Glorify God, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

March 16, 2024

Now, some of you out there, because you have the two systems, whether you’re listening or watching on YouTube, you already know the title of the sermon today. But I’m not going to give it until toward the end of the sermon, so you’ve already cheated.

Anyway, this is going to be a longer introduction for this sermon than what I normally have. There are several things that need to be addressed before I want to give the title of the sermon today for its own impact if you will. That’s why some of you already see it, you know it.

But since 2005, I’ve been awesomely inspired at how God has been revealing Himself more fully to His Church, and we’re going to take a look at some of that as far as history is concerned and how to understand how even that in itself fits into so many things.

So, in recent sermons, we've been covering many of the truths that God has given us, and there is one truth that needs to be mentioned here. It’s Truth #48:

48 (27) The Seven Thunders have been revealed and will happen precisely as foretold. As stated in sermons and in 2008–God’s Final Witness, all these Thunders began during the time of the Sixth Seal. They will continue to be fulfilled with increasing magnitude during the time of the Seventh Seal.

Then it goes into that truth explaining what they are. Here I’m going to skip ahead to the Seventh Thunder which is:

7.) An accelerated revelation of God to man, in both the Church that was scattered and in the world.

So, with that in mind, to understand something that’s happening here at the end that is an accelerated revelation of God to the Church and to mankind. We understand that it’s not going to happen to mankind as a whole until we get further into this in the sense of approaching the Seventh Thunder.

But if you will here, even in that we know that it’s happening in the Church, and that’s what's exciting and inspiring when you consider some of this in this Truth #42. So again, this takes us back to what was mentioned, again, that has moved since 2005, when God began to reveal Himself. I want to read the whole thing now. So, now we’re moving back here to Truth #42 because this is when it began in large part as far as the Church is concerned.

42 (21) God the Father is Yahweh Elohim and He alone has eternally existed. The teaching that Christ has always existed is not from scripture, but became established in the Nicene Creed that emerged out of the work of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. This creed established the creation of the Trinity doctrine.

Which they call a mystery because there is no proof of it in scripture. So, they themselves refer to it as a mystery…and it is a mystery.

It is from this time that the true origins of the Catholic Church began. It wasn’t until hundreds of years later that Protestant churches emerged and also adopted this teaching of the Trinity of the Church of Rome.

Now, that’s an incredible thing because even as far as the Sabbath, the Catholic Church itself says the only authority the Protestant church has that it’s been changed to Sunday is the pope, is the Catholic Church, is the authority of the pope in the Catholic Church that changed it. They wanted to get away from it, from the Catholic Church because they didn’t like several aspects of it—primarily, its government and so forth—but they took the majority of its teachings with it. Incredible!

And even in that, you think how devious, if you will, Satan is because there is a lot of power in what he did to influence people to take with them these different doctrines and spread it now far worse in the world in the sense of different ideas and different thoughts and so forth being thrown into ideas that came out of the Catholic Church as well. So, it just made more confusion.

That’s why I love the expression “Babylon” and “coming out of Babylon” as well. We are to come out of Egypt. We understand that, what it means coming out of sin, but Babylon as well. It’s the confusion that’s been created by that being in those things that are taught by so many groups out there. Thousands and thousands, tens of thousands through time here in the last several hundred years.

Anyway, going on:

The truth is, what earlier had been translated into scripture as the “Holy Ghost,” which is supposed to be one of the beings of the Godhead…

You know, there are so many things in scripture that have been translated out of the concepts that primarily have been in the Catholic Church and in the Protestant churches as well that vary somewhat with the Catholic Church, but they have been forced into scripture because of their interpretation that has to fit their beliefs and their ideas.

So, we’re ever seeing things that are different. God’s continually revealing different things to us to help us to see how some of that has taken place. There are some places that sometimes I just have to shake my head at what it really says in Hebrew or Greek that have been so twisted and distorted to say what they want it to say because of what they believe.

This is one of them, the “holy ghost.” Not a being. It’s one thing that God gave immediately, or very early on to Herbert Armstrong to understand, that it’s the power of God. It’s the holy spirit. It comes from God, God’s power. It’s not a being. It’s not a separate being. It’s just that which comes from, emanates from God. Awesome!

But these ideas are in people’s minds in the world and for that to change it’s not always easy because they’re deeply entrenched in there. It’s hard for people to shake those things. And without God’s help, actually they can’t.

The truth is, what earlier had been translated into scripture as the “Holy Ghost,” which is supposed to be one of the beings of the Godhead is misunderstood and is not a being at all. The correct translation should be “holy spirit,” which is simply the spirit that comes from the One Eternal God—Yahweh Elohim. There are not three beings in the Godhead as this doctrine of the Trinity teaches.

And yet, I think it’s an awesome thing because this is God revealing Himself still even toward the end that the third part wasn’t really grasped until primarily beginning in 2005. Then God revealed it to His Church at that particular time.

Instead, there is only one Almighty God who has eternal existence. Joshua the Christ was conceived in Mary, his earthly mother, but begotten by God—Yahweh Elohim—who therefore became the Father of Christ. Joshua the Christ had no existence until born of Mary.

Now, we take this for granted. We all understand it. We know it, but we didn’t know it as a Church until 2005. That’s an awesome thing. It’s one of the Thunders because that’s a powerful thing that God revealed, in that respect, to the Church because it helps to separate where He is working, what He is doing from that which was scattered out there that won’t even begin to give that credibility in any fashion or form.

That’s why I love the book of Acts when it goes through and talks about and it reveals some of the things that are quoted out of the Old Testament and it goes through this process talking about, in essence, Yahweh Elohim, making it very clear it’s not Christ, it can’t be Christ, unless you believe (which a lot of them do now because they don’t have any answer for it) that Yahweh Elohim was Christ. Insanity!

There is a vast amount of proof to these truths in scripture and a vast number of them were covered extensively in Feast of Tabernacles sermons given in 2005.

Also, there are some verses that God gave to be recorded in Isaiah that mean exactly what they say, and even one where God makes it abundantly clear who the very Creator of all things that exist is.

So, I’m going to go ahead and read those because it’s part of the truth. Isaiah 45:5. Now, these are awesome for God’s Church because others in the world or in the scattered Church more directly, can’t see this, can’t comprehend this, which should be very clear. But it can’t be without God’s spirit. It’s God that has to reveal these kinds of things to people even though, well, the proof is throughout the scriptures there. Here is one:

(Isaiah 45:5-6) I am the LORD… [if it’s all capital letters it’s Hebrew, Yahweh, meaning the Eternal], and there is no other; There is no God [Heb. – Elohim] besides Me.

Well, we know God is a Family. We know it’s about what God is creating. He says there’s not another besides Him. He is Yahweh. It’s the only one that’s Elohim.

I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me.

Making it a point over and over again there is no one else, there is none that is God, that is Elohim.

