A Unity of Belief – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

August 22, 2009

We’re going to begin a new series today and we’re going to do so by going straight to the title.  This sermon series is entitled: A Unity of Belief Part 1.   This is an important series for the Church because it comes at a time that is unique to us.  We are 36 Sabbaths into the 3 ½ years.  And there are some people out there having fun with some of that and that’s too bad. One day they will be very thankful for some of the things that took place, especially the fast that took place earlier in the year; when they come to understand that.  But as of today we have 144 Sabbaths remaining – which is unique.  Numbers have a great deal of meaning.  God does things in a very orderly fashion, in a very orderly way and 144 is always important... 144,000... 12 X 12 – perfection... things that God does and how He does it.  There are so many things that happen in our lives sometimes that we don’t understand the significance of, the importance of, but again, God does things in an incredibly organized fashion.  Everything is done in great order.  All you have to do is look at the universe and learn from that.  By Trumpets – interesting; we will be at our 40th Sabbath since the final countdown began.  Interesting when it lands – on the Feast of Trumpets.  280 days – 40 Sabbaths... all has significance and a lot of you who are counters – you already figured that one out.  I’ve had several different people make comments about that.  Some of us have different things that interest us and that’s one that touches a lot of people.  For others, numbers don’t touch at all, until they happen and then we learn from it and that’s good, but we’re all different and unique.  So again, all these are very impressive numbers and we’ll probably hear more about it as time goes along – maybe even around the Feast of Trumpets.  And although these are meaningful and impressive when you think about some of these things the big thing we’re addressing today has to do with the stability – specifically the stability of what you believe – a stability that’s being tested and refined.  And I want to pause and consider the timing of events – both for us and for those who have gone before us and walked in faith.  Because that’s what it’s always about – it has always been that way, and still is that way and that’s a part of a process we go through and especially for a lot of new people as well who are being grounded.  God is giving you a grounding, an opportunity to become grounded before certain things begin and then especially even more so after they’ve obviously begun – but you have an opportunity that many of you don’t grasp until later on when you’re able to look back and say, “now I understand.”  It’s how it is with a lot of us.  My life has been that way for a long, long time.  You can look back a few years and you begin to see what God did back then that brought you to where you are at a specific moment in time.

So we have experienced, not only in the scattered nations of Israel, but many parts of the world, much of what is contained in the prophecy concerning the 1st Trumpet blast and again some have fun with some of these things and that’s too bad; but I understand where they’re coming from – actually I feel more and more for them because of some of the things that are going to come upon them and they don’t understand.  I’m reminded more and more of things that Christ said, things that Stephen said when he said, “Father forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.”  They don’t realize what they’re bringing upon themselves and if you understand what’s coming on this world you realize that some are going to suffer more than others and I’m talking about that which is in the mind, not that which is physical.

So, much prosperity has been taken away and it’s not going to come back, and much more will be taken away in the fulfilling of the 1st Trumpet in the next 3 Trumpet blasts.  Again, something that people just don’t grasp unless God’s working with you, with your mind and giving you understanding . Can we understand where people can’t see and can’t grasp until they have something literally physical to hold onto? That is a sad state, but that’s the way it’s been for 6000 years.  And so if God gives us a period of time to experience some of that as a witness of what man has been like for 6000 years – then so be it:  and we suffer with it as well.  You suffer with it.  And literally there are physical things that are going to come that are going to be a fulfillment of this as well.  As I mentioned a long time ago, concerning the 1st Trumpet, it’s not all about that which has significance on a spiritual level in the sense of what’s happening physically – because it is happening physically and literal physical things will take place – but they’ll take place in the next 3 Trumpets.

But no one has witnessed any great physical destruction that has been prophesied to happen at the end-time and due to this the belief of some has been weakened: and the longer this period of time goes on the greater that battle can be, truly can be, and candidly, it is already.  And so, due to this and other factors there are too many people letting down in their spiritual lives.  Don’t let that happen.  Laodicea ought to be something that sticks in our minds – of a great lesson and regardless of what happens in your life – you cannot afford to let down.  The examples are there over and over again of what we are supposed to do.

So the waiting, for some, is too much in their weakened spiritual state.  You cannot allow yourself to become in a weakened spiritual state because if you do you’re not going to be able to hold onto what you need to hold onto and in that state, a person will begin to doubt more and to question their beliefs.  Although this condition has only manifested itself literally in a handful of people, it’s nevertheless a warning to everyone – and God is using this occasion as a warning to encourage and to admonish people to do what we’ve always been told to do – and that is to watch, to be spiritually on guard, and to be spiritually alert.  That condition has never changed for God’s people.  Those are the warnings Jesus Christ gave from the very beginning and those warnings have not changed, especially because of where we are in time.  Those admonishments are still there for God’s people, for those that He’s working with.  Now is not the time to let down spiritually.  During Laodicea it wasn’t a time to let down spiritually and yet people did, didn’t we?  All of us who were a part of Worldwide and up to 1994 when the apostasy took place everyone of us let down in a very powerful way. We fell asleep spiritually and we were weakened and only by God’s grace and by God’s mercy and because He promised a remnant do we exist today, but God promised that His Church was going to continue on and so it continues on: not without difficulty, and not without trial, and not without hardship – it’s always been that way – but especially toward the end-time.

So again, now is not a time to let down spiritually, but to be more on guard now than ever before in your life – truly.  I’ve mentioned this so many times in the past – each step along the way – especially for those who’ve been around for some time... because the easy thing to do, the natural thing to do, the carnal thing to do, what we will do if we let down with God’s spirit – is you can’t help the tide of the direction it will take you.  You can’t hold onto this way of life.  To be able to be sustained in God’s way of life and to hold onto what God gives you means you have to remain spiritually alert and spiritually strong.  You cannot do it on your own.  You cannot physically be able to do those things.  It is a matter of a reliance on God and God’s spirit – it truly is.

This is at the point of the race if you will where the mind battles the most and one tends to let down. I remember some races I’ve been in.  I used to love running.  Wish I still could.  I can’t any longer now that I’ve hit that 60 mark with my knees going to pot and my hips not as good as they were so... my wife runs and I walk. We still go out for the exercise that profits little as it says in Timothy, that Paul made comment about, but again... I think of a race and one in particular that I was in that I’ll never forget because I saw so many attitudes come out of it that stuck with me.  It stuck with me for a long time.  God showed me some different lessons in that.  Different things are spoken of even in scripture about the race that’s before you, that’s set in front of you and how you run it.  Paul talked about those kinds of things – sports and beating in the air when you talk about boxing and the type of things that’s been a part of society for ages and I think of one particular race in Bricketwood.  It was about a 3 ½ mile race and I remember one individual in the very beginning.  I’ve seen so many attitudes of things that have come out in the Church that happened even in something physical like that.  I saw one of the individuals who was given responsibility as a student leader and because he couldn’t stay in the front of the race he quit.  If you were to ask me if someone who was strong as far as sports are concerned, who was athletic as far as sports is concerned – this fellow was it, but because there were a couple fellows ahead of him that were gaining on him – after a while... and it didn’t take very long... he just flat quit because he couldn’t be in the front, because he couldn’t sustain that.  Even as I was going through that race I marvelled at what was taking place.  But one of the amazing things is that as we got down toward the end where the finish line is, you can’t see it yet, but you know where it is...   We went down around the chicken coop area, the farm area, the college had it’s own chickens and raised it’s own eggs and had farm animals out there – cattle and so forth and much that was used for the college and we came up this long hill out of that particular area coming back onto the area of the campus so I knew exactly from that point on where the finish line was.  Before the race I hadn’t been in some of those areas before but they had it all marked off where to run so I wasn’t really sure about some of those but when I got to this one spot I knew exactly where we were and it is a point like that when you’ve been running and you’re putting yourself into it that the race becomes harder.  When you’re down to the last... if you’re in a 3 ½ mile race and you’re down to the last ½ a mile... it really gets tough.  The mind is battling... when you’re so exhausted you’re just worn out from the race... you’re mind... you have a lot of battles.  I don’t know how many of you have done things like that, during a race, or a different sport you can equate with that – to understand when you get to a certain point in time and the battle that goes on in the mind, of whether you kind of let down and take it a little easier, or do you push your body more?  At a time when you’re so exhausted, you actually are able to conquer what’s in the mind to push harder.

You know there are some amazing stories of people who’ve done incredible things.  Whether it be mountain climbing, some stories you hear, or different kinds of difficult journeys that people have been on – things that they’ve done and the battles that go on with the mind in some of those events and how they succeeded and sometimes their very lives saved because of a fight against the mind, and fighting against all odds in battles against you.  To me some of those things are very inspiring, about how there is that which is within the mind if you battle, things you can accomplish and achieve in life; but there are a lot of people who just started slowing down because it was hard and there was still a desire to make it to the end, but slowing down because it was an easier way.  Not for us.  You never stop.  That’s why Jesus Christ gave the examples, that’s why they are in scripture over and over again of the need to be watchful, the need to be on guard because you are fighting a fight and most of it is right up here (in the mind) and the only way you can fight that is with God’s help, with God’s spirit.  Such an awesome thing to understand. So of all times, this is not the time to let down spiritually and much like a race, where the mind battles the most – we’re at that point where you’re mind is battling you... many of you – the most!   Right now!  Because of where you are and the closer you are to God, the less that’s going to mean to you – you’re going to be able to push it aside and keep running, because that’s just what you do.  But if you’re letting down... the more you let down the more you’re battling the mind.  Truly.  And you don’t want to be in that state, you truly don’t.

