A Unity of Belief – Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

August 29, 2009

Today, we are going to continue with the new sermon series that we started last Sabbath.  This is Part 2  of the series entitled A Unity of Belief.  As was mentioned last Sabbath this is an important series for the Church because it comes at a time that is unique to us.  We, speaking of the Church, have never lived through a time like this because of where we are and it is quite unique to us and us alone.  We are now 37 Sabbaths into the final 3 ½ years.  We have 143 Sabbaths remaining and again, by Trumpets we’ll be at our 40th Sabbath since the final countdown began.  All important, truly.

This series has to do with the stability of what we believe, of what you believe specifically because you have to examine yourself and your thinking in your own mind; so it is a matter of the stability of what you believe.  A stability that’s being tested and refined.  In trying times like these we must become more watchful, not less, and that’s an awesome thing to understand, when you understand what the scriptures say about that. We’re going to hear a little bit about this at the Feast this year because the reality is it doesn’t matter when you live in time, you have to be watchful, you have to be on guard of what God gives to you and it’s a spiritual condition, not a physical thing.  It’s a spiritual condition and it is something we as human beings have to do because we tend to begin to take things for granted, or begin to be complacent or begin to kind of drift and become lukewarm and we don’t understand the urgency in life upon ourselves to be of a certain state of mind all the time, because of the way we are, because of our human nature and so it’s so important that we be, especially because of where we are now, more watchful, not less and it’s easy to let down in some of the areas of life spiritually that we do from time to time, but this isn’t the time to do that.  There’s really never a time to do that, but this most assuredly is not a time to let that kind of thing happen.  We must be more guarded and seek to hold fast to what God has given to us.  That is our strength, to be closer to God, to be filled with the truth that God has given to us.

So, today I’m going to do something a little unique. I always review a little bit to show a context but today I’m going to go back through some of the highlights of the sermon last Sabbath because the points really need to be driven home and we need to grasp and comprehend what was given to us, so a little bit more will be added to it so that we can build a little bit more upon what was given and then we’ll continue on.  It’s good to be reminded of a couple of verses that we read last Sabbath.  I’ll just read these to you quickly, but II Timothy chapter 1 verses 13 through 14: it says, Hold fast the form of sound words that which God gives to us, because what God gives to us is sound.  I like the term that Mr. Armstrong used for the magazine – “The Plain Truth”.  God’s word is plain.  When filled with God’s spirit, when God draws us and gives of His spirit to us, to understand, then those words are sound.  They’re what give to us balance and soundness of mind to help heal the mind.  So it says, Hold fast the form of sound words, because in the world it’s not there.  In the religions of the world there’s no soundness; just massive confusion.  Spiritually this world is Babylon and so God gives to us that which is sound – to begin a process of giving us a sound mind and sound mindedness.  Paul is admonishing Timothy to hold fast the form of sound words which you have heard of, in other words, from me, in faith and love, there is a way that God teaches in the Church, there always has been; and the Church has gone through struggles in this through time.  If the entire Church during Philadelphia had always understood that God works in a very unique and powerful and a strong way within the Church, we would not have had some of the kind of problems we had, we wouldn’t have experienced some of the kinds of things we did – if they’d understood Mr. Armstrong was the only apostle.  Just as the early Church had to grasp and understand and comprehend that Peter was sent to the Jews as the primary chief apostle.  But to the Gentiles there was no confusion – they understood that it was Paul who was sent to them, who was over the ministry to the Gentiles.  And God worked in that very unique way to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles; very powerfully so.

Hold fast the form of sound words which you have heard of, or, from me in faith and love, it’s a matter of what we believe and exercise because we understand where it’s coming from, we understand how God works, how He moulds, fashions and leads us and teaches us, and love, so it’s a matter of God’s love, understanding that the only way we can have that is by being close to God, by being filled with God’s spirit, because all of His word, His way of life is about that which is God.  God is love and so God wants us to hold onto His word with that kind of attitude of mind and spirit.  ...in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.  If we understand what it is saying, it means we have to be in Christ and he has to be in us.  He has to dwell within us.  That’s why I so often talk about sin and being cut off from the flow of that spirit because God the Father and Jesus Christ won’t dwell in us if we’re not repenting, if we refuse to repent of sin in our life.

Verse 14:  That good thing which was committed unto you… Keep what good thing?  The sound words that Paul gave to him, that Paul had given to the Church, to the Gentiles.  That’s what he is referring back to, that good thing, that word, that truth that God has given to you, that sound mindedness in His word.  He said keep, and that word means to guard, to preserve, to be watchful and so God has given that to us with responsibility if you understand what it means to preserve what I’ve given to you.  Remember the era of Sardis?  They didn’t preserve what God gave to them, they let it dwindle, they let it go by the wayside, so by the end of the period of Sardis they only had 3 primary doctrines left and so  they were not, in essence, the Church as a whole anymore.  They came to a point where they were spiritually dead.  God says, you are dead, because that’s a spiritual condition and so He let them come right up to the edge, to the end, and they were close to losing everything that was there but then God raised up the era of Philadelphia; raised up Mr. Armstrong and Loma to do a work, very powerfully so: and began to work with and reveal things to Mr. Armstrong as an apostle.  To restore truth to the Church that had been lost so that there would be an end-time work of the gospel that would go into all the world; otherwise that never would have happened.  These are things that God did and it is very powerful to understand our history and what we’ve gone through.

So, that good thing which was committed unto you, keep, by or through the holy spirit which dwells IN you.  That’s the only way to hold on.  Something very powerful to learn and to understand in God’s Church is that just because God gives you the truth does not mean you are always going to possess it, be able to preserve it, or hold on to it.  The only way you can hold on to what is true is if God continues to dwell in you, otherwise you will lose it: you will lose the truth.  You might have certain doctrines such as the Sabbath, the Holy Days, Tithing... you might retain certain knowledge but you will lose the understanding of those things; you’ll lose the purpose of those things; you’ll lose the spiritual insight of how those things work together and melt together very powerfully so.  And after a while it’s knowledge and God is not in it – there’s no life in it anymore – and that is what’s happened to the scattered Church.  If you understand what happened to the scattered Church and how far things have gone by this time, God is not there.  There’s certain knowledge but God’s just not in it.  It’s incredible what’s taken place, but the holy spirit has to be in  you and stay in you and continue to dwell in you for you to hold onto the truth.  For those of you who have been around for a long time; all of us who were a part of the scattering that took place in 1994, we look back and we understand, we see things that have happened in people’s lives; and we see very powerfully example after example; and the more people you knew the more you saw this, how it didn’t take very long when someone went off course just a little and started teaching or believing in something that wasn’t given to us because they didn’t hold fast, because they didn’t preserve what was there, didn’t guard what was there – that after a while their minds changed and they were not a part of us anymore.  They didn’t have the same belief.  We weren’t brothers and sisters any longer.

It’s important to review some of these things to get the context of the sermon. There are additional scriptures I think we need to go back and look at here, to build upon some of those as well: just to drive the point home because this is something you need to hold onto.  This is a part of that which you need to hold fast, that which is true, that which is of a sound mind to understand how God works.

Ephesians 4 and verse 11: We’re going to review some of these verses we looked at last Sabbath; a reminder of the order and the government that God has placed in the Church.  It’s a word that sometimes people don’t understand and don’t grasp because they equate it with the world and government in the world, or certain things about government that aren’t true and aren’t sound. It’s like God’s love – we have to learn.  God has to teach us what His love is, what His government is, what it is based upon and the spirit that is there. Verse 11 it says: And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and pastors and teachers;  and as I mentioned last Sabbath regarding teachers, elders fit into that category as far as an ordination is concerned but, if we understand the history of the placement of elders in the Church, this role is more limited or restricted to this specific responsibility that is given them from above – whether it be as a matter of Church government from a pastor, or a preaching elder, or whatever we’ve had and utilized in the past as a form of working with congregations and so forth.  And so, they’re given specific jobs depending on what the need is and just like I mentioned last Sabbath the primary reason we’ve had so many ordained is to prepare for, as a training for what’s coming; and we’ve only had a little bit of learning and instruction and teaching in this through experience in the last year for all the new people that have come along.  To give enough training and enough understanding so that when that time comes the Church is going to be able to help a lot of people, bring a lot of people and work with a lot of people that are going to receive the impregnation of God’s spirit before Christ returns.  That’s why I mentioned that job hasn’t even begun yet, just a training has taken place.

Notice again the importance God places on the apostles and prophets in Ephesians 2:20: how that the Church, as it says here, is being built if we understand the Greek words that are being used here, being built  upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, because this is the way God works.  He give to the apostles and to the prophets – always has – prophets through time and then into the Church the same thing but primarily worked through apostles, through time.  And those things that were given to them, God built upon that, because that’s where He started the building process – to give to the congregations, to give to the Church that which He was building, but this is where it’s done. It’s by what He revealed, what He gave and restored to Mr. Armstrong; what He has given to me as a prophet.  That’s what God is building upon and giving to the Church and going all the way back through time, those things that God revealed as a part of His plan and purpose has always been given – primarily to the prophets through time.  If you want to look at David, look at all he wrote in scriptures, look at the things that were given to Moses and on it goes – all the way through the Bible; until you get up to New Testament time and then we come to the time of Christ – and then the Church being established and God primarily was then working through the apostles.  The Church wasn’t accustomed to having prophets then, because there wasn’t that purpose.  There was a need for apostles to do the job.  It is a little bit different here at the end because there’s a different need today.  Incredible if we understand how God is working and why He’s working this way.

