True Government – Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

8th Feast of Tabernacles Sermon – 2012

Today we are continuing with the sermon series entitled True Government with this being Part 2.  With the foundation laid in Part 1, what we cover today should help us to understand and appreciate far more deeply the purpose that God is working out through a physical creation of human beings who can actually have their very minds molded and fashioned into a new creation that leads to a birth into Elohim, into that which truly governs all thinking in unity and oneness with the very being of God, which is the only true government that will remain the same for all eternity.

I’m going to read again part of what was stated yesterday in Part 1 of this series, to drive this point home again because this is the basis, this is what we’re talking about, this is the focus.  It was said yesterday then that this is the very reason Mr. Armstrong made so very important a point when speaking of government and Elohim, that only God can trust God for all eternity, therefore we must become God in Elohim, the God Family, the Kingdom of God, immortal in everlasting life in God and God in us.  Only God can be fully trusted with 100% guarantee of what He will always do into eternity.  He does not change!  His way does not change, cannot change, but is consistent for all eternity.

Now, that’s awesome to understand and why everything has been established as it has, bringing us to this point in time, bringing us up to the time of the Millennium and the coming of Jesus Christ as King of kings.  And the important thing here to understand and to know, the importance of that which we went through in a sermon a couple of years ago in 2010 speaking of this very aspect, of the awesomeness of a truth in a very powerful way that God revealed to us that He is going to dwell in us in Elohim for all eternity.  Never like it is as human beings where we sin and are cut off from God, but once in Elohim it will always be God dwelling in us and we dwelling in God on a spiritual plane.  That is awesome to understand!

So the point, again, of what we are to glean and to learn from Part 1 is that only God can guarantee that which is absolute into eternity, into age-lasting life, that which governs life in unity and oneness of spirit into eternity, that which is true government for all ages.

What are we to learn from what we have covered thus far?  Obvious, what we just mentioned here is that no one but God Himself can guarantee true government for all time, but what we’re to glean from all this, the reality is, is that the angelic realm cannot, could not be trusted with that guarantee, and mankind, when you think of the kingdoms, the nations that God established, mankind cannot, could not be entrusted with that government.  And now we have gone through and have learned the great and mighty lesson driven home so powerfully so, and God’s Church cannot be entrusted with truth or true government for all eternity let alone simply decade after decade.

That’s why we have so many admonitions of holding fast, of holding on to the truth that God gives to us, because the evidence, the proof is through time that people have lost it!  People lose it!  Ministers have lost it, have gone astray!  And so there was one in time, even as the leader of the Church in the end-time here, who lost and turned against everything about God and God’s government, and masses, massive numbers of ministers and people who turned against God; did exactly what Satan did, Lucifer did, when he became Satan, the adversary; went a different way, became an adversary to God’s true way of life, to God’s true government, that which truly governs life.

And so again, only God can entrust God, and that’s why we have the opportunity to become a part of Elohim.  It’s a part of God’s plan.

Let’s turn over to Isaiah 9, because that’s the very reason that this prophecy was given.  Isaiah 9:6 - For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the Government, God’s Government, shall be upon His shoulders: because it begins with Him.  He is the beginning of it.  He is the head of it all.  It starts with Him.  He is the beginning of it all and He accomplishes it all until it is all handed over to God, until everything is brought into subjection to God.  And so it talks about here – and that Government, that way of life that governs human relationships in life and brings us into the true relationship that lasts for eternity into Elohim.  And so the Government, that which governs, is upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called ‘Wonderful’, simply a word meaning ‘a wonder’, ‘a marvel’, and almost with the intent here in Hebrew as it gives that as part of a definition, ‘hard to understand in the sense of such glory’, the wonder, the marvel, the glory; it is so great, so difficult to grasp and comprehend the fullness of it all, of Him, of what God is doing in and through Him.  And His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, mighty God, not THE Mighty God, no such word here in Hebrew, identifying expression like this.  Again here, it says mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  These are titles but these aren’t totally correct and we have gone through that in a sermon back in 2005 at the Feast, at that time when God’s revealing to us, very powerfully so, that Jesus Christ has not eternally existed and that only God Almighty, Yahweh Elohim has eternally existed.

The word ‘Counsellor’, in the Hebrew here, is very similar to a word that’s used in 1 John 2:1 where it says, My little children, these things I write unto you that you do not sin, and if anyone sin we have an advocate... an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  And the word ‘advocate’ there is basically the same as the meaning of the word ‘Counsellor’ there in Hebrew, ‘one who assists or helps, aids, guides along the way’ – Counsellor - an advocate, they mean basically the same thing, one in Hebrew and one in Greek.

And then 'mighty God', it’s just a word that means ‘strong God’ or indeed a ‘mighty God’; not the Almighty Self-Existing One, that’s not what it’s saying.  And so Jesus Christ is the mighty one, if you will, in Elohim, the first of the firstfruits brought into Elohim.  So, strong God, mighty God, yes, in Elohim, in the Family of God.

And then the word 'everlasting Father' – unfortunate translation because again here, it doesn’t mean that, it’s not talking about like we would in speaking about our Everlasting Father, God Almighty, Yahweh Elohim.  That’s not what it’s saying here.  In Hebrew, this particular word here for ‘Father’ in that respect, is a word that can mean indeed ‘the father of an individual’, but it has another meaning, and you don’t know unless you know the context or what’s being said.  And most assuredly, we understand that!  It’s not referring to our Father, God Almighty, it is referring here to the next meaning, the other meaning here of this particular Hebrew word which is ‘the head’ or ‘the founder of a household’.  It doesn’t have to be a father who is the head of a household.

And so Jesus Christ, He is the everlasting Head, if you will, at the beginning of the Church of God, the head of the Church, the Body of Christ.  And so there are many scriptures that talk about some of these things.  In the New Testament it uses those kinds of terms and that’s all its referring to.  So people tend to read more into it because of what the protestant world has done because of how they have translated it with their own understanding, and their understanding is that of the trinity, and so they try to twist and distort some scriptures to try to fit into their belief of the trinity and to say that Jesus Christ has eternally existed and that this kind of a mystery of the Father and the Son being same and being one like the holy spirit is another being – they call it ‘holy ghost’, and three in one and one in three, all that confusing garbage.  We understand what is true about this and how it speaks of Jesus Christ – it’s very clear.

So let’s read it again here in Isaiah 9:6 – For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the Government shall be upon His shoulder:  and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Head, if you will, that’s what it’s referring to more in that respect, the head of a household, that which God has given to Him; Prince of Peace, to bring us into Jerusalem, that we all become a part of Jerusalem, bringing peace back into God’s government.

Verse 7 – Of the increase of His government and peace; so the government just continues to grow until we become fully at one with God and peace continues to grow and increase until it is fully peace in Elohim, until everyone is in Elohim.  It says, and the increase of His government and of His peace there shall be no end, once it’s established, that way of life, there is no end to it, it’s everlasting – peace, it’s everlasting, it doesn’t end. ...upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.  What a beautiful thing, to understand what God’s prophesied, what God said so long ago, of what He was going to give to the world.  The zeal, it says, of the Eternal/Yahweh Elohim, here it just says ‘Eternal’.  The zeal of the Eternal of hosts will perform this.  And so God Almighty has been doing it, just that.

Let’s turn over a little farther here into Isaiah, Isaiah 43:3 as it’s speaking to Israel but so much more as well.  A statement that God says, what He makes here – For I am Yahweh, speaking of the Eternal One, the Self-Existing One, your God/your Elohim, He established a Family then, the holy one of Israel, and we understand that Israel is not just physical but it’s spiritual.  We all become a part of Israel, the Israel of God, your Saviour.  So even here, He says He’s the one who saves us and has that title.  He also gives it to His Son because He has established His Son to be the head of the Church and that everything is going to be accomplished in and through His Son as a Saviour, to save mankind, starting with the forgiveness of sin as our Passover and then by making it possible that God the Father and Jesus Christ can dwell in us and we in Him through the forgiveness of sin.

Then verse 10 – You are My witnesses, say’s the Eternal, and My servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He; before me there was no God, the word here ‘El’, there was no God formed/fashioned/made/created, neither shall there be after Me. Certainly no Eternal God, but no God formed, created other than Him, and we certainly understand even that in a greater way of what is being said here about Elohim, because of God’s plan and purpose, but there is no God, there is no forming of any God, no one makes a God, God is who He is, the Eternal.  That’s what He’s saying, “I am the Eternal Self-Existing One and there is no one else.”

Verse 11 – I, even I, am the Self-Existing One/the Eternal; and besides Me, in other words in Hebrew here, ‘without’ or ‘apart' from Me there is no Saviour.  And there is no God apart from Him and there is no way we can be saved!

Verse 15 - He goes on to say – I am the Eternal, the Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. And so indeed He is and reigns over Israel.  He is indeed the one who establishes His own Kingdom, His own Government, but He’s given it to His Son and He’s given title, some of His own titles to His Son as King and as Saviour – King of kings.  And so He began by bringing His own Son into His Family, the one through whom we’re going to be able to become a part of Elohim, the one who is our High Priest, the one who is our Passover, the one who makes it all possible, the head of the Family, the head of the Body.

And so again, no one but God Himself can guarantee true government for all time, and so we understand what God is doing in and through His Son and His desire for a government to be established.  So the reality is the angelic realm could not and cannot be entrusted with the guarantee, and mankind cannot be entrusted, and God’s Church cannot be entrusted with truth or true government for all eternity.  That is the bottom line!  We don’t always think that way!  We have believed in large part, in Philadelphia and on into Laodicea, and perhaps some do now, that we have the capacity to always be true in government, that we are always correct in everything.  So through Philadelphia, truly, indeed within the Church that’s why it would shake so many sometimes when someone would go astray.  It was like a minister won’t make mistakes, a minister can’t make mistakes, a minister can’t be wrong, a minister can’t go astray...and the reality is throughout the scriptures it warns of that very thing.  And yet that was kind of a mindset that people got into.

I know it was difficult for me, even during the time of the apostasy, to come to a realization or to believe that ministers could lie, that they have the capacity to do that!  We all do!  We cannot be entrusted into age-lasting life with God’s government, not even within the Church!  We have proven that through Philadelphia.  That’s why even the uniqueness of how God molds and fashions us, and how we’re able to function today is so important to bring us into unity and oneness rather than the way it happened with so many people.  Because after a time something becomes so large and God’s government can’t be controlled within it, because it has to come from each individual.

