Judging Others, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

September 21, 2019

Today is Part 3 of the series entitled Judging Others.

As it was stated last Sabbath it needs to be repeated that when it comes to the subject of judging others we need to deeply grasp what our natural response generally is and what our first thoughts generally are as well. We naturally tend to first judge others from our own perspective. That’s just the way we are, the way “I” see it. It means God’s not in the picture. We may or may not be in agreement with God and what is thought in your mind, but generally it’s going to be something that is a matter of self and the way “I” see things, the way “I” judge.

That’s what this series is about. It’s about checking that, making sure that we’re doing things the way God wants them done, especially in this area of our life, because this is a big area of having to do with fellowship, having to do with relationships within the Body of Christ, within the Church of God. The more we can refine that and grow in that the better we become as a Body, truly. There is a lot being said in this particular series that can help us do just that, become more refined and have, as a result of that, better relationships, better fellowship in God’s Church. We can ever grow in any kind of subject that God gives to us, and this is an important one because, again, God’s law, God’s way of life is about relationships, it’s about family. We are a family and so if we can strengthen that family then we need to try to do that.

So as a matter of this kind of thinking, “The way I see it,” needs to change, wherever it exists. Whenever it comes up in our life we have to work on that, we have to seek how God’s perspective is. That’s the whole point of this, is thinking about those things, praying about those matters, and really putting effort into first checking self and what we think and stopping and saying, “How does God want me to do this? How am I supposed to handle this? Am I in unity with God in this or is it just my way?” is it whatever that might consist of. Oftentimes it has to do with control, how we think. I don’t know what it is about human nature that has this sense of a need to want to control situations around us. When things don’t go our way that’s where drama comes from, that’s where drama flares up.

So in Part 1 we covered the first thing here that needs to be looked as a principle of judgment that we need to embrace when we think this way, when we’re wanting to change. John 5:30, I’ll just read these quickly to you. In Part 1 we covered this, where Christ said, Of myself I can do nothing. As I hear I judge, and my judgment is righteous. Those are powerful words. That’s an incredible confidence and we need to have that kind of confidence as well. We’re to follow that example in our lives. We’re to strive to do things in the way he did it. So much of what he said, those are things where we need to check ourselves and say, “Is that me? Am I doing that?”

“Of myself I can do nothing.” Do we really believe that? We can’t do anything that’s right without God’s help; otherwise, it’s just our way, if we’re not in unity with God. There are things that happen in the world. There are things that people choose. You can say, “Well, they did the right thing. They have done the right thing by how they responded to a particular matter.” But it’s not based on a right motivation. Being something that’s based on the way self wants it because one has learned or one feels that it goes better for them doesn’t mean that it comes from God, that it’s of God. Anyway, that becomes a little bit difficult sometimes to grasp, to comprehend. It’s like someone keeping the Sabbath day, as an example. Just because they’re keeping a Sabbath doesn’t mean it’s right by any measure. You can go through any facet of life and see, take a look at those kinds of things and learn from it.

John 5:19, covered last Sabbath: Then Joshua answered and said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do. For whatever He does the Son also does the same way, in like manner, the same way. Again, strong, bold, confident statements.

Now, he had a unique mind. He was the Word of God made flesh, things that are difficult sometimes or it really is a difficult thing for us to grasp in its fullness, and we really can’t grasp it fully. There is a lot there we just can’t grasp because it’s a matter that’s on a spiritual plane and we’re not spirit yet. We have an impregnation of God’s spirit but we’re not even born yet. It takes time. There are things that are going to take time for us to grasp and comprehend in a greater way, and yet we’re to start learning from these kinds of things, and this is one of them, “The Son can do nothing of himself.” We’re all children of God, we truly are. That is what God has called us to. He’s given us the impregnation of His holy spirit, and to do things right, to do them God’s way we can’t do it from our mind; it’s got to be because we have learned something else, a different way.

So he says, “What I see the Father do....” Well, how do we see? As we talked about last Sabbath, that’s a spiritual thing. It’s a matter of being able to see things spiritually in the sense of the spiritual application of God’s word, of God’s way of life, of God’s law and how it applies to our life. It is in this matter of judging. There is a lot contained in this subject, how to judge righteous judgment. It isn’t a simple thing. It isn’t a small thing. It’s exceedingly important. As we go on through this series God makes it more, I shouldn’t say He makes it more important, because it’s important. He adds more to it to help us grasp how important it really is and seeks to drive that point home.

So we’ll come to that as we go along but, again, it’s exceedingly important how we judge. God’s training us, molding us with that kind of a mind. He wants us to be able to judge righteously, to have that kind of a mind because that has so much to do with being born into His Family then as we’re molded and fashioned now with the begettal of God’s spirit in us. We have to be transformed. Our thinking needs to change! And where it isn’t, we need to repent because there is sin involved. If we’re not doing it God’s way there is sin involved. If we’re doing it our way there is sin involved in that, there truly is. So we need to see it in that way, in that light.

...but what he sees the Father do. Awesome! I love that. And so we talked about that last Sabbath.

Let’s go on now where we left off in John 12. John 12:49. This is the area of scripture we were in last Sabbath where he said, For I have not spoken from/out of myself, from himself. In other words, it’s not from him. He’s saying it’s from someplace else. This isn’t just his way, in other words, this isn’t what he has worked up in his own mind and in his own thinking. It’s not from self!

For I have not spoken of/from/out of, as the Greek word is, myself, but the Father who sent me, He gave me a commandment, a charge, if you will, instruction. He’s done the same to us. He’s called us. He’s called us as His children. He sent us to live a certain way of life into the world, sent us amongst others within in the Church to have fellowship, to live His way of life, to live it in the world and so forth. We are to live God’s way of life, period. Indeed, in like manner God has sent us and we’re to change and we’re to grow and we understand that process then. But we need to understand this in the light of this comparison, if you will, in the light of what Christ is saying here and what he did.

