The First Love

Wayne Matthews

October 15, 2019

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon - 2019

Welcome, everybody.

The purpose of this sermon is to look at what it means to have the first love. The title of this sermon is The First Love.

Once we enter the Millennium millions of people will experience something that we have already experienced. When a person is called by God the Father they have to make a personal decision (because it is a personal decision they have to make), will I believe the truth or will I reject it? Now, in today’s society we haven’t seen at the moment many being called by God. Often the Church emails come in and people have comments to say and they make comments about “joining the Church” and all the stuff they say, and there is a reasonable standard in replying to those people, which is following the contact section in the FAQ section of old, but the contact section which is Seeking a Response. It goes through about some of the things that people have to do.

Well, in a future people are going to have to do exactly the same thing, which is follow certain steps. Now, we understand that once a person accepts a calling there is a certain number of steps that they have to follow, and the first one, of course, is that personal repentance. Now, personal repentance is really about the ability that God gives us as carnal, natural minded, selfish people to be able to see something spiritual.

Now, I remember my calling and I remember I didn’t really see how evil I really was. I saw things like the Sabbath. Well, that’s what people in the future, going into the Millennium, will see. They’ll see a Sabbath, which is the same as what you have seen. You see a Sabbath day. Then you learn about tithing. Well, they’re going to do the same. They’re going to learn about tithing, about 1st tithe and then 2nd tithe. But it takes time. It doesn’t happen instantly where all of a sudden within two weeks everybody is seeing themselves as they really are. I know it took time for me, took years for me to begin to really see what I’m really like. Well, it’s going to be the same in the Millennium. As millions are called they’re going to go through these processes.

Then, of course, as they see that, they see these things, they realize the need to be baptized and they’ll understand why they need to be baptized, and that will take place. It’s about accepting Christ as their personal savior. They’ll start to understand Passover and why God the Father gave a Son, Joshua the Messiah. Why? Because of salvation. It’s about sin, the covering of sin. Well, they’ll start to see that. Then they’ll receive laying on of hands of a true minister of God, which enables (this is after baptism), the receipt of God’s holy spirit.

Now, if we really stop and think about God’s holy spirit, what is it? Well, really, God’s holy spirit is the power to love as God loves. That’s really what it is because without God’s holy spirit a person can love on a physical level, but it’s still selfish. Deep down it’s about self.

Now, what happens is once a person receives the gift of God’s holy spirit they have an aspect or a component of God in their thinking. Well, now, once they have that which is considered or called in the Bible the first love, people are given the first love which is God living and dwelling in them, the power now to love God, which is about obedience. It’s about baptism; it’s about the receipt of God’s holy spirit, and this ability to love God which is about obedience. Now they can keep the Sabbath day.

Now, we understand that there are thousands of people out there that keep the Sabbath day. There are millions of people that actually tithe—not to God’s true Church—but they actually tithe, they pay a percentage, ten percent. You’ll find in a lot of the Protestant world that people do tithe; they pay a first tithe to the church. That’s why the churches are so wealthy and have their buildings everywhere. Well, this power, they don’t have it.

This power that people have now is the ability to love as God loves. So now a person can love God. Now, we understand loving God is about obedience to God. So now they can keep the Sabbath. Now, we understand there are millions of people, hundreds of thousands of people anyway that keep a Sabbath (so-called), but they do not do it in the spirit of it because they don’t have God’s holy spirit. It’s only somebody with God’s holy spirit that can keep the Sabbath holy, which means God is in it. Holy. We’re only holy if God is in us. God is what makes us holy, separate. Well, a person without God’s holy spirit cannot keep the Sabbath day. They’ll keep a seventh day and they’ll rest and do those things, but it’s physical. Well, the same with tithing, it’s physical and it’s not done by the power of God’s holy spirit.

Now, this first love, which is the title of the sermon, is something that comes from God. He gives us the ability to love Him. There’s another component to it, which people talk about, which is to love one another. All being well we’ll get to how that’s reflected.

Now, when I went through this particular sermon and I started to study into the first love there is a component of it that if we’re not careful when we read it, it can make you a little depressed. (Selfish.) Because what it does is that you measure yourself against what God says He is, which is called the fruits of the spirit. We understand that. 1 Corinthians 13, love is... Well, when it says, “Love is merciful,” it’s really saying God is merciful. God is love. He alone is love. Everyone else is selfish and unless God lives and dwells in us we cannot live love. It’s impossible. It means we’re doing it by our own power and our own power is totally selfish. We’re doing it for a selfish reason.

It’s difficult for the world to understand, but a person can keep the Sabbath and sin. A person can tithe and sin. Those are just thought processes, that unless you have God’s holy spirit you wouldn’t understand what’s being really said. Because a person can say, “Well, I’m paying 1st tithe.” But you can pay it but not do it with the right spirit or an attitude, as God says. So there’s a component to this about the intent of the law.

Now, with God’s holy spirit, this love that God gives us, we can love His law. Without it we can keep 10 Commandments on a physical level but not the intent of the law, which is what Christ talked about in Matthew 5, about the intent of the law. Which is about, you can murder without killing somebody, which is about the intent, the motive behind why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Now, this is what’s going to take place in the Millennium. Within the Millennium, in that period and the hundred years, we’re going to see a massive change of people’s thinking because of this one thing, God’s holy spirit, which is going to give them the power to love God and to love one another. When we go through various scriptures we can look at it, and I know I went through it and found a little bit discouraged at the end of the sermon because I found that I was comparing it on a physical level. It was Wayne’s selfishness that was coming out, it wasn’t God’s love coming out. When I compared myself that God is love, God is merciful, now, love is kind. “Well, Wayne, are you kind?” And when I looked at it I thought... Oh, I felt so badly. After I’d gone through 1 Corinthians 13 I thought, whew... Because it’s God that has to do it. It’s God in me because it’s God’s love in me that has to go out to the benefit of others.

So human love is selfishly motivated, it’s inward. It’s “I,” “my,” “me.” It has a selfish intent, conditions attached to it. Now, this often comes out with humans, is that if, I’ll love somebody as long as they love me, but I will not love my enemy if they hate me. That’s human, whereas God says we’re to love everybody.

Now, one of the beauties of how we can see God’s word in scripture is when the saying says, “Forgive them, they don’t know what they do.” Now, it’s impossible to say that with the right intent unless a person has God’s holy spirit, because there is no way the natural carnal mind will really say, “Forgive them; they don’t know what they do.” People say, “Oh, I’ve forgiven you for murdering my son,” or my daughter or somebody. People will say that because it’s a Protestant thing; you have to be merciful, therefore, you have to say it. Well, people say it, they don’t hold anything against the person. But it’s not God’s love because God doesn’t think the same as a human. It’s the complete opposite.

Now, God’s love is outward, sacrificing. The intent of God’s love is always to benefit. Now, that’s something we can’t do. We may do it at times, but it’s still physical and we’ll do it to benefit as long as it benefits us. In other words, “What am I going to get back for it?”

Now, I’m going to start by looking at Leviticus 23:33, and we’re going to look at this in relation to the Feast of Tabernacles because these seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles really is about why we have the seven day Feast, what we are to do, but it is actually connected to the first love. They really can’t be separated, because one is physical. Now, when we look at this we look at Ancient Israel, physical, impossible to live love. Absolutely impossible, impossible to have the first love. Because Moses had it, but the others, there was a few others may have had it there, but others didn’t have it. So they’re keeping a feast, and when people read this now, they’ll read it on a physical level. But we can read it on a spiritual level because we can love at times. Not all the time. But with God’s spirit, God is love. God only loves; that’s the way it is. Well, we can too because we have the power. So we can keep a Feast with a different attitude than what everyone else around the world can. God’s people can keep it differently.

