The HICEE Technique
RO182-01

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1988)

We are studying Romans 15:1-6. Our subject is "The Spirit of Christ," and this is segment number four.

Grow in Grace

The Bible makes it clear that the primary objective of the Christian life is for every individual believer to reach the super grace spiritual maturity level. This is indicated, for example, in 2 Peter 3:18, where we read, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now, and to the day of eternity. Amen." Whatever else you are called to do as a Christian, number one: you are called to learn the doctrines of Scripture, so that God the Holy Spirit has the information through which He may guide you in your personal life. You will grow in grace as you grow in the knowledge of the Word of God.

This is further reinforced in James 4:6 which describes where this maturity is going to end up: "But He gives a greater grace (He gives a super grace). Therefore, it says (that is. the Word of God), 'God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" – those who humbly feed upon the Word of God, and who are positive to it. I don't really understand why some people attend church, frankly, because they learn principles of Scripture. And then it's obvious to everyone who knows them that they are negative to those principles of Scripture. And you think that they have enough sense never to come back, because God says, "The one thing I will hold you responsible for is true information of the doctrines of the Word of God." Once you know it, you will have multiplied discipline for the information that you turned your back upon.

However, that's what the Christian life is all about – learning the mind of the living God through the recorded Scriptures. Unfortunately, in the Christian community in general, Christians usually think that the primary goal of the Christian life is to perform some acts of Christian service. You have somebody who comes into the Christian life, and the first thing he's told to do is to go around witnessing. And here is this person, who doesn't know anything about the Word of God; who himself has no maturity; and, who is not oriented, going off, shooting off at the mouth, bringing into disrepute the Christian community and the cause of Christ. Well, the first thing he should do is to shut up and learn from someone qualified to teach him the principles of Scripture, so that he has a basis upon which to represent the living God with accurate and true information. You are not called to run around doing works of Christian service. You are, first of all, called to become something in Christ. And that something is to become spiritually mature.

Because of this attitude among Christians, we have a lot of spiritually immature Christians who are running around doing their human good works which are devoid of any eternal value. So, the cause of our Lord is discredited, and Christianity is made to look inane by these weak Christians.

Zeal vs. Doctrine

Now, the apostle Paul, here in the book of Romans, in chapters 14 and 15, has been dealing with this problem of weak Christians who are going around doing their own things to their own discomfort, and spiritual injury, and to others as well. The zeal and the sincerity that a person may have, who does not have an understanding of doctrine, is never going to enable you to serve God effectively. And that's the problem: "As long as I have zeal, and as long as I'm sincere, then God is going to take care of me, and He's not going to let me say anything wrong or stumble." You're wrong! Without a knowledge of the Word of God, your zeal, and your determination, and your achieving spirit is not going to make it. That's the characteristic sign of a weak Christian. The basic principles of Christian service is to become something through doctrine in order to be able to serve God.

Now, these Christians in the local church body are the product of the pastor-teachers of their local churches. As I have told you, your rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ will be directly related to the local church you have attended, because that will determine what you have been hearing in the services, and that determine what kind of motivation and understanding you will have to be able to serve with divine good production, and the real guidance of the Spirit of God that you need to do that? In most churches, this is what is neglected. No baby Christian can grow into spiritual adulthood unless he is fed the word of doctrine by his pastor-teacher.

Weak Christians are the product of incompetent pastor-teachers who are majoring on secondary features for their numerical success, and for their fame and fortune in the ministry. And don't kid yourself. Most ministers are out there for fame and fortune. That is a great motivation whatever else they may say. They want the numerical success. They love to see their pictures grinning like baboons with their Bibles in their hands, to show how godly and successful they are under the hand of God. What they feed is Christians is pop Christianity, and little devotional inspirations, and the people of God suffer and starve, and become ineffective. The weak Christian is an ineffective soldier in the angelic warfare, and the devil loves it. These weak Christians are basically characterized by a Christian life which centers on emotions and experiences. And these are readily manipulated by Satan. If you want a Christian life that's based on emotions and experience, you can count on Satan to accommodate you. He will indulge that. And whole great church movements now are centered on having an experience of some kind, and having an infusion of emotions of some kind.