I am the LORD [Yahweh, the Eternal], I am the Eternal and there is no other.

Awesome! So clear!

(Isaiah 45:18) For thus says the LORD [Yahweh, the Eternal], who created the heavens, who is God [who is Elohim], who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited…

So again here, awesome, an awesome verse. It means what it says. It’s so clear if you have God’s spirit in you. That’s what it takes. All of God’s truth can only be seen and grasped and understood and believed in its entirety by God’s spirit. Human beings are incapable of that. That’s why God has to call us and draw us, help us to begin to see certain things that we understand. And to me, that’s inspiring because that can give you a confidence and a boldness that if you’re able to see those things it’s because of God’s spirit. You’re very blessed then. Awesome!

…did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited, “I am the LORD [Yahweh, the Eternal], and there is no other.”

Awesome! So, I think of that that took place in 2005, a beginning of that process of that Thunder, because the Thunders began in 2001. That’s what God has given to us to understand and comprehend. Then all these others have been spread out at different points. They’ve happened at different times. A little farther spread out like the woman in labor because when it first begins it’s a longer period of time in between. And for us, there have been long periods of time in between some of the events of the Thunders. Now? Whole different story.

I think of all the other things now that have been revealed since then. But anyway, let’s go over to Exodus 3 because I still don’t want to give the title to you here in Detroit. We’re still setting a basis for all this. All the others who saw it when they turned on whatever, they already know. Some are probably going back and trying to find it right now.

I’m going to add to all this covered so far by saying it was several years ago when I was deeply moved and in awe of another awesome thing that God revealed to His Church, and we find it here in Exodus, in the story of Exodus.

Exodus 3:1—Now, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. So, just putting this in perspective, Horeb, the area of Mount Sinai, and the names given there. We’ve looked at some of this in some of the stories of those who have journeyed down in that particular area in scripture. But again here, this is where Moses was after he left Egypt. This is where his father-in-law, his family was now, there in that particular area. And so, it talks about where he was.

And then it says, Then an angel of the Eternal appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush. So, he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, and the bush was not consumed. So, you see something burning in the distance here, just a little way a way, whatever it is, you see this image of the bush that’s there and there is a fire there, but it’s not being consumed. Things don’t work like that. When you see a fire you realize, hey, it’s not going to be very long, and parts are going to be falling down and getting smaller because it’s being burned up. That’s what’s in his mind.

Then Moses thought to turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush did not burn up. Then the Eternal saw he turned aside to see it and God called to him from the midst of the bush and said… Again, what an incredible thing, a way that God intended to reveal Himself to Moses, to speak to Him and begin to give Him direction. Out of the bush here, the sound came out of that.

…Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am. Now, that would just about cause a lot of thoughts to go through your mind, and a lot of them are kind of frightening. You hear something coming out to you, this kind of power and strength and clarity and you don’t see anyone around, and you know it’s coming from that direction?

Then He said (God said), Do not draw near to this place. In other words, he was coming up that way and He had him at a particular point where He told him, “Be careful now. Stop!” …take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Well, it’s because of God’s presence. God was using that to reveal Himself or to begin to reveal Himself, His power, His might, His message, if you would, to Moses.

Moreover, He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now, Moses understood this much. The Israelites understood this much. They knew their lineage. They knew they weren’t Egyptian. They knew some of their story of their background.

They knew some of the things about Abraham and certain things about God, but they didn’t have it all by any measure. It’s just stories that were passed down that they still had. It wasn’t a matter of things that they were learning week by week, Sabbath by Sabbath by any measure that was being spoken by Levites. They didn’t exist yet in that respect, in the sense of the function that was going to be given to them later on.

And so, he knew what He was talking about when He said, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Issac, the God of Jacob.” Well, He had his attention.

So, Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. Now, we understand that He couldn’t look at God. We understand that God is spirit, and you can’t see spirit. All he could see was a burning bush, but he still had this fear of what was in his mind, of what his thinking was. He didn’t even want to look up.

Then the Eternal said, I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. Now, what an incredible thing here, to understand that they were crying out. It’s not just a matter that God was aware of their sorrows, as it says here He was aware of, but the fact that He said they were crying out. Their cries, in essence, He was hearing.

Well, why would that be the case? It may not be the best of example, bringing it up to the present, but if you understand how much has been lost through time, that’s been spread around as we talked about, the Catholic Church and the protestant world and their stories out there, because over time stories get changed and things get put in and things get added to it. But they did quite a job back in 325, starting there, and then later on, a lot later on, the Christmas thing was added, and the Easter thing and all these different things were added at different periods of time. It was hundreds and hundreds of years before Christmas, the celebration of some of the things that were taking place began to come out in the Catholic Church.

Again, all these different things being thrown in there so they’re getting farther and farther away over time, obviously, from any true knowledge about God even as far as what’s written because they keep adding different things to it. But a basic knowledge, yes. They had a basic knowledge. The Israelites had a basic knowledge they had a God. Their history is they had a God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. They comprehended that part but not a whole lot more.

They didn’t fully know about God, what to believe in those things at all. But because of all the nations around them, or at that particular time just Egypt, but before that because they were there for a long time as they even came into the area, they began to lose a lot of that and became aware of different things from different gods because the gods of the Egyptians, they were many. On and on it goes even of the surrounding areas, of people that would travel into the region or whatever. They had different gods.

And so, they understood or believed that they had a God. Now, what happens when people are suffering so often? Things will humble people and they’ll cry out to whatever concept they have of a God. I don’t care what part of the world you are in or what kind of religion it is, if you’re going through suffering and people are oppressing you and you have certain ideas about deliverance – because they had this as well because they were told this many a time, and they were told this from the beginning – then you’re going to cry out.

So anyway, He’s saying “I’ve heard their cries and I see their sorrows.” So, I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. So, now it’s time. …and to bring them up from the land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

So, they had a basic awareness. Moses even had a basic awareness of some of this, what this was about because people travel; they traded and so forth. They knew of certain areas though they’d never seen them. Maybe they heard stories and some that were passed along to them by people who traveled because this was a common thing.

Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children has come to Me, and I have seen the oppression which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now, that in itself had to be scary because there was a reason he left. He’d been seen. He’d killed an Egyptian and he left everything else behind and fled the area, the region if you will, and wouldn’t have been all that keen to go back.

But God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that history that he knew, was there in his mind. He’s telling him to do this, and he’s seeing or had seen this bush and now he’s hearing this voice coming out of absolutely nowhere and telling him what to do.

But Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Think you would have some doubts in your mind?

So, He said, I will certainly be with you, and this shall be a sign that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall serve God in this mountain. Now, that’s going to be quite a while up the line. If you’re going to obey God in what He’s telling you to do, to go back and you’re going to be coming before Pharoah and you’re going to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, that God’s going to do this somehow, there’s something that God has to be working with in the mind to yield to this part of the process, to begin believing.

And there is, because there are things that God can give to us in spirit in the mind to move and motivate us with various kinds of thinking and so forth, and this was certainly at work within Moses. So, this is going to be a sign, but Moses, what’s he thinking? He can’t do this right away. He’s not just going to go down there and say something to Pharoah and Pharaoh is going to let everybody go and then he’s going to come back to this mountain because this is the sign.

God’s going to have to give him a whole lot more, a whole lot more signs to strengthen him, to help him, to motivate him, to help him through this because that’s off in the future and it comes down in time here, do you believe? It’s like anything that God gives to us, do you believe it?

Well, that was working on Moses, but the only way he could really believe it if we understand how that works, was because God was working with him, if you will, on a spiritual plane. Just like when we’re called He begins to communicate things to the mind to where you have the ability to begin believing what God says.

Think of the truths when we’re first called, and you’re drawn out of the world, and God begins to communicate those things in your mind when you hear them, and all of a sudden you see it. But it’s a spiritual thing. Moses, because God had great plans for Moses, has great plans for him into the Millennium and the Great White Throne, obviously, and beyond.

Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they say to me, What is His name? What shall I say? So, God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. “Just tell them. Tell them exactly what I have told you.”

…and said, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I AM sent me to you. Well, he’s going to tell them more. But sometimes it’s good to try to put ourselves into that thinking and what was going on and what does he know to this point in time and what is he seeing now? But sometimes there are things, certain aspects, we don’t see because it has to be given to us.

It’s the fact of understanding that when God begins to work with people, I don’t care who it was in time, who it was in the first four thousand years, God was giving them His holy spirit because it’s the only way a person can begin to change and grow and conquer and overcome certain things and see the things that God was telling them (though they were very limited in those times). Abraham, what he was given, there wasn’t a whole lot. But God was working in his mind, in his spirit. He had a begettal of God’s spirit in his mind.

They didn’t go through the process we do in the Church in the past two thousand years. God judged them, worked with them in a different format, in a different way personally with each one of them. We’re worked with as a Church through Christ. God giving to Christ the authority and the power to accomplish what is there and then… Awesome!

But we all have to have the begettal. Moses had to have a begettel of God’s holy spirit to where God began to work with him, where God began to mold and fashion him. It’s the only way you can be born into God’s Family.

Sometimes in the past, we haven’t understood that part of a process, but they had to go through the same kind of things spiritually in the mind that we had to. So, understand when God was talking to him it wasn’t just a matter of physical words that he was hearing, there was that which was going on in the mind that gave him an ability to begin seeing the things that God was saying.

Yet he was dealing with his own human nature. He wasn’t really excited to go back to Egypt. He wasn’t really excited to go before Pharoah. He certainly didn’t believe at this point in time fully in his own mind and sense of confidence that all the Israelites are going to be able to be taken out because of what he’s going to do, whatever God is going to have him do. It takes a lot to step out like he did. It took a lot to do what he did. But he had help and it was in his mind through God’s spirit. It’s not something a human being can do on their own.

The story goes on here. I need to back up here a little bit. I think I’m skipping ahead. I get to telling a story and I forget where in the world I was.

Verse 18—Then they shall heed your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him… So, He’s telling him what he’s going to say. This is slow in registering because of carnal human nature, but it’s being seeded in his mind and in his being. He said, again here, “they’re going to heed your voice.” He’s trying to give him a confidence in what he’s going to do, and this is what He knows is going to come to pass because He’s going to bring it to pass, but He’s starting to help Moses to see it.

…you shall say to him, (in other words, to the Pharoah), because you’re going to the elders and to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, The Eternal God of the Hebrews has met with us, and now we ask that you let us go a day’s journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Eternal our God. So, right now it’s just a day’s journey. That’s what He’s starting out with, God is, but God’s going to change that because He’s giving Moses a little bit at a time here. Because the reality is we can’t handle everything at the beginning. Just like our own human nature. You know, when God calls us, He doesn’t show us ourselves right away. It’s over a lifetime of experiences that we see things in ourselves, that we grow, and we begin to understand, and we’re able to handle more and more as time goes along, if you will, on that kind of a plane.

But He says, But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go. No, not even by a mighty hand. “So, Moses, be prepared.” I understand because this is what is going through Moses’ mind, “You think he’s going to let us go?” God’s telling him, “I know he won’t. Not even by a mighty hand, by the things that I do as a whole. He’s going to still resist.”

So, I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the midst of it. And after that, he will let you go. So, again, a confidence. God is telling him verbally in this respect, first of all, what he’s hearing, and then in the mind, and slowly but surely, it’s giving Moses strength which he has to have in order to do what he’s going to accomplish.

I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall be when you go that you shall not go emptyhanded, but every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder, or as the word is, it just means in Hebrew take away from the Egyptians.

God is telling them, not only are you going to be taken out of Egypt, not only is that point in time coming where you’re going to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, but they’re going to give you wealth and you’re going to have to put it on your children and on yourself. There’s going to be that much that you’re going to have to carry out that the children are going to have to have it as well.

Then the story goes on and God reveals to him that He can change the staff in his hand to a snake and put his hand within his robe, pull it back out and it be white like leprosy, if you will, white as snow, as it says, and that he can take some water and pour it on the ground and it turns to blood. So, these things God revealed to him there if you read the rest of the verses.

Then we come down to Exodus 5:1—Afterward, Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus says the Eternal God of Israel, Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness. Then Pharaoh responded, Who is the Eternal, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? It’s like they have all their gods. He was filled with incredible pride, and rulers like that that see themselves in that capacity, in that area of life in the sense of commanding a people and on a massive scale like he did and believing that they’re even gods, they have incredible impunity for others around them, and he did especially toward Moses and anyone that would come and tell him anything that wasn’t of his thinking. It took a lot.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it had been like for Moses to say what he did and know what Pharoah is going to react like. Incredible! Because, and like so many stories in the Old Testament, so many that came up, I think of Elijah and some of the stories that we read there and thinking that any time that he sees the king his life could be over with. They have that power. Pharoah is a whole lot more if you will.

So, he said he wasn’t going to let Israel go. So they said, The God, in this case here Elohim of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go three days journey into the desert. So, by this time now at this point, tell him we need to go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Eternal our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword. So, “We have to obey Him. Otherwise, to disobey Him, to disobey our God, we can’t do that.” Well, Pharoah is going to let him know you might die right here too; he had that power to destroy. But they enjoyed the benefits of slavery, of having the Israelites as slaves and taking care of the things that they did for them.

Then the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor. Then Pharaoh said, Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor. So, the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. So, this is a huge change. And you think, it was hard enough as it was before. They were being oppressed, they were crying out to God because of how difficult everything was as it were before that, and now they’re going to have to go out and gather their own straw as well to make the bricks.

