Living God’s Love

Ronald Weinland

October 26, 2019

In the final part of the last series entitled Judging Others it was mentioned how that the apostle, John, wrote more about the kind of relationship we should have with others in the Body of Christ. We stopped the series discussing some of that and didn’t really go into that. I thought it’d be better just to have a stand alone sermon, which this is today. The title of it is Living God’s Love and we’re going through the book of, some of the books of John there toward the end, so that’s where we’ll be the whole day today. Not all day, but just during this sermon, okay?

So if you want to turn over to 3rd John first I’d thought we’d start at the last one and work our way back to 1st John. He has a great deal to say about this subject. Again, the whole subject of judging others, it’s about relationships. God’s family is about relationships. God’s law is all about relationships. We have to learn how to live that way of life that produces right relationships. Again, it’s in God’s law but so often as human beings when it comes to judging others we can be rather harsh. Our carnal nature is hard to see in the areas of how we judge because we tend to do as Christ said, judging according to the flesh not according to God’s word, in other words, physically. We do it from carnality and we don’t tend to do it then from a right spirit striving to be in unity and harmony with God and oneness with God according to God’s will. So we went through that in the series.

Again, the overall thrust of it was that the attitude should be about saving others. As it said, Christ didn’t come to this earth to condemn it, in the sense of judgment. He came to save and show a way of being able to be saved. That’s the way we should look at one another within the Body. We should reflect that in our thinking if we want to really see each other come through all of this. Because the reality is we’ve had a lot of carnage along the way. The Church always has. For the past 2,000 years especially many have been called and few have been chosen, and so many, the majority, have gone by the wayside. The journey has been too difficult; the pulls of the flesh too difficult at least in their mind.

It comes down to a matter of commitment, a matter of this is it, this is my life, this is what I want, and if it is, you really have to fight for it. It’s not something that just comes your way just because you started a process and would go to Sabbath services, would go to holy days, would go through the motions of various things. It’s a part of your everyday life and how you treat others and how you think.

Again, it’s so important that our minds are right in that respect and we see each other in that regard within the Body of Christ, an attitude of forgiving others, an attitude of not holding things against each other because we want to see others come through this. We don’t want to make it more difficult, and yet sometimes by harsh judgment, by holding on to things, by harboring resentments or grudges, whatever it might be – which is just natural; that’s just naturally what we do as human beings. If we’ve been wronged by someone at some point in time or something was said that we didn’t like or maybe rubbed us the wrong way, we were offended by it, sometimes because of our past, because of how we have maybe our relationships in our own families physically or in community or whatever it might be we have these things that we drag along, this bag of rocks behind us, this weight that we carry. It molds and fashions our thinking. If we’re not careful we bring it into God’s Church and we treat each other in wrong ways.

That’s what we have to conquer. That’s what we have to overcome. That’s what we have to go beyond. We have to work at that. It doesn’t just happen; you have to work at it. You have to cry out to God for help to do it because you’re fighting your nature. The battle is in your own mind and so you have to ask God even to help reveal the things that you can’t see. Because, candidly, right now every one of us have things we can’t see yet. Every one of us in this room, every one of us listening later we all have things in us that we cannot yet see, that God has not yet shown to us. It’ll be that way until we die or until a change comes. That’s just the reality of life.

There are things in our nature that God will help us to see as time goes along. That’s what the refining process is about. That’s why I love the example of gold or silver and the impurities that come to the surface when it’s heated up and we go through various trials. Sometimes when things are heated up and you go through trials it comes up and it goes back down because we don’t do anything about it. You can’t see it until you go through it and then it’s the impurities, but that’s when you have to deal with it, when you can see it. When it comes to the surface through some incident, through something that happens in your life, and all of a sudden you can see something it’s how we deal with it then. Did we fight against it? Do we seek to conquer it and overcome it, get rid of it? That’s where you have to cry out to God.

So our lives consist of that, of crying out to God for help to see the things that we’re blinded to that we can’t see. Because they’re always going to be there. It’s going to be a refining process. Again, silver and gold. Because you might have a glob come to the surface, and there are bigger globs in the beginning of your calling because there is a lot to change, so you change the bigger things in the beginning and you can’t see the more refined things. You just can’t see it yet. Then as time goes along and you work on the bigger things then God will bring other things to the surface so you can work on those and get rid of a bunch of that, the finer stuff that’s hard to see. But you have to get rid of the big stuff. You’ve got to get rid of it first in order to see the little things underneath it. So it’s a lifelong process.

There is so much that is so important when it comes to our attitude toward one another. Do we really see each other as God’s children? Because if you really see each other as God’s (as belonging to God), you’ll be far more careful how you think about them, how you talk to them, how you treat them, how you treat one another, how you think about one another, whether or not you’re going to become offended by someone else, whether or not you’re going to be whatever it is that sometimes happens in relationships. The ability to forgive. When we learn about that, when we realize we have nothing to hold anyway. If we hold something against someone we’re already sinning.

You have no right not to forgive someone. Never, never, never. You never have a right to not be forgiving toward someone else in the Body of Christ whether they’ve said “I’m sorry” or not. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what others do. They may continue. They may have something against you. They may have something that you said to them that they’re having a hard time conquering and they’re dealing with whatever it might be. You want to see them get through that; you don’t want to make it harder for them. But so often we do.

Let’s go ahead and start. 3 John :1—The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. I love the way this starts, “whom I love in the truth.” Says a lot. Because it’s in the truth that we’re able to have genuine fellowship not just friendships. There are a lot of people who come into God’s Church who have friendships, and everyone becomes, in a sense, their friend, or they have a lot of friends within the Body, within the Church, but it doesn’t mean it’s fellowship.

Fellowship is a spiritual thing in God’s Church. Fellowship is something we share with one another on a spiritual plane as a family and how we see each other and how we think about one another. Friendship? That’s in the world. But because it’s unique and because people strive to treat one other better you can form friendships within the Church. That’s not enough. That’s not enough at all. Philadelphia had a great deal of friendship. That’s what “philia” means. It’s a brotherly love. That’s not enough in God’s Church. We have to have God’s love and so we have to grow in that. Simple thing, it would seem, but it’s not simple to live.

…whom I love in the truth. It’s so much easier when each one of us is striving to be in the truth. Because any time someone begins to slide away from the truth it brings garbage into the Body. It brings pain and suffering in the Body. It makes fellowship truly hard and difficult. Because we have to be of the same mind with God, with His Son, and if we’re not then we can’t have true fellowship. I hope that makes sense because there’s a lot just been said there on a spiritual plane.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health. So that’s the desire we should have toward each other, that everyone prosper. We want to see each other prosper. Not just on a physical plane to be able to do well, in that respect, in the sense of being able to be taken care of and providing for families and whatever it might be or providing for self even, but spiritually as well, to see one another prosper on a spiritual plane, to see each other grow.

To me that’s one of the most rewarding things of all, of serving in God’s Church in this capacity, is seeing the changes and the growth that people make. And I see it. I think of last year to this year. Last year was a series of sermons that were a little stronger. But God continues to refine us and help us to focus on the things that He wants us to focus on at any moment in time in our lives, and then to see the changes we make, the growth we make, how much closer we are to one another it’s an awesome thing, it’s a beautiful thing. To see people go through trials in their life during the past year, address hardships and just keep fighting, how can you not respect that and love that? To see one another just keep fighting! Because this isn’t easy. Everything fights against us out there. It’s not an easy world to live in when you’re living this way of life. It truly isn’t. To see people keep in the fight, I love that, because I have seen hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds and I know into the thousands of people (that I have known personally), who have left God’s Church. That’s painful. But to see people stay in and stay fighting and keep fighting, that’s a beautiful thing. That draws us closer together in the truth.

