A Time To Be Sobered

Ron Weinland

Last Great Day Sermon – PM

Listening to the Last Great Day sermon here I’m always inspired by, and especially because of different people’s perspective and the inspiration God gives to them, how we go through Holy Day to Holy Day, things we’ve heard and yet they are magnified in how they fit together as well with things that are being said. In that context there is so very much that can be said at this time on the Last Great Day of the Feast, obviously; so many things about it we really don’t have time for but we’ve heard the outline and plan that God has given to us this morning here.

And because of where we are in time and because of the last sermon that’s always given at the Feast you need to be very sobered at this time, and you will be as we go into this sermon; but in understanding of what being sobered is all about.  I was moved by some of the comments made here, because of how it fits into the sermon here, that we are at a time, talking about that which is solemn and so forth.  It’s said that it’s a time to be serious about life, and then the comment we are in a solemn battle.  And that’s much of what we’re talking about right now here today in this particular sermon here.  We are in a solemn battle and I’ve talked about the need of being sobered here.  I’m using the word ‘sober’ or ‘sobered’ in the definition that concerns the seriousness, the gravity of what we’re now going to address in this sermon.  To also look at being sobered in the sense of the definition of ‘that which is marked by circumspection’, of looking deeply at ourselves and where you are in your thinking concerning where we are in time.

We are a very unique people.  Anyone and all whom God has worked with through time – when it talks about living by faith it’s a lot easier said than done.  It is a path, it is a way that we walk and there are those things given to us, God tells us things to do and we do it and we go forward.  It’s very moving to go back there in Hebrews and read about the people of faith and what God says about them.

You may not like what I’m about to say but  you need to think deeply about what you hear, and you need to think, to examine yourself and your response to what you hear.  As the words for ‘sober’ are used in scripture they have to do with being of sound judgment, of a right mind, and to be spiritually alert; sober in thinking.

So, what do you believe concerning this end-time? Sometimes what we believe is put to the test – oftentimes, candidly – but sometimes far greater than others.  I think of a part of what we heard about in the sermon this morning, thinking about Laodicea and what the Church went through at that particular time, and what came upon us was powerful; it truly was - things prophesied by Paul in the book of 2 Thessalonians. Because before that time, in the writings of Paul, there was that sense that he had and the other apostles had that Jesus Christ was going to yet return in their time.  They looked forward to His return, to the establishing of the Kingdom of God on earth.

And yet in 2 Thessalonians it’s very clearly spelled out that the coming of Jesus Christ would not take place until some great event happened first – and that was what was called the apostasy, a falling away that took place in God’s Church, and the revealing of a man of sin, the son of perdition.  A son of perdition, another one, one who betrayed Christ the first time referred to as a son of perdition, and another one referred to as the man of sin, the son of perdition; talking about an individual who would be set in authority and power.  Not understanding those things at that time.  Paul didn’t fully understand by any measure what was given to him but he knew that there had to be, because of what God had given to him, some incredible things that would take place in the Church first; in God’s Church before Jesus Christ would return.

And so sometimes we are forced into a position of having to examine ourselves in a deeper way concerning our convictions and where we really are and what we really believe and what we’re going to do when things don’t go the way we want them to or perhaps the way we think they will.

So, what do you believe concerning this end-time?  What is your conviction concerning God’s calling you into His Church? Are you certain of your convictions? Are you certain of what you will do in your response to God and His leading you?  How convicted are you that He is leading you?  that this is God’s Church?  It’s what you’re being asked.

This final sermon on the Last Great Day is entitled, A Time to Be Sobered.

We are IN a time, and entering into a deeper time, of great spiritual conflict and war.  It is truly hard for us sometimes to grasp and comprehend some of those things we read in scripture.  It’s hard for us to grasp some of those things that happen on a spiritual plane.  It’s hard for us to grasp as human beings that there is a being on this earth that God says there is – because as a whole in so much of religion it’s not totally real.  It’s spoken of in passing in part and terms are used loosely, but the grasp of it, the reality of it, the magnitude of it just isn’t there!  That there is a being out there who’s been on this earth for a long, long, long time, and that he persuaded through his efforts a third of the angelic realm to follow him.  A third of all the angelic realm that followed him because of his mouth, because… (well, not his mouth, but that which is communicated…it’s by spirit with other spirit beings), and that which began to enter in that “God isn’t fair!”  that, “This isn’t right!” and truly thinking that what he’s doing is right, that what his pursuits are is right, and others began to believe him and go along with him.

I can’t comprehend that fully!  I know it happened.  A third of the angelic realm; and we don’t know how large that was, how many millions, billions, we don’t know.  And then God came along and began to remold and refashion the earth that was already here.  You see, in the world they read Genesis 1 and they think that’s the beginning of the creation – it isn’t.  It’s remolding and refashioning the earth that was already here and God says that He began to separate the firmament and began to do things on the earth to prepare it for life once again, so that the sunlight would shine through again, and then He put animal life and various life on this earth, and finally man.  And that being has been there harassing all the time.

We read of stories on occasion, like in the book of Daniel, where this great spiritual war was going along.  We can’t comprehend that!  Where Michael and Gabriel are fighting in a war with this being and with those angelic beings – Gabriel talking to Daniel, stating that he would have been there sooner – an awesome thing to think all that period of time they were warring and he didn’t make it there and finally made it there to him.  Well, there are battles going on now that you are fully unaware of!  That being is so stirred up!  He is so incredibly stirred up!  He doesn’t want to give up what he has; he’s fighting.  And he’s losing power, but he’s going to have great power here one last time to accomplish some incredible things because God said so. God is going to allow him to do it – one more time.

So we are entering, and we are in a time of great spiritual conflict and war.  And some of you, though a few, have lived through some great spiritual conflict and war that came upon the Church during the apostasy.  I have seen different times of warring in the Church of God.  I saw it at a point in time, lived through it in the early 80’s when a state, the government of California, the attorney general, tried to come in and take over a Church – God’s Church!  Brought in a judge to have authority to dispense monies and so forth in any way he saw fit to lead the Church of God.  Someone who was not filled with God’s spirit, someone who did not believe the same things, and they had the audacity to do that!  Later on laws were passed (and he became governor), but later on laws were passed to prevent that kind of thing from ever happening again because they realized what they had done was very wrong, very much against the norms and the laws of the land, but they did it.  And there was a great war; it was and it wasn’t for God’s people, because after a while the judge didn’t have any money to use to do anything with – it didn’t go into Pasadena anymore it was going to Arizona where Mr. Armstrong was, and California had no right over Arizona.  The work went on.  But there was great spiritual conflict that we were unaware of, of battles that were taking place that went on at that time.

And then finally when the 1st Seal of Revelation was opened, when 2 Thessalonians 2 began to come to pass and the apostasy, the great falling away, began to take place, a falling away from the truth that God had given to His people and people being told you can go back to keeping Sunday and Easter and Christmas, and you can kind of mix them all together and keep them all if you want to – and God just working with everybody in the world, with all the different religions, to get us to a place where… just in different ways because they’re different people.  Think, “What a bunch of garbage!”  Conflict! Disagreement!  It’s not God!  There’s no conflict with God and His way of life.  And people were tried during that period of time.  And some of you haven’t seen a lot of trial on a spiritual plane, truly.

1st Seal of Revelation came and the apostasy; and the conflict has not lessoned around us although we have often been unaware of the magnitude of it, of things that go on around us in the spirit world.  And the power that seeks to wage conflict and war is now being stirred up. And again, so many of you have never experienced such wrath around you.  And those caught in the apostasy have experience much of that environment of spiritual wrath in a demonic world around them.  There are scriptures that talk about ‘lying wonders, power and signs’, in scripture – I saw them.  Some of you sitting here saw them.

