Follow the Truth

Willem Henderson

December 21, 2013

Hello, brethren, welcome to the Sabbath. I will go straight on to the sermon, and the title of the sermon today is Follow the Truth.

We in God's Church have received an awesome amount of truth since the day that Mr. Armstrong was called. When Mr. Armstrong was called he found the remnant of the Sardis era that was dead, as stated in Revelation 3. Then the Philadelphia era started under the leadership of Mr. Armstrong with some of those (I believe it was 19 people), and after this (his death), the Laodicea era started, as we all know. And after that, in 2008, the Laodicea era ended and we entered a transition period until the Millennium. And even in that last period, we gained more truth.

Please turn to John 14:6 – Jesus said unto him, here is Jesus speaking, I am the way, and so through Him we can come to the Father and to the truth. The truth comes through Him from the Father. He was the revelatory Word from the Father and the life. Through Him, we can get eternal life, if indeed we practice that truth. This was recently explained to us by Wayne Matthews in the September 28th sermon entitled, Living Wisdom. We must put that truth into practice every day of our life.

Verse 6 – Jesus said unto him: I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Verse 7 – If you had known Me, you would have known My father also, and from now on you also know Him and have seen Him. Here we read that the truth comes through God's spirit. The world does not have this truth. Unless you are called, you cannot receive the truth. We know the truth because God has opened our mind so that we are able to see the truth. And that spirit from the Father and Jesus Christ will be in us. They live in us. We are the abode, the dwelling place, where they reside if we do what we're supposed to do. We must repent and live by God’s way of life until the day we die.

A little further in John 17:17, Jesus Christ’s “High Priestly” prayer is recorded. John 17:17 – Sanctify them through Your truth, Your word is truth. Christ tells us that the word of the Father is the truth. The source is the Father. It starts with the Father. That's where the truth comes from. He reveals the truth through His spirit to Jesus Christ, who then reveals it to a leader, an apostle or a prophet in His Church, through that spirit, that holy spirit.

Let's skip to verse 19 – And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth. We are set apart, sanctified, because we know the truth. We are holy because God lives in us with His spirit.

When you are being called into the Church, God can do this in different ways. You can hear or read something and know that it is the truth because He's calling you. You know it's the truth. You know it! It doesn't matter who says it or how it is said, you know it's the truth. Or you read it somewhere and you see it is the truth, because Gods speaks to you in your mind.

That's why it is so arrogant – and I know now what Ron was talking about in the past – it is something that we in the ministry can also see in emails or when talking on the phone with someone in response to the truth when they say, "Gods spoke to me." Ron said he hates that and I myself am coming to understand that better now, now that I experience such comments. No! No! No! God communicates with His spirit to your mind (the spirit in man). That’s how you receive the truth.

And there are those who claim, "I have searched God." No! God says, "There is no one that searches for Me!" He calls us by showing us the truth in our mind, the spirit in man. Something I always interpreted in the wrong way is that I always said, "I proved to myself that this is the truth." In one of the last articles, Ron told us that such thinking is also wrong, because God proved it to you.

I still remember the time that we were fully in the scattering. We looked everywhere. Back then we called it “shopping around” at the larger scattered Churches that also published booklets. I remember being very critical about such publications, and that I always went back to compare them to the writings of Mr. Armstrong, whether it all agreed with what we had written about the subject concerned. And if there was only the slightest thing that was not in agreement I said, "You don't need to go there because 'this' or 'that' doesn't agree with the truth." That's why we never went to join any other group. Of course, at that time we were spewed out, we were on our own, and we met with a very small group in our homes, until in the end only the two of us with Gijs and Mieke and their kids were left. And then God came along with something that was watertight and irrefutable: the Church of God – PKG. This was in 1999. (The expression “watertight and irrefutable” came from Frank.) Ron asked us, I guess somewhere in 2000, to write down all addresses that we still had of people from ex-Worldwide Church of God and to send them a copy of the magazine, Time is Running Out. The only one who reacted to this was Frank, and so God gave His truth in His time to a few people in the Netherlands and Belgium.

God also uses “the present truth” (a phrase we recently got introduced to) to cleanse His Church. When in 1974 Mr. Armstrong changed the observation of Pentecost from Monday to Sunday a cleansing took place just as we recently experienced.

When we received the truth about Jesus Christ not having existed for all eternity, it came right on time. What I mean to say is that God had been preparing most of us so that He could reveal it during the Feast of Tabernacles of that year (I think was 2005). Only very few left the Church. That new truth also cleansed the Church. We were prepared for it. If I would have received that truth when we were still searching, when we were still in the process of being awakened, I would have probably rejected it, because as I mentioned before, I cross-checked everything with Mr. Armstrong's writings.

It's incredible how our Father works, and you only come to see it afterwards when some time has passed. If we stay close to Him we can handle anything, and we'll grow closer to Him and each other and become stronger. That is something I've certainly seen and experienced In God's Church since May the 27th and May the 19th from this year.

Let's look at how we are required to follow the truth. Most important in this is that we do exactly what God tells us to do, no more and no less. In other words, we must be obedient.

