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And first, John.
First John, the 4th chapter.
Beloved is.
Believe not every spirit, the tribes of spirit, whether there be of God, because many false prophets are going out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ come in flash, is of God.
And every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ come in places not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist, where we have heard that it should come even now already as in the world.
Ye are of God 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, and 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 of God heareth not us.
Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that is born that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. And 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.
Herein is love, not 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 anytime. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfect. To Dennis hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He and us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do 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 dwelleth in him, and He and God.
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him here in his love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There's No Fear in law, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
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We love because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we? Have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also?
First verse is certainly appropriate for the Dan Hutch who lives.
Never more so.
Believe not every spirit and try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are going out into the world.
This is bad enough in John's day, but what about now?
Would it be that if we were going on each day in prayer, reading the word and communion, that we would be able to detect these things? Absolutely. That's the that's what it's for. We can't stress too much personal communion, can we? Because that's the safeguard.
And John has been speaking in this epistle of just that, and now he goes aside for these few verses.
To assure us of that which is so vital, the confession of Jesus Christ coming down here is man giving his life and setting, establishing a basis for all of our blessings. Now that is a confession that's basic in Christianity. We cannot allow that to be set aside.
The other day.
Well, just two or three days ago.
My wife was handed two pamphlets, one of them about 100 pages and the other perhaps 25 pages.
And a tour by a very religious person, at least professionally so.
The Panthers were both.
Full of religion.
Supposedly Christian.
They were both on the subject of faith.
And beloved, believe it.
The name of the Lord Jesus didn't occur in either of them from start to finish, neither the name of Jesus or the name of Christ.
And yet being circulated around as appropriate for this time of year.
Because of the special interest in things religious.
I was shocked and astonished as I read both the Pampers very pious but nothing of Christ.
The Lord himself said in the gospel, Take heed what things he hear.
One was think that was large implied there was not only.
To be careful of what we hear about, to be diligent in the truth that we hear so that we will be, as our brother Lundin says, well founded, and that we will recognize when the trumpet gives an uncertain foul. Too often we are in inclined to be happy to hear the trumpet sounding at all, and not to measure that. Perhaps there is something false here. If I may speak of something personal, I recall it.
Occasion where I rode in a taxi cab and they got to the hotel. Cab driver handed me some tracks.
And I looked at the title of them, and they seem to be appropriate. And so I said, well, it's surely nice to meet another true child of God. And I trusted his soul with you. Yes, he assured me it was. And I shook his hand. And when I got to my room and looked at these papers, they were full of false doctrine. So we need to be very careful taking what things we hear and be established that we do not readily absorb.
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Which is going to weaken our joy and the truth that we know.
How is this thing in a home? And I picked up a book. The person professed to be a child of God.
And so I mentioned.
To her that there were some things in this book that were not very clear as to the person of Christ and her answer was well, you just don't understand the style of the writer. But brethren, the truth is clear. It's clear. It's stated in this chapter has been read to us. It's very clear. Notice what it says that.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Now the emphasis is on Jesus Christ. I believe it's the person here and he's coming into the world, but it's his person that is before us. Now. There's nothing difficult about this. It's the person of Christ, his advent into the world.
And the the way that Christianity was brought to us, this is this is basic truth and there's no misunderstanding about this.
Now if we add things to it, we add works as the Galatians would attempt to do, or anything else. To be funnel this, we have to be careful.
The the truth is simple, it's clear, and if it doesn't come this way to us, we have to reject it.
The second verse is the profession of a person, not a fact. Is it now the King James was presented?
More that the thought would be perhaps conveyed in this translation. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, as if it were the confession of a fact. But it's really the confession of the person and.
While on that thought.
Is not just the confession of the person of Christ doctrinally, I believe, as we have in John 14.
Well, in chapter 16, John 16, the work of the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ and take the things of the Lord Jesus and make them long so that this is how we know it's the Spirit of God working and indicting. The ministry that is given, whether it's orally or written, is that it's Christ centered. Now we find that they are today.
And we've all come across them, various groups who have broken off from the established denominations, and they talk about dispensations and they talk about being Bible students, and they go into great detail as to prophecy. And they have a lot of things that sound very good. And some of these things may even be, from a doctrinal standpoint, correct.
But if you will examine their literature and listen to them, you find that the Lord Jesus is not the center of their ministry or the the the Lord Jesus is not the attraction. It's doctrine, it's dispensation. Now of course we know there are dispensations, but they make issues of these. It's not the person of Christ. So what we have here is that the Spirit of God would glorify Christ, that one come in the flesh.
Who came from God to be the Savior of the world?
I had an unusual encounter one time centered around this very verse.
