Chag sameach chaverim - welcome back to this fifth day of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. I usually take one day off from speaking so as to rest on seven day-long festivals and get urgent things done. Today I had to sort out some medical matters in town and donate some corpuscles in the pursuit of my health so I am rather tired, but as I promised I would share something today, I will.

Last night while in prayer I felt Yahweh was strongly leading me to John the Apostle, to his three epistles, which he wrote in his 80's, and which I taught in depth many years ago. I wasn't sure why at first and tried to avoid the old 'paths' that I have learned in the Johannine tradition over the years in case there was something new Yahweh wanted me to see. What were the priorities - the emphases - of the 'older apostle', the sole survivor who knew his end was imminent. In a way, John was the very embodiment of Sukkot (Tabernacles) itself. Here was the 'grandpa' of the Messianic Community (Church) bequeathing his last testimony to the second generation, an old man, forced by his very great age to keep things simple. Two themes overwhelming dominate everything he taught: truth and love.

Two recollections of writers of the second generation who knew John well stand out in my mind. I have no reason to doubt them, they harmonise with what John wrote - the sort of man he was - and they resonate with me when I am praying in the Ruach (Spirit). The first is a recollection of John being carried into house meetings on a chair in Ephesus with the aid of two poles, because he was too old and frail to walk. The observer noticed that on the three occasions he was present, each time he was brought in and set down in front of the congregation, he would say exactly the same thing: "My little children, love one another!" And he explained what he meant by that in his second and penultimate letter:

"I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in thje emet (truth), just as we have been commanded by the Father. But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new mitzvah (commandment), but one we have had from the beginning, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER. And this is love, that we walk according to His mitzvot (commandments); this is the mitzvah (commandment) just as you have heard it from the beginning - you must walk in it" (2 Jn.1:4-6, NRSV).

Sounds a lot like James, doesn't he? Love equals walking out the mitzvot (commandments), living the Torah lifestyle. To remind you what James said, let's read from the 2nd chapter, starting at verse 14:

"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one Elohim (God). You do well. Even the demons believe -- and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed Elohim (God), and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of Elohim (God). You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:14-26, NKJV).

All kinds of foolish debates rage between modern Christian denominations today over the faith-works issue. For John and James the brother of Yah'shua (Jesus), both apostles, this was never an issue because "faith aided [Abraham's] works and ... by the works his faith was rendered complete...You see that by works a man is justified (made a tsadiq, a righteous one) and not buy faith alone...So...faith alone, without works, is dead" (Jas.2:22,24,17, AENT).

Did you know that the root word for 'justified' in Hebrew relates to righteous action? A righteous soul is a tsadiq; righteousness is tsadeq; and to be justified is tsadaq. Cerebral belief is never enough, it has to be demonstrated - and is thereby completed - in works. That's why the demons, who believe, do not qualify, because they do works of evil, not righteousness. Demons hate, true believers love and demonstrate love by their works of righteousness. John and James both taught this doctrine with great clarity.

Which brings me to another incident recorded by the second generation of faithful talmidim (disciples) of John who reports that John was being carried in his chair to the Roman bath in Ephesus where he bathed once a week. As he was arriving he saw Cerinthus, a prominent gnostic heretic who was just climbing into the public bath, and cried out to his pole-bearers to get him out of there as quickly as possible as he did not wish to be anywhere near such a false teacher. So he missed bathing for another week just to avoid this man.

Now there is considerable evidence that the first and seconds letter of John were purposefully composed as a refutation of the teachings of Cerinthus as this man was spreading a false gospel known as the Gospel of Cerinthus and Carpocrates. According to the 4th century apologist Epiphanius, this was none other than the false Gospel of the Ebionites, but it is possible he has misidentified it. I don't want to get into either of these false gospels this evening as it would require a lot more time and I don't feel up to that right now. You already know a lot about Gnosticism anyway, as I have taught you a lot about that over the years, and you will remember that these early Gnostics denied that the Creator created the physical world. Both these false gospels denied the Virgin Birth. I've also mentioned the Carpocratians to you several times over the years, and most recently in June when we were talking about the Lost Agapé Feast.

What particularly struck me was the vigour with which the undisputed 'apostle of love' reacted with to the main gnostic heretic of the day who was practically his neighbour. Gnosticism then, as now, turns the gospel on its head, and it seems these unscrupulous fake Christians were prepared to mutilate the gospels written by Matthew and Mark written in the 50's. Do you remember the different endings of the Gospel of Mark? It seems Cerinthus may have used a truncated version of the Gospel of Mark and made modifications to it to bring it in line with his own false teachings. A more recent example of such tampering is to be found in the Gospel of the Holy Twelve which is the fake gospel used by modern so-called 'Essene Christians. In this fale gospel, channeled by demons, the Essene 'Jesus' teaches vegetarianism, reincarnation and other New Age doctrines.

The apostle John's strong reaction is therefore understandable. As a very old and infirm man he did not, presumably, feel strong enough to take Cerinthus head-on in a public bath so he just avoided him like the plague. The gnostic cults attracted great numbers of people, not least because some of the groups were sexually promiscuous. They had infilitrated congregations of the true believers and so warnings are to be found in all of John's writings, all of which were written much later than the rest of the New Testament books. We face a similar onslaught today and part of the purity and wholeness of Sukkot (Tabernacles), and specifically a qualification to receive its anointing, demands that every last trace of gnosticism is cut out of the Body of Messiah like a cancer.

I have mentioned Cerinthus' hostility to the physical world which like all gnostic he believed was made by a fallen being. One thing that characterised all the later Gnostics (like Marcion of Sinope) was their hostility to the Tanakh or Old Testament - the Hebrew Scriptures. What made Cerinthus doubly dangerous was that he did not reject the Tanakh (Old Testament). What he did do, though, was deny that the Elohim (God) of the Old Testament made the physical world and that really started a chain of ever widening heresy that progressively put a wedge between the Father and the Son, and between Grace and Torah.

But I suspect the teaching of Cerinthus that galled John the Apostle the most was his teaching that there was a difference between Yah'shua (Jesus) and the Messiah (Christ) along with his denial of the Virgin Birth. He taught that 'Christ', in the form of a dove, descended upon the man 'Jesus', the biological son of Joseph and Mary, at His baptism. Not only that, but the 'Christ' left 'Jesus' at His crucifixion. And the heresies went on and on, totally perverting the true Besorah (Gospel).

Another one I should briefly mention was that he taught that in order to be saved, you had to obey the Mosaic Law, which is what we call legalism. James and John explain the true relationship between Grace and Law, with Paul in his writings emphasising the importance of Grace. Cerinthus taught circumcision, like the Rabbinical or Talmudic Judaisers, as necessary to salvation. Paul corrected that particular error early on, pointing out that in the New Covenant it had no religious value anymore.

Enough of Cerinthus. But you get the picture as to what John was fighting against. We, like John, have to contend with heresy all the time, which is why doctrine figures heavily in our witness. We have to get gnostic ideas out of Christian and Messianic teaching. Later Gnostics taught 'hyper-grace', not unlike the Calvinists, but that's another story we won't tackle today.

True doctrine, though, in the absence of love, is stillborn, and that is why John said over and over to the qodeshim (saints) in Ephesus, "My little children, love one another." We, too, must do the same abd practice what we preach.

Have a blessed evening! Amen.