Let's go to Matthew 24:14. That's where Mr. Armstrong's commission is recorded. And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. He proclaimed the gospel, the good news about the Kingdom of God, to the whole world. He did so until the day he died. He knew that God had given it to him to do this, and because Mr. Armstrong did as God had commanded him, God blessed him by giving more truth to the Church.

If you follow “the present truth” you will get more and more understanding. You will be in awe time and time again of the truth you may receive with every sermon we hear. And as I mentioned recently to someone, "You can read a scripture a hundred times, and still only when you hear it explained in a sermon then you can really see what it means." I find that awesome!

To stay in the truth it is essential that you keep going over things and that you keep on building upon things. Mr. Armstrong always came back to “the two trees,” and every time he added something to it. And then suddenly you could say, "Now I get it!"

The 50th Truth, “Christ does not return on a Feast of Trumpets but on a Pentecost,” is also a fantastic truth that we got just at the right time. And we actually got it much earlier than was originally planned. As Ron mentioned more than once, God gave us that truth sooner because otherwise many more people might have left the Church.

John 8:32. We must follow Him, Jesus Christ, because He gives the truth to the Church, and we will understand that truth if we follow Him. John 8:32 – You will know the truth, Jesus says. He must open your mind. He must show you where the Church is because only there you can find the truth.

But why is the Church of God – PKG the true Church? How can we know that the Church of God – PKG is the true Church? Because she received the 57 Truths! Truths you cannot find in any other of the five to six hundred splinter groups. Nor will you find the same kind of unity in any of the scattered Churches. The scattered Churches say, "Come as you are. It doesn't matter what you believe about any subject." We call it “building bridges,” but Ephesians 4:5 (don't turn there), states, One Lord, one baptism, one faith. Where can you find that? That's what we need to consider. We must incorporate this into our lives by asking our Father that He may give us this constantly in our minds, the assurance that this is His only true Church.

Mr. Armstrong found the Sardis Church because God gave this to him, and even though they were spiritually dead, they still had the true name of the Church, kept the Sabbath, and gave their tithes. Jesus says, "My sheep hear My voice." You can hear this, but you cannot give it to anyone, because it is the Father that must give it.

On in verse 32 of John 8 …and the truth will set you free. Free from what? From sin! Because when we know the truth and are baptized, we can repent and convert. God is only there where His only true Church is. He lives in His called out ones. The truth also sets you free in how you think about death. Of course, it is still sad when someone dies. You still have sorrow and sadness when someone in your family or a good friend dies, but you know God's plan. You can look over the horizon and know that we will see them again.

Please keep your spot here in John 8:32 and turn to 1 Corinthians 9:24. God shows us how we are to behave and that sets you free. Because when you live according to His way of life it gives you joy, and you know at the end of your life, if you have fought the good fight, that you will receive an imperishable crown.

1 Corinthians 9:24 – Don't you know that they that run in a race all run, but only one receives the price? So run that you may win.

Verse 25 – And every man that strives in a race exercises self-control. They do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we do it for a crown that will last forever. This is truly beautiful. The truth sets us free, exactly as Jesus tells us in John 8.

Back to John 8:38. We must do what the Father inspires us to do and follow Jesus as our role model. And we must live His way of life in order to receive that incorruptible crown, a crown that lasts forever. John 8:38 – I speak of the things which the Father has shown me, and not about the way of life of the world, of the corruptible crown, and you also do the things which you have heard from the Father.

Verse 43 – Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot hear My words. If God doesn't give it, you cannot understand the truth, you cannot hear it.

Verse 44 – Your father is the devil, and you do the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks of himself, because he is a liar and ever the father of all lies. Satan is a liar. And you can see this when you look at the world. He was completely corrupted and misled this world. Only with God can you find the truth. That is why we must stay close to Him and ask Him for forgiveness every single day. That's why we get up again and zealously fight to purge sin out of our lives. And yet again, these sins, which we thought that we had banned from our life, keep coming up again and again. That's why time and time again you go back to the throne, the mercy seat to which we have free access due to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The veil has been torn, and therefore, we have direct access to our Father. Ask God to enable you to retain the truth within you that you may not be deceived by Satan who casts doubts. Banish those doubts from your mind immediately and go to the Father. He will help you. That much is certain! Hold fast, don't give up, because what is just ahead of us is awesome.

Verse 45 – But because I speak the truth, you won't believe Me. He gave them the truth, the same truth that we also received after our mind was opened to it. In verse 30, it states that they believed in Him, just as the world does today. They say they believe in Jesus Christ, and that is that. They don't believe His message, the gospel of the good news about the coming Kingdom of God. They don't want to hear that. And they didn't want to hear it back then; therefore, exactly because of this message that Christ proclaimed, they murdered Him.

Verse 46 – Can any of you accuse Me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe Me?

Verse 47 – He that is of God, hears God; therefore you hear not, because you are not of God. They couldn't hear because God was not giving it to them. God hasn't given it to this world either. But we, we understand and know the truth, for God has called us personally. We must pray daily, "Thank you, Father, for what You give to us is so beautiful, so awesome, and we want to be in Your Family, Elohim. Please keep us alive with Your help, Your guidance. Please keep the 57 Truths vivid in us and don't let us die out, as happened to Sardis. Keep us alert so that we can see it when our enemy tries to sow doubts in us again. Give us the victory that is needed to change our physical body into a spiritual one!"