Let’s turn over to 1 Peter 5:6 - Humble yourselves, you know how I read this in a very strong way?  Be willing and desirous of wearing sackcloth.  Do you realize that’s what sackcloth is all about?  To be clothed in sackcloth – it’s a time of fasting; it’s a time of humbling yourself before God, of crying out to God to help you, of crying out to God to lead you, to strengthen you, have a humble spirit, a willingness to go to do whatever God reveals to you because you know that you have come to know the Great God of the universe.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: God works with us, moulds and fashions us.  He knows what He’s doing and we follow.  But what are our convictions?  What?  Truly, what are our convictions before God?  To walk in whatever way He leads us.  How great is your conviction toward the truths that God has given you?  How deep is your conviction to live by what God has given you to believe?  Can you be shaken from what you perceive your conviction to be?  You have to go back to verse 6 here and do exactly what it says.  God is our strength. God is our fortress. God is our high tower.  God is our rock.

How deeply convicted are you of how God is leading you?  ...that He is leading you?  Have you been in any tests in those things?  You have been; but big ones, great ones, you haven’t.  So again, how deeply convicted are you of how God is leading you?  ...that He is leading you?  ...that this is truly His Church that you have been called into, and that His Son is leading His Church, that He is the head of the Church, the head of the Body?

Verse 7 - Casting all your cares, it’s a unique word.  It has to do with anxieties, worries – because we as human beings, we desire to live by faith the more we see, the more we grasp, and as we grow we can do that more and more, but we’re physical.  We still have things that come into our life and we have to address them.  Might be on the job, might be something to do with finances, it might be something to do with some family conflict, or whatever it might be...Casting all your care, your worries, your stressful concerns.  Do you ever have stress?  It wasn’t until about the late 80’s (cause a lot of men don’t think they have stress, that they can handle whatever comes along)...so it was about in the late 80’s I finally came to the point of realizing I have stress, I know what stress is, I can admit it now.  It’s not such a healthy thing to be so macho sometimes like we are as human beings – men especially – it’s good to open up and acknowledge something, admit something so you can begin to work with it.  Yeah, we have stress, stressful concerns, anxieties, thoughts, ‘anxious thought’ – another way it’s translated.

Casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you. Take those things to God.  Jesus Christ says His load is light, in essence.  We make things heavy sometimes, burden, and so forth.  God wants to fight our battles, to be there, to help us, to teach us, to lead us, to guide us, to direct us in war.  Because we’re in war.  When you’re called into the Church you’re in war!  That’s why so many scriptures talk about this battle and this war you’re waging, and to put on the armour of God.  That’s what it’s about!  The things in Ephesians when it talks about all the armour of God that you’re to put on.

Casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you. In other words, as this word means, you are the object of His desire, His care, His love.

Be sober; be sober, be of a sober mind, be vigilant – the word meaning ‘alert’, ‘watchful’ spiritually toward self.  It’s about self and our relationship with God; because your adversary the devil, what he has deceived he’s not as concerned with at all.  They’re already deceived, of different kinds of religions on the earth – they’re deceived and that deception has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years – but when people are beginning to be called out of Egypt, out of bondage, out of the world and into the light, and into the truth, and they begin a process of change and overcome, that’s where he focuses because he hates everything about God’s plan!  He hates everything, as we talked about in the one sermon, about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Church that followed.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour.  It’s hard for us to imagine things like that sometimes, a lion and you’re out there unprotected, and here he is lurking about, zeroing in on you because you’re the object of his prey.

Trying to think of the place in Ohio yesterday, Zanesville, where a man let loose fifty some wild animals – his – and shot and killed himself evidently.  And so they had to go out and try to capture what they could and they were only able to capture three leopards, I think it was, one grizzly, and there were like eighteen lions and seventeen tigers, some very endangered in one respect and they had no other option but to kill them, and what they captured they took to the Columbus Zoo and an individual up there who’s very well known and on TV a lot about taking care of animals and so forth.  Talked about how people were fearful and they’re staying inside.  Yeah, you get some lions in an area and they’re hungry, they get hungry, and tigers and leopards and various things running around, and grizzly bears in an area of Zanesville, Ohio, that the wildest thing out there normally is a coyote or a deer.  It caused a little bit of fear.  It’s hard for us to grasp things like this!  A being...and you’re the object, you’re the prey.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour: And so that’s why we’re to remain strong, to stay close to God, to put on the whole armour of God, to be sober minded, to be vigilant, to be watchful spiritually.

Now!  Now is a time to look at yourself, to be sobered; to take a deep look at yourself and what you believe.

On Atonement we were fasting in Melbourne and deep into that night of fasting I was awakened with different thoughts, received different thoughts that I’m now going to share with you.  Thoughts that were somewhat unsettling but thoughts concerning matters that have led me to understanding what God wanted me to address here today so that I could speak to you about them.  Remember, going back in history I’ve mentioned at different times it’s been at times like that, deep into the night - that times that I’ve awakened and God has given me a lot of things to do with the Church and where the Church is going and where He’s leading it.  Incredible!  Probably that’s when I have my clearest thoughts and calm environment and no stress and can listen a little more carefully in the mind.

First, the thought that I received:

“May 27, 2012 is not the day of Jesus Christ’s return.”

Sobering... sobering – what if that’s the case? What if that’s true?  What does that mean?  What does that mean for you?  How does that affect your life?  ...because I know it does.  Your family, your job, your relationship to the Church, your relationship to God, your relationship to me, etcetera, etcetera...  How deeply convicted are you this is God’s Church and there’s a way that God works with His Church?   Because candidly, that’s what such a thing comes down to.

As with the 50th Truth, if God gives it to me to tell you that there is more to His purpose and His plan that He is going to reveal to us – again, for His great purpose – that His Son is not returning on May 27th then what do you do?  What do you believe?

Second, the thought that I received after awakening that night of Atonement:

“You have not yet started your job as a witness as you have supposed, but you will begin to do so once fully clothed in sackcloth.  And Christ not returning on May 27th will be used to facilitate that reality and people are going to hate you far more than they do at this time, in the world.”

Because people hate what’s going out there.  We’ve got all kinds of garbage and swill and things written on the internet.  Would that help you with your sackcloth if you continued on... if...If...IF you continue on?

Revelation 11; let’s just read about it. Revelation 11:3 - And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. Oh I can tell you, there’d be a lot more sackcloth – a heavy burden of sackcloth, candidly, enough to go around for the entirety of the Church indeed.  3½ more years?  That’s what that entails.  In 2015?  What does that mean for you?  What if these two things are indeed true?  What if May 27, 2012 is not the return of Jesus Christ?  Again, what will you do?  Do you know?  Would you leave?  You need to answer that.  You need to answer that: Will you leave?  Only you can answer it between you and God. Will you leave the Church over such a thing?

Let’s go back to the verses we read first here in 1 Peter 5.  And if indeed such a thing is true, how will you live by this instruction given by God’s inspiration through Peter to us?

I Peter 5:6 - Humble yourselves, be willing and desirous to wear sackcloth; therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care, your worries, your stressful concerns, your anxious thoughts upon Him; for He cares for you.  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, in what you have been given to believe.  So, what do you believe?  ...knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world. So people around the world on this day listening to this same sermon, going through the same things, and some of the same things that are going through your mind…having to address them.  The battles that are out there – we tend first of all to think of ourselves.  My thoughts that night were not about myself, they were about you.  I committed to this a long time ago – everything!  It is what it is.  So has my wife.  But that’s our belief.  What is yours?

Verse 10 - But the God of all grace, who has called us into His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, whatever that period of time is as He moulds and fashions us and takes us and allows us to go through and takes us through various things, make you perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Beautiful verses here, things to meditate upon in the context of this sermon.

