Exercising God’s Love, Pt. 8

Ronald Weinland

June 10, 2023

As I began organizing this particular sermon today I thought this would be the final one in this particular series of a rather long series. I’m not real keen on long series but there is a purpose for it sometimes, obviously, to do what needs to be done. But this one here is entitled Exercising God’s Love and this is Part 8 today. There will be a Part 9 next Sabbath.

In Part 7 we were primarily covering the book of Jude, and again, he was the brother of James, the half-brother of Joshua. To me, just that alone is an incredible thing to think about, how he had two half-brothers who were apostles. And to me, that’s an incredible thing to think about, the experience there, that they had to have that relationship that’s very unique to them.

But he wrote in very strong language to the Church concerning those who have been called and later have turned against Joshua. So again, something I’m sure that was very moving to him as he wrote it, but he was being inspired by God’s spirit, being inspired by his own half-brother, if you will, who is at that time, obviously was at that time, High Priest. And again, what an incredible thing.

Anyway, it’s good to go back and review some of what he wrote that addresses such people who have been called and begotten of God’s spirit. Because I think we’re only now coming to a point where we’re beginning to see and grasp more fully, understand more fully, more deeply what an incredible thing that’s taken place. That individuals can be called of God, begotten of God’s holy spirit in the mind, the impregnation of God’s own spirit, and then make choices to work against the very purpose that Christ was put to death. That’s so God the Father and Joshua the Christ can live in us.

The purpose as a Passover is being able to be forgiven of sin, and then moving on from that is to understand there was a purpose in that so that God the Father and Joshua the Christ could dwell in us through the power of the holy spirit to help us in our spiritual growth, to one day be able to be born into God’s Family, into Elohim. What an incredible blessing, the very purpose that God gave human beings life – to have opportunity in time, in God’s time to have a calling, to have the opportunity to be begotten, and then to be a part of His Family.

The only reason we exist. The only reason mankind exists. To make that possible. And yet to consider that all who have come into God’s Church since it began in 31 A.D., and all who have turned against God being the majority of those who have been called. That’s mind-boggling. It really is. To understand it, to comprehend such a thing can happen, and then to think about an Apostasy that took place.

That’s why these things are recorded. That’s why these things are written. That’s why we’re going through these things now at a particular time just before Joshua returns. Even more so God is revealing more and more and giving us greater understanding of these things and how horrible such a thing is and why they’re so much worse than so many things that are written in the Old Testament.

We can read stories in the Old Testament and think, “How dumb! How foolish! How could they have done what they did?” And yet they didn’t have God’s spirit as a whole. Most of the people didn’t have God’s spirit. And yet what we have done, or what people have done I should say, within the Church is far, far, far, far worse than them. That’s why the examples are there and that’s why we’re directed back there.

Just as Jude did, he gave examples back in the Old Testament we’re going to continue to look at here so that we can be appalled at what happened there and to understand what’s happening or what has happened within the Church is far, far worse. All this is leading to some sermons at the Feast. Awesome! Because God wants to give us more and more to better prepare us for what’s coming, to better prepare us for jobs, candidly, that are ahead of us as well. Awesome.

So again, in reviewing some of that we’re going to go back here and look at Jude verse 3 and catch up to some of the things we’ve covered. Now, in going through this I’m going to share something with you that you may not see right now but I see it because I have lived it in working with these sermons, that from one Sabbath to another God has revealed things that require going back and adding to what He’s already given to us, meaning that there are things that we don’t fully know, we don’t fully understand until we have been able to build a certain amount. Then God can give us more to build more.

You can’t just up in the building process as far as God’s way of life and the mind that God is giving us. It’s a building process. And so, you’re blessed to be able to experience some of that as well, as we go through this. That’s why we’re going to go back and review some of these things, and to understand there is so much here.

That’s why I marvel, I can’t help but think of what Herbert Armstrong went through when he would talk about the two trees. There were people who just shut off because “Here he goes on those two trees again,” and comments were made like, “Why? He’s saying the same things over and over.” He always added more to it because it’s a building process. Those who heard spiritually grew and those who didn’t didn’t grow. Incredible what took place and still is taking place.

So again, to think of what’s happened, that so many have turned away from God, from Joshua, from the ministry of God’s Church, away from the fellowship of God’s begotten children. Because that’s what happens. People don’t think they’re turning away from God, they don’t think they’re turning away from Joshua. They may have problems with some of the people in God’s Church in their thinking, but they don’t understand that by the very things they have demonstrated toward the ministry or towards others in God’s Church, they’re doing it against God. Incredible!

Jude :3—Beloved… Again, this better translation in that respect of what it’s actually saying, I have been given all urgency to write unto you of the common salvation. So, he was given this. He understood that. He had a sense of urgency about it, to give to them what he was going to tell them now, what he was going to write, because it’s a matter of God’s spirit directing him, “This is what you’re to do,” and he did it.

It is necessary for me to write to you and exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Now, you have to understand this. We’re talking about a period of time here in the first Church era of Ephesus, that he was living in a particular time, or writing at a particular time the Church was maybe, oh, what, fifty years old at this point in time? There were some who were in the Church who obviously were in their seventies and eighties and the newer ones being called along as well. But those who had been called in the beginning here after the Church began, in the first five, ten years, they were getting older now.

Just like what happens through time. Those who were in Worldwide back in the seventies are pretty old right now, as a whole. And if they were called – I know one baptized back in I think it was ’56 there, in Cincinnati, incredible. But older. We’re all getting older. That’s the way it was with him.

He saw these things taking place and he’s saying, “Contend for the faith that was given to you at the beginning! Don’t let that go by the wayside. Don’t let time mess up your mind and your thinking and your zeal and your enthusiasm and your thankfulness to God Almighty for what He’s given to you.” Because they were already seeing this. They had already seen. Paul had to put out different ministers in God’s Church! Incredible! He names them by name.

And so, these things were happening clear back then. John had to write about antichrists because there were people already turning against Christ. They already understood there was going to come an antichrist in time, one who would be against Christ, the antichrist who would become, be known as the “son of perdition, the man of sin.” We’ve lived through that now. Nobody knew it was going to be nearly nineteen hundred years later when these were given, when those things were written.

