God Speaks To Us

Wayne Matthews

October 31, 2020

Welcome, everybody, to this seventh-day Sabbath.

Brethren, you may remember some time ago, it was over a year ago, that I mentioned in a sermon at a time when there was a small three year old boy and it was at the Feast and we’re walking along coming back from a meal that night and the child looked up at me and said, “God speaks to us, doesn’t He, Wayne?” I realized then that at the age of three that a person can say something like that, but the reality is, to understand it, it takes something different. It takes God’s holy spirit.

The world would say that God speaks to them. There are many people that would say God actually speaks to them. Well, God actually does speak to us, and it’s an incredible thing to understand, that God doesn’t speak directly as He does to us, we know by the power of God’s holy spirit, because the world doesn’t have God’s holy spirit.

So this statement, “God speaks to us, doesn’t He, Wayne?” is actually true. Now, to come out of the mouth of a child without that understanding...we actually understand it, that God does speak to us. Now, that’s an incredible thing.

Now, we know there are Pentecostals and others that would say that God speaks to them, but the truth is that He doesn’t. But God does speak to us.

We can fully understand this statement, that God can speak to us. God can speak to somebody by the power of His holy spirit. Now, we’re going to go through a few truths as we go through this particular sermon and look at how that takes place and what it really means to us because it’s an incredible thing that the Eternal God that has existed forever speaks to us by the power of His holy spirit.

One thing we wouldn’t do, true, we wouldn’t go out there and say, “Yeah, God speaks to me,” because you know what people would say. “You’re a lunatic. What do you mean, God speaks to you? Sure, you’re so special God speaks to you.” The truth is, we are special to God and God does speak to us, but we wouldn’t go out and tell people that because they can’t, with the natural carnal mind, understand it.

So to fully understand and experience this requires the gift of God’s holy spirit, which we have. The truth is an incredible thing. This is an incredible truth that we have, that this is God speaking to us.

The purpose of the sermon is to look at the fact that God speaks to His people by the power of His holy spirit. The title of the sermon is God Speaks To Us.

Truth #4. Truth 4, as we know, was the first truth that was given to Mr. Armstrong. Comes out at this particular time we know the first three that were with the previous era before this era, and it’s the government of God.

Now, the government of God is actually a spiritual matter and it requires God’s holy spirit to understand it. If, for example, we were to try to communicate the government of God to the natural mind out there, if we were to say, “I’m under Church government. I’m under the government of God,” how do you believe that that would be perceived? Because they would just go, “Okay, it’s a dictatorship,” because it’s from a pyramid, right, it’s from the top down. They’d say, “Well, it’s obviously a dictatorship. You follow whatever this person tells you.”

Well, the truth is the government of God is not a physical organization. It’s actually a spiritual organization. Therefore, to understand it or to try to explain it to anybody, well, the natural mind won’t grasp it. They’ll only see it as a dictatorship. They’ll say, as it was to me when I remember resigning, “You’re being brainwashed, Wayne.” I thought to myself, “Yeah, that’s true. My brain needs washing.”

Because they can’t understand God’s government. But we can because God’s holy spirit’s involved, and therefore, we can understand it.

Now, the history of the Church, the fact of it, the history of the Church shows that there have been a lot of people that have not really understood the government of God. Not really. Because it’s something that we have to live, that we have to believe and live.

So Truth 4 (1) is: The government of God, which we know is a spiritual matter. When Christ comes, he will restore God’s government to the whole earth.

Now, when you look at it, there are going to be millions of people that resist change. They’re going to resist it. They’re not going to like it. We often talk when driving around and you look at certain situations, there are thousands of people out there that are going to hate God’s government. They do not want to be governed. It’s a spiritual matter, but in the beginning they’re going to see it as a physical thing. “What do you mean? You’re going to control me? You’re going to dominate me? You’re going to tell me what to do and that my opinion is irrelevant?” That’s going to go down really well in today’s world.

But the truth is God’s government; an opinion is just that, because we rely on something that they don’t understand, which is God’s holy spirit. We believe and we know that God governs the Church through an apostle and it’s all based on God’s holy spirit. We yield because of God’s holy spirit.

Now, a person can yield to government without God’s holy spirit because they can go, “Oh, okay. I’ll just shut up and won’t say anything,” and be in rebellion in the mind and not agreeing with a decision that is made in the Church. But in the end that will come out; God will work it through. Over time, their opinion or view, or their resistance to God’s government will be revealed. Sometimes it takes years for that resistance to be revealed. But people go along for periods of time in God’s Church not under the government of God. Because the truth is to be under government, under God’s government on this earth in the Church requires God’s holy spirit. It’s pretty straight forward. You have to have God’s holy spirit dwelling and living in you to be under government, to yield to the government of God.

God’s government was restored to His Church during Philadelphia. Now, we understand Mr. Armstrong provided this and we understand how it works. We should by now know how it works. It’s all based on the spirit of the law, the spirit of the matter. It is not a government of men where decisions are made by such practices as voting or one’s own will (or one’s opinion) but as God leads through the power of His holy spirit.

So that’s the first point about God’s holy spirit. God does speak to us. How does He speak to us? Through His government. That’s how God speaks to us, and we’re going to look at a truth about the spirit in man, which is an incredible truth that the world does not understand. They just can’t comprehend it, that we as humans have intellect, which is the spirit in man; it dwells in there. It has a natural mind which is carnal, which is totally selfish. So everything is about loving self or an advantage to self. That’s the way the natural mind is.

Well, that truth is not understood, hence in the world you will see all types of psychology trying to work out why a person did this or why a person did that. The truth is they did it with the natural carnal mind that is selfish. No matter what they did or why they did it, it was selfish. There was a selfish motivation. There was a pleasure in sin, a temporary pleasure of sin. That’s why they did it. But you’ll have all these different things and people say, “Well, you did this because of this and you ended up stabbing that person because your mother hit you or...” No, the reality of it all (and yes, environment does impact certain things), but the reality is, they did it out of anger; they did it out of selfishness or greed. There’s a reason. It’s the natural carnal mind.

We understand that and that’s the beauty of God’s holy spirit because God in His power provided us His holy spirit that connects with ours, and therefore, we can see self. Now, the more you see it, it’s a horrible thing. Like, really, it’s horrible. As you see it and you see more of self you realize that without God’s spirit what are you? Same as everybody else without God’s spirit – selfish. It’s pretty straight forward, really.

If we have God’s spirit we can then make a right choice, God’s way, or we’ll continue to choose our way which is selfishness. It’s straight forward.

So this gift of God’s holy spirit is an incredible thing and there are very few on this earth today out of the nearly seven billion I think it is now. There are very, very few that have this gift, and we have it here. Isn’t that incredible, really, when you think about it? There is very, very few that have this gift or could even understand this sermon or understand this topic about the gift of God’s holy spirit.

So, yes, the spirit of man exists in its selfishness, then God for a reason we don’t understand, decides, makes a choice to call us to give us the opportunity through the power of His holy spirit that leads us—we don’t have it dwelling in us—but it leads us to repentance, then of course, baptism, then the receipt of God’s holy spirit by the laying on of hands of a true minister of God. Then we have the power of God living in us which is this power to choose right. Because without God’s holy spirit we cannot choose right on a spiritual level. It’s just not possible.

