The God Named YAHWEH, Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

October 18, 2005

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon

Well, you know that I have been anticipating this sermon. I was pacing the floor more than I ever have.  Getting ready for it my adrenalin is high, almost as high, well, I think as high as the time I jumped off the tower in Auckland, NZ. This needle, space needle thing, whatever it is, and stepped off the edge of that with these wires on the back and looking out over the harbor of Auckland. My heart was beating pretty fast. I had a lot of adrenaline that day, but I have a lot today. I am excited about what we have here, brethren, what we are going to be going through.

During the remaining sermons of this Feast of Tabernacles and the one sermon on the Last Great Day we're going to begin taking a great step onto another spiritual plateau of growth and understanding. And as I even mentioned before we got here to the Feast, brethren I truly don't believe there is as much as what God is giving us right now concerning this subject we are going to go into, at any Feast of Tabernacles in 6,000 years. And that’s an awesome thing to understand.

We already embarked upon this journey beginning around Passover this past year. It began in New Zealand with a unique sermon that we had there because, for whatever, well I know why, but we asked questions, some to turn in questions for different things they might have there and I was going to frame the entire sermon around the questions that they would ask. And it's amazing so much of it had to do with this exact subject here today.  I didn't know that at the time, but I felt moved to ask them to do that the day before, and so they did, and this is where it’s led us step by step by step.

I've been in awe of how, especially after that period of time and through the days of Unleavened Bread, that every sermon almost as we went along there had things in it concerning what we are going to go into. And its Gods way, brethren, of helping to teach us, and help us to be prepared for what we’re receiving here, because you can't receive it all overnight.

We can't receive everything you are going to receive here at the Feast, that is why I hope and pray that people will be patient. Patient with themselves, especially in some of the matters resulting in a change in some of your thinking regarding one particular aspect of what we've always believed, or at least what the Church has taught.

And sometimes that’s hard. And that’s why I hope and pray that people will wait, wait on God to help you to understand. To not jump to conclusions but wait sermon by sermon by sermon. Because what we’re being given is awesomely powerful, brethren, from God Almighty through His Son Jesus Christ.  It truly is.

God Almighty has been bringing us to this point in a steady, organized and very spiritual manner. So, there are some things we’ve gone through in sermons that are absolute, that cannot be disagreed with. They're the word of God, powerful and mighty. And God's just bringing it all together and giving us a lot more here at this Feast.

I can’t even begin to go through everything. I'm in awe of how much it opens up in the Bible even more so, just a deeper appreciation and understanding of God Almighty, being in greater awe of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. And why? Because God is getting ready to reveal Himself to the world in a way He has not done in 6,000 years.

God has never revealed Himself fully to mankind. Only to a few through time, and that on a limited basis, brethren, on a limited basis. It’s not going to be so limited when Jesus Christ in great power and glory and honor comes in the heavens and all the earth sees him! And all of a sudden the truth of God exists on this earth everywhere. For who can deny God Almighty and His Son, Jesus Christ when he is sent back here as King of kings and Lord of lords with power and might.

Something God has looked forward to brethren. We don't know how long, but a lot more than 6,000 years. And it’s hard for us sometimes to understand then since we're on the brink of that particular moment in time, how excited God Almighty is! I know He's excited because I feel that strength and power!

Every year at the Feast I've always commented on how God pours out more of His spirit at the Feast of Tabernacles than from Sabbath to Sabbath to Sabbath. This time is special. This time is very special at this Feast. It pictures the time we're getting ready to go into a millennial period where Jesus Christ will reign for 1,000 years and more on this earth over human beings. Where there will be only one government over all the earth, where all those who come with Jesus Christ, 144,000, will be in that government, will be in the Kingdom of God.

The rest of the world won't be in the Kingdom of God when the Kingdom of God comes. The Kingdom of God is spiritual. It is the Family of God. It’s awesome to understand, it truly is.

And so, again, God Almighty has been bringing us to this point in a steady, organized, and very spiritual manner. That is the way of God. Nothing by chance, nothing by circumstance that just happens, but organized. Even the timing, organized.

Because God is the master potter as He works with each one of us. God is the master architect of the universe, and most certainly, His family. What is greater? The universe or His family? What is He more excited about, a physical universe or His family? It’s hard for us to grasp how excited God Almighty is with what’s getting ready to take place on this earth. He’s letting us feel that more and more. He’s letting us share in that more and more. And it goes beyond words. It goes so far beyond words, brethren. It is spirit. So, all His building is done in perfection and mastery, by the Great, the Almighty, the All Merciful, the All-Righteous God of all time.

So again, I've been in awe concerning the way and the timing of how God has been leading us in this matter. I've been in awe of how God has led us in the last eight years or so. Step by step by step, awakening us, helping us along the way to become stronger and stronger and stronger.

A good place today to begin is to remind ourselves of some astounding verses that we read around Passover season this year. Some of them will ring truer and more powerful to you, obviously, at this time because that was only a beginning and some things just didn't hit us fully. That's why I look forward to some of the things coming up in the following year. Passover, it’s going to mean more to you. Pentecost is going to mean more to you on a higher spiritual plane, if you will. Because of God the Father and because of Jesus Christ and their revealing themselves more fully to us.

You like titles for sermons, this one today is entitled, The God Named Yahweh. And that’s Y A H W E H. That’s one of the spellings, or Yahveh. Number 1, Part 1, The God Named Yahweh. It's the Old Testament Hebrew, if you will, pronunciation of it. Let’s turn back to Exodus 6 to begin.

And please be patient. Please, give yourself time, let alone others time. Don't be so quick to respond. Just let God… In a spirit of meekness and humility consider all the things He gives, because they are powerful. And if along the way you find yourself in disagreement, you’d probably be best to leave the Feast, because there is no place for that.

God is giving us absolute unity and oneness of spirit and mind. He is preparing us for what we're getting ready to go through. It is not an accident, the timing that God is giving us right now, at this Feast of Tabernacles. You will look back in time and you will be dumbfounded to understand the timing of why God is doing this right now this year.

For there are things coming on this earth, brethren, that are going to take place, that we are going to be a part of, that we are going to be involved in, that are mighty, so awesomely mighty. Things beyond whatever happened as the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Far, far, far, far greater in power and might because of what God is doing.

Exodus 6:1. Awesome verse here, verses, these verses and what God is showing. Then the Eternal, which is YAHWEH, generally capital letters, some translations have on occasion “Jehovah,” they use Jehovah. But on a whole, its capital letters LORD, all letters capitalized there. That generally is the word YAHWEH.

Then the Eternal, or Yahweh, the Self-Existent One, that’s what it means, the Eternal. Mr. Armstrong, generally when he read this, it was just automatic for him, he would say the Eternal.  That’s the word he used. He didn't use Yahweh, but that’s what it means, the Eternal one, the Eternal God. Well, not even the word God on it. The Eternal, Self-Existent One.

He said unto Moses, Now shall you see what I do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land, speaking of the Israelites.  And God spoke unto Moses and said unto him, I am YAHWEH and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by My name Yahweh was I not known to them.

Now, when you go back and read some of Genesis, because of the writings and Moses compiling the things he did, so often it uses the name “The Eternal.” But when you connect the name Yahweh with God it makes it a very specific name. They referred to this God that was eternal, and that name was Yahweh that was used in there, but He says here, He's making it very clear that never, never, never did He reveal Himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as Yahweh God, as a name, not just a title of His being or a description of His being, but as a name, Yahweh.

Verse 4—And I have also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, where they were strangers, and I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have made My covenant, “remembered My covenant,” I should say, going all the way back to Abraham. Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel. I AM YAHWEH. The Eternal one. And I will bring you out from under the bondage of the Egyptians, or the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm and with great judgements.

Verse 7—And I will take you to Me for a people. And I will be to you a God. And you shall know that I am YAHWEH, your God, which brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it you for a heritage. I am YAHWEH, the Eternal.

So again, God Almighty, El Shaddai, who revealed Himself to Moses as the Eternal your God, Yahweh your God, was very direct in what He had to say to Moses. Let’s also notice what He told Moses in a few chapters just before this in Exodus 3.

God’s word says what it means, and it means what it says. But no matter how it does that we cannot know what it means, what it says in spirit and in truth until God gives us His spirit to see it.  It's like the Sabbath. The Bible is filled with understanding, with knowledge of things about the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and a great plan from Passover to the Last Great Day, but you cannot know that plan, you can have knowledge of it, you can read about it, but to be a part of you, to see it, to believe it because God’s spirit is in you, to know with all of your being it is true, it’s impossible without God’s spirit. And so are the things we are talking about now. And there is a reason why God didn't give it until now.

