The Revelation of the Word of God, Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

October 22, 2005

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon

This is going to be a two-part sermon, beginning today. This is Part 1.

You know, the means by which God reveals His plan and purpose to mankind, the way that He works with us and molds and fashions us through a process of a continual revelation… Because that's how God works. We can't receive everything at once. It's a growing process. We mature, we become more at one with God. It's an ongoing, continuing process in our life. As much as the receiving of God's spirit, of Jesus Christ and God the Father living in us, it's a matter of continuing to live within us. Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh and it's a continuing on growing process. And the learning and the growing is always an on-growing process.

To me, it's an awesome thing how we can read certain things in the Bible and hear a particular sermon and certain things don't pop out at us; may with someone in the Body, something else may pop out. And we go through the same thing maybe a year later or a month later, or listen to a sermon tape... How many times I've heard people tell me they've listened to a sermon and then all of a sudden, they wonder, "Why didn't I hear that before?"

There's a growing process, and God is molding and fashioning each and every one of us.  It's an incredible thing to understand. And this process is only on a spiritual plane; it's a spiritual process.

Once we begin to better understand the process, the more we'll understand God the Father and Jesus Christ. We'll come to a deeper appreciation. There are things we've already understood and know. When you've prayed, you've always prayed to the Father through the Son. It's always been that way, always will be that way in our lives.

But it's an incredible thing to understand that the more we understand about God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, as well as come to a fuller and more complete understanding, we'll grow in that, in appreciation of how God works in us, in mankind, to lead us into His family. As we're learning more about God the Father and His Son, learning more fully how such a relationship exists, some of the sermons we are going to be going through here, and have been going through, but even more so today, it helps to reveal some of that – how this relationship exists, how God works in us. And as we're learning that, then we can more fully grasp what that relationship means to each of us in a deeper way.

The title of this sermon, again, is deeply meaningful, brethren, and I truly hope that by the end of the sermon and the sermon series, you will far more deeply appreciate the words in the title. The sermon is entitled The Revelation of the Word of God, Part 1.

It is a revealing process. God's plan throughout the ages has followed this pattern, that from the beginning He has continually and consistently unveiled His plan and purpose for mankind in an ever-increasing manner. That in itself is an awesome story. We've talked about that, from the very beginning with Adam and Eve and then through time, through Abraham.

You know, when you give a promise to someone, like He did to Abraham, and then Isaac and Jacob, about a people that would come from them and become great on the earth, it's one thing to know something, it's another thing to see it, to have experienced it. And so, we came to a time, finally, when we came to the point of Moses when God began to work with a nation and began to reveal more. Continual revelation to mankind of what He was doing.

And although people in the time of, say, Moses himself and Joshua understood more than some of those that were before, they were all judged by the same thing. You don't have to have all knowledge of certain things in order to be worked with by God. You don't have to have everything in the Bible, but there are those things that are most basic that we must do. And how God judges us is according to, primarily, first and foremost, the law of God, the way of God.

And that understanding, obviously dependent upon us and our relationship with Him, our relationship with one another, how we really live this way of life. It all boils down to relationships. Because if we can't get that, if we don't understand that, if we don't grasp how the Great God desires to have a relationship with us and that we learn it in this physical life and we begin practicing and applying it, how can He give us more? And so, He has revealed more about His plan and purpose through time in a great way.

When Jesus Christ came, he began to reveal more about Yahweh. He began to reveal more about a plan that God had to be fulfilled through him. And then the apostles, God gave them more and more.

I was talking this morning to someone about John. John was given a lot more, brethren, than Paul and Peter and the other apostles before him. He was the one who lived the longest; the others had died, and John continued on. But he lived during the same period of time. He was molded and fashioned. But, you know, he didn't stop with what they had up to the point in time that Peter had lived or that Paul had lived, and when they died. God continued to give him more and more and more and more, and quite candidly, on a spiritual plane that is awesome.

There were things that came through him that the apostles didn't know, before him. The apostles before him didn't know, didn't understand; that God revealed more. And although he wrote the book of Revelation, you know, the things that were written in the book of Revelation, he didn't understand them.

As much as Daniel didn't understand the things that he wrote, and God just told him, "Daniel, just shut up the book. It's not for you. It's for the end-time." It's for the end-time. It's for the time of the end. And that's when God will reveal it. That's when God will begin to give it.

And God has been giving that! And we don't understand it all. We don't understand all the things that are going to happen here, leading up to the Seventh Seal being opened. We have a better picture of some of those things than what we had ten years ago or twenty years ago because of a consistent, continual revelation from God, but we don't see it all by any measure. We just believe and we continue to follow, and He continues to mold and fashion us. And at different stages, in His time, He reveals things to us.

That's why some of these things can be a rather difficult when we come to a point like this, of something of the magnitude of what we're discussing today, and have been discussing, and will continue to discuss through the rest of the Feast, because we tend to think back about what God gave through Mr. Armstrong. And a bit of a change... It's not "a bit of a change," it really is a big, big change in one particular area. But he couldn't help that. He wasn't judged by what we're given today. You are judged by what you're being given, but he wasn't and those who lived during Philadelphia weren't.

Moses was not judged by the things that Jesus Christ revealed later on that Moses didn't know about. Moses was not judged by the things that came through the apostle Paul and Peter and John. Because all of us have been given a very strong basis of how we are to live our lives, and it has to do with obedience to God in the things that we're given with the things that we do know. And that is so important to understand!

So, it's an awesome story how God has continually, and in an increasing manner, revealed Himself. We're going to learn so much at the return of Jesus Christ that we don't know now. There are going to be things flood into your being and into your mind (speaking of the 144,000) that you cannot contain now. And all of a sudden…

The closest thing we have in understanding to it is like a computer, and you download something, and that download depends upon the kind of connection you have. Well, there is no connection like God Almighty in what He has prepared for us and the kind of ability we're going to have once we're spirit, no longer physical, and the mind. He is going to give us so much more. There are things that are going to come into your being; you're just going to know.

That's why I marvel in thinking about (if we look at it in physical terms here), Jesus Christ returning, the 144,000 there, and undoubtedly this is why some think they have to have a longer period of time. Like, some think there has to be a resurrection at Pentecost so that there's time to learn what you need to learn, so that when you come back down with Christ, you're going to know, kind of, what to do! "Because it's going take some time, doesn't it?"

And some have the belief that, "No, it's just thirty-days in advance." Some of the groups, different ones out here, teach some of these things. One individual, as an example, or one particular group has a part of this idea that thirty-days in advance there's going to be a resurrection. Not of those who are still alive, just those who are dead. So, they have the advantage of being resurrected first to learn and then the others kind of have to follow behind, evidently the 144,000, and when they get down here then they'll be told what to do. Just, "You don't know what's going on. Just follow us. We've been told in the last thirty days." It doesn't work that way! It doesn't work that way!

When the resurrection takes place (before all the other things happen that are pointed out on that one day… On that one day when all are resurrected that are dead, and then right behind them the change that takes place and those who are alive... And they're all resurrected in that one day and they come back in the same day and they all know what to do.

