Book Offer: 

• America & Britain
• Why Were You Born?
• The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah
• Free Books
• Free Booklets

​
​

****Back To First Half****

Let’s finish up a little more here in Deut. 28 before we look at how we conduct ourselves when there’s trouble everywhere. That’s what’s going to happen, there’s going to be trouble everywhere. That’s why I want you to read all the curses that come automatically that are listed here in Deut. 28. These happen!
 
It’s kind of like you have a pile of sand and you keep putting more and more sand on it, and all that sand represents your sins. It gets bigger and bigger, and all of that accumulative effect is going to cause different problems. There may be small problems at first, but sooner or later you get it up high enough and you’re going to have an avalanche!
 
·         What’s going to happen if you have a horrible rain?
·         What’s going to happen if someone comes with a big hose and deliberately washes it down?
 
Look at it that way, because it builds up and up and then there is a climax and we’re at one of those points of climax right now.
 
What’s going to happen? It will settle down a little bit and then it will build up and up again! So, read all the curses in Deut. 28!
 
Verse 15: “And it shall come to pass…”—it’s automatic, because God is Lawgiver, and:
 
·         IF you obey God, obey His voice, there are blessings that are automatic
·         IF you disobey they are penalties—curses—that come out automatically
 
Let’s just use lying vs truth: IF you’re always honest, you always tell the truth, you don’t have worry about what you’ve said, because you’re telling the truth! You’ll never get caught in a lie because you don’t tell lies.
 
What happens if you live in a dream world, a sinful world and you’re a liar to yourself, thinking you can be prospered in these sins—which you can’t—then it’s going build up and up and BAM! there’s going to be a great penalty to pay!
 
Another way to look at it, every time you sin and don’t repent, it’s like putting on some weight, a little here, a little there, and then you do a big sin and that’s more weight. You do more sins and pretty soon you’re loaded down with sin.
 
What happens when you get so much you can’t carry it? You break down! Your life falls apart! So, those all apply.
 
Verse 15: “And it shall come to pass, if… [meaning it’s our choice] …you will not hearken… [meaning to hear and obey] …to the voice of the LORD your God to observe and to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”
 
I’ll just read a few of them, and ask yourself: Does this apply to where I live?
 
Verse 16: “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your store. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your livestock, and the flocks of your sheep. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out” (vs 16-19). That’s like saying, nothing is going to go right!
 
Verse 20: “The LORD shall send on you…” It’s automatic! He doesn’t have to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to do this…’ No! It builds up! Just like the sand, or the over weight.
 
Verse 21: “The LORD shall make the pestilence…”,
 
Verse 22: “The LORD shall strike you with lung disease and with a fever, and with an inflammation…”
 
Verse 23: And your heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under you iron. The LORD shall make the rain of your land powder and dust…” (vs 23-24).
 
Verse 25: “The LORD shall cause you to be stricken before your enemies….”
 
Read it all! Read the whole thing all the way through! You will understand that God is God and you can’t go against Him!
 
Therefore, God being merciful, loving and kind, extends forgiveness with repentance! When someone becomes a true Christian—because there are a lot of fake Christians out there--they are baptized for the remission, forgiveness, of all those sins!
 
They receive the Holy Spirit of God. With the Holy Spirit of God we still live in the world. So, there are still things that we have to learn, and learn how to cope with so that we don’t get overtaken by the sins of other people.
 
Psa. 25—here is what we are to do. This will help us!
 
·         God will be with us!
·         God will bless us!
·         God will watch out for us!
·         God will protect us!
 
We will see that we may have to live through disasters! But God will see us through it!
 
Here’s where we start so that God will be with us and help us; you have to turn to God! You have to repent of your sins, and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ pays the penalty for you! You turn to God and, as Jesus said, ‘Live by every Word of God!’
 
Psalm 25:1: “To You, O LORD, do I lift up my soul…. [that’s the main, most important thing in your life] …O my God, I trust in You… [you don’t trust in your own self and devices] …do not let me be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me…. [because you’re trusting in God] …Yea, let none who wait on You be ashamed; let them be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause. Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths” (vs 1-4). That’s why you have the Bible, so you can learn of God’s way!
 
·         What do I do?
·         How do I live?
·         What does God want me to do?
 
That’s the most important thing! He will show you; we have the promise in John 6:45 that we will all be taught of God!
 
How are we taught of God? We’re taught if you read His Word! If you understand it, accept it and live by it! “…teach me Your paths.”
 
·         How do I live?
·         How do I think?
·         What do I do?
 
The whole book of Proverbs is full of that! It tells you right/wrong, good/evil, and everything that you need to know, especially for your children.
 
That’s especially for teenagers, and we have a special Proverbs reading that your teens can go through every day, because the most important thing for young people is get your mind programmed the right way. Too many minds are programmed the wrong way through hightech, music, friends and wrong education.
 
Verse 5: “Lead me in Your Truth…”
 
·         What is Truth? The Word of God is Truth!
·         How does God lead you in it? By His Spirit that is in you to lead you!
 
“…and teach me…” (v 5). Every day we’re to learn! I’m still learning. Everyone who is studying the Bible, learns!
 
Let me tell you something that is fantastic about the Bible: the more you read it, the more you study it, the more you learn! Then when you go back over it, you go over the same thing and you learn new things and make different connections with it in your mind, heart and thoughts in every way.
 
That’s a process and over time. All of this is preparing you for eternal life. That’s something to contemplate.
 
“…for You are the God of my salvation; on You do I wait all the day long” (v 5). Not doing your own thing your own way, but once you find out how God wants you to live, then you live by every Word of God!
 
Verse 6: “Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your loving kindness, for they have been of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth…” (vs 6-7)--or any of my sins!
 
When you repent they are removed from you as far as the east is from the west. That is true! However, you still may have a memory of them in your mind so that you have that as a warning: don’t do this anymore!
 
“…nor my transgressions; according to Your loving kindness remember me for Your goodness sake, O LORD” (v 7).
 
·         How does that work? When you do the things that please God!
 
Think about that! Men and women can please God!
 
·         How do they please God? By prayer, by study, by living God’s way!
 
Then when you congregate with true Christians, loving, serving and helping each other; that all comes together.
 
Verse 8: “Good and upright is the LORD; therefore, He will teach sinners in the way…. [You have to unlearn your sins] …The meek He will guide in judgment; and the meek He will teach His way” (vs 8-9).
 
Notice that this is what everybody wants. When we read the blessing in Deut. 28, that’s what everyone wants. They want:
 
·         this, that and the other thing
·         goodness
·         God with them
·         plenty of this and that
 
But they don’t want to obey Him! When you love God and obey Him, this is what happens. Here it is right here:
 
Verse 10: “All the paths of the LORD are mercy and Truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. For Your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my iniquity, for it is great” (vs 10-11).
 
I want you to think about that! Look at how many times David talks about forgiveness, confessing sin, asking God to forget it. That’s all part of how to pray, because a Psalm is a prayer.
 
Verse 12: What man…”--or woman! God is not against women; they are the finest most wonderful thing that God has created.
 
After everything that was created and even Adam, the last thing that God created was a woman! But taken from a man, so therefore the last three letters of the word woman is man. So, whenever you read the word man that applies to women as well.
 
“…is he who fears the LORD? He shall teach him in the way that He shall choose…. [because everything is a choice; choose to do right] …His soul shall dwell at ease… [you won’t be anxious, nervous or afraid] …and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the LORD…” (vs 12-14).
 
That’s what the New Testament is; did you know that? It is the mystery or secret of God! That is how do to be born into the Family of God at the resurrection when Jesus returns.
 
“…is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (v 14).
 
Psa. 91 is a great Psalm! I know a lady who reads this very regularly, and the reason is because we need strength, comfort and hope when times get bad. The way that the world is going, we’re going to be living in a lot of bad and difficult times down the road. It’s going to happen! There’s no way that it isn’t going to happen!
 
But if you are on God’s side… remember that God does not come to your side, you come to God’s side! Notice what this provides:
 
Psalm 91:1: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High…” That’s what grace is all about! You have direct connection with God the Father and Jesus Christ!
 
“…shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (v 1).
 
You can see a shadow on the ground, but you can’t see the shadow if you look at it sideways, so this is the invisible protection of God, coming from God!
 
Verse 2: “I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Whom I will trust.’” Notice how the things are there so we can have that protection:
 
Verse 3: “Surely He will deliver you from the fowler’s trap… [the traps of sin] …and from the destroying pestilence.”
 
It will be interesting to see among the people of God, how many did not get the Coronavirus! Think of that!
 
Verse 4: “He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge….” Those ware the unseen protections that come from God!
 
“…His Truth… [all of His Word] …shall be your shield and buckler” (v 4). In other words, against the forces of evil all around you, the Truth of God, the power of God and God’s special protection will be with you!
 
Verse 5: “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flies by day, nor for the plague that walks in darkness, nor for the destruction laying waste at noonday.”
 
Now here, right in the middle of death and destruction! None of us have been there, or very few. A good number of soldiers, when they’re out there fighting have trusted in God and somehow they have survived everything! Many of them, but why did it happen to them?
 
Verse 7: “A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand; it shall not come near you.” That is to take you down!
 
Verse 8: “Only with your eyes you shall behold and see the recompense of the wicked.” This goes forward clear to the resurrection, right here! Because all of those in the first resurrection are going to see the recompense against Satan the devil, the demons and all of the wicked in the world that come to fight against Christ! We will all see it!
 
Here’s why; here’s a blessing; v 9: “Because you have made the LORD, Who is my refuge… [David writing] …even the Most High, your habitation, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling” (vs 9-10).
 
You can pray that prayer with what’s going on today! That doesn’t mean that you don’t do the things that you need to so that you’re not going to get it. You don’t walk out into the middle of it.
 
Verse 11: “For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.” How about that! Invisible angels guarding and protecting you!
 
That’s something! You’ll never see it. People have experienced what angels have done in various accidents and things that they’ve been in. Yes, they’ve gotten hurt a little bit, but they survived.
 
Verse 12: “They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
 
Now, v 13 is talking about the time of the resurrection and the power and strength that we will have at that time against the wicked, to get rid of them and to help institute the way and the Government of God on the whole earth.
 
Verse 13: “You shall tread upon the lion… [Who is the lion going around roaring? Satan the devil!] …and asp; the young lion and the jackal you shall trample underfoot.”
 
You’re going to get rid of all sin out of the whole earth with all the rest of the saints and Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. Here’s why, and this gets right back to where we started:
 
Verse 14: “Because he… [you, the one who is trusting in God] …has set his love upon me… [David talking about the love of God] …therefore, I will deliver him…” IF you set your love upon God, He says that He will deliver you!
 
“…I will set him on high because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him…” (v 15).
 
IF you have the Spirit of God in you, everything you go through with God’s Spirit, He is there with you in everything; notice this:
 
“…I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him” (v 15). That’s quite a blessing!
 
·         Is it not worth what God has said for this tremendous blessing that He says that He will give you?
·         Even in the most trying and the most difficult times that there can possibly be?
 
Verse 16: “With long life… [eternal life, for eternity] …I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”
 
What kind of attitude does this give us when trouble comes? We don’t have to worry about the difficult things that come along--they will come! But how do we handle them?
 
Every one of us are going to go through things where it may even get down to that it looks like everything you have is gone! But even if everything that you have is gone, and God is in you and with you, He’s going to replace all of that with the greatness of the power of His resurrection and being in New Jerusalem forever! That’s what we need to think on! Here’s the attitude that we have to have:
 
Psalm 27:1: “The LORD is my Light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?….” Don’t have to, put it all in God’s hands, come what may!
 
That’s how all the saints were able to, down through history, go through the slaughter and the torture, because they knew that if they lost their life they were assured of the resurrection. Christ’s plan is to annul death as if it never occurred and their tormentors couldn’t understand it. They couldn’t understand why they would be singing hymns! Why they would willingly go! An amazing thing when you think about it.
 
“…The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell” (vs 1-2). This is with David, with his fighting for God! God had His angels out there ahead of the battle.
 
Verse 3: “Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not be afraid; though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.”
 
That’s what David did when he was conquering the land as God gave him the victory. But think about taking it forward to the resurrection when we come back and fight with Christ to get rid of all the enemies of God. Get rid of Satan and demons, and see all of these people who need help, blessings, healing and all of that. This is going to be the greatest victory that ever happened!
 
Verse 4: “One thing… [you might say the most important thing] …I have desired from the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life… [eternal life] …to behold the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple.”
 
When you have your mind on this, when trouble comes, you’ll be able to handle it. You’ll be able to get through it!  It doesn’t matter what it is, because it’s going to be pretty heavy stuff when it comes.
 
Verse 5: “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion, in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me upon a Rock”--that’s Christ!
 
This is the attitude that we need to have when these troubles and difficulties come along. God will always be there:
 
·         with you
·         for you
·         to help you
 
Here’s what we do! You’ve heard the song Take it All to God in Prayer, that is literally true. That’s what David did.
 
Psalm 31:1: “In You, O LORD, have I taken refuge, let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness. Bow down Your ear to me; deliver me quickly; be my strong Rock, a fortress of defense to save me; for You are my Rock…” (vs 1-3).
 
Remember what Jesus said about building on a Rock: If you build on the Rock, the winds are going to blow, the rains are going to come, the floods are going to come, but you’re on the Rock and you will see it through!
 
Compared to the one who builds his house upon the sand. The wind will come, the rain will come and the flood will come, and the fall of that house is quick and immediate. So, here is New Testament doctrine right in the Psalms.
 
“…and my fortress; therefore, for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me. Pull me up out of the net that they have hidden for me, for You are my strength. ‘Into Your hand… [this is a quote from Jesus just before He died, but this is true for all of us as well]: ….I commit My spirit; You have redeemed Me, O LORD God of Truth’” (vs 3-5). That’s quite a fantastic and wonderful thing indeed!
 
Psalm 37:39: “But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the LORD shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them because they take refuge in Him” (vs 39-40). That’s quite a blessing! That is how God is going to:
 
·         watch over us
·         be with us
·         guide us
 
Let’s read what Paul wrote. It’s interesting, because the books of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians were written while Paul was a prisoner in Rome. He sent these letters to these churches, and look at his attitude. He didn’t know if he might end up being beheaded! But he:
 
·         kept his mind on God
·         kept his mind on what it should be
 
Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything… [put it all in God’s hands; you do what you have to do, God will do what He has to do] …but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God in everything.”
 
Notice this promise; I want you to think about this; v 7: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding… [human understanding] …shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”
 
Heb. 13 is quite a promise; you can claim these promises. One way to do this is when you pray get on your knees and have a place where you can open your Bible and read some of the Psalms. You can read some of these verses and you’re coming before God. He has promised to hear you IF you yield to Him, desire Him and you’re doing this in a way that glorifies Him!
 
Here’s a promise of God. So, if you have troubles and difficulties, and it seems like you are ready to go under the water and drown… sometimes it feels like that, it’s overwhelming. You come to God with this:
 
Hebrews 13:5: “Do not allow the love of money to influence your behavior, but be satisfied with what you have; for He has said, ‘In no way…’”
 
These are the words of Christ! His Word is Truth! Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word shall never pass away! So, when He says:
 
“…‘In no way will I ever leave you… [He reiterates] …no—I will never forsake you in any way’” (v 5).
 
That’s Christ’s promise to us! Even if it’s difficult, tough, hard or a lot of opposition against you, all things are going to work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose!
 
It doesn’t matter what it is, because the ultimate end of it all is the resurrection and what God is going to do!
 
“…‘In no way will I ever leave you; no—I will never forsake you in any way.’ So then, let us boldly say, ‘The Lord is my Helper, and I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” (vs 5-6). That’s the attitude that we need to have, brethren!
 
·         trust in God
·         look to Him
·         understand what’s going on
·         realize that God loves you
·         He’s for you
 
You love God and He’s going to see you through it! It’s all going to work out for the best in the long run! Keep this in mind as we go down through time and all of these difficult times come upon us!
​

​Scriptural References:  (Original Bible Restored)
 
1)      Genesis 49:1, 22-26
2)      Deuteronomy 33:13-17
3)      Isaiah 5:1-8, 11-13, 18-25
4)      Deuteronomy 28:1-9, 15-25
5)      Psalm 25:1-14
6)      Psalm 91:1-16
7)      Psalm 27:1-5
8)      Psalm 31:1-5
9)      Psalm 37:39-40
10)  Philippians 4:6-7
11)  Hebrews 13:5-6
 
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
 
·         Deuteronomy 22:43
·         Isaiah 58; 56
·         Deuteronomy 6
·         John 6:45
 
Also referenced: Book:
America and Britain in Prophecy: Two Nations That Changed the World by Philip Neal

 
​Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services! Everyone wants to know:
 
·         What’s happening in the world?
·         What’s happening in America?
·         Why are these things taking place?
 
Here we are in ‘shelter in place’ and stay home for 15 days!
 
·         Why are all these things coming upon us?
 
The least place that people would look would be in the Bible!
 
One of the most important things that people ignore, scoff at and reject is where the descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel are. We know where the Jews are in the area of the Middle East and then scattered around the world.
 
But contrary to the claim of Judaism, they are not all the 12 tribes. What happened to the ten tribes who were carried off into captivity by the Assyrians.
 
You need our book: America and Britain in Prophecy: Two Nations That Changed the World by Philip Neal.
 
I want to read to you that Jacob—the father of the 12 tribes of Israel—gave to Ephraim and Manasseh, whose father was Joseph. Remember that Joseph was the one who was sold by his brothers into servitude into Egypt.
 
Then being righteous he didn’t want to commit adultery with his master’s wife. So, she screamed and yelled that he tried to attack me. They arrested him and threw him in prison and there he was all alone.
 
