A Mind Under Government

Wayne Matthews

Nov. 11, 2017

We can see that the Thunders are picking up around the world, and it's coming to the conclusion that the world is not ready for what is coming, really, at this point in time. It's still got to be made ready, and I'm talking about the return of Jesus Christ.

World governments are ready for war, and we can see that around the world. Mankind is now isolating themselves into various factions so that in the end, yes, man will set out to destroy himself if God does not intervene through Jesus Christ. But as we move forward with the Thunders increasing and getting worse and worse mankind is going to see that they cannot govern themselves. They just can't govern themselves. Everywhere you go now everyone's got an opinion and we're in now this major debate here in Australia and it's quite incredible when you listen to the news and everyone's got a view, and if people want their view heard what they do is they set out, they demonstrate. They will willingly demonstrate to have their view or opinion heard. Even though a ruling is made if people don't agree with the ruling, well, they'll go and demonstrate. So we're now going into that time where things will just gradually get worse and worse and worse.

There's a real difference with regards to man's government and God's government, and one of the things that mankind will come to see is that God's government is the only government to have. But we in the Church are different, and today's sermon is covering government.

Now, a lot of the sermon that we're covering today will not be understood, the spirit of it will not be understood by mankind. Anybody without God's holy spirit will not understand what we're talking about because we're going into an area that only with God's spirit can we understand what's being said. But mankind is going to come to a point—soon—where they'll understand what we're talking about, what we believe, what we understand about this.

Now, this sermon won't cover every aspect of government because it takes a lot more than one sermon, but we're going to start by looking at an aspect of that.

There is a principle that really highlights this whole sermon. Church government is based on God's holy spirit. Now, that's why mankind can't understand Church government, and Church government is God's government. Mankind can't understand God's government so they're not going to understand Church government the way we think about government. Mankind just won't accept what is being said here but we can because we have God's holy spirit. Church government is based on God's holy spirit. So that's the real difference between man's government and Church government. Church government, which is God's government, is not understood by the natural carnal mind. It's absolutely impossible. The natural mind is selfish by design and it does not like to be told that it is wrong or told what to do. That's the problem out there. When you look at what's really going on mankind doesn't want to be told what's right and wrong. They want their way and there are all different factions in that.

The natural mind does not like to be told what to do even if it's the best thing for it. Now, isn't that ironic? The best thing for the natural carnal mind, if they've already made up their mind or they've grown up in an environment, they don't accept it even though it's the best thing for them. For example, we're going through this sermon and we've just completed those regarding marriage. God says it's about one unit. Well, that's the best thing. Well, man says, "No. No. We want something different." So the best thing for it, they don't want it. A classic example of that is the Sabbath, which means rest. The natural carnal mind, the best thing for it is to rest physically. It can't rest spiritually because it doesn't have God's spirit, but they can rest physically. But that's the best thing for them. But if you went up to somebody and said, "Listen. You've got to rest on the Sabbath day physically because it's the best thing for you," there is no way the natural mind is going to accept it. It just won't. And when mankind looks at what they call their rest on the day of the sun, the first day of the week, they don't actually rest. They get out and it's the day you mow the lawns, you clean the house, you do everything. You know, you try to get it all done because you've got to go back to work on Monday, day of the moon.

The natural mind of man does not like to be corrected at any point because of pride, because it's natural. So what we're seeing now are debates about things and it's all to do with pride. The person who is in government knows what's best for us all here in Australia by far. They know what's best for us. Now, if you went up to a government official and said the best thing for us physically is that we rest one day a week, stop work, and just stop and turn to God. Well, they're never going to accept it because they can't because of pride because they already know what's right. The natural mind wants things done its way, the way it sees best for everyone else. Everybody is right in their own eyes.

So let's look at a couple of scriptures that clarify the problem within us, which is our natural mind. It's a problem. We all have it too and it can get the best of us at times. Proverbs 21:2—Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, every way, because everybody thinks they're right. They're right in their own eyes because of their opinion and their pride. …but the Eternal weighs the hearts. He weighs the inner intent, the motive behind it. Now, the natural mind has a motive and that motive is pleasing self. That's all it can do. Even though the natural mind may appear to do good for others, deep down the motive behind that doing good for others is based on pride. There is something, no matter what it is, there is something there. Now, we don't always see all the different motivations behind the natural mind, but it is about self because that's all we can do on the natural level. That's why mankind cannot understand God's government. He just can't.

A classic example would be that we would turn around and say within God's Church, well, we have an apostle, and if the apostle tells us this is what is best for us, we with God's spirit would say, "Okay." The world would say we're a mob of idiots. "Like, well, why are you listening to him? Can't you form your own view? What's wrong with you people?" But see, we see it differently because we have God's spirit because God's spirit can show us and reveal to us what is best for us. The natural mind, it's never going to accept that. So there has to be a change that takes place within mankind, and fortunately that change is coming. It's called the gift of God's holy spirit, which really highlights how blessed we really are. How blessed are we that we understand Church government, we understand God's government? How? It's just incredible.

Another example would be an ordination, where we see an ordination as something that God has inspired through Jesus Christ, through an apostle, this is the ordination. Church government would say we rejoice in that because the person has that responsibility. Sometimes I look at it "that burden," because there is that burden with an ordination. More is required of a person that's ordained. That's just the way it is. More is required on a spiritual level, more checking. So we would see it, "Oh, it's God's giving that person the opportunity to serve." That's basically what the ordination’s about. That's the opportunity. "What a wonderful blessing!" The natural mind goes, "You're joking! You are joking! I know that person. I know what they're like. And you're what? You're giving them that responsibility?" Because that's the natural mind. So whenever we find ourselves in that situation where we are doing that guess what? This is a matter of God's spirit—the natural mind. So if we come up with that attitude it's not of God, it's not of God's spirit, it's of the natural mind.

Now, we see that in Church government. So what a blessing we have that we are under Church government because if we're under Church government we're under God's government, and that's what we strive to be, under God's government at all times.

Proverbs 12:15. Now, what I'm doing here today is just looking at the differences between God's spirit and the natural mind because that was what government is really all about. Government, Church government, God's government is all based on God's holy spirit. We're going to look at the component of the natural mind. By looking at that we can see what God's government is about, by looking at what the natural mind does, and we know that the natural mind is totally different than God's spirit, driven by God's spirit or motivated by God's spirit.

Proverbs 12:15—The way of a fool… Now, when we look at the word "fool" in the Bible we wouldn't like to think we are fools, but we've all been fools because without God's spirit we are fools. So, The way of a fool, and a fool is someone who won't listen to God. So we're coming into this period now where God says clearly through the book that if you will listen, in other words, mankind will listen to God, He will listen. Well, a fool is someone who won't listen. So we're coming to a distinction soon between two groups. One group is going to be called fools by God because they won't listen to their Creator. There are going to be billions that won't listen; they're going to be fools. Well, every way of a man with a natural mind is foolish. They're fools because they won't listen to God.

The fool is right in his own eyes. Well, we've all been fools because we didn't listen to God. Whereas now we've been called to listen to God and to repent. So we won't listen because of pride because we already know what's right for us. …but he who heeds counsel, "he who listens to God, listens to what God is giving," is wise. So the principle here is to be wise we need God's holy spirit. We need God's holy spirit. That's why we can yield to God's government in the Church, because we have God's thinking, we have a mind that can choose an attitude.

A lot of people would say in the world, "Well, 'someone' made me do it." For example, if somebody swerves in front of somebody else and the person gets angry and jumps out of the car they justify themselves, the natural mind justifies itself by saying, "They made me angry." Well, the truth is with God's spirit we can see that nobody can make us angry. We choose to get angry because even on the natural level somebody who is using more wisdom that they have on a physical level, somebody cuts them off they pull back and go, "Oh, yep; I've made that mistake before. I've done that to someone else; therefore, I'm not going to get upset." They don't get upset. They choose not to get upset. Well, how much more with God's spirit? About attitudes, we have to choose them. So we can choose a lot of things in life.

Well, somebody that is under Church government has to choose an attitude. We have to choose an attitude every day. Now, there's one particular thing that takes place within Church government and this is worth noting because it's something you have to work on individually, and I have to work on; we all have to work on it. Within Church government we have to do exactly as we are told. Now, I'm not saying, oh, you know, "You jump off the bridge," you have to go do it. No, this is within Church government. And we'll get to that, about what Church government's about, but this is about when given a direction or instruction through a sermon, whatever it is, we should do exactly as we have been told. It applies to marriage guidance. It applies to many things in life. Do as instructed by God and don't add to it or take away.

Now, this is the biggest danger within the natural mind, is that we add to and take away. We work out what we think was said and we'll go adding to it and we go right out on to the left or the right, or we take away from it, we diminish it and say, "Oh, no, that's doesn't apply to me, those various things." An example of that would be the sermon series that was given about communications in the world and what we should be involved in and what we shouldn't, and even with mobile phones about how we should use them, and you know, what we do with them rather than walking round on the street with our heads down and running into people. That's not showing love and being bogged down with video games for 6-7 hours a day, which people do. That's unbalanced. That's not right. Well, we've been instructed in those things. Well, we should do as we're instructed. Not add to and say, "Oh, that doesn't apply to me. I can spend eight hours on my mobile phone." No, we should do as we're told. That's the instruction from God; it comes through an apostle, and that's what we should do.

So the principle about government is we should do exactly as we are told. We don't add to and take away. Now, this is difficult for the natural mind. It's very difficult for the natural mind to follow those instructions. It just is. I'm a classic example of that, classic example. I use myself as an example where I've been told things quite clearly and yet I've added to or taken away. I've known better with certain things. I've known better but I've still done it. I look at it and I think, "Well, that's because of me, who I am. It's my pride. It's Wayne getting in the way of God's spirit." So we can take it to heart, all of us, and say, "Well, yes, am I adding to or taking away with regards to government within God's Church?"

Proverbs 3:7—Do not be wise in your own eyes. It's really saying don't think that we know best. We don't. We don't know what's best for us. We might think we do, but we don't. Fear the Eternal and depart from evil. What's that really saying? Well, we understand that the fear of God is to work on ourselves, to fight against our pride and our selfishness. We put God in all. Well, the real component of this is if we fear God we'll listen to Him. We'll listen to Him. We will yield to Church government. Now, this is an attitude. It doesn't apply just to the ministry. It applies to every one of us because government is about yielding to God. Now, if we're not under Church government, we're not under God's government, we're not yielding because we will have a natural mind where we must learn to yield. We must learn to yield.

Now, there is many a time where we may think we know better. We may think that this is a better way for us to go, but we have to learn to yield, humbly yield even though we may think, "Well, no, I don't understand why this is happening, but I need to yield." Well, that's how God works in the Church. We don't understand everything, but we yield and in time God will reveal the component we may not understand. The natural mind cannot fear God and depart from evil because I'm trying to highlight the two differences here. Mankind of and by himself cannot fear God. He cannot hold God in awe; he cannot listen to God or obey Him in the spirit of a matter. It's impossible. He cannot depart from evil because the natural mind has a proclivity to those lusts of the flesh and one of them is being fulfilled or not (all of them these days), and that's what life's about. It's about fulfilling self, self-satisfaction.

The natural mind without God's holy spirit cannot be under God's government or Church government because they're both the same. And the reason I'm saying that, we will get to it. I'm not that confident I'm going to get through all my notes today because it is a big topic. But if we understand God's government, God's government is based on love. In other words, what is best for us on a spiritual level? That's God's government. Church government is based on love. So decisions that come out from God's apostle down the line are based on love, what is best for us individually or collectively. But we may not always see it that way, but that is the truth. God's Church is based on love and the natural mind out there, they can't understand it. No, they just say, "Look, you're yielding to a dictator. You're sending money to a dictator." I don't like to say those words, but that's the way the world sees it. "You're all stupid, you know. Can't you see?" Well, the reality is we do see. We're the ones who see. We understand authority. We understand God's government. They can't. So we shouldn't expect anything of them. We should not expect anything from anybody else because they can't, but we can. We'll be held accountable to that.

People leave the Church over government. Mr. Armstrong used to talk about it all the time, you know, but it's all about God's spirit because when a person loses God's spirit they're no longer under Church government. They no longer are in unity. They can't because without God's spirit you cannot be in unity. Without God's holy spirit you can't be under Church government and I'll use the word "under" because it's a choice here. There's a choice about yielding to and placing ourselves to that.

The title of today's sermon is A Mind Under Government.

Someone with God's holy spirit can be under Church and God's government. That's the only way to do it. Without God's holy spirit it's impossible to be under Church or God's government. Now, rulings come out, because of binding and loosening, which we will get to, God willing. We may not. Let's see how we go here. If you look at binding and loosening, this is Church government. Mr. Armstrong had to make decisions, for example, when make-up came up. And we'll use that. It's a classic example. There are many others you can use but we use that because it's generally known. For those that have been around, they understood what it was like. So the ruling was no make-up. Well, now a mind under government has to yield to that. Is it right or wrong? It's binding and loosening. It's a decision that was made there was no make-up. So then people had to choose, and it was mainly on women. These days it's probably on men and women because a lot of men wear make-up these days, whereas those days it was more about a woman wearing make-up or not.

Well, a mind under government will go, "Okay, that's the best interest of me." What is connected to it? It's connected to vanity and all these other things, but that was the ruling. So a mind had to yield. We're going to yield to God's government or not, yield to Church government or not – yes or no. Well, some played a game. Some would not wear make-up to Sabbath services, an outward sign, "I'm yielding." During the week, they went to work, wore make-up because it challenges the mind. Will you yield or won't you? That's the question. Then the ruling came, make-up was all right in moderation, a certain amount. Well, there were those that thought, "Well, no, I'm not wearing any make-up,” and would come to services with no make-up even though they could wear make-up. Because, see, it's all about a mind, what it's going to do. There's nothing wrong with not wearing make-up to services. Then they would wear none at all, because see, they had already made up their mind they're not going to wear any because Mr. Armstrong's wrong in saying that people could. Then they had to say, "Well, someone's wearing make-up to Sabbath services," make a judgment, and they looked down on those people: "Look at them, how weak they are," because they'd already made up their mind that no make-up was acceptable. I hope you can follow what I'm saying.

So there's a lot of challenges in basic binding and loosening. Now, there's a lot of binding and loosening that happens through God's apostle that people may or may not agree to. Well, this is all about Church government, about yielding…about yielding. Whether we think we know better, or whatever, that's not what it's about. This is about a mind yielding, giving into something, giving in and yielding to it, doing it, not adding to it or taking away, just yielding to it.

We'll now look at a mind that cannot be under Church government, trying to do the contrast here. This is a mind that it's impossible for it to yield. Those minds are anybody that's outside of God's Church that doesn't have God's holy spirit. When a person is first called they begin to come under government. They begin. It's a choice. They have to begin because of repentance they start to see things, they have to yield to Church government. Well, there are Church governments, God's government, so there are aspects of that that is about government.

Firstly, Sabbath. Yield or not? It's a matter of coming under government. God says, "This is the best things for you, resting on the Sabbath day." "I know better. I'm not doing that." Well, you're not going to be part of the Church. So you can see how those things apply to the mind.

Then tithing. We'd say, "Well, you're giving money to this leader." You can see how the mind can go if it's carnal. Well, we understand this is about God. God's government is Church government. It's about God and it's about love, what's the best thing for you.

Romans 8. Now, probably in the years in God's Church I've gone to Romans 8 more than a lot of people. Romans 8 means a lot to me personally because every time I go through it I see a bit more of myself and I understand why I like it so much because it highlights a lot to me about me. But it also, we're going to look at it from the point of view of about Church government versus a mind that can't see it. Now if we can understand a mind that can't see government we'll understand that it's only by the power of God's holy spirit that we can see about government and we can yield to it. It's God in us.

