Joshua Our Passover, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

April 26, 2019

This is a pre-recorded sermon for those of you who are listening to it. We are in the midst of some travelling right now in California between the Rancho Cucamonga area and then on up to the San Jose, San Francisco region this next weekend and so in between here I’ve been working on some of these holy day sermons and other preparations for other sermons throughout this period of time. I have to do a lot of juggling because it’s the only way of doing some of this and in a good way to help those who are doing some of the translating and getting some of this done ahead of time. But especially since we’re going to be in Europe and it changes the entire pattern of how people normally listen to sermons, I have to make some changes myself and this seemed to be the best way.

So this is going to be rather unique. It’s not the best of quality here at this hotel because I have lighting on one side that’s coming through blue shaded windows and on the other side some light over here that’s just from the room itself, from lamps, and it doesn’t help real well because they’re different colors and it’s going to cause some difficult probably in trying to get some of this done well as far as the editing is concerned. But you have a message and you have a pre-recorded sermon and everyone that’s listening to this is going to be able to do it then on the holy days and that’s the objective, so that you have this particular message during this season of the year. For some it may be a week afterward, but as a whole it’s going to be in this holy day season and it will be out of order for you, but these don’t have to be in order in this particular subject matter.

The title of this particular sermon is Joshua Our Passover, and this is Part 3. Again, some of these are going to be out of order, but again, because of the story flow and because of what’s being stated they don’t have to be in order. They’ve been specifically designed for that purpose. So again, my apologies it’s not in better quality, but at least you have video and you’ll be able to see it and I’ll just have to listen. So that’s great!

So with that, this being, again, Part 3.

In this Passover and Unleavened Bread season of this year, again, we’ve been focusing on this particular series, and in Part 2 we concluded with the spiritual intent and meaning of a focus God gave for the night of the 15th when the children of Israel began their journey out of Egypt. For us this foreshadowed God’s deliverance and journey for coming out of sin, out of spiritual Egypt.

We know this and we’re ever growing in balance in some of these things. That’s why we’ve gone in and talked about some of this, because we have to be reminded year by year of the meaning of the holy day seasons, what they mean, and for all of us we grow in different ways. We grow at different rate, and so forth, of things we hear, because it’s like a building, this building of construction that takes place. It’s like laying down cinder blocks or something else of a frame and there are certain things you can’t build above it or on it until specific things have been established. As we learn that’s how God works with us.

So we may hear, different ones, some of the same kinds of things year by year, some of the same kind of scriptures, but we’re all hearing a little differently sometimes too because we’re actually growing in a manner that builds upon what we have learned before. Others who have already learned it, they’re receiving something else above and beyond, in that respect, in many cases, of that which we’re not able yet to see because that part of the building hasn’t been constructed yet in our minds and in our being.

It’s always good to keep that in mind. As we grow we, again, grow in different rates and different ways and God’s molding and fashioning different things within all of us. The building is left up to God and to His Son, Joshua the Christ. We, again, are to be reminded of some of these things year by year by year. There are things we have to be reminded of anyway because we tend to forget or we tend to lose some of the focus, some of the intent, some of the intensity (maybe is a better word) of what we’re striving to do and we need to be reminded of what we’re supposed to be doing. And this helps us, then, to actually follow some of the guideline, the direction that’s actually given in this particular sermon here today and what this really means for us spiritually.

So going to read that verse then, again, Exodus 12:41—And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—even the self same day—it came to pass... And again, I’m always, when I read that, I think God is very meticulous in how He does things. They’re very orderly. Some things have to be done in a very specific moment in time for Him to fulfill His purpose, and He does because there is a plan that He has and there are those things that He works out to be accomplished within that timeframe. Other things may have some flexibility, prophetic matters, as we’ve talked about in times past, and especially for this period of time that we are in right now within the Church, there are some of those things that have some variance that can exist with it for different reasons and different purposes, but God’s still going to accomplish and fulfill His purpose, His plan, and the order of it, but He still is going to fulfill it within a specific kind of timeframe.

Just as we have learned within the Church, there are patterns. We recognize many of the patterns we’ve already gone through since the Apostasy and we have those in time periods of 1260 days and the accumulation of those through time here, very specific. That’s why we’ve come to a point in time because of what we have addressed, we recognize that this particular year it’s not that period of time, or at least it does not appear to be at this time. It isn’t that God can’t speed things along and make things happen very quickly but it certainly doesn’t appear as though things are going to begin taking place this year. They could still begin within this year, obviously, because of what can fit within a prophetic timeframe of 2020.

But again, we don’t know. Right now we’re in a stage of watching. God has not shown us specifically what it’s going to be and there is a great purpose in that. He allowed us, if you will, to have a particular focus from a period of around, especially, 2008, mid-2008 on, especially when we came to the point of recognizing when Christ was actually going to return, on a specific holy day, in the sense of his feet standing again upon the Mount of Olives being on a Pentecost because of the meaning contained in there. Also, the meaning of the Wave Sheaf up to the wave loaves because one begins during the days of Unleavened Bread, specifically about Christ; the other one that leads up to and are tied together then of that government that’s coming, the 144,000 coming to reign with Christ, under Christ that takes place on Pentecost, the wave loaves.

It’s all very inspiring, but God has very specific purpose and reason and things we’re to learn. Probably one of the greatest things is that of humility. Regardless of what others say and do around us we follow God and God establishes us. God makes us to stand. And when it’s all said and done we will. We are His people. There will be those out of this group that will be in that first great awesome resurrection, others who are going to be awesomely blessed to live on into a new age. So it’s very exciting what God does with us and how He works with us, and we yield ourselves to the process.

So going on here then, it was on the selfsame day—four hundred and thirty years later—that all the host of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations. Again here, we can focus more upon a specific night, a specific physical night, and yet this is not a command for the observation of a specific night in the sense of how it’s to be observed. We are to remember. We are to learn from this, and the most important thing is to remember that night and what it means.

It’s like remembering the Passover. We remember it from year to year; we observe it, though, in very specific ways. But we know when it begins. We know the things that happen on that night and that following day throughout the day, and there are parts of it then that we observe, the night time portion, in a very specific manner as we partake of the bread, the wine, and the washing of feet. God has told us how specifically to observe that.

He has not told us that we are to set aside a specific night and to observe it in a specific manner because it has to do with what we learn from it. We are to know about it. We are to know it. Just like the holy days we come to then, this is the beginning of a holy day because of that night that’s the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, of God delivering us out of Egypt. We’re called, we begin our journey, we receive our Passover first, and then we begin this journey out of sin. It’s a lifelong process – seven days to be complete. God will complete it in us, until its work is finished. It’s all exciting, what it means, and we’re to learn from the meaning. Those days were established for that.

So there are things we do on the other six days – really, actually five days in between the two high days of Unleavened Bread. We partake of, we eat unleavened bread because God told us to. So we do it for the entire seven days but we have a specific observance on the first day, a specific observance on the last day because it’s a holy convocation, because we’re brought together and we’re to learn from it. We’re to be taught. We’re to learn more or have repeated to us so it is more deeply embedded in our minds the purpose and the meaning of this time in God’s plan. That’s why we do those things.

Again, it’s all very inspiring, all very meaningful, but here now is something that God gave, is that we are to remember that night, a night to be much remembered or a night to be much observed. And what does it mean then? Does it mean that we’re to go out and eat and have a special meal together? No, that’s just a tradition and it’s not something commanded that we have to do, though it’s existed. And for those that were in Worldwide and in through that period of time it became very much a part of our being, if you will, and so by tradition, as a whole, we do it oftentimes where we’re able to. Others that aren’t able to do it, because we’re so scattered, we don’t do it. Maybe a special meal that evening but maybe not.

Because it’s not commanded! It isn’t commanded to be observed in that manner and so we have to be able to separate that in our thinking. Because we tend to seek to observe things on a physical plane, and the physical observance of some of those things sometimes becomes more important and we miss then what is really to be learned from it, what we’re supposed to be learning from it, and what it means to us as a Church, as individuals within the Body of Christ.