If you can grasp that in its truth and reality, everything here will come alive more. Everything about Jesus Christ will have more understanding in it and a greater appreciation.

God just gives it to us that day. You don't have to wait, that there are 144,000 using the same connection. Some of you don't appreciate that one. It's a little slower the more you have on a system, and it can drag it down. It takes a little while longer for the download and the upload and everything else, okay? Not with God, and not with us.

With what God gives to us when we're changed, we cannot fully grasp now. We cannot understand it now. I believe it. You believe it. But we don't grasp it by any measure, of how great, how awesome it is.

When you're a spirit being... When you are a spirit being... And God's not going to give you everything. But when He gives you more of His mind... Because that's what He does on that day. God Almighty will give to you more of His mind, those things that you need, and some things individually concerning you and you alone. But others in that Body are going to know what you have been given, and you alone.

The 144,000 are going to work together in a unity and a harmony and with power that is only made possible by this thing that takes place when they're resurrected, and God communicates it to their mind immediately. And they can receive every bit of it because there are no limitations to God. God is not limited! We are! "Well, it's going to take, since, you know, Pentecost. They got to have some time to learn all this. It's going to take thirty days to learn all this." No, it happens in an instant.

In an absolute instant you're given all that you need to understand. No longer carnal, no longer physical, no longer having the pulls—"the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”—because you have been tried and tested and God knows you! And He gives you spirit life, eternal life, and with that a mind that receives so much so quickly, and you just know. You see it all; it is so clear to you. It's of the spirit.

We're limited because we tend to think physically with physical limitations. We do not grasp nor perceive the magnitude of our Great God and the power He has to give something in the mind. We just taste of a little bit at a time when God begins to draw us and all of a sudden we see the Sabbath. Wow! All of a sudden we learn about some promises that God gave. We believe it; others in the world don't.

Some in the world do, but they don't see the rest of the picture, that there's a lineage from David on down and that throne still exists. We think, "Wow! Awesome!" The Holy Days? Passover? I've never heard of Passover. I'd never heard of Passover. Pass over what? It's two words to me. What am I going to pass over? Unleavened Bread? What on earth are you talking about? Bread, I know. Unleavened, I don't. Pente-cost. I've heard about a lot of things, how much they cost. But Pentecost? I never heard of. Trumpets?  Knew basically what a trumpet looked like – had no idea of what it had to do with the plan of God. Incredible, brethren!

And when God just puts it in your mind, it's just there. It's just there. It's not a matter of your intellect. It's not a matter of how smart you are. That's what happened to too many. They became lifted up with their own abilities, began to take on the credit, the ability themselves, and didn't understand that God was just giving them things to share in. And as long as they had that mind of gratitude and thankfulness and recognition... Because when the other works in, it's what Satan did. Lifted up with pride, rich and increased with goods. "Look at me!" And then we lose it. Incredible!

So, from the time of placing the first man and woman on the earth, then the flood, and finally Abraham and the promises given to him and his sons, which led to the nation of Israel and God leading them out of Egypt through Moses, then came the kings, and especially David, and God revealed more, much more. He kept revealing more; consistent in a growing revealing of God from God, about Himself, about His plan.

Then all the law and the prophets led up to the revelation and manifestation of God's only begotten Son on the earth at his first coming. Then understanding of more revelation, again, was given to the apostles in the Church. We've gone through all that. All of this was then magnified in this modern age of technology when God raised up Mr. Armstrong to be, to fulfill something He had determined before the foundations of the world, that there would be an Elijah to come. Of a purpose that needed to be fulfilled.

Brethren, it's all been mapped out. It's all been pre-determined. Not us, as who we are. That has been left by free moral agency and choice and families. But the places, the positions, those things that were there were all determined beforehand. The only one who was known, through and through and through, was Jesus Christ. All the rest of us... Adam and Eve (of course), a beginning there of what He was going to do and give to the first two.

But from then on, brethren, as a whole. You know, awesome to understand the process that man has lived through, that man has experienced. And an Elijah to come. God had determined that. The first Elijah to come, and the second in the spirit of Elijah, because they both had to do with something concerning the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Different roles, different functions, but in the same spirit.

And so again, we come to a time of great technology when God raised up Mr.  Armstrong to be the Elijah to come, who would not only restore truth to the Church but conclude his work with a book that would magnify and reveal even more of God's plan and purpose in the clearest and most concise way yet. To bring all of those fifty some years together and finally have something in our hands that told such an awesome story.

Such an awesome story, but God didn't give all. And yes, there is error, in what we are covering today, because God hadn't given all, brethren. But we're judged, as much as with Pentecost before we understood the right day, by what we were given. Okay? And now, just before Jesus Christ comes in the Kingdom of God to rule and reign on the earth for a thousand years, God is revealing more.

We just continue to grow, much like the apostle, John. And quite candidly, what God is giving to us right now is very akin, a type of what God gave to John beyond the apostles. It truly is.

So again, just before Jesus Christ comes in the Kingdom of God to rule and reign on the earth for a thousand years, God is revealing more and about to reveal and manifest much more to mankind. I hope we're starting to see and understand that, brethren. It has everything to do with what God is doing now.

So, let's pick up this story on a spiritual plane, magnified only through the power  of God's spirit, and let's seek to understand the process as it worked in and through Jesus Christ and in the Church.

Matthew 1:18— Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she found herself with child of the holy spirit. What would that be like considering the situation, the circumstances, the community? "Oh right... Right. We know how this happens." That's the way it was. The shame that would be there before the marriage that happens to us sometimes to us as human beings because we get caught up in things physically. And the same thing is true here, except in this case it was very unique wasn't it?

I want to mention something aside here while I'm thinking of it as well. Someone mentioned the other day here about going from David up to Joseph and the chronology there of the generations. When you read the one in, I believe it's Matthew, that is Joseph's. The one you read in Luke is Mary's. And it reverses itself. If you look at the order, it actually reverses itself. The one goes from the beginning, from David on through, I believe is how it's stated, or maybe before that. Whatever. It progresses up to the time of Christ. The other one is kind of a reversal of giving the genealogies. That's Mary's, from David. Okay? So, just so people understand, there are two different genealogies given there, and to understand that indeed, you know, Mary came from, she was from, through time in essence, the lineage of king David.

So going on here, She was found with child of the holy spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, you know, a noble individual, and not willing to make her a public example. He didn't want her to have to go through the shame of it all. And you know, it was probably kind of difficult for him. But he loved her and he believed her. And he believed more because of what was given to him, too.

He was minded to put her away privately. Perhaps they went somewhere else, I don't know, whatever they did, but to help her until the child was born. But while he thought on these things, behold... See, he had it in his mind to do things in a certain way because he didn't want shame upon her, you know, of what the community would say because they would never believe it. And then God did this: The LORD appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, you son of David, fear not to take to you Mary your wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the holy spirit. So, God used a dream. Doesn't say a whole lot about it. But he listened, because you just don't have these every other day, the kind that he experienced, how real, how powerful it really was.

For that which is conceived in her is of the holy spirit. And she shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus (Savior), for he shall save His people from their sins. God's plan: Passover now made manifest on the earth. Had not been made manifest on the earth before this. God began to teach it.

