Living God’s Judgment, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

October 2, 2023

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon

In the opening for the Feast which we here heard this morning, I told you that the focus of the sermons I’ll be giving this year, that that focus is about judgment.

If we had the ears to hear we were also told that the laws of God, the statutes He has given to us, that the very ways of God are about His judgment, how He judges. I mean, this is awesome because this year on Atonement we heard something that goes along really well with what I’m covering here, which I find very inspiring. Something I didn’t realize is that there is that word for “logos” that also carries on to another word basically having to do with logic, how we think.

Which is really inspiring because I didn’t know that word was there in that regard. Because it says a lot and it ties in so well with what we’re discussing here about the thinking of God. That’s why there are certain words that are very inspiring when you see how they’re given, especially in the Greek language, and some things that we’ve come to understand in time as far as God’s plan. We’re ever learning. God’s ever molding and fashioning us, teaching us more, giving us a deeper understanding, really, into Him, into His thinking, His word, His way of life, His way of thinking, and sharing that with us.

A lot of His planning, He’s shared with us. Which I find deeply inspiring when you come to understand more deeply the reasons, the things involved in the logic, the thinking of God. Again here, when we think about the word “logos” and the Word of God, again, when you go to the book of John and you go through some of those scriptures, and Herbert Armstrong used to talk it’s about “the revelatory thought of God,” “the revelatory thinking of God,” which is what God’s word is because it’s the product then of a way of thinking.

And to me, it just adds a little bit more to the depth of appreciation to understand what we’re going to be discussing here throughout the sermons that I’m giving here about the subject of judgment. Because judgment isn’t so simple. It isn’t too easy. The kind of judgment we’re supposed to do and have in our life is impossible without God’s help. Absolutely impossible.

We live in a world that’s going insane, a world where soundness of mind is disappearing. I’ll just share something with you, that yesterday we were listening to someone in politics in the U.S., very high up, and they were talking in circles. They were talking about things that were just mumble jumble and you think, “How on earth…? Where is the mind and what are you even communicating?” And talking about in one case this yellow bus and we all have these fond feelings of the yellow bus. And anyway, just goofy things.

It’s so indicative today of so many in leadership, so many in the world, the thinking. Where is soundness of mind? Some of the stupidity of not even thinking ahead! We’re to go green. What does that mean?

I appreciate the fact that so much of this world is being destroyed by mankind. That’s the way it’s been since it began, except getting worse with higher populations and greater things took place.

I think of so much of Northern Africa and parts of all the way up through Türkiye and some of those areas, and the way mankind has raped the land over centuries and millennia if you will. I think of the time I’ve told you about the time of going to Ephesus and seeing some of the structures there and the huge library at that time that was world renown, and parts of it still standing to two stories high as far as the structure is concerned. Then the port that was just down there very close to it and you can see the port, you can see where ships would dock, and it's massive. And yet there is no water. It’s all silted in about eight miles away from the ocean. You marvel. It’s because they went in and robbed the land of all the trees that were there and so when it rained it just gradually filled it all in to where there is no river there, there is no water there. This is just indicative of things even in Northern Africa, in things that used to be there that are no longer there, and the sands and the deserts just continue to get bigger and bigger in some of those regions. It just spread more and more because of what mankind did to it!

And so, we live in a time now where we’re dealing with all kinds of garbage and junk and so forth that’s been thrust into the atmosphere, things that have been done in the ocean. I mean, some of the things that have been done to the ocean, you look at some beaches in some areas and some areas where plastic has washed up on the shore and makes you want to scream to think what we’re doing.

How to get rid of all that? How to take care of all this stuff?

Then you get into batteries and if everybody had a car, if they made a law that by 2030 everybody has to have an electric car and you think of all the batteries that are out there and all the batteries that have to be produced and what are you going to do with them later on? And by the way, where is all the juice going to come from to recharge all those stupid batteries? It’s insane!

We don’t have solutions! People think they do, and they want to force it upon you. I’m sorry but I just get so upset at what mankind does and how they do it. But it just reveals the foolishness of mankind. We’re becoming dumber and dumber as a world. That movie a long time ago, Idiocracy, was it? We’re just about there. I mean, really! That one person I was referring to, I’m sorry, but it sounds a lot like that! (Take me off the air before long. But anyway, so be it.)

Soundness of mind. God has given us as human beings the ability to have soundness of mind and true soundness that is meaningful, that is clear. When you talk about soundness you tend to think of that which is logical. The only problem is with human beings we think we’re all logical. We think we’re all pretty sound until you hear something really dumb – then you know you’re more sound than they are. That’s a lot of our problem.

So, where do you begin in a subject like this when you start talking about judgment? Well, we’re going to go through verses, some of the things we’ve heard a lot in times past, and the reason we’re going to go through them more is because we’ve grasped them to a point but there is so much more. God is giving us the opportunity to grow more, to build more upon what He has already given to us, and so we’re going to go into this a little more deeply and hopefully, we’ll glean a little bit more because it’s something in many areas of our lives, and as far as the Church is concerned, it still wanting, lacking.

But that’s a matter of growth and it’s a matter of development and God’s giving us that opportunity to grow that much more.

So, let’s turn over to Deuteronomy 5. Let’s begin there, a bit of what was even discussed in the opening sermon. Because it has to come from God. That which is truly sound has to come from right principles, things that are right. That’s where you get into that which is righteous and righteousness which can only come from God, that gives then a sound mind if we’ll receive it.

But we’re not able to until we’re called into God’s Church—the world can’t receive it—and then we can begin to grow in that. That’s why it’s such a marvel when you think of some of the things of scripture we’re going to look at after a while. You think of different ones with whom God worked and gave opportunities to, and I think of the book of Proverbs. I think of Psalms and things of that nature.

But you think of something like Proverbs, and you look at the word “wisdom” and what that means, and to understand that that comes from God because it’s about the Word, it’s about the mind of God, and again, the product of sound thinking, logical thinking. What is logical? Well, again, it’s a matter of looking to God for that kind of thing because we don’t have it of and by ourselves. It has to come from God.

So, I think of different ones like Solomon whom God gave so much to. God gave that to him, things that he received. Then to think of what happened later on it’s pretty tough.

Deuteronomy 5:1—Then Moses called all Israel, and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgment which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn to keep, that word having to do with “watch; to keep; to preserve” and do them.

So, for us when we come into the Church it’s a matter of do we desire that with all of our being, to keep and maintain and hold on to and watch carefully, guard if you will, preserve what God has given to us? Because the history of God’s Church is we haven’t done a really good job of that!

What happened during Philadelphia, people didn’t preserve and keep what God gave to Herbert Armstrong that Herbert Armstrong gave to Philadelphia! The whole history of what happened later on in Laodicea once he was gone reveals that truth! And who is to blame the most? Those who were teachers. Those who were given the responsibility to lead, guide, and direct God’s people.

It’s a shameful thing. There is a lot of judgment involved in that that people have not been aware of, that God does not take lightly and hasn’t taken lightly. People have choices to make in their life and we are all held accountable. Once we’ve been baptized, once we receive God’s spirit we’re all held accountable for what we’ve been given, the most precious thing that anyone has ever been given in all of creation – the impregnation of God’s being.

If we don’t marvel at that and love that with all of our being, we are not fit to receive it! We are not fit to receive mercy and grace! And in time God, candidly, comes to a point where He says, “No more. You’ve made your choice.”

When we spit upon the baptism that we were given, when we spit upon Christ’s suffering and sacrifice, it is not a small thing to God, and we haven’t taken it nearly as seriously as we should have through the eras of God’s Church. God’s letting us learn that more right now. Why? Because we have a unique calling. Only because of that. Because He’s molding and fashioning something else within us that’s different from other eras, different from other periods of time.

I believe I know what some of those things are but in time God will reveal more to us. But you’ve got to understand you have an incredible, special calling for a special place in God’s Family. Opportunities that we can’t comprehend right now. So, either we love it with all of our being and hold on to it with all of our being and strive to be on guard, which means a lot of time just watching self and being on guard.

Because we’ve had so many people, and I get so sick of it, of people making stupid, foolish choices and decisions in life to throw this all away! As one said, “To take a year off.” Screams aloud to God’s people! The timing of that is not by accident either in order to drive this point home even more so to each and every one of us! You don’t take a day off to go do your thing, to go sin, let alone a longer period of time.

Then to say and talk in “godly” terms, like, “I know that God is merciful, and God will forgive me.” That’s a bunch of you know what! We either strive every day of our life to live this way of life, we love what God has given to us, or we don’t. That’s your choice and it’s my choice, and I made mine a long time ago.

When I was baptized, in my mind and in my being, to be real candid with you, I knew what I was saying! “I belong to You!” That’s what we told God! “I’m Yours. I am sick of this, and I want to change this.” I wanted to be changed. “I don’t want this kind of a mind; I want Yours. I want right thinking.”

That’s what we’re talking about today, judgment, right thinking, and logic, that which is logical. But that all comes from God.

So, I get worked up on some of these things because I see our history and I see what’s happened. I see what took place during Philadelphia. I see how Herbert Armstrong was treated, how he was talked about by ministers and by brethren. I hold the ministers responsible first and foremost, especially the evangelists and what they did.

The one I mentioned this morning, about 14/15th Passover, so disgusting, so despicable, so very evil. Evil. Thinking he could visit with the demonic world and invite them into his office and have discussions with them knowing they’re fully possessed. But he’s bigger than that, he can handle that.

And so, other people hear about it, even some ministers, and they “Ooo” and “Ahh.” “He’s really an incredible man!” This doctor so-and-so. Think, no, he was foolish. He made stupid choices. He made evil choices, and he did incredible harm to God’s Church through time because of those choices. He’s responsible for a lot of damage, for a lot of death even on a spiritual plane.

I wonder what…? I don’t wonder but I’m going to ask the question. I wonder what his judgment is? I wonder if we will be involved in certain things of judgment in time in a greater way than you can comprehend because of what you have been told and what’s been molded and fashioned into you if we receive it.

Because he doesn’t stand on—well, never did after he started that—good ground. Something happens to the mind if you continue to go a certain direction and you turn against everything you were shown once you become antichrist. And he was antichrist for decades. Not years, decades, in the environment of God’s Church. I say in the environment because in the environment, out in the courtyard, but invited right up to the door by different ones that were a part and they listened to him. Some got pulled right out into the courtyard with him. Sad. Sad. Sad. Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic.

So, in essence, we can learn about the commandments, we can learn about the statutes, we can learn about God’s law, we’re taught about those things. And if you think about the Ten Commandments, pretty straightforward all the way, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and we’re still building upon those things in life. But as we think about certain ones of those they are straightforward. We either are doing them or we’re not. Even things having to do with, that I’ve mentioned so often about tithing, and people still steal tithe. If it’s not first tithe they steal second tithe. That’s coming out more and more.

Human beings and what we do when we’re baptized and have God’s spirit in us. Well, how long do we have God’s spirit in us? Hmm. That depends on the choices we make and the thinking that’s going on up here.

So, we’re to keep watch and learn how to do them more and more in our life, choose to do them more and more in our life. That means to fight against self and seek to do then what is right whenever that opportunity arises. Because it happens regularly in our life where we have to make certain choices, “Are we going to obey God or not?” Something comes along and we have to make choices, “Are we going to watch, be on guard against self – maybe compromising?” You don’t compromise with God’s way of life but that’s human tendency even within the Body sometimes.

This is especially true when it comes to judgment. It’s something we need to learn. It’s something we need to grow in. But it’s more complicated than the law. It’s not straightforward like the law, like the commandments. Commandments are, in comparison to judgment, relatively easy. Not easy, but compared, straightforward, easier to comprehend, easier to understand.

So again, we need to learn this process and that’s because matters of judgment, again, are not necessarily as clear as things stated directly in the law like in the Ten Commandments when we are to be alert to do them.

We can strive to be alert, on guard, watchful in obeying God’s commandments, and this is strengthened in our lives as we pray about such things. Because we don’t have the ability to do that well without God’s spirit. And so we know our, we should know, we are to learn what our weaknesses are and then ask God to help us to fight against those things where we have specific weaknesses, our one, two, and threes.

So, the opportunity to obey any one of God’s laws becomes manifest when we’re confronted with a moment in time in which such is needed in order to do something that is directly in front of us, a choice that we have to make. It always comes back to choices, which has to do with thinking.

As an example, this might be the case, it might occur when we’re confronted with a choice or decision that might determine if we’re going to keep the Sabbath day holy or sanctified. To me, that’s an amazing thing. As long as I’ve been in God’s Church there are still things that come up where I have to think about what’s okay to do, what’s permissible or not permissible because we’re each of us to work to keep the Sabbath day holy, to keep Holy Days holy. In other words, that means God in it and God in us and a desire to think right and live right in what we do and what we choose.

Now, that requires thinking. That’s not just a matter that when we were first called, “Are you going to keep the Sabbath day?” Well, we choose to do that quickly. We’re not going to work on that day anymore. But that’s only the beginning. It’s just a beginning. There are choices and decisions that we have to make as we go along. From time to time, things pop up, confront us, and we have to make a decision, what are we going to do at this moment in time? How are we going to address it?

Well, God has to be in it, and we have to think about that. What is in agreement with God? Matters of judgment.

See, when it says, “Don’t commit adultery,” it doesn’t take brain surgery… or maybe that’s not the right way of putting it. Doesn’t take much to grasp that. It’s pretty clear what it is. And yet it’s happened a lot in God’s Church through time. It’s one of the big things that have led people away from God’s Church through time over the past two thousand years, one of many.

And yet it says very clearly not to do it. So, it’s a do or don’t. That’s a choice. But there are other things involved with that that have to do with judgment in thinking before that ever becomes a pull, a problem that should have been considered long before that in matters of judgment.

The law, statutes, are pretty clear-cut. Do or don’t. What God has said. But where does that come from? God’s thinking, the way He thinks. He wants us to understand that so we can think the same way, so we can learn to think the same way.

If we understand a certain outcome and what leads to a certain outcome it helps us in making the decisions along the way. You have to think about it. That soundness of mind and that kind of logic comes from God.

So, what we’re going to go through is very much about all this (to me), in a profound way. Matters of judgment do not always come into the mind as easily even though the decision, the choice we make is very much about judgment. Matters of judgment can very often be obscure when it comes to relationships. I hope we understand that. Because I could give a whole sermon series on that.

Matters of judgment can very often be more obscure when it comes to relationships. Because this is what it’s all about. God’s Family is about relationships, and the place we’re to learn this is within the Body of Christ, the Church of God more than any place else. More than in the world because in the world it’s more clear cut. But within a spiritual family, there are things that can challenge us as to how we think about one another and how we judge matters in life, how we think towards individuals in certain circumstances. We’ll talk about that as we go through this.

So, one of the greatest problems we have with our carnal, selfish, human nature is that as a natural thing, we judge from self. Most sermons in the past where we’ve gone into this that’s a primary point that has to be made. We tend to judge from the way we see it, the way “I” think it should be. That is a big, big, big, big, big, horrible mistake. You are never to judge from the way you think it should be of and by yourself. God better be at the forefront in that thinking.

That means, “Is my mind right with God? Am I thinking the way that God says I should? Am I thinking in the terms of what God’s will is?” Because that’s what it’s about. “Am I in agreement with God’s will and His purpose in how we’re to live toward each other?”

