Be Strong in the Lord #4

(Children of God vs Children of the Devil)

Fred R. Coulter—August 25, 2007

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We're going to approach this from a little different point of view. What sort of sprung this in my mind was a special on CNN: Christian Warriors. All the Protestants are getting involved, and I think it's quite astonishing that it shows the schizophrenic problems that Protestantism has. They come to church and say:

• you've been freed from the Law
• God has abolished the Law
• you don't have to keep the Law

Then they go out in the community and say that you must keep the Law, the part that they want you to keep, which is really educational from the point of view that they fail to realize that you have to have all the Bible, all the Scriptures, all the Truth applied. Not going through and taking little bits here and saying, 'Okay, we agree with this, let's run with this.' or 'We agree with that, let's do that.'

There was even one community that they showed—I just watched the start of it—that is calling the town Ave Maria. It's in Florida. They built a church and now they're building a town around there. What they're going to do is resurrect the old Catholic Medieval society. That's what they're going to do; where the pope reigns supreme! They eventually ended up with those who didn't agree with them, they were heretics and they ended up with the Inquisition.

• everyone wants to be religious
• everyone wants to have their own version of things
• everyone has to have their own doctrine

As God says, 'Why do you take My name and cast My Law behind your back?'

They all want to come and reform the society in the image of their doctrinal beliefs, rather than try to have a society that reflects the laws and commandments of God.

Gal. 3 will help us understand some of the problems and difficulties that they have, but also help us understand how we can be strong in the Lord!

Galatians 3:22: "But the Scriptures have shut up all things under sin…" This is why God has to call; all are under sin, which means they're all under judgment to God. This is why we have things in the world the way that they are.

Just like these Baptists—I think it's Vision America—that fail to realize that once you come to Christ, you don't do away with law, you perfect it. You don't eliminate it, you make it spiritual. God wants as many people converted as possible—and we understand this through the meaning of the Last Great Day and the second resurrection, which the world does not understand. Once you leave:

• the Sabbath
• the Holy Days
• the laws of God
• the words of Christ

and selectively pick out what you want, then you are a victim of Satan. He comes and says, 'Aha! There's no resurrection, you go to heaven!' The Catholic version of the kingdom is that the Kingdom of God is the reign of the pope; the Kingdom of Heaven is where the souls go when you die; or hell or purgatory, one of the two.

So, God has shut it all up under sin, and unless God calls them and opens their minds, the best they're going to have is partial understanding in different things, only as they agree with the Word of God.

No man can provide anything good, except that it is based in the Law of God whether they know the Law of God or not. It's just like with evolutionists. They must begin with nothing, but they always begin with something. Then all of a sudden Voila! you've got the creation. So, likewise with the Word of God.

You can't begin with part of it—agree with part of it and accept part of it—because it's going to get you in trouble. That's why everything that human beings do comes to corruption, regardless of the best intentions, the most sincere devoted law-abiding people in the world.

"…so that by the faith of Jesus Christ…" (v 22). Now we're talking about something entirely different. It's not faith that we generate. It's not belief that we cling to. If you believe that there is a God, if you believe that there is a Creator, James says, 'You do well. But even the demons believe and tremble.' But to have the faith of Christ is entirely different.

"…the promise might be given to those who believe." (v 22). This is a whole new thing, because this is with the Spirit of God. This is not commandment-keeping vs no commandment-keeping. This is the carnal mind, even though it may be decent and 'religious'—because men are a combination of good and evil—vs the goodness that comes from God and His Spirit.

Verse 23: "Now, before faith came…" What day did the faith come on? Pentecost with the Holy Spirit! Faith without the Holy Spirit is carnal belief! There are a lot of people who have carnal beliefs in many different things.

"…we were guarded under law…"—protected by keeping the commandments in the letter of the Law. That protected you and guarded you so that you can receive the physical blessings from God. That's why there are 'good' people in the world who keep part of the Law. They are law-abiding. They're decent if they know some things about Christ, they are generous, kind and good.

But the Law in the letter was to give us certain benefits. We know that from reading the Old Testament. It's important to understand that if you are going to be strong in the Lord you've got to be strong in the Lord spiritually:

• with His faith
• with His Truth
• with His Spirit
• with God dwelling in you

It's a completely different way of doing things from the world.

Just like some people have said when they argue about the Ten Commandments… Remember the Ten Commandment controversy with Judge Roy Moore? Protestants got all upset over it. Some commentators made the remark: Whose version of the Ten Commandments are you going to believe? The Protestants? The Catholics? The Jews? They vary considerably! When the Jews read the Ten Commandments, it excludes Christ. When the Catholics read the Ten Commandments, it excludes the second commandment and splits the tenth. When the Protestant read the Ten commandments, Sabbath means Sunday.

