How Apostasy Starts #1

Beginning with an idea, if they speak not according to the Word of God they are enslaved to traditions of the world!

Fred R. Coulter—December 1, 2018

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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services. Today we're going to start some things, which will last quite a while. I asked Ken to bring me an announcement every week of some of our transcript books and studies. Here's one: The Nature of God. That is one of the first things that they attack and especially the nature of Christ.

Have you ever heard of Docetism? That is that Jesus the man was human and Christ the Messiah possessed His body! We will see, as we get into what we're going to study, that was an early heresy, and one that they had to fight against. You need this Study Pack #6: The Nature of God.

If you haven't any of the study packs, you might as well start at #1, and go through them. We have a lot of material and we can't let it sit on the shelf, otherwise Ken will be unemployed.

Another thing to read between now and Passover is The Christian Passover book. You will see that this book answers every stupid argument, clever argument, twisted argument, glaring lack of using the Scriptures to prove the Scriptures. Why is this so important? Because there's no eternal life unless you have the Passover! So, you need that.

Another book, I'll quote from a little later, which you probably have never heard of is: Anti-Judaism and the Origin of Sunday by Samuele Bacchiocchi. It is out of print, so you cannot get it, but it led the way for Sunday-keeping. We will see in our study that Sunday-keeping was fully entrenched by the time the Apostle John died. We will see the things in the Scripture that reveal it.

Along with that, here's another book by Samuele Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday. What was the key thing about changing from Sabbath to Sunday? It was the 14th Passover and with Easter Sunday!

We will see when we get through with this that Ignatius, right after John died, was one of those who was counted as one of the first early church fathers of the Catholic Church. He was fully entrenched in Sunday-keeping; fully entrenched in hierarchy, and against the Passover. When John wrote the book of Revelation, where he talks about the Nicolaitans, Ignatius was vehemently against what John wrote there, because he was one of the instigators of the hierarchy back before John died.

There are a lot of things that go on. There are a couple of other books I'll read some things from. Here is The Apostolic Fathers, edited by J. B. Lightfoot. Doesn't that sound very Christian? None of them were ever apostles, and Jesus said to call no man your father!

One other book that I will get to, Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy, by Alastair Logan. Have you ever heard of the Nag Hammadi Library? I don't have a book to show you, but I'm giving you some assignments here to read and study between now and Passover. But in A Harmony of the Gospels, if you have it, I have a great section in there concerning the Jesus Seminar.

The founder of the Jesus Seminar was Robert Funk. They were against Jesus and they excluded from the canonized New Testament the whole Gospel of John and added the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. You would be surprised how those tentacles of leaven reached out into so many, many Sunday-keeping churches today.

As a matter of fact, Christianity is suffering greatly. They estimate that there is about, in America, 100 churches a week closing down. That's because of the secular school system we have, the lawless Christianity that is in the world. That brings us to what Jesus said, 'When the Son of man comes, will He find the true faith on earth?' (Luke 18).

All of this shows how important the things that God has given us to do to publish, to have ready, to answer all of these questions. Everything hinges on the Truth!

• the Truth of the Word of God
• the truth of history that is accurately recorded

You have to be careful with history, because remember, the victors always write the history. That's why you find very little about the Church of God and those in the Piedmonts of the Alps in Europe. Because they expunged their existence, but they didn't kill them to where there were no more. It's just in the history book. Every generation comes along and what do they know?

• they only know what they're taught
• they only know what has been given to them

If they're not taught anything about the past, if they're not taught anything about the right history, everything becomes lawless.

Look at it today concerning the history of America as it should be taught, and what is taught and why we have such a secular, atheistic millennial generation, ready to embrace the wonderful utopia of Venezuela in the United States, because they're educated, ignorant fools. I'll call them fools because if they don't believe in God, the Bible says the fool says there is no God.

This is why the Bible is so important and why God caused it to be written and why only those who love Him and keep His commandments will understand it.

With that, let's come to the New Testament. This is why you hear all the time: study and prayer! It's interesting, they have found that out of education and learning, one-third is new, two-thirds is remembrance or repeating, and that's especially true with the Word of God.

Thank God for the rest of the Sabbath and how we're able to come to God and all of this on the Sabbath Day. That's true. What would our lives be without that? Think on that for a minute!

