The Revelation of the Word of God, Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

October 23, 2005

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon

Today we're going to conclude with Part 2 of the sermon entitled, The Revelation of the Word of God.

The means by which God reveals His plan and purpose to mankind, the way that He works with us, and molds and fashions us, is through a process (as we talked about yesterday), of continual revelation. And this process is only on a spiritual plane. It is an incredible thing to understand.

It helps us, really, to come to more deeply appreciate how that God's way cannot be known, save God give it. People can maybe pick out certain things out of the Bible, like one organisation that understands about immersion, that baptism means immersion, and named their entire church around that (Baptist), because they understand a reality of something that's true. But the rest is clouded.

And so, every once in a while, you see different ones that have a certain truth or whatever and then those in our times past who have been in the same fellowship and now are splintered up into over 500 and some different groups and, you know, the process that's gone on there. But to bring everything together in a timely fashion in the way that God works by continually revealing more about Himself, more about His plan and purpose, which He has done from the very beginning in putting man on the earth, as we talked about yesterday, even in history, more and more, revealing Himself in a continual process.

He does that individually, too, in our lives. It's a continual revelation as we grow, and we're not ever to cease to grow. God's spirit demands (requires), if we're yielding to it, it will give growth, it requires growth. And we must be yielded to that, obviously, and God will work with us, mold and fashion us.

So let's go back and read, again, John 1:14, and add a little bit more today to our understanding through the process, the things that are said in scriptures that sometimes have escaped us or that we just haven't grasped that can give a little bit more meaning, a little bit more depth, a little bit more appreciation, a little more gratitude, a little bit more of awe on our part toward our Great God.

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). It's the glory of God. When God has a plan and He begins to work with us, that which God works with and works in and through, there is a glory there that comes from God, an awesomeness, if we understand, of that which He is working out that we're able to participate in, that we receive in portion because of God's presence, because of God's working, that takes it beyond just that which is physical in the world around us.

Jesus Christ, powerfully so, "The Word that was made flesh"; the mind, the revelatory thought, the being of God, the mind of God, the purpose of God, the will of God, all that that's contained in the mind and the way we think in life.

And it says here, full of grace and truth. That's right because there's only one truth and it's with God. And when God gives it to someone, we're able to have truth. We grow in it.

Now, Jesus Christ grew in understanding of those things in a deeper way, but his beginning was very, very young when those things began to come to him. He began to know himself and who he was as the mind of God became stronger and stronger in him, to the point where he was twelve years old – an awesome thing to understand what took place – twelve years old and having such great power of knowing, of wisdom, of understanding. It's incredible! Things that we will grow in that we cannot fully grasp yet but are beginning to.

So again, the very being of God, the very mind of God, the very word of God was begotten into human life.  The only one in all creation who would be the only begotten son of the Father from human conception by God. There are things in this, again, that we cannot begin to comprehend, concerning the mind of Christ and his life. We do begin a bit of a process, but there's so much more, brethren, that we are limited to grasp in our life.

Although this mind, the word of God, Himself, was fully in Christ, now as a separate individual entity, a separate being… Brethren, we're going to come into oneness with God, of the same mind, but that doesn't mean there isn't individuality, different personalities, different ways.

You know, just like Paul talked about. He said, there is great freedom in the law of God, but it's within the law, the way of God, to do things, to approach things. It doesn't mean that just one way is right. As long as we live within the law, the right way of God with the mind of God there's "great liberty" (which is how it's quoted), "great liberty" in the way of God, but always with that one mind in agreement, agape, love and how it's expressed and how life is expressed and how life is lived, that makes it so unique.

But all of us that God's calling and has called in 6,000 years, all that will be called during the millennial period and the Great White Throne, everyone's different. And Jesus Christ was different, in that respect, from the Father. We are different in the fact of how we grow. We're different in the fact of our experiences in life that mold and fashion us into who we are, the individuality, the uniqueness of that. But what an awesome thing to understand it's all coming into harmony, unity, and oneness of mind, God's mind.

And so, for Jesus Christ to have this in such a powerful way from his very beginning and to grow in that, in ways that are difficult for us to try to appreciate because we don't fully understand it as much as we don't understand what it's going to be like when we see him, because we've never experienced that. But we see what God tells us, we see things that He tells us about His Son and we learn from that. But to fully grasp that and the process he went through, we can't fully know because we haven't experienced it.

We just believe God and we're excited by it, and we understand that he had the spirit, the mind of God, the way of God, as time went on, brethren, without measure. There are not words to describe it. There are things that just become more and more a part of us, in unity and harmony and oneness with God. And Jesus Christ, very powerfully so, was at one with his Father.

So again, we're separate. He was a separate being; different, distinct, unique as the Son, as the one that God had looked forward to for so long to fulfill His plan in and through. It's all in and through Jesus Christ. Everything that is made, God placed Jesus Christ at the pinnacle of it all. Everything to do from the time of the angelic realm, all the way through time here until he actually began to walk on the earth, all the way through until it's all done, all accomplished, all fulfillled, it's in and through Jesus Christ.

So again, he was a separate being. He was fully human and not God, not eternal. He did not have an immortal soul living within him. He did not have an eternal life living within him, save for his Father. Just like us. We have that which comes from God that is eternal, but when we die, we're dead. There is nothing that continues on of itself.

God must give life and God had to give life to His Son after he had been dead – no consciousness, no nothing. Just like all of us when we die. It's just that he was dead for three days and three nights exactly. Nothing going on – dead. And his Father gave him life. His Father resurrected him. It's an awesome story, brethren, it truly is. In like manner we follow in like suit, in that respect, that we die, and God will resurrect us. There are two who are going to die who will be three and a half days dead. Incredible!

So, he was fully human and not God, not eternal. It helps us to appreciate some things in life, brethren. Having the spirit of God without measure, but he had a battle. He knew what he had to do to be ever so close to his Father. He knew that he had to fast. It was in his mind and in his being. He knew what he had to do. He knew the need for prayer; he did it. Without being close to his Father, without receiving of the strength and the might in a physical body…. He knew what he had to do, and he did it to fulfilll that which God had given to him as our Savior, our Passover.

And so again, only when he was resurrected from the dead did he become fully God – Elohim. Just like us; we will not be fully Elohim, we will not become God until we are changed from mortal to immortal. He was changed from mortal to immortal. He just had a life in him, brethren, a mind in his mind, in his being that is so awesome to understand, so far beyond what we have because we only partake of it in a small amount. And we grow and that becomes greater and greater, until today…. We have grown from a year ago, two years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago, every how long it's been for you in the Church of God. And we grow.

But nothing to measure up to the fullness of Christ. But that's what we're to work towards, isn't it?  That's what we're told to do; to work toward that, to seek that, to desire that, more the fullness and the stature, what God worked through His Son, Jesus Christ, as our elder brother, our High Priest, the one who set the example in all things for us to live by.

How's that stated in one place here? Powerful, powerful, brethren, to begin to have a little bit more opened up in the mind, to see and understand some things that give us a deeper appreciation, a deeper understanding.

Scriptures like this (just jot it down if you want to), Ephesians 5:1—Be you, therefore, followers of God, as dear children. And so, God tells us we're to follow Him, and we do it in and through Jesus Christ. …and walk in agape, in God's love, realising we must have God's spirit to walk that way.

We must fight a battle, to fight against our carnal human nature, repent on a regular basis when we see it raise up its ugly head in selfishness, and repent of those things of selfishness that we might be better yielded to the spirit and the mind, the will, the way, the word, the truth of God. For it all comes from Him! His spirit, agape, the truth, the will, the mind, the wisdom, all that proceeds from God that we are able to partake of, imbibe in our life, and walk in agape as Christ also has loved us.

And so, there is that example, over and over again in scripture that he set for the Church and for all of mankind that would follow in such an awesome way! And that's what we are to strive for, to seek, to desire with all of our being! And so, he sets the way for us.

