Humility & Seeing Ourselves, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

July 9, 2022

We are continuing today in the new series that started last Sabbath entitled Humility & Seeing Ourselves. Again, this is Part 2.

I have to shift gears here because we started, and I have to start again here. But anyway, it’s an amazing thing about our human mind; our human mind is one that is filled with pride. We are so set in our own ways. The last series was about that. We believe that our way is right, our ideas, our opinions.

I started to say earlier here about I almost hate to listen to the news anymore because I was trying to hear about Shinzo Abe in Japan who was assassinated. You know, sad, sick, sick world we live in. Things like this happening because I just saw blurbs on a TV screen yesterday on it, so I was looking for it today, and waiting for them to mention it. Nothing going on.

There’s other news out there that you can’t even get on the major stations. They don’t even talk about it. There are things happening in the world that you have to go, you have to find them, you have to search for them because today people want to hear other people’s opinions about what we’re doing in this country, what’s taking place. And it generally has to do with the different parties, one, well, that takes sides, they’re very biased and very prejudice.

They claim not to be, but they all are, and they don’t even see their own nature. They’re set in their ways. They believe they’re right. That’s why we have so much conflict today.

God’s bringing these things to the surface, allowing people at the end time, especially with the use of technology now, to come to see we cannot govern ourselves. We can’t do it. I don’t care what kind of government man has tried in 6,000 years; everything has failed. God’s been rejected. Different times when God has intervened, even with a nation that He reared, basically, as far as a family line was concerned, worked with, rejected Him. Over and over. The whole history of Israel.

Some people think that, well, because God worked with them they were a special people. That wasn’t about a special people, it was about God’s plan, to show it didn’t matter who it was He would have worked with; everyone would have done the same thing because all mankind is the same. Our way is right; we don’t want God involved in our life. Only to a degree. Then mankind messed that up horribly because they don’t hold on to what God gives, to what God reveals.

Israel definitely didn’t. The Jews didn’t later as they broke away in different kingdoms and Israel was taken captive to the north, and the Jews, Judah was kept to the south. They even broke up as a nation, became two different nations. People today don’t even know that in the world. Talk about the lost ten tribes. “What’s the lost ten tribes?” Because they’re ignorant of scripture in the New Testament and the Old. Sad. And yet it’s there.

But they can’t help it. They can’t see it until God begins to draw them and help them to see where we are in time. We’re at the end of 6,000 years, and though it’s difficult to live through all this and to watch it take place, it’s an awesome thing. God using technology in the way that He is, man misusing it in the way that He is. But God is showing us what we’re like as a people around the world.

We’re getting ready to go into a third world war. I was going through some news today because it’s going to be a part of this series, and it’s amazing what’s going on out there. The sabre-rattling that’s taking place today, it’s about nuclear weapons, it’s about hypersonic missiles, and all the rhetoric that’s out there. But do we hear that?

Oh, we just hear that we failed again. That was on the news. We had another test, hypersonic missile — just let the world know we can’t do it, we’re failing right and left. Russians and Chinese have them. We can’t stop them. There is nothing that can be done. If they fire at us we have nothing to stop it because they have hypersonic missiles. And so, we’re trying to catch up. We’re behind. Amazing!

Finally, the United States is acknowledging that China has the greatest navy, if you will, in the world. Their ships are so much better than ours and they’ve passed us as far as a naval force and power in the world. They’ve also passed us with nuclear weapons, because the nuclear weapon is as good as being able to deploy it, and if you can go hypersonic who can stop you.

That’s where we are today. But the world is ignorant of it, they don’t want to watch it. They don’t want to think about it, and they’ve already forgotten. But I don’t want to get into that part of the sermon.

And so, today you turn on the news and it’s about opinions, back and forth. This morning I was watching something, it was like “So-and-so is going to come on,” who works for the station, the channel anyway, “and to see what he has to say about this.” It’s like, I know what he’s going to say. I don’t need to listen to his opinion. I know exactly what he’s going to say.

Anyway, we all think we’re right and it gets hard to listen to after a while. But in God’s Church we are not to be that way. We can’t afford to think like that, to think we’re right. And yet that is our battle. That’s the battle we have. God has called us to change. We can’t remain the same. A very small group at the end, that’s what He’s working with.

We have sermons coming up in the future here about a remnant, and it’s dumbfounding how often we’re mentioned at this time period. Why? Because it’s just before Christ returns. This is the time that God has spoken of. The vast majority of prophecy in the Bible is about this time at the end, judgment that’s coming on the world. It wasn’t meant to come on the world in the past 6,000 years. That hasn’t been God’s plan. It’s only at the end, finally, before a new government comes.

God is helping us to understand in the world, people are hopefully getting sicker and sicker with the fact that we can’t govern ourselves. Go back and forth. One person can’t do it so another one gets elected. They can’t do it so it’s another one. That’s been our history. But we can’t see very far as a people. But in God’s Church we’re supposed to be able to see and understand what’s happening and why, and why God is doing things in the way that He is. It's because His Son is about to return to establish God’s government, God’s Kingdom to rule this earth.

What an awesome thing to understand. Mankind was given 6,000 years to prove, so we could prove to ourselves, so that we could come to see whenever our time comes. For most it’ll be in the future after the thousand years when they’re resurrected back to a second physical life, that they’re going to be able to see we couldn’t govern ourselves. They’re going to see what God has done for a thousand years. Awesome! Beautiful!

And so, we’re in the process of understanding and learning and striving to change because that’s our battle, that we can’t stay the way we are. Not even now. Not even now, because God is giving more. And to whom more is given more is expected, brethren, truly is. We’re to grow with what God gives us. We’re to change according to what God gives us because He’s molding and fashioning in us something different and unique than He did in those that came through Laodicea, those who came through Philadelphia, Sardis, Pergamos, Thyatira, Ephesus, the first Church era with the original apostles and disciples.

God has a plan of a structure of what He’s building, and all of it’s been unique through time. So, we come to the point where God wants us to conquer, to fight against our own pride, against this thing of we know what’s right for ourselves and resisting His government.

Because that’s what’s coming to this earth, God’s government, and it’s spiritual. It’s not just a government. It’s not just a government of enforcement of a way of life. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about a change that has to take place in the mind so that people want it, so they want to live a different life, so they learn how to live with one another in peace and love. God’s love, not our love, not selfish love.

Exodus 10. So, this matter of humility, of humbling ourselves, is essential in order to begin seeing ourselves. Because God cannot work, does not work, He can’t work with pride because it resists Him. He tells us what He will work with, what He can work with, because it’s spiritual.