It’s about judgment. It’s about making those kinds of decisions in our lives and we’re to become sharper at that, better at that. That will improve relationships that we have. If we understood this type of thing there would never be a bit of drama ever in God’s Church amongst brethren. Never! If we understood these things to that depth of what I’m talking about and we believed it with all of our being and we were striving to live with all of our being and praying about it with all of our being because we want to be right toward God’s people – not ours! – toward God’s people, there would never be a bit of drama amongst people in God’s Church.

But we have drama. I have mentioned before the Feast that every Feast of Tabernacles there’s been drama, of people that can’t get along, that have arguments. Something, some dispute arises, and you think, “Wow. Can’t you handle that better? What’s wrong?” It’s the thinking. It’s not doing things according to God’s will nor striving to in many cases. It’s doing it according to what makes “me” feel better, what “I” think is right.

So, we’re never to judge from self. And again, that’s a very basic thing that Christ went through and discussed, and we’re going to go through some of those scriptures. They’re not new to us.

We’re going to dig a little bit deeper today in some of these, through this series, I should say. Not just today but through the series we’re going to go through, and it’ll lead up to the Last Great Day and the things that are covered there.

So again, the truth is that although we have gone through some of this subject matter in the past and we have focused on some of the scriptures were going to cover, we have not fully grasped the full depth of the seriousness of what we’ve been told. Because if we had we would have had greater changes take place.

We’ve had change and growth but we’re always to struggle with that aren’t we? It’s something we’re to fight to accomplish more and more in our lives, to be on guard, to not let things happen that dishonor the name that we’re carrying, God’s Church, the Church of God. We’re in the Body of Christ.

Let’s turn over to 1 Corinthians. The truth is, before we go into that, the truth is if we do not learn to more fully judge ourselves and judge ourselves first in all relationships, in all areas of judgment, we’re not going to come to grasp and learn about judgment in the manner that God wants us to at this Feast. It’s a mouthful.

If we do not learn to more fully judge ourselves and judge ourselves first. Because we’re quick to judge others as human beings. We think we know what’s best for their lives. But we had better see self first before we ever think about a matter of judgment.

Now, we’re to be able to see and to know, and we do know when there is sin, but so often that isn’t the issue. So often issues that come to the ministry are not a matter of something as a sin. It’s a matter of something that someone feels they have seen and believed and think that they’re doing, somebody is doing wrong. And my question always is, “Where is the sin? Do you know the sin?” “Is there a sin? Can you tell me what it is?”

Because the reality is so often it’s not a matter of that. It’s a matter of our perception even of sin sometimes, candidly, that when it comes down to it it’s just our judgment of sin, of what we think something is that’s been done wrong. If you don’t know something has been done wrong, it’s not absolute, then what are we to do with that? Good question. Hopefully, we have the answer. And if we don’t, hopefully by the end of the Feast we have the answer.

So, these are pretty hard-hitting because we have a lot of experiences in God’s Church, we have a lot of history of experiences in God’s Church, and we’re ever being refined and we’re ever growing, and that’s exciting. It’s inspiring when God gives us the opportunity to change more, which means to grow more, to draw closer to Him, to become more at one with Him. To me, there is no greater thing than to become more at one with God, the mind of God, the thinking of God. It’s beautiful.

And really, that’s where we’re headed. That’s what it’s all about.

1 Corinthians 11:26—For as often as you eat this bread… These are powerful scriptures and they’re read every year. I’ve heard it every year or read it every year since I’ve been in God’s Church, Passover time. And indeed, we should because we’re to reflect upon what it’s saying here. We’re to think about what it says. We’re to learn from this.

And yet this is a very difficult thing, has been in the history of God's Church for God’s Church to have applied through time. Most have never done it the way it should have been done. Most are gone. To me, that’s such a stark thing to grasp. “Many are called, few are chosen,” and we understand the reason why. Because most who have ever been called, even impregnated with God’s spirit, have turned against Christ. That’s almost hard to conceive in the human mind with God’s spirit. It’s like, “You’ve got to be kidding! How is that possible?” But yet that’s our history, and our history is the witness and the proof of the truth.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death until he comes. What’s that all about? What do you mean “you show the Lord’s death until he comes?” Because Passover, this period of time that he is talking about is about Passover, it’s about coming together and taking it, and it’s about the very purpose and meaning of understanding and then living ourselves in response to that what it means that Christ was beaten beyond recognition, flesh ripped off of his body, flesh ripped off of his face where you couldn’t see who it was, didn’t know who it was if you saw him. That’s what the scripture says.

Then placed on a tree to die, nailed there. All the suffering of someone who lived a perfect life, who lived without any sin whatsoever – which is hard to comprehend, but not when you know that he was the word of God made flesh.

Therefore whoever shall eat this bread and drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner… First thought that comes to mind is, well, none of us are worthy. But there is a manner, there is a way we’re to live our lives and then take the Passover. That’s what’s being discussed here. So, we’re to think about that especially at this time of the year because it’s about the Church, it’s about the Body of Christ, and it’s about Christ, to understand why we have the Church, why we’re blessed to be a part of it, something that so few through the past two thousand years have had any opportunity at.

That’s why sometimes it’s hard for us to grasp what we have. Either we’re thankful and grateful or we’re not.

…drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Guilty of his death.

So, to grasp and comprehend then what he did, but for us as human beings to grasp what it means that if we have sin in our life and we take lightly the suffering and the sacrifice of Christ, what does that mean? What does that mean to God? What should that mean to us?

I think the majority of people in the past two thousand years, I think of all the people since PKG. Sometimes just the words and thinking of an audience in any part of the world or the country and seeing faces and I can’t remember them all. I can’t go back and remember all that have come and gone just in PKG, all the names that I’ve forgotten. Faces, certain faces pop up and then I think, “I don’t even remember who…”

I don’t know, I’d have to go back into it and dig into it deeper, maybe can think of a locale, a location because we’re at a service somewhere, and I think of all the people that used to be there that are no longer there and I see these faces and it’s in my mind. And you think, they’re gone. The choices they made. What a horrible thing. It just goes on and on and on and when will it end?

Do you know when it ends? At the very end when God’s Family has been fully resurrected, when Elohim exists and everything else doesn’t as far as life of those who are on earth. Until then it’ll just go on and on and on. It’s a hard thing but we’re to experience this because we’re to feel this. We’re to feel what it’s like when people we love and love a lot make choices that aren’t for God, for Christ, for God’s Family. Some of those hurt deep; they cut deep. But then we have to have God’s judgment and understand that was a choice.

You know, God’s timing is so different from ours because where do you begin? We don’t understand that. How long to create everything that’s out there? We don’t know that, and we don’t understand that. Sometimes when we first come into God’s Church it’s like, we think it happened just like that. God said, and there’s the universe. Well, God’s way is one of sharing. He let the angelic realm share. We don’t know to what degree or how, but they shared in that.

They were working, okay, whatever that means fully. They weren’t just up In the bleachers, “Look what He’s made now! Boy, this is exciting! What’s next?” It wasn’t about that. God’s a God of sharing. He’s sharing of Himself and He started with the angelic realm but preparing for something far, far greater that we can’t comprehend but look forward to.

And yet He’s been dealing with one being that I believe with all my being has cut God deeply. He doesn’t want to lose anything He’s ever created in relationships and so forth. God remembers. God doesn’t forget like we do. In time we can forget.

Like I said, I see the faces. I think of an area, just picked an area a moment ago, a Church area, visiting and thinking recently of all the people that are no longer there. They just are flashes in my mind. Sometimes I forget their face. Sometimes I remember a name and forget the face and it’s like in time we tend to forget as human beings if we’re not with someone on a constant basis.

