The Millennium Is Not Far Off, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

October 6, 2020

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon

Second day of the Feast already. Before long we’ll be parting ways. It’s amazing how fast it seems to come toward the very end here, and then once we’re here, it’s over. So, make the most of it as you heard in the first sermon there. Rejoice, understand what we’ve been called to, or seek to understand that even more deeply and make this a great Feast. That’s how you do it, keeping close to God throughout this entire process.

We’ll now continue with this two-part series entitled The Millennium Is Not Far Off, with this being, obviously, again here, Part 2 since we had Part 1 yesterday.

It was stated in Part 1 yesterday, “As a result of truth beginning to be restored, not everything about a basic truth is revealed all at once. But they are gradually established within the Church so that we come to stronger understanding and conviction. To me, it’s an awesome thing to be able to have a sermon like this, or to look into this more deeply, what God gives to us, to know and understand how He works with us, how He has worked with the Church through time, and especially in the period of time that we have been in starting with the period of Philadelphia on through for many of us.

Again, to understand this is an awesome thing! Because God just can’t put everything into your mind and you grasp what it is that’s there. You have to go through a lot of things in life. You have to experience a lot of things in life for all this to become real, for God to become even more real to you in the sense of understanding Him and why He does what He does and the way that He does it.

The more that we see those things, the more, candidly, we can come into unity and harmony with Him. Because we have to make choices as to whether or not we agree all along that course. Those experiences help to bring us to a point of conviction, if we understand that, if that’s what we want.

Sadly, many have not wanted this. Many aren’t willing to do what it takes to continue to fight the pulls of this world, whatever that might be. Sometimes the most, when you really look at it and compared to what God is offering us and putting before us, such puny things, but important in the human mind because of “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”

We are so haughty as human beings, so filled with pride. That’s a horrible, horrible mindset to have, to be filled with pride, the way of self and yielding to self rather than desiring to yield to God.

So, there is that within the human mind of a choice where we really have to want what God offers, what God places before us. We have to want it so much that we’re willing to fight for it. We have to want it so much that we’re willing to sacrifice whatever. What are we willing to sacrifice? Everything. Everything! Because what we’re sacrificing is puny. It is selfish.

That’s why every Holy Day, when you read about those in Leviticus 23, I love that expression of “offering an offering made by fire unto the Eternal.” Because that’s about what we do on a spiritual plane, to offer through fire. It means trial and test because those things aren’t easy. Changing, being transformed is not an easy process because we have to be willing to admit what we are. We have to be able to see what we are and want to see the error, the wrong in our life and want to change that.

Then it goes farther. We have to act upon that want to change it. Because God will show you what you need to do. He’ll show you what is in front of you, what has to be done. That’s clear. Or God will make it clear. But so often human nature makes excuses, has reasons why it can’t do certain things.

Just like the series we’ve been going through and will go back to. We’re not complete with it, about Saul and Samuel. Samuel and Saul and what took place there. There is so much to learn from that because it’s about human nature. It’s about what we’re like and how we make excuses. “Well, I couldn’t do this…” and we justify ourselves for what we’re doing, and we think that’s okay before God. Disobedience is never okay before God. It just isn’t. And for us, it cuts us off from His holy spirit.

So, when I read something like this and think of the process we have to go through, it hurts to see people making wrong choices in life. Because God has placed so much before us. The problem is, so often, because we haven’t immersed ourselves in what He offers us, that it isn’t real as it should be. The more real it is to you, the more you see it.

That’s why I love what we’re going through in the sermons here at the Feast. Because the next series that we’re going through ties in very strongly with this series, and there is so much there. But a lot of it we’ve heard, we just haven’t seen it all.

We can’t see everything. The last book, there are things in there that are written that we can read through. But to see it, to know what’s there, there are things we can’t grasp because we’re not there. We’re at different levels of what we can see and what we can understand. We can go through it and think, “Ah, got a good hold on this, got a good handle.”

That doesn’t mean you have to know everything of the Seals and the Trumpets and have those down pat and all of that. But to grasp it as you’re reading it as to what is being said about how God is working in our lives, about what God has done in our lives? Because the history of our lives helps us to understand where we’re going. It’s a part of sitting in a booth, the Feast of Tabernacles and what this is all about, and that we do it all year long, that we meditate upon or we think about it.

Because, if you don’t think about it, whether it be in prayer or just reading and then stopping to think about things you read or sermons or whatever it might be, if you don’t think about it, it doesn’t become real up here. We have to place ourselves in that scheme and in that story.

Sometimes we can become weary of hearing. I remember people taking about Mr. Armstrong toward the end, especially toward the end. He was getting older and frail and there were different types of sermons. But one, basically, a series, if you will, because each time he would get up and speak over a long period of time, the two trees. People in the Church I heard make comment about, “He’s saying the same things.” It’s like, “I’m tired of hearing about the two trees! [Snore!],” and people fall off to sleep. Sometimes literally. But spiritually, fell off to sleep because they didn’t get what he was saying!

They didn’t understand that each time he was building upon that story! And he was excited about it. He wasn’t just repeating something. He was building on it every time! But he would go back to the basics with the hope and the desire, that’s what that’s about, that’s how God works with us, that as we continue to build upon basic things then we can begin to see the meatier, the weightier things of God’s way of life, of God’s plan and purpose and what He’s doing and how He’s doing it.

So, he was exceedingly excited when he would speak. I mean, you saw him! Those of you who saw him, you saw him. He would barely get up to the stage toward the end, and his hands when you saw them, and yet he would hit that podium, he would get so involved in what he was saying you couldn’t help but be stirred up by it.

Every time there was that which was new, there was that which he was building upon and it was up to us how much we would drink in. It really was.  A lot of people couldn’t, a lot of people, probably 90%, like he said, didn’t drink it in at all. They didn’t get it. Because toward the end he made those kinds of comments. He saw Laodicea in the Church while Philadelphia was still an era. The next era he saw coming alive, and he made comments earlier on about, “I wonder if 50%...” Then it got to the end, wondering, “If maybe only 10% of you get it!” That means 90% weren’t getting it.

It was that mindset, “Oh, here he goes again, the two trees. This is going to be exciting.” That was the attitude. They would express that attitude and it just boggled the mind. It showed they didn’t get it. That right there showed they didn’t get it.

How could you say that about God’s apostle? Because everything you ever learned about the truth came through that man! That’s why I’d get so stirred up sometimes, after the Apostasy hearing some ministers that had been scattered out here who were trying to hold on in the different organizations and trying to re-establish, redo his work, or start it again, or try to build it up to imitate him. Because they had to have magazines, they had to have TV, they had to do these things because it wasn’t finished yet, the gospel hadn’t gone into all the world yet.

The mind was closed, couldn’t see those things, and ministers openly making, if they would even mention his name, because a lot of them wouldn’t even mention his name. People who were scattered, ministers, gone to Ambassador College, had met Herbert Armstrong, had sat in his classes, had sat at the refreshing program when he would come in and speak, and they would talk about—I think of one individual—“I learned a lot of good things from him.”

“You learned a lot of good things? Hmmm. 21 Truths, actually, because you didn’t know the other three either. But when you came along and you were called and you learned all those truths, how did you learn them? Where did that come from?”

“God just gave it to me in my mind.” No, it didn’t work that way. Herbert Armstrong had tons of literature written and it revolved around the truth of God. Those things were expounded upon. Everything you could read in The Plain Truth, the editorials, whatever it might be in the publications he had, in the books he wrote.

“I learned a lot of good things from him.” If anything can make my blood boil, that comes pretty close to it. I feel it bubbling a little bit right now, getting hot. How can anyone say such a thing? It’s because they didn’t get it. They didn’t get that he was God’s apostle, and that God was working through him to teach the Church, to establish truth in the Church, to build upon that truth. They were to go out, the ministry was to go out and faithfully teach those same things and build upon those things, to expound upon them.

But as time went along they began to change a little bit here and a little bit there. Then we had an Apostasy where some couldn’t even see how they’d learned what they had. “I learned a lot of good things from him.” If they would even acknowledge that! Sadly, a lot of them wouldn’t even acknowledge that.

Do we get it? I believe everyone does, as a whole. Not everyone, but as a whole we do now. Hopefully, of the ninety percentile area, where it’s just reversed. Because I’m certain that there are many yet in the sense of that ten percentile or whatever because they lie to God in how they’re living their life. They lie to God in how they’re living their life. It’s hard to understand and it’s not, if you understand. You can’t lie to God. God knows every thought in your mind. You don’t have to speak it. He knows your thinking. That’s an ability.