Leviticus 23:33—Then the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying: The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Eternal. So the reason we’re keeping it, this appointment of seven days, the reason we’re keeping it is it’s to God. We’re doing it because of God. Now, physically they could do it; we can do it spiritually. We keep it with a different attitude, and when we look at all of these scriptures we’re going to go through about the Feast, behind it, about rejoicing, it’s connected to first love, this love that we can have. We’re going to look at that in a little bit more detail.

On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, a holy day, a high day; You shall do no customary work on it, which we understand. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal. Now, they did that physically. They killed lambs and different things and they offered this offering, different offerings on different days. There are scriptures in the Bible that go through that and tell you how many they killed and how they did it and why they did it, basically, as numbers that went through, through those days.

Well, we can do it because it’s about sacrificing ourselves. Now, during the seven days of the Feast, what an incredible time to actually sacrifice as God commands, to sacrifice self during these seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, which means living love. That’s what it really means, because sacrificing is living love, we’re expressing it out to God and to others.

On the Eighth day, which is the Last Great Day, you shall have a holy convocation, you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. Now, during this period we can actually now think about, during the Feast, living love, how do we live love, and making a choice to live it; allow God and Joshua the Messiah to live in us out to the benefit of others. It’s not all about ourselves.

Now, if we were keeping this just physically it would be all about ourselves because we don’t have the power to love God or to love others. It’s not possible. It would just be something physical. Well, yeah, we could be seen in the eyes of others as doing good things for them (so-called), on a physical level, being generous on a physical level, but this, they don’t have the power, we do, which is an incredible thing! We have all these people over the thousands and thousands of years that this has been known, about keeping the seven days, Israel, and then God’s Church, we have the power. We probably have more power now than ever before to live love to God and live love to others, to benefit others.

These are the feasts, which are really appointments to celebrate, and we can look at them both physically and spiritually, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these gatherings, to offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice, a drink offering, everything on its day. So we have, virtually, seven days and then one day where we can exercise the power that God has given us if we want to, if we choose to, because there is a choice in this.

Verse 38—besides the Sabbaths of the Eternal, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, which we don’t do now as they did then. They made these promises but now it’s about a freewill choice that we have to make about dedicating and thinking about it ourselves; not having to do certain things, but we make decisions every day. ...and besides all your freewill offerings which you shall give to the Eternal.

Verse 39—Also, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the Feast for seven days; on the first day there shall be a Sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath-rest. Now, this points to things we understand (I’m not going to go into that today), but we understand what this points to. It’s about 7,000 years and on that last 1,000 years, called the Millennium, there is a rest period, a rest from Satan and the demons.

So once Satan is removed there is a rest, things will be easier than what it is today for us, where things are, with particularly technology, really it’s quite insane what’s available to the mind and how young kids can get now, phones and technology and be polluted. Whereas you went back 200 years ago they wouldn’t have been able to see what they can see now. It just wasn’t around. It was there but normally it was more to adults that they saw these things and they used to go to certain places to see it. But now a person can lock themselves in their bedroom, you know. Punish children, send them to their room with their mobile phone. That’s why the kids say, “Punish me, please.” Because it’s evil what’s there. What’s accessible is evil and it’s rampant.

Well, this period of time when Joshua the Messiah returns and there is a 1,000 year period it’s a process. It’s going to take time.

We were out this morning, I think it was, somewhere, and we were having a coffee and we looked around the tables and all the adults had their phones, you know, and they’re playing games or had ear plugs listening. It’s really an insane world. That’s all going to go. The intent of all that and what it’s used for, it’s got to change. Nothing wrong with the technology, it’s what is being used and what’s on it.

Often thought, you know, just shows you how evil things really are, because the governments of the world can now track you, they can tax you on anything, and if you bring goods into Australia now it’s 10% tax on GST. They can do all that on websites but they won’t shut down pornography because there is too much money involved. But they could shut it down. It’s not that difficult to shut a lot of this down if you really, really wanted to. But there has got to be a motive or an incentive behind it, and money generally is the incentive.

Verse 40—And you shall take for yourselves on the first day fruit (the best) of beautiful trees, branches and palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Eternal your God for seven days. So here it is about something that has to take place. The purpose of the Feast of Tabernacles is about rejoicing. It’s about rejoicing. Now, how great an opportunity do we have in this present age to rejoice having God’s holy spirit? Because this is all physical to them. They could do all that and they could go and rejoice and have plenty of food and drink and, you know, take the fruit into the small booth that they had made to sit there and think.

How much more should we set aside time to think about the blessings we have? Because we have the first love! How much time could we spend just taking ten minutes of a day to sit there and think, “Well, am I expressing love to God and to others during this seven day period?” It’s a good question to ask ourselves. To think about it, to make sure then we’re willing to sacrifice at different times during the seven days, to sacrifice to love somebody else. I won’t go into all the examples of what we could do there, but there’s plenty. There is plenty we could do during the seven days of the Feast.

Verse 41—You shall keep it as a Feast of the Eternal for seven days in the year. And it shall be a statute forever in your generations. How blessed are we? You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell, which is about sitting and thinking, You shall dwell in booths for seven days. Wasn’t the whole period, we know, it was just a short time. Well, we can do this in the spirit of the matter. We don’t have to get leaves and build little things and go and sit there. We could just take 10, 5, 15, 20, whatever we want to do, we can do it while we’re walking, just thinking about, “What is it that I can do to express love to my brother and sister in Christ? What is it that I could do? Am I doing it?” Examine self. “Am I doing it? Am I expressing love to God?” Well, yes, because of obedience we’re at the Feast of Tabernacles, so there is obedience involved, which is? Expressing love to God. It’s the first love.

You shall sit in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths. So this temporary time to sit and think and to rejoice. Now, there is a lot to rejoice about. When you really look at it you can’t go past just simply being called. Just being called at this time as small as we are, as isolated as we are, it’s fantastic. I know I’ve given sermons about sometimes, you know, when somebody calls you an idiot and you’re just a big head. I get emails still like that, “You know, Wayne...” This is fantastic! I actually rejoice. I think it’s great. It’s a good thing. Being called an idiot and a lunatic, isn’t this good news? Because you’re sacrificing... Which God sees and God knows what He’s trying to achieve in me, which He will achieve. It’s up to me; what will I do? But isn’t that exciting?

So what a time to rejoice! We’re away for seven days; people in the world will think we’re crazy. That’s great! This is good news. They think we’re all nuts, great. But we’re expressing love to God by being obedient for seven days and the Last Great Day, by sacrificing, by doing a second tithe that we spend during that time. It’s a sacrifice. It’s not easy saving a second tithe. Giving a first and keeping a second is not easy. Wasn’t meant to be. But people in the Millennium are going to have to learn all this, going to have to learn it. What a marvelous opportunity, what a great blessing, is that we can be there to help them! That’s exciting! I find that really motivating and exciting, that we can be there to help them. Whether it’s spirit or physical. We can be there to help them.

People will want to know certain things. How do you work out 10%? What is it I can do on the Sabbath? You go back over the Sabbath day. There have been a lot called 2007, 2008, 2009 mainly, that group in Church at the moment, but when we first come into the Church we don’t really understand what it is we can do on the Sabbath. Really. We’re in darkness. It’s not like Sunday worship where you can do anything. It’s, “Hang on a minute, what can I do? Can I do this? Or can I do that?” There is a lot of basic, physical questions and it takes time.

