Pentecost – Pt. 3

Ron Weinland

June 18, 2011

We’re going to continue today with Part 3 of the sermon on Pentecost.  There is so much to cover in this particular subject that we’re going to continue in it today and this will be the conclusion of this series.

What an awesome thing to consider where we are in time, to understand the last Pentecost we just observed last weekend, that Pentecost weekend is the last opportunity for everyone to come together and spend time together for Pentecost in a very unique environment knowing it’s the last one of this age that we’ll be keeping, that the new one will be quite unique, the one that’s coming next year with the return of Jesus Christ, those things that are so astounding and so awesome, and yet even for us in God’s Church, sometimes a little difficult to comprehend, a little difficult even to believe when you’re living it, when you live by faith.  Because it is a matter of living strictly by faith, and you look back through the scriptures in the Bible and all those who lived by faith, we are learning more of what it means to live by faith, we truly are.  Things that will be written about us as it has been written about others in times past, because they lived and believed things right up to the time it happened.  Others lived things that never came to pass, but they lived it because they believed what God gave to them; and so it is as we look around the world, as things continue to build up and prepare for the timing that God has in His hands, fully in God’s timing as to when and how things take place. We can look just a little bit around the world as we continue forward and see how things continue to escalate.  The world is ripe, the world is ready.

I think of scriptures that talk about this in Revelation.  Some of the things it talks about are incredible.  And in the Old Testament it says it almost exactly the same way, some of these things that are mentioned, but it speaks of a time that’s coming and it talks about those things that are ripe in the world as far as the evil that’s in the world, the sickness that’s in the world and the time that God allotted to mankind of 6,000 years, of what it would build up to before everything came crashing down before the end of the age.  And those analogies are here about a great winepress, the great winepress of God.

Revelation 19:13 – talking about those things that go right to the very end of the age.  Talking about the time when Jesus Christ returns; but the Old Testament in some of these same kinds of scriptures, it’s a build up in time, it’s not just a one day event even though some of these things are zeroing in on a one day event.  Some of these things talk about here, as it talks about Jesus Christ wearing a vesture... And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God.  Again, something we’ve just covered again recently, being in awe of what it means, the very Word of God, the very being, the very mind, the very essence of the purpose of mind of God Almighty put into a child.  We can’t comprehend all that because we’re able to drink in of God’s mind, of the mind of God, the Word of God, once we’re called; but Jesus Christ from birth began to grow with that mind, with that thinking – and an awesome process of life that we don’t fully yet understand, but as we grow we come to understand it more and more in time.  The more we grow spiritually the more we comprehend it.

And the armies which were in heaven followed upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. It’s talking about the Day of Pentecost that’s coming next year; the next Day of Pentecost with those armies that are with Jesus Christ, those who have been prepared for such a long, long time. God has had great patience for 6,000 years, and all those with whom He has worked over that period of time, of those who are going to come with Him in that great army.  Because He comes back with great power to take control of this earth.

And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: in other words, finally the Word of God, the law of God, the way of God is enforced on this earth.  It won’t be allowed to have other religions on this earth anymore.  It won’t be allowed that other governments try to rise up again.  Those things aren’t going to be allowed, so in that respect, for those who try to rebel, or try to turn against God during that period of time, God will deal with them swiftly and quickly through Jesus Christ and those who come with Him.

...and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: He takes it by force this time.  He comes as a Lion, not as a Lamb.  He came the first time as a Lamb to die.  You’d think the Protestant world would get a little bit, a small picture at least, to grasp, to comprehend that He is the Lamb of God.  If He’s the Lamb of God surely this has a connection with Passover?  And yet they reject Passover in order to embrace the Catholic teaching of Easter.  Incredible the deceptions that are in this world!

And it says, and He treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. ‘...treads the winepress,’ just like the grapes that are ripe on the vine and ready to be pressed.  That’s the example that’s given for this end-time; that the evil of this world has grown to that degree.  I wasn’t planning on reading this but there are scriptures in the Old Testament that speak of exactly the same analogy here, speaking of the very same thing, and we could read the rest here, but again, talking about Jesus Christ and the return of Jesus Christ; an awesome event, an awesome time.

And so we live in that kind of an age, when the world doesn’t see things as being so bad out here.  People in the United States today are more complacent than they were two years ago.  Two years ago they got a bit of a shake up.  They don’t feel that shaken up as a whole right now. It’s like what happened to the Church on a spiritual plane when finally we had an apostasy and it shook the Church; it didn’t take very long for the same spirit to come back again that led into the apostasy in the first place – falling asleep, a desire of rather burying one’s head in the sand rather than facing reality and having to make hard decisions.  Just like when you were called into God’s Church, when that happens in your life you have to make some tough choices!  You have to decide if you’re going to obey the Sabbath Day, if you’re going to change your lifestyle because of that and obey God.  Because much has to change in your life when you begin to obey God when it comes to the Sabbath day, when it comes to the Holy Days, and you stand up for what you believe against your relatives and against others who still want you to keep Christmas, or whatever it might be, and you take your stand and say, “No more.  I’ve made my decision.”

Well, at some point within God’s Church we came to a point where God had to spew us out of His mouth because we came to a point where it was easier, and because of complacency and because of being lukewarm we didn’t even have the strength to address it in the first place on a spiritual plane.  So it is in like manner in this world today as we head toward what we’re heading toward.  And so something happened a couple of years ago that should have shaken people to the core of their being, and did for a little while, but it didn’t last very long.  And now some things are being compared to that period of time; that maybe we’ll have a ‘double-dip’, or maybe it’s going to be a whole lot worse this time around and so people are starting to panic in some circles, not very many.  The average person on the street doesn’t care to listen; they really prefer not to know, just like in the scattered Church – déjà vu.

I think back of things we began to address as God began to give us strength again and began to address things about Passover. And I would get up and give sermons about Passover, 14th/15th, and some would ask, “Why are you putting so much emphasis on that?  What’s the big deal?!”  Because people didn’t desire to hear, because there was that one organization that we were in in the beginning that half the ministry (it was guesstimated at that time), believed in the 14th/15th Passover.  It’s a big deal!  It’s a big deal if you want to have a right relationship with God.

And so people didn’t really want to know; and the same way today.  We’ve noticed a levelling off for some time now in requests for books in the U.S., whereas in some cases over here, sometimes it pops up a little bit more.  Wasn’t it last week in the Netherlands and Belgium where it was higher a little bit?  Just a little bit.  We put more funds back into it for a little while, while the tsunami and the nuclear meltdown in Japan was happening, and there was a noticeable jump in Australia, and if memory serves me right there was a jump over here but not as much of a jump in the U.S.  And the tornadoes came along and the floods came along and the fires came along in the U.S. and still levelling off.  People don’t care.  God has to shake the earth, shake mankind, bringing things to that point in time – because it’s the only thing that gets people’s attention, especially when it affects your wallet, your bank account and whatever.

So we talked a little bit about that even last week, about some of the things happening in the world; and this week’s news, again, the things going on that as a whole people don’t even know about.  They don’t even want to listen to it.  Here’s one....

[1] US Housing Crisis is Worse than the Great Depression

CNBC - Tuesday, 14 Jun 2011

But who cares?  Who cares over there?

It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006....

Which people weren’t aware of as a whole until 2008 – but as a whole, going on here, it says it began then.  At least they’re acknowledging a few of these things now.

...and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.

Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.

The news comes as the Federal Reserve considers whether the economy has regained enough strength to stand on its own and as unemployment remains at a still-elevated 9.1 percent, throwing into question whether the recovery is real.

I hear this all the time, ‘the recovery’.  You think, “What recovery?  What are you smoking? What are you drinking in your tea?  What’s going on with your mind?”  And yet this continues on because it’s a belief, it’s a faith.  The stock market is a faith; it’s a matter of faith.  It’s not a matter of what is real in the world.  And those kinds of things have continued on, they continue on and I guess they’re trying to decide whether they need to print more money or what.

And so people are getting worried, some are crying out that things are getting worse, that things are going to be horribly bad as we continue forward here shortly, that it won’t take long.  Another one....

[2] Spring 2011 U.S. Climate Extremes

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Climatic Data Center

The spring (March-May) of 2011, particularly April, brought extreme weather and climate events to many parts of the United States. Tornadoes, flooding, drought, and wildfires ravaged many parts of the country during the period...

And some of these same things are happening in other parts of the world.  Look at China, incredible drought and now incredible flooding in the same spots; no crops before and no crops now.  Things that are happening in parts of Europe, southern Germany, France, other places we’ve heard of, I think here in the United Kingdom; crops, and people worried, people talking about having a third as much as what they had the year before or the year before that.  And if you multiply that around the world what do you have when things get bad?  Some really difficult times when there’s not enough food.  And so it talks about these things and it says....

...and each of these extremes broke long-standing records and have been compared to the 'worst such cases' in history. While similar extremes have occurred throughout modern American history, never before have they occurred in a single month. (emphasis added)

Isn’t that what we’ve been saying and talking about?  Realizing what’s happening in the world and the escalation and the compounding of these things over and over again.  But again, people don’t take note and they don’t sit up and listen.  The things that are happening as far as what’s happening in the Middle East and different parts of the earth right now.  Just last week China, Iran and Russia got together for a big pow-wow talking about the future.  Not a small thing that’s taking place there.  Making plans, being joined closer and closer at the hip, alliances around the world that are being formed for a great purpose of what’s getting ready to take place.  Syria, the borders of Turkey and Lebanon right now that are in turmoil; it’s not pleasant over there and some of those countries don’t like what’s going on.  Turkey doesn’t like what’s taking place and refuges and such that are coming over there...and talk about war with Syria because of some of those things, if they continue on with their escapades, and the fact that they can invade and carve out a part of the land for those refugees and so forth.  Incredible what people might do and things that can take place when pushed up against a wall.  And that’s not even talking about Yemen and Bahrain and Libya and the things that continue on in other places.

Japan yesterday in the news again; the radiation is far, far higher than what they previously believed.  Incredible problems that exist.  A volcano in Chile, incredible!  You think, “Well, what effect does that have on anything besides air travel?”  Well, by the time it’s circled the earth once, which it has now, it’s back to Chile again...it’s circled and gone all the way around and that ash cloud has now reached Chile again.  Think, “What big deal is that?”  Anytime there’s been anything like that in history it affects crops, it affects weather; all-these-things work together for a purpose and a reason that when it’s God’s time it will happen.

We could go on and on week by week talking about these things, but as long as your eyes are attentive, as long as you are focused, as long as you are on guard... because-even-in-God’s-Church you can fall asleep and you can get to the point where you get tired of hearing.  But hearing and keeping focused is so important to you right now in your spiritual life and your spiritual well being because this isn’t a matter of just making it through from here to the next Pentecost, it’s about how you live your life between now and next Pentecost, how you think toward people, whether you’re responding to God and changing your life and continuing to fight this battle and understand the need to be spiritually alert and spiritually on guard.  And so again, Pentecost.

Let’s turn over to Leviticus 23, because everything comes together this next Pentecost, or it’s completed and a new world begins, but not without a lot of problems and a lot of difficulties of suffering on this earth for mankind.  So it’s a beautiful picture here.  When I go through the Holy Days and talk about them, this one here, I have to say right now because of where we are in time and because of the fulfillment of Pentecost taking place here by next Pentecost, it is so awesomely inspiring, it is so awesomely moving and I hope and pray it is to you too, because if it isn’t you need to ask God for help, that you be stirred up, that you be excited about what He is excited about.  That’s what God gives us the opportunity for.  I have noticed in the last couple of Feast of Tabernacles that God has been giving us more and more because we can’t even begin to comprehend how immensely excited God is that finally after all this time He’s almost there!  What He has worked for, the temple He has been building for 6,000 years, it’s almost ready; the beginning part of it anyway, the framework of it if you will, the foundation and so forth of that temple is almost there!

God has worked a long time to bring this to pass, looking forward to those whom He has worked with to be resurrected and brought back to life again, those whom He spent time with, ate meals with.  Abraham?  Sat down to eat with him in the form of a man, but very much God Almighty. Things we can’t comprehend sometimes.  Those with whom He appeared to in different manners and different times and spoke with at different times, that all with whom He communicated, had a relationship.  Because when God gives His holy spirit to someone there is a relationship that begins there, as we experience, that is quite unique, quite exciting, indeed quite inspiring, opportunities we have, an ability to think and see things; ability to think differently, the ability to see things in a way we never could before when God’s word begins to come alive for us.

Leviticus 23:14 – the instruction again here - And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that you have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.  And you shall count unto you the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Again, all these things that God gives – ‘seven Sabbaths shall be complete,’ Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Eternal. So we’ve read this and we’ve read this and we’re reading it again.  Hope it never becomes dull to you.  Hope in the future as you continue on, those of you who are a part of the Body of Christ who’ve been called to live on as a Church in a new age, that these scriptures never come to a point in time where they become dull or boring to you in any fashion or form, but that instead as you go forward they become more inspiring, more exciting, and more meaningful to you.

Verse 17 – And you shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deal: something to reflect on and to teach about Pentecost.  Instead of the wave offering of the grain that was taken as the first sickle was put to the harvest well before the Days of Unleavened Bread, when or before the harvest began, that sickle that would take that first sheaf and wait until a specific day that God said now you’re to wave it before Him.  Very meticulous in His instruction and it’s a beautiful picture and story here of what’s given.  And now we come to two wave loaves, two loaves – both with leavening, taken out from amongst the Israelites.  Don’t know how they did it, what the process was back then; it’s been lost in history in time, because Judaism hasn’t obeyed God.

And so these loaves were baked with leaven and they were brought out at a specific time and waved before God to be accepted by God – just like the Wave Sheaf was accepted by God.  It’s a beautiful picture for what it gives here, because it says; these are the firstfruits unto the Eternal. It’s about Pentecost, very much about Pentecost, very powerfully about Pentecost.

Dropping on down in verse 20 as we read at the end of last weeks service - And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Eternal, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Eternal for the priests. Incredible, ‘with the two lambs’ now.  Everything is truly awesome when you understand God’s plan and what He gives, detailed, meticulous, everything having great meaning; along with the two wave loaves...they shall be holy to the Eternal for the priests.

Let’s turn over now to Revelation 7, because continuing from the wave sheaf to the wave loaves ties the two together. Our Wave Sheaf makes it possible that we who are of the firstfruits can be accepted by God.  It’s a beautiful picture, and so very clear now, but a few years ago it wasn’t in the sense of the wave sheaf and what the wave loaves teach and why there were two specifically here.  But it has to do with this process starting in Revelation.

Revelation 7:1 - And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth so that the wind would not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Do not hurt the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them who were sealed: it wasn’t that long ago when we didn’t comprehend all this in God’s Church, but now because of where we are and because of what we had to go through and because God revealed to us that 144,000 wouldn’t come out of this age, it wouldn’t come out of Philadelphia, it couldn’t come out of Laodicea, what this really meant has finally been given.  And oftentimes God lets us go through things – He saves things to reveal to us later on so they’ll have greater impact and greater meaning, and by the very experience of what we go through forces us to ask questions, forces us to seek what is true then.  And that’s how God leads us, it’s how God has led me through every doctrine He’s given, to learn what is true.  It’s an incredible process.

And I heard the number of them who were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. And so taking it physically as we first do even in God’s Church... when you’re called and you see things and you learn things, and just like the disciples, the first ability to see is always physical because you cannot see spiritual unless God gives it to you because it isn’t yours.  It isn’t yours to possess; you rely on God Almighty to give you what is spiritual.  And that is why always your ability to see is always physical, carnal if you will, but physical.  That’s why so many left Him at one point when He said, “You’re going to have to eat my flesh and drink My blood.”  And they couldn’t do it anymore!  It says, “Many of His disciples left Him at that time, not of the twelve...” but others, because there were several, just like we read last week in Acts where they found two that had been with them the whole time, that stood out amongst all the rest that they were going to pick and ask God for help in choosing which one should take Judas Iscariot’s place.  And so this process here, it talked about many disciples quit following Him at that point because they could only take it physically.  Why?  And even the disciples as you go through some of these things, they continue to follow Christ even though they didn’t grasp everything because they believed He was the Messiah...and God gave them that, because they couldn’t even believe that unless God gave them that ability.  Just like youself, when God begins to call you, you might go through many years of different things in your life, of things that happen in your life until the time God finally brings you to His Church, but you never, never, never discovered it on your own.  You never came to truth and ability to see the truth on your own.  It’s impossible to see what is spiritual without God’s help.

So even before someone is baptized, God has brought people to certain truth.  But if He has a purpose for you to continue on to teach you He will bring you to His Church; that’s the way it’s always been.  It’s a beautiful process, it’s a beautiful truth; because without understanding of that truth I have known many, many people to get puffed up and felt like they...they came to see this before they came to learn from Mr. Armstrong. Human nature is an incredible thing.

And so we have the ability to learn many lessons through time; 144,000 God said He would call.  And so people take this of the twelve tribes and say, so 12,000 have to come out of Judah, 12,000 have to come out of Manasseh, out of Ephraim, on and on it goes.  No, they don’t.  That’s not what it’s talking about.  That’s what we normally do when we take something physical - as much as the woman at the well who could only understand something physical.  She didn’t understand what ‘living waters’ were and neither did the disciples at that time!  They didn’t grasp a lot of things until after the period of time of Jesus Christ’s resurrection all the way up to Pentecost, and then all of sudden it was all there through the power of God’s spirit.

So these verses if you go on through 5-8, it gives the names of the twelve tribes there, the different ones that are going to have 12,000 out of each group, but it’s the name they carry, it’s not a physical tribe they’re out of.  It’s the name they’ve been called, moulded and fashioned to carry.  It has to do with functions and jobs and the division that God gives within His temple.  It all has to do with the construction God gives, and that’s why even later on in the book of Revelation it becomes so very clear, so very powerfully so, the division that God has given and the names that God gives.

Verse 9 - After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, so he was told how many were sealed, a specific number was given, and then all of a sudden there is this ability to see this great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindred’s, and people, and tongues, not out of twelve tribes...but all over the world - even before there were tribes.  There are people in the 144,000 who were never a tribe of Israel!  Abraham was not one of the tribes of Israel – they all came out of him.  Noah, Abel...righteous Abel.  It’s not about twelve tribes, it’s about the construction of God Almighty to organize, to give names, to petition, to build, and we’re all a part of a structure.  Those of you who are called now who are not a part of that first structure, that first part of that structure, will be added to the structure in time exactly...exactly where God moulds and fashions you.  It’s God’s building, God does it all just like He did the entire universe; and we’re blessed to be a part of it if we yield ourselves to the process.  It’s a beautiful thing.

And so...many peoples, kindred’s, tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands; No one was able to count.  Again, we’ve talked about this in times past, because even if you looked out over a group of 144,000 you can’t number them, you don’t have the ability unless you had them all stand in a line, or whatever it might be, and divide up into certain groups.  But the point being even beyond that is that God had to give the number because only God Almighty has worked with, called each of those individuals, worked with them through time over 6,000 years and knows the exact number and has given it to us to see and to understand.

And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell down before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour...things that we need to think about when we worship God.  Things that we need to think about toward His Son and toward Him...power and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. In less than a year from now this awesome event takes place.  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, Who are these who are arrayed in white robes? and where do they come from?

Verse 14 - And I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they who came out of great tribulation, and we took that physically because we didn’t even understand what ‘great tribulation’ was in scripture, what it’s talking about; that anyone God has ever called through time, through 6,000 years, has to go through great tribulation to enter into God’s Kingdom.  In man’s world with Satan and demons around you go through many, many trials and they are hard and they try you to the core of your being, and if you yield yourself to God, God continues to mould and fashion you.  Great tribulation over a long period of time. That which is in the mind.

That which is physical sometimes isn’t nearly as difficult as what’s up here, the battles you deal with and the changes they bring about in your thinking because God is transforming your mind and that’s not an easy process to go through.  It’s not an easy process for something that’s carnal, for someone that’s get-get-get and just concerned about self, for that mind to change, because that’s the way we are as human beings.  We sometimes are oblivious to other around us, to their needs and helping them, because we’re only thinking about ourselves.  And the process begins to take place where that begins to change, and it doesn’t change overnight, it sometimes takes a long, long time and sometimes we get to a certain plateau and we make great change and then we go on from there.  We’re ever learning about the way of give, the opposite way of get, of selfishness.  We go through a lot of trials and troubles because of that, a lot of turmoil because of that, because your nature is screaming and kicking and hollering just like a spoiled little baby.  It’s the way it is!  It doesn’t just reach out and say, “Oh God, thank you for what you’ve given me, thank you for everything I have, I’m just so glad now that it’s all gone!” It doesn’t happen that way, it doesn’t just disappear, it isn’t all gone.

You can hear a sermon and leave and within 10 minutes, maybe 5, maybe even less, because of maybe something that happened before services with someone else and you had a word and you’re sitting there festering, smouldering, steaming.  Those things happen.  And we can hear a sermon about love, God’s love, agape, and here we’re fighting a battle.  What an incredible thing, the human mind.  We don’t go out easily.  You don’t give up your nature easily; you go out kicking, screaming, and hollering.  That’s what Paul talked about.  He saw this battle, and it’s a battle.  It’s choice of the mind, what do you want?  And you have to constantly make choices that you want to get rid of self.  I loathe self!  I loathe selfishness with all-my-being!  And no matter how much I loathe it I seem to always find more, but I always hate it, because I made a choice.  I love God.  I love His way of life.  Made that choice a long time ago – whatever it takes.  And that’s what each one of us has to fight; that’s what Paul talked about when He talks about fighting this war that’s inside; choices he’s made but seeing a nature that is opposite of that.  And so we go through much tribulation indeed; great, much, whatever you want to call it, that’s what this is about!  And so all these who are arrayed in white, they’ve come out of and through it, they have the victory because they’ve conquered, just as Christ said, “I have conquered, I have overcome and you can overcome, you can conquer.”  It’s a battle!

And so picking it up here; which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. What an awesome thing!  Made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  So we see a time when Jesus Christ came and died for all mankind, spilled His blood to the earth, and all mankind, even before Christ, were able to wash their clothes in the blood of the Lamb by faith, that’s what God says.  It’s a matter of faith, it’s a matter of belief of what God said would come to pass in time, especially primarily about a Messiah, the Christ, something of knowledge that was given at the very beginning to Adam and Eve; very little, but enough from the very beginning of time and through time and then God has progressively given more understanding.  As prophets came long God gave more through time, more understanding about His plan and His purpose and what He was doing on this earth, but they all lived by faith, they all have gone through things in their life.  Doesn’t matter who you look at: Noah, David – they were able to have their sins forgiven through Jesus Christ, just like we have, everybody has.  The Wave Sheaf that was offered up before God, although it was cut early, it was offered up later.  The harvest began earlier and continued on afterward.  It’s a beautiful picture about what God is doing: two wave loaves, two different periods of time.  It’s a beautiful picture that God has given.

Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He who sits on the throne shall dwell among them.  Sometimes I get some of the Feast mixed up, as to what God gave at different points.  I have to go back and look myself – when was that given?  But I believe it was last year when God gave even more about this in a very powerful way, to comprehend that what we’re able to experience now in our lives, of God dwelling in us...and there are times we cut that off though because of sin, that the flow stops; and God lets us experience that, what it’s like to be cut off from Him.  It’s not a good feeling.  Whenever there’s sin, selfishness becomes stronger, we yield to selfishness and then what do you have to do?  Ah... you have to wash the robe again, has to be made white again.  You have to repent of your sins again.  That’s the process we go through to come out of tribulation.  It’s a process of repentance, a process of becoming white, purified by God Almighty; and so we go through this process.  But once you’re a part of God’s Family God then dwells in you for eternity.  It’s an awesome picture; what we experience in part now we experience to it’s fullest in time, things that you cannot fully comprehend yet because you haven’t experienced it yet.  It’s a beautiful thing.

They shall hunger no more, because they’re spirit beings, neither thirst anymore; because they have that living water all the time; and neither shall the sun light upon them, nor any heat. I’m looking forward to that one.  Last week it was hot, unpleasant.  Even though it strikes you it won’t bother you.  The cold won’t bother you.  When you’re manifested a physical human being the heat and the cold, they’ll not bother you, even when you’re manifested like that.

For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. No more tears, that’s when that happens; because as long as you’re a human being there will always be tears, even in the Great White Throne – fewer, but human beings are human beings.

Continuing on here with some of the story about the 144,000, those who are going to be resurrected not too many weeks from now Revelation 14:1 - And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, and before the four creatures, and the elders: and no man could learn the song but the hundred and forty four thousand, something given by God’s spirit that everyone can know in a moment and rejoice together in.  That’s awesome!  Something given from the mind, from the being of God to His Family to be able to sing together in absolute unity and beauty in ways that I don’t yet comprehend, but I know it will take place.  ...the hundred and forty four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. And there are those who have been redeemed from the earth over the last 6,000 years.

These are they who are not defiled with woman; and it’s talking about that which obviously goes beyond that which is physical to that which is spiritual.  You come to that point in time where your life is filled with God’s life, with God’s being, with God’s mind.  It’s not talking about before one is called, it’s not talking about before one sees and before one is begotten of God’s spirit, but a process that one goes through to be separated from this world, to be made different from this world, to where spiritually there is nothing left of that which is false of this world, as far as the religions of this world.  It’s a beautiful thing!  It doesn’t mean you’re perfect in all your understanding yet, but as far as your choice and your mind and what God has brought you to, the Protestant, the Catholic, that which is Protestant in nature that exists sometimes, even certain personalities tend to have it more than others, that won’t be there, that’s not there, it’s conquered, it’s overcome.

These are they who are not defiled with women: once they’re changed there’s nothing there anymore of this world, of anything that’s spiritually wrong in any fashion or form, but pure in every way, of the God Family. ...for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among mankind, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. It’s not true before you’re changed.  Not true as long as you’re in this human body.  Always with fault, always with that which is sin, because of your nature, your selfish ‘lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’ that every human being has.  And so this is talking about a complete change, and we understand what that change is, now in the God Family, in the Family of God.

Let’s turn back to Leviticus 23 and read some of this again, that it be deeply imbedded in our being.  Again, talking about and something to be in awe of, to recognize how that in the beginning of the series we talked about how that Passover was fulfilled in one day, how that the wave sheaf was fulfilled on a specific day, not even in a full day, it took about a half a day and the wave sheaf was fulfilled, talking about the Feast of Trumpets as we did and talking how we’re living through the fulfillment of that right now because of things that are taking place right now on the earth, and looking forward to those other Trumpets being accomplished because the last one, finally, is when Jesus Christ returns and the 144,000 are resurrected.  The Last Great Day, of course, it’s a hundred years, but the longest span of time for any is found in Pentecost when it’s fulfilled.  I don’t need to read all these verses again here in Leviticus, I’ll just go through it quickly here, we’ve read them a few times already so you can go on to Hebrews.

Hebrews 11 – It’s an awesome thing though when you think about this process of the wave loaves, the wave sheaf, and what God has given in recognizing that these wave loaves cover a period of 6,000 years.  Pentecost is taking 6,000 years to fulfill; it’s an awesome thing!  Every other Holy Day is shorter in what it pictures in time, but not Pentecost.  That’s why I mentioned in the very beginning, it wasn’t just the giving of the 10 Commandments, and that isn’t when Pentecost began to be fulfilled; because in Judaism, that’s about as far as they go in thinking back in time, about when the 10 Commandments were given.   So on the Day of Pentecost, which they don’t observe in a proper time, they think about some of those things.  And then we recognize for the Church, in 31 AD when God poured out His holy spirit, a greater fulfillment, a continuing fulfillment; but all these are pictures of things that go back in time even before the 10 Commandments or before the picture of God’s spirit being given, because every person called of God has received the impregnation of His holy spirit, all who will be a part of the 144,000, who are a part of that, have received the impregnation of God’s holy spirit, they’re a part of the first loaf – awesome thing!

Let’s go back and think about some of those today, some of those who are about to be brought back to life, the excitement God has that they’re about to be brought back to life once again.  He’s waited a long, long time.  Sometimes we go through things in our life, and I understand we have a desire that maybe every family member, everyone we know, is able to live through what’s coming to pass and live into the Millennial period; that’s understandable.  Everybody else... you know, when I’m resurrected, when I’m changed, my wife and I have talked about this; you look back through family lines and so forth and not everybody’s going to be there. So we realize we’re going to wait a thousand years to see some.  And all those who are resurrected, there is a lot of time gone by, and they don’t even have the option of any of their families.  You think about that!  Think about all the people – kind of around the time of Mr. Armstrong on back - all those who are going to be resurrected who are part of the Church and on through time, they’re not going to know anyone during the next thousand years who has an opportunity to live on into that period of time.  Is it owed to us that everyone we know should be in that period?  Not by any measure.  A thousand years will go by, and not all that slowly either.  Think, “How’s that possible?”

Hebrews 11:4 – How long has God waited?  God has a perfect and awesome plan.  You know, something I’ve been bowled over by ever since we’ve gone through the sermon series, and maybe I’ve mentioned this already but I’m going to mention it again: when we started talking about the blessing of a second life – can we grasp and comprehend the awesome world that will be?  Because everyone who is of the 144,000, everyone who has lived and died during the thousand years, the billions who are resurrected in the God Family at the end of that period of time, all those who are able to live into that period of, obviously, eternal life into that next hundred years and see the great resurrection, and all those who are resurrected, all the billions...every family lineage through time, everybody will be together!  What an awesome world!  Everybody will be together save for a very few through time as a whole.  I don’t know about you but that’s an awesome thing to think about.  Everyone who’s ever lived, every family line, because some are either going to be spiritual beings and others are going to be physical, but everybody able to be together.  There will be some incredible family reunions.   I don’t know who’s going to cater them!

Hebrews 11:4 – firstfruits; God has waited so long - By faith Abel, because of what he believed, because of what God gave to Him, the truths that were there, where he came from.  He knew how the earth began, he believed how life began, he believed what happened to his father and his mother.  He believed things that God gave to them.  By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, because he did it the way God said it was to be done.  Cain didn’t and Cain became jealous then.  What an incredible story!  I’ve given a sermon on this many, many years ago.  Incredible story when you go through and see what it says throughout the Bible about this event and things that God gave about the difference between Cain and Abel.  Two different minds; one who believed God and one who wanted everything but wanted it his way, who was jealous by nature, but didn’t want to obey God, but wanted everything and thought it was owed to him basically, that attitude of mind.  And so...offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness/testimony that he was righteous... Why was it received of God?  Because he did it right and his life was right before God.  He did strive to obey God and live right before God.  And it says, he obtained witness/testimony, because of what was said here, that he was righteous, strived to live a righteous life.  It doesn’t mean he was perfect – nobody’s perfect except One through time.

God testifying/witnessing; what an incredible thing!  It says, God gave witness!  You know, that’s all the two witnesses are at the end of time, it’s about certain witnessing of certain events, of testimony at the end of an age that after 6,000 years man is still the same way, and the entire world had to go through this.  That’s why the entire Church is witness of the same thing, in essence, a part of the same thing!  Those during Philadelphia and witnessed Mr. Armstrong and witnessed co-workers together with Mr. Armstrong, witness of the life and times during then, that period of time of what happened in the Church and things that came to pass.

And so it say here that God testified/gave witness, because of what is recorded in His word about Cain and about Abel.  God witnessing/testifying of his gifts: What an awesome thing for God to have recorded through time about the difference between Abel and Cain, and that He received what Abel offered, that you want to do what’s pleasing before God.  That’s why I mention about David once in a while.  Don’t you want to be someone who’s after God’s own heart by the way you think and by the way you live and by the way you repent of your sins when you come to see them because you want to do what’s right?  Because that’s the mind of David!  It wasn’t because David lived a perfect life all the time; it was because David had an attitude toward God that whenever he saw the wrong he repented and wanted to do what was right before God – repented as soon as he saw it as a whole.  That was his mind and his life – repented deeply.  Sometimes we don’t repent deeply enough – that’s why change doesn’t come about.  Repentance means ‘to change’, and sometimes we find ourselves repenting of the same thing over and over again.

God testifying/witnessing of his gifts; and by it, in other words by God’s testimony, he being dead, speaking of Abel, yet speaks. How powerful is that?  Still speaks, still teaches, still preaches to this day, if you read the story of how He pleased God and what he offered was right before God.  Now Abel was the first one recorded in one respect as the very beginning of God’s harvest, by some things we’re going to read in a little while here, but may very well have been the first one.  We don’t know one hundred percent.  It doesn’t say he was the first one; maybe Adam, I don’t know... maybe Eve, I don’t know...and neither do you.  God knows who the 144,000 are, I don’t.  I don’t know to what degree they repented.  I don’t know to what degree God had purpose for them of being a part of a first great resurrection, but Abel, Abel for sure in what it says about him.  So again, nearly 6,000 years ago God worked with Abel through time.

Verse 5 - By faith Enoch was translated; Enoch.  What is it some groups teach?  That Enoch and Elijah are the two witnesses at the end-time?  Because of certain beliefs there about some thinking they never died, I guess they think they went to heaven? Different religions... I haven’t studied into what other religions believe, they’re so far off the wall.  It makes it very clear they died, because God’s word says so.  But some like to think that somehow they never saw death and they were taken away and taken some place else, taken up into heaven, wherever they were taken they’re going to be brought back at the very end, or something, I don’t know.

By faith Enoch was translated; it’s a word that means ‘transferred or moved to another location’, literally ‘conveyed to another place’, that he should not see death; in other words God preserving his life.  Why would that be needed?  Why would someone need to be moved from one location to another so they wouldn’t see death?  What does that mean?  Hmmm....well it shouldn’t be too difficult.  When you live God’s way of life and the world became so bad at that particular time, there were those who wanted him to see death.  There were those that were willing to oblige to help him to see death.  So many of God’s people through time have been killed, and so God, for whatever purpose and for whatever reason, removed him.  He did His work and moved him to another area.

And it says, and he was not found, well, who’s going to try to find him?  Those that wanted to help him. ...because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. He obeyed God! He pleased God.  Do you strive to please God?  Does your mind think that way?  Seriously!  Does your mind think that way?  Do you have great desire to please God?  ...and to what degree... or do we still try to please self?  See, because that’s the battle – to please God or to please self.  It’s not really a big choice, but it’s a matter of how we think, it’s a matter of a reality of how we think.  And every one of us has to address that in our life day in and day out.  Do we want to please God? How do you begin your day?  Do you have contact with God?  Do you pray to God about how your day goes and about how you respond before Him and for the help you need to live right and to think right?

Verse 6 - But without faith it is impossible to please Him:  it’s impossible to please God.  So faith has to do with believing God, believing what God gives, living by what God gives.  That’s why I love the expression that talks about ‘the present truth’.  Because if you look through time, and I don’t have to look too far back because I was called during the time of Philadelphia in 1969, and I’ve seen a lot of things addressed that were present at the time that we lived and practiced that later on as God revealed to us greater understanding we made changes as we went along.  And Mr. Armstrong even giving testimony at times and revealing that this...this was a great sign, in essence, of God’s people, it was a great testimony in one respect to God’s people, that as God reveals something that helps to better understand a matter of misunderstanding, it helps to see clearly a matter of understanding, that a people are willing to change when that takes place, because you don’t see these kinds of things in the Protestant world when truth comes along.  On the contrary, you see total rejection.  In God’s Church people continue to follow the Lamb, continue to follow where we’re led, continue to follow in whatever truth that God has given to us.  It’s a beautiful thing.

But without faith it’s impossible to please Him; for he who comes to God must believe that He is, should be a given, and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.  So to what degree do we believe that? ...that we seek God with diligence? What kind of diligence?  And that’s what we have to ask, each individual, what kind of diligence do you use in your life to seek God?  ...and He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.  So it’s a matter of a relationship with God and how you think about God and why you pray to God and when you pray to God and all those things that are a part of your thinking, a part of your being.

And I do want to mention here, verse 13 – when it talks about Enoch, it says - These all died in faith, so he may have been translated, he may have been moved from one point to another but he died in faith.  It says These all died in faith; it doesn’t say ‘except Enoch’.  These all died in faith not having obtained the promises, not having obtained.  We’re the only ones that live in an age, and even for you, you continue in faith, even after Jesus Christ returns you continue in faith, believing what you’ve been called to, that you’re going to be able to receive in your life, in time, the same thing that you see has been given to 144,000.  That’s why it gets better and easier as time goes along.  That’s why I think about sometimes, and even in old sermons I heard many, many years ago, about pioneers who went across the United States.  We lived in an area of Kansas where you could still see the ruts in the ground. They put markers out there – Butterfield Trail - where we lived.  The Butterfield Trail where wagon trains went through, and because they dug ruts in the ground, so many had gone over the same area travelling the same location along that river year after year after year.  And you think of all the people who died, how difficult it was, stories you hear – especially the beginning – sicknesses and Indians and everything else, but look at it today.  And you think about changes in time and so for the ones who go first it’s meant to be more difficult; and that’s the way it is in God’s plan, to make it easier and easier for those who come along.  That’s why I look forward to the Great White Throne.  It’s a lot of work! The one thousand years... You know what it’s about?  It’s about getting ready for that last hundred years – very powerfully so – getting ready for that final hundred years.  Awesome resurrection!

Says, these all died in faith not having received the promises; but having seen them afar off, we don’t have to see them very far off now – still a matter of faith though – less than a year... and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Sometimes even today knowing what I know and knowing how close we are I feel like that.  You should feel like that, to realize there’s nothing in this world... you feel like a stranger.  This is not your world; you aren’t accepted in this world and you don’t want to be accepted in this world.

Let’s go back to Genesis 4 and look at some of these.  Of the first two sons born to Adam and Eve, Abel was the one who followed God.  Cain, incredible, refused and killed his brother.  Didn’t take too long...didn’t take too long – incredible how far the selfishness of man will go sometimes, all because of jealousy and lust, and that’s what it was, strictly jealously and lust.  It’s a cancer and it eats up the mind.

Then another son was born to Adam a little bit later here.  Let’s notice Genesis 4:25 - And Adam knew his wife again; and she brought forth a son, and called his name Seth: Seth; it’s a word that means ‘compensation’ or ‘appointed in place of’.  Going back in time here, we’re going back to the very beginning and talking about Abel again, but here’s an example here where finally because of Eve’s feelings, because one son had been put to death, and now another son had come along and it was this word that has to do with, ‘compensation’ or ‘appointed in his place’, the name of Seth.  For God, she said, has appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew. So again, we’re going all the way back to the beginning looking at a span of nearly 6,000 years.  But interesting here when you begin to look at a lineage again, because Abel lived right before God, he had that testimony, and for sure the first recorded individual who is a part of those who lived righteously before God, meaning that God was involved in their life and a testimony of those things were given, a part of 144,000.  God has witnessed through time – through time, through 6,000 years, of those who will be in His Family.