Even you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it for they are idle. “You know, they’re not working, they’re not doing what they should be doing. If they have this amount of time here, their minds to come and be a part of this,” as some of the leaders were saying, “They’re just being idle.” …therefore, they cry out, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God, Elohim.

Verse 19 jumping on down—And the officers of the children of Israel saw the evil there was after it was said, You shall not diminish from the bricks of your daily tasks. They already knew this was bad, “This can’t even be done. How can it be done?” Because they were responsible then for meeting out punishment for the things that weren’t done if it wasn’t met. So, that makes their job that much worse. That’s why the word “evil” is used there. There is a whole lot more they’re going to have to do in an evil way to accomplish this.

Then they said to them, Let the Eternal look upon you, and judge, because you have made us to smell as a stench in the eyes of Pharoah. So those, some of those leaders and then the people as they heard some of these things, this is what they’re feeling, “Look what we have to do now! You’re just making it worse and worse!” And how long do you follow that? Well, they didn’t like it at all.

They said, You make us smell like a stench in the eyes of the Pharoah, and in the eyes of his servants, so as to put a sword in their hand to slay us. It's like, “We’re going to die because of what you’re doing, because of what you’re saying.”

Verse 22—So, Moses returned unto the Eternal, and said, Lord, Why have you brought evil upon this people? “It’s worse now than what it was before.” Why have You sent me? Now, you talk about being discouraged. Here you’re going down with this idea that there is going to be some response, and it’s not good. “Indeed, Pharoah is not going to let us go, but he’s putting a lot more on all of Israel now.”

For since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered your people at all. So, in one respect that was pretty bold of Moses, but the truth was the truth in the sense of what he could see as a physical human being and with the responsibility of what God told him He was going to do.

We really can’t know that. Unless you’ve experienced certain things in life there are things you can’t know. But to know what was going through him? And candidly, all these things were what God was using to mold and fashion him. Do you know how we go through various trials and to see our response? God had worked with him for a long time already. When he was in Egypt before he ever left Egypt God was working with him to bring him to that moment in time. Awesome!

Exodus 6:1—Then the Eternal said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. Then God (Elohim) spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am the Eternal. I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, unto Jacob as El Shaddai (meaning God Almighty). So, “I appeared to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they knew Me as El Shaddai. That’s what I gave to them. That’s what I revealed to them.”

But by My name Yahweh, the Eternal, I was not known to them. So, it almost sends chills up and down my spine, just thinking that not until this moment in time, so long, so much farther into time, if you will, God finally revealing another aspect of Himself that He is the Ever Existing One, the Eternal God, the Eternal El Shaddai. He said, “I didn’t give that to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, but I’m giving it to you.”

Now, that means a lot, and it helps us to understand and grasp even more so through time the things that God has revealed. He takes His time, what’s in His time for His purpose to be accomplished, to do it over time, to give more and more and more. Awesome!

So, it was here in the calling of Moses and the task given to him that God began choosing to reveal Himself to Israel as the Eternal. I think about how God’s revealing Himself more fully to us, to spiritual Israel in the end-time here.

I think of a part of a process here as we’ll cover as we go along a little bit, but I think about how that finally by the time of Christ God began to reveal Himself as our Father. So, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn’t know God in that respect as their Father on a spiritual plane, but Christ came along and made it very clear, “He is my Father and your Father, my God and your God.” Those were awesome things. I think of that after four thousand years have passed and how much more that God began to give then through Christ and then the Church that followed.

So, the series is entitled Glorify God because the reality is we read scriptures sometimes about glorifying God and we don’t fully grasp what it’s talking about, how to do it, and what it means. So, this is the direction we’re moving. To understand how God works through time is a part of this, that He reveals more and more and more. And if you think of the things He’s revealed here toward the end, it becomes even greater. That we’re blessed to see, that we’re blessed to grasp and comprehend that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn’t know. To understand that Moses never knew these things. To understand that there are things being revealed now that the disciples were never given, the apostles, the early apostles weren’t given.

To me, I find that inspiring, awesome, because it’s about God’s plan of six thousand years. It’s about God, how He chooses to reveal various things as time goes along more and more and more, and especially now because His Son is about to return to this earth.

Let’s take a look at this on a spiritual plane. Exodus 6:4—He said, Even I have established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers. So, where their journeyings were before, He said “All that land where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, throughout that entire region, that’s the land I’m going to give, that’s the land I promised.”

And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; so, I have remembered My covenant. It’s not saying He forgot it. It’s not about that. It’s bringing to remembrance that which was in the past and that which is now, time to begin fulfilling. So, just letting Moses know this is the time to bring it to remembrance, this is the time to begin these things, to give this promise to Israel.

When He’s going to whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; so, I have remembered My covenant. Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Eternal, and I will bring you out from under the bondage of the Egyptians. I think of the process we go through because we understand this on a spiritual plane. That was on a physical plane. But all the things that happened from the time of Moses, I think of Passover that we’re coming up to, the things that took place there, look how God used that physical aspect to begin revealing things that He hadn’t revealed before that time.

Passover hadn’t been revealed before this, before He began to teach it or give it to Moses to observe. The Holy Days and the plan of God in that respect hadn’t been given. It wasn’t given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to comprehend. There were things, the Sabbath, but as far as the Holy Days and some of the meaning of various routines of things they were to do, they didn’t have all that.

There was a time when some felt within the Church that they had to have that back there at the very beginning; they had to have the knowledge of the Holy Days. No, they didn’t have to have it because God judges according to what He gives at any moment in time. We are judged by what we have been given by God at any moment in time. Abraham was judged in a different manner than Moses was being judged. More was given to Moses. He had choices to make, and he made the right choices of course. He was molded and fashioned for what he was going to do in the first place and on and on.

God knew what he was going to do. That’s an awesome thing to understand about God. God knows us. He knows us in the womb. He knows what makes us. That’s an awesome thing. And to understand what was going to take place, that there had to be a Moses, that there had to be one to deliver the children of Israel, God was very much involved with the parents and who came together as the parents. God has that power to fulfill His purpose and His plan.

He doesn’t always work with mankind in that manner in the sense of a father and a mother and who comes together because so much has been just given to time and chance in the sense of humanity and mankind multiplying on the earth if you will. But when God has a purpose of something being fulfilled there are things that He does, there are things that He works out. Anyway, going on.

Verse 4—Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Eternal, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Well, for us it’s spiritual. To bring us out of sin, to bring us out of the burden of sin. We have to go through a lot to learn this. For them, it was just a total physical thing inter-spiced with things that were spiritual, depending on how God was working with Moses and Aaron and on it goes.

And I will rid you of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm. Now, what do we see when we go through and read something like that? “I will redeem you?” with power is what He’s saying.

