Judging Others, Pt. 5

Ronald Weinland

October 5, 2019

Today is Part 5 of the series entitled Judging Others, and as we did last week we’re not going to review anything in Part 4 this week, we’re going to just jump right ahead to where we left off.

Thus far, obviously, we’ve covered quite a bit about the subject of judging and judging others, judgment, if you will. There is much that God wants us to learn about the subject, and to understand this is something we do on a continual basis and we judge many things. But especially when it comes to others we need to strive to learn what God is teaching us, what He has been showing us through time here ever since we’ve been in the Church, but especially with this focus we’re having right now and have had at other sermons in times past.

Sometimes we jump around in the sense of discussing different things and focusing on different things, but it’s something we need to take seriously and not think that perhaps this doesn’t really apply to me or whatever. We need to look at it as though, or with the desire, “What does apply to me,” and do some introspection, if you will, looking at ourselves, striving to look at ourselves, and not just passing it off as, “Well, this doesn’t really apply to me.” Too often when we do that literally there are things we can learn and understand more in a better way if we’ll just look and ask God for help to see, to see what we can so that we can make changes, so we can grow more.

Let’s turn over to Romans 2 today. You know, God really speaks about this subject in very serious terms and if we get to those verses today, which I’m sure we will, that we’re going to look at in 1st John, it just shows how serious it is there, that this is not a thing to be taken lightly in any way. It is something we need to take seriously ourselves, each one of us, to see how it applies to our life, because it does. We all have to learn how to judge better. That’s the process that takes time. It’s a matter of spiritual growth. It’s not something that’s just automatic in our thinking.

Romans 2:1, it says, Therefore, you are inexcusable, in other words, without excuse, whoever you are who judge others. Now, this is in a specific kind of context, but still we need to understand here that this is being written to the Church. This isn’t for the world or people that later in time that would pick up something that they don’t understand and don’t grasp and read it. This is for us so that we can learn from it. A strong admonition here; there is strong language that’s being used when it comes to this matter of judgment and remember that judgment is about saving not of condemning.

Because a lot of times our judgment revolves around something that’s just kind of automatic for human nature, and that is to look down up, to condemn, to judge others in that respect, in that kind of a context rather than striving to see what it is we can do differently or better to better serve or better help others. With that in our mind, in the back of our mind, how does God want us to judge this? What does this mean about trying to do something in a manner that can work to helping save someone else? In other words, we should be able to see each other in God’s Church we belong to God. Each person belongs to God. We are God’s. We are paid for by a great price, and because of that we need to understand what God says then about the subject, about judging, that it’s not to be taken lightly and what it means if we do judge one another in a wrong way. We’re actually judging things about God, that we don’t grasp what we’re doing. We belong to God. Each person in this Body belongs to God and we need to see each other as the children of God, not just as another person like we do in the world and judge freely when it comes to matters of judgment. We have to be very cautious how we address the subject.

So it says, we are without excuse whoever we are, whoever you are who judge others, judging others, for, in essence, or because in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself. Now, this is with the attitude of mind or with the thinking not of saving at all. It’s that which is being done in the wrong way, categorizing people, not forgiving, remembering things of the past or whatever. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have to remember people in the sense of strengths and weaknesses. That’s a good thing that we be able to see that in one another because in that too then we can grow and learn to see growth in others and to be excited by that, to share in that as hopefully we’re able to see growth in ourselves over a period of time as well.

Again here, this is what’s being addressed in that context, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself. So if we do it, if we do that, if we engage in that in one another within the Body, within the Church, so often people don’t grasp, don’t get it that “I’ve judged myself. I’m judging myself when I judge someone else in a wrong way. I’m condemning, in the sense I’ve condemned myself.” Long story short – we’ve sinned and we don’t grasp what we do when we engage in such a thing.

For because, or because in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge do/practice the same things. It’s a spiritual matter. It’s a spiritual matter and we don’t see that oftentimes. That’s where we need God’s help.

So this is incredible as to what was stated here, what God is saying. What does it mean, that which is being conveyed to us? Well, again, not something to be glossed over in our thinking, obviously here.

In verse 28 it goes on. So it’s speaking about the very things being covered here. That’s what it’s talking about, being guilty of the very things just before this. So back up into Chapter 1, I’m sorry, Romans 1:28.

So this is a continuation of something being discussed before this and so you have to put it in that context. You know, chapters and verses were put in much, much later; not the way it was written, obviously, and so sometimes we can look at something like that and then just jump ahead in thought and not tie everything together like we need to.

Romans 1:28—And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, speaking about the way of mankind but also warning that this can happen to any in God’s Church because that’s our natural proclivity. That which is natural to us we tend to do. That which is carnal or physical we tend to do because that’s our battle, that’s where our battle is, and if we can understand that we don’t do everything spiritually, we don’t think about God first in matters like that, as a whole. We generally revert to what? Selfish human nature. That’s how we respond to so many things that happen around us. That’s what we have to be on guard in in our lives or in regard to our lives.

So again, it says here, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. So we don’t want that to happen, obviously, in our life. So it’s going through here and talking about what mankind has done through time, but we have to be careful because this is our tendency. It says here that God gave them over to a reprobate, which just means “to be rejected or disapproved” of what they’re doing, how their doing it. Well, that happens in God’s Church. There are things that are just wrong, they’re sin that God doesn’t approve of that we need to strive to change. It all has to do with what’s in the mind.

God gave them over to a reprobate mind, disapproved, to do those things which should not be done. And so, basically here, God allows us to do whatever we want to do. If we don’t want Him in the picture He’s not going to be in the picture. He gives us that freedom, choices. Even within the Body, within the Church, God allows things to go their course as a whole. If people desire something different, if they want something different God will give that to them. He teaches us Sabbath by Sabbath, holy day to holy day. He admonishes us. There are times that things happen in our life. But if we won’t receive that and seek to make the change then He’ll let us go do what we want to do anyway. If that’s what we want then He’ll let us do it. He doesn’t intervene or inject Himself into the matter, if you will, insert Himself, as I’ve mentioned in times past. He doesn’t do that. He lets us do what we want to do, if we just really want something else. That’s where sin comes from, isn’t it? God lets us do that.

So He lets us go the course we want, to do those things which should not be done. Can’t make people stop. You can’t tap them on the shoulder like some thought the Millennium would be like. “Hey! Hey, don’t do that,” when somebody is about to sin, when somebody is about the say the wrong thing to someone. “Whoa, whoa! Don’t do that.” Think, what kind of a world would that be? What would people ever learn? They would learn nothing. They would do things because someone was there tapping on their shoulder, you know, and saying, “Don’t do it,” and doing it for the wrong reasons. Not because of conviction; totally for the wrong reasons.

Verse 29—being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication... In other words, not following God’s way but some other way. Again, mostly self. So this word can be physical but it’s spiritual, too. It’s about not being faithful to God and Christ. It’s about going out and doing things. A lot of times it is physical, sadly, in this ole’ world. Even within the environment of the Church. Probably more people have left God’s Church over this subject than anything else. Probably more people in God’s Church have been pulled away because of lust and a desire for that which they should not have than any other single thing because of the way the human mind is.

