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I just like Daddy. What he says some verses in First Corinthians chapter 2.
About being careful, sometimes I think we don't understand.
What it is to allow ourselves to be exposed to lives.
Let's see verse one read the 1St 5 verses.
And I read, when I came to you, came not with Excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, He was telling them the truth.
I determine not to know anything among you, say Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling in my speech. In my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit of power that your faith.
Shall not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
We have to say this. It's not what the apostle was saying. That is the subject. Here is how he was saying it.
With these men that speak comes a spirit. It's how they're saying what they're saying.
You and I might be able, by the grace of God, in some little measure, to sift out these doctrines, but you can't sift out how they're speaking.
We expose ourselves to these people listening on the radio and.
You know it's it's.
We are very foolish to think we are able to do that, expose ourselves to these preachers who say some things, true and lovely things. And to think, oh, I'll sift out the bad doctrines and just I'll just eat the good and throw in the best. You can't. It's how they're speaking to you. It comes a spirit with it that you can't sit down, run for your life highly in Christ. You'll find everything you need in the Lord Jesus Christ you don't need.
That you have more to lose than they have to gain. I mean to give. Excuse me? You have more to lose, and they have to give. If you have gathered the name of the Lord Jesus, stay there. The problem is that you already hinted at that. That we have become lazy Christians. You know, we're listening to the radio. That's the source for our food. We have lost the art of reading and meditating on the word of God ourselves.
And then turn to what we know to be sound ministry. You know that people say, well, I have a hard time reading J&D, have a hard time reading William Kelly. Well, I have seen people saved from Catholicism who didn't have scriptural backgrounds like the children growing up in the meeting and everyday of Kelly. It's all a question of exercise and desire. So be careful Brother Albert.
Used to tell us you might have heard of say that if you would know there's a pact with food on the table that has 5% poison. The rest of it is good. Would you put it before your table? No, you wouldn't. Would be. So I think we have to become exercise and become more diligent, you know and search the scriptures for ourselves.
Read them, meditate upon them, and get hold of things instead of justice. Turning on the radio and listening to some person who might have the wonderful ability to preach, you know, and we're too much taken up by eloquence anyway, you know.
What counts is the message that is brought and even isn't eloquent. Doesn't really matter that much, but if the substance is the truth of God.
The spirit of God can use it for feeding our souls. Is verse 6A safeguard against what we've been talking about.
We are of God, He knoweth God heareth us, don't have us. I believe refers the apostle.
Neither is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know he the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error.
As far as the radio is concerned, the Epistle of James has a Town of Fountain send forth both Sweetwater and Bitter.
Notice in verse 4 the emphasis is on ye. Verse five it's on they. Verse 6 is on we. Verse four ye are of God, little children. He's talking about the family of God and have overcome them, these false teachers, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. That's the spirit of God. We have the divine teacher within and that's developed in this epistle. And then he talks about these false prophets, these false teachers. They are of the world.
00:05:29
Therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. And then he talks about the apostles under the weed. We are God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. You might say. Well, we don't have an apostle today. There are none living, but we have the writings. And that's how we hear them, isn't it? Is their writings. Amen.
And that's that's our safeguard. It's the word of God sometimes. I was just reading this. I just picked up this pamphlet on the back table. Can only Christians be gathered to one place. It's the Christians only be gathered to one place. And the the argument against against the one place is but brother so and so is so godly and so well taught that he preaches and he's not gathered and that kind of thing.
And in the pamphlet the the ministry was what does the word of God say? And that's simple. What does the word of God say? It sets before us 1% that we've been talking about that person and the truth of this person. So all the reasonings and the fact that other Christians who may be more godly than I am or than you are, and very gifted men, they hold and teach differently. That should not affect us. We have to go to the what is the word of God say, that's what the we refers to here.
But what can I also admit? That sometimes souls have been stubbled by the worthiness and the poor testimony that is displayed in those gathered to the name of the Lord, and they found more godliness with some who were identified with error. They're not excused by this, but I believe it ought to humble us that we, by our worldliness, have stumbled souls.
And they have gotten into error because they found more godliness among some of the people who are identified with error. They judged more by outward things. And the word of God definitely teaches that Christianity is not only an inward thing, it is also an outward thing, and it addresses things outwardly, such as dress, hair, and all of these things. So I believe we have to admit in power heads that we many times have stumbled Souls.
By our worldliness and activities that we engage in and allow ourselves as Christians, gather to the name of the Lord, there ought to be more spiritual exercise and godliness, practical holiness, in the lives of those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
It might be the site's worldliness. It might be legality that stumbles also and turns souls aside. It might be the abuse of authority that is not properly exercised and used. It might be the.
The setting up of a hierarchy amongst us, you say? Well, that's not possible as it is. Oh yes it is. It might be any one of these things that has turned souls away and stumbled them and caused them to to wonder about the place. This is an entirely different line that you opened up, but it's not just worldliness, but it's a lot of things that can stumble souls, and so how we have to be so careful.
