Planted By God

"When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish,
it is that they shall be destroyed for ever;
The righteous man will flourish like a palm tree; he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those that be planted by the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God."
Ps. 92:7, 12-13

"Then his disciples came and said to him,
Don’t you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?
But he answered and said,
Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up."
Matthew 15:12-13

We become the planting of the Lord when He plants His seed in our hearts. Such planting can only be done by God; no man can penetrate the heart and create new life within, though a man may be used by God to deliver His seed (that is, His word) to others. Jesus warned us that every plant will be plucked up that is growing among the saints which is not the product of the incorruptible seed of God. But not only so; those intruders into the congregation of God will also be cast into the fire of God’s wrath (Mt. 13:30).

Those who truly delight in the law of God will be like a tree planted by rivers of water; their leaves will not fade, and they will always produce their fruit in the appropriate time (Ps. 1:3). They will be pruned by God, but they will not be discouraged by the pruning. If they stray from righteousness, they may even have dung spread around them (Lk. 13:8), but if they receive that correction from God, they will flourish again and be spared His wrath (Lk. 13:9). In other words, they will receive the chastisement of the Lord and will learn obedience by the things they are made to suffer, just as Jesus did (Heb. 5:8). They will not be called bastards, but sons (Heb. 12:8).

It means everything to be who you are and where you are because of something God has done instead of what you have done. If who you are and where you are is the result of your plans and your choices, it is not eternal; it will not last. You will be moved. But if you are who you are because God’s word came to you and made you who you are, and put you where you are, then there is hope. Abide in that place, and thank God for the opportunity to be a part of something that He has done. It is no small thing to have your life shaped by God’s hand.

Another Comforter

"But I have prayed for you ..."
Jesus, in Luke 22:32

"The Spirit prays for us according to the will of God ..."
Paul, in Romans 8:27

When Moses was about to die, he promised Israel that God would raise up a prophet like him from among them. This was Jesus. Likewise, when Jesus was about to die, he promised his disciples that God would send them "another Comforter". This was the holy Spirit.

The Greek word "another" that is used in this verse is a word that means "another of the same kind", not another of a different kind. Jesus was telling his disciples that they would be helped, or comforted, by the Spirit in the same way that he helped, or comforted, them. One example of this is found in th area of prayer.

Both Jesus and the holy Ghost pray for us. Jesus is our advocate with the Father (1Jn.2:1), interceding on our behalf (Heb. 7:25), and the holy Ghost is here within us, interceding for us to the Father (Rom. 8:26).

Even though our minds do not often understand what the holy Ghost is saying when it prays through us, we can rest assured that no one speaking by the Spirit is saying anything bad about Jesus (1Cor. 12:3). That is impossible because God’s Spirit is a Comforter of the same kind Jesus is – for us, not against us.

Strangers and Pilgrims

“Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken,
and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill,
the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
Jesus, in Matthew 24:40-41

“I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed,
the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Two women shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken,
and the other left. Two men shall be in the field,
the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
Luke 17:34-36

Jesus is talking in these two Scriptures about the day he appears in the sky to “catch up” those who have been faithful to him. This event is often referred to as “the Rapture”, even though those words are not found in the Bible. When Jesus appears in the sky, the dead in Christ shall be raised up, and then they and the saints who are yet living will be taken up together to meet the Lord (1Thes. 15-17).

In the two verses above, Jesus is teaching something that is often overlooked; that is, that we need not withdraw ourselves from society in order to be prepared for the Lord’s appearing. You will notice that Jesus said that two women would be working together, but only one would be taken away, and that two men would be working together, “one shall be taken, and the other left”. This tells us that in order to prepare for the Lord’s return need not seclude themselves in caves or communes. Jesus was not a hermit, and neither were any of his disciples. They “mixed it up” with people.

Jesus also mentioned a home scene where there was “two men in one bed, the one shall be taken and the other left.” This teaches us that there is no need to completely detach oneself from unbelievers who are close to them, even relatives living in the same house. It is true that Jesus said he considered his family to be only those who did the will of his heavenly Father (Mt. 12:47-50); at the same time, when Jesus was in agony on the cross, he asked his disciple John to take care of his mother for him (Jn. 19:25-27). This tells us that although Mary was not among those who sat at Jesus’ feet listening to him (in fact, she probably was among Jesus’ relatives who thought he has lost his mind, Mk. 3:21), still he retained his “natural affections” for her and, I suppose, for the rest of his natural relatives. We know that after he ascending to the Father, his mother and his brothers were among those waiting in the upper room for the Promise to be sent (Acts 1:14).

We Cannot Do It

Years ago, the Lord warned me not to try to make myself “a stranger and a pilgrim”, but let him make me different from others because he is the only on who knows how to do that rightly. He told me that those who separate themselves from people are over-religious and are trying to make themselves strangers and pilgrims. And at the same time, he told me that whenever anyone tries to make himself a stranger and a pilgrim, he makes himself strange, but not in a godly way. In fact, he showed me, the harder we try to make ourselves strangers and pilgrims the more over-religious and weird we become. In other words, the harder we try, in our own power and wisdom, to become strangers and pilgrims in this world, the more we fit into it. Only the righteousness of God makes us truly different from this world.

The Lord does not want you to separate yourself from anyone, other than what he leads you to do, and the Scriptures are very plain about who to be separate from. The Lord wants you to trust in him and let him set your standards and be the Separator if there is any separation to be done. You never have to choose your company when you walk in the Spirit; God will choose your company for you.