One of our young men has been visiting other churches told me yesterday that he was appalled at a church that he visited. And it had a rather stout preacher. And he said that he yelled all the time. And when you have no content, and when your study isn't good, you will notice that the preacher yells more. You have to make up with yelling when you don't have content for instruction. That's a given. They teach you that in seminary. The less information you have, the louder you yell. Then the second thing about it was that he would emote. And our young man said that he couldn't figure out what the connection was between what had been said and what the emotions were. He was just emoting at certain points. Well, I knew exactly what this dude was doing. He was feeding these people what they came to have – an experience and an emotion with God.

One time in seminary, one of our professors saw the notes on the desk of a very well-known popular pulpit figure. And he said that he was appalled, as his eye ran over the notes, to see that periodically in parentheses, there were the words: "Cry here;" and, "Laugh here." And throughout the sermon, he had interjected the appropriate emotions he was to display: "Clap your hands. Dance a little here." And it was all right there. And he said that when he saw that, he knew this was a manipulative preacher, and he never listened to him, and had any respect for him again.

Unfortunately, that's the standard. And I can tell you that the preacher sits in his study. And if he's going to operate from experience and emotions, whether he writes it in his notes or not, he has got it in mind, that at certain points, he's going to do something to tickle your fancies and other places on you.

The Spiritual Maturity Structure

The apostle Paul found that when he learned and obeyed Bible doctrine, he developed five basic facets of a spiritual maturity structure in his soul. We found those facets listed for us in 2 Corinthians 12:10, and we've looked at them in detail. First of all, we are to be grace-oriented – to be a person who operates on the basis of the grace of God. The second facet was to have a relaxed mental attitude; that is, to be one who is free of mental bitterness and mental attitude sins. Third: to have a mastery of details of life, where your prosperity does not corrupt you. Fourth: to have the capacity to love, where you can have love that is the real thing, a product of the Spirit of God through the Word of God, toward your husband; toward your wife; toward your friends; and, ultimately, toward God. Then the final facet was inner happiness – a happiness which is not dependent upon your circumstances; upon some persons; or, upon some possession that you have.

A Christian with a fully developed spiritual maturity structure will reach what James 4:6 told us of, that we read of last time: the super grace level of Christian maturity. That is the strong Christian in the Word of God. This Christian then is a competent servant of God who is able to do battle victoriously in the angelic warfare day-by-day. And this is the Christian that we all love. This is the person that is always there. He's always on hand. When the church doors open, we know he's going to be there. He's going to be feeding upon the Word of God. We're never going to be in doubt whether he's going to show up or not. We know that we can count on him. And when the times of service come, he comes through for us. And we know that here is a Christian who has learned to walk with God. He is the Christian who knows that God is really there.

For most Christians, this is the problem. They do not have a personal, conscious awareness that God is standing right next to them. And if you don't have that, I suggest that you meditate along that line, and develop that concept, and you will find it will revolutionize your life. And you will then find your breath taken away as you talk to that person standing next to you, and the responses that come from him with the provisions that you need.

This spiritual maturity structure, formed by these five facets, can be viewed as a fortress in which the Christian defends himself against his sin nature; against Satan; and, against the world. It can also be viewed as the base of his attack in the spiritual warfare against Satan and his demons. The spiritually weak Christians are bulls in the China shop who must be nurtured to become strong Christians in order to do God's work, and stop undermining the work of God. The strong Christian must bear the load of the weaknesses, Paul says, of these immature believers, so that we can help them grow up. The strong Christian, therefore, has to sacrifice his own interests, and on some occasions, his own freedoms in Christ, for the good of his weak brethren.

The purpose of this self-sacrifice is to edify the weak Christian with the Word of God until that weak person becomes strong and useful in God's work. The strong Christian is the one who can open the doors to maturity. But after you've said that, we all realize that there are some weak Christians that are so negative, that they're going to be weak all their lives. And you should be prepared for that. Many of you come to me with your frustrated experiences of opening doors of spiritual opportunity to individuals, and you can't believe how they turn their back upon it. That's all you can do. You can point the person to the truth. The person himself has to be willing to respond. But the bottom line is that there is no substitute for Bible doctrine in the life of a believer if he is ever to enjoy any rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and any victorious Christian living here on this earth.