Genesis 5:4 – And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begot sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. That blows my mind – 930 years!  62 seems to me has been a long time.  To comprehend nine hundred and some years with selfishness?  ...how man can be? I can’t comprehend that.  I can understand it full well when God tells us what He does about why He had to destroy the earth finally – all of mankind – and start over with just one family.  And the reason being is because we’re supposed to learn from this.  It wasn’t a matter that all of a sudden God slapped His forehead and said, “Oh look at man!”  Now He was wearied with them and He said that He’d had those feelings, those things He’d dealt with watching us sometimes as we do in life with human nature and with life and with things we know, and it was like He was weary with it and... it’s the old word repent, but it has to do with a regret in one respect.  In other words it’s that emotion, feeling, but there’s a plan and you do the plan because it’s righteous before Him, it’s His plan.

And so it goes on to say, And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begat Enos: And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. Long, long life spans... not quite a millennium, but knocking on the door.  Then in Seth’s lineage Enoch was born, the one we just read about that was translated, there in Hebrews, and a little bit later in the same lineage Noah was born.  So they came out of that particular lineage from Adam and Eve through Seth.

Genesis 5:21 - not a whole lot covered here, a lot of time that’s covered so quickly in the very beginning.  Enoch lived sixty five years, and he begat Methuselah: and most of us know the story of Methuselah and how long he lived and what all that pictured and represented; And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and so it mentions here after he begat Methuselah Enoch, again, walked with God for three hundred years; it’s another way of stating it; and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 365 years. And Enoch walked with God: and he was not to be found for God took him away. As we read about back in Hebrews.  And so it’s just making that comment that for that period of time he walked with God, in other words, in this world, with the world.

And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: (26) And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred and eighty and two years, and he begat sons and daughters: so again, you go through all these begat, begat, begat, and all these years and you kind of get lost in it, but it’s an incredible story, it truly is. And all the days of Methuselah, notice this... were nine hundred and sixty nine years: what an awesome life span; and he died. Right up to the end – incredible!

And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and he begat a son and called his name Noah, and again, we know some of the story there, and a word that means ‘rest’.  Rest: from all that man was doing, finally one who’s name... names mean a lot to God.  There are things that God gives in name, just like the twelve tribes, just like in Israel, that’s going to be perpetuated into time.  There are things that mean a lot to God, and this one here had a great deal of meaning in the sense of rest.  A rest from long life span, the evil of mankind, how evil man became.

And he called his name Noah, saying, The same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Eternal has cursed.  So that particular desire that He had at that particular time; but again, so many names that God has moved and inspired people in giving for different purpose.

We’re going back in time and looking at the different ones that are about to come back to this earth, different ones that you’re going to be able to visit with perhaps at some point, maybe at some Feast of Tabernacles, to meet, to talk to face to face; those whom God is looking forward to seeing in ways you cannot comprehend!  People you know who are dead, who have died, that you love, that are close to you in family, and you have a period of time that you know you’re going to be able to see them again.  With God it’s accentuated far, Far, FAR beyond your human desires, truly, especially because of His purpose and His creation and what He’s done and what He’s brought to pass.

2 Peter 2:5 – And He spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth preacher of righteousness, so as you go along through time there it gives it a specific count, and it says he was the eighth preacher of righteousness from the beginning through time there, of someone who lived through the flood, did what he did, experienced what he experienced.  It says, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and again here, the word ‘person’ there and the word ‘a’ is just added in the Greek language, it has no meaning whatsoever.  It just strictly means Noah was the eighth preacher of righteousness... bringing/being in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.  Just an interruption of the scripture showing here that he was the eighth.

Let’s notice Jude 14.  Some of these are even listed as to their order and their timing, those with whom God worked; and speaks of Enoch again that we already read about.  Jude 14 - And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, Again, he was a preacher, he was a prophet of God, he was one moved by God’s spirit, and speaking of an order of individuals here as well who served God in a very specific manner, not just a matter of lineage, but here is a matter of something that God gave that’s a matter of prophecy.  That’s what it says; he was the seventh and he prophesied.  That means he was moved by God’s spirit, he had a job to do as all the prophets did through time, those who are witnesses of specific events.  And so God gave him a count, a number of individuals being worked with from the time of Adam, the same as we already read about Abel, mentioning him.  Saying, behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints; so even very early on there was that which looked forward to a period of time when God’s government would be on this earth, and prophecies about a Messiah that existed long, long ago, and those it says that God would bring with Him – ten thousands of His saints; didn’t give a specific number, didn’t say 144,000 then but that’s exactly what it’s referring to, a period of time, later on!  Not until the book of Revelation did God give the exact number of how many were going to come with Jesus Christ when He came to establish God’s government on this earth.

So we get a little picture here and there of different things that God has given through time, and again, an awesome one here about Enoch and about what he was inspired by God’s spirit to say before the flood.  Someone with whom God worked who was a part of one of the loaves.  That was a part, that God began a harvest, the sheaf was cut, it was brought... the harvest had already begun, it began for sure in the time of Abel, and different ones with whom God called all the way up to the time that the wave sheaf was offered up before God.  And then the Church began and God began to work with people on a larger scale into the thousands, as it even talked about in that one day there were three thousand baptized at the very beginning.  And again, awesome, powerful events through time.

Hebrews 11, once again continuing on with some of those who are part of the first 4,000 years.  And again, God worked with these people individually, and He works with us individually but He does it more now in an organized fashion through His Son, through an organization and structure of the Body of Christ, the Church of God.  Back then it wasn’t so, back then it was individual by individual by individual over a period of 4,000 years and there weren’t that many through 4,000 years; most of it in the last 2,000 years.  The overwhelming majority have been in the last 2,000 years.

Hebrews 11:7 - By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, sometimes maybe you think you have it tough, sometimes maybe you think it’s been rough, sometimes you think this has been sooo long!  You haven’t experienced anything, truly!  We’re spoiled!  We are spoiled concerning God’s people through time and what they have lived through.  We have been so blessed at the end of an age.  There has never been a time like this where so much wealth of knowledge has been there.  You go back in time and you look at what people of God have done through time, what they have experienced, and it’s been nothing, nothing with what we’ve gone through.  And I know we have these feelings because I have experienced these feelings.  How long...?  Well, we know how long, but it’s like... How long?  We still have a desire and things don’t always happen exactly in the timing, in the way we want them to be or desire them to be.

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen; God told him certain things – they weren’t seen yet.  We haven’t seen certain things yet.  We haven’t seen the 2nd Trumpet yet, and sometimes that gets to people.  Sometimes that gets to people in God’s Church – it shouldn’t, but it does, because we’re very human and sometimes we let down, and sometimes we begin to be a little lukewarm in our lives spiritually and then you’re not going to be able to help it.  I still think back to a very sobering time for God’s Church when He gave the 50th Truth, because if He hadn’t given it early you all wouldn’t be here today.  God’s very merciful.  He knows us inside and out.

So it says, being warned of God of things not yet seen; moved with fear, ‘moved with fear’.  He believed it.  That’s what it’s all about.  He believed God.  That’s what motivated him, that’s what kept him focused, that’s what kept him going, because he believed what God gave to him.  And that came from God.  Your ability to see and believe the truth comes from God, but it’s a matter of your response to that as well as to how much that will motivate you, as to how much that will stir you.  That’s where our choice is, as to how we respond to what God gives us to see.

...moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; Because God told him that’s all that would be saved, and Noah had great desire of saving his family, of being given that opportunity to live on into a new age...a new age, a new world where they would repopulate the earth once again.  And I’m still bowled over thinking about it at times, how that his sons turned against God.  Rode the ark, lived on the ark, worked on the ark, and turned against God; experienced that awesome event, became upset with God – their friends didn’t come through, their life was abruptly changed.  They were not thankful that they were able to live on into a new age, to build a new world that honoured and glorified God, because in the reality it didn’t honour and glorify God, did it?  But things changed, primarily how?  Because God made the life span of man shorter.  It started being shortened after the flood – you read the stories, how many generations people started living around 120 years for a while, then finally levelled off to down around 70 (incredible stories, truly are), so that the evil of man wouldn’t become so evil.

...prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, that’s an awesome scripture.  Your prayers... it’s a matter of judgment.  You know what its saying?  It’s saying exactly what we have covered in recent sermons at the beginning of the year; for a long period of time we had a lot of sermons, that because of what you believe you agree with God, you’re at one with God, you acknowledge that this must happen.  I understand why this world has to go through what it does.  I understand why human nature has to experience what it does.  I understand why it’s about the dollar primarily for this world right now, that that’s the biggie!  It’s not being wiped out by a flood, or great storms, or other kinds of horrible calamities on the earth, or even nuclear weapons going off.  That’s going to shake and rattle people more to the core of their being after they experience something in the mind first – what it’s like to lose hope of their future, of what they have worked for all their life; primarily people in their mid to late forties on upward.  Younger people, it won’t be the same exactly, but it’ll be there to an extent.

And so Noah, again here, it says, by the which he condemned, in other words he agreed in judgment with God, and became heir, a compound word that means, that’s a word of ‘lot’ and the ‘law’; compound word of ‘lot in the law’, in other words, our part in what God is bringing to pass as far as even that which is lawful from God, our lot, our part that God has promised by His word.  ...and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. What we’re able to receive by living a right way of life in the law becomes our lot, in the law, in living God’s way, in living God’s word, being able to do so, the righteousness which is by faith.  Beautiful scripture, because we do the same thing, we have done the same thing by our prayers, by what we believe; by promoting a book, simply doing that, truly.  You are doing exactly the same thing in this age.  In other words, you agree with the judgment of God.  The judgment’s already there, the judgment was given a long time ago, and judgment was given to Noah, what was going to happen to the earth, and Noah did it, responded to God, believed it, knew it had to be.

Verse 8 - By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; it’s about obedience over and over again.  He obeyed God!  He did it! ...and he went out, not knowing where he was going. We’ve all done things like this, if you understand what it means to walk by faith.  So he was given by his means, by his way, it says, to go to a different location, to take his whole family and go to a different part he’d never seen before, to live there, because God was going to grant Him certain promises, promises that he wouldn’t even see in his lifetime, to its fullest.  He saw certain parts.  What did he see?  What’s the primary part of the promise he received, that he saw – Isaac – because it was through Isaac.  And so even this, some of these things are discussed.

By faith he journeyed in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tabernacles/tents, temporary dwellings as he moved, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him, fellow heirs, of the same promise:  God finally began to show how things were going to come about on the earth, how God was going to fulfill certain things on the earth and it was primarily going to be through those who had come out of the loins of Abraham through time; finally coming out in a tribe, finally coming out in a family line as well even for ruler ship when you speak of the line of David and what God promised would come out of David – a single seed that would come out that would bring salvation to all the earth - God continuing to reveal things through time.

For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Not a city of this world but that which comes from God, a city that’s almost here – at least the beginning parts of it.

Verse 20 - By faith Isaac blessed Jacob... it’s hard sometimes for us to read things like this and be moved by it, until you have exercised faith to a greater extent in your life.  And the more that is exercised in your life the more these things come alive for you.  By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Isn’t that an awesome thing?  He believed God so they put their hands on top of the heads of others and because they believed what God said, knew that blessing would be passed along because they believed God.

By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff. So again, at a very old age here and what he did and how he did it.  We read those stories.

Verse 24 - By faith Moses,  when we read through these stories, it may be a little hot in this room today, and maybe they’re not as stirring to us because we’re a little hot, a little warm, but I hope we can appreciate a little more deeply and think about a little more deeply how moving this is to God Almighty, how excited God is that these things are about to come to pass on the earth, because that’s what it’s about and we get to share in that excitement, in that fullness.  By faith Moses...I don’t think any of us here – we do to varying degrees, comprehend what the next Pentecost is like, have anticipation for the next Pentecost in the way that God Almighty does, in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend.

By faith Moses when he had come of years, some translate this that he had matured or grown up by this point, or at a certain point, but others translate it more accurately.  In other words, when he had become great, because it had to do with a greatness of something in his life that had taken place already, and that greatness was becoming very great for Moses in Egypt, his fame, the recognition that he had received.  He was great in Egypt, and so when you come to those particular years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; It’s what he was willing to give up, it’s what he was willing to leave behind for something far greater.  And you know what?  Every one of you who is called, unless you grow up in the Church, and then you have to make certain decisions and choices yourself and have certain things that you have lived through because you lived through things that others have never had to live through in ways you can’t even explain to others what you’ve had to live through.

But if you’ve been called out of this world and you’ve had to make certain choices about what you’re willing to do, that’s similar to this.  What are you willing to give up?  Because see, some people aren’t.  They want what they have; a mate, children, parents, family, job.... willing to give all that up for something greater.

And that’s what it’s talking about here; individuals who by faith wanted what God was offering them.  And so, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.  Most human beings couldn’t do this!  Most human beings are overwhelmed when they have such power.  Most human beings, when they have such power and wealth in front of them are consumed by the wealth and the power.  This was not a small thing.  We read through it as a little story and it’s a nice little story, but it’s far beyond a nice little story because it shows a choice of something that Moses did here, of how God’s spirit was drawing him – because God’s spirit was – and God’s spirit was working with him, but Moses made the choice because of something he considered far, far greater.  An incredible story!

That’s why great people of the earth aren’t being called.  That’s why wealthy people on the earth, as a whole, aren’t being called. In the time I’ve been in God’s Church, my history, my looking back in time, the people I have known are not the leaders of the world, they’re not the educators of the whole of the world.  I’ve only known one professor who was a well known professor in a particular area of a certain kind of class; but as a whole professors won’t come along because this is beneath them.  You are beneath them!  They can’t be in this kind of an environment, going to a place where you have to travel so far when you have such nice big buildings and people of their community and that which goes with it – politics, recognitions.  Have I ever known a banker in God’s Church?  I don’t think I have, have I?  You mean one who became one and then went to jail? Yeah, that’s another matter.  He wanted something else and got it.  I’ve never known someone who was a banker that was called out of the world into God’s Church.  We’ve seen all kinds of things happen in God’s Church, in the environs of God’s Church, not always in God’s Church because all who have come into God’s Church are not always in God’s Church – that’s the history of God’s Church.

...refused to be called...time proves all, doesn’t it, for all of us.  We remain faithful, steadfast; living by this way of life, hold to the doctrines, speak the same mind – that’s what reveals we’re in God’s Church, always, and living this way of life day by day.  And so when you read through a story like this, as a whole you don’t grasp it, you don’t grasp what Moses did. You read it as a nice story, but to understand what he gave up... you’ve never been in a position like that!  You have never received anything like this...that’s why Moses is called such a great man by God, because God moulded and fashioned him as he was growing up – because God had a plan for him, Moses didn’t know it. God had a plan for him, to humble him for another forty years in an area removed from people, and then one day spoke to him out of a bush that was burning.  The only one who could really have that happen to him in that way at that time, because today if you went out and told somebody, “Yeah, this bush was burning...” they’d lock you up, they’d strap you up right away probably.  I can’t imagine.  “Oh yeah, you’re just like Moses...”