This is "the Rock that followed." God began to teach it in Egypt, through the means by which He lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, and all the lessons in that that had to do with something far greater than what they experienced physically.

That's what 1 Corinthians is about “and that Rock that followed them" in time, that was to fulfill those things that God began to reveal on a physical plane – but to us on a spiritual plane. Because they couldn't get it. It was all about Jesus Christ and the plan God had in leading them out of sin. They had to have a Savior. They had to have one who would die for them, whose blood would be spilled to the earth, worthy to pay the sins of all mankind. Some of those things are just sometimes a little difficult to grasp and comprehend – God's plan and God's purpose in those things.

Verse 22—Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the LORD, by the prophet. It's all about Yahweh. ...by the prophet, Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son. And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is “God with us.” Very meaningful. This is physical, and what it leads to is what is spiritual.

Matthew 3. There's much more beyond Passover, the Holy Days, and everything that's pictured in God's plan, and all about the process whereby we can become a part of God's family, in and through Jesus Christ, The Messiah, The Anointed One, the High Priest. Anointed High Priest, anointed King.

Matthew 3:13—Then Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptised of him. But John wouldn't allow it. He wasn't going to allow it. He forbade him saying, I have need to be baptised of you, and do you come to me? And Jesus answering said, Suffer it, or in other words, "Allow it to be so now," for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness.

In other words (kind of an awkward translation), "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." What does that mean? To fulfill the law. To fulfill the means. Of all those who will follow, there is a means of that which is pictured in our life of what we must do as human beings. He set that perfect example, went through the process himself, did what we all must all do. And there's much more to that if we think about it, our elder brother and what he did in his life.

Then he allowed him. Finally John did so; he listened to him. And Jesus, when he was baptised, went up straight way out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. Powerful. Just continually growing, growing in a greater boldness and confidence and strength and might and relationship.

And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And we cannot grasp the depth of pleasure that God had at this point in time. That's why we bring in the entire picture. Before the angelic realm existed, Jesus Christ was. The 144,000 were as well, the God family that followed, the God family that would come out of a Last Great Day! As far as God's concerned, it was, it existed; it just wasn't yet. That which was, will be, and God will do it. Different ways you can say it.

And so, God had this desire, this awesome desire, that just before Jesus Christ was getting ready to go out and say things to the world, to preach in the period of time that he had remaining before he was going to fulfil the purpose of his first coming, to fulfil the meaning of Passover in his life, and God so...

We can't grasp it! Over all this time, to be so excited about His Son and what His Son was getting ready to do on the earth. It is far more powerful than what we can fully appreciate and grasp, but God gives us a little and a little bit more so we can come to appreciate it and grasp it a little bit more as we grow. And what we receive will be in accordance to where we are.

And, you know, someone that's new in the faith is not going to be able to receive as much as someone who's been filled with God's spirit for twenty years, thirty years. You know, it depends then on how much we use it as well, but there's levels of growth in the Body – not to be compared with each other. That's not the purpose of it. Not to be superior to anyone, above anyone. It is just a reality of how it works in our life. If some of us would ever take it upon ourselves to have those feelings, that we were better than or we know more and "You've got to know what I understand," you've lost. You really, you know, it just isn't right. I hope we understand that. I know we do in most part.

"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The excitement. That's why there's such an excitement right now. Because His Son has come to another level. His Son has come to a time that God has so longed for, when man will no longer live in such misery.

You know, how hard is it? How hard is it when people experience things in life, and sometimes, as an example, we see things we want perhaps for our children, our grandchildren, and I hear people express things at times, and you have no control because it's the world. And you long for a time when your family and your friends and different relatives won't have to live in what they're living in now. You desire a better world, a clean world.

And I think of the confusion of religion – how horrible, how sick the world is. And yes, it is a miserable world. Caught me off guard on that one. Speaking about an interview. It's a miserable world, man's world, Satan's world, who is the god of this world, it tells us in scripture.

But the one that's coming, is one that God has longed for, for so long, when so much of the suffering of mankind will not be like it's been over the last 6,000 years. One government. One religion. One truth that is known and preached throughout the earth. We can't fully grasp that yet. We long for it. We know that it's going to have such a great change on the earth, an impact that we can't really grasp fully, and to live it and experience it. And God is excited! And God's anticipating this with great desire!

In this Feast of Tabernacles, you may not believe it now, but it's a great Feast of Tabernacles to God Almighty because what He gives is one of the greatest things He has given, brethren. To understand Him more fully, His plan and His purpose and His Son in a greater way is not a small thing to God, because He's letting us share in something that only the angels could share with, and His Son when he was born and as he grew and as this moment here took place when God said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

He was so excited to have that relationship, to have such a unique relationship in time that He had longed for for so long. And that just the beginning. The first of the firstfruits. Because through him, through that Son, God is going to bring in millions and billions eventually into His family. Do you think God's excited about where we are right now and what's getting ready to take place, and why He's sharing more with us? That's why I'm very moved, brethren, to think of what's going to follow this year. How much? When? How?

Brethren, God is getting ready to do things in and through people that has not been done in 6,000 years. That's sobering. He's going to give power. He's going to give strength, and something that has not been done in 6,000 years. But He's going to do it because it's such a momentous time. It's a time that precedes, just before the return of Jesus Christ with great power and glory and might manifested to the earth. And mighty things on a physical plane are going to happen in the environs of God's true Church and in the world.

So again, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." A lot of meaning there. A lot that is said there by Great God. It wasn't just a passing statement, that all of a sudden, you know... It's power. It's powerful.

Luke 1. And in every case, in all these things that are prophetic, in all the things that are said, in every case, always when you go back in the Old Testament, it was the word of Yahweh. Directly or through the prophets. Always, always, always, always, always the one Yahweh. There is no other. That's what He said again and again and again. And what an awesome thing that that can't be seen in spirit and in truth, in magnitude for what it is, until God gives it.

Luke 1:30—And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God. I guess! What an amazing thing! There would only be one human being in all of history who would experience this. One human being through whom God purposed, that in time He would have that one that would carry His Son to be born into the world.

And behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a Son, and shall call his name, Jesus. See, whenever we read this in the past, brethren, it's a story. Today I hope and pray it is more than a story. It sends chills down your spine, stand the hair up (whatever you have left), on the back of your head, because it is so incredibly awesome what was taking place. Greater appreciation, greater depth of understanding, so awesomely moving what the Great God of the universe was doing.

And he shall be great, and shall be called The Son of the Highest. Who is He? Who is the Highest? Yahweh. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. Who? Shouldn't be any mystery. The Lord God of all time will give unto him the throne of his father David. Prophecy after prophecy after prophecy about this fulfilment, and always, always, always, always, always Yahweh said it.

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and his Kingdom there shall be no end. Awesome, brethren! It really is. Incredibly inspiring!

Let's go over to John 1. These events are beyond words and cannot be fully grasped and appreciated for the depth and the reality they contain, except God's spirit reveal it. It's totally a matter of God's spirit to have the sense and the depth and the fullness of the appreciation, the gratitude, the excitement. Incredible. So, let's notice the greatest revelation of all in this phase of God's plan. John 1. It's a great, awesome revelation that God begins to give.