A bit frightening, perhaps, to recount, but it just might be a word of warning. I had as a patient a young man whose name was Macomb, and each time he came in we'd have quite a little conversation together on the Scripture. He was a real child of God.
A very studious and sober young man and one day he came in to tell me that he was going away to study for the ministry.
He said, I know you won't approve of this, but I consider that every man in the church is a potential believer and I'd like to be able to get in there and preach the gospel to them. Well, I didn't see him again for about a year, and when I met him he said, do you have time to listen to what's happened to me since I saw you last? He said, I felt as I began my studies that there was something vital lacking in my Christian experience.
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I had met other believers who had something more alive than I felt I possessed. So I went around among the smaller denominational groups in the city where I was studying, and I fell in with a certain company which I won't identify, and they assured me that what I lacked was the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
So he set about to attain to this, and he told me the procedure, the fasting, the prayers, the earnest crying to God in which these others joined.
Until finally, if I can quote him as carefully as I can, he said. At last, one day, after much fasting and prayer, I was filled with a tremendous surge of power and ecstasy, Till from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot, I was totally carried outside myself by this extreme ecstasy. And I could preach and pray and prophecy in a power that was entirely beyond my own ability.
While of course he said, when this faded away, I looked down on everyone else. I had attained to it at last, and he continued on in this for some time. But he said, I noticed, as I and others were filled with this power, there was a great deal of mention of the baptism of the Spirit, healing tongues, and Oral Roberts, but very little mention of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he said it troubled me, although I couldn't believe that there was anything wrong with it. And he said first John 4 verse two came to my soul. And I thought, I'm going to test this by the authority of first John 4 verse two. So he said, the next time this power came upon me. Now, brethren, I find this hard to believe, and I think you will too.
A sober young man who really believed what this verse tells us as to the person of Christ.
He said on his knees before gone, he tried to confess the truth of Jesus Christ come in the flesh, and with great agony discovered that he couldn't do so. And he told me that he was so anxious to continue with this that he struggled for a long time trying to confess that which his own heart believed that he couldn't do so. And he said, when this power left me, I fled from the place.
And I'm telling you, brother, so that you may pass on this word of warning to any other to stay away from all that which would pretend to be supernatural, but which fails in the test of first John 4 verse two. I used to be greatly amazed when I would think and meet with those.
Who seem to me to be seeking for the truth and yet would fall into an error and a serious error.
It bothered me. I wondered why is this? But I'm very sure that my observation was lacking, for I'm sure that the scripture would remind us that there is first of all.
They will not endure sound doctrine. They turn away their ears from the truth. And if I may be permitted to say so, if there is with anyone here, just a little sense of boredom because you're hearing the same things you've heard.
Before the same old brothers trying to encourage us, the same voices and you wish for something new and something different. Beware, the scripture says they will not endure sound doctrine. It's a joy to my soul to listen to the same voices that I heard when I was a little boy. I wish I could hear some of them again. But I thank God for everyone that's spared to teach us.
Sound doctrine.
I know there are a lot of other newer voices all around us, and I know that many are equipped to listen to those voices, but I believe there is danger in it. I would sooner go to the Assembly Bible reading and hear three or four brothers try their best to stumble their way through a chapter than to sit and listen to the most eloquent preacher in Christendom that doesn't know what it means to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
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One thing that has.
Bothered me as I've come in contact with many real Christians.
Is that when they're talking about the things of the Lord?
They seldom ever say our Lord Jesus. Seldom ever. They'll talk about Christ. They may talk about Jesus. They may talk about Jesus Christ.
But how seldom do they say our Lord Jesus or our Lord Jesus Christ? Now that's serious, because you'll notice that in the Word itself.
What delight the Spirit of God has.
In bringing those titles together.
The apostle Paul just delights in saying our Lord Jesus Christ.
But yet so much of ministry. I've been listening to some ministry.
Not not because I went out to seek it, but it was there where I was. And I've I'm sure the man is a real Christian.
And he, he talks lovely.
But it's about Christ. It's about Jesus.
But I don't know whether I've ever heard him say our Lord Jesus Christ. So I believe that we should be exercised about this. Do you feel like way, Brother Hayhoe?
Brother Haywood, connection with your remarks, would you give us a word on these 32nd verse of the 14th chapter of First Corinthians, please?
1St Corinthians 14, verse 32.
Well, one who is led by an outside influence or power and is unable to control the.
Voice of that which moves him is very evidently not controlled by the Spirit of God. I believe the thought here is that when one is led by the Spirit of God, the individual himself is in complete control, and is not forced to speak, as they very, very often are. I suppose always are in these cases that.
