Revelation in the Feast of Tabernacles, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

September 23, 2021

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon

Well, it’s great to be here in the Netherlands. We weren’t sure at times if we’d make it, but thankfully, we’re here. Some places having a difficult time. Australia, I can’t believe the lockdowns that keep happening over there; and the restrictions they have it’s almost unbelievable. But anyway, hopefully everything is going to continue to go well here. It started out quite well. So, good to have the entire group here.

On the first day I’m not generally able to get around to see everyone. I’m a little more tense because of waiting to make sure that everything functions well. Because if this doesn’t work well then the rest of the areas don’t receive these videos later on. So, we’ve had to juggle videos. So, I’m giving this one here that will be heard in a couple days in the States and then in Australia and New Zealand.

Anyway, with that seemed like there was something else. Oh yes, the announcements. I would like to ask here… We announce this a lot in the states because we have quite a few people over there that have allergies. We have quite a few people here who have allergies. And some of them really bother others, especially anything that’s strong, strong deodorants, strong, I guess more, lotions if they’re really a strong type. Also, perfumes. We ask that no one ever wear perfume to Sabbath services anywhere, nor strong colognes of any kind. Some aftershave or something to protect your skin, to keep…well, fellows, you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, but nothing smelly as far as colognes and the like is concerned.

And this is out of love for others, because the reality is there are people even here today, I know there are some headaches that already started because of some things. And so, anyway, that’s just to bring everyone up to date because you’re not in the States and you don’t hear these announcements as much. We’re having lots of mercy, so… No, I’m just kidding.

And I don’t know if everyone got that in the Dutch, because it’s not in your notes. I know it’s hard to keep up with me sometimes. So anyway, even for the sermons we generally send those out to you, the outline so that you can follow along in the outline. But when I go off tangent a little bit it’s probably a little harder to keep up with me. Maybe even for the English, I don’t know, and the Irish.

It’s great to be here. What an incredible couple of years we’ve had almost now, year and a half at least, crazy things that are going on in the world and things continue to have more stress and more strain out there. We’re rapidly moving forward, that’s for sure, but we will see. We have to keep alert.

Over the past few years we’ve been growing in understanding of the term “progressive revelation.” Means a lot to us because we’ve learned a great deal from that, to understand how things have happened in different periods of time. Just as in the period of Herbert Armstrong and the Philadelphian era and as he began to be used by God in a very powerful way to restore truth into the Church because of what happened during Sardis, and then to see how the Church progressed slowly along as we did.

Because it took time. It takes time, especially considering where the Church was when he was called, when he was brought on the scene, and to start introducing things. Just like the Holy Days. They didn’t have the Holy Days in the beginning. They had the Sabbath but as he was given to understand those things from God He came to see the commandment. He felt, anyway, more and more convicted of keeping the Feast, keeping the Holy Days, the annual Holy Days and so, him and his wife began to do that on their own, the Feast of Tabernacles, for about seven years. And then after the time and through that process of conviction He began to teach it.

Now, that’s kind of a difficult thing sometimes to understand because we just take for granted all the truths we have in many ways, that we’ve always had them. And obviously, we know we haven’t. And just like with him and what he went through, that wasn’t an easy thing for him to do I can tell you for sure, to go through that period of time. Because he took seven years to become deeply convicted that this was something that he was to teach to the Church. Other things he was given to see quickly.

And candidly, that entire process is for us to learn from, to grow in understanding of, that God doesn’t just flood us with knowledge. Because knowledge of itself has no great value in one sense because if you don’t understand it, if you don’t comprehend the reason for various things, don’t grow in the conviction… That’s why we have to go through different experiences. So, they had to experience something over a period of time to grow in greater conviction so that he could even become more convicted to teach it to the Church, that he knew this was of God.

And I think of Pentecost. You might think, well, that would be a quick thing to change, when it was kept on a Monday all the years that it was, and then in the early 70’s there, ‘73 up to ‘74 when it was finally made, the change was made. Took a year at setting aside a period of time to study, to research, to make certain that this change, again, was something from God. So, he didn’t do it flippantly, he didn’t do it irresponsibly. He did it out of great conviction toward God because he didn’t want to teach anything that was incorrect, and he wanted to make sure that he himself was deeply convicted and knew that it was of God so that he could teach it to the Church.

So again, things we can learn from in this process of how things are revealed. And so, we see this progressive revelation. Not just through his ministry and Philadelphia era, but going way, way back. What an incredible thing! That’s why I am so in awe of what we see and what we understand now, because as you heard in the sermon that Wayne just gave, it’s very difficult for us to really grasp and appreciate the depth of what we have. It truly is. It’s exceedingly hard. Because you can’t do it physically, it’s something you have to grow in spiritually. It’s something that God has to give to us over a period of time as we pray and seek to draw closer to God. As we mature spiritually we come to see that more deeply. And we have to experience that ourselves. And so we come to appreciate more deeply.

Looking back in time, I think of Abraham. He wasn’t given a whole lot. He really wasn’t. And all those before him, we don’t know all that they did or did not have in any specific point in time. But now understanding progressive revelation they didn’t have a whole lot. And then God began to give more to Abraham, and what did He give him? Things about a promise. Promises to Abraham of what was going to come from him. And he saw this mostly in a physical plane, and then as time grew perhaps more on a spiritual plane. We don’t really know. But what an incredible thing.

And then you come up to the period of time of the Israelites. And I don’t want to get ahead in the sermon here, but you think about what they began to be given and they were given the law in the wilderness on tables of stone, but they didn’t understand it. They didn’t comprehend the spiritual part of it, the spirit of the law. It was just do’s and don’ts to them. Do this, don’t do that. That’s how most people see things like that.

And then through time and then finally, Christ came on the scene, and he began to teach things on a spiritual plane. That’s why I marvel at what he gave just on the night of Passover itself. There is an incredible amount that he gave to the disciples through that evening after having taken the Passover with them, through into that night later on. And all that’s written about what he gave are some of the most important things on a spiritual plane that a human being could ever be given. And we’ll address some of that later.

Now, the reality is we should be in deep awe of that. We should be in incredible awe. Because a lot of what he gave on that night the Church has not yet known until this period of time of God’s Church. How blessed are we because of progressive revelation? Things that weren’t given to Herbert Armstrong and the Philadelphian era? They just weren’t. It wasn’t God’s time yet. God has a purpose of why He reveals things in this manner. It’s awesome.

And we are so richly blessed by all that we have, and it’s hard for us to comprehend that. It’s hard for us to do as we heard in the first sermon there, to rejoice because we see something so great, so mighty that God has given to so few. It’s hard for us. I couldn’t help but think as I was sitting there, you can go into a city and be the only on in God’s Church! A large city! You can go into… Well, if you visited China, how many in China have been called? Over one billion people? Not a one. Not a one! One in India. Awesome! Incredible! And it’s hard for us to grasp that, how rich we are on a spiritual plane, of what God has poured out upon us.

