Exercising God’s Love, Pt. 4

Ronald Weinland

May 6, 2023

I think we’re going to begin today as we did last Sabbath and then we’re going to continue covering the series entitled Exercising God’s Love, and this being Part 4 today.

But first of all, I feel like the ability to keep up on the news is important right now, obviously, with some of the things we’re going through and what we’re seeing in the world. To understand it’s not like a lot of people are trying to portray it in some instances, and I’ll just go through some of these and comment on them as we do so.

So anyway, this is just the past week. Picked out just a few articles here but the first one is: “Russian official: Ukrainian drones strike Crimea oil depot.”[1] I don’t know how many of you see some of these things on the news. Every once in a while they actually will show some of these things on the news.

But far bigger than that, jumping ahead in the week, was what happened over the Kremlin. So, to see the drones, two drones that had to be destroyed right over the top of the Kremlin you wonder what in the world is going on? They’re trying to blame the United States or Ukraine and who knows who did it. But some strange stuff going on. But it’s those kinds of things there, fooling around with something like that that can start a larger war.

So, that’s what’s bad about some of these kinds of things, and if they did it as a false flag, in other words, they did it themselves, which makes sense too sometimes, some of the things people will do, it’s insane, what countries will do and why they do it. Just shows the volatility of things out here.

I don’t know how many of you watched today, this morning here, a little bit of the coronation of King Charles. So, that was quite a hallmark in time, if you will, being ordained on top of that same throne that so many have been ordained on, in the sense of as a king. The stone that was underneath it that they brought back down from Scotland in order to do it. A lot of things in history. Of course, they don’t talk about the stone, but they talk about other things. But they have no idea. Amazing what we’ve been given.

Another one here: “… De-Dollarization Kicks Into High Gear.”[2] It says, “The US dollar is essential to US global power projection, but in 2022, the dollar share of reserve currencies slid 10 times faster than the average in the past two decades... It is now established that the US dollar’s status as a global reserve currency is eroding.”

“Notably, many of those trades involve BRICS countries – and beyond.” Now, this is what’s amazing here: “At least 19 nations have already requested to join BRICS+, the extended version of the 21st century’s major multipolar institution, whose founding members are Brazil, Russia, India, and China, then South Africa.”

“BRICS, as it stands, is already more relevant to the global economy than the G7,” which is a staggering statement. It says, “The latest IMF figures reveal that the existing five BRICS nations will contribute 32.1 percent to global growth, compared to the G7’s 29.9 percent.” So, in that respect, they’ve already passed. They’re having a meeting coming up shortly, and I don’t know, that might be in one of the articles here, where they’re talking about now accepting these other countries and expanding. That’s going to be even that much stronger.

It goes on to say, “With Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, and Mexico as possible new members, it is clear that key Global South players are starting to focus on the quintessential multilateral institution capable of smashing Western hegemony.”

So again, they’re trying to take away the influence of the petro-dollar, obviously, and trading amongst themselves in other currencies. So, the handwriting is on the wall, and these are the kinds of things that lead to war in itself, just by itself. This may be some of the reasons why some people in politics are pushing. They are pushing Russia and other countries. Sadly, this thing has been done throughout history, where sometimes they’ll push into a war in order to take the spotlight off of other things so they can stay in power.

Another one here: “US arms warplanes in Mid-East with bunker buster bombs vs Iran, Syria.”[3] But they’ve been threatening over there they’re sending in the bunker buster bombs. I don’t know if you know about those, but they can go deep into the earth to destroy that which is buried, which is all about Iran and the nuclear facilities they have deep underground.

Another one: “US Installing ‘Atomic Sensors’ Across Ukraine To Detect Use Of Nuclear Or Dirty Bombs By Russian Military.”[4] This is from EurAsian Times. It says, “The US is installing a network of sensors across Ukraine to detect a possible nuclear explosion and bursts of radiation, the New York Times reported. The sensors will be able to detect radiation from both a dirty bomb and a nuclear weapon activated in Ukraine, the report said.”

“In a statement, the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) said that the network of atomic sensors was being deployed ‘throughout the region’ and would have the ability ‘to characterize the size, location, and effects of any nuclear explosion.’ The move would allegedly deny Russia any opportunity to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine without attribution, the report said. The sensors will presumably serve as deterrence because they would make Russian decision-makers aware the United States can expose the use of a nuclear weapon as a false-flag operation…”

So again, all these games people play. You think, just like pushing the world over a cliff.

Another one here: “JPMorgan Chase takes over First Republic after biggest U.S. bank failure since 2008.”[5] So, it’s already talked about how that this is the third failure of an American bank since March. I’m not going to read all these but some of this stuff going on right now with the economy is really getting far, far worse as we go along here, very rapidly so.

Anyway, another one here: “Retired Admiral Believes Türkiye Should Leave NATO.”[6] Should have done that a long time ago.

Another one here: “Indian banker describes dollar as ‘financial terrorist.’”[7] I’m including this one here because it shows the thinking out there of different countries toward the United States.

“‘Somebody in the US can say: You cannot withdraw [this money] from tomorrow morning – and you are stuck. That is the power of the reserve currency,’ Kotak added. The world is therefore ‘desperately looking for an alternative reserve currency,’ he continued, suggesting that India should seize the opportunity to make its own currency, the rupee, the reserve.”

So, even amongst themselves, they’re going to be fighting out there because it’s either the Yuan, the Rupee, or whatever.

Another one here just to show you how people think or don’t think: “JPM CEO Says ‘System Is Very, Very Sound’ After Second-Largest US Bank Failure In History.”[8] The games they play.

I could go on and on here, but I don’t want to spend too much time on some of this.

“Yellen says drop-dead date for debt ceiling is June 1.”[9] “Yellen told lawmakers she expects the U.S. to no longer be able to pay all of its outstanding obligations by as early as June 1, ramping up pressure on Congress and the White House to come to an agreement. Yellen initially told lawmakers it was unlikely the federal government would exhaust the so-called extraordinary measures it has been using to continue paying its bills before early June. But now, citing recent tax revenues, Yellen said the deadline is expected to come sooner than expected.”

So, we’re not in that great of shape.

“Five Arab States Plus Iran Among 19 Nations Ready To Join BRICS.”[10] Another article.

The last one, “PacWest, Western Alliance shares tumble as US regional bank fears persist.”[11] “Shares of U.S. regional banks PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O) and Western Alliance Bank plunged on Tuesday as the demise of First Republic triggered investor concerns about the financial health of other mid-sized lenders. JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) agreed on Monday to acquire a majority of First Republic’s assets in a $10.6 billion deal after regulators seized the lender, which became the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. Investors fear the latest turmoil, which began with the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, could spread to other regional banks.”

So again, that’s why a lot of these banks, you see them out here, all of a sudden their shares, their stocks, whatever, are plunging so fast here because people don’t have the same confidence they once had. So, when they get to that position it’s like deja vu, 2008 all over again.

I’ll stop there. So many things in the news to talk about, to report, but just understand that things are not good out there. Some are talking about the fact that maybe Russia is going to back away from Ukraine, which may happen, and all of a sudden it’s going to be like “peace” when there is no peace, which is even more dangerous.

We’ll continue on in the verses here in the scriptures now of where we left off last Sabbath. But again, I sometimes don’t know how much you’re receiving of some of these things or what we’re seeing in it when we do read the articles. But to understand where we are is so important because we live at a very volatile time and this next year could be an exceedingly volatile period. So, it’s smart for us, obviously, to be more on guard than ever. It’s part of the reason we’re being given some of the things we are as far as what God is giving to us as a Church.