I have not spoken from/out of myself. What an awesome thing to be able to say that in life, and we can’t because we have selfish, carnal, human nature and there are going to be things that come out of this mouth that aren’t right, that aren’t in harmony with God at all. It’s going to be something that just as what we are, carnal, selfish human beings, and that’s why we need to work at taking control of the tongue. That’s what James talks about, the tongue and how it’s used, because it’ll just blurt out the first thing that comes to the mind. That’s what it’ll do. The first thing that generally comes to mind isn’t good, it’s carnal, it’s selfish, and it’s selfishly motivated.

...He’s given commandment. He’s given us a charge. From the moment we were baptized we are God’s. We belong to Him and His Son. He gave me commandment/charge what I should say and what I should speak...how we are to speak.

See, this isn’t just a matter that he came to preach and he’s going to preach specific things. That, obviously, is part, but how he lived his life, how he was around others, what he taught, where it comes from, relationships, things about relationships over and over again in what he had to say. It’s a way of life that He wants us to grasp and comprehend.

So indeed, God shows us, His law shows us what we’re to say, what we’re to speak, how we’re to live, and so often these things are given in that vein, in the sense of speech. It also means in the Greek language, when you go through some of these things, so often it has to do with the actions because that’s what follows. Speech comes from, obviously the mouth, but it’s so close to this little pea thing up here, the brain, that’s lodged up there in the top of your skull, and there is just a direct connection to this mouth, you know! That’s why speech is so often referred to, because it just doesn’t have to be speech, it can be any actions that come out of our life. But most often you know what? They come from the mouth first. That reveals who we are. That reveals how we think. It does. It reveals our thinking. It’s powerful.

So God has given charge. He gave him charge, He gives us charge, what to speak and what not to speak, how not to speak. There are things that we are not to say. There is a kind of speech that’s not to come out of our mouth. And you know a lot of it in scripture has to do with judging, what not to say, things that we’re not to do, things that are not to be spoken. Boy, if we could live that from the moment of baptism it’d be a totally different Church. But we can’t do that. Go back and in time and look at the things that have happened, the murmuring, the complaining, the fault finding, the accusation, the finding fault with doctrine, the getting others together and blabbing that, those ideas that come out of our brains to others, that aren’t in agreement with God, and on and on we go.

John 12:50—And I know His commandment, His charge, is life everlasting. Do we understand what that’s saying? His way, what is in agreement with Him is about a way of life. It’s about family. It’s about how the family works together in unity and harmony. The only way it can is to become in unity and harmony and to become in time in that unity and harmony with God Almighty, the thinking, the word, the mind of God. That’s the mind we should want, “I want that thinking, that kind of mind that has nothing different from the way of God.”

“I know His commandment,” His charge, “is life everlasting,” and it reveals the purpose right there that we covered earlier. To save. If we were able to have everything that comes out of our mouth be in unity and accordance with the will of God, the purpose of God, things that would be spoken, the way we would talk, the things we would say would have to do with how we can best help others, how we can best serve others, how we can be the best light, the best example to others. On and on it goes. Because God’s way of life is about family, which means everlasting life, to save.

The rest of verse 50 here, Therefore, whatever I speak, even as, or just as the Father said unto me so I speak. So it’s coming into unity and harmony with God.

Philippians 1; let’s turn over to Philippians. Again, we’re to be at one with God which means to be at one with the mind, the thinking, the word of God, of the same mind, of that oneness. You know, we’re coming up to Atonement, being atoned to God, being at one with God. That’s what our desire is. That means to be of the same mind, to be of the same purpose, to want to accomplish the same will in life. Not our way, not ever our way, only when it agrees with God. That’s the goal, to have our way be in unity and harmony and agreement with God. Then what an incredible thing when we think that way more, when we live that way more, what an awesome blessing of life and strength of life that God gives.

Philippians 1:27—Only let your conversation, and it’s about conduct as well, but conversation be as it becomes, awkward wording here. It means in a worthy manner of the gospel of Christ. So shouldn’t have to explain that. That’s what we want, to be in agreement with, to be in harmony with God’s word, the truth, the gospel, the good news. Better translation is, Only live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. That’s what it’s talking about. ...and whether I come and see you or am otherwise absent, that I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit. That’s a beautiful thing. That’s a beautiful thing in God’s Church. That’s why I’ve made comment that I’ve seen incredible growth in that area within the Body, within the Church, coming into greater harmony with God. That’s why I think of 2013 and some of the time period from that and the measuring of the temple and what God is doing in refining us and cleaning us up as a Body and strengthening us as a Body. It’s an awesome thing.

The stronger we become the more this becomes a reality, “of one spirit,” in agreement with God. He says, he’s talking here to them and talking that this is an incredible thing that he sees, that he wants them to understand that it’s a good thing, a right thing, to hear of their affairs. He doesn’t want to hear of drama. Who wants to hear about drama? Who wants to hear of things where people aren’t getting along, where people are arguing with each other or fighting with each other or harboring grudges toward each other, and on and on it goes. That’s why we’ve gone through and talked about things about drama. I believe that God has given us an ability to grasp and comprehend that on a scale that is great, is beyond what we had in times past. It’s an ability to see how that that’s the opposite of the way of peace that God’s way produces.

…that you stand fast, again, in one spirit, with one mind. The mind, what mind? The mind of God, in agreement with God. So when I see that in the Body, when we see that in the Church I’m tickled pink. It helps me to be happy, happy, happy. It makes my job much easier and much more rewarding, to see that fruit of God’s spirit in people’s lives and to see that kind of growth then compared to what I’ve seen in times past in the years since 1969 at being baptized, seen incredible changes and growth. I marvel at what God has given to us after a time that was so devastating upon the Church, a time when the Church began to fall asleep, a time when relationships really were quite bad. Then to go through that and then come through on the other side of the Apostasy, and then to see all the confusion and the scrambling that was taking place and how much mercy God poured out upon us.

Because if He hadn’t had a purpose in a remnant we wouldn’t be here. We would be right out there with everyone else, blind, deeper in sleep, in a coma, you know, spiritually. We are exceedingly blessed! But I think of that period we went through and that which came out of Laodicea and that which came on into then that first 3½ years and beyond. It was hard. It was hard! Even as God was awakening even those whom He was awakening, because He awakened a lot...a lot who aren’t here today, and they couldn’t make a change. They couldn’t do this. They were pulled in different directions. They had their own way of seeing things, their own way of doing things. We see the fruit of that; we see the result of that.