Well, Millennium is going to be exactly the same. People are going to want to know what is it I can do? Well, now if you were like us we sat there the first day, dead still, basically, and we ate and put all the dishes in and piled them all up. We were looking, “When is the Sabbath over because I want to get to those dishes.” Well, you learn. It takes time. Then we found out, ah, you can live life a little bit. We knew you couldn’t do the washing and all that. Then, of course, we thought we’d kill a bit of time, we’d go for a walk. Came back exhausted at 5:30; been walking for seven hours. But that’s something you learn! True? It takes time.

Well, people in the Millennium are going to say, “Well, you know, what should you do? What can you do? Can you go out with your family and have a picnic?” Yeah, you can. It’s about time for relationships. It’s about the expression of God’s love to somebody else. That’s what it’s really all about. That’s what the Sabbath is about, learning and expressing love to God and to somebody else called brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s exciting what we know.

What people don’t know, it’s going to be amazing when they grow and develop and we’ll be like we are now, stand back and be patient. We’re not going to jump on them because we’re going to be more like God, because we’re going to live love, we’re going to show mercy to people who don’t understand. “Forgive them; they don’t know what they do.” They don’t know you can’t walk for seven hours to kill time. They’re going to have to learn it. I won’t go into all the other things I learned. You learn by experience, true? It takes time.

So it’s an exciting time, the Millennium, in the beginning of it, but it’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be this magic wand that everything is wonderful and everybody knows everything instantly. No, it’s going to take years of re-education. Because that’s what’s happened to us, years of re-education, and the real difference of this re-education is God’s holy spirit, this love that God is giving to us, the ability to love Him and to love others.

I’ll read verse 42 again, All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths (verse 43) Why? that your generations may know, which is the people after us may know, that I (the Eternal) made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. What’s that about? Well, it’s not physical, because we haven’t come out of the land of Egypt on a physical level. No, this is about a calling.

So when people are called, when they are called, what will they do? They’ll say, “Well, why? You’ve come out. Why?” They’re the same, “Why have we come through this great tribulation, this mess? Why?” Because they can learn something different; they can learn God’s way of life. It’s an incredible concept when you look at the Feast of Tabernacles and what’s it really picturing. It is about this ability to love by God’s holy spirit – the only way we can.

Verse 44—So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Eternal.

Deuteronomy 16. I often have up on the top of my notes, “Slow down, Wayne.” I get too excited. “Don’t wave your hands so much.” We’re getting there. It takes years. You have to show mercy.

Deuteronomy 16:13. Now, this is the Feast of Tabernacles reviewed. Verse 13—You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days after you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. Now, for us this is not physical. This is about spiritual. So they can look back now and say, well, what is it this year that we have overcome by God’s holy spirit? There is something that we’ve overcome – God willing we have – we’ve made a choice to fight harder, maybe, a particular sin that’s in our life that we’ll have all our life.

I find that after all the years in God’s Church the things I used to think and do I don’t do them as now, but I still think certain things and I’ve got to fight those things. Those thoughts come into the mind. You don’t physically do the act but you think it and you can cut it off or you can dwell on it. It’s a choice. Well, they are things you grow in. Well, I can rejoice in certain things. I’m more aware of certain things. I’m more aware of some sin that I have (more than one), that I’m more aware of it.

So I can rejoice at the Feast. I can rejoice because God has given the ability for me to see, by the power of His holy spirit, that I can see more of me, that I can see there’s a long way to go. That’s just the way that it is, just a long way to go. Just going to have to keep going no matter how long it takes.

Verse 14—You shall rejoice. So the reason we’re here for the seven days of the Feast is that we’re here really to rejoice about something. We’re not rejoicing about the physical. We should still and we can for those that are blessed at this time to have that, but sometimes we don’t have those things because it’s the best thing for us not to have them. So not having some physical things sometimes is a great blessing, if we just look at it the right way. Because God’s working with us, the most important thing is the mind and the spirit of a matter. God’s working with us to see what we will choose over time, what will we choose. How long will this take? Well, it’s going to take as long as what it will take.

You shall rejoice, we surely rejoice. We’ll be thankful, in your Feast, you and your son and your daughter, and your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates, within the Church. So we should rejoice in the Church by remembering our calling and living this love out to the benefit of these people that are listed, which is everybody in the Church. We should live it to others, stop and think about how we can benefit others more, how we can live God’s love more, which is not expecting anything in return because God doesn’t expect anything in return when He gives. He wants to see what we’ll do. Well, we should give and not expect anything in return, which is foreign to the natural mind.

Verse 15—Seven days you shall keep a sacred Feast to the Eternal your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce... Well, ours is spiritual, the truth that we have. The truth that we have is, well, it’s almost like, if you really go over the truths and you hit one or two there are some there that are just amazing truths. You know, the last one that was given, that in itself is just amazing. It really is amazing for God’s Church that we know this and no one else does. There might be a few that know but they don’t understand it, what it’s really all about, that separation of God’s people.

And one God. Some think there is one God and believe there is one God – we know there is one God and we have one ability they don’t. We can love Him with His love. Isn’t that incredible? They can’t. They can yell out “Allah Akbar” and all the rest of it, and “God is Great” and blow people up and do all sorts of crazy stuff. We don’t live like that. We live a different way of life. That’s why when people call us weird and all that, it’s just a reminder that we have God living and dwelling in us, that we have this ability to love God and to love anybody that hates us.

You know, the scripture talks about love your enemy, do good. Well, if you look at it physically you cringe. You go, “How many times is he going to punch me?” But with God’s holy spirit, as Christ did, we take it. Hard. It’s tough. But we take it and go, “Oh, they don’t understand.” What else can they do? They have a natural carnal mind that is bent on selfishness – what else can they do? If anyone is doing good to us there is a reason why they’re doing good to us. We know that, therefore, why would you judge? Why could we judge? We shouldn’t because we understand they don’t understand. We understand.

So we are to rejoice in this time, in all the work of your hands, you shall surely rejoice. The end of verse 15, “You shall surely rejoice.” Now, this is spiritual. This is about rejoicing about what God has given us, which is the truth and the ability to love. We can rejoice because of our calling. We can rejoice because we see the truth. They can’t. It’s impossible. Our rejoicing is both physical and spiritual. One real reason to rejoice before God is because we have the power to love. They don’t. It’s an incredible thing.

So we’re going to quickly look at the first era of God’s Church. There’s an event that took place that was written by the apostle, Luke, and it happened about 61 A.D., and it’s in the book of Acts. This is thirty years after Pentecost. So we’ve got thirty years that has passed and now this is being written, and it’s about this power that was going to come from God the Father. So Luke actually was there when he experienced these days. This event, Luke was actually there. We weren’t, but we believe. But he was there. So once the Millennium starts we will see some amazing events take place in people’s lives. It’s going to be absolutely staggering.

You know, I really yearn and I look forward to every time I open particular emails, I look forward to seeing somebody being called. It’s just an incredible thing that you experience. And do you know what? A lot of people say, “How do you know that you know?” Oh, I just know. It’s God’s spirit. I can’t explain to you, I just know. But you can actually see whether someone is being called or you can see that they might be being inquisitive, but they’re not really being called. You can actually see it because you can see this humility of God that’s starting to work with them, that God’s drawing them. They’re being called, they’re drawn to the truth. They’ve still got a long way to go but you can see it; you see it starting and you say, “Ah, yes, this is exciting,” and you get really excited.

