God’s Time

Ron Weinland

Last Great Day – pm service - 2009

This morning on the Last Great Day of the Feast, we heard a sermon about the meaning of this very day of God’s plan – The Last Great Day.  And so as always, the meaning of the Holy Days must be given on each High Day and that has been accomplished.  But in addition to having a sermon as we always do on The Last Great Day about the meaning of the day, over the past several years at the Feast especially, the last sermon on this day has always been unique concerning whatever it is that God gives to us to focus upon, to more perfectly have us focused on a course that is set before us.  Today as I go through this I’m going to be following my notes rather closely because there is much to cover and things I do not want to miss.  This is a sermon that has been a long time in coming because I’ve talked about it for a long time  but I knew a long time ago, it’s a little bit like – I guess in some ways – what began to happen upon one visit to New Zealand in 2005 that God put it in my mind at that particular time that we were to address some special matters at the Feast of Tabernacles that year.  And so as time went along certain questions were asked over there, things that had been talked about, and God began to make it very clear that this is a direction that we were to travel to work toward for the Feast of Tabernacles.  And so various things were given along the way, little bits here and there in sermons that began to come out through the year – up through different periods of time; and slowly but surely it finally came to the Feast of Tabernacles and God gave us all that He did...and one sermon in particular was the last sermon, Melchezideck.  And that was one where God gave to me certain things about that only at the Feast of Tabernacles.  I knew the subject matter, I knew what I was to cover, but I didn’t know all that was contained in it.  I had an overview because of all the previous sermons, but I didn’t know everything at that point in time, I didn’t understand everything at that point in time and during the Feast as I focused upon those things; and I knew that’s how it’d work because that’s how God has worked with me.  There are things that God puts into the mind, communicates to us and shows us what He’s doing and how He’s doing it and in that particular time then a unique experience and so is this one here, because I’ve known for some time that as we went through a period of time here and came up to the Feast that even during the Feast there would be more given and that’s what has happened here as well – although most of it was prepared  just prior to the Feast – some of it in New Zealand, and now the rest of it here.

The sermon today is simply entitled, God’s Time.  God’s Time.  We are fast closing in on the time when the revelation of the previous 7 days of the Feast of Tabernacles will be established upon this earth – the time when the millennial reign of Jesus Christ finally comes to this earth.

Again, God has been leading me toward this sermon for several months now and it’s a unique experience in going through these things but I knew it’d all come together, little segments here and there as we’re being given, but I knew the subject matter was some of the things that had to be given.  And that’s how God has worked for a long, long time.  Certain things in your life as you go on, you become more attuned to how God works with you, how God leads you, how God guides you, how God is merciful to you, how God corrects you, how God does various things in your life with you personally.  You become attuned to those things in your life as you mature and as you grow and it’s an inspiring thing because it’s a personal relationship that God desires to have with each and every one of us and it’s something you grow in through time.  It takes time to grow in that relationship and come to a better understanding, a knowing of certain matters in your life in that relationship.

As I have mentioned, this sermon is not a new truth like one of the 50 Truths given to the Church, but it is an extension, an addition if you will to the 50th Truth and involves a particular scriptural expression that I’ve referred to at different times about ‘time, times and a half a time.’  Hence the title of the sermon today.  As we go through this you’ll understand and see it more clearly even, God’s Time.

That expression states one word 3 times, at least in Revelation it does.  In Daniel it doesn’t, but in Revelation it does... the word ‘time’.  All time is in God’s hands and in His control.  He established it from the very beginning, with great purpose.  It’s exciting and inspiring when you go back and look at that and see what God is doing and why He does it.  He regulates it.  He set His plan, in time, to be accomplished in His good time – hence again, the title of the sermon.  And that title has much to do with the meaning of the content of this entire sermon.

Let’s go over to Genesis 1.  In the sermon entitled ‘Our Father’ that was given on the Sabbath before the Feast, we looked at this matter of God establishing time.  Now we will review it.  Quite incredible what God is revealing here.  Genesis 1:1 - In the/a beginning God/Elohim created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; it became that way over time.  We have gone through that and studied that; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  It was here, but it was without form and void, in other words, in ‘tohu and bohu’ as the Hebrew word is, in chaos and confusion and waste.  And the spirit of God/Elohim moved upon the face of the waters. The waters were already here; And Elohim said, Let there be light: and there was light. It wasn’t that the sun wasn’t there, it’s just that the sun couldn’t make it through to the surface of the earth.  And so there are things that God had to do to correct that. And Elohim saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Verse 14 - And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, as we have talked about, a very unique word there.  It’s the word in used in Leviticus 23 – appointed times.  ...for signs, and for appointed times, and for days, and years: in other words, a calendar for mankind – for days and for years – and those things that God plans and has planned for us to focus upon in that calendar concerning appointed time, just like today is the last of the appointed times of the season – The Last Great Day.  We’ll come back to this, but again, this sets the stage for the sermon.

And as the subject of ‘time, times and half a time’ is much of the focus of this sermon, let’s turn to where these terms are used.  There are only two places in the Bible where it’s used.  It’s used in Revelation and in Daniel.

Let’s turn over first to Revelation 12 and notice how it’s used here.  There are times in our lives and within the Church that we have looked at various things in the Bible trying... God’s people have always wanted to understand prophecy.  We always want to understand what is coming, why is it coming, what God is doing.  That’s why with Daniel, after all these revelations of things that had been given to him he wanted to know more!  Isn’t that our desire?  Everyone that’s ever been called; everyone whom God has ever worked with – has had that desire.  I want to know more!  And especially, you can imagine Daniel’s experience – here he is given all these things to write – What does it all mean?  And that’s your natural desire.  I want to know more!  I have an overview here but what does all this mean?  Especially concerning the end and what you say is going to come to this earth and what you say you are going to give to mankind?!  He wanted to know more and God just told him, shut up the book Daniel, it’s not for you, it’s not for your time, it’s for another time.  Incredible!  It just wasn’t for him to know.  And neither was it for the apostles to know.  They didn’t know all the things regarding what Daniel was talking about.  It wasn’t for their time either, if you want to talk about Peter or James or John or different ones – it wasn’t for them either.  Jesus Christ gave them more: He revealed a lot more about that period of time – He gave a lot more.  And then John, much later, was given an entire book to write, a final book to write for the Church, to the Church, telling the Church what would happen in different eras and so forth and much more that was for the end – incredible.

Revelation 12 – a type of insert chapter as I mentioned the other day where all of the sudden we’re talking about something here, we’re talking about the 7th Trump, the 3rd Woe, and then finally the 7 last Plagues and then all of a sudden there’s this inserted subject here in the middle of all this.  Not a timely order thing in the sense of what was following up behind the Trumpets here and the 7 last Plagues, and so it goes back and takes you through kind of a history of what has been taking place for a long period of time.  Chapter 12 - And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, labouring in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. His heads, plural...And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, now going way back in time!  That’s how we have understanding of those who followed Lucifer, who became Satan, the adversary of God, and so drew a 3rd part of the angelic realm with him.  They fell into the same way of pride and haughtiness and didn’t like what God was doing and wanted it to be done some other way.  The whole history of some things that have happened in the Church when there have been wars and fighting’s and rumblings and earthquakes, if you will, shakings is what the word means; in the Church.  And different time periods... I think of different areas and times when district superintendents went off base... the entire area of Washington, D.C. followed a man.  Hawaii: an entire church... I don’t think there was one person left from what I understood at the time, or in Washington, D.C..  Hundreds of people in all these areas...because an individual began to influence, just a little bit behind the scenes, chirp, chirp, chirp, chatter, chatter, chatter, blah, blah, blah, to certain leaders in the Church and then they’d go out and spread it around more and after awhile you have all this dissidence taking place and all these individuals who didn’t agree with Mr. Armstrong.  It should be done differently... we don’t agree with everything he’s saying and how he’s doing it – and he’s getting old!  You know?!  Incredible.  What did Satan use?  Same attitude, same spirit because that’s where it comes from, that’s where it begins – it starts with pride like we talked about yesterday.