I couldn’t help but have a little bit of a flashback there of thinking about Cincinnati, because there were those in the Toledo, Detroit area who didn’t want me coming down here. “You’re our pastor!” Basically, “We’re paying you.” Think, “Oh yeah? How is that working out?” Anyway, I’m sorry. “I’m going down there.” And Georgia. Got upset about that, that we would go to Georgia or Minneapolis when we were invited up there one time, or go down to Tucson when we were invited to be with a group of people. It was like, “You’re doing all this running around,” and it was like, “You can’t do that. You’re our minister.”

“Don’t you get a bigger picture here of what’s taking place; of what we’re doing, of what we’ve come out of and what God is doing? Can we not see God and what God gives to us to accomplish and that there are people out there who are suffering and they want help and they want to understand what we went through? They want to grasp and comprehend about an Apostasy, and what took place,” and on and on it goes? Well, it was hard to come out of sleep, if you will.

But to have this mind, that’s the goal. When people do that and they desire that and they want to hold on to what God is giving them then there is power in that and there’s ability to keep at it, to keep at the race. When people lose that and begin to rely on self and begin to look to self instead of God, they’re gone. They’re gone!

So it’s a rewarding thing to see, mightily so, the contrast from that time back then to what we are now. The Church of God has never been, ever, at a level spiritually that it is today. That’s because of God. That’s because of what God is doing. That’s because of all the truth that God has given to us, the ability to see various things that God has given us the opportunity for. You don’t grasp fully, or as full as we could and should strive to ever more so, how blessed we are, how much God has given to us. There’s never been a time in history that people have been able to receive so much. It’s because we’re the recipients of a unique time in which we live. If it hadn’t been us it would be somebody else. God would accomplish it. It’s what God is doing, at what God is fulfilling. When you grasp it, when we see that then we can grasp more deeply how awesomely blessed “I” am, each one of us to be able to say that and to know that, and to cry out to God and thank Him mightily that we have what we have.

I think of right now writing in this new book. I am so glad because the other three, to me right now are basically for the waste bin. They really are. They’re that outdated. I used to feel bad about pointing anything out in the Mystery of the Ages because there’s error. He didn’t know it. The present truth at that time wasn’t what we have now but I didn’t even like to mention it. But I needed to. We needed to address it. But today is no different! You can go in those three books and there is just a bunch of stuff that isn’t right. It isn’t there; it isn’t right. I want everything to be right, right down the line, absolutely true. Well, it can only be as true as the present truth. So all the things about Joshua – I want all that changed. I don’t like that other name in there anymore, period. But that’s minor compared to some of the other things prophetically.

That’s why I’m so excited about this book. This morning pretty much finished Chapter 3, going into Chapter 4. Chapter 1 is barely started to get edited because we’re approaching the Feast and people are very busy. But I’m busy, primarily, on that, on the writing. I wanted with all my being to be able to pull some of the chapters out of the other three books and use large portions of them. I was hoping to be able to do that so the translators wouldn’t have as difficult a time and I’d be able to say, “Okay, it’s in here and you can go through in what you’ve already translated.” But it’s not working that way. It’s not happening that way. It’s just better to just keep writing what is there, where we are now. We have a different vantage point. We have a different vantage point, a clearer picture of things, candidly, prophetically than we ever had, too. We’re far wiser. We’re far more mature.

I’m awesomely excited about this process and I deeply believe that people are going to be able to receive it in a better way as well. It wasn’t time yet for this book before. We weren’t there; the world definitely wasn’t. So I marvel at how God works and how things work out sometimes.

So anyway, I don’t want to give any more than that, talk about more than that, but I am deeply moved, deeply motivated, deeply excited, incredibly humbled by the process, I truly am. It’s all because of this journey that God’s been bringing us on and the present truth that’s grown quickly in just a few years. I mean, we just keep growing and keep refining the things that God has given us. We don’t know everything perfectly at any one time and we’ve been given so much, you know, it just takes time to digest certain things. But when you’re given so much I just marvel at that process. Because God can give us a truth, if you will, and to grow in balance of that takes time. We don’t really grasp it all at once. I don’t care what truth you want to look at, you do not grasp it fully all at once.

I think of the thing about Pentecost that Mr. Armstrong addressed clear back in 1984. But we learned much more later on as we grew, as we went through various things, as we went through the Apostasy, as God revealed things about Passover in a way that we hadn’t grasped to a level we had in the Church, which enlightened us about Pentecost. That began to become clearer to us. Then we began to understand certain timing of things and how the wave loaves tie in with the wave sheaf and you can’t separate them, and the power that’s there of understanding that God gives to us. The ability to explain those things now is far beyond what we had a few years ago. That’s a growing process. And you add to that many truths? It’s been incredible how God has so blessed us and where we are now.

So when it comes time to see some of that I believe you’ll be excited as well because you’ll see it’s a matter of seeing us as a Body and the maturity that God has given to us. We have matured a great deal. To me that’s an exciting thing. The reality is even in this there are going to be things that aren’t fully balanced yet. Once Christ returns he’s going to give us even greater balance and we’re going to see where certain things need to be tweaked even some more. That’s just the way it is. We don’t have all truth. We aren’t perfect in everything. We can’t be at any particular time as physical human beings unless Christ tells us, unless he gives it to us, which he will as time goes on. But even there is going to be a growing process for God’s Church once it’s established in a new age, continues on in a new age. I hope.... Anyway.... Exciting!

So to tell you we are exceedingly blessed, that we have incredible truths that have helped us in this maturing process, to understand where we are in time? I wish I could just tell you some of the things in the book already that I’m just dumbfounded by as far as grasping some things that have happened through the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire that God’s giving more balance in. To be able to see those now in light of ten nations to arise at the end, but the seven revivals? Whenever God gives more I’m excited. It’s a maturing process, as I said, a growing process, and we don’t get there overnight.

