Family – Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

3rd Feast of Tabernacles Sermon – 2009

The title of the sermon today is Family - Part 2.  We’re going to back up just a little bit to where we were yesterday and pick up from there just to set the stage again, to get some context and remind everyone where we were yesterday and then we’ll continue on from there.

We have three parts to this sermon and to me that means a lot because for the Feast of Tabernacles, for God to inspire to have that many sermons to cover a subject of this type means a great deal.  Hopefully it means a great deal to us because it means a great deal to God.  His desire for us to capture, to grasp, to understand a focus He has had for so long – His desire, His waiting for so long, and now a larger part of the Family about to come to pass.  We can’t begin to grasp and comprehend that, we really can’t.  The desire, God’s will, God’s purpose, the excitement, the anticipation He has of something He has waited so long that is about to begin in earnest, in a greater way, certainly the very beginning of that began with Jesus Christ being resurrected to become a part, the first to be a part of that Family, as He’s referred to as the first of the firstfruits, the very first to be resurrected from the dead and that’s a beginning of the Family.  It’s been 2000 years later now and we’re getting close now to 144,000 being added to that Family and the awesomeness of all that is that much of the concept then of family is about to be restored to this earth.  It’s been attacked, under attack for 6000 years and now we’re at a point in time where those very basic principles about family are about to be reinstituted – given back to mankind, given to mankind in a very powerful way and that is an exciting thing.  It’s exciting for God; it should be awesomely exciting for us.  Not just for salvation, not just to make it through to the other side, not just to live into the Millennium or be a part of the 144,000, but the anticipation, the excitement of family: of not just personal physical families but families all over the earth, that we are one.  That’s what God’s desire is, that we be one, and we start learning this when we come into the Church, when we’re brought into the Church we start learning those very basic principles.

Going back to chapter 10, some of the story here concerning those things that happened after the flood; a brief history that is given concerning the families that came from Noah.  The more God gives an understanding of what took place, why the earth was destroyed at that time in the sense of all human life and animal life as well, except for that which God brought through on the Ark: and how that Noah lived another 350 years after the flood and how that his sons were not faithful to this way of life.  They didn’t embrace God.  They didn’t embrace the truth.  And you think of all people on earth, of all time, surely they would have been sobered to obedience and they weren’t and they didn’t honour God.  They went off and did their own thing and they began doing it very quickly, very rapidly.  And so right after the flood the divisions of people that went out upon the earth are described here in Genesis 10; it gives a summary of some of that and then of how some of that was brought to pass by God, what God did because God had a plan from the very beginning.  Even after the flood, of how things were going to be accomplished.  God knew what man was like and what man would do - immediately.  God knew what man would be like and the things that would take place for mankind and He understands our nature very, very deeply so.  He created us, He made us this way.  He made us with the ability to sin, the ability of carnal human nature, that which begins at birth.  We start learning it as soon as we’re born – selfishness – because we’re physical.  It says we were made this way for a purpose, by design.  He didn’t make us as spirit, He made us physical because of the physical elements of this earth and those things that affect human beings.   It’s just a natural process.  But only by going through that process can we come to a point in time where we can effectively, rightfully be able to judge between two ways of life.  We have to experience this first.  We have to be able to have experienced it and understand what it’s like.

So in Genesis 10:1 it says, Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: three basic peoples on the earth begin to move out onto the earth from these three sons and all the mixtures and combinations that went with this because there’s a lot of variation.  And that’s a beautiful thing, if man could only understand that, just as much as the varieties of plant life.  Just like my wife and I yesterday morning, one of the first things we did is we drove up by the park that’s on the other side of town, next to the lake and all the flowers are in bloom and the manicuring they have done in that particular place and it’s beautiful, all the varieties of flowers that are in this area of the country and the uniqueness of that and something to drink in, the plant life, the trees there, the variations that are different here than in other parts of the world we have been in.  And we’re able to drink that in and enjoy it.  And how much more human life.  But human beings don’t think that way.  We’re hard on each other.  We’re not very merciful to each other.  We’re judgemental toward each other.  We’re jealous of each other.  We’re envious of each other.  Those carnal things that enter into and affect wrong relationships – through time it’s been that way.  And so, dumbfounded by some of these things as you think about them, as we meditate upon them, as God reveals what has happened and what is to happen in the future.

And so it goes on to say, The sons of Japheth; Gomer and Magog.  So here all the variations, from just one family.  From one family line of the three different sons.  There are a lot of variations of the three different ones here and all that began to spread out upon the earth.  I enjoy verse 5 to understand as a part of God’s plan and what He’s revealing here, even by the words that are used.  Words mean a lot.  And it says - By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; so again, that word for Gentiles, a word that later on is used a great deal in making a distinction between Israel and all other peoples on the earth – those who aren’t a part of Israel, those who are not a part of what God is working with.  So, it’s a word that’s used for ‘foreign nations,’ or ‘aliens’...in other words, always in the context of someone apart from, different from Israel.  Because God had a plan of something He was going to do beginning with Abraham and a family that He was going to work through in time.  And not because the family was better, but because God has a plan and just like with us, we weren’t called because we’re better than other people.  That isn’t why we’ve been called.  God has a plan and He has a design of that plan and He has different ones He’s called and drawn.  None of us are better than anyone else on this earth.  We’re not better than our brothers and sisters if you have brothers and sisters.  We’re not better than our relatives but we were called, and so we have the opportunity to respond to that calling.  But never, never, never because we were better.  And some people think then when they hear about different nationalities that somehow Israel was better, they were favoured above others.  Yes, God gave them favour because of His plan!  He’s given us favour because of His plan!  ...because of His calling.  We don’t know... we don’t understand why He picked certain individuals – why He picked me, why He picked you, you know?  But He did and all we can do is respond to that in deep gratitude and thankfulness.  What an awesome thing!  But never because we’re better.  And so this concept that some people have had; there are a lot of people who’ve had the idea that those nations, those peoples are just better people.  No they’re not.  As a matter of fact their history is one where they didn’t do very well; they didn’t do very well with the truth that God gave to them.  Their example throughout history hasn’t been a good one.  And the same would have been true for any family that God would have chosen because human nature is human nature; human beings are human beings, and we’re selfish by nature.

So anyway, this word ‘gentile’ is used to show that there was a separation being made; that there was that which was going to be accomplished because God has a plan for how He’s going to bring salvation to all mankind.  And so it talks about, By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; the boundaries, the regions of people, every one after their tongue, after their families, in their nations. It didn’t happen immediately but He’s showing here this is a process, these are the family lines and this is where they came from.  And so the divisions came from the basic division of the three sons of Noah.  I’m going to repeat some of this again because I find it immensely interesting.  I have no reason to believe that it’s not true, or at least very close to being true.

The different lineages and so forth that came from Japheth – peoples of the orient like Japan, China, Mongolia, various areas of Asia and so forth, as well as a wide variation from other oriental peoples as I mentioned here: including those who have descended from Japheth such as Spaniards.  People don’t generally think of Spaniards or Grecians or Italians or the Medes as... and they’re not.  They’re all different – even in Asia people are different.  Even amongst all of those of Abraham.  We’re all different because there are uniqueness’s.  Families are different.  Children are different!  So why would it be unusual that nations are different?  We’re all different and unique in our own way.  Not to be exactly alike, but there are groupings of people that have migrated to various areas and stayed together and this is for a great purpose that God had and the nations that have come as a result of that – of groupings of people that have stayed together.

There are those from Ham – such as the regions of Africa and the wide variation of people such as India and Egypt.  A lot of variation in those people but still related.

And if you go back, obviously we’re all related, you know?  We’re a family!  But something that man has lost, something that Satan has done a good job of is stirring up in the world through time, of deceiving mankind and causing peoples to be literally at war with each other because of hatreds and jealousies and so forth – all over this world.  People that are in close families.  It doesn’t matter which line you came from, everyone has warred against each other, you know?  Even within Manasseh, we’ve warred against each other.  I say we... I probably don’t have much Manasseh in me, but hey, that’s where I’ve been living.  The North and South – fighting against each other and then before that Ephraim and Manasseh fighting against each other and we’re kind of accustomed to some of those things that have taken place through time in our history.  Nations, brothers that fight each other.  We go up to the Niagara Falls area when they’ve had the Feast up that way – we had Canadians that would obviously be assigned to the area and certain parts of the U.S. assigned to the area of Niagara Falls because that’s right on the border there.  We met on the U.S. side because they had a big convention center there, but there were things that came out in some sermons at times and things that came out in some of the conversations at times and the way people would talk.  There were animosities between Canada and the U.S.  There were jealousies between U.S. ministers and Canadian ministers – even in the Church!  You’d think how could that be?!  ...in God’s Church?  It just was.  That’s the way it was.  And there are things we’ve experienced through time.  You think – how can close brothers have such animosity with each other?  ...And in the Church of God?  But we did.  I experienced those things.

