We’ve come all the way up through the Scriptures, pretty much chapter and verse, and now we’re in I John chapter 4. Now I’ve been emphasizing, ever since we came into the little letters of James and Peter and John, that if you watch the language (don’t go by what I, or any other preacher or any Bible teacher says, just watch the language of what your Bible says that there’s nothing in these little Jewish epistles that is pertinent to the Body of Christ or the Age of Grace), this is all written to Jews.

Now granted there are a lot of things in here that are still appropriate for us and we can make application, we can feed on it - but we always also have to be aware that these things are not totally church oriented, or Grace oriented. And I’ll show you here (if not in this first lesson, we’re going to see it in the second one for sure) how there is absolutely nothing of Paul’s Gospel that you can use here for Salvation. It’s an alarming fact and yet most people are not aware of it. Now with that, let’s just begin with verse 1, and notice John begins with the word "beloved," because he calls his flock "little children."

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, (what a warning, even for today) but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God:…." Is it truly the Holy Spirit that is directing what someone is saying? Or is it some other spirit? Now you’ve got to realize the world has been pummeled with false teaching ever since Paul was beginning his ministry. Even before he passed off the scene, he wrote to Timothy "All they in Asia have turned against me." Why? Because they were rejecting the truth of the Apostle’s doctrines that God had given him for the Body of Christ.

And so it’s been with us now for 1,900 + years and it’s compounding, especially in this day of mass communication. My, when people write and tell me what they’ve picked up on the Internet or what they’ve picked up off of television, it is utterly frightening. And the only way you can determine if it’s truth is to line it up with the Book - and how Paul deals with it - if it doesn’t line up, then shut them off! I would tell them to do the same thing to me. If they can see that I am teaching something that is not scriptural, turn me off – I’m not worth your time.

All right, so he says to test the spirits because so many false prophets, or as we saw earlier in II Peter, false teachers, have gone out into the world. Now let’s come back to Matthew 24, and in the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, it is so plain to see how these false teachers that are out there are coming faster and faster all the time. Now we’re not there yet, as all of Matthew 24 is Tribulation ground, but we’re getting close. We’re going to start right at verse 1 and, of course, Jesus is addressing the Twelve - but what I what you to see is the warning. And it’s just as appropriate for us today as it was when Jesus spoke it.

"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple:.…" Now the Temple is still operating. The Jews are still connected to Temple worship, even those who have been followers now of Jesus and the Gospel of the Kingdom. They’re still part and parcel of the Temple operation.

"...and his disciples (the Twelve) came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. 2. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." And of course He was making a reference to 70 AD, another 40 years in the future when the Romans would do just exactly that. Now verse 3. They leave the Temple complex and they’ve crossed the valley of Kedron up to the Mount of Olives.

"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, (the Twelve again. No press of the crowd, just the Twelve) saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? (age)

They were wondering about the fulfillment of all these things that He’d been talking about and the bringing in of His earthly Kingdom. There’s not a hint yet that the 7-year Tribulation, and His Second Coming are going to be totally interrupted. So they say, "...when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming?"

Now they had an idea that there would be a coming of sorts to set up the Kingdom. Not that they were aware that He was going to die and leave and then come back, but they still knew that there was something that had to transpire that would bring about His setting up this earthly Kingdom - because everything has been pointed in that direction since Genesis chapter 12. All right, so "…when shall these things be, what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the age?" This "age of the curse" is the best way I can put it. Now verse 4.

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man (underline that next word. That no man does what?) deceive you." Deception. See that’s the devil’s bag. Oh how he loves to deceive. And you know the master plan for deception? Give people about 80% of truth and then slip in 20% of abject error and it’ll win every time. And this is what we’re seeing. It is so hard to discern how much is truth and how much is in error; and again our only recourse is to know the Book. You’ve got to know how to rightly divide the Word, to know what is for the Body of Christ.

You know I gave the illustration years ago and I hope it’s still appropriate - that when folks are hired by the Treasury Department to work specifically on counterfeit money, for the first six month’s of their employment they do nothing but study legitimate American bills. That’s all they do. So that they just see it over and over. What’s the purpose? Well, if you see something that’s true and it’s just so imprinted on your mind, the minute you see the least bit of a change in that, the bells ring – it’s a counterfeit!

Well this is what we have to do with the Book. We’ve got to be so ingrained in the Truth that when you hear a bunch of this garbage you can immediately say, "Hey, that’s not true." In fact, I had a fellow call Monday morning (and I’m not going to point my finger at the professional clergy just for the sake of pointing the finger, but it gets alarming when someone calls with what their preacher has been ranting and raving about for thirty minutes from the pulpit, and it is all contrary to the Book) and this guy caught it. And on the way out of his church, he said he told his preacher, "Pastor, you are totally wrong. You are not according to the Scripture."

Well, you have to do this because too many people have just got the idea, that as long as the words come, they can spit them out with no reference to the Word of God. Well, that’s satanic-powered false teaching - I don’t care who’s doing it. All right, now let’s show you how Paul warns us in II Corinthians. And again I may come back to this before the afternoon is over because it is so appropriate for the day in which we live. II Corinthians chapter 11, and what a warning! And it all fits. Jesus said, "Don’t be deceived." Because there are going to be many false teachers. John says, "Test the spirit" so that you know you’re not listening to a false or a counterfeit spirit. Now here’s how Paul puts it. Drop down to verse 13.

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, (same word Jesus used in Matthew 24, don’t be deceived) transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ." These are the deceivers, and the world is full of them today. They’re easy to spot, especially if you line them up with Paul’s epistles.

Now analyze that a minute. What’s he telling us? What are these false teachers going to do? Oh they’re going to talk about Jesus. They’re going to talk about the cross. They may even talk about the resurrection. But they are false deceivers using just enough of the Truth to get your attention and then they’re going to slip you the poison. That’s the typical format. And Paul is warning us. Now how are you going to know? Do they line up with the Scripture from front to back (not just 80% of the time)? Do they line up with Scripture constantly? Are they on track? Or are they throwing in stuff that is extra-biblical? Or as one fellow put it, "There are a lot of things that are biblical, they’re scriptural, but they’re not dispensational. And that is the key."

What does that mean? Well, you’ve got a lot of things that were written to the Nation of Israel under the Law. They’re Scripture. They’re biblical. But they’re not for us in this Grace Age, so it’s not dispensational. Now the one that I always like to use is in Leviticus. This is just a good example of how something is biblical, it’s Scriptural - because it’s in our Bible - but it’s not dispensational. And anything written to Israel is not for this dispensation of Grace (and the reason God separated the teaching of Paul from the rest of Scripture)! Chapter 5, and let’s just drop down to verse 2. Now I trust you all know that Leviticus is a part of the what? The Law. Leviticus is part of the first five books of Moses.

"Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase (that is a dead animal) of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty." Because he has touched something that is unclean. All right, come on down to verse 5.

"And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, (including touching something dead) that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing:" And as he confesses that he has sinned, this is what he has to do. Now this is biblical. This is what the Bible says.

Now goodness sakes, that’s biblical. It’s Scripture. But are you going to do that today? Well of course not! That’s not for us. It’s not in our dispensation. This was for Israel under the Law, the same as Jesus and the Twelve disciples’ ministry under the Law. All right, now this is what we have to understand - that so much of what we’re hearing preached today may be biblical, but it’s not for us. And that makes all the difference in the world. God doesn’t expect you to keep something that He has not said to us. And that’s why I’m always emphasizing Paul’s apostleship - that he is the one that has given us all of the information we need for salvation, for the Christian walk, and for the hope of our end on earth – it’s all in Paul’s epistles.

All the rest of Scripture is profitable if you use it in the right way, but you can’t just open a verse of Scripture and say, "Well, that’s what the Bible says, and that’s what I’m doing." You’ll get in trouble real fast because it doesn’t work that way. But when we come back to what the Apostle Paul teaches and we lean on that, rest on it, then we’re on solid ground!

All right, back to II Corinthians so that you see how the Apostle Paul is writing to his Gentile believers. II Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 14 is the key. The "god of this world" as Paul calls him in chapter 4 in this little book. The "god of this world" is an expert on confusing the issues. He’s an expert at using the Word of God to send people off in the wrong direction. I think I used the example in maybe the last taping, in one of our last programs, that if you know anything about target shooting, you know there’s a bulls-eye and then the outer rings. Well it really doesn’t count unless you can hit the bulls-eye.

Well, it’s the same way with God. God is particular. God is an exclusivist. And we’re going to be seeing that before the afternoon is over. And God will not allow you to shoot for the outer ring of the target - just a little ways from Paul’s Gospel of salvation. Oh it might sound good, but you’re going to miss the mark. God expects us to hit the bulls-eye. That’s why we have the Word of God. That’s why we have the Truth. And we have to make sure that we’re right on or we’re going to miss it.

All right, so come back here again. Satan is a master at getting people to miss the bulls-eye. That’s why I say, he can bring in 80% of Truth and can sound so good. But it’s that other 20% of error that is going to lead people to their eternal doom. And nothing pleases Satan more. All right, so read it again.

"And no marvel; (don’t be amazed) for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (that’s why he can get their attention. Sounds so good, but it’s deception) 15. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers (those people under his control and they’re legion. He’s got far more in his employ than the Holy Spirit does - that’s always been the case) also be transformed as the ministers of (what?) righteousness;.…" That word just throws a curve at us. That they can actually be promoting good things. I can remember years ago I was teaching a college and high school class up in Iowa and we had about 50 of those kids sitting on the floor out in front of me and I was bringing home this very thing - that Satan and his emissaries can promote a lot of good things.