Yes, somebody could possibly keep the Sabbath. I remember once even in God’s Church in this particular congregation saying to somebody that the two young men that were in the Church, that they have committed adultery in their life. The father got really upset with me. Well, I realize why now. Well, you look at it because it’s in the heart. Adultery is in the heart, it’s in the mind. It’s the way we think. You don’t have to do the physical act. But if you have a natural mind, if you went out to someone and say “You commit adultery often.” “No, I don’t! I’ve never committed adultery! I’ve been married for thirty years and I’ve never committed adultery.” Liar! Because everybody has this and it’s the battle to fight it.

Well, from experience I know that without God’s holy spirit I never fought self. And if I did fight myself, like to give up drinking for a period of time or give up smoking for a period of time when I was younger, it had nothing to do with God’s holy spirit. It was simply Wayne wanting to stop smoking or stop drinking too much. It was one of those. It had nothing to do with God’s spirit.

Well, now this gift that we have, that God’s speaking to us, we can now see self and we can see the truth. Incredible thing, and we have it. Marvelous blessing; incredible thing.

So God’s government is exactly the same and you can see the structure of God’s government and how it works, really, through Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12. We know those scriptures well. But if we read that and look at it we can see how God’s government is structured and how it works.

Now, the world is not ready for that at this very point because when Christ comes it’s going to have to be enforced on people. There’s going to be a lot resistance. Even in the beginning of our calling it is still difficult to comprehend how God’s government really works when one person, which will be Joshua the Messiah, the Christ, says, “This is the way you’re to do it.”

Now, do we really think even in the Millennium everyone is going to go, “Oh, yeah, that sounds good. That sounds well. We all agree with that!” I don’t think so. You can imagine in the hundred years when everybody is resurrected from Adam through, all those periods of time, the Tower of Babel and all the experiences they’ve had, and then you turn around and say, “Oh, yeah, by the way, you’re not allowed to do this anymore. You know, that’s not the spirit of the matter.” Do you really think that everyone is going to agree with that? Because the natural mind just doesn’t. It won’t. It needs this gift, this ability to choose.

Now, will everybody choose God’s way even with the power of God’s holy spirit? Well, we know the answer. I know there are some here that know the answer too, because they’ve experienced it, which is no. Because that’s what, when you look at the Apostasy, what it was all about. Even with God’s holy spirit we went to sleep. So even with God’s holy spirit we still can make big mistakes in life, and that’s what’s going to be taught, as we have heard. People will have to come to see it, “Yes, even with God’s holy spirit we don’t always choose the right thing because of selfishness,” which was made in us, this way for a purpose, which is a glorious purpose.

To be under God’s government requires God’s holy spirit to live, dwell in a person, and that gives the power to choose right, the right way to live. That’s the power we have.

Now, the world out there doesn’t have the power. They simply don’t have the power to choose right, and when they choose right, they choose right for a selfish reason, whereas we choose right for a different reason. Because we’ve decided that we want God; we want God’s way because of the power that He’s given to us. That’s why all the glory must go to God. Because without God’s holy spirit what are we? Nothing. We have nothing. It’s only with God’s holy spirit that we have anything at all.

Now, when we hear a sermon within God’s true Church it requires the gift of God’s holy spirit to understand it on a spiritual level. Now, there may be somebody that may listen to a particular sermon that’s given in God’s Church, but they won’t understand unless God is drawing them through the power of His spirit (they don’t have it dwelling in them yet but they still have that gift of repentance being granted to them, they have a choice).

Now, as we know there have been a lot that have, out of the Apostasy, that were given an opportunity to hear and begin to see, but there’s a choice required just like we have a choice.

We have a choice to come to the Sabbath service. We have a choice to tithe. We have a choice to do a lot of things in life. That’s what God’s spirit is about – this natural mind with the spirit of man in it now has to make a choice once it begins to see spiritually. “Ah!” It can go either way. That is a choice for every individual. History will show that the majority so far have not made the right choice in the end. They’ve left God by cutting themselves off from the flow of God’s holy spirit, and it’s because of unrepented sin, because of selfishness basically.

So to understand what we’re talking about will require God’s spirit, the thing we’re talking about today.

God spoke to physical Israel through Moses and Aaron, and we can learn a lot on a spiritual level from this physical account, which we’re going to turn to. So if you’d like to turn to Exodus 3:1. This is Moses and the burning bush, which we all know about. There are lessons here that we can see from this physical account because these things happened for a spiritual purpose. Which they happened so that we could understand them, because it’s spiritual, really, and also people in the future with God’s holy spirit will be able to see this. It won’t be just a physical story about Moses seeing a burning bush and the things that people talk about.

Exodus 3:1—Now, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. Now, the reason it’s called “the priest of Midian,” is that Midian was a person, was a child of Abram from Keturah. So often we just skip over this but this is somebody that was from Abraham, really. He’s one of the descendants of Abraham.

And he (Moses) led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. So here we have Moses. He’s tending the flock as a shepherd and he’s gone to this particular place which is Horeb – which we understand the mountain of God, what it is, because he ends up back at this location some time later.

And the angel of the Eternal... Now, this was actually a manifestation so that Moses could see something physical. But it’s really something that is from God. It’s a manifestation because God was in this manifestation because Moses could only see physical. We know we can’t see spirit. ...appearing to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

So if we can just go back and look at that physically here we see Moses walking along and he sees this bush and it’s on fire. But it’s not being consumed so it would spark your interest. So he’s drawn to have a look at this, what is this all about, what is it? Because at this point he doesn’t know.

Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is on fire and it doesn’t burn, you know, why isn’t it being consumed? So, he’s physically being drawn into this.

So when the Eternal, the Lord, it says there, saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses! Moses! And he said, Here I am. Now, we should relate to this on a spiritual level.

Now, we all have different aspects of our calling but the same thing happened, God called to us. Here it says, “Moses! Moses!” and he said, “Here I am.” Now, God has called many. Many people have been called. They have responded in this way saying, “Well, here I am.” It happened to you. God called you. How did He do it? He drew you and me by the power of His holy spirit, by enabling us to be able to see. Just like Moses saw the bush we could see and think, “Hang on, that’s a bit unusual. What’s going on here?”

I look back at Chris and myself’s calling and what happened to us and we were beginning to see—we didn’t see much—but we saw something. We saw something. And of course, being a zealot as I am, I decided that I needed to go to mass, being a Catholic. Chris stayed home and watched Mr. Armstrong in the morning and I’d watch Mr. Armstrong in the morning and then would go to the Catholic Church, of course. The first thing I learned, would you believe, Mr. Armstrong was promoting different books. But it was about the beast coming out...you know, all the images and all that thing.

Well, I learned about tithing. Then, it was in gross, 10% of your gross went in first tithe. So course, what would you do being a zealot? Well, you take 10% of your gross and you give it to the Catholic Church. The plate comes along and boom, it goes in. They must have been pretty excited to getting all this money.

So I did that for a few weeks because I started to see things spiritually. I knew the Sabbaths was sort of right but ended up going to church until my wife said—hadn’t read the Bible then—she was going to read the Bible. She reads the whole Bible over that period of time and says to me (being a zealot, Catholic who knew everything), said, “Why is it that we eat pork and don’t keep the Sabbath?”

Well! So what do you reckon I did? I went to the priest and said, “Hey! Why is it that we keep Sunday and not the Sabbath? And why is it we eat...you know, why do we eat pork when the Bible clearly says...?” “It’s alright, Wayne,” because he couldn’t answer it either. So then I came back and that’s when we really started keeping the Sabbath. We knew Sunday was wrong.

And how would that happen? How did that all happen? Only because of the gift of God’s holy spirit where it hadn’t been placed in us permanently, but we began to see things in the Bible. Chris started to see things and we started to challenge things.