So God moulded and fashioned him and did awesome things with him.  God moulded and fashioned Moses here to do these things, but Moses had to make the choices, and did.  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; most people choose sin, especially when it’s in such abundance, when there’s power involved.  People have a very difficult time giving up power.  As a matter of fact, my experience in God’s Church is that people lust horribly after power.  I have seen horrible things happen in God’s Church through time, where people wanted Mr. Armstrong’s job.  That’s why Mr. Armstrong very powerfully said, “They’re waiting around like a bunch of buzzards...” in essence that’s what... ‘vultures’ is the word I think he used, like vultures waiting for him to die. When he said that I had no comprehension of the magnitude of what he was talking about.  I thought maybe there was a bad experience with a couple of people out there and things that they were doing.  I had no idea it was from top to bottom and in the top of the government in the Church throughout all the evangelists, a struggling for power, waiting for God’s leader to die so that they could be in power or be on the right side of someone whom they felt would be in power, and be on the right side then to be placed in a higher position of power.  Man lusts, even within the environs of something that God has moulded and fashioned to be right and live right.

That’s why God has shown the Church at the end-time - could give lessons and lessons and lessons on this - that even in God’s Church that’s not enough.  It’s not enough to govern.  You can’t just have God’s Church without Jesus Christ on the earth, without 144,000 who are in the God Family on the earth, because man by nature is selfish and in time.... You’ve been around how long?  One year, two years, three years, four years...?  Put yourself back twenty years, thirty years, and you very likely, most likely unless God had a specific purpose for you, would not be here today. You don’t think of yourself that way, but it’s true.  Everyone in God’s Church fell asleep and unless God had a specific purpose of drawing and working with specific individuals for a specific purpose that He had because it’s His will, because it’s His calling, because it’s His purpose, I wouldn’t be here and you wouldn’t be here, others would be here.  It’s by God’s grace and by God’s mercy and by what He does.

So we’re not great.  God is great!  And we’re so blessed to share with what God gives to us.  So never think above yourself who you truly are, and where you are.  Seek to be of a humble spirit and a humble mind and understand that many have gone before you who have stumbled and tripped and fallen and understand just in this story here I guess, because of Moses, the magnitude of what he did is truly great because by nature people desire power.  Don’t ever desire that in the Millennium, you won’t get very far, especially with 144,000.  If you strive to do something for the wrong reasons, to gain recognition.... It has to be because it’s right; it has to be because it’s motivated by the right purpose and the right reasons.

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; we’re here and then we’re gone.  If you want it, God will give it to you. Esteeming the reproach of Christ... Isn’t that amazing?  This is what Moses did, esteeming the reproach of Christ?  He didn’t know Christ!  This is why sometimes people get confused when they read about certain things and certain beliefs we held at one time.  He didn’t know Christ, He believed.  He believed things God gave about a Messiah, That’s why there’s a scripture I had written down that I didn’t put in my notes here that I think would be good to read over in Acts. Let’s turn over there.

Acts 10:34 – because we read through something in a story fashion we don’t realize some of the things that God has given in different form, maybe in a limited way, the things about a Messiah, things about The Christ, the Messiah; the Anointed One that would have to come in time that has been given to mankind from the beginning.   Peter speaking says, He opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:  But in every nation he who fears Him, and works righteousness, is accepted with Him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by/through Jesus Christ: (He is Lord of all): That word, I say to you know which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; And so he’s giving a timeline here.  Again, their job continually, over and over again, was going back to the beginning of Christ’s ministry, what happened with John, what happened with the holy spirit that descended upon Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, and going forward showing He was the Son of God, He was the Messiah that was prophesied by all the prophets beforehand.  That’s what he says.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed of the devil; and God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree/hanged on a pole: it was prophesied to happen that way.  Him God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly/revealed Him openly, to those whom He chose to reveal Himself; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead.

And He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and the dead. To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins. It’s a beautiful verse, because through time the knowledge about forgiveness, the knowledge about a Christ, the knowledge about a Saviour, God’s people, those with whom God worked one by one by one over the first 4,000 years, they had that knowledge and they were a part of that first loaf.  It’s a beautiful picture again isn’t it, when God said, “Take the sheaf, go out and cut it, save it.”  Now the harvest begins.

So the harvest begins, and so for the first 4,000 years there was a harvest going on, God calling individuals, a few here, a few there at different times through time, as witnessed through time.  And then finally the actual Wave Sheaf was offered.  Beautiful story, beautiful picture. The Wave Sheaf was offered up before God, received for everyone – everyone – the first 4,000 years and the next 2,000 years – the entirety of the harvest.  That’s why it’s such a beautiful picture, I love it, that on the Day of Pentecost God used it, because that’s when Christ fulfilled it later on, not at the beginning of the harvest.  That’s why some people have puzzled and questioned and concerned... How could they have been forgiven of their sins, because Jesus Christ didn’t come for 4,000 years later.  Well, it’s by faith, because of what they believe, whom they believe in, and then God accepted it when it finally did come to pass.

So back to Hebrews here, we’ll continue on a little bit more and close with this particular series.  Again, individuals whom God has called over time, individuals whom God is so excited about seeing once again.  What if it was just a few days from now, and anyone you’ve ever known through time who’s died you get to be with them again?  That’d be exciting!  But if you’ve waited for different ones for 6,000 years you’d be a lot more excited.

Going on about Moses in Hebrews 11:26 - Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: because of what he believed in, for he had respect unto the recompense of reward. Better said, he embraced that what he had there, what he was, for far greater value and Gods promise for a future Israel, for Israel because of what He said was going to take place in taking them out of Egypt.

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible/unseen. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, so that He who destroyed the firstborn should not touch them. In other words, so none of them would die, because that’s why they put the blood on the doorposts.

And then jumping on here down in verse 36, continuing on just a little bit more...And others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:  They were stoned, they were sawn in two; isn’t that amazing?  These magic shows where they show that all of a sudden you could cut through a thing here and you’re going to divide someone in half and ‘ha ha ha’ and this magic.  It didn’t start out as magic; it started out as something that really took place.  ‘Sawing asunder’ means exactly what it means, put inside something and people received pleasure from seeing such tortures.  A sick, sick world, the mind of mankind, what they can do to other human beings, especially those whom they hated, those who followed God; they hated their message.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tested, they were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute – in other words, they went without.  How many of us are going without?  Even now?  You know, we didn’t think this was going to start this way; we thought we’d be going without at the very beginning.  Thank God you’re not going without, thank God you still have electricity, a car to travel around in, gasoline you can get, on and on it goes, food you can easily have.  How tough are things right now?  They’re not too bad compared to what people before have gone through.

...being destitute, afflicted, tormented; God’s people have gone through a lot through time, and different ones have gone through different things at different times, all for a witness of 6,000 years of man. (Of whom the world was not worthy): they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens...remember that the next time you think you have it bad. The next time you think you have it tough in any fashion or form, please, please, please, get a hold of your attitude quickly and your thinking quickly.  Anytime I’m travelling and I begin to think it’s a little bad, I think, “Boy oh boy!”  I think of Paul in a ship and being shipwrecked and I think about how I have air conditioning and padded seats, flying from one location to another; and sometimes it gets a little weary in the human body, but it’s nothing compared to what others have gone through.  I can’t imagine standing around at some point in time with some of them in a resurrection telling them how difficult it was sometime.  I’m serious, I would not dare to open my mouth!  Seriously!  I believe that with all my being!  They would look at me like I had several heads.  “Let me tell you a story...” and so we need to think about that and realize how blessed we really are.  We sometimes are so spoiled and we don’t know what we have!  It’s incredible what we have!

Sometime when you think your life is tough...because, you know from time to time in different parts of the Church and different areas I hear of stories, I hear of things that go on and trials that people think they have and difficulties that people think they have and ‘woe is me’ and having trouble with someone else and I think, “You don’t know how blessed you are!  You don’t know how rich you are!  ...especially with the truth!”

So as we end this sermon today thinking about these things, go back and read these verses about other who have walked with God before in conditions far, far worse than what you have ever walked, for a lot longer period than you have ever walked, a long, long time.

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: and here some of us who are alive receive the promise in less than a year from now, and others get to see it.

God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. All a matter of God’s time of coming to perfection.

~~~end

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