Even the lack of God, the care in the assembly, you know, that is sometimes the case too, that those who God would have in the position of oversight a chance or a void is because it's not a pleasant thing, and this is all something that the enemy can use. But everyone really, in the final analysis, is responsible to give an answer to the Lord for their path.
That they walked in. And if we individually played to the law personally, we can be preserved in spite of all the weaknesses and failures that we might witness amongst other people. That lesson comes out in the first sin.
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Adam tried to blame his wife and God and it didn't work. Adam was responsible himself. We can't blame other people for what we do and what we say right here is the responsibility.
Well, few minutes ago our brother read 2nd Corinthians 10 and five. And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, that is, that we should obey as Christ obey.
Oh, how far short we come, brother. We should obey and heal these. Oh, fix our earnest gaze. So holy Lord, on thee with thy beauty occupied we elsewhere None makes thee they heed the object.
The danger of seeing the failures of our brethren, And there are many.
The danger of looking at that and focusing on that is to cause one to maybe leave the path and get out there in the confusion that exists among those not gathered to the Lord's name and find a very godly Christians, and so on. But those that do that, they're going to find out.
When some trouble comes in, and it will that they're not as nice as they thought they were, that they had the flesh too. And no matter where you go in Christendom, you're going to have to deal with people, and people have the flesh within them. They're just like you and me, Whether you like to believe that or not. They're no different. And we have to get along with one another because we don't have any choice about that. We have to follow where the word of God puts us, not because I like you.
Or I like your company. And so on. I happen to, but that's not the reason I'm here. It's because of the word of God. And that's what has to be. This is you can leave the Lord, but you can't leave the breath. Wherever you go, you're going to find breath. So you can leave the Lord. You can't leave breath thinking of what it says. If God so loved us.
So we did love one another.
I believe, you know, I was thinking recently that Christian obedience is not primarily to get something for me.
If I'm obeying to get something from me, I don't understand that I have it in Christ.
Christian obedience is always to get something for somebody else.
And in Hebrews it's in Hebrews chapter is it 13 where you get those that have to give a count?
We're 17.
Hebrews 13 verse 17.
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must.
Give accounts that they may do with joy. You know they don't have to give account for my soul, they have to give account for their watching.
And if I love it, if I have walking in that love that belongs to us, love one another.
I will be happy to submit so that he doesn't have any problem giving account for his watching.
Love is the basis of our path. We're not fighting on other words here, to love one another and help every one of us, each one of us helping the other, to get something for Christ.
It's not a question of of of getting some again repeated because it's in my own soul. Sometimes I think I'm obeying because I want this in the Lord and I think I want to get. I don't understand what it is to be a Christian on that basis to it.
But loving others, Being obedient and submissive for the benefit of others. Because Christ loved me, it's not what they are. If God so loved us, how is that love sovereign love, unaffected by what it found?
They loved anyway.
Then. So we ought to love one another the same way. Now, you know, we've been talking about doctrines and bad doctrines and brotherhood associated with evil and so forth. I remember what Brother Ramon said years ago. We have to love all our brothers, but we can always have fellowship with them. And we don't want their errors or our errors and their failures or our failures to narrow our hearts.
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Only our pathways now and the.
We love them as God loves. We don't love them in their sins. We don't help them in their sins. We would want to let them out of their sins. We want to be exercised that they come out of those things and enjoy the Lord Jesus, which is their true portion of their believers.
Well, the tendency is for the pendulum to swing from legality to a looseness. Or say there's a condition of things where if you, if you say anything out of place in the meeting, someone will call you to task for it. They're very legal and things that are not fundamental issues. And then we get cleared from that and then we swing to the other extreme, that you can make the greatest blunders and no one will say anything.
No one will correct it. That's worse. That's worse. We need to be corrected. I remember sitting in a meeting, I was there for you a number of years in Oak Park. And there's a brother there very well taught. And there's someone we gave up, give out some thoughts. Way off, not right. And this, this brother, this well talk brother. He just smile smiling and I won't see you do that. You know, that's got to be corrected. But later on in the meeting.
When it was somewhat removed from the from the error that was stated, he'd come back to the point and he'd correct it. So he'd do it in such a way as not to put the one down that made the mistake. But he corrected it. And there's a way of correcting it. We must not let error slip. We must we. We have to be faithful. Love is faithful. We have to be faithful. And when mistakes are made, we may not have to jump on it all the time. Or if if you don't, just say it the way brethren, say it.
You're criticized.
That kind of a spirit is very deadening and dampening to the spirit, but then error has to be corrected, especially when it's error concerning the person in the work of Christ.
Connection with correction. I've enjoyed this thought. Correction without compassion does not do the work of God.
The sixth verse brings us for us the word of God.
As that which will keep us.
In the right path, but immediately then it introduces.
The love let us love one another where love is of God.
But notice that statement. He that knoweth God heareth us. Verse six. He that is not of God heareth not us. That's the that's the the the final Test of one Does he know God? Well, he will hear the apostles. He'll hear the word of God. And if he doesn't hear the word of God, he doesn't know it. He's he's not subject. If he's not subject to the word that God has spoken and indicted through the apostles, he doesn't know that.