Romans 8:1—There is, now, this is a person who’s repenting. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ, and that is about having the same mind or the same spirit as Jesus Christ, which is God's spirit because when you look at it Jesus Christ was a human as we are but he had a different mind. He had the same mind as God. So he thought of things differently. Now, if you analyze that and say, well, Jesus Christ walks the earth with a mind that thinks differently and you've got everybody else out there that doesn't think the way you think. Does that ring a bell? Because, see, we have the same mind as Jesus Christ in part. We don't have it all, but we have it in part, therefore, we have all these people out there that haven't had the opportunity or blessing of having an aspect of God's holy spirit dwelling in their mind and we think differently, therefore, we don't fit. Jesus Christ walked his whole life; he didn't fit. So he would say things and they would add to and take away, which you can see in scripture because he didn't fit.

Yesterday on the way down we went into a particular opportunity shop called OpShop, a tradition of ours. We like shopping in those places. I walked out of one quite broken hearted. It just wrenched my heart because there was a younger woman there who had a baby and she was not in a good condition herself as a mother, without making judgments. But I looked at that poor little baby and I thought, what hope, really, has this child got in that environment and you're brought up surrounded by drugs and all these other things. What opportunity? I actually felt like going in and grabbing the child. It’s not my role and not my time to do those types of things. But what can you do? You can't do anything. It's just not their time. But your heart, you know, breaks. Because why? I feel that way because I believe I have God's spirit. My mind thinks differently. It just thinks different. We don't fit; we think differently. Jesus Christ walked his whole life like that. Now when you look at it, how he wept, remember that time he wept because he could see the natural mind? He was not weeping because he felt sorry for anything. It was about the frustration of looking at all of this and it's not going to change. It's so frustrating! And that's the way we are. It's just frustrating and you feel for mankind. I feel for all those children and the environments and the horrible things that are going on and what adults are doing to other people. It's horrendous. Well, we have a different mind so we see things differently. Well, here it's saying that Jesus Christ had this mind which is the mind of God. Well, we have it. We have a component of it. We don't have it all like Jesus Christ did.

…who do not walk according to the flesh, that's what the difference is. We don't walk around fulfilling our selfish desires as mankind does. It's very frustrating when we're so different. It's an honor to be different, but it's still frustrating because you see all of this and people can't understand things. We keep the Sabbath. We do all these things. They can't understand it. They're not able to, but it is a frustrating thing to have to live like this and to see all the suffering when we know the solution. That's why we pray, "Thy Kingdom come." That's the only solution. God is the only solution. Jesus Christ is the only solution. There is no solution within the natural mind. So we don't walk according to the flesh. We don't fulfill those desires. We battle them. We fight them. We still have them; we have those urges, and yes we do yield to them at times. Yes, we do, but we have the gift of repentance. What a beautiful thing that is, that we can go to God. Therefore, we're no longer under condemnation because we're repenting; we've got a different mind. We know what we're like, to degrees we do. …but according to the spirit. So we walk differently because we walk according to God's holy spirit.

Verse 2—For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. We're made free by forgiveness. So yes, we have a natural mind, and yes, we will sin, but we can be made free from the penalty that is going to have to be paid, which is "the wages of sin is death." Well, we can be set free from the death penalty by this repentance because our sins will be forgiven from the law of sin and death. So we don't have to pay the death penalty, which is that wage that has to be paid by everyone who's sinning.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, because of our selfish desire it is weak because we will break the law, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Yes, Jesus Christ was a human being with a different mind.

Now, can you imagine just what it would be like to walk around amongst society where everybody has a carnal mind but you think so differently? You think love, they think ill will. It's the natural mind. The natural mind thinks ill will. It thinks selfishness, but a mind of God thinks love, willing to sacrifice to the point of death. How difficult that must have been at times when you see all this going on. Well, it's the same for us to a degree. We can see all this going on and it can be difficult for us.

…in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. So that's why he came, why he was born and God gave him His mind, to Jesus Christ. He condemned sin in the flesh, which he did by being our Passover. He paid the penalty for sin for us once for all mankind. It's been done and it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. Often we think, oh, well, if you've got the mind of God it was easy. No. It would have been very difficult, to have a mind of love in a world of hate, it's still a difficult thing to go through. We know the outcome and all the suffering that was involved in that because of this mind that he had.

…that the righteous requirement of the law, which is faith. So what is faithful? Faith is believing God. Well, you can only believe God if you listen to God. So this goes back to government. Faith is really about government because there's a government which is God's government. We listen to what God has said and we believe God, and believing God is faith, therefore, this is all going back to government. We're willing to yield and we're willing to believe. Yes, we believe. Now, we can only believe if we have God's holy spirit, otherwise the world would believe the 57 Truths. They don't. They would mock them and ridicule them and would just wouldn't understand, especially the newer truths that have come out of late. The world is sort of starting to grapple with some of those things – with marriage, all those things. They don't know where to do with it because they're using the natural carnal mind, as we read in Proverbs.

…that the righteous requirement of the law, which is faith, might be fulfilled in us. We now walk in the spirit of the law, which is what Jesus Christ did. He walked in the spirit of a matter. It is about our motives and intent, why we do what we do. …and do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Now, this goes back to our choice to sacrifice, our choice to sacrifice. Well, Jesus Christ sacrificed. He walked a life of, and lived a life of sacrificing.

So now we're going to see that the mind, if you've got God's spirit, we can be under government because we're sacrificing, we're yielding to, we're putting ourselves under. Well, here is now a mind that is not under government. Verse 5—For those who live according to the flesh, which is about selfishness, set their minds, which is the motivation that's behind it, that's on the things of the flesh, that's what it's about. It just sets on selfishness. It's not about being under government.

Now we're going to see one that's under government. …but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. This mind will walk in the truth. They'll believe the truth. It will be sincere, be directed by God's holy spirit, and it will live love. Now, this is a big challenge. Only with God's spirit can we deal with it because we're often in situations where the natural mind thinks, “I can solve this.” It's called a right hook. It's called grab them by the throat and push them up against the wall; that will solve it. Well, that's the natural mind's solution. God's spirit within us, we know that's not our role. Ours is about loving. So even though they do, those that do evil to us or harm to us, we do not retaliate. That's a mind of love. It's difficult because we have to choose to use God's spirit and we don't always do it.

Verse 6—For to be carnally (selfishly) minded is death, but to be spiritually minded, which can only come from God, is life and peace. So we have to place ourselves under government and it can only be done by God's spirit.

Verse 7—Because the carnal (physically minded or physically motivated) mind is enmity, it's hostile against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. Now, there's the answer. The answer is the natural mind cannot be under Church government. Now, that tells us why people leave fellowship because they now are using the natural mind. They don't like the instructions that are coming from God's apostle or from God. They just don't. They've decided to go back to the natural carnal mind and to now do what it thinks is best. So now we know why people leave the Church. It's because they have stopped yielding to God's government, stopped yielding to God's holy spirit. Now the word, "for it is not subject," that word "subject" is not under rule or under authority because government is about authority. We know there are scriptures that say we're to yield to authority.

For example, not all authority in the world is necessarily for our good, not all. There are many nations that live under dictatorships that is evil. They are evil, but we in God's Church have to yield to those authorities, like taxation and speed limits that are ridiculous. In certain areas they are quite crazy. We are required to yield to that authority because it's the best thing because God allows it so we do. The only time we don't yield to a governing authority is if it contradicts or goes against God's word. If it contradicts or goes against God's word. That's why we pay tax. We yield to the authority. If it went against God's word we wouldn't do it. The Sabbath is a classic example where mankind doesn't yield to it in any way, but we do and we're willing to lose our employment; we're willing to do a lot of things because we'll yield to God first.

So by nature we resist God. Just by nature! So that really is saying mankind out there is not yielding to God. But a time is coming when they're going to have the opportunity to listen, but it does require God's spirit to hear and then to make a choice, because there is a choice in all this.

Verse 8—So then, those who are in the flesh, which they're ruled by their own selfishness, cannot please God. They cannot place themselves under God's government which is Church government. Now when we mention the word "government" a lot of people think about authority and, you know, the hardness of heart really of all the government, whereas Church government doesn't work like that. This is about God's government. It's about whether we're wanting to yield to God because everything within God's government is for our benefit. Now, we may go through a severe trial, and if we're yielding to God's government we will understand that that trial is the best thing for us spiritually, the best thing for us spiritually, but the natural mind will go, "Oh, I've got to suffer. You're joking! I'm suffering. Church is so hard," if you know what I mean. It's a way of thinking. Everything that is happening to us is about spiritual growth if we're willing to yield to God's spirit. It's about growth.

