God's Great Desire, Part 2

Ronald Weinland

October 17, 2019

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon – 2019

Today is Part 2 of the series entitled God’s Great Desire.

In this fall holy day season we focus upon God’s great plan that includes that final 1,100 years with the Millennium that’s pictured in the first seven days of the Feast, and then, of course, the Last Great Day or the Great White Throne Judgment which is that final one hundred years.

An awesome plan that God has, and you go through Passover… I can’t help it, every time I speak on any one of the periods of time spoken of in Leviticus 23 they’re inspiring, they’re exciting, they’re moving, they help us to see an awesome God and a very powerful way of how He so meticulously planned out everything so, so long ago before He ever created human beings on this earth. To understand that and to understand that great plan that we have a part in it’s very humbling.

It should be moving to each one of us to recognize the incredible opportunity and awesome blessings that God has poured out upon us. Because we don’t oftentimes think like that like we should and so it’s good to reflect upon that. That’s why we’re going through this particular series in the beginning here, because it helps us to get a perspective of how people through time have not really known a great deal, in that sense, about God’s plan. The primary thing they were told was about a Messiah, and that is the message that’s gone through over and over again through time, through the prophets, of a time when God would establish His government on the earth. Even that was in bits and pieces along the way. It wasn’t a lot, but there was enough that it gave people a hope and a focus of something that God wanted them to have and they were measured by that as to how they would respond to that.

For us to be able to reflect upon some of those things and to see how much God has poured out upon us in the end-time compared to those other periods of time, it should be a very humbling experience. It should move us, in that regard, to think not only the numbers compared to the whole world today that we have the opportunity of being in God’s Church, but the incredible opportunity through time to be at the end-time, to know the things that we know. So sometimes it’s difficult for us as human beings just to grasp all that we have, how much we’ve been blessed, the incredible earth that God has given to us to dress and keep.

It’s difficult to grasp that, but that’s what we’re to think upon. That’s why God had them build booths, a physical carnal people, to sit in and have fruit there and so forth and to meditate upon this process of coming out of Egypt and going to a promised land. They were to reflect upon that year after year after year, because it’s not a natural thing for people to do, and if they will do that and remember their history it can help in a great way as far, even a carnal physical people. How much more for us?

Again, God has laid out an incredible plan before us and He’s given us an ability to see it in a way that no one ever has in times past to this degree.

So in Part 1 we’ve gone from the time of the creation of mankind up to the time God led the children of Israel to Mount Sinai and gave His commandments from there, and gave more about Himself as He gave more to Moses when He revealed that “I am Yahweh Elohim, the Self-existing Eternal, Elohim,” and that had to be moving to Moses as well, to understand that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had never been told that, that name, just the name and what it means, and yet God revealed it to Moses.

So indeed, it’s truly a beautiful revelation how God has systematically unveiled Himself and His purpose to mankind over the millennium and especially the greatest part in this end-time.

So it was about 475 years after the children of Israel were at Mount Sinai that they were now at a point of being under the third king over their nation, who was king Solomon, which we heard about yesterday morning, and it would be the last time all Israel would be under one king in a united nation of Israel before the ten tribes then would eventually be even taken captive into Assyria.

So they had that split. Eventually, they split into two different nations and much farther up the line then they, both nations were taken into captivity.

But 1 Kings 5. Let’s turn over there and notice this, this period of time in the time of Solomon. 1 Kings 5:1—Now, Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always loved David. Then Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, You know how my father, David, could not build a house for the name of Yahweh, the Eternal, his God, his Elohim, because of the wars which were fought against him on every side until the Eternal put them, referring to his enemies, under the soles of his feet. But now the Eternal my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor evil occurrence.

He’s reflecting upon his history and moved by it, what he sees, what he saw happen with his father and what had taken place, and now this that was in the heart of David, to build a temple, and that which was passed off to Solomon he was going to follow through.

Verse 5—So I propose to build a house for the name of the Eternal my God, as the Eternal spoke to my father, David, saying, Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name.

What’s amazing here is it wasn’t just about Solomon by any measure. This is a prophetic thing. God uses physical things, just like the children of Israel, the lamb, the blood on the doorposts, all these things that God had planned out that He’s going to reveal through time and systematically reveal His purpose and plan, in time then, much later even, concerning Unleavened Bread and the blood on the doorposts and all these things and what it really means, and Passover.

It was a physical thing to them totally, had no spiritual meaning whatsoever about Christ and being our Passover, and yet God gave that hundreds of years earlier to prepare for a time when He would reveal more, so that it would have a greater impact in people’s lives on a spiritual plane, especially then within the Church. Awesome! It really is.

Here is the same sort of thing taking place, that here is a physical temple going to be built, Solomon’s focus is upon that, but this isn’t what it’s about. This isn’t what God was leading up to and what He revealed to David. It was something far, far greater. That’s the beauty of all this. God gave a physical thing here that was awesome and inspiring in their time but it’s not about a physical temple. That’s not God’s purpose and God’s plan, but He let them do it a few thousand years later before it actually becomes a reality.

Now, therefore, command that they cut down cedars for me from Lebanon; and my servants will be with your servants, and I will pay you wages for your servants according to whatever you say. For you know there is none among us who has skill to cut timber like the Sidonians. So, awesome. Awesome friendship in that respect. He was a friend of David. He was a son of his son now and Solomon is letting Hiram know this, his respect for him, and so much so he says, “Whatever you say, I trust you.” That’s what he’s telling him, “I trust you. Whatever you say I know you’ll do what’s right.” That’s an incredible thing.

Then we move on through time here. So again, this is just a beginning of a portion here, but to understand here that what he was telling him especially about “he will build the house for My name.” It goes far beyond that because the son was not specifically about Solomon, although he played a part then on a physical plane. It was about the descendant of David in time, the Son of God but from the lineage of David who would be blessed to be the primary builder of the house. He is the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone.

So to marvel at how God has revealed things, just to think about that process so many hundreds of years before, to give a physical example of something that we could benefit from on a spiritual plane in an incredible way for the Church, for us.

Then we move forward in time and come to a period that’s around the time of the captivity of the northern ten tribes of Israel when they were taken by Assyria. Then God reveals more through the prophet, Isaiah. Now, we had discussed this a couple of years ago at this time in the discussion about God’s temple. But here we’re just showing segments of time here.

In Isaiah 66:1 it says, Thus says the Eternal, The heaven is My throne, the earth is My footstool, and where is the house that you build for Me? and where is the place of My rest? So again here, we’re talking about a period of time long after Solomon, long after the temple had been built, and so God is giving this prophecy, this prophetic thing through Isaiah speaking of these things. So again, revealing more through time. When He opens up someone’s mind to see what He’s talking about here, what He’s saying, it’s inspiring, it’s moving.