So how strong are you in your unity of belief?  Because it all boils down to what do you believe.  How strong is that belief?  How are you acting upon it?  What are you doing?  What do you believe and why?  So are you strong in unity?  You have to answer that.  If so why?  And if not – why not?

Let’s turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 1:  this is always a battle, it has always been a battle, but I’ve known so many people who just quit fighting.  I think of all time throughout human history this is the point of time where – what a horrible thing... at this point not to fight. The worst time in human history to give up.  1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 15: Paul says, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.  He believed that.  These weren’t just words, this wasn’t some nice platitude to impress other people in the Church – which sometimes happens in peoples lives and we go through some of those things as God draws us and calls us and sometimes things come out of our mouth in order to... be looked up to, or to make sure we’re all in the same thing together and we might have a platitude come out that’s not totally genuine. Paul wasn’t like that.  What came out of Paul was genuine.  Very meaningful, indeed, with all of his being.  And he meant what he said, and he believed what he had to say.  I am chief of all sinners.  That’s what he believed, with all of his being before God.  He says, Howbeit for this case I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering.  He said, what happened to me is an example to others of the mercy and the longsuffering of God, and he believed that with all of his being and there is a great lesson in this – to show the magnitude of God’s mercy and the willingness to forgive and in time all people are going to have that opportunity to be forgiven – regardless of what they’ve done in life, but Paul said his example was unique and extraordinary and indeed it was.  It says again, that in me first, speaking here, Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.  A pattern, an example of something to see and something to follow, to learn from.  Now unto the King eternal. Who is he speaking of?  There’s only one King eternal - God Almighty, the Eternal God, and yet in times past those of us who have been a part for a long time, we understand a transition where we begin to understand the distinction in some of these things beginning in 2005 at the Feast of Tabernacles, and so we understand that God Almighty has given to His son titles that are first God’s.  And so the King referred to over and over again throughout the Old Testament we understand was God.  The word Lord was first used toward God Almighty, but He’s given those titles to His son as well.   ...the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Verse 18: and so, an admonition given to Timothy, things we can learn and grow from which is why they are written in scripture; they are for us as well.  He says, This charge I commit unto you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on you, that you by them might war a good warfare; Paul talked about it in other places – to run a good race.  When you’re racing do it with all your being and when you’re fighting, when you’re in a war, we understand we’re in a war that you might fight a good warfare because this is battle.  I was talking just before services to an individual about things we go through, it’s an awesome thing that God shows us aspects and characteristics in ourselves that we have to battle and there’s a process we go through in doing that.  We all have to go through it so that we can be transformed, so that our thinking can be changed and it doesn’t come easy – the change from what we are to what God is offering us requires battle on our part, a choice to battle, a choice to fight.  And so it goes on to say here, that you might fight a good warfare; Holding faith, possessing faith, realizing what God has given to you to possess, to hold onto with all of your being, to hold onto that faith – God is the one that gives us that.  Faith has to do with what you believe.  God gives you the ability to believe the truth.  He first helps you to understand, to believe what is false – as He’s revealing the truth to you, generally that begins with the Sabbath, the difference between Sunday and the 7th Day Sabbath – the day of the sun and the choosing that people must make.  He begins to show things about Easter and where this idea of Sunday and all these things come from – and so we begin to see the things that are false and how so much of the masses of people out here have been deceived and we begin to learn something so powerful that has taken place in this world. And then we begin to make choices – because God gives us the ability as He does that to help us to believe the importance of the Sabbath – that it was never, as they like to say - nailed to the cross; it was never done away with as a commandment of God.  We understand, on the contrary, that it’s very much in force, it’s very much something that God requires of His people if they want to learn, if they want to be His people, that they have to come before Him at a certain time and not any other time to be blessed in that manner and to have obedience to the Sabbath.  And then we begin to understand about the Holy Days.  God gives us the ability to believe it...things that we’re able to see that we otherwise couldn’t see. In the world there are people who understand, and have been able to see certain things and realize yes, the Sabbath is in the Bible, but they don’t see and understand what you see and understand about the Sabbath.  Even in God’s Church it takes time to understand the Sabbath on a spiritual plane. It takes time and growth to truly see it for what it is, for what God has given.  That’s something we all grow in, but in the beginning it is very much an easy type of thing to see as far as a specific day and then we begin to learn about it and then God begins to show us about Passover...not a high day, and the day that follows that –the first high day, the first annual Sabbath.  All the way to the Last Great Day and then all of a sudden that which is revealed in the Sabbath, the 7000 year plan begins to be manifested and revealed in the high days, in the Holy Days and all of a sudden we begin to see things from Passover to being able to come out of sin, The First Day of Unleavened Bread and that journey we take out of spiritual Egypt on to the time of given God’s law and the power to keep it – the holy spirit and the 144,000 and Pentecost and then we go to the rest of the Holy Days in the fall – incredible. All these things that have great meaning contained in the Holy Days  and you have the ability to believe something that your neighbours can’t believe.  They’re not given that and you didn’t figure it out on your own.  God led you to it.  God opened up your mind and He gave you the ability to begin to see things that you couldn’t see and understand without His holy spirit.  It’s an awesome thing.

And then your choice to live by it is faith.  What you choose to live by from that point forward, when you make the choices to obey the Sabbath then you begin living by the belief that God has given to you, what He’s given you to believe, because you are not able, you can’t see it on your own, you can’t understand it on your own unless God gives it to you but you have to make the choice whether you’re going to live by it.  And that becomes living faith then. We begin to live by faith and as time goes along we’re able to be baptized, have hands laid upon us and God begins to dwell in us, Jesus Christ begins to dwell in us and through us and we in him and a process begins whereby we grow and we’re able to continue on – all a matter of faith.  God gives to us true faith; not a made up fake faith that’s in the world that we see but rather something that’s alive and living because of what God has blessed you to believe and see.  What Abraham did, it’s because of what he believed.  When he offered up his only son, it was because of what he believed, and he acted upon it and that was faith and he was justified because of his faith, not because of how good he was, not because of how righteous he was as far as the law was concerned, but he strove to keep the law, obviously.  He worked to keep the law just as we do – those series of sermons we’ve just gone through.

Verse 19, holding faith God has given it to you and it’s up to you to hold onto it and you have to cry out to God for help to hold onto it and not to let it go, not to let it slip between your fingers, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: he said they’re no longer with us, they’ve gone by the wayside, because they didn’t hold faith.  They didn’t hold onto what God gave them to believe.  They became weak.  They let up.  They didn’t fight a good warfare and so they put it aside and became shipwrecked.  He said, Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; so he named them by name – something that a few years back in the Church was something that was taboo; you don’t talk about or mention someone’s name who might be a threat to the Church.  Yes you do!  That’s why I don’t hesitate to mention people’s names like Dr. Hoeh that a lot of ministers out there still esteem and hold up highly. There are evangelists out there who speak of him and hold him up highly and he has caused more damage in God’s Church spiritually as far as false doctrine is concerned than any other evangelist that was out there, and so people have to be aware of those kinds of things to realize if it came from him, I better beware of something that came from him.  Because we still have people sometimes that meddle around with certain things and it is very unwise.  Doctrine after doctrine that came through that man… that didn’t come from him, but from another being.  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.  That’s what happens when we’re no longer a part of the body.  We’re delivered back into the world, we’re delivered back to... in a worse way than what we were before – to a spirit world that cannot touch you as a member of God’s Church, cannot do anything to you without God’s permission, which means a lot if you understand.  Nothing happens to us by accident, so if something happens to us, it’s a part of God’s purpose because He allowed it for us to learn something from.  That is something that Satan’s mind can’t grasp.  I was thinking about that this morning – what an awesome thing to understand, his mind is so perverted that he still doesn’t get it.  After 6000 years of trying to twist and distort the minds of those whom God is calling and drawing because he does try to get to us and God allows certain things to come through – to try and to test us to see what we will do.  And when he’s allowed to do those things, the very things that he does, he empowers us.  He doesn’t get it.  He actually blesses us. It’s a blessing to us, not a curse if you understand what I’m saying, but his twisted mind does not comprehend and grasp that what he’s allowed you to do is become stronger spiritually because of what you’re going through; because he doesn’t understand how God’s spirit works with those whom he draws and calls.  I like pointing that out because it’s important for him to be mocked at this time.  He’s being mocked.  Things have been happening for some time now that are a matter of mocking Satan – his time for mocking God has come to an end.  He still tries to but his time has come to a screeching halt – amazing!  So thankful for that, so grateful for that.

