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Truth of God - Who Was Jesus? (Second Half) By: Fred R. Coulter - February 15, 2020

2/20/2020

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Who Was Jesus? - Second 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)
*(First Half Transcript)
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
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Who Was Jesus? (First Half) By: Fred R. Coulter - February 15, 2020

2/19/2020

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​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) 

Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services!
 
Remember what Jesus said about when the Son of man comes? Shall the Son of man find the true faith on the earth!
 
It just came to my attention via the Internet that one of the larger Churches of God—United Church of God—is going to downgrade that Christ was the Lord God of the Old Testament.
 
That’s why it’s so important that we understand doctrines, which are teachings. Teachings are necessary so that we can understand the Word of God.
 
We’ve seen what has happened in the Churches of God whenever they want to change doctrine, they always go after the nature of God, both the Father and Christ. They always do! How can you say that Jesus was not the God of the Old Testament before He became Jesus Christ of the New Testament? When you read these first verses in John?
 
John 1:1: “In the beginning… [going clear back to Gen. 1:1] …was the Word… [‘ho Logos’] …and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
 
That’s a plain statement in Greek. It can’t be manipulated one way or the other. That is it! You can’t say that He was not God, you can’t say that He was entirely man.
 
Verse 2: “He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him” (vs 2-3).
 
You take all of the scientist trying to figure out how they can create life. What do they deal with? They deal with what has already been created! They can’t come to the knowledge of it—even if they do--without Christ!
 
You can’t get away from God! It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are or what you do, whether you believe or don’t believe, whatever!
 
Verse 14—another plain statement: “And the Word became flesh…”
 
The question is, have they already changed, or are they in the process of discussing it to change it? The latter! But it’s up to the Council of Elders to vote on it. How can you vote on what is a doctrine that’s contrary to what is Truth? How can you do that?
 
They’re probably going to say that He was exceptional and begotten by the Father and that’s when He came into being. We’ll have to wait and see, because there are probably many different ways that they will approach this.
 
Verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father), full of grace and truth.”
 
There are many other Scriptures, so I want to do a little advertising; We have a lot of information for you:
 
These studies go verse by verse in the Bible to show you Who God is:
 
·         The Nature of God (Study Pkg. #6)

​More Study Packs
·         God the Father was Not the God of the Old Testament—that is the God Who dealt with Israel and Who dealt with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
 
The One Who created man was the One Who had to be the sacrifice for man! Have to be! Why? When man and woman were created they were perfect physically, but not in knowledge! We don’t know how long that they had with God in the Garden of Eden, but God certainly gave them plenty of knowledge and information, because God does not bring on the adversary unless you know what the Truth is! We don’t know how long it was. But He made them, and when they sinned:
 
·         What did God do? He judged them!
·         What was the judgment? Their nature was changed! That’s what it was!
·         How did we get a sinful nature?
 
Read in Ezek. 36 that when He brings Israel back from captivity at the end, what is going to happen? He’s going to give them a heart of flesh! So, He’s the One Who pronounced the judgment against Adam and Eve. Both would have sorrow:
 
Women with children and child rearing. It says childbirth, but that means with your children through your whole life. That’s the way it is with women, because it doesn’t matter with women. It’s doesn’t matter if their children are grown, they still think of them as babies. That’s just natural.
 
Man would have sorrow working, because there would be thorns and thistles. So, apparently in the Garden of Eden there weren’t any weeds.
 
Romans 5:12: “Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world…”
 
Eve ate first! But Adam could have stopped her. And Eve knew that she shouldn’t touch it, because she says, ‘God has said we shall not touch it.’ That wasn’t her adding something extra, as some people say, that is additional teaching that they got from God.
 
“…by one man…” What was Adam’s sin? Not believing God, not obeying the voice of God, ‘because you listened to the voice of your wife’--or the woman. This tells us that when someone comes along to lead us in sin, we are responsible not to go along with it!
 
What was it that they had from God? Everything direct out of His mouth! He put them in the Garden of Eden and commanded Adam to dress it and to keep it, which also means to guard it!
 
So, they sinned! The judgment came upon them and the environment was changed, their nature was changed so that they had sin internal within them! A sinful nature! That’s called ‘the law of sin and death’ (Rom. 7).
 
“…and by means of sin came death… [as in Adam, we all die] …and in this way death passed into all mankind…” (v 12).
 
How does death pass into all mankind? Genetically! There us a death gene, and that can be activated whenever, if the circumstances work out. Even infants die if they get in a position that they can’t get off their belly and can’t breath--called crib death. They have done no sin, but the mother should have been watching so that wouldn’t have happened. Or you can live to be over a hundred; back then they could go hundreds of years.
 
But sin entered into the world “…and in this way death passed into all mankind and it is for this reason that all have sinned” (v 12).
 
The one who judged and gave the judgment that would be transmitted to all human beings from that time forward, which was the Lord God of the Old Testament. Only He, by the fact that He created human beings and gave that judgment to them, had to come as a human being, take within Him the law of sin and death that He gave to other human beings, and not sin so that His sacrifice by His death would cover every human being past, present and future.
 
All human beings come about by pro-creation, which began with Adam and Eve. Could you say that when He passed judgment on Adam and Eve, did He pass judgment on Himself? Yes, He did! What was given in Gen. 3 of the Messiah and His crucifixion? Right there in the Garden of Eden! So, it had to be.
 
The judgment on Satan was not finalized until Christ was sacrificed.
 
John 8 where the war of words between the religious authorities and Jesus.
 
John 8:41—Jesus said: “You are doing the works of your father.’ Then they said to Him, ‘We have not been born of fornication…. [the whole rumor of Jesus went everywhere] …We have one Father, and that is God.’”
 
Notice that not everyone who says that they have God as their Father really have God as their Father. It’s not what you profess, it’s what you believe that God has said, and that is what you profess.
 
Verse 42: “Therefore, Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me…’”
 
That also tells you that God the Father was not the God of the Old Testament, because they were working off the O.T.
 
“…because I proceeded forth and came from God. For I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why don’t you understand My speech? Because you cannot bear to hear My words” (vs 42-43).
 
Why? Because their minds were blocked by Satan the devil because of their sins! Whenever people living in sin—and correction comes along, and they don’t want to give up their sin—they won’t believe the Truth even if it’s spoken to them.
 
Verse 44: “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to practice. He was a murderer from the beginning… [he inspired the murder of Abel] …and has not stood in the Truth because there is no Truth in him….”
 
We can add here any Truth that he starts out with, he perverts and twists into something that is not true! That’s how a lot of false doctrine gets started.
 
“…Whenever he speaks a lie, he is speaking from his own self; for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I speak the Truth, you do not believe Me. Which one of you can convict Me of sin? But if I speak the Truth, why don’t you believe Me? The one who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason you do not hear, because you are not of God” (vs 44-47). They were the ones who thought they were of God!
 
What happens when you think you are of God and then you begin to entertain false doctrine? Sooner or later your mind is going to be closed!
 
Verse 48: “Then the Jews answered and said to Him, ‘Are we not right in saying that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?’” You accuse without knowledge!
 
Verse 49: “Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon. But I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. Yet, I do not seek My own glory; there is One Who seeks and judges. Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My words, he shall not see death forever’” (vs 49-51).
 
That’s an interesting statement; it doesn’t days that He won’t die. “…shall not see death forever”--the resurrection! “…if anyone keeps My words…”
 
Do we have all the words of Jesus that God wants us to have? Yes, we do!
 
Verse 52: “Then the Jews said to Him, ‘Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham and the prophets died; yet, You say, “If anyone keeps My words, he shall not taste of death forever.”’”
 
What do they always do? They always misconstrue what is said!
 
Verse 53: “‘Are You greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets, who died? Who do You make Yourself to be?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. It is My Father Who glorifies Me, of Whom you say that He is your God. Yet, you have not known Him; but I know Him. And if I say that I do not know Him, I shall be a liar, like you. But I know Him, and I keep His Word. Abraham your father was overjoyed to see My day; and he saw it, and rejoiced’” (vs 53-56).
 
Verse 57: “Then the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not even fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM’” (vs 57-58)—Greek: ‘ego emi’! that’s the name of God! He told them plainly, ‘I was God’!
 
How are you going to get over that statement?
 
Note Transcript Book and CD: Who Is Jesus? All of these things that we’ve done through the years, because of all the false doctrines that come around, so you need to write for these things and get them so you’re not going to get caught into the trap that if something that is presented is logical, that it means that it’s truth. All logic sound logical, but all logic is not truth!
 
A question came up about the veil that covered the eyes. What’s going to happen is if people insist on accepting false doctrine—and that becomes official doctrine and teaching—could it be that it will undoubtedly will happen that the veil will come over again! It is a spiritual blindness! That’s what the veil actually is. Though you look at the facts directly, you don’t believe it.
 
2-Corinthians 3:5: “Not that we are competent of ourselves, or credit anything to our own abilities: rather, our competency is from God.”
 
This is what has to be with every minister and teacher. You don’t do what comes into your mind just because you think it is good. It must be from the Word of God and from God, and with His Spirit.
 
Verse 6: “Who also made us competent as ministers of the New Covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
 
Here’s the difference between the New Covenant and the covenant with Israel. Israel was a physical nation. God gave—at the time after the Flood—to Noah and all of his descendants when they formed the nations, that they had civil laws with the death penalty. So, different nations have civil laws, many of them similar and many different.
 
When God formed Israel and brought them to Mt. Sinai, they were a nation and they were going to have geographical territory in which they had to have what we call civil laws and that was the death penalty.
 
There are various different punishments and sacrifices for sin for a people who did not have the Holy Spirit. They were authorized to take a life for a life. They were authorized to have the judges make a person pay because of a certain offense.
 
For the thief he had repay sometimes four times, sometimes five times, in order to make restitution. You can read those in Exo. 21-23 and also in Deut. That’s the administration of death!
 
They did not have the Holy Spirit of God because Christ had not yet come. God only gave to the Holy Spirit to the patriarchs and a few of the kings and the prophets, that’s it!
 
This is what we’re talking about here. “…the Spirit gives life.” Why? Because rather than be executed, you can repent! That repentance has to be to God because you’ve transgressed His Laws. This is greater than the civil government, and it was necessary that the Church did not have the death penalty given to it to exercise against its members who transgressed, because the Church went into all nations of the world. All of these nations have their various civil laws!
 
You cannot have two sovereigns within one geographical territory. The sovereign government is the civil government.
 
Now, here comes Islam. They have the death penalty. What’s the problem they create when they are in another country when they take their death penalty and execute it in another country, which then is against the law of that country they are living in?
 
You can’t have two sovereigns! That’s why that was taken from the Church.
 
Verse 7: “Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in stones, came into being with glory, so that the children of Israel were not able to gaze upon Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, which glory is being set aside… [the glory of the Old Testament] …shall not the ministry of the Spirit be far more glorious? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, to a much greater degree the ministry of righteousness overflows with glory. And even the ministry of condemnation, which had glory, was not glorious in this respect, because of the surpassing glory of the ministry of life” (vs 7-10).
 
·         Who is a chief example of that? Paul!
·         What did he do before he was converted? He was carrying out the civil authority and religious authority of the Sanhedrin to take those who believed and imprison them, chain them and cause them to be put to death!
·         What did God do with him when he was converted? He said, ‘Saul, look what you’ve done, I’ve got a hangman’s noose out here for you and we’re going to kill you.’ NO!
 
God gave him repentance! And Paul never forgot that.
 
Repentance with forgiveness is greater than sentencing, and carrying out a sentence against people because of sin!
 
So, this civil penalty and civil laws that were in the Old Testament were set aside! In the Millennium they’ll be re-instituted because the Kingdom of God is going to be over the whole world. But that will be rarely used.
 