Exodus 3:13—And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall say to me - what is His name. What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And He said, Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, YAHWEH God (LORD God), YAHWEH God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you. This is My name forever, YAHWEH God, the Eternal God, and this is My memorial unto all generations.

So again, brethren, these are powerful words of what we are being told here. And when we understand more fully some of the things that are here it’s so exciting, so inspiring, more revealing. El Shaddai, God Almighty, again, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac and Jacob, revealed more about Himself to Moses. He revealed a more personal relationship, a closer relationship to Moses, and now to the children of Israel.

He had a close relationship with Abraham. Look at what He promised through Abraham and His purpose in what He was doing. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But He never revealed all concerning Himself to him.

And that's the way it’s been through time. So many things have been revealed through time that begin in Genesis, there is an outline of some things. But even those things we can't know until God helps us to understand more of His plan. And then we see that He started revealing things to people at a particular point in time, but very little in a sense of the overall scheme of things.

And then more as time went along, you know, Noah, and then to Abraham later on, and then his children, the lineage that followed there. A little bit more as time went along and then with Moses, God beginning to work now with a nation of people, physically not spiritually. Only with a few spiritually out of all that, but as a whole, physically, for great lessons that we're to learn, lessons contained in Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost that are powerful about God's spirit being given and the law being given and the inability to keep it without Gods spirit. All those things that followed.

And then Jesus Christ coming along and revealing things about God on a plane, on a level that had never been revealed to the earth in the same manner. Incredible.

And now, just before God is ready to send His Son Jesus Christ to this earth as King of kings, He is going to let us understand and see things on a better plane, if you will, with greater depth of understanding and appreciation of what God is doing.

Because God is going to allow us, brethren, to grow stronger spiritually. This is a part of a process of becoming stronger spiritually so that we can go through the things that are ahead of us with greater strength and greater confidence and greater boldness of spirit to do what we must do. For me to do what I know I must do and for you to do the things that God will reveal to you. Those things are coming, very powerfully so.

And so, God does nothing by circumstance or by just coincidence. It’s all planned, brethren, very powerfully so. But to go through what we must go through, the worst times in all human history you must be stronger. I must be stronger. We must be closer to God to be even able to handle that power with humility.

Because you know there's a great flaw in the human spirit, and it’s pride. It’s haughtiness and no human being can take that to themselves, brethren. And so, we must be so deeply convicted with humility and meekness of spirit! And this Feast, and those that will be brought along later on will determine that meekness of spirit, of whether they will really receive what God Almighty has for them, or whether they will resist their God.

What a horrible thing that’s taken place over ten years plus in the Church or the Church that was scattered, that people will not accept truth that God gives to them, of why we went through tribulation spiritually. You know, haughtiness that gets in the way. Incredible. And not only that, look what He does, works with such a small group. “Oh, He can't be working over there! That is so ridiculous. And him? I knew him. You've got to be kidding me.” Pride. When God does something He changes us, He molds us, and He makes what He will if we will yield ourselves to the process.

The original apostles, and Paul, and those who followed early at that time, always took certain things as a matter of fact. And indeed, they were.

You know, it’s just like, if you can relate to the Sabbath, and how the world gets all tangled up because there's a being out there that wants them to be confused, and how he twists and distorts things about the Sabbath and has picked another time, the first day of the week, the day of the sun, Sunday, to worship God. And yet we understand that there are reasons why the Sabbath isn't discussed a great deal in the New Testament. It doesn't have to be. Everyone who lived at that time knew when the Sabbath was. It wasn't an issue, see. It was just a way of life.

So, if they talked about coming together in services, in Sabbath services, they knew what day it was. It wasn't an issue. It didn't have to be written about by Paul or Peter or James or John, it wasn't an issue, it was just a way of life.

And so was so much of this. It wasn't an issue about there being one God, and what that meant, and His Son, Jesus Christ. It wasn't an issue with them.

And so, brethren, again, we need to listen closely. These things have been polluted and lost through time, and frankly, some haven't even been given. And of course, that was primarily during the Sardis era, but even before that. There were only three basic doctrines remaining at that time; one concerned, again, the weekly Sabbath; the name of the Church, the Church of God, and thirdly, tithing.

Awesome, to understand that, and how small the Church began and what God began to do and work with to mold and fashion a man to do a great work, a unique work that was unique to him, that wasn't meant for others. It was meant for him to accomplish and fulfill. Of a work that was to go out to the world as a witness into all nations. Powerful, what God did.

And so, by the time the end of Sardis, again, God raised up Mr. Armstrong and restored basic truth to him that the Church would need in order to be the Church. Mr. Armstrong's life was dedicated to the basic truths of God being restored and that these truths become fully grounded within the Church. And all this covered a period that was just over fifty years for this restoration.

One of the last things to be restored through Mr. Armstrong was a basic truth concerning Pentecost, that it was always on Sunday. We were off. Could God have revealed that earlier on? You bet. But more than anything else, it was to try the Church. Amazing! Not just at that time but even afterwards.

Because what has been the big thing with some as they've gone off on different tangents as well? “Mr. Armstrong was wrong about that one, so we kind of,” it’s like, “we kind of need to look into the rest of things because maybe he was wrong about them.” Losing total understanding of how God's spirit works. And God has had to restore that in the Church because it’s been lost, of how God truly works – about government. And so little by little, God’s been doing that.

God reserved this revelation that we are going through now for our time now, of what we are going to be going through, just before, again, the return of His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords in the Kingdom of God.

You know, I'm without words sometimes explaining this, talking about some of it. It’s just overwhelming. But I marvel, brethren, at God at how He has revealed these things and how He continues to give them, and how there is so much more there than we can even begin to imagine, even as we begin to touch upon some of these sermons here, or as I begin to touch upon them before, well before the Feast.

So, we need to understand something very basic about what God did with Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong knew that traditional Christianity was wrong. He knew there was no such thing as a trinity. He knew that, powerfully so. And although he understood this, God did not give him full understanding of what was fully true concerning Himself and His Son. He didn't.

And so, as we in God’s Church do, we know there is no contradiction in scripture, and so when God gives us truth, we strive to understand everything within that framework, especially from Passover to the Last Great Day. And we strive to understand, and we know there is no contradiction, so we strive to have those things in there with the best of our ability as human beings. But if God doesn't give something, He just doesn't give it, and we can't come to a full understanding until He does. That is just a reality.

Mr. Armstrong understood that the holy spirit in scripture was not a separate being. You know, and some of the garbage, and I know sometimes people, especially if you start talking upon some of this, have fears that go back to God IS... of what happened, of what so many of us experienced. Now, some of you didn't experience that, but a lot of people here, obviously the majority, did. Of what a group of people began to go into, that a powerful being, with power, signs, and lying wonders—because it was spiritual; it just wasn't from God—began to deceive thousands through that power that was given to them. And God allowed it because He gives us free moral agency to show us, to teach us lessons we needed to learn about ourselves.

And so, incredible to understand what happened. Again, Mr. Armstrong understood that the spirit is the power of God. It’s that which emanates from Him, it’s that which, it’s His existence, He is spirit. All the power that comes from Him is from Him. He commands, He controls everything in His life. And the power of His spirit then is sent out.

It’s the power of His spirit that gives us ability to see and understand things that He gives to us, but no more. We can only see spiritually what He gives to us! And this is what makes it the holy spirit then, because the source of it is God, God Almighty. It comes from Him.

Just like agape. There is only one source of agape. It is God Almighty. That’s the source of it because it’s spiritual, it is God, it is what God is, the Word, the Word of God. God is the source of it because it’s Him! It’s Him!! It’s what He is!! It’s everything in His being, in His mind! The revelatory thought that is given to human beings, that was in a human being, that made that human being, that gave him life and he walked on the earth. Only one like him. And we're able to only receive of that same word.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” To understand that, brethren, is an awesome, beautiful thing.

Another awesome thing that God did reveal to Mr. Armstrong was that the purpose for mankind was to become a part of the God Family. Not taught anywhere else. The world doesn't know that. There are some in the world who have some of that knowledge in a limited way, and some in differing ways because of a relationship with the Church or because of some of the literature that has gone out, and so they changed some things here and there and they maybe have it as a doctrine or whatever not understanding it by any measure because it’s spiritual.

