The Last Great Lesson

Ron Weinland

8th Feast of Tabernacles Sermon - 2009

This is the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and of course, tomorrow is the Last Great Day, the last Holy Day for the season, for the year.

And today since it is the seventh day of the Feast and in some ways is timely when considering that we are about to enter the Last Great Day; I couldn't help but think of what we discussed in the previous two sermons: about what's going to take place at the end of the Millennium, just before the Last Great Day begins.  And again, it is something that is difficult often times for us to grasp and comprehend.  How could something of that magnitude take place with the God Family here for a thousand years, the Kingdom of God here for a thousand years?  ...the Church of God here for a thousand years?  ...and no other religions on the earth but the truth...   It's sometimes hard to comprehend the depth of selfishness of human nature and how much the mind and our nature resists God; and that pictures it in a very powerful way and it's the last great lesson, if you will, that God is giving to mankind; of that which He wants us to learn, above and beyond so much because it encompasses so much if we can grasp and comprehend it.  To understand how that Satan can be let loose for a little season and the deception that's going to then go out to all of the earth.  How can that be?

Let’s go over to Revelation 20 and read it.  Again, for mankind this is the last great lesson before the Last Great Day and that's what the sermon is entitled today –The Last Great Lesson.  Let’s read about what takes place just before the Last Great Day begins toward the end of the Millennium, Revelation 20:7 - And when the thousand years are expired, so there is a completion there and we don't know how long this is, what period of time this is but it is before the resurrection takes place that’s going to happen here.  How long does this take?  How quickly does it take place?  It evidently is something that happens fairly quickly.  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, out of his 'place of restraint', and shall go out to deceive, he's the master of it, out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, as I mentioned yesterday, not specific locations, but it's about the names, it's about the people and the people's response toward God and how people respond to God or are not responding to Him – peoples who are not yielding to God and responding to God. ...to gather them together to battle:  the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.  In other words, 'very large' and 'unable to count' except that God can, God knows when that takes place.

And they went out upon the breadth of the earth, encompassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: this is a bit of a capsule of what is taking place here and it doesn't explain everything, it doesn't go into detail and there are things that are represented here that will be given later on.  And so they go out it says, and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.  So they’re not going to succeed, but they’re going to follow Satan and they’re going to be told that this will happen throughout the Millennium.

People are going to be told, “This is what's going to happen at the end.”  This is going to be told often, often, about as often as you have the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day.  Can you imagine being told at least once a year this is going to take place?  And it takes place.  To realise, especially if you happen to be living in that particular era of time, people that are going to be alive at that time and they’re going to be told Feast after Feast, the Last Great Day; just before the Last Great Day begins, they’re going to be told what Satan is going to do.  That this being that harassed mankind for six thousand years, this being who has continually tried to overthrow God's purpose, defeat God in some way or another; that this being is going to be let loose from his place of restraint and the demons with him and is going to go out and deceive the world.  And there are going to be people who follow – not a few – millions!  Multiple millions are going to follow him and there are probably those who are going to be sitting there thinking, “Not me.  I'm not going to do that.  I wouldn't do that.”  And yet there are others who may have other thoughts going through their mind; maybe thinking they wouldn't do it, but really not yielding to God; not really following God, not really doing the things they should be doing in their lives.  Living falsehood, putting on perhaps airs or trying to act a certain way around others, while being different behind closed doors on their own, things that human beings are fairly good at doing.

So how does Satan so readily deceive so many?  How does he do this at the end of the Millennial period after the earth has been so blessed for so long?  And I don't want to leave anyone in their thinking, in their minds, after the last two sermons thinking that the Millennium is going to be a bad time for the earth – it's not, it's going to be an awesomely beautiful time because that's the primary tool that God's going to use;  especially for those in the Great White Throne - to be able to see what God has done by being able to look back in time and history and see what the world was like in the first six thousand years, and then what it was like in the next thousand years that followed and especially for those who live during that time as well, during that thousand years, to experience those things.  An awesome world, a beautiful world, the co-operation – how people work together and the things we accomplish when united, as a whole, for a purpose.  And the kind of peer pressure that is there to do good and to do right; that's a good thing, that's not a bad thing, when life is better for human beings.

But there’s still that element of human nature, that was the primary thrust of those two sermons to help us understand that human nature is human nature and that the carnal mind is still 'enmity with God’.  Even after baptism.  The point being is that the carnal mind of and by itself...that's why Paul talked in the vein that he did.  People don't change during the Millennium, it's still the same.  Paul was converted, Paul was called, he had his mind opened up in a very powerful way – deeply converted and after twenty five years as an apostle of God he still said, 'Oh wretched man that I am: who will deliver me from the body of this death?'  And then he went on to explain, 'Thank God, through Jesus Christ, it can be done.  But’, he said, 'there is a war going on in my members.'  And everyone must understand that battle; that we have carnal human nature that does resist God. Selfishness resists God by its very nature.  And yet there is that other part that God gives us the ability to see and understand things and we make the choice, “I want that.”  We choose that, we desire that and we want to hold on to that, but you've got to fight for that and it is a battle.  And so just because people live in the Millennium doesn't mean they are not going to have those battles.  On the contrary, only those who enter into that battle can possibly become a part of God's Family when it's all said and done – by the end of the thousand years when there’s a great resurrection: some to eternal life and some to physical life again, a second life.

And there are others that we don't know about because the question is there that... “Well, what about those who have committed the unpardonable sin?”  I don't have an answer for that.  If there is judgement there and it's already been judged; I don't know.  We used to think, I'm not convinced of that, that at the end of a hundred years; that everyone who has ever committed the unpardonable sin, they’re going to be resurrected to be given life again just to be put to death again.  What does that teach?  What good is that going to do?  What's the purpose of that?  I can understand someone dying and committing the unpardonable sin and that being the end.  Who is it going to help at the end of a hundred years?  Who is it going to teach?  What is it going to teach to resurrect someone, just to put them to death again?  These are things that God is going to have to reveal to us and help us to more fully understand because candidly it doesn't reflect the mercy of God and the judgement of God in so many ways.  So perhaps there are going to be those who are just never going to be resurrected.  When you commit the unpardonable sin and you die, what is the purpose of being resurrected again?  Just to be put to death again?  So anyway, there are things that we don't know fully, that God, in His time, will reveal to us and help us to understand; but God's word is true, God's word is absolute and what He says is absolute; and so when we read some of those scriptures, there are things there that are absolute.  We may not understand it all right now though.

So again, how does Satan do this at the end?  He uses the primary tool he’s always used against mankind. The primary tool of Satan is one that he himself was caught up in from the beginning, one that was his downfall – it's pride, it's about pride.  And so this event that’s going to take place will serve as the final and last great lesson for mankind; and the root cause is this tool that Satan uses as he comes at people.  He tried to come at Christ that way, he tried to work on pride; it didn't work.  He tried to get at Christ when he came at him, when Christ fasted the forty days and went through what he did, Satan tried to come at him in this angle – didn't work.

Let's begin by looking at an area of scripture that reveals the process whereby God described what must be accomplished before His Kingdom can reign.  You can turn over to Isaiah.  When you go through the book of Isaiah, so much of the story is about a process through time; it is about what God is building to, what He’s going to accomplish and work with man, explaining what man is like.  But the whole purpose and thrust then is to bring man into a Kingdom and what man has to go through before He can get there and revealing what man is like and it's an incredible story from beginning to end, of what is given there.  From the very start, before the Millennium can be set up, so that the Kingdom of God is established to rule over the earth; man's attitude of pride and haughtiness must be changed and that's where we are now.  That is what is going to be addressed very shortly.