My wife and I, we were a little dumbfounded by some of those things.  Some of them wouldn’t even fellowship with each other.  And we had some Canadian minister’s talk to us and tell us one of the things they appreciated was the fact that we were one of the very few American minsters that would even visit with them and fellowship with them and you think... why is that?  And who’s going to cross that line to break that barrier?  Were the Canadians?  The answer’s no.  Were the Americans?  No!  But we weren’t caught up in that kind of stuff and from that region of the country and we didn’t have any prejudices because of that, and yet right in that area the history is steeped in people going back and forth, just across a little river there – burning each other’s Forts, burning each other’s cities.  Canada came down and burned Buffalo, New York.  And there are animosities to this day about what happened back in 1812.  Craziness!

Nothing new.  Brothers kill brothers and they grow into families and they grow into nations and they kill each other still.  It’s the way the world has been.  Sad, sick, pathetic and we’re filled with prejudices.  One of the best things that anyone can begin to do when they come into God’s Church is begin to address their prejudices.  Anytime you have a judgement against someone you need to analyse why you’re thinking the way you are.  Is it truly fair?  Is it truly just?  Is it right with God!  Or is there something in your mind somewhere where there’s still some prejudice of feelings towards someone and that you’re misjudging them, that you’re judging them in the wrong way – perhaps because you look down upon them.  That’s the major thing that most people have.  They think themselves to be better than other people and so they judge them harshly and look down upon them.  And so we need to look into our mind because there are things to repent of if those things exist, and we can’t be right in the Church of God until those things are repented of:  and sometimes it takes decades for people to come to that, to begin to examine those things in themselves and see themselves more clearly.

So again, Spain...  Talking about those descended from Ham – Egypt, India, early people of South America – the Hittites and some also believe to be the Indians of North America and so forth.

And then there are those from Shem – including those that came from Abraham.  And there’s a great diversity from Shem as well.  You want to take a look at the Jewish people?  You want to take a look at the differences there with some of the other brothers?  I mean, look at all the wives that were involved and the different ones there – Issachar, Zebulon, Gad, Ephraim and Manasseh, Judah, Reuben and all of the others.  Wide variety of peoples.  Look at the different nations and the peoples and that’s the way the children were.  There was a great variety there.  And then you look at some of the nations that came from Abraham through Ishmael and the Arab nations, but still from the same family.  But we all came from the same family.  Incredible – human beings... the stupidity that we have.  It’s incredible!  And so those that came, again from Abraham, include Israel and many of the Arabic nations; Germany, other parts of Eastern Europe, large parts of Russia and so forth.  Find those things fascinating.  And even within the same families people can’t get along.

Genesis 10:31 -These are the sons of Shem, and their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.  These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. Took some time but they began to populate the earth and repopulate and... awesome what took place in time; and it didn’t take a whole lot of time for some of these things to come to pass.  But it’s an incredible story here of how and why the nations were divided and that’s explained as you go on in the next chapter...

Chapter 11:1 - And the whole earth was of one language, and one speech.  As I mentioned yesterday, words mean a lot, they have a lot of meaning to them and there are words here that are unique and it doesn’t quite capture when you read this like this, one language, one speech, what was being said, what did God say?  Why the expression?  One language, one speech, doesn’t that mean the same thing? But that’s not what it’s saying in the actual words; it’s more meaningful than that.  The word ‘one’ here is interesting in itself.  It’s used in Hebrew literally as a word for ‘united’ – united; a united language, a united speech.  But then that word ‘language’ isn’t the right word either in essence of a translation of what’s being explained.  Literally the word 'language' here carries with it the meaning of ‘a boundary’, ‘the boundary of a thing’.  And that’s what it’s discussing – various boundaries, nations, because of who they were – there were things being set up for the future and nations that were going to emerge and the boundaries that would exist – not just literally by lines of a nation and the land mass, but because of the people, the people made the boundaries wherever they were, where they migrated to and those boundaries have changed a lot through history.  The peoples that I supposedly descended from more than any other does not even exist anymore as a nation – Moravia.  Germans took a big chunk of that.  Part of that’s down in Czechoslovakia, in that region of the world.  We’re a bunch of Heinz 57 in a lot of cases, a lot of mixture in the world.  And yet the boundaries continued to shift.  They've shifted a lot in Europe, you know, Germans always... we mention this on occasion, that they wanted peace... a piece of Poland, a piece of Czechoslovakia, a piece of... you know.  And that’s the way they had peace, and that’s the way a lot of nations think.  They want to have peace because when their controlling everything, that’s how their able to have peace.  That’s the way kingdoms have risen and fallen.

And so again, it’s talking about the boundary of things.  The translation of the word used for this depends on the context in which it’s being described, in what is being described.  The word of ‘speech’ is  talking about communication and language and words of speech – yes – and it was common as a united boundary.  That’s what’s being discussed here.  A better way of translating some of this in verse 1 would be and the whole earth was of a united boundary, or... yes of, a united boundary in united speech, or if you will, in united communication.  In other words they had this common language that they developed amongst themselves.  Even between Ephraim and Manasseh there’s a difference.  Even when they were warring at one time, if you remember the example there of Ephraim – there are certain letters they couldn’t pronounce very well and so when they were coming back across the river... I can’t remember which one it was; the letters they couldn’t pronounce, but there were certain letters as a whole that... I don’t know if it was the ‘h’ sound and how we say it like humble or ‘umble’, you know the ‘h’ isn’t pronounced.  So I don’t remember what it is back in history, but anyway, there was some word they used to test them as they came back across the river and they gave themselves away because there was a way they spoke and certain words they couldn’t pronounce in the same way that Manasseh and the others could pronounce them so Ephraim had a big problem when it came to that particular war and that’s before they ever were taken captive by the Assyrians.  That’s when different ones warred amongst themselves, crazy things that have gone on in history.  Amazing.  Families that didn’t get along.  Manasseh, as I mentioned earlier that didn’t get along.  They lived on each side of a river and they still didn’t get along.  They’re one nation – it’s called the United States today but there’s still a difference between the North and South – there are differences in the way that people think – can’t even get along in a single family.  Incredible.

Genesis 11:2 – talking about the whole earth; everything was set for what was to come to pass in time and it’s all because of certain things that took place that led to that and that’s part of the story here.  Verse 2 – it goes on to say, and it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they built there. And they said one to another, let us go and make brick, and harden them with fire. And they had brick for stone, the mud had they for mortar. And so everything was in this vicinity, this area for building and so forth that was ideal for that. And they said, let us go build us a city and a tower, whose top, it says, may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.  A lot is missed here as to what is actually being said and what they were doing.  They were going to try to accomplish something that would serve to give them a common center of commerce and a common culture; but it wasn’t one that was God centered.  And that’s the whole story here – a lot of people don’t understand what was taking place in this.  Instead it was one that was perverted in purpose and its design and after their own liking.  This had nothing to do with looking to God at all in any of this – God was not in the picture.  It obviously had nothing to do with God; it didn’t take very long after the flood – Noah’s own sons, they didn’t want anything to do with God.  It’s just the way of man, man has always been that way, but they wanted to do something different.

Verse 5 - And the Eternal came down to see the city and the tower, I like some of the ways some of these things are expressed.  These things are written for mankind, for people to consider, to learn from.  And it goes on to say, which the children of men were building.  And the Eternal said, Behold, the people are one, they are united.  The people are united, and they have all one, again, a united language; and this they begin to do: this is an incredibly unique expression in Hebrew and it’s not translated at all like the Hebrew should be so they just translate this as a little story and they don’t really translate what’s being said because this expression in Hebrew means ‘to pollute, to profane, to prostitute’ themselves.  So this is what God was addressing.  They began to prostitute themselves; they began to pollute; they began to profane life.  Their purpose of uniting together in all this was the purpose for greater perversion, a unity of that.  I know that sounds incredible but that’s the mindset that was there.  Party town!  Anything goes.  Kind of like a New Orleans thing, kind of like a Rio thing, you know, certain cities are known for certain things, partying.  This is what they wanted to do, have their own way, do their own thing, keep people together in all this, don’t be spread apart on the earth because if we get spread out here and you go farther away from each other then we can’t be together to do these things.  Let’s stay together and do these things.  You know?  Perverted, distorted minds that begin to emerge very soon after the flood.  So the purpose of building the city was totally distorted in every way.  It had nothing to do with God.  On the contrary, it had everything to do with turning away from God and causing morality to go farther and farther away down the toilet if you will...

This they began to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.  This is about evil.  See, we have taken this in times past in many ways to mean that, “Oh, there is no technology or nothing else that couldn’t be developed by them that they decided to do to imagine.”  That is not what this is about!  Mankind could not have come up with technology sooner until God gave it to him.  God was not going to allow man to have technology until it was time; that isn’t why He scattered them out, so they couldn’t acquire technology.  God gave that as much as He has to give the truth.  You know, a lot of people think that mankind was able on his own ability to all of a sudden begin to develop all these things.  That is not true.  God had to lead man to that; give that to certain men on earth, different abilities to see certain things.  God knows the timing, what it takes to use knowledge, to use that which God gave to unlock certain doors of technology in time and then man is able to bring those things together and use those things.

