Truths Following Repentance – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

September 3, 2011

Last Sabbath we covered a sermon entitled ‘Truths About the Apostasy’ in which we covered the first twelve truths that we have listed that followed the 18 Truths revealed by God to Mr. Armstrong during the Philadelphia era of God’s Church.  And when you go back and start looking at some of these things (I was mentioning that to Johnny today on the drive over) it’s really incredible to see how these are organized, to see what God has given to us, to see the process in which God leads, guides and directs us and works with us, and why He does what He does when He does when it comes to understanding. It’s awesome to view all these truths again. We’ve done this in the past some time back but this time it is in the context of how God has worked with His Church through the last two eras of this end-time, through Philadelphia following Sardis and on into the period of Laodicea.

In last Sabbath’s sermon we covered the truths that God gave us that concern the apostasy in the Church that the Church was prophesied to experience.  Something that the apostle Paul did not understand, when the end would be.  They looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.  That’s been throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament, the Messiah, the same word ‘Christ’ in the New Testament having to do with one ordained by God to be a ruler.  That’s what Messiah and Christ is all about!  It’s about a ruler. Of course, what is written in the Old Testament is misunderstood by Judaism and sometimes by Traditional Christianity as well as having to do with just the physical nation of Israel.  No, it’s rulership of the world, and scriptures make that very, very clear; that that’s what the coming of the Messiah is all about.  But they didn’t understand all those things!

They believed the good news, what’s called the ‘gospel’ in the New Testament (means ‘good news’).  They were excited about the good news that Jesus Christ brought and what the disciples were teaching, and it was very much about Jesus Christ being the Messiah; and they didn’t understand, the world didn’t, and Judaism didn’t understand, and even Christianity today does not understand that He came first to be our Passover, to fulfill something in the Old Testament!

What an amazing thing to understand that the world has lost sight of this, because of ‘holidays’ that totally darken understanding of what the Bible is all about in the first place!  Easter doesn’t teach a thing in the Bible!  It’s not in there!  I remember writing that in the book and getting some letters back and people saying, “Yeah, I found the word ‘Easter’ in the New Testament.”  Well, it’s the word for ‘Passover’ in Greek. They purposely translated it Easter.  Isn’t that amazing?!  Anyway, you go back through some of those things and you think, Passover in the Old Testament that Judaism still observed in the time of Christ; they didn’t understand that it was about a Messiah who had to come, who had to die for all the sins of mankind, not fulfilling the role of Messiah yet, not fulfilling the role of a King, one who has been ordained to rule the earth.  And that’s where we are now – next year – something that mankind has looked forward to for so long and yet so very few believe nor understand, but that’s where we are in time. The world is going to be shocked, truly.  It’s an awesome thing to understand where we are in time and what’s taking place.

You think about different ones in times past, of what they waited for.  Sometimes if I think things seem like they’re taking a little long I can’t help but think about Noah building an ark for over a hundred years, a ship out in the middle of nowhere, people mocking and making fun, coming from a long way around to view it because this was not a small boat.  This was a huge ship, especially in those times, something that was being built by a family for so, so long, and then even after they were finished there was still that apprehension, still that waiting.  God does what He says He’s going to do.

So again, we covered the truths that reveal that the prophesied apostasy of 2 Thessalonians 2 that Paul wrote later on in his life.... because in the beginning, by his writings, his mindset was that Christ was going to return soon in their time.  As time went along God began to reveal through Jesus Christ, no, He is not going to return soon; something first had to happen within God’s Church. And that’s what 2 Thessalonians 2 is all about, because the context there is everything about the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Jesus Christ, but certain things had to take place first. And so there’s that word that’s used there, a ‘falling away’, which in the Greek language is the word for ‘apostasy’; means ‘to leave the truth, to leave what God has given.’

We also covered how that the man of sin mentioned there was Joseph W. Tkach senior, who was given charge over the Church after Mr. Armstrong’s death; and this man, the man of sin, the son of perdition did far, far worse than the first one that’s mentioned as the son of perdition because of what he did, even in his time, the one who betrayed Jesus Christ, (Judas) in a physical manner.  This man here did it in a spiritual matter because it had to do with the truths that God had given.  So he betrayed Jesus Christ in a very powerful way because he was placed as the head on this earth, as a physical human being over the Church, and then he gave his infamous sermon up in Atlanta on the Sabbath, December 17, 1994.  Incredible!  Telling people that the Sabbath is no longer required, that the Holy Days are no longer required, to the point where it’s left open that Easter’s okay, Christmas is okay, it’s okay if you keep the Feast, it’s okay if you don’t keep the Feast, it’s okay if you observe Saturday as a seventh day Sabbath, it’s okay if you keep Sunday.  Although maybe not everything spelled out in all those details - but certainly that God’s law is no longer required.  Even as much as clean and unclean meats - you don’t have to worry about what you put in your body anymore.  All of a sudden it’s clean, it’s fine!  Amazing!

Taking the Church totally away from what it had observed since the time of Pentecost in 31 AD when the Church began, small, always small, always being worked with in a very powerful way but small in the world.  And then in 325 AD, that great big church that began to come together and they decided – the church that became known as the Catholic church – that finally decided we’re no longer going to observe Passover, we’re going to observe Easter.  That’s what the Nicene Council is all about. It’s in encyclopaedias, it’s in all kinds of church history, and yet people don’t understand it in their own history books!  They understand what the Nicene Council is all about, to give credibility (they thought), because if you can change something from Passover to Easter and you can begin changing something to a Sunday, Sunday morning resurrection of Jesus Christ, that somehow that can give credibility to something that they were wanting to do already, to observe the day of the sun, SUN-day as a day of worship.  So to them, that seemed to give them the credibility they were wanting.  Incredible what’s happened through time that people are ignorant of and willingly ignorant of in many cases, not understanding that if you want a relationship with God, God tells you there are things you must do.  You can’t just do your own thing.  You can’t just decide for yourself how you want to obey God, that you’re going to obey certain things and other things you’re going to throw away.  It’s everything!  It’s a way of life that God has given to His people to live!  Incredible!

So again here, we focused on 2 Thessalonians, talked about those things, about the apostasy that happened after Mr. Armstrong’s death, in 1994 finally.  And we focused on how the temple in Matthew 24 and 2 Thessalonians 2 was about the Church, not a physical temple in Jerusalem that some still think has to be rebuilt, or an altar has to be rebuilt, as we talked about, because of what it says in Daniel.  And then all this tied in the importance of the abomination of desolation.

The reason I’m repeating some of these things and going over this quickly again is because we didn’t know these things with the power and the strength and the confidence and the boldness that we came to understand them.  We didn’t understand about the apostasy that was going to take place in the Church.  We knew one was coming, we knew that a falling away would take place in God’s Church in time, but we had no comprehension of how it was going to take place.  It wasn’t God’s purpose to tell the Church exactly how it would take place.

Just like the end-time!  We haven’t been told exactly when the 2nd Trumpet is going to sound.  We know it’s going to sound and we learn through the process then of obeying God and following God and His word will be accomplished as it has been through time.

And so again here, the importance of the abomination of desolation, because when it came it was about the Church and not something like Antiochus Epiphanies did at the altar around 70 AD when he came and offered a pig upon the altar to desecrate the altar and had a physical type of an abomination of desolation take place.  On the contrary, what was coming later on was not something like that on a physical plane, but something that was to happen, a prophetic thing in the Church of God.  That, spiritually what took place, was an abomination of desolation.

And so again, those things spoken of in Daniel and Matthew 24, that God helped us to understand more fully, these truths inevitably led to the revelation for God’s people of the need to repent for what we caused to happen within the Church because we were all guilty, because we fulfilled Laodicea.  We fulfilled what it said about Laodicea, of becoming lukewarm and what it said then in other scriptures as well.  And so just like it talks about in the parable of the 10 Virgins there in Matthew 25 – we came to understand that was about all of us.  The 10 virgins, it says they all fell asleep.  We never focused on that during Philadelphia.  We focused on how that there were five wise and five unwise virgins; and never, never, never did anyone fully grasp and comprehend that it said all ten fell asleep. And that’s a sin.

If you fall asleep spiritually it’s not God’s fault, it’s your fault!  If you let down spiritually it isn’t God’s fault it’s your fault!  And so I had to come to understand it was my fault for what I did.  I let down.  Everyone let down to the degree that God had to separate Himself from the entirety of the Church!  We understand in a very powerful way, as the Church never has, that God must dwell in us by the power of the holy spirit.  He gives us His spirit and He talks about.... that’s the reason Jesus Christ died!  Isn’t that an awesome thing!?  Not just to be forgiven of sin, that’s just the beginning!  There’s a reason behind that, why you’re forgiven of sin.  God will not dwell in sin!  And so you have to be forgiven of sin so that John 14 can be fulfilled, when Jesus Christ said, I am coming in you, in essence, to dwell in you, to abide in you, to live in you.  But God will not live in us, dwell in us, abide in us unless we’re forgiven of sin. Jesus Christ died so you can be forgiven of sin so that He and the Father can spiritually live in your life.  Awesome to understand that; what God has given to us.

And so we came to grasp more deeply Matthew 24 that speaks about those things that were going to take place there, and realized that this is about the Church.  It’s not about the world and the tribulation and the things that were going to happen in the world as much as it’s about the Church first and foremost.  And we realize that that does indeed tie into Revelation and the Seals, the first four Seals of Revelation.

So again, all these truths that we went through that reveal the reality of a scattering that happened in the Church, to come to understand Ezekiel 5, as we talked about last Sabbath, a third and a third and a third as we talked about.