Then, of course, going back, this is in 1982, we came to believe that we would never get to the Feast, in July 82, because Christ was going to return and we would never get to see the Feast. We were disappointed. So we then said to the ministry we wanted to go to the Feast. They said, “You can’t. You haven’t been saving 2nd tithe long enough.” So we weren’t allowed to go to the Feast in 82. In 83 when we went there and Australia won the America’s Cup (burnt in my brain that year), where we were baptized in January of 83 and we managed to get to the Feast because I had saved 2nd tithe that period.

So all of that happened because of the power of God’s holy spirit. No other reason. Had nothing to do with Wayne and Chris, absolutely nothing. It was all about God doing it, God calling us. Which is what, here, when you look at Moses, same thing. God calls and he says, “Here I am.”

Well, that’s a question for us that with the power of God’s holy spirit this takes a level of humility to say, “Here I am.” If God shows us something about ourselves we have to have this humble attitude, which is “Here I am.” I know me, you too, you know you. You know your thoughts. I know the thoughts that I have to battle and I choose God. You choose God.

Well, this is the period of time. We start to see things. What do we see? We don’t see a burning bush. Like Ron’s often said, it would be good if there was a burning bush and could tell you what to do. No. But do you know what? The reality is that God does tell us what to do. The reality is God speaks to us and it’s done through sermons and the power of His holy spirit. God does communicate to us directly just like He’s talking to Moses here directly, going to give him instructions. We’re going to see Moses’ reaction here because it’s rather interesting because we can have the same reaction if we’re not careful about these things.

So our calling, calling to see the truth. That’s what we’re called to, to see the truth, then we’ve got a choice to make. We respond by agreeing with God and taking action. Well, that’s the important part there.

So we can see these things, we agree that we see it, but action has to be taken. So it’s like seeing 1st tithe and going, “Ah, yeah, I believe that.” Whereas all those years prior I never believed in tithing but now I believe in it, well, now it takes action. It’s going to take action. Of course, at those times it was 10% on gross and then 2nd tithe was on gross...and 3rd tithe was in force as well. Reality today, with what God has revealed we have it quite easy in comparison. But that’s what it was like and you did it. Never argued. Just say, “Yep, I agree with that. Yep, I’m going to do it,” and you take action.

Well, a calling is like that. We’re called to see, but now action is required. Each individual must take action.

Verse 5—Then He said, talking about God, Do not draw near to this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Now, we can look at that and you can take it all physically. But we can look at it another way, too.

God makes something holy. Only God’s presence makes something holy. We, individually, are all holy. God lives and dwells in us. Where is it that we’re placed? In the Church. The Church of God is a holy place.

So when we come together at various times of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the holy days, we come together as a group, this is a holy place and we need to be very careful because this is God’s presence, this is God’s dwelling place here. Each individual carries a component of God in their minds, the spirit of God in the spirit of man, with the spirit of man so that choices can be made.

So when we deal with each other and we communicate with each other we should be responding using God’s holy spirit, remembering that the person there before us is holy to God, special to God, set aside for holy use and purpose.

Now, I know from personal experience that’s not how we always think. I know I’m guilty of that. We don’t always see everybody that’s in God’s Church as holy, separate, that God loves that person and is working with that person. We don’t always just automatically think that. But this is what is required.

So God is what makes something holy, and this holy place we’re in is really the Body of Christ, the Church of God. This is a holy place. Today is a holy day, being a Sabbath. It’s a holy day. We understand what makes it holy is God’s in it. Without God in it, it’s not holy.

Verse 6—Moreover He said, I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. So Moses is reacting in a physical way here, which is to say, “Oh!” Because he would have heard you can’t look on God’s face because you will die and all those types of things. He’s hiding at something physical.

Now, we know that it is physical, but on a spiritual level we should be able to see God in people’s actions, that it’s God’s spirit.

Verse 7—And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows, know their pain.

Well, we can take that and say the same thing applies for us. Before our calling out of spiritual Egypt God would have known the oppression. Now, we understand the oppression of man. We can see it all around us. Well, before our calling we were in that oppression. We oppressed each other. Before our calling, whether we would like to agree with that or not, the reality is because of our selfishness we oppressed others. We did.

I know before my calling that I oppressed my wife and I oppressed my children because of my selfishness. That component, aspects of that component of selfishness exists today, and they’re the things we have to fight, which is that oppression.

Well, here is God saying He’s going to deliver. Well, God has delivered us. By the power of His holy spirit God has delivered us. We’re delivered out of that oppression of Egypt (sin), and therefore, Satan’s system doesn’t have the same impact on us today as what it did before our calling.

Now, often when we look at what we could become I actually do see that if I wasn’t called, if God hadn’t of called me and given me the gift of His holy spirit, I have seen myself, what would have happened in my life personally. I know what I would have become without God’s holy spirit.

And you say, “Well, how does he see that?” Well, because I see all the things out there that they don’t know what they’re doing. So the greed, the selfishness, the alcoholism, the smoking, all the wild parties, all the pornography, all that stuff, I know that the Wayne Matthews with the natural carnal mind would be right into all that stuff. So, I do see myself, what I could become without God’s holy spirit.

Now, we’re all the same. Without God’s holy spirit and an understanding how God’s spirit works, and the gift and the beauty of it and the incredible potential we actually have as being holy, that we would never want to lose God’s holy spirit because we will become what is out there. It’s just the way the world is. That’s what we would become.

Our calling was really a deliverance from spiritual Egypt, which is sin. That’s what our calling is about, being delivered from sin. Now, we understand what Passover is about. Passover is that covering of sin so that we can be forgiven, so that God’s holy spirit can live and dwell in us permanently, one day when we are changed to spirit, not having to battle self.

That’s going to be a wonderful thing. What a great gift that would be not to have to battle self, but to be with the mind of God and not having to fight. Just being in Elohim, just being Elohim. Wouldn’t that be fantastic? Not having to fight, knowing that you can’t hurt anybody, that you can’t sin, that you can’t say anything wrong. It’s going to be a wonderful day.

Verse 8—So I have come down, this is God speaking, to deliver, which is to save, them out of the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them up to that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

We understand if we can look at different analogies same thing has happened to us. We’ve been delivered out of Egypt. And what is it we’ve been delivered to? The truth, a land of milk and honey. The Church of God—PKG is the only place on all of this earth that the truth exists. We’ve been delivered to a land of milk and honey on a spiritual level, if you understand what I mean, because of God’s holy spirit because God in His mercy has granted that to us.

Continuing on there: We see God’s word, which is another aspect of being delivered. You know, we can read a scripture and go, “Ah, yeah,” and then twelve months later we can read it after hearing different sermons and go, “Ah, yeah.” Well, that “Ah, yeah,” will continue in our life while we’re physical and God’s holy spirit. “Ah, yeah,” so logical, so easy to see when you have God’s spirit. And where does that truth come from? Pyramid – government down. It doesn’t come from the bottom up believing, “Ah, this is what I see. It’s special.” No, we wait for God and God works in a particular way.

So they were physically going to be delivered to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Verse 9—Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me (it’s God speaking), and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

Now, we should look at that and think anybody that is called, it’s God doing it. It’s God that’s going to deliver. True? He says, “I have seen this.” God decides to call a person, we know what’s happening. They are being delivered into something special – to become holy. They weren’t holy before. Now they’re going to be delivered from the oppression, which has happened to us.