So he says, “It is necessary for me to write to you these things, to earnestly contend,” because that’s what we have to do. You have to fight for this way of life. It doesn’t just happen. You can’t just go through the motions and Sabbath to Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day without fighting every week to bring your own carnal human nature into subjection to God’s way of life. That involves prayer. That involves thinking. That involves behavior in order to live what is true. It's a choice. It’s a choice of “Do I really want this that much?” and willing to fight for it or not.

For there are certain ones… We’re going back to this because this “certain ones” just keeps coming up over and over again in what Jude has to say, these certain ones who have turned against Christ, certain ones who have spit upon him as he was spit upon, literally. What people did to him, people have done spiritually in God’s Church.

You know, think about the things Joshua went through. Spit upon, mocked, ridiculed, beaten, skin ripped off his body, his face because he was beaten with cat-o-nine tails if you know the whips and the things, the spikes on the end of the leather that they used to slash him, to beat him. So much so that they said he was unrecognizable. You couldn’t tell who he was.

And to understand that he went through all that so that we could have the ability to be forgiven of our sick, sick selfishness which produces sin. That’s what happens in human beings. That’s why God created us physical like this, so we could experience what it’s like to be selfish, so that one day we can make a choice when He begins to show us that way doesn’t work, it doesn’t produce anything that’s right and good. It only produces drama and evil, sickness and perversion.

So, that’s the world we live in. Those things God’s revealing more and more at this end-time, just how sick everything is. That we can’t govern ourselves. We can’t rule ourselves successfully as a people in any nation. I don’t care where you look. Nothing but fiasco after fiasco, tragedy after tragedy, lying, cheating, conniving, just evil. Sick, sick, sick, sick humanity because we won’t accept God as being Yahweh Elohim, the Eternal Almighty Living God.

There are certain ones who have come in alongside us. Part of a fellowship or at least amongst the fellowship. That might not be proper English but that’s the way I’m going to be phrasing it throughout this sermon. Within the fellowship but not always in the fellowship spiritually with God, with Christ, with the Church.

…certain ones who have come in alongside who were before of old ordained of this condemnation. Why? Because God knew what mankind would do constantly over and over again, turn against Him. That’s the story of humanity. The times that God has even worked with and called people – always turning against Him. Judah continued to turn against Him. Israel, the nation of Israel by itself when they separated from Judah, same thing. They were horrible, the nations of Israel. Judah from time to time they could be revived, and they held on to the Sabbath, they held on to the Holy Days, and God continued to work with them.

Israel was glad to get rid of all that. They wanted to be like the other nations around them. They wanted to mix their beliefs and so forth with other ideas of worshiping other gods.

So it says here, ungodly ones. That’s right. Come in amongst the Church, being around the fellowship. Not in it but around it. Perhaps in the beginning, obviously then when baptized, they were. Some were and some weren’t. Some never fully surrendered. Some have fully surrendered and then, later on, chose to turn against God, to turn against Christ, turn against the Church.

I’ll tell you what, this has been our history! It’s been sick! It’s horrible to go through! It hurts! That’s all I’ve known since I’ve been in the Church since 1969, church area after church area rebelling against Herbert Armstrong, the Church, against Christ. That’s all we’ve had.

Because this way of life isn’t easy. The world around thinks we’re nuts. “You keep what? What’s this ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread’ that you keep talking about?” “What’s this ‘Passover’?” ‘Pentecost?’ ‘Trumpets?’ ‘Atonement? Feast of Tabernacles?’ ‘Last Great Day?’ yeah.” And they look down upon you because you want to keep a seventh-day Sabbath, you won’t go to work on Friday night no matter what the boss says. He needs you that night, you say, “No, I told you I’m not going to do it.” Lots of people have lost their jobs because of standing up for the Sabbath, standing up for the Holy Days, standing up for the Feast of Tabernacles. They have lost their jobs. It’s a part of the process.

Does that mean God’s not there, that God doesn’t love us because we lose our jobs, because we go through hard things? Not at all! We go through those things because we have to learn what it’s like to fight for this way of life, to understand its value, that we’re willing to go through those things because we love it more, we love God more.

I’ll never get through this sermon. We may have twelve parts at this rate.

“Ungodly ones.” Because they’re not looking to God. God’s not in the picture. Again, that’s all I’ve ever known. Ever since I’ve been in the ministry it’s all I’ve ever known, working with people who won’t listen. Working with people who have made up their minds they’re not going to listen. You can just see it in the faces sometimes, let alone a comment that’s made. Defiance. Rebellion. Well, that’s a choice.

Giving up? You can have what you want in this life. You can have what you want in physical life until you die, but you can’t have eternal life if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, if you don’t love it, if you don’t desire it, to be in God’s Family. Choices. Why? Because people love sin. They love, mankind loves sin. That’s the way the humans are. We love selfishness because we are selfish. We want to do our thing. We want to do things our way. We don’t like people, let alone God, telling us what to do and how to do it. That’s just our nature.

Who amongst us loves someone to tell us how to do something? “You’re doing this wrong.” Now, if it’s somebody else in the world around it’s like, “Who do you think you are?” Someone in the Church? Probably the same response, “Who do you think you are?” Sometimes it’s towards the ministry, “Who do you think you are?”

I know who I am. We have to know who we are.

Ungodly ones turning the grace of our God. What is that saying? God has given us grace, mercy, and the opportunity to be forgiven of sin. He’s giving us of His love. He’s called us to be able to love us. He’s not giving that love to the world yet. He’s letting them live their own thing. Hands off, basically, for six thousand years so that mankind can have that testimony of six thousand years to show that “You’ve always failed.”

“You build the League of Nations. How good was that? United Nations? Nothing but a joke!” I even heard people on the TV here the other day talking about that. “Look what we’ve done. We’ve had the League of Nations, the United Nations; it doesn’t work!” Well, that’s good to know that now. It’s good you’re finally admitting some of that now, it doesn’t work. And how about your own government? How is that working out? All these nations that belong to the United Nations, how is your own government working out? Doesn’t work. Sick, sick world. So glad it’s almost to the end.