God is going to first begin to humble mankind before mankind can be worked with in His Kingdom.  It's going to be a tough job as it is because God is not going to force His way, in that respect, in the sense of somebody standing behind people and making people do certain things, and making people not sin and standing over them so they can't sin.  So how do you begin a new world when you don't force people?  When you give them choice, when you say, “This is the way, walk you in it.” ...when you have the ability to teach that all over the world.  The ability to teach lessons of...”You obey God and these are the blessings you are going to receive.  You don't obey God and these are the curses.”  Egypt and other parts of that world are going to experience some of that and the world is going to be aware of that.  Things will be enforced in the sense that people will not be allowed to go to war; it's somewhat like the Church.  People live their lives and the ministry does not get involved in that; that's the way it should be: unless and until it gets to a time where there are problems and there are battles or there is fighting going on; and there is that which can hurt other people by something that has occurred, by something that has happened.  Paul addresses that through one example in scripture that we talked about not too long ago.  When a man had his own father's wife who was his step-mother and they were committing adultery, fornication: and Paul addressed that to the Church.  “Why haven't you addressed this?  Don't you understand a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump?  Don't you understand by your attitude what you are doing to yourself?  That you are hurting yourself because this isn't being addressed?”  And so those things had to be addressed, Paul had to get involved.

So in situations of sin when there are problems, then we get involved, but it's not a matter of trying to...a term that's been used in the past, 'police' people's lives, sheriffing that is done; we don't do that in God's Church and a lot of people tried to in the past.  It doesn't work that way because God doesn't work that way; He gives us opportunity, He gives us freedom and He gives us the freedom to sin.  He gives us the freedom to be dumb, to make mistakes, to yield to our own selfishness and then we have to deal with that.  And hopefully and prayerfully we repent and seek to change and if it's really bad, if it continues on and it begins to hurt other people, then God intervenes.  He intervenes through the organisation of His government and that's exactly, except on a magnified scale, what the Millennium is going to be like.  That's how God is going to govern the earth – there will be no wars, there will be no fighting, but there are going to be situations that are going to take place where greed enters into people's lives and companies and so forth;  and then it has to be addressed when that happens.  But you don't step in to prevent it from happening, you don't enter into and go into everyone's bedroom and say, “You can't commit adultery!”  It doesn't work that way.  Members of the God Family aren't going to be watching everybody in their bedrooms and people who are having affairs or doing certain things and saying, “Oh no, no, no, don't you go in there and do that!”  They’re allowed to be dumb, they’re allowed to suffer!  That's the only way human beings can learn – do you understand what I am saying about government then and what the Millennium is going to be like?  It's going to be like the way the Church should be and the Church hasn't always been that way because human beings aren't always faithful to administer God's way of life and God's Government within the Church.  And so that’s why there is a government coming that is absolutely faithful... always!  You can count on it always, you can trust always without exception, to know everything is going to be administered perfectly.

There is not going to be any worry that someone is going to go out here and begin to teach their own thing in the God Family – to begin to do something different from the rest of the Body.  That's why unity, oneness is so vital, so important in the God Family – awesome!  So if we can understand some of those things, then in the Millennium it's a beautiful world, but there are still governments in the world, 'hills and nations', but they are to learn to yield to and learn to submit to one government.  And that is going to be a process of time and then eventually they are going to willingly do those things as a whole, as peoples on the earth because they are going to learn quickly: when you disobey as a people there is great suffering – plagues,  death even.  And then they see other nations being blessed and they begin to learn about what God is really like, who God really is.  Because you see, they’ve got to get a lot of this junk out of their minds.

Judaism has to get that junk out of their minds of what God is like.  God doesn't have favourites, they’re not His favourite people and everybody else is kind of secondary and kind of below - see?  Same thing with those of Islam, they've got to learn that is not the way God is.  Other religions of the world that don't even know about God but have different gods; they've got to get rid of some of those thoughts and ideas in their mind and hear something else now that they've heard about and it's always been...their idea and their concept when they have heard it... is like on a Sunday in their area.  Because you can go pretty much anywhere in the world on satellite TV and especially if there is English or whatever on Sunday morning you can just kind of guarantee it.  There is somebody up there preaching about Jesus Christ and preaching about their Protestant concept of 'love'.  Syrupy, sick and they don't like that and that’s what they think God is like.  And so it is going to take time for them to learn; that's not what God is like.  That's what a lot of you have had happen to you in your lives when you come into the Church and sometimes people out here, they have this concept of what you’re like, because of some of their false ideas.  And then of course when they learn about the Sabbath and the Holy Days, then they think you are really weird.  Anyway, incredible what’s going to take place, but there are incredible lessons that go through time.  Human beings are human beings and this tool of Satan that he uses, this matter of pride is so incredibly powerful because we as human beings, we can get tripped up on that one quite easily.  Pride, it's an incredible thing in the human mind of how we see ourselves, of how we think, of how we judge and when pride is involved, judgement and all the other things are messed up something severe - truly.

And so God is bringing mankind face to face with one of the greatest lessons of six thousand years of human experience at the end of the Millennium.

Isaiah 2:2 - And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Eternal's house, the Almighty God, His house, shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; so all the other nations in the world that exist out here of peoples and where they are located, it says God's is going to be exalted and lifted up above all.  And all nations shall flow unto it.  In time all nations, all peoples, there is going to be a process of time there as these things take place where they are going to begin to yield to it.  And there will be things that are going to be enforced there that they’re not going to be allowed to do, but they’re going to be allowed to make certain kinds of decisions.  And so again, thinking about the Church and some of those things that are going to take place; how some of that can occur.

Verse 3 - And many people shall go and say, Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: so eventually people are drawn to that.  Immediately?  Absolutely not. It takes time, even when you’re trying hard and working hard at it and become a part of the Church right away, it still takes time.  That's why Mr. Armstrong said it's going to take three to four generations just to work out some of the things we automatically pass from generation to generation and our children learn from us and then they pass it along, but they do it a little bit better because they have gotten rid of some of those things; and then their children learn less of the bad habits that have been passed down from generation to generation.  And by the time you get to three and four generations, then things are going far more smoothly.  But much of the world...there’s going to be an incredible transition that has to take place.  They have not known God, just as you have not known God before, but you have an advantage in so many ways, so many of you do, because of some of the things that have been taught in this part of the world.  But if you had grown up in other parts of the world... in a Muslim world? ...in a world of Judaism?

Judaism isn't that big of a change when you are converted, when you come to that point when you really begin to see your Passover, but it's still a big change and there is much to learn that you never studied, that you never looked into in all your life and some of that can be a blessing too because of the Protestant world.  But then you go farther back into Islam, Buddhism, some of the others that are out there and you just keep going farther back and there are some massive adjustments that people have to make on this earth, there truly is.  Among peoples, and the way they think.  Even though you have a humble spirit, it doesn't mean it changes overnight – it takes time.  It takes time to educate, it takes time to teach and that's exactly what's going to begin from the get-go in the Millennium.

That's why some of those nations... if you can understand what God does on the very last day at the very last Trumpet and the Seven Last Plagues that are poured out; it's about that part of the world that is really the farthest away from anything that was ever taught that came out of this book – the Bible.  So when you take various regions of Russia and Asia and so forth, and the different ideas and religions they have... and God destroys their governments, puts an end to their headquarters, to their militaries...   Because everything is going to be destroyed; the military, everything they can function by... peoples will still be there remaining in all the countries of the world.  And it's going to be an incredibly humbling process because everything that they have looked up to, everything they have relied upon is taken away from them.  But that doesn't mean they embrace God right away, it just means they can begin to be worked with now and it takes time.  And it's going to take work to work with people like that, to begin to educate them and teach them what God is really like.

