Healing the Mind – Pt. 4

Ron Weinland

Feb. 27, 2010

As it has been stated in this sermon series, too often we do not truly ‘see’ the true nature that each of us has.  That's a tough thing sometimes, especially in the beginning, it's a growing thing, it's a thing we mature in through time; that we come to ‘see’ (spiritually I'm talking about) what's inside of us: our motivations, what our thoughts really are, the beginning of our thoughts, what stirs up our very thinking and why we react and respond in the way we do to so many things.  And that's a spiritual matter.  God has made it very clear over and over again that man cannot understand his own thoughts, his own motivations; not in truth, not in spirit.  There are some things that people come to see, some things that are written in books of psychology and so forth on human behaviour that people come to understand, but to truly understand human motives is a very, very difficult thing; even with God's spirit.

But we have to see our true nature before we can come humbly before God to seek change; if we don't ‘see’ the need, if we don't see ourselves, we don't see the need to change and we won’t make any progress, we'll not make any growth.  And so that's where it all begins, we have to be able to see ourselves in order to go before God to ask for help to change and that's what this series is about – the series entitled: Healing the Mind. Today is Part 4. This ability to see this process we go through of conversion has everything to do with the healing of the mind that's talked about over and over again in both the Old and New Testament.  This healing of the mind becomes a reality to the degree that we are able to see the need for those changes in our life.

There is no need for review of anything; we're going to jump right into 1 Corinthians 13 today.  We're going to focus more on this process of healing in the most basic and most important of terms, concerning the healing of our mind; that covers an ability, if you will, to see spiritually in a far greater way and this breaks it down in a very fine way.  1 Corinthians 13:1 - Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, meaning 'languages'.  It's talking about languages. We understand that the word in the Greek has to do with 'languages'.  'Speaking in tongues' in the New Testament is a term in the Greek that has to do with 'speaking in languages'; and so there are continually people who are new who are listening in and we try to help people to understand that this is not a matter of speaking in tongues in the Pentecostal world; it is a matter of speaking in different languages.  Especially when you go to the book of Acts, in Acts 2 and you see the miracle of the hearing that took place and it mentions so many different areas and it says they all heard in their particular language when Peter was speaking.  When some of the apostles were speaking people heard in their own language, fluently, perfectly in whatever region they were from.  And so it was a miracle of hearing that God performed at that time to be able to understand the message; and again, Paul addresses those things over and over again because people began to misuse that gift as time went along.  In some cases it wasn't a gift, they wanted to be able to do that in order to be seen of others as being special, having a special calling before God – something we always have to watch in our lives, that we don't do that kind of thing.

Though I speak with the languages of men and of angels, if we had that ability in communication, and have not charity, the word charity here in the New Testament is the word agape; different pronunciations that people have of it, but again, it's a word that's used exclusively for God's love.  In other words, the source is God, human beings don't have this kind of love – the source is God Almighty.  You have to be plugged into God; you have to have God's spirit living in you in order to live this kind of love toward others.  And so that's the desire we have of drawing closer to God; so that we can live that kind of love with God's spirit living through us, because people can't work up that kind of love.  People can read these scriptures and a lot of people think they have that kind of love in the world – they don't!  Only those in God's Church who are given the begettal of God's spirit, who have a flow of God's spirit living within their life on a continuing basis are able to live this kind of love toward others and it's a growing process.

So it says, 'If I have not charity and have this ability to speak in all these languages...' it's says -

I am become as sounding brass, just a lot of noise.  Speaking all these different languages, speak to angels; it's just a lot of noise ...sounding brass, making a big noise ...and a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, the ability to understand, inspired understanding of God's word.  Whether it be things that have to do with an understanding of God's word, those things that are even concerning prophecy as well, because we understand how that word is used; I've talked about it in times past.  So it says, 'And even though I have that ability' ...and understand...this word here is the same word as 'see' that we've been looking at.  ...and see all mysteries, things concerning God's word.

When Paul talks about mysteries in the context they are mysteries to the world. You can talk to your friend, you can talk to your neighbour, you can talk to anyone that considers themselves to be “Christian” but it's a mystery to them.  God's plan – they don't understand it, they can't comprehend Passover to the Last Great Day; they can't understand God's plan of 7,000 years. It doesn't make sense to them.  But we see it!  We understand it!  It's exciting to us because of God's spirit that He gives to us.  And so it says - ...though you understand all mysteries, those things that others can't see, can't understand and you have that ability through God's spirit to understand God's word throughout the Bible.  That's what it's talking about; those things that are a mystery to the world.  When they read it, they can't understand it.  ...though we see all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not agape, God's love ...I am nothing.  We can have all these abilities, all these gifts that God gives to us in God's Church, because this is where it happens; it happens in God's Church.  We're called, our mind is opened up, we see things that others don't see and God says if we don't learn the most basic, the most important things in life...it's in our relationships toward one another, then it is all for nothing.

If we don't learn those things and don't grow in spirit and don't have this healing of the mind take place in us so that we change; God called us to change, not to stay the way we are.  The Protestant world says, “You can come before God just the way you are” – “Just come as you are!”  No, we're not supposed to do that.  Some people get upset at us sometimes when we tell them they can't come just as they are – you have to change your life first before you come into God's presence and fellowship with God's people.  You have to start keeping the weekly Sabbath!  You have to commit yourself to the Holy Days; that you're going to do these things; you're not going to work on those days.  In essence, God says if you're not willing to do that, you do not deserve to be in His presence; on the contrary, you can't be; you shouldn't be.  Amazing!

But over and over again, he comes back to the points here about this kind of love, this Godly love that we're all to have.  Where do we begin with that love?  We should begin with our closest relationships.  First of all – family, marriage, that's where it all begins and then it branches out from there.  We begin to see that we have a greater Family, the Church; and we begin to understand things of the world – family.  So God says if we don't have this spirit, this mind, His spirit within us, this kind of love – we are nothing.  Isn't that amazing?  And we really need to think about that.  He gives us so much as we grow; in the sense of grace, favour... and we have an opportunity to see all these things that others can't see and sometimes we don't grasp the magnitude of what God's offered us: the ability to understand His plan.  What an awesome thing to understand we're at the end of 6,000 years. The world isn't aware of that!  They don't know why things are starting to happen as they are around the world and that it’s going to continue to increase in magnitude... they don't understand those things, but we understand it.  Our whole life is geared toward that. We understand that; that we're at the end of that period of time, that we're at a period of time just before Christ’s return, before He comes back: this time as a lion, not as a Passover lamb to be killed. This time He's taking control, coming back with great power.  That's an awesome thing to understand.  On the day He returns He will be at the charge, at the front of tens of thousands.  Hundreds of thousands who are going to die on that day because they’re not going to accept that this is the Messiah, not accept that this is the Christ and God says He’s going to destroy those who are destroying the earth at that time; throughout Asia, throughout Europe, throughout different areas of the world as they're doing the things they've been doing for a period of time.

We understand those things are going to come to pass; but none of that amounts to a hill of beans if we're not living this way of life toward one another in spirit and in truth; in zealousness of spirit.  Not just casually, but we're actively working on ourselves, we're actively trying to see ourselves in a spiritual mirror and understand, “What is it I need to change and make different and live right toward others?”  Because that's what's going to happen in the Millennial period, people beginning to understand what family is all about in an awesome way that the world doesn't grasp yet.  And God is granting us in the Church right now toward the end here, before the beginning of the Millennium, an incredible opportunity to see things about family that we haven't understood to the same degree in the Church.

What an incredible thing, God shows us the most basic of things He wants us to get.  It's not in all the understanding of all the prophesies we grasp, all the knowledge of the Bible, the scriptures that we can quote from beginning to end...If we could quote the entirety of the Bible...that's basically what it's saying.  You could quote it verse for verse, talk about it with others and if we don't have this way of life, God's spirit within us, this kind of love living in and through us because we care, because we want to change, because we want to be something different.  If those things aren't happening in us, all that other stuff that He's given to us doesn't mean a thing, it's all in vain.  That's really incredible when you think about that, when you ponder upon those things and that's what we're being told.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, though you believe this way of life to the point that you understand if something were to happen at any point in time...because a lot of people have died for this way of life throughout time because the world isn't too happy with us – still isn't too happy with us.  And when things really turn bad here in the near future, they're not going to be happy with you in a magnified way because of a spirit world that's out here and because of the rest of the world out here that's going to blame people for the knowledge they have, like you're the cause of this!  “If you hadn't been saying this, if you hadn't been talking about this, this wouldn't have happened!  You're just down, you're just negative and it's all this negativism; we've got to be positive!”  That's how the stock market's going to start climbing, if everyone would just be positive about the stock market!  ...and about our economy and about the United States, everything would be great, peachy keen!  Amazing, how they try to build things up and lie.  I get so upset sometimes watching some of this stuff when people lie, when people in government know they are lying – it's a spirit.