Government should not be a controlling factor to make things happen in a certain way.  God has it established so that we can choose to be a part of that and it live within us because of a way of life that governs our life, that we’re in unity and oneness with it – not something that has to be done like we have had to do within the Church, of a type of exercise of government.  The exercise of government upon others is only of the greatest of value when it’s chosen, when it’s chosen that we be a part of it, that it govern our lives, because you can’t make anyone love God.  You can’t make anyone honor God.  You can’t make anyone respect and honor God’s government and honor the truths that God gives!  You can’t legislate or enforce those things; it’s not a matter of making individuals do it, because that’s not what God’s Kingdom is all about, that’s not what Jerusalem and Zion is all about!

And so these are important things to grasp and comprehend, that we have limitations as human beings and we can sin and we can leave the truth and we cannot exercise God’s government in our life by choice...and we can choose to yield ourselves to it as well.  And so a great lesson here to understand what’s happened in the Church and why God is establishing a different kind of government in the Millennium  - why there is going to be the King of kings, along with 144,000 others to help mankind, to help rule, indeed, in the sense of not allowing any other religions on the earth, in the sense of not allowing any other governments to emerge, in the sense of not allowing wars to exist, in the sense of dealing with crime quickly so that people will have, so that mankind will have a fear to commit sin and crimes.  And those things that will be plentiful on the earth – justice that will be there, not injustice today as we have it in the world – and on and on it goes.  It’s a beautiful thing that God is doing because only God, the God Family, can be entrusted for a thousand years and into eternal life in the God Family, all who will be there, to just live by a way of life that governs our life that is God’s way, that is in unity and harmony with God.  It is a beautiful thing we’re coming to with God’s Kingdom that’s coming to this earth.  God’s Kingdom will be here very soon now, which has to do with God’s government – because the world will be ruled by it.  The world won’t be in the Kingdom of God, but they’ll be ruled over by it.  Only those who, indeed, Jesus Christ and the 144,000, are in the Kingdom of God throughout the Millennium.

And so again here, awesome things to learn, to see, to keep in perspective so that we aren’t deceived, so that we understand the power of deception and the power of the human mind to turn away from what is true or to make those kinds of choices, to understand why the Church was established and how it was established and what God has brought the Church to now at the end of this age to go into a new age in unity and oneness and harmony with God’s way of life more and more and more.  And the more truth we’re given the more we come into harmony, or have the ability to come into unity and harmony with what God has given.  True government – it’s about the increase of that government - true government for the earth, for the world, for the God Family!

The understanding of this knowledge is paramount, it is supreme to all understanding of God’s purpose in Elohim from the beginning; to have that overview, to have the big picture - it’s so important.

So again, we’ve gone through and talked about the spirit realm; the spirit realm was not able to successfully govern itself because they were made separate from God’s being, His existence.  They were separate individual beings, and God gave us a great understanding of that two years ago at the Feast, and now God is building upon it even more at this Feast, the ability to understand this, that they’re separate beings.  God is not dwelling in them and they’re not dwelling in God.  They have spirit existence and minds that were given to them and they have free choice, and Satan misused that, and he hurt, destroyed his own mind, if you will, polluted his own wisdom, the wisdom, the mind that God had given to him, because the only thing that was given to the angelic realm was the mind, or of the things having to do with the mind or the wisdom of God, whatever He gave them to that point of a way of life, is the matter of the wisdom of God – and there were those who have chosen and continue to choose, very much so, faithful always, but separate individual entities of their own choosing, of their own mind to choose God’s way of life, because it was their choice, spirit.

And when spirit chose, when Lucifer chose and all the demons with him, all the other angels that went with him, chose something different than what God had given to them, then their mind was distorted, it became unsound, it was no longer sound, it became polluted and that pollution just grew and grew and grew, worse and worse and worse through time.  But it was a choice.

And then mankind and mankind has not yielded to God, the Church has not fully yielded to God, ministers have not always yielded to God.  It’s a choice.  It’s like with the angelic realm, there are choices there.  There are those who have chosen to hold on and there are those who have gone astray through those times.  And candidly, when you come to grow and understand more and more, even in the human form here, those who have held on and been able to remain faithful and true to those things, is because God nurtured that growth and that molding and fashioning that took place in their lives.  Left to ourselves through time, if we’re just to ourselves, we couldn’t do it – couldn’t go from here to there.  That’s why we’re drawn by God in the beginning and that’s why God continues to work with us in that way – sometimes drawing us, awakening us, strengthening us, stirring us up, whatever it takes to keep us on course.  Left to ourselves in a period of time, through time, we wouldn’t be here, we’d go off course.  We would do exactly what Laodicea did, and only by God’s mercy and grace be awakened, be stirred up, be moved and motivated to be back on fire again for God’s way of life!  Then we’ve got to want it, and the more you want it the more He’ll bless you!  But it has so much to do with God’s purpose and what He’s doing, vessels to honor and vessels to dishonor, and God allows those things to dishonor, to teach us what we’re capable of doing so that we don’t become haughty and proud and lifted up and thinking we’re more than what we are.  Laodicea again, people thinking they’re rich and increased with goods, not understanding what they are of themselves and how much we need God every day of our lives.

It has been most basic to see that the nation of Israel wasn’t able to govern itself successfully from king to king, and even from kingdom to kingdom, speaking of Judah and what happened there and the division there, and then Israel in the north.  And it’s just been that way!

Then there is the Church of God, the Kingdom of God in embryo – not yet born into Elohim – and the history is a great teacher here, it truly is, and absolute proof that the Church cannot be entrusted with true government, with God’s truth - through time, can’t do it.  All we have to do is look at the history of it – matter of fact, let’s turn over to Revelation here and just notice some of the history here of the Church, of what has happened, of what mankind is capable of through time and why, and the beauty of why God is establishing the Millennium now.  Because the world needs more than just the Church!  That’s the point of it all!  With God the Father and Jesus Christ in heaven, if they remained there, if Jesus Christ remained there during the Millennium it would be like the previous 2,000 years.  If God humbled all the earth and made it very clear here, even with greater power, like He did in the days of Moses, but did it on a worldwide scale, in a far more massive scale, revealing indeed His great power but remaining in heaven and His Son remaining in heaven, and only a government being exercised here through human beings – how long would human beings yield and submit to that?  How long would that last?  How good would that be on a worldwide scale?  Millions and millions and billions...

Well, the evidence is what happened in Worldwide.  It doesn’t take that long, that many people; the more people there are the harder it is to know what’s going on and what people are really doing and what people are really saying and when it is that someone begins to talk and discourage others and pollute their minds or deceive by bringing along some different ideas or disagreement with certain things that are being done.  It’s this same old thing that Lucifer did, that’s happened over and over and over again through time.  That’s why true government and how God is bringing it to pass is so awesome and so beautiful, and why the Millennium is so beautiful the way it’s being established – with God here, with Jesus Christ here on earth, God, the God Family, with 144,000 throughout the earth, scattered throughout the nations and able to...  not sleeping, having 24 hours a day they can work.  Awesome!  Amazing!  It truly is!

So what is our history, the Church of God?  Well, let’s go back and look.  Revelation 2 – and it goes through and talks about the various eras of the Church – ‘though we know some of these things’.  I like some of that expression that we’ve been using here of recent time – though we know this we need to be put in remembrance of it, we need to remember it, just like we need to remember our history.  It’s so easy to forget!  There are so many things we need to remember!  And even here, Jesus Christ’s admonition from God the Father that’s given here in the writings of the book of Revelation, of the importance of remembering certain things!  And the more we’re able to see and to remember, even as we have gone back through this series here, going back to the very beginning, the more clearer you can understand and see what God has been doing through time.  That’s really the only way to come and grasp and embrace and comprehend the beauty, the magnificence, the power of what God has been doing.

Revelation 2:1 – And unto the angel of the Church of Ephesus write; so this is for the very beginning, this is the very beginning of Pentecost 31 AD when the Church began, from there on, the era of Ephesus, the Ephesians Era if you will, or better said, I guess, the Era of Ephesus, the Ephesus Era.  But anyway, it says here in these verses that, These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know your works... Now, when John wrote this, this is still the message to the era of Ephesus if you will, and yet it wasn’t written until afterward. But it’s still here to give an overview of what happened during that era and John was toward the end of that era so some of these things still applying, obviously applied to them and things that began to come into the Church at that time.

So again here, there was experience by the time John was on the Isle of Patmos, and so many of the other original apostles, they were already dead.  And so it says, I know your works and your labor and your patience, and that you cannot bear them who are evil; that’s the way it should be.  Our minds should loathe evil.  We don’t want evil, but especially in our midst!  And this is so much of what he’s talking about here, we loathe evil anyway in the world, but especially if it comes into the Body, if it comes into the Church because of all the hurt and suffering that it causes.

I know your works and your labor, and your patience, and how you cannot bear them who are evil; and you have tried them who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars: and so even within the midst it’s talking about in the environment of the Church, and it says this was already happening!  There are things that Paul, different ones he had to chasten and correct, and things made very clear there, things that are said in Jude, things that are said in John, things that are said in the book of Peter, different places there - over and over again, the different apostles and some of the others who wrote books here. Again, powerful things that were taught and given.  And so making it very clear here there are those who were sent, who claimed that they were sent as well and they weren’t, but they took it upon themselves.  So there was a lot of this even happening in the first Church era, that there were those who claimed to be... and the point being is here, they were persuasive, and there were people who were deceived by them, who taught some of this way of life, who picked up on some of these things – because that’s what eventually led into what happened by a great church that was formed later on in 300 AD in that period of time in through there; it was already starting to form clear back in different people and different things that came along and different ones.  And so there was confusion when these things happened out there, different ones talking about Jesus Christ. Well, who is true?  They’ve heard different things!  And so it was a unique period of time.

But again here, it says, You have tried them; so there were things they had to do because they weren’t really sure, because some were deceived by them, some didn’t try them, some didn’t put them to the test and see if they were speaking the same things and holding onto what was given in the beginning and seeing if it were true, and those things they grew in, to hold onto those things they were growing in that was being given to them.

Dropping on down to verse 4 it says – Nevertheless, I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love/agape. That which they had at the beginning.  God said, that, as a whole, that described them, as time went along they actually left it, they left that first love, that first excitement of yielding to God’s spirit and God’s spirit working through them in a very powerful way in how they dealt with each other and how they lived toward each other.  And that’s such a dangerous thing that does happen.  So it says here, because you have left your first love. What a horrible thing, and yet it’s something that happens.

It happened with the first era and it’s happened to people through time.  It’s easy to leave what you were first called to.  It’s easy to get caught up in relationships and personalities and familiarity begins to breed contempt with friends in the Church, not realizing what we did in the beginning and how our thinking [was] in the beginning, because we get to know people, we get to see individuals and the faults and mistakes and that they have human nature.

And then we have to apply God’s way of life to learn how to get along because that’s why the law is there in the first place, the government that should regulate our lives that we must learn about, things we have been taught here just before the Feast, coming up to the Feast, things about going to a brother, how to do that, and learning through that process here that there’s a lot involved before you ever even try to go to your brother, of how you should be thinking in the first place!  But so much of that is lost sometimes – oftentimes – not just sometimes, it’s oftentimes lost.  And so familiarity breeding contempt instead of growing wiser and understanding the awesomeness of what God has called us to to live, that we’re to live it now, that this is how we grow in character, that this is how we grow in unity and become more at one with God, by living this way of life toward each other and toward God’s government as well, because familiarity there can breed contempt as well.  People can begin to judge.  People within the ministry begin to judge each other – get to know each other really well and begin to see faults or weaknesses as human beings. Or sometimes, and oftentimes, candidly, thinking they see faults and weaknesses too.  That’s a danger, and not understanding!

So again here, dropping on down a little bit farther, another era here, verse 8 – And unto the angel of the Church in Smyrna write; Thus says the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; so again here, that which God is doing in and through Jesus Christ and that which He is saying here now, He was dead and now He’s alive – eternal life in the God Family, Elohim – in Elohim, and He’s the beginning of it all, He’s the fulfillment of it all. That’s what this is talking about.  I know your works and tribulation; and so as time went along, different things that came upon the Church that set the Church apart in a different way.  The Church started out differently in the beginning, and the original disciples, and as they died and the apostles began to die and John was the only one remaining it wasn’t long before this period of time came along and the Church began to take on a different shape, a different configuration because of what was happening in the world around them...and because of this growing church, or groups of individuals who were drifting farther and farther into their own beliefs and combating and fighting against the true Church and some of these things that were going on that was unique to that period of time.

He says, I know your works in tribulation and poverty, (but you are rich); so even here, being without, people who went through a time, a period of poverty.  You know, we’re just the opposite of that, if you will, in this age, we’re very rich in this world.  The ability to have air conditioning, food readily available by going to a store, not going out and getting it and working for it or doing the same kinds of things they did in the past, the ability to cook quickly, not have to build up fires, you just put it in a microwave or put it in a new wave or put it in the oven or put it on top of the stove.  And the ability to keep what you don’t have in the refrigerator then, it’s not wasted and thrown away, and all the planning...   Amazing the world we live in.  We live as kings, having electricity, lights at night.  We don’t even realize how blessed we are, how rich we are even with physical things, and sometimes we think we have it so bad if we’re not careful, because this is what we’re accustomed to, this is what we live.

But they didn’t live that; what they were accustomed to was a lot different.  It’s like we’ve talked about here recently, some people who are older talking about what it’s going to be like at times when people don’t have electricity and how spoiled we are as human beings today, when there are times...it gets a little older here, but vehicles didn’t always have air conditioning in them and you’d roll down the windows or you’d have these side windows on the car that you could tilt inward that was in front of the large window on the side. So part of it was divided up so it could actually be tilted in so you could have wind blow on you, because there was no air conditioning in one hundred degree weather, or even one hundred ten outside.  It’s just the way it was, and nobody knew any different, except they knew they were hot, but not like we do today if you go from cold to hot.  And so we’re so spoiled today.

I know your works and tribulation and poverty, (but you are rich), speaking of the truth, of this way of life, that this is what counts so much more, that what’s in this temporary life is a means to an end.  ...and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and they are not; well, who is that?  Spiritually, that’s what they are saying – Christian – that name beginning to take on a tone of something different now.  They’re beginning to be larger and larger and greater in numbers by far than the true Church, far, far exceeding the Church in popularity and so forth.  And so He says, I know the blasphemy, because of what they were teaching and what they were doing.  They were trying to, at this time here, work more and more toward, and some were already doing it, keeping a period of time known as Easter, some beginning to want to worship on Sunday, and all the things that began to creep in more and more around the environment of the true Church and causing some in the true Church then problems...but some who were calling themselves this, calling themselves Christian and they were not.

...to those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan; God shows exactly where they came from, who was the head of that Church.  Satan!  He is the one that stirred it up to be a counterfeit, to keep people away from the truth, to deceive people.  Christmas, Easter, Sunday worship, all those things that lead people away from the truth, the trinity and on and on it goes – to keep people deceived.  That’s Satan’s desire, that’s his goal, that’s what he’s always done.  But the Church had those battles and there were people who didn’t make it, there were people who didn’t come through it.  Christ gave different parables at times talking about seed that’s sown on the ground and some that falls in with the rocks and on and on it goes, about that which can grow and that which doesn’t grow and that which gets choked out by the weeds and so forth...and it’s just the way it is in life, and it all boils down, so much so, to choices in life and who really wants this and who desires God and yields themselves to God.

Going on down to verse 24 then, passing up periods of time here, Pergamus and Thyatira, Thyatira the longest period of time, several hundred years, the longest of all the era’s.  But coming on down here in verse 24 – But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depth of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.  So it has gone through before this talking about some of that, which again here, you have to realize what had happened.  This is going through the Dark Ages, this is going through hundreds of years where the Catholic church was the only other church that existed on the earth in that respect.  They didn’t have splinter churches at this time, they were the ones that ruled, and the true Church was persecuted and to exist was a battle.  And so again here, some of the battles that were taking place, and so He tells them here in Thyatira, and keeping away from the doctrines and by this time here there was the ability to have a greater distinction, like we do today.  When we’re called into the Church today there is Easter, there is Sunday, there is Christmas, and those things are easily dealt with more so, and that’s what was happening here.  This was the time when this was able to be applied even more fully, people were able to see more clearly, “No, Sunday is not right, the Sabbath is right!  No, it’s not Christmas and Easter, it’s Passover, the Feast and the Holy Days of God that we’re to live.”

And so He says, as many as have not the doctrines, these doctrines, and which have not known the depth of Satan as they speak, the things that are taught there and not being a part of that, participating in that, He says, I’ll put upon you no other burden. The separation from that and what you’re going through because of the persecution that exists out there, different from what we have today in that respect because there are people who were just killed if they tried to do something different, because of the power and the power they had in government and so forth.

But that which you have already hold fast until I come.  It’s not talking about His literal return, but for them...you know, when you die, you hold fast until you die.  And candidly, that’s what we should have in our minds, that this is a way of life all the time, not just until a certain point in time.  We still have that belief.  We have the belief that we’re in the ‘Day of the Lord’ and that Jesus Christ is going to return on May 19th of 2013.  I believe that with all my being, just as much as I did about May 27th of 2012, and if God shows me something different I continue on because I know where God’s Church is, I know where the truth is and it’s a way of life always.

Some will panic and think that’s what I’m saying...  No, I’m not.  May 19th is it!  That’s what I live for, that’s my mind, that’s my being!  I think some are a little wiser this time around in how they are going to deal with some of these things and how you live during that, because you continue to go forward no matter what, because it doesn’t mean we’re a hundred percent perfect, it doesn’t mean we have one hundred percent of all the truth in our mind, but we know that God will lead and guide and direct us into it.  That’s what we hold firm to because we know what we were called to; we know how we were called to it.  God called us into it, not to something different.  This is what we were brought to.  This is what we’ve been molded and nurtured in.  There is nothing else!  Incredible what people can do, and yet we’ve gone through some of that so that others, so that those of you who are younger can learn from this!  I didn’t have to experience this in order to learn it, I’ve already been through it, I know it, but you’ve had the opportunity to experience it.  It’s a valuable experience, especially what happened over in New Zealand – powerful experience here to see what can happen...even by a senior elder.

So again here, it happens, and it’s not fun to go through, and those who get caught up in it, it’s a hard thing, and especially when it’s your friends and so forth.  But the rest of the brethren around the world, everybody is to learn from this as well, that these things happen.  They’ve happened through time, because you have to hold fast to God’s way, to God’s truth.  Isn’t that amazing?  But that which you have... What do you have?  Well, we should know what we have.  We should understand the truth that we have and hold fast until, it says, I come.  And so through time, when you die, for you you’re either going to be in the resurrection or not.  If you’ve held fast and yielded yourself to God’s way of life and finally old age or some illness or whatever takes your life, then that’s when He comes, that’s His time of His return for you, you’re going to be the first of those then resurrected before those who are even alive.

So many things to learn, so many things to be molded and fashioned into, but to hold fast always what God gives to us.  Not everyone does.  Not everyone holds on to true government.  Not everyone holds on to the truth.  That’s a choice.  Everyone has that choice.

And he who overcomes, and keeps My works, you never fully overcome until the end, then it’s over, when death comes or until your change comes.  For those who live on into the Millennium, it’ll be when death comes, and that will continue on, that cycle of life, until the end of the thousand years.  ...he that overcomes, you’ve finally conquered, because as long as you’re in physical life you can still stumble, you can still trip, you can come to a point where you don’t do what it said in the previous verse, to hold fast.  We are to hold fast – that’s so basic!  Stand fast, hold fast to the truth that God gives to us – the present truth.

...he who overcomes, and keeps My works unto the end... See?  It even shows here how you overcome – to the end – you do it all the way to the end, whatever that end might be.  And he who overcomes and keeps My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; well, again, speaking of the 144,000 who are going to rule and reign with Jesus Christ because that was for this period, these periods of time, if you will – this period of time for Thyatira and for each era of time that went on.

