remember, without Him not anything was made. Remember, the world was made by Him. All things were made by Him, John said. And so we have Jesus back there, part of the four-person God here, one God doing things with four different explanations: God, the Holy Ghost, the Word, and Jesus. Hallelujah.

▶ 12:38 Now see, fathers understand that they grow up, and they understand they’re not in some church where they’re just getting baby food all the time. They’re in the Word, they’re digging, they have their concordance, they have their Bible out, they have their reason. They “study to show themselves approved, rightly dividing the word” to God. They what? Study. They just don’t read the Bible through in a year, they study that Bible. And I would say, raise your hand, how many fathers we got here this morning, but we don’t want to do that. But think, if Jesus came and said, “How many fathers we got here?” how many could really raise their hand and say, “I study the Book, I’m learning the Book, I’m becoming a father”? See, we don’t study. Most of us don’t even read it. We’re waiting for some megachurch pastor to write another book to inspire us.

▶ 13:45 Now, characteristics of a father. The Bible says first the natural, then the spiritual. You say, Jesus said, “If I spoke to you of heavenly things, you wouldn’t understand them, so I speak to you in natural things about heavenly things so you understand them.” Isn’t that smart of Him? Yeah. I can connect with things that I can relate to. So here’s the characteristics of a real father, an earthly father, a genuine father, and so you men wake up. All right, Ephesians, first characteristic. Ephesians 6:4: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger.” A real father doesn’t irritate and drive his children crazy, all right, to where they get resentment in their heart and hatred in their heart. They hate life, they hate their parents, they hate their dad, they hate, and they resent. All right, and fathers can do that by being a bad example, by not knowing how to raise kids, by not putting kids first. See, but a good father will not drive his kid crazy, neither will a good mother.

▶ 15:18 “Lest they be discouraged,” or so that they be discouraged, or they lack motivation. They lack motivation in spiritual things, they lack motivation in natural things. They’re only motivated to play Nintendo games, or the Xbox, the latest Xbox stuff. That’s the only motivation they got in this generation, or to put earphones on and listen to their music. And now that’s our young people’s motivation today because there’s a lack of fatherhood in the home. Yeah, they become discouraged, they lack motivation. And you kids better listen to this, because fathers are there to motivate you. Fathers are there to make you into an adult later that can sustain themselves.

▶ 16:19 He goes on to say, number two, the characteristic of a father. Characteristic is defining features, the qualities, the defining feature of a real father, the quality of a real father is how he handles his kids. Now that child can reject it. Don’t blame the father when the child rejects what a father is trying to train him up to be. So the second characteristic, a real father “trains up.” That word “trains” has a meaning, it’s “cherish.” You put a value on your children. It’s like the husband nurtures the wife, he puts a value on the wife. She’s a priceless possession.

▶ 17:08 She’s more important than the gun you like and the car you drive. And if you polish it and you clean and take care of that gun, then you will more take care of that wife. If you cherish children, you will more than love your gun and love your car and love hunting, or whatever it is you like, you will love that child more. You’ll put a value on that child to grow them up to maturity, and that’s what the other part of this word means: to raise them up to maturity, because one day they got to supply their own need, they got to live on their own.

▶ 18:04 Okay, “train them up.” In the training, now this word “training” is instruction with discipline. You see, instruction with discipline. Women have a tendency to want their kids to be nice and mannerly and say thank you and open the door and all this stuff, but a man is very concerned about that child growing up to provide for themselves. Work habits, getting out of bed, going to bed on time, getting up on time. A father is very concerned about that, because one day that child has got to go on their own, or that father could die early, and then that child has to know how to provide for themselves, how to live in this world.

▶ 19:02 You got it. That’s what I tell young ladies. I said, “Young ladies, in this day and hour you have over a 50% chance of your husband leaving you, so you better get a job skill. You better follow the Bible principles and prepare yourself in the field in a job skill, so when, if that guy leaves you,” or husbands, that wife can leave you and leave you with the kids, “you got to have a job skill to prepare to do things on your own.” And see, a father understands that. He doesn’t live in a fantasy world, he lives in a practical world. Hallelujah.

