Christ & Our Calling #5

How much truth are you willing to accept? How much error will you accept?
Stand for the Truth!

(T.R.O.L - Truth, Obedience, Repentance & Love #5)

Fred R. Coulter—September 10, 2016

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Today we have a tremendous opportunity to really know the Word of God, much more than in years past.

Just as an aside: You've heard me mention this before, but it's just impressing upon my mind even more, three things out of Matt. 24.

Matthew 24:11: "And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many." Some of the false prophets coming along that are making inroads are Messianic Jews.

I want to read a Scripture in Rom. 3 that can no longer be claimed by the Jews as giving them superiority. When the Messianic Jews come, they present an error about them that they are more chosen than other people for the Word of God, which is not true today. The only time that was true was up until the first coming of Christ, and shortly afterwards.

Romans 3:1: "What then is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way. Primarily in that they were entrusted with the oracles of God" (vs 1-2).

The Jew here refers to the Jewish community. It wasn't the Jews from Judah or the Pharisees. It was Aaron, the Levites. Those had to be the descendants of the Levites within the Jewish community.

I've given sermons referring to Jonathan Cahn. He has many things right. That's the problem with false prophets. They may have many things right. They may have many things that they can understand in some prophecies. For example, for his Jubilee year he is a year off.

Jonathan Cahn means he comes from the Cohen's or he is probably from the Aaronic priest line. He has the Jews come to temple on Friday night and the Christians come to church Sunday morning. So, you see how people can get off with that.

Why does Jonathan Cahn do that? Did Paul teach the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath? Yes, he did (Acts 18 for the Corinthians.)! Jonathan Cahn does not. If he would read Isa. 58 and Isa. 56—which is part of the Old Testament—he would see that the Gentiles were demonstrated to keep the Sabbath in those two chapters. There is no advantage to the Jew today.

Somebody gave me some other Messianic information here. They get into sacred names and all of that sort of thing. That's one that a lot of people trying to find the Truth trip over and come across and some get swept up into it. That's to say nothing of all of the Christian ones. Yet, at the same time, I've received some reports that there are some Assembly of God churches converting to Sabbath-keeping. Interesting! So, we're living in very interesting times. This is why we need the Word of God.

This is what we're seeing today, more and more: Matthew 24:12: "And because lawlessness shall be multiplied, the love of many shall grow cold…. [that's the way it is in the world; that's what we have] …But the one who endures to the end, that one shall be saved…. [that involves us] …And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come" (vs 12-14).

How thorough is that going to be? Come to Mark 13:10: "And the Gospel must first be published among all nations."

God has been actively using people. God uses people and He uses people sometimes that people don't even know that God is using them. The whole Bible has been translated into over 450 languages. The New Testament has been translated into 2200 languages. The book of Mark probably has been translated into about 2500 languages.

Has this prophecy been fulfilled? and being fulfilled? What's another way of doing it? All of you have your mobile digital devices. Let's think on this for a minute. If you come across some people that you know and talk to, they want to know some things, ask them if they have a Bible. They'll probably say yes.

Then you ask them, 'Have you read it?' They may say, 'Not recently.' Or maybe they haven't read it at all. 'Well, how did you get your Bible? My grandma gave it to me. 'That's nice; do you know what the Bible is?Do you want to know what God would say to you if He would be here to speak to you? He is, right here in the Bible. These are the words of God.'

That's quite a phenomenal thing, sent into all the world. God has fulfilled His responsibility to the human race in doing that, but whether they believe it or follow it or not is another story. That's quite something. 'This Gospel will be preached in all the world.'

Randy Vild and I were talking on Thursday; we go over things at his house for churchathome.org and everything that we're doing. We were talking about Twitter. Like everything else, it can be a blessing, or a curse, or a stumbling block. When you send a message on Twitter, you're allowed 140 characters. People do a lot of Twittering in communicating. This fits right in to the modern times; you summarize and you're shallow. Plus, kids have been educated that they don't know how to think the way they need to. Everything is done on emotion and music and separation, in too many cases, from the family.

When they get into teens, they are in a special category, as if no one else has been teens ever before. They have their own music, their own communications, and Twitter and Facebook fits in very nicely with that. But the problem is it makes you mentally shallow. You don't want to get into the deep things in the Bible. You want everything a summary.

Why then did God not Twitter? He gave us the whole Bible because we need the whole Bible. Especially in the end-times we need the whole Bible so we can understand what we need to do. Not only that, so we can see the prophecies, we can prove and understand that it came from God a long time ago.