…turning the grace of our God for the purpose of participating in lewd behavior. Just disobedience, to do whatever… Lewd behavior is to do whatever you want to do that opposes what God says we should do.

Like in marriage. God says you’re to be together one man and one woman. What He revealed through the New Testament Church through time here, one man and one woman. Faithful until you die. People don’t like that. The world doesn’t like that. They want to do whatever they want to do. They want someone else; they have someone else.

I hope you see how sick that is. Well, you know what? A lot of people in God’s Church have done the exact same thing. The exact same thing! Sad …and sick.

…denying the only LORD God and our Lord Joshua the Christ. So, we’re going through these things because we have to come to see, where we’re so convicted selfishness, human life that’s geared toward selfishness is evil and it’s sick. It’s sick! It’s not the mind of God. It’s not the way of genuine love that God wants us to have and experience in life. It’s just the way of selfishness. And selfishness isn’t rewarding. Might be for a little while.

Two people go off and do their own thing together, cheat on others in order to do that, they might enjoy what they’re doing, but it’s a wrong kind of enjoyment. It’s not real enjoyment. It doesn’t give lasting satisfaction. After a while, you know what? That falls apart too and they’re at each other’s throats. And do people ever learn? No, they go through it again and again and again. They expect the other party to be faithful to them. Why would they be faithful to you, a stinking cheater and a liar? You’re going to just keep doing the same things! But people go right back into those kinds of relationships.

I hope you understand what I’m saying. We have to hate and loathe the sickness of such things. Why? So we can agree with God. Thank God, thankfully there is a different way. Thankfully, there’s a true way that does produce happiness, lasting happiness, real joy, and peace in life. Because without that, without real love, without real peace what is life? Suffering. Human life is not easy.

Verse 6—Even the angels who did not keep their original domain, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting constraints under darkness unto judgment of the great day. Wow! It’s when they meet their end. It just revealed it. It’s all right there, “the great day.” The final. At the very end, they’re going to find out for sure that everything that God has said is true. Well, they’re not going to know it when it hits them but as they see it coming, Satan himself to be destroyed.

There was a time in God’s Church before PKG that it was believed that because he is a spirit being he has to live forever. Bull! We came to understand that what God creates God can destroy. Thank God that being can be destroyed in time. There is no purpose for him to continue on when God’s Kingdom is established. He has no purpose. He does now. God has a purpose for him being on this earth now. He won’t be allowed in the Millennium but he’s going to be allowed back in at the end of the Great White Throne.

I’m in awe of God’s plan, how He brings about what He’s going to bring about. Because there is really no other way except the exact way He’s doing it. It’s beautiful. Sad that people can’t see that. Sad that beings don’t choose that. Sad that a third of the angels didn’t choose that. But you know, it’s on them and their choices. And if they don’t want God, if they don’t want His way of life then that’s a choice. The same way with every human being. Eternal life is not owed to anyone. It’s not owed to us!

He has reserved into everlasting constraints under darkness unto the judgment of the day.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after other flesh. It was just sex, sex, sex, carnality, perversion, perversion like we have today. We have such sick perversion today in the world. It’s just sick! People on TV this morning on one station talking about pornography and young kids…and child pornography and how rampant it is on the internet and how that even children are able to get into these sites and do things.

And you think, it’s starting at such young ages, having their minds so perverted they don’t even know who they are or what they are? We’ve gone past the days of Noah. We’ve gone past the days of Sodom and Gomorrah because of technology. This world is sick.

And what’s sad is it’s destroying the minds of human beings. That’s the greatest evil of all. Because it comes to a point where the mind can become so sick and perverted it becomes set in evil and will not ever choose God if they’re given that chance. Won’t choose to be a part of God’s Church because their minds are so perverted they’re set on doing what they want to do. That is evil.

…and are set forth as an example, suffering – it’s not “vengeance,” the word is justice of eternal fire. That means it all comes to an end someday. There’s going to be more in the Feast.

Jude :8—Likewise also these… So, I love the way Jude has written this, and something that God is showing us even more so. He’s helping us to focus in on certain words. “These.” Who is that? “The certain ones.” “The ungodly ones.” “The ones who deny.” That’s the context. These, these people who have come in amongst us. Because that’s the way God’s Church has been from the beginning. People are given opportunity, the impregnation of God’s spirit, and turn against God. These! Those individuals who spit upon Christ and his sacrifice.

Verse 10—But these speak against things or those things which they do not know. It’s a word that means “that they cannot see.” Why can’t they see it if they’re in the Church or in the environment of God’s Church, why can’t they see it? Well, they could at the beginning if they were truly baptized for the right reasons and striving to do what was right.

“These speak against.” They say things that are against God’s way of life, against – the context here – against God’s ministry because they don’t understand this is how God works and this is how God feeds the Church. So, they generally do that because they can justify that because they can’t see God and they can’t see Christ, but they can sure attack Herbert Armstrong or God’s Church, God’s apostles, God’s ministers, or whatever and justify it in their own minds.

Every year this happens where people will boldly make comment, say things that they can do this on their own or they can plan it out on their own how they’re going to accomplish being a part of God’s Church. You think, what happened to you? Well, you can’t see it anymore? Why? Because a long time ago you began to turn against God.

So, they can’t see. There comes a point in time where an individual can no longer understand or see things spiritually. That’s a horrible thing, a scary thing, frankly.

They speak against those things that they don’t see, cannot see, but what they know naturally. In other words, the word meaning “having to do with natural instinct.” In other words, natural carnal nature. And what’s that? “Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” That’s what God says it is.

…as unreasonable creatures. Unreasonable. You can’t reason with them anymore. I don’t try but I do try at times to help them to see or admit certain things or to have something come out of their mouth where they have to reveal their true thinking, to show where their thinking really is. Now, they can’t admit it and they can’t acknowledge it, but at least it comes out. Sad.

…by these things, they corrupt—the word means “destroy”—themselves. That’s what Satan did. The moment he made that wrong decision God explains what happened to him.