2-Timothy 1:7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound-mindedness"—which only comes by properly understanding the Word of God, with the Holy Spirit to lead us!

Verse 8: "Therefore, you should not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner; but jointly suffer with me for the sake of the Gospel, according to the power of God, Who has saved us and called us with a Holy calling—not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time... [How important is the Word of God?] …but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who has annulled death, and has brought to light eternal life and incorruptibility through the Gospel" (vs 8-10).

We get hints—and we'll have a special study going through all of the challenges to the Truth of the Bible by those Gnostics and fake-Christians, and how they got there, and so forth.

2-Timothy 2:14: "See that they remain mindful of these things, earnestly charging them in the sight of the Lord not to argue over words that are not profitable in any way…" That's exactly what they do!

I'll let this be a little study for you: How can you have a false proof of Sunday-keeping, taken from the Bible, but is a lie and is believable as Truth and using Scriptures to show it? That's exactly what they did in the first century. How did they do that? They did it by arguing over words!

Verse 15: "Diligently study to show yourself approved unto God…" That's all of us!

Paul is telling Timothy as a minister, 'The only way you're going to continue in your ministry is to diligently study the Word of God.'

"…a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of the Truth" (v 15). If you take Truth and change a word—or misinterpret a word, or you wrongly divide the Word of God—you come up with a lie, because you've misused the Truth.

Verse 16: "But avoid profane and vain babblings because they will only give rise to more ungodliness."

2-Timothy 3:15: "And that from a child you have known the Holy Writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed…" (vs 15-16)—God-Spirited!

Have you ever gone along and all of a sudden a thought comes in your mind and you say, yes, that's a good idea, I'll do it. After you get through the whole thing you realize that God must have put that thought in your head. God-breathed!

Think of the twelve apostles plus Paul. Barnabas did not do any writing. They were specially chosen to be taught by Christ Himself, to write the Gospels! Remember, only Peter, James and John were the ones who went on the Mount of Transfiguration to see Christ in a vision of what it would be like to be a spirit being. If that happened to you, would you always remember that? Yes!

"…profitable for doctrine…" (v 16)—teachings! There are a lot of doctrines in the world in fake Christianity. There's a lot of fake Christianity out there.

Let me just tell you that the last one that is coming is a supra-feminine-goddess-worship, whether it's called the virgin Mary, or Gaya, or whatever it is. So, on part of this, I'm going to bring a sermon on the book: When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone.

Remember when we got the information on the homosexual Bible? So, I got one and found out all their mistakes. There is now a feminist Bible, so I'm going to order one. I'm going do like Patton said to Rommel, under his breath when he was looking through the binoculars watching Rommel's tanks come up the valley against him; 'Rommel, you blankety-blank, I've read your book.' He blasted them to smithereens. So, I'm going to get the feminist Bible and find out who did it, why they did it, what they say.

"…for doctrine, for conviction…" (v 16). If you really don't believe something and you haven't studied the Truth, and let it become part of you, how can you have conviction? Would you say all of those who were martyred during the things that we have studied of the martyrdom of the Christians of the Piedmont that they had conviction? So much so that they sang while they were being taken off to be martyred:strangled and burned at the stake, or beheaded, or tortured. If you really don't have conviction and don't believe it, when the going gets tough, guess what you're going to do? Give in!

"…for correction…" (v 16). We need that all the time, because our human nature is there to run wild if we don't.

"…for instruction in righteousness; so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work" (vs 16-17).

I want to read Peter's account because this is important along the same lines. It's interesting that Paul was taught by Jesus in vision for three years in Arabia. Peter was the first apostle called. He was one of those on the Mount of Transfiguration. We have read this before a number of times, but let's examine it just a little bit more.

2-Peter 1:15: "But I will make every effort that, after my departure… [he knew he was going to die, as the Lord said] …you may always have a written remembrance of these things in order to practice them for yourselves."

Isn't it interesting that the three key words—we're going to tie as much together as we can in this study—of knowing and understanding God is: obey My voice. How are you going to obey the voice of God, He's not going to speak to you. He has already spoken and has it written. If you want to know what God thinks, read the Bible. The key with that is what you see you need to do, obey it, and you'll grow in knowledge and understanding.