Let’s go over to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation where with you are called, it’s like saying with the calling you’re called, but it has to do with the vocation if we understand it; in other words what God has called you to, that we should strive to walk in a worthy manner, and we’re not worthy, we understand that, but we should strive to walk in a worthy manner in our response to God and what He’s given to us and so we have to fight for that and he goes on to say a part of how that’s accomplished then; With all lowliness and meekness. Lowliness, in not trying to be lifted up by anything, to learn to loathe anything that would tend to be from our own mind that would try to lift ourselves up in importance, or receiving importance from others because it’s not right, because it works against God’s spirit.  A mind and an attitude of humility is what God will work with.  Those are such important scriptures to understand, of how God works with us when we have humility because when pride enters in – it’s what happened from the very beginning with Satan, Lucifer.  The big thing that has to be conquered in life; that spirit and that attitude; and so we learn to loathe it and we learn to fight against it in our own mind whenever that ugly head comes up out of the water, to want to put it right back down into the water, to understand how sick it is and so how we’re able to accomplish these things, to walk in a worthy manner, of the vocation that God has given to us, the way of life that God has given to us – a part of that is to seek to do so with all lowliness of mind, in humility and to abhor pride when it starts to pop up, the feeling of self-importance.  Whenever anyone approaches you and wants to lift you up, don’t receive that.  We’re not to receive that from one another and we’re not to give that to one another – not within God’s Church, not from the world, not from anywhere.  See?  But human nature tends to do that and wants to do that and it’s just wrong to do.  ...and meekness, such a powerful thing here to understand what meekness is, so one of the great ways of walking in this way of life, to walk worthy, to walk in a worth manner is in meekness.  You know what meekness means?  A teachable spirit – not resisting what God gives; of a humble spirit first because that has to be there in order to be teachable; because a mind of pride will try to hold onto its own ideas, it’s own way of seeing things and will fight against and resist what God wants to give to us and God says, “Don’t do that, be of a teachable spirit.”  That’s why I comment over and over again to everyone in the Church that no matter what stage you are in your life, to seek that spirit and that attitude of mind.  A meek spirit, a teachable spirit – not a teacher’s spirit.  If God gives that to you He will give that to you and then you yield yourself to the process knowing full well it comes from God Almighty and not from self.  There’s no confusing of the matters there.  Everything that’s good and right has to come from God or it’s worthless; it has no meaning in it... it truly is.  And we have to be able to see that and have that spirit and that attitude, we truly do.  A meek spirit, teachable, because our normal human nature is against that and if we become weak you know what happens, we begin to have ideas and thoughts that go against what God is giving to us.  We’ll resist, we’ll begin to let down more and more; we’ll come in with certain ideas that aren’t right.

So again, with all lowliness of self, meekness of self, as well, with longsuffering, patience, well, this is the time to exercise some of that, and it’s not just that.  There is suffering that goes along with patience.  This is longsuffering.  In relationships with people and with others around us that means giving others opportunity, like I’ve mentioned so many times, that someone mentioned to me this morning even – appreciating hearing that you give people time and space.  God gives us time and space.  He gives us time and space to change, to repent, to overcome, to grow, and we should grant that to one another.  We truly should and we’ll have better relationships when we do that to one another.  forbearing one another in agape; so it’s all about relationships inevitably, it’s always about relationships. Our relationship with God, our relationship with one another and being a part of the body of Christ and how we function as a part of that body.  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit, all of it is about being at one with God; a unity of spirit; being at one with what God gives to the Church, being at one with how He leads us and guides us and directs us and being in unity with one another in all these matters that makes us stronger.  And so it’s endeavouring, it takes effort, it takes work to do this – and you know what most of the work is?  Self.  It’s on self.  Most of the work we have to do is about self, what we have to address in our own lives and this is where our work is if we understand that process.  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.  We have to work at that to have true peace within the family and with God and that’s an ongoing process.

Not all have been doing this, or we do it in differing degrees and we learn as time goes along how to do it better.  It’s something we have to grow in and there has been some error obviously on the part of all.  Because we’re human beings; we all have human nature.  I was going to comment on something else. I mention a program out there I loathe.  There are some future sermons I don’t want to go into right now; they’re really hard for me not to go into, sermons that are going to be given at the Feast that I’m really anxious to give this year, really looking forward to give and I think of some of the things that are going to change in the future and this example is one of them.  This program called Facebook and others like it that sometimes tests human beings as to how they use what they have.  The use of technology – we have to be so careful, even for the sake of the Church and the protection of one another within the Church and yet people don’t think like that but we should.  We’re going into a period of time here where we should be concerned about each other’s protection and that you are protected, your identity is protected, your location is protected, everything is protected but today in this world, the way it is, that’s very hard to do, but that should be our heart and our desire toward each other.  Many times I have battled with forbidding it, but I’m not.  You have to decide for yourself what you do and how you do it and how you use something that’s available out there.  There’s some things that are so dangerous and yet we don’t even grasp it in this world – so, I’m not even going to address it any more than that.  But there are many things like that in the world.

So unity of spirit has much to do with working to maintain right relationships at which some stumble from time to time and some are worse than others from time to time.  And unity of spirit has very much to do with unity with the truth that’s been given to us and working to be at one with that truth.  Sometimes you have to work at that and ask yourself – are you absolutely in unity? You have to examine yourself.  Are you becoming stronger, or are you becoming weaker in that?  And only you can answer it.  And that we be faithful stewards of that truth.  You know, God wants us to be faithful stewards.  You know what a faithful steward means?  It means that what is given to you, you’re faithful to that treasure, you’re a faithful steward.  You will faithfully pass that along to others.  It’s like riches that God gives to you.  We can think of physical riches.  If God gives you physical riches than how do you do that?  How do you use that?  Are you faithful with what has been given to you?  And what God gives to us on a spiritual plane, God wants to know are we going to be faithful with what He’s given to us – so the truths, the way of life that God has given to us, we learn to be faithful with that – faithful stewards.  Meaning that when asked by someone else in the world, or by someone else in the Church, you know what we will faithfully do as faithful stewards?  We’ll give them exactly what has been given to us and nothing more and nothing less.  That’s a faithful steward.  So it all boils down to what are we going to do when asked questions.  That’s why we encourage the elders so often to send people right back to the FAQ because there are so many answers out there on the FAQ system.  The elders know that, they’ve learned that.  Because that’s where unity of spirit comes from.  And so sometimes people learn you can give somebody a quick answer and sometimes we do but as a whole to send someone right back to a place where they can prove it to themselves, by going through the scriptures and so forth or you can go into some difficult scriptures or some of the scriptures listed on the FAQ and then going and listening to the sermons.  If they really want to know, that’s where they’ll go.

And so again, a faithful steward – what we will not do is give our opinion about something, our idea about something that we haven’t yet heard.  Or that we think in our own mind is right.  That’s a very high standard isn’t it, that God gives to us to be faithful stewards.  That’s why it’s so important to have a meekness of spirit, a teachable spirit – to make sure that we’re in unity and harmony and that’s why I have given these sermons.  I remember the day this started for the Church. He wanted us to focus more and more on this than any other time and that was the Feast of Tabernacles in Colorado Springs – some of you were there – and at that point in time God started emphasising more and more the importance because of the age we’re entering into of being at one in unity with what God has given to us.  This is so important to grasp and comprehend.  That’s why God has organized the Church like He has today with the technology that’s available.  Everybody listening today is pretty much listening to the same voice that they hear Sabbath after Sabbath after Sabbath.  On some Sabbaths or Holy Days there might be another voice, but that’s how God’s working with us: in a more organized, specific way in order to teach and mould and fashion the Church – because of the seriousness of the times we’re in.  What was allowed during Philadelphia is not being allowed right now because that allowed for something else to later take place in Laodicea.  When Mr. Armstrong was gone then it came to pass and if we can understand things like that and learn from those lessons we can learn a great deal of how God works in our lives.

Ephesians 4 verse 4: There is one body, and one spirit, one spirit that comes from God and if we’re in harmony with that one spirit, we will be at one with God, truly.  ...one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; not a lot of different hopes, but rather only one. In the scattered church today there are a lot of different kinds of ideas about hope and what people hope for.  There are still people who hope for a place of safety.  It’s kind of like people still hope for going off on a rapture when all of a sudden great trouble is coming and they get to go off on this rapture up in heaven and be there for 7 years to look down on the earth as everybody else, as sinners, are suffering.  There’s hardly any concept at all of being a part of it and living in and through it and that there’s purpose God has for that.  God saving us through that and protecting us through that – but still suffering along with the rest of the world. That’s why I’m tickled pink that we’re not in that yet.  It’s coming fast enough.  But sometimes we live our lives as though we want that to get on with that.  Be ever so thankful we’re not.  Incredible.

One Lord, not in the world, not in traditional Christianity, not of the church that was scattered; one faith, one faith means there’s one belief, one truth.  That’s a tough one for people.  It’s why sometimes even in the body that’s scattered out here they think that God is working with this group and that group and several different groups at the same time and we’re all kind of supposed to do our own thing and yet He’s working with all of us and He’s going to bring it all together someday... what a weak god they serve if they believe that.  God is not weak.  There are other answers to what happened and most  of that has to do with sin, a refusal to repent.  ...one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one baptism...One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. If we’re a part of the body of Christ this is true, see?  We’re all of one spirit, truly, and we grow in that.

Verse 11: And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  and I thought I’d explain for people who are new to understand this, it’s just a reality of where we are and what we’re living through and it’s just something that is a part of life today, the way God’s Church is structured in this age. There are two prophets, no apostles, two evangelists, no pastors and no teachers...in what this is talking about and stating here.  We do have other order in the Church, speaking of elders and so forth that can fit into teachers but we understand today that it’s not like it used to be a long time ago where there were elders that were being trained to serve in the ministry as teachers to be given responsibility – that’s why I mentioned in the beginning – there is one primary way that people learn today and decide whether they’re in unity and harmony with it – and it’s by what you hear sermon after sermon, Sabbath after Sabbath.  That’s where the teaching is being done that God gives to us.  Everything else then is a matter of whether we are in unity and harmony with that and faithful stewards of what God has given to us.  So anyone in God’s Church, when asked a question, should be able to give the same answer.  If we’re reading FAQ’s, if we’re drinking in of the sermons and everything else, it’s a part of a process we must go through and this is the way God has organized it within the body.

