Never Forget

Wayne Matthews

April 6, 2018

Welcome, everybody.

One of the greatest tragedy's that exists in today's world is that mankind has forgotten their true history and their true identity. In Australia at the moment there is a group running around saying that they've been here for 60,000 years. In other words, they've been here a long time. They deny the creation by this, because of what they say. So these indigenous people say they've been here for 60,000 years. This, of course, really is a lie because they don't know the truth. They don't know their history. They have no idea.

Well, they are just deceived like the majority of the world and the majority of the world have genealogy tests where they test their genealogy to find out where they came from. Well, the reality is each and every one of us can trace our destiny – trace our history, in other words, our ancestry as it's said in the various TV adverts they have. Well, we know we all can trace our genealogy back to two people, Noah and his wife. That's where it was; it goes back to the flood. If we wanted to go back further we can trace our genealogy, where we came from, from Adam and Eve. So it's quite simple, really. The reality is it makes no difference what descendants we have. It doesn't matter. We all came from Noah, and therefore, we all have the same human nature. We're all the same.

But today's society wants to trace it back. I've watched different programs. We have a program in Australia that says, I think it's called, Who Do You Think You Are? And the reality is they trace it back and it's interesting to watch human nature at work, because human nature, there's a pride there. So people trace back their history and they find out they came from maybe a convict, for example. Well, people are really proud of that and if they trace their history back to a point of view where they come to a point where it says, well, you actually descend from a bushranger, well, the person's just ecstatic that they came from a bushranger, came from a criminal, came from a murderer. They're proud of it because it makes no difference. It doesn't matter what history we really have. It'll be interesting to find out some of those things. But today it doesn't matter where we came from based on our genealogy. It makes no difference because our calling is spiritual. It's spiritual in nature.

Well, the problem is with mankind is that they've forgotten so much. They've forgotten about their true identity and they've forgotten about their history because there's so much taught about various things that mankind has forgotten, but God gave a record for mankind to know. So we have no excuse. It's just because of our personalities or because of our nature we choose to forget things.

The title of today's sermon is Never Forget. Never forget because there are so many things that mankind has forgotten. I've thought about this very topic and there are certain events that have happened in my life that I will never forget. I just won't forget them because they impacted me.

Now, if we look at the history of Israel, for example, they came out of the Red Sea. Now, you'd think they'd never forget that. That was just so dramatic that it'd be burned in your brain, and therefore, you would never forget the power of God and how Great God is, but they seemed to have forgotten it quite quickly because they whined and complained and blamed God for various things, complained about Moses, complained about God.

Well, the most important things that the majority of mankind has forgotten are the actual events that happened on the Passover, the very first Passover, and the truth about the seven days of Unleavened Bread. They've forgotten about that. There's a Jewish nation (called the Jewish nation today) that say they remember those things. Well, they do remember components, but they don't remember the understanding with it. They can remember an event. For example, we can remember the Sabbath, and a lot of people do that aren't of God. They can remember the seventh day Sabbath, but to understand why is totally different. It's a spiritual matter.

I remember certain things like my wedding day. I remember. It's burned into my brain. I remember many elements of it. I remember the particular dress that my wife wore. I remember the hat that she had. So I remember those things. There are lots of other things that I remember. I remember the birth of my children and I do remember on a spiritual level my baptism. I remember the day and how I drove down to the beach area. I remember the minister that baptized me. I remember the day. I remember the ocean. I remember the waves. I remember standing up on the towel and watching my wife get baptized. So those things I remember.

I remember baptizing some particular members of the Body of Christ. Here in Australia I remember all of the people that have been baptized. I remember that day. It's something that's burned in my brain and I remember it. I remember two people getting baptized in New South Wales and the swimming pool was freezing cold and one of those members of the Body is still with us today. I know he remembers that day too. Well, I remember that. I remember that. I remember another time when I baptized somebody in a pool and I remember that they went under and they still had their hands hanging on the side of the swimming pool, and it was bitterly cold, and I'd said, "Well, you've got to go under again." They were fearful of water, which I never fully comprehended at that time. Now I understand more. Well, they were fearful about going under. Well, those things I remember.

Well, it's a tragedy really that mankind, particularly those from the tribes of Israel, have forgotten about Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. So the title being Never Forget, it's so important that we remember certain things in our life. Once called, we should never forget why God called us. So why did God call you and me? It’s a unique time. Why did God call us? And how are we kept in the truth? So if we could just remember those things it would make a big difference to our life because these are spiritual matters. So the first one, we should never forget why God called us. Well, we're called for a reason, and the main reason is God desires a family.

Now, we understand the purpose of life. How incredible is that? Because the majority of mankind doesn’t understand anything, other than those members of the Body of Christ that have God's spirit now remember really why they were called. It is about salvation, but there's one connection to that that we must remember – the purpose of life.

So if we look at God's plan overall and consider the elements of it: now that we've been called, now that we have God's holy spirit, we understand what God is doing in our life. This is why we remember Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, but more importantly we remember why, we remember and understand why these days because people can read about Passover, about God and what He did in delivering Israel and they came out with unleavened bread and how we're to eat unleavened bread for seven days, a piece each day for the seven days. Well, they're things that people can remember. But what's it really all about? Because they're just things to remember, but there's much more to it. We within the Body of Christ, the Church of God, have that understanding. We know this.

God has recorded what happened when He delivered the children of Israel from Egypt. It is recorded for everyone to see on a physical level and to be seen on a spiritual level by His people. We are the only ones that can really understand and see the real purpose of Passover and the real purpose of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Well, we are never to forget the understanding that God has given us.

So one thing to remember always is the fact that we only know what we know and we only understand what we understand because God in His mercy has called us. Now, outside of that people can't understand what's going on. That's why people consider us a bit strange or a bit weird at times because we are different. We're different, not because we just know something, but that we understand it. So the 57 Truths that we have, we know them and we may be able to repeat most of them, but understanding them is completely different because somebody can take the 57 Truths and know them. They can read them, but do they understand the spirit of it? Now, that's the key to it. That's what a callings about, to understand it.

Well, God gave us a personality or a nature which is called human nature and connected to that there's a personality based on choices that we make. We all make those choices at different times in life – some good, some bad. Some, what people would consider good choices, by making decisions whether it's on a financial level or it's on a particular level it's a good choice. There are other choices that are made, or other decisions made that aren't so good because the consequences have never really been thought through properly.

At the time of the recording of this sermon mankind has no knowledge of the true meaning of Passover or the seven days of Unleavened Bread. They have some, people have a small knowledge of these days, but they do not understand it. We're going to go into some of that today, about why we should never forget the importance of Passover and why we should never forget the importance of the Days of Unleavened Bread because they have great spiritual meaning.

Now, we should not forget because these events are spiritual in nature and we have been called to see and understand, to see the truth. Now, that's the purpose of our calling. We've been called to see, to understand so that we can be transformed; our minds can be changed from the way we think normally, the transformation of the mind. Incredible thing! We had sermons at the Feast about the experiencing of good and evil. Now, that's all about making choices, about making right choices because based on a choice we then will gain more understanding. If we make wrong choices we won't get the understanding that we need. God wants to change the way we think. It's a transformation of the mind and it takes place over time.