I remember here, you would have experienced it when we had some that were (no longer with us), when they first came, and there’s an excitement. There’s just, “Oh,” you know, “this person’s being called,” and you’re just excited for them, you’re excited for the Church. Well, the Millennium – can you imagine this? I know we can’t really. But when there’s thousands of people seeking the truth, wanting to know the truth, and you know God’s working with them and they come to Sabbath services, can you imagine the noise? It’s pretty bad when you get thirty people in a room, the noise, but when you get thousands of people and hundreds of people, and when you’re walking down the street and you meet somebody and you can have a conversation with them about God’s way? It’s things we can’t really comprehend. I know we’re looking forward to it, but we can’t fully comprehend what it’s going to be like. But it’s going to be exciting, absolutely exciting!

Well, here we have Luke, who is writing about something which he experienced. So when the Millennium starts we’re going to see amazing things take place. Not exactly like this, but amazing things that he probably saw in part, because there was thousands called in that first era. Well, the Millennium is just going to be incredible, absolutely incredible when we see this.

So here we’re going to see, first of all, in Acts 1:4, which is a promise that Christ gave. And at this point there was eleven disciples because Judas and what he did.

Acts 1:4—And being assembled together with them, which was eleven disciples, he (Joshua) commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem. Now, we can look at that and say, yes, there is an instruction by Christ for them not to depart from Jerusalem because it was about the day of Pentecost, that Christ knew this was the promise of the Father, which is this power that they could have to see the truth and to love God really (truly to love God the proper way), and to love others because at this moment they were being drawn.

Well, this is a type of now the same thing within the Church, which is a promise that we have received already—the promise of the Father, we have it—but it can be cut off from us because of choices, and if we were to leave Jerusalem (type of the Church), if we leave and we’re not there and continue on, what will happen? Well, there is a choice here. They could have said, “I’m not going to hang around for another ten days or some. I’m not going to hang around and wait.” Exactly the same now. So if somebody departs God’s Church (because this is about God’s holy spirit) and they don’t wait for the return of Joshua the Messiah they cannot inherit, they cannot be given what God is offering. It’s going to be possible. It’s not possible because they’ve rejected God. So there’s difficult times ahead for people that have rejected God. They don’t know it yet. They think they’re right in their own eyes.

So here it is, don’t depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you have heard from me. Now, there’s a promise there. Well, the same for us. We are to continue on. We’re to wait. We’re to wait for something. If someone leaves God’s Church they would cut themselves off from the flow of God’s holy spirit. They would no longer have the power to love God and to love the brethren. In actual fact, based on some emails, these people have made this decision and they no longer love God’s people. Because they don’t have the power. So when I read those types of things, and others can read those types of things from people that are mocking and all that, it’s easy to see that they don’t have God’s love anymore. Because if they had God’s love they wouldn’t be doing it. True? We know this is simple stuff, really. If you love, you wouldn’t be mocking and ridiculing another person because you’d have the attitude of “Forgive them; they don’t know what they do.” But no, to mock and to ridicule and to pull down, well, that’s not an expression of God’s love, therefore, they’re cut off from the flow of God’s holy spirit. It’s easy to see when you have God’s spirit.

Verse 5—for John truly baptized, which is immersed with water. So we talked about that. There’s an immersion. That’s a physical thing but it’s a spiritual thing as well. But it’s physical in nature. ...but you shall be baptized, you shall be immersed with the holy spirit not many days from now, which was ten days time. In fact they would be given the power to love God, which is the first love. That’s what was really the promise of the Father, it’s the first love.

This is what mankind has the potential to experience at the start of the Millennium and throughout the Millennium, and the Last Great Day, the gift of God’s holy spirit, the power to love God and to love others.

Now we’ll look at the portion of the day of Pentecost, which happened to be June 31 A.D., and we’ll go to Acts 2:1. This is account of God giving His holy spirit, the power to love as God loves. Acts 2:1—When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they now, which was twelve because Matthias replaced Judas, were all in one accord, which is the same thinking, in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a mighty rushing wind. It wasn’t a strong wind in the room, it was the sound of a rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. So there is this noise they’re hearing. Then there appeared, which is physical, to them divided tongues, as of fire. So now they’re seeing something, which is like a proof or evidence of something happening. There is a noise and there is an appearance of fire that is there. ...and sat upon them. So they’re seeing something physical.

Now, we know that when a person’s baptized and a minister lays hands on them and prays over them for the gift of God’s holy spirit there is not a major noise. Did you hear anything? Did you see a big clove of fire, like fire, tongues of fire on top of the person’s head? We didn’t. Because this was something different. Now this is about the power of God to sit in somebody’s mind. God’s opening their mind to a something. We see spiritually. It’s an incredible thing that we have.

Well, here they’re receiving something and there’s evidence being provided, physical evidence being provided of something spiritual. Now you may say, that didn’t happen to me, but there were many physical things that have happened that are evidence. Which, the first one, talking about repentance. There are physical things. Like turning from Sunday to the Sabbath and keeping a seventh day Sabbath is a physical thing, firstly, but it’s evidence of somebody that God is calling because now they see a Sabbath. “Ah, I better change.” Tithing is a physical evidence of something spiritual. So there is evidence within our lives of God working with us. It’s not a loud noise and cloves of fire. No, it’s physical things that we’re demonstrating now, “Ah, God is with me. God is working with me,” and it should be exciting.

During the Feast this is about rejoicing about that event taking place, the fact that we see the truth. Incredible! That’s the evidence that God’s spirit is still living and dwelling in us.

Verse 4—And they were all filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues (languages), as the spirit gave them utterance. Now, that again is something that is just proving something. It is God’s power at work here. This is God at work here. It’s not something from them. They didn’t have that power. This is the day of the wave loaves, of course, Pentecost, and this was the day of the promise of the Father, which all took place on 31 A.D. So this was the start of the Church.

We’re going to look at the first era of God’s Church because there’s something that took place that can take place in our life as well. Now, there is a fact here: Without God’s holy spirit dwelling in us we are not in the Church of God. If we have God’s spirit we understand it. We’re only in God’s Church if we have God’s holy spirit active in our thinking, because it’s God’s dwelling place.

Now, we are the temple of God. Collectively, we make up a temple and the mind with God’s holy spirit now is God’s dwelling place. Therefore, if we have God’s spirit in us with our spirit we are now part of the Church of God. Without God’s holy spirit we are not in the Church of God. That’s a fact. It’s only with God’s holy spirit that we could fully comprehend that.

People in the Millennium will have the very same event explained to them, which is what I went through then. They’re going to have explained to them about what happened and why it happened. Because this is about God; this is about God and God’s spirit. They will experience having the same love as we do. We’ve already got it; they haven’t got it yet, but they’re going to experience it. Then they’re going to have the power to love and they’re going to have the power to say, “God forgive them; they don’t know what they do,” a marvelous thing.

The evidence that we are now of God is that we love God, which is demonstrated by our obedience to the spiritual intent of the law, not just the law. Because there are a lot of people out there that would say they keep the law. Remember that young man where Christ was there and the young man said, “I keep the ten commandments.” Well, there’s people that do. They don’t murder. They don’t lie necessarily – don’t know that they lie but they do – but they’d say they don’t. They’d say they keep Sabbath, if certain groups of people do. They do all these different things. They don’t have idols. But they’re still breaking the law because they’re putting themselves before God which is an idol. They put self first because that’s all they can do. They can’t do it any other way, they don’t have the power. We have the power not to have idols. Not all the time, of course; that’s one of the problems of man, is that we fail.