Poor chap experienced because sometimes you'll find two or three or four all talking at the same time, and each one claiming that they're led to do so. They may well be led to do so, but not by the Spirit of God.
Mr. Darby, answering the question pertinent to this comments that if one ministers word minister the word to him, he had a right to inquire, Is this message from God?
And if the one who was ministering hesitated or said, well, I'm not certain that I have no obligation to receive that ministry. It should be of the Holy Spirit in the individual system. And so there is this qualification for judging that which is what for us and as well as assured God has given us this safeguard that we we are protected against false doctrine.
Could we apply that little further, Brother Gil, and bring it into the everyday life of each one of us, that the energies that are raised in man are raised either by the Spirit of God or Satan? And what a solemn thing it is to go on as a Christian without personal communion. I've spoken of this before, but I believe it's important.
We can. We can look afar off and we can see evil teachers.
We can see false doctrines and systems springing up, but let's remember that from among yourselves men arise Scripture, Paul says to the Saints. And we must be careful and exercise each one of us in the assembly that we leave a good example, but also that there's personal communion with us and simplicity in these things, because otherwise we find ourselves.
LED astray listening to this and that, getting involved in things that.
We ourselves perhaps don't understand. The first thing we know, we're in trouble.
Can we read a verse in Isaiah 30?
I refer to this some years ago a sister told me of her experience.
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That she had gotten into the.
Bad habit as our brother Aho was mentioning because of the meeting being small and she didn't didn't get too much she said from the reading. So she had turned to radio ministry and she said as she was reading one time this verse the Lord used to convict her. Now I'm not going to say this is the primary interpretation, but it's remarkable how the Lord can use words in Isaiah 30 verse 20.
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. She had been sitting with her radio in the corner, looking listening to radio ministry, and this struck her as she read it, that the Lord would have her to be where she could see her teachers rather than what she had been doing.
With one of your brothers, please tell us what is the difference between a false prophet and false teacher?
A prophet is one who professedly gives the mind of the Lord that what a prophet is.
He's he's not necessarily a foreteller. He may be just a fourth teller.
So we can't confine the word profit to somebody that tells you what's going to happen in the future.
Can I ask a question, Brother Lundin, and give us a word on the end of First Corinthians 12 and verse 3, please?
That no man can say that Jesus is the Lord.
But by the Holy Ghost, I'd like to hear something on that please.
I believe our brother Hajo gave us an illustration of it.
And.
We were just Speaking of the importance of being in the presence of God in communion, that the Spirit of God might be controlling us.
Now one who is under the control of another spirit cannot make this confession.
Usually one who is unsaved, although our brother Hale gave us mentioned one who he felt was child God who had been under this power.
But I believe that the importance is that we personally have to do with God continually and not allow communion to be interrupted. And if it is that we get back into the presence of God and humble ourselves because we want to make a confession of Christ in our lives and the power of it is in communion. And so I believe that we are prompted either by the Spirit of God or another spirit.
We know that there was a time when when Peter the Lord had to say to Peter, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as weak, and he could not make that confession of Jesus Christ until he was restored again because of the state of soul.
14th chapter. First Corinthians.
The 14th chapter First Corinthians follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophecy.
He that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. But for no man understandeth him. How be it in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries. Now the verse that I want is this one. He that prophesieth speaketh unto man to edification, to exhortation and comfort.
Now there's the voice of a prophet.
He's not in this verse, he's not telling about what's going to come tomorrow, but he's building up, he's stirring up and he's comforting.
He that prophecy speak of under manned edification, exhortation, and comfort.
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So prophecy isn't limited to telling what's going to happen tomorrow.
And I suppose in respect to our brother's question.
If I remember it, he asked the difference between false prophets and false teachers.
But when our brother Browns brought before us in connection with the prophets, we remember the gifts to the church include he gave some profits and some teachers. So there is a distinction.
When we say perhaps that one that is a prophet.
Who, who has a revelation from God in connection with the Word that he communicates to his brethren?
This might be a word of exhortation, as we have read.
A very short duration.
And the brother might be in that capacity following our Lord's Day morning meeting.
And not continue in that capacity. It's at the time that the Holy Spirit has been.
Free in his soul to communicate something of God to his fellow Saints. What we say of a teacher.
That God has been pleased to put in the church.
The church as a whole.
And we know it in our assembly, those who have.
A real devotedness to the word of God who are addicted to familiarizing themselves with the Scriptures and in the fear of the Lord they seek as a pattern to teach, to build up, to encourage All Saints with whom they meet. And in that capacity they are teachers to them. Perhaps that's the difference with your great brother Brown. Yes, I think so. You would say then that the designation of false prophet is a much more.