He said, again here, verse 27, latter part of it: ...that whether I come and see you or am otherwise absent that I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit. So that’s what he’s saying. That’s what he wants to see, that’s what he desires to see, and not specifically that they necessarily have that at that point. So he’s expressing that. That would be anyone’s desire, anyone in the ministry who has the responsibility of a particular region, to preach, to teach, and so forth, and to work with, this would be the desire, to see God’s people of one spirit with God, with one mind in unity and harmony.

I’ll tell you, division is ugly and God has given us a gigantic dose of that at the end of an age, division, what it’s like. The matter of what Satan did, what happened in a spirit world, that’s good that that’s so deeply etched in the mind, that these things and the beginning of these things, how ugly, how evil, how wrong they are, especially in a new age, in a new world, and that people come to see those things throughout the Millennium in themselves. That’s why we have all this history of those things, to teach those in a more powerful way.

So again, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. It’s something you have to work for. You have to strive together. So we have a history of seeing those things that people haven’t done that, they haven’t lived by that because we weren’t to this point yet and we had to go through a time of an Apostasy and we had to experience what that was like and what it’s like when the mind, when people’s minds go in a different direction and how ugly that is.

...stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith... So God gives us something to believe, so we want to strive and work together in our own lives first, we understand that, because that’s what it means, we have to look at self. The desire is to live by what God has given us to see. That’s what Christ talked about earlier, wasn’t it, what I see the Father do, what I’m able to see spiritually, what He’s given me charge to see, to believe, to know, all the truths that God has given us, that’s God’s charge to us of how to live life and of the changes we need to make.

That’s why I’m not happy with the other three books now. I was as they came out but not now because we’re in a different place. That’s exciting, because to be able to grow so fast, to be able to be given so much, it’s an awesome thing to experience.

God gives us those things to believe, as it says here, and we have to strive, we have to work to live by what God has given us to believe. It’s not just something we have in the mind and think, oh, that’s awesome to understand that. No, it has to do with how we live life then, how we speak to one another.

Just the truth about a relationship and thinking toward men toward women. That’s hideous in the world, it really is, and that’s the biggest thing that’s ever needed to be changed in 6,000 years of human history. There is more prejudice in that, more evil that was done in that than any other thing, truly. You talk about oppression? I sometimes am dumbfounded that it was so bad, and even up to modern times.

I’m sorry, but I can’t help but just throwing a bunch of things out at different times, and here we go. Going through and reading about WWI and what history had to say about it and what happened in Europe. They talked about how it affected incredible social change at that time, which we see WWII did that, but for them over there it was WWI in a big way because all of a sudden, men were sent off to war. Very young age to older age they were sent out to war, and women were needed then and so they started doing something that as a whole wasn’t being practiced, to work outside the home, outside various areas of family, and so forth, to work in a factory, to work at other jobs to do the things that those men weren’t doing anymore.

Things started changing when people started moving away from an agrarian society of life and how you live life and what you did. It wasn’t an easy thing. It was much harder back then and so people’s jobs, functions, responsibilities in things were much different.

But anyway, WWI, it started changing that in Europe. I think, what an incredible thing to see that process of everything building up to a point in time and then it had to start changing in the world. Eventually, it would come in the Church, but it had to start happening in the world, and so God brought those things about because He’s going to end something and start something new. So within a hundred year period of time if you will, and less, there has been massive change in the whole world in this area, as a whole. Not everywhere, but as a whole in the western world especially we’ve seen incredible change.

WWII that became a very big thing then in the United States even more so. Anyway, I found some of that interesting and to see how God has done that and what people have gone through in the 70’s in this country and then what’s happened later on and then finally in the Church. We were able to address it in the Church and God reveal it that, boy, our minds need to change in how we think toward one another. I am so thankful to see these things starting to change first within the Church because this world has really been ugly. It really has.

The lives of people, it’s hard to grasp and comprehend. It’s hard to grasp and comprehend unless you see a movie about something sometimes of what it was like. I’d forgotten some of the things of what it was like. And to be reminded of that to me is a good thing because then it just shows how incredibly insane and ugly it was.

Then race, the oppression of races toward each other and how they think and how people think and the prejudice involved in that. In both cases people tried to use the Bible. They twisted and distorted scriptures to support their perverted thinking. Man has done that through time anyway with God’s word and God’s way of life, but I’ll tell you, the greatest thing that needed to be changed is this, is a matter with women and how people think toward them. A lot of changes still need to take place, but it’s starting in the Church first. I love that.

So God gives us things to believe. That’s one of many. It’s reflected in how we think and how we live then toward one another, how we esteem others, their ways, their desires in life, seeking to judge them properly, one another, women toward men, men toward women; just in that area alone, husbands toward wives, wives toward husbands, on and on it goes.

Next chapter continues with the same theme. Philippians 2:1—Therefore, if there is any consolation... “Encouragement” is the word here in the Greek language. That’s what it’s about. If there is an encouragement in Christ... In what we’ve been given and the truth that’s been given to us from Passover on up through time in the meaning of the holy days in God’s plan. ...if any comfort of love, agape, God’s love, because that’s where real comfort comes from. It doesn’t come from philia. That’s why I marvel at that one organization. They just had to call themselves Philia-delphia—I’m sorry, I’m just messing with the word—because it’s like this is the height of love and of God’s blessings to the eras of the Church. Well, they can’t help what they don’t know. It’s a carnal, physical, selfish love. It’s a fraternal love and that’s not God’s love at all. Yet God blesses us in the Body, in the Church to experience that, His love. That’s why the matter of forgiveness is so important, the ability to not hold people...

You know, I think of sometimes when we visit various regions and people have gone through, had some difficult times and have had some battles that we know of, obviously, they know, we’ve had to be involved in various things in people’s lives in every Church area across time here since I’ve been in the Church, and people react differently to that sometimes and it goes back to our carnal nature that it’s hard for us to grasp that things aren’t held against us.

Now, people have experienced things in times past in God’s Church where some ministers have held things and they just keep you in the same spot. There’s not the forgiveness. There is not the mind toward them. They’re punished in various different ways—I think of this area here and what people went through—and some of the things that take place sometimes in people’s lives because God’s way of life hasn’t been lived. I hope you grasp what I’m saying in that. So just the ability to forgive someone and for people to know they’ve been forgiven. Just for people to be comfortable in God’s Church to know it doesn’t matter what you have done, if you’ve repented and it’s put behind you and you’re seeking to continue on, to fight this fight, and that’s behind, what does God do? What is the mind? What is the will of God? What has He done if someone repents sincerely before Him?