Paul said that only those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. I say, based on what the Lord has taught me, that those who try to separate themselves from the world only become more a part of it and the longer they stay away from people, the less likely they are to ever become sons of God.

Three Reasons For Meeting in a Home

“Likewise greet the congregation that is in their house.” (Romans 16:5)
“Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord,with the congregation that is in their house.” (1Corinthians 16:19)
“Salute the brothers who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the congregation that is in his house.” (Colossians 4:15)
“And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the congregation in your house.” (Philemon 1:2)

At one point or another, every time we deviate from God’s original plan, we hurt ourselves and others, and we end up having to do things God’s way after all. A prime example of this concerns Abraham’s nephew Lot. When God’s angels rescued Lot and his family from Sodom, they told him to take his family and flee to the mountains. They informed Lot that God was about to destroy the five nearby cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar. But Lot did not want to flee to the mountains, and he begged God’s permission to enter into the city of Zoar instead. This meant that the city of Zoar would be spared the wrath of God that was about to fall on those cities. God mercifully allowed Lot to flee into the little city of Zoar instead of going to the mountains, but after God destroyed those other four cities, Lot and his daughters had to flee to the mountains anyway because the people in Zoar were so very wicked.

If Lot had done it God’s way to begin with, the wicked inhabitants of Zoar would have been destroyed along with the wicked inhabitants of the four other cities, and the whole world would have been a happier and safer place. Lot should have listened to the angels’ first instruction and gone to the mountains for safety.

Judging by the information available in New Testament books (see the verses above), God’s preferred place for His children in this covenant to gather together is in private homes. There are good, sound reasons for this. Three that stand out are the following:

(1)
Throughout the Bible, we see God, at times, speak to His people in unusual ways. We read about Ezekiel sitting silent among other Israelites, unable to speak for at least seven years unless the Spirit of God overshadowed him with a prophecy. We read about Jesus spitting on the ground and making mud with which he anointed the eyes of a blind man to heal him. We know that Jesus could have simply touched the man without making mud from his spittle, but for whatever reason, God ordained that Jesus do it with mud. We read about a prophet named Agabus who took off part of the apostle Paul’s clothing and used it to tie up his own hands as a prophetic sign of what would happen to Paul when he went to Jerusalem.

There are many such examples in the Scriptures, far too many to list here. But my point is that if God chooses to speak to His people by some unusual means, it is better for the saints to be gathered in a private home than in a public building because doing so reduces the chances that someone skeptical and unfamiliar with the ways of God will be there to ridicule a holy act of God.

God has spoken to us here in unusual ways during gatherings of the saints in my home. In one instance, a sister, moved by the Spirit, spent several minutes walking forward a few steps and then backward a few steps, saying over and over again, “Forward . . . Backward . . . Forward . . . Backward . . .” It was an unusual scene, but we knew that God was trying to tell us something, which He did. Through that same lady, He emphasized the great difference between the forward thoughts of God and the backward thoughts of man. It was a message that has, since that night several years ago, proved itself repeatedly to have been a message sent from God. The Lord was not speaking to the general public that night when this sister was walking forwards and backwards, and it is far better that we were meeting in my home than meeting in a building open to the public. I am sure that sister whom God was using felt freer to yield to the Spirit without having to be concerned about skeptical gazes of an unbelieving world being directed at her.

2)
A second major reason for God choosing private homes for His people to meet is that in a private setting, God’s children are much more likely to open up their hearts to one another. The Scriptures say to God’s children in this New Testament, “confess your faults to one another”, but what sensible child of God would feel free to confess a fault before the general public? The world neither understands nor loves God’s people, and it would be foolish for God’s people to confess their faults before the world.

It is no exaggeration for me to say that in over thirty years in meeting with God’s children in a home, either mine or someone else’s, I have heard God’s children a thousand times either confess their faults, or discuss personal problems, or ask for prayer for relatives or dear friends concerning private matters. Now you tell me, you who have some experience attending typical religious services in public meeting places, how many times in your life have you seen someone there stand up and talk about personal problems, or confess sensitive, personal faults, or ask for prayers for specific private issues? For most people, the answer will be, “never.”

How can we as a body of believers do things God’s way in public meeting places? It will never happen. And when God’s people, long ago, forsook God’s original plan of meeting in homes, and when they began to meet in abandoned heathen temples and to build churches, they lost the sense of family that God intended for them to share. Meeting in public places, which began in earnest during the time of the Roman emperor Constantine, was the beginning of the end of genuine fellowship among the saints of God.

3)
A third principal reason that God chose private homes for the gathering of His people concerns the government that must be exercised if there is to be a healthy body of Christ. Paul exhorted one young minister to “rebuke before all” anyone in the assembly of saints who sinned. Now, Paul certainly did not mean that transgressors should be rebuked before all the world; Paul knew better than to do that. He was dealing with sin in the presence of the household of faith, the gathered assembly of believers, where there was love enough to “cover a multitude of sin”, with the possibly of restoring a fallen brother (Gal. 6:1).

Even in cases of great wickedness, such as Paul mentioned to the Corinthians (1Cor. 5) and to Timothy (1Tim. 1:19-20) there was a healing purpose for severe chastisement. In the latter case, Paul plainly said his purpose for “turning some over to Satan” was so they “might learn not to blaspheme.” In other words, the punishment was intended to help those foolish men, not to destroy them. Paul did not publicly humiliate those transgressors; at the same time, he made certain that the body of Christ knew what had happened and why. That was Paul’s obligation to the saints, and he fearlessly fulfilled it.