Well, how are we redeemed? I think of Christ. I think of how after four thousand years, finally, there was someone born who was to fulfill the role of the Passover, and the power that God used to bring that all about, His own Son and the things that Christ went through, meticulously so because they were all planned out by God. The things that were taught and when they were taught. Most of what Christ taught was toward the very end, not in the beginning of his ministry; they were taught toward the end.

The most important of things, the most powerful of things were given on the last day of his life on Passover night. Awesome, when you see how God works and you see the things that He does. And so, that power. Then to bring him back to life after three days in the tomb. Power.

With stretched-out arm He’s going to deliver us from bondage, He’s going to redeem us, give us that power, that ability through a process of repentance that we have, that we’ve been given, the process to begin that journey, the blessing of the receiving of God’s spirit, the blessing of being in a Church rather than being worked with individually as the first four thousand years as people were.

…and with great judgments. So, “I will redeem you with stretched out arm and with great judgments.” I think about that as well, “great judgments.” Theirs in a different manner, things that God executed, that God brought about upon the Egyptians, things that God did with Israel, even within that forty years in the wilderness.

Then I think about us and the things having to do with judgment and how we respond to God because how did they respond to God when God gave the various judgments that He gave through time there?

I will take you to Me for a people. Awesome! As far as God was concerned it was already done. But for human beings to go through that, it’s a different matter. For them to live through that, for Moses to live through this and to do the things he was going to do, to continually go back and tell about another plague that God told him to tell Pharoah about, and each time Pharoah, his heart was getting harder. Moses saw this; he saw what was happening. But he also saw God’s determination and power and what was being given to him each time these things were taking place and how the Egyptians were responding, that they were getting to a point where they wanted the children of Israel out “or we’re all dead people,” as they finally told Pharaoh. Awesome!

“I will take you to Me for a people.” How blessed are we when God decides that for each one of us? “I will take you to Me for a people now within the Church.” We have that opportunity. We understand that. Awesome! It should be very moving to us to realize how blessed we are. They were awesomely blessed as a nation to be taken out by incredible power that God did, coming up to the Red Sea and the sea parting and all the things that happened in the wilderness after that. Powerful! Awesome stories that are told! Movies have been done by it all. They don’t get it all very good, but anyway. Incredible things that God did with them.

But what He does with us on a spiritual plane is greater. It really is greater because what we go through as God calls us and draws us and works with us is that freedom of mind that the majority of people that have been called have chosen the wrong things as time has gone on. And so, if you continue to choose the right things, the things that God has placed there, the things that He has promised, what an incredible thing that we can come out of Egypt, that we can come out of sin, that we can change and our minds can be transformed, become something different than what they are, that we can begin to get rid of human nature, fight against it, and God helps us to grow spiritually so that one day we can be born into His Family. Awesome!

Taking us to Himself as a people. That means more to us because they were being taken to Him as a people, as a nation, as a physical nation, but not a spiritual one. They weren’t given the opportunity to be transformed, for their minds to be changed. They were just a physical carnal nation. God was their God, and as long as they would do various things, God would bless them and help them. I think of the kings and different ones and the incredible things that God did and how He intervened for them at different times, but it was all physical.

We go through things that are called wars but on a spiritual plane. The deliverance God gives to us is far more meaningful, far more important than what it was for them because they all had a purpose to live and die and to be resurrected later on in the Great White Throne judgment.

Sometimes we just have to focus more on how blessed we are. Then as we really grasp those things, we’re able to glorify God in a way or in ways that we haven’t grasped before. God wants us to learn how to do that more, to learn how to glorify Him more in our lives, with our lives. So much of it goes back to understanding what we have, what He’s given to us.

That’s why we’ve been going through all the truths we have and so forth. Sometimes we can begin to be a little ho-hum about it, and you can never do that! That’s what happened with Laodicea. Laodicea became ho-hum with the truths that God had given to Herbert Armstrong to the point that many and many of those who had important responsibilities could only see him then later on, “He was a good teacher.”

You wouldn’t say that if you saw the truth for what it was and what was given through him. You would grasp and understand the glory and the might of Almighty God that gave us those things in our minds so that we could see them and believe them and never forget.

“I will take you to Me for a people.” How blessed are we? There aren’t many of us. This is what’s the most important thing for God at this time, His people. Until the Family is complete concerning the 144,000 and those who are going to live on into the Millennium, it’s the most important thing to God.

I will take you to Me a people and I will be to you Elohim (God Family), and you shall know that I am the Eternal. For us, how do we know? Not by the things that they saw that they could say, “Yes, He’s the Eternal. He’s God,” which different ones did at different times. But for us, it’s all spiritual and there are things God says we can see, and we can know because of God’s spirit.

…who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. We’re going to go a lot into that in the next several sermons as we go along here in this series and the series to follow. But we go through a process here that is absolutely incredible.

“Who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” So, we’re able to know God. He’s the one who brings us out because you can’t do it on your own. That’s been the failure of so many people. They began to rely on self, “the way I see it,” which leads people to disagreement, which leads people to thinking differently than what God has given to His people.

Even I will bring you unto the land, or into the land concerning the which I did swear to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For us we understand that it’s a lot more than just going across, if you will, Jordan, and entering into a particular region of the world, a land mass, and tribes being divided up and given certain territories. Far, far more than that.

That’s why I love what God revealed toward the end here in Revelation. We used to think in the Church that the 144,000 had to be comprised of twelve specific tribes, twelve thousand each, and there would be a lot more then, a great multitude that would be added to that. But that the foundation of it all was this 144,000 out of all twelve tribes.

Well, if you’ve done a DNA test you may find out that you have a lot of different tribes in you. That’s what happens over hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. There is nothing pure of any tribe that exists anymore. People intermarry. The closest to that would probably be the Jews because they’ve held on to physical things more so than most others have. The majority of them went up in captivity into areas of Assyria, Germany, and then throughout Northern Europe, spread out. And who’s Dan? Who’s Asher? Who is Issachar?

Well, some in a sense were together. But pure? Enough to say the majority? To say maybe the majority of the bloodline is from them? The whole point being is that we had to come to a point where God revealed to us it’s not about what tribe you’re from. Do you know what that does to people and did to people? Haughtiness and pride. Because if you are of Judah, as an example, whew. There were people like that because they were of Judah. It was like, “This is better than being of Ephraim.” “This is better than being of Manasseh!” Or “Being of Manasseh is better than being of Ephriam! Or being better than Gad! Or being better than Issachar!”

Plumb stupid and totally has nothing to do with God’s spirit and God’s way of life, that kind of thinking, that kind of pride, that kind of haughtiness. God’s blessed us to reveal to us it’s not about the tribes; it’s about the structure of God’s government. It’s about what God is building.

Just like the name Israel. We finally have come to understand deeply, which the Church hadn’t, that Israel, the Israel of God is about His Family. It’s about what He is building. It’s about Mount Zion. The different words express what God is building in His Family.

