Growing In Righteousness, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

April 27, 2019

About a month ago we began a new series entitled Growing In Righteousness, and today is going to be Part 2.

In that sermon it was stated that after we begin to grasp how God accounts or attributes righteousness to us and that only He and His Son are righteous then we are to move forward as we ourselves are to live in God’s righteousness, meaning that we are to be growing in righteousness. We talked a great deal about that process, how God attributes righteousness to us because He’s given us the ability to believe the truth and then we choose to live by it, which is faith, and then if we live by faith, though we’re not righteous and we have sins and we ask for forgiveness continually God blesses us. The fact that we even pray and ask God for forgiveness of our sins through our Passover is a matter of faith and because of living by what God has given us to believe He accounts that to us for righteousness.

We have the example of Abraham and offering his own son, getting ready to offer his own son and God stopped him from doing that. But because he was willing to do it and start the process there because he lived by faith, God attributed that to him for righteousness. But other scriptures go on to talk about that, that there is more that follows. It doesn’t just stop there. The world in traditional Christianity stops in a lot of those things because they don’t go any further, they don’t grasp the process and what God is doing that we have to live by His way of life, to live by the commandments, to live by the truth, to live by the law of God. So this goes on in another step showing that yes, we are to strive to live in a righteous manner, to be righteous, to become righteous in our actions.

So if you want to let’s turn over to Romans 6. Before we pick up where we left off it would be good to look at a couple of areas of scripture that we covered. Romans 6:18—That having been made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Again here, God is making it very clear that though we’ve been forgiven of sin we are to be bound to a specific way of life, to live in a righteous manner, to strive to live in righteousness.

It went on then in verse 19 to say, I speak after the manner of men, in other words, speak in human terms here, speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For as you have yielded/presented your members servants to uncleanness... In other words, that’s the way we lived before we were called. That’s just the way of life with the world. They’re bound to, they’re in captivity to, enslaved to carnality, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” It’s just the way it is in human life. We understand even more deeply because of what God reveals through the days of Unleavened Bread that God is blessing us by taking us out of Egypt, by taking us away from sin. Again, these things are talking about this.

As it talks about “members” here when it speaks of “you’re to present your members,” it’s talking about a body, your body and whether it be the feet walking towards sin, whether it be hands, eyes, what we see, what we speak, the different members of our body, that we yield as human nature is, to sin. It’s talking about that process, “as you have yielded/presented your members servants to uncleanness,” but all those go back to the mind; it goes back to how you think then we do various things, whether it be the members, this tongue in how we speak, it all starts in the mind.

It says, for as you have presented/yielded your members to servants of uncleanness and to lawlessness that leads to more lawlessness... That’s something that people don’t grasp a lot of times, obviously, and they don’t even care, but when people begin to corrupt their mind, when the mind becomes calloused because of sin it’s easier to get worse then because that becomes the norm, if you will, less exciting to carnality, and so it becomes worse. It just snowballs, if you will. A snowball that starts going downhill and it gets bigger and bigger. That’s the way it is. It just gets worse and worse and worse.

So again, and to lawlessness that leads to more lawlessness, so now yield your members as servants to righteousness unto holiness. So God says, now everything you do, every action in your life you should strive to be in unity and oneness with God, you should strive, as it says here, “to live in righteousness unto holiness.” And “unto holiness” is a word that has to do with being set apart for holy use and purpose, to strive to live in a way, in a manner that is in agreement with God’s word and hopefully be able to be tools, if you will, and instruments in His service, in whatever He’s wanting to do, desiring to do in our lives as He molds and fashions us.

Let’s turn over to Ephesians 4. We’re going to look at an area of scripture that we focused upon at the end of Part 1. It’s in the book of Ephesians. Then we’ll continue on from there from where we left off. We were focusing upon the structure of God’s Church, for it’s through this that God leads us to deeper, if you will, to greater understanding of how a new creation works in us, a creation, as we understand it in the development of Elohim.

Ephesians 4:1, he says, I, therefore, the prisoner... s I’ve mentioned here recently, when it speaks of being a prisoner it speaks of being bound (that’s the usage of the word in the Greek language), so he, Paul uses this in the context of how he was bound. He was in Rome for a long time, in that respect, as far as being under house arrest. He uses this example that he wasn’t free. We are bound. He was bound. So on a physical plane he was bound, but he wants to use this analogy to show that he has chosen to be bound to God’s way of life.

So “I, therefore, the prisoner,” or “being bound to the Lord,” if you will, or “of the Lord,” that’s what he’s saying. “I have chosen to be bound to God, to be bound to the Lord, to live this way of life.” The other wasn’t a choice. It happened to him. It was brought upon him by the government.

So he says, I implore you that you walk in a worthy manner of the vocation... It’s a word that just means “a calling; the calling,” which we understand God calls us. He says, “I implore you,” so he’s pleading, in that respect, “that you walk in a worthy manner,” so in everything that you do. We understand that we’re going to mess up, we’re going to make mistakes, but we should strive to live this way, God’s way. “I implore you to walk in a worthy manner of the calling,” and that means we have to appreciate, we have to grasp what God has given to us. If we don’t grasp the calling that we have and we don’t grasp how unique we are... I think of the Church itself and how large the church was and how small we are now, and if we can’t grasp how blessed we are in the calling we have—some of us being awakened out of a spiritual sleep after the Apostasy, others receiving a calling like we did initially in the very beginning to this way of life—God wants us to think about that, what’s involved in your calling. How unique is that? And we know of the numbers. We’re so small and yet there are tens of thousands who lived this way of life at one time, who are asleep to it or who have totally lost it.

We’re to walk in a worthy manner of the calling with which you are called; it is a calling. ...with all lowliness, and so this is about humility, a humility of mind and how we see things. The reasons it uses that expression is because the opposite of that is pride. You know, when you have pride you do whatever you want, you think you’re right. You’re not striving to live by what God says is right; you’re doing your own thing. We all have attitudes of what we think is right.

In the world around us everyone has opinions. I do. You do. We all do. We have to be careful of those opinions and how we think because it’s not all right. We’re not all correct. You know, we can read things off the internet today and you can find two sides to every issue out there. Really. It’s just everything you look at and we have to be careful how we dissect and judge some of those things. But I’m just using that as an example to show that we think we’re right. Things that happen in God’s Church, we allow certain things because we strive to justify it in our mind. We get to a point, if we’re not careful, where we think it’s right, it’s alright, it’s all right. No, it’s not. If it’s against God’s word, if it’s against God’s way of life, it’s not all right. It has to be in agreement with the word of God.