God made the mind. God made us. He gave us of His holy spirit to attach to the spirit in man, to that essence that gives us the ability to think and reason, that lets this grey matter function and work. It’s a spirit essence that gives that ability. Otherwise, it’s just grey matter.

Even the animal kingdom has an essence in it that gives it the ability that it has. It isn’t just grey matter that somehow just functions. No, it’s programmed! They’re, if you will, kind of pre-programmed, like you would a computer. Geese are showing up more right now. Hmmm, I wonder why? It’s getting colder up north. There is a temperature they like, I guess, I don’t know, but God made them that way. Birds migrate. Things happen and they just do it.

I love the story about the monarch butterfly. If you’ve ever seen that. The ones, the massive amounts that come out of Canada and go all the way down to a spot, to an area in Mexico in this mountainous area, and you see trees and they’re on the bark, they’re on the trees, they’re just loaded.

If I have my story right it takes four generations of them to complete a cycle. Some go part way. They die off. Others come along; they go a little farther. The next generation goes a little farther. Then finally, when it’s all said and done, they go back. Now, I wish I had that down pat in my mind. It’s an awesome story. You can go on YouTube or whatever and find some of those.

But it’s so inspiring. How can this happen over a period of four cycles of lifetime, of different lifetimes, and each one goes in a specific way. They’ve taken some of these and taken them off to New York and different places. They have—it’s amazing what man can do now—put little tagging things on them so you can identify them and so that you can know their course and where they’ve gone. I don’t know how all that works. But anyway, they’ve taken some way out of the way, and you know what? They come back to where they can start that migration again. You think, ingenious. Ingenious little creatures to figure that one out. They do better than a lot of our electronics today. And you think, “Duh!” They’re pre-programmed. Because God put it in them. We don’t understand all that.

So, hopefully, we have people maybe, 10%, I don’t know, who aren’t fully immersed in this way. Maybe there are more. How long is this going to go? I don’t know. The title of this sermon, The Millennium Is Not Far Off. Look at the world, things that are taking place that we have known for ages and ages would eventually begin to happen, would begin to rumble. It’s not far off.

But the longer it goes, the more who will go by the wayside. So, you have to be determined to fight this to the end, whatever that end might be. Might be this month yet, I don’t know. Who knows? We could be that close right now. Because God hasn’t revealed it to us. That’ll be the next series. Anyway.

So, there is much we may go through as we go through, especially, the next series, and even here. We’ve heard so much of this and yet there are things we still don’t grasp and understand and that’s a process. That’s why we need to understand the process. You can keep building. Don’t turn off when you hear something, when you hear something that God repeats from Holy Day to Holy Day to Holy Day. Because as a whole, like Passover service, it doesn’t change. As a whole. Something might be added here and there that is pertinent to that moment in time, but as a whole, it’s a service and the same kinds of things we go through each year are there.

Every year they should move and motivate us, inspire us to understand our Passover and what he did, and the appreciation and the love that we should have for what he was willing to do for every one of us ought to become stronger. Not tired of hearing it. Not tired of going through it.

Atonement, how much does that change year by year? Trumpets? Well, that’s changed quite a bit at times. But that’s because we’re growing, and God is giving us more. Even Atonement God has given us more in this age, in this period of PKG.

It should never become boring. It should never come to a point like people were doing when Mr. Armstrong would get up there and people just automatically shutting off. You have to fight. You have to move yourself. You have to do certain physical things in order to receive the spiritual. You really do! You have to be willing to fight. That’s a plea.

So, again here, I’m going to read this again: “But these truths, they are gradually established within the Church so that we can come to stronger understanding and conviction…” That takes time. “…as we are blessed to build upon the foundation of a truth.”

This happens within the eras of the Church. Well, Laodicea started losing that. But it happened in Philadelphia primarily, and it’s been happening in PKG, that this is a part of a process, but it also happens individually in our own lives in the same way.

“…to build upon the foundation of a truth once it begins to be given. This process in itself is awesome to understand and it was mentioned how,” again here, in the sermons here, the first part, “we are going to focus on much of this process in the manner that we have grown as we go through this last part of the series now,” Part 2 here.

And I’m going to repeat a few things as we go along here. I just want to get into this.

“As truth began to be restored to God’s Church during Philadelphia, we didn’t learn everything all at once, but we have been blessed to gradually and progressively build upon it. And we’re still building.” And that’s exciting! “And because of this, there have often been periods of time where we have needed to grow in greater balance and truth that was being revealed.”

That’s just the way it is. We have to do that individually and we’ve had to do that as a Church because it’s the process by which God works with us, through which God works with us, as a body and as individuals. It’s just the way it works because of our nature, because of what we’re like.

“…where we have needed to grow in greater balance and truth that was being revealed,” and it’s the same way in PKG. We’ve had to grow in certain things. God didn’t just give us everything. He didn’t tell us, well, in 2008, by the time the thing about Pentecost and Trumpets was revealed, He didn’t reveal to us what was happening as some began to go off in different tangents and different ways, even in the ministry, and turn against God, became antiChrist. Mind-boggling. It started then for several of them. Well, for most of them.

As time went along it just, for some, it became worse and worse. But there was more balance of things that God would give later on. He didn’t give us everything all at once because we have to experience certain things first, and in doing that we come to deeper conviction as He reveals other things and tweaks what we haven’t understood. Because we function by the present truth, everything we have built.

I was thinking about that even in this, I think it’s the next part I’m going to go through, the next series, but there are situations where God reveals certain things and something else is shown that helps to clarify what we didn’t grasp, because we were building on the present truth. But as I was going through some of that I thought back to the times of so many things that we’ve had to build upon and tweak from our past as well, because it wasn’t all balanced. Things like, I mean, just little things, but they’ve been things that have even hurt people in the scattered body because they’ve never grown in that balance.

I think of one church organization that quit early on where an individual claimed to be a prophet and began to dismiss early on a leadership that had been passed on to Mr. Tkach—not an apostle, but to Mr. Tkach—and how some, because of certain things that were changing, they couldn’t take it. Now, he did turn into what we understand as the man of sin, the son of perdition. But in the beginning, you know what? God gave some things through him that the Church needed.

Things about doctors. Things about—I mean, this is big—birthdays. It used to be this thing; you couldn’t observe a birthday. You couldn’t recognize a birthday for some, for your own children. Now, how do you forget? How does a mother forget the birthday of her own child? How does she not acknowledge that or remember that when it comes around? She went through a lot for that to happen. It doesn’t just go away and it’s not sin! Yet that’s how it was treated because we weren’t balanced in some of those things, because of certain things that were done.

“Well, there was this great big birthday party bash in the Old Testament, and look what happened to all of them? They were all killed! Big birthday party! Birthdays are bad!” We didn’t have balance in that. And so, we came to understand and some of that associated with the fact of the world wanting to have a birthday for Christ and that, we understand, was not given by God, that it’s wrong, and it’s in the wrong time of year anyway. Didn’t fit scripture whatsoever.

But we were just wrong about that. But we didn’t know it, we didn’t know it at the time. But in time God began to reveal to us, “Wait a minute. There is some balance that’s needed here.” We had to grow in balance about lipstick, eye make-up or whatever it might be. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is still not some to this day who have some judgment about that based on the past one way or the other. Hopefully, that’s not around. Hopefully, we’ve matured beyond that. But do you understand that there are certain things that we have, and other doctrinal things as well, that need to be tweaked at times because we don’t have all the truth yet? It’s what we have to that point in time.

And so, we’re tried as to how we respond to it. How are you going to respond? What are we going to do? Are we going to go against the government that God has given us to that point in time of the present truth? Because that happened a lot in God’s Church through Philadelphia.

There are different things like that that were addressed, things about doctors. It was brought up and shown Herbert Armstrong used doctors. He really tried to use doctors, very much so, when his son had that wreck and died. Tried to save his life. Now, there were some who were so far gone within the ministry in some of those ideas it was like, “Gasp! He what?!” No, anyway. Because it was like doctors, medicine… We know some people in the scattered Body who can’t take an aspirin, can’t do certain things as far as medicine, or have had trouble doing it because it’s like it hurts the conscience. That shows where they are then, doesn’t it? They’re asleep and they’re caught in a fragment of time.