So, they begin to actually work to destroy their own minds. We’ve got a lot to learn about what it means to turn against God, to turn against Christ. God’s showing us more and more it’s not pretty; it’s far more serious than we’ve ever understood, truly.

Jude :11—Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain. What did he do? Didn’t care about his brother. Not genuinely loving him in any fashion or form. On the contrary, he was a murderer, hated his brother. He had a murderous spirit.

What a horrible thing to say one has become like Cain. Well, candidly, people who have done these things over and over again and been disfellowshipped are worse than Cain because they have an ability and a strength that was given to them, God’s holy spirit, the impregnation of God’s spirit to have a different mind and they chose murder instead. That’s what God calls it; He calls it murder.

That’s why I love the way things are said in John, the book of John, “If we don’t love in this manner we’re a liar and a murderer.” He just spells it out, and this is very candid here, too, what Jude is saying.

So, awesome here that in one respect that these things are written toward the end of the Ephesian era. Kind of giving a picture of what has taken place over just one short period of time, one small era. It was a short era, and to show that this is the way it’s going to be for the next two thousand years and on, people even in God’s Church, and what they’re going to do.

…and they have run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying—in other words, implies it’s “disputing against the truth”—of Korah.

So, the way of Cain? Well, again here quickly, 1 John 3:14—We know that we have passed from death unto life... We have that ability to know what God has given to us by the impregnation of His holy spirit, because, and so here is the proof and the evidence of it, we love, in other words, “in this manner,” the brethren. In the manner that he’s writing about in the book of John here.

Whoever does not love, in other words, again, “in this manner that he’s telling about,” their brother abides in death. Because it’s sin not to love in the way that we’re told to love. If we’re not doing that way we have to stop kidding ourselves. Because some in God’s Church, thankfully, only a few now, still are kidding themselves and they’re abiding in death. That’s what it is! If there is not repentance, it’s sin and sin leads to a judgment, and it’s death. Is it real? Better believe it.

Whoever, not the word “hates.” Again, as we went through, loves less, in other words, “by the manner of comparison,” of what John says, to love less in that is a murderer. Pretty strong language. That’s why within the Church, books, things written like in the book of Ezekiel over and over again, and different ones, where we came to understand this was about the Church, what happened to the Church after the Apostasy. Especially go through Ezekiel 5 and some of those things, a third and a third and a third and what happened to them, and then a small little bit that was pulled out of the fire that was a remnant that was going to be given opportunity. A small amount. Incredible what we have lived through.

Then the condemnation over and over again to the ministry of God’s Church for what they did, and God calling them, in essence, murderers. “You’ve taken the blood of others. You’ve killed them, God’s own people, by what you have taught.” I’ll tell you what, the judgment… You think that all those ministers have it made in the future, in the Great White Throne, that they’re going to repent when they’re shown what they did? Well, I’m not going to go there. Anyway, we’ll come back to it.

…and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in them. So, unless we’re at one with God, unless we’re growing in God’s spirit, unless we’re in unity with God and agree with God and love God and love Christ and love His Church, we’re not growing spiritually, and God is not in us. But we can have the knowledge of knowing that if we have that life in us we have eternal life in us, God’s life. Awesome.

Hereby we perceive agape, God’s love, because he laid down his life for us. That’s what Christ did. Even we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. What are we? We’re to do the same thing on a spiritual plane. Not to give our life, in that respect, in the same manner, because that’s not why we’re called. We’re not called to be a Passover. There was one Passover. But we are called spiritually to do things the way God says to do it. And it’s not easy. It means we have to do it God’s way. Sacrifice.

So, we’re repeating some of these things because God wants us to see it more clearly than ever before and because of where He’s leading us, and because of what He’s giving to us.

So, what about Balaam? It says, “As those who have run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward.” So, the story of Balaam is rather long and somewhat a difficult story in essence, but it boils down to this… Because we’re going to look at this one too. Because we looked at Korah. Looked at these things, Cain, and come to understand that if we turn against God we’re doing a lot worse than what they did. They didn’t have His holy spirit. We do.

To turn against God when having the begettal of His holy spirit is far, far worse . . . even than the angelic realm, candidly. They were given the truth in the sense of what God told them, but they didn’t have God dwelling in them. We have a portion of God Almighty dwelling in us, in our minds, and giving us the ability to think in a different way, to go beyond that of carnal selfishness in thinking, and to begin to make changes in how we think and how we respond to people, how we treat people how we talk to people, how we think about people.

So basically here, king Balak of the Moabites wanted Balaam to curse the Israelites. But he wouldn’t outwardly do so against God, but for reward he did tell how the Israelites could become corrupted. So, he didn’t outwardly do this process of what we’d call a cursing or a curse against someone but amounted to that when it was all said and done.

Let’s notice Revelation 2 and then we’re going to go into the story of Balaam. It’s a passage, what was written to the Church of Pergamos.

Revelation 2:14—But I have a few things against you because you have those who hold the teaching of Balaam. What does that mean? That happened a long, long time ago so how could they be “holding the teaching of Balaam?” Well, you’ve got to understand what took place and to understand this is something on a spiritual plane that it’s talking about.

…who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, even to commit fornication. So, what do they do, these people? Well, he’s saying here, God is saying, Christ was saying as he gave this to John to write about Pergamos, that era that would come later. Because John wrote this before Pergamos came about and said this was going to be about them and that which would identify this era more than any other, and it was about spiritual fornication, spiritual adultery.

You see, that’s a lot worse than what happened to the Israelites. It’s a lot worse. That’s what we’re to see and understand, that what happened here to Pergamos, because they had the begettal of God’s spirit, is far more heinous because they did the same thing on a spiritual plane. In essence, they held to the teachings of Balaam. Justified why it was okay to do this.

It doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened in other eras because it’s happened in Philadelphia, it’s happened in Laodicea, and it’s happened in PKG.

So again, the story of some of the environment of the Church who mix, co-mingle themselves with—because this is what it’s about, it’s spiritual—with other ideas. In other words, not adhering to what they’d been taught and given they begin to adopt their own thinking or ideas of others that are distorted and not true.