So it’s a wonderful thing. When God actually calls somebody and draws somebody into the Body of Christ and they go through the gift of repentance and they go through baptism, the laying of hands of a true minister of God, it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing. It’s unique. It’s so special! It really is. Something is really special because they’re being delivered from the oppression of Satan’s system. They now begin to think differently, they begin to see differently, and they can come into unity with us because they’ll have God’s holy spirit and they’re special. They’re holy because God’s made them holy.

So when anyone comes to the Body of Christ we should be that excited. I know we are. We should be really excited because of that.

Verse 10—Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now, we understand this takes us into Passover and Unleavened Bread.

Now, you imagine if you were Moses for just a jiffy. You know that some time ago, forty years ago, you were there and you killed an Egyptian, and here is God saying you’re to go back. “Oookay.” “You’re to go back and deliver My people.” “Ookaaay.” That’s what we would do. True? You’d say, “Well, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go back there. I know what’s going to happen to me if you send me back there.”

But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” Now, you can understand his response, isn’t it really, because it’s a mind that’s now working, “Hang on a minute, this is not a good idea.” ...and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? This is a “Why me?” moment. “Why me? Why did you choose me? There must be somebody else. Surely, there is somebody else?” But God is working here to deliver the children of Israel through Moses. That’s what it’s about.

Now, understanding that he had these feelings which are natural, as much as anything, you know it’s a self-protection thing, So He (God) said, I will certainly be with you. So we can take this on a spiritual level where God has called us out and we don’t go around telling people, “Ah, yes. God speaks to me,” because we know what would happen.

Well, God says, “I certainly will be with you.” Yes, God will not leave us. He will be with us as long as we are with Him. It’s not God that breaks His promise of the flow of God’s holy spirit, we’re the problem. God is not the problem, we’re the problem.

So when people leave the Church – has very little to do with God’s decision. It’s us. It’s people that make the choice not to continue in the truth.

God said, I will certainly be with you. And this shall be the sign to you, to Moses, that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Now, we understand this happened. After the exodus, remember they ended up back at Mount Horeb. That’s where it was.

So that was a sign that Moses would have said, “Ah, this has actually all been fulfilled. What God said, ‘I’m going to send you to the children of Israel to draw them out,’ it’s happened. Here I am. I’m standing back at this very place where I was with the sheep a long time ago. When I saw that burning bush, now I’m here with all these people,” ever how many there were.

So what is the sign that we have? This is a physical thing. He’s told that there is sign and you’ll know it’s been fulfilled. Well, what’s ours? Well, the sign for us about the gift of God’s holy spirit is that we see the truth and we believe it because God reveals truth to the Church, to people that have God’s holy spirit.

Now, if you put the truths out and, the 57 Truths are printed out in a newspaper in Melbourne, in The Age, big front page, what the newspaper’s called. Many others, The Herald, and all the rest; in America and other places, different names. But if it was printed “57 Truths of God,” how many people do you think would come to the website? They’d say, “You’re a mob of loonies, you really are, to believe all this stuff.” They just wouldn’t believe it. So it requires God’s holy spirit to even believe the truth. God has to give it to us to believe the truth.

God reveals the truth to His Church for a purpose and that’s the sign that we have. We see the truth and we believe God’s word. What God says about tithing most people would say, “You know, you don’t take me on a holiday but you’ll give 10% to this group and you’ll save the other 10% and you’ll go on an eight day holiday.” Because it’s all physical. It’s all physical.

So the proof that God is working with us, that we have the gift of God’s holy spirit, is the fact that we’re here today and we believe the truth. It’s an incredible thing. Because without God’s holy spirit we can’t believe the truth. It’s not possible.

Another sign is that we serve God in His Church, the government of God on this earth today. That’s a sign in itself. The Church exists why? To support the Body. You know, the head of the Church, it’s not about a pyramid of autocratic government. It’s about supporting the Body, what’s the best for the Body of Christ. What is the best for the Body of Christ?

Now, I do understand that some decisions that come to God’s apostle, over time all the different things that have come through the Church, they’re not necessarily easy decisions. It’s not just a matter of an opinion, “Oh, this is what I think should happen.” No, there’s a lot of fasting and prayer that goes into a decision, and when that decision comes out – like the change of Pentecost was an example – a lot went into that. It’s not just, “Ah, yeah, that sounds right. Let’s do it!” No, there is a lot of thought, a lot of prayer, and a lot of study goes into it because it’s about God’s holy spirit. It’s not about the opinions of others.

Now, the church may have an opinion about certain things. It’s all irrelevant. It’s what does God by the power of God’s holy spirit, that needs to happen within God’s Church? And those with God’s holy spirit will yield accordingly. “Here I am!” Same as Moses did. “Here I am. That’s what you want done? Let’s do it.”

Some will resist. Like Moses here is trying to get out of it. You can understand why. It would be a difficult thing.

So we have a sign and it’s simply we believe the truth because there is no way to believe the truth without God’s holy spirit.

Verse 13—Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name?  what shall I say to them? Now, you can understand the apprehension. It’s natural to have an apprehension. Here you are, it’d be like saying, “Okay, you’re to go to your workplace and you’re to say, ‘I’ve been sent (because God speaks to me), I’ve been sent to you to tell you this,’” and they go, “Oookay, Peter!” Your final pay packet is tomorrow. Because you can’t. True? That’s why we don’t proselyte. What’s the point? Because God does the calling; there is no use proselytizing. What’s the point of all that? No point. It’s not the mission of what we are.

We preach the truth, yes, through sermons and various opportunities of booklets, etcetera, but God does the calling. That’s the beauty of God’s holy spirit. This is God’s way. All the glory goes to God. We take no credit to self for anything. This is all about God and God’s holy spirit. What work He has – the plan of God, salvation.

It’s incredible to understand how it all works, it really is. It’s a marvelous blessing. There’s been millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and billions of people that have no idea about the plan of God. We know it. No credit to self. The only reason we know it is God decided to reveal His plan to us for a purpose, which we don’t fully always understand. We just don’t necessarily see it but we do know it’s about a building and that we’re going to fit in a location. Where that is exactly, wait and see what happens.

And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM, which is, another way of putting it is, HE IS WHO IS. In other words, God, it’s the Eternal. It’s the eternal God who’s doing this. That’s who’s sent me.

And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. Now, the children of Israel, remember, they’d been in captivity for a long period of time and their knowledge of God would be very limited. It’s physical, of course. They didn’t have God’s spirit. So it’s very physical, but they would know one thing. They would know “the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” They would know that from tradition which had been passed down.

So that’s why Moses would say, “Well, who sent you?” “Well, the God of your fathers. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” That would give a level of credibility and understanding. Other than that, they wouldn’t have any understanding; because they’d been in captivity, their knowledge would be very limited, but they would understand this.

Verse 15—Moreover, God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations. So this is a way to remember – it’s the Eternal. It’s Yahweh.

Drop down to Exodus 4:1—Then Moses answered and said, But suppose...? You’ve got to laugh at this because he’s looking at this at an angle. It would be very uncomfortable – reality. It’s just like if you were told you have to go out to your work and say, you know, “God has sent me to you.” This sounds really good. It’s not.

He knows what he’s up against. He’s got to go back. He’s been away for forty years and now he’s got to go there so he says, But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, The Eternal has not appeared to you. Because that’s a natural reaction. People say, “You’re a nut,” when you say God spoke to you. Because that’s what Moses is saying, “God spoke to me. Burning bush.” “Sure.”

Same as us. Exactly the same. Just like our calling. I actually don’t remember anyone at any point where I’ve ever turned around and said, “God called me.” Because I knew from the very beginning that I know that you do not, you just can’t say, “God called me.” You’re the same I’m sure. What would be the point? Because it’s a self-righteous thing is the way they see it. But the truth is God did call me. God called you. That’s the truth. But we can’t reveal the truth to them because they can’t understand it.

Drop down to Exodus 4:10. So Moses is looking for all the different reasons of why he shouldn’t do what God requires him to do. He’s looking at ways to get out of it.

Verse 10—Then Moses said to the Eternal, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, either before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. So what he’s virtually saying is, “Here, look, I’ve got a speech issue before You appeared to me, and now You’ve appeared to me in this burning bush, I’ve still got it, and therefore, don’t send me. Find someone else.” That’s literally one way of saying it.

So the Eternal said to him, Who has made man’s mouth? So all the excuses we can make for not overcoming self are just excuses. That’s all they are. They’re just excuses. Because we can justify anything in our minds. Because I have done that same thing - you can see all the reasons why you shouldn’t do it, all the reasons why I shouldn’t overcome this, all the reasons why we shouldn’t battle this particular sin that we’re aware of because of this and because we can justify it.

Well, Moses is looking for a way out. We can do exactly the same; we can look for ways out of this so that we can continue in our own stagnant state, which is never, of course – it’s either you’re going up or down. You’re either moving forward or backwards. There is no stagnation. There is no point where you stop dead. It’s either moving forward with God’s holy spirit knowing we’re in a fight or you’re heading back the other way, or I’m heading back the other way. It’s one or the other.

So, “Who made man’s mouth?” We know the answer, don’t we? So God can do anything. Now, God has worked through carnal minds often through history. They didn’t have God’s holy spirit but God inspired the person to do things and to say things, and if you look at Balaam and things like that, the donkey speaking, remember? So God is almighty. He can speak through any way, anyone. It’s just that He happened to choose us and we have a job at hand. Our time at this very point today I’m giving the sermon is not about saying anything to anyone. But there will come a time when things get really bad, where people’s ears will be sharpened to hear and it may be required that we’re to say, “This is what‘s happening and why.”

There is a lot in that. Like, the first thing is the world has no idea what sin is. None, really. They have no idea what sin is. To have you explain to somebody sin is not about adultery, it’s about adultery in the mind. Just because you don’t commit a physical act of adultery and you get caught, but it happens in the mind first, where do you start with that? Well, to understand it requires what? God’s holy spirit.

But there may come a time where we’re to explain certain things at certain levels, maybe starting with the Sabbath, about how God created it and made it holy. It’s holy time, that particular time. So there are things we may be asked to talk about. Time will show those things and at what point that is to happen and we’ll do an Abraham or we’ll do a Moses.

If God’s apostle says it’s time to do something we’ll go, “Here I am. I’m under government. I am willing to serve. No matter what price it pays against self,” here’s your pay packet, Peter, “if that’s what’s required that’s what’s required.” You understand what I’m talking about. We will do what God’s government is requesting of us. That’s what will happen. We will do it. Why? Because of God’s holy spirit, because we’re under the government of God.

Finish off verse 11—Or makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or blind? Have not I, the Eternal? So let’s look at that physically. We look at it physically and say, okay, there is the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind. So that’s all physical. But this is a spiritual matter. God says that He made these things on a physical level, but He can make them on a spiritual level.

So people can’t see spiritually, but we can. People can’t hear – we can. Isn’t it incredible, that power that we have that no one has? Now, that doesn’t elevate self. That’s just a fact that God gave it to His Church for a reason. God is the one who made us holy and we are holy. We are separate. Yes, we are separate from the world because God made us this way.

Verse 12—Now, therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. How is this possible that God speaks to us? How is that actually possible? We understand it’s God’s spirit, and if this is ever required, that we’re to go somewhere and to say something, if that’s what God’s government requires, that’s what God’s government requires.

Now we’re going to have a quick look at various truths. I’m not getting as far as I thought in this particular sermon. That’s normal.

Truth 12. Now, these are truths that are staggering, absolutely staggering if we understand them on a spiritual level. Often we just skip through them. I know I’ve got a list of 57 Truths that are a short version of them, takes two pages, and sometimes you can just go so that you remind yourself of the truths. But when you go into these, like we’ve covered one, government, it’s a huge topic. It’s that detailed because it’s all about God’s spirit, about what Church government really is all about. Church government is tested often and it’s mainly tested, mainly, through the truth because the truth is a spiritual matter, God’s government is a spiritual matter. So when somebody disagrees with the truth that comes into the Church what is it really saying? An issue about God’s holy spirit with the person. That’s what it’s really saying.

So be prepared. You will always be tested while in a physical body with the truth. Always! Because that’s how it works. Because it requires God’s holy spirit to believe the truth and see the truth, and therefore, when the truth comes to the Church through an apostle a test comes upon the Church.

Truth 12 (9) Only those whom God the Father calls and draws to Him can be converted, can have their thinking transformed, because we have this spirit in man that sits there and we have God’s holy spirit, now a transformation can take place. Prior to that a transformation cannot take place. It’s all physical. It’s a natural mind. And yes, it can change opinions or views or political parties or whatever, but it’s still all selfish. It’s all about self.

Only those God chooses and calls now can come into the Church of God.

So when people say, you know, “What religion...” which has happened to us a fair bit, “What religion are you?” Well, you know, we say, “Well, we’re part of the Church of God—PKG.” What does that mean to them? Absolutely nothing! Absolutely nothing. Because they don’t stop and think “the Church,” because they don’t know what a Church is. They think it’s a building. The Church is the called-out ones.

So you can’t explain that to them. How can you say? “What do you mean you’re called-out and I’m not?” But the Church means the called-out ones. It’s the group of the called-out ones. We are the called-out ones. We are the Church of God—PKG. So, we’re the called-out ones, the Church, of God! We belong to God.

They don’t have any comprehension when you say “Church of God.” They just think cult. That’s what’s happened to me. “Just a cult. You belong to a cult.” PKG – Preparing for the Kingdom of God. Which, you don’t get to that point.

But when you break that one statement down, the Church of God, the called-out ones of the Eternal preparing for the Kingdom of God. What does that mean? You’ve got a stash? Nothing to do with a stash. We’re preparing spiritually, battling the mind, the spirit in man, to make a decision with God’s holy spirit that I choose right.

Now, do you think they understand it when you say, “Oh, yeah, we’re members of the Church of God—PKG?” They have no idea. It’s like saying, “We’re part of the Body of Christ.” Body of Christ? They think physically. They’ll think of Jesus with the long hair. “And you’re part of the body of the long haired man...?” They can’t comprehend. Everything we’re talking about is spiritual and it’s beautiful. We understand it because of a glorious gift that we’ve been given, called a calling and God’s holy spirit.

Satan has deceived the whole world, and they don’t understand that. ...the Church is called out of that world, which is (John 6:44). We’ve been called out from the world, which is leaving Egypt. It’s the same thing. John 6:44 we know.

Satan has deceived the whole world about how a person can hear God. Now, people think that they can hear God and there’s often you see various situations where someone says they stabbed someone ten times because God told them to. And yet on a spiritual level we think there and say, well, that’s not how God operates. That’s not what God does. But people would say, that they think, “I heard voices. I hear God.” That’s why it’s not wise to go around saying, “I hear God. God speaks to me.” It’s not wise at all because you’ll end up where they end up, in a white jacket.