He says, with all lowliness of mind. So we have to have an attitude of humility to receive from God. That means we’re not bent on doing our own thing, and actually we’re on guard against that. We recognize this is the danger. This, of and by itself apart from God, is the danger. If we’re wise spiritually we’re going to be mindful of what our nature is like, we’re going to be on guard against that. When we went through that the other day about being watchful, the night to be much observed, understanding it’s not about a night that is commanded to be much observed. It’s a night of watchings, of being vigilant (and actually it’s plural), to God, of watching.

So what do we watch? What are we to watch? Well, we know what we’re to watch and be vigilant about. And most of it, candidly, is not just about the world and the pulls of the world, it’s about self because you won’t do what the world does if you’re watching this! If you’re on guard against self and how we’re thinking then we’re not going to do those things because we realize what our nature is like, so we’re going to be on guard and we’re going to cry out to God when we see a wrong attitude or a wrong spirit or a wrong reaction, wrong thinking toward someone else in God’s Church, a wrong judgment toward someone else in God’s Church. We’re going to examine that, of what came out of our mouth or what we were thinking. That’s what we should do. That’s what God wants us to do.

So that requires humility of mind and a meekness; again here, that word more having to do with gentleness rather than just being of a teachable spirit. But that’s good, too, because meekness before God means we’re willing to learn. I know that I’m wrong; God is right. I want to adopt, I want to copy, I want to emulate, I want to do those things that are from God that are God’s way. I don’t want to do them my way. The more we can think like that and the more that becomes our nature the more we’ll be able to be on guard against the things we do wrong. But so often what we do is after we’ve messed up and slipped then we realize, “Oh, that was wrong.” Then we repent. That’s a blessing. That’s an awesome thing. Too often, though, people don’t repent, and that’s the problem.

So, with all lowliness of mind and meekness (gentleness), with longsuffering... If we understand this, what is longsuffering? What are these things about mostly? When do you have to be longsuffering? When do you have to be patient? Well, it’s going to be in relationships, as a whole. It’s about relationships. God’s law, it’s all about relationships. The first four, a relationship with God. The last six about a relationship with one another.

These things have to do with relationships. It has to do with people because that’s where we sin most of all. It’s in how we think toward people, about people, what we say about people. So really, most of everything we do that is judged has to do with how we choose to live in relationships with the rest of the world, how we judge others in the world. Are we able to say, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they do.” Are we able to have longsuffering with others and realize they can’t help what they’re doing; they’re caught, they’re enslaved to something they don’t even grasp and comprehend? But we can grasp it so we’re the ones that have to deal with it. They can’t yet, but we have to.

...with longsuffering, forbearing with one another... See, it’s about relationships, in love.

I love this word because it’s a word that has to do with the word “tolerance” in one respect, “to tolerate,” but not in a negative way. Sometimes, and I think maybe most of the times in the English language the word “tolerate” has to do with an attitude of, “Well, I’ll tolerate this in them,” but you know it’s still a judging thing. It’s looking down upon them. That’s not what this is. This is a word that has more to do with allowing for the differences of others – to allow for the differences in others.

Thinking last night and today a little bit at different times, and even my wife and I spoke of this, about this group here and how we’ve seen everyone draw closer together over time. That’s exciting. That’s inspiring because that’s what we’re to do. We become more one Body when we do that, when we recognize we are one family. The ability to mix as one family together, the ability to communicate and value each other in the family is what it’s all about. We draw closer together as we’re able to accomplish that. We learn not only to allow for the differences but to enjoy them, to be thankful for them.

We were talking last night about different kinds of food over there at the food hall and a large variety of food and how that so much of it it’s cultural, different parts of the world, and thinking I would hate to see it at one time where we all had the same agreement on all foods as far as a culture was concerned. That, to me, would be horrible. I appreciate the differences. I enjoy going from one part of the world right there in that food hall to another and looking around and learning about and trying different things of different cultures.

Even the dress of different cultures is a beautiful thing. We shouldn’t all be the same. We have different things that we have come through in life and different things we’ve carried through generations, and we’re not to become all the same. So it’s allowing for the differences, and not only that but to enjoy, to learn to respect and to enjoy the differences in peoples. That’s an awesome thing.

But you know what? The world doesn’t do that. The world judges harshly. You’re from one part of the world? You get judged. Just by being from one part of the world you can be judged harshly quickly. That’s just the way it is, how you’re treated and how people think.

Just like us today – realize that Americans are being looked upon with less care than they used to be. It’s changing for the worse for us because they see an arrogance, they see a haughtiness, they see what has happened over decades of “as long as it’s your way and we’ve been bending to your way... Well, we’re tired of that. We’re tired of you manipulating and controlling everything that we do.” Just like armies here, NATO, government, and so forth. They’re tired of that. “We don’t need you telling us how to run our countries.” Now, is that right or wrong? It is? Okay, see. Because if we think it’s wrong we’ve got a problem here. I’m just kidding.

But I listen to the news over here and it’s different. We don’t have news. We do not have news. We have personalities. We have people that come on TV and they ask for their opinion. They write a book and so they ask for their opinion, “Well, you wrote a book about this; what do you think?” It’s like, “I don’t care what they think! Who cares?!” World conditions? What have they ever done but write about their opinion of what they think in the first place? It becomes about personalities.

Over here you still have news. It’s changing a little bit, but still you still have news of how people think, of what’s actually happening in different parts of the world even. We don’t know what’s going on in the world unless you look. You have to dig to find the news in the United States. You have to look and dig to find out what’s really going on.

Over there it’s like everything is just hunky dory, peachy keen. Everything is going along fine. The world is okay. They have no idea. They have no concept of what’s taking place. They have no concept of what’s taking place in Turkey and the Lira. They have no concept of what’s happening in Italy and the financial system. They have no concept of the struggle that’s taking place here in Europe. They really don’t! They’re totally oblivious, as a whole. To me it’s so sad and pathetic.

But anyway, allowing for the differences; went a long way from that. But that’s not something, in that respect, that we should ever want to get rid of. In a new world there are going to be differences and we’re going to learn to appreciate those differences as we do in God’s Church. This is what God teaches us in the Church, to begin to appreciate the differences. Then you know what? You can carry this into the world then. What we have in God’s Church we’re able to carry into the world. That’s what’s going to take place because God’s going to change it and we’re going to have that opportunity of continuing right on from where we are. But we have to live it, and that’s the whole point.