It’s like that interfered with calling on the elders of the Church, it interfered with faith. Because if you don’t have enough faith you’re not going to be healed. I can’t help but think in this area here where an elder’s wife was in a hospital down in Kentucky there (I think it was St. Elizabeth’s), and a minister had different ideas about what I’m talking about. She felt so guilty. Her husband felt so guilty that they were there.

I’ve known of death that didn’t have to be death, even with children, because of a stubbornness there. There was a stubbornness that if you just do it a certain way, and it was physical. You’ve got to do it or not do it and that’s faith. That’s not faith. That’s not what faith is all about. But see, some of those things we have to grow in, and we learn as we go. Because we can’t have it all at once. We can’t grasp it all at once.

We are quite a package to work with, human nature is. I marvel that God can work with us, that He can transform the mind. Yet we see that, and we experience that, but it’s still a marvel to me. It really is. But if we will continue to yield to what God has revealed to us, how He works with us, boy, life is exciting, it’s inspiring.

So, we’ve had to learn much because we can’t be given everything all at once. Because God wants us to come to conviction, not just dos and don’ts. “Don’t go the doctor.” “Don’t wear make-up.” “Don’t have birthdays.” Dos and don’ts in that area. And if you do and don’t then you’re going to be stronger in faith. No, you’re not. That’s not what faith is.

It’s obedience, yes. We have to obey God in the present truth we have, and through that process then in time, as we strive to draw closer to God, we can begin to understand. We can begin to understand why a man shouldn’t have long hair. We can begin to understand why a woman shouldn’t have what I have, no hair. We begin to understand some physical things there that teach us things that are on a spiritual plane. We can come to understand why God has given us the things that He has. We can understand why for 6,000 years women have been oppressed hideously by men. Because that’s just the nature of a creation where men are made strong, physically.

That’s what it is, gain control. Because all human nature, men and women, it’s controlling in many ways. Why do I say that? Because it’s selfish. It wants to control situations. So much in life, I don’t care what it is, the friction that comes is because we can’t control someone else, and yet we try. We want them to do what we see is best, the way I see is best, the way I want it, maybe. Maybe it’s not even best but it’s what I want. I’m sorry.

I hope we understand that it takes time to change that. The marvel of conviction that comes with applying God’s way. In the very beginning, sometimes there are certain things of obedience that just aren’t natural to us, because it’s spiritual, in essence, and so we do certain things that don’t come natural.

Tithing is not natural. As a whole, it’s just not something natural. But other things in life are that way as well, the short hair and the long hair. It may be not be because of our mind and how we think, and yet as time goes along, when we start doing it the way God says to do it, then we begin to understand. He opens up our mind to be able to see certain things.

He understands why little children, little girls, shouldn’t have dresses or whatever that are hiked up to the butt. Little girls. Because we have a lot of sick people in this world, sadly, today, and if they’re not concerned about that then something is wrong in their thinking. They want to teach from a very young age how to present yourself, how to be, how to dress. We begin to learn those things. We begin to learn things about the human mind.

This is an evil world out here. Very, very evil. Sometimes people can be very naïve in this world. We have to go through and learn things about obedience. As we do that and apply it we being to learn it, we begin to understand God’s way is right. We begin to see that. But we have to experience it in order to become convicted. That’s a marvel to understand if you understand it in depth, truly. Conviction. That’s what God wants.

See, in the Millennium there are going to be a lot of people who are going to obey much of what is out there, and they will never, never, never, never become convicted of it because they don’t want it. But they will give in to the peer pressure around them, because the peer pressure at that time is going to be a different world. It’s not going to be like we have today. One truth that’s in the world, one government that’s in the world, justice that’s swift and not carried out for weeks and months, and maybe even years. Fast.

There are going to be people who just aren’t convicted of that. They don’t want that in their life. They want something different. But because of so many others around them they’re just going to kind of go along with the flow. I hope you understand that.

You have to be convicted in the mind because God doesn’t want people just to go along with it, to give into the peer pressure or whatever it might be, or to the flow and we do that if we’re not careful even within the Church to this day. People can give into the flow of things out here and not stand up for God. You’ve got to take a stand.

It’s just the way it should be in our minds and our being. We stand for what is right. We go into the employer and tell them, and we try to do it in the best way we can, not in an obnoxious way. “Well, I have to go to the Feast of Tabernacles because it tells me in Leviticus 23 that I’ve got to do this and I’m going to obey God!” Pretty stupid. You don’t go to them that way. They’re going to think, “Oh, okay. What am I going to do with this one? How quickly can we get rid of them? We don’t want them around.” Whew! Can you imagine?

But we’ve had that happen in the Church because they weren’t balanced. Anyway, we have to grow in balance and what an awesome thing when we understand it.

So, yesterday we talked about how that the Millennium, that it’s not far off. It’s not a utopia. We’ve been learning that in PKG because before it was always seen as some type of utopia and thank God He’s shown us, oh, no. It’s not a utopia. Not at all. But it’s going to be so many times better than the world today because of one government, because of quick justice, like I just mentioned, because of the truth that’s readily available.

Everywhere today? People don’t know: “What’s Passover? What are you talking about, the Feast of Unleavened Bread? What in the world could that be? A feast? What is unleavened bread?” Absolute ignorance about God’s truth. But then, it’s going to be everywhere. Everybody is going to know it! What an awesome thing!

And so, the behavior of mankind, the way technology is going to be used, we’re not going to have tweets going out and people using that as a means of communication in the same way as it’s being done today, and Facebook and people taking these pictures of themselves. I die sometimes when I go out here and I see this long stick, and somebody is out here posing. That’s what they do! They go out and they take these pictures and then they put it on Facebook and other places, “Look at me! Look! And look where I’m at. See the Eiffel Tower in the background?” Well, put it down here. It’s crazy, human life.

So, it’s going to be an awesome time, indeed, the Millennium, but not a utopia.

I want to read some definitions of this, of the word “utopia.” “An idealized place, state, or situation of perfection.” Human beings are human beings in the Millennium. And you know what? They have human nature! Just because it’s the Millennium doesn’t mean the human nature goes away.

You think that there won’t be any arguments ever between a husband and wife? Because that’s the way people have thought about it in times past. “Oh, it’s just going to be bliss!” “Never a disagreement. Never, never, never.” “Children? Oh, there won’t be a problem there.” Oh yeah? What are children like as they grow up? Do they love everything you tell them? When you tell them, “No!” what do they do? They go do it. You’re tested. You’re tried. Human nature is human nature.

God isn’t taking that away. It was almost like, well, if we can have the lion and the lamb eating together and the lion is eating straw and the child can put their hand down in the asp hole, the snake hole, that everything is perfect. He must be going to do something with human beings too. There’s going to be some kind of a change. No, still going to be the same ole human nature. The lion is still going to be out there, so be careful. Crazy, the human mind sometimes.

So, “any idealized place, state, or situation of perfection.” “An impractical,” now, this is an old definition because it’s changed in recent times. So, this is an older concept of utopia that was kind of existent within the Church. But didn’t think about it this way. Anyway, it says here, “an impractical, idealistic scheme for social and political free form.” Well, even there, if you look a little bit more, you think, well, where is God in the picture of all that? So, this is all done carnally.

“A world in which everything and everyone works in perfect harmony.” Now, that one is kind of what people latched on to. It’s going to be perfect harmony, and forget the scriptures where God says, you know, “If Egypt doesn’t come up…” Which, we should understand what Egypt is. You know what that’s about? It’s not the country of Egypt. It’s like, “Oh, everybody that lives in Egypt, those people, they must be something else, these Egyptians, because God refers to them and if they don’t come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles…” It’s what they represent.

What does “Egypt” represent for God’s Church? Sin, living in sin, those who insist on doing things their own way. And if in a particular region or area of the world there are individuals, whether it be themselves or a group or a large group in a particular country or whatever, and this mindset is there and they don’t come up to observe, to keep God’s Feast as He says, as He tells them to at that time, God talks about punishment that’s going to come upon them, plagues and so forth, things that are going to happen to them that aren’t going to go well for them.

Then He says what? If they still don’t come up, what’s He going to do? He’s going to destroy them! Their life is going to be brought to an end. That solves the problem. People begin to learn it isn’t a smart thing to rebel against God, to rebel against Christ, to rebel against His government. There will be a lot of conformity because of that one, too, but it doesn’t mean that there are going to be individuals who, “Oh, now I’m convicted. I’m convicted.”