Verse 11: “For if that which is being set aside came into being through glory, to a much greater degree that which remains is glorious. Now then, because we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech; for we are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not gaze to the end upon the glory that is now being set aside” (vs 11-13).
 
When Moses up there the second 40 days, he absorbed so much Spirit of God that his face shined! So, in order to not scare the children of Israel he put a veil on his face until that glory subsided.
 
Verse 14: “But their minds were blinded… [that’s the veil] …for to the present hour the same veil has not been removed, but remains at the reading of the Old Covenant; which veil is removed in Christ.”
 
·         How many people today still have the veil?
·         Do all the Protestants still have the veil? Yes! When they read the Old Testament and read the laws, they say that they’re all done away!
 
Watch some of the latest Church At Home segments {churchathome.org} and Randy has clips in there about those ministers who say that the Law is done away. They show the law, the tablets of stone, just disintegrating and there’s nothing left. That’s what the carnal mind wants:
 
Don’t tell me I’m sinning, I don’t want to know a thing about sin. I’m going to do what I want to do. I’ll be able to handle it.
 
Well, most of the time they can’t! But that’s how they think!
 
Verse 14: “But their minds were blinded; for to the present hour the same veil has not been removed, but remains at the reading of the Old Covenant; which veil is removed in Christ.”
 
You understand the laws and commandments of God! You’re not looking for a way around them. Jesus said, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God!’ Therefore, we understand the Ten Commandments and the spiritual ramifications of them. That’s what it’s all about.
 
The same thing applies doctrinally. IF we go back and start putting the veil over our eyes—because we have a doctrine our a belief that is contrary to what is revealed in the Word of God, and we insist that it comes from God--what happens? BOOM! The veil comes back again! It’s automatic!
 
Verse 15: “For to this day, when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their hearts. But when their hearts turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (vs 15-17).
 
When did the veil come upon them? When they heard the Ten Commandments and they said, ‘Moses, you speak to God and we’ll do what you tell us to do, but don’t let God talk to us!’ That’s when it came! That’s automatic with a carnal nature. How many people know that you:
 
·         shouldn’t lie?
·         shouldn’t steal?
·         shouldn’t commit adultery?
·         shouldn’t sell drugs?
·         shouldn’t take drugs?
·         shouldn’t prostitute
·         shouldn’t cheat your neighbor?
 
They all know, but with the veil they see only a benefit to themselves, that if they do it, they will gain an advantage! That’s why they do it!
 
When you have the Truth of God, know about it, we’ve seen this, and I want you think on this deeply:
 
From the days of Christ all the way down to this day, the Jews reject Jesus Christ, except a few of the Messianics and even they do not understand everything, just some things. But the Jew’s purpose is to take down any group that tries to keep the laws and commandments of God. They believe—especially with the Sabbath and Holy Days--are only for them!
 
Who are the two main individuals, with other accomplices, in WCG that took it down?
 
1.       Robert Kuhn! A Jew, from the Kuhn-Lowe Banking family! Why would he come to Ambassador College and be a flunky wiping oil off the floor of the printing press building? He came so that he could be recognized and lifted up! Who did that? Garner Ted Armstrong! Kuhn became Armstrong’s alter-ego and controlled him!
 
2.       Stanley Rader! He came in early and held his peace, kept his position until the death of Loma Armstrong. Then he moved to totally control Herbert Armstrong.
 
I know from first hand testimony that Kuhn and Rader talked on the phone nearly every night for extended periods of time.
 
·         Why would they do that?
·         What were they talking about?
 
The ultimate goal was to take down the Worldwide Church of God. You don’t do it all at once! You create confusion, and bring your lieutenants in and get them in positions of authority. Then you pull the master plug and what was that? In 1976, and I’ve got the paper right here:
 
Ministerial Conference, 1976: Passover and the Bible in the Church Today by Lester Grabbe and Robert Kuhn
 
Robert Kuhn wrote most of this! Lester Grabbe was a lieutenant of Robert Kuhn. What do you do? You attack the most fundamental doctrine in the Church and create doubt, suspicion and fear, and claim that the Jews 15th Passover is the correct date! This is the paper that they wrote.
 
This is what you need. Why is that important? I had published A Harmony of the Gospels 1st edition and the 2nd edition was on its way. I said in there that ‘if we come to any knowledge concerning the Passover I’ll be sure and let you know.’
 
They stirred up a great storm and to this day it still has its effects. That 40-page paper is filled with lies and contradiction! But when you dumb people down and have ‘good time Joe’ all the time, then when the crisis comes, no one is equipped to answer it!
 
So, I had a problem. We had just moved into our house and I had my office in a little bedroom on the backside of the house. I had to find out the truth. We had this conference, and you’d be surprised at all the ministers that fell for the 15th Passover.
 
How are you going to find the Truth? In the Bible! It all had to do with:
 
·         When was evening?
·         When was between the evenings?
·         When did a day start?
·         When did a day end?
·         What did they actually do in the Old Testament?
 
I said this proposition to myself: If you cannot find in the Bible the absolute proof of the 14th, the absolute proof of ‘ben ha arbayim’ and the 14th, then the Jews are right.
 
Of course, the Jews claim they’re right! In one sense they are. When they’re not in the land of Israel, they cannot keep the Passover. So, that’s how they ended up with eight days of Passover with the Seder meal, which should have been the Night to Be Much Observed.
 
So, it took a while to find it and research it. When these doctrinal differences come up, you have got to get into the Scriptures and you have got to prove these things from the Word of God!
 
You can’t take something because it sounds logical and people would like to do it—I’ll add in a new addition:
 
There’s the Rock Valley Church down in So. California, and they meet on Ascension Day on Sunday to celebrate the ascension of Christ into heaven. I dare you to show me any place in the New Testament that commands that! You can’t find it!
 
This has to be guide in everything that you do doctrinally; Proverbs 30:5: “Every Word of God is pure…”
 
·         What do we have? The Truth of God! Every word!
·         Who inspired to give it to us? God did!
 
“…He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him” (v 5). If you don’t put your trust in Him, you have no shield!
 
What does Eph. 6 say about the forces of evil against us, and Satan against us?
 
Verse 6: “Do not…” IF you have a veil over your face, you don’t understand that:
 
do not commit adultery do not steal do not murder  
“…add to His words, lest He correct you and you be found a liar” (v 6).
 
How is God going to correct you? Very simple, if you’re not searching for the Truth, the blindness is going to come over you again!
 
It’s a correction that they won’t even know, because they think that what they’re doing is good. Let’s apply this to the Ascension Day.
 
·         Where were the apostles? They were locked up in a room for fear of the Jews (John 20)!
·         Why were they afraid of the Jews? Because the soldiers were told to say that the disciples stole the body!
 
They were afraid of being arrested by the authorities!
 
·         What were the rest of the disciples doing? They were working!
 
The women were coming down with the Aramaics to anoint His body even more. There was no meeting. You find no meeting later in the New Testament.
 
Why? Because the Ascension Day was between God the Father and Jesus Christ! That’s Their day!
 
We need to preach and teach about it. But to say let’s all gather together and we’ll have an official meeting here on Ascension Day… Guess what day that is this year? Easter!
​

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Galatians Series #2 (Second Half) - By Works of Law Shall No Flesh Be Justified, by Fred Coulter.

2/11/2020

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Galatians Series  II (Second Half)
By Works of Law Shall No Flesh Be Justified
(Galatians 2)
Fred R. Coulter—February 8, 2020
*(Second Half of Video)
*(First Half of Video)
*(Transcript First Half)
​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
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Galatians Series #2 - By Works of Law Shall No Flesh Be Justified, by Fred Coulter (First Half)

2/11/2020

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Galatians Series  II
By Works of Law Shall No Flesh Be Justified
(Galatians 2)
Fred R. Coulter—February 8, 2020
*(First Half of Video)
*(Second Half of Video)
*(Transcript Second Half)
 ​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)*
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Truth of God - One True Gospel and Many False Ones, by Fred R. Coulter (Second Half) Galatians Series 1.

1/30/2020

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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
*(Second Half of Video)
*(First Half of Video)
*(Transcript First 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”?
​
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Truth of God - One True Gospel and Many False Ones, by Fred R. Coulter (First Half) Galatians Series 1.

1/30/2020

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​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.
(free online bible)  Bible Hard Copy - The Original Bible Restored
​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? 
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The Sure Mercies of David, by Fred Coulter (First Half)

1/15/2020

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Fred R. Coulter—January 11, 2020
​The Psalms show the attitude and dedication we need to have so that God can, in His compassion, forgive us, protect us and hide us under the shadow of His wings!
*(First Half of Video)
*(Second Half of Video)
*(Transcript Second Half)
Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services!
 
Today we’re going to cover a very interesting topic: The Sure Mercies of David!
 
Isaiah 55:1: “‘Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…” This is for people! Everyone is wondering:
 
·         Why are we here?
·         Where are we going?
·         What is life all about?
 
The truth of the matter is, regardless of how successful, how rich or poor that a person may be, they are never able to live their lives in a way that is understandable, and they generally end up in trouble somewhere along the line.
 
That’s just the way it is, because we are made to receive the Spirit of God, and to have the Laws of God and the Word of God to advise and guide us.
 
“…and he who has no money… [you can’t buy what God is giving you] …come, buy and eat…. [‘taste and see that the Lord is good’] …Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your labor for what never satisfies?….” (vs 1-2).
 
Isn’t that true? People go through life and nothing satisfies. After a while, people get bored and then they get into things that lead them into trouble.
 
“…Hearken diligently to Me… [listen or hear to obey] …and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (v 2)--the full Word of God!
 
Verse 3: “Bow down your ear, and come to Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”
(Love, Mercy, and Forgiveness Sermon)
 
What does it say about the Church of Philadelphia? Christ has ‘the key of David and He opens and no one shuts.’ He does it! What is that key? The humility and yielding to God that David had! That doesn’t mean that he was free from sin.
 
Verse 4: “Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a Prince and Commander of people.” This blends into a type of Christ, as well!
 
Verse 5: “Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know; a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you.” This is a type of the fulfillment of the resurrection!
 
Verse 6: “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near…. [here’s how you do it] …Let the wicked forsake his way…” (vs 6-7). You come to understand what is right and what is wrong, the commandments of God and so forth!
 
“…and the unrighteous man his thoughts…” (v 7). That’s the whole purpose of conversion and the whole reasons of the sure mercies of David, that our minds are converted through the power of the Holy Spirit.
 
How does that work? Lots of times it works this way: there’s a lot of stuff buried in your mind that that needs to come out of there. The Holy Spirit will draw that to your attention so that you can get rid of it and overcome it.
 
How much do you have in there? I don’t know! But I’ll just tell you what happened to me. I was watching television and here is this ad for Volvo; they appeal to ‘greenie weenies.’ This car is driving down the highway and there’s these big windmills. It has the music and the windmill is turning, and the father is driving the car. He’s so concerned for his little daughter that she understand about windmills that he rolls back the full top of the car so she can look at it. Here’s this music. I spent all day trying to get it out of my mind!
 
How much is there in our mind that we have in there that we never intended to be in there. My poor remote control does not have a mute button that works. So, I have an older remote control and that mute button, I discovered the other day, works. When those ads come on I like to mute them.
 
What does this tell you? It tells you how susceptible our mind is to picking up things that we never even really think about!
 
Verse 7: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
 
You can see in the Bible the grievous sins that God forgave Manasseh, that God forgave David, that God forgave Ahab, etc.
 
Here’s the reason, and what is the key to understanding the Bible? Keeping the Sabbath! That’s the very key! It seems so simple, but that is it.
 
Verse 8: ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways,’ says the LORD.” In order to be converted and through the sure mercies of David we’ve got to come to God so that He can forgive us!
 
Verse 9: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
 
The whole plan of God is to have us born into the Kingdom of God to be like Him! Think about how much God knows. It’s absolutely beyond our comprehension!
 