So, again, the apostle Paul has brought us back to the emphasis, and he's going to pick that up in verse 4 again – the emphasis upon the Word of God, and the role of the Bible in the life of a believer. Please remember that no one is born into this world with a divine viewpoint mentality. The old sin nature does not have divine viewpoint. So, when you come into this Christian life, you come in as a blank with divine viewpoint. You've only got a little bit of divine viewpoint. You understand the issue of salvation. But that's all you have. And what you come in with is all kinds of human viewpoint contamination and disorientation from all of your rearing, and from society around you. And if you don't have Christian parents, then you are in big, big trouble. You better hope that somebody else will take up the slack for you, in order to give you some divine viewpoint orientation.

Most people in our society are creatures of human viewpoint of the old sin nature. And when you follow society's opinions; society's way; and, society's values, they will lead you away from God, because society is out of touch with the real world. Do you understand? When you follow what most people believe, and do, and think – and especially as a young person, when you follow the trends of the other kids (your peers), you can almost count on the fact that those worldings are disoriented to the real world and to God, and they're leading you away from the God that very often you would want to be close to. So, when a person is born again spiritually, he does not automatically possess divine viewpoint.

A Spiritual Deficiency

So, in Colossians 1:9-10, the apostle Paul makes a very critical statement that all of us need to be reminded of repeatedly. Paul says, "We all are born with a spiritual deficiency in our minds. For this reason, also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding." The word "filled" is the Greek word "pleroo." The word "pleroo" refers to a deficiency that needs to be filled. Here, it refers to a spiritual deficiency. It's in the aorist tense, which, in the Greek Bible, speaks about the time when you decide as a Christian to remove your spiritual deficiency in your mind. It is passive, which means that you receive this from the Lord. This is not a condition that you can decide to correct on your own – to determine to be a spiritual Christian. It is the result of what God the Holy Spirit does for you through the instruction of the Word. It is in the subjunctive mood, which tells us that this is a potential thing – that some Christians get this, but most never do.

Now, this is a deficiency in your experience. This is what we call an experiential deficiency. It is not a deficiency of your position in Christ. Therefore, it is correctable. When you have this spiritual deficiency in your soul (and everybody comes into the Christian life with it), you can correct it. You can remove the deficiency. The primary duty, therefore, we say, of the Christian life is to prepare yourself to live the supernatural Christian life, by the filling up of this spiritual deficiency.

Bible Doctrine

Paul says, "I want this filled with:" what? He uses the word "knowledge." And you're acquainted with it. It's the Greek word "epignosis." The word "epignosis" refers to "full knowledge." The usual word for "knowledge" is "gnosis." That just means "information." But when they throw in this preposition ("epi"), it means a different kind of knowledge – a knowledge that you have a different relationship to: a full knowledge. This refers to Bible doctrine, which you have learned through that grace system of perception that God has provided, and you have stored this in your human spirit, because, under the filling of the Holy Spirit, you are positive to what you have been taught.

Some of you will walk out of this service today with your human spirits expanded and refreshed by information from the Word of God. And information that first hits your mind as "gnosis," will, by your positive response to it, be instantly converted into full "epignosis" knowledge, and it will be stored in your human spirit, and you will walk out of here enriched. Those of you who are indifferent, or who are now under a condition of personal sin, or some area of resistance, you're wasting your time. You shouldn't even be here. The Word of God says that until you correct the problem of disobedience to some facet of the Word of God, you're not going to get any full knowledge of the Word of God. You're going to get nothing out of the instruction.

So, God says through the apostle Paul, "I thank God for what I've heard of you – about you Colossian Christians. I never cease to pray for you. And what do I pray for you? I pray that God will correct the deficiency of your souls – your lack of divine viewpoint, by giving you the full knowledge of the Word of God, so that you have wisdom and understanding.