Let’s pick it up in 1 John 3:22 again where we were at the end of last Sabbath. We’ll read a couple of verses here and then we’ll continue on.

1 John 3:22--And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him... Now, it’s like other scriptures in the New Testament here, especially in the beginning in some of the things Christ had to say, especially on Passover night when it speaks of those things about whatever we ask God will give. But it has to be understood in the context of what’s being said.

Those things that Christ had to say were about the holy spirit and God’s desire to live within us. God desires to live within us. He desires to dwell within us. He desires to give us of His holy spirit. We have to ask, and God will bless us in those things.

It’s not about general prayer, of something we might want to pray about, and whatever comes into our minds that God is going to answer concerning granting our request. That’s not what these verses are about. It’s about the context of whatever is being discussed.

Some of these have been highly misunderstood in times past in the sense that people feel, think, that whatever they ask they’re going to receive or have the potential to receive. So, it’s not about that.

It says, In whatever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His commandments. So, we have to understand we have a way of life that we’re to live. We’re to strive to obey, we’re to strive to respond to whatever is given to us in instruction.

This “commandment” is rather loosely used in scripture in the New Testament. It doesn’t mean in the same thought and mindset as the ten commandments, but they still are built upon those as to how we live. Some might be things that are learned over longer periods of time in a refined part of God’s spirit, but nevertheless, instruction that God gives to us, whether it be on any Sabbath meeting we have, Holy Days, or whatever it is, or in writing, there are things we’re to strive to live.

These are some of the most important in the sense of understanding them spiritually because these things haven’t been understood (that we’re going through here) very well in the Church for very long, when they have been understood well. God is giving us more right now.

So, during Philadelphia, during Laodicea, the things we’re discussing here in depth in the sense of that which is spiritual they weren’t understood back then. They just weren’t. They weren’t given back then. I’m going to bring some of those out as we go along just to help us remember or know because some who have come along during PKG don’t remember those, they don’t know those times because they didn’t live in those times. Others who did come up through that period of time, good to be reminded because sometimes we forget we didn’t know that.

…because we keep His commandments. So, we’re to live God’s way of life. That’s what it boils down to, and if we’re not doing it what are we doing?

Then it goes on to say, and do, which is a word that means “to make; to practice; to live,” if you will, those things that are pleasing in His sight. Obviously, we should want to please God. We should want to be pleasing toward Him to what we do. We’re moved and motivated. Just like we talked about king David and his attitude toward God. We should want to have that same kind of heart and that same kind of mind toward God, toward His ways, toward His law.

It goes on then now to focus in on, And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Joshua the Christ… Now, there is more to it than that. The world, the protestant world, talks about “Do you believe? Do you accept that name?” They don’t understand what that means in scripture. And sadly, some in God’s Church haven’t grasped and comprehended fully what that means. It is anything that he’s had to say. That’s what it means. God sent His Son to fulfill the role of Passover and then to become our High Priest. Those things are the things we’re to believe.

How does that work then in our lives? That’s what we’re to believe, that we have the ability to repent, that we’re supposed to be repenting, that we’re supposed to be coming before God and seeking to live better. Because every time we repent we’re acknowledging God is right, we’re wrong, “I’m wrong; I have sinned.” That’s what repentance is about.

That’s what it means to believe in the very reason of his existence and what God gave as Joshua the Christ, His own Son. So, it says, and that adds to it then that we should believe on His Son, Joshua the Christ, and love one another. This goes with it. Because Christ said we’re to do that on Passover night. It was that instruction. He said, “You’re to love one another as I have loved you.” Passover night.

They didn’t know what that meant yet until they learned later on that he came and fulfilled the Lamb of God as a Passover, that he was supposed to die for the sins of all mankind. Then they saw and understood. But that night they didn’t grasp what he was saying. So, that’s awesome in itself.

But to understand this is what John is focusing in on in some of the last scripture in the Bible about how we’re to live because he’s the last one writing here – and Jude. Just because it’s after this doesn’t mean it was written after that so there are some discrepancies in some of those things sometimes. But again, lived for a long period of time before he was killed. (And we’ll be getting into that in this series as we go along because there are scriptures as well that have to do with some of what we’re talking about here.)

But here it is, 1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John and he’s old, he’s gotten up there in age, he’s seen the Church of Ephesus, the era of Ephesus, if you will, come and almost to the end of it. Because when he dies it’s the end of it. We don’t know that date exactly but close. He was in his nineties. He wrote this before that.

He was given Revelation after this. But Revelation is more of a book about things to come and some instruction and so forth in the respect of what was given to the Churches, but later on it’s primarily a message about things that were to happen in the end-time.

And this, however, is instruction of how to live, and it’s some of the most important things that God has given to us as far as the Church is concerned and how important it is to God and how important it should be to us. Hence, some of the last things written to build upon things that John wrote much earlier in the book of John that God had given to him to understand about this matter of agape, about our relationships with one another within the Body, and so forth.

So, we’re to love one another. It doesn’t stop there; it emphasizes then how: as he (Christ) gave us commandment. He commanded us, he gave us instruction on that night of Passover, that the Church, that they are, we are “to love one another,” as he said, “as I have loved you.” So simple. A sacrificing love. How much are we willing to sacrifice? Are we willing to live that kind of a life?

Because I love what it says about the Holy Days because it talks about “an offering made by fire to the Eternal,” in every one of the Holy Days in that respect. We can look at physical sacrifices, but it meant much more than that, “an offering made by fire.” For us, it’s spiritual. The fire – the hardship, the trials, of things we have to go through as we learn and choose to live a life that sacrifices self. It’s always about self and what we’re ready to sacrifice or hold on to. Because the majority of people ever called into God’s Church in the last two thousand years have not been willing to sacrifice to the end. They wanted to hold on to their own way. Amazing!

And whosoever keeps His commandments dwells in Him, in God, and He in them. God and us, if you will, and Christ as well. And hereby, or as the word is, in this we know that He abides in us, by the spirit which He has given us.

So, we learn through this process we can’t love, we can’t live even the way God tells us to, instructs us to without His holy spirit. People can’t keep God’s law in spirit and in truth without His spirit. It’s impossible. Human beings without that impregnation, if you will, in the beginning, and then receiving a constant supply, life if you will, coming into them, keeping that spirit alive – and it can’t happen without that taking place, God coming into us on a constant basis. The whole reason Christ died – so we could be forgiven of sin so that God could dwell in us, continually give us of His spirit. We dwell in God then and His Son.

So, it says, we come to know these things by the spirit which He (God Almighty) has given to us. Because we have much, much evidence – it’s called a witness or testimony – in the lives of people throughout time, throughout the Church in our time, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and now PKG, that there are so many who haven’t chosen to live this way of life. We’ve seen people make choices and decisions where they haven’t relied upon God’s spirit, and they lose it.

We’ve seen people lose understanding, lose insight in truth. Because the reality is they can’t hold on to it and then they can’t talk to you on the same plane. When people lose God’s spirit they can’t communicate on the same plane anymore. That’s the way it is.

I will never forget the friend we had that was being transferred from one part of the country to another right as the Apostasy was hitting. He stopped by our house. I believe we had a meal together if I recall, and might even have stayed with us, I don’t remember for sure. But anyway, he was with us. The next day, I think it was the next day or a couple days afterward as they continued on traveling, gave me a call. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know him! I didn’t know the individual. He wasn’t the same man that was in our house. His thinking had totally changed.