That’s why I’ve said so many things over the years about conspiracy theories. Because you can latch on to some of that swill and it takes people away. People can latch on to the dumbest of things!

We saw a huge white plume the other day going across the sky. My wife and I were outside. I was walking, she’s jogging, coming up behind me, and said, “We’ve got to hurry and get in because there’s a big one up there.” Because there are people in God’s Church who have left over these stupid plumes in the sky, that somehow it’s the government poisoning the people. Got to tell Delta and American Airlines and some of these what’s going on in their fuel I guess, I don’t know. What do they do? What’s going on? Whacko! Absolute whacko. Anybody who believes any crap like that doesn’t belong in God’s Church because it’s wrong. It’s not balanced. It's not sound. It’s just dumb.

But to think someone could go against the teachings of God’s Church because they won’t listen? Already made up your mind you’re not going to listen to what God said in that area, what about all the other areas of your life? Same thing. That’s what becomes more important.

It’s not just one thing like that. It means that long before this somewhere the individual was already doing things through their own thinking in their own mind that they believed the Church was wrong – or better said, the minister is wrong, doesn’t know what he’s saying. Anyway, shows a lack of understanding of how God has worked with us from the beginning of our calling. We didn’t learn the truth on our own.

That’s why I get so steamed up and so aggravated and so, well, steamed up when I start talking about Herbert Armstrong and all these ministers who later on in Laodicea and at the end of Laodicea started talking about him. Well, they wanted to get rid of a lot of things he taught and said but “I learned a lot from him.” And I think, “You…” I don’t have the words to say it to the abundance I’d like to.

How can anyone be so blind? A minister who went to Ambassador College and to not understand the most basic that you didn’t know anything except when you were called, of what was revealed through Herbert Armstrong? You didn’t know anything! You didn’t know about the Holy Days and their meaning, of the Sabbath and the seven-thousand-year plan of God, and on and on it goes. You didn’t understand Passover to the Last Great Day. You think you found this out on your own because you went to Ambassador? Where do you think that came from? It came from God’s apostle. God revealed it to the Church.

And yet ministers, let alone Church areas, lost that understanding. And you think, that’s so basic! Think it can’t happen? Still happening in God’s Church. Every year, every year at the Feast of Tabernacles, and I make comment about it every year that some won’t be with us next year at this time for the same reason, spiritual fornication, and spiritual adultery that was a whole lot worse than what happened because some listened to the ways of Balaam and did it on a physical plane.

Numbers 22:1—Then the children of Israel moved and camped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho. So, here they’re moving in that direction. There is a time here they’re going to be going into the promised land or taking even some of that region farther north because some of Israel was on the other side as well to the east side of the Jordan as God divided up the area as to the twelve tribes or divided up everything for them.

Now Balak the son of Zippor saw what Israel had done to the Amorites. And so, they already understood here these people came out of Egypt, look what they did to them.

And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many (hundreds of thousands of people) and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel. Because they’re moving in their direction it’s like, “What are we going to do?” So, here we go… So Moab said to the elders of Midian…

Now, this is where Moses fled to. Moses fled to Midian, and married a Midianite woman, the daughter of Jethro, if you know the story. So, this is that region there where they came across and God gave them The Ten Commandments in that region of the world if you will. And so, these peoples they were talking to, and they had spread out themselves as a country by this time, as a nation.

Now this company will lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field. Now, Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time. Then he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River Euphrates. So, this is farther up in a region. He had a reputation.

So, if you look on a map of the River Euphrates, farther to the north, in the land of the sons of his people, to call him, saying, Look, a people has come up out from Egypt. See, they cover the face of the earth, and are settling out next toward me! Therefore, please come at once, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me. So, he already understood they were coming this way and they’re more powerful.

Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. Now, to understand all this, of what happened at that time, it doesn’t go into it. But there were evidently some of things he did and things he said that he had a reputation. One day we’ll understand the fullness of the story but the results of it are what we have to see.

Verse 7—So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the diviner’s fee in their hand, and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak. Now again, it wasn’t something that he would do. He wasn’t going to do it directly in the sense of what he was being paid to do but in time he did do something else.

So, let’s take a moment here and look over here at (we’ll come back to the story flow), but in Exodus 34. Something that God told them very early on. So again here, Exodus, they’ve come out of Egypt, God has been giving them instruction all along here, The Ten Commandments, if you will, in Exodus 20, and then down here this instruction.

Exodus 34:12—Take heed to yourself of being cut off by making a covenant. That’s what it’s saying here. …of making a covenant/a treaty/a league with the inhabitants of the land where you go. In other words, they were to look to God. They were to follow the lead, the guide, the directive of Moses and continue in that and not try to go elsewhere to get along with other nations. On the contrary, God was going to have them conquered if they got in the way, if they didn’t allow Israel to do the things they needed to do, and that’s exactly what took place.

…or I will become a snare, or in other words, a trap in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, breaking their images, and cutting down their groves. “So wherever you go, this is what you do to them. You don’t try to have peace with them, make treaties and leagues with them of any kind. You just destroy the things that are wrong in your path.”

Why? Because God’s showing them a different way, and the carnal mind, well, we’ll see the story. It’s easy to begin giving in to other things around you just as what happens in the environment of God’s Church so often. People get pulled off by something else out here that isn’t right, that isn’t sound, that isn’t just, that doesn’t come from God, and they begin to latch on to it.

People believe whatever they want to believe. We can either choose to want to believe God and what God gives us because we should have proven those things to ourselves from the beginning that God is true, and God is right, and God has given us the kind of understanding we have that no one else does. And that in itself is proof of God’s calling.

…for you shall worship no other God. For this reason. You know, there were mistakes made in the past because God hadn’t revealed it yet that people made comments within the ministry, within the Church that interracial marriage, as an example, was wrong. Well, it doesn’t say that anywhere in the Bible, but they misunderstood various things about what God was doing. It wasn’t about that. God’s concern was about what they believed, about mixing and letting down and adopting other ideas and other beliefs. That’s where He said the danger was.