The Grace System of Instruction

Please remember what the steps are. Here's how the grace system of instruction works. You have a communicator who, under the filling of the Holy Spirit, gives you information from Scripture. He teaches you doctrine. The second thing is that you listen to it, and under the instruction and filling of the Holy Spirit, you understand what was said. You have "gnosis" knowledge now. At this point, you will now make a decision. You understand what the Bible says. You understand what has been explained to you. Now you must decide whether you're going to accept that or not. You may say, "Yes, I believe that. It is the truth of the Word of God." Then that act of faith converts this "gnosis" into full knowledge. You now have a knowledge which has been transferred from your mind down into your human spirit reservoir.

Remember that you have a soul, and you have a human spirit. Into that human spirit, from the mentality of your soul goes this knowledge of the Word of God. And it is crystallized and preserved. Sometimes you will have forgotten it, but something will come into your life, and the Spirit of God will shine the searchlight on that particular doctrine in your human spirit, and it will pop right back up to your mind, and you'll know instantly what to do. You'll understand your situation. You'll know where you are. If you have never learned that doctrine, you're zilch. The Holy Spirit cannot bring you something out of nothing in your human spirit. Only charismatics run around pretending that God is giving them information. They call it "a word of prophecy," or "a word of knowledge." And they believe that God is always bombarding them with information. They are greatly deceived. The only thing God hits you with is what you have first learned and stored in that human spirit.

Do you see the problem with weak Christians? They can't even get to first base until they understand that they have a deficiency in their souls. And it's the weak Christians who are the most arrogant, who think they've got it all together.

Well, once you have this information in your human spirit reservoir, you now have a frame of reference. You have developed divine viewpoint. Now you apply this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to people that you meet; to your situations in life; and, to all of your experiences. And out of this, you build that spiritual maturity structure in your soul that takes you on to super grace stability.

Now, God has provided each of us with the means for growing spiritually. He's given us the local church organization with one single elder-pastor-teacher in it, with the ability to make the Bible understandable. That is no credit to that individual. It is simply something that God enables him to do. God has further provided the local church organization for this instruction. He has given you a living human spirit at the point of your regeneration. Now you are capable through this system of taking into you no limits of the Word of God. And "epignosis" knowledge enables you to know what Paul is praying for, for these Christians – the will of God. If you're interested in the will of God, you have to know the Word of God. The people who don't know the will of God are those who are lacking in a knowledge of the Word of God.

This is essential for living the supernatural life. When you have this, Paul says that you'll have wisdom. That's divine viewpoint. And he says that you will have understanding; that is, you'll know how to use your divine viewpoints. Isn't that great? That's a chain reaction. You have instruction in the Word of God, and reception of the Word of God, stored in your human spirit. As Paul says: "God speaks to my spirit (to our spirits). We are the children of God." What's he talking about? He says, "I'm taking the information out of your human spirit, and I'm bring you conviction that you are a child of God. We listen; we learn it; we believe it; and, we store it. God the Holy Spirit brings it up as divine viewpoint, and we get understanding. We know how to act in life. It's a marvelous, fantastic system. And when you get hold of this, then you can't believe that there are so many Christians who are muddling around out there who are so absolutely inane in what they call living the Christian life. And, indeed, it takes a great effort on the part of a super grace Christian not to find himself holding these people in contempt. You're disgusted with them. They are so absolutely ridiculous, and they are so unteachable, that you tend to lose your own spirituality over it.

Colossians 1:10 adds this: "Having this 'epignosis' knowledge; having the deficiency in divine viewpoint corrected; and, now having real divine guidance so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord." The Word of God enables you to live in a way that is pleasing, and that is befitting, a child of God – to please Him in all respects, so that what you do pleases God the Father, and the result is bearing fruit in every good work (fruitful, divine good production), and increasing in the knowledge of God" (growing in your spiritual maturity).

The Pastor-Teacher

It is the pastor-teacher who, through this grace system of perception that God has provided, enables you to grow in the knowledge of the Word of God. But that pastor-teacher has to be examined before you make your commitments.