So let’s continue on. This is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations. Well, the meaning of all this shouldn’t escape us. We should understand deeply what this means for us as we begin our journey out of sin. That’s what this is about. It’s that beginning of that journey, to remember that.

It’s like saying to remember your calling. There are things we’re never to forget and how God opened our mind so that we could know and see the truth. He brought us to our Passover. He brought us to the time of baptism and that beginning, if you will, of a journey that was going to last then until the seven days are complete, it’s completed, God’s work in us.

So all very moving and very inspiring. So again, we have been shown that the night to be much observed is about our spiritual deliverance and journey out of sin. It’s about the word “observed” in Hebrew that means “a night watch,” “a watching,” “a vigil.” That’s what we’re supposed to do in our lives. If we don’t stay alert, if we’re not in that kind of mode all the time and being reminded of it... That’s why we’re to fast from time to time, in that sense, to sharpen that focus, that we’re to be alert, that we’re to be close to God. Because we, with our carnal human nature, can tend to drift or let down and begin to coast or begin to be lethargic, lukewarm. You don’t want that to happen. Many of us have lived through that and that is a wrong spiritual state. It is not a state to be in whatsoever.

So again, we can learn so very much by what this is all about. It’s the beginning of that journey. That we’re to be alert. It’s in the night. We live in the world that’s in the dark. It’s in the night. We’re not of the night, but we live in it. We live in this world and we have carnal human nature and we still have those battles. We have to stay alert because we’re walking around in the night, if you will, in one respect, and there is that which is out there to hurt us, to take us away, to deceive us, to attack us at any time in life. The only way we can withstand those things is to be close to God, spiritually alert, spiritually on guard, to keep a vigil all the time, not to become drowsy, not to become sleepy in the night. That’s why we’re going through this portion here, Part 3, this final portion of this series.

So we’re to learn these lessons of this season of the year and we are to ever be on guard spiritually, again, to be spiritually on watch. That’s what this is all about. It says don’t forget it. It’s a night to be much observed. You are, throughout this night, as long as we’re in it, to be observant, to be watchful, to be on guard.

Let’s turn over to Matthew 26:36—Then Joshua went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray nearby. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to grieve. Some say, “to have sorrow.” We can’t grasp what all this is, and I’m sure there was sorrow mixed with that, but to grieve because he knew what was coming. He knew what was about to happen. He knew what was going to begin happening that night. He knew what was written about him in Isaiah. That mind was in him. That mind that inspired that book to be written, it was alive in him, the Word made flesh, in ways that we really don’t fully grasp yet. But we’re able to taste a portion of it and to seek to appreciate it and be in awe of it. That mind was so powerful within his thinking and how he was thinking and what he was feeling inside. None of us have ever been to that point in life that something is so real in your mind.

We may have had other things in our minds about what might happen, fears and so forth that are natural to the human mind and that battle then of trusting in and relying upon God and that part of our carnality, our human nature then that still has those feelings that run through us deeply, powerfully because we are physical. We learn from all that. Here Christ is of that state of mind where he knows what’s about to begin to happen.

You know, to pray in such a fashion that you come to a point where the perspiration coming out of your body, that there is blood in it, that kind of anguish—we don’t comprehend that—because of what’s in the mind, because of what you know is coming? No one has ever, ever experienced that in their life but he did. It goes beyond real understanding for us because, again, we strive to appreciate it but we’ve never experienced it. Things you don’t experience you can’t really know, not really, not fully.

Now, we can strive to appreciate them, to understand them, and to be in awe of them, but to really grasp it? That’s why experience in life is very unique to each one of us, what we experience. Just like the Apostasy, others can try to appreciate it, try to understand it, but they really can’t fully. They can hear the stories but to go through it, to know it, to have experienced it, it’s a different thing and it’s unique to a certain group of people then because of what God has molded and fashioned (and is still), within them. So it was with Christ here in what he was experiencing.

It says, he began to grieve and was distressed. Distressed. This was so real in his mind. He knew he was going to be beaten, so marred that he wouldn’t be able to be recognized. That means flesh ripped off your face, disfigured, in that respect, as to how you look, and the beating that was going to take place. He had never experienced anything like that to that degree. He knew what human suffering and pain was about, what it was like to hurt, the body to hurt, to be hurt by something, and to know of others who have gone through things, to have seen certain things in his life. To then come to the point where he knew this was going to happen to him, to the point that he was going to be hanging on a tree dying and he would die and blood would come out of his body; one way or another he was going to shed his blood to the earth and die. Again, to appreciate that, to know that because it was so real in his mind as though it was happening but hadn’t yet.

Verse 38—Then he said to them, My mind is filled with grief, as it says here, even unto, but it means until death. So there’s going to be this that’s going to be there until death. Now, they didn’t grasp what he was saying. He’s grieving unto death, until death. Well, he’s young. He’s in his early thirties. He has a life, a long life ahead of him yet. And to be in grief, they didn’t grasp what he was saying at all. They didn’t know he was going to die within that day, within that Passover day.

So he said to them, Wait here, watch... Again, that word means “to be alert.” He said watch with me. “Watch with me; be alert with me. Be on guard.” They didn’t understand what it was all about. It was a spiritual matter. It’s written for us, and it was written for them so they could learn from it later on as well, because this came back to them. They wrote about it.

Verse 39—He went a little farther and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. “Let this cup pass from me, if it’s possible.” He didn’t want to have to go through it. Who would? The physical part, if there is some other way for this to be accomplished? I’ve thought about things like that. I’m sure we all have about different things that we think might be possible or that we are undergoing a certain trial at a particular moment in time. But sometimes then we have to take it a step farther because we’re different, we’re unique, we’re called of God to a purpose and there are just things we have to go through in life in order to have specific things that are supposed to be molded and fashioned within us so we can become what God has called us to, so we can be prepared in here, transformed in here, and fitted into place, molded and fashioned to fit into place.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. In other words, “This is what I want – if there is any other way – but if it’s Your will, so be it. So be it. Give me the strength, give me the help to go through it.” This is basically what he was praying to his Father.

Verse 40—Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. See, this is the tendency and this is why we’re to be alert and on guard because the natural human tendency within the period of time we’re called is to have this press upon us from time to time, this matter of leveling out and beginning to let down because that’s what happens when we let down. Instead of being on guard and spiritually alert and striving to always be close to God, striving to draw closer to Him, we tend to, by our human nature, let down and begin to level off and drift. Sometimes people can measure that by just looking at a matter of fasting. How often? Do you do it on occasion? Do you recognize when you need to? Or do you get in that rut where you start just leveling off and it doesn’t happen and you’re not jarred to a point of realizing this is dangerous.

See, to begin drifting off asleep, it’s like driving down a highway, driving down a road late at night and you’re sleepy, you’re tired. Many people have been that. I have. I fell asleep one time and wrecked a car because of it, you know, when I was young, before I was called; flipped it end over end two and a half times. Well, things happen to us and whenever, if ever I start having the least little bit of drowsiness in driving it shakes me up. It scares me because I know what can happen. I’ve experienced it. I have that experience. It’s not a good one. Sometimes we just don’t realize how dangerous that is, to be driving a vehicle like that and to be of a sleepy state. It’s not the right state to be in. It’s better to pull over, better to stop somewhere, better to do something than to keep pushing it because if you keep pushing something or letting it happen at a certain state it can destroy you. It can end your life.

It can end our lives spiritually; if we let down, if we begin to coast, we can begin to become lukewarm. We can turn away from God. We can begin to become so weak we just allow sin to happen in our lives and it doesn’t shake us up when we start edging closer to allowing certain things to happen in our life that we shouldn’t allow. That’s the way we are. Many have been called and gone that way, and few have been able to continue forward, to be watchful, to be alert, to be stirred by God’s spirit, to understand we need to be alert, on guard, watchful continually in our lives throughout that seven-day period, that period of completeness that pictures the time from baptism and the laying on of hands to the time of our death or our change.

