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.
Paul knew the danger of the doctrines of Judaism
(Galatians 1 & 2)
Fred R. Coulter—January 25, 2020
*(First Half of Video)
*(Second Half of Video)
*(Transcript Second Half) - Here you will find all the Scriptural References.
Greetings, brethren! Welcome to Sabbath services!
If you’ve been watching anything on the impeachment thing, you’ve seen the slickest lies in the world, and a great misinterpretation of the severity of what they claim is a crime. With that, I think it’s very interesting and made me stop and think: How did Lucifer convince a third of the angels to go with him?
(may be of interest: Creation/Re-Creation)
There may be a lot of extra of that power in the Democrat Party today! Look at all the lies that have been spoken, and when you understand that Satan is the father of lies, you understand, I think, how he was able to maneuver.
Think on this: Belief is powerful! We are to have faith, and faith is the movement of belief! You believe in faith! They work together.
If you believe a lie and you really think it is true, you believe with the same intensity as you would believe the truth.
· How does God get around that?
· What was the first warning that Jesus gave to the disciples? Let no one deceive you! First warning!
· How do we keep from succumbing to lies that sound blessedly true?
· Can you think of a Scripture?
· How do we do it? Prove all things, test the prophets whether they are of God or not!
The worst field of deceit is in the field of religion!
John 14 is a Scripture that we go over, and it’s a keynote of the Passover. Jesus told the disciples that He was going away:
John 14:4—Jesus said: “‘And where I am going you know, and the way you know.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going; how then can we know the way?’” (vs 4-5). They didn’t understand it because they didn’t have the Spirit of God, yet!
Verse 6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
So, we take the Scriptures and we compare everything to the Word of God. That’s why God had the New Testament originally written in Greek. It’s a very precise language. When you get the Interlinear you will see that 80-90% of the words must be translated exactly as it is. You can’t change that. Now, some words have more than one meaning, but it is very accurate and very true. You have the phrase, ‘answered and said.’ There is no other way to translate it. You can’t translate it ‘he was answering and saying’ because of the way that the verb is constructed.
Where do problems come in with the Scriptures? The translators, and those who found deficient Greek manuscripts, which mostly come out of Alexandria and Vaticanus! That’s where the problems come, because modern critical thinking of the Greek goes toward those Greek manuscripts rather than the Received Text.
Here is the basic one that we always go to. What’s another one? What did Jesus say about the words that He spoke? They are Spirit and they are Life! They are spiritually discerned or understood!
The Church at Corinth was one of Paul’s greatest problems. In 1-Cor. 15 he says, ‘What is it that some of you are saying that there’s no resurrection?’ Why? Because they were coming out of the Greek religions where it was ‘go to heaven or hell.’
1-Corinthians 1:19: “For it is written, ‘I [Jesus Christ] will destroy the wisdom of the wise… [all the philosophy and wrong thinking] …and I will nullify the understanding of those who understand.’” Nullify is to make it as though it never existed!
Verse 20: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its own wisdom did not know God…” (vs 20-21).
· Why? You must come to Christ! That’s where we started
· How do you do that? On God’s terms!
· What’s the first thing that Jesus said when He came into to Galilee to preach the Gospel? Repent and believe the Gospel, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!
It was the Kingdom of God in the person of Christ! He was right there!
“…it pleased God to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. For the Jews require a sign…” (vs 21-22).
Read the first chapters of the book of Acts and you will find that God gave the Jews sign after sign after sign, plus all the healings that Jesus did before He was crucified. Of all of those things, what was the last great sign that Jesus did before He was arrested? He raised Lazarus from the dead, and He deliberately left him in the tomb four days to make sure that he was dead!
Remember when they were told to roll away the stone, Martha said to Him, ‘Lord, he stinks by now!’ That’s no problem to God! He said, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ and those who saw it rejoiced, though some of them were angry and ran to the officials so that they might get rid of Jesus. They wanted a sign!
“…and the Greeks seek after wisdom… [Greek: ‘sophia’ and ‘philo sophia’ is lover of wisdom] …but we proclaim Christ crucified. To the Jews it is a cause of offense, and to the Greeks it is foolishness; but to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren…” (vs 22-26).
God is starting from the bottom up; He’s not working from the top down
“…that there are not many who are wise according to the flesh, not many who are powerful, not many who are highborn among you. Rather, God has chosen the foolish things of the world” (vs 26-27). So, why should we get all excited and uplifted in importance?
