The Bondage of Christianity

Ron Weinland

6th Feast of Tabernacles Sermon - 2011

To me it’s exciting, inspiring to understand there is a theme running through the Feast this year because of those things that God wants us to understand, those things that God wants us to focus upon, and to me it’s always an awesome thing when you see the way that God leads, guides, and directs us and certainly one of those very powerful ways is in what has happened when you have someone who’s going to give the first sermon at the Feast, the opening sermon, and then you have someone else in the middle of the Feast give a sermon and you see the way the scriptures and the focus is tying in together because we don’t communicate with each other about these things.  It’s a matter of God’s spirit leading and guiding and directing us.

This year took me a longer period of time organizing all these sermons, bringing them together because, candidly, I guess some of it was stuff that I really didn’t want to go into and so I was resisting a little bit here and there which our human nature is sometimes prone to do.  Anyway, later on as the sermons were coming together and the work that was going into them, because it’s a little bit different in the format we’re using this year in some of the things we’re going into – just like this one today – in some ways today this one seems a little more simple, but it isn’t, and that’s what we need to grasp in these sermons.  There are things that God is mightily inspired in, moved and motivated, excited about, if you will, and He’s sharing that with us, that we be excited about what He is doing.  So much obviously of what God does through time and with His people is He shares that with us, He shares it through the power of His spirit and we’re able to receive then of that same spirit, obviously, that comes from Him, His Word, His desires, His focus, and that is a very moving thing then for us to be able to share in what God has to give to us.

So as I think about the spiritual bondage of people in this world and as we begin to zero in on the specific groups of people and their unique bondage because of the beliefs they have grown up with I am reminded of some of my radio interviews in which some of the hosts felt that I was condemning, uncaring, and even disliking of people of other religious beliefs, because of the way certain things were being stated.  And that was not the case, not at all, but I have simply condemned the beliefs of people by which they are judged and do suffer.  The people are in bondage and we can’t begin to grasp the excitement God has - we truly can’t - to be at a time when He’s going to begin taking the world out of that bondage, finally.

It was an exciting time when God led the children of Israel out of Egypt and God’s doing it again, but this time on a spiritual plane and this is far more exciting than what took place back then.  And so it’s the people who are in bondage, they are in spiritual Egypt.  I do not - we do not - condemn or speak evil of a Catholic, a Southern Baptist, a Mormon, a Presbyterian, etcetera...  It is the religious doctrines that are vigorously condemned, and sometimes those who teach such things are spoken to in or with sharp and critical words, but they too are in spiritual bondage; but more is required of them if they’ve chosen to teach others those twisted and perverted doctrines.

So sometimes things might come across a little more sharply toward them but it is not a matter of condemnation of the individual in the sense of harsh judgement or dislike or anything of that nature.  And so the point being is we have great desire, which we have received from our Father and from Jesus Christ, to see people delivered and freed from Egypt.  And that’s what we’re sharing in at this Feast in a more powerful way, that God is desiring to share with us in a more powerful way, a deliverance out of spiritual bondage.  And yet because of embracing those beliefs with stubbornness and haughty pride these people are going to suffer mightily until they are humbled and repent.

The last sermon was about the bondage that has come upon those who put great weight upon their being the descendants of Abraham.  Traditional Christianity is obviously different from Islam and Judaism in that - in this particular matter - as they hold to what they believe is from Jesus Christ and the Church He established after His death.  So they don’t really talk about Abraham in that respect.

And so this sermon is about those who are in bondage to lies and false doctrines about such matters and about Jesus Christ Himself.  The sermon is entitled The Bondage of Christianity.

Again, although we know much about this subject matter it is God’s purpose as in so many of these sermons at this Feast that we focus on the bondage from spiritual Egypt that has held this world captive for nearly 6,000 years now.  We are at a time of a great exodus.  That is an awesome thing to understand - an incredibly great exodus out of Egypt!  That’s what the scriptures speak of and focus upon, in that respect, coming out of Egypt, a spiritual Egypt, one far greater than that which the physical children of Egypt were taken out of when they left physical captivity.

So as we move forward in the short time that we have before us it is expedient that we know the trunk of the tree, the root issue at hand whereby traditional Christianity is in captivity and bondage.

I’m going to repeat that...

It is expedient that we know the trunk of the tree, the root issues at hand whereby traditional Christianity is in captivity and bondage, because by these things being deeply embedded in you, you will be able to help others if you keep focused on such things.  Although the importance of these things has been spoken of before many a time and you indeed know much of it it indeed needs to be deeply ingrained in your being so that you can keep focused when helping other people come out of bondage.  Those in traditional Christianity cannot leave bondage easily.

I think of the scattered Church; it’s going to be harder for so many of them than it even is those in traditional Christianity for what they have to come to address as well.  It’s a spiritual matter.  And so speaking of traditional Christianity, they’ll enter into suffering that is so great upon them and they, some but not all, will begin to cry out for deliverance from the horror that’s come upon them.  And they’ll first be brought to feelings of fear, hopelessness, great distress, and anguish; only then – that’s an awesome thing to understand – only then can they begin to hear, only then can they begin to listen.

The overwhelming majority of you are scattered among the physical house of Israel.  That’s where God has called you because God is still doing His work there, it’s the way of taking care of the Church, but it’s also a plan and a purpose in all that as well.  You are made up of people from many different nations, tongues, and races by design.  Sometimes I look at that in the Church and I am in awe of it...truly in awe of it!  And you’ll be able to help others within, dwelling in, the nations of the physical house of Israel.  That’s where it begins.  It’s just a reality.

So, people must be brought back to the most basic place where they were separated from, if you will, in history, from any possible relationship with God whereby they might receive blessings from God, even if not  a calling from God.  I hope you understand that, that the more that people will obey – because it’s  a matter of obedience to them even on a physical plane – the laws, the Ten Commandments of God, with what knowledge they have understanding of.  Even the laws of tithing – people have been blessed in this world who haven’t received a calling – been one of the greatest of blessings that Jewish people have received through time because they’ve been obedient to those things and to the Sabbath, and in their own way to the Holy Days.  It’s just they don’t understand the truth; they don’t understand the spirit of it all.

But God blesses us.  We are blessed because there are laws in motion that regulate life.  The more that a husband and wife, through time, live by those laws and are faithful to each other the more they will be blessed in life.  The more they disobey in those things the more curses come upon them.  It is something as a matter of law and regulation of life.  It’s just like the physical things that take place out here.

We were talking to some people recently about Northern Africa, how one time it was so lush, the Sahara desert wasn’t always the Sahara desert, and people through time have come in and raped the land and because of that...  I think of the place of Ephesus I told some about.  To me, a marvel when we got to visit that area – inland about 8 miles or so from the coast.  We had to take a bus to get there travelling inland, and then we took this tour of the city of Ephesus.  Awesome, as far as being old, as much as there is there and they’re still unearthing things and there’s so much that’s been unearthed already – walls, and houses, and housing, and public buildings and so forth that they’ve found and everything that was a center from that as with today in society and the huge library there, a two story rock library there, the frame of those things, and how great that was in that time, the library of Ephesus.

And then we went a little ways to the north of there by the coliseum and they talked about the harbour; it was a port city at one time but now there wasn’t any water around.  There wasn’t a river around.  There wasn’t any water there, it was now 8 miles inland – at one time a great port city, mightily protected from the elements because of how far inland the waters went at that time.

The Romans came in, stripped the land of all lumber, everything that was there, everything, stripped it bare and because of that the rains through time came and filled the entire area in to where it’s nice farmland now if they get the rain in due season and can irrigate it, because it’s rich soil, because it came in from higher up and it all washed in there and filled in the entire area 8 miles back to the coast.  Incredible what mankind has done!  Laws that affect things in topography and nature and weather!

Look what’s happened because of what happened with the Sahara Desert and the effects of weather that’s changed in large parts of the world, not just in small areas.  And so it is in our relationship with God and our activities and how we live and how we treat each other.  But the more people will obey and live by laws that God has given the more blessed we are, because there are things that are just in motion of a way of life that you can either be blessed in or not.  And so it’s not a matter of a calling, it’s a matter of an obedience to God, to laws that are in motion, things that people can do whereby they can be blessed.

So what does Satan hate the most in God’s plan?  Have you ever thought about that?  What is it as a whole that Satan hates the most when you look at God’s plan?  Who does Satan hate the most in God’s plan?  It’s quite obvious!  He’s done everything he can to deceive people concerning the truth that’s about the Son of God, the Passover for mankind, the Messiah.  Sometimes it’s difficult to know how much he has known through time.  There are those things that God has given some knowledge of – not a matter of spiritual understanding, because he lacks those things, but there are those things he’s had knowledge of – and very likely too because of seeing things that happen on a similar plane with human nature and with things within the Church and especially when people begin to cut themselves off from the Church.  Sometimes that approach of ‘trying to figure things out’ is a beginning to branch out into other areas, and especially if there’s sin in the mind, then the person’s going to go in a direction, not led by God’s spirit to come to a truth of a matter but sometimes come up with all kinds of ideas about things.