So, he found them asleep. This is all about a spiritual lesson here. This is why it’s written. It wasn’t written just to tell a story of them falling asleep and he went out to pray for a time. It’s to convey a message. It’s to convey the same message that’s in Exodus about the night to be much observed. Because it’s so important that we grasp it from the very beginning, that it be at the forefront of our thinking, of our minds, and that we never let up, that we recognize this is a major part of your calling. This is a major part of your calling. To be able to receive our Passover is one thing, but to come out of sin, that’s another. That takes incredible work. That takes continual work and effort. With that goes this work of being alert and on guard. It doesn’t just happen.

So that’s a major message with the night to be much observed and with what Christ is telling them on his last night as a physical human being. He couldn’t pass this along the following night, on the night to be much observed. He had to do it on this night. This was the final night for him to be able to pass along this vital message to the Church.

And so he said to Peter, What? Couldn’t you watch with me for an hour? How long? How long through that period of time through our calling are we going to continue to watch? A year? Two years? Five years? Throughout that night, that night watch, how long are we going to watch? The first hour? The second hour? The third? Is it going to be continual through that period of time? That’s the question.

What? Couldn’t you watch with me for an hour? Watch—watch, be on guard, be spiritually alert—and pray, because that’s how you’re able to watch. That’s how you’re able to stay alert, is by seeking to stay close to God. Because only through the power of God’s spirit living and dwell in us can we be of that mind, can we be in that state. That’s the powerful message we’re receiving. Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation. So in the night things are going to come along. And is there something going to hit you that’s going to drag you away, take you away? Some sin and sins? Because one sin leads to another and it begins to be broader and broader because with one sin we cut ourselves off from the flow of God’s spirit until repented of, genuinely and truthfully.

So through that process, if one continues in a sin then other sin comes along because an individual is actually getting weaker and weaker and falling into a deeper spiritual sleep, to a point in time where one can literally die spiritually.

Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing; God’s spirit is there waiting and wanting to help you, seeking to help you, teaching us from Sabbath to Sabbath, holy day to holy day, working with us as we go through various kinds of trials in life to jar us, to shake us into reality sometimes so that we will rely upon Him, to that we will look to Him and say, “Please, I can’t deliver myself. Please deliver me. Please help me. I don’t have the answers. I don’t have the ability to deal with this. It’s in your hands,” and leave it there trusting in God. There are many things like that in life that we have to do, and especially in our spiritual lives then if we recognize the need to stay close to God we must have God’s spirit.

So indeed here, The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. The carnal nature is weak and we have to be on guard against it. We have to be alert to that. That should be at the forefront of our mind, our thinking.

Let’s turn on over to Mark 13, continue on by going to Mark 13:32—But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels who are in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Well, I’m a believer. I believe that more with all of my being than ever before. Now, we are unique in the sense that we know now a part of this. We know the day. We know it’s going to be on Pentecost, we just don’t know which one. God has made that perfectly clear since 2012 and 2013 that it’s not going to be shown to us. It isn’t being given to us and so we have these markers, if you will, that we’ve been blessed to have. We know that certain things have to fall within a specific frame of time and so that’s why we have, in that respect, that God has allowed us to have and to be strengthened by the reality that 2019 was one of those great markers, 2020 is the other. Because the Day of the Lord, God can have that to be any time He wants from that period of time from Pentecost, this Pentecost. Sorry, not Pentecost but the Wave Sheaf offering up to Pentecost or He can have it from a period of time, as it were, from this coming Pentecost to the next Pentecost. But it’s going to be some frame of time like that. That would be the last basic frame of time that we have before this goes longer.

It isn’t that God couldn’t do it at another period of time, but if He did there would be things in there about time that we don’t understand or we don’t know yet. And if that’s the case then God will show us. But from what I see that gets a little scarier because the next time frame is a few years down the road. But again, God can fulfill that in another way, in another manner. I know of several. I know of many that it could possibly be and still fit prophetically.

But God just hasn’t shown them to me. God let us see certain things to live something in our lives as a church for a purpose from 2008 up to 2013, to live something that no one has ever lived and believe it with all of your being and we learn from that. We have grown from that. But since that time, indeed there are things that have changed.

Now, I know the spiritual meaning of this, “No one knows the day or the hour; no, not the angels, nor the Son, but only the Father.” On a spiritual plane we’ve gone through this before where we recognize within the Church for those who are called there is that which can happen in your life that you have to be on guard all the time because you don’t know. You don’t know when certain things are going to come along that might try you, that might happen to you in the night that could lead you away and those are in God’s hands as to how those are specifically addressed when they might happen in life, like the Apostasy when it came along.

But in reality this is what it is. We just hadn’t come through all that to the point of growing, and so probably one of the greater lessons in all this and one of the things to be learned from this is a matter of humility. Who are we? We have to humble ourselves. And if we believed a certain thing at a certain time and for a purpose that God was working out and that was given to us, we lived by it, but it wasn’t that particular time, though it could have been, well, then we go on because there is something else that must be accomplished. There were those who were not ready. There were those, who the answer was for them, no, you’re not coming in. No, you’re not going to be able to be a part of this. So there is that which must fulfill that. There is that much which must be replaced with that in order to fulfill something specific, 144,000.

It’s like getting down to the end of a building and all of a sudden you find some pieces of lumber or some things that were sent that didn’t fit right. You can’t use them and so you have to go out and find something else. It has to be replaced with something that does work right.

We learn and we learn about some of these things, because one thing about the human mind is that it’s not something that God controls. He leads it and He lets us make the choices. So that’s been the problem for the last 6,000 years, we have our own choices. Even once called we have our own choices. That’s why I have learned so much through the process here, of seeing so many who have come and gone. The scriptures about “Many are called and few are chosen” ring so powerfully now. It’s so clear. It’s so sad but that’s the way we are as human beings.

And so, literally we don’t know the day except for the reality it’s going to be on a Pentecost. So we’re prepared for that, we’re alert to that, we’re on guard to that. We’re prepared. We live our lives in a manner of knowing we’re at the doorstep right now. We see things in the news that have never been seen when the last two eras of the Church, during Philadelphia, Laodicea, and now with the remnant, we haven’t seen the kind of things that are out there and the things that are ready to go at any moment whenever it’s God’s time. Those things can happen quickly and we’re there. It’s just God’s timing.

And so which year? We don’t know. What specific hour? We don’t know that either. We know the day it’s going to be. It’s going to be on a Pentecost. And that’s, basically, all that God has given us that’s absolute at this point in time. That’s absolute.

So again, a matter of humility. So others make fun and say, you know, well, because of that you’re not God’s Church. We know better than that. We know we are God’s Church. All the truths that God has given to us, the things we see so powerfully, so clearly, we know. They’re there. They’re powerful. They’re mighty. They’re incredible. All the things that God has given us.

And this last one, of all things, to be able to have this, Joshua our Passover. That’s beautiful. Not Yeshua. It doesn’t have to be in Hebrew. Sometimes some people just get out there in left field and they don’t have soundness of mind and balance spiritually so it’s like, well, if you don’t go all the way and go back to Hebrew... Well, I’m not going to spend time learning Hebrew. It’s not pure Hebrew anyway, what they have today. There were things that were lost for a long period of time and then they tried to revive it once again, and maybe have done a really good job, but it isn’t what it used to be in Old Testament time. It just isn’t the same.

Again here, there are things that they don’t understand and grasp and I could go into that with you but no point. It’s Joshua. In the English language it’s Joshua. Awesome! What a blessing in that, the +1. The +1. To understand that Joshua the Christ has not eternally existed. Who knows that? Who understands that? You know, the world is captive. Even the scattered Body is captive to misunderstanding there, a part of the trinity. If you have two-thirds of the trinity it’s still wrong, it’s still bad. And now it’s been cleared up for us, all of that. That and the fact that it was Joshua was his name. What freedom! What blessings!