Joseph had a dream, and there was the baker and attendant of the Pharaoh already in prison. Joseph was intelligent, organized, and he ended up being semi-in-charge of the whole prison. When the baker and the attendant had a dream, Joseph told them exactly what the dream was and what would happen. One would die and one would live. The attendant was the one who lived.
 
Then the Pharaoh had a dream of the fat cows for seven years, and the lean cows for seven years, and no one could tell the dream. The attendant said, ‘I remember that man in prison, Joseph, and he can tell you the dream.
 
So, Joseph was brought to Pharaoh and he told him the dream and that the dream was from God, and there are going to be seven years of extra plenty and seven years of famine; and it happened!
 
But first, the Pharaoh made Joseph second in command of all Egypt. Then later Jacob and the other sons came down into Egypt, and Pharaoh gave them the land of Goshen.
 
Just before Jacob was to die he blessed the two sons of Joseph: Ephraim and Manasseh. Let’s see what the blessing was and when this was to occur; quite an amazing thing, indeed!
 
We’re not going to read the blessing for every one of the 12 tribes; we want to focus on America and Britain. We will see what Jacob, the father, says. This is a blessing from God through Jacob to his descendants down through all time. This tells us, particularly, a very important thing.
 
Genesis 49:1: “And Jacob called to his sons and said, ‘Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in the last days.’”
 
How long are the last days? God doesn’t tell us! But if we look back at history, after we read the blessing to Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, we can pretty well discern that something happened in the early 1600s with the colonization of North America, and the time leading up to that in Britain.
 
Let’s read what Jacob said to Joseph, who is the father of Ephraim and Manasseh. So, this applies to both Britain and America, and much more so today with America than with Britain, because Britain has already succumbed to many of their own sins and problems as we will see a little later.
 
Verse 22: “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall…. [many people, lots of everything] …The archers have fiercely attacked him and have shot at him, and hated him” (vs 22-23). A perfect description of the world concerning America!
 
Verse 24: “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob…”
 
Why is it that we say that America is the most blessed nation in the world? Because of right here! This blessing came to us from sea to shinning sea! Britain had its empire! But because of its sins down through time, they lost it.
 
Now America is going through some terrible times at this point. Right now we’re right on the verge:
 
·         What is going to happen?
·         How will the people react?
 
Let’s see the blessing; then we will look at some of the punishments that would come because of sin!
 
“…—from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel—” (v 24).
 
·         Why?
·         Why is it that the king and queen of England are coronated on a special chair with the stone underneath it?
 
The truth is that is probably the Stone of Jacob, going back thousands of years! They are coronated as king or queen ‘over your people Israel.’ Did you know that?
 
Remember this is to Joseph—Ephraim and Manasseh—right here:
 
Verse 25: “By the God of your father, Who shall help you. And may the Almighty bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of my ancestors, to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him, the ruler, the leader who was separated from his brothers” (vs 25-26).
 
That’s quite a blessing! Think about that in relationship to how England rose in power, and how America rose in power. Remember that these are for the last days. Think about which is the greatest nation in the world today, America! That’s because of God! That’s because we are mainly the tribe of Manasseh, with parts of all the tribes of the different tribes of Israel in America!
 
Deuteronomy 33:13: “And of Joseph he said, ‘Blessed of the LORD be his land, with the precious things of the heavens, for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath, and for the precious things of the fruits of the sun, and with the precious things of the yield of the months. And with the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the everlasting hills” (vs 13-15).
 
Sound a little like treasure, gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and all of that sort of thing? That’s what it means!
 
Verse 16: “And for the precious things of the earth and fullness of it, and for the good will of Him Who dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come on the head of Joseph, and on the top of the head of him who was separated from his brothers. His glory is like the firstborn of his bull, and his horns are like the horns of the wild ox. With them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth….” (vs 16-17).
 
·         Did that not happen with the British Empire?
·         Has that not happened afterward with America?
·         Yes, indeed!
 
“…And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh” (v 17).
 
What did we do when we came into the land? We had to have the separation with the Revolutionary War! Britain went on to conquer the empire and become the greatest power in the world leading up to WWI. America became a great power after the turn of the century going into the 1900s. Think about all the problems with all the victories, with all the ups and downs that we have gone through.
 
Let’s just number them by the wars:
 
1.       Revolutionary War
2.       War of 1812
3.       Civil War
4.       Spanish/American War
5.       WWI
6.       WWII
7.       Korean War
8.       Vietnam War
9.       1st Iraq War
10.   then we had the 2001—9/11—with the twin towers being knocked down and the Pentagon being attacked
11.   Afghanistan War
12.   The Iraq War
13.   and the other wars subsequent to that
 
Look at us today, when we started the Bible was the main instrument of learning. You can read the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States, and the amendments and you will see that it’s based upon the principles of the Word of God! We were a very religious people!
 
Yes, we’ve always had our troubles and difficulties, but because people—Americans—would turn to God in times of trouble, who did we have in the worst time of trouble in this nation, the Civil War? Abraham Lincoln! He quoted more of the Bible and prayed more about this nation than any other President coming up to the current one that we have now—Donald J. Trump! And the President that we have now is relying on God more than any other President from the time of Lincoln until now.
 
But look at all the troubles that we are going through. Why do we have all these troubles? We will see how God looks at Israel, and when He looks at Israel He’s thinking mostly of Ephraim and Manasseh!
 
What has happened? You look at what has happened in England today! They have given up on God! Much more so than America. We have the agents and the people in America trying to get us to give up on God. But:
 
·         Let’s see what happens when people do that
·         let’s see what happen when people turn their back on God
 
This goes clear back to the Garden of Eden, and that’s why we have the troubles that we have. If you list all the troubles of all mankind down through all history up to this time, you’d have to ask: Why did they do it when God made it possible for them to have His blessing?
 
Isa. 5—God compares Israel to a vineyard. When you read the New Testament, you find that Jesus talks about the vineyard.
 
Isaiah 5:1: “Now, I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard. My Beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.”
 
·         we don’t live in the desert like the Arabs
·         we don’t live in the jungles like other people
 
We live in a very fruitful land!
 
Verse 2: “And He dug it up, and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines, and built a tower in its midst, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and He looked for it to produce grapes. But it produced worthless fruits.”
 
Stop and think: Most people in America have a Bible. If anyone has a Bible, they have it because God caused it to be there, because He wants you to have a Bible so that you can connect with God if you will read it. It doesn’t matter how it got there. In the world today there are more Bibles than any other book in the whole world when you count all the digital Bibles that are on smart phones, computers and printed Bibles.
 
But how many people read the Bible to understand how they are to live? One of the very first things that Jesus said—which is true through the whole Bible—is ‘man shall not live by bread alone—food alone--but by every Word of God!’
 
What have we done? Down through time we’ve gotten rid of God! Every time we get rid of God—out of government, schools, private lives, institutions, language and how we live our lives--we bring sorrow and evil!
 
It says here in Isaiah, woe upon us! That means extreme suffering! “…But it produced worthless fruits.”
 
Verse 3: “And now, O people of Jerusalem, and men of Judah…” Jerusalem is a type of all 12 tribes of Israel!
 
Since this was prophesied right there in the city of Jerusalem, and that’s where the Jews were at the time, God says:
 
“…I ask you to judge between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard… [with everything] …that I have not done in it? Who knows? I looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard…” (vs 3-5).
 
I want you to understand that the laws and commandments of God are automatic! IF you leave God, you leave out God, you reject God, you have trouble! And look at what we have today!
 
Every once in a while we have an occasion to bring us back to God. But that’s only for a short time! Then right back to our own sinful ways!
 
“…I will take away its hedge, and it shall be consumed…” (v 5). Look at what is happening! Look at how it’s happening!
 
“…and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down; And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor dug; but briers and thorns shall come up. And I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it” (vs 5-6)--or send too much rain, snow and cold!
 
Verse 7: “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel… [that’s us] …and the men of Judah His pleasant plant; and He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress!”
 
Doesn’t that describe us today exactly? Look at the crime, the drugs, all the things that are going on! There’s another prophecy that is actively taking place: the stranger within your midst shall get up very high above you (Deut. 28:43[transcriber’s correction])! Is that happening? Yes, it is!
 
Notice that Isaiah lays out a step-by-step of the wrong things that we have done that has led to our problems. These are the WOES!
 
Verse 8: “Woe to those who join house to house, that lay field to field, until there is no place left, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!”
 
Think about it; look at our cities. Let’s take the city of New York where they have more Coronavirus than anywhere. Look at it! They’re not only side-by-side, they’re on top of each other: stacked! jammed! Look at all the problems that come because of that, and the crime.
 
Verse 11: “Woe to those who rise up early in the morning to go after strong drink…”--add to that drugs!
 
It’s an eye-opener: Watch NatGeo—National Geographic channel—when they have their secret operations that they go along and do documentaries of the drug dealers, and how they’re dedicated to evil, dedicated to wasting people’s lives. How did that get started? Because they rejected God!
 
“…who continue late into the night while wine inflames them! And the lyre, and the harp, the drum, and pipe, and wine, are at their feasts…” (vs 11-12). You might say rock concerts! Look at all of that.
 
But here’s why the woes come! I don’t know what your life is like, but you need to think about it:
 
“…but they do not regard the work of the LORD….” (v 12):
 
·         everything He has created
·         the Word of God
·         what God commanded
 
Take one simple commandment; the only one of ten that says remember; that’s the one everybody forgets: Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy!
 
Whenever people turn their back on God, Satan comes and fills the void. So, what is a typical Saturday from Friday night to Saturday night like?
 
All kinds of festivities, drugs, games, operas, concerts, athletics of all kinds and sales during the daytime. All of those are breaking the Sabbath!
 
God says that IF will turn your foot away from the Sabbath, from doing your own business and work, THEN God will lift these things from us! But how many are willing to do that? All of those who are Sunday-keepers every week violate the fourth commandment! They think that they’re doing well, but that’s not what God said.
 
Look at this way: What if someone gave you $100,000 and said, ‘I want you deposit it in this bank’? But you and your friends took it out and spent it on yourself.
 
What kind of reaction would you expect? Apply that as an analogy to the Sabbath, which is a day that God says,
 
I will put My presence in , bless you and be with you IF you assemble to Me and learn of My Word. I will send My Spirit and bless you with knowledge and understanding, and IF you repent and are converted—and are faithful—I will give you everlasting life!
 
Think about that! ‘No! No! We can’t have any of that!’ So, they bring the WOE upon themselves!
 
“…but they do not regard the work of the LORD. Yea, they do not see the work of His hands. Therefore, My people are gone into exile because they have no knowledge…” (vs 12-13). That’s coming!
 
If you think that the Coronavirus is bad, just wait! If we keep going the way that we are, it’s coming sooner. If there’s some reformation and change, and some turn to God, it may be put off a while. But it’s coming!
 
Verse 18: “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity…”--talking about all our entertainment and music industry, and our education, colleges and government!
 
“…and sin with cart ropes” (v 18). Everything is sin!
 
Just to give you an example: Vice President Mike Pence is head of the Coronavirus task force, to coordinate everything that’s going on. He opened with prayer to God. That God would guide him to help the people to turn back the Coronavirus. The news outlets went crazy! Why would he pray? Because He knows why these things are coming! That’s why!
 
Verse 19: “Who say, ‘Let Him hurry and hasten His work, so that we may see it; and let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, so that we may know!’” But they’re taunting God!
 
But God says, ‘You don’t do that! If you want to know about Me, you better come to Me and repent. You better obey me and keep My Word.’
 
NO! They just taunt God! So, look at all the troubles that come because of it!
 
Verse 20: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil…”
 
Look at the ‘alphabet genders’ that we have today! I call it that because there re so many different genders that it takes up the whole alphabet! God says that everything should be through marriage, a man and a woman, children and family! But NO! they say, ‘we need the right,’ and whenever they say that they are saying
 
You let us do our own thing because that is our right, and we desire to sin and stuff it in Your face.’
 
Then they expect good to happen!
 
Listen! Coronavirus is going to turn out to be a very mild thing compared to what’s coming, unless there’s some repentance!
 
“…who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (vs 20-21).
 
Yes, we’re smart, we’ll figure it out! We have all the modern tests and everything like this, and we will do it ourselves!
 
Wait until they meet the power of God! That will be a different story!
 
Verse 22: “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink… [and add in all the other drugs that go with it] …who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” (vs 22-23). Isn’t that what is happening? Yes!
 
We’ve got another website that was years ahead of what is going on now called: churchathome.org--Church at Home. We could foresee, according to the Word of God, down into the future that the only safe place to worship God is in your own home. But then there will come a time when even that will end, because Satan is going to come with great power and fury, and try and destroy everyone who loves God and believes Him.
 
But even if they kill them, God has a surprise! He’s going to resurrect them all! He’s going to send Christ to return to take over this world.
 
I want you to read v 24, and understand this. I want you to know what’s coming; v 24: “Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble…”--those little parts of the hay, wheat and barley; a little bit of the stock, husk and roots, and when the grain is removed, if it gets too hot, POOF! it explodes!
 
“…and the flame burns up the chaff; their root shall be like rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up like dust because…” (v 24).
 
Here’s the cause, the reason why these things come; if you would be smart enough to take a Bible and read the Ten Commandments, look at them literally and look at the behavior of people all around the world and understand that there’s a Satan the devil and he has millions of demons working with him, then you will begin to understand why we have all of these problems.
 
God is calling His people to come out of that, and calling other people who want to turn to God and telling them to turn to God and He will help you! But if you don’t turn to God the next wave is going to be worse! And the one after that will be worse!
 
“…they have cast away the Law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel” (v 24).
 
God always gives warning! God never does anything unless there’s a warning that comes out. Anybody who has a Bible has it written down and sitting on the shelf of their own library. If they don’t read it, that’s their problem.
 
Everyone wants a blessing from God, ‘O God, don’t give me Your anger.’
 
Verse 25 tells us what God is going to do: “Therefore, the anger of the LORD is kindled against His people, and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has stricken them; and the hills trembled, and their dead bodies were as filth in the midst of the streets. In all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still”--because there is no repentance!
 
·         this tells us what’s going to happen
·         this tells us why we have all of these problems
 
What are we going to do? Let’s ask all the people who say that they’re the people of God:
 
·         Do you really believe God? Really?
·         Do you really love God? Actually?
·         How did Jesus say that we are to do that?
 
The Protestants all claim the love of God and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But you want to know something? That’s just the first half step! You have to come to God and love Him, as Jesus said. As He told Israel, this is also recorded in Deut. 6, because the Israelites wanted to know:
 
‘O Lord, what shall we do?’ The Scribe came to Jesus and said, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of all?’ Here was the answer: ‘Hear O Israel--put your name there—the Lord God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength!’
 
·         Is that how you approach God?
 
For the world, they don’t even know, but for the people of God:
 
·         Are you a one-day a week Christian?
 
And even if you may keep the Sabbath:
 
·         How much different are you from the Sunday-keepers from the one-day a week Christian?
 
You may read some of the Bible, those things that are pleasant to you, but very few people want to read the things that tell you what God is going to do if you don’t repent and come to Him. He also says that of other churches, too.
 
This is where we are in all of this. This is a lot of trouble and difficulty, indeed!
 
Let’s see what God wants, and He lays this out for the nation of Israel, and in fact, all nations of the world now. But in particularly the nations of Israel, because they are the descendants of Jacob. Here’s what everybody wants, and notice how God expresses it in what we must do, and what kind of effort we need to put forth so that God will be with us and we will be on God’s side! Too many people want God to come on their side. But God is saying, ‘NO! You come on My side, because I’m God! I will bless you! You need Me, and I will take care of you!’ This is what He told the Israelites here:
 
Deuteronomy 28:1: “And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD your God…” That’s the most simple thing of all! God says obey My voice!
 
·         Did Adam and Eve? No!
·         Did most of the people down through history obey the voice of God? No!
 
It’s simple: obey My voice! You want things to go good; you want them to go well, obey My voice diligently!
 
·         not half-heartedly
·         not one day a week
·         but how you live
 
“…to observe and to do all His commandments, which I command you today… [this is a conditional clause] …the LORD your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth” (v 1).
 
·         Did God not do that with Britain and America? Yes, indeed!
·         What have we done? Look at it! Look a the inner cities wherever you go!
 
If you do, v 2: “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God.”
 
Some is always going say—being a smart aleck—‘How am I going to hear the voice of the Lord God?’ Well, He made it easy for you to hear it! He had it written down and printed!
 
Is this not saying that the Lord is talking here? If you read it, you’re reading what He said! If you read what He said, you’re reading what He spoke! Then it says:
 
Verse 3: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep. Blessed shall be your basket and your store. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The LORD shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to be stricken before your face….” (vs 3-7)--just a small army!
 
God would fight the battle. Can the largest army in the world fight against God and prevail? NO WAY!
 
“…They shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouses, and all that you set your hand to. And He shall bless you in the land, which the LORD your God gives you” (vs 7-8). How did we get here? Because God gave it!
 
Verse 9: “The LORD shall establish you a Holy people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you” (vs 9-10).
 
Since we haven’t done this, the next thing happens!

(Second Half)

I want to mention one thing about taking down the Church: I know this from a first person conversation with the man who brought the lawsuit against the Worldwide Church of God and threw it into a receivership. His name was Timmons, and he told me that Robert Kuhn advised them how to bring the lawsuit.
 
There was a lot of treachery and a lot of evil that was going on. I suspect, since Herbert Armstrong was over in Tucson at that time with congestive heart failure, that they figured that this would be such a shock to Herbert Armstrong that he would die. Well, he didn’t!
 
So, Rader had to be the savior of the lawsuit. If he didn’t, he would have been convicted by his own actions. So, he politically worked it out and got a law passed in the legislature in California that churches are not charitable institutions as a charity, but a non-profit organization as a church to serve the congregants. Therefore, it could not come under the law that applies to charities. So, Rader was stuck, he had to do it.
 