That's why it's such a beautiful scripture, to come to understand it spiritually, quite candidly, for us in the Church, because it requires sacrifice to love; as a human being it requires sacrifice on our part to love God's way, to be unselfish, to be totally giving! Because we are selfish by nature! And so we have to fight against our selfishness to give in spirit and in truth without grudging, and not because of necessity.

There were a lot of things that so many of us experienced, especially if you go back fifteen, twenty or more years, where a lot of love was given at different times within a body, within an organisation because of necessity, what they felt was necessary, or for show, pride, whatever, not because it was genuine from God.

And so, again, only when he was resurrected from the dead did he become fully God, fully Elohim. He became Jesus Christ Elohim, the second one, finally, in Elohim, and many to follow. That's why I love the scriptures back in Isaiah, and other places, when He says, and as He does in Genesis, if we understand it, and in other places, "I am Yahweh, and there is no other."  "I am Elohim, and there is no other." And He puts the two together.

Brethren, "I am Yahweh Elohim, and there is no other." How much clearer can it be? Until Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, given power, given might, made a part of the God Family, spirit in composition, the Son of God, our High Priest, our King, our Passover, our Savior. So, he became Jesus Christ Elohim, the Son, Elohim. And we are going to build more upon this truth as time goes forward, but there's only so much we can contain at a particular time.

I marvel how much we are going through at this Feast. And we cannot drink it all in. There is not a person here that can drink all in what's been given. It's going to take time to digest; food takes time. A great meal, such a meal as this, we can't digest all at one time. You will marvel as you continue to yield to your God, as you continue to see certain things, how more and more is going to jump out at you that just gives greater life.

Do we understand that brethren? Do we understand the words of God and what He says when they become life? There is life in His word that's made possible through the holy spirit. And the more of the word that's in here that's triggered, that's given the power and the might and the ability to reveal, the revelation that comes through that through the holy spirit, the more meaningful, the more powerful, the more awesome it all becomes. It is an awesome thing, brethren, to understand how God works in us. And we come to a deeper appreciation of that by coming to see how He worked in His Son to fulfill all things.

John 1:14 again, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's why Jesus Christ said to them, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father! You've seen Him." And a word that no other human being could ever say! But Jesus Christ could say it in absolute power and might and boldness. "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Everything you've seen in me is of the Father. It's of Yahweh Elohim!" That's who it is.

He was in absolute unity and oneness until he died with his Father, and then it was just a change from mortal to immortal. Incredible! That's when his life began, when he was born. But he was not yet God. He was not yet spirit. He just had it without measure, the mind of God, the word of God, and he grew.

You read the scriptures where it talks about him growing. And he learned. It says he learned more and more and more in ways that we cannot comprehend, in a physical body with a physical mind but in awesome power.

So, there was a glory in Christ that was the very word of God. It's an awesome thing when God pours out His glory upon mankind, because it's His presence. And when He calls you out of the world, there is a glory we begin to imbibe in our life. There is that life that's now in us, that's different, that battles with the human spirit by our own choice, if we seek to be in that battle because we desire more of that word, that mind, that being, the spirit, the way, the will, the love of God in our lives.

And so again, there was a glory in Christ that was the very word of God that fully dwelt in him. It came through his life in all he said and in everything he did. It was always there. "You've seen me, you've seen the Father." And they didn't get it because they were thinking physically.

Let's look at some verses that help explain all this, brethren. John 17. It's a picture. And as little pieces of the puzzle, just like in this, come together more and more, we see a clearer picture. Everything fits together! Everything fits together, brethren. It's a beautiful thing.

John 17:5. On that Passover night after he had partaken of the Passover, we begin in John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, that Jesus Christ gave instruction to the disciples on that Passover night. His last night on earth as a physical human being! What an emotional thing to understand! What an incredible thing to grasp that this is what lies just beyond. He knew exactly what was going to happen to him. He knew in ways that we can't even begin to comprehend, because God told him so. It was the mind of God. He had that mind. He knew exactly. It was real to him. It was greater, brethren....

You know, belief, we live by belief. We live by faith. But when you see that in Christ and what was in him, the power that was there in what he believed and what he was able to believe, it's awesome! That's why when he prayed, "Father, if there is any other way…" but he says, "Not my will, but Yours be done." And that's written for us, brethren, to understand some very basic things. But he was suffering because it was so real to him. He knew, that in a physical body, what he was getting ready to go through.

But you know what? Just like we know the things we are going to go through, some of those are going to become clearer and clearer as we begin to go through various things in our life. Some situations, some circumstances God will give more in those things, to accomplish certain things. But it's awesome, brethren, even though there be the suffering, we're always focused on what's beyond it, what's beyond the three and a half years.

What a joy, what a good thing that you can tell people around you, when you've already been in a half a year of it, "There's three more years. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, it's going to be hard, and yes, it's going to become more difficult out here. Cry out to your God. He will help you. Seek your God. Seek your God, turn from your way, listen to what God has concerning the Sabbath and the plan from the very beginning. Because this is what He's about to fulfill."

A year and a half into it, a year and a half into it, you can say, "There are two more years left. Hold on! Fight! It's an awesome thing that's coming. You will see it if you receive the mercy and the grace and help of your Father. But it's between you and your Father." And on and on it goes, brethren, because we're so focussed on what's coming. It's a glorious thing, an awesome thing.

John 17:5—And now, O Father, glorify You me with Your own self. What does that involve? What does that mean, "with Your own self?” He was getting ready to die and he knew he would be in the grave for three days and three nights. He already told people he would be. "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." Because of what he lived, because of the word and the mind that was in him. He knew exactly what his Father was going to do. Because he was powerless. But because he obeyed, because he did what he did, he knew he would be raised up. He knew by what he had lived. "I will be raised up. I have done it. I have finished the work. I have finished the fight."

And God the Father raised him, as it says over and over and over again. We've already read all those scriptures. God the Father raised him from the dead. It means what it says. He was dead. And Jesus Christ knew that. And he knew he was on the pinnacle of something so awesome. But he is received. We receive a glory.

Like us, that's what Mr. Armstrong talked about, "The Church of God is like the Kingdom of God in embryo." There's a great glory there, but it's not fully manifest yet until the change comes, until we're actually born into the God Family and actually that change takes place where we're made spirit. Then, obviously, there is that glory, which is God, to the fullest extent of that which is spiritual.

And Jesus Christ knew that and he said, "glorify You me with Your own self," God, Elohim, with the glory which I had with You before the world existed. Before it was.

And so, we can read something into that, to think that he was back there at that time, but that's not what it's saying. He knew as we know the plan and the purpose of God, especially for himself, of what God intends for every human being who yields themselves to Him, who is a part of a Body, a part of what God is doing. He knew what God's plan was, and he knew that everything that God was doing was centred around him, in and through him.

There was that which God had pre-determined before time, as much as what it says in Ecclesiastes and other places, brethren, because God had pre-determined it, determined it before time, before anything ever began, of how it would be, and Jesus Christ knew it and he desired that.

I desire that glory, more than what I have living within me, but that which God says can go beyond that at a change in time here that's going to take place. For some of us in time here – because some are going to live on into that new period – but for some of us that God has been molding and fashioning for some time to bring us right up to the end, to return with Jesus Christ, I look forward to that glory, the glory of God which He determined before time to give to me and to give to you, if you're one of those of 144,000. Because God determined that long ago.

Not as specific as it was for Christ, because He knew Christ in a way that He doesn't know us. He knew who he would be in every fashion, in every way. See? It's going to be Him. It's going to be Him in human flesh. He knew exactly who he was. But for us, we are a matter of family’s and generations, and it's not the individual. God didn't know me, Ron Weinland, or you, whatever your name is, specifically. He chose not to know, as we understand, because that is what free moral agency is all about for human beings. And so families, they have children, and the different children on the earth that come through the earth in time.