He had spent three, over three hours, three and a half hours on the phone with Joe Junior, and by the time he got off his mind was gone, his holy spirit was taken away totally and completely. The ability to see… Not only that, well, it goes further than that. Other power was involved. Things happen like that at times then when God just allows another being to have powerful influence in the mind.

That’s why for a time there when we’d seen this happen over and over and over again to people in the ministry and the Church, we call it, referring back to a time in science fiction and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, an old, old movie. Because one day you knew someone, the next day “Who are they? I don’t know them!” You can’t talk about the same thing. You can’t reason about God’s Sabbath and the Holy Days anymore. It’s gone! Now, that is some scary stuff.

We’ve seen that witness, so this verse means so much. Even hereby we know He abides in us, by the spirit which He has given to us. So that we can learn from that in a very powerful way. The only way you can hold on to and grasp and keep God’s way of life is to have His holy spirit. Because if it’s gone at any point in time we begin to become weaker, if we can still repent, and if we can’t and we’ve gone too far it’s gone. Just gone.

Now, continuing on from where we left off. 1 John 4:1—Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God. Now, we need to understand who it’s talking to here. The apostles did not write to the world, they wrote to the Church. This is written for the Church. So, it says, “Don’t believe every spirit.” So, it tells us what to believe and what not to believe, and what to use to measure that by.

“But try,” as it says here, which means “to examine; to see if genuine” in the Greek language; that’s what it means, “to see if it’s genuine, if it’s true.” “But try the spirits whether they are of God.” Because there are certain things that will become manifest. That’s what He’s telling us.

…because many false prophets… Kind of an awkward phrasing here because in this case, people think of prophets in the Old Testament, and the reality was there were no prophets, in that respect as (there were some women in the beginning), but as far as the Church was concerned later on, there wasn’t that which was known as the ordination to prophets.

So, in this particular case here, it’s a word that we’ve tried to explain many of times in times past, but the way it’s especially used in the New Testament, it’s “of those who utter or speak,” in this case, it’s about God, and it’s either true or it isn’t. A “false prophet,” it’s a word, or it literally means, “those who speak,” or even live, just because of what they’re living, “that which is not in agreement.” That’s what the word means, not in agreement, speaking that which is not in agreement.

That’s what he’s saying to beware of here, because many of these, it says, have gone out into the world. So, what does that mean, “They’ve gone out in the world?” This is, again, not talking about the world. This is talking about people in God’s Church who have gone out into the world. In other words, they have left the Church. The word means literally “gone out here,” “departed or gone forth from the Church.” Basic. Simple. They’ve gone out, they’ve departed from the Church, and they’ve chosen the world. They’ve chosen their own way.

Because that’s what the world is about. The world is about selfishness and doing things our own way. Governments, they do their own way. That’s why God is bringing us to a time to understand that we can’t govern ourselves because we do it our own way. No one out here is trying to do something God’s way. They might think they are. They might talk about it in that light, but it’s not true because it’s not with the truth. It’s with that which is already deceived in the world.

So, anybody that goes in that direction, this is what they fit. If someone utters something that agrees with the world there we go.

It says, Hereby, or In this in other words, or By this you know the spirit of God. So, what’s it saying? If some turn from this way of life within the Church and grab hold of something else or hold on to some other beliefs that aren’t part of the Church here we are, “By this you know the spirit of God.” Because some depart from what is true and sound and not being taught.

It goes on to say, Every spirit that confesses… Again here, when people hear the word “confess” it’s like too often the concept of confession in the world comes to mind, and it’s not that. It’s a matter of agreeing with something here in the sense of the way they live or the way they speak.

This becomes evident then, Every spirit that confesses, in other words, by how they’re living, “reflects,” maybe, is a better word, in their speech and in their living that God is come in the flesh is of God. Now, in times past within God’s Church this was recognized that this was talking about Christ coming in the flesh. It wasn’t the present progressive thing that we understand now. In the Greek this word is like in English what would be present progressive. In other words, it starts happening and it continues happening.

That’s what happens when we’re baptized and have hands laid upon us; God’s spirit starts coming into our lives, and if we continue to go through the process of repentance and God continues then to dwell in us, His spirit is coming into, Him and His son are dwelling in us. His spirit is coming into our lives. That’s what this is about. What’s the flesh? It’s us. That God’s spirit is coming into the flesh, into human life.

That’s a marvel to understand, that God’s spirit can dwell in us, human beings, human flesh. That’s what it’s discussing here, that’s what it’s talking about here. Every spirit that, in other words, agrees with, in other words, reflects that they agree with by what they speak, by what they say, and by how they’re living their life, that God is coming in the flesh is of God. Simple.

So, if our lives, if we’re able to talk about this way of life with one another, we’re able to understand as we talk about the times we live in, we understand what an apostasy was, we’re able to grasp and comprehend what the man of sin, the son of perdition was. We know those things. If we’re able to grasp all the kinds of things that are taught, in that respect, in God’s Church, the Holy Days, what they mean, and on and on it goes, and the new things that God gives us, new truth that we can talk about those things, and we’re on the same page because we believe the same thing.

So, we’re unique. Our fellowship is unique in the sense we can’t talk these things anywhere else. You can’t talk about them to other people or even people of our past in other scattered groups. You can’t talk the same thing. You can’t talk to them about Joshua because they think of “Jesus” still. They use that name. They don’t comprehend and understand what God has given in that respect. Even in that they still believe that he eternally existed.

You can’t talk to people of our past in the sense of the Church that were a part of the Apostasy or that were scattered. You wouldn’t be able to talk to them about the fact that Christ has not eternally existed because they still believe that he did.

God has given us new understanding, the Church continues to grow, as it always has in that respect, especially since Herbert Armstrong was called to be God’s apostle and truth began to be given to the Church. Every one that learned anything that was true, whether it be the Holy Days on… There were only three truths, tithing, the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, not the annual Sabbaths, and the name, the Church of God. So, that’s all that was existing after the era of Sardis, after the period of Sardis, because then came Philadelphia.

God raised up Herbert Armstrong, and about seven years after that of him and his wife keeping the annual Holy Days, he began to teach those. Everyone who ever came along, every minister, every member of God’s Church in Worldwide—well, at that time it was the Radio Church of God, then it became the Worldwide Church of God—but they learned it through God’s apostle, through the truth that God gave to him.

Then battles began where people didn’t esteem him as an apostle, where they began to think that truth came from other directions, that you could leave some of the things that God had given and kind of come up with your own cockamamy ideas like a 14/15 Passover as one evangelist did very early on.

He started teaching it at Ambassador College. Ruined a lot of individuals who then went out and began to teach or think, even though they couldn’t openly teach about it yet, but they always held it in their hearts that Dr. Hoeh was right about the 14/15th Passover. They held it in until they had the opportunity later on, maybe two, three, four decades later, to start teaching it. Insanity. Shows where their hearts and their minds really were, rejecting what God had given through His apostle.

These are things that we’re to learn deep down inside, where truth comes from, how we’re able to speak the same things. So, the reality is they still hold on to a concept of part of the trinity, two parts, God the Father Eternally existing and that Christ eternally existed. We in God’s Church, God has given us to understand. That’s why we’re able to say and speak the same thing. If someone didn’t believe that or speak that or had some other ideas, that Christ has eternally existed, it would not be a part of us. That’s a part of what John is going through and talking about. That’s a sure sign they’re speaking or living something else.