See the average person’s got the idea that all Satan promotes is wickedness and sin and drunks and all. No. Satan will promote the most beautiful things on earth if it will get people’s attention to come his way instead of God’s way. And the great corporations of the world will funnel millions upon millions into so-called ‘good things.’ Beautiful buildings. Libraries. Parks. Zoos. You name it. But does that do anything spiritually for people? No. But it just simply gets their attention, the glamour of this world, and there is nothing Satan likes better. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a beautiful park for goodness sakes. There’s nothing wrong with a nice library. But when all that is used to keep people’s attention from the Truth of the things of God, then the devil’s the winner. Now you may not believe that, but that’s the real world. That’s where it really is. All right, and so they use good things. Things that you cannot point from Scripture and call them wicked. But the end result – Satan’s the winner. He’s causing us to miss the bulls-eye.

Okay, back to I John chapter 4. Verse 1 again.

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, (oh just because something sounds good. Just because somebody is gifted with words, don’t you buy it. Line them up with the Book) but try (or test) the spirits whether they are of God:…."

Test the spirits whether they are of God. John is writing to these little synagogues of Jews, I think primarily back there in Western Turkey. That’s where I picture them whenever I think of it. And so to these little congregations of Jews he says:

Now you remember that I mentioned in one of the programs that I think John is the only writer of Scripture that uses that term. I’m not aware of anyone else, but he speaks of the anti-christs – plural – and then back here in chapter 2, I think in I John, he speaks of the singular – anti-christ. But you remember the word I was using several weeks back? What is the true anti-christ? He’s a counterfeit!

And that’s why they can do such damage. The world out there gets taken in thinking that they’re the real thing, and they’re not. They’re counterfeit. They’re anti-christ. See? All right, reading verse 3 again. "And this is that spirit of anti-christ whereof you have heard that it should come (and not only that) and already is in the world." Now that reminds me, of course, of II Thessalonians chapter 2 where Paul is (as I’ve always made mention), for just a few verses, lining up with the Old Testament prophecies concerning this man of sin, the anti-christ. II Thessalonians chapter 2 and come down to verse 7.

"For the mystery (that is the secret, the things that aren’t well understood) of iniquity doth (what’s the next word?) already work:.…" It was already out there doing its work, even in Paul’s day. And it has never stopped. And consequently the billions and billions of people have been mislead and they’ve missed heaven’s glory because of a deception.

All right, come back once again to I John and I had to read both of these verses because they’re tied together. In verse 2 he’s speaking of the positive side, those who have recognized that Jesus is the Christ - they are of course being influenced by the true Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit will make it manifest that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God. And then as you have seen already, when we read verse 3, you will see the negative side. "Every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of anti-christ…"

All right, now you have to realize that - especially after Pentecost, after Christ has gone back to Glory, whether it’s the Jewish congregation there in Jerusalem or whether it’s a few years later (Paul is starting his congregations amongst the Gentiles) - false teachers are coming in from every direction. And their whole job is to confuse the issues. Not with blatant opposition necessarily, but underhandedly deceiving the people. And that’s the way Satan likes to work. And so you have instances of that throughout Paul’s letters - and even Peter had to confront some of the false teachers of his day. And so the whole criteria now according to this portion of Scripture is we have to determine – what spirit are we listening to? Are we listening to the Holy Spirit? Or are we listening to one of Satan’s spirits? And how are you going to know the difference?

Well, it’s getting harder and harder. I know it is. With this wealth of information that is just flooding the planet, over the Internet and radio and television and the bookstores. My, I think these bookstores are getting about as bad as anything. And it’s just simply overwhelming people with a lot of false information. But it sounds good. Even some of the stuff people send me; they want me to look at it. And up front it sounds pretty good. But as soon as you get into about chapter 2 or chapter 3 here comes all the garbage. Well, that’s the Devil’s way of doing it.

Every day people are calling, and I have to tell them to run from that false teaching! Don’t go back to that place. They’ll just hook you and draw you in deeper and deeper, and the day will come when you’re not going to be able to get out of it. I mean the cults are masters at brainwashing. We’ve known that over the years. And once they get brainwashed, it’s almost (not totally) impossible to bring them out of it. So what’s the best remedy? Don’t get hooked in the first place.

Again, I’d like to welcome you to our Bible study. We’ve been doing this now for several years, and by now you know we’re not associated with one group. We are totally independent and I want to keep it that way because, after all, I report only to the Lord Himself - and I realize it’s an awesome responsibility to handle the Word of God - so I don’t take it lightly.

Okay we’ve got a lot of ground to cover so let’s get right back where we left off in our last program, and we are in I John chapter 4 and we’re going to go right back to the same two verses we ended with because I didn’t even come close to covering all that’s in them. And it’s not what’s in those two verses - but rather, for us in this Age of Grace, what is NOT in those verses! And that’s what I want people to see.

I’ll never forget when an elderly man, who has now gone to be with the Lord, came up to me years ago here in Oklahoma and said, "Les, you’re always telling us that it’s just as important to see what is NOT in a portion of Scripture as what is." And I said, "That’s right!" And what a difference that makes - that we realize that a lot of the stuff that we’ve heard over the years isn’t in here, at least not in the rightful place. Remember I told you in the last lesson, if you wonder if it’s for us in the Church Age, see if it’s in Paul’s writings - because he was chosen by the risen Lord to be the Apostle for us in this Age of Grace. (Acts 9:15 and Romans 11:13). All right, now here is a good example of what I’m talking about. John is not saying one word about the cross or the resurrection or the shed blood. So, let’s come back to I John chapter 4 verses 2 and 3, and refresh our minds from the last lesson.

"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God;" What does it leave out? The cross! Nothing concerning His resurrection. Only – Who He was. All right, then, you come down into verse 3 - and like we showed in the first half-hour that’s the negative side, if you have someone that,

"…confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (then) is not of God:.…"

All right, now let’s just jump ahead a little bit to show you what I’m talking about - in this same chapter, go over to verse 15. Chapter 4 verse 15. Now you’ve got to look at this with an open mind. Now I think I’m more patient than most people in my situation - but when people just refuse and refuse and refuse to open their eyes and read what the Book says, I get a little bit uptight. Because, after all, what’s wrong with reading what the Bible says? But they don’t want to do it because they want to follow tradition, and then they’re out there on thin ice.

"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." What’s missing? Well, the work of the cross. Jump on over to chapter 5 verse 1. I can remember years ago before I had the understanding of Scripture that I have now, that already the Lord must have been working on my brain cells because way back, and the guy’s gone on to be with the Lord (and some of my past pastors are still living so they’ll know I’m not talking about them), but I’ll never forget he preached a Sunday morning sermon on this verse. And I said afterwards, "Preacher we can’t be saved on this verse." He said, "Oh yes we can, this is the Gospel." Well it is the Gospel of the Kingdom, but not the Gospel of Grace. Look what it says.

"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him." Not a word about the cross. So is John out in left field? No. John is exactly where he belongs because who is he writing to? Jews, who as yet have not been exposed to Paul’s Gospel of Grace. He’s on Jewish ground, as I’ve been saying for the last umpteen months since we started - actually Hebrews, but especially James and Peter and John, this is all written to Jewish believers who are saved simply by believing that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel.

Now granted, every human being from Adam until the end of time will be saved by the ‘merit’ of the cross. It took the atoning blood of Christ to save Adam, but Adam did not believe in a crucifixion. He couldn’t because it hadn’t been revealed yet. All right, now come back with me so that you’ll see where I’m coming from. Some portions of Scripture, especially in my Oklahoma classes, we use them constantly. Matthew 16, and now remember what you just read in John’s little epistle. Don’t forget that now because we’ve got to tie them all together. Matthew 16 - toward the end of Christ’s three years of earthly ministry. They’re ready to go up to Jerusalem for the crucifixion. All right, Matthew 16 verse 13, and all you have to do is read it, but also be aware of what is not here.

"When Jesus came into the coasts (or borders) of Caesarea Philippi, (now that’s clear up in the northern borders of Israel, at the head waters of the Jordan River) he asked his disciples, (the Twelve) saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" A simple question. Put in plain language today, what did He ask? Who do the people of Israel think I am? We’ve been out here now for three years, performing miracle after miracle after miracle; who do they think I am anyway? Now look at their answer.

"And they said, Some say thou art John the Baptist: some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." (now Jesus, in His patience, comes back with a question) 15. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?" Do you twelve men know anything better?

"And Simon Peter (who was usually the spokesman) answered and said, (now watch this, I’m going to throw you a curve - and Simon Peter said) Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God" (who died for me and rose again the third day?) Does your Bible say that? That’s what everybody seems to think it should say. But they have no idea of a crucifixion. Luke 18 makes it so plain that, as they were going up to Jerusalem, Jesus told them everything that was going to happen because He was God, He knew. But the next verse says:

"And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." They had no idea He was going to die. And even after He’s crucified did they expect resurrection? No. Otherwise they’d have been outside the tomb waiting. But they didn’t know He was going to be raised from the dead.