He says, where is this that you’re going to build for Me? Basically, making it clear that no one could give such a thing to God, no one has such ability to give such a thing to God. He is the creator of everything.

Verse 2—For all those things My hand has made, and all those things have been, says the Eternal. But to this person (this man) will I look, even to him that is of a poor and a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word. Again, pieces here and there, but talking about a temple, who can build it, and yet when we come to a time when God finally shows us what temple He’s talking about and what opportunity He gives to His people when He begins to work with them and call them and give them His holy spirit, the impregnation of His spirit and separates them from the world and begins to work with them, then this is said, the kind of attitude and the kind of spirit we have to have if God’s going to work with us.

He can’t work with us if we have pride. He can’t work with us if we have haughtiness. Those elements in our life quench God’s spirit powerfully so. Haughtiness and pride restrict God’s ability of what He wants to do in our life. He wants to give us more. He wants to give us greater strength. He wants to give us greater help. But if we have pride and haughtiness in various things and are holding on to various things “the way I do it,” or “the way I see it,” “the way I think it should be,” whatever that attitude and spirit is sometimes, it’s a disgusting spirit, it’s a sick spirit. It’s a spirit of Satan. We should be repulsed by that spirit. We should understand that having haughtiness and pride is evil! It’s evil! Call it what it is.

Have you ever seen it in your life? Because if you have and if you’re able to see it you’ll be abhorred by it because you’ll realize this is the one that thankfully after 1,100 years, after who knows how long, millions, billions of years, we don’t know, it hasn’t been revealed, of time, finally going to come to his end. It can’t be in God’s Kingdom. It can’t be in God’s Family, our way of seeing something and not agreeing with God or the government of God or the way God does things. It’s horrible and yet it exists. It exists today still. No matter how long we go and how far we go it will still exist in the minds of individuals.

If we can grasp that in our own lives then we should come to a deeper understanding this restricts and starts to choke off the flow of God’s spirit into our life. Because God can’t work with that. It’s the opposite of His spirit. It pushes away from His spirit. It cuts off from His spirit to where He can’t work with us.

So what He’s revealing here is powerful, it’s profound, and it takes a lot of time to really come to understand it to the depth we really need to in our lives spiritually. Everything is His. He gives us what we need. Our lives are in His hands.

But to this person will I look, to the one who is of a poor and a contrite spirit, not lifted up with self-importance. That’s so repulsive to me, it really is. It’s in the world. It’s all over in the world, and I loathe it when I see it within the Body or in people’s lives because I think, “You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know how much you’re hurting yourself and those around you by such a spirit.” It’s evil and God’s spirit can’t flow through that, if it isn’t brought into check in our lives. Now, we’ll always have a measure of pride and haughtiness in our life. It’s just “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” It’s the way we are. But it needs to be in a process of becoming more and more refined to where we’re getting rid of more of that, to where the ugly part, more and more of the ugly parts, are being chiseled away. Like a big block of rock, you know, and we’re chiseling out the big chunks first, that piece of pride and this piece of pride. And who are we to have pride? It’s amazing it doesn’t matter who it is in life everyone in every stature of life, every place of life, whatever it might be, everyone has pride. Sometimes you look at some of those things and you think, “Of what?” If we understand God, God’s plan, and God’s purpose for us.

Then it adds, “of a poor and contrite spirit,” because the only way a person can really have that that’s true and genuine, not a self-imposed kind of fake or false kind of pride, pious type of thing where you have your hands folded together and your head is down, “I’m just… I’m pious,” or “I’m unworthy,” and this false type of thing that can come out. We’re not talking about that because that’s not what humility is.

A poor and a contrite spirit is one that has a relationship with God, that realizes, “I don’t want that. I don’t want to have something that I hold up against God.” It’s like the obelisk, putting it up before God, straight up before God and you’re going to bow down to it rather than the Great God. That’s what pride is like because we lift up the obelisk then in our minds and our own lives and we raise up something more important than we do God. That’s a horrible thing.

So whatever it is that we do that’s contrary to God’s way of life we are worshipping it. We are placing it before God. We can’t place anything before God. God is first in our lives in everything. And yet we have to work on that, don’t we, and grow in that.

It says …and trembles at My word. So that doesn’t mean that we just start shaking. That’s not what it’s about. It means that it’s something inside of you to where you would be afraid, I mean literally afraid, in that respect, to do something against God. Because that’s what brings these things in check. The more we’re afraid of giving in to self, giving in to human nature, if we’re repulsed by those things, we’ll run from them, we’ll flee from them. Isn’t that what God says? “Flee idolatry!” That’s what it’s about. It’s what it means: run away from it as fast as you can. Whatever it is, when you see it get away from it. Don’t let it be a part of your life. Don’t let it catch you and get a hold of you.

So again here, what an awesome thing, God will work with, can work with if He’s called someone and separated them, someone of a humble spirit. Pride just chokes God’s spirit, chokes God’s purpose out of our life. I have seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people I know personally through time, been in God’s Church, who have become so lifted up with pride that they leave. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, okay? That should cause us to tremble spiritually, the potential we have to leave God.

So no matter how long it is, no matter what it is we should understand what this does, that until we come up to the time of Christ’s coming this is just going to keep happening. I was thinking about that this morning, think, what a horrible thing, another year, awesome, blessed, the Body has grown more, but I know that from this time to next year there will be some who will not be with us. Absolute. Absolute. Like they say, you can take it to the bank.

What a horrible thing. Because we’re not, maybe, surrendering fully to God, we’re not really trembling at the thought of things we’re doing that are interfering with God’s spirit, with the pride and haughtiness that continues to resist God about our way, how we see it, how I see something, whatever it might be, or that I can continue doing certain things that are contrary to God.

That’s why I’ve talked about tithing the way I have. Because I have known of individuals, worked with different ones and seen certain things that have happened and know that they’re not doing anything. And you think, “How do you think you can have a genuine relationship with God Almighty and you won’t do the most simple and basic thing that He commands?” You will steal? You will rob from God? If you don’t get that one you don’t belong here. Some have left for that reason. Matter of fact, most have.

Isn’t that amazing? Most have left for that reason in recent time, because they haven’t been honest with God, they haven’t been true and genuine to God. You think, of all the things, rather than being blessed, as we heard in that first sermon, you know, the tools and everything, God’s given us everything, and instead we bring curses upon us? God can’t be a part of that, and so in time He will see to it that we don’t even have a part with anything of God. What a horrible thing!

He who kills an ox is as if he slew a man. It’s an attitude and true spirit toward God. That’s what he’s showing here. Like offering up a person in sacrifice. You know, the greatest thing that at that time that you could give is to offer a large animal like this in an offering because it costs a lot. You are sacrificing a lot, money, financially, to offer. Now, it depends on where you are, I guess, with how much you have, but for most at that time that’s a lot.