We know who we are and so what others might say. It’s happened through time where people have mocked and made fun of and God’s allowed that and allowed for things to happen for that to take place even more so. “You said you were going to destroy,” you know, “the temple would be destroyed and you could build it up in three days. You’re just nuttier than a fruitcake!” Because they didn’t understand. They didn’t understand what it meant. He understood what it meant, didn’t bother him. He’d shrug it off. They don’t understand. One day they will.

Same with us. People in the world around us, those of family, and whatever, say, “You’re still following that? It was wrong then. It was wrong the following year. And how many times are you going to keep doing that?” Well, from now on it’s going to be markers. It’s not going to be anything specific unless God gives something specific at a moment in time. But I believe with all my being that’s not going to happen. We’ve gone through, now, something to learn from it and that’s good. God establishes His work, His Church, His people. He makes us to stand. He’s making us to stand. Awesome!

So as it says here, No one knows the day or the hour, no, not the angels of heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. Powerful! Take heed, watch; be alert, in other words, take heed to yourself. We ought to understand we need to do that because of our carnal human nature. Take heed! Know you’re weak. Know your major weaknesses. Know your one, two, and three. Know your sin. Know the weakness that leads to sin in your life and fight, watch, stay close to God, seek God’s help. ...pray, be close to Him. Fast, stay close to God. Be vigilant. Be on guard.

...and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It’s like the man who’s going in a far country who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to everyone their work, and commanded the porter (the doorkeeper) to watch. So this is something that was given to the Church since it was established...since it was established in 31 AD. So everyone along the way was to watch, to be alert and on guard. Not specifically for the specific day of his return, of his coming, but to be on guard, to be alert because you don’t know when something is going to come your way in the dark that’s going to snatch you away because of your weakness, because of your allowing it, because of your not being alert, because of your not being on guard. That’s the message! And you don’t know until that time comes, until it’s there, until whatever it might be as God is molding and fashioning us. He does the molding and fashioning.

Verse 35—Therefore, watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return—at evening, or at midnight, or at the crowing of the rooster. So it’s giving a beautiful example here of the night to be much observed. You don’t know when in the beginning of the evening. It could be very soon after you’re called. Or whether it be late into the night, midnight, when you can tend to be the drowsiest in that sense of ready to fall asleep because you’re into the night there but in that period of time that leads to morning and it’s going to be a battle. Or just before the daylight comes. I think of those in 2012 and 2013 who were put out of the Body, right up to the window of actual time for them, of the actual time. Because this period of a few years in the window of time of 6,000 years is like the morning when the cock is crowing, just before the sun actually comes up in the horizon. There is a little bit of light. We’re there where there is light. We see it! It’s almost there! The world, the nations, the things, the rhetoric out there, the sabre rattling, incredible!

So you don’t know. ...or in the morning, right...right as it’s just about to come up, right at the moment when it’s starts, right up to the point of his return. Incredible! ...or else upon returning suddenly, he finds you sleeping. That’s the warning. You don’t know when that’s going to happen in your life spiritually. So in part of this it’s about a literal return. In part of it that is symbolic of that which we’re to learn from it spiritually, to understand this has meaning for all people ever called.

And what I say unto you, I say unto all. So all who are going to come along and become a part of God’s Church, a part of the Body of Christ, all being told this same thing: Watch! Watch, as in the night watch. The night to be much observed. We’re in the night. Awesome to understand these things on a spiritual plane. Inspiring, what God has given to us.

Let’s turn back now to the book of Exodus because the story flow of Exodus, of Israel out of Egypt that foreshadowed the deliverance from slavery to sin has many lessons and types in it. So this is just one that we have looked at and this is spread throughout the story of the exodus here. And we, really, don’t even have time of this season of the year to go into them all there are so many.

We’re going to go a little farther now in this particular sermon about Joshua Our Passover and understanding those things about deliverance that God has given us in him, through him, and we’re thankful to understand it’s Joshua who is our Passover and that glorifies God and honors God and His Son, purifying the very name itself.

But in Exodus 13:3—And Moses said to the people: Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt... Don’t forget it. Like I said, it’s like saying for us never forget your calling. Don’t forget how you were drawn. Don’t forget what it was like coming to baptism and having hands layed upon you. Don’t forget what’s before you and the warnings that God gives all along the way. This one here, to be watchful, to be alert, as we just read a moment ago.

As it says here, Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage. What a blessing to be freed from what this world is captive in. They don’t know. They don’t have hope. They don’t understand. Someone dies and there is a grief that can never be satisfied in the slightest way because there aren’t any real answers. There are always question and doubt and wondering and not just about the loved ones, but about themselves. They don’t understand so often that it’s about life and death itself, knowing one day it’s going to come. There is that unknown in that, a great unknown because they don’t know why they’re even alive! They don’t know God’s purpose is for us in time to become Elohim, a part of His family. So how free, how blessed are we in those things that God has delivered us from and all the truths He has given to us?

Again here ...in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; because by strength of hand... God does it! God helps us in the beginning, in the very start of the journey, and all the way through it. We can’t continue through the journey without God’s help, without God’s strength. It’s something we physically, mentally cannot do of ourselves. That’s why we learn to trust in, rely upon God and look to God and cry out to God for the help that we need that we don’t have in ourselves to be strong and courageous, encouraged. He’ll give us that. He gives us that.

...because by strength of hand the Eternal brought you out from there. And no leavened bread shall be eaten. No leavened bread. So again, what is it about? The unleavened bread? No. It’s about sin. We’re just we’re not to have it in our life and where it is we’re to run from it as fast as we can. We’re to be shaken up, stirred up, moved and motivated to be more alert, more on guard, to cry out to God more, to do whatever needs to be done to get our lives cleansed and to stay out of sin, because God’s blessed us in the process of coming out of it, so we should run from it with all of our being.

Let’s turn over to Romans before we go on here in Exodus 13. Romans 6, and some of those that we’ve been reading coming up to this point in time in some of the series we’ve gone through. We’ve gone through quite a bit of Romans. It has much to say about this season of the year in the sense of things we are to learn and understanding the process of how God works with us, to understand God’s righteousness and how that can be attributed to us and how we are, then, to being living that way more fully in our life, that we’re to live it, we’re to be that way, to think that way, to be of that same mind.

But here in Romans 6:17 it says, But give thanks to God, and we need to do that continually in our lives, to see those things that we need to be thankful for. We have so much to be thankful for. But if we don’t think about those things, if we don’t marvel at what we have that God has given us to embrace, if we don’t think about those things then we’re not going to be thankful. It’s just going to be taken for granted in time. We do tend to do that as well as human beings. We can tend to take things for granted, as we’ve also been talking about here.

But give thanks to God that although you were the servants (the slaves) of sin (the servants of sin), but you have obeyed, or have been able or enabled to obey from the heart. So we’ve been enabled to obey from the heart because of what God’s doing in us, the conviction of mind and that help of changing and repenting and saying, “I want, I need something different. I want something different. I want what He is offering me. I don’t want selfishness because it causes hurt, pain, anguish, drama in life that isn’t peace, that isn’t fullness, that isn’t contentment, that isn’t joy. It’s the opposite.” It’s a matter of choice. God has enabled us to obey, to want to obey, to fight, to want to fight, to want to watch and be on guard.

…but you have obeyed from the heart, or “been enabled to obey” is really what it means, from the heart that form of doctrine which has been delivered to you. Or again, a better translation in many respects, “whereunto you were delivered.” So God has delivered us to this time, to this place. He is the one who has brought us to the Church. He’s delivering us out of sin and delivered us into His care, into His Church to be fed, to be nurtured, to be transformed, to be changed, to be molded and fashioned. This is where it’s done.