Again here, it’s spiritual if we can get past and beyond that which is physical, which we should, then we need to understand that it’s about faithfulness. Spiritual adultery, idolatry, it’s the same thing spiritually; it’s about not being faithful to God, not being faithful to Christ. It’s about faithfulness. If we’re faithful to God we’re going to do things God’s way.

...being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness... It’s a word that just means “bad or evil” thinking. We have to be on guard against what we allow in the mind because some things that we allow, if we start thinking about it in the sense of wrong desire, wrong thinking that we’re allowing into the mind, the mind becomes that way. Garbage in, garbage out if we’re not careful. We have to be on guard against those things.

...covetousness; you wanting more for self. Sometimes power, whatever the mind thinks it wants and desires, the things it’ll do that are wrong. Especially in the environment in the Church we have to think in those terms.

...maliciousness; ill will toward another. I think, how could anyone ever want that in the Church? But I’ve seen it a lot through time. Thankfully not near as much in recent time. That’s good. That’s good news. That shows a growth and a maturity that’s taking place in what God is doing since it all began in measuring the temple back in 2013. God’s been doing that very powerfully so.

...murder. See? I think we read verses like that and if we’re careful... ...full of jealousy, I should say here first of all. I didn’t want to skip over that one. ...full of jealousy. It’s amazing how often people are envious of others, can be jealous of others for whatever that might be. Again, those are things people have to examine themselves.

...murder. Now, we can read through things like this and say, “I’m not a jealous person... obviously, not a murderer. That doesn’t apply.” Yet it’s applied to a lot within the Church. If we don’t love someone else God’s way, seeking God’s love in how we treat someone else and think toward someone else, God calls it that.

I think of all the things that happened before the Apostasy and afterwards, all the condemnation that went toward ministers. God condemned them because of the blood they shed, and yet people can read through that in the Church, especially at that time, and think, “That’s not about us. That’s not about the ministry!” Oh, yes, it was, because they hurt so many others they’re guilty of that in a great way, in a large way, the blood of others. Because that’s worse! That’s worse than physical murder. Hurting someone spiritually to the point it can destroy them, to the point that it can pull them away, to the point that they can so mess up their own mind by what they choose to do, to a point that it could lead them away to never repent again, that’s not a small thing before God. It’s far worse than physical murder because God can raise someone up from that and work with them. Spiritual, that kind of thing, that kind of hatred, that kind of spiritual thing is far, far, far, far worse.

...full of jealousy, murder, debate. It’s a statement here that just means “ready to argue an opposing view.” Just to be different, just because we don’t like or whatever someone, whatever that might mean to an individual. Sometimes people are just ready to argue about things, not loving in the way God says they should, finding something different, finding something that, “Well, I don’t agree with that,” just because of who they are, because of wrong judgment.

...deceit. That’s so hard for the human mind to see, when we’re being deceitful, when we’re not being true in what we’re dealing with, and especially in this subject matter here about judgment. We’ve got to be true in what we’re doing and true with what’s going on in the mind, a willingness to admit and acknowledge and actually search out what’s really taking place there.

...evil-mindedness, in the sense of, again, harboring ill will toward another. What a horrible thing. This just keeps coming up over and over again. It’s an attitude of mind toward others and it’s all about judging others. If we judge one another right we’ll never do these things. But if we’re not judging properly these are the kinds of things that come up, these are the kinds of things that happen right here. They’re the spinoff of it, of wrong thinking, of looking at people in the wrong way, of judging them improperly.

...whisperers. What is a whisperer in this case? Well, you know, passing something along, “Did you hear what so and so did?” “Did you hear...?” I used to hate that in the Church. Like I said, I’m thankful I don’t see it to the degree—it’s very slight in comparison—because I’ve seen some really evil, ugly things over the years that led up to the Apostasy and even that followed the Apostasy.

I was thinking of one the other day here, noticing some things that are happening in the world that are similar to what happened to the Church around the time of the Apostasy, and now they’re happening in government in the world in a way that it’s like a physical thing taking place of something that happened spiritually before. The point being it’s the same spirit beings. It’s the same thing that’s involved in it. The world can’t see it, of what happened to the Church is happening in the world in a very big way right now.

This thing here, whisperers. You start out something that’s false or not even false sometimes. Sometimes it can be partially true and then it gets twisted a little bit because our perception and our judgment is skewed, it’s not right, it’s not proper. It’s amazing how the carnal human mind is so ready to speak about someone else, to talk about someone else and to pass something else along.

As a whole this should not be done unless it’s a person’s job and responsibility to discuss certain matters because of that job or responsibility in order to know how to better handle, to be able to help save if that’s the motivation. But so often in the Church it hasn’t been that way. Whisperers.

So I was getting ready to get to that point. I thought about someone in an organization. Well, basically they wanted to get rid of me after certain things had happened, after about two years in, which was helpful because it helped me to see this isn’t God’s way and helped me to make an exit and that’s how PKG began. But the head of the organization started two false rumors to the ministers, to the ministry. This was a common practice within God’s Church in Worldwide toward the end, that if someone, well, certain things were passed on about others if certain ones at headquarters didn’t agree with what they were doing or how they were doing it, they didn’t like them or whatever it might be, and so these rumors would start. It would start out there.

Now, you think, “How is that possible in God’s Church?” Well, that’s just the point, it wasn’t God’s Church. That’s not God’s Church. God’s Church wouldn’t do things like that. God’s ministers don’t do things like that. God’s people aren’t to do things like that. We’re not to act that way. We’re not to be that way, especially to pass along something that’s not true, that’s false.

I don’t know if I’ll tell more about that situation. I think I will. They had already visited another minister in another area and I wrote about it and I sent it out to all the ministry because I was going to make a point (because I knew they weren’t), that this is not how someone is to be treated. If someone isn’t doing a right job, if they have sinned, if they have done their job as a minister improperly, then you should go to them and talk to them and deal with that problem. But if you start rumors because you want to get them out, because you don’t want to deal with whatever it might be that you think is wrong, you’d rather do it some other way, what a horrible thing to start something like that against someone, false things.

Well, anyway, one minister they went and had a visit with under false or wrong reasons. It was overshadowed by something they were going to go there and visit to help them out but they already had the paycheck, the last paycheck with them in the briefcase. They weren’t going there to help out, they were going there to finish what they’d already started.

So anyway, that was addressed. I think I got kicked off of email for that for a time because I sent that out to four hundred and some ministers in the Church at that time, because it wasn’t right. So, fine. It’s fine. Back then if you got kicked off of email with Worldwide it was like, “Do anything else to me but don’t kick me off of there with other ministers.” It’s kind of a joke in the Church. But anyway, that same sort of thing there. So I got my hand slapped and basically was taken off of it for about a week or so.

And anyway, the next visit was to me. I was blessed... Wasn’t... I’m just kidding. I’m being facetious there. Hey, I was blessed because the president of the corporation—I’ll call it that—not of the Church, a minister that had been in that area before, and the regional pastor came for a visit. Whew! Now, some of those up in Detroit, they’re familiar with this situation, what happened, because it wasn’t good. Because they knew why they were there and I had to ask them, I encouraged them “Treat them properly. Treat them with proper respect,” because they were ready to have it out, and told them this wasn’t the time or the place.