And still it can happen, that the truth is rejected. We saw that in God's Church after Mr. Armstrong died. And even recently people left God's Church.

Romans 1:18; here God warns us for hypocrites that do such things. Romans 1:18 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who crush the truth in unrighteousness. Here God tells us through Paul that He condemns all who willfully suppress the truth about His goal and His plan. They have gone back to the cesspool where they came from. They teach and practice the old pagan ways and beliefs. We've seen this, witnessed this. People one day in the Church, that turned away, and the next moment put the Christmas tree back in their homes. Unbelievable! Unbelievable!

Verse 21 – Because they, knowing God, did not glorify Him as God nor gave thanks, but their thoughts became vain and their foolish heart was darkened. Here you can read that even though you know God and received His truth, you can still lose this if you don't glorify Him and thank Him for everything He has done with you. You become vain and you lose the truth.

Let's now go to the book of Jude. Jude was Jesus Christ's half-brother. I won't expound on that now, but you can write down the scriptures where this is mentioned. Here in Jude 1 it states that he is a brother of James. This is also mentioned in Matthew 13:55. So James was also a half-brother of Jesus.

Jude, verse 17 – But beloved, remember the words which were spoken beforehand by the apostles about our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what the apostles foretold.

Verse 18 – How they told you that there would be mockers in the last time, walking after their own ungodly lusts. There will be mockers, just as it happens in this age when people leave the Church because things didn't go exactly according to “the present truth.” The 27th of May and the 19th of May are good examples of such.

And what do people do? Verse 19 – These are they who separate themselves. They separate themselves and leave the truth. They no longer want the truth. When someone is removed from God's Church to no longer be part of the congregation, most often they have done this themselves. One separates oneself from the Church by having wrong attitudes, by clinging to false doctrine, or because of continuing in sin that cannot be tolerated in God's Church. Separating oneself from the truth is the beginning of eventually being disfellowshipped or leaving God's Church on your own initiative and no longer wanting to be part of God's Church.

If you abandon the truth, if you start doubting the truth, then automatically you start separating yourself and you start nurturing your own ideas. And most of the time people then try to take others with them, just like the angels did, as you can read in verse 6 – And the angels that kept not to their first estate, but left their proper habitation, He has kept in everlasting chains under darkness, until the judgment of the great day. Those are the angels that follow Satan.

Let's now go back to the second part of Jude, verse 19 ...sensual, not having the spirit. They return to their human habits. They have lost God's spirit and Satan pulls them back into the world. He influences them thus, that they become even worse than they were before they were called for the first time. They become even worse than they were even called for the first time.

But then in verse 20 God states, But you beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith… we must become stronger in faith and in the truth. And how is this done? ...praying in the holy spirit.

Verse 21 – Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. We must conduct ourselves in such a way in our daily lives that we can maintain our relationship with God. We must cry out to God for help, so that you get to know Him better, and He you. And then we can look forward to the promise of eternal life.

Verse 22, (For once I quote the “Good News Bible”), Show mercy towards those who have doubts.

Verse 23 – Save others by snatching them out of the fire, pull them out of the fire. They are surrounded by fiery flames, but it is not too late yet! Those people in God's Church can still be helped, can still be convinced. In other words, you have to seriously talk to them so they can see their error and stop straying from the truth …and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

This refers to Leviticus 13:47-52. It is described here how that when a piece of clothing has been touched with leprosy this piece of clothing had to be burnt. So then when you look at Jude verse 23 again from a spiritual point of view, this means that for some it is already too late, as Satan has already influenced them to the point where they no longer want the truth.

I've personally experienced this with people that left the Church. You can no longer talk to them. They think differently. They no longer think the way they did when they were still in the truth. It's as Mr. Weinland so often mentioned in sermons, like the movie, The Body Snatchers. God's spirit is gone. You can no longer talk with them about spiritual things. Satan has done his work. He has taken God's work in this person away – stolen it. When someone removes themselves from God's Church or is removed from God's Church, in both cases we are told to no longer have any contact with them. One of the reasons why is to cause them to regret because now they no longer have that contact with other Church members as they used to. The strong close bond they had no longer exists, and maybe the lack of contact can trigger someone to see their fault and come back. This is really difficult and hard to do, and you don't see this outcome very often. I'm sure we're all familiar with the story about the prodigal (or the lost) son.

It is better not to have any contact with people that are no longer in the Church, to protect the Body and ourselves, in order not to be sucked in with their delusional ideas that developed during the time they were turning away. As Mr. Weinland always says, this doesn't happen overnight. Usually, there's months before someone goes so far as to leave God's Church or to be put out. And so, we must protect God's Church from such.

2 Corinthians 6; let's have a look at this scripture. 2 Corinthians 6:11 – Our mouth is open unto you Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. "We want to help you by telling you what you must do." That's what he's saying.

Verse 12 – You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. "We have opened ourselves up to you and you should do the same towards us, open yourself up to receive our words." This is what Paul is speaking about.

Verse 13 – Now in return, I speak as to my children, you also be open wide.