No, that kind of thing doesn’t convict people either, but it sure helps there to be greater peace and not rebellion in the world, and so that people who do want to live right before God have the opportunity of doing so without others oppressing and hurting them. That’s more about that than anything else.

So, over time some of the definitions have gradually changed to carry on a slightly different meaning that’s closer to what is coming. The first part of the definition: “An ideally perfect place, especially in it’s social, political, and moral aspects.” Wow! Now, that’s what we’re talking about. So, in that sense, yes. But as a whole, most people don’t have that definition of a utopia. Because of God’s government and so forth and because of one Church around the world as far as human beings are concerned it is going to be the most, if you will, as it says here, “an ideally perfect place” for human life. Because of human nature, it can’t be perfect. There is no perfection until we’re in the God Family. But that’s going to be awesome. At least during the thousand years.

The hundred years, it’s not going to be the same. Hope we understand that one. Because during the thousand years, each generation—I love it, how Herbert Armstrong explained that—it’s going to take three or four generations before things begin to be levelled out because things are passed down from generation to generation, and people who have the various ideas and cultures and so forth, and even religious beliefs in the world, that’s going to be passed along and people are going to carry it along. It’s going to take about four generations before things get to a point where the world can be worked with for the next several hundred years, until the Great White Throne.

And it will be an awesome world by that point in time. Truly will be. But there will be a lot who still don’t choose it, who aren’t convicted, who don’t really want it.

God doesn’t force us to enter into His family. We have to want it. We have to want our nature to change, and they’re going to have to do that during the Millennium as well. They’ll want to become convicted of God’s truth, not just to go along with certain things of it.

But the Great White Throne? You’re talking about resurrecting people in different ages. A lot of them, the last thing they’re going to remember is swinging a sword, throwing a spear, shooting an arrow, and they got it instead, “Thwack! Oh!” Can you imagine being resurrected and the last thing you remember is whatever happened to you? Now, you’re not going to remember much of it, but when your head gets lopped off…? Anyway.

There are going to be a lot of situations out there where people are going to be horrified. You’re in a car wreck and you die. You don’t know you died. But that’s going to be the last thing in your mind, what was happening, flying through the air and glass and then nothing.

But there are going to be a lot of people. The people who offered up children in sacrifice to Moloch, that kind of a mind? Their own children because they thought it would please their God, Moloch. And so, they go out there and they build a fire, and they offer up children. Think, hmmm… Resurrected, given an opportunity for what is true, to be able to see what mankind under God’s rule has done for a thousand years, and now they’re alive. Wow!

There are going to be lots and lots of people, 6,000 years of people who are, when they are resurrected, their minds are steeped in sin. That’s a difficult one to grasp.

Again here, “an ideally perfect place, especially in it’s social, political, and moral aspects; a place of ideal perfection, especially in laws, government, and social conditions.” You can’t get any better than that with God’s government. But that’s not what they’re thinking of here in this definition, obviously. It’s like this could never be, this could never happen.

Let’s turn over to Isaiah 43. So, even with that new age that’s now so very close, so very near to becoming established, we know that indeed God’s government is one of perfection. I marvel we’re going through a series about God’s government. There are things there we need to grasp and understand and become more deeply convicted in. Because that’s a process.

Because of that series you’re going to be able to become more deeply convicted about God’s government and how it works and the need for it in one’s life and to be able to see how we resist. Because until you can see certain things and make the choices to fight it you can’t change. Through that process of choice we can become more deeply convicted and want it even more, to be in unity, harmony, and oneness with God.

Who wouldn’t want that in God’s Church? To be in unity and harmony, of the same mind as Almighty God and His Son, Joshua? That should be the mind we want, to be in unity and harmony, to be convicted of everything in the word of God. If we don’t have that, what do we have?

So, let’s first focus on God and what He will accomplish in that period of time, because that’s what this Feast season is about.

Isaiah 43:3, speaking to Israel here, For I am the Eternal (Yahweh), in other words, The Eternal One, your God Elohim, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. So again, we already looked at that. But again, starting there today. Incredible here what He’s saying that we talked about in Part 1 there.

Verse 10—You are My witnesses, says the Eternal, and My servant whom I have chosen. That you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God, there is no El, formed, in other words, fashioned, made, or created, neither shall there be after Me. In other words, no eternal God. There is only one Yahweh, only one. That’s something that God has given us in time that we’ve come to deeper conviction of. It’s so clear to us now.

But the process of getting there, I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget being down there, was it called “Cool Springs?” See, I’ve forgotten the place, but being in that Embassy Suites there and giving those sermons. Every day of the Feast a different sermon geared toward, revealing, showing that there was only, is only one Eternal God whose name is Yahweh Elohim, and that Christ, Joshua (which we knew as “Jesus” then), was not Yahweh Elohim. Because that’s the only way some people try to explain the scriptures.

That’s why the scriptures in Acts are so important to understand, what’s being spoken of, when you know it’s not about David; it’s between God Almighty and Joshua and this relationship, showing that Joshua has a beginning. Incredible! That he can’t be Yahweh because what’s being spoken of there is the God Yahweh and His relationship with His Son! And yet you can’t see it until God gives it to you. You can’t see it.

I think of one individual, it wasn’t until the last day about Melchizedek, but they stayed, and they kept going through the sermons. But they couldn’t see and it was a battle in their mind. And then, because they were persistent, kept at it, and heard about Melchizedek, who he was, Yahweh, and the relationship there through time then with different ones like Abraham and so forth, and what took place, and then the mind was opened up to it.

Sometimes we have to fight for, if we know how God is working, where God is working, how we got to where we were. Why are we here? How was anyone in Philadelphia there? How was anyone in the ministry that went through Ambassador College, how were they there? Through Herbert Armstrong. That’s how God works. Understanding that is an awesome thing, truly is.

I, even I, am the Eternal; and besides (without, apart from) Me there is no Savior.

Verse 15—I am the Eternal, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. What an awesome thing that we understand what this is about, “the creator of Israel.” We’re a part of that creation. And yet there are many still out there scattered today that are hung up on physical tribes. They go into Revelation and they can’t grasp certain things there about 144,000 and how there are 12,000 out of every tribe. It’s like, well, that’s kind of tough.

Yet, until God gives it to you, you can’t see it. God has to show you the truth. He has to reveal it to you. Then we have to make choices when He does.

I am the Eternal, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. Beautiful! So, we’re keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, as we read earlier, unto the Eternal God of the universe. Beautiful. It’s what we’re doing at this Feast of Tabernacles; thankful to God, rejoicing before God, grateful for what He’s given us to see and understand and know, so deeply thankful to understand how incredible blessed we are, rejoicing before Him because of the truth.

Jude 1:1—Jude, the servant of Joshua the Christ, and brother of James, to those who are sanctified by God the Father, beautiful, set apart, set apart for holy use and purpose, have opportunity to receive something in their life. The mind of God, the impregnation of God’s holy spirit in our mind so that we can begin to be transformed and begin to change as we make choices throughout that process and the things we experience and the hardships and the trials. We learn through those trials and they cause us to focus on various things and making choices along the way, and if God’s in the picture we’re going to learn much through the trials we go through. God will teach us, and we will grow.

…who are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Joshua the Christ. What does that mean? How are you preserved? It has to do with you. If you’re making the choice, to understand he is your Passover, to know that every day of your life you can ask God for help, you have a relationship with Him because you can be forgiven of your sin because of what Christ did. He died so that you can be forgiven of sin so that God and Christ can dwell in you up here in the mind, so that the word of God remains alive and is able to grow, so that mind is able to grow and change. Awesome!

…preserved in Joshua the Christ, and called. I marvel at how God has brought us to this Feast and the things He’s had us focus upon. My choice is God Almighty, to understand our calling and what God has done to call us out of this world. It’s by our choices that determine our course in life then, that determine our relationship with God and whether or not and to what degree then we can grow spiritually. Called – never to forget your calling, always to understand it, embrace it, love it, be thankful to God Almighty for it. Who are we to have been called? And to understand the Great God of the universe is the one that has to do that individually?

Out of all the people around the world and that we have such opportunity? You really can’t understand it. But you can be deeply, deeply, deeply thankful and humbled by that. Because there is nothing richer in the world. There is nothing greater that could be given to anyone on earth than that. Nothing!