So again, this isn’t an overnight thing, ‘they’ll go up to the house of’ Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Eternal from Jerusalem. Headquarters... then it starts going out to the earth.  And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: not just at the end here before the Millennium begins.  There is going to be some of that which takes place as time goes along as well because they’re not responding, they’re not listening and just as we read about what happens to Egypt; it's going to happen in some other nations as well... in time.  They’re going to be given some time.  You know, does God send in a plague right away?  No, He just says, “You don't have any rain.”  If you can't learn through things of nature and that you're not being blessed and that this has come from God... and you still won't listen?  Mercy is extended, but after a time there’s judgement and there’s punishment that follows.  And in time people can respond or not respond; if they don't respond then it gets pretty tough because God is not going to allow people to resist Him for long periods of time in the sense of not coming under one government.  He’s going to be patient with them, He’s going to give them time, He’s going to offer the opportunity for their minds to be opened up; but masses of people are still going to resist in the beginning.  That's why this world has to be humbled like it does to the degree it is.

And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, they’re going to begin to be taught and be geared towards productivity.  They’re not going to be allowed to war against each other, they’re not going to be allowed to kill each other – if they do, they die.  It's as simple as that, you try to kill someone, you die, you are not going to be allowed to do this - to fight against your neighbours, to start a war, and to use some of that which you still have in your possession; because God doesn't somehow supernaturally just melt everything out there.  It's still there, the guns are still there, the tanks are still there, there are still weapons out there and anybody can use them.  And don't think that some won't try to use them – please!  The world doesn't just change like that (snap), like the flip of a switch; it takes work.  There is going to be a lot of work involved in what we’re going to do and how the truth goes out to the world.  And slowly but surely this world begins to change and it begins to respond to God and it begins to see God for who God truly is...by the millions; but there are still  battles in the mind with human beings.  ...He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, they’re not going to be allowed to and so they learn, “...bunch of metal out here, I'm going to use it for something else, to till the ground, raise crops.”  The purpose of industry’s is going to change.  ...neither shall they learn war any more. Slowly but surely that's all taken away; they begin to learn fairly rapidly.  But before that takes place God describes the condition of man that preceded all this.

Notice verse 7 - it tells what man is like, shows why these things have to be changed and how He’s going to intervene to change them and what eventually is going to come to pass, and eventually these nations are going to change, but this is the way it is. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: autos, trucks, everything else...  Look at the world today.  You go through some cities in some areas of the world and some of these bypasses they make.  I think of a place in Dallas, some people who've never seen anything like that would be afraid to drive on it.  On some of these things, they are so high in the air, passing over one another, criss-crossing all over the place.  Different cities with major intersections...boy I wish they’d put some of those in the south side of Chicago.  The congestion there is horrible.  Anyway, they have all these freeways passing over and under each other – massive!  And all these vehicles coming and going, and that's just a little part of the earth and everywhere you go there are all of the highways.  Now they’re making areas between a lot of the cities, we used to have interstates, two lanes; now they are making them three lanes in large areas of the country and they’re way behind in doing that.  They are making three-lane highways and some areas are starting to put in four, closer to the cities.  Cincinnati has a bunch of them now going further out that are four; always construction, construction, construction.  Anyway, murmur, murmur...because we get used to that and we get soft, you know we have expectations.  “Why can't they do this quicker?  This is inconvenient.”  Anyway, it's amazing how we are as human beings.

The land is full of silver and gold, oh if we only could understand how this world is as a whole, from nation to nation to nation, at this period of time in the world – incredibly blessed.  You go back two hundred years, three hundred years; wow, was the earth different, were peoples different.  Technology has done a lot to bring about great wealth, you don't have to go out and labour all day.  There are people whose entire day revolved around food: preparing it, cooking it, growing it, all the things that people did as far as the world was concerned.  Today it's pretty fast, you've got microwaves, you've got ovens.  You don't have to worry about going out and cutting the wood and bringing the wood in, just to do that part of it; that part’s taken away as a whole.  And yet all these things that are speeded up and now there is more time to do a lot of other things and because of that we have a lot of riches in this world, we really do; we live like kings and queens compared to peoples in times past - they never had it so good.  They never had it where you could go in a room and flip on a switch and you have lights; where you could go into a room and the temperature is just right – cosy, nice and warm, or nice and cool, whatever you want depending on what it's like outside.  Kings and Queens never lived like that.  They didn't have that kind of technology.  People marvel when they see some of the things the Romans and different nations did as far as being able to move water, to have fresh water and also sewage and what some of them began to do.  And that was still not really good like it is today, but for the world at that time there – awesome.  And sometimes we just don't realise what we have, but you know what?  When you have more you know what happens?  Your pride becomes like cement. It strengthens pride.  The more you have, the more you are given, the wealthier you are in life, the greater the potential for Satan to use that tool against you, it truly is.

It's what happened to the Church during Philadelphia and on into Laodicea.  We were given so much, if you can understand the correlation between that which is physical and spiritual.  Any question you had you could write in and you would get a booklet or a pamphlet.  Any question you had, pretty much there was something out there, or something’s going to be sent to you – some form; at least a letter.  They had so many people just working in one phase in Pasadena, California in the Worldwide Church of God for so long there, all kinds of people employed.  Their job?  They read letters, they didn't have email then, they read letters and all over the world things would be sent out; different offices in different parts of the world in time.  And these letters would go out, every question that people had, 'The Plain Truth' magazines, the 'Good News' magazine or 'Tomorrow's World,' whatever different stages of when different magazines were out there.  The incredible technology that began to come in to help Mr. Armstrong to do the work he was doing and we were given things that the early Church never had.  We had congregations; 200, 300, 400, 500 people in a single area, a little area, where there were families and children and people to mix with and the knowledge that was available to us that we could receive so quickly.  Now of course today you receive it much quicker because of technology, but back then, you know what happened in time?  We had so much knowledge that could be received so quickly; correspondence course, 50-some lessons, and people could go through these correspondence courses with all of the questions and answers and do it at home.  And in time something began to happen to God's people, to God's Church; we began to be lifted up with our wealth, we were rich, 'rich and increased with goods' God said – Laodicea.  You don't see yourself for what you are, you are 'rich and increased with goods' and you know what happens when that happens?  Pride, pride, pride; Satan is able to use that – it is exactly what happened to the Church.  Pride entered in - that was used very powerfully; it's not just a matter of complacency and lethargy; it's an issue with pride and the mind and how we thought, how we think and Satan used that as a very powerful tool then in the Church to deceive, to lead people away from the truth, to flip-flop doctrines of the Church quickly and many followed it.  Pride – lifted-up because of all the wealth we had, because of how we saw ourselves and our ability.  Forgetting!  Forgetting how we were called, forgetting how our minds were opened up; there were ministers, there were people out there that began to not even talk in veins of a calling; that that's the only way you can come into God's Church.

Garner Ted forgot that very early on.  It was like because of his charisma and because of his ability on television that he was drawing people into the Church.  He told his father, “more people are coming into the Church now because of me, not because of you, because I'm the one that's out there talking and they’re hearing me.”  You think, “have you forgotten it all?”  That was the epitome; that was the example of everything that began to follow then in the ministry and within the Church – lifted up.  Forgetting that God has to do the calling, God has to draw people to the Church to hear the sound, the voice, the truth and then it's God that has to put that in a mind of an individual to receive the truth.  It's not because of us, it's not because of how well we do it and sometimes it's better that we don't do it well in some ways; as far as human nature, as far as life is concerned in that respect.  That's why you look at the disciples, the ones that God began to work with and Jesus Christ went out to...that's why people looked upon them and said, “He's a tax collector. He's really favoured isn't he?”  Everybody looks down on tax collectors and their shenanigans and what they do.  Fisherman – a well educated group up there on the lake you know?  They were looked down upon, didn't have a lot of education; that's how they were looked upon. “Who are they?  Where are they from?  What kind of notoriety do they have?  What kind of an influence can they have?  Were they schooled in the finer things?”  ...In the sense of speech and knowledge and so forth.  That's why when Paul came along he used those things and said he was; he was schooled in the very best of schools, in the very best of upbringing as far as what Judaism would think of.  And God used him then to go to the Gentiles.