Verse 14 – Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Don't associate with the unbeliever, someone who has left the Church, has been disfellowshipped, because they have become unbelievers. Don't put the yoke that you carried on your shoulders before you were called, back on your shoulders. Don't follow their deception. Think of what Jesus said, "The truth shall set you free from sin." And that means that you no longer have to carry a yoke, that you are spiritually made free. This doesn't speak of people in the world because they are simply non-believers. This is directed straight at God's people, God's Church. They who have fallen away have lost the way to the law and the truth, which they learned in the Church. They can no longer “see” what is just and righteous. Continuing in verse 14 …for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness? The light is the truth. Walk with God, repent (convert), and practice His love towards others through His spirit that is active in us. The darkness is death, one that doesn't repent and no longer has God's spirit dwelling in them, because they don't repent from false teachings and thus reject the truth.

Verse 15 – What agreement has Christ with Belial? I looked this up, to see what is this “teaching of Belial” or Balaam was. In Revelation 2:14 where the Pergamum era is described, Belial's teaching is mentioned. You can make a note of this. We're not going to turn there, but here is what this teaching was all about: the Devil was angry with those people from the Pergamum era because they understood the Gospel and kept the Commandments. Knowing that he could not thwart their faith by force of strength, he corrupted them with false teachers that infiltrated them and introduced those “teachings of Belial” (Revelation 2:14).

By looking at Numbers 31:16, you can see that this Belial caused the Israelites to practice the heresies of idolatry and spiritual fornication and abandoned their faithfulness to the LORD. In the whole chapter of Numbers 31, you can read that. These false teachers gradually moved many in the Church to start observing certain pagan holy days for pagan gods, more specifically the Orthodox Feast of Epiphany. And they also moved them towards starting to change the original birthday of Nimrod and the heathen child Tammuz into the birth and baptism of Christ on the 25th of December.

If there is one truth that Satan twisted, then this is the one. Christ was born in fall, and nowhere in the Bible is there any mention of “Christmas.” This reminds me of something, I think it’s from the autobiography where Mr. Armstrong tells someone, "If you can prove to me that Sunday observance is mentioned in the Bible, I'll give you $10,000 or so." You could challenge someone exactly like that about Christmas because if you study only a little bit into this subject you will soon see where Christmas really comes from. But the world doesn't want to know it. They don't want God and they don't want the truth – they live a lie!

Let's go back to 2 Corinthians 6:15 – What agreement has Christ with Belial? What does the truth, Christ, to do with the lies that Satan transmits to the mind of people that have left? Nothing!

Verse 16 – What agreement has a temple of God with idols? What do we, the Temple, God's abode, in common with idols? For you are the Temple of the living God. Even as God said… we are God's Temple; we have the truth in us. God wants to dwell in those that hold fast to the truth, that repent and hold to practicing God's laws and ways, by asking Him daily in prayer for the power to do so. Don't give up! Keep going forward! Cherish the 57 Truths and study them. And I speak to myself, too. Go over the 57 Truths on a regular basis and hold fast to the calling that God has given to us. I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. God tells us, we are His people. Awesome! He will dwell in us!

Verse 17 – Therefore, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord… separate yourself from them, remove yourself from their midst, don't contact them. That is the message we get when someone is no longer in God's Church for whatever reason …and I will receive you, God says.

Don't touch the lies and the false witnesses that are spread about us on the internet. I don't want to see it. I don't want to know it. Don't think you are immune to it, that you can handle it, to read all that is being said about us. They are the vultures that speak evil about God's Church. For wherever the carcass is, there will the vultures be gathered together – Matthew 24:28. By the way, that is still being done to Mr. Armstrong too. It is very dangerous! Don't touch it! There is enough material on the Church website to feed yourself spiritually.  Don't look at other things!

Be separate, it states in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 6. Be separate! I do this, do you, too? I do this! I don't want to see anything from all the garbage on the internet. Touch no unclean thing. If you do that, then your Father says that He will receive (accept) us.

Verse 18 – And I will be to you a Father… these are beautiful scriptures. These scriptures are touching to me. They give me shivers up and down my spine when I read them. "Father, please don't give Satan a chance! Help us with everything that You have in store for us. You have something in store for each and every one of us. Give us more of Your Godly love so that we can love You and each other more, so that we can be more at one with You, Your Son and our older brother, Jesus Christ, because He made all of this possible through His sacrifice. That is why we got that truth. Because if He hadn't done this, there would be no life and no creation possible. Would all this have had any use? No! You have created everything for Him and through Him (through His sacrifice). How great is Your plan?!"

Let's read on in verse 18… You will be to Me sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. We will be His children. Whoa!

2 Corinthians 7:1; this verse continues in the context of chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 7:1 – Therefore having received these promises. What promises? We just read about this promise in verse 18 of the previous chapter: “I (God) will be a Father unto you!” That's the promise. He will be our Father. Reading on in verse 1… beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Stay in the truth, never give up!

Having the truth also means obeying God's Commandments; that is, all His Commandments. And that includes the Sabbath. The Catholic Church and her fornicating daughter churches (the Protestant churches) claim that the Sabbath has been done away, and they always refer to the “story” of Christ's resurrection on a Sunday. I always say, "Count till 3: 1, 2, 3." And even if Christ were to have risen on a Sunday, that would still not justify anyone to ignore the Sabbath! The Sabbath is one of the 10 Commandments. When you read the booklet, “The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy,” you will read that the 10 lost tribes lost their identity because they rejected this one command. We know that the Sabbath Commandment is the sign between God and us. And it is also the Commandment used by God to open up someone's mind for the truth, to see what one will do with this truth, to see whether someone is prepared to start observing the Sabbath, regardless whether you may lose your job or anything else. God uses this Commandment to test someone, to see what they will do. You can thus actually say that this Truth about the Sabbath is very important to God.