For the perfecting of the saints, I make a distinction in that for a purpose so we can all learn from that.  And sometimes that requires humility then on our part but it’s a reality, it’s how God is working with us as a body.  Some of this is going to change when time goes along here, as time goes along.  When it comes to a point in time where... well, I don’t even want to get into that – I’ll address that later on.  Anyway... for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,  for the Church of what’s to take place and how God organizes and does different things at different times, for the edifying of the body of Christ: until we all come into the unity of the faith, that’s God’s desire – that we be in unity of belief first – that’s what leads to unity of faith because as we learn and as we grow and as we believe and agree upon the same things and we see what we’ve been given and we’re at one with that then... and we make the right choices to live by that, then we’re in unity and faith and that’s a maturing process – that’s what this is all about – a maturing process of how God works with us to mature us.  Till we all come into the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect or mature man, a person, in other words, unto the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ: and for some there are certain things that have already been set, that there is a maturity already there that God has sealed and they will be a part of the first resurrection and yet there is still growth taking place because everyone of those individuals still has growth and maturing that must take place in their life that continues on.  Just because of a sealing  having taken place does not mean that the maturing and going through various trials has stopped.  On the contrary, God is still moulding and fashioning within each and every one of us various things to fit into an exact spot when the time comes.  And then for the rest that are not yet sealed, God has called every one of you to have opportunity for that maturing process that’s taking place in you, to have opportunity in a new age, in a new world, in awesome ways that you can’t comprehend yet.

It says, That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, those things that have happened in God’s Church from the beginning of the Church.  Situations come along, ideas come along in people’s lives – even within the body; of people letting down and allowing themselves to begin going in a different direction.  I think of evangelists, I think of teachers at Ambassador College.  Every one of them who latched on to different ideas from what they had received through God’s apostle: they began to think differently, in a wrong way.  I made mention of a name earlier.  That individual began to think differently a long time ago about Passover.  Mr. Armstrong had already written a book about the 14th/15th Passover. There was no question with Mr. Armstrong and the acceptance of three scriptures made it very clear that everything happened on the 14th: none of this 15th stupidity, and yet there are massive numbers of ministers out there that are scattered that went through Ambassador College who latched on to what that man taught – just one of many doctrines – who still believe it, who still teach it, or they refrained from teaching it but they privately believe it because they were told to quit preaching it.  Amazing.  Or they were pressured into not preaching their own personal beliefs, but that’s what they believed.  If you believe something contrary to what God has given you, you know what happens?  You’re cut off from God’s spirit – you no longer have unity of spirit.  You already are filled with that which is haughty and filled with pride, working against God and what God has given and how God has given it to His Church.  So what God starts with us from the beginning you can’t forget, of how God began to work with you, hold onto it with all of your being and understand that process.

And so it says here... we have our history filled with this, that we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; by anyone who seeks to be a teacher – and that can be anyone.  Anyone.  It can be someone brand new, newly baptized. Just a few months in the body and they’re out here eager to get on the internet to teach somebody else what they think is out of this book, what they think that God is giving them to share with others in the body.  People don’t understand how dangerous that is to do, something that is contrary, that is not in agreement with what has been given.  We hurt ourselves spiritually if we do things like that.  When we do things that aren’t right, that aren’t sound, when we post prayers... what are you told to do?  What has always been the teaching of God’s Church when it comes to prayers – do you share that with all the Church?  Does that kind of lift you up in importance or something, that you’re going to share a prayer with other people?  Why would you do that?  Why would anyone do that?  ...if pride isn’t a factor?  I’m telling you that’s what it is – it’s pride, but sometimes we can’t see it.  And God says, Jesus Christ said, go in your closet and pray.  If you have a prayer it’s between you and God and if you want to tell other people... it’s like clanging a big drum or a gong.  We know when we’re fasting as a Church wide fast, but if you choose to fast separately by yourself you may have to tell your mate obviously because of how it’s going to affect your meals or your eating together and something like that, but we don’t have to let all the Church know on Sabbath... I think I’m going to fast... I’m fasting today!  You know?  Why tell everybody?  Why tell everybody you’re fasting?  Does it make you feel better?  Does it lift yourself up?  Do we know the answer?  I don’t like addressing things like this but no matter where we are in the body we need, with all of our being, to strive to be of a humble spirit and not to try to lift our self up, not to let that begin in your life.  I’ve seen so many people go by the wayside because they allowed pride to enter into their life.  If you ever begin to allow yourself to be lifted up with self importance you begin destroying yourself.  God leaves that immediately.  He will not dwell in that.  He can’t work with that.  Some things that are so serious sometimes we don’t grasp... so what can we do?  Thankfully we can repent so when we see these things and they’re pointed out to us, when God shows us these things then we can repent and change that and seek to be in unity and harmony with Him and to realize how dangerous... what is one of the greatest things that God wants us to grasp as human beings?  It’s this thing of pride.  It’s where Lucifer began to go astray.  It’s where everyone has always gone astray – pride!  The three great things that we battle in this human body: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.  And the pride of life covers them all – see?  Pride!  It’s a hideous, horrible thing, it truly is...and we should loathe it with all of our being and ask God to clean it out of us.

Going on, he tells us how to do it, what we need to do, how to accomplish these things and about being on guard.  That’s what this is about, being on guard, that we not be tossed to and fro and carried about with different ideas or doctrines. If somebody comes up with an idea and a doctrine or something that maybe  we don’t think they are doctrines, but if it’s conflicting with what’s been given to us, it is a doctrine, it is a teaching, it is something that’s conflicting with what we’ve been given and that hurts the body.  And so... as it says here, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;   But speaking the truth in love, to love each other, to want to make sure that whatever we give; that we give what God has given to us – faithful stewards.  That we faithfully pass on exactly what God has given to us because that’s love, love to God, and that’s love to one another because if we pass on something different that comes out of self... I fear that, I pray to God regularly about those kinds of things.  I don’t want that because I know what it means; it would mean for me; and what it would mean for others.  If it doesn’t come from God it has no value.  If it comes out of me it has no value.  It must come from God indeed; and that’s the way we must live our lives in everything – to make sure we’re in unity and oneness with God so that what we pass along to others comes through us being a faithful steward. That means what we give to others is being faithful of the steward of those truths that God has given to us. That’s why in Revelation it says don’t add to and don’t take from.

Verse 15: But speaking the truth in love may grow up to him in all things who is the head even Christ, Jesus Christ the head of the Church, the head of the body, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies,  we’re all part of a body.  What a marvel to understand that and we’re not all in the same place in the body; neither do we have to be; neither should we be.  We all have specific functions within the body that God has given to us and it’s a matter of how we yield to that process then and being thankful that we’re all a part of the body.  And so it goes on to say here, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. That’s a beautiful scripture.  It’s agape.  It’s about God’s love. It’s about how God’s love can come into us, live in us, through us to the benefit of one another within the body...and it just continues to flow and that has to do with being in unity and harmony with what God has given to us in faith and belief.  It all works together; it truly does, in a very powerful way.

Let’s go to II Timothy chapter 1 verse 5: it says, When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in you… Paul is talking to Timothy here, this being the second book of Timothy and God talking to him about the job that’s before him and he brings this up.  When I call to remembrance, he says, basically when I think of you Timothy, of the unfeigned faith, that’s a beautiful thing if you understand.  What an incredible thing for Paul to say to Timothy, an encouraging thing that Timothy received from him because of the task, because of the job that Timothy was given in a very unique and a very powerful way to do what he was doing in his ministry, when he was sent out to minister.  And he’s saying it’s unpretentious – it’s faith.  You don’t take it to yourself, you’re not lifted up by what God has given you to know and to understand and what comes from you, he’s saying, is genuine.  It’s true.  It comes across that way to others.  That’s a benefit in the body, in the Church – unfeigned faith, not about airs and putting on airs.  It’s not about being lifted up with the job you’ve been given Timothy.  And so I think of this, he says, when I think of you, that is in you which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, you were blessed because you had that example from your grandmother first, your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice; so Timothy’s being reminded of that influence that was in his life, of where Paul first saw that faith at work; and he said, you learned from that, you reflect that.  It’s a beautiful thing to be said in the family, something like this, and I am persuaded that in you also. See?  So that had to be a very encouraging thing to Timothy in ways that we don’t even begin to comprehend, candidly, because we have no comprehension of what Timothy was going through and doing the job he was doing.

Verse 6: Wherefore I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift, Remember Timothy, hold on to this, stir up the gift, which is in you by the putting on of my hands.  This could have been twofold; it definitely could be taken in the first way because of the family – Paul may have very well baptized him.  He definitely laid hands upon him for the ministry, setting him apart, ordaining him to a specific job and function and certainly that requires more of God’s spirit that’s given for a specific job that an individual has access to because of the job, not because of the person, but because of the job.  And so he’s telling him, stir up that gift, that you have, that power that’s there.  Stir up the spirit of God.  How do you do that?  A desire to draw closer to God, a desire to be more at one with God, a desire to put more effort into being at one with God.  Sometimes it’s a matter of going back and reading and rereading the books, listening to a sermon again, going on the website and drinking in all we can because I am here to tell you; you can’t drink it all in.  You cannot drink in, spiritually, everything that is there, but you can build and you can continue to build and you can become stronger.  It’s one thing to read something and to have knowledge of certain things, but to know it, to understand it, to have it cemented in your mind that you see it on a spiritual level – that’s something else that God has to give. That’s why it’s such a marvel sometimes when you do go back and you listen to a sermon again.  I’ve heard a lot of different people going back to a sermon a year ago, two years ago, five years ago and all of a sudden something is there because of the time elapsed and because of their growth that they see something in it that they didn’t see before.  It’s the way it always is,  and is the same way regarding the Bible.  If there comes a point where as time goes on if you can’t see something ‘new’ in that sense of in a more profound way reading over a verse and all of a sudden… it could be just a word in itself and it will give a strength in meaning, or a renewed meaning, or a more powerful meaning to a subject because you see something that is unlocked in your mind, because God has already done a building with you, a building process and now you’re up here on another level and all of a sudden because this part of the foundation is set down here and some of the building has been set up here, that when you get up here a little higher, all of a sudden you’re able to put it together in a stronger way and reinforce it in a stronger way and then later on to build upon that.  But you can’t do it till you’re there.  It is a building process that God takes us through and it’s a marvellous process, and we just have to go through and yield ourselves to that process and thank God for it as He builds in us, because God is doing that.

