To Know God

Wayne Matthews

December 10, 2011

The title to this split sermon is To Know God.

How would we explain to somebody that we know God and His Son Jesus Christ?  The main point of that statement is no one can begin to know God the Father or Jesus Christ unless God reveals Himself to the person in the mind by the power of His holy spirit.

Now that is something that is a profound truth and that we here know; but the world can’t see that. The point is that the natural mind cannot see spiritual things.  And the word ‘see’ is not see from the eye, when the Bible uses the term eye, it’s the ‘minds-eye’, what we see.  So what is spoken today in the two split sermons we will all see different aspects, we see differently, but it’s in the mind.  And hearing is in the mind, it’s not a voice, it’s an understanding. It’s not that you hear through the ear, because many a scripture can be read out to people in the world and they can hear what is read but they can’t hear on a spiritual level.

So, in 1 Corinthians 2:9 - But as it is written, Eye, now this is the minds-eye, has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. Those things are spiritual things, they are spiritual matters.

So basically mankind cannot see what we see.  Now, we don’t take it to ourselves; it’s a humbling thing when you realize that out of all of mankind that God the Father made a decision personally about you and me.  And when I use the word ‘you’ I’m not just saying for the fact that I’m separating myself but to make an emphasis that God the Father, the Creator of the universe and everything at some point thought on you and decided that He wanted o place you into His Church at this time out of I think it’s nearly seven billion people now.  What an incredible miracle!  And I know we all feel the same where we turn around and say, “Why did God call me?”  And it’s very humbling when we dwell on it, and often new people think, “Well, why did God call me?”  Well, guess what, many years ago I had those same feelings.  “Why did God call me?”  Why did God call you?  The answer is God knows what He’s doing.  There’s a reason why we are here at the end... we’re not in an era, we’re in a time span, the last era being finished.  But this time period before Jesus Christ returns, isn’t it marvellous that God called us and He thought on us and is working with us personally and is showing us things that the world can’t see?  They think we’re crazy.  That’s great, doesn’t matter, we don’t really care, because they can’t help it.  But we have a responsibility.  So what we see God does hold us accountable to.  The fact that we can see.  And I find that encouraging because we do see things.

And I was saying to someone before, it’s difficult to explain to somebody when you say you know something.  All right?  I know this is God’s true Church.  I know it.  Ummm...how do I explain it?  I know it!  True?  Now it’s the same with the relationship with God.  I know that you have a relationship with God and that I have a relationship with God and how do I know it?  Well, we’re going to look at that today.  How do we know that we even know God?  Well, we’ll see what scripture tells us.

Verse 10 - But God has revealed them, that’s the hidden truths, to us through His spirit: so it’s God that does it.  We didn’t work it out to ourselves, God does it.  God has to call us and place truth into our minds.  ...for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. Those deep things, of course, is truth.  It’s the way God thinks.

Verse 11 - For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? And we know that, it’s a truth that we understand about the spirit in man.  But that spirit in man can’t see spiritual things or comprehend them of and by itself.  It can work things out.  It can think, it can plan, but it cannot see something in the mind, something spiritual. Even so no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God.  So to understand God or to know God, God has to first place His spirit in our minds.  That’s what has to happen.

We see God’s intent through the plan of salvation, and that of course is the Sabbath and the Holy Days.  So, if you said, “Well, how do you know God?”  Well, if someone said, “How do you know Tom, or Mary, or whatever...how do you know?”  You’d have to say, “Well, I know them because I know what they do, what they’re thinking.  I know them because of their attitudes and I know what they’re planning.”  So you could describe how you know that person.  “I know them.  I know what they’re doing, I know what their plans are, I know what attitudes they have.”

Well, that’s the same as how we know God.  So how do we know God?  We know God because of the Sabbath, because He’s revealed it.  We know God because of the Holy Days.  We know what He’s doing.  He has a plan of salvation that will end up with a Family.  So we can say we know God because we know what He’s doing.

Do we know God’s attitudes?  We know God’s attitudes by the commandments. So we know God because God’s word reveals who He is.  So we can actually say, “Yes, we know God.”  Now the world would look at that and think it’s crazy. But if you don’t know the Holy Days, for example, if you don’t understand the plan of salvation, we couldn’t say that we know what God’s doing.  And you know what?  The world doesn’t know what God is doing. They don’t know!  Why?  Because they don’t know the Holy Days.  That’s how we know what God is doing.