As I was pondering these matters Laura awakened and we discussed this; How would we handle this and matters in the Church if such a thing proves indeed to be true and that this must be acted upon.  And the answers for us are simple, as we have been in such a position before right after the apostasy. You see, if your convictions are such and you do everything because of what you believe between you and your God and you’re going to be true to those convictions, well, we came down to that; no matter what everybody else does in the Church, no matter if we’re by ourselves, no matter if I’m by myself, I have to act upon those convictions.  Anything else is betrayal and a lie and playing games in life.

In the earlier chapter in 1 Peter, Peter makes a statement that is truer and more important today than at any other time.  1 Peter 4:7 – But, and really the Greek for this context, the word is ‘now’.  Now the end of all things is at hand: you know, for Peter - didn’t live too much longer.  Some of the apostles and what they went through, for them, because of their calling was ‘now’ and as they went farther into the time of their calling and some of the things that are written in the books and by the time those things were written they were deep into time.  We read the verses the other day where already some disciples had been killed and they were out to kill Peter, and in talking about that during a period of time there, holy season of the year, and so he was inspired to say this.  So whenever God’s people have lived, the longer they have been alive this becomes more realistic, the closer they draw near to their death.

Now the end of all things is at hand, and the reality is for us it’s true, speaking of the end-time.  We live in the end-time; they were judged in the time they were in but they weren’t yet in the end-time.  We are.  This takes on extra meaning for us, moving meaning, if you will.  But the end of all things is at hand, therefore be sober, be sober, have sound judgment, a right mind spiritually, and watchful, that Greek word used in 1 Peter 5:8 is ‘sober’.  It means just that, be sobered, keep sober minded, unto prayer.  See, it’s this soberness of mind where we cry out to God because we know that we’re weak, we know we need help, we know that we’re no match for that one being, and that’s why I read 1 John so often, chapter 4 that says, “Greater is He that’s in you...” and that’s our strength and that’s our hope, “... than he who is in the world” speaking of that being.  It’s God! God is our strength.  God is our high tower. God is our life.

So, what happened that night of Atonement?  Are you ready for such a declaration today from God that my job as one of the two witnesses has not even begun and it’ll be on May 27th?  You need to be sober-minded and answer where you stand, and answer for what you believe, because that’s what it boils down to.

It’s amazing to me sometimes how God inspires a flow of things and you don’t even know it, because these verses...didn’t know until in the last couple of days what we would focus in on.  Everything that’s come together for this sermon, as a whole, has finally come together just in the last two days, last two afternoons (that’s what I’ve been doing, focused on this).  I’ve known where some things were probably headed – matter of fact there are some things coming up afterwards, because I don’t have time to go into it all, things that God has given, we didn’t have time for it at the Feast here.

Last year we received inspiring things but having to do with a lot of knowledge that is inspiring, but this Feast we’ve received a lot of things that are indeed very inspiring, a matter of something that is spiritual on a spiritual plane.  I hope you understand that, I hope you grasp that.  And so as sermons come in the near future here we’re going to go through some things that God has revealed that we could have had here at the Feast if we had the time but we didn’t have the time, they’re reserved for later on.  They’re exciting to me and will be to you, I believe, depending on your mind right now.

John 6:51 – we spoke of this, the latter part of this in the Feast, in one of the sermons, now in a greater context, a stronger focus that we need to take to be sober-minded.  I, Jesus Christ was speaking; I am the living bread which came down from heaven: He spoke in terms of things they couldn’t begin to comprehend.  The apostles, the disciples didn’t grasp these things until later on.  They didn’t know what He was talking about fully.  You need to understand that.  Because they didn’t understand, they didn’t know fully what He was saying, what was being given to them... I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: ‘I am living bread?’ ‘Came down from heaven?’ ‘If you eat of this bread you shall live forever?’ What does this mean?  And that’s exactly their response.  “What does this mean?”  There were some who were willing to wait for what this meant, and there were others who were not willing to wait for the definition of what this meant, because they were of a different mindset.  There are things that had not been tried and tested yet in their life.  Now, even the disciples who did not yet have God’s spirit, they had a special attitude and uniqueness of spirit being moved by God and they yielded to it.  It comes out in these verses.

...and the bread that I give is My flesh… Try to put yourself in their place – What does this mean?  This is long before Passover night that’s coming up later on in His ministry.  This is early in His ministry.  They don’t know where this is all going yet, they know nothing about the Passover service, they know none of those things!  ...not any of it!  ...not a bit of it!  But they had a unique spirit and attitude here, I’ll tell you.

...and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. They were in awe in one respect, others weren’t, as He went on – notice... The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat? They got some of this but how did they get it?  Physically.  Physically!  They couldn’t begin to grasp the spiritual; and candidly, the disciples, that’s all they grasped yet. It’s like Nicodemus, that time in John 3 when he went and asked, or he was talking to Christ and Christ said, ‘You have to be born again.’  All He could think of was physical.  “How could a man when he’s older be born a second time?  Crawl back…” he says, “…into the womb of his mother and be born a second time?”  It was just so farfetched, so far out there he just... because he didn’t have the ability to see anything spiritually.

You have been given things to see on a spiritual plane, and where...are...you?  Truly!  You need to ask, you need to be of a sober mind and ask, and answer those questions.  Because I know that such a thing affects your life dramatically...dramatically!  ...and a lot of it to do with finances.

Verse 52 - The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, He went farther... Truly, truly, I say to you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, now more, now it’s not just flesh, it’s the blood – and to a Jew this is just about as grotesque as you can get.  They don’t eat pork, they don’t eat different things in the sea and the water and so forth and they know this one here beats them all – to eat human flesh and to drink human blood...”You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. “You what?!  There were those who were following Him at this point in time and now He’s going off even farther and talking about ‘raising them up in the last day’...see, they knew what that meant!  They knew what the last day meant!  They knew what we heard in the sermon today about the Last Great Day.

You remember Martha and Mary and the conversation there?  ...of the one sister that talked to Him?  I believe it was Martha had this conversation with Christ and He said, talked about Lazarus, and basically what does she believe?  And she made the comment, she came back at Him, “Yes, I believe he’s going to be raised up in the last day!”  She was there!  She had wanted Him to come earlier so that he could be healed, so that he wouldn’t have died, but since he is dead, ‘Yes, I believe!’ she said, ‘I know this, he’s going to be resurrected in the last day.’  She understood about the resurrections. She had no thoughts in her mind whatsoever of so many dead...and even the Judaism at that time that when you die go off to heaven or go off to this burning place.  No, she knew that in the last day, whenever that is, he’ll be resurrected along with all other people, a second life as we heard in the sermon.

And so they understood this, what He was talking about; but it was far out, it was too much for a lot of them.

Verse 55 - For My flesh, He said, is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in him. Now, candidly this was turning the stomach of some because it was so physical to them.  It was just all they could bear!

Verse 57 - As the living Father has sent Me… See, that’s what I live by.  I believe that He and His Son have sent me to do a job.  What do you believe?  As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he who eats Me, even he shall live by Me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead: but he who eats of this bread, they didn’t know yet that He’s talking about the bread on Passover night.  They didn’t understand that what He’s speaking of is a ceremony that He is going to institute just before He dies - having to do with His death - that the Church would follow from that point forward.  As the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians as you go through and talk about those things in preparation up through chapter 10 and on into chapter 11 when he talks about the Passover service, the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine, those things picturing the flesh and the blood of Jesus Christ.  They had no concept of this yet!  This wasn’t in their mind!

And so He said, he who eats of this bread, must eat of His flesh in other words, what it pictures, shall live forever.  He said these things in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of His disciples, of the students, of those who were following Him, not just of the twelve but many, many more that were there following Him at this point in time, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it?  Basically saying, “This is too hard!  This is too much! This can’t be!  God wouldn’t want this of us!  God wouldn’t have us do this!  God wouldn’t have us do that!  God wouldn’t have a prophet say such things!”  Jesus Christ was looked upon as a prophet, and the Messiah, and a great teacher.

Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, This is a hard saying: just too hard; who can hear it? That’s what they were saying, paraphrasing it.  And Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured... murmured? They didn’t like what they heard?  They were murmuring inside?!  He said to them, Does this offend you? The Greek language here has more to do with He’s asking them, “Does this cause you to stumble at My words?  Is this causing you to stumble?  Are you stumbling at this right now?  ...of what’s being given to you?  ...of what you’re being told?”

Then what we read earlier in another sermon, verse 66 - From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. They weren’t going to follow anymore – that was it!  Different spirit or attitude than the others that He mentions in a moment.  A great lesson here brethren, a great and a mighty lesson.

Verse 67 - Then Jesus said to the twelve, Will you go away also? What are you going to do? Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, we know where they’re coming from, and we believe, ‘we believe…’ this is before baptism even, this conviction, and we believe and are sure that You are the  Messiah, that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Powerful - powerful - powerful!  This has happened in different scenarios ever since I’ve been in God’s Church...ever since I have been in God’s Church!  Two different attitudes of being.  Two different attitudes of reacting.  Two different attitudes of people who would murmur when Mr. Armstrong made various comments about things – murmur, murmur, murmur – they weren’t satisfied, they weren’t happy, they didn’t believe that this could be of God!

And yet of all the things, even after the apostasy took place, I was dumbfounded by ministers who would make comments about Mr. Armstrong, “He was a great teacher but...”  I think of some of the things they went through and sometimes I’m dumbfounded by human nature, especially those who had received of God’s spirit, because the reality is not a one of them would have been around, not a one of them would have had that right, though it was taken wrongly, to murmur, to make such disgusting, despicable comments; not acknowledging indeed who he was, an apostle of God.  They didn’t talk about him being an apostle, “He was a great teacher. We learned many things from him.”  You haughty, proud-filled, arrogant fool to say such a thing!  You wouldn’t know anything that you know that has anything to do with the truth if God hadn’t raised him up and worked through him to do what he was doing, to bring truth to the Church, to fulfill an incredible role concerning a ‘type’ of the Elijah to come, of which we’re going to learn more about in the future that we didn’t have time for in the Feast.

So exactly what do you believe?  What do you believe?

Truth #22 (1) There has been an apostasy that is unprecedented in the Church of God as prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3.

Convicted?  Where will you go? Philadelphia? Living? United?  You’ve got to find something, something that has some resemblance of the past, something that has the Sabbath and the Holy Days because I believe you’re convicted of that in the deepest part of your being.  But what about this?  Who’s teaching this?  How convicted are you of the truth?

28 (7) All of Laodicea was spewed out of God's mouth as prophesied, separated from Christ, and scattered.

True?  Do you believe it with all of your being?  So where are you going to go?  One of the splinter groups?  Nobody teaches this.  They can’t humble themselves enough to acknowledge they were Laodicean.  They may be Philadelphian living in Laodicea, but they are not Laodicean, not by a long shot.  Laodiceans are pretty low people, pretty weak people, and that’s not them.

35 (14) We understand that Jesus Christ is “continually coming” in the flesh of those who are in the Church of God.

From God?  If it’s from God how did you receive it? Where did you receive it? How deep are your convictions?  That’s what you’re being asked today.  How deep are your convictions?  Where are you going to go to find this?  Who teaches this by God’s spirit?  Living, again?  One of the splinter groups of United?  ...or back to United?  ...or some other splinter group out there?  There are some six hundred; you’re going to be busy looking around, and I’ll tell you right now – not a one of them...not a one of them knows this truth – and it’s a powerful truth.

How about....

40 (19) Matthew 24:14 was completely fulfilled through Herbert W. Armstrong alone.

Oh, you going to go to Philadelphia to find that one?  No, afraid not, because you see, that work still goes on through that man.  No acknowledgement that Mr. Armstrong completely fulfilled it, and then verse 15 goes on to talk about what happened at the end, because it says, ‘...and then the end shall come.’  And then it goes on and talks about the abomination of desolation, what happened to the Church.  So where do you go?  Where are those disciples going to go when they heard the truth and there was that which when they heard Him speak that they were moved by it?  And they couldn’t understand it all but they had this conviction of something that was there that was drawing them that stirred their lives, that gave them fire and something that they wanted to hold onto and they weren’t going to abandon it.

41 (20) Antichrist is not about the Pope or any other single individual “in the world,” but it is only about any in the Church who work against Christ and God's purpose in their lives.

Do you see those things?  Do you grasp those things?  Do you believe those things with all of your being?  ...because there are a lot of people out there in the scattered Body who still think it’s the pope.  There are a lot of protestant churches today that have prophetic teachings and things about a rapture and so forth and they believe this is the pope. Some people think it’s a president.  Some people think it’s some other president.  Some people thought it was President Bush at one time.  Well, you can’t pick on him anymore, he’s not there, so who is the antichrist?  That’s the big question in Protestantism; and sadly it’s a big question in a lot of times... well it’s not a big question because they already know in some of the scattered groups. Goes back to Rome.  Sad, it’s not about that, it’s about the Church of God.

How deep are those convictions inside of you?  Where do you go to receive such things?

42 (21) God the Father is Yahweh Elohim and He alone has eternally existed.

There are not two beings as all the other scattered Church believes, God the Father and Jesus Christ who have eternally existed.  Where do you go?  What group are you going to line yourself with?  You just kind of going to go off and do your own thing and start your own church?  Those are things you have to ask.  Certainly not back in the world – Christmas, Easter, the trinity.  There it’s not just two god beings, it’s three god beings wrapped up into one, that musketeer effect.

46 (25) The Church of God-PKG (which was given to me at night, similar to this) is the only physical organization God is working with in this end-time.

Conviction? What is it?

48 (27) The two end-time witnesses (two end-time prophets of God) have already been revealed.

“Well that one’s going!”   But all the rest...  so what happened?  What’s wrong?

The 50th Truth that Jesus Christ will return on Pentecost and not on the Feast of Trumpets.

How deep is that conviction?  That’s a big one!  How deep is that conviction?

52 (2) God is restoring knowledge concerning the rightful place of women in the family.

The curse being removed that started with Adam and Eve that man has lived with, that woman has lived with, for 6,000 years.  How deep is your conviction?

53 (3) The ordination of women in the Church.

There are just a whole lot of churches you can’t go to on that one.

#54 (4) There is an end to Satan’s existence.

I look forward to that one.

If you believe the truth and understand how and why you have it then God expects you to remain faithful to it.

I remember once the apostasy began, in Toledo, Ohio where we were, two churches in that circuit, Findlay and Toledo, and working up there specifically in the Toledo area at that point in time.  There were two elders in the Church and I was resigning from the organization called The Worldwide Church of God, and basically told the regional pastor at that time what I was getting ready to do.  And basically his thing was a caution, “Slow down, there are going to be some of us who are going to do this, we’re regional pastors, we’re going to act upon some of this and we’re going to do this...and I... and you got to remember that they still pay you, they still sign your cheque so you have to be careful in what you do and what you say.”  And when I left there, talking to him, if your blood could boil mine was kind of boiling, it was kind of hot, and I thought, “They don’t pay me!  They do not pay me to do my job – God does!  God takes care of me.”  And so I sent my resignation letter in.