So we're going to start by looking at the spiritual meaning of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread that can only be understood if we have God's holy spirit. Now, if we don't have God's holy spirit, it's just more knowledge, but to deeply understand what it really means to us as individuals, that requires God's holy spirit, which we have. We are part of the Body of Christ. We are members of the Body of Christ, the Church of God, because we have God's holy spirit. If we don't have God's holy spirit living actively in our life we are not part of the Body of Christ, the Church of God. We're not. Because to be in the Body, to be a member (so-called) – I don't like using that word a lot about being a member – but being a member really requires God's holy spirit. We're not part of the Body, we're not joined as one, if we don't have God's holy spirit.

Leviticus 23, and we're going to start in verse 4. We're going to leave the Sabbath component out; we're just going to pick up the parts of Passover and Unleavened Bread at this particular time. But if we really understand the plan of salvation that God has outlined in the seven annual holy days, really, because to know them is one thing. So we know about Trumpets. We know about the Feast of Tabernacles. We know about the Last Great Day, but to understand them is a spiritual matter. Well, we have that understanding. What a great blessing!

Leviticus 23:4, which covers these days—These are the appointed times of the Eternal, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. So there's a set time once a year annually that these events take place and we then will celebrate those and keep those days because God has commanded it. It's about understanding why. It's not just doing them because somebody can observe a Passover, which there are thousands and thousands of people that do it. People that were part of the Body of Christ at some point in time and have lost the understanding, they still have the knowledge, but they go through the ritual, really, of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and wine, and footwashing service. Those things they do, but they're not in the truth because God's spirit is not living and dwelling in them so they over time will lose the understanding they once had. There's coming a time when God in His mercy will give them back that understanding because God's spirit will be given back to them.

"These are the appointed times." So we know that Passover is a time that we, members of the Body and have God's holy spirit, will observe because we understand why we're doing it. It's not just a ritual. We understand why we're actually doing it.

Verse 5— In the fourteenth day of the first month between the evenings is the Eternal's Passover. So this is at the evening part. It's the night portion. It's all done on the fourteenth. So we understand the calendar, where a day starts when the sun goes down. It's dark and then its daylight. That's a 24 hour period. So it's the evening and the morning of the first day. Well, it says here in the first month between the evenings. So it's to take place. Well, we know that it was at the night time portion.

Verse 6—And at the end of the fourteenth, going into the evening of the fifteenth, And on the fifteenth day, which is the night portion, of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Eternal: seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. So it's about eating unleavened bread. But why? We're going to go into that.

Verse 7—On the first day you shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no customary or occupational work on it. So we're not to work. We're to stop doing what we want to do. We're to stop using our carnal mind and trying to work out and earn a living. We're to stop and rest because annual holy days or holy days and the Sabbath is rest. The word "Sabbath" means rest. We are to stop and rest. You shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal for seven days. That means on a physical level they used to sacrifice. They used to give an offering during that time as well. For us it's different. We're to offer up ourselves. So to understand the Days of Unleavened Bread now it's really about us and what we do and what we think. So we are to offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice, which means we're going to have to do some work on our minds. We're going to have to work on our thinking, the way we think. It's a change of thinking that needs to take place. It's just not stopping work and it's not just about offering physical animal sacrifices, which is done away. We're to offer something else. We're to offer up our selfishness. …seventh day shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no customary work on it.

Now, within the Days of Unleavened Bread we understand that there is a wave sheaf offering that takes place. So we're going to touch that on verse 11. Now, this took place on the Sunday morning. Verse 11—he, which is talking about the priest, shall wave the sheaf. Now, this sheaf was taken from the beginning of the harvest or the first of the harvest. So they would go out there and they would cut a sheaf and that first one would be put aside for this particular ceremony or service because it's pointing to something. People read it and it looks all physical, but we understand it was fulfilled through Jesus Christ about the wave sheaf and what it points to and more.

So this wave sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread the priest shall wave it. Now, we understand it pointed to Jesus Christ who fulfilled it by his resurrection and going to see God the Father, being taken up to see God the Father and then reappearing back to Mary Magdalene. We understand those things. So they are spiritual in nature and this is all pointing about salvation. Because, really, Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are about the process or the steps toward being saved. It's about salvation because we've been born with this natural carnal mind and God in His mercy and great plan has created us this way, the proclivity to sin, the carnal mind. "The natural carnal mind is hostile to God, not subject to the law of God, and indeed cannot be." So we have this nature. By nature we have it. Well, God designed it that way for a purpose and it's all about choices. What choices will we make?

Now, we experience good and we experience evil. Well, with God's holy spirit we experience good; we can see the difference. That's the difference; we "see" the difference. But mankind experiences evil just about in everything he does because he has a natural mind that is subject to three main lusts or desires. He doesn't know it. He doesn't understand it. He's not aware of it. He had no understanding of it, no understanding of it. "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." So those things are the motivation, which are all selfishness and sin. Well, we've been called to "see" it, to experience good because mankind is subject to evil, to the darkness. That's what he's subject to. Well, we've been called to experience something different and we do. Then God looks at our choice. What choice will we make? Will we choose good or will we choose evil? We experience them; we see the difference because we have God's spirit. We have understanding of it. We have understanding of ourselves.

So these days all have great meaning, but mankind is yet to see. They are yet to see. Now, there have been many in the Body of Christ that have experienced both good and evil, but they've forgotten the Eternal and they've forgotten these holy days and their meaning because when a person loses God's holy spirit they lose the understanding. They may not necessarily lose the knowledge of it, but they could lose the understanding. Well, they do, because without God's spirit you can't understand and you'll lose it like most have.

Deuteronomy 6:10— So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, which was a promise about the promised land, He swore this to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build. Now, this really is about where there was a group of peoples that were in Canaan and they had built various cities. They had built various wells. They had crops. They had all these things and they were living a life in evil, the natural carnal mind, and they weren't subject in any way to God because they weren't called to it. So here they are and they're going down a path of evil. The children, everybody is going down that path.

God said that He was going to give Israel this. “So it's all there for you. It's like a promised land. There's marvelous crops being grown, there's wonderful buildings. All you've got to do is go in and do what I tell you and I'm going to give it all to you because I promised it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” which really points to God does provide for His people. God provides everything. So this is something that we can never forget. God is our provider. He is the one that provides everything. So no matter what situation we find ourselves in we should never forget who provided us life, which is one of the most important things. Without life, what do we have? Nothing. God provided us life. We should never forget it and in that process it will trigger something about being thankful.

I remember back in my youth when I just lived life. I never thought about anything. I'd say I thought about some things, but I never really thought. Things just happened. Life just happened and there was no measuring of self. I didn't sit down and measure that this action was a right action or a wrong action. I measured it whether it was going to give me pleasure or not. Basically, I just lived life.

Well, that's mankind. He just lives life. He measures certain things, but it's all about self. It's about getting back to self: "If I do this and that." If you look at politics of the world you can see it. It's just everywhere. Well, we should never forget that God called us, that God called us! The reason He called us was salvation. God called us to salvation.

Now, many have started the process, being called, having God's holy spirit, and have begun the process of changing or transforming, but that process has stopped. It doesn't mean to say it won't be restarted, because it can be restarted. I've been through that process. You can think, "Well, how has that happened?" Well, it happened to me, and time permitting, we may or may not get to it, but time permitting we'll get to it. Because I look at the Apostasy, what was that about? I had been called. I had God's holy spirit and I went to sleep so the process stopped. My mind went so far; I had knowledge and understanding and then I began a process of losing the understanding, and then for many of years it was a ritual for me. I'd still kept the Sabbath, but it was all physical. I kept Passover. I kept Unleavened Bread. I did my tithing, but it was all physical. The understanding was going. I knew that that's what God required so I just did it, but did I have the spiritual understanding? It was lost. Over time it was lost. So I've been through that process.