That's what John is saying is very absolute in his statement, certainly so if we do not accept the correction even when it is clearly presented to us on the word of God.
That leaves the question open whether there is a reality of faith in the individual.
I believe that's conclusion that we draw now sometimes.
Will, because self will is so strong that we pursue a path of self will for a long time, and it takes the law of Lord sometimes a while before he can correct us. But we have to remember that the Scripture says that the fool despises correction, and I believe we all ought to.
It sincerely ask the Lord for grace that we accept correction whenever it is needed, because it helps us. If you do not accept correction, just think thou as to the truth as to the person of Christ, a simple soul that comes in amongst the Saints of God from a place where they did not believe the truth of Scripture as to the sinless humanity. And he said that the Lord Jesus could have sinned.
We certainly, certainly should be patient to help that person to try to see the error. But you see, if the error is persisted in, you know that will render that person unfit for fellowship among those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus and love many times, while we all, I'm sure, have to confess that we lack in it. I don't think any upright soul.
00:20:18
Would say that.
I don't have a problem with that. I always show love. I think we all lack in that and need to be admonished. But I think sometimes love is taken for human kindness or human kindness to be taken for love. You know, if somebody persists in the course of sin and evil and we fellowship with that person, we are not really showing love to that person and in our disciplining of our children.
You know.
What is being circulated in the world today is not really love. You know. Love at times requires firm measures to be taken, and the subject of discipline in the word of God is a tremendous subject that we benefit from by looking at it. But we have to remember that we must not have a false idea of love.
You know, for instance, my brother in the flesh.
Would live in sin. Can I use that scripture in the Old Testament that a priest could defile himself for one near near Kent? No, That would be an abuse of the word of God. And I cannot have fellowship with one close to me that pursues the course of sin, because that Scripture in the Old Testament supposes.
That there is a death in the family and something that cannot be avoided. It is not at all a question of making fellowship with one that is going on in sin. So I believe these things might well be helpful to balance this. While we have too many times having our head and say we don't show enough patience, we don't show enough love and dealings with one another, we also go to the other extreme and allow ourselves to be influenced.
By what is considered kindness and love in the world?
There is a scripture in the Old Testament of what you say reminds me of.
If one was defiled.
And another where I came and touched that person, they became defiled and so if there is evil allowed, though a person may be ever so godly.
Yeah, because they're going on without evil, which is allowed. It's defiling to them. Also, association or contact with evil is behind the country, but going back to the matter of judging.
14 verse 29 Let the prophet speak two or three, and let the other judge.
I like very much what you said, Brother Chuck. There is a right way and a wrong way of correcting that which is not just as acidic. Could you could you repeat that verse apart that sixth verse and give it to us phrase by phrase?
I find difficulty in thinking that everyone that you know doesn't bow to the apostles word in fact.
Just what does that mean?
Are these talking about people who have incorrect doctrine as to the person and worship Christ or it isn't just someone who might stay up to say, say well, I think the nomination that was great because it.
Everybody, the different personalities, someplace to go. People say that let's air. It's not according to what the apostles say, but you couldn't say that person wasn't of God. I'm just asking a question.
The budget here is the person, the price that he came in flesh and.
That's that's vital if one should not submit to that the teaching of the apostles.
In that matter, he's not a God.
Characteristic statement to the he just, he says that's what characterizes those and that's what characterizes these.
Results if we go to the very first verses of this epistle. Let's look at them.
John 11 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard. Now there's the opponent.
00:25:06
Well, what about that they heard, which we have seen with our eyes more than that.
We have looked upon, they pondered that person of Christ and our hands have handled of the word of life. Now this is the apostles what they've got personally in their work with the Lord Jesus here below he puts in a parenthesis. The light was manifested and we have seen it. That's the Apostle.
And bear witness one, and showing you that eternal life is for us.
Which was with the Father, and was manifested under rest. That which we have seen the apostles and Her declare we undue that He also may have fellowship with us. That's the first fellowship here, fellowship with the apostles through hearing the Word, keeping their doctrine.
Like the very beginning when the Church is set up. Acts 242.
They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. That's what they got from the apostles.
That's what they heard. We've got more than they had on that day. But they continued in what the apostles who were then present told them. And then so they continued that as being apostles, doctrine and fellowship. Now you and I get indirectly what the apostles got directly. It's very, very simple. It's the word of God that's come to us and it brings us into this wonderful fellowship.
With God the Father and with his Son. Then he go on that first epistle.
You got a little space in there.
And it says.
In verse 7.
If we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sins. Now that's where we go and that brings us into fellowship that those that are walking in that life like to add something in relation to what the Vernon was the question, you know when we.
We're in a sense we're we're loved. Doubly loved. I I I like it that way. We're.
Saved and gathered.
And it's all grace. Grace, just like grace saved me. Grace gathered me to the name of the Lord Jesus. Now when I from this?
Place of grace I look out on, say, a system.