And just before that I warned two elders in the Church, and I brought another individual that I believed should be ordained to be witness of it, to see those things at that time, and I told both of them what I was getting ready to do and I said, “The Church...a battle is coming, a great one to this Church.”  - speaking of Toledo and Findlay - “And you have to make a choice quickly.  You don’t have the luxury of waiting around right now; you have to make this now, quickly, because it’s come to your doorstep because of what I’m getting ready to do.  And I’m just going to tell you squarely that there are two sides: Mr. Tkach Sr. is going to expect you to continue on as you are, to do what you’re doing, to be faithful to what he’s teaching.  I believe that you’re to make a different decision, to stand up for God’s people because they’re going to be looking to you for answers – because once I resign I’ll not be here anymore but you can still be here to work with them, to influence them.  And I expect you, no, God expects you to stand up for the truth, to stand up for the Sabbath, to stand up for the Holy Days!” and they left the meeting and it came out that they felt I was really hard on them and it wasn’t fair that I should forewarn them and tell them such things.  I was just too hard of a person to say such things and they went along with the garbage and the swill.  Sadly in the story, the individual that was with me, he came with us in the organization, became ordained – think he was the first elder ordained – and later around the year 2000 he did the same thing they did - after all he witnessed, and saw what happened in the Church.

We all have different things that come upon us at different times where we have to make decisions concerning what our convictions really are and whether or not and to what degree and how we see God and where God is.  And God sometimes puts us to those things to see what we will do.  He’s done it many a time through the Old Testament and in the New.  What are you going to do?  What is your conviction?

So if you believe the truth and understand how and why you have it, then God expects you to remain faithful to it, to Him and to His Son no matter what more He should ask of you.  That’s the bottom line!

Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.  And I’ll tell you, two years ago, just to throw this out at you... Is a prophet perfect?  Am I perfect?  Far from it.  Is everything I’ve ever said perfect?  Well, I’m not so stupid to believe that.  I’m a human being.  In two books I’ve said a lot.  I will tell you I believe every word in those books.  May not come to pass exactly sometimes how we think, but I believe them.

Now, in a sermon two years ago – exactly two years ago to this day – I made a comment about Europe arising.  Because I’ve been asked about this and it’s a good question, a fair question. Does anything change? Has anything changed?  Because I made the comment about Europe rising and talking about Revelation 9 and some other areas as well; but talking about how that looking at things, talking about when it could begin and possibly when it...how early  and how late.  Maybe I misspoke and maybe I didn’t – but anyway, time will tell it, because everything doesn’t happen the way we think sometimes.  And the point being is I was very, very strong in making the comment that the latest it could start was August of 2011.  We passed 2011 and if you’re looking for being able to see everything of Europe that’s arisen, you can’t see it.  So, how could that possibly be true?  Well, I’ll ask you the same question.  How could that possibly be true?

Something that I am thankful that God taught me very early on and worked with me to see concerning Mr. Armstrong, that sometimes when people would murmur about certain things he was saying it’s a little bit of a spinoff of what the disciples did.  “I don’t have fully the answer, but I know where the words of life come from and how I’ve received them.”  And so because of that conviction, knowing he’s God’s apostle, I looked at things trying to understand how does this fit into what he’s saying, into what is being said.  I didn’t go around trying to find, or stir up, or murmur, that this can’t be, or this doesn’t fit therefore he is wrong and he’s not God’s apostle, etcetera, etcetera...  There’s a different mindset there.  How could this possibly be?

There was a sentence recently, and no one needs to know anymore about it than that, concerning a paper that we send out with all the books, and it was toward the end.  And an individual thought that because of what it said that maybe that sentence should be dropped, and I understand where they are coming from because it had to do with certain things being fulfilled that are stated in that particular letter.  And I said, “No, no, no... that sentence remains.”  Depends on what you see.  Depends on what’s in your mind, what you’re thinking, and if you have something you’re thinking in a different fashion you’re going to see something that isn’t right.

Sometimes we just have to be careful of what we think we see.  How much have we been learning that?  ‘Great tribulation’ – believed that for 60 years and more, the Church in the end-time.  What does it mean?  We’re learning.

Revelation 9:1 - And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: a being, who candidly, was cast down; and going back and seeing certain things, and Revelation going back and forth at different times talking about things that have happened through time and all of this heading toward the end-time obviously and building up to the final revival of the Holy Roman Empire that we’ll read about in a moment, and other things contained in the book of Revelation here.  But again... the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven... and please always remember what is in the book.  You will not know these things until they happen – not all.  And so sometimes in a desire to see how could possibly things be fulfilled or fit together....

...and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there was a smoke in the pit as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the reason of the smoke of the pit. You know, language that is not meant to be easily understood.  You can’t just pick it up and people say, “Oh, I know what this is.”  You can’t do it, God has to give it.  And He gives a little bit at a time, but there’s so much here we have not yet been given.

And there came out of the smoke locusts, we know there will be armies that will be a part of it, but is there more?  Is there more involved here?  Because there is.  ...and there came out smoke locust upon the earth and to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. To cause pain, to cause suffering, to strike quickly. And it was commanded them... now we can see physical possibilities of things; sometimes spiritual are much harder to see; but going on here...And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, interesting language that we focused upon toward the beginning of these Trumpets – the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; so we look out here and, ah, the trees are still green, the grass is green – it’s not about that; but only those men who do not have the seal of God in their foreheads.

And so there are two places, as we talked about in past sermons, where a sealing takes place.  One has to do with a final sealing of 144,000 but there is another sealing where you are set apart in a very special way and you’re baptized and you have the impregnation of God’s spirit in your life and so this is talking about others. So what on earth is happening during this period of time?  Because God gives time here for something to take place, something where people are beginning to feel greater anguish that affects some things around them.

Verse 5 – and to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: five months... So, we look at this and think, “Oh, when could this begin?  When could this be?”  Because we don’t know.  That’s why I said part of what I did going together with some other things back two years ago...because we don’t know fully.  So what could it mean?  How could it fit in?

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months; and their torment was as a torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. So often when we hear about something, just like the ‘tribulation’, the ‘great tribulation’, or the 1260 days, the 1335 days, our expectation was in a physical way that everything begins on the first day; not understanding when God talks about how things can take place, will take place, that so many things don’t have to happen when it starts.  There’s a process that leads up to other events, but the greatest, the magnitude of it, just like this here, doesn’t happen until the end of it.  It’s a process that leads up to events.

...five months; and their torment was a torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man. People in misery because of what they see.  People in misery because of what’s happening.  People...  you know, if you just stopped and looked at what’s happening with the economies of the world.  If you just stopped and looked at what has taken place since 2008, and right now when they’re talking about things being far, far, far worse than what brought on 2008. More and more people are starting to say those things in government.  Economists are saying those things; they’re finally becoming aware.  Just like in Europe, they’re worried now about the French banks being downgraded.  There was a period of time where there was legislation they wanted to pass in some of the other countries there (Germany as well) in the European Union, and the motivation, the desire is, is we’re going to bail out, we’re going to stand with Greece!  We’re going to get them through this!  And then in the background all these stories coming out about France and their banks and Germany and their banks and this legislation finally comes out that it’s not just about bailing out Greece, it’s about bailing out the banks, and so if you get it passed you can choose to do how much you want to with whichever ones you want to do it with, and what do you think is their greatest desire is?  To hold onto Greece and let the banks go under in France and Germany?  I’ll tell you what, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes sometimes and we learn about it later on.

We had some sermons before the Feast here – awesome things happening in the world!  Awesome things happening in the world!

You know I’m amazed going through this sermon... some have already made up their minds.  Interesting!  Interesting!  Some of you out there today, wherever you are today, in Europe, United States, Canada, wherever – you go along with a sermon like this and you realize, “Yeah... yeah, this is too much.  This is too hard – kind of suspected that!”  Interesting…  God will prove us to know what’s inside of us and you’ll come to know what’s inside of you.