Verse 12 - Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; we receive God’s thinking so we come into unity with that thinking and we choose to come into unity so we think like God.  Now that’s almost like blasphemy to the world, to think that we think like God, because God places it in our minds, we have it.  So if we understand the 57 Truths and the spirit of them (which is a separate matter than reading them and knowing them) we can say we know the thinking of God therefore we can have a relationship with God because we’ve come into unity with God.  I find that very stirring within myself, the fact that I actually do know God.  I know it sounds almost like idiocy to the world to think that you know God and they don’t.

We know God because God’s revealed Himself to us.  Isn’t that a marvellous wonderful thing?  What an honour and a privilege at this time!  How humbling is that?  How merciful is God that He decided to call you and me. But if you take it on a personal level we all know who we really are, and deep down nobody really knows you like you know you and the way you think and your battles.  And we can express them at different levels, but deep, deep down you know you; you know what you would really be like without God’s spirit.

I’ll put it this way: I know what I would be like without God’s spirit.  At the age of 28, 29, and 30, I know what I was like, and I knew who I thought of, and it wasn’t anybody else.  That’s just the way I was – it’s the carnal mind, hostile to God, not subject to God neither indeed can be.  So we know that!  So without God’s spirit we know what we would really be like.  We’d be like the world!  What a great blessing to being called!  What a great blessing!

And finishing off that verse... that we might know the things which have been freely given to us by God. I think that in itself is an incredible, incredible blessing!  It’s freely given.  We’ve not earned it, we don’t deserve it, but God decided to call us.

To begin the process of knowing God an individual would need to know who God is, how He thinks, and what He is doing.  The truth is that mankind does not know God.  Only those that God has called into a relationship with Him have started the process of knowing God; because it is a process and it takes time.  And at the end of a physical life, no matter how long that life is or when our calling was, we have only begun the process of knowing God.  We know God to a degree but there’s much more about God we do not know.  We do not know!  And God will reveal Himself by living in us over a long process of time called eternity, because God has always existed.  Now, our minds can’t grasp it, we are temporary.

So, to know God it’s going to take a long time. But we know aspects of God, we know His character, we know what He is like and we know what He is doing – so we can actually say we know God because God’s allowed it, God has given us that ability.  To know God is to have a relationship with Him and to obey Him and come into unity with His word.

So the first one of the requirements is that we need to choose to obey God.  To get to know God we’re going to have to listen to what God tells us; it’s the only way to get to know Him.  The amount we know God is based on our choice to obey and God’s spirit dwelling in us which is His thinking, dwelling in us.

Romans 8:14 - For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. So we are begotten sons of God.  We have God’s mind dwelling in us to a degree.

Verse 15 - For you did not receive the spirit of bondage - and that bondage is in our thinking, the prejudice that we have.  It doesn’t matter what nationality or what age we are, we have prejudices in us.  They may be prejudices we haven’t seen yet but they’re there and it’s about which button gets pressed at what time as to whether that prejudice and that thinking, which is ungodly thinking (because God’s not prejudiced).  So ungodly thinking is in us all and it’s a matter of what environment we’re placed in that we see it and what button gets pressed.  We’re talking before in just sort of jesting in a way about mercy - that I have started to learn that I’m not as totally merciful as God is.  I’ve started to learn it and sometimes the mercy that I apply to others is after the action, if you know what I mean.  You’re supposed to show mercy – someone challenged me – aren’t you supposed to show mercy before the action...well, I’m not quite there yet. But we do learn certain aspects of God’s attributes and character and that God is so intense as far as His attributes that we develop slowly attributes of God.

Like to truly love, we can say we love someone – yeah, well, depending on the environment how much we’re going to love them, really.  That’s just who we are.  But God is revealing Himself through the power of His holy spirit that we see ourselves so that we see Him.  We can make the comparisons.