So the evidence that God is in us is this demonstration by our obedience to the spiritual intent of the law. Now, that is a separate topic in itself but it is about our motive and intent, why we do what we do and why we’re doing it, well, this intent of the law, and we love one another. Now, this is demonstrated by the way we live towards one another.

So during the Feast we can demonstrate our love to God by loving one another, because that’s what God desires. That’s God in us. The ability to live love is God in us. We have that power. The main point of those events is that we have to realize, and I’m sure we do, is that the disciples could not really love until the day of Pentecost 31 A.D. Then they had the power to love, which is to love one another. The difference was now they had the power of God’s holy spirit living and dwelling in them. Prior to this day they could not sacrifice as God sacrifices. They couldn’t sacrifice themselves, the selfishness in them. Prior to this day they didn’t have the first love.

So the first era of God’s Church started, and we understand that that started. So let’s look at Revelation 2:1, which is a message from Joshua the Messiah to the eras of God’s Church. The book of Revelation was written, not for the world. Now, we all understand also that people get the book of Revelation and they interpret all types of things. Because you can, the natural carnal mind can interpret many things. Putting stamps on the forehead and numbered beast marks and they can do all that. But without God’s holy spirit one cannot understand the book of Revelation. It’s absolutely impossible because they don’t have God’s spirit. It’s just a physical thing; they’re going to read it and interpret it and make up things.

Well, it’s only because of God through Christ through an apostle that we have any understanding here at all. It’s God’s power in us that we have some understanding. We don’t understand it all by any means but there is some we have overviews of.

Now, at this time the Church was quite small and it’s the first era from 31 A.D., the beginning of the Church. Revelation 2:1—To the angel (messenger) of the Church of Ephesus write, These things says he (Christ) who holds the seven stars (the angels) in his right hand. Well, we know that he doesn’t hold them. Because we go back to physical things, he’s holding seven angels in one hand. This is all about authority and about power and authority that’s been given to him. ...in his right hand, in other words, he has authority from God now, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands. Well, we know there is not seven physical lamp stands and he’s walking around amongst them. We understand this is about Christ, the head of the Church, being in God’s people during these periods of time. That’s what it’s really about.

I know your works... “I know the choices that you have made.” ...your labor, which is fighting self, your patience, your perseverance, that you cannot bear those who are evil. In other words, those who practice sin, we don’t enjoy being around people that practice sin. We guard ourselves. But we have to be. We’re involved in the world; you’re around people that practice sin. Everybody outside of God’s Church practices sin. And shock, horror, the pope practices sin. So do all the other Protestant leaders, all their so-called evangelists in the Protestant world all practice sin, because they can’t do anything different. They haven’t been called to do anything different. But one day they’ll have that opportunity, God willing.

So we don’t like being around evi,l but we have to allow others to live their life. We don’t intervene and say, “Stop! Stop! You know, you don’t do that. Don’t do this.” Let them do whatever. God is in charge; He’ll work it out. He wants to know their minds. It’s not about us knowing their minds. We know their minds. We know their minds because we know our mind. It’s exactly the same. It’s totally selfish, looks after self.

And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not... Now, what’s a way to test it? Because this is one of the common emails that come through at different times about apostles and that. By the way they live. It’s got nothing to do with what a person says, per se. Well, that’s involved but it’s more about how a person lives. How do they live their life? Do they keep the 10 Commandments by living love to others? That’s how you tell – by living love. A person has God’s holy spirit, they will live love to God and they’ll live love to others. That’s the evidence, the proof of it, not what people say. Although, with God’s Church, of course, we do understand it’s about what they say as well, but it’s also involved about what they live, how a person lives their life.

And it says here, that are apostles and are not, and have found them liars, so they say one thing and do another, in other words. They do not speak or live the truth. There’s plenty of those out there. ...and you have persevered (you’ve endured), and have patience, and have labored for my name’s sake, which is what we do. We labor. Brethren, we labor by fighting self. We labor. It’s a battle. It’s not easy; it’s hard work. ...and have not become weary. We have not quit fighting self.

Nevertheless, so verse 4—Nevertheless, there’s something here that is a problem. I have this against you, that you have left, or you have forsaken your first love, which is agape. We’ve forsaken God. That’s what was against them.

So during the seven days of the Feast it’s a time to examine whether we’re living love really or not, or have we forsaken this love. Christ is saying here to this era of people—there was a lot of them—that he had something against them. So they were given God’s holy spirit, they had the power to love God and to love one another, but due to being lazy or not putting any effort on working on self... Because that’s the first sign. Not working on self is the first sign of not loving. Because if we love others we’d be working on ourselves because we don’t want to upset anyone, we don’t want to offend anybody, we want to work on self. If we’ve got self in check God can live out to the benefit of another person through us. But if we haven’t got self in check, which I’m guilty of often, that it’s not in check, but it should be. But if we have it in check, well, God can live in us.

Well, here it is Christ is saying, “Well, I’ve got this against you. You’ve forsaken the first love.” You’re not working on self enough. You’re not loving the way you should love.

So during this time when we have the time to dwell in booths, we’ve got time to think – take time out to just stop and think – do we remember our calling? Do we remember our first love, the zeal? So what’s attached to love? Now, we know physical love. What’s attached to physical love? Physical love, there’s a zeal. Most men dating, there’s a zeal to do things, to please the opposite sex. That’s just...that’s the zeal.

Well, God’s love there’s a zeal for God, there’s a zeal to love another person, there’s a zeal to battle self because it pleases God. If we battle self, we please God. Don’t we want to please God? Yes, we do. If we’re battling self we can please others because God can live and dwell in us out to the benefit of others. But if we’re not fighting self, if we’re just being naturally “Wayne,” there’s a problem. Because “I’m” not fighting self. “I” will let down and “I’ll” say something or do something stupid. Natural.

So we have to have this zeal to love God, to love God’s word, to love to hear it. During these seven days and the eighth day to want to hear what God is feeding us. The zeal to love for the truth. You know, there are scriptures that talk about people don’t have a zeal or the love of the truth anymore. They don’t love the truth. Well, we’ve got time to think about the truth. We should love them because God in His mercy has opened our mind that we see them to different degrees. It’s just amazing what we have! What an incredible thing!

So if we’ve lost a love for the truth we’re in big trouble, we really are spiritually in big trouble if we’ve lost that love for the truth. We should be motivated internally and be excited internally. Not that we have to go out there and tell other people, “Do you know there’s 57?” Do we know that? Well, we know it and we can be excited by living a different way of life. That’s how we can express it out to others; zeal toward God’s word, which is about study – you know, thinking about God, thinking about God’s word, what it means to us. Zeal to live God’s way – we want to do the right thing before God, and zeal to live His way of life, a zeal to please God. The first love is God’s love. It’s really straightforward, really, His holy spirit living and dwelling in us. Now, if we have this first love we have made a commitment towards God. We’ve made this commitment toward God and we’ll do everything we choose to do to please God and to love one another.

Now, when a person starts to leave the first love, which is what Christ said to the first era, “I’ve got this against you, that you’ve forsaken the first love,” they become complacent and they become lukewarm. So they back off. There is no longer this excitement for the truth. The problem is sin. Unrepented sin is the problem and they begin to fall asleep.

Now, I speak to you from experience because I’ve done this. I forsook, I had left the first love. What Christ said to the first era of the Church, I’ve done the same, exactly the same. It was called, the Apostasy. I went to sleep, fell asleep, and I no longer had the power to love God or to love others in the Body of Christ or the world. I went through the motions of the whole thing.