We don’t know exactly what’s happened there and no need to speculate a whole lot about things like that, but we understand that he hasn’t known everything, and the primary way he has known things is, obviously, when angelic beings have delivered things from God, when Gabriel has come along and said various things, he hears those things.  When God has spoken certain things, it’s a spirit world and he is able to hear those things.  There are things that he began to do hundreds if not thousands of years before Jesus Christ was born of Mary.  A mother and a son.  A mother and a son – where’d that come from?  Why did he do that?  To mock, to twist, to distort something that was going to happen in the future.  Again, we don’t know how much that God gave to him and when He gave those things to him, or what might have been there.  But those things are there because of that which was going to happen in time, and so he sought to deceive mankind, to be able to lead mankind astray so that when that finally did come to place there were already those things being worshipped in the world already, and then they could mix those things together and lead people off in another tangent.  Incredible what’s taken place through time.

So there are two primary areas where Satan has struck out against mankind over and over and over again.  So what is the focus of what God used to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?  It’s the same now as it was then.  It’s the Passover, Jesus Christ.

Let’s turn over to Acts 12.  We’re going to look at an example here that we’re all familiar with, very much so, but don’t underestimate such things, understand the importance.  This is what God wants us to receive. This is what God desires that we have as the root of some of these things that are so deeply imbedded in us to realize these are powerful tools we’re going to go through today to help others become free.  This is, really, where so much of it is because this is where Satan has worked to cloud and to distort the minds of people. We’re going to look at an example that Satan influenced, of a place in the New Testament here where traditional Christianity blatantly through outright deception and lying altered a word in order to hold people in bondage.  That’s what it’s all about.

Acts 12:1 - Now about the time that Herod the king stretched forth his hands to cause harm, in other words, ‘to bring evil upon’ is what it means, certain of the Church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. See?  They began to be killed, different ones through time here; And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the Days of Unleavened Bread.) That was the period of time they were entering into.  And so again, he was moved to do these things for the Jewish people, that political thing that goes back and forth between peoples although they hate each other, they despise each other; they play these political games, those of Judaism, the leaders at that time, and those of the Roman world at that time. There was no love there, it’s all a matter of politics, that which reeks!

Verse 4 - And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternion’s, a squad of four in other words, of soldiers; 4 times 4, sixteen all together here to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.  Easter!  Incredible!  Changed a word so that other people come along from the 1500’s period of time on through time here and the things that would happen as the printing press began to come into being and the ability to communicate in a broader way, in a less expensive way, because to buy a Bible, to have a Bible in your possession, to have something that’s been handwritten, the cost of those things could be a year, a lifetime of an average person’s salary on some of these kinds of things, and here, to put something in there to give credibility to lies, to distortions, a word for, in the Greek, Pashka - Passover.  Incredible!  And so they put Easter here.

Now they didn’t change the other places for that but they changed it here.  This is a unique spot they chose as well.  They didn’t pick some place before Jesus Christ died and try to change that one because that was before He died and the Old Testament was done away with, and then a couple other places later because it’s kind of in passing, because it’s more bringing in things about the Jews as well and so it’s not a big deal.  But this one here is a little bit more.  So even that, incredible, so they can dispel or disregard the previous areas where the specific day was mentioned, like I said there in the Old Testament, but this one here is the one they mess with.

Satan’s hatred for God’s plan, especially those things concerning Jesus Christ, have always been attacked by him over and over and over again through time.  So he sought to deceive people concerning the beginning of God’s plan of salvation.  That’s why I think about how awesome it is in Leviticus 23 when you go there. God just blesses us to keep adding insight and ability to understand things, and we think we see things about a particular verse in scripture and God just gives more because other things are unlocked throughout the Bible.  And the more we see the more exciting and the more inspiring it becomes.  And one of these things that’s deeply inspiring to me is to understand how God gave the order of things for the keeping of the Holy Days and commanded assemblies, and there was one that is not a Holy Day.

In the midst of the Sabbaths that it starts talking about first in Leviticus 23, the weekly Sabbaths, and then the annual Sabbaths that follow later on; in the midst of it all, incredibly so, one day that is not a High Day, it’s not a Sabbath, but it is a holy convocation, a time to be kept – the Passover!  What an awesome thing.  It’s caused some people some problems in times past, even in the Church, why it’s there and why it’s stated the way it is.  You think, “Why?”  It’s a beautiful thing because you can’t enter into the rest of God’s plan, you have to start there.  And so that’s where Satan attacks, at the beginning, at the very beginning because it’s the most important.

And that’s why even after the apostasy in the Church, if you understand, things that people have had difficulty addressing here through time and had struggles with and what Satan has tried to do, the hatred he has for it.  That’s why right after the apostasy – it didn’t take very long – that God blessed us to begin to zero in on Passover and the importance.  It was the most major, most central thing, and people in the scattered Church, even those who were being drawn to us, those who were continuing with us, wondering why I’m making such a big deal about Passover.  I WASN’T – GOD WAS!  He wanted us to understand the importance of the 14th Passover and that anything else is a lie!  Because so many in the Church and so many ministers who were scattered were teaching a 14th/15th Passover.  That’s not a small thing before God, because really it’s a simple matter of obedience, to do it exactly the way God says in the 14th Day of the month.  He didn’t say anything about going into the 15th, but through time people messed around with those things because of that being.

He messed around first with Judaism and their minds.  I was going to read two days ago, but didn’t have enough time, about some of those things in Chronicles – an incredible Passover that was held, incredible Days of Unleavened Bread that was held in the Old Testament...in Chronicles.  And that’s where they go to try to prove their point, and we go there to show how stupid the rabbis are for what they have said, for what they have done in twisting and distorting facts and things that are very plain in front of them.  But people listen to and they just follow along because there’s a spirit out there that works to deceive the minds of people.  It’s a powerful thing...a powerful thing, truly is.

And so again here, it wasn’t by chance, it was a part of God’s plan that the first thing He was going to set right when He restored the Church after the apostasy, as He began to call a remnant, that He was going to establish what was correct in this doctrine.  Not a small thing, even though we may know it inside and out (we feel), so many before us, people who have been filled with God’s spirit, evangelists, so many who have been around for so long in the Church went astray.  Incredible!  Incredible!  It’s almost hard to grasp and imagine how the mind can do something like that, those impregnated with God’s spirit that have been in the Church 20-30-40 and more years could do something like that, but they did.

So in the near future – do not minimize the importance of traditional Christianity being delivered by this truth being eliminated in the minds of those being called into the Millennium.  That is what God is showing us.  It may seem overly simple to you so that you may be tempted - you may be tempted to delve into, first and foremost, other doctrines.  You may be tempted to have people focus on other things out here.  And oftentimes what can happen is even peripheral things that have nothing to do... they don’t know anything as a whole, it’s just a beginning for them.  This is awesomely important for them to grasp and comprehend, a beginning, and to be grounded in it.

So again here, seek to understand that which is central to being made free from bondage, from Egypt, for those in traditional Christianity, because this is it.  That’s what God is revealing at this Feast in a very powerful way, He truly is.  That’s why you need to have these most basic matters deeply ingrained in your mind so that you can help others be made free.  This matter of Easter is one of the greatest deceptions that Satan has used to deceive the world of traditional Christianity.

Let’s turn over to Matthew 12.  Although you’ve heard this before you need to grasp the depth of the significance of how Satan has worked to bring about such a deception.  It’s good for us to understand these things. And I know we know them, but we need to grasp their importance as well.

Only one teaching about Jesus Christ can be true and there is only one thing that Jesus Christ left as proof that He was who He said He was.  So, we’re going to take the time to go through this, though we know it, especially in a Feast environment to grasp the magnitude.  Do you know what we were given last year at the Feast?  Awesome things, truths, and a part of my thinking in my mind as I was working on these in the very beginning was, “We’re not going to come close to that, so just forget it.”  Because I’ve never experienced a Feast of Tabernacles like that before where God has given so much, wham – wham – wham - awesome truths.  AND YET THIS BEATS LAST YEAR, if we understand it in the sense of what God is pouring out upon us in power.  And that’s what we need to grasp and hold onto, that this is what God is sharing with us, the importance of what He is doing.  We have to have that vision and that excitement, and you  have to cry out for it sometimes, to help you be as excited and moved, to be moved and excited, not as excited (you can’t be) but to receive of that which He wants to share with you.  Truly!  This is the focus; this is where we want to be.  This is where I want to be.  This is where you want to be in sharing things with others, it truly is.

Matthew 12:38 - Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we want to see a sign from You. Implied, in essence, that You are who You say, that’s what it’s about. But He answered and said to them, An evil and an adulterous generation; He was speaking to the Jews, Scribes, and Pharisees, but an evil and adulterous generation... See, if every minister in God’s Church had held onto that verse alone, about the Jews in the time of Christ – an evil and an adulterous generation  - speaking to the Scribes and the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the leaders at that time, then who in their right mind would have ever gone to what the rabbis have to say about Judaism or about Jesus Christ or about the Passover or anything else in the Bible?!  Why after 2,000 years... how on earth can the mind think that people got better, that Judaism became better through time.  NO, it became much worse!!  You look at some of the things that are... they were messed up bad at that time!  And in 2,000 years they’ve become far, far worse...farther away from anything that’s the truth!  They just get farther and farther away.  That’s what happened!  You don’t draw closer to God!  Only in the Church of God through repentance do you draw closer to God!