All right, now the same way here, the only thing these men understood – Who Jesus was. And Who was He? The Son of God! The Creator of the universe, the One who had come to be Israel’s Messiah and King. And that’s all they were supposed to believe. Remember this is the Gospel of the Kingdom message. Because what is faith? Taking God at His Word. Well, can you believe something that God hasn’t said? No. And He doesn’t expect them to believe what He hasn’t said. All right, so He has not said one word about believing in a crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection for their salvation. All He’s been proving to them is Who He was. He was the Messiah, the Son of God. Period.

Now to show you that Jesus was fully satisfied with that profession of faith - and that’s what I call it - this was Peter’s profession of faith. "Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God." Verse 17, what does Jesus put on it? Blessings!

"And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jo-na: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Jesus says, Peter, you’ve got it right. You’re exactly right. But not because you were so smart. It was because God opened your understanding as to Who I am. And isn’t that always the case? Of course, it is. All right, let’s give you another one while we’re at it. Come over with me to John’s Gospel chapter 11. Lazarus has just died and Martha is all upset because she had seen Him heal the sick. And she knew that if He’d just been there Lazarus could have been healed and he wouldn’t have died, and so she is kind of rightfully upset. Lord why weren’t you here? All right, and then verse 23, here’s picking up the account now.

"Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. 24. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." But why weren’t you here to keep him from dying? Get the tone? Oh, I know he’ll rise at the last day, but that doesn’t give us our brother tomorrow. I wouldn’t doubt but that the girls were pretty much dependent on him for their income, but they’re upset because he’s dead. Verse 25.

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:" In other words, He’s just showing Who He is. He’s the God of Creation. He’s in control of life and death but He doesn’t associate any salvation to what He just said. Now next verse.

"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? 27. She (Martha) saith unto him, Yea, Lord: (now watch this - if it isn’t just word-for-word what Peter said back in chapter 16, Martha said) I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world." Period. Not a word about the cross. Not a word about His death, but what does she believe? Who He was! And that’s all they were supposed to believe because that’s all that had been revealed. You cannot believe something that God has not spoken. And they were not expected to either. All right, one more. Acts chapter 8 and this is plain. My goodness you don’t have to be a seminary professor to see this. It’s as plain as day that their profession of faith was based on Who Jesus was.

Acts chapter 8. Philip has been up to Samaria and the Spirit has instructed him to go on the way down toward Africa beyond Gaza, the same Gaza that’s in the news every day today, down there on the corner of the Mediterranean Sea. And as he’s gone down he sees what is probably a caravan heading south to Africa. And we have the Ethiopian eunuch. And you all know the account. All right, verse 36.

"And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, (that is to Philip now) See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Now of course we don’t see here in Acts that Philip said anything about baptism, but again we have to feel that it was implied because it was part and parcel of the Gospel of the Kingdom. John the Baptist started with what? Repent and be baptized. Peter in Acts chapter 2:38 says what? "Repent and be baptized." So we have to assume that Philip said the same thing when he preached unto him Jesus Christ - that if he truly believed it he should follow that with water baptism. This is all part of the Jewish economy. All right, now verse 37. This is Bible study! This is what you’ve got to be able to digest.

"And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. (that is be baptized) And he answered and said, (now again watch it, I’m going to throw you another curve. I’ve already got one strike on you. I’m going to get number two. And now he says) I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Who died for me? Shed His blood and rose from the dead? Have you got a Bible out there that says that? No. Because your Bible doesn’t say that. Was this eunuch saved? Absolutely! Did he know anything about death, burial and resurrection for that salvation? No. What did he know? Who Jesus was!

Now have you got the picture? That was the Gospel of the Kingdom! And that message was that Jesus was the Promised Messiah and King of Israel and He was ready to bring in that earthly Kingdom promised ever since Abraham and Isaac and David and the rest of the Old Testament. But he couldn’t set up that Kingdom until Israel recognized Who He was. And so the writers of these little epistles will never mention anything concerning the cross for salvation. Now Peter makes reference to His death and that He’s alive, but not for salvation. That’s what you have to look for. Remember Paul says, "Rightly divide the Word" for salvation and church doctrine – his writings from the rest of Scripture.

In I John he’s made it so plain that if they believed that Jesus was the Son of God, then they are being led by the right spirit. And if a spirit says He was not Who He claimed to be, then they’re following a false spirit.

Now let’s go back to this other apostle, the one not associated with the Twelve whatsoever - he was kept separate from them as much as possible. Come back with me to Paul’s writing to the Corinthians. And my what a difference in the language. And, by the way, people come and tell me all the time that when they confront Sunday School teachers and pastors with this, they say, "No, you can’t listen to Les Feldick. There’s never been more than one Gospel."

And then I just have to come back and ask a logical question. Did the Twelve preach faith in His death, burial and resurrection for salvation - when they didn’t even have a clue that it was going to happen? No! And yet that’s all that Paul knows. And yet you’re going to sit there and tell me that they preached the same thing? How could they? Common sense. Just common sense. They couldn’t preach the same thing because Paul’s Gospel hasn’t been revealed yet.

But here’s Paul’s Gospel. I Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17. This just flies in the face of Jesus and John the Baptist and the Twelve. Now with Paul, it’s a whole different ballgame. The risen Lord has revealed something different to Paul who is now preaching to the Gentile world. Jesus and the Twelve were preaching to Israel. Now look what Paul writes in I Corinthians 1 starting at verse 17. And remember he’s the apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles and he never let’s us forget that, that it was Jesus Christ that confronted him on the road to Damascus. It was Jesus Christ Who taught him those three years in the desert. And he always is alluding to the fact that he is merely the mouthpiece (if I may use that word) for the ascended Lord Jesus Christ.

"For Christ sent me not to baptize,…." People don’t like to read that do they? Paul says, "He didn’t send me to baptize." Well, he sent John to baptize, but not Paul.

"…but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." Now right off the bat, what’s number one in his thinking? The cross. Now verse 18, here’s why.

"For the preaching of the cross (notice Paul’s emphasis. Not His Messiahship, but rather His crucifixion) is to them that perish (lost people) foolishness;...." Don’t you hear it every once in a while? I do. What does what happened 2,000 years ago have to do with me today? That’s the scoffers question. Well it has everything to do with you today! Everything! Because that was the very culmination of all of God’s dealing with the human race, past, present and future.

"…but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." All right, now come on down, verse 23.

"But (Paul says) we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock,…" "But we preach Christ" the miracle worker? No. "We preach Christ" the Messiah? No. "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block" because they couldn’t comprehend that anything good would come out of Nazareth. And so, the reaction was – away with him.

"…and unto the Greeks, foolishness;" Foolishness. Whoever heard of such a thing – of being willing to go to a Roman cross supposedly to die for the sins of mankind? That’s foolishness. All right then verse 25.

All right, now come on over, still in I Corinthians, to chapter 15. I Corinthians chapter 15. Now here’s the Gospel of salvation for the Gentiles. Here’s the Gospel that Paul is constantly proclaiming. Here’s the Gospel that saves mankind today. Not just believing that Jesus is the Son of God, although that’s a prerequisite. The Christ of the cross, of course, is the Son of God. No doubt about that.

"Moreover, brethren, (as he writes to these Corinthian Gentiles, and you and I) I declare unto you the gospel (it’s singular) which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye (as believers) stand; 2. By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." Now here comes Paul’s Gospel of salvation that we must believe in this Age of Grace!

"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, (where did he get it? The Ascended Lord) how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:" See, you don’t see language like that in Peter, James and John. It’s not in there. But Paul can proclaim that Christ died for our sins, and rose again, according to the Old Testament. That Christ, the Son of God, the Creator of everything, went to that Roman cross where God poured out all of His wrath and judgment, but also poured out all of His what? Mercy.

The two-fold work of the cross – all of the wrath of God that the human race deserved was poured out on Him. That’s why He cried out "My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?" It was God’s wrath being poured out. But, on the other hand, we’ll see a little later in this chapter, the big word "propitiation." He also then became the seat of mercy. And so that’s why I proclaim without any apology that you don’t have to cry out the sinner’s prayer. You don’t have to say be merciful to me - a sinner. That’s already been done. God had already poured out His mercy on sinful men when He poured it out at the cross. And so it’s a two-fold work. The wrath of God was poured out on Him but also He became the very mercy seat. He became the epitome of God’s forgiveness and reconciliation and mercy to everyone that believes it.

Now that brings up another point. Is there another ‘belief system’ on the planet that can do that? Not one. Now I’m using ‘belief system’ instead of the word that I hate – ‘religion.’ I just don’t like the word - it just rubs me wrong. Otherwise I would say can you think of another religion, but I’m not going to do that, I’m going to say can you think of another belief system? Can you? Not one. Not one can proclaim that their belief system – the Creator of the universe took on human flesh so that He could satisfy the demands of a holy and a righteous God by shedding His blood and by suffering that death of wrath and vexation of God as well as the outpouring of His mercy. And then culminate it all with the power of resurrection. There’s not another belief system on the planet that can proclaim that. Not one.

And then they jump all over us for being exclusivist. Of course I’m an exclusivist! I’d be contrary to Scripture if I weren’t. Nothing rankles me more than if somebody says, "Well all the paths come to the same pond." No they don’t. All the other paths are going to anything but a pond! All Paul knows is this Gospel of salvation – how that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. You believe it! Plus nothing!