This verse is interesting. We've read it before, but ask: Why would Peter write this knowing he was going to die? Verse 16: "For we did not follow cleverly concocted myths…"

• What do you think that the Gnostics were doing to undermine true Christianity? Look at the end result of the concocted myths!
• Where do you find a full-blown picture of this in the book of Revelation? Rev. 17, Mother Babylon, Mystery Babylon the Great!

When John saw that, and saw everything about it in the martyrdom of the saints, he was amazed. Why? Because he saw it beginning to gain strength before he died!

So, here's what they were doing. We will see, there were those bringing in these false doctrines. Just to give you one hint: 1-Cor. 15, Paul says, 'I speak to you as shame that some of you do not believe the resurrection.'

How can you be in the Church of God and not believe in the resurrection? What is the whole basis of Christianity on? The life, death, and resurrection of Christ! That shows that those things were already there, beginning to come in.

Verse 16: "For we did not follow cleverly concocted myths as our authority, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His magnificent glory."

Don't you think that that burned in his mind? Every one of us have something, some experience or something, that almost at any time we think about it, it's like reliving it. What do you think they did as apostles?

• How about when they prayed?
• How about when they spoke?
• How about when they were doing these things?

What he's saying is that the Truth is the most important thing. Like Paul told Timothy, 'Rightly divide the Truth.' If you divide, that means, 'line upon line, precept upon precept, a little here and a little there' and you put it all together (Isa. 28).

Verse 17: "Because He received glory and honor from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, 'This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased.' And this is the voice from heaven that we heard when we were with Him on the Holy mountain. We also possess the confirmed prophetic Word …" (vs 17-19).

What is the confirmed prophetic word? That's the confirmed prophecies of all the Old Testament. I've got that book by Joseph Farar, The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament. He did a pretty good job, but there's a whole lot more to it. We'll look at one in just a minute here.

The "…confirmed prophetic Word…" means the inspired speaking of Christ, which was written down, and that which they wrote down.

"…to which you do well to pay attention, as to a light shining in a dark place…" (v 19). In other words, living in the world, which is full of darkness. The only way you're going to know about God is with His Word.

"…until the day dawns… [the return of Christ] …and the morning star arises in your hearts… [the resurrection] …knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture originated as anyone's own private interpretation; because prophecy was not brought at any time by human will, but the Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (vs 19-21).

Let's look at one of those. Take the book of Isaiah and see how much you can find about the prophecies:

• of Christ
• of the Kingdom
• Israel

Isaiah 50—Is about how Jesus was taught by the Father. Again, these things are coming back. Well, there's a whole book out there, Jesus the Rabbi, by Dwain Miller.

Isaiah 50:4: "The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, to know to help the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as one being taught." That's how God the Father taught Jesus!

Verse 5: "The Lord GOD has opened My ear… [God was the One Who was doing it] …and I was not rebellious, nor turned away backwards" (v 5).

Notice the difference between vs 5 and 6 and let's ask: What does this show? and How can we prove that it is true?

Verse 6: "I gave My back to the smiters… [the prophecy of His being scourged] …and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting, for the Lord GOD will help Me; therefore, I have not been disgraced. On account of this I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed" (vs 6-7). That's how Christ endured what He suffered with the crucifixion!

Let's prove that is true, the Father teaching Christ. In John 5 Jesus healed the man who had the infirmity for 38-years. Think of that! Be it mad at someone, ready to kill Him because He healed a man who had an infirmity for 38-years., and told him to take up his bed, which was his sleeping bag, and go home, and 'don't sin anymore unless something worse come upon you.'

So here was the great religious leader, because what we're going to find, that's where Satan likes to get to first, if possible. Did we see it in our church experience? Yes, indeed!

John 5:15: "The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus Who had made him whole. And for this cause, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on a Sabbath. But Jesus answered them…'" (vs 15-17).

He knew this was going to provoke them. He knew that this was really going to stir them up.
"…'My Father is working until now, and I work'" (v 17).

