The Counterfeit and the Genuine

The Counterfeit and the Genuine By Paris Reidhead* Will you turn, please, to Acts, Chapter 19. Acts the 19th Chapter, and I shall begin reading with the 13th verse, and conclude with the 20th verse. Listen carefully. Remember this is what God said. We do our best to try and share with you what we think God meant, but this is His Word: Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 14And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 15And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 16And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18And many that believed came and confessed, and shewed their deeds. 19Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Now this is a study in the counterfeit and the genuine. I am told by those that work in banks, whereas there is constantly a danger of counterfeiting and the possibility that counterfeit money should get into the banks, that they do not spend their time indoctrinating the tellers in counterfeit money, but the allow them to handle in the course of their work genuine money to such a degree and extent that when anything counterfeit comes into their hands they sense it, that there is something missing. And it is my conviction that we ought to do the same thing with truth, with the Word of God. We ought to spend so much time in the genuine that when the counterfeit comes, we recognize it by intuition or by instinct, or because of a certain flavor or spiritual odor that is associated with it. I believe furthermore that the church of Jesus Christ has though the centuries stood in constant need and dependence upon the gift of discernment. Certainly this was a gift used by the Apostle Paul, and one that was stated by the Lord that He had given to the church, and undoubtedly we are in great debt to those who through the centuries have seen. You can thank God if you see. Years ago I talked with a Pastor who said, You know when I am in the presence of Dr. Tozer1 and others it seems so clear, I can see the issue, I can see the problem, I can see the difficulty. But when I get alone in my own study, it is as though a haze settles down around my mind. How grateful we ought to be that God has given to the church through the centuries those that have seen, seers, not in the Old Testament sense alone, but in the New Testament sense. And you also ought to ask God to enable you to see, to have that insight that is given by Him that will enable you to tell what is right and wrong. Constantly you are being asked to buy ideas. They’re being peddled, they’re being promoted, they’re subtly being suggested, and many times they’re filled with error and poison, like a fish hook that if one swallowed is so difficult to dispose of. So it should be that you would be careful what you swallow. Don’t swallow everything that comes along. Test it by the Word of God, as the noble Bereans which we have seen in other studies in the Book of Acts. Now the 19th Chapter of the Book of Acts is so important, important because we find that the Lord has given to us here a comparison. For instance, notice in the 9th verse, if your Bible is still open, Paul has been three months disputing and persuading the things concerning the Kingdom of God in the synagogue, “but when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude... when they spake evil of the Lord Jesus Christ, when they had come against truth and rejected it, He could not stay there any longer. He separated himself and the disciples.” (Acts 19:9) He just was not going to compromise on something that was a fundamental as the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as “they spake evil of that way,” there was a separation, not from as much as unto a testimony that had become precious to him. 1 Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963) Pastor and Author. Christian and Missionary Alliance But we notice something else, that it was a ministry not only centered around the work of the Apostle Paul, but it was centered around the Word of God, and he “disputed daily in the school of one Tyrannus,” for two years. He was having a Bible School going on daily for two years. It was a work that was centered in the Word of God. It was a work that had as its prime purpose the glory of Jesus Christ, and its foundation the truth of God as it is in the Word. This we see was associated with an utter submission to the sovereignty of Christ in every area of life. There wasn’t any question to the one who was ruling. It was the Lord Jesus. And furthermore it was that out of this ministry where Paul is working with his own hands to support himself and others that are dependent upon him, and following his trade as a tent maker, using none of the offices for His own advancement that they took the clothes that he used to wipe his brow, the sweat clothes, and sent them to the sick to whom Paul could not come, or could not be brought to him for prayer, and they were healed. And it says, “And evil spirits went out of them.” (Acts 19:12) Now there was a by-product of the miraculous, the supernatural. But notice what there was. The centrality of Christ, the authority of the Word, the complete commitment to the Lordship of our wonderful Savior and an unwillingness to profit from the people. He was not using them for his own gain. And in this, and through this, in the most unlikely of ways without his participating in it for they took them, (he didn’t do it, he didn’t send them)... they took these handkerchiefs and sent