Now here’s the other point I wanted to make. As soon as we believe that Gospel, not only do we experience sins forgiven, but we are as Paul says in Romans 5:1 - that the grace of God bringeth the peace with God - only because we believed it. All right, now this is where we get letter after letter after letter. We had almost 300 of them yesterday. Iris and I just opened letters all afternoon. And so many of them say the same thing. "For the first time in my life I have a hunger for this Book. I can’t get enough of it." Why? Because when you become a believer that’s just like the newborn baby crying for what? Milk. And this is what we’re finding, that people are all of a sudden getting struck with the interest of this Book. There’s nothing like it! It’s the most exciting Book between two covers. But you have to understand how it’s put together. You have to be able to separate it.

Okay, here we are - Paul’s Gospel based on the death, burial and resurrection of the Son of God. These other men are simply saying, "Believe Who Jesus was." What a difference.

Okay, I think we’ll just go right back in where we left off. We were in I John chapter 4 and we’re going to go right into the whole concept that John is still writing to the Jewish believers. There is nothing of Paul’s Gospel of salvation in here per se. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things here that we can use by application. But you cannot go back in these Jewish epistles and say, "Well here’s where we are today." No, all you can do is just compare notes and if it’s in parallel with what Paul writes – fine. If not, you leave it alone because it was for the Jew. All right, now I think we’re going to see a good explanation of that here in just a little bit.

"Ye are of God, little children,.…" Now remember that’s the term John has been using for these Jewish believers, but we also know Paul refers to us as the children of God.

"…and have overcome them: (that is the false teachers, the ones who were trying to mislead people) because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." Well now that’s certainly true of us, isn’t it? We know that the Spirit of Christ dwells within us and He is certainly greater than the powers of Satan, providing we give Him opportunity to function. All right, but now I’m going to go on to verse 5.

"They (that is the false prophets, the false teachers) are of the world: (that is the whole world system) therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them." In other words, the things of the world are interesting to them and vice versa. But not to us. All right, now verse 6. Why? Because like these Jewish believers, the same way with us,

"We are of God: (we’ve had a change of thinking. We’ve got a change of appetites. We’re of God) he that knoweth God heareth us; (in other words, we can have conversation with fellow believers even as they could) he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth, and (what other spirit?) the spirit of error."

All right, now let’s go back and see how Paul deals with it, as he writes to us Gentiles. And I’m always going to emphasize that because Paul does, because this Book says he’s the apostle of the Gentiles, as we see in Romans 11:13. Until we realize that, we’ll never fully comprehend Scripture, or rightly divide the Word of God. Alright, now this apostle of the Gentiles is writing to a Gentile congregation in the Greek city of Corinth. So we’re going to go to I Corinthians chapter 2. Oh, I could just use the whole chapter, but I guess for sake of time, I’d better jump in at verse 7. Now remember who he’s writing to. He’s writing to Corinthians, Gentiles, believers of Paul’s Gospel of Grace. They are now understanding and believing for salvation, that not only was Christ the Son of God, but He died for their sins and rose from the dead.

"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,.…" In other words, Paul is going to reveal things that no other portion of Scripture could reveal because God had kept it secret. Now I didn’t intend to do this, but I’ve got to! You know when I come to something like this, I’ve got to Romans chapter 16 before finishing it. Come back with me to Romans chapter 16 where Paul uses the same word. Why does Paul use this word? Because the Holy Spirit inspired him, but more than that for the scenario of the whole thing. These things revealed to the Apostle Paul had been kept totally secret in all the rest of Scripture and to the whole world in general until it was revealed to this man. That’s why he claims that unique apostleship. He had things revealed to him that Peter, James and John never did understand. And Peter says it in his second epistle, chapter 3 verse 16 - he says, "In Paul’s epistles are things hard to be understood." Why? It was beyond Peter, he never had the privilege to receive them from God.

All right, but here’s what he says in Romans 16 and verse 25. And I’ve said it over the years, until I finally got in a seminar where there were some people who had been under my teaching now quite a while, and I finally got a raise of hands. But I can ask seminar after seminar all over this country, "Have you ever heard a Sunday morning sermon preached on Romans 16:25?" Almost never. Now I can say almost never. Why? Because they don’t like what it says. It takes away their thunder from preaching in the Four Gospels. And here it is.

"Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel,.…" And I showed you in the last program, ‘Paul’s Gospel.’ in I Corinthians 15:1-4, "How that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead;" Now that’s Paul’s Gospel, and what we must believe in our hearts for salvation during this Age of Grace! All right, reading verse 25 again.

"Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the (there’s that word again. What?) mystery, which was kept secret since (when?) the world (or ages) began," That’s why nobody, all the way up through human history until we get to this man, Paul, had an understanding - or had been told to believe for salvation that the Son of God became flesh and went to that Roman cross as man and as God and there took upon Himself (as we pointed out in the last program) all of the wrath of God, and all of the sins of this world were laid on him. Now, in latent language, Isaiah 53. We know what it says. "By His stripes we are healed. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter." But that didn’t really tell the whole story. But when God revealed this whole thing to this apostle, now it becomes then, a revelation of the mystery. Things kept secret since the ages began.

Well now the companion passage with that concept is Ephesians chapter 3. Now this is what we call laying line upon line and precept upon precept - comparing Scripture with Scripture. And here again the Apostle Paul makes it so plain that these are things that the rest of the Bible knows nothing of. You can only find them in Paul’s epistles. All right, Ephesians 3 verse 1, and watch the language. It’s so plain.

"For this cause…." That is because of the Grace that he’s been espousing in the first two chapters, where Paul says, "for by Grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves," And on and on he’s been bringing it out. Now look what he says in chapter 3 verse 1.

"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner (now remember he’s in prison in Rome) of Jesus Christ for (what people’s purposes?) you Gentiles." And everything he’s been out there preaching has been to the Gentiles, which of course infuriated his kinsmen, the Jew according to the flesh. And so they prompted his arrest. All right, now then verse 2.

"If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me to you-ward." Now I’ve pointed this verse out to people, and say read it. They read and they don’t know what I’m talking about. I say read it again. And then finally you have to prevail upon them, just read it like a kid is reading his first grade primer – one word at a time. And maybe you’ll get it. "If you have heard of the dispensation (or the outpouring or the revealing of the administering) of the grace of God, (now here’s where I want them to go slow) which is given to me to you."

And they refuse to believe it. Well, I can’t help that. I’m going to make it plain and then the monkey’s on their back, not mine. And here it is, that you’d better understand this whole revelation of things (that had been kept secret because it really was moot so far as Israel was concerned, they were looking for the coming King and the Kingdom). But, unknown to them, God’s going to interrupt that Kingdom plan and He’s going to drop into the Gentile world (that’s us today) with His tremendous Gospel of the Grace of God, which Israel knew nothing of.

Israel was steeped in works and sacrifices and Temple worship. The Prophets and the Old Testament, you name it. But here comes this man with a whole new revelation that God will save the vilest Gentile or Jew by him or her simply believing Paul’s Gospel. And that throws a curve at people. But here it is, plain as day. Now read on. Verse 3.

"How that by revelation (that’s another one of Paul’s favorite words, a revealing, an unveiling) he (the Ascended Christ) made known unto me (not to us, but rather me) the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4. Whereby, when ye read, (that is Paul’s epistles) ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)"

Paul is not an egotist - this is Holy Spirit inspired - but most never catch what he’s saying. Now, that the Son of God was to come to Israel and be the King and Messiah, that was no secret. The Old Testament was full of it. But that He would come and offer salvation to the whole human race by faith plus Nothing? No – nobody had a concept of that, until this man. And that’s what he’s preaching. Salvation by faith + nothing because of God’s Grace. All right, now verse 5, and remember again this is Holy Spirit inspired. This isn’t the Apostle’s dream work. The Spirit is prompting him to write.

"Which in other ages (or generations, or all the way back to Adam) was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;" Now listen, Paul refers to his co-workers in the ministry as apostles and prophets, such as Barnabas and Silas and Timothy and Titus and so forth. But he’s not referring to the Twelve, he’s referring to those who were in ministry with him.

"That the Gentiles.…" Now I think over the years, I’ve certainly made it clear that Jesus and the Twelve had no ministry to the Gentiles. None. Except for that one instance when Peter went up to Cornelius and that was for Paul’s benefit twelve years later. But other than that, they had no ministry to the Gentile world. They agreed to confine it to the Israel.

"That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, (come right into a relationship with the Creator God Himself!) and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:" That’s why Paul, alone, refers to the Body of Christ. Only Paul uses that term "the Body, and be partakers of his promise in Christ (how?) by the gospel." Not by works. Not by baptism. Not by something someone can do. It’s by believing The Gospel of salvation that was given only to Paul for us. Now verse 7.

"Whereof (that is the Gospel) I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power." Now verse 8, here comes the man’s humility. Don’t ever accuse the Apostle Paul of pride and arrogance, he was just the opposite.

"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles (the non-Jewish world) the unsearchable riches of Christ;"

Now I’ve been saying it over and over, especially in my Oklahoma classes for the last year or so. I cannot (and I don’t believe there’s a person in this room, or in my whole television audience, or on this planet that can) comprehend all that God did in that work of the cross. It is so beyond human comprehension what the God of Creation proclaimed and worked through that death, burial and resurrection - through that shed blood.

And I’ve been emphasizing all afternoon how that Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world. Hey, I can’t comprehend that. Nobody can. What all was involved in the fact that that shed blood, that divine blood of the Son of God would satisfy the righteous demands of a Holy God - it’s beyond me. What little bit I take, I take by faith and I’m waiting for Glory to get a full understanding. And I think you’ll have to too. There is just no way we can understand it. They’re unsearchable. And unsearchable means just exactly what it says, it has no bottom.

