The Power of Words I

The Power of the Tongue

Fred R. Coulter—August 19, 2023

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I want to cover a little news. John Guenther, who is in Spain right now and in contact with the brethren scattered in Europe; he sent from one of the martyrs' books. He's right there close to where the Waldensians are because he's working in Spain right now.

So just a little bit over to the east is where the Waldensians were. He gives a quote about what it was like during the days when everyone was being hunted down and martyred, and the faith that those people had.

Now, keep your eyes on this: Germany far right AFD, that's the abbreviation for a political party, raises the scepter of Dexit. That means leaving the European Union.

But what they will do is come in, as I've said years ago, the Germans will rise up in power and they will come as the savior of Europe. Everyone will think, well, they learned their lesson with the destruction of the Second World War.

Well, people forget that Hitler in his dying days said, 'Even though there's defeat, there will rise up another generation to carry on.' So this is the beginning and it will be step-by-step of how the power in Europe comes about.

It's also interesting that concerning how things lay geographically and Biblically. You have right in the heart of Europe, Germany, Western Czechoslovakia and Austria. They are all Assyrians!

Around them are the tribes of Israel. The tribes of Israel were always close to the Ninevites. So, keep that in mind as we watch the prophecy unfold.

Here's another one, this is an advertisement called Total Brain. How today too many people are depressed, they are down, they are out because of:

• the food that they eat
• the thoughts they put in their head
• the destruction of the family
• the destruction of society

Now then, all of that also is in the power of the tongue, and the words that they speak. What are they doing? They are taking people down! It's a very difficult time to build people up. But God wants us to build each other up, but he also wants us to beware that we use our tongue properly. How do we do that?

First thing you need to do is always keep your mind on the goal so that when something comes along that is not very pleasant, which we'll have that from time to time, and maybe even victimize ourselves by doing it. But nevertheless, keep your mind on the goal! That's what John says:

1-John 3:1: "Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God!…."

Think about that! That's why we were made in the image of God,  just like Roger brought out in his message: Rightly Dividing Faith

As I've advertised on Church at Home, I have done four segments that are already online: The Sexualization of the World, and Jonathan and I did three more yesterday.

In all of the false things that they are teaching, especially going after the young ones and making books and teaching it in schools. All by the power of words. So, take the power of the words here:

Verse 1: "Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God!…." So, whenever things get tough, don't forget that!

Remember the people during the days when the Church was being slaughtered and killed because they wouldn't submit to the pope and wouldn't believe in the trinity!

Their view of what was going on was this They even volunteered who was going to be first to be killed, They knew that once death took hold, they were guaranteed the resurrection, because they had this kind right here:

"…For this very reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be…" (vs 1-2). Now that's going to be something!

• What is it going to be like to be a spirit being?
• What is it going to be like to have the power in ruling as a king or priest?
• in the Millennium in the Kingdom of God to be able to help and teach people directly?
• when we can appear and disappear
• when we can walk through walls
• when we can walk through whatever is necessary

Now that's going to be something, so this is what God has in store for us.

So, when we get our feelings involved and feeling down on what is happening, whether by people out in the world or people within the Church or just watching depressing things on television, remember: God has called us that under Christ, we will change it!

"…but we know that when He is manifested, we shall be like Him…" (v 2).

• What does He look like?
• What did Jesus say in Matt. 13?

Rev. 1—we're going to look at what Christ looks like, but also understand that He said that the righteous will shine as the sun! So, the next time you're out there and look at the sun—and you can't look at it very long—that's the glory that God will give us.

Daniel said that those who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars of heaven!

What was the promise given to Abraham in Gen. 15? God said, 'Now look to the heavens and count the stars if you're able to number them; so shall your seed be. That's quite an astounding thing going clear back 3,000 plus years ago!

It shows you how spiritual and living that the Word of God really is! Not only did it make sense to Abraham, there was a lot he didn't understand.

But now look at when we see the fulfillment of a lot of these things and we're living in this time. Here's what he Jesus looks like.

When John looked at him, here's what Jesus says: Revelation 1:11: "Saying, 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last…'"

He says in another place, 'the Beginning and the Ending.' So, there you have the circle that Roger talked about.