What are the works that God does, even on the Sabbath Day, that are maybe not spiritual works, but necessary to carry out His plan? Every sixth day the earth stops in its orbit and axis and rests. No! God keeps it going by the Word of His power.

• Does the water quit running?
• Does the wind quit blowing?
• Does the grass quit growing?
• Do the trees quit growing?
• Do children quit growing and rest on the Sabbath? No!

To heal a man, to be infirmed, and they wanted to kill Him. He knew this would provoke them.

Verse 18: "So then, on account of this saying, the Jews sought all the more to kill Him…"

Why? Because they figured that God was subject to what they said! Do you know that even the rabbis attest to that? They have in their writings that some of the rabbis are so intellectually and spiritually important that God has to obey what they say! So, this flies right in their face.

"…not only because He had loosed the Sabbath, but also because He had called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. Therefore, Jesus answered and said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, the Son has no power to do anything of Himself, but only what He sees the Father do… [that's how He was taught] …For whatever He does, these things the Son also does in the same manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him everything that He Himself is doing.…'" (vs 18-20). Isn't that teaching? Yes, indeed!

So, those two Scriptures back there in Isa. 50 show that Jesus was taught from birth to death. It goes from being an infant to being scourged, and it proves it right here. Then He talks about raising the dead.

John 12:37 shows some very important things along with how Jesus was taught: "Although He had done so many miracles in their presence, they did not believe in Him, so that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled who said …" (vs 37-38).

What does this prove? What did Jesus say? We've got over it many times. 'Do not think I've come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy or abolish, I came to fulfill'(Matt. 5). This is part of it!

"…'Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' For this very reason they could not believe because again Isaiah said, 'He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I would heal them.'" (vs 38-40).

That's another quite a statement. The Protestants believe that unless you get saved in a Protestant church—and say that nice little thing, oh, Jesus save me, I believe you—then you're doomed to burn in hell forever. Even Jeffress, the one they have on Fox News, the one who works with President Trump, that's what he preaches.

Verse 41: "Isaiah said these things when he saw His glory and spoke concerning Him. But even so, many among the rulers believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, so that they wouldnot be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. Then Jesus called out and said…" (vs 41-44).

These next verses become very important because it proves what we were reading back there in Isa. 50:

"…'The one who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him Who sent Me'" (v 44). Think about that with the Jews where they say there's only one God!

Verse 45: "And the one who sees Me sees Him Who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness. But if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words has one who judges him; the Word, which I have spoken…'" (vs 45-48).

Think about this: If all of those marginal believers who came into the Church—because we will see that it really got so bad against the Apostle John that he was literally kicked out of the local church—shows they didn't believe these things.

Verse 48: "The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words has one who judges him; the Word, which I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day." This tells us it's important to understand the Word of God!

Verse 49: "For I have not spoken from Myself; but the Father, Who sent Me, gave Me commandment Himself… [He opened My ear. I was not rebellious] …what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. Therefore, whatever I speak, I speak exactly as the Father has told Me" (vs 49-50)—exactly!

That's what we are to do. So, every minister, I don't care where you are—I don't care if you're Sabbath-keeper or Sunday-keeper, whether you're an Islamic imam or what, whether you're a Buddhist—you better get to the Word of God and you better start keeping the Word of God and preaching the Word God, and not your own detestable ideas. That's going to judge you, because Jesus said it would.

(go to the next track)

In order to understand the difference between Truth and error, right and wrong, you have to understand the basic truth that's found only in the Bible. You will find the results of it, even today, but it all began, and this is noted in Rev. 12, which talks about the rebellion of Satan and took a third of the angels with him. Satan's sin was that he wanted to become like the Father, to replace the Father. God's plan is that human beings become the children of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Of course, Satan didn't like that, so he rebelled and took a third of the angels with him.

The world has been deceived into thinking that Satan the devil is some evil-looking thing that is so bad that no one would want to follow or believe that. That's not true! He shows up right after the beginning of the creation of man and woman: Adam and Eve. He didn't come along and say, 'I have something to tell you that you need to know. God didn't tell you about it. If you eat of this tree, even though God said don't eat of it, you're going to be wise like God.' And that the only way they would become like God is to decide for themselves what is right and wrong, good and evil. You find this all the way through the Bible. So bad was the society before the Flood that all flesh had become corrupted, evil and wicked.