Again, is being built upon the foundation, speaking of the Church, the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone of all that.  Because we receive all that we do from and through Jesus Christ, from God.  That’s how God works – through His son.  Jesus Christ is the head of the body, the head of the Church.  That’s how it’s organized.  In, meaning through Christ and also through the apostles and prophets because that’s how we work here on earth.  Jesus Christ is in heaven, then he gives to his apostles and to the prophets, then those things that are necessary for the Church because it’s the way of teaching and of communication that God has given.  He doesn’t do it personally or directly in that respect.  There’s a way that He works to teach and lead and guide and direct us.  That’s why we have what we have on the Sabbath – that God feeds us and nourishes us Sabbath by Sabbath by Sabbath.  So, in or whom the building is fitly framed together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  This is how God is building.  It’s how He’s always been building... for His people.  ...in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God.  A habitation where God dwells.  Incredible to understand that, what it means here.  We are that temple, a habitation where God lives, where God dwells through the spirit.  It’s a spiritual thing.

Ephesians 3, the next chapter, the importance of apostles and prophets; it’s emphasises again in the 3rd chapter verse 2: If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given me, or which is given me toward you: this is how God works.  Paul is saying this dispensation, this truth, this way of life has been given to me to give to you.  So again, which is given to me toward you, in other words given to me to be given to you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; and that’s how God works.  This is an apostle that was speaking.  He said, this is given to me by revelation – that God has revealed it to me, communicated it to his mind, to his being and there are some things that aren’t even fully understood there that some have wondered about how some of those things were done in the 3 years that he was taught directly by Christ.  I think of how God trained and moulded and fashioned Mr. Armstrong.  It wasn’t something that God came down and sat down with him.  Jesus Christ didn’t come down and sit with him and communicate verbally to him and did not appear to him... in this particular case.  As time has gone on this is how God has worked more and more once the Church was established.  In the beginning there were times where some of those things were necessary, to intervene, to be manifest, but as a whole it was done by revelation through the power of the spirit. ...whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.  That’s not being pompous.  That’s not being filled with pride or haughtiness, it’s just a reality.  Paul was explaining something here: that his desire for the Church is that you understand my knowledge, what God has given to me so that it can be passed on to you.  That’s why I sometimes talk that which God gives to me – I can’t give to you in reality.  God has to do it, because it’s a spiritual thing.  I can give the words, I can give the instruction and that knowledge that comes from the mind, but your ability to receive it is something between you and God and your relationship with Him.  It truly is, but that’s how God works nevertheless, to reveal it, to give it.  Those things that are written in the books, those things that are given in sermons and so forth, that’s just a reality.  It has nothing to do with haughtiness and pride that some people sometimes think... “Boy, you really are lifted up on a high scale aren’t you?”  No, it’s a reality of life.  It’s the way God works. There’s no apology for that.  It’s just a reality and we understand that reality.  Truly.

Which in other ages, as it says, was not made known unto the sons of men, things that people can’t understand in this world about God and that when God begins to reveal it, there’s a way that He reveals it and then it’s given to the congregation, it’s given to the Church as people are drawn to the Church.  If they choose it, if they make those choices then God can continue to mould and fashion them, to teach and guide and direct as it talks about in chapter 4 and chapter 2 that we just read.  Whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by/through the spirit; it’s just the way God works and that’s where it stops: not through evangelists, not through the pastors. He inspires them, it’s the way it has always been in the Church; to build upon, to continue to give what has already been given.  To be faithful stewards of what God has already given to the Church.  It’s an incredible thing to understand how God does that.

In last Sabbath’s sermon I referred to a method Paul used in order to reason with some people on a very physical, carnal level, but saying he was doing so as a fool and meaning that he didn’t like reasoning in that way but that he was going to do that to try to help them to understand on a carnal level, not necessarily even a spiritual one, but you have to have God’s spirit even for that for the Corinthians and different ones that he talked to at times.  But he talked in this particular case here as a fool.  In other words he doesn’t believe it in any fashion or form, but he’s going to reason with them on this plane.  So that’s how last Sabbath’s sermon we continued on with some of the things I was discussing and I stated with that kind of reasoning that it would seem that some doubt that I am a prophet.  All the things that are out there on the internet – that’s why you’ve got to be careful, if you have a diet of that, if you go out there searching and surfing and doing the things that sometimes people do that I’ve tried to warn people to be cautious, to be careful that you don’t do that for your spiritual health.  Because we can choose to fill our minds with this, with the truth that God gives us, that sound mindedness, or we can mess around out there with that which is not sound, with that which is distorted, which has no other object but to plant doubts and fear and other things in people’s minds to try to destroy faith.  And if you have a diet of that you know what happens?  It does exactly that.  It will work to destroy faith and confidence and boldness.  That’s why you have to have a diet of God’s word, of God’s truth in  your life, you truly do and so some of the reasoning sometimes that people use in order to go out here to do some of that surfing I cringe inside because I think – how can I convey that which is spiritual to the mind to help people to understand you are hurting that mind that God has given you and His desire to live and dwell in you, but if you disobey Him and you fool around with things that you’re not supposed to fool around with – they will hurt you!  Amazing... it’s a spiritual thing.

I am making comments like this because we have had, thankfully, a single handful of individuals that I know of, less than a full handful who’ve had some difficulties with some of this in recent times.  Maybe because of time, because they haven’t seen the 2nd Trumpet, because they haven’t seen anything literal yet.  There are those because of where we are in the timing of the 3 ½ years that the longer this period of time goes on the more dangerous it can become to us, because we don’t see and we don’t grasp fully what God is doing and how He is doing it yet.  We truly don’t!  And the mercy that God has given, and what took place as a result of the fasting that God wanted us to see and to learn and to understand something deeper and more important about His desire and His will at the end-time here.

So, anyway, sometimes people want everything to be word for word and I’ve said, Hey, things have changed because of the 50th Truth.  Things have changed.  We can either accept that or not.  Yes they have!  One can ask why didn’t I know that?  Because God didn’t give it.  How much plainer can I be?  And for those who want to find fault, it’s easy to do.  Does that shake you?  That some things changed with time?  It didn’t really change, it’s just that we didn’t understand it.  Nothing really changes in God’s plan, it’s just that God hadn’t revealed it yet.  It’s the same regarding Pentecost in the past.  Pentecost never changed, we just didn’t know when to observe it and then when God gave it we understood and we went forward doing what God wanted us to do.  But until that time, for those of you who did it, I did it... I observed Pentecost on a Monday for a while, for a few years.  You know what?  God honoured it, because it was a matter of faith, because that’s what God had given to that point in time because this is the Church, this is where God is working – see?  It’s an awesome thing to understand how God works.  To have disobeyed that, to go to something else that God had not yet given, even if a person felt convicted in their own mind and saying well, I think it’s on Sunday... some came to that point.  You know what happened to them?  They’re all gone.  I think of one evangelist that began to keep it, from what I understand, on both days for a while.  He did some of the greatest damage to God’s Church of any evangelist that’s out there; because that wasn’t from God, it wasn’t given from God.  There’s so much to learn, so many things to understand and grasp and that’s why God wants us to hold fast to what He gives to us.  To hold it quick, to hold it fast, to preserve it.

So again, some have doubted since they have not seen the physical evidence of the 2nd Trumpet as I said, or because that much has changed in timing between the 1st Trumpet blast and the 2nd one and therefore perhaps the conclusion that some can draw is I’m not a prophet.  Well, there are people in the world that drew that conclusion a long time ago, you know?  Because they don’t want to hear about a 50th Truth... “Oh, you’re changing things.  You’re changing things so that this can work out now.  I saw that one coming!”  And if you fill your mind with that kind of thing you know what happens?  ...and you keep going through that kind of thing?  You know what happens when you stay close to God?  You will see it, you will understand it and it will be inspiring to you.  We have new people who come along, God gives the evidence of that truth – witness of that truth.  A new person out here can come along and they can go through that entire process.  That’s why we leave everything online – the radio interviews and the things that did change:  We leave it there because that’s our history, because it’s the truth!  That’s where we were at that moment in time of what God gave to us.  And they see it clearly and they’re inspired by it.  When God opens their mind and they see that entire process, and they come up to the present time and they can see where we are now – by knowledge that God gives and inspiration that God gives they can see it.  Incredible!  But sometimes some of us have struggled with some of those things.

I then said, speaking as a fool if I am not a prophet that I most assuredly am an apostle.  Why did I say that?  Do we deeply understand why I said it? I have wondered that at times in my life in the past.  That thought has come into my mind.   Something I understand and know deeply, is that the only way that truth is given to God’s Church, something that’s revealed, has to be given to an apostle or a prophet to be given to the Church, there is no other way.  That’s the only answer that God gives in scripture of how He’s worked in the Church and so I look at my own life in times past and I wondered what is God doing?  Because sometimes, all of us look at our lives and it feels a little surreal.  As small as we are, to see and understand what we see.  You’re living through it but every once in a while a thought will come into your mind, a doubt will come into your mind and what do you do?  You go back to the trunk of the tree, you go back to the truth, you go back and you understand how God works and why He works that way and you’re strengthened again, you’re empowered again by the power of God’s spirit to go forward because you see clearly the only answers.  So that’s why I said: either I’m a prophet or an apostle.  And so I said I’m speaking as a fool because I believe and know with all my being I am a prophet!