Pride, pride, pride, what an awesome thing to understand how the human mind works; the Church began to be lifted up with pride and Satan used that tool against us: fed us... fed people what they wanted to receive.  To where you come in time to where you have ministers and evangelists and department heads right in Pasadena, California and they won't even come to listen to God's apostle when he’s giving a Bible study.  Because, you see, if it was Sabbath services... ah, you are commanded to be there for the Sabbath, but if it's an option because it is a Bible study on a Friday night?  You don't have to go, you don't have to be there, you can be absent; it's not commanded that you have to be there.  And so in time you know what happened because people were 'rich and increased with goods' and they didn't need to be taught by God's apostle anymore?  They quit coming – ministers, pastors, evangelists.  What happens in the mind that you get to a point in time...?  Do we understand that?  That's why all of you need to have a sober look at yourselves in your life and your living on into the Millennium and remember these lessons because it could happen as easily to you as it happened to all of us because you’re going to be given more.  You’re going to have more than what Philadelphia was ever given; you're going to have a God Family right here on earth.  Jesus Christ right here on earth.  You’re undoubtedly going to have opportunity to talk to members of the God Family and probably quite often because of when you were called and some you know because of certain relationships that are already started.  Blessed, incredibly blessed!  Don't ever wonder in amazement and think, “How could those people have done that?”

I used to do that when I first came into the Church, I thought, “Those hard-headed Israelites, it's dumbfounding; they went across the Red Sea that God opened up and on the other side they start murmuring and complaining.  How can anyone do something like that?”  Duh!  What I’m thinking is, “I would never have done that.”  Really!  They’re pretty dumb for what they did because see in my mind, I can’t see how I could do that or how anyone could do that, that's so unreal.  And yet if I were there I’d have done exactly the same thing - see?  Exactly the same thing, human nature is human nature and that’s what we have to understand.  We’re all capable of those things.  And sometimes the more wealth we have that we’re given, the more cautious we must be to be spiritually on-guard, to understand the danger of that and the misuse of that if we’re not careful because it can be misused so easily.  And so we have to be ever on-guard, it never changes, always there; spiritually alert, spiritually on-guard.  So in any of these things in any point in time that you’ve heard about Satan and the end of the Millennium, or even these other things you get to a point in time where you think that, “I wouldn't do this,” the red light is on.  The red light is on; it truly is.  Because you are fully capable as a human being of doing that.

So please, very important to drink in this sermon today to understand this – what's taking place, what we’re going through in time, why the world has come to this point in time, what the Church just went through and why we went through it and what's going to happen at the end of a thousand years because it's all about what this sermon is telling you today, it's all about this.  And if we can grasp these things, what a blessing; what a blessing if we can hold onto it from here on out.  Because I want everyone that I've come in contact with that's new in the last year and a half in the many areas that my wife and I have the opportunity of visiting; I would love to see EVERY INDIVIDUAL, not only live on into the Millennium because they are looking to God to deliver them and have that relationship with God because God has called them for a purpose, to work with them.  And have that opportunity; but to live on into the Millennium and to conquer and overcome self – pride;  and yield to God so that at the end of that thousand years, you’ll be in the Family, the spirit Family that I want to tell you... the potential there for 100% going through and doing that?  Because of human nature?  It's not going to happen.  It's just like every year at the Feast of Tabernacles, every year that I have been in the Church and have gone to the Feast of Tabernacles; you can count on it, the following year some are going to be missing because they quit the fight, they give up the fight, they cease to fight against human nature.  Every year!  And it's a painful thing to watch a brother or sister get caught back up in the world.  I’ve seen everything regarding reasons of why people leave, always justifying (pride), always justifying why we do what we do and it's painful to see but you can't give this way to anyone.  It's up to each individual to fight for it and to continue to fight for it and that battle never ends.

Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is full of horses, no end of their chariots: see?  Physical, but that's also spiritual. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, look at this world. People will worship the work of their own hands, what they have made, what they have created, what they have built.  Might as well at the New York Stock Exchange have places there, little pillows, so people can kneel down!  Ooo! Ooo! They have created something that they worship and they have faith in it and right now, there are some people out there trying so hard to pump it up and to get people to have confidence.  So they can play their little games behind the scenes because they know a lot more than most do and they know when to short and all of the other things they do and how to make some money off of other people, they try to bring other people into it because they are going to get some money out of other people.  Anyway...sick, sick world; their god.  Look at the things people build and make and it becomes idolatry for mankind, it truly does.  They worship what they have built, what they have made, it doesn't matter what it is.  Party’s – governmental, they worship what they have built and they win and they revel in that; they love what they have built and made to defeat others.  And I don't care what part of society as a whole you look in, that's the way it is, it's the way man is – filled with pride and haughtiness.  And Satan; it isn't hard for him to use that against people, it truly isn't and if that enters into the Church, what a dangerous thing.

Going on here ...the mean, or the 'common’, the 'average', man bows down, and the great, or 'those of power and means', humbles himself: 'themselves' if you will.  In other words before these things, before what they have made; this is their god, whatever it is that people have out here that they worship; that they build up, that they lift up that's more important to them that God ever could be, see?  That's why there's so much crying and sighing when God finally brings it all down.  That green dollar bill won't be green too much longer - it's coming to an end.  It's going to have a terrible rippling effect around the world, horrible rippling effect when it finally lets loose, when it finally does crash.  They felt like they got really close a while back.  They were afraid, they were scared; they were scared that it came very close to a total collapse.  What would that mean for the rest of the world?  It's pretty well-hinged into it. That's one thing I was dumbfounded by last year down here at the Feast and I thought, “Well that’s is going to be a blessing to some countries in what they are going to be able to do.  Finally they’re going to be able to stand fully on their own.  Australia is going to do exceptionally well because they are not tied into it.”  And then I found out, oh yes they are.  Everybody’s tied into it pretty much all around the world.  The Chinese are trying to get out of it in a sly way – buy up Australia!  They’re buying up commodities, they’re buying up metals  because they see what is coming.  They see the handwriting on the wall and they kind of want to give it a push later on down the line because to them they've got time on their side; and one general has already let us know over there in the States that they just want half of it.  That's what he said, a general in China, “we want half...we only want half.'  Crazy, crazy world we live in.

So it says they, humble themselves: therefore forgive them not.  Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, for fear of the Eternal, and for the glory of His majesty.  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Eternal alone shall be exalted in that day.  There's not going to be anything left. God is going to make it very clear and the sermon tomorrow is about God making it very clear that He’s bringing an end to it all.  He is bringing an end to every bit of this - see?  This entire process is going to be brought to an end – Israel first, all the scattered nations of Israel first which includes Australia and New Zealand... first on the list.  And then as time goes along all the rest are going to be humbled, meaning they have nothing left of their gods.  They have nothing left that they can bow down to, meaning the Stock Exchange is gone (a long time ago) and everybody else’s as well around the world; theirs crumbles in a particular time period.  And so all these things that man relies upon and trusts in and the religions and the ones they pray to that won't deliver them; that's taken away.  See - no good answers; on the contrary, everything keeps going in the other direction because God is going to humble the world and He will be exalted when it's all said and done.  He alone.