And so, the more we can see that the more we can rejoice before God on a spiritual plane. Because as he was saying in that video, it’s a spiritual matter. The ability to see that, the ability to rejoice is about a spiritual thing not just a physical thing, as the Israelites went through and looked and sat in that booth and thought about the things of them coming out of Egypt and how God had worked with them over a period of time and the blessings that they had in their own life that they could see and think about as they looked back. Because they were looking back as they sat in the booth, as to where God had brought them. It was all physical. They didn’t grasp anything spiritual.

That’s why I’ll be candid with you, be candid with you about certain things that sometimes just irritate the tar out of me. How anyone can come into God’s Church, experience what you’re blessed to experience, and begin to make decisions to lead you out of God’s Church, to begin to make decisions that begin to rob you of the greatest riches human beings have ever been given in 6,000 years. And how anyone can turn their back on that and become antiChrist—because that’s what they do—to fight against the very purpose of why Christ died for us, why Joshua died? It’s like spitting on him while he’s there suffering, being beaten and whipped by cat-o-nine-tails, and flesh being ripped off his body. And then we walk up and spit on him? That’s what we do if we turn our back on God!

That’s why I sometimes wonder about things that are said in scripture in the New Testament. It says, “What’s going to be the outcome of those individuals who have done such things?” We think, “Oh, they’re all just going to be in the hundred-years and they’re all going to repent.” Bull! Bull, bull, bull! Some of them have cut their own throat by what they have done. Because it’s not a small thing to do something like that when God has given you the most precious thing He can – His Son. Awesome.

Anyway, I get worked up over these things and can’t help it. We should be worked up over these things so that we are so deeply convicted that something like that, to turn against Christ, to turn against God, to turn against the truth that God has given to His Church, to turn against God’s minister or minister or apostle! Would be unheard of in our minds! And yet it still goes on. Still happening!

I wasn’t planning on getting into this, but I think I just need to get it off. This thing of Covid? It’s been more for the Church than anything else. It’s been allowed to happen for this long more for the Church. It’s greatest value… You think, “Value in Covid?” Better believe it. Because it’s bringing us to a point where people have to make choices and decisions about what they’re going to do and whether they will listen to God’s minister – me. By whether this time we know how God is working or we don’t. There is no excuse not to know.

I think of people who had the gall, the guts—not guts, because it’s just stupidity—to speak against Herbert Armstrong. And yet they did it freely. Ministers. Brethren in the church. They see something they think is wrong, they’d talk about it amongst themselves. Don’t you know what you’re doing? Don’t you know who he is, what God is doing? It’s not the man as much as understanding this is about God! It’s about God working through a weak human being, but in a human being that’s been put in a position and a place of authority and power that God wants us to grasp and comprehend.

So, going back to Covid. People who won’t get shots. Well, won’t get it because “I’m not going to go to the Feast of Tabernacles.” So, making a choice not to go to the Feast of Tabernacles. I’ll just be real candid with you. It’s not just about the Feast of Tabernacles, it’s about Sabbath after Sabbath after Sabbath. It’s not just about the Church either, it’s about the world! And we’ve been told it’s about a matter of love. And anyone who can’t grasp that nor see that at this point in time, I feel sorry for you because you’re weak spiritually. But you’ve done it to yourself by your choices and by your decisions.

There is no reason on earth why everyone in God’s Church doesn’t have a Covid shot. No reason whatsoever. I don’t know how much more bluntly I can put it. Say, “Well, later on we may find out that it’s going to start affecting our systems and we’re going to start turning into zombies!” (Supposed to be a little humor there.) Well, if you’re turned into zombies, you’re in God’s Church, you don’t have to worry because God judged you up to the point you turned. After that, you can’t help it; when you’re dead you’re dead. Because I think zombies are supposed to be dead aren’t they, and then they walk around and, you know…

So, I don’t get it. I do get it! I deeply understand what is going on. It’s the fact that sometimes it takes us time to go through a process, to experience something and to learn the weightier matter of God’s law. It’s spiritual. You think, “Well, getting a shot, is that spiritual?” Sure is. It sure is! Not the physical part of it at all, the mind and the thinking towards why you’re doing it, the decision that’s made there out of love toward others in the world let alone others within God’s Church.

Well, put that one behind me at least for a while. May come out in the next sermon, I don’t know. If it is, there’s a reason for it. Because we need to grasp what we’re going through and what’s happening.

Anyway, progressive revelation, get back on track here. Progressive revelation, how much we have been blessed to be given.

So, we see these things taking place through time, we’ve come to understand how that something the Church hasn’t always understood. The Church has kind of felt through periods of time here of Philadelphia and Laodicea that everyone going all the way back to Adam and Eve and Noah, they had all of God’s laws. No, they didn’t. No, they didn’t! There are things that just hadn’t been revealed yet. They hadn’t been revealed yet.

God judged individuals then according to certain things of what He gave to them in knowledge about Himself to that point in time. And that’s all He needed to do to that point in time. He knew their spirit. He knew what was in here. He knew the choices they made and why they made them. Just like Abraham and the things he chose to do. And the greatest one? He believed God.

Whatever amount it is, it doesn’t matter the amount, it’s what you believe. And if you believe that God Almighty gave you that, whatever it is you have? Just like Wayne mentioned, again, our calling. What an incredible thing to remember, to think about. God did it. Things we began to see, we believed them. This is from God. And we started making changes in our life, the Sabbath, tithing, Holy Days, and on and on it went. Awesome! Something that can never be taken from you unless you start making the wrong choices in your life. Then God will take it from you.

Every year I hate to do it, hate to say it. There are going to be people who leave between now and spring Holy Days or have to be put out of God’s Church. Between now and the spring Holy Days let alone next year’s Feast. Who? Where? When? I don’t know. Well, some I have suspicion of, I’ll be candid with you.

Just like the individual I mentioned recently here, or maybe you haven’t heard that sermon yet, I don’t know. That on the day I was speaking I had asked another minister to disfellowship him from God’s Church because he hasn’t been tithing or giving Holy Day offerings like he should ever since he’s been in God’s Church for nearly 10 years. And I think I mentioned in that sermon then the first time I ever met him I picked up on enough to know that if he doesn’t change right now or soon he’s just going to continue on this way because of wrong decisions and wrong choices, and he’ll never be fully in God’s Church.

Because just because someone attends for ten years doesn’t mean they’re in God’s Church. God has much patience with us but there comes a time—and that’s in God’s hands—when those things are to be taken care of. Either God will do it directly or He’ll give it to His Church to do.

And so we’ve come to learn about progressive revelation, that God’s people through time haven’t always known all the Holy Days, about the Holy Days. We learned recently, not too long ago, that it wasn’t until the first Passover that anyone ever kept Passover. They didn’t keep it before that. It was never given to be kept before that. That’s when it started, when God revealed it before He delivered them out of Egypt, to lead to, to teach things on a far greater plane, on a spiritual plane about Passover (leaving quickly), unleavened bread, all those things that had such great significance because God was going to use those things to teach His people in the Church later on in a very powerful way things on a spiritual plane. Because it still wasn’t given to God’s people from that point on to grasp the spiritual implications of all that. Unleavened bread, Passover.