So who in their right mind would do such things?  Well, they weren’t in their right mind; that’s what sin does.  That’s what pride does.  To where an evangelist would begin to talk about Judaism to students in a class, “...that that’s where we have to go to in order to find out why the Jews did the things they did, why they moved it from the 14th to the 15th.”  Because that’s how it was presented.  “We need to understand this and to understand what took place in time and why it was changed, because the Jews are basically right about these things, because they have had this... so surely they know.”  You may think that’s really far out for them to have done that.  Don’t underestimate the power of your mind to go off on a tangent.  Don’t underestimate!  That’s why it’s so important to stay close to the trunk of the tree, to stay close to and understand how God works in the Church.

He’s blessed us mightily with that in the Church just by the way that we’re scattered and the technology we have...He’s blessed us mightily in that area, truly has.  I’m so thankful for that, so we don’t have things that have happened in the past ever enter in, in any fashion or form, that we’re not several thousands of people but that we’re small.  That’s a blessing!  It truly is. These are dangerous things and these are powerful things that have happened in times past in God’s Church.  And you may look at individuals like that, people that sat at Ambassador College and people that were taught by Mr. Armstrong and think, “Tsk, tsk, tsk...how can they...” and just look down upon them, “how could anybody ever do anything like that?”  You can do it.  You’re capable of it.  If you‘d lived back then you’d have done it.  If you’d been sitting in those classes you think you wouldn’t have taken some of that away with you?  That just maybe in time you’d go out there and start teaching some of that garbage, sewage, and filth to others?  That’s what happens and that’s exactly what happened.

...an evil and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there is no sign given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And you know what?  Nobody understood what He was saying then – not a soul, not a person, not a one.  They had no idea.  Peter didn’t know.  James?  John?  None of them knew what He was saying.  They learned later on.

So, what an incredible thing to understand what the false Christ of traditional Christianity is, a Christ who was resurrected in a day and a half from the time He was put in the tomb.  What an incredible lie Satan has given to mankind because of ignorance, so much so because they have separated themselves so much from any knowledge of the Old Testament.  There’s a motive in that as well, of why the New Testament is pushed, because they can play with things there and they can teach other meanings of words that are in there.  And so people are ignorant of the Jews Sabbath and the Jews, how they kept certain Holy Days, and those things aren’t spoken of in the same light in the New Testament and they can kind of skirt around other areas where it is mentioned.  Powerful, powerful!  Lies are powerful!

So this story is really quite basic when people only have a little understanding of certain scriptures regarding the seventh day – Sabbath – and the annual Holy Days.  This is a powerful tool for bringing people into understanding of that.  It’s more powerful than just taking them to Leviticus 23.  That’s knowledge, it’s there, and that will be a part of it, but what happened here and why it happened and what’s contained in these verses is powerful knowledge, truth that you can share.  And yet this here, what Satan did, is another manipulation that he’s used to take people away from the truth regarding God’s Sabbaths.  Because you see, that’s a part of the second tool there; he wants to take people away from God’s plan and so if you can mess around with things pertaining to the Passover and you can mess around with some of these things here then you can take people away from God’s Sabbath.

That’s exactly what that great whore in the Catholic church did, because it comes from the same source, the one who is referred to as the great whore – Satan.  That’s what he’s referred to.  That’s him being talked about in Revelation first and foremost.  It’s about him, what he did spiritually, and what everyone who followed him has done.  It’s incredible!

Matthew 27.  So another manipulation that Satan has used to take people away from the truth regarding God’s Sabbaths, with the manipulation of using the lie changing Passover observance to Easter thereby moving away from God’s Sabbath.  Because you see, God’s Sabbath reveals God’s plan; it can reveal what God’s doing.  It reveals 6,000 years.  It reveals the time of Satan’s power on the earth.  It reveals a period of time that’s coming afterwards that’s God’s Sabbath, that’s God’s time.  He doesn’t want anyone to see that let alone the Holy Days that follow that magnify the weekly Sabbath.  But he starts with the Passover, just like entering into God’s plan – you can’t enter into God’s plan – and so he does exactly, with great power, strike at the very thing that is the heart, the central core of God’s plan.  It is Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus Christ.

Matthew 27:57 – Now when evening had come, this is the time we’d call late, late afternoon, it was not yet sundown but we know by the sky as a whole the timing that’s coming upon us.  So it wasn’t yet sundown because at sundown a new day would begin and the new day would be the Sabbath, and Jesus would have to be put in the tomb before sundown and the beginning of the Sabbath if you know anything, if we know anything about Judaism and their keeping... so another tool here of teaching, about how God counts time.  It’s from sundown to sundown, right here in this story.  And so it says, now when evening had come there came a rich man of Arimathaea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus: a student believing what He said. This man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. And then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body he wrapped it in clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out in the rock: so he paid for it, to have this work done.  Doesn’t mean he literally did it himself, but it was for him, it was his, and a new place, one that no one had ever been in before, hewn out of the rock and rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed.  So this is what he had done; very rich man, had people working with him, he was there the whole time seeing to these things.  He went to ask for the body himself, went to Pilate and was given it.  Incredible story!  All this having to be done before sunset because it’s the preparation day and the Sabbath is drawing near.

There is a parallel account in Luke 23:50.  Sometimes it’s good in a Bible, or in some place, just to have a beginning point – maybe the word Passover – on the inside flap of your Bible and one scripture and you go to that one.  That’s where you start with the story.  And then there is another scripture you can go to, just like we’re doing here, one to another, if you’re able to do so.  Open up your Bible and you can take people through the story, or you can memorize the scriptures.  I can’t do that... I have to look them up.  I have to do that with my Bible – one to the next to the next.

The parallel account: Luke 23:50 - Now, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member; a good and just man: strived to live what was right, to do what was right: (he had not consented to their decision and deed;) Interesting!  Look at his importance, a council member, one who did not consent with the rest, of what they were doing.  He was from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who himself was also waiting for the Kingdom of God.  That’s a belief that’s been around for a long time.  That means looking to the time of the Messiah, looking to the time of the Christ, the one who would be King, the one who would deliver them, the one who would give them rule – they believed and understood to that point in time – on the earth.

This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no man/no one had ever lain before. This was the preparation, so it spells it out – a small thing – but important for people to grasp what’s done as people approach...if you want to live God’s way of life and you approach holy time, you approach a Sabbath, you prepare for it.  There are things you do to prepare for it because no work is to be done on the Sabbath.  And so work is to be done in preparation for the Sabbath, to be completed by that time, and this was work to take down the body, to get it wrapped, to take it there, to bury it, to roll the rock back over the front of it; and they wanted to have these things fully taken care of ahead of time.

So it says, this day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew near. And so again, Joseph was preparing the body of Jesus for burial in his own tomb during the preparation day before the Sabbath which would begin at sundown.  It’s a great truth!  Truly is!  A great truth to share with people, that this is no ordinary Sabbath as well, but even to go on and show it’s an annual Sabbath, to be able to share with them that there’s something special going on here and not just a weekly Sabbath.  Because that’s what Christianity wants people to believe.  They want people to believe it’s the weekly Sabbath.  If you have any knowledge at all about what the Jews are doing they want you to believe it’s Saturday, or the seventh day, the weekly Sabbath, and we understand very deeply so that it wasn’t.

So again, Satan does not want mankind to know what happened during this period of time.  He doesn’t want them to understand very basic truths that the story contains.

Toward the beginning of the sermon, again here just to remind you, a statement was made: there are two primary areas where Satan has struck out against mankind over and over again, and I mentioned how the Passover is one but it’s the second one that’s primary, it’s about the Sabbath, the truths of God’s Sabbaths.

So reading it again, he took Him down, wrapped Him in linen, laid Him in the tomb that was hewn out of the rock where no man had ever laid before; this was the preparation as the Sabbath drew near.  So again here, step by step by step.  The truth is a powerful thing.  You know, when you were called... sometimes it’s hard to remember how our mind was opened up.  For me it was over 41 years ago, 42 years ago.  It’s hard for me to remember what happened last week sometimes.   Certain things about your calling you don’t forget, but I remember many aspects of it, the highlights of it, but how the mind was affected, how, what I saw first exactly, how I saw it...you know, those things they’re not always right there in your focus as time goes by.  You hold those times dear, they’re very meaningful to you, but the nitty-gritty, the specifics of it sometimes aren’t fully there and this is what it’s about.  These are the things that need to be there.  These are the things that need to happen in people’s lives, and they’re powerful things and they were powerful things that happened to you as you learned various aspects.  You might have started in some other place.  You know, God calls us and works with us in different ways and we come in contact with, we begin to learn, but you don’t have time to fool around in the future with people.  You don’t have time!

How long did it take you to go through a process?  God is going to pour out more of His spirit in a very powerful way, in His time, coordinated along with exactly how things become worse in the world.  Because only then... because it’s through that process that God can work with, does work with, will work with – His plan is to work with more people through this period of time and it begins small and just increases and increases with greater power.  And so the opportunity to share with people in a very focused way, this is a most powerful, powerful tool, it truly is.