The same way with the tribes. We don’t understand that yet. I think of some of the things that are said there in Revelation that are just gobbledygook. A stone wall made out of something, a certain size, of fifteen hundred miles, whatever it is, and then in another direction, then up into the heavens, and each one a different stone. You know what I’m talking about.

And you think, is that what it’s about? Is it going to be something physical like that? It’s not what it’s about. We don’t really know what it’s about fully yet, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about the names even around and the doors and the entrance. It’s God’s government of being organized as a part of His Family, Elohim. It’s structured in ways that we can’t even begin to comprehend. But when we need it, God will give it to us. He’s really not going to give it to you until you’re in Elohim anyway. It’s not for us to understand all these things.

Even I will bring you into the land which I did swear to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it you for a possession to inherit all things. We’ve come to know and understand through time, God gave it to His Church to understand “to inherit all things” is not about a physical region of the world.

That’s why I used to marvel going into areas of Israel and going to Jerusalem, how people would talk about it. “In the holy land.” Nothing holy about it. It’s just land. It’s like some who wanted to buy Big Sandy after the Apostasy. It’s what United, some in United wanted to do. They wanted to use that fourteen million that came up first to go down and “buy Big Sandy because we really need that because that’s who we are; we’ve got to save it.”

You think, it’s a piece of property that is running down. You can build it back up, but what’s the point? Is that what God is going to have us do? Anyway, I’m sorry, but it’s like going over there to Israel and Jerusalem is supposed to be “holy.” Nothing holy about it. When we were visiting there, we understood there was something holy, two servants of God who were the only two there keeping Passover the way they were supposed to keep Passover because they had God’s holy spirit in them. It’s what God sanctifies and sets apart for holy use and purpose. Israel is not set apart for that to this day as far as a physical country, or Jerusalem is not, because even Jerusalem is about something spiritual that God is building. So, on and on it goes.

To me, it’s an amazing thing sometimes how we get stuck with things that are physical and hold on to that and build those things up and realize in time as God reveals it to us, no, it’s spiritual that counts. It’s what God has given that’s true and right and what He’s building and constructing.

God reveals to us then, has revealed to us, we’re to inherit all things. I can’t comprehend all that, along with Christ, everything, everything that’s out there. How do you wrap your head around that? There is a lot out there. We’re trying to discover the end of it. And if you go in one direction, shoot something out into space and you take pictures, you’re going in one direction. What about over there, over there, down there, up there? It’s so vast we can’t even begin to comprehend that. We’re just going out there and looking at certain areas, blowing it up, and being in awe. Which we should be in awe of it, that God put it all out there. Is there enough for everyone?

Anyway, God says we’re going to inherit together with Christ. Awesome. Don’t comprehend what that’s all about. Things in God’s plan in the future, we don’t know what God’s planned for the future, His Family, but all that His Family is going to be doing we don’t know yet. But because of the history, because of the things God has revealed, we can know it’s exciting, it’s inspiring beyond belief of things that haven’t even begun to be revealed yet. It hasn’t been shown in any fashion or form yet.

We think sometimes life is long when you’re thirty and forty, and then you get up to sixty and seventy and you realize it’s not so long. What happened to it? Where did it go? And then you think about what God has said and you think about hundreds and thousands, and you think of six thousand years is about gone by and that seems like so long. But in God’s plan it’s a snap in time, such a small portion of time. We can’t comprehend it.

We’ll come back to that next Sabbath, continue on in the subject matter here. This was Part 1 of Glorify God, and to get into this more deeply because it’s really something that we haven’t really grasped that well in God’s Church, and something that God is showing us that we can grab a hold of more and grasp more and appreciate more fully that He’s going to give us the ability to do more. Awesome!

I want to end today here with a few news articles because this world is a mess. I hope we’re getting a concept here, an understanding, that we don’t know what’s in front of us. I don’t know if it’s a week, a month, a year, ten years, four years. I don’t know. I was thinking about that this morning, the only thing I’ve ever really known as far as timing was concerned was that God revealed that there was a specific timing from the time of the Apostasy up to our becoming established as a Church, if you will, again on Pentecost in 1998.

Then the time that has gone on from that time, there were certain things that took place in an awesome way that revealed the meticulousness and planning of God. After 2012, I’ve come to see that I know diddly squat from there on. But I think of, I don’t remember whether it was Elijah or Elisha where he said, I think it was concerning the widow woman, where he said, “God has hidden this from me. I haven’t seen it.” And when God doesn’t show you something, you know what? You can’t see it.

So, for whatever reason, we’re not supposed to see it yet. So, we have other things we go by and that’s why we have talked about a woman in travail, to understand the Thunders and what’s taking place out there.

These news articles, especially about what we realize is coming up to the end here, I want to read some of this. Because people just keep pushing the envelope, and if we don’t grasp as God’s people what it’s going to come to, if we don’t have this deeply embedded in our hearts and minds, we’re missing the mark.

US Includes Nuclear-Capable Assets In Large Military Drills Aimed At North Korea.[1] (ZeroHedge) … “Reuters has cited South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to say ‘Freedom Shield [which is what they call this maneuvering] will involve twice the number of troops from both sides compared with last year in 48 rounds of combined field training, including air assault and air strikes.’”

Now, if you know Kim Jung-Un in the North, what he’s like, he’s exceedingly paranoid. To understand the kind of power that he’s growing in, his capabilities in his missiles as well as the nuclear capability might seem like not that important in the scheme of things. But to start something it only takes one primary event to start everything happening. We could have some war like in Ukraine that’s still not the event of the First Trumpet.

We could have some other things happen in the world that still have nothing to fully do with the First Trumpet. Please understand that, too. There could be some other skirmishes and things that take place that won’t be a matter of the First Trumpet. The First Trumpet is about what will happen in the United States. That you can know then. You’ll know it. You’ll see it…or you’ll be around to grasp what’s taking place.

It goes on to say here, “What's more is that the US-South Korea exercises are focused on preparing for a scenario where Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal would have to be hit and neutralized, including ‘identifying and striking’ cruise missiles.

Now, Kim to the North, he loves to hear these things. He’s so paranoid and they just stir up his paranoia making it worse and worse, to where you put somebody in a corner like this, and after a while and someone else kind of gives them a push?

And last week, The Wall Street Journal highlighted that North Korea's Kim has become a "bigger threat" at a moment "the world was looking elsewhere." The report continued: "Particularly troubling, security experts say, is how sure-footed Kim looks, despite widespread food shortages, a more confrontational South Korean administration, and a U.S. that is rotating nuclear assets into the region more often." Kim Jung-Un is very familiar with what’s happening all around him, and that just highlights and strengthens his nature.

Another article: EU aims to shift European arms industry to ‘war economy mode.’[2] (Reuters)

You read articles like this, and you think, this is incredible what we’re witnessing, what we’re watching taking place here, what they’re saying.