They didn’t grasp when Christ came. The disciples didn’t know why he was there. They looked to him as being the Christ, that he was going to somehow with the power of God overthrow the Roman government, their rule, and Judah would be strong again, a powerful nation and under God’s rule, under the Messiah. They had no idea the magnitude of what it was all about yet. They had no idea that he was coming at that point in time to be the Passover.

And so, finally we begin to see things on a spiritual plane about the importance of Passover. You think anyone understood that before that? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, king David, on and on it goes, they didn’t know those things. It wasn’t given to them to comprehend everything like that at all even though they wrote about some of those things. Just because they wrote about those things doesn’t mean they understood them, what it was about, what the spiritual implication was. Things about the wave sheaf. Israelites didn’t keep that until after the end of forty years, and then finally they had a wave sheaf offering, the first one ever.

And then the ability to know how to count to Pentecost. They didn’t have that until that period of time. Now, they knew how to count toward Pentecost so they could observe it for the first time after they entered the promised land. Before that, they didn’t know, they didn’t have that.

And we come into God’s Church and we’re given so much, truckloads of knowledge and understanding. And we’re so rich if we could see it on a spiritual plane, especially if we look back in time of what others have had – haven’t had, actually. Think, how blessed am I? I know what I am. We know what…

We should know what we are, our weaknesses, our flaws, our shortcomings. Human nature stinks, and we all have it. And I have a boatload still, and I’ll still have a boatload by the time it comes to be changed or whatever. So, progressive revelation. It’s beautiful.

And now in the time we’re currently living God has been progressively revealing more and more to the Church prior to the Kingdom of God being established on earth, a time that’s pictured in what we’re observing here. What a beautiful thing to be able to be here to meditate upon those things, think about those things. Not to sit in booths but to sit here, to sit before the way that God feeds us and to be nurtured by God Almighty. Because that’s what’s taking place. God Almighty nurtures us throughout the Feast, gives us those things that are exceedingly important to Him that we grasp, that we learn, that we be moved by, that we be inspired by, that we be strengthened by so that we continue to live Israel, persevere, perseverance, keep pushing forward no matter what happens to us.

This sermon is entitled Revelation in the Feast of Tabernacles, and this is Part 1.

We need to go back to Leviticus 23 to read these things because that’s what we’re to do at the Feast, to focus on the command that God gave to be here.

Leviticus 23:39—Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land… And when we read this we need to grasp what’s being talked about. “When you have gathered in the fruit.” What we’re to learn from this is not on a physical plane. Yes, it’s great that we can grasp and comprehend the blessings of life we have on a physical plane alone, but the greater thing is the fruit of what God pours out upon us year by year by year. And the more He’s given to us than any other people is because of the timing of where we are before Christ comes, before the Kingdom of God is established.

So, just because we happen to live, we’re blessed to live in this time, blessed to be called into God’s Church at this time and to experience what we’re experiencing, some of the greatest things that God is pouring out upon us that will be in the world when Christ returns. Now, He’s going to give much more but He’s preparing us for that period of time and for what is established by the time he returns. It’s going to be the bedrock of where we start in a new age. Incredible to all of us, for all of us be a part of that.

So, we should think about the fruit of what God’s given to us. That should create within us as we really think about that and pray about that, which we should be doing at the Feast, at different times here to think about what God has given to us and to thank God, to thank Him that we’re blessed to be where we are, that we’re blessed to be called, that we’re blessed to see the things that we see, the truth that we have, the fruit that He’s poured out upon us, so much so we can’t take it all in.

Think you grasp everything that’s been given to this point in time? You don’t. You do not grasp everything that’s been given to this point in time in God’s Church. It’s something you grow in.

I think of this last book. (Last book?) And I think of where we are just by experiencing the others and it’s awesome to me, it’s inspiring to me, and realising because of going through all of that this here is able to be clearer, in that respect, and because of that we’re able to grasp more as well. But there is so much there, there truly is. There is so much that we’ve been given. Fruit.

You shall keep a Feast unto the Eternal seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And you shall take unto you on the first day boughs of good trees. Now God has blessed us to understand this statement even more fully as He’s progressively revealed more to us in this area, and at a, as the Feast periods that we’ve gone through in past times here and addressed some of this. And to understand even here, to be reminded of it that this Hebrew word is only translated once into English as “boughs,” like it is here. Because this is the word for “fruit.” Incredible.

And candidly, our eyes have been blind to it through Philadelphia and Laodicea. Just blind to it, what it meant, what it’s all about, what it represents. And people would get more hung up on or more inclined to thinking on a physical plane about the booth, the Feast of Booth’s. Which, you know, it’s to be referred to, but you need to understand what that means and what that’s all about on a spiritual plane. Because people didn’t understand that we had a difficult time one year when we had a four-day organized location for God’s people to attend during the Feast and the other four day was still organized but not in the way the Church was accustomed to – in your own homes.

Got a lot of flack from that, a lot of resistance from that. God’s measuring us at different times. Are we going to turn left? Are we going to turn right? Are we going to listen or are we going to make up our own minds about what we think is right and wrong and choose from that? Because that doesn’t work with God.

Verse 40—And you shall take unto you on the first day the boughs/the fruit is what it is, of good trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Eternal your God seven days.

Not a suggestion. So, in order to truly rejoice before God, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to have some difficulties. It doesn’t mean you’re going to have, wake up in a morning and you’re going to be just as grumpy as all get out and look out everyone that comes across your path until you get a hold of yourself, or whatever it might be. You maybe say something to someone, or someone says something to you and you’re working inside on something. Hopefully, we’re working. Sometimes we don’t work as hard as we need to. I don’t all the time at all. I’d say ask my family, but please don’t ask my family. Personal things in our lives we all have to work on.

And so, you have to work on this to rejoice before God. It’s a spiritual thing. Doesn’t mean we don’t have carnal human nature. Doesn’t mean we don’t always remember what was said about tasting of the food or things not going right and here there is pork on everything. So, change in management and things get messed up and supposedly contracts and everything in them are transferred over and we found out last night, that’s not the case.

And anyway, just like that podium back there. Did you see that thing? Wasn’t in the last write up, eventually, for the group here. They didn’t get the message of what was given to them earlier and so they brought that thing back there for someone who is much… I didn’t get up there, but I think it comes about right here on the back side of that. And I’m supposed to stand up there and give a sermon? I mean…? It’s for the Dutch. They’re tall. I am not. So, we made our own podium. Thankfully, we had this. We were going to use it to put some flowers on on the side there and it finally hit me when I saw that thing this morning, here is my podium, and it was all prepared to be my podium.