It’s like going through the procedure of a religious relationship toward God that you’re striving to show. A lot of times things have been show and it’s like those who would go into the temple and they’d have this container that it would make noise so that when you threw the coins in everybody’s “Oh, look. They’re giving money!” And the more it clanged, “Oh, they’re giving a lot more!” So it wasn’t like they had euros, currency, you know, five, ten, twenty, or dollar bills like we have. They don’t make the noise. They liked those coins; get my purse out and get some more. One at a time, you know, bang, clang, clang. “Oh. Look at what they’re doing! They’re righteous.” That’s what they’re feeling is like. It’s like, “See what I’m doing?”

The same thing with sacrificing of animals. That’s what a lot of it came to. It’s like certain ones would give certain things and they want to be seen for what they’re doing. You think that didn’t exist? Oh, it existed a lot! Most of the time, candidly, it became that as a part of religion. It’s like this competition type thing.

I’ll just pause there and tell you about holy day offerings we used to have in God’s Church. Used to be that baskets would go up and down, you know, and a holy day offering and we’d have 10,000, 12,000, 15,000 people in some locations, you know, at the Feast of Tabernacles, and people all over the place with baskets getting ready to take up the offering because that’s commanded by God to do, to turn in offerings to Him at every holy day.

So for some, and I won’t say some of the people doing it because when you give something it’s in an envelope, but for the ministry it became a thing of pride. What area would have the highest return per person? They would announce it. They would announce certain Church areas: $35.00 a person. Oh, $60.00 per person in this one area. That’s what the average was, children, women, everybody. It was like this thing of who had the highest. So some would get up and wax eloquently about giving to God and why we should give more to God and maybe if you’d teach your children to put all these coins and do it throughout the year and then just do it all at once and they would try to build this thing. They worked hard.

You think that something was screwy and wrong a long time ago and it took time to come to see that in God’s Church, how wrong that is, how wrong that spirit is. Now, the ministers should have seen it immediately. But it can show what can happen in your life if you continue to allow certain things to go on that are just wrong in your thinking. You can begin to justify certain things, that this is okay or it’s because I have a relationship with God. We do these false and fake things in life that aren’t genuine and true in a genuine and true relationship with God.

That’s what He’s addressing here. They’ll go out and slay a big animal like this as if they slew a man, because it isn’t about God, it isn’t about the animal, it’s about them being seen. It’s about pride and haughtiness. They worship God so frivolously.

The same thing is true with tithing and offerings. If you don’t do it, it’s such a lie to God. We don’t grasp the magnitude of the sin involved. To rob from God? Might as well go out here and rob a bank because that’s less offensive. To do something to God? To do that to God? For anyone in God’s Church with God’s spirit it should be unthinkable, absolutely unthinkable!

I will starve. I would starve before that would happen. I would be on the street before that would happen. I would. Okay? And everyone has to decide, “What would I do? How much would I do in order to honor God, to love God? Because God will take care of me. God will take care of me in His time. He will bless me.” He says, “Don’t lift yourself up, let Me do it, let Me do it in the right way.” And He will.

So there are some things that should just never be. Well, you can tell this agitates me because I think, how could we as human beings do such a thing? And yet it’s been going on in God’s Church ever since I’ve been in God’s Church. I’ve seen this. That’s one of the big ones. Then that’s one that people get by with a lot.

Then there are the sexual sins. Most people leave because of that, even that one there. So God will take care of the one. The other one generally takes care of us. I’ve known so many people who leave over that, you know, because, well, need I say more. It’s more important in their minds than God.

God says, He who kills an ox is as if he slew a man. It’s the attitude toward God. He who sacrifices a lamb, if he cut off a dog’s neck. God’s saying, “Look,  you might as well just bring a dog up here than to bring up this lamb just because so you can go through the motions that I’m a part of the Church or I’m a part of the congregation of Israel,” is what He’s saying. “You’re a part of the congregation of Israel and you’re putting on this show but you really don’t care. It isn’t about Me.” It isn’t about God. That’s what He’s saying. “It isn’t about Me, your Great God who gave you life, who gave you the ability to have that lamb. Just go ahead and bring up the dog and slice its throat because that’s about how much it means to Me.” It’s a lie. It’s a fake thing. See what I’m saying? That we should be able to think in those terms of things that are repulsive and ugly that we can do toward God if we’re not careful?

So again here, cut off the dog’s neck rather than the lamb. So it’s a matter of not being moved nor motivated by any true meaning here whatsoever in their life in a relationship to God.

...he who offers an oblation as if he offered swine’s blood. God just calls it what it is. Saying, “You do this to Me, your God, the one who’s given you life, the one who wants to place everything under your feet, the one who wants to elevate you so much that everything will be placed under your feet and be in subjection to you, and you do this? You want a part? You think you’re going to get a part?” We should know the answer.

So again here, something as far as the altar of God, going before the altar of God, a careless approach to serving, an offering before God. These things are important to God. So, you think going way back in time with the first two people that are spoken of, the first two children born, Cain and Abel, and they didn’t have to be given a lot to be able to be judged about their attitude. God knew their spirit. Do you know what I’m saying? God knew their spirit.

Cain had a rotten attitude and a rotten spirit in what he gave and he gave it begrudgingly. Do you think God knew that in his mind, he’s giving it for the wrong reasons? But Abel? Different spirit. Judged according to that attitude and mind. Abel had a unique spirit toward God. He honored God. He respected God. He loved God. Cain didn’t. He went through the motions in front of his family, but he did it begrudgingly and out of jealousy. He just couldn’t understand why he didn’t have favor like Abel did. Well, anyway, hardness of heart.

…he who burns incense as if he blessed an idol. I love how God expresses these things to us so that we can begin to grasp how disgusting we can be as human beings sometimes. I mean, really, some of our thoughts and attitudes, and we need to see them in this light for what it is. That’s good because we don’t want to be like that and so that should motivate us to run away from it, to flee those things when they happen because it’s like I mentioned the other day here. It’s like that brown stuff. It stinks. It looks ugly. You get it on your feet and everybody else around you smells it. “Whew! Where is that coming from? Who’s carrying that around?”

…he who burns incense as if he blessed an idol. The cheapening of prayer and its purpose. So we can be careless in our prayers. Well, first of all, if they’re not done then that has no meaning anyway, it just shows our attitude toward God. Because God wants to know how we think. Now, He knows how we think, but He wants us to express it to Him because that reveals more. How we pour out our heart to God, how truthful we are with God, how genuine we are comes out through prayers. You think God can measure that in people like Cain and Abel when they didn’t have much knowledge like we have today? Yeah.