Serious charge than a false teacher, would you? I'm thinking in terms of such a one as Joseph Smith who boasts in the term prophet and of course a false one attacked. I have thought that the designation of false prophet indicates a much more serious position in a leader than that of a false teacher.
False apostles too. I believe that there was a day when the prophets had a special place.
At the interval before Paul's ministry was given.
There was the Old Testament before them in the early church.
And there were those who orally gave the mind of God, I believe prophets.
But in connection with the truth that had been revealed in the Old Testament and possibly giving the light of the New Testament upon it. But when Pauls ministry was given, the word of God was completed.
And we hold ourselves very definitely in connection with this ministry.
Of the New Testament. And so there I believe there was a special sense in which prophets were known in that time, that we may not think of them in the present in that way.
I was thinking of.
Of the chapter we have, it says is false prophets are going out into the world.
In second Peter chapter 2 verse one says.
There were false prophets also among the people, even as there would shall be false teachers among you.
The false prophets are in the world.
The false teachers, it says among you.
I would like to ask a question.
Just movement is so prevalent today and since God is the church on the ground of the supernatural.
Miracles and speaking in tongues. Why are we not looking for today?
Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.
There's the foundation of apostles and prophets too, weren't there?
That was the foundation.
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I believe we have to read the Word of God carefully in the Spirit and not come to hasty conclusions. And we do well if we don't understand passages to wait upon God instead of rushing into conclusions. It's over years perhaps, that we get to understand these these precious truths.
In the way we should waiting upon God, But to run to hasty conclusions only leads us into error.
And the following of these spirits that we're warned against.
Dust.
Chapter 17.
Are part of a worse.
We have in our hands the word of God.
This is our only guide.
We have false prophets. We have false teachers.
We have all kinds of cults in the day we're living in.
And here's the verse.
In the latter part of the 11Th verse.
It says we might read the whole verse.
At 17, verse 11.
These are more honorable than those in the night.
They they received the word with all readiness of mind.
And they searched the scripture daily.
Whether these things were sold?
Here we have the word of God when one of those men come to you.
If you're established in the Word of God, I believe you can detect whether they are of God or not.
And the Spirit that's in every Christian will depict it. Go to the 10th chapter of John's Gospel.
The Gospel of John, chapter 10.
We might begin from the 22nd version of the 10th chapter.
And it was at Jerusalem, the priest of dedication, and it was winter.
And Jesus walked from the temple in Solomon's porch.
Then came the Jews own about him, and said unto him, How long does thou make a spell? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and he believed not.
The works that I do.
The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me.
But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
My sheep hear my voice.
And I know them and they follow me.
In 119th Psalm.
There are these words.
Thy words relent unto my feet, and the light to my pathway. This is the book.
You read it.
We can find out when one of those men approaches. This is our guide even today.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me in the fourth verse of our chapter.
Ye are of God.
Children.
And have overcome them.
This is this is normal Christianity.
Because greater is he that is in you. That's the Spirit of God.
Than he that is in the world that Satan.
And there is the battle.
Ye are of God's children and have overcome them.
Because greater is he that is in you than in he than he that is in the world. So there's no excuse for any of us falling down in defeat if we're going on in dependence upon the Word of God and in communion with the Spirit of God.
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We're thoroughly equipped for victory over all the unbelief and the corruption of the truth.
That's abounding. And Christendom today.
Here's what will guard and keep us from being turned aside.
Then in contrast to that.
They are of the world.
Therefore speak they have the world, and the world heareth them.
You and I are not regarded as being of the world.
No, we've been taken out of it and we tread a separate pathway.
But there's those that want to go on.
With these various new religions that are coming up.
They're of the world. They speak of the world and the world here at them. Now some of these systems have become great, mighty, powerful organizations.
The at the time that Billy Graham was out here in California having his meetings.
The Jehovah Witnesses had their convention out here at the same time.
And Billy Graham was having thousands at his meetings, but the the the other group were having far more than he was twice as many at their convention as he was having. That's that's where we are in the world today.
There are two tests here and the 4th capital.
With the trial of these spirits, it seems to me in verse two, as we've been speaking on, we have.
The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God, and there the test is in connection with the person of Christ. And then in the sixth verse, the end of the verse, we have the Spirit of God spoken of as a spirit of truth.
And that's in connection with the Scriptures. He is the one who has led the holy men of God of old to write the Scriptures, the Spirit of God.
The object and the as the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ.
So that.
Ministry and the power of the Spirit will always be to that end, that the Saints of God, the people of God, will be brought more under the control of Christ his head. It is never the object of the Spirit of God in His ministry to merely make the Saints, Bible students and Bible scholars and knowledgeable in Scripture that we will read in the Fourth of Ephesians where we have the gifts given, we'll see that the gifts ultimately are that we might.