Hopefully we understand why that comment was made that way – because of the truths that God has revealed to me and through me to His Church.  And so that’s why we started going through these truths.  If you understand and see these truths with all your being, there’s only one way that it is possible.  That’s why I think if you believed these things at one point in time, if they were a part of your mind, where are you going to go to be able to hold onto any of it?  Some in their minds perhaps can get rid of all the prophetic things, but there are some things that the mind cannot dispel or get rid of, so where is your answer?  Where would a person go?  What scattered group out here?  That’s why we’re going through these things.

Let’s go back and review to the 35th truth and build upon it a little more than we did last Sabbath.  As we’ve done in some points in the past as I’ve tried to encourage people over and over that we begin to consider a few things revealed by God’s spirit through me: It’s just a reality.  I would have had a hard time saying that a few years ago, but I learned you say what is true because it’s true.  It’s not a matter of self: but sometimes I understand how human beings can be and how they receive something... “Well, that sounds awfully pompous and grand and you think of yourself in that way.”  No, it’s a reality.  I don’t think it – I know it.

The 35th truth – we understand that Jesus Christ is continually coming in the flesh, which is about Jesus Christ and God our Father living and dwelling in and through us by the power of His holy spirit.  That is a powerful, powerful truth that no one else teaches.  Do you know of any scattered group out there that has ever taught that?  And if anyone has started teaching it I can tell you exactly where they got it.  Because some people did that with Mr. Armstrong’s teachings even in the world.  They began to pick up on one little thing here or there and began to teach it, whereas in the world before it hadn’t been taught.  There is some truth out there and somebody would say... “Oh yeah, I heard so and so was teaching that.”  Hmm, wonder where he got that.  Then you find out afterwards where some got some of the same ideas and beliefs.  Some will pick up a piece here, someone will pick up another piece and they got it from Mr. Armstrong.  Incredible.

I John 4 verse 1: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets/many false teachers are gone out into the world. And it’s speaking to the Church.  It’s not speaking to the world. Hereby you can know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and again, it’s not a past tense verb, it’s a present progressive in the English language.  It’s like Jesus Christ IS COMING in the flesh is of God.  So every spirit that confesses, in other words, witnesses by their life, is living by their life, not something that’s said verbally, but because of how their living, it’s evident that God is in them.  That’s how it’s easy for us as a whole within the ministry to know quickly if someone is of the same mind when they are being drawn because you truly see the power and the evidence of God’s spirit because they’re of the same mind.  Elders catch on quickly.  They see that quickly by talking for a little while and then sometimes there are these doubts and you think, maybe that person is not being drawn, and then there are times you know that the person is not being drawn...or if they are, they’ve got a ways to go and so we’ll give them more time to work on certain things and to see the evidence of what’s reflected in what they see and how they live their life because of what they are doing.  Are they starting to obey the Sabbath?  What do they think toward God’s Holy Days and on and on it goes.  And so those things come back at times by their actions and by how they live and then it becomes obvious.  Are they willing to change some of the things in their life that they need to change that are wrong?  Because someone being drawn by God will start changing and they will address the hardest of things.

Going back a little bit here in the story – I remember a time when some in the Church began to go to Russia – because they were going to help some people over there that they heard about who were observing the Sabbath day. Some of them had contacted the Church and so they were going to go over there and one individual in particular began to go over there a lot and began, because of his ancestry, to work with some of these small groups of people through a region there and something unique happened.  They were told various things that were true, but this group refused to cease being Pentecostal.  Someone being led by God’s spirit, it doesn’t take them very long to begin to understand what that means and what is happening in their life when they come to understand that spirit that’s Pentecostal.  Someone being drawn by God’s spirit will repent of that.  They’ll repent and they will cease doing it because they understand where that’s coming from, they’ll be able to see the distinction, but someone who isn’t truly being drawn, they won’t be able to see that distinction – they will not fear what they’ve been experiencing in the past.  They will not flee from that – they will try to hold onto that because no one is going to tell them that they don’t experience something that comes from God: because they’ve had this ‘spiritual’ experience and so they won’t give it up.  Someone truly being drawn by God’s spirit, that’s responding to God’s spirit – they will flee it fast!  What should that have told some of the leadership of the church at that time?  Save your money from going to Russia.  You’re not going to bring them into the Church.  You can’t give them the truth if they don’t receive what is true.  So the ability to discern and to know whether God’s spirit is there is by what is witnessed in a person’s life.  Is God truly working there drawing someone?  ...and especially when it comes to a point of time of dwelling in someone: because there are things that you’re going to see and know and understand.  First of all, they’re going to be of the same mind as you.

That’s why, within the Church, and we’re talking about in this sermon, there is a unity of mind, a unity of spirit, and a unity of belief because that reflects more than anything else where we are spiritually in our lives.  If you’re in unity of belief there’s only one way that’s possible – God’s spirit: by God dwelling in you.  And if we begin to have doubts and begin to lose certain truths given to us then there’s something spiritually going wrong, awry in our life and we begin losing because for whatever purpose and reason – God is ceasing to dwell in that life – and a person begins to lose what they had before, they are not able to hold fast any longer, preserve what God had given to them.  I have seen it over and over and over again in God’s Church, when people aren’t able to stay of the same mind.  It reflects the spirit and so it reflects exactly what John is saying here.  It’s either going to be evident in a person’s life that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh, living in and dwelling in them, or He is not.  That was never taught in Worldwide.   That was never taught in Laodicea except from one source.  It’s just a reality.  Where does it come from?  Do you believe it?  You know, I ask that a little facetiously because I believe you all believe it.  Realize then if you believe this and you see it clearly, what this means is that it is not a past tense verb and you understand that it’s present progressive. That it’s something that happens and continues to happen – that God continues to dwell in us through the power of His holy spirit:  God the Father and Jesus Christ are able to dwell in this – a habitation for God to dwell in.  It’s an awesome thing to understand.

…and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh is not of God, by their life.  If they’re not of the same mind, then their life is not reflecting that God’s dwelling in them because that’s the only way you can have that kind of unity – that kind of oneness of mind – that people in the world don’t grasp. They can go around and ask questions of people in different areas and you know what? Everybody’s of the same mind and people don’t understand that, they can’t grasp that.  It blows their mind.

And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is coming, as it is, in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now is already in the world.  So even back in the time of John that attitude was there.  People who were working against the purpose of God’s spirit dwelling in them, the purpose of why Jesus Christ suffered and died so that he and His Father could dwell in us.  And he says there are people now antichrist in the Church.  It’s not the world. It’s not talking about the world because they never had opportunity for Christ to dwell in them, but for those who’ve been given that opportunity – to turn against that, to begin resisting that, they begin to work against, that’s what it means – anti – against Christ.  It’s all that it means.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world.  I love that verse.  That’s our strength, that’s our life, that’s how we’re able to hold fast to what we have; because greater is He who is in us, God the Father and Jesus Christ, than he, speaking of Satan and the demonic world, than he that’s in the world.  They have no power over us.  We have power that God has given to us through the truth, through His word.

So what other splinter group and scattered group believes and knows this truth?  If the worst case scenario, as I said last Sabbath, were true, and again, I speak as a fool:  if I’m not a prophet then I’m most assuredly an apostle; for no one else could be given such truth except for an apostle or a prophet.  I am driving that point home.  If the worst case scenario were true, where would you go for truth to be given to you?  Where would you go if you believe what God says about how He leads and guides and directs and works with the Church?  So the bottom line is again, I am either a prophet or an apostle.

Let’s add to that John 14, powerful truths that we grasp and understand that the world does not grasp nor understand – that God has preserved and reserved to be given at the end-time for us – to give us strength, to be our strength and boldness to go through what we’re going through and to hold on in order to go through what is ahead of us.  John 14:1- Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, Jesus Christ said, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many, and the word is not mansions: that’s a protestant teaching.  That comes from a protestant teaching that we were never able to fully shake in the Church.  Because it’s in the world.  In my Father’s house there are many mansions: it’s almost like the only thing we didn’t do is we teach that God’s Kingdom is coming to this earth, but it’s like these mansions are up there in heaven and people are going to go up to these mansions.  Oh isn’t that sweet and nice?  And that’s a protestant form of syrupy, sick, protestant songs out there about these places that people are going to be able to live and dwell.  In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  That word mansion there means dwelling places.  In my Fathers house, and what is God’s house?  It’s the temple! There are many dwelling places… It’s not restricted in size to a trinity.  It’s not restricted in size at all.  Thousands and thousands – 144,000 are already prepared to enter into it, they’re already sealed, to be added to the one who’s already been added and placed in it, the chief cornerstone – Jesus Christ – and 144,000 are about to become added to it that God has dwelt in, that they have dwelt in God.  And now there are more because there are more of you who are able to dwell in God and God in you, because you’re going to be able to live on into a new age, because God continues to work with the Church and the Church isn’t going to stop, it’s going to become greater, much greater.  Incredible!

I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again. Not future tense!  Not a future tense word in the Greek language whatsoever and it’s easy if a person goes to the trouble, to the right books to understand the language… Zediadees is one of the best out there whose written on these things, to show the tenses of various words in the Greek language, to be able to go to it and see this is not a future tense word.  It’s not about him coming again some time in the future.  It has nothing to do with the second coming of Christ.  I will come again, the word is present progressive, I am coming again, or, I will be coming, is what it means.  Even the word ‘again’ there throws it off.  …and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.  So whatever God is doing, whatever the Church is doing we’ll be a part of it because that’s where we are, because that’s where God is, that’s the Church – we are the Church – we are the body of Christ.  God lives and dwells in us, we dwell in God.    Amazing!  And as long as God is dwelling, coming in us – that’s what it means, present progressive.  And the only thing that stops that are your sins.  That’s why you have to repent of sin because you don’t want the flow of Him coming into your life to cease.  So very important.