"…and what you see, write in a book, and send it to the churches that are in Asia…" (v 11). Then He lists all the seven churches!

God wants us to know right here in the beginning, because of everything that comes in the book of Revelation, is so terrible and so horrible and so destructive. He wants us to keep our minds on what we will be, as He is!

Notice what John said, v 12: "And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me…" He saw Christ, not just the voice!

"…and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of man, clothed in a garment reaching to the feet, and girded about the chest with a golden breastplate. And His head and hair were like white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet were like fine brass, as if they glowed in a furnace; and His voice was like the sound of many waters" (vs 12-15).

Now, that's something you talk about awesome.

Verse 16: "And in His right hand He had seven stars, and a sharp two-edged sword went out of His mouth, and His countenance was as the sun shining in its full power."

Verse 17: "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as if dead; but He laid His right hand upon me, saying to me, 'Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last, even the One Who is living; for I was dead, and behold, I am alive into the ages of eternity. Amen. And I have the keys of the grave and of death" (vs 17-18).

So, there's the whole Plan of God right there, summarized!

1-John 3:3 "And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure."

What does it mean to purify ourselves? That means to get rid of all the flaws and things that we have because we have plenty of them! Sometimes our flaws inflict upon others.

We say and we do things that we maybe could do a little differently. Sometimes we look at things and say, 'Well, I wish I never said that.' Then there are other times come along and you say, 'I wish I would have said something.' So that shows how we're lacking.

Verse 3: "And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure."

Stated another way, growing in grace and knowledge continually. God made us to continually learn. If you think that we know anything now, I think we're going to find out that our knowledge as human beings, and even in the Church of God, is more like a speck or two of dust compared to what God is and what God has for us! So, keep that in mind!

Then John tells us how to purify our self; v 4: "Everyone who practices sin…"

We're going to focus on the word practice. In the Greek, that is 'poieo.' There are actually five different words about keep. The main one is 'poieo.' This is what you do:

The one "…who practices sin… [sin is a transgression of the Law] …is also practicing lawlessness…" (v 4).

I'm going to bring a message on lawlessness because there are various aspects of lawlessness that come along. Lawlessness means going against the Laws of God!

Have you ever heard a Protestant or Catholic minister use those verses there? No! No! Because they say the Law is done away!

When you analyze that, that's got to be the most stupid satanic statement in the world. So, God gives them what they ask for!

• Is there lawlessness reigning in America?
• Are they upset with it?
• Are policemen resigning because they are given no protection by anyone?
• Do they promote idiots to be judges?
• Do they let the criminals go?
• What do they do? They say we have free reign!

So, they go out and do it again! One man who killed was let loose because of the idiot judge, and he went out and killed again. I remember the prisoner that I heard who was smart, though he was a murderer. He said, 'If you let me go, I'll do it again.' So, he was honest with himself in an evil way.

"…for sin is lawlessness" (v 4).

Now then, it talks about why Christ came with His sacrifice:

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

Now then, here's how we purify ourselves by using the Spirit of God. Right here:

Verse 6: "Everyone who dwells in Him does not practice sin…"

Now we're going to see a little later on in just a bit that we do sin, but we don't practice it, because practice means you live in sin. Sinning and repenting, which is what God gives us through His mercy and grace, that is a  different story. Those are the kinds of sins that we'll deal with concerning the power of tongue between us as brethren.

Verse 6: "Everyone who dwells in Him does not practice sin; anyone who practices sin has not seen Him, nor has known Him. Little children, do not allow anyone to deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous" (vs 6-7).

So IF you are practicing righteousness, you're keeping the Law because that's what righteousness is!

Psalm 119:172: "…all Your commandments are righteousness"—every one of them!

We have the big Law, Ten Commandments. But in order to define various degrees of that, what do we have?

• judgments
• ordinances
• precepts

All that God gave!

So IF all of His commandments and every word that God has spoken is righteousness, even the condemnation of the wicked, should we not follow God's way?