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; in those days.  For the full five months?  No, but within that period of time they will.  I know when that period of time is but you think about it, you’ll know too... and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. Interesting terms.

Awesome here, verse 7, how do you explain this...can you imagine?  Picture this... And the shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared unto battle; locusts?  Shaped like horses? ...and on their heads, as it were, were crowns like gold, horses, gold, bodily shape, horses, locust... and their faces were the faces of men. Quite a picture isn’t it? And they had hair like the hair of a woman, As I was going through these scriptures here and I couldn’t help but think, I’ve seen some things in times past where people have made... you know the telecast we used to have and the beast and the crowns and the seven heads and of the things...and you think... and they did a great job of seeing something; but this is the same sort of thing and this is what he’s...and their teeth were like lions. It was not a nice looking creature.

And they had breastplates, they were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. That’s what comes out of this. We’ve already discussed these things in sermons!  They’ve already been spelled out in different terminology.  It’s already out there!

And they had tails like to scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. Something that’s sustained for five months... and as it gets worse and worse and closer and closer the anguish of men becomes greater and greater as they see what they have built and the fears involved in it.  It’s a powerful thing!  And it’s a powerful tool for bringing people to repentance when it strikes.

And they had a king over them, who is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.  The destroyer, Lucifer, who became Satan the devil.  Incredible!

Let’s turn over to Revelation 17:12.  Everything in the book of Revelation builds up to the return of the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus Christ.  People in the world don’t understand the name ‘Christ’ and what it means.  Protestantism has no clue whatsoever what the term ‘Christ’ means.  Most out there have no idea that it’s the same word used throughout the Old Testament as Messiah, and what ‘the Messiah’ means – one who has been ordained, one who has the responsibility, one who’s been given the responsibility to be a King and a ruler, in this case of the world.  They have no idea because they have separated themselves, speaking of traditional Christianity, have separated themselves fully from anything to do with what they consider Judaism, the Old Testament that was ‘nailed to the ‘cross’ and done away with’.  Sad, because it all goes together beginning to end.  Incredible!

Revelation 17:12 - And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, whatever that is, whenever it is, however it comes together, it’s coming.  Things happening in Europe.  Things happening in Europe.  You realize there are people more and more, leaders behind the scenes, it’s awesome when you read some of the articles, when you can find them – because you can’t find them in your Australian newspapers.  One day I had to turn over to page 11 to find something that was actually happening in the world! from a newspaper down in Melbourne.  They bring the newspaper around every day.  Like Wayne said, most of it is just sports, sports, sports, local news, sports, sports, sports, and some local news.  Maybe a little bit more about some other areas of Australia.  World news?  Page 11!  And it wasn’t too informative there!  You’ve got to dig.  You’ve got to dig deep.  That’s why I gave the sermons I did about things when I was over in Europe and talking about some of the things happening there and the things that are coming alive right now and they haven’t stopped!  Since you’ve been at the Feast here they haven’t stopped, the intensity is great of something that maybe... I don’t really know... but it’s sure set the groundwork for it if it isn’t already happening.

And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. Hmmm...Is it possible? ...is it possible the 30 days/30 minutes of silence, the 30 days... could an hour be 60?  Hmmm, is that all the longer they’re going to exist on the earth?  Is that all the longer they’re going to be around?  ...that maybe everything else builds up to that time and begins to culminate and happen in a more rapid pace more and more and more progressively so as we go forward in time?

I Peter5:8 - Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour!  Whom resist steadfast in the faith... That’s a beautiful, beautiful verse if you know what it means!  It’s what the disciples chose to do – steadfast in what they saw and believed to that point.  They believed He was The Christ.  “Where else do we go to receive these words of what we’re hearing?” There’s no place else to go.  They were convicted by the things they heard, not by the things they saw as much.  Those things moved them, but the things they heard that moved them, that had a power in their life that they couldn’t explain, that they were drawn to and attracted to – just like when we begin to come along in the Church, and the more we see and as we go through and we hear sermons as time... and we’re moved and inspired, and God’s spirit is alive in our life then.  And the faith – faith is... we need to know the definition of what faith is.  You’re given truth to believe.  God opens your mind and gives you truth to believe; your choice to live by it, and as you live by it is what faith is.

You live by what you believe.  We’ve been living by the belief that Jesus Christ is returning May 27th of next year.  People in the scattered Churches, people in the world, believe something else.

Now...see, what we believe.  I believe all 57 Truths with ALL MY BEING....WITH ALL MY BEING.  I deeply believe God has led me to see and to believe all of this that we have.

When Jesus was fasting God allowed Satan to come to Him with any attempt to dissuade Him from the task before Him, to lead Christ away from the job He was to fulfill.  Yet Christ answered Satan with God’s own words, with the answers that were the matter of truth that God gives to us to live by; that’s what He did, powerfully so.

Sometimes we’re attacked and God allows some broadcasting, as we heard even in the earlier sermon. They broadcast.  What a beautiful time when they can’t broadcast anymore.  And we all, the world receives of that broadcasting and moods and attitudes and sometimes some very evil things in life that aren’t the normal thinking process that people have and they don’t know where this comes from in their life, in their minds.  So sometimes we’re attacked and God allows, again, some broadcasting to come at us in order to accomplish some greater purpose, perhaps for our growth and refining, sometimes for the purpose of helping us come to see ourselves, like we talked about; we see in part.  What a blessing when you see more of the part.  What a blessing in life when we really come to see a bigger part so that we can yield to the process of change and the transforming of the mind.  So He lets us see ourselves more clearly so we can be brought to repentance; sometimes for the purpose of helping us see His truth more clearly by being sobered spiritually, and much, much more.

Yes, I deeply believe that this was a matter of Satan’s attempt to stir up doubt, turmoil, uncertainty, weakness and anything else he could do to distract, to discourage, to torment, and so forth.  That’s the kind of being he is.  And so God has given a small ‘type’ of something to experience. And we have answers to such communications, because they are broadcast.  We have been given great truth from God; the truths I mentioned earlier.  They’re powerful!  That’s why over and over again we go back to them and review them.  They are your strength!  They are your power that God has given to live within you.  They are powerful, they truly are!  Mighty, the truth that God gives to you and shares with you.

We have been given great truth from God; truth that sanctifies us.  That’s what God says.  That’s what Jesus Christ said that last night on earth.  The truth sanctifies you, sets you apart for holy use and purpose; that’s what the word means.  The more you learn the more you see the more God can give to you and work with you and through you if you yield to that and hold onto that and are faithful to it...truly faithful to it.  It set’s us free, as it says, and strengthens our lives immensely so.

And so Jesus Christ is far, far greater than Satan.  There is no comparison in there whatsoever!  Far, far, far beyond that being in power, obviously, and glory, and might, but in power and mind.  He easily outwits and uses Satan’s own devices against him to strengthen His own Body.  It’s a powerful thing.  Satan thinks he gets at God; he causes a disruption, a bump in the road.  Never!  Never – never - never!  Something that Satan can’t get through his mind, can’t understand.  The power of God’s spirit to dwell within us, the power of God’s spirit to change us, the power of God’s spirit when going through a trial that comes from that being – we become stronger.  What an incredible thing!  We actually draw closer to the purpose that God has called us.

So the thought communicated, ‘May 27th, 2012 is not the day of Christ’s return.’ ...I’ll just tell you – that is only stronger in conviction in me now than ever before!  I hope it is for you!  Satan is distraught!  He’s stirred up!  He’s striking out in desperation, he truly is.  He’s already tormented.  Didn’t we read those scriptures earlier today?  Tormented.  His torment get’s greater and greater and greater.  When he has to see, without any interruption whatsoever, for a full one thousand years, what God is doing on the earth, it’s a torment to him and to all who are with him.  Justice indeed.  So he’s distraught, he’s strikes out in desperation; he is coming to his end.