And so we can do all these things and yet if you don't live this way of life towards others and there are things you should conquer and overcome and you’re not treating other people properly and you’re not treating them in a way that reflects God's Church and God's people; God says it's all in vain, it doesn't mean anything.  This is mighty, this is powerful what God tells us in scripture here.  ...though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity/agape, God's love  ...it does not profit me anything.  Charity suffers long, God's love, not like human love.  We don't suffer too long with others when things aren't going our way because we're selfish; our basic nature is incredibly inward and selfish.  And so it doesn't take long for us to reach our limit; it's just the way we are – every one of us in this room, every person in the world.  Charity suffers long, and is kind; it's known to be kind.  Are you known to be kind to others?  ...charity does not envy; it doesn't envy other people, it's not jealous – that's Satan's spirit, that's what happened to Lucifer!  He began to envy, have jealousy in his mind and rebelled against God and talked or persuaded a third of the angelic realm to rebel with him and then God confined them to this earth – Satan and the demons today... and thank God that their time is about over.  Their reign, their time of ruling is about over and they're not real happy about it.

...charity does not envy; charity does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, doesn't lift up self, doesn't try to promote self like people do in the business world where it's ‘dog eat dog’.  Smile at each other when they're at work and say nice things to them and behind their back there are these little groups that are talking about...if you've been in a company where there are different people in a building, in a room, you've experienced this.  You've experienced when someone will start telling you about another fellow employee in the company and they kind of want you to be on their side; to listen to them and be on their side and their story.  “Oh, really? I didn't know they were that way.  Now I understand, that explains this and this and this...” and join in with them.  And they just talk and you don't join in with them and the other person on the other side comes round...I just had someone recently tell me that.  They had the other party then come round and start telling them their side of the story.  And they do this throughout the company!  What a sick world!  And if that ever happens in God's Church, then it becomes ultra-sick... and these things have happened in God's Church.

I want to read to you something in the sense of how this is broken down a little bit in the ceremony for marriage that we have for the Church.  And this is a good focus because the reason we've been talking about this is about family and what God is giving to us as a Church concerning what started with Adam and Eve.  Things that God is freeing up and giving us, but this comes through understanding and it comes through what we practice and what we live because we have the vision in a greater way.  We have understood that God is a Family, we understand that God's whole purpose of Elohim and our future is to become a part of that Family, but we have to live that family in human life first.  We have to begin living that way toward one another and desiring that and seeing the fruit of that because we experience it.  That's a part of proving God's way. Proving it is like when Jesus Christ gave the example in the parable and talked about the oxen and a desire that a farmer would have – first he gets a pair of oxen and he wants to go out and try them to see how they’re able to till the ground.  A farmer today is not any different; they get a great big brand new John Deere, Alice Chalmers, Massey Ferguson; a tractor or a combine and they want to try it out as well to see what it can do.

God wants us to grasp the concept of family in a very big way and family begins with marriage – a husband and a wife.  That's where we begin to prove God's word as a whole within life; those that aren't married, one day...but whatever kind of a family you're in, whatever family situation you’re in;  if you're at home as a child or whatever, we learn family, it branches out then from the married couple into the children's lives.  And then that relationship between mother and father and between the children, sister and brother, or whatever, but that's where we have the greatest opportunity in life to begin to apply God's way of life.  God wants us to understand that in a greater way now; that we need to examine our lives in a greater way starting there.  That's where you start; because if we don't grasp the concepts there, we're not going to be able to apply it in this Family and God wants us to apply it in this Family.  And then if we're not able to apply it in this Family, we definitely can't apply it in the world, on our jobs or where ever else we go.  And so we begin to prove God's way, just as I was talking about in farming; an excitement of being able to apply, practice, do it and then you find out God's way works and it produces fruit!  And the more you live it, the more you prove it to yourself in that respect through application – the more exciting it becomes.  God's way becomes more exciting, family life becomes more exciting, the marriage becomes richer and this is something you grow in through time, but you have to constantly be working on it as far as this way of life, as far as family is concerned.

We learn the basics and we begin to learn those things in the most basic of foundation for the family – husband and wife and then children and then the Church, the Family and on and on it goes.  It's just a continuing matter of expansion of these basic principles and it starts with God's love.  You can't have the right kind of family that God intends human beings to have without God's spirit!  You can't have it.

So again, we're going to go through the marriage ceremony because I like the way some of this is stated.

It is God - not merely man or the laws of man - who joins together husband and wife as one flesh.  God's desire for every couple who enters marriage is that you yield yourselves to Him...

See?   You've got to yield yourself in family to God first!  And sometimes that's difficult to see we're not really doing that and the proof of that is in what we're living toward each other and so it's a matter of yielding ourselves to Him...

...and to each other - to hold each other in high esteem...

Isn't that what we want to do in God's Church?  ‘...to hold each other in high esteem’?  But if we don't know how to do it at home, you don't know how to do it here!  We won't know!  We won't experience that to the fullness that God wants us to have.  And the point of a lot of this is that we can experience a lot more of that now in God's Church because God is bringing us to a higher plateau of understanding, of appreciation of things He's giving because of where we are in time.  Because we are entering a time when Jesus Christ is about to return and those things that are going to be given to the world now to understand because now it's going to be God's world, God's Government, God's Church on earth and all mankind is going to begin to learn these things in a magnified way!  But in the Church over the past 2,000 years we've been able to learn them to a degree and apply them to a degree, but not to the degree that God intends -the fullness of that hadn't been given yet and it's now being given more.  And a lot more is going to be given in just a little over two years.  We are going to make incredible leaps forward in understanding and appreciation of these things; and what's going to be taught in the world with God's spirit being poured out on the earth.  God's spirit has NEVER been poured out all over the world, offered and given to all mankind.  Over 6,000 years God has been very selective. He has called different ones to work with because of His plan. He's moulded and fashioned different ones through time; we understand that, 144,000 who are going to be a part of His Kingdom.

Continuing on...

...to hold each other in high esteem, giving honor and respect to one another with love and devotion.

‘Giving honor and respect to one another’ – that's an awesome thing: to honour one another in the Body of Christ, to show honour to people in the world, not look down upon them because of a different status in life that people sometimes think they have and how they treat different people with different jobs and so forth.  I've talked about these things in times past, how some people are treated; how they’re looked down upon because of a particular kind of job; and yet we work together.  Society has to work together to function well and we should appreciate every bit that works together to make life better!  And so when you appreciate what other people do, you hold them in higher esteem for what they do, life is better because of that!  But when you look down upon them it affects your mind, infects your mind, hurts the relationship that otherwise could be there with others.  It all starts with understanding that God gives to us in the Family. If we can understand it here, then we can begin to understand it on a greater scale.  And we're about to enter a time when God is going to offer this to the whole world and He wants us to understand it on a great scale worldwide.

That's why I look forward to, with great anticipation, of people working on removing prejudice because there's always going to be prejudices of human beings; but at least a beginning to work on that in a great way.  And in time, it'll begin to go by the wayside more and more and more... because there is so much prejudice in this earth, all over!  And sometimes that's so hard for people to understand – they are prejudiced about different things, about different situations, about different people in the world.  Sad!  We rob ourselves of the enjoyment of other people or other cultures or whatever it might be of life from other people because we don't give ourselves the opportunity to really get to know them.

And so it is in marriage sometimes, that we don't really give of ourselves the opportunity to get to know someone else like we should, to appreciate them, to value them, to hold them in high esteem; what they say, to learn.  Selfishness doesn't work that way.

Always give preference [I love this] to the welfare of the other.