Anyway, that night, because the first service was in Toledo area, the second service was up in Detroit area. That night I’d been invited over to visit with them, and to make a long story short the first part of the meeting we were having the regional pastor had been involved in some of these rumors being passed around concerning me so I knew one of the rumors and who started it. I knew he started it because I had a friend out in Arizona who was in the ministry and he’d called me and told me what was being said from out there, and that was getting passed around, and he’d traced it back through different ministers. He said basically he knew me and knew this wasn’t true and so he went around until he found out where it got started. Well, it started with the regional pastor.

So in that meeting, before it ever began, I turned to him and told him. I said, “And by the way,” I relayed the message of what was being told to others and I said, “And I know that it came from you.” And he shut his mouth for the rest of the meeting and he actually apologized at the end. So I thought, that’s good, if you can acknowledge something like that that you did wrong I respect that. You can give people an opportunity, a chance. Then I turned to the other individual and said, “I know where two others of these stories,” and referred to those stories, “where they came from.” But it didn’t stop him. He continued on with his story of why he was there and the like and what I needed to do, that I should not tell the Church everything that was taking place, that there were some things the Church can’t handle.

Anyway, some of you know some of this and some of you don’t.  But I get really worked up over this because of what it brings back. But that was a tough thing to go through. But can you imagine someone being told, “Don’t tell the Church. They shouldn’t know everything that’s going on because they can’t handle it.” I told them, “As soon as we had the Apostasy I said that would never, ever happen again and I will tell them everything.”

So that was a blessing because it helped me to realize God isn’t here and we need to do something else. We didn’t know what that was, so we looked for different Feast site to go to that year, different ones of us, and we scattered out trying to find out where is God? This is God’s Church: Where is God? We didn’t know what His plan was but we’re the result of His plan and we can be thankful of that and thankful that those things happened because they did work out as blessings in the long run. Because sometimes you have to have a boot to get out of something that’s wrong and that was a nice, big boot. Whisperers – all back to that.

So we can look at something like that and say, “I’m not a whisperer.” Well, make sure that you’re not because it’s a really ugly thing to pass along stories whether they be true or false, to downgrade, to tear apart other people. It isn’t right. It is not of God. Just like they were not of God, they didn’t have God’s spirit, they weren’t using God’s spirit, they weren’t surrendering to Gods spirit in what was being done. That isn’t right. That isn’t God’s spirit. So we have to be able to see those things in our self in the smallest areas of life so we can repent of them. Whenever someone else’s name comes out of our mouth in what we’re saying, we have to be on guard about that. What are we saying? What is the motivation? To save or just to lift self up or have something to talk about or whatever perversion sometimes is in the human mind that it has to do or engage in such a thing. I don’t know. I do know, but anyway.

So those kinds of things should rile us up. They should stir us up inside, to make sure that that’s not a part of “me.” “I” don’t want that in my life. “I” don’t want that in my mind. “I” don’t want that kind of communication, that kind of garbage spewing out of my mouth that hurts another, that hurts a brother or sister, that hurts one of God’s children. Because how “I” treat them reflects my mind toward God and His Son. See? What is that mind like? Is it being true? Is it striving to be faithful? Is it striving to do things the way God says they should be done?

Then it goes on to say, backbiters, similar to whisperers in the sense because that’s generally what follows. It’s to talk down or against another. So it should never be a part of us. We should never tear down someone else. Never. Never, never, never. It shouldn’t be a part of our mind, a part of our thinking, a part of our speech to tear down someone else.

...haters of God. See, this is written to the Church to learn from. I have seen all these things in God’s Church! I have seen a lot of these things in God’s Church since I’ve been in it. I’ve learned to loathe and to hate these things that happen, but human beings allowed to happen in their treatment of others.

...backbiters, talking down, haters of God. And wouldn’t most people say they are not haters of God? I mean people in the Church would say, “I don’t hate God!” But the point being is by doing these things, any of these things, this is what we do. We condemn ourselves. We judge ourselves. That’s what it’s getting ready to say. That’s what it’s getting ready to say, “Therefore, you are without excuse, whoever you are, who judge others.”

Because all these things mentioned in the previous verses are about doing just that. It’s about relationships. It is about judging others. God gives stern warning and admonition to us to make sure that we’re looking at our lives, deeply searching out our lives, and striving to do it God’s way because we don’t want to be a hater of God. What a horrible thing to be guilty of, a hater of God.

So if we’re not striving to obey, if we’re not striving to live the way God says we are then we don’t really love God, we aren’t really showing love to God, to His Son, to His way of life. Because these things reflect whether or not it’s God’s way of life being practiced and lived or not. All of these are not God’s way.

...deceit, evil-mindedness; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, proud... That should be an easy one. We all have pride. At varying levels, whatever that might be, it exists in human life. You can’t help it because you’re in a physical body. As long as you’re in a physical body there is pride you have to deal with. Don’t deny it. Don’t say, “That’s not me. I have no pride,” because that’s a lie! God tells us we have pride in our life.

“Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” It’s all there. You can’t help it because you’re a physical, carnal human being. Therein is your battle. That’s what God is striving to change by a transforming of this piece of glob of the mind. It’s actually the spirit that’s in here which is connected to some glob. But it’s the mind, the spirit essence of the mind that God desires to transform so that we can think differently always than what we do as carnal human beings. That’s a lifelong process until we get to the point where God says, “Now I know you,” and then we might have several more years to live, whatever that might be, and then at some point in time after death then we’re with Him.

So again here, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, means cruel or spiteful. Just being spiteful, doing something out of spite. I’ve seen that in God’s Church, just doing it out of spite, because it just shows how far people can go sometimes in their dislike toward someone else. And you say, “In the Church?!” Yeah, in the Church. Not a little bit. I’ve experienced a lot of this. Actually, I experienced a lot of it just toward me. You get a double whammy that way.

...proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, coming up with their own way of doing things, something different, justifying it, striving to make it right, of why it’s okay to do something in a certain way that God says we shouldn’t do it.

...disobedient to parents, without understanding. Obviously without understanding. If we really understood it and convicted of it we wouldn’t do it, we wouldn’t want it to be a part of us. We’d be repenting of it.

...covenant breakers. Why does it say that, covenant breakers? At baptism we entered into a covenant with God, “I belong to Him.” That’s the agreement I entered into, that I desire, to want to with all my being live His way of life, get rid of mine. That’s what repentance is all about. That’s what being buried is all about and coming up and walking in newness of life and having the blessing of our Passover in our life, that we can go to every day in asking God for forgiveness of the sins that are there in our thinking, in our mind. Whenever we do any of these things listed before this we’re covenant breakers. We’re breaking God’s way of life, His law, how He says we should live because all these things are wrong, see.