He let His own Son die to give us the ability to be forgiven! He watched as His own Son was tortured and beaten and skin ripped off of his body and off of his face so that nobody even recognized who he was by his appearance! And His Father watched that! You think that didn’t hurt? It did! But He watched it for a great purpose. Moment in time, but it happened in that moment in time. It was a painful one, in that respect. The whole purpose of that is so that He can forgive us of our sins. That’s the kind of love that God has.

So if we’re seeing that, what is God’s will, what is His purpose to save, to forgive, to help, to help people become a part of His family—that’s why we’re created—what a mind then to be of the same mind, to have that same kind of thinking. So we should want to, with all of our being, to make sure above everything else in life that we never hold anything against anyone else, and when we do to understand with deep conviction it’s sin when you do. Only God has the right to hold something and to forgive, see? Now, He’s passed that along in the Church as well in various things in life if people don’t repent. That’s a matter of judgment and learning to judge God’s way and being unity and oneness with God and doing it God’s way.

That’s a part of a process and so we learn how to do those things. It doesn’t mean we enjoy it when those kinds of things happen because what? We want to see people saved. We want to see people be able to grow, to yield themselves to God, to be blessed by God’s spirit, to make great strides spiritually in their life. That’s what we should all want for each other. Same mind. I’ll tell you what, we should be so afraid to ever hold something against someone else, to not be forgiving, to hold someone’s past because of how they’ve maybe done certain things, and maybe, maybe even see a certain pattern in life that because we have gone through certain patterns in our life sometimes we can see other patterns in someone else’s life who is not to a certain point yet and we know that kind of thinking and sometimes we can be harsh in our judgment about that then. But we shouldn’t be.

So to hold something against someone else? That’s a fearful thing. It really is a fearful thing to hold something against someone else. I used to hate the expression of someone I served under at one time that talked about people in his congregation and spoke of certain individuals at certain times and say, “You know what? A leopard never loses its spots.” Just kill me with that one. Just beat me. I hated it. What I would have liked to have said is, “You baboon! Don’t you know God’s spirit can bring about change?!” Anyway, a leopard doesn’t change his spots. That’s how it was, the expression, doesn’t lose it, doesn’t change its spots. I think, yeah, but you’re leaving out God’s spirit. Yes, we can change. Yes, we become something different from what we were.

But that’s our nature sometimes, to think that way toward others. Oh, they’re the same. They’re going to do the same thing again. Or judge them according to how they did something before. No, just let go. Give everybody opportunity to grow and excel and if it doesn’t happen then to be merciful. That’s the next great trait to have. You know why? That’s from God. To learn that from God? How merciful! See, sometimes we don’t think that way because we don’t grasp how merciful God’s been to us. God’s been very merciful to this pile of crap, okay! I’ll just say what it is. I know what I am. I loathe what I am as a human being. I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. I hate human nature! I hate every time it raises its ugly head and it’s uncomfortable. I could tell you some stories just about this past week, you know? They’re little things but I hate them! And you know what they generally come from? Things aren’t going my way. I’m not as comfortable as I should be, as I think I should be, as I feel like I deserve and so I don’t want to deal with that.

Do you catch yourself in that? Do you ever catch it? Do you regularly catch it? Do you often catch it? Because I’ll tell you what, if you have human nature it’s happening often. It just is. It happens a lot! Maybe daily. Think, “Oh, no, I can go weeks without that happening.” I’ll share this with you too; I think of this one minister. I just keep going back to the same one. Anyway... I won’t even go there. I’ll spare.

It’s incredible what we’re like though, isn’t it? To be able to see how we think, to see what we are. That’s why I loathe this nature. Now, I’m not anxious to get there quickly because I know what it means, if things are going to go on for a little bit longer here, if I’m going to be around. The only alternative to that one is you’re dead. If death happens, so be it. But the point being is that while we have opportunity to think God’s way, to be in unity and harmony with Him it’s an awesome blessing, but you’re going to see every day of your life, as a whole, certain aspects of your nature. If you’re searching, if you’re looking, if you’re crying out to God there are things He will show you about your thinking.

To be able to see that, to me, it is an awesome thing, it really is, especially the refined parts of your life. Because you may still be working on some of the bigger obstacles. If you’re working on some of the great big things out here sometimes we’re not able to really see the things that need more refining. It’s like this big block of stone and you’re chiseling off different parts of it. If you’re still working on getting some of the bigger parts chiseled because you’re using a toothpick and it keeps breaking and you keep getting the other toothpicks and you’re working on stone it’s a tough job. But if you’re getting a lot of that worked away there are other areas that you have to spend more time at and you have to be more careful at what you’re chiselling away. That’s the way our life is.

So I hope that you’re learning to hate your human nature. I hope you’re able to spot quickly when it pops up, your human nature. Just in attitudes and things that happen, whenever you feel something isn’t quite right. “You know, I know they didn’t put a fourth shot in that coffee. I can tell by looking at it whether there was a fourth shot in that coffee.” Now, what am I going to do with that? Well, I have the right to go back and tell them, “Please. Could you put another shot in there because it’s just so weak?” which I did last week. But you have to have a right attitude when you do it. But be careful when you get to that point in time and certain things happen, little things in life that can happen. If you’re not careful they can just put you kind of in a bad attitude. Who’s in the bad attitude? Self, because things aren’t going your way.

That’s the way judgment is so often. Something isn’t going our way the way we think it should be in someone else’s life! That’s where I want to get involved, because I don’t have enough going on here.

Philippians 2:3... I want to read through part of this. Some of this here in these verses the words that are being used here are interesting, too. “Being at one accord and one mind,” isn’t even translated correctly at all here. I think sometimes I enjoy just looking at some of these things a little more closely with what’s being said. The expression, “being of one accord,” actually means in Greek, it literally means, “of one mind or together as one.” So it’s not that it isn’t correct here, it’s just that it’s not as correct as it could be.