He says, I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Again, it’s I am coming to you.  So in other words there’s going to be a time when this begins, where I’m going to be coming into your life, dwelling in you, living in you, abiding in you and he’s talking about that which is going to take place and it’s going to continue to happen.  It’s a constant thing that just keeps happening.  It doesn’t stop.  It’s not an event, it’s not a single event, a past tense or future tense, it’s a continuous ongoing event.  God dwelling in us.  That’s why it goes on to say, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me: You see me, because I live, you shall live also. He’s talking about something spiritual to the Church – having life in you… a life in you that’s living; the impregnation of God’s spirit and His spirit continually dwelling in us and living in us that gives us a unique life indeed.

He says, At that day… at that day when this begins, when he’s coming in us, he says, At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  And you know when that started for them; for those who were listening on that day?  On the Day of Pentecost 31 AD:  that’s when Jesus Christ and God the Father began to dwell in the Church, in people’s lives.  That was the beginning in a very powerful way of the body of Christ – the Church of God.  That’s when it began, 31 A.D. – Pentecost and he begins to dwell in, live in, and for every person who’s baptized, you know when it begins?  …this same truth, this same knowledge?  On the day you’re baptized and have hands laid upon you.  On that day Jesus Christ begins coming in you, dwelling in you.  Before that he’s not dwelling in you.  He draws you, God draws you by the power of His spirit and you make choices and if it leads to baptism, to the forgiveness of all your sins, because God will not dwell in, abide in, live in, continue in, as that word is translated – all meaning the same thing – because they’re all true words.  He will not do that unless you are forgive of your sin and the only way you can be forgiven of that is to go into that watery grave, bury the old self and come up in newness of life being forgiven of all your sins – then… then and ONLY then can God give you the impregnation of His spirit and begin to dwell in you; otherwise He will not dwell in you, unless you’re forgiven of your sin.  So speaking of the Church a very powerful thing to understand and this is exactly what it’s talking about.

Verse 21: He who has my commandments, and it’s not talking solely about the 10 commandments.  It includes that, but it includes much more!  It includes the understanding and the spirit of those things that God has given, that Jesus Christ gave and taught from the very beginning.  It comes from a word meaning ‘to give charge’, ‘to give commands’, ‘to give instruction’ and that’s what he’s saying.  In other words, He who has my instruction, my commands, my charge, whatever I’ve given to you; and He gave a lot to the Church …and keeps them… and that word is akin to the word ‘watch’ in the Greek language meaning to maintain, to preserve, to guard, to hold fast, to keep, it’s even a word that’s used as to be a keeper.  God has given you that – to keep – to be a keeper of His word, of His instruction, the instruction that Jesus Christ gives to the Church, the guidance and direction that comes to us.  He who has my commands.  You don’t have the instruction of God, you don’t have the truth, the words of God.  You’re going to find out that this is talking about everything that Jesus Christ was given from God the Father.  The word of God, everything that he’s given to us in the Church, and so if you have it there’s only one way you have it, because God has drawn you to it.  You come to a point in time where that word actually begins to dwell in you.  God’s word actually starts dwelling in you and that’s what makes it come alive; because it’s a spiritual thing.  Awesome to understand.  He who has my commands and keeps them, he it is who loves me: and he who loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest, word means ‘to show, reveal’, myself to him. And so, Judas said unto him, this is not Iscariot, Judas Iscariot, it’s Judas who was surnamed Thaddeus who has a brother James.  He said, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not unto the world? How are we going to see you and the world doesn’t?  Because they were thinking physically.  They couldn’t see spiritually yet.  Day of Pentecost hadn’t started yet and so they were asking on very physical terms… you’re telling us that we can see you and the world can’t see you?  How is that possible that you’re going to manifest to us and not to the world?  They didn’t understand the spirit.  It was a spiritual thing.  And, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: my logos, the word of God.  Jesus Christ is the logos of God, the word of God made flesh on this earth when he walked on this earth.  Everything about his being, the word of God.  Incredible to understand words and what they mean.  The mind, the revelatory thought of God… it’s powerful, it’s awesome and God gives a portion of that to us when we’re baptized and it begins to dwell in us and we begin to grow, we begin to see and understand and learn.

And that’s what I love about the Church, a part of the definition of the Church – it’s either going to go forward or it’s going to go backward but it cannot stagnate.  Sardis went backward.  Laodicea became lukewarm and God spewed it out of His mouth because He said that it was not acceptable.  The Church, by the demand of how God’s spirit works, demands growth.  God’s spirit demands growth in life and it’s up to us to respond to that so we can grow.  That’s why God continues to give truth to the Church, because He’s building and by definition if you understand, you keep on building, you don’t stop. He keeps giving more so you can keep building.  It can never stop – ever!  That’s what’s exciting about God and God’s plan – to understand growth – learning, growing, understanding – all those things continue through time… and we can’t grasp that.  You cannot receive everything of God, from God.  Through eternity He’s going to continue to lead and guide and mould and fashion us, to give us growth and excitement of life that continues on.  Life never becomes stagnant or lukewarm.  It does in this world though.

So, if a man love me, he will keep my logos; and he’s been telling them already; his word, his commands, his instruction.  He says, if you love me you will keep that word… he will keep my logos; and my Father will love him, and will come unto him, not a future tense word.  It’s the same word.  If you understand what the word ‘will come’ means, it means He’s going to come into your life and continue coming into your life – it won’t stop, it won’t cease.  He’ll continue to come into your life if you continue to keep and hold fast that which He’s given to you – if you love Him, if you desire Him.  And if we begin to lose some of those things, we begin to be stagnant or to let down then we can lose those things and He will not continue to come into our life.  ...and he will come unto him, and it says, and make our abode with him, our dwelling place, that word ‘abode’, a dwelling place.  He said we’re going to make our abode with you, in you.  That’s an awesome thing to understand.  And not a one of you was ever taught that in Worldwide.  Not a one of you except for some of you who heard it when God began to give it to me when I was out in Lubbock, Texas.  That’s when it started and then God continued to build on some of those things.  Incredible!  Just a reality of life, a truth.

Do you understand, do you grasp the magnitude of what it means that you’re able to see and know the truth?  …because it comes from God?  And there’s no one else that understands it?  …there’s no one else that grasps it?  So where did you get it?  Incredible to understand such things!

Verse 24: He who loves me not does not keep my sayings: God makes it so clear through time – doesn’t take long generally… of those who will continue on or those who will in time, if they’re not ever so protective and desiring to preserve and guard and watch, will begin to become antichrist – to work against Christ.  They’ll begin to reflect in their life that they’re not of the same word, they’re not of the same instruction, they’re not of the same mind, they’re not of the same belief and therefore they cannot live by faith that God has given to us because faith and living by the truth is a matter of what God has given you to believe.  And so when you believe the truth… and these things have power; these are the things that give you boldness and confidence and strength.  These are the things that help you to endure trials and hardships and to have boldness and confidence while you’re doing it.  Incredible to understand how God works.  And so it says, he who loves me not does not keep my saying; and that word is ‘logos’; does not keep my word, my logos;  and the logos comes from God the Father in and through Jesus Christ.  It’s everything that Jesus Christ is, he’s at one – always has been, with his Father and we’re blessed to make the choices to become one with God and we must work at becoming one with God – Atonement.  See?  Amazing!  He who loves me not does not keep my sayings, and the word, logos again, which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me.  Everything comes from God the Father, the source of what is true, the source of what is right, the source of His spirit, the source of everything that’s contained in that – the revelatory mind, the thought of God that He blesses us to begin to imbibe in in our lives as we begin to grow, until the time we can actually be born into that family, into Ehloim.  Awesome thing to understand.

Truth 42 – God the Father has eternally existed and He is Yahweh Ehloim.  This causes some groups out here some problems, doesn’t it?  So where do you go if you believe, if you see the truth… do you know where this came from?  Do you understand?  How clearly do you see it?  That’s something that was very moving to me which I knew would be the case… in 2005 at the Feast of Tabernacles when God began to give this in a very powerful way – sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon.  And the beauty to me in my life as a minister, as a servant of God, was He gave it to the Church to be at one in the same truth.  People began to see it at different stages.  I think of one individual who came to me, I mentioned it before, until he heard the sermon on Melchezideck it wasn’t opening up for him and then finally with that sermon God opened up his mind so that he could drink the rest in and began to see.  Amazing! Evidence of God’s spirit because God blesses us and helps us to be of the same mind, of the same belief.  It can’t be physically done as it is in the world – and it really isn’t in the world if you understand the truth of it.  You know, people have their different ideas, they go to different Churches and stuff and nobody out there has the same mind in all things when it comes to understanding the things of God as God has given to us.

Isaiah 45, just a couple of scriptures as we go through this part here – something you believe now with all of your being and these scriptures that pop out of the bible, for those of you who were part of Worldwide especially, more so than those of you who are new because perhaps you’re able to see it easier.  And some of the young people that grew up in the church might be able to see it easier because they didn’t really understand what we used to teach about Yahweh, or about Jesus Christ and the contradictions that were in scripture because of some of that belief – because we weren’t fully out of the trinity yet.  We kind of got rid of 1/3 of it, but we still had another 1/3 that had to be dealt with – about Jesus Christ – that He hasn’t eternally existed.  He had a beginning.  What an awesome thing to understand… the chief cornerstone.