1-John 3:8: "The one who practices sin is of the devil…"

• Do we see that today?
• All of that going on?

And even we, IF we give in to a temptation because of something that Satan is doing, we need to repent of that, as well.

But notice those who practice sin "…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" (vs 8-9).

• in God's Plan
• in His time
• in His way

that we know from the Sabbath and the Holy Days!

The world with a fake Jesus has the fake holidays. They worship on the day of the sun, and Jesus never said you can worship on the first day of the week. No man has authority to change the Word of God, because if you change the Word of God:

• What is that?
• What did we just read?

That's lawlessness! Contrasting the world vs those who belong to God:

Verse 9: "Everyone who has been begotten by God 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."

So what does the Spirit of God in you do so that you don't practice it? It convicts you that you need to repent! That's why! Paul talks a lot about that in Rom. 7.

Now then, let's see how we are to control ourselves. Let's look at it so that we understand, because with us as brethren from many different walks of life, when we get together, there are going to be thoughts of contrast. There are going to be thoughts of, 'Well, I don't know about this,' or, 'I don't know about that one.'

Remember, God has called us all the weak of the world, so don't get high and mighty.

I want you to see how John writes: He always starts out by focusing us on God!  That's how we don't let sin rule in us so that we practice it. But we do sin.

• Have I offended people? Yes!
• Have I been wrong? Yes!
• Have I said things I shouldn't say? Yes!
• Have I also said things that I should say, but the other person takes it that you should never tell me about that? Yes!

So let's read it here. Keep your mind first on the goal and on the purpose and what our true fellowship is.

1-John 1:3: "That which we have seen and have heard we are reporting to you in order that you also may have fellowship with us; for the fellowship—indeed, our fellowship…"—the fellowship.

That's the way it is in the Greek. In other words, the primary fellowship.

"…indeed, our fellowship—is with the Father and with His own Son Jesus Christ" (v 3).

That's quite a thing! That's why we have the Sabbath! God intended the Sabbath; we get together on the Sabbath and the Word of God is preached and taught. God wants the Word of God taught because these are His words.

IF we speak His words, it's the same as God sitting down and like one person said, 'If I could sit down and talk to God, I would believe it.' I told him, 'God has sent you a whole Bible! He's already talked to all of mankind.'

Look at all the Bibles in the world! Not just the ones that don't require a battery, but all of those that are on the Internet in 3,000 languages! So how's that for a witness?

But it's like this: At the resurrection, God says to this man, 'I sent you My Word.' No, You never sent me Your Word! 'Yes, I did.' How's that? 'I sent a Bible to you.' Oh, that's what grandma gave me! That wasn't You! Yes it was! I never read it. God said, 'That's not My fault. If I send it and you don't read it, whose fault is that?'

Then people will say, 'I don't understand it.' Well the reason they don't understand it is because they're not ready to begin to obey! You have to have faith and you have to have belief and they tie together and that comes with the Word of God.

Verse 6: "If we proclaim that we have fellowship with Him, but we are walking in the darkness… [that is practicing a lie] …we are lying to ourselves…"

Now that's the worst kind of lie. The worst kinds of lies, you lie to yourself and you believe your lies, even though everything is contrary to what you say.

I saw that on the news last night. There was this one guy who was absolutely deluded that he understood about changing genders. But they have proven changing gender is 100% impossible! You can tell he was deluded. He's lying to himself! They're not practicing the Truth!

Now there's that word practicing and truth is all the Word of God!

Verse 7: "However, if we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin."

• What does this tell us? We need to be forgiven every single day!
• Isn't that in the model prayer? Yes!
• What do we pray for every day? The will of God to be done!
• What is the will of God when you sin? To repent!
• What is the will of God? To restore you!

John says this: "…the blood of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth is not in us" (vs 7-8).

They say, 'We're all good people.' By what standard? Maybe by human standard you're pretty good people!

But by God's standard, What is God saying? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God!

• Do we need God? Yes!
• Do we need Christ? Yes!
• Do we need forgiveness? Yes!

Not just one time and you're on a rocket ship going to heaven! No way!

