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A faithful man/woman loves the Truth
Fred R. Coulter—May 21, 2022
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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services!
It's quite amazing when you look at the world. It reminds me of some Scriptures. It shows the condition of things in a very clear perspective:
- what we need to do
- how our behavior needs to be
- how God will be there for us
We can trust in God and look to Him, and He will hear and answer our prayers, watch over us and protect us! But the world will never know that!
Psalm 11:1: "In the LORD I have taken refuge; how then can you say to me, 'Flee like a bird to your mountain'?"
We can't, but sometimes you feel like going to a nice quiet place all alone and let the world go by!
Verse 2: "For lo, the wicked bend their bow; they make ready their arrow on the string, so that they may secretly shoot at the upright in heart."
Think about that for a minute! If that doesn't describe the political and religious situation today… I had an e-mail sent to me that there is a judge in West Virginia who said to the City Council that it's unconstitutional to open their session with the Lord's Prayer. That's just one little sign, but:
- How many Godless judges do we have?
- How many Godless politicians do we have?
even in the Churches of God:
- Are they really seeking God?
- The elders and the ministers?
or
- Are they just looking to maintain to draw their salary?
I have no idea! We don't know their hearts! But since the world is this way and we have seen it within the Church itself, too!
Verse 3: "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
The righteous can only stay firm on the foundations, and they won't be destroyed.
Psalm 12:1: "Help, O LORD, for the Godly man ceases; for the faithful disappear from among the children of men. They speak falsehood each one with his neighbor…" (vs 1-2).
Just lies upon lies, upon lies! Just like we were talking earlier today. Someone went to see a doctor, and the doctor—whom he had seen many times in the past—wouldn't see him, and hadn't wanting to be seeing him for some time up to that point. So, out walks a new doctor and in the conversation the patient found out that the older doctor didn't want to come into his presence because he wasn't vaxed! People are living in lies!
"…with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things" (vs 2-3).
How is He going to do that? Know that the Tribulation will come! That's going to be a day of judgment and cutoff and correction for millions of people. Now, here's what those who want a world-government are saying right now:
Verse 4: "Who have said, 'With our tongue we shall prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?' …[in other words, they're gods themselves]…'For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, I will now arise,' says the LORD. 'I will set him in safety from him who puffs at him.' The words of the LORD are pure…" (vs 4-6).
Whatever the words of God tells us, we can be sure it's going to happen. Just like God has told us, He will hear our prayers! Think about all the prayers you need answered now, and for those you pray for. I think you're going to see that there are a lot of prayers being answered. They're just not being trumpeted from the mountain tops. They're being answered for all of us who are trusting in God.
I can look back and see a lot of prayer requests just recently:
- people who are sick
- people who have been troubled
- people who have had difficulties
- those who have trials
We're going to have trials, like it says here!
Verse 6: "The words of the LORD are pure words like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. You shall keep them, O LORD; You shall preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men" (vs 6-8).
I can't think of anything that describes more this gender-change attack upon the kids in school!
When it gets down to us; when you look around and see the few don't worry about the few. A few really faithful brethren do more than 10,000 who attend a social event called church! Jesus asks this:
Luke 18:8: "I tell you that He will execute vengeance for them speedily…[God is going take care of that]…Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, shall He find the true faith on the earth?'"
The Greek there is the faith, so I put in true! That is so!
I was watching the History Channel about all of these spurious writings concerning the New Testament. It is absolutely amazing what Satan has done! The Nag Hammadi Library in Egypt has spurious gospels: Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, etc.
- Did you know that Jesus married Mary Magdalene?
- Did you know that there are those who have said that Jesus never died?
If He never died
- Where is He?
Another one says that He never rose from the dead. If He never rose from the dead:
- Where is His body? That should be easy to find, because He died on the cross publicly, in front of everybody!
They can't find it, and they don't believe. Why? Because Satan comes along so they won't believe!
Mark 11 is interesting, too. It talks a awful lot about faith and the faith that we need to have, how we need to use it, and what it is, where we're going, and all of this sort of thing. This ties in with the Elder's Conference and things that we're going to cover.
A faithful man/woman—and in this case, Elders—loves the Truth! Always the Truth, even the Truth that speaks of disasters and troubles. Not that we love it because we enjoy death and destruction. We love it because that's what God has said, and it's going to happen. He's going to bring the Kingdom, which is the only solution to all the problems of the world!