You've got to have God's version of it! It was to lead us and teach us. There's nothing wrong with begin guarded under the Law.

"…having been shut up unto the faith that was yet to be revealed" (v 23). Paul is referring back to Deut. 5. Just like there is no such thing as almost pregnant, a woman either is or isn't. Just like with the faith of Christ, you either have the Spirit of God in you or you don't. One little caveat: There is a space in between where the Spirit of God can be with you to lead you to Christ, provided that you follow the lead and repentance that God will give.

Verse 24: "In this way, the Law was our tutor…"—teacher. The King James says schoolmaster, and when people read that they think that's harsh and mean. Have you ever heard of the book: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum.

Every decent thing you need to know about life—the physical world—you should know by the time you have your full-fledged graduation from kindergarten with cap and gown, which some do today.

It was "…to lead us to Christ… [to show us that we need God; that's what the Law/tutor was to do] …that we might be justified by faith" (v 24). Rom. 3 explains all about being justified by faith.

People really, really misunderstand v 25: "But since faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." They say, 'We don't need a schoolmaster.'

Once you graduate from whatever level of school you attain, do you throw away everything that you have learned? No! You use it! If you've gone to college—and whatever your degree is, let's say it's engineering—why did you get that degree? So, when you get out of school and out from underneath the teachers you can throw it all away? or Did you learn it so you can get a job and be an engineer?

Whatever the skill—teaching, computers, any of the trades… I'll just tell you this right now: I would advise every single young man to learn a trade, because that's where the money is going to be in the future, because they don't have the trade schools that they used to have. If you want to make lots of 'big bucks' don't waste your time going to college, go to a trade school and you can make lots of money faster, without the huge debt that those going to college are confronted with.

Doctors, by the time they graduate from college, do their internship and setup their practice, are in debt $700,000 from the get-go.

When you are no longer under a tutor, that doesn't mean that you have dismissed everything you have been taught. But since faith has come, you have graduated from a tutor, so that now Christ in you and the faith of God will lead you! The Holy Spirit will lead and guide you!

The interesting thing about being led by the Holy Spirit is that we must make the choice and ask God to help do what God wants us to do spiritually. Then the Holy Spirit will lead us. That's worth a whole sermon in itself, so we won't get involved in that right now.

"…we are no longer under a tutor, because you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (vs 25-26). Now you're in a whole different category:

• you have the Spirit of God
• you are the children of God

Just like it says in 2-Cor. 6, God says, 'I will dwell in them and walk in the them.' Is that not in a totally different category than people in the world trying to be 'religious' and trying to be 'good' and trying to live by the letter of the Law.

What was the first thing that Jesus did when He came? When He began teaching He taught the spiritual application of the Law, which is now graduate school or living. Let's see where Deut. 5 helps explain it. When did you learn to add and subtract? Probably before you went to school! What is the first thing you learned to do? Count!

Our grandson gets on the phone and he counts! He counted all the way up to 50 for grandma. He knows how to count, and he knows his numbers; he's just four. He knows his ABCs and he can sing the song.

Do you still use it? Yes! Every time you write something, you use the alphabet that you learned when you were four-years-old. But when you write, do you do things at a level that a four-year-old cannot understand because he hasn't learned? Yes! Of course! It's the same way with anything else.

Here is an account of the giving of the Ten Commandments that God gave. It's the second account by Moses.

Deuteronomy 5:15 "…Therefore, the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath Day." Because Protestants do not keep the Sabbath, they do not understand the value of it, or the spiritual value of the Sabbath.

Yes, even some people in the Church of God do not use the Sabbath in the way that they ought to, and do not recognize that it is the day of great fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ with us, and fellowship with each other where we learn to love God and love each other.

Yet, they want to oppose on the society that you better not have any adultery, no murder… They take part of it. God says, 'No! All of it!'

Those were the words that were spoken and the people said that they can't handle it, 'we don't want God to speak to us.'

Verse 27—they told Moses: "You go near and hear all that the LORD our God shall say. And you speak to us all that the LORD our God shall speak to you, and we will hear it, and do it." They said that because they couldn't stand the voice of God. Just like today!

• if you say to the Catholics and Protestants that you've got to keep the Sabbath and Holy Days
• if you say to the Jews that Jesus really is the Messiah
• if you say to the Muslims that Allah is not the true God
• if you say to the Hindus that they are steeped in satanism
• if you say to the Buddhists that all they do is worship a fat-bellied, bald-headed squatting man, with his hands pointing toward heaven

or

• some woman with a dozen arms
• those less than that worship snakes, dragons and everything like this

They can't stand to hear the Word of God!

• Why?
• What is the carnal mind? Enmity against God and not subject to the Law of God!

What God is doing here is using this to give a lesson and a prophecy.