Isaiah 45:5 I am Yahweh, the Eternal, means the self-existing one.  I am the self-existing One, Yahweh the Eternal, and there is none else, there is no one else that is eternally self-existing.  Jesus Christ is not eternally self-existing.  He had a beginning.  He’s been given eternal life.  We look forward to the time we’re given eternal life in the God family because it’s in the God family that it can be eternal, but we haven’t eternally existed any more than Jesus Christ has.  There’s one who has eternally existed and that is what God is saying.  Either it’s true or it isn’t and there are people out here who are scattered who cannot believe this with any part of their being because it was never taught in Worldwide; because it was never taught as a whole within the scattered body.  It wasn’t taught at all – this truth.  But everyone who comes in, who continues on or who repents must come to see this, believe it and live by it, or they can’t become a part again.  True.  Awesome!  I am Yahweh, and there’s none else; there is no God besides me:  there is no Elohim besides me.  When this was recorded and written there was no one there except Yahweh Elohim.  There was no other member of the God family. I girded you, though you have not known me: speaking to Israel, That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am Yahweh, and there is none else.  We lived with that for so long – such a glaring contradiction.  That caused people and groups in some areas out there to have difficulty – and they weren’t being drawn or they would have seen it, because whether it be the Islamic religion or whether it be that of the Jews, they both have one belief that there is only one God and that’s a very big thing with them, because they carried that from the time of Abraham onward and they have stuck to it and they have not veered from it because of that truth that existed that Abraham taught and taught well his family.  There is one God.  Incredible!

Verse 18: For thus says Yahweh who created the heavens; Yahweh did it, the Eternal God, the Self-Existing One:  God Himself, who formed the earth and made it; He established it, He created it not in vain, tohu, confusion, without form and void in other words.  That’s why when you read Genesis it says that’s the way the earth was… it was in chaos, it was in confusion and this scripture here says God didn’t create it that way. God revealed to Mr. Armstrong that something happened with God’s perfect creation when Satan rebelled and that is how we came to understand.  Incredible! He formed it to be inhabited: I am Yahweh, the self-existing one; and there is no one else.

What other splinter group, what other scattered group believes and knows this truth?  And again, if the worst case scenario were true, I speak as a fool, if I am not a prophet then most assuredly I am an apostle because there is no other way the Church could receive this and have this as a matter of knowledge and understanding that God has given – truly.

#22 – I’m just going to pick out a few of the truths here.  There has been an apostasy, a great falling away in the Church that is unprecedented in God’s Church over 2000 years.  Nothing like it has ever happened from the top of structure and government.  And then we come to understand some of the scriptures in II Thessalonians that this individual would be given power to sit in, that word having to do with authority and government and God never allowed such a thing to happen through time except at the end so that one could fulfill the scriptures, so that one could be the Judas – truly.  One who would do what he did toward Jesus Christ in a horrifying way because Judas never had God’s spirit dwelling in him.  He never had the opportunity to be a part of the Church and grow and be taught and educated like he was.  What happened here is of such a magnitude to comprehend what happened – it takes God’s spirit to really grasp it and understand it.

So again, there’s been an apostasy – truth #22 – a great falling away that’s unprecedented in God’s Church over 2000 years and that truth has helped us to understand what happened to the Church because we wanted to know.  This is God’s  Church!  How could this happen to the Church?  IT’S GOD’S CHURCH!  IT BELONGS TO GOD!  So how could so many thousands, 10’s of thousands of people be scattered or just quit in one fell swoop by a sermon given in Atlanta?  We didn’t have answers right away.  In time God began to show us how and why and that the problem had nothing to do with the reality that it’s God’s Church, the problem is with us in God’s Church – that we all sinned and we all fell asleep – see?  And we had to be spewed out of God’s mouth because of our sins of being lukewarm, of being complacent, of letting down spiritually.  We had to learn a great and a mighty lesson.  Every one of us was guilty of that.

Again, what scattered group teaches this or understands it?  Who believes it?  Who believes that Mr. Tkach was the man of sin?  There was one group that at one time said that he was and then when he died they had to change that to his son because… it couldn’t be him because he died.  Because they didn’t understand the scriptures.  They were right in the beginning and then they switched because they didn’t understand, because it didn’t come from God.  Their reasons for choosing him as the man of sin was not based on God’s spirit and what God gave – incredible, human prejudice.

#23 – the son of perdition was revealed as Joe Tkach Sr. and he was the source of the apostasy and his actions led to great destruction in the Church.  Incredible to understand and see the whole process that took place.  To understand that yes, there was an apostasy in the Church – a great falling away.  We lived it.  Those of us who have been around for a long time before 1994, we lived it, we experienced it, we saw it, we witnessed it.  We’re witnesses of what happened.  Incredible!  And then to understand where they came from is another incredible thing which is this part here - #23… so why don’t others see this?  So clear what happened to the Church.  Why don’t others teach this, that there was a great falling away?  Do you realize that there are groups who teach that their group has to become much larger than what Worldwide was because they saw a destruction that took place, a dwindling and being whittled down to size and there are leadership of some groups that believe they must become much larger than Worldwide in order to have a great falling away because they resist that knowledge because they won’t admit it, they won’t acknowledge that it has already happened to us.  They think that they have to become much larger so that a great falling away can occur within their organization at some point in the future.  That is why some people talk about 20 years down the road because it is taking a long time to get these churches built back up, to be back up into the tens of thousands and above what it was at one time of around 150,000, which was still very small.  Why do you see what you see and why don’t others see it?

#24 – The temple is the Church of God.  End time prophecies about the temple of God are about the Church of God.  It’s foundational to understand this, truly is… to understand even what happened to the Church, to understand the prophecies and what Jesus Christ said about the temple and the stones of the temple.  So simple to a mind that has God’s spirit; but one that’s been cut off from the flow of God’s spirit – it’s not simple.  So, somebody wrote something here recently that we get a publication sent to us, which continues to come in our mailbox that I’d really like to get in file 13 as quickly as possible… but a part of the beginning of the article there was about some of the things about a temple and they just don’t understand – they’ve lost anything that Mr. Armstrong gave about what the temple was.

#26 – The stones of the temple are about people in the Church at the end-time at the time of the apostasy.  See, you just build upon one truth that leads to another truth… to understand and comprehend what happened to us, to the Church.  As Jesus Christ said, not one stone would be left upon another; so some people try to explain that this already happened. No, it didn’t.  They’re looking at something physical that happened in 70 A.D. and they don’t get it.  They don’t understand what Jesus Christ was saying. There are still some stones there physically and they don’t get it.  So the stones of the temple are about people in the Church at the end-time at the time of the apostasy.  God said there wouldn’t be one left upon another.  The very sign of the end-time to the Church.

#28 – All of Laodicea was spewed out of God’s mouth and scattered.  And there are people who won’t even acknowledge they were ever Laodicean.  Sure, they may have known some other Laodiceans but they can’t see it in themselves.  So where do you go?  Do you believe that?  Do you believe that about Church eras?  …and why do you believe it?  …and how do you believe it?

#31 – The first 4 seals of Revelation 6 are about the Church and these parallel Matthew 24.  They are about spiritual events and spiritual destruction to the Church and they are not about physical events of destruction in the scattered nations of Israel.  Do you see that?  You’re able to understand that?  You’re able to grasp that?  How?  Why?  …and why doesn’t everyone else see that?  So again, is it true or isn’t it?

#38 – The 144,000 are all those over the past 6,000 years who have been called to the first resurrection.  Seems so clear to us.  Seems so basic and easy to understand what God is talking about over and over again when He talks about 144,000 and what’s going to take place on Pentecost.  Incredible.  So, where does anyone go to be taught this if you believe it, if you have the same mind?

#41 – we’ve already talked about this in part, but incredible…the antichrist mentioned by John is not about the Pope but about any in the Church who work against God’s purpose of Christ living in, dwelling in them.  So simple, so basic – against Christ.  So where does this concept of antichrist that still exists in the scattered group come from?  It comes from the world.  It comes from Protestantism that we were not able to fully shake off, just like some things regarding the trinity, until it was God’s time.  See, God is the one who reveals and when He does reveals a truth and adds on top of and gives to us more – that is when we have to make a choice and decision of what we do and Mr. Armstrong always talking about it in that context.  That’s a powerful evidence of where God’s Church is.  When we don’t understand something, when we’re wrong about a particular matter, when we don’t grasp and comprehend it all because God hasn’t given it yet… when He gives it then we change, we grow with what God gives to us.  There are people out here who think that the Pope is still that individual and it has nothing to do with him, has nothing to do with any of the scriptures of antichrist.  To be an antichrist  you had to have had the opportunity to be a part of God’s Church.  You’ve had to have the opportunity of being able to be drawn into God’s Church – in order to turn against Christ.  Because the world is already against Christ – every bit of it – you don’t have to be “Christian” to be against Christ.  The whole world is against Christ – we understand that, but those in the Church who come to a point in time where they begin to work against Christ, against the purpose that he died for them… who else can do that except someone who is drawn to the Church – that God draws and is baptized and receives the impregnation of His spirit.  Who can begin to work against God’s spirit except someone who has had access to it?  Awesome to understand.  The world can’t because they’ve never been given that opportunity to work against Christ and the terms as explained by John.  The antichrist mentioned by John is not about the Pope and it’s not about different leaders out here in the world that some people try to say – it’s not any of them.  It’s about things within the Church.

