Sunday, November 5, 2017

He who is not with Me is against Me

Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.” Luke 11:23 NASB. 


This message is very important!

What does it mean to be ‘for Jesus?’

It means to be His disciple, to bear much fruit for Him and His Father; this is to tell the wonderful news of salvation to those who don’t know. If you are ‘for Jesus’ you will be unable to help yourself from doing something for Him, whom you love. Jesus said, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John 15:8 NASB. To be for Jesus is to cast all on the altar to Him, to love and obey Him in all things. To be for Jesus is to be for Him all the way. But there are those who long for something better who haven’t discovered how good Jesus is yet, and do not know how much He and His Father love them. They try to be a better Christian, but sometimes struggle against Him, sometimes getting proud, and sometimes drifting away from Him. This was me before I had the change that I now have. I don’t want to go back to the old me, before I discovered how much God loved and loves me, and wanted me to have a better life with Him. But He knew that I was searching for a better life, and that I wasn’t satisfied with what I had and wanted something better. It is no real sacrifice to give all for Jesus and His Father when you know the value of what they offer you, and the sweet peace, love, joy and faith they will bring you when you yield fully to their love. It only seems like a sacrifice when you are unsure how good God is, or whether you want to completely surrender to Him or not. It only seems like a sacrifice before you have fallen completely in love with Him! Once you learn to love Him like this, then it will be an easy thing to surrender completely to Him, it will be no real sacrifice, because you get more than you lose - you get oh so much more! And you will lose your desire for the things of this world that you once thought you needed that God wants you to give up.

What does it mean to be ‘against Him?’

This is the status quo. All who are not fully His or those living their life for themselves, who look to have their own way will sometimes or always be against Him, whether they are in the Church or in the world. For those in the Church like this, this is a halfway conversion to Christianity: one foot in the Church and one foot in the world. The advantage to being in ‘the Church’ is to know the truth of the plan of salvation; to know how to be forgiven and to know how to be free from the slavery of sin. Unfortunately we believe that many people do not know how to become free, even though they are a Christian, to not be a servant to sin anymore. They are not being taught this, perhaps because their teachers do not know about how to be free themselves or do not care to know how to be free. But whether you are in the Church or not the real question is whether you are a servant of sin or not. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:31-36 KJV. Has the Son made you free yet? He wants to. If He has made you free, you will no longer be a servant or a slave to sin. Please let Jesus free you from being a servant of sin. Then you will be Jesus’ disciple and be ‘for Him.’ If Jesus has freed you from the bondage of sin, you will be ‘for him’, and not scatter from Him.

What does it mean to ‘scatter?’

You don’t have to try too hard to scatter; your human nature will take care of this for you. The unrenewed heart, when it manifests itself, turns others away from the kingdom of Heaven. The biggest threat to Christianity are Christians who are not fully on God’s side. If you are not for Him all the way you will be working against His plan in some way at some point, in His plan to help other sinners repent and want to be saved. If you have given your heart to God, and have the Holy Spirit in your heart, you can’t help but be with Jesus and work with Him to help Him gather souls for His kingdom in Heaven. But if your love for Him is not paramount, you will be scattering to some extent, depending on how far you are from Him.


To be ‘for Jesus’:

Then Peter said to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?" And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Matthew 19:27-28 NASB. For those who have given up all to serve Jesus what will there be for them in Heaven? They will get the special honor in assisting God in Heaven and provided with thrones to sit on. They will be given the responsibility of assisting God in the judgement of ‘Israel’ like it says above. [The details on how this is part of the judgement is outside the scope of this article.] Jesus also says in Matthew 22:30 that the eternally saved will be like the angels in Heaven. Why? To serve God like the Angels do! What a joy! What an honor! Ransomed sinners allowed to act as messengers of God for the universe! That is what an angel is, a messenger of God. Do you want to be a messenger of God? Jesus then goes on to say in our Matthew 19 passage, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19:29 NASB. Whatever sacrifice you make for your Jesus, whom you love, will be more than amply repaid out of the eternal riches of Heaven! And whenever you help someone on their way to Heaven, you will accrue joy and happiness throughout eternity as they thank you over and over again for inviting them to Heaven or helping them get there, and you will be so happy as you see their peace, happiness and joy! And you will also have the most wonderful joy of knowing that your loving Heavenly Father is pleased with you, because He loves everyone so much! ‘For God so loved the world…’ John 3:16. You make Him happy when you help others know of His Love and help them to Heaven. What kind of price tag can you put on this? You can not. Whatever you give up for God or sacrifice for Him is small and paltry compared with your reward. But if you have God’s love in your heart, you will not be doing it for the reward of the pearly gates and your mansion and crown of Gold you will receive, because love and joy is the reward of those who serve Him, love is the true reward of the righteous. Your mansion and crown of gold is just icing on the cake, to use a common expression! And if you decide to yield all the way now to God and serve Him, you will start to get your reward now! Are you ready to get your reward?

Jesus declared, “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:35-36 KJV. If you want the promised great reward, you must also love and obey God and love your neighbor as yourself, and teach others to do so too.

Study more of the importance of loving and obeying God, and loving your neighbor as yourself in Matthew 5:19; 22:36-40; Psalms 19:7-11; 1 John 4:8; John 13:34-35; Romans 13:8-10; 1 John 2:7-10; John 14:15, 21, 23, 24. (We have also written much on this in other blogs and in some of our books which you can read as well. We recommend that you read all of our blogs.)

Why are we making such a big deal about being completely ‘for Jesus’ and doing what Jesus and His Father want you to do? Because being in the middle and not being for Him all the way is not the way of peace, joy, and happiness. If you want God to be pleased with you do what He asks willingly. Give up all of your problems and indecisiveness to Him, and let Him help you be for Him all the way. It is not hard to do what God asks you to do, if you will just learn to love Him and let yourself yield to Him. God will help you, if you desire a better life and you cooperate with Him. But it is impossible to make these changes by yourself. If you will yield to God all the way you will be at your happiest, and have all the peace, love and joy you were meant to have! And you will have the promised great reward! But if you do not yield to Him all the way, you will eventually incur His displeasure, because you will work to scatter Jesus’ flock. If you are not for Jesus all the way you will scatter from Him, or teach others that it is OK to not love Him with all their heart, mind and soul, or to not love their neighbor as themselves, or you will teach them that God is not powerful enough to save those who turn to Him for help. Or if you are not for Jesus, you will work in some way to prevent someone else from being saved. If you are not ‘for Jesus’ you will not go into Heaven yourself, and will try to prevent others from going in there. Note here what Jesus said to a class of ‘God’s people’ who were doing this very thing: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” Matthew 23:13 NASB.

Sadly, many who call themselves Christian are not really for Jesus; they are only part time followers of Him. When it requires bearing a cross or separating from the world or worldly practices, they are not there yet. Mark 8:34; 10:21; John 12:25-26; Luke 14:26-27, 33. Unfortunately there are many preachers who tell them they are OK the way they are, since they are under grace (the implication is that they don’t need to consecrate themselves fully to Jesus and His Father since they are under grace). But to those who truly love Him, half-way service to Him will never be enough. They are so happy for the grace that they have received they can’t wait to tell or show it to others. Or to help others who are not as fortunate as they, the poor, the sick or to visit those who are in prison.

If you have God’s love in your heart, you will be completely for Jesus and the Father. But if you haven’t yielded your heart completely to them, you will not be completely for them, which means as Jesus said that you are against Him. There is no middle ground. Whoever is not totally on Jesus’ side will work against Him in some way or scatter in some way at some point. You are either for Jesus or you are against Him. Let this sink in. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. Romans 8:9. This is very serious. Do you want to belong to Christ? Do you want His Spirit? He who doesn’t have His Spirit is against Him, scatters, and does not belong to Him.

Do you want to belong to Christ and to be ‘for Him’?

It is so sweet to belong to Him and to be ‘for Him!’ It has to be experienced to be understood. When you belong to Him like this, you will love Him with all of your heart, mind and soul, and long to serve Him, helping Him gather in the harvest for the end of the world. And you would do anything for Him! Then you are for Him all the way, and not scattering or leading souls astray. God can forgive you if you do not fully belong to Him yet, or if you have ever scattered from Him. There is still time to repent! But it is much better and much sweeter to belong to God all the way now, so you can enjoy the sweetness in life you were meant to have, and enjoy serving Him and loving others!