These are three of the reasons for God’s choosing private homes for His family to gather in. This is the only way of serving God I have ever known, my father having been pastor of a home meeting group since before I was born, and I am convinced that for God’s people to meet regularly in public meeting places is contrary to the will of God and works against the development of genuine fellowship among the saints. Those who meet in my home understand these things, and they expect me to fulfill my obligation as their pastor just as Paul fulfilled his. They feel perfectly free to hear from God for themselves, to glorify God and edify one another, and to be filled with the Spirit of God while here.

I encourage every person who reads this who is not part of a home fellowship to pray about returning to God’s way of doing things and abandoning, as your place of gathering with other believers, public meeting places. They work against your growth together as a family in Christ.

Equal With God?

“But Jesus answered them, Up to now, my Father is working, and I also work. For this reason, the Jews then wanted all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (Jn. 5:17-18).

The last part of John 5:18, above, has never made sense to me. I never have been able to understand why John says Jesus was claiming to be equal with God just because Jesus referred to God as his Father (in verse 17). After all, God had sometimes called Himself the father of His Old Testament people long before Jesus came. For example, in Malachi 1:6, God asked His people why they did not respect Him: “If I be a father, where is my honor?” And Isaiah cried out to God on behalf of us Gentiles who in the future would believe, “Doubtless, you are our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. You, O Lord, are our father, our redeemer; your name is from everlasting” (63:16). Do those verses imply that either the Gentiles who believe in Christ or the Israelites who lived under the Law are equal with God? Of course not. Then why would John have written that Jesus was claiming to be equal with God by calling God his Father?

Consider what Jesus said in the next verse: “Truly, truly, I tell you the Son can do nothing of himself except what he sees the Father do.” Does that sound as if Jesus is making himself equal with God? Moreover, in the verses that follow, Jesus makes many statements that show he did not think he was equal with God:

verse 20 For the Father delights in the Son and shows him everything that He Himself is doing, and greater works than these will He show him that will make you marvel.

verse 22 The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son

verse 23 so that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.

verse 26 For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has also given the Son life in himself,

verse 27 and He has given him authority to exercise judgment because he is the Son of man.

verse 30 Of myself, I can do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I’m not seeking my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.

verse 31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness isn’t true.

verse 32 There’s another who bears witness of me, and I know that the witness He bears of me is true.

verse 36 But I have the witness greater than John. For the works that my Father gave me to complete, the very works that I’m doing, bear witness of me, that the Father sent me.

verse 37 And the Father who sent me has Himself borne me witness.

verse 38 And you don’t have His word abiding in you because you don’t trust the one He sent.

verse 43 I have come in my Father’s name and you don’t receive me

verse 45 Don’t think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you put your hope.

Jesus is not equal with God. No one is. So then, how could John have written that by calling God his Father, Jesus was making that claim?

The answer, I think, is that John was not saying Jesus was making that claim but that the Jews thought he was. Therefore, in my translation, I am considering adding a clarifying phrase, as here:

“But Jesus answered them, Up to now, my Father is working, and I also work. For this reason, the Jews then wanted all the more to kill him, because, they said, not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

Now, that I can understand. Evil men, influenced by spirits of envy and strife, have always twisted the words of good men to promote themselves and condemn the upright. The Bible states that Pontius Pilate discerned that the Jews were bringing Jesus to him for crucifixion because they envied him. And after all these years, I think I have finally discerned that, from that same envy and strife, the Jews were twisting Jesus’ words to mean something he never even thought; namely, that he was equal with God. When one young man flattered Jesus by calling him, “good master”, Jesus stopped him cold. He said to the surprised youth, “Why do you call me good? There is none good but God.”

That is the real Jesus. That is the way Jesus feels now, and has always felt. The fact that evil men tried to make it appear as if Jesus was puffing himself up to be equal with God is only to be expected. They are still around, and they are still doing as they have always done to those who really do love God and seek to honor none but Him.

A Proud Man

“There is more hope of a fool than for him.”
Solomon, in Proverbs 26:12

Anything good a proud man does, does him no good at all. If he reads the Bible, he just becomes prouder because of the fact that he has read the Bible. This was a terrifying lesson to me when I first learned it, for it taught me not to take credit for anything good I might do.

If a proud man worships God, he only becomes prouder because of the fact he has worshiped God. If he falls on his face and cries out to God, he only becomes prouder of how much he has prayed. If he helps the poor, the sees himself as better than the poor man. If he brings God his tithes and offerings, the larger the amount he brings, the prouder he grows. If he ceases from doing evil deeds, he becomes proud of his goodness.

Pride is a horrible trap. For if a proud man does good, he becomes more evil because of it. This is why Solomon said that there was more hope for a fool than for a proud man.

How Long Will It Be?

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you,
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

“How long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be, ere they believe me?” (God, in Numbers 14:11)

There is nothing good that God’s children are doing that they could not do if they obey the call of the Spirit and come out of Christianity. We do not need to participate in any earthly religious system in order to accomplish the will of our heavenly Father. We can do whatever we are doing that is right and, I contend, do it even better, without being under the yoke of religious traditions and doctrines. There is no commandment of God that requires His people to join any of man’s religions to be able to do it.