"And to make all men.…" Now the word ‘men’ has been italicized but nevertheless it means the whole human race now, Jew and Gentile, black and white, rich and poor, makes no difference.

"And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, (all these things which had been revealed to Paul, the things that had been kept secret. This whole concept of what is called the Gospel of Grace of God) which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:" The same God who delegated Christ to create all things that are in the world. I’m amazed at the people who do not know that Christ was the Creator!

Now before we go back to I John, I’m going to stop first at Galatians chapter 2. I know we’ve shown this over and over but you can’t do it enough. And if, for no other reason, I may have a new listener today that has never heard it before. Galatians chapter 2 verse 9, and this is after a day long argument between Peter’s and James’ and John’s concept of what the Gentiles should be doing to get full salvation, and what Paul and Barnabas say – NO!

James and Peter and John were saying they had to practice circumcision. They had to conform to the Law of Moses or they couldn’t be saved, as we’ve seen all that in Acts chapter 15. But Paul just dug in his heels and he says, "I’ll never agree to that." And then Peter finally came to his defense, remembering what had happened at the house of Cornelius. That’s why I say that the whole reason Peter was sent to Cornelius was to help Paul off the hook back here in Galatians twelve years later. Remember Peter got in trouble with the Jews for going to Cornelius’ house, as we see in Acts chapter 11.

Now then, after almost a day of arguing and discussing, we come to verse 9 and if you don’t get it this afternoon, read it again before you go to bed tonight. Read it when you get up in the morning until this starts soaking in.

"And when James, Cephas, (Peter) and John, (the very same unfolding as you’ve got in the little epistles, not Peter, James and John. It’s James and Peter and John) who seemed to be pillars,.…" Their whole Jewish economy at the Temple was falling apart and in a few years the Temple will be destroyed. So everything that was concerned with the apostle’s ministry is falling through the cracks.

"… who seemed to be pillars, perceived (or got an understanding) the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship;.…" And those of you who hear me every week, you know what I’m talking about. It was a gentleman’s agreement. They shook hands. And Peter and James and John said, all right Paul, we see it. And we’re going to make a gentleman’s agreement that you go to the Gentiles and we will stay with Israel. Now read it with your own eyes. And here’s the agreement.

"…that we should go unto the heathen, (Gentiles) and they unto the circumcision." (Jews) That’s plain English. Man, you don’t have to be a PhD to understand this. It was a gentleman’s agreement, and they never went back on that agreement. Okay, "Paul, you and Barnabas continue on your ministry to the Gentiles; we’re going to stay with Israel." That’s exactly what it says.

Now then, look what Peter says when you get back to his last little epistle, shortly before he’s martyred. He’s at the end of his life and he’s written this little epistle here in I and II Peter addressing it to the Twelve Tribes scattered. II Peter 3:15 and 16. Verses I’ve used over and over and I make no apology for it, because this is what people have to wake up and realize. Even Peter admonished his Jewish adherents that now the end of the Jewish program is about to fall, and it will with the demise of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Jews scattered. So now even Peter has to realize where these Jewish people have to go for their spiritual instruction.

"And account (or understand) that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even (now watch this) as our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given unto him (this was wisdom that Peter, James and John knew nothing of) hath written unto you;" And so Peter says, you go to Paul. Now verse 16.

"As also in all his epistles,.…" I think the one he’s talking about first is Hebrews. But that’s speculation. I can’t prove that but it would almost seem that he’s referring to Hebrews. But the rest of his epistles are Romans through Philemon, those are Paul’s epistles. And Peter says.

"…speaking in them (Romans through Philemon) of these things; (these epistles) in which are some things hard to be understood,.…" Peter says that! By inspiration. He couldn’t comprehend it all. Peter was the legalist. Peter was still under the whole Jewish program of the Law and the Prophets and the coming of the King and the Kingdom - and it was difficult to understand that all that now had been set aside for a time, and God is going out to that pagan Gentile world. Now listen – do you realize what the Gentile world was in that time? They were the pits compared to Israel.

Israel had the sanitation laws. Israel had the food laws. Israel had the moral laws. The Gentiles had none of that. They didn’t know what sanitation was. Do you realize that hospitals in Europe as late as 1600 or 1700 still knew nothing of antiseptics? And it was a Jewish doctor who finally prevailed upon them that when they ministered to sick people they should wash their hands from one to the next, because as they were going down that hospital ward they were just simply passing the bacteria from one to the other. The Gentiles had no common sense on those things; the Jews did because they’d had it from antiquity. But now, even Peter says, these mysteries revealed to the Apostle Paul for us in the Church Age were beyond him. He couldn’t comprehend it. All right, now let’s read on and then the time is up.

"…are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." And, oh, they can twist the Scripture like you can’t believe. My they can twist Paul’s epistles. But what is the admonition? "They do it also to the other scriptures." Now you know what people have to realize? When Peter says "the other Scriptures," what is he confirming that Paul is? Scripture! When Peter says "the other scriptures" and he compares it with Paul, then he puts everything into the same basket. Everything throughout the whole Old Testament, the Gospel’s, the Acts, Paul’s epistles, these little epistles. It’s all Scripture! Now what more proof do you need? All right and so now then he says, that as they "twist Paul’s scriptures and they twist the rest of Scripture," what’s their end? "Destruction." Doom. Not a pretty word is it? But that’s the truth of the Book.

Let’s go back to where we were in I John chapter 4 and we’re going to look at verse 6 once again because some of these things we just cannot hurry over.

"We (John writes) are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; (in other words we can converse with fellow believers) he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." Now you see the unbelieving world cannot discern between error and truth because they don’t know what the truth is. So all they can fall for are the errors. But, we’re more fortunate than that. Now to see how Paul addresses it again for you and I (so that we can latch our teeth into it, if I may put it that way) come back with again me to I Corinthians chapter 2 - where we were in the last program. I left off at verse 7, "the speaking of wisdom of God in a mystery." Now I want to come down to verses 9 and 10.

Now I know I’m as guilty as anybody in using that verse often to show that those things out in eternity are beyond us. We just don’t have a handle on it because the Bible just doesn’t deal with it. But that isn’t what Paul is really talking about. What he’s talking about are the things that pertain to us today in our everyday experience. Because you see, coming out of verse 9, "the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."

"But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit:.…" Now go back and read verse 9 again, "As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God hath (past tense) prepared for them that love him." In other words, human comprehension can’t touch it. There’s just no way we can figure out all that God has done. Like I said in the last half-hour, we can’t comprehend all that Christ accomplished at the cross. It’s beyond us. We just take what little we understand by faith. All right, but now look what he says, "These things God has prepared for them that love him. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, but (the flipside) God has revealed them to us by his Spirit." Oh, not all of it, of course, but God has revealed so much of this by the Spirit.

"…for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? (in other words, how can a human understand human things unless he’s a human? That’s simple isn’t it? Something in the animal kingdom cannot comprehend the things that are dealing with humanity. They’re not of the same makeup) even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." It’s just as illogical for a lost man to understand the things of God as for a dog to understand human practice. Now that’s an extreme I know, but it still makes the point. It is utterly impossible for lost people to comprehend the Word of God. It’s beyond them. And like I mentioned in the last program, that’s why we’re so thrilled with all these letters stating that now they have come to trust the Gospel of salvation, and they have come to a real saving knowledge of God - they’re understanding the Bible. Well naturally! That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

I’ll never forget a gentleman who came into the class (one of these guys who knew nothing but thought he knew it all), and he was trying to give me some arguments afterwards. And I had a fellow who had been saved out of rather horrible background and had become so engrossed in the Word of God - and he was overhearing all of this; and he finally came up and he tapped the guy on the shoulder and he said, "Listen buddy, if you ever get saved, then you’ll know what you’re talking about." Well you know that’s so true. See, these people can talk about the Scriptures; they can argue them but they are totally ignorant of what they’re talking about. And so that’s what Paul is saying – that unless you have the Spirit of God there is no way you can understand the things of God. It has to be through the Spirit.

"Now we have received, (we believers) not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; (the things pertaining to God) that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God." In other words, you don’t have to go and pay a high tuition to learn the things of God. The Spirit will reveal it freely. Providing we take the step of wanting to learn. All right, now verse 13.

"Which things (Paul says) we also speak, (that is the things pertaining to God,) not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; (and how do we get that?) comparing spiritual things with spiritual." That’s why I’m always trying to compare Scripture with Scripture so that we can see the whole concept and how it all fits together. And only the Holy Spirit can unfold that for us. Now then verse 14, he comes back to that unbelieving person again.

"But the natural man (the unsaved person) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: (he can’t because the Spirit can only work through the believer) for they (the things of God) are (what?) foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, (why?) because they are spiritually discerned."

And so this is what we have to understand. Don’t get impatient with that lost person who can’t understand what you’re trying to tell him. It’s impossible for him, until he becomes a believer, and then all of a sudden it opens up to him. But many times we get uptight and impatient with people when they can’t see these things and they can’t understand them, so always remember that’s the reason. They’re blind as bats spiritually speaking because they’ve never had their eyes opened by the Spirit.

All right, since you’re in Corinthians, you might as well go a few pages to the right to II Corinthians chapter 4. I alluded to it earlier this afternoon but I didn’t want to take time then to look it up, but now we will since we’re this close to it. II Corinthians chapter 4 and drop in at verse 3. If the Apostle Paul experienced it, goodness sakes we don’t have to feel badly that they don’t understand us.