We also know that Jesus said, 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man.' It was so absolutely horrendous that God had to destroy all life, except that which He chose to preserve in the Ark. Think on that for a minute, how bad that must have been.

Remember, those people lived long, long lives. Think of the accumulation of knowledge and what they would be able to do. Quite an amazing thing! God doesn't tell us much about it, because that was destroyed. Right after the Flood we have Nimrod and Semiramis.

Sidebar: I just got a report that they have now unraveled and are able to translate the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian language. Guess what it talks about? Nimrod! So, the Bible is true!

Then you come all the way down through the history of the Old Testament and everything that happened. Satan is there, false doctrine, the whole thing with Egypt and how bad that was. All of that sort of thing.

Let's see how false doctrine starts! Everyone who has a false doctrine has a good idea. Sunday-keepers don't come along and say, 'Oh, let's do it on the first day of the week.'

Some of these Scriptures we already know, but let's look at them from the point of view of what it's really telling us. The Bible being spiritually inspired is layered in its meaning and understanding. The more that we study, the more that we understand that that is true.

First thing He wants us to know is the way to follow Him is not going to be easy. It's going to be difficult. In Matt. 10 what did He say? Father against son, son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law, etc.!

Matthew 7:13: "Enter in through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction… [if you look at what's happening in the world, that's exactly what's occurring] …and many are those who enter through it…. [Why?] …For narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (vs 13-14).

Look at how full this room is. I say that in jest. Few, few! How many have given up that we know of, even in our lifetime?

Verse 15: "But beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, for within they are ravening wolves."

There was a time when we were up in Salt Lake City we had a little lamb. We thought that would really be nice. It was fun with the kids. You get a bottle, you put milk in it and it's gone in nothing flat. It follows you around wherever you go. Remember the old fairy tale thing: Mary had a little lamb and it would follow her wherever she would go. That's exactly what it was.

They grow and they get bigger. We had it in the back yard. The door out of the kitchen went to the driveway and it was an aluminum door with glass and screen. After feeding the little lamb we'd come back in the house and all of a sudden we heard BOOM! hitting and bashing the door. Here is this little lamb. It wanted to come in the house. About that time we decided we needed some lamb chops.

You look at that little lamb or you look at that little sheep and they look up at you with these big eyes, eating out of your hand. They're so tender and so nice and so cuddly. That's how the false prophets come!

Verse 16: "You shall know them by their fruits…." What is the result of what they're doing?

Right now they have a lot going on in Africa with these different evangelists going over there and they're having thousands of thousands of converts.

• it's all fake
• it's all a fraud
• it's all Sunday-keeping

They get up there and the demons are with them and an evangelist raises his hands and the whole multitude of thousands of attendees fall back on their back.

The key to remember is this: When you worship God, you fall on your face! Show me one place in the Bible where it says to fall on your back and God will hear you.

What did Joseph Smith say, the founder of Mormonism? He got a message from God that the church died out and was going to raise it up with him! He fell on his back and saw this great light and worshiped him. That was Satan the devil! He comes as an angel of light! Was that a real experience that he had? Yes! If you believe it, you're never going to know it's wrong. So, here's the whole Mormon Church.

The comment was made. One of the fruits of Joseph Smith was the massacre that he ordered. You'll know them by their fruits! How do you compare the fruits to what? You compare it to the Word of God. That's what it says in Isa. 9: To the Law and to the Prophets, if they speak not according to this Word, there is no light in them.

"…They do not gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles, do they? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree cannot produce evil fruit…" (vs 16-18).

Does that mean they don't sin? No! What's one of the important things that the Spirit of God does for us? When we sin, God lets us know we're wrong! Then we repent and ask God to help us not do that. That's the way God wants it to be.

"…nor can a corrupt tree produce good fruit" (v 18). However, you can take a good tree and you can splice in, graft in a bad vine. You call that a subversive coming in. What happens? You look at the whole history of what we've gone through with the Church! It's exactly what occurred. A bit at a time, then it reaches a certain point and then there's a crisis. A crisis in Greek is judgment.

So, whenever you have a crisis, it's a judgment. What are you going to do? That's what happens the way that Satan works.