That having been made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. So with what we’ve been going through of recent time and what we’re still going through, because that’s a series that continues on here now after the feast, after these Days of Unleavened Bread. We just barely started that particular series about growing in righteousness and there is more to it that we’re going to be going into because we’re to be growing in righteousness. We want to be of God’s mind, to live the way of life that God has revealed to us. Just to be forgiven of sin and to be attributed or accounted as righteous, that’s not enough. We must become righteous in how we live our lives, so you become the servants of righteousness. What else would we want to be? To serve what is right in life.

Going back to Exodus 13:4—This day, in the month Abib, you are coming out. So again He just told them here that you’re to have no leavened bread and you’re to remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and this is the first of the month that you’re coming out. It’s a beginning. It’s the beginning of God’s plan in you, working in you, starting with Passover. It comes up to Passover. He draws us. He calls us, brings us up to Passover and then we continue on our journey through time.

And it shall be, when the Eternal has brought you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He promised unto your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey... That was all physical for them. That’s what they were in it for. They were in for the milk and the honey, the abundance. But for us it’s that on a spiritual plane, that which enriches life, truth, the Word of God, the mind of God, the way that it produces, the life that it produces in peace and joy and happiness of life, and fullness and fulfillment of life.

...a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month. In other words, always remembering your calling out of Egypt. Year by year we’re brought back to that, to think about that. It’s a beautiful thing. We had a beginning and God loved us, began to love us from the beginning, to draw us to this, to let us share in something now that we don’t have to wait another thousand years before we can taste of it. We get to taste of it now. Awesome!

Verse 6—Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day is the Feast of the Eternal. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. In other words, again, that which is complete, as I mentioned earlier here. It’s a complete plan. It’s a complete plan of deliverance. We’re not delivered on the first day. We begin our deliverance and our journey out of Egypt and we go through a period of time until it’s all complete. That’s what these days are all about. God wants to complete His plan in us. Not to stop, not to quit three and a half days in, four or five days in, but to become complete, to have His calling and purpose completed in us.

So again, Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. So we’re to strive to live without leavening, with no sin. That means to do righteousness, to live righteousness. Not just to be accounted as righteous because of faith, living by faith, but to actually strive to live righteously, to be in how we act and live and obey God’s way of life, to grow in that, to want that.

…unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened shall be seen with you, neither shall leaven be seen with you in all your quarters, in all your dwelling. So we’re just not to have it in our life. That’s why even within the Body, within the Church, especially in this time period we’ve been going through since 2013, that period of time that started then and the cleansing of the temple and the things that we’ve been going through, the measuring of the temple and all that’s been happening, and there is not to be any sin within the temple. Not in our lives and not within the temple. We’re to seek to get rid of it, to be purified and cleansed. God is doing that more so as He’s preparing a Church to be cleansed to meet His Son when he returns on a physical plane that’s spiritual, but not just those who are going to be changed and resurrected as a part of the final count of the 144,000, but also then those who are going on as a Church, to be cleansed, to be purified in a very powerful way because of what awaits them, because of the opportunities before them.

Verse 8—And you shall show your son in that day, saying, This is because of what the Eternal did for me when I came forth (was brought forth) out of Egypt. So it’s something from time to time we talk about in our families. People should know, individuals around us should know. From time to time people get into conversation about how they were called, how their minds were opened up, and what an awesome thing to be able to see something that couldn’t be seen before. I love those stories of people’s lives and knowing what has happened and how their minds were opened and how God drew them to the Church to work with them. Some fascinating things. We’re all worked with in different ways in that manner. Because it’s inspiring to others then—that’s what it’s talking about here—especially within one’s own family.

Verse 9—This shall be as a sign unto you upon your hand. So again, just like it talks about in Revelation, this sign upon our hand and in our forehead. The world looks at this, some in traditional Christianity, as being certain things, it’s like actual numbers, you know, like a tattoo of numbers on your hand or in your forehead or whatever. It’s not about that. Because they’re only physical in their thinking. It’s a spiritual matter, of what you do with your hands as work. It’s about work. That which is in the forehead has to do with your mind. It has to do with your thinking.

This shall be a sign unto you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, you know, in your thinking, your mind, how you think, that the Eternal’s law may be in your mouth. We should speak right things. It should agree with the laws of God and the ways of God. It shouldn’t be contrary to that, that which we speak, that which comes out of our mouth, or out our thinking because that’s where it begins, all of it.

Going on here in verse 9... for with a strong hand the Eternal has brought you out of Egypt. It’s not a small thing as God begins to draw us and call us and work with us and reveal His truth to us and how He interacts and intervenes in our lives to help us along, and especially in the beginning. We need more care at the beginning and God gives that to us. As we go through these things then, the kinds of lessons, God’s always there. Always ready and wanting to help and He teaches along the way. As we grow through that process we learn to rely and trust in Him more and more and to come to Him as the answer rather than relying on ourselves. We finally get to that stage of maturity and growth where we begin to look to Him first for the help we need in various matters of life instead of waiting around.

It’s like with an illness, finally it dawns on us, “Oh, maybe I should get anointed,” whereas from the very beginning if our brain is properly engaged we’ll say, you know, “This is really keeping me down. I’m really in bad shape here. I can’t do what I need to do and I want to do what God says I should do. I’m going to call on the elders of the Church.” Okay? See, that should become more of a way of thinking with us as we grow.

You shall, therefore, keep this ordinance in its season, or as the word means in its appointed time. We know when that is. We know when the holy days come around. ...from year to year.

So God tells us to review various things and go through these things from time to time. And if we can remember what was stated in the beginning, we grow in different rates, in different ways, and we’re called at different times and we’re being molded and fashioned. The ability to mold and fashion someone else may have been having this process of molding and fashioning work with them in many years on the same matter and that has been taken care of, chiselled away and it’s looking more like what it’s supposed to fit into. Another one here has to hear the same thing but isn’t getting what this one here does yet because they’re not there yet or maybe be going through a process of being molded and fashioned into something else where it doesn’t look fully alike. Awesome, how God works.

So again here, Exodus 13 down here a little ways in verse 17—And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them through the way of the land of the Philistines. I love this example here of what it teaches. God didn’t lead them through the pathway, the highway. It’s like talking about different interstates. You can take this one here or that one here which is a little faster, it’s easier, it’s level, more level, and less scenic, but you’re going to get there a lot faster, less traffic. It’s about a highway. That’s what they were talking about here.

It’s about a way of travel which was a way of the land of the Philistines although that was near; for God said, The people will repent, or they may change their mind, in other words. So that’s a distinct possibility, that the people may change their mind along the way here when they see war or they’re confronted with some battle. That’s happened over and over again in God’s Church, where some battle comes along and someone hasn’t been spiritually alert and on guard or of that state of mind of conviction that they need to be, which has to do with being alert and on guard, but conviction is another matter, wanting, a desire of wanting God’s way and becoming more lax, more lethargic, weaker spiritually because they’re not relying on God and looking to God like they should. A battle comes along and what happens? Well, people can turn away. You know, a mate wants to do something different or someone else that someone has met, they want to do something different and they can’t tell them no or they want the relationship more than they want God, a relationship with God.

So people tend to be very physical in those kinds of matters. Maybe a job, and so maybe having gone through some hard times financially and so somebody gives into something that they shouldn’t do. A battle comes along. So this is very much about this story here, that this can happen. People begin their journey and go by the wayside, take the wrong turn, decide a different path they think is easier. Turns out to be worse.

It says, Lest they see war, or confronted with a battle, and they return to Egypt. Many have gone that path, many more than those who have been chosen.

