SID: I’m here with Dr. Michael Brown and you will not believe what he just told me during our commercial break. The hyper grace people are advocating not only throwing out the Old Testament, but get this, throwing out the words of Jesus. Explain.
DR. BROWN: Well one hyper grace teacher actually says this, he says, “The Bible Society”— I don’t know which Bible society he means—”The Bible Society made a terrible mistake when they put the Old Testament together with the New Testament. It totally confuses people.” Another leading hyper grace teacher, well known, TV, books, he actually has a series teaching the differences between the God of the Old Testament, the cruel, angry God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament is the Father of Jesus. I mean, it’s mind boggling they get this wrong. But some teach this in mainstream that what Jesus said before the Cross was for the Jewish people that were listening to him then, and he gave teaching so that they would come to despair and see their own legalistic righteousness, how that fails, and they finally leave for grace, but it doesn’t apply to us. Well why does Jesus say in John 15, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will, it will be done for you,” why does Jesus in the great commission in Matthew 28 say that, the way we make disciples is to teach them to “observe everything I commanded you”? Why does it say in John 14 that, “The Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance everything I’ve taught”? Why in fact did the gospel authors work for years to put their accounts together and then publish them, and why were these words prized by the early believers if they’re just for the Jews “before the cross”? It’s crazy. And Sid, that means all the demands of Jesus, take up your cross, follow me, I don’t have to worry about that. That means all the parables of accountability and I’m going to stand before God, I don’t have to worry about it because that makes me feel uncomfortable. That makes me feel condemned. What we need to do is not remove these passages, but ground people in the security of the love of God. God is not out with a stick to beat you. He’s demonstrated His love by Jesus dying for you. Unless you turn your back on Him and walk away from Him, He is for you. He is not against you, and He’s promised to keep you. When I fly overseas, which is quite frequently, I don’t worry about the plane going down. I feel confident it’s going to get there safely. And unless I try to pry open that emergency door and jump out, I can just go to sleep. I can rest. There’s a sense in which we rest secure in the Lord, and God wants everyone to know it. God wants us to know the depth of His love. God wants us to know that even on our worst day He still loves us and cares for us, and wants us to live right. But Sid, when we eliminate God dealing with our sin, when we eliminate the challenges of Jesus, there are some who say spirituality is completely effortless. Well, when Paul says, “Run your race with perseverance, run so as to win,” you’ve got to throw those out. Strive to overcome.
SID: So why, I still don’t get it. Why do good men that love God just teach this part[ial] message rather than the full message, which causes full, what they’re doing, causes full deception?
DR. BROWN: There are two things. One, they get caught up in the glory of God’s grace. I mean, you read Ephesians 1, you read Ephesians 2. While we are attending our sins, He gives us life and then He seats us together in heavenly places. It’s mind boggling, the power of grace, the beauty of grace, the glory of grace. It says that he lavishes his grace on us. It’s absolutely amazing. So they get caught up with that. But it’s almost like a helium balloon that flies away and it loses its tether because it’s not tethered to the rest of the scripture. It doesn’t have a right appreciation for the use of the Old Testament. It doesn’t have a right appreciation for the words of Jesus, and even some of what Paul says they have to cut away. And hey, it’s a lot easier on the flesh. How do you like this diet, Sid? You can eat whatever you want. You don’t have to exercise and you’ll be just as healthy and just as fit.
SID: Sign me up.
DR. BROWN: Exactly.
SID: That’s what’s going on.
DR. BROWN: People are signing up in massive numbers.
SID: Okay. Sanctification. What does the word “sanctification” mean?
DR. BROWN: Sanctification means being set apart, being made holy, being given over to God. And Scripture makes clear that the moment we’re saved, we’re set apart as holy. We’re sanctified. That’s why we’re called saints in the New Testament. Saints sin. We don’t have to wait for some church to canonize us. We’re called saints the moment we get saved. So we are sanctified the moment we’re saved. Then there’s an ongoing sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul says, “This is the will of God: your sanctification.” Now live it out. Now live a holy life. Now abstain from adultery. Now abstain from stealing. Now abstain from covetousness. Live a holy life. Give the members of your body over to God, and then an ultimate sanctification, where we’ll be resurrected and made absolutely perfect.
SID: What is this the Bible talks about die to self? Is that what you’re talking about?
DR. BROWN: This is ongoing. It is an ongoing thing. Luke, the ninth chapter, “Take up your cross daily.” On a daily basis, not as sinners struggling somehow to make it, please God. No, as overcomers, as children of God, as victorious we say no to sin. We consider ourselves dead to sin. We live for God. It is worked out. Hyper grace says, no, no, no, you have already been totally and perfectly sanctified. Sanctification is not process.
SID: It’s not a process? You should have seen the way I thought, 40 years ago, when coming from an orthodox Jewish background, Jesus just revealed himself to me. Yes, I knew he was real. Yes, I knew the Bible was from him. But yes, my mind was not renewed. And the moment I would read the Word and say, oh, I never even realized this. God, I’ve sinned. I mean, where’s the tenderness before God?
DR. BROWN: It’s elation.
SID: It’s a worldly thing.
DR. BROWN: Something strange, it’s theoretically often more than relational. One influential teacher says the idea that sanctification is a process is “a murderous lie”. That’s what he says. I asked one hyper grace pastor, I said, “If you sinned against your wife, you lost your temper, you were nasty, you walked out of the house, you came back two hours later, wouldn’t you say, ‘Honey, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I was an animal. I was completely unjustified. There’s no reason, forgive me'” He said, “Of course I would.” I said, “Wouldn’t you do that with God?” He said, “No, no, I have a different relationship with God.” Something is funny there, Sid.
SID: Would you pray? See, I believe there’s a spiritual scale on the eyes of many Christians, and I believe they’re going to be set free right now as you pray for them.
DR. BROWN: Father, in Jesus’ name, I pray for everyone watching this broadcast that they would be delivered from every deception, from every addition to grace, from every subtraction from grace, from every pollution, distortion of grace, and they would be brought into the glorious liberty, security and power of your true grace. Father, open eyes by the power of your Spirit. Deliver from error. Ground us in your true grace, Father, in Jesus’ name.
SID: And as Mike was praying, I believe people are being delivered. You’re beginning to start reading the Bible, start thinking for yourself. By the way, someone was just physically healed in their hand, their fingers, arthritis. You can move your fingers. You moved your wrist now in Jesus’ name. In Jesus’ name, behold.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth