Pray for Judgment – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

February 19, 2010

We’ve now covered a couple of sermon series that have concerned the Thunders and how they are increasing, yet we also recognize that they, speaking of the Thunders, must become much, much louder; and I hope you are all keeping up on those things, because it is moving to recognize how much is happening in the world and how fast and how they’re beginning to overlap each other and how that even with things concerning the demise of the dollar and the Federal Reserve, and world reserve currency, that more and more people are starting to discuss those things and they’re becoming more and more concerned.ssssssss

This sermon series is going to address some of that, why things have to happen the way they do and so forth; and we’ll get into that a little bit later.  But again, we see the Thunders are increasing, that they are overlapping each other, but we also recognize (at least I hope we do), that they have to become much, much louder and far, far more destructive.  And that’s a horrible thing in one respect to have to think about but it’s a reality and that’s why we’re going to begin this particular sermon series today. So again, we must understand why this is true, why they have to become much louder and much more destructive, why that has to happen before God’s Kingdom can come, before Jesus Christ can return, and why all of this, even as those things increase, whether it be Thunders, Trumpets and everything that takes place, why it truly involves a matter of God’s mercy and God’s love.

In the first sermon series covering this subject we spoke of the importance of vision, grasping the reason for end-time events, why the Thunders and Trumpets are so necessary and how those things can help us.  We need to be on guard, spiritually alert, and how that can strengthen us just as a matter of prayer and other things as we see certain things in prophecy becoming fulfilled and the things that are happening around us; it’s something that can give you strength.  Yet on the other hand, if you’re not alert and not on guard to your own life spiritually those things can pass you right by.  So we have to keep on our toes spiritually in every way.

Our spiritual vision becomes more fully sharpened in this manner as we are aware of what’s taking place, as we recognize the things that have to do with God’s plan, as we see God’s plan more clearly and the purpose of why things have to happen exactly as they do.  And truly those things do strengthen us because it’s a part of becoming more at one with God, more in unity and oneness with God.  And so again, our spiritual vision becomes more fully sharpened in this manner, our spiritual alertness, strength, focus, conviction, zeal, awareness and unity are multiplied – and we need that.  The farther we go into this the closer to God we need to become.

And so this now leads us to the necessity to build upon those past sermons in this sermon series; and if you want titles for your sermon this one is entitled Pray for Judgment, this being Part 1.

Now is the time to pray for God’s great merciful judgment to be unleashed on this earth.  Something to pray about – and that’s why we’re addressing this in a very unique manner in this particular sermon series - and it has to begin with Manasseh, this nation, because that’s what prophecy shows us.  God makes it very clear that what begins in the end-time and what has to happen first has to happen with this nation first, and then Ephraim follows behind that with Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain and so forth; those things that have a rippling effect because of what happens here and what will happen in those nations - and then the rest of the scattered nations of Israel.  All these things have to come to pass and time is closing in.

It’s one thing to see Thunders becoming stronger and know that these are fulfilling prophetic end-time events, but it’s altogether another matter entirely to see the need, to understand and be in agreement and oneness with God in all of this, and then to pray earnestly that the Thunders and Trumpets be unleashed with far, far greater power in order to accomplish their holy purpose; ‘holy’ because it reveals God’s presence and God’s work in all this.

The Seals of Revelation, the Trumpets, the Thunders and the 7 Last Plagues are a matter of God’s holy purpose of merciful judgment to be exercised upon mankind; and that can put people to the test.  And it really helps you to come to understand in a deeper way what God is really doing and why, as we covered in the Feast of Tabernacles, why we’re in this human body, why this human body was made able to suffer, why God had to work with us in this manner as compared to a spirit realm.  Because of our mind and because of what He is offering us to become a part of His Family, the God Family, and how that transition and that process of growth and development can’t just be given to us.  We have to go through this first, we have to address things of the mind and how we think, how the human mind, selfish human carnal nature thinks, and then to make the choice: Do we want this or do we reject this?  ...and when God gives us the ability, to embrace what God has.  And that’s what we’re here for, that’s why we’re all here in the Church in Sabbath services.  That’s why we’ve come into God’s Church and desire to be baptized, because we begin to see those things and embrace them.

We want a better world, a different world and we understand why God’s dealing with mankind in the way that He’s does.  It’s an awesome thing to come to grasp more deeply God’s purpose.  It’s very hard for the carnal human mind to grasp that.  The carnal human mind tends to think, “That’s not fair!  Why would a loving God do these things?”  So often in the radio interviews I had – that’s what came across.  “Why would a loving God allow this?  Why would a loving God do this?”  And they don’t understand the love of God.  They don’t understand how that’s a matter of love and what it produces in us in the end.  It’s an awesome process, it truly is, and the more you come to understand about God the more in awe you become of what He’s doing, truly.

This sermon is entitled ‘Pray for Judgment’ – this being Part 1.  That means to pray for God’s judgment to come – NOW... Now on this earth!  See, there are things I’m going to be doing later on that in the beginning as I thought upon some of those things I wondered how, why... why would that happen that way, why would one say and do certain things in the way that they are?  But you come to understand the purpose behind it and you come to embrace it and you understand God’s love and God’s mercy and why things must happen this way.  And we’re all a part of the same, we truly are!  We’re all a part of this on a spiritual plane in how we embrace it, in how we pray to God about those things that are to come.

So, we’re talking about our need to pray for specific purpose that focuses on judgment, on God’s judgment and our being in unity with God.  So let’s begin with the most basic instruction regarding prayer and build upon it concerning the context and purpose of this sermon.  Matthew 6: so simple, so basic, but there is so much here.  I’m going to back up just a little bit to get the context as Jesus gave the outline of prayer to the disciples.  Let’s back up a little bit and notice some of the context and learn from it.

Matthew 6:5 - And when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites who love to pray while standing in the synagogues and in the corners of streets that they may be seen of men. That’s the carnal human mind that uses religion selfishly.  It’s not about God, it’s about how they want God to be, or how they want God to use them or work with them or be seen.  It’s primarily about themselves; it’s about ego.  It’s about pride.  It’s about haughtiness.  It isn’t about humility and serving God, it’s about self!  And people who desire, even in religion, to exercise pride and haughtiness, to be seen of others.

That’s why I loathe a show of religion when human beings think that they have to ‘show’ religion to others in the sense of making a show of it in front of others in public or whatever it might be, in things of maybe how people dress...  God says don’t do it!  Don’t do it even in how you dress, to be seen by people as being different and so forth...when you fast, when you pray.  He says don’t do it!  Don’t be like that!  This is between you and God; it has to do with the mind!  It has to do with what’s genuine and what’s real, not what has an outward show to it so that others think, “Oh, he’s religious!”  ...so that you wear a white collar in the front of your neck so somehow people think, “Oh, isn’t he pious! Isn’t that the way religion’s supposed to be?”  ...wear a backward collar on your shirt and everything else black, or whatever it is and go around with your hands folded, and somehow this is pious and somehow you look holy; “Oh holy man of God!”

And so when God comes along in the sense through His prophets and through Jesus Christ and through others through time, through apostles, people don’t accept it because it’s not their idea of what religious people should be like.  What do you want? What do you want to see?  You want a long flowing beard, white?  You want a long robe to the ground so that people will be in awe of you?  I don’t know!  What is it that people have in their mind?  And so when God sends someone along who’s down to earth, who’s basic, who’s sound, who can talk to anyone as Jesus Christ did... He was condemned because He was associated with different ones that were looked down upon.  It was like, “How?!  You’re like a wine-bibber – You associate with these other people and You drink wine with these people... and how can You do that?”  Amazing how people think just because they don’t understand God, they don’t understand the love of God and that what God’s concerned about is the genuineness of the heart, of the mind, of what is pure.  He knows what is false; He knows what’s hypocritical...it’s just so glaring.  And it becomes more glaring to us as time comes along and we learn to loathe it more and more as time comes along, because we loathe it in our own lives.  When God calls us we begin to loathe and hate those things that are wrong, that are not right.

And so again here, an example; so basic, so simple.  Don’t stand around so that people look to you, “Oh, you’re religious!”  That’s why I’ve talked about that in a restaurant, or whatever, don’t make a show of prayer.  You know people like to be seen as being religious.  It’s more about that than it is what they truly believe and what they’re convicted of.  It’s about a show of religion.

He said don’t be like the hypocrites that love to be seen of men while standing in the synagogues and on the corners of streets, that they may be seen of men. Truly I say unto you, They have their reward.   In other words, for them this is all there is, there is no more.  What they get out of it is the selfishness and to be seen, and that thrill (or whatever it is) for the moment that is very physical and very carnal and very self-consuming and has nothing to do with God.  He says that’s their reward, that’s all there is to it.  There’s nothing in it about God, there’s nothing in it that’s spiritual whatsoever...and God doesn’t hear those prayers.  So for them, that’s all there is, that’s not the purpose of prayer.

But when you pray, God says, enter into your closet, in other words to a place where no one else is around; in other words by yourself. And when we think of a closet generally we just think it’s where the clothes are.  You don’t have to go in the closet, you can be in your bedroom, you can be someplace else, but generally it’s alone, it’s private, it’s private time.  It’s not to be in public, we do it in Sabbath services primarily before and after services to ask for God’s intervention and God’s blessings and to thank God for what we have, for the congregation.  That’s the example given to us throughout the Old Testament especially, where the people say, “Amen” meaning that we all agree with what has been said – that’s my prayer, that’s our prayer to God, our desire to hear, our desire to be instructed, and the thanks then we give to God as well in those prayers.  And on occasion when we have a larger group of people, perhaps in a meeting of some sort together or if we have a larger group of people together when we’re fellowshipping and it’s a special occasion with food and the like.  But as a whole, that’s about the limit of that kind of thing.

He says ...when you pray; Because God wants to know what’s in your heart, what’s in your mind.  He already knows it but it’s a matter of developing a relationship.  It’s a matter of your part in that fellowship, in that relationship – and that comes about as a result of what you say in prayer, through prayer.  So God knows what’s in us already.  He knows our mind, He knows our thoughts, He knows our thinking; He knows us inside and out.  Nothing is hidden from God.  Awesome to understand the power of God!

But God desires a relationship.  God desires to develop a relationship with those whom He calls, whom He draws to Himself – one of fellowship.  And so as human beings we do that verbally back and forth in our conversation with each other and we get to know each other and we share things together at different occasions.  With God it’s primarily done, obviously, in a time of prayer.  Doesn’t always have to be alone at home, it can be when you’re driving down the road, it can be anyplace, you can be outside walking; alone with God primarily is what it’s about in what you share with Him.

But when you pray enter into your closet, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret; or as it says here, which is in secret, in other words the prayer, which is in secret between God and you; in other words the primary purpose of prayer is private between each individual alone and God.

...and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly. But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen/Gentiles: in this case here he is speaking to people of Judah, people who knew things of the Old Testament, people who knew things that we read about in those stories throughout the Bible – Moses and so forth, going back to the beginning, Adam and Eve, those things that they should know in a basic way and showing that they have this ability then, they were drawn, God called them to work with them as a people, as a nation.  And so He’s saying here, there’s a difference between how they pray and how you should because they don’t know and their idea of prayer and gods or God or whatever in their minds is totally different.  So when you pray, don’t use vain repetitions...I don’t know if you’ve seen it sometimes – sometimes a person’s idea of a repetition in some religions is to have this great big wheel and they get up there and just get it moving round and round, and all these prayers are going, and they just keep this wheel moving with all these different prayers on it and all these things are just going up before God.  Think what they could do with the computer today – just put it on rotation...  same program.  And think of all the prayers you can send up before God.  Doesn’t mean a thing!

Or some people will start counting down the beads and say the same thing over and over and over again.  Doesn’t mean a thing!  And even in Traditional Christianity, doesn’t mean a thing. And you think they keep repeating the same thing – What does it mean?  “Hail mother full of grace...”  I don’t know what it is anyway... and praying to Mary anyway.  She’s dead!  ...and they don’t understand that!  A large number of people on this earth in that religion, and the one they address in their prayers to so often is dead; and they don’t understand that.  They think she’s up in heaven.  Sad, the ignorance that’s in this world and how much it takes to change the hearts and the minds of human beings, especially when they think they already know what’s true!  Oh, we’re so stubborn; we truly are as human beings...the deception and the deceit that’s in the world.

Jesus Christ says, “Don’t call any man Rabbi.”  And so a whole religion calls them Rabbis.  It’s one thing to have in the sense of a ‘teacher’, but not religiously.  ‘Rabbi so and so...’  ‘Reverend so and so...’  Who is reverend but God?  That’s why we don’t have titles!  I’m an apostle, yes.  I’m a pastor, yes.  I’m a preacher, yes.  But it’s not a title, it’s a description of a job.  It’s not to be connected to my name as a title.  We don’t do that in God’s Church!  Sometimes it’s hard for people in the world, especially in Traditional Christianity because somebody’s going to do a funeral or whatever, its ‘Reverend so and so’... “No, it’s not ‘Reverend’; just put my first name down.”  And they have a hard time with that, because that’s what they think God says to do.  Some of the most basic of things!  You think, “Why can’t we just do what God says to do?”

Prayer; so basic, so simple.  If people would just begin in the book of Matthew and just start reading they could learn so much you would think, but the reality is the human mind resists God and until God beings to draw you you really can’t grasp it even though it’s so simple and so plain and right in front of your nose.  What an awesome thing!

So He says, don’t use vain repetitions; and we have to be careful too.  We know, we see other people in different religions and so forth, and even in what is called Christianity, and they repeat the same thing over and over again.  That’s why at a meal it gets to where morning, noon and night people say the exact same thing.  What does it mean?  Vain repetition.  When you pray to God, God wants you to reveal, to open up yourself before Him.  That’s what we do so often when we develop relationships, friendships.  The more you get to know somebody, the more we share with each other, we get to know each other’s backgrounds, our lives, we begin to understand where people are coming from, what your trials are...  and God wants to develop that relationship with us.  He already knows it but He wants to develop that relationship.  And it’s something you have to express to Him; your desires, what’s inside of you, what you desire, what you want to see happen, what you want to share with Him in life, the trials you’re going through and what you’re feeling.  He knows, but He wants you to share that with Him; because only when you share it through the process of opening up does it become more genuine and binding and meaningful as a relationship.

...for they think, the Gentiles think, and even those in Traditional Christianity think so often, that they’ll be heard for how long they’re speaking, by how much speaking they do.  That’s not what it’s about!  Even we have fallen in that trap in times past in our lives, and sometimes at Ambassador College, different times and so forth, different teachers would come along and it was like you had to put so much time in prayer morning, noon and night, and if you didn’t do this your life is down the toilet, spiritually.  And so it then becomes something that is a matter of where you think that maybe by having a certain time on your knees or whatever, that somehow this will earn you something.  That’s not what God wants!  He wants what’s in here, what’s in your heart, what’s in your mind and what you share with Him for whatever moment in time it might be.  And so that’s what Jesus Christ is talking about here.

Therefore, He says, don’t be like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him. It’s an incredible thing to know, but He wants the relationship and it’s through the asking that we grow in a stronger relationship with God.  What an awesome process!  A fellowship and a relationship, and how that God desires that; and it’s a part of our growing, it’s a part of how we grow.

Verse 9 – Therefore, this is the manner in which you are to pray: Our Father who is in heaven, Holy will be Your name.  In other words, Sanctified will be Your name. Your Kingdom come.  There’s so much that’s said here even in the beginning.

Our Father; He’s not just your Father.  It reminds you, we’re a Body, we have a fellowship – it reminds you of God’s plan and God’s purpose for the God Family.  Our Father, knowing the power and the might of Almighty God and where He resides; and we learn in time that none of us are going there, and yet that’s where Satan has deceived so many into thinking they’re going – they’re going up to heaven.  To understand the only human being that’s ever gone there, ever been there, is Jesus Christ; it makes it very clear in the book of Acts.

And Holy/Sanctified will be Your name; that depends upon us.  That’s what our desire is, to set God’s name apart; and we’re telling God this is our desire and you build upon these things.  This outline of prayer – you build upon it!  Your desire to set it apart, God’s name; that when you hear God’s name, when you read things about what God says, as we’re going to read a little bit later that I hope....  different times we can look at different areas of the Bible and sometimes it has a greater impact on us. And I hope that by going back and reading a little bit of this later in Revelation you’ll see what I’m talking about, that it has a greater impact upon us when we see God’s name in it because of our mind and how we think toward God and reverence God and set Him apart in our thinking.  Glorifies His name and it becomes more and more meaningful, richer and richer to us, purer and purer when we think about God and we ask Him for that help.  Ask God for help that you’re able to indeed sanctify His name more and more in your life, to recognize we carry His name and that in the Old Testament when it says, ‘Don’t take God’s name in vain,’ we learn quickly in God’s Church that it isn’t just about verbal words we use in cursing and using His name in a wrong way as human beings do, and even carelessly sometimes when people say ‘Gee Whiz’ or whatever it is, not understanding that that’s a spin off ‘Jesus Wizard’ or whatever...and some of the stupid things that people have out here in the world and how they demean the name, the great name of God Almighty and His Son Jesus Christ.  And we have to change that in our lives when we first begin to come into the Church.  And so all these ‘small things’ that are small in one respect in our thinking change immediately as we strive to purify our mind and our thinking toward God that’s a part of, again, God’s name becoming holy to us, truly.

Your Kingdom come – Do your prayers reflect zeal, eagerness for God’s Kingdom?  Because the more they do the more you will do exactly what we’re talking about in this sermon today – to pray for God’s judgment now upon this world because that’s where we are in time, and to be eager about it and zealous about it.  God wants to know what’s in your heart, in your growth and so forth; and you want to grow and be right there and be making that progress as we’re going forward here in understanding, because it’s about an understanding of what God is doing, to glorify and honour God in what He’s doing, truly.

Does this reflect your understanding of how that Kingdom is to come?  ...how it’s going to be made possible?  Because that’s what this sermon’s about; through the Seals, the Trumpets, the Thunders and the 7 Last Plagues, sanctified by God a long, long time ago because He loves His Family, He loves mankind - not the way we are, the way we can become.

Your will be done on earth; This puts us to the test to see, indeed, what does that mean in my life.  What does that mean in our individual lives? Your will... how is God’s will being done?  What does that mean in your life, that His will is being done... are we a part of that and to what degree...Your will be done on earth.  God’s will is going to be done on earth!  We’ve already had 7 Seals opened.  We have 6 more Trumpets to go.  That’s God’s will!  It’s God’s will given a long time ago.  And so when we begin to understand more deeply what that means in our lives today and where we are in time and what little time we have left this becomes more meaningful...because we’re a part!  We’re a part of fulfilling God’s will!  And what has to take place on this earth is a matter of fulfilling God’s will; and our prayers need to reflect those things very deeply so.

Your will be done on earth; so do we grasp how His will is going to be more fully accomplished in and through mankind within the Church, within Ephraim, within Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulon, all the rest as we go along here, and the rest of the world, the rest of the nations of the world before this is over with; and then what’s on the other side of that?  Are we in complete unity with His will, with how things are going to be brought to pass at this end-time?

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  So sometimes we have to ask God, obviously to help us to do His will, to see His will, to be in agreement and unity with His will.

Give us this day our daily bread, always that desire to be spiritually nourished, to be able to grow stronger – a cry we should have every day of our life – for spiritual strength, help from Him through His Son Jesus Christ.

...and forgive us our debts, and so teeth are put into all this in our petitions before God in the sense of that which is genuine and true before God.  And we’re reminded of the necessity, as I’ve talked about so often, about seeking forgiveness in prayers because we always have sin before us; we always have human nature and selfishness before us. If you’re a human being that’s what you’ve got, you can’t help it.  No one is immune from it, no one is somehow without it. We all have human nature and we’re all at various stages of growth.  ...and forgive us our debts, in other words, our sins, what we owe because of our sins if we understand what He’s saying.  Sometimes people don’t understand what they owe because of their sins, what has to be paid because of the sin; and that’ll make you understand and appreciate and be much more thankful for your Passover because that’s what it takes – death – to be forgiven of sin.

Especially in the world we live in today where people don’t want to accept personal responsibility and accountability for their actions.  Even sometimes within the Church we struggle with those things if we’re not careful.  Sometimes people will make excuse for why they did what they did, begin to justify why they have made certain choices and have done certain things.  Wrong direction to go.  Just accept the responsibility and seek to change.

...and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. The ability, the willingness, the desire to be forgiving towards others who we may feel have said something about us or to us or wronged us in some manner.  Sometimes the human mind finds it very difficult... we want something back.  We think something is owed to us and so we’re not forgiving.  Doesn’t mean we have to forget!  There are some things that are a matter of wisdom to remember, but what is it you want back?  Do you want vengeance?  What is it you desire back?  What is it you want to be paid?  The human mind is an awesome thing!  I don’t want to get too far off on some of these because it’s not what the sermon subject is about but there’s teeth put in this.

So in other words, if we’re not forgiving toward others, if we have had some kind of wrong thoughts, wrong ideas, wrong actions, wrong words with someone or they toward us – is everything okay in your mind?  It may not be in their mind, you can’t change someone else’s mind, but you are in control of yours!  It’s amazing sometimes in discussing various things sometimes with people and they will talk about how that, “Well so and so did this and that’s why I did that.”  Oh!  Or “That’s what made me angry!”  Oh really?!  That’s what made you angry? You didn’t make yourself angry, they made you angry...?!  There’s a big difference there if you understand what I’m saying.  You’re SUPPOSED to be in control of your own responses and actions in life.  No one else controls you or you’re a pretty weak individual, aren’t you?

If someone else out here’s controlling your actions with what you do and how you respond... “He cut me off, that’s why I did what I did, I got up there beside him and I cut him off... I showed him!”  Human nature that comes out of us.  Your choice.  You want to be just like them?  You want to respond like someone else in kind when God says don’t do that?  Who’s at fault then?  Self.  We have to accept that personal responsibility to ask God for forgiveness.

And lead us not into temptation, don’t let us be led into it.  A lot of power out there in this world, a lot of power from our own minds and our own deceptions sometimes and how we think and we need help ourselves in keeping this... being in control, not letting other things control us – accepting personal responsibility and asking God for the help to do so. It takes spiritual strength to make such changes in our life.

...but deliver us from evil: That’s our desire, whether it be that which can come out of us because of our wrong responses to things in how we treat someone, how we talk about someone or say something to someone and how that shouldn’t exist in God’s Church, and repent of those things and strive to change until it’s conquered; or a desire to be saved from that as far as the world is concerned, from others, deliver us from the evil that’s in the world around us and from the evil that’s out there spiritually that continues to bombard us?

We all need each other’s prayers.  I’ll tell you what, things are heated up!  Things are heated up out there!  There is a being out there who’s just pitching a tantrum spiritually, that’s what he’s like – he’s just pitching a big tantrum.  He’s not happy!  He knows that his time is almost over and he hates God’s Church and he still comes at us and he broadcasts at us and that pressure and that power is strong right now – has been for several weeks.  He is stirred up!  It’s happening throughout the Church; things that sometimes maybe you don’t even know you’re experiencing...because they’re broadcasting at you.  They want to make life as miserable as they can for you in whatever way they can until this is over with.  That’s how they function!

So we need to pray for each other, that God protect us and place that hedge about us, and over us, and under us, thoroughly enclose us from such evil and such powers that exist because we’re no match for it!  That’s why I quote so often the scripture in I John, ‘Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world.’  That’s our strength, that’s our hope – God that’s in you, Christ that’s in you, than the being that’s in this world.  And if we let down spiritually then we make ourselves a target and we don’t have the strength to defeat or stand against that, we truly don’t.  We need God’s help and we need each other’s prayers in the Church, we truly do.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; For Yours is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.  We look forward to that, we desire that.  We look forward to that glory that’s going to be revealed very shortly now as God’s Kingdom comes to this earth.

Then it goes on to say...he just builds upon it a little bit more and for a purpose I’m going down a little farther anyway, but we’ll read this too. Verse 14 - For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: you want forgiveness of something you’ve done and you are forgiving towards others and you don’t hold things against others, you don’t expect some kind of payment or something that has to be done to you, or someone has to come to you and say something in order to end it, but you’re just going to be right toward them and desire the best for them no matter what happens in life.  That’s a tall order if you’ve been wronged again and again, whatever it might be.  And it comes to the point where you grow to where you have compassion on them because they’re in misery because of what they’re doing and you don’t want to see them that way but you don’t want them to be that way either – you don’t agree with what they’re doing – but you look forward to the time that they’re going to be able to deal with and grow, deal with what is going on in their mind and be able to change because they make themselves miserable and unhappy.  But if you allow yourself to be brought into that too, then you’re not forgiving.  Do we want to be forgiven by God?  Then we better be forgiving toward others and be able to judge righteously in everybody’s situation.  Should be easy in the world.  That should be an easy one for people in the world because they don’t understand; we shouldn’t hold anything against them.

I get pretty strong in things I’ve said; said some very strong things about different religions and different individuals in religion and so forth and in times past some of the leaders of God’s Church and what they did and have mentioned people by name.  And sometimes people think I hate them or I don’t like them. Not at all!  It’s nothing like that whatsoever.  On the contrary, I look forward to the time that they’re going to have an opportunity to change, or that some will be brought to repentance, or some resurrected in the Great White Throne so they can see what they have done so they can repent and be blessed again.  But if you will not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Verse 16 - Moreover when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces... You know what they do?  Especially the Jews back at that time?  It became a thing of appearing ‘pious’.  It became a thing of, “We want everybody else to see we’re fasting.  So we’ll have a little dust on us and throw a little dust on us,” or whatever it might be, “and maybe we’ll dress a certain way and we’ll go around like we’re really weak so that everybody knows we’re fasting.”  Where you don’t have to say it; everybody’s going to know you’re fasting by whatever show is put on.  Defeats the purpose of it then and that goes back to that thing of prayer.  You have your reward.  If that’s what you want and you want to be seen by others as being ‘religious’ for all your fasting before God. “You’re ‘spiritual’, you fast twice a week, you fast three times a.... You are spiritual!  I’m impressed!” That’s not what God wants, that’s not what it’s about, is it?  It’s like the closet thing, it’s between you and God except when we have maybe a Church wide fast and we all know it.

And again, a reminder here of the April 2nd Church wide fast, to choose the time you desire to.  It’s not like Atonement.  You don’t have to do it from sundown to sundown.  It is a 24 hour period that you can do sometime in the week, Friday, Thursday if it’s a better time for you, Saturday, Sabbath as a whole.  I’m going to end mine before sundown.  I’m going to start it before sundown on Friday because we’re going to be in a particular Church area in Minnesota and we’ll eat with everyone afterwards.  So any of you that want to eat with us afterwards that’s what we’re doing.  But if somebody wants to start after eating that day, as an example, and they want to go on into the next day, that’s fine.  But we’re calling a fast for that period of time and we’ll have sermons accordingly as time goes along here.  It’s a momentous time for us in God’s Church as we continue to go forward and we seek to become more at one with God.

And so on those occasions there we do know about one another’s fast, but it’s not about blowing a trumpet or blowing a horn or looking upon us; it’s something we just know we’re doing collectively in unity and oneness with a great desire before God as a Church, as a Body.  But other fasts are very personal between you and God.  If it’s a husband and wife it’s something that both have to know and understand.  One may choose to do so and a lot of times people will choose to do it at the same time because it works out good that way when both of you do it at the same time.  If one recognizes the need and the other one can always say, “Yeah, I need it too.”  There’s never a time when we don’t need something like that.

So they disfigured their faces, in other words they exaggerate their appearance falsely in a way to be seen of others; that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, see, They have their reward. But you, when you are fasting, anoint your head, and wash your face; Clean up! It’s okay to gargle even.  I don’t think you want to drink that stuff anyway, but getting it in there and then flushing it back out.  Brushing your teeth?  There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s good, healthy, clean – and that’s what God wants; and that we have a good appearance so that others wouldn’t be able to look at us and say, “Wow, you must be fasting!”

Verse 18 - That you do not appear unto men to fast, so that it’s not outwardly apparent in other words, but unto your Father; it’s about God and a relationship with God, who is in secret: and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly. In other words, it’s a private thing.  It’s like prayer, it’s between you and God.

Let’s go to the book of Psalms.  We’ll start in Psalms 103 and see some things here that parallel some of the things that Jesus Christ spoke of here throughout this section about prayer, because again, prayer is about a relationship with God and it’s about a unity with God.  It’s about a desire to be in unity with God, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’  We have to examine ourselves and strive to see and to be in agreement that we are doing God’s will ourselves, that we are in unity with the things that God is doing on this earth and our desire to be a part of it, that we’re praying about those things and we want to see them come to pass, to be a part of it spiritually in our lives – just like Mr. Armstrong used to send out the letter to ‘Co-workers’.  We’re all working together to the same desire, same end, to do the will of God, to be a part of whatever God is doing at any moment in time.  And so we are at this end-time.

Psalm 103:1 – glean what we can out of these things having to do with prayer, our beseeching God, our heart being poured out to God, our desire to be at one with God, how  a relationship is developed through this process, how we grow spiritually as a result of this process.  It’s a matter of how we think in our relationship toward God.  Here’s A Psalm of David. Bless the Eternal, O my soul: Unique word, it means ‘to kneel’ in Hebrew, ‘kneel before, to praise’.  There’s a reverence there in our thinking.  We understand what it means when we’re going before the great God of the universe, and perhaps then as we kneel on our knees and put our arms up toward God for a while to address Him, “Holy Father, the Great God of this Universe...”  And we begin to pray to Him and make our petition known to Him, what our desire is, and our desire to overcome and change and conquer various things in our own life in our own problems and so forth, to have our thinking right and our thinking toward others right and on and on it goes.

Bless the Eternal, O my soul: isn’t that our desire?  ...that from the deepest part of our being, that that’s our attitude of reverence toward God Almighty, to be in awe of Him.  And the more you grow the more in awe you become of God and what He’s doing.

I think of this past Feast.  I think of some doors that have been opened up for us in understanding; and we’re all going to be at different places there, but there is still so much that we don’t grasp and we’re given just a little bit at times, but it opens up so much in the awesomeness of God’s plan and God’s purpose and what God is doing in our lives.  Just to understand why we’re made physical and weak....  If you can go back and truly grasp some of the sermons that have to do with why we are made physical, why we’re made to experience pain, why our mind is unique compared to the spirit realm, how it is that God can work with a mind where He has part of His spirit, when it comes in contact with the spirit that’s in man because He’s made us different than the animal world, given us the ability to think and reason, but in a brain that’s physical, but with spiritual matter... man doesn’t understand that!

What makes us different from animals?  God gave them instinct, but who’s going to accept that one?  They think they just climbed out of a slime and all of a sudden decided this is how they wanted to do things.  Have you ever decided you wanted to do something new that you don’t physically have the ability to do?  And how are you going to pass that along?  And we surely have a little bit more on the ball than some of the animals!  Can’t we pass that along somehow to different ones in our lineage? “Son, daughter, pass this on... this is what I’ve gleaned!”  And how the ducks and and different things do then, some of the birds and some of the.... I’m sorry, how do they pass it on for millions and millions and millions of years and finally make a change so they could survive when their survival depended on doing it the first time.  Dumb, dumb, dumb!  Evolution is so stupid!  Truly!  Anybody that believes in evolution... missing a lot of screws, they truly are, and they are filled with such pride and haughtiness and ego against God; and God is sick of this in this world!  For 6,000 years the absolute stark stupidity and ignorance of mankind to reject God!  Horrible, the human mind!

And that’s why we have to go through the Seals, that’s why the Church has had to suffer.  We have suffered!  I have suffered!  The Harrell’s back there – they have suffered!  My wife has suffered.  Mr. Dowd...and I can go on down the list of people who have suffered because of what we went through that led up to an apostasy and went through there from the time that the 1st Seal of Revelation was opened, when Mr. Tkach gave that infamous sermon to do away with God’s law.  We suffered!  But we’ve grown through our suffering.  We don’t get where we’re going without it.  We don’t have certain things moulded and fashioned within us until we go through certain suffering in this human body, in this human life, and have to question things and address things in the mind that made a conviction and a strength, a determination when given God’s spirit, to be able to see, and then to be able to make that choice, “This is what I desire!  This is what I want!”  And the growth that comes from that; you can’t exchange that for anything.

What a marvellous miracle then, of how God can work with a brain with a spirit essence and impregnate it with His holy spirit, with Him dwelling here.  He dwells in the mind!  That’s what He says; He dwells in us.  He lives in us. Just like the umbilical cord to a baby, we are begotten; and so God is actually moulding and fashioning our being, which is our thinking, our mind – as we yield to Him.  But we tend to resist Him as human nature, but we make choices that grow in character, that we choose Him and want Him and we fight the fight – and you fight it to the end. Whatever your life exists of, you fight it till the end, until your change comes.  It’s an awesome, awesome thing that you will continue to grow in understanding of as long as you are in God’s Church and beyond.  And you’ll come to appreciate it year by year at different levels as you grow; this very thing that I’ve just said.

BLESS...Bless the Eternal, O my soul: and the more I grow, the more we grow the more we’re able to do that in spirit and in truth.   ...and all that is within me bless His holy name. “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be/Blessed be/Holy/Sanctified will be Your name.”  In our lives that’s what we’re going to strive to do with all of our being, seek to grow and become stronger spiritually, to be in unity and agreement with God.  And the more you’re in unity and agreement with God and how He does everything that He does the more awesome His plan becomes and the more zealous, the more powerful your prayers become, and God is eager to answer them!

Bless the Eternal, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits: It’s good to remember how you were called.  It’s good to remember what you’ve been given.  It’s good to remember the things you’ve gone through with God in your life. Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; it’s what God says.  It’s a process through time.  It’s an individual thing when you talk about diseases, various things that happen, things that I’ve seen over and over again as people obey God and they seek to be anointed, they seek to be healed of whatever it is they’re going through. And at times the answer is no and we struggle and we learn through that process as well.  When it’s all said and done it comes back to what’s up here; has to do with the mind and the healing of the mind.  And we come to grasp that and understand that through time.  But God works with us differently when we’re first called, and then as we mature through time, through life, we grow because we learn things from all the lessons He lets us experience.

Who redeems your life from destruction; redeems; buys it, purchased through Jesus Christ, through His Son, otherwise we wouldn’t have a life, there would be no life, there’d be no hope; just an end to this physical life and....

...who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies; that’s how God works with us – not according to what we deserve.  He forgives us, puts it away.

Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagles; the strength, the power, the life.

The LORD executes righteousness, it’s a word that means ‘fashions, works, accomplishes’ righteousness and judgment...judgment; so there are things in our life that always have to do with God working with us, that have to do with what He’s moulding and fashioning within us, but even things having to do with judgment, that there are things that God has to do in our life whereby we can learn from them; and He does so in a way that is a matter of love and mercy that is sometimes difficult for us to comprehend.  But the more we grow and the longer we’re in God’s Church the more we grasp that; and the fondness of what we say when we say, “Our Father,” has a deeper and deeper meaning as time goes forward; that closeness, that relationship.

The Eternal executes/fashions/works/accomplishes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed. And who’s oppressed?  Anybody that’s in a physical carnal body is oppressed.  In this age, in the past 6,000 years, man has always been under oppression...always, always, always...and God seeks to relieve us of that.  When He calls us He begins to draw us out of that.  Not completely, we’re still in the world and we’re still oppressed, and we’re still oppressed by Babylon, we’re still oppressed by a false spiritual system that’s out here and we’re oppressed because of the deception that’s caused in others in the world and how that oppresses you, especially when you embrace what’s right from God because they don’t embrace the same thing.  And so you’re treated differently because of your beliefs about the Sabbath or the Holy Days, or how you choose to live, or you won’t use the same language anymore that they want you to use and so it kind of bothers them and they don’t like that anymore.  “Who are you?  You’re not the person I married!”  or “You’re not my friend like I knew you before!”  And after a while you just drift apart, you’re not friends anymore because you don’t have the same things in common, because your goals and your desires are different than theirs.

...righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed; judgment in our own lives and judgment on those around us sometimes.  I’ve seen God do some awesome things with employers because they’ve persecuted God’s people.  I’ve seen incredible things happen to family who’ve persecuted others who are a part of God’s Church.  Through my time in God’s Church I’ve seen some incredible things that have happened.

He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel, just like for us; things that God has made known to us, given us the ability to see, to grasp, things about the end-time that we believe with all of our being, we act upon it, what we do, our life.  It’s our life and we act accordingly.  We know His plan and purpose that is right now being worked out.  We’re a part of it!  It’s our life!

The Eternal is merciful and gracious, at all times, always, doesn’t change – always merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and (as it goes on to say) full of mercy.  Full of mercy!  And for this end-time God is full of mercy; it’s just man’s reaction to it, man’s response to it... it’s been that way for 6,000 years.  And so in mercy God will execute judgment – to mercifully bring man out of this past 6,000 years of oppression and torment and suffering and say, “I’m not going to allow this to happen to you anymore.”  And end it, bring it to an end.  It has to end in a pretty ugly way, because of the way we are, in order to save us.  What an incredible thing that we have to go through what we do in order to be saved, in order to leave one age and go into another, and there is no other way.

He will not always chide: the word means ‘to contend or strive or plead’.  God has at different times, for 6,000 years, knowing what the response is going to be, but we have to learn it!  It’s so we can learn it!  God knows what we are, but those examples that are there in this book, in story after story after story where God has intervened and pleaded with mankind through different ones, through the prophets of old, through His own Son, through the apostles, and on it goes.  And what has been man’s reaction?  It’s been the same for 6,000 years.

He will not always contend/strive/plead with mankind.  Strive is a good word too because there is that which God has done through time in working with different ones at different ages and different stages of life; but it’s been for their growth and development and that’s why only a few have been called through time.  There are only a small amount of people who were called in the first 4,000 years!  And God worked with each one individually; and then Jesus Christ came and was resurrected, the Son of God, and the Body of Christ began, the Church of God began where God began to work in a larger way with more people, larger numbers of people at the same time in an organized fashion, in a different way, a unique way through the Church and how the Church is fed, and on and on it goes, and what was given to them because of progressive revelation through time and where man was brought to 2,000 years ago with Christ and then the apostles and all that’s written in this book (the Bible) then beyond Malachi, the way it’s written in this book.  It’s a different order in different places but in this one here.

So, He will not always content/strive/plead; neither will He keep, and it doesn’t say ‘His anger,’ it’s a matter of His contending, His striving, His pleading forever.  It’s what it’s talking about.  It’s referring back to the ‘contending, the striving, the pleading’ forever.  Thank God there’s an end to all that!  There’s an end to the 6,000 years, there’s an end to man being allowed to govern himself, and there’s a new stage of life that begins then with the next 1,100 years of a plan that God has of even a greater way to save far more and to work with many, many more people now because Jesus Christ will be on this earth with 144,000 who are in the God Family, and now millions and millions can be worked with at the same time, to be begotten, to be in the Church of God, to be worked with, to be brought into God’s Kingdom.  Powerful, powerful the might of Almighty God to create His Family.  It’s astounding!

He has not always dealt with us according/after our sins; that’s for sure or we’ll all be just a little puff of smoke somewhere, little ashes somewhere a long time ago.  He has not always dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.  ...but He’s extended great patience and mercy to all of us, and to all of mankind candidly; but now it is time for judgment to be exercised upon mankind so that we can receive His greater purpose and blessings for mankind.

Verse 11 - For as the heaven is above the earth/is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.  What an awesome thing then when people come to a point in time where they begin to fear God...and it is, and that’s where some things begin.  It begins with an understanding of something that’s greater than you, something where people begin to see God and see the power and might of Almighty God – because the world doesn’t, Traditional Christianity doesn’t. They don’t grasp, they don’t see the power and the might of Almighty God, but God blesses us by His spirit, because it takes His spirit to begin to see it.  And so He draws us with His spirit, He begins to work with us; He helps us to see things. And sometimes things begin with a literal fear, but it’s a matter of an awe and develops into that which is a matter of awe in a relationship because that’s what God desires.  But sometimes to get our attention some things do begin at that basic stage.  But most of the meaning of this word is used as it grows and as we grow, it’s a matter of awe, it’s a matter of respect, it’s a matter of a relationship with God, honouring God, being in awe of God.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. He doesn’t bring them back up and slap us with them over and over again.  Sometimes that’s hard for people to do this but we’re supposed to do the same.  We’re supposed to learn... it’s a part of what forgiving means, being forgiving, to put it out of your mind in the sense of holding anything against anyone, in the sense of remembering it and using it against anyone.

Like as a father has compassion on his children, so the Eternal has compassion on those who fear Him.  Fear to do wrong, fear to do things different from what God says should be done – that kind of fear, to be in awe of God, to desire with all of your being to not want to displease God.  Just as a child does when they’re growing up they don’t want to displease their father and mother, they want to please them.  How much more, with a mature mind, Almighty God?

Verse 14 - For He knows our frame; He brings to remembrance that we are dust. Interesting how these words are used in Hebrew.  It’s not a matter that He doesn’t know or doesn’t remember, but chooses to in the process of righteous judgment and helps us to see and understand that and wants us to know and understand that – that He won’t forget.  He knows what we are, but don’t take advantage of that either, because human beings can do that, we tend to do that as human beings.

Verse 15 – And that the days of mankind are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. And so we learn from this.  It’s not like somehow God’s going to forget this and so He knows this and He remembers this.  No, it’s that which He wants us to know and understand.  He wants us to know how He thinks, how He feels toward us and what we need to grasp in all this as well because we learn a lot of lessons through this as time goes on; what life is.  It’s a matter of growth when you come to understand as you get older and older and as you’ve been in the Church for longer and longer, to understand what life and the purpose of life and the depth of life is all about; when you understand things about relationships and it’s in the relationships is what life is all about.  And you begin to understand it’s not going to be long and it’s going to be gone; and what do you have in it?  The integrity, the relationship, the truthfulness, the genuineness with God Almighty.

For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.  It’s an awesome thing.  How many of you know your great, great, great grandparents, know anything about them?  Or your great grandparents – maybe even your grandparents...  How much do we know?  Someone dies and life goes on and we forget and we go on.  That’s life, the process there.  Thank God there’s more to it; thank God there’s greater meaning – and He gives that to us to understand.  But that helps you too when you understand those things about life and about your nature and about your importance in life.  We’re pretty small and the world doesn’t revolve around us and it’ll go on quite well without us.  We’re here and we’re gone – doesn’t stop anything.  There’s a little bit of sorrow for a little while.  That’s why an eternal plan and a relationship in a Family, eternally, is so meaningful.

Verse 17 – But the mercy of the Eternal is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep His covenant; and to those who remember to do His commandments.  That’s God’s desire!  That’s why we’re at a stage of life that is unique for all of mankind that we get to witness.  We are witness of the most astounding times in all human history!  To be at this point in time....  How incredible is it to see a transfer from a time that has gone on for 6,000 years of man governing himself, of every kind of government that’s ever existed and always failed!  Every government of man has failed, and if time were to go on every government will fail!  That’s why it’s so hard sometimes for people when they live in the present and they’re filled with ego and pride and there’s no humility and no sobriety, soberness of mind, and people become puffed up with those things and how they treat each other and how they treat other nations.  This world is sick!  Human nature is sick!  Governments!  The government of man is sick!  There’s never been one that’s right except that which God has been a part of, and that didn’t last very long and there wasn’t very much of it...and that had to do with the leaders and the people who responded to them.

That’s why we live in such an awesome time!  How much do you desire it?  Do you know the price?  Do you know what has to take place in order for it to come about?  Are you praying about that in all earnestness and desire, to see God’s Kingdom come, to see God’s Government established and to see the remaining of that which is holy before God, the Seals and the Trumpets and the Thunders and the 7 Last Plagues – because they perform that which is HOLY before God in His righteous judgment on this earth!  And we have to see that and understand that with all of our being and pray about that in earnestness with all of our being.  I am, far more zealously than what I have been, and I hope you are, because that’s where we are in time...and there isn’t much left before Jesus Christ returns with 144,000 with Him and a new age is brought to pass.  You live in an awesome time and you get to witness it if you remain faithful and do God’s commandments and seek to be right with Him.

The Eternal has prepared His throne in the heavens; and His Kingdom to rule over all. It’s a plan that God had before the angels were ever brought into being; a Kingdom... and we’re almost there!  We’re almost there! Bless the Eternal, all you His angels who excel in strength, who do His commandments, responding/listening, if you will, to the voice of His Word. All you, Bless the Eternal, all of you His hosts and all you ministers of His who are to do His pleasure/purpose. Bless the Eternal and all His works in all the places of His dominion: Bless the Eternal, O my soul.  It says a lot!  Sometimes it’s good to take a Psalm like this and just pray – go through it and pray that it be you and your words to God, what you feel, what is inside of you, your expression toward God; because that’s why these things were written anyway, to give you strength in your prayers and your relationship with God, to build stronger relationships, to bring into understanding the purpose and design that God has and what He’s doing on this earth at this time.

Jesus Christ revealed much of what was written in the Old Testament.  When He spoke He would talk about various things that were being fulfilled in His time, things that were taking place; and in the Psalms especially, in His life, in Him and about His coming.  He gave a lot of quotes; a lot of things are quoted there over and over again, about Him being the Passover lamb, Him being the Messiah, things He gave to the disciples and things that others spoke of at that time, His being the High Priest, of things that Paul wrote about, things that are written in the Old Testament over and over again.  And the disciples continued revealing the same kind of thing, the same kind of things of a fulfillment of things that are written in the Old Testament.  And there are things in the Psalms, there are things written throughout the Bible that are for our time too, actually there are more. There’s more out of the Old Testament for our time now, of things that can be quoted, things you can say, things we have said.  It’s an awesome thing to understand the time we live in.

Let’s turn over to Psalm 76 because we’re living through a time when much more that is written in the Old Testament in the Psalms is for this time now, and indeed for the coming of the Messiah and the coming of God’s Kingdom and the things that have to happen at an end-time.

Psalm 76:1 - In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel.  Now, this is more about the spiritual fulfillment of both Judah and Israel, and of that which is physical only in part.  In Salem also in His tabernacle – Jerusalem again, over and over again, peace, God’s purpose, God’s plan.  In Salem also is His tabernacle, in peace.  God has a plan.  There was a time when we didn’t understand certain things in the Church and we didn’t understand the 144,000 and the different tribes of Israel. Let me back up; there was this idea that because the 12 tribes that were listed there in Revelation, that somehow 12,000 had to come out of each tribe to make up the 144,000, that it was out of physical Israel.  And yet that wasn’t what it was about whatsoever!  It’s about a plan that God had to fulfill something that He was building, which would use the names of Israel and of those different tribes and so forth.  And so when it mentions Judah here, it’s a good example of that, and Israel, because it involves all of them in that respect.  And so when you go through and read some of those things later on in the book of Revelation and it talks about them and different tribes and different names that are going to be on the temple and so forth, on the tabernacle, or whatever.  It’s all inclusive about what God is doing – as Salem is here.  And so, again, 144,00 made up of all kinds of people from all over the world, of different nationalities, tongues and so forth through time, through the past 6,000 years; before Israel ever existed there are going to be people who are part of Israel...because it’s about the Church, it’s about what God is building and the names they’re going to carry and those names that are pre-ordained.

In Salem also is His tabernacle, this word ‘tabernacle’ is a very unique Hebrew word that’s used only four times.  It’s not the common word you would find for ‘tabernacle’; it’s unique here, it’s used four times and not a word at all, in that respect, for tabernacle, but one that conveys something that ‘He has built for His place of residing.’  It’s unique!  It’s something He has built and His dwelling place in Zion.  And so we are growing in understanding those things, about Salem, about peace, about God’s purpose and His desire to dwell in it, to live in it.  That’s what He’s built for Himself, that’s what He dwells in and He wants us to learn to dwell in it and become a part of it.

...and in His dwelling place in Zion.  There He broke the arrows of the bow, an expression that means more than what it says here in the King James.  It’s talking about that which is like a fiery arrow, like when they light them and they’re shooting through the air at an enemy to destroy.  It’s what it’s talking about here... HE broke the fiery arrows (in essence) of the enemies, the shield, and the sword, and the battle.  In other words, the shields and swords and weapons of war.  That’s what it’s talking about here – God does it!  God destroys!  And this is where we are now.  It’s where we are in time, more than any other time in human history whether it be physical and spiritual, it’s all here, because this is what we’ve come down to, it’s where we are now, what we’ve come to and to pray to God that it be powerful and swift to accomplish His great purpose – to destroy the enemy.  That’s where we are in time!  That’s what God is getting ready to do – at least in large part even the spiritual enemy, to put him away for a thousand years until his further judgment is carried out where he can’t bother human beings anymore, nor those who have followed him, and also the world that’s resisted and every government that’s resisted as well.  God has a plan clear up to the 7 Last Plagues to destroy every power that exists on this earth – that which man relies upon.

You are glorious and more excellent than the mountains of prey. There are poetic things sometimes expressed and sometimes in Hebrew it’s hard for people to know what is being stated anyway, but having to do with mountains rich with sustaining life.

The stouthearted, meaning the boldest of enemies, are spoiled/plundered, so the very strongest and the stronger, the more stouthearted, if you will, and it’s talking about the boldness against God, like Pharaoh - he was bold against God, that some have.  Human leaders tend to be very bold against God.  They don’t want to even conceive of God telling them what to do.  They might bring in different ideas about their God or a concept of God and use it to their own advantage like so often happens with politics anyway in life.  It doesn’t matter where it is in the world; anywhere in the world!

The boldest of enemies/the stouthearted are spoiled, they’re plundered.  God is going to bring it down!  Well, this is that time, this is that time those things have to happen, the stouthearted, I think of Wall Street, in a distorted way and how people think against God because of greed, because of all the things that exist there how far human beings will go to push something, to do something.  And some of them know!  They know the shenanigans, they know the lies, they know the trickery of things that most people don’t understand!  That’s why they continue to make so much whether it’s going up or coming down; they know how to get wealthy and rich off of the suffering of others.  Sick world!  So the boldness against God, those who will practice those things that are wrong, that they know are wrong in order to take advantage of others. They don’t care! They don’t care who it is as long as they come out ahead.  And that’s where we are in time for these things to now transpire, written right here in this book of Psalms that you’re reading today.

They have stumbled/drifted into sleep, fully unaware of what’s upon them.  It’s their choice!  Taken totally off guard with what’s coming because of their blindness to push forward to do what they’re going to do regardless of what’s out there. You know, the handwriting is on the wall and it’s like every decision that’s made, it doesn’t matter whether it has to do with the economy or government or whatever, any bit of soundness of mind or wisdom; it reminds me of things written in the Old Testament when those who would council with the kings and when they didn’t live right wrong council was given over and over consistently, and they did bad things, wrong things, everything turned against them – didn’t matter what they chose to do!  Because it was against God it was always bad and it always worked against them!  And that’s where we are in time, again, with what’s taking place around us – bad advice.  It doesn’t matter what they choose to do, things work against them.  It’s because of their motives and where they’re headed and what they seek to accomplish.

You have an ability to see some things that great leaders don’t grasp and comprehend, economists don’t grasp and comprehend; things that you grasp and understand, what’s happening.  China’s rising.  If time were to go on who’s going to stop it?  Who’s going to change it?  Different countries calling more and more for a mixture of funds in a world reserve without the dollar – people don’t care, they’re blinded to it. It’s like it’s not really going to happen to ‘us’ because candidly we’re too great, we’re too big; and yet we’re being passed up.  How many years would it take?  They’re forecasting China will be far ahead of us, India far ahead of us, Brazil far ahead of us, Europe far ahead of us.  Awesome to understand the handwriting that’s on the wall, but who will read it?  You’re able to.  Incredible!

They have stumbled/drifted into sleep, fully unaware of what’s upon them, totally off guard: and none of the men of might, the leaders, the people of influence and power, have found their hands.

And none of the men of might have found their hands, as it’s stated here. In other words, just like talking of battle, lifting of a hand to battle or defeat of what is coming.  There’s not a thing they can do.

At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, behold the chariots and the horse are cast into deep sleep. Everything that constitutes power, doesn’t matter what it is, and what they ultimately trust in. You, even You, are to be feared: and who may stand at Your sight when once You are angry?  And it has to do with judgment.  When we read something like this we think of human anger.  God isn’t like that.  But judgment and the fierceness of it, yes; for our good, yes; motivated by what?  Agape, godly love, yes.  And it’s hard for human beings to understand that.

So when God releases His judgment, His correction, His punishment, it’s powerful, truly is, and nothing will stand against Him.  AND THAT’S WHERE WE ARE IN TIME!!  THE MATTERS OF JUDGMENT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN that we have read about are about THIS time!! We read about continually in the Old Testament and things having to do with what we read about in Revelation, that 2008 – God’s Final Witness was written about.

You have caused judgment to be heard from heaven; When?  Man hasn’t listened.  Been a few times when it’s shaken the earth in the time of the flood, and a family survived and how did it affect them?  It was tough.  It was tough even on Noah.  After all that he saw, and saw what his children did, they didn’t honour God, they were angry against God, they murmured against God.  And Noah had to watch his family grow up, something that should have shaken people to the core of their being so they would change for the rest of their lives and pass it from generation to generation to generation and they didn’t do it... and Noah drank to escape, because the horror that was in his mind.  You can’t comprehend!  You cannot comprehend what Noah went through!  We read little stories like that sometimes and we don’t grasp the tearing apart at the heart and the mind that can take place in a person’s life...and God gave him Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham, toward the end of his life.  And I can tell you, Noah saw something before he died that gave him strength in his old age after all he went through.