The HICEE Technique

The problem is that, the biggest churches; with the most people; with the biggest money; and with the most (so-called) love flowing around, are very often the ones who do not have a man in the pulpit who is doing the job of instructing by the only method by which a Christian can live and grow. We call it the HICEE technique. This is no great revelation, and no great secret. The HICEE technique means that the preacher has to study the Word of God according to a certain method, or he will not understand what the Word of God says, and be able to deliver to you true information.

Hermeneutics

The first "H" stands for "hermeneutics." The word "hermeneutics" stands for principles of interpretation. There are certain principles by which you interpret the Bible. Let me give you just one. You're well acquainted with it: the hermeneutical principle of literal interpretation. Once you know that, you know that you must read the Bible like your newspaper, and let the words say what they mean. You don't fish around with the words, and spiritualize them, and symbolize them. That is a principle of interpretation. If you get a preacher who breaks that principle of hermeneutics (that basic first hermeneutical principle of literal interpretation), you've got somebody that is going to go far straight from the Word of God.

Isagogics

The second letter ("I") stands for the word "isagogics." "Isagogics" is a word that describes the background of the time. When you read the Bible, you have to remember that it's talking about a certain culture. You have to understand that culture. You have to understand how things worked in that society. The background gives you an understanding of what the person is talking about, and it enables you to have a frame of reference for interpreting that Scripture.

Categories

The "C" stands for "categories." Categories of what? Summaries of doctrine. Periodically, we summarize a doctrine for you, so that when you have everything that the Bible says in a summary, nutshell form on a certain subject, then you know how to interpret anything else you read in the Bible on that subject. Then you know how to deal with the issue. Categories are absolutely important – summaries.

Etymology

Then you have to deal with the first "E:" "etymology." "Etymology" deals with the meaning of words. You cannot interpret the Bible unless you go to the Greek and Hebrew words. You can't interpret the Bible from the English words. All of you are acquainted with the fact that there are four different kinds of the word "if" in the Bible. And you'll never know which one it is. And yet, you must know which class that "if" is, so that you will be able to understand what you're reading.

Exegesis

Then the final "E" stands for "exegesis." "Exegesis" means using the grammatical rules of interpretation. There are certain grammatical rules that guide you in interpreting. And if you follow the rules of grammar, then you will not misinterpret something. Many of the cults come up with false doctrines about Christ Himself, simply because they break the rules of Greek grammar. When you know the rules, you're not going to be suckered like that. And immediately you see where the deceiver has changed the text.

We call this the HICEE technique. This is significant for musicians because for people who play (especially) brass instruments, like cornets, the high "C," two lines above the staff, is a lip-killer. And only a few people, like Dennis Williams, can ever play a high "C" and survive. It is a brilliant high note. So we call it the HICEE technique. This method enables a believer to live in the Word of God, and to learn it.

Now, whose responsibility is all this. The Bible indicates that each of you, as born-again people, are your own personal priest. 1 Peter 2:9, I remind you, tells you that, you should never forget it: "But you are a chosen grace, a royal priesthood." That means that, as your own priest, you represent yourself before God, and you are responsible, therefore, for your own spiritual well-being. We can give you the instruction, but you have to decide that you want to receive it. The Bible indicates that our spiritual lives have to be nurtured daily. Just as you have to nurture the physical life with food, you have to nurture the spiritual life with the Word of God. That's why, in Matthew 4:4, we have recorded Jesus saying to us, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

So, every Christian for maximum blessings; stability; productivity; and, divine viewpoint has to follow a plan of daily Bible study. You should not crack your Bible only when you come to church. This should be something that you should read at home with your husband; with your wife; and, with your children. There should be times when the Word of God comes into your conversation, and when it comes into your awareness to read. You need a daily growth on it. We have seen these people. We've had them periodically, and many of them are tapers that we never see personally, but who write us, and who have found that they can drive in their car, and they play that tape recorder. And people who were nothing spiritually grow by leaps and bounds with great giant steps forward because they are open and receptive to the Word of God. And each day of their lives, they put in a period of time when they are feeding on the Word of God, whether it's long or short.