And so, He says, but you shall destroy their altars, break down their images (for you shall worship no other God, for the Eternal, whose name is zealous, is a zealous God) – zealous for His plan, zealous for His purpose, and if people continue to follow Him, Moses and the children of Israel, He’s going to fight for them over other nations and so forth and to help them learn (as much as possible without His holy spirit), truth that they need, laws that they need to have a better civilization.

So it says here, again, is a zealous God, and it basically goes on to say, to be cut off from making a covenant, in other words, it doesn’t say, “lest you make,” it’s going on in the sentence here saying, to be cut off by making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. In other words, don’t be cut off. We’re told in God’s Church don’t be cut off from God, don’t do things that will cause you to become disfellowshipped and not a part of God’s Church, cut off from the flow of God’s spirit in your life. But ours is on a spiritual plane. Theirs is on a physical one.

…and they go a whoring after their gods and do sacrifice unto their gods and call upon you to eat of their sacrifice. So, be careful because they’re going to invite you in, they’re going to welcome you to worship their gods and then be involved in their feasts.

…by taking of their daughters unto your sons. This is how it happens, and He says, “Be careful because this is where it can start.” So, if you do this and you begin to let down and go after other people, in this case here, for the protection of Israel don’t do it.

You know, it was fine for different ones of other nations to come along and become part of and share in the wealth and the blessings of Israel, but they weren’t allowed to go out that direction apart from God.

So it says here, by taking of their daughters unto your sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods and make your sons go a whoring after their gods. That’s where it’ll lead because this is what happens with people when they begin to not follow what God says in a society like this or a world like this at that time. All physical, all carnal.

So, going back to Numbers here. This is exactly what Balaam began to do in the sense of telling them that if you’ll do various things – “Bring your daughters up to them, invite them, draw near to them.”

Numbers 25:1—Now, as Israel was dwelling in Acacia Grove, King James says “Shittim,” the people began to commit fornication with the daughters of Moab. Here we go and because this is what he told them they could do to weaken them as a nation of people. Then they called the people to the sacrifice of their gods. Exactly what God said would happen if you do this. If you start mixing with other nations around you this is what’s going to take place.

…and the people ate of them and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined itself unto Baal of Peor, a mountain in Moab, and the anger of the Eternal was kindled against Israel. In other words, what they did reflected both physical and spiritual adultery for Israel if you will.

Verse 4—So the Eternal said to Moses, Take all the heads of the people and hang them before the Eternal, out in the sun, in the light of the sun, in light of all, in other words, what it means, in front of everyone. Sounds pretty harsh, pretty bold, pretty strong language here, pretty tough. It was. But it was a very carnal people, and this is how God said to deal with it.

…that the fierce anger of the Eternal may be turned away from Israel. Then Moses said to the judges of Israel, Slay every one of the men who were joined unto Baal of Peor.

Then indeed, one of the children of Israel brought within the midst of his countrymen… So, these things were happening and slowly but surely it was a movement in a certain direction like, here are all these women that are being brought up. Because they did it. That’s what they wanted; they wanted them to mix with them. And so, they were making them available to younger Israelites if you will, and they went that direction. That’s what they did. Here all this is taking place, and Moses knows what’s going to take place, that God’s going to deal with it in a very powerful way if they don’t stop this somehow.

Here it goes on to say, that one of the children of Israel brought within the midst of the countrymen a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses. He was so brash and so bold. They’d already been told not to do this, and here they got to a point where they didn’t care.

And you think this is atrocious and this is bad? People who have come into the midst of God’s Church will bring some of the worse kinds of garbage and filth (and I don’t even want to mention some of it) amongst God’s people to hurt, to corrupt if they can others. Sick, sick. God exposes those things in time and gets rid of it in time, in His time.

And you think, how could someone come in the midst, have the gall? How could anyone come in the midst of God’s people and have the gall to begin teaching something that’s different? How can someone come into God’s Church and have the gall to talk about a 14/15th Passover to others in the Church, trying to get them to agree? How could someone…? Well, here is a physical example of something that, yeah, people have the gall to do something like that.

And so it has been within the environment of the Church. Which is worse? The environment of the Church. Because to have the begettal of Eternal life living and dwelling within you is far greater than something physical that God can resurrect later on and work with and give them the opportunity to have that which is spiritual.

They didn’t have that. The Israelites weren’t given that. The Church has. That’s why it’s so evil and so atrocious what the majority of people who have been called have done.

So, this one man brought this woman in amongst the people there, right past Moses from what it’s saying here. …in the sight of all the assembly of the children of Israel. Just walked in with her amongst them. They were told that they shouldn’t do this. For what purpose? Sexual encounter in his own tent.

…and the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. There were already things going on because they knew that which was coming because of what was taking place and yet this individual had the gall to do it right in the midst of that when things are getting ready to really get bad. Anyway, that’s the context.

Then when Phinehas—we should know the story. We had it a few years ago here, went through this back in 2021—Then when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. Don’t have to be too explicit how he was able to do that, both of them together – phoom! – killed them both right there on the spot. Had the guts, the stamina to stand up for God’s way of life. That was a physical people.

We might think, “Well, that’s really a horrible thing.” And yet we’ve had people over and over and over and over again in God’s Church who won’t stand up for the right things and do what’s right. Not that. That was something physical on a physical plane that, again, things that happened to them and what they were to do was so far different than what we’re to do as having God’s spirit and living a different mind and a different life, if you will. But these things have happened on a spiritual plane over and over and over again in God’s Church. Sick!

That’s why Jude wrote what he did. Because by the time of Jude and his writing he had the sense of urgency this stuff was happening in the Church and he saw that this was far worse than what Korah did, than what Cain did, and this account here of Balaam and so forth.

Numbers 25:7—Then when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the assembly and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust them through, through their belly.

Those being struck down… Then it goes on to say, So those being struck down from among the children of Israel was stopped. See, the thing was that there were already people dying in a plague, and yet this individual had the audacity to bring the very cause of why this was happening, so many dying, thousands, he still did it. I’ve seen things far worse on a spiritual plane happen in God’s Church. Sad.