Now, going on down to Sardis.  We know of some of the story here obviously, let’s pick it up.  Revelation 3:1 – And unto the angel of the Church of Sardis write; these things says He that has the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know your works, that you have a name that you live, and are dead. So this was the overall thing that identified the period of Sardis and what they became by this time, what happened to the Church.  Can the Church be entrusted with God’s government through time?  No!  Look where they were by this time – they had a name, the Church, the Called Out Ones, the congregation of, the Ecclesia, if you will, of God.  They had God’s name in the sense of being the Church of God.  It wasn’t the Catholic church or some other group, the Lutherans, the Luther church that had started up, or the Methodists that had started up by this time and so many other different groups that had started up by this time.  Because they were out there now, because there was this great new found freedom of religion; the printing press had come along and technology, the beginnings of technology so you could mass produce books and you could have then the mass producing of different ideas.

That’s what it produced, the mass producing of different ideas.  It’s like today!  What took a few hundred years – what it took decades and decades and decades to take place and to happen by the spreading of so many ideas, today it’s happened in a very short time in the scattered Church even, in the Church that was scattered since the apostasy.  Didn’t take that long!  Technology has enabled it; different ideas have enabled different ideas.  The ability of the internet and all those things that have happened has just allowed garbage and swill to be spread that much faster in the world!  Now, it’s also been a great asset to the Church, but Satan has always misused those things, those things that are out here, to deceive, to lead astray, and does it much more quickly because of technology now.

And unto the angel of the Church in Sardis write these things saith He that has the sevens spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know your works, that you have a name that you live, and are dead.  So again, spiritually that’s what identified them over all.  Not everyone, but as a whole, this was what was happening to the Church, this identified the Church - spiritually dying, dead.  Be watchful, isn’t that amazing?  Be watchful, be alert, be spiritually on guard – scriptures that we read from time to time because people have needed that for the past 2,000 years in whatever era they were in, but this is one that identified them even more so, something they needed to do, to be watchful, be on guard, to be spiritually alert, because what you had is disappearing, it’s going by the wayside, you’re losing it!  And so they were being told here to be on guard spiritually, to be spiritually alert, and strengthen the things which remain: What remains?  Well, they had to look at, they were admonished to look at what they had, the Sabbath...  I don’t know what all was there during that period of time, the whole time. We don’t know fully the entire... how long this period of time lasted, but possibly a couple hundred years or so here.

And so this period of time, for whatever it was, this was what identified them over all and they were given this admonition to be watchful.  This was the message to them, if you will, to strengthen the things which remain.  So we know what was there toward the very end, three foundational doctrines were all that were there, so by the time it was all said and done basically the Church just... it was dead, and those who were still around, there wasn’t much life there, there wasn’t much happening at all and God had to bring and call along an individual into a new era of time, Mr. Armstrong, the Philadelphia era, to stir up the Church, to bring back or to restore truths that had been lost and to build upon and even give more as the Church was being hurtled into a new period of time, into the end of an age, to the Church at the end-time.

So, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain; whatever we have we’re to strengthen always; this is what we should always do.  Now, we’ve been given a lot!  We’ve been given above and beyond so this wasn’t a matter of losing truths in the Church – for us it hasn’t been that matter – this for Sardis, was, they were losing things and God said hold on, in essence here, strengthen what remains, make it stronger, focus on what you have!  ...that are ready to die, so truth was dying out and they weren’t able to do it, they couldn’t be entrusted to do that.  Human nature being what it is and the pulls that are there, it just got worse and worse and worse until finally it was an era that was just ready to die, die out totally.  But God said ‘the gates of hell would never prevail against the Church’, it would continue on, so He raised up Mr. Armstrong and re-energized, strengthened the Church once again.  ...for I have not found your works perfect before God.

And the next one here, next great verse here: Remember therefore how you have received and heard and hold fast and repent.  So for those who are being drawn, for those who were able to make a distinction between the world at that time and what they were being called into, He says, remember therefore how you have received and heard; everyone should always remember that!  I think of all who are new in the Church today. There are a lot of people in the last 3½ years, far too many as far as I’m concerned - a handful is far too many - but there are just far too many who have gone by the wayside because they didn’t do this, they didn’t remember how they had learned, how they had received and heard the truth...and left it, went off to do their own thing or just gave up and quit or have gone back, away from things that have been revealed to them and I know they can’t be at peace in their minds once they find out exactly, fully what is being taught to them...and to go in reverse, to leave things that God has revealed to them, that goes against their conscience?  What a horrible thing, to even fight against the truth that’s there in order to accept something different!  It’s like trying to talk yourself into Christmas and Easter being okay on a spiritual plane – it just doesn’t go – but people have done it, people have gone back to Christmas and Easter.  Amazing!

If you therefore, it goes on to say there, If therefore you will not watch, be spiritually alert and on guard, I will come on you as a thief and you will not know what hour I come unto you.  Not the literal return, we understand these verses.  We understand it more today because of verses like this here, because we understand that there were eras of the Church.  There are people who just quit believing that there were even eras of the Church because some didn’t want to hold onto the idea that there was a Philadelphia era and Laodicea era, because if they did that they’d have to acknowledge they were Laodicean, and so it was easier not to believe in eras.  But the reality is there are eras and the thief, the coming as a thief - it’s any time you quit and leave the truth – then it’s taken away from you, you’ve been robbed!  Everybody who’s left, especially those who have embraced some other teachings out here of some of the other scattered groups, if you do that it’s just like a thief has come along and taken from you what you had, come upon you as a thief in the night and all of a sudden it’ll be gone and what you had is taken from you.  That’s what it’s talking about here.  And it says, and you won’t know what hour it comes, that’s why you’re to hold fast and hold onto what you have and strengthen the things that are there that you have in your life – not just accept what you have in your life, but strengthen them.

That’s why I’ve talked about so much recently here that God’s been giving us understanding of, is that we can have knowledge of the truth, but to understand it, that’s strengthening what you have – not just having as far as knowledge, because that’s not enough, it’s got to become a part of us through practicing it and putting it into our lives, applying it.

And then we go on down in the history of the past 2,000 years, of what has happened to God’s Church and why the Church can’t go on into the Millennium without Jesus Christ, otherwise it’ll be like it has been for the last 2,000 years, and not only that it wouldn’t long endure with technology.  It just wouldn’t long endure the way things are and the way garbage and swill and Satan is able to stir up things through technology today, giving him far more power in that respect than what he’s ever had, because of influence.  Not talking just about spirit power to deceive the mind but the means now to do it, to enhance that ability of slander, of untruth, of lying.

It’s a distorted mind that thinks that it can go to the internet and read something and it’s true.  Well, who decides that it’s true?  You can go out here, you can pick up... it doesn’t matter what it is that’s written out there, things about foods, things about society, things about life, things about... and you can find both sides of the story out there, so who is the judge of what is true and saying that, “What is written here, because it’s written I know this is true because I have written and I’ve studied into this.”  Well, what did you study into?  Is it one sided or not?  Is it from God or not?  Because that’s the only way that decides or detects in that respect, that determines what is fully true and we hold onto that with all of our being.  Now, there is information we can grow in, we can learn and things, and even how to take care of ourselves in life – but I hope you understand what is being said here: that people choose what they really want to believe anyway.  That becomes their authority.  It’s like... if it’s written, if it’s in a newspaper it must be true.  That’s stupid, that’s insane.  If it’s on the news it must be fully true...  You have to be careful of what you hear.  You have to be wise in what you receive, even in that which is reported.  It doesn’t mean it’s always true.  It’s always, because of human beings, slanted.  Unless it’s an actual...even that can be wrong, but if it’s an actual witness of an actual situation taking place that you’re actually seeing before your eyes, it’s being recorded... but even there things are twisted and distorted in what’s said about it oftentimes.

So again here, life is not easy.  Thank God the Millennium is coming with 144,000 under Jesus Christ that are going to reign in the Kingdom of God over this earth.

And so going on here in Revelation 3:7 – to the period of Philadelphia.  It says, And to the angel of the Church of Philadelphia write; these things saith He that is holy, He that is true, and He who has the key of David, He that opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens.  Beautiful scriptures here again, about things about the key of David here, about the knowledge of Israel.  And today we understand so much of prophecy because of what God gave to the Philadelphian era, gave to Mr. Armstrong of understanding about Israel, of what happened when Israel and Judah split and then what happened when they were both taken captive in different regions of the world and Judah brought back and Israel taken up into Europe and what happened as they migrated to places throughout Europe, and then finally into different parts of the world, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and on and on it goes.

And because of these things we have been able to understand and know things prophetically for the end-time in a very powerful way because this truth was given to Mr. Armstrong, very powerfully so.  It is so very basic to comprehending certain things and especially toward the one great truth about how that there is a throne, there is a rulership that Jesus Christ is going to take control of when He returns that has been on the earth ever since King David; it would never be gone, it would always exist in the sense of the lineage there. Not necessarily always reigning at all times or having power at all times, but always there, existing, if you will, as a monarchy, as royalty, as individuals who are part of it.  And we know that today, that the world is totally blind to, the world doesn’t see it out there; they don’t realize a rulership that’s out there, a throne that exists in the sense of rulership.

And so all these things that we’ve been given toward the end-time, started here with Philadelphia and what God gave to and through Mr. Armstrong.

I know your works, behold I have set before you an open door; powerful!  The ability to go out into the world through TV.  It started with radio and the printed press with ‘The Plain Truth’ and because of an ability to mass produce and ‘The Plain Truth’ that came from a beginning of cranking a machine and it spitting out things that had to be... copying in order to staple it together and send it out to various areas, ‘The Plain Truth’, and then finally able to have printing presses and then radio growing like it did through time, and then finally even TV and the ability even of radio, to not have to travel to different areas to broadcast like Mr. Armstrong did when he had to fly to different areas to accomplish some of the broadcasts that he did on radio, and then finally the ability to record those things.  And it just grew and grew and grew, technology.  He saw technology grow through his lifetime in a very powerful way that enhanced the spreading of the truth.  And God said here, I have set before you an open door; to accomplish certain things by a relatively small organization, and with the kind of money that was there to be able to do such a powerful thing worldwide.  It was absolutely incredible!

It’s incredible what we’ve been able to do, as small as we are!  That awesomeness goes on because of technology that’s there and how God has blessed us in using it.

So He says, I have set before you an open door and no man shall shut it, for you have a little strength/because you have a little strength and have kept My word and have not denied My name.  Something that Philadelphia was noted for, in essence, and a strong leader like Mr. Armstrong whose life – this was his life, he was dedicated to it, he recognized his human weaknesses, he understood the importance of humility over pride, he sought to lead and guide and direct the Church through humility and not pride.  He squelched pride and wanted it put down.  And all the things that he did then, pushing this way of life and being driven to strengthen the Church, to encourage the Church.  There was a driving force that God gave to him in a very powerful way, that he was stirred up, highly motivated in that respect, always having a sense of urgency for the Church and the times we lived in, no matter when it was.

And so again here, going on it says, Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, well, we know who that is again, that one that was clear back there starting out very early around the period of Smyrna and on, that great false church out there and all the little daughters that have splintered off from it.  I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, that do lie, that don’t have the truth.  Behold I will make them to come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you.  Well, that doesn’t happen in this age.  Just like some things with the witnesses don’t happen in this age, they happen in another time, but some of these things happen... for the witnesses will happen in this time, but again here, for the Philadelphia era, for the time there, these individuals are going to be people resurrected during the Great White Throne.  All those who come back to life are going to come to see, “Ah, so that was the truth!”...and what they fought against, that was the truth.

Verse 10 it goes on to say, Because you have kept the word of My patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation; and this is exemplified, if you will, even magnified through Mr. Armstrong and what God did with him, that there are things that Mr. Armstrong never had to come to see.  And it says, and I will keep you from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them who dwell upon the earth, starting with the Church and what happened with the apostasy, and then continuing on, obviously, things that could not happen during Mr. Armstrong’s time, but the people of that time too were protected through that period of time and didn’t have to go through any of this.  Now some who lived on obviously did.

Behold, I will come quickly, for I come quickly – hold that fast which you have; I think of the 18 Truths.  That just magnifies it.  21 then all together.  ...hold fast what you have.  And that didn’t happen.  And then into Laodicea began to be lost...even number one with Mr. Armstrong - number four altogether – the matter of government.  Behold I come quickly; hold that fast which you have that no man take your crown; in other words, God has a Family and He has structure within that, and the warning being here that if you leave or refuse or resist God is going to work with others and bring others along, and that’s the implication being given here.  To what degree?  We don’t understand fully. How these things perhaps happened through times past?  We don’t understand fully, we weren’t there, we don’t know.  We haven’t been sitting beside God to see these things, and beside Jesus Christ.

But again here, I think of scriptures talking about being entrusted with what is true and what is right during a period of time here.  But even then, during the time of Mr. Armstrong, what began to happen.  Let’s go over to Matthew 24 and notice some of what it says here, because this is the prophecy of the end-time, of things that came up to Mr. Armstrong’s time and some of this talking about through time what happened with God’s Church, but building up toward an end of an age.

And so in Matthew 24, some of these prophecies that were going to grow and be seen more fully toward the end of an age, and so let’s just pick up here in verse 11 – And many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many.  So here now we’re approaching a period of time toward the end of Mr. Armstrong’s rulership, if you will, his leadership, his apostleship in the Church, when he died in 86.  But here it’s talking about something that was going to happen.  There was relative peace in the sense of things not happening within the Church through a large period of time in the 50’s and then on up into the 60’s and the Church continued to grow, and Mrs. Armstrong, Loma, was there with her husband and then toward the end of the 60’s she died.  And it wasn’t long and the Church was just growing so fast and it was becoming so large by this time.  I was called in 1969 and then by that point in time it wasn’t very long and began to see some rumblings in the Church and began to see one area here that was troubled.  Most always the only kind of trouble that would generally come along...there would be people who would go by the wayside in time but not really seeing ministers who went by the wayside, ministers who would lead people astray, but it began to happen a little bit in 1972 as some ministers began to be weeded out here and there, and some congregations, or people in some of the congregations, not in large congregations, but that was kind of a beginning of some of this rumbling that was taking place.  False teachers coming along, if you will, that’s what it’s warning about here within the environment of the Church, and it says, and shall deceive many.

In 1972 Mr. Armstrong wrote the book, ‘The Incredible Human Potential’, talking about the human mind, that there is this which differentiates us between that of the animal kingdom and mankind, of a spirit essence that man has in him that the animal kingdom does not.  They just have something programmed into them, into their nature, as something that God just gave to them.  But we have the ability to think and reason, to create, to build, to plan, to remember, and a uniqueness of something – not the holy spirit – but He made that distinction.  And so Mr. Armstrong began to teach that there is a spirit in man, a spirit essence that gives us the ability to think and reason, to remember and so forth.  And yet there were others who, and a few ministers, I don’t remember...I don’t think there were very many, just very, very few here, but there were individuals who were deceived by some of this as well that went along...and generally with ministers.  That’s how it generally happened in times past, individuals who have quit by themselves at different times, just kind of go by the wayside.

But when it affects more, this is the danger, and it says, false minsters shall arise and deceive many; so a minister who is given authority, or a government to administer, is entrusted with that, has greater ability, power, to deceive and lead others astray.  And that’s the danger.  It’s like what happened in the spirit realm, and so many angelic beings, if you will, who went in a different direction, and it all started by this process of a being that began to be disgruntled, began to dislike what he was seeing that God was doing, and began to talk about that.  And after a while there were those in the angelic realm who latched a hold to that kind of thinking and were swayed by it and polluted their minds.  And so it doesn’t take... they start playing around with something they shouldn’t play around with as far as what was being given to them but there is a lot of power from an authority figure to affect, infect the minds of others.  And that’s what happened then and that’s what happened in the Church.  We’ve gone through it again and again and again.

So 1972 was the beginning.  Then 1974 – there were a lot of ministers, more important ones, regional directors and people who had sway over many more ministers and they got together with those ministers and they would talk about...  And so they would kind of feel around and throw something out and a disgruntled, or something of some sort, and somebody latches on to that and then they have a conversation going and before you know it they’re criticizing and tearing apart things that Mr. Armstrong is doing, and how he’s doing it, or what he’s teaching, and they’re sharing different ideas of how they think something should be done.  “I think it should be done this way.”  Those things happen.  People think they have a better way of doing it.  It’s not a matter of a better way – there are better ways in life, but this is the way you do it when it’s given through God’s government.  This is what we do because this is what’s been given because we strive to be in unity and harmony, and God supports and backs up that government of a particular...  It doesn’t mean there aren’t different things that could be tried and done, it’s just that this is what has been given in an administrative form that is bound on earth and bound in heaven.  And so that’s what happened during the time of Mr. Armstrong.  Yes, there were different ways of doing some things, but to get it done effectively and powerfully without any kind of wrong spirit and wrong attitude you do it in unity and support.  You back it up!

It’s like on a football team, you can’t have somebody deciding, “I’d rather see a different play at this time.” And then all these quarterbacks on the news and sports figures and people in homes and they get their lives wrapped up in these things and think about,  well, what would they have done if they’d done this... or if they’d done that...  So that’s how it begins, and things begin to spread because somebody has a different idea, a different way of doing something, and whether it be in sports or whatever. And that’s the epitome of it all, is in sporting events and things of that nature because it’s the same kind of thing that’s happened in the environment of the Church, where people think they have a better way of doing something and “What could have happened if I’d done this...or done that,” and they get together and they start talking.  And that’s not what it’s all about, it’s about whatever is chosen to do you do it and you do it with all your might, you back it up for the sake of unity and love and oneness of spirit and support of spirit. Everything else causes division and hurt and pain and suffering.  And so that’s what we see in the world around us.

And so again here, 1974, the thing about Pentecost.  A lot of ministers left – entire congregations – I think of the Washington, D.C. area, hundreds and hundreds if not a few thousand in that region left, maybe a couple thousand, I don’t remember the number now but it was large, large numbers and I know the entire D.C. area left and several other small Churches around there plus the ministers.  And that’s how it worked, because of the influence of the ministry, of teaching and starting this in a small scale, it doesn’t take very long – few weeks, couple of months and all of a sudden people are in a different spirit, different attitude, they begin to rebel against God, get cut off from the spirit of God and before long they’re gone and they follow someone who has this kind of power.  False ministers arise and many are deceived.

Hawaii has been hit twice!  The entire place, ministers who have left there. And so different places throughout the United States and some places in the world at different times.  It hit Great Britain finally at one time and decimated the Church over there through time into the late 70’s – Garner Ted and Ron Dart, evangelists in God’s Church who left at one point there.  I should say that Mr. Armstrong’s son was put out finally; finally once and for all and left as well, mutually so, recognized that there was no place for him anymore and started his own group and Ron Dart with him and that was one of the largest groups because here is someone who is really up the ladder, if you can say it that way, as far as government’s concerned, one who was thought to be possibly going to be one of the two witnesses because at that time it was a matter of still wondering who is going to be two witnesses and surely it is going to be Mr. Armstrong and his son, Garner Ted, into the end-time.

So again here, things don’t always go the way people think they might as far as what might be there, and all of a sudden the son is gone, and all of a sudden another evangelist is gone, and then others leave and other ministers leave...and it just has a rippling effect and does so much damage.  That’s the history of our Church – cannot be entrusted with the truth, with God’s government! That’s what’s so beautiful about the 144,000 who are coming to rule the earth, because time goes on, and people can go by the wayside.  And that’s why strong leadership is so important, unified leadership is so important, being at one is so important.  And when it’s not we see the effects of it, you see the effect of what happens when just one person in one area becomes disgruntled and begins to think he has a different way, a better way, or someone else that they need to be affiliated with or whatever it is...anyway, it leads others astray, others who are innocent and foolish in the choices and decisions they make because they’re swayed by different arguments and dissension.  It’s the age old lesson that people are to learn, of what happened from the very beginning, the very thing that God wants us to understand about the importance of Elohim, that only God can be trusted for all eternity.

Verse 12 – And because iniquity shall abound the agape of many shall wax cold.  It can happen to anyone at any time.  You can begin to lose the agape of God.  We are encouraged from time to time to stir that up, because it’s a matter of stirring up God’s spirit, which means you not only stir up God’s spirit, you go to God in prayer and you want more of that help, but it means you’re applying it, you’re applying the principles of truths of how God said to do things; like the sermon series we just recently had here about going to a brother and how you do it.  So much of it is how you live your life toward everyone in the Church all the time, and not just in the implementing of that but that we seek to implement the way God says how to love, and if you do it God’s way then He gives more of His spirit and more of His power to accomplish it and to experience His love and to grow in that.

Verse 13 – But He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.  And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached unto all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come. And that’s what happened; after Mr. Armstrong died then we went into the end, we went into the final era of the Church, the Laodicean era, and then the apostasy that followed that and all the things that we have lived through, learning these lessons, having the matter of government so deeply imbedded in our mind, which means the importance of understanding the need, the important need to bring everything into subjection to God’s rule, to God’s way of doing it, because it’s the only right way, into unity and oneness and harmony with God – peace, Jerusalem for all eternity, oneness, true government in action because it’s just the way we live.

And when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place (whoso reads let him understand); and we know what that means!  We saw this take place; it happened in the Church during the apostasy!  Someone who was raised up in power,  abomination of desolation, that which began to destroy the very Church of God, to where even the Church had to be spewed out of God’s mouth, so weak, in a state of lukewarmness that made this possible, an apostasy possible.  And so an abomination of desolation, that which began to destroy the very Temple, pollute the Temple of God.  And you know, I think of some of those who just recently left, and they’re going back to a belief somehow that something has to happen around the temple mount, that something has to happen with an altar, something has to be offered upon it.  How insane can that be?  That there are individuals who have now latched themselves onto something to believe and have lost what this truly means, gone away from an understanding of the apostasy and what happened in the Church and what this is all about, that it’s not about a physical temple of something that has to be offered upon the altar?  Absolute insanity!

So these things that happen sometimes, you think about how it can even take place.  I think of the words for Satan, what happened to him in the beginning – this has been repeated through time in the angelic realm and with mankind and then with Israel and Judah, and then on through time within the Church and things that have happened there.  It’s just repeated itself over and over again!  The word Satan, adversary, one who stands against.  My whole life in God’s Church has been witnessing this, of people who have decided to stand against the truth, stand against God’s leadership, people who stood against Mr. Armstrong, people who have stood against me.  It’s not about me, it wasn’t about Mr. Armstrong, it’s about God, it’s about His Son, it’s about a unity and a harmony, and it’s about an understanding of how God’s government works in our life and how it works through us and whether we’re in unity with that or whether we’re going to try something, do something our own way.

I think of 2 Corinthians 11:13 where it says – for such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into apostles of Christ; that’s what’s happened.  I’ve seen this over and over again, people have come along, that they have a different way and they’re made to look like they’re right.  That’s what people think, they think that their arguments, “Well, that makes sense.”  That’s why they follow them and they follow their deception.  And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, made to look good.  Now, that’s just sick!  But that’s what happens, that people who are deceitful, that twist the truth, that distort things, this is how they pollute people’s minds, but people have to make those choices and allow that to happen in their life.  It doesn’t matter the kind of experience, the relationship or closeness you’ve had in the past, that all goes out the window when someone decides to stand against what is true.

Therefore, it says, it’s no great thing if his ministers also are transformed into ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.  I’ve seen this over and over and over again in God’s Church.  And then the word for ‘devil’ – the one for Satan/adversary, one who stands, stands against, and then ‘the devil’ reveals how he stands against and how he gets others to stand against, and it’s by his very name.  God gave him a name that reveals how he functions, how he works, and how all such things have worked through time to lead people astray from what is true, if they’ve had the ability to see the truth or to know the truth, or what truth they’ve ever had.  And the word means ‘slanderous’, ‘accusing falsely’.  To slander because they have to find some kind of fault and to distort.  And so they begin to accuse, falsely so, a twist here and a twist there, some truth mixed into it, enough that people can say, “Yeah, that parts true,” and then, “Oh, you’re kidding....” and all of a sudden it’s like a hook in the cheekbone and they’re being reeled in because they swallowed it.

I think of 2nd Thessalonians, I don’t even have time to go through all this.  You know the story – 2nd Thessalonians, what happened to the Church.  Can the Church be entrusted?  Well, you know, there was a time that God said there would even be that prophetically which would happen, which we have gone through – 2 Thessalonians 2 and what happened, and the admonition even given there, verse 3 – let not man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, an apostasy, a falling away from the truth.  And we’ve always understood what that meant in the Church.  I marvel at how many groups and splinter groups out there, they just still do not believe that a great falling away, an apostasy has occurred.  ...and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, to know who it was that did it.  And all the things that are said here about what holds it back and what has to take place before Jesus Christ can return, that which would be a sign to the Church of what was going to come to pass.

And then that says, verse 8 – And then that wicked shall be revealed, which the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. The individual who died at a certain time in a certain time length, a judgment that was passed on to him, 40 x 7.  Amazing here, a matter of judgment and death and what God would say would be the sign of His Son’s coming, of Christ’s coming.

Verse 9 – Even him who is coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. He’s always done things the same way and he did it then, to twist and distort – and this time had a lot more power because of a little bit changed here, a little bit changed there, and the Church became weak and lukewarm and now prime for a total flip-flop in doctrine.  Look what happened when it was done from the top!  It’s dangerous enough when it’s done in different areas, a minister here or a minister there, if something like that were to take place, and we’ve just had a little taste of it.  Thankfully no more than a little taste.  It was enough to be putrid to me, to think about how sick something can be and how you can be lied to in front of your face and be told certain things over several months time, and just to deceive and lead others astray, to twist and distort, to lie.  I’ve seen those things so many times and I so loathe that kind of thinking because it’s this kind of thinking here that came from this being from the very beginning, to twist and distort, to lie, to falsely accuse, to slander, to slander God, to slander God’s truths, to lie against God’s truths, to say that certain things are not true and to lead away from what is true and sound and right.  People have choices to make and they’re going to have to suffer the results of it, but it’s a horrible thing to see, it’s a horrible thing to witness.

It says, whose working after, it shows who the master is.  We should be so sharp.  People should be so sharp by this time, but the reality is they’re not because new people come along and they don’t understand the process and very few in that respect as far as those who have been around any length of time – people weren’t caught into that as a whole, but to pick on weak ones and new ones and young ones who haven’t experienced this, who don’t know this, how Satan works.  We’ve seen it over and over again in God’s Church.  I’ve seen it over and over again since 1969.  I’ve learned things about government that are deeply imbedded in my being and I rejoice in the fact that God’s Kingdom is about to come, that 144,000 under Jesus Christ are getting ready to rule the earth in love, in God’s love, in unity and harmony – guaranteed that none of them will go astray, guaranteed that nothing will happen like what happened in Worldwide at any time, or in PKG at any time, that someone could leave and deceive others from what is true, that those things will never happen again.  I loathe those things because it’s hurts people, it pains, it’s like being stabbed with a knife.

Whose workings are coming after the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders. They are lying wonders; it’s a wonder that anyone believes the lies!  That’s the wonder of it all, and the reality is, when you have God’s spirit and you see it clearly it is baffling, but I understand it.  ...and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them who perish, because they received not the agape of the truth.  Do you love the truth?  How much do you love the truths you’ve been given?  The truths we’ve been given during the period of that 3½ years, of a time of two witnesses and the truths that God gave, and so many of them just there at the Feast of 2010 that we’ve talked about in this sermon series.  The love of the truth – 57 great Truths that God has given us and all the truth that goes with all of those as well that makes us stronger and more powerful – that they might be saved.  It’s happened over and over and over again; and for this cause, it says, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.  If you don’t love the truth you’re going to believe a lie.  If there is something you don’t believe... and so people get shaken because they’re in it for a date.  It didn’t happen on the 27th therefore it’s all wrong, nothing came to pass, nothing happened, and they don’t understand God’s plan and what God....because they couldn’t stay around to listen to the rest, they wouldn’t listen to the rest of the story – because this is God’s Church, and because this is the truth, and God will show His people what is the truth.

Those things that try and test us where He didn’t give us all the food that He could have, He withheld some and He continues to withhold.  There are things we don’t grasp or comprehend that Jesus Christ is going to bring when He comes, powerfully so.

Verse 12 – That they all might be damned/judged, in judgment, who believe not the truth; so it always goes back to the truth. That’s our power, that’s our strength.  That’s our power, it’s what empowers us, it gives us life, and the more we are in agreement and unity with the truth that God gives the stronger we are and the less likely and the less able we are going to be deceived.  It’ll inspire us when we go through and talk about the truths that God gives us.  We’ll be excited about what God is doing – just like those faithful angelic beings who have been faithful for millions of years, ever how long it is. They have always been faithful and they’re always excited about what God is doing and sharing in that. And that’s even more so then the Church and for those in embryo in the Kingdom of God that are going to become a part of the Kingdom of God, that change when it comes; the excitement, that we’re excited about what God is doing and where things are in time and what’s taking place and what’s going to come to pass.  Always sharing in the excitement, and we have the blessing of God dwelling in us and we in God.

And then it goes on to show some of the reason why; but had pleasure in unrighteousness.  So much of it always comes down to something different that people want, something that they don’t like in how something is done, or something that they’re doing on the side or something that they want differently or have begun to cut themselves off from God’s spirit because of some sin they really don’t want to change in their life, some lifestyle, something.

And so going back here to Laodicea, finally, Laodicea, the last era here then, Revelation 3 where we were earlier here then talking about the different eras, and finally the seventh one, the last one, the one that went up to finally the time of the sealing, even more accurately and some of those things that have taken place through time here during the Feast of Trumpets in 2008.

But here in Revelation 3:14 – And unto the angel of the Church of Laodicea write; these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning/beginner of the creation of God. Because it’s a new creation that God is doing in the Church, in mankind.  It speaks of it through scripture.  Paul spoke of it many times, of this new creation, of what God is creating, Elohim – that’s what it is, that’s what it’s all about, and it starts with Jesus Christ, the beginning of it, the beginner of it, if you will.  It starts with Him and it’s accomplished and finished through Him.