Overview of the General Epistles and the structure of them, and that adds to the importance of them:

• James—the first of the General Epistles

James was the brother of Jesus. The next two epistles are by Peter.

• 1st and 2nd Peter

Who was Peter? Peter was one of the leading apostles!

• 1st, 2nd, 3rd John

Peter and John were the ones who went into the Gate Beautiful and healed the man who had been lame from birth. They were the two leading apostles. John wrote three short epistles.

• Jude

Jude was a brother of Jesus. What do you have? Brother of Jesus, two leading apostles, and another brother of Jesus! How's that for authority? That's something! James was probably one of the very first of the epistles written. We have a chronology of that.

The reason we have, with The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, all the commentary—which you need to read and study—all of the appendices—which you need to read and study—and the most important appendix in the Bible is Appendix Z. That one explains all the difficult Scriptures of the Apostle Paul.

If you read and study through the General Epistles, we're going to see—by the way we have a book on the General Epistles. We're just about out of the first printing of them, so we're going to downsize it to the 7 by 10 size and put it in that.

Acts 6 is important in canonizing the Bible and understanding what was going on. Remember the sermon that I gave on Jesus' Stenographers? How do you think—and this was important in the ancient world—they got the exact words of the order of a king, a record of the king? Remember, they had records, because you read the book of Esther and Ahasuerus the king didn't know what happened with Mordecai in saving his life.

God stirred up Ahasuerus so he couldn't sleep one night. He got up and was reading a book of records. How do they get the book of records? They had scribes, and they had several ways of writing! They had shorthand, because when the king gave a decree, probably had two or three scribes right there writing it down. They would get together and put it together and afterwards have the king sign it.

They also had beeswax tablets. You could put little marks on there. Hebrew is very good for that. They could abbreviate words. I have my own abbreviation. I made my own shorthand, which I developed nearly 50 years ago now. I can go back and read in what I first wrote. The way that came about was that I was at my first Feast of Tabernacles and they were giving the sermons and going so fast. I was writing down, writing down. I decided I could not write every letter, so I started abbreviating:

• the—a little squiggle
• that—two squiggles
• God—G
• Jesus Christ—JC
• here—hr
• want—wnt
• grow—grw

and so forth; you eliminate certain letters.

How then do we have the direct words of Christ? They were written down when they were given!You read Matt. 5, direct quotes from Jesus. All the Gospels, direct quotes. Now we're ready for Acts 6.

Acts 6:2: "And after calling the multitude of disciples to them, the twelve said, 'It is not proper for us to leave the Word of God in order to wait on tables.'"

• they knew they were writing the Word of God
• they knew that Christ was God in the flesh
• they knew that the message came from the Father

This was a tremendous and momentous point in history.

Verse 3: "Therefore, brethren, search out from among yourselves seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word" (vs 3-4).

• What were they doing? Compiling and finalizing the Gospels!
• What was the first Gospel? Matthew!

They were commissioned by God to do it. Very interesting!

• How come we don't have an epistle from Barnabas?
• How come we don't have an epistle from Apollos? Because they weren't commissioned to do that!

They were busy and this is within the first year.

• What was the most necessary thing to have written down for the second year? for those who were converted?

Remember they started out on Pentecost with 3,000, then short time after that 5,000. After that the whole city of Jerusalem was so full of Christians that they were persecuted and driven out.

• What did they have to have for all the newly baptized Christians by the next year?
• How many of the disciples? There were 120 in the upper room!
• Who were the 120? We can identify 70 of them as disciples that Jesus sent out!

Then there's Lazarus, Mary, Martha, the mother of Jesus, the brothers of Jesus—James, Jude, and so forth—they had 120!

• How many of the 120 were at the last Passover? 11-1/2, because Judas left, he was there part of the time!

They had to have everything about the Passover written down for the next Passover!

• How could you take the Passover, the way Jesus said to take it, unless it was written down?

Verse 4: "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word." Why? So they could remember, so the Holy Spirit would bring remembrance to them as Jesus said, and the ministry of the Word! This could not be preaching and speaking, because they were together. They were writing it.

Sidebar on a Jewish heresy: Today the Jews keep the Passover on the 15th. It's not the Passover, it's the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which they have renamed Passover. Why? Because the Passover of the Old Testament had to be observed in the land! When they were in the Diaspora, they couldn't keep the Passover and they couldn't get back to the land to keep the Passover. Rather than keep the Passover, they renamed Unleavened Bread as Passover. In order to have eight days, they added another day at the end of the last day of Unleavened Bread.