John 1:1—In the beginning was the Word. Now, by what we have already gone through, we should already know what this is. By what we have already covered, we should automatically know what this is. "In the beginning." When was the beginning? When was the very beginning of the beginning? Kind of nebulous, in one respect, because in the beginning was eternal life. In the beginning there was always God...before anything else had a beginning. And yet He has no beginning. But if you go back as far as you can go to a beginning, the first thing that was done was the creation of the angelic realm, and before that happened was the Word, was God.

And the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But we've had a little bit of difficulty with the middle one, "the Word was with God," because of what we had thought. Because we didn't understand. Because God didn't want us to have that yet. He allowed something else to be there.

So, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word…" it means what it says, "the Word was God." The Word was God.

To begin with, let's look at one word. It's the word "with." Again, it says that "the Word was with God." Now, if you're thinking of two different individuals being with one another, you are highly mistaken. You cannot use that word in this manner. In scripture, it's not right. There's another word in Greek that means "with" when you have two parties with, with each other. See it doesn't fit. It doesn't work. It isn't right.

And so again, how we take it depends upon our minds and our definition. But our definition of the English word has been because of a belief that wasn't fully clear, that God hadn't manifested yet. But that's an error. Let's notice how it's used. I want to go through a few verses.

I didn't even know that some of these like this were here. Started just kind of yesterday, going through and going back and looking at some other verses that had the same word "with." And after a while, I started laughing. I started having fun with it. I told my wife, "This is, to me, it's humorous." Part of this reminds me of The Bible Story and the pictures. You remember some of the pictures in there? Basil Wolverton? Some of the pictures in there, there's just certain pictures of things he drew that... Very graphic. And a couple of these reminded me of some of that.

But let's just notice how this word is being used in other verses. You can jot these down; just let me read them to you. You don't have to rush to them until we get to a certain point, then you do need to turn to it.

Matthew 26:18. Listen, And he said, Go into the city... Go into the city to such a man. That word "to" there is the same word "with." "Go into the city with such a man, and say unto him..." Well, if he's with him right then, why did he have to go into the city to say it to him? It's a word that means "unto," "go to/unto."

And so he told them, Go unto the city unto such a man, not "with" such a man, and say unto him, The Master says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at... Same word, "with." Saying, see, "keeping the Passover with the house." It means "at the house" if you understand the definition. "To the house." "Unto the house." "At the house." Maybe it's not humorous to you, but as we go along, hopefully it is. But we keep the Passover. When we come together on the Passover, if you use the word "with," we... something that we have "with" us is the towel, is a basin. We have the wine ready, but no one's ever come along "with" the house.

Mark 1:33—And all the city was gathered together at the door... Now, if you use the word "with" there... Just see Basil Wolverton with this great big door and everybody's there at the city with the door, holding up the door. See? Maybe, just can't find it humorous. I find it humorous because I picture this picture in my mind and all the people are there with the door. You know, they've come there "with the door." It's not what it means. It's where they gather together "at". "To/unto." "They gathered unto the door." This is where the gathering location was.

Mark 5:19. Notice, it says, Howbeit that Jesus suffered him not, didn't allow him, but said unto him, Go home to your friends. If you use the word "with" in there, you lose what he said, because if his friends were already with him, and then you're to go home, it just doesn't fit. It just doesn't fit. Go home to your friends and tell them, how great things the Lord has done to you, and has had compassion on you. If his friends were there and he was to go home with them, they already heard the same thing!

Mark 7:25—For a certain woman, it says, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him and came and fell at his feet. Came and fell "with his feet"?

Ephesians 3:14—For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not right to use "with" there. "For this cause I bow my knees with the Father?" The Father's bowing with you? It doesn't work that way, does it? Incredible.

Let's turn over to Mark 3 because here is one place where there is a word that means "with" in the way we have taken it in times past, and the other as well. They are different words with different use and different meaning.

Mark 3:7—But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples. Now that's the way "with" is used in the way we have looked at it in John 1:1; he was with his disciples. That's what it means.

So, he "withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea." He didn't withdraw with his disciples with the sea. It's goofy to say it that way. That's just where they went, "unto, to." That other word is, again, that same word in John.

So, there's a different word here when it says, "with his disciples.""But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples." That is the right word, "with," in this case. "...His disciples to" –the word we have looked at in John as being "with." Yeah, it makes no sense. It's just goofy.

So, He didn't withdraw himself with his disciples with the sea. You know, how do you carry the sea with you? How do you take it and transport it wherever you're going? It's goofy. It's a location. "Unto the sea" – that's where they went. And a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea.

Mark 9:9. Here's an example of how this word is used properly in context, as long as we understand what "with" means; being like "to" or "unto" or "at."

Mark 9:9—And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, until the Son of man were risen from the dead.  And they kept that saying with themselves; "unto themselves," brethren. They kept this unto themselves. ...questioning one another, "with one another," what the rising from the dead should mean.

So, amongst themselves they kept the saying "with themselves," but you have to have the right understanding of the word "with," how it's being used here; "unto themselves." They didn't spread it around to others.

Let's go back to John 1. If you don't see what I'm talking about here, just go back to it another time, another day, and pray about it and God will make it very clear.

John1:1, and we'll build upon it even more. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, "unto God." It was, in other words, it's saying very clearly, it was God's Word. That's whose Word it was. That's all its saying. That's everything that it's saying.  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God's Word!" That's the proper translation in spirit, in meaning.

That's why I love what was done with the book in Dutch. To use it as an example, when you translate something from one language to another, you can't do it word by word by word unless those words are exact and have the same meaning with them. Sometimes you may have to use a phrase or restructure it in order to get across the same thought, the revelatory thought of God.

There are things that are spiritual... We have to have an understanding of God, God's plan. The more we do, the more we grasp about what He says. It is the thought. What it the thought? Sometimes we used the expression, "What is the spirit of it?" "What is the spirit of the context of what's being said, the content of what's being said?"

And so, very clearly here, brethren, this is what it's discussing and saying. It wasn't a being, a separate being with God. On the contrary, it's just showing that this was unto God; it was God's Word. That's what it literally means. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God's Word, and the Word was God. It is everything that God Almighty is—His being, His mind, His thought—the revelatory thought of God, that which He communicates to others. It becomes revealing when He communicates His will, His mind, His being to others. That's how it's done; one mind to another. We're all coming into unity and oneness with that one mind. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," because it's GOD'S mind! God Almighty who has always existed. That's what we're to come into oneness with, and that alone, brethren. And it says it all, very powerfully so. That's what God wants us to grasp in a deeper way with greater appreciation, greater thankfulness, greater gratitude, and understanding. So again, it means what it says.

Notice, you know, this word here is "Logos." It's more than just "speech." It's not a word that is just simply spoken. Because words, we must understand what's being said, we must understand... You know, you have to understand someone else's definition of what they're saying. You must understand those words and definitions to make sense out of their thought.