It was about evil and it was about preventing the world from rapidly degenerating and going right back into what it was before the flood. It was to cause that to be slowed down.  It was to cause that to be dispersed upon the earth because the more that man is organized in those things and brought together in those things the worse that can become, the more of a stench and the kind of world that would have existed quickly early on.  And so God just let it split up and let man go his own way and yes, have his own perversions and so forth but not in a united fashion under a united tongue.  Incredible.  So again, that expression, which they have imagined to do, has nothing to do with the idea that they were going to progress more quickly in knowledge or in science and discovery and so forth.   The expression is a single Hebrew word that carries this definition:  ‘to plan, usually in a bad sense such as a plot, to think evil, to devise in a negative sense.’  So let’s read those verses again...

And the Eternal came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men were building.  And the Eternal said, Behold, the people are one, they’re united, and they have all one united language; it’s talking about a united language, and this they begin to do: they began to profane themselves, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.  Which they have pervertedly devised to do is what this is talking about; in which they have thought evil to do, and the kind of evil that was in the mind and the purpose of it.

Verse 7, it says - Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that word, ‘their border’.  Let’s confound their borders, that right now they’re united, let’s confound that and that’s basically contained in the same speech because that’s what was shown earlier.  ...that they may not understand one another's speech.  What an awesome thing, that all of a sudden when God did this that they began to have different families of people that had the same speech.  It’s like the speaking in tongues thing that people have misunderstood through time, that which was a matter of hearing, but how that can happen in the mind – it’s like programming something in a computer – that all of a sudden here one day we’re speaking English and all of a sudden one day you could be speaking whatever – French; and English and the concept of English and if someone was speaking English you wouldn’t understand it.  Can you imagine that?  Being there and all of a sudden what’s coming out of your mouth is perfectly understandable to you... how can that happen?  Well, as much as you can program something in a computer and cause it to be a certain way, God can do this in the mind.  He gave us our minds.  He has the power to do whatever with the human mind and it’s like a programming – that’s all it was.  And so everything in their mind and their thinking... that’s why it’s such an awesome thing to understand, which I hope we understand, that those who are going to become part of the 144,000, or when you enter into the God Family, that there are going to be those things that are going to be able to be entered into your mind like a quick download in ways you can’t even begin to comprehend; that God’s just going to give to you in an instant and it’s going to be there – knowledge, understanding, things that God is just going to give.  There have been people in times past who have thought – well, when the 144,000 are resurrected they have to learn for a  while... That’s why there’s been this kind of a battle between some ministers in the Church of certain things – the 45 days, or some time from Pentecost to Trumpets – there’s going to be an earlier resurrection at Pentecost so that by the time the Trumpets comes along we’ll have time to train the 144,000.  And then when Trumpets comes, those who are still alive get resurrected at that time, but... for that whole period of time, for those several months, there’s going to be this resurrection because it’s going to take a while to teach those 144,000 – at least a few months to tell them what their jobs are going to be an so forth.  Not true.  Not true with God.  Not true with that kind of a mind that God’s going to give us, the abilities that God’s going to give us and He could give more to a human mind if He so desired because even science understands there’s not too much of this up here we really use.  But when it’s all spirit – awesome what God can give.  And so He did that in a small way, in a minor way, but yet dumbfounding to us – just gave people different speech.  All of a sudden one day you’re speaking English and the next day you’re speaking French, as an example, and you can’t understand a word of English.  It doesn’t make any sense to you – it’s all gone – it’s all erased in your mind, but boy are you good in French and you can understand others who speak French.  Guess where you’re going to go, who you’re going to be around, you know?  Your own family, those who are of your same language and this is exactly what God did.  Something that’s hard for us even now to understand.  It’s awesome.

And so God said, that they may not understand one another's speech, let’s go down and confound their borders.  That’s what He said.  Let’s confound their borders, that which is contained even in their speech, as He said earlier.  That they’re not able to understand one another’s speech.  So the Eternal scattered them abroad from upon the face of the whole earth: and they left off building the city.  All of a sudden there were some divisions there of not getting along, of certain things that they couldn’t communicate with each other and share with each other and do with each other and so people left.  This purpose that they had, this common purpose now just wasn’t common anymore as there were differences that came out of all this.  And so people just went off on their own in families to different parts of the earth.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; you know, the word we get Babylon, you know, and confusion – babel – confusion, because the Eternal did there confound the language, so that people couldn’t understand each other.  The border that united them before was no longer as one, as a united people:  and so now their united by their languages in their families.  And so it says, and the Eternal did confound their language in all the earth: and from there did the Eternal scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth.  So they were given a little nudge, a little help to get on the road and split off into different parts of the world.

The nature of man is simply bent on doing evil and we see this from the very beginning.  As soon as the flood is over, as soon as the earth begins to be populated again, it doesn’t take very long and man is bent on evil – wants to get away from any concept of God, does not want to remember anything about God.  It’s just our basic human nature.  It is appalling!  It is perverted, it is sick, our minds as human beings, it truly is – because of selfishness.  And that’s why it’s so hard sometimes for those who consider themselves to be religious to come to a point in time where they realize they haven’t loved God.  Because some people have grown up – especially I think in the south in the U.S., what we call the Bible-belt.  There are people who have considered themselves to love Jesus all their life; and they’ve never even known Him.  But that’s a hard concept to come to because they really think in their own hearts and minds that they have loved Jesus.  They’ve loved the Jesus they’ve been taught, you know, the one who is born in a manger, you know all the stories that are told, sweet little stories about Jesus Christ and so forth.  They have loved that; they have loved the various kinds of stories they have grown up in their Bible schools and so forth with, but it’s not about Christ.  It’s not about the truth; because see, with Christ and the true Christ – comes the truth of God, the things about the Sabbath, things about the Holy Days, things about Passover.  And people hate that, they do not want that.

When you take away the things that they embrace, the things that they love, like Christmas, you take away those things so they can’t enjoy this celebration thing that they like to do once a year with their family.  You know?  At that time  of year there is such great “joy”.  I don’t know what it’s like here in Australia but in the States it’s always such a great “joy” when people go into greater debt, more suicides at that time of year than any other time of the year because of things with finances and people not able to do the things they think they’re expected to do and all the selfishness that’s there because kids don’t get the things they really wanted to have.  Because of what parents teach their kids by giving them these presents year after year.  And of course it’s all about Jesus, it’s not about self, you know?  Incredible!  All the parties that are had by corporations, all the drunkenness, fornication, adultery – all those things go on.  It’s amazing what goes on in this world; sick, sick world.  But in this case here it’s supposed to be in the name of Christ, the name of the Church, the name of God or whatever and people do these things and they live their life like that, and that’s why this Church is hated and has been through time, especially by those who consider themselves to be religious because it destroys everything that they hold dear and they literally loathe and hate the truth.

And they will take that hatred out then on you because if you destroy Easter and Christmas, because you tell them where it comes from – little rabbits that run around and all these little eggs that people like to go out and find.  You take away all those little parties they have, like on the White House lawn and all the kids that come out there and they have these Easter eggs hidden around so that the children can see if they can find Easter eggs that I guess the Easter bunny laid.  You know?  The only rabbits in the world that lay eggs!  Incredible some of the stupidity of stories and you know it’s not too uncommon of a thing...  I remember as I was growing up and how some of these things just weren’t making too much sense, even as a kid.  And those things impact children.  I’ve heard stories like this of different ones who’ve lived in the world and came in the Church later on and some of the thinking that’s there and what happens in your mind after a while and is it any wonder after a while if you find out you’ve been lied too, as every generation of people do in their parents or families, because they were taught the same thing.  And as a child you begin to realize there’s no Easter bunny, rabbits don’t lay eggs... I wonder about this Santa Claus thing then... That’s what I began to think about.  Who is this Santa Claus guy?  You know?  And then finally little children begin to learn these things, they learn it’s mom and dad and they’re the ones who put those presents under the tree.  And so is there any wonder that people have doubts about God, the existence of God and all the other things that go along with it?  Sick; sick, sick.  Family: the lies in families that destroy families and destroy relationships that otherwise could be had with God if only the truth existed there, but the truth isn’t taught.

And so that’s the way it has been through time.  Let’s go on to Romans 1 – because everything really is about family; it’s about that which destroys family, that which should be close – where love exists – should exist, but doesn’t so often in this world, because the world pulls away from that kind of thing – the closeness.  How many people do you know of, maybe yourself, things that you struggle with… I’ve dealt with so many families and counselling in times past in the Church and so forth that because of their family life, because of things with their mother, or with their father, or with both because there was not the love that was supposed to be there; because they didn’t know how to express love, and because they weren’t taught by their parents.  And yet, that’s the thing... some of the things that have happened that have left lifelong scars in people’s minds: lifelong scars that never go away.  Incredible!  Family.

Romans 1:16 - Paul is saying, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 'The Gentile.' Because God made it very clear that this is where it started, but now the door has been opened up – it's for everyone!  That's what it means – 'to all others', because Israel had been taken captive, the other nations of Israel had been taken captive and all that were really known by name as a people were those referred to as 'Jews’.  Judah.  And so it is making it clear here, obviously, that all other nations then are able to be a part, have a part in salvation as well.   For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.  It's a matter of what we are able to believe because God gives us the ability to see the truth and to believe the truth and before that people don't have a chance until God begins to work with them and show them the truth and then we all have the choice of whether or not we believe it and are going to hold onto it because you can lose it.  You can lose what God offers you.