...covenant breakers, without natural affection, not of a mind to reconcile, unmerciful. Those should be the kind of things that are in our mind, a mind that desires to be reconciled to God first, obviously, to become at one with God as Atonement is very much about (that we’re going to be observing on Wednesday), but we should practice that. To really do that we have to do it within the Body, to strive to be at one with one another in the Body, to strive to see each other in a proper way as being God’s children.

...unmerciful. All things, by the time you get to this one, to think that all these other things are being unmerciful. They’re not filled with mercy at all. All these things we’ve been talking about are just filled and brimming over with self, flowing over with self, if I said that right. Unmerciful.

By the time you get to this point if we don’t grasp and comprehend how merciful God is with us, if we don’t see that and it’s not real in our minds then we’re missing the mark big time, because that’s one of the things that should draw us closer to God, to love God more, that we can really see ourselves and know, “He’s been merciful to me, awesomely so.” That’s what we have to see. If we can see that then we should get the point that that’s what we’re to be toward others, even if we’ve been wronged by someone else, whatever that is.

In some cases, in the world. I think of one individual I saw get out of a car behind me at the courthouse who (because I had to go report in at that point in time), who prosecuted me, and I had not the slightest little bit of bad feeling toward him whatsoever. I felt... I thought, “This is good,” because I know where it comes from. What an awesome thing, because in the world it wouldn’t be that way. And basically walking up there side-by-side to the door of the courthouse, federal courthouse, and asking, “How are you doing?” and “Good day,” type of thing. It’s the way it should be.

How much more should we be able to apply that within God’s Church to God’s children? That has to come from God. We need God’s help to think that way. Even if we’ve been wronged by someone else in God’s Church; and frankly, all the more so if it were someone else in God’s Church because they have the opportunity to come to see themselves. Maybe they won’t see themselves immediately. Maybe they won’t repent immediately. But that’s between them and God, and if you really see God in the picture you will love them the way God says to love them. You’ll want the best for them for the purpose of saving and you’ll react accordingly. You won’t do any of these other things. You won’t become spiteful. You won’t be tempted to say something bad about them, to pass along information about them that you might know or have seen or whatever because there is something in your mind where really deep down inside you just don’t like them. Something is there that you haven’t dealt with.

Now this is kind of awkwardly translated – who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that anyone who commits such things is worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in those who do them. This doesn’t really capture what’s being stated here and there’s a far better translation of it. Sadly, there are so many things like that in the Bible that, frankly, there’s a big church that messed with some of it because of what they translated into Latin and then people use that, and Greek, because they even messed with the Greek. Some of the things were translated because of their ideas so they messed up some different things, and especially when it started beginning to be translated into other languages, in English and so forth.

But basically it’s saying, for anyone who knows the righteous judgment of God, that any who commit such things are worthy of death, yet in/by doing the same things are approving of them, deceiving self that it’s okay. It’s amazing how the human mind can work and what it can do. It’s difficult; it’s really difficult to see self. It’s easy to see others. That’s why we do these different things it just mentioned. That’s why it’s so easy to misjudge or to judge improperly others. Because it’s so easy for us to see others and so difficult to see self. It really is. There’s a great challenge in that, obviously, and it takes God’s spirit because we don’t know our own thinking unless God reveals it to us. That’s what scripture tells us. God has to show us the thinking of our mind. He knows the mind and He can reveal those things to us. That’s why when we hear sermons like this we go back and we can pray about it and ask God for help to see. “Don’t let me miss anything. Help me to capture, help me to see the things I need to see so that I can repent of them, so that I can change, so that I can work at changing.” That’s what we have to do.

So then it goes on in Romans 2:1—Therefore, you are inexcusable or without excuse whosoever you are who judges others, for in whatever you judge another you judge or condemn yourself, in other words, give judgment against is what it means, yourself, because you who judge do practice the same things. We don’t even recognize that. We don’t even understand unless God helps us to see what we’re doing, helps us to see how serious this is when we engage in such a thing.

But we are sure that the judgment of God, in other words, not our own judgment, not the way “I” see it... For we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth. Has to be based on His word. We can’t judge as the way we think about it like Christ, well, like we talked about earlier, the way Christ looked at it. He said, “If I judge them my judgment is just because it’s not me,” because he’s relying on God to see things and do things according to God’s will. That’s why his judgment is just and right. So he didn’t rely on self, and we can’t either, but that’s our natural tendency. That’s what we have to understand and measure in these things.

We’re talking about things today that are really very refined when it comes to spiritual growth because this defines it. This defines in so many ways where we are. It’s about our relationships, and if we can see that, how we think toward others, it’s a very strong measurement spiritually of what’s taken place in our mind and what’s going on and where we are right now.

So, do you think, going on in verse 3, whoever you are who judges those who do such things, and you do the same... See, it’s hard to see self. “I don’t do those things.” Judge anyone, you’ve done it. You’ve participated in it. You’ve agreed with it, that it’s okay. That’s what it’s saying before that. That’s exactly what it’s saying. You’re actually justifying it, that it’s okay, because self does it. It doesn’t recognize that elsewhere. I mean, in self, but it can see it everywhere else...but not in self.

...and do the same thing that you shall escape the judgment of God? We won’t because this is so much of what all this is about. You know, that’s why I marvel when going through the different things given through time there with the disciples in the very beginning, the apostles, the early apostles and Paul, that it was several decades later before the book of John was written, 1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John. In those writings there is a maturity spiritually by that point in time of that which had been given to the Church that wasn’t given on the same plane and same level as it was before. It’s a growing process. Even in scripture it’s a growing process to show by that time then what’s really important. It boils down back to this. It boils down to this, relationships, especially within the Church. The Church had grown by this point in time in ways that had excelled and this was the message going out at that, at a particular time. It’s all about how we are in the Body and how we treat, how we think toward each other.

…do you think that you shall escape the judgment of God? We won’t. Or do you think little of the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, and yet not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Again, this attitude of saving, this thinking of saving, what can be done to help others, how can I do this in a way that helps others, benefits them, not self. Again, this thing of what it said in verse 4 here, Do you think little of the riches of His forbearance toward self, toward us?

Because if we really see how God has worked with us we’ll learn a lot about how we’re to work with and deal with and judge others, what God’s way is like. Goodness? That should be first and foremost in our thinking. Good toward others? Absolutely. Nothing that’s bad toward others. Forbearance? Patience? Giving people time? Well, look how much time God has given you. For me I have to look at that in that way and you have to look at that way. It’s the “me” that counts here. Do we see that, how much time God has given “me” to change various things in “my” life, to deal with various things in “my” life? Some you battle until the end but you keep battling. And yet God, His forbearance, the patience, longsuffering? Sometimes there may be suffering involved in doing this toward another. Self suffers because self wants something else. That’s why self suffers. Longsuffering.

...and yet not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? So if we can grasp that, how God treats us, how God treats “me,” then we should realize that this is the same thing that can help others to lead them to repentance. It’s about saving. By your example, by the way you treat, by the way you love, by the way you care that hopefully it brings people to greater repentance as time goes along because they’ll learn from that, they’ll see that. We learn from each other. We can grow because of a relationship we have within the Body.