John 19: this particular kind of Sabbath is described here.  John 19:31 – Therefore, because it was the preparation day, preparation day isn’t just on a Friday before the weekly Sabbath, it’s on any day that precedes a High Day, a Holy Day.  Opportunity to teach.  And you know what?  With God’s spirit it’s right there.  It’s like when the truth comes to you and your mind just opened up and you see it clearly.  All you have to do is hear it.  You don’t even have to turn to these verses if you know it, if you can tell the story and take them through a process.  When these things... “Oh yeah...”  Because the truth makes sense.  That’s why I love how Mr. Armstrong called the magazine, by God’s inspiration, ‘The Plain Truth’, because when it’s there it's plain.  You know what lies do?  Things are not plain; they become distorted, confusing, you try to cover up one with another.  You have to cover one lie with another lie and it just goes on and on and on and you finally get to a point, if you’re not careful, that you’re talking in language that is like how the rabbis did, and like the Catholics have and it becomes a mystery all right, mysterious mess of lies that you can’t unravel unless you have the truth.

And then the truth...that’s why I’m so thankful in God’s Church that when we’ve gone through various things in this period of time that we’ve been through, God doesn’t have us focus on all the things, in essence, that people have done and try to unwind why did they teach this or why do they teach that about 14th/15th Passover.  Basically He blessed us to be able to just focus on the truth, and the more you focus on the truth...you know what it does?  You go back and you look at some of those things and you think, he’s wrong there, he’s wrong there, he’s wrong there... how’d they get?  And it becomes so clear. Everything is so clear when you have the truth.

That’s why the words to make something light, to enlighten, to bring light to darkness – because that’s what it does, the light comes and all of a sudden things are illuminated and there’s no more darkness, it does away with the captivity, it does away with the bondage, it does away with spiritual Egypt, it illuminates.  It’s a powerful thing, the truth.  God wants us to understand these are powerful things and not to underestimate them, because that’s our tendency humanly, it truly is.  That’s our tendency humanly!

Therefore because it was the preparation day; so that the bodies should not remain on the poles/stauros, [stow-ros’] the upright stake/poles, that’s why I hate the word ‘crucifix’ or ‘cross’, because they’re not right descriptions of what was here.  Who was it the other day...?  It was Garth, I think he was at the Louvre.  ([Garth from] over there in New Zealand).  He had an opportunity to be over there in Paris and...  don’t know if I can call it an opportunity or not.  I’m sorry, but it’s not what it’s cracked up to be.  Anyway, he was going through the Louvre and he came by this one statue he said that people weren’t focusing upon, and as a whole if I remember my story here, and talking about part of it, and he showed me a picture of it.  People were talking about some of other things that were crosses and a lot of religious things, but here was this one, up on a big, big pole, hands up here in the air and the feet together at the bottom, hanging there, a body, it was a sculpture of a body showing how they did it.  Incredible!  People weren’t interested in that. Nobody was taking them to it.  Incredible!  It’s how they killed a lot of people, that’s the way they did it.  Why use three nails when you can use two?  Why go to all the work of making... it takes a lot of extra work, a lot more painful the other way.

Satan has done a number, he really has.  I am so thankful that God has blessed me to be able to be a part of being able to address things about him, because God is telling him in greater ways year by year, especially starting last year in a very powerful way, what’s coming his way, and he knows it anyway, but God is getting more specific and letting His people know more specifically who he was, the great whore through time.

Therefore, because it was the preparation day; so the bodies would not remain on the poles on the Sabbath, (for that Sabbath was a High Day,) Incredible!  A High Day – not a weekly Sabbath.  Explains these things right here in the New Testament.  It was a High Day, it was an annual Sabbath, the Days of Unleavened Bread, the beginning.

And so it says, that the poles would not remain on the Sabbath... the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. And then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who were impaled on poles with Him, next to Him.  Break the legs so they can’t hold themselves up and breathe any longer.  They suffocate.  Because that’s how they kept themselves alive.  Hanging like that, the only way to keep yourself alive longer is to push yourself up from the nails in the legs, to push yourself up so that you can continue to breathe, but when both legs are broken you weary of it and you finally suffocate and you die.  It doesn’t take very long.

But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was already dead, they didn’t break His legs: Because God said for the Messiah, for the Christ, not a bone in His body would be broken; God would protect Him, God would bless Him.  Things that happen to us in life, accidents, things that take place with our lives, it wasn’t going to happen to Him, and this wasn’t going to happen to Him.  He was already dead.

So, and some misunderstand some of those things too – even in that – that same evangelist began to teach in classes to some who became ministers later on, that it might have been possible that He suffocated.  What a damnable lie!  What a sick mind that would do that in the midst of the Church, and yet he was esteemed as a ‘great intellectual’. It was touted that he could sit in Sabbath service and listen to ministers preach and he could listen to that at the same time reading a book.  I think, “Give me a break!” Should have had one right across the back of the head – “Wake up!  Focus on what you’re supposed to be focusing on!”  But it was that kind of thing, like people were in awe of him.  Students were in awe of him.

That’s the environment of deception that was given there so that they latched onto his words.  “Oh, He might have suffocated.”  What does that do?  Destroys everything about the Passover lamb.  He is to be killed!  His blood is to spill to the earth because that’s what the Passover is going to do!  You minimize that?  You take away from that?  You distort that?  ...and it gives proof that He wasn’t the Messiah, that’s what it gives.  14th/15th is just proof like a day and a half in the tomb – same thing – that He wasn’t the Messiah.  Who wants to do that?  Satan.  He wants to mess with people and have those doubts from the very beginning of God’s plan.

These are not small things!  We read through stories like this and because we see the truth we tend to go past it quickly, but we don’t understand its magnitude, we don’t understand it’s importance.  We don’t understand that this great being in the very  beginning who began to deceive the angelic realm, this being, who is so powerful, that God gave Him such power.  He knows where to strike!  He is not ignorant in those things and those kinds of devices, in cunning and deceitfulness in ways that human beings have not attained to, thankfully, they don’t have that kind of power.

So sometimes we tend to minimize some of these kinds of events and things that took place.  These, the very things that if this had been deeply ingrained in people’s minds, anyone that ever heard that individual in his classes, in Bible class, say something like that, they would have held up their hand and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa...what about the lamb?  What about the lamb that had to have his throat cut?”  Like my wife told a minister's wife who was touting some of this stuff, about this individual, what he had said.  She said, “If that’d been the case God would have told you to strangle the lamb! ...if that’s what was supposed to happen!  Don’t cut him and slit his throat and let his blood.... get your hands around his neck and squeeze until he suffocates, if He was supposed to suffocate, because that pictures what’s going to happen to the Lamb.”  Absolutely!  So someone should have held up their hand in that class, but if it came into the mind of any of them they weren’t bold enough and brave enough to do it.  Sad.  We learn lessons from that.

I had that lesson in a very powerful way come into my life because of the apostasy.  Anything – anything that ever comes along – if you remain silent, if you don’t attack it with all of your being, if you don’t correct it with all of your being, you’re just as guilty as participating in it.  See?  I am ashamed that’s what I had to repent of, of when things began to go off base that I didn’t attack with greater fervour, that I was too weak by that time spiritually and therefore I couldn’t do it.

Sometimes we think we’re at a place we’re really not there yet.  Sometimes as we’re drawn and we’re new in the Church we think we’re at a place spiritually that we’re really not there, and I don’t mean to offend or hurt but to help you to understand the reality of the situation.  You. Are. A. Babe.  There is wisdom in understanding that.  Acting according to that is a matter of wisdom, it truly is.  To understand how you’re being fed is a matter of wisdom that comes from God, to hold onto those things.  Because you see, I have seen people by the droves come and go because they haven’t held onto those most basic truths, and began to think that they were beyond where they were spiritually, that they began to see themselves as an adult or a teacher.  That doesn’t happen overnight.  God works with you, moulds and fashions you, knocks away a whole lot of things to bring you to that point in time to where it’s done in a right way or a better way.  It’s wisdom... it truly is, because people who have been far ahead of us in time through maturity, by the hundreds, no, by the thousands, have stumbled, who’ve been around and growing spiritually for a long, long time.

So, we never want to think of ourselves like the book of Laodicea talks about, rich and increased with goods, because it’s a matter of how we see ourselves, that we see ourselves better than what we really are.  And that’s not a good thing. That’s why I love what Paul said after twenty five years in God’s ministry, “Oh wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”  And he goes on to say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ.”  Beautiful scriptures.

As I was praying today I was thinking about my life, I was thinking about what I shared with you about after...how many years was it?  Did I say 20?  I have to go back and think about it now.  About 25 years, wasn’t it...finally able to say, “I love You.”  Amazing!  And as I was thinking about that and sharing that I thought, “What patience!  What patience!”  I was already ordained a minister on the day we’re talking about right now.  I have special feelings toward this day, toward Passover.  I feel very blessed by the things God has given me concerning this day.  I have this special affection toward Passover, toward the Passover in those things.  Deeply imbedded in my mind and I think, “What an incredible thing of patience God has had with me, to use me, to bless me with opportunity, to be ordained to serve as a minister, to be hired to serve in the Church, and yet it took me that long to be able to say that.”  What incredible patience and mercy and love.