There have been many a time within government, Church government, that I've learned lessons that I could not have learned, would never have learned unless I was in a position to learn it because it's part of the ministry. So I have to learn certain lessons. I haven't always got it right and I have been corrected at certain times because that was the best thing for me. But at the time it's not that simple. To be corrected is not that simple, is it, when you're told certain things? Because we're right in our own eyes. But I have learned about Church government to a degree. I have learned about Church government and whether I agree with whatever's said or not is not the point. It's about this yielding and learning.

I'll share with you an experience that I won't go into a lot of detail, but something happened where I had to learn a lesson and in that lesson I had to learn to make a choice and it's one of those things where you can go either way because of your mind and your thinking because no one likes to be corrected. So firstly you think, you know, you've got a choice to go this way, which is against the correction, or you can go with it. And I came to learn (very quickly, fortunately), which I believe God gave me that opportunity for a reason, I came to see very quickly that my attitude in what was given was the key. It wasn't about what was said, and it wasn't about what I said, but what did I do with it? I had to make a choice. I realized that I was wrong if I took a wrong attitude. So I took the right attitude and yielded to it. I yielded to that, therefore, I came to see the most important thing was my response, how I responded. So no matter what is said to us, whether we think it's too much or too little or we think, “Boy, that person shouldn't have said that to me,” you know that sort of matter. That's not the point. The point is our response. The point is how we respond to correction. That's the key to government.

Well, that's the key to living in God's Church. It doesn't matter what happens in God's Church, we yield to it. We were talking before about the Feast. There were a lot that misunderstood and churches that are scattered and others may not understand, the natural mind definitely can't understand, and the churches scattered have the natural mind so they're not going to understand it. So we were given a direction to have the Feast for eight days but four of them were at home and four of them were at a Feast site. We remember that? There were some that thought that God's people were not keeping the Feast, you know, like it was sin. There was no sin involved. It's a decision that is made, which is like a binding; it's a decision that's made. We were keeping the Feast over seven days and the Last Great Day. There was no breaking of the Feast. People may have broken the feast by what they did or what they lived, but no, that was not an instruction to break the Feast. It was actually to keep it. Four were to be at home.

Well, we're coming into a time where the possibility of having to keep eight days, seven days of the Feast and the Last Great Day may be exactly that at some point in time possibly. We don't know. Don't take that as gospel. I don't know. But we've had a trial, a trial run, where it may be we have to stay, keep the Feast seven days and the Last Great Day at home and there's no organized Feast. So would we be then breaking the Feast? The natural mind would say, "Oh no, you're not going to an assembly point." No, we're obeying God. There's a large group of people that are staying home this year for various reasons, health and lots of other reasons. Are they breaking the Feast? No, they're keeping the Feast; they're only doing it at home.

So we can look at this the wrong way if we use a natural mind. We can use it. No, we obey God. We put God first no matter what happens. If an instruction comes out to have eight days at this location, that's the eight days at that location. If it comes out and says five are at home and three, whatever, we will follow the instructions, which is a mind under government. That's what it is, a mind under government. A mind not under government will fight and resist that instruction. That's the key to this whole sermon, really. It's about a mind. A natural one will fight and resist God's spirit because Church government from the top, from an apostle, is about God's holy spirit. That's what it's actually about. So what we're talking about today, Church government, is a spiritual matter, therefore, it cannot be understood by the world, and if at any point we find that we disagree with Church government the warning bells should go off that we're now yielding to our natural carnal mind because this is what this scripture talks about, a natural mind.

So then those that are in the flesh cannot please God. So we're fighting and resisting what God is doing within His Church. Now, we've had tests and trials. Another example of this would be Pentecost. Church government. There were groups of people—I wasn't around at that time in 1973, '72, '74—but there was a group of people I'm led to understand that knew about the change that Pentecost should be a Sunday and not a Monday. Some left over it because they used their natural carnal mind. They weren't under the Church government. We wait on God for all things. So we wait for an apostle to give us the truth into the Church. So those that left used their natural carnal mind and left. So the right response is, even if we have felt that it should be a Sunday and it was still a Monday, we wait on God. We wait in God's apostle to place it into the Church. That's a mind under government. Mr. Armstrong, I believe, took twelve months or so to come to that conclusion let by God's spirit, then he brings it in and says, "No, it's a Sunday." Well, we drop the Monday and go to Sunday. It's not difficult, is it?

The change in Trumpets, the way we understood Trumpets in God's Church, it’s the same thing. It's about what we yield to, the 50th Truth, what we yield to. What are we willing to yield to? Well, it is a spiritual matter. People in the world would say, "Well, there you go; you're just changing doctrine. You're changing 'this.' You're changing 'that,'" because they can't see spiritually. We can because we have a mind that is under government.

So the point is if we ever see ourselves fighting and resisting against what is given to the Church through an apostle we know we're not using God's spirit. It's pretty straight forward. The difficult thing in all this there is a saying that says, "You're preaching to the converted," because if you have God's spirit and you see it you go, "Oh, yeah. That's right. If I get into that attitude I know that I'm resisting. I'm using the natural carnal mind. It's obvious because I have God's spirit. I can see it." But when you lose God's spirit you go to human reasoning. You can't see spiritual matters so you can't see what we're talking about, so you can't understand it. So a lot of people don't know what they're doing because once you become a carnal mind again and go back to that you can't see what you're doing wrong. You think you're right. Scripture just said, "You're right in your own eyes," so you've got an opinion: "God's apostle's obviously wrong, so I'm leaving." But you can't see that, if you know what I mean. You can't see it because it's a spiritual matter. And without God's spirit you can't see spiritual things.

So this natural mind cannot obey God. It cannot place its mind, it's thinking under God's government or Church government. It cannot think spiritually. It cannot control its own desires of selfishness. It cannot do it. This mind is motivated by wrong desires and it's about pleasing self. So we shouldn't expect anything from anybody outside of God's Church. They will only fulfill their selfishness to degrees. That's all they can do, but the expectation on us is greater.

Verse 9—But you are not in the flesh, we don't have that mind, but in the spirit, because of God's holy spirit, if indeed the holy spirit/spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if it does we don't give into those selfishness. We will place our mind under government; we will yield to it. We will yield to it and we'll look at ourselves. So if we do get corrected or we get told what to do we will look at ourselves and think, "This is what I've got to do. I'm not to add to or take away. I need to be a servant in this," and we'll yield to it because of God's spirit because without it we're going to fight it.

If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, which is the same spirit of God, God's holy spirit, he is not his. He's not part of the Church, not the Church of God. They're not part of it. God has established a process of someone to have His spirit dwell in them. This process points to God's government, which is Church government and it's interesting. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this but it's a process because when you have a natural carnal mind, which we all did have before our calling, we're called to change. We're called to repent. So we're called, we're given an aspect of God's spirit—it doesn't dwell in us yet but we're given an aspect—so we can see sin within ourselves, which is called repentance. So we start to see things differently. We start to see government differently in time. We then get to the point where we're baptized and baptism really is the covering of sin to that point in time. So everything in our past, all the things that I did up until the age of thirtyish or so, God was willing to cover and forgive and we don't have to go back over it and regurgitate it all the time. I know what I was like. I remember quite well what I was like. God's washed it away. It's gone. I'm not under the penalty of sin. At that point, it's gone. Sin is covered to that point of time then we need God's holy spirit living and dwelling in us so that we can think differently on a regular basis, so we can think differently, so we can come under God's government because without God's holy spirit we cannot be under Church government.

So with the laying of hands, and God honors that—it's through His ministry, through a true minister of God—we receive God's holy spirit. Then we have the ability of ongoing obedience. We have the ongoing ability of placing our mind under Church government. We have the ability for repentance, which leads to forgiveness. Isn't it a wonderful process? Well, only us, members of the Body of Christ, the Church of God have been through that process and can fulfill this. So only those in God's Church who have God's holy spirit have a mind that is under government. No one else can, but we have to battle. We have to be careful that every time the selfishness comes up within our thinking that we are willing to fight it because it's easy to say, "Oh, I got a mind under government." That's okay to say until you're corrected, then do we have a mind under government? Because the natural mind will go, "I think that's unfair." That's natural. "That's unfair. That's not me," but a mind under government will go, "Hang on, that's for my good and I need to understand more about why I did it or why that's being said to me. Obviously I'm the problem. I'm the problem."