And if we don’t want it, He’s not going to force it upon us. That’s not God’s way. He doesn’t cram it down our throats. He’s not like different governments that have been in the world where they try to force people to live by certain rules, laws, whatever it might be. God’s law is based on His love. It’s about relationships.

Traditional Christianity wants to get rid of the law. “You don’t have to keep the law. It’s not required. You don’t have to keep the Sabbath day. You don’t have to keep the Holy Days. It’s all done away with in Christ.” Isn’t that amazing? “Oh, so I can take your car any time I want?” “Get out of your house! I want to live there!” “No, you can’t steal, you can’t murder.”

“You’re not supposed to commit adultery,” but the majority of people do. The majority of people in this country commit adultery. That’s just a way of life. Sick! Perverted! Disgusting! What kind of a family life can people have if that takes place?

So, they’ll agree with those things. Well, they won’t even agree with that one because so many of them are involved in adultery and in traditional Christianity. Makes me sick. Sick, sick world we live in.

You tell them, “Well, then you should keep God’s Sabbath.” “No, it’s done away with.” Isn’t that amazing? Four commandments have to do with loving God, a relationship with the Great God of the universe. The last six commandments, how we’re to live amongst ourselves as human beings. People don’t like it, they don’t want it, so they push God away.

If they want something, if we want something different (and that happens, it’s happened over and over again in God’s Church), if you want something different than what God says we’re to have we tend to push God aside, we want to hide. It’s like Adam and Eve in the garden; they want to get in the thickness of the trees and the bushes and so God can’t see them. They don’t want to be found.

God knows us. He knows what’s in our mind. He knows where we are all the time. But this shows a carnal mind and how people think. It depicts the way human beings are.

So, pride, being self-willed, being selfish like we are, we resist God. We don’t like to change. I’ve known of many people in God’s Church who have quit because they said, “I’m tired of being told how bad I am.” But that’s our life. What an awesome thing just to receive correction from God, to say, “That’s not the right way to live because that’s going to cause hurt, pain, and suffering, drama, but this way produces that which is good, right results, peace.”

Isn’t that what we want, we want peace in families, peace in life? But there’s not. There’s just drama out there. God’s law produces something that’s good and right, and so we have to make those choices. But as a whole human nature doesn’t want those things. Oh yeah, we like to have peace, but we want it our way. Governments like to have peace, but they want it their way.

Exodus 10. A good example here of how deeply embedded pride is in the mind. Incredible story here. It’s about Pharaoh and about the period of time when Moses was going before Pharoah, Moses, and Aaron, and telling him what was going to happen.

Here we are now down to the eighth plague. Exodus 10:3—So, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him, Thus says the Eternal God of the Hebrews… Now, he didn’t really care. He hated the Hebrews. They’re slaves. “They work for us! Your God? Why is He better than our God?”

This is the eighth one coming along and he’s still, still as stubborn as all get out because he doesn’t want to let go of his own power, he doesn’t want to let go of his own authority, he doesn’t want to acknowledge something that keeps staring him in the face, all these plagues that have come along, and Moses has told him this is what’s going to happen.

Sometimes we can read a story like this and think – we don’t even see ourselves within the Church. Because I see this within the Church. I’ve seen it ever since I’ve been in God’s Church, what we’re like. We can tend to fight against God, we can tend to resist God and hold on to something else that we want different. Human nature is horrible.

Thus says the Eternal God of the Hebrews… First, have to acknowledge that He is the Eternal God. “He is my God,” our God. He is the Great God. He is the Almighty Eternal Ever-living God, the only one who has eternally existed. Thus says the Eternal God of the Hebrews, How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?

We can read that and think, “Man, he was stubborn!” And he was! Filled with incredible pride. But I’ve seen it in God’s Church with those impregnated with God’s spirit. Because a part of our history that we need to grasp, that God wants us to understand and see, is exactly what we were told, exactly what Christ said, “Many are called, few are chosen.”

Many have been called into God’s Church over the past 2,000 years. Very few have been chosen because the majority have turned against God, the majority who have been given an opportunity. Not just given an opportunity, but even given of God’s spirit, the impregnation in the mind of God’s spirit.

That one is staggering, but that should just cry out all the more what our nature is like and how much we fight against God, how much we resist God. We don’t want that. I don’t want that for anyone in God’s Church. None of us should want that in our life.

“How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” So, I guess we could ask the question, do we fully humble ourselves before God? Do we seek to humble ourselves before God? That’s going to be reflected in one big way. Because if we see the need we’ll do that.

When? Once a year on the Day of Atonement? Is that enough? It’s not enough. It’s not enough once a year on the Day of Atonement to humble our self before God and think that we have a relationship with the Great God of the universe, that we’re truly humbling ourselves. Because we’re not fighting against self, we’re not humbling our self if we’re not seeking to have humility before God on a regular basis.

Yeah, it’s about fasting. That’s the primary tool. We understand, we’re told much about prayer and prayer life, and that’s something we have to grow in in our lives because we want God, we want God’s way, we want God’s spirit in our life. But you have to ask for it. If you don’t ask God says you don’t receive it. Because it reflects that you want it and you know you need it, and you’re humbling yourself before God because you don’t want to have your own human nature, you want to fight against it.

That’s why you ask for God’s spirit – because you see the need to change. Furthermore, you go the step further and you humble yourself on occasion. Not every week. You don’t even have to every month (which is nice though). We should have a particular goal for our own selves. But we should know when we need it. You should know when you need it! You should be able to know spiritually. You should be able to feel it in your life, “I need to humble myself and cry out to God more!”

It’s a tool that God’s given us to draw closer to Him because it’s acknowledgement, “I need God, and I have to humble myself before God. I want to humble myself before God because I don’t want selfishness to reign. I don’t want pride to reign.”

And yet within the leadership of God’s Church ever since I’ve been in it that’s the primary thing I’ve ever seen over time. Not in the same way today as it’s been in times past, but all the way through Laodicea, very obvious. Even back in Philadelphia.

Then after the Apostasy. So many didn’t wake up. They started to in many cases, but so often went right back to it. The reason there were 600 different groups is because each one knew they were right. In God’s Church only one can be right, and it’s where God is. God’s not scattered. He makes it very clear He’s not that way. The primary way to know and to see where God is is by the truth, is by where the truth is. Yet so much of that was lost. 14/15th Passover believers. Nearly half the ministry in United was that way, and it’s still that way, 14/15’er’s. How can God’s spirit work there? Sad.

