App
(Satan's Tactics)
Fred R. Coulter—October 27, 2012
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One of the brethren has a friend who is a pastor of Sacramento Church of God Seventh Day. He attended with them four or five years. He saw him yesterday, because this former pastor of his is also his insurance agent. So, he came over and they were taking care of some insurance things. He brought out that the Church of God Seventh Day headquartered in Denver were having a ministerial conference in Portland. The main topic is going to be the nature of God. Have you heard that before in your church experience? Yes, indeed!
We have several appendices concerning that very thing in the Faithful Version Bible. The most important one is Appendix K, Exegesis of the Translation of the Phrase "the Holy Spirit." I mention that to you because not once in the Greek is the Holy Spirit mentioned in the masculine gender. Not once! It's very specific in the Greek. Just to give you a little clue, I would like you to write down in your notes two letters: 'os'; that is the masculine relative pronoun in the Greek. No mistaking what it will be. Below that I want you to write another letter: small 'o'; that is the relative pronoun 'it' for the neuter gender. You have masculine, feminine, neuter in the Greek and it's very specific.
I want you to write two more words. You know how to spell auto, so write that down and put an 's' on it. That is pronounced autos. That is also a pronoun for the masculine gender, which is then 'himself, his self.' I want you to write below that just the word auto. That is the neuter gender for 'itself.'
In certain cases in the King James Version, let's understand how they translated the Bible. It was in committees. After translating the New Testament I began to pick up the different committees doing the translation, because they had a little telltale signs of what they were doing.
Romans 8 is one place, there is another place or two in the New Testament, which we covered in all the trinity material. I'm bringing this up, because I will tell you that I suspect with about a 99% assurance that also in one of the large Churches of God that came out of WCG will again discuss the nature of the Godhead and will again introduce the trinity.
When that is done, that is a sign of Jesuit subversion and infiltration into the Church of God. When they infiltrate they are given carte blanche to curse the pope, to denounce Roman Catholicism, to denounce whatever they need to denounce that Roman Catholicism does as a practice in order to subvert them from the Truth. The Seventh Day Adventists have been totally infiltrated by the Jesuits. That's why they believe everything the Catholics do except the Sabbath and maybe another thing or two. Every time they are subverted with the trinity the next thing is the Christian Passover on the 14th—guaranteed!
Romans 8:26[corrected]: "Now in the same way also, the Spirit is conjointly helping our weaknesses because we do not fully understand what we should pray for, according as it is necessary, but the Spirit itself..." Even in the King James they were forced to translate it correctly, not say forced to, but the committee that was translating Romans did it correctly.
"...but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed by us" (v 26). What does the Spirit do? The Spirit is called the power of God (Luke 1)! What does the Spirit do when we are praying? It filters out all of the nonsense that is still in your mind that's interfering even with your prayer while you pray! You ever had that happen? Yes!
For example, you are praying very intently and you stop and pause and you're thinking about something and BANG! here comes a tune from a video advertising. The Holy Spirit eliminates that. It also is a discerner of the heart and the mind so it is able to express to God your heartfelt feelings because you have the begettal of the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit is that which does the work of God as God directs. It does not work independently. It only works at the direction of God.
"...but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings..." or uttering. None of us know a heavenly language—do we? That which is claimed to be speaking in tongues is really not necessarily unless it's directly inspired of God. Even Paul said he heard things that are not lawful to speak (2-Cor 13). Unless it is for the purpose of preaching the Gospel (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit was given, all of that is a counterfeit. People may feel good. Satan is there to counterfeit it. You know how Satan really gets to people and they don't even understand it; through humor.
"...with groanings that cannot be expressed by us.… [It has to translate what you are saying into the language that comes up onto the altar of God, the golden altar (Rev. 8).] ...And the One Who searches the hearts comprehends what the strivings of the Spirit are..." (vs 26-27).
Who is the one that searches the hearts? God does! How does He do it? With the Holy Spirit! "...what the strivings of the Spirit are because it makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (v 27). That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
Everyone has a cell phone today. When I'm traveling at the airport everyone's walking around looking at their cell phone or sitting down texting or whatever. They have their iPad, their iPod, their Kindle, their Sony reader and they're doing something. I believe—this is my opinion, but I think you'll find that it'll be true—that Twitter and Facebook and texting are destroying the languages, regardless of what language you use. You cannot express really cogent complicated thoughts on Twitter. That may be good for just emotionally keeping in contact with someone. In watching the debates Fox News came up with a little Twitter counter. But what happens when they do that, everyone who completes a Twitter message and sends it feels that they have accomplished something. They feel as though they belong because they tweeted.