Verse 19: "Every tree that is not producing good fruit is cut down and is cast into the fire." Spiritually speaking, that doesn't happen immediately!

Always remember in all of these things, God honors repentance! We have some pretty bad characters in the Old Testament to prove that God honors repentance.

Verse 20: "Therefore, you shall assuredly know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven… [I have never heard that read on TBN] …but the one who is doing the will of My Father, Who is in heaven" (v 20-21).

We'll see what Jesus said about that again in a little bit here. Where is the will of the Father found? In the Bible! Everything that Jesus said was what God the Father told Him to say. That's the will of the Father! Everything that was done in the Old Testament was done by the Most High and the Lord God. Same thing!

So here's what they're going to be saying when they're resurrected. Think about this, it's going to be something:

Verse 22: "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy through Your name?.…'"

• we did good
• we wanted to do that
• our hearts were good, Lord
• we had the best Sunday services every week
• You blessed us every week

He's going to say, 'That was not Me!' People forget:

• Can Satan bless?
• Can Satan inspire?
• Can he make you feel good before he cuts you off? Yes, indeed!

"…And did we not cast out demons through Your name?…. [there is a real sign of truth, casting out demons] …And did we not perform many works of power through Your name?" (v 22).

Seeing is believing—right? Think what's going to happen when you look at Rev. 13 about the Beast Power and miracles that are done. And the miracles by the false prophet that the two of them together do. People are going to be in euphoria, 'finally we're going to have peace,' because seeing is believing. But what if it is a false sight or vision?

Here's what He's going to say. This is going to shock them, v 23: "…and then I will confess to them, 'I never knew you…'"

• they used His name
• they were doing good

Would you not say everything that is listed here they would think would be doing good? Do you think you could call up TBN and tell them, 'Your whole thing is of Satan the devil and everyone of those ministers up there—though they have some Truth—are nothing but liars because you keep Sunday instead of obeying God and keeping the Sabbath'?

Through this, now you know why the Passover is the most important thing. If you change that, what's the first thing they get rid of? Foot-washing! What did Jesus say of foot-washing? If you don't wash each other's feet, you have no part with Me!

"…I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness" (v 23). Lawlessness is anti-law! If you reject the Sabbath, are you a lawless person? What did James write? If you break one commandment you have broken them all!

Sunday: I'll save Sunday for next time. I'll show you how they cleverly manipulated Scripture to make it appear that Sunday-keeping was just fine. After all, as Bacchiocchi writes in this book, the Jews were so hated. Everything they did was despicable. Look at what God did to them in His judgment. He destroyed the city, sent them into captivity, sent them into slavery, destroyed the temple, ruined everything. Therefore, anything to do with the Sabbath and Holy Days, why should we be encumbered with the sins of the Jews! I've given you half the story.

Lawlessness: Why were those in Judea the religious leaders considered lawless, though they had the Sabbath and the Holy Days? That's a tough one to figure. It was because:

• they had all their traditions as a fence around the Law of God
• they rejected Jesus Christ

• Can there be anything more lawless than seeking to kill the Son of God?
• Can there be anything more lawless than that?

That's why it has to be conversion of God's Spirit and of the heart!.

Verse 24: "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and practices them…" Notice: the will of the Father and My words, which are the will of the Father.

"…I will compare him to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock; and the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; but it did not fall, for it was founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not practice them…" (vs 24-26).

What words of Jesus did He say? Mark 2:27: "And He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; therefore, the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath'" (vs 27-28).

See what you have to avoid? I haven't heard that on TBN either. They're getting a lot of Messianic Jews on there.

Matthew 7:26: "…shall be compared to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand."

Someone who lives in Seaside and his house is built on sand, but he makes sure that the water doesn't undermine the foundation, because he practices what's in the Bible. But if a tsunami came up far enough, you're gone.

Verse 27: "And the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it.'"

All these disasters that we see today demonstrate that, but you could even get around that if you would build them correctly.

I never will forget this plane flying over where there was a great hurricane in Florida. Every house was destroyed except one. So, they flew over it and they zoomed in with the camera and it was concrete rebar construction.