Can’t comprehend living hundreds of years.  I would not want to live a hundred years! I mean that with all my being.  I would loathe to live a hundred years on this earth.  I am so anxious to change, to be changed that it isn’t funny, because of what I see on this earth, because of what I’ve experienced, because of what God has given me to see.  I do not desire to live any longer than what I have to live on this earth, truly, and I mean that with all my being!  That’s why I cringe to think of someone who had to live for several hundred years in the midst of evil.

We can read the story, but I can tell you you don’t begin to comprehend it and I hope you’ll think about that.  There are a lot of things we read in the Bible we just don’t grasp until some things hit us, then we begin to grasp it in part.

You have caused judgment to be heard from heaven; THIS IS PROPHETIC AND IT’S PROPHETIC FOR OUR TIME, just as when Jesus Christ quoted scriptures for His time, as the disciples quoted things in their time in the book of Acts, THIS IS FOR YOUR TIME RIGHT NOW!  This is the judgment that we’re talking about, that has to come on this earth and come swiftly to do its job, so we can be on with the new age in a new world, because nothing else will cause people to repent and change!  ...and to allow for one Church, one Government to exist on this earth – save God do it through great power, love and mercy.  And He’s shown incredible patience to bring it all about.

You have caused judgment to be heard from heaven; then the earth feared, and was still, hasn’t happened like it’s going to happen here.  Hasn’t happened like it’s getting ready to happen now, because you see, everything that we read about here in the past few weeks about a few Thunders has meant NOT A THING TO THIS WORLD!! THEY DON’T CARE!!  They don’t recognize them as Thunders, only the Church does!  Only the Church can see and grasp a little bit from those things; that yes indeed that’s what it is.  But it’s not causing people to change!  We haven’t even gotten back yet to what it was when it first began back in 2008 at the end of the year, and by the time things started crashing down – then people had some fear because all of a sudden their life savings... and it was that initial shock, which isn’t there anymore because they think that they’re going to get it back.  Because of God’s mercy in giving time we’re learning things about human nature and understanding in a great way why we are where we are now and why things must begin very powerfully in order to humble people, because only in that fashion will people listen and people learn.

That’s why we’re not dumping a lot of money into advertising yet, because it’s a waste of money.  There’s no point in it.  We have increased it, but nothing compared to what it was back in those days when people had more fear and they wanted some answers and they were scared, that something was going on but they didn’t know exactly what or why.  A lot of you, because of why you came along; God used that as a part of drawing you, of getting your attention.  How many times over must that be multiplied with power over and over again with great rapidity to bring people to their knees, to bring people to a point where they will be converted in larger numbers?  It’s going to take a lot!  ...and that’s God’s mercy.  And those who don’t come through it, that’s God’s mercy.  God has the power to resurrect and bring them back into a beautiful, awesome world.  We only know about it but we can’t fully grasp it yet, what that hundred years is going to be like.

I think of some of the most blessed at that time.  You know who they are?  Little children. Fresh minds, never polluted like mankind has been in the last 6,000 years.  They are the most blessed in 7,100 years as far as where they began.  They don’t have to have this messed up mind to deal with and to work with.  They get to start something fresh and to embrace God’s way and to learn from all that past garbage of 7,000 years that went before.  There are going to be lessons in the last 1,000 to learn from as well, but nothing like the previous 6,000 years before that.  And how they’re going to be able to grow and be blessed... God’s very merciful.  Sometimes it’s hard for us to grasp that.

Not a good place in the last 6,000 years to have had to grow up, to be abused in your mind and in your being by this world.  There are a lot of scars.  There are a lot of scars in your mind.  A lot of you that are listening have some deep scars because of things that happened in your life and that is multiplied millions and millions and billions of time’s over in humanity because of the evils of mankind, the perversions, the greed, the selfishness, the lying, the hatred, the bitterness, the wars, the murder...and it affects people’s relationships in life then after those things have happened to them, to where they struggle then to have and reach something they can’t really attain to because of those scars that continually affect their relationships the rest of their life...until God calls you and begins to heal your mind.

So we live in a unique time, we truly do; a time of judgment, a time when things were rattled for a little bit at the beginning, at the end of 2008.  And God has extended mercy and we’ve learned what that does for mankind and why the time has run out and mercy can’t be extended.  We’ve got a work to do.  How much is your heart in it?  Because it means you want to see these things come to pass as well; you want to see the fulfillment of these things with all of your being, powerfully so.  You want to see mankind brought to his knees so that he can be humbled with a meek spirit so you can teach him and work with him, you truly do.

You have caused judgment to be heard from heaven; then the earth feared, and was still. When God rose up to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth.  They’re the ones that can be worked with, the teachable.  That’s what meek means, to be humbled to a point to where a person is teachable.  We’re entering a period of time, especially in the scattered nations of Israel, that have to do with bringing people from all of the earth but residing in those regions of the world, because of what God has given to them and where God is working first and foremost, and why people are in those regions of the world in the first place where He’s working with them, to bring them to repentance, to bring them into the Church of God, to have them prepared as a part of the Body of Christ to meet Jesus Christ when He returns.  What an awesome thing; to have a great and a mighty Church, begotten Body there waiting when you [Christ] return. It’s about His glory and about God’s glory.  It’s about glorifying Jesus Christ and the Body of Christ and what God is going to accomplish in this end-time.  But it can’t happen unless these things take place.

How much do you want them to take place?  That’ll determine  your prayers and how earnest and how deep and how rich they are before God – like smoke in an offering that’s sweet smelling to God; because some of those things talked about in Revelation are about this time, and about your prayers, and about what comes up before God.  This is not a pleasant time, it’s a hard time. Sometimes to exercise love, when judgment is a part of it, is a difficult thing to do.

Verse 10 - Surely the wrath of man shall praise You: one translation captures the essence of this, it’s saying ‘human defiance only enhances Your glory’.  Amazing!  Human defiance only enhances Your glory, the power of God to humble mankind to where mankind can go from a haughty, proud, arrogant spirit that has all the answers to one of being a babe and saying, “Help me Holy Father to change.  Teach me. Teach me how to live.” Glorifies God in His purpose and His plan.

...the remainder/the rest of man’s wrath, is what it’s talking about here, shall You gird Yourself with, magnify and strengthen You.  Doesn’t matter what man does, whether he be humbled or not, it’s going to glorify God because God is going to shake this earth – especially in the 7 Last Plagues.  In the beginning when God began to show that that was in a single day, what He was going to do, I couldn’t comprehend it.  I still can’t fully comprehend it, but I believe it and see it in a far greater way than I ever did before and I grasp the magnitude of it and the reasons for it and why on that particular day, as He did with the flood, He’s going to destroy so many...and wake them up later.  Quick death and then be awakened a thousand years later.  God can do it.  There’s no purpose for them to continue to resist.  And that is another part of humbling them and bringing them to a point where they can be humbled; because so many can’t be humbled.  Human beings in this age...it is an awesome thing to understand, that no matter what we go through and how bad it gets, the vast majority of human beings will STILL not humble themselves – they’ll die first before they will humble themselves before God and say, “Help me, teach me.”  They’ll fight for their will to the end, not God’s will.  God’s going to come out on top and rule over mankind.

Verse 11 – Vow and pay unto the Eternal your God; let all who would be round about Him bring offerings unto Him who should be feared/honoured, and be in awe of God.  He shall cut off the spirit of princes.  He is a terror, or to be feared, by the kings of the earth.  That’s what this is talking about; and in time there’ll be those who do fear what comes upon them, ripple after ripple, wave after wave of things that take place.

So it’s indeed time to pray, that we pray far more zealously ‘Your Kingdom come’, and to understand what that means for our time right now.  And we need to understand why it’s so important that we do so as a matter of mercy and of love as well. You can’t separate them.  If we don’t see that we don’t grasp it.  Right now we’re at a delicate stage for mankind and I hope we see that more as we go through this and why we’ve had the time we have and why things are going to begin to change and why this is such a delicate thing and actually come in greater awe of how God is doing it in order to work with such large numbers of people and to do what He’s going to accomplish.

So we need to pray more earnestly that God begin quickly to intervene far more powerfully in the affairs of this world as a matter of great mercy and love, truly; to bring about the final fulfillment of the Seals, the Trumpets, the Thunders and the 7 Last Plagues.  God desires to know our heart and our true spirit and our unity with Him, He truly does, and He desires that we grasp more fully, that we grow in deeper understanding of exactly what He has been doing and why.

Let’s turn over to Exodus.  I don’t know if we have time here but we’re going to start introducing some of this as we go along.  There’s so much to cover.  Although this has been alluded to in times past, there are things we’re going to go through here in Exodus so that we can more fully grasp God’s mercy, to grasp His great love, the perfect timing of how He’s doing things in order to bring these things about so that He can bring so many to repentance and conversion.  But I’ve alluded to this in times past and also recently in some of the sermons about Egypt and about Pharaoh.  And there’s a uniqueness in understanding some of the differences and yet some of the likenesses and why God does and what God’s purpose is in how He goes about to accomplish it – and the perfect timing in it all in the sense of how He works with human nature.  God knows us inside... He knows how people will respond.  He knows how governments will respond.  That’s why so many things are already being moulded and fashioned and set into motion, things that are happening in Europe, things that are happening in Asia – such perfect timing and things that people are doing and how they’re feeling about other nations like this nation and what’s happening in the Middle East and all this uproar that’s taking place.  God’s perfect timing in every bit of it to bring it about in such a massive and a powerful way.  It’s incredible what He’s doing, truly is!