II John :7 -  simple scriptures.  I’ll just read this, you don’t have to turn there.  It says, For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not, see, going back and understanding, who confess not, same terminology he used there in I John 4, that we just read a little while ago in the beginning.  For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh.  No one can begin to deny Jesus Christ coming into their life except those who had opportunity for it.  Only they can be labelled antichrist.  That is what is being shown here.  This is a deceiver and an antichrist.  That is what John says – II John 7 – that’s the definition of an antichrist.  That’s why it says in I John 2:18 Little children, who’s he speaking to?  The Church.  It is the last time:  you can say, oh how can that be the last time?  Well, hopefully we all understand that.  The last 2000 years has been the last time – the end-time; those terms are even used and the closer you get to it the more end it becomes.  As opposed to the first 4000 years and how God worked and how God worked in the last 2000 years.  Now we’re in… the terminology of that which is prophetic about the very end-time for the actual events that are going to take place before Christ returns – again, different language that’s used in the Bible.

Little children it is the last time and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; I think of some of these religious leaders on TV when your flipping across the stations on a Sunday morning. We saw something the other day looking for a news program and this fellow is going on about antichrist and I think… “Can’t you read?”  Even in a physical, carnal world of religion… “Can’t you read?  Don’t you understand the great contradiction of what you’re saying?”  There’s not just one antichrist; the scripture very clearly speaks of many antichrists!  And if you’re a little bit honest with yourself, with your so called intellect and Biblical knowledge and eschatology.  If you could just be a little bit honest about your studies into the Bible… are you just a flat out liar or what?  And that’s the answer.  Yes, they are flat out liars.  They know what some of these verses say, but then that would destroy some of their teachings.  Incredible.

…you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; in the time of John.  Nearly 2000 years ago he said there are many antichrists – those who are fighting against, working against Christ, the very purpose of why he began to dwell in them.  They began to resist.  Incredible.  ...whereby we know it’s the last time. They went out from us, they left, they made choices, but they were not of us; at some point they had a beginning, but that’s what happens when someone begins to, for whatever reason, go astray.  I think of our history in the last 10 years and I think of different individuals who quit at different stages or began to let down and the evidence was clear to me – I would cringe at times in hearing and seeing certain things in people and their lives who eventually left and certain sins that would continue on in their life, knowing full well beforehand that if they didn’t get a hold of it they were going to turn, they were going to leave, you can’t hold onto it.  If you don’t repent and change you’re not going to be able to hold on.  And sure enough, as time went along some left.  You know what happens first generally?  People begin to get embittered.  You know why?  Because they’re told in the Church you can’t do something.  This behaviour is not acceptable in God’s Church and so people have to make decisions.  Am I going to quit the wrong behaviour, or am I going to repent.  See, if you don’t repent, God’s not going to dwell in you and continue to dwell in you as He did in times past, so because of your sins He ceased dwelling in you and you’re becoming… don’t tell them this in the beginning of that because there is time to repent… but people begin to become antichrist if they continue to resist and continue to insist upon doing something that is contrary to what the Church teaches, whether it be a matter of doctrine, or just a matter of something totally physically carnal – that they want someone that they shouldn’t have.  They want to commit adultery.  There are a lot of people who have left our fellowship in times past because of fornication and adultery.  They want someone in the world more than they want God, more than they want the truth, that’s a powerful thing.  Don’t think sin and the pulls of sin aren’t great.  They are mighty, they are powerful – they truly are.  That’s why we have to continue to be watchful and on guard, to be alert spiritually in our lives, to fight the fight, to battle, to continue to repent before God and seek God’s cleansing in our minds and in our life so we can continue to change; so they’ll continue to dwell within us.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have no doubt have continued with us: that’s very evident.  That’s what he’s showing here; there is that which should be clear by what they confess in their life.  There comes a point in time if they don’t continue to live this way and reflect that unity that we all have then something else will pop up and it’ll come out in some conversation, some ideas that someone begins to come up with and they’ve got to justify themselves so they’ll find some doctrine, something that I have taught at some point in time.  “Oh, he’s wrong on this particular doctrine.”  Because that gives them justification then to go ahead and do their adultery and their fornication or their stealing from God.  Incredible, the human mind.  You’ve got to fight the fight, and you can’t quit.  You’ve got to continue to hold fast to what God gives to you – the truth that is so precious and so powerful and not to be taken for granted because you can’t always have it.  You can only have it and continue with it if God continues in you.  That’s the only way to continue in the truth – it truly is.

And so it says but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.  So there comes a point in time where it becomes obvious if someone is not a part of the fellowship.  They might be asked to leave because they won’t repent or they just leave because they can’t continue in this way because of that conflict that’s there and they can’t take it anymore and they have to go someplace else.  And that’s when I think… Where are you going to go to receive this?  Can’t you be a little honest with yourself of the truth you knew?  …or how do you justify that now?  Which truth is it here?  Which number are we going to pick here?  Jesus Christ has not eternally existed; that Yahweh Elohim is the only true self-existing God for all eternity and that Jesus Christ is only now in the God family as of 2000 years ago; he hasn’t eternally existed.  Is that the truth you’re going to leave on?  And everything else up to that point in time was true until you got to that one?  Do we understand the contradiction of certain things?  And those who saw it and understood it – they continued on.  But those who were letting down came to a point in time where they couldn’t accept it.

There were a few who left over the 50th truth.  Not very many thank God, because He preserves us and we continue to respond to Him and continue to grow, but some left.  They made a choice.  They couldn’t continue on and hold fast.

Verse 20: But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.  What does that mean?  What all things do you know?  What word, what logos do you know, what truth do you know except for that which has been given to you.  That’s what it’s talking about.  You know all things that have been given to you that have come from God; you know where they come from and you’re able to hold onto them and have them.  You have an unction, an anointing from God that He’s given to you through the power of the holy spirit to continue on with the truth and choices and decisions you make to hold onto and hold fast to what God has given to you – to hold fast to the truth.  …and you know all things, you’re able to know all things, that’s what it’s talking about.  You’re able to know all things that God has given to the Church.  We can all be, and are as a whole, of the same mind.  We are a unity of spirit and that’s a powerful witness itself, of the power of God because God makes it possible.  There’s only one way to have that kind of unity in the body of Christ, in the Church of God and the more we have it the stronger we are as a body, the more God can use us and will use us… individually or even collectively.

Let’s notice verse 21: I have not written unto you because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, so John is saying here, I’ve written unto you not because you don’t know it, but because you know it, and no lie is of the truth.   If it is a lie then it’s not the truth and that’s how people try to justify certain things.  Look at Mr. Armstrong and certain things that came along in understanding like the fact that we have a mind that has a spirit essence in it.  Some began to think that he was teaching that we had an immortal soul and he never used the word, but some jumped to those conclusions because they couldn’t see it and they lost something because they couldn’t receive the truth.  We’re able to receive it because of God’s spirit.

Verse 22: Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?  Who is a liar?  In our lives, who can be a liar in this context of what John is saying except an individual who begins to resist what God gives to them by what they do and their choices toward it, toward the truth that God has, to deny Jesus Christ – the purpose he died, of why we’re able to receive the truth in the Church and why He is able to continue living and dwelling within us.  That is what it’s talking about.  He is antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son.  If we start working against the very purpose of why Jesus Christ exists, of why he is our Passover, of why he died for us, of why he is then our high priest in heaven at this point in time then we become antichrist.

Are these things the truth or not?  And again, what other organization teaches this truth we just read about – antichrist?  Who understands it?  Does Philadelphia?  Does Living?  Does United?  They don’t.  Something so simple and so basic.  It’s simple to us because of God’s spirit – it’s basic to us because of God’s spirit – it’s sound because of God’s spirit.

#44 – The captivity of the United States will happen during the 5th Trumpet of the 7th seal and not the time of the 5th seal, which has already been opened.  Do you believe that or not?   Who else teaches it?  Who understands?  All these things that can’t happen at different times.  You can’t have them happen twice at different points in time, and yet we weren’t able to see the contradiction because it wasn’t time.  Some things that are a contradiction you just can’t see until God gives it and then all of a sudden it’s like, yeah, why couldn’t I see that – it’s so clear!  One cannot see things until it’s God’s time because its revealed by His spirit.  Incredible!

#45 – Not all baptized members will be resurrected during the first resurrection.  Some don’t like that at all.  They don’t like most of the truths but they sure don’t like that one because that takes something away that is kind of a comfort thing.  False comfort, that you can be baptized for a week, or a month, or two months and as long as you were baptized and if you’re trying you can be in different groups out here and God has kind of given them all a little bit of different work to do, but not to be in unity and harmony which is a great contradiction of God’s spirit… Because it’s so lukewarm we can’t put it all together in one and it’s like… that’s okay. No it’s not!  So some think that somebody who has been baptized a month or a year, as long as they are baptized then they can have the opportunity of being in the first resurrection – up until the very return of Jesus Christ.  It’s the kind of mindset where the vast majority truly believe if you’re baptized one day before the return of Jesus Christ and have the impregnation of God’s spirit you will be in the first resurrection, you’ll be part of the great multitude.  Lie, lie, lie… a misunderstanding, lack of knowledge, a lack of grasping how God works in our lives and that it takes many, many years to be tried, to be refined before you can enter into Elohim, otherwise it’s no different than the protestant world where you can have a death bed confession and because you repent at the last moment of physical life – that you can be in heaven.  That’s what that doctrine’s like: that somehow because your baptized, and just because you have the impregnation of God’s spirit that you can be in God’s Kingdom when Jesus Christ returns.  So, isn’t that clear to you?  Why isn’t it clear to everyone?