God knows what He’s working with.  He knows how to mould and fashion us, and we ought to be in awe of how we have sin in our life...  ‘Oh wretched man that I am...’  I marvel at the process God takes us through to bring us from where we are to a point in time where we can be totally changed and given spirit life for eternity.  It truly is a dumbfounding thing!  Mercy – mercy - mercy... patience – patience - longsuffering...and then we really begin to learn the great lessons and we start doing those things toward others.  Mercy...mercy...patience... patience... love – that’s what it’s all about -  living love toward others, a sacrificing, giving kind of love, looking to the time that they, that I, that we all will stand before God in spirit.  Beautiful!  Rocky road getting there, we go through a lot of things, don’t we?

So, they didn’t break His legs because He was already dead. Continuing on with the story, again, to understand that Passover can occur on different days of the week, like the day I was ordained was on a Sabbath, but it was Passover.  And the year Jesus Christ died the Passover was on a Wednesday.  You have to know that.  We have to know how to count it. We have to understand the counting that took place.  So Passover that year was on a Wednesday, which was a preparation day for the annual High Day, the first day of the Days of Unleavened Bread, an annual Sabbath.  And so again, incredible thing that was taking place here.

We have, on Wednesday it’s going to come sundown...it’s an easy story to tell people, it’s a beautiful story to tell people. To understand the timing, the proper timing, that He did fulfill exactly what He says, “The only sign I’m leaving you that I am who I say I am, that I am the Messiah, that I am the Christ...”  Wednesday sundown, just before sunset the rock is rolled over the tomb there, and it’s sealed – sundown, to the moment.  That’s how it was fulfilled. Then you go from that period of time all the way through Thursday – it’s the High Day.  All that night and all the next day of Thursday was a High Day, no work being done on that day.

And to understand the story then that the women didn’t have time to prepare the spices and things that they wanted to, to put with the body, because this was done quickly.  He went and asked for the body and took it down and wrapped it and did this quickly.  And so they didn’t have time to prepare the body like they normally would in a burial.  And so the women were very moved by this and they wanted to prepare those things, and so they couldn’t go Thursday because it’s a High Day.  They couldn’t go and buy and sell, so then sundown comes and they can do it that night because nothing is open.  So the next day, Friday, they go and buy what they want, what they need, and they start preparing everything to put with the body.  And then sundown catches them again, they’re not able to do it then; all day, getting all this taken care of.  Sabbath’s come, Friday evening, the third day, the third period of time, because we’ve gone through Thursday and Friday and now Friday night, beginning of the Sabbath we’re starting into the third day.  And by the time you get to the end of that day He’s resurrected.

I’ll tell you right now – there are many people (not a few) in the scattered Body who don’t even know that timing.  They don’t know!  They really don’t know that He was actually resurrected on the Sabbath Day, they don’t think it through.  You think, “Oh, how can that be?”  It’s the truth.  Sometimes we hear a story and we think it’s a mild story, an easy story, and it’s so simple that we don’t even focus on it and pay attention to it.  That’s how people get tripped up.  That’s how people are able to be deceived, because they really haven’t gone into it and proven everything to themselves and thought it through all the way.  See?

And so the women couldn’t bring the... it was sundown, it was dark again so they didn’t go to the tomb and do it then, they waited until the crack of dawn, until the first flickers of light, and then they went to the tomb to do it Sunday morning.  So the protestant world, what do they teach?  That’s when He rose.  “He is risen!”  Sunday morning, have Easter sunrise services because that’s when they think it happened. Give me a break!

Bondage.  They don’t understand, but there’s a being that led them to believe those things.  Powerful what he’s done.  You think, “How can millions and millions of people be so deceived for so long over basic things here that are right here in the book that you can read through with just a tad of an open mind?”  Just a tad of an open mind, to study a little bit into that are very clear?  But they’re not clear when you’re in bondage, they truly aren’t.  Powerful – powerful – powerful – that being that deceived and powerful – powerful – powerful the truth that enlightens the darkness. It’s a beautiful thing.

Matthew 28:1 – one more very revealing area of truth – Now after the Sabbath[s], and people aren’t going to know about this one.  You just have to tell them about this, that in the Greek it’s a plural.  It’s not after the weekly Sabbath, it’s not speaking of that individually.  It’s not speaking of the annual Sabbaths specifically by itself, it’s speaking of both, because the Greek here is about a plural - it’s Sabbaths.

Now after the Sabbath[s], so the annual Sabbath was now passed and the weekly Sabbath was now passed; at the first day of the week as it began to dawn, in other words early Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for an angel of the LORD descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow: And the guards shook for fear of him, this is what they saw.  It wasn’t so plain to the women when they were there, some of these things that took place in the beginning.  But when this event first took place this is what they saw.  It’s looking back, it’s saying these things happened, this is what took place, the angel came, this is what happened, when this was done/prepared for the women when they would come.

And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.  But the angel answered and said to the women, so when the women came, when the women were there, Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus, see, we read a story and we think this is all happening at the same moment.  No, they’re not, there’s a time difference there.  But the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was impaled on the stake. He is not here: that’s right.  He’s not inside there, He was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath day, right at the very end of it; for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord has lain/was lain. It’s an incredible story to think how these things could be so twisted and distorted and messed up through time and how traditional Christianity has embraced something so incredibly, powerfully false like they have.  Powerful being dealing with them.

I know we know some of the story here but I’m going to take the time to go through it because it shows how Satan so deceitfully clouded the truth concerning Passover and the Sabbaths of God by his sway over the Catholic church, and I’m going to read you some portions here that’s contained in the Catholic encyclopedia itself.

Now, one can go to an article in the Catholic encyclopedia, it’s on the internet.  You can go there; it’s entitled ‘The First Council of Nicaea’.  It’s incredible some of the history of things that took place here and things that developed through time in which the Catholic church primarily discuss how Constantine was urged to call a council of Bishops for the purpose of discussing and settling a great religious controversy at that time, however the Catholic focus was on the formation of a statement at the time that solidified the teaching of a trinity doctrine (that was what they were focusing on for them).  So it wasn’t really...when you read the article, their focus wasn’t as much on the Passover as they say it was, primarily about this trinity doctrine, that they were coming together because of different individuals and their influence, this thing about one God and then now Jesus Christ and who was He, and this holy spirit; and so they had to come together.  This was the biggest part of the controversy at that time but there’s much more that went with the story.

Buried at the very bottom of this article is this statement that reads:

The First Council of Nicaea

[1] Other matters dealt with by this council were the controversy as to the time of celebrating Easter and the Meletian schism. The former of these two will be found treated under EASTER CONTROVERSY; ....

So you have to go to ‘Easter Controversy’ now to find out about this because they didn’t address it here, in ‘The Council of Nicaea’, and yet that’s where it all took place.  And so under the section called:

Easter Controversy

[2] Ecclesiastical history preserves the memory of three distinct phases of the dispute regarding the proper time of observing Easter. It will add to clearness if we in the first place state what is certain regarding the date and the nature of these three categories.

So they say ‘First Phase’:

The first was mainly concerned with the lawfulness of celebrating Easter on a weekday.

It’s amazing what went on here and how they finagle these things, how Satan moved them.

We read in Eusebius (Church History V.23): "A question of no small importance arose at that time [i.e. the time of Pope Victor, about A.D. 190]. The dioceses of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should always be observed as the feast of the life-giving pasch [epi tes tou soteriou Pascha heortes], (Passover), contending that the fast ought to end on that day, whatever day of the week it might happen to be.

So what are they talking about?  You ever heard of ‘lent’ and this ‘great fast’?  Isn’t that when they start with that?  ...Ash Wednesday and all this rigamorale they go through?  I don’t know all that stuff, but anyway, this is part of the controversy here, is when should that end.  It’s more than that...but anyway.

However it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this point, as they observed the practice, which from Apostolic tradition has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the Resurrection of our Saviour.

What a bunch of bull!  ...what they did!  What a bunch of hogwash!  You put something in there like that, you twist and distort because you have an objective that’s a twisted judgment from the very beginning.  They knew what they were going to do.  They were moved to do what they were going to do.  It’s amazing what human beings will do.

I think I mentioned this one last sermon here, that sometimes how we judge things and we have these pre-conceived ideas in our mind and so we make other things fit it because this is the way we judge it to be right.  People do that!  People are doing that today with the economy!  They pre-judge something that they think is right like...what’s this thing called...I get a charge out of the term... where you print more money.  Quantitative Easing!  Yes, how could I have forgotten that one!  And here they want Great Britain to do it so Britain is doing a little quantitative easing.  They’re giving a little more business to the printing press and firing up the presses and printing a few more pounds sterling.  And Europe just mocks them, because they think Europe should do the same thing, “You should have some quantitative easing.”  Billions! Not just a few billions... billions and billions and billions!  “Unless you do this we’re all going to go down the tubes!  We’re at your mercy Europe!”  Incredible what’s going on out there!  Pre-conceived ideas and so everything else around it and all the pressures there have to do with a pre-conceived judgment of something that is the way it’s going to be and what you want to push across.

Here is another one in a perverted and distorted way in a religious fashion.  And so they said it’s the day of the resurrection of Jesus, of our Saviour.  Because you see, they already know its Sunday!  That’s already given by this time.  He was resurrected Sunday morning so it’s a given.  They’ve been taught this – this is so deep in their minds now there’s no need to be concerned about everyone else because now everyone else will be pulled into it.  And that’s Satan, that’s what he did!