So who prays out of genuine spirit when they pour out their heart to God? Are they truthful with God? Because the reality is human beings sometimes can’t even be truthful in prayer to God about their sins and acknowledging certain things. God knows them! Might as well fess up, otherwise, we’re just playing games. I mean, isn’t that amazing that we could think that we could pray to God and go through this ritual and this motion of something and yet we just had it out with someone else in the Church, you know, or someone, a neighbor, and just had a huge argument or whatever it might be, or with our mate or with a child or a parent, or whatever it might be and we don’t try to resolve it, we don’t try to reconcile it and we just do those things frivolously and then we go and pray to God and we don’t ask for forgiveness for what we did? Why not? We’re supposed to.

Anyway, I hope we get the point. I’m sure we do. I hope everyone does.

Again here, God just calls it what it is. Prayer, well, you might as well be praying in front of an idol if you’re not praying right. That’s what He’s saying, basically, here.

Yes, they have chosen their own ways… And that’s a battle. That’s a battle you have in your life all of your life, our own ways. They’re repulsive unless they’re in unity and harmony and oneness with God. That’s why judgment is such a beautiful subject to cover, because it shows that your mind and your  judgment and what you determine and what you decide, whether it be in relationships or anything in your life, it had better be in unity and oneness according to the will of God. If it’s God’s will, if it’s God’s mind, if it’s God’s way then you have great confidence, you have peace. There is a peace you can have in your mind. But if that isn’t there then something else is wrong, isn’t it?

So if we have that oneness, well, that’s what God wants. He wants us to be in agreement with Him. Not our own will, not our own way that’s different from His. If anything disagrees with or is in opposition to God it’s our way. Most of the time that’s the way we are as human beings and we have to fight against that every day. Every day of your life it’s a battle.

They have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations. We do! That’s why if you can really see it, this thing of drama, people delight in it. They really do! That’s why they do it. The mind can become so distorted and perverted in those things that it’s like, “I’ve got to have this! That’s why I want to share it with others because I want them to know my drama. I want them to know what I’m going through. I want them to commiserate with me in my drama because in some perverted way I feel better when I’m able to have relationships with others through my drama. I can express what I’m going through and then if you feel for me then I’ve achieved part of what I want, I’m getting the attention that I want.” Isn’t that sick? Drama. Anyway.

I hope we can see drama because that’s what it’s like for what it is, and it’s just a distortion of the human mind in a relationship with God that shows how perverted and distorted our thinking can be. That we can enjoy sin? Yes! That’s what human beings do, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” It gives a perverted kind of enjoyment. But the sad thing is when you receive that sin, the result of it, then after a while it’s not as satisfying so you go farther away from God in order to be satisfied because something just isn’t whatever it might be, you know.

It’s like I was talking with somebody the other day about roller coaster rides. I love roller coasters. And you think, now, how many roller coaster rides on one roller coaster would it take until you finally get to the point, “I’m tired of this now. I want to find a bigger one. Where is the next one that’s bigger and faster? Now I’m going to be more satisfied.” Now, there’s nothing wrong in that, please understand, but that’s kind of like what our human nature is like sometimes when we sin and we go from one thing to another.

So because of such attitudes of spirit that existed in mankind and existed far too much in God’s own Church God reveals the timing and timeliness of His judgment upon mankind when He’ll bring an end to mankind’s frivolous pursuit of his own ways. I am so glad we’re so close. That’s why I love going through what I’m going through right now in the book, in the chapters, because it just becomes stronger in the mind, of how blessed we are and where we are and what God is doing, and the job that is ahead. It’s not an easy one. It’s a big one, it really is. There is so much to be accomplished and it’s not going to be easy.

This idea that the Millennium is a utopia, the Great White Throne is a utopia is not true. Human nature is human nature, and until it’s combated, until it’s conquered it’s ugly. So during the Great White Throne it’s going to be so much better because it’s governed by God and God’s family, obviously. There’ll be justice and righteousness and things done quickly as far as judgment’s concerned, but people are still going to do those things that require judgment and the execution of judgment because we’re carnal.

Isaiah 66:4—I also will choose their delusions. God has done this to people in the Church over and over again. When they stray away and go away and God says, I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, no one would answer; when I spoke, they did not listen. So that’s the world as a whole and a judgment that’s coming on the world and upon mankind. That’s why God has said it the way He has, that there are specific periods of strong judgment on the earth. But this is within the Church as well, of how God has worked.

Tithing, again. I’ll use that as an example because it’s something we can all see and grasp easier. How many times have I spoken on this subject? How many times over a period of time of just the last three years have I used it as an example? And yet in that process we have had several who just continued to rob from God. It’s not about the need for the money; it’s about the attitude toward God. It’s about the spirit toward God that we would do such a thing after hearing it.

So, “When I called no one would answer.” I think of those that were doing such things, that I know, and think of the messages that went out in sermons—God works through that—and they wouldn’t respond? They wouldn’t listen? When I spoke and they did not listen, but they did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I was not pleased. How can anyone rob God? How would you think He would respond to that? Look at how He responded to Cain.

Hear the word of the Eternal, you who tremble at His word. In other words, those who are moved and take fully to heart what God says, who fear not to. That’s the spirit we should have and we should cry out for. If you don’t feel like you have enough of that, you want more of that—and candidly, we should all be praying for that anyway—“Help me to fear not obeying You. Help me to fear not hearing You. Help me to fear doing things that are against You.” Your brethren who hated you, who cast you out for My name’s sake…

It reminds me, again, of that scripture in Revelation that I referred to yesterday about being cut off. It uses the word “beheaded” which is a totally wrong translation of the word, of what it means, of what is being said. It talks about certain ones that had their head cut off like these are the only ones that are going to be able to receive help from God. It’s about a word that means “separated.” It can be a head, but it’s about being cut off or separated. God separates us from the world to work with us and what does the world do? Oh, they separate us, too. “You’re weird. You’re going where for how long? You’re taking your children out of school, too, just after it got started? What a religion!”

Your brethren who hated you… Sometimes it’s literally brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and different ones who are really close to us who cut us off in relationship in the sense of how they care for us now compared to what they did before. “So if you just go back to the way you were then we could have this relationship like we used to have in the past.”

So again, who cast you out for My name’s sake, said, Let the Eternal be glorified. But He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. So it shows here that in time God takes care of all this. So we go through these things, we go through those things in God’s Church, we know the experience of being shunned by others, of being separated from others, of others not being comfortable around us, of others speaking about certain things that you do and “Oh, we got to watch what we cook up this weekend because they’re coming over. Keep the pork out of everything, and don’t forget they don’t eat shrimp either. We can’t have shrimp like we normally do, but not this time because they’re coming over.” They’re excited to see us. But they go through the motions because you’re family and whatever. But it shows in time they’re going to be ashamed, and candidly, they’re just going to come to a time where they also rejoice in what you did, that you held your ground. Because when they understand it’s going to help them. When they really come to understand why you did what you did, God says, in essence, they’re going to rejoice at that time in what you did. It’s going to help them.