So, at some point, those things become manifested in people’s lives if they’re not of the same mind, and this is a part of what God and Christ through John have given to the Church to understand.

What an awesome blessing of things you have. We’re able to fellowship and talk about them because we have the same mind. How is that possible? By God’s spirit.

…and every spirit that does not confess (verse 3) that God is coming… That’s what the word is, now and ongoing in our lives, in people’s lives… …in the flesh is not of God. So, if an individual by their own life is not reflecting – it’s a good word for this because the word “confess” conjures up something else unless we understand what that means. It means by speech, by what you speak, and by what you’re living, by how you’re living. If those things do not reflect that God is coming into their life… Because if somebody doesn’t agree right away you know something is wrong here that they’ve got to repent of or they have just left, they’re gone.

…is coming in the flesh is not of God. So, if someone is not doing these things and not able to fellowship in the same way spiritually by believing and talking about the same things, it says, “is not of God.” Why? Because God’s spirit isn’t there. It’s simple.

Even this is… Pretty strong words he used here. The words “spirit” and “of” are not there. Even this is antichrist, meaning that it’s not about the world. You know, the scattered Body when they talk about an antichrist that will come, you know who they think it likely to be? The pope. Still a belief that’s held out there. A physical human being who has never known the truth. But that’s where the mind is.

Now, that did exist in Worldwide because God hadn’t given it yet, what antichrist was all about until it happened. Until it happened as far as the Apostasy is concerned and the antichrist did come, the antichrist, the man of sin, the man of rebellion, if you will, the son of perdition.

So, John talks about this in broader terms because he says, basically here, anyone that turns against Christ. The word means “anti” Christ. So, if we don’t confess by our lives, by how we’re living we’re not yielding to God’s spirit living in us then we’re anti, we’re working against the reason he died, we’re working against the reason he spilled his blood to the earth, the reason he was beaten beyond recognition and then hung up there as he was.

So, to work against that it’s really kind of mind-boggling to think that can even happen. But it’s happened over and over and over again in God’s Church ever since it began in 31 AD.

He makes it very clear here. Now he’s saying, even this is antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come. So, they already understood what that meant, that antichrist, one would come who would stand up, in essence (2 Thessalonians 2, because Paul taught it), that one individual would come along who would become known as the man of sin, the son of perdition and turn everything and be the one who in essence stimulates, promotes, pushes forward the Apostasy.

They understood about that. They didn’t grasp and comprehend it. Neither did we in the Church until after it happened. So, again he’s saying here, whereof you have heard that it should come, and he says, even now it’s already in the world. So even at the time John was writing this, toward the end of his life, he understood that there were those who were already working against, had already come along, and weren’t of the same mind anymore. They left and went into the world. They departed from the Church. Ministers that had to be dealt with by Paul and by others already by this time, people listed in scripture, in essence, who had turned against everything they’d been given, turned against Christ, became anti-Christ. So, he’s making it clear these have already come. They’re already in the world.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them (conquered them), in other words, those who do not live by the truth, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. What an awesome thing here to understand that which we are thankful for to know, that we can receive of God’s spirit and His life coming into our lives and understand that’s our strength. The reason being is “because of He who is greater in us than the being that’s in this world.” We can conquer and overcome because of God’s spirit because of God’s life. That’s how we do it.

They are of the world. Those who become anti-Christ, those who turn against the Church, those who do not live this way of life. They are of the world. In other words, in agreement with the way of the world. That’s why they go into the world because they’re in agreement with it. Not necessarily everything that’s done out there in the world. But what is the way of the world? It’s the way of selfishness; it’s the way of deciding for yourself what is right and wrong.

It’s not a matter of looking to God’s guidance and government and things He gives to us, to understand there is an order of how God works in our life. That’s gone. In other words, it’s a matter of leaving and holding on to our own ideas. Whether it be the 14/15 Passover or whatever that someone finally leaves over.

They are of the world, in other words, in agreement with the world, therefore, they speak as the world, and the world hears them. So, not people with God’s spirit, not people in the Church, truly in the Church who have God’s spirit in them, because it comes to a point in time where this doesn’t work, something has got to give. Within God’s Church, in time, it has to be made manifest that they’re not a part of us. Sometimes it comes down to the fact of being put out, not being able to come into fellowship anymore because of what they’re doing because they’re not living in fellowship anyway.

Verse 6—We are of God. There is supposed to be a confidence in our minds and in our lives that if we’re striving to do what’s right, we’re repenting of sin as God reveals it to us, we’re striving to fight against battles and recognize weaknesses that we have and asking God for help to fight against those weaknesses, to conquer and overcome, there is a confidence we are of God. Everyone who believes the same can have that confidence the only way you can have this is by God’s spirit.

There should be a great confidence in that and boldness in that in the sense of our relationship with the very awesomely loving Father, that He wants us to grasp the love He has for every one of us, that we’re His children and He’s brought us together in His fellowship. That’s why we have to be very careful how we treat one another. Because we belong to God. We’re in His fellowship first and foremost.

We are of God. Whoever knows God hears us. Well, for a minster I’ve experienced this many, many a time when I come to a point where I realize when I know they’re not of us anymore. Because at some point in time, it comes down to the fact they’re not listening, they will not hear you anymore, they’ve made up their own mind, and they are gone. The decision in those cases is made, and for the Church to understand they’re gone, we’re not to have fellowship anymore.

Whoever… Okay, this is within the Church again; this is talking about God’s Church. Whoever is not of God does not hear us. This is where this takes place, in the environment of the Church. Not that they are, necessarily, obviously, at that point in the Church, because that’s when the choice or the decision is made they’re not a part of us.

Whoever is not of God does not hear us. From out of this, as the word means. From out of this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. It’s not a hard thing when it comes to that point, when someone will no longer listen to what is true.

Beloved, let us love one another. The “one another”? The Church. First and foremost, it’s all about the Church. Because this kind of love is to be a part of the Church. It’s not for the world. We’re to treat others around us whether it be on the job, family, and everyone else, loving toward them, but the ability to have fellowship in God’s love has to be because we’re a part of that fellowship, every one of us.

Beloved, let us love one another, in other words, “in this manner” is how that word is meant, because it goes on to say, for love, now, this is God’s love, for agape is of God, it comes from Go, and everyone who loves in this manner, in other words, has been begotten of God and knows God. So, the only way to love the way we’re supposed to, God’s way, in the way Christ said we’re supposed to, it requires God’s spirit. If we’re able to do that then we’re of God. Another avenue to reveal, again, a boldness and a confidence we should have when we know our relationships are right.

Because when they’re not right and we don’t care for one another or we have a conflict with someone or someone has said something that we’ve taken offense to and we hold it against them, and every time we see them we’re holding that against them, you’re in sin. You’re living in sin. That has to be repented of because there is a way we’re to think toward one another. And too often in times past… Thankfully, to my knowledge, we’re not experiencing that right at the moment, but probably somewhere there is someone who has a conflict with someone else.

I could go back in my mind during the Feast and even after the Feast where some of these things popped up just this past year, and we’re not even to the next Feast yet of Tabernacles. These kinds of things should never, never, never happen in God’s Church. That’s what God is showing us. We’re down to a point now where God is refining in a sense in our minds, the ability to comprehend and see a greater standard, if you will, by how we’re supposed to live our life.