Carrying on in verse 15 there - ...spirit of bondage again to fear; but you received the spirit of adoption, which is sonship, by which we cry, Abba, Father. In other words we learn to trust in God.  We know that of ourselves we can’t do the things that are required.  We cannot be merciful, we cannot be patient, we cannot love, we can’t do it of and by ourselves and we come to learn that we have that inability.  And that’s when we cry out to God, and generally it’s in a situation that we’re feeling uncomfortable, but we need God, and we cry out, “Father, You need to help me here!  I don’t know what to do.  I don’t know how to handle this situation.” And that’s when we cry out.  And by crying out to God for that we’re actually declaring, “We trust You God and we rely on You.”   We trust You and we rely on You because we know we can’t do it of ourselves.  So now we can come into this relationship with God.

Verse 16 - The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: it provides evidence.  So as we begin to think differently about situations, about ourselves and about others, that is the evidence that God is working with us.  And it’s not a negative thing!  And often in the Church when God reveals ourselves to ourselves we see it as a negative thing.  But that’s the way we were created.  We were created a particular way so that God in time could reveal what we were created like and then at some point we choose to reject it.  We choose to reject it and we don’t want to be this way anymore.  We don’t want to be unmerciful.  We don’t want to be unthankful.  We don’t want to be unloving.  But that’s a choice we have to set out and it takes time and it takes time and it takes time, and we just keep going forward and we’ll make mistakes. That’s the beauty of repentance, that we can make mistakes but in all sincerity go to God and ask for forgiveness.  We don’t want to do it that way, we want to do it another way, we want to do it God’s way.

Verse 17 - And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.  We know God and His thinking because He has revealed His plan to His Church.  God’s plan outlines what He is doing, what He is achieving, what He is thinking.  To say that somebody knows somebody they would have to know all those attributes.  So the seven annual Holy Days reveal God, they reveal what He is doing.  The 10 Commandments reveal His thinking, the way He thinks, which is love, which is outgoing love and concern for the benefit of His creation.  It’s not selective, as with human love, we select who we want to love.  We will by nature love our children and our family before somebody else’s.  That’s just human, who we are.  But it’s about identifying that in ourselves and repenting of that selfish love and desiring that we wish the best for everybody.

The 57 Truths reveal the way faith is built in the Church.  Now, for example, if somebody does not believe in the 57 Truths, what is that actually saying?  We don’t believe one of the 57 Truths, what is that actually saying?  We need to backtrack and say, okay, God works a particular way.  There’s only one way to have a relationship with God and that is through His Church, because God doesn’t work outside of the Church.  People can’t have an independent relationship between God and themselves and somehow avoid the structure that God has set up.  It’s impossible!  But people think they have a special relationship with God.  That’s a lie!  It’s impossible because God works in a particular way.  He works through His Church; and how He does it – He places truth in the Church through an apostle.  We accept that aspect.  God gives us truth to believe – so faith is whether we believe what God has given us to believe.  What we choose to believe.

So a person who says they don’t believe an aspect, one of the 57 Truths, it’s because of their own reasoning.  What does it say about you or me if we had that thinking?  It says that pride dwells in us.  Because if you take it a step further and say, “Okay, I have elevated myself above God, because you see, I’m rejecting what God’s telling me.”  So I’m saying to myself, “Well, I know more than God. I’m rejecting God!  I’m elevating myself!”  Which is pride.  “I don’t believe what God is doing.”

God the Father sent Jesus Christ to reveal the very mind of God, His thinking.

John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, except through/by Me.  So, the only way that we can have access or know Jesus Christ and God the Father is through God’s plan.  The way is Passover.  So the reality is that unless we, in the spirit of it once called, accept the truth of Passover it’s impossible to be given eternal life.  If a person rejects Passover it’s impossible to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father.  They do not know God!  They do not.  If any of us were to ever reject Passover we don’t have a relationship with God, we’re not in unity with Him, we don’t know His plan, because it’s all founded on Passover.  God’s plan starts with Passover.

If we rejected the Sabbath we can’t say we know God, because the Sabbath reveals an aspect of God’s plan.  And if we reject the Sabbath we’re actually operating in pride because we know better!  There’s often a saying that says, “You’re preaching to the converted...” in other words people believe what you’re saying... an Australian thing, but anyway.