Can you think of anything that God’s saints are doing that is right and holy, that they would not be able to do if they were out of Christianity instead of in it? I can’t. They can even gather together to edify one another without partaking in an earthly religious system.

The mystery is this: If God’s people do not need it, and if they could serve God better without it, then why do they cling so fiercely to it? And why does the call to come out of it anger so many people who believe in Jesus? Outside the gate of Christianity, we can only love him more – more purely, more completely, more acceptably, more “in spirit and in truth”, more in harmony with the Father and the Son, and more in unity with one another.

God’s call to come out of her, my people” is only a call from the Father to more of His spirit and power, more of His knowledge, more of His love and truth, more of His grace and goodness; in short, more of everything that is pure and holy in Christ. Where is the down side of doing our Father’s will and coming out?

Other Questions

I just asked, “Can you think of anything that God’s saints are doing that is right and holy, that they would not be able to do if they were out of Christianity instead of in it?” But let me ask the opposite question now. Can you think of anything that is wrong and unholy that God’s children are doing simply because they are in Christianity? Those of you who know the truth can point to many things that you know God’s precious people are doing that are not right in God’s sight, precisely because they participate in one of Christianity’s many sects. Wouldn’t it be better for us all to come away from the wrong, so that we can do more of what is right and please our heavenly Father more fully?

We can trust our heavenly Father. He is not calling us to a heavy burden. On the contrary, He is calling us away from one, the heavy burden of the doctrines and commandments of men. Our Father is not calling us into a trap. He is calling us out of one.

He is calling in love, for our good. And there is no doubt in my mind that His heart is hurting again for His children and that He is asking again the question He asked Moses after the Great Wilderness Rebellion, “How long will it be ere they believe me?”

How long will it be, I wonder, before God’s people finally recognize that it is His loving voice, not mine or any other man’s, crying out, “Come out of her, my people”, and that He is only calling them to where they really want to go?

Hiding the Children’s Food

“What I tell you in darkness, that speak in light;
and what you hear in the ear, that preach upon the housetops.
And fear not them who can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;
rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Jesus, in Matthew 10:27

There are several reasons why I have chosen not to be part of a religious organization, but one of the most important has to do with what I have seen and heard from men who minister within the confines of religious sects.

In years past, I have spoken with ministers who confided to me some truth they had learned from God, but who would not dare to reveal to their congregations what Jesus had taught them. These were not wicked men. Some of them were good men whom I loved and respected for their moral integrity and their love for God and people. But they were in an incredibly difficult position. They had been hired by a religious organization to teach that sect’s brand of the gospel, and they knew that if they revealed to their congregation what Jesus had taught them, they would certainly be fired as pastor.

One such brother, a Pentecostal Holiness minister whom I still love, called me one evening to discuss what Jesus had shown him about communion. I could tell that he wanted to teach the truth to his congregation but that he feared to do so. So, he had come up with a clever plan. He would teach the truth about communion along with several other ideas about it, ideas that were taught by various sects around the world. That way, the congregation wouldn’t be able to say he was actually teaching it as the gospel, or that he really believed it himself. If the truth was taught as only one of several possible interpretations, he figured, people would see him as only doing his duty to educate his flock in what some people thought about the subject.

There are others here with the same testimony I have. One minister, for example, told Sister Lou that if he confessed before his congregation that he had received the holy Ghost baptism and spoke with tongues, they “would run me out of town.”

There have been others, men from the Church of God, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other sects, who received things from God and talked to me about it, but who could not muster the courage to confess the truth they knew to their flocks. And again, I am not speaking of evil men; I am talking about men with the light of life within them, though it was concealed, as it were, under a bushel. They had all been hired to teach only those things that fit within the doctrinal limits of their respective sects.

It was an awfully hard trial! They knew that their family’s financial security would be put at risk if they dared to tell the congregation what they had received from God, and it was heart-breaking to watch them bear that burden. In time, judging by what I saw in the lives of such dear brothers, I came to hate the whole idea of “religious organization”. Where is any such thing found in the Bible anyway?

I am free to tell my flock that I have been wrong and that they have been wrong because they have not hired me to do anything. They have no influence over what I preach or when. They, like me, are after the truth, no matter where it leads us. Doing the will of God is of first importance to all of us. And they are confident that if God shows me a better way, I will not hide it from them. They know that I am free to embrace it and that I will tell them about it, in case they want to come with me.

In truth, these precious souls are here with me because Jesus sent them here to help me, just as I am here to help them. I have never gone out looking for “members”. Jesus sends me the help I need. These sheep of God’s flock have simply heard the truth from me, and the truth has made them free. Moreover, God put it in their hearts to forward the work He gave me by joining with me in it, and by bringing in their tithes and offerings so that the good things we publish for God’s people everywhere may continue to be published, and so that I, their servant, can “live of the gospel”, as God has ordained (1Cor. 9:14). Tens of millions of gospel tracts, books, and audio/video productions have been produced and sent out by the people associated with this work over the decades. And as far as I can tell, they all “do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto man”, and would not stop living and giving as they do even if told to stop. They know the will of God, and doing His will is first in their lives. Following Jesus’ perfect example, we have never “taken up a collection”. Nor has anyone here ever heard me ask for money. If the congregation does the will of God, the shepherd does not have to beg for wool. Happy, well-fed sheep produce that without being told to.