Because we’ve been around long enough now to grasp it, to comprehend it, and to begin practicing it and exercising it more fully in our lives than ever before because we’re being refined, and because we’re so close to Christ’s coming these things are being given and how we then think toward one another.

I think of some who are still playing games, who have problems in thinking right toward even me or toward my wife. I know they exist. Or toward some others in God’s Church or toward many in God’s Church. That doesn’t reflect God’s spirit, doesn’t reflect God’s life in them. They have the opportunity to repent for I don’t know how long, but not too long, and make right with God and right with God’s Church or they’re just gone.

These things are not over with, brethren. That’s why we’re going through some of this as well, to understand these things are not over of the Church being cleansed and being made at one with God. Things are being ramped up. Just as what’s happening in the world.

That’s why I mentioned this is one of the Thunders that only the Church can receive. When you talk about number six and number seven, that’s basically something that only the Church can really receive anyway. The world will receive it in time, primarily after Christ’s coming, the knowledge, the understanding, the knowing. But we are to know certain things now. So, if we can grasp and comprehend, Thunders are going on all around us.

That’s why I have been going through and reading some of the things in the news. Because something pressing very hard right now and is very powerful is this economic thing. We are going down the tube. Things are changing not just in this country but throughout the world when it comes to the petro-dollar. It doesn’t have the preeminence any longer.

Nations are already trading in other currencies. Something that was unheard of a few years ago. They talked about doing certain things, but they hadn’t started to the degree they are now. Now they’re pushing it harder. Why? Well, because of where we are in time. It’s one of the Thunders. It’s a part of something that has to happen to have a total economic collapse in the world.

Now, the world wants to hold on in some degree to some of what they have, but they know something is coming. Does China want to see a global economic collapse? Well? Does the United States? Does any nation, for that matter?

You know, a nuclear war is bad, but a global economic collapse is also. They know that their prosperity is going to be hampered if that happens because they might be doing fairly well right now but if something of that happens, we’re talking about international trade. It’s powerful. It’s big. If some of those things just all of a sudden abruptly end, what do you have? Well, it’ll be a war because of that, solely because of that.

So, if you see all these things happening, you see how a big bear is being pushed into a corner, you see different countries, Iran, even North Korea – you think, “Nobody has to worry about North Korea.” Oh. Yes. We. Do. It only takes one little country with one or two nuclear weapons to start the world war. So, anyway, that’s the reason we’ve been going through some of the news things, so that we’re abreast of where we are. Things are ramping up more and more and more. We have to be on guard. Whether it’s one year or less or whether it’s three years, whatever it is, it’s in God’s hands and we’re to make ourselves ready for it by what He’s given to us and feeding us. We’re being fed this to understand.

God is very concerned, in that respect, that we start breaking the tide of something that’s existed for nearly two thousand years now within the Church, that there has been fellowship, but there are levels of fellowship that have not been attained to the point God desires for His Church, especially of what he’s going to bring about and see to it exists at His Son’s coming. We’re going to be at one. God’s Church is going to be at one when Christ returns.

Anyone who is not a part, at one, especially in these things because these are the major areas now of judgment, and not being at one in this, they won’t be there. God is going to see to it. If He saw tens of thousands, hundreds not live into the period of time to be able to go into the promised land, He could do it with a few hundred or whatever very simply. That’s part of the lesson.

Verse 8—Whoever does not love in this manner does not know God, for God is love. Yes. In this the love, the agape, if you will, again, of God toward us was manifested, in other words, made visible. We’re able to begin to understand. This is where the beginning of understanding of this is given. …in that, God has sent His only begotten Son into the world.

It shows the mind of God, the love of God to the degree that love exists, that He was willing to have His own Son die, suffer as he did, somebody who never did anything wrong ever, lived perfectly righteous as far as God’s way of life was concerned.

We can have attachments in human life toward children, but we don’t grasp the depth and the power of that kind of love from God because it’s much, much, much greater and something that was determined before anything was ever created, that he was going to do this. That’s why Abraham isn’t only a small type on a physical plane of something that we’re to think about and learn from in the respect of his thinking because God’s thinking was far, far, far, far above Abrahams’s and He followed through with it.

So, this is saying here this kind of love that comes from God, that human beings don’t have, was manifested, made visible, if you will, to us through His Son, His only begotten Son, as He sent him into the world, that we might live through him. It’s all about the rest of mankind, of what we have through the fact of what He was willing to sacrifice. Love, His love, is a sacrificing love. Then Christ reflected that by His willingness to do it, his love, God’s love, agape.

Herein is love, agape, not that we loved God, in other words, in this manner. That’s what it’s saying. We didn’t love God in this manner. We didn’t have the ability to. We’re selfish human beings. …but that He loved us. He loved us in this manner. In other words, with a sacrificing love. …and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, if God loved us in this manner – this is powerful, what he’s saying here – we also ought to love one another. He’s building upon and magnifying what Christ said on Passover night, that “You are to love one another as I have loved you,” and now with even greater intensity and power and the strength of what is being said through John he is making it clear.

Beloved, if God so loved us we ought to love one another. We are to live the same thing.

No one has seen God at any time. If we love (in this manner, again) one another, God dwells in us. So again, it’s a thing that we can have of confidence and thankfulness to God that we’re able to have that kind of fellowship when we know – when we know – because we know, each one of us knows how we think about everyone else we know in God’s Church! Husband or wife perhaps in God’s Church.

As I mentioned last Sabbath, I got fairly strong last Sabbath in that one. If both are in God’s Church there should be a certain thinking there, and if we’re not able to do it there how on earth can we ever think about doing it in the Church? It’s impossible if we can’t live that love within the Church.

Now, that hasn’t always existed in the Church. Sometimes people have been in the Church environment but not in the Church. Well, it’s another whole subject, isn’t it? It depends how we live toward them until God makes it manifest. That’s what’s required if something is wrong.

If we love one another in this manner God dwells in us and His love (His agape) is being (that’s what it is), is being perfected in us. So, it’s something we’re to grow in, and He’s giving us an opportunity to grow in this a lot more right now than we have in times past, and the ability to see it. Because He’s giving us that ability to see it, to understand it more deeply than ever before. And now it’s up to us to exercise it, live it more than we ever have.

Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His spirit. The only way to be able to do this is by God dwelling in us. That’s what we have to cry out for and ask for. God will give it to us. If that’s our heart and desire He’ll bless us in it.

Verse 14—Even we have seen and do testify, in other words, witness, if you will, by how we’re living. That’s what “testimony” is here, or “witness.” …that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Do we grasp what he’s saying here? Because we need to. By everything he’s just said, if we live and think the right way and agree with God and are able to have this mind toward others, our testimony, our witness that’s in our life is “that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” Because we’re growing because of the Passover in our life. The ability to be forgiven of sin, to have God dwelling in us, it’s a powerful thing we’re being told here. It truly is.

Whoever confesses, again, agrees with by the way they live, by the way they speak (referring back to verse 2) that Joshua is the Son of God… So, that’s what we’re doing by what’s being reflected in our life, “That Joshua is the Son of God.” God dwells in them, and they in God. These are beautiful scriptures if you understand them in spirit.

Verse 16 now—Even we have known and believed the agape that God has to us. Now, can I interject something here? This word “to” is not the word “toward.” It’s unfortunate that it’s used here. It’s the word “in” or “with.” So, Even we have known and believed the love that God has with/in us. So, we are to know this, we are to understand that, what we have the ability to do in these physical bodies. That’s how we think then towards others, and it’s about the Church.