Then it goes on to say, But after or in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, in other words, not feeling shame or regret about one’s actions or attitudes, in other words, in a matter of judgment (because that’s what this is about), you are treasuring up, or laying up for yourself wrath, which is the execution of judgment. They use the word “wrath.” They don’t understand God. It’s not like God is wrathful at all, but that’s how scripture kind of paints God and Christ, being wrathful, you know, ready to punish, ready to slap down, ready to correct.

God hasn’t dealt with me that way. He hasn’t dealt with you that way. He’s not a wrathful God at all. But if we don’t live like we should He will execute judgment because it’s right and just. People have been separated from the Body because of that, see, no longer with us because of that. It’s not wrath, anger type of thing, it’s just a matter of something that has to be done for the sake of the Body, for the health, the wellbeing, to save.

So it says here if we don’t do as we should then we are treasuring up or laying up for ourselves this execution of judgment against the day of judgment—that’s what it’s about, the execution of judgment—and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. That’s the subject matter of what we’re going through. God’s judgment is righteous and we of all people should recognize that.

Verse 6—who will render to everyone according to his deeds. So you want your deeds, what you practice, what you live to be right. Don’t we all want that? Well, we have to be careful and make sure that we are because we’re not perfect in these things. Every one of us can do better in this subject matter. I can do better. You can do better. I can search out my life. See, what’s being said is for every one of us. Every one of us has to examine these things at the time when God gives them to us, to strive to draw closer to God. That’s a process so we all have to apply it to ourselves. “How can I do better in what God is feeding and giving?”

...who will render to everyone according to their deeds, to those who by patiently continuing in doing well as they seek for glory, honor, and immortality eternal life. Well, that’s our goal. That’s our desire. We want to be in the God family. We have to continue on patiently continuing in this way of life and what God has given to us, to learn from whatever we’re given at any moment in time, striving to do well before God, striving to turn left when God says turn left, to turn right when God says to turn right, and understanding the present truth when it’s given to us, to strive to understand where we are at any moment in time.

That’s why I love what’s going through the book right now in Chapter 6. That’s where I’m at. About a third of the way into it some new things, refined, made better. We have more maturity now than ever before. We’ve been given so much. I keep thinking of the 7th Thunder. More and more and more, so much has been given to us so rapidly, it’s accelerated so much, we’re so far ahead that the others I’m embarrassed by them because of where we are now. Truly. But that’s where we were then, so now we have an opportunity to, all of us, we’re growing, we’re maturing, we’re getting closer and closer to the return of Christ and God is blessing us mightily as far as what we see, what we know. To me that’s an exciting process.

Things He’s revealing, I’ll just mention one in part, not too much, just to throw out a big carrot. I haven’t done carrots in a long time. But I think about that 7th Trumpet and what it pictures. God is showing us more about what it’s all about. It’s about the mystery of God being completed. It starts then. God starts doing things that have been hidden from the world, from the foundation of the world, as a whole, except to the people He’s called and drawn and worked with. It’s an awesome thing that begins at that point in time. But how we’ve seen it all and how it all fits together is something that we haven’t seen. To me that’s exciting as well. It’s a process that takes 1,100 years to accomplish. It’s a beautiful thing to understand what God’s giving to us and where we are right now and what’s getting ready to take place on the earth.

So again here, there are some things there that we haven’t seen fully that take place over a period of time that are awesomely inspiring when it begins to happen, when things begin to take place. I’m not even going to throw it. It’s just a little carrot. I’m not even going to throw out a carrot. I’ll probably have to give a sermon over some of this when we get to it. I don’t want to do this because this doesn’t fit in fully right now unless I go into the whole subject.

But anyway, it’s exciting. It’s exciting where we are. It’s exciting what God gives to us. It’s exciting at any moment in time, the present truth we have. But we’ve grown so quickly in that. That’s what this is helping to see. I think once you read it you’ll see that it’s amazing how far we’ve come so fast, since around 2005, because that first one was after that, and all that took place and all that’s happened since that time period – fourteen years that we’ve gone down a road with different things, and as we have gotten closer to this point it just goes faster and faster and God just gives more and more. It’s exciting and it makes things much more clearer, things that we’ve kind of muddled up in times past that still are a part of coming out of, candidly, what was given or had been lost up to the time of Sardis. Some things are still not there that need to be there and some things that haven’t been built upon as fully as God is giving us now. So, anyway.

I feel sorry for the translators and the editors right now, because, see, I’m up in Chapter 6 and they’re in Chapter 1, and I have very strong feelings for this, to get it out as quickly as I can. So, anyway, I don’t want to put undue pressure on anyone but I really can’t help it because of my excitement.

Going on, verse 8—but unto those who do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness there is fierceness and judgment, the execution of judgment, tribulation and difficulty for anyone who does evil, and he says here, of the Jew first and also the gentile. So again, things he was dealing with as far as the Church was concerned back then.

But there is glory, and honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good... That’s why I love what we’ve gone through in the past here, especially the focus we’ve had about the llamas and the drama and God helping us to see that that’s the opposite way of peace. It’s not peace, it’s everything that takes away peace, that hurts peace, that stifles peace in life. The more we can see those things in our life and the world around us the more peace we’re going to have because, or I should say, the better we deal with it the better we will be, the stronger we will be. But there is glory and honor and peace to everyone who works what is good. Beautiful verse.

We’re just blessed. What we grow in, the Body as we draw closer together, the oneness we’re able to have on a spiritual plane that’s a family. See, you don’t have this in a physical family in the world because it’s not possible because it doesn’t have God’s spirit. We sometimes long for some of those things, and they will come in time, but to have what we have is truly special that God has blessed us to have, to share with one another. It’s unique. There is nothing like it. Indeed it should be that way.

Verse 11—For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sin... We have to ask the same thing about ourselves. Is there a respect of persons with us? And how do we use that in judgment? Do we misuse that in judgment if there is? Because as far as human life is concerned there will always be those that we’re able to connect with easier, more easily, if you will, and if we’re not careful though we’ll misuse that. We have to be careful that we don’t, that there is not a matter of respect of persons but that we judge righteously in all things. That’s a job, that’s a strong responsibility that God has given to every one of us.

For as many as have sin without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. So again, he’s dealing with some different things here in what people are coming out of and striving to convey this message, and this is very early on. But again, we understand how this applies to us prayerfully, spiritually as well. ...for it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, because that’s how he’s driving home the point here in what we need to understand. We can hear sermons like this, but if we don’t take it personally, if we don’t look at it and pray about it after we receive them, because we’re not praying about it because “It doesn’t apply to me as much,” or whatever, what are we doing?

Do we pray about things we hear and ask God to help us to see what we might not really be able to see unless He intervenes to show us? Because, see, that’s how it works. He has to show us what’s going on in the mind. If we ask for those things then we can begin to deal with them and become stronger, so we have to pray about them. If we don’t it’s like saying, in essence, to God, “This didn’t really apply to me, this thing about judging others, because I don’t do that.” I’ll tell you what, that’s a good test right there. Have we prayed about it? If we haven’t, check your attitude, check your thinking, because that’s what it’s saying to God, “Doesn’t really apply to me and I heard all I need to and thought about all I needed to during the sermon and I’ve checked those marks.” I’m saying that a little facetiously so. We really have to examine ourselves. That’s why we’re given sermons Sabbath by Sabbath and there are things in them for us to learn from and we should pray about them and realize that there is something here for every one of us.

