Msindisi Newsletter #75

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 75. Dec 2010

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

Email: msindisi@gmail.com ,
salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: https://morielkzn.wordpress.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

Dear Friends and family,

It seems such a long time since we wrote our last newsletter and much has happened. We trust that this month’s edition will be encouraging and will glorify the Lord. In order to update you concerning the status of the missionary work we would like to assure you that the work is continuing as normal, though with some interruptions. We believe that it was the Lord who brought us here and we pray that He would keep the door open. But our lives and work are ultimately in His hands. We have thought much about the work which at first we renamed the Msindisi KwaZulu Mission. We have finally come to the agreement that the name Msindisi should be removed and now we refer to the work as simply ‘KwaZulu Mission’. The Lord may bring others to work alongside us and eventually take over from us. Also, the name Msindisi is Salvi’s Zulu name (it means the same as Salvador) and we want to keep from building a ministry named after one of us. Jesus wants us to be about building His church and not our own. Thus the Msindisi name is relegated to our personal newsletters. We will continue to keep informal, open and relational affiliations with other churches and Christians who have the same doctrinal base as we do and who are not swept away with the errors plaguing the churches at large. Our relationship and openness to them will create our accountability as we allow them to speak into our lives as they observe our work when they come to visit us or in communication with us. Ultimately our accountability is to the Lord. We also are in talks with a network of home churches in South Africa which we may come into a legal affiliation with if they are happy with us and vice versa. They also share the same views of affiliation and accountability. Please pray that the Lord guides them and us in making the right decisions as to this move. All things are in the Lord’s hand. Our local church is the Zulu church that Caleb and Salvi planted, ‘Ibandla Lendlela Eyodwa’, and the Louwsburg Bible Fellowship has become like a mini home church and the members are growing in the Lord. If anyone has any questions concerning the operation of the work, please feel free to contact us.

We have had two visits this month. The first was of our friends, Tony and Shaun from truth ministries. They were an encouragement to us and Tony was able to encourage one of the Louwsburg Fellowship members who was struggling in his walk. He and his wife have been struggling to walk in victory and have been under conviction to a deeper commitment and walk with the Lord. So when our friends Mujuru, Clayton and Abel, from Elijah Ministries, came we knew that this visit was also an appointment from the Lord. As they talked about the commitment to change Mujuru encouraged them greatly and urged us to engage in regular weekly discipleship with them aside from the small group. Mujuru had a discipleship booklet but encouraged them rather to read the whole of 1 John every day for a week and for us to meet with them personally to discuss it on a weekly basis. This has been a life changing experience for them. The husband has devoured the word of God and he now has a hunger that he never had before to read the word. We were challenged to rise up to a more pastoral role with them and to meet with the group members individually every week to encourage them in their walk. As the group is small this is not a burden. Salvi sees that this is going to be a very educational process for him and an expansion of the ministry. This last Saturday we had the husband teach us what he had learned from 1 John and it was such a precious time although we had to reassure him that we weren’t sneakily setting him up for the teaching ministry. That would be the Lord’s doing to raise him up. The idea worried him a little.

In the early part of November we did the assembly at the Care Bear crèche in Vryheid. Salvi spoke on creation and was thankful for the use of the Sunday school material that Wendy Thome, another member of Elijah, had given a while ago. What was also great was that we were able to put in a foundation that would help combat future evolutionary teaching in that God made a man and a woman in the beginning and all human beings come from them. People don’t come from monkeys. We asked the question if a person can marry a monkey and of course they said ‘no’. People come from people and monkeys come from monkeys. Salvi has been reading a very interesting book called, ‘The Signature in the Cell’ by Stephen Meyer. The fact that a precise and complex arrangement of four ‘nucleotide bases’ to create a sequence of information screams design so much so, that Meyer notes that Watson, who with Crick discerned the structure of DNA, stated that Biologists must “constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.” Romans 1:18 speaks of the wrath of God being against men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that which can be known about God is clearly evident to them through the things which God made. It was therefore a pleasure to add just a little piece of biblical foundation that God is the creator and evolution is a lie. Of course it must be the Lord who brings others to sow the gospel seed into their lives when they are older and to see them come to repentance.