I would like to get a tremendous montage of many different scenes of the universe; kind of like the hymn that we have: The Almighty God! To have some fantastic music as a background to use that as a vehicle to help us get our minds on God and what He has done.
 
Wouldn’t that be good? If you get down in the dumps—and everybody gets down in the dumps—then you can look at the greatness of God and this is what He’s promised us! Amazing!
 
Acts 13—Paul is speaking in a synagogue in one of the Gentile areas. Paul always went to the synagogue first, because it had to go to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles, who were also in the synagogue. There were many proselytes in the synagogue. They had a place for the men, a place for the women and a place for the proselytes.
 
Acts 13:31: “And He… [Christ after His resurrection] …appeared for many days to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we are announcing the Gospel to you—the promise made to the fathers—that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, having raised up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today have I begotten You.;: (vs 31-33). That carries all through His life!
 
Verse 34: “And to confirm that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He spoke in this manner: ‘I will give You the faithful mercies of David.’”
 
Acts 15:15—let’s see what James (v 13) said about this: “And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written, ‘after these things, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen…’” (vs 15-16).
 
That begins with the Church, and then at the resurrection the whole fullness of it to the world. Quite an amazing thing!
 
“…and its ruins I will build again, and will set it up” (v 16).
 
Let’s look at something very interesting: how great God is and how merciful He is!
 
After Solomon had sinned, what was it that God did? He split the kingdom and He gave the Levites and part of Benjamin and all the Jews to Rehoboam! The God came to Jeroboam and said, ‘IF you will obey Me and keep My commandments, I will give you a dynasty like I did for David.’
 
You would think that anyone who wanted power—and Jeroboam was a servant of s! What happened. Jeroboam got together with all of the corrupt counselors and they decided to make two calves: one in Dan in the north, and one in Bethel in the south.
 
1-Kings 14:5: “And the LORD said to Ahijah, ‘Behold, the wife of Jeroboam…’” She was coming to find out why her son was sick! God eventually struck him dead!
 
“‘…comes to ask a thing of you for her son, for he is sick. Thus and such you shall say to her, for when she comes in, she shall act as a stranger.’…. [but God undid the plan] …Now, it came to pass when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, ‘Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you acting as a stranger? For I am sent to you with bad news. Go tell Jeroboam, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘I lifted you up from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. And you have not been as My servant David who kept My commandments, and who followed Me with all his heart…’”’” (vs 5-8).
 
That’s why there were the mercies to David! It’s not how many sins he committed or didn’t commit, it was his dedication to God to follow Him with all his heart!

 (Check out the message: The Grace of GOD in the Old Testament“)

…to do only what was right in My eyes. But you have done evil above all who were before you, for you have gone and made yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back; therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who pisses against the wall, bond and free in Israel, and will sweep away the rest of the house of Jeroboam as a man sweeps away the dung until it is all gone” (vs 8-10).
 
That’s something! Look at how God is: How much time did He give Jeroboam? A lot of time! Because of what he did, there was not recorded one righteous king over the ten tribes of Israel! So, you don’t go against God.
 
Let’s look at the thing things that we need to follow to have the kind of mind, heart and attitude of David, to serve God the way that we should.
 
Psalm 84:1: “How lovely are Your tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!”
 
That’s another way of explaining how great that the plan of God is. What’s the ultimate tabernacle? New Jerusalem!
 
Verse 2: “My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD…” That’s how much David wanted it! He was looking forward to that.
 
So, whenever you get down and there are difficulties, look up, go to God, and claim the promises and move forward. Put all of that behind you, regardless of what it is!
 
“…my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (v 2). I don’t think that any of us have arrived at the point, yet! But that’s one of the goals that we need to look to. This way then we don’t get bogged down.
 
Another way to describe Laodiceans is that they are lukewarm, because God says that they are; neither hot nor cold. What’s another way of explaining it? Halfhearted! God says that He wants you hot or cold. So, David kept the temperature up!
 
Verse 4: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Selah”--stop and think and meditate on this! That’s exactly what David was doing when he was writing this.
 
I don’t know whether David understood how long it would be until the Kingdom of God would come, but I think he’s going to be astonished that God kept all these words for us, even in this day. It’s quite a thing!
 
Verse 5: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You; Your ways are in their hearts”--that’s how you’re wholehearted!
 
Verse 7[transcriber’s correction]: “They go from strength to strength, every one of them appearing in Zion before God.”
 More on Zion
How do you appear before God? Everyday when you pray! That’s the important thing. Don’t let days go by where you don’t pray.
 
There was one man who said that he didn’t pray on his knees for over two years. That resulted in a disaster for the Church.
 
Verse 8: “O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah”--think on that!
 
If you have a little spell where your belief is not quite what it should be, then you pray like that: “O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer…” and God will help you! 
 
Verse 9: “Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed.”
 
You have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle John write that ‘you have had an anointing from God,’ which is the Holy Spirit.
 
Verse 10: “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness”--because they’re all coming to nothing!
 
I mean, we have right before us today with this silliness of the impeachment, the manufacturing and promulgation of lies by the Democrats and the media. Where is it getting them? Let’s see! How many are there who are willing to  even flatter God?
 
God says in Psa. 78 that when Israel flatters Him and come back to Him halfhearted. He’ll even ease up on the punishment that He was going to give. But look at the whole history of America.
 
I just got a book Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America by David Horowitz—what the plan for the elite was for America. That’s been disrupted tremendously by what Donald Trump is doing. So, don’t take this as an endorsement and run out and take ten votes for Trump at the election. But God is interested in nations and there’s a reason why He is there, and there’s a reason why He’s doing what He’s doing.
 
What do you suppose that reason is? The only place where the Gospel is being preached is in America! If the liberals continue in the way that they were doing, and shutting down everything concerning Christ and the things even Protestantism and Catholicism, they want to bring in an atheist society that Horowitz brings out clearly, but the ultimate goal is to openly worship Satan.
 
So, the things in the world are at a point that there still needs to be a witness of the Gospel and for God calling other people, and that’s the only reason why these things are taking place. Whenever God does something good, many, many other people benefit and they don’t realize that they’re being benefited because they don’t understand God.
 
Isn’t Pres. Trump one of the few Presidents in a long time to mention God? Yes! And even having that faith group that comes in a prays with him all the time. Granted, there are Protestants, but that’s dealing with a nation, not dealing for conversion! There’s a difference. The Church is called for conversion! The nation--
 
·  IF they can bring down the abortions to a lower number
· IF they can bring down the drug addiction to a lower       number
·  IF they can help the poor and things like that as a nation
 
God will give certain blessings to the whole nation and subsequently that will make it possible for the Church to preach the Gospel and give the warning to the world! That involves all the Churches of God! My prayer for all the Churches of God is: get off your high-horse of your stupid false doctrines and return to God and preach the Gospel!
 
If you have 50 organizations preaching the true Gospel, it can’t be shut down over night. If it’s only one, you can get it! That’s why that’s coming on.
 
Regarding the book Dark Agenda, how do we understand people and whom they serve? By their fruits! Look at the atheists, all of the antagonists, all the Democrats that are so liberal, guess who they’re serving? Satan! So, this is a classic fight between God and Satan over what’s going to happen to this nation, which, if you remember back in the 1520s when they first landed in Virginia. They got off their ship and planted a cross—this is not endorsing a cross--they all got on their knees and prayed to God and thanked Him that they were in what is America now! They prayed for this new continent to be a place of preaching the Gospel to the world. That’s something!
 
Let’s see the tremendous attitude that David had. Psalm 42:1: “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…” (vs 1-2).
 
What does it say for those who thirst for righteousness? They shall be filled. If you’re halfhearted, are you going to be filled? No!  
 
“…when shall I come and appear before God?” (v 2)
 
Verse 11: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why do you moan within me? Hope in God…”
 
When you get down, don’t get discourage and run around oh woe is me! Go to God!
 
“…for I shall yet praise Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God” (v 11).
 
You would have to say that David was a really emotional all or nothing man. So, if you keep it all going for God, that’s the way it’s going to be.
 
Psalm 92:1: “It is good to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises unto Your name, O Most High.” Stop and think about:
 
·         Who has drawn us? The Father!
·         Who has brought us to the Father? Jesus Christ!
 
None can come to the Father… He may draw, but if you don’t respond then Jesus won’t bring you to the Father!
 
Verse 2: “To show forth Your loving kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness every night.”
 
How faithful is God? One simple thing, and it still amazes me, gravity on the earth! We don’t even think about it. But God keeps it constant, holds everything on the earth, helps you. You have running water. You can have accidents, but God keeps the gravity moving all the time. What if there were days that God just turned off the gravity? God’s faithfulness!
 
Verse 3: “Upon the instrument of ten strings… [a lyre] …and upon the harp, with melody of music upon the lyre; for You, LORD, have made me glad with Your work; I will exult… [rejoice] …in the works of Your hands” (vs 3-4).
 
Everything we have has come from God one way or the other. It may have passed through many hands of people making and manufacturing, but everything we have has come from what God has made.
 
Jonathan brought over some barbecue to us last night—a lamb chop, a chicken thigh and a steak—and it was really good, seasoned perfectly. I first ate the lamb chop, because that was the best. Then I ate the chicken thigh, and I was full so I’m going to have the steak tonight. I thought, everything of that has come from the ground. Every bit of it, and God is faithful to do it for all people. I hope we can enjoy it more because we understand God!
 
Verse 5: “O LORD, how great are Your works; Your thoughts are very deep.” I think about that every time I see one of these airplane shots flying over these rugged mountains that are thrust up! You look at the top and it looks like it’s sharp as a razor. Of course, it isn’t, but it’s really sharp.
 
I think, ‘O God, You thrust that up from the depths of the ocean to ever high those mountains are. He made the mountains so that we would be inspired to turn to God because of all of His great power in making it. That’s a fantastic thing!
​
Second Half - 
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Truth of God - "Human Nature, Sin and Conversion" (second half)

1/3/2020

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​Fred R. Coulter—October 31, 2015 Part #2
Transcript First Half
Aren’t you glad that you are not struck dead the instant you sin? Why doesn’t God do that? 
​(First Half of Video)
(Second Half of Video)

Full Video@CBCG.orgAren’t you glad that you are not struck dead the instant you sin? Yes! Why doesn’t God do that? Because you already have the law of death within you and perhaps as you exercise your choices, you may repent! Sometimes it may take you a while to come to repentance. Let’s see how God has done it
through Christ.
 
Paul talks about all the sins. You can read the first part of it.  
Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…”—everyone; no
one is exempt.
 
I’m not going to get into a detailed discussion of the difficult things to understand in Rom. 3, but the righteousness of God means His justification. Justification comes upon repentance, which God leads you to do, and the sacrifice of Christ and His shed blood applied to you individually. 
Verse 23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; but are being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has openly manifested to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, [justification] in respect to the remission of sins that are past” (vs 2325). All sin is past, because the instant you commit
it, it becomes a past sin.
 
Paul shows that it’s not by works and he shows that God is a God of the Jews and the Gentiles and you’re not abolishing Law.
 