…just as your lives prosper. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. So there are times that they have written to different areas, send out letters to different areas. They’re not able to travel like we can today, as freely as we can today, as easily as we can today, get on a plane and go to some other place and you see people personally. But, you know, there are areas of the world I can’t travel to right now. They don’t like me. I’m a bad person to them. So anyway, since I can’t go there I have to depend upon what is given to me from those areas as to what’s going on, what’s happening. Again, the same feelings here of different things, to hear that people are hanging in there, fighting, growing in the truth, conquering and overcoming various battles, and that’s a wonderful thing.

So he said, again here, rejoice greatly when they came and testified of the truth that’s in you, just as you walk in the truth, because that’s the only way that it can be there. You have to walk in it. You have to live it. It has to be evident.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. Beautiful. Beautiful. Because as I’ve said, just since PKG started we’ve had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds who have come and gone. Incredible! People who had opportunity to be a part, to share with you. Some didn’t last long at all. Some went for a long time before certain things came to the surface and they made wrong decisions and went away.

So it is by walking in the truth together that we are a family, the family of God, God’s family and we continue to grow. That’s a beautiful thing spiritually, something we should love to see in one another, that should strengthen us in one another, in the family that we have.

2 John :1, working our way backward here a little bit for a purpose. The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth. You know why it says it that way? You can’t love them if they’re not in the truth. God can’t love people if they’re not in the truth. It’s like the world. He’s not giving His love to the world yet. He’s not granting mercy and kindness and favor and grace to the world yet. He has to you. Their time is in another time. It’s not now. He can’t give that to them yet. They don’t have that relationship with Him yet. We do. We’re able to have a relationship with God, and because of that, this is awesome, “whom I love in the truth.” Because as soon as someone steps outside the truth you cannot love them anymore the same. They’re not going to be able to receive it the same way. It’s the truth, God’s truth that keeps us together as one. Truly. That’s your strength. That’s your power. That’s your confidence. That’s your boldness.

When it says, “Be strong and of great courage,” that’s what it’s about. It’s about what you know. It’s about what God has given you in the mind that you’re able to know and it’s that confidence and that boldness because you know it and nothing can shake you. You talk about being encouraged and having courage, that’s what strengthens you and lifts you up. Because you know this is God’s way of life and nothing can interfere with that. No battle, nothing can come along. It gives you more of a desire to fight for what is there that you have, that you’ve been given. It’s a beautiful thing.

…and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth. So that’s how we’re all able to be a family in the body, the Body of Christ, because of the truth which dwells in us. Over and over again he keeps hitting this. It’s about the truth, whatever truth, whatever present truth we have…which changes. That’s why we’re in the process of writing a new book. There has been so much that’s happened in the last ten years plus that they’re obsolete. They truly are. God has revealed more to us about understanding of certain things that if we hadn’t gone through those I wouldn’t be able to see what I see now. That’s just the way it works.

It’s like gold and silver and the dross coming to the surface. Until certain things are brought there you can’t see them. So it is with God’s truth and God’s way of life and with everything that we’ve been given, and because of how God’s working right now and because of what He teaches He doesn’t just give you everything in the mind. There are things He lets you go through so that you can learn from it and make choices as you go. Like 2012, in through there, through that period of time, and actually, going back to 2008. 2008 was a big year for God’s Church, big year, because that set the pace for different ones. Right there there were people who were judged that they weren’t going to continue on much longer. They made it to 2012 and 2013 and then they were gone. God got rid of them because of what happened back in 2008 mostly. Most of those went because of that, attitudes and so forth, concerning what God was revealing, that Christ was going to return on a Pentecost and not on a Trumpets. Awesome! Present truth, and so it’s been. Since that time there have been so many things that have been given – volumes, in that respect, spiritually. It’s hard to keep up with it, it really is. That’s why in writing this fourth book (Whoever would have thought!) anyway, writing a fourth book and looking at the other three and wanting for the sake of the translators to be able to pull sections out of other books and I can’t pull big sections out because things have to be tweaked and refined because of where we are now. So much, in that respect, we’ve grown and we see things more clearly. There are some new things God’s showing right now in Chapter 6 that I’m writing on right now. Awesome! But we couldn’t see those things until we went through everything else we’ve been through.

It’s a growing process. It’s like this building we’ve talked about and you put down blocks, cinder blocks, bricks, whatever it might be, and you have to do one row at a time. You can’t start building up higher. What do you put it on? You’ve got to start down here and you just keep going and you keep going and after a while you start seeing what you’re doing, what’s there, the beauty of what’s coming together and you can start to visualize it more and more, and you just keep building.

Well, that’s the way it is for us and so I love this thing about the present truth and I marvel at it, too, because I think of the apostles in the beginning. They had nowhere near as much as what we have to this day and age, this time here. It’s only because of where we are in time, that Christ is about to return, and because of that God is giving more because these things need to be given so that when he comes, it’s established, the primary basis of everything has been established and we can push on into a new age powerfully so.

So I want to get into Chapter 6. It’s hard to hold back.

…because of the truth which dwells in us and shall be with us forever. Grace be with you, mercy, peace from God the Father… Isn’t that a great desire, to desire for one another? Not just here from John, an apostle, to those whom he’s writing to but that we should have this toward everyone, each one of us. …from God the Father and from the Lord Joshua the Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

It’s amazing how much John hit on these things and what he speaks upon in 1st John, 2nd John, and 3rd John, because this is a great growing process spiritually. The Church by this time in the nineties A.D., hundreds, whatever it was that John lived to (totally uncertain in some cases here), but some of the things he went through by this time the Church had grown to a point where God was revealing more and more about the things we’re focusing on right now concerning the Church, concerning where we need to be spiritually in our relationships with one another. Because that’s what he’s writing about. That’s what he’s talking about. But he hits this thing about the truth over and over and over and over because you can’t grow closer to one another and grow in God’s love unless you have the truth and a strong foundation in it and you’re firmly grounded in it, that it’s you because you’re in agreement with God, you’re in unity and oneness and agreement with God just like we pictured on Atonement.

Verse 4—I rejoiced greatly that I found of your children walking in the truth as we have received a commandment from the Father. Incredible! Now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto you, but that which you had from the beginning, that we love one another.

Now, sometimes it’s been confusing to people when it talks about “a new commandment” but it’s an old one, and how can it be new if it’s old, so what is it that’s new? We’ve gone through that and we know what that is. God’s Church has been told what that is. Christ made it abundantly clear what this kind of love is. It’s a sacrificing kind of love, sacrificing. It isn’t just a matter of obeying the Old Testament law and how to treat one another, but it goes beyond that because it reveals that it’s the kind of love that Joshua had for us, that he was willing to suffer, be beaten to where he couldn’t even be recognized, have a spear run into his side so that blood would come out to the earth so he could fulfill the role of a Passover, and then died. Awesome.