Look at all the good people who have gotten together to try and help save the world.
- Where are they?
- Where is the world?
- What are they doing?
All the elite think that they're the 'God' given… But not the God of heaven! It may be 'the god of this world' Satan the devil!
Mark 11:20: "And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. Then Peter remembered and said to Him, 'Look, Master! The fig tree that You cursed has dried up.' And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Have faith from God'" (vs 20-22).
Not faith that you stir up yourself. Look at how many people have a false belief and false faith, and they hold to that even in the face of death.
That's commendable to have faith to stand for and are willing to die for it. But what if that death is vanity, because it's not standing for the Truth?
"…'Have faith from God'" means have God's faith!When that comes, He gives it to us!
Verse 23: "For truly I say to you, whoever shall say to this mountain, 'Be taken away and be cast into the sea,' and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he said will take place, he shall have whatever he shall say."
That's true; what is the caveat of that? Remember where we started with the West Virginia City Council in a town could not ask the Lord's Prayer! What is the first thing in the prayer:
- Our Father—Jesus was revealing the Father from the beginning
- Holy is Your name
- Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
That's quite a thing!
To tell them that they cannot say that, they all ought to stand up and tell that judge, go hang your hat somewhere else, don't bother us. If a City Council is there trying to help the city keep down the crime—God gave the civil government—it's perfectly all right to say, 'Our Father in heaven, Holy is Your name, and we're seeking Your will.'
- Don't you want God's will for the community?
- Don't you want peace from crime?
- Yes!
Let's talk a little bit about faithfulness. This is for:
- everyone who reads the Scriptures
- everyone who preaches from the Scriptures
- everyone who tells other people how to live by Scriptures
You have to do it yourself, too; because you don't have and faith or credibility unless you do.
God is looking down here on the earth and there are a lot… I haven't found out from that flashpoint meeting that they had with 9,000 people if they had a lot of healings and things like they said they wanted to have. A lot of these Protestant preachers are saying, 'You go to Christ and take from Him.' They had this big meeting with 9,000 people and they were really going to turn the world upside down and bring righteousness. One of the pastors got up there and said:
We're going to do something unusual, we're going to take up and offering.
In a situation like that, you should say,
After we're done and God blesses us with a good meeting; if you feel like donating we'll have different ones stationed at the exit door and you can take care of it there on your way out.
They said they were going to have a big meeting with healings, wonders and things like this. Well, it didn't happen! Even Jonathan Cahn was complaining that all of the rallies that they have had, they hadn't had much of a response. He was asked, 'Why is that?' Because the people won't repent!
Jonathan, did you tell them what sin is? Did you tell them that they need to repent of is? How can you tell people to repent of their sins, if they don't know what sin is? What repentance really means?
That's all part of what's happening here in the world and in the Church of God!
Jeremiah 23:25—God says: "I have heard what the prophets said, who prophesy lies in My name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed.' How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies and who are prophets of the deceit of their own heart? They scheme to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams, which they tell, each one to his neighbor…" (vs 25-27).
You go on TBN, Daystar and whatever other religious channel and you're going to hear almost all of those ministers say:
God spoke to me. He told me to do this; I had a dream.
How do you know who is a true preacher of God? We do! The world doesn't, because they don't see it. He who is from God speaks the words of God, and we might add correctly! Because there's a wrong way to use it.
Verse 28: "The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream…."
This is for every elder, every minister, every writer and all of us who are trusting in God:
"…And he who has My Word…" (v 28). We all have it right here in the Bible! Here we are in this room and we all have our Bible's out and they're all open and you're reading right along with me. That's a phenomenal thing that is functioning today.
"'…let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?' says the LORD. 'Is not My Word like a fire?' says the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets who steal My words…'" (vs 28-30)—who do that; who say that!
Now let's see what we need to do. I'll start out by covering what we do here in Hollister; then we'll look at all the elders and I'll read their names and where they are. I can tell you this: of all the elders that I've been associated with down through the years—a good number of years now—all of these elders are faithful and desire to do the will of God and to preach the Word of God.
That's what's important! This is what we are aiming to do. Here in Hollister we have our offices, four suites on the second floor and two full time workers: Kimberly and Terry; we have two part time workers: Brittany and Bonnie. Then there is Jonathan and me; that's it.
We have low overhead, high production. We've got storage units where we have Bibles, all the books and booklets and everything. We have new booklet coming out: The Holy Spirit: The Power of God; a Scriptural Perspectiveby Steven Greene and me.