See that's just the opposite of selfishness because by nature every one of us is selfish, inward, pampering self, loving self - that's the way we are!  Incredible!  We love self, to pamper self – we need to learn how to pamper others in our thinking and grow in that; ask God for help in that.  But we have to see ourselves first, that we're selfish by nature and then ask God for help to see where we’re selfish and how we’re being selfish and how we can begin to apply and prove God's way of ‘giving preference to the welfare of the other’.  It starts in marriage, goes into family, goes into the Church, goes into society in the world around us – how we treat others, how we think about others, whether we consider their welfare, or is it just kind of really more of our welfare?

Outgoing concern is the foundation of a happy marriage relationship.

'Outgoing concern' for the other person and then that works into other things in life in the Church, in society.  You follow somebody down the highway, (back to my driving), and you pulled up to a stop light and one day it seems like... during this one day here this past week it was a plague of people throwing out their cigarette butts – just frosts the tar out of me.  Now you may not see it on the road or whatever at the stoplight or whatever, but you know you walk through different areas before you go into a mall and butts all over the grounds, cigarette butts... and you think, people don't care about others and keeping things clean and keeping things nice.  That's how they live – they don't care about the next person that comes along, they don't care about somebody seeing it.  You know...throw paper out of the window – it blows my mind!  All the trash out here because people don't care, because they’re selfish and, “Let somebody else clean it up!”  It frosts me – that spirit, that attitude in the world, it's everywhere!  And we often times live our lives like that if we're not careful.

That's why I talk sometimes of what I appreciated that was taught at Ambassador College – to be concerned about the person that will follow behind you.  When you walk across the campus, they gave examples of individuals that would stop and pick up a piece of paper if it’s there because you're concerned about others around you.  Maybe it blew in from somewhere...whatever; pick it up, throw it away, be courteous, be kind, keep the place beautiful.  You go into something as simple as a gas station which can be awfully dirty, people using the bathroom and people do not care about the next person.  Go into an airport, (we do that a lot), travelling, even though they have people coming in regularly to clean them up, people throw paper on the floor.  I watch people dry their hands and they throw it on the floor. I'd like to grab them by the nape of the neck and smack, smack! “Look what you did!  Don't you care about anybody but yourself you pig?”  Then I'd be sinning myself by an attitude. Then I'd have to fight the attitude and I do have to fight attitudes sometimes towards people, of how selfish they are.

People live like pigs sometimes because they don't care about anybody else, the person behind them – all kinds of water and junk on the basin.  Take the paper towel you have in your hand and wipe it off! People don't think like that!  I do. I try to because I was taught how to do that a long time ago at Ambassador; it's just the way I think.  And I'm thankful for that, that I was taught that.  This is your opportunity; some of you who are new, to think about things like that, the person that's coming behind you wherever it is but you start at home!  And if you learn to do it there then you begin to do it other places as well and if other people see that as well and they start doing it, we've got a cleaner world, a better world to live in.  And that's how it works.  And that's what's going to happen in the Millennium because people aren't going to live as selfishly, they’re going to be taught how to be concerned about others, to think about others.

The essential qualities of a happy and successful marriage are those that express an ever-growing love as described by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians.

And that's what we’re reading right now, 1 Corinthians 13.

He wrote, “Love suffers long, (patient with one another)...”

That’s what it means when you suffer long; you're patient with one another, not impatient. Do we ever have to fight that?  Do you ever have to fight being impatient about a certain thing taking place?  We do.  It depends on the situation, whatever it is, but how often could we be so much more patient, long-suffering.  See, the reason it's talking about being long-suffering is because you may be suffering by having to wait longer.  That's the point.  Now the other person that you're waiting on, they're not suffering perhaps because of what they're going through. But you understand; in order to be patient with them, you're suffering longer.  That's why the word is there, 'long-suffering,' - however long it takes!  Sometimes we don't last too long, we're very impatient... “I'm at this point and my patience has run out!”  No more long-suffering. It was kind of a short period of time.  This is what it's talking about.  Sometimes to get along, sometimes to love someone else, you suffer longer because it's self that's suffering; it's bringing self under control, and not taking it out one somebody else because you love them.  That's what long-suffering is about, being patient with someone else; striving to do that.

“...and is kind;”

Mentioned that earlier, obviously part of the scripture there – 'and is kind', just kind, being kind.

“...love does not envy; love is not puffed up (doesn't believe that he or she is always right);”

Sometimes we live life like that.  The reason we don't listen to someone else is because, “I'm right! I don't need to listen to that.”  Tune out. Are you ever been guilty of that?  ...Toward your own mate?  ...Toward your children?  ...Toward your parents?  ...Toward a fellow employees?  ...Employer?  ...Toward a member in God's Church?  Because if you’re honest with yourself... the answer's, “yes, we've all done these things.”  We all have opinions about things and generally with human nature we believe that we're right – we don't really believe it, we pretty much know it.  That's how we think!  My way is better, “Do this! Do that! This is how you should do this! This is the better way!  You're living in darkness; I can show you a better way!”

“...does not behave rudely,”

Are there ever occasions when you behave rudely?  I do.  I have to fight that.  We have to fight all these things if you're honest with yourself!  See?  Or do you see yourself?  That there are times by the things you say that is being rude toward someone else.  And what's sad is often times we do it to those who are the closest to us in life because of our own selfishness, our own inconvenience.

“...does not behave rudely, does not seek its own (isn’t selfish),”

That's why this chapter is known as 'The Love Chapter' and it's God's love that it's talking about – agape.  Because you see, these are things you have to ask God for help in living and applying toward one another and growing in.  These things require that we be able to see certain things in our own mind and our own life and how we treat each other, how we talk to other people.  It requires that we be able to see those things and that requires then a desire to go back to the most basic of things here; asking God to help us to see our own motives of why we do the things we do that cause certain responses toward others.  And to be able to see those that are wrong and asking God then for help to change it and conquer it and overcome it by doing the right thing – and that's a battle!  That's why this way of life is a battle, because you're constantly fighting, as we talked about last Sabbath, as Paul talked about in Romans, of this nature we have.  ‘O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?’  And he goes on to thank God through Jesus Christ, he rejoices in the inner man with the knowledge, the truth that God gives us.  But then we see as Paul says; a war inside of us... that there's this carnality every one of us has that makes us subject to sin, this selfishness we have.

There is this battle that goes on that we fight to varying degrees.  Sometimes there's no fight going on at all, we just live the carnality, whatever pleases self and we say, “Whatever,” and it hurts others.  And so often we tend to hurt those we’re around the most, those that we're closest to in life and those are the things God says must be changed in order to strengthen family; in order for family to become better and richer so that you can prove the joy, the richness, the fullness of God's way of life when it's done right with God's help, with God's spirit.

“(isn’t selfish), is not provoked, thinks no evil;”

Are you ever provoked?  Does anything provoke you about someone close to you?  Certain things ever happen in your life that just provoke you and cause you to get stirred up and impatient about something and angry or frustrated about something?  God says His love isn't like that – 'is not provoked'; is in control of human nature, is in control of this nature and that's what God wants us to do; come under more and more control of our nature.  He'll help us to do that with the power of His spirit.  It takes His spirit to do that.

“...thinks no evil;”

Thinks no evil of another person; in other words, passing judgement and maddening things in the mind about someone else.  Human nature is like that and does that toward people; it's quick to judge people and put them in a certain category... could go on and on.

“...does not rejoice in iniquity (isn't looking for the faults of the other),”

'Doesn't rejoice in iniquity,' doesn't look for faults in someone else. We all have faults!  We all have a ton of this human nature and it's pretty sick; selfishness is just an ugly thing!  The point is we need to look for it in here (ourselves), not in someone else because then we are directed and focussed in the wrong way because we’re wanting to change somebody else.  And that's the way human nature is a lot of the time: we want to change how other people around us affect us because we're selfish, because we want to be treated better.  We want life to go better for us and if people around us will just change, our life will be better.  Going on here...

“...but receives happiness in the things that are true; love bears all things (is willing to do what it takes to work through difficult problems together),”

And difficult problems in life arise; whether it be in a marriage, whether it be in a family, whether it be in a greater Family within the Church. It's how we resolve those things and whether or not we do it God's way that counts.

“...builds trust towards one another, hopes all things (makes plans and future hopes together with one another).”