So we’re to allow for the differences, as it says here, forbearing one another in love. It’s about love. It’s about God’s love and what are we told about God’s law? Summed up in one word – agape. That’s the way He is. It’s an outgoing concern for others to the point of a willingness to even sacrifice if need be. And for human beings, you have to sacrifice to love God’s way, you truly do. Loving God’s way in a human world you have to give in, you have to give up something, you have to give in order to serve. It’s about service. It’s about giving. It’s not about taking. Human nature takes. Human nature is on the get side. It’s the way we are.

That’s why Mr. Armstrong summed it up when he talked to world leaders about two simple ways of life. They understood what he said. Then people criticized him because he wasn’t quoting scripture. It’s like you’ve got to quote scripture if you’re going to go out as an apostle and tell the world about what’s right and what’s wrong. He didn’t have to do that. He just said, he told them basically there are two ways that people live. They live the get way or the give way and they would nod. I remember a couple times specific in my mind. I can see it. They just... They agreed. You could see they were at one in what was being said.

Let’s continue on from where we were then: Ephesians 4:4—There is one Body, one spirit... It’s the spirit of God. Now, the spirit of the world is totally different. There are many different spirits, but here it’s talking about concerning the Church, concerning God there is one Body. We understand that. It’s the Body of Christ. There aren’t many different bodies out here and many different ideas, but there are in traditional Christianity. You would think on a physical plane someone could look at that and say, “Well, why do we have so many different ones?” Just like it goes on to say, “one spirit.” There are a lot of different spirits. They’re not in agreement. They’re not one.

...even as you were called in one hope of your calling. It goes back to this thing about a calling again, to understand what you have, that there’s a hope in there for what God has given you. He’s called you. He’s opened up your mind. You see the truth. How do we think about that calling? Do we cherish it? Do we thank God for it? How often do you thank God for your calling? “Thank you, that You have called me out of the world, out of spiritual Egypt.”

...one Lord—one Lord—one faith. This one here, again, just a little bit of thinking about what faith is would tell people you can’t have a lot of different ideas if there is one faith. Even in God’s Church after the Apostasy, you can’t have a lot of different ideas about Pentecost and two groups get together saying they’re going to build bridges, bridges of understanding.

I hear that today in some nations. “Going to build bridges of understanding.” Right. I know how that one goes: “As long as you understand my way we’ll get along well.” That’s what happens. That’s what people try to do.

I remember early on, so many different groups that had different ideas about Passover and so many different ideas about Pentecost and they wanted to build bridges because they missed the large groups and getting together. So they wanted to have that fellowship of a large group and everybody coming together and still being friends but, “We want to believe we can work with these different things that we believe. You believe in 14th/15th Passover? I don’t. I believe in a total 15th Passover (or a 14th Passover), or different things about Pentecost.” So what happens is different ones come along and they try to push those ideas. They try to teach them. They try to convert the other person into believing what they believe because they really want to be one. They only want one same belief, if you will. And how do you have that? Only by God. Only by God’s spirit. Only by God’s help and because it’s the truth. Everything else fails.

I’m saying these things because the Church has gone through this over and over and over again, and I think how blessed we are that we haven’t had to go through that a lot in recent time. It’s still happening out here, not as much doctrinally anymore as it used to be, but it did back in 2012 and 2013, where some who didn’t believe truths, certain truths that had come along went astray.

How can someone come along—was talking the other night about this as well—how can someone who all of a sudden believes that the Eternal God is the only who has eternally existed and that Joshua the Christ was born and began life when he came out of his mother, Mary— that’s when his life began; he didn’t eternally exist—how can someone who believed that for a period of time then reverse back to believing that oh, no, they have both eternally existed? It’s astounding to me in the human mind. But the point is, is that if you stray from God God will take it away from you. He’ll remove it from you to where you can’t believe truth anymore. You don’t have the ability to believe, to hold on to what is true, and the evidence of those things is all around us.

So it should convict us all the more so, “I’m able to believe and see everything that I know is true because God put it in the mind, otherwise the evidence out here of those who used to be in fellowship is it can all go by the wayside, every bit of it. Some have gone totally back into Protestantism. Some don’t even believe in God anymore—a lot—they don’t even believe in a God. Incredible! To sit in God’s Church and after a time come to a point in time where you’re so confused because things aren’t going the way you think they should or want them to and you come to a point where you’re so disillusioned. An Apostasy happens, the worst thing that we have ever experienced in this Body, and you think, “Well, if this was the true Church of God how could this ever happen to God’s Church?” A third of the Church became convinced, well, it isn’t God’s Church. A lot of them, “Where do I go? What do I do now? Well, I don’t believe we really know anything about God or whether there is a God.” They just lose it all. They just lose everything. All hope is gone.

We have a hope of our calling. We’re able to see what we see. Sometimes we don’t grasp the miracle of that, but we need to. We need to strive to.

...one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. What an awesome thing that God chooses to dwell in us.  But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of, or as it is, because of or in Christ. The gift we have, which is the gift, the blessing of being able to be forgiven of sin, the gifts, which is a part of grace, the gift, the blessings we have of being able to go before God and have audience with God because we’re forgiven of sin. It’s just gone. Sin is gone. They’re in Christ. They’re because of him because of what he went through for us.

Therefore, it says, he ascends up on high, he led captivity captive... It’s actually not the best translation. It’s actually saying here he actually led captive captivity. It’s just a unique way that Paul expressed this. “He led captivity captive.” He took control of that. Took control of it, bound it up. We’re freed from that captivity, in essence. So he led, again here, captive captivity and gave gifts to men, to people, and the receiving of God’s spirit, not just the forgiveness of sin, but the blessing of receiving of God’s spirit, that is the gift of God of great power and He gives us ability to see and know things and grow in things that otherwise we are unable to do so.

I think of times past when people used to get hung up about, “Well, what are the gifts? What gifts do you have?” I remember in this group, in this Body, they were in this Body way back.

So there was a group that left, an elder that got up and was preaching some of that. “What are your gifts?” It’s like judging, then, “I wonder what gifts this person has or that person has,” and “I have more gifts than you,” and “You need to know what your gifts are.” You think, that’s always caused problems in God’s Church because I’ve known a lot of it, this to happen, over long periods of times since I’ve been in God’s Church, people trying to decide and determine what gifts they might have, that they’re special in some way, that they have something better than someone else and that they can see things or have things or do things. You think, you don’t get it at all. You don’t understand what this is talking about – the things that God pours out upon us because of, as we just read, Joshua the Christ. The gift of being forgiven of sin, it’s a gift. We have that gift.