…mercy unto you. Oh, we receive incredible mercy from God. He is so merciful to us, so patient with us.

…and peace. Something that I love. Because I hate drama. That’s what the mind has to become more deeply convicted of. The more you hate drama, the more you’ll address it in your life, the more you’ll repent of any of it in your life. Because, you see, to respond to drama, to yourself experience drama, means something is going on in the mind. That’s a battle and that takes time and it takes the experiences of different things that happen. Then we begin to see the treasure, the beauty of the mind of God and the peace that we can have by doing things, striving to have God in our life and doing things that are pleasing to Him, that He is first, that He is first in everything. That becomes far more deeply important to us then and we learn through that process. It’s a beautiful thing.

“…mercy unto you, and peace.” Because that’s what God leads us to through the mercy that He gives to us; it’s this peace that comes from Him. He has sacrificed. He sacrificed peace when He created the angelic realm. He knew what was going to happen in time. I believe He knew exactly who it would happen to, the one who was given the most. Because of a spiritual creation, he was given more than all and he turned against God Almighty. He became the adversary to God and God’s plan and God’s way of life. A third of the angelic realm followed him, went the same way, listened to his, as it says in scripture, “trafficking.”

The more you understand what that’s about the more meaningful that word becomes. That “blah, blah, blah, blah, blah” trafficking, “my way” trafficking. “Look what God’s doing! Look what God’s going to make! What about us?” As soon as they gave in just a little bit to that the mind began to change because it’s a spirit mind. If they wanted that, then that trafficking paid off for that being and just spread around. A third of the angelic realm. Incredible!

And yet God knew what was going to happen, to give up peace. There have been battles and wars in the angelic realm of things we can’t comprehend. You go back and you read about Daniel and how long it took for them to come to him because of this war that was going on in the angelic realm. I don’t understand that. But that’s what it says. Was it thirty days? Whatever that period of time this war was going on, this battle was going on in the angelic realm? Power!

Again, God allows it. Could God have stopped it? Yes. But there are things to learn by what God allows in His creation. Then there are times He will intervene to deal with it. But as a whole He’s allowed it to go on because why? Why would God allow war in an angelic realm? Do we understand that? Because it should be so very clear!

Because there are two-thirds of the angelic realm who chose to continue in God’s way! God lets them experience the fullness of life and growing in greater conviction in their lives of the choices they made long ago, of how great God is and that they’re a part of a great process, and that they were able to engage and to fight against the adversary of God. Awesome! Because that’s a blessing to them then and that excites their life. They have purpose and direction, and they have had since they were created. Just as much as we have a purpose in things in the future and we look forward to them. God lets us go through many things in life to learn those things. Awesome, the Great God we serve and what He lets us understand!

…and love (agape), be multiplied. It’s what we want, to have that kind of mind.

Zechariah 6. We read this. I’m going to go on down to Isaiah 66. We’re just now catching up. Isaiah 66:1. These scriptures we’re going through, especially in the Old Testament, God gave things that were only understood on a physical plane in such a large part, and yet we’re blessed to understand the greater part of God’s plan and purpose that’s on a spiritual plane and in His family, a spiritual family, Elohim.

Isaiah 66:1—Thus says the Eternal, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Now, people can look at that physically and say, “Now, that’s kind of a strange looking thing, I’m up here sitting and my feet are standing on the earth.” No, it’s not about that. It’s giving an example of something that we can have as a part of our mind, physically, yes, but to understand the spiritual part of that, of how vast a difference this is, what God is like, how great He is, of something that’s hard for the mind to comprehend.

…and the earth is my footstool. What are you? What are we? That’s what it’s supposed to help us to grasp – how great God is. Now, I think of the scriptures that talk about David and he talked about looking into the stars in the sky in the heavens, the physical universe, and yet he was moved by that. “What is man then, that You’re mindful of us.” There’s so much out there we don’t even know what it is. But it’s so vast! And what are we? Now, that’s a good perspective to have.

That helps expand your thinking, your mind about how great God is. That’s what that’s about. And today, especially with that Hubble that just keeps going out there and the pictures that come back? That’s just going in one little direction! The farther it goes the farther it is away from everything else! We can’t grasp these things. But it helps us to learn in God’s Church there is no ability to understand God. There is no way to grasp that of God. Because we can’t even grasp the physical part of it.

That’s why I’ve loved going through sermons in times past where I have given that account about how vast the universe is, how great God is who created it all. I use the example of if you were able to visit the suns, not even the planets that are there, but if you’re able to visit the suns, so many in a second, and I can’t remember how many I’d said at that that particular time, maybe it was a million? I don’t know what it was at that time. But whatever the example is.

Now, even if you’re spirit . . . “Oh, did you see that? No, I whipped by too fast!” Just one star in a second and then another star the next second. That’s too fast! But to do thousands and thousands and millions of them and how long that would take you to do it? It was many, many trillions of years in time if you count all the stars that we know today, that we don’t even yet really know what’s out there, how much more is out there. Because you can only see so far and some of those things that are so far out there, you know, it’s taken billions of years for the light to reach the earth.

Where does that put us over 6,000 years, of things that could have been created out there that haven’t even reached the earth yet. The light hasn’t reached here yet because it takes billions and billions of years. Some of them so far away.

That’s why they talk about what we have grasped to this point is 13.5 billion light years away. Hmmm. Could be a trillion light years away. We don’t know yet because the light hasn’t reached the earth yet from the time it was created. We don’t know the vastness of the universe.

Anyway, incredible God we serve. That’s why He says this. To show us with puny understanding, “the heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.” How big are we? What are we when we think we’re so great as human beings? “Look what I’ve done!” I hate to almost say that because I hate that expression. “I’ve done ‘this’! I’ve done ‘that’.” Oh, you must be great.

It’s like the minister I refer to that “raised up” all these churches. Wow! I am impressed. I’m sorry. I hate pride. It’s something we have to grow in. We have to hate it, because if you don’t hate it, if we don’t see certain things in our self and recognize when it starts to rise up, if you hate it, you know what, you’re going to nip it in the bud a lot quicker. You’re going to be a lot happier because of it. You’re going to be a lot more at peace with God, truly.

The earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you build for Me? And where is the place of My rest? “What can you do? The earth is My footstool! How are you going to build a temple, and I’m going to dwell in that? How are you going to get Me inside when the earth is My footstool?” That’s the point! You can’t contain God in a little place like that. That’s physical and God is spirit.

For all those things My hand has made. “I’ve made it all! It comes from Me.” …and all those things have been, says the Eternal. But to this person, that’s what it’s talking about, to this one will I look, to the one that is a poor and a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word. That’s moved by a fear to not do what God has shown, to have a fear to not send in Holy Day offerings, whatever it might be. I don’t care if it’s a dime! The amount is immaterial. It comes back to your heart, your determination of your mind and so forth. It’s between you and God.

Yet people don’t do it, and yet people, maybe a month after the Feast, “Oh, I forgot to send in my Holy Day offering!” Well, where was your mind?! Don’t you know every year? Don’t you know when the Holy Days are? Where is your dedication in your mind? Is it on God? Because that’s what those things reveal, where is God in our life?

And yet, inevitably, it happens. It’s between you and God and if God isn’t any more important than that? That’s why we’ve come to a point in time where no more do we have baskets. It’s our individual responsibility.

Just like prayer and Sabbath services. We don’t have to have individuals come up here and pray that God bless us, that He open up our hearing, that He bless us and inspire us. Because, if you don’t do that individually personally, that prayer isn’t going to do diddly-squat for you anyway. So, it’s something you’ve got to do in your relationship with God Almighty because you want inspired on the Sabbath, you want inspired on the Holy Day and throughout the Feast of Tabernacles in those things that you hear. It’s your prayer to God that becomes, essentially, important at that time. It’s an individual thing, isn’t it?

We’re learning through those different experiences that God lets us have in His Church. And yet some, sometimes (I almost said the expression here that wouldn’t have been very good) go nuts, ape… (You know the rest. Anyway, that’s what came into my mind, so I have to fight against some of those things.)

Anyway, I think of times past where we’ve had people that if we didn’t have music anymore in services, if we didn’t have different things, if we don’t have sermonettes, there were people who went crazy. “Can’t have sermonettes anymore? Boy, you are sure taking a lot to yourself now. You’re just the only one who’s going to speak and give sermons?!” Those things were said!