I'm looking at two things. One that God hates. One that God loves.
He loves his people and he hates that system. That system is the devil's work. It's not God's work.
As I look on that, the enemy of my soul wants to confuse me about this. He wants me to get me to hate my brethren and love the system.
He wants to confuse me about these things.
You know, we walked on with Christ and that's the only way that the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we have that on a daily basis communion with him. We'll keep these things straight. And the fact that there is error and I hate there, I should hate the error. I should never let as it were. But the sun go down as I hate this error and I should never let that affect me in one bit. And the love I have for my brethren who are there and just any instant now I want to be standing at the feet of Jesus with every one of my brethren.
To his joy, To his joy, my joy, Oh, sure. But to his joy and their joy. Now I gather, Do I come to meeting thinking I'm coming for me?
Why am I coming for Christ and my bread my whole in that for them whole is ground He gathers out apart from evil. Here we stand. Wait. We're waiting for all of them to come. If our hearts narrow in at all, we've lost the sense of what it is to be gather the thing with the Lord Jesus. But our path has to remain known. Otherwise we're going to get confused and the enemy is going to gain ascendancy over our affections.
And we're going to love that which God hates and hate that which God loves. But we get it straight. God loves his people, but he hates those systems that hold them in ******* the work of the enemy himself.
Whatever degree we fail to imbibe the apostles doctrine, in that degree we are not a God.
00:30:04
Moral charge to Corinthians?
When there was sectarianism, are ye not carnal, and walk according to men. So in whatever element I fail to imbibe and receive and believe and walk in fellowship with the apostle doctrine, and that I miss the mind of God, I'm according to man, but a bill you would probably allow to add to your comments, that I cannot have fellowship with my brethren in Christ who go on.
In a unscriptural course, we don't want to confuse love and fellowship. That's what I mean. So while we painfully feel the lack of fellowship, and I think this is very often times fail, you know that we are very much content to walk with just those that are willing to practice the truth of God with us, and we don't even miss our brethren in Christ.
You know, and we don't painfully miss them. And that is not a manifestation of godliness, you know, the Lord would really want us to feel that. I've often used the example.
If somebody has to have an amputation and he loses his arm or his leg, and he would say so, what, I didn't need it anyway. You question whether the person is of a sound mind. Well, he had lost the practical use of members of the Body of Christ because they're going on in an unscripted system.
And we cannot have fellowship with them. We might in a measure, in a personal contact with them.
Try to be a help to them, but we cannot in any way identify ourselves and have fellowship with them in their error and if they persist, in the error concerning the person of five.
We might even not have any social contact with them. So these are all things that prove our love for our brethren, and obedience to the word of God is how we demonstrate our love for our better.
John Five or first John Pie Brothers and verse 2.
By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.
So we say the measure of our love is the extent of our obedience to the word of God.
Might hang our heads that we've had to take up the meeting on these subjects, getting to the one that we had read to us this morning. God is love.
Apparently we needed these nudges that would hinder us from entering into the heights of the statement that.
Thinking there's one question that maybe trouble the young and that is why does the Lord allow this power, the powers of darkness, for us to come into contact with them? He could have set us in a world where we didn't have any conflict like this.
Is it not to test the affections of our hearts? And there may be some young that are worrying. I I don't know if I've gotten everything has been said here this morning. And one thing is certain that if we hear evil doctrine, false doctrine, it will trouble the affections of our hearts and the fellowship that we're speaking about will not be able to freely enter into.
We're troubled and so if we find our affections trouble, perhaps we have invited some of this.
Some influence that we need to judge. And the conflict is very real and is with us every day. And the purpose of it is, is to turn the affections of our hearts away from our blessed Lord. Like to read one verse in Deuteronomy 13 appears itself.
When the children of Israel went into the land, God could have had that land already purged before they entered in.
There was idolatry and corruption there in that land, and they were to utterly destroy it, But it seems like it's capped in verse five of Deuteronomy 13. It says in that process for that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the House of *******.
00:35:17
To thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in, so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of the.
So it must be violence. So that which is enterprise claim to that which is good.
Sing Together #186.
She's of three. We never retired.
The new and living food can satisfy our hearts at night should divide by this. We're pressing onwards still in this postal feed, more subject to the Father's will be now much more likely than 186.
I love.
Swimming. Praise.
00:40:42
I be.
Gracious God and our Father, we do thank you for this little time together. We think of the end of this dispensation, the last bit of time here upon her for the Church. We think of what we're surrounded with the Father. We see our danger of being lopsided. And so we cry under thee, give us life, cause us to have our mind about mistakes that we might go on in the tree.
We just looked at the new plea. You see the danger.
Being LED away one side to the other and so we just looked at the bottom.
On the right path we asked for Jesus and thy name.
Number three 1994 Denver first reading meeting First John 4 verses 1 to 8 Hymn #309 is being sung.
First John 4 on my heart I someone else has another port and I'm quite happy to turn to.
First Epistle of John, Chapter 4.
They love, believe not every spirit, but try the spirit whether they are of God.
Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit a composite that Jesus Christ is coming, the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh, is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereas he has heard that it should come.
And even now already isn't in the world Year of God, Little Children.
And have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not us all heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth.
And the spirit of error, beloved, let us love one another.
00:45:05
For love is of God, and everyone that loves us is born of God and knowest God. He that loveth N knows not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.
Here in Islam.
The North that we love God, but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelt in US, and his love is perfect in US.
Thereby no way that we dwell in Him and He and us, because He has given us all of His Spirit, and we have seen and to testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelt in him, and he in God.
And we have known and believed the laws that God has to us.
God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him. Here it is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.
Because as he is, so are we in this world. There is No Fear in love, but perfect love cast about fear, because fear has torment.
He that spirit is not made perfect in love. We love him.
Because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hated his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, How can he love God, whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loves his brother also?
In Bolivia many years ago.
We were in a mission. Work amongst brother gathered the Lord's name too.
But there were names that came in.
And some doctors taken up.
Especially concerning what you have in Second John, where the woman is the guardian of the house, and she is told in verse ten of Second John, if there come any unto you, And bringing out this doctrine.
Receive it not at your house, neither bidding God's feet. That is the doctrine that Jesus is gone and Jesus is a man. These two things we must.
Oh well. Ministry had been presented on it.
The room was full room, not quite this big, but they were sitting on the floor, standing in the doorway.
And the brethren were ministering, were more up the front. And I saw an Indian brother stand up over there, and he just stood there.
Until there was a little quiet.
I just couldn't think.
Of closing the door on anybody. He just couldn't think that that wasn't love to him.
Wales would explain to him truthfully and love the particular homes. It would keep these.
That bring bad doctrine out of the place.
Many.
False prophets are going into the world.
Yes, they're here in 1994, they found, and God would have us protect our home. One thing I thought.
00:50:10
That brother.
He he couldn't get in. The ministry was going on. So he stood up and I thought of that verse in First Corinthians 14. Is anything being revealed to one that sits by let the first hold his peace. Where were the brethren who were speaking saw this other stand up. They held their peace and they gave him a door of entrance to get this thing settled down that.
We are to guard our home and the proof of our love is that Jesus is gone and Jesus is a man. And so we have to guard against and we're not. Can't believe every spirit that goes out in the world today.
I remember sitting in a room and there were two brothers that were visiting and we didn't know them.
And we've had about 3 sentences of introduction. How are you finding so forth? First thing.
That this stranger said Arias was right.
And if you know who Arias was, he was one of the first leaders in the in the heresy of blasphemy, Arianism is called. And I thought about that. I said here's 1600 years or so later.
That lie is still with a squad because there's a spirit of error as there is a spirit of truth. There's a power active in the scene to keep lies alive.
You know, it says here they have gone out into the world.
That which gives the world its present evil character would be the false prophets who have gone out. The world didn't generate them. They came out from among professing believers.
Back in chapter 2.
We see them.
Verse 18, Little children, it is the last time.
And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come even now. Are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from us?
But they were not of us. These are unbelievers.
Verse 26.
These things have I written on you concerning them that.
I think the new translation reads lead you astray starting off with unbelievers Antichrist and a Christian in character and they led believers out. The fact that believers went out to join them did not change the character of the movement and it has a an anti Christian character even to today. And this is the beginning of sectarianism we see in chapter 2.
And for you and me, we need to walk advisedly because I was thinking as the brother read this chapter before we get to God's love.
We're brought to a place where we see God is white, and if we don't guard ourselves against these things that are everywhere, we shouldn't expect to enter into the joy of that which follows God's love.
But might be helpful.
For some who have never heard of these main areas, what was this error?
He argued that the Lord Jesus was of a similar substance, not of the same substance as the Father so.
What was the truth, or what is the truth in the word of God that can really refuse that error? It's the eternal sunships. Is arriving the eternal sunship from eternity equal with the Father?
You know there are girls among Greta that have risen up who deny that there was such a relationship as father and son before incarnation.
It's that very truth that proves the error of Aries. And how important people say, is there such a big thing? They don't really not deny that the Lord Jesus was from eternity that he was.
00:55:02
A divine person.
But the relationship of Father and Son did not exist. It's such a big thing, but it is very chapter. We find the statement that God sent his Son, that the Father sent the Son and he was the Son before he ever came and.
This truth is of vital importance, and I'm sorry to say, among Brethren, men have arisen who deny the eternal sonship, and I hope there's nobody that sympathizes with those men who have brought in such damnable heresy amongst parents.
To confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is that not confessing the person and work of the Lord Jesus?
And that test is so simple. That's all we need to know, that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. That's really what's brought out in the way of his coming in the.
5th chapter This is he that came by water and blood. Even Jesus Christ. That's the way of his coming.
He didn't just come as a word, as a written word. He was a real man. When we get ahold of the fact that Jesus, whoever was God, came into this world and took the human form, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth and hold on to that, that Jesus is man, that Jesus is God. That's the way to test every doctrine that ever comes wrong.