This was incredible revelation to be given to human beings, to be given to Mr. Armstrong: God is a family. Beautiful verses there, I love those verses in Hebrews that go back and talk about.. Psalms 8, when David under inspiration of God says, What is man that You're mindful of him? and it goes through and tells the story. To be God. To be members of the God family. To be given power greater than that of the angelic realm. To have a family relationship with the Father. It’s awesome.  That which is going to begin to be fulfilled as soon as Jesus Christ returns. The Kingdom of God, the Family of God that begins to reign on the earth.

And so, what we're going through throughout this Feast has everything to do with the Feast of Tabernacles in every way, very powerfully so. Because it focuses upon the one who brings it about far more powerfully and what He's getting ready to do.

And so again, this is an incredible revelation given to Mr. Armstrong. No other religion on earth understood this great truth. However, God did not clarify more for him or the Church at that time.  And so again, since Mr. Armstrong understood the purpose of God and His family and the Kingdom of God, he came to see that Elohim—God showed him what Elohim was—was a uni-plural word just like “family,” and that God revealed through this as well, again, the God Family, the Kingdom of God and what those things mean. It was through this process of understanding some of that.  Elohim. And we're going to touch upon all these things, brethren, throughout the Feast.

There was an error, or maybe better said, a lack of the complete truth. Which is an error if we believe something different, if we come to a different conclusion in a particular matter of something. But it was in God's hands.

There was an error in Pentecost. But you know what we were judged by? By what we did with what we had. If you went to services or tried to have your own service on Sunday before God revealed it, before God gave it, you would have been in sin. That’s an awesome thing to understand. Because God was judging the Church by what it was doing until He gave understanding.

I hope we understand that. It’s so basic. Some would say, well, if I went off and kept Sunday because I came to an understanding of it… Because people did. And you know what happened to them? They left. They left. They were separated from God's holy spirit and they went off on different tangents. It can't be helped because of the way God works with us and how God works in our lives and in the Church. So, yes, yes, yes, it would have been a sin.

Because God Almighty is the one in control. God Almighty is the one who judges. And all people through time have been judged according to what God gave to them. And so, if God didn't give them everything, which He didn't to Abraham. Abraham was judged by what he had! Noah was judged by what he had! Noah did not have anything near what we’ve had at the end of this age! Not even close, brethren. But he was judged by the law of God because that’s what’s basic.

There are commandments that sum up a relationship that we’re to have with God and with mankind. On those things, brethren, that is the most important, and with God’s help and God’s spirit then He enables us to have a right relationship with others.

Noah was faithful to those things, strove to live that way of life, and he was judged according to that. He didn't have all the understanding of certain things we've had about Passover to the Last Great Day. He didn't have all that! And neither did Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob! They didn't have all that. They didn't have the reams of knowledge and understanding. They didn't have the New Testament. How on earth could they have had any of that? They didn't. That’s the point.

Until that time came and those things were accomplished and God inspired things to be written. The book of Acts, Romans, Corinthians, things that Paul wrote, things that Peter wrote, things that James wrote, things that John wrote. And every time somebody wrote and something was given God was giving more to the Church. And by the time John died, by the time toward the end of John’s life, the Book of Revelation, things in the Book of John, 1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John.

Awesomely powerful revelation given about God in 1st John. It is 1st John that has led us to today. It is by understanding things in 1st John that has led us to this point in time, because what God has given over the years, if we can understand that. It’s incredible how God works.

But they didn't have those things. The Church didn't have in Philadelphia everything contained in the spirit of 1st John. It didn't exist. It wasn't there. It wasn't time. It wasn't revealed by God. Things about Gods spirit, things about how agape works, it was limited, and a lot of it was very physical. Because that’s the way we are as human beings. It can only become spiritual when God gives it. And then when God gives it in our minds we see it and we understand it and we can live by it then.

So again, going back to some of this. There was a lack of complete truth that emerged from all this concerning what we've covered so far of what God was giving to Mr. Armstrong, because He didn't give everything. He reserved it for today. He's reserved it for this past year, a little bit at a time, to this time. That’s why if you understand how God works, brethren, nothing when time… Time, things of timeliness are so awesomely important to God.

What's ahead of us? Awesome things. And we have to be prepared for it. I think of the name, Preparing for the Kingdom of God. Why that? And then in time it’s become more clear. Been in awe. God inspired it. It's what He's doing. That’s the work for the Church anyway, in the Church.

And so again, a lack of complete understanding that emerged from all this because God did not let Mr. Armstrong nor the Church go farther in understanding in these matters. Again, He reserved them for this time, just before the Kingdom, God's Kingdom comes to this earth.

The error was about this God Family, specifically that two beings have eternally existed in this family. That’s not true brethren. It’s not true. Two beings have not eternally existed in the God family.

Have patience, wait, learn what God Almighty has for you. If you've proven things to this point in time don't throw it away right now. Wait. It’s exciting. It’s immensely exciting and it will come together within you and with you with great power.

And so again, two beings have eternally existed in His family is not true. Because of scriptures like that, about Melchizedek, which we will cover here at this Feast, and they will be awesome to you. Things about Elohim – and they will be awesome to you.

I remember… I like to call it The Urinal that came out early in, I don't know if it’s probably still out there, I don't know. Some call it The Journal. I think that’s what they write at the top of it. And I remember there was a period of time, and I didn't bother going into them because I didn't want any pollution in my mind, because I already knew that they were all wrong. There were five or six, or maybe seven different ones that had sent in things about some of this subject matter, and everybody going off course.

You know, there was a period of time when the Church began to go into a little bit of this. And I was excited because I thought, "Finally! Finally we're going to address some of this." And we didn't. The Church went off on tangents.

You know, Satan is a very powerful being. And just like with all those articles that were written, there were truths in some of those articles, but like everything that works to deceive Gods people, there is truth that is there and then all of a sudden things that are twisted to pull people in. And that’s why we have to ever be vigilant and on guard, and watchful, seeking God and His power to live within us. Because without that power, we cannot see. It is only by that power living within us that we can see and understand and be on guard in spirit and in truth.

And so again, because of various scriptures about Melchizedek, and various ones that we've even already covered, frankly, those are the ones that led to the conclusions that Jesus Christ must have been Yahweh. Jesus Christ was not Yahweh.

It’s like what we covered during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Awesome, to understand why God would even give it then, concerning 1 Corinthians 10. Let’s go back there; we need to review it, 1 Corinthians 10.

And because we have not fully understood these things we have not appreciated to the depth we need to as God’s people the glory of Almighty God, the power of God Almighty and His awesome plan and the excitement He had, and has in His Son, Jesus Christ! We have not had the full impact of that spiritually in our lives, brethren. It couldn't be there until we had greater understanding.

And for some of you who are newer and don't even know what was taught in times past, you won't have to unlearn a certain aspect that could be a stumbling block for some who did learn something different. But as a minister, brethren, thank God, because the questions popped up over and over and over through the years, I never answered it. Because it wasn't time. It was not proper that I should speak on it. And I'll explain more of that later.

There is a way that God’s spirit works in our lives, in our minds, and if we are yielding to that and if we are following Him, He leads us. He is the one that puts it in the mind. That is the way He communicates to us. He is not, in nearly 2,000 years, revealed Himself on the earth by coming up to someone in the way He did at times in the Old Testament, or that Jesus Christ did after his death, and talked to individuals for a short time as he did. But he's been gone for a long time!

That’s what's pictured in Leviticus 16 about the two goats that we go into on the Day of Atonement, that he is up there. The high priest goes into the Holy of Holies until the house is reconciled, until the family is reconciled to Jesus Christ. And then he returns. And that’s his coming.

But all during that time in the Church, all during that time, save for John, because of what John had to write, and the visions he had… But that was even done spiritually. Everything else has always been by the spirit of God working in the mind to bring something alive.

Everything that Mr. Armstrong learned was strictly by the spirit. And you want to talk about walking in faith? That’s what it is to the ultimate degree. Because God has not spoken to you personally or given some vision to you or whatever, or to those who lead us. God didn't do that to Mr. Armstrong. It was through the conviction of the power of the holy spirit in his mind so that when he read something he knew it was true and all error was so obvious.

Just like those things are to us. Just like they will be as you go through these sermons. It'll be so clear. It'll be so easy. It'll be so beautiful, so wonderful, so exciting if we don't fight against God. And those are our choices. And we are all responsible aren't we.