How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? And so within the Church oftentimes it’s a hard thing for people to see that their greatest battle is self. That’s our greatest battle. It’s not Satan out here that’s in the world. He’s powerful and he wants to find, he wants to deceive and turn people away from God. That’s been his whole method of operating from the very beginning. Tried to kill Christ several times over. Tried to get rid of him. He’s perverted. His mind’s perverted.

But he’s a very real being and they try to broadcast to God’s people because they want them to go away, they want them to loathe and hate God like he does. He knows how to work with us. But if we don’t allow it? Because we have the choice. We have the power to refuse that being. How do you do that? By humbling yourself before God and crying out to God for His spirit, the power to fight, to resist.

Because the stronger we are, the more dedicated we are, the more humble we are in spirit and truth before God, that being won’t stay around us. He hates the mind of God. So, the more we have the mind of God, the more you’re in unity and oneness with God, the stronger you are and the weaker that being is as far as his influence toward you.

Because I’ve seen him destroy a lot of people, the majority in God’s Church over time, ever since I’ve been in it. I think of the thousands since the Apostasy, people who have opportunity and turned.

We read this, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” So, we can see it in Pharoah. It’s easy for us to see it in Pharoah, but it’s hard to see in ourselves. So, do we have that battle as human beings? Better believe it. Better believe it. Because we all have our opinions, and we tend to think that we’re right pretty much about everything we have opinions on.

There’s only one who’s right, and that’s God Almighty. And if you’re right with Him? That’s why we had a sermon series about justice and judgment because we have to be able to judge according to God’s word and God’s way of life. Then if you have the boldness to know that you’re in agreement with God, then that’s a beautiful thing. But it should be a thing of humility, not of pride.

Let My people go, that they may serve Me. So, this was all a very physical thing. They weren’t being called to be a spiritual people. That wasn’t their purpose. They weren’t, of the millions there, that God was going to give His holy spirit to. They were a very carnal, physical nation, but God was going to take them into the wilderness, give them His law, His way of life, give them the Levitical priesthood and a system whereby they were to serve God. But it was all physical.

There was nothing spiritual in it except for those God was working with, like Moses and others. We know Joshua, others, Caleb, different ones. They were being drawn and used, led, and guided and directed by God’s holy spirit. God was working in them to be a part of the 144,000.

Otherwise, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring the locusts into your coasts. They will cover the face of the earth, so that one will not be able to see the ground. Can you imagine that you can’t even see the ground because there are so many locusts?

Now, I’ve seen hail like that in western Kansas. I remember one time it was about marble size. I’ve seen in golf ball size cover the ground totally. But I saw one time when it was marble size and that’s all you could see, was hail. In western Kansas we had Buffalo Grass. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Buffalo Grass. It’s a viny type of grass on the ground and spreads that way. It’s not like some grass that has it’s own seed and has to grow it from that, dependant on that. This is a vining type, and it grows up.

Anyway, it beat it down so bad all you could see was the earth. Just dirt. That’s how strong this hail was. But the point was is I could see nothing but white. The ditches were full of hail because they had washed into the ditches. Can you imagine? If you’ve ever seen an area that has ditches that are so deep and really wide by a road and they’re full of hail. Mind-boggling.

So, can you imagine locust like that? I’ve seen locust at times that are pretty bad, but nothing like that. Reminds me, I have to tell it. Have you ever seen these giant locusts, the big ones, the great big ones? One time on a highway, seems like it was in New Mexico or maybe west Texas, we were going that direction anyway, and we went around this one curved area and all of a sudden your tires, “dadadadadada.” Those locust, they were so thick on the ground and on the highway that you could feel it under your wheels. Anyway, that to me was something. I’ll never forget.

This here, can you imagine? I can’t imagine this. You can’t see the ground because there are so many locusts. They will cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the ground. They will eat the residue of that which has escaped. In other words, after all the plagues that have already taken place and so much has been destroyed, they’re going to take the rest of what’s remaining. Nothing green is going to be left, nothing growing.

They will eat the residue of that which has escaped, which remains unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which grows for you out of the field. They will fill your houses and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians. Now, they already had the frogs. And you think, what a horrible thing that was! And the stench? They had to pile them up in piles and then they start rotting.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been around rotting stuff like that but when there is that many it’s really bad. I don’t want to get too descriptive but if you grew up on a farm and a ranch you’re going to have been around things where you see some pretty ugly things sometimes in life, and a pretty bad smell. You’ve come up on a sheep or a cow and it’s so bad sometimes the hide is moving because there are nothing but maggots in there, thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of maggots.

Well, a dead animal like that in the heat, it’s not a pretty sight. So, to see piles of frogs all over the place and stinking like that, and those being there as well, you’d think they’d learn their lesson. But they didn’t. Now, we’re down to the eighth plague and now there are locust going to come.

That should have been enough right there, “They’re going to fill your houses. You’re not going to be able to see the ground.” “Can you kind of grasp, Pharoah, what’s going to take place?” You think he’d known by then God says it, if Moses said it, it’s going to happen. Sometimes we’re so slow to learn as human beings, and sometimes very slow even in God’s Church.

Because that’s been my history in the Church, of seeing these things over and over and over again. You hurt when you see people succumb to, give into, begin to go in a different direction. It’s painful and it’s a hard thing to fight against that. But what a blessing when you do. See it within the leadership, primarily, because that’s where it’s the most noticeable. But it worked its way down through the Body as well, which is sad.

So again, all this is because we’re so right in our own eyes. It’s hard sometimes to be told how we’re to live. It’s hard to think that that’s about “me.” That’s why we can read something like this and think, “He was tough. He was a tough cookie.” We fail to see ourselves. We’re a tough cookie. We really are. That’s us, too. We have that kind of nature. We think we’re different? No. He had great power, and so forth, and a whole lot more to lose, but it doesn’t matter with human nature. It’s still the same. Whether we have little or much to lose our nature is still the same.

But anyway, we know the stories of the plagues and what happened. But what an incredible thing, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” It took to the firstborn. Finally, when his own son died, finally it jarred him, finally he was remorseful enough. His land had already been destroyed. His servants came up to him long before this and said, “You’ve got to listen. Let them go or we’re all dead men!” They knew it. But Pharoah, he just couldn’t humble himself until his own son died. How much does it take?

And then that didn’t last long. You know, what an incredible thing about human nature when it is able to come to a point it’ll humble itself for a while. It’s like the person in the foxhole, “God, if you’ll just hear me,” because here they know they’re about to die and they’re fearful, and “If you’ll just do this, if you just do that.” Then if it goes away it doesn’t take them very long to be right back to the same level of pride. Insanity.