But what are their thoughts and if their thoughts are no greater than their tweet, it's destroying the language and it is reducing their comprehension. They are not able to think in a prolonged way and to think complicated thoughts in order to understand the truth. If you depend on Facebook and Twitter you need to retrain yourself with constant study in the Word of God so that you can understand the Truth of God, because some of it is very complicated. Much of it takes an express desire and will on our part, even with the Holy Spirit, to apply it. It does!
Everybody's reduced today, because of television, to 10-12 minute attention span. You time yourself. You see if I'm not right. You're sitting there watching a program or you're watching the news and it's getting close to the 10-12 minute break. Are you hungry? Are you thinking about going to the refrigerator to get something? Are you thirsty?
It also, with all of the ads, I have yet to see one sad, sobering advertisement on television. The latest one with the Annabel fishing boat—it starts out with wonderful nice music. Everybody feels real good. Then they repair this old fishing boat up in Alaska and then they go out fishing. It's a great success. Everybody's smiling. Little girls are involved. They're making little papers to post up and to go ahead and send online. Then it shows it was successful. One of their new customers on Annabel boat caught a big rock cod and everybody's happy.
This is the mentality. People cannot stand to face the reality of what's going to happen, because if you do preach it you're nothing but blood, guts, and gore, and you're negative and you're a downer. Everyone is interested in all of this goody two-shoe line. You watch it.
Is there one ad which says, 'Hey, folks, you better read your Bible and you better repent to God if you want to avoid the doomsday that is coming'? That interferes with my soap opera! Likewise, in Christian religion there are many people out there searching and seeking. There are some people who are really, really serious about finding God. I've got some good letters on it.
I've got one letter, the person said, 'I've tried all of them: all of the Protestants, Mormonism, SDAs , Churches of God, and CBCG is the only one that sticks to the Truth.' Some come close, but when they start exalting the leader instead of God, unless there is repentance… God gives us choices. We take a step in the wrong direction; He doesn't immediately zap us with lightning. We take another step in the wrong direction; He doesn't immediately given us any indication. He wants to see do you love Him and are you going to obey Him. You have to choose that.
This is coming to the Church of God Seventh Day. They are being hit now big time. They now have them all softened up through soft doctrine, speak easy goody two-shoes, and they're going to come and get them. That's how they do it. I saw it.
I remember someone brought the book, God Is. When they did this in the WCG, it was prefaced to all the membership, a brand new booklet. 'We have new truth about the nature of God and it is God Is.' So, they sent out a booklet. Everyone wants a booklet. They don't want to get into the Word of God to really understand it. They don't want to train themselves to understand how to really study deeply.
If they get into Strong's Concordance, oh, that's deep. No, that is just a dictionary. Because it is just a dictionary, it can't tell you for verbs masculine, feminine, neuter, present tense, past tense, aorist tense #1, aorist tense #2. It cannot give to you the perfect tense of the verb, the pluperfect tense of the verb. It cannot give to you whether it is singular or plural; none of those things. When you look up a verb in Strong's Concordance and you get this number. You look it up and so it gives the definition and then what does it do? It gives you the definition with plus, with minus, with parenthesis, with brackets, because it's trying to express through that means the difficulties that I already just related to you in trying to express the word.
For example, the word believe, let me give you an example of an improper translation; very subtle. This is one everyone knows. John 3:16. I saw quite an article about what a wonderful work that Tim Tebow does when he puts his eye shadow with John 3:16 on it. Guess what? People get on their little Goggle search for John 3:16, but it's an improper translation. You don't know it when you first read it. You don't understand it because there's a subtlety in the Greek that is completely missing. This is why the Protestants believe that if you 'just believe' you are going to be saved. They have the Twitter mentality and they tweet John 3:16, say, 'I believe in Jesus and hallelujah, I'm saved.' God does not operate on cell-phone mentality.
John 3:16: "For God so loved the world..." You've heard the term God's love is unconditional? That is not true. God's love is eternal! God's love to mankind is in degree to your response to God, not that you are earning anything, but God has given life to everyone. Even the worst criminal can still eat, can still breathe, and can still think—though it is evil. God's love is extended to him to not take that from him or from her because they are sinning.