And it goes on to say in verse 18 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, in other words, 'wrath' is spoken of throughout scripture, sometimes it just calls it what it is, but 'death that comes from God’, because of disobedience to His laws and to His way of life; that's what man receives.  The payment, the wages for sin is death and unless there is a way to repent and be forgiven of those things, then that's all that awaits mankind and that's what Paul is talking about here.  So he says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, that's why it's there, because people don't live right!  And it's because of ungodliness and unrighteousness of mankind, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; people don’t want the truth.  They want to discard it, they want to get away from it, they want to hold onto something else – it's man's base nature.

So is the family, because the family and the laws that regulate family and relationships with human beings; that's what it's all about.  Whether it be individual, physical families, so much of the law starts out that way; but it's the families of the earth, it's our neighbour.  Verse 19 - Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, things that you can look at in this world and be in awe of.  But yet the perversion of mind, man doesn't even want to hold onto that which should be obvious to them in the world.  Even things that you can learn from the animal kingdom, very basic things in life.  Incredible – about family, about how certain things are there when they protect their young and so forth.  You would think that something that is very basic in nature and yet, sometimes even human beings don't do that, don't even have such care and concern.  And it says, even His eternal power and Godhead; so even things about family, that's what it's talking about here, so that they are without excuse:  so everything should just point back to God if we’re able to look at it and understand it and be in awe of it.

Did it just happen by some kind of a bang?  You know, that's what people want to believe today.  You think, “Well, what laws regulated a big bang?  And where did this stuff come from to have a bang?”  How dumb, really, how dumb can such people be?  That is so stupid, totally dumb: for scientists who have PhD’s, who have done a great deal of studying, to concoct ideas, to say, and be taught in schools that everything started with a big bang.  And you think, the basic laws of life and science should say, if there is something to have a bang, something had to exist.  Where did that come from?  “Uh, it came from a bang before that!”  All these little bangs that created something, you think, well what laws create a bang?  I mean really, it is stupid.  Something had to put it there, God had to, that's the only answer obviously, but people don't want to believe that.

Verse 21 - Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.  Ah... Shem, Ham and Japheth, that's a good example, when they knew God... oh they knew God.  They worked with their father.  For several decades their life was helping their father build this ship on dry land: a huge ship on dry land, can you imagine?  Sometimes we think we have it bad, people mocking us and making fun of what we say and what we do and what we believe and hear.  Here is this man with his family out there, building this huge ship decade after decade.  Just thinking about human beings, you know that people had...that had to be like one of the big wonders of the world at the time: to go around and look at what he was building and then to laugh at that.  To think, “Look at that!  There's no water around!  It would of been a little bit easier to understand if it was by the Mediterranean or by the Dead Sea or any kind of large body of water “You know, at least you could shove it off into the water, but oh no, Noah, heh heh heh, he's building it out here on the dry land!”  And it was huge, to have a structure that size at that time, the ship itself was huge.  Incredible.  People coming by for decade after decade until the waters did start rising and Shem, Ham and Japheth lived through that and they did not want to retain the knowledge of God.  They did not want to retain those things in their mind, they did not teach the fear of God to their children. That's almost hard to comprehend, it truly is.

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; See?  What an incredible thing happens when people don't want to retain God and the knowledge of God.  It’s a very dangerous thing when we’re not thankful.  It's a very dangerous thing when we can't be thankful.  The first sermon we heard here, those things are tied together; the ability to rejoice in God's way of life has to do with the ability to be thankful.  The ability to be thankful has to do with truly believing the blessings we have; of truly understanding and believing and seeing those things and then the response of thankfulness can come from that.  But first we have to be able to see what we’ve been given and to know that it has come from God and no other way!   That everything we have, the truth we have, to know with all of our being that God gave it to us.  We didn't dream it up!  We didn't think it up! We couldn't study about it! No one has ever been able to study the Bible and come up with the truth and know the truth.  Maybe little segments here and there.

Churches have been built around religions – the Baptist Church was built upon one little doctrine because all the rest go back to the Catholic Church as a whole.  That will make some Baptists out there listening to me really happy, but you ought to study into it.  You don't have to get mad at me, just go out and do a little studying yourself!  See what the Baptist Church believes, they believe what the Catholic Church does.  They believe in the Trinity, that's what you believe in, you believe in Sunday.  Where did it come from?  You didn't come up with it, Baptist Church, you know – or Presbyterians, or Lutherans, you didn't come up with that on your own.  You got it from the Catholic Church!  They got a big head-start on you - see?  Christmas, Easter, you didn't come up with that Baptists.  We have people out there that listen once in a while and they don't have the guts to prove the truth to themselves – they’re afraid of it.  And they are not just afraid of it, they hate it, they don't want it.  They don't want to learn about the Sabbath day, that God requires the seventh day Sabbath; they’d rather believe in Sunday that they learned from the Catholic Church.  And so the Baptists came up with an understanding of something.  You know what it is?  What the word 'baptise' means.  Oh, they were so twitter-pated about that one, so excited about that one, they named the whole church after that, Baptists.  That it means 'to immerse’.  “Oh, we've got this truth.”  So rather than sprinkling on the head like the Catholics do with a little bit of water when they baptize; the Baptists understood what the word...Somebody, some minister at some point in time came across the truth and he said, “Oh, look in the Greek, it doesn't mean to sprinkle on the head, it says 'baptise' and it means 'to immerse.' We need to start immersing people when they’re baptised, not just sprinkling them on the head with a little bit of water.”  And so they got all excited about that and so they started doing it the right way, the way they were supposed to, and they named  their whole church after that.  Different things that people have come up with in time, but still a part of the Catholic Church.  I can't wait to be able to say that a lot louder, a lot stronger, with a lot more power, but the time isn't yet, it’s coming.  And they are going to be just as excited at that time as they would be right now, listening.  They are going to hate it – incredible.

And so it says ...neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. God calls things what they are 'their foolish heart, became fools’.  Ignorant.  Just candidly, stupid; willingly stupid, willingly ignorant, willingly became fools.  They’d rather be fools than to acknowledge God, to give honour to God, to agree with something that God gives.  And so not able to be thankful in the ways that we should be able to as human beings.

Verse 22 – Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.  Yeah, those who have the PhD's and all the other things attached to their names, they’re the ones that go out and teach and other people then latch onto it.  What was it on TV yesterday and the day before?  All these bones that they've found of this new creature 4 million years old?  ...and they are dumbfounded by it because it looks like it stood upright and it's our ancestor!  But they are so amazed because since it stood upright it looks like the monkeys went backwards and humans came forward out of that.  That's what they believe!  They are a little dumbfounded because they have always thought that, you know, muck came out of the water and started... slime and something was living there and after a while we evolved and we could stand up straight.  But here they've found this thing 4 million years old that looks like, by the spine and everything else, it was standing up straight.  And so these are our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great aunt or uncle, or something like that.  Anyway, but what an amazing thing!  Evolution went two different ways, that's what they are saying!  Some of it went back towards monkeys and the apes and some of it went forward towards the humans.  You think: that is so stupid!  I saw in Auckland this huge bird, it looks like a giant ostrich.  You see certain things that did exist in prehistoric times, there are certain things that have similarities of things that are physical that have life, that had life on this earth before at one time.  But you know, for people to think that there is evidence that somehow one led to the other is just stupid; plum stupid.

I love “The Far Side.” It's a comic strip by a fellow by the name of Larson that retired, and I’m totally upset that he retired; it's almost as bad as Starbucks closing down in Australia.   I don't think necessarily it’s because of his beliefs but he would make fun of the ideas of things evolving and would  put it in cartoons.  And not necessarily because of his beliefs, but maybe he did, I don't know.  But he really in his own way poked a lot of fun at the stupidity of evolution, how something could evolve from one thing into another and put it in laughable terms.  And it really is insane for people to think...you know the stupidity, “Which came first the chicken or the egg?  How did one thing evolve?”  And the stupid conversations that people get into and they think themselves to be intellectual.  That's why I think of different things, one thing that sticks out in my mind was this Murre Bird, I think that's how you pronounce it.  On the cliffs of California with these rock shelves.  You might only have about three inches of a rock shelf and this bird will come there and lay its egg.   And the huge winds coming off the Pacific, it doesn't blow the egg off because it’s designed in such a way that it will spin in exactly that spot and will not leave it.  It is so balanced, so perfect.  And you think, these Murre birds, they got together and they tried to figure out, “How can we grunt out this egg that is so perfectly balanced that the wind won't knock it off here?  So we don't have to go and work anymore at building these nests like these other stupid birds!  So we can just lay them here on the cliff edge.”  So how many millions of years did they have to live before they finally got that egg out?  And how did they live for millions of years because birds don't live very long?  And you think of the stupidity of some of these things, just one little thing like that.  Different things where they believe in evolution, but people willingly want that and that's deemed intellectual.  And it really blows me away to think how dumb mankind can be.  PhD?  They need to put those initials for something else in there.  The ‘D’ is for dumb, I don't know about the ‘P’ and the ‘H’ but...you know, really.  It's sick, it's sad, it's pathetic – the intellectualism of man.