When you belong to Christ, you will be given ‘the Spirit of Christ’ and will be given all the help you need to serve Him with, and those unclean spirits of unkindness, ungratefulness, unforgiveness, no mercy, evil surmising, complaining, bitterness, and criticism of others will be gone and you will have sweet love in your heart for your brother or sister who has wronged you or gone against your beliefs, and not living right as some would say. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7 KJV. Then you will help the sick and dying in this world from sin, and thus you will prove to be Jesus’ disciple, and will bear much fruit for the kingdom of God, and God will be pleased with you. John 15:8.

Dear reader are you with Jesus or are you against Him? Do you gather with Him or scatter?

We hope and pray that the grace of God will be with you as you ponder this message. And He will be with you if you will listen to His voice. Please study and restudy this message, with much prayer and believe that God loves you and will help you, if you will seek after Him with all your heart. Amen. Jeremiah 29:11-13.

By John Foll, finished writing 11/04/2017 and 11/05/2017
© Copyright 2017 John Foll




#Jesus #Not #With #Against #Scatters #For #Disciple #Fruit #Spirit #Sacrifice #Love #Joy #Please #Church #Free #Sin #Slave #Servant #Reward #Righteous

Sunday, October 29, 2017

It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick!

By John Foll, written 10/28/2017
© Copyright 2017 John Foll

Are you tired of hurting yourself and others? It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.

“And it happened that as He [Jesus] was reclining at the table in the house, behold many tax-gatherers and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, ‘Why is your Teacher eating with the tax-gatherers and sinners?’ But when He heard this, He said, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE, 'for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” Matthew 9:10-13 NASB77.

There are two groups of people referred to by Jesus in this statement, ‘the righteous’ and ‘sinners’. What does the Bible have to say about the righteousness of man? “The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Psalm 14:2-3 NASB. ‘The best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge.’ Micah 7:4 NASB. This is the way many are who say they are a Christian, but don’t have a true conversion and God in their life. But those who see their need will turn to Him for help.

Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” Jeremiah 8:22 KJV. Why are all of God’s people today not seeking healing from Him? Aren't we all sick? This is God’s message to His people in our day too! There needs to be a balm in Gilead and help from the Great Physician, because many of His people in our day are in as much need of healing from the sickness of sin as they were when Jesus was dining with the tax collectors and sinners. Unfortunately because many of His people do not know or care that they are sick and in need of the Great Physician’s help, in need of the balm of Gilead, they have not been healed. If anyone needs healing they must first see that they are sick and in need of help; otherwise there will be no help or healing for them. The tax collectors and sinners in our passage in Matthew 9 received their opportunity of healing from sin from Jesus, and one of them was Matthew the disciple and apostle! See the verse before in Matthew 9:9. These were the sinners who the Pharisees were accusing Jesus of eating with. And at least one of them became Jesus’ loyal disciple, Matthew! How many people have been blessed by the book of Matthew? Aren’t you glad that Jesus ate with the tax collectors and sinners at Matthew’s house? We know that we are. There is hope for you too dear reader!

If someone see’s their need and allows Jesus to heal them from their sickness of sin, He will help them be good. When they have this change wrought in their heart they will have mercy and compassion on others who are still sick and in sin. If you consider yourself to be ‘the righteous’, go and learn what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE’, if you do not already know it. Hear now what God says here through Hosea the prophet, whom Jesus was quoting from In Mathew 9:13: “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.” Hosea 6:4-7 KJV. God is saying here that He wants His people to have mercy and compassion on others, to desire a true knowledge of Him and His ways of love, and to keep their covenant with Him.

No one can be good or righteous if they are not kind and merciful to others; this is the way God is with mankind! It doesn’t matter what someone says they believe, if they are not kind and merciful to others they are unrighteous! To be a Christian and a disciple of Jesus, all must be kind and merciful to others. When Moses asked God to show him His glory, God said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.’ Exodus 33:19 NASB. The King James Version renders this as: “And He [God] said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” Exodus 33:19 KJV. So we see here that God’s glory is His grace, mercy and compassion! But all those who have been shown mercy and compassion by God, because they asked for it from Him, should be grateful for the kindness that He has shown them. This should awaken His love in their heart and sympathy for others who are still trapped in the bondage of sin and addictions. Those who are grateful for the help they have received from Him will have mercy on sinners and will want to help them, instead of tearing them down. This is what Jesus meant when He said ‘Go and learn what this means.’ Those who say that they know Him and are not kind and merciful to others do not really know Him yet, and if they don’t repent they will find themselves shut out from the kingdom of Heaven. See Matthew 5:7, 6:12; John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; 1 John 4:20; 2:4; Matthew 25:21-40; 7:21-23.

We first heard someone using this text as a promise that God would help them ‘if they were sick’ by a dear brother in Christ. He said that before he met Christ he did a lot of bad things. We believe he was looking for hope that life could be better for him, he was listening to the voice of God. After he started studying the Bible, when he read this text, he knew there was hope for him! He prayed something like this, ‘Dear Lord I am sick, so I need a physician. Jesus came to heal those who are sick. Please heal me!” In his heart he knew that God heard is prayer, because he was sick! And God helped him to become a better person and to stop doing bad things! All who see their sickness can pray to God, and receive forgiveness and healing from sin; and get help to stop doing bad things, just like our dear brother did!

Yes, all those who are ‘sick’ can receive help from the Great Physician if they will plead for His help! Jesus came to help those who are sick, not those who are sick but don’t think that they are! God will not provide healing for someone like this until they see their need and freely ask for His help. He compels none. Those who do not see their great need will not be helped. But there is love and mercy for all those who know that they are sick and are desperate for the help that only the Great Physician can supply.

So there is a balm in Gilead and the Great Physician there to provide healing for all who are sick. Are you sick? Then there is hope for you! If you pray the prayer that my brother prayed above, you will be healed, no matter how bad you are and no matter what you’ve done. Jesus came to call you, Oh sinner, if you would be healed!

May the grace of God be with you all! May you see your need of Jesus and receive healing from all sin!

P. S. We would like to thank our dear brother in Christ for his testimony on this text - that he knew that God would hear this prayer and help him when you prayed it! How it gave him hope that God would save him because he was spiritually sick! We hope that his testimony and this article will be a blessing to others, giving hope to all who are sick and trapped in sin and want to be free! We want all to be delivered from the bondage to sin, all who want it.

Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36 KJV. So there is hope for all who want it! There is the Physician and the balm of Gilead for all who see their need and want it. No reason anymore to be trapped in sin and guilt, when Jesus came to make all free! Amen.



#Sick #Well #Physician #Mercy #Compassion #Sacrifice #Ear #Tax #Collectors #Sinners #Righteous #Help #Healing #Hurt #Stop #Yourself #Others #Testimony #Forgiveness #Free

Saturday, October 14, 2017

If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another Part 2

By John Foll, finished writing on 10/14/2017.
© Copyright 2017 John Foll

But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 NASB.

This text is so true. This is looking at the truth in a different way. We need to contemplate what this means, it is so important! Those who are walking in the light as God is the light will not be thinking that they do not need to be too concerned about their behavior or whether they are free from all enslavement and entanglement with the sins and things of this world. Many surround themselves with preachers and others who believe that they do not need to be concerned very much about their behavior or entanglement with sin and the things of this world, and little mention is made of the sinner’s need of walking in the Light of God, to repent and have a change made in them. And others think that they believe in ‘the truth’ while they are not walking in the Light and have not His abiding presence in their heart. It is every Christian’s privilege to choose to walk in the Light as God is the Light, whether they will listen to His sweet Spirit when He whispers to their heart or not.

John the Beloved here is saying that if you want the blood of Jesus to keep cleansing you from sin, you must walk in the Light of God, allowing God to change you and make you into His image. What is that image? Simply put, love. Love is the fulfillment of the Law. Romans 13:10. If you have the love of God in your heart, you will have fellowship with one another. How do you get the love of God in your heart? First you must confess your sins to God and ask Him to help you. 1 John 1:9. Then when He starts to change you, you must continue to walk in the Light, and go where He leads, not struggling against His will or the truth He has revealed to you in the Bible. You must walk in the Light, if you want the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from all sin! If you are not fully willing to do everything He wants you to do, or drag your feet on this or that, or stop making the changes that He wants you to make, or stop asking for His guidance, you will no longer be walking in the Light, and will lose the ability of having sweet fellowship with His other true believers, since He will no longer be your master. If this continues, eventually the blood of Jesus will no longer cleanse the soul from sin. This is the progression.