The I just like to make some more comments on what Heinz said. The argument against the Eternal sonship is that sonship implies inferiority.
Now in John chapter 5, verse 17, I want to read a few verses there and you'll see it implies just the opposite. It implies equality and the Jews understood this in John chapter 517. But Jesus answered them. My father worketh hitherto and I work.
Now all he had said was my father. He's the only man that ever said that.
The only man that ever claimed such a nearness of relationship with God, so as that he could address him and speak of him as my Father.
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. They understood that.
When he claimed to be the Son and God my Father.
When he claimed that he was making himself equal with God. Not inferiority at all, but equality. And that's why that's such an important truth.
To understand and hold. It's a vital truth, isn't it? It's what we say is vital. That's the same as in Philippians too. He didn't think of something degrasse after to be equal to God. He was taught and.
If we if He is not the eternal Son, we do not yet know God. We only know something God became.
And we are less like the pagans that worship an unknown God. That's how vital and how basic it is, the eternal sonship.
Not only that, we know that God is unchangeable come eternity if he became something.
That he was not before. He's not an unchangeable God, but he is the Father from eternity. The Lord Jesus is the Son from eternity and as far as their eternal.
Existence goes these relationships exist and they never change. Now, when you become a man, when he became a man.
He is then also owned as the son you know, even as a man he is the offspring.
Of God, you might say. You know you must be gotten by the Holy Ghost, and that richness born of Mary was called the Son of God. Even as a man, God is his father. But sonship does not begin with incarnation. Sonship existed ever before.
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So we find in the Old Testament even this beautiful statement. A child is born, a son is given. That relationship existed before he ever became a child. A man, a human being born in a stable lady in a Manger. I'd like to read the verse in Luke chapter one.
Couple verses there.
The Angel, verse 30, said unto her.
They're not married. For thou hast found favor with God, And behold, thou shalt concede in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be grave, and shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the House of Jacob Forever. And of his Kingdom there shall be no end. Notice in verse 32 you have his deity.
He is great and called the Son of the Highest.
And then you have his humanity, give unto him the throne of his father David.
Then said Mary, verse 34 unto the Angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? Notice the answer. And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall over shadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called.
The Son of God. It doesn't say He becomes the Son of God. He always was the Son of God. He never became the Son. He was always the Son from all eternity. But he carried his sonship into time. It says in Philippians 2 That he emptied himself while of what? Did he empty himself? Did he empty himself with his sonship? No, he carried that into time. He still remains the Son. He emptied himself of his divine glory and deity, but he didn't empty himself of being God.
Or healing the sun. But he did empty himself of the form of God that he was in by taking the form of a servant. But we have to understand the there's this kenosis theory they call it, because the Greek word emptying is kenosis. What did he empty himself of? This passage says he didn't empty himself with his sonship. He was called the son of God even as a man. Think of it. That little baby.
Born in a stable, laid in a Manger. Look at him. That baby was to be called the Son of God. Tremendous truth that he was the eternal Son, now in a different form, form of a servant, a little baby.
Tremendous, wonderful truth. That's what John is insisting on here in the first John, he that he he that came in flesh. He always was. And he came and flashed with the confession not so much that he came in flesh, but the confession of the person who came in flesh.
God and men in one person, just a way of his company. Yes, he always was, but he came as a man. I know this very nearly holy ground and healthy, powerful, but who developed the truth that he always was the Son, ever was the Son.
And that as the Son of God, he was born in the Spirit.
So you carry that little part? He does.
He was raised as a son of God too. Let's look at Acts 13. I don't want to say too much on here, but we believe this truth. Jesus is God. He always lost God. He became a man but he died. But he rose from the dead and became the head of a new creation. So.
In Acts 13.
Verse 34.
No 33 dog, Half will feel the same under us, their children, and that he had raised up Jesus.
Leave it again out, I think.
As it is written in the second song that my son this day have I begotten, a well known teacher amongst her said that's the day of the resurrection and we believe it. Now let's hold this truth. Jesus is God. He always loves God. He became a man. He was the Son of God is born, he died, he's the Son of God, is risen and he's the head of a new race.
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What isn't the 33rd verse of his first coming and the 34th verse his resurrection?
Term first born.
Might you have puzzled Assam, But in Psalm 89.
And verse 27.
Also I will make him my first born higher than the kings of the earth.
Season of Saliva. I believe Solomon was the 10th son of David, but he was given the place of the first born. It was a title not referring to when he was born into this world, but a title the first born.
The preeminent one. I like to add yes to the thoughts expressed on Philippians.
He did appear outwardly in the form of sinful flesh. He wasn't sinful flesh, he was a man. But he never gave up his godhead glory. He did hide it his bed, and had said, we find a human veil, but that glory could not be hid. And you know we see it in the resurrection, or raising up the dead, calming the storm. So we see feeding the multitude.
Could that be done by me, a man?
With five loaves and two fishes. So we see that God had glory does shine forth, for faith can see it and recognize it, But it was hidden. He could not have been amongst men, if it wouldn't have been hidden, if he wouldn't have come in human form, because he was in the midst of sinful men, they would have been too, would they not? But He came grace in lowly form.