...Because life is in the sharing.  This is beautiful when we understand it.  The richness of life is in the sharing of things together when it's God's way, when it's right before God; life doesn't get any more beautiful, any richer.  And so often then we rob ourselves of life because we don't do these things. God wants us to be blessed. He wants us to have richness of life, but it comes through doing what He says!  Living it!  And we have to fight that and cry out for that in order to have that.

“Love never fails (never gives up).”

...Keeps fighting, keeps working to apply, to live this way of life.

So let’s pick it up here again in 1 Corinthians 13:8.  I just wanted to read through that just to show, here's the beginning of a family; the beginning of the family was Adam and Eve and it doesn't matter who it would have been, everyone would have done the same thing because of selfishness and gone the same course in life.  And it's these problems that have gone through with family for 6,000 years, as we've talked about in this series.  Incredible!  Charity never fails: 'never falls away, takes no effect' as the word means here.  God's love, God's spirit produces fruit because charity is from God, this agape, it's from God.  God's love is from God and it never fails, it always produces fruit – always!  That's why God's spirit...it talks about where He sends His spirit; if God's spirit is there, it's going to produce fruit.  If we’re yielding to it, it's going to produce fruit, it's God's promise; it is the way of God.  If God's spirit is working somewhere, it's going to produce fruit; it can't help but do anything else.  It's when we are cut off from the flow of God's spirit that we're in big trouble because then fruit can't be produced nor experienced.  Proving God's way is a matter of experiencing that fruit, that it works and how beautiful it is.

So again - Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; in other words, they’ll ‘cease’, they will ‘come to nothing’, 'vanish away, become void.'  When something is done, it's gone.  When we get to the prophecy of Christ's return and it happens, then it's fulfilled and it has happened; it's over with; that's what this is talking about.  It's been fulfilled, it's no longer a prophecy, it's been done. ...whether there be tongues, they shall cease; they'll come to an end, stop in other words, same type of expression here; different languages in other words.  ...whether there be knowledge, knowing, learning; once it's been learned because it's become known ...it shall vanish away.  Once it's learned it's no longer a matter of new knowledge, a matter of learning and growing; we have it, it's there.  ...it shall vanish; some of the words are kind of awkward here in the English.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.  And so it's an ever-growing thing and that's what God is talking about here and even in time and where we are in time, because of that.  Because God's going to pour out more of His spirit on the earth; it demands to produce great fruit in life.  And so it is starting with us in a greater way; we’re able to go to a higher plateau in understanding and appreciation of God's Family and the purpose of family and how to live it.  And God's letting us experience more of that if we'll yield ourselves to it. He wants us to yield our self to it because we’re going to have the opportunity in a very big way of being those that go into a new age to be an example of those things, to be able to teach those things.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  For now we see through a glass, darkly; spiritually, still!  There is so much we don't see yet, there is so much we don't understand yet, there is so much we do not grasp yet.  That's why I love this about God's way of life – ever-growing, ever learning, it never ceases!  What would life be like once you're in the God Family, living on into eternity and you come to a point where there's nothing else...and that's not God's way which is ever-learning, ever-growing.

Sometimes people ask questions about, “Well once the 7,100 years is over what are we going to do?”  I haven't got the foggiest idea but I am convinced that as we get closer to the end of that 100 years, God will choose that period of time to tell us.  That's how He works.  When we get closer...there are a lot of things about the 100 years we do not grasp. It's in this book and we don't even know it.  There's much in here.  We think there's not too much in here about the 100 years.  We found out last Feast that there’s more than we thought there was: and that's the way God gives to us; more and more.  And when Jesus Christ comes, He's not just going to tell us everything.  Some things are reserved for a proper time to be given!  We’re going to be busy doing what needs to be done at that time and applying God's way and learning these things and working with the world and changing the world and we've got a thousand years of that to do!  And as we approach that 100 years and we get ready for a great resurrection, then God's going to begin to have the Church and the God Family focus on that and the work of that.  Maybe 100 years in advance, maybe 50 years in advance – I don't know!  But somewhere just before... It's going to be exciting, inspiring!

So ...we see through a glass, darkly; it's like you can't see through it, it's not fully cleaned, it's like some of these tinted windows; the more tint, the harder it is to see, you just put tint upon tint and that's kind of what this is talking about, a deep tint.  And we can see something or we see a picture of something on the other side, but we don't see it clearly yet. ...but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.  Incredible, what God is offering to us when we become a part of His Family.  And now abides faith... Faith – we live by faith. We are very unique in that.  I am in awe of that. I am in awe of that when I think about Mr. Armstrong.  The Philadelphia era lived in a time of faith far more than Ephesus ever did!  Do you know that? The Church during Philadelphia under Mr. Armstrong in a very powerful way lived by a measure of faith that Ephesus never had to do.  Do you understand why?  There were a lot of those people at the very beginning who saw the Messiah, they experienced that; they had that so impressed upon their minds.  The apostles saw Jesus Christ after He was resurrected – mightily moved.

Mr. Armstrong didn't have that luxury.  When God called him and opened up his mind, he grew in faith; he grew in confidence of what this book says, of what the apostles and what others had lived through.  But he didn't have great signs and great things happen around him, he had to live by faith, conviction of the truth that God revealed to him in this Bible in a way that other people in previous times hadn't.  Because more was given during Philadelphia than any other period of time (to that point in time) – awesome!  Living by faith.  And we’re at a point in time where we're living by faith and even beyond that because of where we are and what we believe and what God has given to us and things we see and understand and 53 Truths of what we see at this point in time.  And God has given us great ability to live by those things, but it's a matter of confidence of what all that is – we believe it!  And because of that, our lives are lived accordingly.  You have things under your bed and in your closets because you believe that. You believe certain things so you’re living by that, see?  You live by faith.  What an awesome thing.  What an awesome thing to understand what faith is, it's a beautiful thing.

And now abides faith, hope, we have hope. It's connected to faith; of those things that are about to come to this earth that we're excited about – the closer it comes, the more excited we become. ...charity, God's love, agape ...these three; but the greatest, by far if we can understand it, is God's love.  See?  Because it's what you live; it's how you live that counts. It's what you live and how you live in proving God's way and living God's way that make life rich and full and we grasp the picture, the great picture of what the entire plan is all about, what the faith is all about, what everything else is all about – incredible!

Let's go over to 1 John 2.  The healing of the mind: this is what we're discussing over and over again in different scriptures here as we go through all these.  It's about this mind that isn't right and God calls us out of the world and begins to give us a great deal of knowledge and understanding and then the work begins!  Because God begins then to show us self and what we’re really like and we begin to see things that have to change, that have to become different, and what's expected and we begin to see battles that we couldn't see before.  Why?  You begin to see things you couldn't see before!  You begin to see things in self that you could not see before!  And depending on where you are in the scheme of time, whether it be a babe - you're just starting, you just got baptised, a year, two years, three years, whatever it is...  That's why in the Church of God we have referred to the term of a 'novice' of being one that's under around five years even within the Church, still a novice!  Still much to learn as far as applying all this knowledge!  It takes time to apply this way of life and become grounded in this way of life.  So we are at different stages in the Church in these things and we have to understand that.  A process of time we go through and what we experience with one another in a great Family that God has given to us – ever fighting, ever seeking to grow and understand more and more about God and God's love.

And so the older we become, the more we see God and the more you see God, the more exciting life becomes, the richer life becomes, the more you see a relationship that you're able to have with your Father because He is your Father.  It's a growing thing.  How I live now, how I think toward God, how I respond and do various things is much different from when I began – so different because of that relationship that's grown through time and understanding that God gives us and appreciation that God gives us in a relationship to where it's a relationship now.  Do I look to Him as God?  Yes, but my Father too in a relationship and that means a lot when we understand that.  Incredible!

1 John 2:1 – All about the healing of the mind: My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin... Do we sin?  The whole point of this is; Oh yes, we do.  We have sin that we have to fight against continually in our life day by day by day. It doesn't matter where you are in your growth.  It's going to be a refining process, yes, but you're going to see things in self that you've got to continue to fight and cry out to God for help to conquer and overcome!  And so ...if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: Interesting word; 'paracletes' - it's the word that's used back in John 14 - 'the comforter.'  We have a comforter with God, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is there for us, who fights for us, who started a long time fighting for us.  Brought to a point of a spear being rammed into His side and spilling His blood to the earth, hanging there on a stake. Incredible what He went through for us, so that we could ask God day by day by day, “Father, forgive me of my sins.”  And sometimes getting very specific about what those sins are, what it is we're asking God to forgive us of and thanking Him for the Passover, for Jesus Christ, because we wouldn't be able to ask for that if it wasn't for what He did.