He reveals that’s the kind of love we need to have, a sacrificing kind of love. It isn’t God’s kind of love in human beings unless we’re sacrificing. And you know what it is most of the time you’re sacrificing? You know what’s going up in the fire, the offering you’re making by fire? That’s why I love what it says in every holy day back in Leviticus 23, “made an offering made by fire to God.” It’s about sacrifice. It’s about a willingness to go through the fire, to do whatever it is we need to go through so that we can become refined and changed and offer up that which is our service to God because we’re sacrificing. What we sacrifice most is this thing right here – self, what’s in the mind. You have to fight against your carnality. You have to say no to your carnality. You have to sacrifice what self wants to do and say no, I’m not going to do that, that doesn’t agree with God. You have to grow in that.

There are things I’m still growing in that I can see that as you become more and more refined in your life you see certain things, you realize, “I don’t want that. I want that out of my life. I have to say no, I have to change and go on to another level so that God can reveal more.” That’s the way it is and it never stops as long as you’re in this Body.

So it’s a sacrificing kind of love and this is what we have to sacrifice most, self, what self wants. Because we’re selfish. Every one of us in this room, we are selfish, and selfishness is ugly, ugly, ugly. It really is. When you want your way, when you’re not happy, when you’re not content you get agitated. I have this too much in my life. I don’t know if it’s because of being older or whatever or because of growing to a point where I can start seeing some things that I should have seen a long time ago but couldn’t, couldn’t deal with, I don’t know, but anyway. Whenever you become agitated about anything, whenever you become upset about anything, think about it—It should be an automatic thing.—Why? It’s self. Self. Things aren’t going the way self would like them to go. “I’m not happy.” Well, why aren’t you, you fool?

We’re the only ones that can control such things. If you’re not happy you have no one to blame but yourself. Truly. If you’re not happy about something you can’t ever blame anyone else. I don’t care what it is in life; your reaction to something is in your control. No one else controls your reactions. Now, that’s an awesome thing to understand. So when you leave here today it won’t take long and you’re going to have something happen in your life where something isn’t going totally the way you wish it was going, that makes you more comfortable or that makes you happier (you think). It’s going to happen. The thing is whether or not you can see it when it happens. If you can see it you can start trying to bring it under control because it’s hard to control this nature. It really is. You have to ask God for help. You have to ask God for His spirit, for His help to be able to deal with it, to handle it.

Now, I plead with you, lady, again here, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto you, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love (agape). Again, God’s love. So this is the kind of love that God desires that we begin to live, and you can’t live that unless you’re in the truth because you have to have God’s spirit dwelling in you to experience this.

That’s why he hits this over and over again. If we’re not in the truth then something needs to change right there quickly because we’re cutting ourselves off from the flow of God’s spirit and we need the flow of God’s spirit in us continually coming into our life so that we can experience this and live this toward others. So to live this God’s way and to have that kind of love come through us, it’s not our love. We don’t have that kind of love in us except by God’s spirit. That’s the big difference. So the closer you are to God, the more you cry out to God for God to dwell in you, you want God’s spirit to dwell in you, the quicker you can catch self and bring self into check and certain things in your life, to say “No, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to give in to that,” whatever it might be.

And this is love (God’s love) that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. That’s what it’s about. It’s about sacrifice. That’s what we’ve heard from the beginning, in that respect, of what Christ told us nearly 2,000 years ago, of the kind of love we need to have in our life, that we should love others as he has loved us. And how did he love us? Totally sacrificing. Totally giving of self, not doing his own way but for the sake of others, to help others.

For many deceivers have entered into the world, who do not confess that Joshua the Christ is coming in the flesh. The Church hasn’t understood this in times past. The Church didn’t understand this in Philadelphia. The Church didn’t understand this for sure in Laodicea, what this means, what this is all about. How do you confess that Joshua the Christ is coming in the flesh? In your King James or whatever version you’re using there, those things aren’t even translated properly. It’s not by words. It can come out in words because of how you’re behaving, because of how you’re living. It’s not by something you say (quote/unquote). It’s “spiritual.” It’s what you’re living. It’s confessing by the way you live your life. That’s what it’s about. It’s the opposite of denying.

So it’s an awkward word. It’s probably, obviously, not the best word at all, but anyway. Because of what it says in scripture we strive to use some of those things the closest we can so that people can have that light go on in their minds when they go through it and read it. But “if we don’t confess” is the same as “to deny Christ is coming in the flesh.” To deny Christ coming in the flesh means you’re denying Christ to dwell in you, you’re not living what you should be living. If we deny Christ to live within us, we’re not confessing him in our life in the sense of him coming in the flesh—that’s what it’s talking about here. He says it in different ways at different times here but this is what it’s all about—as to whether or not God’s spirit is continually coming into your life, whether Joshua the Christ is… That’s why he died!

He died first so that you can be forgiven of your sins as our Passover, yes. But then he was resurrected as our High Priest so that he could continue to come into our lives spiritually. That’s the purpose – so that God can have a relationship with us. Because that’s the only way God can have a right and true relationship with us, is in the spirit, and His spirit has to dwell in us. So we want that power, that life to continually be coming into us so that we can see and grasp things and deal with things as they come along on a spiritual plane and not give into carnality and self.

This is a deceiver and an antichrist. I love the way John does this because he made it very clear what an antichrist is. It’s anyone who fights against Christ, against the purpose he died, and if we sin, if we give in to sin, if we give in to selfishness, if we hurt relationships with others, if we won’t forgive someone.

We have people sometimes in times past (I hope not today like has happened in times past) that even at Feast sites that people are holding a grudge and it’s clear all over their face. You can’t hide; there are some things in life you just can’t hide. Wherever it comes from, whatever it is it shouldn’t be there. An inability to forgive others? An inability to let go of offence, whatever the offense supposedly was? Because sometimes we’re easily offended as human beings by things and the other person doesn’t even know it! They didn’t even do anything wrong! But if you think they have then you have judged them accordingly and you hold things against them. What a horrible thing.

What we do then is we start, like an umbilical cord, blood going to a baby, and we’re in the womb, we haven’t been born yet, we’re in the womb; and so if we begin to quench God’s spirit it’s like choking off that umbilical cord. Say it’s getting tied up in a bit of a knot or twisted or something and the baby is going to begin suffering. If we do that to God’s spirit we begin to suffer spiritually and we can kill ourselves spiritually or we can cut off so much that we begin to go to sleep spiritually. The whole Church fell asleep during Laodicea. I fell asleep in Laodicea. We all, who lived that that time, every last one of us fell asleep spiritually! If you had been there you would have been asleep spiritually because it happened to the whole Church. God allowed it to happen to the Church for a purpose: to teach us some of the greatest lessons ever. Awesome!

We have to be in God’s Family. We have to make it. We have to come to a point of complete change to be in spirit, to be born, to guarantee anything. Because in this physical life you can have God’s spirit, you can serve God for I don’t care how many hundreds of years in a physical carnal body and do it faithfully for 800 years and in one year screw everything up if you fall asleep spiritually, if you begin to quench the spirit for whatever reasons, for whatever happens in life, for why so many have gone by the wayside in God’s Church. Again, we’ve had thousands and thousands and tens of thousands go by the wayside, fallen asleep; people who have left after they’ve been given a second opportunity of being awakened. Mind-boggling!