them to those who were ill, and God honored their faith and submission to the Word and to the Lord. So here we have the genuine, here we have the work of God. Now we come to the counterfeit. And there are many ways in which this is going to be somewhat similar. You know, you have heard it said in the past, a person cannot tell the difference between his right hand and his left. Well looking at them, they are very similar, you see. They are very similar. It is just a matter of direction. It is not that they are so diverse. But it is where they are headed. This is headed in the proper direction, and this is headed away. But otherwise, same number of fingers, and so on. Can you tell the difference between your right hand and your left? Can you tell where an idea is headed? Not just how many pieces it has, and its shape and size, but how is aimed? Where is it headed? Where is it directed? and it is extremely important that you should be able to tell your right hand from your left, which direction it is headed, because many ideas are going to come across your vision which may have as much honesty as my left hand has and be headed in just as wrong a direction as my left hand is, if this is the proper direction. This is what you find here. First, notice in verse 13 that these are Jews, they are Jews. They have all of the lineage of Israel. They are descendants of Abraham. They are a part of that nation to whom was given the oracles of God. They are those that have been heirs of the promise. They’re Jews. And furthermore, we are going to find that the particular ones involved in this account are seven sons of one man, a Jew, and the chief of the priests. Here was one who was responsible for the twelve courses, one of the twelve courses in the Temple... excuse me, 24 courses. There were this number, and each of these courses would have a chief, someone in charge to see that those who were responsible were there on time, or replacement was given, so that the work of the Temple could continue. And there is nothing against Sceva, there is not anything here to indicate that he was bad at all, probably very faithful, and very earnest. And yet he had signally failed with his family. Seven sons, and all of them, because of their rebellious spirit, and their obdurate hearts, and their unresponsive minds, Jews though they are, and well related, and probably intimately acquainted with the activities of Israel and the church. They knew the language. O yes, they were acquainted with the terminology. They knew the theology. They knew the history. There isn’t any question about this. And so you are looking at these seven boys, you say, I know their father, and I know his connections, and I know the family to which they belong, and I know the heritage that they have, and I know the theology in which they have been indoctrinated, I know all these things. It must be good what they are doing. But wait. Let’s look at it a little further. These are things that can be very valuable. You would have said somewhat the same thing about Paul, that when Paul was in this state, and only in this, he spoke of himself as the chief of sinners. So let’s not accept good connections. Let’s not accept approval. Let’s not accept an acquaintance with the terminology. Let’s not accept an understanding of the theology. Let’s see where it’s headed. Let’s see the direction. Let’s see what they are doing with what they had. Now, obviously, people were in trouble then as they are in trouble now. There were demons that possessed people then, as they possess them now. There were sicknesses then as there are now, probably far more than the returns of the percentage that we have at present. And thus there was always the concern, How can I get over this sickness, how can I be freed from this demon power that possesses me? Jews being the heirs of the promises, and having the Scripture, could turn this to their profit, they could twist it just a little. Now there were witch doctors, there were priests of the temples to the Roman and Grecian deity, there was all the necromancy and magic that has been associated with the control of people by Satan down across the centuries. But can’t you see how successful it would be if someone who knows all the theology and all the terminology, and has the best connections can somehow work it in so that it is to... what... gain a profit. And so here is what you have. These are certain Jews who are exorcists. That is they are going about, wandering from fair to fair, and market to market, and minstrel to minstrel, and finding people who say, Well you are Jews, you are devout and earnest, you fast and tithe and pray, why certainly those words you call, those amulets that you sell, those potions that you prepare, those names that you pronounce, will have more power. And so here is one who is already associated with the best that has come along thus far, with that which was revealed in the Old Testament. But either your concern for success is so pressing, so driving, that they are willing to use any, and every method, which will further their trade. What’s their trade? Their trade is to get money from people to ostensibly have them delivered from demons, and sicknesses. They are in business, in other words. So, coming into Ephesus, learning about the ministry of Paul, they say, Why this is wonderful, Here is one of our own. Here is a Jew, Jesus. He is Lord, certainly. We are prepared for that. And thus they incorporate the Name of Jesus into their magical formula. It is