"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: (they can’t comprehend it. Why?) 4. In whom the god of this world (that would be Satan, the one who can transform himself into an angel of light, as we saw earlier) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, (see there’s where Paul gives Christ His true Deity again) should shine unto them." But it can’t, because Satan has them blinded. They’ve got a blindfold on and they cannot see these things until God in His saving power removes the blindfold. All right now let’s come back. We’ll make a little more headway in I John. And now for these Jewish believers it’s much the same thing. By virtue of their faith in Who Jesus of Nazareth really was, God has reckoned them as saved. Just like He did Peter back in Matthew 16.

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth (that is someone else) is born of God, and knoweth God." Well, here again, John stops short of what we would call Paul’s Gospel. He’s still on that Jewish economy, that as soon as they believed that Jesus was the Christ, they had God’s Salvation for them, and they too would now have that ability to love one another. All right, now verse 8.

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Well now that’s so much in line with John’s Gospel where over and over he’s speaking of this concept of love. For example, "Love one another" and so on and so forth. All right, but Paul does as well. Paul speaks of love and so I’m going to look at that one in Romans chapter 13. And here we’re speaking of this same agape love.

"Owe no man anything,.…" Or don’t defraud is a better translation, I think. Don’t defraud. There’s nothing wrong with having a mortgage on your house. That’s why I always have to stop and explain this. I don’t want people to think that it’s totally wrong to borrow money or owe somebody. No there’s nothing wrong with a legitimate mortgage. Israel did it all through their history. But, defrauding, that’s something else, as that’s taking advantage of people. All right, but instead of defrauding someone:

"…but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Well now that’s kind of different for Paul to say because we know that Christ fulfilled the Law with the work of the cross. But that same love that brought about the cross is now imputed to us and our love now goes out to the people around us. Consequently, verse 9. Paul doesn’t leave us lawless. We’re not under Law, but we’re not lawless. Or the phrase I’ve often used through the years is "Grace is not license." We aren’t just free to go and do as we please. But all right, since we have now experienced God’s saving Grace by His love, then it follows that all the things that pertain to the Law of God are appropriate for us. And here it is:

"For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery,.…" Why? Because as soon as you commit adultery you’re not showing love for the God that has saved you. Nor are you showing love for the spouse that you’re cheating on. And so since love is the key, these things cannot be appropriate.

"…Thou shalt not kill, (well that’s obvious. You can’t kill somebody that you love) Thou shalt not steal, (that’s obvious also, you can’t steal from somebody if you love them) Thou shalt not bear false witness, (how can you gossip, or lie about someone that you love? It’s all such common sense) Thou shalt not covet; (how can you be envious of someone you love? Just the opposite, you’re glad that they’re being blessed.) and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

Because love works no ill to his neighbor. So the whole concept of God is love! Now while I’m on the subject of the Ten Commandments, I always better remind people of this. Paul makes mention of nine of the Ten Commandments. Just like he does here. And then in Ephesians he speaks of the one pertaining to children and their respect for parents. That’s Ephesians 6, and verse 1. He says:

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)" So, Paul repeats nine of the Ten Commandments, but he never touches the other one and what is it? The Sabbath. He never says, "Obey the Sabbath and keep it holy," because that was something that was totally removed from the Christian experience and that is so obvious throughout all of his epistles that even though love demands our adhering to the other nine (not as a means of salvation but only as a result of it) we are never admonished to keep the seventh day Sabbath. All right, let’s go back to I John again, and make a little more headway. Chapter 4 verse 9.

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." Now there’s nothing new in that. As His eternal life was imparted to us as a result of our faith, then that is eternal life. All right, verse 10.

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us,.…" Now you might want to underline that. The whole work of the cross was triggered by God’s love for mankind. God sent His Son into the world first and foremost to bring Israel to a knowledge of Himself so that He could fulfill all the promises. Now that reminds me of a verse that I haven’t used lately. Romans chapter 15 verse 8. I think this may be an appropriate time to use it. In fact, I told somebody one time, I can have a subject for a seminar that can range almost from anything to anything and I can start everyone with this verse. I can start any seminar on this verse because it just simply is the benchmark for all of Scripture, and here it is.

"Now I say that Jesus Christ was (past tense) a minister of the circumcision (that’s Israel) for the truth of God, to confirm (or bring to fruition or to fulfill) the promises made unto (whom?) the fathers:" Well who were the fathers in Scripture? The patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then later on Moses and David. And then the prophets. All of these promises were made to the Nation of Israel with regard to Christ’s first coming or what we call His first Advent. And what was the purpose? To give Israel the Messiah and the King and the Kingdom that they had been longing for. That was the whole purpose of His coming.

Now, when all that was rejected then the final purpose was to bring Him to the cross, but that is not what brought Him to the Nation of Israel. He came to the Nation of Israel to fulfill the promises made to the fathers - to Israel. And so everything in His earthly ministry was programmed in that direction. And then once the Apostle Paul is sent to the Gentiles, it becomes that world-wide offer of salvation to the whole human race. Now back to I John 4, and verse 10 again. There’s a tremendous word here that I just can’t slip over in that verse.

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and he sent his Son, (there’s that S-o-n capitalized) to be the propitiation for our sins."

Now I dare say I could ask the average church member up and down the streets of Tulsa or any other city in America; what’s propitiation? They don’t have a clue.

I had a gentleman call me just the other day asking the question "What is propitiation?" Well, let’s look at the other place it’s used. Back up a page or two to chapter 2 verse 2, so it’s not just a strange word that has slipped in here by accident but now in I John chapter 2 verse 2, we have the same word.

"And he (Jesus Christ of verse 1) is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Now that’s where John comes a little bit further than James and Peter in that he is now reaching out to not just Israel, but the whole world can come in and benefit from this work of the cross. All right so, the propitiation for our sins. Now let’s come all the way back to Romans chapter 3, where it is first and here it comes from the pen of the Apostle Paul, and this is again part of the revelation of the mysteries.

"For all (the whole human race) have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (that’s a blanket condemnation. But that’s not where it stops) 24. Being justified freely (without cost) by his grace through the redemption (that is the process of paying the price) that is in Christ Jesus: (Now here it comes.) 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (but I have to take the next verse as well) 26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: (not ours – His) that he (God) might be just, (totally fair) and the justifier of him (or that person) which believeth in Jesus." (that is the work of the cross)

All right, now to the propitiation. What are Paul and John talking about? Well, I think the best way that I can explain it in two minutes – better do this fast. Well you go all the way back to Exodus and into the Tabernacle out there in the wilderness. You remember that you had the brazen altar out at the front. And then the laver, which contained the water. And then you came into the sanctuary, the front part of the Tabernacle. And in the front room as you came in was the seven-lamp candlestick. Across the room was the table of showbread. And in the middle of the room was the altar of incense. But behind the veil, now in the little room at the back behind the veil was the Ark of the Covenant. In which, were the tables of stone as well as Aaron’s rod, that had budded.

Now what did all that show? Well it showed that the Law was buried because the Ark was really a coffin remember? And the almond rod that budded was an indication of new life that, as the Law was put to death, out came new life. Now all of that was consummated then under that mercy seat where not only was the wrath extended but also God’s what? Mercy. And you put all that together and that’s propitiation. So Christ was and is our everything!

My goodness! We’ve got the room just about full as we’re ready to tape four lessons this afternoon, and we’ve got folks here from Orlando, Chicago, San Francisco, and points in between, I guess.

I keep emphasizing, even to our phone callers, that I am not associated with any one group. I’m not going to let anyone start putting peer pressure on me, and I told someone yesterday that "I only report to one Person and that’s the Lord Himself." And I accept that responsibility and I know that whenever we open the Scripture it is a tremendous responsibility and I never make light of that whatsoever.

So again for those of you out in television, we just want to thank you for your prayers and for your letters! And when we say that we read every letter, we’re not kidding. It’s starting to take a little more time but we still do. And for that reason we do appreciate short letters. But, my, how many times people will write to tell us that now, for the first time in their life, they know that, when they die – they will go to Heaven. And that, of course, is the main reason we’re here. And the second biggest part is that they’re learning to study the Word, on their own. It’s not what Les Feldick says, but what the Book says, and just as important, what it doesn’t say. Now let’s study the Word, and we’ll begin in I John 4:11 where we left off in the last lesson.

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." Now the first thing that verse should remind you of is that John is writing this little epistle and what famous verse in his Gospel says almost the same thing? Well, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world." Of course He did. And that’s the very crux of the matter when we study the crucifixion and so forth. It was driven by His love for lost mankind. All right, so I don’t think I have to comment much on that.

But verse 12, I imagine, has hit people between the eyes and they can’t figure this one out. And what does it say?

"No man hath seen God at any time…." Now is that what the Bible always says? No. Let me show you a verse. Now this is what I call, Bible study. This is what I love to do. Let’s go all the way back to Genesis, and now that would have to be in about chapter 32. Here, Jacob is coming back from his years with his uncle Laban and he’s just entered back into the land of Canaan and he’s spent the night wrestling with a stranger. And you know the story.

"And he (the stranger) said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. 29. And Jacob asked him, (that is this stranger now that’s been wrestling with him all night long) and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he (the stranger) blessed him there. 30. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: (and it’s capitalized) for I have seen (Who?) God face to face, and my life is preserved."