Why do we keep the Passover on the 14th? That's why we have The Christian Passover book. If you haven't read The Christian Passover book, or haven't read it recently… There are some people who read it every year. Why is the Passover so important? Because that's the covenant between you and God the Father and Jesus Christ! That has to be on the correct day, at the correct time, with everything correct. Because the Jews do not follow anything in the New Testament, they don't understand what Jesus said:

Matthew 28:18: "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations…'" (vs 18-19)—including all the Gentiles!

Today the Jews are not the chosen people. They are the ones who had been chosen, but because of their sins they were rejected and their temple destroyed twice and scattered into the world. Are they scattered into the world, every nation? Are there problems and difficulties in Jerusalem today? Yes, indeed! God said He would make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for the whole world (Zech. 12). The Word of God is true.

• this is why we need to study the Word of God
• this is why we have the Sabbath Day
• this is why we get away from the things of the world and concentrate on what God says

There is so much here for us and we are living in the last generation. God wants us to know so that we can bring whatever witness we can to the world.

My prayer every day, brethren, is for all the brethren everywhere, regardless of what church they may be in, for the ministers that all of us can repent and that we can all preach the Gospel. That we can all teach the right things and be a witness to the world. God has done His part; He has sent His Word. It is up to us to do our part.

"'…baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…'" (v 19)—that doesn't mean there's a trinity. Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere does it say God the Holy Spirit or the Holy Spirit is God.

Sidebar: Have you a George Ricker Berry Interlinear: Greek-English New Testament? Most theologians and scholars somewhere along the line have to compromise the Truth to retain status within their organization or reputation in the world. George Ricker Berry did very well.

Verse 20: "Teaching them to observe all things… [each and every part] …that I have commanded you…." 

• What did He say concerning the Passover? 'This do in remembrance of Me'!
• Is that not a command? Yes!
• On what night was it done? On the 14th!

This is why we keep a 14th Passover and the Jews keep a 15th Passover, because they're not keeping the Passover.

"…And lo, I am with you always… [That's the important thing. He is with us always. How? With His Spirit in us! With His Word to us! That's an amazing thing!] …even until the completion of the age."

I'm going to read John 14 with the proper translation. Let me tell you this, and it's very important. There is no way to mix up the Greek relative pronoun who and which. There is no way. Who and him are in the masculine. It and which are in the neuter. In the Greek there is no way to confuse that!

George Ricker Berry did a very good job with his Interlinear. But when it came to John 14, what did he do? This is why you have to understand the Word of God.

John 14:14: "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." Subject to the will of God. Sometimes you'll ask something and it won't happen for a long time. You'll go along and then all of a sudden you'll think that God answered that prayer.

Verse 15: "If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely My commandments. 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 15-17).

Everything to do with the Spirit of God—and we've got this in an appendix, you can read it in the Faithful Version Bible—the Spirit is always in the neutered gender, never in the masculine. The definite article and the relative pronoun are separate. You cannot mix them up. It doesn't refer to he or him, because the Holy Spirit is always neuter. In neuter-gender there is a different relative pronoun. There is a different personal pronoun, both.

In the Greek it reads the Holy Spirit—'auto' that is neuter. Can't miss it. That has to be it or which. Masculine gender, if the Holy Spirit were God, it would be 'autos.' The relative pronoun for the neuter-gender is just an 'o.' The relative pronoun for the masculine-gender is 'os.' Why did he do that? I've checked out every other place where it's which Berry has it correct.

This is the correct translation, "…which the world cannot receive because it perceives it not, nor knows it; but you know it because it dwells with you, and shall be within you" (v 17).

In John 15, Berry translated it correctly. He did not do whom, he did which; John 15:26: "But when the Comforter has come, which I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of the Truth, which…"

You can read Appendix K that we have in the back of the Faithful Version Bible. How much truth are you willing to accept?

• God is perfect
• Jesus said, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life'
• He is perfect
• His Word is true
• His commandments are true
• His statutes are true
• His precepts are true from the beginning
• His Word is true

How much of Truth are you willing to accept? This is where we get back to Twitter. If people receive a little verse for today they feel comfortable, but that has nothing to do with God. That's only a passing thought.

• some people might accept 10% of Truth
• some people maybe 25% of Truth
• some people maybe 50% of Truth
• some people maybe 75% of Truth, like the SDAs

What happens when you do not accept 100% Truth?