Because people are, people are there saying that “God told me to go burn this down,” or “God told me to do this,” “and God told me to do that,” because they hear voices in their head. Yes, they hear voices in their head, in their mind, in their thinking because it’s generated from the natural carnal mind, and Satan is involved, therefore, they’re hearing things.

Well, we hear things in the mind. That’s how we hear; we hear things in the mind. We don’t necessarily hear a voice of God. It’s like when we pray, you don’t have to move your lips and have to say one thing, but you can do it all in the mind. Incredible gift that we have access to the mercy seat all in the mind. We could be riding a bike, driving a car (should be concentrating), but you could do those things, you could be walking, you could be sitting, you could be kneeling, but it’s all in the mind. You don’t have to say one thing, it’s in the mind. So we can speak to God. He can speak to us the same way. Nothing is verbal. Nothing is physical. It’s all spiritual. It’s all in the mind.

The world will talk about speaking in tongues, believe they’ve got a special message from God and gibber on and someone will convert that to make some sense. They believe that a person can come from God or come to God just as they are and continue the same habits. From experience being a Catholic, had to go the priest in the cubicle, in the box. Most Sundays I used to do that. You have to do it once a year minimum. You would pour it all out from the night before, if you weren’t too hung over, and you would go there and you would tell him all these things, “You know, last night I did this and I did that and I drank and I couldn’t get home...” Then that afternoon you went to the footy and started again. It’s just insane religion, when you think of it, absolutely insane.

Well, that’s Satan’s system. But God requires something different. It’s a spiritual matter. It’s not a physical one, it’s a spiritual matter. It’s about self control.

Truth 6 (3) God’s purpose for mankind. God is reproducing Himself and no other church knows or preaches this truth.

Something we know. How do we know this? God’s holy spirit. God is reproducing Himself. His mind, a component of it, is placed in our mind with the spirit of man and in time if we make the right choices long enough God will say, “Now I know you,” and then we will have that mind that can’t sin. No selfishness at all, which we can’t fully comprehend because every day we are selfish.

God is reproducing Himself and no other church knows or preaches this truth. We are to be born of God and become God—in the God Family: Elohim.

Now, that is something else, another truth. That’s why if you publish this in the newspaper people read that they go, “You people think you’re going to be God?” Well, we know we are going to be part of the God Family. We are begotten sons of God – sons and daughters. It’s the same term; it’s just a term that’s used. But we’re begotten because we have God’s holy spirit and God speaks to us through that and we are sons of God. We are holy. We are separate. We are unique. It’s a marvelous thing and yet God’s done that for us.

We are to be born of God and become God. Well, another thing we wouldn’t go tell people because they just can’t hear, can’t understand. But we can because of God’s spirit.

Truth 7 (4) Who and what is God. God is a Family into which we may be born. God’s spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are begotten children of God.

Just beautiful truths that we often don’t just dwell on and be thankful for. This is an incredible gift.

Truth 9 (6) The human spirit in man.

This is a unique thing that we understand, yet I know looking at TV programs and watching things and think they’re battling all this stuff. They have no idea and yet we know what’s going on. It’s all about this.

The difference between the human mind and an animal brain is that there is a human spirit within the human brain that gives the ability of free thought, creativity, and memory. This human spirit must be united with [God’s spirit, the holy spirit] the spirit of God for man to be able to come to know the true ways of God.

Isn’t that incredible? We are evidence of that, the fact that we can see that. So often each day we should often live our lives remembering the very fact that we’ve just talked about, the fact that we have God’s holy spirit and that we are ambassadors for Christ. What’s that all about? Ambassadors for Christ is about we have God’s holy spirit, there’s a certain way to live, there’s a certain way to respond to situations.

I am going to run out of time so I’m going to just move down to a few other scriptures.

We’ll look at Romans 8 because Romans 8 virtually covers a lot of what we’ve been talking about.

Romans 8:6—For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. In other words, we have to have God’s holy spirit in us to have life, spirit life, and peace, the way we think, peace of mind.

Because the carnal mind (natural mind) is enmity (it’s hostile) against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So by nature we resist God. Just by nature. The natural man will resist God so we shouldn’t have expectations or set expectations on other humans. They’ve got a natural mind, they haven’t had the blessing of a calling at this point in time, therefore, what could we expect of them? They’re just going to act selfishly. It’s like no matter what happens in the world you can look at a TV program and you can think, what is it they want from us? Because I know me. So you’ve just got to work out the angle. Nobody is doing us a favor. They’re all trying to get something from you. You’ve just got to work out what it was.

We buy a particular biscuit, a gluten-free biscuit, and it used to come in a pack and they were reasonable size and they were $5. When they went out on special, 20% off, we’d buy them at $4.00 and you got six biscuits. They are really quite nice and mixture was nice and cherries and it was really good. We went the other day, and of course, we saw them there, and we thought we’d buy a packet. We bought a packet, took it home. Well, surprise, surprise, exactly the same price, exactly the same packaging, but the biscuits were about half the size and the mixture has changed!

But that’s what it’s about. That’s what the world’s about. That’s what marketing is about, and you know, companies marking things up to mark them down. That’s retail. It’s called retail. You buy something, you put 300% margin on it, and then you go 50% off. Well, you’re still making margin. Even at 50% off you’re making good money. So 50% off sale, wonderful, and people rush in and grab it at 50% off. Guess what? Still getting ripped off. That’s the way the world is.

I don’t know whether you’ve read the article about how difficult a job it was that there is a person that looks after inheritances and superannuation and finding people? She goes through a genealogy to trace somebody, to find them, and then in the end, finds this person and they now have got $30,000 to be given to them, alright? It’s genuine. So she rings them up and says, “Listen, I’m from such and such and I’ve got $30,000 to give to you,” and people hang up. “Because it’s a scam!” If someone rings up and says, “I’ve got 30,000 for you,” what do you do?” “Sure,” plunk.

Her job, she said it was a nightmare and that sometimes it would take six months, nine months to convince the person that this wasn’t a scam, that I’ve actually got $30,000 for you and all I want is your bank details. That sounds positive, doesn’t it? Because we are so skeptical. Everything is a scam in the world, so anyone is trying to give you money, well, hey, they’re after something. They want my bank account, they want something from me. You’ve just got to work out what it is they want from you. So her job, she says it was an absolute nightmare and yet it was all genuine.

Verse 8—So then, those who are in the flesh, which have a carnal mind, cannot please God. It’s not possible. They cannot hear what God speaks. God does not speak to them but God speaks to us because we have God’s holy spirit. So they cannot hear what God speaks and they cannot obey His voice. It’s not possible because it’s spiritual. They might do some physical things but the spirit of the matter they can’t do and we shouldn’t expect it from them, that they can do the spirit of the law. Because other than that they’re going to try to get something – either please self or get something from you to please self.

Verse 9—But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you, which it does. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not His. If we don’t have God’s holy spirit we do not belong to God’s true Church. We may attend the Church of God—PKG, but it doesn’t mean to say we belong to it, because this is about spirit, God’s holy spirit. It’s a spiritual matter. It’s the Body of Christ. It’s the Church of God—PKG. It’s a spiritual matter. So just because somebody is connected to the church doesn’t mean to say they are of God. So we are part of the Body if we have the spirit of God.

Verse 10—And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. God’s righteousness in us.

Verse 11—But if the spirit of Him who raised Joshua from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life, which is spirit life, to your mortal bodies through His spirit which dwells in you. So that’s the key to life, the purpose of life. We have been called by God. We have God’s holy spirit, and the purpose is that we endure to the end.