... and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.  Always trying to thwart God’s plan.  And so a leader, a king in an area tries to send in people to destroy as many children as possible in that region, when he finds out about it.  And makes it kind of a wide margin as well.  Joseph had already been told to take the baby and leave the country.  God has allowed spiritual battles to go on even.  He’s allowed the angelic realm to war and to fight.  He allowed Israel to war and fight.  It’s incredible.  He doesn’t do it for us, and He doesn’t do it for them.  It’s an awesome thing to learn from, it truly is.  And what did Satan do later on, even to Christ?  Tried to get Him to follow him...tried to get Christ to follow him, to give in... “If you will just do this, I’ll give you the world”.  And there’s a lot more to what took place then what we can grasp or what’s written in just a few sentences there.  Truly is a lot more involved there than what’s given in a few sentences.

Verse 5 - It was a battle... it was a war, heads beating heads.  Every time Jesus Christ saying no.  God the Father, that mind, saying no, no, no – this is what God says.  Incredible.  ...and the woman fled into the wilderness, the Church... so it’s talking about things that have happened then to the Church.  Here it begins with Jesus Christ and then the Church is formed and there came a time when the Church had to flee into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that she should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days. 1 thousand 2 hundred, in this case 60 years.  Things that began to take place on the earth when Satan tried to destroy the Church in another means.  Do you know how he did it? By the great church on this earth; that’s how he tried to do it – for 1260 years.  And it’s something that began in 325 A.D., that’s what we understand as a matter of history – have no reason to think any different than what was given - ending in 1585.  Incredible – things have been written about that in times past.  A period of time, perhaps, I don’t know, perhaps the period of Thyatira; it was the longest living existing Church era on earth.  We don’t know.  But that was a long time existing Church era and the battles they had and so forth – but anyway – going on.

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought against his angels – This is hard for us to imagine; we read something like this - battles – when God could have stepped in at any moment in time and put an end to it.  He could have put an end to it any moment in time, but He didn’t do it.  Incredible!  Things to be learned from that.  It says, And prevailed not; neither was their found place/a place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.  Don’t know that we understand the whole story yet by any measure but certainly there came a time when he wasn’t able to just go back and forth as was indicated and has been indicated in different things and especially in the Old Testament and so forth, being able to communicate with God in that manner.

Verse 10 - And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, so all through time, all through the Church from the beginning to when we have come to the end, fully, this is the process of how everyone overcomes and conquers – because it’s about overcoming and conquering self first – pride, the attitude and spirit, the nature, the selfishness that’s there and fighting against the way of the world, fighting against mankind, the way of mankind, which starts with self; and fighting against that spirit that’s out there.  Except those in the millennium don’t have to fight against Satan and the demons, the fallen angels, anymore until the very end.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.  For those in the Church it’s everything.  God, I’m yours.  To whatever end, to whatever purpose, to whatever You design, that’s the way it should be with every person, we do whatever we need to do to accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished – even to this point in life; and even to the death, obviously to when death finally does come; because the reality is, everyone from the very beginning of Ephesus all the way to the end here now, from the time of Mr. Armstrong and so forth as a whole are dead – and very few are still living who actually came out of a period of time called Philadelphia.  There aren’t that many around in the Church of God anymore – very few.  So every one in times past have died and some have had to die in pretty tough ways, they really have.  Some have gone through a lot for this way, for their belief, taking that stand: because their life was God’s and they knew if it was lost then so be it – it’s for a purpose and a reason.

Verse 12 - Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitors of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.  So, whenever this took place... Mr. Armstrong had the feeling that this very well could have very been a particular moment in time when things were so stirred up that Satan attacked the Church.  Tried to get a state government, the State of California and the Attorney General who became governor later on, of California, who wanted to take over the Church and put a judge in receivership over the Church.  As though a judge in the world can tell the Church of God what they should and should not do; where they should put expenditures and where they should not put expenditures!  To the point in time obviously of even controlling it and giving it to whomever they wanted to, who would maybe bring it more into mainstream – whatever they think should be, for the Church of God.  They hated the Church so much to do that.  Not a new thing that the Church has been attacked.  It’s happened over and over and over again and still continues on to this day.  Amazing what Satan does and how he does it, how he goes about it.  Not a shock.  Not a surprise.  Perhaps this is when this did take place.  Satan knowing he has but a short time left, knowing that things are coming in close around him.  He’s not going to be able to deceive mankind much longer.  He’s not going to be able to harass the Church much longer.  Stirred up!  Filled with hatred that just eats him up.  People that become filled with hatred and disgust and distain – it’s like a cancer, it’s like a force that just eats inside to destroy them – where it perverts even more, the thinking and the soundness of mind.  It’s awesome, it’s incredible what takes place spiritually even.

And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man child. He has done that from the very beginning but certainly toward the end as well here.  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, the Church didn’t fly, it’s a spiritual thing – it’s about a protection.  It’s that example from the Old Testament about protection from God.  ...that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place where she is nourished, kept alive, or kept going.  So in other words, so that the Church isn’t destroyed.  Even Sardis came to a point with their doctrines where the Church was dying out and spiritually it was dead, and God had to raise up a man – Mr. Armstrong.  That’s how Philadelphia began, to restore truth to the Church once again because it was about restoring truth to the Church so the Church could continue on, be revived and continue forward, because it just came down to the very end, but God didn’t let it die out.  ...into her place where she is nourished for, here’s the verse, a time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

An amazing thing happened on Dec. 17, 1994 – a sermon was given from the one who sat in authority under Jesus Christ, that was given to him on this earth.  He slowly but surely began to corrupt that authority and began to change his ideas and his mind about certain things and was working toward a certain direction toward the end.  For how many years?  We don’t know, but things changed in his direction and what he was doing.  And he gave a sermon in Atlanta, Georgia telling God’s Church, awesome that this could happen, you no longer have to keep the Sabbath day.  We could keep it on Sunday if we chose.  You can serve God any day of the week and worship God on any day of the week.  True, you can, but you can’t keep the Sabbath on any day of the week.  And the Holy Days were no longer required.  On and on it went – totally destroying everything.  The son of perdition – he betrayed Jesus Christ.  He betrayed what God had given to him.  The man of sin.  Awesome!  II Thessalonians 2 that became a reality of what Paul was given to give to the Church to say that something had to happen before Jesus Christ could return – that there had to be an apostasy within the Church of God and it came to pass in our time.

And so it says, the Church was protected.  Amazing thing happened during that period of time where God revealed something very powerfully showing that indeed he is the man of sin and that judgement was upon him for what he did.  40 – that which is used for judgement – times 7.  What an appropriate thing to be placed upon him to show God’s judgement for what he did – that on the very Sabbath, with the very Sabbath day – that God should say 40 X 7 because you pervert the Sabbath and you seek to change it to another time and you have yielded yourself to another being who is the head of all this in the first place... you yield yourself to that being?  Who has fought against God for so long?  And you sought to distort and to disrupt and to destroy God’s Church?  280 days later he died to the very day – judgement – a sign from God.  Truly!  That this is from God, that God did it.  A sign from God.  Genesis – for signs, appointed times, that’s what this was, that’s what it fits into.  It was from God.  God showing that this was from Him, that it was accomplished by Him, by His direct intervention, that He did it.  He brought the man of sin to death.  He didn’t leave it to anyone else.  He did it.  Incredible!  But the Church still didn’t see it, didn’t grasp it, didn’t understand, wasn’t moved by things like that... 40 X 7 – appropriately so because of the 7 days of the week and the Sabbath.  And so on the Sabbath on the very afternoon – 280 days later his life ends.  It was a powerful sign to me about what God did and revealing who that man was, very powerfully so!  And it was a powerful sign to everyone else who read, read and believed the same thing and saw that and understood that and believed that with all their being.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth as water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.  Expressions that are used here.  I’ve given sermons in times past and bible studies on this and talking about what took place here.  So much in the book of Amos is about this type of thing and a flood that can go out to destroy.  And with a huge flood people are washed up on a bank here and there, spread out all over the place and many destroyed.  And so this is a partial example of that kind of a thing and so this blast that hit the Church, it was like a flood, it hit us all at once.  People on the very day that this happened made up their minds and as that video went out a couple of weeks later to the entirety of the Church in the U.S. and Canada and eventually all over the world of him giving that sermon.  Because he gave it in Atlanta, at Big Sandy and then at Pasadena, but the one in Big Sandy went out to the world and it was destroying anything that was the Church of God at that point in time.  People’s minds changing so quickly.  I’m sometimes in awe of how that happened.  I experienced it, I saw it, I witnessed it, the things that took place and I think of those scriptures that we’ve talked about in times past about power, signs and lying wonders that we saw that took place even within this that was happening to the Church of God –being dumbfounded about how this could happen in God’s Church – and yet the power that was there – because of a being that was involved in it.