What we just covered here concerning the Holy Spirit—it, which, and so forth—a first-year student in New Testament Greek would know the error that we just covered. But men think they can change the Truth so that they will be acceptable.

How do people accept Sunday? 'Well, it was changed.' They never check it out. Randy has a beautiful clip by Drew Carey. That's fantastic! Here's the whole audience of the correspondence convention out there and he's telling them 'if you believe in Christmas, Easter, and New Years, you're a pagan with a Christian name on it.' They all just sat there, didn't do a thing.

But if you ask them, 'What are you?' They'd probably say they were a Christian! 'What do you practice?' I keep Sunday. 'That's Baal's day.' They reject the Truth and put in the error.

We can reverse that a little bit and say for those of us who know the Truth, how much error will you accept? You can work it the other way. That's why it's so important.

Why do I bring this up? Because, when we get to the General Epistles, Peter and John and Jude bring out about false teachers and James refers to it! That's why it's important.

(go to the next track)

Why did God have the original New Testament written in Greek? The original is called 'autograph.' A copy is called an 'apographe.' The 'autograph' is directly inspired, God breathed. The 'apographe' or copy carries the same weight of inspiration when it agrees completely with the autograph. The Greek text for the New Testament—by the way for Homer's Odyssey and Iliad and they have all of that for classical Greek, they have very few manuscripts.

For the New Testament there are thousands of manuscripts. They all agree within a very narrow margin. The worst ones come out of Alexandria, Egypt. What does God say about Egypt? Then there's the western text, which is even worst. There's no such thing as the Caesarean text.

I have, and I paid $10,000, for an original—and it's nearly 500-years-old now—the Stephens Text of 1550. It's been recovered, but the inside is that old. If you want to see what the Greek looks like on it, it's right here on the box. The Greek was in a script Greek. Today it's more block. Guess what I discovered when I got it? All of the so-called alternate readings for the New Testament text? They already knew them in 1550! A lot of these scholars just go over and over them, because that's their living.

There is one, it's not an interlinear, yet, New Testament Greek text put together by Pierpont and Robinson, honest scholars, looking right to it the way it should be. They're going to put out an interlinear.

When we were doing the New Testament, we were in contact with both of them before Pierpont died and with Robinson checking out our translation and checking out the Greek. The translation in the Faithful Version Bible is—you can't say perfect—as far as a translation from the Greek, it's high up into the 98+% exact accurate. You have to give it a little room.

Sidebar: Let me tell you concerning the Holy Spirit from Daniel B. Wallace. Who is Daniel B. Wallace? He is the leading Greek expert at the Dallas Theological Seminary. He has written several books. I've got a huge thick book on Greek syntax that is excellent. You go through and he shows how the different words and everything come together. He is an honest scholar. His work is what we would call impeccable.

He was on the English Standard Version (ESV) that was done within the last fifteen years. I don't have the exact date. He was on the translating committee. He tried to get them to have the Holy Spirit neuter, because he said the Holy Spirit has no personality. There is not personality, that is only a theological argument. You can read part of that in Appendix K concerning the Holy Spirit in the Faithful Version. I picked up out of his explanation that he was really ticked off at the theologians who would not neuter properly the Holy Spirit, but kept it in the masculine tense.

That's why you have to have it where it is the Truth that controls it. Not a board, not a denomination, not a set of beliefs before you go in, but the Truth! That's how we did the Faithful Version.

I want to cover something that relates to Matt. 24. When they first started out, they had no resistance. Who was the first false prophet they encountered? Simon Magus! When this was written they were having trouble in the Church. Have we experienced trouble in the Church? Every one of us unless you are new! If you're new, you've been spared.

What was the first thing that was attacked? Passover, in 1978, at the ministerial conference! Who brought in the heresy? Robert Kuhn, a PhD Jew, who was with the Church, pretending to be a member and faithful, but he would go to temple every Friday night, so that told you about the faithfulness. He and another scholar, Lester Grabbe, wrote a 40-page paper. I still have a copy of that, so if you don't have that and you want it, I'll send it to you. In reading that you will see how the scholars reason and twist things to get their own conclusion. Very deceptive! It all hinged upon: What does it mean 'ben ha arbayim,' between the two evenings. Kuhn said that back then they calculated time like we did today and just after midnight was the next day, which was flatly absolute wrong and a lie!