Now, what’s the end? When we look about, when we endure to the end? The end is whenever our life ceases, whatever that is, and if it is required that we have to live twice we actually have a big advantage on other people because they’re going to be resurrected, the majority, the vast majority are going to be resurrected that have lived once and never had any knowledge, any knowledge of the truth. Zip. Zilch. Nil. Nothing. But if we do have to live twice, well, the big advantage is we have a huge leap forward because of the truth, 57 Truths, and we understand about God’s spirit. We understand about the spirit in man.

So if we do make mistakes and choose to go another way, God willing we are resurrected to give a second opportunity, if it’s not willful. Wouldn’t that be a great thing? Not in the sense of... I don’t want to go through that. None of you want to go through that. But still, if it did happen, if that was the way it turned out, what a big advantage to know what it’s all about, to know the purpose of life. What an incredible thing. We actually know the purpose of life.

So there is a promise to us if we endure to the end that as God the Father raised up Christ from the dead and gave him spirit life, eternal life for the future, never to die, to think one way only (which he always did), but we who think a different way because of the natural mind, that we will always think that way. I try to comprehend that and I can’t. Every time that I have personally sat down and tried to go through that I feel ashamed of the decisions that I’ve made and still make. You just feel like that far behind – to the way that God is, God is love, Wayne is not love. It’s God’s spirit in us that does the works. Because without it what would I be? Carnal, selfish, everything I did would be about me, and unfortunately, often still is because that’s the way God made us to continue to endure to the end.

So we don’t always get it right and that’s just the way that it is. We don’t always get it right, but we can repent and we can strive to do it right.

Verse 12—Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, which we have, to live according to the flesh. So we’re not to fulfill the desires, the things that we do by nature and we want to do, the way that we would do without God’s holy spirit.

Verse 13—For if you live according to the flesh you will die. It’s a simple statement, isn’t it, that that’s the reality if we want to go down that path.

I was actually thinking about how man will dislike the execution of judgment. Not the judgment component, the execution of judgment. The natural mind will hate it, absolutely hate the execution of judgment because it’ll look like it’s all unfair. People have to get very low to believe that it’s not unfair. You know, “Why me?” Do a Moses, “Why me? Isn’t there someone else?”

Well, the execution of judgment that’s coming – and we know there is execution of judgment at the end – there are people going to be hostile towards the execution of judgment. They’re going to hate it. They’re going to always blame somebody else, and rather than the righteousness of God where we would turn around and say, “Oh, no, the execution of judgment is righteous, it’s righteous judgment. It’s deserved because of their rebellion.”

So mankind’s mind will just fight. It will always fight. That’s why we have to look at the ways that we fight God, because we all do. Underneath, there are areas in our life where we resist God, where we resist what God is working, trying to develop in us, because we resist.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, (verse 13), and if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body... So now we have deeds that are selfishness. Well, we’re to put them to death. We’re to fight against them, to resist them. We won’t always win. ...you will live. We are to fight selfishness that dwells in our natural minds.

Verse 14—For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage, the prejudices that are in selfishness, again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We are begotten sons of God. We are sons of God and we do have a Father that loves us and wants the best for us.

If the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So that gift of God’s holy spirit empowers the ability to hear God because God does speak to us.

There is a hymn that was in what was called the Red Book, the church’s Red Book. It used to be purple; I think it went to red if I remember rightly. It’s no longer on the Church listing of hymns because ours are mainly Dwight Armstrong, but there was a hymn that we use to sing and because I am not musically orientated and I don’t understand music, can’t read music, you may remember it, those in the old days of Worldwide, and the song was titled God Speaks To Us.

It used to go, daaaa, dadada da-da-da-da, and you have to come in on the beat. I could never sing because I never knew when the beat was. But everyone in the Church that could read music would go “God...speaks...to us...” Well, I used to always wait for them to start “God” and then I could start because I could never count where they were going with the thing.

But there was a hymn that says God Speaks To Us and it’s taking from John 14, which I’m not going to go through, but it is worth reading it. There are aspects where we have a greater understanding than this particular song because this was still, even though it was sung from John 14, there was a lot of aspects about many mansions and things. Looking at it was physical, whereas, really it’s spiritual. There are many dwelling places.

Well, the hymn, which you don’t need to look up, really was about God speaks to us because God does speak to us. It goes, the first line is: “God speaks to us; by His great power we’re led. Let not your hearts become disquieted.” What it was saying is Christ said that God would speak to us and it was by His great power we’re led. Well, that’s Church government, because we are led by God’s holy spirit, which is an incredible gift that we have been given. That song meant a lot to me, as others do. But that one I always remembered as “God speaks to us; by His great power we’re led.” That’s what drives the Church of God! All decisions made by God’s government are driven by God’s holy spirit.

It’s not the way we think or feel about a thing, it’s God’s holy spirit that drives His Church. We’ll understand certain things that happen in God’s Church because it’s spiritual in nature. There is never anything done in God’s Church that is done without God’s holy spirit, a decision that is made.

Now, sometimes the Church doesn’t always get things a hundred percent right, if you know what I mean, because it wasn’t revealed to that point in time. But it’s still a spiritual matter. It’s about the spirit of a matter, but it may not necessarily be a hundred percent accurate to that point in time because God hasn’t revealed the other component that fits into that component. I know you know where I’m going with that.

Psalm 51:1. We understand that God speaks to His people by the power of His holy spirit. That’s the way that it works. That is God’s government on this earth – all a spiritual matter.

Psalm 51:1. This, again, is all spiritual. It’s about people with God’s spirit understanding what’s being said because of a spirit. God’s spirit is driving it. Have mercy upon me, O God. Now, if you looked at that physically people would say, “Have mercy on me. Don’t hang me. Don’t shoot me. Don’t lock me up. Have mercy on me, judge.” But it’s not about that. This is all about sin.

Have mercy upon me. The sin that I know that I do, God have mercy on me, forgive me. That’s what this is about. It’s not about a judge being merciful, you know, showing mercy on the sentence. This is about sin. “The wages of sin is death. God have mercy on me because if I don’t repent of this I will pay the death penalty spiritually.”

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving kindness. Now, God is loving kindness. God wants to forgive. The problem is us; we don’t go to God for forgiveness.

According to the multitude (the vastness) of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. We all have them every day. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. “Forgive me.”

For I acknowledge (I confess) my transgressions. I accept personal responsibility for the sin in my life. Nobody made me do it. Nobody makes us do anything. It’s what we chose to do. ...and my sin is always before me. We always see self, which requires God’s holy spirit. It’s always before us.

I know that I’m probably going to sin today. We should all know that. It’s just the way it is because selfishness will kick in.

Verse 4—Against You, You only, have I sinned. Now, when we look at that we just think “against You, and You only.” So who established what sin was? God. So something that is contrary to God’s righteousness is sin. So it was God that established what sin was. Sin is the transgression of God’s law; not just the physical component – the spirit of the matter, the intent.

So, in other words, I could give you a hundred dollars and be sinning because the reason I’m doing it is wrong. That’s sin. But most people would see, “Oh, Wayne is generous. You were given a hundred dollars.” But the intent of it was, “Wayne is giving a hundred dollars because he wants something back from you.” It’s called interest. That’s sin because you’re wanting to get back. Not necessarily saying that interest, depending on how it works, is necessarily sin. But today’s world is, because why? They don’t have God’s spirit. What can they do?