God inspired Paul to say, Professing themselves to be wise, they’re the intellectuals, the ones that people look up to and listen to in awe!  They became fools.  And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. And so man, rather than acknowledging the greatness of God, began to come up with their own ideas about what God should be like, and what God should look like.  And you think of the Egyptians and some of the things there; things that they worshipped, giant beetles and different things like that.  Frogs that they worshipped as gods.  That's why the different plagues in Exodus came along and mocked their beliefs, it's kind of interesting some of the things that were used there – the things that they worshipped and the like that after a while, they didn't really like having them around. And so God says here that they choose to do this.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: And so God has let man go his own course, he has corrupted enough and Babylon would have been much worse if the entire life of people was New Orleans style,  Bourbon Street.  The sickness, the perversion of some of those kinds of things and how people like to live and they like to go there and party at certain times of the year:  Mardi Gras.  Rio de Janeiro is known for some of those kinds of things; certain cities in the world have reputations for certain kinds of parties.  And so people gravitate to those things because that's their idea of fun, a good time because of the perversion that’s in their mind.  How horrible if a city, if a nation had been that way from the get-go and mankind came from that.  That's why God divided everything up and sent people out; as bad enough as it goes, they are going to do bad enough things on their own, by themselves and in different places.

Verse 25 - Who changed the truth of God into a lie, oh, surprise, surprise.  Simon Magus came along and became known as Simon Peter and so people read things in history and they think it's the same  Peter of the Bible.  And so the Catholic Church believes that he was the first, basically the first pope – Peter.  And they have that big statue there with his toe half way kissed off because so many people have kissed it; this statue of stone, literally, a bunch of his toe is missing because people have kissed it so much.  And they think it's that Peter of the bible, no it's not, it's the bad one; it's the bad one that the apostles had to reject, that they had to tell, “Get away from us, you’re not a part of us, you can't buy God's spirit, you can't buy these things for your own use and your own purpose.”  And so he went off and changed the truth of God into a lie; it didn't take very long.  He wanted to change it back to sun-worship, everything to Sun-day, the first day of the week; Passover to Easter, incredible the things that have happened through time.

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creation more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.  Amen.  Yeah, they’d rather worship things like rabbits that lay eggs as a part of their religion and some old fat man clothed in a big red outfit and lives up north and make fun of God.  In scripture it talks about, 'His dwelling is in the north’.  And then to mock and make fun of reindeer and so forth and the various things there that carry the fat man around.  That’s what Satan’s doing, he is mocking God by those things he did with his little Christmas routine.  And, “You better not shout, you better not cry...” and it goes on “I'm telling you why...” it's like this Santa Claus knows when you’re good and when you’re bad; whether you’ll get toys or not.  And anyway  'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’, think about some of the archangels that remained faithful to God, the two that did and Satan is making fun of some of his own that were his brothers in spirit at one time.  On and on it goes – all those little elves that stay up there in the north with Santa Claus to make all these toys for mankind, to give to mankind if they’re good or if they’re bad depending you know...sick, sick, sick, sick, sick what Satan has done and what man has lapped up – he’d rather believe a lie; something that is not true.

Anyway, Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creation more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.  Amen.  And so it doesn't take long.  Like I mentioned yesterday, as soon as we came to a point in time that Moses was gone for a little while, they wanted to make this image of something that they want to call their god that took them out of Egypt, to look like a cow.  They would rather make something that they can see and say, “This is our god that delivered us out of Egypt.”  They’re going to make this thing out of gold and worship it.  It doesn't take very long for man to turn away; they’d rather do something that they can see and something that they can make that's not quite as threatening to them and they can say anything about...who is going to be afraid of a cow?  Or a bug?  Or a beetle?  Or a frog?  There’s not too much awe in that is there?  Incredible.  Not of the Great God who created everything that exists out here in the universe.

So again, Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creation more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.  Amen.  For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: in other words He allowed them to go their own course.  If you start to go on a wrong course, the more you go away from the truth, the more perverted your mind becomes; the more you yield yourself to things of this world, to things that are a pull and away from God, the more distorted the thinking becomes and one cannot think soundly.  The mind begins to be scrambled and messed up.  And so what is our life when God calls us into the Church?  Trying to unscramble the mind!  Going through a process of repentance so our minds can be healed, so we can become sound-minded because we’re not sound-minded until God begins to draw us and call us – truly.  And then soundness, true soundness begins to enter in – power.

For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use of that which is against nature:  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another;  That’s been in the world for a long, long time; where a man will go so far that their minds become distorted.  Women who love women sexually, men who love men sexually, perverted things they’ll do with animals, things that people will do.  That's how far human beings will go and somehow to enjoy those things of life.  And I understand in today's world, there are some of those things that are taught, that some families have taught certain things and things that have happened in families.  Things that have happened that sometimes turn people against what is normal.  I understand things that have happened to women where they come to where they hate men, I can understand that.  There are those things that exist in this world.  Certain things that have happened with men as they are growing up that distort the mind because of things that have happened to them.  We live in a sick world, but I also understand there are things that are just a matter of things that happen in the mind sometimes because of chemicals.  If we had do's and don'ts today written up in Leviticus and Deuteronomy about things you should or shouldn't eat, you know, we are able to work with things that come out of the ocean and only eat fish that have scales and fins and nothing else from the water.  You know, we stay away from pork.  But today, if God's laws and principles were being enforced, there would be many things that you would not be able to eat because of all the garbage in them.  God never intended that we fill our bodies with chemicals.  I remember as a young person how we came to understand over time that there some chemical had to be outlawed in certain feeds being given to cattle.  I think one, I may be mispronouncing it, I think it's called Melengestrol.  It was a type of hormone that was being put into feed, even when I was a kid, additives...and they found in time that people who were eating that, it was changing hormones in men.  And so you know, there are a lot of pathetic things that have happened in this world.  Not because of somebody practicing something like it's talking about here in the mind; there are some things people just grow up with, they are born that way, of certain ways today and that's the kind of sad world we live in.

And then people have battles to fight even within the Church.  We have everything imaginable that's ever happened as a part of God's Church and so it should be: that God calls people out of every kind of background, every kind of thing that's happened to human beings, showing the power of God to heal the mind and His desire to heal all mankind of everything that exists.  My wife and I were talking about some of the things having to do with the drug culture today and people that have come into the Church and have had to get off of drugs and it takes time, you know.  And some of the things they need to talk about with some of the elders about some of that process there that you can’t... if somebody is working at certain things, they understand and see the truth, then you work with them.  I think of one individual who had to go through a long process being on Methadone in order to get off of drugs and has done a marvellous job and it's very obvious the blessings that God has given to him of a process.  Now God can take certain things away immediately, but you know what?  Sometimes we don't all learn from that process.  It takes time to heal the mind and we have to have patience with one another and so forth and so even there we have certain situations that have happened in the States and over here.  We were talking about some things and there are things worldwide now that are so unique and different in our society and in our culture and we should have empathy toward one another.

I have learned empathy through time of things that people have to go through because I’ve known my own battles in life.  I sometimes marvel that God can even save this – me.  If we can really see ourselves and our nature.  If you don't marvel that God can save you, then you have some growing to do.  There are some things you haven't seen in your mind and in your being yet and God’ll show you.  Don't ask Him to show it all at once, ask Him to be merciful.  I remember sermons in times past, one of the examples that used to be given that I enjoyed which I could relate to is that it's like this big lid in a city.  You take these man-hole covers off, except in this case it's nothing but sewage and God puts our head down there and lets us get a big whiff of our self and thankfully He doesn't keep our heads there because you’d die, breathing the bad gases.  He lets us get back up and put the lid back down for a while and deal with certain things at a time and grow and as we grow, the sewage gets less and less.  But what a long process.  That's why it means so much in the Bible when you see when God talks about the healing...He said, “And I will heal you, I am going to heal you.”  And it's about the mind and it's about family, it's about coming into His Family.  If we really understand ourselves, brethren, we can have great mercy, we can have great compassion, we will have more of a mind of Family toward every other human being on this earth, whether they’re called or not called – it's immaterial - see?  Even those who persecute you, those who hate you and so forth; you can understand and look for the time in true sincerity, not loathing them, not despising them, but on the contrary, looking to the day that they’re going to be able to see the truth as you do.  And know that their mind is going to have the opportunity of being healed as well; to love them with that kind of love.

So anyway, going on here.   Verse 28 - And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, it's the way of mankind, all have been that way, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do the things which are not convenient; they’re not good, they’re not right.  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, that's the kind of society we live in today.  Just like I mentioned, I might have got some of his history wrong, I found out this individual I mentioned yesterday that was on a night time TV show in the States.  And I understand he married a younger woman at some point there and had a child by her or whatever, but I think all the divorce and remarriage in this world...most of those things start with affairs.  Most things happen because someone, they begin to fall out of love with the person that they fell in love with and I don't know if 'fall' is a good word or not, but you know, because they don't live by right laws and by right practices.  And they’re selfish and that's the way human beings are and it's full of it in our society, things like that.  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, our society, our world is filled with envy, people envious of one another.  One of the things that used to get me over in Europe, in Great Britain, in the newspapers over there when I was going to college back in '72, '73, something that kind of surprising that was different from the States.  It was this...if somebody got in trouble, if something happened, it was never about what happened or certain things that was taking place; it was about how much they owned, it was all about wealth.  If they had a big house, or if they had nice things, they would zero in on those things and that was the thing that people...it was like they would rally around that one there, not the bad they did because they all do bad things – that's the problem.  But they hated someone who they thought might be ahead of them in certain things in life and there was such envy.  It was in the newspapers that way, headlines.  It didn't start out with the thing that had happened, it was a thing of what they owned or what they had or whatever, it blew my mind because it happened all the time on a regular basis.