right here, right in this very point where we have had one of the most remarkable statements made in the New Testament concerning the supernatural as though the Lord is saying to us, Now watch. Watch. Where there is the genuine, there is often the counterfeit. Do not let this frighten you from the genuine, but by the same token do not let your eyes be put out and blinders be put on. See, discern, observe, and know. What do we discover then? The testimony is that God was so concerned about His Name that the demons were enraged, and turned upon these boys, and put them to flight, and beat them, and even the devils were prepared in this case to contribute to the glory of Christ. God was turning the wrath of hell to the glory of God’s Son. But unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that way. It doesn’t always happen that the pretenders and perjurers are put to flight. Sometimes the people of God are put to flight, unfortunately: Because they haven’t been able to see the difference between their right hand and their left. Now the first thing that you have got to recognize in all the religious views and attitudes, and presentations that come over the radio, and by literature, is that if they’re successful counterfeits they’re going to have to have a great many characteristics similar to the genuine. A couple of years ago some well-meaning friend gave one of my younger children a box of this stage or play money. You have seen it, you know. You get rich for 25¢. You have thousand dollar bills, and 5 hundred dollar bills, and hundred dollar bills, and when I came home one evening somehow they had been spread around on the floor, and I said, If anyone had been passing and looked in and seen our floor littered with bills, 500, 1000, 100, 10’s, 20’s, oh just like snow on the living room rug, they might have been tempted to have broken in, and gathered it up. Of course, one look at it was sufficient to let anyone that was observing it all realize that it was nothing but a child’s play thing, and did not endanger our currency at all, because it was so grotesque. It was not even a good attempt at counterfeiting; it wasn’t intended to be a counterfeit; just a toy, a plaything. Well, if the enemy is going to somehow injure and hurt the cause of Christ, there has to be a similarity between the genuine and the counterfeit. There must be. It is imperative that there be a great similarity. Therefore, you are going to expect to find two kinds of error. The one is a complete disavowal of the cardinal doctrines of the Bible, an announcement in the sect or cult, whatever it is that the Bible isn’t the Word of God, and Jesus Christ isn’t the Son of God. You can tell about half of all of the spurious religious systems that call themselves Christian or in some sense Christian by this, Is the Bible the Word of God? Who is Jesus Christ? Whenever anyone comes to our door to sell literature, we always say, Now wait a minute. Before I listen to your sales talk I want to know one question, Who is Jesus Christ? Whose Son is He? And this is the touchstone. They’ll hammer, and they stutter, and they will hem and they will haw, and they will do everything until finally you actually pin them down, Is Jesus Christ God come in the flesh? And the answer will be, No, or some other muttering, because the whole system is built on a disavowal of the nature and work of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the authority of His Word. This is easier to detect. The other kind of counterfeit is going to be a counterfeit which says, O yes, Jesus Christ is God. There is no question about that. This is the Lord Jesus, “Jesus whom Paul preaches,” completely accepting orthodoxy, but here is the touchstone, without submitting to the personal authority, and sovereignty of Christ in their lives, not submitting to the authority of the Word. (Acts 19:13) It is one thing to say, Yes, He is Lord. But our wonderful Savior recognized this, and so He declared, “Not everyone that saith unto Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say unto Me in that day Lord, didn’t we cast out devils in Your Name? Didn’t we prophecy in Your Name. And I will say unto them from within, Away with you. I never knew you.” (Matt. 7:21-23) Now what was the problem? Was the prophecy wrong? No. Was the demon exorcism wrong? No. What was wrong? They had said that He was Lord without submitting to His sovereignty in their lives. They had accepted a tentative doctrine, they had accepted as a passive history, Jesus Christ is Lord; but they have not committed themselves to His Person. And thus the test of orthodoxy isn’t, Does one know how to use the Name of Christ, but do they in heart submit to His sovereignty, the sovereignty of His Word, do they in life submit to His authority? Is it a question of, “Thus saith the Lord,” or Is there a sense in which lip service is given to His Lordship and clever means by which one can escape from the obligation to His Word. This is the first thing. They said, “Jesus whom Paul preacheth.” They knew well how to use His Name. But they weren’t prepared to submit to His Person. Then you will find another test, and that is the ability to adjust to all companies. For here were those that could go with the pagans, they could go with the idolaters, the sons of Sceva were at home in Jerusalem in their father’s house, they knew how to converse with the Pharisees, they were quite prepared to be friendly with the Sadducees, they knew how to say Shiboleth, whether it