And those who died of being struck down were twenty-four thousand. You think, can’t we learn, can’t we see what separating ourselves from God’s way of life does? Can’t we see the damage, the horror? And yet people justify it because they want to do something different. Things in their mind, they want to hold on to their money a little bit longer, use it for something else, not for God. Because even though it’s God’s and God says we’re supposed to do something… That’s one of the most atrocious of all. Sick, sick minds. Because they are on a spiritual plane. It’s not ours, it’s God’s.

Verse 10—Now, the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying, Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the children of Israel because he was zealous for My sake. Stood up for God. Stood firm for God’s way. God’s well pleased with that when we do that, when we stand firm because that’s what we’re supposed to do.

When someone comes in with a false teaching, a false doctrine, or whatever, say, “We don’t do that. That’s not what’s taught in God’s Church. That’s not what God’s apostle has been teaching us. That’s actually against it.” And yet because of a greater fear of losing someone’s friendship or whatever is screwed up in our minds, sometimes not to stand up and say something we should say because we don’t want that confrontation; we won’t stand up for God, God’s way to protect someone else, others in the Church who could be hurt by such a thing?

So it says here, zealous for My sake among them so that I did not finish or bring an end if you will, My zeal against the children of Israel.

Therefore, say, Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace. Awesome what he did. He shall have it and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. Everlasting priesthood. Hmmm. There are going to be descendants come from him. Don’t know how God worked with him after this point, but there are going to be descendants after that because God gave blessings through him, to him, if you will. Someone today may be in God’s Church because of Phinehas.

…he shall have it and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel. Awesome!

Now back here, chapter 31 then. Numbers 31:1—Then the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying, Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. So more of the complete story here of what’s taking place here. They did what they shouldn’t have done, obviously, and huge numbers died for the very thing that they were warned against by God very early on.

Afterward, you shall gather toward your people. In other words, an expression about being with one’s ancestors in death. So, He was telling Moses after all this is taken care of then you are going to die, your work is going to be over with.

So Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the Eternal on Midian. A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.

So there were recruited from the divisions of Israel one thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. Not a whole lot in the sense it wasn’t that large, but it was going to be enough. Then Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from each tribe; he sent them to war with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest. Awesome. He sent them out with them in front, if you will. …with the holy articles and the signal trumpets in his hand. So, they warred against the Midianites, and the Eternal commanded Moses and they killed all the males.

Sad thing about it, sometimes people read a physical carnal story like this of a carnal people, a physical people and they think wrong toward God. Not a smart thing. People who have been in God’s Church have done this. Not a smart thing. Everything is God’s. And what God chooses to do and how God does it is always based on love, His love. To understand that, to judge accordingly, some of the greatest understanding a person can ever have. It’s to strive to understand God and why God has done the things He’s done. Not to find fault, not to think your way is better, not to think that something was too harsh.

It shows that we don’t comprehend mankind and human beings and the life that God gave, and that all those who died, who were killed, are going to have an opportunity in a Great White Throne.

Verse 8—They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of those who were killed—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. Balaam the son of Beor… They got him. They killed him. Balaam the son of Beor, they also killed with the sword.

The children of Israel took the women and the Midianite captive, with their little ones, and took as spoil all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods. They also burned all the cities where they dwelt, and all their forts. They took and captured all and the plunder of man and animal.

Then they brought the captives and all the plunder of all that was captured to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho. Then Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, with the captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, who had come from the battle.

Because they just never learn, just never do things the way God says to do it. They think that they can change it in what they consider a small way. “Well, that’s not the thing he said, this is something smaller. It’s not that important.” Everything is important. People have done this over and over again in God’s Church, “Well, that’s not as important.”

So Moses said to them, Have you kept all the women alive? They were told what they were to destroy, and they didn’t do it. Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Eternal in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Eternal. Just read about it. Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman who has known a man intimately.

Some people look at that and think, “Ooh, the babies, the little ones?” You know what kind of life they had as they continued, what they would have had. Other nations who haven’t known anything about God even on a physical plane? It shows we don’t grasp the Great White Throne, a time when God’s government is clear and powerful, those in God’s Family that people can see, that manifest themselves on this earth when there is only one government, only one Church and they don’t have the same ability to have their minds corrupted in the manner that they’re going to have in this carnal physical life in the first six thousand years is always a blessing.

Sometimes that’s hard for people in God’s Church to grasp. It’s always a blessing if you could live in that time period. Truly is. How hard is it to conquer and overcome things of the human mind? How hard and how difficult and the chance that someone is going to come in amongst certain ones that are going to sway them, influence them in a way that they can begin to be corrupted in their carnal minds to such a degree that they’ll never have an ability to choose God’s way of life? That’s hideous. That’s horrible.

Far rather see a baby start out who can learn God’s way of life in one Church, one government on this earth, and have a mind that’s more easily able to receive God and God’s plan and God’s purpose, to see it and understand it and embrace it. Because to overcome and fight against the carnal human mind, the farther it’s gone, that’s why there are going to be so many who can’t do that. Because their minds have gone so far they don’t have the will, the ability, the mind to fight in the manner that’s required to be transformed.

Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman who has known a man intimately. But keep alive for yourselves all the female children who have not known a man intimately. So they can be raised up, they can be brought in amongst the people and grow up with the nations and not have to die in the same manner as others. That’s not even addressing some of the things that God knew some of these nations would do against the children of Israel in time if they were allowed to continue on – which happened.

Jude :11. So, when it says, Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and have run greedily in the error of Balaam for reward, what’s that about? Again, it’s about spiritual adultery, that which is against God. God says we can become at one with Him, which is spiritual, and it’s a relationship. There are things we are to learn from physical life to grasp that which is spiritual, and He said we can have that spiritual relationship with God Almighty. But to bring something else in that interferes in that is spiritual fornication, spiritual adultery, and it’s evil and it’s sick and it destroys. Simple.

…and perished after the gainsaying of Korah. All these things have happened on a spiritual plane in God’s Church. They’re far, far worse.