God has a greater plan. It's found in the Last Great Day. He's going to take care of them at that time. Those who are being called now are in a separate, special category of firstfruits that will never, ever be repeated again. Need to understand that! But God still loves the world because He's got a greater plan. That doesn't mean He loves the unrepentant crook. Ultimately what do we have? If there is no repentance in the second resurrection, we have the Lake of Fire.
"'...that He gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him... [The King James says 'should not perish.' Should is just a couple degrees less than shall. Everybody puts to it the definition of shall because should is so close. But that's not what it says; in the Greek it does not say that.] ...so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish...'" (v 16).
Why is that the correct translation from the Greek? It makes you ask the question for all of these Greek scholars! Very few translate it correctly. Why? Because they put their denominational loyalty before the love and Truth of God and His Word! That's why.
"…may not perish…" Why is it translated that way? "...but may have everlasting life" (v 16). In the Greek there is the subjunctive case. What is the subjunctive case? The subjunctive case is almost like an 'if' clause, meaning that there are conditions to it. If you come to someone's house and you say, 'May I come in?' Who is in control? The householder—correct? The householder can say, 'Yes, you can come in, but in our house we don't wear shoes. Would you please take off your shoes, then you may come in.'
This is just like an if clause, the one who is believing—I've got both of those footnoted in the Bible there—and the word for in is the Greek word 'eis'—which means into. It's just not an acknowledgement of Jesus; it's stating that there is going to be a relationship from you to Christ and back to you. The one who is believing or everyone who believes could be translated is believing, because that is what is called a present tense participle, which means it's a continuous thing. It's not like the man said, 'I think of God when I go to bed and I think of God when I wake up. The rest of the day is mine.'
"...but may have everlasting life"—subjunctive—subjunctive tells us there are conditions. What are the conditions? What did Jesus say? Remember James 2 says 'you believe in God, you do well, even the demons do.' Believing in itself is not enough. You have to have a belief that is based upon the conditions as expressed by the subjunctive. Here's the simple answer. This may be one of the first ones you ever heard when you wanted to know about the Truth.
Mark 1:14: "Now, after the imprisonment of John, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. And saying, 'The time has been fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is near at hand; repent, and believe the Gospel'" (vs 14-15). Now we've got something else to believe in—right? We have to repent!
You can't just believe without repenting. Repentance is to lead to baptism! Repenting unto salvation is far different than repenting of a wrong! That's why there has to be full baptism in immersion. So, you see how much is lost when they start saying, 'We're going to discuss about the trinity. We're going to discuss what is necessary for salvation.'
The next time you watch one of these Sunday programs or the Trinity Channel—we don't have the Trinity Channel where we are, but the Trinity Channel is just merchandizing in the name of Christ. That's all it is. No different than the 700 Club. You have to repent and believe in the Gospel!
Let's look at something else that Jesus said. John 3:16 in the subjunctive case tells us there are conditions. The first one is repent. What if you don't repent? What if you just say, 'I believe.' I wonder how these Protestants do it now because they have the 'give your heart to the Lord session' at the end of whatever part of the program. They used to have them come down the aisle. Then the preacher would pray for them. Now that's not even done. They stand up, they don't even have to raise their hands. Then they have to look at the preacher. You've seen this thing that they have on some of these programs. That's all they need to do is look at the preacher. Looking at the preacher:
- How is that going to bring conversion?
- How is that going to give the Holy Spirit?
- How is that going to convert you?
But doing that and saying these words, 'I believe Jesus is the Lord. I believe that He died for my sins. I repent of my sins.' You are now saved! That's a nice little tweeter message—isn't it?
Luke 13:1: "Now, at the same time, there were present some who were telling Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." What an awful thing. You know how people try and analyze why certain things happen and you know what some would say. 'That's pretty nasty so you know they're suffering because they're sinners.' Let's see what Jesus said, so here's another condition.
Verse 2: "And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Do you suppose that these Galileans, because they suffered such things? No, I tell you; but if you do not repent, you shall all likewise perish'" (vs 2-3). What is repentance? Repentance is deep sorrow unto permanent change for transgressing the laws and commandments of God, which Jesus died and shed His blood to forgive you!
He repeats it again here, v 4: "Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them, do you suppose that these were debtors above all men who dwelt in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but if you do not repent, you shall all likewise perish" (vs 4-5)—condition!
What is the other part of it? Repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!That's part of it. Let's see how Jesus expressed it. Here it's much more clear. This is in the subjunctive, but with the emphasis at the front of the sentence that is translated if.