How often have people not understood each other because they don't understand what's being conveyed? They misinterpret something that's being said. They don't really understand where you are coming from. You know, a lot of confusion, a lot of arguments, a lot of disagreements come because people have been unable to convey their real intent of what they're saying to someone else. A lot of misunderstandings come as a result of not being able to convey the thought, the intent of what we are trying to communicate.

So many things come that way, brethren, when it comes to disagreements or offence. Sometimes we can hear words and we become offended by it, not knowing fully what the individual's saying.

What an awesome thing to understand how God does it all. It's of the mind. It's of the spirit. It's not by words that come out of the mouth. It has to be conveyed through the spirit. That's how we learn it. The words do not have life unless the spirit is there. That's God's word, "logos." It's alive because there's spirit there.

And we as human beings cannot understand that until the spirit is there. We can read words and people can get all kind of religions out of this book by what they read into it, what they think they're receiving from it that they think is from God. But only God, with His spirit, can tell you what that word is. It's God's doings, bringing us into unity and oneness with Him, with His word, with His mind. It's an awesome... It's a beautiful thing, brethren, to understand. Awesomely, awesomely beautiful.

Everything that Jesus Christ was, everything that came out of his mouth was all of the Father. The source was the Father.

So again here, "logos.” It conveys more of the meaning, again, of "thought and intent of the word or words," and of course that means much more than just speaking God's word, as I said. It has to do with His meaning, thought, and intent of what He is conveying.

Most describe this Greek word "logos" to mean "that which embodies a conception or idea." That's the basic definition of it. "That which embodies a conception or an idea." To communicate the real thought that's in the mind somewhere else. That's done by God's spirit. And as it is sometimes referred to as "a revelatory thought," that's what Mr Armstrong used so often in some of the sermons he had and some of the writings as well. Right on. That's exactly what it is, the revelatory thought.

So again, John 1:1—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, because it's "unto God," it's God's Word, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. "The same was in the beginning unto God." That's where it was, because it's God. It's the mind of God. It's the being of God. It's His plan and His purpose and everything that proceeds from Him. So it was "unto God" and not unto anyone else. There was no one else around. Only "with" or "unto God." And that's what it means.

So again, the Word, the very revelatory thought of God was the only member, if you will, of the God Family, of Elohim. It was Yahweh, Almighty God.

Verse 3—All things were made by Him. Speaking of God and speaking of the Word because it's the Word of God. And so, what came forth from God through the power of His holy spirit, it was communicated, things happened, things were accomplished. The angelic realm was made, created. Everything proceeded from God because of His mind, His intent, His will, and His purpose, and the power went out and did it.

And without Him was not anything made that was made. It all goes back to the same source. What we see is what came from the mind of God. What we see is what God is – His mind, His being, His purpose. The angelic realm. We don't see it, but we believe what God says about it. It all proceeded from God's mind, the way He thinks, His thoughts. It's very basic.

You do things, whatever you're able to work with, God gave us ability to do various things in life.  Sometimes if it's artistic, or whatever it might be, it doesn't matter what it is, but it's something that you have a creative ability to do, different things that are creative by nature. And it comes from the way you think, from your mind.

You know, if you're painting a painting, oils, whatever it might be, or drawing a picture, someone else isn't doing it. It's not coming from the way they see it; it's coming from the way you see it. It's coming from what you visualise in your mind and what you're trying to communicate maybe.

Sometimes people do things to communicate something by what they even draw or picture. The words you write! If you write something down, you're doing it your way. There's not someone telling you, "Don't do your note that way. That's the wrong way to do your notes." You're the one that has to interpret them. When you jot down your notes that are pertinent to you and how you think, it's because of the way you think. They're your notes. They're not meant for somebody else. On and on it goes, brethren. How much more the being of God, the mind of God, the word of God, the way He does it?

And so, everything that has happened since the angelic realm, everything that went on to take place, the creation of the universe, it all came from that same mind. That's what we're being told. It's the same mind, the mind, the Word, that which exists there in all that He is, why He does what He does. And we see that in an awesome plan as He reveals it to us from Passover to the Last Great Day, and we're moved by it because it's the mind of God.

And God says every one of us must come into unity and oneness with Him, His mind, His word. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Total agreement in purpose and intent in all things we do. Differences in us? Yes. Different experiences that make us what we are.

Jesus Christ went through unique experiences that make him who he is, and most of that is pictured in Passover at the beginning. There is more to be given to the world later that's powerful, that's unique to him.

There are things unique to us. There'll be things unique to us in the God Family.

So, it's simply about the mind of God, the purpose of God, the will of God. It all emanates from Him; that's what we're being told. It's all from Him and no one else...no one else.

All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. That's right. Everything exists because of God's purpose, because of His will, because of His thinking, His own thought. Not your thought, not someone else's thought, but that which comes from Him, totally and completely.

In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. In the Word, brethren. You know, it's difficult in some of this in what sometimes of how we think. Because it's like the spirit. You know, sometimes because of the Greek language, it's maybe masculine and sometimes it's "it," and that has caused confusion in the world, you know, or "he," the holy spirit, referring you know... And we understand it's "it." It's not a being; it's the power of Almighty God. It's the means through which God reveals His mind to us. When you come to understand the Sabbath, you're coming to understand a part of the mind, the purpose, the will, the thinking of God.

When you come to understand relationships and that which is outgoing and that which is giving and not taking, but that which desires to share with others, that which goes beyond human thinking of love, that is not restrictive, but is the same with all. We can't do it. We strive to live it.

How do you love someone else as yourself? I can't do it, and neither can you. But you must work toward that because that is the mind of God. To love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your being; you cannot do that. You don't even know how to begin the first step of love until God reveal it to you. And God begins to give it to you, you begin to see it because it's of the spirit.

Isn't that an awesome thing to understand? What we can grasp, what we can see, the things of God. You know, God has to call us so we can even begin to love Him. The world doesn't love Him. They think they do. "Oh you're to keep...? You're saying we're to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath to God? That's done away with, that old, harsh law." They don't love God.

When you receive from God, when you receive what is God's, even about a relationship... Because, you see, the Sabbath is about a relationship. If you don't love God, if you don't believe God, you're going to go off and do... But if you love God, you will surrender your will and learn to love Him. It's a process you go through, learning to love God with His love.

He doesn't want it; He doesn't want just human love. He wants what we're able to receive from Him that returns to Him because we are coming at one with Him. It's a process we must go through. God gives us the ability to love because He wants more than philia in human beings. He offers more than philia to be in human beings, because philia is always selfish. It can't go beyond that because it's human from origin. Agape, on the other hand, is from God.

That's why what John wrote is so awesome and so far beyond anything else ever given in scripture, because it reveals things of the spirit and of the mind of God, the word of God, in ways that is revealed in no other place in the Bible. God gave awesome revelation, not just the book of Revelation, to John. Powerful, powerful, powerful what God gave. And God is building upon those things now, giving us that and more, if we can understand it.

And it has to do with where we are in time. It has to do with God's purpose and plan of where we are in time. And, brethren, all these things, God has mercifully given so we can go beyond where we have been, so we can go through things so much better, more with the mind of God, with peace and excitement for what is beyond what we're getting ready to go through.