was pronounced “sh” or “si” they were quite prepared to pronounce it to suit the demands of the occasion. They in other words were at home in all companies. I believe that this is a test that you can apply. For you will discover when the Spirit of God is leading, when there is any attack on the Person and work of Christ, those that are led by the Spirit of God cannot stay in infinite union and fellowship with those who are attacking the wonderful Lord Jesus. “The Spirit of God will not allow any in His Presence to call Jesus accursed,” and this becomes a test, that there is a commitment to the truth concerning the Deity of Christ, the fact that He is eternal God, “come in the flesh and dwelt among us,” and we are to stand on this as the foundation of our fellowship. (II Cor. 12:3; John 1:14) There is a 3rd test that you can apply. Paul was concerned about the sick, but he is realizing that God has told him to see that a church is established. And therefore he has to spend days, every day for two years teaching the Word, in order that there can be established in this key city a well taught people. And incidentally there are those that have been healed by His hands as God has led and directed that he can do nothing of himself, and those that have been healed by the handkerchiefs. But his primary burden and his primary concern is not the healing of the body, but the glorifying of the Lord Jesus Christ through that which He wants done, and He wants it done through the Church. On the other hand, we discover that the sons of Sceva are primarily concerned with capitalizing on human need and suffering. They are concerned particularly about getting the sick and those that are demon possessed to them so that they can use them to promote their own trade and their own interests. This I say is a factor, Where the Spirit of God is in control, there is the balance of truth, and it includes the testimony of the sufficiency of Christ for the Body. I am just as opposed to any presentation of the message of the Word that ignores or rejects this as I am one that capitalizes on it. I feel exactly the way Dr. Simpson2 did 70 years ago when Mr. D. said, Let us go on the road together, Simpson, and we’ll have healing campaigns. And Dr. Simpson said, “No, God put four wheels on my chariot and I won’t make a unicycle out of it and ride on just one of them.” Now I agree with that completely. It is there, but it is not to be mistaken for a capitalizing on human need and human suffering as though the whole concern of Christ is simply this. This is part. But the sons of Sceva are particularly addressing themselves to this aspect of peoples’ need, forgetting the fact that they have inner needs and spiritual needs, and that God has so much 2 Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843-1919) founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance He wants to do if they were concerned and today as well, and capitalize on this one aspect. The obvious. The body twisted is so obvious. The cancerous flesh so obvious, and odious. The demon possession that distorts and twists and wrests human personality to a caricature of what it ought to be is so obvious. But oh, how often it is that God is dealing with the heart, a more subtle but probably more real problems, of undisciplined spirit, and selfishness, and pride and arrogance, the warping of the mind. These are things where the Spirit of God is concerned as well as just the tissue and the bone. And so the sons of Sceva were primarily concerned about the obvious. This was their focus, and you can always, if not being critical, at least be suspicious when the primary focus comes to that which is obvious. Then there is something else about the sons of Sceva that we need to see. Even in the Name of Christ they promise more than they can produce. And this troubles me. This troubles me, because I find in the Word of God, when the Lord Jesus prayed, He healed all that came to Him. He didn’t promise more than He could produce. And He first taught them, and then He healed them. But He healed all, and I do not know the answer to that. I do not know it at all. Perhaps someday the church will know, perhaps someday I will be able better to know, but I know this that we certainly cannot promise that all that are prayed for are going to be healed. Nor can we say categorically that it is the will of God for all to be healed. We can say, however, that it is God’s will for men to prosper and be in health as their should prospers, because the Word says that. But we are still standing on the threshold of mystery. But the sons of Sceva simplify it down to black and white, one and two, right and wrong, this and that, buy and you get, you don’t get because you didn’t buy, and it isn’t that simple. It just does not... And yet this is one of the evidences of this man’s family: The inability to meet the total need, and the focus on the physical, and then to promise far more than can then be produced. Now we need to see something else here about this man. It is extremely important that you should recognize that this is probably the greatest inditement. The Sons of Sceva were prepared to use Jesus as a means rather than to exalt Him as a sublime end. I want to dwell on that for just a moment. Wherever the Spirit of God is in control, the Lord Jesus Christ becomes the end, not just the means. He is not a tool. He is not a lever. He is the glorious end of all being, and the purpose of all church, and teaching, and worship, and all that