Di and Kim were able to take Jabulani to buy plants for Mr Khumalo’s garden. Please keep them both in your prayers. It can only be the grace of God that keeps them from wavering. We have been encouraging them to keep in the word. Because of time taken up for discipleship and because Jabulani finds learning difficult, the reading classes have really suffered. Jabulani never completed his schooling and now he is in his 40s. In one of our reading sessions, he would remember the letter U and later on in the same session he would get it mixed up with O. In the New Year we hope to do two sessions a week with him. One for discipleship and the other for reading. But we will see how it goes. They are still coming to the Sunday services although Mr Khumalo is still having home problems that prohibit him from coming sometimes as he has to look after his father when his wife is not at home. Jabulani is looking really healthy. He has put on so much weight and the Lord has brought people to him to fix TVs, fridges or other implements which is a blessing as he does not get a government grant. Please pray that the Lord increases his work load as his soul prospers in the Lord.

We were very encouraged a couple of Sundays ago. A girl called Thabi, who used to attend Caleb and Salvi’s bible study in Khambi has been visiting the church regularly, though she now lives in Vryheid. A couple of Sundays ago Di was counseling her and she knew that she was not saved. Di led her to the Lord and since she has been showing some fruit of walking with the Lord. She is now reading the word for herself and striving to walk under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Please pray for her that she will continue to walk the walk. But we can see some change in her already and that is a blessing for us.

Di has done a couple of clinic runs this month. She also went to visit the kid’s club as our Australian friend Pam had sent presents from the children of Pilgrim fellowship for the children here. Pam has also just sent some ‘bonbons’ for them so Di will be going this Saturday to give them out. Di’s garden continues to flourish. It is such a small garden but we have had an endless supply of spinach and lettuce. The tomatoes are still to grow but too many tomato plants were planted for such a small space. We are also still waiting for the peppers to grow. We have had some good rains and that has keep the plants well watered.

We were blessed to have a couple of nights away to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. It was especially a blessing for Di to have access to electricity, water and a shower. We have started the book of Revelation in the Louwsburg bible study but we will continue the series in the New Year. This coming Tuesday night Phumulani will be bringing the teaching and the following Tuesday we will be watching a DVD produced by Jews for Jesus about holocaust survivors who came to believe in Jesus as their Messiah. Please pray for the local farmer who is Phumulani’s boss. Willem Weites is Dutch and an avowed atheist. He was involved in a serious crash which ruptured his spleen. He was rushed to a hospital in a place called Newcastle, over 100 kms from Vryheid. We are praying for his salvation and for a miracle. The last we heard was that he was stable but still in critical condition. We hope that either we, or Phumulani, would get the opportunity to witness to him though he is not open to the gospel.

Last Monday we visited some Zulu ladies and Salvi shared the gospel. He did a prophetic message concerning the times of the Jews and the fact that today is a day where God has extended His grace to the gentiles. Though the promises belong to Israel God at present takes believing Jews and believing Gentiles and makes them one people in Christ. At the end we sang the song Hallelujah Hosanna in Zulu, Pedi, Afrikaans, English and in Hebrew with the knowledge that one day it will be sung by the Jews. After we sung the ladies burst forth in spontaneous prayer, unlike our last visit to them. One lady in particular was crying and saying, “Lord, you love us, you love us, we who are people (‘abantu’ meaning the black people).” Di felt prompted to speak concerning the need to give all our lives but stayed silent as this is what she knew Salvi was saying at virtually the same time she felt prompted. We saw this as a confirmation that the Lord was working. We plan on visiting them again in the New Year and see if the Lord builds up a relationship with them and if any need to commit or recommit their lives to the Lord. But as the Lord leads.