Verse 6—The sound, “the noise or the thunder,” of uproar from a city, a sound from the temple, a sound, meaning “noise and thunder,” of the Eternal that renders recompense to His enemies. I think of exactly where we’re headed and what’s going to take place.

Before she travailed, in other words “labored (giving birth)” she brought forth; she gave birth. So giving an analogy here of something that doesn’t happen. “Before she had labor she gave birth?” Before her pain sorrow came, she was delivered of a man child. Again, the process here going through where it all began: it began with the Son of God, began with Joshua the Christ, and before—this is about mankind—before judgment would finally come, before the travail would actually come upon the earth at the end-time. So here the Son is born first and then later on the labor takes place, the examples of labor and what’s going to take place in the world.

Again, what’s going to come is becoming far more real right now and how strong it’s going to be, because the world has never experienced nuclear weapons going off in that magnitude, in that way. To understand the kinds that are out there right now that can be used? I was kind of dumbfounded when I went back and saw one that the Russians blew up, blew off, what was it, back in late 60’s maybe it was, and it made the one in Hiroshima look like a firecracker in comparison and how far it went up into the atmosphere. Miles and miles and miles and miles beyond what the one did there, and the rumble was so great it went around the earth three times. I didn’t even know about it. Incredible power that’s out there; and when those things happen, you know, God has to intervene quickly. So it can’t be a long time, thankfully.

So we don’t know when that’s going to be but it’s coming and God’s helping us to focus on it more and He’s making it more real in our minds, in that respect, to realize that we have to prepare ourselves, we have to be ready. We’d better be ready physically and spiritually and to realize that, again, the timing of those things is totally in God’s hands and we don’t know when it is. Could be next week. Could be while we’re here at the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s how close we are. You don’t know and you better be prepared because that’s how quick things can happen. It can happen after you get back. January. February. Whenever. Or the next marker. Don’t know.

Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Speaking of this kind of scenario, labor, born first then labor. Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? So it shows there is a work going on here that God is doing in what He’s preparing. And what nation is He speaking of? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. So there comes a time when there is great labor on the earth and God lets us know this is when this birth takes place, the rest takes place, that Zion, a nation, because it’s about the nation. It’s about the 144,000. It’s about the first resurrection. So this is what God is speaking of here and talking about this period of time that Christ comes first, 2,000 years later, then Mount Zion comes about. So He’s showing here this doesn’t happen overnight, that there’s incredible work that’s gone into this, 6,000 years of it to prepare a nation, speaking of Mount Zion, a Kingdom that’s going to reign on the earth.

Again, we can’t even begin to comprehend that and how God is doing it and what God has been doing all that time. Just to be thankful that if we have such opportunity that we’re able to be a part of that, and then those who go on in the Millennium, to have part in that next great resurrection in preparation for the Great White Throne, awesome!

Verse 9—Shall I bring up to the birth, and not cause to be brought forth? In other words, to bring to delivery? In other words, God making it very clear He’s going to accomplish this. It’s His work. He’s going to do it. …says the Eternal. Shall I cause to be brought forth, and then shut the womb? says your God.

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her all you who love her. Again, different expressions that are used. Holy Jerusalem, spiritual Jerusalem, Mount Zion, the Kingdom of God, speaking of all the same thing here, different expressions that God gives, and to realize what we have part in, what we have been blessed to have is an incredible thing, and yet God has progressively given more revelation, and here in Isaiah at this particular time He begins to reveal a whole lot more. There’s a lot of time passed now before this time here and people didn’t understand what he wrote here yet. It wasn’t time to reveal this. But He started giving it. He gave it to Isaiah to write, but it was for the Church to begin to see as time went on, when He began to reveal more. Christ began to reveal more things that were written in the Old Testament, some of the things that were recorded there.

So again, it’s this perspective of when God began to give these things and they didn’t even understand it, and what has gone on then that He’s given to us more and more through time.

Rejoice, again, verse 10, with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her. Rejoice for happiness with her, all you who mourn for her: that you may nurse, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may drink in all, drink into the full, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. In other words, for what God will deliver to this world.

So it’s a beautiful perspective that God gives, and what an incredible thing that we live right up on the brink of that happening. God’s giving us greater vision of what’s in front of us.

Isaiah 66:12—For thus, says the Eternal, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river. Look forward to that, a peace in us that we have never experienced to this degree in any fashion. And yet God’s going to let us experience some of these things. Just like here at the Feast of Tabernacles, we’re able to experience a peace among one another. We love the opportunity of getting together and seeing friends that we haven’t seen for a long time and having that fellowship. Not just friendship; friendship isn’t enough. It has to go way beyond that. It has to be fellowship because God has to be in it and we have to see God in one another. We have to see each other as God’s children, and with that carries a much greater attitude and spirit of respect toward one another, okay? If we can really see that that’s how we should react. Not just individuals. Not just people in friendship but people in fellowship because we belong to God.

And I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the gentiles like a flowing stream. Then shall you nurse, and you shall be borne upon her sides, and be bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. So again, this desire of not having this carnality any more, not having this carnal human nature that we have to fight against. What an incredible thing.

In the future I can manifest myself as a human being and get in a car and not sin ever. I’ll have a right spirit and a right mind. Awesome! Be at total peace. Be able to deal with everyone around me doing all sort of stupid things. But right now I can’t. I can’t. I can’t! Maybe you can. I can’t. Okay? I have a battle on my hands. I see things happen, they bother me. It’s so deep in me I have no chance of getting rid of it all. Now, I can work on that and knock off a chunk here and a chunk there and hate it but it’s still there deep inside.

What’s deep inside of you? Same sort of thing. Carnality. What an awesome thing to have this kind of peace.

So again, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. When you see this, in other words, the ushering in of the Millennium, your heart shall rejoice. Can you imagine? Of all people through time we get to see it. Now, all the 144,000 get to experience this, they get to see this change take place. Finally, the things that they have fought for, the things they have battled in life when they lived, and when they’re resurrected and all of a sudden they see God perform and do what God had said and things that they haven’t even known or understood in times past and all of a sudden they experience this and see the power that God brings to the earth to change the world government, to take government away from man and give it to God, put it in God’s hands, the government of God ruling?

…your heart shall rejoice and your bones shall flourish like the green grass. Well, we won’t have bones, but this is a metaphoric type of language, speaking metaphorically.

And the hand of the Eternal shall be known toward His servants, and His indignation toward His enemies.

