Hi Pastor John,

In your message about Respect, you stated that we should not respect those who turn from the truth and that made me think of a relative of mine. He has fallen away from the truth and is backslidden, but I still love him. Is that considered as respect? I do not hold back in telling this relative that he is wrong and that he needs to turn from his ways. I really don’t know how to treat him at times, and if I see him after not having seen him for a while, I am happy, but there is definitely a distance between us now. I just hope I’m treating him the way I should.

Name Withheld

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Hi:

It sounds as if you are doing very well with this painful situation.

By “respect”, in this case, David was talking about respecting an unfaithful brother’s judgment and envying whatever earthly success they may enjoy in their sin. If we judge the matter rightly, we will not be tempted in the least to follow the example of a backslidden brother, or to any extent be influenced by him. Someone who truly loves God feels indignant when Jesus is dishonored by a person whom he has loved and blessed. A man who is unfaithful to Christ is foolish. He is neither trusted nor admired by those who truly love God. It is that attitude of heart, that depth of love for Jesus, which pleases God and brings to us His favor.

Pastor John

Greetings in the name of Jesus:

I hope this finds you well.  I received your responses to my five questions.  Thank you for sending them.  It was very revealing, and I shared your answers with the whole body here, and it touched our hearts for God’s people.

You also sent me a question about some who are said to have been filled with the Spirit before the day of Pentecost.  In particular, you mentioned the family of Zacharias the priest.

In answer, we know that no one received the holy Spirit until Jesus ascended and was glorified because John said so in his gospel (Jn. 7:39).  We also know that the New Testament did not begin until after Jesus died (Heb. 9:16-17) and that the new Testament is the Spirit entering into a heart and writing God’s will on it (Heb. 8:8-12).

So, Zacharias and his family were living in Old Testament time, which requires us to understand their “filling” as something other than a New Testament kind of being filled.  Even the prophet Micah once said, “I am full of the spirit and power of God,” but no one (except Mormons, and a few others) believes that Micah and the prophets received the baptism of the Spirit and were born again.  There obviously was a being filled with the Spirit under the Law, but if it was the infilling/baptism of the Spirit that Jesus came to suffer and die for us to have, he could have saved himself a trip, seeing it was already here.

No, the Spirit was not given to man until the day of Pentecost, after Jesus was glorified, just as John said (7:37-39).

I hope I adequately explained this.  If not, I will be happy to try again.

Your servant,

Pastor John

Hey Dad,

What “last days” is Micah referring to in 4:1?  I was wondering if it was Israel’s last days, but he speaks about the LORD establishing his house.

Thanks,
JD

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Hey, John David!

Micah 4:1-8 has to do with the thousand-year reign of Christ, when he will come back to Jerusalem and rule with his saints over the whole earth.

Pastor John

Pastor John:

According to these definitions, taken from [Merriam-Webster Dictionary], what’s wrong with calling ourselves heretics, not just so-called but in fact?

1: a dissenter from established religious dogma; especially: a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church who disavows a revealed truth

2: one who dissents from an accepted belief or doctrine: Nonconformist

BC

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The original Greek word for heretic meant a sectarian, and Paul strongly condemned such people. They promote division with their own opinions and theories.

As for “nonconformist” is concerned, by the light we have from God, we are being constantly “conformed to Christ”, as Paul said. So, that term doesn’t apply to us, either.

Lastly, I really don’t consider myself to be “a dissenting from established religious dogma”. No Christian dogma that I know of is established. Christian doctrine has been evolving since the beginning of Christianity. Many times, additions have been made to it. I believe that the truth of the gospel is the only established dogma (it will never evolve or change) and that everyone who teaches contrary to it is a heretic.

Pastor John

hey pastor john

i just decided to check emails, but while we was working on the pool deck today we started talking about jews, because we was discussing physical-born jews in the flesh. the verse that i asked myself about, over and over, is “He is not a jew who is one outwardly and that is not circumcision which is outward in the flesh.” Over and over all day today in my mind. Then something hit me. Is it possible that a jew, born in the flesh, isn’t a jew until he receives the baptism in spirit. When paul said “he is a jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit”, is that when everybody, jew and gentile, becomes a jew in God’s sight? this is what i have been thinking on all day. Every time i tried to stop thinking on it it just came back stronger

i am in no way coming against any jews. as peter told corneilius when he fell down before him, peter said get up im a man just like you.

thanks, robert

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Hi Rob:

You are thinking right. In Paul’s day, he was risking his life to teach that, and on several occasions, he was nearly killed because of it, just as Jesus told him he would suffer when he first called paul (Acts 9:16). It took great courage for Paul to stand for the truth as he did.

The same hatred is out there now, and when it is time, stubborn, rebellious children of God will lead the world to us just as Judas led the mob to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemene. May God give us grace to be faithful!

Pastor John

Pastor John:

Romans 2:16-19 confuses me. What was Paul saying?

Romans 2

12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”

R. J.

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Paul is just saying that the ancient Israelites will be judged by the law of Moses, which they had received from God, and that the Gentiles will not be judged by that law because they did not have it. However, the ancient Gentiles did have a conscience, which also was given by God, and therefore, God will judge each one of them according to whether or not his own conscience condemned him.

Pastor John

Pastor John:

I received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost in 1992. I have spoken some but not as I should. How do I receive the fullness of the Spirit?

J. N.

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Hi Sister Joyce:

There are three principal reasons for the Spirit not flowing as it should among God’s people. First, is the general condition of the body of Christ at this time in history. We are a divided, confused people, and we are all less than we could be because we are separated from one another by the conflicting doctrines and traditions of Christianity. Second, and related to the first, is that God’s people have been taught that the baptism of the holy Ghost is just something extra, an extra blessing. They do not know that the baptism of the Spirit, with the evidence of “stammering lips or other tongues” (Isa. 28:11-12) is the new birth. Thirdly, one’s personal conduct can affect your relationship with the Lord. Let it be your top priority to keep yourself morally pure and faithful in all things to Christ.

Pray for the whole body of Christ everywhere. It may be that the Lord will visit us and set us free from the things we chose instead of the unity and happiness he suffered and died for us to have.

Pastor John