We still enjoy the prayer meetings with Bethany Baptist Church in Vryheid on a Wednesday night. We are trying to make their Sunday evening service once a month for extra encouragement and bible teaching. Next week we will be going to Boksburg, Gauteng, to house sit for our friends Morne and Doret as we have done for the last 2 years. It will be a time for Salvi to catch up on his Bible College work, to do one of his assignments and for us to catch up with quite a number of friends around Gauteng. We hope that it won’t be too busy a time and we look forward to the fellowship. Mujuru has asked us if we would consider visiting a home church that he and a friend planted in Harare, Zimbabwe in January. If we go it will be just after we have house sat and we will go for a week. We would like Phumulani to have the opportunity of going but may have to leave that for a later time when he has a passport sorted and some time off work. If we do go to Zimbabwe it will be from the 5th of January to the 12th otherwise we will postpone the trip to later in the year. Next year we look forward to a couple of overseas people visiting us. There may possibly be a girl from the United States of America and in March our friend Jacob Meads from Di’s former home church in New Zealand, Emmanuel Congregational Church.

We just want to thank you all for your prayers and involvement in our lives and ministry here. All glory to the Lord for His salvation and grace in and through us.

Salvi and Di.

1 John Part 3
THE ANTINOMIAN ANTICHRISTS –
WE ALL HAVE AN ANOINTING FROM THE HOLY ONE.

1 John 2: 12 – 29

Why are we going through 1 John? 1 John is dealing with questions such as, how do you know that you know God? What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it possible to interpret the bible according to extra biblical visions? John is writing into a situation not too dissimilar to the liberal and the Charismatic streams within Christendom. Like the Charismatics of today there were many people who had dreams and visions of angels and spirits which would bring new revelations and this meant that these people were on a higher, untouchable plane of knowledge and the rest of the church were supposed to follow. As in Charismatic churches today the Gnostics of John’s day were full of the scandal of things such as immorality and drunkenness. These Gnostics were antinomian and because they had special access to “new revelations” and “special visions” they claimed that they could do whatever they wanted with the body, yet their soul would still be saved. Some “spirit” told them. Thus these leaders were not even saved and definitely not qualified for leadership.

Titus 1: 5 – 9

“For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion, for the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”

1 Timothy 3: 1 – 7

“It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he be able to take care of the church of God?) and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”

Some bible teachers, such as John MacArthur, believe that ministers who fall in these areas are permanently disqualified from ministry but others, such as Tim La Haye believe that a minister who falls in these areas may be restored to office after a process of restoration and repentance. It is difficult to make a stance in either case with any sense of dogmatism as this passage, nor the one in Titus, does not speak of the cases of those fallen ministers who have, over time, regained a good reputation with outsiders. It speaks of those who do not have a good reputation with outsiders at the time of office or appointment to office. But whatever the case, either immorality, or drinking too much or being quick tempered disqualify one from the ministry. And this is more so with sins such as drunkenness, immorality or adultery. It only takes one occasion of falling and being caught out and then one is left with a bad reputation which is enough to disqualify one from ministry. How can someone in the ministry preach about being morally pure or against drunkenness if they are guilty of the same things? The outsider will just point the finger and shout ‘hypocrite!’ As a former pastor of mine, David Hamilton, said concerning ones testimony; “It takes a life time to build up and only a minute to lose it.” If leaders who have fallen in these areas are disqualified (till at least a good reputation is regained with the unbelievers that surround them), how much more these Gnostic teachers should be excommunicated from the church for teaching and encouraging people to think that these things were perfectly legitimate for Christians to practice. These things are serious problems which need to be dealt with and these Gnostic teachers needed to be stopped. They boasted that they knew God in a way that other Christians could not and they were disturbing the faith of the believers who may have been left thinking, “well I guess that we do not really know God then like these guys do!”