And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. He died for the entire world. He is a personal saviour; we come to understand that.  We understand that at baptism.  That's why I love what it talks about in Acts when it talks of Peter preaching; when the Church was beginning on the Day of Pentecost; and it says after they heard, that in essence Peter was telling them, “You killed the Christ.  You killed the Christ!”  And it says they were pricked in their heart.  Now it wasn't that they were there the day that Christ died, but they came to understand something on a spiritual plane that they had never understood before – their sins killed the Christ. And every one of us has to come to that point that we understand the same thing regarding us, don't we?  We come to that point in time before baptism where we understand, “My sins killed the Passover, killed Jesus Christ.”  We're all guilty of sin and our sins killed Him.  We're personally guilty for the death of Jesus Christ and He takes that upon Himself for us, that love of God – incredible!  ...and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.

And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.  The more we live this way of life, the greater confidence you can have, the greater understanding you can have, the greater the relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father.  Because the more we live this way of life, the only way you can and have been able to accomplish that and do that is because of being forgiven of your sins, of being able to live this way of life, of being able to obey God.  He that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him.  That's what God says, powerful words.  If we are not living this way of life, if we're not seeking to conquer and overcome and fight against self and yield ourselves to God – you don't want to fall into this boat, or in this area.  Because if we say we know Him and don't keep His commandments and there are things we are not repenting of in our life, then God says we’re just a liar and the truth isn't in us.

But whoso keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: so it's a matter of perfecting, that love is being perfected within us and this is another way of stating the very same thing - the healing of the mind.  Because the more that God's love is perfected within us, the more the healing is taking place in our thinking and that's how we think toward one another and how we act toward one another and so forth.  ...hereby know that we are in Him.  These things give you greater confidence!  So as we live this way of life, as we’re able to bring self into subjection more and more and fight those fights, the battles we have and grow spiritually; it gives us a greater confidence and boldness in what God has given to us of this way of life:  and a greater confidence of knowing that we're in Him and He’s in us because otherwise it can't be done.

That's why I talk about so often about people... if you’re ever down, if you’re ever negative, if you’re ever doubting anything - go back to the 53 truths that are there and understand with great confidence – the only way you see them, the only way you know them is because of God's spirit and the only way you can hold on to those...because it doesn't take long to lose them.  We've had people that have lost those truths over a period of time in the last year – not many thankfully, but there are some who have lost those things, they no longer believe the same thing because you can't hold onto the truth without God’s spirit.

There are many of us sitting here that grasp and comprehend in a very big way how quickly you can lose it all; you can have God's way of life and come to a point in time where you’re tried, where it finally comes down to how you’re going to respond and it'll prove the moment.  And we proved the moment to ourselves; we were all asleep.  We came to that point in time where we experienced that.  But we also came to see that as we were brought to repentance then because of that and began to repent of those things that there were others who had no desire to repent; who lost it all - were willing to go back to putting up a Christmas tree; who were willing to go back to taking little eggs out and putting them out for children to find...because rabbits lay eggs...and teach them those lies “It's just a harmless lie,” you know?”  They don't call it a lie even!  “It's just a harmless thing; it's just a little kid putting presents under the tree.” They come to find out that Jesus Christ wasn't even born around that time of year later on as they get older.  People are becoming more aware of that in the world now, and even preachers in the world will acknowledge that as a whole, whereas there was a time, when I first came into the Church, it was a rare thing to find any place in the world where anybody would acknowledge that.  And one of the main reasons they'll acknowledge it today is because that knowledge went out in such a powerful way in the production of 8 million 'Plain Truths' on a monthly basis and radio broadcasts and television broadcasts that blanketed this country and around the world with the work that Mr. Armstrong was given to do – that some of them had to quit being liars; and they finally had to acknowledge the truth because the knowledge was there and people knew it!  They couldn't keep that lie up any more in saying, “Oh no, He was born at this time of year, December 25th.” People don't say that as a whole any more when they're asked – incredible!

Verse 6 - He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk, even as He walked.  So if we abide in Christ and Christ abides in us, then He's telling us we better be clear in our life that we are walking as He walked; that our life would reflect Jesus Christ, our life would reflect God and what God says to the world and sometimes we don't reflect that in our behaviour and how we treat someone else, or how we think about someone else and on and on it goes.

Verse 9 – He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, I love the words of John because God inspired John not to beat around the bush; he gets to the point.  He grinds it down, he refines it, like beating down a prayer, small and refined and gets down to the nitty gritty of what it's all about – just like we’re doing and talking about in this sermon series here, of what it means for the healing of the mind.  And then that we have to comprehend family starting with marriage because God's purpose and God's plan is that we embrace family and what it means when it's done God's way.  And so He gives us this opportunity to learn it in the environment of the Church.  This is where we learn it; this is our opportunity, our arena of life to apply and learn God's way of life about family; so we can embrace it and desire it in His Kingdom, knowing what we’re going to receive – sharing for all eternity in a right way: without jealousy, without being puffed up with pride, with all those human characteristics that we learn to loathe and hate and despise.  And if you don't loathe them and hate and despise them, you've got some more battles to go on there until you hate them and loathe them and despise them because you see them in yourself and you don't want those things, so you can be refined and made better and stronger in God's way of life. That's part of the process of healing of the mind.

He who is in the light and hates his brother/dislikes his brother, isn't right with his brother.  The word 'hate' there, we look at that and say, “I don't hate anyone!” Well that's not how this word is used either.  It's like saying if you're not willing to love, if you do not love your brother, if you fail to love your brother, if you fail to go to a brother alone, whatever it might be; then we hate and we’re not loving.  It's the opposite then of love. That's what it's talking about here.  And so we have different ideas of interpretations of definitions and so forth sometimes.  He who is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness even until now. If we fail to love our brother God says we’re in darkness... if we’re not willing to love our brother.

I think of situations from time to time I still hear, I had an email here recently about some people who have to talk some things out before Passover because some of them can't stand each other.  Can't stand to be around each other because of some things that happened and because of that they're fighting battles, or maybe not fighting battles. I don't know; I'll find out later on when I go into the area how it's been taken care of.  Do we have something against a brother?  Or is there someone that comes around our presence that we just kind of bristle up over because we haven't gotten it out into the open and brought it out in the open to discuss it, to try to resolve it.  Now you can't resolve all things in life, but you have to work at it; you had better be the party that's working on it. The other party may not respond, but you had better be doing it if you're going to stand before God, if you're going to go before God and drink a measure of wine, if you're going to go before God and take of a bit of unleavened bread on Passover night.  We'd better be doing our part.  And so it's up to each party and hopefully the other party will respond, just like in the situation I'm referring to. I think parties are trying to conquer and overcome certain things and work on it, but boy, that's such a foreign thing.  It isn't foreign, but it is foreign to me, it truly blows my mind that someone could so dislike someone else they have a tough time being in their presence.  That's a tough one... that's a tough one!  ...and in God's Church!?  Because you see, it doesn't mix!  It doesn't mix with God's spirit, it is totally foreign.

So that's why we have got to make sure that we get our minds right in matters, in situations.  It's not about trying to change someone else. It's not trying to see someone else doing something wrong; it's about how do I respond then to what I see, to what I know, to what I understand?  Do I love my brother and hope that my brother, pray that my brother be able to conquer and overcome their battle or whatever it might be?  Even if they are deep in the battle and they don't see what they have done wrong!  Do I love them so much with God's help that I'm willing to SUFFER LONGER and pray for them?  Or am I just going to hold this against them and bristle up every time I get around them?  Or am I going to be able to deal with this and say, “I am responsible for how I respond to this and I want to do it right before God therefore I am going to yield myself to God and pray for this individual and pray that my mind be right to them – that I love them, that I want to see them conquer and overcome this, that this doesn't take them out of God's Church.”  I HATE to see people leave God's Church! I hurt when I see people leave God's Church because I know what they’re doing to their life, but I can't stop it.  You can't give this way to anybody else, you can't force this upon anyone else and if you understand that, that'd help you a lot in how you deal with people because if we could be honest with ourselves, we have a big enough battle with self.  That's a big battle.  You've got your hands full!  And if you don't know that in time then God will help you to see it.  He's going to lift up the sewer lid and let you have a great big whiff someday and you're going to see self and you're going to say, “Oh, I stink, please close the lid.  Help me to conquer and overcome this.”