So, yes, of one accord, if you understand what it means, because it has to do with being in agreement in the same mind,  in the mind, with the mind of God. The expression “of the mind” can mean just that but literally means “of one thinking.” I like that because we understand the mind, yes, being of one mind, but it’s the thinking, it’s the process of that one thinking, the thinking, the kind of thinking that comes from God. So to be of that mind means something to do with the thinking. And you know what? That’s why I love the word “repent” because it means “to think differently.” So it’s this thinking process that comes out of our mind that we have to be in greater control of and seek to change and sharpen or refine, if you will.

So again, “of one thinking or one way to think.” There is only one way to think and that thinking comes from God and being in unity with God.

Verse 3—Do nothing out of selfish ambition or being conceited, in other words, lifted up by placing higher value on one’s own opinion. That’s why I marvel sometimes. We tend to do that as human beings but I think with God’s way, with God’s word, to lift ourselves up, that’s when we’re in gigantic doo-doo.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or being conceited, in other words, being lifted up by placing higher value on our own opinions and our own ideas, but in lowliness of mind. That’s just the way we tend to be though when we talk to others. Our way, how we see it, what we know, that generally aces everybody else. I mean, after all, my opinion is... I know it’s true!

...but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. It’s easy to misread this and what’s being said. It’s not a fake kind of thing where you’re kind of living something pious or whatever and you’re going to lift up someone else above you and you have a lowliness of mind, “I’m just going to be meek and humble and whatever you say, you know, that’s great, that’s awesome.” It’s not about that at all. It’s about judging, again, and how we judge, so as it actually explains it in the next verse here. It’s actually a matter of humility on our part. All that means is you realize that you’re not the great judge. You realize that self is not the source of seeing things right. Self is not the source of a standard by which others should be judged. Hardly! If we grasp it, God is, God’s way is, and we have to be real certain in our minds that we’re in agreement with that, that we even understand that, that we understand what God says about a particular matter, because oftentimes even in that we can be wrong. So we have to be very careful and prayerful, going to God if need be to make sure we have a right mind, right thinking, and that we are in unity with Him.

So it goes on and explains this, Let each of you not just look upon your own interests, because that’s what we tend to do, “the way I see it,” “the way I think it should be,” or “the way I want to do it,” or “the way I want it to be done,” “the way I want you to do what I think you should do!” Sorry. That’s kind of what we go through as human beings. We just seem to know what’s best for everybody else when really we need to put a giant mirror up here and just turn around and look at it. “Look at me!” ...and realize what “I” need to change. Because I’ll tell you what, you’ve got your hands full if you can only see it. Every one of us! I’ve got my hands full. Every time I see a little bit of discomfort of self and I’m not as content as I think I need to be, “There you go again, you idiot!”

Let each of you not just look on your own interests, but let each look also upon the interests of others. Think about them. Think about what’s best for them. And in what context? Serving, saving, helping – what can I do? How can I say it? What should I do?

Let this mind, the word “thinking” again, the way to think, Let this thinking... It’s more than just a mind; it’s the thinking process because it’s what comes out of the mind. It has to do with a process. Let this thinking be in you which was also in Christ Joshua. He wanted to make certain he always did, “Not my will but Yours be done.” That whatever was looked upon was done according to the way God sees it. “What I see the Father do...” We’re blessed to see things of what the Father does. We can learn much from that as I’ve said over and over again in this particular series already, the fact that we can see in our lives spiritually, when we come to see more deeply what we are like and we grow in that and we see that ugly human nature and selfishness. Every time we do we should just be thankful to God: “He has been so merciful to me.” “He has been so merciful to me. He doesn’t hold those things against me. He knows what I am. He knows my frame. He’s having patience with me, giving me time,” that which we need to give to others, having patience with them, giving them time. Everything doesn’t have to be in “my” time, our time.

God gives us much and we learn much from that. So what do we see the Father do? Boy, we can see that just in ourselves alone if we’re looking, He’s forgiving. “That’s what I see the Father doing to me, forgiving me over and over and over and over again,” every day, as a whole, praying for help, praying for strength, praying to be able to become more refined all the time, getting rid of any thinking that isn’t in harmony with Him, wanting to get rid of this carnality but knowing it’s just not going to leave until “I’m” in a different body, so “I’ve” got that battle. There it is, our battle.

It’s how we look toward others, how we think about others. God wants us to think right toward one another. It’s a beautiful thing especially when it’s lived God’s way. This has everything to do in how we judge others in a righteous manner and not, again, according to our own thinking.

Paul stated this exact thing in a very clear and strong manner in 1 Corinthians 1:10. He said, Now I call upon you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Joshua the Christ, that you all speak the same thing. It’s a powerful statement he made there because he’s showing that it’s in this name that he’s saying these things and that it’s a matter that we do it that way. ...that you all speak the same thing, in other words, thinking the same way. We’re growing in that. I hope we can see that in one another within the Body, within the Church, because to me in so many ways there can’t be anything more beautiful, really, in the sense of relationships and so forth. I think of Mr. Armstrong. I believe it was in the Feast of Tabernacles at times when he even made these comments and making the comment about how good and how pleasant it is, you know, basically for brother to dwell together in unity and harmony with one another. It’s a beautiful thing. It is when we can think that way and be that way toward each other in unity with God.

...that you all speak the same thing, thinking the same way, and that there be no divisions, schisms among you. I am so glad that the Church today is so free from schisms and divisions. My whole history in God’s Church until up to 2013 has been that of schisms, of divisions, of fighting, of twisting and distorting things, first in Philadelphia against Mr. Armstrong and against the truth and way of life that God was giving to us, and the garbage that would come up and the things that people had the audacity to say, that would come out of people’s minds that would blow the mind sometimes, and then on into then a new period of time, into Laodicea, and all the infighting and the competition.

Looking back, you know, hindsight is always 20/20. To see the competition going on between churches. All I have to say here are “the choirs” and everybody knows what I’m talking about. The east and the north and the choirs. Or the basketball teams, the east and the north and the battles that went on there, the competition. Then you made it worse when you invited someone down up north who thinks he’s a part of a remnant right now, and he comes down and gets involved in basketball games and you see that the game better go his way and the referees better do it his way or he’ll stop the game and say, “This is the way it’s going to be, the way I see it. You’ve done it wrong!” I’m sorry. Anyway.