1 Corinthians 10:1—Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea and were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat (?).

They were carnal. They were physical. They got on the other side and it didn't take long and that carnality came out in big ways. What they did not know was everything that was being pictured for them at that time. What they did not grasp was how they were able to leave Egypt. They didn't know what that pictured.

Great spiritual meat that God has given to us in the Church through the power of the holy spirit, to understand the meaning of things about Pharaoh and about Egypt, and about coming out of Egypt during the Days of Unleavened Bread, and our Passover and what that meant to them, that as they put the blood on the doorposts, that they were passed over and what that means when the blood of Christ is a part of our lives and God passes over our sins. Gives us grace and time to change and to grow and to conquer over time.

That spiritual meat is what they had available to them, that they were partaking of, that they were living through, and they didn't get it! But we do. We do because of God’s spirit, and because of His purpose in your life and the purpose in the Church that He works by His great power.

...and did all drink the same spiritual drink. But they didn't get it. And they drank of that spiritual Rock. Remember what Christ said to Peter, and what he said about himself? Powerful. “Peter, you're a pebble. That’s your name.” And then he talked about the Rock, Petra, Jesus Christ.

...drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them. And that Rock was Christ. So, because God didn't give understanding of certain things the conclusion became with other things like Melchizedek and Elohim, and so forth, that… And we always first see things physically. We can't see things spiritually unless God gives it. We will see it physically.

And so, the way it was taken, and that's why we went through this during the Days of Unleavened Bread, was, well, that pillar, that cloud that God gave to them… God did. It was God. It was of God. That was Jesus. No, no, no, no, no, it wasn't.

The Rock that followed them was the Rock through time that would follow them, that would fulfill what they were experiencing, what was being pictured in their lives from Passover, to coming out of Egypt, to the whole process of going through the Red Sea. All that was pictured was physical, yes, but what they were picturing was something far greater. A plan that God had for His family, for His children through Jesus Christ that followed that period of time. By a long time, but he followed.

And that Rock that followed them that fulfilled those things that were pictured back then is the Rock, is Jesus Christ. That’s what it’s talking about. But we couldn't know that at that time, at a certain time, because God hadn't given it. It was more physical to us so we thought that there was a pillar and a fire, but they never followed, as was brought out in that sermon. They led. The pillar and the fire led. Except for one period of time when it protected, you know, from the Egyptians there. But when it took the children of Israel through and did the things that it did, it always led them, always, always led them. It led them out of Egypt.

So, since God, again, did not reveal what this verse truly meant, the only thing that fit into it, again, is what we talked about. We are always physical first, brethren, that’s the way it works. We can't help that. It's God's responsibility for what He gives to us. And we're not accountable for those things He does not give to us.

That's why at one time the whole Church in gladness and with blessings from God came together on Mondays to observe Pentecost for a long, long time. And God gave honor and glory to us because of His power in our lives and in our minds that stirred us, that moved us and we learned, and we drew closer to God in that process. And then He came along and revealed more about what was true and accurate and we changed, we repented, because we didn't know.

You know, when you don't know something, you just don't know it. It's the response you have from the moment you know it that counts. When God gives that to you, then are we repentant? We don't beat ourselves up for what happened in the past, because you don't, you can't help what you didn't know.

You can't help for what you didn't know before you were called about the Sabbath and Holy Days, but as soon as you found out about them that was your test. What are you going to do? Forsake all—Put God first—mother, father, employer, whatever it means in order to love God, obey God? See, that’s when it counts brethren. That's why this is unique; this is counting here, as to what we receive from God and what we don't.

So, in today’s sermon it is important that we begin to grasp a very basic truth. We need to understand that God did not reveal the truth to Mr. Armstrong concerning the reality of the relationship, the full relationship of the Father and the Son in the matters we are covering through this Feast. This in no way restricted our understanding that we have an Eternal Father in heaven, and that we have access to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s the way we have lived our lives. And that Jesus Christ is our Passover, our High Priest, our Savior, and our soon coming King.

It’s never been hurt by that in any fashion or form. It’s just that now we can come to appreciate and understand some things in a deeper way than what we have before. We will be able to build upon things in a greater way than what we have before. Our appreciation, frankly, of God will be greater.

Because you see, I hope we can come to grasp more fully that by a lack of understanding we are not able to fully glorify God. We are not able to fully appreciate everything He did. If we think it was someone else, that’s not good. But when we come to understand it all, that is good, and it gives far deeper meaning and appreciation of everything that God has done and everything that Jesus Christ has done.

We can come to deeper appreciation, frankly, of our Passover and what he went through. And what he went through. And it’s far greater sometimes than what we have really recognized because he was fully a human being who suffered mightily. But he had God in him in a way that no human being has nor ever will. And we'll explain those things through this Feast.

So again, we need to understand what was taught in the past. And I want to make it perfectly clear, and many of you again who are younger probably never even knew this. I have never taught it. It was after Trumpets, I think it was, or one of the services there where I mentioned some things and it was very evident to you where we were going, I think, as a whole.

And talking to our daughter, I think we were going down an elevator, I kind of remember the location, and Audra said something about... We asked her, “Do you know what is being said here?” And so, after we explained a couple things here and there she said, well, she thought she was missing something because she had never been taught… She said "Dad, you've been my only minister.”

I never taught it, because I never believed it. I couldn't teach it, that there were two Gods in the Old Testament or that Jesus Christ, better yet, was Yahweh, because of something that God gave back in 1975. It would have been wrong for me to have ever said it, to have ever talked to others.  My wife and I talked about it, a few others had asked some questions and I would tell a few things to a limited point in view, but I never, never, never, brethren, would teach it. Because God didn't give it by His spirit that it should be done. But He made it very clear in New Zealand, this is the time and it should be done. Things that you cannot argue with in life and in scripture that are so powerful, so clear.

So, in the article, there is an article, an old article, Is Jesus God? is a conclusion, again, that Mr. Armstrong, of Mr. Armstrong that I want to read to you. “Yes, Jesus is Jehovah. Although this word is a mistranslation used in the American Standard Version, the original name in the Hebrew contains the consonants YHVH. In writing in Hebrew, vowels were omitted; supplied only in speaking. Thus, the precise pronunciation of the name is not definitely known. But today it is commonly assumed to be YAHVEH, or YAHWEH. The meaning in English is 'The Eternal' or 'The Ever living', or 'The Self-existent.' It commonly supposed that YAHVEH, or as commonly called Jehovah, or as the Authorized Version 'the LORD'” in the capital letters as we talked about earlier, “of the Old Testament was God, the Father, of Jesus Christ. This is a flagrant error."

No, it wasn't. But he didn't know that because God didn't give it to him. He didn't know that Pentecost was always on a Sunday until God gave it to him. And everyone was judged to then by those things that God gave to that point in time.

So, because he knew the trinity was a lie, and God had revealed that His purpose for mankind was to become a part of His family, the God family, the Kingdom of God, a conclusion was drawn that was mistaken, that was in error. And that was that Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament, that he was YAHWEH, as he just said.

We're going to begin to understand a most powerful truth that God revealed back in 1975. It was not given to the Church, however, until now. I marvel at the timing. I marvel at how God works. When God has a purpose, He molds and fashions us for things we can never know nor understand until we come to that point in time.

These verses we're going to cover now need to rest in your mind and in your being as totally foundational to all of this. And there are a lot of them. Awesome, brethren. Incredible. Because they answer clearly the truth in this matter concerning the God of the Old Testament, and specifically the one who revealed Himself as Yahweh.

Let’s go over to Acts 2. We've gone through this, but it wasn't fully time, brethren, for us to fully understand what was being said. Now is the time to fully understand it and put it all together, although we've covered these this past year. God prepares us a little at a time, especially for something of this magnitude, and then helps us to put it all together in a beautiful way.

Acts 2:22. And you need to do some marking, probably, along here in time on your own or as we go through this so it’s really clear to you. Because what we're going to look at is a place where Peter was moved by God’s spirit, in Acts 2 to speak of some things in the Psalms, to talk to the Jewish people at that time of things they never understood about David and about God. And they're in the Old Testament and they're recorded in the New Testament, and we need to understand what is being said and who is being talked about.

Acts 2:22—You men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus… Now, in all my stuff here, I'll go throughout, I have the computer, I put two lines under that in my notes here. I've put God and certain ones in bold letters. And David, I just put one line under. Sometimes it just says “me,” “I,” or whatever, so I put one line under that. You can do whatever you want, but you need to make a distinction as we go through this as to who is who.