Let’s go on and see about this with Jesus in the Old Testament.
 
Deuteronomy 18:15: “The LORD your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, One like me. To Him you shall hearken,”
 
“The LORD your God…” has to refer to the Father. But that was not to the people in general. Who was in charge of the coming of Jesus Christ? God the Father! So, this isn’t saying that He’s speaking to the people.
 
Verse 16: “According to all that you desired of the LORD your God… [the One Who became Christ] …in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, so that I do not die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They have spoken well what they have spoken’” (vs 16-17).
 
In other words, they were well-intentioned, but they were wrong!
 
Verse 18: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, One like you, and will put My words in His mouth. And He shall speak to them all that I shall command Him.”
 
That was God the Father, but He was not the Lord God of the Old Testament! This had to refer to the One Who would become Christ!
 
·         Are They both called the Lord God? Yes!
·         Are They both part of Elohim? Yes!
·         Are They both God? Yes!
 
Verse 19: “And it shall come to pass, whatever man will not hearken to My words, which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him.” Peter understood that this applied to Christ!
 
Acts 3:22: “For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you from among your brethren, like me; Him shall you hear in all things that He shall say to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people’” (vs 22-23).
 
There it is, they knew it applied to Christ! How did they know that it applied to Christ? Because right after they came to them on that Ascension Day He showed His hands in side and His feet and asked for something to eat and they gave Him honey and fish! Then what did He do? He opened their minds to the Scriptures concerning Himself in the Law, Prophets and Psalms!
 
Where would He start? Perfect place, Deut. 18! They understood it!
 
John 8:12: “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me shall never walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life.’ Therefore, the Pharisees said to Him, ‘You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, because I know where I have come from and where I am going….” (vs 12-14). No human being could say that statement!
 
“…But you do not know where I come from and where I go You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet, if I do judge, My judgment is true, for I am not alone; but I and the Father Who sent Me” (vs 14-16).
 
Why? Because He had the Holy Spirit! The Father was with Him and everything. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus did all of the speaking? When there was the voice out of the heavens that said, ‘This is My Son in Whom I have great delight.’ It was a voice! It didn’t say the Father said, just a voice!
 
When the three of them were on the Mt. of Transfiguration—James, Peter and John—and the voice said, ‘This is My Son in Whom I delight, listen to Him,’ it was a voice!
 
Jesus said in Acts 5, ‘You have neither heard His voice, nor seen His shape at any time.’
 
Verse 19: “Then they said to Him, ‘Where is Your Father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would also have known My Father.’ Jesus spoke these words in the treasury while teaching in the temple; but no one arrested Him because His time had not yet come. Then Jesus said to them again, ‘I am going away; and you shall seek Me, but you shall die in your sin. Where I am going, you are not able to come’” (vs 19-21). It’s impossible for you to come!
 
How did Paul reaffirm that? Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God or see the Kingdom of God! It’s impossible for you to come.
 
Verse 22: “Therefore, the Jews said, ‘Will He kill Himself? Is that why He says, “Where I am going, you are not able to come”?’”
 
Listen carefully, because this tells you absolutely for sure that before Jesus was a human being He was in heaven!
 
Verse 23: “And He said to them, ‘You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world…. [couldn’t be clearer] …That is why I said to you that you shall die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I AM… [‘ego emi’] …you shall die in your sins’” (vs 23-24).
 
He was telling them Who He was. Remember when Moses asked the Lord, ‘When the children of Israel say who sent you tell them I AM that I AM has sent Me.’
 
Are there many other names of God? Yes! But I AM means that He exists as a Spirit being.’ How did He come to this earth?
 
If you think that you’ve had to do something that is humiliating, or humbling, think on this. We’ve read Philp. 2 many times, but let’s go over it and look at for what it’s really telling us. We know that:
 
·         God has form and shape
·         we’re made in His image
·         Jesus came from above
 
How did He come?
 
Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God” (vs 5-6)--meaning He was God! If you exist as God, you’re in the form of God!
 
Verse 7: “But emptied Himself…” What does that mean? He had to give up nearly all of His Divinity and be reduced down to a pinpoint of life to be impregnated into the womb of the virgin Mary!
 
That’s what He had to do to become a human being, Who was the Creator of human beings. He was the only One Who could be the sacrifice for the sins of human beings, because:
 
·         He was the One Who created them
·         He was the One Who judged them
·         He was the One Who gave them human nature and the law of sin and death
 
So, He “…emptied Himself…”! Exactly how that was done, we don’t know!
 
John 10:14: “I am the good Shepherd, and I know those who are Mine, and am known of those who are Mine. Just as the Father knows Me, I also know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep…. [willingly; think about what He had to give up to do that] …And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring those also, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. On account of this, the Father loves Me: because I lay down My life, that I may receive it back again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down and authority to receive it back again. This commandment I received from My Father” (vs 14-18).
 
This also implies that there was a covenant between the One Who became the Father and the One Who became the Son. In giving up His spirit when He died, and it going back to God, God the Father promised that He would be raised from the dead and not see corruption. That was the covenant between Them.
 
Hebrews 10:7: “Then said I, “Lo, I come (as it is written of Me in the Scroll of the Book)…” This was written down!
 
Remember the Scripture that talks about the Scripture of Truth that’s in heaven? Dan. 10:21! So, this was written down.
 
“…to do Your will, O God” (v 7). Jesus said, ‘All right, I will do it, I will do Your will, and I will die, give up My life and lay it down, and You will give it back to Me, IF I fulfill everything!’
 
Verse 9: “Then He said, ‘Lo, I come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first covenant in order that He may establish the second covenant; by Whose will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (vs 9-10).
 
Philippians 2:6: “Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and was made in the likeness of men, and took the form of a servant… [Greek: ‘doulous’--slave] …and being found in the manner of man…” (vs 6-8). Think about this!
 
God Who lives forever, didn’t give up living forever--still had life in Him—but reduced very, very small, way down to near nothing. He “…emptied Himself…” That means He divested Himself of His power as God, and willingly became a pinpoint of life! He was subject to receiving the genes of Mary into His physical flesh, which is where He got His human nature, from His mother.
 
His mother was the niece of Elizabeth, and Elizabeth was a daughter of Aaron, and she was the mother of John the Baptist. That means that Mary’s father had to be of the line of David, and Mary’s mother was of the line of Aaron. So, in that bloodline you have king and priest! What is Christ going to be? King and Priest! Even in the flesh He had to those genes that related to that.
 
He “…emptied Himself, and was made in the likeness of men…”--everything that human beings do! He had to eat, sleep, elimination of the processes of the body, perfectly human in every way. But He had to have the Spirit of God and use the Spirit of God constantly. That’s why He was taught every morning by the Father (Isa. 50).
 
·         He wasn’t taught by the lying rabbis
·         He wasn’t taught the traditions of the Jews
·         He was taught by the Father
 
So intelligent was He that when He was 12-years-old and stayed back after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, He was in the temple with all of the high ‘mucky-mucks’—the chief priests and all of them—questioning them and answering questions. They were amazed at His understanding at the age of 12. Why? Because the Father was the One Who taught Him! The Father woke Him up every morning!
 
I don’t know how it worked, but the closest thing that I can think of is that you have this smart phone or tablet and you can see someone on it, that He saw the Father. But He had to have human nature from his mother. Otherwise:
 
·         Why come and be perfect and could not sin?
·         What good would that do?
·         How would He overcome sin? Condemn it in the flesh!
 
“…He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has also highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him a name, which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow took the form of a servant, of beings in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (vs 8-11).
 
Hebrews 5:5: “In this same manner also, Christ did not glorify Himself to become a High Priest…” He could not be a High Priest in the flesh; that was of the house of Aaron!
 
“…but He Who said to Him, ‘You are My Son; today I have begotten You.’ Even as He also says in another place, ‘You are a Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedec’” (vs 5-6).
 
But that’s not going to be re-instituted until Christ returns. In a sense, the New Testament ministry is under the Priesthood of Christ, but we’re not priests.
 
Verse 7: “Who, in the days of His flesh, offered up both prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was able to save Him from death…”
 
If He would have sinned, He would have died for His own sin. So, He had all of humanity on His person, being made in the flesh.
 
“…and was heard because He feared God. Although He was a Son, yet, He learned obedience from the things that He suffered; and having been perfected… [by never sinning, and overcoming] …He became the Author of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him” (vs 7-9)
 
All of these things are necessary to understand precisely what God did. What a tremendous thing that it is. This is important in coming to the Passover.
 
Rom. 7 talks about that as long as you have the law of sin and death in you, you’re still going to sin and you’re going to expire and die in Adam. The only ones not subject to that will be the few who are still alive when Christ actually returns.
 
Romans 8:1: “Consequently, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
 
How do you walk when you find that you sin when you have the spirit of God? The Spirit of God brings to your mind that sin, so you can repent! When you repent there’s no condemnation, because you’re walking in the Spirit! That means that you’re leading your life according the leading of the Holy Spirit of God!
 
Verse 2: “Because the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has delivered me from the law of sin and death.”
 
The King James says ‘freed me.’ That means it would have to have been cut out of your genes in order to be free from it. Delivered is from the point of view that with the Spirit of God you can overcome sin by the exercising of the Spirit of God, repenting, living God’s way and keeping His commandments! That’s why we have the commandments of God written in our heart and mind!
 
Why? Because why you have in your mind is how you think and live! This is what needs to be converted; this is the whole thing of the Feast of Unleavened Bread: get out the sin and put in the righteousness of Christ! This is what it’s talking about.
 
Verse 3: “For what was impossible for the Law to do…”
 
Remember that the Law… we have it written, abbreviated, and hanging on the wall. If someone walks in here and is thinking lustful thoughts, that plaque doesn’t come off the wall and knock them on the head and tell him he’s sinning. The Law has no power to make you do anything!
 
You look at society and how many criminals are there? How many laws are there against everything that they’re doing? But they still do it!
 
“…in that it was weak through the flesh, God having sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh… [the same sinful flesh that we have; that’s how great it was for Christ] …and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (v 3).
 
That had to be! That had to be done! And that was done with His perfect sacrifice! Here’s the result of it once we receive the Holy Spirit:
 
Verse 4: “In order that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us… [I wonder how many Protestants read that] …who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
 
This is what Jesus had to do. It wasn’t just a simple, little operation that was easy to do. He had to pray, put down temptation. Satan was after Him and people were after Him. Even His disciples didn’t believe. He had to say, ‘O hard of heart, when will you believe?’ This is what He had to go through!
 
How anyone can say that Jesus was not the Lord God of the Old Testament before He came Jesus Christ of the New Testament, really doesn’t believe the Bible!
 
·         What happens when you have that?
·         When you begin making doctrine by not believing the Bible and claim that it comes from the Bible?
 
You’re bringing the veil back over your eyes! That’s exactly what it will do! We always have to be on guard against false doctrine! It’s something!
 
Acts 20—this is what we all need to do, and what all elders need to do especially. We have been given the responsibility to remain faithful:
 
·         to Christ
·         to God the Father
·         to the Word of God
 
and not have our own will! That doesn’t mean that we’re ‘namby-pamby’! We need to stay strong for the Lord!
 
Paul was going to Jerusalem and they knew that he was headed for trouble, so he called for the elders in Ephesus.
 
Acts 20:17: “Now, from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the Church…. [they had a huge church there] …And when they had come to him, he said to them, ‘You know how, from the first day I came to Asia, and all the time I was with you, I served the Lord with all humility and with many tears and temptations, which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; and how I did not keep back anything that was profitable, but preached to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, earnestly testifying, both to the Jews and the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’” (vs 17-21)--just a summary of the Gospel!
 
After Paul was converted, he had to suffer a lot because of what he did to the Church before he was converted. That’s what God told him, and he did! He always remembered where he came from and what he needed to do.
 
Verse 22: “And now behold, I am bound in the spirit, and am going to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall happen to me there; except that the Holy Spirit fully testifies in every city, saying that bonds and tribulations await me…. [and that’s exactly what happened] …But I myself do not take any of these things into account, nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify the Gospel of the Grace of God” (vs 22-24). So, there are two aspects of the Gospel:

1. the Gospel of the Grace of God
2. the Gospel of the Kingdom of God

 
And Paul mentions both of them here!
 
Verse 25: “And now behold, I know that you all, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the Kingdom of God, will see my face no more; wherefore, I testify to you on this day… [this was quite a day] …that I am pure from the blood of all, for I have not held back from preaching to you all the counsel of God” (vs 25-27).
 
Notice this warning, because we see how this happens. When people look to a man, follow a man and have good conduct—because they see the man has good conduct—when the man is removed, what happens? Look what happened to the Church, because they didn’t do:
 
Verse 28: “Take heed, therefore, to yourselves…” Everyone who is a teacher has got to:
 
·         take heed to himself
·         to the doctrine
·         to the Word of God
·         to the condition of the flock
·         to the things that he goes through
 
That he does not start establishing super-spiritual things that don’t come from the Bible! That don’t come from the Word of God!
 
“…and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers…” (v 28).
 
You’re overseeing the Truth of God for the flock of God! You’re not an overlord to rule them! If you don’t teach the brethren to rule their own lives, your rule can’t substitute for them! That’s what happened with too many ministers and elders. Then when there was no one there to supervise them, they didn’t let the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God—through study and prayer—supervise them into doing the Truth!
 
So, you end up with all of this nonsense that goes on! No wonder Jesus said that when He comes ‘will the Son of man find true faith in the earth?’ even in the Churches of God! Paul warned them!
 
“…to feed the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood” (v 28).
 
All the brethren belong to Christ, and we are only stewards to teach them the Word of God! That’s what it is.
 
·         we have no authority to rule over them
·         we have no authority to live their lives
 
We need to teach them to live their lives under Christ and before God independently with the Spirit of God. When we all come together, then we’re all brethren together! God will take care of it!
 
Verse 29: “For I know this: that after my departure grievous wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves… [looking them right in the eye] …men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves” (vs 29-30).
 
We have seen that happen! We’re again looking at the possibility that it’s going to happen.
 
Verse 31: “Watch, therefore, remembering… [we’re remembering] …that for three years I ceased not to admonish each one night and day with tears. And now I commit you, brethren, to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (vs 31-32).
 
That brings us full circle back to the ministers and what needs to be done. I hope that they don’t go down this course, but I suspect that it’s too late. I suspect that when they have elders who receive paychecks, that if they don’t go along with the hierarchy that they will lose their paychecks, and at their age they don’t know what to do or where to go.
 
When you stand for the Truth alone, it does get lonely! It’s gets desperate and you don’t know where anything is coming from, and you’re going to have to trust God!

Scriptural References From A New English Translation (A Faithful Version)
 
1)      John 1:1-3, 14
2)      Romans 5:12
3)      John 8:41-58
4)      2 Corinthians 3:5-17
5)      Proverbs 30:5-6
6)      Deuteronomy 18:15-19
7)      Acts 3:22-23
8)      John 8:12-16, 19-24
9)      Philippians 2:5-7
10)  John 10:14-18
11)  Hebrews 10:7, 9
12)  Philippians 2:6-11
13)  Hebrews 5:5-9
14)  Romans 8:1-4
15)  Acts 20:17-32
 
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
 
·         Genesis 1:1
·         Ezekiel 36
·         Romans 7
·         Genesis 3
·         Exodus 21-23
·         Ephesians 6
·         John 20
·         Acts 5
·         Daniel 10:21
·         Isaiah 50
 
Also referenced:
 
 
Transcript Books and CDs:
·         The Nature of God (study pkg. #6)
·         God the Father was Not the God of the Old Testament
·         Who Is Jesus?
 
Book: A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter

​Who Was Jesus? - First Half
IF you’re not searching for the Truth,
the veil of blindness is going to come over you again!
Fred R. Coulter—February 15, 2020
*(First Half Video)
*(Second Half Video)
*(Second Half Transcript) 

Why Anointings? 
Covers the subject of anointings and healing.
Norbert Bohnert - February 2, 2020
*(Sermon Link)

​Transcript Below.

GO TO MEETING GTM 2
FEBRUARY 8, 2020
WHY ANOINTING?
 