Verse 9: "If we confess our own sins…"

• What is this? This is the best correction possible; self correction and repentance!
• Why is that the best? Because then no one else has to correct you and God doesn't have to correct you!

Think about that!

"…He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (v 9).

That's quite a statement, isn't it? He's faithful!  He's righteous!

Verse 10: "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us." There's no lie in God! He's writing so that they will know what to do:

1-John 2:1: "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin."

That's why we have Sabbath services! The best thing about the Word of God is if we take the Word of God and apply it to ourselves, we're correcting ourselves God's way!

"…And yet, if anyone does sin…" (v 1).

• What do you do if anyone does sin?
• What if you sin?

"…we have an Advocate with the Father; Jesus Christ the Righteous" (v 1).

'He's the propitiation of our sins, and not of ours only, but also of the whole world' and that is in God's Plan and time.

What do we do when we see someone in the Church sin?

Get on your roller skates and get to them as quick as you can and tell them they're sinning! No!

Here's what we are to do. What is the thing that you hear preached and taught all the time? Prayer and study! God will give us:

• His education
• His thoughts
• His mind
• His Spirit

• What if you see someone in the Church sin?
• What if you see that they sinned against you?

'Well, I don't know about that person, look what they did!'

We'll talk about that in a minute because also we'll see the problem that comes in when you don't pray about it.

1-John 5:16: "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin that is not unto death…"

What kind of sin is that? That is a sin that can be repented of!

The sins that we do are not sins unto death, because none of us here are rejecting God! If we would reject God then we would have a sin unto death. But the very fact we're here on the Sabbath Day shows that our sins are not sins unto death. Notice what we should do with those kinds of sins?

"…he shall ask, and He [God] will give him life for those who do not sin unto death…." (v 16).

So, the first thing you do is pray about it. Maybe you might have to pray a long time about it. Maybe you have to do like the widow woman who came to the unjust Judge and said, 'Save me of my avenger, my adversary.'  He said, 'I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it.'

Well, Jesus said, 'Be persistent like the widow, because God will hear, God wants to know, 'Will you keep praying for that until I answer?'

Have you ever gone along and had things occur that you prayed about it and prayed about it and then pretty soon you forgot about it and then somewhere way down the road you see it was answered! That's what we need to do.

Let's come to Matt. 7 and see what not to do because when people sin or when people do wrong, what do you always do? You impute motives! What if someone does something to you that you don't think is done in love? Well, they were mean to me! But what if they said what's right? What do you need to do? You need to repent!

Matthew 7:1: "Do not condemn others… [with judgmental condemnation] …so that you yourselves will not be condemned."

Is not that the first thing we do in our mind when someone in the Church does something that isn't right or maybe even sins?

When you condemn them this way, what are you doing?

You're judging their heart and no one knows the thoughts of anyone else! Now, a lot of wives know their husbands very well, so they're able to understand how to operate under that, but many times you can't know their thoughts. No one can read your mind except God and you!

Verse 2: "For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged…"

So. be careful how you do it. Don't say:

• I know what he's thinking
• I know what she's thinking.

• How do you know?
• Did you talk to them?
• Did you ask them?

No, you don't know!

Look at what God does with people, and Paul is the perfect example. There are other examples we'll mention.

Here Paul was going out with orders from the high priest, the highest authority on earth to do the will of God, to arrest people who believe in Christ and even have them killed. Paul admits that in Acts 26.

All those Jews in Jerusalem didn't believe that God called Paul. It was hard for them to believe it and many of them never forgot it. But what does God say? Love your enemies. Pray for those who despitefully use you!

Remember when Paul came back to Jerusalem the last time and they found him in the temple with others going through some of the rituals of cleansing that they had to go through?

Someone said, 'Oh look, here's the one who's saying all the things out there in the Diaspora that you don't have to have your children circumcised anymore.' Paul wasn't saying that!

• Did God change circumcision of the flesh to circumcision of the heart? Yes, He did!
• Where's that found? Acts 10, giving the Holy Spirit—which is circumcision of the heart—to the Gentiles! Then they were baptized.