And so, it says, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man. So, it’s talking about Jesus so for me its two lines underneath that one. …approved of GOD, capital letters. You know, we have no problem with that. We know it was God, approved of God. But you know, they just said it and they knew what it meant. We haven't fully as a Church. He can't be talking about Himself. And the things that are recorded, what is it talking about?

So again, approved of GOD among you by miracles and wonders and signs which GOD did by him by Jesus Christ, in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know. Him (Jesus Christ) being delivered by the determinate council and foreknowledge of GOD, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom, Jesus Christ, brethren, GOD raised up. He did not raise himself up! God Almighty, El Shaddai, Yahweh raised him up from the dead.

He was dead for three days and three nights. He did not have eternal life living within him! He did not have it. He didn't go off and preach as the Protestants teach, as they take the book of Peter and say he went off to preach to some demons in hell or whatever it is, tartaros. He was dead, dead, dead, dead, dead!! Three days and three nights!

So, that's why one of the questions in New Zealand was asked, “Can God die?” “Can spirit die?” God can't. God can’t, but Jesus Christ did. That ought to teach us so much right there, brethren.

Whom GOD has raised up… So, the glory and the honor, the honor and the glory is to God Almighty, the Great God of the universe. And to not know that and not believe that takes something away from the story.

Whom GOD raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he (Jesus Christ) should be held of it. Now, so much of what Peter quotes here is from Psalms 16 concerning what was written by David. It was written by David, by inspiration of God's spirit. And so, as David’s giving this, the Jews misunderstood some of it and thought it was about David. And Peter's whole point is this is not about David. It is not about king David. It is about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and God Almighty.

Acts 2:25—For David… See, I have one line there. Don't want to confuse this. For David spoke concerning him… Two lines. He spoke concerning Jesus Christ. There are a lot of prophecies in the Bible, a lot of things that David was inspired to write that are about the Christ, the Lord, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, the one who was anointed to be Lord and Christ, Messiah. The one who would come in time from the loins of David, in time.

I… What “I” is it? Who is it? It isn't David. It’s two lines. We’re starting something that is being said, inspiration of God, as a conversation, in essence, that’s coming from Jesus Christ concerning God. I Two lines (Jesus Christ), foresaw YAHWEH, always before my face, Jesus Christ's face, for HE, YAHWEH, is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore, did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad; moreover, also my flesh should rest in hope. Because YOU (Yahweh), will not leave my soul in hades, or sheol.

You know, the Old Testament it’s one word, and in the New Testament it is another word. This is a quote out of Psalms, brethren, about something being said by Jesus Christ. That when he read those verses, he knew. Everything that was ever written, everything that was ever recorded was in his mind, in his being because God was fully in him as the Son of God!

This is going to be exciting to you, brethren, as we go along, to understand how God worked in Jesus Christ, how Jesus Christ lived and who he was and what he did. And why as a young boy at twelve year old he went in and doctors of the law were in awe of what he said and what he asked! Because his Father was Yahweh. And the Word that is Yahweh, that is everything about God, was in Jesus Christ. It was all there. And he saw and he learned and he grew and he became very powerful in knowledge and understanding in might and the mind of God. There's only so much that can be contained, brethren, in a human body, truly. God Almighty can't.

Because YOU will not leave my soul in hell, neither will YOU (Yahweh), suffer YOUR holy one (Jesus Christ), to see corruption. These are prophecies about the fact about his body and when he died and what would happen.

YOU (Yahweh) have made known to me (Jesus Christ), the ways of life. YOU (Yahweh) shall make me full of joy with YOUR countenance. Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Because Peter is making it very clear to them, this is not about David. It's about the Messiah and his relationship to his Father.

Verse 29—Men and brethren, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us until this day. “This isn't about David!” That's what he is saying. Therefore, being a prophet, moved and inspired by God as David was, and knowing that YAHWEH, that God (that's who it is speaking of), had sworn with an oath to him… To who? To David! That's who the oath was made to concerning a Messiah, concerning the one that would come from his loins in time, and that it wasn't Solomon, as we looked at here recently concerning a tabernacle and what God was building. It was about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, that physically would come through the lineage of David.

That of the fruit of his loins, of David's loins, of the fruit of his loins in time, according to the flesh, HE, He, Yahweh, God Almighty would raise up Christ, the Messiah, to sit on his throne, on David's throne. That was the promise being made to David, that there would come one in time, the Messiah, who will sit on your throne, and he will come from your loins, your lineage. That's what the story's about.

He seeing this before (David), spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. There is no argument. Yahveh is not Jesus Christ. He was not Yahveh. Yahveh of the Old Testament that said these things, because when you go back to Psalms it uses the word all, as I have, through this. Yahveh is the God spoken of here, as Jesus Christ is talking to Him about “You will not let my soul see corruption,” or “my body see corruption.” “I will not be left in sheol,” as it says in the Old Testament.

It was a conversation, prophetically if you will, not about David (and that's what he makes clear), but about the Messiah, Christ, and his Father, who makes it very clear in Psalms that the same words being used that Peter is using here, was all about Yahweh. The God spoken of is Yahweh God.

Going on, verse 32—This Jesus has GOD raised up whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being on the right hand of GOD, exalted and having received, ah, of the Father… Even in context, brethren, right here, God, Father, God, Father. And that God, as you go back and read in the Psalms, was Yahweh!

And having received of the Father the promise of the holy spirit... So, when you go back to the book of Joel and you read about the promise of the holy spirit to be poured out on all flesh, as we’ll do here at the Feast, it was Yahweh that said it, God Almighty, who is the Father.

And having received of the FATHER the promise of the holy spirit he has shed forth this which you now see and hear. For David (one line), is not ascended to the heavens, but he (one line), David, said himself… From the Old Testament, The LORD… And you go back there and look at the Old Testament, what it says, and it's the word Yahveh.

The LORD said unto my (David's) Lord… David's Lord, the one that would come from the loins of David. The one in time who would be Lord of lords and King of kings, and those prophecies that were given to David. He says YOU (Yahweh), as it says in the Old Testament, said unto my Lord, (David's Lord), sit you at MY right hand, Yahveh's right hand, until I, Yahweh, God Almighty, make your (Jesus Christ's) foes, your (Jesus Christ's) footstool, as so many other scriptures talk about.

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that GOD has made this same Jesus, of whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ!

Ah, brethren, so powerful and exciting to understand what God did and what God has done. God Almighty, El Shaddai, Yahveh, through time and the plan that He’s had. That's why when you read of “There is one God,” it has great meaning. We should have no trouble of knowing what that means. It is a most basic truth. One Eternal God that has existed for all time. Something we cannot fully grasp. But there's only been one.

And this here is an awesome example of something that until God gives it, we can't see it. And how could something so plain not be seen? But it wasn't seen.

I hope you grasp the magnitude of what’s said here. That here, even Peter was inspired to talk to the Jews. But it was more about the fact that David's dead, that Jesus Christ, it was speaking about Jesus Christ, it wasn't about David, because David's sepulcher is with us till this day, it was about someone David spoke of, under inspiration, of the Messiah, of the Lord. He called him “My Lord.” He talked to them as the Messiah that would come, the king that would come from his loins and sit on his throne.

We couldn't see it, and yet there are quotes from the Old Testament that make it very clear every time it speaks of God, that it's using “Yahweh” in Hebrew, you know. But it wasn't time for us to see something so clear and so plain. And until God gives it you can't see it and you can't understand it.

But as we grow in this, brethren, we'll come to understand more fully even how God's spirit works in us and we'll be more in awe. We’ll be in greater awe of Jesus Christ. We'll be in greater awe of what God has done in and through Jesus Christ. We'll be in greater awe, a closer relationship to God.

You will be able to have greater boldness of spirit because God is making you stronger spiritually if you yield to the process, to prepare you for one thing and one thing alone, to go through with power and strength and might and humility of spirit, having greater knowing in your mind and in your being about your relationship with your God and your Savior Jesus Christ.

And to go through what we are going to go through with boldness, even if some of you die. And I fully expect, I've always believed I'm going to die before it’s over with. I know it's going to happen as much as I know the Sabbath and the Holy Days and the plan of God. It's just the way it is. Not a fun thing.

Having your chest opened up is not a fun thing, but life is life and you go through what you go through. The praise and the honor and the glory is God Almighty's. And thank God we get to share in what He is doing. For whatever purpose He has, it is awesome. But to give you strength and confidence to do with boldness what you must do and what you must stand for, God will give that to you.