“‘We need to change the paradigm and move into war economy mode. This also means that the European defence industry must take more risks, with our support,’ said Breton, previewing the package. Breton, a French former tech company CEO, has also said the possibility of another U.S. presidential term for Donald Trump - who has questioned Washington's commitments to NATO - means Europe has to do more to protect itself.”

This is important because it’s how they’re feeling and how their attitudes toward the US are slowly but surely changing more and more.

“‘In the current geopolitical context, Europe must take greater responsibility for its own security, regardless of the outcome of our allies’ elections every four years,’ Breton said.”

Another article: Euronukes: War and the rise of Trump have changed Europe’s nuclear calculus.[3] (Vox) To know how they’re thinking, to know what’s going on over there is absolutely incredible. It really is.

“It’s not just Moscow that has Western European countries rethinking nuclear deterrence — it’s Washington as well.” Two years ago, you wouldn’t find an article like this anywhere. Nothing like this whatsoever. That’s how fast things are moving. That’s how fast Europeans are changing their attitude and their thinking.

“The debate over ‘Euronukes’ is not new, but recent events have given it greater urgency. ‘The French have been talking about this since the ’90s,’ [because they have nukes] said Heather Williams, director of the Project on Nuclear Issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ‘What’s different now is a couple of things. The first thing that’s different is that there is a war going on in Europe.’”

They know they’re getting pulled into it more and more. There are some over there pushing to get into it more and more because to them Russia is a real threat. They don’t see the US being threatened in that regard. This is on their front door, far worse than what happened in World War Two.

“What’s different now is a couple of things. The first thing that’s different is that there is a war going on in Europe. The second thing is Donald Trump.” That’s what they’re thinking because they know how he thinks, they know what he’s done in the past, they know what he’s been saying recently, and it’s not going well for them. But it’s all working to a particular end, to change their minds and their attitude toward this country.

This is just watching prophetic things come about because we knew the direction. Just like for Europe, to see that change is absolutely, to me, incredible, because a few years back I candidly would often think, “It just doesn’t click. How can they change their attitudes, their minds so quickly because it’s not there?” And so, we see the beginning of it. It’s there.

“When it comes to a potential independent European nuclear deterrent, the key country is France, which, since Brexit, is the only country in the EU with its own nuclear weapons. While Britain’s nuclear forces — which have been having a rough few weeks with a second failed submarine missile launch tests…” Isn’t that amazing how many tests the US, and now Ephraim, they can’t get off the ground? It’s like they’re being thwarted and kept back from being able to move forward with different things. And yet, even the Iranians are moving faster than we are. It’s a reality in some of the things they’re coming up with and what they’re doing and the technology they’re using (which they’re being given, obviously).

“ — are assigned to NATO and experts question whether its program could even survive without US support, France has a fully independent deterrent, owing to de Gaulle’s old concerns about sovereignty and the value of US assurances.” He experienced World War Two. He experienced what the word of the US is like. So, he said, “Be careful. Don’t rely on them.” That’s basically what is coming out of this.

“It does not participate in NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group, which sets deterrence strategy for the alliance. France’s nuclear deterrent is France’s alone.” Isn’t that amazing?

“The idea of such a ‘Euronuke’ is not new, but the fact that the discussion is being revived in a serious way is a telling indicator of Europe’s existential anxieties in the age of Putin and Trump. It’s not hard to understand why. Trump is an outspoken critic of defense guarantees in general, which he argues encourages free-riding and reckless behavior by allies at America’s defense, and NATO in particular. As president he discussed pulling the US out of NATO altogether and onetime advisers like former national security adviser John Bolton have said he would likely have done so if he had been reelected in 2020.”

So, concerns? These are absolute concerns they have over there. What’s going to happen? They don’t want to rely so they’re changing their attitudes and minds quickly.

“Last year, Congress passed legislation preventing a future president from pulling the US out of the alliance without congressional approval, but that wouldn’t prevent Trump from simply refusing to fulfill US obligations under the alliance, including Article 5. During a meeting in 2020, Trump reportedly told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, ‘You need to understand that if Europe is under attack, we will never come to help you and to support you.’ More recently, he has said he would let Russia ‘to do whatever the hell they want . . .’”

So, some of you remember him commenting. How does this go over for them? They are wiping their hands clean. They want something else. They know they have to do something else, protect themselves and not rely on anyone else. But it’s going to change even more to where they’re going to do what they do in the Fifth Trumpet. Incredible.

“‘…to European countries that were ‘delinquent’ by not meeting their NATO-mandated 2 percent of GDP defense spending targets.’”

“Meanwhile, a host of German politicians from across the political spectrum, including Weber, have been tentatively calling for Germany to seek a European nuclear deterrent, separate from the United States, a major shift for a country where public opposition to military force in general and nuclear weapons, in particular, has been high for decades.” So, they’re starting to give in over there to some of these things because they realize, “We have to do something.” It’s not like it was in World War Two, and this is a concept we’ve kind of had in the Church before that there would be someone like a Hitler rise up. It’s not working that way this time. It’s totally different. They’re being pushed into a corner. That’s what they feel. They’re going to respond in a certain way.

I could read so much more. There is so much more here.

Another one here, another article. Just sometimes the headline tells it all. Macron’s ‘cowards’ remark ignites Franco-German spat.[4] (Politico) “PRAGUE — Tensions between Berlin and Paris spilled into the open Tuesday as German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius hit back at President Emmanuel Macron for urging Europe not to be ‘cowards’ in the defense of Ukraine. Can you imagine? I’m sorry, but when they look back at World War Two, and the Germans especially look back at World War Two, and then he’s saying something like this, it doesn’t go over very well. That’s why I love the example of the clay and the iron because they’re so divided, but there are certain things they have to be united in and finally give into it.

“Speaking at a meeting with the French community, Macron said: ‘Europe clearly faces a moment when it will be necessary not to be cowards.’ He added that people ‘never want to see the tragedies that are coming.’”

So, in one respect, he’s addressing things that have to do with things that they feel that’s coming to their doorstep, and they’ve got to deal with it.

Another article: Putin says he’s ready to use nuclear weapons if Russian state at stake, but ‘there has never been such a need.’[5] (CNN) Then here is what’s being said. Just, again, each time you hear these week after week, they just get closer and closer, pushing more and more. “Moscow is ready to use nuclear weapons if there is a threat to the existence of the Russian state but ‘there has never been such a need,”’ President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with state media published Wednesday. The Russian leader made the comments to [news outlets] Rossiya 1 and RIA Novosti ahead of presidential elections on March 15, in which he is widely expected to sail through to a fifth term in office, and as his full-scale war in Ukraine grinds into a third year.”

I kind of laugh when you read some of these, when you read something like this like, “He’s expected to win.”