This is the way it ought to be for God’s servants everywhere. The servant of God must be free from all forms of pressure to hide from God’s children what he hears from God. Every minister of Christ everywhere ought to renounce the system of pleasing a religious organization and be a true servant of God for His people – boldly and in love speaking the truth they hear from Jesus. They would be amazed at the results. Feeding the sheep in God’s pasture is the way to bless the sheep so that the sheep can feed the shepherd.

To hide children’s bread from them, for fear of their reaction to it, or for any other reason, cannot possibly be the way Christ wants us to live. It is the word of God that will unite us who believe. But how can that happen so long as His servants are afraid to tell His people what they have heard?

Time, Purpose, and Judgment

Dear John,

I just want to say thank you for writing the All Things book. It has touched my heart so deeply that I can only cry as I read it page by page. I just finished proofreading the chapter on Solomon. I am very grateful to Jesus that he let you understand Solomon’s wisdom concerning time, purpose, and judgment, so that we could be taught it and live. I cannot even put into words how I feel right now except to say that I feel overwhelmed with God’s love and mercy.

I don’t know if it’s available or not, but it would be nice to have that one chapter of the book made into a little booklet that could be given out to hurting people. There is healing in it because it shows God’s heart towards His people.

With love,
Bess
========

Hi Bess:

You have helped us a lot in getting this book ready to be re-printed. Your proof-reading help, as well as the help of others, is invaluable.

That particular chapter in Solomon’s Wisdom, concerning “time, purpose, and judgment” seems to have an especially powerful effect on people who have been hurt. A lady from my Community College OT class took the book on her vacation some years ago, and when she returned, she told me the same thing you said. For me, it was touching when she described sitting on the beach in her beach chair, crying behind her sunglasses as she read that part of the book.

If, from reading the book, someone like this lady, who is going through an especially difficult time, gets the sense that God really loves and will take care of her, then I have accomplished my mission in writing it. It is difficult to have faith in God unless you really feel that he cares about you as a person.

I am doing so much work right now in preparation for re-printing all our books that I can’t see making that portion of the book separate booklet just yet, but I will keep it in mind for a possible future project, and I do thank you for your comments.

jdc

Humbling Ourselves to the Scriptures

A letter from Brother Jerry.

Hi Brother John,

Sheila and I have been reading your new translation of the Gospel of John this morning, and there are two things in particular that have really stood out to me.

In chapter 8, Jesus plainly explained to the Jews that they could not hear Him because He told the truth and the truth was not in them. He told them that they seek to kill Him because he told the truth and that “Abraham did not do this”.

Then we continued reading into chapter 9, about the blind man who stood before the Jews after Jesus opened his eyes. They did not want to accept that Jesus, by the power of God, had made this blind man to see. In 9:27, it says he (the healed blind man) answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again?” I told Sheila, “Wow, we just read this in chapter 8. Jesus had already told them, “You can’t hear me because I tell the truth”, and now they can’t hear this man telling the truth, so they asked him to tell it again, looking for something else. I thought that it was incredible that Jesus had just told them their condition in chapter 8.

Then it says in verses 30-34: “The man answered and said to them, ‘Well, here is an amazing thing. You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn’t hear sinners, but if anyone be God-fearing and do His will, He hears him. From the beginning of time, it hasn’t been heard that someone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man weren’t from God, he couldn’t do anything.’ They answered and said to him, ‘You were altogether born in sin, and do you teach us?’ And they cast him out.” Wow.

The other thing that thrills my soul is this. In 12:37 it says, “Although so many miracles had been done by him in [the multitude’s] presence, they did not believe in him.” Then, in verse 39 it says, “This is why they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, [God] has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and be converted, and [God] should heal them.”

Those verses about God blinding and hardening the hearts of the people made me think of this. I just read in Exodus about Pharaoh’s heart being hardened over and over again by God, to fight against God. Pharaoh had no choice but to resist God because God chose to use him that way. I have read in the scriptures that “By the hands of wicked men, Jesus was delivered up.” And God said through Isaiah that the people could not hear or understand “lest they be converted, and I heal them.” God made choice among all of those people, to not allow them to obtain to His righteousness. Pharaoh was not allowed to please God and do the will of God by letting the people leave Egypt. The crowd in John was not allowed to understand and be converted and be healed and, ultimately, saved. And the will of God (to have Jesus crucified) was put into the hearts of men, by God, to be carried out. And afterward, God would judge them for it.

I thought this. If a man wanted to have a bank robbery carried out, by someone other than himself, he would not go to a righteous man’s home to find a robber; he would go to a den of thieves. He would go to a man that already had thievery in his heart and then just give him a new idea about what he already wanted to do.

Yes, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. But all that means is that means that Pharaoh was not a righteous man. He was a man who was going to defy God anyway. And his heart was hardened so that the glory of God could be seen amongst God’s people. God did not choose a righteous man to harden, to carry out the evil deed; he chose a man who only needed a new idea of how to be himself.

In John’s gospel, God chose everyone in that crowd that day, who would believe or not believe Jesus. It says that God made them blind and hardened their hearts so that they would not be converted and be healed. I bet, with all confidence, that God did not leave one person in the dark who had a right heart.

And when it was time for the awful deed of crucifying Jesus, only wicked men could do such a thing. I have heard you say that “They could not have gotten Peter to do it.” God just gave a new idea to men who already had a heart to kill an innocent man.

There are vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor. Doesn’t it read “God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and harden whom He will harden”? I am so thankful that I sincerely believe that God would pass me by if he was looking for a wicked man to sin against Him. What a privilege to be a vessel of honor!