I love the scriptures that talk about that new creation.  There’s an original creation that happened a long time ago, but there is a new creation of what God is doing that’s greater, far greater, than anything that’s ever been created before, far greater than the universe, far greater than the creation of man himself.  It’s the creation of the God family; when you’re begotten of God’s spirit and a life begins within you, where something is able to come out of and through a human being that God moulds and fashions to one day be able to be a part of His family:  the most awesome of His creation, truly.  Very powerful thing that we’re able to be a part of and yield ourselves to be a part of that.  And so we have to work at so often this matter of being in unity of faith.  We often times have to work at our prayer life because the carnal human nature is one of not doing those things that are on a spiritual level.  It’s difficult.  We come together in fellowship – as long as I’ve been in the Church – sometimes I still have a difficult battle knowing where to begin a conversation with someone – how to open up someone, or how to draw them out.  My wife is much better at that than I am, drawing someone out.  She has a blessing and a gift in that which I don’t possess the same in so I have to work at that a little bit harder.  She grew up in a family where she learned that through her family in a very powerful way; and I’ve had to work at growing at that particular area.  How many of you find yourself in that situation?  ...especially those of you who are new?  Is it tough sometimes? ...to get around others who are new and to begin opening up.  What do you say? And what common ground do you have and where do you build at?  And through time, and especially when we don’t meet together every Sabbath like we do in a lot of areas... now, it’s an amazing thing to me too how some people visit some areas where they do meet together and they see a difference because of meeting together every Sabbath and not every one is blessed to be able to do that, but there are blessings and power in some of that that draws us closer together that otherwise just takes longer to build and we long for the day that that will be everywhere, that every city, every place is going to be filled with the ability of people of like mind to meet and to share. The point being is you know how difficult it can be sometimes.  You can’t ignore it.  If you ignore it, it never changes.  If you don’t address it, if you don’t face it head on and do that which is uncomfortable to do then how is it ever going to change?  It has to start changing with self doesn’t it?  And so we have to yield ourselves to that process... so you have to work at it.  You have to work at prayer.  You have to work at setting aside a time if it’s a matter of reading, or re-reading something, or listening to a sermon, or whatever it might be.  This is the time to do those things more than ever.  This is the time to increase those things more than ever – this is the time for that!  See?  ...more than ever.  Truly!  And so again, it’s work, takes effort, and it’s a part of the body, making increase of the body edifying itself in love.  So the more we do those things, the more we’re going to be blessed with God’s love – even within the body.  Some of the things that Paul was telling Timothy here and what he was able to learn from it; about stirring up the gift of God.  You have to work at stirring up that gift of God.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power,  there’s so much power there, incredible if we could really grasp it and yet we don’t fully because we’re very physical and we have this battle that goes on in our human mind, but as we grow that power becomes more and more obvious to us.  We learn from that and we understand where that power comes from and we know it doesn’t come out of us.  We know we’re blessed to share with that and that which is given to us from God.   ...but of power, and of love, the kind of love that God wants us to exercise has to come from Him... the ability to love our neighbour as our self – none of us have that as a human being.  People think they do sometimes in some of the religions of the world. They think they have that kind of ability and no, they do not, they love themselves so much more.  They don’t even begin to grasp it, how far short they fall on that one.  And the ability to love God?  ...to love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your being... I wish I could do that far better than what I do, but that’s something I have to grow in, something I am growing in.  The more I draw closer to God, the more I learn, the more that God gives to me, the more I can accomplish that one, but we by ourselves as human beings cannot accomplish that: to love God with ALL of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our BEING?  Whew... if we really understood what that’s saying...

...of love and of a sound mind. What a blessing to have a sound mind!   Because we all carry garbage from this world that’s in our minds and I look forward to the time when that can be changed. You know when that’s going to fully change?  When we change.  When we’re changed from mortal to immortal, so it’s going to be a battle because just human life itself, there are things up here that we carry with us but a sound mind is a beautiful thing to have and the longer we’re in the body, the longer we’re in the Church, the more that soundness of mind can be there, something the world can only have a bit of as a whole... and so if something’s not sound the problem is with us, it’s not with God’s spirit.  The balance, the soundness of mind, those are things that God gives.

II Timothy 1 and verse 8: Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: the things that people can ridicule and mock and make fun of.  Has it changed?  I think of the things that Christ went through and I understand them better today than I have ever understood them; of things that we learn and we go through when God lets us experience them.  All of His people have experienced things through time, of what this world is like, and what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that – God has received it for over 6000 years.  He’s received it a whole lot longer than that – millions and millions of years, if we understand.  Ever when Lucifer did what he did, because it didn’t take very long until he began to mock God, tear down God, before the other angels – and then it carried on with mankind –  it didn’t take long.  And so he says, don’t be ashamed of the testimony/witness what is it we’re going through?  I think of 2008 God’s Final Witness and what it says.  So much of that has to do with what’s happening in our lives and what we’re experiencing and what we’re going through and what God is still giving testimony of here at the end, at the very end, that we have to experience, and we have to go through for a great purpose because it is that which has a finality to it as far as the world is concerned and it’s magnified many times over in 3½ years – many times over.  Some have commented about the name of the book – because we’re past 2008. It has great meaning if we understand; what ended for mankind, what finally began as far as we’re concerned, what led into what we’re going through and what’s been witnessed as a part of our lives and continues to be so and will continue to be so all the way to the end.

So he says, ...don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: see? ... but be you partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, what an awesome thing that each one of us has... to think that God Almighty; as small and as puny as we are...   that’s why I marvel sometimes when it talks about ‘where the eagles are gathered together,’ the vultures – carnivorous birds, ‘there the body is.’  That is what that prophecy is about, it’s always been that way.  But if you understand that, you can know, very much so, even on a spiritual plane, where God’s Church is and where God’s people are.  Think, why do people get so stirred up, especially today?  I could understand it more in the time of Mr. Armstrong and so forth, but today?  Small as we are?  Amazing!  Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, we’ve gone through and talked about this in the last series of sermons given, that this is the only way that we can come to see the truth ...called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but by what God just gives to us.  He puts it in your mind.  It’s not about self.  It’s about the blessing of sharing in something that God just gives to us.  What an awesome blessing. ...a holy calling...according to his own purpose and grace,  just thankful that we are on the receiving end of it now, because the vast majority of all mankind, the vast overwhelming majority for 6000 years haven’t had remotely that kind of opportunity offered to them.  They have to wait to the end of 7000 years to be resurrected to finally have an opportunity.  It can be hard to understand what’s been given to us and the riches and the fullness of life – that just because of His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, Incredible, even for us, it’s making it clear what was to be given to us before the world ever began, a process that God had set up and established that was planned to take place in a very specific way: that we would have a Passover, that God was going to call some in different stages of life – everything has been planned out – meticulously so a long, long time ago.  God doesn’t just go along and then all of a sudden change major things as far as His plan is concerned...  Oh I think this would be a good idea today... wished I’d thought of that 2000 years ago... The plan is laid out and we’re blessed to be a part of it.  The universe itself should scream out to us and cry out to us how meticulous our lives are planned out already.

Verse 10: But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: through the good news.

Verse 11: whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. All people that God has called as prophets and apostles have known exactly what their job is; they’ve known exactly what their job is; and a part of their job was to tell others what their job was.  I think of when some of this began some wondered well, why are you saying you are who you are?  Because God gave me that job to say it, otherwise no one would compare, no one would look, no one would think about it, no one would address it ever.  Why would they address it?  Why did all the other prophets do the same thing?  Why did the apostles continually remind people of who they were and what job God had given to them?  Amazing!  Wherefore... whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.  For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. We... when God gives us to see what we see we just go forward and realize and understand as we walk by faith that God works it all out in His timing, in His way and we have the proof of that in our lives if... you know, if we’re able to look back very far.  Some of us who are new its kind of difficult.  One day you’ll be able to look back but it’s pretty easy for you compared to what it’s been for those in the previous 6000 years, truly.

Hold fast the form of sound words, which you have heard of me, is Paul bragging?  Was Paul filled with pride?  Or was he just telling Timothy and the Church, and all else who were to hear this of what was important and what was a reality that they needed to do, an understanding of how God was working, through Paul to the Gentiles and to all that he would eventually write, and to all those who would eventually follow – Jew or Gentile, it didn’t matter.  ...hold fast so that is what God tells us to do, ...hold fast; everything you have been given.  I can say the same things and I do say the same things, that you have heard of me or through me, because they’re true and it’s up to you to hold them fast, to understand where they come from... that they come from God.  ...which you have heard of me in faith, in the ability God has given you to believe and because you believe it you’ve acted upon it and you’re living by those things.  Awesome what God gives to us, and love, always a matter of love; understanding that the love that comes from God, the love we’re able to have toward each other, the love for God’s word, the love for God’s truth and how He gives that to us, which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, that’s what he’s saying; it was given to me, committed to you: be a faithful steward; that’s what he’s being told in so many words here – the same thing that Jesus Christ told us all to be: faithful stewards of what’s been committed to us.  It is kind of awkward in English but different words that talk about ‘hold fast’ and the word that talks about ‘possess faith’ means what God has given you to possess – hold onto it – it’s your possession; it’s a treasured possession!  For us to hold fast to that God has given to us. That good thing that was committed to you, keep, the word meaning to guard, to preserve, to be watchful – don’t let it slip away.  Understand it’s value, don’t let down with what God has given – hold it fast, keep it God says, and this word here meaning to be watchful with what He’s given to you, alert and on guard, in other words, not letting anyone or anything take it away from you, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in you.  A need to stay close to God, a need to repent of sin so He won’t take His spirit from us; so we won’t be cut off from the flow of His spirit.