So it’s about God’s spirit coming in the flesh. So sin is a hideous thing. That’s why we should have a proper fear. When it talks about the fear of God, it’s fearing doing anything that would cut off God’s spirit, that begins to choke off the flow in the umbilical cord coming to us. We can’t see it, but it’s there. We can know it. Because if you know you’re in the truth, if you have confidence and boldness in that and you’re in unity with that and you’re striving to live the sermons that God gives to us, the information that God gives to us you can have great boldness and confidence and you know where you are in those things. Awesome. And if you’re not real sure, in time God will show you. Because in the beginning sometimes it’s a little more awkward because it’s growth, it’s a growing process.

And this is agapao, that we walk in His commandments; and this is His commandment…on down, verse 7—Many deceivers have entered into the world who do not confess that Joshua the Christ is coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. So why a deceiver? Well, they’re against Christ because they’re choking God’s spirit off, they’re not letting God’s spirit come into them, because they’re doing something. There is some sin they’re involved in, there is something that they’re not addressing that they should be addressing, that they know, but they’re denying, they’re just not taking care of it, they’re not fighting it. They’re just letting it happen whatever it might be, some physical thing perhaps, whatever it is.

Perhaps it’s no prayer life. You can’t have a relationship with God with no prayer life. What’s that if you’re not crying out to God, if you’re not asking God for intervention, for help and for forgiveness of your sins on a regular basis day in and day out? We ought to be able to see things in our lives that we’re doing wrong. You ought to be able to see day by day things that you’re doing wrong. You ought to be able to see when you’re in a wrong attitude. You ought to be able to see when you’ve had a wrong attitude toward someone else in the world. You know, that’s not hard to do.

I have to fight when I get in a car and I go down the highway. That’s just being plain, blunt, and honest. Now, maybe you’re the perfect driver and maybe what other people do doesn’t bother you, but when someone pulls right in front of my car it bothers me. It bothers me because I think, “That’s just wrong!” That’s rude. That’s disgusting. That’s just ugly. And you know what? I’ve done it to others. That’s why I can really see it and know what it is, because I’ve done the same stupid things in my life. I think, I hate that. I strive not to do that. I hope I haven’t done that for a long time.

But there are some things you’ve just got to get rid of in your life. You see other people doing it and then you have to realize they don’t know what they’re doing. But it’s hard to do that sometimes. I wasn’t even driving the other day, Edwin was. Now, Edwin was driving well; he was driving good. But people were doing some things I thought, “Man, there are some reckless drivers over here.” Of course, they’re everywhere, but I just had bigger expectations for the Dutch!

So anyway, I have to watch myself because I see people do stupid things. I saw one where I thought someone was pulling over in front and I thought they were forcing him off the road in one area. One vehicle was pulling over and forcing him off the road. I’d have been fighting some attitudes there thinking I’d like to get up there beside that guy: “That’s my family in that car you…!” So you have to catch yourself. No, you can’t have those kind of feelings. That’s something you have to repent of. They can’t help their stupidity right now. They’re not fighting any battles, they’re just living self, you know, whatever self wants to do.

So whatever it might be. When you leave here today there are going to be things happen to you, and very likely it’s going to be from the ones who are closest to you, something that happens. Because you’re around them the most, whoever it is. Whoever you’re staying in the, whatever you call those places, little houses or apartments or whatever it is. They call them houses? Chalet’s? Bungalows? It’s bungalows. I keep messing that word. Wherever you’re staying you’re together with different ones and inevitably there is going to be something happen where you’re going to have to fight your carnality a little bit about how you like something done a little bit different, or why did they do that or, “That was my pizza.” Anyway, I’m sorry, and you can’t have a wrong attitude toward someone.

So, anyway, there are things we have to watch continually, and if we’re not doing that on a regular basis then we’re not living this way of life like we should. You have to be asking God for forgiveness of things that are wrong in your life on a daily basis.

This is a deceiver and an antichrist. So we can work against Christ. We can work against the purpose he died for us. We can work against the purpose of him being our High Priest because we’re quenching the holy spirit and we’re not crying out. You have to cry out for God’s spirit. It’s not just a given He’s going to give you His spirit because you’re in His Church. You’ve got to ask God, “I need help! I want help! I want Your holy spirit to dwell in me. I need Your spirit to dwell in me.” Now, God already knows you need it, but do you really want it? Because if you really want it you’re going to be asking for it, you’re going to be crying out for it. That reveals a lot to God right there doesn’t it? Actually, it reveals a lot to you because if you’re not doing it please know you’re not doing at all what you’re supposed to be doing. You’re not living what you really should be living. Because you have to cry out for God’s spirit. You have to let Him know you want it, you desire it in your life.

Why should He give it to you if you don’t ask? Isn’t that what it says, basically? “You don’t receive because you don’t ask.” And sadly, sometimes that happens in God’s Church, people don’t ask. So why should you be receiving of the holy spirit on a daily basis if you’re not asking for it on a daily basis? Could that be quenching God’s spirit? How precious, how important is it that Christ died for us?

So if we grasp those things we’re going to cry out for it. And if we don’t then we’re working against the purpose of what Christ did – antichrist – and our nature is antichrist. It is against Christ. God says the carnal spirit, in that respect, the carnal flesh, the carnal mind, is enmity with God. That isn’t just a passing thing you might read in scripture. It’s something we’re to learn from. That’s my spirit apart from God’s spirit. That’s my nature, human nature, apart from God’s spirit dwelling in me, it’s enmity (an enemy) to God because it’s selfish.

So do we have a battle on our hands every day? Yeah. Selfishness. If we don’t see that something is wrong. If we’re not fighting it then we’re quenching the spirit and we can actually become antichrist, work against Christ. What a horrible thing to think. …and a deceiver! People mess around sometimes with sin in their life and they tolerate and allow certain things to take place that they know they shouldn’t be doing, or they begin doing it for certain things for so long it’s like, “This is okay.” You have to examine. You have to judge continually to make sure that you’re thinking right. If we’re not careful then we can come in around other of God’s people, having quenched the holy spirit, maybe even totally cut it off in our lives, and then be a deceiver because we’re liars in that case. We’re lying. We’re in a fellowship that we’re not in fellowship with. We’re amongst a fellowship and we’re not able to have true fellowship because we’re not in the truth anymore.

I’ve seen that so much since I’ve been in God’s Church. I’ve seen far, far, far, far more go than who have remained. I’ve seen far more deceivers than I’ve ever seen people who stay and fight. That’s why people who stay and fight are so precious. That’s why they’re so valuable. That’s why you see the value in their choices and what they’re doing. That’s why that is so encouraging – because of that experience of having seen so many people go by the wayside because they wouldn’t fight the fight, they wouldn’t fight against self, they gave into self. Simple. That’s what they do. That’s what people do.

Look to yourselves… It’s what we have to do. …that we not lose those things which we have worked for. Keep working! You can’t quit working ever. …but that we receive a full reward. That should be our great desire. We’re in this for keeps to the end no matter what happens.

1st John 1. So continuing here about walking in the truth, living the truth that God’s given to us. 1 John 1:1—That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life. It’s quite a lot that he’s saying here. People can read through this and read it on a physical plane and then they’re going to miss what John is really saying. But he’s talking about this relationship that some were able to have with Christ and “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,” certain things that individuals have been taught and shown and after all this time especially with John, by the time he had been in the Church for so long and teaching within the Church as he was, it says, and we have looked upon. It’s about a way of life. It’s not just about him anymore. It’s about what began with him but what happened within the Church then, of what he was able to see spiritually as far as the Church was concerned.