has to do with the name Christian is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and not just to use Him. We saw last Sunday night in the seven evidences of the Spirit of God’s coming that where He is in control, it is summarized by saying, “And He shall glorify Me.” (John 16:14) And we see with these men that they were prepared to use the Name Jesus, but they were not prepared to exalt Him. He wasn’t the end. He was the means. Something else was more important than Christ. And whenever I find in any religious expression that something else becomes more important than the Lord Jesus Christ then I know that it’s out of balance. It may not be wrong, but it is out of balance, because this Word puts Him on the throne, He stands upon the sea of glass, and sits upon the throne, and all the voices of all the ages glorify Him. Wherever the Spirit of God has liberty to work He is always glorifying Christ, and all other ministries, all other work, everything is to the end of exalting Christ. And this we see. This is as patently clear as anything can be. The sons of Sceva were prepared to use Christ but not to exalt Him. And thus you have to be alert. You have to be discerning. When the cup is put to your lips and you are encouraged to drink, see what is in the cup. When they say, Look, there is Jesus, Ah, but do I drink to get or to give? Do you see? Is this potion mixed in such a way that I get something from Jesus, or I bring something to Him. There is all the difference in the world. Maybe the same cup. But not the same mixture. Maybe the cup of the Word, the cup of truth, the cup of doctrine, but what’s your end. The sons of Sceva said, “Jesus whom Paul preacheth,” He is a lever, and we are going to pry you into something you want. Paul said, Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain. All glory be to the Son. The exaltation of the Lord. Here is the contrast. One using Christ, making Him the means; the other, exalting Christ, making Him the sublime end. And every ministry, every movement, everything that you test, you have to test by this, Is it for the glory of God in Jesus Christ? Something else. This may be related to what I have already said. But I want you to look at it. The sons of Sceva were more interested in phenomena than they were in the Person of the Son of God. They were more interested in what was happening than in the One whom they were seeing. And the moment that you become interested in phenomena, if it is of the Lord the phenomena ceases, very largely. I recall once pastoring in Indiana, a little country church Handon Harris, a Baptist pastor from up in northern Indiana near Chicago, came down for a two weeks’ meeting. My how the Lord blessed. The sense of God’s presence was as I have seldom known before or since. And yet you know everything that God was doing stopped that Sunday morning. You know why? Because when they, the people and myself included, went home all we talked about was the atmosphere. Did you sense the atmosphere? Did you sense? Oh you... You know we never had that revelation of the Lord’s presence again, because we had been thinking about our sin and His grace. And we had been viewing the fountain of Blood and cleansing, and God was able because our eyes were on Him to bring blessing, but we were so poorly taught and such children that no sooner did the first little mercy drop of blessing come than we began to count the drops, and God had to turn off the faucet of blessing, couldn’t come any more. You understand why. Because we got our eyes off the Lord. And this is what we have in the Word so clearly, Looking off unto Jesus. O, anything that takes your eyes away from Him has the family trait of the sons of Sceva. They were looking at phenomena rather than looking at the glorified Son. And so we see this man’s family didn’t die when these seven sons passed away. The families continue like Adam’s family. It’s with us still. And you’re going to have to bear these tests in your mind. You’re going to have to think about them again and again. Not everything that trades on orthodoxy is necessarily true. It is not enough to say, Lord, Lord; but there has be in all a submitted to the sovereignty of Christ. There’re those that have so submitted to the sovereignty of Christ find that they are not at ease or at home in company when they are with others who don’t. There is a foundation upon which the fellowship is built, the Rock Christ Jesus, upon which Rock they have fallen and been broken, and therefore everything that is religious, and everything that is nice, and everything that is attractive and restful and peaceful doesn’t pass. It has to be that they are established in this same commitment. Then we discover that we cannot capitalize on one aspect of human need and suffering. This is not right. It is there, we are concerned. Nor do we find that where the Word of God is that there is more promise than can be performed. It isn’t a panacea to meet every need. Nor do we find that we use Christ as simply a means; but rather He is the glorified end. We find that we are more interested in Him than we are in anything, any manifestation, gift or phenomena. And by these things you disassociate yourself with this man’s family that has continued down across the centuries, and you no longer are children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. But established, and settled, and strengthened, because you have eaten the meat of the Word, and drunk at the cup of truth. And therefore you are not