Then being awakened – we use that term – which is God's holy spirit being reactivated in me again gave me this opportunity to continue the steps, continue the process of transforming the mind. At one point in time God will say, "Now I know you and I will give you spirit life." Now, we don't know when that's going to be. We just continue the path of the transformation.

Now, there are some that have started the process, went to sleep, came back, were part of the Body of Christ, the Church of God—PKG, and have lost their process. They've stopped. They've stopped. They've gone back to sleep again. Now, God knows what He's going to do. Some will be given the opportunity, others may have committed an unpardonable sin because it was quite willful, just gave up and walked away from it, didn't want what God was offering. Others through weakness or deception have fallen back to sleep. So it's not over for everybody that has been part of the Body the second time.

Continuing on in verse 11—houses full of all good things, so God's giving it all because it all comes from God, everything comes from God. Our employment, our health, it's all from God. Now, there are times when many get into ill health. Well, it's something that we have to manage, we have to work on, because we have choices to make. Sometimes our ill health is because of bad choices. Other times it's genetic because of bad choices that were made a long time ago, hundreds of years ago. We can't tell, but these things exist. Well, it's about the way we think. We should be thankful for everything that we have no matter what it is.

…which you did not fill, because it was already done, hewed out wells, where they've been dug, which you did not dig, someone else did it, vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant; when you have eaten and are full. Now, this is the problem. When we have too much and we're unthankful and we forget that everything comes from God, every single thing, this is the problem. We are full. We become lukewarm. We become Laodicean. We become complacent, which is all the same thing, really. We become complacent when we got all this.

Verse 12—then beware, beware, and this is what this is about. This sermon is about spiritual things, not physical things, spiritual things. 57 Truths. We have an apostle. We're part of the Body of Christ, the Church of God, small in number. Beware! Beware lest you forget, unless we forget all of this. We forget our calling. We forget the truth. We forget how we've seen the truth, which is an incredible thing. We only see the truth because God gave it to us. He enables us to see. We don't do anything. If God hadn't called me and my wife some 43 years ago what would I have? What would I have? It wasn't 43, that was my marriage. It was 34 years ago that we were called, but been married 43 years. So what would I have if God hadn't of called me 35, 34 years ago? What would I have? I'd have nothing. I would have nothing because without the truth we have nothing. Well, we've been given all this. We need to be careful. Remember that God called us. Remember how we see because of God's love for us, and He gives us the power to see. Without God's spirit we can't see. So these are all great gifts from God.

"Beware lest you forget." It's talking to us, brethren, members of the Body of Christ now. Beware. Beware that we don't become complacent, that we take it for granted.

If we could fully grasp the blessing of having an apostle, if we could only fully grasp it! I have been very fortunate because in part of Worldwide Church of God there was an apostle, Mr. Armstrong. I was blessed! Then when I went to sleep, during the Laodicean period I went to sleep, and we didn't have an apostle and the Church went astray because we didn't have an apostle and we became lukewarm. Well, we have an apostle. How blessed are we? We have an apostle. How blessed are we? We should never forget this blessing, really, because it comes from God. I realize it's all from God; it's not about the man. It's from God. Well, we should never, ever be unthankful about that because I've lived through a period where we didn't have an apostle and I know what happened to me and I know how quickly it went off the rails.

Then beware lest you forget the Eternal who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Now, spiritually we're in the world. We're in Egypt, spirit Egypt, darkness, haven't got a clue, carnal mind at work. Well, we've been brought out of that through a calling, out of the bondage because we are held in bondage because of the way we think. It's the way man thinks. It's his natural mind. I've been there. I know it. I see it. Now this is really, for us today, it's a warning today that we don't go back into the natural mind, the natural way of thinking and don't play with those things. Don't get involved in those things. All the political system, all the lies and the deception, there's no way to work out some truth in certain matters.

There are various events that are taking place in TV today and things that you see and there are certain crime shows that I watch and sometimes you watch them and you think you cannot tell, and people get there and there's a juror or there's a judge and they've got to make a decision. There's no way to tell. It's just not obvious, but they make a ruling whether it's right or wrong, it's the ruling, that's the law of the land. They're doing the best they can because without God's spirit they can't really see the intent. They try to work at it, but there's so much lying going on in both sides and the lawyers are there not for necessarily the person, they're there because of the money and whether the person's innocent or guilty is all irrelevant and the justice system is there to win convictions. They'll get promoted if they can get up and say, "Well, I've had 55 court cases and I've won 55 of them." "Oh, you'll get promoted." But if you were to get up there and say, "Well, I had 55 court cases and I've lost 55," do you think you're going to get employed? I don't think so. So it's not about right or wrong. It's all just a system, it's a process, and they get caught up in it and deception and lies. It's the whole system has to be that way, because without God's spirit they can't come out of that. They could do better, but they don't really want to do better because it's the natural mind of selfishness that takes over.

So we are never to forget that spiritually it was God that called us and He is bringing us out of Egypt, out of sin, out of bondage. Don't forget who called us and why. Now, if everybody were to remember this for the rest of their life once they are called and they're on this path of overcoming selfishness through the power of God's holy spirit, people would not leave the Body of Christ. But they do forget. They do forget their calling. They forget how God works and His government, how that works.

Well, we're in a position now just to buck ourselves up a bit and just sharpen the sword, so to speak, and think very carefully. Don't forget our calling. Don't forget why God called us, why we were made the way we were, which is selfish and carnal. Don't forget the spiritual meaning of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and unleavened bread. Don't forget the truth. Let's not forget those things on a spiritual level.

Verse 13—You shall fear, which is respect and obey, the LORD your God, and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. Well, this is going back, the Old Testament pointing to something. Well, now we operate on the spirit of the law, therefore, we don't take oaths and we don't make those promises and swear by God, because it's the spirit of the law. It's something that should be in us, God's spirit in us, and therefore, "let your yes be yes and your no be no," which is be sincere. Be open and honest. Be genuine about everything.

Verse 14—You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are all around you. Well, that was to Israel; well, it's the same to us. We are not to go outside of this relationship we have with God in God's Church. If we start fooling around with other doctrines, reading other materials, where do we think that will lead us? Because, let's just analyze that quickly. God writes His word in the Bible. It can only be understood if a person has God's holy spirit. Outside of that they'll only have knowledge, but they won't have understanding because they don't have the spirit to understand.

Therefore, if somebody writes an article or a book outside of the Church (God's apostle, I'm referring to), outside of God's apostle that God has appointed, why would we read it? Why would we watch another program where there's falsehood? There is no truth there. They might have a bit of knowledge, but that's not the point; knowledge is not the point. Knowledge is knowledge. Understanding is completely different. It's a spiritual matter. So understanding is a spiritual matter.