And then it says the ‘Second Phase’:

The second stage in the Easter controversy centres round the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325). Granted that the great Easter festival was always to be held on a Sunday,

That sure does away with the 14th, conveniently so, that can be on any day of the week.  Any focus of anything to do with Passover, any connection, so the focus became Easter, “the day of the resurrection of the Saviour,” they said.

...and was not to coincide with a particular phase of the moon, (hence the 14th) which might occur on any day of the week, a new dispute arose as to the determination of the Sunday itself.

So, you read through some of this gobbledygook like this and to me it’s just a marvel of how some of these things developed and what they did.  But there’s a lot of conniving going on here and why they did all this.  They wanted to attack Passover, because it’s about Jesus Christ!  That’s what Satan has attacked from the beginning of time, whenever he’s had an opportunity it’s about Jesus Christ, it’s about God’s plan of a Saviour, of a Messiah.

And finally, in the Catholic Encyclopaedia entitled ‘Sunday’:

[3] Sunday was the first day of the week according to the Jewish method of reckoning, but for Christians it began to take the place of the Jewish Sabbath in Apostolic times as the day set apart for the public and solemn worship of God. The practice of meeting together on the first day of the week for the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is indicated in Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; in Apocalypse 1:10, it is called the Lord's day. In the Didache (14) the injunction is given: "On the Lord's Day come together and break bread. And give thanks (offer the Eucharist), after confessing your sins that your sacrifice may be pure". St. Ignatius (Ep. ad Magnes. ix) speaks of Christians as "no longer observing the Sabbath, ...

So they’re going on giving ‘proof’ here....

.... “no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day...”

So this is what gives credibility.  You go back in the past, you find something that some of your people have written and this is what it is.

“...but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day on which also Our Life rose again".

...and He didn’t, on Sunday morning.

In the Epistle of Barnabas (xv) we read: "Wherefore, also, we keep the eight day (i.e. the first of the week) with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead".

It’s just an incredible thing to me to go back and see what happened in one... it didn’t just happen all at once, it was a plan, a plotted process there that goes all the way back to the very beginning, back to the days of John.  Because John had to deal with these things that were taking place and another group of people becoming larger, and they were the ones that were talking about Christ and so forth and began to lead people off in a different direction.  He was already battling those kinds of things back at that time, a different gospel that began to be preached out there and was more acceptable, especially because they tied it into Sunday which just happened to be the time that most people observed as a religious time anyway because of their beliefs and their gods being worshipped.

Satan’s a powerful being, powerful in deception, and so he worked through time.  All of a sudden the reason for attacking Passover is to change the day of the week as well – change it from Passover, to give it to Easter because the real objective is to make Sunday the day of worship, to keep people away from any understanding whatsoever of God’s plan.  That’s his motive.  That’s what he’s always done through time.  It’s a powerful, powerful thing that’s taken place.

So again, Satan has continually tried to alter God’s plan and destroy anything that he can concerning what God has created and built.  He tried to destroy the earth itself, he tried to kill Jesus Christ as a baby.  Satan considered it a great victory when he influenced the killing of Jesus Christ.  Don’t know what all he understood about what was going to happen after that, but he didn’t understand it all.  He didn’t understand it all by any measure.  It didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to – nothing ever has.  He’s a pawn, in a perverted way to help bring people to salvation.  That’s an incredible thing to understand. He thinks he’s a king, a queen...

Luke 3:1 – picking up part of the story here.  I’m going to go through some of this here now talking about some of what happened to John the Baptist and so forth - Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch in Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, and so it tells about the two coming along here, Annas and Caiaphas being high priests, and it talks about the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

So here we’re coming up to John and he came, as it says in verse 3 here - And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance, the remission of sins;

So we’re getting to the point here about John the Baptist and it says here in verse 4 - And it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. The way of life; correct the way you’re living, the things that are crooked out here, the crooked paths, the way people are living, being in deception that they have in their life, being in bondage, if you will, in their lives, and start making your paths right, straight before God, the way God says to go, that way and no other way.  And that’s what this is about here, about the way of life and the way to live.

It says, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Well, His paths are straight, he’s talking to the people.  You make His paths straight.  You’re to repent and change the way you’re living.  Live God’s straight and narrow way, the right way.  And so this is a part of what he was doing.  It’s a part of a message that God has given through time.  It’s a part of a message that whenever God is working with people to bring them together, to bring them to a point of being able to be worked with, this is what they must address.  They have to see themselves, they have to begin changing, they have to begin desiring God and God’s way of life.

I think of what was done through Mr. Armstrong at the end of Sardis and how that this was a very powerful message and a greater fulfillment in that respect on a spiritual plane within the Church, of something that was happening.  I think of what’s happening now, of things that will continue on for a period of time and something we’ll hear more about later on.  It’s an incredible thing here that continues on through time, something that God is fulfilling, a progressive revelation, and we haven’t understood it all yet.  God’s giving us more at the Feast here to understand this even in a deeper way than what we have before.

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; that which is not raised up is going to be raised up, that which is raised up is going to be brought down, the hills, the mountains, talking about the governments and things of this world; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; What a beautiful verse here because it’s leading in time.  It’s about the Church and the beginning of the Church and what’s going to happen, because this is bringing people to the beginning of being able to be worked with in a greater way because of the Church and the Church being established through Jesus Christ. It was about the work that was going to be done there and then it goes on through a period of time here and leading all the way up to where we are now.

... and the rough ways shall be made smooth; it’s a lot tougher now to be called, it’s a lot rougher right now to be called into God’s Church, and it has been for a long time!  This is really a rough time in many respects because of what you believe.  It’s rough for those of you who have been drawn out of our past in the sense of the apostasy and what took place there and the people who are scattered out there because people know you’re crazy, people know you have gone off into left field.  “You believe that God Almighty has eternally existed and that Jesus Christ hasn’t; but Jesus Christ didn’t start having an existence until born of Mary!  You are coo-coo beyond measure, spiritually.  You have gone off on a spiritual tangent, you are listening to a crackpot!” That’s what people think!  But this is the very thing they’re going to have to come to address to repent, and many more.

I think of different ones who have shared things that they’ve heard in time and when I talked about when God gave me understanding of a place of safety, that we’re not going there, we’re not going to go out in the middle of Jordan to a place called Petra, we’re not going to go there during the great tribulation for 3½ years – things like that – that the 144,000 is all there will be through 6,000 years.  And to people who are stuck in time, for people who were spewed out of God’s mouth, they can’t help it.  They just can’t help it; they’re in bondage!  What an incredible thing.  And so you’ve been called during a pretty rough time because of the things you believe.

You know the day and you tell people this, or you share that with people, or they find out about it...you believe that Jesus Christ would give to anyone the time He’s going to return when He says, ‘No man knows the day or the hour,’ not even Christ Himself?  So how can you?  And you can’t reason with them so you kind of... it’s bad enough that you started eating beef and not pork anymore and you don’t eat shellfish and octopus and different things like that anymore – that’s bad enough – but you have really gone off....   So it’s a rough time.

This is what it’s describing here.  It’s going to come into a time where it’s not rough anymore.  What a beautiful thing when everybody understands you don’t go out and eat that which squeals and has a curly tail, is a filthy animal for the human body to try to digest; you don’t eat that anymore.  And so all these things that are going to be common out here; the Sabbath is the day, the seventh day.  They’re all going to know it.  Everybody’s going to know it.  The knowledge is going to be out there.  Beautiful verse ...and the rough ways shall be made smooth; it’s going to be so much easier for people.  You’re part of a pioneer preparing a way for them.

...and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. All flesh. So it goes into the Millennium and finally in the Great White Throne, progressive revelation.  Started with John in a very powerful way because it was leading to the Messiah, the Passover that was going to come first and what He was going to do and what God was doing through Him; the focal point of God’s plan, the one whom Satan hates with all of his being.

Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, how would you like to go listen to someone say, O you generation of snakes; I’m not going to listen to that.  Shows their attitude.  They were willing to listen.  I’ve known of some people in God’s Church that had a hard time acknowledging their sins and began to think better of themselves, that when a minister would get up and say what our human nature was like they weren’t like that, they talked about how they got so tired of hearing about how bad they were that they just weren’t going to be there anymore.  And that’s a great answer, isn’t it?  Shows something’s missing.  What is it?  God’s spirit.  Because we have to see ‘O wretched man/woman that I am.  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’  We see what we are, that’s wisdom.

O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, meat for repentance, that’s what’s required in God’s Church.  That’s why people are asked, that’s why people go through a process – it’s the Sabbath and its tithing, because those are the things that try us and so those things reflect whether or not we’re really bringing forth fruit that show that we’re starting the process, that we’re serious about change, that we truly are repenting.  Those are very powerful tools because they affect our life in a powerful way.  We are very much...we’re not an agrarian society; even if we were the same thing would be required – but everything is so tied into and especially in this age, of all the things that are out there and we get ourselves so easily in a type of debt that’s so difficult because we’re living by paycheque to paycheque.  That’s the way the world is and it’s becoming more and more that way.  Every generation that comes along lives more that way because of the things that are out there and to be a part of the world, to be a part of society, to live just a normal life we’re maxed out.  It’s a normal thing now.