But God had a plan for a 144,000. And if we're a part of that, what an awesome thing! There's a glory that God intended. He didn't decide to do this in Moses' time. He didn't decide to do this in the time of Noah. He didn't decide to do this around the time of Adam and Eve, or just before that. He did it before the angels were created. A glory. And eventually all are to be able to have opportunity for that glory – Elohim. God. That's what God calls us. What we're to have the potential to become, the whole purpose of our existence as human beings, to receive of that kind of glory which He determined, again, before the world existed.

And that's what Jesus Christ is saying, And now, O Father, glorify You me with Your own self – power, spirit, eternal – with the glory which I had with You before the world existed. He knew what that meant when he said that, and we can know what that means without reading something else into it.

So again, first of all, the glory Jesus Christ was now speaking of was the glory he was to receive in its fullest once he was resurrected from the dead to become Elohim, a very member of the God Family, the first of mankind to be resurrected from the dead to enter the God Family. That's why he's called the first of the firstfruits! The first to exist. The first to come into that family – because he was never in that family! Only one was in that family, Yahweh. And now the first to enter into that family was Jesus Christ. It's awesome! It's beautiful! Into the Kingdom of God. And there's more in this.

To better understand, let's go on down here to verse 24. We've already mentioned it, but let's just add to it to help drive it home a little bit more. Verse 24—Father, so it's on the same night he's saying these things.

This was an awesome night for Jesus Christ, an awesome night for him because this was the night that he'd looked forward to. This was the night that he looked forward to going through, in the sense of getting through it.

I look forward to getting through that three and a half years, where it's behind. No more suffering, no more pain caused by the earth where those that are out there destroying the earth, but a time when God's government's here, a time where He puts down every rebellion, everyone that will war and fight and destroy. It says he comes back and He destroys those who destroy the earth, who are destroying the earth. He'll destroy them. In one day there is incredible destruction upon those who are destroying the earth.

But right behind that, brethren, is what we look forward to. A new world. A world where children can grow up and be safe, and not have to worry at night, not have to worry about if you are in a certain part of town, not have to worry about leaving your doors unlocked. You don't have to worry about locks! It's going to be a different world. It's going to be more like what it was forty,  fifty years ago when people wouldn't think anything of leaving a house without a door being locked. And we know that if somebody wants to get in, they're going to get in anyway, but you know, it's a deterrent.

Cars? All the beep, beep, beep and the sirens that go off that annoy you so much? Don't have to have all that, you know.  You don't have to have it when somebody accidentally hits a car or, well, not actually hits a car, but goes by, you know, you go by one and you bump it or whatever as you're walking between some cars and an alarm goes off and scares the tar out of you, you know, because it was shaken just a little bit. None of that.

Where people learn to love each other and care for each other. One government. One law. One Church. I can't imagine. I really can't imagine that. I think how great that is, you know, to be able to raise children in that kind of a world instead of this cesspool where you know that your children, as they grow, are going to be influenced by that which draws them. And the greater the technology the more power that Satan has at his fingertips, as well, to destroy man, to pollute the mind of man, if you will. It's really given him greater power.

It's a good thing, though, technology. Just like anything in life, it all depends on how you use it! That's why I marvel at some of the sermons in times past I'd listen to in a Feast of Tabernacles, and they'd talk about going back to the horse and buggy age, like this is going to stop pollution. You have that many horses, you're going to have a whole lot more pollution than you really want to deal with. That's not the kind of life... You know, there is that which makes life easier, more enjoyable, like a servant, like that which serves you, but not in human form, thank God, but of that which is a matter of technology, to make life a little easier for mankind. And what's wrong with that? Nothing. Everything will be cleaned up, though. It'll be far better. Man will work to co-operate to make it better.

Verse 24—Father, I will that they also, whom You have given me, be with me where I am. It doesn't mean heaven. See, if you believe in heaven, that's what you're going to read it as. That's what the world believes it as. "Going to 'be with me where I am.' Well, he's up in heaven, so we get to go to heaven! Wonderful, isn't it?" That's not what it's all about, is it? It's spiritual.

Do you know where he is right now? He's right here, and some of you get to be right here, and some don't get to be right here, they're listening in wherever they are, because they weren't able to make it here. But in spirit, because they're hearing that message that God is delivering to them, they're able to receive it. And in spirit they're able to learn and grow and God will work with them and mold and fashion them as He molds and fashions you.

And those in another part of the world that hear this a few hours from now, a day ahead of us, they will get to hear what you're hearing right now during their service, and God will work with them and mold and fashion them, because that's where Christ is.

He's in his Church, and his Church can be in him. And when we're not in him, when we fall asleep and we sin and we're not in him, then we can't be where he is, and we can't hear his voice.

That's why I don't worry. Because anyone hears his voice, I know where they will be. It's real simple. And that's a confidence we grow in, a boldness we grow in that God has given to us more and more because He has made it more evident. The evidence is there, the evidence of God. And the mind of God and the purpose of God and the way of God, that's the evidence, see?

Father, I will also that those who You have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory. So, it has something to do with that which happens now, leads up to something that is totally fulfilled later on. Because eventually, when our change comes, we will really be with him in a very powerful way.

So, "I will that they also whom You have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory." Do we grasp what that means? "That they may behold my glory." You can't see him; he's not around here. Do you see a glory? Something that's been revealed to you? An ongoing process of a revelation of the word of God, the mind of God, the being of God, to understand, to understand God, the ways of God, the purpose of God in a deeper way as we've been growing over year by year by year.

Things that God had said a long time ago before the world existed, that there would be a Church, that there would be a Church in the last 2,000 years because there was something that Jesus Christ... That something was going to happen to teach us even greater things. A Church that would come about on the Day of Pentecost following the death of Christ; all by design, all by purpose. It wasn't something He just tried to figure out later on, by the time He got to the flood, and thinking, "What am I going to do?" Or something happened, "Israel won't listen to Me! Those hard-hearted… I'll have to give them a little bit. I'll have to give them My spirit now because they just won't do it." It's foolishness.

It was all decided, all determined, the whole process, seven eras of God's Church, that's why it's written there, what would happen, because God had pre-determined it. That which was so long ago. When you live in that time; it is. God does it. That which was so long ago that is yet to come will be, as it says in Ecclesiastes, and God, Yahweh, will do it. It's awesome! God does His will, fulfills His purpose. And if we're so blessed to be a part of it, how awesome are those blessings?

"That they may behold my glory, which You have given me." And so, we understand in a deep and a meaningful way what it means that he is our Passover. We understand that deeply if we hold fast to that which God gave to us and began to reveal back in Exodus. Incredible! The plan and purpose of God! A glory? You bet! Absolutely! That we have abiding within us, an ability to see God, an ability to see Christ in a spiritual plane, for what God is doing and what God is doing through His Son.

That they may behold my glory, which You have given me: for You loved me before the foundation of the world. Before it ever existed, brethren! Incredible, to understand. It means what it says. He loved him. You better believe it! In ways we can't even begin to grasp, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," as we've talked about.

To understand the power that was at work there, and coming, emanating from God, the joy, the richness after so long. We don't grasp it! We can try to appreciate it, but we should appreciate it a little more deeply, that all of a sudden what God had determined so long ago about His Son and about everything that would be created and made and sustained, the purpose was Elohim, and it would all be done in and through His Son.

And He longed for that time when He would finally come to the point of him being born on the earth, and then finally, as a separate being, one that was able to have a relationship with God on such an awesome plane, because everything about the Father was in him but he was separate, distinct, had his own things he lived through, his own things that he experienced that molded and fashioned a uniqueness in him.

Just like us. We go through various things and it molds and fashions certain distinctness of what we are. It makes us what we are, the uniqueness of individuality, but of the mind of God, at one with God. But him – perfectly. "For You loved me before the foundation of the world."