It had to be done that way because Peter wouldn't have understood it any other way, because he was steeped in Judaism. Then you look at the problem that he had in Gal. 2.

So, here is what Jesus says; here is the self-correction. This is how we get along when offenses occur between us:

You pray and you get the right attitude toward the individual. If you need to talk to them, then you go to them face-to-face. But if you really pray, sooner or later the barrier will come down and you won't have to have a confrontation.

But if you do, listen to what the person says. Maybe they don't bring it the way you would like it. Well, they don't understand how you would like it, but they're trying to convey to you something that will help you so you can do:

Verse 3: "Now, why do you look at the sliver that is in your brother's eye, but you do not perceive the beam in your own eye?"

So, what you do is you look at yourself and you pray about it (1- John 5), and ask God to intervene to change and let the circumstances work out. Forget it and ask God for understanding so you can operate with love and not with vengeance. There we go!

Verse 4: "Or how will you say to your brother, 'Allow me to remove the sliver from your eye'; and behold, the beam is in your own eye."

Again, self-correction! If you don't do that, here's where you end up. Did we not see a lot of that with:

• what happened in the Church?
• what happened with the brethren?
• what happens in the world?

Yes!

Wouldn't it be amazing if Biden would self-correct? Get up there and say:

I've been wrong on everything. I'm closing down the border. I'm quitting spending all this money and I'm ordering Congress to cut the budget by 30%. And I'm asking everyone, and all the preachers out there, because this minister told me to tell all these preachers, quit keeping Sunday and the holidays and start keeping the Sabbath and God's days. So, now as president, I'm enforcing this and calling a day of fasting.

No, he won't do that, so God's judgment is going to come upon him sooner or later! Since he hasn't done that:

Verse 5: "You hypocrite…"

That's what happens when you accuse people of what you are doing and want them corrected and you don't want  to correct yourself, you're the greatest hypocrite in the world.

So much so that poor Biden had to use an alias so he could get the money and not be caught.

"…first cast out the beam from your own eye, and then you shall see clearly to remove the sliver from your brother's eye" (v 5).

There we have it right there. Those five verses are very instructive! This is what God wants!

We have coming up the Feast of Tabernacles and a lot of us are going to be able to have a lot of fellowship with brethren who come and assemble together.

Roger is going to Blanchard, Idaho, one of the best places in the world to keep the Feast. Roger is a horse lover and they have horses up there and they have mountains. He loves horses and mountains. You ought to see him in his cowboy hat and shirt and jeans and boots.

They're going to have a nice Feast up there. We're going to have a nice Feast here, wherever the brethren are! Because we love God and we need to love each other.

We're imperfect so we're going to make mistakes. So, if mistakes are made, help them along. Don't condemn them. You may need to say something that's a little condemning to get the point, but help them along. And don't hold any grudges!

That doesn't work. Why? Because you don't know if they've repented or not, and if they have repented:

• What does God say He does with their sins?
• How far does he remove them? As far as the east is from the west!

That's why in all of these things you start with prayer.  And the power of prayer is with words!

This is how we are able to come together in peace, in love, in understanding, and to be able to help each other, not condemn each other, and overlook the faults of whatever it is that we may have. Because we all have them!

So, I just wanted to bring this up before we have the Feast of Tabernacles and coming together and so forth. This is what is important. Also keep this in mind: sooner or later God is going to send us new people.

• What are they going to find?
• Are they going to find the Love of God and the Truth of God?

or

• Are they going to find carnality within the fellowship group that is just like the world?

Well then, why come? So the power is in the words, from the tongue, for good!

Scriptural References:

• 1 John 3:1-2
• Revelation 1:11-18
• 1 John 3:3-7
• Psalm 119:172
• 1  John 3:8-9
• 1 John 1:3, 6-10
• 1 John 2:1
• 1 John 5:16
• Matthew 7:1-5

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 13
• Genesis 15
• Romans 7
• Acts 26; 10
• Galatians 2

Also referenced:

• Message: Rightly Dividing Faith by Roger Tointon
• Church At Home {churchathome.org} The Sexualization of the World

FRC:bo/po
Transcribed: 8/23/23

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