“…so that He might put to shame those who are wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world so that He might put to shame the strong things” (v 27)--because they’re going to be converted and resurrected, and become the sons and daughters of God! They can take care of any of the strong things of man--period! Hands down!
Verse 28: “And the lowborn of the world, and the despised has God chosen--even the things that are counted as nothing—in order that He might bring to nothing the things that are.”
Think about that! When you go on a trip and you see all of these people. Get on a plane and there are three seats on each side, and you’ve got to be thin to walk down the isle. When I get on a plane, I always tease the stewardess and say, ’You know, this isle is just too wide.’
What’s going on that everyone on planes and trains will be thinking about? Best laid plans of men? The great wisdom of men? The Coronavirus! They have shut down eleven cities in China. Have you watched the news on what they eat? They had last year swine flu where they had to kill 150-million swine!
This year they have the Coronavirus! How did that start? Well, it showed the picture of the food that they eat: alligators, snakes, rats, koalas, donkeys, horses, cats, dogs and salamanders!
What did God say? See what happens with all the ‘wisdom’ that they have? Everything that they’re doing over there, and they think that they’re so wise, but they’re so dishonest because they steal everything.
What is the basic command of God? These are the foods that you shall eat…! and These are the foods that you shall not eat…! Why? Because He loves us and He doesn’t want us to get sick with things like Coronavirus!
The city where the Coronavirus started is Wuhan, China, and that’s where the Chinese have the biological warfare. So, there is some thought that maybe some of the Coronavirus escaped from there. Then they also can have a tactic where they can send people who are infected to other countries to spread it to them. Just think how absolutely fragile the whole system is! Highly developed and everything dependant upon electricity, and the wisdom of men in peace and in war!
Let’s see what God wants us to do, because there’s only one Gospel and many false gospels.
Verse 26: “For you see your calling, brethren, that there are not many who are wise according to the flesh, not many who are powerful, not many who are highborn among you. Rather, God has chosen…” (vs 26-27). That’s interesting! Not called, but chosen! Chosen comes from repentance and baptism!
“…God has chosen the foolish things of the world, so that He might put to shame those who are wise…” (v 27).
How does that work today? When we see all the foolishness of what men are doing, especially in this impeachment thing, we can see where they’re absolutely wrong!
“…and God has chosen the weak things of the world so that He might put to shame the strong things. And the lowborn of the world, and the despised has God chosen--even the things that are counted as nothing--in order that He might bring to nothing the things that are” (vs 27-28).
The Gospel of God is the same yesterday, today and forever, as the Bible says.
Colossians 1:21: “For you were once alienated… [from God] …and enemies in your minds by wicked works…”
That’s why conversion is in the mind, not outward actions alone. Some of the greatest con-artists can have such wonderful actions on the outside, but they do it to deceive! So, God wants it on the inside. That’s where the wickedness comes that God is looking to.
“…but now He has reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, to present you Holy and unblamable and unimpeachable before Him; if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which you have heard, and which was proclaimed in all the creation that is under heaven; of which I, Paul, became a servant” (vs 21-23).
The Gospel has gone out and continues to go out! Where is the Gospel contained? In the whole Bible! That’s the Gospel! If we think about how many different ways that it’s out there now, it’s quite a thing! Let’s see something about the Gospel and the Truth!
1-John 2:15: “Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because everything that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pretentious pride of physical life—is not from the Father, but is from the world” (vs 15-16). Who is the ‘god of this world’? Satan the devil!
Verse 17: “And the world and its lust is passing away… [that is in our lives, down through the generations to the return of Christ] …but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
This tells you what happened in the last part of the apostolic age. We will see how the Church was literally coming apart.
Verse 18: “Little children, it is the last time…” For the apostolic age it was the last time, but that doesn’t mean that it is the end of the world!
“…and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, by which we know that it is the last time. They went out from among us, but they were not of us because if they were of us, they would have remained with us; nevertheless, they left that they might be exposed to show that they all were not of us” (vs 18-19).’
· How did that happen?
· What did they do?
· What did they change?
· What were the Jews preaching? Christ is an imposter!
· What were the Greeks preaching? You don’t need to keep the Law!
Both of those elements are here in this Epistle of John!
Verse 20: “But you have the anointing from the Holy One, and you have knowledge of all things pertaining to salvation.” Obviously, you don’t have knowledge of all things! This can only be of the things for salvation!
Verse 21: “I did not write to you because you do not know the Truth, but because you know it, and you understand that not one lie comes from the Truth.” That’s why you prove everything!
· What’s the greatest sin of human beings in God’s Word? To change it! To add their own traditions!