▶ 19:48 Men, yeah, men have a big responsibility. In the Bible, let me tell you, God gives men a tremendous responsibility. You know, I’m kind of jealous for the women. “Train them up, discipline them.” So a father is interested in discipline. He isn’t interested in yelling and screaming at him and slugging him in the face with the fist. No. The Bible, when God uses discipline, He mainly uses His Word, and then He lets sin correct you on its own. Your sin will correct you. So your sicknesses, your venereal diseases, you know, all these, your backlashes that come from you choosing wrong, that’s you getting punished because of your choice.

▶ 20:42 But He comes with the Word to correct you. We got to listen. Amen. So that adds up to Bible morality, the thing that I’ve been pushing for a couple of years. See, it’s not popular, Bible morality, but it has indisputable results. You follow Bible morality, young people, you’re going to have good success in your life. You deviate, you’re going to pay a price, and it’s there to correct you and get you back. See, the father disciplines, see, to get you back on the right road.

▶ 21:25 Now that’s the natural father. Let’s look at the spiritual father. 1 Corinthians 4:15: “For though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ.” Okay, everybody’s going around talking about Jesus, and “I love Jesus, Jesus is my Lord and Savior.” You got 10,000, you got multitudes of people talking about Jesus being born of a virgin and dying on the cross and so forth. Okay, isn’t that right today? Everybody and their uncle thinks they’re skillful in Bible because they believe in Jesus and know that story. But he says, “You don’t have many fathers.” You don’t have many fathers, and we know why. You got to get through the embryo stage, the newborn stage, the child stage, the young adult stage, to the father stage, and not many Christians want to put in the effort and the time to be a father. Hallelujah.

▶ 22:42 To be a real natural father, you got to put time in. You got to come home from work and not want to unwind. You got to spend time with your kids. That’s what a real father does. It takes time to be a spiritual father. You got to put time into the Bible, you got to put time into church, being involved in church, not just going and warming a seat or getting inspired or watching a drama or listening to a concert. You got to put time in to learn. Could that be an amen? Number three, characteristic of a father: “For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.” You see, he said the third characteristic of a father is they birth.

▶ 23:39 See, a natural father gives birth through the mother to the child. Now we know that we are born again by the Spirit, John chapter 3, right? But we also know that we’re born again by the Word. Remember past sessions that we are born again by the Word. 1 Peter 1:22: “See that you love one another with a pure heart, being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the Word of God.” And so Paul is saying a spiritual father takes the Bible, takes the Scriptures, and instructs young believers so that they are birthed by that Word, from the embryo stage, from the newborn stage, to the children stage, to the young adult stage, to the father stage. Now, man, that was good.

▶ 24:42 See, and how many of you can agree, there’s not many fathers in the church world? Oh, it’s true. Most ministers are just teaching baby doctrines all the time. A lot of ministers are teaching embryo stuff. The people are just staying in the embryo stage. They haven’t really made a decision to follow Christ. They just believe in Christ, they haven’t made a decision to follow Him. They haven’t been born again. And it’s the minister’s fault, and it’s their fault too, for going to a church or listening to the radio where all you hear is embryo preaching. Could that be an amen? It is an amen. “For this reason I asked you to be followers of me.” Imitate me, Paul said. And in 1 Corinthians, number four characteristic, 1 Corinthians 11:1: “Follow me, imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” So see, a father can genuinely say, “Imitate me,” because I am imitating Jesus Christ. I’m not imitating some megachurch pastor, some great author. I am impersonating and imitating, taking on the example of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.