So we’re going to continue in this series of sermons that we’ve been going through covering these truths, and today in this sermon entitled, Truths Following Repentance. Because again, our focus is a little bit different this time. God has given us a bit of a different focus.  We’ve gone through all these truths before, discussing them in far greater depth and detail and scriptures that go with each one and so forth.  This time it is in a different kind of package, if you will, to show how God works with us and how God has moulded and fashioned us and how these things began to be reinforced, strengthened, and revealed to us and in us.  And so these truths that we’re going into today couldn’t be there until we went through the last 12 which was about the apostasy.  Because we had to come to grips with what we did as a Church, that we let down, that that’s the reason God had to vomit...it says He spews the Church, Laodicea, out of His mouth!  That means to be separated from Him.  He won’t dwell in us.  Why?  Because of sin.

If you’re lukewarm you’re living in sin.  You’re either hot for God’s way of life (there is no middle ground, there is no straddling the fence); you’re either serving God, desiring to serve God, seeking to conquer and overcome, repenting of your sins, or....  there’s no levelling out and coasting in God’s Church.  The reality is God’s spirit demands growth wherever it lives.  That’s what Jesus Christ talks about back here in John 14, the next chapter, John 15 goes on to discuss this very thing; but John 14 that I mentioned earlier here is about Jesus Christ dwelling in us, and then it comes to John 15 where it says....

John 15:1 - I am the true vine, My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that doesn’t bear fruit, that’s what God’s spirit does. We either yield to it and we obey God and we produce fruit in our life or we don’t.  There is no coasting.  There is no middle ground.  There is no lukewarmness that can be there.  So either we’re producing and yielding ourselves, which means change in our life and that we are repenting and changing.  And so it says here, every branch in Me that doesn’t bear fruit He takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, in other words, yields to God’s spirit dwelling in them, He purges it/prunes it.  There are little things that have to be whittled away out of our life, have to be repented of, have to be gotten rid of so we can grow and become stronger.

Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  Abide in Me, that word; abide in, to dwell in.  That’s a choice.  How do you do that?  By obeying, by repenting, by crying out for God’s spirit to dwell in you, by striving to grow and conquer and overcome.  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, you can’t bear fruit by stagnation.  You can’t bear fruit by levelling off – there’s no such thing. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; it’s just like an umbilical cord in a baby that’s developing within the womb of a mother; and those are the analogies that are given to us as far as our lives are concerned.  That’s why Mr. Armstrong referred to the Church as being ‘the Kingdom of God in embryo’, not yet born into God’s Kingdom, not yet made spirit in life, still physical, but that which is happening in the mind is a beginning process very much like that which is in the womb of a mother, the baby that’s growing.  And that umbilical cord, that life’s blood is essential for continued growth, and so it is in our lives, that we must be filled with and have that spirit continually coming into our life, just like blood that’s continually flowing. And when you start cutting that off because of sin in time you will die. You get to a point where you fall asleep spiritually, you can’t continue on, and it can lead to death, truly.  It’s a dangerous spot, dangerous place to be in.  And so He says, “No more can you abide in Me.”  We have to abide in God and God has to abide in us.  That’s the only way to grow.

I am the vine, you are the branches: He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: if God’s spirit is there you’re going to produce fruit.  Wherever God’s spirit goes it has to produce fruit...and that reveals whether or not God’s spirit is there so often in people’s lives.  For without Me you can do nothing. We have to have God dwelling in us.  That’s what it’s all about.

And so again here, ‘Truths Following Repentance’ – we had to come to repentance but we had to come to understand all twelve of these things, of what the apostasy was all about, how it came to be, how it happened, all the things that were happening to the Church, why they were happening.  Because if this is God’s Church, in the minds of so many at that time and what we were going through, it’s like, “This is God’s Church!  HOW could this happen to GOD’S CHURCH?!”  And that’s why sometimes it’s so hard.  If you didn’t live through that it can be difficult to go back and look at that history and think, “How could they have done that?  How could that have happened?”  It can happen to any human being.  It did happen to many human beings, several thousands, who had the impregnation of God’s spirit dwelling in them.  Incredible!

So again, the twelve truths we covered in the last sermon that were tied directly into the Church’s experience of the prophesied apostasy were necessary in order to be drawn to deep repentance. That’s what they were all about.  That’s why God gave us those.  Never thought about it before – that’s why they’re on the website the way they are in that particular area.  Every one of them, they’re all there, all twelve of them.  So again, this was so that God could once again begin dwelling in the Church, because it had to be spewed out of His mouth.  So we had to come to repentance so that God could begin to live in us again.  And that’s what had to take place.  And so He revealed these things to us so He could begin to work with us again, so we could begin to grow again spiritually, on a spiritual plane.  Incredible!

The truths that we’re now going to cover, again, follow repentance and they begin to reveal the Church growing and how God was giving us growth, the things that we could begin to see and understand and how He could work with us once again in a very powerful way.  Number 34 in total here, 13 during the period of Laodicea:

34 (13) Of all who have been scattered, God is awakening a remnant out of it as a witness of this end-time. The majority of the Church....

And this is speaking in context here of what had taken place at this time.

The majority of the Church has not repented of the Laodicean condition...

And they still haven’t, obviously.

...and they remain prideful and lukewarm. God promises to awaken ten percent of a third of Laodicea as a witness of what God is doing, and a witness of what the scattered Church has done during Laodicea.

So again here, it’s a part of a process and that’s a part of what some of our fasting was about, that prayerfully, hopefully even more can be brought along.  Time will tell.

Let’s go over to Revelation 3.  We have learned very powerfully that God’s way is one of mercy, His desire for His people.  But sadly this prideful, lukewarm state has gone on for so long with so many that the only thing in a very powerful way that can be used to awaken them is death; death for a thousand years, to be resurrected later on and then to be awakened on a physical plane in a physical body once again in the sense of being resurrected, given a physical life once again as we understand what’s going to take place during that period of time, as a part of a process to stir and motivate people to understand what they did, that they cut themselves off from God’s spirit, that they had been spewed out of God’s mouth so that they can then come to deep repentance.  It’s going to take that for many people to be able to be brought to that point in life.

Revelation 3:17 – we’re going to read some of this again - Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; it’s this mindset of a lukewarm spirit.  It’s this mindset of beginning to straddle the fence.  It’s this mindset where people can begin to coast, not understanding you have to fight for this way of life all the time.  It’s a battle!  It wasn’t meant to be a cakewalk.  It wasn’t meant to be easy.  Sometimes you think, “Life is hard. It’s difficult in this way of life!”  You bet it is!  Because the whole world’s going a different way!  There’s a spirit in the world; it’s not of God and it’s going a different way, it’s not striving to obey God’s laws.  People use terms very freely, “I love God.  I love Jesus Christ.”  Oh, then you keep the seventh day Sabbath.  “No, that was nailed to the cross!”  Sad! They don’t understand.

Because you say that I am rich and increase with goods, and have need of nothing; and do not know that you are wretched; The only other place this word is used is when Paul said, “O wretched man that I am.  Who will deliver me from this body of death?” He was speaking of his human nature.  He saw his human nature.  He talked about this war that was going on inside of him. Well, let’s just turn there.

Romans 7:12 – He’s going through and talking about...wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.  The Protestant world will tell you, “Well, that’s not talking about the Sabbath day.  It’s talking about other things like don’t kill someone, don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t lust after...” whatever, “but the Sabbath, well that was nailed to the cross.”  No, that’s talking about all of God’s law, all of God’s way of life.  It’s holy because it’s about a way of life that God established for mankind to live that brings happiness, it brings fullness.

Verse 14 - For we know that the law is spiritual: what is it based on?  Love toward neighbour and love toward God.  It’s spiritual, it’s about God’s love, it’s about how love works, God’s love works.  ...the law is spiritual, he says, but I am carnal, sold under sin. He saw this war, this battle that goes on with human flesh, that we’re selfish by nature, and that doesn’t go away as long as you’re in this body.  That’s what he’s talking about here.  And so he talks about this struggle in some of these verses here.

He says in verse 18 - For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) in other words, apart from God just as a human being, dwells no good thing: That’s a healthy thing spiritually, not a bad thing for human beings to come to understand.  To come to understand our nature, to acknowledge, to admit we’re selfish by nature, that we love self more than anyone else – that’s the way we are, we pamper self.  We take the side of self.  That’s how we think.  He says, “In me is no good thing.”  Paul, an apostle for 25 years when he wrote this, a man very close to God.

...for to will is present with me; in other words a desire to do what is right, it’s with me, I have it there, it’s there in my being, but how to perform that which is good I find not. Not within self.  He reveals it has to come from God.  What is good comes from God.  Everything that’s good comes from God.  It’s not in us as human beings; you can’t find it in yourself.  That sometimes is very hard for people to come to understand.  Mankind was created with the capacity, as it says in Genesis, for doing good and evil, but the good we do that might be classified as good is always, always, always, Always, ALWAYS without exception – Please to come to understand that if you don’t understand it.  Ask God for help to understand it – always selfish!  You’re selfishly motivated to do it.  The only way not to be selfish in life is if you’re motivated by the truth through God’s spirit, because God’s love, God’s spirit is totally unselfish, it’s totally giving.  That’s why Mr. Armstrong always used to use the example of a mothers love being the best kind of love he could point out in order to help people to understand this truth about human nature.  That mankind’s love at its very best is a mother’s love to her own child.  It’s a beautiful thing. You give birth in life and that bond that’s there that even the child will never fully understand until they have children, and then they will come to understand that in a deeper way.  But that bond that is there, he said that it’s not God’s love, it’s not agape because it’s still selfish, because you don’t bear the same love for all other children.  God does.  Human beings are motivated in a carnal way through selfishness and it isn’t God’s kind of love, that’s why it isn’t enough in the world.