Exodus 8: going back and looking at the example of Pharaoh here and we’re going to jump in on this particular plague at the very beginning here, the second plague of the frogs, and begin discussing some of this and learning from it.

This fits into the season of the year we’re approaching as well because we’re approaching Passover season and the spiritual analogies are here of God bringing us out of Egypt spiritually. Those are the analogies – as He did the Israelites out of Egypt, bringing us out of spiritual Egypt and the process we go through in our individual lives and on and on it goes and the powers that exist and the fight that takes place.  Exodus 8:1 - And the Eternal said unto Moses, Go to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the Eternal, Let My people go that they may serve Me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs: or strike it with frogs, a plague of frogs.  So their excitement about worshipping it is going to take on a different smell... all the things that Egyptians worshiped and so forth...you think about this one and what happened here, it’s apropos and humorous as well, but it wasn’t to them.

So the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come up into your house, and into your bedroom, and on your bed, into your houses and your servants, and your people, and into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls: right in there with the food – frogs everywhere. And the frogs shall come up on you and on your people, and on all your servants. Now, this was bad, but it wasn’t a catastrophe or catastrophic event in the sense of what’s going to happen in this world because of the Trumpets and so forth.  This was just very annoying and it’s called a plague, but it’s nothing like the 7 Last Plagues, because in those 7 Last Plagues God destroys hundreds of millions of people in one day, in Asia, in Europe and different places of those who resist Him and refuse to change and refuse to repent; and then He’ll wake them up a thousand years later and then they’ll be able to be worked with in a beautiful world.  It’ll already be set. The work will have been done.  Incredible!

So to get the attention of the nation this had to affect everyone in a diverse way.  It was to get the attention of the nation, it was to get the attention of the Israelites to teach lessons there, it was written to teach us lessons for the future; but this particular plague came upon everyone.  And for the world and for us and for the world around us up to this point in time, speaking of where we are now in time, we can see that what has happened concerning the Seals of Revelation, the 7th Seal being fulfilled, in other words just being opened, the 1st Trumpet sounding and the Thunders becoming louder has only been seen (as I mentioned earlier) by us, by the Church, by those God is calling and by those that God is preparing because there are people listening out there who still haven’t decided what they’re doing; but God’s working with them and preparing them.  And especially for the Church, we see and we believe; it’s a conviction we have.  The world doesn’t, as I said.  The world doesn’t believe this at all!  Takes a lot more, doesn’t it?

So again, God has extended mercy and time to this world so that more can potentially be brought into a new age and into the Church before a new age arrives, before Jesus Christ returns.  But time is now becoming precious and at a delicate stage.  And God wants us to see that!  Because if we understand the delicate timing of everything it helps us to be in greater awe of God and what He’s doing and how He’s doing it.  Because of human nature and how people respond and react to various things and the specific timing of things being accomplished you are going to witness awesome things that people on the earth have never seen.  Moses never saw anything like what you’re going to see, to the magnitude – and he saw great things!  But you’re going to see far greater in the marvels of how God works with this entire world to do what He’s getting ready to do; one stage after another and how it fits together.

Look inside a Swiss watch when they show all the little gears...the jewels... everything that’s in there and you marvel at the intricacy of something to work as it does there.  And that’s kind of minor in comparison to some things but at least you can kind of get a physical appearance, look at something like that and see how it works and marvel at some of that...and it’s nothing, the counting of time and bringing it around to something that’s consistent like that.  But for God to bring events and peoples and thinking to a perfect timing?  It’s an awesome thing!

But now time is becoming precious in a delicate stage in order to convert and accomplish the work that He’s prepared us to do.  Let’s turn over to Revelation 5.  We’re going to be coming back and forth into some of the things in Exodus, but I have some time here, I want to go ahead and start on this.  And again, we know the order of things that God is going to begin pouring out judgment first and foremost in a very powerful way on Manasseh, on this nation – first.  And if we look at some of the things that happened upon Egypt, they were about a very specific work that God was doing at that time to accomplish a very specific end.  And we’re going to see that as we go through this story of Exodus, because it’s vastly different from what God is doing now but there are similarities only because of human nature and how people respond to various events and things in their lives and things about God.  And so we are now at the time when God is going to begin humbling Manasseh, because with the 2nd Trumpet that’s what happens, and with the stronger Thunders that’s what’s going to happen.  Thunders will be all over the world, but they’re going to increase as well along with some of the Trumpets that continue to blast once they’re sounded.

Revelation 5: to understand that the Seals of Revelation were ordained of God (hopefully this will drive the point home in a way that helps us to be in greater awe of God and the awesomeness of everything that’s written in those seals), they were sanctified by God for holy use and purpose.

Revelation 5:1 - And I saw at the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to break the seals and to open the scroll? And no one in heaven, or in the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the scroll, or to look on it.  Not worthy to even look on the scroll!  What is God showing?  He’s showing the awesomeness of what this scroll contains! And it’s powerful, it truly is, about the end of an age and things that have to be unveiled in a very powerful way to humble the earth for God’s holy use and purpose...and no one was found worthy to open it, not even to look upon it.  Says a lot because of its importance before God.

So it says, and I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and to read the scroll, OR to LOOK ON IT! Drive that home!  What an awesome thing!  But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to break the 7 Seals and to open the scroll.  And I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Again, things that John saw in vision, how do you write about them?  But yet revealing so much of the magnitude and the power of something that God wants us to grasp and to understand the depth of its importance to Him.

Then He came and took the scroll, …all these things we’re now reading did not have to do with John’s time nearly 2,000 years ago but they are for our time today, for things we have been living through already.  This is the point in time that this is all about.  Awesome to understand!  Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. And now when He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and a golden bowl full of incense, each one of the golden bowls.  Again, incense, which are the prayers of saints.  FOR OUR TIME NOW!!!  We’re talking about NOW, and the times we’ve been living in already, but it becomes more powerful the farther you go along into the story of the unveiling of these things and the fulfillment of those things concerning the 7 Seals.  Powerful stuff, truly is, and God wants us to grasp that and the importance of that and in our lives too and the importance of where we live now in our time – because this sermon today is given because it’s timely and because these things are about now, what God wants us to grasp and see in a greater way, to be in greater awe of, and to be a part of.

We are co-workers together and we grow through this and God gives us greater strength through this.  He is giving me greater strength in this.  He will give you greater strength through this process.  It’s an awesome thing to experience and to live, where we are and what we’re going through in time...and you haven’t seen anything yet.  You can’t even begin to grasp and imagine what’s before you.  We’ve read about them, but to understand them... you live in awesome times, you truly do.

...which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll, and to break it’s Seals: for You were slain, and have redeemed them, speaking of the saints because it’s referring back to the prayers of the saints through time – but they accumulate, they build up to their fulfillment and that’s what we’re reading about.  When the 1st Seal was opened, that’s the beginning of their fulfillment and the prayers of the saints and those things that begin to go up through a very traumatic and dramatic time in history – they build up to this point in time.  And those that were there then, as they were to continue on, to be a part, to be sealed, still here aren’t they?  You are worthy to take the scroll; to break it’s Seals: for You were slain, and have redeemed them, speaking again of the saints, to God by Your blood out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation; And have made them... not just Israelites, not of the scattered 12 tribes, but of all peoples who will bear their names, because they were foreordained – Israel.

And have made us them, speaking of the saints, kings and priests to our God: something that’s been going on for 2,000 years and now has been brought to the point that there is one worthy to open the Seals, to break them and to unveil what’s there...that it can now all begin.  We’ve been living through it.  Some of you haven’t, some of you’ve been called at different stages. Some of us have lived through the entire part/portion of when this all began.  And they the saints, speaking of those saints again because it’s always referring back to those saints which are the 144,000, shall reign on the earth. Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders: and the number of them was as ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

Verse 12 - Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and we’re getting close to that, closer and closer; and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. But some of it begins in a very powerful way when He starts breaking the Seals. And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth...

What was it like for God?  What was it like for Jesus Christ to break that 1st Seal?  To see something that He had worked with for so long have to be spewed out of His mouth, vomited out of His mouth; a matter of love and a matter of mercy.  In that day I was loved of God and God gave me great mercy.  The Harrell’s back there were sitting in the very auditorium when that sermon was given.  On the day it was given they were witnesses of that.  Awesome!  Hurt?  Pain?  Absolutely.  But that was a beginning of a part of why I’m here today, why others are here today, and why you’re here today.  God’s mercy and God’s love, because we couldn’t have been here any other way.  We wouldn’t be where we are spiritually any other way!

Without the rest of the Trumpets and the Thunders becoming far, far, far more pronounced, and the 7 Last Plagues, God’s Kingdom wouldn’t come.

~~~end

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