Unfortunately, many who go to church are no longer walking in the Light as He Himself is the Light, or they are not fully walking in the Light of His love and truth. This is the cause of the lukewarmness in the Church which manifests itself: either they are not too concerned about making a complete repentance and obeying God, or they are often harsh and critical of others, and have a problem keeping the Spirit of the Law. Both are missing the divine spark of God’s love and willingness to obey Him in their life. A belief in the truth and the soul’s duty to obey God is a place to start, but is not enough. There must be a deep desire to obey God in all things, because the soul loves Him.

If anyone continues willfully sinning, eventually the blood of Jesus will no longer cleanse them from sin. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” Hebrews 10:26-27 KJV. This is not pleasant to think about. But we don’t want anyone to be lulled into a false sense of security, but for all to know that all may get peace with God, if they will learn to love and submit fully to Him. Those that love God and His Son Jesus are not willful against them, and would do anything for them. Peter and the disciples said that they were ready to die for Jesus, as they stated in Matthew 26:21-35, but did not know their own heart, but after Jesus’ death and resurrection, they eventually were ready, and tradition tells us that every one of Jesus’ eleven disciples except John died a martyr’s death. The eleven truly learned to love Jesus, and were willing to obey Him in all things; this was a delight to them.

If any want to have fellowship with one another, they must allow the blood of Jesus to cleanse them from all sin, confessing all of their sins to God, and to those whom they have wronged as far as possible, and ask and allow God to help them turn away from all sin and wrongdoing. Then the blood of Jesus will have cleansed them from sin, and then and only then, they will have fellowship with one another. This is because true love produces unity and trust between believers, but its absence destroys sweet fellowship. Those who have not yielded to Jesus and His Father all the way, believed in Jesus, and received the Holy Spirit, will be unable to have true fellowship with one another. If you will spend much time with God and learn to yield to Him, you will be brought into a sweet, close fellowship with Him, and He will make all the changes in you that are necessary for your salvation. Then you will walk in the Light of God and have true fellowship with other believers, because you will have allowed the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from all sin.

If you want to have life, walk in the Light of God’s love, allowing Him to mold and shape you into a new creature. This is something you cannot do by yourself. Renounce all sin, and yield to God willingly, giving yourself to Him, cooperating with Him at every point. The only way you can have sweet fellowship with other believers, is to have God’s love in your heart, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then He will help free you from sinning over and over again, and the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from sin, and you won’t be guilty of the blood of Christ! Then God will make you a new creature and give you the power to be Jesus’ disciple! This is walking in the Light, as He is the Light!

May you walk in the light of God, have fellowship with one another and let the blood of Jesus cleanse you from all sin! Amen.



#Walk #Light #God #Cleanse #Sin #Fellowship #Another #Love #Blood #Jesus #Confess #Submit #Yield #Willful #Belief #Truth #Not #Enough #Free #Entanglement

Thursday, September 28, 2017

God’s Most Wonderful Offer To You of Forgiveness and the Holy Spirit…

By John Foll, in full partnership with the Holy Spirit, finished writing 9/28/2017.
© Copyright 2017 John Foll

Please believe exactly what we are telling you: Jesus wants to forgive you, cleanse you of all unrighteousness and give you the most precious gift – the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit!

If you could know, even for a moment, how wonderful this is, how could you turn it down? If you were ever to know the joy that we know right now, and lose it, you couldn’t live with yourself until you got it back! A few times we sinned and lost our connection for a few hours – we got so depressed! We never want that to happen again!

You could live many lifetimes on this earth and accumulate all its wealth and power, and all of its pleasures, but it could never equal one minute of the happiness and joy of yielding completely to the Holy Spirit! Much less than the joys of heaven for all eternity! No human being can fathom the joys of heaven for those who love God and Jesus. But many people are ready to turn it down for a momentary sin or pleasure, never knowing the true peace, love, joy and power of God. And many Christians are living a sickly, lukewarm Christian existence, when they might have the vibrant new life the Jesus has promised to all who want it. We feel pity for them. What can we do to convince you that it is worth every sacrifice to give yourself completely to God and receive the Holy Spirit in full?

Jesus is offering this to you right now as a free gift, if you want it. Why would you turn it down? Will you get all of it now if you commit yourself to God? It depends on how soon you really yield all of your sins, habits and stop doubting and resisting God and procrastinating. But if you beg the Holy Spirit to come inside and totally cleanse you, it can happen very rapidly – if you will let Him! You can pray to God, ‘Be merciful to me a sinner!’ Luke 18:13. You can then ask Him to give you the Holy Spirit! Luke 11:13.

Please don’t turn down this special offer of mercy, help and comfort from God!

May the grace of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!



#God #Wonderful #Offer #Holy Spirit #Ask #Forgive #Cleanse #Unrighteousness #Joy #Love #Happiness #Yield #Completely #Sacrifice #Power #Lukewarm #Christian #Sin #Pleasure #Sick

Monday, September 18, 2017

A Cord of Three is not Easily Broken!

By John Foll, written between 9/15/2017 and 9/18/2017.
© Copyright 2017 John Foll

“And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12 RSV.

This text is normally viewed as the bond between two or three people who are bound together in the ties of love or walking together in sweet accord, but we believe it has a deeper meaning.

Our prayer for you is that you will live a successful Christian life and not be lacking in any good thing. We want to help equip you for this. What does it take? How do you overcome your trials and difficulties and problems? Let’s see what else ‘a cord of three that is not easily broken’ might mean, and how it will help you to be an overcomer.

“Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.'” John 14:23 NASB. If you love Jesus, keep His word, He and His Father will come to you and make their abode in you. This is a most beautiful and precious thing that Jesus and His Father want to do for you! They want to come and make their abode in your heart, if you want it. Together, Jesus, His Father and you make three; this is a cord of three that is not easily broken! Unlike the friendships between two or three people on this earth, God is mighty to save and will never fail you! How does it happen, when Jesus and His Father will come and make their abode in you? Through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Symbolically, the Holy Spirit will dwell in your heart on behalf of Jesus and His Father, if you seek to keep and obey His word, like He says. But when this happens it is none other than the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart all together, a three-fold union! This three-fold union of divinity cannot fail, because God cannot fail, for there is no part of man in this union. This is the strongest cord that can ever exist, because it is built on Divinity alone, which cannot fail. You don’t have to depend on your own strength, but on God’s power which cannot fail. Jesus promised this three-fold union to all of His true disciples and those who would be, that is the Comforter, or the Holy Spirit. But who are His disciples? All that love and obey Him.

You are never truly alone if you have Jesus and His Father dwelling in you, in the presence of the Holy Spirit or the comforter! Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:25-26 NASB. Jesus promised His disciples that He would not leave them as orphans. And He will give you the Holy Spirit forever if you would be His disciple too. He said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:16-18 NASB. From this we see that all who desire the Holy Spirit must get to know God. Implied in this is that all who would have the Holy Spirit must confess their sins, humble their heart before God, want to obey Him, and yield to Him fully. This can be shown by numerous Bible passages. Yes, Jesus comes to all that are His disciples, He will not leave them as orphans; He will come to them.

How do you love Jesus and keep His word? Jesus told Nicodemus that to be saved he must have a change wrought in him: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’” John 3:3-5 NASB. The answer to this question is that God will provide this for you if you want it. You must allow God to work fully in your life to do His good pleasure. Paul reveals: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13 NASB. Since it is a work from God, the only part you play is to allow Him to do it for you, so yield yourself to God totally and allow Him to do this for you and it will happen. You will have to obey Him in what He has asked you to do at every point, without stubbornness. When doing what God asks you to do is an easy decision for you to make, then you will know that you are becoming or are born again!

The answer to how you can love Jesus and keep His word, is to have this three-fold union of Divinity dwelling in your heart. God has made this provision for you, if you would have it and seek after Him with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13. The way has been prepared for you at the cross by Jesus and given by God with the outpouring of His Holy Spirit, which started in Acts 2, and is to be forever. It is yours if you will claim it, and desire to love and obey God all the way. Don’t resist God, He loves you! You must prepare your heart to receive the power of God’s Holy Spirit if you would have Him dwell in your heart.