How does that make us special? Well, because then God will dwell in us. That’s the only way we’re special. It’s because of God. We’re not special, but God is and He’s chosen to call us and then we’re blessed to live in the Body of Christ. We’re awesomely blessed! It’s not about, well, (because Paul had to deal with this), oh, this person speaks in tongues so they have this gift, and this person can do this so they have this gift. That’s where the Church went off cattywonkus back in Paul’s day and that’s why Paul had to address some of those things.

That’s why it came to a point in time where that ceased. No one spoke in tongues again. It wasn’t given anymore in God’s Church because it wasn’t used properly. It was needed in the beginning for a particular purpose, just like on the day of Pentecost in 31 AD. You can call that a gift of speaking in tongues, but the reality was it wasn’t even the fact that those who were speaking, like Peter, was speaking in like twenty different languages at one time. He was speaking in his own language and they heard, the people that were there heard in their language. That’s referred to as the speaking in tongues.

There was the occasion though where they were given the ability to speak in another language. They were blessed to be able to learn that and grow in that, an ability to comprehend that. They weren’t oblivious to what they were saying. That was a gift and a blessing that God gave them and helped them and different ones at different times, but it wasn’t something that finally some churches came along, like Pentecostals do oftentimes, and they have this thing called speaking in tongues and then you have to have an interpreter because they don’t know what they’re saying, this “Blah, blah, blah, blah,” all this stuff that comes out of them and then someone else over here, “I know what they said! I know what they said!” and then they tell everybody what they said because they have an interpreter. “I understood all that. I have the gift of hearing and I can share it with all of you.” And the other one had the gift of “blah, blah, blah,” babble. Incredible! People don’t realize what they’re messing with. There are demons that like to mess with human beings. If people want something so bad that they think is from God and they want to have this experience, they experience something all right.

I’ve shared it before. Maybe I shouldn’t even talk about it. One of our classes at Ambassador College, I didn’t like the class and I’m not really sure we should have had it. But we had it. I don’t think it was smart to send students out into different churches to see what their history was like. We had to report on three things. We went out in threes. What is their history like? What is the service like? And what do they believe? So we did that. Well, fortunate me. I got hooked up with two people and we went to a Pentecostal church. As soon as we went past the front door and in they saw us and oh, they’re excited because we’re new. You can sit on the front row! Oh, that was right where I want to be.

We passed this door on the side of us and somebody is in there doing exactly what I was telling you, this loud “blah, blah, blah, blah,” whatever it was, screaming it, a woman was. I knew what it was. I didn’t want to go to the front row. I wanted to go back to the car, but we went in because we had an assignment to do, so we went in and reported on it and had to sit through a service. Again, I think it was very poor wisdom of sending students out to do that, but that’s another matter.

But people believe in those things and they do have an experience. There are people who get into trances. There are people who roll around on the floor and they don’t know what’s going on. They’re not in control of what they say and they’re not in control of their bodies, literally. These things take control. God’s spirit doesn’t control anyone, but they don’t understand that. Sad. Sick world out there. There are sick spirit beings out there and they have deceived a lot of people.

I think I said something maybe around the Feast time about that I’ve never known of anyone, but I found out we have quite a few people who have had the experience of Pentecostal churches. That’s fine. That’s good. I’m glad. I’m glad I’m hearing of those situations that people have come through that. But then you learn what’s wrong and you make choices. Just like everything of our past, we learn to abhor it. Whether it was something in churches, whether it was something in how we lived and what we did, and we repent of it and it’s gone. God forgives it.

But there was a period of time when I’d visited different ones who had and they were so set on what they’d experienced they just couldn’t go any farther. They knew they had a spiritual experience, and when you try to tell them what that experience was, my experience has been in times past (twenty, thirty years ago), that they didn’t like that and so they refused the truth because you can’t tell them they didn’t have a spiritual experience. So to me it’s an awesome thing when God convicts the mind to be able to see so clearly, “Yes, that was the wrong thing to experience in life, and glad that God delivered me out of it.” Awesome!

Verse 9— (Now he that ascended—what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?) So that’s the King James and it’s kind of an awkward expression. But it’s stated better in this manner – he’s just saying, this is what Paul is saying, “When it says that he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?” In other words, if he ascended then what are we saying? Well, he descended first. He was put into the earth, in that respect, three days and three nights, as we understand it, and then God resurrected him and he ascended on high. That’s all he’s saying.

(He who descended is the same also who ascended up far above the heavens, that he might fulfill all things.) So again, it’s going back to this matter of the High Priest. That’s when he became High Priest for the Church. The Church began in 31 AD. He became our High Priest at that point in time. He had gone through and fulfilled what it was to be the Passover. He hasn’t gone through and fulfilled what it is to be the High Priest yet fully toward mankind. In time, after 1,100 years that will be fulfilled. But what we have, like we talked about in the book of Leviticus, is awesome, because he has gone to fulfill all things that are written concerning, and specifically here, the Church, and then he’s going to return, come back again and fulfill all things that God has written that must be accomplished during the Millennium and the Great White Throne.

So again, just a way Paul is addressing this: “He who descended is also the same who ascended far above all heavens,” and then it says, “that he might fulfill all things.” And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. So as a whole here, in the beginning the last two when it comes to pastors and teachers, this has been used differently in God’s Church at different times, depending on congregation and where they are and how it’s organized and how it’s set up because things have changed through time because of need. Just like the Churches that Paul wrote to are unique in how they were governed and how they were taken care of and how they were worked with and different teachers that were raised up, elders, ministers, whatever. But it all worked according to whatever God gave as His government in order to work with the Church, in order to mold and fashion, to help the Church, to serve the Church.

As it says here, for the equipping of the saints. So it’s every Sabbath, every high day, every holy day God gives us instruction of what we need to help us become better equipped, to be better prepared to do what we need to do to change, to grow, to conquer, to overcome. That’s what it’s talking about here. ...for the equipping of the saints, for the work of... It’s not just the ministry, but it’s the work of ministry, which is a word for service. For God’s Church, for the ministry as well, but it’s about teaching, that this way of life is about one of giving. It’s about service, learning to serve others. Not being like we are naturally – serving ourselves. That’s what human nature does. We are selfish by human nature and we want self to be served. We want what we want. We want to eat what we want to eat. We want to do what we want to do, and if somebody else wants to do the same thing, that’s great, but if you don’t then it can be a conflict.