“Putin said that from a military and technical standpoint, Russia is ready for a nuclear war, though he didn’t say one was imminent.” Just the fact that they’re saying these things. It’s almost weekly where they’re getting closer and closer in their language and what they’re using and saying it’s going to happen. But they’re still pulling back a little, but every week it’s like it’s just getting stronger and stronger what they’re actually saying.

“He warned that if US troops were deployed to Ukraine, Russia would treat them as interventionists. ‘Apart from (US President Joe) Biden, there are enough other experts in the sphere of Russian-American relations and strategic restraint. So, I don’t think that everything is going to go head-on here, but we are ready for it,’ Putin said.”

“Putin said the United States is also developing nuclear forces but that doesn’t mean they are ready to ‘launch a nuclear war tomorrow.’ ‘Weapons exist in order to use them. We have our own principles.’ Russia sees its large and diverse nuclear weapons stockpile as an important tool for achieving its goals in a potential conflict with the United States or NATO, the US intelligence community believes, and its struggles on the battlefield in Ukraine have continued to raise the risk that he might use them.”

“‘Russia’s inability to achieve quick and decisive battlefield wins, coupled with Ukrainian strikes within Russia, continues to drive concerns that Putin might use nuclear weapons,’ the intelligence community wrote in its annual unclassified threat assessment, released on Monday.”

Another article here: Sweden Requests NATO Protection for Territory Near Russia.[6] (MSN) “Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that bolstering his country's defense near Russia's borders is one of Sweden's core priorities to discuss with NATO after joining the military alliance last week.” Now, what’s important is what it says: “A historically neutral country…” So, even Sweden, historically neutral, they’re turning away from that because they believe there is a great threat and they’re trying to address it. That’s why they’re doing the things they are.

“Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO on Thursday, growing the Western bloc amid fears that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine could spill into eastern Europe next.” That’s what they live with. We don’t care about it over here. You don’t hear it in the news over here. We don’t think about things like that in that regard. But over there, people are concerned about it.

“The addition of Stockholm's military, alongside Finland's accession to the alliance in the spring, boosts NATO's security of northern Europe and the Arctic.”

Another article here: India Joins Small Group Of Nations Able To Fire Multiple Nuclear Warheads Using Single ICBM.[7] (ZeroHedge) I don’t need to read anymore. We already know what a mess that is.

Another article. I’m going to try to wrap this up. Russia warns Ukraine war could spin out of control due to action of one or two NATO countries.[8] (Reuters) Behind the scenes in all this is to understand what’s happening with some of the countries over there. They are pushing more and more to send troops into Ukraine. They believe Russia is a threat. They believe, might even say it in this article here, but the articles that come out, they believe, they feel that if Ukraine collapses in any fashion or form that Russia is going to keep moving to the west. They believe that’s going to happen no matter what.

So, they believe this is where they have to stand. They have to take their stand in Ukraine because they don’t want it to be in their countries. So, a nation that’s already, some places just leveled to the ground, fight it there, do it there. That’s what their thinking is.

The article states: “MOSCOW, March 13 (Reuters) - Russia warned on Wednesday that the war in Ukraine could spin out of control and expand geographically due to the ill-considered actions of one or two member states from the NATO military alliance.”

“The conflict has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Russia…” I remember that time. That old and older. So, if you can remember what happened during the Cuban crisis and John Kennedy and some of the things that took place during that period of time, it was tense. People really believed this is nuclear war. We’re on the edge of nuclear war because if they don’t pull back that’s what we’re into. Now, it’s far, far greater, the things that can happen. So, they’re talking like that.

“The conflict has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Russia reacted angrily after French President Emmanuel Macron last month refused to rule out sending troops to Ukraine. On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin told the West that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.”

This is coming from a Russian spokesman for the Foreign Ministry “…told reporters on Wednesday that the situation around Ukraine was becoming dangerous and that the risks were growing. ‘As a result of the ill-considered provocative actions of even one or two EU or NATO member states, the Ukrainian crisis could absolutely go beyond its geographical borders, acquire a completely different scale, and develop uncontrollably,’ Zakharova told a news briefing.”

“Zakharova said Moscow believed the West was now walking ‘on the edge of the abyss…’ which I think is interesting language. “They’re …walking ‘on the edge of the abyss’ and pushing the world to the edge too with its actions over Ukraine.”

So, what an incredible time we live in. This is where it all begins. It not starting here. It doesn’t start here. It pushes to what’s going to happen here, but it’s starting over there because that’s what has to be there to change the attitudes and the minds of Europeans to do some of the things they’re ready to do or going to be ready to do in time.

So, we’re watching all this come about and you should be sobered by it. I don’t know what else to call it. Deeply sobered by it.

France's Macron says Europe must be ready for war if it wants peace.[9] (Jerusalem Post) Isn’t that amazing how human beings talk? Certain things. You’re got to have great war to have peace. It’s a concept because it’s a physical carnal world.

“French President Emmanuel Macron called President Vladimir Putin's Russia an adversary that would not stop in Ukraine if it defeated Kyiv's troops in the two-year-old conflict, urging Europeans to not be ‘weak’ and to get ready to respond. Macron caused controversy last month after he said he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future, with many leaders…”

They’re so divided. So, if one of them does it the rest are kind of stuck because they have no control. If Macron wants to send troops in, if Poland – they’ve been threatening to send people in there – if somebody decides to do some of this it doesn’t matter. All that’s a part of NATO, it means all of NATO is involved. Even if you don’t want to be you are kind of forced into it. That’s where we’re headed.

“…with many leaders distancing themselves from that while others, especially in Eastern Europe, expressed support.” So, they can say, “Shut your mouth.” “Be quiet.” “Don’t say such things.” “You’re off the wall. We’re not going to do it.” “NATO is not going to do it.” But still, if somebody does it they’re all in it because they’re all a part.

Anyway, next Sabbath we’ll go on to Part 2.

[1] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-includes-nuclear-capable-assets-large-military-drills-aimed-north-korea

[2] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-aims-shift-european-arms-industry-war-economy-mode-2024-03-04/

[3] https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24091566/europe-nuclear-weapons-poland-germany-france-putin-trump

[4] https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-urges-europe-not-to-be-cowards-on-ukraine/

[5] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-says-he-s-ready-to-use-nuclear-weapons-if-russian-state-at-stake-but-there-has-never-been-such-a-need/ar-BB1jNPfo

[6] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/sweden-requests-nato-protection-for-territory-near-russia/ar-BB1jRsfo

[7] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/india-joins-small-group-nations-able-fire-multiple-nuclear-warheads-using-single-icbm

[8] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-warns-ukraine-war-could-spin-out-of-control-due-to-action-of-one-or-two-nato-countries/ar-BB1jPzEV

[9] https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/frances-macron-says-europe-must-be-ready-for-war-if-it-wants-peace/ar-BB1jUgs4

1. Chapter 1