I take them that way. I have to pray about these things. I want to strive to draw closer to God. Whatever the timing is for when God gives us a certain subject matter, that’s what we have to look at at that moment in time and strive to change, every one of us, to become better, more refined.

...for it’s not the hearers of the law who are just before God but the doers of the law who shall be justified. That’s what this is about – learning how to do things in greater unity and oneness with God according to God’s will and not our will in the matter of judgment which consumes much of our life and our relationships. Because it’s in our relationships in the world and in the Church. In the world it should always be the same. The primary first thing is what? They can’t help what they’re doing. We can’t have expectations of them. If you have no expectations of them then you can’t judge them accordingly, you can’t judge them wrongly, you can’t judge them harshly, because they don’t know. They don’t know what you know.

Even within the Church, we shouldn’t judge with expectations of others: “Well, they’re in the Church! How could they be like that? How could they have done that? How could they have said that if they’re in the Church?” Well, that’s what you have to judge.

James 2 covers a lot about this subject, if you will, that’s related to this. Incredible things that are said. This is good. James 2:13—For he will have judgment without mercy that has shown no mercy. Mighty powerful here. I wouldn’t want that to happen. I don’t want to be judged for not having mercy, not showing mercy to others, and being shown less mercy because I haven’t done what I should be doing in the way that God says to do it. Would you want that to happen in your life, to be judged without mercy? Because God is exceedingly merciful to us.

And mercy rejoices against judgment. Mercy should reign first. We should be merciful first in our thinking, not quick to judge. See, that will even help pull that back. Not quick to judge. Not quick to condemn. Not quick to find fault. Not quick in those things that are done naturally carnally, but slow in those things because of this thing of mercy. I want to be merciful. It’s better to err on the side of being merciful.

And mercy rejoices against judgment. What does it profit, my brethren, though a person say that they have faith and don’t have works? So again, James brings out things about this that help to show what our life is really like and what God’s given us to believe and if we’re really living by it and practicing it and striving to live by what has been given us.

There’s a being that has done a jam up job in screwing with people’s minds in traditional Christianity in this very area alone, this thing about works. “You don’t have to eat clean meats. That’s works! You’re trying to be saved by works.” “You don’t have to keep the seventh-day. You’re trying to be saved by works.” Have you ever heard that one? I have to where it makes me sick whenever I think about it. That’s the way the world is. That’s the way the Apostasy was. “You can’t be saved by works. You’re trying to be saved by what you can do.” No, that’s a bunch of bull. That’s not the right thing at all. They lie.

They don’t understand. They don’t understand anyway because their minds are so messed up and so they don’t see works and faith for what they are. We do what we do because of what we believe. That’s why we have works. They have works too and they don’t even acknowledge it. What are their works? Christmas, Easter, Sunday, communion, whatever it might be, these different things that people have in the world. Those are works. “Are you trying to be saved by your works? Can you really go to services any day of the week?” “Well, that’s when the preacher comes. I can’t go any other day, it’s on Sunday.” I’m sorry. It’s a great contradiction, isn’t it, and they don’t understand that, and they can’t.

So what does it profit that someone believes that they have faith, that they’re living by faith, and they don’t have works? So in other words, we have to practice what we’re given, we have to live what we’re given. When it comes to judgment we better be practicing what we’re shown, otherwise, we’re not living by what God has given us the ability to believe, the truth, to judge matters according to His will, not our own. We can’t just hear that and somehow it’s okay. We’ve got to hear it and do it, strive to live by it. Can faith save him?

James 4:1— Where do wars and fighting among you come from? Now, I know going way back into the Church in the ministry in time here that there are things here that haven’t been fully understood. It’s like this applies to the world because there is where the war and the fighting come from that it’s talking about here, battles. We fight a spiritual warfare. It’s not that simple. That’s not what it’s talking about here. Where do they come from inside of us? Where do wars, disputes and fighting come from? Because God calls things what they are. Just like this thing of murder. To hate someone, better way of saying it because we say the same thing there and deceive ourselves, “I don’t hate anyone.” Most people would say that and believe that, “I don’t hate anyone.” But if we don’t love them in the Church the way God says we’re to love them that’s what we’re doing to the point of God calls it murder. If we fail to love someone the way God says to love within the Body then that’s what we’re doing. It’s a spiritual matter.

…where do wars and fighting’s from among you come? Where do they come from? Well, he’s going to cover some of this. We ought to know where it all comes from and how evil this carnal, physical selfishness is in our minds apart from God’s spirit. Only God’s spirit can help that to change and begin to be brought under control and to be fought against in a proper way. Otherwise, that’s the way we are.

I have known of so much fighting in God’s Church that I am sickened by it all, going way back in time. It’s getting less and less but it still has existed, some of this thing about fightings and wars. I hate them because it’s drama on steroids. That’s what we’re talking about here, drama on steroids. It’s not a pretty thing when it gets that way, where things get riled up in people’s lives and they get upset at each other and “‘So and so’ said to me...” and “‘So and so’ treated me this way...” Where does all that come from? Why? Even if someone is treated improperly.

I think of a term someone could call somebody, “You’re a real...” whatever, you know, referring to mule and donkey type thing, and somebody get upset. You can call someone else in God’s Church that? Well, maybe I’ll think about your actions. Maybe they got stirred up and maybe you were fuel to the fire, I don’t know. Maybe you ought to look at self like David did. “I need to listen to what he has to say while he’s throwing these rocks because God may be showing me I’ve done something wrong and I need to change.” That’s pretty tough to think that way, isn’t it, when you’re under fire from someone else, especially when they’re supposed to be in the Church, especially when you’re supposed to be a faithful Israelite to the king! It’s amazing how indignant we can sometimes become.

James 4:1—Where do these wars and fightings come from? Don’t they come about because of your lusts that war in your members? Again, so many of these things it’s just a matter of being able to see self and where everything comes from that isn’t right with God. It’s deeply, deeply recessed in the mind, and it takes God’s spirit to help bring them out so we can see them. God knows the thoughts and the intents of the heart, we don’t. He truly has to show us what’s hidden deep inside. What a blessing to be able to have that process working in our minds. The world doesn’t have that ability. We can see things deeply, deeply, deeply so and change.

You lust and do not have. Hmmm. I’m doing that for effect, partially. It’s like, “Does that really apply to me, ‘you lust’? I don’t lust.” Think again. If you understand your human mind you’ll come to acknowledge things on a spiritual plane that come deep, deep, deep inside of you. Because the reality is your carnal human selfish nature lusts. It’s just what it does. It lusts to pamper self. “I love self.” That’s what we do. We love self. It’s just natural and it’s carnal. Self first. Self first. Selfish.

If we don’t see that we got on the wrong boat. We got on the wrong ship somewhere and we’re sailing off in the wrong direction. We should be able to see that as a very simple matter of spiritual growth.