▶ 26:08 And fathers in the natural, we got to be examples. You know, if you don’t want your kids to have a temper and be angry, then you got to control your temper. If you don’t want your kids using profanity and shooting their mouth off, then you stop using profanity and shooting your mouth off. If you don’t want your kids to be violent, then stop beating up on people. You got to be an example. Is that an amen? If you want your kids’ attention drawn to Christ, you need to serve Christ, not just send them off to church and you stay at home and watch football. Got to be an example, an imitator. All right, an imitator. Number five, Philippians 3:17: “Brethren, join in following my example.” You see, Peter or Paul could say this because he did it and everybody knew. “Follow my example.” Fathers, can you tell your kids to follow your example in every area of life? Something to think about, isn’t it?

▶ 27:40 And mothers, you are not excused here. In the spiritual world this example is for male and female. You have no excuse because, well, I’m a mother. When it comes to spirituality, you got to be a father, you got to be an example. “And note those who walk as you have us for a pattern.” You see, “us” is now plural, so he’s talking about the other 11 apostles. Actually, there were 15 apostles when you count Barnabas and Silas and some others, and so they had this pattern that people could follow.

▶ 28:24 And I keep telling you, we need to follow the apostles’ doctrine, we need to follow the apostles’ example. Not any modern author has the authority that they had. Can I hear an amen? See, the Bible says they continued in the apostles’ doctrine. You see, the church still needs to continue in the apostles’ doctrine, it still needs to look to the apostles and Jesus Christ for examples and line up to that. “For many walk as the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction.” See, their behavior. Yes, they believe in Jesus, but their behavior is destructive.

▶ 29:07 2 Thessalonians 3:9: “We make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.” Now, how many men in the church have set out in the American church to be an example to those who come into that church? Most women have to drag their husband to church, honestly. All throughout the world, women are way on the front lines of following Christ, and I know it by the attendance in most churches. Women are 60% of the congregation and men are 30 at the best. It’s 60/40, I mean 70/30 and 60/40. And it shouldn’t be that.

▶ 29:57 Men should be the example, leading the way. Shame on us. And then he gives this example. See, he gives this example: “We commanded you this: if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.” Some among you behave in a disorderly, irresponsible manner. Some of you in the church are very irresponsible, not working at all, but are busybodies. You’re idle, you’re meddlers, you got nothing to do all day. And I’ve told you many times, real Christians work. They don’t just believe in Jesus, they work. Can I hear an amen?

▶ 30:57 And that same work applies to the spiritual. Like I said, you got to get into that Bible and study it. You got to get into Bible studies to learn and go back home and pray over that Bible study and get it in you and get it birthed in you. If you want to be a father and you want to be an example, you got to be a student of the Bible, the Word. And Jesus is the Word. You cannot neglect the Bible and say you’re in love with Jesus, because Jesus is the Bible. Wow, that was good. Do you feel that one? Yeah, praise God, America needs to hear this message.

▶ 31:56 Characteristics of a father. Hebrews 12:5: “My son,” every son has a father, “despise not the discipline and training of the Lord.” The Lord here is the Father, we are the son. Okay. “And do not faint and get weary when corrected of Him.” You see, going back to that discipline of a father: “for whom the Lord loves He disciplines and punishes every son He receives.” Spankings are Bible. Sitting in a chair until you learn to behave is Bible, some kind of act of correction so that that child corrects his behavior. Is what fathers do.

▶ 32:54 “For whom the Lord loves He disciplines and punishes every son He receives.” You know, “as many as received Him,” John 1:12, “to them gave He power to become sons of God.” You see, we receive Him, we accept Him in our life. If we accept Him and He accepts us, then He’s going to punish us, He’s going to discipline us, He’s going to correct us. You got that, church? He’s not going to leave you. Birth you and just leave you? He’s going to instruct you, discipline you, correct you, and punish you. Oh man, God doesn’t, but God is love. Because He is love, see, because He loves you, He will correct you.

▶ 33:45 Let’s go on with this verse: “If you endure chastening,” correction, “God deals with you as sons, for what son is he whom the father chastens not?” See, a real father will correct his children. A lousy father will turn it all over to the mother. I had men come to me, “Well, I can’t discipline my kid because I get extreme and I just beat the tar out of them.” Well, correct yourself. “Well, I can’t correct my kid because I just can’t see them in pain.” Well, buck up, you need to change. These poor women, they have more load put on them when us men don’t do our job. And women, when we do do our job, butt out. That’s the other problem. We try to raise up kids that are responsible, “Oh, you’re too harsh, oh you,” oh, cut it out, let me be a father.