Verse 7 - If you know Me, in other words, if you know how I think, you would have known My Father also: and from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.  Now, this is talking about knowing God on a spiritual level, on a spiritual plane, not just on a physical level at all.  It’s talking about a spiritual aspect in the mind.  And Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it will be sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and yet you have not known Me, Philip? It’s the same question.  If you know Jesus Christ and how He thinks and the way He responded we would know how God the Father thinks and responded.

He who has seen Me, on a spiritual level, has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak of My own authority: but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. That’s when Jesus Christ said, “I can do nothing of Myself.”  We can understand that aspect.  But it requires God, the power of God’s spirit in the mind to do something good in the sense of the spiritual achievement, because it’s God that does the works.  It’s God that does or bears the fruits in us out to the benefit of others.

Verse 11 - Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the sake of the works.  This is talking about John 14 – Jesus Christ was speaking of things that are of the spirit which have to do with understanding, seeing spiritually, and the revelation of God.  Seeing the ways of God, the mind of God, the truth of God, and the identity of God, to know God.  And that’s what that conversation was about.  Do we know God?  We should be able to say, “Yes, we know God.”  We know Jesus Christ; we know what God the Father is doing through Jesus Christ through the Church.  We know where we’re heading. We know what God is planning.  So it wasn’t about a person’s physical ability to see or hear, it’s talking about something spiritual in the mind.

Luke 10:21- In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the spirit, and said, I thank You/I praise You, depending on which version, Father, LORD of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, He’s talking about those of the world.  So, spiritual things are hidden deliberately from people in the world.  They are not meant to understand what you have been blessed to understand.  They are not meant to see, at this point in time, what you see, and therefore there’s no judgment on them, because God hasn’t granted His mercy to them at this point in time.  And that’s nothing to lift ourselves up over; in actuality it’s the opposite, we should be humbled by that, that God thought on us and decided to call us at this time for a purpose.  And that purpose is not seeing, necessarily.

I was mentioning to someone before in services that if you had said to me in 1982, 1983, of what would happen to the Church and what God would do in me and with me, I would have laughed you to scorn.  Honestly!  I would have said, “You are way out there!  This is just Wayne here, what do you mean this is what God’s going to do with you?”  Well, for the people in God’s Church we do not know what God has got planned for every individual, but it’s much more than what we may now realize...much, much more.

And for those of us that could live on into the Millennium, how do we know what God is going to be doing with us in 20 years time?  We cannot really imagine it.  I know aspects of what we are going to be required to do in the short term, but there’s much more after that as well.  There’s much more, much, much more, and it’s going to go on for years...and it’s so exciting!  It is so exciting!  So it’s an exciting time for God to have called us into the Body at this time to fulfill a role in the Millennium, is so exciting!  But we can’t comprehend it, the truth of it.  We do not know what God the Father and Jesus Christ are going to do with us individually on a physical or spiritual level.  We see very dimly, but I can guarantee you from my life it’s going to be a lot more exciting than you now imagine.

For the younger people in God’s Church I’m excited for you!  I’m getting older.  But younger people, it’s going to be so exciting!  It’s exciting to share and see others benefit, which brings me to a point that there’s an attribute of God that sometimes we don’t necessarily see, and that is God’s desire.

We come to see different things in our thinking by comparing our logical thinking to what God reveals to us about His spirit.  Firstly, we need to consider if we know God do we know God’s desire?  What is God’s and Jesus Christ’s motivation at this time, today?  Today, what is God’s desire?  God’s desire - and it’s a desire that we can’t comprehend – is to give us eternal life, something He has that He wants...  So... so desiring that it’s hard to express it, but that’s what He wants for you as an individual, that He wants to give you something He has.  He wants to give you life.  He wants to give you peace for eternity!  That’s what He is desiring to do.  Isn’t that incredible?  We don’t earn it, we’ve no justification for us, but that’s how great God is, that He wants to give it to us.