So, we have to think about rejoicing before God. And that’s about the spiritual things that God has given to us. It’s not just all the physical things and yet this is great, to be able to come together, to have the kind of fellowship. What a beautiful thing, the fellowship we’re able to have with one another, and to feel for those who are not able to have the same fellowship with one another. Like in Australia in one are there Wayne was telling me about how just a few of them (Is it three or four?) able… The only fellowship they get to have is by meeting in a park because they can’t meet in a home. It’s restricted. You can’t have more people coming into a home. And on and on it goes.

You think, how blessed are we? Whether you snuck in through Ireland or Crete, or wherever you came in here from and got here to the Netherlands, we’re here, all of us. What an awesome thing to be so blessed. But it’s a spiritual… And to be thankful for that because having fellowship with one another should be rich spiritually for us. But to grasp and to thank God in your prayers each day for what He’s been giving to you. To ask Him to help you to grasp the riches of all the truth that you have, as we heard in that first sermon. To understand that those during Laodicea and even Philadelphia, as richly blessed as it was, and on through time, even the early apostles didn’t have what you have. They didn’t have what you have. To be, to have the opportunity of being in God’s Family, wow!

Leviticus 23:42—You shall dwell in booths seven days; and all who are born Israelites shall dwell in booths that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell (to continue) in booths. What an awesome thing that we learn from this that which is on a spiritual plane that is so much more important, that we live in temporary dwellings, that that’s God’s plan and God’s purpose to get us to the time as we’re to be looking forward to being in God’s Kingdom, to being in God’s Family. And so, we live in temporary dwellings as we’re on a journey, a spiritual one. Awesome!

…when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Eternal your God.

Another great progressive revelation that God has given to the Church of God—PKG, as was also mentioned, that Joshua is the Christ, that he died so that we can be forgiven of our sins. And many stop right there, but not to realize that the very purpose of all that was so that God could dwell in these temporary dwellings. Awesome! Again, things that we sometimes just take for granted that we know and understand.

And that he’ll be continually coming into our lives, if that’s what we desire and we’re crying out to God, “I need, I want, I desire Your spirit to live, to dwell within me.” Because you have to ask. He doesn’t just give it to you every day because He knows you need it. You have to be convicted of the fact you know you need it and you’re crying out for it.

Let’s turn over to 1 Peter 1. So, when it talk’s about “all who are born Israelites,” we understand that, what that means for us on a spiritual plane, to be begotten into a name, as it were, into a family because of what God is creating, because of what God is making. Not about the physical tribes. It’s not about the physical tribes, it’s about the spiritual.

1 Peter 1:1—Peter, an apostle of Joshua the Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit. So, God sets us apart through the power of His holy spirit for holy use and purpose. That’s what this is all about. We’re called into God’s Church, we’re set apart. I mean, how much more holy could it be because God is in it to mold and fashion, to transform our thinking, our minds so that we can be born into His family.

…sanctification of the spirit, unto obedience. So, we begin to see that very early on. It’s about obedience to God, living God’s way of life. Because that’s what obedience is about. It’s about choosing to live God’s way of life. That’s what’s best for us in relationships with one another and with God Almighty.

…and sprinkling of the blood of Joshua the Christ. The blessing of being able to go before God at any time and say, “Father, forgive me through our Passover, my Passover, Joshua the Christ.” And to know that it’s gone. You believe God, what God has said about that. And so you should know, we should know then once we have prayed that in earnest and we are striving to act upon it because we’re responding, because whatever it is we’re striving to change, we’re striving to fight, we’re striving to conquer. Not just to be forgiven of a sin, but of a desire to hate it so that it’s never repeated. And if it’s repeated then to repeat what you just did again, but with the mind and the purpose of your thinking that it’s to conquer, it’s to overcome, it’s to change, and that you want to hate what it is that you love.

And I hope you understand that. It’s why I used to, long time ago, first became a pastor, telling individuals about smoking, about that thing there and about you might as well just make a great big one out here and light it up at the top and bow down to it. “Oh, Cigarette! Oh-ho-ho!” Because you love it. That’s why you keep doing it. You haven’t come to the point of life where you’re convicted. And that’s a small thing!

Some didn’t think it was so small because it really gets it’s roots into you life, into your body, into your being because there is that which is in it which your body wants and desires, and to conquer that and overcome that, to cry out to God for continual help until you’ve won. But most of the battle of things like that is a matter of coming to learn to hate, to loathe what is wrong, what is bad, what is not right.

And the more you learn to hate it the more you can conquer what it is your carnal self loves. Because that’s the problem. The reason you sin is because you love the sin, or you wouldn’t have done it. You love, your human nature loves. It’s the way we are. Sick. Human beings are really sick, perverted, distorted, selfish to the core, and that’s what we have to learn to hate. Because if we don’t hate it with all of our being are we learning the lesson of what God is wanting to teach us, what He wants us to experience through all this?

The mind of Satan cannot be in God’s Kingdom! That’s what we have to learn to hate. Because everything about selfish human beings is about the mind of Satan the devil. That’s what it is. And we have to learn to hate that with all of our being. Incredible!

Again here, sprinkling of the blood of Joshua the Christ. Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God… There is so much there that it’s already saying. Grace, what that means. Peace, and how that’s multiplied in our life. I’ve grown to really love that expression about peace and wanting to see more of it multiplied. Because it’s the exact opposite of drama.

There’s just a lot of drama in the world. I hope you’re learning to hate drama with all of your being because it’s really evil. And yet you look at TV and how it’s set up, it promotes drama, it promotes the idea of people watching drama. Because human nature kind of likes drama. Now, it’s one thing… I don’t even want to get into it.

But anyway, you have to be careful that it doesn’t get a hold of you in the sense of… We should learn from the drama around us. We should learn that this isn’t want God desires. And we can learn from what human nature is really like and learn to loathe that kind of thing. You can see it on TV and learn to loathe it more and feel sorry for people because they don’t have what we’re blessed to see.

Verse 4—to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith. So, here we go again. It’s about believing. That’s what faith is. The power of faith. Incredible! …unto salvation.

So, incredible. There is incredible power there because of how God works with us and how we’re judged, that because we believe Him and we want to act upon that belief that’s what faith is about. It’s about your desire to live God’s way of life and striving to live what you’ve been given to believe. Beautiful. And God counts that to us for righteousness. We should do the striving, yes, but the reality is we’re never going to do it perfectly. But the fact that we believe God and we’re working in that direction He counts it as righteousness. What a beautiful thing.

…ready to be revealed in the last time. So again here, they were always talking in a context of what was going to happen when Christ would return, and looking to the end-time and the Kingdom of God becoming established. So, that’s where their hearts, where their desire was, and that’s where our heart and our desire is no matter what we have to go through.

Wherein you greatly rejoice! The more we see this and grasp this and understand what we’ve been going through here, what’s being said, “Wherein you greatly rejoice.” So, with rejoicing goes a lot of thankfulness to God. That’s where it comes from. The fact that we see something and we raise our hands to God Almighty and say, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank You, holy Father for what You’re pouring out upon us and blessing us to receive. Thank you!” So, it’s good sometimes then to mention some of those things, for what you’re thankful for what God has given to you on a spiritual plane.