And in the midst of all this God just gives us more and more.  I marvel sometimes.  I marvel how God makes us stronger and stronger and just gives us more and more and more of that which is spiritual to strengthen us and make us bolder.

I am more deeply convicted after this experience, candidly, than I ever have been.  But the right soberness of mind and true relationship with God is that if for whatever reason... I really don’t care... (I do care because of you), but that great big game, what if – just to let you know what you’re convictions are – you should remain faithful to God.  I remain faithful to God no matter what comes to pass.  If that did happen, if God did give, for whatever reason, I continue on.  You have to decide what you do.  I hope you did during the first part of the sermon, that you would continue to go forward, because if you didn’t you are in for some tough trials between now and the time this is over.  You are in for some very tough, tough trials.  Don’t mess around with this being!  Don’t let him after you!  You have to stay close to God because only God is greater than him, you’re not!  God and Jesus Christ: ‘Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world.’  Nothing to mess around with, truly!  Many people have.

So again, those things that we should be growing in, a right soberness of mind and a true relationship with God; and if those things came to pass we go forward still, I go forward still.  That’s my conviction.  We’ve discussed it.  You do what you have to do regardless of what God requires of you.  But you know what?  Just like Moses, and God talked about what He was going to do and Moses cried out, “God, you’re not like that!”  Do you know God?  How deeply do you know God?  Well, we have a lot of growing to do in that, obviously, but anyway, going on.

And the next thought, ‘You have not yet fully started your job as a witness as you have supposed but you will begin to do so fully clothed in sackcloth, and Christ not returning on May 27th will be used to facilitate that reality, and people are going to hate you far more after that time.’  You know what?  It isn’t an enjoyable thing knowing what’s out there and how much people hate, but I understand it.  I understand it.  This doesn’t faze me; it is what it is.  I feel for them.  I feel sorry for them.  But a being to think that that’s going to bother me?  He doesn’t understand.  He doesn’t understand what God’s doing in us.

And so that thought that came in – what a bunch of bull!  That’s what I call it, a bunch of bull!  3½ more years?  Pshew!  ...that leads up to November of 2015?  Well, that doesn’t take much brilliance to figure out a great truth that I am so deeply convicted of – the 50th Truth; Jesus Christ returns on a Pentecost.  So how deeply convicted are you of things?  They’re your strength.  They’re your boldness.  They’re the power that God has given to you.

So again, what a joke!  No, really, seriously - What a joke!  After all we’ve gone through?  You know, just as much as Jesus Christ had to fulfill what He did on the 14th, on Passover, the things that have to be fulfilled on Pentecost have to happen exactly in a specific way or He’s not the Christ.  That’s the definition!  The wave sheaf had to be exactly at a certain time.  The wave loaves, they have to be at a certain time.  Beautiful, really is, God’s plan. What God does is a beautiful thing!

So rather than becoming weaker I hope you’re becoming stronger.  Rather than being shaken I hope you’re sober and watchful.  You can’t let down!  Because, you see, if this shook you, to whatever degree it shook you, of what we went through is the degree to the sobriety you need to cry out to God for help in and become more watchful and closer to Him.  And whatever it is in your life that you’re letting down in, that you’re sinning in, that you’re not thinking right in, that you have a battle going on – perhaps with others or whatever it is and your mind isn’t clear because of those things - repent of them, because this is not a time to play games!  This is not a time to mess around with such a being!  Because when he is stirred up he is going to go around seeking whom he may devour in a greater way than he ever has in his entire life...in ways we can’t even begin to grasp, brethren.

This is not a time to drift spiritually!  It’s a time to draw closer to God!  It’s a time to cry out to God for help in fighting the battles you need to and to implement some of the things you’ve been hearing here at the Feast – of looking at self, introspection, of making the changes in your life, of not being satisfied with where you are; in your relationships, as an example, as we heard, in marriage, in your thinking toward others and your thinking toward women and your thinking toward men - men toward men and women toward women.  In all relationships!  That we not be satisfied with where we are right now.  If you level out and you’re kind of satisfied with the way you are you’re in trouble.  If you’re satisfied with yourself and you’re not really crying out to God for help to constantly change and become better then you’re in trouble.  We have to grow!  God has called us to work!  It’s a hard work in one respect, and it’s an easy work in another, if you understand.

Let’s turn over to 1 Peter 1 here.  A lot said in the book of Peter here that we’re reading today. 1 Peter 1:1 – It’s not a pleasant thing - it’s a hard thing; where mankind is.  People don’t pick and choose the time they live in.  Jews didn’t pick and choose the time that they lived in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, so many of the large cities throughout Germany during World War II and beginning before World War II and what they were getting ready to go through.  But it came and it came to pass and it happened.  Atrocious things that have happened in different times in history as people have lived through them.  The North and South of the United States during a time of great conflict when families actually went to war against families and killed each other in their own families, and brother against brother, literally, at times killing each other in wars and battles.  Things that have happened through time.  But you are here now at a time that’s just what it is.  But we’re very blessed for what we’ve been given because we’ve been given the reasons of why these things have to come to pass on the earth.  We’ve been given understanding of what God is getting ready to do – thank God – and that He’s going to prevent the world, mankind, from destroying himself.  Mankind has always used every weapon he’s invented, and that’s where we are in time...and pushed, or just fanatical minds doing what they do sometimes.

The world is starting to wake up too.  There are some who are beginning to recognize more and more that this world is headed toward war.  They’re starting to talk about it in Europe.  Some are beginning to realize that this is coming, because of what’s happening there, because of the economy, the economic things that are taking place and they know that’s the only way out of this.  They’re turning inward.  History has been repeated over and over again through time.

Draw close to God; we’re down to the wire.

I Peter 1:1 - Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit, He gives us His holy spirit and sets us apart in a very powerful way; and it says unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. That’s how God speaks to us.  That’s how God addresses us.  He wants us to grasp and understand those things that we’ve been given.  A setting apart through the power of His spirit, and that through the truth.  It’s the truth that sanctifies us, it sets us apart; and the holy spirit makes those things come alive and we receive it because of the spirit.  Different ways of expressing these things.  And God’s desire is that these things be magnified, multiplied in our lives.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living/lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us, that’s where it is – in God’s time when He gives it to us and whenever we’re called to whatever period of time; Who are kept by the power of God through faith, it’s a powerful, powerful thing, this thing of faith, what God gives you to believe, and then you choose.  Because you have to make the choice of what you live by, as to whether you strive to live by those things and cry out to God for help to live by those things – because that’s what it boils down to.  ...through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Wherein you greatly rejoice, we’re excited about what God gives to us and our part that He’s given to us at this time, and recognizing how awesomely blessed we are above people in this world and society and families around us.  They don’t have what we have; we look forward to the time they’re able to receive it!  Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through many tests/manifold temptations: Trials you go through.  Just telling you, this is not a time to let down.  You’re down to the wire!  Things that are stirred up in a spirit world out there, they’re coming around, they truly are - being bombarded, you need to know that, by a powerful being.  God is your strength.  Jesus Christ living in you.

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, regardless of what it is we go through, no matter how difficult it becomes, no matter what’s placed before us, whatever we’re asked to do... if God has a purpose in it and you’re convicted because you believe what is true, YOU WILL DO IT – even if it wasn’t that period of time.  These things are going to take place!  They’re going to happen!  That’s the conviction!  ...though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you believe... you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: the more we believe what’s been given to us, convicted of, in that respect, live by it, choose to live by it, the stronger we become, truly.  We cry out to God to help us to see, to believe, to hold on, to be encouraged by them, to be strengthened by them.