1 Peter 1. This statement by Jesus Christ recorded in John 17:24 is understood by so many other things that fit together. This is another area.

1 Peter 1:15—But as He which has called you… Who calls us? Yahweh, our Father, God Almighty, the God of all eternity. He chooses whom He will call, when He will call them because of His purpose. And sometimes it's hard for us to grasp, of all human beings throughout time. And today that you have opportunity of sitting where you are sitting, we don't really grasp that to the depth that would be good if we could. We only can do it a little bit, to a certain degree as human... Because we're human beings.

But we come to a deeper appreciation of it more and more as we grow and recognise the distinction that God makes, and we're in awe. And we learn to be more thankful, more grateful to God for the mercy and the grace He has given to us, and we realise the vastness that's out there that is not here, that defies the thinking of man. "How can something so small...? How can something so little...? God can't be concerned about that, surely?" Amazing!

Verse 15—But as He which has called you, is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conduct. It says "conversation" here. It's a word that means "conduct," that so often as well is what you verbalise because so much of our conduct comes out of our mouth.

It's really what comes out of our being, our intent, our thoughts. It's about becoming at one with God. So, "Be you holy in all manner of conduct." It has to do with the mind. That's why I love the scriptures that talk about repenting. You know what they mean in the Greek language? Repent? It means to think differently. You're thinking wrong. You better learn to think differently, but make sure it's right! Because there are a lot of ideas out here about thinking differently. That's why we have over five hundred and some groups splintered off, because they all think differently. Amazing, the mind of man.

Because it is written, Be you holy, for I am holy. We've read this. You know, it's a quote from Leviticus 11:44 and it's stated by Elohim, Yahweh Elohim, who says, "Be you holy, for I am holy." "Become holy because I am holy." This is the intent and purpose – that you become of the same mind. Because there's no other way to be holy! And the way we become holy is through a process of dwelling in God and God in us because there's a transformation in our thinking that has to take place.

We have to learn to think differently through a process, and we have that which is referred to as a transformation, a "metamorphoo," back here in Romans.  I think it's Romans 12. Don't have to turn there. Stay here in 1 Peter, or you'll be shuffling right back there in a moment.  I beseech you, therefore, brethren, of the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living (a lively) sacrifice. You know, ready to jump into letting this selfishness be corrected! Sacrificing self in order to give. You know, to give God's way you just, you have to learn to sacrifice self; our own will, our own desires, our own selfishness, and to get the picture.

…a living sacrifice, lively sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. You what that means? It means that God has to be a part of it. God has to be in it. There's nothing human beings can do that's holy, unless God is at the forefront of it all making it possible as we yield ourselves to Him because that's what we've chosen, that's what we want.

…holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed, that word "metamorphoo," by the renewing of your mind. Learning to think differently, a renewing that is taking place in every one of us as we yield ourselves to God. Learning to think differently. Learning to think as God, but with our own individuality. Of the same mind everything we judge is by the way, the will, the love, the way, the law of God.

…the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. What is the will of God? It's the Word of God. It's the way of God. It's the purpose of God. And so, only by it living within you are you able to prove it.

That's why the examples in the New Testament there, of Christ and different parables that talk about, you know, going out and proving. You know, someone buys an oxen. Today, you know, it's like someone going out, lives on a farm, and they have had their eye on a particular kind of tractor, or a combine, or whatever it might be.

You know, I marveled one time when I went back... I used to go on harvest runs from Texas when it'd get ripe. The wheat, you know, it would ripen first there, and by the time you got through cutting with different farmers and so forth there, you'd move on up to Kansas somewhere, even up to Nebraska after that, and then the Dakotas, or wherever, sometimes Montana, depending on which side you went on. Then I'd have to come back to school, and some would go on up to Canada, you know, because it's still ripening as you go north, you know. Incredible!

And I went back a few years ago, and at that time there we had like 16-foot headers that would cut wheat. They are 16 foot wide. Went back a few years later, my brother was out on a combine being robbed of nature because he was enclosed in a capsule. If you've ever been in a combine and you have the wind and it flows, things come up in your face, and the heat and everything that sticks to you. Anyway, you know an awesome thing.

And almost, as it were, computerised, some things there. And the speed! And I don't remember the exact size of the header, but I think it was... Was it 34, 36 feet, something like that? Blew my mind! Something that wide and the machine behind it cutting wheat at a fast pace, blew my mind! How can it take it in that fast and separate it that fast? But it was big, and it was technology, you know. Incredible, brethren!

What an awesome thing, brethren, the things we experience, the things we see in life, the differences of things we see in life, and what God reveals to us. We just learn a little bit more and more. We see the magnitude of it all. We grow in it all. God tells us to change and to grow and have a renewing of the mind, to see a better way of doing things, God's way, to be of the same mind and have the ability of doing those things.

We'll go back in this example here. God says, you know, the example here, of what it's given here, about having the mind completely changed, to think differently and to see things in a better way, a right way; being in agreement with God.

Let's go back here to 1 Peter 1:15 and continue on, because I have no idea where I was going, but I thankfully have my notes. The humbling we go through as human beings, when you don't have to worry about this anymore, brethren.

But again, But as He which is holy has called you, so be you holy in all manner of conduct; Because as it is written, Be you holy, for I am holy. And God is speaking, Yahweh is speaking. And our minds that must be changed and transformed, and the "metamorphoo" where we learn how to think God's way, according to His will, according to His purpose.

And if you call on the Father, who without respect of person judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. And so, we do. We call on God the Father. We want to change. We want to be in unity with Him. We want to be holy, and we want Him to live in our lives.

For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by the tradition of your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So we learn to appreciate that more and more and more. We grow in that appreciation of what God is doing in and through His Son.

Verse 20. And, brethren, I'm looking forward to this Passover because we're going to appreciate it more; just a little bit more, a little bit more that God's added to it.

Verse 20—Who verily, speaking of Jesus Christ, was foreordained. He was foreordained. And the Greek here just simply means "to know before," foreknown. Because he didn't exist. There would come a time in God's plan where he would be made manifest. He would be made manifest. And we've already read those scriptures, brethren.  The Word of God made flesh – made manifest. This is magnified more in Romans 8. We'll go there in a little bit.

But again, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world… over and over and over again, brethren, but was manifest – here we go, "Word was made flesh." Everything he did, everything he said, everything that came from him was of the Father.

…but was manifest in these last times for you, who by, again "through" – it's "the channel of the act" – through him do believe in God. So those of us who through him do believe in God. Because there's no other way to believe in God. We must be called. God the Father is the one that calls us, as we mentioned here. God is the one that draws us, and we must yield to that process.

Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead; over and over and over again, brethren.  It's about a purpose that God had of something He was going to manifest at a specific time in His plan as far as time was concerned on the world, in the world. Something decided before God began creating.

…that raised him from the dead and gave him glory. God raised him from the dead …that your faith and hope might be in God. Might be in who? In Yahweh, God, the only God that's ever existed for all eternity. There is no other God that's existed for all eternity. Jesus Christ is the first to be resurrected from the dead. He's the first of the firstfruits of God's plan. Again, that your faith and hope might be in God. God is always first, always foremost. It's about what He is doing, has been doing, will continue to do; because God will do it, His will.

Verse 22—Seeing that you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit. These are just jam-packed, brethren, with what we should see and understand of how God works with us in our life. Our lives, our being is purified, our lives are purified through a process of a continual revelation that comes to us through God's spirit, of God, of the mind of God, the being of God, the truth of God, the way of God, the will of God. It's just different ways of saying it with greater understanding in each one of the words that captures it. So, we go through a process of our lives being purified and cleansed, sanctified, set apart, holy, the more that God is in it.