Well, we need to be very careful that we don't go after other gods by our foolishness, by wrong choices. We should stay close to God, which is through prayer and God feeding us on a Sabbath and holy days. That's how we stay close to God. We stay close to this relationship. We're not even remotely interested in other people's opinions or views about anything to do with the Bible. It's all irrelevant. What they think is absolutely irrelevant. We don't care. Another person's opinion outside of the Body of Christ about the Bible? Who cares! Nobody. God's called us for a special purpose, which is to transform our mind. It can only be done by the power of God's holy spirit. So other materials, other gods, the god of this world, the prince and power of the air, that's where it's all coming from; deception. So they might have a little bit of truth on knowledge but no understanding on a spiritual level. It’s not about this mind that God is working with.

We are to have no other spiritual relationships because it's all about the spirit of the matter. It’s not about physical things, it's about the spirit of it, what's behind why we would do that, what's behind why we go searching other doctrines or listening to other things. Why? What's that all about? What's going on in the mind? What's going on in the mind?

We're to have no other ideas about how to worship God. Now, this is a key point in all of this. We should never forget that God has given us seven annual holy days. He gave us the Passover as a sacrifice for us. His lamb, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, died for our sins so our sins could be forgiven and covered, and then we are free from sin because of that Passover. We accept that. Therefore, God can dwell in us because God won't dwell with sin; sin has to be gotten rid of. It's covered through the death of Jesus Christ so that we could have life, so that we could have God's spirit live and dwell within us.

Well, we know about how to worship God. It's very clear. It's all written in Leviticus 23, basically, but it is about the spirit of the matter. So people can read Leviticus 23 and they can read about keeping a Passover, and yes, they can take a small piece of wine, yes, they can wash someone else's feet, yes, they can take a small piece of unleavened bread, but they don't understand the meaning of it all. And we do, therefore, we should never forget that we understand, which is the key to this particular sermon – never forget. Never forget our calling. Never forget why we're taking Passover. Never forget why we are doing seven days of Unleavened Bread. Why do we take a piece of unleavened bread each day of the seven days and partake of that? Why? Why do we deleaven our homes from physical leaven? It points to something. There are plenty of people out there that deleaven their homes and remove leaven for seven days, but that's not the point. It's the leavening of the mind that's the problem. What's the leaven of the mind? Pride. The pride of life. We've all got it. We have to continually work at removing it.

Well, these seven days we celebrate worshipping God, because this is what He tells us to do. We follow what God's instructions are because we have God's spirit. Well, these days are important. It’s not just the physical component, the spiritual component. We're working on our minds to remove the leaven, remove the pride of life from us. We all have it.

Verse 15—(for the Eternal your God is a jealous God among you). Now, this is really pointing to something. God wants us to follow a process. He doesn't want us off doing other things outside of what's been instructed. This is the way to worship God, and anybody who refuses to keep the Sabbath, who refuses to keep the annual holy days, is not worshipping God in spirit and truth. It's absolutely impossible. They might take these days off. There is a nation that in part some of them do it and they do these things, but they're all rituals and it's all physical. It's all knowledge, but the understanding isn't there.

Well, God is "jealous" in the sense of He's zealous towards us. He doesn't want us going off in sin. He wants us to follow righteousness. And when you really stop and analyze it, just take it from a physical point of view; here we have the Almighty God who is all powerful. He's created everything spirit and physical. He is almighty. Why would we—just thinking—why would we trust in anything else because there's nothing greater than God? So surely, if you're looking at a sporting event, or whatever, people will pick the strongest player or the best player first. They'd go to that person.

I remember basketball when Michael Jordon used to play. They're getting near the end and things were pretty tight. It was a level score. They always went to Michael Jordan. That's where you go to. Because? They trusted that he would get the goal. He was so skilled that he could get the last point so they went to him. Well, let's just say, that's something physical, what about something spiritual?

We know the Almighty God. There is nothing greater than Him. Well, why don't we go to Him for everything? Why don't we? Because we forget because we're natural. We trust in ourselves. We can do this without God. That's the way we are. That's the way we're designed. Well, God is looking at our heart to see whether or not we're going to turn to Him. Do we need God? Truth is yes, we do. Everybody needs God. We need to rely on Him. He has the power to do it. He has the power and the strength to do it.

Verse 15—lest the anger of the Eternal your God is aroused against you, and destroy you from the face of the earth. Well, really when we look at this, we've been purchased by God through Jesus Christ. We're a purchased possession. We belong to God. We've been bought. We were called; we're given opportunity to see the Passover sacrifice which is covering our sins. It was Jesus Christ, but God the Father did all that for you and me that we might have the opportunity to have life. What an incredible sacrifice that is, and it's all connected to the plan of salvation.

We in the Body of Christ must never forget where we heard and learned the truth. Now, these things are pretty basic for us, we know. People say, "You're preaching to the converted." That's true. Well, we should never forget where did we hear it? I remember. I remember I heard the truth in 1982, and I heard it from God's apostle, and I remember it. I remember how I learned about the Sabbath, how I learned about tithing, how I learned about other things, which were absolutely exciting at the time. I was just jumping out of my skin on certain beliefs. "This is incredible about the spirit world! Just amazing things!" The incredible human potential that a human has, I learned that all from God's Church through God's apostle.

No different today. We should always remember where we heard the truth and how we heard it. We generally hear it on a Sabbath and we heard it from God's apostle in God's Church, part of the Body of Christ. Well, if we leave it we can't hear truth. Simple. If this is where we heard it all in the beginning, if we leave God's Church how can we hear truth? We can't. There's no truth out there. It all exists here, the understanding of the truth.

We must never forget where we learned the truth and how we learned it, which was in God's Church from an apostle. We must never forget that we only know and understand the truth because God has opened our minds to see spiritually. It's an incredible thing that we have this potential to forget, which I have done. I'm guilty of that.

Proverbs 4:1. Now, we're going to look at Proverbs 4:1, we'll break away from that again, and then at the conclusion we will come back to finishing off most of Proverbs 4.

Proverbs 4:1. It's referring to the security in wisdom, which is really referring to God's mind, the security in God's mind because this is where understanding comes from. It comes from God. We don't understand spiritual matters without God's holy spirit. It's not possible.

Verse 1—Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to know understanding. Now, what does it mean when it says, "to know understanding?" Now, knowledge is knowledge, we understand that. We read things, we know the 57 Truths, but this says "to know understanding." To know understanding is a gift from God because we can have knowledge, and academics with a natural mind have knowledge, incredible things. They know things that we never even thought about, but they know them. But that all came from God anyway, but they don't give God the credit. But knowledge is knowledge and spiritual knowledge, to a degree, is just knowledge because somebody can get the website and read the 57 Truths and go through and go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Knowledge. But to know understanding – do we know understanding? Well, we should, brethren. We understand the spirit of the matter. We understand why particular things were given.

We'll use the Sabbath as a classic example. People know of the Sabbath, but don't understand it. We understand it. This is how God communicates, pours out His spirit so that we can see spiritual matters. So we know about understanding. It's a gift from God. Understanding is a gift from God. We should never forget this because this is the key to life. We only see spiritual things. We only understand spiritual things, the spirit of it, because God gives it to us. He called us to it, to see.

Now, this really points to something where you have God's mind and man's mind. There's no connection. There's no connection. They're just so far apart. Therefore, when God calls us He gives us knowledge and He gives us understanding. Now we're having more of the mind of God, which is wisdom. We have more wisdom. So wisdom is this understanding. We start to understand things.

An example: We can know about Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, but to understand them is a different matter. We know understanding because it is a spiritual matter. So we understand the spirit of it, "Ah ha, that's what it's about." So we know about this understanding that we have and we give all the glory and all the credit to God. So if anybody has any spiritual understanding on a matter, on Passover and Unleavened Bread, it was not them, it came from God. God gives it. God gives all knowledge and all understanding.