John 14:14: "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." Is that carte blanche for just anything? 'Lord, send me a million dollars. I really, really need it. I've been stealing terribly and I've got to pay it back. Lord, send me the million dollars.'
He follows it up with another if to clarify the anything, v 15: "If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments." Which is a literal translation of the Greek.
Do the Protestants tell you that? No! They do away with the Law; so do the Catholics; so do all the religions of the world. This will help you understand how special those of the firstfruits are and those in the first resurrection are. We have a special particular battle in overcoming self and in overcoming Satan the devil that the people in the world do not have, nor know!
Verse 16 is a condition for receiving the Holy Spirit, because Peter told those who arrested him, the Sanhedrin, all the religious leaders that God gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. So, you have:
- love
- obedience
- faith
- hope
Verse 16: "And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that it may be with you throughout the age: Even the Spirit of the Truth..." (vs 16-17). That's what we need to quit lying to ourselves and believing lies—right? Yes! This gets down to how do we overcome while living in the world? What are the forces that we have to overcome? Most of the world's not trying to overcome. They are right in the middle of it. 'Feed me more.'
"...which the world cannot receive because it perceives it not..." (v 17). You go to Appendix K and you read the exegesis there. What is an exegesis? The 'ex'—from the Greek—means to bring out. The 'gesis' means to study out for understanding. Every place in the New Testament the form of the Holy Spirit is always and only in the neuter case, not masculine. Anyone who has studied six weeks of first-year Greek understands that the neuter is never given masculine persona. So, it shows deliberation in not translating it correctly in allegiance to denominational affiliation.
"...the world cannot receive... [hasn't repented] ...because it perceives it not..." (v 17). Doesn't know the work of the Holy Spirit. That's something God directs. That's something God does. God is not dealing with them in the world with it, though He loves the world and though He is going to save most of them through the second resurrection.
(go to the next track)
Come to Appendix K. I'm going to read just a little bit from page 1285. There's a reason why we have the commentary in front and the appendices in the back. This answers all the questions related to what is necessary to understand why The Holy Bible in Its Original Order is correct. The appendices are designed to explain in detail the doctrines and understanding we need. We have the section: Eminent Greek Scholar Refutes Personality of the Holy Spirit. I will have you go through and read the whole thing, I'll read part of it at the end.
Daniel B. Wallace is the foremost expert in Greek syntax in the United States. He works for and on staff at the Dallas Theological Seminary. He was also on the translating committee for the English Standard Version. He was outvoted because of theological considerations by the theologians to translate the Greek word 'ekeinos' to read precisely as it should—that one. We'll cover part of it here:
Eminent Greek Scholar Refutes Personality of the Holy Spirit (pg 1285-6):
But this (conclusion)… [personality of the Holy Spirit] …is erroneous. In all these Johannine passages pneuma (spirit) is appositional to a masculine noun.
In other words, it is placed in a particular position, but it does not make it masculine.
The gender of ekeinos (that one) thus has nothing to do with the natural (neuter) gender of pneuma (spirit). The antecedent… [the precedent of it] …of ekeinos ([that one) in each case, is paraklesis (comforter, a masculine noun), not pneuma..."
'Ekeinos' does not refer to 'pneuma.' But comforter and comforter is a descriptive noun of the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not a personal noun of an individual.
John 14:26 reads: {Greek reading} {English translation}: ('the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom (which) the Fathers sends in my name, that one will teach you all things').
You see the 'o'? {in the Greek lettering} That is the definite article in the masculine case for the Father.
The Comforter, the (spirit) not only is appositional to paraklesis (comforter) but the relative pronoun that follows it (pneuma [spirit]) is neuter! This hardly assists the grammatical argument for the Spirit's personality.
All the brackets have been added by me to clarify what he is writing.
In John 16:13... {I'll bypass the Greek} ...('whenever that one comes—the Spirit of Truth—he (it) will guide you in all truth.... he (that one) will glorify me...')"
But it is not he. It should not be saying he, it should be saying it.
The ekeinos (that one)(in these verses) reaches back to v 7, where paraklesis (comforter) is mentioned. Thus, since paraklesis (comforter) is masculine, so is the pronoun (ekeinos "that one" is masculine). Although one might argue that the Spirit's personality is in view in these passages...
This is his writing.