…in obeying the truth, the word, the way, the mind, the will of God. Being at one with God. Anything that is not at one with God and the will of God, of the same mind, is still resisting, is still fighting. And in time through the mercy of God if our spirit be right and our heart right with God, our desire right with God, God will show us error and help us to continue to grow. That's what our lives are like. We're able to continue to conquer and overcome that which resists the will, the word, the mind, the way, the purpose of our great God. For everything must come into harmony with Him and nothing can resist. It's an awesome thing to understand, the process.

Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit. So, we can't even do it without God's help. No human being can do it. The Israelites couldn't do it. But we can with God's help, with God's spirit. And so that's why it's so important. We never want to lose the flow of God's spirit in our life. We want to repent quickly when we have erred, when we have sinned, when we have done something wrong, when we've said something wrong, some wrong thing come into our being and we sin. Whatever it might be in life, brethren. Usually those things have to do with relationships; in what's said, in how we think, in how we treat others.

So again, obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. That's a beautiful thing. You know what it's telling us? We're growing through a process where we're learning not to be pretentious, that love is not for show, put on, not real, not genuine. "Genuine" is a good word there. When love is not genuine, but it goes through the motions like so much of what philia does. Philia kind of goes through the motions. It's like a fraternal love and people treat each other a certain way because we all belong to the same thing.

And our love should go way beyond that. It should be far more than a fraternal thing, brethren. It should be because our hearts are convicted and our hearts are changed and we're learning to have genuine care and love for each other, not unfeigned, pretentious love.

That's what I loathe about the protestant world. It's not genuine. It's pretentious. It stinks! It's syrupy and flowery and fake, and it just makes us feel a little bit better inside about ourselves. "Oh, isn't that sweet! Isn't that nice?" And we're beginning to enter into a period of the year, "The little, Lord Jesus." Makes you want to barf because they take away the glory, they take away the magnificence of what God Almighty did and how exciting it was when His Son came into the world!

You know, those things that tear away and that tear down are sick because it destroys the mind and how we should appreciate and think about our great God and His Son, without all that other garbage!

I hate Protestantism! I hate the spirit of it because it's a spirit of a being that has deceived this world! Truly has. It is not genuine. It is not pure. I'm sick of that which is fake and false and pretentious. That's what we have to be sick of, isn't it? Because if we're not sick of it we don't want to change. And we want to yield ourselves to God so it is genuine, so we have genuine love, God's love living in and through us to others.

Verse 19 again—But with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. Revealed, manifest, a revelation, a revealing. Brethren, a revealing of God in the flesh in a separate, individual. Separate from his Father but totally at one with his Father.

Who by (through) him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory. God raised him from the dead and God gave him glory, that glory which he wanted to have, which he knew existed before the world was before time, in the sense of what we see it as as human beings with our limited thinking. That your faith and hope might be in God.

Verse 22—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. Something we must ask God for, to help, to love people with a pure heart fervently and to get rid of that which is in error. And to learn to have patience with one another God's way! To learn to judge God's way! It must be because it's God's way.

Sometimes we get those things mixed up in our mind because of the world around us and what we've come out of and we don't understand what is God's way. But seek that it be God's way. Is this truly what is in agreement with the will of God, the purpose of God, the mind of God?

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. A process that begins in us by the logos. What logos? That which has always been. That which has always existed. The very mind, the very being of God, the Word of God, the truth of God, the purpose of God, the will of God.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God. That's where it all begins. When your eyes all of a sudden are opened up and you see the Sabbath and you understand the purpose of the Holy Days and you see a plan that God has and it excites you! And your realise that you're close to the end of 6,000 years and it excites you because you know there's 1,000 years quickly coming upon us. Jesus Christ is going to return with great power with the 144,000 and it excites you and you long for it and you desire it with all of your being, because you believe it with all of your being.

But you couldn't until God gave it to you, until the logos, the word came into your mind, the spirit in mind. What an awesome thing when God gave that to Mr. Armstrong and he began to understand that there is a spirit in man (not the holy spirit), whereby God is able to communicate with us. And that's the way God has communicated and revealed through time so much to His people.

It's just there. There's no physical evidence of it. There's no physical evidence of it, it's just there. You can't go to any scripture to prove it to somebody else that it's there. It's just there. And someone else that it's in, they understand it because it's there in them and they have a unity and oneness of spirit and a camaraderie, a fellowship that is not explained in any other way, because it's just there. That which brings us into the same mind.

I marvel at that! I think about when booklets have gone out or a book has gone out and all of a sudden it's just there in somebody else, and you talk to them on the phone and it's just like the light (and it is the light), has gone on, because it's spiritual, and that which was dark has been lifted. And it's just so clear and it's so exciting, because now we can understand why the things happened to us that it did and that gives us hope because we see something different. It gives us encouragement because it shows us what God has been doing and why He's been doing it that way and why He allowed what He allowed, and it lifts us up and gives us strength. All from God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God. Just like it says back in James 1:18 that we've already read, "Of His own will begat He us with the logos of truth." That's how we're begotten. That's why we see the Sabbath and the plan of God. And He just gives us more and more that makes things clearer and clearer to us.  It's what God gives through the power of His spirit that begins to bring us into oneness and unity with Him.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. Has lived, will live; it just goes on and on. Has always been. Will always be.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of a man is as the flower of  grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away. It's an awesome thing, creation, the life we have as physical human beings. Thankfully, there's more to the story, that we don't just live and die and there is nothing else.

So there's that glory that God has made in a physical plane, but when His spirit comes into our life, when His word begins to come into our life, when we're begotten and something else begins to grow and develop within us, what an awesome thing it is, brethren, that which begins to live.

But the word of the Lord endures forever. The very glory of God contained in His word. It just becomes more powerful and more powerful to see His purpose through, that one day we'll be in His family if we yield ourselves to that.

And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Good news. Good news. The more we see of it, the greater it is, the greater news it is, the more exciting it becomes.

Let's turn over to Romans 8. There is that which worked in Jesus Christ that God gave to the Church. Let's notice another verse here, a part of the picture, Romans 8:29—For whom He did foreknow… And here it's talking about, specifically, the Church at this point of time and what God has been doing and those that God has foreknown.

I've known of people in the Church that have stumbled, a lot of people in the Church who have stumbled at this, who take on the belief of a particular protestant church about pre-destination. They'd begin to believe that. Presbyterian. There are people in the Church. One individual we invited to one Feast with us who gave two sermons, who at that point in time it became obvious he was going off track and imbibing of the protestant world. And part of it had to do with attitude in the mind toward pre-destination. You think, "How can that be? How can that happen?"

For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. It just, it means He determined it beforehand. That's what the word means. And who did He foreknow? Well first of all, it's Christ who is the first of the firstfruits, but this is in the context of those that God calls out of the world into the Church, and He foreknew us. He foreknew exactly! 144,000 was known before the angelic realm was created. And then on and on it goes and it gets greater and greater, the Kingdom of God.

He also did determine before, to be conformed. Because that's the process whereby it would all work. This is the way God was going to do it – Elohim!

That's why I love Genesis in a greater way now than what I did before, because Yahweh Elohim in Chapter 2 makes it clear, Chapter 1 is all about Him and what He's been doing and what His plan for mankind is! That's what it says! That's what God Almighty says to us, brethren, very powerfully so!

And it's a beautiful thing to understand what God reveals there in Chapter 2, that what He did determine beforehand was about Elohim. He desired to have a family in ways we can't even begin to grasp in the sense of the depth of it all! We just see a little bit. We see physical families and we see, we believe certain things that God says about a spiritual family. But to grasp all of it brethren? We're incapable! We just grow in it as God continues to reveal more and more. It's a spiritual thing we grow in through time.

And so, was pre-determined, brethren, before time that we were to be conformed to the image of His Son. And what is that image? What is that likeness? What is it all about? "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." It's all about the Father. Jesus Christ, the first of the firstfruits, that had fully (in that respect), the very being, the mind, the will, the purpose of God living and dwelling in him in ways that we just don't have. We just partake of it, brethren, and we grow a little bit more and we grow a little bit more. And it takes so long to grow.