We understand the spiritual meaning of God's plan of salvation which includes Passover and the seven days of Unleavened Bread. We understand the purpose of life. Isn't this an incredible thing? We understand it.

Now, I've had some association just recently of somebody that has no understanding of the purpose of life and believes something really what we would think would be really quite strange because it involves aliens and different things like that. Well, we understand that those things are just foolishness and they come from the natural mind. Can't judge them on it, can't condemn them for it, it's just the world. That's the way it is. That's what's promoted in all the movies and different things, things about spirit worlds that, you know, they manipulate and make up, ghosts and things. Which, there is a spiritual world, but they don't understand it at all. We understand the spirit world. We understand how it came about that it was created by God. We understand about the rebellion. They know nothing about that, nothing at all.

There was actually a, I'll refer to this, this period of time where someone from my family who knew a few things about the spirit world and the Church and different things and was in the world. They left any relationship that was potentially there with God and went out into the world and was in a particular conversation with various people and started to relay knowledge about the spirit world and other things. They were absolutely fascinated! At that point they went, "Oh, I better shut up," because it was all knowledge, but they didn't understand what was going on. But we have such "secret" knowledge almost. We have this knowledge that God has given us that sometimes the knowledge is not lost, it's still there, but the meaning of it and the intent of it and all those things is gone.

Well, we are so blessed that we understand the meaning and the understanding that is required of Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. We understand the purpose of human life, why we are here. Now, mankind doesn't. We understand this is about an incredible God that desires a family and that is going to transform us from this mind that we were given, this natural carnal mind that's hostile against God, and that with God's holy spirit impregnated there that they have the potential and the opportunity to enter Elohim. But it takes time. It takes time and we're on a journey. Some are longer than others, but we're on a journey; we don't know when it's actually going to end exactly. There are two that know when it's going to end as far as when it comes to a point in time, that they are going to be part of that. The rest of us we have to just continue on and whatever is going to be is going to be. It's just the way that it is.

Passover and Unleavened Bread are about spiritual delivery from sin. It's about delivering from sin. It's not just about killing lambs on the fourteenth and eating this and eating that and then Jesus Christ changed the symbols of that. It was all spiritual. It looks like its all physical, but it's not. It's all spiritual and it's all about sin. It's all about salvation. Passover is about sin. Passover is about salvation. For us at this particular time we're on the journey and the process, the procedure, the trip towards being saved. Mankind hasn't been called to that point yet, but one day they're going to understand and learn about Passover and they're going to then understand it, which is the key. Not just knowledge – understand it! "Ah, it's personal. It's about me! It's about me and my sins." The Days of Unleavened Bread are exactly the same. "It's about me and my sins, and I have to desire to get rid of the leaven, get rid of the pride out of my life, to be unleavened. That's what they're about." That's the understanding. It's not just physical bread. Those physical things point to something spiritual which mankind cannot see.

Passover is about God's sacrifice for our sin which was fulfilled in and through Jesus Christ. We know it. We understand it because we have experienced it. We've accepted Jesus Christ as our Passover sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. Then after that its ongoing repentance where God says and promises that He will forgive anything as long as we are willing to forgive others; as long as we are of the right mind and desiring to change, well, God says He'll do it. Well, the first step is Passover. Everybody must start with Passover. The knowledge of it, then the understanding of it, and it's personal; it's about us individually.

Unleavened Bread is about our desire to live a sinless way of life before God and that's why it's seven days. It's a reminder that we've got a period of time that has to be fulfilled, and then we then have to continue to overcome self, to continue to fight this leaven. It's about our desire to be unleavened spiritually. It's not physical. Yes, we deleaven our homes, which we should do and remove leaven, but that's an outward sign of something that's internal, that's in the mind, that we want to get rid of the physical leaven, but we more importantly want to get rid of spiritual leaven. We don't want to be the way that we are.

There's one particular component that I really do want to get to, and I'll make sure that we do. It was something that has happened to me of late, that I've had to go through and go through a thought process. But I realize now something about me more than I've realized ever before.

Let's go to Exodus 12:1 because we're going to cover a bit of this in relation to Passover, and all being well we'll get to a bit of Unleavened Bread. So leaven is about being puffed up. But before all of that we have to now go through what God said about a Passover. He gave something physical, which people can read and they can know it, but we understand it because it's spiritual in nature.

Exodus 12:1—Now, the Eternal spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be your beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you, which is Abib. So this is God's calendar that is now being revealed to Israel because they never had God's calendar. They didn't know about God's calendar. They wouldn't have understood even where they were in time. They were using a different system, which is the Egyptian system of counting time, and they would not have known anything about God's calendar which is what we work to. We don't work to a Roman calendar as far as celebrating God's holy days. We work to God's calendar. He makes it very clear that it's the fourteenth day of the first month. That's what it is.

Now, we take that and work it out what it would be on the Roman calendar, the manmade calendar so that we know time to relate to the world. But really, this is God's calendar given to Israel for the purpose of worshipping Him. That's what this is about, worshipping Him on the right day and doing things according to God's will and purpose, according to God's time – appointed time. That's what it is, appointed time. These are the things that God said, not what man says where they have different days of worship. They've got rid of God's days of worship. So this is the use of God's calendar. It's now being revealed to Israel.

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of the father, a lamb for a household. So it's about selecting a lamb. And if the household is too small for the lamb, there's only two people in the household, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of persons. So they work out how many people because it was about the size of the lamb. …according to each man's needs you shall make your count for the lamb. So they would work it out and say, well, if that's the size of the lamb, and therefore, we think that'll be enough for fourteen people, ten people, whatever it might be, fifteen people, ever how many there was needed.

Now, "a lamb of the first year," it's within that first year period. We have lambs on this particular property where we are now. They're not here now; they've been taken away to market. But we've had them and at about three, four months they're quite big. They're almost as big as their mothers, some of them, so they're quite big and they would feed a rather large group of people. The lamb points to the Messiah, the Christ. That's what it really is all about. This is something physical that's pointing to something else. So here it is, we understand that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God and he was set aside on the tenth. We understand. We had sermons covering that.

Verse 5—Your lamb shall be without blemish… That's physical; you can see the lambs. We had some that had limps or bad legs or different markings, but this is about choosing something without a blemish, which is to have no fault, no unsoundness. This points spiritually to no sin. Jesus Christ was sinless. He had no blemish. He had no fault. All other humans do, but Jesus Christ didn't. …a male of the first year: you may take it from the sheep, or from the goats. It wasn't to be bulls and cows and things like that. It was from the sheep or the goats.

Verse 6—Now you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel… Now, this very clearly points to it's not a temple sacrifice because it's the whole assembly. It's everybody that is in Israel. Well, this is referring now to spiritual Israel. Everybody in spiritual Israel, baptized, and has God's holy spirit living and dwelling in them and is a member of the Body of Christ is to partake of the Passover service.

It says here, shall kill it at twilight, which is between the two evenings, which is on the evening of the fourteenth. It was nighttime because they were to pull it aside then when it became the fourteenth they could then kill the lamb. They then would have to skin it, and then they would have to roast it. So it takes time, but this was all to take place once the sun went down on the thirteenth and it became the fourteenth; then this process could start because it all had to happen on the fourteenth. We'll see from other scriptures that it clearly happened with the Passover.