Greetings brethren, today I thought I would like to cover a topic that we are all mostly aware of but just wanting to rehearse a few things about anointings and the importance and implications of what anointing actually is and what does it involve for each one of us in our Christian walk with God.
We know from all the prayer requests and so forth that many among us brethren are sick from time to time and have many ailments, some of them chronic that we are dealing with on a daily basis. 
While we pray for these brethren and wish them a speedy and full recovery, it does not always happen in the time frame we would like or prefer – and for some, not even in this lifetime.  But our faith is that our well-being is according to God’s will and that the ultimate healing is sure and positive.  We must always keep that in mind brethren, whatever the circumstances may be. 
The all-encompassing blessing is to know that God wants no one to perish and would have everyone live a more abundant life.  JOHN 10:10
What does anoint me?  It means to make sacred, or to consecrate for office or religious service.  The anointing is done with the laying on of hands and the application of the oil, according to God’s instructions.  HEBREWS 6:2; JAMES 5:14
II PETER 3:9 – We know that God is not willing that any should perish.  That is not talking about just in the physical life, but that is talking about in God’s eternal realm.  God gave His only begotten Son, so that we could all eventually be saved. Unfortunately, Satan does his dirty work and there are those who will not follow in sincerity and truth the things that God would have us do.  There is a weeding out process that is going on right now brethren and we are a part of that scenario.  God’s desire is that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
JOHN 10:10
So, I ask the question, why do we not always receive healing quickly?  What is our part in the healing process? Our part in the healing process is a great deal.
I thought with all that is going on with many of us in our aging years and otherwise , it might be encouraging to look into this subject about anointing, and the many aspects that are mentioned in the scriptures that tell us about different kinds of anointing, and extension that take off from anointing.
Anointing is not always exactly as we picture it in the church.  In the Church of God, when we think of anointing, we usually think of a phone call or email message to the minister.  Or maybe we will catch a minister, elder as a special service or at Sabbath Services and stay that we would like to be anointed.  We generally don’t think of it too much past that.  The elder, minister will say a prayer and we pray, and we hope that God will answer.  We look at it most of the time from our perspective and that is many times the only way we think of anointing. We think only of the prayer of faith for the sick.
                                                                                                                                                                                                  Page2
Here let us review the instructions from God:                                                                                                                     
JAMES 5:14
If that was the only kind of anointing that there was, we could simply say just anointing him and you would not have to mention with oil, as it would be known.  WE say that Jesus Christ anointed the blind man with the mud that he had made from the spittle. And the verse says, “anointing his eyes “
Verse 15
We see that God is doing the healing here.  This word anointing is aleipho in the Greek, and it means anointing or to anoint.  AS we go through this subject of anointing, we will find often that there is a laying on of hands associated with anointing with oil and healing.  HEBREWS 6:2; LUKE 4:40  Now there is no mention of oil here. It just mentions that Jesus Christ laid His hands on every one of them and they were healed.  We associate anointing a great deal with the healing process, but we will see that anointing is for other things besides healing.
LUKE 13:10-12
This is a beautiful story, and we will see some more of them, showing that Jesus Christ is the healing God.
MARK 6:4 – In other words, when you go home you are not going to have the respect and the honor, even if you are a prophet of God, that you would somewhere else.  He was not even recoginzied by His family as the Prophet that He was.  Verse 5
Jesus could not work mighty miracles there.  He is Jesus Christ the Son of God and He should be able to go anywhere and work mighty miracles.  What is this telling us brethren?  He is telling us that because of the attitude of the people, the attitude of unbelief, that Jesus Christ was unable to work any great miracles.  Read on verse 5
Just as a sidebar here brethren.  In the past in our church history and I think you may be able to relate. somewhat that in some church organizations or individuals would not pray for somebody that was not in the Church of God or not within their organization.  Is that Christian brethren? Is that right?  If someone asks prayers for their parents, or their sister, the elder would ask if they were in the church, It might be said well we can say a private prayer for them but we are not going to mention it to anyone else.  Here is the challenge to that attitude: Go through the entire scriptures and try to find one single place where Jesus Christ ever healed a converted person. Yet Jesus Christ laid His hands upon a few sick folks, and He healed them.  Everywhere that He went He cast out demons and He removed all manner of sickness.
MARK 6:6
They lacked faith. Brethren, if you saw someone bowed over, and Jesus made her stand up straight, you would have to say that is something very important and unique going on there.
VERSE 7, 12-13 So Jesus Christ gave this gift to the disciples. They could not begin to go out and heal anybody of their own power because they did not have it.  The power comes from God and no one else.
                                                                                                                                                                                                Page 3
LUKE 10:33-34; 35 A man beaten to the pulp
It is right and proper that we should always do what we are able to do in the physical realm. Sometimes, in God’s Church, we run into the concept that some people hold that God is going to heal them, but they do not have to lift one finger to get out of the rain or the cold, or to stop what they are doing that is causing them to be sick.
Brethren, we have our part to do.  So, we see that the good Samaritan poured in oil and wine. The oil keeps the flesh supple and soft.  The wine acted like an antiseptic and cleaned the wound.
We can now start to understand what is going on in the physical realm about healing.  Keep these two realms separate.  There is the physical healing and the spiritual healing, and we like for those to come together.  When we send an anointed cloth as elders to somebody, we always try to thank them for their faith in God’s healing power.  They are looking to god, know that He is going to intervene in their lives.  That is a reward, in itself.
God says “ to call the elders of the Church” because He wants this petition to be done in a proper and formal way as described in JAMES 5:14. The elder says a prayer, which is in effect bringing a petition directly to our loving Father, as the person has requested.  The anointed cloth that is sent along represent the faithful prayer.  There is no power in the cloth, there is no power in the olive oil, but it is God who heals, and that is according to our faith.
MATTHEW 9:29  
WE know very clearly that faith I sone of the things that is considered when it comes to healing.
People sometimes get confused on the matter of faith, in association with the healing process, and they will say, I really, really with all my strength believe that I am going to be healed.  This is not the kind of faith that Jesus Christ is speaking of here. The correct kind of faith is faith towards God and His will being done.
Do we believe that God is all powerful? Do we believe that God promises us to heal? Our faith must be toward God and His will, and what He knows is the right thing.  When we pray the prayer of faith, we understand that God is going to apply the stripes of His Son Jesus Christ for healing.  This healing is an additional gift that we receive, over and above Jesus selfless act of love for us, in giving His life. Jesus gave His life so that we could have our sins covered.  ROMANS 5:8-9
I PETER 2:24 Because Jesus has done His part, it is a done deal, and healing is positively assured.
Peter was quoting ISAIAH when he said “by whose stripes ye were healed. “
ISAIAH 53:5
Jesus death paid for our sins [ that would have been enough – but He went further and suffered so that we would be healed.  By Christ’s suffering, wounds, and bruises, we have healing.
 
 
                                                                                                                                                                                                Page 4
Our past guilt is removed, and our past sins are covered, when we are redeemed and justified by the precious blood that He, Jesus Christ shed.  Some think that Jesus did it all and we do not have a part in it. But really brethren, we have a huge part in it.  We cannot hate, despise, or reject any of the saints as that behavior defines not discerning the Lord’s Body. We are told that we are to discern the Lord’s body and that is what we are talking about here with this healing process.  Hating someone defines not discerning the Lord’s body. We are obligated to extend our love, our care, and our realm of fellowship, to include all, especially those who have the earnest of God’s Holy Spirit (GALATIANS 6:10)
Paul characterized our self-examination as a priority.  He said that we must be properly discerning the Lord’s body.
The minister, elder, having him pray and not it is all on God’s back.  Some surmise, “If something does not happen, then God is not coming through” This is totally not true.  We hear many times that God is not healing people today.  Also, not true.  I’ll touch on that in a few minutes.
What we need to do first brethren is absolutely grasp the definition of the Lord’s Body from the Bible itself.
The Body of Christ is the Church of God.  The concept of Christ’s Body, being composed of all Church brethren, interaction and unity with God’s children.
If we, who are called of God, do not possess a genuine devotion and Godly tenderness for all the brethren, we diminish the sacrifice of Christ, and we will suffer sickness and death
(I CORINTHIANS 11:30) God is not going to come and heal us despite ourselves. If we want to be undesirable people, and live our lives in vile hatred of others, we cannot ask God to come in and be part of that, with an anointing – and heal us.
 
“He bore our sins in His own body on the stake, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness:  In other words, Jesus suffered so that we could be considered righteous.  In God’s eyes we are imputed with the righteous of Jesus Christ and with His stripes we are healed.  (ISAIAH 53:1-5,
I PETER 2:24)
 
It is good that you have chosen to exercise faith in God and follow His instructions in asking for prayer for your healing, according to the Scriptures.
 
Now, when a minister or an elder is unable to visit and perform an anointing in person, we follow the Biblical example of Apostle Paul.  Paul understood that some of these things, like anointing, are pictures of a greater reality.  The reality is taking place in our minds and hearts brethren, and in God’s mind and heart. It is not happening with the oil, or the cloth – they have no power. Please notice that it is God who works the miracle of healing, not any physical thing we do.
 
ACTS 19:11-12
                                                                                        
 
 
 
 
 Page 5
 
Notice that it was God that did it. It was a common occurrence. Paul did not do this once, but as a matter of course.  As we do today, he sent out an anointed cloth.
 
There are things God does and there are things that we do.  Please take care of yourself and do everything you can to receive the best physical care that you can obtain.  God does expect us to do our part to look after our health. 
 
Brethren, as a side bar this brings me to a situation years ago that I witnessed as a younger adult in the church.  There was a couple who were relatively new in the church and had been attending only about a little over two years.   They had three beautiful children and were very enthusiastic and wanting to learn more about the Word of God and His way of life.  Unfortunately, suddenly one of their daughters became deathly sick in what was called an adhesion at the time in where the bowel kinks.  These adhesions can cause a bowel obstruction, blockage and strangulation.  It is usually a condition in which bodily tissues that are normal separate grow together. This condition basically shuts down everything and the process of digestion is shut down, that including the blood supply and nerve supply to the bowel and everything else.  Basically, the bowel begins to die, and it turns gangrenous.  Gangrene is a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a mas of body tissue dies.
At the time in the church, brethren were told that hospitals and going to the doctor were not necessary and the poor couple did not understand or were led to believe that the principle I just mentioned earlier to do what we can physically for ourselves is important.  The teaching at that time, which was totally ludicrous in my opinion was that we must put it totally in God’s hands.  So, the couple waited and everyone prayer and fasted over the situation as instructed by the ministry.  The daughter could not eat for over a week and was losing weight and became totally dehydrated.  She became comatose.
With the situation being so severe, the couple went to the ministry at the time and pleaded with them that there must be something that they could do. She was just lying there dying in front of them.  She needed intervention and some relief from the condition she had.  The ministry turned their backs on the couple and washed their hands of it, stepping back because they were not supposed to challenge or get in trouble with so called Headquarters in the Church’s teaching. They were to hold the company line and not counsel any other way.
The couple was devastated and were feeling very depressed and thinking they were lacking the faith required.  They were told by the ministry to step back and watch their daughter die even though they knew there were things that could be done.  They knew the medical profession had procedures that could correct the situation.  It came to a breaking point and the couple decided at that point that they would bring the daughter to emergency and at that time, it was a real scene from the show ER if you have every seen that show. It was considered life threatening and after numerous tests and so forth the medical team took out a large section of her gangrenous bowel. After the operation, for two weeks it was not known if she would survive or not.  There was concern she would never be able to have children and she ended up missing school for a year.
 
 
                                                                                                                                                                                                Page 6
Well, she did survive, and she married, with four healthy beautiful children.  Brethren, why did I relay this. Well God is a merciful and He is loving and He of course in the One who does the healing. But the couple did what they could for themselves and learned that no matter what they decided to do physically, they are only physical remedies and the whole time they were asking God to intervene on their behalf along with so many other brethren in a much Higher perfect miraculous spiritual way.
ISAIAH 55:8        - Our loving Father knows our needs before we ask. The couple going through that trial in their lives early in the Church teach us all a lot of things.  They felt helpless and they had to rely on God. It teaches us the compassion and understanding that we must have and that is the way we should always counsel with others whether it be the ministry, elders or towards each other.
Many brethren might consider what the couple did as lacking total faith in God and that the couple should have believed that the daughter would be healed, and that God would work a miracle with them as a couple unwilling to lift a finger.  God acts before and when we do not know how to act. God’s Spirit knows the answer even when we do not know the question (ROMANS 8:26)
Brethren, when asking for an anointing cloth, we must not wait for the mailman to deliver the cloth. When one asks for the anointing cloth, God hears immediately, and it is in the Spiritual realm.  God begins to answer prayer as soon as we ask Him.  But He does want us to ask.  It is a very powerful thing to get God involved.  It is not a matter of putting you head on the pillow and saying “God heal me. “God wants it to be formal – that is why we are instructed to call on the elders.  It is formal because God is involved.  Always, lets think of that when we are looking at an anointing. 
The oil on the anointed cloth is a symbol of God’s Holy Spirit and as such, represents His healing power.   The Bible puts no limits on how many times you can go to God and ask to be healed.  There are those that say because Paul asked God three times to be healed and God did not intervene, that is a limit. That is hog wash, pardon the expression.  You can go to God a thousand times and beseech God to intervene.  Ask for anointing again every time that you know something new, every time there is a change in a condition or every time there comes a new condition in your life.  You can always cry out to God as many times as you want brethren.
We must understand when God is going to intervene, when God is going to heal and when God is going to be actively involved in a miraculous powerful way in the healing process. It is on God’s time.
I JOHN 3:22
Brethren, it is a must a prerequisite that we must be doing these things with all our might and with all of our heart.  We must have a relationship with God and be reconciled to God to even be able to talk to God.
It’s not like a drunk at a bar saying, Oh God make me sober. God is not going to make him sober.
I JOHN 5:14
So, it must be in accordance with the will of God.  When somebody gets to be 98 years old and their body is riddled with cancer and they have had a good life, and God is ready to take them, we pray “Father whatever your will is.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                Page 7
Verse 15 – That is our faith, that God is going to answer the petition – that God is going to do the healing and God is going to do the work.
David shows us the attitude that is necessary when we go to God for healing. 
PSALMS 35:13
We must go to God, heartfelt prayer and fasting, for situations as well.
In Christ’s day, rubbing a little oil on the face and head was a sign of being neat, tidy well=groomed and well kempt.  When one arrived from a long journey, sometimes the host would wash your face and oil your head.  It’s a little like the treatment you would get at a barbershop with some after shave and lotion. 
LUKE 7:46                 
Why do I bring this up?  Because we are talking about anointing.  Anointing is not just for healing but is for other things as well.  This particular anointing referred to be a prophetic sign that Jesus was about to His life for all mankind. 
MARK 14:8              
Jesus counted that anointing of his fee as a prelude to His death and being anointed.  There are other scriptures that show that they came and anointed Jesus body with the good smelling spices.
Brethren, with this said, we must be careful not to get carried away as there was in the past about special healing oils.  It was stated that if you get the right kind of oils like that used in the scriptures, they were much better oils to use than olive oil.  It is of the pagan world to get caught up in those kinds of thins and think that certain oils have some special kind of power.  Let us not go off on these tangent brethren as many times people are mislead and get this bizarre idea.  Let’s think to the Spiritual and look to God, no one else – the olive oil that we use in anointing is only symbolic – but it is symbolic of God’s spiritual power of healing.
God instituted and established anointing for us to see His direct intervention in our live and because H was us to look to Him.  The reason that Do tells us to bring a formal petition to Him, through the ordained elders is because an anointing for the sick represents God’s direct intervention in our lives.  That is why we tend to kneel down if possible when anointing someone.  We are coming in the presence of God and we are bringing Him into the equation.  It is on the level of miracles, because that is what it is.  Don’t let people tell you that God does not formally intervene when we are ill.  Some people suggest that there are no healings today.  That is total blindness and a lack of faith brethren.  I believe it is blasphemous when you are denying God’s power and involvement.  If in some persons life there is not healing taking place, and he knows of none, there may be a reason for it. The problem may be on that person’s end, not on God’s end.  We draw near to God and He will draw near to us, that is a promise.
So, brethren from a Biblical perspective there is a whole lot to be known about anointing.  To anoint means to make something sacred., to consecrate someone for healing or an office or religious service.  Anointing is used in all kinds of ways.
                                                                                                                                                                                                Page 8
We see Christ is the Anointed One.  He was anointed by the Father. Christ comes from the Greek – Christos meaning the “Anointed One “The Messiah is anointed to rule over all the earth and rule over the Kingdom of God. To be the Christ, or the Messiah is to be the Anointed One, chosen of God.  Jesus is the only anointed Messiah, the soon coming Christ of the millennium. 
In the OT we find the prophecy of Christ the Anointed One. 
ISAIAH 61:1
This anointing consecrate Jesus to perform His two-fold coming. Jesus Christ came two thousand plus years ago and He is about to come again.  The first coming was His earthly ministry for there and a half year and the second will be His one-thousand-year reign on the earth in the Millennium
Jesus Christ quote these words that He inspired Isaiah to write:
LUKE 4:18-19
Did God the Father use some olive oil, before the world was created, to anoint Jesus?  Do we understand that the oil that we use today is an outward token of God’s Spirit in action, in power, and in force? 
When God the Father appointed, anointed, and consecrated Jesus Christ to be the ruler, the King of kings during the Millennial reign, He did not take some oil and anoint Him like we do at a healing.
HEBREWS 1:8-9
When God the Father was anointing Jesus Christ, there was a spiritual ceremony taking place and we must understand that brethren. 
ACTS 4:26
I want you to pick up on the fact that God the Father anointed Jesus Christ.
ACTS 10:38 – God anointed Jesus Christ with Holy Spirit and with power.  I point that out because a lot of times people very simply say The Spirit of God is the power of God.  They do not look into the Spirit of God anymore that that.  God’s Spirit is so much more than that.  It is the mind of God, the love of God and His compassion, His mercy, His forgiveness His wisdom and it is very good and spiritual characteristic of God. 
Jesus Christ was anointed with Holy Spirit and with power.
So, brethren, here is an incredible thing that many times we overlook.  In the same way that Jesus was anointed to perform His duties, we, too are anointed with a special calling.
We are begotten by God the Father’s Spirit and it makes us his children, with His Spirit just as Jesus became the Son of God. 
The Spirit of God is the earnest, and the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
II CORINTHIANS 1:21
                                                                                                                                                                                                Page 9
Who is it that has anointed Paul and us? It is God the Father.
II CORINTHIANS 1:22
Brethren, we are established in Christ, and we are members of the Body of Christ.  God the Father has anointed us just as He anointed Jesus.  He has sealed us as His children.  The Father has given us the pledge of His Spirit.
John put is this way in I JOHN 1:20
Anointing is something very special and important.  Anointing is the prescribed procedure for performing a number of divine functions:
Due to lack of time, you can go through many scriptures covering this topic of anointing.  We know that
Kings were anointed; prophets are consecrated and anointed. I SAMUEL 15:1; I KINGS 19:16
The pillar stone was anointed by Jacob GENESIS 31:13
The sons of Aaron and the priests were anointed and consecrated. EXODUS 28:41; EXODUS 29:7
Holy bread was anointed. – EXODUS 29:2
The altar, and the sin offering bullock, was anointed. EXODUS 40:10; EXODUS 29:36
The Tabernacle of the congregation and everything in it was anointed. EXODUS 40:9
The Ark of the Covenant was anointed. EXODUS 30:26
King David was anointed more than once. I SAMUEL 16:13; II SAMUEL 2:4; II SAMUEL 5:3
Jesus was anointed for burial. MARK 16:1
The Two Witnesses - ZECHARIAH 4:3, 11-14
Brethren in closing, when we are baptized with the laying on of hands, we receive the promise of the Father, which is God’s Holy Spirit in us. 
We use anointing in our lives to point us to God, so that we might know that we have been anointed by God the Father for a special calling, to be His children, to be healed, to be whole for all eternity and to be with Jesus Christ and rule in the Millennium, Kingdom of God. 
There is so much to understand about this relationship we have with God, and God’s direct intervention in each and every anointing. 
​

​Rom. 10:4 is one that ‘Christians’ of this world use over and over again, because it says in the KJV that Christ is the end of the Law. That’s what it says!
 