▶ 34:58 Now listen to this: “If you be without correction,” punishment, discipline, “whereof all are partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” Of God. You see, if you aren’t letting God instruct you and correct you, then you haven’t been born again by the Spirit. You’re illegitimate, and you’re not heirs of anything when you’re illegitimate. Are you all out there? That is a very powerful statement. And how many illegitimate Christians do we have in America? A bunch. Why? Because they won’t let God correct them through the Word. They reject even the thought of God correcting them.

▶ 35:58 And then they want to claim the inheritance of eternal life and the inheritance of joy and wisdom, and you haven’t got an inheritance if you’re illegitimate. You need to get born again. “Fathers of our flesh corrected us,” if we’re the real father we will, “and we gave them reverence and respect.” And young people, you need to respect your parents. A good set of parents will be out to make you the best you can be, that when you get older you can provide for yourself, you can serve God on your own. Good parents know that one day you got to leave the nest and build your own nest and survive in this world after they’re dead and gone.

▶ 36:46 A lousy parent will enable you with giving you everything you want and not requiring you to learn a job skill. You teenagers listening to this, you’re at the age where you got to learn a job skill, you got to get educated, and you got to learn a job skill so when you become 20 years old you can provide for yourself, or in that zone somewhere. Twenty isn’t the magical word, that’s the goal. When the Bible says you are a full-grown adult, that’s the age.

▶ 37:19 All right, you go to college, it takes probably a few more years over 20 to get that job skill, depending on where you’re going to be, a physician, a position, or whatever. “Shall we not much rather be in submission unto the Father of spirits and live?” Who’s the Father of spirits? God. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the water. “I will pour out My Spirit,” speaking of the Holy Ghost. Spirit of God. The evil spirits, did they come from God? Oh, you’re afraid to say. Yeah, they did. “Without Him was not anything made.” They rebelled and became evil spirits.

▶ 38:20 “For they chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit.” Now there is fathers who want you to be quiet when they’re watching the football game, and will beat the tar out of you because you’re playing and get excited, and “You stupid kid, I told you to be quiet, I’m watching football.” See, that’s for their pleasure, that’s for their game, or they’re intent on a movie or whatever, and the kid’s crying, or, you know, like kids do, and the father lashes out. Yeah, they correct them for their own convenience. A real father doesn’t do that, doesn’t correct for their own convenience.

▶ 38:59 He corrects to train them up in the way they should go, and if that kid needs attention, he turns the TV off and he gives the kid the attention it needs at that time. Wow, that was good. That’s the difference between disciplining for convenience and disciplining for future development. See, that’s the difference between a value on your kid above the value of the football game, of the value of the movie, above the value of whatever it is. That’s the difference between a real father and a lousy father. Could that be an amen?

▶ 39:39 And remember, women, you’re included in the spiritual part. “But He for our profit.” See, God deals with us for our profit, that we might be “partakers of His holiness,” His righteousness. See, He corrects us for our good, not because He, you know, is inconvenienced. Now here we have number six: “Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yields,” number six, “the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” The peaceable fruit of righteousness, you see, “to them which are exercised thereby.” Isn’t that beautiful? See, that’s what a father does.

▶ 40:37 He’s out to raise his kid to make right decisions and live rightly in this world. A child can reject that, many children do, and they pay the price for it. Some repent and come back to what’s right, others go on and are destroyed in this life because they didn’t follow the instruction, the correction of the father. And God is our Father, and His goal is to get you to where you understand righteousness, live righteousness, and speak righteousness. Hallelujah. And that’s the high quality of a real father. He wants in the spiritual world the church to be righteous, and in the natural world the children to be righteous and be responsible.