So again, it’s so very hard so often for us to see ourselves as human beings, to see how we think, our own ways, our own opinions, and to realize, “Yes, I do have my own opinions, my own thinking.” Is it in oneness and unity with God? Where do we get in conflict within the Church?

That’s why I hate drama. Because I hate to see people at odds with one another. I hate to see people having disagreements with one another. Because when that happens, when drama happens, it’s painful, it hurts. When we can’t walk to God’s house side by side as it says in that one song. It’s a beautiful thing when we’re in unity and oneness but it has to be with God first and foremost, and if we’re all in unity and oneness with God then we’re of the same mind. It’s a beautiful thing. But if we’re holding on to something of our own way, whatever that might be, causes pain, causes suffering, causes hurt.

“Seeing” God is a spiritual matter, it’s not a physical one. “Seeing” God, “seeing” the way of God, the mind of God. Because you don’t have to see something. That’s why I love what it says in John 14 when Christ said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” They didn’t get it. They didn’t know what he was talking about. They said, “Well, just show us the Father and that’ll satisfy us.” He says, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father,” and they didn’t get it because they couldn’t yet because they didn’t have the begettal of God’s spirit yet.

So, what an incredible thing. It was something of the spirit. It was of the mind. Christ, the Word, was made flesh, came from God, had the mind of God, grew up that way. Awesome!

It’s difficult so often for us because we’re carnal, we’re physical as human beings and we generally see the physical first or tend to the physical first, “my” way, “my” thoughts, what “I” think is right.

That’s why this Covid thing brought this up in the Church in a very big way. This isn’t going away right away because we have to be reminded of it. God allowed this, gave this to us, and we’re to learn from it, how much we can fight and resist God sometimes when we’re told to do something for the sake of unity and oneness and fellowship and love toward others in the Church.

But so often we fight things we hear. That should tell a lot then about what’s inside of us in the mind that needs to change. Because we should have an immediate reaction that’s different from that and it should be, “Yes, God.” “Yes, Father, that’s all I want. Show me the way.” Then it’s our reaction to it. Do we do it?

It shows then sometimes, and that helps manifest weakness that we need to see in ourselves, and to understand these things are just deep rooted in us as human beings and we have to fight against them.

Daniel 4:1. This is a story that shows how God can humble a person when they continue to resist Him. But what I’m hoping we’ll come to see is that God can do this in our life if we’ll listen, if we’ll hear. He gives us opportunities to see ourselves. This is an incredible story.

Daniel 4:1—Nebuchadnezzar the king, To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, Peace be multiplied to you. Now, he’s telling a story, Nebuchadnezzar is, of what happened to him, and he has a different spirit than he did earlier on. He’s been humbled by God and he’s going through and he’s telling this story now. Quite incredible.

I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. Wow! A ruler like this? The first of the statue that was in his dream earlier on? The four great kingdoms of the earth that would lead up to the return of that great big cube that would come out of the heavens and smash the statue at its feet, as it talks about in Daniel, which represents the Kingdom of God to destroy the kingdoms of the earth.

Then it being prophetic, the Babylonian Empire, which is here, Babylonian-Chaldean, and the different empires that would rise in time. Medo-Persian Empire that would follow after that, the Greco-Macedonian Empire, the third that would follow after that, and then the Roman Empire, or the European Empires, if you would, that would eventually be a matter of ten revivals. Then we know of seven, going to have ten that it would go through in time here but of seven specific that would be focused upon at the end-time.

Anyway, incredible things that are contained here in this particular story. The first great part of that statue, the head that was gold, that was representative of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire at that time, and now he’s been humbled. He’s not the same as he was before. But look what he had to go through. This is the story he’s telling his people.

… I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts on my bed and the visions on my head troubled me. God gave this to him, and it was made to be fearful for him. It shook him up, what he saw.

Therefore, I issued a decree in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers came in, and I told them the dream; but they did not make known to me its interpretation.

But at last Daniel came before me (his name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god…) which is what he was telling the story, (…in him is the spirit of the Holy God.) And so, he’s writing this as to a name he’d given him before because they changed the name. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they had their Hebrew names, but they renamed them.

He went on to tell him as he’s addressing his people “in him is the spirit of the holy God.” So, he went on to say, and I told the dream before him, saying, Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation.

So, not fully knowing exactly all that’s said here, but it says, basically here, “that no secret troubles you.” He knew that Daniel was a type of person that was going to tell him the truth, and no matter how bad something might seem he’s not going to withhold. Yet it still troubled him, what he did have to tell him, what he saw, what he was going to have to say, as it shows here going on.

These were the visions on my head while on my bed, I was looking, and behold, a tree was in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong; its height reached to the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth. So, it’s representative here of what it’s going to bring out in time here, that all could see it.

It’s leaves were lovely, it’s fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, the birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

I saw the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven. He cried aloud and said the following, Chop down the tree and cut off it’s branches, strip off it’s leaves and scatter it’s fruit. Let the beasts get out from under it, and the birds from its branches. Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth even with a band of iron and bronze.

In the tender grass of the field, let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from that of a man. And let him be given the heart of a beast. And let seven times pass over him.

Now, this was fearful to him. God made it so that whatever he saw and whatever was placed in his mind the fear was there. God made sure that was a component of what Nebuchadnezzar was feeling.

It’s hard for us to grasp things of this nature because we have dreams, but nothing like this, that are so real and so powerful and so troubling.

Verse 17—This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men.

Now, this is not a good translation here in this last part in what it’s saying. But again, translators sometimes they put something as a story flow of what they think it’s about. Even there they don’t know, as we’ve found in so many places, especially when you get to the New Testament, because they don’t grasp because they’re going by their beliefs of what they’ve been taught since 300 AD and on, 325, if you will.

Basically, it’s saying here in the last part of it when it says here …that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and to whom He will He gives it, it’s what it’s saying, to whom He will, He gives it of those brought low of mankind to be set up. In other words, God has a purpose at times to humble individuals in order to, frankly, to esteem, glorify Himself, to reveal Himself and His power.

But God has the power to humble in order to set up. That’s what He’s doing with us. He gives us the opportunity to be humbled, to be set up. In the last 6,000 years every person that was called to be worked with to become a part of the government that returns with Christ, the 144,000 it talks about in Revelation, that return with him when he comes to this earth. When it talks about that war that they’re going to engage in, when you get into Revelation 19 and on, and it talks about what he’s going to do. They’re “going to destroy those who are destroying the earth” at that time. It talks about being at war and an army. That’s 144,000 that it’s talked about in scriptures before. What an awesome thing to understand those things.