So again here it talks about ...full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, the workplace – I don't know about over here, but I imagine it’s the same as it is in the States.  If you have five employees you've got problems, if you have two, you've got problems – the bigger it is, the worse it can become.  And the more mingling there is of people, the more problems there are.  People that are envious of someone's promotion, the things that are said then behind their back; lies that are told sometimes to people  ...backbiters, whisperers, the reason for whispering is you go and tell somebody else something because you want them to be on your side and you want them to think bad about somebody else and all these stupid games that human beings play.  Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic because they don't understand family.  If they only could have learned the right ways of a family at home.  And when you don’t know those things that affects your thinking in community, that affects your thinking in business and everything else.  Morality and family and it centers around family – relationships, its family.  Whether it be small in your own physical family, or large because of your community; there are some places that have a strong sense of community and loyalty to those things.  Those things can be very good...backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, oh look at today.  With all of the technology that we have, man seeks to misuse it; it doesn't take very long.  The garbage that's out here, video games that children can play.  And they’re refining some of these games to make them more life-like, more real and then they get really sick – the kinds of games that people want to play.  The kids want to play it and they enjoy it and then this battle that parents have and some parents just give up and quit fighting the battle and let the kids go off and play these things that have wickedness in them, that have killing in them, murder in them, rape in them, stealing cars, but you've got to rape someone to steal the car.  You've got to do certain evil things, kill certain ones before you can steal the car!  And you try to see what you can do and how you can do certain things – things that are common out here that kids do, you know.  And the more guts and the more blood that can be splattered out and the redder that it gets on the screen when you go in and kill certain ones in these mazes and things that you do and you get in this world...And there are people who get on there that never get off!  There are people that have a hard time eating regular meals because they will play so long – people in different parts of the world even.  The technology that’s out there so you can play a game that distorts the mind.  You think, “Well, that doesn't hurt my mind.”  Yes it does!  Games and children’s minds and how their minds can think in ways that become distorted and perverted.  I am so thankful that we are at the end of an age, I truly am because of technology and thinking what some of the younger generation that’s growing up would be like in time here – it's scary.  It's scary enough what's happening right now and there are scarier things coming because of how man has misused technology.

Inventors of evil things, and with technology, that's the way man does.  So you generally have two groups of people out here when it comes to inventions:  those who want to misuse it, to sell it to make money off of it, to get kids hooked on certain things, so that they’re hooked as they get older and will buy more things.  They have to have the first thing that comes out and dying and unhappy if they don't get it.  And then you have the military that wants to keep on top of things because they want to have the biggest and best toy to kill as many people as they can, above and beyond their competitors.  Don't leave the military out.  The desire of man to inflict harm and hurt on other men - it's like this Afghanistan thing, just kill, kill, kill.  Insanity!  And for people that don't even love us.  Surprise, surprise, they all hate us and here we are over there helping them have the best opium crops in time.  They’re the leaders in the world.  We have helped them become the leaders again in the world, in the best opium crops and so all these different chieftains that they have, what do they call those guy?  Warlords, whatever it is, I don't know what they’re called, they might have been called warlords... Anyway the different chieftains they have in different regions there, they don't get along with each other and it's all about making the biggest bucks they can and it's all about opium – the cash crop.  And we are out there helping them to have it.  Oh, we say we are after the Taliban and we are after Al-Qaeda and all this – bull, bull, bull, bull.

I'm so sick of this world, so sick of how man kills man and justifies it.  Young people sent off to die, young people sent off to war and how are they treated when they come home?  Shot-up, missing limbs, then you go in to see some of the hospitals they have to go into and some of the places of rehabilitation they have to go into and they are just a number.  They’re lost in time and the government doesn't care, they don't love them.  Sad, sad, pathetic world; people who think they’re doing something for a great cause; believing it's good and noble.  It's not noble to enter into man's wars.

Anyway, how thankful are you that this world is about over with, with those kinds of things?  And that we are about to come into a new age, a new time where people can be taught the value of family; that we are all family on this earth.  And to get rid of those things that are causing problems on the earth.  All the warlords and all the opium and all the garbage that’s out there – just destroy it.  We wouldn't dream of going in there and destroying their cash crops and that's the first thing we should do.  Just go in there with the planes with the bombs – we have the bombs, just incinerate their poppies, you know?  Hypocrisy of people; hypocrisy of government.

Think God’s fed up, think God’s had His full of the perversion, the sickness and filth of mankind?  We are at the height of it and technology has brought us to the greatest height of 6000 years because man is capable of the greatest harm, the greatest perversion, the greatest filth on earth; because of technology now.  Because we use technology in a more perverted fashion, in a far more perverted way.  those verses.  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, people that don't keep their word.  You have to have a ton of lawyers anymore and people dot the ‘i's’ and congress has to have thousands of pages to pass a bill and nobody reads it.  That makes a lot of sense doesn't it?  The insanity out there and all about legal matters, it doesn't matter how much you write because man doesn't keep his word anyway.  They are, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgement of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.  They are all in the same club.  You can't go too far or you destroy your own system.  You can't destroy certain things in your own system; you can only go so far, you know, or else you destroy the whole thing.  So even there they play their games amongst themselves in government as an example.  In Wall Street as well...

Going back to the story-flow of Genesis...  God shows how mankind moved farther and farther away from Him, so much so and so early on that God had to separate them even more by language and even by shorter life spans.  Isn't it amazing?  God shortened the lifespan of human beings.  Only for a period of time after the flood did people still live a long time.  After a while there, it wasn't too long, lifespan was narrowed down to around 120 years.  After a time you go through and you study some of those things; by the time you come up to the times of King David and periods of time like that into Israel and the Kings of Israel and different ones through time there; you begin to find people who lived three score and ten as a normal thing and that's what God gave then that it levelled out to.  So that evil wouldn't be so refined in the minds of people who lived so long.  God allowed, for that purpose, shorter life-spans because it doesn't take long and the wickedness of mankind, the sickness and the perversion of mankind can be set so the shorter time span curtails it to a point.  So it starts in a new generation and people learn certain things and then thankfully that gets cut off and so it's harder to prolong the things that existed before the flood and right after the flood.  Because God allowed certain things to go on for a while after the flood to teach us these very things; that if He hadn't have done these things, like the languages and so forth and separate the peoples like He did and shorten the lifespan of people, that we would have had to have some sort of destruction.  Not the flood, but something else upon mankind again, but God was merciful and there was a plan to bring us up to this point in time – the end-time.

After Noah, God began to work with one man and one woman in order to accomplish His great purpose in the creation of man and this is a part of that story.  So it doesn't take very long, we go through the separating of people, what happened after the flood.  Genesis 11 that goes through and talks about the dispersion of these things and finally in chapter 12, it gets to the heart and core of where everything is going.  Genesis 12; very quick in the beginning of what God wanted to get to in order to, of what His purpose was in bringing mankind into a family.  He began to work with a family, to bring us to His Family, the ultimate Family – Elohim.

Genesis 12:1 - Now the Eternal had said unto Abram, Get you up out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a land that I will show you:  And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing:  That wasn't really on the earth before this point in time.  Other people weren't living God's way of life - all of the other families.  This is about ten generations now down from Noah.  And Noah was still alive and Abraham was able to learn from Noah – his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather.  Ten generations removed.  And then at about that time, in his 50's then, finally God started working with Abram directly, before he became Abraham.  Started working with Abram and Noah finally died then, being about 350 I believe it was and God began to then work with Abram.  No one else in between that period of time, no one else was mentioned in all those generations of all those families – no one else is being mentioned as being any teachers of righteousness, anyone who lived right before God!  Those who were are mentioned.  It jumps from Noah to Abram as a whole. There is one other individual in time that is mentioned, but I'm not going to go into that right now.

Going on here He says, “I’m going to bless you. Get away from your family, get away from everything and I am going to start something with you and I’m going to bless you.”  and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.  What an awesome thing.  Now he didn't understand what all that meant.  God revealed to him certain things because it has been a progressive revelation through time; but a beginning was there and Abram believed God.  He obeyed God, he just left and moved and he went to where God told him to go.  So Abram departed, as the Eternal had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had begotten in Haran; and they went forth, as it says here, to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And so even here God wasn't working with Lot and yet Lot had certain understanding.  It talks about how Lot vexed his righteous soul day by day because he hated what he saw was happening around him.  Because he went with Abram for a reason, because some of those things he had learned, he had received, but God hadn't chosen to work through him to do these things.  Instead, through another man, for another purpose.