To be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. And the more God helps us not to take from or add to the clearer it all becomes, the more meaningful it all becomes, the greater it all becomes.

Let's back up here a few verses. And so beginning in and through Jesus Christ God was going to reveal Elohim in all its reality, for the very mind of God, the being of God, and how it was to be accomplished and what was to lead up to a family, the Kingdom of God, the Family of God which this Feast pictures in a very powerful way, the beginning of that that comes to this earth, very powerfully so. Again, all through the revelation of the word of God.

Verse 27, catching some more of this in context—Likewise the spirit also helps our infirmities: for we, it says, we know not what we should pray for as we ought to. You know, there are times when… There are times when we pray, and we know and we have certain desires and certain things we want to pray for.  Sometimes we go through some things where we don't even know what to say. We don't even know how to go before God to begin it. …but the spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. God knows what's in our mind and being because there's a spirit essence there that communicates it all to Him.

He knows exactly what's in us. There is nothing hidden from God. Isn't it amazing Adam and Eve thought they could hide some things from God? God knows everything you think and do. That's how clear we are to God. Amazing! So it's wise to go before quickly Him in repentance when we're wrong, see, because He knows.

And so, when our heart is of a desire to be close to Him, to draw closer to Him, He knows what's in us, in our heart and our being in ways that we can't even... He has to reveal our own thoughts, our own thinking to us, sometimes to understand our own motives. Sometimes we get caught in situations with someone else, in a tangle of some sort, and so often what we have to do is go before God and say, "Father, help me to see what I need to see about myself in all this."

So often we are too quick to see something in somebody else, but the desire should be to see what's in us. "If there's something I can see that I don't see, help me to understand it. Help me to understand my motives." Do you know that's an awesome thing for human beings to be able to trace back their actions and really grasp where their motives are coming from? And if it's something wrong, you know what it will always go back to without exception? Pride! Selfishness! Without exception, always, always, always. And that's good to know because it's through that process we can begin to say, "Father, forgive me. Because this is wrong, and this isn't the right thinking and I want to repent. I want to think differently, and I want to be changed."

Verse 27—And He that searches the heart knows what is the mind of the spirit. That which we can't even know about ourselves so often, brethren, and then mixed with the holy spirit that God gives to us to help us to see and to understand.

So again, the thoughts and the purposes – that's what it's about here – about the mind and the spirit. The thought – thoughts and the purposes. Just like the word reveals the thoughts, the purpose, purposes, if you will, overall purpose, but many things that God does according to His purpose, His will.

…because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. The spirit does, brethren. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. You know, if we have that mind and that desire in the calling that God has given to us because it says, "to them who are the called." So first of all, we have to be called. God's spirit must be working with us and then we can change, according to His purpose. It's God's purpose that He should live in us, that Jesus Christ, His Son should live and dwell within us. And there is no other way to be a part of the Church of God, the called-out of God.

Verse 29—For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, it's a process, a continual revelation in our life of God, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate… You know, determined beforehand as far as His plan was concerned. God has pre-determined before time millions during the Millennium and then billions in the Great White Throne.

Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. We have to be called first. Can't begin a process without first being called, drawn by God to the purpose of now being able to become a part of His Family. That's why I marvel at the excitement of what's getting ready to happen when Jesus Christ returns – the whole world gets called! They may not respond immediately, as we're told, but as a whole, so many will. They'll respond and they'll be able to begin to see things because God's spirit is poured out upon the whole earth in ways that it never has. It never has! As God goes to another plane, another level of revealing Himself to mankind. And now, brethren, in ways that are so far past whatever happened in 6,000 years. Incredible!

So, Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified. There's a justification process in there through Jesus Christ, through our choices. It begins at baptism, that we recognise Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We are thankful for that, our High Priest, our soon-coming King.

…and whom He justified, them He also glorified. So a bit of that begins even in human life. When we come up out of that watery grave we have hands layed upon us and that life that begins to grow in us, that which is of God that gives us the ability to see God, to be with Christ where Christ is. There's a glory in that. But still limited because we're in a physical body until a greater glory comes because of our change. Because it fulfills God's purpose in it all to bring us to Elohim, the Kingdom of God, the Family of God.

Verse 31—What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? You know, if God has a purpose for us.... Those are powerful words, brethren, because it says there is no power, there is nothing on this earth can prevent what God wills for you if you choose that, if you want that, if you will yield to that. If we don't, then we see what's happened and what God has allowed in the Church over the past ten years and why some must wait. But all a part of a plan that God has.

God knew what men would do. God knew what Adam and Eve would do. That's why there's a remnant. Because there's a certain amount that God's going bring out of all that, through all that, to the glory of God. Because God brings His will about. What God does.... You know, that's why I love Ecclesiastes, what it says, "And He will do it!" and the greater confidence that we have that "He will do it." And if we're blessed to be a part of it, it's going to get done.

Who can be against you? God is for you? It's just up to our choices, isn't it? We're the only one that can block the way. We're the only one that can get in the way. We're the only one that can be resistant to that spirit and that power coming into our life. So again, them He also glorified.

Verse 31—What shall we then say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things? So it's with Christ, it's through Christ. That's God's purpose from the very beginning of time. Foreordained that it will be accomplished through Christ.

And He desires to freely give us all things that lead into His Family. And He desires to give us all things! We're to be inheritors with Christ. All things have not yet been put under our feet, but that's the purpose of it all. Psalms 8, Hebrews – it's what it says. But we don't see it all yet. All we see is the first one into the family, Jesus Christ. See, that's what Hebrews says, "We don't yet see everything brought into the subjection," the submission, "under man," but we do see Jesus Christ, that it has been brought under him, and the glory that is his, and the might that is his, the power that is his – Elohim.

Ephesians 1:3—Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly – it says "places" here in parenthesis [italics]. It's not the right translation of it. But you know, in other words the source is from God in heaven. …in Christ. That's where Christ is, you know, building, continuing to build on the temple.

Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. All that we must have, brethren, in order to change and grow and overcome and to have the mind of God, to be able to become at one with God, to be able to be forgiven and the whole process in order to deliver us in to the Kingdom of God.

According as He (God) has chosen us in him (in Christ) before the foundation of the world! God said, "This is how it would be: there is My son that will be, and he will be the Passover for all of mankind, and everyone in time will be able to become a part of that through him," a part of that God Family that He determined. That's what it's all about!

Genesis! It's all about Elohim. It's all about the Kingdom of God, that which we begin to picture in part here at the Feast of Tabernacles, that comes to this earth, rules and reigns for a thousand years, and then after that greater things on the Last Great Day.

According as He has chosen us in him (in Christ), before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in agape. So, God says there's a means that whereby we can experience agape, where it can live in human beings. Because that's awesome and it requires God in us to accomplish that. We can't have that kind of love towards others unless God is in it. That's why we must yield ourselves to the power and spirit of God.

Having predestinated, "predetermined beforehand," is what it means, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by, again, "or through," Jesus Christ to – who? – to Himself, the Eternal Almighty All Living Yahweh Elohim, the God of all time! …according to the good measure of His will, and no one else's. The Word that has always existed; the mind, the being, the purpose, the plan of Elohim. It's an awesome thing! Truly an awesome thing, brethren, to understand.

Verse 6—To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He, speaking of God, has made us accepted in the beloved. We cannot be accepted – we cannot, human beings, except that it be through the ability to be forgiven of sin. And Jesus Christ came as the Passover so that man would have that ability, that to himself.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. God will not be around sin! He will not dwell around us, save sin is dealt with. That's why it's expedient for us when we sin, we must ask God for forgiveness quickly because He will leave when there is sin in our life. And God works with us and desires to mold and fashion us, to bring us to repentance so that He can continue to dwell in us. It's an ongoing dwelling in us that God desires. But there is a grace there, too, and all those things in God's hands. It would require another sermon.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, for a time. There are things that God gives through certain amount of time and there are times when time just runs out, when there is no more time. That's what we're running into. We've run into that for the Church. We're running into that for the world.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (God's grace), wherein He (God) has abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence. God has given us of His mind; wisdom of the universe, brethren.