So when you think things are going along pretty smoothly and you're doing pretty well and you think you're okay, think again - we're not okay until we're there.  You fight this carnality until you're there in God's Kingdom. Then you have arrived! ...Because you no longer have this carnality to deal with.  But this is how we grow, this is where we grow and this is where we become more convicted as time goes along that we are wrong and God is right.  Every time you acknowledge sin, you're acknowledging God is right, God's way is right and man's way hurts; it’s wrong.

Verse 9 - He who says He is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now.  He who loves/agape his brother abides in the light, it's about loving others, being patient, not envying, being long-suffering; all the different attributes we read about in 1 Corinthians.  Not looking for the bad, not looking for the error in others, not trying to change others!  That's what we want to do so often in life; we want to change somebody else, we want to change how they’re doing this or how they’re doing that and some things have to be addressed sometimes in life in those areas, but you've got to do it God's way.  He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. Beautiful scripture if we understand it, what's being said.  But he who hates his brother is in darkness, in other words refuses to love, that's what it's about – refuses to love, refuses to do what God says to do in a relationship, refuses to be patient.  He who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know... does not...it's that word 'see’; does not see where he is going, but so often we think, we're pretty convinced we know where we are going; what we're doing and how we're doing it.  But sometimes we don't see what we really need to see in self ...because the darkness has blinded his eyes.  In God's Church you can have your eyes blinded to not being able to see what it is that needs to be conquered and overcome because we’re not looking in here, we are looking outwardly at others.  We can see what others need to change, oh boy do we see what others need to change...but we don't see what we have to change.

1 John 3:1 - Behold, same word – 'see'. God wants us to see ...what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: I marvel at this sometimes.  I think; do we grasp?  And how awesome is it as we begin to grasp more and more who we are?  Sometimes we have our minds opened up, we see things, we go through the motions of various things, but to appreciate, to comprehend who we are in the world; it's hard for us sometimes to grasp the magnitude of our calling. This is where God's focus is on the earth.  A little group of people and you try to talk to someone else about our size; we generally don’t try to go there because they just couldn't begin to get it.  “How could you be God's Church and the only Church?!  You are so puffed up that you think that about yourself?”  No, we know who we are.  It's not a matter of haughtiness and pride, it's a matter of a reality and we look forward to a time that the whole world's going to be able to see and understand God's way – the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the plan of God, the 7,000 years etc... Etc...

We look forward to that time, but we are small and yet with every one of us...  I'll tell you what, I was thinking about that last night, thinking about all the ones coming in here at the meetings and what we're doing and I thought...God is so pleased.  Sometimes we don't recognise that about ourselves and about what God has been doing and what He’s been doing in our lives in the Church.  I'll just tell you, God is so pleased – I know that with all my being.  It's a very moving thing – the love that He has, the desire He has for every one of us, what He’s brought us to at this time; it's incredibly moving if we can understand.  Think about where we are in time, what God's getting ready to do with us and He is incredibly pleased.  Now do we have battles?  Do we have hardships?  When’s the last time you repented?  Wasn't too long ago... but He's pleased because we are fighting the fight and we’re growing and we've come to this point in time, where we are in time – it's exciting, it's inspiring and God is incredibly pleased with you.  Awesome!

We are His Church, we are His people – what He’s getting ready to do on the earth is first about us.  Do you understand the awesomeness of that?  Sometimes we don't. It's hard to grasp – that God's focus through time has been with those with whom He is working; He's not yet working with the rest of the world.  He's getting ready to, He's excited about that in ways we can't even begin to comprehend; but He's working with us and in and through us because we’re yielding ourselves to Him to live in us.  That's God's joy – to live in the Church, to live in us; not in a physical temple, not some physical location, but in a spiritual Body, the Temple of God, the Church of God, that's an awesome thing to understand!  And that's getting ready to be magnified many, many, many times over and He's getting ready to dwell within a Body that's getting ready to be resurrected that He has longed for, for so long.  So long!  Millions... billions of years – we can't comprehend time like that!

The Hubble telescope is finally beginning to see things that are 14 billion light years away; that it took 14 billion years for what it's seeing right now for some light to reach that telescope.  14 billion years of light travelling through the universe to finally reach the Hubble, of what it's right now seeing – incredible things!  We can't understand that kind of time.  How much more and farther out is there?  We don't know!  God is so great, so awesome, so mighty, so powerful and then to try to even begin to grasp that He sustains every bit of it by His power?  He could cease to sustain it in a moment and it'd be gone and we can't comprehend that.  Your mind can't even begin to fathom that – everything, He sustains, every atom.  That's why man keeps trying to get down more and more, trying to find out, “Where is this God particle?”  They can't find it, its spirit, it doesn't exist, you can't measure it, you can't see it.  Incredible!  And yet His focus is upon us, isn't that what David was trying to convey?  Isn't that exactly what he was saying?  “What am I?  What is man that You're mindful of him?”  This is where God's focus is.

See what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world does not know us, because it knew Him not.   You can't worry about what the world says about you.  I've had to learn that in a big way because they'll say a lot of things about you, especially today with the internet and with all the things that are out there.  People can say a lot of things – lie, lie, lie, twist, distort, but they don't understand and I understand that.  They don't comprehend – incredible!  Sometimes I am dumbfounded that there are still to this day so much hatred toward a man that's been dead since 1986.  You go on and put in his name and you look there and think, “How could people sustain hatred for so long?”  But they do - Mr. Armstrong, incredible.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know/we see, something we see spiritually, that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.  And every man who has this hope in himself purifies himself, even as He is pure.  It's a process, a healing of the mind; this process of purification that continues on in our minds and our lives as we continue to go forward.  Whosoever commits... interesting word, it means 'does' or 'performs' or 'practices' ...sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. That's a very awkward translation from Greek. It's really difficult  in the English to capture what is said here and there are a couple I've found that are a little more accurate, just as a passing here, just to pass it along.  One of them is 'Everyone who is doing the sin, the lawlessness also he does so/he does do and the sin is the lawlessness.’  And another one; you can go back to it later on when it's written in the PDF – ‘Everyone who practices sin practices also lawlessness and sin is lawlessness.’  It's just defining what sin is, you know we understand that.  God gave that a long time ago, but again, this is a little more accurate as far as what it's saying here, but it has to do with what you practice, what you live, what your motivation and your desire is.

You have to understand the context of what's following here and that's why it's better to grasp and comprehend that this word being used here when it talks about 'commits, practices', in other words it's about a consistent thing that's being done.  Verse 5 - And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins; speaking of Jesus Christ, and in Him is no sin.  Whosoever abides in Him sins not: now, the context if we understand verse 4 is about 'practicing' in the sense of 'committing.'  It's not a onetime occasion or a time when a person might sin: Because we all sin!  We all have sin in our life!  It doesn't mean that you cannot sin if you dwell in God and God dwells in you.  We have proven to ourselves, Paul made it very clear, oh yes, we do.  But it's what you focus upon; it's what you practice upon.  Even what Paul addressed there; if you seek to be in God, seek to be in Christ as it talks about in Romans and so forth and in some of those things that are there; it's where your focus is; it's what your battle is, it's what you're striving for.  If you want the world, you'll go toward the world, if you want God you will strive for that, you will work for that, you will seek to practice and live that.

So again here - And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abides in Him sins not: in other words, in the sense of practicing sin; you don't do that.  Do you slip and sin? Yes!  But you're not living it, you're not living in it, you're not practicing it as you did in the world before you were called because when you were in the world, that's all you did!  You didn't know God's way, you weren't seeking to practice it, to live it, to obey God, but now we are.  We seek to live it, practice it, obey it, do it, but we slip; we fail from time to time and we have to repent from time to time, day by day.