God doesn’t. It’s fresh in God’s mind. Everyone, every being, if you talk about the angelic realm, the choices they made, and constantly there with the bad choices they made, one who has constantly been against Him since he sinned, and all those who followed him constantly there. And yet in time, God’s going to deal with it through His righteous judgment.

But we’re to learn from it. That’s why he’s been on this earth, so we can learn from this. Because the greater thing is the creation of Elohim and there are things we have to understand. Just like of recent time when we talked about, had in sermons that we either choose God and Christ or we’ve chosen Satan. Because it’s that mind. It’s that mind of selfishness that’s caused so much destruction through time and we’ve got to come to where we understand how horrible that is, how horrible evil is, and want to see it gone forever.

That’s why I think of scriptures that talk about in time there’ll be no more remembrance, no more remembrance of the ones whether it be in the angelic realm or amongst mankind; it’ll be something of the past, far past because of God’s Kingdom. It’s right and just no matter how much we might want something for someone else. We cannot give that to anyone. We cannot give God’s way to anyone. We have to learn some of the kinds of things.

That’s why we have to learn things of betrayal and what that’s like. Because we make decisions according to that and God wants us to make right decisions. We have to learn what it’s like to choose God above all things and all people, and that God is righteous and just and gives every opportunity when someone is called, when their minds have been opened, the ability when that’s given to become a part of His Family. The way has been made.

But the simple truth is not everyone wants that nor will want it and we have to deal with that. We can’t go by feelings and emotions; we have to go by what is true and just and right for all time. That’s not a simple thing. But we have to have that experience in our life to become more at one with God. I hope you understand what I’m saying in that.

Verse 28—But let a person examine themselves. Ah, so important. Examine themselves, look at self. It’s so hard for self to acknowledge one’s own responsibility for choices. It truly is. It’s hard. But yet we must learn to do that and strive to do it more quickly in our lives as we grow.

“Let a person examine themselves.” See, first, look at self first. Because if we can’t do that we can’t go on and grow on to learn true judgment, how to exercise, how to have right logic, right thinking in our minds. So, it’s a process of judging oneself.

…and then let them eat of that bread and drink of that cup. So, that’s the manner of something that be done in this manner before we do that, that we’re being honest with ourselves. We better be honest with ourselves because what’s the point of lying to God? Who can think that they can lie to God? And yet our history is that many people have tried.

I don’t know, how do you decide some of the things that people decide out there? How do you decide after you’ve been in PKG for most of its existence, and all of a sudden decide, “Well, I’m going to stay at home. I’ve got things mapped out now for how I’m going to study the Bible. I’ve got it all prepared, how I’m going to do it.” You mean, you don’t need to be instructed and guided and directed by the ministry anymore? You don’t need to have sermons anymore? Where is your mind?

So, how people get in such positions in life is rather mind-boggling sometimes. I could tell you all kinds of stories of choices and decisions people make. And you just have to shake your head. How can we get in such positions? But it’s something else the mind wants, that self wants, and it’s not willing to acknowledge we’ve got to measure ourselves against what God says and what we’ve been taught from the very beginning.

And if we’re not willing to do things exactly the way God says to then we’ll never be in His Kingdom. That’s what it boils down to, how we think. The logic, is it there or not? Because to me, logic, that word, has to do with God. Is it there or not? Because it is or it’s just us and the way we think because “I can do this. I can study these things and I can figure it out on my own.” Okay. What happened to the mind? Where did you go astray?

Or the many kinds of reasons people choose when they leave God’s Church, whatever that is. But it’s their choice. It’s not mine. I feel bad about it. I don’t like it. But it’s always been that way. But I’ve always understood, well, that’s what’s best for God’s Church. If that’s the way you think then that’s what’s best for God’s Church, that you not be around it. Because a little leaven, let it go, look what happened to Laodicea. A lot of leaven. A little leaven, then a little more leaven, and then a lot more leaven, then a lot more leaven, and all of a sudden we’re spewed out of God’s mouth. Because it makes you weak; it makes the Body weak.

The Church has always been made stronger to those who yield to the process, to those who want to be fed. And those who don’t, hit the door, please. Quit playing games. Why drag it out? Because in some of these situations, I know that some individuals have gone on for years dragging things out and it’s hurt the Church. But yet we’ve all learned through those things when we experience them because we have these interpersonal relationships, and we see what they do. Then when it comes to a head and finally happens and it’s like, “That explains a lot. I understand now.” We can see God more and think more like God and be in agreement more with God. That’s what God is concerned with, whether or not we’re growing and desiring to change and becoming in greater oneness and unity with God.

I would love to have seen everyone who has ever been called that I’ve ever known, and going back to Kansas, going back to where I grew up in an area, a hundred people. We were all spread out to count a hundred even. We weren’t even in town. They were on the outskirts of what we would call town, two, three, four miles away but they were part of that town. We had a hundred.

Anyway, then came into the Church, went down to Wichita, six hundred people. Six hundred people every Sabbath. Because I fled the college town I was in because I knew I had to leave, or I couldn’t change. I knew I had to be out of there. Choices, choices, choices, choices. So, I went to there and I began to learn people aren’t perfect.

First time invited to a couple's home, that here they are they were fighting, the husband and the wife fighting, and they had guests over and I was one of the guests. This is after about six months of being in God’s Church and I thought, “What’s going on? They’re in God’s Church and they’re fighting!” Because you see, I had this funny concept in my mind that husbands and wives should not fight in God’s Church. And they shouldn’t. But those things happen. Choices, choices, choices.

I think of all those people I think of all the people in Texas and the Houston area we were with and what’s happened to all the people I’ve known through time. Sometimes it’s pretty hard when you think about different ones and choices people have made. I look forward to a time with great desire, hoping that there are going to be many who will really change once their minds are opened to an awakening, to seeing what’s happened since the Apostasy. But even there it’s gone on so long now that I fear being in that state for so long what can happen to people because it’s a dangerous state. Time will tell. But we still have to choose to be at one with God and to understand that God’s judgment is righteous and just and there are reasons why some of these things transpire.

Because we all have to go through different things to be tried and tested what’s inside of us. What are we going to do under whatever thing comes our way? We have to be tried in it because God is not going to allow anyone into His Family that hasn’t had to make hard choices, hard decisions in life to be in agreement with God.

So again, I’m going to read verse 29—For any who eat and drink in an unworthy manner… And what determines the manner? Well, it has to do with sin. It always has to do with sin. Is there sin we should be repenting of and acknowledging in our life before we take the Passover, before we take and partake in the most important thing that has to do with our calling, to understand the sacrifice that made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins, to be able to be impregnated with God’s spirit?

If we don’t grasp the most basic of that and treasure that and treasure our Passover, our High Priest and what he did? Because he made choices in his life for us. He understood and saw God’s plan in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend. But to live in a human life in a physical body and never sin, never give into anything in life? A set mind but set in God’s way in a very beautiful way.

And so, I appreciate that. We should appreciate that with all of our being, even more so every Passover we take. “Thank you.” Yet every year there are people who take the Passover who never should have taken it. They’ve just condemned themselves with greater condemnation. To have the audacity to be sinning and not repenting of certain sin in life, to go ahead and toy with certain sin in life, whatever that might be, whatever is going on in the mind. You can’t hide from God. You can’t lie to God. God knows what we’re doing. He knows what we’re thinking.

To think that we could somehow take the Passover and that sin is still there we’re not really repenting of as we should be with all of our being? Every year it happens just as much as every year there are more that are gone. We’re to learn from it.

For any who eat and drink in an unworthy manner eat and drink judgment unto themselves. Because they’re not living, not giving honor to Christ. They’re not thankful for that sacrifice. Not truly in spirit and truth. Instead, they’re spitting on it. That’s what happens spiritually to the point of becoming antichrist in the wrong thinking and the toleration of sin, and the compromise that may be being made in life, whatever that is, that can weaken us.