Verse 28: "And the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me. And the LORD said to me, 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have well said all that they have spoken.'" They're well-intended.

You show me one person that's not well-intended, even a murderer after he's committed a murder and is in prison, reporters go in to interview him and say, 'Why did you do this?' The reporters come out and says, 'Well, he/she is really a nice person.' But they were still murderers!

Very few people—some few do—are so absolutely dedicated to evil, yet, in dedication to evil, they think they are doing good. That's the total deception of human nature.

• this is why Christ had to come
• this is why the Holy Spirit had to come
• this is why we need the Word of God
• this is why we need the spiritual understanding of it

Verse 29: "Oh, that there were such a heart in them…" You cannot have a spiritual heart or mind unless four things happen:

• repentance
• baptism
• the receiving of the Holy Spirit of God
• the circumcision of the heart

Those four things must take place! Without that human nature—a mixture of good and evil:

• human nature well-intended
• human nature that is 'every way of a man is justified in his own sight'

—rather than looking at and understanding God, finding God and understanding His Word.

Unless there is conversion of the heart by those four things… Protestants, especially fundamental evangelicals who believe in dispensationalism—which is a myth—say that all you have to do is believe, you don't have to be baptized, and you will be saved. A lie!

That's the very reason that Jesus was baptized, to show that if He did it to fulfill all righteousness, you had better likewise do it or you are not even getting out of the kindergarten sandbox of understanding the Word of God.

"…that they would fear Me…" (v 29). He also says in other places 'and love Me.' So, first you fear God and then you learn to love God. Unless you fear God and fear the penalty for sin, you're not going to repent. Until you repent, you cannot learn the love of God.

There's a lot of love that people can learn: carnal love, sexual love, friendship love and things like that in the world, but that's not based on the Spirit of God. You can't take those kinds of love and substitute it for the love of God and the Spirit of God. This is what happens in all the 'religions.'

"…and keep all My commandments always…" (v 29). If you want a very interesting study, go through and see how many times God says 'ALL My commandments.' I think you'll be surprised. If God says it once, He means it; if He says it more than once, that's that much more. And the multiple times that He talks about it means all the more. That's the whole story of the Bible, from one end to the other.

"…so that it might be well with them and with their children forever!" (v 29).

The schizophrenic 'Christian warriors' today want to go out and impose upon society—which would be good; there would be certain blessings to come from it if they would be obedient in the letter of the law; yes there would be a benefit—but that cannot be substituted for conversion.

Let's see what God says about the commandments even under the letter. If you're under a tutor or instructor does the instructor have the best interest at heart? even if it's a good instructor for the students? What do they want to see the students do? To learn to be proficient, to progress, to come to a point of graduation, to come to adulthood! To make them well equipped!

That's what God was doing with Israel! Read all of Deut. 28—everybody loves the first 15 verses, but from there to the end they don't like.

Deuteronomy 4:1: " And now, O Israel, hearken to the statutes and to the judgments which I teach you, in order to do them, so that you may live…"

Let's understand that whenever people do not do what God has commanded, even in the letter of the Law, what happens in many cases? Not all, but many? Their lives are cut short!

It's like we saw a tragic thing on 'meth.' This young couple, nice looking couple, never got in trouble and were always obedient at home. They went out to a party on a Friday night. (If they kept the Sabbath they wouldn't be at a party on Friday night, but that's just an aside.)

It was in North or South Dakota in the middle of the winter. They decided to try 'crystal meth,' which is absolutely the strongest thing and more profound than cocaine, and they took a lot of it. They got lost and were out in a snow storm driving. Their minds were crazy. They didn't know where they were and they started hallucinating and thinking that someone was after them. They got on the phone and called 911 and the operator asked where they were, and they said they didn't know. They're out in the country, off the road, way away from everybody. 'We don't know, come and get us.' Where are you?

To make a long story short, the boy finally decided that he needed to go get help. He didn't know where he was or what he was doing. Had they stayed in the car they might have lived. But he went out, stumbled someplace, fell down and died. He was frozen by the time they found them. The girl went out another way when he didn't come back and likewise died.

That's a gruesome example, but what does that teach since we're talking about tutors, schoolmasters and teachers? It teaches you that the wages of sin is death! If you don't keep the commandments of God—and what is the main commandment all young people need to remember?—honor your father and your mother!

When they got out to this party, they decided to dishonor their father and mother, to disregard even practical sound carnal thinking in the world. And because someone enticed them to take these drugs, this 'meth,' their lives were snuffed out, which means they didn't live.

The purpose of the commandments in the letter is so that a carnal society can have at least a decency of peace and a tranquility in the community. But they didn't!

