You know, I can't help think as I, you know, mentioned how the Lord blesses us in the tithing of our income to God, and I can't help but think of the war right now by the government. You wouldn't realize this. Did you know that there are forty cases now before the Supreme Court to take the churches off your giving off taxes? In other words, you would have nothing. What you give to the Lord would not be allowed as any deductions or anything. Forty cases, lest you think there's one person there. The new tax laws, which will be put in shortly, are going to require of the Church's, within a short time, financial report every year to the government. Never before done. Number two, within a few years that the Church be required to make out a W-2 form or a form stating what you gave. That'll be within a few years. This is just the beginning, just the beginning. For instance, now you, you know, sometimes we think of the Roman Catholic Church, see, in this area. Now the Roman Catholic Church, it's true, the Benedictine brothers had to pay four million dollars in taxes. Did you realize that? On their business? That's what the government did when they fined them. It was in the paper the other day that one of the Protestant sectarian groups owns 750,000 acres of Florida property. Worth millions upon millions of dollars. One sectarian group owns the Burlington Mills, the largest mill in the world. This is all going to be stopped like that. competition. One church owns hotels all over the world. And you're going to see more and more that the church—I have thought about this very seriously, and I have finally come to this conclusion. I believe, of course, I think you know from my preaching, I believe that any church in business should be taxed. Let me make that clear. No church should be in business. It should be taxed. No unfair competition for anybody. Any church that gets away from taxes is unfair competition to every other business. And the churches have been doing some very wicked things. They buy a business from a group of men where the business isn't prospering properly, take the business, lease it back to the men as the managers of the business, but now it's all taxes. I believe that has to be stopped very definitely. But I am convinced that if we are taxed, it will join us tighter together as Christians than ever before. will bind us together. It is the suffering church, the suffering church, you see, as our brother Andrew said last week. We can't understand, he said. He spoke to me at dinner time. He said, you can't possibly understand in these United States what it means to be under the pressure and persecution as it does in Europe. in Russia in the churches behind the Iron Curtain. He says, it's impossible for you to understand it. Too luxury-minded, too much. You know, we can talk about our affluent society. But beloved, the church can be coming, as he said last week, under great persecution. Then we'll be shown who are the real believers. May I tell you this, there are seven churches in my group on Long Island without pastors, and there are no takers of the pastorate. There are two who are in financially bad condition considering closing. When men are called to this area of the world, they take one look. And they call Eastern United States, Northeastern, the refrigerator of the world spiritually. And they'd rather stay someplace else than get involved here. Now, we have a job. This is a great missionary field, isn't it? Great missionary field. All you have to do is go out on visitation with our men. You'll know what a mission field it is. And so I'm thankful that as a church, we stand fast for what we believe and pray that God will use us right here as a missionary church in this area of the world. There are two churches that I know of where there are complete divisions in the congregation, where one congregation nearly totally wants to come to this church. These are shocking things, things that I don't even like to think about, but spiritual schisms, if I can say that, in the church. There's one whole church that's almost thinking of selling their buildings and all of the other things. Where they would go, I don't know. But pray much, because conditions are not improving in these last days. Now, just before we come to the Lord's table this morning, if you would turn with me over to Jude, I'd like to just read the portion about those who are twice dead again. A few weeks ago when we were talking about this, We had a little bit to say about it. There is much more to be said. But beginning at the 12th verse, dealing with the type people who many times the world calls hypocrites. You know, if there were less hypocrites in the church, I'd go to it. And unfortunately, this is true. As we said in the portion we read this morning, that we're not only to have Christ the Savior, but to walk in Him, because our walk is in the world. And the world is willing to listen about your faith, providing your life is in accord with your faith. They're not willing to listen to you if your life and your reputation and the area you live in and the neighborhood is of such a character that they could hardly believe anything you have to say. And so there has to be that walk with Jesus Christ. Now, Jude here is making sure we understand that in our fellowship and even at the table as we come this morning, there's the possibility that there will be those who will really be spots there. There's the possibility that there are those who have come in unawares, that's what he says, false teachers. They're yearning for some place where they can expound their doctrines. May I make this clear? They're looking for a sounding board. We hear this in the world all the time, don't we? About using the United Nations as a sounding board. We hear about the communists using it as a sounding board for propaganda. I suppose we do the same in our side too. becomes a sounding board. And so there are those who come within the fellowship of the Church, and as you know, there are communist preachers, there are card-holding communists who are both in the Catholic Church and in the Protestant Church today. It's well known, it's known by the Catholic hierarchy, it's known also amongst the Protestants. but they desire a place where they may expound what they believe, that somehow they will come