Jesus said, ‘I have given you the Holy Spirit forever.’ John 14:16. What a precious promise! Jesus will not leave His disciples alone or as ‘orphans’ as He promised, He will come to them! This is indeed the way you can live a successful Christian life, and have all the peace, love, faith, joy, and happiness that you were meant to have! Jesus doesn’t want to leave you alone, but longs to be in your heart! He and His Father greatly love you! So you don’t have to cross over Jordan alone, as the song says. Jesus stands behind His word and will not take away this promise of the Holy Spirit to His disciples, He has given the Holy Spirit to His disciples forever. Why do we keep talking about this promise as being for His disciples? Because it’s true. The messages given in John 13 to 17 were given by Jesus to His disciples, and to them that would believe through their testimony (or through the testimony of others who received it from someone who traces back to the original apostles). Jesus in His special prayer to His Father, before He was arrested and crucified said (John 17:1): “For their sakes [His disciples] I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:19-21 NASB. So we see from this that all who believe in Jesus through their word are to be His disciple too; it is implied. So if you have believed in Jesus through the testimony of the Bible or from another Christian, His prayer applies to you to! All who have been baptized as a Christian should be Jesus’ disciple, but sadly this is not true often enough. It is only for those who want to be His disciple and for those who truly love Him. If you love Jesus, you cannot help but be His disciple and keep His word. Jesus also gives the reason why the Holy Spirit is given when He said above: “so that the world may believe that You sent Me.When you have the Holy Spirit in full, you cannot keep your love for Him quiet, but will want to tell everyone you can about it, and help everyone you can.

Since Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and won the victory for us, all authority has been given to Him in Heaven and earth. Go and make disciples of all men, and lo, He is with you always, even to the end of the world. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:18-20 KJV. If you are a Christian, you should be Jesus’ disciple too, and if you are Jesus’ disciple you are to follow His command to go and preach and teach all things that He commanded you, and the promise if you do this is: Lo He will be with you always, even unto the end of the world! Amen! Is that what you want? The author of Hebrews also tells us that God will never leave or forsake us: “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He [God] hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5 KJV. This promise applies only if God is abiding in you (or you want Him to abide in you), and you are living God’s Law of love (or you want to live it).

If you belong to Jesus and are His disciple, then you will have this three-fold union of Jesus, His Father and the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart. This cord of the Trinity in your heart is a power that cannot be broken, and will guide and protect you as long as you allow them to dwell there.

May the grace of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all! Amen.


#Cord #Broken #God #Jesus #HolySpirit #Two #Better #One #Love #Keep #Word #Disciple #Comforter #Promise #BornAgain #Orphan #Leave #Forsake #Christian #Trinity

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Order Upon Order, Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept! Part 2: The Unity of the Scriptures

The Unity of the Scriptures

By John Foll, written between 8/19/2017 and 8/23/2017, except for the start which came with Part 1. © Copyright 2017 John Foll

To whom would He teach knowledge, and to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? For He says, 'Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there.' ” Isaiah 28:9-10 NASB.

In this article we want to show you how to understand the Bible, by applying the principles of order upon order, line upon line, precept upon precept. We want to show the unity of the Bible and why it’s important, which shows order in the Bible, because God is a God of order.Let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40 KJV. Colossians 2:5; Titus 1:5; 2 Chronicles 29:35; Psalms 119:133; Matthew 12:44.

For the details of important truths you need to know that are taught by the Bible, please check out our new blog: How To Please God: http://WhiteRaimentEvangelismObey.blogspot.com/ .

The articles in the series you are now reading: “Order Upon Order, Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept!” are designed to teach you the importance of studying the whole Bible and the principles needed to understand it. They are a good lead into our new blog: How To Please God, where we will study these precious truths of the Bible that you need to know in greater detail. Why is it important to study these doctrines? So you can know how to please God and be eternally happy! Why aren’t we including them in our Love of God or our Faith Blogs? Because not everyone is ready for these truths yet. In our Love of God and our Faith Blogs we are trying to focus on the essentials of the gospel and how to be saved, have peace, love, joy, faith, hope, and how to become born again and be filled with the Spirit. Without these most essential and basic truths of the Gospel message fully believed and put into practice, your Christianity will become a “hollow shell”, with either self-righteousness or a carelessness of not loving God with all your heart, mind and soul, or a carelessness of not loving your neighbor as yourself.

We have seen in some of our previous articles in our Love of God Blog: the Holy Spirit is given to all that obey God. Acts 5:32. What does this mean? We have thought about this a lot and have come to the conclusion that it is most important to believe, teach and live by all of God’s truth in the Bible, not just the pleasant things to think about like the Love of God. (We already knew this at least in part, but had not connected it fully with Acts 5:32.) It makes no sense to talk about getting the Holy Spirit, or to talk about getting peace, love, faith, hope or joy, etc. if someone doesn’t eventually want to obey God. He gives us time to get to know Him and choose of our own free will to give our heart fully to Him or not. If anyone wants the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus also refers to as ‘the spirit of truth’, instead of the spirit of error, they must want to obey God. John 14:17; 16:16; 16:13. Anyone can claim they have the Holy Spirit or that they are born again, but the proof in whether they are or not, and have the right Spirit, is if they love and obey God, and treat others with kindness, love and respect. This means to keep God’s commandments, which are to love Him with all your heart, mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:36-40. The only way you can understand the Bible, is if you are listening to the Holy Spirit. The only way you can obey God’s commandments is if you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart continually. But how do you know if you have the Holy Spirit? You must apply the Bible tests, you must keep God’s Law of Love. John said about Jesus: “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 2:3-6 KJV. The promise of the Holy Spirit is a precious promise given to the believer who yields themselves to God. The more you yield to Him, the more of the power of the Holy Spirit you will have. If you yield to Him fully, you will have the Holy Spirit in full, and your life will never be the same; then God’s will for your life will be your greatest desire! The Holy Spirit is a precious gift that all Christians need. The Holy Spirit is also a reward given to those who want to obey God and love Him with all their heart, the Pearl of Great Price! When you love God with all your heart, mind and soul, then you have the Holy Spirit in full. Then obeying God’s every wish and command will be a delight for you, not a burden. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” 1 John 5:3 NASB.

In case you are wondering, whose commandments is John talking about keeping here in John 2:3-6, Jesus’ or God’s? As we have shown in our previous blog article: Order Upon Order, Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept! Part 1 http://WhiteRaimentEvangelism.blogspot.com/2017/08/order-upon-order-line-upon-line-precept-upon-precept-part1.html, God’s commandments are Jesus’ commandments, and Jesus’ commandments are God’s commandments, because they are one. Jesus is the Word of God and came to this earth to reveal His Father’s will for mankind. But Jesus restated God’s Law of Love in Matthew 22:36-40, and in John 13:34. (Note: Jesus wasn’t stating a new truth here, even though it may seem so, because this truth was taught first by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4-6 and Leviticus 19:18.)

You must listen to the Holy Spirit to understand the Bible, be born again or be saved, but you must also love and obey God’s word in the Bible in order to have the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is important for you to study the other doctrines of the Bible, to help you know all of what God requires. This is the reason for our new blog, “How To Please God”; to teach the other essential truths of the Bible, so you can please God and have the Holy Spirit in full!


Now back to our current article “Order Upon Order, Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept Part 2”:

We want to add to our order upon order, and line upon line doctrines:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV. What scripture does Paul say is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness? All scripture. What scriptures were the scriptures in Paul’s day? Just the Old Testament. Paul didn’t start to write any of his epistles until a long time after Jesus had gone back to Heaven, and most likely his own writings, although inspired, were not considered on the same level as scriptures until a later date. We don’t want to take the time to try to prove this to you in this article. We have talked about this in our books and other blog articles, and there is more too learn of it.

We are making the point about the Old Testament being “all scriptures” because there are many in our day that are teaching that Jesus did away with the Old Testament or the 10 Commandments, etc. and that the Old Testament can be discarded in part, if not in whole, because some declare it to be “Old Covenant”. To many people anything that can be labeled “Old Covenant” should be discarded. The devil is well pleased with this thinking, because once people start down this road, they end up carving up the New Testament too, with some parts being labeled ‘old covenant’ and other parts being labeled ‘new covenant’. This is destroying belief in the New Testament. As we have said in some of our books, the New Testament uses the Old Testament to prove that Jesus is the Christ, and it is the starting point of the Christian Faith, and if it is discarded, it turns Christianity into a sham, because we must have confidence that Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah of the world. If the Old Testament is not valid anymore, it destroys the credibility of Jesus, because He spoke with favor on it. Many things that He spoke can be found in the Old Testament. We have also shown in some of our previous blog articles, in our Love of God Blog and in some of our books, that there are preachers in our day that are contradicting Christ by their incorrect views of what Paul taught in his epistles. They tend to place their ideas of what Paul taught above the clear testimony of Jesus! A careful study of Paul’s writings reveal that he did not contradict anything that Jesus said. What Paul was against was legalism, the effort to save one’s self by themselves, and he was for being a new creature, which is to be born again and walk by the Spirit, which is life and peace. Romans 8:5-10. But these are the same things that Jesus was for!