This is just like the same when it says in John 15:4 where Christ said, Abide in me and I in them as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself. Same wording. Same expressions here. So, it’s about God in us not toward us, to us. We’ve already gone through some of that. We know that love indeed that God has toward us, but it’s beyond that. It’s about what He has in us, what He’s given to us to have.

Then going on, 1 John 4:16 …God is agape, and whoever dwells in that love/agape, God’s love, dwells in God, and God in them. Because there is no other way to have it. Simple.

Herein is our love (agape). Beautiful. We can have it just as we have God’s spirit because that’s what God’s spirit is. This is what God’s spirit is to produce above all when we understand it. Everything else follows. God’s laws are based on this, on God’s love. Everything is based on God’s love. It is the mind, it is the being, the central part, if you will, core of His being. Awesome! The purpose for why everything He does as He does and has and will.

Herein is our love perfected. This isn’t translated very well so I’m going to just translate it as it really is here, this verse 17. It’s actually saying more direct, With love in us, because it just talked about that, With agape in us we are being perfected. That’s how the process is taking place.

So going on, so that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in the world. That’s why it said if God had that kind of love toward us, toward others, we should have the same toward one another, be of the same mind. Beautiful verses here.

Verse 18, going on. This is part of what we went through earlier on when we talked about the subject of fear in the previous series. It says, There is no fear in agape; but perfect love (agape) casts out fear, because fear, as we covered then, is punishing. It’s arduous; it’s burdensome. That’s what this means. One who fears is not made or being made perfect in agape. They don’t mix.

There is a boldness, a confidence. Everything before this is about that boldness and confidence we should have because of doing right, knowing right. As I said earlier, we know if we don’t think right toward anyone else, if we have conflict with someone else, if we’re not loving toward them and holding something against them and won’t love them because “we have a right not to,” won’t forgive whatever it might be or be forgiving.

We love, again, this agape, Him because He first loved us.

So, in Part 5 of the previous series about The Love of God, again, this matter of fear that we covered, it’s wise we go back through some of these verses again. Because hopefully by this point these will mean more to us than what they did.

You know, we can go through things, and we can hear what’s being given to us. But we hear the words, we hear the story. But sometimes to hear it, to receive it is another matter, because that’s spiritual in the Church and that can take time. It’s a building process. That’s why God gives us and has given us so much time to learn all the truths that we were given. He didn’t give Herbert Armstrong all the truths at the very beginning. He had things he had to go through, and God gave them to him as he went along, different truths that came along, as the Church grew and was able to receive it.

In PKG it’s the same sort of thing. We can’t receive everything all at once. He didn’t give us everything of an understanding about the Apostasy in the beginning, about the man of sin, about the stones of the temple, about how everyone had been vomited out of God’s mouth when you look at Laodicea because of being lukewarm.

These things weren’t given all within a week or two weeks or a month. It took time because they had to be built upon one upon another. Then once something came along then God could give us more. Because we’re incapable of grasping and understanding things on a spirit plane all at one time. We just don’t have that ability.

So, a little bit is given and the more we grow, well, the more we grow. The more we go along and have God’s spirit in us we’re able to continue to grow. It’s like God coming into our lives and it’s a continuing thing that it becomes greater and greater as time goes along, what we’re able to receive from that. And so, it is from this subject matter here.

It was stated there that “fear exhibits a lack of faith and belief.” That’s what the problem is, understanding how it’s used in context here we tend to think of fear in a different way oftentimes as human beings, but this is a little different in the sense of helping us to understand something on a spiritual plane of this.

So, it was said to us in essence, in that series, in Part 5 there of The Love of God, as we were covering some of these things about fear, “Fear exhibits a lack of faith or belief in what God tells us.” So, this isn’t the first time we’ve been told about how to love one another, how to judge within the Church. But sometimes it takes time to grow to a point where we’re able to go on to the next plateau, if you will, of what we’re exercising and what we’re living. That’s a part of where we are.

To understand that when these things aren’t lived fully there is a fear that’s been in people’s lives. There’s a lack of an ability if you will, of faith and confidence, and some of this is a matter of knowing.

I hope we understand what faith is. God gives us the ability to believe what is true. Then if we choose (it’s our choice) to live by it and ask God for help to live by it that’s faith. Striving to live by the truth, by the beliefs that God has given to us, is what faith is.

And so, fear exhibits a lack of these things. Sometimes it’s a lack of the ability to believe what God has given to us because we’re holding on to something that we don’t really grasp yet in our own minds. Something about judgment, something about whatever it might be.

So again, “Fear exhibits a lack of faith and belief in what God tells us. It reflects more of a trust in self.” Self-reliance, “The way I see it,” “The way I think it should be.” So, this matter of self is a matter of self-reliance that always produces various levels of fear in one’s life, even if they don’t grasp that’s what it is. God is telling us this is what it is because you’re not at peace yet.

The opposite of peace is fear, drama. There are different ways of classifying that. They go together, this matter of fear and drama, because within drama there are things that people, that human beings fear. That’s why there is drama. Think about that. Pray about that.

So again here, it reflects more of a trust in self, which is a matter of self-reliance, that always produces various levels of fear in one’s life, even if not recognized as that because it manifests itself in many different ways. Fear does not produce peace, or perhaps better said, peace of mind. Instead, conflict, drama, the lack of love, the lack of believing what God says, the lack of the ability to live it in the context of what we’re going through here, which is not peace.

I remember Herbert Armstrong and I, my memory is, that he did it every Feast whenever he spoke, every Feast of Tabernacles and he talked about the oil that came down onto Aaron’s beard, talking about how sweet, how good it is when brethren dwell together in unity. He loved that and we should love it. Because that’s what it’s all about.

He experienced a lot of things that were not a matter of unity in the Church. The people he spoke to, which we didn’t know until later on, the main ones he had contact with. Not the congregations. Not the people in the Church. He couldn’t. How could you do that? You can’t. It was the ministry that he had that was to serve him faithfully and how they lived. He knew there were problems. There were all kinds of problems that crept up in almost every evangelist’s life.  Not all but the majority, and it caused huge problems in the Church.

So, to understand what he was saying when he said that, it’s a beautiful thing when there is unity. He longed for that. Every minister should want to see that. Every individual in the Church should want to see that within the Church. The more we want to see that the more we’re going to live that. And so, he desired that in a very great way, in ways the average person did not because he saw things that were an incredible danger to the Church because so many went off and did their own thing.

So again here, that’s what this is about, and it creates fears. There are fears in it that come out of this in people’s lives, in the congregations and people, they’re not settled. If you’re not settled, if you’re not at peace, if you’re not in unity that’s a horrifying thing.

That’s why I love the way the Church is to this day. This is the greatest unity I believe we’ve ever had in two thousand years – that we have today as God is cleaning and cleansing the Church. Because He’s given us greater understanding than what existed nineteen hundred years ago, two thousand years ago, fifteen hundred years ago. Just because of where we live in time and because of what He’s given to us, the truths that began to be given through Herbert Armstrong, magnified through him, that God gave more to him, things that the apostles didn’t understand that he understood.

Then things that have been given since the Apostasy that they couldn’t understand during Philadelphia – definitely not during Laodicea. On and on it goes.