You lust and do not have. See, the human mind can lust and it’s just not fully happy even when it gets what it wants. It’s like, why is it not happy and satisfied? It wants more. It wants something else now, something beyond that, because that just didn’t really satisfy like I thought it was going to. The human mind is an amazing thing.

You kill and desire... Right away zoned out. That’s what the human mind does. “You kill.” “Man, James was talking to the world. He’s talking to the world because that’s not to the Church!” That’s how in the human mind we’re able to dismiss things so quickly that we hear in sermons or in scripture, because it’s like we shut it off. Our mind just shuts off, “That’s not me. I can’t be that ugly.” Yes, I am. I’m that ugly. This human mind, this selfish mind is evil. It’s evil. It’s against God. It’s not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be without God’s help.

That’s where the blessings of a calling come in because then we can begin to battle it, fight it, go to war against it. We are at war and the war first and foremost is against the mind, it really is. That’s where the battle is to change, to think differently, to become in unity and oneness with God. That’s what God says. He makes it very clear the carnal mind is at enmity with God. “Well, that all changed when I got baptized.” Oh, no, it didn’t. It’s still in you. It’s not taken out. You have a battle in your life for the rest of your life until, well, until you have a new one, until you’re resurrected and given a spirit body.

You lust and do not have; you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. In other words what’s it saying? It’s saying we mistreat others, we judge others improperly, we treat others improperly, we speak of others improperly, and we’re doing these things, we’re killing, and we’re not satisfied and so we kill more because we’re not satisfied with what we’re doing so we just kill some more. That’s how perverted the human mind is and that’s what we have to stop and that’s what we have to work at.

So again, we’re talking about things that are more refined on a spiritual plane, but please understand, this is our spirit apart from God’s spirit. This is our mind apart from God’s mind. “You kill and desire to have.” It’s always wanting something that it can’t attain to because of selfishness. Selfishness can’t be satisfied. It can’t be satisfied.

What is it you desire? Well, I’d like to jump out of a plane with a parachute. I’ve never done that. I want to do that. Now, I really would like to do that, but I don’t think my wife’s going to let me. I’m not too sure God wants me to do that right now because of my heart. But I’d really love to do that, to do a little free fall for a while and have that experience because I love things like bungee jumping and so forth. She won’t let me do those things anymore. Just kidding.

So how many jumps do you have before it finally gets to be not as exciting? “Here we go again... Well, that was exciting.” So how many times do you do it before it’s like, “I want to try something different now.” Because the thrill of that is kind of gone, it’s kind of old hat. That’s why people move on to different things in life or try whatever it might be. I’m not going to go there.

So many things in life like that because the human mind it’s just it’s very physical, very, very physical, very carnal. Selfishness just can’t be satisfied. That’s why it states it this way, is because it’s just like never ending. It’s just always wanting to do something more, different, and then when it has that it’s like... How many times...?

What food would you like to have tonight? What is the best plate of food you could think of tonight that you’d just love to have? Well, maybe you don’t have one. Right now I can’t think of anything I’d just love to have because I feel kind of full anyway. But if you did are you going to eat the same thing every night? Because I love that plate so much I just want to eat it all week long. Think of the poor children of Israel, the manna. I understand. “We’re tired of this manna. How many ways can you fix this, and you know, we’ve had it for how many years now? Thirty years? Forty years?” whatever it is. I can understand where they’re coming from. I can understand the carnality there. We would be much that way. It shows how the human mind is.

You lust and do not have. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. Because the real help of what we really need comes from God. He’s the only one that can truly help us to achieve, to have what He created us to be able to deal with and have, and it’s not in this physical life, it’s in a spirit one.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask, as the word really is here, badly. Sometimes it’s like, “If You would just help me in this matter things are going to be better. I’ll be able to take care of whatever it might be.” Maybe it’s a financial thing. “If I just had this or that and this taken care of then everything would be so much better.” The reality is a lot of times in life we just ask, we can ask in prayer, and generally start out in the beginning in the Church that way because our carnality is at its height at that point. We just got baptized. We just had hands layed upon us. We haven’t grown. We haven’t even started growing yet. We’re just there and now we start the process. We have to go through a lot to grow. It takes a lot of time to become something different.

So generally we start out and our prayer we don’t even know how to pray. I’m not real sure I do now, but I do it and I know I’ve grown in it. But that’s the way we are. How do you pray? And that can change and grow through time in what you do and how you do it, but it’s about drawing closer to God, it’s about sharing things with God and learning how to do that. God knows everything about you but you’re supposed to share (see, it’s a family relationship), though He knows it. But there is a measurement in there which goes back to God that you’re able to do in a unique way that you’re able to grow more. It’s an awesome thing, the process.

Sometimes, as it says here, I’ll just read the rest, You ask and do not receive because you ask badly so that you can consume or spend it upon your own lusts. So there is always this carnality we’re dealing with, and whether we recognize it or not sometimes it does slip in that in something that’s prayed to God that you want because you’re carnal... I’m carnal, so I’m going to say some things in my prayer life that reflect that. Some things I can recognize and some things I know when I’m asking because of my carnality, because it might be you just want some relief. That can be carnal not realizing that what you’re going through is good for your growth, spiritual growth. So God knows and He measures those things accordingly and He blesses us with growth.

It says, You adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? So there are those things we have to battle that are just wrong. We can’t be like the world, we’re to be different. We’re not supposed to have drama like the world. If we can see that one, like what you see or see the world, we should feel for the world, we really should. There is a level of drama out there that is just insane. It’s insanity and it’s gotten worse and worse and worse.

I feel so much for young people growing up today in things that they see on TV that are made to be like this is normal. Well, sadly, it is in the world so I guess they are kind of depicting things that are really like the world. But it’s gotten so much worse, things that didn’t used to be on TV that now it’s everywhere. You think how fast it’s going down the toilet. You think of young people growing up and they see certain things and they think that’s normal to where young children today are being taught, basically, do you know what you are? You think what a horrible state this has gotten to. Before puberty is ever there it’s like, what do you want to be because you don’t know until... I don’t know, you’ve got to make a choice about it. Sad. Sad that the world even has to face such a thing. I understand some of those things come from other... I don’t even want to go into it. It’s a messed up world.

So we have to be careful how we judge things in the world and what we see around us and  realize that, again, we can’t be like it in this thing of drama. That’s what I was talking about, I guess. It’s just there is so much drama in the world. But if we see certain things out there and realize this is what consumes people’s lives, as the world churns, type of thing, and it just continues on, how people treat each other and mistreat each other and never changes, what a sad life to have. The more we can, we need to get rid of that, and we are, and have been powerfully so for the last few years, getting rid of it in the Church. There’s not the kind of drama that there used to be even since we’ve gone through some of those things. I’m glad to say, I’m glad to report that I’m not hearing as much drama, of as much drama. That’s a good thing because people are working things out and maybe thinking a little bit more about certain things to where it’s not going to happen, bringing it into check. That’s a good thing because drama is ugly. If we do things like the world then we’re not where we need to be at all spiritually.