That's an awesome thing to understand, the confidence and the boldness that He is offering us, the absolute mind that is there that you're willing to step forward and go ahead and do it. Because God gives it; He offers that.

Verse 5—In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. It's what lights up your mind, your life. We're in darkness. And even then, as we've talked about, we see through a glass just dimly, just a little bit, and then more and more as time goes on. And this is a part of what we are talking about, that which enlightens our life.

Before that, we're in darkness. The world is in darkness. And then God's word comes into our mind and we're enlightened on a spiritual plane. We begin to see the Sabbath. We begin to see the plan of God from Passover to the Last Great Day, and it enlivens us. It enlivens our life; it brings it alive. Words come alive. These words you read as you hear sermons, as you read your Bible, as the things we learn about God when we read them, they have life in them.

That's why I feel sorry for people who get cut off from God and for people this year who are at what they're calling the "Feast of Tabernacles" on a physical plane. Because the words they're hearing are words, and no light, and no life to move them, to excite them, to inspire them. It takes God's spirit to make His word come alive. It's a beautiful thing when you live it. And it's all from God through His Son, Jesus Christ, and there is no other way.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. Brethren, Jesus Christ became the light, the means by which mankind can receive light, can receive the word, the logos of God. Man can't receive it any other way. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

Verse 9—That was the true light, which lights every man that comes into the world. That's what it just said. Different words, same thing. It's the true light because the source is Almighty God, now through a Son, and it has come to enlighten the world, to give light and meaning, saving power to human beings, the ability to be forgiven of sin, the ability to begin a relationship with God, and the ability to continue to grow because He's coming into our life on a regular basis.

Both of them, the Father and the Son through the power of the holy spirit, live and dwell within us, and we in them in spirit of the mind and of truth. But there's a power involved that is spirit.

Verse 9—That was the true light, which lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world and the world was made by him – through. It's talking about, again, that "channel of an act" as we talked about yesterday. It's talking about the purpose of God – why did he come. His name is Savior, Emmanuel, "God With Us." God wants to be not only with us, but in us. He desires that we be in Him. And there is no other way, save through His Son.

All things, as we talked about yesterday... What are "all things"?  What is it all about? What is the angelic realm all about? What is the universe about? What is this earth about? What is man about? It's about Elohim, the Family of God. And this is the means; this is the way. That's what we're being told, very powerfully so.

It says, and the world knew him not. Because it's spiritual. And until God's spirit is there people can talk about God and Jesus Christ all they want to, and love, love your neighbor, and make it syrupy sweet and pukey. But it has no meaning in it. It has no life in it. And Jesus Christ came along and condemned every religion at that time, everyone, save those that were listening to the message from John, who wanted to repent, and those who were being prepared for Jesus Christ and the message he was going to give, the word that He was to give. He was Logos.

God... God, brethren, Almighty gave Him the word and the word was manifest, and it's the means through which we're able to receive that, brethren, into our lives. Things of the mind of God, the thought of God, the revelatory thought, everything that agrees with God began to live and dwell in human flesh. It's amazing! When we get to Melchizedek, it's going to be more exciting, more inspiring when you put it all together. It is awesome what is revealed in the book of Hebrews and why so much of that is written. It's a beautiful story of how God works and has worked through time and what His purpose is.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Awesome! And there's only one way that you can begin to believe what is true. That's because God the Father draws you, picks you out individually, gives you special blessing of sanctification.

If your parent is baptised that is why you're able to see things and receive things, because you, too, are being drawn as long as you are willingly desirous to do so. And God can open up things in your mind from a young child on up and you see certain things that other friends and your age do not see. But you see them. It's because God and God's spirit communicates something into your mind. You're not yet begotten. That comes at a different time when you're able to make that independent choice, of a maturity that God looks for in life to say this is the minimum requirement to come to this point of accountability.

But God does the calling. He draws us. And as He draws us, we begin to see things, we begin to understand certain things that are from God, that are communicated to us about God's will, about God's purpose, about His design, which was all in the beginning. It came from Him, brethren. It was His. Everything that exists was because it comes from Him.

That was the light, which lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world and the world was made by Him, again, knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. You know, the ones He had worked with, the ones that God had worked with, the Word, and then the lineage that was there of Judah.

And so the very one that was given that same word, that mind of God Almighty in him in a very powerful way as no other human being has ever had (can't have). And so, he was born of the tribe of Judah, and just because he was born of the lineage there, didn't mean they received it did they? They didn't receive what God had; it was just a physical lineage. "But as many as received him." And it goes beyond that, too, because it has to do with all mankind. And mankind wouldn't receive him; God has to do the calling first. God has to begin drawing us to give us the ability to see certain things.

Verse 12—But as many as received Him, again, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Something that comes from God.

Verse 14—And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. It's a beautiful verse. "The Word was made flesh." "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Incredible, brethren.

The Son of God, so unique, so mighty, so powerful, incredible in God's plan, what He purposed in His own Son and how His Son would be uniquely different from all human beings – spirit without measure. All of us have it in measure. Brethren, there are things that Jesus Christ...

We believe certain things, brethren. We believe things that God gives to us. We believe the age we're in. We believe that we're so close to the return of Jesus Christ. We have beliefs about the things we do, because of God's spirit. But think about Jesus Christ; being a physical human being, and yet filled, filled powerfully and mightily with the mind of God, his Father.

You know, when we come to a time of life when we have families and we have children, you see certain traits that are passed along. You can pick up certain things in different children that are you. Sometimes it's humorous. We see certain things that someone else does that might be of the wife, it might be of the husband, and we kind of chuckle a little bit inside because where do they get that if you haven't told them? And yet, it's just something that's automatic within them. And any parent knows what I am talking about. You've experienced, you've seen those things.

How much more on a God plane with His Son, the Word made flesh. The revelatory (the mind), the revelatory thought of God that was placed in a human being so that when it came time for him to pray, which he had to do, but he knew he had to do it. There was a relationship that he had with his Father. And he knew what was required of him in that physical body to accomplish what he needed to accomplish in a physical body.

When he fasted before he was tried (in essence), when Satan tried to trick him, cause him to stumble, tried to get at him to make him fail. He knew what part of God's plan he was; he just underestimated it like he always did. Unsound mind because of certain decisions he's made; can't see the reality for what it is because God's spirit isn't there. He's a spirit being but God's spirit is not there. Certain things he knows, from what he's experienced in his life... Yeah, there are things he knows. He knows that God said it. Incredible.

And then as he approached a particular point in his life, he went out to pray. And his disciples got tired. And this was late. You know, by the time they had roasted the lamb at Passover, they begin the roasting and then they begin to partake of it, because there is a specific time that they had to kill it and couldn't kill it until then, and then that particular lamb was prepared over a fire. And slowly, as meat tends to do, it began to cook until it was edible.

And that doesn't happen like we do today in a microwave or on some of our stoves when we cut it up. It was done whole. It takes a little longer when you do something whole like that. It takes a little while to cook the turkey all the way through, but the fire was hot. And so, they didn't eat at sundown. They didn't eat in the twilight of the evening after the sun had gone down. It was dark as dark could be, save for whatever was in the sky, and save for whatever fires they might have or torches. And then late at night, after he had spoken to them...