Wherein we greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through many trials. Do we have any trials? They come and go. Sometimes they’re worse than others and sometimes we get head smacked really hard, especially in preparation for a Feast and getting to a Feast site oftentimes. And then oftentimes before Unleavened Bread because there is a spirit world that’s stirred up out there and so we get bombarded a lot by different things that come around just to distract us, just to get us off course, just to interfere. Because they like to torment. They like us to be tormented. They want us to become involved in drama. So we have to be careful because it’s easy for us to get hooked up with drama and give into it.

Let’s turn over to 1 John 4. So, we’re begotten as a spiritual Israel and we’re on a journey out of Egypt, a journey of perseverance. I love that series we went through about perseverance and Israel, the name and what it means. Because this exemplifies. This reflects, this shows who God’s people are. People who are persevering. Something happens and you have to deal with humility, to have to humble yourself, things take place in our life because we have to address certain things where we haven’t done something well or things well and we repent and have to tell others sometimes, “I’m sorry.”

So in addition to being given progressive revelation of what the physical type of abiding or dwelling is all about spiritually, we come to scriptures like this, a temporary dwelling until we’re literally able to be born into God’s Family; His great desire for us.

1 John 4:7—Beloved, let us love one another. You know what just popped up in my mind again? Covid, Covid, Covid. It’s nasty stuff. “Beloved, let us love one another.” Sometimes we think we’re spiritual, sometimes we think we’re really spiritual. Sometimes we think very highly of ourselves and our opinions and our thoughts and how we see things and why we can disagree about various matters with even God’s apostle – just saying it bluntly. It’s not about me.

“Let us love one another.” So, we are given many kinds of opportunities throughout our lives to exercise this, to practice this, to put it into practice.

…for love… And this is very specific here now. So, it’s telling us that we’re to do this. It doesn’t specify what it is yet, it just says we’re to love one another. But it gets very specific about the kind of love. Because like the Church in times past didn’t grasp about philia, Philadelphia, philadelphia love is not good enough. Philadelphia love, a brotherly love, a fraternal love doesn’t quite cut it.

It was good to experience to that degree because of where we were in time, but it isn’t what it’s all about, like one group thinks that this is, this is it, if you have the name Philadelphia, you’ve got everything. You think, give me a break! Give me a great, big break! Because that’s just dumb! It really is when you know what the word means. phila – philia. And that’s what you want to be?

I want this! Agape! Because I know, we learn this is of God and no human being has it except that God gives it through the power of His holy spirit. It’s the only way you can experience this kind of love. And so, we are able to taste of it from time to time, partake of it from time to time though we are never fully there. We learn that very easily. Because every time our human nature pops up – which mine does every day. My carnal human nature just pops up every day. Does yours? Mmm. It’s there. Selfish human beings that we are. Incredible that we don’t have greater control of our minds. That’s the fight! That’s what God’s blessed us with. It’s a fight. It’s a battle.

“Let us love one another, for love…” It makes it clear here this is something that has to come from God. This is God’s love. Because before that it’s talking about love in general, a very generic word used for love, and unless it specifies it may talk about philia, that someone needs to love at least that much.

Anyway, this is the love you want. …it is of God. How much clearer can you get? It comes from God. It is of God. You can’t have it without God. You have to have God’s holy spirit. That’s the only way to have it. So, you have to cry out for it for God’s holy spirit to live within you so you can prayerfully be able to exercise that more and more in the changes you’re making in your life.

And everyone who loves is born of God (begotten of God). Because people in the world can’t have this. You have to be begotten of God’s holy spirit. That spirit essence has to be in your mind in order for God’s holy spirit to work in it so you can have experience of it from time to time. Just like the Feast of Tabernacles. You don’t get to experience this all the time. You don’t get to through the rest of the year. You don’t have a period of time where you get to come together for eight days and hear sermon after sermon that helps us, and be away from the world as a whole. We have a little rubbing of shoulders with the world but not a whole lot. You have to rub shoulders when you find out, oh, it’s all pork sandwiches. And so, you have to deal with that and deal with it the best way you can and try to resolve it. Me, I just have to get out of the room and go someplace else and it’ll get resolved. Anyway, sorry. And it all gets taken care of.

…everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. What a beautiful thing to know God. The world doesn’t. All the scattered body out there, they don’t know God anymore. They. Do. Not. Know. God. They’re asleep. Some are in a very, very, very deep sleep. And only God can awake them out of that. And the longer they’ve been in that sleep the more dangerous it is. What a horrible thing. And what a blessing if you were awakened out of that. Awesome, how merciful God is with us.

One who loves is born of God and knows God. Any who do not love do not know God. Now, I wonder if there are going to be some who hear this who really believe what I’m saying about Covid and getting a vaccine, that it is about love. Or make a decision in a different way because, “Well, where did you get your information? How do you…?”

Mine comes from wherever, and He’s everywhere, God is. See, I believe that with all my being. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be able to be up here.

Any who do not love do not know God. Is it possible that someone who attends Sabbath services can get to a point where they really don’t know God anymore? Think, “I know the truth. I know the Passover, the Unleavened Bread, the Holy Days, the commands. I know those things! Who are you telling me that I don’t understand them, that I don’t know God?!” There’s a lot more to knowing God than knowing the knowledge. But I can’t give that to anyone. You can’t give that to anyone. It’s only in a personal relationship you have with God to whether you grasp that on a spiritual plane or not, of what God is saying.

For God is agape. It’s just God. It’s the way God is. What a beautiful thing.

In this was manifest the love (the agape) of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Just these things alone about Christ and him coming to die as he did and God being in him as He was to the level He was in a mind that we can’t grasp is something to be in awe of, truly.

Verse 10—Herein is love (agape), not that we loved God. I think of this here that people think they came into truth because of their studying and because of how they learned about the Sabbath and they started keeping the Sabbath. And they don’t grasp that whatever you came into, whatever you came across and you saw and you understood and you were able to come on into God’s Church, God was doing it, not you. Never was it you. We had choices to make along the way as to what took place in our life, and we have choices to make then with what God has given to us.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. The reality is, there is no human being that’s ever loved God except one, Christ, in the beginning. God had to call them. God had to draw them. God had to work with them to help them develop the ability to have a thinking toward Him whereby they loved Him. Even as young as David was he had a human nature about him in the beginning as a child, as a youngster, as a teenager. His brother’s couldn’t hardly take it. But God was working with him, and he had a thinking toward God and God began to work with him and draw him into something far, far greater as David continued to make choices and decisions. But his calling was from God. His ability to make that journey and begin to see the things that he did was of God. The things that he accomplished he knew that God helped him to accomplish them. The lion, the bear, the things when he was very young, he knew where it came from. He believed it by that point of time in his life as young as he was, that God was the one working with him, and thereby he even acknowledged that. Awesome!