The good that man does, the good deeds that mankind does, isn’t good enough, it doesn’t bring about real peace because everyone believes their good is what is best.  That’s why politics is such a bad thing – people think their type of good, their good ideas are better than the other parties good ideas.  “Ours will work, yours won’t.  Yours are going to cause hurt and pain.”  No, both are going to cause hurt and pain eventually, that’s the way it is in the world.

Verse 19 - For the good that I would I do not do: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that which I would not, so again, this is kind of back and forth here talk, but he’s just talking about the struggle that’s inside of himself.  There are things he wants to do. And then he goes on and makes the comment in verse 22 - For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: this was his fullness, his excitement.  It is ours as well when we come to understand it.  What is this talking about?  The mind. When he talks in those terms, ‘the inward man’, he’s talking about something that you have here that God has given; I delight in the law of God, he knew where it was, it was in the mind; that God had given it to him in his mind.

When you begin to understand something for the first time, the seventh day Sabbath generally is at the top of that list, and all of a sudden you begin to understand why God set aside the seven day purpose and plan to reveal something for what He was doing in mankind for 7,000 years, a day for a thousand years.  That He had a plan that He was going to give the first six days to mankind to live his way, to work and toil and so forth, but the seventh He says, is mine.  And so we go through this cycle, even in the weekly cycle, to learn something that God has shown in a greater way in His plan and purpose for all of mankind. The first 6,000 years for man to live by his own governments, his own way of life, his own ideas, good and bad that mankind can come up with, and to reveal that all will fail: everything that man has ever done has failed.  Sometimes that’s difficult for people to grasp.  Everything!

Every kingdom that’s ever arisen, every nation that’s ever come up (you read your history books) that aren’t around anymore.  Where did they go?  What happened to ‘Great Britain’ after WWII?  Wasn’t so great anymore.  Infrastructure kind of starting falling apart. They became nothing compared to how all of a sudden the United States was thrown on the world scene and quickly the British pound wasn’t used as a currency anymore in the same manner it was previously.  With the rise of the United States the dollar began to emerge.  And now we’re at a time where people are beginning to understand; historians, economists are beginning to understand, world leaders are beginning to understand, that if time were to go on the U.S. dollar is not going to be the world currency anymore.  It’s starting to take a backseat now.  You are watching these things take place on the world scene.  You are a witness of these things at the end-time...and yet God made us who we are.  He made Great Britain great; He made the United States great – a part of prophecy.

So this is given in the mind about the Sabbath.  You begin to see, you rejoice in it.  I was excited when I began to see something I’d never seen before and I was not religious in any fashion or form.  I made fun of people who were religious; looked down upon them, thought they were nuts basically.  Anybody wanted to talk to me about religion, I just thought that basically they didn’t have too much together at all.  And then all of a sudden one night being told about the Sabbath, about 10:00 at night, and all of a sudden I could see it.  I didn’t even have to look at a verse, it was up here and I knew it was true.

And I heard about the U.S. and B.C. in Prophecy and I understood that the migrations of the children of Israel and what happened to them, why Judah went into captivity, why Israel to the north went into captivity, that they were taken up into Europe and they lost their identity because they moved away from the Sabbath.  The Jewish people never did.  They still kept the Sabbath.  They might have polluted it, that’s why God said He took them into captivity, because they polluted the Sabbath.  So they went into captivity for 70 years but He brought them back and the Jewish people have always been known as the Jewish people!  But what happened to Israel?  Well, the Jewish people became known as Israel – sad – and what about those other 10 nations?  Judah was just one!  They went into captivity in the north. They were assimilated into...that’s what the Assyrians did when they took someone captive, they  brought the Samarians down into that area of land; that’s why there were those there at the time of Christ, because they’d been replaced.

That’s what the Assyrians did; they would take people out of one area, take them to a strange area to live, to work, to basically be enslaved to them, to their whims, because when you take them out of their own environment, out of their own country, you take a lot out of them, indeed, and eventually they started migrating throughout Europe, finally the United States and Australia and Canada.  Amazing story!  And I knew it was true!  I didn’t have to prove anything, it was up here!  Began to hear other things and it was just up here, the inner man, something you can’t have unless God just gives it to you.  It’s not because of how smart you are. It’s not because of how intellectual you are.  It’s not because of how much schooling you might have had – you don’t have to have schooling for this.  If God determines to call you and gives you His plan and understanding of a way of life to live and what is true He just communicates it by His spirit to the mind.  Awesome!

So you can read about it somewhere, you can hear about it from someone else, but God is the one who has to give it to you, truly.  And you can be excited!  I tried to share this with some relatives.  I tried to share this with some friends.  And I learned real quick they don’t have the excitement I have.  You start learning from that process too – only God can give it.  So he says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man, that’s what I began to do on that day – something that was in the mind that I loved, I was drawn to.  And you begin to change your life because of it; a relationship that you are able to begin to have with God.  And this is what Paul is talking about.

But I see another law in my members, in my being, warring against the law of my mind, that which we see, that we choose, that we want, but there’s something else that’s warring inside of us and it’s this carnal, selfish, human nature, and it doesn’t take very long sometimes when all of a sudden you can be in a conversation with someone, in a relationship with someone –friend, relative, mate, whatever it might be – and you can say things to them that are sharp and cutting, sometimes just downright disgusting because of your selfishness!  Where is the love of God?  But we’re so selfish sometimes we take those things out on others and we need to learn to fight those things and conquer those things, whether it be at work or wherever it is.  You have to change the way you think, your mind has to be transformed, and then that’s what God says He’ll help do, but it’s a process that takes a lot of time.

You don’t just change overnight.  And sometimes you might look at your life and say, “I wonder if I’m changing at all.” ...because it’s a gradual thing.  It’s an ongoing battle but it’s a gradual thing, and then you look back in time and you realize, “I am a different person.”  I remember when I was first called, certain things I was going through in the mind and battles that were there and crying out to God to take the strands of my brain and just pull them out and take a knife and scrape off the ... you know what I’m talking about... the garbage, the world, because I hated it, but I knew it was so much a part of my being and my thinking.  And you know what?  In time I looked back and it wasn’t there anymore, some of those same things I was praying about, they were gone.  And so we change.

That’s why my wife and I are so excited when we go from area to area; we get to see people about every six months or so, maybe once a year in some areas, maybe a little less in a few, but we strive to get around to see everyone.  And to me it’s an awesomely exciting blessing to be able to see the changes – because we see them!  Sometimes when you’re together all the time you don’t see them as quickly, but taking a period of time like that and then coming back together, that’s one of the most inspiring things about our travel, it truly is.  It keeps me motivated to keep focused and to keep going and to keep doing what we’re doing – because that part is exciting!  The growth!  You know what I see?  It’s God!  It’s God’s spirit, because that’s the only way that growth takes place.

Paul went on to say, But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  And so we see this.  He’s just telling it like it is!  He’s saying there are times I have sin in my life!  Do you?  I do!  Sometimes because of whatever it might be, maybe because I didn’t eat like I should have at the right time and I’m just a little cranky and I say something that I could have said in a better way, or maybe I say something that I really shouldn’t have said at all and that I’ve got to repent of.  Because everything that comes out of our mouth should be kind and gentle and caring and filled with love...and it isn’t always that way is it?  And so sometimes if we say anything that hurts someone else, we’ve sinned!  If you hurt someone else because of your recklessness, because of your selfishness, you’re sinning when you’ve done that.

One of the biggest battles in life in God’s Church, has always been, will continue to be because we’re carnal human beings, is in the closest, most meaningful relationship that God gives human beings – husbands and wives, family, children, parents.  Family!  The closest relationship that God gives, that’s where people feel a greater freedom sometimes to be themselves, to do things they ought not to do, to say things they ought not to say, to act in ways they ought not to act, because you’re not around others the same amount of time.

And so sometimes the ones you hurt the most, can hurt the most, what you need help in growing the greatest in is in your relationships with other people.  And that’s what God wants us to see above everything else, because His Family is about relationships. It’s about how you get along and how you learn to love everyone in your Family, in the great Family, the extended Family He gives to you in the Church, that you learn to love everyone in the Family, that you don’t have anything against anyone.

That’s why it can be a pretty tough judgement on you if you take a Passover and you have something against someone else in God’s Church, you hold something against someone else...because you have no right.  You’re to be of a forgiving spirit, an understanding spirit.  And to take a Passover when you have problems with someone else is an incredibly great sin.  Some people have brought great judgement into their lives because they’ve taken Passover in a wrong spirit.

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, ‘captivity’ means when you sin you make yourself captive to another being, to a different power, to sin.  And what is the penalty for sin – death.  That’s why Jesus Christ died, so you could be forgiven of that, and so you have to repent.  When you do those things that are wrong you have to go before God and repent so you’re not in that captivity, held captive to that sin anymore, so that Satan and demons don’t have power around you in your life, because they’re powerful beings on a spiritual plane.

O wretched man that I am!  That’s a healthy thing to be able to say, spiritually. It’s just acknowledging what you are.  O wretched man/woman, whatever, that I am!  That’s the way we are as human beings.  The same word, a word that means ‘miserable’; that’s what he’s saying. O miserable man that I am!  That nature, that selfishness!  I loathe selfishness, I hate selfishness, and the more I see it in myself and I begin to see it more and more in the world around me, sometimes that creates a great battle toward the world around me.  You have to be careful with what God gives you to see.

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And that’s what this way of life is all about, that we are being delivered from this, but we have to acknowledge first of all that there’s a problem.  If you don’t acknowledge you’re a problem... and you have a problem, you have a lot of problems...if you won’t acknowledge the kind of mind you have then you’re not going to be acknowledging the fact that you want to change and you need God, and you know you need God to change so you won’t be like that.  And so you cry out to God more.  If you know these things, if you believe these things, because you believe the word of God, then you respond to God the way we’re supposed to respond!  “Father, help me to change!  Please dwell powerfully within me. Help me to see the things I must repent of.  I want you constantly, continually living and dwelling within me!  I want to be at one with your Word, your mind, and to treat people accordingly with Your love.”  But that’s the problem with Laodicea, people came to a point where they’re not repenting on a regular daily basis like they needed to.  They were not fighting against their nature to the level we should have been, I should have been, all of us fighting against our human nature, not understanding the help we need every day and crying out to God.  We began to be lax instead – lukewarm – not fully cold and definitely not hot.

It’s easy to see someone when they’re totally cold in God’s Church, but when someone’s going through the motions and not really hot, zealous for this way of life, seeking to repent, seeking to change, crying out to God – you don’t know that!  And so sometimes you don’t know in relationships what someone else might be doing.  They might be coasting and just kind of levelling off and going through the motions.  And I’ll just tell you, that’s what several tens of thousands of people are doing today in the Body that’s was scattered, that’s been separated from the presence of God right now for a time, most of it until the Great White Throne.  They’re going through the motions of what they were taught...those who are still trying at all... because two thirds went by the wayside.  One third went back to Protestantism that God had called them out of.  One third just quit all together because they were so disillusioned, and another third was scattered all over the place; over 600 groups out here now spun off of the true Church of God.  And so they go through the motions, they go to the Feast of Tabernacles in whatever area; they’re in Sabbath services today listening to Sabbath sermons, going through the motions.  Horrible state to be in.

So this is a healthy thing spiritually for you to acknowledge in your life. You have to see yourself.  If you don’t see yourself you’re not going to be crying out for God, you’re not going to see that you want to be like God, God-like.  You want His love. You don’t want your love.  You don’t want, like one group out there, they’re ‘Phila-delphian’; philia.  Philia is a brotherly love, it’s a fraternal love.  That’s not what God has called us to, a fraternal love, to have a church where people come together and they have these friendships.  I went by a huge church the other day that has thousands of people in it!  They spent millions and millions and millions on this thing!  I was dumbfounded about the roads going into it!  We were driving past it and in order to get to where we were heading we had to go all the way around this thing off of a freeway and back around another direction, and even on the backside there were huge roads going in and out of this church, huge parking lots all over the place!  Fraternal organization.  One side of it is a great big gym and fitness area.  Well, that’s wonderful, but people can get caught into a fraternal type of a relationship in an organization because it’s about God’s spirit that’s important.  It’s about the love of God, godly love, agape that we should cry out for.  That’s what God reveals to us over and over again!  It isn’t about ‘philia’ love.  We have to go far beyond that, because philia is selfish, it’s still selfish because it’s the best that man can do without God.

O wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from the body of this death?  ...and he goes on to say then, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; I tell God that sometimes, “You know from the beginning, from baptism, I chose You.  I don’t want this world.  I don’t want a selfish way of life.  I don’t want the way of mankind.  I chose You and You know that and that’s my mind.”  That’s the way we have to be, with the mind you chose the law of God, the way of God, the truth of God, and you cry out to God to accomplish it then.  You know what?  He’s made it possible – for Him it’s done – but we have to make the choices that this is what you want, and you have to cry out for it and fight for it.

So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. It’s still there, no matter what you do, that’s what Paul is saying.  This is my choice, this is what I desire, what God has given me in the mind, in the inner man I cry out for that, I seek help for that, I seek help to hold onto that, to fight for that, to change, to grow, but I still find that there’s sin in my life that I have to repent of.  Attitudes, things that are said, whatever it might be – every one of us does – and if you think you don’t have that you are in a deep, deep sleep, far away from God, truly.

Laodicea had to come to understand things that they had done wrong.

Revelation 3:17 - ... because you say that I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothings; in other words it’s this attitude of being self-sufficient or not grasping how much we really need.  “and after all, I’ve read all these books, I have all this knowledge, I have all this understanding, I know these things now...” and we kind of begin to rest in that and we go through the motions then of back and forth from Sabbath services and we go through the motions of things. But, how much are we crying out to God every day fighting and asking for forgiveness of things that we’re doing wrong when we do them wrong. It gets to a point sometimes where people just do wrong and they’re not even asking for help anymore; they’re not asking for help to change their bad habits, their bad thinking, their bad speech, whatever it might be.  You have to be fighting those things to grow!

...and do not know that you are wretched, it’s a healthy thing spiritually to understand your battles, to understand your true need for God, for the holy spirit living within you.  ...you know not that you are wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: apart from God that’s the way we are, and we have that within us.  And the only way that we’re rich, truly...the only way that we are not naked... you know the scriptures used about that is when you’re forgiven, meaning your repenting, so you see what you are and you’re repenting of what you are and crying out for help to become what God wants you to become.

I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the fire so that you may be rich; with white raiment, that you may be clothed... and that you may be clothed and so the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you can see. That which comes from God so that we can see and continue to see what is the truth, what is His way of life, and when more truths are given to us, that we can see those.  And the more you come to see these truths that we’re going through, and the more you come to believe them...because you don’t believe them fully like you might think you do.  You might say, “Oh yes, I believe all 57.”  Be careful!  Because you have to grow in them; there is that which you don’t yet fully believe. You are still growing in them, as with this entire book.  You know, I believe what’s there, but I need help to live it, I need help so that I can grow in it as well!  There are those things that I don’t yet fully grasp and comprehend – that’s what growth is about!  And we cry out to God for help with it.

I’ll just tell you right now, going back to number one of what Mr. Armstrong gave; you may feel like you’re in agreement with it 100%, you see it 100% and you don’t need to go back and review it or pray about it.  And you need help!  It’s government!  It’s order!  It’s a right relationship with God and with one another and how things work on a spiritual plane, yet we think we understand.  God’s Church during the time of Philadelphia thought it understood government.  I don’t think I ever heard a sermon that Mr. Armstrong gave where he didn’t mention the word, because he understood the importance of it!  God’s government, what governs our life is God’s law and our willingness to yield to that law. What governs another part of our life is our selfishness and that battle that’s there.  And so he went back to talk about it over and over again, some of the most basic things in life that we have to come to understand: order, obedience, government, what governs our lives, whether we’re fully yielded to God’s government in our lives, whether we fully grasp and comprehend God’s government in the Church.  And I know we don’t, but we’re growing in it.  Don’t ever think you have it.  Don’t ever think that you understand it all.  Don’t ever think that you don’t have to review it or pray about it, because you do.

I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the fire so that you may be rich; again, that gold, meaning in the fire.  You can’t see the impurities unless you go through the fire. You know, I could slap a piece of gold up here on the counter, it looks nice, it looks good. Gold is attractive.  It’s a little more attractive to me than silver because I know its value.  I realize that if I had the same size of silver beside it it’s worth a fraction of what the gold is, so to me gold is prettier, it’s more valuable.  So if you want to put two bars down there, I’ll tell you which one I’ll choose.  It can look that way on the outside, but you don’t know what’s in it unless you cut it open, unless you melt it, unless you ‘try’ it... Maybe it says that it’s .9999 percent pure but you’re taking that at face value because it has somebody’s name stamped on it or whatever.  But the point being is that’s the way it is in our lives.  We can appear to be going through the motions and living this way of life, especially when we’re around God’s people; we’re keeping the Sabbath, we’re nicer on that day, we’re actually trying to watch our conduct better on that day – which is what we should do – but how are we the rest of the time on the Sabbath? How are we the rest of the time during the week?  What are we like all the time?  Are we watching as closely our words as they’re coming out of our mouth?  ...and our actions?  ...because we don’t tend to.  In an environment like this it’s more on the mind, it’s more in the forefront, and so it’s easier to do.  It’s harder to do the rest of the week!  You have to cry out to God in order to do that.

And sometimes we realize then that a part of that is to understand the importance of fire in our life, which is what trials are.  You know what a lot of God’s people pray about when they’re going through a trial?  “Take it away!  Please intervene! I don’t want this!  I don’t like this suffering!”  And we don’t!  Who likes to suffer? “I don’t like to suffer!  I don’t like this hardship at work! I don’t like what I’m going through right now!  Please take it away!”  ...not realizing that it is the very thing that’s helping you; that God is allowing in your life.  If God came along and took away every trial, every hardship we had, we couldn’t grow!  We wouldn’t change!  We would become spoiled brats!  That’s what we would be spiritually.

In order to change and to grow we have to go through trials.  I am who I am today because of all the hard trials I’ve had to go through.  That which had to be gotten rid of I couldn’t get rid of it, that which I was ignorant of, I couldn’t repent of and get rid of it, lacking the understanding of those things before the apostasy that I treasure so much more deeply now, is because I went through the apostasy, and because of the fire that was there.