But everyone that’s a part of that has been humbled, has to be humbled in order to be transformed, in order for the mind to change, in order for our nature to become something different, in order for God to work within us through His power to change what’s in this, to transform the way we think. Through time we grow. It’s not a fast thing; it takes time. It could take decades to go through whatever it is God molds and fashions within us.

All along the way we fight this thing of our resisting Him. Because as the scripture says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” God’s word is true. That’s the way we are. We learn that, and He shows us that. He shows us then what we have to do to change.

Because that’s our battle. “The carnal mind is at enmity against…” Human nature, selfishness fights against God. Simple. It’s plain. It’s about pride, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.” It all fights against God.

…of whom He will He gives it, of those brought low of mankind to be set up. So, whether it be in a physical kingdom and God humbles them to do a purpose, to work with them in a particular way, but especially for those who are going to be a part of His government that comes in time here. It’s happened to every one of them. This process has to work within them.

So, going on in verse 18—This dream I, king Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its interpretation, since all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation; but you are able. Now how did he feel this? Why did he feel this way? Because of what’s happened before in the other stories before this. He told him about the statue. He told him about the four great kingdoms of the world that would be here and that he was the first from that point forward. Babylon, the golden head, the wealthiest, in that respect, of all the kingdoms that were there. Incredible, Babylon at that time.

So he says, since all the wise men…could not make known to me the interpretation; but you are able for the spirit of the Holy God is in you. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished. Now, this word means he was distressed. Basically, he was told earlier that you’re not, you’ll tell me, and he was going to tell him, but it was still hard.

You know, we go through things in our life sometimes that we’re brought to that are hard to live through, that are hard to communicate sometimes to others. It’s not always easy. Whether it be something we do in family or whatever it might be, but we have to speak what is true if we’re asked. Sometimes then in the ministry to others, to tell them certain things because the truth is the truth and it’s not always easy.

…he was distressed for a time, and his thoughts troubled him. So the king spoke, and said, Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or it’s interpretation trouble you. He’d been around him a lot. He was one who he looked to advise. In essence, he was a part of the government. Because he looked to him in that regard for making decisions.

Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, may the dream concern those who hate you. So, I get a chuckle a little bit there because he has the interpretation. He knows what it is. God gave it to him. But he’s troubled with how to present this to the king, so he does it in this manner, because it’s not a pleasant thing.

Not a pleasant thing sometimes to always have to tell the truth. I don’t mean you’re to lie, but it’s not an easy thing sometimes to tell someone what needs to be told. Maybe it’s an employer. “Got to take time off for the Feast of Tabernacles.” It’s not always easy. You can be troubled by it. Why? Because they have the power to take your job away. I’ve known many a people who have lost their jobs because of taking off for the Feast of Tabernacles.

Or the Sabbath, when you first come along in the Church and you go tell someone, “I can no longer work on Saturdays. I can no longer work Friday evening.” “Well, why not?” “Well, because…” See, it’s not easy. “Because at sunset…” “Sunset?” Already you’re going to be looked upon as being a bit of a weirdo. “At sunset I have this Sabbath, my Sabbath, and it’s from sunset to sunset.” You know how they’re going to respond. You’ve already told perhaps some of your family and different ones what you’re going to do. This is your Sabbath. It’s like, “Yeah, sunset to sunset. You’re really whacked out aren’t you.” Anyway.

Some things aren’t easy to do, and this wasn’t easy to do here. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, may the dream concern those who hate you, and its interpretation concern your enemies! The tree that you saw, grew and became strong, and its height reached to the heavens, to be seen all the earth, its leaves were lovely and its fruit abundant, in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt, in whose branches the birds of the heaven had their home. It is you, O king, who has grown and become strong.

So, in other words, “Because of you all this wealth and all this plenty that everyone has, and the beasts of the field, they’re all nurtured from animal to life of those in your kingdom.” That’s basically what he’s telling him.

…who has grown and become strong, for your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens, and your dominion to the end of the earth. Inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one coming down from heaven and saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots on the earth, with a band of iron and bronze. In the tender grass of the field; let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over.

Now, it’s not known exactly how long that was. Seven times, it could be a period of time saying seven months, but most believe it to believe seven years. From the story it appears that that’s what it’s talking about, a period of seven years that this took place. Whatever it was, it was seven times.

This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, They shall drive you from men, your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you eat grass like oxen. Now, this, even though he’s told this, he can’t comprehend what this could be. It’s gobbledygook what he’s being told, so it’s not so hard to dismiss because that’s what he does.

They shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He chooses. In other words, even governments, even people who rule, as it was told earlier on there, God has the power. But that’s not specifically what this is about, but it’s showing the same thing, in essence, that God allows mankind to rule and to govern. It doesn’t mean He chooses every person, every leader that’s going to be over different countries and so forth, but He allows it. He has the power to stop it. He has the power to allow it to go. God has chosen mankind to govern himself for 6,000 years.

Sometimes He’s intervened to make certain that certain things come to pass, certain rulers are allowed to rule for a purpose and for a reason. Especially, if we understood it, here at the end-time. God is very much involved in who’s ruling in many different nations right now. To allow them to rule, to know that they’re going to bring about a certain end in a certain way because of their thinking.

There’s a way that Putin thinks, and God knows that, and he’s there for a purpose. There are reasons that there are presidents who have ruled, for a reason, for a purpose. It does not mean that anyone was right. It doesn’t mean that anyone was best. It means that they’re to bring things to the surface because of what they do and how they do it, to all work together for the end-time. God is all powerful and He’s allowing people to make their own choices and decisions, but certain ones work in a certain way because of their mindset.

Germany, there’s a certain mindset of how people are thinking. There’s a certain mindset of how their government and those who rule are thinking, and it’s been changing very rapidly here of recent time, which we’ll get into later in this series. All for a purpose.

Because they’re to be, again, over primarily, the ones over this European Union, who sway it more than any other. Just like they did in WWI, WWII, and what they’re going to do in WWIII all over again. But not of the same kind as one and two, but they’re still going to have that influence and help bring about something for a purpose.

Because they’re very much a focal point of these ten nations in Europe that are coming together and working together. France is another one. They’ve been a part of the revival at one time, Napoleon. He was prophetic in what took place. Incredible history that’s out there.

Anyway, these things are all in front of us right now and happening very rapidly. What’s happening in China. Not by coincidence. They think a certain way and God is allowing a certain government to exist to be there to bring it all together. How long have we known Russia and China would come together? Well, God has shown it to Herbert Armstrong, and look where we are now. Incredible! On and on it goes.