Now in terms of baby Christians who do not know the Word and have little experience in the Christian life, we might think there would be something plausible in that claim. But John also writes to the Fathers, those who have seriously walked with the Lord for years. I do not mean those who have been ‘Christians’ for the longest period of time because it is possible to have been a ‘Christian’ for a long time and not be mature, or not be a spiritual father or mother. But I am referring to those who have actually walked with the LORD and have mined the Word time and again. Those Gnostic visionaries would claim a more direct line with God, than even these spiritual fathers because they ‘have been initiated into a more secret level of knowledge’. But the situation also resembles the Liberal arm of Christendom. And we see Gnosticism on the rise again when we look at the interest in Gnostic literature, such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas. The programs on TV like ‘The secret Jesus’ are really pushing for conservative or evangelical Christians to accept Gnostic Christianity as a valid expression of Christianity. But Gnosticism is not Christian in any way.

Gnostics in the churches were syncretistic and as I have asserted they never actually got saved. As John says 1 John 2: 19, “They came out from us but they were never really of us”. Jude says in verse 4 of his epistle, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” These people, it seems, were Gnostic before they came into the churches and remained Gnostics afterward. The same happens today. People from tribal cultures bring in Ancestral worship and mix it with the bible; people from a South African apartheid belief system bring in a derogatory view of non whites; people from New age bring in new age teaching clothed in Christian terminology; successful business people bring in mammon worship; arty people bring in experience based worship; we ourselves bring in our flesh, our love of self, our will to be in charge of our own lives… that is, unless we crucify those things and have repented. In Christ we become a new creation. Yes we still carry about this body of death, yes we still have temptations to turn back to those things but we have died to those things with Christ and we die daily. These Gnostics did not die to these things.

1 John 2: 12 – 14.

“I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

John states his motivation for writing this letter. Paul had laid a foundation in many of the churches, the church was built up and had become a great witness in the world and then these Gnostics came with their visions and dreams, with their false teaching and sensuality and started knocking holes in the walls. John here was repairing the holes in the walls. He was getting his readers back to the first things. Again it is not new stuff; it is what they have already received. And John is writing to three groups of people, little children, fathers and young men. The Greek word for little children is ‘Teknion’ and it means infants, relating to Christian converts, but the word for children in verse 13 is ‘Paidia’, meaning an infant, or a half grown boy or girl. According to one commentator, this term refers to a child who is subordinate to discipline. New borns have assurance of forgiveness of sins and that is for Christ’s name sake. Jesus is the saviour and His name is holy. There is no other greater reason for God to forgive us then for the sake of His own name.

“1Sa 12:22 For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
Ps 25:11 For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
Ps 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
Jer 14:7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.”

If there is no other reason that God will forgive us, it is the honour of God’s own name, as Jeremiah speaks, ‘even though we have no defence, (our iniquities testify against us) yet still do it only for Your name’s sake.’ God is not a liar and he preserves the honour of His name. Therefore, though others may try to rob them of that assurance, of having been ‘truly initiated’ into salvation, they should not let anyone snatch that away from them.

Of the fathers John says that they know Him who was from the beginning. Now notice that, concerning the children in v 13, it does not say the same thing exactly. It says something different. Children know the Father but the fathers know Him who was from the beginning. In other words the children know God as their father and are being trained and disciplined by Him. The children must not be made to think that they do not know God if they are learning to follow His commandments. Because they know God it means that even fathers can learn things from children too. But the fathers know God – not only as their Father, but their knowledge and experience of the Father has deepened over time, over their personal discipline and therefore they definitely should not be shaken by Gnostics with their one off visions. As Donald Guthrie says in his commentary on Hebrews “Spiritual maturity comes neither from isolated events nor from a great spiritual burst. It comes from a steady application of spiritual discipline.” They do not know a god who has just appeared in a one off vision, or a demi-god who was a created being, but they know the God who was there from the beginning and what they have to say carries more weight and authority than anything the Gnostics have to say.