So again here, it’s showing the work of the ministry, it’s showing the work of the Church, it’s showing how God organized the Church. He says, “This is what I have given for the Church.” ...for the edifying of the Body of Christ. “Edifying” meaning “providing moral or intellectual,” “and” if you will, “and/or intellectual instruction.” That’s what it is. God gives us greater understanding of what He’s doing. He gives us greater understanding of what we need to do. We grow. We learn more. We learn more on a spiritual plane. It’s awesome!

I asked the question then: “Equipping of the saints for the work of service.” What does that mean? Well, Romans 6:19 says, So now yield your members as servants bound to, if you will, as slaves, but bound to by choice, bound to righteousness unto holiness. So again, it’s this matter of we’re to grow in righteousness. We’re not just to be believing God and living by faith (that’s a part of it), and being accounted as righteous by God, we’re expected to live it. We’re expected to strive to do it, to fight against sin, to grow.

Ephesians 4:13—until we all come into the unity of the faith... Though we’re smaller, to me that’s one of the most exciting things that I have seen over the years in God’s Church, to see where we are now. I have been blessed to live through a period of time in Philadelphia. That was an incredible experience being able to learn from, to see how God’s apostle worked at that particular time, to see Mr. Armstrong and what was accomplished and learn from that process, to be blessed to live on into a period of Laodicea. That was a blessing because when you experience certain things and you learn the mistakes from it you become stronger when it comes to God’s way of life, you become more convicted of certain things.

I think of the angelic realm. Their process isn’t over. They continue to grow. They learn. It’s not over. You continue to learn in God’s plan when He reveals things. They have learned much in what God is doing in His creation over the past 6,000 years. They have become more deeply convicted on a spiritual plane. As they grow they actually become more deeply convicted. It’s an incredible thing to understand. They became deeply convicted after Satan did what he did. They began to become more convicted of what turning against God produces. They didn’t know before that. They’d never experienced such a thing.

We in God’s Church when we experience different things God can use that mightily to our benefit. So to experience Laodicea, what it’s like to go to sleep, what it leads to. What does it lead to? Apostasy. It leads to turning against God. Everyone came to a point where they began to turn against God, because it was our fault that we had an apostasy. We allowed ourselves, we chose, though we didn’t think about it, it just happened through time. We didn’t realize what was happening to us. We began to let down. We began to become lukewarm. We began to coast, and over many years of doing that you don’t even know it’s happening to you. You think everything is okay. You think the Church is okay until certain things began to happen, as they did later on then in Laodicea, and you say, “What is going on?” ...if you’re able to do that. But that’s only with God’s mercy and God’s help.

And so, blessed to live through Philadelphia, the last part of it, blessed to live through Laodicea, blessed to live into a period of time where we didn’t even know why it had happened. Why did an apostasy happen? Then God began to show us, began to give us understanding of who the man of sin was, that there was a man of sin, to become to the conviction, “This marks the coming of Joshua.” That’s what Paul talked about. “Then you will know that he’s coming.” To see the time periods that have followed since that time.

The point being is that as we’ve gone through all these things we’ve gone through much, but to get to this point in time where we know as a body the things that we know that God has given to us, to have the truths that we do? Just to know that we are to use the name Joshua and that it really wasn’t too smart, though I felt that indeed it probably wouldn’t be given to us... How do I explain this? I really didn’t follow through with what I should have done. The moment that I realized even more fully so that we really should be using “Joshua” (and so how is this going to happen), I didn’t want to be presumptuous and start doing it then. I knew that we’d already had so many truths to this point in time that separated us from all the other groups who had gone into the scattering, and though I’ve known it for a long time I was coming to a point in time where I’d mentioned it in the sermon, maybe more than one sermon, that his real name is Joshua, just to let everyone know and to let everyone know that when he returns his name will be Joshua. Right there I should have been able to (but I wasn’t) able to follow through with what I knew and to say, “Okay, we’re going to call him by his right name, Joshua.” So I, in that respect, I failed in that. I didn’t follow through with what I should have right away instantaneously. But we got there because it was God’s purpose we get there.

But for all of us to be of the same mind, to have gone through all the truths that we’ve gone through is awesome! The fact that we’re still together as a body and that we’re able to live this here in Ephesians, we are one Body, we are one faith. I have never... My point is, I have never experienced in God’s Church a time of oneness like we have now. Does that means some won’t still go by the wayside? No, because people have choices to make. There are pulls in the world. Decisions will come up where people will have to make choices where God will, in some cases literally try them Himself. What are you going to do in this situation? How are you going to respond in this situation? It’s a part of molding and fashioning us and a part of Him coming to the point where He can say, “Now I know you.” “Now I know you.” Some of the most difficult things to come to that point happen at the end of the process, if you understand what I’m saying.

In other words, we’re all going through a process of being molded and fashioned, of being transformed, and in that respect, God brings us to a point. What was it for Abraham? It was big wasn’t it for him inside as to what he was going to do, and he chose to follow through and offer his own son. If that’s what God said then that’s what he was going to do. It was at that point that God was able to tell him, “I know what you’re going to do. This was the greatest thing in your life,” in that respect. How long did he wait? How did it finally come about? How precious was that life to him? How endeared? So we can’t really fully grasp that. We can try to appreciate it because it should be rather obvious to us after he’d gone through all that he had with Hagar and then with Sarah and then to have that son that he knew God was going to work with to fulfill a promise to the world. Awesome!

That was a great thing for him. So some things happen to us and we’re tried. We go through things in life where we’re tried anyway by, well, what choices are we going to make on a continuing basis? But sometimes God indeed is even more involved in those things to see what we will do. What will we do? What choice? Are you there? Because sometimes it isn’t fully known or set until it’s set. I hope that makes sense. It’s not fully set until it’s set. That’s an incredible thing to grasp.

So again here, I can’t give this to anyone. I can just tell you about it. I am so thankful to be able to see people in different parts of the world, to know of people in different parts of the world that are together of one mind, of one belief. There is only one way that that can happen. It’s because of God’s spirit. To have the things that we have? I mean, I think look at a scattered body. Tell them any one of the things after the 21st truth, any one of those things and they mock and ridicule. The farther you go down these truths, you get up to 49, 50 and on, they don’t just think you’re nuts, they know. They know you’re nuts! You’re following someone who is so far out in left field, how can you be so deceived? That’s really all they could think. They can’t help that. I understand that. I hope you understand that. They just feel like you’re really a little weird. I can appreciate that. It’s going to be a tough thing for them one day, for them to have to come to a point in time where they have to admit some of the things they’re going to have to admit. “Yes, his name should be Joshua. We should have been calling him Joshua. Yes, he didn’t have a beginning in life until he was born of his mother, Mary.”