The Saints of God might grow up unto him in all things, even the head, to be brought practically under the control and direction of Christ and affection and submission and obedience. Not merely that one is knowledgeable in Scripture, it's the Christ, so that as the Spirit of God. And I believe these are the two tests we should apply to all that is going on, whether it's in the far out sphere of Jehovah's witness.
Or whether it's in the the sphere even of fundamentalism.
Is it ministry that is conducive to the glorifying of Christ?
And bringing Saints practically under the control and direction of Christ his head.
Or is it merely to fill their heads with knowledge and give them a certain understanding of doctrines, or to glorify a man? And then the second test is as the Spirit of truth. Are these things in accordance with what the Spirit of truth has indicted through the writings of the apostles and prophets of the New Testament? These are the tests we should apply to all that we encounter in Christendom today.
In the sixth verse we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. I suppose he's speaking there as an apostle.
He that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. He's speaking officially there, isn't He?
He isn't a mouthpiece there for the whole Church of God, but rather for those who were the apostles, those that were giving the truth of the Church.
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We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us, and he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
Well, there are many things going on in Christendom today, even among those that know the Lord.
That if you say to them, well, but what does the word say about that? You get an answer. Something like this. Well, that isn't the way we do it. That that isn't the way we do it.
And just dismiss it lightly. But if it's in the Word, if God has spoken, we're to listen, we're to submit.
He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know me the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
That's an important principle.
He had just said Year of God, didn't he? Yes, little children, Yes, I believe we have a distinct break here.
The The apostle has been taking up the subject.
That which characterized the family of God, but for the moment he is called attention to that spirit which is in the world. And I believe power also, as we have in rightly in the third verse, the power of Antichrist. It's a power that's working.
It's that which would oppose this precious truth that you and I this morning not only can know, but we can enjoy.
And rather than the truth has given us to enjoy. And so in the measure in which we enjoy it, then we have it. Now the apostle has.
Left off for the moment he says, beloved believe not every spirit, but then he goes on after he's through that subject goes back to the original subject of ye are of God, little children. He wants us occupied with what's good. There may have to be a warning.
But He wants us occupied with what's good and what is good, what God has done. We turn our eyes that direction. We find that which will set aside all of this, which is of the world and which is of man. And in this chapter I believe we will see.
Three ways in which the love of God.
Is manifested as we go on in the chapter.
3 definite ways in which the love of God is manifested here and is precious to see it.
A word of warning to our young people, we.
The publicity that attends many of the campaigns of questionable teaching.
Often is very persuasive and intriguing.
And one has observed some tendency of our young people to.
Be taken in by the invitations to be present where there's some great work going on.
And one would recommend that this is hazardous. How much better horse that Brother Landin has said to be occupied with that which is true with the Word of God?
To revel in the wonderful place that He has given to us, our company, beloved.
All apart we trust with sincerity of heart. This is true of all here, and it'll be that the world here, these others, we have no business.
Being present, hearing these things, they are.
They are hazardous to US1 doesn't say that all is is lacking in truth or sincerity, but there is mingled with it that which temporizes the fundamental truths of which we speak, and how much better for us to be occupied with these things. And the same is true written.
Propaganda.
Way, perhaps all who have homes know what it is to receive unsolicited pamphlets from various groups who claim to be Christian. And the best place for most of it is right in the waste basket. It does. It's no good to read these things.
I would commend to our young people a very good paper that is available at the Old Park Book Room, which is entitled The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error, and in that is given a very nice summary in chart form of the fundamental falseness and the comparison of truth in the variety of doctrines. And I believe this is ample for any of us to know what we cope with when we can counter these others.
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And also in our own territory here there is a.
One of the headquarters of a large new religion of Herbert W Armstrong, the ambassadors and call it the plane Truth and such things.
It is.
Bad doctrine through and through, mixed with some truth.
But basically it is.
It is off on every fundamental.
Even as 7th Day Adventism, it's a it's a relative to 7th Day Adventism dolled up in a in a very gifted man. When I say gifted, he has ability and also persuasive in his literature and his many I think 70 radio stations.
And a great center in London.
And other places, well, that thing is growing and many Christians listen to it.
And many Christians ask questions about it. They ought to leave it alone.
We have the God of this world and these cemeteries, the false prophets, so we've got no business in the world.
Morals.
Mention was made in Detroit of the outstanding example of one of David's mighty men, whose name was Shama, who, in the days when the Philistines were oppressing Israel, stood in the midst of a field of lentils, and the people fled from him. But he stood there and defended that field of lentils, and his name is listed near the top of the list of David's mighty men.
But you know, I've always been much impressed by that.