So far we’ve gone through the scriptures that we have so that we can focus first on the importance of holding fast; of preserving; persevering and guarding the faith that God has given to us because it’s a matter of faith, a unity of belief.  Holding on to that with all of our being, understanding how God has given it to us, the truths that God has blessed us to see and to believe.

We’ve also begun to focus on the importance of being in unity and oneness in those beliefs and truths that God has given to us.   There are some who listen in on the Sabbath who have not committed themselves to the Church.  We get letters on occasion from people that are almost there but they’re not fully there and it has always been that way in one degree or another.  Today it’s a rather unique process.  But they cannot grow beyond a limited point.  It’s like being drawn by God’s spirit.  If your mind is opened up to begin to see things that are true, you’re being drawn. We all react differently when we go through different things, and the reality is that being drawn by God’s spirit means that He gives you the ability to see His truth, a lot of His truth.  So many things that start to come together in our mind that is so awesome and then we see this marvel.  We get to experience, we get to taste of something that’s awesome!  Don’t ever forget how God called you.  Don’t ever forget how God began to draw you; something that is to be etched into your mind because its about a personal relationship that God has with you, if you understand that process; it is literally how God the Father began to work with you and began to work with your very mind – to give you that which is treasured highly treasured.  See?  Of His way of life, of His mind and so He shares some of that with you.  You’re not yet impregnated with His spirit, but He opens up your mind and He gives you a bit of a taste of dwelling in you because He gives you the ability to see certain things.  And that in itself brings you to a point where you understand things about baptism, where you’re able to grasp it; but you’re making choices along the way, choices about the Sabbath and working on the Sabbath and all the other things that go with it and so you’re making choices with all this as you’re going along and do you want more?  Do you desire, do you treasure what God has given to you?  And so everyone has to make these choices and decisions and not everyone makes those choices.  I marvel at scriptures that talk about how many have been called and few have been chosen through time – because not everyone can make those choices and decisions and once God even begins to draw them and open up the mind – they don’t make those choices and decisions – all as a witness, showing what human beings are like and what we go through.

And so again, we come to a point in time where we realize the importance of being able to be baptized and to be able to have God dwelling in us.  An ability to grow to a certain point and then you come to a point where you realize you can’t grow anymore unless you receive that impregnation of God’s spirit.  You’ve heard it, you’ve read it and you believe it and you have to make a choice to act on it and if you act on it you know what?  It’s faith.  And you ask for a minister, an elder to baptize you, to be able to go through that process of baptism. That’s the reason we have so many elders added, to bring people to baptism – that’s what their job is that hasn’t even begun yet!  As I mentioned last night to 3 elder that were together – you’re job hasn’t even started yet.  All of you elders out there have received just a little training.  Just a little wee dab of training that’s taken place.  But the job and the purpose of all that hasn’t started yet in earnest, it truly hasn’t.  It’s going to dumbfound your minds when you’re thrust into it – indeed... what God has prepared and what He’s doing.

The same thing happens with all of us that are drawn and are brought to a certain point – we come to realize, and then we act upon it and we live by faith; and God attributes that to you for righteousness sake and He’ll dwell in you.  Incredible the process we go through.

Sometimes people listen but they won’t act upon it and that’s something everyone has to address.  I remember one individual telling me the reason he was in services in one area is because he heard a sermon and he said “that was me.”  I told people to get off the pot in that sermon.  He said, “I realized that was me” and so he did.  He got with the program and became baptized.  I wish that everyone could hear, that we’re able to be drawn to God and make the choices we need to make, but sometimes this world pulls at us, family pulls at us, things on the internet pull at people. There is a powerful adversary out there, one that is bigger than every one of you.  Truly.

So again, such people try to do this way on their own, sometimes, without truly acting upon what God has given them to believe.  So we can’t do it on our own, we learn and realize that we need help and it remains that way once you’re baptized; you will always, always, always need help and if that ever lets down and begins to wane you start losing what God has given to you.  So never rely on your own reasoning, your own intellect – it’s an easy thing to do, it’s a great trap, it truly is.

I had several things written down that I was going to mention but I think what has already been said gives the picture that we have to be careful brethren, we truly do, because a lot of the reason for many holding back today is because, “I don’t see anything yet.  I don’t see great destruction yet and because of that then not only do I not believe it now,” some have gone so far as saying, “you’re a false prophet.”  It’s not true.  And the longer this period of time goes on until the 2nd Trumpet the easier it is for that to take place and happen in people’s lives, and that’s too bad, that is sad,  and that can happen to you too.    Be careful what you feed upon.   Be careful what you allow in your mind.  Hold fast to what God has given you to be a faithful steward of; that He says keep and possess this and hold onto this, it is your life.  To understand the distinction between the two.  So there are a handful in our midst that have resorted to the same kind of reasoning and intellect, being bothered by things that family has said, or others have said, or others have written and that’s a choice – instead of holding fast to what God has given to them – because this isn’t about a matter of being able to see something physically, it’s a matter of being able to see something spiritually and it always has been.

We’re going to cover this next section of this series addressing this problem in the lives of some that is taking place right now. Some... two or three who have left us just recently because this battle has become too great for them and because that spirit is working upon and striving to work upon the minds of others in the body. Whether you have been around a short time or a long time is immaterial.  So we’re going to address and talk about some of these things because it’s a warning to all of what has happened to a few and what can happen to you if you fail to grasp the importance of this series of genuinely seeking to remain and grow in greater unity of belief because that’s the charge that God has given to us and that is the opportunity that we have before us.  This is not the time to let down.  This is not the time to become lukewarm.  This is not the time to let down your guard and fail to be spiritually watchful because I know it is happening in the body.  You can’t afford to let that happen in the body and the only reason I know that is by the spirit of God.  This is a time to hold fast to what God has offered you.

I want to put a little bit of a twist on something that Paul wrote to the Galatians in the last series and I’ll just quote it here and you can mark the scripture down if you want to go back to it, but it’s Galatians chapter 3 and verse 2:  Paul asked them, reasoning with them on a human and physical plane, a very carnal plane.  He says, This only would I learn of you, did you receive the spirit, and when we understand that, that involves all because it has to do with the word of God, it has to do with the mind of God, the being of God, the truth of God that God delivers through the power of the holy spirit as He gives us His holy spirit.  That’s the purpose of it, for the truth to be a part in our mind and a part of our being.  So it’s talking about the word of God, the truths of God because that’s how it’s delivered to us; because as we talked about earlier too, we are begotten by God’s spirit, yes, but we’re begotten by what?  The word.  God’s word, the truth; if we understand that it is a part of the very essence of God Almighty – His very mind!  His thoughts, the way He is. That is what His spirit contains and He shares that in our minds.  That’s how we’re able to see and understand certain things of the truth – because God puts it in our minds and communicates with our spirit by His spirit.  Such an awesome thing; truly is.  Far beyond any human reasoning... it’s something to be learned and understood by experience, and you’ve all experienced it, every one of you who is baptized – you’ve experienced that process, of God Almighty in your mind and in your being.  You’re begotten with the word of truth.  It’s what gives you the ability to know the truth, to see the truth, to hold onto the truth – truly – as long as God’s spirit dwells there to feed that begettal.  Just like a baby, just like an egg and the sperm cell that comes together and a life begins and the blood that begins to pump to keep it alive and God’s spirit keeps us alive and if we cut that spirit off then we begin to be hurt spiritually.  We don’t die immediately like a baby would in the womb, it’s different, but the analogies are there to learn lessons from on a physical plane.

So again... he said, this only will I learn of you, did you receive the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? We’re reminded of the particular series we just went through.  I want to ask this in another way of all of you... Did you receive the truths of God, the word of God, the spirit of God… did you receive these things by prophecies you saw fulfilled?  Because with some reasoning that’s how people would be thinking out there.  But it is not how we received it at all.  I’m also going to borrow another example from Paul; when he was reasoning with some very carnally acting Corinthians about some of their behaviour toward himself, toward Paul, and how God was revealing the truth to them, the Corinthians through him, through Paul.  Because that’s how God worked with the Corinthians: it came through Paul to them, to mould and fashion them; those who’d receive it.  And as he was reasoning with them he said he was speaking as a fool.  Some of you remember those verses, those scriptures you read before.  And so he said he was speaking to them as a fool, meaning that he did not believe what he was telling them but to put himself, to put the thoughts out there on a carnal, physical plane – to hopefully be able to help them, to reason with them.  So he was by this process desiring to show them the foolishness of what they were thinking.

Since we are in a unique moment of time, sometime after the 1st Trumpet and sometime between the 2nd Trumpet – because that is where we are – a very unique moment in time; especially because things haven’t happened like we thought they would, like I had been programmed all my days in the Church to think that when it talks about tribulation to think of ‘great’ tribulation, that it would start out with a bang and it didn’t happen that way.  And God has taught us through the process.  And the longer this period of time continues the more difficult the battle becomes for some; and the longer this gap of time goes the more difficult this battle will become with more and more people: and you have an opportunity to learn about yourself through this process, to ask where you are in your thinking, where you are in your relationship with God?  And this will happen more if they’re not closely heeding the message from this sermon series.