That’s all I’ve ever seen. That’s what I’ve been trained in. And yet I’m grateful for that because I hate those things with all my being that fight and work against God, that are divisive in relationships and fellowship. Those things can’t be in God’s Church. That’s why we had Laodicea. That’s why we had what happened in Laodicea, an apostasy. That was the height of it, of ugliness on a spiritual plane because it wasn’t of God’s spirit it was someone else’s, another being, and he had great power he was exerting in Laodicea and toward the end of Laodicea especially.

Read about it in 2 Thessalonians. That’s what it talks about. There was something missing, God’s love and love of the truth. They forgot where it even came from, “Oh, yeah, he was a great teacher. I learned a lot of good things from him.” “Come a little closer...” I’m sorry, “I’d like to smack the you know what out of you.” For to say something like that is so hideous, so repulsive, so evil! They forgot, forgot where it all came from. That hopefully that’d be done in love so they could be jarred so much that when they got up they could, “Oh yeah, you’re right.”

I’ll start over – And I call upon you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Joshua the Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that you’re thinking the same way is what the word means, that there be no divisions, schisms among you. So we saw them pop up, the last batch in 2013. Correct? Even from here in this area, okay? Like one told me, one ordained, because someone else had been ordained, was no longer ordained and put out of the Church and so another one told me, basically, “No one, no man is going to tell me who I can visit with and who I can’t!” Okay, bye-bye. You’re gone. Spiritually, you’ve done yourself in. You don’t even know what you’ve said, what you’ve done.

This is a matter when someone is disfellowshipped from God’s Church, God tells us. It’s not a man. It’s not a woman. It’s not someone else saying you can’t visit with and have fellowship with someone else. It’s God Almighty who tells us what it means when someone is disfellowshipped and why – and with the hope that they come to repentance. Because the hope is that will shock them and shake them, but at least it’s the truth, and if they’re able to change then, which I have seen that in the last few years now on a plane and a level that I could combine all the rest of the years together and hadn’t seen to that even in numbers. Because most of the time when it came to that it was gone, it was done. But to see people fight and come back, to repent? That’s an awesome thing and it’s a thing to be thankful for, to rejoice in, it truly is.

So to see that over a few years? Because we’re talking about small numbers but the numbers being bigger than all the years going back to 1969, from before the Apostasy, if you will, or even afterward, but going all the way back. Awesome! It shows where God’s brought us, what He’s doing with us.

...that there be no schisms, no divisions among you, but that you be, says “perfectly joined together,” but the word is “prepared” or “complete.” That’s what it means. ...but that you be complete, prepared, fully prepared by God. I love our name God’s blessed us to have, Preparing for the Kingdom of God. He’s helping us to become more fully prepared. It’s something that God is doing. It’s His work and that of His Son in our lives, and we’re blessed to be the recipients of that in ways that it’s hard for us to grasp.

...but that you be prepared (complete) in the same mind and in the same judgment. That’s what this is about. God is bringing His Church to a plane, to a level that when His Son does return, even if it’s right now, that would be awesome of where we are. But He’s still working with us and we still have some more time. I have no idea how much. I just know I don’t want to get a whole lot older. I’m not in a hurry to get there either. I just want you to understand. But if...

So all of what we have covered talking about these things, it’s awesomely good what God has given us to the ability to see on a spiritual plane and if we can just live that way more fully in our lives and receive what God has given us in three sermons alone and apply it more fully to our lives in this area of judging others we’d become a better Body, a better Church, more prepared, complete. Awesome!

Let’s turn over to John 8 because everything is about what we speak toward others, how we live toward others, how we think toward others. The thinking. The thinking we want to be in line, in unity with God; that process of how we come to the decisions and conclusions we do because we agree with God. To be in harmony, awesome! The problem is we just tend to do it by our human nature, what comes natural, the carnal way of thinking, and those are the constant battles before us.

John 8:12—Then Joshua spoke again to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, and so we have to check ourselves in those things. We don’t want to walk in darkness. We don’t want to walk in ignorance and stupidity, because that’s darkness, in other words, apart from the will of God, the purpose of God, the mind of God. To do things our way is to walk in darkness because it’s not looking to God, it’s not looking to Christ. That’s the light. That’s what will help us to see a better way. God’s way illuminates and helps us to see the better way, the better way of thinking, the right way of thinking, and He’ll bless us to have that in us as well, to have that in our thinking.

He said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness... We constantly have choices to make. We have choices to make in this subject matter here as to how we do very specific things regarding others, how we think toward them. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. If we’re thinking right, if we’re striving to think right, if we’re striving to be at one with God and do things according to God’s will. ...but shall have the light of life. You know what that means? It means your life is richer, your life is better, it’s more rewarding. It’s something you feel. It goes beyond feeling. It’s something you know in your mind, that there is a satisfaction, a reward, a peace that is something to be experienced that’s the gift of doing something God’s way. It’s just what we want in life. It’s what we want to have in our lives, and we can receive more of that the more we do it this way.

He went on to say, The Pharisees, therefore, said unto him, You bear witness of yourself; your witness isn’t true. If you understand about two or more witnesses and so forth, of things that were required in their thinking, in the hypocrisy and the self-righteousness.

Verse 14—Joshua answered and said unto them, Though I bear witness of myself yet my witness is true, for I know where I have come from and where I am going; and you can’t tell where I come from and where I go. You—notice what it says—You judge after the flesh. They couldn’t see things spiritually even about Christ, obviously. They were judging physically, what he had to say and so forth. These things weren’t written for them. These things weren’t said to help them because they couldn’t see it; they couldn’t grasp what he was saying. They’re written for us, so we can learn from it, so that we can grasp things and how we’re not to do various things and how we’re to do other things that are right and just.

You judge after the flesh. These next two verses are what we covered at the beginning of this series. It comes from this thing here of walking in the light and how our lives are to be in the light, to see things illuminated that are clear and then to have the blessing of that in our life, of what it means in our lives. Because that’s what lifts you up. That’s what illuminates your thinking and how you feel even about your calling, about what God has given you.