Often Chris and myself are talking and looking at news and different things that happen in the world, and it's easy, once you have God's spirit, it's easy to see the problems of mankind. Man is the problem. Humans are the problem. Everywhere you go human beings are the problem. Human beings are the problem and the pain and the sorrow and the suffering and the broken families it's all about humans are the problem. God's not the problem, humans are. And mankind doesn't understand what a blessing it is to have life itself, to be a human because the potential to change the way we think, what God is doing as a second creation… We're created human; we have a natural mind. But that other creation, the potential to be in Elohim forever in a future we can't understand, is just amazing, what's going on. We understand it. All the more reason why we should fight and not walk away.

Well, I know thousands of people that have walked away. I know hundreds just in these certain areas. I know, you know, in the teens more even in PKG that have walked away from something that God was offering. We've just got to make sure that we're fighting every day.

Verse 10—For if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, that's true, that way, but the spirit is life because of righteousness, which is our faith and obedience, that willingness to yield. But if the spirit of Him (God the Father) who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, which it does, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through/by His spirit which dwells in you. What a blessing that if we understand what is being said today has nothing to do with self. There is no credit to self because it's a danger. I have been reminded more than once because of the opportunity to serve in God's Church by giving a sermon that we have to be careful that we don't take it to self because if you think naturally about it you'll elevate yourself, but I've been blessed to see that this is actually—I put it down as "a burden," because it's a responsibility to be able to speak to God's people. It's a horrendous burden in some ways. Don't get me wrong. You know, I do, I like to serve. I want to serve, but there's a great fear in this because I want to make sure I don't hurt anybody within the Body of Christ by saying something incorrectly. So it carries a great responsibility. I know it's not me. That's something I've learned. It's not me. It's not got anything to do with Wayne Matthews. God says He can raise up a stone that could do a better job than me. I'm just blessed that He's given me the opportunity at this point in time.

So we can't take anything to self. We do not see the truth because of anything we did. God in His mercy called us and gave us the opportunity. We have a spirit in man; His spirit was given to us so now we see. Outside of that we'd be like everybody else out there. I'd probably be a bit worse than a lot of those people out there from my culture and what I was brought up like and my personality. So we don't take any credit to self. The only reason I'm here speaking to you is because of God. The only reason you're here listening is because of God and God's spirit. Outside of that we're just ordinary human beings just like everybody else. So how blessed are we? How blessed are we really? We see because of God's holy spirit. We are under government, Church government, because of God's holy spirit, and the moment we lose it we're no longer under Church government. We can't. The natural mind is hostile, not subject to, won't yield. It just won't.

Verse 12—Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, we're not going to go back to our own selfishness. We don't owe it anything. We've got a marvelous opportunity before us. …to live according to the flesh. So we shouldn't go back and live according to our selfishness. For if you live according to the flesh you will die. I will die. If I go back and fail to yield to God's government, Church government, I will die. "The wages of sin is death." Because I've made a decision. The point is we're not to give into our fleshly or selfish desires. We're not to do it. …but, this is the opposite, if by the spirit of God you put to death the deeds of the body. Isn't this a wonderful scripture? If we choose by the power of God's holy spirit to fight our selfishness, to fight against our self every day for the rest of our life. And those that are younger in God's Church, whether it be younger in spirit or younger in age, it might seem daunting because sometimes we do get battle weary. Sometimes we get, boy, this is hard. It is hard! It was meant to be hard because it's all about the spirit. It's about will we yield or won't we? That's what it's really about. Will we yield or won't we? So it is hard. Yes, it is a battle, fighting the same thing because of proclivities or, you know, the record in the groove, that who I am in my thinking, I've got to fight it. It won't stop until I die, either this time, possibly the next one. If I'm in the hundred years, I've got a hundred years of this. I'm not looking forward to it, by the way, in one way, but I know what I have to do, like you know what you have to do. No matter how long you've been around in God's Church this will not stop. It can't because the transformation of the mind must happen until the point where God says, "Now I know you," because then God can use what He's developed within us, change of thinking.

We should see it clearly for what it really is, which is don't expect anything from the natural mind out there. We, in part, are like Jesus Christ—it's only in part—where we walk around and we do think differently, and therefore, there's going to be pain and sorrow that we have to watch. There's going to be pain and sorrow inflicted on us because we just think differently than they do. We don't get up and broadcast our opinion. One classic example here in Australia is with the gay marriage thing, the gay and lesbian group. We got to be careful we don't get caught up in all this. We think differently. We believe what God said. God says it's Adam and Eve, man and a woman, that's marriage. So no matter what is said on both sides, both are lying. Both are lying. Why? Romans 8, the natural mind. They want their opinion, their view, and if you put up one view the other lot are going to bombard you and say you're nothing but a bigot and da-da-da. The other lot say, oh, no, this and that. It's unbelievable. Don't get caught up in it. We shouldn't get caught up in those things. We know what God says about it, that's the most important thing. We believe God. We can't debate them. Who cares what they think? Who cares what they think? We should worry about our attitude, our view because at some point in time they will be brought to the knowledge we have. They'll be brought to that knowledge, and if not, they're choosing another way of life, which will lead to death. That's what'll happen.

So for us we're not to get caught up in it. We're not to debate. We don't vote about the marriage, which is coming out where they're going to send out voting. It was interesting, the natural mind. I've got to bring this up. How the natural mind works is rather fascinating. I'd never thought of it but there are people taking their vote, which is not compulsory on this one, about whether they're going to have marriage changed in the constitution so that it doesn't matter man or woman or two men or two women marry. That's what the vote's about. But people, some carnally minded smart people (in some ways), they've now taken their vote, which is a yes or a no, knowing it's valuable to some people out there, they've put it on eBay for $1500. So if you pay $1500 that person will vote, "As long as you give me the cash, I'll vote what you want." They're selling their vote. That's the natural mind at work! It's not yielded to God's government where God makes it very clear about marriage. Isn't that amazing? I'm thinking, I've never thought of that. So there are people on eBay.

So now the government's having to backtrack and say, "Well, how are we going to overcome this? This is not right. You can't do this." Because can you imagine? Money is going to win this. And guess who's got a lot of money? So people are going to buy votes because it's not compulsory; you can put it up for an auction, and the yes or no vote may want to buy it. So there could be some people making a lot of money. So now the government has to go back and try to change laws of the land so that it's illegal. So Facebook and others have now said, "Well, we're no longer going to allow that." They're going to take those off the site, but that's nothing compared to the market. We go to the football and stand outside and you can buy a ticket to just about anything. There's scalpers everywhere that'll double the price or triple the price. Well, it's no different in a vote that's not compulsory, that that's exactly what's going to happen. So the votes you see are from the natural carnal mind. Its people that have made up their mind what's right and wrong, based on their reasoning. It’s got nothing to do with God…nothing to do with God. And there are people out there willing to sell their vote for cash. It should tell us a lot about the natural mind, what it will do.

Continuing on verse 13…but if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the spirit, the spirit of God, you put to death the deeds of the body, you fight against your selfishness for the rest of your life, we place our mind under government. Now, in saying that it's not just God's government, Church government, it's man's government as long as it doesn't contradict God's word. So we have to have a mind under government, all three types. At the moment it's man's, Church, and God's government.

Verse 14—For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. This is a great honor, to be called a begotten son of God because if we have God's spirit we're under Church government. These people with God's spirit have their minds under God's government, under Church government, and under man's government because often we will not think of it that way because there are many rules and laws that don't help mankind because the natural mind made these laws and rules up, but we have to yield to those laws. We should endeavor to yield to those laws unless they contradict God.