Chapter 3:16 - Moreover the Eternal said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, in other words 'deceiving with their eyes, also to flirt, seduce or entice’ – the daughters of Zion, that's not a very good thing and that's what happened to the Church.  The Church had to be humbled, the Church had to be scattered, the Church even had to go through things because of what took place; this is physical and this is spiritual in what it means here and how people worked with each other, how they hurt each other, how they seduced each other; how ministers seduced others into other ideas and beliefs; putting something out there to paint it, attractively so.  Just as physically also happened in the Church because we can yield ourselves to physical pulls of society in the world and fashions of the world and make-up...use all the things we do in our lives as far as the world is concerned.  Use certain things to an extreme for a single purpose – to draw, to entice for the wrong reasons and the like because of what's in the mind; and people did this toward each other, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: the wrong focus, wrong purpose, wrong use.  Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In other words 'reveal what they truly are' – their shame exposed.  I look at the Church and what we went through – tremendous shame, shameful things that took place throughout the Church.  All the things that people did, all the lying and the twisting and the distorting and saying, “It's okay to lie or to twist something a little bit if it’s going to help the Church, if it's going to help people in the Church.”  Wow, that's amazing, it's an amazing concept – incredible that people would do things like that!  Ministers who would speak openly of such things in meetings in United, “It's okay; a little bit - you don't have to tell people everything.  You don't have to tell them what's really going on, they shouldn't be told everything.”  That's what I was told by the president of the corporation because I dared to tell a congregation some of the things that were going on with the finances of the Church.  So he says, “You shouldn't tell everybody everything, they don't need to know everything.  It's not good, it's not healthy for them to know everything; what's going on in the Church...especially if it's bad – don't tell them!”  Amazing!  The human mind.

Chapter 5:13 - These things were so repulsive to God.  I marvel sometimes that we went as long as we did, that we were given His mercy for as long a period of time as was given to us.  That He didn't frankly destroy us because of what we did, but God’s merciful and patient. It's incredible how He deals with us.  Verse 13 - Therefore My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.  Therefore hell has engulfed her, death, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoices, shall descend into it.  In others words, he that exalts in that is going to be brought down, in those things that are wrong, those things that are distorted and those things that have to do with pride.  And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:   But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgement, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.  I marvel sometimes as we continue to go on and I know we'll receive this in different ways, but even a part of the last book; a part of its geared towards trying to help us to understand why things must happen the way they are going to happen; why this world has to be humbled.  God's Kingdom could not be established, in the way that God deals mercifully with human beings, in the way that God deals with us and work with us and gives us opportunity to begin to change, because there's a humbling process that must happen for all of us.

When I was called, for about a six month period of time, I had to get hit between the eyes several times to knock some sense into my head or knock some things out of my head before I’d listen to God.  Before I would ever have listened to Him I had to go through some humbling things. I had to have some things taken away from me and it was a hard process, but I would never have received the truth, I would never have listened to God; I know my nature, I know what I was like then, I know what I was doing then and I would have thought anything to do with the Church or people in the Church... that you’re a bunch of religious fruitcakes.  I know that's what I would have thought because I thought that way.

And so God has to humble us sometimes, doesn't He, to bring us along?  Sometimes, depending on where we are and what we’re doing, we have to go through a whole lot more before He can communicate to us and that's exactly why this end-time has to happen like that.  You have to take away all the idols, you have to take away all the pride and all the things that people trust in because if you leave something out there, they’re going to gravitate back to it!  They’re going to be a lot more willing to listen and begin to co-operate in the beginning, even though there’s going to still be resistance there, especially in some countries and some peoples.  You tell those of the Muslim religion, “Mecca's gone; it's not there anymore.  It wasn't a matter of Ishmael being saved.  That's not true. It was Isaac.”  And those things aren't going to go over well even when you have everything taken away from you because in some cases they don't have a whole lot anyway.  They are still running around in carts and donkeys in some parts of the world and some peoples just aren't going to be humbled as easily.  But the more people have, the more that's taken away from them, they are going to be able to be humbled a little bit more and the ears are going to be sharpened.  Do we understand that?  ...of peoples and how people are and why God is working with us this way?

Isaiah 13.  To understand that God is righteous in what He’s doing – not only righteous, but incredibly merciful, as we’ll hear tomorrow even more so.  Verse 6 - Howl you; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.  I didn't realise how much these tie in for tomorrow, what God is going to do and why He is going to do it and the timing of things as it takes place.   Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:  And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman who is in labour: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.  Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.  Especially starting with Israel because others have to first be taught about sin, they don't even know.  They don't know anything about the Sabbath day, they don't know about God at all, but everything is taken from them so that they’ll start listening.

Verse 10 - For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. Some of the things that are going to take place, especially by the time we get down to the Sixth Trumpet.  When Asia and Russia...some of them do the things they’re going to do in this world; when God says they’re going to destroy a third of all the earth; it means what it says.  And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and I will lay low the haughtiness of the mighty.   Those that think they’re mighty.  It has to be this way, there is no other way for God's Kingdom to be established on this earth; it's an incredible thing to understand.  And so this message started in Isaiah talking about what God is going to do, what eventually is going to happen when He establishes His government and then going back and showing why and what has to take place.  It's the humbling of human beings, it's the pride that's always been there that has to be gotten rid of or brought low, so that people can begin to be communicated with – begin to hear and begin to listen.

And where did it all begin? Isaiah 14 - God takes us back even farther.  I can hear Mr. Armstrong's sermons that he gave at the Feast of Tabernacles year after year after year because He would take us back through and those things needed to be pounded into our minds so we could learn those lessons!  It all started with him and then mankind because of his nature gravitates to the same spirit and the same mind and Satan uses that against him.  It's the age-old battle.  Isaiah 14:12 – How?  How can people do what they do at the end of the Millennium?  How could the Church of God do what it did at the end of the age?  How could the last era do what it did to where God had to spew it all out of His mouth and separate it from Him?  No longer receiving His continual flow of His spirit until brought to repentance for what we did; for our guilt of what we did in the Church of God. How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!  How are you cast down to the ground, ...How on earth could anyone live during the Millennium and not choose God?  How could anyone with 144,000 and 1 in the God Family, being on this earth: how could anyone not respond to that and see that and be thankful for that?  ...and learn from the history of the past and embrace that and say, “I don't want to live in this body twice!  I want what you have God, I love what you are showing me and I love this way of life.”  The reality is there are some people who just don't love this way of life – it’s amazing.  Always a choice, isn't there?  Whether we want to live or die, that's the choice that God gives all human beings – “It's your choice,” He says, ”I’ve place this before you.  I hope that you will choose life; I desire that you will choose life, but the choice is yours.”  And there are going to be those, just like in the angelic realm, that don't choose life, they don't choose God, they don't want that way; they really do not want that way and they will choose something different.  Which means it’s going to be death, eternal death, death for all eternity, never to be resurrected from again; that's what that means – 'death for all eternity’.  No resurrection to life every again.

For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: above the angelic realm, he wasn't satisfied with what God gave to him, he wanted more.  He wanted to be greater, he really wanted what was God's.  You can't understand a perverted mind and pride perverts the mind.  Pride clouds thinking, it clouds common sense, you can't think straight when pride is there.  If we can't understand the heart and core of where the thoughts are coming from, of where they start, if we can't understand where the sin is coming from... God’ll do that: He says, “I will show it to you.”  He says, “you don't know what it is; you don't know your own mind, your own heart... but I know.'” And He shows that to us a little bit at a time, not all at once thank God!  A little bit at a time and then we work on that and we grow, that's how we grow, it's a beautiful thing.  I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I don't know what that means for sure, 'the side of the north’, an expression that's used here.  But we have a little thing here where Satan tries to make fun of God and he has this figure, this old fat man in his red suit and jolly, jolly, jolly, jolly, jolly, always jolly.  He's making fun of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, the kindness of God – he mocks God.  He's in the north; he's about as far north as you can go on this earth, he's at the North Pole!  There's a pole up there and he's up there and he's making toys – well he's not making them, but all of his slaves are, his elves.  He doesn't do anything.  Satan mocking God because he couldn't have what he wanted to have so he has mankind continue with the mocking.  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.  Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. ...to the grave, the word that's used there, 'to the sides of the pit'.