The Bible stresses that what we Christians need is not just the elementary basic things. That's the starting point. And most Christians come into the Christian life; they learn the doctrine of being saved; and, then they are abandoned as babies. So, they never go beyond that. But you will notice that in Act 20:27, when the apostle Paul was defending his ministry to the pastor-teachers from all over the city of Ephesus that had gathered to bid him good-bye, as he was going back to Jerusalem, and to some very serious problems in his own life, he is encouraging these men to feed the Word of God to their flocks, and he said, "For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God." And then he says, "Having delivered to the full purpose (the full counsel) of the Word of God, I didn't just give you salvation. I gave you all the deep things that the Bible has for the Christian way of life.

In verse 28, he says, "And be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd (to pastor) the church of God, which he has purchased with His Own Blood." The apostle Paul recognized that they were to be on the alert, and that they were to care for these sheep because deceivers are always coming into the Christian community. How do you protect the sheep? There is only one way. They know doctrine. When they know that, they are nobody's fool.

Most Christians only know snatches of the Word of God after years of attending church. The total panorama of doctrine is unintelligible to them. They know nothing of the deep things of the Word of God. It is Psalm 119:11 that says, "How shall we clean up our ways from sin? By the Word of God."

Bible Study

So, the technique of Bible study is what we must follow in a systematic way in surveying the Word of God verse-by-verse. Maximum progress is made through studies which are in this form: through a book of the Bible; or, through a summary of a category. When you come into a church, and the preaching skips around from one text to another, as the regular basic instruction, you should be suspicious. You cannot grow unless you put line-upon-line and precept-upon-precept, and that means that you go through a book of the Bible verse-by-verse. And teaching is an explanation of what God the Holy Spirit has written down.

Now, let's close with examining the breakdown in the pastor-teacher gift today – the sign that a pastor-teacher is not functioning in a local church. You may be removed from this locality by one reason or another. If you are faced with now finding yourself a church, you better know these principles to spot, right off the bat, the pastor in the pulpit who is not doing the job to which he is called, because you will pay for it with your own spiritual well-being.

The first sign is that you sit in a church, and the pastor is not explaining the Word of God verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible based upon the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew text. You discover that you walk in, and the guy has three points to his sermons. He throws in a few illustrations. Some will make you laugh, and then he gives you a challenge at the end. And then he asks for raising of hands who wants to be prayed for, or who wants to come forward, and the service is closed. The next Sunday, you discover, doggone it, this guy's got three points again. He has a few illustrations; he makes us laugh; he gives us a challenge; and, he sends us home. But when you get in your car, you couldn't remember what he said. Oh, you remember the jokes. Those are very important, but you can't remember too much about the Bible. And that should make you suspicious. Anybody who's going verse-by-verse is going to feed you the Word of God, and you're going to pick up something.

The second sign is that he uses a passage of Scripture to deliver little devotional and inspirational thoughts, but he does not explain the text. He will read a verse of the Bible, and that's the last you'll hear about it. He will go through it and say, "Now, here's what this verse means. Here's what this word means." He'll read the text, and bingo, he's off there, inspiring and challenging.

The third sign is that he will lack using the HICEE technique of preaching. You will discover that he is not operating on the basis of these principles that we have laid out here: the backgrounds of Scripture; the principles of interpretation; summarizing doctrines; the meaning of words; and, telling us how these words fit together by the grammar of the language.

A fourth sign is that he will accept the negative volition of his hearers with indifference. He will let people say, "That's just the preacher's opinion." And he will not force them back down, because if he hasn't explained it from the Greek text, they've got him. They can say, "That's your opinion." But if he's explained it from the Word of God, they can't say, "That's just your opinion, preacher." And those who do not want to offend – you will notice that they preach in loopholes.

A fifth sign is that the meeting is thrown open for people to express what each of them thinks the verse means. This is known as learning by sharing your mutual ignorance. And there are groups of Christians that just love doing that. They just love to get together and, one-by-one, stand up and tell what they think a verse means.

I had a man in church years ago who got up and explained Luke 21:11, which says, "Which talks about diverse places, and about the apostle Paul being opposed to honky-tonks, and all those other dives up and down the street. And I'm looking at this guy, and he was serious. I said he was joking, but he was one of our great expositors, and the guy who was teaching a Sunday school class here. You can imagine how long ago that was. But he was talking about diverse places as the honky-tonks of the New Testament world.