So, fear does not produce peace or peace of mind. Fear also tends to produce drama… I’m repeating these things because they’re important to grasp. …which is often the result of not. Getting. Our. Own. Way. If we don’t have peace with God in our thinking in our minds, then it’s unsettling. A form of fear depending on what it produces and how it produces it.

Not getting our own way, which is a matter of not getting what we want. That’s an ugly thing, getting what “I” want, the way “I” see it to be, should be. Again here, this again has so much to do with what we’re going through in this series.

Let’s go on. Let’s go back and look at some of those scriptures that talk about this, back in Romans 8. It’s wise to repeat these things. That’s why we’re going back and repeating them because hopefully by this point, we know more, we see more, we’re stirred up in spirit more, we’re grasping things on a spiritual plane in a better way than before. The more we’re able to do that and believe what God is giving to us the more we’re going to be able to exercise, live God’s love toward one another. That’s what He desires. That’s where we are in time.

Romans 8:13—For if you live after the flesh you will die. That means if we do things our way apart from the way God says it should be done that’s the answer. God’s spirit won’t be dwelling in us. At some point, there has to become a separation.

…but if you by the spirit… It requires God’s spirit. That’s why we cry out and pray to God. If you through the spirit do mortify (meaning put to death) the deeds of the body, you will live. So, we’re talking about relationships here, and so there are things a part of exercising God’s love, and first and foremost it is to strive to put to death (to mortify as it talks about here) the deeds of the way we may be doing them now, the way we may be thinking now toward someone else. It's not right, if we’re not forgiving toward someone, if we’re holding something against someone in God’s Church, if we have a conflict with someone, if we become offended by what someone has said in the Church.

Give me a break! Being offended toward someone is a sin in itself. I’ve gone through this in sermons before. That’s to understand it on a spiritual plane. You don’t have the right to be offended at anybody in God’s Church if they’ve said something to you. They can call you a “babbling idiot,” and you don’t have a right to become offended at them.

That doesn’t mean that you don’t have something to do in the case – maybe a nice conversation trying to do what is right and going to them alone and practicing God’s love toward them. But it isn’t to go off and have your feelings hurt so you can go and talk about them and tear them down in front of other people and say, “You know, this is what they did” and you put it in such a way that it makes them… And on and on it goes.

These things happen in God’s Church! Well, they have since the Feast, let’s put it that way. They shouldn’t. It shouldn’t happen in God’s Church, and that’s the whole point. We are to be at one with God in how we think, and if that isn’t right then there are things we can do to exercise God’s love. Going to someone in humility, not to accuse and find fault, that you’re so right. You’ve got to be willing of a right mind to learn from the account because maybe there is something wrong in the communication or why certain things were communicated.

Of course, if they call you “babbling idiot” it’s pretty clear. But anyway, there are things to be talked about and to come from you that you’re concerned, you love them, and you want to have a right relationship with them. You don’t want to have hard feelings. “But if that’s the way you think about me, what have I done? What do I need to do? What is it that I’ve done wrong? How have I hurt you?” Get that out in the air and then start trying to work through something. At least do your part. That’s a part of loving others, doing what we should do in the first place.

So, if we “seek to destroy the deeds of the body,” the way we are, which has to do with selfishness, “my” way, the way “I” see it, the way “I” judge, because “my” judgment is right, “my” opinion is better than yours, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Hope you understand what I’m saying, which I think you do.

Verse 14—For as many as are led by the spirit of God... So, we have to follow where God leads us. Right now, God is leading us a certain direction to do things on a plateau that is higher than we’ve had in the past. It’s stronger than in the past because He’s giving us more to see and believe and live by than what we’ve had in the past. So, as He’s done that then judgment is upon us to respond to that.

For as many as are led by the spirit they are the sons of God. So, if we are not led by, if we don’t put into practice things that God gives us and shows us whenever He does…?

I could go back to the Covid thing, and I think we’ve all learned from that, to see how something so physical could bring something like this out in the light to where maybe we can see something in ourselves we couldn’t see before and be able to judge the weightier matters of the law, that which is spiritual, not by what people say out here. Whether they’re right or wrong is immaterial, totally immaterial.

For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again, as the word is, for the purpose of, not “to” …for the purpose of fear. That’s not what God has given us His spirit for. That’s not what we’re receiving in God’s Church, to have drama, to have differences, to stir up fear because we’re not living how we should be living toward God.

As a whole people know when they’re not living according to God’s law and there is fear in that. We may not recognize it as that. Individuals who are disobeying God this day, yesterday, whatever it might be in their thinking, in their actions, they know if they’ve done wrong and they’re sinning, and especially if they’ve been practicing certain sin, whatever that might be, whatever it is. If they’re doing that there is a heaviness, a torment. If there isn’t you’re searing your conscience which is even worse.

So, if we’re not at peace in our minds and our thinking, well, that’s between us and God.

For you have not received the spirit of bondage again for the purpose of fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption. God wants us as His children. He desires us to live a certain way of life so we can be born into His Family, into the Kingdom.

…whereby we cry, Abba, Father. It’s a relationship that we’re growing in and building with God Almighty. We went through a series that God wants us to understand more deeply His love toward us. Then He’s gone into this giving us the importance of realizing that love needs to be lived toward one another. If God loves us to the manner He does, the more we see it, the more we grasp it, the more we should be humbled to understand the importance of everyone being God’s children and what it means as to how we think toward and treat every one of God’s children.

The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So, it’s by how we live. That in itself will reflect indeed who we are.

Verse 17—So, if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, so be that we suffer, willing to sacrifice self. So, this all goes together, willing to sacrifice self. …that we may also be glorified together.

It’s amazing what’s been placed before us, and it’s hard for us to grasp that, what it means to be heirs, to be joint heirs. I was moved today of thinking of some of this when thought about King Charles (that’s on a physical plane), his son, William, the kiss he gave and what he said, his loyalty and faithfulness to him as king, and understanding a lineage there that has been there for a long, long time. Now, this is very physical in the world.

Then I think about another son who has done so much damage to something that he could have had a part with, and he gave it up for what, for whom? But that was a choice not knowing what he could continue as a part of a process of inheriting. Not necessarily being king. But to understand what he had on a physical plane in this world is kind of mind-boggling. And so, it brought incredible shame.

Spiritual plane far, far, far beyond that. If we can understand that one on a physical plane to understand what God is offering us is so far beyond that you can’t really compare, to make that comparison. But if we can start to understand something physically, hopefully, we can see beyond that of what God has offered us.

Because, you see, the majority of people who have been called in the last two thousand years have turned against God. The majority of all the evangelists during Philadelphia that were raised up within the Church went by the wayside, are gone. Horrible! They had sway over what? Over pastors and ministers. They went astray as a whole. Then brethren, they hear that, they go astray. What a horrifying thing that took place.

To understand what we’ve been offered and what we’ve been given reflects the fact that most have never grasped that in their lives. They’ve never really believed that with all of their being, of what it means, any resemblance of what it means to be an heir of God, joint heirs with Christ, of what He’s offering us. Makes everything in physical life in this physical world look pretty puny. Far, far, far above anything that would be considered as royalty in this world or ever has been.

...so if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer, willing to sacrifice self. That’s what this series is really so much about. Love, God’s love is a matter of having to sacrifice self. …that we may also be glorified together.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed in us. The sharing of things to come. That’s why I think of the one son who chose to be separated now and not going to receive any of that anymore in the sense of recognition on a physical plane. Sad in that respect, for what it stood for on a physical plane.

How much more for us spiritually?