However, the Greek translation says that Christ is the end of law. What does that mean?
 
Romans 10:4: “For Christ is the end of works of law…”
 
Romans 9:30: “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness, even the righteousness that is by faith.”
 
This righteousness is right standing with God through repentance and baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit.
 
Verse 31: “But Israel… [includes the Jews] …although they followed after a law of righteousness…” The KJV says “…the law of righteousness.” That’s incorrect! There’s no definite article in the Greek! This is where the King James Version messes people up all the time. They insert the definite article when it is not there.
 
If you insert any word that is not in the Greek, it must be in italic. That way the reader knows that it’s not in the original and we will see that that is also proper for clarification, which is the meaning of Rom. 10:4.
 
Verse 32: “Why?…. [did they not attain to a law of righteousness?] …Because they did not seek it by faith, but by works of law…”
 
The KJV says, “…the works of the law…” But that’s not true! The Greek is: “…by works of law…
 
That’s very important, because that means the traditional laws of Judaism!
 
“…for they stumbled at the Stone of Stumbling, exactly as it is written: ‘Behold, I place in Sion a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of offense, but everyone who believes in Him shall not be ashamed’” (vs 32-33).
 
Romans 10:1: “Brethren, the earnest desire of my heart and my supplication to God for Israel is for salvation. For I testify of them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (vs 1-2).
 
That is not according to the knowledge of God, but according to their own traditions!
 
Verse 3: “For they, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness… [through their works; this is their oral law] …have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”
 
·         What happens with the oral law?
·         What did Jesus say?
 
Mark 7 will help us to understand what Paul is talking about with justification and so forth.
 
Mark 7:6: “And He answered and said to them…”--the scribes and Pharisees:
 
Verse 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, but eat bread with unwashed hands?’”
 
Verse 6: “…‘Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from Me.”’”
 
So, if you have an oral tradition and claim that it’s as good as God’s, you’re trying to establish a righteousness that is equal to God and you can’t do that! Nothing that a man can do would be equal to what God has said that we are to do.
 
Verse 7: “‘But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.’ For leaving the commandment of God, you hold fast the tradition of men…”
 
·         Isn’t that the way that it is?
·         What does that do for the Jews even to this day?
 
Listen carefully to how they explain everything. You can start with
 
·         the Holocaust
·         the destruction of the temple in 70A.D.
·         the Roman invasion leading up to that and later in 135A.D.
 
§  Why did all of these things come upon them?
§  Why did it come from God?
 
Remember the parable of the wedding feast! The word went out that everything is ready. They sent out the messengers to invite them and come. This one had this to do and another had that to do and they didn’t come. They sent out to get more to come to the wedding feast.
 
Those who were invited did not come. So, finally the result of it was that those who did not come, God was going to destroy their city. In that parable, it was a prophecy of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.
 
·         How often do you hear the Jews say, ‘We’ve been scattered abroad in the world because of our sins’? Never!  It’s always ‘the enemy coming to get us’!
·         Why is the enemy coming to get them? Because of their traditions!
 
What’s one of the worst sins that anybody can do, Jew or Gentile? Reject Christ! It’s the same way today. They’re going to fight off all of their enemies, they’re going to build their temple and it’s going to bring the world peace. NO! It’s going to bring the worst catastrophe in the world!
 
Verse 8: “For leaving the commandment of God, you hold fast the tradition of men…”--the righteousness of works that’s talked about in Rom. 9!
 
Verse 9: “Then He said to them, ‘Full well do you reject the commandment of God, so that you may observe your own tradition. For Moses said…’” (vs 9-10). So, they’re rejecting Moses while claiming Moses!
 
What’s a counterpart of that today? Catholicism and Christianity claiming Christ, but are rejecting Christ! Exactly the same thing! It begins with Sunday-keeping, which is a Roman institution. Cardinal Gibbon wrote about that in Rome’s Challenge to the Protestants, his diatribe against the Protestants.
 
Verse 10: “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man shall say to his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might receive from me is corban”’…” (vs 10-11).
 
In other words, I’m not going to take care of you, but I’m going to dedicate it to the temple, because I’ll get a blessing for dedicating it to the temple. Yes, and all the rabbis will say, ‘Look, that was a wonderful gift that you gave.
 
“…(that is, set aside as a gift to God), ‘he is not obligated to help his parents’” (v 11). Isn’t that the way the traditions of the Jews are?
 
Have you ever read what the Jew is to do in the morning when he gets up? He is immediately to wash his hands! He is to take and hold the pitcher of water in his left hand and pour it on his right hand, and alternate it three times. He must do this before he even goes to where he needs to go when he gets up in the morning.
 
I’m going to have to get Code of Jewish Law and read some of those. {Note book: Judaism: Revelation of Moses, or Religion of Men? by Philip Neal} There are many of the Jewish laws written there. There are many such things. There are special prayers when you see something:
 
·         if you see a midget
·         if you see a giant
·         if you see a giraffe
 
Everything like that!
 
They also have two sets of plates, because they are not to mix meat and milk products together. So, they have a set of dishes that they eat things that have meat and a set for the things that have milk.
 
They also have a law that if you have a Gentile who is a servant, and he works in the kitchen, that if a Jew watches the Gentile make the bread—because Gentile hands are supposed to be so unclean—then it’s permissible to eat as ‘common’ food. But it cannot be used for making unleavened bread for ‘Pascha’ because it’s unclean. If a Jew is not there to supervise it, the bread is unclean.
 
Well, that’s not a Law of God! Christ said that they have many such things to do. That is a law of righteousness that’s contrary to the Laws of God!
 
Remember that every time that one of these laws was kept, that was a work of law. They have many works of law.
 
Romans 10:3: “For they… [the Jews] …being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of works of law for righteousness…” (vs 3-4). Not the end of all law forever! How do we know that that is not true?
 
Hebrews 10:16: “…I will give My Laws into their hearts, and I will inscribe them in their minds.”
 
Is that doing away with law? No! That’s making it permanently inscribed in your mind, so that’s how you automatically live your life! Not an exterior law of righteousness; Christ ends all of that! Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhism, Mohammadism, Hinduism; they all have their works of law. Christ is the end of that!
 
Romans 10:4: “For Christ is the end of works of law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses wrote concerning the righteousness that comes through the Law, ‘The man who has practiced those things shall live by them’” (vs 4-5)--that’s the letter of the Law! That’s what they should have done, but they weren’t following Moses.
 
Verse 6: “But the righteousness that comes through faith speaks after this manner: ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who shall ascend up to heaven?”’….” Then he brings out about believing and faith after that!
 
I mentioned last time about Peter going to Cornelius’ house. When he first met Cornelius he said, ‘You know that it’s an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to keep company with a Gentile.’ They could not even go in. ‘But God has shown to me that I should call no man common or unclean!’
 
Think about this: None of the Italians were circumcised. God sent Peter there because God wanted him to understand that He was calling Gentiles, and going to give the Holy Spirit to them without circumcision of the flesh. This was a revolutionary thing. So, Peter having done this, knew exactly what God wanted.
 
When we come to Acts 15 and the conference that they had there, Peter said, ‘You know that God, at first, had me go to the Gentiles.’ That was to Cornelius. Look what happens when different ones come, because Peter had a streak of politics in him.
 
Galatians 2:12: “For, before certain ones came from James…”--the brother of the Lord and was in charge of things in Jerusalem!
 
As long as the temple was standing, it was perfectly all right to pay a vow, or make a vow. But they were telling those in Jerusalem that Paul out with the Gentiles is saying ‘don’t circumcise your children, don’t do any of these things.’ But that’s not what was happening!
 
Verse 11: “But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be condemned.”
 
How important is Truth and doctrine? Very important! I had a man tell me to take him off our mailing list because he didn’t ‘like the way I bash those other ministers of God with their different doctrines.’
 
·         What did Paul do to Peter and preserve it in the Bible?
·         How important is doctrine? Very important!
 
Verse 12: “For, before certain ones came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. However, when they came, he drew back and separated himself from the Gentiles, being afraid of those of the circumcision party.” He didn’t want James to get a bad report!
 
Verse 13: “And the rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocritical act, insomuch that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy…. [publicly] …But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in the presence of them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles,,, [eating with the Gentiles, mingling among them without any traditional laws to separate themselves] …and not according to Judaism… [that’s what Judaism is] …why do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize?”
 
In other words, make them separate from the rest of the Jews.
 
Verse 15: “We who are Jews by nature—and not sinners of the Gentiles—knowing that a man is not justified by works of law…” (vs 15-16).
 
The King James has the works of the law, which is false! Is there a work of a Law of God that says that you shall not eat with a Gentile? NO! That’s a work of law of Judaism! They were seeking their own righteousness through it.
 
·         the separation was hard
·         the separation was difficult
 
Verse 14: “But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in the presence of them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles, and not according to Judaism, why do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize? We who are Jews by nature—and not sinners of the Gentiles—knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but through the faith of Jesus Christ…’” (vs 14-16).
 
Your standing is the standing with God in heaven above through Christ, not your standing among groups of people that you go by their traditions that are contrary to the Word of God and think you’re doing well in the name of Christ. Never work!
 
What are the biggest ones they have today? Not the Jews, but Christianity! Sunday and Christmas! They have great hymn and services! Same thing as this.
 
Verse 16: “Knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order that we might be justified by the faith of Christ… [with God the Father in heaven above] …and not by works of law… [by men, to impress men] …because by works of law shall no flesh be justified”--to God! That’s the whole meaning of it here!
 
Verse 17: “Now then, if we are seeking to be justified in Christ, and we ourselves are found to be sinners… [which Peter was in doing what he did] …is Christ then the minister of sin? MAY IT NEVER BE!”--because Christ never recognized that! That’s the important thing to understand.
 
Verse 18: “For if I build again… [speaking of his experience in Judaism] …those things that I destroyed, I am making myself a transgressor.” Works of laws of men end up transgressing the Laws of God, and making you a sinner before God!
 
Verse 19: “For I, through law, died to works of law, in order that I may live to God.” How do you live to God?
 
·         by loving Him
·         by obeying Him
·         by keeping His commandments
·         by trusting in His mercy and forgiveness
·         by having your sins forgiven when you repent
 
Verse 20: “I have been crucified with Christ…” why does he say that? You are co-crucified with Christ (Rom. 6)!
 
He wasn’t on the same cross with Christ, not literally, but when you’re baptized you’re conjoined to His death! So, you are crucified with Christ!
 
“…yet, I live. Indeed, it is no longer I; but Christ lives in me….” (v 20). That’s what is to lead us and guide us!
 
“…For the life that I am now living in the flesh, I live by faith—that very faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me” (v 20).
 
Notice what happens when it gets into human traditions vs God:
 
Verse 21: “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness is through works of law, then Christ died in vain.”
 
If you do by works of law then you’re breaking loving your neighbor as yourself and loving the brethren as Christ has loved us. That’s actually happened in the Church of God.
 
There are ministers who would set themselves up and separate from the brethren. Tell the deacons at the potlucks to ‘bring us the best food.’ I was even invited to go up on the stage and I refuse. I was a ‘bad, bad boy’ and got a bad report for that. There were those who had their works of law.
 
What was one of the works of law? That the minister is above the people! NO! The minister is below the people, to serve the people! They would have the deacons go down and get the best of everything and bring it to the elder up on the stage. Parking also!
 
It’s the same way with some Churches of God that they say that if your family is not in the Church you cannot associate with them, you cannot talk to them or go see them. That’s exactly the condemnation of the works of law that Paul is talking about right here.
 
·         Of course you should see them!
·         Of course you should help them!
 
In that Church I know of three suicides because those who were so emotionally distraught that they couldn’t see their fathers and mothers, or grandfathers and grandmothers, that they killed themselves. That blood lies right at the feet of the minister. That church is called the Philadelphia Church of God. They are the exact opposite of brotherly love.
 
When we get into Gal. 3 we are going to find a very interesting translation that proves that they were writing the New Testament early.

​Scriptural References:
 
1)      Galatians 1:13-14
2)      Acts 7:51-60
3)      Acts 8:1-3
4)      Acts 9:1-9, 17-18, 20
5)      Acts 26:15-18
6)      Acts 13:38-44
7)      Romans 2:13-15, 17-29
8)      Romans 10:4
9)      Romans 9:30-33
10)  Romans 10:1-3
11)  Mark 7:6, 5, 6-11
12)  Romans 10:3-4
13)  Hebrews 10:16
14)  Romans 10:4-6
15)  Galatians 2:12, 11-16, 14-20
 
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
 
·         Galatians 1
·         Leviticus 23
·         Philippians 3
·         Acts 15
·         Romans 6
·         Galatians 3
 
Also referenced:
 
Books:
·         The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
·         A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
·         Judaism: Revelation of Moses, or Religion of Men? by Philip Neal
·          Code of Jewish Law by Ganzfried and Goldin
 
Church At Home (churchathome.org) series:
·         Was Peter Ever in Rome?
·         Was Peter the First Pope?
 
Booklet: Rome’s Challenge to the Protestants by Cardinal Gibbon

 ​Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services!
 
Advertisement: Book: The Christian Passover: When Observed 14th or 15th? There is no way you can ever get away from it continually coming around, because that’s just the nature of it.
 
I got an e-mail from a man in Argentina who is a Seventh Day Adventist and he read the Passover book online. It blew him away, he was so impressed with it that he asked for a copy of it. So, I sent him two and A Harmony of the Gospels. I forwarded that onto Eduardo Elizondo who is going to try and contact him.
 
It’s interesting in little ole Hollister and we don’t know who is coming online. We know what they’re downloading, because we run monthly statistics on it, and in the Feb. letter we will have the yearly totals of everything. But wee have the time for visits between 12-15 minutes. That’s means they’re on the website for a good deal of time.
 
The average for websites is if you’re on for over a minute that’s pretty good. If you’re on it two minutes that’s really, really good. If you’re more than that, that’s counted as a great visit. Here we are consistently through the years with all of this.
 
So, what we do here in Hollister reaches out to many, many more people and we’re very thankful for that and that we have the means to do it today.
 
*****
 
We started a short series in the book of Galatians and we got through chapter one. Let’s just review a little bit, and I want to show you what a powerful thing that it actually was to call the Apostle Paul. With the dispute that we have in Gal. 2 between Peter and the Circumcision Party, and the Jews and Gentiles, we can see that God called Paul, and one of the of main reasons was to keep Judaism out of the Church!
 
The book we have concerning the Passover still comes around, because the Jews do not acknowledge the 14th. This explains, like no other book in the world, why the Jews believe that, and why—because they reject Christ—they are correct when they’re outside the area of the geography of what is called Israel in the Middle East. Jesus kept the 14th Passover. Why does the Church keep the 14th Passover in any land wherever we are in the world? Yet, the Jews understand that the command is that you cannot keep a 14th Passover if you’re in the Diaspora, which is true!
 
That has been such a longstanding tradition that they don’t believe in the 14th except if there’s going to be something at the temple when it’s built.
 
·         Why does the Church keep the 14th and rejects the Jews’ 15th? Because Christ kept the 14th!
·         What did He tell the disciples to do? ‘Go into all the world and teach them everything that I have taught you!’
·         What is the most important thing in the whole Gospel? Over one-third of the Gospels is related to the Passover Day and the whole meaning of the Passover Day vs the works of law!
 
The works of law includes the sacrifices, and of course, the temple is destroyed and you can’t offer those. We will see that those could never take away sin!
 
That’s one of the main things as far as it relates to us. But back in the time of the apostles, they had to go to the Jews first, and they were always confronted with the traditions of the Jews. It is true that the Passover is the foundation for all of the Holy Days after the Sabbath.
 
The structure of Lev. 23 starts out with the Sabbath and then the Passover. If you don’t have a proper Passover, then everything else is eschewed.
 
Galatians 1:13: “For you heard of my former conduct when I was in Judaism…” That’s what it means in the Greek. I think the King James translates ‘religion of the Jews.’ That is not wrong, but Judaism is far better.
 
“…how I was excessively persecuting the Church of God and was destroying it; and I was advancing in Judaism far beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (vs 13-14). So, Paul was explaining the basis for God’s calling him!
 
The Pharisees had a strict religion, absolutely strict! Paul said that he was ‘a Pharisee of a Pharisee’ (Philip. 3). Let’s see what Paul was doing, and let’s see how very important that this is, and why God called Paul and not somebody else!
 
We will see that if it had been left up to Peter, he would have politically caved into the Circumcision Party from Jerusalem.
 
Do we, today, still have encroaches of Judaism, Messianic Judaism? Yes! We’ve had people visit us who wear the prayer shawls, and some of them have the blue ribbons on the borders of their clothes, thinking that it makes them more righteous!
 
What the New Testament is concerned with is not the outward appearance or the physical things, but the inward mind and heart toward God.
 
After Stephen gave a tremendous witness, that was something! Before we get into it, I just want to rehearse a little bit. Remember that after receiving the Holy Spirit the apostles were preaching in Jerusalem. Peter, James and John were doing miracles. They were called before the Sanhedrin, and the last time they were called before the Sanhedrin was when they healed a man tremendously from being crippled from birth. Then they were teaching in the temple and were arrested and put in prison. Over night an angel came and let them out and told them to go into the temple and start teaching.
 