We are not saying that the New Testament is not the scriptures or ‘all scriptures’. Our point is to make you aware that the books of the Old Testament were the scriptures first, and they were the scriptures that Paul specifically referred to when he wrote the epistle of 2nd Timothy. (He may have also been intending that his epistles and some of the other books of the New Testament that were written were scriptures too, but we haven’t researched this to know if it is true.) Many people probably haven’t thought of it this way, and may not realize what Paul meant in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. This point is important to understand. Since Paul and the other Apostles had seen Jesus physically or in a vision and learned from Him, and received the Holy Spirit, their writings are also the word of God, thus ‘the scriptures’. Many Christians make the New Testament their main or only scriptures, and are unsure whether the books of the Old Testament are also ‘the scriptures’ that are necessary for them to study and follow. But to understand God’s complete will for man, and to have a full understanding of the plan of salvation, and to understand the future that lies ahead of us, i.e. Bible prophecy, the Old Testament must be studied and viewed as the word of God by every believer. The writers of the New Testament did not fully expound on or list all of the truths of the Old Testament in their writings, because the people were exhorted to study the scriptures. In their day, there was no question that the Old Testament was the word of God to the believer.

Paul also said, “Study to shew [or show] thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV. What does Paul mean by rightly dividing the word of truth? He means that we need to study the whole Bible (both the Old and New Testaments), know all of what it says, and know how to rightly divide it up by context to build valid doctrines without contradictions, and we also believe, comparing scripture with scripture, order upon order, line upon line, and precept upon precept, as our theme passage for this article series indicates. This method of rightly dividing the truth is the method that God approves of. Those who rightly divide the word of truth will not be ashamed in the Day of Judgment, when their life record is brought up and the fruit of their life is accounted for. There will be a great reward for those who have been faithful in honoring God’s law of love for mankind, and teaching others to do so, and teaching others the way of salvation! We don’t know about you, but we want that great reward that Jesus promised! Don’t you too?

See Matthew 5:19; 25:31-46; John 15:16; Matthew 10:32-33; 1 Samuel 2:30; 2 Timothy 2:11-13; Psalms 19:7, 11; Romans 1:16; 10:11; 1 John 2:28; 2 Timothy 1:12-14.

We need to seek for harmony in the Bible and see how the Old and New Testaments work together! And that without either of them, we have an incomplete understanding of all truth! We have also endeavored in our Love of God Blog and in our Faith Blog to show that it has always been about faith. In the days of the Old Testament, it was about faith that Jesus would one day come to redeem mankind from their sins, to pay the price for our sins, and for the salvation that He and His Father would bring through the resurrection, and take His people home to be with Him forever in Heaven in mansions of glory and endless delight, as *the song says. And this is true in our day! We have even more light of the scriptures shining on our path than the people in the days of the Old Testament had, but it is still about faith in Jesus and His Father, whereby we must be saved and always will be.

One of the purposes of this Order Upon Order, Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept series of articles is to help you have full confidence that all of the Bible is the word of God; so that you can believe it, be happy, please God and receive the Holy Spirit in full, because the Holy Spirit is given to all that obey God, Acts 5:32, and to those who want to obey Him.

* From the Hymn: ‘My Jesus I Love Thee’: Words by William Ralph Featherston, Music by Adoniram Gordon. Click on the link below to hear me singing this song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX4x8FJP6fA

In addition to Christians wanting to get rid of the Old Testament as part of their rule of faith, atheism, for some time now, has been trying to destroy our belief that God was the creator, as the Bible says He was in the book of Genesis. And some Christians now are integrating “theistic” evolution into their beliefs; this goes along with their belief that the Old Testament is old covenant and not necessary for Christians. Our purpose in this article is not to debunk evolution here, but to point out that it is a big factor in the errors that are plaguing our world today.

What’s at stake? The unity of the Bible, and whether God really meant what He said, or whether He changed His mind and said something different at a later date. If you have been confused on this, we hope that you will want to learn the truth on the unity of the Bible, ‘all scriptures’. If you don’t agree with this you will have trouble with many of our articles, because this is an integral part of what Acts 5:32 teaches, that if we want the Holy Spirit we must obey God. And the only way we can obey God is if we want to obey everything He said in the Bible. So we must study all of it. There is a beauty and harmony with the truth, when it is understood with no contradictions; this is the only way to know true peace, and to have the Spirit of Truth that Jesus promised to all of His disciples. John 15:26; 14:15-17; 16:13-14.

Jesus declared that those who read the scriptures and do not see that they testify of Him, do not have God’s word abiding in their heart.And ye have not His word abiding in you: for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” John 5:38-40 KJV. What scriptures was Jesus referring to when He said this? The Old Testament. How do we know this? Because the book of John was not written until about A.D. 90’s! See http://www.freebeginning.com/new_testament_dates/. It is impossible that the book of John could have been considered scriptures when Jesus spoke John 5:38-40! The first book of the New Testament that was written was most likely the book of Mark, which was written about 60 - 70 A.D. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Mark/ . So it is impossible that any book of the New Testament could have been scriptures when Jesus said this. Also it is impossible for any book of the New Testament to have been considered scriptures before that book was written. We believe that many Christians have not considered the fact that the Gospels or the book of Acts were not written until a much later date, after they took place. And the other books of the New Testament were also written many years after Jesus went back to Heaven!

The Old Testament scriptures declare the love of God and the plan of salvation. Throughout its pages, in its rites and ceremonies, laws, and stories, we see God’s mercy for our fallen world. We see the plan of how Jesus would be sent to die on the cross for the sins of the world, how to live and be born again, how God would send the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, and how Jesus would one day return at the second coming and raise the righteous from the dead, and take all of His people home to be with Him and the Father in the mansions He has prepared for them. We also see the second resurrection and the judgement of the wicked and their eventual complete destruction by fire. All of this was shown or predicted in the Old Testament in one place or another. Much of this was shown in the daily rites, the festivals and other yearly rites of the sanctuary services with what the Priests did. And there were many prophecies from Moses, David and the Major and Minor Prophets throughout its pages. To get a full understanding of the truth it is necessary to study the New Testament together with the Old Testament, comparing their teachings and Bible prophecies. It is not good for anyone to reject the authority or the inspiration of the Old Testament, or to try to put it down as not being needed anymore for Christians. Jesus said that the scriptures testify of Him, which were the Old Testament scriptures. How can anything that testifies about Jesus be bad? These are the same "all scriptures” that Paul also spoke about that are profitable for the Christian, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete and lacking in nothing.

Jesus said to the Tempter, when tempted to turn the stones into bread when He was hungry, near the end of his forty day fast:It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ Matthew 4:4 KJV. If you study the words of Moses, and the writings of the Old Testament with an open mind, you will see that these are indeed the words of God! Jesus declared that we should not live by the bread that we eat for food alone, implying that we are not to live just by the works or the fruits of our hands; not just by how we earn our living or feed ourselves. But we are also to live by the words of God, all of them. We should take heed to all that God has said, unless it was of a temporary nature (not for our day), or conditional with conditions not met.

We also have this testimony from Jesus regarding the importance of listening to Moses and the Prophets in this parable of the Rich man and Lazarus: “"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"” Luke 16:29-31 NASB. Some may think that Jesus was only talking to the Jews here when He made this statement, and that we don’t need to be concerned about what He said here if we are a Christian. But what Jesus said here was His main point! If someone will not believe the writings of Moses and the Prophets (literally He is talking about the entire Old Testament here), neither will they believe if someone should rise from the dead and tell them to repent. Think about what Jesus meant here!

Do Christians have the Old Testament in their Bibles? Yes. Why? Because Christians throughout the ages since Jesus went back to Heaven have been blessed by the Old Testament in its stories of faith, and the great and wonderful works of God! So it has been included in their Biblical canon. Who has not been blessed by reading the Psalms? Those who are down and out and greatly need encouragement. And there are many wonderful promises about Jesus the Messiah, particularly as found in the book of Isaiah the prophet. Who has not been blessed by these prophecies? Do we as Christians have the testimony of Moses and the Prophets in our Bible? Again yes. Then you must accept the testimony of the Old Testament, because you have Moses and the Prophets, as Jesus said. If you don’t, neither will you believe if someone should rise from the dead telling you to repent! Jesus was not just speaking to the Jewish race here! David wrote: “the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul, the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple”! Psalms 19:7 KJV. This is found in the Old Testament. If you want to be truly converted, do not reject any of God’s counsel for you in any part of the Holy Scriptures, be it the Old or New Testaments.

