Wellll, the next morning—eight o’clock—he didn’t show up. Welllll…don’t know about. About ten o’clock, here came two men into my office. They pulled out their wallets, say, “We’re FBI agents.” Now, I don’t meet FBI agents just every day. I’m impressed. And they said, “Have you seen this man?” Had a picture of him.

And I said, “Yeah. I saw him.”

And he said, “He’s an escaped convict.”

Now, you talk about getting my attention! If you think they got my attention, you outta think what kind of attention I got from my wife when I said “escaped convict” to her!! The best I can remember, the opening shot of the battle was, “AND YOU BROUGHT AN ESCAPED CONVICT IN THIS HOUSE WITH OUR KIDS!?! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!? I couldn’t find a good answer. She was asking the question, but I wasn’t answerin’ it!

HE could have harmed us. He could have killed us. That wasn’t a smart thing for me to do. I don’t think that’s the brightest thing that I ever did.

Now, go back to this point. Here comes a fella who…doesn’t…teach…the Truth…of God, and has practiced his routine. He is smooooth as silk in presenting what he believes. The average person—and often, the above average person—will not…be…able…to RECOGNIZE the mistake that the person is making and the doctrine that he is teaching. This fella would not come and say, “Well, Mr. ABC, I have come to lead you to deny God, and His Son, and to burn up the Bible. Now, let’s sit and let me tell you why.” You’d say, “Get outta my house, boy!!” They don’t do that. He won’t have a big sign on his head that says FALSE TEACHER. If he did, you’d catch on about as fast as I did after I had heard about this escaped convict.

What does he do? He comes in the nicest, finest way. As my mother would say, “Sugar would not melt in his mouth.” And, little by little, his way is presented, and before long, you have come to love and respect the man, and you pay less and less and less attention to what is being taught. And now, you have brought him within the circle of your home and your heart. And when you do that, you won’t be very happy if somebody points out the mistake you’ve made. Why not? For the same reason I’m not all that happy about the unwise decision I made about that convict. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know he was a convict, but NOW I can tell you that before I bring somebody home, he is going to have to pass some pretty stiff tests!

Now, John says, “receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed.” Why? When you “bid him God speed,” you’re saying, “I…want…the thing…that you’re advancing to prevail and to win and to bring about whatever it is designed to do.” And if this person is trying to subvert the church, is trying to subvert the worship, is trying to subvert the plan of salvation, what you unknowingly and unwillingly are doing is aiding the destruction of the church, of the plan of salvation and all that God has taught. That’s a frightful thing to think about.

So, John says, “don’t bid him God speed.” Why? You become a “partaker of his evil deeds.” You become an aider and abetter of what he’s doing.

Years later, I saw this brother that was in Memphis. I met him after twenty-something years in Detroit. I asked him, “Did a man ever come over to Memphis and talk to you about “Snaith”?

He said, “Yes, he did. I gave him ‘X’ amount of money.”

Yeah, I knew then what had happened. I had aided that man in bilking a close friend out of money. I tried to pay the man back. He said, “No, I don’t want your money,” but he kinda implied in the way he looked, “I hope you got better sense than to do that again.” [Laughter]

Now, that’s the kind of thing we’re talking about. It is tragic; it is most tragic that this type of thing is happening. I wish it weren’t. I’m not an alarmist, but neither have I stuck my head in the sand, believing that anything and everything that anybody wants to teach is equally right according to God.

I’ve lived to see that some of the men that I have loved and trusted have turned out to be false. And that hurts me. That hurts me deeply. I’ve talked to them; I’ve written to them; I’ve done what I could. I can’t reach them. I would if I could. But it troubles me that they’re doing that. BUT, I must oppose the one that brings the erroneous doctrine because I love the Lord and His church too much to let the cause of Christ be harmed. And that presents for one who loves the person a very…hard…choice. What am I to do? That depends…on what my faith is. If my faith is centered in Christ, and if my love is centered in the church, I…will…stand…firmly with love, with kindness, but with absolute determination that this…will not…be done. It will not be done. AND, that’s not easy to do, if you haven’t tried it.