So, the Sanhedrin got together to render their judgment on them the next morning and said to bring them in. the officer went down to the jail and said, ‘I went there and the guards were standing outside, but nothing was inside! Then someone came running and said that they were in the temple teaching. So, they went and got them gingerly and brought them in.
 
What was the witness that Peter and the apostle said when the Sanhedrin said, ‘Didn’t we tell you to quit preaching in this name’? The apostles said, ‘You judge! Should we obey man? or God?
 
That was a tremendous witness to them! After that there were great miracles that were being done by Peter and the apostles: healings and things like this. So, when Stephen came, here is one of the last powerful witnesses to the Sanhedrin and the leader of the Jews before God permanently decided to destroy the temple.
 
Acts 7:51: “O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!…. [this is Stephen telling all the leaders: the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees] …You do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so also do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of Whom you have become the betrayers and murderers” (vs 51-52).
 
See what happens? This happens so many, many times. When the establishment religion gets its power, or the establishment government as we’ve seen here in America get their power, they will do anything to hold it, even kill and murder if they can get away with it!
 
Verse 53: “‘Who received the Law by the disposition of angels, but have not kept it.’ And when they heard these things, they were cut to their hearts, and they gnashed their teeth at him. But he, being filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (vs 53-55).
 
To them, this was in incredible! What an absolute blaspheme!
 
Verse 56: “And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.’ Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man called Saul” (vs 56-58). So, he was right there to kill the Christians!
 
Verse 59: “And they stoned Stephen, who called upon God, saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And he fell to his knees and cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge.’ And after he had said this, he died” (vs 59-60).
 
That’s quite a thing! You talk about a perfect example of loving your enemies, right when they’re killing you!
 
Acts 8:1: “Now, Saul had consented to killing him. And that day a great persecution arose against the Church that was in Jerusalem; and all the believers were scattered throughout the countries of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the Church, going from house to house… [talk about a Gestapo] …entering in and dragging out men and women, and delivering them up to prison” (vs 1-3). Then it gets into the thing concerning Simon Magus.
 
Now it gets into how God called Saul, and Paul refers to that in Gal. 1.
 
Acts 9:1: “Now Saul, still breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest.”
 
That tells you how high ranked that he was, that he went to high priest to get the legal orders to arrest the Christians and put them in jail! Not only in the area of Judea, but now he was going to Damascus, several hundred miles north of Judea.
 
Verse 2: “Asking him for letters to take to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who were of that way… [a way of life, not a religion] …he might bring them bound, both men and women, to Jerusalem.”
 
And God selected the right moment! Here Saul is going along. I don’t know if he was on a donkey, a horse, or walking, but he had his arrest party with him.
 
Verse 3: “But it came to pass while he was journeying, as he drew near to Damascus, that suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And after falling to the ground, he heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’” (vs 3-4).
 
Anytime a true Christian is persecuted, they’re persecuting Christ!
 
Verse 5: “And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.’ Then, trembling and astonished, he said, ‘Lord, what will You have me to do?’….” (vs 5-6).
 
Think about the instantaneous repentance! From persecuting to doing the will of Christ!
 
“…And the Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go into the city, and you shall be told what you must do.’ Now, the men who were traveling with him stood speechless; for they indeed heard the voice, but they saw no one. Then Saul arose from the ground; but when he opened his eyes, he saw no one. And they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. But for three days he was not able to see…” (vs 6-9).
 
Just kind of put yourself in Saul’s position: blind and persecuting the Church. Jesus Himself knocked Saul to the ground, spoke to him, corrected him and now he is completely humbled! Saul has no power, no authority and has completely lost everything. And he’s blind for three days!
 
Then the Lord, by vision, told Ananias to go to such and such a house and he would find Saul, and ‘he’s a chosen vessel for Me.’ Ananias said, ‘Lord, he’s persecuting all the Christians.’ Nevertheless, you do what I say! So, Ananias went and:
 
Verse 17: “Then Ananias went away and came into the house; and after laying his hands on him, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord has sent me, even Jesus, Who appeared to you on the road in which you came, so that you might receive sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And it was as if scales immediately fell from his eyes, and he instantly received sight; and he arose and was baptized” (vs 17-18).
 
Verse 20: “And in the synagogues he immediately began to proclaim Christ, that He is the Son of God.” This was absolutely unbelievable!
 
Why did God choose Paul? Because he knew more about Judaism and the problems of the laws and traditions of Judaism than any other of the apostles! That’s why God called him!
 
Acts 26 shows the mission that Saul was to have, especially going to the Gentiles. We won’t go through all the things concerning his three years in Arabia where he was taught in dreams and visions; but he was taught of the Lord. That’s why he said that he was ‘taught of no man,’ because he was taught of God.
 
This had to be so that he could learn all of the spiritual things necessary for the New Covenant, and to understand that you can’t carry over into the Church the traditions of Judaism.
 
Acts 26:15: “And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. Now arise, and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you as a minister and a witness both of what you have seen and what I shall reveal to you. I am personally selecting you from among the people and the Gentiles, to whom I now send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan to God, so that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified through faith in Me’” (vs 15-18).
 
Let’s see how that operated in Acts 13, right after he was ordained as an apostle, sent on a mission, which was to go to the Jews first, and then to the Gentiles.
 
In every synagogue there were proselytes. Those were the first believing Gentiles when they came out of the synagogue.
 
Acts 13:38: “Therefore, be it known to you, men and brethren, that through this Man [Christ] the remission of sins is preached to you.”
 
The remission of sins by repentance and baptism vs the works of law! There are two kinds of ‘works of law’:
 
1.       the sacrifices at the temple
2.       the works of Judaism
 
All of those laws could not forgive sin in heaven above! The key is:
 
·         repentance of heart
·         faith in Christ
·         belief in God
 
That’s entirely different than Judaism!
 
Verse 39: “And in Him [Christ] everyone who believes is justified from all things…”
 
Under the Old Covenant and under the works of law with Judaism, people were justified to the temple. Everything came to the temple and was left there. For those who were converted—repentant and received the Holy Spirit—you’re justified before God the Father in heaven above through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by repentance and faith!
 
Those are the spiritual works that we are to do! The physical works are much like the Catholics have today. If they sin then the priest says to go do 200 ‘our fathers’ and 200 ‘hail Marys.’ The Jews would have: separate yourself, take so many hand-washings, burn so many candles and then you’re okay. Completely different!
 
“…from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses” (v 39). Remember, the Law of Moses included all of their traditions as well!
 
Verse 40: “Take heed, therefore, lest that which is spoken in the Prophets come upon you: ‘Behold, you despisers, and wonder and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work that you will in no way believe, even if one declares it to you.’” (vs 40-41).
 
Notice what happened. Almost every time that Paul went into a synagogue it split! When he came to Corinth there was a riot.
 
Verse 42: “And when the Jews had gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles entreated him that these words might be spoken to them on the next Sabbath.”
 
Notice this very carefully and use this with anyone who is a Sunday-keeper, who says that Paul changed the Law. What are we talking about here? Gentiles! If Paul changed the Law why didn’t he tell them not to wait for Sabbath, but come tomorrow, because the next day was Sunday. He didn’t!
 
Verse 43: “Now, after the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and the proselytes who worshiped there followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And on the coming Sabbath, almost the whole city was gathered together to hear the Word of God” (vs 43-44). That’s astonishing!
 
Then the Jews were losing everything so they setup people to persecute Paul, and even stoned him.
 
Note our Church At Home (churchathome.org) series: Was Peter Ever in Rome? and Was Peter the First Pope? You will find, historically speaking, the Truth! Peter never went to Rome!
 
After James was beheaded, Peter was put in prison and an angel let him out. He came to Mark’s house. Mark was the nephew of Barnabas, who was a Levite before he became an apostle. So, when Peter was let out and Came to mark’s house, it says ‘he went to another place.’
 
·         Where would Peter go? His mission was to the circumcision!
·         Where was the greatest number of Jews at that time? In Babylon!
·         Where did Peter write his first epistle? From Babylon!
 
That tells that the other place he went to was Babylon, because there were the Jews there, the circumcision people.
 
Let’s see what Paul teaches in Rom. 2. This is important because lawlessness is not Christianity. Everyone who deals with God has laws and commandments to keep. Isn’t that what we find with Abraham? When the covenant was passed on to Isaac, it was because ‘Abraham kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My Law. and obeyed My voice!’
 
It’s not a matter of commandments or no commandments, it’s a matter of commandments and how you keep them! Under the covenant with Israel, the commandments of God were in the letter of the Law. Just stop and think, in this nation today look at the great divide that we have between those who want to have law and order and those who want no laws at all. Look at what it causes without laws. Look at all the crime and sin.
 
So, keeping the commandments in the letter of the Law for the general society is a good thing! But that does not mean they’re converted. Look at how many Christians in Sunday-keeping Christianity keep some of the commandments of God. Even our Constitution is based upon many of the principles that are in the Bible, which work good for the society as they keep them.
 
But that does not convert you! Even if you keep them in the letter of the Law, that does not convert the mind. But keeping the commandments of God and the laws of God are paramount to begin with when you come to God.
 
Romans 2:13: “Because the hearers of the Law are not just… [justified] …before God…” Justification in one short sentence is this: right standing with God:
 
·         because you have had you have had your sins forgiven
·         because you have believed in Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice of His shed blood for the forgiveness of your sins
 
That’s not based on a temple in Jerusalem, but is based on the Holy of Holies in heaven above. It’s not just keeping it in the letter of Law. God wants the conversion of the mind; that’s the whole thing with Christianity!
 
I heard Sean Hannity saying ‘I believe in the Bible, I believe in God, I believe etc.’ But he is a ‘merry Christmas’ man and an Easter man gung-ho! So, even if they keep part of the things that are in the Law, they have a ‘certain amount’ of blessings and understanding, but that has nothing to do with true Christianity!
 
“…but the doers of the Law shall be justified” (v 13). What does this mean? You first have to be convicted of sin and you repent, and you start keeping the Laws of God because you repent! Then you have to follow-through with baptism!
 
Verse 14: “For when the Gentiles, which do not have the Law, practice by nature the things contained in the Law, these who do not have the Law are a law unto themselves”--but it’s not unto conversion!
 
Verse 15: “Who show the work of the Law written in their own hearts, their consciences bearing witness, and their reasonings also as they accuse or defend one another.”
 
Verse 17—Paul is talking to the Jews: “Behold, you are called a Jew, and you yourself rest in the law, and boast in God… [which they do, but do they keep it?] …and know His will, and approve of the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the Law; and are persuaded that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light for those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of the knowledge and of the Truth contained in the Law” (vs 17-20). Typically true with the Jews today:
 
·         they claim the Law
·         they claim their traditions
·         they claim special status with God
 
But they have none as far as God in heaven above is concerned! They may have high positions in the world, they may have a lot of money in the world, they may be very smart and understanding and doing a lot of different things, that is true. But in talking to Michael Heiss, he was telling me that how his family business would make certain things for the Gentiles for Christmas, and they made a lot of money doing it.
 
I asked him, ‘Does this prove that the Jews like the Gentiles to have Christmas so they can make money.’ He said, ‘Yes, they even promote it for them!’
 
They don’t keep the Law. They keep some of the things of the Law in the synagogue, but how many go to synagogue or temple? Very few! Those who are the ultra, ultra orthodox are the most ridiculous of all.
 
Verse 20: “An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of the knowledge and of the Truth contained in the Law. You, then, who are teaching another, do you not teach yourself also?….” (vs 20-21). A great principle for anyone, but especially for elders and teachers!
 
·         How is that you teach yourself? By prayer and study, study the Word of God!
·         Will God give you understanding of His Word as you study it through His Spirit? Yes!
·         Will you learn things from the Word of God that you didn’t know before? Yes!
 
That’s happened time and time again down through history! But the important thing is that this is a main focus so that the teacher does not become a hypocrite. That’s what we’re dealing with in Gal. 2.
 
“…do you not teach yourself…”
 
·         If you read that you should have no other gods before you, do you examine your life to see if you have any?
·         If you read that you shall not make any graven image of any likeness, or bow down to it, do you have things that are idols before God?
·         If you read that you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, do you do it?
·         Do you say God says thus when He didn’t say it? If you do, that’s taking His name in vain!
·         Isn’t that what the preachers do on TBN, every program you watch?
 
They say the Lord says, they read some Scriptures.
 
Randy has put on one of our Church At Home segments a preacher speaking about the Law as been done away, and he has a picture of the Ten Commandments, the tablets, and it just disappears.
 
They preach love. But what did John write? This is the love of God that we just be nice! NO! John wrote, That we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome! This is a tremendous thing, teach yourself!
 
“…You who preach, ‘Do not steal,’ are you stealing? You who say, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ are you committing adultery? You who abhor idols, are you committing sacrilege? You who boast in law, are you dishonoring God through your transgression of the Law?” (vs 21-23).
 
Think about that! If you’re breaking the Laws of God while you’re professing to know God, you’re dishonoring God! Most people never look at that way.
 
Verse 24: “For through you the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles, exactly as it is written. 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” (vs 24-25).
 
There’s nothing more dastardly to tell the Jews than to say that! Think of how powerful that this is. But that’s exactly how God sees it.
 
Verse 26: “Therefore, if the uncircumcised is keeping the requirements of the Law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision?”
 
How can that be? In the New Testament the circumcision is still required! That’s the circumcision of the heart! That’s greater than the circumcision of the flesh! This means that the carnality of the mind has been changed through the receiving of the Spirit of God, that you’re no longer hostile against the laws and commandments of God, and against the ways of God. But you are eager to do them and want to do them. Entirely different! This is telling the Jews that they’re no better than all of those Gentiles that they denounce all the time.
 
Verse 27: “And shall not the uncircumcised, who by nature is fulfilling the Law, judge you, who, with the letter and circumcision, are a transgressor of the Law?” Paul knew this!
 
What was he doing before he was converted? He was high in Judaism, keeping the traditions of the fathers and more zealous for them than anything else! He was going out killing, arresting, and dragging into prison those who were Christians, thinking he was doing service to God.
 
When Paul writes this, he’s writing from his own experience that he learned after he was converted. Then he gives the summation of it:
 
Verse 28: “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 28-29). A whole different approach!
 
I want you to see how important that it is and what happened when Peter kowtowed to the Circumcision Part from Jerusalem.       *(second half)*

Second Half of Blog Transcript. (Free online bible.)

​Let’s look at a few Scriptures that goes right along with what we’re talking about here, especially when you look at government and you look at churches, and any organization. 
 
Proverbs 29:2: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people mourn.” You can take that and apply that to many different things!
 
Verse 4: “The king establishes the land by justice, but he who takes bribes tears it down.” That is exactly what has happened here in America!
 
Verse 12: “If a ruler hearkens to lies, all his servants are wicked.” We can apply that to how a church is run, and directly to our lives and what we’re covering here: Truth and doctrine!
 
Verse 14: “A king who faithfully judges the poor, his throne shall be established forever.”
 
Now, here’s one for the world today. Remember that Jesus said that lawlessness will be multiplied!
 
Verse 16: “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases; but the righteous shall see their fall.”
 
Sooner or later it catches up with them, but the ultimate of that will be the return of Christ and the resurrection of the saints.
 
Proverbs 30:5—this applies to exactly what we are doing here: “Every Word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He correct you and you be found a liar” (vs 5-6). That is exactly what has happened to the Church many times over!
 
2-Timothy 1:13: “Hold as the standard for doctrine the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good thing that was committed to you by the Holy Spirit that is dwelling in us” (vs 13-14).
 
Notice how bad things were getting in the Church. We’ve experienced some of this in our lifetime, but back then it was everywhere.
 
Verse 15: “You know this, that all those who are in Asia have rejected me… [Why? Because they brought in the false doctrine and began to believe those!] …of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.”
 
2-Timothy 2:13: If we are unfaithful… [someone goes wrong] …He remains faithful…”--Christ always remains the same; Christ the same yesterday, today and forever, and ‘I, the Lord, change not.
 
Something that comes along that’s a difficulty, and contrary to the Word of God, then trust in God and it will be exposed for what it is.
 
“…—He cannot deny Himself. See that they remain mindful of these things, earnestly charging them in the sight of the Lord not to argue over words that are not profitable in any way, but which lead to the subverting of those who hear” (vs 13-14). So, it gets down to this:
 
·         How strong are we in the faith?
·         Do we really believe it?
 
Here’s how to make sure that you do it right; v 15: “Diligently study… [put forth a lot effort] …to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of the Truth.”
 
That’s how all false doctrines start--we’ve covered a lot of them--by wrongly dividing the Scriptures! One of the major ones was that the Father was the Lord God of the Old Testament. That was wrongly dividing the Word of God! Then believing the conclusion of it, and convincing others. How can you convince others? Maybe they’re not studying and proving things!
 
Verse 16: “But avoid profane and vain babblings because they will only give rise to more ungodliness.” That’s exactly what has happened!
 
Just before the Church fell, they had 120,000 attending the Feast of Tabernacles, and they had an income that year of $200-million!
 
·         it’s not how much you have
·         it’s not the number of people involved
 
It is, the way Christ looks at it, that you are converted and stay converted! That’s what God wants!
 
2-Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed…”
 
Notice how urgent Paul was in writing to Timothy, and how desperate that this apostasy was coming about.
 
2-Timothy 4:1: “I charge you, therefore, in the sight of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is ready to judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom: Preach the Word!….” (vs 1-2). That’s what needs to be preached!
 
·         not the ideas of men
·         not the pet doctrines of men
 
Preach the Word, the Truth of God!
 