God uses darkness to contrast the light, and dark-hearted people to work in that darkness. Thank God for being called to the light! I was in darkness before that call. It was only God’s choice that got me out and got me to Him. I was worse than many around me. It was just by His mercy that He chose me.

What a good day.

Thanks,
Jerry
============

Hi Jerry:

Over the years, both as a student and a teacher, I have noticed some significant differences in people’s attitudes toward the Bible. I have had professors and students who, when considering difficult passages in the Bible, just shrugged them off as evidences that humans were the authors of the Bible, and so, errors and contradictions were only to be expected. On the other hand, I have seen people humble themselves when they come upon Scriptures that seemed contradictory or difficult to explain, and confessed their need of God’s help to comprehend His book. Let us choose the latter course.

The Bible’s assertion that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart has given many people theological problems, for that act of God conflicts with the nature of the sweetie-pie god that is often proclaimed to this generation. God will harden hearts. The Bible says so; therefore, let us humble ourselves to fear before Him!

You have chosen the path that leads to a real knowledge of the true God. You have chosen to confess that what the Bible tells us about God is true. When we do that, our understanding is enlightened, for we receive what God has given to us for our good. I would that all people everywhere would simply confess that the Bible is true. If they did that, they would grow in the knowledge of God.

Your explanation of what kind of man Pharaoh must have been in order for God to harden his heart is a prime example of what I am talking about. Rather than argue with the facts that the Bible gives, you have chosen to believe the Bible, and the result is that you have increased in the knowledge and fear of God.

May God grant all of us, always, that same humility when we face things that we cannot make sense of. God is always right. Praise His holy name!

Pastor John

Taking Away the Flesh and the Blood

From the Gospel of John, chapter 6:52-56, 60-63

"Then the Jews murmured among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Therefore, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, if you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I’ll raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."

. . .

"Then, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you should see the Son of man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is worthless. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life."

Sitting in his tiny apartment in about 1960, Uncle Joe never guessed, as he sat reading the Bible and writing out his thoughts, that in 2008, his writings would answer a question that I had often asked myself when reading the words of Jesus from John 6:62 (above).

I never understood why Jesus all of a sudden changed the subject from eating his flesh and drinking his blood to that of his coming ascension into heaven. That comment seemed to me to be out of place, and there are several scriptures just like that in the Bible. When I read them, I say, “What is that comment doing here?”

But Uncle Joe answered my question about John 6:62 this morning. This is a portion of what he wrote:

"Now we know, and all sensible people will agree, that the wine that Jesus poured and gave to the disciples to drink, and bread that he brake and gave them to eat, was not his natural body nor his natural blood, for his flesh was still on his bones and his blood still ran warm in his veins. And, yet, he tells the Jews in John chapter 6that they must eat [his flesh and drink his blood] or “have no life in you” (verse 53). Since we see that the wine and the bread partaken of by the disciples were not really his flesh and blood, we know that it was symbolic of something else, yet to be given to them.

"In John 6, when Jesus saw that he had offended the Jews by his saying, he said to them, “What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?” In my understanding, he was saying to them, 'Suppose you see me go away into heaven, taking this flesh and blood with me? What then?'

"Then again we hear his words, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life” (John 6:63)."

Of course! This is the reason Jesus made that surprise comment in John 6:62 about his return to the Father. Seeing that the Jews were offended because they thought Jesus was teaching that people had to eat his natural flesh and drink his natural blood, he asked them what would they do if he took his natural body away from mankind, and no one could ever possibly eat his flesh and drink his blood? Why, that would mean nobody would ever be saved! In reminding his followers that he would be returning to the Father, Jesus was trying to show them that he was not talking about eating and drinking natural things. That is why he finished by saying, “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is worthless. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Coming Out For Unity

The apostle Paul said, “I appeal to you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same understanding and in the same judgment” (1Cor. 1:10). Just hours before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus earnestly prayed for those who would believe in him, that “they all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us, so that the world might believe that you sent me (Jn. 17:21).

The unity of His children is a matter of the highest concern to our heavenly Father. And His will in this matter is why we have come out of all sectarian religion. Just look around, and you will see that every religion that is of man on the earth is hopelessly divided. And for God’s dear children to join any of the sects within these religious systems, including the one called Christianity, automatically separates that believer from God’s other children who join other sects. Supporting one sect’s doctrine and traditions is to oppose the efforts of other believers who support the doctrines and traditions of other sects. We are opposing each other as long as we belong to sects with conflicting doctrines and rituals.

Since God’s will is for His children to be one, as He and His Son are one (Jn. 17:20-23), then it must be His will for all us who believe in Jesus to forsake all that divides us. He can heal us! But this healing can never happen as long as we cling to our preferred sect.

We, and others like us around the world, are badly misunderstood, and we have been criticized severely for refusing to participate in anything that would divide us from God’s dear people, but I maintain that what we have done is the only reasonable course for the children of God to take. We live in this country, and are divided by geography from most of God’s people in other lands. But we can do nothing about those kinds of differences. But we can do something about our choice to join or not join a denomination and sect. We have been shown by Christ Jesus to love our fellow believers too much to do that.

Admittedly, it will require a mighty miracle for God to unite us, even if we all do His will and abandon the sects which we have joined, but should we not at least make ourselves available to our Father in hope that He might at least possibly do that miracle? In just six days, God created this entire universe out of nothing. Think of what he might do for us if we would just co-operate with Him and give Him a chance! On the other hand, please consider this: If we refuse our Father’s call and cling to the sects and denominations we have chosen, there is no possibility that we will ever be one, as the Father and the Son are united. Is that what we really want?