So again here, this process whereby God molds and fashions us, talking about the edifying of the Body of Christ until we all come into the unity of the faith... That’s what I’m explaining today, saying here today, that I have never seen a time in God’s Church where there is such unity of faith. That means we’re in unity as to what we believe and more. You’re living by it. We’re living by it. Awesome!

...and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Well, that one rings out a little bit clearer doesn’t it? Knowledge, the name. Just the name we should be using, that’s knowledge of the Son of God. Something that the world is blind to, something that God’s Church in times past has been blind to. Has the world known? Do some in the world know that name? Yes. Do some use it? Yes. There are certain doctrines out here – does someone keep the Sabbath in the world? Well, as far as the day, seventh day, yes. But they don’t have the truths of God. There’s a little piece here, little piece here someone holds on to.

Baptism? A whole church got started—the Baptist Church—because they learned what the word meant. It meant “to immerse” so they call themselves Baptists. Why? Because they learned what the word meant. “It’s like, everybody else, they sprinkle the little babies on the head. What does that mean? So we dunk someone under the water like what John did when he baptized in the Jordan, so we know what the word means. Baptist. It means to be immersed in the water.” So they made a whole church name after that, that doctrine that they understood. Well, they just happened to come into knowledge of a word and they believed it and so they started doing it.

Where do you think that came from? Where do you think churches and different ones out here get a little segment here and a little segment there and a little segment over here and they do it? Because there’s a being out there that wants to cause mass confusion, chaos. A little bit of something might be given but from the wrong being and so they wrap around a whole church to it and they still follow that one great church because most don’t get rid of Christmas and Easter and the trinity and on it goes, because those are his.

...until we come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect person. Well, it’s a word that means “a completed.” To be complete, finished, complete. As it says we’re to become perfect (completed) as God is. Yes, it has to do with perfection, but nothing is better, nothing is greater. He is who He is. And so, yes, in the sense of how we live, how we’re to live our lives in a righteous manner, righteously in agreement with God, to become perfected, to become completed, yes. When will our completion be there? When we’re in Elohim. When we’re in the family. That’s when we get there. But the struggle is while we’re in this body until we get there. There is this process of becoming perfected, of becoming completed.

...unto a completed person (perfect), unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. He’s the first in the God Family. He’s the first in Elohim. That’s where we’re headed. “...unto the measure of the stature of the fullness.” That’s the fullness. That’s where he is. He’s the first of the firstfruits.

...so that we no longer be as children, tossed to and fro. It’s a word here that has to do with like being on the water, tossed to and fro on the waves, tossed about by waves and carried about with every wind of doctrine. So it uses waves because of how they can move a boat and ship, the worst the waters are, and by winds that move around as well, by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people and the cunningness of deceitful scheming. That’s the way human beings can be not even knowingly so. It’s just they are that way thinking they’re right.

...but speaking the truth in agape. So to have the truth isn’t enough. It’s not to be puffed up by it. It’s not to feel better than others by it. It’s not to be like what happened during Laodicea, to think we’re rich and increased with goods on a spiritual plane. Because that’s what this is, filled with pride with the truth. No, we shouldn’t be filled with pride. We shouldn’t be thinking ourselves better. There might be something you understand and here someone else speaks something and you realize, well, they don’t understand. “I understand. I understand what he’s saying” or “I understand what that is and they’re saying something here that shows that they don’t have understanding. I’m better.” These things happen in God’s Church and those are things we have to be on guard against. We’re much better at that than we used to be as a body.

...but speaking the truth in agape, may grow up in all things into him who is the head—Christ. So we’re to follow that example. We’re to follow what he said as to how to live life, not just have nice little stories about him.

Verse 16—from whom the whole Body, joined and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working of the measure of every part... This is an awesome verse because it’s about the Church. It’s about God’s Church and how we as a body, the stronger we are, the stronger God’s Church is, the healthier, obviously, that the whole Body is.

So, from whom the whole Body, joined and held together by that which every joint supplies, because you see, the less conflict there is we’re a stronger Body, the more that that which does not agree is separated from the Body. That’s why I love what’s been happening since the measuring of the temple began, because the measuring of the temple has two aspects to it – that which is not really a part or yielding itself to be molded and fashioned into a part is being removed and that which is yielding itself to the process is being measured to better fit into, in other words, molded and fashioned into stone, would be a good example, when the temple was built and things had to be made of a certain dimension so it would perfectly fit into place, because it had to be done before it was ever placed there and so those things have to be done ahead of time. That’s the example given to us.

So if we’re yielding ourselves, that we’re being measured, and if something isn’t quite right to fit into place and we’re yielding our self to it then God will bless us. But those who aren’t a part they’re being separated. Those who aren’t fighting for this, this isn’t just buying a ticket and getting on the bus and somehow we’re going to be there. There are things we have to do and there are things we have to live and there are things that we have to change.

...from whom the whole Body joined and held together by that which every joint supplies. So sometimes we don’t recognize what this means. That’s why I’ve talked about how we can know we’re not there yet. It hasn’t started yet. There are things that because, first and foremost, it’s all about God’s Church and it’s about the 144,000, too. Until that’s fully ready... Because the scripture is very clear about that, when it’s complete it starts. When the sealing has fully taken place and everyone that’s supposed to have been yielded and molded and fashioned and prepared for that, when that’s completed, then it starts. We’re not there yet.

And what do we see? Just like I mentioned at the Feast of Tabernacles, what do we see in the world? It’s ready. Sides are already there. It doesn’t take much up here to grasp who’s going to be with who around the world. When one domino starts going and the rest of them start falling whose side and what people are going to do as a whole will take place. It’s out there. India? Pakistan? China? Turkey? They’ve already betrayed Israel, the nations, scattered nations. They truly have. It’s already taken place. There’s more to come because of a leader there and his ideas about an empire.

Then there’s another one over here with a larger mass of geography at his disposal and he has some ideas about geography and he wants back what was taken away.  A lot of countries aren’t there. He has designs. So when these things happen like that around the world, they get sick and tired of the one who they see that has been in their way all the time, the one who has tried to go around the world and manipulate and control, and they begin to see that as an enemy.

You see, I didn’t really think I would see this day, that Europe would be talking in the way that it is. It has changed in its attitude toward that. Because there are certain things in prophecy and so forth that just didn’t seem like they could happen. It didn’t seem like this would take place, but now we can see that it will, how it can. Because of those things as time goes along and they begin to make someone into a bad man and then the entire country into a bad man, and they don’t like it, and they don’t like what’s being said, and now you’re trying to exert even greater control by your manipulation, by your tweeting... I’m sorry. It does something to people’s minds and they get to where they turn against it. This is all a part of the process.