Do you have the Schocken Bible? {The Schocken Bible, Vol. 1: The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy by Everett Fox}

Right when I was writing The Christian Passover book, in about 1993-94, the first edition, I made a trip to Tennessee and met some brethren there, Bob Hunnicutt and his wife Elaine. He had business to attend to, so Elaine took me to the bookstore. That's when they had big bookstores, not like today where you have everything digital.

Went in there and I went right to the Bible section and guess what I found? The Schocken Bible, just recently printed. Guess where I opened it to? Every place where it was evening, 'ben ha arbayim,' and evening, 'ba erev.' 'Ba erev' is sunset and 'ben ha arbayim' comes after 'ba erev'. He had sunset everywhere it is 'ba erev.' He explained 'ben ha arbayim' as twilight would be a good translation of it or between the setting times. He said it was between sunset and dark. If you really search for the Truth you will find it.

Let's just review a little bit. 1-John 2 is classic. Anyone says they love the Lord and don't keep His commandments, John calls him a liar and the Truth is not in him. Those are pretty strong words. Why would John write that? Because later on we're going to see there were false prophets coming around! Just like Jesus said there would be in Matt. 24.

1-John 2:5: "On the other hand, if anyone is keeping His Word…" Notice how it expands from His commandments to "…His Word…" That becomes very important to understand. That expands the definition way out.

"…truly in this one the love of God is being perfected.…" (v 5). Do you want the love of God perfected in you? Yes, you do! That comes with the:

• Spirit of God
• Word of God
• commandments of God

"…By this means we know that we are in Him" (v 5). When you take a positive statement like that, turn it around and look at the reverse of it, which is: If we are not doing this, we are not in Him.

Here's a powerful one, v 6: "Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself…" If you say, 'I believe in the Lord; I believe in Jesus Christ,' you have an obligation from God immediately.

• not just to do your own thing
• not just to think your own thoughts
• not to follow traditions of men

• What do traditions of men do?
• What did Jesus say about traditions of men?

Let's think about the Jews. {note book, Judaism: A Revelation of Moses or a Religion of Men?—and all the sermons that go with it} If you don't have that, and you don't have time to read it, then listen to the sermons. It's amazing!

Here was a controversy over traditions; Mark 7:5: "For this reason, the Pharisees and the scribes questioned Him, saying, 'Why don't Your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders… [we're the ones in charge and we're the ones to enforce it] …but eat bread with unwashed hands?'"

I talked to a woman who said when she went to visit a Messianic Jewish thing, she had to wash her hands before she could go in there. Still today!

Verse 6: "And He answered and said to them, 'Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you hypocrites… [nice, sweet lovely Jesus with nice, sweet sounding words] …as it is written, "This people honors Me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men."…. [that goes back to 1-John 2] …For leaving the commandment of God, you hold fast the tradition of men, such as the washing of pots and cups; and you practice many other things like this.' Then He said to them, 'Full well do you reject the commandment of God, so that you may observe your own tradition'" (vs 6-9). That's as plain as it can be.

1-John 2:4: "The one who says, 'I know Him' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him."

Verse 3: "And by this standard we know that we know Him: if we keep His commandments"—and we know we're in Him.

Verse 5: "On the other hand, if anyone is keeping His Word, truly in this one the love of God is being perfected. By this means we know that we are in Him. Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself also to walk even as He Himself walked" (vs 5-6).

• Did Jesus break any commandments of God? No!
• Did Jesus keep the traditions of the Jews? No!

When He was invited into dinner by one of the Pharisees, He went right in and sat down. They were all saying, 'He didn't wash His hands before sitting down.' What did Jesus say? 'You hypocrites, you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but within you're full of dead men's bones. Clean the inside first.' How do you do that? By repentance and receiving God's Spirit!

Don't worry about the other people out there if they have 10% of the Truth, or 15% of the Truth, or 50% of the Truth. God has given us the whole Truth and this is what we are to go by.

So He says here, v 7: "Brethren, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message that you have heard from the beginning. Again, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining" (vs 7-8).

The darkness is the way of the world, the way of Satan, traditions of men, all of that. Who is the author of darkness? Satan the devil! This whole world is in darkness.

There's one oratory by the bass in the Messiah by Handel. It starts, 'Behold, darkness has covered the earth.' Very powerful! That's the way it is today. The world is in darkness and they think they are in the light. What did Jesus say about darkness? 'The eye is light of the body. If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!'

If you wake up at night and everything is dark, is it easy to stumble around? Yes, indeed! You don't know where you're going.