And this is part of the process to help you grow more spiritually, to help you have a deeper appreciation and gratitude and thankfulness to your God, to your Father, and to His Son, Jesus Christ.

That's why I look forward to Passover this coming year. It's going to mean more to you. You will be more moved by the Passover service you take. You will be more greatly moved by Pentecost. You're going to be more greatly moved as we continue forward if you yield yourself to God Almighty and draw closer to Him and be more deeply committed to live this way of life in spirit and in truth – and to fight against the garbage of this world, to fight against the powers that be in this world and to yield yourselves more to your God. Because God is preparing some great things, brethren.  Things we can’t even begin to imagine though we believe them.

So, just like what we covered in the book of Acts, there are many other areas of scripture where verses are quoted out of the Old Testament. I’ve been dumbfounded by it. I believed certain things just to a point. This is where it started. So, I could not conscientiously say that Jesus Christ was Yahweh. I never addressed it either. I couldn't. It wasn't right. It would have been wrong for me to have done so. I would have lost out if I had started. God would have taken His spirit from me, I know.

So, it's an awesome thing, again, to understand how God works with every one of us brethren. And now things are popping out of the Bible in ways I'm just dumbfounded by. Had these sermons prepared, except for one, several weeks ago, a few months ago. God gave them at a certain time. I thought I had to do a lot of studying in different things, and it was just there; God just gave it. And now, going through and brushing up a little on these, able to bring it together in a better way because He's just continued to give more and more, especially in the last month or so here, and it's exciting, it's inspiring to share with God when He pours out His spirit upon us, brethren, very powerfully so.

So again, there are many other scriptures. We're just barely scratching the surface. But if we can believe and see what it says here, that's your beginning as much as it was mine. For if you cannot acknowledge what Peter wrote here under inspiration of God's holy spirit, of what he said about David who was a prophet, who through inspiration of God wrote certain things concerning God the Father and Jesus Christ, then you can’t go on. You will not be able to receive what God has for you the rest of the way.

This right here in Acts is your beginning point. If you reject it, you reject God. You reject the truth of God. You cannot argue with what it says here. Can anyone stand and say, “I disagree with that?” Can anyone say, “This isn't true?” Then the word of God is not true and you have nothing to base anything upon. This is all true.

You can't have anything more direct, of something that’s recorded in the New Testament that's very clear in the Old. Powerful, powerful, powerful, brethren, how God reveals things to us and makes it so clear. And so, maybe questions about Melchizedek, Elohim, different things come into our mind. Wait. They'll be just as clear as time goes on.

We're going to continue to build upon basic verses having our eyes enlightened more and more spiritually. Before we go on let's stop and consider how we have always practiced and made a clear distinction between the Father and the Son. But our history of understanding part of that relationship was muddled, has muddled our thinking, if you will, and kept us from being able to go farther if you will, again, in our spiritual growth, to a deeper understanding of truly seeing God.

That's what we're being given. He’s letting us see Him. I'm not talking about something physical, but that which is spiritual. When God lets us see more about Him on a spiritual plane and more about His Son, and have a deeper appreciation and awe of God, that is growth on a spiritual plane  that is moving and inspiring, and makes more of the word of God come alive to us in a more inspiring and exciting way. It truly does.

Let's look at some verses over in 1 Peter, look at these as an example.  It says here beginning in 1 Peter 1:10, speaking of, it says, Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. There are things in the Old Testament that people wanted to know. There are things… “What does this mean?” “What does that mean?”

Just like when Daniel was moved to write certain things, and “What does this mean? When is this time?” I mean, if you see certain things to a point of time, it's exciting. God said, “No, Daniel, shut up the book. It isn't for you at this time. It's for someone else at another time, and when that time comes He'll give it and they'll see it. They'll see it and they'll know, but it's not for you.” And it hasn't been for anyone else in between that time either, until now, because this is what we are approaching. Awesome.

So much of the Bible – I hope you are in awe of how much that's in the scriptures that has to do with prophecy concerning the end-time is about us. It's about the time we live in. It's about the time of these things being revealed in our time.

What an incredible thing to understand, that so much of what God gave throughout the Bible of the plan of God, this is the pinnacle – pinnacle before a greater pinnacle. This is the pinnacle of 6,000 years. This is incredibly awesome to understand that all those things focused upon this time, a time when Jesus Christ would return, a time of what we’re picturing here at this Feast, of the Feast of Tabernacles, when the Millennium would be brought to the earth. Moving, inspiring, and we get to live it! Until we die, some of us die.

And there'll be those of you who live on into that new world. What an incredible thing to know, to believe, to know as you know the sun's coming up and going down as it does every day. More so, because what you have is of the spirit in the mind that God gives.

Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what, or what manner of time, the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.

So, they weren't the first ones to play around with numbers. Well, they were the first ones, let's put it that way; they were. Have you ever wondered how things might be fulfilled? How it's going to be happening, you know, played around with maybe? Have you ever fooled around with 1260 and 1290 and 1335? But you don't know until it’s time and then God gives it.

I have. I have a little folder in my drawer, and I go to it and I wonder if this fits in that. You know, it’s a futile thing, but I get some excitement out of doing it once in a while. Because it's not going to be there until God gives it. But I keep doing it because I think one of these days, that'll be the time. And maybe it will be. I don't know!

But there's so much we don't have. And there are some things that have fit into some definite time patterns, but what's ahead of that we don't know. We can look back and say, “Oh, yeah, that fits, that fits, that fits,” but looking ahead, we don't know until God's time. Incredible.

So again here, searching what, or what manner of time, the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify. It was God's spirit in them, brethren, about Christ. See, if we're not careful we can read things into something that was never intended. God's spirit. Because it’s about Christ.

Sometimes translating things out of Greek or out of Hebrew into English, people have been very limited. I think of the book, going to put a couple of them out here that have been translated into Dutch. I don't know what it means, but I know it says the same thing as what was written in the English. I have confidence that it has, see, of the work that they’ve put into it over there in the Netherlands, in Belgium. Incredible.

And something that really comes out in a situation like that is you can't go word by word. You must go by the thought, the spirit of what’s being said. You must translate according to the intent of what is said. And so much that’s recorded in the Bible, when it's translated out of Greek or out of Hebrew, Aramaic, or whatever, mankind has been limited because they don't understand the plan of God. We do.

So, some things that may be awkward sometimes, the more we study, the more we learn, because of the spirit of God, we know what is true. Incredible.

It's like 1st John in talking about some of those verses in there when it talks about Jesus Christ. I'll just turn to a couple of, one of them. You don't need to turn there, but I just want to give you this as an example.

I remember I was back in Lubbock when some of these things began to happen, and it was back in '82-'83 in through there. When it goes through in Chapter 4 and talks about trying the spirits.

And it says, 1 John 4:2—Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh is of God. And so, most people, and even within the Church, brethren, have used that to think it is talking about the return of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ that’s coming. And so, it is about whether or not he came in the flesh. And yet, that really has never been an issue – not even with the Protestant world, you know. So, how could that… What does that mean?

But by God's spirit knew that that meant he is coming in us, living his life in us. But not until Pennsylvania, at one time finally came across a book by Zediadees that made clear in the Greek, it is like in English, present-progressive, “is coming in the flesh.”

So, there are things that God gives to us sometimes in understanding that we don't fully know— What can you do with it until God gives more?—that we just know? It's a spiritual matter. And there are not always things that you can go to. They're just there in your mind. God gives it, we hear certain things, and we just know it's true. It's an amazing thing how God's spirit works with human flesh.

As a matter of fact, most in times past who have been in the Church, has not been because of their studies of what they have been able to read in the Bible or from a magazine. They didn't have them. It's by what they heard and by the convictions of things they heard, and they wanted to go the Sabbath services to hear what the minister had to say because they were drawn by God's spirit. And that's how they learned Sabbath by Sabbath by Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day to Holy Day. Because God just places it in the mind and brings the understanding. It's an awesome thing.

So again, searching what, or what manner of time, the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ. So, what was testified? We read a part of it. There are things in the Psalms, there are things in the Old Testament that talked about one who was going to suffer. There are specific prophecies that are quoted in the New Testament, specific things that were quoted there about Christ. It's like that Rock. It's like what we read earlier in 1st Corinthians, and that Rock that followed them was Christ. And yet they had the spiritual water, the spiritual drink, the spiritual... But they didn't get it. And that's the way it is here until it is time for God, until it is time to be revealed and it's time to be given.