Though all this is set out there it just can’t happen until it’s God’s time. That’s why I marvel at how at various points of time we have these segments of world news, and all of a sudden it’s like God is showing us it’s there, keep moving forward, and then it goes away. It’s already there and it kind of simmers a little bit but it’s still behind the scenes and it’s not going to take a whole lot. It’s not going to take a whole lot, but whenever it’s God’s time it’ll happen quickly.

When I read something like this where it talks about this part here, sometimes we don’t grasp what it means that we are faithful, that we are praying as we should, that we’re praying for others in the Body as we should, that we’re striving to conquer and overcome as we should because each one of us needs to be doing what we need to be doing as a part of the entire Body.

It’s just like a part of the body, you know, you do something, you slam your thumb when you’re doing something in construction and now that’s all you can think about. It’s a bloody pulp and you can’t do the same thing you could before because of that. That’s the way it is as far as God’s Church is concerned. You know, it doesn’t take a whole lot to hold up something. What a horrible thing! Think, what is it? What is it? I’m not going to ask who is it, because it could be me. It could be you. It could be many of us yet because we’re still growing and we’re just not quite to where we need to be yet. But when God calls people to fulfill something He will accomplish it and He will work with us to grow and to conquer and to overcome.

The reason I mention that is because in no fashion or form should we look at anyone else and say, “Well, it’s because of them,” or “If they would...” What a horrible thing if that were to happen in God’s Church. Because with all my being I realize it could be this, me, or it could be you or it could be several of us, because, you see, how do we grow? We grow as a body. As a whole that’s how we grow spiritually, as a body. We come into unity as a body. We do grow at different rates, but it’s something that has to be unified as well.

So I don’t have the answer yet. God hasn’t given it, and we’ll talk about it later on. We move forward and God gives to us in His timing what we have to have, what we need. But He’s got a purpose behind what’s taking place, indeed. But who wants to stand in the way of that?

So if we realize here I’m focusing on this verse because I don’t think we grasp the importance of it sometimes, that we all need each other. We need the strength of each other in yielding to the truth, in yielding to God’s spirit, in fighting against this. If anyone is condoning anything, allowing anything that’s wrong in your life, why? Why? Do we not realize it hurts the Body? Like the thumb, you smash it and that’s all you can think about?

We need each other. Do you really see that in one another in God’s Church? I need every one of you. You need every one of who’s here as a body because it’s a spiritual Body? That’s an awesome thing to grasp and understand and to appreciate. Then you’ll respect one another more. Your respect for one another will grow more when you comprehend that. “I need everyone that’s in the Body.” I (you, I), I need everyone to be responding to God, to be growing. I want to do that. If I see that that’s the need, I’m going to work at that. And I am. And I hope everyone else is. We need each other to be strong. We need each other to be strong.

That’s why we’re so blessed that we don’t have people going around, as I’ve experienced in my time in God’s Church, who have different doctrines and different ideas. That’s all I’ve known in God’s Church. From the time I was called to a few years ago. I’d say a lot of that came to a screeching halt around 2012 and 2013. No more of that murmuring in the background about different ideas and different doctrines and disagreement with the truth. I don’t hear that anymore. What I see now are just carnal human problems. It’s not a matter of turning against doctrine, because that’s the big one. If we can get that cleaned up then the big thing is just what each one of us is living, how we’re thinking, how we’re acting, how we’re speaking. God is working on cleaning that up within all of us and making us stronger.

So I hope you see the growth of the Body. I hope you see this process about what God is doing because it’s exciting, it’s inspiring.

...makes increase, again, I’m just going to read the whole verse, verse 16—from whom the whole Body joined and held together by that which every joint supplies. You know, if a certain part of the body doesn’t work right the body suffers. I am fully convicted of something about my left knee that gave me so much trouble, and it’s not good. It wouldn’t heal right and I’d go back to the doctor and he said he’d give me different shots in it. Because of that one Feast we had down here (I can’t think of the area, what it’s called now), and I could barely get up and down those stairs we had. I had a hard time. I had a really hard time walking down them. I didn’t show it but I had to walk sideways because I couldn’t even put my foot in front of the other and put the pressure on it because of the knee. I had a shot in it before I came over to help with some of that. That’s fun, getting a needle stuck… Anyway.

But it wasn’t until I had three stents put in about a year and a half ago that—almost two years ago, getting close to two—that all of a sudden my knee started getting better. That doctor said, “I’ve really done all I can for you. You don’t need a knee replacement right now.” Basically his attitude was, “I don’t know what’s wrong” because basically he was saying there wasn’t anything else he could do. It should be better than this by now. It was like he would still give me shots in the knee if need be, but it should be okay by now.

As soon as I had this done it started getting better so I became deeply convicted that because it wasn’t receiving the blood supply that it needed like it should be that now more was going there and it started getting better. Now, I believe that and anyone else can believe whatever they want to believe. But it’s my body. Now that I have this where I’ve had a quadruple bypass about a year ago now, in July it’ll be a year, I feel much, much better, healthier. These things are real in life.

So if when it talks about certain things not supplying what they need to supply to the body, that makes incredible sense on a spiritual plane if we grasp it. In other words, we literally, spiritually, as a spiritual Body, we need the spiritual strength of every person. We should respect that and be in awe of that, of what God’s doing with the Body. That’s an incredible thing to comprehend.

So this means far more than we generally grasp or comprehend as we just read through it quickly, “Oh, ho hum,” you know. No, it’s powerful!

...from whom the whole body joined and held together by that which every joint supplies, and if a certain part of that body is not supplying it then it hurts the body. ...according to the effective working and the measure of every part. Every part. We need each other to have a healthy, spiritual Body. ...makes increase, or growth, if you will, of the body for the edifying of itself in agape. The more we treasure each other, you know what? Our relationships get better. That’s what I have seen, see, in the Church. That’s what I see here: People that mix together well, people that communicate well, people that enjoy each other, people that appreciate fellowship and work toward having fellowship. Awesome! See, better than it was a few years ago. Every year, in that respect, I see it getting better.

That’s the way it should be across the board in all the Church of God. That’s, to me as a minister, and seeing the things I have seen in times past, I deeply appreciate that. I am inspired by that and by what I see, because you know what I see? I see what God’s doing in our lives, and that if we’re yielding to that we’re growing, we’re becoming stronger. Nothing is more beautiful than to become more at one with God, truly.