This will be the premier booklet that answers all the questions that come up concerning the trinity, the supposed personage of the Holy Spirit and everything. So, we are busy working, writing, producing and so forth.
Here in Hollister we mail out a letter once a month to a mailing list of 2600 and many, many people now use completely the Internet and websites, so they're not on the list. They can get everything downloaded digitally.
We have groups of brethren that we send the DVDs to, all the rest get the CDs, and on the CDs we include some of the Go To Meeting messages. Go To Meeting is headed up by Steve Durham. He's been doing this now for about five years. Thirteen of the elders come on and speak every Friday night, and then we have a special one at 8A.M. on the east coast going to Europe. So, we have quite a few things going.
Here in Hollister we mail out books, Bibles and we have a lot of answers to the ads that we have concerning the Bible and we're sending out a lot of them.
We also have others working in their homes. This saves a lot of overhead and a lot of other things that would be expenses if they all had to live in Hollister. We have:
Randy Vild—he has his own company Vild Productions, but he works exclusively for us. He does all the Church at Home. Jonathan and I go to the studio and we record Church at Home and send the half-hour segments to Randy.
He also edits all of the videos, like this live stream, which will go to Randy, be edited and put online later in the week. He does that in his own home.
John and Hiedi Vogele, when John was a alive they lived up in Montana, but just before he died they moved to Missouri and Hiedi is continuing with compiling of the booklets and doing the editing and thing like this right in her home.
Then we have the transcripts, all of you have seen them. These are done by Bonnie Orswell and her husband Prentice helps her on it, as well. She is so good, she can sit down and does an hour and a half sermon in approximately 10-12 hours[transcriber's correction] Then she goes back and formats so it's really readable. Get those transcript books and the CDs that go along with them, and we have 130 of them.
We have more information than any other Church of God as far as books, booklets, CDs, DVDs, etc.! That's not because we're anything great; it's because we try and do the maximum that we can for everything that we do.
Offices Overseas:
Canada—Norbert Bohnert is the elder in charge of that; they also serve the U.K. In the United Kingdom we, unfortunately, don't have anybody over there to direct things, who we could say would be our representative there.
Holland—Franz Peeters and his wife Sabrina and they do translating into Dutch and German. Here's the thing to remember: If you do things like that—same way with writing in English or whatever you're going to write—even if you don't have the people you would like to have to send it to, what do you do? You get it done, because there will come a time when you will need it!
We found that out with the Bible. Here altogether—I don't have all the numbers on what we've sent out—I know that we have sent out close to 40,000 Bibles. For us that's a lot.
All the rest of our literature we send at no cost. In the monthly letter we make it a teaching letter rather than a bill with a 'pound you on the head' for more money.
South Africa—Helmut Berger—Be sure and put him on your prayer list because it's difficult down there. He's a lawyer and conducts his business as a lawyer, but also owns a sheep ranch. If he's gone too long natives come in and snatch one of his sheep, slaughter it up and have a big dinner. That's what it's like in South Africa.
East Africa—William Goff—just recently established. He is an elder and used to be with Living Church of God, but now he's with us. He serves a couple of orphanages and the brethren in East Africa, mainly Kenya.
He just recently went over there on a trip and he said that there is starvation, young boys are killing themselves by hanging themselves. In the July letter that's going to come out, I'm going to give you and address so you can send some money direct to him so he can help out those widows and orphanages there.
But from here in Hollister we send him $1500 monthly. I started out with $1,000/mo.and with the increase of the problems and potential famine I upped it to $1500. When I started sending him some money, he told me that not one of the other Churches of God gives him any funds to carryout what he does.
Australia—Roy Assanti and his wife Manola have been running the office there for quite a while. I think about 15-20 years. We've had our ups and downs with the office in Australia until Roy finally came along and rescued it. Things are going fine there. They have a nice mailing list, and mail things out. We send everything to them digitally.
New Zealand—Lyall Johnston—a good speaker, organizer and graduate of Bricketwood, a British citizen. You look at him and you know that he's a Brit.; couldn't be anything else but a Brit.
He's got a good accent, very smart and really appreciate what he does.
Malaysia—Andrew Moses—our youngest elder. His father Joseph was with us and it was originally all from Living CoG. Now it's all Christian Biblical Church of God, because of how the elders serve, because I teach them and I teach myself.