Verse 27—Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Notice what he tells him because he didn’t mince words. He told him what he was supposed to tell him. Break away your sins by righteousness. “Live right.” That’s what we’re told. That’s how you do it. You strive to live right. Where does that come? God tells how to live right.

And so, sin is acknowledging and understanding where we interfere with what God says. If we don’t agree with God and God’s way, and His laws, then we have sin, don’t we? Incredible. That’s what sin is. That’s the definition of sin. “Sin is the transgression of the law” it says in the New Testament. The protestant world doesn’t like that.

Break away your sins by righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy (favor) to the poor. So it come to pass by a lengthening of your prosperity. In other words, “Strive to rule righteously, to live better than what you even are, obviously. Change. If you don’t? Get rid of the sin!” That took a lot, but he did it. He told him.

Then all this came upon king Nebuchadnezzar, that at the end of the twelve months, so, twelve months has passed here, nothings happened. …as he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon, the king spoke. So, he’s telling the story about himself and what he did, and he’s saying what he did at the end of twelve months.

The king spoke saying, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power. Wow! See, that’s when I cringe, when I ever hear anyone say within the Church what they have done or what they have built or what is accomplished by them. It’s the last thing you ever want to have happen in your life.

That’s why I mentioned many a time here about one particular minister, that after the Apostasy he bragged about all these churches he was raising up, of some who’d been splintered out here in different parts of the country. And when he would visit different ones, as he did with my wife and I in our home, it was like, “Look at these churches. These are the churches I’ve raised up over here and over there.”

That was hard to bear, that kind of mind and that kind of attitude. It’s like, “You have the gall to be a minister, to claim to be a minister of God and you raised up those churches? You should have been so fearful to have those words ever come out of your mouth. You didn’t raise up diddly squat!”

I hope you can see that spirit and that mind and that attitude, that that’s haughtiness before God Almighty. God raises up His own Church through Christ. Christ does it. But raises up the Church. Raises up the people. Calls people. We have no part in that. We serve God to the order and structure God gives, but God is the one who calls, God is the one who works with us. It’s through His spirit. How can anyone take that to themselves as being something they did?

So, we can see it in governments, in people. They’re right. I think of different leaders, how they’re so right about what they do and look down upon everyone else. I mean, that’s why parties exist, because everybody is right. They think they’re right. Every president thinks they’re right about what they do and how they do it. They have battles over it. Sometimes people go to war over those kinds of things. Amazing!

I think of examples of people who have done various things in the Church. I don’t care what it is, whether it be a deacon and a deaconess, in times past when we used to have that structure of physical ordination for physical service in the Church, which we don’t have anymore. We’re not big enough to warrant it. But at one time it was needed more in the Church that we had those things that were there, and scriptural as well.

But I think of after the Apostasy as well, of people who were anxious, and even before that, if people were to get up and give a prayer. You think, “You’re called upon to give a prayer before God’s people, and people will say ‘amen’ to that if they agree with what’s said,” which we’re to do. That’s what we mean, “So be it,” when a prayer is given. It’s like it can go to a person’s head. “I give the opening prayer often.” “I give the closing prayer often.”

People have talked like that. “I’ve got a sermonette coming up.” They want everybody to know this, basically. You don’t say it that way, but “Got a sermonette. My first chance to give a sermonette.” Or “Yeah, I give sermonettes regularly.” Or “I have a sermonette I think the Church would benefit from,” as I’ve been told as a minister, individuals come up to me and “I have a sermonette. Well, actually, it might be even a split sermon that I think would be good.”

“Well, I don’t remember asking you, but you have a split sermon you want to give, huh.” Now, I didn’t say that to them. First of all, I had to get over the shock of even having the audacity to saying such a thing. But that’s haughtiness and pride. If God has something for us He’ll put us there. We don’t do it on our own.

That’s why I mention so often, which is one of the main things people have to learn, even if they speak. I don’t care what it is. That if it doesn’t come from God, if it isn’t inspired, if Christ isn’t in it, it has no value. Just because it comes out of scripture, that’s not good enough. Even though you know the truth, just talk about the truth. That’s not good enough. God has to inspire you, to give it to you. You don’t know what the Church needs at any moment in time.

I’m telling you these things because that hasn’t existed in God’s Church a whole lot in times past. That’s why we had an apostasy. That should be our attitude and spirit toward God. Whatever we do it’s not about us. It’s not about being lifted up. It’s not about our importance. Who are we? We’re a part of a Body. God places us in the Body. It’s not about anybody being better than anyone else or being looked up to.

We should loathe that kind of thing because it’s loathing pride. But we have to see it in ourselves first, don’t we? And so, it’s a measure of all of our lives because God says every one of us has this. Every one of us has “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” that dwells in us. That’s our battle. That’s what we have to fight against. We have to be careful, we have to be on guard against I because it always wants to be there, as a whole. The more we grow through time the less it’s there because you’re winning the battle, you’re growing in it. But you can slip in it, too. Constant battle being on guard, learning to hate what is evil, learning to hate things like that.

So, here is an incredible story of Nebuchadnezzar who’s going through and telling about this stuff. He says, again here, this attitude of mind, Look at what I’ve built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power, for the honor of my majesty? It was the greatest kingdom to this point in time in the earth as far as wealth and might.

While the word was still in the king’s mouth, so, he’s telling this story, While these words were still in his mouth a voice fell from heaven, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, The kingdom has departed from you! They shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will.

God allows for people to rule, even in physical nations. He allows mankind the last 6,000 years, and what have we done? But especially in situations like this, of great kingdoms, of things that He had prophesied God has very much a hand in those things to bring them to pass.

That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; and he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ and his nails like birds,’ in other words, claws. It’s just telling what he looked like. And we can’t fully know what that was, but the hair on his body, how he was living? Filthy, dirty.

Then at the end of the time, after the seven times had passed over him, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reasoning… It’s the word that has to do with the ability to know returned to me. He’d lost it. He wasn’t able to think. He wasn’t able to reason. God, basically, took his mind from him, to be as an animal. He had no power up here to think. Incredible! Then God gave it back to him.

Talk about being in awe of God Almighty and His power. He made us. He can do anything He desires to His creation, in His creation.

…and my reasoning returned to me, and I blessed, it’s a word that means “to kneel.” It has to do with an attitude of mind, of humbling oneself before God, of looking to God, of thanking God, of glorifying God. This is what he did. …and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. He’s acknowledging this. He never did before like this. Never.

For His dominion is an everlasting dominion. God let him see something in the mind about Himself through a physical experience, and then gave him more, revealed more to him in the mind. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing before God. In other words, we are nothing before God. God is all powerful and almighty.