For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. So, God has longed for this for a long, long, long time and we’re almost there, the firstfruits, the 144,000, the first of His Family to inherit. We can’t begin to comprehend how exciting, how awesome this is in the sense of God’s thinking and God’s desire. Yet there are going to be those who are part of the congregations of PKG, some that will have an opportunity to be part of that, others who are going to have the opportunity to be the foundation, the beginning of a new age. Awesome! And the recognition that goes with that, that’s why it has to be done right.

Another timely and exceedingly important area of scripture was in Zephaniah. This one here is really staggering, astounding, awesome in what it says because it’s more about this period right now than any other period, in that respect.

It was stated in that sermon that this matter of contrasting fear to that of love, God’s love, is something we should strive to grasp. It’s something you have to pray about. It’s one of those things we’re to pray about and ask God for help to receive and understand more deeply and then to live more fully.

This matter, as it was said, “This matter of fear has already been addressed in this series but not yet in the matter of the contrast to that of God’s love dwelling in us.” So, that’s just to bring back some of those things to thought.

And so, here’s what we covered at that time: Zephaniah 3:16—In that day… Again, it was referred to, pointed out over and over again as a whole first and foremost, we’re talking about now in this period of time more than ever before. In that day it will be said to Jerusalem… Now, you can’t fully know what Jerusalem it is speaking of here until you read the rest in context, but it’s about the Church.

Do not fear, Zion. So, it makes it very clear the Jerusalem it’s talking about. Zion then even so on a spiritual plane, again, very much so again about the Church. So, this is a part of what we’re going through right now. It is to get rid of that kind of thing in our life and to become more at one with God, if you will.

Do not let your hands be feeble (hang down in weakness). We have nothing in that regard to think in that regard, in those terms. On the contrary, we’re supposed to be lifted up by what we see and by what we see is taking place right now in the world.

The Eternal your God who is in the midst of you is mighty; He will save. So, it’s something that God wants us to grasp now at a time that the world is getting ready to be launched into what it is. It’s a time to rely and trust in God in these things more than ever before. He will save.

He will rejoice over you with joy, He will, as the word is, work in His love. Now, what He is offering us is more than what we’ve had in the past. This is a part of His working in His love that He has toward us, but in His love that He wants us to have within the Church. So, we have the opportunity to have more of that mind and that life and that love in our relationships within the Church.

Those relationships that will not change and those relationships that continue to have conflict, which some continue to have and have a history of some of that, it either gets cleaned up now or be gone. That’s the message. We have to repent. We have to take this seriously and to understand where this is coming from. It’s coming from God, okay! It’s something that He’s teaching us and telling us now that we’re to do more than we’ve ever done as His people. We have that opportunity. Who wouldn’t want that, to have more of the love of God, the spirit of God in their lives?

I want that. I desire that. I believe you do too. But you have to pray for it. You have to ask for it, to have this mind and to look at all relationships, to look at all thinking when thinking comes up toward someone else and what is being said and how it’s being said, and what do we trust in, what do we rely upon?

He will work in His love. He will joy over you with singing. That’s going to be the result of what happens at the moment His Son returns because at that point in time all has been cleansed and all is fully ready. It’s awesome.

So, going back to 1 John. 1 John 4:18, again, There is no fear in agape. These things, maybe we better understand it as the fruit of fear.

See, the fruit of God’s spirit and God’s way of life is peace. That’s what it produces. God’s love produces peace. Fear produces drama. That’s the reality, and if we can understand it in those terms then hopefully that will help. There is no fear in God’s love. Doesn’t exist. So, it shouldn’t exist in God’s Church. So, our love should always be a sacrificing and giving love.

…but perfect love casts out fear. Beautiful what’s said here. It casts it out, it gets rid of it. It gets rid of drama, and it produces what? Peace. Peace toward one another. Peace toward one another, unity in peace toward one another, peace of mind, and peace of mind with God, which means a greater confidence. The more peace you have with God in the sense of peace of mind, that you’re doing what is right, the more confident, the bolder you are in His way of life. It’s a beautiful thing.

…because fear, again, is punishing. One who fears is not made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.

Now verse 20—If anyone says, I love God, in other words, “I love in this manner,” “I’m loving this way,” and hates their brother… We understand what that word means, love less by comparison with what John is saying.

So, if we’re living a life that isn’t exercising God’s love than this is the answer. It’s less than what John is telling us and commanding us in how we’re to love, how we’re to think toward one another, and if that exists, they are a liar. That’s what God says. I don’t think anyone wants to be a liar.

…for whoever does not love their brother whom they have seen… I think of husbands and wives in times past who have not gotten along, who were both in God’s Church. What does that say? I think of that one there. That is if both are striving to live, saying they’re striving to live God’s way of life. Then if they’re not living in harmony and unity and there is conflict something needs to change.

Either one is not in, or both are not in, or whatever, but something has to change. Or if both are indeed in then repentance needs to be there and a healing and a unifying and a genuine love needs to begin to exist and be exercised toward one another, caring for the other above one’s own desires.

So that’s where this comes to light even more so, Whoever does not love their brother, whom they have seen, how can they love God whom they haven’t seen? It’s the same way within the congregations. If we don’t love one another in the manner that God says, that we have seen are able to have fellowship with, that we’re around, and if we can’t exercise God’s love amongst ourselves, how on earth can we think that we love God and have a relationship with Him?! Because he’s telling through John very squarely on that doesn’t happen. That doesn’t exist because it’s a matter of sin that has to be gotten rid of. Awesome!

So, sound reasoning, clear reasoning, and calling a spade a spade, that’s what I love about what God is giving us now in a stronger way through John than He ever has. Powerful words that are given here.

I think it’s worth reading again. Beautiful scripture! If anyone says I love (in this manner) God, and loves less their brother, than the manner that John is showing here, they are a liar. For whoever does not love their brother, in other words, in this manner, whom they have seen, how can they love God in this manner whom they have not seen? Clear answers. Sound. Powerful.

Even this commandment we have from Him: that whoever loves (in this manner) God, loves, or really must love their brother also. Powerful.

We’ll stop there, continue on from there next Sabbath.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-crimea-drone-29218ed006a79c4b0629688ce4820cc8

[2] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-de-dollarization-kicks-high-gear

[3] https://www.debka.com/us-arms-warplanes-in-mid-east-with-bunker-buster-bombs-vs-iran-syia/

[4] https://eurasiantimes.com/installing-atomic-sensors-across-ukraine-to-detect-use/

[5] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/jpmorgan-chase-takes-over-first-republic-after-biggest-us-bank-failure-since-2008/ar-AA1aA6w5

[6] https://www.ruetir.com/2023/05/retired-admiral-urges-turkiye-to-leave-nato-heres-the-reason/

[7] https://www.rt.com/business/575564-indian-banker-dollar-financial-terrorist/

[8] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/second-largest-us-bank-failure-history-first-republic-bank-seized-fdic-sold-jpmorgan

[9] https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3982225-yellen-says-drop-dead-date-for-debt-ceiling-is-june-1/#:~:text=Yellen%20told%20lawmakers%20she%20expects%20the%20U.S.%20to,the%20White%20House%20to%20come%20to%20an%20agreement.

[10] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/five-arab-states-plus-iran-among-19-nations-ready-join-brics

[11] https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/markets/pacwest-western-alliance-shares-tumble-as-us-regional-bank-fears-persist/ar-AA1aEneq

1. Chapter 1