I remember sitting in a congregation when they brought in another minister into the area to speak, because my job was done there.  I thought that some would come up to me and ask, so I went for about 3 more weeks, 3 more Sabbaths thinking someone is going to come up here and say, ‘Why did you resign?’  So I could give them an answer.  And they didn’t come up.  There was a core group of people that already knew and they were the only ones that continued on because a wave went through the audience and the vast majority of those people made up their mind on that day.  They believed Mr. Tkach.  They believed what he had to say.  And there were a whole bunch of them too that just quit after that day because how could this happen to God’s Church?!  There were no answers, there weren’t any answers able to be given.  How could this happen if this is God’s Church?  How could this happen to God’s Church?  So many just quit as well, but the vast majority of that particular congregation... oh, they loved what they heard that minster say; the perversion, the distortion that took place.

And so it was like a great flood upon the Church, it truly was.  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth swallowed up, as it says, opened her mouth, and swallowed the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.  And that time that was given to us, because, as a result of that flood, even backing up here... we were protected.  We were blessed.  We were able to survive and I believe with all my being that for the next period of time – that may have been 1260 days, you’ll understand as we go through this, that we came up to a date: May 30, 1998 – and I believe it was on the following day, because that was 1260 days, or what we have always believed to be as a time, times and a half a time here in the book of Revelation.  And after that day is when I believe God established His Church in one organization from that day forward.  We’d already started before that as an organized group of people but the year before we couldn’t even hold the Feast of Tabernacles.  We weren’t there yet.  We spread out and went to different groups.  And so God allowed those things to take place during a period of time that He said He was going to help the Church to survive during a time of scattering, during a time of this taking place, but I believe on the next day after 1260 days, Pentecost is when God established His Church in one organization from that day forward – what an awesome thing to understand.  The day that pictures His firstfruits that He established us once again in one group.  I’ve believed for a long time that that’s exactly when some of these things took place.  Incredible to know what happens and how God does it.  And that year, following that particular Pentecost, we did have our first organized Feast of Tabernacles – we stepped out and followed God.

Verse 17 - And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed -who do you think he went after?  After that 3 ½ years?  That which God established – seeking to destroy.  As small as we were and as small as we have been and people continually going by the wayside – because we have not had a few, we have had many since that date who have come and gone – who could not continue on this course, who could not hold on.  But God maintained and continued to hold us in at a certain number pretty much.  That’s why the story of Gideon means so much to us.  I remember at one point as I mentioned here – when Johnny Harrell came up there and we had some of the others gather together as well, but on that, a particular time when over half the particular area there, in essence, rebelled and tried to take the Church with them at that time – tried to destroy there.  And it’s been going on and on and on – incredible!

So, the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, we used to look at this in a different way.  It’s kind of funny now to me in some ways because there used to be a time when people thought that this was going to a particular group that Satan goes after – Laodicea.  But yet it says something very positive about them.  It says something that everybody in God’s Church must always do to be a part of God’s Church... who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.  The Remnant.  Incredible – yes, there’s been a small remnant then who seek to keep the commandments of God and have the testimony... you know what the testimony of Jesus Christ is?  ...the witness of Jesus Christ?  In your life?  It is Him living in you.  God the Father and Jesus Christ living in you.  We have that.  Our lives reflect that because that’s the only way we have what we have, to know what we know, to do what we do.  It proves.  It is a proof in that respect, it is a witness of Christ living and dwelling within us.  It’s a beautiful verse.

And so, that’s the first place where we come across the expression of time, times and a half a time.  The whole point of that expression is that God must reveal what the time is, even as it’s given here.  And it isn’t something that can be figured out by ourselves – we have tried to figure some of those things out because it is something that has to come from God and must be revealed by Him.  It is His time and just to mention real quickly here – there is nothing here that reveals that this period of time is for 1260 days.  It doesn’t say 1260 days, but we’ve always taken it to mean that.  Then you can say why would Pentecost mean so much to you?  Well, let’s continue on.

Let’s go over to Daniel 12.  Let’s turn to the only other area of scripture that uses this type of phrase. Daniel 12:7 – this is where the very end of those things that lead up to the 1335 days, the 1290 days and things that we’ve gone through in sermons – that fit into, that we have described and discussed when we talk about the 50th Truth, of things that God has given to us of an absolute timing of things coming to the return of Jesus Christ.  And it says, And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and he swore by Him who lives forever and ever, it’s better stated that it is given as an oath by, or from Him – from God.  That’s what he was saying: that this is an oath in essence that God has given.  That’s what it means in the Hebrew.  This is something that God has stated and so he was declaring something that God was stating, of Him who lives forever and ever, the Eternal God, the Almighty Eternal God, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; meaning the same thing, but he just doesn’t say it, time, times and a half a time and when He shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.  Incredibly awkward translation into English.  Sometimes it’s just things have been allowed to be written and certain things have been translated because people just do not understand God’s plan and purpose.  They don’t understand what these things are.  Two words right here in this last phrase that mean exactly the same thing, but are translated as totally different words.  Why?  Incredible!

But again, there is nothing stated here or anywhere else that reveals that this period of time is 3 ½ years, or 1260 days.  And here in Daniel it isn’t.  This time, times and a half, is not 3 ½ years; it is not 1260 days.  It is God’s time that’s given for a purpose to show that it’s from God – literally God’s Time and something that God will reveal.  And as we don’t have the ‘time’ to go through all this sermon material about what God revealed concerning the rest of this chapter in Daniel... we just need to remind ourselves of what’s been given in the past concerning the revelation of the 50th Truth.  I’m going to go over some of this rather rapidly.  If you want to go back to those sermons and listen to more again, and bring yourself up to date, or refresh yourself then that would be good.  But let’s read what followed here that we just read in verse 7... and it goes on to say...

Verse 8 - And I heard, but I understood not: then I said, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these? And He said, Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. And so it wasn’t to be given until a specific time.  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.  Meaning there are those things through time that only God’s Church can understand because this comes from God.  It must be revealed by God and in God’s time.  And so the Church has had different things revealed to it.  Philadelphia didn’t have the different truths that we have.  They were allowed to continue to believe certain things about Jesus Christ.  God allowed that.  God allowed that to exist and they were still His people.  He could have intervened and shown them those things but there are reasons – all the way through time – why God works exactly as He does.  And everyone is always judged by what they have been given, not by what they have not been given.  We are judged by the words that we have been given.  You can go back through time and especially if you go back to the time of Abraham – he had nothing compared to what was given by the time you get to Jesus Christ.  He wasn’t given much at all, but for what he was given, he was judged according to what God had revealed to him to that point in time.  And so it’s always been.  Incredible to understand.

Verse 11 – it goes on to say, And from the time that the daily shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.  And so we understand the timing of those things and again that has been given to us of that which started with 1335 and down to 1290 and even down to 1260 that is in there – that is in there having to do with 2 people and their job.  That’s where it makes mention too, 1260.  It’s about their job, not time, times and a half a time.

Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty five days.  1335 days, the time when they’re going to be resurrected: a time when Jesus Christ returns; a time at the very moment – to the beginning of the day of Pentecost and it happens (snap), the beginning of a great resurrection.  And it goes on in verse 13, and it says, But go you your way till the end: for you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days.  At the end of these days, literally.