Anybody that went through that period of time can tell you how horrible it was.  Johnny told me that today about Atlanta, how horrible it was that day, December 17, 1994, seeing this happen to God’s Church on such a massive scale.  It was painful!  It hurt like you’d been stabbed inside over and over and over again.  People that you knew for so long that were all of a sudden against you because they were for something else.  Hurts; but this is how we grow.  So sometimes rather than asking God to take away the trials ask God for the help to learn and to grow through the trials and in His good time to take it away.  If there be a purpose in it, then so be it.  Isn’t that what Jesus Christ said?  “Father, if there be any way, take this cup away from Me, but not My will but Yours be done.”  It’s not wrong to ask for help, for ease, for things being removed, for being able to fight the battles, but ask for the help that it be done for the right reasons and that you learn from it, that you grow from it, and if it benefit others - so be it, if you suffer for someone else - so be it.

I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the fire that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see. As many as I love/agape, His love, I rebuke and chasten: He corrects, rebukes and chastens because we can’t stay this way.  There’s never a time in your life where you can just level out.  You must keep fighting against your carnal nature.  You must continue to seek to grow spiritually in your life.  He says, be zealous therefore, and repent. This is good for all time, not just Laodicea, but this was especially true to the era of Laodicea because of that attitude they had!  And so again here, be zealous, God says be zealous to repent!  This isn’t just for then, this is for all time!  This will be through the Millennium and in through the Great White Throne, that you should be zealous in your life for God’s way of life and to do that means you must be zealous in your repentance as well, to seek to do things right, to be aware of, to be on guard, to be aware of when things come out of your mouth that shouldn’t come out of your mouth, to be aware of your attitude, to be able to recognize it and say, “Oh, there it is again!” and ask God for help, silently, right there on the spot if you need to, “Father help me I don’t want to be like this.  I know it’s not right!”  And then God will give you help.

2 Thessalonians 2 – and so again, of all who’ve been scattered God was awakening a remnant out of it, as a witness.  That’s what God began to help us come to understand, what was taking place and why He was doing it.  Began to understand scriptures where it talked about a remnant that God would call at the end-time, that which... ‘a small amount, a remainder of the whole, a smaller portion, a remaining portion that He was going to work through.  Not because of how good we were, or how great we are, or anything of the nature, on the contrary, but as a witness of what was happening, what happened to the Church and the blessings we have of changing.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 – this is where it’s talking about the apostasy, it’s following on there, it’s been speaking about the man of sin...whose coming, speaking of the man of sin in context here.  I’m not going to go back to those verses again, is after the working of Satan with all powers and signs and lying wonders:  When someone’s mind for several months, maybe several years, was working toward a direction like he did and others around him did at a certain point in time where they began to loathe Mr. Armstrong, they began to hate the fact that people would refer back to the past, because it’s like it took something away from them, their authority, that someone would refer to ‘Mystery of the Ages’.

So you know what they did?  They burned the books!  Burned them!  They started burning literature, trying to get rid of it.  And you think there was some other motive behind that that was going to come in time?  Well, there was and there did.  They began to resent the very one that he followed?!  It’s amazing what we went through.  And because of that there’s a being and other beings that had power spiritually, on a spiritual plane, that began to work to where that organization would come to a point where they would say, “Everything you’ve ever believed and held close to you is wrong and you don’t have to think that way anymore.  You can go back to what the Nicene Council said back in 325 AD, “You don’t have to keep Passover anymore, you can keep Easter.”

Verse 10 – and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them who perish; the word means ‘to destroy’.  It’s what they’re doing. It’s a matter of deceivableness. They were very deceitful.

I remember calling into headquarters many a time and asking his son, “This is what I’m hearing out there, is this what’s coming? Is this what’s true?”

“Oh, no, no, no.”

Because they could tell by your question what you were asking so they’d lie to you and tell you basically what you wanted to hear.  Others I heard about later on, many others, who’d call in and be excited about some of this they’d say, “Yes, yes, yes...just wait a little longer.  Just wait a little longer, it’s coming.” ...with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them who destroy; their purpose to destroy what God had given, because they received not the love of the truth/agape of the truth... What an incredible thing.  There’s a love of the truth?  Absolutely!  Do you love the truth?  ...all the truth that God has given to you? ...and value it?  How much value?  Because that’s what it’s about. Because to the degree you love it is how you grow, is the quality of life you have on a spiritual plane and a relationship you have with God.

...because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.  So you mean loving the truth has something to do with being saved?  It has everything to do with it.  You have to love it all, seek to love it all; it’s from God, it’s the Word of God, it’s from the mind of God, it’s the being of God.  Everything that God gives to us and shares with us, it’s from His mind, His Logos, the revelatory thought.  That’s why it talks about the Logos that was made flesh – Jesus Christ – the mind of God, the very mind that was placed into a human being; the thinking, the agreement, the oneness that was there in His own Son because He was His Father.  We live life and in time we become impregnated with that spirit but we weren’t born from that moment in time and given that mind from the very beginning.  Incredible!

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:  That they all might be, says ‘damned’ here but the word has to be...it’s ‘judged’, has to do with judgement, who believed not the truth, so what it comes down to is if you believe the truth, you know what?  You live it.  That’s what you live, and it reveals.  What you live really reveals what you believe.  It reveals the level of your love of what God gives to you, the truth.  So to the degree you live this way of life, in all of God’s law, reveals your love of God. It reveals the depth of God’s life in you, candidly. And that’s what these things are talking about.  It reveals the depth of your belief and confidence and boldness in the truth that God has given as well.

So it says, that they all might be judged who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.  They didn’t want to obey everything, they wanted to start changing certain things, and sometimes if we’re not careful the mind is very deceitful, it can do the same things because you want to hold onto something that’s wrong, because you secretly have something going on in your mind that shouldn’t be there and you begin to toy around with those thoughts and that thinking.

But we are always bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning, and this applies to everyone, chosen you to salvation, that’s what God has done; He’s chosen you to be saved.  He didn’t choose you and call you so that you wouldn’t make it. He called you to be saved!  He called you to give you special opportunity!  Rather than someone else being called at this time He has a purpose and a plan for you to be a part of it, if you yield yourself to that.  That’s why I’ve said so many times:  Those of you called in the last three years, you cannot begin to grasp the magnitude of why God has called you and what He has drawn you to early on, because the vast majority of who are going to live in that new age have not yet been called!  Why did you have that opportunity a year or two or three beforehand?   Yield yourself!  Yield yourself to what God has given you and you will learn.  Fight for it!  It’s precious.  You can’t place a value on it.  Not a matter of haughtiness and pride, but a matter of gratitude and thankfulness, because it gives more opportunity to serve.

...has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification, you’re sanctified, you’re set apart, that word that means ‘set apart for holy use and purpose’.  That means for God to dwell in you and live in you – that’s the sanctification – for God to live and dwell in you for holy use and purpose.  He has a purpose in why He calls every individual.  He has a purpose why He’s going to call certain millions at this time out of this nation, as an example, and not the overwhelming several tens and hundreds of millions that are here.  There are going to be a few million.  Why?  That’s God’s calling and choosing. That’s God’s purpose; His design, not ours.  You are God’s purpose and God’s design; not ours to choose.  We only have that choice once God calls us, and then it should be one of gratitude and thankfulness in our response to Him.  Why me?  Well, you don’t have an answer for that.

I knew a lot of people when I was first called that were far better than what I ever was in how they lived their life.  On the contrary!  And that’s what you learn sometimes too; I knew what I was and others around me knew what I was.  So why did God call me?  Well, there’s not an answer to those things.  Sometimes because you were who you were and the kind of person you were to show the awesomeness of what God does by the power of His spirit to change someone to become something different.  The apostle Paul was the very one who said to kill Stephen, put him to death.  He was the one in charge!  And yet God had a great purpose for calling him and used him as an apostle to the Gentiles.  Incredible!

Going on in these verses here in 2 Thessalonians that was about the apostasy, it goes on to say...from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of/through the spirit, in other words, by the power of God’s spirit, and belief of the truth: and what is that truth?  Whatever God has given you at this present time; scripture that talks about that.  Whatever you have right now, the truths that God has given to you.  They didn’t have all these truths at the time of the apostasy.  They didn’t have these truths at the end of Sardis.  They didn’t have near that much by the time Paul died and by the time Peter died, and some of them died, as what we have now.

Verse 14 - Whereunto He called you by/through our gospel, the good news, of what was being preached, what God had given to be preached.  That’s how you’ve been called, through what God has given through Mr. Armstrong to preach that we’ve held onto, that God has blessed us to keep, and then all these others that have been added to it.  You’ve been called through those truths. That’s a reality.

That’s what Paul was saying here, through our gospel.  ...to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold to the traditions, Hold onto, and that word ‘traditions’ is a word having to do with that which is handed down.  Whatever is handed down to you at any moment in time, whatever God has given to you, because how is it handed down?  It comes from God Almighty through His Son Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ gives it to the Church.  He is the head of the Church!  And then He gives it, well, in this case now in this time, to me.  I give it to you in turn.  In Mr. Armstrong’s time it was to him.  In Paul’s time it was through him to the Gentiles and those things he’d received from the other apostles, primarily Peter.  And that is how it has always worked in God’s Church.

...therefore brethren, stand fast and hold to that which is handed down, is what it’s saying here, which  you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, who has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work. So again, it’s our response to God and how we respond to what He’s given to us.

Next truth here that was given: 35 in order, in complete order, 14 in Laodicea, through Laodicea.

35 (14) We understand that Jesus Christ is “continually coming” in the flesh of those who are in the Church of God. This has only been partially understood by the Church. Some scriptures refer to Christ “coming” in the flesh. Much of the Church has taken this physically, meaning that he first came to mankind while in the flesh, as a man. Other expressions about Jesus Christ “coming” are taken as though this is speaking of a time he will return to this Earth. Yet the literal Greek concerning this word is neither about a “past tense” existence, nor of a “future tense” return. The closest expression in English [in other words what’s written here in Greek] is that of being “present progressive,” meaning that Jesus Christ is “continually coming” into our lives (in our flesh) [coming in the flesh; not His flesh - in us, dwelling in us]—of God’s spirit dwelling [and as that word ‘dwelling’ is so often translated into English, the same word in the Greek language] (dwelling, abiding, continuing, living) “in” us.

Let’s go over to 2 John where this is used.  Again, it’s good that these things are reinforced within us, that they are more deeply embedded in our being, in our understanding.  Hasn’t always been that way.

2 John 6 - And this is love, it’s not just using any word for love here, it’s the word about God’s love, ‘agape’.  And this is love, and whenever that word is used it is talking about the love that comes from God. This doesn’t come from any human being by themselves!  God has to be in it.  It has to come from God’s spirit.  The source is God Almighty and Jesus Christ.  It comes from them into our lives and then we can experience it and it come from us, but of ourselves it can’t come out of us, out of a human being.

And this is the love, that we walk after His commandments. If God’s love is in you and you want that and you cry out for that and you want His spirit dwelling within you, then the response if we’re responding with right choices is about His commandments, that you walk in them, that you live them, that you do them.  And this is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.  That’s what God says, walk in His laws, walk in His way of life, His commandments.  For many deceivers have entered into the world, who do not confess; you remember that word we talked about recently?  ‘Homologous’; basically ‘at one with the Word’, the same Word, same mind.  That’s what God gives us the opportunity to do, to become of the same mind, of the same Word with Him, with the Word of God that came through His Son that was made flesh... who do not, in other words they’re not of the same mind, who are not of one mind, of the same mind, as it says... who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

And so some people have read this and they think, “Well, it’s denying that Jesus Christ lived on this earth,” and that’s not what it’s talking about. There are people who don’t even claim to be Christians who believe this.  There is a large religion in the world who believes He lived and that He was a prophet of God.  That’s what they say.  This is not what it’s talking about.  It’s talking about those who by their life it is reflected whether or not Jesus Christ is coming (present progressive), on a continuing basis into their life by His holy spirit dwelling in them.

This is a deceiver and an antichrist. How anyone could think that...not understand what this is talking about (we’ll come back to this in a little bit as well in another truth here), but it says This is a deceiver and an antichrist. It just means that you work against Christ.  Who can work against Christ?  Well, the world does, mankind does as a whole. But that’s not what it’s talking about.  It’s talking about people in the Church.  It’s talking about people who have the ability to either yield to Christ because of what He did or to resist it, and He’s addressing something that was happening in the Church not in the world.

So John is addressing something that was taking place in the Church and he’s saying basically within the Church there would be deceivers coming along who wouldn’t do what they should be doing and they’re not yielding themselves to Jesus Christ living within them.  They’re instead resisting.  How do you resist?  By doing your own thing, by sin, by not repenting of sin; and if you don’t repent of sin then the purpose of His death has no meaning and you begin to work against the very purpose of why He died.  You become anti [working against] Christ.

Take heed to yourselves so that we do not lose those things which we have worked to accomplish, that’s true for all time and for everyone, that you look to yourself, that you be on guard, that you be spiritually alert to not let these things happen.  Don’t think they can’t!  They have in thousands and thousands and thousands of people’s lives before you who once observed Sabbath services, who once went to the Feast of Tabernacles; on and on it goes.  Take heed to yourselves so that we do not lose those things which we have worked to accomplish, but that we receive a full reward. In other words, the full purpose of what God’s doing in our lives, that we yield ourselves to that.

Whosoever transgresses; that’s what it’s all about – sins, and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, if you sin and you don’t repent and you don’t fight those battles then this is what takes place; you’re not abiding in the doctrine of Christ.  You can’t.  He’s not dwelling in you; you’re not dwelling in Him.  You can’t dwell in the truth and live it.  In other words, again here, it says, and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. It means God’s spirit coming in, dwelling in them.

He who abides [dwells in, lives in, continues in] that same word, in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son.  Dwelling in you!  Because there’s no other way to do this way of life except that God the Father and Jesus Christ dwell in you on a continuing basis; not just once in a while, but on a continuing basis.  That’s why it’s so important to repent every day, more than once a day of things you are aware of in your attitude and in your mind that are not right and asking God for help so that He will continue to dwell in you.  You don’t want to be separated from the power of God’s spirit living within you, and that’s what sin does.

Going on here: 36 in total order, 15 as far as the period of Laodicea.

36 (15) No one goes to heaven, not even the 144,000.

Now the reason this was built upon and given and that God began to help us to see something that couldn’t really be seen to the same level before is because there’s this attitude.  You know, Satan tries everything he can to mock God, to do things with mankind.  He knows what his punishment is going to be and so he wants mankind to think about certain things that are going to come his way and he wants to make it even worse and make God look unfair and cruel.  And that’s what the world has done, to make up a ‘hell’ that people go to when they die – that’s cruel!  What kind of a God would want someone to live for eternity and suffer for eternity?  That is such a perverted thought!  ...that the Great, Almighty, loving, merciful God would want someone to suffer for a long period of time.  No, God just says that the penalty for sin is eternal death, eternal punishment.

And so the world has taken it, Protestantism has taken it, the Catholic church took it, and made it look like you’re going to be eternally punished.  It says, ‘eternal punishment’.  The punishment is for eternity, that’s what it means.  It doesn’t mean you’re going to be continually punished all your life into eternity.  I’ll tell you what, that is just downright sick!  It’s the mind of Satan!  It’s really ugly. He’s done a number on mankind, and there are people out there in the millions who believe that cesspool kind of garbage!  That the Great, Almighty, loving God, that gave His only begotten Son, so loved His purpose and plan for all of mankind, that He would somehow take delight in, somehow give a punishment to beings that didn’t want Him, didn’t choose Him?  ...to run around these leaping flames all the time because it’s hot, hot, hot?  You think it’s hot outside today....  That’s just a perverted, disgusting, sickening, filthy thing to say about God.

And so this thing of heaven is in there too, because Satan wants man to believe that you can sin and you can still have eternal life.  And matter of fact, you can sin all the way up to the end and someone can come and sprinkle a little water on your bed as you’re choking there, and your last little breath, and you’ve been a weasel, a stench to society, you have been as low, downright killing, stealing, whatever kind of conniving person there is, and if he’ll just come and wave a little sign above your bed as you are dying and say these rites and if you pay enough money to the church and enough prayers by the priests praying for you that somehow  you’re going to go to heaven.  You can be forgiven of all your sin; you can have a deathbed repentance.  You ever heard the expression ‘deathbed repentance’?  Because all of a sudden you can be forgiven of your sin and all of a sudden you can be up there and with God, up in those clouds.  There are some sick, weird thoughts out there in the world, I’ll tell you.

Well, this began to permeate somewhat in the Church, that some are going to go to heaven.  Not for a long period.  God made it very clear only one who has ever gone there was ever intended to go there; the one who was resurrected after He died, who went to heaven.  Only Jesus Christ!  That’s why in the very beginning there on the Day of Pentecost, that Peter made it very clear – see, because there were even those there who believed in a resurrection at that time and that David was up in heaven.  And he made a point of saying, “David is not up there, he is dead and in his sepulchre to this day.”  Not even David’s in heaven!  He was a prophet of God!  He was the king!  It says in prophecy he’s going to be a king again over Israel!  And yet Peter was making the point he’s not in heaven, “...his sepulchre, his bones are still there.  He’s still dead.”  He hasn’t been resurrected yet.  Makes it very clear no man, no one, goes to heaven, except one.

And so even within the Church some began to believe that for 30 days, because of certain things between the 1290 days and the 1260 days, that for 30 days there’d be this resurrection and there would be those (not still alive, but those who dead), who are a part of the 144,000 are going to be resurrected to be there and they’re going to have to have 30 days of teaching before they come back down.  Some began to teach that, no, it’s 45 days; it’s from the 1335 up to the 1290 days of Daniel.  And so there’s going to be 45 days that you’re going to rise up and meet Christ in the air and go to heaven; you’re going to be up in heaven for 45 days and then you’re going to come back down to the earth.  And then there were some who began to preach that no, it’s going to be from Pentecost when the resurrection takes place (if I remember rightly here what was taught), that the firstfruits are going to be...and then they’re going to be up in heaven until Trumpets when Jesus Christ returns.  So a longer period of time there.  But there was this thing taking place in the scattered churches that all of a sudden some are going to go to heaven; and that isn’t what the Bible says at all.  The point being made here is that this truth was given to solidify within God’s Church, that sanctified us, that made us different from every other scattered group out there, is that no one goes to heaven, not even the 144,000.  That was the point.

36 (15) No one goes to heaven, not even the 144,000. Of all who have ever lived and died, only Jesus Christ has ever gone to heaven (in the FAQ, see the Topic on “resurrection”). Satan has deceived many religions into teaching that mankind will go to heaven. Even many in the Church of God scattering believe that the 144,000 will go to heaven for training before Jesus Christ returns.

The resurrection of all 144,000 happens on the last day of the final three and one-half years of the final tribulation on earth. The events of that final day (one single day) includes this first resurrection, the seven last plagues at the seventh trumpet blast, and the return of Jesus Christ to stand upon the Mount of Olives.

It’s a big day!  But some have felt God can’t do all that in one day, He needs 30 days for this. For these 7 Last Plagues to be poured out it’s going to take at least...that’s what that 1260 to 1290... it’s 30 days at least as a minimum.  They minimize the power of Almighty God to do exactly what He says when He says He’s going to do it.

The sea of glass mentioned on the occasion of this resurrection (Rev. 15:2) is the location in the upper atmosphere of the “heavens” above the earth where this great event takes place. Even the people on earth can see this spectacle in the heavens (as a great light) which they do not understand, for God says that people will see the coming of Jesus Christ on that day. That sea of glass is not to be confused with the sea of glass (spiritual creation) that exists before God in the spiritual heaven of His very throne (Rev. 4:6).

So again, it’s just a clarification of some of those things that was given so that the scattered Church and people in the scattered Church could see...because this doesn’t mean anything as a whole to the world.  If they can’t start with the Sabbath, they sure can’t start with this one here.  It’s for us.  It’s for the scattered Church to grasp and comprehend here.  Again, something that God gave.

One day!  That’s all it takes; one day for God to bring down all of Europe and all of Asia and what they’re doing on the day.  He says on that one day He’s going to destroy those who are destroying the earth.  Very powerful!  So at the beginning of that day we understand the 144,000 are resurrected.  They don’t have to have training for 30 days. They’re spirit beings, they’re resurrected like Christ, spirit bodies, spirit lives, to live for all eternity, and what is given to them at that time we can only understand by computers today in the sense of downloads.  It’s going to be a quick one.  And they’re all going to know exactly where they function, how they function within the government body of 144,000, because it’s about God’s government, God’s Kingdom, His organized government that’s going to come to the earth with Jesus Christ.

The world doesn’t have to wait for several years for them to go to school, like they’re in classrooms and somebody’s going to be up there, maybe angelic beings, maybe Jesus Christ Himself, and have to go through many days with maybe computers where they can sit down and learn what they have to be doing and how they’re going to do it, and they’d have to probably go to school for a long time, if we think on the concepts of human beings.  No, it happens just like that [snaps fingers], just like when you were called and you heard the word Sabbath and things about the Sabbath and you knew it was true instantaneously, and every truth that God has given you since that time, when you hear it and you know it you just know it.  How much more to a spirit being, a mind that’s fully spirit, no longer anything physical and God just puts it in your mind?  Awesome!  Because that’s what He does.

Number 37 in total truths that God gave through Sardis, Philadelphia, and into Laodicea; 16 in Laodicea here, in order.

37 (16) The remnant of God’s Church in Laodicea has been given the greatest proof ever of Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilling all the symbolism contained in the entire Passover day of Abib the 14th.

This is a big one.  This is where God began to revive us powerfully as a Church.  This is where God began to give us greater life and greater power of His holy spirit in the Church.  After we went through a period of time early on there and we began to understand some of those other truths that God had given, that we talked about, we began to understand and began to repent of the fact that...I began to repent of the fact, that I understood I had been separated from God. I began to understand that I had fallen asleep and I began to repent of those things; then God began to revive us.  He brought us to repentance so that He could give us more and this is a big one, a powerful one that God gave – so much so that there were different ones in the scattered Body out there that heard some of these sermons and they said, “What’s the big deal about Passover?  14th/15th?  What are you making such a big deal out of it?”  And even some within our own group at that time who are no longer with us, “What’s the big deal?  Passover?  As long as we do it on the 14th isn’t that okay?”  And the answer is absolutely not!  For us as a Church it’s as bad as what the world of Traditional Christianity does in denying three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

See, we understood that early on.  God helps us to understand that He wasn’t resurrected Sunday morning.  We came to understand that, God gives us understanding. He makes it very clear to us what is stated about Jonah being in the heart of a great fish for three days and three nights, that it is a period of 72 hours – not one minute more and not one minute less.  It is exactly what it is in Hebrew!  And then that’s the example that’s given in scripture and He talks about three days and three nights. You can’t get three days, three daylight periods and three night-time periods from Good Friday at sunset, because that’s when they believe He was put in the grave, just before sunset, that’s why they call it ‘Good Friday’.  I don’t know what’s so ‘good’ about it.  But anyway, from Good Friday to Sunday morning, that somehow there’s a period of three days and three nights.  And we understand that it’s a big fat lie!  He said that’s the only proof that I’m going to give, that I’m the Messiah.  And they deny it, so they disprove He’s the Messiah.  They say, “Oh I love Jesus.”  And they can’t help it.

I make fun of the beliefs, not of the people.  They can’t help it; they’re in captivity just like you were before God called you.  It’s not the people; it’s the belief and knowing where it comes from.  It comes from a very powerful being who wants to mock God, who wants to make fun of God.  Who says, “Oh look, the big, fat man on the sleigh!  You better not shout, you better not cry... You better be good or you won’t get any presents.  If you’re good you’ll get presents. It’s that big fat man, that big red suit and the big black belt, and look at Rudolph up front - his big red nose!”  He’s mocking the angelic realm.  The 12?  Incredible how that being is!  He hates everything about God and those who remain faithful to God in the angelic realm; and that’s why those things are there.  But the world doesn’t understand that yet.  They get one more Christmas, one more mass of Christ – because it came from the Catholic church – one more Christmas for the world and it will never exist again. Thank God that lie is going to be done away with.

Reading it as it is here about Passover....

Ever since the 1970’s there have been ministers throughout the Church teaching that Christ fulfilled some aspects of Passover on the 15th day of Abib and not on the 14th (which was when the Israelites observed Passover). Mr. Armstrong taught that this teaching of the 15th was false, yet it continues today. Along with fulfilling the symbolism of the Passover lamb, Christ also fulfilled the symbolism of the Passover sacrifices performed by the Levitical priesthood on the afternoon of Passover, before the beginning of the 15th. This daylight portion of the 14th, which contains great meaning for what Christ fulfilled, has not been fully understood. All of what Jesus Christ fulfilled took place “between the two evenings,” in the night of the 14th and in the day of the 14th, and not on any part of the 15th.

See, for some to come along and say that some things happened in the 15th is to deny what God says about everything that would happen fully in the 14th day.  That’s as bad as what the world has done toward three days and three nights; and yet this began to happen within the Church.  Dr. Hoeh!  So some who are new who had a past in Worldwide, was one of the primary teachers of ministers at Ambassador College, and he taught a 14th/15th Passover contrary to what Mr. Armstrong had written in the book about ‘God’s Holy Days or Pagan Holidays?  Which?’[1]   May not be the exact title but it’s in there somewhere.

Mr. Armstrong makes it very clear, he has one sub-heading called, ‘14th/15th?’ and he explains with three scriptures how it was all on the 14th and nothing happened on the 15th that fulfilled Passover.  So it’s a damnable lie!  And not just a few ministers went out – some of the scattered groups have ministers out there today who believe in that doctrine.  Sad.

I am truly elated that this will be two sermons! That helps me a lot, especially this time of year because of having to start focusing on the Feast of Tabernacles and the sermons that are going to be given during the Feast, and so when these are already there it gives me a great deal of relief so I can begin to focus on some of those things.  And you might begin, as I have told people over and over again before every Feast of Tabernacles season, to be praying about the sermons and the inspiration for the sermons because it’s your food.  And so God wants you to be a part of that.  That’s the way it’s always worked in the Church.

It’s just like for the Sabbath, that you pray about what is given to you on the Sabbath, that God inspire and stir up those things given to you.  And candidly, God looks to those things and your desire to be fed as to the degree that you are fed.  Sermons are given and one person will receive more than another sometimes simply because of the petition you made before God that you have a desire to be fed, and He’ll give that to you... because it’s spiritual.  What He gives to us is spiritual.  It comes from Him.  And so for the Feast of Tabernacles be praying about those things, because what you’re able to take away with you from the Feast has a great deal to do with what you’re going to be praying about that you receive during that period of time.  So be praying about those things, because I need a lot of help.  I have no idea what’s coming; couple of ideas and that’s it, I mean they’re very meagre at this point and I don’t even know if they’re a part of it yet, because God hasn’t give it to me.  I have no idea.  It’s like the second book, I didn’t have any idea until I started writing what was going to be written.  And the same thing is true here about the Feast of Tabernacles.  This year I don’t have the foggiest idea, as a whole.  So please, please, please...  By this point I usually have some things happening that I can see more clearly and right now I don’t, but I know it’ll be there.

Was it yesterday or the day before that I had one of those Red Sea prayers?  How often.  But it’s an amazing thing what we learn from that. I told God, “I know I’m camping out again at the Red Sea.”  That’s what I feel like, what my life has been like.  I’m camping out at the Red Sea, because God’s going to have to show the way.  He’s the one that had to show the Israelites.  That’s why I love those verses back there when it says to the north the way of Sur.  In that time it was the way of travelling between those areas.  There was a way to travel along the coast, along the Mediterranean, there was the way of Sur, the way of the Philistines, and there was another way – I think there were three ways mentioned if I remember rightly, two for sure (don’t quote me.)  I have to go back and read it myself, but God was going to show them another way that they didn’t know – the way of the Red Sea – awesome!  Because they didn’t know the way out of there, because they had these mountains beside them and they were in this valley area by the Red Sea and here are the Egyptians coming up behind.  What do you do? You have to wait for God because you don’t know the way out of there, because at that time there was no way of the Red Sea.  There wasn’t a bridge across it, there were no ships, and so God had to open up the Red Sea.  And that’s the way our lives are like a lot of times.  You don’t know the way until God gives it to you and He’s the one that has to give it, because if it comes from us what value is it.  It has to come from God.