Finally, verse 15—For, behold, the Eternal will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire. It’s like what is expressed about Christ coming and the 144,000 and talking about the white horses and they came back and it says “to wage war.” That’s an awesome thing. He’s coming back as a lion, not as a lamb. This time he’s coming back to take control, to take God’s government. It says “he will rule the nations with a rod of iron.” That means there’s great power that’s used, power that human beings have never experienced before. Awesome!

Verse 16—For by fire and by His sword will the Eternal plead with all flesh. And the slain of the Eternal shall be many.

Then again moving forward in time. So again here, people really haven’t understood those things that are stated there in Isaiah. Even in the Church we’ve grown in things we’ve understood in Isaiah through time. It’s taken time to grow in understanding of some of the things recorded concerning the end-time. This was given so long ago but not fully understood, but enough here and there that people held on to it. They wanted to see this time come. They wanted to see the time when God would do these things and accomplish them.

Let’s turn over to John 14. So again, moving forward in time. Nearly 4,000 years after God had first created mankind sent His Son Joshua and really began to reveal so much at that time on a spiritual plane. The spirit of things hadn’t been really shown. I mean, people didn’t grasp. The prophets of old, they weren’t given these things that Christ brought, and because the Church was going to begin, God began to reveal them through His Son.

So we’re going to take some times here to consider what I deeply believe to be some of the greatest revelation ever given to mankind. I don’t get tired of going through this. This revelation given to mankind, it’s in John here, 14, and though I’ve gone through it a lot, it might be like, what, some say about Mr. Armstrong, “There he goes to those two trees again.” I used to hear that. You think, here is God’s apostle up there and he starts talking about these two trees, but he always added something more to it. He expounded upon that. Because people didn’t get it, because it was spiritual. What he was revealing and what he was talking about were spiritual analogies, spiritual examples of things that if we could grasp and see and be close to God we would grasp and see exactly what Mr. Armstrong was giving. But too many got to a point where it was like, “I’m hearing the same thing again.” And matter of fact, I think in comments it came out like, “Are you hearing anything new that he’s giving? It’s just it’s those two trees again.”

Anyway, here he goes with John 14! I’m sorry. I hope no one thinks that. I’m sure they don’t.

John 14:1. To grasp that no one has understood these things in this way through time, in Philadelphia and Laodicea, and what God has blessed us to grasp and comprehend is an awesome thing, it really is. It is one of the greatest things that God has ever given to human beings to understand – God’s power, God’s purpose, God’s love, what God is doing and how He’s doing it. But if we’re not careful it becomes, “Oh, those two trees again.” It’s just physical. No, it isn’t.

John 14:1—Do not let your heart be troubled. You think of all the things saved up, after 4,000 years here is the Son of God, he’s just about to fulfill his part, his role as being the Passover for all mankind. It is that night after he’s taken for the last time Passover, and his disciples. To think about that, of that period of time, Christ and what he was doing and all that he was saying on that particular night—he’s about to fulfill being the Passover—and giving some of the most important knowledge and information ever given to human beings. It’s incredible! And he did it on that night. What a choice, what a plan that God has. Just like on the first Passover that was ever observed, see how God magnified it, all the plagues that took place and now the firstborn died of all of Egypt and all the animals and everything else, and God magnified the power of the Passover and what it was about.

This here is magnifying the Passover in a very powerful way. He’s about the fulfill it. He’s about to die. So he kept, as I was saying there, the last Passover for himself, but more importantly, the last physical Passover of killing of the lamb on that night with His disciples. Then afterward he girded himself, as it talks about, with the towel and began to wash the disciples’ feet, they had the bread and the wine, and he showed the symbolism of those things. Again, Passover to be observed from that point on in a different way by God’s people.

So he says, Don’t let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me, Joshua the Christ. “I’m your Passover, soon coming king.” In my Father’s house are many dwelling places, places to dwell, many dwellings, many places to dwell. If it were not so, I would have told you. Now, it used to be that this was looked upon as being, because of what the world teaches and we’re coming out of the world and Protestantism and everything else that’s out there in traditional Christianity, some of these things were looked upon in a wrong way as a matter of government and various other things. That’s not what it’s talking about here, in that respect. It’s talking about something far, far different.

In my Father’s house are many dwellings, places to dwell. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I love this when you see Atonement and you recognize what the High Priest did in Deuteronomy 16 as it talks about it, and you see that he went into the Holiest of Holies once a year on that particular day and he wasn’t able to come back out until he had fully reconciled all, in that respect, the family. So for us we recognize what God has been doing, or Christ has been doing for the past 2,000 years. This is what he’s talking about, “I go to prepare a place for you.” So he’s going to go and be working for 2,000 years in a greater way than ever before preparing the rest, working to help prepare the rest of the 144,000. Because to that point in time there weren’t that many. 4,000 years, there weren’t that many. Most have come out through the time of the Church on, from this point forward.

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again. It’s not “will come.” You know, you think, what an incredible thing to understand what’s really being said here and to grasp the tense that is used and so forth. So it’s “I am coming again,” and it’s not a future coming, it’s not a return in a second coming of Christ, and yet that’s the way people have taken it. That’s the way it was observed in times past even in God’s Church. That’s not what he’s talking about. “I am coming,” on a continuing basis. How do you keep coming in your life and on a continual basis to someone?

As we go through this we understand in God’s Church now it’s about him living in us, continually dwelling in us, coming into our lives. Don’t quench the holy spirit. Don’t quench his living in your life. Don’t fight against it. Welcome it. Desire it. Pray for it. Ask God for help. That’s what the things are when He says to pray about certain things, when he said this even here, about if you will pray, if you will ask you’ll receive it. People haven’t understood what that’s about. Well, it’s the context of what he’s discussing. It’s not saying, “Well, oh, I see that white Cadillac out there. I’d like that. I’m going to go pray about that.” It’s not talking about physical things, you know. “Oh, I’d like to get that promotion, that particular job they’ve just posted. It’s five levels above me but I’m going to apply for it and ask God for help to get it.” That’s not what it’s about.

It’s about the holy spirit. It’s about the very thing that he’s discussing and revealing about him living in us, and if we pray for those things, which we should on a daily basis, “Holy Father, I need Your life, Your spirit dwelling in me. I can’t think right. I can’t live right; I can’t be on guard unless Your life is flowing through me.” So you cry out for God’s spirit because you know you need it. You want to be out there on your own? Have fun. You’ll get your own all right and God won’t help you.

“You ask and you receive not because you ask amiss,” in some cases, for the wrong reasons. Why? What? So God wants to know what’s inside of us. What do you really want? He knows if you really want His spirit. God knows if you really want His spirit and He’ll give it if you ask for it with the right spirit for the right reasons, because you want to fight self, because you want to grow, because you want to acknowledge your sins when He reveals them to you. You want to repent of sin. You want to get them all out of your life so He can live even more fully in your life. Beautiful!