Verse 18—But God led the people about... Turned aside. This really has to do with the word “turned aside,” not “about,” but through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up harnessed, or in other words, “in order,” “in battle array.” Just the way we should be doing. We need to be together, organized, in agreement and walking together side by side, hand in hand as far as God’s way of life is concerned toward God, toward God’s purpose and plan and working together in that in an orderly manner. So it says they went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

Let’s turn over to Hebrews, Hebrews 10, because there are some things that go along with that here that are mentioned. Again, I love these different examples in here and to be reminded of them from time to time. There is God’s way and it’s not something that people can see. Man can’t see it. No one can see it in scripture. They go a different way. They go a way that they think is about God, one that maybe their parents taught them or they learned from some other friends in some other part of Christianity, so to speak, and not from God. It’s a different way.

To learn God’s way, what an awesome thing to be on the right path, to be in the right journey. That’s what these things are about. The Israelites could have gone up the way of the Philistines, but it wasn’t the right way. It wasn’t the way God wanted to work with them to mold and fashion them. It’s a carnal way to go, the easier way to go, perhaps, or what seemed to be the easier way. God led them in a way that wasn’t there, that’s not known. You can’t see it. God has to give it. Only God can lead us in His way. He knows how and we follow that path. We choose to follow Him. We have to make those choices along the way, “I want to follow where God leads.” There is no other way.

Hebrews 10:19. It says, Therefore, brethren, having boldness, and there is a boldness to it but the word really means “liberty” or “a freedom.” So we have a freedom that’s been given to us, a liberty that hasn’t been given to others. Others in the world don’t have it, but we have it. So indeed we are to do it in kind of a boldness as well, to know what we’ve been given and to follow. But again, it’s about a freedom or a liberty that we have that’s unique to us.

It says, Therefore, brethren, having this liberty to enter the Holiest by the blood of Joshua... So we’re able to go before God. We’re able to go to, as I’ve mentioned here of recent time, go to God’s throne any time we want and God is there. He wants us to. He wants to hear from us. He wants to share with us. He wants to teach us.

Again here, we’re able to through the “blood of the Holiest.” What does that mean? “Through the blood,” I should say, “into the Holiest of Holies by the blood of Joshua.” It means, when it says “blood of Joshua,” it means because of the forgiveness of sin. That’s why I mention so often in the beginning of my prayers they have to do with repentance. Because because of sin I become weaker, I’ve choked off the flow of God’s spirit, can cut it off because of sin (that’s what happens), and I want that flow to be strong. I want that. I want forgiveness of sin to be there, to be accounted as righteous before God by faith, living by it, that I know that I’m forgiven of my sins when I repent and I want that and I want to be able to be heard by God.

So when you repent you’re able to enter into the Holiest of Holies by the blood of Joshua. That’s what it means. It means you’re of a repentant mind and spirit, repenting of sins and then seeking fellowship with God, guidance and direction from God.

Verse 20—says, by a new and a living way.... Not just a physical way, though the way of the Red Sea. This is a living way. This way gives life. So it’s new. It’s been new for the Church. It’s a spiritual thing far greater than anything physical so it’s by a new and a living way. It has life in it. ...which he has consecrated... The word means “newly made” in other words. It’s been made... It’s a new way for you to follow. No one else has it. It’s not in the world. It’s not given to the world. ...which he has newly made for us, for the Church, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. So that veil of the temple rent in half. The high priest could only go in there once a year; we can go there any time. What liberty! What freedom!

I think that area there alone is something we just don’t grasp as deeply and as fully as we could and really should. We should seek to understand that and be thankful for that far more deeply than, as a whole, than really what we are.

Verse 22—so it says, let us draw near, near to God. We have that freedom that’s been made new for us. So we’re to draw near with a true heart, you know, one that’s not deceitful. You can’t hide anything from God. You can’t have audience with God and be before His presence if it’s not through the blood of Joshua. That means if we have sin that’s unrepented of and we’re messing around with sin in our life it’s not going to do any good. It’s a waste of time. Because then that way is not opened up to us because it’s not through the blood of Joshua. So repentance has to be there and a desire to live righteously, and striving to live righteously has to be there.

So again here, draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience... It’s all about repentance. Then that way is opened up for us; we can travel it. We can walk it. We can live it. We can run it. ...and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, this thing of knowing how we have access to God is through His Son, Joshua our Passover, and being so thankful, so grateful for that, but also to be using that in our lives regularly, on a regular basis. Because we have sin that needs to be repented of on a continuing basis because we’re carnal; we’re selfish as human beings.

Let’s turn over to 2 Peter because along with this there is also the warning of not turning back from God’s way. So the Israelites had a way they were travelling. They wanted to do certain things. Some wanted to go back at certain points and they were given warnings. Then they saw the Egyptian army and then the great fear that was there. We’re told don’t turn back. Don’t go back to what you’ve been called out of. Don’t turn back to those things of the night, but flee them, seek to conquer them. Seek to be at one with God.

So in 2 Peter 2:19 it says, While they promise them liberty... So again here, there are those that are deceitful in life, and that’s happened within the environment of the Church. There are people who have always come along within the Church through time who begin to speak in a divisive manner, begin to speak something different than what the Church is teaching, different from what they’re  hearing in sermons and they have their own opinions and own ideas about things. Some to the point in time where maybe they want to (as what happened, I think of that 2013 period, and around there anyway) and sometimes people begin to say they don’t like “this” or they don’t like “that” and so let’s kind of get together and have our own study and think about this amongst ourselves to get this right. You think, “Wow! Where is the fear? Where is the understanding? What’s happened to your mind?”

It says here, While they promise them liberty. “You know, there’s a different path here. We can study into this.” I’ve known of this; ever since I’ve been in God’s Church these things have happened. Somebody has a different way of seeing it than what was given to them through the ministry, or especially from Mr. Armstrong, and they have these different ideas and so they try to get people, subtly so, who they think they can visit with and talk to about this, who might listen to them, who might participate with them, who might be drawn in with them. And after a while, wow, it’s scary what can happen. The vast majority of people in time have left God’s Church in that manner, truly.

While they promise them liberty, something that’s false. God gives us liberty. God gives us freedom. The Church, the truth that comes through the Church, that gives us freedom. That gives us liberty. Holding on to it, being watchful, being alert, that gives us liberty. Listening to things that distract from that or disagree with that, ah, that gives us slavery. That leads us right back into bondage, and in a worse way than in the beginning, truly.

While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption, speaking of such individuals, the servants of corruption. To corrupt. They not only corrupted themselves, they want to corrupt others. They want others to join in with their corruption because then that kind of makes them feel better, justifies more easily what they’re doing. ...for of whom a man is overcome, so whatever a person is overcome by, of the same he is brought into bondage. So if you’re overcome by something, if you give into something, you give into such thinking then you’re going to be conquered by it. You’re going to be overcome by it.

Verse 20—For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world... See, having escaped the pollutions of the world, been called out of darkness and you’re not participating in the darkness anymore, you’re in the light. God gives us light and we go toward the light. But there is still that darkness. We still are in a dark world around us. God gives us the source of light to be able to see the darkness for what it is. But if we start dwelling in the darkness, wow, we’re going to lose the light.

...for whom one is overcome, of the same they are brought into bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Joshua the Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, conquered, in other words, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. Just what I said. That’s far worse than if they’d never been called, what they’ve done to their mind, what they’ve done, the shame, the ugliness of it.

Verse 21—For it would have been better for them not to have known the way, God’s way, the way He leads, the way of righteousness, than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. What an incredible thing, to turn from the way, the truth, the commandments, because it’s a matter of commandments, order, unity, oneness, God’s government. It’s a matter of what God has commanded within a relationship to Him and how to accomplish that, because the 10 Commandments are broken down spiritually for us, especially the first four as far as the Church is concerned, in everything about how we have a right relationship with God. If we don’t do it in that way, in the way that God has led us and shown us, we go some other way, we go right back into what we came out of and it becomes far worse for us.

But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb. What an ugly thing here, but it’s so true on a spiritual plane: The dog has returned to its vomit again. You know, to see something like that, a dog vomits and it goes back to it. We know what vomit is and it stinks and you want to get away from it, and for a dog to go lap it back up again, you think, “What’s wrong with you?” ...and, the sow, that has washed, to her wallowing in the mire. It’s just what they are. They’re a pig. They like it. They like wallowing in the mire, in the mud.