Here's another thing for everyone to learn; a great principle to learn. This helps cut out a lot of difficulties, problems and hypocrisy!
Rom. 2—here Paul is talking to a Jew. Of course, today we're having problems with Messianic Jews. They are so steeped in the 15th Passover, that it's almost impossible to get them to keep a 14th Passover.
Romans 2:17: "Behold, you are called a Jew, and you yourself rest in the Law, and boast in God." We're God's chosen people!
How come you're scattered, despised and hated if you're God's chosen people. You are, again in the future, going to be, but at the present time the Jews as a whole are so far away from God that it's incredible. But they do this, "…boast in God."
Verse 18: "And know His will, and approve of the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the Law; and are persuaded that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light for those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of the knowledge and of the Truth contained in the Law. You, then, who are teaching another, do you not teach yourself also?…." (vs 18-21).
It doesn't do a bit of good for someone to be a teacher and he's not teaching himself and not living by it the way that he should. That's not right, and all of our elders know this!
The key thing is that in order to maintain it, you must study and study over and over again the Word of God. Because every time you study, you're going to learn more. You must pray because… What did Paul tell Timothy? You stay close to God because Satan is out there active all the time!
Verse 21: "You, then, who are teaching another, do you not teach yourself also? You who preach, 'Do not steal,' are you stealing? You who say, 'Do not commit adultery,' are you committing adultery? You who abhor idols, are you committing sacrilege?You who boast in law, are you dishonoring God through your transgression of the Law?For through you the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles, exactly as it is written" (vs 21-24).
That's a tremendous lesson for anyone who is going to be teaching the Word of God; you must teach yourself! You must have your conduct correct!
Look what happened to the Church when they found out adultery on vast scale was going on at the highest level in the Church. All credibility of the ministers went crashing to the ground. They couldn't cover it up and their lies didn't work, and God was not with them, because there was not the repentance and sooner or later you know what happened! POOF! That's what we need to learn!
Let's come to America for all the elders we have in America:
Roger Kendall who has been with us the longest; he lives in Vermont and takes care of the Northeast.
Russell Kemp who lives in Tennessee and also takes care of some people in Florida where he owns some property and goes down there from time-to-time.
Nolan Joseph who takes care of northern Florida.
By the way, a good number of the elders have their own local ZOOM Bible studies; I want all of them to do it, because they're adding new people.
I think this year Nolan said that they baptized five new people. That may not sound like a lot, but if they're dedicated like they are, that's a good deal.
Then associated with us (also in Florida) is First Century Fellowship with Chauncey Normandin and Bob Lewis who we ordained here as elders for their group. They're with us and get all the material that we have and they use that.
Ben Ambrose passed away and he was in Georgia.
Tom and Rhonda Fannin—Tennessee and Ohio. He's the son of Marlin Fannin (retired; wife not in good health). Tom and Rhonda serve the brethren in that area, and make regular trips on the Sabbath to go out and be with small groups of people. They're all fed there really good.
Steve Durham and Mike Flake—Steve setup Go to Meeting every Friday night. Mike records these and edits them and has them online (YouTube)
We have 13 of the elders who participate in that, bring the messages, and they're improving the way that they're speaking and conducting things. They're really doing fine.
Eduardo Elizondo—Latino Church at Home and Miguel Marcia in Canada who does all the editing for the video. Eduardo has a studio in the basement of his house and he does the Latino Church at Home and other messages. His extended family has grown up in the Church and they are doing a translation of the New Testament into Spanish.
I don't know how good it's going to be, but it will be better than everybody trying to stumble along with English. If they know the Truth and correctly translate it, it will be fine.
Tommy Foy has an independent church associated with that with a group in Houston.
Lawrence Burchfield has been pastoring Tulsa, OK, for about 20 years now.
Bill Wax—close to Kansas City
James Farnsworth—newly with us from Arkansas. He has been to several different churches but none of them teach the Truth. He's checked us out up one side and down the other, so we're very happy to have him.
Steven Greene—Missouri
Albert Jones—Michigan—he has been with us over 25 years, probably close to that or more. He is excellent, one of our best elders, an excellent speaker. He gets together with abut 20 brethren.
Then we have a big blank space between that and coming out to the west coast! Here we have:
Roger Tointon—Sacramento
Byron Norrod—Pasadena—who is recovering from his motorcycle accident
Durrell Brown—in his 80s and the oldest black minister in the Church of God
Michael Heiss—we just recently ordained
Those are all the elders we have and I can tell you that we are all on one page. That is the Word of God! The way I operate is this, the same way we find in the Bible.