A field of lentils is hardly worth risking your life for, but I believe that man looked upon it as part of his God-given heritage, and along came the enemy, determined to take away from him that God-given heritage, and everyone of his fellow Israelites fled.
From the face of the enemy and left Shama all alone, but he stood there with sword in hand and, the scripture says defended that field.
Well, I believe that what has been said is very, very needful, but if we're going to look upon what God has entrusted to us as merely a field of lentils, will hardly consider it to be worth defending, but that which God has entrusted to us, beloved fellow children of God.
Is a wonderful heritage of truth, a marvelous blessing to the soul, and little by little, in the most subtle ways, it is being attacked. And perhaps we have seen those who have turned and fled and felt that it wasn't worth the effort to defend the truth earnestly, to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints. Well, I don't know anything at all about Hebrew, but I think we know that the term used in the end of Ezekiel.
Jehovah Shama means the Lord is there. So I would suppose that the word Shama means there. Well, that's not a very impressive name for a man to bear, simply the name bear. When the truth was being attacked, Shama was there. And though beloved, when I think of that man standing there with sword in hand and seeing his brethren flee in all directions from all around him.
And he stood with the sword, the word of God, in his hand, and defended that field. I think of that which we've just been hearing. We're surrounded by enemies that would try sometimes so openly and sometimes so subtly, to rob us of a truth that ought to mean so much to our hearts. The record of how much we value these things is going to be revealed in a coming day. David recorded Shama's name.
00:55:24
The name there among his mighty men, and someday up there in the glory when we find ourselves surrounded by all that which the heart of God has prepared for us. Someday we're going to look back and see the record reviewed. Dear Saints of God, of how much you and I thought of these things and valued them and were perhaps willing to defend them, even though the accusation of narrowness might be hurled at us because we would defend something that's considered of very little importance.
Emma had something to share with his brethren after that.
The lentils could be distributed. A young man complained to me some years ago as to.
The lack of ability in our little meeting where we were that it was a little dull for him and sad to say he eventually drifted away. But I questioned him. I said, well dear brother, true we lacked much gift energy, but what have you contributed to it?
We had to just follow his head because he's contributed nothing. It's nice for our young brethren to remember this that has been so very sweetly pointed out to us. Even if we're just there, they're in your seat, faithfully present. This is a great encouragement to all the Saints of your assembly, no matter how small your company may be from whom you now come say we just go on in that faithfulness, quietness, too.
The seventh verse encourages us in this.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
Now, it's true that every believer has that nature.
That loves every other believer. And so we have the cultivating of it here the Lord could say in the 13th of John to his disciples, when that company, which I suppose would represent in picture form the heavenly family down here, that John loves to set forth.
He says.
That by this shall all men know there's your testimony, that you're my disciples, in that you have love one for another. Now the cultivating of this leaves a testimony in this world.
It's a testimony that goes out to those around us. If there is that expression of love we were noticing yesterday, the subject of forgiveness.
And you know.
I just like to say this scripture does say that we should.
And all wise rebuke our brother, and not suffer sin upon him. But we should also not hold a grudge. There should be that love manifested. We we should seek by all means to manifest this one to another, and not allow the enemy to come in and separate the Saints of God.
Well, we've some of us have proved in a marvelous way.
The truth of that verse?
The love and let us love one another.
One has been overwhelmed at times by the love of the Saints. It's a real thing, it isn't.
Something academic that we talk about. It's a real living thing, the love among the Saints. And if any of us get grumpy and unhappy and begin to complain about our brethren, they don't care anything about us.
You wait, beloved, until you get into some trouble.
Whether it's physical or whatever it may be, the nature of it, some some difficulty comes into your life.
And then see how your brethren rally to your side to help you and cheer you, bury you through it. Oh, I don't see how anyone that's been through this could ever question the fact of the law among God's people. It's a real, real thing.
01:00:07
And I've noticed too.
In giving out of tracks.
And you give one to some person and they take a look at it. The first thing they do, of course, is turn it over to see where it comes from.
But if they have time to read a little of it and find out that it's magnifying Christ.
They just they just break forth into a beam of.
Of joy and all they say, oh this is lovely, I do enjoy this. What is that? Well, that's what we have here. It's that bond of love. And they feel they've met another Christian and I feel the same way toward that man or that woman, whoever it is, when I get this response, here's someone that possesses that same love.
Well, we are of God.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. This is divine love, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
I heard Mr. Potter tell this story more than once.
He was talking about two well known old brothers over in the old country.
And.
Something came in among them and one of them said to the other, Well, I don't love you at all. I don't love you anymore. And the brother responded to him, Oh yes you do, and you can't help it.