I used to hate hogs. I hated pigs because they were so filthy, such a filthy animal, so when I learned that they’re not clean that wasn’t a hard thing for me to understand. Because I already knew they weren’t a clean animal, and then it wasn’t hard to understand that in their meat it’s not too clean. Because I’ve been around large numbers of such animals as I was growing up, fed them, took care of them, saw all, when it would rain especially, when there was a lot of water mixed in with all the feces. It’s called poop, if you don’t know what that is, feces. But it is what it is, the excrement, that which comes out the rear end and it’s all over. It’s everywhere and they put their nose in it in all these ugly areas and they like it, because a pig...it’s a good word; it’s a pig. You can put lipstick on it, but it’s still a pig. That old expression.

But anyway, very true. What a horrible thing to receive God’s way of life and to leave it and go back to something else. It’s spiritually akin to that, a dog returning to its vomit, a pig going back and wallowing in the mire, in the filth, in the feces of this world, in the sewer. What a sick thing, in the darkness of this world, for what we’ve been called out of.

Again here, back to the story flow in Exodus 13:20—And they took their journey from Succoth and encamped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. And the Eternal went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them by the way, to lead them the way. You know, it’s amazing. God enlightens the path for us and it’s so exciting when He makes it even brighter by giving us more truth, the +1, Joshua. That has enlightened a way that is so beautiful because it gets rid of the corruption connected with that which was false, that we’re freed from now.

I feel like a weight—I mean it—a powerful weight has been lifted off. No association now with any of that out there, because not even the words and the terms are the same because it’s all wrong. And what a freedom!

I think of the way that God leads us and the light that He gives to us to show us His way, to lead us in His way. It’s a beautiful thing, the spiritual analogy of all these things; it’s always so meaningful and filled with God’s life, God’s mind.

As it says here, and the Eternal went before them by a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way. So here it’s talking about that overshadowing, that shadowing them and giving them that shade by day, that the sun of the day isn’t too harsh upon them in their life. It makes their life better in that sense of being protected from the rays of the sun. ...and by night by a pillar of fire, for literally then in the night time there is light. Those examples are there on a spiritual plane. ...to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of the fire by night from before the people. He was with them. God lets us know He’s with us to lead us in His way. He’s always there before us reminding us of His way Sabbath by Sabbath, holy day to holy day.

So again, the cloud by day was given as a reminder that God was with them, overshadowing them to lead them and protect them on their journey out of Egypt. That’s the spiritual lesson and analogy to be learned from that.

I’m reminded of a particular expression that’s similar to that intent and meaning in going back here in Psalms, first of all. It’s in several places, but let’s pick this up in Psalm 17:5. It says, Hold up my goings in Your paths, in other words, in Your ways, so that my footsteps are not moved. So we don’t want to be moved out of the path and the way that God leads us. We don’t want to follow our own selfish thoughts and ideas, our way, or someone else’s way, because it leads us off the path, it leads us off the way of God. This is what it is being magnified in this particular Psalm.

It goes on to say, I have called upon You, for You will hear me. I think of that liberty and freedom we have to go before God. He hears us. O God; incline Your ear to me, and hear my speaking (my words). Show Your marvelous loving kindness... What a blessing to have God’s loving kindness, that He loves us now. Most of the world He’s not going to love, show His love, give His love to until the Millennium and the Great White Throne.

O You who saves by your right hand those who put their trust in You from those who rise up against them. So again, what a beautiful thing here again, this thing of putting our trust in God. We’ve had sermons about that not too long ago and learning about that, the importance of putting our trust in God, putting God first and how God saves us then by His great power, by His strength.

Verse 8—Keep me as the apple of Your eye. Isn’t that the way we want to stay? That means a right relationship with Him, that we don’t stray off the paths, so that we will be consistent, so that we don’t stray away from the path and go some other direction.

Hide me under the shadow of Your wings. So that analogy there of the Egyptians and chasing them and here the Israelites are there able to leave Egypt, coming out of sin, and here they’re able to have by daytime this overshadowing, the shade, if you will, from God, God’s protection. That’s what it’s all symbolic of. For us on a spiritual plane it means even more. These things are spoken of in the Old Testament, especially here in the Psalms in this account here. “Hide me under the shadow of Your wings.” “You’re there. You’re there protecting me.” That’s about protection and God’s intervention in our life, always there.

I think of the one in Revelation 12, of what happened in time to the Church. Revelation 12 goes through an entire story here about various things through time and a battle with a spirit being and those things that happened then as far as the Church was concerned as time went on. This is a part of that story. It’s a summarization of a long period of time.

But then we come down to Revelation 12:13—And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth he persecuted the woman who brought forth the male child. It’s about Satan and his battle continually against God. Not knowing everything that God has written and said and then coming to see, “Oh, yeah, this is something that God is doing,” and then fighting against it, wanting to have the child put to death himself, let alone to strive to destroy the Church. And then, well, basically before that, destroying Christ, thinking that he’s going to be put to death in the midst of his ministry and thinking he has a victory. He has no victory. It was supposed to be done. Everything he does he just makes things worse for himself and gives more for God to use to mold and fashion His people. It’s part of God’s plan.

So again here, it’s talking about Satan. I think of Pharaoh being symbolic of that on a spiritual plane, and here he is chasing after the children of Israel, sin coming after the children of Israel on a continual basis, and in the midst of all that the one overshadowing all that sin is this being who pushes that, who wants to destroy us with his army. Again, this happened on a physical plane; it happens on a spiritual plane.

It says, he persecuted the woman who brought for the male child. So from the very beginning this desire that Satan has had to destroy Christ himself, to destroy the Church in various times through history.

It says, and to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place. I think of this verse 13 here, of something specific here. It’s talking about a specific moment when Satan was cast down. I think of Mr. Armstrong talking about the time the State of California was being used, in essence, to try to destroy the Church. It was about destroying the Church and giving it over to others who would take it in a totally different direction away from God. Well, God didn’t let that happen back then, obviously. There was much more to be done in the era of Philadelphia let alone what had to become fulfilled in Laodicea and then later as a remnant, what had to be accomplished.

But it says here at that particular moment in time, something else happened in time. So what followed Mr. Armstrong, what followed his death was a lethargic Church, a Church that spiritually went to sleep, a Church that led into a period of time that led right up to the Apostasy. This is a continuation of that story.

And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time, time, and a half a time from the face of the serpent. It’s telling a story here of what finally happened in time here, that God had to intervene and protect the Church from that being in a very powerful way, as it says here, for 3½ years a special protection that had to be given to the Church. He goes on to tell the story here, what led up to this, what happened. Because, or as it says here, and the serpent, because this is what had happened, because the serpent had cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, to destroy the Church. There was this flood, this Apostasy, that all over the world that hit us all at one time. The things within the ministry then and as it was a flood that continued after us, that he might cause it to be carried away of the flood.

So Satan’s desire was to hit the Church so strong and so powerfully so that it would totally destroy it. A lot of it was destroyed. A third quit, went back to what they came back out of, the dog to its vomit. Went back to traditional Protestant thoughts and ideas. Another third just quit because they were so disillusioned. Another third kind of scrambled around in the dark trying to do something from what they had believed in times past, but were so deeply asleep still because of what had happened. God had to call some out of that and awaken them out of that.

Verse 16—And the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. I think of this and I think, yes, it did. Small and scattered. Small and scattered in different parts to where it was no threat. It wasn’t perceived as a threat, and yet there were these little pockets of people all over that God began to work with, began to raise up out of that, had to give protection for 3½ years to bring it to that point, to all of a sudden make it manifest, “This is My Church that continues on, the remnant of My people that will continue on to the end as a Church.”

Verse 17—And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God. Beautiful verses here, what’s being talked about.