I know your works that you’re neither cold nor hot and I would that you were cold or hot. Because it’s so much easier; it’s easier for the Church, it’s easier for people to see.  If somebody is just totally cold it’s easier to understand why people do some of the things they do, but when it’s lukewarm it’s very deceitful, it’s a very deceitful thing that happens.  People just go through the motions and sometimes you don’t really know – where do you really stand?  What do you really believe?  Tell me in your own words, let me know!  Be true to yourself, be true to me, be truthful, I should say, not ‘true’ to me but truthful to me.  I want the truth.  Where are you?  It’s God’s desire for all of us.  Do we know where we stand?  Do we know what we believe?  And we’ve been tried in that.  God has brought us through a lot and made us much stronger, so much more powerful now, and the final finishing touches on PKG – Preparing for the Kingdom of God.  It really is beautiful, God’s molding and fashioning and what He’s given to the Church and what He’s given to us in making us so much stronger.  And for those of you who are younger, to learn these great lessons about the importance of true government, and the power and how important in unity and oneness of spirit is with God.

And again, yes, we know it, but do we really know it?  So we can know these things sometimes, but to understand them is so much more, it truly is.  And so it says here, I know your works that you’re neither cold nor hot; I wish you were cold or hot, but then because you are lukewarm, kind of in the middle, neither cold nor hot, I’ll spew you out of My mouth.  God’s blessed us with that and so many people have said, “Yes, I was coasting and that was happening in my life,” and realizing a need here to be stirred up, to move forward, to seek to become zealous, more zealous for God.

And so again, this attitude of mind I am rich and increased with goods and not realizing, no, we can’t ever be of that attitude on a spiritual plane.  It’s one thing to realize how much we’ve been blessed to have but to realize how much we’re lacking and how much our nature still resists God, and that apart from God, to see the reality of what we are, we’re blind, miserable, wretched, naked, without God – we must be clothed with God’s truth, with God’s way all the time, and that means to be close to God all the time, never to be cut off.

I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire that you may be rich.  Well, again, so much of the story here about what we must go through, the trials that we must go through in order to see clearly and to be clothed properly.

As many as I love I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent.  And that’s for all eras, that’s for all time, to be zealous about change, about being transformed, because that’s our life.

So indeed, mankind cannot successfully govern himself – not even in the Church, and that’s a great lesson to learn, not to be deceived.  It can happen to you, it can happen to different ones at different times.  You have to be on guard all the time.  If time were to go on more of what just happened in New Zealand would happen at other times in other places as we grew, as we began to have to organize differently and structure things differently because of growth, like Mr. Armstrong had to do.  And thank God we don’t have to go through that anymore because there’s a lot of pain and suffering in that.  Thank God we get to go into a Millennial period where the God Family is going to rule and reign. I’m so grateful for that and to be a part of that, truly, because that’s the only way to be able to do it perfectly in that respect, in the sense of administering God’s government, in the sense of being a part of it, in the sense of depending and relying upon it and knowing the truthfulness of it in every respect, in the sense of the love that’s always guaranteed there all the time without exception, that which you can depend upon and know far more fully in your heart and soul and being.  Powerful indeed!  To protect, to give, to serve, to love, to nurture...

So again, mankind indeed cannot successfully govern himself, not even in the Church, and some of this message is clear from the book of Jude.  We’re going to complete in this sermon today in the book of Jude, because it’s very powerful in what Jude wrote here, and interesting some of the stuff in the beginning even and all the way through but to realize in time here what would begin to happen very early on in the Church from the very beginning, and things they had to begin to deal with, and this kind of gives an overview of so much of it because it’s very much about what this sermon series has been about, it really is.

And so here is Jude, and it says here in Jude 1 – Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James; even here there is absolute humility. He didn’t say, I’m the brother of Jesus Christ, I’m the half-brother of Jesus Christ.  He was.  He was the brother of James who wrote the book of James, another half-brother of Jesus Christ.  Not claiming that relationship to use it to be lifted up by it in any fashion or form, but making a particular relationship here that others could draw but not trying to draw attention to self in the sense of that in any fashion or form but acknowledging something here in a very powerful way.  Not one of the original disciples; James and Jude were not the original disciples here.  They were brothers.  It talks about in Acts there in the first chapter how that they from that point forward they began to reside with or be with the apostles and they grew in time and were used in the Church in a very powerful way to teach and wrote some books, this book here by Jude himself, and then James, what he wrote.

And so it says here – to them who are sanctified by God the Father and preserved. So at the very beginning here they weren’t... even one example here, they still doubt and then things that were there and then finally after Jesus Christ went through what He did and was resurrected and there visiting with them they believed very powerfully so and it had a tremendous impact in their life and they saw things in themselves they hadn’t seen before, so they had more of a humble spirit indeed.

...and preserved, a word means ‘watched over’ or ‘guarded over’ in Jesus Christ.  So now they’re mentioning their half-brother but again here, recognizing that this is about a proper perspective here and a proper vision that we need to have, and that he wanted to have and that he wanted others to have – that it’s the matter of Jesus Christ who is the Son of God, who is at the right hand of God and how you’re able to be delivered and be preserved, watched over, guarded over, in Jesus Christ, not out of it, not cut off from Him, and called.  Mercy unto you, and peace, that example over and over again, peace, the peace of God, how we’re able to attain peace, the Prince of Peace who brought peace and to bring us to Jerusalem, and love/agape, be multiplied.  Increase, in other words, it must grow in us.  We are to grow in peace and agape and becoming more at one with God.

Verse 3 – Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith; something that all people must do at all times, to earnestly content for, to fight for this way of life!  You just can’t have it by just being like Laodicea did, by coasting.  You have to fight for it, you have to fight against your own nature, you’ve got to work to build right relationships, to do it God’s way, to live this way of life.  ...to earnestly contend for the faith, whatever it is you’re given to believe at any moment in time – the present truth – to hold onto that with all of your being, to earnestly contend for it, to not let anyone attack it or be given any kind of leeway whatsoever, to not listen to, to not delve into the garbage pit that pollutes the mind, because when you start polluting the mind you’re dealing with the spirit and that’s what’s so dangerous.  That’s what happened to Lucifer.  You deal with that which is on a spiritual plane to pollute it and you can lose it.  Thank God we’re able to repent and go through various things and God can bring us back on course, and people who have gone astray, they can be given opportunity in time to repent of what they’ve done.  Some aren’t going to have it in this age; it’ll be in the Great White Throne.

But again, to earnestly contend for the faith, which means the truth that you’ve been given, the truth, whatever the truth is, that you fight for that, you work for that, which was once delivered unto the saints..  For there are certain men who have ‘crept in unawares’, it’s a word that means ‘to settle in alongside’.  What a dangerous thing!  You never know when somebody is going to turn. You never know what is going on in somebody’s life.  You can sit down with a meal with them and talk about certain things and not pick up on what’s really going on in their life, what they’re truly thinking and what they’re thinking about you and what they’re thinking about what you believe.  Now, they’re having to justify that something else is coming from God but it’s such a marvel that such a thing can happen!  Power, signs, and lying wonders – a marvel, a wonder that such things can happen, but they happen!  Great lesson to learn about the importance of government.

So we’ve had the importance of having this drilled into our mind at the very beginning of the ‘Day of the Lord’ in a very powerful way so that this can be so deeply embedded now in the entirety of the Church just before we go into the final age, the Millennium...or the next stage, I should say, and the final part of this age, if you will, as far as the ‘Day of the Lord’ is concerned.

...who were before of old ordained to such condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into license to sin, lasciviousness/license to sin.  In other words, saying that something else...this isn’t true, so this is true, and people latch onto it and so they have some right that they’ve justified in their mind that they can go back and believe something else that’s been proven to be wrong – that Jesus Christ didn’t eternally exist!  How can you go back to that when it’s so....  Well, anyway, but it happens and it should shake people up and realize the power that’s there if you begin to mess around, if you believe something is true – and this is opportunity to be defined more fully in God’s truth and God’s way of life more than ever before and He’s given us that opportunity – PKG – to be deeply embedded in us!

...and so turning the grace of God into license to sin and denying the only Lord God, denying God’s spirit to live within them anymore.  Those things have happened.  They’ve happened for the past 2,000 years.  They’ve happened for the past 6,000 years – the ability, the power that mankind can have to deny God, to deny God to dwell within them – primarily speaking of the Church really in the last 2,000 years in that respect, because as a whole God dealt with individuals by themselves through time, a handful here and there through time.

...and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.  I will therefore remind you, though you once knew this – how many times throughout this Feast we seen some of this?  ...though you have known this, how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt... so they’re going all the way back to Egypt now, the journey out of the wilderness, the journey through the wilderness and leaving Egypt and all the lessons that are to be learned from that, that we’ve even covered leading up to the Feast throughout this period of the ‘Day of the Lord’ and even here at the Feast.

...afterward destroyed them who did not believe.  So again, being reminded of that, the importance to believe.  If you’ve been given something, the truth to believe, then earnestly contend for it, fight for it.

Verse 6 – And the angels who did not keep their first estate... that which they were given charge over to administer, to care for, they didn’t do it the way God said, the angels that followed Satan, or Lucifer, and became demons.  And so...did not keep their first estate but left, literally means ‘to abandon’ their own habitation, what they’d been given, where they’d been given to be and their own habitation, their own place to dwell and to dwell with here, a habitation, a place to dwell, or their dwelling place.  They rejected what God had given to them, they wanted something different.  Satan, Lucifer definitely wanted something; he wanted to be in the north, to have his reign over all the angelic realm.

It says ...He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness until the day of judgment, the great day of judgment. For them.  Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities round about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.  It means they were fully consumed, in other words, God has the power.  It’s time for judgment to be there? God’s going to give it to that which He’s going to get rid of, to destroy.

Verse 8 – Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, authority, government over them.  It’s just the age old thing!  When people want to do something different than what God has said, this is what describes them, this started from the very beginning, that which opposes God is so very clear – there is a spirit, an attitude that’s always there and it’s always the same because it’s from the same spirit, it’s the same mind; anything that resists God, that goes against God, God’s government and God’s way of doing things.  It says they despise dominion, which has to do with authority, government over them.  They want something different, a different government, and some will just go from one to another to another and... unsound minds.

...and speak evil of dignities, those in government.  So it’s not just a matter of the government, they’ve got to tear it down; they’ve got to find something wrong.  It’s always been that way.  It’s what Lucifer did.  It’s how he did it.  He began to speak evil, wrong of, twist and distort things about God and what God was doing, and the angels became swayed by that, those who followed Lucifer...and to speak evil of those in government.  Those always in time who have left the Church, they’ve always been that way.  I think of the time of Philadelphia and what I witnessed and how people began to speak evil of Mr. Armstrong, had to tear him down, tear him apart, all kinds of things that were said that were distorted and twisted!  All in an effort to justify their own actions, themselves and what they were doing.  And it’s the same today; it doesn’t change because it’s the same spirit.