Verse 7—And they shall take the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel of the houses, and this is where they eat it. Now, this points to something physical, the lintel, and they would put the blood on it. Well, this is referring now to our minds, about us accepting the Passover sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It has to be in the mind that we do it, that we accept it. Because of that, sin could be passed over on a spiritual level. Well, here is something on a physical level. It was a sign for God. It's about God. He wants to know the mind. God's interested in our mind. I know Johnny often said "It's a battle for the mind." And it's actually, that's right. That's what it's about. It's about our mind. One mind from darkness with a bit of light, and then what do we see? A battle goes on. It's about the choices that we make, individual choices that we have to make.

Obedience is required. Now, obedience was required here for Israel, physical Israel. If they didn't pick the lamb, and if they didn't kill it on the fourteenth, and they didn't put the blood on the lintel what would happen? They would have to have faced death. "The wages of sin is death," because they're in rebellion and they wouldn't be protected. Well, we can have our sins forgiven, passed over because we accept the Passover sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So it's spiritual today. We must accept the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Joshua the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But we use the term, of course, Jesus Christ), and the shedding of his blood so our sins can be covered. It's a wonderful picture when we understand; we understand the meaning of those things. We have that knowledge, but we understand the meaning of it, how beautiful it really is.

This is done when a person is baptized and then there's ongoing repentance because at baptism we admit that we accept the Passover sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, and then we're immersed (fully covered) so that our sins can be remitted (washed away). Then we rise up a new person to live a new way of life, but it cannot be done without God's holy spirit. It's not actually possible, therefore, we have hands layed on us by a true minister of God and God will acknowledge and receive us, if we're in the right spirit and it's all done right, and we will receive God's holy spirit, a gift from God so that we can have understanding, so that we can have spiritual understanding to know ourselves, to know this mind that we have. Because that's the issue, the mind. The mind we have, that's the problem. The mind everybody has is the problem because they've been created a particular way and God in His love and mercy will give us the opportunity to have the mind transformed, but we've got to want it. We've got to choose it, and that's what life's about, choosing…choosing.

So now we know that Jesus Christ changed the Passover service on the night of the fourteenth, the fourteenth of the first month. I'm not going to turn there now, but it's found in 1st Corinthians 11:23 where Paul says, "I, Paul, receive from the Lord Jesus Christ that which was delivered to you, that Jesus Christ on the same night that he was betrayed," which is the evening of the fourteenth, "he took bread and wine," etcetera. So we know those things. They're spiritual in meaning. They have been changed.

So this is a spiritual matter that we should never forget. God has given us an annual reminder so we never forget the meaning of Passover, the spiritual meaning of Passover. If we do forget, if we forget about this and what it's really all about (it's about us and sin; that's what it's about), God's sacrifice for us, it was a wrong choice that we had made. So if we do forget about this and don't have the understanding it was our problem, it was our fault. We're to blame because we've forgotten about the spiritual component of God. We've chosen something different. Well, we've made wrong choices and that has cut us off from God and His power, His holy spirit.

So anybody that leaves the Body of Christ they made that choice. They made the choice because of what they had decided. Without God's holy spirit dwelling in us we will forget the spiritual knowledge and understanding of the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. Now, there have some that have hung on to the knowledge, but not the spiritual knowledge, but just the knowledge of it. Others have forgotten altogether and gone back to where they came from, to the darkness – Christmas and Easter, Satan's way of worshipping, not God's way of worshipping.

Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are about humility, judging self (self judging the mind), examining our motive and intent in all things that we think, say, and do. Now, that's a very broad statement that covers a lifetime because Passover and Unleavened Bread are for us. It was given for us for a reason, so that our minds could be transformed. The Passover is taken with unleavened bread as it pointed to Christ living his life without pride and sin. Because, really, there is no command to have unleavened bread on the fourteenth other than the Passover service. So we could be deleavening our homes right up to that last minute because it's seven days of unleavened bread and it starts on the fifteenth. The evening comes, the fifteenth starts, then we should have already deleavened our homes.

We should never forget that Jesus Christ is the bread of life, that our life comes because of what Jesus Christ sacrificed for us or God the Father sacrificed for us. He is the bread of life. We have to consume that bread, which is spiritual in nature.

I want to go to a particular matter, that this is a point that I was talking about that has affected me personally. I've had to really stop and think this through a lot because I realized something. Something came to me and I realized that I didn't really fully comprehend this and there's probably a long way to go still. So this is a spiritual matter.

We must always be alert, watchful, and ready no matter what time of life we are in, because we understand that they were to eat the Passover fully dressed and they were to be alert and ready and awake, ready to go. Well, that's us. We should be ready all the time. It's the Eternal's Passover and it's something we should never forget. It's God's Passover sacrifice for us. Jesus Christ fulfilled it, therefore, we accept it, therefore, our sins can be forgiven, and now we can have life, because God won't dwell with sin. It's God's sacrifice for us so that He can change the way we think and be saved from this mortal, physical body. That's what it's all about.

Romans 7:21. Now, in reading this I'll refer, while you're turning to Romans 7:21, Romans 8 talks about the carnal mind being hostile, not subject to the law of God, and indeed can't be. And basically it's selfish by design. It was made this way. We just give in to its choices; we make mistakes all the time, but we can't think spiritually just by nature. God has to call us and give us the gift of His holy spirit so that we can see spiritually, so that we can understand.

Verse 21—I, Paul, find then a law, which is this natural mind of selfishness. That's the law. That's what God has put in place, and we have this mind, we have this natural selfish mind. So we find it. How do we find it? Now, without God's holy spirit we can't find it, we can't see it. We just live life and we do everything for our self. We don't always see or believe that deep down, "I'm not selfish." But yes, we are. So here Paul is saying he sees something, that is evil is present with me. So now he sees this law that evil is present with him. It's there all the time. Now, this is something we shouldn't forget. We have a natural carnal mind and it's driven toward self-satisfaction, to fulfilling selfishness. We should never forget that because this is all about what Passover and Unleavened Bread's really all about. So here Paul's saying he sees something. Well, he had to have God's holy spirit to see it just like we have to have God's holy spirit to see it and acknowledge it because the world wouldn't acknowledge it. Imagine if you went up to somebody and said, "Ah ha! You're just a selfish person." Oh, how to win friends and influence people, tell them they're selfish.

Well, we see, we understand, we know we are selfish because God gave us that gift. How incredible is that? How beautiful is that? So Paul says, I find a law then that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. Now, why does he "will to do good?" Because he has something different in him. He has God's holy spirit living and dwelling in him, so there's a desire now because we see we want to please God, we want to do good.

For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, which is about the spirit of the law. So he delights now in God's law like we do.

Verse 23—But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Clearly here we can see, we understand he had God's spirit because it's only with God's spirit that you can make a statement like that. Well, this is us. This is us. We're exactly the same. We see two things. We see the natural mind, which we don't like, we don't want to be like this and the only reason we don't want to be like this is because of this other, which is the light, God's spirit, that we now see, "Ah, I don't want to be like this." So we see there's two. They're warring. They're fighting. We want this, we desire this, but because of our weakness we fall back to this, we give into this. We give into our "lusts of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." We give into those things so we fail. The battle against self by God's holy spirit is now taking place.