Let's go to Psalm 119. In my Bible (Dutch) the subtitle for this Psalm is “The Excellency of the Law.” Psalm 119:30 – I have chosen the way of truth. I have chosen the truth. I prefer the truth. In other words, you must meditate on it and make a choice, and then when you have made your choice you must stay with that choice and never let go of it. You should not abandon one of the 57 Truths! They are all of equal importance and they all complement each other. Reading on in verse 30 – I have set my heart on Your ordinances. The Dutch dictionary stated about this word, “ordinances,” “a rule instituted by the government that you must abide to.” And to us, God institutes these rules. To us, the Church, He is that “Government” and we must abide to His rules. At baptism, you really say the following… and at the time you really don't stop and consider it, but you make the following agreement with God:

1. I want you and Your Son to work in me.

2. I want to strive with Your indwelling in me to become a child born into Your Family through Your spirit.

3. I want to repent with the help of Your spirit, against all odds, by keeping Your Laws and Commandments…and as we just read, Your Ordinances.

4. And I also want to let myself be built up by Your agape with the help of Your Godly love and Your holy spirit that will dwell in me from baptism on.

On in verse 43 – And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth: "Help us Father, to keep the truth in our minds so we can talk about it with each other in the Church, with the people that You called and in whom Your spirit dwells."

Verse 44 – For I put my hope in Your ordinances. "I wait for Your ordinances. I wait for them so I can put them to work in my life."

And then verse 104 – Through Your precepts, I get understanding, and in the GNB (Good News Bible) it says, I gain wisdom from Your laws. By the truth, you will gain insight, you get understanding about how you must put God's way of living into practice, how you can overcome your sins with His help, and you also gain more understanding in how to be helpful to others. With the truth you progress and you get more and more understanding, of not only God's plan, but also His plan for you. And the more you put God's way of life into practice in your life, the more He can mold and fashion you to build His Temple. We are the building blocks that He uses to build His spiritual Temple with.

Ephesians 2. Keep your spot while we go and have a look at what Paul has to say about this in Ephesians 2: 19-22 – So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the Household of God – Begotten sons of the Great God, the Creator of the whole universe. Wow! That's quite something! Incredible what is stated here.

Verse 20 – Being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, we are being built on the apostles and on the prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the Chief Cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitly framed together. God places each stone on top of the other and makes it all fit. He molds and fashions us. He shapes us into a holy Temple in the Lord.

Verse 22 – In whom you are built together for a habitation of God, where God lives. He lives in us and He will do so for all eternity… in the spirit, with His spirit. This is another truth that we received after the Laodicea era. It is the last of the 57 Truths.

Psalm 119 again; we go back to Psalm 119:104 – I gain wisdom from Your laws, therefore I hate every false way. We must hate lies, everything that opposes the truth. We must hate everything that others say about us, the lies on the Internet. That's what's being said here. As I said before, we must want to have nothing to do with it at all. Just let them be. God will take care of it. That's a fact. For God says, "Vengeance is Mine."

Romans 12:19. You don't have to turn there. It states in Romans 12:19 – Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, 'Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay,' says the LORD.

Now, let's go back to Psalm 119:142 – Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.

Your law is truth. This says that if we keep to God's laws and ordinances, we live in the truth. We must ask God every day for His holy spirit so we can keep His Law and His 10 Commandments in our minds. With His help we can, “because greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world.” We know that from 1 John 4:4.

Psalm 119:151 – You are near to me, O LORD, and all Your Commandments are truth. God is near to us if we obey His law. Ask Him every day to help you live according to His Laws and His truths.

Verse 160 – All of your words are truth. Everything that God gives by Jesus Christ through his end-time prophet, His apostle, is the Truth. All 57 Truths are from God. The 3 Truths that remained in Sardis, the 18 Truths given during Philadelphia, and the 36 Truths given during and after Laodicea are all inspired by Him! Study them regularly. I myself must push myself also to do so: “All Your words are truth!”

Further in verse 160 – Every one of Your righteous ordinances endures forever. If we ask God to continuously stir up that truth in us so we can cherish it and live by it then God tells us in Psalm 145:18 – (you don't need to turn there, but you can), The LORD is near to all those who call on Him, all who call on Him in truth. If we believe the Truth and know that God is in us, then we also have a personal relation with Him. It's awesome that you – and you can put your name there – have a personal relationship with the Almighty Creator of this universe. That's quite something if you consider it. He has set you, and me, and all others that are now in Gods Church, apart for a purpose. Not because we are better than anyone else – no, no, no! He knows what He is doing. You are part of His plan, part of His Temple. By His grace, you were called, and we should never, never forget that!

Let's go to 1 John 2:3 – And hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His Commandments. If we keep His Commandments, we keep the truth. His Commandments are the Truth.

Verse 4 – One who says, I know Him, and doesn’t keep His Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. If you don't keep His Commandments, His truth, you are a liar, and automatically the truth is not in you. What is stated here is clear. All who refuse to keep the Sabbath, the Law and the Commandments, reject the truth and reject God. The truth is not in them. You cannot put away the Commandments and the Law because then the truth is not in you. God's word says that the Law and the Commandments are the truth. We've just read so in verse 4.

Verse 5 – But whoever keeps His word… Is the truth in your mind? By His spirit working in you God's love has more assuredly been perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in Him.

Verse 6 – He who says he remains in Him ought himself also to walk just like He walked. And Jesus did walk in obedience to the Commandments given by His Father. So, if we want God to remain in us, and we in Him, we must follow Jesus Christ and walk according to the example that He gave us.

Verse 7 – Brothers, I write no new Commandment to you, but an old Commandment which you had from the beginning. Beautiful verses.

In verse 24 the same is re-stated: Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. If we keep His Commandments in us, if we let the Father and Jesus Christ do their work in us every day, then we can remain in them too.

Verse 25 – This is the promise which He promised us, the eternal life. The promise is eternal life.

We return to verse 8 now.  Verse 8 – Again, I write a new Commandment to you, which is the truth in Him and in you; because the darkness, that's the death, is passing away, and the true light, the truth, already shines.

Ephesians 6. Let's take a look now at how we can remain more and better in God's truth, Gods Commandments, and that true light. We can stay on the top of the darkness and the sin that Satan tries to push on us every day, again, by putting on the spiritual armor. Ephesians 6:10 – Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. We must rely on God, on His power. He has the power and the strength to help us against the attacks of Satan, who's only desire is to see us give up and return into the world. He has no greater desire than to see us leave God's Church. He has no greater desire than to see us leave God's Church – remember that, brethren.

Verse 11 – Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. In other translations it says “evil tricks.” It’s about his cunning attacks, his deceptions, his trickeries, his seduction.

Verse 12 – For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world's rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the high places, the spiritual world. Here it is again. We must fight against the principalities, these powers, the rulers of darkness, and against sin, against death. We know that Satan transmits through the air. He tries to seduce us with the lures of this world and our weaknesses in order to pull us away from the truth.

Verse 13 – Therefore, put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. God does what we cannot do. He gives us this armor. He gives spiritual tools to stay on top of Satan. Don't forget that we can do nothing, nothing at all without Him.

Verse 14 – Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. We must gird ourselves with revealed truth, and there are 57. These make us withstand Satan, and with those truths and our fight against sin we can also overcome our human nature. When we have the truth and we cherish it, it makes it harder for Satan to deceive us. We must put on that breastplate, that armour of righteousness. And that means that we must obey God's Law.

You don't have to turn there, but Psalm 119:172 states …for all Your Commandments are righteousness.

Ephesians 6:15 – and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We must be prepared to want to prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God. The name of the Church, “the Church of God – PKG,” was inspired by God. This is the name mentioned in the literature that's distributed by the Church. And with that gospel, with that truth, we must go forward and be prepared to repent daily and to walk according to the way that God has given to us.

Verse 16 – Above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. The shield of faith protects us from the attacks of Satan. We must have (and I mentioned this in my previous sermon), the faith of Jesus Christ actively at work in us. We must have that same faith that He had and let Him lead us so we can withstand the arrows that Satan is aiming at us by way of his deceptions, tricks, seductions, lies, etcetera.

Verse 17 – And take the helmet of salvation, “The knowledge of salvation is the helmet of salvation.” That's what I have written in my “inspired margin” next to this verse. We have the truth and the promise that goes along with it, the promise to be born into God's Family at a certain moment in time, into Elohim, His Divine Family. That's the blessing, to have the knowledge of the awesome purpose that God has in store for mankind …and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The sword of the spirit is the written word of God where you can find all knowledge once God has called us and has opened our mind.

You don't have to turn there, but in Hebrews 4:12 it states, For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. We know that God has to reveal it to you, that God must open up your mind. You must ask God to make you understand the Bible – that He make you understand the Bible because the Bible, Gods word, is the truth and our weapon to fight Satan off.

Back to Ephesians 6:18 – With all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints. Prayer, and studying a certain subject or listening to a sermon, are all good ways of studying God's will for you and His promise for you.

Pray without ceasing, it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. That doesn't mean that our lips should constantly mutter all day long as some religions do, to be “seen” by others. No, just withdraw yourself quietly. It doesn't have to be long. Go into your “inner room,” Christ says. You can pray while you're walking along or while driving along in your car. We can come before Gods throne at any time. The veil has been torn, and therefore, we can go directly to our Father in the name of our Saviour.

Don't pray as the world does. They pray to Jesus Christ or to some statue of some kind of so called “saint,” a “saint” according to them, or to Mary with their rosary in hand. No! No! Pray directly to our Father in Jesus Christ's name.

The world doesn't know God. The world doesn't know God's plan. They don't know His word, His truth, but we do, and that's what we must fight for. That's why we have to fight against Satan and his demons. Pray and ask for help and you will receive help if you pour your heart out to Him and ask Him in accordance to His will.

What we just read in these verses is the weapon, the manual, the formula, to make Satan flee from us. It is the approach and the strategy to deal with our human nature and the sinful pull of the world, and to beat our archenemy, Gods adversary.