You know, when we have Passover we spend quite a bit of time going through what he said. We start talking about John 13, John 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 – sometimes all of it and sometimes a part of it. You know what, it just takes a little while to go through it all.

So even there, Christ, on the night that they ate the Passover, went through and gave instruction to his disciples, teaching them things about himself and about his Father and about what was getting ready to happen. Some of the most beautiful revelations ever given to man of how God would work in us, how we could have and grow in the mind of God, the word of God.

That's what you're to become at one with. You're to become at one with the word of God. That's what our struggle is. That's what our desire is. Everything of His word, of His way, of His plan, of His purpose is in His word, the revelatory thought that is revealed to human beings, that was made flesh and then began to be given on a more massive scale in the Church. It's a beautiful thing, brethren.

Passover this year will be a deeper Passover for you than you've ever had because of what you're seeing, because of what you understand, and because of an appreciation and a gratitude and a seeing. Because it's spiritual; it's not physical. And the more of God's spirit we have, the more we see, the more meaningful something becomes. Things will jump out at you in a greater way, be magnified in a stronger way. I'm looking forward to it. I hope we can keep it together.

James 1. This was an awesome revelation, a revelation that God gave through John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth."

So, the very revelatory thought that sums up the Word of God was made manifest, was revealed to mankind through the only begotten Son of the Father, Jesus Christ.

So, this is a process that works in every person who is begotten of God, but on a much smaller scale than what took place in the life of Jesus Christ. James 1:18. He was growing in something from his birth. By the time he was twelve, he dumbfounded the lawyers of the law, the teachers of the law. They were in awe at what they heard.

Because he was already about His Father's work. He was growing. Not just growing physically, but his capacity, his ability of more and more that God was giving to him. We grow! We grow rather slowly from the time we're called. God gives us a lot and we don't see everything about ourselves at first. If we did, we'd become so disillusioned. If we saw all of our human nature, we'd become so discouraged.

You know, it's only because of, for me, so much of what Paul wrote about how we are as human beings, that there's this battle within us, there's this struggle, the inner man which we agree with because it's the mind, the word of God in us that God has given to us, and we chose it, we want it, we desire it. And then we deal with this other thing – this temporary tabernacle that we dwell in, this temporary dwelling that we have as human beings that is (as it's described), filled with "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." Just a real kicker, isn't it?! Because it's all selfish!

And if Paul hadn't written those things in Romans, "Oh how," you know, "wretched!" You know, if we understand that, "Oh, wretched man that I am..."

That's why I love what it says in Revelation to the Laodiceans. They didn't understand that they're wretched. Something happened where they don't grasp that they're wretched anymore. They're lifted up with pride. They see themselves as better than what they are, "rich and increased with goods." Pride. Haughtiness. It's the only other place it's used. Two places.

"Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from body of this death?" Because he understood the magnitude of sin and the magnitude of the carnal spirit, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." And because of the spirit, he loathed it, but he recognised that there was this battle inside of him, and he said, I thank God, through Jesus Christ." That's how you're able to do it. That's what he goes on to say. That's how we have the victory. That's how we can keep up the fight.

But if those words weren't in there in Romans, there are times, brethren, that I would be so discouraged thinking, "How can God deliver me?" Because I stumble and I sin, and I'm so sick that I stumble and I sin. Drive down the freeway – those are small things – walking in the mall, seeing attitudes of people today. It's just getting worse and worse and worse on a horrible escalating scale. The filth that comes through on music, on the radio. It's just appalling! It's just pretty miserable, this human life without God.

But you know, we don't see that until He reveals to us what we're like as human beings.  We grow in the ability to see that because we grow in ability to see something different – God, God's way, God's desire, God's mind, the way of love, the way of outgoing concern for others, the way of the willingness to sacrifice for the benefit of someone else, a willingness to do that, a willingness to sacrifice.

Because what we generally sacrifice is self, and you know how self comes out? In pride. We're selfish as human beings. We're inward as human beings. And God lets us see something that's outward and sharing, and we choose it, and we want that, we desire that. And the more we see that the more we dislike this, the self, the more frustrating it becomes, and the more we desire to be rid of this tabernacle and to have another.

Paul talked about that too, you know, "Not in a real hurry to die, but I'm looking forward to my change!" I long for that change and so many of you long for that change, and not just because you got up this morning and things were creaky on you, didn't work real well, but because you see this, you see self and you see the way human nature is, and you see how much hurt and pain and suffering human nature's causing on the earth, and you long for what we picture at the Feast to become a reality, the Kingdom of God. Awesome, brethren, what God has given to us.

James 1:18—Of His own will we are begotten, or He has begotten us, with the logos. What you received when you are baptised, when you go down under the water and you come back up, you have made a covenant with God that you have desired, you choose that Jesus Christ, you have agreed with God that "I want to be forgiven of my sins. I want that old man buried. I want what is physically symbolised in that physical act that we do; to be one that grows in spirit, to put away the old man and to come up a new man, and walk in newness of life," and we desire that.

But there's more. We have hands laid upon us and we ask God to be begotten of the holy spirit. And the spirit is that power that conveys the mind of God to us! We are begotten of the Word of God that lives, that begins to dwell within us on a permanent way, brethren, as long as we will yield to that power working in our life so that we can grow.

Love the analogy Mr. Armstrong used to give. There's really not a better one. The Church is the Kingdom of God in embryo. It's like a baby in the womb that's begotten. We're not yet born again into a spirit world. We haven't been changed, but something begins to grow within us, and it begins in that day. Before that we're simply just drawn by the spirit. But now there's something that begins to dwell within us, and God describes it through James here, of being begotten with the logos, the word, a portion of the mind of God that can begin to grow in you, spiritually, on a spiritual plane, and that we begin to grow and learn more and more and more, that enables us, indeed, to grow in having that same mind which is in Jesus Christ.

"Let this mind be in you which was in Jesus Christ," who was the word made flesh. So we partake of the word and we grow in the word, which is the mind of God, in unity and harmony and oneness with God.

I remember how, in a stronger fashion, we began to hear at the Feast Of Tabernacles two years ago the importance of being together in unity of spirit and what we believed and what we spoke. And we have been judged accordingly more and more and more in that area. And that which is not of the same mind, does not want to desire, does not desire in spirit and truth to grow in the same mind, we open up the doors wide so that they can be gone.

It's not about numbers. It's not about money. It's about God Almighty and about unity and oneness with Him, loyalty and faithfulness to our Great God! That's what it's about! It's about wanting to be of the same mind and not have anything that's of this world that causes division, grumbling and murmuring as human beings, but bringing that into check by yielding to the mind of God, the word of God that He gives us, and seeking to be at one with what He gives us.

And the farther we go along, brethren, the more God holds us accountable for that because of time. Time is of the essence. Time. It's high time, more than ever, to be at one with God, the Word of God, the will of God, the purpose of God, more than ever before, brethren, more than ever before.