• we need the Light of God
• we need the Truth of God, which is light

Verse 9: "Anyone who claims that he is in the light, but hates his brother, is in the darkness until now." That's very important to understand. Does God call us with all of our bumps and bruises and faults and everything like that? Yes, indeed!

When we've had divisions within the Church, those who did not love the Truth hated those who loved the Truth and kicked them out. Those who stood for the Truth are still standing for the Truth, at least the ones I know.

This is important in our relationship with one another, v 10: "The one who loves his brother is dwelling in the light, and there is no cause of offense in him. But the one who hates his brother is in darkness, and is walking in darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes" (vs 10-11).

This is quite a lesson for us. If you have difficulties and problems, what are we to do with difficulties and problems?

• pray to God
• repent
• ask for a solution
• ask to overcome
• help to see what we need to do

We all need to do this every day. Do people overcome right away? No! Sometimes it takes a long time to overcome things. This is why God brought us together, to use a modern term of diversity so that we can learn to love one another. That means in the things just in living we can have different tastes and different likes, and things like that. Anything that is not against God's way is perfectly fine.

Let's see what happens. What he's getting to is a problem that was causing internal division within the Church. We've all experienced that.

Verse 12: "I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you through His name." Always remember that.

Do you want your sins forgiven? Yes! Well then, if you're having difficulty with someone, why don't you pray that God will forgive them their sins, then lead them to repentance. Isn't that loving your brother or sister? Yes, indeed!

Verse 13: "I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him Who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one… [there are times when Satan is more active than at other times] …I am writing to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I wrote to you, fathers, because you have known Him Who is from the beginning. I wrote to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God is dwelling in you, and you have overcome the wicked one" (vs 13-14).

Then John gives a warning. After saying, 'Now you have done all of this, be careful.' I'll just use another phrase: because tomorrow is another day. Think of it in this world today. How much more do we have the influences of the world coming right in through the 'boob-tube.'

I want you to do this. Survey all the soap opera things and contests they have on television. Analyze it! Think of it this way: The world has stated that if it's fun, it's good. Isn't that what they say with children? If they have fun, they'll learn. No, they won't, they will be distracted.

After having it go for so long, then you have an educational system that is based upon emotion, not fact, but on how they feel. If it feels good, whether it is truly good according to God or not, doesn't make any difference.

Do a survey. Look at all these games that they have: Family Feud, and all of that. It's all hype and emotion. Everything is exciting. Look at the ad from Publisher's Clearing House—receive $7,000 a week for life! You've all seen that ad. It's all emotion and they bring that big check in. The people jump up and down! They don't tell you that it's going to be one in about a million? I don't know what the odds are. I know people who have sent off for the Publishers House to get all those magazine and attempting to win something. They filled one bedroom up with magazines and didn't get a thing.

Then watch the sports. It's all on emotion. Look at religion, it's all on emotion. You come to church, they play the music, you sing the songs. You get your 'Twitter verse' for today and you feel good. That's the way that the world is.

That's why John gives this warning, v 15: "Do not love the world..."

Who is deceiving the whole world? Satan is deceiving the whole world!
Who is one of the greatest deceiving agents in the world today? Disneyland!
Why? Because the kids get all these demonic and satanic lies while they are young. Fairy tales, witches, demons!

'Oh, they're cartoonish, makes you laugh.' What was it? Puff the Magic Dragon! Did good things; rescued people; helped children, gave them rides. What a wonderful thing. No! Totally satanic!

So John says, v 15: "Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because everything that is in the world… [take this verse, analyze the advertisements] …the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pretentious pride of physical life… [almost every single ad is based upon that today; they had none of it back then; think how much more that applies to us today] …is not from the Father, but is from the world" (vs 15-16).

Look at the things that they sell you. Have you ever seen an ad that they're not smiling, not happy, that it is a great increase to the one who has it—except if you have a Samsung 7, which may blow up in your face, or you may have a car that has a defective part in it—everything is based upon emotion.

You would think the world is the happiest place ever. Yet, you go into some places like Chicago and how many deaths have they had? If Obama really cared—some people get all mad if you talk against Obama—same way with Colin Kaepernick and his thing with the flag. He makes about $110-million in three years. Why is he not down in the inner cities spending some of that money to help the people he's saying he's standing up for? Why isn't Obama in the middle of Chicago saying, 'Everybody out here stop it!'