Well, it's true, the Divine love was there in his heart, even though he'd allowed the flights to come in and mar it.
I believe we should notice the way this verse starts. It's very important. And we're told in Ephesians to speak the truth in love. And so John does here, beloved. Now this is the way that exhortations should begin because why would you exhort someone who was not beloved? What can they do if there's no power of grace in their lives? But so.
He says, beloved, you're already in this position and I'm exhorting you about, and the apostle himself is in the Spirit.
To introduce this to the Saints himself, practically, it isn't just a cold instruction, but it's that which he himself is enjoying and affection for the Saints as he introduces the subject.
Several years ago.
I had some dealings with the real estate man.
I didn't know the man before I had some dealings with him.
As we went along.
In the business that we dealt with one another.
We got talking about the word of God.
When we found out that when I found out that the man was a Christian, make a Long story short, the man said he was a born again Christian.
Immediately we were the two of us were drawn together.
There's something that has drawn us together. We loved one another because we were children of God.
And we had very happy fellowship, one with another.
That was because we were both born again, you said. These born again Christian fought with the precious blood of Christ.
John is very loving himself and the third epistle here. Just turning to it for the moment.
It's only an epistle of 14 verses.
But he says in that first verse, the elder under the well beloved, well beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
That isn't enough, he goes on. He says, beloved.
I wish that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in hell.
In the fifth verse he says, Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren strangers.
The 11Th verse, beloved, follow not that much is evil, but that which is good.
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Well, how? How John radiated that love, and how he could extend that term to these to whom he was writing beloved.
We don't want that to just become a farm, do we? How we deport one who may employ this word and then his action toward his Saints doesn't reflect the same quality. Haven't we all who recall our dear brother down in Florida?
We've just enjoyed his expression when he spoke to a company of large people. Beloved. Well, it was very personal with him, wasn't it? He think he had a heart of love for each one friend.
And we love the children of God as the children of God. I was thinking of the not to get ahead but over in the 5th chapter verse one.
In the latter part of the verse I had especially before me everyone that loveth Him, that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.
When we love one another, it is not the love of special friendships or amiability, but we the love of one another is as the children of God, we love them because they're children of God and this should be the the ground of our care and concern for one another and I believe would lead us to.
Not formed, what should I say? Special cliques that are concerned only with their own interests of their friends. Sometimes this is a tendency to have.
Those with whom we are most friendly and amiable and we're only concerned with their welfare and we sell them, even inquire as to the others, but we should love one another as the children of God. That's the ground of it. For love is of God. It's should not be on the basis of mere friendship.
Our liberty to.
Yes, our liberty to display that love or to walk with those whom we truly love might be curtailed as our brother Gross just says it should go out and it's a shame if it doesn't go out to all the family of God. The scripture says see that he loved one another with a pure heart fervently. I think that little expression with a pure heart would.
Would introduce a little bit of a guard as to how free we are to.
Show that love as I trust we long to show it, and as we will be able, by the grace of God, to show it in a coming day. But May God grant that we shall be spared from ever lacking in the feeling of that love toward all the Lord's people. I think of dear Joseph, who loved his brethren so dearly and wanted so much to show that love to them, but there were circumstances that made it wiser for him.
To withhold the display of the love that he truly felt. He had to hide from him for a little time the fact that he loved them so much, but it was so hard on him to do it that he had to go off into a chamber and weep because he couldn't show his love. And brethren, if that's the way we feel about it, we're on safe ground. If there's ever an occasion when I can't show the love that I feel toward my brother or sister in Christ, and it's so hard on me.
That I have to get out by myself and weep about it. And I think I would if it were one very dear to me. That I had to act toward them in such a manner, in such a condition, is certainly possible. How I would feel it, How heartbroken I would be, How I would long for the day when I could show the love that my heart feels. Well, brethren, I feel that if we bore this in mind, the love that is displayed would be.
According to Truth.
And more deeply enjoyed among us. And again, as our brother Gross says, I feel it's so necessary. It ought to be toward all the family of God. My father often used to remind us at home, the gospel is for the whole world and the truth of God is for the whole family of God. We have to be careful as to the liberty we take in presenting that truth, but it is for the whole family of God.
01:10:07
Isn't there a difference between brotherly love and love?
Maybe someone could?
Make that distinction. I think Peter speaks about it, doesn't he? Help us, brother.
Well, I was thinking perhaps Brother Hayhoe was speaking along those lines, but there might be times when that brotherly love cannot be expressed.
But love should never be absent. But it might be that brotherly love would be absent.
That is, in as far as expressing it.
Could we say that brotherly love may arise from.
Something that kindness that brother has shown. And I may feel attached to that brother either because he's helped me in a material way or in my spiritual life, and I'm particularly attached to him in that respect.