▶ 41:40 Now, I told you last week we will learn what the meat of the Word is. The meat of the Word is righteousness. Okay, it is sad that so many people are still on milk, and milk only. Hebrews 5:12: “Although by this time you ought to be teachers.” Okay, he’s saying to these Hebrews, you know, you’ve been in Christ long enough, you should be a teacher, you should be an example. “You need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles,” or living Word, “of God.” How many remember what the first principles are? Hebrews 6:1: faith toward God, repentance from dead works, baptism of the Holy Ghost, baptism in water, baptism in the body, laying on of hands, resurrection, eternal judgment.

▶ 42:44 He says you haven’t even passed kindergarten yet. You haven’t even passed the newborn stage yet. You haven’t got repentance down, you haven’t got faith down, you haven’t got water baptism down, you haven’t been filled with the Holy Ghost and power, you haven’t been placed into the body as God wants you to be. You’re scared to death for someone to lay hands on you and bless you and impart to you, and you’re hung up on the second coming, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. That’s all you think about. That’s all baby food. That’s all baby doctrine.

▶ 43:24 “You have come to need milk and not strong meat.” So milk is the what? First principles of God, the baby doctrine. Strong meat, solid food. “All who partake only of milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness.” When all you can handle is baby food and you haven’t even passed the baby food yet, you haven’t got a passing grade in kindergarten, you’re unskillful in the word of righteousness. You don’t even like to hear messages on righteousness, to be honest with you. You want to hear that once saved always saved. You want to hear that no matter what you do, God loves you and you’re going to go to heaven.

▶ 44:14 That’s what you want to hear, because what? You’re a baby. “All who partake only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.” Just letting you think on it. This is the writer of Hebrews talking, it’s not me, don’t blame me. This is what the apostles taught, and no one has a right to teach anything but what the Bible tells us to teach. “No one but strong meat,” which is, say it, the word of righteousness. “The strong meat, solid food, belongs to those who are full age,” adults, mature, that is the young men and the father stage, “those who by reason of use,” by practice, practice.

▶ 45:27 You know, these young men have no problem going to the gym and putting in time to be buffed so the girls will go, “Woo, look at his body,” but you can’t get him to open the Bible and exercise that spiritual man. And I know there’s couch potato men in this hour and day. They do nothing but play electronic games and watch football and basketball and so forth, and they’re not buffed at all, they’re wimps, they’re just a bunch of wimps walking around. But they put practice into being a wimp, is my point. They exercise being a wimp, and you say, “Let me see your muscle,” and nothing pops up, drops down.

▶ 46:23 See, we put time into natural things, we need to put time into spiritual things, we need to practice them. “And have their senses,” their judgment. Everybody’s saying don’t judge, and here the apostle is telling us to what? Judge. “Have their senses,” their judgment, their understanding, “exercised,” trained, “to discern,” to judge, “both good and evil.” Now, are we to judge? Yes. Are we to judge what’s good and what’s evil? Yes. Jesus said it, the apostles are saying it. Forget Oprah Winfrey and all these people that say the Bible says don’t judge, they don’t even understand the Bible.

▶ 47:11 1 John 3:7: “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous.” I told you before, and I’ve told you many times, you cannot have faith in your faith. You cannot just have faith that you have the baptism of the Holy Ghost without the evidence of it. You can’t just believe you’re saved because you believe you’re saved and you don’t have the evidence of it. That’s faith in your faith. You can’t just believe you’re going to heaven when you die and don’t have the evidence of it, the proof of it. That’s faith in your faith, and the Bible doesn’t tell us to have faith in our faith.

▶ 48:11 Are you with me? We are righteous because we what? Practice what is right. Now, some of us are at different levels. That’s the growth thing. When you’re a new embryo we expect you to have unrighteousness in your life. When you’re a newborn baby we expect you to have some unrighteous areas in your life, because you’re a newborn baby, there’s no problem with that, you’re growing. Children, they keep the Word of God. All right, now we’re starting to get righteousness. Young men, they overcome the wicked one, the evil. They are living righteously, and the fathers live righteously. The results are the evidence.