In these areas in the woods and forests you have houses built of thick stucco and tile roofs and stucco under the eaves. To protect it clear away the brush and everything around the house for about 100-feet. Your house will survive. You've seen that. You see everything about the fire and all of a sudden here's one house. It's standing all by itself. How did that happen? You look at the house; it was built properly!

How do these people get started who are well-intentioned and use the name of Jesus, but end up not being included for eternal salvation?

Luke 9:49: "Then John answered and said, 'Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name… [just what we read there in Matt. 7] …and we forbad him because he does not follow with us.' But Jesus said to him, 'Do not forbid him, because everyone who is not against us is for us'" (vs 49-50).

There's that kind of in-between place right there. Why would He say that? In hopes that they would eventually come to understanding and be converted!

What do people like that do? They get caught up in their own selves and think, 'I'm going to start a ministry here with Jesus because I can cast out demons.' There are two sides to this coin.

Luke 11:23: "The one who is not with Me is against Me…" Those who were casting out demons in Jesus' name have a very short leash on which to operate, to whether they go to God or whether they follow Satan. Satan will come along and say, 'I'll show you a little something.'

"…and the one who does not gather with Me scatters" (v 23). That's the difference right there!

Let's see how this gets started. It gets started with an idea. Who's the one to bring ideas? Satan! Remember Ananias and Sapphira. Peter said, 'Why did Satan put it in your heart to lie to God and the Holy Spirit?' Because he understood the lie because of the Holy Spirit, which he had from God! 'While it was your property, it was yours; but when you sold it—the commitment was you give everything to the Church. There were so many disciples in Jerusalem you had to take care of them. So that's what they did. So they lied! Satan put it in their hearts! He is also called 'the god of this world.'

Matthew 16:1: "Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Him, tempting Him and asking Him to show them a sign from heaven." If He did that they would say, 'You are the one,' but Jesus didn't do it.

Verse 2: "But He answered and said to them, 'When evening has come, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red." And in the morning, you say, "Today it will storm, for the sky is red and lowering." Hypocrites!.…'" (vs 2-3).

You look up the number of times that Jesus called them hypocrites. That's quite a thing. You can call a hypocrite sanctimonious pretenders.

"'…You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.' Then He left them and went away. Now, when His disciples came to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. And Jesus said to them, 'Watch out and be on guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees'" (vs 3-6).

So we could translate that today: Beware of the official religious leaders of the world, because that's what they were. The disciples didn't know and understand what that meant, so He told them.

Verse 11: "'How is it that you do not understand that I was not speaking of bread when I told you to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?' Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (vs 11-12).

That's how it comes, a change in doctrine. That's why we had the Bible study where we saw the video of the meeting of UCG where they were now not going to call Jesus, the Lord God of the Old Testament. Why? Don't know! If you want to draw in more Protestants and if you want more numbers, you change the doctrine. That's how you do it.

Could you get a lot more people if you say, 'We're good Sunday-keepers.' You could fill this place up, but how many would be converted? No one! What good has it done? You may teach them enough to be good people in the world for a while. The doctrine! That's quite a thing. Told them the same thing.

Let's see what Jesus told the religious leaders to their face. John 8 is really a powerful chapter.

John 8:31: "Therefore, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, 'If you continue in My Word…'"

There it is again. What is He saying? You must forsake the traditions of the elders! If you're going to follow the words of Christ, you're obviously going to have to reject the traditions of the elders .For example the washing of the hands (Mark 7).

How do you understand the Bible? By obeying what you learn as you read and study! Here it is right here:

"…'If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. And you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free'" (vs 31-32). These were those who were saying, 'We believe in Jesus.' So here's how they answered:

Verse 33: "They answered Him, 'We are Abraham's seed… [that doesn't guarantee anything if you're disobedient] …and have never been in bondage to anyone. What do You mean by saying, "You shall become free"?'"

The Roman armies were right there and right at the temple where Jesus was speaking here. You've seen the colonnades of it.

They had Roman soldiers. Fort Antonia was right up here, which had 5,000-10,000 soldiers to keep them in subjection. They had Roman guards up on top of the colonnades looking down to make sure there were no riots. Remember how quickly Paul was rescued by the Romans (Acts 21). They were right there.