I can’t help but remember one individual, because he wasn’t going to have the opportunity of giving a sermonette at the Feast, and boy, did he show his colors. Because it was owed to him! “I went to Ambassador College! And some of these giving sermonettes, they never did. I have a lot of ability, and who are you to not let me have a sermonette?” I thought, well, that’s a puzzle, isn’t it, that you got me stymied. But you know what the answer? “You’re not giving a sermonette. Especially, not now.” That was easy for me.

It’s amazing, the human mind, how lifted up we can become. We have to hate—hate—pride and haughtiness, the human mind, the way we think, to come to understand how great God is and the opportunities He gives to us. God tells us what He can work with. “I can work with someone of a poor and a contrite spirit, who has a humble spirit, who wants to be worked with, who wants to change, who wants to repent of sin when it’s shown to them, who wants to flee sin, who wants to come out of Egypt, who wants to be delivered, who wants to have peace and God’s love in their life more fully. I can work with that. I will work with that. I can’t work with anything else.”

God won’t work with anything else. If pride is there and repentance is not there, there comes a point in time where God says, “No more. I can’t… You don’t want it? I’m not going to force it on you. I’m not going to force you into a situation. I’m not going to make life so miserable for you and do things in your life that you’ll say, ‘Oh, if you just get me out of this foxhole, I’ll repent, I’ll do whatever You say,’” and then they get out. Because the mind isn’t changed. It’s just for a moment it’s suffering so much it might cry out to God, “Please deliver me. It’s getting so hard.” Sorry.

This reflects then, that we go through this, the next verse. I think how incredible it is. God shows what mankind is like though and reflects God’s desire for mankind, what He wants from us. That’s why it speaks of and we should embrace it, God seeks those who worship Him in spirit, which requires repentance and access to God and God’s holy spirit coming into their life. He wants those who worship Him to worship Him in spirit and in… What was that other one…? (I’m kidding. I may have trouble at times but that was for your benefit.) Yes, truth.

And the reason I put it that way is because what isn’t truthful to God? Sometimes people can’t be truthful to God because they have these little sins, they have these little secret sins. They think they’re secret. It’s kind of like Adam and Eve walking in the garden and they get in this foliage and it’s so dark in there and it’s like they’re hiding from God.

No, you’re not. He sees you. But you don’t get it. He made you. He created you. He created all this around you. But they couldn’t understand that because it has to do with spirit, spiritual. He knows every thought in their mind. Incredible story when you look at it in the physical plane that it is and then recognize it, that God’s conversing with them, what He says, and waits for their response. And how are they going to respond? Well, anyway, we know.

But it says here, He who kills an ox is as if he slew a man. What is He saying? In other words, you come up and what’s the greatest thing you can sacrifice before God? What is the greatest thing you can offer up before God in physical Israel? An ox. Bigger than a pigeon. Bigger than a lamb. Bigger. Bigger than a calf. Much bigger and the most valuable.

God is saying it’s an attitude, that this is human thinking, that they’ll go through the motions of “Look what I’m giving.” It’s about self. “Yep, it’s an ox. There are three more behind it.” Look how great I am. So, taking these oxen up there to give before God. Because it’s the wrong spirit; it’s done for the wrong reasons. It’s about self; self is in there. That’s the way it was with carnal Israel. They couldn’t help it because they weren’t being worked with spiritually.

He says, “He who kills an ox as if he slew a man.” It’s an attitude. His attitude toward God. Horrible. It’s their attitude. In other words, that’s our attitude and spirit toward God.

He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck. In other words, this is repulsive. It should be repulsive to us. It’s repulsive to God. But it’s that attitude of service toward God, of sacrifice toward God. Because, if the heart and the desire isn’t there for the right reasons, to give the very best, because that’s the attitude of mind that should be there.

I think of being in this country that I mentioned a little earlier and going through some of the streets at a particular time when they were observing certain religious holidays, and people were coming out with white garbs, and children as well that were being taught, and drenched in blood all over. Carts being pulled behind a horse, or whatever it was. It might have even been an ox, I don’t know. I don’t remember now. You’re following behind in a vehicle and that smell that starts coming in because of all the carcasses in this thing that you can easily see as you’re behind it. Then learning that they would go out and give some of those things to the poor and so forth.

But learning from all that, that the ones they chose were not the best of the flock. They were the worst. They were the lame. They were the ones that had problems. So, it wasn’t really that much in their heart and mind of being toward God and giving God the best. I thought, what an incredible thing, to see that, to experience that, to hear that admitted, that this is what we’re doing. Incredible!

God is addressing this about human nature and what we can tend to be like on a spiritual plane as well, if we’re not careful, because, you see, how much worse is this for anyone who’s been called into God’s Church, who’s been given the opportunity with God’s spirit dwelling in them? So few in the world have ever been given the opportunity of God and Christ dwelling in their mind, to have that access so you can begin to grow spiritually, and then to give in to pulls in the world, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” whatever it is, whatever riches it is we think we have to have, and steal or cheat or whatever, or be something that’s on a (generally) a sexual plane that’s not right.

Then pride that just has it’s own way of doing things that may come from the Church as far as government is concerned, you know, a little murmuring and complaining, “Well, I don’t know why Cincinnati gets to do that,” when they don’t even know what Cincinnati is doing. Well, “Why do others get to do this, and we can’t do this?” Hmmm, well, better make the most of what you can do. Attitudes and judging and thinking that’s just not good. It’s not healthy spiritually. Where does that come from?

…those sacrifice a lamb as though he cut off a dog’s neck. In other words, if the heart isn’t right before God, if God isn’t being placed first in our life, if we’re not striving to sacrifice in our lives to God, self, first and foremost, if we’re not working at those things then that’s what God wants us to understand, you might as well be out here and just take a dog and whack it’s neck off and say, “Okay, God, here it is. I know I should have given a lamb but, you know, here is the dog instead.”

That’s exactly what people do who steal from God. That’s exactly what people do who don’t stand up for God, who don’t put God first in their life. That’s exactly what people are doing if they go off on some tangent and want something sexually that’s pulling them in the world because that’s more important to them. They see this person or mess around on the internet with things that are a lot of people, perhaps, because they want to fill their mind with God, don’t they? Because God is first. Because God is so important to their life. Sick. Sick. Sick. Perverted. You think God’s going to bless that?

So, whatever it is that’s our weakness, that’s what God wants us to grasp. “Are you really putting Me first? Because if you’re not, what are you offering Me? The dog? Pile of poop? What are you offering Me?” Because that’s what we should see it as, really. You want to go put that on the altar before God? How do you think He’s going to like it? What do you think He’s going to tell you? “No, that’s a stinking pile of poop. I know what that is!” It stinks. It smells. That ought to get you some clues. That’s why He created it that way, that it’s not something you keep close to your nose. “Why do you think I’d want it on My altar?”

That’s why God created it as a smelly thing, because you don’t keep it around because it’s not a healthy thing. We’ve learned how to have water in the back of a thing and flush this thing and make it real swift, get rid of it. That’s a good idea. Maybe even have some matches around because it doesn’t smell good. Because of God made it that way for a purpose.

And yet we can do that to Him spiritually? How long will God give mercy? How long if He isn’t first? Candidly, He gives us a long time. He’s very patient. But there comes a point in time the farther we drift from Him, if that’s the direction we begin to go, which is going to happen to some before the next Feast of Tabernacles, it’s already been happening. It’s happened before the Feast. It’ll happen after the Feast.

I’ll be candid with you. This is the thing that wears at me the most. It has for every year I’ve been in God’s Church. Because it hurts. I take it a little personal, although I shouldn’t; I know it’s about God. But it still hurts because we’re a part of something together as a family, and when people don’t stand and put God first I can’t make them, I can’t give them anything, but what comes from God that He gives to all of us. But it’s up to us to take it, receive it, and put it into our lives.

…he who offers an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood. God wants us to grasp how ugly sin is. We wouldn’t dream of doing something like that physically if we were offering up physical sacrifices, but we’ll do it spiritually, if we’re not careful, because of sin. After everything He’s given to us and we do something like that? That’s why stealing from God and robbing from God, I’ve gone on about this for about three years pretty hard, pretty strong. And you know what? It’s still happening. It’s still happening!

And like I said, we don’t have to put out containers because it’s each one’s responsibility. We’re grown up. We better be grown up to where we know what we’re supposed to do. Everything doesn’t have to be done for us. Just like this year, are we grown up? Given the opportunity of how we’re going to observe the Feast and where and what we’re going to put into it. Hmm. Should be some lessons in all that.