So again, when it testified before the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. There are things that had been talked about throughout time about Christ, from God, of things that would be fulfilled and done. They're all about Jesus Christ, about His Son.

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us that did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the holy spirit sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into.

Things are still being revealed. There are things they have not understood. There are things they have not known. And they desire. Which ones? All of them. Those that have fallen and those that are excited by what God is doing day by day by day by day, who have been faithful to serve God.

And by those that have fallen because of their perverted ideas and ways and things that they believe, but don’t, but with perverted minds think, even with all that, that they can change or interfere with or do certain things with. And God allows what He allows.

You know, it's an awesome thing to understand the power of Almighty God. It's like wars that are fought in the world, that God could stop any of them at any time. He could do whatever He wants, but He lets man do what he wants. He has in the angelic realm, too.

I marvel at what it says there in Daniel when it talks about, you know, the angel would have been there sooner, Gabriel, I believe it was, but he was withheld because there was a spiritual war. God could stop that just like He can a physical war, but He doesn't choose to do so. There are things that the angelic realm is learning. There are things that we will learn in time more about God because of that. Awesome, brethren, awesome. God is all powerful and can do what He will whenever He desires. And His will is, as a whole, with mankind for 6,000 years, let him do his own thing. But He's going to bring an end to that, thank God, soon.

Verse 13, it says, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, to be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And so, as He's revealed to us more and more, the grace we receive of God. And we grow in that more and more, and more is revealed and more is given.

...as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts of your ignorance, but as He... Who is it talking about? God Almighty, who has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conduct or conversation. But it's the word that means conduct; generally comes out in conversation.

Because as it is written: be you holy for I am holy. Who is this? In Leviticus 11, it's a quote out of Leviticus 11:44. Just jot it down. I'm going to read it to you because it says the same thing. Leviticus 11:44—For I am Yahweh your God, you shall, therefore, sanctify yourselves, you shall be holy for I am holy. Yahweh said that.

Let’s go on: And if you call on the Father... Ah, is there any mistake? Is there any doubt of who it's referring to, of what the context is all about? Of how we are to be holy because He is holy? He is the Father. We should know it by context, brethren.

Who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Who verily was foreordained... I love this. It’s beautiful. Predetermined. Predetermined, brethren when we understand it, before time, before the earth ever existed, before... Awesome!

...who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. God has never done anything in His plan... When the plan is a plan, it is a plan and it goes from one end to the other, exactly as God designs it. Nothing messes it up. Adam and Eve didn't mess it up. He knew what they would do. The world didn't mess it up before Noah. God knew what they would do. The fact that the Israelites didn’t follow God, didn't obey God, God knew what they would do. The fact that there would be twelve, that there would be a temple, four sides, three entrances, it was not by coincidence, that which is spiritual with physical analogies of things that are going to exist and be.

God designs perfectly. 144, 000? That wasn't decided sometime after the flood or sometime after Abraham or sometime after Moses. They were foreordained. This is what God is going to do. This is what God is going to make, and this is how He is going to do it. That is the power and might of your God. And we need to honor that and respect that and love that and thank God for His greatness and His majesty and His perfection of beauty of everything He does. We truly do.

Who verily was foreordained, speaking of Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world, but was manifest... He wasn't manifest until a specific time. ...in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God. It's the same – Yahveh. ...that raised him up from the dead. We've already gone through that in Acts. We know who raised him up from the dead, Yahweh, all in the context of the Father. ...and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

God is always first, brethren, above all, above all in the family. Everything is geared toward the Father! And thank God He has a plan that's in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. But the glory and the majesty and the honor, brethren, is all of our great, omnipotent, all-powerful, almighty, eternal living God. Awesome, awesome, awesome, the God we serve, the God who calls us that are so feeble, so weak, so small in human flesh. But He loves us so much because He has such an incredible plan. And how He works with us as human beings so we can change and grow and become different and our minds are transformed, and we begin to think differently. And the word begins to be in here more and more. God begins to be in here more and more and more.

Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. That's why we talked about this before the Feast in the two sermons, how important it is that it not be put on, pretentious, that it be genuine. ...unfeigned love of the brethren. Genuine. Not fake. Not put on. Not like the Protestant world.

I so loathe that spirit in the world. Unless it come from here [heart], from up here [head], from the spirit of God because He is changing us and He is helping us to learn how to love each other, genuinely so, out of true love.

That's why there has been so much suffering in the Body in the last few years, so that we can learn that more deeply. And some who carry that burden carry a great burden. But, oh how it is a blessing to the Body. I see greater compassion, greater mercy, greater caring, greater empathy. And God's done it all by what He gives to us and lets us experience in life that can actually benefit others.

He doesn't take it all away or keep it from happening! What do we learn then? We tend as human beings to become spoiled; we tend not to learn under those conditions. But boy, can we ever learn through suffering. What a paradox of the human life. What an awesome thing to understand, that it’s through suffering that we grow spiritually. Amazing.

A whole Body that feels for a whole body. What is a more beautiful thing to God? That we come into greater unity of that. A Body where there's greater care and love and hurt…we hurt when others hurt. And when others are blessed, we learn to rejoice in that, too, and not be jealous or envious or whatever it might be. We become more genuine with God.

Verse 21 again. I’m going to back up here. 1 Peter 1:21—Who by him do believe in God. By him. Talking about Jesus Christ. ...that raised him up from the dead... Makes it very clear who it is here, Yahveh, that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, and is the Father in context here, as we have been reading. ...and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. First, first, first, always, always, always. We pray to the one great God, El Shaddai, Yahweh, our Father, in and through Jesus Christ.

Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. And the more we can yield ourselves to that process, the more you will receive what God has for you, to the degree, candidly, of what God has for you, and to what you will be able to be used as in whatever in those things that are yet to come. God is preparing and molding us for things to come.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by... Oh, this is going to come out more – the logos of God. When we come to understand that more deeply, what that is brethren, spiritually. We receive something from God Almighty, from El Shaddai, from Yahveh. He is the one that determines our calling. He is the one who determines who will be awakened. And we're not better than anyone else but we have the blessing and opportunity to share, and so, we must yield ourselves to that process because we want that, we desire that, we're thankful for that. We're grateful for the mercy and the grace and the patience God has with us and we love Him dearly for it – and His Son that makes it possible.

And so, even when we're drawn and called by the Eternal God, and we're drawn by Him—He does the calling—and we're given to His Son to begin a process of being in the Body, the Church of God, the Body of Christ, and we begin to grow spiritually. But that process primarily begins… We can be drawn, but it begins when you have an impregnation take place in your being because of a covenant relationship you make with God at baptism. And then that transformation that begins to take place in your being of a spiritual nature because of the impregnation of God's spirit in us. Begotten. Like a baby in the womb growing until the time of birth when we will be changed from mortal to immortal, or resurrected from the dead, from dust to spiritual.

All made possible, brethren, because of the word of God that comes into your being, into your mind that reveals things to you. The source… The source is God Almighty, as it is with all things that are true and perfect and right. Agape. The Word. It is God. Everything about it sums up God, what God is. And an awesome thing to understand how that became flesh to dwell on the earth. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. One Son, no other one ever like him—no purpose in God's plan— the one who would be of mankind and who would be of God.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the word (the logos) of God which lives and abides forever. Incredible, because it's God, from God, God the Father, Yahweh, El Shaddai.

Well, we're going to get more at the Feast here, that's great. I'm already in Part 2. I want to maximize the time that is given to us. We're going to keep going.

Let's go back and pick up on some things we didn't zero in on in Acts 2. Build some more, just look at the verses more specifically even, things that are very foundational to what we are going to be addressing in the rest of the Feast. Because it’s important that we go back and actually look at some of these and bring some of these out in different areas and some of the other things we've been talking about here. There is so much contained here.

Acts 2:22—You men of Israel, here these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of GOD among you by miracles and wonders and signs...  “A man approved of God,” to be who God said he would be through time.  ...which GOD did by, or as it is, through him (through Christ), in the midst of you as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of GOD, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom (Jesus Christ) GOD has raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held of it.

Let’s go back to Psalms 16 and just see, brethren. All that Peter is quoting here, they’re from different areas of scripture, but this is one area we're going to focus on right now. Concerning God raising up Jesus Christ is from Psalms 16 here, and verse 8, again, just to make it real clear, abundantly clear what’s being said here.