…not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sins. So, this is looking at all mankind through all time because the same shoe fits everyone. We have to have that sacrifice in our life because we all have sin.

Beloved, if God so loves us, we ought to love one another. Here we are full circle, and that Covid thing just keeps popping up it’s ugly head. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. What does that mean? God Almighty willing to give His own Son in sacrifice. Not only willing to do it but planned it. It was His purpose because of His plan for all His creation of mankind and the eventuality of what would come of that. Not everyone, not by any measure, but of those who would receive it, who could be worked with, who could be changed, who could enter into His Family eventually. That’s what it was all about, to become a part of Elohim.

And so, that willingness of both God the Father and of Christ. Christ willing to give his life. Of that same mind. A willingness to be beaten like he was, a willingness to die like he did so that we could have what we have.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. What’s it about? It’s about a willingness to lay down your life. That kind of love. If it comes to that are we willing to do that? There are a lot of people who have gone through a lot of suffering through time in God’s Church to the point of death. There are a lot of people who have been killed for what they believed. Some of us may yet. I’d say some of us will.

That’s a horrible thing to experience in life, but what’s on the other side, that’s what it’s all about, being in God’s Family. So, we suffer in this physical body for a time, or for a short time. What does it mean in the scheme of things? In time, what does it mean? And yet don’t want to get a shot out of love towards others. Kind of blows my mind, really. Sort of, not really, but think what are we missing? God’s spirit. God’s mind. God’s thinking. Love toward one another. A lack of a willingness to do what we really should do.

Because God’s kind of love is a sacrificing kind of love. That’s what’s unique about God’s love. It’s not… Our love is selfish. Philadelphia was selfish. Philia is selfish. It’s about our fraternal organization. That’s what it’s about. It’s about us, it’s not about everyone else. It’s not that mind, that heart, that desire on a spiritual plane. It’s still a selfish kind of love.

The world has all kind of fraternal organizations. And that isn’t what God wants. And look what we did? We screwed things up royally. We all fell asleep! We became lukewarm. We thought we had so much. We became rich and increased in… That’s what God said and that’s what happened to us on a spiritual plane. We took it to ourselves and didn’t understand what that meant spiritually. Every one of us who went through the Apostasy got lifted up in a wrong way.

So this desire here, again, verse 11—Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another. How much are we willing to sacrifice for someone else? That’s what it comes down to. How much are we willing to give, sacrifice for someone else? It’s a great question until finally you’re confronted with it, and oftentimes we think we would until we’re confronted with it. So, it depends on our conviction and our relationship with God and how we see God and God’s plan and God’s purpose and how we actually see our calling.

Or do we worry about something else? “My” health. What might happen to “me.” “I” might turn into a zombie! There are all kinds of… I get a charge out of, in a… I was going to say, “kind of a sick, kind of a sick sort of way.” Anyway, how some people think about some of this, but think they’ve got the mark of the beast by taking the shot. Or was it the sign of China?

Whatever the reasons are sometimes of things of why people get… And they don’t know who’s behind all that. There is a being behind all that. He just loves it. He just basks in it when people fall for that kind of you know what. And even more so when it’s someone in God’s Church! Because we’ve had too many in God’s church who have fallen for some of that stuff…that I stepped in the other night right as Atonement began, walking down the street and a dog had been before me. (Why did I bring that up?) Trying to show you what this is that I’m talking about, this. And so, people believe that stuff, that dog stuff.

And horrible that God’s people can get caught up in something and believe “Well, the government said ‘this,’ so I’m going to do ‘that’!” Or “China is doing that so I’m not going to do that.” Some in God’s church fall for this stuff, listening to…listening to somebody out there that has a microphone and on the internet and they get some time and “Oh, they’re right down the line. I believe what they have to say and they make so much sense,” and you become convicted of that more than you are of what God says in Sabbath services. Is there something wrong with that? Do you see something wrong with that, where we’d listen to some of that kind of stupidity and ignorance and some of these crazy, weird things out there that are out there?

And Satan just lapping it up. “There’s another one. I got another one. They believe this thing.”

That’s why I hate politics right now so deeply. I hope you… You know, it’s amazing where God has brought us to, to where we hate government so much. And you have to hate, you have to hate it because it’s all evil. It’s all corrupt, every bit of it, top to bottom! And you want God’s government so much because you know that’s the only answer. You’re so convicted that what this Feast pictures is so needed – God’s government established on this earth to rule mankind because we can’t rule ourselves.

Just like I mentioned a moment ago and didn’t follow through with; we messed things up within the Church! Even within Philadelphia on into Laodicea. We did! God’s own people! Because we’re not there until we’re there in God’s Family. Incredible!

Verse 12—No one has seen God at any time. I think of where we were at one point in time going back into the eighties and how some would get in these conversations about, “Well, they saw God that time that when Moses… Now, let’s see, the time that at the cave, uh…” So, people come up with these different things of when somebody got a glimpse of God.

You think, no, no one ever saw God! No one ever saw God! Even the High Priest, Melchizedek, they didn’t see God. They saw Melchizedek. That’s not God. I hope you understand what I’m saying. God is spirit and you can’t see God. So, when it says here, “No one has seen God at any time,” it really means what it says. But people have argued about this in times past.

If we love one another, God dwells in us. Now, that says a lot right there. Because if we don’t love one another, if we can’t work to resolve differences or at least work at it? That doesn’t mean that another party is going to respond properly. But if you’re working at it or working to resolve things in order to fight for peace, whatever the process is and you’re willing to do that, that’s the way it should be.

“If we love one another.” So again, if we have this kind of love, a sacrificing kind of love for one another. Because if we don’t have a sacrificing kind of love for one another and not willing to, well, what? Give up our life? Would you be willing to? Seriously! We told God that at baptism. I wish we all knew and understood that deeply, deeply, deeply. “My life is Yours, and if You have a purpose for it and for it being taken, especially for someone else, great, awesome, wonderful to be a part.”

If we love God, God dwells in us and His love is perfected in us. What a beautiful thing. God wants to perfect His mind—that’s what it’s telling us—His thinking in us, to help us to learn to hate, to loathe everything that’s evil, everything that’s wrong, and to learn through all the experiences of what it is we really love. Everything about God and God’s plan and God’s purpose and everything that this Holy Day period pictures especially.

Hereby we know that we dwell in Him. Because if you know this and you know of your own convictions then this should give incredible encouragement. That’s what it’s about, boldness, a spirit to know that’s “my” mind, that’s the way “I” think, that’s the way “I” believe.

Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His spirit. Also, we have seen and do testify—this is by/through living our lives accordingly—that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Isn’t that a beautiful thing, what God is saying here? He’s saying because you want, because you are practicing, because you’re striving to live a certain way, to love, to cry out for God’s help to live what is right toward others, especially within the Body of Christ. And what an awesome thing that we’re such a family, to see each other on a spiritual plane and to know that we’re not to judge one another harshly at any fashion or form, let alone to judge one another because we belong, each one belongs to God. Not to look down on anyone. And if someone makes a mistake, has an error in their life, that you are willing to do the same thing that God has done as soon as that person repents, to be so thankful they’re there with you in the journey.