So again here, he talked about how he judges no man, yet if I judge I am not alone, but it’s I and the Father who sent me. Again, as I mentioned before, I love that expression because that should be us, that should be us in our thinking, that we have this satisfaction, this knowing, this confidence, if you will, that goes above and beyond that even, a confidence and a peace of mind that you rest in. When you know it’s God’s way, when you know something has been done according to God’s will there is a peace with that that comes from God, that is of the mind, that it’s just a beautiful thing. I don’t have words for it. It’s a beautiful thing to live, to experience, to have, that kind of satisfaction and happiness and joy or boldness, spiritual in a spiritual plane in life. Confidence because it’s at one with God, it’s right with God.

We have time for another area here. Let’s go over to 1 Corinthians 6.

So again, we’re to learn how to judge, to come into greater unity and agreement with God, God’s word, God’s judgment, and how to judge. Powerful. Powerfully important subject. It really is. God is teaching us and training us in how to judge. It’s an incredibly important part of our calling. It’s a very important part of being in Elohim and what we’re being molded and prepared for – some soon and some later down the line. But also then within the Church it continues on in the Millennium, needed even more so in that refinement that comes with it that’s going to be in a different age, one that exceeds all the eras of God’s Church put together, all of them, the best from all the eras of life put together.

1 Corinthians 6:1—If any of you have a matter against another do you dare take it to the law, to court? So he’s dealing with something here on a very physical plane with the Corinthians. They’re relatively new coming along, had their own problems because of the society they were living in and how the kind of thinking that they had to conquer and overcome.

He says, If any of you have a matter against another... So someone’s been wronged by someone else, so much so that it could be taken to a court. Think, how could that be in God’s Church? Well, I’ve known of situations that have happened in the Church that if we were much, much larger and many more in a particular area things can happen. Business situations, as an example. When there have been large, large areas people have sometimes gotten involved in various kinds of business dealings and so forth and sometimes if it doesn’t go really well it can just bring out some nasty carnality in how people begin to think toward each other or it can hurt fellowship within the Church between brother and brother. On it goes. Some of you know that in times past, others don’t because it hasn’t been, as a whole, within the Church in the remnant.

He’s stating something here that can happen when there are a lot of people in a particular area and they have various things that happen. Someone borrows something of someone else and it comes back trashed. Hey, these things have happened. There are people who have borrowed things in God’s church and passed it around to others within the Church. I think of a rototiller at one time and the individual who loaned it out, glad to be able to help others be able to have a garden if they could go out and use a rototiller. After a while it got passed around so much it kind of became known as the church’s rototiller and he never saw it again. Anyway, because he had a good spirit and a good attitude he handled it well. But somebody actually had to get a motor for it eventually because they just burned the motor out of the thing.

Anyway, little things that sometimes happen between people that if you’re not careful it can affect your relationships...especially if you think that now it’s yours because it’s been passed around the Church so much and “I’ve” had to keep this thing up. What if you put the motor in it? Is it yours now? It’s like, hmmm... And so attitudes can get involved in people’s relationships and this is what Paul is addressing here in this chapter.

…if any of you have a matter against another do you dare take it to the law, in other words, to the court before the unrighteous instead of taking it before the saints? Wouldn’t it be better to go to the ministry and sit down and say, “Look, got to tell you... This is going to take a little while because this rototiller has been around.” You go through the whole story and how best to deal with it. What’s going to be judged more than anything else, you know what it is? It’s not the rototiller at all. It’s their attitudes towards each other and how they’re thinking toward each other, how they’re treating each other. That’s the greatest concern.

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Awesome! Things that are going to take place, what God is doing. This is addressing those, basically, of a first resurrection. But you know what? Those in the next over the thousand years you know what they’re going to be involved in? Working with people. That’s how the Great White Throne is able to be handled in the manner that it is. Because there are going to be so many in the God Family at that time that the ability to work with them is going to be enhanced in ways that we really don’t grasp right now. But it’s an awesome plan and how God is planning a thousand years of those in His Church who are going to become a part of Elohim, and that family is going to be so large once the rest of all mankind are resurrected. It’s something difficult for us to grasp and comprehend but that’s a reality. A unique world, a unique time that’s going to exist.

But with God’s mind, by the time we come to that. But that’s not the point. It’s not what we do then, it’s what we’re doing now because this is our training. This is what God is offering. So it’s now that we have to bring these things into our life and practice them so that we can become more and more at one with God, so that He can transform the mind so that we can be there when that time comes.

There are just a whole lot of people over the past 2,000 years who have to wait until the Great White Throne because this didn’t happen in their minds, see?

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? The point being is we’re to learn how to judge things. We’re to be able to learn how to do it God’s way. We just can’t do it our way, the way “I” see it. That doesn’t work. That’s what this is all about. Even the smallest things; even the smallest of little things that take place, we’d better be able to judge it God’s way, to keep self out of it and to have a confidence that we’re doing exactly that, that self isn’t involved in this, that it’s a matter of looking to God, praying to God, seeking God’s will, seeking God’s help in the smallest of matters, being at one with God. Because, you see, whether we grasp it or not we do a lot of judging. We do a lot of judging.

Do you not know that we shall judge angels? Now, we don’t know what this means yet fully by any measure. We understand that certain judgment exists already. Others, I don’t know fully what that means. But again, it’s this matter of now coming into unity and harmony with God with this mind being transformed so that we can be a part of something greater in God’s Family, Elohim.

Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more the things that pertain to this life? The point being is even the very smallest of things. Now, the bigger things, hopefully we catch ourselves and pray about those more and have a greater desire for God’s help in our lives because we can sometimes then see when something is bigger and more important that this could turn sour, go south, and hurt people, and people get hurt by various things that might be said or might be done. Sometimes we’re able to catch ourselves there quicker than we can in the smaller things that can have the same effect... that can have the same effect.

Whether they be small... and the reality is, we better learn to do it in the small things first. Because only in that manner can we really do it well in the bigger things anyway. That’s just a truth and a reality of life.

With that we’ll stop here and continue on next Sabbath.

1. Chapter 1