A child is someone who is learning to walk the spiritual life. A young man, however, is one who has grown in strength, gone through the testing and stood. They have overcome the evil one. How? Verse 14 says the word of God abides in them. Their strength comes from the word of God. There is an amazing parallel between this verse and psalm 1. The person who does not follow the advice of the ungodly (i.e the Gnostics) and meditates on the Law of the Lord day and night, shall be like a tree. The Hebrew word for tree is ‘ets’ and means that the tree is firm and immovable. These young men are solid and have overcome the wiles and the temptations of the Devil.

1 John 2: 15 – 17.

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

Do not ‘agapate’ the world or the things in the world. Now what are the things in the world? Are we dealing with going out and enjoying a film or going to a restaurant for a meal? John explains. It is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. John does not give us a list of ‘dos and don’ts’; he gives us an understanding and expects us to hear him with an honest and open heart. We are supposed to see how this applies to the world in which we live. What about our society? There are many ways this verse can be applied, both in things that are common to everybody and in individual weaknesses.

A main one in western society is advertising and marketing. Advertising feeds on these three things. Adverts are supposed to be very pleasing on the eye and feed some desire in yourself that might compel you to buy their product. That is why we get the words luxury, silk, smooth, tempting. No one tells you, ‘Buy Cadbury’s bounty because it tastes alright because coconut tastes nice doesn’t it?’ No, they say, ‘Cadbury’s bounty, the taste of paradise’. What about Cadbury’s Milk tray? It is not ‘A box of chocolates is a great idea for a present’ but it is ‘And all because the Lady loves Cadbury’s milk tray.’ What about the corporate sector? I went to an interview for a Time Share company, who went to great lengths to tell us how they were not a time share company and then in the private interview the guy told me how much he earned last year and that he thought I had the makings of being successful. He was using the pride of life. Like these poetry competitions where your poem is so good that it has been selected to be published in their book, which they will offer to you for half price exclusively. It is the pride of life. We should not love the world because if we get caught up with it all, then the word will be choked within us, then we will not be strong, not stand the test and the Gnostics will pump us so full of flattery, pride, appealing to the senses and what feels good to the flesh. Then before we know it we will be on that slippery slide to seduction. But we must get away from a temporal mindset onto one that is set on eternity. The Hebrew concept of eternity and victory are linked together. The word for victory in Hebrew is ‘Netsach’, which in the strong’s means both ‘victory and eternity’. Man is like the grass of the field, the grass withers and the flower falls off but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And when we give the Word of God its rightful place in our lives then we gain victory.

After giving the young ones assurance, reaffirming the years of experience and obedience the elders have with the Lord and after stating the fact that the young men have overcome the evil one, John now enters the battle field with the antichrists. He calls them antichrists because the term antichrist means “replacement christ”. In the first session we saw that there is a link between deception and the return of Christ and John shows us that a sign of it being the last hour is the fact that there are many antichrists. Notice that there are antichrists before antichrist has come and so we may say that every age has its own antichrist. Antichrist is not just a person but it is a spirit, an attitude, it is sinful man trying to stay on the throne of his life. That is why the bad kings in scripture are forerunners and teach us about antichrist. Saul did not want to bow his knee to David so instead he tried to kill him because David was a threat to his kingdom. But notice what John teaches about the antichrists, they have come out from among us, but they were not of us. Where do they come from? They come out of the church and they go into the World. That is John’s view of antichrists. Therefore I do not think it is a stretch to say that the antichrist comes out of the church and into the world. It is not known at first but when this person starts to be the solution to all the world’s problems it will become apparent.

The Gnostic teaching is that the Christ spirit came upon Jesus at His baptism, and He became the Christ at that point and then left Him at His crucifixion. Modern Gnostics also believe that the Christ spirit has been on different people, i.e Buddha, Confucius etc. But notice what John says in verse 20.