If we love fervently one another, and if we love our heavenly Father with all our hearts, then surely we will feel compelled to come out of all that divides us and to pray, as one, that Jesus will show us truth that will heal the breaches in our fellowship. Does it make any difference how impossible it seems now? Our God is mighty! He can unite us, we believe, if we will but co-operate with Him. Oh, let’s trust our heavenly Father to help us be what He has always wanted us to be! He can make it possible that we “speak the same thing and have no divisions among you, but be united in the same understanding and in the same judgment.”

The apostle Paul told the saints in Philippi that he wanted them to have the same love, one for another (Phip. 2:1-4). I, and others I know, hold you so dear to our hearts that we have forsaken everything under our control that would divide us from you. Now, how much do you love us?

Happy Is The man Whom God Corrects

From Sister Ashley.

Lately, it has been stressed that we need to know why we are here, and know that this way of life is what we want. Of course, this makes you go through a period where you "check" yourself. Asking God how you're doing, if anything needs fixing, etc. A friend of mine had the best testimony the other week, and in it she was saying she had been going through a time like that. She was wondering if in her heart she was 100% for God’s way of life. And she said the Spirit reminded her of everything she has gone through in the past year or so, and how she gave up something that she'd always wanted, marriage and a family, because the man she was married to didn't want God anymore and was very abusive, physically and mentally. But she didn't have to keep loving God. He was showing her that she did have a heart to do what is right, and that she showed it by the life she chose to continue living.

Well, last week, I was going through the same thing, asking God if I really had a heart for him, and the same thing happened. I started remembering everything that I have gone through this past year. I lost my father, brother, and my mother to this world, but I hung in there, by the grace of God. And then He blessed me beyond what I could have imagined. During this past year, I have been scourged to the bone by God, and I was thinking about that, and I was reminded of a conversation with Token a few months back. I was very sick, and she came to see me. She was rubbing my head and said "God sure does love you." I looked at her, kind of wondering where that came from, and she reminded me of the scriptures in the bible referring to God chastening those He loves. And when you think of that, what love it is! Not that it feels good to be chastened at the time,but afterwards, the cleanness and the love in it overwhelm the rest. Here are the scriptures that I found referring to the love of God's chastisement, from such great men as John, Paul, Job, and David (you can tell that they had their share, but loved God for it):

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: (Job 5:17)

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; (Psalm 94:12)

The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. (Psalm 118:18)

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6)

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Hebrews 12:11)

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:32)

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. (Revelation 3:19)

The Road To Salvation

Good afternoon Bro John,

I drew near to the Lord this morning, and this is what I heard.

If you are overtaken in a fault, you do not need to repent of the fault, you need to repent of the road you are on, the road that had the fault on it. There is no sin on the road to salvation. This road, the road of the Spirit, leads home to Christ and it knows the way perfectly. Sin is not on this road.

On this road, a living road, God is always communicating with His children. Like a shipmaster constantly guiding. He never stops tweeking the wheel. God is a living voice in our inner ear, and if we follow, then we are being led by the Spirit, and that makes us sons of God, according to the scriptures.

We need to seek to learn the voice of God, knowing that it leads to salvation, and follow it perfectly. We should expect for it to tell us things that we would not have thought of. Or give us instruction that we would not have chosen on our own. If we were doing all the things that it told us already, we would have no need for it.

Sometimes, it might tell us to do something that we may not especially want to do. Or tell us to refrain from something that we see no harm in or might enjoy. God may give us such instruction with no further insight into it. Our place is to obey, not asking why before we do it. Asking our Father why we should do something is the lesser attempting to qualify the motive of the greater. To ask why is to say "Let me see if your reason is good enough for me to carry this out." That is what children are doing when they ask why before following the instruction of their parent, and it is not good in the sight of the Lord. If left to grow in children, it will produce an adult defiant to authority and unable to obey God without some painful reconditioning.

Men should obey the Lord with complete submission, knowing that everything He does is for our good, even when it hurts. And by that, we are made fit to be followed by our wives in the same manner and then we can, with all confidence, require our children to follow us both.

Feeding the Lambs

It is the tendency of the human fleshly nature to shirk its responsibilities. A person “walking in the flesh”, as Paul would put it, will be inclined to escape duty, sometimes by making another feel that the duty is his. And this can happen among believers as well as those of the world.

It is a father’s responsibility to lead his family in the ways of Christ. It is not a pastor’s responsibility to teach anyone else’s children about Jesus and the truth of the gospel. The flesh would have a parent to take the children to religious gatherings and be content with that for their education, but there is nothing that can ever take the place of godly instruction from the parents, at home, especially instruction from the father.

It is the shepherd’s responsibility to feed the sheep, but it is the ewe’s responsibility to feed her lambs. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice; the lambs do not. The little ones follow their parents wherever they go, and they trust their parents. It is the parents’ responsibility to know who they are following.

It can be flattering to a minister when the congregation begins to laud him and lean on him and look to him for spiritual guidance for their whole families. It can puff up a man to think that he can actually feed the whole families of other men, but to try to do that is a self-destructive trap. To labor to supply others’ families the spiritual meat which the head of each house alone is ordained by God to supply is too much of a burden for any man. It is to spend one’s strength doing what is another’s responsibility to do, and no man is capable of bearing that burden for long.