So, His own will begot He us, with the word, (the logos) of truth. That's what it is. It's the truth because it comes from God. It's God. It's the mind of God, the being of God. We're different, we're unique, but able to be of one. That means in agreement with His way, His life, His purpose, and wanting to share in and be a part of it, sharing together, inheritors together with Jesus Christ.

...that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creation. That's what it is here. So, brethren, we are able to partake of the spirit of God and the very mind of God through His word, through His revelatory thought. That's the way He communicates and teaches us. That's how He's teaching you today – His holy spirit. If we are yielded to that, if we are growing in that, opens up our minds more and more to receive what He has for us and we begin to see things we couldn't see before, we begin to grasp things and drink in things we couldn't see and grasp before.

Because that's how God works with us on a spiritual plane. It's a maturing process, an ongoing revelatory process, an ongoing revealing process to us.

Just as God has revealed things in the world through time from Genesis and magnifies it as time goes on – Moses, king David, the prophets, Jesus Christ, the apostles – that which has been taught in the Church of God and brings us along. Even as He has done it in His plan over 6,000 years, He does with us individually. The revelatory thought, the mind, the being, the word of God that we're able to partake of in our lives. That's why I love the title – The Revelation Of The Word of God – ongoing, continual in our lives until we are at one with God.

Let's turn over to John 3. So, we see the process of how we're begotten with the word of God. With Jesus Christ it is much different from His very birth and on into His life.

John 3:31—He that comes from above is above all. So, some would say "See! He came from above! Isn't it clear that there were two?" No. He came from above, from God.

He that is of the earth is earthly. Until God begins to work with us, as human beings we are very earthly, very physical. He that is of the earth is earthly, and speak of the earth. Can only deal with physical things.

He that comes from heaven... Brethren, it's from God through His spirit made manifest as the word. He that comes from above is above all. Jesus Christ is so awesomely unique in God's plan and purpose. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. It's exciting. An awesomeness in our Savior, our Passover, our High Priest, and soon-coming King, brethren.

Verse 32—And what he has seen and heard, that he testifies. That's what he testifies of, witnesses of. “What he has seen and heard.” And so if we look at it physically, we think, "Well, he's seen with the eyes," like John 14 talks about, and Thomas doubted. No. It was Philip wasn't it, that made the comments that he did?" That was later, when Philip made the comment... Well, you know, He talked about, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." Because it's not a physical thing! It's spiritual. Spiritual!

The ability to see in those things mentioned in John 14 are all spiritual. What we hear... What we hear? What are we talking about when we say that? What I hear, brethren, in the same manner, I give. God does not communicate with me; He does not communicate to you with verbal words through the air with His presence right there in front of you. He does it through revelatory thought, through a communication, the power of the spirit into your mind. That's how you know the things you know.

It's like we convey to you (and the elders have made those comments; I've made those comments regularly), I never know what to give until God gives me and tells me what to give. Then I can give it. If it's from me, out of me, by my own human nature, my own mind, that's what it will be. "Oh, I think we need to have a child-rearing sermon..." "We haven't had a husband and wife sermon in a long time, maybe that would be a good one to have." That's where we were moving more and more and more at one time. "Better give a sermon on preparing for the Feast because we're getting closer, so we better get everybody ready to go, of what they need to do."

That's fine if that's what God gives. But if we, on a human plane, begin to as one time we were told to do, "Map out your sermons a year in advance." You know? "Map out your sermons a year in advance." It's not that God couldn't give that to an individual. "God, I don't know what to do for the next year. Show me." It just takes away something very great, and that is change that takes place, response. And so, God works with us in a molding fashion because we're free moral agents and we make choices sometimes where God gives something else at a point in time in order to bring things back into a harmony and a oneness with Him.

So, those kinds of sermons are great if it's being given because God inspired it to be given, but I don't think we've had a sermon like that for a long time and I don't think you're going to have it for a long time. You may begin hearing them again when Jesus Christ returns, but most of you, a lot of you, just really aren't going to need that one. You'll be the one giving it, or some that you are working with, molding and fashioning, will be giving it, because it's inspired, it's come from God because it's timely, because it's needed.

He that comes from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth: He that comes from heaven is above all. It's from God, through His spirit made manifest, brethren, as the word.

And what he has seen and heard, that he testifies; and no man receives his testimony. No one can hear it – not a human being alive – unless... unless God gives him that which is of the spirit, of the mind to hear spiritually, to see spiritually.

He that has received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God. They're from God. Jesus Christ set us that perfect example on a very high plane, brethren, the highest that there is, and we're to attain unto that. We're to seek that in our lives.

And so, those that follow through time, it had better be the same way spiritually; "for whom God has sent, they speak the words of God." Anything less, brethren, if it's not, it's not of God.

For God gives not the spirit by measure unto him, speaking of Jesus Christ. But that example is before us that we're to strive for, brethren, to work for. But God gives not the spirit by measure unto him. Jesus Christ is not like us.

You know, we are baptised at whatever age, twenty, thirty, forty, wherever it is, and we receive it in measure. A little bit, just a little bit's given when we begin, and a little bit more as time goes on it starts to grow in the womb.

Jesus Christ wasn't that way. Oh, he grew, but he started out so far ahead, brethren, on a plane that we really don't grasp. There are things he knew in his mind – I don't think I finished the thought there before, when he went to pray. (I don't know where I got off on that one.)

But anyway, you know, when he went to pray it was so real in his being and in his mind. He knew what was written of him. He knew. The word of God was in his mind in a way we can't even begin to grasp. He knew everything that was going to take place, everything that was going to happen, because God gave it to him. He saw himself. He knew himself. He knew his God. And as more and more came out of the Bible, he saw more and more, instant.  He knew it. He knew all that which pertained to him.

He saw things on a plane, brethren, that we're unable to understand and know, but it was of his knowing, because he was still very physical, brethren. He was all physical, but he had the oneness of the mind of God in everything he said, in everything he taught. It was not like as we do as human beings where we have to learn and grow in those things, it was just in him. So that whenever he spoke, even as a twelve year old, and why they were dumbfounded by what he said, and his response when He would ask questions. Because this was beginning to grow in him, brethren, in a magnitude, in a plane we do not grasp. And what came out of him always, always, always was a unity and oneness and harmony of the word of God. It was just there in ways, brethren, that are hard for us as human beings to grasp it. But you'll grow in that understanding of that as time goes on. It's something that God gives.

For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God: for God gives not the spirit by measure unto him. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. That's God's purpose. And everything is going to be brought under Jesus Christ. He is given everything, but it's going to take some time. It's going to take some time, until, as He says, "all things are going to be brought under his feet." All power, everything that exists. And then as we read earlier in one of the other sermons, and then, "All things return to God," given to God. All is in subjection to God the Father through Jesus Christ.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides in him. It means there comes a day if we reject, if we refuse, if we change, the wrath of God is what happens to us, if we fail to repent. It’s eternal death; that's what happens.

Well, brethren, I thought we'd get a lot farther today, so I feel good about that because I already have some things prepared, and this added to it. There's a lot more, brethren; so much more that we can grow in about the word and the mind of God that can dwell in us as human beings.