Rom. 6 is about baptism. That’s why Jesus came and said, ‘Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.’ He was the Representative of the Kingdom of God. That’s why Peter preached, ‘Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and you shall received the gift of the Holy Spirit.’ Receiving the Holy Spirit is the key for how we overcome sin.    
Romans 6 1: “What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? MAY IT NEVER BE!….” Paul said, ‘No! No!’      
When you’re baptized, you are “…baptized into His death” (v 3). God applies the death of Christ to your life as payment for your sins. We are buried with Him through baptism. This is a symbolic death. You die! You’re telling God, ‘Yes, I’m going to die in this watery grave.’ For what purpose? Now your life is  going to change! 
You’re going to come up out of that grave, and we’re to “…walk in newness of life” (v 4).
That’s what it’s all about.           
Verse 8: “…we died together… [v 9]: …knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has any dominion over Him. For when He died, He died unto sin once for all; but in that He lives, He lives unto God. In the same way…” (vs 8-11). Here is how we are to live after we are baptized. God forgives all your sins, then we will see that He gives you His Spirit to give you enough strength to begin to overcome the sin within. Here’s how we are to look at our lives. 
Verse 11: “In the same way also, you should indeed reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal body by obeying it in the lusts thereof” (vs 11 -12). 
What does this tell us? You still have the law of sin and death within you! How have you been delivered from it? Not by removing it, but by having
been given the Holy Spirit to overcome it!
 
Verse 12: “Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal body by obeying it in the lusts thereof.”
{note James. 1, how all that comes about}
 
Verse 13: “Likewise, do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin…” Don’t be giving in to sin. Sin will come easy. God still does not come and destroy you, but He will convict you in your mind and heart so that you will repent! God wants you actively involved in overcoming sin within your life, within and without.
 
“…rather, yield yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not rule over you because you are not under law, but under grace” (vs 13-14). You are under grace because you receive the Holy Spirit of God.  
Romans 7:1: “Are you ignorant, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know law), that the law rules over a man for as long a time as he may live?” Everybody in the world is under law. Law judges automatically all the time. Whether known or unknown, it judges you--interior in your mind, exterior to the world —but under grace.
Grace means that you now have access to God so that you can repent if and when you sin. You have a direct relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. The rest of the world does not; they don’t know anything about it. There may be some people trying to quit this, that and the other, but they’re not trying to overcome the sin within through the Spirit of God so that they can develop the character of God and the mind of Christ. So, don’t let it rule over you.    
Romans 6:15: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? MAY IT NEVER BE! Don’t you realize that to whom you yield yourselves as servants to obey, you are servants of the one you obey, whether it is of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (vs 15-16). There’s still that law of sin and death working within us, but having the Spirit of God we have the circumcision of the heart       . 
Verse 17: “But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you.” We are not to get all involved in sin again.          
Verse 14: “For sin shall not rule over you…” It doesn’t say you won’t sin.            
Romans 7:9: “For I was once alive without law… [the knowledge of the Law] …but after the commandment came… [came to its understanding] …sin revived, and I died.” How did he die? He died in baptism! After he received the Holy Spirit of God,
what happened?
 
Verse 10: “And the commandment, which was meant to result in life, was found to be unto death for me; because sin, having taken opportunity by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore, the Law is indeed Holy, and the commandment Holy and righteous and good. Now then… [you find out about the Law and the commandments] …did that which is good become death to me? MAY IT NEVER BE! But sin…” (vs 10-13). This is why you have the law of sin and death within you. So, when the knowledge of the Truth comes:
 
“…in order that it might truly be exposed as sin in me by that which is good, was working out death; so that, by means of the commandment, sin might become exceedingly sinful” (v 13)—lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, idolatry, taking God’s name in vain, all of the Ten Commandments. We are not under law as the world is. We are within law. Now, to give us the strength to overcome sin and to recognize it when it comes within, God has done this: 
Hebrews 10:14: “For by one offering He has obtained eternal perfection for those who are sanctified.” Perfection         is          a           process,            not instantaneous, for those who are sanctified. We’ve been sanctified because we’ve received the Holy
Spirit.
 
Verse 15: “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after He had previously said, ‘This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days,’ says the Lord: ‘I will give My laws into their hearts, and I will inscribe them in their minds’” (vs 15-16). That is an amazing thing! How is it
written there? 

  • by study
  • by prayer
  • by repentance
  • by God’s Spirit
 
That’s why when you sin, you recognize it as sin. Whereas, before you knew God—repented, were baptized, and received the Spirit of God—you didn’t know it was sin. You may have thought it’s bad and shouldn’t do it. Just like a thief. When he first starts stealing, the first time he steals it’s probably, ‘Whoa, but I got away with that.’ The next time he steals, got away with it, and the next time he
steals, gets away with it.
 
I like that program on American Heroes Channel, I (Almost) Got Away With It. What happens? When Satan gives you a benefit stealing and you have all this loot, you got a benefit. You steal $10,000 you got $10,000 to spend. You think that’s a benefit and you succeeded in that. What happens when you spend it all and you’re still not caught? You’re either going to go apply for a job and put on your application: What you have done: ‘I just robbed a bank for $10,000.’ They’re not going to give you a job. 
What do you have to do? Since you haven’t repented, you haven’t forsaken it, you go steal again. This time you really hit the jackpot; you come up with $27,000, and you think that you’re really getting away with this. But all time the police are working and catching up with you. I remember watching the one where there were off-duty policemen who were robbing banks and they finally got them. There’s one Scripture that says very clearly, ‘Be sure your sins will find you out.’ That
means that they will be exposed!
 
That’s why you need the commandments written in your heart and your mind, so you know what is right, you know what is wrong. God has given you now the ‘spiritual standard’ required to keep those laws and has given you the Holy Spirit. Let’s talk about receiving the Holy Spirit.      
Colossians 2:10: “And you are complete in Him [Christ], Who is the Head of all principality and power in Whom you have also been circumcised with the circumcision not made by hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (vs 10 -11).
That is the circumcision of the heart! That is not a heart transplant; there’s a difference. If you understand about the physical circumcision with men, it doesn’t remove everything, just part of it. What this does, this takes away part of your human nature and you are to grow in grace and knowledge to have it replaced with love, truth, character and the laws and commandments of God!            
Verse 12: “Having been buried with Him in baptism… [Rom. 6]…” That’s how you receive the circumcision of the heart: baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit!  
“…by which you have also been raised with Him through the inner working of God, Who raised Him from the dead. For you, who were once dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has now made alive with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses. He has blotted out the note of debt against us with the decrees of our sins, which was contrary to us; and He has taken it away, having nailed it to the cross” (vs 12-14). That’s forgiveness, circumcision of the heart and receiving of the Holy Spirit of God. 
When we receive the Sprit of God it is a begettal. It is not a transformation to make you a spirit being instantly, because God wants us to overcome the sin within. That’s why, with the circumcision of the heart and the mind, you’re going to remember some of the things in the past, not that God has failed to forgive you. He has forgiven you, but that’s like a history lesson written within: how stupid was that; I’m not going to do that.             
You won’t think of it all the time, but there will be times when that will come. That is so you can use the Spirit of God to overcome: the washing, the cleansing within! Just like David prayed, ‘Wash
me thoroughly from my sin.’ It’s a process.
 
Ephesians         1:13—concerning         Christ   “In Whom you also trusted after hearing the Word of the Truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in Whom also, after believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” That is the circumcision of the heart and mind!             
Verse 14: “Which is the earnest…” The earnest is the down payment very much likened unto this: When a new life is begotten in the womb of the mother by the father, it’s not ready for birth for nine months. It’s got to grow; It’s got to develop; everything has to be in place. Just like with us. Once we receive the begettal of the Holy Spirit:            
  • we are to grow in knowledge
  • we are to grow in grace
  • we are go grow in repentance        
We can look back and see the things we repented of maybe a long time ago and we’ve had a flash back to that and we think, how rotten and terrible that really was. Then you grow in deeper repentance. That’s why we repent every day. As you go along you will be able to, in fighting the battle against the carnal mind within, repent when it first comes up as a thought.  That’s what God wants us to do.
Just like the Sabbath. If one Sabbath made you perfect, let’s go to Sabbath services. Yep! It’s going to be quite an experience. You’re going to be changed from flesh to spirit. You’re going to rise up
in the air. You’re going to be perfect. No!

  • we need the Sabbath
  • we need the Bible
  • we need the Word of God
  • we need the Spirit of God
  • we need to see how sinful sin really is        
Exactly as Paul said, ’When the commandment came…’ That means that when he was baptized, received the Holy Spirit of God and God began writing the commandments within his heart and in his mind, he began to see how awful his life really was, especially persecuting the Christians. He was forgiven of that, but he never forgot it.    
Just like us. There are certain sins that you have forgotten completely. There are other sins that come back and haunt you. Why is that? Because you only have the earnest! A circumcision is the
beginning, not the perfection! Perfection comes dayby-day—some cases, hour-by-hour, minute-byminute, depending on what your circumstances are. You grow in grace and knowledge, and you overcome. You’re able to focus on what God wants. That’s why thoughts will come into your mind that you don’t want. The law of sin is still there. What do you do?  Repent of it and ask God to help you!
Have you ever had an obsessive thought come? like a stupid song? You’ve had that happen, especially from a commercial! All the commercials are the most deceptive of all. Everybody’s happy, everybody’s doing good, oh, what a wonderful thing, take this medicine, it’ll kill you but you’ll smile to your grave.    
“…of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession… [it’s like the lay-a-way plan] …to  the praise of His glory” (v 14).
Paul had to fight sin. He has many occasions in 2-Cor. and 1st & 2-Tim. where he reminds everybody of what he was before he was called. Think about Paul, #1 enemy of the Church, #1 handyman of the high priest, going out persecuting and killing Christians. God knocked him down and
he had a change of attitude right quickly.
 
Romans 7:11: “Because sin, having taken opportunity by the commandment… [where there is no law there is no sin] …deceived me, and by it killed me.” You think that if you do something that will be a benefit for you, even though it is a sin, you’re going to get away with it, but he didn’t, it
killed him.
 
Verse 12: “Therefore, the Law is indeed Holy…” That’s not what the Protestants say. They say Jesus did away with the Law. Proof that they don’t have the Spirit of God! They may have some understanding of some things. Do you think God Who created everything that there is to run by laws that He created, is going to do away with those? Just because sinners sin is God going to come along and say, ‘Oh, now, now. That’s all right. I’ve done away with the Law so anything you do is just fine now?’ Never happen!  No!
“…and the        commandment Holy     and righteous and good. Now then, did that which is good become death to me? MAY IT NEVER BE!…. [to show them that if he continued in transgressions, he would die] …But sin, in order that it might truly be exposed as sin       in me” (vs 12-13). Within! 
That’s why it says in Heb. 12 that we need to keep looking to Jesus Christ because we’re ‘so easily beset with sin.’ God knows we’re going to sin, but He hasn’t given us carte blanche to sin. He has given the vehicle through grace, prayer and repentance to be forgiven so that you will be strengthened, so you will not sin. That’s a life long project. 
“…by that which is good, was working out death; so that, by means of the commandment, sin might become  exceedingly sinful” (v 13). 
  • Isn’t that what happened with David? 
  • Isn’t that what happened with you? 
  • Isn’t that what happens with everyone that God calls? 
  • Yes! 
You begin to see the sin:
  • your lying
  • your cheating
  • your deceitfulness
  • your wickedness
 
We’re coming up on Christmas time. Here’s a benefit from Satan: We can all have a good time. Let’s stop at Halloween first. All of the kiddies go out: 
  • introduce them to death
  • introduce them to trick-or-treating
  • introduce them to extortion           
There are a lot of people willing to be extorted, so they have piles of candy and they come. The kids get all this candy and you go home. I remember when I went out and I came back with a big bag full of goodies: candies, cookies and everything like that. I put it out on my bed and looked at all of that and I thought: I got it made! Like kids are going to do, they’re going to gorge themselves on all the sweets and in two weeks they’re going to have a flu
epidemic at school.
 