So, God said that If you do it, "…and go in and possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers gives to you. You shall not add to the word, which I command you; neither shall you take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you" (vs 1-2). God says that He wants you to learn a lesson from this because you saw what He did in the incident of Baal Peor.

Verse 6: "And you shall keep and do them, for this is your wisdom…" Protestants think that if you keep the laws of God you're dumb and stupid. 'Why do you have to be under a schoolmaster'; they look at it that way. No! It is a spiritual application of the laws of God.

Moses was saying that even the carnal letter of the Law, "…this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people'" (v 6).

The Vision America likes to say that if we get back to what the founding fathers did… Listen! The founding fathers diminished and took away from the Word of God. A lot of people say that the Constitution of America is the best form of government. No, it is not! Look what happened over 200 years later. What is the best form of government? Christ in you! You govern yourself as led by Christ and the Holy Spirit! If that were true everywhere—which is going to be in the Millennium—you're not going to need police, you're not going to need prisons, you're not going to need any of those things.

Because they started out close to God when the nation began, because they kept the commandments—except the Sabbath, which was the Achilles heel to take them down later—God blessed them! It was also God's time to bless the end-time descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the two grandsons: Ephraim and Manasseh. God said that He would bless them.

What is said of America? Just like it says in the Bible, that you become like Ephraim and Manasseh! Or that you become like Israel, because God blessed them! Even with the laws and commandments of God—part of them—they were somewhat close to God. Not as close as they ought to have been, but somewhat close to God.

Verse 7: "For what nation is so great whose God is so near to them, as the LORD our God is, whenever we call upon Him?" We could apply this to the United States of America and Great Britain before their decline and fall because of sin. I have a book called The Late Great U.S.A. by Jerome R. Corsi Ph.D. and the late Great Britain, because God's hand of judgment is upon us now!

We started out well, and for carnal people I think that's about as close to God as they could get.

Verse 8: "And what great nation has statutes and judgments that are so righteous as all this Law, which I set before you today?" Then what does Moses do?

Verse 9: "Only take heed to yourself …" The battle of human nature is always, always, always something you need to watch every day! Sometimes every hour! Sometimes, if it's tough, every minute! The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!That's why we have the Sabbath every week. Think if you didn't have the Sabbath every week, where we all come together and learn. I learn, you learn, and what I teach has to be with the Word of God. Not what I think or want to do, but what does the Word of God say?

If I don't teach the Word of God, if I add to or take away from, then where does that put me?

Deuteronomy 5:32: "And you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left."

Make that another Bible study. Look at the right hand or the left, don't turn aside. You find that everywhere throughout the Bible. Why? Because human nature is just that way! It never fails!

Verse 33: You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you so that you may live…" Protestants say that if you do that you're putting yourself under bondage. No, you're not! The Law is not bondage, sin or law-breaking is bondage.

"…and that it may be well with you…" (v 33). God wants it to be well, but we have choices that we have to make.

"…and you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess" (v 33).

Deuteronomy 6:1 "Now, these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God commanded to teach you…" Moses didn't say anything that God didn't tell him to say. Not a word!

What was the main thing that Moses did that God didn't tell him to do? God said to go to the rock and speak to the rock and it will bring forth water! Moses went to the rock and he was so frustrated because of all of the dry mouth Israelites saying, 'Give us water! Give us water!' Moses got so mad he went up there and he struck the rock and beat it with his rod!

So, God said that because 'you didn't believe Me'—God still sent the water in spite of it… So, don't think because something happens and God responds that it's necessarily reflecting how good are. Moses was told by God that 'since you didn't believe Me you're not going to go into the promised land.' That's just something to think about.

"…so that you might do them in the land where you go to possess it, that you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be diligent to observe it, so that it may be well with you, and that you may greatly multiply, as the LORD God of our fathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel. Our one God is the LORD, the LORD. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (vs 1-5). Then this translates into the New Testament.

(go to the next track)

Let me just rehearse for you; we won't get into the details about it, but in Appendix W: The Two Jehovahs of the Old Testament (The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version) explains the proper translation of:

Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel. Our one God [Elohim] is the LORD, the LORD." Showing two in the God Family.

Remember the four things that I mentioned; there must be repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit and circumcision of the heart.

When you read through some of these verses, stop and think about them and analyze them as you go and it will give you a greater message.

Romans 2:25: "For on the one hand, circumcision profits if you are observing the Law; on the other hand, if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision…. [because it's the spirit of keeping the laws of God] …Therefore, if the uncircumcised… [in the flesh] …is keeping the requirements of the Law…" (vs 25-26).

What does this tell you about law-keeping? You're to keep it, whether you're circumcised or uncircumcised! But the Protestants read that and glide right over it and never stop and think about it. Paul says to keep "…the requirements of the Law…"

"…shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? And shall not the uncircumcised, who by nature is fulfilling the Law…" (vs 26-27). All of this is part of being strong in the Lord.