It is as though some wish for destruction to strike soon so that their battle is lessoned.  Do you ever have those thoughts in your mind?  Do you ever battle with some of that?  If it would just start then I wouldn’t have to battle with some of these things – what people are saying, what family is saying, what relatives are saying and thinking toward me and maybe even have written about you.  Isn’t that foolish?  To think that maybe my battle would be lessoned if things would have already started or if there was suffering occurring right now?  We’re able to see things in ourselves and learn from that process.  You know, God has a reason why things happen the way they happen and we have to examine ourselves: What do we believe and Why?

Now I’m going to speak as a fool, to hopefully show the foolishness of some thinking.  What is the worst case scenario you can think of concerning the Church of God – PKG?  For those of you who are a part of it.  Because this is what it seems to boil down to for a few, thankfully a very few, but it is a warning to us all because there is that tendency and that human nature that has to be battled and so it does seem to boil down to that for a very few, but with a greater passage of time, that could turn into more.  That reminds me of the 50th Truth, that if God hadn’t given it earlier – what would that battle have been like if we really had to wait until the Feast of Trumpets?  I know what it would have been like.  I know what would have happened and I know many of us do as well because there are great lessons in that and so  there is in this as well, to learn from this.

It would seem that some doubt that I am a prophet since they have not seen the evidence of the 2nd Trumpet; or because much has changed in timing between the 1st Trumpet blast and the 2nd one.  And I’ve talked about various things in the times past and I meant it with all my being; I’ve made comments in times past and some like to quote some of those comments, but if we had not been given the 50th Truth I wouldn’t be a minister right now, I wouldn’t be a prophet.  I wouldn’t believe I was a prophet.  Sad we can’t receive what God gives to us in His timing, but that’s why most of you are here – because you believe and you understand.

So speaking as a fool, if I’m not a prophet then I most assuredly am an apostle: speaking as a fool, because I don’t believe that.  I believe there was one apostle that ended God’s plan – Mr. Armstrong; God’s last apostle to mankind.  I believe that with all my being, everything I do is about that process.  I don’t just believe – I know who I am and what I am.  But others have battles and I understand that and this sermon is a part of that process to answer some of those things, to hopefully help some who might be battling and to understand that you have to fight for this way of life.  I’ve talked about that so often.  You have to be on guard spiritually; you have to draw close to God; you have to ask God for help of His spirit to battle your battle so you can be close to Him, so that you don’t lose vision and don’t lose hope and don’t lose out.

So again, speaking as a fool, if I’m not a prophet then I am most assuredly an apostle.  Why do I say that?  Because of the truths that God has revealed to me and through me.  I have to be one of the two.  There is no other answer in life if you want to talk about a physical plane of looking at something as a fool.  First, a reminder is in order which we read earlier. Ephesians 4 and verse 11:  He gave some apostles and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors, and some teachers.  But, and let’s notice a little bit farther what he says here... chapter 2, Ephesians, you can turn over there...

Ephesians 2, notice the importance God places on the apostles and prophets.  Ephesians 2 and verse 18: For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; so here it’s showing the structure of the Church, of what God has been building and what we are and what we’re a part of – the household of God.  I marvel at that, of where we are in time when I think about 144,000 who are going to be the foundational part of that structure and yet the construction doesn’t stop, it is still occurring right now, it is an ongoing process of what is going to be added on top of that which is a part of those whom God is calling...all of those who are new and able to be a part of this and share in that; construction continues so that it will be added to that structure.  It doesn’t stop through the millennium, and it goes into the Great White Throne until what God is doing is complete.  Awesome to understand what He is doing and how He’s doing it!  And it says, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,  that is how God is building.  ...Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; awesome to understand how God is building: how everything that has been given in structure and things that were given through the prophets in the Old Testament and how God has built upon that then when He started the Church in 31 A.D. and the holy spirit that was poured out, and the apostles who with great power began to preach very powerfully so and God gave to them doctrine that they never had in the Old Testament. Understanding that was never before given; and we have books in the Bible that were written to give to us and to give to those who followed more ability to understand because of what God is building upon – the prophets and the apostles.  See?  Awesome!  And then all the rest are to be faithful stewards... evangelists, pastors and teachers, and elders: faithful stewards of what God has given as a part of a structure and how He works.  And this is just the way it is.  Not a matter of pride and haughtiness but a matter of a reality of how God works, of how God worked through Peter, of how God worked through Paul, of how God worked through John and all the other apostles... and all the apostles that we haven’t known through time that God has built and strengthened the Church upon them and through them.  And then we come down to the end-time and finally God raised up just 1 for the whole world... 1 apostle that He gave more to than Peter ever had, that Paul never had, that John never had:  understanding, revelation of truth and doctrine that they didn’t have.  They did not have everything that God gave to Mr. Armstrong to give to the Church.  They didn’t have the concept of all those things that were brought together, that finally came together in one book and then we find that even all of that wasn’t all the truth yet to be revealed to the Church.  Awesome to understand how God has worked through time and as we get closer and closer He gives more and more – always growing; progressive revelation from Adam and Eve all through time... progressive revelation of Himself and of His plan and His purpose to mankind.  Incredible.

...are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets; Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in, or through, whom all the building is fitly framed together, and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; first of all through Jesus Christ because He is the head of the Church.  All the apostles, and there weren’t prophets like we have today because that was reserved for the end-time, but most has been built upon the apostles since the time of Christ and what has come through them that Jesus Christ, being the head, has given to His Church; added to and given more and more as time has gone on.  God gave much to Paul that was never given to Peter and God gave to John much more than what was ever given to Peter or to Paul – things of a spiritual nature, things that are so profound, to give to the Church.  Things were given to John that John didn’t even understand.  Some of it was given to Mr. Armstrong.  Incredible to understand how God has revealed different things at different times to His Church and to His people.  ...in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the spirit.  It’s just the way it is.  It is just the way it works.  It’s how God works in our lives.

Notice how Paul emphasises this importance in the next chapter: Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 2: if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given me toward you;  in other words to be given to you; how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, and so he’s saying here – God through revelation, through His spirit has made known things to me, has given to me things to understand that are a mystery to others, that others cannot understand and comprehend and it takes God’s spirit to understand and see them.  When he talks about the mystery that’s revealed to him and things that he has talked about in other places through Romans and so forth, and Corinthians, and the way he speaks – especially Corinthians chapter 2... beautiful scriptures there that discuss this process of the mystery and how it’s revealed to us and how it’s spoken of in that term and yet it’s revealed to us; we receive understanding.  Others out here, you can tell them and they still can’t see it.  They can’t see what you see; it’s a mystery to them and yet God through His spirit makes it known to you.  What an incredible thing!  So, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given me toward you; in other words to be given to you; how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before in few words, whereby, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ; that was his desire, Paul’s desire – that you understand, that you are able to receive because I’ve been sent to you.  That’s what he’s telling them:  I’ve been sent to you Ephesians and God is giving this to you, that which He has given to me, that it’s up to you now to receive it and to hold fast to what you’ve been given.  And there’s no other way to receive it.  Awesome!  He’s just telling them what is a reality and how they’re able to see what they see and how they’re able to be given what they’re given.  ...whereby when you read, so that when you read and if you read and anytime you do, so that you’d be able to understand and receive it as well, which in other ages was not made known; Paul said that what I am giving to you wasn’t known in the time of Isaiah, Moses, Jeremiah, Malachi, and other ages.  Things the prophets didn’t know because it was not given to them.  Jesus Christ came along and revealed incredible things.  Things that were given through Him to begin to be revealed that weren’t even understood until the apostles received the holy spirit.  Until you have the spirit you can’t even understand things that Jesus Christ gave.  The world thinks they understand it.  Isn’t that amazing?  The world of traditional Christianity thinks that they can read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and that they can understand it, and they don’t get diddely squat out of it.  They truly don’t!  Their eyes are blinded.  They make a nice story out of it, about the baby Jesus and how that he died.  Sick, sick, sick what man has done.  Only by the spirit of God do those words come alive and have depth of meaning and purpose in our lives and takes away those fables and those little stories – nice sweet little stories that mean nothing whatsoever.  On the contrary, they hurt the minds of those who receive them.  And when some people are called it takes them a lifetime to fight and conquer some of that garbage and swill that has been dumped into their minds.  That’s why I like the attitude from the very get go when people come along and they say they are incensed when they come to understand they’ve been lied to all their life!  Because the more you hate it the quicker you can get rid of it – see?  The quicker it doesn’t hurt you and doesn’t hold you down and doesn’t hold you back.  That sometimes if things stick in our mind, stay around our mind, we still equate certain things by our past and that’s why I hate with all my being the spirit of Protestantism and traditional Christianity that’s in the world, because it’s wishy washy, it’s syrupy, it’s “feel good about what we do”.  Like once a year, let’s go out and have a food drive for the poor, and what are you doing the rest of the year you hypocrites?!  You liars!  Strong words and they can’t take it so they hate me for saying it.  Well, that’s what Jesus Christ said of them.

They can’t help it.  I look forward to the day when Satan no longer holds this world like he does, when people are freed, so everyone can come out of Egypt: you know, let my people go.  What a blessing when finally that being is no longer around.  So again, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.  People can make fun of, mock and ridicule all they want.  I feel sorry for them.  They rob themselves and don’t even know it.  They fight against something and they don’t even know it.  They can’t grasp it.  They can’t comprehend what they resist and what they fight and what they hate and they don’t understand why they have such hatred.  And yet God says there’s a way He does this: that He reveals unto His holy apostles and prophets through the spirit.  It’s the only way it’s accomplished and so God gives things through the power of His holy spirit that are absolute.