into the fellowship unawares. That's what we're told all the time. In the fourth verse it says, certain men have crept in unawares. Hard to discern them. It will take a very careful discernment to watch these men, these women. may come into the fellowship and cause confusion. Thus I think we have to be terribly careful. The Scripture says, lay hands quickly on no man. Somebody comes into the fellowship and seems to be rather a wonderful Christian, because all of the languages I've told you, it's easy to learn the language of the Christian without having the Spirit. This is where the great difficulty comes. So God says to you, don't you lay hands quickly on any man. And then the scripture says, Jesus trusted himself to no man because he knew what man was. And so we're to be terribly careful that we do not lay hands quickly upon any man. They come in unawares. They sit at their spots, it says, in your feasts of love when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. They have no fear. They have a job to do. It's to confuse the fellowship. It's to confuse the people of God. It's to bring into the fellowship the kind of teaching that can be damning finally. Those of you who went to churches possibly years ago, I don't know where you went, but some of you by your age, I would judge that you have been in maybe not just Franklin Avenue. If you were here, you'd only be here, this is our 20th anniversary coming up next July, so you couldn't be here more than 20 years. But many of you are a lot older than that, newer in other fellowships. And you know what I mean when I say that even those fellowships you are in, you may have remembered right now some blessed and great preachers of the Word of God who stood in pulpits and proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ. Those same pulpits are now occupied by unbelieving preachers or preachers who have no longer any message for God. You can pick them out. Terrible tragedy develops. And so, there must be great care in this area. Last Wednesday, was it? No, a week ago Wednesday, two young men came to our prayer meeting. Many of you remember them. They sat in the prayer meeting. I knew them. No one else knew them at that moment, but I knew who they were. because they had been in my study for an hour and a half. They were the two young men from the Mormon church sent to this area. They take in Nassau and Suffolk County to go from house to house to house and talk to people about the Book of Mormon, which is as big as the Bible, all by itself. and to preach the gospel of works. The same thing as the Judaizers of old. Yes, Christ is Savior, but you have to obey the law to be saved. Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believes. The law has no means of salvation. But these two young fellows came in and sat down, and I had hoped that they would wait and talk again, but they even left before prayer. They got out just as quickly as possible. It would amaze you to know how the different groups, no matter who they are, the false sectarian groups that are proclaiming their doctrines and infiltrating many times into the church, seeking to get in, to get a following, to get someone to listen to them. And whether it's Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormonism or any of the other of the false sectarian groups, we have to be so careful. As I've mentioned to you time and again, I have to fine-tooth comb our library downstairs for the books that get into it. Last week I picked out another Jehovah's Witness book. Who comes? I don't know. Strangers walk in and just go down and take it and insert it. And so there is this great conflict. These who come in and the spots in your feast that just because we come to the table and people partake of it doesn't mean they're one body with us in Jesus Christ. You must discern by what they say. You have to be so careful. And may I say this, beloved, to make this very clear, the average Christian, and I dread saying it honestly in my breast, the average Christian is no match for Jehovah's Witness or the Mormon. The average Christian I'm not talking to the one who's well-versed in the Scripture, understands the Scripture, understands the gospel, has the words of life, and knows what Mormonism is, and knows what Jehovah's Witness is. The average Christian cannot stand because they are not well-versed in the Word of God that they might be able to stand when people come in with their whole talk so perfectly planned and lined out, and they come in to you unawares. You don't expect it, and you invite them into your home. And I want to tell you, very few Christians can stand and give a good witness for that hope which is within them, doctrinally from the scriptures. There has to be a tremendous care in our hearts about how careful we are. How my heart breaks sometimes when I hear of somebody who's gone off the deep end concerning these things. May I make clear, beloved, the church is not an open forum. It's not an open forum for opinions, but it's a proclaiming place for the gospel of Jesus Christ, and anything less than that is not to be allowed. Paul says, allow no doubtful disputations to occur amongst you. People may wonder sometimes why I'm very clear on that point, very distinct on that point, but I want to make sure that you understand I wouldn't invite a Jehovah's Witness in my house and never have. I'll talk to him outside if he wants to. They usually won't talk to me more than two or three minutes. All I do is stick to one thing, the divinity of Jesus Christ, that's all. That's all you have to hold to. They say he was a perfect creation, but not the divinely born Son of God. So you merely hold to the one point. They want to get you off that point, but you keep holding to it. He's the divinely born Son of God. But Paul makes clear we're not to have doubtful disputations with people. We are a proclaiming station. for the gospel of Jesus Christ, not an open forum for opinions of people. John makes it clear in his second epistle. He says in the tenth verse, if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house. May I repeat that? This is the Word of God. You may have thought that your place was to invite them in. God's making sure that you understand that these people come and they're the very emissaries of whom he's warned you