So there is that group of people who keep the commandments of God, who want to live righteously before God, who have the testimony – and this means, to have the testimony of Joshua the Christ means it’s evident by their lives that God is living in them, that Christ is living in them and through them and they in them. So, powerful what is being said there.

Let’s turn over as well here to Psalm 36:5. It says, Your mercy, O Eternal, is in the heavens; and Your faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. Your righteousness, I love this. We’ve just been talking about those things in the series and we still have more after this holy day period to continue to talk about this subject of righteousness. God’s righteousness, Your righteousness is like the great mountains, you know, reaches up so powerfully so, so majestic.

Your judgments are a great deep; O Eternal, You preserve man and beast. And verse 7—How excellent is Your loving kindness, O God! We come to understand that more and more all the time, how blessed we are to be loved by God now. Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. We learn to do that. We learn to enjoy that. We learn to embrace that, that protection that God gives to us and how He overshadows our lives if we will yield ourselves to Him, if we want that.

Verse 8—They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. So everything that’s right and good that gives life, that gives nourishment comes from God.

Then verse 9—For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light shall we see light. So we talk about the shadow, this overshadowing, this protection that God gives, and then this light that we have to have to be able to see in the dark, in the night, that God gives to us. So we receive God’s protection, we receive God’s help, and He gives us light to see. All these things go together in what’s being described here of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt, the shadows during the daytime and then at night time the pillars of fire, all symbolic of things that are very spiritual to us.

Let’s turn over to John 1. Beautiful verses here, inspiring verses. We understand them in a way that no one does. We understand them in a way a scattered body doesn’t because they weren’t able to continue on after the Apostasy. They weren’t able to learn these things. But you’ve been able to learn them. How blessed are you? Whew! Awesome!

John 1:1—In the beginning was the Word, this thing of wisdom, this mind, this being, this life, and the Word was unto God. It’s not just “with God,” it’s “unto God.” It’s God’s Word. It’s the mind of God, the being of God. So that’s been from the beginning. And the Word was God. It expresses God, the thinking, the mind of God. So it’s described here as “the Word was God.” That’s who God is. It’s what’s in our minds that is who we are. It’s not any parts of our body, a physical body, it’s what’s in our mind. That’s what’s being said here, in essence.

The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him there was not anything made that was made. Very strong, very powerful in what it’s saying here, making it very clear God has done it all. In Him was life... So God has this life, this eternal life, and He can give it to others. No one else can give that life to others, but He can. He’s the only one that can give others life – literal physical life and even spirit life or spiritual existence. But even that which is of the mind of God, spirit for all time, it comes from God. God has to give it.

So again here, In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. It’s that which God gave that was in God, to give light. It comes from God. The light comes from God and it was given to Christ to give to His Church, to give to God’s family. These are beautiful verses. And the life was the light of men. It’s that life that God gives as it works in our minds that enlightens our ability to see what’s true and what’s right. God’s holy spirit.

And the light shines in the darkness... So it’s out here. I think of The Plain Truth magazine having been all over the world, The World Tomorrow telecast. Truth was all over the place in a very powerful way. But the world couldn’t see it. It was in the darkness and the darkness couldn’t see it. But those whom God had given the light to, the light of men, for men, they could see it. Awesome! And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. So the light, Christ is being given the example here of being that light. John came to bear witness of that light, that he is the Son of God, he is the light from God, he is the Word of God made flesh. That’s what it’s talking about here. Others read this and they don’t grasp that. Others in the scattered body read this and they don’t grasp that.

Verse 8—He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which, and this is not a right translation here. It says, “gives light to every man coming into the world.” That’s not the right translation at all. But, This was the true Light coming into the world that gives light to everyone. So in time that light that mankind can receive in order to be drawn, called into the Church, is something that has to come through Christ. He is that light; he is the true light that’s come into the world. Anyone who comes into the world (as far as life is concerned), in time will have opportunity, as a whole, to receive of that light. So Christ will give light to everyone, everyone who will receive it, understandably so here, because not all are going to be able to receive it. As a whole that’s God’s purpose, as a whole, for all humanity, to have the ability to be able to receive of that light in order to come into Elohim. So if they’re drawn and called into becoming a part of Elohim they’ll receive this light.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him, because it’s about God. The light is God’s. The Word is God. But it’s made flesh so that others can see and begin to learn and have a relationship and have a process of salvation through the blood of Christ, to be justified, to be purchased and so forth here. It’s the entire story.

He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. So here, that which was made manifest, that which was a witness of God, the light that was made witness to mankind, it is God, the Word of God made flesh, His life, His being, His Son, you know, the Son of God, and here he is coming to his own as far as a nation is concerned and they wouldn’t receive him. Incredible.

He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him... So who was able to receive him? Those whom God called. Those whom God calls and draws. ...to them he gave the light to become the children of God. So God has given that to Christ, that once people receive and are blessed to be able to receive, to be called and given to Christ, in that respect, they’re able to come to the point of baptism and have hands layed upon them, that light that begins to shine in their minds and their being that draws them first of all to that knowledge and ability, to make that choice, and then making that choice and having opportunity to grow within the womb until born into God’s Kingdom.

...who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That’s what the story is about. It’s a beautiful story of a calling, of the impregnation of God’s spirit, of the opportunity to grow until able to be literally not just in the womb but now born into as spirit and having that spirit mind for all time. Awesome!

Verse 14—And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, so the light, that the light that is in him, the light that he was, the Word, the mind. It’s this entire story. Again, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. It was God’s plan and purpose. Everything was structured upon Christ, upon His Son, but he wasn’t going to be made manifest until well into the end, speaking after 4,000 years of a 6,000 year plan, and then 2,000 more years and then finally his literal return to this earth.

And of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. So it’s speaking to the Church. All of us, we’ve received this grace, and more grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Joshua the Christ. What a beautiful season this is, Joshua our Passover.

Ephesians 5. So God is leading us out of spiritual Egypt. He has given us the true light of this world for all mankind. In time that’s God’s purpose, in order to become impregnated, to be in the womb, and finally be born into His family, Elohim. We’re so blessed to be able to partake of the way God leads us. It’s a beautiful picture and there are so many things in this story of the Exodus that, again, as I said, we don’t have the time in sermons to go through it all there is so much here. So year by year we discuss various parts of it, whatever God leads us to teach and instruct at that particular time.

Ephesians 5:1—Therefore, be followers. It’s a word that means “imitators” of God as dear children. So we want to be that way. We want to be of that same mind. We want to live that righteousness. We want to be righteous, which means we want to be like God and do things God’s way. So we want to be imitators of that way. It’s not just a matter of an imitation that’s fake or false but more of that which is really a part of us because we have chosen that, we want to practice it, we want to live it until it is us, until we become that fully at one, if you will with God and with His Son.

And walk in love, That’s the way of life. It’s God’s love, agape, and this is God, this is the way of God. It sums up everything about God. We’re to walk in it. The more we strive to live by it, to walk by it, to walk in that righteousness the more it becomes a part of us because God molds and fashions and transforms this mind into His, into that way of thinking, into that way of being. It’s a beautiful thing.

And walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. So it’s a beautiful thing. It’s like the prayers of the saints or the prayers that come up before God. It’s like the incense that was put up at the altar and it’s that smell that comes up before God. That’s what it gives, the analogy of prayer being like that which comes up before God that’s sweet smelling and that relationship then that God is able to have with His people, with us, with the Church and with people through time.

There is a way of life. This is that way that we’re to walk in. We’re to strive to in God’s righteousness, to imitate that, to live that, to want that, to cry out for that. So let’s strive for that and be ever so thankful for these days of Unleavened Bread and all that it teaches us in our deliverance out of bondage that this world is in and we look so forward to their minds being opened up and being able to share something on such a massive scale with all who come through what they’re going to come through very soon now.

So what an incredible thing to understand to the depth that we’re blessed to see, that Joshua is our Passover.

1. Chapter 1