So again here ...whosoever sins...in the sense of 'practicing, working, works sin' ...has not seen Him, neither known Him.  Little children, let no one deceive you: he who does... again this matter of the same word here about 'practicing, committing' and so forth  ...righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. So if this is what you're practicing and what you're living then there is that which God gives to us as a matter of righteousness. What is the matter of the righteousness? It is a matter of faith and living by faith and faith also involves living this way of life; not just a matter of things that are to come in the future and so forth, faith is also a matter of what you live by even in your relationship, that God's ways work.  That we have faith in right relationships of what God says we can have in family and if we conquer and fight against self.  Everything we are talking about in this sermon is a matter of faith.  Do you believe it?  Do you believe what God says?  That God's way of life is rich and full, that marriage, that home... that family can become stronger and stronger the more you live and practice God's way – the more you seek to live it.  I believe that and I know you believe that and we have to fight for it, we have to work for that.  We have to seek to practice it, and not just coast along in life; otherwise we're not practicing it and living it like we should be.

He who commits sin is of the devil; in other words 'practices it.'  If you're not focussed on God's way, not seeking to practice righteousness and you just live your life; God says you’re of Satan, you're of the devil.  ...for the devil sinned from the beginning. In other words, not seeking to overcome, not seeking to change, not seeking to become different.  So we can't come into God's Church and coast, we can't come into God's Church and not continue to fight or seek to fight and seek to change self and how we think about others and how we treat others and how we talk about others.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.  That's what this is about, that's why I'm so excited about where we are in time as well; that Satan is getting ready to be taken out of the picture and so are those demons that followed him.  They're about ready to get taken out of the picture, they have a little over two years left to exercise their ways on this earth and their way is about to come to a screeching halt.  And the world, just by that change alone, is going to be made so much better, so much better because that attitude and spirit won't be broadcasting all over the world like it is today.  Just that alone is going to be such a freedom, such a gift from God.

Whosoever is born of God...begotten of God's spirit; when we’re begotten of God's spirit as it talks about here ...does not commit/practice sin; if you're begotten of God's spirit it's a contradiction if we continue to live life carelessly, freelessly, in a frivolous way I should say.  Even to become spiritually sleepy, not watching and so forth; we're not fighting the fight the way we should be and we'll suffer consequences as a result of that.  And it goes on to say – Whosoever is begotten of God does not practice sin; it's a contradiction of terms.  And so sometimes we have to address it and say, “I've got to repent of that. I've got to make sure I'm staying on course.”  ...for His seed remains in Him:  This is what it's about.  It's the impregnation of God's spirit; because John gets into that later on in the book here; that it begins with the impregnation of God's spirit where we become begotten children of God – an essence of God that dwells in our being, in our mind.  But like the umbilical cord to a mother, if that flow of blood is stopped, if that flow of God's spirit isn't constant then the mind can't grow, the life can't grow, the begotten child of God can't grow and we've seen that happen in the Church over and over again.  We've seen times where we become so stagnant and people can even lose it, lose it all, unless or until God awakens an individual and brings us back on course spiritually.  We've gone through those things in God's Church, but sometimes people go so far that there's no awakening.   You can come to a point in life where you'll never be born, just like in real life; that there can be a miscarriage – what a horrible thing!  A miscarriage.  And so it's so important to be plugged into God, to have that continual flow so that we can grow because if the flow of God's spirit isn't there, then what happens to the begettal?  It's a dangerous state to be in, it truly is.

...and His seed remains in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God/begotten of God.  And so if we're continually plugged into God, we're going to be continually repenting, God's going to be continually forgiving us because there is still going to be sin, but God attributes that to us for righteousness because we're living by faith; faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for us.  You get on your knees and ask God for forgiveness of sin by faith, through faith, you practice that; you ask God to forgive you and help you to live right toward others and forgive you of your sin toward others, or toward Him.  In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does/practices not righteousness is not of God,  so you've got to be practicing it, you've got to be seeking to do it, seeking to apply it continually on a continual basis in your life.  And there never comes a time when you're not doing that unless we cease to become watchful and alert and on guard.  The point being if we are not fighting self, we are in bad straits.  If we are not fighting against our nature day by day, which comes down to these basic things of relationships, then we are in big trouble.  It's not a matter of what you know, it's not a matter of what you understand, it's not a matter about all the things you might go through; it's a matter of what you do, what you practice, what you live – that's what these verses are telling us.  Just because you practice and seek this way of life doesn't mean you're not going to stumble because we do stumble; but your practicing it, you're applying yourself to it, you're crying out to God for the help to do it, that's what this is all about.

Verse 10 - In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he who loves not his brother.   For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.  It's the same thing over and over again that God tells us.  If you practice God's way it's about love, it's about how we think toward others, it's about our brother – who is our brother?  Everybody; the next person that's sitting right beside you and who's across the hall.

Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.  It got the best of him, jealousy, envy, all the other attributes.  In the very beginning, two children; one was seeking to do things right before God, was doing the things that God said he should be doing.  The other was trying to find the easy way and cutting corners and his heart wasn't in it towards God; his attitude wasn't right towards God.  And what he gave to God he did because “Well, I have to do it....” type of thing. His mind wasn't in it at all.  And after a while he became eaten up with jealousy for his brother who was doing what was right.  Have you ever experienced jealousy from others around you because they don't really like what you're living?  And yet it pricks their conscience because there are certain things that they know that they should be doing, or how they should be living towards others and they just can't stand being around you, you goody-two-shoes.  It's a repugnant thing to them, “Here comes Goody-Two-Shoes.”

So it goes on to say here - Marvel not, my brethren, that the world hates you. Because it doesn't like God's way of life.  It doesn't want anybody holding up a standard of something that's right because there are times when people see that this is right, certain things are right and they don't like that.  There are people out here who understand full well that Saturday is the seventh day; they understand that full well.  And sometimes when they comes across your path or whatever and they have that bit of knowledge and it's like, “Well, God loves us and it's okay if we worship Him on Sunday,” we've heard all this in the Church, what happened in the Church.  “It's okay, as long as we do it...”   We know that we have passed/we see, spiritually, that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.  This is a confidence and a seeing that you have spiritually because you love the brethren and if you don't and if there is anyone out there that you have anything against...if there is anyone that you would kind of like... when you see them coming, walk in a different way so you don't have to come on head to head contact with them... Does that happen in God's Church?  Oh yes, it does!  Do we still have things to work on in some of those areas some of us in our life?  Yes we do!  They still exist!  We're ever growing in God's Church.  There are things we need to work upon you know?

That's why I make comment sometimes that if you see someone by themselves, do you love them?  Don't leave a brother by themselves ever!  If you're applying God's way of life, bring them into the Family!  Be patient, love them, whatever it takes.  Is it awkward sometimes?  I think sometimes people think I can go and hold a conversation with anybody; that I have no problem with that whatsoever.  I don't know if you think that... you're nuttier than a fruitcake if that's the case.  I have to work at some things, I have to work at those kinds of things, I have to drive myself to do some things; and so do you because it's the right thing to do!  See?  To go around and make sure you try to get around at different times and put a prod on yourself to get around and talk to different ones and include different ones and so forth, you know you've got to put a prod onto yourself.  We've got to include the Body, to love each other, to be concerned about each other in the Body.  That's why sometimes I have a difficult time then when I see some that are having abrasive things with each other and I'm so pleased too then when I see people conquer and overcome those things and I've seen a lot of that in the last year in God's Church.  People who have conquered and overcome some of those things and have worked through some of those things, but it's every once in a while, some ugly thing gets popped up again and you're... “Oh man, don't you see how you're hurting yourself?”

Verse 14 - We know/we see that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.  That's an incredible confidence you can have.  And if you don't, if there's somebody that irritates you, bugs you, that you have anything against, please understand that you don't love the brethren like you should and you're not right with God like you should be and you have something to repent of.  And God forbid that it be a husband toward a wife or a wife toward a husband because then God holds a greater accountability to you and you're going to suffer more because of that! He who loves not his brother abides in death.  You know why it says that?  Do we comprehend fully why it says this?  If we're not loving the way God says to someone else and if we're withholding love, we’re backing away from what God says we should be doing.  Why does He says you abide in death?  Because you haven't repented of your sin and if you haven't repented of your sin, you can't be forgiven and you abide in death and you take lightly the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and what He went through for you.  That's what we do when we hold things against a brother; we just continue to run the spear into Christ's side spiritually.  That's what we do!  Incredible!