Having made known unto us the mystery of His will. Because there's no way of knowing except He just reveals it to you. He gives His spirit; He communicates with your mind and begins to reveal it to you, according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself. He's the one that purposed it. He's the one that determined it before it all began, and it started with the angelic realm.

It is exactly as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:7. We're going to keep on here in Ephesians, but it says, But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, you know, when Paul said that, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world. "The hidden wisdom that God ordained before the world," unto our glory. That there would be a way that God would work in human life to begin revealing the wisdom of eternity, the wisdom of the Great God that would begin to come into our flesh – understanding the word, the mind, the way of God, the Supreme Almighty God, that begins to work in man. Awesome to understand that! And God foreordained that before the world was.

Verse 10, as it says in 1 Corinthians 2—But God has revealed him unto us by His spirit. For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

Let's continue on in Ephesians 1:10—That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He (God) might gather together in one. It's a beautiful thing to understand what he is saying here, brethren; "in one" – oneness, atonement, at one with God Almighty. And it's in the mind. It's in the spirit.

…to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on the earth; even in him. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated – here we go again, predetermined by God, brethren – according to the purpose of Him (God) who works all things after the council of His own will (God's own will). God does it.

I'm loving those verse more and more, their meaning more and more. Ecclesiastes. It's just simple. It's like God said, "I Am. You can either accept it or not." Always been. Always will be. And God will do it.

Verse 12—That we should be to the praise of His glory, the Father's glory, Yahweh's glory, the eternal glory, who first trusted in Christ. That's how it's done. It starts with the Church in the most powerful way, in working with human beings.

In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word (the logos) of truth. Isn't it an amazing thing how God works with us when He begins to call us, and the first time you heard? I remember the first time I heard. I'll never forget it. When was the first time you heard? When it was just in the mind? Not a matter of intellect, smarts, or anything else. And if we think it was, then we've got "dumbs," not "smarts."

After that you heard the word of truth (the logos of truth), the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise. God, after we believe and we responded to God, then we had the ability of coming to the point of being, the beginning of a sealing that begins to take place in our life on a physical plane that brings us to that point of the impregnation of God's spirit in our life because we want to be baptised, forgiven of our sin so that sin is cleared from our life, so that God will come and dwell in us. Otherwise, we can only be drawn by Him. So we come to the point of maturity where we want that to exist in us, to become a separate entity, growing until birth into Elohim, the God Family, the Kingdom of God.

Verse 14—Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory. God's glory. God's glory, the Glorious God of the universe, the Almighty God, the One that we should glorify and be in awe of in greater and greater ways as we grow. To come to appreciate more deeply, to love more deeply, to understand more deeply as He continues to reveal Himself to human beings.

The process continues to be revealed. Ephesians 1:17—That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ… He's the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom—it's a beautiful word—the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, of God, Yahweh. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know, it's the only way to know, to learn, what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

And so we learn, and we grow and we become more excited year by year by year about what God is doing in our lives. We see it more clearly. We draw closer to Him. We mature more. …and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power. It's God who does it all, and He chose to do it in and through His Son. But it's God the Father that does it all, brethren, and we must understand that and appreciate that and glorify God, praise God for that in our lives and in our spirit.

Verse 20—Which He worked, God Almighty worked, in Christ, when He raise him from the dead and set him on His own right hand in the heavens, far above all principality and power. What is it all about? What is He creating in and through him? Everything to do with His plan. Jesus Christ is the pinnacle of it all. There is no way that the purpose of Elohim is being accomplished in any other way. And as we read about back in Genesis and Isaiah and other places, it all began with the creation of the angelic realm, and then the universe. And it was all for one purpose! Elohim. Elohim. Elohim. Elohim. That which we picture in part at the Feast of Tabernacles, the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, the Family of God! How awesome is that, brethren?

Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world which is to come. The ages to come, brethren. And has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church. God Almighty did this in and through Jesus Christ, which He determined before time began (as far as we know time) or what we see when God began to exercise His will and His purpose. It started with the angelic realm.

…which is his body, the fullness, speaking of Jesus Christ, that which God gave, the fullness of Him (God, Elohim) that fills all in all. God does it. I love.... Beautiful verse, isn't it, in Ecclesiastes? It's just simple. And God does it. It's going to get done and it's going to get done His way.

And what an awesome thing if we can be a part of it and share in it. And that's what it's all about, brethren – for all eternity learning what it means to share in a family, to fulfill more and more of the purpose, the mind, the will of God of things that God has not even revealed to us yet.

We don't even know what's going to happen during the Millennium yet. We don't even know yet, concerning Elohim. We don't know at what stage things are going to happen for Elohim to become greater. We don't know exactly how it's going to happen in the Great White Throne because God hasn't shown it yet. Why? Because we're not there yet and we don't need to know that yet. Just like there are certain things we have now that didn't need to be known twenty years ago, or fifteen years ago – and many of those things to try us, to test us, to see whether or not we will truly live by faith toward God. The fullness of Him that fulfills all in all.

[Ephesians] 3:1—For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me toward you… Paul spoke with great confidence here, brethren. He knew what was given to him. It wasn't a matter of pride or haughtiness; it was the way it was and it was to them to learn from it.

How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery – and He does it to all of us in time if we will hear His word, if we are called by Him and drawn to Him. It is the revelation of God, of the word of God, that He gives to us, that we're able to take of. And Paul said He gave it to him in order to give to them, to deliver them. And so, it was by a revelation, in a very powerful way, that God gave these things to Paul very quickly on, because He'd been molding and fashioning him.

It's an awesome thing that happened to Paul; very unique in how God worked because he was thrust out there as an apostle so quickly. But there are things about him that God knew, had molded and fashioned within him already. He had been prepared to do a job. And when God has that kind of a calling, brethren, it is an awesome thing to understand, because God will do it.  Not us as human beings; God will do it.

How that by revelation He made known to me the mystery, (as I wrote before in few words, whereby (verse 4) when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.) It's knowledge that Paul had received about the mystery of Christ through revelation, through the power of God's spirit, just like we all go through in a process.

Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men. They didn't know these things. You know, there were a few in time that God worked with, but it wasn't known to the world. And now it's beginning to be known in a greater way through the Church. …and is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.  It's a unique way that God has worked in the Church – not in the same way that He worked before at different times and with different ones as a whole.

There were times when He, obviously, we read scriptures of how He revealed things to the mind and it was through that way that God communicated to them, but in the Church it has been unique because it has been solely that way as a whole, brethren, as we go through time.

Mr. Armstrong learned all he did, not because an angel was sent to teach him, not because God, Jesus Christ returned and manifested himself to him and taught him. No, it was done by the spirit of God. And as he read, he learned and he unlearned, and he learned what was true. He began to see the mind of God, they mystery of God that others around him did not see. Him and his wife kept the Feast of Tabernacles for so many years. He didn't understand why fully, but he obeyed God because he saw it. And God began to reveal to him a purpose because he obeyed. It was the way God chose to reveal it all to him – and that for us.

Verse 9—And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. It's a mystery because the world, man can't have it unless God's in the picture and starts giving it. …which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God. It's God's. That's why. Because God has it and no one else can have it unless God gives it. That's why it's a mystery and it's hid in God. It's His to give when He chooses.

…who created all things through Jesus Christ. Again, brethren, we can read meaning and definition into that. I know that some things when we come to them, because of thinking a certain way, it's easy to read something into it, just as the protestant world does into certain things. But until God gives it to us we can't see and we can't know.

And to come to why God would save that for now? There's much to be learned in that, why it is now. And it wasn't for any fault of Mr Armstrong. It was God's doing. God just chose not to give it.