Let's jump all the way down to Genesis 28:1 - And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, you shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and take you a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.  And so there are some who say that this is evidence then that God does not want any races or different peoples to mix in any fashion or form and that this is all a matter of races or of peoples and of mixture and so forth that God never intended – that's a lie.  That is not true.  It's not true at all.  Yet there are such prejudices out there in the world, especially in the Baptist, (I say Baptist again, I'm hitting them pretty hard today) of the Bible belt in the south in the US because of certain beliefs there.  There are certain ideas there that really aren't too far away from Aryanism:  some of the ideas of superior race, that white is superior – a bunch of garbage, you know.  It has to be kept pure.  No, it's a bunch of garbage.  So I hope a lot of people out here who still have some of that stuff in their minds can get that stuff out of their mind.  There would be whole nations of people, if it were sin in some of those things, there would be whole nations of people who would be just a matter of sin.  What do you do with that?  Destroy them all?  It's stupid, stupid, stupid.  And so we’ve had some stupidity that has lingered on for some time because of prejudice, because we haven't recognised it as prejudice – we thought it was something out of the Bible - see?  There are people who have taken certain things and misread it out of the Bible and a lot of that stuff comes from certain Protestant groups who act as though they have a superior mind and attitude of certain things in themselves.  And I don't need to go back very far and discuss some of those things; you should be able to do that.  There are certain peoples on the earth that have promoted those things and their religion and that's not what this is about.

Certain peoples around Abraham and his family were living a certain way that was not good and so he wanted his son to go to an area that was better.  Wouldn't a parent desire to have someone who was being taught something good if you believe in God?  I'm not talking about the Church, I'm talking about what you could see physically because this is what this was about.  This wasn't about the Church at that time, these things here as a whole, in large part, were a matter of how God was working with them, and it was with the ideas of certain things that were in the minds of certain people; that some proper things were still being taught, but not fully so.  Not like Abram who had a special relationship with God.  He had that special relationship because God was doing something special with him.  He called him for a special purpose, to do something special with him.  But there were other relatives that still had some of these things and some of these things were held on to in part, more than others that had scattered to other parts of the world and that's what this is about.

It had more to do with some remnant of belief that was still there.  It's just like in the States.  You can go to different parts of the States and although we understand it’s false when people talk about Traditional Christianity; there are some places that have certain moral codes that they live by because of what they believe, more than others.  There are others who do strive to live a more moral life on a physical plain,  to obey certain things in the Bible that they believe are there than others, even though they’re all wrong – we understand that, that's not the point.  The point is that some strive to live a more moral life because they’re willing to talk about God, they try to have certain family values.  There are some that strive to teach family values in their own way, by their own knowledge, by what they can see.  They don't understand the truth yet, but at least they’re striving to do that in a physical plain.  And so those who are striving to live by certain values certainly would be better in a marriage, you would feel,  wouldn't you?  To have success in marriage because someone believes they shouldn't go out committing fornication and adultery; if they have been raised that way by a strong family who has been married for 30, 40 years.  Maybe that has rubbed off on the children and if it's obvious that the children have certain moral values as well, wouldn't it be better to maybe have someone like that in a marriage?  And that's what this is about!  The choice of those things, not because of race - okay?  But some people say, “Oh, it's all because of race.”  No, it's because of where they were and the peoples that were around and he said “No, you don't go there.”  You go to the family here because it had to do with certain other things that were still around to a degree.  Not as it should have been by any measure, no more than what we see in the United States or here in New Zealand or in other places.  People are just ignorant, they don't understand; they can't help it until God calls them.

And it goes on to say, And God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be multiplied of people; Abraham knew he was being worked with. Abraham had a relationship with God and he knew that that relationship was going to go on through Isaac his son and then Isaac’s sons and there were going to be things that God was going to accomplish and do – Abraham believed that, Isaac believed that.  You know, the family line, they all believed these things and certain things were passed along and so there was a way of life they were striving to live by, by what they understood, by what God was giving them and how He was working with them.  And so he said,  And God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a multitude of people; he was saying that because he believed God. And give to you the blessing of Abraham, the blessing that’s been passed down, and to your seed with you; that you may inherit the land wherein you are a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.

And going on down in verse 10, dropping on down.  And Jacob, it says, went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.  And he happened upon a certain location, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them in his pillows, as his pillow there, and, it says, he lay down in that place to sleep.   And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.  And, behold, the Eternal stood above it, and said, I am the Eternal God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed;  And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: look where we are today.  New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the U.S., Western Europe, Great Britain.  Different parts of the world that God gave, and to the south; and in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  It's beautiful; all families, all peoples of the earth be blessed.  In time, God's purpose, we understand what that purpose is, but it's a marvellous thing that was being revealed to them clear back then.  All the families of the earth are going to be blessed in time blessed because of what God is doing through them and because of a seed that was going to come from Abraham.  And that's what this is about – incredible story.  Because of family... and so God began to work with a family in order to bring us into a Family.

Genesis 28:15 - And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places where you go, and will bring you again into this land; for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you.  Incredible.  So there are certain things God is going to do all the way to the end, until it’s accomplished.  And there are certain things He’s going to continue to accomplish, to do and to work with and so forth.  Even carrying the name of Israel, even the tribes, and the names that people are going to carry and bear, of all peoples of the earth, of all families of the earth.   Some are going to have a difficult time with that, some are going to have a tough time because of how they grew up – Ishmael and all the descendants of Ishmael who teach in a certain religion that it was Ishmael that God provided the goat for or the lamb for, that's what they teach, so that Abraham wouldn't have to offer up Ishmael, that's what they teach, the Muslim religion, because of certain things that are of jealousies and envying that have been passed down from generation to generation in certain peoples.  And they believe those things with all their being.  And it's going to be a tough thing for some peoples just in a physical way because of how certain peoples have been treated then and how they were treated by other parts of the family.  They were not treated well.  Jewish people haven't been real good about how they’ve treated certain ones and vice versa.  No thought of being a family is there at all.  On the contrary, everything to do with jealousies and envying in families and certain rights that some have because they think that they are better.  You know, when you treat people like that, “I had the blessings so I am better than you.  God's working with us!  We are God's special people.  We are special.”  That attitude is carried through generation to generation to generation in people – what a sad, pathetic thing.

That's why I love that one show, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, when the guy is there reasoning with God and he says, because of the troubles they were having, I believe it was in Russia and the persecution that was taking place and he was talking up to God and he said, “Couldn't for just one day someone else be your special people?” Because he realised persecution was coming because of who he was as a people.

But anyway, goes on to say here, He says: I’ll not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you.   And Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Eternal is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful, you know, how mighty! He was afraid because of what he saw and experienced.  He said, This is none other but the house of God, It's interesting what he’s saying here, and this is the gate of heaven.  And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had as his pillow, and set it for a pillar, and poured oil on it.  He anointed it – the pillar, the stone.  An incredible story here.  I carry a picture with me that was given to me when I was talking about this one day in services, if I can find it right quick like here.  Here is that stone!  On the bottom of the throne of England where so many coronations of kings and queens have taken place – incredible!  ‘Jacob's Pillar Stone’ – that's the sign they had under it for a long, long time and I can't remember the date that they finally removed it because of this thing of British-Israelism and Mr. Armstrong teaching what he was teaching; after a while they removed the sign, ‘Jacob's Pillar Stone.’  Because if you believe that and you believe that this stone was passed down and carried about with the Jewish people over all those years and you believe that the throne of England is ruled by Jewish people;  that puts things in a different perspective in Europe.  And so there are certain things that they really didn't want people to know and even now they are not amiss at going ahead and giving the stone back for a time back up to Scotland!  “Let's just get it out of here! Let's just move it farther north and they want it so bad, let's let them have it.” Anyway, there's more to the story than that, but incredible – this is that stone.

And he called the name of the place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.  And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Eternal be my God:  And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: it’s an interesting word because it's the word meaning 'household,' in the sense of 'family’.  That's how it's used in the Bible because the promise was about a family – all the families of the earth are going to be blessed; that was the promise to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob.  And of all that You will give me I will surely give the tenth unto You. And so he understood about tithing and that which is a token; that which is a sign that works in that regard as well in a response towards God and the worshipping of God.  So it's interesting to note here the name of the location was called 'Bethel'.  That's a compound word in the Hebrew; obviously 'El' is about 'God,' it's the word for God, but the other word is the Hebrew word for 'household.  Beth-el – 'the household of God’. That's what the place was called, that's what Bethel means.  It's amazing – words – in the sense of family.  So again, incredible stories here of things that have happened through time and the meaning and the purpose behind it because it’s all about the excitement that God has about a Family.  And this is going way, way back and God revealing some of these things to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and showing them these things – it's about a Family and all of the families of the earth are going to be blessed in you, through you.  Awesome here and yet that is what it is all about.