...the view must be based on the nature of paraklesis (comforter) and the things said about the Comforter, not on any supposed grammatical subtleties (concerning "the Spirit of the Truth," which is neuter gender). Indeed, it is difficult to find any text (in the New Testament) in which pneuma (spirit) is grammatically referred to with the masculine gender (because there are not any)" [Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, pp. 331-332, some bold emphasis and all bracketed comments added]."
Listen to what he says here. Here's a lament. Here's a man who was on the English Standard Version translating committee and he could not convince them to change their theological stance of making the Holy Spirit a person instead of the power of God. So listen to his lament:
Wallace added further comments in related footnotes. Concerning John 16:13, he wrote: "Although translations of v 13 such as that of the NRSV may be misleading as to what the subject of the sentence is ('When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you...'), their objective is not to be a handbook for Greek students."
To paraphrase, Wallace is saying that John 16:13 in the NRSV is an incorrect translation that does not follow the Greek text.
Here is a correct translation that is given:
A correct translation of John 16:13-14 reads: "However, when that one has come, even the Spirit of the truth, it will lead you into all truth because it shall not speak from itself, but whatever it shall hear it shall speak. And it shall disclose to you the things to come. That one shall glorify Me because it shall disclose to you the things that it receives from Me."
Wallace further refuted the notion that personality of the Holy Spirit can be found in the Greek New Testament. In another extended footnote he wrote: "Besides the Johannine texts, three other passages are occasionally used for this... [Then he lists them] …All of these have problems. In Eph. 1:14...
I want you to look at that. Look at what follows after the #14: 'os'—a relative pronoun for the masculine gender referring to the Father. Then he lays it out there.
...but the masculine relative pronoun (os, he/which) (v 1) is easily explained without resorting to seeing the theological motifs (of attempting to prove personality of the Spirit)..."
Then he goes through and explains all the rest of it. That's why this is important. If your friend has the Bible, have him read that in great detail.
We're going to give you a series of proofs that Paul would have committed repeated blasphemies against God because He did not mention the Holy Spirit when talking about the Father and Christ in the introductions of his epistles.
Romans 1:6: "To Whom you also are called of Jesus Christ: To all those who are in Rome, beloved by God, the called saints: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 6-7).
Where is God the Holy Spirit? If the Holy Spirit is a separate person in a trinity and is co-equal with the Father and the Son, Paul is blaspheming the Holy Spirit by not giving him honor as a person. He is not blaspheming the Holy Spirit to reject the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is not a person and you can't make a person out of a thing.
I have a cup. In the Greek I don't know what gender it would be in but in English it is an it—the cup it. You would not say the cup he. Bring me the cup, he's a good cup. Hello!
Let's read a couple more here because all of these become important. This is how Paul starts out every epistle and he wants everyone to know that this is coming from God the Father and Jesus Christ. He talks about the power of the Holy Spirit in other places, but we are talking about honoring God and the two that are God are the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is not God and does not need to be given the honor equal to the Father and the Son. Jesus said the Holy Spirit that He would send proceeds from the Father.
1-Corinthians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, called by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, the called saints who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, together with all those in every place who are calling on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1-3). Why not put in there 'and from God the Holy Spirit'? Because it is the power of God which comes from God! The power of God is not equal to God! That is a power from God.
2-Corinthians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in the entire region of Achaia: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort" (vs 1-3).
What is a masculine descriptive noun of the Spirit? Comforter! That describes a function of the Holy Spirit. 'And the God of all comfort,' because the Holy Spirit comes from God to you. If Paul did not have the power to make the Holy Spirit a person—which it is not—what makes the ministers today, 200 years later, think that they have the power to make the Holy Spirit God?
No man under any circumstances is going to develop a doctrine contrary to the teachings in the Bible and say that it is binding by God when it is not substantiated by the Truth of the Bible. That becomes a tradition of men! This is what people have done. This is what religions have done. They have put their doctrines contrary to the will of God, making them binding as the will of God. Can't do it!
- No man is greater than God!
- No man can tell God what to do!
They all say, 'Oh, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.' Yes! Galatians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle, not sent from men nor made by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, Who raised Him from the dead." What about the Holy Spirit? Not there, because it's not a person!
Verse 2: "And all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: Grace and peace be to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins, in order that He might deliver us from the present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father; To Whom be the glory into the ages of eternity. Amen" (vs 2-5). Again, nothing about the Holy Spirit as a person.
We find the same thing in Ephesians, so let's turn there. Everything that is in every Epistle of Paul is predicated on the introduction and giving glory to God the Father and Jesus Christ. Everything in his epistles is subordinate to the introduction. Everything that is given in there explains about what God is doing in our lives.