Verse 15—For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father. We turn to God because we have God's holy spirit. The spirit itself witnesses with our spirit, because there's a spirit in man which everybody has out there that's alive. They have the spirit in man, but they don't have this other spirit where they can yield to man's government, God's government, and Church government. It's not possible. We can yield to all three because we're different. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, therefore, we will think differently than everybody out there, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, who's already inherited, if indeed we suffer. We suffer by denying our self. We suffer because we have God's spirit. Isn't that incredible in this world? Because we have God's spirit and we think differently we're going to suffer. There's going to be a lot of suffering. Not only in denying self and fighting against our natural carnal mind, but we will suffer in this world. We suffer by having to watch what man's doing to himself. Horrendous things that are going on, absolutely horrendous what people do.

There was a story the other day. Well, it wasn't a story but a real event where a woman had a young baby, ended up in a de facto type of relationship, had another young man enter her life with the child and he didn't love the child—I think it was about two years old—didn't love the child as a father would love a child. You understand that, it's a second relationship. He ended up burning that child with a cigarette butt; now, like torturing it. Now, the natural mind, you know, I'd like to get him and sort him out. It’s just horrendous that you'd do that to a child! There are thousands and thousands of children out there suffering. There are thousands and thousands of adults in abusive relationships, men and women. There are people, older people in homes, in old people homes that are suffering in ways that we have no imagine what it's like. We have a mind that's different so we see these things and know they're wrong. There's nothing we can do about it because the only time we can do anything about it is when we enter Elohim.

So the most important thing we can do now is focus in on our own selfishness, our own problems because if we didn't have God's holy spirit we'd be out there almost like that, hurting someone else with our own selfishness. Mankind doesn't see that their selfishness hurts others, but it does. It ruins things because of selfishness, which we see. We see our selfishness hurts others and we don't like our selfishness. We don't want this selfish nature.

So, we are joint heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer, by denying ourselves, and we also suffer seeing all this stuff knowing we're different, that we may be glorified together, changed to spirit to be like Jesus Christ. So the only way we can help mankind is to focus in on our own selfishness and deny ourselves so that at a point in time we can enter Elohim, so we can actually help mankind, we can actually help others. Isn't that a wonderful time? We won't have sin. We'll have a different mind. We've got an aspect of it now, but we'll have the mind of Christ and it's based on love.

A mind under Church government is under God's government because it's a spiritual matter.

So a person with God's spirit knows and understands that their thinking needs to be corrected. The only reason a person's called into God's Church is to be corrected, to have our minds cleansed because that's why we're called. So it's going to be painful. It is going to be painful, and if we haven't felt that pain yet it'll come. Just give it a bit of time because at some point we'll do something that is stupid. It's just natural. So this mind has to be changed; it has to be corrected. So in God's Church, really, this is a training camp of correction. We're continually going to be corrected and it's a beautiful thing. It's a wonderful thing because there's a transformation going on in the mind. We're going to think differently. So we have to have that attitude about correction. The times that I've been corrected, I've been blessed so far to be able to go, "Ah, this is good for me." Nobody likes correction, nobody, because we're natural. We have pride. We don't like to think we're wrong.

So, yes, we're going to be corrected and the rest of our life is about being corrected. My correction is not over—I know that—until I take that last breath because I'm wrong. I know I'm wrong. I know I don't treat people the way that I should. I know I don't love the way I should love. I know I do things wrong in my marriage. I know that I do things wrong towards others, that I hurt others. I know it! I don't like it, but that's what it's about, this mind that's willing to yield to love.

So this mind needs correcting (there's one we read in Romans 8), and the only way it can be corrected is by the power of God's holy spirit. When we see that as two different things it's a beautiful thing, really, isn't it. This mind that runs around selfishly looking after self, and then all of a sudden God in His mercy calls us to have that mind transformed by correction through knowledge and understanding. It's a beautiful thing that it's going to happen.

To be under Church government requires individuals to have God's holy spirit active in their mind. In other words, we're working on it. I know I'm going to run out of time but I want to go over one particular, or two groups of scriptures. The first one we're going to look at is 1 Corinthians 2:7-14. The principle here is that to be under any type of government, to truly be under government by yielding, by submitting to it, it does require God's holy spirit. There are many of people that yield to various governments because it's in their benefit. In mankind's governments they'll yield to it because they're getting bigger pay or there's a bribe or they could end up with a title, one or the other. There's a reason why they're yielding to it. It's about themselves. For us it's different.

1 Corinthians 2:7—But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. This is referring to the truth. Now, we only understand that we see the truth and we see the holy days because we have God's spirit. So when we go to somebody without God's holy spirit and say, "Well, I'm keeping the Day of Atonement." "The day of what? There's a movie called Atonement, but the Day of what? Atonement? What do you do?" "Well, we in that day, we actually fast, food and water, for 24 hours and we think about ourselves and our sin." Now, try telling that to the natural carnal mind. It's not capable of even beginning to understand what we're doing. "I'm working on myself." The natural mind doesn't work on itself. It doesn't correct itself and realize it's wrong. It won't admit it's wrong. So we know this. We have this hidden wisdom which comes from God, God's spirit. The truth and the holy days are an example.

…the hidden which God ordained before the ages—Why?— for our glory. So we carry a glory if we carry God's holy spirit because we think differently than everyone else and we won't fit into this world. It's not possible.

Verse 8—which none of the rulers of this age knew (the world); for had they known, if they had known about these hidden truths and the mysteries and the 57 Truths, they would not have staked to the pole the Lord of glory. They wouldn't have done it because they think, "Ah." They would have seen, but they can't see. But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard; now, this is referring to spiritual things. The natural mind has not seen or heard (it can't understand them in other words). Now the natural mind could have heard about the 57 Truths, but it can't understand them. It doesn't grasp the spirit of the matter. It can't. Nor has entered into the mind of mankind the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. I think this is an incredible scripture. There is so much in this one scripture. "The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." Now, we can look at this now and say we love God so we see the truth. They've been prepared for us; they've been given to us. The holy days have been prepared from creation for us; they've been given to us. How great that we see them, but if you look at that in the future our minds, our minds even with God's spirit, cannot comprehend eternity. We cannot comprehend what God has prepared for those in Elohim. Now, we know 7,100 years, but eternity? God has prepared something. It's not as if everyone is going to relax and say, "Oh, what are we going to do now?" It's planned. It's prepared for eternity. Our minds can't begin to comprehend it because they're physical. We just can't. But God has prepared the things for the future when we enter Elohim. There are incredible things that our mind hasn't even started to think of, things that we don't even understand.

You know, there's a spirit realm. What does that mean? Well, what does that mean? We're physical, and there's a spiritual realm. What's in that? We won't know until we get there to see it. When will we see it? We don't know. After 7,100 years, there's a point – what's going to be revealed? We don't know.

I was saying to Chris the other day, "How exciting it would be to meet Jesus Christ!" Exciting! Meet God the Father? When would that happen? I don't know. When? But not necessarily during the thousand years or the hundred years. Not that it's doctrine, but we don't know. True? We just don't know when we're going to meet God the Father, but how exciting is that going to be? And how many years is it going to be? I don't know. The things that are prepared for us, what that's going to be like, it's exciting. Not without speculation. You know, we don't want to go speculating, but we just don't know these things. We've got to wait for God to reveal when it's going to happen.

So mankind can't comprehend anything we're talking about. When it talks about entering Elohim – "Sure!" One day we're going to be god, gods. We’re not going to be God the Father or Jesus Christ; we're going to be in Elohim. We're going to be god. "Sure!" Minds can't comprehend it. Those natural minds, they can't, and if they knew all of these things we know they wouldn't have acted the way that they did, but there was a plan to have a Passover.

Verse 10—But God has revealed them, these hidden truths of things that we see to this point in time, to us by His spirit. It's the only reason we see them. Now, part of this is really leading to the point where we should not expect others to be under government the way we have to be. We shouldn't expect it. So when people run around and they demonstrate and they do all these things, we shouldn't expect anything else because it's impossible for them. They don't have God's holy spirit. So let's not put burdens on people. They don't have the capacity to yield to Church government. They just don't. Don't expect it.