That's what Paul is virtually saying. The battle is against our selfishness, what we are by nature. We see ourselves as God sees our human natural state. We begin to see it. Now, mankind can't see it. We have to have been called. That's why we should never forget our calling. We should never forget that we have knowledge. We should never forget that we have spiritual understanding, that we understand this scripture. We understand what Paul is saying here because this is us. He's describing us. This is what we're going through.

Verse 24. Now, I really had to reflect on this. I could say that from time, when I was first called I loved myself because I was natural and even with my calling much of my calling I would say I still loved myself because of pride. There are aspects of it still. So the depth of my understanding of this one particular statement has hit me more now than ever in my life because there's been many a year in God's Church that I could not say that I was honest when I made this statement. The reason was that I thought I saw, but I didn't see. Now I see. I can see this statement and it's terrifying, really. It doesn't make you feel that comfortable, but I can actually say it now and mean it, which is, O wretched man that I am! Now, how can a person make that statement? Because the world talks about love, and there's a component about what they say that's just a lie. There are many a TV shows and other people say and some psychologists say it and they'll say, "You have to love yourself before you can love others." You might hear that statement often: "You have to love yourself before you love others." That's a lie. That's a lie because the spirit of the matter is totally different. This is what Paul is covering. It's totally different.

God is saying, "You have to hate your self, the selfishness in you. You have to hate it before you can love another with God's spirit," which is true love. The other love is a physical and selfish love, but to love with God's spirit, to truly love? You have to be able to say this, O wretched man/woman that I am, because it's about seeing self. The purpose of why I was called, the purpose of why you were called? Because we have to come to this point.

Now, most of my life in the Church I've made some of these statements, I've read this, but I didn't see it to the depth I see it today. I've still got a long way to go, don't get me wrong, I’ve still got a long way to go, but I do hate my self. I hate my selfishness. I still give into it, just like Paul said, there's two things warring here, but I hate it. I'm sick of it, actually. I'm sick of making mistakes, sick of saying things wrong, sick of doing things wrong. I really am sick of it. I'm tired of it. But I realize that's what it's all about. It's about the battle. God wants to know, "Am I really sick of it? Am I genuine when I say, "O wretched man that I am?"" Well, unless we can see this to the depth and core of what it's really saying we're not. We still love ourselves.

And by that I mean we still have our natural carnal mind and we still say, "You know, we have bad nature but it's not that bad. Not always that bad." No, it is. It's filthy. It's terrible. It's shocking. It's disgusting. It's sin. It's pride! It's pride. When we see and can honestly say, "O wretched man that I am," which means there's no good in the natural mind, and there's none, none exists. It's just not there. Well, when we see that because of God's holy spirit we can generally say, "Oh, 'O wretched man that I am.' I'm doing this! This is just the way I am."

But that's one part. The other part is now that if we can say this with all sincerity what does Paul say? Who will deliver me from this body of death? Ah ha, that's the key there. Who will deliver me from what I am? Who will deliver me from this sin, this selfishness, this pride, all these desires that are wrong, all selfish desires? Who is going to deliver me? Because without a deliverer what are we? We're death. We're dwelling in death, a body of death – the natural carnal mind. We need a deliverer.

I thank God, I thank Yahweh Elohim for His great plan of salvation, for His mercy, for His might that I've been made this way so that I can come out of it so that He can give me a gift, just like the promised land, "I've promised you something, but it's up to you whether you want, what you do and how you do it. But here it is. It's for you. Do you want it?" What do we have to do? Come to this point. Admit it, "O wretched man that I am. Look at me; I’m pathetic. Sin, riddled with it. I don't want to be like this anymore. I’m tired of it, but I know I've got to keep fighting.” I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Passover! It's just a wonderful scripture. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God. That's what I want because I have God's holy spirit. I'm choosing that I want that. That's what I want. I want to be different. I want to be in Elohim at some point in time. I really do. I don't want to live like this. I don't want to be selfish. I don't want to hurt others. I don't want to hurt myself anymore. I'm tired of it all. I really am tired of it all. …but with the flesh the law of sin, because it's natural. We're all the same.

We must stay in the battle, stay in the fight against selfishness. It's an incredible thing. That's the key. People give up because they might see this wretchedness that we are, this evil: "O wretched man that I am," to a degree and then God gives them the sight to see. But then what happens? They stop fighting. Every day we have to fight. Every day we've got to pull ourselves up, "I wish I wasn't thinking like that. I don't want to think like that. God have mercy on me. Help me to get through this, God." We have to be dependent on God because He is the only one that can save us. We can't save ourselves. Now, the word "wretched" is "miserable." Because compared to God and our thinking, the way we think compared to God's thinking, we are miserable. We really are miserable.

Revelation 3:17, because this is the other component about where the word wretched or miserable is. Revelation 3:17—Because you say, it's me, it's talking about me because I was in this period of time, I am rich, have become wealthy… Now, what's that about? Well, I can tell you from experience what this is about. We had knowledge that went to our head and lifted us up. It did me. I remember that without really realizing it you become an arrogant fool because of things that we would say and we puffed ourselves up. I know I did because I was special. I had knowledge. I didn't necessarily tell everyone about it, but deep, deep down that's what I became. I became miserable. "I am rich," because of the knowledge. We had this truth that you lot out there don't understand. "Have become wealthy," thinking that we've got this great spiritual knowledge and thinking we possibly even understood. But without God's spirit you can't understand. So at this point when we get to this stage we have knowledge that puffs us up. Knowledge puffs up, but the understanding had already gone.

....and have need of nothing. No, I don't need anything else. "I've got this. I've got a relationship with God. I've got this knowledge that you lot don't have." …and do not know that you are wretched. I can honestly say that all that period of time that I never, ever thought I was wretched ever. Never did. It wasn't until I came into God's true Church and was awakened that I can actually start to say, I began to say and began to think, "Hang on a minute, I am wretched. I'm miserable. Because of my pride I'm miserable." …miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Spiritually! Not physically, but spiritually. Pathetic. Pathetic, natural carnal mind, lifted itself up to think that it was something special, had a special relationship with God.

I counsel you to buy from me gold, which is this spiritual understanding that we must have, not just knowledge, but spiritual understanding that we must have. …refined in the fire, going to have to go through lots of tests and trials to see how you think. Now, with God's spirit put into a test and trial to see what decisions we will make. It won't be easy, but we've got to make right choices. Now, we will make right choices if we have been able to see and grasp and never forget that we are in a state of "I am a wretched person." If we can believe that, if we can believe that and hang on to it and never forget it, this natural mind's a wretched, horrible, evil thing, we'll stay in the fight. We don't want to be that way. Now, we have to go through tests and trials to see what choices we're going to make. Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that we're miserable, "wretched man that I am," miserable person that I am naturally? Well, that's why we're going to go through tests and trials and just see, or will we go back to self-reliance and go back to using that part of the mind?

So we're going to have to be refined in the fire that you may be rich; and white garments, which is righteousness pointing to God's thinking in us, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, so people won't see what we really are, and anoint your eyes with eye salve, so that you can see. Rub it right in all over it so you go, "Ah, ah ha, my nature, O wretched man that I am!" That's what it's about, so we can "see." "That you may see." So it's all about this seeing.