"…judge you, who, with the letter and circumcision, are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is external in the flesh; rather, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God" (vs 27-29).

As one rabbi said, 'Jesus we can understand, Paul we can never forgive.' That's based right here. These are more than fighting words, these are killing words. That's why they were always after Paul. I think of this every time: If the Jews back then had helicopters and could go after Paul… They used every other means to way-lay him!

How is the circumcision of the heart? Obviously, it is spiritually in the mind, which then takes away the carnality and hostility of the mind.

{Note sermon series: Colossians} We are not going to go through and have a detailed study of it here, but we just want to cover the section concerning how you become circumcised in the heart and the spirit.

Colossians 2:10: "And you are complete in Him… [that brings you to Jesus Christ and God the Father] …Who is the Head of all principality and power."

That's important to realize because Paul talks later on about the religions of men and worshipping of angels, which is mostly what the religions of this world are all about. Particularly those related to Catholicism, witchcraft and much of Protestantism. It's all getting into a mild brand of satanism, which then is Gnosticism, and Harry Potterism carries you right into the deeper things of Satan and witchcraft. Those things we need to understand.

Verse 9: "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." So, you don't need Mary! That Catholic song, Ave Maria—which is Hail Mary—is what you would say is the anthem of that city. They're already into idolatry before they start.

Verse 11: "In Whom…"—through Whom, by Whom—Christ!

John 14:6: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.'"

• not Mary
• not Mohammad
• not Buddha

Through Christ! The true Christ, not a version of a Christ!

Colossians 2:11: "…you have also been circumcised with the circumcision not made by hands…" It is the changing of the heart with the spiritual addition of God's Spirit in you.

"…in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" (v 11). You're able to overcome human nature. It's a struggle as Rom. 7 says, and we do have to be diligent in doing it, but it is a process. It goes on and explains how you are circumcised in Christ:

Verse 12: "Having been buried with Him in baptism…" Baptism is a covenant death (Rom. 6); that's why you're baptized. You don't come to Christ by reciting His name. You don't come to Christ because some preacher says to raise your hand and you come to the altar and you're saved.

You come to Christ because you die in covenant death of baptism! You renounce human nature. You renounce your way of living. You fully accept God's way! Then He will give you of His Spirit, and you can grow in grace and knowledge and have the mind of Christ. "Having been buried with Him in baptism…"; it's with Him. That's why we have conjoined in Rom. 6

"…by which you have also been raised with Him through the inner working of God…" (v 12). When you come to Christ by faith, God is then working in you! You can't be strong in the Lord unless Christ is in you and God is in you!

You can have all of the carnal Christians of the world out there being warriors for Christ to try and shove their version of the laws of God down people's throats. It's still going to end up in a carnal mess, because you're leaving out the spiritual things, and you haven't been called of God to true repentance!

"…Who raised Him from the dead. For you… [Paul is talking about before this process of baptism occurred] …who were once dead in your sins… [the wages of sin is death] …and in the uncircumcision of your flesh…" (vs 12-13). The circumcision of Christ is not a circumcision of the flesh. It is a circumcision of the heart, as Paul said and wrote in Rom. 2.

"…He has now made alive…" (v 13). Let's stop and think for just a minute; very important. People always ask:

• Why does God allow this?
• Why does God allow that?
• Why couldn't God stop this, that or the other thing?

The basic answer is this:

• Where were you when you should have known about God?
• Where were you when you had a Bible in your house and you never read it?
• Where were you when the conscious God gave you told you not to do thus and such?

God was wondering where you were. If you leave Him and abandon Him, you're going to die! So, God looks at all people in the world that He has not called as good as dead in the flesh!

So therefore, since there is a second resurrection, He's going to undo all the tragedies, all the deaths, all the abortions, all of those things. {Note any sermons for The Last Great Day} He can let these great tragedies happen, but because men believe in an immortal soul, a lying doctrine of Satan the devil, they feel as though that since these people have died, how could God allow this to happen? Because He's going to resurrect them later on, and it's going to be a lesson for them to learn!

Do you want to bring them all back into this evil world again? Example: You save all kinds of people to bring them back into an evil world. They're going to die anyway! All are going to die! You need to understand that.

That's why it says, v 13: "For you, who were once dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has now made alive…" Now you stand before God with a circumcised heart, with the Spirit of God in a repentant attitude, having pledged your life in a maledictory death of baptism, having your sins forgiven. Now you are uncircumcised in heart and mind!

"…He has now made alive with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses" (v 13). Then He gives you the grace where you can continually come to God and receive forgiveness.

Verse 14: "He has blotted out the note of debt…" What you have in the King James Version is one of the worst translation—outside of 1-John 3—in the entire New Testament! This is where they go to say that Jesus nailed the commandments to the cross. If you believe that then there's no such thing as the law of gravity!