This is like the kid who was told to draw a picture with something to do with Adam and Eve. And he turns in a picture, and there's a car. And there's God up at the wheel, and Adam and Eve are in the back seat, and God is driving them. And the teacher is a little confused, and says, "What does this mean?" "Well," he said, "this is the verse Genesis 3:24. It says, "God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden." And the thing was a Cadillac. And it was pink, so you know where God got it. He's in the program.

When I was a teenager, I heard a preacher who was against women having their hair up on the top of their head, and not long. He felt that the Bible said that women should not bob their hair. I remember one who had a sermon. It was about women – bossy wives, and something else. It was about women should have their hair long, and women were putting their hair up in knots on the top of their head. So, he had a sermon, believe it or not, and I listened to this guy. He preached on Mark 13:15, that talks about where Jesus is warning that, when the tribulation comes, those who are on the housetops should not come down. And he preached a sermon on: "Top not Come Down." He was telling the women to get that hair off the top of their head, and down on their shoulders. And he had scriptural text for it.

Now, when you hear somebody talking like that, you can be suspicious. This is people sharing their mutual ignorance. And that's the kind of stuff you get. Many people go into the tongues delusion, and into the whole charismatic delusion, because they sat in somebody's little home, cozy Bible class without a pastor-teacher authority there to guide them.

Another sign is that dramatic showmanship is substituted for teaching content. That's easy to spot. This guy will yell; he'll cry; and, he'll dance. And you know that he's got nothing to say from the Word of God.

The worst is the preacher who equates Christian living with legalisms– pleasing God by the fact that you don't smoke; you don't chew; and, and you don't go with girls that do, and all that other stuff like that. He is not a grace-oriented person. That should be a big clue to you.

That is a great loss to the Christian who rejects the grace system of perception that God has provided in the New Testament. Our dad is sitting up in heaven, tapping His foot, waiting to pour out blessings upon you who are members of His royal family. But because you have not built a container in your soul through doctrine, He has got nothing into which He may pour your blessings. But once you build that up, you will find that He will overflow it. So, quit faking it, and start making it with God's pastor-teacher, grace system of perception provision.

There are certain methods by which people oppose the pastor-teacher and the HICEE technique of preaching, and it does scare off a lot of preachers. One of these is the name-calling device – to go up and say, "Oh, any Christian who always taking in doctrine just becomes stagnant." No, that's not true. I'll tell you what makes you stagnant in the Christian life: when you are negative to the doctrine you have learned. That's what causes stagnancy. When you turn your back upon the truth of God, you do become stagnant, and you do become like Lazarus, after three days – you stink, because you have turned your back upon the Word of God, and you're a pathetic creature. But when you're learning the Word of God, you're becoming refreshed; you're becoming cleansed; and, you're not becoming stagnant.

The other is to dispel (to dismiss) the HICEE method of grinding it out, and digging it out, and learning, preaching system by using virtue words to discredit – words like: "Ah, all we need to do is love each other." You have a lot of say-it-with-love books. These are devotional oriented books that are so popular by very popular preachers. You'll spot the people. You'll spot the preacher who runs out of an understanding of the Word of God to deliver to people. And he'll start talking about emotions. And he'll start talking about the people he loves. And he'll start carrying on to you about all of the ways that people should feel toward each other. And pretty soon, you don't need to know anything about the Word of God. All you have to do is have the right kind of feelings.

This is in such contrast, in Matthew 12:34-35, to the Lord Jesus, who, when He began talking about the feelings (emotions), He had a totally different orientation. Jesus says, "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man, out of his good treasures, brings forth what is good, and the evil man, out of his evil treasures, brings forth what is evil." Got it? The preacher who does not have the good content of the Word of God in his own soul, and in his own understanding, is a viper who is trying to deceive you. He's biting you with poison, and you should be smart enough not to let him do that.