This is what you call in the operation of an organization: mission assignment! A mission assignment is different than a direct overhead supervision where you have a supervisor saying, 'Do this, that and the other thing.' The mission command is here:
Matthew 28:18: "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations…'" (vs 18-19)
How much supervision is that? That's the best because it is spirit led supervision. Wherever they are in whatever nation they need to adjust how they serve the brethren and preach the Gospel for that time and place, to be affective and make disciples.
"…baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them…. [here is the overall key and mission statement]: …to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the completion of the age.' Amen" (vs 19-20).
That's the way it needs to be. Look at what the Church became when they had a hierarchy! You had to have this one in charge, and another under him. And they had these deacons and those deacons and different ones assigned. A person could not even in some congregations pick up a chair to move it because he wasn't a deacon. 'Who told you to do that?' Well, it was here in the middle of nowhere…' Well… Isn't that the way some of them were?
This is what Christ wants: mission assignment, do it, whatever it takes. As long as it's within the Law of God, the Truth of God and what Jesus commanded here, and you teach them everything that Jesus taught.
Now you've had a thumbnail sketch on the Christian Biblical Church of God. One last thing: We have visiting our websites and count them of hits, which equals a visitor.
During the course of a day there are some brethren who will come on quite a few times, so that would be more. But we're averaging over 5,000 hits daily on TruthofGod.org, and averaging 50,000 hits a month on churchathome.org.
That sort of rounds off everything!
(break@48:23)
I want to cover a couple of other things that we need to go over concerning elders and being faithful.
We know that God is true, faithful, loving, kind, merciful, forgiving, and hears and answers our prayers!
We also know that if you you're an enemy of God it is tough, difficult, destructive, nothing works right, everything goes wrong, because everyone is breaking all the laws and commandments of God.
Psalm 119:86: "All Your commandments are faithful…"
That means that they're always active all the time! There is no such thing, all you Protestants out there, that the Law has been done away! There is no such thing that Paul, being a man, can do away with the Laws of God. "All Your commandments are faithful…"
All of these things are what we need to know how we are to do it, and more importantly, how God works with us.
Psalm 86:11: "Teach me Your way, O LORD …"
That's why all of us need to study all the time, but especially elders. We need to learn God's way! Can any of us say that we know God's way a hundred percent perfectly? No! That's why when you study the Bible, you learn new things from what you've studied before, and some things become really clear. It's like a light goes off and you say, 'Oh, I really understand it now.' That's part of it.
"…I will walk in Your Truth; unite my heart to fear Your name" (v 11). I want you to connect the three together:
- God's way
- God's Truth
- unite my heart to fear Your name, God
That's what it has to be! That's where prayer comes in for all of us every day, but especially for elders. You must pray every day and every night:
- so that you have your mind on God's way
- so that Satan doesn't come along and say:
'I've got a good idea….' Well, that looks like a good idea!
But it may be contrary to the will of God! If you're not studying, you won't know it.
Verse 12: "I will praise You, O LORD my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore, for great is Your mercy toward me…" (vs 12-13).
This is so important for all elders: you have nothing you didn't receive!
- don't get lifted up over the brethren
- don't get lifted up in vanity or authority
There will come a time when you need to use authority, because that's the only way to resolve a particular situation. But don't get lifted up and get to thinking how good you are. When you get to thinking how good you are, that's when you're coming down! Be humble to God in everything!
Let's see how we are to serve the brethren. This gets into the things of rulership and so forth.
Proverbs 28:1: "The wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Because of the transgression of a land, many are its rulers…[that's why the country is all apart today]…but with a man of understanding and knowledge the state shall be prolonged" (vs 1-2).
That's the same thing with the Church. All of us elders have to have knowledge and understanding.
Prov. 28:18—here is what we always have to hold out to the brethren, and this is what Christ has done, that's why in the model prayer, we are to pray, 'Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' What does this do?
Proverbs 29:18: "Where there is no vision, the people perish …[this brings us vision so the people don't perish]…but happy is he who keeps the Law."
Psa. 51—the prayer of David's repentance after Bathsheba. Here is the whole goal for every one of us, and this is part of the vision that we need to have. What is God doing with us?