So again, do you believe that or not.  Are you in unity with that truth or not?  And I speak as a fool because I know that as a whole in the body we all are but there is a time in peoples lives – and everyone who’s left us begins at some point – at some truth – to doubt and it leads to another doubt of another truth and then another truth and after a while the confusion of mind has entered in so much that things are not as clear as they used to be and the mind can begin to think of other things and begin to doubt more and more and more.  It has happened, it has always happened in God’s Church and it will continue to happen in God’s Church… all the way to the end.  And you think how is that possible?  Because we’re human beings and we have human nature and that’s a reality with us.  Think… how can that happen after certain things are seen and experienced out here in the world?  As much as anyone who was a part of the scattering and is going to refuse to the very last day.  It’s going to happen.  Can you grasp and imagine that?  That up to the very day Jesus Christ returns there will be some on earth, some one for sure who was a part of the scattering – who will still refuse to believe the truths that God has delivered to His Church over the last 10 years plus.  And you think how is that possible?  It’s as possible as what is going to happen at the end of the millennium when Satan is let loose for a little season, when millions have seen God’s family on the earth and they still do what they’re going to do.  Don’t deceive yourselves, the battle is always there, the need to be watchful, the need to be on guard, the need to be spiritually alert is ever upon us brethren and right now, this time of all times – don’t let down.  Some of you have let down spiritually in your life.  This is not a time to let down, to lose what God has given to you.  What a horrifying thing to happen at this late stage of what we’re going through and yet it happens and will continue to happen.  It’s the way it has always been; it’s the way it will always be.  Is it going to be you?  I pray it’s not you but I have no control of that.  Only you have control of you.  Only I have control of this, and I don’t have much of that.  Only through repentance, through God’s help, through God’s mercy and through God’s spirit.  That’s our strength, that’s our help, that’s our hope, that’s our life.

We’ve looked at several truths but not all the truths that God has given through me to His Church and it is just a reality of life.  Such truth can only come through an apostle or a prophet and through none other and I hope we understand that and know that with all of our being; and if you believe otherwise then you’re not a part of this body.  That would be a reality.  Again, I am NOT an apostle.  I am God’s end-time prophet and an end-time witness and you are to hold fast to the truth that God has delivered to you.  We have been begotten of the word of truth and it’s an awesome, awesome miracle to understand what we’re able to live and be a part of, and very much of that truth has come through me to you.  It’s just a reality of the way God has worked and you need to acknowledge that in your mind and in your spirit and in your being – to exactly the degree that God has given and as much as what Paul was saying to the Corinthians, or to Timothy, or to others at different times because it’s important that each one of us understand HOW we’re able to be a part of God’s Church, through the structure and the organization because it’s how God works.  It’s because of God’s spirit and that we are able to grasp then what we have to be blessed to hold onto.  It’s just a reality.  Some people think that’s haughtiness.  I hope none of us have any inkling of that in our mind and our being whatsoever because if it is then you don’t understand me and you don’t understand what God is doing right now in your life, or offering you in your life.  So through the process of being called and God revealing His truth to us we make a choice to believe what He’s shown to us.  An awesome thing – we always have choice don’t we?  …all along the way.  We go through a process of acceptance of what is truth.  We have that choice.  No one else has it.  Every one of us has a choice to accept what is true when God gives it and every one of us has a choice to continually make concerning all that is given through time; of what we’re going to believe and that’s what faith is based upon.  Faith, what you live is based upon what you believe, it truly is.  We’re blessed to live what we believe.

We are blessed to live what we believe.  That’s what we do.  It’s a powerful thing to understand.  It’s how we keep the Feast of Tabernacles, how we kept it last year and how we’re going to keep it this year.  It’s a matter of faith.  It’s a matter of recognizing that God has given us that to understand, to comprehend, for a purpose – and some of it is just to see how we will do, what we will do when we’re given it.  How are we going to do what God gives to us.  Are there certain things we’re going to do that change from time to time, that we adjust in from time to time, that have the ability to be adjusted and changed for a greater purpose, for whatever the purpose is of what God is doing?  That’s why I think about a sermon I gave last year about what ‘tabernacles’ means and if we’re able to see and grasp that which God blesses us in a great way to comprehend because it’s definitely a difference from what we had done in times past.  But do we understand why?  …and are we in unity with it, in agreement with it, or do we sometimes resist as human beings?  Because I’ll just tell you the truth right now… there are a lot of people, not a few, but a lot last year who resisted what God was giving.  They weren’t fully in agreement in the beginning with how to keep the Feast of Tabernacles last year.  It caused some vibration, it caused some adjustment, some battling spiritually…and that’s good for the Church if we come through it and we grow through it.  But it’s incredibly dangerous if we don’t grasp and see why and how certain choices are made.

I say these things brethren because it’s our choice.  We have to choose to hold fast and to love what God has given to us and to fight for it with all of our being.  We have some incredible things that are coming in time here.  I think of something that God’s revealing right now; that He started revealing this weekend – started yesterday.  I’ve already been down this road so many times I know exactly what’s happening as it’s happening.  It’s not a new truth… I thought 51 truths? And then it hit me – no, it’s an addition to the 50th truth.  Awesome!  It’s exciting.  It’s inspiring.  Awesome things that are right there in the Bible that we can’t receive until it’s God’s time, until He gives it to us.  Inspiring and exciting how God continues to give more and more to us as we continue to grow.  It’s kind of like Melchezideck… I don’t know the whole story yet and I’m sure not going to give you any real good ideas yet. It’s kind of like advertising.  You have to wait until the Last Great Day.

Proverbs 4:13 Take fast hold, the word means ‘firm hold’, of instruction, to grasp onto it with all of your being.  Don’t let anyone take it away from you because that happens sometimes out here.  Don’t let any doubt enter in and when any kind of doubt enters into your mind go back and ask why.  Ask God for help to understand where it is coming from.  How did that even come into being?  How’d that even come into the mind and how are you dealing with it then?  That’s why we talk about going back to these truths over and over again.  Don’t let her go: keep her; for she is your life.  The truth is our life – it truly is.  What God has given to us – the truth, the word, the instruction – everything that God has given to us.

Let’s go back to I Corinthians 15:1 - Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you…  I’m going to throw something else out that I mentioned last Sabbath.  Facebook,  MySpace and similar sites.  See, if I believed with all my being  that someone is an apostle or a prophet – which I did about Mr. Armstrong.  I believed it with all my being the entire time that he lived and walked this earth.  Never a point in time did that conviction ever cease.  He was God’s apostle.  And because of that, and the depth of that, it helps so much when anything comes that might fight against that or resist that in any fashion or form – when you understand how you have everything you have.  That’s why I marvel and am sometimes so dumbfounded even on a physical plane, let alone a spiritual one how any scattered minister out here could ever speak in the terms they do sometimes of saying, “Well, he was a good teacher… but…”  Because they don’t believe he was God’s apostle and some of them didn’t believe it at the time or they didn’t grasp the importance of what that meant.  They would never, at any point in time have contradicted what God was giving to the Church because they would be afraid to do something like that if they truly believed it.  They would be fearful to contradict some of that instruction or guidance – if the belief is there knowing how God is working through him to teach the Church.  And so if he said something even in passing about something I needed to look at in my life, I would want to listen and think about it – what does this mean for me?  Because this is how God is speaking to me at this time.  This is how God is teaching me at this time – that which is true, that which God gives in truth.

That’s why I marvel sometimes when Mr. Armstrong talked toward the end of his life when he looked out over the audience in Pasadena and he asked, “Where are the ministers?”  There wasn’t one evangelist present and yet there were many at headquarters.  No evangelists in the audience.  God’s apostle is speaking, teaching, and not one evangelist in all the Church was there and yet there were many who were at headquarters.  Not one pastor and yet there were many at headquarters.  There was one minister clear at the back that held up his hand and that wasn’t what Mr. Armstrong was even addressing and so he told him…”and you don’t count,” because he wasn’t talking about him.  He was talking about those who should have been there – the evangelists and the pastors because they had lost understanding of how God was teaching them.  That’s a dumbfounding thing to understand what we’ve lived through in God’s Church.

And so I mentioned something in passing last week regarding Facebook and MySpace and similar sites.  I think of one individual who went home right away and got off of it immediately, just because I made conversation about it.  I respect that.  Am I telling everybody they have to do it?  No.  Sometimes I’d like to.  It has been so misused and has caused so many problems in God’s Church.  There are criticisms that take place there, just like in a congregation where you would speak to each other, and you condemn each other or you criticize each other on an open forum like that.  And you pass out words that come out of your mouth except you type them in instead of speak them and you criticize another brother or sister or younger person.  “This is happening because of you younger people that are in the Church – it’s because of your sins that he he’s saying this.”  And because I said it some become upset at me because I’ve even said it.  “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, that you can tell us something bad about Facebook.  You’re taking something away from me; that I cherish and I want to have and I don’t misuse and it means so much to me.”  You want that more than you want God?  Go for it.  You want to have that kind of communication and abuse of something that’s being misused in the world – go for it.  Am I telling everyone they have to get off of it?  Well, after today I’d be a little fearful to be honest with you because mankind has so misused it.  Think you’re going to have it in the world tomorrow?  I’ll tell you right now the answer is no.  I’m telling you right now you will not have that kind of use of technology in the future.  You’re going to learn how to communicate with your neighbour.  You’re going to learn how to open up to your neighbour, to those who are close to you.  You don’t have to worry about someone who’s a thousand miles or two thousand miles or three thousand miles away.  And if you want to communicate to them, why don’t you just communicate to them?  Why don’t you pick up the telephone or why don’t you write them an email?   What is the spirit and purpose behind some of these programs out there in the world?  Do we not understand the deceptions that sometimes exist in this world?  What is the motivation for doing certain things out there?  What is the motivation of spirit that comes out of some individuals?  Now some people do it totally out of ignorance and totally out of not even thinking it through.  It’s just there so we use it and we don’t see anything harmful because we’re not using it in a harmful way – and I tell you what, some who hold onto it the most and are upset with me the most are the very ones who are abusing it the most and speaking badly to their brother and hurting their brother or sister.  I hate it when people hurt each other.  I loathe it in the Church of God; when we hurt each other; when we say things that come out of our mouth and yet we’ll type it to the whole Church to see and we tear down some other brother in the Church?  I don’t get that…and yet I do and I hate it with all of my being.  I don’t want to hurt anyone.  I don’t want to say something that hurts another brethren.  Why would I write it for everybody else to see?  …that I’m criticizing and condemning a brother, especially a babe in Christ.  Do I want to be guilty of hurting them?