These are as a rocky ledge. Even more given here in some of this. It’s a word that has to do with, yes, the rocks on a shoreline, but even the reefs, if you will. The point being is that a ship coming along there, and it’s easy for it to crash up against these things and be destroyed. That’s what the warning is. That’s what these things are; they can cause you to become shipwrecked, if you will.

I think of the scripture, I wrote it down here somewhere. Yeah, Timothy 1:19—holding on to faith and a good conscience which some have put away, in other words, thrown away in God’s Church, concerning faith and have made or have become shipwrecked. That’s the very thing that it’s talking about here in Jude. Don’t allow this to happen in your life because such people, those, they, them, the ungodly ones, if you listen to them that’s what’s going to happen.

Jude :12—Again, These are a rocky ledge, like a reef, in your fellowship of love. In other words, we’ve just gone through John and that’s the kind of fellowship we’re to have. This is agape, God’s love. That’s what our fellowship is supposed to be. That’s what it’s to become. We have further to go in that. We have work to do in that where we truly see one another as God’s Family, God’s children. To have anything against or to say something against one of God’s children is to say it against God.

I don’t know when we’re going to fully learn that. We get outraged at someone else in God’s Church, you’re disobeying God, you’re working against God. We’re not to do those things. There’s not to be any conflict with others in God’s Church! That’s what we’re to see in the time period we’re in right now. This is serious stuff! Because we’re at a point where God is doing a final cleansing of His Church and we’re either going to be there or we’re not.

So, He’s giving us opportunity to change the things that need to be changed because He loves us. He wants us to understand that love. He wants us to understand the opportunity. But He wants us to understand also that there is a payment for wrong choices and we’re at the point that payment has to be made. We’re at a point of judgment where things have to be done because Christ is about to return, and the Church has to be at a certain point.

There are certain things that people have allowed, that individuals have allowed in their lives that have to come to a screeching halt. These things can’t continue. God isn’t going to allow it to continue. We can be a part of what continues on or a part of that which has to address it way into the future. Even then it will be addressed, and it won’t be mild.

So again, we’re to come together, this love, that’s why it’s saying it this way, in our fellowship. That’s what it’s saying here. It’s a horrible translation the way it’s translated, but These are a rocky ledge like a reef if we can understand that, where you can become shipwrecked if you don’t stand up for what is right in your fellowship of godly love, God’s love. That’s what our fellowship is supposed to be, and if it isn’t that then we’re at the reefs. I know some are going to hit the reefs before this is over with and be destroyed on a spiritual plane. Every year it's absolute. Absolute. But we have choices.

…when they come together with you, acting like shepherds. Boy, that nails it on the head because every individual who turns against this way of life, turns against what is being taught, they are the teacher. They know what’s best for you. They know what’s best for themselves, which means they don’t agree with God or don’t agree with God’s ministry, don’t agree with God’s apostle, that means the same thing. And so, choices, choices, choices.

“Acting like shepherds.” People come in with a different crazy idea, whether it be scriptural… 14/15th Passover? Destroyed thousands, tens of thousands in God’s Church; just that one doctrine alone. Crazy. They were teachers teaching the wrong thing, not teaching the right things.

…without fear. Without fear! Just like the one that came in there in the camp and Phinehas took the spear, the javelin, and rammed them through the inners. Horrible.

…a cloud without water, carrying about the winds; trees without fruit in the fall, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Total destruction. Total worthlessness.

…raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. What a sad thing when people get to that point they can’t see themselves and the shame that’s involved with that.

…wandering stars to whom is reserved—if they could only understand this. It’s not over with. You’re going to die, but you’re also going to be resurrected and you’re going to have to address it later on, and it’s not going to be easy. …to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Sometimes people go too far, and this is the judgment.

That’s what we have to take seriously, to understand that sometimes we go too far, and we get to a point where we cannot see anymore, and God does not owe us to give us (because He can’t), give us a different mind. If we go too far in our human minds with God’s spirit and go a different direction, where is the ability, where does it come from then to be able to repent even when resurrected? What’s going to happen to them?

Tell you right now, there are a lot of people who have been called into God’s Church who will be resurrected, who will not come through it by their own choices they’ve made in the age of their calling. Think something else is owed? Not a bit. It was all given already.

Verse 14—Also prophesying about these was the seventh from Adam, Enoch, who said, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints. What’s that about? It’s about judgment. Eventually, judgment does come. Just like in human life, you know what comes? Say there are two things you can always count on. The one is really evil. Death is going to happen to everybody. That’s God’s plan. Everybody has to die. Everybody. It’s intended. It’s to die as human beings. It’s a part of life whether you’re in the Church or not. Obviously, all of mankind, everybody has to die.

Now, there are going to be just a very few who have a unique experience in all time that God says are going to be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last Trump” when Christ is returning to be a part of the 144,000. How many? We don’t know. A dozen maybe? Three? I don’t know. God hasn’t shown that. But they’re the only ones that are going to experience in that sense a lack of human death and dying.

Who said, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all. That’s what awaits everyone, judgment. …and to convict (meaning “to rebuke; expose”) all who are ungodly among them, those, the ungodly. It’s the story of Jude.

…of all their ungodly deeds. They did it to themselves. …which they have done in an ungodly way, and all of their hard things, their harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him, against God and against His Son.

So, it all goes back to that verse 4, doesn’t it? For there are certain ones who have come along in alongside us, who were before of old ordained for this condemnation. Only because of their own personal choices and knowing how hard it is for human beings to make the right choice and to hold on to that. But if we do it it’s guaranteed eternal life, peace forever, God’s Family forever. Choices.

…ungodly ones turning the grace of our God into the purpose of participating in lewd behavior and denying the only LORD God and our Lord Joshua the Christ.

I hope we can see a little bit more each time we go through things like this, how bad, how evil it is to turn against this way that God has given to us when He’s opened up our minds, and that we have a greater zeal to do exactly what was told to us here in that respect when he said in the very beginning to contend for that faith, what God had given to us, the belief, the truth that God has given to us, to fight for this more than ever.

1. Chapter 1