Well now does the Scripture contradict? Never! But it sounds like it doesn’t it? John says, "no man has seen God at any time.’’ Jacob says, "I have seen Him face to face." Well now you’ve got to stop and think of all the times in Scripture that mankind did see God face to face. For example, do you think Adam and Eve walked with an invisible ghost in the Garden? Is that what you think? Well, of course not. They walked with a human form. Now then jump on up past even Jacob’s experience. I’m going to bring you up to Exodus chapter 3. And now we’re with Moses, and the burning bush episode. I know some of these things confuse people simply because they will not check out the Scripture, because the answers are here.

I’ve even skipped over Genesis 18, where Abraham, you remember, killed the fatted calf. Remember the three strangers that came down the path and he ran and killed the fatted calf and the three sat down and they ate. Two of them were angels. They went on down to Sodom and the third one stayed behind and conversed with Abraham. Who was it? It was God. All right, now here we’ve got the same Person of the Godhead – now I let the cat out of the bag, didn’t I? It’s a certain Person of the Godhead, the same that wrestled with Jacob, see? Now let’s look at the burning bush.

"And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. (now watch the language in your Bible) 4. And when the LORD…." Capital LORD. And the LORD in the Old Testament economy is Jehovah. And Jehovah is, in the Old Testament, Christ. See?

" And when the LORD (Jehovah, - Christ, The Son, in the Old Testament) saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I." Now I want you to watch the back and forth terms of Deity in this chapter because it is such a mind-boggling thing. We’ve already got Him called God and LORD, out of the burning bush. All right, verse 5.

"And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. 6. Moreover he said, (that is out of the burning bush) I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…." Are you convinced now He’s God? Well you’d better be! This burning bush voice is God!

"…And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God." Now I don’t think he just saw a flame, I think he saw a Person in that burning bush. All right, then "He hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God." Not upon the fire, "upon God." Now verse 7, this same person called God in verse 6 is now the LORD in verse 7.

Now I don’t have to come through all of this as you know the account. All I’m showing you is the use of the terms of Deity. All right, so now you come all the way down to verse 11 and it’s still the same language.

"And Moses said unto to God,…." The very God that John says, "No man has ever seen." And I think there’s another Scripture where it puts it even more strongly that "no man hath ever seen God and lived." But, here we have Moses looking straight into the face of God.

"And Moses says unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12. And he said, (that is, God from the burning bush says) Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. 13. And Moses said unto (Who?) God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?" Now that’s an important facet all through Scripture. And we’re going to be seeing it even now in the verses to come in I John. The name. My, that meant everything. "What’s his name? Who is he?"

"And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." That’s the name of our God; He’s the great I AM. But He’s also called LORD. Now before we go back to the New Testament, I want to back up a moment to Genesis chapters 1 and 2. And again, we’re just going to skim, just to show you the terminology. Genesis chapter 1, all the way through here the term is "God." All right, let’s go all the way back to verse 1.

"In the beginning God created heaven and earth." But now you see in the original Hebrew, the term here for God is what? Elohim. And Elohim is a plural Hebrew word. Not singular. It’s plural. In fact, whenever you’re reading your Old Testament and it speaks of pagan gods, plural, what do you suppose the word is? Well it’s elohim, but in small letters; e-l-o-h-i-m is translated gods, plural, small ‘g’. But with a capitalization Elohim is "God" in a plurality.

Now keep that up there in your brain for a little bit. Elohim in Genesis 1:1 is a plurality God. A God in three Persons. All right, and we find that all the way through chapter 1. But, now when you come into chapter 2 and you come down to verse 4, for the first time you’ve got a change in that term. It’s not just God, it’s what? "LORD God." Now what are we talking about? We’re talking about the I AM God. We’re talking about the Jehovah God. Now Who in the world is the I AM God? Who is the Jehovah God? Who is capital LORD of the Old Testament?

Well for that answer, let’s now jump up to John’s Gospel, chapter 8. I hope I’m still holding this all together. Here we have Jesus in His earthly ministry. And He’s being confronted by the Pharisees. They’re accusing Him of everything but the truth. They’re accusing Him of being a demon, primarily. Now we’re going to take this very slowly if I can. I have a hard time going slow. But, I’m going to try. I want you to see now how that all of this fits without contradiction. There’s no contradiction even though it sounds like it.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. (demon) Abraham is dead, and the prophets; (they’re dead.) and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53. Art you greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54. Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55. Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad."

Now again, I think you can go right back to one I alluded to back in Genesis 18 where the three men came down the path and Abraham ran with hospitality and killed the fatted calf and served up a beef supper. Two of them were angels and went on to Sodom, but one was the LORD, and so he conversed with Him. You know the conversation – if there’s fifty in Sodom will you spare it? Yes, if there’s fifty. If there’s forty? Thirty? Twenty? You know the conversation and then it says the LORD went up from him.

All right, now I’m sure that this is one of the times that Jesus is referring to. Yes Abraham knew Who I am. Abraham conversed with me. Verse 57.

"Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, (Abraham’s two thousand years ago) and hast thou seen Abraham?" Now look at Jesus’ answer. And this is the crux of the whole matter.

"Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, (what?) I Am.’" He’s the Eternal I AM. Abraham, two thousand years back was just nothing but an eyelash flick so far as Christ was concerned.

All right, so what have we got in all this? Now I guess the best way is to put it on the board like we did years ago, I think, in some of our earlier programs - and that is, I like to use a circle. And this is the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now let’s use Scripture. Go back with me to Acts chapter 2 verse 22. Now I imagine some of you are wondering what this has got to do with all this? Well hopefully, we can pull it all together.

"Ye men of Israel, (now this is Peter speaking on the Day of Pentecost) hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, (that’s His name. Don’t forget that) a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:" Who did it? God did. See that? God did. But it was Jesus of Nazareth Who performed it. Right? Now look at verse 23.

"Him, (this Jesus of Nazareth) being delivered (that is up for crucifixion) by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:"

All right, now while you’re in Acts anyway, go on ahead a little bit to Colossians chapter 2, and again we have to read verse 8 in order to understand fully verse 9. Colossians chapter 2 verse 8, where Paul gives the warning:

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (that’s the word we have to get. "Christ.") 9. For in him (Who? Christ) dwelleth all the fullness of the (what?) Godhead bodily." Now what’s the Godhead? Well, my circle here on the board. Here’s the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. That’s God! Back in Genesis 1:1 that’s Elohim. That’s the composite of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

All right, now according to Acts the Godhead counseled and agreed that they would bring about creation. Now you’ve got to remember that before something was created, there was what? Nothing. Just God. And then when the Creator began, of course, that puts things in motion. All right, so when the Godhead agreed that they would bring about creation, in that agreement to create and set everything in motion was already the Plan of Redemption, the cross. That’s what Peter is saying, that according to the foreknowledge of God, He went to the cross. God wasn’t caught by surprise. It was all predetermined.

So what we have to understand then is that when the Triune Godhead decided to set things in motion, it was delegated to the Son. And He then, became the One Who actually called in Creation. He became the Creator, even though the whole Godhead is involved. The Holy Spirit was there. The Father’s involved. But the Son is the One Who steps out of that Invisible Godhead and becomes visible. And that’s why I can show you all these verses where the LORD appeared to these various people and then, of course, miracle of miracles, He appeared at Bethlehem, born of the virgin Mary. All the same Person of the Godhead, see?

And now I’m going to take you to a verse back in I Corinthians chapter 15, and we’re talking about this same Person of the Godhead. I’m always using this chapter to show the Gospel of our salvation with these first four verses. And we’ll just look at all of them. We’ve got time enough. I’m getting so close to the end of the New Testament anyway, I might as well slow down a little, because I won’t know where to go next. But, whatever, we’re going to keep producing these lessons. People are getting a little worried - what am I going to do now when we get past Jude and Revelation? Well, we hope the Lord comes before then, but if not, we’re going to find someplace. We’re going to stay on the air. Don’t worry about that.

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein you stand; 2. By which (that is this Gospel of salvation) also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. (now here comes the Gospel of salvation we must believe in our hearts for us today) 3. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 4. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:"

All right, now here’s the part I wanted you to see that connects with what we’ve been looking at. It’s the Son Who stepped out of that invisible Godhead and became visible.

"And that he was seen of Cephas, (Peter, after the resurrection) then of the twelve:" In other words, the whole group of the disciples, not counting Judas.

"After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep." (died) In other words, Paul is writing this probably around AD 58 – 59, which means that most of those people who witnessed the resurrection were now getting up in years but they were still living. It was still in their lifetime. And so Paul says, most of these people who saw His resurrected body, most of them were still living, "But some (of course) have died." Then verse 7.

"After that, he was seen of James; (the one who writes the letter of James at the back of our New Testament) then of all the apostles. 8. And last of all he was seen of me (Paul) also, as one born out of due time."

All right, so what am I trying to show? That it was the Son - stepped out of the invisible Godhead and became visible. I think we’ve got just enough time, so turn quickly to Colossians chapter 1, and let’s drop down to verse 15, where the pronoun "Who" of course is modified by the word "Son" up in verse 13, so we’re speaking of the Son again. Christ. Jesus of Nazareth.

"Who is the image (something that you can see and touch) of the (what?) invisible God,.…" See? He is the image of this invisible Godhead, Elohim, of which John was speaking back here in verse 11 that "no man has seen." No man has ever seen the Godhead. Nobody. But when God the Son steps out of that Godhead - now read on here.