becoming belligerently critical, going around with a hammer and tongs to fight anything that doesn’t match your particular opinion. But having eaten of that bread, and eaten of that meat, and drunk of that water, there has been that inner spiritual nourishment that enables you to say, “As for me and my house,” this we see, and we are not going to become assimilated into Sceva’s family. (Jos. 24:15) Look at it now in terms of our day and generation. Lo here, lo there. Go this way. Know that. These are the voices that you hear, the literature, and the voices that you hear on the radio, the voices that you hear one way and another, But which is the way? What is the way? Oh remember, the way is a Person. “I, said the Lord Jesus Christ, am the way.” (John 14:6) And so you know the way when He is central, when He is the end, and the means, “the alpha and the omega.” (Rev. 1:8) “I am the truth.” (John 14:6) All truth begins in Me. All truth settles in Me. All truth focuses in Me. I am the Life. And life isn’t something that I send, it is not something that I attribute, it is something I become in you. “For he that hath the Son hath Life.” (I John 5:12) I. Christianity is Christ. And a Christian is one in whom Christ is. And everything that the Spirit of God does, and everything the Word of God teaches is to reinforce this central affirmation of our Lord: “I am the Way, I am the Truth, I, said He, am the Life.” (John 14:6) Oh, see this and you have a highway marked and plain, and “the wayfaring men, though fools, need not err therein.” (Isa. 35:8) As long as the Lord Jesus is central as the way, central as the truth and central is the Life. And it all focuses to Him. Then you can walk through the Word confidently, joyously, and “know that asking for bread you will not be given a stone, nor asking for meat you will not be given a cockatrix.” (Luke 11:11) But be alert to the fact that Sceva’s seven sons have multiplied themselves, and the family is plenteous in the present. Shall we bow our hearts in prayer. I want to ask you tonight, Is “Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory?” (Col. 1:27) Is it your confidence that you have life, eternal life in Him? Is it just in what He has done, or is it in what He has become in you and to you? Is it “Christ in you the hope of glory?” Everything in Jesus, and Jesus everything? Have you seen Him? Have you come to love Him? Is He the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the altogether lovely One, the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, Fairest of Ten Thousand to your soul? Or is He just a means to an end? Just a tool? O see Him, “the way, the truth, the life.” And if you do not know Him invite Him into your heart tonight, and He will become all that we have said of Him. Perhaps for you, dear child of God, you need to ask for wisdom and discernment. Why don’t you in this silent moment, knowing that you have got to walk through a whole world of literature, a whole world of entreaty, of activity, of words, why don’t you just now in this silent moment, in obedience to the Word which says, Covet earnestly the best gifts, ask God to give you the gift of discernment, the discerning of spirits, and to give to you the gift of wisdom. Why don’t you do that so that you will not be able to tell your right hand from your left and the sons of Sceva from Paul, and the cry of your heart be, O God give to your church again these gifts so necessary if we are to be able to tell the difference between stone and bread, cockatrix and egg, serpent and meat, give to us discernment. Give to us wisdom. We do not want to become involved with Sceva’s family. We want to walk worthy of Him who has called us out of darkness into light, wisely and well. Father, of our Lord Jesus, breathe upon us now. Seal to our hearts the word we have heard. Let the meditation of it, the thought upon it, strengthen, nourish, and encourage us. Help us to realize that the touchstone is the Lord Jesus Christ, His Sovereignty in the Life of the individual, His authority in the Word; He becomes the end toward which all moves, the object of every motion of our hearts and thought. “He is the way, the truth, and the life.” Grant, our Father, that in seeing this we shall be armed and equipped to walk well, and wisely in our day and in our generation, approving things that are excellent being found without offence till the day of Christ. So establish us, so strengthen us, so meet us, as a church and as individuals, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this invitation. If you would like to have us talk personally with you, pray with you, do not leave. We are not singing and thus inviting you. The nature of the ministry is hardly that, but if you have spiritual need don’t hurry. Remain where you are; someone will come to you, or I will let you come to me, and we’ll talk and pray together. The whole purpose of this ministry is to be of help and blessing to you, as well as of glory to Christ. [Tape stops] I am so happy to have our Brother, Assistant to the Home Secretary. As we stand together I am going to ask him to lead us in closing prayer. Shall we stand. * Reference such as: Delivered at The Gospel Tabernacle Church, New York City on Sunday Evening, March 24, 1963 by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1963

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The Counterfeit and the Genuine

Paris Reidhead

Paris Reidhead (1919 - 1992)

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