…not discerning the Lord’s body. Not discerning truly Christ and what he went through, yes, even physically for us. Not discerning what all that means in our life spiritually, to be able to be forgiven of sin, the price that was paid, why we’re able to be here. Then the Lord’s Body, what it means to be in the Church of God, what it means to be in the Body of Christ, to have such opportunity and not living right, instead pulling it down. Because that’s what sin does. When people stay in sin they’re pulling down the Body of Christ because you can’t help but hurt others in your relationship. It’s going to happen. It’s coming out. It just happens.

It says, For this cause, many are weak and sickly. Now, this isn’t a physical thing, it’s a spiritual thing. That’s what happens. Individuals become weaker and weaker and that can affect others around them because they judge and discern… well, don’t discern but they judge by certain things that some people do. That’s why it was so dangerous what happened in the past when people saw ministers doing wrong things and they began to think, you know, maybe copy some of that and do some of the same things. Then they begin to sin against God’s people as well, hurting God’s people rather than helping them.

For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. That’s what happens even spiritually. That’s what happened to Laodicea. Because things weren’t going right in the Church, and it affected everyone. It spread.

For. If. We. Would. Judge. Ourselves… An easy scripture to read. It’s almost an impossible one to live, and you can’t without God’s help. That’s why we have to constantly look to God and pray to God for help. “For if we would judge ourselves.” That’s why I said what I did in the beginning. That’s where it all begins. And if we can really see ourselves and judge ourselves as we should we’re going to be better in our thinking toward one another. We’re not going to be as quick to find fault, to condemn. I’m talking about that kind of judgment because there are still things we have to judge in life, obviously, all the time.

But I'm talking about finding something wrong with someone else, what someone else has said or done and we have to be so careful of doing that. So very careful. Because most of the time, candidly, it leads into a deep hole. It’s wrong as a practice, as a thinking, because we do it by our own thinking because that’s what comes first out of this mind. We tend to think perhaps that we’re doing it because we’re in agreement with God and of God’s will. Be careful.

For if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. I kind of like that expression when you point at somebody else you got the fingers pointing back at you more. Self is what we have to work on. This is where the problems are. This is what has to change.

Now, I hope that every other person then that one might think of finding fault with in their mind – that’s what condemning, judging in that regard is, it’s finding fault with someone else. It’s easy to see what somebody else is doing wrong always, always, always. I’ll tell you what, that should just be a giant siren going off in our minds to get our act together. I don’t even like it when I hear it as a whole because most of the time it’s unfounded and it’s not right and we’re not thinking right. I really detest it. We have to understand why.

So, we have to be so careful how we think about others, how we think about others because it has to do with how we think about God, and if we’re not doing that right, we, each one of us, belong to God, and if you’re not careful you’ll find yourselves condemning God. That’s what’s bad about all this.

You have the ability, everyone has the ability to judge this, self. Not me, self. That’s what we have the ability to do, and we better do it zealously, asking God for help to see what we need to see. Sometimes we already know what needs to be changed. Sometimes we already know. We should know our one, two, and three. We should know that. We should know it inside and out because whenever it pops up its ugly head that’s when you catch it… You can catch it more quickly. After a while, it’s no longer your one, two, and three. Well, the one will always be there for me because it has a matter of putting God first. Any time I mess up on the others I’ve messed up on number one. I know that and I have to repent of that.

That’s what it’s about, it’s about keeping on top of self. This has to change. “I have to change. I want to grow. I want to become something new and transformed in thinking. I loathe selfish thinking.”

So, that’s what we have to do, loathe it. The more you hate it in self the more you won’t do it, the more you’ll recognize it for what it is, the more you’ll see the dangers of it. The more you hate something you’re not going to do it because you agree with God.

But when we are judged… Beautiful, “But when we are judged,” when judgment has to be meted out to us, when something happens in God’s Church and judgment has to be pointed out than all the more so we better listen then because we’re walking on dangerous ground already. And if we don’t get a hold of it, if we don’t grab hold of it and make the change, we’re playing with fire in judgment, literally.

But when we are judged we are chastened, we’re corrected. Words that can come out and sometimes God intervenes and does things in our life to get our attention. When we are judged we are chastened (corrected) of the Lord so that we should not be condemned with the world. If you understand what that means then you appreciate more the need to make sure that we’re judging self and yielding ourselves to the process.

Because there are different kinds of judgment. I don’t want to get ahead of myself but there is one coming on this world very soon now that is one of the greatest ever spoken of in scripture, the end of six thousand years. It’s about judgment. It’s about judgment in a very big way because God speaks of it over and over again throughout scripture, throughout the Old Testament. Then there is another judgment coming later on.

But there is a huge judgment that God speaks of at the end of six thousand years here that is a part of cleaning up this world very much like what God is doing to the Church in cleaning up the Church over the past several years – which He has been doing zealously so, if you will, if you understand what I’m saying. Because we’re going to be a cleansed Body. I’ve said this over and over and over and over and over again. All we can do, and the hope is that each person will hear and repent of the sin that still exists in their life that they’re not really repenting of yet, that they’re still meddling with and playing with, whatever that is.

Every one of us that is baptized with God’s spirit should know our greatest weaknesses, and if something replaces that number two and three comes up to two’s spot because two has dropped down to ten? I don’t go that far. I don’t have to go that far because if you do a few there you’re keeping on top of things. You’re going to see some of the other things a lot more easily, a lot more clearly. I hope we see those.

“But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord so that we won’t be condemned with the world.” God wants, He gives us every opportunity to change, to repent, to respond to Him. He gives us more and more on a continual basis, and has, especially throughout PKG, be honest with you, candid with you. We’re just blessed because of the time we live in to be the recipients of that because we’re a unique part of a Temple. Small, but a unique part as well, as those who lived during Philadelphia and those who came, died through Laodicea, who as most cases would be started in Philadelphia as well. Well, completed the race.

So, this matter of being condemned with the world is no small thing because it’s about the world's ways. And so, we’re about to experience and suffer because we’re going to suffer in God’s Church. There’s going to be suffering because we’re not going to Petra and have this super dome put over the top of it and somehow nothing comes into it and hurts it. No, we’re going to have some suffering too, and it’s not easy.

We’re going to experience some of the things that happen in the world, but God is there to give us help, to look to God to deliver us, to protect us. Just like in the world today there are things that happen to us. Not on the level and the scale as it happens in the world around us as a whole, if you will. God is with us, and our lives are in His hands, and we have that confidence. And so we will during that period of time for those who exercise that.

So again, this matter of being condemned with the world is no small thing and far more serious in how this is stated than we’ve really known in the Church in times past.

Matthew 12:41. We’re just building upon some things that lead along in this series of sermons that we’re going to hear. Christ speaking to the Jews at that time.

Matthew 12:41—The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. So, we know what that’s talking about. It’s talking about the Great White Throne and various ones are going to be resurrected. But the Jews, even on a physical plane—even on a physical plane—should have been able to respond to things that were happening around them on a physical plane far better than those who had never known God like the people of Nineveh. And yet Jonah came there, and they repented, and they fasted, and they were moved by what they saw, by what they heard.

That’s what’s being said here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. They should have been able to understand and see on a physical plane things that they refused to accept because of the leaders of that day, those who were the Pharisees and the leaders of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, and different ones who were pompous and lifted up as they were. Yet they had Old Testament scriptures, and they knew things of the law of what God said. But they refused, they refused to accept the very miracles that were right smack in their face.

So on a physical plane, they should have been able to see physically. I’m not talking about receiving God's spirit and being called to see something, I’m just talking about on a physical plane. When someone is resurrected from the dead you ought to have a little bit of common sense, enough thinking to say God’s in this. But they were so stubborn. They were so filled with pride and haughtiness they wouldn’t accept it. And because they wouldn’t accept any of that kind of thing, well, we know the rest of the story. Condemned mightily. Yes, they’re condemned, and they’ll be condemned when they’re resurrected.