We must fight a constant battle, and for that reason, God gave us His word, His sword, and His armor for our protection. If we endure unto the end, eternal life in God's Family awaits us, and His spirit will work in us for all eternity so that we can come to learn even more from Him. And that's a big difference with our current state because then we won't have any sin. That's what I aim for, what I want to fight for, what I want to surrender to…with trial and error for sure! And one day will be better than the other. It doesn't matter, as long as we keep asking for forgiveness and confess our sins, God will never abandon us. That's a fact!

We, on the other hand, are capable of such. We can abandon God and God's Church. We can abandon the truth. And then what? Then Satan pulls you right back into the world, and immediately you no longer know anything at all about the truth. You've completely lost it. Many of us have seen this and experienced it in the 90's. But now in this time we've seen it again. It keeps on happening in God's Church. People we love; we saw them leave the Church. And as Mr. Weinland always says, every year when we observe the Feast of Tabernacles, there are people missing. People that did attend the previous year, you no longer see them the next year. They have become “anti-Christ.” They are against Christ. They no longer want Him and the Father to live in them. When someone refuses to live by the truth, when someone does not accept what God gives to them, they automatically become “antichrist.”

1 John 2. Let's take a closer look at this. 1 John 2:18 – Little children, these are the end-times, and as you heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the end-times. As we just covered, when we no longer allow God the Father and Jesus Christ to live in us, then we are “antichrist.” We then reject God and the truth is replaced by lie, and there is no longer any truth in us and we are pray to Satan. We must keep on examining self. We must keep on repenting from sin that God shows us in ourselves. Then we live in the truth, and God remains in us, and He keeps on working in our lives.

Verse 19 – They went out from us, but they didn't belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us. As you can read here, Paul also had to deal with this. Back then, people also left God's Church. It has always been that way. Back then people also left the truth, just as it happens today. Incredible!

Verse 20 – You have an anointing from the Holy One and you know the truth. We have God's spirit and we know all things. We know the truth through the anointing by God's spirit in us. It is God in us that keeps us in the truth through His spirit.

Verse 21 – I have not written to you because you don't know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. If we stay in the truth, God will stay in us. We know that all 57 Truths come from God. He has given all these Truths to us. They are alive in us, and there is no lie in God's word, in God's truth. You live a lie when you reject even one of the 57 Truths. When you do so, that is when the process of antichrist started to work within you and the lie started to replace the truth in you.

Verse 22 – Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. If you deny Christ, you reject all that He has done for you. You reject His suffering, His sacrifice, and the sacrifice that His Father gave for humanity. If you reject that sacrifice by denying the truth, God can no longer live in us and we can no longer have His love growing in us.

Verse 23 – Whoever denies the Son, the same doesn't have the Father. If you don't have Christ, you don't have the Father. Don't let that happen! Ask the Father for help by remaining in us. Ask Him to keep the truth that He has given to us and that sets us free alive in us. The truth that “sets us free from sin.” Ask Him to help us repent from our sins, and ask Him for forgiveness of our sins.

Verse 24 – Therefore, as you know, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. What is it that we “heard from the beginning?” What is that? What did I hear from the beginning when I started reading Mystery of the Ages? The truth! And that truth must stay in us! And that can only be accomplished if we ask Him to help in our conversion on a daily basis. Then we can keep on believing the truth. Then we can stay spiritually alive because God the Father and Jesus Christ remain in us. That's what this verse is telling us.

And what is the promise when we do this? Verse 25 – This is the promise which He promised us, even eternal life. Eternal life! That's the promise!

Let's take a look at what we've covered so far today:

1. Jesus Christ is the truth and everything comes to Him from the Father, and He then gives it to the head of His Church on earth.

2. God uses His truth to purify and refine His Church.

3. If we live by the truth, by God's law, this sets us free from sin. God's law is the truth.

4. People can reject the truth and start to cling to false teachings.

5. God molds and fashions us with and by His truth so we can become fitting stones in His Temple.

6. In order to be able to stand fast in the truth we must put on the whole armor of God.

7. If we remain in the truth, God will remain in us, but if you deny Jesus Christ you automatically reject the truth and become antichrist.

Let's go to Matthew 16. We've also brushed upon following the truth, and that Jesus Christ is the truth. We must, therefore, follow Jesus Christ. Let's take a closer look at that aspect.

Matthew 16:24 – Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his stake, and follow Me. In order to follow Him, to follow the truth, we must be prepared to suffer. And repenting and converting is suffering, because when you repent there is pain involved. We must, therefore, fight and be prepared to battle our feelings like jealousy, envy, pride, vanity or selfishness. And that hurts spiritually because it requires sacrificing the self.  Each and every one of us knows their own weaknesses.

Denying self is self-sacrifice. We can read about this in verse 25 – For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for My sake will find it. If you sacrifice yourself, so to speak, you lose your life, you sacrifice yourself for the sake of others, and that is what God wants to see in us. When we pray, this is also considered a sacrifice. On the Holy Days we also bring a sacrifice, an offering. But sacrificing self, that is hard. I know, because I am just like you, only human. Let me check for a minute... Ouch! Yep, still human! I'm still human.