And we're approaching Passover, that's why this means more to us right now and that's why it’s timely for us right now about the  healing of the mind and what God wants to see take place more and more within His Church, a greater unity and oneness.  And where does it start?  At home!  At home!  Do some homes need to make some changes in their life?  All of us do!  If you're being honest with yourself; every one of us can grow in that, can't we?  I can grow in that, you can grow in that and if you don't think you can, I fear you're abiding in death because if you don't see sin that needs to be repented of, something’s wrong.  You don't think you have sin?  You don't think you have things that you say or do or think toward others that need to changed? We're not perfect, we're far from it.  If you don't know you have a battle and you're not fighting it then your mind's not being healed and this sermon is in vain.

Verse 15 - Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: I love the way God gets down to the nitty gritty in some of these things.  He's saying if you fail to love, if you're not loving the way God says to love someone else; if there's anything in any fashion or form in your thinking toward someone else that isn't right, hasn't been made right before God in how you think...even if it's a matter of simply understanding that someone has a battle and, “I'm going to have patience with them and I'm not going to retaliate in kind maybe about what they've said or how they've said something about me and I'm going to love them and I'm going to ask God for the help to do so.  To be patient, to give them time and my hope and prayer is that they’re able to see it, that God will be able to bring them to the point so that they can repent of what they're doing,” when you know someone is wrong.  But if you continue to hold something against them, then you defeat the purpose of it all and you're in the same category they are if they're doing something wrong and then you are both wrong!  Amazing how it works.

He who fails to love his brother... that's what it's saying here ...is a murderer:  God calls it what it is. He wants us to see it for the severity of what it is.  That's why it hits me the way it does when I see people if they have a cross word with one another or if they have a wrong attitude towards someone else, or it comes up that they can't be around someone else, or they can't resolve a difference, or a difficult situation, whatever it might be – this is what I see. It's a horrible thing.  Can't we see that that's murder spiritually?  We think murder is a bad thing, and it's a bad thing, but we don't see ourselves sometimes guilty of it, but God calls a spade a spade – what it is is what it is.  So God says ...no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.   In other words we have cut off the flow of God's spirit, we're abiding in death, we can't be forgiven of sin and so John's just saying it over and over again in different ways here to get the point across.

Hereby we perceive the agape/the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  Who is it that will not lay down their life for their brother?  Is there anyone?  Is there someone that you wouldn't do that for?  See?  And if you won't love someone else and be patient with them and pray for them, even if you know 100% that they're in sin and ¾ of the time we’re wrong about that one.  It's just because we are so judgemental and judging something in a wrong way... so God calls it what it is and wants us to see it for what it is.  He's saying, “Are you willing to lay down your life for a brother?”  We should want to.  You should have the spirit of mind of coming to anyone's defence at any time... any time, willingly so; not begrudgingly so in any fashion or form.  A willingness to put anything away that might be against someone else.  It's a pretty tough thing for me to think in any fashion or form that there is anything that anyone would hold against anyone else.  To feel badly about someone else, toward someone else?  It's just foreign in God's Church; it should be foreign in your mind and if it's not then you've got something to work on in a big way, especially in the Body.  At home?  Shouldn't be there!  And see, that's where it starts, we have to go back to the home and make sure that things are right there because if it's not right there, it is not right in the Body; you can take that to the bank.

Verse 17 - But whoso has this world's good, and sees his brother have need, and shut up his bowels of compassion from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?  Where is our compassion? Where is our heart?  Where is our mind?  How do we think? And hereby we know that we are of the truth, yeah, a greater confidence you can have about being of the truth, God's true ways. ...and shall assure our hearts before Him.  There's a confidence and a boldness you can then have in your prayers and your relationship with God because if something is not right in our heart, it's just a pretty tough thing to go before God and have deceitful prayers.  See, that's another thing that blows my mind, how could anyone feel badly towards someone else in the Body, or skirt someone else in life or in services or wherever, or not try to resolve a difference or whatever it might be, or hold a grudge or whatever the stupid things we do sometimes in life.  And then pray to God and think that we're okay and God's hearing us and hearing our petition – no, we're just cut off from God, He doesn't want to hear us until we're right with them.

That's why He tells us, “You've got something against someone else?  Don't bother praying right now.  Go and be reconciled first to your brother, then come back and then I'll listen to you.”  But if you're not working on that, if you're not seeking to be right with your brother, don't even bother.  In other words, can our mind be that clear before God when we pray?  To understand that... What does it mean that I'm praying to God and have my hands spread out to God and praying to Him about something and yet in the back of the recesses of my mind know that there is something here about someone else in the Body, or someone else in the world that I haven't tried to set something right with or I think wrongly toward.  Like I said, you can't change others, but you can change yourself and how you think toward them.  You've got to have boldness and confidence before God when you go before Him in prayer; otherwise you're just wasting time.

That's why so many of my prayers have a great deal to do with repentance.  Don't think there's a time before God that I don't make comment about forgiving me of my sins and generally very early on in the prayers as I have mentioned because if I'm not seeking forgiveness of things that I'm doing wrong...and sometimes that means you've got to go out and make things right.  You just can't go before God and say, “Father, forgive me for what I did and said toward another brother.“  You've got to make it right!  It isn't enough with God to tell Him, “I'm sorry, I made a mistake. I was wrong. I sinned. I ask for forgiveness.”  What does that mean if you’re not willing to make it right?  To love your brother, to make it right!  Sometimes we have to go make things right.  Sometimes in marriage you've got to go make things right. That's why God says, “Don't let the sun go down on your anger,” when there's been some kind of a thing that happens in a family - same applies throughout life.  Don't let time pass by; because if you do you become hardened to sin and after a while you won't even see the sin, you won't even be repenting of it!

Verse 18 - My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. So it has to be what we live, what we practice, that's what this is about; what you're living, what you're practicing, what you're seeking to do that's right.  And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.  For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.  So in other words, how much more, if we're in prayer or whatever and we know something is not right?  Do we deceive ourselves and think we can go before God and God's going to hear us?  God knows what's in our heart and what's in our mind and He won't hear us until we’re repentant, until we seek to make things right.

Verse 21 - Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, then have we confidence toward God.  Isn't that what you want to have every time you pray?  ...a confidence before God, a boldness before God?  So that when you do repent of various things, that you get up from there and it's gone and you know it's gone because you have a confidence before God?  That you don't have to carry it with you?  That's a wonderful thing because it's a greater faith, a greater confidence in what God says... that your sins are gone, they're forgiven; you don't have to carry them around.

Verse 22 - And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, in other words, those things that are according to His will.  It's a matter of things according to God's will in life and you have a boldness there of those things you are praying about.  That God is there working with you and you have a confidence He’s working in you and is going to accomplish those things in your life, according to His will.  ...because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.  And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, because this is about believing on the name of His Son Jesus Christ  which has so much to do with the healing of the mind because it has so much to do with this matter of repentance and knowing He died for our sins and knowing what God requires of us to be forgiven of sin!  That's what I've been talking about this entire period of time and it leads to a confidence then about Christ and His life in us and a boldness in those things.

...and love one another, because it always comes back to this, it's about our relationships.  That's what God's concerned about.  He's not concerned about how much you know about prophecy! He's not concerned about how many mysteries or things in here that you know!  Oh, He wants you to know and He wants to give them to you... but what He wants, what He desires is our response to love – for His life to live within us toward one another because it's the way God's love works within the Body.  It's for a purpose – to add to the love, to add to the relationship, to add to the sharing and the excitement of what we're able to share together; because the closer we grow, draw together, the greater the unity.  That's why I love what Mr. Armstrong used to talk about during the Feast of Tabernacles; I think about that often, when it talks about Aaron's beard and talking about this oneness, this unity; how beautiful it is for brethren to dwell together in harmony, unity, oneness of spirit.  It's a beautiful thing and that's what this is about.  ...and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

And he who keeps His commandments dwells in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abides in us, by the spirit He has given to us.  So again, this has so much to do with your confidence, your boldness in your own life, in your relationship with God; it has everything to do with relationships.  And if the relationships aren't there, you can't have too much boldness and confidence before God in prayers.

1 John 4:1... I think we better stop there.  So again, John; beautiful scriptures – all about relationships, all about a healing of the mind, all about this process that God offers to us and wants us to experience.  He wants to give us His way of life, He offers it to us and it just continually goes back to relationships because therein is the joy, the fullness and the richness of life.

~~~end

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