Satan gives you a benefit. You don’t think that is sin. When my Mom took me out trick-ortreating, I didn’t say, ‘No, Mom. I’m not going, that’s sin.’ She gave me a bag and said, ‘Let’s go fill it up.’ I said, ‘Fine!’          
How does Satan work? Incrementalism! A little bit at a time! You’re going to see this year the beginning of an onslaught of Satan to deceive the whole world in the greater occult experiences. Halloween is becoming an adult thing; adults are spending as much or more on Halloween than they do on Christmas. It is the first holiday of the year that celebrates death and all the gruesomeness that goes with it and everything else that takes place.     
Verse 14: “For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal, having been sold as a slave under sin.” Bring that out with anyone. Tell a thief to stop stealing. ‘Well, I know how to do it.’       
I remember watching this one program that what the police finally did, they conceded to the greatest jewel thief in the United States. He would come into the high-priced, expensive hotels and steal the jewels from the top paying customers that would come in there. They never could catch him. Finally, they caught him. They said, ‘All right. If you tell us how you do this, we’ll strike a deal with you and not put you in prison, but you better never steal anymore.’ So, he said, ‘Thank you,’ and told them how he did it. Every time he stole, that was a benefit. That’s how Satan works, but somebody always suffers.  
Verse 15: “Because what I am working out myself… [in other words, you’re going to live your life by yourself, without God] …I do not know…”           
  • you don’t know what you’re doing
  • you don’t know where you’re going
  • you don’t know what the purpose of life is             
“…For what I do not desire to do, this I do; moreover,, what I hate, this is what I do” (v 15). This is the struggle that now takes place once you
have the Holy Spirit of God. 

  • you’re tempted 
  • you sin 
  • you don’t know why you do it       
  • Were you perfect in temperament all this week?
  • Was every word out of your mouth nothing but praise and glory to God?
  • How about the thoughts in your mind?
  • Were your thoughts only on God?
or 
  • Were they on something else, and that something else was sin in your mind?
!
            Now what do you do?       
That’s why you have to have God’s Spirit to repent, pray and ask God for strength.           
Verse 16: “But if I am doing what I do not desire to do, I agree with the law that it is good…. [the Law is still good, there’s nothing wrong with it] …So then, I am no longer working it out myself; rather, it is sin that is dwelling within me” (vs 1617). Because you still have the law of sin and death within you, and your deliverance comes from exercising the Holy Spirit to overcome. God wants
our full-time, active involvement:

  • in overcoming sin
  • in studying and learning righteousness
  • in learning how to do things God’s way     
Our full-time effort in life! That’s what we’re here to learn. That’s why God just doesn’t say, ‘Oh, good. You repented. Let’s take the law of sin and death out of you.’ You going to live forever in the flesh? Never happen! Not going to happen! The sin is still there.  
  • that’s why temptation comes along
  • that’s why you lose your temper 
  • that’s why you even swear            
Maybe you’ve quit swearing but you’ve got another word in place of it. So, you use that word now because you’re not swearing, but it still means the
same thing.

  • Do you perfectly love everyone? No!
  • Do you have some people you don’t care for? Yes!
  • What are you going to do about that?
  • How are you going to handle that?             
Those are all things that come along!
 
What if, when you get older? I’m 80-yearsold and I remember things that I did as a kid. Why do I remember that? That’s a reminder that you’ve been a sinner from day one! I remember when I would lie, my mom sent me out—there were hazelnut trees around where lived—and I had to pick my switch. I would try to bring in a little thicker one that didn’t sting as much. She’d say, ‘Go out and get a thin one.’ Then she’d go whack! whack! whack! on my calves and everything. ‘Don’t you lie again.’     
I was rambunctious. At five-years-old I’d walk five blocks down to the park and spend all day there. I’d play with the kids and come home.            
‘Where you been?’ Been down at the park. What’d you do?’ Swinging, sliding, doing all of this. Don’t you know something may happen down there? No! ‘Well, you stay home.’ So I went again. ‘You stay home.’ I went again. ‘All right. I’m not going to switch you for it. Here’s the clock up on the mantle of the counter of the fireplace. You stand there with your arms out.’ 
First time 15 minutes: ‘Get ’em up! Get ’em up!’ So, I got through the 15 minutes. The next day. Gone again, come back. ‘All right, a half hour. ‘Get ’em up!’ That went on until I got up to an hour. My mom finally surrendered and said, ‘Look, if you’re going to go, let me pack a lunch for you.’ So, I quit going.
 
That’s the sin within! We can laugh at it because it’s humorous because it has to do when you’re a kid. Think of that behavior when you get older. Think of what it is when there’s rebellion. ‘I’m going to take the car and go out.’ You be careful. Drive carefully. ‘Yep.’ So you crash it at 100mph and kill somebody! Sin within! You don’t
know what you’re doing. 
 
“…For what I do not desire to do, this I do; moreover, what I hate, this is what I do” (v 15). That’s what happens when you sin. You don’t like it, God’s Spirit convicts you, reminds you of it so you can repent ; that’s what God wants!
Verse 18: “Because I fully understand that there is not dwelling within me—that is, within my fleshly being--any good….” Where did we start? Matt. 19, ‘there is none good but God,’ Jesus said to
the young man!
 
“…For the desire to do good is present… [my intensions were good] …within me; but how to work out that which is good, I do not find” (v 18). 
 
Have you ever had it where you want to do something really nice and lovely for someone and what happens? You have the best intensions possible, but it ends up in a fight and an argument and you just walk away angry and mad. I know that’s never happened to you     —has it?
Even within the Church is it okay that you love some people more than others? Yes, because Jesus loved John more that the other disciples, but He still loved them within the Church! Because of personality differences, or something—you’re kind to them, you’re good to them, you love them—but it’s not necessarily a bosom buddy type of thing where it’s huggy-kissy all the time. You better be
careful about that.
 
Verse 19: “For the good that I desire to do, I am not doing; but the evil that I do not desire to do, this I am doing.” This is the pull of human nature!
 
You have a thought come into your head that you know didn’t come from God. You have a memory from the past, and that memory from the past is a history lesson, just like you read in the Old Testament all the history; just like we read about David. That’s a history lesson. He’s forgiven! God has forgotten it! He’s going to be raised as king over Israel forever!
 
God understands we’re weak in the flesh. He’s going to forgive when we repent. It’s not if we sin, because there’s no if about it. You are going to! So, it’s when you sin.
 
Maybe you’ll be really inspired after this sermon today and you’re going to be really resolved that you’re going to do better. You’re going to be really resolved that you’re going to sit down and have those nice little talks with yourself and say:             
  • Now, {your name}, you know what you need to do. Yes! 
  • You know that you ought to do this. Yes! 
  • Are you going to do it? Yes! 
  • Why didn’t you do it?       
That’s how it works. This is why:
 
Verse 20: “But if I do what I do not desire to do, I am no longer working it out myself, but sin that is dwelling within me.” Why does God leave the law of sin and death within you? He leaves the law of sin in you so that you will learn to use the Holy Spirit to overcome and so that you will learn that you can’t overcome unless you repent!    
He doesn’t know what sin you’re going to do. You don’t know what sin you’re going to do. Tomorrow, tell me what sin you’re going to do at eleven o’clock in the morning. You don’t know. Neither does God, because there’s free moral agency. Maybe at eleven you won’t sin, but maybe at three o’clock in the afternoon, you will. Who knows? This is why prayer is every day, led by the Spirit of God to change and grow and overcome. If you have a thought flash from the past, repent of it, get it out of your mind and ask God to clean your mind. 
How are you going to get your mind cleaned up? Think of all the garbage that is in there. There’s a lot of garbage in the brain. Everything you’ve ever done is still recorded there somewhere. They know with brain surgery that you can touch a certain place in the brain and they can smell smells, while they’re under surgery. It’s recorded there. Conversion of the mind becomes the important thin             g!
The truth is, we’ll just project ahead: none of us will be perfect until the resurrection. Just like when you’re begotten you cannot be born. You can never, in the flesh, be totally perfect. You are in the process of being perfected spiritually so that at the resurrection God will finish that perfection. Then you shed everything; you leave everything behind.
 
Verse 21: “Consequently, I find this law in my members, that when I desire to do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man” (vs 21-22). You’re not trying to resist against the laws of God. You’re not trying to go out and sin, but sin is there and it pops
up.
 
Verse 23: “But I see another law within my own members, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive to the law of sin that is within my own members.” The law of sin is still there!
 
Stop and think for a minute. Suppose you could be perfect in the flesh. Would you not go around and look at other people in their sins and just condemn them up and down, one way or the other? Think of the arrogance it would be if that were possible. 
That was the problem with Job. Maybe I ought to follow this up with a series on Job. I’ve done some in the past, but I’ve read the transcripts recently and it’s not sufficient. That’s what Job did. ‘I’m so good. God has got to come down here. I need an umpire or a judge. I’m going to take God to court so He can know how good I am.’ God took him to court and he found out he wasn’t so good.        
Here is what happens when you begin to see how sinful sin is as he said; Verse 24: “O what a wretched man I am! Who shall save me from the body of this death? I thank God for His salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of this, on the one hand, I myself serve the Law of God with my mind; but on the other hand, with the flesh, I serve the law of sin” (vs 24-25). That is when you sin because it’s still within you!
​
​Full Video@CBCG.org
Scriptural References:
​Mark 7:21-23
2)Jeremiah 17:9-10
3)Colossians 1:26-27
4)Philippians 2:5
5)Matthew 19:16-17
6)Romans 5:12
7)Romans 8:1-3
8)John 1:1, 3
9)Hebrews 5:5-9
10)Romans 2:4
11)James 1:13-16
12)Psalm 51:1-7
13)Romans 3:23-25
14)Romans 6:1-4, 8-14
15)Romans 7:1
16)Romans 6:15-17, 14
17)Romans 7:9-13
18)Hebrews 10:14-16
19)Colossians 2:10-14
20)Ephesians 1:13-14
21)Romans 7:11-17, 15, 18-25
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
  • Isaiah 50 
  • Hebrews 12          
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Truth of God - "Human Nature, Sin and Conversion" (first half)Truth of God - "Human Nature, Sin and Conversion" (first half)

1/3/2020

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Fred R. Coulter—October 31, 2015
Transcript Second Half
​• How do our minds work?
• If God forgives sin and       forgets it, why do we   remember it on different   occasions?
• Does that mean that God   has  not forgiven that sin?
• What does it actually mean? Let’s look at the human mind. 
(First Half of Video)
(Second Half of Video)
End Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services!  
  • How do our minds work?
  • If God forgives sin and forgets it, why do we remember it on different occasions?
  • Does that mean that God has not forgiven that sin?
  • What does it actually mean?       
Let’s look at the human mind.
 
We’re all born with human nature, and our human nature is not the same as it was when God originally created Adam and Eve. After Adam and Eve sinned, their nature was changed so that they were subject to death and they had a hostile nature to God that is called the law of sin. Paul writes of ‘the law of sin and death.’ You can see this in little infants. They want their own way. They’ll fight and squabble and war. The biggest problem is separating them. Notice what we are by nature.     
Mark 7:21: “For from within, out of the hearts of men, go forth evil thoughts…” This is by nature. Even some thoughts that we think of as ‘good,’ are evil. Without God’s Spirit to guide us, you’re st uck in this conundrum.
“…adulteries,    fornications,     murders… [everything that human nature does] …thefts, covetousness, wickednesses, guile, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evils go forth from within, and these defile a man” (vs 21-23).  
Let’s see how Jeremiah describes it. We will see that no man has the power by his own works to save himself. We also can see that no person is able to extend their life very far. Every once in a while, if you watch Fox News and watch Bill O’Reilly, they give a salute to someone whose 95, 102, and so forth, but they still die. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that if a man live 1000 years twice-fold and dies, that’s vanity. None of us are going to reach that in the flesh; we’re all going to wear out and collapse before that. We’re talking about the nature,
the heart and the mind.
 
Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things…” That’s the first thing to remember, you’re going to deceive yourself. It’s easy to do. Do people live by lies? Yes, they do! Everything that we read in Mark 7:21 that’s the way people behave and we’re going to see that even though there are heinous crimes committed, there are those who have absolutely no remorse in doing them. They think they’re right!
“…and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (v 9). A person does not even know his or her own mind without the Word of God to tell them what it really is. You’re not aware of the sins. You may think that you’ve done some wrong. You may have a little guilty conscience, but you justify that and move on.  
Verse 10: “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” God says He’s going to judge.  
Let’s see where God is going to take us. Here the problem: How do you get from Mark 7:21 and Jer. 17:9 to this:  
Colossians 1:26: “Even the mystery that has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been revealed to His saints.”   
  • Isn’t it a mystery that no one understands human nature? 
  • Isn’t it a mystery that no one knows what God is doing, yet, it’s revealed in the Bible? 
 
The Bible is the most published book in the whole
world, and yet, it is the most ignored.
 
Verse 27: “To whom God did will…” Understand this: What we know and what we understand comes from the will of God!
 
“…to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (v 27). 

  • How is God going to come from total dedication to evil—the carnal mind, hostile against God—to Christ in you? 
  • What is that to do? 
  • How is that going to be done?
 
Here we’re describing the beginning, when we start to understand about God, to the ending of it at the resurrection. First, we have to have something in between,  which is: 
Philippians. 2:5: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”—to have the very mind of Christ. You have to let this happen, and it cannot happen without the Spirit of God. This is
what we are going to cover today.
 
Matthew 19:16—this is a very revealing statement: “Now at that time, one came to Him and
said, ‘Good Master…’” 

  • Was Christ ‘good’? Have to say so! 
  • Was He perfect? Yes, He was! 
  • Why does He say this?      
“…what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?’ And He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good?” (vs 16-17). Why did Christ say that? Because He was in the flesh! What kind of flesh? That’s the question!            
“…No one is good except one—God” (v 17). Let’s ask another question that is hard for
people to grasp. Jesus came to the earth:

  • divested Himself of all of His glory as God
  • was impregnated into the womb of the virgin Mary
  • was born as any ordinary human being
  • lived His life        
Here’s His ministry. Why would He say, ‘Don’t call me good,’ when He was truly the only good person on earth? Remember what happened when Adam and Eve sinned: 
  • they were cut off from God
  • they were sentenced to death to have the law of death within them
  • their human nature was changed to be hostile against God, which is called the
‘law of sin’
 
Paul describes this as ‘the law of sin and death.’ Did Jesus die? Yes! He had to have the ‘law of death’
within Him.
 
Romans 5:12: “Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and by means of sin came death…” So, in this way death passed into all mankind. They know there is a death gene. The scientists have been trying to figure out where it is so they can modify it.             
It is for this reason that all have sinned. If you have a nature that is carnal, physical and subject to death, it is also subject to sin. That’s why all sin regardless of their age. Isn’t that what the Scriptures say? ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God!’ All you have to do is just watch the news. Sin is going on: 
  • everywhere 
  • every place
  • every country
  • every city
  • every town
  • every village
  • every human being           
Even the saints have a hard time with it. We’ll explain why he writes this in Rom. 8. We will get to why He says, ‘consequently,’ a little later.       
Romans 8:1: “Consequently, there is now no condemnation to those who ar         e in Christ Jesus…”
  • What does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? It means you have to have the Spirit of God!
  • How do you get the Spirit of God? Through repentance and baptism!
 
“…who are not walking according to the flesh… [living your life just any way you want to live it] …but according to the Spirit” (v 1). You can’t live “…according to the Spirit” without the Spirit of
God.      
What did God say to the Israelites when they said to Moses, ‘Everything that God said we’ll do’? What did God say? ‘Oh, if there were such a heart in them that they would,’ because it takes the Spirit of God and God didn’t give them the Holy Spirit of God. That’s why they were to keep the laws and commandments of God in the letter of the Law.
 
That’s what I also explained on how do you understand/study the Bible. You begin with the simple things, obey His voice! You start in the letter of the Law, but unless you come to repentance so you can receive the Spirit of God, you cannot walk in the Spirit the way God wants you to.         
Verse 2: “Because the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus…” —includes:
  • repentance
  • baptism
  • receiving the Spirit of God
  • growing and overcoming  
That’s what the New Testament is all about.        
“…has delivered me from the law of sin and death” (v 2). What do you mean delivered? Did God, when we’re converted, remove the ‘law of sin and death’? No, He did not! It even says of the saints that die that it’s a delight, it’s a blessing from God,
that you die in the faith. 

  • Were we delivered completely from the law of sin?
  • Did God remove sinful inclinations from out of our being? No!
  • Why did He say “…delivered me…”?       
Because when you receive the Spirit of God, you now have the Spirit of God to lead you and to convict you in heart and mind so you can repent and overcome human nature! Otherwise, if you’re made perfect as soon as you’re baptized and receive the Holy Spirit of God… We’ll talk about what baptism does and why it works the way that it works, which answers the questions:    
  • Why do you still have sin within?
  • What are you going to do about it?
  • How do you overcome it?
  • How do you change?        
By yourself, maybe you can improve yourself to do certain things, but you cannot get rid of the law of sin and death,  but He has delivered us.
  • How are we delivered from death?
  • When does that come? 
  • The resurrection!  
We’ll talk about the law of sin in a little bit.         
Here’s why Jesus did not say He was good, did not even allow someone to come and say, ‘Good Master.’ He said that there’s only One Who is good and that is God. With Jesus as God manifested in the flesh, how many Gods were there in heaven? One,
the Father!
 
Sidebar: All you Sacred Namers don’t get mad, but the only revealed name in the New Testament of God is the Father and of Christ: Jesus and the Christ . That’s it!
Verse 3: “For what was impossible for the law to do, in that it was weak through the flesh…” How many people know right from wrong but still continue to do wrong? They’re carnal and fleshly! Maybe if you’ve been taught while you’re growing up, right and wrong, good and evil, you’re not going to be so inclined to go out and do things that are sin:

  • you know that you shouldn’t kill
  • you know that you shouldn’t commit adultery
  • you know that you shouldn’t steal
  • you know that you shouldn’t lie     
You know the one on coveting most everyone forgets, because you’re striving after all the things that you want, but you have some knowledge of right and wrong. 
What we’re doing today in this society, we’re not teaching them right from wrong. Look at what’s happening: everything is right in their own eyes, all the lawlessness everywhere; all through the weakness of the flesh, all through the carnal mind. Here’s the solution:             
“…God, having sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh… [exactly as our sinful flesh is sinful flesh] …and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (v 3). Whose flesh was it condemned in? Jesus’ flesh! Why? 
 
You may have heard some people say, ‘For God to judge Adam and Eve that way and give them the law of sin and death within their very beings, that’s not fair. For every human being to be born with the law of sin and death within them, that’s not fair.’ God works on justice, not fairness!            
  • What did God do? 
  • Who was the Creator of mankind?             
John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. [v 3] …All things came into being through Him…” All human nature and all human flesh is a result of Jesus Christ. He was the One Who created Adam and Eve. 
In order to be a Savior of all of mankind, He took upon Him, through His mother Mary—there was never an immaculate conception with Mary, she had human nature—He received human nature and carried within Him, in His fleshly being, ‘the law of
sin and death.’ Yet, never sinned!

  • You think you have a hard time overcoming sin?
  • Was Jesus tempted? Yes, indeed!
  • Was it difficult? Yes, indeed!
 
Hebrews 5:5 talks about the priesthood and Christ’s priesthood: “In this same manner also, Christ did not glorify Himself to become a High Priest… [on the earth] …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). 
 
He could not become that High Priest in heaven until He brought the perfect sacrifice condemning sin in the flesh. It was difficult for Jesus. Yes, He had the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Father taught Him. That’s why He was never taught by the rabbis. God the Father taught Him, woke Him up every morning and taught Him (Isa. 50).             
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…” What does that mean? The wages of sin is death!
 
God risked everything coming in the flesh and taking upon Himself human nature and also to fight against Satan the devil. Think of that! 

  • Is God just? Yes, indeed! 
  • Is God fair?         Yes, indeed! 
He did that for all mankind and since He’s the Creator of all human beings, then His life and His death as a sacrifice with His shed blood can be applied to all of those who repent. Sin was condemned in His flesh on the cross and in His life that He never sinned, though He had the law of sin and death within Him. There’ll be some theologians
that’ll say, ‘You’re way off base here.’
 
“…and was heard because He feared God. Although He was a Son, yet, He learned obedience from the things that He suffered” (vs 7-8). We don’t know all the things that Jesus suffered. We don’t have anything recorded about that. We have some things, but not all.            
Verse 9: “And having been perfected…” Is God perfect? Yes! Why did Jesus come and take on human flesh? To be perfected as the sacrifice for all human beings and to be able to bring eternal life to
them!
 
“…He became the Author of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him” (v 9). Obey My voice! Simple as can be! Some of the things are hard to understand. As I brought out at Church at Home {churchathome.org}, it’s easy to understand the Ten Commandments. There’s nothing difficult about them. Obey Him! How does this apply to us? First of all, it is God Who leads us to repentance.
 
Romans 2:4: “Or do you despise the riches of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the graciousness of God leads you to repentance?” You see your sins in the light that you see them and in the light that God sees them.  
Let’s talk about the sin between David and Bathsheba and the killing of her husband Uriah: Here’s the king: 
  • all power
  • loved God
  • wrote hundreds of Psalms
  • was a real battler and a warrior fighting the
battles that God told him to fight
 
So much so, that God gave him the plans for his son Solomon—who by the way, his mother was
Bathsheba—to build the temple. Think of that!
 
Think of all that went in with it. David did have the Spirit of God, just like us! We have the Spirit of God! Do we sin? Yes! David really sinned; so did Bathsheba. She knew her husband was gone to battle, and apparently their house was right next to the house of King David. She bathed on the rooftop knowing that the king would walk by and see her. So, she had her part. David made a lot of mistakes. He could have said, ‘Uh, oh! No way!’ We say today, ‘No way, José.’ He didn’t!  Lust got enticed!
Let’s see how sin works even if you have
the Spirit of God, if you do not resist it!
 
James 1:13: “Do not let anyone who is tempted say, ‘I am being tempted by God…’” Did God tempt David to lust after Bathsheba? Of course not! Notice the process. This happened to David. He saw her and thought, ‘Woo, woo!  
“…because God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one with evil” (v 13). What does God set before us? Choices! Life and death,
blessing and cursing!
 
Here’s David: What’s he going to do? What’s he going to choose? He had a chance to not get involved. He could have thought, ‘Oh, I’ll never do that to one of my generals, one of my captains, or maybe a major,’ because Joab was over Uriah. He didn’t put it down.      
Verse 14: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away…” With his own human nature. Of course, when Satan tempts you he gives you a benefit. The benefit was, ‘This would be spectacular with this woman!’ She was there bathing letting the king know, ‘I’m all ready!’ So, when the king’s messenger came, she didn’t send a note back saying, ‘Tell the king I cannot come.’ She could have, but she didn’t. David sent the messenger. Now somebody else is involved and knows what’s going
on. Think of that! So, she came.
 
Can you imagine all the servants in the household of David, after she came? They knew what was going on! She even stayed there until she was clean then went back home. David should not have done that. 
That’s how human nature works. He justified it all the way along. He probably said, ‘I’m king. I can do whatever I want.’ It seems to me we heard that of some narcissists in America. After all, ‘I have great desire for her.’ Satan will give you a
benefit; so, she came.
 
The Proverb says that what is ‘spoken in secret a little bird is going to fly away with it.’ Can you imagine the waggling tongues that went with that? Can you imagine the next morning when the servants looked around and said, ‘Oh, she’s still here?’ Of course, they knew what went on. The reason I’m bringing this out is because that’s how
sin entices!
 