Sometimes you go through so many trials that you don't know why they're coming upon you. Well, someone sent me a nice little picture that showed troubled waters, and in big print it said:
Lord, why do You bring me through so much troubled waters? Because the enemy can't swim!
God will see us through it!
Here's David's repentance, and he should have known better. He had every chance not to do it. Bathsheba had every chance to say, NO! But a child was conceived, and it took all that length of time before David came to his senses!
Nathan had to come and bring him a parable: the rich man who wanted to feast his friends took the ewe lamb from his poor neighbor, and David got all upset and said, 'Who is that?' Nathan looked at him and said, 'You are the man! You took his wife! You caused him to be killed!'
With all of that, David came to the point of the most important thing for each one of us:
Psalm 51:6: "Behold, You desire Truth in the inward parts…" In the very depths of your being, God wants the Truth, which is:
- His Word
- His commandments
- His Laws
- His judgments
- His statutes
- His Sabbath
- His Holy Days
- how to conduct ourselves in:
- love
- truth
- faith
All of those things are contained right here!
Verse 6: "Behold, You desire Truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom."
That's what God wants! Every time when you come to a difficulty, try and analyze what it is that God really wants. You can get it down to one thing.
There's another Law that says, when you come into the land, you take care of your flocks and herds first. In other words, if there's a barn to be built you build a barn first, then your house. Where would you be if all of your cattle or sheep or goats—whatever it may be—were not properly taken care of?
Proverbs 27:23: "Be diligent… [always alert] …to know the state of your flocks…"
What flock are we, as elders, in charge of to lead and serve? The flock of God! God is going to hold every elder accountable for that.
"…and give attention to your herds" (v 23).
We're going survey certain verses in 1st & 2nd Tim. And see what all of these have to say to us, because these are important.
2-Timothy 1:14: "Guard the good thing that was committed to you by the Holy Spirit that is dwelling in us."
That good thing is knowing the Word of God. We need to guard it! Notice why Paul is saying this, because he had a lot of opposition. He didn't realize it until he was so old and not there. All of the fake leaders came out and started their thing! Here's what happened:
Verse 15—Paul says to Timothy: "You know this, that all those who are in Asia have rejected me…"
That's quite a statement! That's why we are to guard what God has given us!This is good advice and understanding here, and this applies to everybody.
1-Timothy 1:1: "Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is our hope, to Timothy, my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. WhenI was going to Macedonia, I exhorted you to remain in Ephesus, in order that you might solemnly charge some not to teach other doctrines" (vs 1-3).
I'll tell you what we have now today. We have doctrines of the:
- calendar
- preservation of the Scriptures
- flat-earth
- 15th Passover
Doctrines concerning many different things!
Verse 4: "Nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies…"
What was happening back then was they were looking at the genealogies to find out who were the Levites and teachers, and so forth. We just recently dug up a paper that Carl Franklin had done in 2011, which is From the Church of God to Embryonic Catholic Church. Very interesting what happened.
All of the seeds of the problems that led to the coming of the Catholic Church are found in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Here's one of them. "…all those who are in Asia have rejected me…"—what a blow!
Verse 4: "Nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which lead to empty speculations rather than to edification from God, which is in faith."
Another thing to always learn: Whenever you are speaking to teach the brethren, you must also edify! I'll tell you another secret that I learned the hard way: there is no need to make any corrections from the pulpit if you constantly teach the brethren and yourself how to overcome your problems!
I remember one time that Rod Meredith said, 'Once a year you give an attack speech against every sin in the congregation.' That was bad news! I did that and it took me two years to undo it. It put me in a position that some of the brethren thought I hated them! Have you ever been in a situation like that? You don't do the correction from the pulpit, you take care of it privately and you teach.
- if you're constantly teaching the brethren
- how to grow
- how to overcome
- how to develop love
- how to grow in faith
- how to change bad habits
- if you're constantly teaching the Truth and inspiring them
- if you're looking at the overall goal with the vision to be in the Kingdom of God
- if you're teaching that God loves each one of us
- has called each one of us
- wants us in the Kingdom of God
That's how you inspire the brethren to want to grow and overcome!
How many people have been beaten away and driven away, scattered out and no one carrying for them?
We've got a congregation north of us in San Jose that was one of the largest on the west coast, one of the richest. They had 500-600, and another 300 in Oakland and another 200 in San Francisco. So, you're looking at about a thousand brethren altogether. How many are left in San Jose? Twenty! That's sad!