There is yet another point to be learned from Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus: Did someone rise from the dead and seek to tell His people to repent? Yes! Who? Jesus! Even though the Bible makes no mention that Jesus ever spoke to any of the leaders of the nation of Israel again after His resurrection, by proxy He did speak to them. Through the testimony of Peter, James and John, the rest of the Apostles, and of course Paul. They were all preaching that Jesus’ rose from the dead and that everyone should repent. One place is Acts 2. Did any of the Jews believe Jesus’ call to repentance after He rose from the grave? Yes, but not all. We do not know the number, but it was probably not the majority. Why? Because Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14 NASB. Many did not receive this testimony that He was risen, that His death for their sins alone could save them, and that they should repent. Why? Because they had not truly believed Moses and the Prophets, who all testified of Him! If they had known and really believed these writings, they would have known Jesus too, for these writings prophesied of Him. So we think that Jesus was making a prophecy concerning Himself in this parable of the rich man and Lazarus, that when He would rise from the dead, those who did not truly believe Moses and the Prophets would not believe His testimony either, as given by His Disciples telling them to repent. This is quite a statement that Jesus made! We wish all Christians would understand this, that if they will not believe the testimony of Moses and the Prophets, neither will they truly believe Jesus’ testimony to repent.


Conclusion:
Both of the Old and New Testaments are the Holy Scriptures that we as Christians need to study and ask God’s help to put into practice. We are to live by all of these words that proceed from the mouth of God! If we want to understand God’s will for us, we will want to study everything that He has revealed in His Holy Scriptures, both in the Old and the New Testaments, and compare them, order upon order, line upon line, precept upon precept. This is the way of peace, love, joy, happiness, and eternal life! If you would have life, search for Jesus in the Old Testament, as well as studying about Him in the New Testament, for all of the Bible testifies about Jesus, and His Father’s love for our world. Amen!

May the grace of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!



We hope to write further blog articles on this subject.





#Understand #Principle #Bible #Doctrine #Order #Unity #Old #New #Testament #HolySpirit #Obey #Love #Scripture #Reproof #Testimony #Jesus #Harmony #Believe #Rise #Dead

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Order Upon Order, Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept! Part 1

By John Foll, written between 8/3/2017 and 8/9/2017.
© Copyright 2017 John Foll


To whom would He teach knowledge, and to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? For He says, 'Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there.' Indeed, He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, He who said to them, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," And "Here is repose," but they would not listen.” Isaiah 28:9-12 NASB. [Or as it says in the KJV: “this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”].

Yes that is the question: To whom will God teach knowledge? Would He want to keep having to teach us over and over the basics of the truth when we should have already learned it long ago? God prefers that His people advance closer to His ideal for them, instead of being “stuck in neutral” or backsliding.

In this article, we want to discuss some important Bible study principles to help you to know how to properly study and understand the “saving truths” that you need to know, and not be deceived into the many errors that plague Christianity today and modern man. We want to help equip you to know the truth if you don’t already know it. But we believe there is ever more to learn. It’s time to get beyond the basics, but to get beyond the basics the errors must be unlearned and true faith learned by all who would want to be weaned from spiritual infancy.

God is a God of order and changes not; He is always a God of Order. He wants all to understand the order and precepts in the Bible and the beautiful harmony that exists between them without contradiction. Order upon order. There needs to be an order to the way the Bible is studied, and there needs to be an order to the way truths are put together to make up the doctrines we believe. Our beliefs should not be haphazardly put together, but there should be a beautiful order, harmony and symmetry to them. We need to have order in our lives, God’s order, and not be blown about by every “wind of doctrine”. Ephesians 4:14.

In our theme passage of Isaiah 28:9-10 we see that the key to a full understanding of the truth is order upon order, line upon line, precept upon precept. We should always study the Bible carefully and in context. The time has come to study the great themes and topics of the Bible together, not in a disconnected manner. The way to do this is to compare scripture with scripture, command with command, to come up with the correct understanding of what the Bible means, not discarding any of God’s precious light that He blessed us with; to remove apparent contradictions. The truth should not contradict itself. God is perfect and makes no mistakes. All of His works, including His teachings in the Bible are perfect. A greater and greater unfolding of the truth occurred as the books of the Bible were written and completed, by His design, as mankind was able to use what God had given them. God’s prophets and writers may have made revisions to their words when writing, because they were human and needed to think about what they were writing, when the words were not dictated to them by God. But the words and thoughts were given to them by God and were always perfect, and He was guiding His messengers with His Spirit. “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: He is a buckler [or a shield] to all them that trust in Him.” 2 Samuel 22:31 KJV. When the truths of the Bible are studied like this they really shine and a greater knowledge is gained, and faith is strengthened.

We believe that verse 12 of our theme text, a prophecy by Isaiah, is referring at least in part to when Jesus walked the earth and taught the people more about the love of God and how to be saved and died for the sins of all mankind. This ‘refreshing’ for His people was completed with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, when His disciples and followers received power from on high, or a ‘spiritual refreshing.Is that what you want? A spiritual refreshing? May God bless you greatly if this is your desire! If you would be spiritually renewed and refreshed, learn the vital truths that are necessary for your soul, love and obey God. This is our prayer for you.

God’s desire is that all would grow up into spiritual adults, as Isaiah indicated above. This same truth was also stated by Paul when he said, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NASB. What Paul is saying is still true today unfortunately. Many in our day are still spiritual infants, and need to be taught the same basic truths over and over again. It is also time for everyone to make progress and shed the errors that they believe and become born again, born from above, a new creature in Christ.

The writer of Hebrews said, “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” Hebrews 5:11-14 NASB. It’s time to learn to discern good and evil, discard all error, trust God all the way, and receive all of the blessings that He wants to give you. Are you ready to receive these blessings yet? Are you ready to take the next step in your walk with God?

Now back to our theme of order upon order, line upon line, precept upon precept:

There are some Christians who believe that there are sections in the New Testament that should be discarded or reinterpreted. Why are we bringing this up in this article? Because if you want to make spiritual progress you need to learn the truth and discard fallacies and falsehoods when you are convicted by the Holy Spirit. If you already know and believe all truth this is good. But are you born again? Do you have God’s power in your life to be good? If you know that you are not where you should be with God, keep on the narrow road, and learn to yield yourself more and more to Him, and love and desire to obey Him, asking for His help until you gain His power in your life. May God be with you if this is your desire! This is our prayer for you.

If you believe what some people teach or say, everything in the Bible is to be judged by whether it is “New Covenant” or can be labeled “Old Covenant”. Once something is labeled as “Old Covenant” by anyone whosoever, it can be discarded they think as a useless ‘relic’ of religion and cast on the trash heap. They don’t realize this is a big dishonor to God! Do they really think that God is pleased with them putting down His word and thinking that He couldn’t get it right the first time and had to change it for the better later? Or do they think that there is no need to be concerned if they are doing what God says anymore, since we are now under grace? Those who put down any of the words of Jesus, that He spoke prior to His death on the cross, are greatly dishonoring Him and are acting as His judge. Some people like to “cherry pick” the teachings that Jesus spoke as being for new covenant Christians or not. But this is not good. We are disturbed by what some are saying or doing with His words.

God said that all who honor Him He will honor, as the prophet Samuel declared. 1 Samuel 2:30. And in the Psalms it admonishes us that we should hide God’s word in our heart, treasuring it greatly, that we might not sin against Him:Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:11 KJV. We believe that Jesus lived by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, as He told Satan. “But He [Jesus] answered and said [to Satan], "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" Matthew 4:4 NASB. And we believe that Jesus especially hid His Father’s words in His heart that He might not sin against Him. Jesus said, ‘if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.’ John 15:10 KJV. We are to keep Jesus’ commandments as He kept His Father’s commandments. And the commandments that God gave to His people in Exodus 20 are the same thing as Jesus’ commandments or God’s law of love (Matthew 22:36-40), because Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 6:38 NASB. Be it known that it was God, the Father, who sent Jesus. And: “So Jesus said, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” John 8:28-29 NASB. “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.” John 12:49-50 NASB. And: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” John 14:10 NASB. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.” John 14:24 NASB. And Jesus prayed to His Father for His disciples saying: “for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” John 17:8 NASB. And John the Baptist said, which he most likely meant about Jesus, “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.” John 3:34 NASB. Can there be any doubt that Jesus’ words and commandments are God’s words and commandments? Can there be any doubt that God’s words and commandments are Jesus’ words and commandments? Hebrews 1:1-3 NASB tells us that Jesus is the radiance of His Father’s glory, and the exact representation of His nature. Can there be any doubt among those who truly love Jesus and His Father that they are truly one and teach the same truth? John 10:30; 17:11. Listening to and believing in Jesus [John 3:16] and everything that He said is the secret to getting the victory, the power of God in your life, and eternal life! [*Also God gave special commandments or directions to Jesus, as He directed Him.]