Ezekiel 28 - goes on and tells some more of the story.  Ezekiel 28 – all a matter of pride, 'I will exalt myself', saw himself greater, saw...wasn't satisfied with what he had.  That's exactly what happens at the end, they’re not satisfied with their role, with their portion; they think they’re something better, they think they’re being cheated, being robbed of something.  They want something different, they want what some others have; they’re not happy enough to be what they have and all the blessings they have – astounding!  Ezekiel 28:12 - Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus says the Lord Eternal; You sealed up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.  In an angelic realm, how he was created, the beauty God said was there.  You have been in Eden the garden of God; just change a few words here and think about peoples and minds.  “You have been in a beautiful world, a world that's been changed, a world where there are 144,000 and Jesus Christ is walking on the earth teaching us, talking to us, being able to communicate, being able to learn directly from them.  Being able to entrust totally in God and what God gives to us.  You've been there.” And yet there are going to be millions who refuse it.  Not only millions that reject it at the end, who try to fight against it, who follow the way of Satan and that portion that takes place there; but throughout that period of time, there will be people who do not choose God's way, just as in the angelic realm.  Don't think it can't happen; it can happen.  You've got to be willing to fight the fight and love what God gives and desire what God gives, but it has to be because it is your desire and because you want it and you’re willing to fight for it with all your being because you value it above everything else.

You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, anyway, on and on it goes showing all the riches of that which I don't comprehend.  That which is in a realm that God has given to them and all this beauty that exists there of physical things that are shown to us; the majesty of it all, the beauty of it all, the awesomeness of it all, the wealth of it all.  And the workmanship of your tabrets and your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created. Some have speculated this is talking about even that which has to do with musical ability; that which is beautiful.  You know, there are things in music that are beautiful and can bring across a message and can do things of inspiration that...incredible.  That woman over in England, Susan Boyle.  You know, when you hear that kind of power come out, it's just...it's awesome, it's beautiful!  The beauty of what some people have, the ability to accomplish and get across, it almost causes shivers and the hair to stand up on the back of your neck sometimes; it's so beautiful and inspiring.

And interesting how he’s used his talent.  A lot of the music we have today, you think their isn't an influence of Satan there who has great ability and great talent to misuse things?  ...to deceive, to pervert, to destroy, to lead away from principles that are good and right?  'Yellow Submarine',  'LSD – Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds',  and different things of culture out there that tries to lead people into thinking, “Oh, let's go up here to Woodstock and let's have an inspirational time together and enjoy life together.”  And no, it was a pig-pen, and there are people who still talk about it, they have a movie coming out again about Woodstock – great time people had, a great time was had by all.  Filthy, filthy place, filthy things that went on there, all the drugs, all the marijuana, everything else, everybody's on a high and they are making it like it's a great thing!  “It was a beautiful thing wasn't it, to be a part of that?!”  And for some people it brings back such great memories, “Back in the good old days.”  The sickness of the human mind, thinking that there's joy and happiness in those things that separate people, not draw them together; things that divide families, not draw them closer together; things that pervert and distort the mind, not making it clear and better and sounder and to where people can really experience real joy in life. They experience other things and they think that's what the joy is and they’ve robbed themselves.  They don't understand!  Satan has stirred all of that up, all because of pride.

Verse 14 - You are the anointed cherub who covers; and I, God said, have set you so:  “I gave this to you; I did it.”  Like Garner Ted, he had it because Mr. Armstrong his father gave it to him.  Look at all he had!  See, you can go through life and lesson after lesson in history of these things that pop up over and over and over again.  It didn't just happen once; it's happened millions and millions and millions of times.  You were upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. “Look where you were! And look what you did!”  Everyone needs to see this and everyone needs to understand it because we're ALL CAPABLE OF IT; that's what God wants us to grasp!  Pride!  This is what pride will do to you.  Even when you are in the very presence of God Almighty – RIGHT THERE... the anointed cherub that covers; the very throne of God, by his brilliance and by his beauty that God gave to him.  There are only two there now and God intended from the very beginning that there would be three – Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer.  And Lucifer gave it all up.  Incredible!  And so we look at that and think, “Dumbfounding!”  ...and then we look at the end of a thousand years – dumbfounding!  Millions.  People come into the Church and they look back at what happened in Philadelphia – dumbfounding!  ...that this could happen in the Church of God?  That God would spew the whole Church out of His mouth because of lukewarmness, because people became 'rich and increased with goods?'  Boy, that's a hard one to understand.  If it is, ask God for help to see it because every one of you in those same conditions would do exactly the same thing.  That's the point of it all, no one escaped; not one escaped – everyone got caught up in it.  Thankfully we’re human beings, thankfully we can repent, thankfully when God shows us what we’ve done and teaches us lessons in things; we can say, “Oh, what a fool I have been...  How dumb!”  ...and become more deeply convicted...those who are awakened from that spiritual sleep become more convicted than what they were in the beginning far more.  They have grown, God has built something within them, strengthened something within them that many peoples in times who are going to be a part of His Family hadn't had the same opportunities, candidly so – true.  Because of what God is moulding and fashioning and because of what He is going to do and because of His purpose and intent.  God does the moulding and fashioning for His purpose and for His reasons.  And the reality is; everyone who’s gone through this, who's been awakened, knows that to be true; that they are far more convicted, far stronger.  If they were able to have that opportunity to go back and do some of those same things again, whoo-eeey would things have been different.  Wow!  I think back of different things I wish I would have done, I wish I could have done, but I wasn't capable of doing because I didn't see what was happening because I got caught in it.  Incredible!

Verse 15 - You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you.   By the multitude of your merchandise they have filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: that's what happens when pride steps in.  When pride starts entering in, everything goes to pot – every value that you hold begins to be perverted and distorted and with human beings we learn it from our youth; from young to old, we become professional in it.  I don't care what state of life people have in this earth, there is always pride.  I don't care what state it is that people have.  Even so much so that if someone is barely making it and poor and barely surviving.  We have a particular state where we saw some vehicles that are rusted out, you wonder how they get down the road and there's a sign on the back of the bumper, 'Poor and proud of it!' And they are.  It doesn't matter what state in life, what we have or what we don't have; there’s always pride.  I get side-tracked on some of these things; it's like, I don't know if you have the term over here – 'Monday night quarter-backing.'  You probably don't have it because you don't have the same type of football here.  But you surely have something where after a programme is over, after a cricket game is over, after a soccer game is over; people are going out there and talking about what should have done, what they shouldn't have done.  And it's like, “If I was out there in the field, this would never have happened!  If I had been there and they had done it this way.  If that coach had only told them.”  And all these battles and I always feel sorry for the guy in a basketball game that misses the lay-up and loses the game – he's the one that lost the game.  It wasn't all the errors of everybody else before that, but people remember that poor guy.  And that's the way life is with so many people; when it comes to things that we analyse, we always know better - no matter how much we really don't know.

When it comes to government and politics, the economy; we have interviewers/stations in the States today that just about do me in sometimes, I can't take it.  It’d be better if I just kept the news stations off.  But they want people to email them and tell their opinion about certain things in the news – like I want to hear everybody's opinion out there - what they think is taking place in the world.  And you hear some of the stupidest things, but it's like “This is news and we need to know what everybody else is thinking about this and analyse it.”  And people just sit around for hours anymore, news - discussing and analysing things.  Same thing as the sports; maybe that doesn't make you sick like it makes me sick, but it's all pride and that's why it sickens me the most... because everybody knows what's best.  They can be as dumb as a thumb-tack, maybe that’s not an expression here either – have no brains whatsoever in common sense and yet have the greatest opinions about how everything should be run in the government.  What a president is doing wrong; what leaders are doing wrong... as if they were there they could do it so much better – no you couldn't.  I feel sorry for them, I feel sorry for world leaders, mainly because they get caught up in pride too and they have to play their games of politics in order to keep their place and they have to please so many different kinds of people.  And you see by the time they’re out of office, they always have grey hair.  By the time they’re out; if they didn't have it before they went in, they've definitely got it when they come out.   Incredible if we can just understand, if we can come to a point of time where you loathe something so much.  You loathe pride, you loathe pride in yourself first and foremost; you hate it, you hate what it does and what it destroys because that’s your battle.  Pride is your battle; it will always be your battle as long as you are in this human flesh – truly, truly, truly.