I think it would be good to go on over to the books of Acts here and bring some of these things being discussed together.  The story of how God is going to bring mankind together as a Family continues to unfold in scripture through time and especially as God began to reveal the purpose of the Church and how that He was working through the Church, the called out ones of God – those who are called to become a part of the body of Christ.  And so some of these begin to be addressed here by Peter in the story told here in Acts 3:12 - we'll start there.  Acts 3:12.  Awesome history isn't it?  Awesome things when we stand back a little bit.  I think of the time I live in and I’ve mentioned this many a time: I could not think of another time in all of earth's history I would rather live.  I am so thankful to be in this period of time; I am so blessed to live in this period of time; to experience, to be witness of, to experience what we are blessed to experience and witness.  It is beyond words, it is beyond description – to see what man has come to after 6000 years, what God has brought this world to at this point in time.  To know what we understand in the Church, that Jesus Christ is about to return a second time, this time as a lion, not as a lamb to be killed; but this time to rule and to reign on the earth.  To take over that throne, the promise of that throne, of that line that was carried down by the Jewish people and that stone that was carried around and the people that were nearly wiped out and destroyed, but some escaped because God made a promise to David that there’ll always be someone sitting on the throne.  Jewish – because the lineage is Jewish from King David on down, until the day that the one who is to reign on the earth receives that throne for all time; to replace all that that was before.  Incredible stories!  And to think that these things are right under the noses of people and they don't want to remember it; they want  to remove the evidence of it, they don't want it around, they don't want anybody to know about it because that will make them have to admit or acknowledge certain things.  So they push the truth away, they don't want the truth.

Can you imagine the Queen of England acknowledging she is Jewish and she is of the lineage of David, King David?!  Reigning over part of Israel, that Ephraim is a part of Israel?

Acts 3:12 - So it's going through the story here of things taking place and it says, And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, You men of Israel, why do you marvel you at this? Or why look you so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we have made this man to walk?  So again here, things that were being taught.  This is right at the time after Pentecost and some of the things taking place, the speaking in tongues as I mentioned earlier; some of the things being stated here in Acts 2 and how that they were inspired to speak and to preach like they were.  The story that follows through in chapter 2 and finally the lame man that was healed here in chapter 3 and this is the interjection of what's being discussed.  And so he’s asking them, “Why do you look upon us as though we did this?”  Verse 13:  It says, The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus; this was such an inspiring time for God, exciting time for God in ways we can't even begin to comprehend.  The first in His Family, the first to become a part of Elohim and that mindset that God began to teach and to give to the Church about the importance of Family.  Revealed from a Father to a Son and it was going to be given then to all in time and how the Church was being built upon this.  So again, the importance of Family begins by God having people focus on His Son and a strong family tie that was given there and how God was so pleased in His Son making those things plain to everyone.

And it says, Whom you delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. Pilate didn’t want to put him to death.  He didn’t want to...he didn't see any reason to make a judgement like that!  You know why he had to cave in and do what he had to do?  Because basically he got threatened by the Jews.  “Oh, you’re going to allow someone who says they are a king and this gets back to Rome?  Caesar won't be too pleased with you if you allow someone else to say they are a king.  That is insurrection and you allow that to take place amongst a people here?”  They put underneath the stake a sign in three different languages about Christ being the ‘King of the Jews’, kind of mocking the Jews.  Incredible!  But anyway, it says “Pilate wanted to let him go, but you - you wanted him dead.”

But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; isn't that the way of man?  Incredible!  Here is someone who is innocent, who has done certain things that are undeniable and they look for false witnesses, they tried to find people who would bear and give false witness.  We have that taking place today in the Church; some who would like to find some to bear false witness against the Church - see?  Because if they can find them, then they think they have a case, they can do something against the Church, against me.  What a sick world we live in.  Mr. Armstrong had to put up with those things for a long time; they don't know who they are messing around with, they are messing around with God!  But human beings don't understand that and there are certain things that God allows in His plan.  That's why we know full well exactly how it's going to come down and the only one that is going to be given any power isn't until the very end.  So God's made it very clear, you've got a full open field to say whatever you want to say, how strongly you want to say it and you’re going to have some teeth to put into it.  The world doesn't understand what’s taking place – sad.

But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer, rather have a murderer to be let loose than a just one; one who lived an upright life, didn't ever hurt anyone.   “But you’re minds, you Jewish people, are so perverted you preferred a murderer to be let loose.” How sick is that? Yeah, it is sick, it is incredible and that's exactly what Peter is saying here.  And killed the Prince of life, “you killed the Prince of life,” whom God has raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.  There were those witnesses; there were twelve that were the most important as far as that which is absolute as far as a witness of something that took place on this scale. And His name through faith in His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know: yes, the faith which is by Him has given Him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I would not that you through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shown by the mouth of all the prophets, that Christ should suffer, He has so fulfilled.  So things written in the Old Testament, amazing when you go back there and read them and you think how could anyone of the Jewish religion, who reads the Old Testament, even to this day, not be able to say, “there is too much evidence that someone fulfilled those things exactly as it was described.”  It's in their history and yet they deny it; they still to this day deny that there was a Passover, the Messiah and they don't acknowledge those things because Satan has duped the Jewish religion as every other religion on the earth has been deceived and duped and distorted and perverted.

Verse 19 - Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, for the sake of bringing us into the Family, that's how God brings us into the Family; through a process of our minds being healed so that we can go through that process, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:  And so talking about a future time when Jesus Christ is going to be sent back to this earth, a time of refreshing, Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, thank God we are almost there.  What an awesome thing for those who lived at the time when Jesus Christ came on the scene, when He began to walk around and talk to some of the ones that became the disciples; and they went with Him and some of the things that they experienced and saw, they witnessed in their life, not even understanding that He was going to die and be resurrected and all the things they witnessed and saw, how awesome that was.  And yet, what's getting ready to happen is so awesome; to understand we live in another time when He’s coming back, when He’s going to be here: but this time He’ll be here in great power, to rule the earth finally after 6000 years of man's self-rule.

Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, talking about the establishment of God's government finally.  Mr. Armstrong talked about that so often, at the Feast of Tabernacles taking us through the entire story.  Starting always back to when the government of God was placed on this earth; Lucifer was placed here, this was his place, this was where he was supposed to be; and those things that God was going to bring to pass in time and Satan, well he became Satan the adversary, but he hated the thought that on this earth would be mankind.  Those that God was going to work with to mould and fashion that would one day become greater than he because they’d be a part of the God Family and he loathed that.  And so that government that was established here, till those things should be fulfilled, God has kept, and kept in motion for a purpose.  So for 6000 years that being has had rule and sway on this earth; that's why he’s referred to in 2nd Corinthians 4:4 as the 'god of this world, the god of this time’.  And that’s an awesome thing to understand – that the self-rule of mankind is coming to an end and finally after all the thousands, maybe millions of years, we don't know how long: finally, Satan's rule is coming to an end as well.  He is not going to be allowed to rule on this earth any longer – incredible.

So, the time of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began. Since the beginning of time of human beings on this earth, because the message from the very beginning of time, from righteous Abel on up, was about what God was going to do in time.  A little bit that was given to them and more and more as time went along. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you.  Speaking of Jesus Christ.  And so Peter is saying, “This...this one, that which Moses...the one Moses wrote about...” talking about that One that would be of their kind; in other words, He would be Jewish and come from the lineage of David as the story is all put together there and the things that would follow.  Verse 23 - And it shall come to pass, that every soul, who will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.  And so today it's going to come as a tough thing for a lot of people who believe they know Jesus Christ.  They talk about “Giving your heart to the Lord, giving your heart to Jesus Christ.  Have you accepted Jesus Christ?”  And they are going to have to come to learn they never did because they never knew Him, because they never knew the truth about Jesus Christ because it's not a story about His life and His death.  Some kind of a story, in a story flow, a fable of some sort that’s just passed along; it's talking about that which is life and that which continues on and it's all about the truth and a way of life to be lived, and a Family that God is bringing us to and all the things contained in what we are observing here this seven days -  the Feast of Tabernacles.  All the truth that's contained in the Holy Days from Passover to the Last Great Day.  And if we will not hear that Prophet...because that’s what He came to reveal!  He is the head of the Church, it’s through Him that God has given the truth to the Church; all those things that Paul and Peter and different ones gave.  Those were the things that God inspired in the Church that were written in this book that were not given in times past.  They hadn't yet been given!  There were things out of the Old Testament that man just didn't understand; that finally God gave to Jesus Christ and He gave to the Church and He gave to the prophets and as a whole to the apostles.  And has taught us, given us these truths.  And so it says, this is the one we are to hear; it's about the Church and being able to hear Him.

Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.  You are the children of the prophets, family, children – it's a Family, talking about family, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in your seed shall all the kindred’s of the earth be blessed.  That's the seed, that's the promise of how all the families of the earth are going to be blessed; unto that Seed - Jesus Christ who would finally come. Unto you first, in other words to be blessed of all the families of the earth because that's what the promise was.  It's about the families of the earth.  Unto you first, God, it goes on to say here, having raised up His Son Jesus Christ, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.  When the gospel was first started being preached it was preached to the Jews, to them first and then it went out.  Paul was called to do his job and began to go out to the Gentiles and it's all about Family.  God wants us to grasp this picture, at this Feast season of the year - that we might embrace that which He wants to give to us; the importance of Family and that we embrace it with all of our being.  It help us in our attitude toward one another within the Church and toward others who are out there, who are going to have the opportunity to become a part of the same Family, from all peoples all over this earth.

That's why I'm excited.  I see people being called from different peoples all over this earth.  They’ve primarily been brought into Ephraim and Manasseh, those lands; but there are people from all over this earth, in different cultures, different backgrounds, and they are a witness at the end-time. God has blessed them to be a witness in their families, of all the families of the earth.  It's an awesome thing what God is doing right now at this end-time.  It's a beautiful thing.

~~~end

Table of Contents

Start