“…Be urgent in season and out of season… [showing that they were keeping the Holy Days, otherwise there wouldn’t be seasons] …convict… [that they will be convicted of their sins, there shortcoming and come to God] …rebuke… [when necessary] …encourage… [that’s what we need lots of, lots of encouragement] …with all patience and doctrine.”
 
So, a lot of the things that were happening were those who became ministers and elders who did not fully believe. Then Paul names four of them in these two epistles, that He turns them over to Satan because of the way that they were acting.
 
Here’s what happens, v 3: “For there shall come a time when they will not tolerate sound doctrine…” They won’t take line upon line, here a little, there a little, precept upon precept, and all of that they won’t do.
 
“…but according to their own lusts…” (v 3)--rather than submission to God!
 
That’s why it’s so important, and you’ve hear me say, in God we live, move and have our being! Especially in the Church with the Holy Spirit of God! Even the people in the world live, move and have their being by God! But we, with the Spirit of God, how much moreso!
 
“…they shall accumulate to themselves a great number of teachers…” (v 3). There’s always someone who’s going to come around and…
 
I saw this picture showing a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It showed the wolf with all the sheep’s fleece on it, and his nose up in the air and two little sheep right alongside of it.
 
I thought that was really a well-placed picture to show how these things work. There are those who infiltrate to try and establish themselves in positions of authority. If they get established in positions of high authority, what can they do? They bring in those Who they want and put them in charge! That’s what happened to Worldwide! That’s why it went down so fast.
 
“…having ears itching to hear what satisfies their cravings; and they shall turn away their own ears from the Truth; and they shall be turned aside unto myths” (vs 3-4). That’s what’s wrong with fake Christianity today! Everything they do is a myth except with properly reading the Scriptures.
 
·         Sunday is wrong
·         idols are wrong
·         their salvation is wrong
·         they’re doing away with the Law is wrong
 
but people like it! People like to be told that all you have to do is believe in Jesus. ‘Do you believe in Jesus?’ Oh yes, I believe in Jesus!’ You’re saved!’ How can there be a falling away if you’re saved once forever? It won’t be!
 
Let’s come to the book of Galatians and see how absolutely treacherous this was. We’ll cover certain things in the book of Galatians.
 
Galatians 1:1: “Paul, an apostle, not sent from men nor made by man…” After he was converted he went down into Arabia and was taught for three years by Christ through visions and directly!
 
“…but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, Who raised Him from the dead; and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia” (vs 1-2).
 
Some people like to say that that means Gaul in Southern France, but that’s not true. This is in Asia Minor.
 
Verse 3: “Grace and peace be to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins, in order that He might deliver us from the present evil world…” (vs 3-4).
 
It was evil back then, and think about the multitude of evil that they have today. Watch all of these ads of all the hightech stuff, and they get these goggles and put them on and it’s a make believe reality. You get movies on Netflix and people watch so many things that are nothing by fables and stories and lies.
 
So, when you come along and say that that’s a sin, they’re not going to accept it as sin. So, there has to be something happen in their lives in order for them to come to the point that they see that they need God. But the way this world, it’s a terrible mess out there!
 
“…according to the will of our God and Father; to Whom be the glory into the ages of eternity. Amen” (vs 4-5).
 
I’ve been accosted by people who say that I slam other ministers. Well, I don’t slam them; I point out where they’re wrong when they have false doctrine. We will see what Paul did, and I’m very mild compared to Paul.
 
Verse 6: “I am astonished that you are so quickly being turned away from Him Who called you into the grace of Christ, to a different gospel.”
 
What did we just read? Don’t add anything or take away anything! That’s how you get a different gospel.
 
Verse 7: “Which in reality is not another Gospel…”--because there’s no such thing as another Gospel. There’s one Gospel! The Gospel of Jesus Christ through God the Father!
 
“…but there are some who are troubling you and are desiring to pervert the Gospel of Christ” (v 7). How dangerous is that? Look at what Paul wrote in the next few verses in the strongest possible terms!
 
Verse 8: “But if we… [including himself and all the other apostles] …or even an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel to you that is contrary to what we have preached, LET HIM BE ACCURSED!” That’s really slamming them pretty hard! He repeats it:
 
Verse 9: “As we have said before, I also now say again. If anyone is preaching a gospel contrary to what you have received, LET HIM BE ACCURSED!”
 
Who were the ones coming around? You had two factors:
 
1.       the Jewish factor; and a lot of those who came as Jews (2-Cor. 11) give themselves out as apostles of Christ, but are not
 
Who are they really following? Satan the devil!
 
2.       then you have the Greeks that come along and say that if you read ‘this Scripture’ this way, then it looks like everybody goes to heaven
 
Besides, the Jews have it wrong on the resurrection, but we go to heaven, and that the only resurrection was Christ.
 
Paul had to correct them strongly in 1-Cor. 15 that they didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. So, let them be accursed!
 
Notice how Paul describes what he’s doing; v 10: Now then, am I striving to please men, or God?…. [that takes away all politics; all favoritism] …Or am I motivated to please men? For if I am yet pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Though they may claim themselves to be servants of Christ!
 
Verse 11: “But I certify to you, brethren, that the Gospel that was preached by me is not according to man.”
 
Even though when he got done with his three years of being taught by Christ, he went up to Jerusalem and only stayed two weeks. He talks about that a little later. Those in Jerusalem didn’t want to receive him.
 
Verse 12: “Because neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it by man; rather, it was by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” That’s a special teaching!
 
Paul being a Pharisee, God called him so that would eliminate, as much as possible, Judaism coming into the Church.
 
Verse 13: “For you heard of my former conduct when I was in Judaism, how I was excessively persecuting the Church of God and was destroying it; and I was advancing in Judaism far beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (vs 13-14).
 
The traditions of men really are the key! That if the teachings of men come in and get codified as traditions to keep then you start really getting into trouble!
 
Verse 15: “But when it pleased God, Who selected me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His own Son in me, in order that I might preach Him as the Gospel among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Peter, and I remained with him fifteen days. But I did not see any of the other apostles, except James the brother of the Lord” (vs 15-19).
 
What happened was that Barnabas was on the ball. He said that with Paul being here, we’ve got to get him out of town, because there’s no way that he can be here in Jerusalem. People will hear that he is here and they will come and kill him.
 
So, Barnabas took Paul down to Caesarea and put him on a ship and sent him to where he came from up in Tarsus. He remained there a number of years until the first church of the Gentiles was raised up in Antioch of Syria. So, the apostles decided to send Barnabas down there to help out with all the new Gentile converts that they had in Syria. Then Barnabas went over to Tarsus and found Paul and brought him back to Antioch. Antioch became Paul’s quasi headquarters a little later.
 
Verse 20: (Now the things that I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying.) Then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. But I was unknown by face to the churches in Judea which are in Christ; they only heard, ‘The one who once persecuted us is now preaching the Gospel—the faith which he once destroyed.’ And they glorified God in me” (vs 20-24).
 
Let’s look at what happens here. Gal. 2 becomes very important. One of the big questions with the Jewish converts is that when a Gentile was converted he had to be circumcised, regardless of how old he was.
 
The Jews would take care of the circumcision on eighth day, so the question came with the Pharisees (Acts 15). They came saying that you cannot be saved unless you keep the Law of Moses.
 
That’s where a lot of Protestants get all discombobulated. To a Pharisee, what does the Law of Moses mean? All the traditions encircling the Truth of God! So, circumcision of adults became a great problem in the Church. There were those false Jewish ministers out there, and a lot of them would say, ‘I was in Judea’ or ‘I was in Galilee’ and ‘I saw Jesus, I heard Him preach and He said this or that, He said the other thing.’
 
Galatians 2:1: “Then after fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me also. And I went up according to revelation, and laid before them the Gospel that I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those of repute, lest by any means I should be running, or had run in vain. (But indeed, Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was not compelled to be circumcised.)” (vs 1-3).
 
Why? Because conversion is the circumcision of the heart, which is a higher level of circumcision.
 
Verse 4: “Now, this meeting was private because of false brethren brought in secretly, who came in by stealth to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order that they might bring us into bondage.”
 
So, it was all men must be circumcised regardless of the age, and follow the traditions of the Jews that encircled the Law of God.
 
Note sermon series: Scripturalism vs Judaism. You cannot understand the problems of Judaism and how bad it was unless you get that extended series. I read some amazing quotes that the Jews themselves have given, and how that it was such a furor in the Church.
 
Remember the first Gentile who was converted? Cornelius! Even before God let Peter know about the situation, Cornelius and his household were offering up prayers to God and alms to the local synagogue, the Romans! So, God sent an angle to tell Cornelius that you find Peter—he was at the house of another: Simon—and he’ll come down here and tell you what you need to do.
 
Peter had the vision of all these unclean things, and what did he say? Oh Lord, I’m so happy that we can no eat them. Today we could say that we can be just like the Chinese. NO! He said, ‘I’ve NEVER eaten anything common or unclean!’ then the three men came and he went with them and went to Cornelius’ house. What did Cornelius do? Peter walked in and Cornelius was bowing down to worship him! Peter said, ‘I’m a man like you, but the Jewish law is that a Jew shall not keep company with a Gentile.’
 
So, Peter went there, preached the Gospel and Cornelius’ whole household was converted, and God sent the Holy Spirit on them before they were baptized, to show that God was calling them! Protestants come along and say that you don’t need to be baptized. No! they were baptized afterward.
 
What other way could God show Peter that the ways of Judaism are not going to be in the Church? That was quite a thing!
 
Some of those who were with Peter when he went down there, went back to Jerusalem and told the elders there. Peter came back and they said, ‘What is this that you went into those who were uncircumcised?’
 
Peter told them all about the story, and they praised God and said that God has given them the Holy Spirit the same as us. But in Judaism, even though that was mentioned, Gentiles must be in a separate category than the Jews.
 
Also note our sermon series on Circumcision Wars, and that’s really in great detail.
 
Verse 4: “Now, this meeting was private because of false brethren brought in secretly, who came in by stealth to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order that they might bring us into bondage… [of the traditions of men] …to whom we did not yield in subjection, not even for one hour, so that the Truth of the Gospel might continue with you” (vs 4-5).
 
He didn’t say that they were well intentioned. No, they were not well intentioned.
 
Verse 6: “But the Gospel that I preach did not come from those reputed to be something. (Whatever they were does not make any difference to me…”
 
That’s something you always need to understand: When the Truth is violated by those who are in charge, you do not have to put up with it. If you go to them and bring out what is right, and they don’t change, then you do like Paul, you leave! That’s what happened to the whole Church!
 
“…God does not accept the person of a man.) For those who are of repute conferred nothing upon me. But on the contrary, after seeing that I had been entrusted with the Gospel of the uncircumcision, exactly as Peter had been entrusted with the Gospel of the circumcision; (for He Who wrought in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision wrought in me also toward the Gentiles); and after recognizing the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, affirming that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. Their only request was that we remember the poor, which very thing I was also diligent to do” (vs 6-10).
 
Now, here’s the problem: I want you to notice how Paul was absolutely uncompromising, because he knew the dangers of the encroachment of Judaism. Peter was at fault!
 
Verse 11: “But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be condemned… [Paul did this publicly, not privately] …for, before certain ones came from James…” (vs 11-12)--politics! Those in Jerusalem are more important. No, they’re not more important, and they were not in charge!
 
“…he was eating with the Gentiles. However, when they came, he drew back and separated himself from the Gentiles, being afraid of those of the circumcision party” (v 12).
 
‘Oh, I don’t want to get a bad report back in Jerusalem.’ This was a tradition of the Jews that you don’t keep company with, eat with, or have anything to do with Gentiles. This was a tremendous problem! Let’s see what Paul did:
 
“…However, when they came, he drew back and separated himself from the Gentiles, being afraid of those of the circumcision party” (v 12).
 
All of those coming down from Jerusalem ate over here, Peter and Barnabas went over there with them, and over there were all the Gentiles.
 
Verse 13: “And the rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocritical act, insomuch that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
 
That was a very dangerous situation doctrinally speaking, and fellowship speaking.
 
Verse 14: “But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in the presence of them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles, and not according to Judaism, why do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize?’”
 
If you set them aside in a separate place, you are making them follow a tradition of Judaism. I was a meeting where the deacons and ministers were up on the stage having other deacons come down and take the best of the food from the pot luck and take it up there to give it to the ministry.
 
The minister in charge said to me, ‘Fred, come on up here.’ I said, ‘No, I’m down here…’ He told me three times, and I said, ‘No, I’ll just get my food here.’
 
He destroyed the church; he took over the church from me and I was visiting later, and he ended up committing adultery with one of the nicest women in the church. Terrible situation! You see the whole lesson of a little leaven leavens the whole lump applies in many, many different ways!
 
So, Paul called Peter out before all of them!
 
Verse 15: “We who are Jews by nature—and not sinners of the Gentiles—knowing that a man is not justified by works of law…” The King James says, ‘the works of the law’ and that is absolutely incorrect! Those two definite articles are not there in the Greek and should not be inserted. When they were inserted, they made no difference by making them italicized to show that they weren’t in the original. It’s “…works of law…”
 
Those of you who have The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version, read:
 
·         Appendix Z: Understanding Paul’s Difficult Scriptures Concerning the Law and the Commandments of God\
·         Appendix R: What is Meant by “the Works of the Law”?
 
What were the works of law? The laws of Judaism and all the things that they did! As long as the temple stood, they could still have the sacrificial laws.
 
For those who are uneducated and they read the King James and almost all other translations--the works of the law—they say that you don’t need to keep the Law. That is a complete false interpretation, false translation and should never have been.
 
When I first understood that—BING!—that was like turning on a great floodlight!
 
“…but through the faith of Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by works of law…” (vs 15-16).
 
Works of law would justify you to the temple as long as the temple stood. Works of law of Judaism would justify you to the Pharisaic system of Judaism, not to God in heaven above. Our justification and forgiveness of sin comes through faith and repentance, and belief in Jesus Christ! That is to:
 
·         cleanse our mind
·         cleanse our heart
·         draw us to God
 
That’s far greater than all the works of law! Look at all the works of law that the Jews were doing, and what they were plotting against Christ. To kill Him, to destroy Him!
 
·         How many times were they out to get Him? So much for the love of God!
·         What did Jesus say of them in John 5? I know you, you do not have the Word of God dwelling in you!
 
He also said to them, ‘I know that you don’t have the love of God.’ Remember the Pharisee who was the doctor of the Law and ask them Him what was the greatest Law and commandment? Love God! That’s the start!
 
You can probably think of some areas in the Church where they had this to do, and this not do and so forth. They added to it and it shouldn’t have been there.
 
“…because by works of law shall no flesh be justified” (v 16)--before God in heaven above! That’s what that means!
 
We are justified by the sacrifice and shed blood of Jesus Christ through faith by the operation of God, and no work can substitute for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!
 
So, if they have all of these works from Judaism, that would substitute what God wants us to do. He wants us to:
 
·         believe in Him and continue believing in Him and Jesus Christ
·         believe in His laws and commandments
·         believe in His Word
·         believe in His Truth
 
Verse 17: “Now then, if we are seeking to be justified in Christ, and we ourselves are found to be sinners, is Christ then the minister of sin? MAY IT NEVER BE!” That’s what Peter and Barnabas were doing separating with the other Jews.
 
The Jews came down from Jerusalem all high-falutin and political and wanting to do things that they did in Jerusalem. Don’t do it down there where the Gentiles are.
 
Remember what happened when Paul finally ended up back in Jerusalem? When they found him in the temple? They wanted to kill him!
 
Verse 18: “For if I build again those things that I destroyed…” Everything he did in Judaism was destroyed with the baptism in Christ, and faith and belief in Christ!
 
“…I am making myself a transgressor” (v 18). That’s what Peter and the other Jews were doing!
 
Verse 19: “For I, through law, died to works of law… [the law of the faith of Christ] …in order that I may live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, yet, I live. Indeed, it is no longer I; but Christ lives in me….” (vs 19-20)--by the power of the Holy Spirit!
 
·         that comes from heaven above
·         that comes from the Throne of God
·         that comes from the Temple of God in heaven above
 
All these other physical works and things in the exterior that they were doing were not of God! Paul was doing his utmost to make sure that it never got into the Church.
 
“…For the life that I am now living in the flesh, I live by faith--that very faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me” (v 20).
 
That faith comes from God, not by doing a work of law. That has nothing to do with whether we keep the commandments of God. That is how we stay justified to God and having forgiveness of our sins.
 
Verse 21: “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness is through works of law, then Christ died in vain.”
 
Paul lambasted those people directly! He didn’t care if they were from James. He didn’t care what Peter and Barnabas thought of him. They were going against God, and going against the Truth and following the works of men, which leads to destruction! They had to be corrected publicly and vociferously! 

Scriptural References: (free online bible) 
​Bible Hard Copy - The Original Bible Restored
 
1)      John 14:4-6
2)      1 Corinthians 1:19-28, 26-28
3)      Colossians 1:21-23
4)      1 John 2:15-21
5)      Revelation 14:12
6)      1 John 2:22-29
7)      2 John 10-12
8)      1 Timothy 1:2-11, 16-17, 19-20
9)      1 Timothy 3:14-16
10)  1 Timothy 4:1-5, 13-16
11)  1 Timothy 6:3-5
12)  Proverbs 29:2, 4, 12-16
13)  Proverbs 30:5-6
14)  2 Timothy 1:13-15
15)  2 Timothy 2:13-16
16)  2 Timothy 3:16
17)  2 Timothy 4:1-4
18)  Galatians 1:1-24
19)  Galatians 2:1-21
 
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
 
·         1 Corinthians 15
·         Leviticus 11
·         Deuteronomy 14
·         Romans 2
·         2 Corinthians 11
·         Acts 15
·         John 5
 
Also referenced:
Sermon Series (transcript book with CD):
·         Scripturalism vs Judaism
·         Circumcision Wars
 
From The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version:
·         Appendix Z: Understanding Paul’s Difficult Scriptures Concerning the Law and the Commandments of God
·         Appendix R: What is Meant by “the Works of the Law”?
​

​One True Gospel and Many False Ones
Paul knew the danger of the doctrines of Judaism
(Galatians 1 & 2)
Fred R. Coulter—January 25, 2020
*(First Half of Video)
*(Second Half of Video)
*(Transcript Second Half) - Here you will find all the Scriptural References.