time and time again. They will come in unawares to you, bringing damnable heresies and doctrines. And your children will be contaminated. Their little minds not able to possibly grasp it. Not only that, but you also. He warns you. And this is God's word most clearly. Invite them not. Do not receive them into your house. And boy, I love this one. And don't you dare bid them God's speed. Some people tell me, you know, we had Jehovah's Witness in, so we just said, the Lord bless you. I said, well, you didn't read the Word of God. The Word of God says, don't you dare give God's blessing to them, and don't you dare invite them into the house. Why does God do this? He knows us. He knows us. He's what... Listen, we're protected by the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you protect your children? Isn't this your desire? To protect your children? And he says, he that biddeth him, notice this, for he that biddeth him God's speed, boy, I'd read this, listen what it says, is partaker of his evil deeds. Have you been doing that, huh? Well, God bless you, brother. Number one, don't bless him, and number two, he's not your brother. So what are you saying, God bless you, brother, for? He can't be a brother unless he has faith in the Son of God and has received the new nature, which comes only from Jesus Christ our Lord, the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost, which means infinite, absolute, holy, unmovable faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And so we're not to so quickly and so glibly say, Godspeed. You're to protect your family. I'm so thankful for that. I'm glad. You know, preacher or no, I never invited a Jehovah's Witness in my living room in my whole lifetime. Oh, I've talked to them, but as I said, they only need about two or three minutes with you holding to the divinity of Jesus, and they—well, some of you have had them, invited them in the house, and you come to me and say, boy, they went out and slammed the door on me. Sure they will. because you held to the divinity of your Savior as the very Son of God, and not some perfect creation. They say He's a perfect creation just like all men. Well, He's not the Son of God, then, and He's not the one whose blood could redeem me from sin. He suffered death for every man that He might bring me to God. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself by the blood of His cross. I and my Father are one. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. That's Jesus speaking. You know, I'll never forget. Oh, I guess it was about four, five years ago, probably. I'll never forget Fred Benton coming in to me. Where's Fred? You're dead. Talking to me. He said, you know, he said, we've had an amazing thing happening over at our house. And I said, what? He said, well, the man next door, he said, you know, do you ever have birds make nests around your house, huh? Well, we, Alice and I right now have birds who've made nests in our air conditioner right outside in the morning at five o'clock or five, when dawn, you ought to hear, you know? You can hear those little birdlings, you know, and they're chirping away and the flapping of the wings and all. Fred Sr. said, he says, it's amazing. And at the moment, he wasn't thinking of anything spiritual at all as he spoke to me. As spiritual as Fred's father is, this was just something that was amazing to him. He said, you know, the man next door to me, the birds, he said, had a bird's nest up in the gutter. So he went up and he took the bird nest and lo and behold, out of nowhere, The birds came, and he was all blood when he came down, because the mother went up, pecked him, hit him in the head all over, and the blood was running down his head. Why? Because the children were touched. The children were touched. Now, I don't know what God's put in your heart as a mother and father, but if the birds of the field know how to protect their little children, beloved, how much more shall we protect our children and love them, that as they grow and as they become teenagers, it won't be a matter anymore of us trying to speak to them because what we haven't done before, they're seven. It's hard to do after they're seven. Now, psychiatrists say four. I didn't realize it until I read the paper, and it says it's four years of age, not seven. The Roman church had said, give me children until they're seven. Communism has stolen. Communism says in their manifesto, give me the children till they're seven. I don't care what you do with them after. But now psychiatrists say it's four years of age. What you pour into the heart of your child of love and tenderness and compassion and the things of Christ and pray with them and give them that whole lifetime is going to be affected that way. Do you feel like those little birds up there? That's how I felt. I was thankful when Fred told me. I said, Fred, that thing that happened up there should happen in every Christian mother and father's heart. Lord, by your grace, as my children are little, help me to give them that which is life eternal and to protect them that they be not defiled. by those who are spots in our feasts, and defilers, and false groups, and coming in. And may I never give them God's speed or God's blessing, because I know when I do it, I am a partaker of their evil deeds." I pray that's in your heart this morning. I'll talk further next week about these things. Let us pray. Father, we thank Thee for Thy precious Word, and Lord, We're mindful of the lessons that Jesus gives us through nature. He continually uses nature. He speaks of the sower and the seed. He speaks of the vine and the branches. He speaks of the fields wide unto harvest, but the labor is few. Lord, we could see that just birds and their nests and how they protect the little ones. God, apply lessons to our hearts, touch our hearts. And then for our young people who are beyond that stage where we can protect them in such a way, we pray that the Holy Spirit might so be in their hearts and their breasts be so filled with the Holy Spirit that they will stand fast through high school into college that the strength of Christ might be their portion, that they might win, and having put on the whole armor of God, be able to stand, as Paul says, against the wiles of the devil. In Christ's name we pray, amen.