"…the note of debt against us…" (v 14). The laws of God are for us, for ourwell being, for blessing. Sin is against us.

"…with the decrees of our sins…" (v 14). Even the pagan religions—even in the old ancient Chinese religion as well as the Greek religion—had this: You would keep a note or decree of your sins. Every year you would take this and go to the priest and do certain rituals and then they would burn this note of sin. So, this is what Paul is referring to here. You can read that in Alexander Hislop's the Two Babylons.  

"…which was contrary to us… [What is contrary to us? Sin!] …and He has taken it away, having nailed it to the cross" (v 14). Symbolically, all sin was nailed to the cross: past, present and future upon repentance! If you don't, then God has the second death in the Lake of Fire, which—if you look at a volcano and running lava—you will know that is very, very final!

The object and purpose of God in our lives is to not have our sins forgiven. He has something greater! Just like the object of a woman being impregnated with a child is not the impregnation, it is the birth; all the development and everything that goes with that. Likewise with us. God's object in having our sins forgiven is to give us a clean slate so we can go forward:

• to receive the Holy Spirit of God
• to live under His grace
• to do His will
• to keep His commandment in the Spirit of God

So that we can grow in grace and knowledge and the strength of the Lord. We have a goal and a purpose. We don't have a 'religious calling.' We have a goal and purpose that is eternal forever. This is what is important.

Now, we will see the inner-play here very similar to what Paul wrote in Col. 2.:

1-John 3:1: "Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God!…." We're also going to see that he also calls the others the children of the devil. We're the children of God. Once we receive the Holy Spirit of God, our minds are opened, changed and God gives us of His Spirit for an absolute most binding spiritual reality of all, that we receive the Holy Spirit of God so that we can become the sons and daughters of God.

• that's what it's all about
• that's why we need to be strong in the Lord

"…that we should be called the children of God!…."

Let me explain something here that the Protestants don't have a clue. They read the King James Version and where it talks about adoption (Rom. 8); so we are adopted. NO! That is not true!

An adoption is that you legally take and give your name to someone who is not of your own conception or begettal. Their genetics are entirely different. That is an adoption and done legally.

The true word in Rom. 8 is sonship. Here in 1-John 2 it is substantiated because the word children is 'tekna'—meaning your own begotten children. In other words, children that have your own genes. We won't get into a long drawn out discussion on how God does it, but let's understand that we're made in the image of God and we have genes and chromosomes that God used to make each one of us different and individual.

How God is going to use that at the resurrection only God knows. But I'm sure that He's not going to dissolve them. I am sure that the genes and chromosomes that we have today can—with conversion—be part of the pattern that God is going to use to make us His sons and daughters.

That's why this word 'tekna' is important. We are the children of God! Not adopted, not stolen, not taken care of, but the children of God, which puts us into a whole different category. So, when it says that the Law was to guard us unto Christ and be our teacher, now that faith has come this is what it's all about.

All the neophytes go to the book of Galatians as the first book they study to try and understand the Bible. Almost all of them do; they want to understand Galatians. They should start in Genesis, not Galatians. Tackle the complicated Scriptures when you're grounded in the fundamentals.

Same way with the book of Revelation. Some people like to go and start to understand Revelation. They don't have a clue as to the rest of the Bible. Start in Genesis and go forward. This is very important for us to understand because we now have a:

• change of heart
• change of mind
• we are converted
• we have the Spirit of God

We are going to see, as we have in the series on The Holy Spirit. There are two aspects of the Spirit of God:

• the mind of Christ
• the begettal of the Father

"…For this very reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him."

1-John 2:3[transcriber's correction]: "And by this standard we know that we know Him: if we keep His commandments."

You could also put there that the world doesn't understand us. They don't know God. You tell someone that you:

• love God
• keep the commandment
• believe in Christ
• believe forgiveness of sin by grace
• keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days

It's almost like taking two magnets and crossing their eyes. They can't comprehend it.

• Are you a Jew? No, I'm not a Jew!
• Are you a Seventh-Day Adventist? No, I'm not a Seventh-Day Adventist!
• What are you? I am a Christian!
• How can that be?

Because Jesus said that no one can come to the Father except through Him!

1-John 3:2: "Beloved, now we are the children of God…" John wants us to understand that as long as you have the Spirit of God, God is looking upon you fait accompli, you are children of God!

God is not in the business of calling people so that they can commit the unpardonable sin and He can throw them into the Lake of Fire. That's going to be a rare thing. That's why before we get into all the things that are going to happen in this world—which are going to happen and they're going to be devastating, fearful, awful, mind-blowing—I want you to be thoroughly grounded in God and in Christ, so that you're strong in the Lord and you realize that this is not a fear trip.