For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Which is the natural mind. They know those things. They know things about physics and all these physical things. Yep, it's wonderful, knowledge that God has given to them, to be able to comprehend those things. Even so no one—no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God, or by the spirit of God. So we only see spiritual knowledge and understanding because of a calling and God's great mercy. We take no credit to self. If it wasn't me doing this role someone else would be. God would have raised them up. He could take that chair and let it start speaking like He did with Balaam and the ass where the donkey turns around and starts talking. God could have a donkey up here talking. It's God's word. It's not Wayne Matthews. It's not Ron Weinland. It's not you or me. It's God doing it. And it's a wonderful thing to believe, that it's God's Church. God does what God wants to do, and years ago it was the apostle Peter, and it was the apostle Paul, and thousands of other people – 144,000 other people that have been worked with and developed. It’s nothing about them. How merciful! And they knew it, that God was working with them. How merciful were they when others didn't. And they were developing a mind that didn't fit, just like we're developing a mind that doesn't fit; it doesn't fit out there, and we have to watch it. It's going to get much worse and it's going to be difficult.

What's coming is going to be difficult. To watch humans suffer is a difficult thing, not only our own families, but also others because we have God's spirit because all of those people out there have the potential to know God and to understand God at a point in time, and we'll have the same yearning for them. Just like that little child that I would have loved to have just taken away and nurtured, that's how God feels about His total creation. He loves it and nurtures it. We don't. We have bias still in all of us. All of us have bias. It's called family, flesh and blood because we've still got a natural mind. So we have to learn to love.

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of/from God, that we might know the things which have been freely given to us by God. Yes, it all comes from God. There is no credit to self about anything, nothing about our knowledge or our spiritual development. It's God doing it all. It's Him doing a second creation within us. How blessed are we?

Verse 13—These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, not from human intellect or human reasoning. One of the things about human intellect or human reasoning is that it lifts self up. "I know more," or "I'm better than you." That's just the way the mind is. It's what titles are all about. "Don't you know that I'm the CEO? I'm better than you because I'm more 'brainy' than you." No, you were just blessed by God. There's no credit given to God there is there? But that's the reality. You're blessed to have the mind you do. You were blessed to be brought up in the family that you were compared to thousands and millions of other people. How blessed are we just to be called, when you look at it, really? …but which the holy spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Verse 14—But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, absolutely impossible, for they are foolishness to them. Church government is foolishness to the natural mind. "How can you have one person that tells you all of this stuff and you all believe it? How can you have someone make a ruling, a binding or a loosening, and you all go, 'Yep.' You pack of idiots!" That's the natural mind. "You're just all controlled. Haven't you got your own mind?" That's the problem; I do have my own mind. That's one of the problems I realized because of God's holy spirit. That's our problem; we have a mind that thinks, it reasons, "logical." It's not the mind of God. It's not the mind of God. That's why we've got something different, therefore, we don't fit. "…which man's wisdom teach, but which the holy spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual," which we read in verse 13.

So the world thinks we're foolish. They think Church government is foolish because of God's holy spirit. So everything of God, the truth, the holy days is foolishness. We're a pack of, you know, stupid people. …nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, because they come from God. It's God's thinking. So we can see the difference. One mind can be under government, one can't. The moment we start to fight against God's government, Church government we know we're using the wrong thinking. It should go off in our minds. It's a warning: "You're using human reasoning." No, the problem is me; the problem is you. That's the first point of our thinking.

So whenever anything's happened that's what I've normally said, "Wayne, I'm the problem." I might not see it, you know, I don't understand it yet, but I know I'm the problem because I've got a natural mind. It's what God says. I'm the problem, not the person correcting me, I'm the problem. What is it? I know what it is generally in the end, it's natural mind. So based on these scriptures Church government is foolishness to mankind and it cannot be understood; it’s just not possible.

Now, the real difference is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, the difference about Church government/God's government than man's government. God governs in love. Mankind can't understand that. Mankind has no ability to understand it, but we can. So when we can see the death of people, for example, what's coming and more and more people dying, God is doing this out of love. He's letting mankind rule himself for a period of time. But God can destroy because He loves His creation. Now, the natural mind just can't comprehend that, that you could take little children – remember when Israel was told to kill people – the natural mind just can't come to grips with that. The main reason for that is they think you only have one opportunity in life. They don't believe in a second life. They don't believe in it. They don't believe in a second death because they just think you live once and you go to heaven or hell and that motivates nearly all decisions that are made, therefore, if there is a rapist or a murderer they think, "Well, he's only going to live once. We've got to get him to a point (Catholic doctrine), where he's repentant so when he dies he'll to go heaven," even though he's butchered twenty people. That's their thinking. That's what motivates the court system. Then the death penalty has been done away by most man's governments. Why? Because they don't believe God. They can't believe God. They've no ability to believe God, really. They could have that rule but human reasoning and intellect says, "Oh, no, they've only got one chance. We've got to look after them," when the best thing for them would be that they are put to death, and then they're resurrected if that's God's will to resurrect them in the Hundred Years if they haven't gone too far.

God governs in love. Church government governs in love. Now, this is difficult sometimes even for people in God's Church, the Body of Christ, that decisions from God's apostle, from God the Father to Jesus Christ to God's apostle is about love. It's about love, what's best for the Body, what is best for the individual.

Now, this comes into decision making because we by nature—it's something I've had to learn—we by nature categorize things and put things in boxes. I've done it. I still do it to a certain degree, but every single case is different. So one ruling may be that these people or this family can bring children to church and another group can't. But the natural mind generally will go, "Well, what's going on there?" No, its individual decisions have to be made. So two things may look alike to us, or three things may all look alike, but by the power of God's holy spirit and discernment comes in and a judgment is made, "This is the ruling for you, but this is the ruling for you, but this is the ruling for you." The mind will naturally say, "Well, hang on a minute, what about that person, and what about that one? Why aren't you doing it to them? You're doing it to me." See, that's a mind that's not under government.

Because the best thing for us is that if we're given a direction don't add to or take away, don't try to analyze it. Try to take it on board and realize that "I'm the problem. I'm the problem." "It's not the apostle giving the decision, it's not the ruling or the judgment, it's for my benefit," Even though you may not understand all of it, "Why that person's doing 'that' and why that person's doing 'that,' which is different than me," yet the situations look identical. But they're not. And it all goes back to this: God's Church governs in love. That's the outcome. God's Church governs in love and if we don't comprehend that the problem is us. It’s something I've had to learn. And you know the best way to learn it? Go through it. Go through it.

Well, we should be prepared to learn this lesson about government. We should be prepared. It's coming at some point in our life because God wants to know He has a mind that is under His rule, under His government. He wants to know a mind that is yielding.

1 Corinthians 13. This scripture explains how we should think and act to man's government, Church government, and God's government. 1 Corinthians 13:4—Love suffers long towards others. It's patient. It endures. It allows for spiritual development because the tendency within our nature is that we categorize everybody in the Church, you know, "This is the situation," but everybody is at different levels of knowledge and understanding within God's Church. Someone that's been around a lot longer should have more knowledge and understanding than somebody new coming into the Church. They should because of experience, not because of knowledge or the understanding. Experience. Because, really, to come to understand something you've got to experience it.

I know what it's like now to watch people suffer because I've suffered. I see it and I realize I can't control it, but I've got to work on me because at some point in time I'll be able to help them; I want to help them. Not just my own family, but everybody. I want to help small children. I want to help adults. I want to help the elderly. I want what's best for them. That's the thinking of God. So we have to suffer long, we have to endure.

It is kind; loves does not envy. Now, this sounds simple, "Love does not envy." Now, this really goes back to roles that God has given to others to fulfill. Now, in these, when we look at it and we misjudge it because we leave God out of the picture and we say, "Ah, that person's doing 'this.' They've been given an opportunity. Why didn't they choose me?" The natural mind is at work because we've left God out of the picture. It's God that raises up and it's God that pulls down. Now, generally human nature is we tend to enjoy the raising up, but the pulling down is a little bit harder – because we've left God out of the picture.