See, I’m encouraged any time I come before any of God’s people because I see those who are persevering, those who keep fighting. Because it’s not easy and it wasn’t meant to be easy. But that means a lot to me because it’s a matter of what’s in here, the love that we have for each other, and we hate to see anyone go by the wayside. And we’re so thankful when people go through various things and become stronger, and we don’t hold the past or any past sin or some mistake anyone has made against them and judge them according to some of those things. Because we have a perverted nature as human beings, to lift ourselves up if we think we’re better than someone else. You think, no, we’re not. No, we’re not. We’re a family in the same journey together side by side, going through horrible things, stepping stuff once in a while and able to clean it off. And thankfully, we can, and deeply love each other.

We have seen and do testify. In other words, our life is witness of this truth. It’s about Joshua. He lives in us. The fact that we’re able to be together, to persevere together, to believe the same together, to be in unity together. And the more we’re in unity together we’re testifying to what God Almighty has done, that He gave us a Son who died for us. We’re testifying of the reality of what it means we’re able to be forgiven of sin because we have the same mind.

We’re here because we believe what God said about the Feast of Tabernacles and of coming together. We’re here because of that. What a beautiful thing. And our very actions are testifying, a witness of what God has done. It glorifies and honors—what a beautiful thing—it glorifies and honors God. So, take enjoyment in that, a satisfaction in that. It should be a very pleasing thing, a thing to rejoice in, that we’re able to be a kind of witness.

We have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Because it starts with us. That’s where it started. All those who have come before us, not a lot up to this point in time, nearly at 144,000. Nearly there. And when that happens the world is going to change quickly. Awesome!

Verse 15—Whoever shall confess… Word means “to agree; to speak the same”. Sometimes some of the words have sometimes been used in the way the Protestant world and other church organizations, whatever, have looked at these things and how they’ve used these words, it so takes away from what is there.

So, Whoever shall confess/agree/speak the same, basically by how they live, obviously, that Joshua is the Son of God… So, it’s not a matter of words, “Oh, I believe that…” Well, of course, in the past it was a different name. But to be able to say that Joshua is the Son of God says God dwell in him, and he in God. Even we have known and believed the love that God has toward us. God is love (agape) and whoever dwells in agape dwells in God. It’s about God’s holy spirit. It’s about God’s holy spirit dwelling in us and continuing in us. Says, and God in them.

So, this thing about the fruit that I had mentioned earlier, about sitting in a booth and being able to have the fruit there and learning this is not about a physical container of fruit, it’s about the fruit that’s supposed to be in our lives spiritually. So, it’s a spiritual type, “the boughs of good trees,” the fruit.

John 15:1—I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away. What an awesome thing to understand about the Church, about how we’re to be a unified body, that we’re to be of one spirit, of one mind, and that we grow in that. And in the history of the Church we haven’t always had that but there are those who have and they make up the Body, the Church. Others may attend. Get’s to a point sometimes where some just attend and go through the motions but not in the Church. That comes out in time.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes. So, even there in our own lives what an incredible thing to realize that it’s good to be pruned from time to time. Even us, certain things that doesn’t always feel too good to be pruned. I don’t know exactly, but on a physical plane. We’re talking about a spiritual plane, but again, what an incredible thing to understand spiritually, that there are times that there are things that have to be cut out of our life, wrong things that shouldn’t be there.

So, we have to be a large part of that pruning process that takes place as we respond to what God teaches us, tells us. And then as we respond to that then we go to work at getting rid of the things that are dead or dying, the things that can lead to death and dying, the sin.

He prunes it that it may bring forth more fruit. That’s the only way we can grow, is by being pruned, having things cut out of our life that shouldn’t be there.

You are now clean through the word which I have spoken to you. So, what did he mean by that statement? It has to do with what he had just explained to them, something that they would not come to understand until later, candidly, after he had filled the meaning of the day of Passover.

[John 14:25]—These things have I spoken unto you… Did I go back on this verse here? Okay, this was talking about that portion of Passover, or what he fulfilled as a part of Passover and what it means for us to be able to bear fruit. I’m not sure why I jumped around like I did here but we’re going to jump right with it.

John 14, going back here to John 14. Because we were in 15 here. But it all fits together here because John 14 leads into 15 about how this is made possible, how we’re able to go through this process of bearing fruit and having things cut out of our life that shouldn’t be there. Because God wants to be in us and all of John 15 is about God dwelling in us. And if it doesn’t happen, if it doesn’t take place it’ll be cut off for good.

John 14:25—These things have I spoken to you. That’s why I marvel as we began to talk here in the sermon in the very beginning, or as I began to talk in the sermon in the beginning, about this very thing here about to marvel at all the things that Christ gave. These, this instruction, this guidance, what he was revealing at this time truly is the most awesome thing that God has ever revealed to human beings, to mankind. It’s right here, what Christ said that last night. And to grasp that we are able to see this, to experience this, to understand this on a spiritual plane, we’re exceedingly blessed, we truly are.

These things I have spoken unto you while being present with you. But the comforter, the helper, as the word is, the holy spirit. So, in this case here it’s referring to the holy spirit. Another place it refers to Christ. But the comforter, the holy spirit, which the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things. So, what an incredible thing. In other words, what is true, what we need it will lead and guide and direct us, God’s spirit does. Because we’re set apart for holy use and purpose so He’s made a means whereby then that spirit can be in our life. And this is what Christ is talking about. He’s talking about this process about how he and the Father can both dwell in us always, continuing, dwelling on a continual basis.

…it will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you. So, here he’s talking to the disciples but it’s much broader than this. Because it’s just like there are things that are said in scripture and we don’t know what they are until it’s God’s time to have it revealed up here. And then all of a sudden what an awesome thing when we are able to have something come into our mind that we’ve read through maybe many times before and now we see it. It’s an awesome thing.

That’s why I mentioned earlier about there is not… We don’t grasp everything that’s been given to us. Sometimes some of the biggest mistakes people have made is to think they grasp everything that the Church is teaching and what it has, and the reality is no, no, no. It’s a spiritual thing and spiritual things you have to grow in. And we’re all in different areas of that growth and development and then God continues to nurture that as we respond, continues to feed us and give us more, and just continues to build more and more and more. It’s an awesome thing. But if anyone thinks they grasp everything that’s been given to this point in time, you don’t. There is so much more that’s already there, that’s already been stated that we…

Just like when Christ was saying what he did here, they didn’t get it. They didn’t understand a thing on a spiritual plane until it was God’s time for them to grasp it. And then, even then they didn’t understand it all to the level and the degree that you’ve been blessed to see it in this age.