And so when God comes along and says I want to draw you out of Egypt; all of a sudden 10%...and a second 10%.  It tries you.  And you don’t work on Friday, if you do on your job, to Saturday and you have to go tell your employer...how is this going to affect your financial life and the bills and the food and the rent or the payment, whatever it is, and on and on it goes.  It tries you and it is a powerful thing that shows and reveals your seriousness of fighting the fight and dedicating yourself to God, to giving yourself to God and yielding to His calling.  It tries us to the core of our being.  Because you see, you’re here, and there are many, many others who aren’t because they can’t do it....they can’t do it.  They haven’t come to that yet.  And so God has a means and a way of humbling people to bring them to that point in time to show them what truly is important.

So that’s, again, something that’s always been a part of God’s Church as a part of a standard that you can’t just come and say, like the world does, “You can come as you are.”  Because that’s what the world teaches, traditional Christianity, just come as you are.  God doesn’t say that.  “Oh He knows what you’re like and just come as you are with all your sins, with all the things you do, and God loves you, He understands.”  No, He doesn’t.  He expects you to change.  He expects you to repent and obey Him.

And bring forth therefore fruit/meat worthy of repentance, and begin now to say within yourselves, or do not say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: the very thing we talked about in the last sermon.  Here we go, better than what we really are; for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. That’s not such a big thing!  You think you’re Abraham’s seed?  That’s why Christ said, ‘If you were really Abraham’s children you’d do the works of Abraham.’  And so he tells them here, ‘God can raise up stones to Abraham.”  Hmmm...the dirt and the dust of the earth and make it live and be a seed of Abraham; hmmm.

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: I hope you understand that goes beyond that which is physical; And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and cast in the fire. And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? And so they...this is a part of what he was saying.  He taught other things, but they listened, they heard, they were moved to come there.  God’s spirit was starting to work with people – incredible – because you see, God had to do this.  God had to move them to want to do something, to see a need to change.  They had an oppression of a government over them and they had this desire of something, and so when they began to hear....

There’s this thing in Judaism for a long, long time going way back in time - going way back in time where they’ve had times of oppression, where they’ve looked to the Kingdom of God.  What that’s saying is that they’re looking to the Messiah, the Christ, the Promised One who’s going to come and deliver us from such oppression, and store/restore God’s government, period.  They’ve been limited in what they’ve understood but that’s always been a part of Jewish thought through history.  It happened not long after they came out of captivity, it happened many times in between, it happened in 200 BC, it happened again at this time here, but this time here in a very powerful way because of the preaching that was going out and the things that were being said at that time. And people were responding to it and coming into the wilderness to be baptized.

See, I mention these things because it’s going to happen profoundly many times over this.  It’s going to take place.

So they said, What shall we do then? What’s the answer?  You repent, you live differently.  Gave them simple things here in some cases. He answered and said unto them, He who has two coats, let him impart to him that has none; and he that has meat, let him do likewise. In other words, you’re being oppressed, these things are happening to you, share what you have, start on a physical plane in how you think toward others.

Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed to you. Don’t take more than what you’re supposed to take; because see, there was a problem in that.  While they’re taking they’re taking a little bit more.  It’s common practice.

And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, What shall we do? What do you do if you’re in the military?  Well, God’s going to call people as He already has, and if God’s calling them we’re to receive them and work with them and help them.  And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; pretty tough if that’s your job – but you obey God until you’re free and don’t accuse any falsely.  Because that’s a common thing too with people in authority oftentimes and how they judge and how others around them judge.  So you have to be careful you don’t get caught up with the crowd and how they judge and act like they do – but seek to come out of it, seek to be freed of it fully.  And there’s a process that people have to go through, and in the future here it’s going to be difficult for people to come out of some of the things they’re in, but they’ll come out.

...and be content with your wages. And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, in other words, they pondered these things, the things that struck them, and it moved them.  It was God’s spirit that was working with them – not to all be drawn into the Church but to do this thing with John, to do out of that that there would be those that would be drawn, who would be disciples, become disciples of Christ, who in time would be called into God’s Church – with some.

And so they were wondering because of how they were moved by this whether he was the Christ, Is he the one? They wanted to be freed, and things just got worse and worse and worse after this period of time concerning the Roman rule and the Roman government.

And John answered, saying unto all of them, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I comes, he was moved by God’s spirit to answer this way, to show them he is not the one, to show that there’s one coming.  He says, One mightier than myself is coming, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloosen: He shall baptize you with the holy spirit and with fire: Now, protestant world teaches you want the baptism of fire.  Not much understanding there; that’s not a good thing.  You don’t want to be immersed in fire, that’s the judgment that comes from not obeying God and that’s what happens when people are brought to Christ and you start out with a baptism of water, that’s what you want to receive, to bury the old self, to change and overcome and become something new; but you don’t want the other one.  That shows what Satan has done there – totally twisted everything up.  Everything is twisted up and distorted and he gets a perverted, distorted, disgusting, despicable kind of chuckle out of it... “...the baptism of fire, destroy them all!”  That’s the way he looks at it.

Verse 17 - Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, see...to stir it up, to make sure, to bring through everything, to get rid of that which doesn’t belong, to burn it up; and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable. It’s going to be thoroughly destroyed until it’s all gone.

And many other things in his exhortation he preached unto the people. But Herod, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, so we know the story here of things that happened with him, Added yet this above all, that he be shut up in prison. And now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven opened up, so going back and talking about John and what he did, then Christ came, and we have the other accounts.  It talks about the heaven being opened up when Jesus was baptized, And the holy spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased. Beautiful!

So this took place and then next...go on to chapter 4, skipping over these other things here but just picking up the story of those things that were taking place.  Luke 4:1 - And Jesus being filled with the holy spirit returned from Jordan, so this was after His baptism, and was led by the spirit/led by God’s spirit into the wilderness, He knew where to go.  He knew what to do.  How do you know that?  Because He was led by God’s spirit.  There are those things that God communicates to us.  Sometimes, again, we start out in small ways, different things happen in our life at times and we have to be careful of this, that you don’t read something into a matter of what you’re doing and try to read God into everything, but there are things sometimes when it’s a matter of something that God is doing that does prove out later on, the fruit is there, that He works with us, He leads us, He inspires us, and sometimes we don’t understand what’s taking place at the time but we’re moved and we just do it.

That’s why some people have asked me what do I save aside?  What do I prepare?  Where do I go?  And I say, “I don’t know – God knows.”  You can’t give a blanket answer to everybody because it’s going to be different.  You’re going to have to rely on God to lead and guide and direct you, to know what to do, to know when to do it, to know whatever in your life, and it’s a matter of your focus upon God, that you look to God.  Because He’s not going to do the same thing with everybody.  We’re not all going to be in the same place, in Jordan.  You can’t up and move to Jordan.  But if you’re inspired to do so somewhere, then do it.  We have choices to make.  If you’re inspired to do something above and beyond somebody else don’t expect someone else to do exactly the same thing you’re doing and judge them – because I’ve seen that in the Church.  “Well, if you’re not saving this and this and this then you’re not...”  It’s like, “...you’re not as good as I am.”  Oh, well, forgive me!

Verse 2 - Being forty days tempted of Satan/of the devil. So He’s forty days going through this in the wilderness after He was baptized, And in those days He ate nothing: and when they were ended, afterwards He was hungry. God sustained Him for that period of time and afterwards He was hungry.  Absolutely!  After Atonement I’m hungry; this many days I can’t comprehend what that means save that God sustain you for that period of time and then a fast is over like any fast and then you eat.  It’s like that two day fast, for some the second day was easier than the first day and it was just what it was and you were as hungry after the two days as you are at the end of the one day – you were hungry.  It’s kind of an understatement.  When it’s time for food you’re ready for food.

Verse 3 - And the devil said unto Him, If You be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. Now this was good...this was good; ‘If’ that big “IF” – working toward a normal...  See, he’s had a lot of experience with mankind.  He has seen a few thousand years now of human beings and how easy it is to manipulate them. We’re easily manipulated because of pride and haughtiness and ego and ‘IF’ you are...  Well, He knew who He was.  Satan knew who He was and Christ knew who he was.  But this didn’t bother Christ.  He wasn’t moved by such things as normal human nature, in that respect, in the same way, in the same way of what we would latch onto quickly by being challenged like this and our first instinct.  No, Christ was able to resist and fight against because He knew what Satan was doing.  He knew spiritually what was going on, and because of that that gave Him strength.  He obeyed God, He did what was right before God.  It doesn’t mean there’s not a normal pull, because it is, but Christ said, “No.”

You have things and choices in your life that are pulls; pulls, things that pull you in life, and it’s how you respond to it that is critical.  See?  Men, you can walk by a pool area out here and you can choose to look at certain things or you can choose not to, because if you are a normal man, just because of the way God made you (which is good and right), but you have to use that wisely and righteously before God...or you can see someone.  How descriptive do I get?  Today you don’t have to get too descriptive sometimes with what women wear at a pool, to where if they turn their back to you you’re not really sure if there’s anything right there – speaking of the lower extremities because it’s in a very uncomfortable place, part of it. And if they turn around there’s not a whole lot, depending on the colour of it, of what’s in the front.  So, you have a CHOICE to make as to whether or not you look, and as to whether or not you take another peek, and what goes on in your mind.  Or, do you choose to do what’s right and look away?  Have you trained yourself in time because you want to obey God?  Have you been trained in it?  Because it’s a matter of training, it’s a matter of yielding.  When you walk down the street do you look away because you’ve been trained to do that? Do you tend to put your eyes in a certain place, raise them up rather than down.