In my Father’s house are many places to dwell. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go…I will come again, or I am coming again, and will receive… “To receive.” That’s exactly what he’s doing. He receives us to himself. He’ll dwell in us. …you to myself; In other words, to dwell in us. …that where I am, you may be also. It’s not a location. Isn’t that amazing how we think as human beings? They say, “Well, where are you going?” in the story flow here. They took it physical and so have people in God’s Church.

…that where I am, there you may be also. So where is he? In other words, what is he giving? Well, we know that by sermons that are given, by things that God gives to us on a regular basis. That’s where Christ is. That’s where the Church is at any point in time. What he’s revealed, what he’s given, whatever truths have been given that’s where we are, and we want to be there with him. He’s in the Church. That’s where he is, so if we grasp those things then we’ll understand, we’ll have better understanding and have greater peace and greater thankfulness to God for what He’s doing.

…that where I am, you may be also. So after 4,000 years finally something here is being revealed about God and a desire He has to dwell in us, that we are the temple. Those are the things that are revealed in the New Testament. The construction of the temple, we’re it. It wasn’t a physical temple.

These things should move us, but sometimes they just become stories. They should never be a story. They’re alive! God’s spirit is alive! We’re to be alive with God’s spirit. They should move us and inspire us. These are the things that should move us inside, and if they move you then you have greater commitment. You have greater commitment to God’s word, God’s way of life, God’s truth, you have greater strength to fight against the pulls of this world, you have greater focus to keep running, to not slow down but to press forward. What’s going to get in the way?

…that where I am, you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know. Again, spiritual. And Thomas said, Lord, we don’t know where you are going so how can we know the way? You can’t know unless God opens your mind to help you see what is spiritual. Then, when you see that, you see something totally different that’s beautiful. And Joshua said to him, I am the way… It’s through him. He is the head of the Church. He is the chief cornerstone.

So it’s in and through Joshua the Christ. So again, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So if we want that life dwelling within us, the truth, you want the truth to dwell in you, you have to ask God for it. You have to cry out for it. Because it can stop. It can get cut off at any moment in time. Choices and decisions we make and by not following what he’s saying here and crying out to God for His help to see, to continue to see, we can miss out. We can lose.

I think of all the people who have lost what they had at one time. That’s why I marvel at those who are awakened from sleep. They were called at one time, given impregnation of God’s spirit, went to sleep, God mercifully woke them up, and then to think about this process here of being awakened and to understand, fully understanding you went through an apostasy and then to go back or be with other groups that they don’t even know, that they deny that ever happened yet? How can the mind do that? But it can, because, you see, when the spirit is there the light goes out, the life goes out. That’s, “I am the way, the truth, and the light,” if you will. That’s what he’s saying.

No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also: and from now on you have seen Him. I love this! Because, again here, we have to understand that we take so many things physically and we tend to be in that plane, and yet we have to go beyond that. The only way you can go beyond that is to cry out to God to be able to see things on a spiritual plane, to be able to deal with things on a spiritual plane. You want to. You want His spirit in you so that you can do that.

And Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and that’ll satisfy us. And Joshua said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not seen me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, Show us the Father? Now, they heard all these words but they still didn’t understand. They didn’t get it. They couldn’t understand it until they had the impregnation or the giving of God’s spirit on the day of Pentecost. Then they started seeing all this.

The words that I speak to you I speak not on my own: but the Father who dwells in me does the work. So a beautiful picture here that he’s giving here. He’s letting them know, “I haven’t done anything of my own. It’s God who dwells in me, He’s doing this. It’s from Him, what you see. That’s why even in fellowship if we can see that God is in one another, in a right way, in a sound way, in the sense of what we’re talking about here, it’s about us and our attitude toward others because we recognize then that each person belongs to God, and because of that we have a greater level, if you will, of respect, of awe, of carefulness of what we say and how we say it, what we do toward one another, because we’re God’s.

That’s a lot different than just seeing another physical human being, someone who maybe we enjoy being around and talking to and having friendship with. It’s got to go beyond that. That’s what God shows us, we are a spiritual family and we have to practice then that thinking and that mind toward our relationships with others. Because in doing that there are some things we would just never do toward one another. We just wouldn’t do it because of God, because of Christ.

Do you not believe that I am in my Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I don’t speak of my own, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. So again here, 4,000 years and people hadn’t known these things. 4,000 years and no one knew about these kinds of things, of how God works in people’s lives or how God’s spirit works or that we can have access to spirit that helps us to see things in a different plane than what is physical. Yet he started giving it to the Church in a very powerful way once it began.

Verse 19—A little while longer and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. So that’s puzzling to do. So if the world can’t see you then how can we see you?” So, you see, amazing, spiritual, beautiful. …because I live, you will live also. Spiritually, and in time the rest.

At that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. So, once we’re baptized we should know this. As soon as we receive of God’s spirit we should know this, we should see these things.

Let’s turn over to Hebrews 10. Then it’s not too many years later, and again, this is the time sequence of things, of when God has revealed various things to the Church or to His people through time, and it’s been a progressive process. Again, that’s why we should be so moved by how much we have now, by how much God has blessed us. We are exceedingly blessed and rich in spiritual riches. We truly are. And if we don’t see that?

So not too many years later God began to give the apostles much more about the house of God, that God Himself was building a spiritual temple.

Hebrews 10:19—Therefore, brethren, having boldness, and it’s a word that means “liberty or freedom,” and there’s a boldness in that, when you have this kind of liberty and freedom and you’re at peace with it.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness, freedom or liberty, to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Joshua… So what an awesome thing here, something that the high priest could only do once a year and we can do at any time. You can go before God’s throne any time through Christ. How blessed are we? How many people have had such opportunity to kneel, to pray to God Almighty and to have a confidence, a boldness, a liberty, a knowing freedom that you have of doing something that even physically portrayed that a high priest could only do once a year on the Day of Atonement, to go into a physical place called the Holiest of Holies. It’s good to mediate upon such a thing, to think about such a thing, to think what I’ve been given. So that’s just something you can’t give. It’s just something that has to be there as a result of your desire, of your thinking, of your mind toward your Great God and toward how you see God, how great He is.

To be so blessed to be able to go before Him, to be humbled by that, to keep God in the picture of what we’re doing, when we come here to realize even more so we’re coming into God’s presence in a way that we can’t do even when we’re in prayer by ourselves? This is magnified many, many times over when we have such opportunities, to be in God’s presence in a far greater way and what He gives to us and then what we have in fellowship with one another. How much do we treasure that and value that? Man!