And then it goes on to say in verse 9 – Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil as he disputed about the body of Moses dared not bring against him a railing accusation, because in the sense of accusing and finding fault with.  He didn’t need to do that, he just simply carried out here what God gave him and said, the Lord rebuke you.  That’s sufficient.  There are times in government and so forth that that’s it, that’s sufficient, and that’s what a person’s been given so it’s not a matter of getting caught up in it and beginning to tear down and to slander or to try to find fault with.  It just is what it is in this case here, and he said, the Lord rebuke you, and that was sufficient.

But it says, but these speak evil of those things which they do not know, in other words, the point being here is what Jude is saying is, is the choice to know something different that’s not of God, they’re making a choice here to know something different but not what God has given to them.  ...of those things which they do not know but what they know naturally; in other words, it’s not a matter of wanting to know what God has given to them but it’s what they know that comes from their own thinking, from their own mind – not something that comes from God, it’s just something that’s just natural as it says here, as brute beasts.  The mind and how it can think in a brutish manner, if you will; that’s what he’s saying here.  What people can do, what the mind can do when it doesn’t follow God, when it doesn’t yield to God and the attitude that is with it.

...in those things they corrupt themselves, because of those choices, because of what they choose to know and what they choose not to know or not to hold onto or accept.  And so again, they corrupt their mind just as God told Lucifer that he had done.

I’m just going to quote you the scripture again, we read it in part 1, Ezekiel 28:17 – where God says, Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, how you saw yourself, what you wanted to know, what you lifted up in your thinking, not that which came from God and His mind.  They didn’t want to know that but they wanted to know something different.  And this is what Satan did, he wanted to know something different, about himself, he lifted up his own...because his own beauty, his own mind, his own desires.  ...you have corrupted your wisdom; what God had already given from the very beginning, the mind that was there, you’ve corrupted that now, that spirit in the mind that can’t be changed in a spirit being that’s made and created, separate from God.  ...you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness, of how you see yourself, of your knowledge, of your knowing.

So again here, Jude is addressing the very same thing; it’s the very same spirit.  So much has to do with government, true government, what is true.  There is only one that’s true. Jude 11 – Woe unto them!  For they have gone in the way of Cain and have run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward; shows the motivation!  There is something they’re going to get out of it that they like or want more than what they have!  It’s never changed! Something they’re going to get out of it.  “I’m going to reign in the north!  I’m going to be over all the stars of God.”  You think, “How insane is that?”  And yet that’s what’s happened through time, people who go into a different direction.  How insane is it?  It’s insane, it’s not sound.

...and perished in the gainsaying, and the word here means ‘contradicting’ or the ‘arguing against’ of Korah. And you go back and read the story in Numbers 16.  Incredible story here of a rebellion, about some of the descendents of Levi here and what they took upon themselves and they thought that Moses and Aaron were taking too much upon themselves and that they should have more to do.  And that’s a dangerous thing when you think you should have more authority and more power and you should be able to do more things and you shouldn’t be held back from doing what you think you should be doing, or whatever it might be.

Verse 12 – These are spots in your feasts of agape, in charity.  What are our feasts?  Well, when we come together as God’s people and God’s spirit is there, like at this Feast and the fellowship you’re able to have and experience that love of God in one another and share, a time of rejoicing before God in such a unique way as we’re able to do from Feast to Feast.  It says, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: sometimes we’ve had in the past those situations that have existed.  It had to be at last year’s Feast by their acknowledgment, that some of this was here, feeding themselves without fears, being together in fellowship but lying, being of a different mind, questioning various things, beginning to talk behind the scenes.

And the reason I’m repeating these things is because God has given this to us to learn from.  It’s happened for a purpose and for a reason, so that we can learn from it and be edified and strengthened by it.

...as clouds without water, carried about with the wind, just tossed around, no direction.  Only God gives true direction, and that’s to what we’re doing – PKG - we’re preparing for His Kingdom, it’s coming, Jesus Christ is returning.

And going on... and as trees who’s fruit withers, without fruit, they don’t have fruit. On the contrary, it’s all rotted, twice dead, especially if they’ve been before and awakened and basically died out and now been given another [opportunity].  I think, how apropos, and incredible, this is even prophetic in that respect for what we’ve experienced.  ...plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; it is a shame when through time and all the ministers and all the people who have left and the things they’ve done and the evil that began to abide in their hearts.   I think of people that their whole life was trying to find things wrong with Worldwide, or Mr. Armstrong, and it was like a parasite, that’s what gave them life, that’s what they lived off of, and we’ve experienced parasites, that’s their life.  It blows my mind.  I don’t go out and listen to other people!  I have no desire!  Why would I want to listen to anybody else out here that’s splintered off and things they’ve done or things they’ve said against us.  I don’t care to listen to them – but there are some whose life is, when it’s the truth, when it’s the Church of God, that’s what they do, they’re like parasites and they want to be around...because there’s a spirit behind it.  You think, “Why waste your time doing that? You’d have a lot better day if you went out fishing somewhere, or did something that might bring some kind of fullness or happiness... but to feed on something that you hate and loathe and are just trying to find something wrong with?  Get a life!”  But they don’t see that spirit.

...wandering stars, again foaming out their own shame; wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. ...unless repentance comes at some point in time that’s their only hope to see light again...  and some...anyway...

Verse 14 – And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints; prophetic here all the way back then about 144,000 who would eventually come.  Said there would be ten thousands of His saints that would come.  And God later on began to reveal how many ten thousands, 144,000 actually.  ...to execute judgment upon all, a righteous judgment during the Millennium.  It’s so beautiful.  ...and to convince/convict/expose all who are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and all their hard/rough/harsh speeches, words, which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.  These are murmurers/grumblers; the point being is here over and over again, it’s the same spirit, whether it was in the angelic realm, whether it was in the beginning going back to the time from Adam, Enoch, from the very beginning through the times of Israel, through the times of the Church in the last 2,000 years, these things have just been repeated over and over again as far as a spirit that exists.

...these are murmurers/grumblers, grumbling and murmuring and finding fault with, especially when it has to do with God’s government, ‘complainers’, a word that means ‘to blame’ or ‘to find fault’.  It’s always been there!  Satan finding fault with, Lucifer finding fault with God, with what God was doing.

...who walk after their own lusts; they want something different, something else motivates them, not God’s way.  You know, God’s way motivates us in the Church, it stirs us up, we’re moved by sermons, we’re moved by the things He gives to us and we see something that we’re being prepared for and we’re looking forward to and we see this plan and we see the importance of true government to be brought to this earth and we rejoice in it, that mankind can have peace with that.  Not fully yet, not even in the Millennium, but working toward it in a far greater scale and an incredible jump forward, if you will.

Verse 16 again – These are murmurers/grumblers, complainers, finding fault, who walk after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. That’s kind of a difficult thing to understand what it’s saying here in the Old English, but Phillips translation gives a good translation.  It says, They talk big but will pay men great respect if it’s to their own advantage.  Lying, a lying spirit in order to get someone to be on their side, to do something, and finally will give them recognition and respect in a way that they didn’t before, but in order to get something out of it and what comes out of the mouth then – incredible what happens.  That’s what Lucifer did.  That was the attitude of mind.

Verse 17 – But beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you that there should be mockers in the last time; and they were talking about the last time then, Jude did!  And yet it’s been for mankind, for people who have lived for the past 2,000 years, it’s... you’re going to live out your life and die; it’s your last time.  But again, how much more for the time we actually do live in when it is the last time?  ...how that they told you that there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. And only because of technology has the ability to mock become greater, more powerful...more powerful.  Satan has power out there through technology that’s given him more power.

Verse 19 – These are they who separate themselves, in other words, they separate themselves from the truth, and for those in the Church from the Body of Christ.  ...the separate themselves, sensual, motivated by the carnal mind, the senses, ‘lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’, not by the truth...that’s just a deception.  ...not having the spirit, because they cut themselves off from the spirit of God.

Verse 20 – But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith; that means to build up these 57 Truths that God has given to you, and we have that opportunity, we’ve been doing that since May 27th in a more powerful way than we’ve ever done!  ...focusing on things we need to in our lives and God’s making us stronger and stronger and stronger as we go toward... but in teaching us these very powerful lessons at the very end here.  The very same things we’re going through now and teaching, it’s some of the take-off into the Millennium – we’re going to be talking about our history and what we’ve gone through and the lessons that are contained here, these same lessons that are going to be repeated over and over again, that you’re going to have opportunity to share with others because they’re important lessons that people must learn throughout the Millennium, of what happened the previous 6,000 years, the previous several millions of years and the importance of a single government where God’s always in it...where God’s always in it, where everything is in unity and oneness with God – true government for all eternity.

And so this admonition building up yourselves on your most holy faith; on that which God has given you to believe, and building up on that, praying in the holy spirit; keeping close to God.  Keeping yourselves in the agape of God, desiring to be close to each other and truly living God’s love toward each other, learning how to administer God’s way and God’s love and God’s government in relationships.  Because this is where we learn it, this is where you learn about true government, it’s in your own relationships.

...looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life... to be in that family for all eternity.  And on some have compassion, making a difference. Depending on some who have left or put out of the Church and then come back, and make a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; a desire we have of the one in ninety-nine, as an example, of someone going astray and a desire for them to be able to come back and looking forward to that, to all those that God’s going to bring back that have been asleep for so long in the scattered Body.

...hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. You know, when it’s past, it’s gone, it’s repented of, it’s forgiven, it’s gone, and we do the same, we bury it, it’s gone.  We don’t hold things against people.

Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, to God, to Jesus Christ, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy; we started out the Feast talking about joy and those things we have to rejoice in.  How much more, brethren, to have the entire picture now of all the sermons we’ve had through these days, and then getting ready to go into the Last Great Day, the blessing, the exceeding joy of being able to rejoice in what God has given to us about true government and what He’s bringing to this earth.

To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.  He just summarized exactly what we’ve gone through – only God can be trusted, only God for all eternity - the blessing of we being in Him and Him in us in Elohim for all eternity, never to lose that.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Only God, indeed, can be trusted for all eternity.

~~~end

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