The Holy Spirit appeared as a dove coming upon Jesus. It appeared as fire upon the apostles (Acts 2). Is a dove God? No! But that was a sign to John the Baptist that when he saw the Holy Spirit coming upon the Messiah as a dove, that was the One. Doesn't make the Holy Spirit a dove—as a dove, because it's the power of God. It can assume an appearance like a dove for a sign. It can assume the appearance of fire as a sign, but it doesn't make the Holy Spirit fire. It doesn't make the Holy Spirit a dove. It's the power of God.
Ephesians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1-2).
The most important thing in our life is that we have grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ. Everything else flows from that because it's a relationship from God the Father and Jesus Christ. You're no longer fighting Him. You're no longer trying to do the will of God by carnal or human means. Remember this: You can never accomplish spiritual things by physical means! That's important to understand.
Verse 3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly things with Christ."
Philippians 1:1: "Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1-2). Again, no Holy Spirit!
Let's go to the next one, Colossians, same thing. I'm reading all of these for emphasis because the false Christianity of this world demands that you believe in the trinity. Who do you suppose wanted to be the third person and executing the power of God? Who do you suppose that was? Satan the devil! He said, 'I will ascend on high. I will be like the Most High.' He never could, so that's a sign of Satan's version of Christianity, which is a false version, which then misleads people. Do they know the truth? No, they don't know the Truth!
Colossians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossi: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying for you continually" (vs 1-3).
Sometimes repetition is the best teacher. But as we go along you have to ask: If believing the doctrine is a doctrine unto salvation, why did not Paul then give introductory honor and blessing from God the Holy Spirit?
1-Thessalonians 1:1: "Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ... [How are you in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? Through the power of the Holy Spirit that God gives! Yet, even in this phrase he does not give honor to the Holy Spirit as a God.] ...Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." He repeats it:
2-Thessalonians 1:1: "Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1-2).
Hebrews is just a little different, so we'll bypass Hebrews. Be sure and read the introduction or the reason why Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. I wrote this: you can tell that it was written by Paul by the style of writing that parallels what he did in the book of Romans. This was a very-often preached sermon that he had notes on. This was sent to the Jerusalem Church just before the Apostle James, the half-brother of Jesus, was martyred. He mentions nothing about the martyrdom of James. There was strife and turmoil going on. There was false doctrine being preached, and so forth.
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" (vs 1-2).
2-Timothy 1:1: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord" (vs 1-2). Again, not a thing about the Holy Spirit as a person!
Let's come to the last one: the Epistle of Titus. We find exactly the same thing here, Titus 1:1: "Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the Truth that is according to godliness; In the hope of eternal life, which God Who cannot lie promises before the ages of time, But revealed in its own set time... [the appointed times, there we go again] ...in the proclamation of His Word, with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior; to Titus, a true son according to our common faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior" (vs 1-4).
Every epistle! How can Paul be proclaimed to be so right by the religions of this world when they say, 'We follow Paul,' and yet, be so contrary to their doctrine of the trinity? So, it gets down to who or what are you going to believe, how do you believe.
I want to add just a little something in preface to what we're going to be studying next Sabbath. Next Sabbath I will bring that sermon. Come here to 1-Corinthians 13. Let's understand this. God has not called us just to improve as human beings. God has not given us His Holy Spirit just so we can be better than other people.
God has called us and given His Holy Spirit so we can become converted and be trained for eternal life. What is necessary more than anything else is the character of God, so we come from being sinners to being perfected. That perfection comes with the love of God. The love of God is a two-way street: from God to us, from us to God. Then it also goes out into the avenues to our neighbors, to the brethren, to each other and even to our enemies.
We're living in a world that is confronted with so many things. We have a special battle today that they did not have in Greece and in Rome and in Palestine. They didn't have all the things that we have. They did not have the interference of visual images that pop up in your face all the time. They did have statues, they did have carved things, and things like this, but not like we have.
Our minds are bombarded by billboards and television; our ears are bombarded by music. You go in a shopping mall and they have the music there going. All of this is designed to keep you in the system, Satan's system. So we have a whole lot more to overcome, especially when we understand how the human mind can be so affected by just an image. We've got television, now we've got music everywhere. Between all of these things that are dispensed by the prince of the power of the air to control our minds, we have to have a relationship with God and yield to God. We have to do the things that are most difficult to do, which then is contrary to the system of the world and contrary to human nature. Human nature will only go just so far in being good because it's not the good of God. Human nature will go only so far in disciplining itself to make itself better, but it cannot cross the barrier that is only able to be crossed with the Holy Spirit to literally change our minds with the power of the Holy Spirit.