…the Holiest of Holies by the blood of Joshua, by a new and a living way. It’s something you can live. It’s something you experience, you can experience day by day. You can go before God’s throne at any time. …which he has consecrated… Newly made, in other words, for us, that’s what it’s about, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having a High Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart. It’s got to be true. It’s got to be genuine. It can’t be certain things there that you know you’ve done wrong. If you have, you know what? You acknowledge that before God because that’s being true, saying, “Father, this is what I did. This is what I did last night, this is what I did this morning, this is what I did…” Whatever. Make it quick. “This is what I’ve done. Please have mercy on me and forgive me. Please, I don’t want Your spirit to be quenched in my life. I need, I want Your life dwelling in me.”

Your prayers had better be similar to that. They’d better be saying those kinds of things day in and day out in a sense, and being honest with God, being truthful with God, “This is what I’ve done… This is what I’m doing…” You repent, and think, what a confidence there, “I repented. I’m forgiven.” Wow. To be able to have that day after day after day after day, the mercy, the patience of God if you just keep being honest and truthful to God? Sometimes we have to be truthful to ourselves and there’s a challenge there. Sometimes human nature and carnality is so great it’s hard for us to just be truthful to self.

And having a High Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, knowing when you repent you’re forgiven, you’re strengthened, you go on and pray about that desire you have in God’s Family and whatever else in life you’re talking about and praying about and having a relationship with God in prayer.

…having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. How? Through repentance and forgiveness. …and our bodies washed with pure water. How? Though repentance and forgiveness, cleansing, being cleansed spiritually on a continuing basis in our lives, becoming pure before God.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith. Hold on to what God has given to you. What does that mean? Hold on to the belief in those things He’s given you to believe, and you’ve been given more to believe than anyone else ever has of human history except Joshua. You have! You’ve been given vast amounts, far more than anyone in the early Church, far more than the apostles, far more than Paul, far more than John! John wrote things he didn’t understand and God’s letting us understand those things. Not only that, we’ve been experiencing it. We’ve been experiencing the Seals being opened. We’ve experienced the Apostasy. What an incredible thing!  We’re witness of those things. We’ve lived it.

The knowledge that goes with it, because we’re toward the end, how blessed are we? You can talk about rejoicing before God and just being thankful to God, what words can you even express to God to thank Him? Really. Should be very moving to us.

… hold fast the profession of your belief, the belief that God has given to you and what you’re able to live, which is faith then because you choose to live by what you believe, what God has given you to believe, without wavering. That’s a battle because we tend to waver as human beings. Certain things will happen to us and then we’ll question, we’ll wonder.

Just like the Chapter 6 as I’m working on, I’m hoping that no one is going to have a response like they did in some things back in 2008, but I know that can happen, yet that’s in their hands. But I don’t want to see it happen. As God unfolds and gives more and a clearer picture of things and understanding of things and think, “Well, but you said back there…! You said back there in that book…” Hmmm. Okay. The present truth with what we were working with, with what we knew. Okay. Fine. You be the judge then. See, we have to go through things. …let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful who promised.

Ephesians 2:18—for through him (Joshua the Christ) we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Why is it always saying that? He’s our High Priest but first of all he’s our Passover. He’s our Passover first and we have to deal with the sin first so we ask God to forgive us, to cleanse us, because sin cuts us off from God. If that’s deeply embedded in our minds, “Sin cuts off the flow of God’s spirit; it cuts me off from God. I want to be forgiven of my sin. So am I being truthful and honest with God with what sins I know I’ve committed, attitudes I’ve had, things I have thought wrong toward someone else, things I’ve said wrong, in a wrong way toward someone else? Am I repenting of that and asking help for change?” And then if “I” am and “I” repent of those things (and am honest with God), then that flow, that spirit is strong. Then we can continue on.

He’s our High Priest and now we can have more of a relationship in our prayer with God through Christ as our High Priest to intercede for us. Because He’ll not intercede for us if we’re not repenting, because we don’t deserve it. We don’t deserve it anyway, but He won’t do it because it’s contrary to the process, His will.

Therefore, you are now no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God… Even that sentence alone it’s hard for us to grasp and take in and think, “How blessed am I of all people through time? Of all who have been called through time, even the ones who have been called through the last 2,000 years, which most have been in that period of time, and many, the many have gone by the wayside, how blessed are we that we can continue to move forward, that God has had mercy upon us and continued to work with us so that we could continue to be a part of this? Awesome! How much do we treasure that and love God for it? Because, you see, that should affect your attitude, your spirit toward God. “I love You.” How could we not if we see these things powerfully? That means a stronger bond, a stronger power that’s there in a relationship with God Almighty.

…and are or are being built up on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Joshua the Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building is being fitly framed together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord. So after all this time finally we come to a point where he makes it clear, “You are of the temple.” “This is the temple that I will dwell in.” “Where is the house?” “Where is the temple?” These things should move us. That was physical and it was massive and it was beautiful, awesome in its construction, awesome when people saw it for the first time. To experience that in a world like they lived in and then to come to a point in time where God revealed, “It’s not about that. It’s about the Church.” It’s about His people and that’s where He’s dwelling and wants to dwell, and to bring them through a time where He will dwell in them forever, even more beautiful!

Again here, how long was this before this was given, before Paul spoke of it and the Church could begin to understand? And you know what’s amazing here? In Philadelphia, in the last few years of his life Mr. Armstrong drove home the point that the things of the temple are not about a physical temple. It’s not about a physical temple being built over in Jerusalem. He spoke on those things up until the time he died. It’s not about the physical construction of a temple. It’s not about taking some stones back and starting to build the temple again. That’s not what Christ is coming to. He talked about it was the Church.

And by the time we went through the Apostasy there weren’t many people who grasped that anymore. There weren’t many ministers who understood that anymore. They didn’t grasp that it was about the Church. What happened? You lose it. They didn’t grasp it. They truly didn’t grasp it. It’s the Church. You think, how could anyone lose that after Mr. Armstrong gave it back in the early 80’s all the way up to the time he died, drove it home!

…in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God through the spirit. Beautiful, beautiful verses.

Well, I don’t need to continue on. We’ll stop there. Appropriate place to stop.

I just hope and pray that indeed we’re moved by what God gives to us in a timely fashion when He gives them, of messages that He gives, series that He gives, sermons that fit together like at the Feast of Tabernacles. They’re all pieced together. God does it and to grasp then what He gives to us year by year because there’s something always just a little bit different, a different focus and a different focus that God’s working because He’s building something in us. He is the one who is building something within us and so we need these things. This here is very much about grasping, coming to grasp more fully, more completely, with greater spirit of attitude and thankfulness and an ability to rejoice in it what we have that no one else through time has had to this level. That should move you to the core of your being with love, with gratitude, with respect toward your Great God.