Verse 15: “And after lust has conceived… [it did] …it gives birth to sin… [he committed adultery and she committed adultery] …and sin, when it is completely finished, brings forth death.” That’s exactly what happened!  
So, he thought, ‘She left, she went home.’ It must have been about six weeks later, she sent a message to the king, ‘David, I’m pregnant.’ What did he do? He said, ‘I’ve got to get rid of the evidence.’ He worked it out with Joab, the commander. He wrote a special note to Joab and had a messenger take it to him to put her husband Uriah the Hittite right up in the thick of the battle and when he’s there, back away and let him die. So, he did. Can you imagine what Joab thought? Joab had to do a lot of dirty work for David! I don’t think he
had too good of an opinion of David.
 
Why am I bringing this out? To show you the process of sin with even those who are converted, that unless you overcome it every day, it will take you down! We know what happened, he didn’t repent of it. Finally, God had to send Nathan the prophet, and he told David about the rich man who took the poor man’s little ewe to make a feast for his friends. David got all angry and Nathan looked him right in the eye and said, ‘You are the one.’ 
What happened? Everything was in rebellion from that day on. The sin of one man affected the whole kingdom. It affected his family and the child died. God took the life of the child. Can you imagine if that child would have lived with all the hypocrisy of everything that went on? Just think what his name would have been called with the wagging tongues of all the people talking about it! If he would have inherited the throne, there would have been absolutely no respect at all. David did repent. This is how it comes about. It brings forth death. 
Verse 16 “Do not deceive yourselves…”
That’s what he says here.            
Psa. 51 is David’s repentance. This helps us to answer the question as to why God does not take away the law of sin and death from us immediately. That cannot happen as long as we’re in the flesh.        
Psalm 51:1: “Have mercy upon me, O God… [He forgave David; Nathan said, ‘Your sin has been forgiven.] …according to Your loving kindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions”—all the series of those things leading to that affair and afterwards. 
Verse 2: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity…” We’re going to talk about the ‘washing of the water by the Word’ a little later. You have to have your sins washed away. We will see that that is
a process. It doesn’t happen all at once.
 
“…and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (vs 2-3). He could see the greatness of his sin. That’s why it talks about that sin may
become exceedingly sinful.
 
Someone who commits a murder or somebody he doesn’t like, that’s nothing to him. He doesn’t understand about murder. Someone who steals from someone because ‘they have more than I do and I’m going to take it.’ They don’t view that as sin. Look at it on the lawless riots that they’ve had in various cities. They smash in the windows, burn cars, loot the stores, take everything and they’re innocent because someone has something that they want and they take. There’s no remorse.            
David understood what it was after Nathan came and really let him have it. He fasted for how many days hoping that the child would live, but it didn’t. 
Verse 4: “Against You, You only, have I sinned…” When you sin it’s against God first and then the other people. Everybody suffered from that.    
A good example is what we’ve experienced with the Church. Remember what happened? It’s all scattered. Here we are in small groups, getting older and all of that thing, that’s all part of it! It affected every one of us. How was your attitude when you were living through those things and finding out what was going on? Miserable! That’s how all of Israel was because of the sin of David, and it took them some time to get over it. David realized that he sinned against God directly! This was after God promised that he would never lack for a descendent to sit on his throne. After that fantastic promise, God did not take away that promise, because God’s Word stands. 
“…and done evil in Your sight, that You might be justified when You speak and be in the right when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity…” (vs 4-5). That means with the law of sin and death, not that his mother committed adultery to have him as a child.         No!
“…and in sin did my mother conceive me” (v 5)—because the law of sin and death comes right with conception. It’s right there.  
Verse 6: “Behold, You desire Truth in the inward parts…” That is the goal of repentance, baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit! What’s in the inward parts before that? Deceit, lying, all the works of the flesh (Mark 7:21)! Isn’t it true that ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?’ Even King David fell to that. 
Psalm 51:6: “…and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom”. That’s why you’re going to learn  from the things that you did.
If you think of that again after you’ve repented of it, does that mean that God has not forgiven you? No! That doesn’t mean that God has not forgiven you but it means that is a memory of history for you to learn not to do that. How about here with David. It’s written for all of us! Won’t David be surprised when he’s resurrected and finds out? 
Verse 7: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me… [David says it in v 2, ‘wash me.’] …and I shall be whiter than snow.” 

End of the first half of this transcript.
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Truth of God - "Overcome Through God’s Purpose for You." By: Fred Coulter (first half)

12/26/2019

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By: Fred R. Coulter—December 14, 2019
We learn obedience from the things that we suffer with action, thought and emotion
and doing what God wants; then perfection will come at the resurrection!
The title of this message - "Overcome Through God’s Purpose for You"
(FIRST HALF of video).
(SECOND HALF of video).
Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services! (Fred rings his cowbell) Someone started a nasty rumor that I was in the hospital with a heart attack! So, just to let you know, I’m alive and I’m well. If I were sick and down, I would have Jonathan up here bringing the sermon!
 
Calendar Question:
 
I’ve gotten some comments on the Calendar booklet--Which is the True Calendar of God?—and we’re going to look at a framework. I’m going to study it and put it in proper perspective.
 
Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life… [he became 600 sometime before this] …in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened.”
 
Verse 10: “And it came to pass after seven days…” Noah and the family were all in the ark for seven days before the Flood started!
 
So, let’s look at how long there were in the ark, because that is the main framework for everything else; everything else has to fit into that framework. This means that if they were in there for seven days that they went in on the 10th day of the month and “…on the seventeenth day of the month” everything cut loose. They went on 10th day of the 2nd month.
 
Genesis 8:14—this is the next year: “And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was fully dry.” They left out of the ark on that day!
 
They were there 1 year+7 days +10 days. How long was that year? 360? 385? or 355? That’s what I’m going to have to determine to make it absolutely clear! But there’s one thing that this establishes. The time that they were in the ark was clearly established, wouldn’t you say? That’s clearly established!
 
How all of the other days fit in refer to the water. So, you have the ark and the family in the ark for 1 year, 7 days ahead and 10 days after the water.
 
How all the days of the water fit in, that’s the question. Someone just sent me something showing that if you add up all the days it’s 360. Well, you have to do your math correctly, and counting the water, the days of the water, does not necessarily equate to the length of the time that they were in the ark. So, we’ll leave it at that and let’s see what you can do.
 
What I’m going to do is take the calendar framework for 385 days, for 355 days, and for 360 days and see how it all fits.
 
A Little Politics:
 
Delores and I were talking about this nonsense of impeachment going on. I talked to someone the other day who said, ‘All Trump does is lie.’ I asked. ‘Why is that?’ Well, he never settles on anything. I said, ‘You mean like he told the Chinese that if they don’t make a deal he’ll do it after the 2020 election.’ Yeah, that’s what I mean. I said, ‘That is negotiating.’
 
·         Tell me which lie Donald Trump has deliberately spoken to deceive? Can’t find any!
·         How many lies did Obama give that caused trouble?
·         What happened after Obama told the Medvedev to ‘tell Vladimir (Putin) that I will have more flexibility after the election’?
·         What happened? The Russians invaded Crimea, took it and invaded Eastern Crimea, and Obama sent blankets and pillows to the Ukrainians for defense!
 
Obama didn’t raise anything about invading and taking Crimea.
 
·         What happened after Joe Biden and his ‘wonderful’ son Hunter went to China and came back and had that $1.5-billion set up in an investment company in America?
·         What happened?
·         Does anyone know?
 
Nothing was done by Obama!
 
·         What major thing happened? The Chinese developed that disputed island in the South China Sea and made an airbase out of it!
 
Obama didn’t even lift an little finger, or open his mouth for a single word! Two things need to understand about America:
 
1.       the Congress does not run the Presidency
2.       the ‘deep state’ does not run the Presidency
 
This is the battle that you are seeing! The Democrats are full of lies!
 
·         Was this similar to what Satan was doing to try and convince a third of the angels to follow him?
 
‘God is mean, nasty and harsh and He won’t let us do anything. Look I have glory almost like God! If we go to war and take over the throne, we’ll run the universe!’
 
·         Did that happen? Yes, it did!
 
That’s why truth is so all important!
 
*****
 
Now, because of politics a lot of people are depressed. If you watch the news and everything is all mixed up. Some people never search for the truth. A lot of people believe the lies, and a lot of people don’t believe the lies. It’s all mixed up and it leaves people depressed.
 
There’s a man who delivers some things to our house and he’s said that he’d been so tired for so long that it’s hard for him to get along and even function. It affects you, doesn’t it?
 
·         What do we need to do to keep from letting the world depress us?
·         What do we need to do to keep the focus of what we need to be doing?
 
That’s what we’re going to cover today!
 
Here’s the first thing to keep in mind, because God is greater than us and His graciousness is greater than anything we have every imagined. We’re going to cover the things that will help us, to inspire us to overcome any of these things that tend to drag us down.
 
You don’t like to watch the news and then see something like ‘shifty, nifty’ Schiff blither and blather lies, and everybody believe it! Here’s what you need to keep in mind:
 
2-Timothy 1:7—Paul is in prison: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound-mindedness. Therefore, you should not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner” (vs 7-8). Here Paul is in prison waiting to be executed. How is he keeping his spirits up there?
 
“…but jointly suffer with me for the sake of the Gospel, according to the power of God” (v 8). We’re going to suffer some things! We’re going to go through some difficult things!
 
Verse 9: “Who has saved us and called us with a Holy calling…” All of the saints are called the elect--Greek: ‘electos’--meaning selected!
 
If you get down, depressed and ‘woe is me,’ remember that God has selected you! God loves you! And we will see what we need to do in return, and what God will do in return. Here Paul is in a desperate situation inspiring Timothy.
 
“…not according to our works…” (v 9). What was Paul before he was converted? A top Pharisee! The Pharisees had a closed knit circle and he was one of the chief among them. Everything they did for approval was a work, a work, a work!
 
He’s showing here “…not according to our works…” We’ll look at the work of God’s a little later. I want you to apply this to yourself:
 
“…but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us… [God had this all planned how many eons before we even existed] …in Christ Jesus before the ages of time” (v 9).
 
How far back does that reach? The main thing here is to remember how important it is what God is doing that involves us. Everything else doesn’t matter. We know that we’re going to face a lot of difficult times.
 
I just did a couple of Church At Home {churchathome.org} Why is Evil Rampant? This is kind of a little sequel to it. How do you get along once you know that?
 
God’s purpose and timing: What is God’s purpose for us? Christ states it very early on! Matt. 5:48 is summary of everything that he brought up there. Everything in Matt. 5 has to do with how you think! That’s what conversion is all about. Before we were called and answered the called and are baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, we have what is called a carnal mind, which is enmity against God!
 
There are some people who are real nice and don’t think that they have enmity toward God. But they just can’t give up their Sunday-keeping and Christmas. That is enmity against God! It doesn’t matter if you say it nicely or shout it with acrimony! It’s still against God!
 
Matthew 5:48: “Therefore, you shall be perfect…” That’s God’s goal!
 
Think about when a baby is born. The only thing a baby knows when it’s born—because breathing comes automatically, the body is already working, the heart and everything else is working—and had a little practice in the womb by sucking its thumb, is to nurse. It knows nothing else. It may, by intuition and by the beginning of the forming of the working of the brain, understand/recognize the mother’s heartbeat and her voice. Everything else comes after that:
 
·         How did we grow up?
·         Where did we grow up?
·         What did we do?
 
I look back on my growing up, and I remember just certain things. I knew nothing about God. I heard a little bit here and there. One of our neighbors was Pentecostal and my aunt was a Sunday-school teacher. Whenever she would come over and visit us, she would bring her ‘cloth board,’ which was covered with felt. Then she would tell Bible stories with little cutout felt pieces: lamb, children, Jesus, and so forth. That’s about all I ever knew.
 