He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. In other words, it’s quite foolish to refuse God. It’s quite foolish to resist God, and yet God has given mankind that choice. Isn’t that an amazing thing to think about, to understand, to grasp, the power, the might of Almighty God and what He gives when He begins to draw people to Him? And that still those minds can turn against Him and become as we understand it, anti-Christ, which means against Christ.

Because when you turn against God, from the truth that God gives, and you turn against it… I think of people who have been a part of PKG and have turned from various truths that have been revealed since the Apostasy. Amazing! How can you believe a certain thing and then go back to something that you were convicted of, convinced of was false? How can you go back to an organization where so many of the ministry teach 14/15th Passover? How can God be there? You think, that’s mind-boggling, and yet the human mind can do such a thing. Incredible.

This thing of recognizing God, of glorifying God, of being thankful to God, of resisting God. We should know better. We should know the futility of wanting our own way.

I think of people. I couldn’t help but think about it in thinking about some of this sermon today. I think of how some were even ordained, and because of their ordination they thought they ought to have more. Then when someone else was ordained to a higher position, who were even friends, the friendship ended. Because why? They thought they should have that.

And eventually, they turned against others in the Church and agreed with others who also left the Church, and ministers who left the Church, because they combined together and began to have this little pow-wow of different ones they thought shouldn’t have been ordained. And basically I was told, “Well, you don’t know them. You don’t know what they’re like.” It’s like, I don’t have to. I don’t have to know everything about them because I don’t rely on my own ability, my own mind. If God has a purpose He lets me know.

How can I know that? Just as much as the truth, any truth that’s been given. That’s what I rely upon. I don’t rely on my own ability to know when someone is supposed to be ordained. Because God is working something different in them, maybe to learn certain lessons or things that they can learn that way because of what He’s molding and fashioning in them. But people can get in a mindset sometimes of “I should have had that.” That’s what they’re really saying.

That’s not what it’s about. It’s about God and what God does and having faith in that process. God’s in charge. None of us are, unless He’s given us certain things to do, which isn’t always a lot of fun.

Pride is an ugly thing. I hate it with all my being. Because that’s been one of the main teachers I’ve had throughout the Church. I’ve seen pride and people do things against God, and God’s revealing and showing that isn’t God. God isn’t like that. God isn’t in things that are wrong. He doesn’t bless things that are being done that are wrong, lording it over people, sheriffing people, policing people.

Now, there’s a responsibility to know what’s going on, but to insert ourselves into people’s lives as was done in times past? Some people think that that’s what the ministry or government is about. No, it’s not. It doesn’t mean you have to govern people’s lives because you know what’s best for them. It’s to lead, guide, and direct. If there’s sin involved you have a responsibility to that.

God doesn’t do that in our lives. We have to learn from God, we truly do. God lets us experience things. He doesn’t stop us from sinning. He doesn’t stop us from making mistakes. So, we shouldn’t get involved in other people’s lives thinking we have to stop them from making mistakes or that they shouldn’t do a certain thing. That’s why so often it’s a matter is there sin involved? Then keep your nose out of it. We should keep our nose out of one another’s business.

Sometimes we insert ourselves into one another’s business. That’s where conflict comes in God’s Church. Disagreements in God’s Church come from people having conflict because they disagree about something, how something should be done. It happens all the time over little things. Just saying that so we can learn. And you know what we have to learn? Self is what you’re to work on. Self is what I have to work on. Sometimes I have a responsibility to work on some other things, but God has taught me in those things, and I still have things to learn in that. I understand that.

But to strive to do it God’s way is what we should do, and not our way. We should learn to hate our way, what we think is right. Whenever you’re judging someone else in God’s Church you’ve already gone off base. No one ever, ever, ever has the right, in that respect, to judge one another, to insert yourselves in judgment and put them in a certain place. You don’t know what God’s doing in their life. You don’t know when they repented even of certain sin.

If you know of certain sin, sometimes we can’t drop it, something that someone’s done. Why not? God does that to us, He forgives us. We have to learn how to do that then. So, we grow, we learn these things.

What an incredible thing here, the story of Nebuchadnezzar. But do we see ourselves in it? Do we recognize the futility of resisting God? Do we recognize the ugliness of pride and being lifted up with self-importance? Because it’s not about us, it’s about one another; it’s about the Body of Christ.

That’s what we have to learn to see. We have to see one another as God’s children, as God’s people. No one belongs to us, whoever you are, whoever I am that’s listening today. Who belongs to you? Yourself. If you have a family you might have different things there. But adults?

So, it was quite a change here in an attitude that he had in his thinking, for him to recognize God in this way. So he gave God thanks, he glorified him over and over again here, and he wrote this to his people throughout the land. That’s what he did.

Verse 36—At the same time my reasoning returned to me, and the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. So, when these things came back, don’t know how it happened, but he was recognized for who he was when his mind was there again, and he was received again as the king.

My counselors and nobles returned to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me. You know why and how? Because he had a humble spirit, a type of spirit he didn’t have before. He was filled with pride before, but now his way of governing changed a lot because of his mindset and how he thought.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven. It’s God Almighty. It’s one thing I marveled at going clear back to 2005, people spoke of the King of Kings and looked to Christ. Christ will become the King of kings in time. He’s not there yet. He’s our High Priest, but he hasn’t been made the King of kings yet. That will happen when the 144,000 are resurrected, the kings, different ones that will be given responsibilities. He is the King of kings. But the King of Kings of everything is God Almighty.

And so, we went through scriptures in the Old Testament showing those things. And He is LORD. People speak of Christ as being Lord. Yes, but only to what God has given to him. He’s given him all power and authority. But first of all, it’s God Almighty. It’s important to remember the distinction in that because some people have lost it in times past, even in God’s own Church didn’t really fully grasp it.

So again, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth. What an awesome thing to have recorded here. He was inspired to say these things, to have these things recorded, because it’s something God’s people need to always see. Truth comes from God. That’s where it comes from. He is the source. The word, wisdom, it’s God’s. Truth, righteousness, it all comes from God. He is the source of it all.

…and His ways, His ways…justice. That’s why we’ve had a series about justice and judgment because we’re to learn these things. That everything that goes on in the mind as we judge and how we think, it better be in unity and oneness with God. Otherwise, we’re out in left field and we’re not living the way God says to. It has to be in unity with God. Has to be just. What is just can only come from God.

So, our prayers have to be involved in these kinds of things, in choices and decisions and thinking, in our thinking toward one another. It should really be good. It should really be good in how we think about each other. It’s about God’s love and it’s about right judgment and always having the attitude of mind get out of my own eye first before I think I’ve got to tell someone else something about something we think is in theirs.” There’s a lot said there, what Christ told us.