I’m going to run out of time but I want to just say something. When I was first in Worldwide days—I don't like to go back too far about those things—but I didn't understand what it was like (I was mid-thirtyish or so), I didn't understand what it was like for the older person who'd been in God's Church forty years, that was seventy years of age, for example, when they saw somebody come out of Ambassador College and they might have been 24, 25, and they were in the ministry. And they, in authority spiritually, were over the seventy year old and the seventy year old should have listened to the spiritual advice. I didn't realize how hard it was for the seventy year old because on the natural level it's really difficult to turn around and say, "That whippersnapper's telling me what to do!" That's natural. But a person with God's spirit realizes the principle. There's always been younger and older. Always! And guess what? There's always going to be younger and older. That's just the course of life. I came in the Church when I was around my early thirties, up in the sixties now, and I’ve been around for a while, and I realize fully that it's God's Church and God'll appoint people according to His spirit. Ron's mentioned that the whole point is it's about the flow of God's spirit. It's about the flow of God's spirit. We have to learn to yield to the flow of God's spirit. We have to learn it, but sometimes we have to experience it to learn it. But it is a process. It's about growth. The flow of God's spirit.

Yes, we can be ordained to a role today, tomorrow maybe not. What will my reaction be? I believe my reaction will be, "This is God's Church. It makes no difference who God uses; I have to yield to what God is doing." It's got nothing to do with the individual, it's about my thinking, and that I have to learn to yield to that government.

Love does not envy. It doesn't have wrong desires about things. It sees things, puts God in the picture. It doesn't envy things that God is doing. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. It doesn't brag or boast: "It's me doing this!" No, it realizes it's real worth. We should know our true worth to God. It's God's Church – that's our worth. We're part of the Body. We've got a role to fulfill. That role, for some people, has been difficult. Some people, their role is prayer. Others are to serve in different areas. There's all different roles within the body. We all need each other.

Verse 5—does not behave rudely, and it's not rude or lifts itself up. It's not acts badly toward others in the Church or out of the Church because this is about God's spirit.

So that is a key point to remember, that it is God's Church and this is how God works.

I want to conclude by looking at a few scriptures. And hopefully I can get through these in the time that I've got left.

James 3:17-18. And these three points that I'm going to cover here really cover a mind that is actually under government, man's government, Church government, and God's government. So this is about a mind that is under the government, what it will do, it will yield. It will yield. Remember, God's spirit is about love. God's government is about love. Well, this requires a mind that will yield. But the wisdom or the thinking of God that is from above, which comes from God, is first pure, so it doesn't fight against what the instruction or the direction given, then it's peaceable, so it's a mind that thinks differently than everyone else. You know, it just thinks differently. It's pure. Its motive is pure. It's peaceable. It's gentle, in other words, it's not going to fight and resist against what's given, willing to yield because it has to be a choice that has to be made. It’s willing to yield, willing to give in to this instruction or this authority that comes from God. ...full of mercy, so it's not going to be up in arms against others, and good fruits, which you can look at Galatians 5 for an example.

And this is another key, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. So we're not biased in our judgment. We don't look at people and say, "Oh, yeah, make this ruling." No, we know people in God's Church. This is a mind that yields.

Verse 18—But the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace, so we're a mind at peace. Well, when we're at peace with the government we're not breaking man's laws. We're at peace. You know, we've got nothing to fear, we're following the laws. It's easy. …by those who make peace.

1 Peter 2:13. A mind under government is submissive to all authority, based on the principle that it's not going against God's law. So it's about being submissive to all authority. There are a lot of scriptures that cover that. We'll look at this in 1 Peter 2:13, we'll start, Therefore, submit yourselves. Now, that word is "yield." Yield yourself to every ordinance, which is every instruction of man for the Lord's sake. Now, we can look at this on a spiritual level because it's talking about government. We know there's Church government and man's government, but it makes little difference in some ways. We're to yield to authority. God allows authorities. Whether they're good or evil towards us we're to yield. A classic example of that was the apostle Paul. He yielded to the authority. He didn't fight against it. He spoke the truth in love and took the consequences, house arrest, and all the other things that happened to him. Peter did; they took beatings. It was unjust. It makes no difference – he yielded to the authority, which we should do.

…whether to king, as supreme; (verse 14) or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for to the praise of those who do good. Because if we don't break man's laws generally nothing much happens. We live in peace. True? But if you want to go out there and break all of man's laws, well, there's an outcome. It's a penalty.

Now, there are times (I'm going to use the example), for example, where it goes against God. Where were we have compulsory voting in Australia, in Australia we go against that because God tells us that we shouldn't vote. In other words, raise ourselves up to think that we're right in our judgment. No, we don't. Therefore, the penalty is you might get fined. We take it. Fortunately, can send a letter in and they normally abolish the fine. So whether it's good or bad we yield. We do the best we can. We obey God first and man later, but we are yielding to the authority best we can.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, which will happen in the future. They will come to see, "Ah, that's why they did it." It's all about God's spirit. …as free, yet not using liberty that we have as a cloak of vice, but as servants of God. Respect all. Honor all. Respect all authority, same as within the Church. Respect the authority that's put over us for our good out of love. That's why it's there.

Love the brotherhood, which is other members of the Body. We should love each other. We should sacrifice for each other. Fear God, which is to hold God in awe, respect God's word, and learn to hate evil within ourselves. That's what fearing God is. Honor the king. Honor authority. Be a good citizen, a good citizen for the nation because we carry God's name. It's something that we learn over time; it is the responsibility that we have of carrying God's name. How much more we should control our natural carnal mind because people remember things?

One thing that Chris and myself learned very early in our marriage, because we were under pressure from my family, was that we couldn't afford to give one inch on anything to do with the Sabbath ever because we knew what would happen in my family, how one inch, the tiniest little dot could hurt. So we were quite hard and rigid about certain things for a reason, a spiritual reason because we knew if we gave an inch they'll take a mile. Because we knew one day they'd come back and say, "Yeah, but you…" "Yeah, but you…" Because you're opening a door. So we might have been a bit too hard in some things but we realized very quickly, my family, there's going to be a problem. So we did that within my children. We never gave them an inch where they could turn around and say, "Yeah, but dad, you…" or "Yeah, but mum, you…" We tried. We didn't always succeed. But we realized a principle we had to stand for God no matter what. God would be first no matter what and if it meant not doing something on a Sabbath that they may think that we should and we said no, we believe it was wrong, we just didn't do it. They might criticize us and remember it for the rest of their life, which they do. That's fine. I don't really care, to be honest, because I know God's more important. And one day they're going to go, "Ah, now I know, dad, why you did it." "Ah, now I know, mum, why you did it." Because it was God's spirit. It's God doing it.

The final point. A mind under government is a mind that knows and understands the flow of God's holy spirit. This is a really important key for members of the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13. Now, it's not about just Church authority that's been given to ministry. This also comes down to within the Body itself, that we understand and respect others within the Body. That's what it's about. It's about respect to that authority, about yielding to that authority, which is anyone with God's spirit has a level of authority amongst ourselves that we should be sacrificing for.

Ephesians 4:11-13—And He Himself (God the Father) gave some to apostles; some, prophets; some, evangelists; some, pastors; some, teachers. So it was God that did it. It wasn't manmade. It wasn't because that person had a better education and all that. No, it's by the power of God's holy spirit this is done. God does it. God will raise up and God will pull down. God will use people according to His will and purpose within His Body. It's not about man. It's not about us individually. This is about God's spirit.

Ephesians 4:12—Why? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ. For all of us. It's the whole body that is impacted by God's decision to use people according to His will and purpose. And when is this going to continue? Till we all come to the unity of the faith, we all believe God, and the knowledge of the Son of God, the knowledge of what Christ did for us and that he had this mind that was different and he didn't fit, just like we don't fit. It's not possible. God's spirit and mankind don't go together. The mind must be transformed to take on God's mind and that's the process we've entered. Mankind's time is coming. …to a mature (perfect) man, so we've got to mature spiritually and have this mind transformed, to the measure and stature and fullness in Christ. So it is about the way we think.

What we are here today talking about, government, cannot be understood by mankind because it has a natural mind, but we have God's spirit; therefore, we can understand what's being said. We can understand that we need to yield, we need to submit, which is talking about the natural mind has to yield to authority, God's authority, which is about commandments and holy days, Church authority, which can be about binding and loosening, and man's authority as long as it doesn't contradict God.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1