1 John 2: 20

“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”

You have AN anointing, not THE anointing. Jesus is THE anointed one and he remains the one with THE anointing. We have AN anointing, which we all have, we all know. Jesus has the pre-eminence. He is THE Son of God, we are sons of God, He is THE King of kings and THE high priest, we are just kings and priests. We need the anointing, we need unction, empowerment to be witnesses that is true, but it is an anointing in a general sense, where the spirit distributes spiritual graces severally as He wills. It is not THE specific anointing in the sense of Jesus being the Anointed one. John is saying, ‘look you are all anointed, every one of you, you do not need any special initiation because you all know’. Who is the liar? But the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. These people would say, ‘Yes of course Jesus is the Christ, but so am I because I have the Christ spirit and I am one with Him. Buddha had it. You see that was not Christ on the cross when Jesus died. The Christ spirit left Jesus on the cross. Jesus was just a plain man when he died. Why else did you think he cried out ‘My God, my God’ instead of my Father. Jesus became Christ at His baptism.’ Can you see how they would wrest the scriptures to say what they wanted? In fact Origen claimed that “They bring forth works in many volumes in which offer expositions of the evangelical and apostolic writings…” Do we think that the antichrist will be ignorant of the scriptures? He will use the bible to back up his claims.

Our view of Jesus determines whether we are in Him or not. We need to abide in the teaching of scripture and not allow another Jesus to be entertained. The antichrist attitude is all around. The Gnostics are here. Did you know the Gnostics believed that God was mother and was father? Did you know that they believed that the God of the Old Testament was harsh and therefore different to the God of the New Testament? They believed the God of the Old Testament was the Jewish God but the God of the New Testament was not. I wonder if that had any thing to do with the change of attitude in the early church towards the Jewish believers. Did you know that these Gnostics, who held the New Testament God to be kind and compassionate, believed that there were different manifestations of gods both male and female? They believed in the Mother, the Father and the Son and they also called this Mother by the names of Sophia (Wisdom), Mother Earth, Jerusalem, Holy Spirit and Lord. You see to confess that Jesus is the Christ goes beyond saying the words, ‘Jesus is the Christ’. It means that the teaching should also be consistent with the profession. These people would say ‘Yes, Jesus is Christ, I believe in Jesus but He did not rise physically from the dead.’ These are the ones who say there is no resurrection of the dead in 1 Corinthians 15: 12. Therefore they deny the son and by denying the son, they deny the Father also.

We still have the same problems today and what is Paul’s answer?

1 John 2: 24 – 27

“As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”

We are told to ‘Abide’. The way to abide in Christ is to allow his teaching to abide in us. Those who do not hold to sound doctrine are not abiding in Christ. This is the claim of John. What we heard from the beginning, the Gospel, the first things we must hold onto. Yes we are to move on from milk to meat but that does not mean that we stop drinking the milk, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2: 2, like new born babies we are to crave the pure milk of the Word. The Gospel is our starting point but everything else flows out from it and is derived from it. You have the Spirit of God and He is your teacher. This does not mean that we do not have teachers in the church. It means that no person can claim that they are the only ones with spiritual insight and understanding. They do not need that kind of teacher. As God has taught us so we should abide. And notice that the Spirit and the Word go together. Remember in the first session. When the Son of man returns, will He find faith on the earth, will He find faithfulness on the earth? Will His servants have stuck by Him crying out to Him for justice or will they have turned to another for the answers? Will they wait for Jesus’ return or will they turn to their golden calf? Will they hunger for Jesus’ kingdom or will they try the short cut of antichrist’s kingdom?

1 John 2: 28

Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

Jesus kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, and the kingdom of antichrist is unrighteous. These antinomian Gnostic teachers are dangerous and should be kept out of ministry. They will lead the flock into unrighteousness, gross error and gross sin and endanger people’s salvation. Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness and does our personal and corporate doctrine teach it? Let us shed off the former things from before we were saved. Let us be sure of the forgiveness that has been given us. Let us be subordinate to God’s discipline and let us walk with the Lord. Let us face the antichrists that rise amongst us, get them out of our churches especially out of ministry from which they are disqualified and finally let us continue in God’s word.