You have no idea how it has hurt some people in the Church because of things that have been said and how they’ve been said and yet I feel pain for some who are in remote areas because they don’t have the same ability to come together every Sabbath like you can in Dallas, or Cincinnati, or some other areas.  If you have a circle of friends, why don’t you communicate with them just with email individually, or pick up a telephone and share things with them?  What is the spirit, what is the motivation behind just throwing it out there for all to see?  And the same  regarding people who want to share pictures with everybody.  I talk about protecting one another and some think I’m just talking about myself and my family?!  We are so close to some really bad things happening in this world and do you not want to protect your brother and your sister?  On the contrary, some just pass out people’s addresses and say add these – get this whole list of all these people out here on your Facebook.  A bunch of you are adding people who aren’t even in the Church of God – who do not have the spirit of God and you add them on, blindly so, and then we talk like everybody’s in the Church.  My history teaches me that not everybody that is in the church is in the Church.  You need to know one another.  You need to know someone before you invite them into your home.  Does that make sense?  Protection.  Protection of your family.  We’re going into times when God is going to call people from all kinds of backgrounds.  And then the thing of trust comes up too and individuals say I don’t know who to trust.  It is the ones you meet with every Sabbath.  You get to know them through visiting with them that way.  You cannot know individuals who write a blurb on occasion out on a web site.  You do not know them and some of them that write blurbs are not in the Church of God.  Please!  I’m sorry, but I wasn’t planning on going into this in this depth and this length, but then I think of Paul when he made comments like that.  He didn’t like doing it.  He didn’t want to do it, but then he rejoiced when people responded and learned from what was being said.

See, I understand that some this past week got upset with me – God’s prophet.  Sorry!  I’m shaking my head up here.  Get upset at me because I’ve said something about something you cherish and you hold dear and you think I just don’t understand; “he doesn’t get it; he doesn’t understand how I use it and what I do.”  Oh, far more than what you know.  God knows and I receive it from God.  What I’m telling you today, where do you think it comes from?  I’ve just gone through different truths, I’ve just talked about how the truth comes to the Church through apostles and prophets and I can guarantee you where this is coming from.  You can think that’s my opinion.  People used to say, that’s Mr. Armstrong’s opinion, that’s the way he sees it.  Well, if it is, I want to listen.  Sorry, but I want to listen to what he has to say, I want to hear it and I want to get my life in order with that as much as I can because I know who he is and I know there’s no one else closer to God than him.

Saying that out of pride and haughtiness?  Not at all, it’s because it’s the truth.  Can we swallow our pride and acknowledge the truth in all things – young and old alike?  You need to think about some of these things.  That’s why I told the elders a long time ago to not be on those sites.  Do you understand why I would have said something like that to elders a long time ago?  Not to be on some of these open forums and so forth?  If you don’t understand, think about it, pray about it and you’ll come to understand what’s healthier for the Church and why.  And if it is good for elders to not do, I wonder… hmmm, it might be good for us.

Anyway, a little correction to go along with things here and sometimes we don’t understand the spirit, sometimes we don’t understand what Satan and demons use out here.  You think, yeah, but I’m not using it in a wrong way… well, let’s say you’re 100% perfect in how you’re using it – others aren’t though.  There are some who aren’t using it properly – that I know with all my being.  See?  There have been times when I’ve had to restrain myself not to get involved in some things, but I’ve pulled back and let it go, let it continue on so they can learn and grow from it.  But we’ve come to a point in time now, because of protection for God’s Church and because of God’s people, that we need to be of that spirit and that mind: to be more protective toward one another.  I don’t want to see anyone hurt in this body.

So how do you use something like that?  Well if you use it you use it extremely carefully.  You whittle it down to size – only people you know, that you truly feel confident you know with all your being – that’s the minimal way of using it.  Family then that has to be a different site, doesn’t it?  Whether it be Church family or physical family.  See there are certain things that people can do and how people can handle things that make a difference in God’s Church.  And so how can we use wisdom in these things and do we understand how some things are misused in the world?  And again, I want to repeat… MySpace and Facebook will not exist in the millennium.  Take it to the bank!  Will not exist!  We’re going to be taught how to use technology.  We’re going to be taught how to communicate God’s way, the right way, in a good way.  If anyone became upset at me I feel for you.  If any twinge in yourself, in your being, in any fashion or form of you became upset at God’s prophet, I would be fearful!  Because God will teach you if you don’t repent of that and it’s not pleasant how sometimes God teaches us things because He’s working with us and He wants us to understand, He wants us to change, He wants us to repent, He wants us to have a right spirit and mind and awe and respect toward Him and His word and how He works with us.

I Corinthians 15:1: moreover brethren I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which also you have received, and wherein you stand; where we stand with the truths that God had given to us. By which also you are saved, if, IF – it’s not automatic, if you keep in memory what I preached to you, he wasn’t being haughty and proud.  He’s letting them know how God works.  It is the way it is, it’s a reality – no apology for it!  No pride in it whatsoever.  It’s just a fact.  It’s the way it is and that’s what Paul is saying.  If you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you have believed in vain.   See?  Wouldn’t it be horrible if, because of certain thinking, we end up believing in vain and we lose what we have? For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, that’s how it works.  Everyone has done the same through time, that is what Mr. Armstrong did.  He delivered to the Church what he received from God – no more, no less if we understand; when it comes to the doctrines that God gave to the Church and things that God gave to us with the understanding that existed at that moment in time – whatever that moment was for him….For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; so at that time this was the push because nothing was known about Christ, especially going to the gentile world and even amongst the Jewish world – they didn’t understand these things about what was in the Old Testament regarding Christ.  So this was the push in the beginning.

And you know what the push is toward the end?  We’re not pushing the same thing as in Paul’s time.  Much of the world thinks that they already know about Christ.  When God starts calling them He has to give them a great big adjustment to their understanding about the Messiah, about Christ and so forth.  They must begin to learn the truth and latch onto what is true but the world as a whole, even the world of Islam believes that Christ lived and existed on this earth and that he was a prophet.  So it’s not a big thing to push right now, is it?  And God’s not having us go the Buddhists, He’s not having us go to different parts of the world – that’s not what God is doing; but He is working with the Church to prepare the world.  As small as we are, amazing that God could be preparing for Jesus Christ’s return.  Awesome!  It doesn’t matter what anybody says out here.  Everything is coming and it’s coming fast.

For I delivered unto you that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren all at one time; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, isn’t that amazing?  …of whom the greater part, not everyone still remained.  Some obviously did not remain because of death but the reality was that some also didn’t remain because people have choices and they left the Church – they became as John said antichrist.  They turned against the purpose of why Christ came.  …but some are fallen asleep.  He isn’t just talking about something physically here.

After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. So at a different time Jesus Christ intervened and began to work with Saul who became Paul.

Verse 9: For I am the least of the apostles, that am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. Incredible.  Here is the man that stood there, giving his approval and the authority to kill Stephen.  Incredible!  Someone in the Church, and others in the Church, to be put to death because of him.  He understood the mercy and the grace of God and the purpose of God – incredible! But by the grace of God I am what I am: and that’s the way of all of us… you, me, it doesn’t matter who we are and where we are in the body and where God places us, incredible to understand such things.  But by the grace of God I am who I am, I am what I am...and so are you.  To be a member of the body of Christ – it’s because of God’s purpose and God’s grace and God’s calling and things we don’t understand and don’t know – just thankful for it and seek to make the most of it now because this is our time.  …but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, in other words speaking of the other apostles who taught the truths given to them…so we preach, all the apostles, and so you believed.  It’s how God works.  It is how it worked in Philadelphia.  It is working a little bit differently now because it’s a different role and a different job that’s been given.

And there’s no other way to receive the truth – awesome to understand that.

Being of a unity of belief, to understand how we’re able to have the same belief, and brethren if you ever find yourself in any fashion or form with anything that comes from up here, or that’s written… if we’re not fully in unity and harmony with it – to ask God for help to understand why.  To ask if there’s that which we can understand in our own minds and our own being and our own thinking so we can learn from it and if there’s that which we need to repent of and change because I tell you assuredly in such cases there always is, truly is.  And God will help us to understand and see so we can grow more and more: so we can truly have a unity of belief, a oneness of faith that only God Almighty can give to us.  And you need these things and you need this kind of solidarity of mind and thinking to understand how God is giving you what He’s given you; to understand how you’re able to believe what you believe – because these are trying times.  They have been some difficult times.  You don’t have too much longer to have to wait for some of those things, but up through this period of time there are still battles we have to fight and the reason for this sermon is so that we don’t let down and so that no matter where we are in time, that you fight for it, to hold onto, to hold fast to what God has given to you.

~~~end

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