As we have done at some points in the past, let’s consider a few of those things revealed by God through me; by God’s spirit through me – and I speak as a fool.  I don’t like doing this, but let’s look at them.  We have 50 truths.  So #35: we understand Jesus Christ is continually coming in the flesh. This is about Jesus Christ and God our Father dwelling, living in and through us by the power of the holy spirit.  And when you go back and read some of these various verses, where do you hear this in the world?  And where do you hear this in the church that was scattered? It’s not out there.  It wasn’t in Worldwide because God hadn’t given it yet.  It’s just a reality.  It is what it is and yet God has given it to me to give to the Church.  That’s the truth.  That’s a reality.  Do you believe it?  Or do you not believe it?  Is it a matter of faith that you act upon what you have been given to believe and you believe it because God makes it so clear in your mind because you see it and it’s so clear in your mind you wonder why others can’t see it.  It’s hard to imagine that others in the scattered church never saw this, never could see it, but they never did.  It was never taught, never given until God gave it, and just going back a little farther, in 1982 I started preaching about it.  No one else picked it up, no one else believed it; no one else gave it because that was when God began to give it.

I hope you understand what I’m saying.  I don’t like saying these things, that’s why I said, I speak as a fool.  It was just a reality of life and I don’t like talking about things on this plane, but it’s a reality and we have to address what is reality and what is true and what is right in our lives because it’s not about self in anything that I’m saying and yet there will be people out here who’ll pick that up and say, “Oh, he’s lifting himself up.”  No.  I despise it.  Let’s go over to I John 4 verse 1: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God,  and this fits so powerfully with this sermon series, with what we’re talking about right now; because many false prophets are gone into the world.  It’s been that way around the Church of God since the Church of God began.  It’s always been out there!  And if we understand, which I believe we do; I do, I know many of you do and I hope all of you do – that this is talking to the Church, and it’s about the Church and it’s really not even about the world.  It’s not talking about false prophets in the world because it is not addressing the world.  When you come into the Church you separate the world out there that’s false, you see it, you understand it.  You see the world of traditional Christianity, you see where it is false and wrong.  It’s so clear in your mind – Christmas and Easter and all the other garbage... it’s so clear to you.  It’s an admonition to the Church that God gave through John.

Verse 2: hereby you can know the spirit of God: how do you know the spirit of God?  There’s only one way.  It’s by the spirit of God being in you.  It’s the only way to know God’s spirit. Let’s go on... every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, I talked to a minister one time in the Church about this scripture and to him it meant that Jesus Christ came as a physical human being.  He came in the flesh.  My comment back is what about all those in traditional Christianity – don’t they say the same thing, that he came in the flesh?  Islam believes that he came in the flesh.  They believe he was a prophet, a prophet of God – that’s what they teach.  Not like Mohammad, but they believe he was a prophet of God so they acknowledge that.  Does that mean everyone in traditional Christianity that acknowledges this and says this, that he came in the flesh, that he has come in the flesh, is of God?  You ought to know that’s not true.  You have to know there’s something wrong in that.  So what is it saying?  We understand what it says and we know what it means.  ...every spirit that confesses... how do you do this?  It’s by your words, because you make a confession with your words.  It’s an unfortunate word that was used in the English language to express/explain something here.  That’s not what it means.  Just because you say it, does that make it true?  Does that make it right?  It’s by what comes out of your life, it’s by what you live, it’s by what’s reflected because of what you believe that confesses something that’s real or not real; that acknowledges and shows and reveals whether something is real or not real.  Going on... Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come, and we understand this word is not a past tense word, it’s not a Greek word that has past tense in it at all, it’s not “did come” or “has come”.  It’s not a future tense word like some places in John where he uses the same expression and it’s translated into English in a very poor way because people didn’t understand – those who translated didn’t understand God and God’s plan and what God was doing.  It’s present progressive, that’s the closest thing that we can come to in the English language – Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh in us, God dwells in His Church.  Jesus Christ dwells in His Church and so if your life reflects that, acknowledges that, reveals that, there’s only one thing that can be true – it’s from God, it’s of God!  If it’s a truth and it lives through you and is in you and your life reflects that then it came from one source – it came from God, because God is dwelling in you.  This is what it’s talking about... and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh is not of God,  so if there are certain actions and certain things that come along, like Passover and the 14/15th that’s being taught, it should be very easy for someone that God is dwelling in and living in very quickly to say – “That’s wrong!”  What are you doing in the Church?  To take something away from what God gave through Mr. Armstrong and made it very clear by 3 simple little scriptures in the Bible!  ...that if you will acknowledge those verses you understand that everything happened on the 14th and this 15th is just a day that followed which happens to be the beginning of the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread.  And your mind is very clear on that and you have no problems with that.  But some had problems with thinking the Jews could have been wrong about when they keep the Seder and some of that other stupidity that we somehow can think that the Jews know more than us because they have Hebrew?  And yet there are ministers who would go to Bible helps, commentaries – that’s just as stupid.  To go to a commentary that was written by someone who is a protestant, who is someone in the world who doesn’t have God’s spirit and for someone to use that as an authority for something you’re preaching?  How dumb, how sick can that be?  The truth doesn’t come through them so why quote them as authorities?!  You’re just asking for problems, aren’t you?  And yet many ministers did it over and over again and they would bring the books up and quote out of the books that which was written by men in the world who didn’t have God’s spirit!  I can’t spell DUH with big enough letters of how stupid that one is.  And it’s the same thing, just because someone knows Hebrew and maybe is called a Rabbi – that somehow he understands the spirit of what is being said in Hebrew more than God’s people?!  I had a minister argue with me about that.  Incredible!  He was being trained to be a Rabbi and he came into God’s Church.  He taught Hebrew at Ambassador College and I didn’t know he was a 14/15’er and I passed someone along to him thinking he could help them at a time when I wasn’t able to... and then we got into it.

And it came to a point in time where his comment back to me as we talked on the phone was “do you think you understand Hebrew better than the Rabbi’s and the Jews?”  And my resounding reply is, “You better believe it.  Yes I do!”  He didn’t.  Incredible!  It’s by God’s spirit that we understand this book, that we’re able to understand things in this book that the world can’t comprehend.  Why should that be a mystery.  It is a mystery to them, when they’re cut off from God’s spirit and they don’t have God’s spirit everything becomes a mystery after that – it’s all foggy, everything they once had goes away.  Sad.

So this is talking about those very things that have happened within the Church.  When someone comes along and does something like that God is saying, “by this you can measure; by this you can see false prophets, false teachers.”  That individual was a false teacher.  Everyone who has taught 14/15th made themselves a false teacher.  They confess it through their life and it does come out their mouth, just in the wrong way, by what they teach, by what they preach.  And that’s what it’s talking about here to God’s Church...  and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh is not of God, because that reflects something that is wrong.  If we could have known this through Philadelphia; if this was something that we could have seen and knew, that if it wasn’t in harmony and unity with everything Mr. Armstrong had given to that point in time, and if we come to a point in time where God addresses something in Mr. Armstrong to give us understanding like Pentecost being on a wrong day and giving the right date; then as Mr. Armstrong said, “when God shows us we’re wrong, we’ll change!”  ...which reflects where God’s Church is because we’ll repent and we’ll change from what we were doing wrong because we were in ignorance.  And God will lead us to more and more truth and that is how it works.  Amazing!

...and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of antichrist, and I think of people in the world who talk about antichrist and they think it’s 2 people or 1 person or whatever is going to rise up in the world and the different ones that they think is the antichrist and I wish they could see the simplicity of that to realize it’s not what it’s talking about when it says antichrist in the Bible.  It just means against Christ.  There are many, many antichrists – see?  Through time there have been many antichrists that have been around God’s Church, who have come up into God’s Church and they turn against Christ.  Mr. Tkach and all of the other false ministers who have taught through time – antichrist.  They turned against Christ.  That is all that the word means.  By their teachings they turned against Christ, when they once had the truth and they didn’t hold to it fast; and God’s spirit was cut off and so God’s spirit wasn’t flowing through them and so God is saying – this is how you can know someone who is antichrist – against Christ – when they start teaching something that isn’t in agreement they’re not in unity and oneness – they’re not of us until they repent, if they repent.  If they don’t repent they just won’t be a part of us.  That is how God says you’re to measure the body, within the body – to know what to be careful of and what not to be careful of and if we had only had this during Philadelphia and during Laodicea what an awesome blessing it would have been if we could have seen, if we could have known.  But we fell asleep – all of us, and this is that spirit of antichrist whereby you have heard that it should come and even now it’s already in the world.  So it’s not something at the end-time, it’s been in the world, it’s been in the Church and around the Church since the beginning.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he that is IN you, coming in you, living in you, through you... because that is the only way you can know the truth and it’s the only way you can continue to hold onto what is true, by God dwelling in you.  And when that stops, if that ever stops through sin, through a refusal to repent, or as a matter of just letting down and not staying spiritually alert and on guard and striving to draw closer to God, and you begin to get weak, and that power begins to leave you – you will lose what God gave to you to possess, to hold onto, to hold fast to.  So, greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.

We could go to other scriptures about this doctrine but I don’t need to.  We’ve had sermons about this, you can go back and listen to them.  Where on earth, if this isn’t God’s Church, would you go today to hold onto this truth?  Which organization out here would you go to?  Where did this come from?  Do we have the boldness and the confidence and the ability to see and understand with clarity of mind and spirit that this can only be given from God to an apostle or a prophet and to none other?  I speak as a fool.

With that, we’ll pick up from here next week; continue on with this series covering some other things as well, things that everyone hopefully has already addressed in their lives, but if you haven’t it is something to address and something to think about.

~~~end.

Table of Contents

Start