It will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you. That’s how God’s spirit works, continue to teach us, mold and fashion us, helps us to grow. That’s what it’s talking about here. Everything that is being taught, as an example, from, even from here, the things that God gives we’re able to grow in and build upon them.

I marvel at some of those things sometimes. We go from one series to another series and there’s stepping stones all through that. And sometimes we have to return to it later. Some people will tell me they’re gone back a year or two years later and “Man, I didn’t know that was there. I heard it.” But because they weren’t at that specific area for what was stated at a specific point in time. We grow. It’s a beautiful thing.

Peace I leave with you. Now, there are people who think that because what it says here, “I will teach you all things,” it’s like they don’t need the ministry, don’t need the Church. Think(?) There are people who do that! There are a lot of people who have done that in times past in God’s Church. It’s like, “Well, God’s spirit works with me. God’s leading and guiding, He called me, He gave me His holy spirit. It teaches me things. I can get in my Bible and start reading it and learn things and study and,” things that really need to be shared with others. Sometimes people get in that and it’s like this has got to be shared with someone else. Say, “Do you see?” And that’s not how God works.

And I’m not up here just flapping my lips about that, okay? Because we still have resistance in God’s Church. Still there. Some who will listen to this today, in a couple days. Hopefully, not right now but that would mean this audience here, someone now. I don’t know. We all should be on guard and alert and understand how God teaches us and molds and fashions us. If you fight against that you’re not going to win. It doesn’t work that way.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. You think of the world. How do they give peace? Well, let’s see, what was that country? Hmmm. You think of all the stupid things that just continue to happen in the world. Afghanistan. What a horrifying thing that took place. And then you see how even that’s being used, things that are being used. Nuclear subs as compared to diesel subs and attitudes begin to change toward certain countries. And it’s all leading up to something, why one day they will say yes to pushing a button.

I used to have such a difficult time with that thinking, “How could they ever get to that point where they would really, really do that?” Well, now you can see it more and more, this hatred that’s growing in the world to where some can justify why that might end up being a better thing. I can see it really clearly compared to what I used to. I hope we do too, growing in that.

“Peace I leave with you.” God’s peace is genuine, it’s true. It comes from living His way of life. It comes from yielding to His way of life. It comes from crying out for His holy spirit to dwell within us so that we can love one another, so that we can care about each other. And then at times when we’re told how we can specifically love one another if some don’t do that they’re choking themselves spiritually. They’re cutting…

I think, if you’ve been on this journey for ten, twenty, thirty, you went through the Apostasy? Because this is happening. Still happening. You went through the Apostasy even and after all this fight, after all this perseverance you’re ready to believe the world and what they’re saying rather than listening to God and what He’s saying through His servant? Blows my mind!

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. And not as the world gives do I give it to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Now, I think of that night. Even been learning more and more about that night; even talked about it here recently. To recognize what the disciples felt that night, especially when they were sleeping and why they were asleep, that’s new. Didn’t understand that before.

It’s because of what was happening, because of what Christ was teaching them that night. They were stressed out over all this. They were hurting because of all this because they had never heard him talk like this before. They saw something in him that they had never experienced yet. “I’m going away. And you know the way but…” This was doing them in in their thinking. They were stressed out. What an incredible thing to understand!

So, “Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” They already were. So, he’s talking to them right then and there, but this is for all of us at all time.

You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming to you. They had no idea what that meant, not yet. Many in God’s Church have never known. But God was working with them all through Philadelphia, but never understood fully what this was all about. But lived it. Because if you’re striving to live God’s way of life, if you’re crying out to God for His holy spirit, you may not grasp the entire process but it’s exciting when you do, when you see God to the level, to the degree and all these things come together for you in a more powerful way.

You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I am going to the Father. Feast of Tabernacles. That’s what so much of this is still about in the sense of grasping why God wants us to rejoice in what this period pictures, what we’re fighting for, that period of time when God’s Kingdom is finally established and why Christ went through all this in order to facilitate that and far more in time. And the fact that he’s going to come into our life and continually come into our life until we’re there, until we’ve achieved it.

If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I’m going to the Father. For my Father is greater than me. So again, this just caused more stress for them, candidly, tired them out even more because they didn’t grasp this. It’s like he’s going around in circles and why won’t he just show us and tell us?

So, now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass you may believe. When what comes to pass? Well, yes, things he’s going to fulfill in that day, in the following day time period, this Passover. But far beyond that because what he’s talking about is far beyond that. He’s talking about why he’s going to the Father in the first place. As our High Priest – that’s why he’s going there. As our High Priest and the fact that God’s spirit working through him, coming into our lives, both of them dwelling in our lives spiritually on a spiritual plane is what this is all about so we can have God’s spirit dwelling in us in human life, in a Church, in a Body, in the Body of Christ.

So, now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass you may believe.

Now back to John 15:4—Abide in me, and I in you. It’s what it’s all about. Our choice. Our choice whether we pray constantly asking God for help that we live and dwell in Him and His Son and they dwell in us, and asking that they will dwell in us, and a desire and a willingness to be forgiven of sin because we’re repenting of sin because we want this to continue on.

Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself. See, that’s on a spiritual plane with us, to understand what this is all about, the fruit of life that God has given to us to have, to bear.

“As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself.” To understand then this process of something on a spiritual plane that’s exciting and inspiring. …unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in them, this bears much fruit. Incredible! The word “this” should be translated here. It says “the same” here, but to get the point home that’s what this is about. “This,” such life, “bears much fruit.”

For without me you can do nothing. Boy, we’ve got to believe that with all of our being. You can’t do anything that has lasting meaning and purpose and direction without God’s spirit.

If anyone does not abide in me they are cast out as a branch. It’s one thing to have pruning take place in life, which is a good thing because it helps us to bear more fruit. The more we can work at that, to get rid of the things that are wrong in our life, the more fruit we can bear. But to get to a point where we’re not bearing fruit, this is what happens. Every year from Feast to Feast we have fewer people, we’re a smaller body in the world than we were before. And it’s not over with yet.

If anyone does not abide in me they are cast out as a branch and withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you will and it shall be done to you/for you. Now, this is in the context… It’s not about anything we might want and desire in life, and yet we can pray about and do pray about various things that happen in our life and choices and decisions and we ask God to bless us and help us in pursuits of those things and to strive to do them correctly and properly. But this is about God’s spirit. This is crying out for God’s spirit. It’s crying out for God and Christ to dwell in and through us.

Finally, verse 8-11 here—Herein, by this or through this manner then, is my Father glorified. What an awesome thing to understand that we can be a part of God being glorified, as I mentioned earlier even. …that you bear much fruit. Beautiful thing! What an incredible thing that God is glorified as we yield to this process in our life.

So you will be my disciples (students). As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love (agape). And if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; even the Father’s commandments and abide in His love. …as I have kept my Father’s commandments.

I have spoken these things to you that my joy may abide in you, and that your joy may be full. The reason we’re focusing on that so much? Because we’re supposed to rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles, and if you do so more on a spiritual plane you’re exceedingly blessed.