So again, what have we learned from the past sermons?  Well, on Trumpets 2008 – God revealed the beginning of a count of 1335 days.  Sometimes it’s good for us maybe to have a little chart.  I’ll tell you what, I’m keeping it in my Bible – certain points in time and writing some of those things down.  1335 days – Sept. 30, 2008 – it’s when it all began: announcing again, the return of Jesus Christ.  What an incredible thing that that Feast of Trumpets – so powerful – and the blowing of Trumpets... On the Feast of Trumpets it wasn’t just a shofar that was blown, that’s kind of a Jewish tradition.  It’s plural.  It’s about the blowing of Trumpets and not just one kind of trumpet.  There are many things that are sent out and so we have Holy Days, we have that just recently in talking about some of the meaning of that, what it means and some of the analogy of things we can learn from that – the blowing of trumpets and so forth.  And yet this day here, unique in all human history.  It is as unique as the day of Passover when Jesus Christ was put to death.  There’s only one time in all history that day could be:  only one time in all of human history.  There’s only one time in all of history that this day became a reality – the day that Daniel talked about – the Day that Daniel wanted to know more about.  1335 days – a time when there will be such a great blessing upon God’s people –when they come to that particular day.  That’s why sometimes I feel for some who have had difficulty in the counting of some days and so forth because you really have to know and keep in mind very closely, very clearly what God is doing and how God is doing it and what happens at specific moments in time because this even becomes a little more important as we go along here – or more exciting when you understand it, but again, there’s a period of time that comes up to a time in Israel, a time in Jerusalem, a time when one day starts to change into the next – from the Sabbath, weekly Sabbath into the first day of the week.  In this case – Pentecost.  And at that moment in time, the very time Jesus Christ begins to return and a beginning of an incredible resurrection that takes place – beautiful, beautiful example – analogy, a lesson, of a part of God’s plan being revealed because it’s about the firstfruits – that He should be returning on that particular day, that a great resurrection would take place on the very day that pictures those people.  Incredible!

But it began to be revealed on Trumpets of 2008 announcing the return of Jesus Christ and the sealing of 144,000.  Also contained in this was a judgement from God contained in, if you will, a way of expressing it perhaps, His sign of judgement, or as a sign of judgement to all, about Satan.  Judgement.  God pronounced it.  And it was on that day in essence – truly was.  It was on that same day that a pronouncement was given and it concerned Satan.  He knows that his time is short – he’s been told – but he was given that which was directly from God – that God wanted him to know – 40 X 7 – from the period of time that that being (Satan) through time has mocked, ridicules, fought against God’s plan, fought against God’s people, and that which is the epitome of his deception – finally God says – that’s against you Satan.  That which you have done will be from the very time that your judgement is given: Christmas 2007 to Trumpets of 2008 showing Satan, very powerfully so, judgement is upon you, your kingdom is about to be taken out of your hands.  He has had rule on this earth for millions of years from what we know and what we understand that’s been revealed to us and over mankind for 6000 years.  He was placed on this earth to govern, to rule; that’s what he was placed here for and he tried to destroy the entirety of the earth, tried to destroy God’s plan by just destroying the earth and God let him go so far – but He didn’t let him fully destroy the earth, but he certainly destroyed all life off of it.  God had a plan in all of that as well.  280 days, 40 X 7 – a sign from God, of a judgement that was finally now being issued, declared, an oath from God – very powerfully so – your time has come up; your time is here.  Incredible... truly is!

And so it did constitute a sign, a judgement from God.  So God has amply revealed the importance of this time as a sign from Him beginning the apostasy and the judgement upon the man of sin, the son of perdition.  So we have it twice now.  280 days – 40 times the 7.

And so from all this God revealed more in Daniel because of the 1290 days, which took us up to November 14, 2008 – the 7th Seal was opened, but connected to that same day of the 7th Seal was 30 minutes of silence – 30 days – that took us up to fulfillment of a prophetic 30 days, which was a final 1260 days when 2 witnesses began their job: and that’s really all that’s revealed about 1260 days that you can understand that God gave – that will constitute a certain witness because that witness has to be for exactly 1260 days.  Some people had asked in the very beginning, well, if they’re dead for 3 ½ days, they can’t witness.  Why not?  What could be a more powerful witness of what God has said?  ...than the last 3 ½ days?!  That’s going to be the greatest witness of all of what God was doing.  Not because of what we say!  It’s because of the witness – as we heard in the sermon – how appropriate that God would inspire that to be given at the Feast as well – that’s in our lives!  That we live, that we see, that that point in time – it’s what others see – still a witness.  It’s what others see for 3 ½ days and then exactly as God said, at that very moment in time, I’m talking about sunset in Jerusalem, at the time when 1 day passes into another and a resurrection takes place all over this earth – rise to meet Jesus Christ – the 144,000.  Incredible!  You can’t count Pentecost then, you can’t count that day, it can’t be a part of the count, because it takes you up to that day, you can’t count that day in it.  Interesting.

And so again, 1260 days for a witness to be done, one that God wants on this earth and again, on this day we understand the 1st Trumpet was blown – a beginning.  And I’m just going to tell you we have more to learn from even this that God’s going to give later on – a greater understanding, a greater appreciation, of something that started on that particular day.  That’s not in this sermon, it’s in another sermon coming up.  There are things that God gives that are to be given at different times and there are things that are going to come out of this sermon today especially, that we have to wait and see because God says this is His evidence, this is His sign, this is what He is doing and there are many reasons why this is happening exactly the way it is.

So the sequence of events and the timing of all these things is so awesomely unique – it truly is, but the sequence of uniqueness has not ended and God is revealing and giving more to us.  For from the revealing of the job of the 2 witnesses that began on December 14th, 2008, that is also when that 1st Trumpet was blown, – including that, and coming up to the Trumpets of this year (2009) is another 280 days.  From the moment 2 witnesses began, from the moment the 1st Trumpet was blown, to the Feast of Trumpets of 2009 is 280 days.  Why is it important?  It is a question God want us to ask because He wants to help us to understand it, because it’s done for a purpose so that we will come to understand how important this is, because it is another sign from God.  It is something that He is giving as well, in addition to...  I was a little apprehensive, not understanding what this sign was – all the way up to Trumpets.  What in the world?  But I knew it was.  What’s going on?  What is God giving?  Why?  Interesting.

Is it just coincidence that in a sequence of time that such a period of time (280 days) would take us from one incredibly important date in prophetic revelation for the end-time – again, God’s 2 witnesses to and including the 1st Feast of Trumpets from that moment in time?  That it should all end the completion again, of 280 days... a time of God’s judgement – another sign of God’s judgement.

So why is this time period so important?  Leading up to Trumpets of the previous year, we saw the importance of a period of judgement, perhaps better stated as a sign of judgement, concerning Satan, and the other again, reminding ourselves about the son of perdition.  280 days in both cases showing that it’s God’s judgement – it’s about God’s judgement – it is a sign from God to His people – to the world frankly, but the world can’t hear it – but we can at this point, we can see it, we can grasp it and in time others will come to see it and grasp it as well.  That this is something that is from God; that God is saying will take place; that God is saying will happen; that it’s His time, His judgement; He will bring it to pass.  It’s what He’s going to give as evidence.  Awesome!

And so again, now, from the time of the revelation of His 2 witnesses we find another 280 days that is another time of judgement and it will constitute a sign, it is a sign of God’s judgement for the end-time.

Let’s go back to Genesis 1, and read it again.  We’ll just jump on down to verse 14, And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for appointed times, says seasons, is that word appointed times, and for days, and years: It’s how we count time.

Let’s jump on ahead, Leviticus 23 – where that word is used.  This has been used several times now leading up to this Feast... to this Last Great Day. It was mentioned on the very first day in the very first sermon.  It was mentioned before the Feast.  It’s now being mentioned again...appointed times.  Leviticus 23:1 - And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the appointed times, that’s that same word.  It’s not the word for Feasts.  There’s a different word in the Hebrew for Feasts...of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My appointed times.  And so God said, I gave these in the beginning!  I gave you this in the sky, and the moon and the rotation of the earth and everything else so that I could give to you appointed times that you’re to keep with me.  These are My appointed times that I’m giving to you and we also saw in Genesis 1 where He said He gave things to be for signs as well, that God has also used in time to give to mankind. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Eternal in all your dwellings.  These, including the Sabbath, Sabbath day, every Sabbath, every 7th day, as well as the annual Sabbaths, the High Days of God, these are My appointed times.  Just like an appointment book.  You can count on it year by year.

I have a calendar on my computer and I can go back in time and I can go forward in time.  It tells you when Pentecost was, tells you the different Holy Days, tells you different times – because God made appointments a long time ago.  I Remember one person, I think it was around the Feast of Tabernacles and he needed time off from his job for it.  I’m kind of paraphrasing some of it as to my recollection and kind of like Matthew, Mark and Luke when they wrote – it’s by their perception of what they saw and what they witnessed and they wrote about it and all of them seeing things in a bit of a different perspective and remembering the word sometimes a little bit differently, but all agreeing in one – that’s what was said.  Anyway, the question was asked about wondering why you need this time off and talking about this, discussing this back and forth and talking about how this isn’t something he just came up with and to make a long story short, he finally came down to the point saying, “Well, this has been set for me a long time ago.  This isn’t something that I just came up with.  This was something that was set 6000 years ago.  And so it wasn’t like a last minute thing and or anything of that nature.  It’s been here for a long, long time.  His appointments have been set there for a long time.” These are the appointed times of the Eternal, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim, verse 4, in their, now they quote the same word as back in Genesis, seasons.  It’s appointed times.  ...in their appointed times.  That’s why I mentioned in the very beginning of the sermon, we heard a sermon about the meaning of the Last Great Day on the Last Great Day because God commands us to.  He tells us on certain days that we’re to have a message about the meaning of those days, so we do that as God’s people.

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Eternals Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the, now this is feast.  Isn’t that amazing how words are translated sometimes in English because they don’t understand; because they have different concepts, different beliefs, some things that were even taken from Judaism.  They just don’t understand.

But this other word for signs also back in Genesis.  We know what it says – signs and for appointed times.  Awesome!  God gave time to be regulated and used by Him in a specific manner as part of His plan to work with mankind so as to teach mankind.  I think of a great sign that was given.  It was exact and God wanted everyone to understand – this is going to be exact.  Powerful – mighty!  Jesus Christ said there’s only one sign – time.  A sign of time that God was going to give through His Son to tell them – there’s only one sign that I’m going to leave that I am who I say I am – that I am the Messiah; that I am the Passover.  I’ll be in the heart of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights.  And He was – exactly 3 days and 3 nights.  For those that believe.  The Catholics, the Protestants, the Baptists...I like picking on them... have other reasons for it,  Church of Christ... I don’t care who it is out there – Methodists, Lutherans – all of them... they try to squeeze that sign/time into a day and a half because of their beliefs, because they don’t understand that there were other Sabbath’s being spoken of – they don’t understand about the Holy Days and so when they read about Sabbaths in scripture there they always think it’s the 7th Day of the week, the Sabbath, that’s being discussed and they don’t realize, no, before that was a Holy Day, a High Day that’s also discussed in there and they just don’t get it because they don’t understand God’s plan.  They don’t understand the Holy Days and so they have to from what they call ‘good Friday’... it was a ‘good’ Friday that He died, was put to death...and that He was resurrected Sunday morning before the sun came up.  That’s what they believe and they will sit down with you and have reasoning with you how that you can count that and it still be 3 days and 3 nights... well, they don’t say 3 days and 3 nights – they just use the term 3 days...  How you can count that and call it 3 days, but the Bible’s very specific, it says, 3 days and 3 nights.  But they have this reasoning, these PhD’s of Theology, just as bad as all the other PhD’s out there when it comes to science.

Pride, pride, pride, what a sick thing... a day and a half – it’s just really ignorant.  There is no excuse for that.  There really is no excuse that any human being physically could look at that and claim what they claim – especially anyone who’s studied the Bible, anyone who professes and says that they are a teacher of God, that they have studied in a seminary about God – that they can come out now and with all this brilliance of understanding – and they try to talk you into a day and a half.  Incredible.  I’m sorry but it’s dumb, dumb, dumb, stupid, stupid, stupid, ignorant, ignorant, ignorant, ignorant – every one of them is a liar!  And a lot of them know they are.  There are a lot of them that know they are.  It’s an incredible thing.  A few years ago, I don’t want to remember the individuals name, I don’t want to give him any credit because he’s still teaches everything false, and he still teaches Easter and all the other things but there’s a preacher, extremely well known on television across the United States that finally came to a point in time where he admitted and he acknowledged it was 3 days and 3 nights and that Jesus Christ wasn’t actually resurrected Sunday morning.  What an awesome thing to make such an admonition, but he still teaches Sunday is the day of worship.  What a hypocrite! What a liar!  That’s what he is.

Interesting when you look at this word for ‘sign’ in Hebrew. It literally means, ‘a signal in the sense of appearing, in the sense of being able to see, like a sign’ It’s used as a word for ‘token’ as ‘evidence’ – all these terms that are synonymous in the Hebrew language for this word and what God uses it for – this word for ‘sign’.  This word is used by God when He told Noah that the bow in the sky was His ‘token’, His ‘sign’, the rainbow.  It didn’t exist.  It’s hard to understand there are things that had to change on this earth as far as the sun and everything else and how things were watered on this earth – everything that happened... I don’t understand it but God controls what we would call science.  Laws of nature.  So something took place where there were no rainbows in the sky... before this period of time, perhaps because there was no rain in the same way that we have it today.  But anyway, I don’t know, I wasn’t there, I’m not a scientist, I can’t figure out what it was, God hasn’t shown me what it was but God said from that point forward whenever you see that it is My sign to you – to mankind – I will never flood the earth again to destroy mankind from off the earth.  My token, My sign.  Incredible what God gave from that moment forward of something that’s hard sometimes for us to grasp and comprehend but I believe it.  I don’t understand it, but I believe it from that point forward that we’ve always been able to see it exists.

So what are some signs, signals, tokens, evidence that God, again, has used with specific timing that’s been used to teach or to reveal God’s direct involvement in the token, the evidence of the sign that He has given? I think of the 40 years in the wilderness.  Again, especially that one because that’s about judgement and 40 – period of judgement.  It involves and it has meaning in it when God does it – it’s a time; it’s a matter of judgement that has been given from God.  A time, a specific time, and so God gave a judgement upon the Israelites that they’d be in the wilderness for 40 years when they were taken out of Egypt.  And there are a lot of signs that God has given as evidence to what He’s doing and I mentioned the one about 3 days and 3 nights – a specific sign that Jesus Christ said was going to be given – the only evidence that was going to be given that he was who he said he was.  I think of many other things that have taken place that were encouraging and helpful to different ones at different times: things that people witness.  Some have tried supposedly in science to chronicle certain events in time that haven’t matched with their supposed clocks; an ability to tell time through time... There’s been debate about Joshua’s long day and so forth that God gave.  I think about the 7 day week as a part of God’s 7000 year plan – that’s a sign.  That’s a sign, it’s a signal, it’s evidence to us of something that’s a hope to us if you will, that God says, of something that reveals something in the future that we hold onto very dearly so.  But especially when you go through the Bible, you see different things that have to do with judgement when it comes to 40 – very powerful what God does because it gives a matter of His involvement and His judgement.

Daniel 12:7 - this brings us to something that God is revealing now concerning what He has stated in the book of Daniel.  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by Him, again, better stated when he gave an oath from Him, from God – that it’s from God, by God, given by God, but he’s declaring it - who lives forever and ever, showing who its from indeed, that for a time, times, and a half; when He shall have accomplished, and it just is a word that means a matter of something that is fulfilled, when something is accomplished, when something is finished, when it’s fulfilled, the scattering of the power of the holy people, the dispersing of the power of the holy people.  Looked up on this in many different ways and you know there are many things that can fit and do fit into things that we have gone through within the Church of God, but it makes a statement here: when something is done, then something else will begin...all these things shall be finished.  Same word, just above this.  To have accomplished.  It’s talking about something is to be finished; when it’s finished, the thing about God’s people, he said, then it will be finished – the time, times and a half will come to pass.  It will be fulfilled, it will be done.  And so it’s a matter of a sequence of events and because of other things that God gives then to Daniel – only known because God gives it strictly by revelation; and that sometimes is difficult for people, but it’s a reality:  but it’s good news, it’s exciting to me, it’s inspiring to me – deeply inspiring.

Again, the specific word that is being used here for time – and the word for times – is unique.  It’s the word ‘appointed times’.  God’s appointed times.  Same one we read back in Genesis in the beginning.  The same one you read about in Leviticus 23 when He says, “these are My appointed times.”  And He uses that word to reveal something awesomely important about the end-time – as a matter of a sign; as a matter of something that comes from Him as evidence of what is going to take place at the end-time here and a sequence of events that in essence God is saying, this is from Me, this will be My evidence to you – this is My judgement and what I’m bringing to pass on the earth!  And I will do it now.  That’s what God is showing.

And so God’s time that He has revealed is His time of judgement: 280 days.  280 days is God’s time: it’s His appointed time because it’s His judgement that He has appointed over all of mankind for what mankind has done.  And it’s awesome what God has given in this, it truly is, because from the time that we count down 1335, 1290 and finally the 1260, because that’s when it began, very powerfully so – when you go from that time forward as well, as far as a witness is concerned, as far as the 1st Trumpet.  But from the 1335 where it all began - let me go down through here... I’m getting ahead of myself.

If some of you like numbers this is great!  But some of you will probably have your heads spinning before this is over with.  Just awesome to understand that the word ‘time’ here – never saw it, never understood it before, never looked it up, never had a reason to look it up – it’s the word for ‘appointed times’ that’s used here in Daniel 12:7.  So God is revealing something that we’ve not understood.  We have always believed that the ‘time, times and a half a time’ was a period of 3 ½ years and the final 1260 days.  In some regards that’s pretty accurate, but that’s not the whole story: ‘time, times and a half’ in Daniel for the end-time is not 1260 days, it is not 3 ½ years, but God is revealing a matter of judgement and giving a sign as evidence of His judgement.  I’m sticking close to my notes here because I want us to grasp this as exactly as it’s given as we come to it.

Beginning with God’s revelation of a sign to His people of the execution of His judgement, He destroyed the man of sin, the son of perdition exactly 40 Sabbaths, 40 X 7 = 280 days.  It’s a time of judgement.  It has a great deal of meaning for us in the Church.  Has a great deal of meaning to me when God gave me to understand that; when we could finally see.  How could we ignore such a thing??  40: throughout the Bible it’s used as a time of judgement; and 7 times that because of the Sabbath, because of the plan of God... incredible... and that which is a matter of when you look at different numbers of 7 and 12 – that which is a matter of being complete as 7 is.  Incredible!  And so we’ve talked about that period of time from December 17, 1994 and the period of time to the hour of 1995 on September 23, that the man of sin’s life came to an end.

And then God revealed the importance of another judgement as we talked about, referring to Satan, that was given to him.  And God has now given a sign of His judgement toward mankind contained in what is now being revealed that’s really profound, it truly is.

So to reveal what is now going to be brought to pass as a matter of God’s judgement on the end of man’s government, his self-rule on earth – God is giving a twofold sign.  That’s why I want to keep this in order.  God is giving a two-fold sign in what He’s showing here and what He’s revealing – something to be learned from.

First of all, it reveals His great mercy.  His mercy... always in judgement.  What is it that God wants us to always understand in judgement?  Judgement and mercy – God’s been so merciful to His people.  God’s been so merciful to us through time.  God’s been so merciful to me, you know, truly has been: been merciful to each and every one of us.  Patient... but always with God’s judgement He grants mercy; He grants time as a part of that because mercy involves time.  So often as you go through the Bible you see time that God gives to people to change, to repent, to respond – patience, mercy.  He wants us to understand that and to learn from this in a very powerful way.  He’s using it as a sign, an evidence of His mercy toward mankind, of what He’s been like for the last 6000 years to mankind, but mankind wouldn’t listen...”How often have I looked down upon you and would have brought you in as a mother protects her chicks but you would not.”  That’s God the Father’s response through His Son Jesus Christ.

And so God is giving a two-fold sign beginning with what should always be a matter of judgement when it’s being given, it is the matter of mercy.  A matter of His great mercy toward mankind and yet still the need for the execution of judgement when man doesn’t listen; when man won’t respond to His mercy; to His patience.  Incredible!

We find that great physical tribulation did not begin on December 14th, 2008, which I had in the back of my mind because of what’s always been given that it very well could begin on that day.  I didn’t know what to expect but that there was a very good possibility that it would begin then because of what we have always believed in the Church going back in time.  We’ve always referred to the final 3 ½ years as a time of great physical tribulation and so we’ve had some sermons discussing some of that and God has worked with us and brought us through some things that we were to learn and lessons of faith and confidence and boldness in that faith that we have gone through in ourselves and our time within the Church.  It has been a very powerful and a very rewarding thing for the Church.  That we would not be like we are today if we hadn’t of gone through all that.  If we hadn’t had those experiences, we would not have the kind of boldness and unity, the kind of faith that I see in the Church from area to area to area that my wife and I travel to – that we see today; and it’s a beautiful thing because God has done it and because His people have responded to that process and some of that process involves chastening, correction – because we see things in our self that otherwise we couldn’t have seen and wouldn’t have been able to address, but because we’ve been blessed to address it, and responded in the way that God says we must – then we’re blessed mightily because of it – we have grown because of that.  And what price could you pay or give for such a thing.  It’s a beautiful thing.  And area to area to area I go to, people respond and talk about that lesson.  They mention it over and over again – what an impact that’s had on their life and what that’s brought them to this day – to have a greater boldness and confidence about where we are and what we’re doing and going forward – literally – in faith, because you just believe.  You believe.  What a beautiful thing that God gives to us when we go through things like that.

So again, great physical tribulation did not begin on December 14, 2008 when the 1st Trumpet was blown.  God led His Church to fast a little behind that. 2 days of fasting, revealing His will to mankind.  That fast was not my choice.  That fast was not my decision.  That fast was something that God inspired – as much as I believe that God inspired Esther and Mordecai and those at that time to do what they did.  You know, God has the power to communicate things to people and it’s their choice whether they do it but God brings circumstances about in those He moulds and fashions in life and then we have the choices to respond.  And I’ve seen many people through time who won’t respond, or who make the wrong choice, but God moulds and fashions and works with us and it’s an awesome thing; but always in the midst of that, we always have choice.  And just as with Esther and Mordecai and those incredible events that took place when you focus on that story, it is so awesomely inspiring.  God had a plan for delivering His people and He worked with events – her becoming queen, all those things – they weren’t just a matter of time and chance.  All the things that happened around Mordecai’s life – God brought him to that moment in time and what was the expression?  “How do you know that you have not been brought to this moment in time!  ...for this.”  How inspiring!  And then when the thought comes into your mind... and you said yes, this is what I’m going to do, this is how I’m going to respond to God – going to fast.  We’re going to fast for 3 days.  Awesome!  And they did.  Much as I believe that God brought us to see and to do something, not to be like the fast with Esther, but to be important and to be an example later on to others, an inspiration to see what God did with His Church – to reveal something about what God was doing and what God’s spirit and God’s mind was to the world.  That He wants the world to see and understand what period of time we were in that we didn’t even realize we were in...we were in a period of time of God’s mercy and yet a period of time of judgement, and a period of time that God knew full well what man’s response was going to be.  It’s what it’s always been.  Who has listened?  Who cares?  Only those that God has called.  Only those whom God has drawn.  They’re the only ones that really care and have really responded.

You can talk to the world.  You can tell people who are supposed to be intelligent, intellectual and you can give a very strong message about what’s getting ready to come to pass and you can look out over the crowd and see people that are dumbfounded, people that are kind of shocked, and people who are attentive, but people who don’t want to hold onto it very long.  No, when the chance comes to get rid of it and laugh it off, to get rid of those bad feelings, they take it.  To think that God might do something to this earth...to think that their world might be coming to a point of realization of something they might have to address, something that’s sobering, some things that did ring true...because God allowed it to ring true in some of the ears of those who heard.  But it wasn’t too long and after a while people are laughing and mocking and making fun of the death of Jesus Christ – and able to shrug everything off.

And the presenter that followed, the individual was supposed to be an intellectual and he said ‘I’ve never known a book that God wrote.’ And people laugh.  Like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John God didn’t write it, Revelation – God didn’t write it.  That’s what followed up there in ideaCity, the first one that followed after I was there.  And so what does that do to people who hear a message?  It doesn’t take long for mankind... it doesn’t take long for people who might be sobered just a little bit; just a little bit by something they hear – sobered for just a little while – and then all of a sudden kind of have a relief to think – yeah, religion has always been that way in the world and look at all the confusion, as this individual brought out, and all the fighting and battling between religions and so, it’s like, if they’re all that way then so is the one we just heard.  And some comments made similar to that...  And just a little bit later and all of a sudden people are laughing and roaring and applauding someone mocking and making fun of and trying to have a kind of a comedy routine about the death of Jesus Christ.  Astounding to witness that about mankind!  Incredible to see that, and that’s the world we live in; and that shows even more powerfully why this world has to be brought to what it is after Trumpet after Trumpet after Trumpet after Trumpet – horrifying thing after horrifying thing to take place on this earth in order to come to a true spirit of humility, to where everything, and I mean everything they rely upon and hope in and have confidence in, is stripped away – everything!  Government, wealth – Everything has to be stripped away from them so that God can begin to work with them.  It’s an incredible thing.  Because if you leave anything behind, it doesn’t take long and they’ll go right back to the same old, same old.  Just like we have already seen, just like 9/11 – it didn’t take long and after a while that was just an event that happened a long time ago and it’s like nothing like that will ever happen again and the sobriety that was brought on – the soberness of the mind that was brought on because of that is gone!  It’s gone!

And the economy and the soberness that came as a result.  All of a sudden the world, the dollar came so close to absolute destruction, and we saved it.  We saved it...cause we know how to print money.  We know how to stir up those machines and make them do more during the day.  We can answer this.  We can solve this.  Anyway... And so then there’s this false hope and all of a sudden the stock market, eventually it was to come back.  That’s why God gave this period of time.  It is powerful.  It is a sign.  It is a kind of witness if you will, very powerfully so as well, but it is a matter of God’s judgement and it’s a matter of God’s mercy, it truly is.

God led us to a fast to reveal things to us to be used later on as an example to others of what God’s will truly is.  His will was not to start out on the first day with great destruction on this earth.  That wasn’t God’s will.  He wanted to reveal other things to the world about a judgement that was now set and the timing was now set and judgement was now given to Satan, Lucifer, judgement was now given to the earth as to what is going to come to pass on a certain day – that Jesus Christ is going to return and all government is going to be given to Him, all power and might on this earth is going to be turned over to Him.  All those things set and yet God continuing to reveal more and to give more about His will and His true desire, in judgement to this earth and that first of all He would love to grant mercy.  He would love to grant mercy if only man would do one thing – repent.  Repent!  You know what I’ve learned?  ...of a desire during that fast, that 2 day fast... after going through that with a desire to see more in the scattered Church who could be saved, with a desire to see more in Israel who might be saved – because that was the desire – and God desires it much more than I could ever desire it – but so much of that isn’t realistic.  To do what He’s going to do to save as much as He’s going to save is an incredible job that only God can perform.

So when it’s all said and done I am not going to be surprised if everything turns out in the quantities and the numbers of what it’s always been stated, because of the way man is.  And yet, perhaps, perhaps more can be granted.  If they can, then God is going to allow for that and God is going to try to accomplish that, but again, you know who’s choice it is?  It’s man’s.  It’s man’s choice.  And what have we seen already?  Same thing as always – man doesn’t care.  He definitely does not want God – it’s the way of man.

So we have things to learn yet.  Because of that fast He was revealing His will toward mankind, His desire to save more if only they would respond to Him in His mercy toward them...and that’s the problem...but He still has given mercy because it didn’t start out with great destruction.

God is revealing that He will now bring to pass as His direct involvement begins to be revealed in how He is going to bring an end to mans’ self-rule – and it’s primarily through the 7 Trumpets of Revelation along with the continuation of Thunders being magnified.  And from the beginning of God’s revelation of His two witnesses, and the 1st Trumpet being blown to the Feast of Trumpets this year – including that day – it’s important to understand – and including that day.  That’s an important thing to understand, why timing starts or hits a certain point in time, or why another period of time follows.  And in this end-time, in the Holy Days, there is much of that going on.  Incredible!  If you really go through these things and look at it – there’s much going on that reveals much about what God is doing – because there are differences here in what we’re talking about.  So again, including that day there has been 280 days fulfilled and it’s been set in order to fulfill the power of His revelation contained in the 6th and 7th Thunders.  To make it plain, God has now revealed that this time period of 280 days and the revelation of His time of judgement upon mankind – that that’s going to be the time period that will serve as His sign that He is beginning an end to man’s self rule over the earth.  The time period of 280 days is His sign and it is His time – His appointed time.  It’s a beautiful thing to understand.  He’s given us this period of time because it’s His appointed time – the point being is that, in the book of Daniel, the period of time of ‘time, times and a half’ did not begin until the following day of Trumpets this year.  That’s when ‘time, times’... the oath from God began.  It’s incredible and you know what it comes out to?  Pentecost of 2012 – awesome!  Awesome to understand things and how God works them out – something that includes that day because on that day is the blowing of the 7th Trumpet.  On that day is the pouring out of the 7 last Plagues and it’s a fulfillment of something of God’s judgement that He’s giving – that fulfills the ‘time, times and a half’.  It is so awesome when we see how God reveals things in scripture and how everything has such meaning to it.  It truly does.

You may have to go back and digest a little bit of this because there’s a lot involved – there truly is, but it’s exciting.  Write it down.  Write down dates.  Look at some of those things.  Look at what’s there and what does it all mean?  I’ve written a lot of it down here and I don’t know yet but I believe with all my being it is a sign from God and before it’s over with THESE THINGS are going to mean  a lot to the world and they’re going to mean a lot to us as Gods people.  ‘Time, Times and a half” because it’s God’s oath.  It’s His promise to this earth of something He’s accomplishing, of something He is bringing to pass, so this is an addition to, something added onto the 50th Truth that brings time forward to where God hasn’t given it until now of what it means, of what it is.  That His appointed time is His time of judgement that He has given to mankind.  Truly an awesome thing to understand.  But in His time, in His appointed time was the first part that He desires, wished that man desired, but He knows what we’re like... but it is His desire, His will, but again, we’re still like that and we have to go through much in order to be brought to a time where God’s kingdom can be established, but it shows mercy... always with God’s judgement.  Something we’re always to learn when we judge others, when we work with others.  And with mercy always comes time.  You give time.  You give time to people.  That’s God’s mercy.  It’s an incredible thing to understand – time.  The time that God gives to us, the periods of time that God gives to us.

So again, the ‘time, times and a half’ in Daniel 12:7 is a period that covers a full 980 days with a ‘time’ being 280.  It’s how we know how to count.  Its how we know how much to count.  And contained within all that – still is God’s mercy, truly is – and what He’s doing to save this world, to save mankind, to bring about the God Family, to bring about His Kingdom – it’s what it’s all about.  But with judgement comes the execution of judgement and that’s what’s revealed throughout this period of time as well.  And you know, God has already established that – what it will be – it’s already there, it’s already contained in the meaning of the Trumpets and the fulfillment of all the Trumpets.

So for the past 280 days before Trumpets of this year God has extended mercy to this world by not having it suffer over a longer period of time.  He hasn’t really reduced the time, it’s just something He finally revealed to us.  We see it as being reduced, but it’s something that God has planned from the very beginning that He’s just led us to understand so we can learn from it.  In that respect, from what we have understood in times past, a shorter period of time for suffering.  How thankful are you for that?  What an incredible thing that we can meet here at the Feast of Tabernacles this year.  What an incredible thing that perhaps some, in some parts of the world, can still meet together next year.

While I’m at it, I’m just going to throw a couple of things out because God is going to reveal as we go forward what some of these things mean even more so; just as He has today about what He’s given.  As we go forward there are things He’s going to reveal in His time as we come to them, as we see certain things that are going to be very powerful to us and to the world.

But just to give you a bit of a what if, or a possibility...  I want you to understand something here... that Europe might not arise very soon.  The latest they could possibly arise is up to late August of 2011 – what a blessing that Europe might not come on the scene until that late date!  What an awesome thing that would mean for the world... that we wouldn’t be plunged into a kind of world war, that the U.S. would still have a form of existence up to that point in time, and Australia and New Zealand... possibly that long?  But… Europe could also possibly rise as quickly as summer of next year, 2010.  So somewhere in there... that’s a pretty broad span.  I don’t know what it is.  God hasn’t revealed it, but there is that which could be some of the earliest and that which could be some of the latest which is absolute.  Because there are certain things that God is going to work out in a certain time order of things that happen.  And China?  What a blessing to this world if they don’t come on the scene until the beginning of 2012.  What a blessing if that doesn’t take place until very late in the scheme of things.  What a blessing that we weren’t thrust into this from the very get go and have these things extended over a longer period of time.

If all of these things happened did happen beginning in December of 2008, what would be left of this earth?  If Europe had been allowed or was allowed to have done something much earlier... what if we had already succumbed to that and what if very soon now, or maybe it had already started, that China and Asia and Russia and some of those nations were doing what they were going to do – because they’re going to use massive nuclear weapons all over the earth.  It’s evident in places like South America and Africa – there will be massive destruction.  Not just in other parts of the earth, but all over the earth.  No place is immune from what’s going to take place.  It’s a horrifying time and truly the shorter that time... well?  What a blessing from God.  What great mercy if that time is shortened and the more it’s shortened the more we’re blessed – truly.  Even for us because we’re going to suffer along with the world.  There’s going to be suffering with the world.  There are going to be things that aren’t going to be pleasant to go through.  It’s going to be very, very difficult and very hard.

And so for the past 280 days, before Trumpets of this year, God has revealed great mercy to this world by revealing that it’s actual time of suffering is shorter, it’s not longer, it wasn’t for a long period of time and yet the world always will use that toward their mockery of God, and what God has said and what God has given.  But God’s still working with us.  We could still learn and we are still growing and yet this is a powerful thing that God is revealing about His judgement for the end of this age.

So again, what does all this mean?  It means that after Trumpets of this year, the final ‘time, times and a half’ are now being fulfilled and as we go forward, God is going to give a whole lot more.

Let’s turn over to the book of Joshua – because this is where God has brought us, to what God has given to us.  I don’t believe, by any measure, stretch of the imagination that things that are happening out there in this world are rapidly moving forward now in ways that they have really been...to what we might look at and say – put on hold.  They weren’t put on hold.  They just weren’t allowed to take place yet, but to us it’s appeared as though we’re waiting and the most we’re seeing is an economy that seems to, as the world wants it to be seen, picking up, and yet we know that it’s day is coming as well.  And so all those things now are speeding forward and a little bit, just a little taste has been given to us already.

I have watched things on that US Geological Survey for years now – day, by day, by day.  I have never seen anything that’s taking place... and I have to believe that there are some scientists today who are deeply worried by what they see taking place.  I have never seen anything of such magnitude...that along the plates of the earth – that things are shifting the way they are and things are being shaken up the way they are in swarms of quakes in regions of the world that’s like a rippling effect that continues on – and that’s exactly what’s taking place right now – and it’s an incredible thing to see – because it won’t be too long...  It’s in the water right now and the worst it can do is a tsunami and that hasn’t even happened; it’s happened on a small scale, but that’s nothing.  So woe be to mankind when some of those things begin to hit land in swarms.  And that’s the time we live in – that’s the age we live in and we’re not even talking about some of the things that are going to happen because of what’s happening with the economy in the U.S. and all the false things as people try to prop up and try to pump things into it to keep something existing that is not real.  Incredible.

So God’s message for us at the end of this Feast is right here in Joshua 1 – and I think it’s appropriate too in thinking about this – because we’ve come a long, long way and God’s people have been through so much, they truly have.  I look back in the time I’ve been in the Church – have gone through a lot to get to where I am and I wouldn’t trade any of it – the hardships, the difficulties, the hard knocks, for anything in the world.  And yet that’s a part of growing and conquering and overcoming – the things we have to suffer, the things we go through and wouldn’t trade them for anything.  But I’m deeply inspired by what God has given here because God has given this, all of it, God has given this as an ending to a sermon on the Last Great Day for this year of a time period that we are now in, that now we have begun, that things have started forward in a way that are going to be so dumbfounding on this earth, they truly are.

And the word Joshua, I think is so appropriate as well, same word, it’s the name of Christ, same name, just different language, different way it’s used.  It’s why some people want to say and think it’s religious to say Yeshiva.  If we want to us the real name of Jesus it’s Yeshiva... Yashawa... whatever pronunciations they get and somehow this makes them a little more religious.  No it doesn’t.  It shows their fanatical, it shows they’re unbalanced.  You know, Paul used names of God. If you want to look at the Bible.  You know there are people who won’t put the ‘o’ in God.  They can write it out but they can’t put the ‘o’ in there.  There are some crazy ideas out there.  You can’t pronounce it.  You can’t pronounce God’s name because it’s... anyway... it is a reality that this is the name that Jesus Christ had – it was given – different names that are given through time.  We use the name that was given because of different languages, because of things that came through time and the things that happened – and you can go back through the history of some of that and yes, sometimes some of the names came from things that weren’t good.  But you know?  The settlement of the argument should be in what Paul and others in the Bible, when they used certain words they used specific words and that shows that this is from God and that God says we are to communicate in words that people can understand and use.  Should be self-evident, but people get off on weird ideas.

So anyway, Joshua/Jesus... that’s why I think even in the book of Hebrews I think there’s one place isn’t it where they use the name Jesus and it’s supposed to be Joshua or I have that backwards.  Yeah... supposed to be whatever – anyway... because of this translation.  But anyway, it’s a compound word.  One word is Yahweh, it’s of God: from the Eternal God and most of the time it’s translated as ‘saves’ or ‘is saved’, ‘Yahweh saves’, ‘salvation is of Yahweh’, but there are more uses of the word than just saving.  Saving is a part of it, but there are words about ‘defends’, ‘Yahweh defends’, I think of Joshua’s life, I think of what they did when they went into the promised land.  ‘Yahweh delivers’ – yeah He delivers – He delivers mankind.  That’s a part of saving mankind and ‘Yahweh gives the victory’.  It’s used that way as well in Psalms.  Incredible.  So, it’s that which God gives, in other words it has to come from God and even in a name, names mean a lot, and we are in a period of time for us in the Church that this should mean so much to us as well...that as we go through difficult times – He saves us, He delivers us, He defends us and He gives victory as well.  His way is about to be given victory over all the earth.  After 6000 years plus, because it also is about the removal of Satan and the demons.

Joshua 1:1 – Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Eternal it came to pass, that the Eternal spoke unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you, and all this people, unto the land which I give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.  This is a type of the whole picture of what God is doing now.  We’re in a period of time now where God is showing, even for His people through time, that there is that which is promised that’s coming to pass and you come up to certain point in time where you begin to walk over and this is that period of time.  We just have a little bit farther to go and that’s where they were. God had taken them out of Egypt, it was a long journey, all the suffering that was there in that time, all the things that Joshua had to learn and others did that came into that, that particular part of the land, but that was very physical – it was all physical, but what is God is giving to us and promised to us is all spiritual, as far as the Church continuing on for those of you who’ve been called and those going to be added to the Church – and those who are a part of the 144,000 – awesome to understand that we’re at that time as far as that which is spiritual is concerned.

And from the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. All the promises that God has given to us of those things that lie ahead of us – right in front of us now. There shall not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with you: I will not fail you, nor forsake you. You know, the power that God gives us to continue to go forward now and to go on into that land. Be strong and of good courage for unto this people shall you divide for an inheritance the land, which I swore unto your fathers to give them.  And so God’s message for us today is the same as it always has been for His people.  But this moment in time has more meaning and He’s directing that to us even more powerfully, with greater purpose.  Only be you strong and very courageous, that’s how we’re to approach what we’re doing now.  Not haughty, not proud, not lifted up, not any spirit and mind and attitude of telling anyone “I told you so”... “it just didn’t happen when I said, but I told you so...” because you see, then we would lose it all.  What’s the purpose?  What’s the point?  Because we’ve had to learn some tough lessons in some cases.  I know.  I know some things that some people have said to others and because it was so forceful and so strong and yes we did it in zeal but God wanted us to learn some lessons from some of that too.  You know what the greatest one of all was?  What was the greatest lesson of all to be learned from that?  Humility.  I know the truth and they can’t take that from me.  God has given me the truth and they can’t take that from me, I know what’s true.

Only be you strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the laws, which Moses your servant commanded you: turn not from it to the right hand nor the left, that’s the same thing for us as we go forward now, and as we go on, it’s exactly the message God gives to us – hold onto what you’ve been given.  Hold onto all the truth that God has given you, that God has moulded and fashioned in you.  It is your life.  It is your strength – truly is...that you may prosper wherever you go.

One more verse - verse 9 – Have not I commanded you? God said.  It’s not an admonition, it’s not an encouragement.  He just says, Haven’t I commanded you even in this? Be strong and of good courage; as you go forward; be not afraid, it’s easy to be afraid when we see certain things happening around us.  Don’t be afraid; no matter what happens, you just continue to go forward.  ...neither be you dismayed: for the Eternal your God is with you wheresoever you go.

That’s it and you will digest more as you go forward.

~~~end

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