One time I was delivering papers early in the morning up in Seattle, and I went through a park and it was Easter morning. There were a lot of people there, so I went over and watching. Here are all the people, and when the preacher raised up this wafer of bread I didn’t know what it was, all the people bowed down. I wondered what this was; I knew nothing about it.
 
So, then I also remember after I got out of the Army I was at my sister’s and it was a Sunday, and I thought I’d go down to church. The only thing I knew was that the Catholics and Protestants were always at odds against each other. I go into this Episcopal church and they read the Apostle’s Creed: ‘We believe in the Holy Catholic Church.’ I said, ‘How can that be, these are Episcopalians and are Protestant and they say we believe in the Holy Catholic Church?’ I thought that this was crazy!
 
I knew nothing! Then I was going to college, had a job as a cook, and had my own little apartment. The truth is that
 
·         human beings were made to need God
·         He made us deficient
·         He made us incapable of solving our own problems our own way
 
When you have problems you look for help. The only thing I remembered was that ‘if you ask you receive.’ So, here I am walking at night and I could see a star or two and I said:
 
O God, the only thing I know is that if you ask you will receive. I’m asking. I don’t know what to do and don’t know where to go.
 
I had my little ole Nash Rambler, and in my apartment I had no television or radio. So, when going to college I could study Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Went to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’m never out of my apartment at nine o’clock at night. Here I am in my Nash Rambler and I like classical music so I had it on that station. They started playing the dirge of Bach! That’s some of the most awful classical music that there is. I can’t stand it!
 
So, I turned it to another station and heard the first World Tomorrow program. As soon as I heard that I said, ‘That’ it!’ Then things went from there and I ended up at Ambassador College.
 
But we start from nothing to become perfected! That’s the whole purpose of why we exist!
 
Matt. 6:33: tells us what we are to do after we’ve been repentant, baptized and received the Holy Spirit.
 
Matthew 6:33: “But as for you, seek first…”—‘protos’ primary, the first and most important thing in our lives is God the Father, Jesus Christ, and]: …the Kingdom of God… [in that order] …and… [How is our behavior to be?] …His righteousness…” This tells exactly what our purpose is and what we are to be doing!
 
“…and all these things shall be added to you” (v 33)--all the physical things that you need! But look at what God is going to add beyond that.
 
How is this accomplished? First of all, God calls us and we answer the call. But God’s call is His love toward us. When we’re called, then how do we respond to God?
 
Everything that we do hinges on being perfected, seeking the Kingdom of God first, and then here is the first action that we do. It’s action, thought and emotion altogether. It’s our whole life.
 
Mark 12:28: “And one of the scribes who had come up to Him, after hearing them reasoning together and perceiving that He answered them well, asked Him, ‘Which is the first commandment of all?’” The Jews always do that! What’s the most important commandment? So, He told them!
 
Verse 29: “Then Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is, “Hear, O Israel…. [put your name there] …Our one God is the Lord, the Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment’” (vs 29-30).
 
Look at how all encompassing that is! It involves thought, emotion, work and doing what God wants. This also gives us a good thought concerning conversion. This command makes mandatory all the rest of the commandments, if this is the first one! Like we’ve said concerning the Ten Commandments.
 
I just did this on Church at Home recently: Go to the Ten Commandments and tell me what’s wrong with them! Show me one thing that is wrong! You can’t! Why? Because God is love and all of His commandments are based on love.
 
The difficulties that we have is that we live in an evil world, because of Satan the devil. We’ve got these things interfering constantly, and that’s why we need the Sabbath every week. Just like the world has their thing every year, God has His thing every week and every year. Why? We learn, we grow, we add to that knowledge, and we come to understand! As we go along we also begin to understand how wicked and evil that human nature really is and how much we need God.
 
Verse 31: “And the second is like this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
 
Let’s see how we put this in action. We still have human nature and God does not remove it from us, because it’s a process of overcoming. That’s why we all die, that ends that!
 
We have a lot of senior citizens in the Church. That’s just the nature of it as it is right now. I was talking to Harry Curley just before he died and he said, ‘You know, Fred, when I first came into the Church, I was always going to weddings. Now I’m always going to funerals. I said to him, ‘You know why? Because God is harvesting!’ So, don’t look at it as some great overwhelming tragedy that you can’t overcome, because no one yet has overcome death except Christ.
 
We’re all going to die one day. But isn’t it something, as we’re young and strong and all of this sort of thing, we never think of that. I mean, when you were 25, did you think about the day that you were going to die? At 30? No! at 40 you’re still going pretty good. At 50 you’re still going good. At 60, well, maybe a thought or two. At 70 a whole lot of thoughts. At 80 a lot of thoughts! And legal things written down such as wills, and if you have any possessions, who is going to get it?
 
Remember what Solomon wrote: What if a man lives a thousand years twice-fold and he leaves everything behind? He’s taking nothing! Look at those stupid Egyptians! Great pyramids, great tombs and ‘we’re going to all take it with us.’ They all died! A monument to Satan the devil and men’s stupidity because they reject God!
 
Because we have to overcome human nature, God  has given one thing in His great love through Christ. He is the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Remember what Paul wrote, ‘Not of works…’
 
Understand that before there were human beings, probably before there were any angels, before the ages of time, God had this plan! Now, way, way, way down in time, all of those of us are part of His plan and have been with all of those recorded in the Bible, plus a lot of those in the New Testament Church who were never recorded in the Bible. There are people that we have never heard of, never seen whom God is working with, because God’s plan is greater than we think!
 
·         Can God control the whole universe? Yes!
·         Can He control one cell? Yes!
 
As a matter of fact, it’s made in a miniature design of the universe. Guess what, out bodies have trillions of cells. Isn’t that amazing? Right while we’re sitting here, our stomachs and intestines are digesting breakfast, making room for our lunch that we’ll take in a little bit. Our bodies are adjusting to the heat and we’re going to need something to drink. You need water, air, food and all of those consist of cells. That’s amazing!
 
Just think about how much God loves you just in the physical creation. He didn’t put our ears in the back of our head. He didn’t put getting rid of the waste under our chin. He made us as human beings in His image! Now, he wants to make us in His likeness! How do we keep the first commandment going, loving God, and what does this produce?
 
1 John 1:3: “That which we have seen and have heard we are reporting to you in order that you also may have fellowship with us; for the fellowship--… [that’s what it is in the Greek; not a fellowship] …indeed, our fellowship--is with the Father and with His own Son Jesus Christ.”
 
That’s why we have prayer every day; little short ones all during the day. That’s how God leads you and guides you and gives you understanding. That’s also called, with God’s Spirit and God’s Word combined, the washing of the Word by the Spirit! We will see what that does in just a minute.
 
Verse 6: “If we proclaim that we have fellowship with Him, but we are walking in the darkness… [the way of the world] …we are lying to ourselves, and we are not practicing the Truth.” A perfect description of Protestants and Catholics!
 
They keep Sunday. There are some Protestants that do preach a good deal of the Bible. But if you ask them:
 
·         What is God’s plan? We go to heaven!
·         Why do you keep Christmas? That’s when Jesus was born!
·         Why do you keep Easter? That’s when Jesus was resurrected!
 
You’re walking in darkness and you are not practicing the Truth! The Truth is the Sabbath and Holy Days, and none of that other nonsense!
 
Verse 7: “However, if we walk in the Light…” We are, because:
 
·         the Word of God is Light
·         His Spirit is Light
·         His Truth is Light
 
“…as He is in the Light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin” (v 7).
 
That’s the process of overcoming! Being cleansed of all sins!
 
Living in this age, we have more things smashed up against our brains and in our ears and eyes than any other generation has ever had, for good or for evil!
 
Jonathan just told me that they updated the Bible app, so if you if you have that you have to go and update it. They haven’t yet got it updated for apple, but it will be there. So, you have the Bible on a pad.
 
·         What do you do with it?
·         Do you use it?
·         Do you read it?
 
If you have it on your phone and you never use it, how much different is that if you have a Bible at home and it’s on the shelf. No difference!
 
Verse 8: “If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth is not in us. : If we confess our own sins…” (vs 8-9).
 
What does the daily prayer say? First thing, honor and hallow God! The next thing is ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Who is that referring to? To each one of you as you’re praying to God for His will in your life! Did Jesus have to do that on the night that He was arrested to be crucified? He had to agonize, because it was really a terrible thing that He went through!
 
Next time you have a little pity-party about how bad it is for you, go read what Jesus went through. Read Psa. 22. Then ask yourself: ‘What are my troubles?’ they’re nothing but God will help you with them!
 
“…He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (v 9). Seeking the Kingdom of God first, through the fellowship with God, and all of these things will be added to you, and become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect! See how that fits together? That’s what we are to do daily.
 
I have to admit that this last week with all of this nonsense going on with this absolute satanic, insane impeachment going on, I was a little depressed. I was going around having my own little pity-party.
 
So, what I did, I told myself I had to stop that because there’s nothing you can do about it. What can you do about it? If you worry about it, what are you going to do? Nothing! So, concentrate on what God wants you to do.
 
Verse 10: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” Who is the one who says that God is a liar? Satan the devil!
 
1-John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And yet, if anyone does sin…”--because you have the pull of human nature, lust the eyes, lust of the mind, and you have television, cell phones, billboard signs and everything like that!
 
“…we have an Advocate… [advocating, interceding] …with the Father; Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (vs 1-2). And we know that is in God’s time and plan!
 
Here’s how we know that we are doing what God wants there’s a lot of people who say that they love God, ‘I go to church every Sunday. We have a marvelous Christmas at home.’ Or a Catholic would say, ‘I go to Mass every day.’ What did God say? Once year! ‘Every day! You must be so righteous, it’s incredible!’ No! You’re deceived! I had one man say, ‘I don’t agree with you with IFMA—Independent free moral agency.’
 
Verse 3: “And by this standard we know that we know Him: if we keep His commandments.” That’s our reciprocity back to God!
 
Verse 4: “The one who says, ‘I know Him’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him.”
 
I tell you what! I was thinking of going to one of these reunions of Ambassador College; they had one in Pasadena this year and I thought that maybe I’ll go. Byron Norrod said that he went one time and ‘I would say that you wouldn’t want to go, because it would really make you disappointed and maybe even mad.’ He went and there’s everything under the sun, and was shocked to see one of his classmates who was a minister in the Church (WCG) who is now a minister in the Lutheran Church and he had a big gold cross!
 
This is why we keep His commandments; that’s back to God. Look what He’s done for us with everything else. Notice what happens here:
 
Verse 5: “On the other hand, if anyone is keeping His Word…” What does that mean? Everything that He has spoken!
 
What did Jesus say? The first thing out of His mouth with the temptation of Satan the devil, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God!
 
“…truly in this one the love of God is being perfected….” (v 5). You cannot be perfected without Law-keeping! Why? Law-keeping requires what? Mind, emotion and action!
 
“…By this means we know that we are in Him…. [this is becoming perfect, right here]: …Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself also to walk even as He Himself walked” (vs 5-6). This is becoming perfect!
 
Would you say that Christ is perfect? Yes, indeed! Perfected through the flesh and through the resurrection!
 
Verse 6 is a good one for Protestants and Catholics. And Sunday, you know that’s the thing. Where does it say at any time Jesus saying that ‘you have heard it said of old time that God is Lord of the Sabbath, but I tell you I’m Lord of Sunday.’ Do you find it in the Bible? No way! Who is the lord of Sunday? There is one who is the lord of Sunday, who claims to be God, and that’s Satan the devil! Maybe you never thought of it that way.
 
·         Can Satan be sweet? Yes!
·         Can Satan be gentle? Yes!
·        Can he say he’ll give you a benefit? Yes! I’ll give you many benefits! Yes, he can!
 
That’s what the obligation for us!
​
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