They’re going to learn, “You know how stupid you were to ignore? You know, when Lazarus was resurrected, do you see yourself for what you did? Do you grasp that? You know, when the lame were healed? You want to find fault in how the Sabbath is kept because he healed someone on the Sabbath? Did he do it of himself or was it God Almighty? Did you not see and grasp that God was working through this man who is My Son?” They wouldn’t accept his lineage anyway.

Incredible, the things that happened back then at that time! So, yes, there are going to be others who very much look down upon others who were resurrected at a time like that. They’re going to think, “What was wrong with you?” And it’s a fair question.

The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. These things are true. It’s exactly what’s going to happen. She went to hear one who spoke wisdom, with whom something was different, and she was moved by that on a physical plane about his God and about what he had to say, that there were things that just for her moved her and rang true in her ear.

Now, she wasn’t called but she was moved by it, and she wanted to be in his presence to hear more. …wanted to hear the wisdom of Solomon, which we know is from God. That soundness of mind, that logic that’s so rare in the world in the way he was able to speak and talk at that time.

…and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. Can you imagine the people sitting there and hearing this, the Jews, “And indeed a greater than Solomon is here?” They had so much pride and haughtiness. All the more reason they wanted to kill him very early on. They wanted to get rid of him very early on. They wanted to shut his mouth very early on because he was a threat to them. You think of human pride that can go that far.

I wonder what it’ll be like when they’re given opportunity to repent, to receive God’s spirit during the Great White Throne. Think it’ll be the majority? Because I don’t. I don’t.

The Great White Throne is not a picnic, it’s a separation of all of humanity over six thousand years. When God’s government is in force and no one else can raise up another government, no one else can raise up a different church, different ideas, different gods. It’s not going to be allowed.

But people can become so steeped in pride that they’ve already made their choices and will never change. You know, the mind is a precious thing God has given to us as human beings. We have a lot of experiences over two thousand years in God’s Church to understand it’s not going to be a picnic in the Great White Throne.

Because a lot of people have felt it’s going to be utopia, everybody just happy and smiling and nice to each other and some coming up behind and tapping on the shoulder, “This is not the way. This is the way, walk you in it,” that very protestant belief. Because we weren’t, we didn’t, we couldn’t see beyond that at that point to realize how protestant that sounded. Because God was calling the people out of protestantism as well over that period of time of Philadelphia and it takes time to do that.

Look at what it’s going to take then in the Millennium and the Great White Throne to do some of these kinds of things. That’s why Herbert Armstrong used to talk about it’s going to take three to four generations to get some of this garbage out of the minds of people because it so hurts the thinking and the mind.

Romans 2:1—Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judges, for in whatever you judge another… Now, who is he talking to? Is he talking to the world? The world couldn’t grasp this. He’s talking to the Church! He’s talking to a populous, a people who have been called into the Church. He’s talking to us.

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judges, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself. So, it’s talking about this attitude of mind of finding fault. We don’t realize by doing that we’re already at fault. We are at fault! We have to be so careful when we find fault with others, and we look down upon others and we judge others. When I’ve mentioned before, “Where is the sin? I want to hear about the sin! Then maybe, maybe I as a minister will have something as an input in this. Maybe something then needs to be done.”

If it doesn’t keep your nose out of someone else's business! Let them grow. Let God bring things to the surface in His time. Have some patience! God has a lot of patience with us. He’s had a lot of patience with me. I’ve been around since 1969 and I know the patience God has had with me and I marvel at God. We should because we ourselves are witness of ourselves, of the cleansing that God has been doing up here through time and the repenting of things in our minds and our being in that personal relationship.

So again here, very powerful in what he says here. We’ve got to be so careful. Because this is a great weakness among one another within the Church. Within the Body, it’s a weakness, something that needs to be conquered. We have to be so careful.

…for you who judge practice, in other words, you do this spiritually, the same things. It’s so hard to see self. It’s so hard to see “I’ve got a lot to work on here without doing the other.” But our natural tendency as human beings is this wrong kind of thinking.

Just like someone who left recently and talked about others. I’ve heard this over the decades in God’s Church. “There is just not enough love in God’s Church.” Finding fault with others, that they’re not loving, they’re not doing this and doing that. And I think, “And what about you? What examples have you set that reflect that you love others? How many people have you invited into your home? How many people have you done this or done that with and tried to sacrifice and give time to others within God’s Church?”

Because my experience is most of those don’t do that and they go in a different direction. But yet they can find fault with others of God’s Church: “Where is the love?” That one there really makes my skin crawl. Well, anyway, because you’re God’s people. Who are you to judge them?

“For whatever you judge another…” So, what I’m reading here is something that goes over the tops of so many heads so often. It’s just something we don’t get. It’s something we don’t digest. You know, it shouldn’t go over the top of our heads. Should stop right here. Good expression.

“For you who judge practice the same things.” They’re spiritual. Do we see what we’re doing?

But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. So, do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? So, we have to be careful. We have to be ever so careful. Now, we should understand that if there is specific sin involved and we are aware of it and we have seen it or we have heard it then we have a responsibility. We should understand that. But it has to be something you know, and you can call it; it’s absolute sin. Not something we build up in our minds and think that, well, this is what they have done, and they should be doing this, and I think that they’re doing this, and because of that, blah, blah, blah, and you think… Anyway.

Verse 4—Or do you despise (it means “to think little of”) the riches of His goodness, of God’s goodness? In other words, don’t we grasp how God has dealt with us? Don’t we see ourselves in how God’s been dealing with us? Aren’t we willing to give the same kind of patience and slack and love toward others, and time…and time? Are we willing to give time to others? Because God gives us time for changes and so we should want to give time for others to change. When it’s God’s time, if we’re not responding, you know what, I know that God will bring it to the surface, and it will be dealt with! That’s how we need to think because that’s how God works.

...or do you despise, in other words, think little of the riches of His goodness, of the way God deals with us, with me, His forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? So, the more we see and really understand on a spiritual plane how God has dealt with us, and we see what helps us in our repentance process and bringing us to repentance, shouldn’t we want to see everyone else have the same opportunity and give the same patience and slack and desire for, candidly, and really want to see that?

Verse 5—But in accordance with your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up for yourself wrath within the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Spoken to people in God’s Church, that we’re to learn these things, that judgment starts here, and this is what we’re to focus upon. If we’re not careful our hearts can become hardened and we’re not repenting of what we should be repenting of, which is the finding of fault with God’s servants because you don’t know the mind and heart of individuals and how they’re repenting of their sins. Even if there is sin, you have to be very careful of what you do and how you do it, and how you say it. That’s why so often it’s a matter then of going to the ministry, and then the minister may be going and asking someone else to make sure that something is dealt with properly and a right answer is given when there is sin involved.

And so, we don’t want to do this, “Store up wrath for the day of wrath, a time of judgment.” Yet there are going to be so many, so many in the past two thousand years this is exactly what they did, and this is what they’re having to look forward to, judgment.

…and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to each one according to their deeds, their doing. So, it’s “What am I doing?” That’s what the bottom line is. “What have I done? How am I doing it?” Because that’s how I’m being judged and so is everyone else. Our hope should be toward one another with the right kind of mind that “I hope and pray that they’re able to come to see and understand some of their weaknesses…” Because we all have weaknesses and sometimes we’re able to see certain weaknesses in others. But be careful how you judge that. God has patience; let Him work it out unless there is a specific sin that needs to be dealt with that’s hurting the Church.

…who will render to each one according to their deeds. Every one of us. Every person who’s ever been a part. Every person that’s become antichrist—and there have been many—have walked on very dangerous ground.