That's why I love the example of those two men who walked beside Christ. They just didn't know it was him until the veil was lifted. You just can't see certain things if God says you can't see it yet. He just doesn't give it yet. And when He gives it, our general reaction is, as human beings is, "You know how many times have I read that? It's so plain. Why didn't I see that before?" We know the answer, or we learn the answer through time. Because we can see it only when God gives us to see it. Because it's God's to give. It's hidden with Him until He gives it and then it's not hidden anymore; He shares it, and we see it. That's what this is all talking about.

And what "all things" are created? It all goes back to the beginning, brethren, Genesis. Elohim. Elohim. It's all about the Family of God. And it's all accomplished in and through Jesus Christ. There is no other way.

As the verse, again, [Ephesians] 1:22 said, "And has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him that fulfills all in all." So, it's all about Elohim. It's about what God is doing through Jesus Christ, all things that are put under Jesus Christ. So when it talks about "creating all things," this is what it's talking about, brethren, all things that God has created, everything that has been made is all for this purpose.

Verse 10—To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom… the manifold wisdom of – Whose is it? – Gods. It's a powerful verse! And it's saying, in like manner, the same thing as the Word. That which is God, that which is the mind of God, the being of God, the purpose of God. And this word here "wisdom," as it's used, "intelligence that is evidence by what proceeds from the mind."

You know there is that which man can call wisdom in the world, but it's not known that it's wisdom until what is said or conveyed in the thought that is made manifest. And then we can say, "Wow! That's an awesome thing to know and to understand and to apply in life," and we learn from it. We in a physical plane can grow in things of wisdom in the world, how to deal with various things, how to do various things, to use knowledge in a right way. But what about when it's from God? What about when it's God's? The mind of God, the will of God, the word of God, the wisdom of God, that supreme intelligence that did it all. Incredible, what it's talking about here – the supreme intelligence, the supreme mind of God. That's what it's about, brethren, "the manifold wisdom of God."

You know, that's why I hope when you begin to think about and maybe go back and read from time to time, now on a different plane, in a different way, Proverbs.  "I, wisdom..."  It was always there. Who is it about?  What is it about? Sure isn't about what Solomon had in his mind. Sure wasn't about what different ones had in their mind. It's what God has in His, that which proceeds from God, that tells and shows and reveals to man how to live and what to live, because it's a matter of being in unity and oneness with His will, His way, the perfection of it all.

It's a beautiful thing when you go back and you start reading some of those things in Proverbs now, when it talks about, uses "wisdom." It's simply going back and talking about the word, the revelatory thought, the way, the mind of God Almighty. Nothing that man figures out on his own but revealed by God!

Proverbs was inspired by God! It came out of God to man for man! And it has everything to do with the wisdom, the mind, the will, the purpose, the beauty of how man should live by applying what God says will give your life meaning and purpose and fullness, that can come in no other way. The wisdom of God.

…the manifold wisdom of God. Might make known unto the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Through the holy spirit, you know, coming into us, revealing things to us. According the to the eternal purpose. "The eternal purpose," brethren! Over and over again words should just jump out at us and smack us and enlighten us and excite us! According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Verse 14—For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom, speaking of the Father, the whole family in heaven and earth is named. You know, speaking of that which is in Christ, and accomplished in and through him.  …that He would grant you (God Almighty) according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man. You know, that's why I love those verses about Paul when he says about the inner man and that which we can see and know because God reveals it to us, and yet that carnality that exists and that battle and a yielding to that spirit.

Verse 17—That Christ may dwell in your hearts (in your being, in your mind) by faith. Again, "through." It's the channel of the act, brethren. …through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love (in agape) may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the agape of Christ. Because it's from God through His Son, and fully in His Son, which passes knowledge. It's beyond knowledge and under.... It goes beyond that, brethren! It's not just about knowledge! …that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

He wants to share His very being with us, brethren, and to grow and grow in that until we are fully immersed – Elohim, the God Family, the Family of God.

Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, all of it according to God's will and purpose, brethren, unto Him be glory. God Almighty, Yahweh, the Eternal God, brethren, unto Him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Ephesians 4:1. Again, beautiful verses here, brethren, following on in context. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy, in a worthy manner, of the vocation wherewith you are called, with the calling that you are called. God says there, He's saying there's a calling that you're called by from God and to walk in that worthy light, in that worthy manner; to seek to do that. Not that we are worthy.

…with all lowliness, with a humble spirit, seeking not to take it upon ourselves, brethren, but to be thankful to share in it.

…and meekness, a teachable spirit, seeking to learn and understand circumstances and situations that we find ourselves in.

…with long-suffering. See, those things come from God, to do them in the right way, God's way, for the right purpose, for the right fruit.

…forbearing one another, allowing for the differences, in love. That's why we allow for the differences – within the law, within the liberty of that.

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit. The oneness. That's a powerful thing, brethren, when you understand what God is doing and a desire that He has for us that we understand what it means to seek to have a unity of the spirit—the same mind, the same purpose, the same will. No longer to do our will, but the will of the Father. that's why I love some of the things Christ had to say in Hebrews there about what he was doing to fulfill the will of his Father.

Verse 3—Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Because it produces something. There is one body, and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith. There is one belief to live by, brethren. …one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all – All! – and through all and in you all. It's how it's accomplished. A marvellous thing, an incredible thing to understand.

Colossians 1. We're going to start going faster. Colossians 1:12—Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meat, in other words, in the Greek, "to made us able," to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;  who has delivered us from the power of darkness. God has! It's His purpose. It's His plan. …and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. It's going to be accomplished in and through Jesus Christ.

In whom, in other words, "by dwelling in." In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Who is the image of the invisible God. "Image." You know, "the one in whom the likeness of anyone is seen," brethren. "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." And that's what we're to attain to, to seek, to desire with all of our being, to work toward.

…the first born of every… It means "over all creation," brethren. That's what the word is. …of every creature, as it says here, but it has to do with the creation, the first born of all God's creation. What is it about? The creation, the creation of God. What is He doing? The Family, Elohim. It's about Elohim.

Verse 16—For by him were all things created… That's what God always had purposed in His being, that everything would be centered around him, to bring everything into unity and subjection and a oneness with Him, and in time it would all be handed back to the Father because it would all be complete, the oneness. All Elohim. That are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible. See, that's what it's about.

See, if we're not careful we get to thinking there was somebody back then and they were doing all these physical things, or the spiritual things that started out being angels and then the physical universe. And that's not what it's talking about! It's talking about what God is doing and what His purpose is and His will is. It's about His family and how He accomplishes it. And so it makes it very clear here what it's all about.

…whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him, and for him (through him). That's what it's about. It's the means by which God does it all, brethren. …and he is before all things (Jesus Christ), and by him all things consist. It's a word that means "brought together; are put together." And what's being put together? Elohim! The God family. The Family of God.

Verse 18—And he is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning. He's the beginning of logos, too, brethren, the beginning of the wisdom of God that is being evidenced through what he is doing and what he did.

…the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father (Yahweh) that in him (in Jesus Christ) should all fullness dwell. You know, brethren, there is no way we can argue if we accept what God says, if we understand those scriptures, very clearly so, of everything that's translated in the New Testament out of the Old, out of the Psalms. That the Father, it says over and over again, is Elohim Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim. There's no denying of those things that are basic, the things that were done. It's all about a relationship between the two.

And, having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile, or through him to reconcile all things unto himself, in other words, again, as it says here, through him, I say, whether it be things in earth or things in heaven.

Verse 25—Wherefore I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word (the logos) of God. It's a part of what God does and is doing. Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints. Revealed. A continuing revealing process.

To whom, God would make known – God would make known – what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles. All the earth, brethren. And this is beautiful, brethren if we come.... We'll come to understand it more deeply as time continues on. …which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.