I praise and extol … the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to bring down. “To abase, to subdue.” God has that power. It doesn’t mean they’re going to choose Him. God has the power to do that. But it doesn’t mean they’re still going to choose Him.

I think of all those who are resurrected in the Great White Throne. We used to have that concept or that thinking of everyone who is resurrected in the Great White Throne, once they see what God, what Christ has done and the 144,000 for a thousand years on this earth in God’s government ruling the earth, one Church, no more stupidity and confusion of religions in the world, not all the churches who all disagree with each other. One. One government as far as the rulership of government is concerned around the earth.

To see what mankind is able to do with peace, with unity, with cooperation, with learning love and putting down everything that fights and resists against that because there are no more wars. For a thousand years God isn’t going to allow one skirmish. There will be no wars. Any governments who don’t choose to follow it, God corrects them. It talks about it, “If they don’t come up and keep the Feast of Tabernacles, there are going to be plagues.” Just like what happened in Egypt. If they don’t learn then, God says He’ll destroy them. He’s going to put them to death.

You think God means business during that thousand years? Do you think people are going to learn? Doesn’t mean they agree though, does it? You can be subdued and corrected by God Almighty, but it doesn’t mean you choose His way. But why? You think, what an insane thing for the human mind not to recognize the kind of love God has. But we as human beings, if we want something different we won’t receive that.

Those who want to commit adultery, it doesn’t quite work with God’s Kingdom ruling on this earth. Can you imagine the number? The number of people in this country, the majority commit adultery. You think that’s true? I hope you understand it’s true. It’s a way of life. Fornication is just a way of life. A lot of them, why even bother getting married? It’s swept the earth. It’s swept Europe. It’s sweeping here.

So, do we grasp and comprehend the ugliness of humanity, of mankind? How can you have a happy home life, a happy marriage? How can you have peace? How can you taste that which is right and good in life if you’re doing something different that destroys that?

Do you think during the Millennium there are going to be people who want to commit adultery? Human nature. Do you think during the Great White Throne that people who have lived in it all their life, or been murderers, or done other things, you think they’re all going to repent and say, “Oh, I love God’s way!” Or do you think they’re going to have that same mind to do what they want to do?

That’s something that I’ve been really in awe of in recent time, of what God is revealing to us, is that all will not want God’s way of life. Not during the Millennium and not during the Great White Throne. Because He’s made us free moral agents to choose Him or not.

That’s how dangerous our own opinions are. That’s how dangerous our own thinking of our own ways of what we think is right. Because we all pretty much know what we think is right. I mean, that’s just the way our nature is.

You’re a wise person when you realize you’re not right about everything. The only thing you’re really right about is what agrees with God. Then to have that knowledge and to have that confidence, that’s a beautiful thing.

Be suspect of your own ways. There’s wisdom in that. That’s why it’s so important to take your things before God in prayer, to ask God for help to judge righteous judgment, to think right toward one another, to live right toward one another, and to really seek to love one another. Why would we want anything different?

James 4, we’ll stop here, but we’ll read a part of this today. James 4:5—Do you think the scripture says in vain, The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy? What does that mean? It lusts to have power, authority, wealth, importance, our own way, to be right. It’s just natural. When it gets down to it, the bottom line of that, that’s just sick. But that’s the way we are as human beings.

But He gives more grace. What an awesome thing that when God calls us. This matter of grace is a matter of God’s calling, of His showing us His love, of revealing to us about Himself. Because the world can’t help what they can’t see. But if we’ve been called and God shows us and reveals Himself to us, then we’re accountable for what He’s giving to us. Then this becomes exceedingly important.

But what an awesome thing when God begins to draw us, He brings us first of all to the ability to repent. He gives us the ability to see where we’ve been wrong. Sunday/Sabbath. Easter/Passover. God gives us the ability to see those things, and then we have opportunity then to act upon it, and if we’ll act upon it He’ll continue to work with us. He just gives us, He gives us sometimes maybe even time in that, grace, time, something we need to always remember to give to one another.

We’re not all perfect. We all have problems. We all have weaknesses as human beings. Where are we in the scheme of things? To have patience. God has these things with us. Who are we to have less toward one another?

So, God sacrificed a lot. His Son sacrificed a lot in order to give us the ability to repent. That’s incredible grace and love. So, this matter of grace, patience, forgiveness, all these things that are a matter of what grace is all about.

God gives more grace, it says. But He gives more grace. Wherefore He says, God resists the proud. Because He can’t help the proud. The proud don’t want help. So we have to change something there, don’t we? But gives grace to the humble. I desire grace, forgiveness, mercy. I learned a long time ago, very early on, thankfully, that when you pray to receive correction pray for mercy.

One of my first prayers before I was baptized was about if God exists, because I didn’t know, “If you exist,” I asked Him to reveal Himself. “Help me to see.” And I’ve told you about the broken jaw and different things that happened. Anyway, it was a part of a humbling process. There are things we go through to become humbled, but it’s whether we respond to God and recognize the mercy God shows us in some of these things and the change that takes place. But it’s a matter of humbling ourselves and realizing you can’t be filled with pride. You’ve got to humble yourself before God. When you pray, yes, pray that God reveal to you where you’re wrong, but also ask for mercy.

Going through that with the broken jaw and everything wasn’t fun. Because basically, I asked for my mouth to be shut, you know. Basically, having to do with not receiving what He shows me. But anyway, another story.

So, we go through different things, but good lessons to learn in life. Thank God for His mercy, His patience.

He resists the proud but give grace to the humble. Going on here, Wherefore submit (yield to) yourselves therefore to God. So, we’re to submit. It’s a matter of our choice. Are we going to submit? Are we going to yield to God’s way working in our life? Yielding to the truth, yielding to God’s government governing our lives? That’s what it’s asking here.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil. That’s how you do it. It’s through humility, by submitting to God’s law, God’s way, what God says is just and right, not our way of doing it. If we look to ourselves to make important decisions in life we’re not too bright. We have to ask God for help. If you want to do things that are right and you want to make right decisions, ask God for wisdom, ask God for help.

Does that mean every decision you’re going to make then is going to be right? God can still allow us to make choices and decisions that we can learn from that aren’t perfect. But if we’re working in that direction God will help you through that process to learn as well.

Resist the devil. Resist his ways. In other words, yield to God’s ways, that’s what it’s telling us here, and he, speaking of the devil, will flee from you. That’s what we were talking about earlier.

We’re going to stop there. Gone a little longer than normal but we’ll have next part next Sabbath, Part 3.