· What happens with that? It’s like it was during the days of Jesus:
ü you make the void the Word of God
ü you make void the commandments of God
because of traditions! Yet, when people do that, and they accept it as from God, they are convinced that they are right, and the whole thing is upside down. When they look at those who are in the Churches of God, who keep the commandments of God, Sabbath and the Holy Days.
Revelation 14:12: “…here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” That tells us that it takes faith to keep the commandments, the faith that comes from God!
1-John 2:22: “Who is the liar if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?…. [that’s what the Jews did] …He is the antichrist—the one who denies the Father and the Son.” Now it’s both!
The Jews want a sign and the Greeks want wisdom (1-Cor.).
Verse 23: “Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either.” Jesus said, ‘I know that the Word of God does not dwell in you’ (book of John)!
Verse 24: “Therefore, let what you have heard from the beginning dwell in you; if what you have heard from the beginning is dwelling in you, then you will be dwelling in the Son and in the Father.”
What have the Catholics done? There are three major things that they have done!
1. Sunday-keeping, rejecting the Sabbath
2. trinity, saying there are three Gods
3. elevation of Mary to the Queen of Heaven and be the mediatrix for human beings replacing Christ
The Catholics who are devoted… and there are a lot of evil spirits that keep them in bondage to those things. Another one is:
4. idols
Verse 25: “And this is the promise that He has promised us: eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are leading you astray” (vs 25-26). Coming along with interesting sounding doctrines!
Verse 27: “But you yourselves have dwelling in you the anointing that you received from Him; and you do not have need of anyone to indoctrinate you… [in other teachings] …for the same anointing instructs you in all spiritual things… [plus we have the Word of God now] …and is true, and is not a lie; and if you do exactly as it has taught you, you will be dwelling in Him. And now, little children, dwell in Him, so that when He is manifested we may have boldness, and not be put to shame before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been begotten by Him” (vs 27-29). That’s the complete thing with that!
2-John is filled with love, Truth and commandment-keeping! Every verse there has that!
2-John 10: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine…”--the doctrine of Christ: His death and resurrection and ascension to heaven that He is the Son of God.
“…do not receive him into your house, and do not say to him, ‘Welcome!’ For anyone who says, ‘Welcome!’ to him is partaking in his evil works” (vs 10-11).
How bad was this insurrection within the Church?
Verse 12: “I have many things to write, but I do not wish to convey these things to you with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face in order that our joy may be completely full.” That’s how all of these different doctrines came about!
Let’s see what Paul writes concerning these things; 1-Timothy 1:2: “To Timothy, my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul has something like this in every one of his epistles, because he is writing what God wants him to write!
Verse 3: When I was going to Macedonia, I exhorted you to remain in Ephesus, in order that you might solemnly charge some not to teach other doctrines… [teachings] …nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which lead to empty speculations rather than to edification from God, which is in faith” (vs 3-4).
People can speculate about a lot of things. Sometimes you can speculate, and you can guess the Truth, but unless you prove that it is Truth after you have speculated and you’ve determined it might be true, then it’s possible that it could not be true.
Verse 5: “Now, the purpose of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and genuine faith.” There can’t be anything greater than this one little verse to define conversion!
Ø “…love out of a pure heart…” What does God want to do? Change our heart and mind, in good conscience; not devious and deceitful!
Ø “…and genuine faith”--If you truly believe in God the Father and Jesus Christ! And you truly believe the Word of God!
Verse 6: “From which some, having missed the mark, have turned aside unto vain jangling.”
Do you remember the man who was a Greek scholar? Stavrinides! {of the former WCG}. That was the wisdom of this world and Satan the devil. That was the biggest test against the Church, because they had become so lackadaisical and bringing in too much of the world. That test came along and he, in his Greek philosophy, changed the nature of God! When you do that, you’re denying the Father and denying the Son!
Verse 7: “Desiring to be teachers of the Law, neither understanding what they are saying, nor what they are strongly affirming.”
Why? Because they believe a lie with the same conviction that they should believe the Truth!
Verse 8: “Now we know that the law is good, if anyone uses it lawfully”--meaning not living in transgression!
So, here comes along Sunday-keeping. That was very appealing to a lot of the Greeks. They did not want to be counted in with the Jews, because if you’re keeping the commandments of God, you’re counted with the Jews! The Jews profess to keep the commandments of God, but they don’t keep the commandments of God the way that God says.