All because they put the way of man ahead of the way of God! A lot of these people in San Jose were in upper level management. You don't run the Church with upper level management.
- You call yourself an elder?
- Do you not teach yourself as you teach others?
That's what it has to be!
Verse 6: "From which some, having missed the mark, have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the Law, neither understanding what they are saying, nor what they are strongly affirming. Now we know that the Law is good…" (vs 6-8).
Use that one for some of your Protestant friends. They say that Paul says the Law is curse. No! He talks about the 'curse of the Law' not that the Law is a curse!
Verse 8: "Now we know that the Law is good if anyone uses it lawfully" (v 8).
That's what it has to be with all of us in serving the brethren!
Verse 12: "And I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, Who has empowered me, that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent person; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. But the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with the faith and love that is in Christ Jesus" (vs 12-14).
We never forget where we come from. We don't dwell on it and get despondent over it, but we remember as Paul did.
Verse 15: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."
Think about that for a minute. How many people, starting with us: Do we think we're 'chief sinners'? Maybe not overtly in actions of what you're doing! But how much garbage do we have in our mind?
I was thinking about that the other day. Everybody is all upset about Disneyland going after the children, etc. As I pointed out, Disney owns ABC, ESPN, one of the movie channels, National Geographic, History Channel.
I've been analyzing all of the ads that they put on these different stations as I go through them. They are all satanic ads!
If you get lifted up in something and think you're going to solve a problem by going after just this, it's a whole lot more than you ever figured. That's why it's so important to stay on top of it. If you watch all of those ads and remember them and have them in your mind, don't you have your mind full of satanic nonsense that you don't need?
Just to show you how easy some of these things occur:
Have you used 'Theraworx'; a spray to put on sore muscles? They have a real slick ad with a catchy tune: Theraworx[spelling corrected] works. It took men three days to get it out of my head. Just that one thing. So, when you talk about who is a sinner, we have to look in our own heart and mind to find out what's really there, and how did it get there.
This is what Paul is bringing out concerning an elder.
1-Tim 3—the first part is about all the qualification for ordaining elders.
1-Timothy 3:13: "For those who have served well acquire for themselves a good standing and much confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus."
Paul is finishing this whole section off by telling everyone to keep follow God's way and God will bless you in it.
Verse 14: "These things…[everything in 1st & 2nd Tim.] …I am writing to you hoping to come to you shortly; but if I should delay, you have these things in writing, so that you may know how one is obligated to conduct oneself in the house of God…[very important]…which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the Truth" (vs 14-15).
That's so important. Look what happened when the ministry turned its back. What was the one thing that caused the eventual demise of Worldwide Church of God? It was one thing! Remember, we had three campuses: Pasadena, Big Sandy and Bricketwood. What was the one thing that was an absolute wrong decision to do? To seek accreditation for the colleges!
That means that you set all your standards by the world's standard for their colleges. And you must hire different ones that are not of your faith to be on your staff. What happened? That gave an entrance to become more and more like the world! Unbelievable!
Sidebar: When I came here to pastor Monterey, we had a basketball team, youth club and cheerleaders and all of that. They had a big thing down in Pasadena for all the young people to come down there and all the activities.
So, I had this big van and I took them all down there. I came in when they had their big dance going, and it was of the world! I mean it left no imagination to anything. The rock music and the beating of it and all of that sort of thing.
I said to myself, this is crazy! I saw a couple that were in the Monterey Church and I went up to them and said, 'Hey, you don't dance that close together.' Whoa! Were they mad at me!
I almost felt like getting up on the stage and grabbing the mike and telling them, 'All right, now everybody get on your knees and repent! Stop this stupid music!'
But no, 'we have to be like the world!' That filtered out into everything! That filtered out into raising the salary of the ministers compared to companies and how much to give them.
That one decision to get accreditation for the colleges, instead of improving it led to its demise and added to the demise of the Church!
The Truth is to be the Church of the Living God, the pillar and foundation of the Truth!
1-Timothy 4:1: "Now, the Spirit tells us explicitly that in the latter times… [not just clean and unclean food, this is many different things] …some shall apostatize from the faith, and shall follow deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons …[see what happens when the world gets in]…speaking lies in hypocrisy… [sure caught a lot of them in a lot of hypocrisy] …their consciences having been cauterized with a hot iron; forbidding to marry; and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful, even by those who know the Truth" (vs 1-3).