Verse 34: "Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a servant of sin.'" Sin is lawlessness, transgression of the Law. Here they were at the temple, professing belief in Jesus and enslaved to the traditions.

Verse 35: "'And the servant does not live in the house forever; but the Son lives forever. Therefore, if the Son shall set you free, you shall truly be free. I know that you are Abraham's seed… [remember the word seed] …but you are seeking to kill Me, because My words do not enter into your minds'" (vs 35-37)—closed minded!

Have you ever run up against someone so closed minded you can't tell them anything? What do you have to do? You just have to walk away in disgust and say, 'You're on your own.'

Verse 38: "I speak the things that I have seen from My Father… [that's where we started] …and you do the things that you have seen from your father." Their father was the devil! We'll look and see how slick that he is.

Verse 39: "They answered and said to Him, 'Our father is Abraham.' Jesus said to them, 'If you were Abraham's children…'"

What did his children do? Obeyed Abraham and God! He's saying, 'You're the seed of Abraham, I know that, but you're not his children.

"…But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has spoken the Truth to you, which I have heard from God; Abraham did not do this. You are doing the works of your father…'" (vs 39-41).

Think of this. Here they are, believing in Christ, right at God's temple, and they are of their father the devil! That's astounding to understand. You see how easy then, if people do not stay true to the Word of God, they can be led away with the leaven, a bit-by-bit-by-bit. Look at what happened to Worldwide.

You have groups of people who used to keep the Sabbath, that are keeping Sunday. Were these the ones who were there, but not converted? If you truly have the Spirit of God, are you going to give up on the Word of God, the Truth of God? That doesn't mean you're not going to sin. That doesn't mean you may not have some real difficult sins to work on. But nevertheless, Christ is going to help you through that. But look at that.

Verse 41: "'You are doing the works of your father.' Then they said to Him, 'We have not been born of fornication.… [so they knew all about that] …We have one Father, and that is God.' Therefore, Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I proceeded forth and came from God. For I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me.' [He laid His life down willingly] …Why don't you understand My speech? Because you cannot bear to hear My words'" (vs 41-43). How does that work? Listening to you, but 'I've been right all along.'

Verse 44: "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to practice. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the Truth because there is no Truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he is speaking from his own self; for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I speak the Truth, you do not believe Me" (vs 44-45).

That's something! That's the barrier to break down. This is why the Passover becomes central to all of the false Christian religions that come along. They change it.

Verse 46: "Which one of you can convict Me of sin? But if I speak the truth, why don't you believe Me?"

Now here's the separating point, right here. We'll see this when we get into how these heresies came about. We're going to see that these things really started early.

Verse 47: "The one who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason you do not hear, because you are not of God."

Those are pretty powerful words. Then they said, 'We know you have a demon.' He said, 'I don't have a demon.' Then it ends up where He said, 'Before Abraham was I AM.' That really sent them into a dither, because He told them plainly He was God of the Old Testament. Yet, a Church of God today wants to not say that.

What's going to happen? What's the principle? A little leaven leavens the whole lump, and it will start.

Scriptural References:

• 2-Timothy 1:7-10
• 2-Timothy 2:14-16
• 2-Timothy 3:15-17
• 2-Peter 1:15-21
• Isaiah 50:4-7
• John 5:15-20
• John 12:37-50
• Matthew 7:13-26
• Mark 2:27-28
• Matthew 7:26-27
• Luke 9:49-50
• Luke 11:23
• Matthew 16:1-6, 11-12
• John 8:31-47

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Luke 18
• Revelation 17
• 1-Corinthians 15
• Isaiah 28
• Matthew 5
• Revelation 12
• Isaiah 9
• Revelation 13
• Mark 7
• Acts 21

Also referenced:
Study Pack #6: The Nature of God

Books:

• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• Anti-Judaism & the Origin of Sunday by Samuele Bacchiocchi
• From Sabbath to Sunday by Samuele Bacchiocchi
• The Apostolic Fathers edited by J. B. Lightfoot
• Gnostic Truth & Christian Heresy by Alastair Logan
• A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
• When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone
• The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament by Joseph Farar
• Jesus the Rabbi by Dwain Miller

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 12-9-18
Formatted: bo—12/10/18

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