…he who burned incense, as if he blessed an idol. So, God wants us to get the point how ugly sin is. Yes, they have chosen their own ways. Therein is the problem. We justify things in our own mind, that somehow something is okay. “God understands. He knows my human weaknesses.” Oh, really. Huh. Interesting.

…and their soul delights in their abominations. You know what? I love the way this is expressed. What does that mean “and they delight in their abominations.” So, what is that abomination? That’s the reason they do it because they delight more in that than they do in honoring God and putting God first. So, whether it be that other person that one lusts after in a wrong way, fornication, adultery, whatever it might be, these things have existed in God’s Church in times past. I hope they’re not today, but I’m not stupid.

So, these things have existed through time. The buying of something else and we max ourselves out on credit cards because that’s kind of the way it’s done today, and then all of a sudden doomsday is in front of us financially and what do we do? Well, begin to cut back on the amount of tithes we send in. Instead of sending in $50 we send in $25 if we’re making $500. Because that’s what 10% is. Instead of the $100 for $1000 we send in $50. These things have happened. And. They. Are. Still. Happening. In God’s Church. That blows my mind!

Individuals that aren’t dedicated. And you know what? We better be teaching our children those things as well. I don’t mean four and five-year old’s. Don’t do that. Six-year old, seven. They don’t grasp it yet. But at some point, you have to begin teaching them. Maybe somewhere in there when they begin to go to school and they understand math a little bit and you can begin telling them about tithing and giving them allowance or whatever it might be because of some work they’ve done, whatever it is. But we have a responsibility, parents have a responsibility to teach their children.

It’s like – I’ve heard this! – “Well, they’re not baptized yet, so I didn’t think they had to tithe. They’re not baptized yet, so I didn’t think they had to give a Holy Day offering.” Whoa! Give me a break! And that goes on still to this day.

…Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations. So those things that individuals have chosen, to rob from God, to steal God, whatever they have desired, their abomination, to make a payment on a car, to pay off something else, to move to a place, to buy furniture?

Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t help this one here, an elder. Visited one time and knew that there were things that weren’t right when it came to that, and asked the question, “So, Holy Day offerings, you haven’t been giving them, and you were ordained as an elder to serve God’s Church.” So, then the excuses, the different reasons, different things started coming out. And yet here is a giant TV, bigger than I had by far! We have a nice little, you know, TV, but this one here? And sound system? I don’t have a big sound system, great big things over here, the latest, pretty expensive stuff. Think, “Wow, you’ve got this.” I didn’t say it that way, but it was very evident there is plenty around here that you’re buying, that you’re accumulating, and you’re not giving a Holy Day offering? Even if it’s whatever. You don’t have a little bit of something here in your life? Because God commands it. That’s just the way it is.

Well, make a long story short, he was disfellowshipped. Certainly, not an elder in God’s Church. Certainly, not a member of God’s Church. Certainly, didn’t have God’s spirit working in Him to be able to do something like that, to offer swine’s blood upon the altar of God, to cut off a dog’s neck before God and say, “Oh, here God. Here it is. This is what I’m giving.” Or, “I’m not even giving that, actually.” Isn’t that amazing? “I’m not even giving the dog. I’m not even giving the swine’s blood because I want to take that home and drink it.”

We have to see human nature for the ugliness that it is when we disobey God. Human nature, if we do what it says here, “chosen our own ways,” is really ugly, hideous. It really is. The more we understand that the more we hate that and we want God’s way, the more we’ll flee from it. Because it’ll be appalling to us. We’ll see it in the light of what God’s saying here. This is ugly, see, this is really ugly.

That’s why I used to be dumbfounded at people who just continue to smoke when they’re told you’re not supposed to smoke. You might as well have this great big statue in your home in the corner of this giant cigarette. And maybe, you know, have it look like it’s burning, could put a red light back up in there, you know, and it kind of looks like it’s on fire at the top. Maybe even some steam type thing going through it because then that will look like smoke. Then you bow down to it. “Oh, Ciggy! Ciggy!” People who just keep puffing away, couldn’t give it up, because it was more important to them than God.

Now, that just blows my mind. I know things like that can be difficult. But you know what in God’s Church? You learn and you flee it, and you change, and you learn to hate it. The reason people wouldn’t quit is because they loved it. “Who delight in their abominations.” Even a puff away. Just love it more than God. Now, doesn’t that boggle the mind, such choices like that? Yet that’s happened a lot in God’s Church in times past. Better not be happening today. If it is, you’re pretty much gone, sadly. Just a matter of time before God makes it clear, brings it to the surface.

Verse 4—I also will choose their delusions… Isn’t it amazing? If God has chosen someone to be a part of the Church and they treat Him in this manner, this is what He says, “I chose you. I’ve given you every opportunity, everything… The best of the best of the best that can be given to a human being. So, because you’ve rejected that, I will choose your dilemma in life, I will choose your delusion.” God will be instrumental in bringing it upon us. Not a small thing.

Does God have that ability, to that power? Absolutely. Life is not pleasant when God is rejected.

I also will choose their delusions, and I will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not listen. So, speaking of Israel, of Ancient Israel, and showing it on a physical plane, mankind can’t choose God’s way of life unless God begins to drag us. We understand that word, to be “called.” God has to bring us along. God has to work with us when He starts calling us.

So, as far as carnal human beings are concerned, no one can hear. That’s why I get a little frustrated thinking about sending things out here in advertisements and knowing that nothing is going to happen in anyone’s life unless God’s drawing them. That helps us to understand then what God is doing. But to think this is the way mankind has been, always has been, and what is going to happen to the world. Because it’s the only way that the attention will be there for people to come to a point of humility where they will actually listen to God. Incredible!

When I spoke, they did not listen, but they did evil before My eyes and chose that in which I was not pleased. Hear the word of the Eternal, you who tremble at His word. So, we have to, there has to be that factor of fear (fear factor), anyway, there has to be that matter of fear in our thinking in our life to fear to not obey God, to not please God, to fear to sin, and if that isn’t there, wow, what can be worked with?

It goes on to say here then, Your brethren who hated you, who cast you out for My name’s sake. I think of what it says in Revelation about you being cut off. And for in the Church, when God begins to work with us, and we’re cut off from those around us, the world, because they don’t want anything to do with us. We experience something different and unique and we begin to embrace then a fellowship that’s unique as well.

It goes on to say here, Let the Eternal be glorified. But He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. So again here, if we make the right choices God will bless us and it will be exciting and we’ll be able to rejoice as we’re to do in God’s Holy Days and the meaning of the Feast and so forth.

The sound, the word meaning “the noise or thunder” of uproar from the city, a sound from the temple, a sound of the Eternal that renders recompense to His enemies. We know what this is about. What an incredible thing to know that we’re just a little way from the first event of the First Trumpet. Incredible!

I think of someone making a big to-do about some jets that had been sent out that carry nuclear weapons. They tried to say, no, it wasn’t for that reason, when President Trump went into the hospital, but after a time certain reports coming in that certain ones had been sent out. So, it’s like this message going out, “Don’t mess with the U.S.” Then someone made the comment about how that these are the aircraft that have the ability to destroy all life on earth. Thought, “Wow! What a way to put that one.”

Because the reality is there are enough nuclear weapons in the world, and probably right within this country alone—there are—that if they were unleashed upon the earth it could kill all human life, all life on earth.  But people don’t think about those things. They don’t realize how close we could be, and yet God says that’s what we’re going to come up to. What a horrible thing to think that’s what it’s going to take.

Just like I mentioned yesterday, to think, to grasp that one morning when we wake up, if it be that way, and there is no electricity, there is silence, eerie silence, no cell phone, and if you go out and try to go somewhere, very likely aren’t going to be able to go anywhere either because it won’t start. Very possibly. And so, we live in that kind of a world where you’re going to be struck with a fear. And this isn’t said to scare anyone. It’s just a reality so you can be prepared. It’s going to happen and it’s going to happen in this nation first.

To think that we live in that kind of an age with that kind of a power that can be unleashed in the atmosphere to mess it up—and we live in such a technological age right now—and nothing is there, think, can’t use anything? You think how pent up people have been because of COVID and having to stay at home or self-quarantine, people don’t know anything yet of what it’s going to be like.