You know why gun laws will not stop murders in Chicago? You want to know the real reason why? They get guns made in the Philippines, brought into Mexico and come across the border! So there is no way you can ever trace those guns. They also bring new barrels, so if they kill someone they can change the barrel on the gun. Now how are you going to stop that?

You have to start with helping them to understand obeying and loving God. That's where you have to start! You have to tell the young men, 'You're not going to be successful by killing, lying, and stealing and committing adultery and selling drugs.' You're going to have to tell the young women, 'Just because the government gives you welfare, doesn't mean that you pop kids out like a popcorn machine.'

It all, generation after generation, expands and you come to this great lawless situation that we have today that is insoluble. Even if you got all the pastors in Chicago working with these people, unless you told them what the laws and commandments of God are, you're never going to make a dent in it.

Sidebar: If you don't understand about the second resurrection, then you will never understand why God does not intervene, because it's not time for God to intervene. He's given that responsibility to the people, beginning with the individual.

• Does everyone who commits murder know it's wrong?
• Does everyone who commits adultery know it's wrong?

Maybe not everyone, but a good number of them!

• Does everyone who steals know they are stealing?

One program to watch is Forensic Files. You can't get away with anything anymore. Then the other one to watch is I Almost Got Away With It. Escape from jail, 'I almost got away from it.' But the fact is, you didn't.

I would not know how to approach the problem marching into the central Chicago and say, 'Everybody stop it!' I'd probably get shot. They're not going to stop it. They may bring it down a little. They may bring it down from 5,000 deaths to 2,000 deaths. Well, that's an improvement. But they haven't solved the problem.

But this answers the question why Christ, when He returns, is going to be the massive slaughter of human beings in the history of the world? They're all fighting against Him! Since they're deceived at this time, they'll have their chance in the second resurrection, just like the people in the Flood. But within the Church, you see, here's how we have to be on guard. We have to guard ourselves, guard our minds, guard our attitudes!

Verse 17: "And the world and its lust is passing away, but the one who does… [practice] …the will of God abides forever." What is the will of God?

• love God with all your heart, mind, soul and being
• love your neighbor as yourself
• love the brethren as Christ has loved you
• love your enemies

The best prayer for your enemies is 'keep them far away from me.' The next prayer is 'may they be converted.'

Verse 18: "Little children, it is the last time…"—it was in a sense. The apostolic age was soon to come to a close. That would end that timeframe, but the last time carries out clear to our day today.

"…and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming…" (v 18). What do we read in Rev. 13, 2-Thes 2? The antichrist! The whole world's worshiping Satan right now. Doesn't it say that they worship Satan; they worship the beast?

"…even now many antichrists have risen up, by which we know that it is the last time" (v 18). Anyone who is against the teachings of Jesus is an antichrist. Not the antichrist, that's the man of sin, the son of perdition.

Verse 19: "They went out from among us, but they were not of us because if they were of us, they would have remained with us…" A little later on we find that we had to separate ourselves, and that's been down through history, because the antichrists come in and take over. What are you going to do if you love the Truth?

• you have to stand alone
• you have to trust God

What if there is absolutely no means that you have to continue working or living or whatever? You still have to stand for the Truth! If you do, God will honor the faith and He'll provide for you one way or the other.

Here's what is important, v 20: "But you have the anointing from the Holy One, and you have knowledge of all things pertaining to salvation." He doesn't mean all things in the world, so that has to be pertaining to salvation. That's why it's in the italics, because that's to clarify it.

Verse 21: "I did not write to you because you do not know the Truth, but because you know it, and you understand that not one lie comes from the Truth." However, if you don't have all the Truth and you have part of the Truth, a lie can be generated from that. It's important to understand.

Verse 22: "Who is the liar if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the antichrist—the one who denies the Father and the Son. Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either" (vs 22-23). So that takes care of the Jews. They don't have God.

How can they come in and tell us what to do? That's what the Messianic Jews try to do. You have to have both—the Father and the Son. What does it say in John 14? Jesus said, 'If you love Me, you will keep My words and the Father and I, We will come to you and make Our dwelling with you.' Very important, you must have both.

Verse 24: "Therefore, let what you have heard from the beginning dwell in you; if what you have heard from the beginning is dwelling in you, then you will be dwelling in the Son and in the Father"—both. Nothing about the Holy Spirit as a person, but the Holy Spirit is the power of God.