Also, the main purpose of this comic was really to accomplish redemption.
You had to become a man in order to be our instrument Redeemer. Or had he been only a man, he could have never accomplished the work of redemption in three hours of darkness, you know, atoning sufferings in three hours. If he had not been more than a man, it was God's Son that became the Lamb of God. He couldn't have died had he not become a man, but he never ceased to be. But he always had been. So we see him as the Lamb of God, God's Son.
We say that he veiled his divine glory in human form.
He also veiled his official glory. He came as a servant.
But his moral glory could not be hidden every word, every act.
That was done or spoken. It showed up who he was, that moral glory. He could never be less than perfect in every circumstance and every relationship. That's his moral glory, isn't it?
Now I want to read verse two in our chapter.
And correct it here by know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit it reads here that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the fleshes of God. The way it reads in our translation here, it's the confession that he came, that the fact that he came. That's not the real point of the verse as we have it in the new translation. It's every spirit.
That confesseth Jesus Christ come in flesh is with God. It's the confession of the person of him who came. And you couldn't talk about any of us coming in flesh that would have no meaning. That's the only way we could come. But here it's the confession of a person that existed before he became a man, before he came in flesh. And it's a confession of that person who is God color flesh that involves his deity and his humanity. The again you get it in verse 3.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is coming flesh take the VAT out. Every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God. So it's really involves both his deity and his humanity. That's the confession that John is talking about. That's why we're developing this from other passages. There's a there's a life thing to that in second Timothy's two that I think it's very precious.
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Just look at Second Timothy 2. If you leave that out, it helps in the verse.
Second Timothy 28, remember?
Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead. According to my gospel, we don't need to do that. We don't need the world. It's a person, and it's a person raised from the dead according to all government.
You ought to remember him, you know.
It's important to see that it is. It is a person.
Therefore we say that person dies. Well, we don't say God died. God couldn't die. We talk about a person.
Who is God and man? Mystery of his person is hid from us. So we look on a man and worship that man is God.
God was manifest in flesh, and we're looking at and confessing and holding. We should be holding true to that mission. That person, that man, eternal Son of God. You came, He died. He was raised. That man is seated in glory today, and he gives you and me every, every blessing we have. Every blessing anybody ever had from God is based on that man, that person who is God.
You're gonna be good just to.
Say a few words.
On that, remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead, according to my gospel, as something we can do. As the Lord said this, do in remembrance of me. If you and I are saved, if we have that knowledge that Jesus died for me, that he is risen, don't forget him, young people.
You know this. The Lord invites you to His table. I don't, but it's a very timely word. Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead. According to my gospel, it's a very happy thing, and it's normal Christianity to do that.
And really, what the Spirit of God is bringing before us in our chapter.
Is that there is a spirit aloof in the world that denies all this. And what has been said is absolutely true, as we understand from the word, but that this spirit.
Who would rob the Saints of that which gives them eternal? Glory is present, and the holding of this truth is the means by which we test the spirits that suggest otherwise.
So if security is suggesting that Christ is something other than God, and man is not of God, and we're to evaluate ministry or comments that we hear with that in mind, which?
Does hold for Jesus Christ as coming flesh, and which denies it. One who holds it forth is a God, and we know the source of the others.
There's a pamphlet you titled. Some of you may have read it.
Could God Incarnate sin? Now to ask the question is to answer it. Of course not. Impossible.
The truths that we've been setting before us, that He's God and man and one person impossible, that that person could sin and we read in Luke one, that holy thing which shall be born of these shall be called the Son of God. His humanity was holy, and we partake of that holy humanity when we're born again.
We have a nature just like his hope. We partake of that. We don't partake of deity. We are not God, and we'll never be elevated to that, but we're elevated to the highest place that a creature can be elevated to that ought to be satisfied.
He that is born of God sinneth not, and that in this same epistle, and that is true perfectly of the Lord Jesus, because he only had a holy human nature.
And there are those in Christendom, and even some of these popular radio features denied it. You know, when they say that he could have sinned, they do deny the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus.
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They do not understand from the word of God that when the Lord Jesus comes into this world and partakes of humanity, he does it in a new way. For the first time there is a holy man.
Apart entirely from sin, just partake of humanity, but in a new way. There was never a man like that before, and but we who by grace are saved, receive a nature.
Holy We have still the old nature, and therefore we have the ability to sail. But how wonderful it is. The very nature perfectly displayed in the Lord Jesus is the nature that we have now that we are saved. But the truth of the person of Christ is an attack on both sides, his deity and his humanity and these very people that denied the eternal sonship.
It all began with denying him to be the Word before incarnation. That was one of the first errors that they propagated, and they even then later on denied the full humanity of our Lord. They dared to try to dissect the person of the Blessed Lord and to try to explain what no man can understand, how the divine and human are joined in one person.