Do we have battles and problems? Yes. But we’re far, far, farther along than we were a few years ago. It’s been growing like that for a long time now. I love it because this has not been my experience in God’s Church. Candidly, after the Apostasy we just had one war after another, just one on top of the other, one battle after another. And those battles, they’re not like that anymore. That says a lot about the Body of Christ.

Verse 17—This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as other gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds. It’s all empty; it has no purpose. We are far beyond this, truly are. ...having their understanding darkened, and being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. So this is really toward the beginning of the Church, in many respects, and so Paul is talking about some very basic things. But people can still slip into these things and it still happens from time to time from one place to another where someone makes just some bad choices. One way or another it has to be worked with because we have to be a body that is fully cleansed and fully prepared.

...who, being past feeling, in other words, lost any sensitivity, have become calloused in other words. That’s what it’s talking about. ...have given themselves over to lasciviousness, which is about lewdness, sensuality, to work all uncleanness, in other words, all that’s impure with greediness. Greediness having to do with, “My way; I want it. I’m greedy. This is what I want. I’m going to do it. I’m going to have it,” whatever it is.

Verse  20—But that is not the way you have learned of Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, and the truth is in Joshua. We understand that. The truth is in Christ. He’s blessed us. We’ve been blessed with the truth.

...but that, or in other words, but this is what you were taught, you were taught that you are to put off, concerning the former conduct, the former way of life, the old self, which is corrupt according to its deceitful lusts, in other words, deluded by its lusts. There are things sometimes people just can’t see.

When somebody wants something bad enough they’re going to do it. I think of someone recently that counselled with a minister in one area and basically told them what they were doing and going to do and they wouldn’t listen to any warning. Because it’s not good. It’s not good. I hate to see them suffer, but if they follow through with what their mind is already set to do they’re going to suffer because there are things we know and we see in many instances in God’s Church that others would be wise to listen to because they don’t know the whole story in many cases and they’re not in the same place.

That’s why, candidly, why we are where we are. It’s to help. It’s to serve. It’s to lead, to help people so they don’t stumble and make mistakes that will hurt them, and so they don’t have to suffer. That’s the way a parent is to a child. That’s a way of life. As people grow, as we grow in various things, if there is a danger then a lot of times it comes out in sermons, “This is dangerous. Do you have ears to hear?” Don’t go to individuals personally. It’s up to God’s spirit and up to each person as to whether or not they receive what God is giving. Sometimes, though, when there is a personal counsel it’s so, so wise to listen closely to what’s being said and not to be so bent on doing something that you’re just letting it go in one ear and come out the other side. So, yes, know of someone that’s going to suffer because of some choices they’re making right now. Not going to tell them not to, they’re forbidden to, because they’re free to. We’re all free to make choices and make mistakes. Sad when it happens though.

...but that you put off concerning the former conduct of the old self. So that’s what we strive to do but sometimes we get pulled right back into it if we’re not careful and we don’t realize the danger. ...which is corrupt according to its deceitful lusts. Because a lot of times it doesn’t start out as sin, but things can lead to sin. There are things, choices that we can make that can get us a little closer.

It’s like someone who’s an alcoholic; you don’t walk into a bar. You don’t go in there to socialize with friends, see? That’s just not a good idea. You can tell them, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go inside there and try to socialize with your friends. I think it’s a good idea to stay away from there because it could lead so easily then to just going right back to what you came out of.” A lot of things aren’t of themselves sin but they can so easily lead directly to it. In the ministry we have learned this over time in dealing with situations and circumstances and knowing certain things that happen and people are dealing with as to what is dangerous and we try to give warning sometimes then, obviously.

So again, this old self. That’s why when we talk about the watery grave it’s so important that when we see its head coming up out of the water we put ourselves back under, keep the old self under the water, that it stay dead.

Verse 23—But be/become renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put off... the Greek here is about clothing here, clothing one’s self, that you put off or make of yourself, in this case a new self, a new person in how you’re clothed and how you live your life, who after/according to God is created in righteousness. So again here, the point being is, yes, God attributes and accounts us as righteous when we choose to believe Him and then live by it but the things we’re given as to how to live, where we’ve sinned and we’ve repented, that’s where we need to make big change.

Whatever we repent of is where we need to start living more in agreement with God. Whatever it is in your life that you’re dealing with, whatever your number 1, number 2, number 3 are, that’s where your battle is, that’s where you need to keep the most focused in striving to live right with God and not giving into those things. The more those are your focus the more you’ll be on guard against them and the more you’re going to become deeply convicted you don’t want them. The more convicted you are that you don’t want them and you hate them the less likely you are to give into it and to do it.

Verse 25—Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

I’m going to stop on this one here but, Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Now the reason I’m stopping here is because we’re going to get into some other things now. But I just want to make comment here that there are people who have read this in times past and it’s like it’s okay to be angry as long as I don’t sin. Now, how do you do that one on a spiritual plane? And so it’s literally talking about when you first detect in your own spirit and your own mind that you’re becoming angered that’s where you have to nip it in the bud. You may have to do it many times depending on the situation because something is festering inside of you. Whatever is festering inside of you, you have to get in control of it. You have to deal with it and strive to be right with God in how you’re handling it.

That’s a part of what it’s talking about. It’s not right to be angry at anyone, because as soon as you are and you give into that and you give into that anger and you allow yourself to be angered then that’s where the sin comes in. That’s what it’s talking about here. So it’s not like in times past where some used to believe and even teach in the Church that it’s okay to be angry, just don’t sin. You think, well, what is the spirit of that? How do you manage that one? Because if you do that spiritually you’ve already sinned. That’s the point.

That’s what it’s talking about here. It’s about being on guard, stopping it at its roots when it starts to fester inside here, and keep fighting it. Don’t let the sun go down on that. Don’t let time pass. You need to deal with this quickly. That’s what it’s saying. It’s not saying you have a certain amount of time. You know, if it’s 8:00 in the morning I’ve got a long time to deal with this one. Or if it’s getting up to 7:00 and sundown is at 8, I’ve only got an hour to deal with this. It’s about an attitude. It’s about deal with it quickly. Don’t let it fester. That’s all it’s talking about.

So with that we’ll stop there today. I was going to go a little farther.

Those of you who have this translated in Dutch, don’t go any farther. Don’t cheat. I’m just kidding. We had it all translated as one, but I have one or two more sermons already in that portion there so that’s why next week we’re going to continue on from this point here, from where we left off here today. So don’t jump ahead, just wait and go through it as I go through it.

1. Chapter 1