But supposing now.
The brother has not been kind to me. Supposing he's been opposed to me in many things. What is my attitude toward him now? Well, our brother Brown has just expressed that thought a little while ago in connection with his brother who said I don't love you a bit. He did, because there's a nature there. And that's our eighth verse. There's a nature there.
It's divine love. Now if there isn't that there, he's not of God, because God is love and there is that nature and that is seen. And I can't help but love the Saints of God. It's a nature that I have. Now. Brotherly love springs from what I'm sure, but it's more connected with a personal attachment, I believe, to a brother who has done me.
A kindness.
And I I have a real, real warm.
Affection for that brother. So we have it in Hebrews. Let brotherly love it really should read, I think Abide, isn't it. Let it abide. Just let it rest there. And that's what should characterize the Saints of God in the assembly. Let it rest there.
To a response of a special kindness.
Don't we prove that that true brotherly love right in our assemblies in sharing together?
The wondrous truth of the word of God and walking in harmony with one another, I believe we there experienced a real measure of brotherly love that.
The world knows nothing about with all of its fraternities and laws and so on, but our hearts are bound together in love when there is a walk of harmony in the truth. Wouldn't you agree on that? Yes. It's nice to cultivate that which would encourage brotherly love, isn't it? Yeah.
But in Brotherly love, is there not a possibility of our going too far with those friends we think so much of?
Mention that one thing.
The word is our brother Clifford Brown or brother Paul Johnson here will agree the word for brotherly love is an entirely different word than is what is used in John's ministry.
Now in John's ministry.
This love that is of God.
It has to do with the very nature of God and that God is love, and it has to do with him as such, as the source of of this law, the nature and the source, that word that we have for love in John's ministry now, the very same word.
Is also used in a bad sense.
According to the source, when it says the love of the world, it's exactly the same word. It's not Brother Johnson.
Yes, the same word, so that you have to consider the source.
Have to consider the source in the love that John speaks of, but we generally call it divine love because in most all cases it has to do with the source of God and we are the family of God being begotten of God.
01:15:15
Why that new nature?
Loves.
I have thought of the brotherly love in connection with that affection that we would show to our brothers, those who we might say are walking in a brotherly way. You couldn't express that brotherly love to one who is walking disorderly, could you? For instance, Paul says, in fact 2nd Thessalonians 314 if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Love would always be there, and love might be expressed in not keeping company with him. But brotherly affection or love seems to me at least to be reserved for those who are walking in a brotherly way. That is an orderly fashion with whom we can express that in a practical way.
Brother Johnson, do you think you could also compare that scripture?
Romans chapter 16 verse 17 and 1St Corinthians chapter 5, probably verse 9 through the end of the chapter in the same way.
Well, of course, in First Corinthians 5 it is exclusion.
Of putting away in Romans 16. It hasn't gone to that point. It's not a matter of exclusion, it's a matter of of the attitude of the individual toward those that are causing.
Offenses and and divisions among the people of God, contrary to things they have learned. Certainly the IT would be love toward them to to avoid them.
Faithfulness.
It would be loved too, without the second for First Corinthians 5.
Where one is put away?
Uh, twice in the correct translation.
It says with such an one know not to mix MIX.
Now if we practice that, it would be better for the soul, which should be done in love and prayer, perhaps praying for Him ever but.
If he's a brother in the Lord, we must be faithful to the word of God and not think to be more gracious than God is. But with such an one know not to mix.
If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the assembly. But if he he will not listen to the Assembly, let him be unto thee as one of the nations.
There are times when we must be faithful to souls for their good, it may look.
Hard to be hard on our part.
And there's that in the 16th of Romans.
Where their activity is contrary to the ways of the Lord, what we've learned, and with those that thus would rally others around them cause division be creating division. Therefore we must avoid that.
We had a brother meeting in Des Moines that got away from the meeting.
And he and his wife got away.
And they wandered around here and there and I said to them one day, well, where, where are you going? We always said we're just known as the wife. That said, she said we're just religious tramps.
Just going here and there. So he came back, they came back into the meeting eventually.
I never forget what he said that morning.
He said, I want to say brethren, that it was not those that tried to treat us as though everything was lovely. He said it was those that were faithful with us and spoke to us strongly of our of our mistake in leaving the meeting. The result that we're faithful with us that helped us back, not those that just ignored our false position and and would shake hands and everything was fine.
01:20:18
So I think that's.
That has a point to it. Love, divine, all praise excelling, joy from heaven to earth come down.
Angel.
Hamster.
'S boy.
All season.
Glory.
Joy.
And my full.
Salvation.
More and more.
Come on.
Today.