Fathers, guide your own children, whom God has placed in your care, “in the fear and admonition of the Lord.” No one can replace you in your children’s eyes. Mothers, diligently do your part in teaching your children of the ways of God. No one else can do that for them as you can. Everyone in the body has a part in the life of everyone else in the body. But no one in the body can play the part of anyone else, for “God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He wanted. But if one member were everything, where would the body be?” (1Cor. 12:18-19).

Uncle Joe, 2: Peace

After Uncle Joe had been healed of cancer, he continued to receive a disability check from the government until his health so much improved that the checks were discontinued. During the time that he was receiving the checks, he was consumed with Bible study and writing little messages which, to this day, almost no one has ever read. The following quote is taken from one of those little messages. It is a wisdom that is obtained only by those who find themselves utterly alone with God. This is the place Uncle Joe found himself in 1959 when he was given no more than ninety days to live. He spent the remaining thirty-seven years of his life praising God and testifying of the value of finding oneself alone with God.

“Before peace can be established in any country, there must be a conquering power. The aggressive forces of evil must be subdued by a power greater than they. This is also true in the life of every individual. No man or woman has ever found peace until the power of God’s holy Spirit has driven out the natural human tendency toward rebellion and strife.”

The nature of man is sinful and stubborn and must be subdued by God before anyone can have peace in his heart. We must be delivered from ourselves! May God help us to submit quickly to His authority and to receive Him as conqueror of our souls. He demands our unconditional surrender, and only those who yield to His demand ever experience the joy of real peace.

In God's Presence

After Uncle Joe had been healed of cancer, he continued to receive a disability check from the government until his health so much improved that the checks were discontinued. During the time that he was receiving the checks, he was consumed with Bible study and writing little messages which, to this day, almost no one has ever read. The following quote is taken from one of those little messages. It is a wisdom that is obtained only by those who find themselves utterly alone with God. This is the place Uncle Joe found himself in 1959 when he was given no more than ninety days to live. He spent the remaining thirty-seven years of his life praising God and testifying of the value of finding oneself alone with God.

“The nearer we get to God, the harder we seek Him
because in His presence, we feel our weakness.”

Social Introductions

From a home prayer meeting in 1969

Uncle Joe testified in a meeting in 1969 and left us this pearl. I’ll summarize how he started his testimony that day:

I think we ought to forget about all that formal, social introduction to each other when we meet the children of God and let God introduce Himself. Let the Spirit of God in each of us have fellowship through each other, and then we’ll know each other, and we won’t have to ask very many questions. We don’t have to go through all that commotion the world goes through in order for us to get acquainted. God’s already acquainted with Himself, and we belong to Him. We’re all one family.

This testimony reminded me of an observation made by Sister Donna not long ago. She laughed when she thought of how often we all have greeted one another when we meet and the Spirit of God would fall on us. After that blessing of God was given, we often back up a little and then do the obligatory, "How are you?" But the holy Ghost has already told us how we are! It is as Uncle Joe said, just let the Spirit within us have its fellowship among us, and we will know each other. And we will know how each other is really doing by the feelings of the Spirit within us. We will not have to go through the usual, worldly motion of introduction and inquiry..

The apostle Paul said something like this when he told the Corinthians that he was coming. There was some controversy among the saints at that time, and Paul said that when he arrived, he would know how everyone was doing by the power of God that they had (1Cor. 4:19). I doubt very seriously that when Paul arrived in Corinth and gathered with the saints, he shook their hand and said, "How ya doin’?"

Of course, this can be taken to an extreme and make people afraid to ask any questions of each other, but Uncle Joe’s point was a good one. We really do not know how anyone is doing unless we know their spirits, and with enough spiritual discernment, there will not be many questions that we need to ask.

Pearls from the Preacher

"The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd."
Eccl. 12:11

From a home prayer meeting in 1969

When I listened to the sermon of that Sunday afternoon prayer meeting in Grandma’s house in 1969, I wrote down some of the wisdom that I heard. Here are a few examples from Preacher Clark:

"When you quit seeking God, that’s when you quit getting God."

"You know, a hypocrite never bothers anybody but another hypocrite."

"I’m not even worthy of the honor and the praise of the clean children of God until I get equipped to stand the persecution of the others."

"I’m the happiest man in the world that I know. The happiest man in the world that I know is me because I’m not battling disappointments. If it doesn’t go like I’d like it to go, then I like it the way it does go. I rejoice in tribulation. I praise God for tribulation."

"You’re not going to win anybody to Christ until they decide they want to be like you."

"If you fall in love with the Lord, you won’t have a hard time being true to him."

"Just tell me you love Jesus, and you’re my friend."

Know Thyself

Hey Pastor John!

I have been listening to the Philippians/Colossians teaching series that you did and we are preparing as a series for everyone. I heard you say this last night on one of the CDs, and I wrote it down:

"If you know why you are doing what you are doing, and why you are where you are, what can intimidate you? What you want and need to know is you. What you want to know is you, in God.

Who are you? What are you after? Where did you come from? How did you get here? And, what's your point? Even Socrates said, 'Know Thyself'. He knew that is where you needed to start.

Know your own heart. Know your own mind. Pray, 'God, show me myself!' If He shows you that new creature He created, you are going to like yourself."

Then, I thought about what you told us last Sunday when reading in Ephesians chapter 4. What seemed like "commandments" in the New Testament are really descriptions of who we are in Christ. If you don't know you, you can start there! 8-)

Amy