…and our hands have handled, of the word of life. So it’s about what you live. We’ve never seen him physically, but it’s just as much as what Christ said when he was talking to them on Passover night, “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.” It’s a spiritual thing. It’s a way of life. It’s a way of thinking. We should see that within one another. We should be able to grasp that in our own lives within the Body, within the Church. He’s saying as a servant here, as a minister, of what he’s experiencing and what we do in the Church, we are able to handle of the word of life. This is it. It’s all in here, the truth, the word of life, the truth that God has given to us and revealed to us, of how to live life, of how to think about life.

…for the life was manifested, and we have seen it. So yes, it was in Christ, they saw that, but they saw it grow within the Church. That life was manifest within the Church, the fellowship that people were able to have and what that meant, the Body of Christ. …and have seen it and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life. So we should be able to show that in our lives by how we’re living. That’s how we’re showing, the right way of life to be lived, that’s to continue on. True fellowship is a beautiful thing. Right fellowship, right thinking toward one another is a beautiful thing to have. If we have that then this is what’s happening in our life.

…for that life was manifested, we have seen it and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, by each one of us living it that’s what we’re showing, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. So he goes back to talking about what happened in the beginning with Christ but now it’s in the Church.

…that which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, so that you also may have fellowship with us. It’s a spiritual thing. He’s not saying have friendship with us. That’s not enough. It’s fellowship. It’s fellowship with God, with Christ, and with one another. That’s what makes it real. That’s what makes it come alive – if it’s spiritual.

…and truly our fellowship… Isn’t that amazing? …and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Joshua the Christ. If we have a right relationship with God, we’re crying out to God for His holy spirit, we’re seeking to change this thing, self, and fighting against it, we’re going to be growing spiritually, more of God’s spirit’s going to come out in our actions and how we treat each other, how we think toward each other.

I’ve seen that change over the last several years here in powerful ways within God’s Church, every year getting better. Truly! This year is at the height of it all. This Feast of Tabernacles, awesome! Haven’t even started the Feast yet, you know, but it’s apparent, it’s obvious what’s there that’s above and beyond what it was last year already on a spiritual plane. There are some things that are just there that can be seen.

We are writing these things unto you so that your joy may be filled. And isn’t this what it’s all about, what you’re going to hear on the first day. That’s what God wants us to do, to rejoice before Him in His time, in His Feasts. God’s desire is that our joy be full. It can only be in this way, in the truth, in true fellowship, “in the truth” over and over again. Beautiful.

Verse 7… but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. These are beautiful things that are being said here, they really are, if we understand them spiritually what it means, this kind of fellowship that we’re able to have with one another. So we need to separate in our minds – not friendship, fellowship. Because that’s spiritual. It goes way, way, way beyond friendship.

Now, we have strong friendship, obviously, but it’s the fellowship. It means that God’s in it. It means that God’s spirit is in it. It means that we’re striving to think right and be right toward one another. We’re striving to judge properly. We’re striving to love properly. We’re striving not to let anything ever, ever offend us. Any time you ever let anything offend you from anyone else in the Church you have sinned before God. You have cut yourself off at that moment from God’s spirit and you have to repent of that quickly. Because as long as you carry that out it’s going to take longer to get a hold of yourself.

I’ve known of people that can carry that on for several years before they get it in check – just an offense about something and having an attitude, just carrying an attitude for years. I’ve seen that in people. Those things can’t be hidden. They just carry it on for years! And until that’s brought into check, because the only thing that brings it into check is repentance, and finally, when they finally come to a point where they repent and start seeing themselves and want to be different then they can be different with God’s spirit.

What a beautiful thing, the people who fight that then. But people who don’t, they’ll be gone if they don’t bring it in check, if they don’t do that. Because wrong relationships within the Body cut you off from the flow of God’s spirit, can cut you totally off from God’s spirit where you are indeed walking in the mud of antichrist and get bogged down in it to where you can’t get out of it.

…but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Joshua the Christ His Son is cleansing us from all sin. It just always brings this in because it’s about being cleansed of sin. Because that’s the only way you can stay in a right fellowship with God, is to fight this and fight against the sin and ask God continually to forgive you of your sins. Because we all have sin, we all have selfishness.

I’ll tell you, I hope you’re learning to hate selfishness in yourself to where it’s just an ugly, ugly thing. Because that’s the only way you’ll really conquer it. You’ve got to hate so much what’s wrong before you can love what is right that’s from God and embrace it and live it. You’ve got to really hate the evil and hate the bad. Because selfishness is just flat evil. It really is. It’s of the mind of a spirit being that we should never want any part of that kind of mind. Satan. That’s his mind. Talk about selfishness and wanting your own way and doesn’t care what gets destroyed in his path in order to get it. That’s just sheer evil. We may do it in small ways but if it’s that spirit it’s evil and it’s not of God. That’s what we have to repent of. That’s why we really need to be able to see self and to see how much it stinks. It really stinks bad.

It’s like feces. You know it was made to stink for a reason. God created us this way for a reason. The poop that comes out of the human body, it’s made to stink for a reason. If we can come to understand symbolism in some of that metaphorically that’s why that little llama, squeeze that little llama and what came out the back, that little brown thing, nothing but a bunch of that. That’s what it’s like. Selfishness is like that and we have to see it like that. It’s not pleasant to look at. It’s definitely not pleasant to step in. It’s not pleasant to be around. It’s not pleasant to carry on your shoes. If it’s a dog that’s been out there it’s even worse. Thankfully the swine don’t run loose, because they’re even worse. Okay? It stinks.

If we can’t see our nature like that, our carnal human nature and selfishness that way it just stinks! It smells. It’s not a sweet smelling savor going up before God. It’s the opposite. It’s that other stuff. We want the sweet smelling savor to go up before God in prayers and seeking to conquer and overcome and become more like God, see. That’s a beautiful thing.

So I hope we’re growing to that point and I believe we are, to where we’re coming to see selfishness in a way that God really wants us to see it. Because you can make some major headway spiritually in your life if you can come to fight that one more and be successful in battling it more and come to see it for what it is whenever it pops it’s little ugly head out, when you can smell it. “There it is again. Something is not smelling good in here.” There it is. Maybe it’s like a gas at first and got to be careful; catch it there before it turns into something worse. Calling it what it is. We need to see it spiritually in that regard.

So he’s cleansing us from all sin. We can’t be a part of this process without that; can’t have true fellowship without this. This is a major part of this whole scenario, what he’s going through.

Verse 8—If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Now, people would say, “I know I have sin.” But this isn’t what that’s saying. It’s like hearing something like this and thinking, “Well, I’m not like that. I don’t do that. I’m glad I’m not that bad, what he’s describing.” “I’m glad I don’t drive like that. He must really be a bad driver.” I’ve had people make comments like that, “Must be a really bad driver.” So be it, I am, hey. I’d be shocked if everybody else wasn’t. But anyway, if you really see yourself for what it is and see your own spirit for what it is you’re going to realize that there are things that happen whether you’re walking or driving or just coming in contact with people in the world or coming in contact with people at work and how people talk to you or treat you and different things that happen and things that just agitate you so much. Well, why are you agitated? Well, you’re in control of that.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So the truth is we’re selfish. If we don’t think we’re selfish or maybe not selfish to that degree that you’re talking about in the sermon then we’re missing the mark. Because we’ve all got a boatload of selfishness. If we can’t acknowledge that, if we can’t acknowledge that before God we’ve got our work cut out – God does, working with us.