So I understand what it is and I know it’s possible to be done. I’ve done it once. I don’t want to do it again. It’s choice that I’ve got to make. I don’t want to do it again. There are others in the church that have been in the Church that have made this choice second time around. You think, how is that all possible? It’s possible and it’s just called letting down, not loving the truth, not loving the calling, not having God living and dwelling in us. It’s all because of this unrepented sin. We tolerate a sin in our life and, “Oh, you know, it’ll be alright.” No, it’s not alright. It’s work, work, work until the day we die.

Verse 5, what are we to do? Christ says to the first era, which is Christ talking to us (same thing): Remember, be mindful, therefore, from where you have fallen; which is repent. Just remember back, think about it all, think about the calling, think about the truth, think about the sin we might be tolerating in our life, think about how much harder we could be battling against self. Think about it! We’ve got seven days to think about it spiritually.

...repent, think differently, and do the first works. What are the first works? Zeal towards the truth. Choose to live God’s way. Choose to live love to God and choose to live love to others. ...or else... What’s going to happen if we choose the opposite? If we don’t repent, if we don’t change what’s going to happen? Else I will come to you quickly and remove your lamp stand from its place—unless you repent. Talking to myself as well. Unless we’re willing to search self and repent, God could withdraw—make a choice to withdraw completely during this life, this physical life. We lose God’s spirit. It’s not just about withdrawing to see what we’ll do and then coming back, this is withdrawing, being cut off from God’s holy spirit and being left to self. Terrifying! If you have God’s spirit it’s a terrifying thought to have, that that could happen to us. But it’s happened to thousands of people that have had an opportunity to have the first love and then failed to repent.

Verse 6—But this you have, that you hate the deeds (the actions) of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, which we do, spiritually, let him/her hear what the spirit says to the Churches. To him who overcomes, overcomes self, fights, has the zeal to do it, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is talking about God’s holy spirit, which is in the midst of the paradise of God, which is this everlasting life. If we are willing to choose to repent, if we’re willing to think about the first love, what we did when we were first called, the zeal we had, which was demonstrated in the beginning by physical things but now can be demonstrated by spiritual things, that God says He’ll give us something, to eat of the tree of life, which is everlasting life in Elohim. That’s what we would have if we choose to repent.

Because, this was the first era of God’s Church but this applies to all of us at any time. Same principle; that a person can choose to reject God’s love. So once called we must come to see and believe that our calling is a free gift from God and that we are not worthy and never will be worthy of any gifts from God.

I was saying to somebody before services that that’s something that the longer we’re in God’s Church, is that we see things differently and we see that there is nothing that a person can do physically that would ever make you worthy. You can’t be counted worthy. It’s God decided to call you and me. It was His decision. God doesn’t make mistakes. That’s a good thing to know. God doesn’t make mistakes. It wasn’t an error of judgment that God made when He called you and me, there was a purpose. It was God expressing His love to us individually—it’s an incredible thing—His love to us individually, and that He would love us and that we would be given the power to love Him and to love one another. An amazing thing that we have that power.

In it, one thing we see is, well, we’re never going to be worthy, we can’t earn it, we can’t... It’s just a choice we have to make. Now we’ve been called we’re going to choose to follow God, to listen to God.

Now, if we were to consider God’s plan of salvation, which is a good time to think about this because there’s two parts to it, God is love. God is here and God created all this, spirit world, physical world – still God is here with this thinking of love because God is love. Only God is love. We’re not. Everything else has been made with a freewill choice – physical, spirit world, us. Now, we have the ability when God calls us to receive this mind (aspect of it, part of it) that is in this mind (the natural mind, the spirit in man), and they combine. Now we have this power to love God and to love one another.

Now, if you look at it that way how incredible is that? What an opportunity! We don’t deserve it; we’ve done nothing. The fact we exist is an incredible thing. If we didn’t exist we could never be in Elohim. But we exist and we’ve been given this opportunity. So if we look at mankind’s thinking versus God’s thinking, and when we see it clearly there is no comparison because we cannot love. It’s not possible. It’s just selfish. We’re just selfish human beings. God is the one who gives us the power to love others. Even though they may turn against us, they may hate us, they may despise us, they may think we’re idiots, all that, it’s all irrelevant. Really, what relevance does it have? Because God’s mind in us is the difference. That’s what can make the difference.

Now, the two minds are completely different and that was designed, we understand, it was created that way for a reason.  We must guard against our thinking that we deserve anything from God, because the reality is, we don’t deserve anything from God. It is God that counts us worthy based on the response to His calling to us. So once we’re called then we’ve got to make a choice.

Ephesians 4:1—I, therefore, which is Paul talking, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, so it’s Paul saying to the Ephesian Church, to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. So now that’s the responsibility that we have. To walk worthy of the calling means two things, really. Firstly, we know the 10 Commandments were divided into two components, really, which is to love God and then to love others. So to walk worthy of the calling is the demonstration of this, that we love God and that we love one another. Well, we were called and we have the power to fulfill this, to walk worthy. How? Now, when we go through this, this is where I, personally, started to struggle, because when you see the two differences in the minds, you see this mind up here, that it can love and that’s what it does all the time, talking about God, God’s mind, God’s holy spirit. That that’s all God does, is love. Here we are with no power to love until we’re called. Now we have this power.

So how should we walk? ...with all lowliness, with all humility. We should all know that whenever we sin we have pride. Pride is connected to all sin so when we sin we’re obviously not walking lowly, with humility. No, we’re walking in pride. So you think, oh boy, this is tough. But this is God because God just thinks so differently than us.

...with gentleness... Oh, that’s all God thinks. God thinks gentleness towards something that rebels against Him. Isn’t that incredible? Now, we don’t have the power on a physical level to be gentle and kind to something that rebels against us. Normally, we react to it. Well, that’s us. But God is gentle and kind. There’s incredible difference. Well, we just walk worthy of the calling. We’ve been called to walk in humility, to understand who we really are, who we really are compared to what God is. That’s when we walk in humility, because we know. You compare the two. You go, well, here I am and I see myself and what I am, and there is God. Whoa! Lowly. I know I’m not worthy of anything.

...with gentleness, with longsuffering... How long is that? How long is longsuffering? Well, for me it’s probably half an hour. With God, God is longsuffering. When you look at the creation, a spirit realm, God was longsuffering. Then there is a rebellion, Lucifer and the angels, Satan, now called Satan, and God is still patient. How many billions of years? We have no idea how long it was. The earth, then the destruction of the earth, then the reforming of the earth, then man, and man has 7,000 years of reproduction. 7,000. Then we got the hundred year period where there’s a measurement. It’s going to be one way or the other. Then it’s over from the physical life. Then there’s forever past that. But before that was forever. Talk about longsuffering!

That’s why this was difficult when I went through this. We realize we’re nowhere near it. I know I’m not anyway, nowhere near this.  Like, now and again I might demonstrate it, but really, we’re human, we’re not longsuffering. Longsuffering for most of us is tolerance! “I’ll tolerate you for a little while.” That’s longsuffering on the human level. “I’ll put up with it, until that’s it, I’ve had enough!” That’s human.

...bearing with one another in love. That says it all, really. Bearing with one another. This is not about tolerating. Tolerating one another, “You’re annoying me. I’ll tolerate you; I’ll put up with you. I’m glad to go home!” No, this is about forbearing. This is about an expression of love. Patient. The reason that we don’t tolerate is that we are impatient, we are selfish. It’s like, why do we get angry? Why do we become impatient? Because it’s affecting me! “It’s affecting me! You’re affecting me!”