Now, sometimes just because you are seeing you can’t help it, but where you choose to stay...  I’m saying something every man in here knows.  I don’t know if every woman does.  But it’s something that every man in here knows.  See?  The reason I mention that is because there are things sometimes my wife will notice about somebody walking and she’ll tell me and I’ll tell her I didn’t see it at all, and I didn’t because a long time ago... Do I do it perfectly?  Have I done it perfectly through my life?  No!  But I strive to because I set myself a long time ago to obey God, I wanted to obey God.  And so I actually came to a point in time...it’s what you have to do, men, to be trained to how you look and where you look.  I hope that makes some sense to you because it’s a matter of your own discipline, your own mind.

And this is exactly what Christ was doing on a far greater plane because of choices He made.  Doesn’t mean it’s not a thing that is there to pull you, because it is for human beings, but if you have a certain way of thinking and that is set in your mind then you’re going to respond properly.

Verse 3 – And the devil said unto Him...IF , that big ole “IF” You be the Son of God command these stones to be made bread. And Jesus said unto Him, It is written, you go back to what God says.  What does God say to do?  God says to obey Him.  Don’t lust, don’t let your mind drift, don’t start thinking about that which you should not be thinking...and so He didn’t.  He obeyed God.  He took care of it immediately because He went to God.  What does God say about this?  It’s written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.  Beautiful!  That’s what you do.  You go back - what does God say we should do?  ...how God says we should live?  And you rely upon that and you seek to live by that.

And the devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, I don’t understand all this, how it took place,  literally what transpired... I don’t comprehend all this.  High mountain?  Usually mountains are about government, usually it’s about showing this power, perhaps, most likely here of what he controlled knowing that Christ would know that and showing the governments in Rome, perhaps discussing some of those – I don’t know.  ... and showed Him the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Whatever that means.  I believe I know but I’m not going to speculate.

And the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give You, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and Christ knew it was.  He would have known that Christ would have known that this was delivered to him, that he had this power.  It was his to give.  It was his to work with leaders and so forth, to have one killed and someone else put there.  He had certain powers like this and influence in the world. Oh, he’s been very instrumental in having people killed so that someone else could be in place.  He’s done that to some of his own leaders in his own Church so someone else could be put in there because he wanted something different.  Amazing, the things he’s done.  ...for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it. So it wasn’t a matter of this being false – it’s true. Because see, it’s hard...if somebody can truly see something and they know it powerfully so, you know what human beings do when something of power is offered to them?  ...especially something this great and this moving?  ...and it was.  They take it.  They take it.  Power, wealth, things that people think will raise them up; it’s distortion of the human mind to do such things.

If You therefore will worship me, all this shall be Yours.  Because, we read through a story like this and we think, “How could anyone?  How could you?  How could I?  How could anyone be tempted in such a thing?  How could Satan think he could have tempted anyone with such a thing?  Well, he’s done it, he did it for 4,000 years to people and it worked over and over and over again.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get behind Me, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the LORD your GOD, and Him only shall you serve.  Beautiful!  Beautiful!  He didn’t understand the mind that was in Christ.  He didn’t understand the unity of mind that was in Him.  He didn’t understand the process of salvation, how God can work with us and have patience with us and forgive us of our sins. He didn’t understand those things.  He didn’t understand by the very things he does to us so often in life are the very things that God uses to strengthen us, to build us up, to mould and fashion things within us.  He may know it.  He may know that that’s what’s taking place, but to understand it?  He doesn’t get it at all!  It’s a spiritual thing of God’s holy spirit, of which he does not have.

And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, If You be the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here: For it is written, He shall give His angels charge over You  to keep You: he knew what was written about the Messiah, about the Christ, and so if you are then you can do this, show me.  Show me that you are who you say you are.  Prove to me that you’re right.  Prove to me that you’re the Church of God!  Prove to me that you’re a prophet of God!  What a bunch of hogwash!  Shouldn’t have to prove anything to anyone; God takes care of things.  God will prove what He will in His time in His way.  “Why don’t you call for some plagues if you’re the prophet of God.”  Why don’t you call for this and call for that... I’ve known for a long time that there will be nothing done like that until there’s a time for it, until there’s a purpose for it, because it has to be of the same mind with God, it has to be His time.  It’s what God does; it’s not what we do.  And Christ, in a way that sometimes is hard for us to grasp, did this in a very powerful, powerful, powerful way, truly did, as an example for us to learn from and to follow.

He shall give His angels charge over You to keep You, And in their hands they shall bear You up lest at any time You dash Your foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, You shall not tempt the LORD your GOD. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season. ...for a season – he wasn’t done.  He was going to come back again and again, and especially toward the end.

And Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of Him throughout all the region round about. A great work began – He began preaching.  He began to do His work, the greatest of which He didn’t do until the last 2 – 3 weeks of His life.  Powerful to understand the things that God did through Him in the last 2 - 3 weeks of His life.   I am in awe on a continuing basis, of what God gives to us when He gives it to us.  Hasn’t been that long ago that we look back and think about how that God revealed and magnified things in our mind and this makes other things clear and things just become clearer and more powerful as we go forward.  What greater thing could anyone ever desire to be a part of in our lives?  Do we grasp the magnitude of what we are a part of?

And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written; incredible!  His fame had already gone out, people were hearing about Him, things He was saying, and now this.  And so He opens it up on the Sabbath as He was doing; it says this is what He did Sabbath by Sabbath by Sabbath.  In this particular occasion here it says He read this: The spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, those in bondage, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them who are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the LORD.  Awesome!  Beautiful!  A continuing revelation of what God is doing through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Let’s turn over to Revelation 17.  It’s a powerful thing to recognize the things about Jesus Christ that God is working out, that we’re blessed to be a part of, that He is the Head of the Body, that He’s about to return to fulfill the things we pictured on Atonement, that He’s been away inside the Temple doing the work that He’s been doing, preparing His House, and He’s about to come back now – what’s pictured in Leviticus 16 that we read about on the Day of Atonement.  It’s an incredible time we live in right now.

Revelation 17:4 - And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, again, to understand as we’ve talked about here recently, speaking of things that Satan has done, and it’s his greatest work, finally pictured in that which is manifested on a physical plane in a perverted spiritual way, in a great church...that this is what he’s been doing from the beginning.  This is about him.  This is about him and what he’s done in blinding the minds of people and taking people into captivity from the very beginning.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of the abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was the name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. It isn’t just about that church, it isn’t just about that church at the end-time.  It is about this entire system from the beginning of time.  Babylon is the opposite of Jerusalem, truly, very much as Egypt as a nation is an opposite to Israel, if you look at it – of that which is in bondage and that which is freed from bondage.

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, because it isn’t just about what he had deceived people in traditional Christianity, it’s what he has deceived in the Pharisees and the Sadducees, it’s what he has deceived in that of what’s come through Islam, it’s what’s been deceived and a matter of deception in the world that’s come through Buddha, Hinduism, whatever it is that’s out there.

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, again, that which does lead up to, because it leads up to the end-time, all these things in Revelation, and to the Roman Empire and to the final fulfilment of the Roman Empire and to that great church.  But please understand it’s about far more than that as well.  And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and I saw her and I was in great amazement. Just to see that such a thing is possible.

Revelation 19: see, we know these scriptures, we read them, they’re so much a part of our mind that if it wasn’t in the context of an entire sermon like this we would tend to drift, if it was just given to us and just read to us, and we would tend to drift because by itself it doesn’t seem to be moving.  But they’re very moving!  And that’s what we need to grasp!   Because this is what God has brought us to after 6,000 years. How important, how awesome do you think these things that are written, that are here now, that are now at a point of time of being accomplished and fulfilled, and how exciting and how moving this is to God Almighty, those things that He inspired to be written so long ago that He gave through Jesus Christ to John?

Revelation 19:1 - And after these things I heard a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the LORD our God: That’s where we are!  The glory of God Almighty finally being manifest, finally being revealed to the world.  As we’ve read in scriptures in times past He says, “How long have I been silent?  How long have I waited?” For true and righteous are His judgments: and He has judged the great whore, who has corrupted the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. Not just the servants in the Church, those who go back to the very beginning, to Abel and on.

And again they said, Hallelujah: Praise God/you praise God/praise you God, And her smoke rose up forever and ever. Until it’s gone, being burned up, being destroyed. And the twenty four elders and the four creatures fell down and worshipped God;  this moves the angelic realm that has been faithful to God through time.  They are so moved.  They know what they’re a part of and they’re moved with excitement.  ...fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, Amen/So be it; Hallelujah/Praise You God. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you servants, and you who fear Him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, that same word again, as the voice of many waters and the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah/Praise You God: for the LORD God omnipotent reigns.

Finally – finally – finally God’s Kingdom brought to this earth!

~~~end

1. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11044a.htm

2. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05228a.htm

3. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm

Table of Contents

1

2

3