Verse 5—Do you think that the scripture says in vain, The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy? Well, see, there we go. Do we really see that? Do we acknowledge that, “the spirit in us lusts to envy?” You think, “I’m not an envious person. I don’t envy.” Hmmm. God says that’s our carnal spirit and we don’t see ourselves clearly. So in what areas do we?

But He gives more grace. Wherefore He says: God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. What an awesome thing to know that the more we humble ourselves before God, the more we seek to be of a humble spirit, to do things God’s way and not our own way, to bring self into check, the more grace God gives to us, the more we’re blessed.

Submit yourselves, therefore, to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He’ll draw near to you. It’s a simple formula of spirit life, of spiritual relationship with God. Draw near to God and He’ll draw near to you. Don’t put the effort into it? Don’t work at doing that? It’s not going to happen. It can only happen one way and you have to cry out to God you want help to draw nearer to Him, which means you want to do things more in unity and harmony with Him, not “my” own way. You want to get rid of that. But as a part of the process you have to cry out to God to help you to see what you’re doing that’s not in unity and harmony with Him. Think about those things as you enter into Atonement this year.

Draw near to God and He’ll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded. The reality is that’s what we’re dealing with. I’ve heard this explained in different ways in the Church at times and it’s like it was explained away. It’s like, “Well, the double minded, who are they? There are some who are double minded who have been in the Church.” No, that’s our battle, see.

There is that which we can receive from God, a way of thinking, but there’s another way that stays in our mind until it’s done, until you no longer exist as a physical human being, and it’s deep, deep, deep carnality, human nature. God wants us to see ourselves so, “Draw near to Him and He’ll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,” this is a part of the process. Strive to draw closer to Him, “you sinners,” it says. We have sin in our life. Anyone that says they don’t have sin, God says, is a liar. That’s what John says back in 1st John there.

“And purify your hearts.” That’s what we’re striving to do. It’s a refining thing. We want to be refined more, to purify more. That’s a natural course, that’s what we want so we ask God for those things. “...you double minded.” So it’s acknowledging and admitting “Yes, I have this battle of being double minded. I want God’s way of life, but if I do then I’ve got to work for it and I’ve got to do things. I’ve got to draw nearer to God if I want to change that. I’ve got to desire to become more at one with God. I’ve got to desire to want to see myself and see the things in me that are unclean and not purified yet.”

I think of the sealing that hasn’t taken place yet. How do I know? Well, God has shown us clearly. Things haven’t begun. When it takes place everything starts. Everything starts. I’m amazed at how long it took us to come to see that, but there is a process that God takes us through in maturing so that we can be of the same mind, to be able to see things clearly, to love and appreciate more what He gives to us. He takes us through a long period of time to learn things. Look how long it’s been since the Apostasy and what God’s been doing with His Church, because He’s molding and fashioning it—awesome—and there’s a lot that’s happened. A lot. Beautiful what God does when God constructs and does the building, truly.

1st John. You know what? I think we’re going to end there. If we go to 1st John it might be another sermon. It’s not going to be called by the same name because today we’re putting the kibosh here to this series. This is Part 5. This is the end, no need to go any farther.

So again here, a lot contained in this subject matter, isn’t there, judging others and what it means. It’s something we all do and we have to see that in ourselves. We can’t just brush it off, think that it doesn’t apply to “me.” Just like it says here—I love the way it says it here—“cleanse your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded.” Because this is something we have to be able to see in ourselves. This is “me,” each one of us.

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Sometimes this is what we have to do. It’s about a matter of even fasting, to cry out. Why do we do that? To draw closer to God. It’s an exercise of physical humbling of ourselves, but spiritually as well combined with it because we’re wanting to humble self so that we can see, so that God can give us more, grant us more, to be able to see ourselves more clearly because we want to become more at one with Him as we approach the Day of Atonement here, to be at one with God, to be closer to God. This is a part of that process. So much of it has to do with relationships, obviously, because it’s about family, it’s about Elohim, it’s what God’s molding and fashioning in us so that we can enter into that one day.

So it talks here about being afflicted and mourn. Mourning in this context has to do with loathing what we see inside. It’s that feeling sometimes and sometimes even brought to tears. It doesn’t mean you have to work something up. I’m not talking about that which is fake... I’m talking about sometimes there are certain things that happen in your life to where you so hate what you see and you want to change so much that it can cause that in your life. But it’s an attitude and spirit here to mourn what we are, to loathe what we are. You have to hate what’s inside. You have to hate lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to conquer it, to overcome it, to enter into battle against it. If you don’t see what it is you’re not battling. If you don’t see those things in yourself you’re not battling because what’s to battle? Well, we all got our plate full if we can see it.

Be afflicted and mourn and weep, on a spiritual plane for what we are. As I’ve said many of times I loathe, I hate, I mean I hate with all my being selfishness in self. I hate that it’s there. But I know we have to live it and live through it and fight it until this transformation can take place. Because there is no other way for God to create within us His mind, His thinking. We have to go through this process of learning to really hate what is contrary to God, what fights against God, what is at enmity with God.

Because that’s the big lesson isn’t it? Satan, what he did, that mind. These attitudes that we’ve talked about today, it’s that same mind. That’s the way he was. It’s that spirit that’s enmity with God and we don’t want that. But it’s in us and it’s a refining process and we have to cry out to God, draw near to Him, ask for help to see those things so you can grow more and become more fully purified, cleansed, refined, if you will.

Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. There are times to do that in prayer before God. Fasting is a good one. Fasting isn’t a time where you jump up and down and say, “I love this,” because it’s not fun physically. As soon as you don’t have a drink of water on Atonement you’re going to be thirsty. At least I generally am not too long after. I can have a glass of water just before sundown. Which I was told a lot by different ones you shouldn’t do that. You should at least start at least an hour before sundown. That’s more righteous. If you take it right up the line like that you’re really carnal. Okay. I understand that. I am. But God says to do it a certain moment in time and I’m not going to drink anything after that. But up to that point in time it’s just fine to do, okay? So right afterwards, it won’t be long, an hour, two hours and your mind is going to go there at some point. It’s a matter of humbling ourselves before God and to do it spiritually.

So it’s not a fun thing. It’s not a fun thing to do. That’s why you don’t do it every week all your life. Now, some people have in times past. They used to do it twice a week and they felt so good about it. Twice a week they would fast because they’re so righteous. Kind of missed the mark, huh?

Humble yourselves in the light of God and He will lift you up. That’s what it’s about. Let God do the lifting up. We shouldn’t strive to do it ourselves.

Do not speak evil one of another, brethren. He who speaks evil of his brother judges his brother and speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law you’re not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver. So this is good because it takes us full circle back to the same thing we have to always be able to see, and that is about our relationship with God. To judge others is to judge God. There is one lawgiver. Who are we to judge God? Who are we to judge the law? That’s what it’s talking about here.

There is one lawgiver who is able to save and destroy. God’s desire is to save. That should be our desire and our thinking when it comes to judging. So it says, Who are you who judges another. End at that.

1. Chapter 1