If we confess our sins… See, that’s where it starts. That’s what it’s all about. We just have to acknowledge what we are and begin to see it for the way God says that it’s like, what we’re really like, what’s really inside of us. Because, again, this selfish thing is really ugly. I hope you see it. It doesn’t take me much to see it; get my nose wallowed in it I’d say every day. You can’t live life without seeing selfishness – unless you’re just blind to it; you can’t see it. It’s there. You’re selfish. You’re a selfish human being. I’m a selfish human being. Isn’t that amazing? We go to services to hear we’re selfish. Who wants to listen to that?

I’ve known people who have left God’s Church, someone very close to me at one time, family close, I’ll just say it. Anyway, one of the things that was stated when they left was “I’m just tired of hearing how bad I am, being told how bad I am. I’m just tired of when I hear sermons I’m being told how bad I am. What’s that? Do I go to services to hear how bad I am?” “I don’t like that. It doesn’t feel good. I want to leave.” Well, God does that because He loves us. He loves us and He wants to show us there’s a better way. There’s a way that’s filled with joy and happiness, a way that’s filled with peace. That’s the way He wants us to be. That’s what He wants us to experience.

But we’ve got to see this other part that’s inside of us because there is a war that we have to be fighting in here and we have to choose one over the other. And we will. We do daily. We make choices every day. We’re choosing one over the other. Either the one that’s at enmity with God, the carnal side of us or God’s side, this is what’s right. This is the way, walk you in it and we say yes, I want that. It might be right after you’ve slipped and done something stupid and you say, “Oh, forgive me. There it is again. Strengthen me so I can catch these quicker. Really, help me to see these quickly so I don’t even have it come into my mind, so that I can deal with it in the mind quickly.”

Verse 8—If we say that we have no sin (thank you), we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. What a beautiful thing. That’s all we have to do, just acknowledge it before God. “This is the way I am.” He wants us to do that and it’s over, fine, “go and sin no more.” That’s what Christ said, “Go and sin no more.” That’s the answer. But we find out, yes, we do, so we have to repeat it again. Hopefully the turning gets slower. I hope you understand what I’m saying. It’s like we have to keep circling and come back to it every time and it just keeps happening over and over again. But the more you keep doing the same thing, you know what you’re doing each time? You can keep fighting a thing and you see it come up and say, “Oh, I’ve done it again! I hate what this is!” and you ask God for help, you ask God for forgiveness.

It might be twenty minutes later and you do it again, something might happen and you’ve got to ask again. But each time you’re acknowledging what’s right and you’re acknowledging what is wrong and you’re becoming more deeply convicted and you’re doing something in the mind and striving to establish character. The more you do it and the more you hate what is wrong and the more you embrace what is right God will help you in that. Each time He just forgives you. Wouldn’t that be wonderful if we could always do that with one another quickly? No bad feelings. “Okay.” Accept. “You’re sorry. That’s great.” A lot of times we don’t even bother saying that. But anyway.

If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God wants to help us to grow. He wants to help us in the transformation of the mind. This is all just a part of a process, but we have to be engaged in the fight. That’s a beautiful thing.

Verse 15—Do not love the world, or things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love (the agape) of the Father is not in him. So these things are said because when we’re first called there’s a lot of love of the world still in us. That’s a continual process, too, of coming out of it, of slowly but surely being brought out of it and not being in agreement with the world or the ways of the world or the way people think out there. You have to be careful.

Sometimes people can listen to news on TV and begin to take sides, you know, one is right and the other is wrong. Be careful of that. They’re all wrong. Do we not see that they’re all wrong? They’re doing everything in the wrong ways? That’s why God is bringing the right way to this earth, a right government. It’s not being done right at all. Human nature in it all? Absolutely! To the nth degree. But I hear sometimes people making comments and I realize they’re on an edge of a thing because they’re taking sides, whether it be a conservative type of thinking or the other, less conservative, more liberal.

So we have to be careful because you know what? We tend to gravitate more toward one than the other as human beings, and everything in between, candidly. Sadly, nothing right down the middle that’s true and right because that comes from God. But anyway, we have to be careful of those kinds of things, of taking sides with what someone says and because then we can begin judging each other wrongly, improperly. We just have to realize that the world just isn’t right and we don’t want to be like the world. We don’t want to think like the world. Because there are right ways of doing things and that’s God’s way. But the world can’t do that yet. It’s impossible.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life… How often we’ve talked about that. That’s what we’re made up of. That’s our mind. That’s the mind. That’s the carnal human mind, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Selfishness is pride big time – just heaps and heaps and heaps of it. That’s a hard thing for us to grasp and see in ourselves. It is not of the Father, but is of the world. It’s the way the world is.

And the world passes away, thank God. In writing this last book it’s just coming more alive how incredible it’s going to be as soon as we can get through this transition of time. Get past one and get into the other. That depends upon God’s Church. I don’t understand some of these things fully, how they can be this way, but they are, and yet God makes it very clear what we have to recognize in ourselves is we’re still growing and once the 144,000 is complete it’s going to start. But God’s even working with that in a timely fashion that we don’t understand, see, and that’s helped to drive the point home.

That’s helped to drive the point home as well. He’s the only one that knows that process in each one of us and where we are. There is that which is not quite there yet to where it can be said, “Now I know you.” So there is some tweaking having to be done…or perhaps in some cases some things that have to be molded and fashioned that the major part of the tweaking is done but to fit in a certain place within the temple there is still certain things that have to be accomplished and experienced and lived. But they have to be complete and when those things are complete to where they fit into the temple, all of them, then things are going to begin happening around us in this whole world.

The world is passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. So we keep that focus, what it’s all about and what’s before us.

1 John 2:1—My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you not sin. And if any one sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Joshua the Christ, the righteous. That’s the word “paracletes” in Greek, “advocate.” It’s the same one that was used before when it spoke of the helper, the holy spirit. It’s a paracletes; it helps us. That’s all it’s about. It’s talking about a helper that strengthens us and we need God’s help of His holy spirit living within us. That’s why we cry out for it and seek God’s help, because without it we can’t do what we need to accomplish. Then we have our High Priest who is there to help. That’s what it’s saying here, in essence, “Joshua the Christ the righteous.”

And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. We are a family but what an awesome thing to think others are going to be able to be brought into that family soon. To have that kind of fellowship? Awesome!

Now, by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. If we’re living in the truth, walking in the truth, that should give us confidence. If we’re fighting against sin, if we’re conquering and overcoming it as we do and we constantly repent immediately when we see sin then we should have a boldness and a confidence there, and a confidence as well just in the mercy and the grace of God and what God says. As soon as you repent you’re forgiven. If you’re genuine before God and you’ve repented of something it’s gone. He doesn’t bring it back up. He’s not like human beings who keep track of or just won’t forget what someone has done.

I sometimes… sometimes, a lot, from people in the Church who have gone through various difficulties, battles, have had counseling about various things, I think… Well, I don’t think, I know. I mean I don’t think I know. I know. There are times when people just don’t feel comfortable because, “Well, you’ve dealt with me in this particular sin, this battle,” or whatever. If you’ve gone through it and you’re hanging on and you’ve gone forward it’s gone. There is nothing there. You’re a brother or a sister spiritually and embraced accordingly, loved accordingly. God’s ministry, we don’t keep track. We don’t let those things get in the way. It’s just a thankfulness we’re all together in fellowship as one. People should never feel that way. But because we’re carnal human beings we still have some of those kinds of feelings sometimes and so we just don’t feel totally comfortable.