Receiving the end/purpose of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently: What an awesome thing to understand!  The stories we read – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel – doesn’t matter – Malachi – all the prophets, and they don’t have anything close to what you have.  There are things they wanted to know.  There are things we get into conversation about sometimes, and we have at this Feast here, when we look forward to finding out more about certain things, and yet what we have in comparison to what they had, is night and day in the sense, almost, it’s so vast.  They wanted to know about the things they were inspired and given to write, and it wasn’t given to them!  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: speaking about the Messiah, and the Christ, and the Church... they had no comprehension of a Church, of what would happen, of a Messiah coming as a Passover first to die for all of mankind, but there were prophesies and they desired to know more, to see more.  We’re living in a way that has never been lived in God’s Church!  It’s just progressive, more and more and more.

Searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, that spirit which is God’s spirit, the same that’s in Christ, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. So thing they couldn’t put together...and I think of how much more we’ve been given.  I am so thankful that God has given us so many more truths.  I am so thankful that it didn’t stop at twenty-one. I am so thankful!

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto them...that’s what gives us our focus, our motivation, our strength.  I can’t tell you how much it gives me greater boldness as we go forward and these things become stronger in us – Powerful!

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them who have preached the gospel unto you with the holy spirit sent down from heaven; it comes from God.  God’s the one who teaches us.  God’s the one who leads and guides and directs the Church. He brings His truth alive.  ...which things the angels desire to look into. Because they know!  They know how God reveals things!  They’ve lived through it for a long time now.  They’ve seen it!  Whether you’re talking about those faithful that are with God, and those who are with Lucifer, Satan; that’s how they learn, by what God gives through His Church and through the prophets before that.

And so again here...which things the angels desire to look into.  Those things that God gives when He gives them.  Powerful things!  Exciting things!  It was an awesomely exciting thing to the angelic world when they saw the Son of God, speaking of those faithful to God.  Awesomely exciting to them when they saw the Son of man, when they saw the Son of God, Jesus Christ, born, and His life and as He grew up; in ways we can’t even begin... they shared in that!  And others couldn’t share in that, they robbed themselves of sharing in such awesome events that they could have been a part of and could have shared in.  Life is about sharing.  Family is about sharing – even the angelic realm.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, gird up the loins of your mind...be sober, hope you were sobered a little bit today in one part with a desire to recognize where you are, an ability to see yourself, something that brought something to the surface – because some of you had to have thoughts racing through your mind because it’s not a pleasant thing.  When I woke up that night it’s not a pleasant thing!  I know what I was going to do no matter what, but I didn’t know what others might do.  What will you do?  That’s my concern, because I don’t like to see suffering within the Body!  I don’t like to see new people come along and have to suffer!  But if you have to suffer to get where we’re going then so be it, whatever trials, like we just read about, so be it, you’re in God’s hands. God knows what He’s doing!  He has a purpose for the things we go through.

But I mention this because I have seen so many go by the wayside and I can’t tell you how painful those things are.  Whenever I talk about them, in my mind right now, faces flashing by of people whom we’ve been so close to, walked to God’s house side by side… Don’t let it happen to you.  We are right down to the wire!  And yet as I mention from Feast to Feast, what a horrible thing to think that somewhere in the midst of this Body there will be some who might not be here at the next Feast.  Not because of death but because of choice...and then maybe death, well, death, yeah.  Boggles my mind to think such things can happen, but every year from Feast to Feast it’s happened; every year in God’s Church that I’ve been here.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind; be sobered; God knows whether you’re genuine to Him or not, I don’t.  God knows.  Jesus Christ knows.  And this’ll be the time that it all comes out.  Be sobered!  Be sober minded!  If there are things that need to be repented of and changed, cry out to God to change them!  Because I’m telling you, in the Body of Christ it will all come out!  No one is going to deceive God in this and live a double standard, and live a double life, and mock God at this time.  You have been given precious truths, powerful truths.  God had the power not to let people go into the Promised Land; He has power to not let you live there either...and I’m telling you not everyone’s going into the Promised Land out of this Body.  How horrible is that?  To be taken soberly?  Better believe it!  We Cannot Lie To God.  Sometimes in our lives there are things we do that...and we allow deception to come along, and we allow sin to continue.  But you see, like I told those two men, time is upon us now and your choice and your decision has to be right now, what you’re going to do.  And they made their choice – sadly the wrong choice.

And that’s the way it is with us.  See, we don’t have another 15, 20, and 30 years.  With the knowledge you’ve been given, with the precious truths you’ve been given above and beyond the rest of this world around us... be sobered, draw close to God, cry out to God for help to change, to see self, and not to allow certain sins that are in your life continue on.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind; be sobered, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you unto the revelation of Jesus Christ;  think about that, well, the revelation revealing – now we’re getting to the point where that’s magnified many times over too.  Here is a literal one coming...a literal one coming - not just the revelation which is a matter of seeing things, the ability to see the truth and God’s way of life, but now magnify that many times over – many times over.

We are moving forward!  We are as Joshua’s army!  Incredible!  And we are in the sixth day of marching, almost half way into it on the sixth day, and we’re moving forward.  As part of moving forward and planning for what is rapidly coming toward us we are going to take the next necessary step by calling for one more ministerial conference in the States.  I, candidly, didn’t believe this would ever happen.  In the last couple of days here it’s come, it’s going to be there.  Incredible!  Because of these things God has shown the importance that you need to get ready now for the final part.  You’re in the sixth day of marching – there’s not a whole lot of marching left!  The ministry has a big job in front of them.  The Church has a big job in front of them – incredibly so!

So, we’re going to have another ministerial meeting, this time of evangelists and all senior elders in the world brought in together.  It’s going to be an awesome time of learning the next step – because candidly I don’t know what all the more yet, but I know God will give just like He did for the Feast here, what we need, and I know God will give it at that time.  I know some of the things we have to prepare for and it’s how people are going to be dealt with and worked with that come along that God’s going to work with. Because we have to change quite a few things right now, we have to get ready to start making some big changes and we’re planning on having this, again, in the United States the beginning of December, just so everyone knows out there and can be praying about it.

A couple of months ago, just to let you know, I also gave the go ahead for some more interviews that will begin sometime in December.  There is a publication that goes out to people and you put things about yourself in the book, various things in it, and it goes out to people in radio only, and TV, and that’s how all the other, primarily, interviews came in times past.  So, we’re gearing up for that one too.  It’ll be interesting to see where all that goes.  Maybe there’ll just be one interview – that’s all we really need - don’t need to repeat the same thing over and over again. But hey, whatever happens, whatever happens in the world, to magnify those things.  It’s going to be exciting, it truly is.  Hope you’re excited.

So don’t let anything or anyone distract you from your marching forward, from what you’re doing, or lead you into doubt – because it’s going to come your way.  It’s going to happen more now.  You are of a mature enough age – God will help you, He will work with you in those things, He will protect you, and He’ll help you deal with those things.  ‘Place all your cares, your concerns upon Him, because He cares for you.’  He’s called you for a purpose at this end-time.

Don’t let anything distract you or lead you into doubt or disbelief of the truth, or unfaithfulness to the word of God, to God.  Because it’s about God.

See, if such a thing were even true, which I don’t believe in the slightest fashion whatsoever about May 27th, it’s not about me, it’s about God...and you must see God!  It’s God!  It’s about your relationship with God.

So, seek to become stronger in faith, stronger in truth, stronger in obedience in living the love of God toward others.  This is the time to cry out to God for help to be able to live the love of God toward others far more!  That’s what God wants to pour out upon us too.  We’re very blessed, because when He’s offering those things it’s great, it’s awesome!  It truly is!  Just like the Feast of Tabernacles – He offers more at this time than any other time of the year, and this period of time we’re going into, He’s offering more.

So again, God is preparing to bring this world out of spiritual Egypt and we are so blessed to share in it!

~~~end