The most important thing is the love of God. What we want to do is go through 1-Corinthians 13 from the point of view—and we'll come back to this a little later again—but since we concentrated on all the doctrinal things today I want to cover this. We have to remember that God loved us first and we are to respond back with love to God. That's what Jesus said.
Paul brings out some very important things. 1-Corinthians 13:1: "If I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." This is what we need to understand. That's why it says tongues, men and angels, if you don't have love what are you.
Understanding prophecy, mysteries, all knowledge (v 2), can you imagine the vanity if someone in the flesh knew everything. If you think the elite today treat all of us scum badly, think what it would be if they had all knowledge. Even have faith to move mountains, I am nothing.
Verse 3: "And if I give away all my goods, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned… [It says give away all my goods, the King James says 'to the poor.' That's not there. How many rich people give all of their goods, but not to the poor.] ...and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but do not have love, I have gained nothing."
Here is what love is to do. It's not going to be an instantaneous thing. None of the things that he's talking about here is going to be that which you can just instantly acquire and instantly be perfect in. We're coming from imperfection and sins within that must be overcome and those take
- time
- God's Spirit
- God's Word
- God's love
- a lot of repentance
in between all of those things. We can never be perfected in the flesh. That's why Paul said he was the sinner.
Here are the things that love will help us to do. That's why we have trials. The first one is, v 4: "Love is patient..." You pray for patience and you get up after praying and two hours later you lose your temper. You said, 'God, I just prayed to have patience.' His answer is, 'I gave you a test. How did you do?' You have to repent.
"...and is kind..." (v 4). Same thing! All of these things, to have Godly patience, Godly kindness, Godly love, that takes time. That's God's Spirit. There are two things that are interacting here:
- God's Spirit
- the cleansing of all of the garbage in our mind
All of the garbage in our mind is not eliminated all at once. It takes time. As a matter of fact, the final getting rid of it all is death and the resurrection.
"...loves envies not, does not brag about itself, is not puffed up" (v 4). Look what happens when politicians do that, movie stars do that, anyone does that. 'How great I am.' You're soon going to have a test to let you know you aren't so great. Then there's going to be a great unraveling. Politically today that is called Benghazi.
Verse 5: "Love does not behave disgracefully..." What happens? You end up being abrupt. You say something you shouldn't say. You say it in a way that you shouldn't say it. Then someone reacts to it. You wonder why they react to it and then the other person wonders why did you say it that way. All of these things are opportunities to change and overcome.
So, the point is this: the best way to overcome is with the love of God! When you slip and fall, repent. Why defend a sin? Think about it. All sin is well intended—is it not? 'I intended to do good but I lost my temper.' Did your intentions stop it? No! Why? Because you need to work on your resolve to not do it! You need to work on your resolve on how to change. We have things like the Proverbs which helps us out.
"...does not seek its own things... [Like little kids, 'That's mine, give it to me.'] ...is not easily provoked... [Oh, oh, that's a bad one for us.] ...thinks no evil" (v 5). We've got to cleanse our minds everyday—don't we?
I look at it this way. Here we have this physical body and our physical body is always in the process of taking in things and everything necessary to live. You breathe in, you breathe out. You breathe in oxygen that God has created so you can sustain, but you better breathe out. That's getting rid of the CO2 that you've developed in your blood stream. You're getting rid of a toxin and a waste.
Same thing with eating food: It must go in; it must be processed. God has created marvelous thing from the throat down to the end of our torso for everything that goes on to process the food. You eat good food that God created to be enjoyed and it tastes so good, but when it gets to the end with the waste it isn't so good. But you have to get rid of it every day—don't you? Yes, you do! When your body doesn't do it every day what happens? You start getting grumpy and miserable and you end up being sick—right?
Likewise spiritually! This is why Jesus told us in our daily prayer: 'Forgive us our sins.' Every day we have things that we fall short on. Every day we have sins that we commit that we really, when we got up in the morning and felt real good and look at our old ugly faces in the mirror and said, 'You're another day older today,' then you go out and you blow it.