…according to their deeds, eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality. So, that’s what we should be striving to do, striving to do what is right, good before God because it comes from God, because it agrees with God, the mind of God, the will of God. It is God’s will. We know, we have the confidence “This is the will of God in this matter,” and we can judge it accordingly.

“For glory, for honor, and immortality.” Is that what we’re striving for, we want to be a part of God’s Family, we desire to be a part of something that is so incredibly beautiful and wonderful and exciting, of things we can’t even grasp in this human life yet?

But to those who are self-seeking… So, we have to be so careful that things aren’t just coming from self. Because everyone who ever leaves, it’s always come from self, never from God. It’s always been from self, selfish self, and that’s ugly. Of something that’s wanted, that’s different from what God says is good and right. Wanting something else, whatever that is.

Ever how fleeting or foolish and insane it is people will latch on to it, do latch on to it, have latched on to it, and are gone, never to come back. Sometimes never, never, never, never to come back after they have fought against the very one through whom they’re able to have their sins forgiven, and spit on his sacrifice! That is the greatest sin and sickness of all! I hope we understand that in God’s Church. I get worked up talking about it because I’ve seen too much of it, so much of it.

And you think, can we not see, can we not grasp what’s been done in such cases when someone comes to the point? It’s one thing for what the Israelites did. It’s one thing for what Judah did and they were taken into captivity, and they still had the Sabbath and the Holy Days as far as knowing the time and went through the motion of physical things and offered sacrifices. They went through the motions. They did it on a physical level, never a part of the Church. I’m not talking about that in any fashion or form.

But to think of what they did, and we can shake our heads at them. Just like when they came across the Red Sea. In the beginning in the Church, I used to think, “Man, when it says they were hard-headed, hard-hearted, that’s kind of an understatement.” You think, “How could they just get on the other side and start finding fault with God in something they see physically?” But they did.

But to see ourselves? Oh, it’s so easy to find fault with them when we have received the ultimate, the impregnation of God’s spirit in our mind with our spirit. From that point forward we’re being judged as to whether or not we’re going to be in God’s Family. We must learn to love that with all of our being, with all of our might, to love what God’s placed before us and fight for it with all of our being, with all of our might or we just won’t be there.

If we go out and choose something different from God and the way of God and we spit upon that sacrifice, the Passover, you think that’s a mild thing with God Almighty? Because that is the greatest sins that there are in scripture, people who have done those things because they had the mind of God impregnated in them, the being of God impregnated in them, and the opportunity through right choices, through desiring and crying out for God’s spirit to be transformed into something so beautiful, so glorious, so awesome. To treat it in such a shabby way?

I think “Why would anybody in the next year sin and leave?” But it’ll happen. It’ll happen. I ache because of that. I do. It hurts. Choices, choices, choices.

…but those who are self-seeking and not obeying the truth, but obeying unrighteousness—indignation and wrath. That’s what awaits. That’s what awaits. That’s God’s judgment, righteous judgment.

Romans 8:31—What then shall we say of these things? If God is for us… Now, if God is for us we should be for each other. Doesn’t that follow suit? But so often that hasn’t always been the case in God’s Church. Because that should be the first thing that hits our mind when we see someone going through a battle, suffering, sinning, whatever it might be. It should still be that, should be in our heart we want them to succeed, we want them to be able to come to repentance. We want them to be a part of this. We want them to share in what we’re striving to accomplish and receive ourselves. We should want that for one another, and if we want that with all of our being then that’ll have a lot to do with how we respond to them, if we really, really, really love them.

What shall we say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? The last to be against us should be someone in God’s Church.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered him for all of us, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring charge against God’s elect? I don’t want to be guilty of that. You want to be guilty of that?

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? You have to be so careful. It is God who justifies, not us. It is God who justifies, who judges. Who is it who condemns? Which is a matter of judgment. It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. It’s a beautiful thing. So, it always brings it back to Christ, Christ is our Passover, forgiveness of sin, Christ is our intercessor, our desire to grow and come before God’s throne and that which is constantly there as far as our prayers are concerned and our relationship that’s developed with God Almighty through time.

John 8. I’m going to go ahead and add these things to it because, again, these are scriptures we’ve gone over so many times. But so often they haven’t been grasped and understood in spirit and in truth in God’s Church as a whole, as to the depth as what we need, and yet they’re so basic. But God has to give that to us. It’s about Christ. I’ve mentioned this every time I give sermons about judgment.

John 8:15—You judge according to the flesh. I believe that. Do you believe that? Do you realize that’s what our first inclination is as a human being? “I judge according to the flesh.” Now, I strive not to because I loathe it. I’ve learned to loathe it. Still guilty of it from time to time, perhaps in some area, but I’ll tell you what, as time has gone on becomes much less. Because I loathe that with all my being more than you can know.

“You judge according to the flesh.” So, we should see ourselves and realize that’s how we are as human beings. It’s easy to find fault with others. That’s all we’re talking about. Because why? Because we all have weaknesses. We all have weaknesses. I have weaknesses. You have weaknesses. Okay?

You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one. Now, in times past some people haven’t understood this in God’s Church, but he’s saying in the context, I judge no one according to the flesh. He says, “You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one according to the flesh.” That’s the context. He doesn’t judge that way.

That’s why in verse 16 it goes on to say, Yet, if I judge, my judgment is true. That’s what we should strive for, that if judgment has to be involved, we better be careful and make sure that it’s true.

…for I am not alone. Especially here. For I am not alone in judging. That’s what it’s talking about. But I and the Father who sent me. So, he had a unique job, responsibility, and he knew it and understood it with all of his being. But we’re to follow this example, this light that was given to us that he lived.

So, if there is any kind of judgment in our lives where we have to become involved in something we’d better make sure with all of our being pray about it, make certain that we’re right with God in the matter whatever that is. So, a better translation in part of this, But it is I and the Father who sent me.

The next area of scripture here, John 5:30, he says, Of myself I can do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous. And ours should be. We should strive to have that which is righteous in our thinking because it’s a matter of being right with God. It’s a matter of being based on things that God has given that are true and right.

…because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me. So again, this is a matter of logic. This is a matter of thinking. This is a matter of how the mind works. This is what’s being shown to us, that we can do this, we can have right thinking and be able to look at various things as far as God’s will is concerned. What is God’s will? Well, it’s a part of the process here about law, whatever it might be as to how we live life and the choices we make. It’s the process we go through to make certain that God is in it and that we see the reasoning of why God wants things done in a specific way.

Why it’s wrong to steal. How far does that go? What does that mean in our life? Does it get into every facet of our being in our life and how we live our lives? Do we misuse things, tithes, Holy Day second tithe? So, it’s a matter of understanding why these things are given in the first place, why God has them there. We need to see more of God and the purpose that God has in it.

Commit adultery. Anybody commit adultery? Does anyone have to fight things of the mind sometimes in their life? Is there something there that we need to see as human beings? Do people play around? Because we live in an age of technology where it’s very easy to do some of those kinds of things that happen out there and in God’s Church. Okay? And you have to fight fights and it has to do with what you’re thinking in here. It’s a battle of the human mind.

So, whatever it might be on and on it goes, how we think in seeing the greatest of human weaknesses that are there, they affect us as God’s people. You’re bombarded with things on a constant basis out here whether it be TV, on the highway driving. Of course, you don’t have signs like we have signs in the U.S., but you know they put it on billboards… Anyway. But you’re bombarded, I don’t care what it’s in. You have to be the one to make choices as to what you allow in the mind, what you hear, what you think, how you think.

We’ve had cases where political parties come together and there are elections and we have people in God’s church sometimes beginning to take sides, why we believe someone should be in office over someone else, or even going so far in saying, “Well, God’s going to put this person in office.”