Some Churches of God have the audacity and stupidity to say that 'if you're not in this church you're going through the Tribulation.' Well, what minister is going to decide that? Is he God? No! God is going to decide, you've go a usurper taking the prerogative and judgment of God! It's like another man says, 'If you're not with my groups and just me alone you're never going to be in the Kingdom of God.

God is going to decide who is going to be there, and you're not going to make the judgment for God! You don't have the secret doctrine for God. God has in His Bible, His whole Word. You've got to have it all. That's what John is showing here. There are two categories:

• the children of God
• the children of the devil

"…and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; but we know that when He is manifested… [Christ at His return] …we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him exactly as He is. And everyone who has this hope in him…" (vs 2-3). The reason that we do what we do—

• change
• repent
• grow
• overcome
• keep the commandments of God
• study the Word of God
• let the Spirit of God come to us
• let the Spirit of God lead us

—is because of this hope!

Verse 3: "And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure." How do you purify yourself? Through Christ, repentance and all the things that I have mentioned here!

Here is the dividing line, v 4: "Everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness." Sin is the transgression of the Law! Lawlessness is worse. It's not just sinning by breaking a law. Lawlessness in its truest sense is rejecting the Word of God totally! In its religious sense, it's picking and choosing what you will do and won't do, and then casting away the rest of the laws of God, which makes it lawless. Lawless is that you decide what is good and evil, which goes back to the Garden of Eden.

God has given His Word, and our decision is: Do we love God and keep His commandments? or Do we love our way more and go that way?

What did Jesus say would happen before His return? Sin shall abound because lawlessness will multiply (Matt. 24). That's what you're seeing in the world!

Verse 5: "And you know that He appeared in order that He might take away our sins; and in Him is no sin."

If you've got a King James Version, forget about reading the rest of it, because you won't understand it. It is absolutely, if not the first, it's the second worst translated place in the King James. You need to get The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A faithful Version (cbcg.org or afaithfulversion.org).

It says in (KJV) that he was born of God. No one is born of God now, because that doesn't take place until the resurrection. It says that you cannot sin, because that's impossible. The only way you cannot sin is if you have been transformed from flesh to spirit. In Christ there is no sin. We can be sinless upon repentance, but we are not without sin! We still have 'the law of sin and death' in us. One is a standing before God, and one is the reality of the flesh.

Verse 6: "Everyone who dwells in Him…" The way that you're going to be strong in God is that you are dwelling in Christ and Christ in you. It talks about dwelling in Christ and Christ in you (John 15).

"…does not practice sin…" (v 6). It could not mean does not sin because Rom. 7 tells us about the pull of carnal nature. You do things you don't want to do. You have 'the law of sin and death' in you. But you don't practice sin!

What happens when you sin, or the reality of sin comes, and God makes it known to you in your mind. You repent! Why? Because you can't practice it! You can't go on living in sin because God's Spirit is going to convict you. That's what it's talking about.

"…anyone who practices sin has not seen Him, nor has known Him" (v 6). What is sin? Transgressing the Law and lawlessness! So, if a preacher stands up—you can identify all the liars in the pulpit—and says that God didn't mean what He said. or Christ did away with the Law. He didn't! Christ said He came to fulfill!

"…anyone who practices sin has not seen Him, nor has known Him" (v 6). They had ministers coming around back then saying you didn't have to keep the Law, and say, 'I've seen the Lord.'

Verse 7: "Little children, do not allow anyone to deceive you…" Once we have the circumcision of the heart, our mind is opened to Truth, to discern error, to discern deception.

"…the one who practices righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous" (v 7) Note Rom. 8:1-3). God does not condemn us.

Let's relate this to the sermon series: Keys to Answered Prayer. What do we pray for every day? Forgiveness of sin! We also pray for the Kingdom of God to come. We first honor God, then the kingdom to come, then His will be done on earth, and that means in our lives, as it is in heaven. Forgive us our sins! That's how we are righteous and He is righteous.

Not that we can independently from God, independently of the Holy Spirit be perfect as Christ was perfect. That's not what it's talking about. But the way that God views us is called the future perfect: God looks upon us now as we will be at the resurrection. That's evidenced in Rom. 8 where it says that 'those whom He has called, those whom He has justified, and He has glorified.

Receiving the Holy Spirit gives us a bit of the glory of God, but the glorification comes at the resurrection. But the future perfect tells us that God looks upon it as accomplished, because just as Christ said when He died, 'It is finished!' It will be completed, all of it together, because that is a future perfect completed deed.

This is going to hurt some people, and all you good Protestants out there who think that you are good people, you who keep Halloween, Christmas, Easter, New Years—all the pagan holidays—and you know and your preacher knows, that all of these came from paganism.