I want to just go to a particular scripture in 1st Corinthians 5:6. As you can see we haven't got through the Days of Unleavened Bread and other things where there are lots of spiritual lessons there that we understand about leaven. We understand about the Exodus and being drawn out on a spiritual level, coming out of this world, coming out of the house of bondage because we're in the bondage of our minds. Well, a lot of those things we shouldn't forget and we'll be reminded during the Days of Unleavened Bread about those things. Well, we need to take them to heart and always remember that we are a wretched person. By nature we're wretched and we don't want to be this way – and never forget that. Never forget we are wretched.

1st Corinthians 5:6—Paul speaking to the Corinthians: Your glorying, your boasting, is not good, because they were being very self-righteous about being more merciful than God. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Referring to pride. Now, it’s a physical thing; put a little bit of leaven in a bit of dough and it will rise. It leavens the whole lump. It will infect it, all of it. Well, this is something spiritual. Do you not know that your pride, your self-righteousness will affect everything about you, that you will puff yourself up? In the end you will fight against God. You're resisting God, really. It leavens the whole lump. It will affect all of your mind. This one thing that you're not addressing in your life will affect you and infect all of your mind, and therefore, you'll be in sin, you'll be cut off from God. Therefore, purge out, which is fight! Fight against that selfishness. Fight that pride! Purge out the old leaven, which is invisible to everybody else. Isn't that incredible? That little sin in there that's hidden is invisible. It's like leaven in bread; it's invisible. Where is it? Can't find it. It's infecting the whole thing.

So "purge out the old leaven," which is referring to pride. So when you purge it out be sincere because someone with pride is insincere. They're not really genuine. Their pride has lifted them up. They're not revealing who they really are. Well, it's saying be sincere, purge out that pride that you've got. Get rid of the insincerity and be sincere. Admit, "I am wretched!" Be sincere about who you really are. If you've got God's spirit you can really say it. …that you may be a new lump. Be sincere about life. Be sincere about everything. Give all the glory and credit to God. Don't take it to self. Give it to God who gave it. Give it to God who gave it, gave us everything.

So I was called because God did it. I know what I know because God gave it to me. I understand because God gave it to me. All the glory goes to God because I'm just a wretched, pathetic human being with the natural carnal mind. Now God's given me the sight to see I don't want it anymore. I want it less and less every day. I want something different. I want to be like God. I want to be unleavened. I want to get rid of that sin that's there all the time and keeps popping back up.

For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the Feast, seven days of Unleavened Bread where we take a piece of unleavened bread every day and eat it remembering what it's about. It's unleavened! This is what I need to be. No pride. I need to be genuine and sincere. I need to recognize who I really am, what I am by nature.

Therefore, let us keep the Feast, seven days of Unleavened Bread, not with old leaven, not with pride and selfishness and insincerity, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness, which is all to do with sin. Let's get rid of the sin out of our life. …but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, with no pride. That's what we have to do. That's what these days are about, working on self. Deleavening a home is one thing, it’s physical; deleavening the mind is totally different. It's understanding what the Days of Unleavened Bread are really about.

Proverbs 4:2. I want to conclude by just going through Proverbs 4:2, and we'll go down to two to nine, all being well. Verse 2—For I give you good doctrine… This is really a proverb but it's referring to wisdom. "I" being wisdom, which really is God, the mind of God. I give you good doctrine. So everything good in the way of doctrine comes from God. We know how it enters the Church. Do not forsake my law. So it's about a way of thinking. "Don't forget My law. Don't forget this is the road of salvation. Don't forget what I'm doing in your life. Don't forget that I've called you for a purpose. Don't give up on Me. Don't forget about Me in every aspect of life. Don't forget to fight! Don't forget that you are a wretched person, that you are wretched. Don't forget it. Remember it."

Verse 3—When I was my father's son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother... This is going back. When you're young you're teachable. You listen to your parents and you're teachable. So when you were teachable that was good, if that was the case, because we'll learn from these things. We're teachable, which is we have to remain humble in God's Church, which is what Passover is about, which Unleavened Bread's about, really, being humble, which is acknowledging who we really are compared to God.

Verse 4—He also taught me and said to me, Let your heart retain my words. So keep it into our thinking. Don't forget about God's words. Keep my commandments, and live. So keep the Passover. Keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. Keep the seven annual holy days. Keep the Sabbath. Keep God's word about the spirit of the law, the intent, our motive. Keep those things in our mind. Don't forget them.

Verse 5—Get wisdom. Get the mind of God, the way God sees things, the way God thinks about matters. Get understanding. I love this. It's God's thinking on a matter. So we're to get this. It's so valuable. This is the most valuable thing that anybody in the Body of Christ can have, not just knowledge – understanding! The most valuable thing that a person can have is the mind of God, the thinking of God. One of the most important things that a person can have in this understanding, to get it, is to be able to genuinely and sincerely say, "O wretched man that I am." If we can say that and stay in the fight God will reward us because we're getting understanding, more, we see more of self. It's painful. It's horrible. We see it because God gives it to us. We're getting understanding if we see that.

Well, the Day's of Unleavened Bread help us with this – "O wretched man that I am." We can see it during the Days of Unleavened Bread. We don't want to be this way. We want to be unleavened. We eat the unleavened bread every day for seven days. Not just that, other foods as well. But we take that small piece because we're reminding ourselves, and God's reminding us, that we are leavened by nature. "O wretched man that I am," by nature, but we don't want to be that way. We want more understanding about ourselves so that we can shed it, so that we can get rid of it, so that there is a point in time where God says, "Now I know you. No matter what situation you're in, no matter what trial or test you're in you'll choose Me. You will want to get rid of your selfishness." Isn't that a beautiful picture?

Do not forget; nor turn away from the words of my mouth, what God tells us about these days. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you: love her. Now, we can look at physical things, physical love is selfish but this is spiritual. Love her, desire this relationship with God; desire to be more like God, to love her, which means we'll sacrifice. We will sacrifice for God. We will sacrifice our selfishness for God.

Verse 7—Wisdom is the principal thing; the mind of God is the most important thing any human can have. Everything else is irrelevant. All the money, no matter what it is, it's all irrelevant. Having the mind of God, having the knowledge and understanding of God is the principle thing. Having God's mind on a matter is the principle thing. It's the most important thing in human life. Very few, very few have ever obtained it. We know that God will soon have completed 144,000 that will have obtained it, the principle thing, the mind of God – to a degree, to a level. But at least God knows, "Now I know you," and will seal them.

Therefore, get wisdom: and in all your getting get understanding, which is this spiritual knowledge, spiritual understanding about the plan of salvation for mankind. So how do we get it? By listening to God, by being humble and listening to God, by desiring and choosing to be humble, by being teachable.

Verse 8—Exalt her, and she will promote you. Put her first. Put her up on the highest pedestal in your life. Put God first. Put this spiritual knowledge first before everything else. Nothing else matters. This is the most important thing. She will bring you honor, spiritually in the future, when you embrace her. But it'll happen now to a degree because we're going to be living love towards others, therefore, there is an honor in that by God living and dwelling in us out to the benefit of others.

Verse 9— She will place on you, on your head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory she will deliver to you. Yes, there is a crown of glory waiting if we make the right choices.

We should never forget what God is doing in our life. And we've covered that today, what God is really doing. God is transforming our thinking, but we have to at least seek knowledge, but really get understanding that the purpose of life is a spiritual matter. It's got nothing to do with the physical things; it's what we do with the physical things, the spirit of the law, the spirit of a matter.

With that we'll conclude.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1