Well, better feel that more so with God, to realize it’s gone and He is there for you and He’s forgiven you and you just go forward and continue to cry out for His holy spirit. He’s there to help you along the way. Christ is there to help you along the way. We don’t have to carry baggage with us. We don’t have to carry any guilt of those things anymore. Sometimes that’s hard for human beings to do because we tend to beat ourselves up sometimes.

Verse 4—He who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Self explanatory. But whoso keeps his word, truly the love (the agape) of God is perfected in him. So it’s a perfecting process. It doesn’t happen quickly. It takes time. But you just keep at it, keep fighting.

By this we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him should also himself walk as he walked. So in the truth, sacrificing, whatever that means, saying no to self when it comes to doing something for someone else, thinking right toward someone else. So often we just have to stop the wrong thinking in here.

Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you. So again, it goes back to this. If it is true in our lives, in God, obviously, in us, we can have that.

…because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. In our lives! That’s where it’s at. We’re able to experience it. We’re able to experience something unique and the world can’t experience what we’re experiencing here.

You know, there’s one thing having physical family, there’s another thing having spiritual family. They really can’t be compared to each other. They really can’t, because the ultimate in everything is the spiritual family because a physical family has selfishness in it. It’s always going to be there. That’s why we’re so blessed when we can receive of God’s spirit and go on to another plateau, totally different from what the world has, and begin to experience and live something so unique with God’s spirit in us, within all of us, and then we’re able to share that in a fellowship and a care and a concern for each other. Incredible!

He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother is in darkness until now. So again, this thing about hate and “Well, I don’t hate anyone,” and yet if we don’t love them God puts that in that category, it’s hate. If we fail to love someone, if we fail to forgive, if we fail to not nip a grudge in the bud quickly in our own thinking, whatever that might be, and on and on it goes, if we fail to love others because we’re not doing it God’s way, we hate them. That’s what God says. And frankly, it goes farther than that; it says you’re a murderer. That’s what we are. That’s what God calls it. It’s like taking life. That’s how bad it is. That’s how bad selfishness… That’s why we have to see selfishness for what it is. It really stinks. The more we can see how much our own selfishness stinks, how ugly it is, the more we’re going to be fighting against it. Because it’s ugly. We hate it.

It’s like smoke. I hate the smell of smoke. You know, you can be outside and just because people now they don’t smoke inside the building, they go outside, but as soon as they pass you for about, you know, ten, fifteen steps, you know, you still have this smoke in the air. I just hate it! I’ve used that example in times past, that people still have that battle. It’s because they haven’t come to where they hate it yet. You have to hate something that’s not right, that’s not good for your body, that’s offensive to others. You have to hate that before you’ll fight it. But sometimes people don’t hate it. It’s like, “I love this! You all should love it, too.” That’s how we are, our human nature.

It’s like people pull up beside you in this car and there’s music, boom-boom-boom, you know, and they want everybody else to love it too. Well, I’m sorry but I don’t love that.

Verse 10—He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him. Beautiful scripture. No cause of stumbling. You’re living what you’re supposed to do, how you’re supposed to be.

1 John 3:1—Behold, what manner of love (agape) the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. How blessed are we that we’re God’s children, that we have a unique fellowship that the world just doesn’t have yet? And we long for it to have that. That’s what we’re fighting for.

…therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, when he’s revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Well, again, this is for those at that time who were called in the Church because those in a calling at that time there was only one possibility there, is to be a part of the 144,000, because all the rest were going to die.

At the end here it’s different. What an incredible thing. We have people that are, some are going to become a part of the 144,000—not the large part but a small part—and then the rest are going to have an opportunity to live on into a new age and continue as the Church. So what an incredibly unique situation and timing.

Verse 14—We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Another thing of confidence. You’ve passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. I think of times past, if somebody could hear some of these, you think, “Can you hear it? Because if you can hear it you’re not going to feel badly toward that person you just had a battle with. You wouldn’t have raised your voice. You wouldn’t have gotten upset. You wouldn’t have argued. You wouldn’t have treated them the way you treated them. You’d be afraid to.”

Whosoever hates is brother, here we go, is a murderer. And another way of saying it is exactly this, “He who fails to love with God’s love is a murderer, hates his brother,” because that’s the way we have to love each other, according to God, according to God’s spirit, according to the will of God, according to the mind of God, according to the way God says we’re to love. That’s about bringing this into harmony, unity, subjection to God’s will, not our own, not to selfishness.

Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Hereby we perceive the love of God, God’s kind of love, because he laid down his life for us we also ought to lay down our life for the brethren. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about saying no to self. That’s how you do that. It’s not saying to go out here and to accomplish this you have to be willing to die for someone. Yet if something like that were to happen so be it. But that’s not what it’s talking about. It’s talking about relationships and self and making sure that you’re saying no to self. That’s how you lay down your life, your will, what you want for someone else, for what someone else wants, because you want to see them fulfilled, you want to see them happier, or whatever it might be. You don’t want to do something that gets in their way. You don’t want to react according to your selfishness, whatever that means in that situation.

Verse 22—And whatever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments. So there is a tremendous boldness you can have, a tremendous confidence toward God when you know you’re repenting of sin, when you know you’re in the fight, when you’re crying out for God’s spirit to be in you, to dwell in you. There is this peace because you know you’ve been forgiven of what’s wrong in your life and you know there is nothing standing between you and anyone else. Because if there is that’s what you have to repent of. If you’re free, there is nothing you have against anyone in any fashion or form, and that’s a beautiful thing. And on the contrary, you not only just don’t have anything against them, you want to see them succeed. You love them. You want what’s best for them, whatever that takes in your thinking. If we don’t think that way toward each other, if there is something kind of rippling in the middle there somehow and preventing that then we have something to repent of.

And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Joshua the Christ and love one another as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandment abides in Him, and He in him. So it’s living this way of life that we have that assurance, again, God’s in us, He dwells in us. We know that. And by this we know that He abide in us, by the spirit which He has given to us.

We’ll go through a little bit more here.

1 John 4:1—Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So again, it’s coming back to this same thing here. They’re not confessing in their lives. He goes back to this thing of talking about the spirit of antichrist and that we can go out and instead of promoting, showing, living God’s way of life we’re projecting something else, and if we’re projecting self then that’s what this is discussing here. So this has happened in God’s Church. Thankfully, today I feel this is miniscule, if it exists at this point, I don’t know. We’re becoming that refined. That’s an awesome thing to understand.

We had another person this past week who resigned from the Church. Well, at least you’re being truthful with how you’ve been living for the past years. We’ve known it for years. I feel badly, and they felt badly too because they had a lot of friends in the Church. They spoke of that, the friendships they have (and that’s a good thing), but this isn’t about friendship, it’s about fellowship. If you’re not being honest to God how you’re living out there during the week (which they acknowledged) and you come together and you do something else then it just doesn’t work, it’s not right. So a choice had to be made at some point – either you address it and deal with it and go by the wayside or God will address it and make sure that you do, because this is going to be a clean Body that goes into a new age. That’s just the way it’s going to be. That’s because of where we are in time.