Leviticus 23 – we’ll stop here today after we go through this.  But again here, these are awesome scriptures to understand.  Here is where, the only place in the Bible where you can go to find a complete listing of what God commands mankind to do in a relationship with Him concerning Sabbaths and holy time, holy convocations.  A ‘holy convocation’ means, in the Hebrew, having to do with a ‘commanded assembly’, a time that you’re to meet before God, a commanded assembly.  Not by choice but one that God commands, and then it’s up to us to obey it.  And that’s why I love these verses through here when it talks about that.  Let’s just read it.  I read this several times in a year and I never get tired of it.  They’re inspiring!  They’re exciting!  Because the world doesn’t see it, and so many of the scattered Church have never learned what these things are about, they don’t understand them either.  It’s awesome to understand what this is talking about.

Leviticus 23:2 - Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Eternal, I remember a minister that gave this in the first group I was with after the apostasy, that told what this word meant here, and from there God has just given us more and more and more to grasp, to see and to understand.  The word ‘feast’ here is not the word used later on as the word ‘Feast’ down here when it talks about the Days of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or the Feast of Tabernacles.  Those were festive occasions when the Levites, the day before the High Day, before the High Day would start, would come in and kill a lot of animals in preparation for what was going to be offered upon the altar at sunset, because that’s when the day begins, the High Day.  So like on the Feast of Tabernacles, as an example, the day before, like Friday would be for the weekly Sabbath, would be called a preparation day.  And on that particular preparation day the priests gathered together to kill animals to prepare them for to be offered.  Sacrifice involves more than just offering upon the altar, it also means killing the animal.  That can begin before the Sabbath, it does begin before the Sabbath; it begins in the preparation day.

There are some accounts back here in the book of Chronicles and some places where there were tens of thousands of sheep and cattle that were killed and offered up before God. It was a massive undertaking for the Israelites.  Tens of thousands!  I can’t comprehend that!  And yet the king gave so many thousand and then people came up with so many thousand – it lists the thousands by numbers – and you think, how on earth?  But they did it, they were so organized.  And it talks about the methodical organization of the Levitical priesthood that was there at that time, and this is a part of that story.  They would start killing them so that by the time the sun went down it was prepared and made ready so it could be put on the altar as soon as sundown occurred.  And then there was all the cooking in different ways that God said could be done, all the things having to do with the sacrifices, all the animals that were killed, all the blood that was spilled, and the Israelites feasted on it.  There were some things that had to be offered up fully by fire to God; the vast majority of it was for people to feast on.  That’s why it’s called a feast time, and people actually ate of the animals and they did feast upon it, incredibly so.  And that’s a part of what it’s talking about here when it talks about the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the Feast of Trumpets.  They were festive occasions and they were eating of the sacrifices in far greater ways than they ate during the rest of the year.

The word ‘feast’ here isn’t the same word feast used in verse 2.  Speak unto the children of Israel concerning the appointed times/appointed meetings; it has both meaning in the Hebrew, the appointed times of the Eternal, in other words, God for 7,100 years has established the exact timing and date that people are to come before Him and worship before Him.  They’re appointments that God made for man; it’s up to us to keep them.  That’s what this is about.  ...which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations/holy convening’s – because God’s in it and it is, ‘a convening’, ‘a convocation, a commanded assembly’, that’s what the word means here.  ...and even these are My appointed times. It’s not man’s; man’s is Christmas and Easter and whatever else they come up with, and Sun-day, the day of the sun.

Six days shall work be done: so He starts out with the very first one that people are to learn from, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; what we’re doing here today is a holy convening of God’s people.  You can listen to sermons during the week, you can listen to pre-recorded sermons, but God pours out His spirit in this day in a greater way.  This is the time we come together to honour God, to obey God, and He pours out more of His spirit upon this day than any other day.  That’s why I mention the Feast of Tabernacles.  You have eight days that God pours out His spirit more than any other time of the year; it’s eight days in a row. It’s awesome to me to experience that, to live that.  I get to do that every year and you get to do that every year.  You get to receive more from God at that time of year than any other time of year, to be closer to God, to know you’re closer to God, to be strengthened, to be lifted up spiritually more than any other time.

...you shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Eternal in all your dwellings.  These are the appointed times, not feasts...these are the appointed times of the Eternal, even holy convocations/holy convening’s; some of them are not High Days as we’re going to see, but they’re commanded assemblies, which you shall proclaim in their, now they quote it as ‘seasons’, it’s the same word, which you shall proclaim in their appointed time. So during the Feast of Trumpets you know what we proclaim?  The Feast of Trumpets.  When it is Pentecost you know what a minister is supposed to proclaim? Pentecost.

It says, IN; The first annual holy convocation it mentions is not a Sabbath, it is not a High Day. And to me it’s such a beautiful and awesome thing to understand; that you can’t enter into the meaning of the Holy Days and be a part of it until you address this one here: the Christ, the Passover, the one who died for the sins of all mankind.  In the fourteenth day, it doesn’t say in any other day, but it’s IN the fourteenth day of the first month, of Nisan or Abib.  In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Eternal’s Passover.  It’s Gods!  It’s God’s Passover given to mankind.  Beautiful how it’s written here.  And so until you receive the Passover, until you accept Jesus Christ as your Passover you can’t enter into God’s plan, you can’t become a part of it, you can’t be forgiven of your sin, you can’t come out of sin like the Days of Unleavened Bread picture, you can’t receive the holy spirit like it shows in Pentecost, you can’t continue on in the rest of the plan, to be a part of it, into Tabernacles, the Millennium, and the Last Great Day, to become a part of God’s Kingdom whenever that is in God’s time for each individual that’s called in time.

And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast, that is the word ‘Feast’ of Unleavened Bread, but again here I wanted to just focus in on the one word.  I’ve made comments many a time how that I am not good in English, I have not been good in English, I actually become better in English as time has gone along.  I’ve learned things in English probably more in writing the two books than any other time in my life as different habits and wrong things that I said and did and wrote began to come out and I still have a long way to go, but I’ve come a long way too, I’ve learned things about English.  I hate English with a passion in the sense of having to learn all the rules associated with it.  Now, what does that mean about other languages?  It means I don’t have a chance!  Seriously!  But when it comes to some things in Hebrew and Greek, God has put it there before I even understood it, the thing about ‘coming’ in the flesh.  I understood what it was about years before God ever gave me understanding of the actual Greek words where I finally found a book one time by Zodhiates where he went through and talked about the different tenses of different words in the Greek language and he made it very clear that that word being used in those areas (he didn’t understand it but he made it very clear what the words were) and the closest thing, again, that can be given is present progressive, ’He is coming in the flesh’, on a present progressive right now and continually coming into your life.  It’s not a one time event; it’s not a past tense.  They make it very clear in the Greek language it’s not a past tense thing and it’s not a future tense thing, so it’s not about His return and it’s not about when He came the first time; it’s about His dwelling in us.  Beautiful verses.

And this one here, ‘bane ha erebyim’ – between the two evenings – that’s what it means in Hebrew.  It’s not just a word that means ‘at even’, because if you read this you think In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s Passover...  And so throughout Philadelphia and into Laodicea this is how it’s been read in our minds, that at sundown, at even on the fourteenth day, when the fourteenth day came that would be Passover, and it is, but that isn’t what God said, because He adds more to it that we don’t have time in this sermon because it’s a sermon in itself that I’ve given in times past.  There are words for ‘even’ that...like ‘ba ereb’, ‘ma ereb’ and so forth, and they all have different meaning and importance when it comes to how to obey God, when it comes to observing time.  This one here is a word that means ‘between two evenings’.  What two evenings do you suppose you keep Passover?  What two evenings do you suppose you keep the Sabbath?  We know!  From sundown at the end of the sixth day which is the beginning of the seventh, to the end of the seventh, sundown at that moment at time, between the two evenings.

It’s a beautiful expression that God gave, but it’s far more beautiful because this is the only area that it’s used in when it’s talking about the Passover!  God wanted to emphasis very powerfully, that  Jesus Christ would come the first time to be our Passover and it would fulfill EVERYTHING BETWEEN THE TWO EVENINGS!  And so what do some in God’s Church, who do not obey God, come along and do?  They get confused by some of the things in the Old Testament and say well, they began to observe some things in the fifteenth, and the Jews can’t be wrong, so back in the Old Testament they actually started changing the Passover and they started observing...that’s why they have the Seder and stuff now, the Jews do, because surely the Jews know how to obey God.  You think, “Dumb!”  Jesus Christ condemned them 2,000 years ago for what they did and how far away they moved from the truth of God; and then He raised up His Church and gave it the truth on a spiritual plane.

And yet we had people thinking you could go to the Jews to learn the truth, and we had ministers that would go and study things in Protestant books called ‘Commentaries’ to try to learn what God was doing in some of these scriptures, and you think – “Burn every one of those Commentaries!  Where is your brain?”  We were taught to do some of those things by some individuals, to go to certain Commentaries and you can learn some things there and you think, “No, you can get your mind screwed up about what is true!  If you want to learn something you cry out to God for His holy spirit to show it to you!”  Lessons to be learned.  We’re always learning.  And things that you can learn and things that we can always learn about focusing on God and understand that everything you receive that’s true has to come from God through the power of His holy spirit.  It doesn’t come from man, it doesn’t come from intellectualism, and it certainly doesn’t come from Jewish historians, Judaism, or Traditional Christianity.  We’ve had to come out of those things and be separate.

We’ll stop there today, and thankfully we’ll continue with Part 2 next Sabbath.

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1. Pagan Holidays or God's Holy Days- Which?

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