I’ve got to say I went past Cash Converters, looked at the window. My wife didn’t want to hear all this. It said when you borrow rather than charge interest what they do is they put a monthly fee on the account. So if you borrow $200, the monthly fee was $73. And do you know they’re in business? $73 monthly! And you think, “Well, who would do that?” Hey, they exist because people do! You borrow $10, was, I think, $7 minimum fee, monthly fee. Monthly! Because the world is evil. That’s the way that it is. It’s Satan’s system.

Well, God’s system is coming to wipe all that out, to change it all because God’s system will be about the spirit of the matter. That’s what it’s about, the spirit of it, not about, you know, the annual fee. It’s about the spirit of the law. Why is somebody lending you money? With what attitude and why are they doing it? That’s what it’s about. It’s going to be exciting, isn’t it? Really exciting!

So sin is about being against God.

And done evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Talking about the “You” there is God. God is righteous, we’re not.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, because we’re brought forth with a natural carnal mind, and into sin my mother conceived me. Because when we’re born, naturally we have a natural carnal mind which is only going to be selfish. It can’t be anything else.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts. Isn’t that exciting scripture? So what does God require of you and me? Truth within the inward parts, intent. God wants intent. Now, we know that truth in the inward parts cannot happen to anybody unless they have God’s holy spirit because only God is just and righteous. Everyone has sinned other than Christ. Everyone has sinned. Everyone is selfish. That’s the only thing you can expect from dealings with people in the world, because it’s the natural mind.

You desire, which is God desires, truth in the inward parts. Well, that’s what God requires of us. Our motive and intent is all about the inward parts, our thinking. ...and in the hidden parts You will make me know wisdom. What is wisdom? The mind of God, the word of God.

We can read something and we can see it because we have God’s holy spirit. The only way we can know wisdom is by God living and dwelling in us. We see what sin really is. The world can’t. The world cannot see. They’re not keeping the seventh-day Sabbath in the spirit of the matter – it’s sin – let alone do they keep the seventh-day Sabbath. But they can’t see it. They cannot see that not tithing to God’s Church is sin. It’s impossible. They can’t see it.

Verse 7—Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. In other words, put me through tests and trials so that I can choose righteousness.

Now, the natural part of us does not want to go through a test or a trial. That is natural! Nobody wants to go through the wringer. Nobody! We just don’t want to go through it. But God in His loving mercy allows us to go through trials for the purpose of seeing what we will choose and whether we will stay close to Him during that trial. Even though we don’t understand that trial in the detail of why, but it’s really about God working with us and our mind, the way we think. Because I know personally that I think completely differently about many things than what I did thirty-odd years ago, completely differently, look at things completely differently.

Therefore, it takes time to change the way we think. Well, that’s what God is doing, transforming the mind – because of the spirit in man with God’s holy spirit.

So God requires truth in the inward parts from us and we can have this hidden part in us, which is God’s mind, wisdom in us because God’s mind is wisdom. We can only know sin by the power of God’s holy spirit. Other than that, it’ll be a physical thing.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Which is, what’s joy and gladness to us on a spiritual level? God’s plan of salvation for everybody. God’s plan of salvation, the holy days, Passover, is a joy. It should be a joy to us because that’s the cleansing of sin so that we can have God’s holy spirit living and dwelling in us. It’s an incredible thing. What joy, what excitement Passover and Unleavened Bread really is!

To understand God’s plan of salvation and to hear the truth. When we hear the truth, we should be excited by that truth, really excited by it because of God’s holy spirit.

That the bones You have broken may rejoice. That sounds positive, doesn’t it, physically? If you look at it physically – “Well, break my leg and I’ll be happy.” Well, no, it’s not about that. It’s something spiritual. Once tested we can see the spiritual purpose of the test. When we do we then rejoice. It’s not about a physical breaking of the leg, it’s about this spiritual test. Something happens in our life and we’re tested and we see the spiritual purpose of it. In other words, something goes in the mind and says, “Ah, I need to change.” That’s a rejoicing – “I need to change.” A bone is broken – spiritual.

Our pride must be broken. So it’s going to happen. We’re going to have to have a broken leg. Not a physical thing, it’s a spiritual thing. Our pride, those lusts that we have, the three main headings that are in the Bible (there are many more connected to those, of course), but they have got to be broken. They’ve got to be broken in our thinking.

Hide Your face from my sins, in other words, forgive it, blot out all my iniquity.

Verse 10—Create in me a clean heart; give me the godly thinking so that I can see this sin and see it more clearly, how it’s opposite to You and how it hurts me and how it hurts others. And renew a steadfast spirit within me. “Transform this mind by the power of Your holy spirit,” is another way to put it.

Verse 11—Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your holy spirit from me. This is an incredible statement. To comprehend it is to think about it and just meditate on that. “Do not cast me away from Your presence.” We have access to God’s presence through prayer, through thinking. Lots of ways. We can have access to it, through God’s word, the truth. “And do not take Your holy spirit from me,” which is my only purpose of life. Because the moment we do not have God’s holy spirit, we cannot say God is speaking to us anymore. It just doesn’t happen.

God speaks to us through the power of His holy spirit and the moment we lose God’s holy spirit is a disaster beyond that could be discussed. Absolute tragedy to lose God’s holy spirit. Absolute tragedy for us that have God’s holy spirit.

Another way to put that would be “Do not stop speaking to me, God.” “Do not stop speaking to me. Do not cut me off from access to You.” Because the moment God’s holy spirit is taken from us, we do not have access to communicate with God. We can utter words and thoughts but it’ll be meaningless because it requires God’s holy spirit.

We will come to understand one truth – “I know that without You, God, I can do nothing spiritual of myself.” So, it’s only with God’s holy spirit can spiritual things take place. We can overcome sin by the power of God’s holy spirit. Without it, can’t be done; it’s absolutely impossible.

We’ll close on Isaiah 57:15—Thus says the High and Lofty One. One, Yahweh Elohim, one eternal God. Not two, one. ...the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity. So God has always existed. That’s where He lives, in eternity. He’s always been there. ...whose name is Holy. It’s pure and separate because all of this comes from God’s mind. This plan that we are involved in today came from the mind of God. We are here today because of the mind of God. It’s what God purposed. That’s why we’re here. We’ve been given His holy spirit. His purpose is to save us from what we are, what we’ve been created.

We’ve been created with a natural mind that is hostile to Him. The only way that that can be transformed, we’re to have it, is by a choice. We have to make a choice. God gives us His spirit so that now we can choose His way, and over a period of time God will come to the conclusion, “Now I know him or her.” “Now I know you.” We’ve got to pray that it’s not the other way, “Now I know you, that you will not choose Me.” Because that’s the outcome. It’s either one or the other. “You either choose Me (God), or you don’t choose Me (God).” True? That’s the choice.

Continuing on: I dwell in high and lofty place, with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit. This person knows they can do nothing spiritually by themselves. They see and know themselves. So we know what we’re like. We know who we are. We know God’s plan of salvation. We know what this is all about. We know that God does speak to us and that we can overcome, we can conquer self, selfishness.

To revive, to make whole, the spirit of the humble. That’s what we become. If we see ourselves with God’s holy spirit we become humble. In other words, pride has to be broken in us, and then when it’s broken, we become humble, we realize that without God we’ve nothing, we’re just like everybody else. Our destiny, unless we repent and become humble, is that we’re going to die, we’re going to have death for eternity, which means no consciousness.

...to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Someone contrite allows self to be broken or crushed. That’s what it’s about.

So brethren, we are just so blessed that God does speak to us, and we won’t go and tell anybody that, of course. But it’s true; the truth is God does speak to us.

With that we’ll conclude.