​Greetings, brethren! Welcome to Sabbath services!
 
If you’ve been watching anything on the impeachment thing, you’ve seen the slickest lies in the world, and a great misinterpretation of the severity of what they claim is a crime. With that, I think it’s very interesting and made me stop and think: How did Lucifer convince a third of the angels to go with him?
(may be of interest: Creation/Re-Creation) 
There may be a lot of extra of that power in the Democrat Party today! Look at all the lies that have been spoken, and when you understand that Satan is the father of lies, you understand, I think, how he was able to maneuver.
 
Think on this: Belief is powerful! We are to have faith, and faith is the movement of belief! You believe in faith! They work together.
 
If you believe a lie and you really think it is true, you believe with the same intensity as you would believe the truth.
 
·         How does God get around that?
·         What was the first warning that Jesus gave to the disciples? Let no one deceive you! First warning!
·         How do we keep from succumbing to lies that sound blessedly true?
·         Can you think of a Scripture?
·         How do we do it? Prove all things, test the prophets whether they are of God or not!
 
The worst field of deceit is in the field of religion!
 
John 14 is a Scripture that we go over, and it’s a keynote of the Passover. Jesus told the disciples that He was going away:
 
John 14:4—Jesus said: “‘And where I am going you know, and the way you know.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going; how then can we know the way?’” (vs 4-5). They didn’t understand it because they didn’t have the Spirit of God, yet!
 
Verse 6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
 
So, we take the Scriptures and we compare everything to the Word of God. That’s why God had the New Testament originally written in Greek. It’s a very precise language. When you get the Interlinear you will see that 80-90% of the words must be translated exactly as it is. You can’t change that. Now, some words have more than one meaning, but it is very accurate and very true. You have the phrase, ‘answered and said.’ There is no other way to translate it. You can’t translate it ‘he was answering and saying’ because of the way that the verb is constructed.
 
Where do problems come in with the Scriptures? The translators, and those who found deficient Greek manuscripts, which mostly come out of Alexandria and Vaticanus! That’s where the problems come, because modern critical thinking of the Greek goes toward those Greek manuscripts rather than the Received Text.
 
Here is the basic one that we always go to. What’s another one? What did Jesus say about the words that He spoke? They are Spirit and they are Life! They are spiritually discerned or understood!
 
The Church at Corinth was one of Paul’s greatest problems. In 1-Cor. 15 he says, ‘What is it that some of you are saying that there’s no resurrection?’ Why? Because they were coming out of the Greek religions where it was ‘go to heaven or hell.’
 
1-Corinthians 1:19: “For it is written, ‘I [Jesus Christ] will destroy the wisdom of the wise… [all the philosophy and wrong thinking] …and I will nullify the understanding of those who understand.’” Nullify is to make it as though it never existed!
 
Verse 20: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its own wisdom did not know God…” (vs 20-21).
 
·         Why? You must come to Christ! That’s where we started
·         How do you do that? On God’s terms!
·         What’s the first thing that Jesus said when He came into to Galilee to preach the Gospel? Repent and believe the Gospel, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!
 
It was the Kingdom of God in the person of Christ! He was right there!
 
“…it pleased God to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. For the Jews require a sign…” (vs 21-22).
 
Read the first chapters of the book of Acts and you will find that God gave the Jews sign after sign after sign, plus all the healings that Jesus did before He was crucified. Of all of those things, what was the last great sign that Jesus did before He was arrested? He raised Lazarus from the dead, and He deliberately left him in the tomb four days to make sure that he was dead!
 
Remember when they were told to roll away the stone, Martha said to Him, ‘Lord, he stinks by now!’ That’s no problem to God! He said, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ and those who saw it rejoiced, though some of them were angry and ran to the officials so that they might get rid of Jesus. They wanted a sign!
 
“…and the Greeks seek after wisdom… [Greek: ‘sophia’ and ‘philo sophia’ is lover of wisdom] …but we proclaim Christ crucified. To the Jews it is a cause of offense, and to the Greeks it is foolishness; but to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren…” (vs 22-26).
 
God is starting from the bottom up; He’s not working from the top down
 
“…that there are not many who are wise according to the flesh, not many who are powerful, not many who are highborn among you. Rather, God has chosen the foolish things of the world” (vs 26-27). So, why should we get all excited and uplifted in importance?
 
“…so that He might put to shame those who are wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world so that He might put to shame the strong things” (v 27)--because they’re going to be converted and resurrected, and become the sons and daughters of God! They can take care of any of the strong things of man--period! Hands down!
 
Verse 28: “And the lowborn of the world, and the despised has God chosen--even the things that are counted as nothing—in order that He might bring to nothing the things that are.”
 
Think about that! When you go on a trip and you see all of these people. Get on a plane and there are three seats on each side, and you’ve got to be thin to walk down the isle. When I get on a plane, I always tease the stewardess and say, ’You know, this isle is just too wide.’
 
What’s going on that everyone on planes and trains will be thinking about? Best laid plans of men? The great wisdom of men? The Coronavirus! They have shut down eleven cities in China. Have you watched the news on what they eat? They had last year swine flu where they had to kill 150-million swine!
 
This year they have the Coronavirus! How did that start? Well, it showed the picture of the food that they eat: alligators, snakes, rats, koalas, donkeys, horses, cats, dogs and salamanders!
 
What did God say? See what happens with all the ‘wisdom’ that they have? Everything that they’re doing over there, and they think that they’re so wise, but they’re so dishonest because they steal everything.
 
What is the basic command of God? These are the foods that you shall eat…! and These are the foods that you shall not eat…! Why? Because He loves us and He doesn’t want us to get sick with things like Coronavirus!
 
The city where the Coronavirus started is Wuhan, China, and that’s where the Chinese have the biological warfare. So, there is some thought that maybe some of the Coronavirus escaped from there. Then they also can have a tactic where they can send people who are infected to other countries to spread it to them. Just think how absolutely fragile the whole system is! Highly developed and everything dependant upon electricity, and the wisdom of men in peace and in war!
 
Let’s see what God wants us to do, because there’s only one Gospel and many false gospels.
 
Verse 26: “For you see your calling, brethren, that there are not many who are wise according to the flesh, not many who are powerful, not many who are highborn among you. Rather, God has chosen…” (vs 26-27). That’s interesting! Not called, but chosen! Chosen comes from repentance and baptism!
 
“…God has chosen the foolish things of the world, so that He might put to shame those who are wise…” (v 27).
 
How does that work today? When we see all the foolishness of what men are doing, especially in this impeachment thing, we can see where they’re absolutely wrong!
 
“…and God has chosen the weak things of the world so that He might put to shame the strong things. And the lowborn of the world, and the despised has God chosen--even the things that are counted as nothing--in order that He might bring to nothing the things that are” (vs 27-28).
 
The Gospel of God is the same yesterday, today and forever, as the Bible says.
 
Colossians 1:21: “For you were once alienated… [from God] …and enemies in your minds by wicked works…”
 
That’s why conversion is in the mind, not outward actions alone. Some of the greatest con-artists can have such wonderful actions on the outside, but they do it to deceive! So, God wants it on the inside. That’s where the wickedness comes that God is looking to.
 
“…but now He has reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, to present you Holy and unblamable and unimpeachable before Him; if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which you have heard, and which was proclaimed in all the creation that is under heaven; of which I, Paul, became a servant” (vs 21-23).
 
The Gospel has gone out and continues to go out! Where is the Gospel contained? In the whole Bible! That’s the Gospel! If we think about how many different ways that it’s out there now, it’s quite a thing! Let’s see something about the Gospel and the Truth!
 
1-John 2:15: “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—the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pretentious pride of physical life—is not from the Father, but is from the world” (vs 15-16). Who is the ‘god of this world’? Satan the devil!
 
Verse 17: “And the world and its lust is passing away… [that is in our lives, down through the generations to the return of Christ] …but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
 
This tells you what happened in the last part of the apostolic age. We will see how the Church was literally coming apart.
 
Verse 18: “Little children, it is the last time…” For the apostolic age it was the last time, but that doesn’t mean that it is the end of the world!
 
“…and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, by which we know that it is the last time. They went out from among us, but they were not of us because if they were of us, they would have remained with us; nevertheless, they left that they might be exposed to show that they all were not of us” (vs 18-19).’
 
·         How did that happen?
·         What did they do?
·         What did they change?
·         What were the Jews preaching? Christ is an imposter!
·         What were the Greeks preaching? You don’t need to keep the Law!
 
Both of those elements are here in this Epistle of John!
 
Verse 20: “But you have the anointing from the Holy One, and you have knowledge of all things pertaining to salvation.” Obviously, you don’t have knowledge of all things! This can only be of the things for salvation!
 
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.” That’s why you prove everything!
 
·         What’s the greatest sin of human beings in God’s Word? To change it! To add their own traditions!
·         What happens with that? It’s like it was during the days of Jesus:
ü  you make the void the Word of God
ü  you make void the commandments of God
 
because of traditions! Yet, when people do that, and they accept it as from God, they are convinced that they are right, and the whole thing is upside down. When they look at those who are in the Churches of God, who keep the commandments of God, Sabbath and the Holy Days.
 
Revelation 14:12: “…here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” That tells us that it takes faith to keep the commandments, the faith that comes from God!
 
1-John 2:22: “Who is the liar if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?…. [that’s what the Jews did] …He is the antichrist—the one who denies the Father and the Son.” Now it’s both!
 
The Jews want a sign and the Greeks want wisdom (1-Cor.).
 
Verse 23: “Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either.” Jesus said, ‘I know that the Word of God does not dwell in you’ (book of John)!
 
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.”
 
What have the Catholics done? There are three major things that they have done!
 
1.       Sunday-keeping, rejecting the Sabbath
2.       trinity, saying there are three Gods
3.       elevation of Mary to the Queen of Heaven and be the mediatrix for human beings replacing Christ
 
The Catholics who are devoted… and there are a lot of evil spirits that keep them in bondage to those things. Another one is:
 
4.       idols
 
Verse 25: “And this is the promise that He has promised us: eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are leading you astray” (vs 25-26). Coming along with interesting sounding doctrines!
 
Verse 27: “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… [in other teachings] …for the same anointing instructs you in all spiritual things… [plus we have the Word of God now] …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 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). That’s the complete thing with that!
 
2-John is filled with love, Truth and commandment-keeping! Every verse there has that!
 
2-John 10: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine…”--the doctrine of Christ: His death and resurrection and ascension to heaven that He is the Son of God.
 
“…do not receive him into your house, and do not say to him, ‘Welcome!’ For anyone who says, ‘Welcome!’ to him is partaking in his evil works” (vs 10-11).
 
How bad was this insurrection within the Church?
 
Verse 12: “I have many things to write, but I do not wish to convey these things to you with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face in order that our joy may be completely full.” That’s how all of these different doctrines came about!
 
Let’s see what Paul writes concerning these things; 1-Timothy 1:2: “To Timothy, my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul has something like this in every one of his epistles, because he is writing what God wants him to write!
 
Verse 3: When I was going to Macedonia, I exhorted you to remain in Ephesus, in order that you might solemnly charge some not to teach other doctrines… [teachings] …nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which lead to empty speculations rather than to edification from God, which is in faith” (vs 3-4).
 
People can speculate about a lot of things. Sometimes you can speculate, and you can guess the Truth, but unless you prove that it is Truth after you have speculated and you’ve determined it might be true, then it’s possible that it could not be true.
 
Verse 5: “Now, the purpose of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and genuine faith.” There can’t be anything greater than this one little verse to define conversion!
 
Ø  “…love out of a pure heart…” What does God want to do? Change our heart and mind, in good conscience; not devious and deceitful!
Ø  “…and genuine faith”--If you truly believe in God the Father and Jesus Christ! And you truly believe the Word of God!
 
Verse 6: “From which some, having missed the mark, have turned aside unto vain jangling.”
 
Do you remember the man who was a Greek scholar? Stavrinides! {of the former WCG}. That was the wisdom of this world and Satan the devil. That was the biggest test against the Church, because they had become so lackadaisical and bringing in too much of the world. That test came along and he, in his Greek philosophy, changed the nature of God! When you do that, you’re denying the Father and denying the Son!
 
Verse 7: “Desiring to be teachers of the Law, neither understanding what they are saying, nor what they are strongly affirming.”
 
Why? Because they believe a lie with the same conviction that they should believe the Truth!
 
Verse 8: “Now we know that the law is good, if anyone uses it lawfully”--meaning not living in transgression!
 
So, here comes along Sunday-keeping. That was very appealing to a lot of the Greeks. They did not want to be counted in with the Jews, because if you’re keeping the commandments of God, you’re counted with the Jews! The Jews profess to keep the commandments of God, but they don’t keep the commandments of God the way that God says.
 
So, when someone came along and said, ‘Look, why should you suffer this persecution. We can meet on Sunday and the Romans won’t come and get us.’ A lot of people said, ‘I don’t know about that.’ Come and try it and you’ll like it, and see if it’s spiritual or not. Guess what? They had enough of the Truth… Isn’t that the way it always starts out, with enough of the Truth? Gradually, it metamorphoses! Look where it’s grown to!
 
Verse 9: “Understanding this: that law is not enacted for a righteous man…” If you’re righteous, that tells you that you’re keeping the commandments of God!
 
·         righteous because you have the Spirit of God
·         righteous because you’ve had your sins forgiven
 
“…but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for slayers of fathers and slayers of mothers, for murderers” (v 9). Today we can add abortion ad infinitum!
 
Sidebar: Last year worldwide, guess how many abortions there were? 42-million! All of that is being stored up for God and Christ’s returning!
 
Verse 10: “For fornicators, for homosexuals, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing that is opposed to sound doctrine.” Think about that! Sound doctrine and Law-keeping go hand-in-glove!
 
Verse 11: “According to the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God, with which I was entrusted.”
 
Verse 16: “But for this reason I was shown mercy in order that in me first Jesus Christ might demonstrate all long-suffering, for an example to those who would afterwards believe on Him unto eternal life. Now to the King of eternity, the incorruptible, invisible, and only wise God, be honor and glory into the ages of eternity. Amen” (vs 16-17).
 
Notice that Paul tells Timothy to hold the faith and remember his ordination:
 
Verse 19: “Holding to the faith and a good conscience. For some, having cast aside a good conscience...”
 
If you believe a lie, what happens? Sooner or later you have a corrupted conscience! That means that sin no longer affects you in the same way that it would if you had the Spirit of God and the Laws of God. You become inured to it.
 
“…have made shipwreck in regard to the faith; of whom are Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I turned over to Satan in order that they may learn not to blaspheme” (vs 19-20).
 
1-Timothy 3:14: “These things I am writing to you, hoping to come to you shortly; but if I should delay, you have these things in writing, so that you may know how one is obligated to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the Truth” (vs 14-15).
 
That’s what you should always find in the congregations of God, the Truth! The Truth of God; the truth of things.
 
Verse 16: “And undeniably, great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in glory.”
 
Look at the difference. Here comes the enemy, and remember that Satan the devil is always the enemy. Satan the devil is going to come after the Church with great ferocity in the future. All you have to do is look at the atheists, the agnostics and those who can’t tolerate any form of Christianity. They are going to be very dangerous in the future.
 
1-Timothy 4:1: “Now, the Spirit tells us explicitly that in the latter times some shall apostatize from the faith, and shall follow deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”
 
There are teachings and doctrines of demons, and many of them will sound very good!
 
Verse 2: “Speaking lies in hypocrisy, their consciences having been cauterized with a hot iron; forbidding to marry…” (vs 2-3).
 
Look at all the problems that has caused the Catholic Church. That’s just one. The only time the Catholics are right is when they read the Scriptures correctly. Every other thing they are totally wrong!
 
“…and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful, even by those who know the Truth” (v 3). Tie in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14!
 
Verse 4: “For every creature of God designated for human consumption is good, and nothing to be refused, if it is received with thanksgiving.”
 
Protestants read this and say, ‘Let’s have our barbeque pork, and our shrimp, lobster, clams and all of this sort of thing.’
 
Verse 5: “Because it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.” So, what God says not to eat, don’t eat! What God says is good to eat, eat! And you’ll probably not come down with the Coronavirus!
 
Verse 13: “Until I come, devote yourself to reading, to encouragement, and to doctrine. Do not neglect the spiritual gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the elderhood. Meditate on these things; give yourself wholly to them so that your growth in the faith may be apparent to all. Be diligent with yourself and with the doctrines; continue in them. For in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (vs 13-16). Look at the responsibility that Paul lays upon the ministry!
 
That’s a very important things, because Paul wrote in Rom. 2, to the Jews, ‘You who preach the Law, why are you breaking the Law? You who think you can teach others, don’t you teach yourself?’ That’s why an elder is going to be held accountable for everything. So, he has got to stay:
 
·         true
·         faithful
·         yielded to God
·         doing the things that God wants him to do
 
1-Timothy 6:3: “If anyone teaches any different doctrine, and does not adhere to sound words, even those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine that is according to Godliness, he is proud and knows nothing. Rather, he has a morbid attraction to questions and disputes over words, from which come envy, arguments, blasphemy, wicked suspicions, vain reasonings of men who have been corrupted in their minds and are destitute of the Truth--men who believe that gain is Godliness. From such withdraw yourself” (vs 3-5).
 
That’s what God has been doing with the Church ever since the big blowup! How many will stick with the Truth?