Psalms 16:8—I have set (as it is) YAHWEH (the Eternal) always before me because HE is at my right hand... You know, same words. It's the same thing because that is where it is from. I shall not be moved... It's what Jesus Christ is saying. There are things as time goes along that are going to give confidence to people because of things they are going to see in scripture that are written about them, to give them boldness and strength and help and power to go through what they must go through and what they must do. It is God's way. And when God shows those things and reveals those things, it shows everything that must be done and accomplished, it's an awesome thing.

Verse 9—Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices, my flesh also shall rest in hope for YOU (Yahweh) will not leave my soul in sheol (in the grave). Neither will YOU suffer or allow YOUR holy one to see corruption. YOU will show me the path of life. That's why I marvel at what Jesus Christ says there in John 14. Everything he did, “the words that I speak, they are not mine. They are the Father's.” “They are the Father's.” God is first above all. Everything proceeds from the Father. The holy spirit proceeds first and foremost from the Father. The word proceeds first and foremost from the Father. Agape proceeds first and foremost from the source of it all, God Almighty. And these are the things being spoken of here. The awe, the love, the respect, the desire that Jesus Christ had toward his Father is awesome.

YOU will show me the path of life; in YOUR presence is fullness of joy. We can't even begin to imagine, brethren, what it's going to be like to be spirit. Because as human beings we have a battle inside of us that Paul speaks of, a war. And there is that which causes disappointment, frustration, anxiety, stress, unhappiness. But when that's all gone? I can try to imagine it and I do, but to grasp it, because I've never experienced it, and neither have you, so we can't know it fully. We believe it and we get closer and closer to it; it becomes more and more exciting to us.

YOU will show me the path of life, in YOUR presence is fullness of joy; at YOUR right hand there are pleasures forever more. And we inherit all things through and with Jesus Christ. What God has planned for us, brethren, is awesome.

Let's go back to 1st Peter. These things are said over and over and over again, brethren. Again, just making sure we focus on these things and have them drummed into our head, that these things are so foundational. And this first sermon is what we need to have deeply engrained in our being so we can receive more and more of what God gives to us, to bring these things alive more and more.

And back up a few verses here 1 Peter 1:2—Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Elect. God had a plan, just as we talked about earlier, of those who would be in His family, of the purpose for mankind on the earth. Absolutely, He has a plan and how He is going to bring us into His family from the beginning of time that man was put on the earth.

It says “Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God.” God had a plan of how He was going to work with the Church, of different ones He would work with over 6,000 years. Of the first of the firstfruits… I should say, the first of the firstfruits, of course, is Jesus Christ, but the rest of the firstfruits that would come at the return with Jesus Christ.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the spirit. Because He gives us His spirit. And that's what sets us apart from the world. You know what sets us apart from the world? You know what sets us apart from all people? What He puts in your mind because His spirit comes into your mind and He gives you His word. His word is in your being; it's in your mind, the logos of God. We are sanctified by the word of God. It's the truth. And we are unique and different from others because of that, because we are of God, who is our Father, because of that.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied.  So often we read through things like that and they don't have the impact that they need to have in our lives, and the greetings and so forth sometimes.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. How can someone be the Father without being the Father? If His life is given into human flesh, who is the Father? Someone that gave themselves up in order to be there? It just didn't fit brethren. There is a Father – the Almighty God, El Shaddai, Yahveh.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Let's go over to Ephesians 1:17. Just some things, brethren, just should pop out by context alone, but it's amazing that they can't until God lets them. But until that time they are restricted and held back. And so is the ability to see and appreciate more deeply. That’s the significance of all this that will grow in you more and more.

Ephesians 1:17—That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. God does it. He’s the one that reveals. Whatever is ever given that is spiritual, God has to reveal it through the holy spirit to us.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, as hopefully and prayerfully they are now, that you may know what is the hope of His calling... God does it brethren. …and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ, which He worked in Christ. His plan to save us, to bring us into His family – the only way that it could ever happen.

So that we can be passed over, our sins and our filthiness as human beings, so that it can be wiped clean because of Jesus Christ's sacrifice. Being able to be at spirit, in spirit, at one with God because we can go before our Father and say, “Father, forgive me. Help me. I don't want to be this way. I don't want to have such feelings in my mind, in my being. I don't want to talk to people or think about people in the wrong way. I want to do as you have commanded, to learn to love, to be a peacemaker.”

...which He wrought in Christ when He raised him from the dead. Is there any doubt in context who it is? It speaks of Him being the Father in verse 17. God, clearly, that raised up Jesus Christ as it says here, from the dead, and set him on His own right hand in the heavens.

And this is from Psalm 110:1. You can just jot it down; you don't need to turn there. Because, see, it just tells it over and over again, some of these scriptures that are quoted out of the Old Testament. The Lord, Yahweh (Psalm 110:1) … This is where this is from. ...said unto my Lord. Again, a different Psalm. We read earlier, Psalm 16. This is Psalm 110, David speaking, and David says “He's my Lord.” You better believe it. And he's his Christ! When David's resurrected. What an awesome thing, he came from David, through David, the lineage of David. And David recognized him, prophetically so, that he was going to be his Lord and his Christ, the Messiah who would reign over Israel. Far greater than David.

The Eternal (Yahweh) said unto my Lord, sit you at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Over and over and over again, scriptures quoted in the New Testament that make it very clear who Yahweh was – God Almighty, El Shaddai, the Eternal God.

Ephesians 1:21. What was that, verse 20? Yes, verse 21—Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the Church. God gave it. Yahweh gave it. ...which is his Body, the fullness of him that fills all in all. From God the Father through Jesus Christ, to become part of the Body of Christ, the Church of God.

And this from Psalms 8. Just jot it down. I'll read it to you. Psalms 8:1—O Eternal, Yahweh. That’s the word. Our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who has set Your glory above the heavens. See it's just like it says, this is his Lord. You know there are descriptions of the function and the job, and so many that Jesus Christ, we're going to see as time goes on here, describe him. But certain names are restricted to certain ones. And Yahweh is one of those.

O Eternal, our Lord, how excellent is Your name throughout the whole earth, who has set Your glory above the heavens. (Verse 4) What is man that You are mindful of him? And the son of man that You visit him? This is that verse that's repeated back in Hebrews as well.

For You have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet. And that's what Hebrews is all about. It begins with Jesus Christ because it says we don't yet see all things put under his feet, mankind's feet, but we do see Jesus Christ, that all things being put under his feet. That's what it is talking about when you read it in Hebrews there.

Let's go on and read another one. Galatians 1. We'll probably stop there. So again, Ephesians is clearly speaking of God, of the God of Jesus Christ, and of Yahveh as being his Father. It's unmistakable when you put the scriptures together of different areas that are quoted here, of Psalm 110 and Psalm 8. It makes it abundantly clear who is being spoken of.

Beautiful verse. Let’s just read these in Galatians 1:1. They mean so much more, brethren, when we know, when we understand, and the beauty and the glory and the love of God. Paul an apostle, not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. Unmistakable, with all the prophecies. Brethren, the glory and the honor is to God Almighty first and foremost.

And that's why in our prayers we love our Savior and our High Priest, Jesus Christ, but all things are through him to the Father. That's why we say in prayers “In Christ's name.” We have access. That's what Hebrews reveals. That we have access, finally, into the Holiest of Holies, which means to the Father, El Shaddai, Yahweh, through Jesus Christ. And so, we say, “in Christ's name,” “in Jesus Christ's name, amen.” “So be it” or we are in agreement, this is the way it should be, in essence, or we desire it to be a petition.

Verse 2—and all  the brethren which are with me unto to the Churches of Galatia, grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. When we read it we've never had difficulty in believing about God, but we just, a little bit, just a little bit was lacking that helps us to understand something far greater and far more inspiring. And I hope it does to you as you go along, brethren.

...who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. It's been God's plan from the beginning. It's being accomplished by God Almighty. It is the work of God through time.

These days we are picturing, the fulfilment of them, so thankful to be here. I'm really thankful to be here because I know I came close to not being here. But it was God's will that I continue on and be here, and for this purpose and for more to come.

...according to the will of God our Father. And brethren, those things are not a matter of haughtiness and pride, they're a matter of confidence and boldness and strength that God gives because we believe Him and what He says, because we understand when He tells us the things He does and leads us by His spirit. The very fact of what we are going through is what gives greater confidence and boldness and strength and power to do what lies ahead.

...according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen