More Time – Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

July 3, 2010

We’re continuing today with the sermon series entitled:  More Time, with this being Part 2.  This is turning into a bigger sermon series than what I thought it was going to be which always makes me happy.

Last Sabbath we reviewed and built upon the revelation that God gave us on the Last Great Day of the Feast this past year concerning the expression of ‘Time, Times and Half a Time’.  We were reminded of the importance of the ‘sign’ that God is using in the definition of a ‘Time’ that He established as an ‘appointed time’.  I hope you’re dumbfounded by all of this like I am.  When you put it all together like this and begin to look at some of these dates...and again, I know for some that this can be a little frustrating sometimes looking at dates and time and so forth; but if you are able to grasp and comprehend the process here that God has taken us through to be able to see some of these things and have these things fit together in the way they do, it is quite astounding.  It is really an awesome thing to see the way God works things out, the way God does things and gives us what He does.  It truly is dumbfounding and that’s why we’re going through this series right now.

And I also hope that we better understand more clearly, more fully what the purpose of the 1st Trumpet is because that fits into this series.  If you’re able to see God’s plan from the beginning to the end, from Passover to the Last Great Day and you see the things that God is doing through time and that He then sometimes gives us a specific focus in a specific period.  As God gives those things to us and helps us to see and understand what He’s doing, especially with the Trumpets here and the end-time and what’s taking place...if you understand the purpose, if you understand the sequence of events and why it is that way it becomes far more inspiring and far more moving and we’re able to share in that with God.  These things are awesomely exciting to God because He’s planned these things so long ago!  These haven’t just been decided upon in recent time!  They weren’t decided upon during Philadelphia!  They were decided upon before man was ever put on this earth!  And so for God to now be bringing them to pass, to have these events finally coming to a point in time that He has looked so much forward to for so long through time that we can’t even begin to comprehend... it’s an awesome thing – it truly is.  To grasp 6,000 years that God gave to man to rule himself and thank God we’re coming to the end of that because we can’t do it!  We can’t rule ourselves well!  And the earth has suffered for so long because of that, let alone because of a being out there who has stirred things up and deceived mankind for so long!

And we’re at a transition in time that God is immensely excited about of bringing in a new age!  And He’s letting us share in that excitement.  And so the more we can see what He’s doing, I mean see spiritually what God is doing, the more rewarding, the more exciting and the more inspiring it’s going to be to us.  The greater courage, strength that you’re going to be given to go through what yet remains.  I said a long time ago, talked about this; that for us, for God’s people, no matter how bad it gets out there, that isn’t what we’re going to be focused upon.  We’re going to go through some very difficult times ahead of us, but we’re going to be so deeply focused on what God is doing and the purpose of it all and what’s behind it that we’re going to be so moved by that it’s going to be exciting to us to be able to see that part being accomplished and fulfilled knowing the rest of it just has to take place to get there from point A to point B.  So it’s going to be inspiring to us as we live through these things, to see the response finally to God and to God’s plan and to God’s purpose.

So again, I hope we understand a little more fully the purpose of the 1st Trumpet.  Just as I’ve mentioned in the 1st Seal of Revelation that there is a type there, if you will, the opening of the 1st Seal of Revelation had direct affect on the continuing impact of the rest of the Seals that were to be opened; the same thing is true with the 1st Trumpet.  Everything else that follows is a continual fulfillment of that entire process of what God is doing.

So we’re going to go back and have a quick review of some of these dates.  I’m going to go through them quickly. They’re awesome, they’re dumbfounding to understand...things that God established so long ago to bring about an end to man’s rule – a transition in time from man’s rule and from Satan’s rule and Satan’s deception on earth – to an end of all that and the establishment of God’s Kingdom – finally!

We understand about the 280 days, a time of God’s judgement.  40 being God’s judgement; 7 at the end-time here, things having to do with a period of time that is a picture of that which is complete; a number that God has always used for that which is complete: the 7 day week, 7,000 years –it’s complete then.  He’s going to do it in 7,000 years as far as mankind and the continuing growth of mankind on the earth.  During the 100 years there will be no more growth, no more numbers added, just working with all those who’ve lived in times past who haven’t had the opportunity.  They’ll be resurrected.  But no more giving of new life during that period of time, no more children being born during the 100 year period.

And so again, 7,000 years.  It’s complete!  A 7 day week and on and on it goes if you look at different examples throughout the Bible.  And then 7 times that which is complete in the 40 (matter of judgement that God gives) – understanding what began with Mr. Tkach...to the exact hour, to the exact day when the apostasy started is when he died.  God’s judgement!  And then we started with another period of time here that led into the end-time where God wanted to magnify that number for judgement so that we could learn from it as a sign of an appointed time that God established before man was ever put on this earth, of something He was going to fulfill and show by that sign His great power – that it’s His doing, that He’s bringing an end to this age, that He’s worked with mankind in such a way.  He’s not causing it all.  Man is doing it.  In the first phase of everything that takes place man is bringing this upon himself, but God is working with mankind in such a way to speed up the process, to cause a process to happen at an exact time.  It’s awesome!  That’s why technology was withheld from us until a certain time.  God knows how much time it takes and how to work with human beings; that we have our own choices and we will go our own selfish ways and we will cause the destructiveness because of the powers that we have.  And so the more power that man has the more he misuses it – always as a whole for war, for conquering...and on and on it goes.

December 25, 2007 – what an incredible thing!  God used December 25 as part of a count for the end-time regarding Satan because that day reflects Satan’s perverted mind more than any other day of the year.  That’s the epitome of it all, through time, of what Satan has given to man and how he’s deceived mankind.  I was thinking about that the other day.  What an incredible thing to understand how Satan has deceived man with different religions on the earth, starting primarily in a very big way with the Egyptians because they’re not talked about in the book of Daniel.  When God talks about the four great kingdoms of this earth Egypt had already gone by.  We were already into a new time period for mankind.  God brought Israel out of Egypt, but if you go back in time Egypt was where Satan worked in a very strong way... God allowed certain things to happen on the earth after the flood, and even before the flood...that Satan was manipulating, working with the mind of mankind to deceive them and they had all kinds of gods, all kinds of beliefs.  And so in those empires that were there and the different Pharaoh’s and the upper and lower Egypt, the things that took place through time...Satan began right away to deceive mankind and then what happened?  God began to work with a nation.  And the very first inkling we have of that is what God said to Abraham.  And so there was a split in the family of Abraham; Ishmael... and what an incredible story to see what God did with Ishmael and what descended from him and the deception that Satan gave because of the mind of mankind and the jealousies and the things that were taking place at that time – how Satan began to work with a people and gave them a particular religion that worships on Friday...trying to get people as far away as he can from God, to try to pervert and distort and twist the things of God.  And so he gives them Friday as a day of worship; and the things that were brought in.  Distorted, untrue, and opposing to everything that God gave.

And then Israel – through time it became known as primarily the Jews, Judah...and what did God allow to take place there?  He allowed a being to come along and as God was working with a nation of people, to see what they would do with what they had and sure enough...Satan began to lead them astray and it became more about the people, it became more about politics and people turned away more and more from God.  And so by the time Jesus Christ came along Judaism had wholly gone astray; Sadducees and Pharisee’s and Zealots.  And Jesus Christ condemned all of them for all their beliefs!  Of how far they’d gone away from God! ...how distorted they were; that they weren’t doing what God had given to them.

So again, Satan in a very powerful way used deception, used the nature that man has to turn mankind away from the truth, but God was revealing more and more all along.  Look what He gave to Judah, to Israel.  Israel (the northern 10 tribes) was taken captive, but Judah continued on.  God allowed that to take place still with Judah and they went off course, they went away from the foundational things that God had given.  Then more!  Something so profound was brought to the earth... the Messiah, who’s our Passover.

This book (Bible); as it was being written Satan sought to twist and distort and pervert.  And he did it!  And so when you come to the point in time where God even began to reveal more about His plan, you start in the book of Matthew and you go through that.  There’s a lot of knowledge that’s given here about God, a lot more than they ever had in the first part; of a continuation of something God was revealing.  And who was there immediately?  There he was, right there ready to twist and distort again; and it didn’t take very long.  Turning to Sunday...turning to Easter...turning to the trinity... because Satan has a desire to distort and pervert the things of God.  And look what mankind did.. they followed it.

And so we’ve had a progressive revelation of things, but even so, all the way to the end here Satan has continued to twist and to distort the things that God has given.

But December 25th... it is the epitome of it all, of a being whose mind is so sick, and so distorted, who mocks and makes fun of God, who mocks the angelic realm for following God; ‘Rudolph and his red-nosed reindeer’.  That’s mocking God, the angelic beings that remain loyal and faithful to God – that’s what he’s trying to do.  And they don’t miss what he’s mocking them in.  “You better not shout... you better not cry...” the old song; something like that.  It’s been so long ago...thankfully it’s out of my mind.  I don’t want it to come back too much here.  “There’s someone watching you; whether you’ve been good or whether you’ve been bad...” and whether you’re going to get toys or not.  And there are these little elves up north... they’re making all these good things to give to man...and there’s one that goes around giving these things to man.  And this big fat man in a red outfit is over it all, old jolly man.  Satan’s mocking over and over again.  There is no period of time that mocks God more than this period here.  Satan’s done a number on the world, he truly has; and it’s one of the hardest things sometimes for those who are called into the Church to give that up in families...to tell their families, “No more.  Not going to do it anymore.  No presents.”  To tell their children, to tell family members, “We’re not going to do that anymore.”  Because if they ask you why they put you on the spot.  So it builds something within you, it builds a strength and a boldness and a confidence by going through that kind of a trial that you actually become stronger if you do what you’re supposed to do.  And some people struggle with that sometimes.

So again, God used December 25th as a part of a count for the end-time regarding Satan because that day reflects Satan’s perverted mind more than any other day of the year.  So, in 280 days from that date (because of where we are in time) we came to Trumpets of 2008.  Now there are a few times if you go back far enough where you can find some dates where that will hit, or far enough into the future you can find where that date will hit Trumpets again but it doesn’t happen very often.  But all of these dates together doesn’t happen like this, like what we’re going through.  They don’t fit together – ever – like this period of time here does...what we’re going through.

So it came to Trumpets 2008 as we learned.  That’s God’s number, again, for judgement that comes directly from Him in His power and authority to bring judgement.  That’s what it’s about.  It’s about God’s authority and power to bring about judgement.  So much of the Old Testament is about judgement that comes upon the world; and so much of that that’s written in here is about this time period we’re getting ready to go into – the end of 6,000 years.  Now there’s other judgement to come later on as well for mankind in the Great White Throne.  Man has twisted and perverted what that means, but there is great judgement that God has given through all the prophets that’s about this time right now because it is about the end of an age and what has to happen to this world to bring about the end of Satan’s rule, the end of man’s rule and the beginning of God’s.  It’s not an easy transition for mankind because man fights against it, fights against God!

And so again, showing that this is power and authority to bring judgement that comes from God, the consequences of His judgement, if you will, upon the judged.  So Satan has had judgement passed on him and God has revealed to him and any who will hear that Satan’s time of rule and deception over mankind is coming to an end on a very specific day, May 27, 2012.  Satan knows exactly what’s being said.  He knows exactly!  On that day Satan will be removed from power – thank God!  If nothing else happens what a better world this will be just with him gone.  If the world were to continue on and he just wasn’t around and the demons weren’t around any longer to harass mankind this world will take a quantum jump and leap forward in peace and prosperity...just with him being gone, let alone the rest of what God’s going to do.

Then, what an incredible thing!  September 30, 2008 – Trumpets 2008; on that same day where Satan’s judgement of 280 days is given from December 25 to September 30, 2008 we then come to a period of the 1335 days of Daniel.  On that same day!  It reveals Satan’s judgement and it begins a period of time...because that’s what’s significant about that day.  It revealed, it gave understanding of the 1335 days of Daniel, a time of a sealing of God’s people, of 144,000 – that day, it was done.  Those who are going to be changed in the moment, in a twinkling of an eye who are still alive, on that particular day here, who are able to live, who have the blessing of living and witnessing and seeing those things to the end...  What an incredible thing!  They’re a part of that and God has already said to them, just like He said to Abraham, “I know you.  Now I know you.”  They’ve been judged.  God knows exactly what they’re going to do because of what He’s moulded and fashioned in them already.  There is no deception, there is no turning away.  God knows... those who are tried and tested... He knows exactly what they’re going to do to the end and He’s going to bring them through to that end.  That’s why certain things are said about certain individuals; two witnesses at the very end; because God does the trying and the testing.  He knows exactly what’s going to take place and how to mould and fashion, how to work with them and what their response will be under every situation.  And so with the others.  And I don’t know how many others there are; 10, 20, 100, 150?  I don’t know the number!  God does.  What an awesome thing!

1335 days then were given about the sealing of 144,000, the beginning of what Daniel gave in a prophecy of those who would rule with Jesus Christ.  What a beautiful picture!  The time that Satan is told, “Your rule is fast coming to an end now, you have been judged and this is what’s going to take place and now those who are going to replace you – they’re now sealed.  The sealing is done, the 144,000... The work I’ve been doing for 6,000 years for My Kingdom... it’s finished!  It’s finished!”  ...as far as being absolute, the number that’s going to be in that construction, that structure, if you will, of 144,000.  God said, “It’s done.”

And so the sealing was done on that particular day of those who will rule with Jesus Christ when He returns on Pentecost and thus ruling after Satan has been deposed.

Then we came to November 14, 2008 – 45 days later.  What’s significant about that?  The 1290 days of Daniel.  The 1290 days of Daniel is when the 7th Seal of Revelation was opened.  God gave us understanding of when the 1st Seal was opened. He’s given us understanding when the different Seals have been opened as far as a timeframe is concerned and when we came to this point in time God made it very clear that’s when the last Seal of Revelation has been opened – the 7th Seal.

And then another 30 days later because of the prophetic 30 minutes of silence in heaven, brought us up to December 14, 2008 – 1260 days remaining.  And there’s only one place that speaks of 1260 days at the end-time in any kind of a context for the end-time.  It was a moment in time where God began a work of 2 witnesses, 2 end-time prophets who will stand before God and the whole earth in declaring all the final judgements that must be fulfilled.  It’s a part of what it’s all about; till it's over with.

And then from that moment in time...what an incredible thing...from the moment it started, at that moment in time another period of time that elapsed that brought us up to the Feast of Trumpets 2009.  I was dumbfounded when I saw this come to pass in some of this.  280 days again, judgement; from December 14th up to Trumpets of 2009.

You can’t work these things up.  You can’t make these things up.  You can’t find times in history that these things can fit; but they fit here. That’s an awesome thing: showing the power of a sign that God gave as an appointed time.  It is a sign.  It’s a sign to me, just as much as the rainbow in the sky was an encouragement to Noah and all who followed after him.  Just as much as the sign of the Sabbath God says is a reflection, is a sign, the Sabbaths because it’s not just about the weekly Sabbath – it’s about the Sabbaths of God, the annual Sabbaths reveal God’s people.  That doesn’t mean all who keep those periods of time are God’s people but that’s where it starts as a sign.  Powerful!  And we can receive encouragement then and strength from those things and we do.

So again, how incredible it is that 280 days after the beginning of the job of two witnesses and the blowing of the 1st Trumpet (because that’s what took place as well on that particular day) on December 14th: the 1st Trumpet, the blowing of it brings us up to Trumpets – 280 days later.  A period of judgement again where God reveals something to us; that God brought us to a fulfillment of a period called a ‘Time’, another time of judgement and showing us how God’s going to accomplish His judgement on the earth – in mercy.

It’s an awesome thing to understand.  That’s why I mentioned last Sabbath in the sermon; if we can  grasp more deeply the mercy that God is showing this earth.  When I talk about this I can’t help but think about the interviews; and so often different people talking about, “Why would God allow this to happen on the earth?”  And, “Where is the mercy of God?”  Well, I understand they don’t know; but one day they’re going to come to see how merciful God was in bringing it down more and more and more; of a period of time that man didn’t have to suffer, but had to learn some awesome and important lessons here that they’re going through right now and are still going through at this point in time.  It’s going to be horrifying enough, but God is showing great mercy and that’s what we need to learn as well, to show mercy to people, to show mercy to one another within the Body, within the Church...to show mercy to people in the world and how we think about and how we talk about and how we treat them.  Powerful lessons here.

And so in going through all these things here, again, quite a rapid process here of repeating some of those dates; but today we’re going to continue off from where we left off last Sabbath.  I read different headlines, different things in the news...and what I didn’t mention at that time here – most of the headlines I read, except for what was happening in earthquakes...that goes back the 280 days period, the first ‘Time’ that we had because it’s ‘Time, Times...’ we’re in a period called ‘Times’ now...that at that particular point in time I only went back a couple of months with some of the headlines.  And I didn’t even have a chance to even begin and I don’t want to go through all them because you know some of the kinds of news that’s been out there for the last 2 months... but it’s awesome!  You talk about wham, wham, wham over and over again here to a point where people are just kind of dull!  Just like the Gulf... what’s happening down there.  I’m dumbfounded!  As time goes on here I become more and more dumbfounded about what’s happening down there – the life that’s being killed and destroyed!  Dolphins, sharks... and that’s just what they can see from helicopters.  How can you go down there and measure and count all the fish and everything that’s dying and all the things that are happening in the ocean at depths way down, things that they say aren’t happening, that they say there’s no oil farther down.  They’ve already seen it!

What was in the news today?  They said now they’re showing that by mid-August the oil will be down in The Keys.  Mid-August!  By the currents, that’s without a hurricane.  But just the way things are right now... given enough time it’ll be down in The Keys and start coming up the other side, Fort Lauderdale: mid-August, late-August... Fort Lauderdale... all the way through there.  Incredible what’s taking place here!  And a continuing destruction then on the rest of the Gulf Coast.  Take that area out through there...  people talk about the smell that’s in the air.  It’s like when you’ve overflowed your gas tank and the vapours that come up.  I can’t imagine being on the Gulf Coast and having that wind and that’s what you have to smell on a continuing basis down there; destroying a lot of things... a lot of things.  Incredible!

Thought about reading some more articles and some of the things happening in the world, but there’s no point in it.  Bad news!  And it’s getting worse; but people are becoming numb to it, they truly are.  Just like the Church of God began to be numb to the changes that were taking place in the ‘90s that led up to the apostasy.  The Church, we became numb!  We were prepared slowly but surely like a frog in water (we’ve used that expression before), and we didn’t jump out of the water.  We stayed there and slowly but surely things started happening in the late ‘80s and the very early ‘90s there...and always a denial when we’d call out there.  “Oh no, where did you hear that?  We’re not doing that.”  And then finally a little bit later things continued happening so much after a while you’re just kind of in a daze.  And that happened to the Church.

And what’s happening in the world is the same kind of spirit that’s taking place.  People are asleep and being mesmerized by what’s taking place.  It’s going to take a lot to slap them, to shake them up to cause them to come to see there is no hope.  And that’s what God is bringing them to.

So as I mentioned last Sabbath, some were a little confused what I said about, “We were moving away from 2/7th’s that had already been fulfilled and there’s ‘more time’.”  The point being is the end-time is divided into 7th’s which I mentioned on the Last Great Day...and what brings that about in understanding is what God brings us to ‘Time, Times and Half a Time’.  Everything...if you divide it all up, the least denominator that God gives there is a ‘Half a Time’, which again is 7.  Okay?  7th’s – 1/7th.  So the last ‘Half a Time’ there, 140 days that God gives is 1/7th.  And so if you divide it all up that’s where the 1/7th’s come from.  That’s why I said we’re 2/7th’s through.  We have 5/7th to go if you want to look at it in fractions.  ‘More time.’  More time to see things come to pass that God’s going to bring to pass.  And so that’s what I was referring to about more time as we’ve entered the period called the ‘Times’.

Well, we’re going to look at some very familiar Old Testament examples now and build upon some of this because there’s more in this series here.  There are going to be at least 3 sermons, maybe 4 – hopefully.  The more the better, because see if I can have more sermons out ahead here because I have the one with ‘Tithes and Offerings’ we’re going to come back to in time here, and with this one here.

I forgot to mention: I’d appreciate everyone’s prayers because starting next week I’m going to start focusing in on Feast sermons...just the beginning of it.  So again here, appreciate your prayers on that, being a part of it, for your part as well.

So now we’re going to look at some very familiar Old Testament examples that have served in a powerful way as spiritual types for us, for our journey into God’s Promised Land, into God’s Kingdom; and it’s really inspiring when you go into some of these things looking at what God’s giving because for us it’s the Millennial period, for some it’s going to be the Kingdom of God; being in the Kingdom of God, meaning that you’re going to be a part of the 144,000, meaning you’re going to be changed from physical to spirit if you’re still alive; if you’re dead you’re going to be resurrected at that particular moment in time to spirit for eternity.  For others it’s coming into that Millennial period. It is an age, a time we look forward to with great anticipation.  God’s Promised Land, on a spiritual plane, as we look back about the things God brought the children of Israel into a physical promised land – this is obviously far, far, far beyond and all those things are a type, patterns that God has worked out through time.

And so we’re going to take a look at some of those things that have more meaning to us and what we’ve been going through.

Throughout this time, for the Church of God – PKG, God has always blessed us with an ability to see where we are in time.  In time God has shown us where we are.  I think of the encouragement sometimes... I’m still very moved by when different individuals who were a part of our past, when they begin to all of a sudden see answers to why things happened; because they haven’t received them yet.  When they finally receive it and they finally see it, when they finally understand why there was a scattering, why there was an apostasy, what had to be fulfilled at the end-time and understand what finally happened to God’s Church and why and they have the answers for it... it’s very moving for them, very inspiring and very exciting.  Sometimes we kind of forget that, if our past was there – we forget what we went through.  Some of us went through a long process to get here, but some today come along very fast.  But when they see it; what an inspiring thing to finally put together all the pieces, to see it.  Like Mr. Armstrong used to talk about a puzzle... when you finally have the pieces in place and you see it, its very powerful, very moving.

And so God has always blessed us with an ability to see, to understand what has transpired, what has taken place. And then in time He began to help us to even see forward more in time.

So I think of God revealing to us that the 1st Seal had been opened; then the obvious ability to see the next 4 Seals being opened and what followed and what was a continuation of something that happened with the 1st... and finally we came to that point in time when God revealed that the 6th Seal had been opened.  I still remember that period of time, when God finally let us see, let me see, in essence, the 6th Seal was opened: September 11, 2001, and to begin to see the prophetic types of things that took place on that day that picture exactly what’s going to happen as we go forward and what’s going to happen to this country first and foremost.  Those were all prophetic types of what’s going to happen to our government, of what’s going to happen to military, of what’s going to happen to the economic system.  It was all there as a type in what took place.

So God also gave us Old Testament examples that served as a spiritual type.  He’s given those things to us that we receive encouragement from, that we receive inspiration from, and today we’re going to begin with one that’s back in the book of Exodus because these are Old Testament types; but they’re not just types, they’re also a pattern.  I was thinking this morning driving over here...that I think of various patterns.  When God is drawing people into the Church and they go through various things there are patterns where you can see God working in people’s lives, certain things that people just have to go through; maybe in a different way, but there’s a pattern and you begin to understand and you begin to pick up more quickly if God is working with some or where they are in following that pattern that God is working with them in and leading them; because there’s a way that God works in our lives.

And so it is here in these patterns, or these types of things that are in the Old Testament that we receive encouragement from and that are there for a purpose.  And a lot of it is about this time and what we’re going through.  It’s quite awesome when you begin going through all this.  The first one has been a great teacher and one that has helped to mould our training and give greater encouragement and inspiration and it’s the example of Moses at the Red Sea.

How many times in the beginning did I talk about that?  And how did that affect you in your life and how did you begin thinking when similar situations happen in your life?  Did you begin learning through a process there of a type of something that God gave and especially that one there, of a reliance upon God, of an understanding that you can’t go forward, you don’t know where to go, you don’t know how to do it except that God open the way for you and you begin relying upon that.  And that was moulded and fashioned in me so that it just became the way I was, it just became a part of me in time; but in the beginning I struggled with some things.  There are times I talked about struggling with various sermons because I knew with all my being that unless God gives it there’s no point in getting up and speaking, there’s no point in my deciding what kind of a sermon do I think that Church needs at any particular moment in time.  Because that’s where the Church got to.

We were told in Pasadena when we went out on some of the refreshing programs to start using some of the patterns that are used in the world as far as how ministers in the world prepare their sermons; and we were to prepare a year in advance and have such and such amount of child rearing sermons, marital sermons, and on and on it went.  We were supposed to have these things all planned out for the year.  Well, that’s fine if that’s what God is doing... but God wasn’t doing that.  We found that out very quickly.  There are things that change and there are conditions that change and there are circumstances that change and there are things in various Church areas that change that God wants addressed at moments in time that affect the Church.  You look at Paul and the life of Paul and what he was dealing with in different churches; they had different characteristics and different personalities so Paul couldn’t give what he gave to the Corinthians to the Romans or the Hebrews.  He had to give them something different!  And how did he know what to give them?  God had to give it to him.  God had to give it to him because only God knows what His people need.  What an amazing thing that in the Church we lost that, began to lose it.

So there were times I’ve shared with the Church, early on, in the very early stages, that there were times I felt like I was at the Red Sea.  There were times that I had no idea during the week, and this was hard on me... to come up to Friday and Friday evening and I still didn’t know what was to be given; and that’s when my prayer to God would be, “I don’t know what to give!  These are Your people, I don’t know what they need, but You do and if You don’t give it to me...”  And so it was for my learning; “I’m at the Red Sea.”  And I shared that with God many a time until it became a part of me.  He let me share it because there was something I was to learn in it and to share with the Church.  “I’m at the Red Sea and unless You show the way I don’t know where to go.” and all of a sudden things came into my mind – sermons.  I knew exactly where to go, I knew exactly what to cover.  Incredible!  That became such a pattern in my life. I think the epitome of that and the height of that came in 2005 when I told people that toward the end of the Feast we were going to have a sermon on the subject of Melchizedek; and that I didn’t know what any of the details about it were yet.  And I didn’t.  And even during the Feast... but I wasn’t worried one iota because God had already let me know He’s going to give it to me at the Feast.  I like to have all the sermons done before the Feast but that year I knew that the Melchizedek sermon wasn’t to be given until later on.  Why?  Because of concept of being at the Red Sea.  It was a part of me, it was the way I lived and God had brought me to that point in time.  And so I’m able to share that with you and you have things that have happened in your life that are personal to you where you’ve come to the Red Sea at different times and God moulded and fashioned that thinking within you – that if you hadn’t have gone through it... until now it’s just the way it is.  It’s just the way it is.  You grow in time and the way that God works with you and there are certain things you just know because of the way God works with you.  It’s an awesome thing.

So it wasn’t till the very end of the Feast and all of a sudden... I didn’t have the answers... I wondered about certain things, certain examples about Melchizedek – How does this fit?  I know what the truth is.  I know Yahweh Elohim – He’s eternally existed and that Jesus Christ didn’t begin His life until He was born, that He didn’t have eternal existence.  We weren’t out of the trinity yet.  I knew that was true with all my being, but I didn’t have the answers for all of Melchizedek and all the examples there.  And all of a sudden they all came... it all fit together; and I knew it would.  It was a confidence that God had given by being at the Red Sea so many times.

Do we see how God moulds and fashions certain things in us?  By repeating it over and over again and living it.  You live certain things by faith and after a time it becomes just a part of you to where God can use you and work through you in a more powerful and more effective means.  It’s an awesome thing – it truly is!  And we’ve all benefited from that, if you’ve been through that period of time and you’ve learned through that period of time - you have some of the same things in your life because you use some of the same examples.  I’ve heard people use it in the Church – being at the Red Sea. Let’s go on over to Exodus 13.  It’s inspiring to read it because it’s very moving; because for us it’s real; it’s a spiritual thing in different circumstances in life that repeats itself many a time.  What they went through they went through once, as a whole, until they went across a river later on; but for us it’s something we repeat because it’s a spiritual pattern of life.  It’s a type of something we can learn from that carries with it a pattern whereby God works with us.  It’s a profound and a powerful tool.

Exodus 13:17 - And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them through the way, how you get to a certain place.  You take this highway and then you turn right at this highway and so there’s certain roads and paths that have existed for a long, long time when it talks  about ‘the way’.  It was a highway, if you will, it just wasn’t paved and they didn’t have gas stations.  It was ‘a way’ that’s what they called them, ‘the way’.  So He says He didn’t lead them through the way of the Philistines although that was near; now the way of the Philistines, if you look on a map, those of you who have in the back of your Bible with the different maps and if you look back there especially at the time of Moses and so forth, you’ll see.  It’s right along the coast, the Mediterranean Sea.  It goes from Egypt along the coastline; the way of the Philistines.  Dangerous way, but it was a way to get from there into the Promised Land.  And so He said that way was near, that would have been an easy way to take in the sense of travel, a whole lot better than farther in when you get down into some of the areas of some of the desert and stuff that’s farther south.

It says, although that was was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent, in other words,  ‘to change their mind’ because of what they were doing, when they see war, and they would have seen war.  No matter which way they go, in time they’re going to see war because there are other people living in those different regions; but it’s a whole lot easier for them to get back if they go the way of the Philistines; and that’s what God was saying.  They may change their minds and head right back to Egypt, so let’s peradventure, looking ahead, they change their mind because of war, because of being afraid of war and decide that slavery was better.  Well, it didn’t take very long for them to start murmuring and complaining anyway thinking that slavery was the better time.  “We had a better time back in Egypt and they provided the food for us.  We had to work hard, yes we did, but boy those melting pots and the food that was there... we could always depend on the Egyptians feeding us to get work out...”  Anyway... lest they change their mind when they see war and they return to Egypt.

So there was the way of the Philistines in the north and just a little farther inland was what was also called then ‘the way of Shir’, so even on your maps you may have that.  About 20 miles inland was a section called ‘the way of Shir’; nasty route, a lot harder to take, little more terrain to go through and a lot drier obviously.  God didn’t take them through either one of those routes; But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea: Now just in case we haven’t heard sermons in the past where I’ve mentioned this...there was no way of the Red Sea.  There was no way that any people travelled that way.  You can’t look on a map and see the way of the Red Sea.  It’s not there.  They didn’t have a giant bridge that went across the Red Sea and this was a pattern and a way that people followed.  It didn’t exist, but with God it did because of what He was going to do as He led the children of Israel out of Egypt.

But God led the people through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: see, we don’t always know where God’s leading us – do we?  We don’t know exactly what God is doing or how God is doing it unless God just gives it to us.  That’s the way it is with sermons.  Unless God gives it, what do we have?  Unless God feeds us, what do we have?  We’ll do our own thing.  So He feeds us and gives us exactly what we need when we need it.  That’s how He works with us.  ...and the children of Israel went up harnessed, orderly, in an organized fashion; that’s what this means: out of the land of Egypt. So a lot of people... hundreds of thousands, into the millions they believe of people that went up out of Egypt.  Incredible!

And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had charged the children of Israel by an oath, saying, God will surely visit you; because he believed in something that was given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.  He said, God will surely visit you; and you shall carry my bones away from here with you. “We weren’t meant to stay in Egypt. There is a promised land, there is a place that God is taking His people and He’s going to fulfill His promise.”  And so he had confidence in that and he said, “Take my bones with you when you go.”  People are kind of funny about some things like that and he had a desire, “I don’t want to be left here, I want to be with you even if it’s just my bones.  Take them out of here with you.”  And so they did. And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, at the edge of the wilderness. And the Eternal went before them; He didn’t follow them.  You remember the example in I Corinthians 10 where we first began to talk about what it says back there...

I’ll read it to get it exactly correct here.  When we came to a point when we started addressing some of these things and seeing that we had misused scriptures because we read into it what we believed it was saying because of a certain belief that was there about Jesus Christ eternally existing.  I Corinthians 10:1 - Moreover, brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did eat of that same spiritual meat; And did all drink of that same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them:

In the wilderness God didn’t follow them; He led them.  He went before them and we came to understand in a deeper way what this is talking about and it’s not about something that happened physically, that Jesus Christ did during the exodus, at all.  The best way to understand it is just to understand that He followed in time.  They were able to drink of something they didn’t grasp and comprehend of a way of life that God was giving to them and bringing to them that they couldn’t receive, that Jesus Christ in time would be the epitome of.  He became living flesh... He was the word of God and led to those things in time.

Exodus 13:21 – And the Eternal went before them; by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; that’s what God does.  We don’t go anywhere in God’s plan and purpose unless He leads the way, unless He shows the way, unless He makes the way possible.  You can’t do it!  You can’t do things on your own. You can’t live this way of life on your own.  We rely on God!  We look to God and His Son first and foremost in the Church to lead, guide and direct us because everything’s been given to the Son.  We are the Body of Christ, we are the Church of God; but it’s in the Body of Christ, Jesus Christ is the head of the Church.  And so God leads us.  Jesus Christ leads us, gives us those things we need when we need them, moulds and fashions us accordingly. So it says here ...to lead them the way; and God does that with us.  We don’t know what way to go, what to do at certain times unless God leads us.

I think of the journey we’ve been in.  If we hadn’t gone through some of these things of the Red Sea by the time we came up to some of the periods of time we have when God began to show us that we didn’t understand everything about when Jesus Christ was going to return, that certain things were different and that He used that process to teach us, and also to test us, to try us whether or not we would follow Him... amazing...in the way that He leads us.  We learned a lot through that period of time.  We grew because of that.  We grew in character because of that.  You know you can’t grow in character unless God blesses you and helps you to go through a process and that process isn’t a cake walk.  It isn’t meant to be easy; it’s always meant to be hard.  You have to fight, you have to fight up here in yourself, in your mind, in your relationship with God and it’s a matter of turning to God and looking to God.  And that’s something you grow in and as you do that you actually grow in character.  God just can’t give it to you.  He can’t give to us character.  We have to go through some difficult times to learn, for it to be moulded and fashioned within us, just like this thing of being at the Red Sea is a matter of character, it’s not automatically in you.  You have to go through certain things in order to it become a part of you.  Until it becomes a part of you it’s just not of you.  So we have to rely on God to mould it and fashion it within us until this mind is in unity with God in such matters.  That’s what it’s all about.

Going on here; verse 21 - And the Eternal went before them; by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He did not take away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

Continuing on here in the context: Exodus 14:1 - And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pihahiroth, before Migdol of the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it you shall camp by the sea.  And so He gave them a specific area finally to enter into, to go into this area with all these people up against the Sea and with mountains on both sides.  There’s a way to get in but no other way to get out and here you are up against the sea and that’s where you’re going to camp.

For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled/they’re trapped in the land, in other words, “Look what they’ve done to themselves!  They’re trapped here and now we’ll go after them.  They can’t go anywhere.” ...and the wilderness has shut them in.  So that was his attitude.  He was going to go after them and God says, “This is what’s going to happen, this is what’s going to take place with Pharaoh, this is going to be his attitude, this is what he’s going to believe, this is what he’s going to  see...” – just like Satan.  Things are happening right now and have been for some time and sometimes we don’t understand that and sometimes it’s not given to us.  We are to just strictly follow God.  Just like here; your way through this is to follow God, is to follow the way that God leads you because there are things taking place that God has to fulfill.  And so with Pharaoh there are things that God had that were going to be fulfilled to give God glory, to show the power and the might of Almighty God.  And there are things happening at this end-time that we can’t know all of them, that have to do with Satan and the being that’s going to be put down.  He’s going to be deposed from his rule!  And certain things have to be accomplished.  And so we can’t be given all that because it’s about a spiritual war and some things God just doesn’t give until it’s time.  But there are certain things that have been taking place for some time and God continues to manoeuvre certain things and do certain things.  He knows EXACTLY what that perverted mind is going to do every time he does it – just like He knows about mankind.  God is so far above us!!  We don’t grasp and comprehend sometimes how God moulds and fashions the world in time, and everything in it, everything that God determined millennia ago coming to pass exactly as He designed it to be, because everything is about His Family and bringing everyone into His Family in time, but it’s in His time.

And so there is that being who rebelled against God, there are those who followed Him, the angelic realm; the 1/3rd that followed Him and God has had a plan for them as well. God doesn’t let it be known all the time what every step of the phase of that is because it’s a part of a process here.  And so every once in a while Satan thinks we’re trapped and he comes after us.  He has through time.  He thinks he’s outmanoeuvred God.  What a distorted mind!  Has no concept of the glory and the power of God Almighty who made him, who gives him life, who gave him life and gave him the time for life to exist.  Incredible!  Satan’s not a happy camper and everything that happens from here on out and has been happening doesn’t make him a happy camper because he’s losing and he’s losing power, he’s losing authority and he gets wound up more to destroy.  One thing leads to another and God knows what he’s going to do every step of the way.  He knows that mind inside out what he will do.  Incredible!

Verse 4 – and God said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, I’ve heard some people talk in times past who  don’t understand, “That’s not fair!  God hardened his heart.  He didn’t have a choice.”  Oh yes, it’s about a choice; it’s always about the choice.  That’s what the lesson is, it’s about the choice!  God gave Pharaoh the choice all along but knew what Pharaoh would do under certain circumstances and certain choices.  He’d give a plague (God did) through Moses; then removed the plague.  As long as the plague was there what did Pharaoh do?  He was softened a little bit...a little bit, but as soon as the plague was gone Pharaoh was right back to his old self... he went through the cycle many times and each time,  because his heart would not turn to God, would not honour God, would not believe God, would not do the things that God said he became more and more hardened in his evil way.  That’s an awful thing about the human mind...that power can so corrupt.  That’s why at the end-time here it has to be wave after wave after wave close together with great impact to shake the tar out of people to bring them to repentance.  Because if there’s a lot of period of time you know what happens?  Do you know what would have happened if on the very first period of time here, 1260 days remaining, and things would have started on that particular day in a very powerful way...the more they’re spread out every time something would kind of have a little bit of a lull and people would go back to the mindset that they’re going to save themselves somehow.  And they would lose sight of what they had just learned and there would be fewer people be able to be saved out of that process; but because of, and exactly because of and as a PART of what we did, of what God inspired us to do – to have a two day fast to learn from that period of time it brings these events more and more up to the end so that more have the potential to repent.

Do we understand the mind of human beings and how we think?!   It’s just like the stock market if you can see.  It’s so aggravates me when I see it happen.  We’ve gotten to a point in time now where people are so greedy and they even acknowledge, “Greed is great!”  About makes me fall out of my chair when I hear some of those things!  For the stock market, ‘greed is great’.  Can’t we wake up?  They know what it’s fuelled by... “If it hits this bottom, you don’t want to miss out! If it’s at that bottom, whatever that bottom is, you don’t want to miss out on that!  Whatever that bottom is, that’s when you want to put it all in there!”  And they play these games!  And they don’t learn.  Up and down, up and down and its gotten to the point now where sometimes you have some of the worst news in the day that two years ago would have brought it down more.  Now they’re pushing it up! Their life depends on it and they know it!  And so we’d like to be dumb and sleep and “We’re going to come out of all this; we’re at the bottom of the ‘U’, it’s a ‘U’, don’t you get it?  It’s a ‘U’ shaped curve and we’re at the bottom of the ‘U’ and at some point it’s going to start shooting up and you don’t want to miss out!”  ...but that’s the mind of human beings, that’s the greed in man!  And people don’t want to miss out and they want to get in on the bucks, the money!  And so God’s going to let them experience that to bring them to their knees because one day it comes to a point in time when they can’t stop it and it’s not a ‘U’, it’s going to be a ‘V’ that can’t resurrect itself.  One day it just starts shooting down and won’t stop.  One day...

And so the farther these things are placed up toward the end...because see, with Pharaoh they were spread out over a period of time – God knowing exactly how he’d respond through that period of time, but had to be accomplished by a certain time as well because, see, this is all connected together to leave Egypt 430 years to the DAY!  So God had a plan of how to bring it about.  So Pharaoh was being worked with in a very specific manner through very specific plagues and every time Pharaoh’s heart just got harder and harder.  Incredible how the human mind is, that instead of repenting and acknowledging the power and the might and the glory of God, that human beings can turn more and more against God, to loathe what’s taking place, will not acknowledge the power of God?!  You have to shake your head at something like this of Pharaoh.  But any one of us in that position would have done exactly the same thing!  Something that’s hard sometimes for the human mind to understand because we think we’re better than that, our nature is better.

So this is the attitude; He said, “This is how Pharaoh’s going to respond.” And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured/glorified upon Pharaoh, God’s going to be honoured and glorified!  Not Satan!  Not the demons!  They’re not going to win out.  God’s going to win out!  They should understand that but they don’t, and Pharaoh didn’t get it, obviously.  Neither does Satan or the demons – the same spirit, the same mind.  And God says, I will be honoured/glorified; and God’s going to be glorified so powerfully at the end of this period of time that we’re going through when Jesus Christ returns, when the Kingdom of God comes to this earth, when power and might come to this earth in ways that mankind has never seen, nor experienced, nor can begin to grasp the might of God.  And we are blessed to live in that time!  What an incredible thing!  I so often talk about that.  What a moment in time to live in!  I don’t care at what height of time you want to pick through time...to me there’s nothing that even comes close to this one here.  How blessed are you to live in this time, let alone to know what you know?  But to live at this moment in time, to witness these things come to pass, to be a part of this, part of human history.  It’s an awesome thing!

And I will be honoured/glorified upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am Yahweh, the Eternal One. And they did so.  Now are they going to know it right away?  Well, Egypt’s going to learn a lesson here, Pharaoh’s not coming back and neither is his army, unlike what ‘The 10 Commandments’ movie showed.  He didn’t come back and there was no army.  Egypt was stripped of its power in one fell swoop, in one day!  Awesome story!  Awesome analogy here.  Now they’re going to be far more deeply moved once they’re resurrected because then they’re really going to understand this story.  At that time there they understood only to a small amount.

Verse 5 - And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?  All of a sudden it hits them; yes the firstborn died, yes the firstborn of Pharaoh and all the rest of them had died, firstborn of all the animals and everything else that died.  But now it hits them.  “All this great labour we had and all these servants and all of them taking care of us and how dumb can we be?  We’ve let them go!” And he made ready his chariot, (verse 6), and took his people with him: And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. It’s talking about an entire army in other words and those that were chosen at the very forefront of it all. And the Eternal hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; all of a sudden the greed began to come back.  All of a sudden a little bit of time, a little bit of adjusting to the fact your son is dead, others have lost but what have we done now in our response and all of a sudden his thinking’s coming back and his heart becomes more hard and he’s going to go after them now, he’s going to bring them back and he’s going to destroy a whole bunch of them in the process.  So his heart is hardened even worse, more than any other time... with anger and bitterness because of what has happened to him, what they’ve experienced, what’s happened to Egypt.  ...and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with a high hand.

Verse 9 - But the Egyptians pursued after them, and all the horses and the chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up the eyes and behold the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: it says here... and the children of Israel cried out to the Eternal.  So sometimes we go through battles, we go through things.  We’re living this way of life, we’re doing what we are convicted of doing and all of a sudden some big trial comes along, something happens out there and what are we going to do, and the fear starts setting in.  They were afraid; you see an army coming after you and you see no way of escape.  You rush to the mountains and maybe a few of you get away, you go and hide somewhere... what do you do?  But all of us can’t escape...  and so again here, an attitude of mind, a way of thinking that sometimes we do the same thing.  We fall in the same kind of trap if we’re not careful and instead of keeping our eyes on God and knowing that God’ll open up the way.  Rely on God, trust in God – God will bring you through it.  Doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be fun...but God will bring you through every trial and test.  If God’s called you, He’s called you for a purpose and He’ll bring you through.  Doesn’t mean it’s going to be a picnic, but a lot of it depends on our choices we make along the way then.

Verse 11 - And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?  Who do they strike out at?  Poor old Moses.  “You want to take us out here to die?” Isn’t this the word we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, they weren’t real keen on Moses coming in and saying some of the things he did... just like a lot of the world right now isn’t so keen on things that they’re hearing.  There are people out there who listen, who aren’t real keen, but they’re not too sure, “What if...  What if... what if some of these things do start?  What if we are at the end?”  So there’s this little nagging that’s going on and after a while they’ll be brought to see and they’ll repent and they’ll be right there.  But sometimes our response isn’t always real good as human beings, is it?  We don’t accept fully what God is giving or what God is doing and so there’s this battle that takes place.

So again here, they weren’t real keen in the beginning of what Moses had to tell them, but eventually they began to follow and sometimes we have some of these things happen to us along the way.  We have to be careful to always keep our eyes on God.  Is not this the word we told you in Egypt saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than we should die in the wilderness.  Well, they had a lot to learn and candidly never really learned it,  did they?  Because it wasn’t time for them to learn the real lessons.

Verse 13 - And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, that’s what I just said, isn’t it?  Because that’s the lesson.  That’s what God brings us to; He brings us to this lesson, “Don’t fear”.  When things happen around you... you’re in God’s Church, you’ve received God’s spirit; you’ve received the impregnation of God’s spirit for a purpose.  Are you going to go through some tough things in the next couple of years?  Yes!  Actually less than two years now.  Are things going to be easy all the time?  We constantly have told people through time, “When you’re baptized it’s not going to be a cake walk.  Things don’t always get a lot better.”  Sometimes we think that everything’s going to get a whole lot better. No, sometimes you go through some pretty tough trials.  Not sometimes – you will go through some tough trials, you will go through some tough hardships of life.  It has to be that way to grow, to wrestle with certain things in your life because it’s a matter of your mind and what you’re dealing with and what choices you’re led to in your thinking and what you’ll yield to in your thinking.

So he says, Do not fear, stand still; it means God’s going to do it.  ...stand still and see the salvation of the Eternal, see what God does; which He will show you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever.  You’ll never have to worry about them again.  The Eternal shall fight for you, there are those battles in life we come to that the only way through or the only way out or the only way forward... God has to open the way; God has to show us; God has to lead us.  We have to make the choice to follow.  The Eternal shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.  The more you repeat this, the more often you repeat it being at the Red Sea and different things in your life.  I’ve used a simple example that all can learn from in the sense of preparing a sermon or when a sermon is given because it has to come from God.  But there are things in our life that happen as well that we go through, various trials that are unique to you, things that come your way and you have to go through the same thing on a spiritual plane.  You’ve come to the Red Sea, “What should I do?  What way should I go because I don’t see what I should do in order to come through this?”  Keep your eyes on God.  Obey God.  Obey God!  Put God first and God’ll open the way.  And the more that’s repeated in your life, the stronger you become.  It becomes a part of your life, it becomes a part of your thinking, it becomes a part of your mind.

It’s like the series we’re going through on tithing, you do it.  After a while it’s a part of you, it’s your life, to do anything other than that would be totally foreign.  And you learn from that and you become stronger because of those things.  It’s incredible!

So any kind of trial you go through, any kind of hardship, any kind of difficulty – you keep your eyes on God.  That means to stand; stand still.  That’s what it means to stand still in God, in God’s way, in God’s truth...and see the salvation of the Eternal which He will show you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today you shall see them again no more forever.  The Eternal shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. And the Eternal said unto Moses, Why are you crying out to Me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward: What do you mean go forward?  The mountains here, the mountains there, the sea there and the Egyptians back there... Where is this forward?  Well, God had to show them, didn’t He?  Lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it: you’d feel a little strange there, wouldn’t you?  Okay?!  “You stretch out your arms and hold up the rod and divide it.” He’s telling him what He’s going to do through him, what He’s going to accomplish.  And slowly he begins to do it, he obeys.  That’s what we always do.  We obey God!  You put God first and He’ll open up the way for you, whatever that is, He’ll make it clear to you...but you’ve got to decide to put God first...and therein so often is the trial that we have, what we’re tested in.

...and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them:  so it didn’t matter even when they started getting bogged down... they kept going.  They kept going after the Israelites.  It’s amazing what pride can do to the mind of a human being.  They thought they had large numbers; after a while that began to change...and I will receive honour to Myself upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.  They all died, including Pharaoh; unlike ‘The 10 Commandments’, the movie.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Eternal, when I have received to Myself honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.

And so again here, it’s a type we have used.  It’s been a pattern.  It’s a pattern that’s a part of my nature today.  It’s a pattern that I feel is a part of some of you, that you have followed because I’ve heard people talking about that – that you have learned to apply in different parts of your life of situations where you feel like you’re at the Red Sea and you don’t know what to do unless God gives you the ability to know what the choices are ahead of you and you seek to put God first and then that way opens up for you...all of a sudden.  Heard one here today just before services; down to the last minute... a way opened up to be here today.  Things happen.  You go through hardships, you go through trials that try you to the core of your being sometimes, that hurt, that are not pleasant to go through.

Then there’s another spiritual type.  Now as a whole, hopefully and prayerfully for most and those who are newer you’ll grow in this one here that we just talked about, about being at the Red Sea; but there’s so much to learn from this, a great amount to learn.  But for many of us it has become a part of what we are, of who we are.

But there’s another spiritual type that has great meaning to us concerning our journey in PKG, because it’s about preparing, what God has given to us to prepare. It’s all about His Kingdom that’s coming and as we continue to press forward looking for His Promised Land; that’s what we’re doing.  It’s the way it’s been through time, all those faithful, they ‘look for a city who’s builder and maker is God’[1] , and we are doing the same thing, we just have a greater understanding of what that city is now, of Mount Zion that’s coming and what it’s all about and the timing for it.

So we came to a time when God gave us a new rallying cry.  That was very early on when I began to use that one there.  I remember back in Perrysburg, back in Toledo, using that one many times with God on  different Sabbaths and different Friday nights and starting to learn that principle and sharing it and it becoming a part of me.

Judges 6 – this one here has been a powerful pattern and a type for us – more than what I’d even realized until I started going through some of this series here and thinking about some of these principles and things we’ve gone through in the Church and we’re going to spend the time in going through some of this.  Again here, quite incredible!

This example here is another pattern and a type; things that we have learned from, things that we’re living by that are lessons that are found here in the book of Judges of something they experienced on a very physical plane. And so we came to a time when God gave us a new rallying cry, a story that was of profound kinship or has profound kinship to what we’re experiencing on a spiritual plane.  I think about having both books and how God’s prepared us to prepare for even greater things ahead but we’re going to go back in time here in some of this and take a look at everything God has been doing with us.  Because we began focusing on this even more so, talking about this in 2007 and 2008 but we’re going to back up a little bit more here as we go through the story.

Judges 6:1 - And the children of Israel were doing evil in the sight of the Eternal: that takes me back in time because the type for us is spiritual; spiritual Israel.  We were doing the same.  We were doing evil in the sight of the Eternal, so much so that God spewed us out of His mouth, that’s what He said.  Laodicea; said, “I’m going to spew you out of My mouth.”  Because He won’t accept what’s lukewarm.  There was that which was totally cold and definitely not acceptable and that was already cut off, but there was that mass that was still lukewarm.  Everybody... Everyone went through this.  There was not one who was not spewed out of God’s mouth.  That means separated from God, separated from the spirit of God.

And that sometimes has been hard for some as they’ve come back; in the sense of being awakened out of spiritual sleep and coming to a point of admitting and acknowledging, “I fell asleep!”  It was hard for me.  I remember some of the sermons I was giving and wrestling with this one here thinking, “It says slumbered and slept.  I was starting to slumber.”  I couldn’t bring myself to be saying, “I was fast asleep.”  It took me a little while.  I finally had to come to acknowledge and repent before God, “I was asleep!”  I wasn’t just starting to slumber a little bit.  Because if you can deceive yourself spiritually to think, “I was starting to kind of... to get a little drowsy spiritually but I...” slumbering, you know you’re starting to maybe doze off and then you wake back up, but I wasn’t asleep yet.  We think better of ourselves than we should – Laodicea.  Incredible!  Thinking I was richer than what I really was, stronger than what I really was...until God finally brought me to the point in saying, “No, you were asleep.”  And I had to admit that, acknowledge that and then it became clear.  “Yeah, I was.”  It became easy after that.  You can repent more fully when you acknowledge fully what you’ve done...and then God can give you things to move forward.  Because you have to come to repentance first or you’re still holding on to pride; and we have to get rid of that pride, don’t we?

And so, the children of Israel were doing evil in the sight of the Eternal – and it’s been a continuing thing – whether it’s happened on a physical plane with Israel, or to the Church; at different times and different things they’ve gone through and things that people have had to experience.  But we came to a point where we were doing evil!  Incredible! We became so sluggish that we couldn’t stand more firmly in things that God had given to us and we were judged accordingly.  Incredible!  Those of us who had God’s spirit... to fall asleep is evil; it’s evil!  To be lukewarm... it’s not kind of bad, kind of warm and kind of hot and kind of... you can put your finger in it... it’s not hot and it’s not cold, it’s warm.  And we deceive ourselves into thinking warm is okay.  No it isn’t!  It’s evil!  Being lukewarm is just flat evil.  And sometimes that’s hard for us to put things in their proper perspective.  God says you have to be hot!  You have to desire with zeal this way of life!  You have to fight with zeal for this way of life!  If you do it in a lukewarm way you’re not putting too much effort into it, not too much conviction, you haven’t vested too much of your life into it!  This is it!

We have to acknowledge those things in our life when they happen; and we had to come to a point in time where we acknowledged that what Laodicea did was evil.  It’s not standing firm for God’s way of life.  What a shame!  Israel couldn’t help what they did because they didn’t have the impregnation of God’s spirit!  And what an incredible testimony and witness in our lives of what the Church is capable of doing with God’s spirit.  We’re capable of falling asleep to the point of having to be cut off from the flow of God’s spirit.  What’s more shameful than that?  That’s a shameful thing!  ...it truly is... a shame to us!  But we have to come to see those things.

...and the Eternal delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. We have suffered.  We have suffered for what we did.  We’re still suffering for what we did way back then. God’s blessed us in coming so far, but I think of the suffering that’s still ongoing out there in people’s lives until they're awakened; and they become so Protestant in their thinking, they’ve taken God’s way of life into Protestantism, spiritually, on a spiritual plane.  So asleep and I look forward to the day they’re going to be shaken and awakened.

...and the Eternal delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: so God allowed it.  Says, “You’re going to turn from Me?  You’re on your own.  You want My intervention, you can’t have it. Now you know what’s going to happen?  What I’ve been preventing from coming to take you over...those who see your land?  This is juicy, they’re going to want it and I’m going to let them and I’m not going to stop them, I’m not going to prevent them like I’ve prevented them in the past.”  It’s kind of like what’s taking place now.  I said sometime back, “God’s hand is no longer protecting this nation.”  Every policy, every thing that’s chosen and done is turning against us more and more, making it worse and worse.  When God takes His blessings out and allows people to go their own way... God has sustained this nation.  God has made us what we are.  We didn’t do this ourselves!  We’ve been blessed because of a promise that God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  We’ve taken it upon ourselves that we did it as a people.

And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made for themselves dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so they hid.  They tried to hide their possessions, they tried to hide things knowing they would come in at any time and take from them. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, that’s what they were doing.  They didn’t want Israel to ever be strong again; they wanted to rape the land, they wanted to take everything they could for themselves.  That’s the way of human nature.  ...till you come into Gaza, so again, this huge area; and they left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. They took everything for themselves and destroyed what they couldn’t take with them; that’s what it’s talking about here.

Verse 5 - For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for the multitude; they just covered the land.  You can look out from a high area and look down and you could see them all over the place coming in to destroy, coming in to take; for both they and their camels were without number:  now it wasn’t that they were without number; it’s just that you couldn’t count them.  So many dots out there, so much out there that there’s no way of numbering it all.  It’s like what God said about 144,000 in essence, you can’t number it, God has to tell you what the number is because you can’t count through 6,000 years anyway.  But anyway... another story.

So these analogies are sometimes used; like the sand of the sea.  It doesn’t mean a literal number of the sand of the sea, it’s just showing, “Look how impossible it is to count it.”  How can you count?  You pick up a hand full of sand and you start pouring it and you can’t count the grains; and those are analogies to be given to show that it’s massive.  And it says, their camels were without number and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the Eternal.  Isn’t that amazing?  Things are going on for a while and the economies getting bad down around Louisiana and some of those areas and they realize how badly they’re being struck by what’s taking place down there and so they’re beginning to look for answers... even some of the leaders have now called for... “We need a day of prayer. We need to pray to God now because that’s the only way we’re going to be delivered.”  It is true.  It’s the only way they’re going to be delivered, but look at what people have to go through before they’ll start acknowledging what they really need in their life!  And they haven’t seen anything yet!  They still think they’re going to be able to come out of some of these things.

I think of one individual that was interviewed down there on TV here the other day, “Made it out of Saigon, made it through Katrina, I’m going to make it through this.”  No you’re not.  No you’re not!  But it’s an attitude of mind that sometimes people can have.  “I’m going to make it through this.  I’ve been through a lot of hard things... going to make it through this one too.  The economy’s gone through its cycles, the stock markets gone through its cycles... we’re going to hit that at some point here... at some point soon it is going to start GOING UP again!”  Amazing!

Then the Eternal sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, and said unto them, Thus says the Eternal God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land; the story repeated over and over again of why they are where they are; of what God did with them.  And I said to you, I am the Eternal your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but you have not obeyed My voice. So God intervened for them, took care of them, fought their battles for them when they looked to Him.  And when they did evil and turned away from Him, He let the other happen because of disobedience.  He let them experience the result of disobedience – the result then of suffering and having what you have taken away from you.

Verse 11 - And there came an angel of the Eternal, and sat under the oak which is in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite:  and so it’s talking about a particular area here and what he owned and an area for what it was known by and what belonged to Joash; and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, and hide from the Midianites. He’s in a particular area threshing wheat, hiding, trying to save some of the harvest there in an area where hopefully they weren’t going to come to right then.  So this is a bit of what he was doing... And the angel appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Eternal is with you, you mighty man of valour. And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Eternal be with us, why has all this befallen us?  Why has all this happened to us; And where are His miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Eternal bring us up from Egypt?  So it’s like the things we’ve gone through.  How could you not ask the question...and yet many didn’t.  But it’s like, “This is God’s Church!  If this is God’s Church then how could this happen to God’s Church.”  But knowing its God’s Church there’d have to be answers...because we’re God’s Church!  So how is it that we went through what we did?  How is it that we could have had an... “Oh, it was an apostasy.”  How is it we could have a great falling away?  Duh!  II Thessalonians 2.  And all of a sudden God began to show us how these things were possible, because of our choices, because of what we did.  Not that it couldn’t happen to God’s Church, but because of our choices what can happen to us just as what happened to them.  God took His blessings away, God let us suffer.  Without God, what do you have?  You have apostasy, you have falling asleep, you have being cut off from God and the flow of God’s spirit in your life.  That’s what you have.  And so we had to learn those things.  And so God began to work with us and began to call us, began to awaken us out of some of those things and take us through to learn and understand.

And so again here, he’s recounting some of these things because God is going to show him why some of these thing happened.  At this point it’s a good thing to look at our history again and recognize some of the patterns of prophetic types that was a part of what we went through.  There are types that are important for us of how God works with us and how He has led us.

We lived through different things here – like I said, II Thessalonians 2 and we had to learn the hard way, we began to look back and understand.

Judges 6:14 - And the Eternal looked upon him, and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: isn’t it I who have sent you?  So, “Do this. I’m sending you.  If I’m doing this you’ll succeed, so just go - do what I’m telling you.” And he said unto Him, Oh my Lord, by what means shall I be able to save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.  He believed this with all of his might...and that’s good for us to learn from because it’s when we think higher of ourselves that God can’t use us.  And the Eternal said unto him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike and slay the Midianites as one man. God had to bring us in a spiritual type and pattern of these things as well in what we began to go through and things we had to begin thinking about.

I think about our history and things we went through and struggled with, how we didn’t want to be small, how we didn’t want to be out here by ourselves, be like the lone ranger like some of these other little groups out here and distorted ideas and going off in left field and some of the things that were taking place.  We fought and we resisted some of those things.  We didn’t want to be presumptuous and take off in doing something by any measure or means.

I think of these things we agonized through and here Gideon begins to agonize with some things.  How on earth?!  Seeing what he sees and what they are – how can this be done, how can such a thing be accomplished, to take on these people who are like grasshoppers you can’t measure, you can’t number them!  How are we going to be delivered?  And so we’ve gone through various things thinking “How on earth can a work be done?  Who are we?”  God brought us to a point in time where He showed us what we are but we couldn’t see it, we just kept going forward.  It’s been an incredible journey, it truly has.  I marvel at it and I marvel at what God has done; and I hope you do too because that’s your strength.  There’s a lot of strength in that.  There’s a lot of boldness in that if we can see.  The more we can see it the stronger we are.  And that God was going to do this to bring us, as He says, ‘as one man’, in other words that means ‘in unity, in agreement’ in how you do it and how you go forward – with purpose and focus.  That’s what this is all about!  God says that’s how you’re going to do this, “AS ONE!”  The reality is it can’t be done any other way; and God’s going to accomplish it that way.

So we’ve gone through a lot to get where we are, we truly have.  We’ve gone through battle after battle.  Just like when I think of how much we resisted... See, in the beginning Gideon’s not real keen on doing some of these things.  He does it, but he’s not real keen on it.  I wasn’t real keen and some of you who’ve been with us the longest... you weren’t real keen on some things.  We didn’t want to be a certain way.  We felt that we wanted to be with a big group; we wanted to have back what we had taken from us, we felt.  And so we struggled.  I think of the year, I believe it was 1997 that we went out to different Feast sites before we actually started hosting our own Feast of Tabernacles.  That was the last thing on earth I wanted to do because I felt that would be so horribly presumptuous.  Who am I?!  Who are we?!  ...that we should host a Feast of Tabernacles?!  ...to determine where God places His name?!  Well, God was placing His name there, we just didn’t see it yet, didn’t know it yet so we went to different places and there was nothing there.  We came back disillusioned!  And then all of a sudden God began to give us courage by some things we experienced.  ‘News Watch’; we saw the results.  God started giving us some courage!

It’s awesome what Gideon went through.  Let’s go on with the story: And he said to Him, If I have now found grace in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talks with me. This, to me, has great significance in a moment in time that I was experiencing in a personal relationship with God and it was a time when this matter of leadership and purpose for which God was raising me up to was beginning to become clear. God was beginning to show me and I did resist all along the way.  It was a hard battle to go through.  I resisted what I put in the first book, as I’ve told you so many times, on the cover.  I didn’t want to write it but I knew I was supposed to; as much as I knew when God gave me sermons on Friday night and it was in my mind.  It was there, and God just gave it and it was so clear.  But that doesn’t mean our human nature always follows.  And sometimes we’ve had struggles then going where God leads us.

So it was in 2003 when I began to write the first book, ‘The Prophesied End-Time’ and as part of that inspiration given in writing that book God moved Laura and I so that we should visit some regions of the world where the apostle John and Paul had travelled and written scripture.  And it was very moving.  And we took a Mediterranean cruise in late 2003 that provided the easiest and most practical means for us to visit some of those regions – especially those in Turkey, namely the old ruins of Ephesus.  It was a very moving thing to be there where Paul had walked, where Paul taught and to have those things hit you in your mind, to have things come alive in a different way; as well as several other locations like in Greece and the area of Athens and places like Mars Hill and it makes it almost as though you can hear those things when Paul was there and what he said.  “This ‘Unknown God’ that you’ve made; that I’ve seen here, that you’ve given... to just to cover all your bases you have this monument, ‘The Unknown God’, Him I’ll declare to you.”  Amazing!  And they wanted to hear him and it was an incredible experience.  I kind of get chill’s just thinking about it, that experience and some of those things and what was there.

But the greatest impact and inspiration came from a tour of the Isle of Patmos; and even in the beginning of the trip there it hadn’t hit us where we were going.  We talked about Ephesus, going there and down into Athens and some of those places and even when the tour was decided upon Patmos didn’t hit us until later on... that we’re going to be where John was, where John was imprisoned, where John was given the book of Revelation and given understanding about things in the book of Revelation, what to write and so forth, where he’d been imprisoned.  And it was on a Sabbath and as the ship was about to leave the area of Patmos that I had a prayer with God that was very similar on a spiritual plane; to make it clear to me as a clear sign how I was to serve Him and that He make it clear to me.  Very much like what Gideon did; because it’s like there’s still this nagging thing in your mind and you’re beginning to see something here that really is kind of scary.  I mean, it is, when you start thinking about it and what has to be written and what you’re to write about.  Anyway, some of these things started coming and I thought it’d be good just to read part of that out of the book because I wrote about it in the fifth chapter.  I wasn’t very far in the book, but I jumped ahead to the fifth chapter to write about this occasion here and I think it’s inspiring too to see where it was placed.

But it was chapter five and it’s entitled: Opening the Seals of Revelation.  I’m going to read this today because I feel like it’s a part of our history that has great meaning to me and it very much fits into a pattern and a type of what Gideon went through.  God works with people in a specific manner and a specific way to mould and fashion things within us to give us courage, to give us strength, to give us boldness, to give us the ability to do what He wants done.  You can’t just do it overnight; you have to go through certain things.  Gideon had to go through certain things to be able to do what he had to do.  He couldn’t just go out and do it the next day – it wasn’t in him!  It wasn’t in him!  And those things were not in me and they were not in you!  So reading here...

The time setting for this chapter is personally most profound. This chapter covers the opening of the first six seals of Revelation. As will be explained, those six seals have already been opened at the time of this writing. The last one, the seventh, is yet to be opened. That is when the great physical tribulation will begin.

Frankly, it wasn’t so great.  You know what we thought about in the past, certain patterns of things we lived by and had in our mind – they haven’t been real easy to change.  Certain things that we had thought about Jesus Christ returning on Trumpets and then all of a sudden...  I think of that sermon on Pentecost.  How dumb could we be, but we can’t see certain things until God gives it to us.  As much as the Wave-sheaf after the Sabbath of the Days... when you talk about the Days of Unleavened Bread when the Wave-sheaf was waved before God picturing Jesus Christ...and the wave-loaves.  How could we have taken it in any other way?  The day that it’s to be accepted by God?  Who are the wave-loaves?  WE ARE!  The 144,000!  And how could you put in on any other day?  But we did because we didn’t understand. But that’s how far off we were in not understanding something so simple; the wave-loaves as much as the Wave-sheaf had to be done at a very specific time.  I still marvel that we couldn’t see it.  But you know, you can’t see it until God gives it to you.  And now I’m dumbfounded by it and made much stronger because of it because it means so much.  What a profound thing to understand; Jesus Christ returns on Pentecost, on the day that pictures the waving of the wave-loaves to be accepted by God!  Incredible!  ...going back to this story flow...

The best place to begin this chapter is in the verse that makes the writing of this chapter so personally profound.

“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony [the witness] of Jesus Christ.

Isn’t it amazing where we’ve come to now?  The testimony, the word for witness and what God has given as a type of what even happened with John; that I was in no way on earth even close to being ready to receive at this point in time, but that God was gradually nudging me a little closer to to be able to receive.  And these things... I know you know it; but there are some out there that probably listen that don’t know it.  Not said as a matter of pride, but as a matter of humility and a matter of awe of God and how God works with us.  It is just... it is what it is.  It is a reality of how God does things.

I was in the Spirit in the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last: and, What you see, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto  Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea” (Revelation 1:9-11).

More about these verses will be explained later, but first it needs to be noted that John was on the Isle of Patmos, in the Aegean Sea, when God gave him this vision of those things that were to be recorded in the Book of Revelation. John was given a vision of those things that would happen in the end-time and lead up to the very return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth.

My wife and I are, at this time, on a cruise. We are visiting some of the areas where John and Paul travelled. As I write, I am able to look out my cabin window at the Isle of Patmos. Today, being a weekly Sabbath, we had opportunity to visit Patmos. It is indeed very moving personally [to me] to know what God gave to John 1907 years ago.

This was a result of some of the prayer and what God gave and it was very moving to me personally.

During the past seven years, God has been revealing to me the very meaning of the vision He gave to John. One hundred, nineteen-year time-cycles have passed from the time John wrote about his vision to the time God began to reveal the meaning and timing for the opening of the Seals of Revelation. Now, seven years later, this book is being written to declare that revelation and give witness that the first six seals have already been opened. There is but a short time before the seventh and last one will be opened.

Incredible what we’ve lived through, how we came to this point in time and what we’ve gone through since.  Things really happen quite fast and yet sometimes they seem like they’re happening pretty slow.

This has much personal meaning. It reminds me of Herbert W. Armstrong’s personal experience. He was personally moved to know that he was directly instrumental (used by God) to begin sending the gospel message once again into all the world after 1900 years (100, 19-year time-cycles) of its suppression.

The very proof of this book—that it is the revelation of God—will be evident a short time from now, when the Seventh Seal is opened and the two end-time witnesses come on the scene.  If the things written in the book do not shortly come to pass, then what is written here is false, and I am false.

You know, it’s a simple thing for people out there who hate us, “Can’t you wait just a little longer?  What did we say? 2012?  You're really anxious for these things to come to pass?”  Incredible!

Seals Opened at the End-Time

The Book of Revelation begins and ends with strong words that record direct authority given by God, concerning what is written. It begins by saying, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John:” (Revelation 1:1).

It says that this is a revelation of Jesus Christ, not of John. It also states that it was given by God to Jesus Christ to show those things which would shortly take place. These things were not to take place in John’s time or in the generations immediately to follow. The significance of these words is in the short amount of time required for these things to be fulfilled once the end-time events, spoken of in Revelation, began to be “revealed,” both prophetically and literally.

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John: who bare record [witness] of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw” (Revelation 1:1-2).

Verse two goes on to clarify that what John was to record was witness (testimony) [as I mentioned earlier] that this was the word of God and that it was the witness (testimony) of Jesus Christ. No other book in scripture begins with such a stamp of authority stating that what was given was a direct witness (testimony) from God and Jesus Christ.

Maybe that doesn’t hit you in the same way it does me.  No other book has that kind of power; that kind of authority that God has given in what is to come to pass, with such words.

What is written in Revelation is of profound importance in the revelation of God’s plan and work over the past 6,000 years, as well as in the transition into a new world order that will follow in the 1,000 years that His Kingdom rules the earth.

The last chapter repeats the importance of those things given in this revelation. “And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done.

Written 1,900 years before: that’s not a short time.  Because it’s about a time for what it was written for, for our time.  And they, shortly, come to pass when they begin to be unveiled.

Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he who keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book” (Revelation 22:6-7).

When these things begin to come to pass, as the seals of Revelation begin to be opened, it will not be long before Jesus Christ comes. God has recorded that this is so by His testimony and that His words are “faithful and true.”

And brethren, I hope these things are inspiring to you; again, to go back and review some of the things... where we are in time; the book of Revelation is for our time.  And sometimes we can read something or see something so often and think about it so often that after a while if we’re not careful we begin to lose the magnitude and the importance of what God has given.  This is profound, it truly is.

“‘I Jesus have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David,

The offspring; He hadn’t lived before.  He knew who He was; He wanted everyone else to know who He was...that He descended from David.

...and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him who hears say, Come. And let him who is thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify to every man who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:16-19).

Those are powerful words.  Anyone has any measure of fear whatsoever, those are powerful words that God gives... and so you do not want to do anything in any matter of form that’s presumptuous before God.

All these words bear strong record concerning the authority and power of God Almighty and His Son, Jesus Christ. When their words begin to be revealed, then those who receive them, and the truth contained in them, can hold fast to their message,

Just like today, Laura was reading me a part in the second book of some things that she said were causing the hair on her arms to rise.  She read it to me and some things written in there.  Tell you what, there are things written in the books that are still coming to pass that we don’t understand fully and they have a timeframe for how some of them are coming about and they’re going to become more profound as we go forward – things we’ve lived through – something we’ve been going through that she was reading about and so forth.  Things we’ve experienced that God has brought to pass that were written before they started happening.  So as we go forward you’re going to become more and more inspired by what God does and how He does it – just as Gideon, just as any people of any time have been deeply moved by what God does and how He does it.

...can hold fast to their message and they can begin taking part in their chorus—for Jesus Christ to “Come!”

As stated, the first chapter of Revelation sets the stage for what is about to be given to John, by establishing the power and authority of what he writes as coming directly from God.

And so, that’s what we have come through to time.  That’s why I have read through this, to show that everything we’ve done through time is because God brings us to a point in time where we have a greater confidence that what we’ve been given comes from God.  You live your life by that.  And so we have types and we have patterns of things of how God has worked with us and these things continue on.

So at that point in time, I’ve shared it with the Church, because of how it motivated me, of how it moved me, of what I was going through in my life at that time and that there are those things that are an analogies or those things that are types and patterns of how God works with us and how you’re brought to a certain point so that something can be moulded and fashioned into you that’s not a part of you.  It takes time.  It takes time for those things to become a part of you.

And so it was with me, it took time for me to be able to say with boldness, “I am a prophet.”  The first few times I ever said that it was hard for the words to even come out of my mouth, but I knew I had to do it, I knew God had given me to do it.  Until you go through certain things in your life, until it becomes a part of you, whatever that way is that God has given He has to take us through some various things first.

Judges 6 – let’s go on...because within the timeframe that God revealed to me that I was to serve Him in a greater way in leading His Church and now as a prophet because that’s what He was beginning to show me.  That’s what was taking place on that trip.  Even then I couldn’t accept it full blast.  I could not accept, I don’t know how else to put it; I argued with God. That’s what it kind of boiled down to.  I didn’t want to write it in a book.  I knew what He was giving me and I knew what I was writing that was in the first book and that’s why even still when it was finally said and done I had to put it as a prophet who is able to have inspired interpretation.  I couldn’t accept being a full blown prophet.  I was fighting it and so God had to take me through different things.

As a kind of counterpart of the apostle John... and again brethren, these things are to share as much as what Gideon had to share with people, as much as any people that God has ever called; it’s about what God is doing and how God is doing it.  It’s not about me, it’s not about individuals, it’s not about people in the sense of pride and haughtiness, it’s about a job that we’re given to do, it’s about... if you understand two witnesses – I’ve tried to express to the Church we’re all a witness at this end-time.  As God said to Gideon, ‘You are as one man to do this’.  We’re to be of the same mind and God has called us all to be a witness.  He’s called many to be a witness at this end-time of what we’re going through.  Your experiences are different in your families and in your community and in your area of the world.  God has called people out in different areas to be a witness in their locals wherever they are.

Judges 6:14 - And the Eternal looked upon him, and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: isn’t it I who have sent you?  When you come to a point in time where we understand that more and more God has sent us, you have greater boldness the more you see God working in your life.  If you understand and you experience more and more God working in your life it gives you greater boldness to do what you’ve got to do around your families, in your community, wherever you are, in whatever trial you go through.  It gives you the ability, the boldness to stand up and to acknowledge who you are!  “YES I AM a part of the Church of God – PKG!”  And you’re thankful for that; not with a human pride, but grateful.  Because sometimes in times past we haven’t wanted people necessarily to know we’re a part of this.

Verse 15 - And he said unto Him, Oh my Lord, by what means shall I be able to save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Eternal said unto him, Surely I will be with you, and so God does things in our lives to show us that He is with us; to give us things, to give us encouragement.  I hope we see the things that God has given to us to give us encouragement to know who we are, to know there’s no other way except God give it.  And that’s what this story’s about: types and patterns.  ...and you shall strike and slay the Midianites as one man. And he said unto Him, If I have now found grace in Your sight, then, again, show me a sign that it is You who talks with me.

Verse 18 - I pray that you do not depart from here until I come unto you and bring forth my offering and set it before you. And he said, I’ll wait until you come.  So he wanted to go and get an offering and bring it back.  There are different things that hit us sometimes.  For me this is the continuing work that went on into producing the book and then distributing it.  It was in the last half of 2004 that we began to publish and distribute the first book ‘The Prophesied End-Time’.  We started promoting the book by placing nationwide ads in ‘Readers Digest Magazine’s’.  Some of you... how many remember that?  That’s what we started doing first.  Why?  Because that’s what we had experience with.  We knew that that’s what we’d done in times past. When Mr. Armstrong did something he used the ‘Readers Digest’ so we used the ‘Readers Digest’.  We used it not realizing that the internet was a far more powerful tool.  Didn’t take us very long to find that out.  It wasn’t ‘Readers Digest’ anymore.

We started promoting the book by placing nationwide ads in ‘Readers Digest Magazine’ in the U.S.  We also placed ads in Canada, Australia and New Zealand and the response in Australia and New Zealand prompted us to acquire a publisher in New Zealand in order to print the book there to save money so we wouldn’t have to ship it out of the United States.  It was far less expensive to be able to produce them over there.  So a little bit at a time that God gave to us, and we began to be encouraged by what we saw that God was doing.  Incredible what began to take place!  We were nothing, the least in Manasseh; that’s what Gideon said.  “I am the least.”  We; look how small we were and we still are; but we started doing some incredible things.  We started doing some things that God gave us the means and the ability to do that were absolutely phenomenal...with such a small group of people.  Incredible!

And then to co-ordinate the efforts of the ‘Readers Digest’ ads we began promoting the book as free on the internet, on the dedicated website www.the-end.com.  And as a result the books began to be sent out to readers in many nations and quickly climbed to over 100 countries; real quick like through the internet.  Incredible what took place!  And this method of the internet proved to be far more powerful and God began to show us a tool that was to be used here just as I think of Mr. Armstrong when he talked about how that He understood the different tools that God had given him at different points along the way – that they were tools in a very powerful way for preaching the gospel in the world that the world hadn’t had before.  The printing press... let alone radio!  And look at what God did through that.  And then the internet became a very powerful tool so that a little group like us could do great things.  Incredible!

So in early 2005 it was becoming clearer that we’d gone as far as we could and that we would just simply continue with our same efforts until God made clear what the next step should be.

Let’s read on; Verse 18 – I pray that you don’t depart from here until I come to you and bring my offering and set it before you. And He said, I will wait until you come. And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: and he put meat in the basket, and he put the broth in the pot and brought it out under the oak, and presented it. And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. Pour it on top; wet.  And he did so. Then the angel of the Eternal put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Eternal departed out of his sight.  Gave encouragement to him but it wasn’t all the encouragement he needed; he still wasn’t ready.  He still wasn’t ready to do what God had given him to do from the get go.  So God was doing various things with him in a very quick fashion that are a type and pattern of things that we’ve had to go through in little bit slower fashion to get where we’re going, to do what we have to do.  And so God has to train us and mould us and fashion things within us.  That’s what He does, He moulds and fashions us and it’s an awesome thing how God works with us, with the mind, because this is all about the mind and a response to God and a strength we receive from God and the power of God to do a job that’s incredible!

Verse 22 - And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Eternal, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord Eternal! For because I have seen an angel of the Eternal face to face. And the Eternal said unto him, Peace be to you; do not fear; you shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Eternal, and called it Jehovah shalom: in other words, ‘The Eternal Send Peace’; unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. So again, I think of types, I think of patterns that God works with us in our lives and things we go through.  And so we continued, looking at our history, to offer up our work and service before God because here was an offering he gave.  What does God desire from us?  It’s our life.  It’s the sacrifice and what we do in serving God and we continue to move forward and our life is God’s and we continue to offer that up before God and moving in a direction.  We don’t know where it’s going fully.  We don’t understand fully what God is doing, but that’s what we offer up.  So that kind of an offering that God looks to in our lives; and I think of what we continue to do, we continue to move forward with some of the things concerning the book.

So we continue to offer up our work and service before God, to follow God where He was leading us.  And as God blessed Mr. Armstrong to deliver doctrine to the Church; God made it clear that it was him and that Mr. Armstrong was indeed His servant to lead His people.  So there were things that God gave to Mr. Armstrong over and over again through time and restoring truth to the Church; and I think of the teaching of the spirit in man when I first came in the Church in ’69 and one of the first things we came to was this thing about the book that was written, ‘The Incredible Human Potential’ and Mr. Armstrong was beginning to understand that there’s a spirit essence in the mind of human beings that makes us different from the animal kingdom and it’s through that spirit that God communicates to our minds.  See?  There are things that happen in times past where God sent angels, or Melchizedek came, to tell various things, or various dreams that took place that we’ve read about.  And so there are things that God has done in different ways at different times but now God is beginning to show in a very profound way how God is working with the Church that had grown through time.  There’s a spirit essence and God just communicates through His spirit, the holy spirit into our mind and couples that with His spirit when we’re impregnated with His spirit and a life, a spirit life begins to grow.  And so we begin to understand something that none of the apostles had understood.  God was beginning to reveal things to Mr. Armstrong that were above and beyond things that we didn’t grasp in times past, or that the Church had never understood in times past.

I think of Pentecost that came then in 1974, just a few years, a couple years later and I think of how the Church responded to that.  Because see the Church, not all the Church responded well to the spirit in man; because some ministers had already been going off astray and doing their own thing – even back then.  There were a few that left; there are some people who left at that time because they accused Mr. Armstrong of saying, “You’re teaching that man has an immortal soul!”

“He didn’t say anything of the like.  I’m new in the Church and I can see what he’s saying... what’s wrong with you?!”

You know someone new, who’s a babe in the Church can understand clearly what he’s saying because of God’s spirit.  It shows then that why a person can’t is because they’ve moved astray, because they can’t see spiritually anymore because they should have; they were without excuse!  They should have clearly seen what he’s talking about that everyone else could see.

And so I lived through a period of something where I saw the Church receive truth of something they never understood before; a new truth that the Church had never understood and it was exciting.

And then all of a sudden 1974 and Mr. Armstrong came to a point in time where different ones... God was testing the Church to see what it would do and knowing exactly where it was going and what certain things were already starting to happen; some rumblings, some earthquakes, some shakings in the Church that were prophesied to begin to take place and the love of some beginning to wax cold at that time.  And Mr. Armstrong came to understand Pentecost wasn’t on a Monday; some Jews had really messed some of that up.  And so sometimes for authority of certain things we didn’t know any better, we received some things from them.  And so we came to find out no, it’s not, it’s on a Sunday – always on a Sunday.  Well, there were ministers and churches and people who left.  In some areas entire churches left the truth, left the Church.  But the primary Body continued on; became stronger through that.  We became stronger through understanding some of those things.

And so, those things make it evident, make it clear.  See, when you see something that God has revealed through His apostle it strengthens your confidence and boldness and faith.  God is working through one man to lead and guide and direct the Church!  And that’s how God works! And we understand that when we hear something from somebody else, some evangelist or someone that comes up with some other idea, like some did, you don’t follow them like some of those did in 1974, some of those who didn’t agree with things about Pentecost and they started teaching other things and they started bringing other things along again about the Sabbath.  They tried to take some people back to Sunday then!  Incredible what we lived through.

But again, God begins to give greater boldness and encouragement through the things that we’re able to see like this and I think of what He allowed us to begin seeing in the spring of 2005. Over in New Zealand some questions were asked about Jesus Christ and about His eternally existing and we had a special bible-study at that time because of certain questions that were being asked.  And like so many times with being at the Red Sea I knew exactly what God was giving because by this time it was a part of me.  I knew exactly where we were to go.  God was going to address it in the Church – finally – after so long a time it was there.  And so we started talking about this a little bit here and a little bit there.  By the time we got to Pentecost and the Pentecost sermon some things were said in that sermon that some picked up on and some didn’t.  There was a little bit of time there and slowly but surely in different sermons coming along a little bit here was given and a little bit there and God was leading us to the Feast of Tabernacles.  And I knew full well that He was leading us to the Feast of Tabernacles and at the Feast of Tabernacles this was going to be addressed in a very strong and powerful way.

And that was a kind of unique experience because I knew what we were getting ready to address was profound because this was a major change for the Church of God.  It would make Lazarus and the Rich Man and the parable there, talking about a gulf that separates us from the rest of the scattered Body be very powerful and very evident.  And that’s exactly what God gave – He brought us the rest of the way out of the trinity.  He didn’t let Mr. Armstrong come all the way out of Protestantism.  He let some things remain for the end, for this purpose, for our time, for what we were to experience, for what God was going to do in and through us in the Church.

To see a Church... I cannot tell you the profound impact on my life to see on a spiritual plane what God did to an entire Body at the Feast of Tabernacles; that from the first sermon people began to see in a powerful way and you cannot see, you will not agree unless it’s the spirit of God that does it.  And by the time we were to the end (there were a few here and there...) as a whole, the entire Body saw the truth.  That’s a spiritual thing.  And if we understand that which is spiritual, that you can’t see it and understand it or have it unless God gives it to you...but to see God do that in a Body...that was profound for me.  It was very moving for me because God had put me in the front to present that, to give that to the Church, to share that with the Church and I was very, very moved by that, to see the power of God at that Feast of Tabernacles.  That was an awesome thing we went through, it really was.

And so again, things that we learn.  And then I had my heart attack in 2005.  That was before even the Feast – see.  So there were several things that happened in that period of time.  God was giving encouragement by what we were going through and here I am outside on a hot day 85°F or whatever it is trying to clear out some weeds in a particular area in a ditch that we had, grass that was a little over waist high and it had some pretty good roots in it, pulling it out and I got really hot.  Went inside and I started feeling kind of weak and thought maybe I’m getting heat stroke or something.  I never felt that way before.  Got into the shower and heard that if you have a heat stroke or whatever you get cooled off quickly and it got worse and after a while I was on the floor and told my wife something bad is happening.  So anyway, had a heart attack, had to have a triple bypass.  Well, we had a discussion at that point in time.  The work will go on with or without me.  God doesn’t need me; He doesn’t need any human being.  He will do whatever He’s going to do and if I die and I don’t make it through this then God is going to give the sermons through one of the other men and they’ll continue on.  That’s the way God works.  We knew that with all of our being.  And so it was just one of those things; it is what it is.  I found out that I wasn’t going to die.   Came through it.  Didn’t know yet all the story of where God was leading us and what God was doing with us.  So came to that, “What would God do next?”  That was the question.

I want to read Judges 6:23 - And the Eternal said unto him, Peace be to you; do not fear: you shall not die.  I came through that point in time where that’s a part of what I felt in my life.  When I came to understand what God was doing; at the same time God began to show me even more powerfully where we were going.  It was not only are you a prophet, you are one of the end-time witnesses; and I knew it, and there was a peace and I knew there was a job to do and so hence the next book began being written.  I felt before that there was another book that was going to be written but at that point in time there I wasn’t too sure it was going to be written, and so everything started to change, and then it didn’t change – it became stronger.  God gave greater strength and purpose through what we were experiencing.

So from this moment forward far greater power and strength was given to me that carried with it a strong peace of mind.  God is going to do it.  There are things that sometimes you experience and go through in life that God just gives to us and it’s a powerful thing.  So He gave a very strong focus and a purpose of what was being done in moving forward.  And so now a definite second book was underway and the preparation for that most profound Feast of Tabernacles that I just mentioned here in 2005 with that incredible experience.  Because then God gave a boldness and a confidence that is above and beyond anything I’d ever experienced before that.  And since that time it’s just multiplied time and time again in more powerful ways.

We’ll continue on  from here next week; we’re still not to the part that this sermon series is about.  Carrot. 

~~~end

1. Hebrews 11:10

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