There are two natures, Mr. Raven said, where the idea had been gotten from, that there were two natures he didn't know. That was before the division, beloved, that he came out with this kind of attack on the person of Christ. But.
Then they said that in person he was God, in condition he was man or the spirit of the man. Christ Jesus was his dear tears. If he didn't have a human spirit, he was fully man, spirit, soul and body.
And this blessed person And we can understand the mystery of his person, and we must acknowledge that. How could we who are mortal understand that which is divine? No one knows the Son but the Father we read in Matthew 11. But by faith we can accept what the scripture says about that person. And we can adore the truth that we intellectually cannot understand but can enjoy in our souls. I just want to quote what Mr. Raven wrote.
Who quoted it? Partially, he says. Where the idea of the unity.
Of two natures and one person came from, I know not, it seems to me, perfect nonsense.
And that man was tolerated among brethren and LED a division. Isn't that solid? Don't think we're brethren. We can't fall into that. Yes we can. It happened, I believe, from Hebrews One we could say God in the first of the sun.
Veiling that divine glory came into this seed as a man, he went to Calvary's cross.
And therefore vindicated and glorified God concerning the question of sin. And in so doing he also accomplished redemption for lost, guilty sinners.
Let's read a verse in Second Corinthians 10/5 deteriorate against these reasonings. We've heard of the reasonings of noted when and where it led them, and they confused them. And here's a defense against it, and it's the greatest challenge that I have found in the Bible.
2nd Corinthians 10/5 says casting down imagination. Now the merchant says, reasoning, We cannot.
Reason out God and that Jesus is God and Jesus is man.
By your intellect yet after that.
And every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, for even in such exalted themselves against the knowledge of God, because they weren't getting their teaching from this book and bringing into captivity every thought. Now you try to do that.
And I try to be every thought to what the obedience of the Christ obedience?
That's a guard for us when we talk about the person of the Lord Jesus, who he is.
01:20:01
One thing about For the Heart, I believe is if he was not the eternal Son, that relationship did not exist. And so that's one of the most blessed things in this book. The 14th verse says the Father sent the Son. If he was only a son in time, what did the Father send? Nothing. But if the Father and the Son had a relationship of all eternity, when one was complacent in the other, it was an absolute unity of love there.
A satisfaction. And now the father sends his son.
That's something for the heart, something that we can we can appreciate the breathing of bread and what? That's one of the most precious spots that the Father would send his son into this world to become a man, that he might die to have us live it. And so you take away all that preciousness. But Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31 That speaks of the Lord of the eternal Son even before.
It's 30 and fourth verse. It says who had to send it up into heaven and who descended, who have gathered the wind and it shifts. And who have bound the water, the garment who have established all the ends of the earth. What is his name and what is his son's name? The Falcon still, so that shows at least that he was.
Their creation.
But there's one that Hebrews 5 and I think that this somewhat lays the subject to rest.
Because what Clement said. I have read the track on the denial of internal Sanskrit and it is reason. It's a dangerous thing to read because it managed.
Because.
The man is very intelligent but.
You're talking about Mr. Ravens writings, right? No, I was talking about this, right?
But this is a verse, I think, that really lays out all the rest is the eighth verse of the 5th chapter of Hebrews.
And.
It says though he were sons even though he were son, yet alert your obedience by the things that he said. And so when was he was a son? When he wasn't learning obedience, though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by the things that he suffered. So I I think that verse shows that there was a time when the Lord was not obedient. He was God, and when he became a man he.
He learned obedience by the things that he suffered, so it doesn't say because he became Son. He learned obedient because it's the opposite though you were something in spite of the fact that he was Son, he learned obedience when he became a servant. We have established without any question that the word of God is full of truth concerning this blessed man.
In the third chapter of the Thistle that we had before us, verse eight, it says that the Son of God was manifested to undo the works of the devil. It is impossible for something to be manifested that didn't exist before. That's a wonderful verse to confirm what has been said that he had to resist before he could be manifested his son. He had to be signed.
Very clear that the word of God is full of evidence for the subject Month that He was eternally his Son and became a man, and he now is eternally a man.
He is that as that we worship him at the right hand of God shall grow eternity. I don't want to mention any names. I can if anyone wants to know who these men are, prominent men in Christendom today, men, that many of us.
Via the radio will listen to and you might be surprised to find out what they hold and teach regarding their doctrine of the person of Christ. Some teach and hold that he could have sinned, He didn't sin, they will say, but the Lord could have sinned. And these are quite prominent men. There's a very prominent man in California that denies that he was the eternal Son. That teaches that that's a term of relative inferiority and that he became Son when he became a man.
01:25:03
There are some even that deny that he was the eternal word. There's a hymn in the 28 hymn book that.
He'd rather I used to be with.
Had eternal word, eternal Son. The Father's constant joy, that's the first part of the verse is beautiful, beautiful hymn. Well, that expresses it. Who he was. But you might be surprised. I just warned you.
That if you listen to these people, these men, and they're very well taught men and very gifted men, very gifted men.
You might be listening to that which has, at the very foundation of their belief, serious errors. So be careful. Be very careful.