There is also the transfer device. Somebody recently tried to help a charismatic, and he got the usual response: "God will teach me. I don't need to have you telling me what the Bible says." And they always go to 1 John 2:27 for that: "And as for you, the anointing which you have received from Him (that is God the indwelling Holy Spirit) abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him." And their argument here is: "We don't need any pastor-teacher to teach us. All we need to do is read the Bible, and we'll know what it says." It is not what that person is saying. This verse is talking about little antichrists, in the context, who are giving a lot of false information. What John is saying is, ultimately, your teacher is God the Holy Spirit. And while this antichrist may give you a false bit of information, God the Holy Spirit will alert you, and He will not let you put into your human spirit what is false. You will never put into your human spirit what is false doctrine. That stays up in your head.

This verse is saying that God has a failsafe method to protect you from that deceiver. But that does not mean, as the rest of Scripture makes it very clear, with pronouncements like the apostle Peter gives, and Paul gives: "Feed the flock of God. Teach the people of God the full counsel of the Word of God." But you do not learn, basically, through the instruction of the local church and the pastor-teacher. But even after you have heard him, it is God the Holy Spirit that gives you that understanding, as we have shown you, and seals it in your spirit.

Another attack is unimpeachable public opinion: The majority is always right." This is the great deception that holds the charismatic movement in the death throes now. Because there are so many of them, they are convinced that they cannot be wrong. Most churches (most Christians), and even most seminaries, do not think that the pastor-teacher is the key to spiritual maturity. But the mob doesn't think. The mob just flows along with the crowd.

Another way of undermining, and of attacking the HICEE technique, is the employment of testimonials from one who is respected: someone who is a status symbol; and someone who is a great man of God. And he can give you all kinds of false doctrine. He can give you all kinds of human viewpoint practices. This is where many people have gotten tricked and trapped into the tongues and miracle movement.

The next technique is the camouflage device. They mix it up with the truth to undermine the truth. They know about the gospel, but they don't know anything but legalism, and non-grace Christianity.

The next one is the bandwagon device. All scholars believe that if you find it written in a book, it must be true. Have you ever noticed how your wife does that when she wants to prove something? She finds it in a magazine, and says, "Boy, that's true." It can be the dumbest thing you ever read, and as wrong as can be, but if it is in a magazine (it's printed), it has to be true. It's not even true if it's in a commentary. It's true if it's true – if it fits the Scriptures.

The final one is that these people belittle any difference between the congregation and the pastor, and they see no significance between the fact that there are two communicator gifts left in the church-age, out of four. The apostle is gone; and, the prophet is gone. Only two are still left: the evangelist; and, the pastor-teacher. Any thoughtful Christian says that there must be a reason why the evangelist, who brings people into the Christian life, and the pastor who builds them up in the Christian life, are the two gifts that are left for communicating.

So, my challenge to you today is to support what the apostle Paul is really telling us here in the background when he calls upon us to help the weaker Christian become edified; and, for you to support this vital biblical principle of the pastor-teacher ministry that brings a person to the spiritual maturity of his soul. You should attend HICEE services, and you should take every opportunity to do so. God really doesn't lead people to any other kind. He just lets you go, and drift off to your level if you will not choose the best. You should hope to take the pressure off your pastor-teacher with tasks that drain his energy and drain his time, so that he has enough capacity left to be able to bring together the Word of God; to understand it; to organize it; to make it intelligible; to pray over it; and, to research it, and find what God really has said. That takes an enormous amount of time.

You yourself should meditate upon the Word that you've been taught, and go positive to it. You should be in deathly fear every moment of your life of becoming a spiritual casualty by going into reversion. You should be in deathly fear of going into revisionism, and becoming a spiritual casualty. That is the warning of the Word of God constantly: "Let him who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall." And how many Christians we have seen among us fall, and we know exactly why – because they became sloppy in the intake of the Word of God. They became indifferent toward the Word of God. They became negative toward the Word of God, especially somebody who has grown up in this ministry, who thinks that he has it all together. He's heard it all his life. Yesterday's doctrines will not be the food that will carry you today.

Certainly, I think it's reasonable to say that we should seek to help finance HICEE churches, and to support them entirely when you find one. If you do that, I guarantee you that you will be forever glad that you did.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1988

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