If this had been in the time of John here at this exact time, around 90 some A.D., then the process would be in the process of being cleansed and taken care of so that it would be purified in a very powerful way and be ready to go into a new age. But it wasn’t and there were still people leaving at this point in time, and all the way up through time until now, who are getting down to a point in time where there is… Awesome!

So this was at a time when it said, don’t believe every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets have gone into the world. Hereby you can know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Joshua the Christ is coming in the flesh is of God. So how do you know that? Well, the best way sometimes is to know when it’s not. Sorry. By what someone says or does that you know of, that you see. And maybe when you should speak to a brother perhaps or go to alone or ask a minister for advice, “How do I deal with this because this is what I’ve heard and it’s not in unity and agreement with the Church,” and, well, that’s what we’re talking about. Because, see, this has happened a lot in times past.

There’s been all kinds of division and divisiveness in times past. I think of all the years when Mr. Armstrong was around and things I heard people say, ordained people say, a minister at one time talking. They used to get what’s called a Pastor’s General Report every month. The Pastor General’s Report, it would go out to all the ministers. Mr. Armstrong would write some things in it and there’d be information about the Church and various news things to keep the ministers up to date and they would announce some of these things within the local congregations. I was just out of Ambassador College in that area for a little while and he had a Pastor’s General Report like he’s bragging. He said, “Boy, I’ve got so-and-so here I’m dealing with in this,” and someone has changed what Mr. Armstrong said here and he inserted some other things to try to get a point across to somebody else, to try to in a wrong way to get to somebody else in the Church, like they would maybe feel guilty for what they’re doing or type of thing.

Anyway, I thought, you’re stark, raving mad! I didn’t say it. This isn’t right. To take Mr. Armstrong’s words and write something else because you want the congregation to think or see something that you want to get across and you’re saying it’s from Mr. Armstrong because you feel that if it’s from Mr. Armstrong, you’re using a name, that he said it, therefore, they’re more likely to do what you want them to do? Talk about sick! But see, people were doing things like this in the Church.

He finally ended up in another area where he counseled women by candlelight, I think, and wine. Isn’t this true? By candlelight and wine. He ended up having to change his name because he had some husbands after him. Obviously, out of the ministry, out of the Church, but he was out a long time ago. He was out when he did what he did to Mr. Armstrong’s letter though I didn’t know that at the time. Now I know it – he was out of the Church. He had cut himself off from God’s spirit doing heinous things and he was doing other heinous things I didn’t even know about.

But this is what it’s talking about. There are certain things that can be done sometimes that just aren’t of God’s spirit and it should be obvious. Those things have to be dealt with and they’re unpleasant. That’s why I’m so thankful not have to squeeze a llama this year, because we’ve grown a great deal and we keep growing. Even last year was kind of an admonition, in that respect, that we need to keep a stern watch on these things in our life so that we can get through this together, to be together as a family, to hang in there as a family.

Because whatever is coming, ever how it’s coming, it’s not going to be the way we thought. That’s a reality. How bad it’s going to be we can’t know, you can’t imagine, and it’s better we not. God’s going to bring us through and we have to look to God, we have to have a special relationship with God, every one of us. But what’s coming is not a pleasant thing by any measure, but God is making it clear what it’s going to be like now.

We talked about last year, The World Stage is Set. Man, there are some things happening. I mean, things can happen at any moment. But that’s where we are. This crazy thing going on with Turkey and Syria right now, it’s not a small thing. This thing happening in the Middle East is not a small thing because at some point that area is the area that’s really going to erupt quickly and things are going to move very fast. Israel is going to be involved in some of these things, whether it be Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the whole region. But to the exact timing of these things we really don’t know. We’ll know as they happen and God will make it clear and make it clear what happens to the United States.

Anyway, we have some incredible things before us that we’re going to witness and see before this is all over with, and hopefully and prayerfully it can be done in a short order and not over a long period, not in a period of lasting for a whole 3½ years as we used to believe it would have to happen. There are things that can happen that can fulfill those prophecies very easily so but the worst of the things not have to happen until a certain period of time. We may already be in those periods, we don’t know, but God will let us know when we get there. You’ll know. You’ll know when the events of the first Trumpet take place. You’re not going to be in the dark any longer. You don’t have to ask anyone else when it happens, “Do you suppose we’re in the 1st Trumpet?” You’re going to know.

…and every spirit that does confess that Joshua the Christ is coming in the flesh… In other word’s by how they’re living it’s obvious God’s spirit’s working within them, they’re striving to live right. That spirit is there, that attitude, that agreement, that unity is there. There are things you can’t hide. It’s just there the way people talk, the way an individual expresses themselves, the way they’re living toward others.

So it says here, and every spirit that does not confess that Joshua the Christ is coming in the flesh is not of God, okay, and that is the spirit of antichrist, whereof you heard that should come and even now already is in the world. Meaning it was already in the Church. So John was just telling the Church there are things happening within the Church that aren’t right. That’s what he was saying. It’s not the world. It’s not about the world. It’s about the Church because the world can’t deny Christ, the world can’t confess in their life Christ, they can’t reflect in their life that Christ is living in them. They don’t have that ability, only those in the Church. So he’s telling the Church, warning the Church that this spirit of antichrist is already in the Church, it’s out there, and these are things you have to be aware of because they’re happening.

They’ve been in the church ever since I’ve been in the Church, these kinds of things, with ministers, with brethren. If you’re in one of those areas where something like that pops up then there are certain things you just have to do.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. Beautiful scripture; quote that quite often. Because that’s our strength. Because there is a being out there that just would love to see every one of us trip and fall and stumble. He’ll bombard you at the times with certain things that you just have that gut feeling, “I know where this one’s coming from.”

We had something happen on the Day of Atonement. We knew where it was coming from, the timing of it and everything. It’s kind of like a nemesis I have now in my life trying to come at me at different times. I shouldn’t have to go too far in telling you what that one is. Starts with an “I” and ends with an “S”. Anyway.

Verse 19—We love him, because he first loved us. So there are times things happen in this world where it’s like it’s relentless and that being will keep trying to come at you. You have to stay close to God, be close to God because there are things He has to battle, and by your being close to Him there are things you cannot battle, you cannot deal with. God does. He has to. Just like what’s coming in the future here before Christ returns. Those things are far, far greater than what we are and we just look to God and God will take care of it, God will take care of us.

If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, in other words, doesn’t love his brother as God says, he is a liar. And he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? That’s what it’s all about. It’s about God. If we don’t see God in the picture of our fellowship then we’re missing the mark. Because we can’t have something against someone else in the Body. So this is, again, these things are a reminder of what we’re to live. They’re an admonition of what you can’t let down in, especially because of where we are in time. We need to keep fighting until this is complete, until we’re totally through this. Because we’re so close to the end, of all things, why give up at a point like this? Why quit fighting at a time like this? And yet it just happened this last week. What a horrible thing.

And this commandment we have from him, That he who loves God must love his brother also. Because if we don’t, it’s against God. See, God’s in the picture. That’s what it’s all about. We should see God in the picture of all this, of how we treat His children, His family, how we think toward them. Because that is how we are being judged, see, and “Judgment is upon the house of God.” It’s upon the Church. It’s upon us individually from God.

Enough said. We’ll stop there. Again, an admonition to keep fighting, to understand how precious this fellowship is we have within the Body, within the Church, and to fight for it and to strive to draw even closer together in unity and oneness with God.

1. Chapter 1