You should study everything that Jesus said in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and commit His words to your memory (at least the ideas), and ask God for the strength and power to do all of them. If this is your desire, our prayer for you is that you will be richly blessed by God! Amen. Blessed are you if you do all the words that Jesus commanded or advised His people to do, and avoid the things He said we should not do. Jesus said at the last supper, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. John 13:17 NASB. You are blessed if you do what things? Everything He told them to do at the last supper, but also everything else He had spoken to them that they should do or abstain from. How blessed are you if you do them! Jesus was and is the word of God (John 1:1-5; 10-17), and everything He spoke is to be treasured by His people, not to be discarded as being ‘old covenant’ because He spoke them prior to His death on the cross, or because some think they don’t apply in our day since we are now living under grace. What Jesus spoke, He spoke for all people until they end of time, it was not just for the Jews! John the Baptist and the Apostle John both bore witness that Jesus was the Son of God and was sent from God, the Word of God. Can there be any doubt among those who love Jesus that He was and is the Word of God? If you want all the blessings from God that He wants to give you, that you will not be able to contain them all, then ask Him to help you keep His word and obey His precepts in the Bible, and not discard anything He or His Son told you to do. Don’t ignore anything that some label as ‘old covenant’, unless you can clearly prove that it no longer applies to Gentile Christians after Jesus’ death.


[We wrote about this in our book: “The Ceremonial Law & Sacrificial System: What does it mean to the Gospel Message? For Those Who Want To Know How the Law of Love and the Mosaic Law Relate to Christians Today.” Also check out our book, “God’s Law of Love: For Those Who Want To Know Why God’s Law of Love Is Important.”]

Summary:
So what did we learn in this article? God is a God of order. We should study His word with order, and have an orderly way of putting the doctrines of truth together from the Bible, always being careful to take things in context, and seeking for harmony between all of the scriptures, not contradictions. And to not put down any of God’s words. And that Jesus’ words are God’s words, and God’s words are Jesus’ words. And we should study out the four gospels in the New Testament, believing and desiring to obey everything that Jesus said, trying to commit them or their ideas to our memory. God will honor all those who honor Him, and not those who dishonor Him.

And to add to this in closing, Jesus said: “Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.” Luke 12:8-9 KJV. And as Matthew puts it: “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:32-33 NASB.

It is our prayer, dear reader, that you will learn to truly love Jesus and His Father, and desire to do everything that they want you to do, and get help from them to do it, not seeking to deny them or to deny their words as being valid for you today. May the grace of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!




#Study #Principles #Doctrine #Order #Precept #Milk #Food #Refreshing #New #Covenant #Old #Power #Spirit #Faith #Falsehood #Honor #Blessed #Word #Jesus #Confess

Monday, July 31, 2017

The Joy of a Fool or the Joy of the Wise?

By John Foll, written between 7/25/2017 and 7/27/2017.
© Copyright 2017 John Foll

The Joy of a Fool or the Joy of the Wise? Which will you have? How can both the wise and the fool have joy?

Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.” Proverbs 15:21 KJV. Now from the NASB: Folly is joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight.” Proverbs 15:21 NASB.

Solomon declared that foolishness or folly is joy to the man who lacks understanding. The fool is compared with a man of understanding who walks uprightly, the wise man or the righteous man. Is there also joy for the righteous? Yes true joy! There are two paths to joy. Which one will you choose?

There are two paths: folly and wisdom, everyone must choose between them. We want to compare the supposed joy of folly with the true joy of wisdom, to see how the joy from wisdom leads to righteousness and infinitely exceeds folly. Study the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes for the folly of wickedness and why righteousness is the only wise course to choose. This idea of two paths can be found throughout the Bible, including the Psalms.

The path of true wisdom is to study everything the God has to say in the Bible, not just taking a few verses, a single verse or words here or there to base your beliefs on. Some confine themselves to just a portion of the New Testament of the Bible from a single apostle to build their beliefs, but this is not wise. But Solomon says that the wise study matters and want to get understanding in order to make the right decision. In chapter two of Proverbs, which can be viewed as an introduction to Proverbs, written to his son he sums up that we should treasure his commandments and listen to wisdom and want to get understanding: “My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course.” Proverbs 2:1-9 NASB.


The Joy of the Fool:
Some try to live their life without the joy of the Lord in their life fully, and get grouchy and easily irritated with things that happen and with the mistakes and sins of others, and many times do not look to their own greatest need. Some of these are focused too much on the folly of others, while giving themselves a pass on their own folly. They don’t understand the strong desire that some have who have given themselves completely to God and are strongly motivated to serve Him and others. This desire and joy to serve God like this cannot be supplied by anything we can do, it is a gift only from God, given to those who desire to love and obey Him in all things. But since they don’t have that joy from the Lord for themselves or fully, they don’t have the same sweet motivation to serve and obey God that the soul who has given and devoted themselves to God has. They can only feel a sense of duty, and know that they should be doing something better or different, and know fear and guilt. But to have the joy that God wants everyone to have, it can only be had by yielding completely to God and obeying Him.

Many are not concerned too much about sin because the Bible teaches that we are ‘saved by grace alone’, and they have been taught to believe that this is the sum of what they need to know. But many of them are missing another essential part of what they need to know to be saved. They don’t know that those who are saved by grace should be so happy for this salvation that they would want to obey everything that God has commanded, so not much attention is given to trying to get victory over sin in their life by His power, because they have been blinded against this and other essential Bible truths. They think that living their life this way makes them happy and gives them joy, because they think they are freed from the need of living right, ‘no worries’. Have you heard this? But this is the path of folly because Solomon admonished us that we should consider the path we are traveling on and seek to do what is right. According to Solomon those who do not seek the path of wisdom and righteousness are on the path of folly. Most of those who are not too concerned will not listen to anything that is said regarding this. But this is as Solomon has already declared. What has been will be again. Those that love folly or those who are falsely comforted by the folly of error, will not hear anything else, because their heart is set on it. But the wise will see and hear the truth and understand when it is presented to them or study it in the Bible. Solomon has dealt extensively with the idea that there is a path of wisdom and a path of folly in his writings, which is the opposite of what many believe in our day! The teachings of folly in our day are widespread, from the pulpits to the theatre and many popular entertainments. Satan has been busy spreading the idea to some that it doesn’t matter what they do, because God will save them regardless, and to others he tells them not to worry about sin since they are ‘saved’: ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’ as A. Crowley wrote, the self-proclaimed ‘wickedest man’ in the world. A. Crowley had a great impact on the development of the wicked entertainments in the music world and Hollywood too through his many followers and devotees. But what he wrote is not all that different than what is taught from many pulpits! [Please don’t read his writings, or you might be deceived too.]

What is folly?
It is doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing, or thinking the wrong thing, or believing something that is not right and living your life and basing your decisions in life on these falsehoods. It is anything that hurts or destroys you, others, or hurts God. It is hasty speech, not thinking things through, being too proud or too lazy to correct problems after they become known. It is also unkind words, hurtful things, addictions, unconfessed or unrepented sins, these will shut out the soul from eternal life and from peace, love, faith, joy and happiness forever that God wants everyone to have, unless they finally repent. It is folly to not humble your heart and repent and give your heart completely to God, since this leads to your salvation and all the peace, love, joy, faith, hope and happiness that God wants you to have, now and forever. Why would anyone not want what God has to offer? Yet God lets everyone decide what they will have; weather they will have life and peace and joy from Him and eternal life, or a nagging conscience, death, and be forever lost.

Now why would doing foolishness appeal to anyone? And why would being a fool and doing foolish things or saying or doing or thinking foolish things be a joy to anyone? Because the fool doesn’t want to think too much, but just to have a good time and always be in mirth and in laughter. I.e. ‘no worries.’ The foolish person does what feels good, and they don’t usually think very much about the consequences if at all; they just don’t care, even though some might think that they do.

Being a fool leads to wickedness.
Solomon said, “I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:” Ecclesiastes 7:25 KJV. Solomon said here that wickedness is folly, even foolishness. We are not sure why Solomon wanted to apply himself to folly, foolishness and madness like he said. He greatly sinned and had to repent of this once he came back to his senses, but it had a bad effect on the children of Israel that they never totally recovered from. What a different course the children of Israel might have had if Solomon hadn’t experimented with wickedness, folly, foolishness and madness! Solomon also warns us that: “Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.” Proverbs 16:22 KJV. Fools teach folly to all who will listen, teaching them to be a fool too. “Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.” Proverbs 17:12 KJV.