Well, if God does have a part in someone being there it’s not generally based on, obviously, why we think the way we do. It’s based on perhaps a need of something more, perhaps because of certain things that have to take place in the Trumpets that are coming up and that certain people are going to respond to those in a unique and a special way that isn’t good. But if we think that there is going to be some kind of cure or some kind of remedy or things are going to get better for us in our life because of someone, and that we agree that they’re the best for the job…

We should hate it. To think we take sides? You have to be careful what you hear out there. If we’re not careful we begin to lean toward one side or the other. What we’re to lean toward is toward God and what is sound, what comes from right thinking, not from conservative or liberal or whatever that is in our minds but what is right with God.

My judgment is righteous because I don’t seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me. So, God has sent us, every one of us, into this world to live a certain way of life. Not as Christ, obviously, for what his job was, but sent. He calls us, He works with us, and He has us in this world and we’re to reflect a certain way of life with everyone we come in contact with, truly, in how we live toward them in the world. But ever so much more so in the Church.

I want to conclude today here by going through a little bit, just a little bit more. Last night couldn’t sleep, woke up for a while and I began to think of all the people who toward the end, before the Feast here, that haven’t been able to come to the Feast. So, I wanted to add this so that everyone hears this.

We’re going through a lot. I have not seen this level of suffering in God’s Church in PKG. There’s a lot more taking place. There’s a lot more happening. We have to understand where we are in time. We have to grasp that we’re closing in on the end, okay? It’s crying out.

The Thunders… If we don’t grasp, if we don’t understand, this is not because of a date that is set as we looked to 2012, as we saw a meticulousness… God let us see some things that were good for us, to understand the power of Almighty God to work in a very specific order and in a very specific way that everything ties into.

Just like things… Passover, we start with that. Christ didn’t come and die on Pentecost. He didn’t come and die halfway in between Passover and Pentecost. And so, we see the marvel of timing and how God works and His plan. I’ve been dumbfounded by some of those things that led up to, candidly, that period of time, and then we found that there was much more to learn and God working with us.

The fact that some who were called early on (I say “early on,” 2005, 2006, 2007) have opportunity to receive a crown that others had given up. Now, that’s an awesome thing, but it’s a beautiful thing. To have such opportunity that at one point in time that wouldn’t be the case, but then to come into a point in time because that did take place and God revealing, “Don’t ever quit the battle. Don’t ever quit fighting to the very end, of holding on to what you’ve been given. Don’t give up what God has offered before you.” Because we’ve seen it. It’s happened over and over and over again. What a horrible thing to take place.

But to understand you’ve been called, some of you have been called to have opportunity to be changed at Christ’s coming? Awesome. Beautiful. Take hold of it with all of your being.

And so, I thought I’d just mention here last night I counted over a dozen people who can’t make it. Right up to the end here couldn’t make it to the Feast. I’ve never seen anything like this. All at one time pretty much, of things that have happened.

I think of Garth Blake who got all the way to Australia, to the Feast site, received a call that his wife had a heart attack. She had some severe health problems anyway and some things that she was trying to find out more about. But then in the meantime, fine for him to be able to go to the Feast. They still wanted to find out some things. But now she’s had a heart attack, so he goes to the airport to try to get a flight back (which he counselled about), and yes, absolutely, he should be with his wife.

I remember missing a Feast… Well, actually, I went the first day and it was horrible because back then we didn’t have technology like we do now. Because you’re not going to hear anything if you’re not there. We didn’t have things like we do now. Laura was pregnant with Audra, and she picked the Feast time to come. And so, I know, it’s hard to miss a Feast, it really is. But especially when there is something severe.

So, they told him that he’d have to wait until the next morning. But then they made a place for him on the plane to get him back. Now, the airline did. Awesome.

But I know of so many cases like this right now, of individuals where there’s a mate that has severe illnesses, various things have happened from cancer to shingles to different things that have happened to different ones here at this period of time that has prevented some to come. Some with other kinds of medical issues, of surgeries that have not gone well. I’ve never seen such bombardment. But we’ve known it was coming more and more. This is, to me, just another one of those things that fits into this scheme of things of the sense of Thunders and the things that are going to happen more and more as we go forward.

And so, this morning we counted up fifteen – fifteen in the short length of time here, of things, strange things that have happened. One I think he’s probably going to make it to the Feast, but had his wallet stolen at the last minute. Now, you know, that puts you in a bit of a tizzy. That’s been one of my fears. You think, “Man, if I lose my passport?”

You think about losing certain things like that. But when somebody takes all your credit cards, that’s a nightmare. You have to get ahold of all these places and it’s not a simple thing, and try to stop payment on everything. So, anyway, but I think made it to the Feast or is in the process.

I’m just looking down the list here. I was going to say, too, even two families who have lost loved ones who were murdered. Not the individuals that were murdered were in the Church, but the family is in the Church. You talk about that and the suffering that people go through in something like that, one that was never found and they don’t know but suspect that it was that. Another was definitely a murder. And you think, what a horrible thing to go through things that are hurtful and painful like that. But we’re going to see so many things.

We’re going to experience so many things and we need to also understand that but also to think about one another. Everyone is so blessed to be at a Feast of Tabernacles, and those who couldn’t be there, they’re very blessed because they can still hear everything that’s given at the Feast of Tabernacles.

So, we find ourselves in different predicaments at times. If you have something that you have a desire and hate to see others go through various things like that, to pray about. Often it’s a matter of the area, the region you’re in that you’re able to pray about those things and that’s what you’re to do. Sometimes we may announce some things when they’re immediately life-threatening type of thing or at that point, but anyway, as a whole within the Church areas where people are located, they know the individuals that are going through some of these things.

But what an incredible thing to realize that there are so many and if you’re at home and listening to this, you’re not alone. There are others out there suffering too. We’re going to go through more of these kinds of things so just understand that as we continue to go forward.

I don’t know how much more time we have but I’ll tell you what, I marvel sometimes that things are still holding together. But they’re holding together because God’s in charge and it’ll happen at His time. That’s awesome.

I was thinking as well about the fact that I’d mentioned about a Feast site for next year that we’ll likely be staying then in the U.S. next year because the ability to go through the sermons and edit them has gotten faster and better than it was several years back. And so, we’re going to do that probably next year.

I’ll just throw it out here, two places that we’ve looked at. One is Colorado Springs, which is kind of a backup right now, not working out at this point and we can’t wait. But the other one is the Texas area, Dallas area, past the airport area. Anyway, some of you probably know exactly where I’m talking about. It has to do with the growing of wine, the getting of wine. It’s called Grapevine.

Anyway, it looks like we probably have a contract. We do have the contract; it’s a matter of me signing it and so forth and taking care of that. But next year’s will be over there so I’m letting everybody know that so we can start making plans because this is something we’re going to be signing up for very soon. The only thing is, please get used to the fact that we’re not going to be able to have the low rates that we’ve had in Cincinnati for so many years because we’ve been severely spoiled by that. But it’s going to be a little higher, obviously.

So, I just wanted to share that in the sermon context here so that people are understanding of this and can begin thinking about it. Because when this begins moving forward… And my hope is, is that everything is finished before that. What an awesome thing. We live in that kind of time where it well could be. Look at the world.

I was going to read some news at the end of this but I’m not going to. I’ll hold it for the end of maybe another sermon here. But wanted to make sure this is tacked on to the sermon so that we can be praying about those who weren’t able to be with us. We’re family and we should feel very deeply for the rest of the family who didn’t have the same opportunity that maybe I did, or you did or whatever.

So again, think about that. We are a family and we’re to love each other. And God has given us sermons this past year about how to exercise that love even more so. In this sermon, in the series we’re going through, the different sermons we’re going through here at the Feast, this judgment has so much to do with that, about our being a Family.

That’s what God’s creating, and we’re blessed to be a part of that, and we need to think that way toward each other and it should move us deeply inside toward other Family members. So be praying about those things.