That was the difference between Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Tkach.  People at the Feast of Tabernacles would start applauding for Mr. Armstrong and stand up, thousands of people in the audience.  15, 16, 17,000 people in an audience and he would make them sit down.  And I heard him at some points in time get a little strong and rebuke... that they should not be doing that, he didn't want that from them.  Do you understand why?  Do you understand why he wouldn't want that from them?  And why the man of sin, the son of perdition, when we were in Buffalo, New York and had a bunch of Churches come together to hear him, that everybody stood up, including me, peer pressure, applauded, did something I knew that I really shouldn't have done – applauded.  After a long period, he said “Stop!” and then said “You can surely do better than that!”  And he went like this...(gestures with his arms going up) -  he wanted more – astounding!  Pride! Incredible pride.  Seeing himself in a wrong light, receiving something he should never have received from others.

You have to be careful in those things in life when you’re given responsibility, when you’re given opportunity of things in life in the Church; that you don't allow those things to take place because there are going to be things in the future, when you have opportunity to share this truth with others around you in the world.  And we were talking about this a little bit earlier in breakfast here, it's an amazing thing, you know... when you have the opportunity and all of a sudden scriptures start coming to your mind, things start flowing because God's in it.  If God has a purpose in it, you’re going to experience it.  You are going to experience being able to share this way with others, you’re going to think of things and things are going to flow out of you.  Never, never, never, Never, NEVER, NEVER - NEVER take it to yourself and be lifted up by it.  Don't allow that to happen because that is the day God cannot use you any longer; He can't use that.  If it's from Him, if it’s His, the glory, the honour - it goes to God; it must always be remembered as that.  Never take it to self that somehow we might have that ability...and that's destroyed so many people because they lost sight of that and they took it to themselves - see?  And you’re going to have those opportunities in the future here; never, never, never take it to yourself!

And as you go into the Millennium, some, because of being called early as we heard in the sermon; indeed, to be the kind of witness of what you are witnessing and the opportunities and purposes that God has called you for in all the different nations of the world and so forth that are out here and the opportunities that you have.  You are going to have opportunities in the future; you are going to receive favour in the future, just because of the reality of the opportunities you've already been given - of being drawn early; of having had the opportunity to experience the Feast of Tabernacles in 2009 and know each other and be known by others because there are going to be people who are going to be known for having lived up to the end of this age.  And those who are living on into a new age, they were called, they have those experiences they can share with others and talk to others about it: of what it was like before all this began to happen, of what it was like to live between two periods of the Feast of Trumpets and learn much and be moulded much.  We lived through that, we experienced that, “This is how the world reacted and responded to us.  Not so nice, and we continued on.”  You are going to be known for that and the reality is in those cases, people are going to tend to lift you up – they are... because of admiration, because of respect; which is good in one part.  But see, the tendency of human beings is if we are not careful, we can lap that up and take it to ourselves - see?  Don't ever let that happen.  It's always a matter of, “what God was doing and of what God gave to me and how I was blessed by God, and how God was moulding and fashioning me and thank God -see?  I didn't do it but I was just given the opportunity early and I'm so glad I was given that opportunity.  Others weren't given that opportunity, but I was and I am so grateful for it.  But it wasn't me, it was God.”

Deuteronomy 8... I'm talking about things that will happen, I'm talking about things that do happen.  So we are to see pride and the need for pride to be defeated; to recognise that every one of us first and foremost has that battle in self.  Deuteronomy 8:1 - All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Eternal/Lord swore unto your fathers.  And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, isn't that amazing?  ...forty years... to humble you, so that you could go in finally to learn some lessons and finally go into this promised land.  God has taken the Church through certain things to humble us, so that we could go into what's coming next, to humble you and to prove you, isn't that amazing that we have to go through things in life even within the Church, the same process is there; to be tried, to be tested, to prove us, to give us those opportunities because it is a matter of free choice, to choose God's way; it's a matter of choice to fight against pride, it's a matter of choice to be spiritually on-guard and spiritually alert and understand the necessity to do so.  To understand the necessity to do so?!  Amazing!  And some of the same kinds of scriptures we use today about being watchful, ‘For you don't know at what day and what hour your Lord does come.'  Do you realise that is going to be taught in the future?  You can say, “Well how can that be taught in the future if He's already here?”  Because it's a spiritual principle behind it - see?  You have to be alert all the time, on-guard all the time; life is not owed to us.  You can die at any moment.  Those in the future, you don't have all the time on your side, and thinking, “Well I can do this later,” which is what began to happen in some cases in people's lives – can happen.  You know, “I don't have to be serious about that cause there's a long period of time here... I've got a long time to deal with these and work on these.”  No you don’t.  You've got to fight every day of your life:  the day you let down, oh what a bad day.  Anyway, to humble you, to prove you, to know what is in your heart, that's what God wants to know and it takes time for that to be resolved.

It takes time to begin to make choices, to choose.  Every time you choose to repent, you know what you are doing?  It's a beautiful thing – you’re growing in character.  Every time you repent, because you truly see self and you acknowledge, “I am wrong. God is right.  I loathe this and I’m thankful for God.  I’m thankful for His mercy and patience and He is giving me an opportunity to change.”  Every time you are acknowledging, “God is right. I am wrong.”  You are re-enforcing something in your mind and in your being because some people, they get to a point in time where they cease to repent and they cease to level out, and they don't see the seriousness of certain things they do and so they are not repenting of those things - see?  It is so important to continue to fight the fight and repent continually.  And you grow in that; you grow in character, something that God just can't give to you.  It's something that's developed over time, something you have to fight for and work for and understand the value of.  So God works with us and moulds and fashions us to try us, to prove us, to know what is in our heart. We’re going through certain things - that is exactly why  God is going to allow certain things in the Millennium to happen as a result of wrong choices and mistakes we make.  People are still going to have sins to repent of and they are still going to have to learn from those mistakes and the things they do and the hurt they cause and so forth.

...To prove you, to humble, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.  And He humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live.  I could give a sermon on that one right there as to what things we can learn from every age and time of what this is all about.

Going on in verse 11 - Beware that you forget not the Lord your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgements, and His statutes, which I command you this day: and that applies to the Millennium, that applies to the Church of God in Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira, Pergamos, Laodicea.  You think, “How could you forget the commandments?” ...and His judgements, and His statutes, which I command you this day: it's about living them, it's about applying them; not ignoring them, not putting them aside - see?  But seeing the need to strive to live by them and apply them in our lives.  Lest when you have eaten and are full, wow, ...lest when you have eaten and are full, Philadelphia, Laodicea, it's exactly what happened spiritually.  Think about the Millennium, ...when you have eaten and you are full... you have the God Family here on this earth, and have built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when your herds and your flocks multiply, when the earth is blessed so abundantly, when so many things that are bad out here are conquered and overcome, when things get so much better for human life and the conditions of human life; the ability to deal with things quickly, swiftly ;  receiving blessings, multiplied in ways we can't begin to comprehend.  I can tell you with absolute assurity what is going to happen to people and what the danger is.  It's this here - it truly is.

And when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; Then your heart be lifted up, ‘exalted, filled with pride' - that is exactly how Satan can do what he does at the end.  And you forget the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out from the house of bondage; The human mind is an incredible thing, it truly is.  And this is indeed one of the most important lessons that human beings can ever learn because it began with Lucifer and it's gone through every human being, save one whose Father was God.  Everyone else has had to deal with this thing here of pride in their life, truly, in a very powerful way.