Now, that’s why God’s been preparing us, that we have to understand this up here, that you have to understand as well, you’re going to be afraid. It’s just the way it’s going to be. It’s going to strike you all at once we’re there, and it’s not going to be a pleasant thing when you know what’s happened because you know what’s behind that. That will scare the tar out of you. It’ll scare me.

I was sobered the other morning just by the news of two people receiving COVID, having COVID. It’s scary because you realize this could be really close to something else happening, and that’s scary.

But when it really happens and you experience something like that, it’s going to be horribly sobering, it really is. Because after that in some large cities, it’s going to get a whole lot worse, a whole lost worse. First four Trumpets, the events of the first four Trumpets, when they totally cripple this nation, where it can’t respond. Will it respond to some things? Probably have time to do that in some areas. Will some take it upon themselves? Probably so. And here it begins.

But coming to a point where someone determines they’re going to put a stop to them totally. “If we don’t, we know some other nations who will. And if they think we’re going to side with them, they’ll strike us, so we’re moved and motivated to strike powerfully,” to destroy.

We’re going to live through things where our minds can’t grasp it. And so, is it a blessing that God has been preparing it? Better believe it, because it’s going to catch the rest of the world so off guard, to grasp something like that of that magnitude, to see the horror of that kind of thing taking place, of trying to protect yourself from radiation that’s going to sweep across the country, when Europe does what it’s going to do because Europe is going to do it?

They have a lot of nuclear weapons over there, and a lot of them have come from here. They can take control at any time. Just like in Turkey. Talk about that later on.

So, incredible what’s going on in the world, a spark here and there, that that may not start it, but that prompts and moves other nations into doing things that will spark it, what’s going to happen and fulfill certain roles that they’re going to accomplish. Armenia and Azerbaijan, Belarus? People, “What’s a Belarus?”

The world doesn’t even know these things are going on, as a whole. You’re not receiving it on your channels, as a whole. Not really. Not powerfully so as to the implications of it and what’s happening and how it’s forcing other nations to make choices and stuff, and primarily between the big powers then. Because they’re involved.

And what Turkey is doing in the midst of all this, wanting to help out Azerbaijan. Because Armenia is in the middle between Turkey and there and there is a man over there who has an idea of the Ottoman Empire and he wants to expand into that. He’s pushing himself into the gulf. Even French warships and different warships have been down there to counteract. Then the Soviet Union has moved massive warships in that area. Because you know what? There’s gas in the region.

If you can find oil and gas anywhere on the earth in big quantities, then you know what happens? Nations will go to war over it. We’ve gone into a lot of wars in our recent history because of that very reason, the petro-dollar. Incredible!

So, how close are we? The Millennium is not far off. Hopefully, we’re ready as much as we can be. The closer you are to God the more you’re going to be able to deal with the things that transpire, that take place. Truly.

The sound, an uproar from the city, a sound from the temple. It’s God’s people. You’re going to cry out in ways you’ve never cried out and that’s good. …of the Eternal that renders recompense to His enemies. Because it’s come time, a judgment. So much of the judgment throughout the Bible is about this period of time that’s coming. It’s not a final judgment upon all mankind. That’s not what that’s about, when you talk about those things. It’s about this time, that God gave 6,000 years, but at the end of it He’s putting a stop to it. He’s going to bring in His government, His Kingdom.

Before she travailed, went into labor, as we heard in the opening sermon here. Before she travailed, she brought forth. She gave birth. So, what does that mean? I love this because how God explains it, because it isn’t what happens when it comes to giving birth.

Before her pain, before sorrow, in other words, came, she was delivered of a man child. So, we understand what this is about. In other words, speaking of Christ. So, everything that’s built upon him, the beginning of God’s Kingdom, the beginning of God’s Family, the beginning of the government of God, already started a long time ago—before the labor began. That’s what’s being described here. Through that period of time most who are going to be a part of 144,000 have been from the time of Christ’s resurrection to the time of his return. Most, because of the formation of the Church and God working with the Church over the past 2,000 years.

So, it’s talking about this. Before she travailed, before she had labor, she brought forth. She gave birth, in other words. Before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? God says His plan is over a long period of time. He has worked for 6,000 years to prepare His government to be brought to this. 6,000 years! Awesome. A few here and a few there through time. When it’s all said and done exactly to the exact number there will be 144,000. We’re just kind of waiting for that to be fulfilled.

That should put an impetus on each and every one of us. We don’t want to hold things up. Yield to the process. Cry out to God. Seek to change faster, more in your life. Seek to get rid of sin. Seek to be right with God. Speed this up, type of thing. That’s my desire.

Shall a nation be born all at once? It takes time. For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her child. Incredible, what’s coming. What’s coming is a matter of God’s government.

Well, I have so much more and so little time to give it.

I’m going to read some things here I do want to include at the end of this. The timing of all things is in God’s hands. We have learned that in a profound way, obviously, and we’ve had to experience a lot of things to come to see things in a way that help us to better understand how God is working in our lives and how God is working with the Church. Because that’s what it’s teaching and we’re to learn from that. And, hopefully, we’ll see that more in the next series.

We know we’re very near to the Millennium becoming established, but we’re to learn from what we have been experiencing in PKG and ever since you’ve been called and become a part of it until we come to that moment in time. Because we grow through experience. We truly do.

We’re to learn from how our timing is not God’s timing. You think, well, that’s pretty easy. That’s pretty simple. No, it’s not. Instead, we’re to learn how and what God does in His timing. We’re to learn from what God is doing. So, we work with the present truth that we have as we go along, but God has reserved many things to himself. When it comes time, just like the first event of the First Trumpet, we’ll know it. We’ll know it. We’ll know what’s started when that fear strikes us to the core of our being in a way that we can’t even imagine.

So, I think it’s good that we consider the fulfillment of those things Herbert Armstrong spoke of concerning the rise of Europe. He said, “They’re going to rise one last time.” I marvel at this, I truly do. I hope you do as well. Because it’s incredible what God gave. When He talked about those things having to do with the statue of Nebuchadnezzar that was built and you go all the way down, finally, to the feet and the toes, iron mixed with clay. What a beautiful analogy to give, to express something of what the European Union is like. Strong, have power, they have great nuclear power that they can use at any time. But not cohesive, not bound together, arguing with one another, not fully in a single government yet, yet they have government…but they don’t. Incredible how God describes it.

And finally, they’ll come to an agreement with ten of those nations at the very end, just ten. We have a pretty good idea because of some things that have already been signed and done between ten nations. But it may not be exactly those ten…but maybe? We don’t know yet. But we know it will be ten, because God says so, and what they’re going to do.

But I marvel at the process here after Herbert Armstrong stated in strongest terms at the beginning about Europe, when he started, especially in 1950 and some of those things began to come out in The Plain Truth, of what was going to happen, that Europe would rise again. Right after WWII, right after Hitler was defeated, right after the Nazi regime was defeated, and yet he’s telling them they’re going to rise again, and Germany is going to be at the helm.

Boy, people got upset! People got so upset at what he was saying on radio and what he was writing. But he was talking about it because he knew what God said. Then there, talking about they’re going to have a union of nations together, they’re going to have a common currency, they’re going to have a common military. People just laughed it to scorn, mocked it.

I think of how Europe finally came together about seven years later as the European Economic Community, which in time became the European Union. Incredible. But seven years after he said it, finally that first stages of it began to form. Very meager.

Then it wasn’t until 1999, right at 13 years after his death—I marvel at this—the Euro came out. He wasn’t around. He said it was going to happen and people mocked it. But I remember travelling to Europe and we’d have to change currency from one country to another. If you were in the Netherlands and going on down to France or going on over to Germany, they all had their own currencies. But after this period of time, pshew, changed! Took time, but eventually changed within all those countries to where they were able to have a Euro, a common currency. Incredible.

It wasn’t until 2018 then, 32 years after his death, that finally it’s actually written on paper, 10 nations have signed a military agreement. Awesome! Awesome, awesome, awesome.

And what remains yet? WWIII. Because that was what it was all about. The message was all about what was going to happen, a final great war, and then God would stop it and usher in a new age, what we’re picturing at the Feast of Tabernacles, in part, the Millennium and the Great White Throne that will come.

How blessed are we to know these things? The world doesn’t grasp it. The world doesn’t know it, but you do. Thank God. Thank God and be ever so grateful that you have a part, an opportunity to continue on. Awesome!