Well, I must say, coming down in Melbourne traffic I will be glad to go home. Because all of this, I didn’t do any of it. People cutting in front of me it just got worse and worse here, terrible traffic. Anyway, once you’re an hour past Geelong on the way home I demonstrate longsuffering, forbearance, because there is no one else around. But you can see, we don’t have the capacity, do we? As a human we just don’t have that capacity, but with God we can.

...endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Well, in human thinking what is peace? The absence of war or a treaty with trade sanctions. That’s how you get peace. You do it my way and there’ll be peace. If you don’t do it my way, well, there is no peace. It’s as simple as that. That’s human.

There is one body, so there is one Body that we’re part of because we have God’s holy spirit. There is one spirit, which is here, God in us today, just as you were called in one hope, because there’s one hope of your calling, which is salvation. We want to be in Elohim. We don’t want to sin anymore. We want to be like God. We want to be love all the time. That’s all that God can think of, is love. That’s what He is. That’s His character, would we say, character, personality – that’s what He is. God is love. Incredible!

...there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Incredible scriptures.

Verse 7—But to each one of us mercy, which is grace, mercy was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. So we’re all different. Now, God will work with us and build attributes or His character in us. But not all of us will be the same. But God’s love is the same. But we’ll be built to different levels. So one person may be more patient, have godly patience, than another person, to a level. So everyone is different. I know people that demonstrate longsuffering a lot better than me in God’s Church, godly longsuffering. Because God’s worked with them to build that in them for a purpose that we don’t understand yet. Whereas another person may do something else better than another person in the Body of Christ, because we’re all different. We’re not all the eye, as scripture says. So we’re all built to something for a reason that God’s going to use in the future. Then, of course, when we enter Elohim we won’t be able to sin. We won’t have a mind that can sin. We’ll be able to demonstrate true mercy.

Now, that was one that really got me, about God was merciful to me in calling me, calling you, therefore, as Ron has said, I should be able to demonstrate mercy to others. Well, that was easy said, true? But to actually walk according to the calling and to live mercy to others? We have to learn it. It has to be built within us. Now, some will learn it quicker than others. It’s just the way that it is. We’re all different. But to live mercy and forgiveness to others as God has lived mercy to me through Christ, it’s going to take a while. It’s been over thirty something years now and we’re still working at it. Because I know at some point that God willing there will come a time where I won’t think the way that I think because I’ll have the mind of God and I’ll only think one way and I’ll be able to live mercy! That’s going to be exciting! Live longsuffering. Live patience. They’re incredible attributes.

The first love was given to us when we were humble. It’s another attribute. We know God works with the humble. If we’ve got pride you can’t have the first love, because pride is sin. So if we’re humble and we know our position in life, who we really are (which we should), well, God can work with us because we’re humble, willing to be taught.

I want to go to 1 Corinthians 13:4. Because, really, what this is, when it says, Love suffers long, it’s really saying God, because God is love. God suffers long. So we now have a time of seven days where we can stop and think, “Is this (Wayne)?” Not that you should think that. But I’ve got the time to think, “Is this Wayne?” “Is this Peter?” “Is this...?” “Is this...” “Is this...?” This is the time to do it because this is what the thinking about first love is about. Stop and think about it. Okay, “Well, (Wayne), is (Wayne) suffers long? Patient?”

Love is kind. God is kind. ...does not envy. Doesn’t think that way. It’s a different way of thinking. It’s not envy. It’s not jealous. It’s not looking, saying, “Oh, that person has got a better car,” or “This person has got that,” which is all to do with envy. No, that’s not of God. It’s not competitive is another way to put it. The person with God’s spirit is not competitive, not trying to be better than the other person, not competing for anything. If you’ve got God’s thinking there is no point in competing. God gives everything anyway so what’s the point of competing with another person if we’ve got a sound mind – which is only with God’s holy spirit. So, does not envy.

Love does not parade itself, doesn’t lift itself up, “Look at me!” Doesn’t do that. Is not puffed up. No pride, no arrogance. Now, we understand that every time we sin pride is involved. Every time we’ve sinned we’ve lifted an idol up, which is our selfishness is lifted up against God. So these are things to think about during these days.

Does not behave itself rudely; does not speak its own; is not provoked. Now, when a person provokes us and we respond what is that really saying? It’s not the person provoking that’s the problem, it’s the response that we have. So we should not be provoked because we should be calm, relaxed about it all knowing that people in the world don’t know any different and people in the Church make mistakes. Who am I to hold anything against anybody else so why would I be provoked? “Oh, okay, you know, God’s working with them, God’s working with me.” I know this is easily said, different to do it.

...thinks no evil. Well, thinks no evil toward others. Thinks no evil. Well.

Verse 6—does not rejoice in iniquity, which is in sin, but rejoices in the truth. Now, we have that power because we see the truth so we can rejoice in it, whereas if we’re not in the Church as far as having God’s spirit and having the first love we cannot rejoice. ...bears all things, believes all things, hopes in all things, endures all things. Love never fails, never gives up. God never stops desiring the best for us. Never. Never. God is so patient and no matter we make mistakes we can repent.

If we have God’s holy spirit we have the power to produce God’s nature, God’s love towards others. You can read that in Galatians 5, if you want to go through that. I won’t go through it today because of time. But in Galatians 5:16-26, you may want to just go through that and to measure self to see whether or not we believe we’re living those things.

If you’d like to turn to 1 John 4:1 I’ll start to work towards a conclusion here. 1 John 4:1. Because there is a lot to examine and the Feast of Tabernacles really is about this opportunity that we have given and we’re being given by God, this opportunity to stop and think, which is this dwelling in booths. They used to do it physically, think about God’s way, well, how much more for us to stop and think. Just take, even if it’s five minutes, just take five minutes and stop and think. Think about the blessings, and then we can rejoice about the blessings. But think about our calling and the things we could be doing better, the things we could be working harder at overcoming. Just stop and think about it.

1 John 4:1—Beloved, do not believe, do not trust every spirit, which is about every attitude, but test (prove) the spirits, these attitudes, whether they are of God. Why? Because many false prophets have gone out, they’ve gone out from the Church, into the world. Now, what this is saying is it’s about the way a person lives. So we should be able to tell whether it’s of God, whether a person’s attitude toward us is of God or not. We’ve got God’s spirit so surely we can work that out. Is this right? We should be able to see it. Because we have God’s spirit so we should be able to see. We can see the truth, therefore, we can see.

When a truth enters the Church and a person rejects that truth they obviously don’t see the truth anymore. Because truth, we know, comes from God through Christ through an apostle. Right? That’s how we know. So we should be able to test it. Like, there’s a lot of things in the truth that can’t be seen easily in the Bible but still you can test it and see whether it is of God. Does it hurt others? Does it show love to others? There are measures you can do. Does it love God? Does it love others? There’s testing straight away. You can see, “Oh, it’s showing love to others, therefore...”

For example, women are equal to men, that type of thing. Alright? So you could see that. True? That’s pretty straight forward. If you loved everybody why would you be bias? Because God says He’s not prejudice. He’s not bias. He’s not a respecter of persons. Therefore, why would we want to be a respecter of persons? Therefore, men and women are equal. We should love them the same because God does. So that’s not hard to prove, is it, when you have God’s spirit? Because God says He’s not prejudice, He’s not biased, therefore, easy to prove. Not seen clearly as far as people looking at the Bible would say, “Oh, you’re just making that up.” No, this is God’s spirit at work, therefore, we’ve tested it, therefore, it’s true from God because it’s not showing any bias or prejudice, because God doesn’t do it, God is love.