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:" (that is Christ) Now drop on down to 18.

Again, we want to thank you for you letters, your prayers, and your financial help. I was just explaining to our visitor from Florida who asked, "Who backs you? Who helps you pay the bills?" The Lord does! Everything comes in just as we need it and whenever we feel that we’re getting ahead a little bit and we can afford to take another station on, well then, that’s when we expand. And as we expand the contributions expand with it. So, we still maintain that all the contribution money goes strictly to pay for television and radio. And then we pick up our operating expenses through our materials. But we’re just an independent Bible study. Nobody underwrites us. Nobody tells me what to teach and what I can’t teach. And if they did, I’d quit tomorrow. But we maintain our freedom with the Lord’s help.

Okay, let’s pick right up where we left off in our last lesson and that was in I John chapter 4, and we looked at verse 12. And now we’re going to go down to verse 13. Maybe in my next program, I’ll go back and review again how all of this is still tied to the Jewish program. There’s just nothing back here in these little Jewish epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude, about the Body of Christ and there is no Pauline language in here.

Now I know that may disturb a few people and they think I’m may be getting out in the fringes. But, all I ask people is, what does the Word say? If you can find one word that speaks of salvation through faith in the resurrection, the shed blood, the crucifixion; then I’ll admit that maybe I’ve been missing it. But you see it’s not in here. All of this is still dealing with the same message that Jesus and the Twelve preached; what Peter and the Eleven preached; and continues right on in the same vein without any mention of what we would call "Pauline truth." It’s just not in here. So, I’m on solid ground when I make that statement because you can’t find any salvation Scriptures that we must believe in this Church Age we’re living in. You’ve got to go to Paul’s letters for that.

All right, so now then just almost the same identical language as John’s Gospel, he goes on finishing verse 12:

"…If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he (God) hath given us of his Spirit."

Now, where in the world do we get the first real revelation of the coming of God’s Spirit into the heart of the believer? Well, John’s Gospel. And that’s where we’ll go! We’ll just go right back to his gospel. The same John, even though he’s writing this epistle several years later, yet it’s the same John. And so now we’ll jump to his Gospel of John, to chapter 14 where the Lord has just finished explaining to Philip (with the rest of them listening of course) that if you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen Who? The Father! Because the Father and the Son and the Spirit are One God, as we put it on the board. But they’re in three Persons.

All right, now we’re going to see that Jesus is going to delegate another Person of the Godhead Who will take His place when He leaves. Now the Twelve have no understanding that He’s going to be leaving. They think that things are going to continue right on and He’ll be giving them the Kingdom. They’re still looking for the Kingdom that has been prophesied ever since Genesis chapter 12. But here is the first inkling now that He’s going to leave. Jesus is still speaking there in the upper room, and He says:

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,.…" Now I think most of the translations will have that word Comforter capitalized so again it’s another name for the Holy Spirit. The Greek word if I’m not mistaken is "paraclete" – one called along side to help.

"…that he (this Comforter) may abide with you for ever; 17. (Who is it?) Even the Spirit of truth;…." The Holy Spirit. So now we have the third Person of the Trinity. God the Father. God the Son is praying that He’ll send the third Person, the Holy Spirit. All right verse 17.

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but (He says to the Eleven) ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall (future) be in you. 18. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. 19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: Because I live, you shall live also. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Now of course He’s jumping over to the time when He would be coming back and setting up the Kingdom and in the intervening years we’re going to have the crucifixion and all that, which the Twelve knew nothing of. You know I’m constantly emphasizing to people, these twelve men, I guess Judas is still with them here; these twelve men have no idea of this coming crucifixion. They are still totally unaware.

Now, in that light I always have to go back to one of my favorite portions in this line of thinking. Back to Luke 18 and while you’re looking it up I’m going to do what I rarely do. I’m just going to give you one of my past experiences. I don’t like to waste time with my own experiences because the Word of God is too important. But, I think maybe I can make a point here.

At one of my seminars back East I had been teaching for almost three hours. And I could see that one gentleman way in the back corner was getting highly exercised. I mean I could just see it. And so I stopped. It was about ten-minutes before the hour that I was going to stop anyway. It was about ten to nine and so I stopped (and this was a large crowd). This was a huge church full. And I said, "Do you have a problem?" He says, "Yes." I said, "Well what is it?" He said, "Where do you get the idea there’s more than one Gospel?" I said, "Well the Bible is full of it. There’s been many times that God gave Good News to mankind for them to believe. For example, when Noah came off the Ark, wasn’t it Good News that He had spared him from the ravages of the Flood? When He called Abram, wasn’t it Good News that God was now going to use this man in a particular way? He’d never done anything like that before. So anyway, that’s what I’d been saying." And he said, "Where do you get the idea that there’s more than one Gospel?" So I said, "Well I’ll speak with you afterwards."

So after the crowd had gone down for coffee, I went back and I said, "Now wait a minute, just stop and think. Do you think Adam and Eve were saved by believing that Jesus Christ would come in the flesh and go to a Roman cross and die for their sins and be raised from the dead like we have to do today?" You know what his answer was? "Well, they must have." I said, "They must have? How could they?’ But I said, "Okay. Let’s move on up to Abraham. Do you think that Abraham had a full understanding that God would leave the invisible Godhead and take on human flesh and at the age of 30 begin an earthly ministry that took Him to the cross, to be raised from the dead? Now do you think Abraham understood all that for his salvation?" And you know what his answer was? Same thing. "He must have." No, he didn’t - he couldn’t have. And I said, "I just quoted a verse about five minutes ago. Didn’t you hear it?" No he didn’t hear it.

And this verse is what I had just quoted about five minutes before this conversation took place, and here it is. Verse 31 of Luke 18, and I ask you in the audience; I ask you out in television; after you read these verses can you still tell me that Peter, James and the rest preached a Gospel of salvation based on something that they knew nothing of? How could they? And this tells us:

"Then he took unto him the twelve,.…" Now this is the end of His three years of earthly ministry, you’ve always got to get the setting of Scripture. Otherwise it’s hard to comprehend. We’re at the end of His three years. They are about ready to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover and the Crucifixion and He tells the Twelve:

"…Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33. And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again." Did Jesus know what was coming? Absolutely! Over the years, I’ve put it this way. He could have named the Roman soldiers that nailed Him to the cross. He could have named the soldiers that would be throwing dice for His clothes. There wasn’t anything hid from Him, He was God! All right, so He’s telling the Twelve in detail of what’s coming, but, read the next verse.

"And they (the Twelve) understood (what?) none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." What does that tell you? They didn’t know He was going to be crucified even after He’d told them. Because God supernaturally blinded them to it - they weren’t supposed to know." And so then, I remind people, did the Twelve or the Eleven or however many others you want to put in with them, Mary, Martha and all the rest, did they know He was going to be crucified? Of course not. And even after he was on that cross, and was laid in the tomb, did they even have an inkling He would be raised from the dead? Not a word. Now if you think they did, why weren’t they waiting outside the tomb and watching for Him to come out? Now they didn’t know He was going to be crucified. They didn’t know He was going to be raised from the dead. It was all totally hidden from them.

All right, so now I come back to my same question. How could these people be preaching a Gospel of Grace, like we do, with the saving message to believe "that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead," if they couldn’t even comprehend He was going to die and rise again? Well I’ll tell you what the answer to that question is; they didn’t. They didn’t preach death, burial and resurrection; they couldn’t. All they knew was Who Jesus of Nazareth really was. And Who was He? He was the Christ. The Son of God, their Messiah, and that was all the Kingdom believers had to believe for salvation.

All right, so now then, here in John’s Gospel we have first and foremost Jesus revealing Himself as the Son of God - and now He’s telling them that He’s going to be leaving them. And again they don’t know what He’s talking about. They don’t have any comprehension of a death, burial, resurrection and ascension. But He’s preparing them. The Comforter that He promised in verse 16, will be:

"Even the Spirit (capitalized) of truth; whom the world cannot receive,…." Because the Holy Spirit is of the godly Spirit and the ungodly world has no consort with it whatsoever. All right, so the world can’t understand this working of the Holy Spirit. And so:

"…the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not neither knoweth him: but (He tells the Twelve, and I always have to come back to Eleven because we know Judas is out of all this) ye know him; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. 18. I will not leave you comfortless: (I’ll not leave you without Someone to guide you) I will come to you. 19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20. At that day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, (see that?) and ye in me, and I in you." Now here we come back to typical ‘John’ language.

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." See? Now that’s typical ‘John’ language. The love of the Father. The love of the Son. The love of these Twelve men in return. All right, so the whole promise here is that God would send the Comforter, that other Person of the Godhead.

Now come all the way back to Genesis 1 because, again, the Holy Spirit was not an invention for that particular day. The Holy Spirit is just as much eternity past as God the Father and God the Son. It’s all part of that Invisible Godhead. Elohim. The Spirit, which no man ever has seen and I don’t think ever will. I don’t think anyone will ever see that Invisible Godhead. We’ll only see the manifestation of it in God the Son.

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the (what?) Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." And so you see, the Holy Spirit is already evident here at Creation. Even though God the Son spoke the Word, yet all three Persons of the Godhead are involved in Creation. You can’t take anything away from any of it.

All right, so now then, throughout the Old Testament there is not a lot of teaching concerning the work of the Holy