Note book: Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? That will be an absolute eye-opener for you, because there are millions of people who think they are doing the will of God and they are not. They are deceived! That's why this verse becomes so important:

Verse 8: "The one who practices sin is of the devil…" Remember, there is a good side of the devil. There is a beautiful side of the devil. The devil will come to you with his gospel, which is the good news of lawlessness: the laws of God have been done away:

• you don't have to keep the Sabbath
• you don't have to keep the Holy Days
• you don't have to observe the laws of clean and unclean meats

And on and on! That's sin! If you do those things you are practicing sin! If you observe Sunday, you are practicing sin every week! You can't find any place in the Old or New Testaments where God changed the Sabbath. You also believe a lie concerning which day is the resurrection. "The one who practices sin is of the devil…"

• Do you know the Ten Commandments?
• Do you keep the Ten Commandments?
• Do you know the commandments of Jesus Christ?

As He magnified it in the Spirit of the Law (Matt. 5-7) and through all the writings of the apostles: James, Peter, John and Jude, and the Apostle Paul.

• Are you keeping those?

"…because the devil has beensinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil" (v 8). Let's see what John is building up to, because this is building up to really quite a thing to understand.

Verse 9: "Everyone who has been begotten by God does not practice sin…" What did Peter tell the 'religious' leaders when the apostles were arrested? They were told, 'Don't you goout there and preach in this name anymore, because you're filling Jerusalem with all of this heretical doctrine.' Peter said, 'Do you think it's right? Who do you think we should obey? Men? or God?' For that they were beaten.

You don't practice sin, "…because His seed… [the seed of the Holy Spirit, the earnest of the Holy Spirit] …of begettal is dwelling within him, and he is not able to practice sin because he has been begotten by God" (v 9).

• God will reveal your sins to you if you have the Holy Spirit of God
• God will convict you in heart and mind

If you turn back on the conviction of heart and mind, then you are taking the steps to committing the unpardonable sin.

Remember: As long as there is life, you still have choice and you can repent, there is hope!

Verse 9: "Everyone who has been begotten by God… [the Father] …does not practice sin because His seed of begettal is dwelling within him, and he is not able to practice sin because he has been begotten by God."

Let's use another analogy here: If a woman is pregnant, she's unable to be impregnated until the completion of the birth of that child. Everything is sealed off. Likewise with God's Spirit. He seals you with His Spirit!

How can something happen to a physical birth? An accident or an abortion! Likewise spiritually! If you with predetermined malice turn your back on God, you will lose the Spirit of God. Just like if a woman has an abortion, or she has a miscarriage, that ends it.

We began with v 1 and we end with v 10: "By this standard are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil…."

• the devil has his children
• the devil has his servants
• the devil is called 'the god of this world'
• the majority of people in this world serve him and his religions

There's a dividing line! It's like life and death! You either belong to Christ or you belong to the devil. It doesn't matter what you feel in your heart and how good you may think you are.

• if you don't love God and keep His commandments
• if you don't love the brethren
• if you don't love your neighbor as yourself
• if you don't continually practice the righteousness of Christ

which means when you sin—because you can't practice sin—you repent and God forgives you and you go on. All of that is implied here.

Verse 10: "By this standard are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil. Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God…"

• all of His commandments are righteousness
• the Spirit of God is righteousness
• keeping the commandments in the Spirit of God is righteousness

And the true righteousness above all of that is the love of God; that you love God with all your heart, mind, soul and being. Then you have the faith of God, the faith of Christ.

"…and neither is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another" (vs 10-11).

Today true Christians are called 'primitive Christians,' that we are like the Geico caveman. Well, let's put the shoe on the other foot. Those who do not love God and keep the teachings of Christ, as they were taught in the beginning by Him and the apostles, you are primitive satanists, because Satan sins from the beginning.

We will show in part five how that some of the most religious people in the world, who even profess Christ, but didn't believe Him. Jesus said, 'You are of your father the devil!'

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in It's Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter

Scriptural References:

• Galatians 3:22-26
• Deuteronomy 5:15, 27-29
• Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
• Deuteronomy 5:32-33
• Deuteronomy 6:1-5, 4
• Romans 2:25-29
• Colossians 2:10, 9, 11
• John 14:6
• Colossians 2:11-14
• 1 John 3:1
• 1 John 2:3
• 1 John 3:2-11

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Romans 3
• 2 Corinthians 6
• Romans 7; 6
• Matthew 24
• John 15
• Romans 8:1-3
• Matthew 5-7

Also referenced:

Books:

• All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
• The Late Great U.S.A. by Jerome R. Corsi Ph.D.
• The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop
• Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? by Fred R. Coulter

Sermon Series: Keys to Answered Prayer

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 1/14/16