Note: In these Proverbs below Solomon tells what happens to the scoffer, which sounds similar to ‘the fool’ described in other places by Solomon and the Bible: “He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you.” Proverbs 9:7-8 NASB. Or ‘scorner’ as it says in the King James. And the psalmist Asaph compares the foolish with the wicked, and the proud: “I said unto the fools, deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, lift not up the horn: Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.” Psalm 75:4-5 KJV.


The Joy of the Wise:
True joy comes only from salvation that Jesus brings you: “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.” Psalm 51:12 NASB.

True joy is a fruit of being Jesus’ disciple like He said before He died on the cross to His disciples: “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” John 16:20-24 NASB. Paul also tells us that one of the fruits of the Spirit is Joy: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 NASB. Therefore to get true joy you must be born again (John 3:3, 5), which is also a requirement to be able to enter the kingdom of Heaven, which is how you get the Holy Spirit, who will also give you ‘the Fruits of the Spirit’.

It is important to know what true joy is and get it for yourself, because there is a counterfeit!
And to have true joy is an antidote against sin, because with it God helps you to want to be more like Him, serve Him, and if you continue cooperating with Him - you will get even more joy! Your cup will run over! Psalms 23:5. And the Holy Spirit, which brings true joy, is the antidote against being deceived by the counterfeit, or ‘another gospel’ or ‘another spirit.’ Some who think that they are born again and have the Holy Spirit may not in fact, have the Holy Spirit at all, but ’another spirit’ and believe in another gospel than what Jesus and Paul preached. “For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.” 2 Corinthians 11:4 NASB. “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:6-9 KJV. This ‘another spirit’ preaches ‘another gospel’ which teaches you to stay in sin and get your joy from foolishness, this is ‘the spirit of error’, instead of having the true joy from the Holy Spirit. So there is a true spirit and a false spirit.


Why are we writing this article?
Because we don’t want you to miss out on the best thing in life that could ever happen to you, and lead to your salvation and eternal life! There are many today that think that because they are saved by grace that they cannot be lost, since they were baptized into the Christian faith and at one time took a public stand and gave their life to God. And also there are many people who think that because they believe ‘the truth’ and take a firm stand against the world and sin that this makes them good, when they are missing out on the very joy that all Christians are supposed to have. There is nothing wrong with wanting to take a firm stand against the world and sin by itself, but if someone is lacking the true born again experience that Jesus said that all are required to have to enter the kingdom of Heaven, John 3:3, 5, then it can be a detriment and turn others away from God. Many of them are also lacking true peace, love and true faith, etc. but are very zealous to keep God’s Law or His requirements (they think). Why are we picking on these two groups? Because we are hoping that if you have a problem in either of these areas that you will wake up. All of us have probably been in one of these two groups or the other in our life at one time, maybe both. We hope someone will be rescued from the pit of sin, and as many as possible by this article. We used to have problems in this area too and would still have them, but for the grace of God. In our past we were lacking the real peace, love, joy, faith, hope, and happiness that God wants all Christians to have. See also 1 John 1:4:20-21; 1 John 2:3-6 how to know if you know Jesus. We do not want to go back to that way of living that we used to live, there is no peace, hope, joy or power or assurance of salvation in either of those paths; the end of these paths are always death, unless the soul humbles itself before God and allows Him to help them. All need to know that Jesus came to give us life and more abundantly, and they need to know and have the hope that Jesus wants to give them. John 10:10. And to let Him make them free indeed from all addictions and sin. John 8:36.

We are also writing this article because there are some who think that they are born again and there are some who think that they have received the Holy Spirit, but their life is lacking the change that all who are born again should have. In any case, it is folly to try to live your life without yielding to God all the way and being fully born again. Some think that they have the Holy Spirit because there is a lot of excessive joy, fun and excitement in their life. And dare we say babbling? Those who think that excited babbling in languages unintelligible to others is proof that they have the Holy Spirit, need to think carefully about whether they really have the Holy Spirit or not. Those who think that they are born again should also think carefully about whether they are still born again, and all the way. And there are those who think that when they get a special feeling that this is God’s leading, without checking to know for sure. All who believe that they have received the Holy Spirit in full need to be especially on guard to make sure that they don’t have ‘the spirit’ that is contrary to sound reason or the Scriptures. Sometimes there is a problem with sin in the life that gets excused, because they believe that they can’t be lost since they are saved or because they have the Holy Spirit. Or they don’t think too much about their problems of sin or do not admit it to others, and are focused on ‘rooting out’ sin in other people or in other institutions, etc., in anyone but themselves. Is this really true? You bet.


Is there a false joy?
Yes, Solomon declared above in Proverbs 15:21 that a fool gets joy from his folly and foolishness.

This also leads to the question is there a false Spirit too?
Yes.Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1 KJV. Are we to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us? Yes. Paul says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19 NASB. Therefore we are all temples for the Holy Spirit to dwell in, if we would have Him; that means that the Holy Spirit should be there fully in everyone’s heart, this is the way God intended it to be. Should you test the spirit that is in you to see if it is the Holy Spirit or another spirit of the antichrist? Yes. 1 John 4:1-3. John also says, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” 1 John 4:6 NASB. Those who listen not to the apostles in the New Testament, or Jesus or the prophets in the Old Testament do not have the Spirit of truth.

Could a “wrong spirit” seduce any Christian who thinks they are saved or any who think that because they believe the truth they are saved?
Yes. Just because someone has seen miracles or had miracles happen to them does not mean that they have the Holy Spirit or still have the Holy Spirit. Also when someone gets the Holy Spirit, that does not mean that the devil stops harassing them or trying to trick them into sinning; the tempter never gives up while life lasts. If you think everything is going fine, then watch out! “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 NASB. If you ‘have the Holy Spirit’, if you think you have had the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit be doubly on your guard! Joy and miracles are not proof of the Holy Spirit, but the proof is in peace and love in the heart for God and others, in addition to joy, and in having more and more victory over sin as time progresses. Are we trying to caution you against receiving the Holy Spirit? No way! We are advising you to be on your guard and pray diligently. If you have received the Holy Spirit this is the most wonderful thing you could ever experience this side of Heaven, and the Holy Spirit will help you to live a righteous life for God! There is no safety in your life, unless you have humbled yourself to God, and devoted yourself completely to Him and have received the Holy Spirit, and have had great changes in your life to help you to be an overcomer.


Now let us talk about the joy of the righteous that God wants to give everyone:

The joy that the righteous can experience on this earth, and later for all eternity with the Lamb, far exceeds anything that can be experienced on this earth. True joy is found in the path of wisdom; in knowing, loving and obeying God.You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Psalm 16:11 NASB. The righteous’ prayer to their Heavenly Father is:I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” Psalms 119:16 KJV. And “Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.” Psalm 119:35 KJV. Yes the righteous delight or receive joy from keeping God’s commandments; this is something that those that don’t think they need to or can’t keep God’s commandments will never know, unless they repent.

True joy is found in the things that the fool detests, and those with true joy detest folly.The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.” Proverbs 13:19 KJV.

Those who have found the path of wisdom, peace and joy, know that they can count on God to take care of them and save them.But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.” Psalm 5:11 KJV. This is the only basis for real joy.

Those who have found the path of wisdom, peace and joy are not afraid to give or serve God and help others, this is what they live for. They know that giving to God and to others will only increase their joy and eternal riches in Heaven, where the most blessed are the most unselfish, and the most giving. And they have great joy! “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." Luke 6:38 NASB.

God’s best gifts are given to those who love Him and are devoted completely to Him; His willing servants. This joy cannot be known except by those who know it, or only partially by those learning to yield to God. We can describe it, but it can’t be understood until you get it for yourself (if you don’t already have it). It is what makes life worth living, living for all eternity! But if you have given your heart to God at one time, you probably knew at least part of this joy if not more. Whenever this fully happens, it will change your life forever! It is very hard indeed to go back to your old ways without this peace, love and joy!


Now for the conclusion of the matter:
The joy of wisdom exceeds that of folly and sinful pleasures and indulgences. It is as far is the east is from the west, and as far as righteousness exceeds wickedness and as the day exceeds the night. Ecclesiastes 2:13.

My desire for all is that they would cease to find joy in folly, and want to be wise, seeking after the wisdom from God, and become born again, filled with the Spirit and with much joy!

May the grace of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you! And may your heart be filled with God’s inexpressible love and joy! Amen.


How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” Psalms 1:1-3 NASB.




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