So, when someone came along and said, ‘Look, why should you suffer this persecution. We can meet on Sunday and the Romans won’t come and get us.’ A lot of people said, ‘I don’t know about that.’ Come and try it and you’ll like it, and see if it’s spiritual or not. Guess what? They had enough of the Truth… Isn’t that the way it always starts out, with enough of the Truth? Gradually, it metamorphoses! Look where it’s grown to!
Verse 9: “Understanding this: that law is not enacted for a righteous man…” If you’re righteous, that tells you that you’re keeping the commandments of God!
· righteous because you have the Spirit of God
· righteous because you’ve had your sins forgiven
“…but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for slayers of fathers and slayers of mothers, for murderers” (v 9). Today we can add abortion ad infinitum!
Sidebar: Last year worldwide, guess how many abortions there were? 42-million! All of that is being stored up for God and Christ’s returning!
Verse 10: “For fornicators, for homosexuals, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing that is opposed to sound doctrine.” Think about that! Sound doctrine and Law-keeping go hand-in-glove!
Verse 11: “According to the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God, with which I was entrusted.”
Verse 16: “But for this reason I was shown mercy in order that in me first Jesus Christ might demonstrate all long-suffering, for an example to those who would afterwards believe on Him unto eternal life. Now to the King of eternity, the incorruptible, invisible, and only wise God, be honor and glory into the ages of eternity. Amen” (vs 16-17).
Notice that Paul tells Timothy to hold the faith and remember his ordination:
Verse 19: “Holding to the faith and a good conscience. For some, having cast aside a good conscience...”
If you believe a lie, what happens? Sooner or later you have a corrupted conscience! That means that sin no longer affects you in the same way that it would if you had the Spirit of God and the Laws of God. You become inured to it.
“…have made shipwreck in regard to the faith; of whom are Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I turned over to Satan in order that they may learn not to blaspheme” (vs 19-20).
1-Timothy 3:14: “These things I am writing to you, hoping to come to you shortly; but if I should delay, you have these things in writing, so that you may know how one is obligated to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the Truth” (vs 14-15).
That’s what you should always find in the congregations of God, the Truth! The Truth of God; the truth of things.
Verse 16: “And undeniably, great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in glory.”
Look at the difference. Here comes the enemy, and remember that Satan the devil is always the enemy. Satan the devil is going to come after the Church with great ferocity in the future. All you have to do is look at the atheists, the agnostics and those who can’t tolerate any form of Christianity. They are going to be very dangerous in the future.
1-Timothy 4:1: “Now, the Spirit tells us explicitly that in the latter times some shall apostatize from the faith, and shall follow deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”
There are teachings and doctrines of demons, and many of them will sound very good!
Verse 2: “Speaking lies in hypocrisy, their consciences having been cauterized with a hot iron; forbidding to marry…” (vs 2-3).
Look at all the problems that has caused the Catholic Church. That’s just one. The only time the Catholics are right is when they read the Scriptures correctly. Every other thing they are totally wrong!
“…and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful, even by those who know the Truth” (v 3). Tie in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14!
Verse 4: “For every creature of God designated for human consumption is good, and nothing to be refused, if it is received with thanksgiving.”
Protestants read this and say, ‘Let’s have our barbeque pork, and our shrimp, lobster, clams and all of this sort of thing.’
Verse 5: “Because it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.” So, what God says not to eat, don’t eat! What God says is good to eat, eat! And you’ll probably not come down with the Coronavirus!
Verse 13: “Until I come, devote yourself to reading, to encouragement, and to doctrine. Do not neglect the spiritual gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the elderhood. Meditate on these things; give yourself wholly to them so that your growth in the faith may be apparent to all. Be diligent with yourself and with the doctrines; continue in them. For in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (vs 13-16). Look at the responsibility that Paul lays upon the ministry!
That’s a very important things, because Paul wrote in Rom. 2, to the Jews, ‘You who preach the Law, why are you breaking the Law? You who think you can teach others, don’t you teach yourself?’ That’s why an elder is going to be held accountable for everything. So, he has got to stay:
· true
· faithful
· yielded to God
· doing the things that God wants him to do
1-Timothy 6:3: “If anyone teaches any different doctrine, and does not adhere to sound words, even those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine that is according to Godliness, he is proud and knows nothing. Rather, he has a morbid attraction to questions and disputes over words, from which come envy, arguments, blasphemy, wicked suspicions, vain reasonings of men who have been corrupted in their minds and are destitute of the Truth--men who believe that gain is Godliness. From such withdraw yourself” (vs 3-5).
That’s what God has been doing with the Church ever since the big blowup! How many will stick with the Truth?
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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