I myself must also push myself. I must ask in prayer to help me sacrifice self at times for someone or something, and it doesn't have to be a big thing. In order to be of service to others you must sacrifice the self, you must put aside your own will, your own desires, for the sake of the will or the desires of others. And so when you then “lose your life for His sake” (His will), it means you sacrifice your life. You deny the self for the sake of others.

God wants us to live this way of life and to be actively practicing it in our daily lives. And it doesn't come easy. One time is easier than the other. Satan tries to influence our human nature that is not geared toward being self-sacrificing, in a way that enhances every bit of selfishness in us, and then we no longer consider the needs of others. Sometimes self-sacrifice can be as simple as lending an ear to people. I myself have to restrain myself from opening my mouth because usually it, I, produce an endless stream of words, and I forget to listen. Satan uses these weaknesses in our human nature to keep us from sacrificing self. He broadcasts perverse thoughts in our minds to cause us to stumble and to get entangled in the snares of this world. The world is his; he is the god of this world.

As Paul puts it, (you don't have to turn there, I’ll just read it for you), in 2 Corinthians 4:4 – In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

We go now, back to Matthew 16:26 – For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? What's the use of gaining the world, the whole world, if in the process you harm yourself? It says “life” here, but that is meant in a spiritual way. Translators have just used the word “life” here, but we know that this is meant on a spiritual plane. When it says, therefore, “in exchange for his life,” it means your spiritual eternal life. Jesus is saying here that you can still lose your eternal life, even though you gain the whole world. When you die physically, the only thing that matters is that you can live on into an eternity, and that God can say, "Now I know you! Inherit My Kingdom. Come into My Family, into Elohim." Even if you have to “wait” for thousands of years, as all do who have died in the faith, they will all arise the next moment, not knowing that thousands of years may have passed. Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? In exchange for eternal life? Nothing! That’s for sure.

And the next verses tell us what God wants from us. Verse 27 – For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each one according to their deeds.

Following the truth, therefore, is following Christ, and that automatically includes cherishing the 57 Truths in our daily life and making them part of the core of our being by studying them. To be able to follow Christ you have to be called… in order to “see” it, and that makes it so unique for us as such a tiny   group. Incredible, if you come to think about it…such a tiny group

Paul, and also Mr. Armstrong, said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." And we still do so in this age…we follow Ron Weinland. Does that mean we follow a man, as many of the mockers of the scattered Churches and the mockers of the world around us say about us? No! By the fruit, we can recognize whether it is from God or not. It's so simple. It's that simple: “My sheep hear My voice.” We know! We hear Christ's voice. God’s spirit shows it to us, if only we stay close to Him and diligently keep repenting, and as long as we keep living the way that He has set before us. Don't give up! All that has been given to us is so wonderful.

Let's go to Revelation 14. We'll take a look now at a scripture that describes the spirit beings that follow Jesus Christ. This scripture is about to become reality; it won't be long now. We can see it in the world around us. It can't be much longer. Hold fast! Stick to the truth! Embrace what you have! Cherish the truth and follow the truth!

Revelation 14:4 – These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were purchased from among men, to be the first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. They are following the Lamb as they have followed the Lamb in the past, during their physical life. Just as we are following the Lamb now! That's why what we have just covered. They have been molded and formed as stones into God's Temple. They have had to fight their own human nature. They have had to sacrifice for others. You can read about some of them in the Bible. You can read their names in Hebrews 11, beautiful examples of people who also lived according to the truth, “the present truth,” that God gave them at the time. And don't forget how much more has been given to us now.

If, for example, you look at what was given to Abraham and what we know now, the difference is like day and night. But Abraham lived according to what was given to him. I never fully considered this, but Ron has mentioned this many-a-time, and finally you start to realize what kind of life Abraham lived, a life of total faith, always relying on God.

…not defiled with women. They have not adhered to strange religions but stayed in the truth. These are shining examples for us. Stay in God’s Church. Don't be misled. Satan is only interested in one group now, and that's Gods true Church. And that is why you see people who can't hold on. That's why you see people leave the Church, because Satan knows their weaknesses…and we have weaknesses too. And that's why we need to ask for help, every day, and you will get the help you need, because God is committed to us and He wants nothing more than to prepare us for Elohim!

Verse 4, again, These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were purchased from among men, to be the first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. The 144,000 follow the Lamb spiritually. When they were still physical, they followed the Lamb too… when they were still physical. And that's what we ought to do, too. It's all spiritual. We are understanding now more and more that everything really is spiritual, and that understanding only comes with time. In the beginning, you see all things physically, but the longer you are in God's Church, the more you will see things on a spiritual plane. Gods does this in us, for we ourselves cannot accomplish this. He must do it.

We must stay in God's Church. We must follow “the present truth.” We must follow Jesus Christ, wherever He leads us. We follow Him so that the Father can finally say to us, "I bought you from among all the peoples," either as firstfruits to be added to the 144,000 or as one to be resurrected at the end of the thousand years.

Finally, John 17. This is where the High Priestly prayer is recorded, the prayer He prayed on the Passover night, the night before He died. I want to quote part of that scripture, namely verses 14 to 17. John 17:14-17 – I have given them Your word, and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that You would take them from the world, but that You would keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in Your truth. Your word is truth.

~~~end