Verse 2—By this we know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses, now how does this “by?” It’s revealed by the way the person lives. ...that Joshua the Christ is come (is coming, is now coming) in the flesh is of God. Now, this is really talking about a person having God’s holy spirit and the ability to live love out to the benefit of others. That’s how you can confess it – by living it. So during the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day we have this power particularly intensified where we can hear sermons and we can live love to others. We can sacrifice ourselves more than any time of the year, really, because the power is there, the power of God’s holy spirit is there and we’re all together in one place.

I live in an isolated area. We don’t see many people. But now in a combined group of Church during the Feast, boy, what an opportunity to sacrifice self. Going to have to get the whip out. But that’s what it’s about. That’s what the Feast is about. Now, we’ll win some and we’ll lose some. That’s normal. Don’t get depressed about it. It’s no, there’s an opportunity. If we did one every day how incredible would that be? Just to sacrifice once a day. Should be all the time, but let’s just start with one. What a great opportunity!

So here it’s talking about Christ living and dwelling in us. They would allow God and Christ to live in them, which is about God’s holy spirit. They would take no credit to self or give credit to themselves or to other humans but give the credit and glory to God. Because it’s only by the power of God’s holy spirit that a person can do this. They would love the truth, they will love the brethren, they will love God and obey His commands, they’ll be under government, which is all evidence of God’s holy spirit.

Now, I don’t have time to go into the government aspect of the Church, but there is an incredible thing about the connection between God’s holy spirit, His Church, and government. They’re all connected. They’re all connected, and therefore, when a person disagrees with God’s government, the Church of God on earth, they are not living love to God or to the other person. True? They disagree with a decision that’s been made, and therefore, they’re not living love, therefore, God’s not in it. Simple. If we have God’s spirit we see how simple it is. Church government is an important thing. Well, we have the power to live Church government, which is about sacrificing and, you know, loving others and loving God.

Verse 3—and every spirit that does not confess, and that’s not about words. It can be words but it’s about actions. It’s revealed by the way we live, what we demonstrate to others, that Joshua Christ is come or is coming now in the flesh is not of God. So now we can see evidence. A person, us, we look at ourselves. If we’re not sacrificing ourselves, we’re not living love. Simple, really. Otherwise we’ll be selfishly motivated.

And this is the spirit of antichrist, those that are against Christ, which you have heard was coming, and now already is in the world. In the world now, which was 1,900 years ago this was taking place. So here we see that they’re antichrist. What’s that? We know what that means, of course. We’ve had scriptures on that. It’s about not allowing Christ to live in us out to the benefit of others. We’re against Christ. Because we’re called, why? So that Christ could live in us. That’s the purpose of our calling. What’s then the next step? What? To live love to God and to others. That’s the purpose of our calling.

So we can reflect on this during the Feast. “Why was I called?” To live love, to have a mind transformed, to have changed. What’s it being changed from? Selfish love to godly love. Straight forward.

You are of God, if in unity and in agreement with God’s word, little children, (I’ve added bits in there, of course), and have overcome them. Now, it’s talking about “them.” It’s about people that want to teach something different, falsehood, those that are against the Church. So we can overcome it. So people can mock and do all that, doesn’t make any difference. We can overcome that, that ridicule and that condemnation that they put on us because really they don’t know better anyway. We suffer for Christ. It’s exciting.

...because He who is in you, Yahweh Elohim, the power of God, God’s holy spirit, Christ in us is greater than he (Satan) who is in the world. So Satan can inspire others to be against God’s Church, can inspire others to persecute the Church, can inspire others to persecute you as individuals, but it doesn’t matter. That’s the answer. Because if we have God living and dwelling in us and we know about God’s love and what we’re trying to fight against (self), if we know that it really doesn’t matter what anybody says or anybody does. “God forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing,” and they don’t.

Before I was called, I can tell you, I didn’t know what I was doing. You can’t! You’re just living selfishness. You can’t know what you’re doing. You just live what you think is right in your own eyes.

Verse 5—They are of the world, which just means they’re back in the world, the world way of thinking, therefore, they speak as of the world, those who have gone back to these things that they came out of; the world hears (understands) them, which is the carnal mind is in agreement, which we know to a degree is depending on your race, color, religion, football team, cricket team. You understand what I mean. You know, birds of a feather flock together. Good saying. “Because they all agree with me, come on this team. You’re in agreement. The others, well, we’ll call them all sorts of things.” So people can be in agreement because they agree with the same likeness. You see that often in the world.

We are of God, which is we’re in a unity and agreement with God. He who knows God hears us. So we hear what God tells us about this topic. We understand spiritual matters. He who is not of God does not hear us. Can’t. It’s impossible. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, which is to stray or to go astray.

Beloved, let us love one another, let us sacrifice to the benefit of one another. That’s what it’s really saying. Let’s actively think about sacrificing to the benefit of others. ...for love is of God; it’s God in us; and everyone who loves (spiritually) is begotten of God and knows God. Isn’t that an incredible encouraging scripture? Because it all comes from God.

So God is love and everyone who loves, is living love out to the benefit of others, is begotten of God. It’s actually God giving a portion of His mind to ours and empowers us to make a choice—because it’s still free choice to be made—to live love out to the benefit of others.

He who does not love, he who does not sacrifice self, does not know God, for God is love. I find them very powerful. That we don’t have to judge anybody else whether they have God’s spirit or not, all we have to do is look at self and be worried about self. What am I doing right and wrong? Am I doing these things? We know God is love. We know the way God thinks because it’s listed in 1 Corinthians 13 and it’s listed in Galatians 5, and different places. It goes through what God’s mind is. It’s an incredible mind that thinks so differently than we do. But we know we were created this way for a purpose, to be transformed.

Verse 9—In this the love of God is manifested (it’s revealed), towards us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Otherwise we would still be under the death penalty because of sin and we wouldn’t have had sin covered on our behalf. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. So we didn’t love God first, He loved us first. He called us and now we have the power to love God. But prior to that we loved ourselves. ...to be a propitiation (covering) of our sins.

Verse 11—Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to also love, which is sacrifice self, to one another. Sacrifice on behalf of others. Sacrifice for one another.

No one has seen God at any time. Now, we see an element of God. We haven’t seen God physically, but we should see more of God on a spiritual level. So someone says, “I know God.” Well, there’s proof here we’re going to look at is they don’t. They might think they do. But we can actually say we do know of God and we know God because we know God’s mind. We know the way God thinks because it’s the complete opposite to us. That’s how we know God.

No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, so there’s the proof, and this love is being perfected in us, which is takes time. By this, by sacrificing, by this sacrificing love we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us His spirit. Isn’t that incredible that God has done that for us?

So we’ll conclude there today. Because the Feast is really about rejoicing, and the reason we can rejoice not just physically – spiritually – is because we can take time to sit back and look at the truth. We can sit back and consider our calling. And what’s that calling about? That calling really is about the transformation of our mind which God is allowing us to do because it’s an ability that He has. We can’t transform our minds by ourselves. It takes God’s holy spirit. So God calls us, places us in a Body where we can be transformed, and the evidence of this transformation is whether or not we love the brethren, because without God’s holy spirit we cannot truly love as God loves. It’s not possible. But we can love one another and we can love God if we fight our selfishness and we keep ourselves in check, we fight self.

So during this Feast let’s take the time to think about the blessings that we have, and let’s rejoice about those blessings, and let’s think about how we can demonstrate love to God, and at this time, in this Feast when we’re all together, let’s take the time to think about how we can express sacrificing love to one another. Because that’s the evidence of God living and dwelling in us, if we love one another.

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