Verse 25: "And this is the promise that He has promised us: eternal life." Stop and think about that! To live forever! You look at a little child, infant just born, what does it know? Nothing! About the only thing it can do is nurse. That's about it, and learn how to do it by sucking its thumb in the womb before its born. That's why thumb-sucking is so hard to stop.

Everyone of us were like that when we were born. Look at us now. You hear me say in so many sermons recently, from a speck of dust that you could not even know you existed or no one could know you existed unless they looked through a powerful microscope to see you. Look what God has created out of that! Half from your mother and half from your father so, you are the result of their being one flesh.

You've heard me mention this before and it's still on my mind. I can't get over it. Each one of us have 46 genes and chromosomes. However, when the inheritance is passed to you, you get 23 from father and 23 from mother. So, every human being has 46 chromosomes. How does God do that? When every other cell of your being has 46 chromosomes and genes?

Not only does God do that with human beings, look at all the animals, everything that there is. The stamp of God as Creator is on everything!

I'm looking out of the window here and there's a tree out there. You can tell what kind of tree it is by the leaves. If you picked every leaf and compared each one with the other, each leaf would be a little bit different, though it is of the same kind. That's an amazing thing!

Same way with a grain of sand; that's why in the book, From a Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born? I've got the magnified grains of sand, because you don't realize how much glory and beauty there is in just plain sand. And we're counted like sand on the seashore! I bring that up, from this point of view:

• What is it going to be like at the resurrection when you are no longer flesh and blood?
• When you are a spirit being, having been born again from the dead?

Sidebar: If anyone says, 'I'm a born again Christian,' say, 'Fine, walk through the door without opening it.' Jesus said, 'Everyone who is born again is like the wind.' Remember how Jesus appeared to the disciples. They were all in the room for fear of the Jews. BOOM! Jesus was right in the middle of them. How did He get there? He walked through the wall or walked through the door as a spirit being, manifested Himself as flesh and bone.

That's how He had to appear to Adam and Eve, because no man can be in the glory of God and see Him. That's another whole story in itself. That's why Adam and Eve thought they could do so good on their own, because, after all, 'We look just like Him.' There's so much in the Bible it's absolutely incredible!

The promise is eternal life! That's going to be an amazing thing!

Verse 26: "These things I have written to you concerning those who are leading you astray. But you yourselves have dwelling in you the anointing that you received from Him; and you do not have need of anyone to indoctrinate you… [with their false doctrines] …for the same anointing instructs you in all spiritual things…" (vs 26-27). God will lead you into the Truth if you rely on God and follow His Word! This is why we have the Word of God today.

"…and is true, and is not a lie; and if you do exactly as it has taught you, you will be dwelling in Him. And now, little children, dwell in Him, so that when He is manifested… [at His return] …we may have boldness, and not be put to shame before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been begotten by Him" (vs 27-29).

Peter says that we are begotten again with the Holy Spirit. We were begotten once to be human beings, but we have the begettal from God the Father to become spirit beings. That's an amazing thing!

All of this comes from the Word of God. Just one last thing, since we have the entire Word of God today, since we have it in so many ways of conveying it that never existed before, if you would have told the apostles while they were writing these things on papyrus and lambskin… By the way, you know how many lambskins it took to do the Bible? Fifty, writing on both sides!

Now we have it here, we have it digitally, amazing. I want you to understand that 'to whom much is given, much is required.' We need to respond to God likewise that way.

• God will bless us
• God will watch over us
• God will take care of us

Scriptural References:

• Matthew 24:11
• Romans 3:1-2
• Matthew 24:12-14
• Mark 13:10
• Acts 6:2-4
• Matthew 28:18-20
• John 14:14-17
• John 15:26
• 1-John 2:5-6
• Mark 7:5-9
• 1-John 2:4, 3, 5-29

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Acts 18
• Isaiah 58; 56
• Matthew 5
• Zechariah 12
• Revelation 13
• 2-Thessalonians 2

Also referenced:

From The Holy Bible in Its Original Order:

• Appendix Z: Understanding Paul's Difficult Scriptures Concerning the Law and the Commandments of God
• Appendix K: Exegesis for the Translation of the Phrase "the Holy Spirit"

Books:

• The Seven General Epistles by Fred R. Coulter
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by George Ricker Berry
• Schocken Bible by Everett Fox
• Judaism: A Revelation of Moses or a Religion of Men? by Philip Neal
• From a Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born? by Fred R. Coulter

Sermon: Jesus' Stenographers
Sermon Series: Judaism vs Scripturalism

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 11-16-16
Formatted: bo—11/17/16

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