You didn't say, 'It's a wonderful day today. I'm going to go out and I'm going to be mad. I'm going to go out and I'm going to lose my temper. I'm going to go out and be the most obnoxious self-centered jerk that has ever been around.' No! That's why we need the washing of the water by the Word. Those things need to be cleansed out every single day.
Compared to God, we're pretty nasty and we've got to get rid of the nastiness. It's like we have to get rid of the things in us. Think about this. Think about what a fantastic thing that God has made with the stomach and the hydrochloric acid in you to break down and dissolve the food and everything that goes on with that. He's done that to give you physical life so you can be sustained physically so that the most important thing in your life can be attended to—your relationship with God. That's why we have the washing of the water by the Word.
Not to press the point, but the odorous things that happen with the body is just liken unto the workings of carnal nature and how odious it is. You need to get rid of it physically so you need to get rid of it spiritually. It's a lifelong process.
Look at how close David was to God. He was sitting there one night, strumming on his instruments of ten strings and singing a psalm to God, and said, 'Oh, God, I've got this beautiful house and we brought Your sanctuary—the Ark of the Covenant—and we put it in a tent special. It's right here in my house. I've built a house for me and You don't even have a temple.'
God said, 'All right, since you're a bloody man but you have good intentions, I'll let your son build a temple for Me.' What happens when you have physical things? You set your heart on the physical things. This is why we need to use this as the guide to overcome. All of these visual things and all of these audio things and all of these hidden messages in watching television shows and things like that, we have got to come to the point that we make better decisions in what we watch and don't watch. Just remember that some of these things really stick in our minds. So, we've got to have them erased. You mind will forget if you ask God to help you forget it and get rid of it.
Verse 6: "Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the Truth. Love bears all things... [Just because you slip and fall and have a problem—maybe it's a real blooper—God hasn't rejected you. He's given you a chance to repent. He'll restore you.] ...believes all things... [That is for spiritual growth.] ...hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…." (vs 6-8). That's the program we need to overcome, which we will cover when I get into the sermon.
Verse 8: "…But whether there be prophecies, they shall cease; whether there be languages, they shall cease..." Wonder what language we're going to speak when we're in the Kingdom of God. Obviously, when we're resurrected, we've got to have the language given to us at the resurrection so we can speak with everybody else up there. Otherwise, we'll have nothing but the Tower of Babel on the Sea of Glass—right? Down through history, down through time, all the languages and everything.
"...whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away" (v 8). Just like a drop of water. What does God say concerning all the nations? Like a drop in a bucket! How long does it take for a drop of water to evaporate? Not very long! That's a good comparison to what God is going to unfold in the universe. Vanish away!
Verse 9: "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be set aside…. [it's useful for now, but not in the Kingdom of God] …When I was a child, I spoke as a child..." (vs 9-11). If you could have all of that recorded. 'Everybody come on over here, I want to show you how stupid I was from age 3-5, I've got all these videos.
"...I understood as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became a man, I set aside the things of a child" (v 11). Likewise, at the resurrection, everything in the flesh is going to be set aside: everything that is spiritual, everything that you have developed with the Spirit of God. Then that's going to be put into a spirit mind. That's going to be something!
Verse 12: "For now we see through a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face... [That's talking about the resurrection.] ...now I know in part, but then I shall know exactly as I have been known. And now, these three remain: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love" (vs 12-13).
When problems and difficulties come, which they will, don't despair. It may be a challenge. You may get angry, but you're allowed to get angry but it says sin not. Don't carry it over to the next day. Those are called grudges. Grudges lead to bitterness. Bitterness leads to dry bones and corrupted minds. God's way is perfect!
Scriptural References:
- Romans 8:26-27
- John 3:16
- Mark 1:14-15
- Luke 13:1-5
- John 14:14-17
- Romans 1:6-7
- 1-Corinthians 1:1-3
- 2-Corinthians 1:1-3
- Galatians 1:1-5
- Ephesians 1:1-3
- Philippians 1:1-2
- Colossians 1:1-3
- 1-Thessalonians 1:1
- 2-Thessalonians 1:1-2
- 1-Timothy 1:1-2
- 2-Timothy 1:1-2
- Titus 1:1-4
- 1-Corinthians 13:1, 3-13
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Luke 1
- 2-Corinthians 13
- Acts 2
- Revelation 8
- James 2
Also referenced:
- Strong's Concordance
- Appendix K: Exegesis for the Translation of the Phrase "the Holy Spirit"(The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version)
FRC:lp
Transcribed: 11-5-12
Formatted: bo: 11-6-12
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