Let's turn over to Isaiah 55.  It is a battle, something you have to be on-guard, you have to be alert to, fighting self, fighting the mind, fighting things in life; that we don't allow these things to begin to take over because they will try to do so just by human nature alone; let alone with Satan...when Satan's let loose that's why people are caught off-guard, that's why it happens so easily, so quickly, so powerfully, so widespread.  They've never experienced anything like that.  Isaiah 55:3 - Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Beautiful scriptures here in what's being discussed, but again, that's a choice....that's a choice now and it's a choice in the future; to incline your ear, to try to hear, to try to listen, to try to understand.  Not just even physically, sometimes that can even be a challenge, but even more so above and beyond that, to try to drink it in.  To ask God for help to understand before we approach, before we hear what He gives to us and after we have heard it: for help to put it into practice, to think about those things; ...incline your... that's something that you have to work at to do.  It isn't something that just happens naturally.  Hear... you know; the ability to hear.  God gives us the ability to hear, but whether we receive it or not and really hear is really up to us.  It's up to us to receive what God has.

Verse 6 - Seek you the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near:  An admonition to be given to people through time, I don't care what the time period is and I think about how near God will be; just by the fact of His government being on earth during the Millennium.  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon Him; and to our God, and He will abundantly pardon.  Always a desire to change, to repent, to grow, a desire to see self, a desire to fight our own nature.  For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, always able to learn more and more about God and God's way of life and understanding what we are like in our thoughts, in our mind: being suspicious sometimes and making sure your motives are right, inspecting self, examining self; that's what that is, that's what that's about.

Isaiah 57... The book of Isaiah, from beginning to end; it's addressing a process and a plan that God has.  And it start out at the very beginning talking about what God desires to build and how that God's Government is going to be established and then it takes us back and helps us to understand our problem and what God is going to address and what God is correcting on the earth – the haughtiness and pride of mankind that must be brought low and everyone has it.  It said the ‘mean man’ and then the ‘mighty man’, it doesn't matter who it is on the earth; everyone has to be brought down, everyone has to be humbled before God's Government is established and then it shows where it all begins.  If we can grasp and try to understand that mind, in the sense of what his attitude was... of Lucifer; to see his downfall, to recognise that’s our battle, every one of us.  And then God takes us on and shows us the things we must do to fight and conquer that and that's what we’re talking about today here in Isaiah 55 and 57 and beautiful verses if we had time to continue on through here which we probably will have in Isaiah 58 and some others in February next year.  Let’s read a few of the verses here:  verse 15 - For thus says the high and the lofty One who inhabits eternity, I love the way these things are expressed sometimes, 'He inhabits eternity’.  Now we can read that and be in awe of it, but we don't even come close to understanding it, 'He inhabits eternity', whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and the holy place, it is 'lifted up,' it is 'high' - that's the point of it being there, but 'holy' because it’s from God, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, meaning that that's what God can work with.  And so in the beginning of the book it talks about pride and throughout the book it talks about the problems of Israel and the problems of mankind and so forth.  And the pride and the haughtiness that’s there and it comes to this and says we must have a contrite and a humble spirit, a teachable spirit that God can work with.  The very reasons why the end of this age has to come on this earth – to humble mankind so that God can communicate with us.  ...with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, God can't help anyone with pride.  If a person has pride, it's not because God doesn't want to, it isn't because God doesn't desire to, it isn't because God doesn't love them; it's because they won't receive it.  A mind of pride won't receive what God offers it; only a mind that is able to be humbled can begin to receive what is from God.

And so God says He will dwell, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive, to 'make alive’, that's what He does with His spirit.  He begins to give us then of His spirit and as we respond He gives us more if He is drawing us and calling us.  And this is what this is about, 'to revive,' it's a word in the Hebrew that means 'to restore, to quicken, to make alive'.  You know, we have physical life, but that's not what this is all about; physical life is not what this life is all about at all! Living in this body is not what this life is all about; this body will decay!  It's what's up here in the mind and this is what this is all about; the attitude and spirit that God can work with, that He can give to a spirit body to live into eternity.  ...to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  The rest of the verses here even:  For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always be angry: in having to deal in the sense of 'wrath', how it means in the Hebrew here; about what it means in the sense having to intervene at times with man and the punishment that must come upon man because of things of Israel and so forth and then the Church.  And God has had to do those things! He has had to do those things to us, to me!  To those who were part of Philadelphia, to those who were part of Laodicea, went into Laodicea; or those who were called in Laodicea and still did the same thing.  We had to go through those things and God had to deal with us, righteously so.  And so He went on to say, for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. Thankfully we have short life spans!

For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and smote him: I hid myself, and was angry, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.  In other words, there are times that God has pulled back and allowed certain things to happen.  There are times that God has intervened. God has had incredible patience because of His love for His plan and purpose of saving people out of every period of time on this earth.  And the patience and the mercy He has had when we have done the things we have done towards God and then He lets us experience some of that as well, so we can understand a little bit more.

Verse 18 - I have seen his ways, and they are not good.  For 6000 years and it's going to be another thousand before long.  I have seen his ways, and I will heal him: That begins in very great part in the Millennium where far more... because the opportunity for all mankind is given then, which is incredible.  To understand that God is going to offer His spirit throughout the world to all mankind; not everyone’s going to receive it.  Some will just go through the motions of baptism.  But as a whole there are going to be large portions of people who do want this way of life and have the opportunity to be saved and become a part.  I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. Everybody has to come to that point in time where there are things in your life that we have to see what we are and even in the Millennium; to see that spirit, to at times to have tears in our eyes to think we would say something to somebody else that would hurt them.

People are going to do that in the future, people are going to hurt other people in the future.  Husbands are going to say some of the wrong things to their wives, wives are going to say some wrong things to their husbands.  Children are going to say some of the wrong things to their own parents and parents are going to say some wrong things to their own children at times.  Because of inconvenience, because of selfishness, because of being tired or whatever it might be and we respond because we’re selfish and we lash out at times because of our discomfort.  That's the way human beings do, you know, “I'm not comfortable and nobody else around me is going to be comfortable!”  That's kind of the way it works and so we do things and people are going to have tears, they’re going to mourn; they’re going to be mournful for what they have done and for how they have hurt somebody else; that's in a family!  And so those things will happen in business, in business dealings, those things will happen in neighbours and there’s just sometimes somebody says something or does something.  Nobody’s perfect, we are not perfect in this human body and nobody will be perfect in the Millennium!  We've still got battles to fight, it's just the Church of God very big and I've been in the Church of God when it was much bigger than what it is now.  But at that time it is going to be able to fill the whole earth, what an awesome thing to understand, but we’re human beings.

I create the fruit of the lips; the mind has to be healed, that's the whole point.  The human mind has to be healed and what’s at the crux of the sickness?  'The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes' and over it all 'the pride of life’.  Pride!  Pride.  I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is near, says the Eternal; and I will heal him. Thank God... thank God.  To those who have never had opportunity, never known about God, they’re 'afar off'.  It talks about in times with the Jews and Judaism and 'those who were near', and then it refers to different times and different peoples.  And just like today or whatever period of time it is...and thankfully we’re getting ready to go into a new period of time where nobody is going to be far away.  Everyone is going to have the opportunity throughout the earth; it's a beautiful, beautiful time.

I'm going to stop there today.  Hold on to these things here that God has given to us through the message of Isaiah.  It's how to live life, it's how to live life right.  You can even go on and read the next chapter yourself because we’ll probably go through it in February.  And think about some of the things there of how God says we should be and what it takes to live right before Him and what it takes to conquer and overcome the spirit of pride – that doesn't end when the Millennium gets here, on the contrary, it builds up to an incredible crescendo at the end, where pride is going to be made manifest in a way that’s going to dumbfound even though we live there.  Just like Laodicea and what finally happened.  Once we saw it and experienced it we were dumbfounded by it, even though we knew it was going to come to pass.  How incredible is that?

~~~end

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