So, we had that happen! What happened? One day from the pulpit they had the NIV there, New International Version! Joseph Tkach opened it up to Mark 7 and said, 'By this saying, Jesus made all meats clean!'
That's not what it says! That was a blatant mistranslation! But there's this big congregation down there in Pasadena, and what happened? After services were over, there weren't people saying that 'that wasn't right, you can't teach that!' No, they went by droves down to the Red Lobster and they all had their shrimp and crab and lobster. Why? Because they let the world in! Can't do that!
1-Timothy 6:11: "But you, O man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness, Godliness, faith, love, endurance and meekness."
See what happened when the decision was made and Satan was given entrance!
Verse 12: "Fight the good fight of the faith! Take hold of eternal life to which you were also called, and did profess a good profession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you… [a charge to all elders from God] …in the sight of God, Who gives life to every living thing, and Jesus Christ, Who in testifying before Pontius Pilate gave the exemplary profession of faith, that you keep this commandment …[everything that he has written in 1st & 2nd Tim.]…without fault and without rebuke until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 12-14). That's what we are to do!
- we're to love God
- we're to love the Truth
- we're to love everything about what God is doing and how He is doing it
- we're to preserve it, promote it
- we're to encourage and inspire the brethren
Here's what we are to preach. Here is where we need to have our entire focus:
2-Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture…"—each and every word is true!
All the errors that men have made against the Scriptures are well noted and documented.
"…is God-breathed…[God-spirited; God inspired it]…and is profitable for doctrine, for conviction…[that's what we need, a resolute conviction of the Truth]…for correction…" (v 16).
Like we covered; if you correct yourself and teach the brethren to correct themselves, won't things go along a lot more smoothly? Think about it! It would!
"…for instruction in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work" (vs 16-17).
Here's Paul's final charge; before he says that he's ready to be offered.
2-Timothy 4:1: "I charge you, therefore, in the sight of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is ready to judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom."
It's going to happen the way that God has said. It may not happen in our lifetime. It might happen in our lifetime. But it's going to happen in somebody's lifetime! It's going to have to come. Therefore, we need to really stay close to God and realize what a great and marvelous thing it is that God has called us, however few it may be and pray that God will add more to us.
It's the conversion, love and dedication that counts, not the number of people. When we had large numbers, what happened to them when troubles came? Gone!
Verse 2: "Preach the Word! …[that's the Truth of God]…Be urgent in season and out of season…[that tells us that they were keeping the Holy Days]…convict, rebuke, encourage, with all patience and doctrine. For there shall come a time…" (vs 2-3).
It happened back then! Think about what happened to the Church when the Apostle John died: within 30 years it was proto-Catholic Church everywhere! 'Early church fathers'; that sounds like they were back there with Jesus, but they weren't! That's why we are to be vigilant with all of these things.
Verse 3: "For there shall come a time when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but according to their own lusts…" They won't think it's their own lusts! They'll think:
We're good people, we have a good idea and we want to do this.
"….they shall accumulate to themselves a great number of teachers, having ears itching to hear what satisfies their cravings. And they shall turn away their own ears from the Truth; and they shall be turned aside unto myths" (vs 3-4).
That's why we all need to say close to God all the time!
Verse 5: "But as for you, be vigilant in all things, endure hardships, do the work of an evangelist; fully carry out your ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand" (vs 5-6). He fought a good fight, and so forth!
It's amazing that here we are nearly 2,000 years later reading the very words of God translated from the Greek, and it helps us.
- we're educated with God's Word
- we're encouraged with His Spirit
and this is what God wants us to do!
Scriptural References:
- Psalm 11:1-3
- Psalm 12:1-8
- Luke 18:8
- Mark 11:20-23
- Jeremiah 23:25-30
- Romans 2:17-24
- Matthew 28:18-20
- Psalm 119:86
- Psalm 86:11-13
- Proverbs 28:1-2
- Proverbs 29:18
- Psalm 51:6
- Proverbs 27:23
- 2 Timothy 1:14-15
- 1 Timothy 1:1-4, 6-8, 12-15
- 1 Timothy 3:13-15
- 1 Timothy 4:1-3
- 1 Timothy 6:11-14
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17
- 2 Timothy 4:1-6
Also referenced: Booklet:
The Holy Spirit: The Power of God; a
Scriptural Perspective
by Steven Greene and Fred R. Coulter
FRC:bo
Transcribed: 5/25/22
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