There are some conditions: we have to want it.  We’ve got to be willing to fight for it!  That’s what’s on our part.  It’s a free gift.  Here you are – if you’ve been called and you’ve been baptized – that’s what’s on offer.  It’s on offer for me; it’s on offer for you.  Do you want it?  That’s what God wants to know.  But that’s an attribute of God that we underestimate, this desire.  We are the object of His desire.  Isn’t that incredible!  That’s His focus, that’s Jesus Christ’s focus – is you as an individual, as a Church.  We are the Church.  But that’s where God is, that’s where God is focused. That’s what He wants to give to us, eternal life.  He wants to help us.  He’ll allow us to go through the trials that we bring on ourselves so that we, in time, can choose to be more like Him.  That’s a wonderful, wonderful gift to know this.  The world has no idea – no idea!  Like a lot of things in the world, no idea!  They don’t know God!  They can’t!  They weren’t called to it.  We’ve been called to it.

So what does God desire of us?  The scripture says, ‘Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts.’ [Psalm 51:6].  So God wants to place truth into our minds but we want to desire it. We want what God has to offer!  I’m excited by the next truth.  I don’t know what it is or when it is coming, don’t want to scare you there or anything, but I am so excited because I know that whatever God is giving me is a free gift.  I don’t deserve it, nor do you.  But it’s going to be exciting!  Now, there’s a potential and a possibility that some may not receive it.  By the way, I have no idea what the next truth is so don’t get me wrong, but I want to say whatever that truth is there are going to be some (because the history of the Church has always been this way), that someone is not going to be happy with it.  Isn’t that incredible? Do you think that you have that potential?  That you may hear a truth and reject it?  Something that God’s going to freely give to His Church through an end-time apostle that you are going to reject?!

Now, we’re sitting here today probably thinking, “I would never reject that truth – whatever it is!”  Well, the history of God’s Church is that there’s always somebody that rejects.  “It’s just too much!”  We’ve had those sermons, “This is just too much for me to take!”  That’s our potential, brethren, if we go back to what we were, where we came from.  Scripture talks about people going... a dog going back to its vomit. That’s disgusting isn’t it?  Well, over the history of the Church I have always asked, “How could somebody leave God’s Church?”  And Mr. Armstrong used to always say, those who can remember, he’d say, “It’s about government!”  And of course, by nature, we take on that he’s talking about government in the sense of a physical structure, because you won’t listen to the ministry or something.  But it’s much deeper than that!  It’s about God’s spirit.  If God’s spirit is not dwelling in us we are not subject to government.  It’s impossible, because if God’s spirit is not in us we’re operating on the natural carnal mind which is hostile to God, not subject to God and neither indeed can be.  So government is a matter of spirit!  It’s not a matter about somebody telling you, it’s a matter of the spirit!  And if we have God’s spirit dwelling in us we will be subject to government, we will accept truth that God places into the Church, because God’s spirit in us – God does the works.  It’s God living in us.

So this desire that God has for us, He desires to place truth into our minds and that we choose to believe Him.  It’s as simple as it is.  When you really boil down God’s ways it’s very simple, it really is.  It’s not, but it is.  It’s so simple that all you have to do is believe God. That’s it!  Just believe God and do what He says.  Doesn’t that sound simple?  Well, of course it’s a lot more complex than that because of our human nature; but that’s as simple as it gets.  Whatever God places into the Church we believe it, we have a desire to know God, and we obey.  The reality is that we’re going to have to be spirit beings to comply to all of that.

In Job 21:14 it says – Yet they say to God, Depart from us; for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. So mankind does not want God’s ways.  So why is ‘The Church of God – PKG’ rejected?  Why is that?  God tells us very clearly it’s the natural mind, it’s a natural thing.  Should we be offended?  Should we be offended really if someone calls us whatever, and they write whatever?  Does it really matter?  It actually doesn’t make any difference to us.  We know we are God’s people!  We know, and therefore no matter what is said or done it’s totally irrelevant, and it’s very difficult for the natural mind to understand that.

We had a conversation about progressive truth.  That in the Body of Christ, the Church of God, the reality is that truth is progressive, it’s revealed, and we learn more as we go; and therefore we can look back and say, “Yes, we were wrong back there!”  I was saying before, my wife and myself in 2008 said to our daughter-in-law that this is possibly her last Christmas...and then in 2009 we turned up and said, “Look, this is probably your last Christmas.”  And then in 2010 we turned up, “This is going to be your last Christmas.”  And in 2011, when we turned up Chris said, “This is going to be your last Christmas Samantha.”   And my son looked at me and thought...”We’ve heard this before.”   They can’t hear.  True?  They can’t hear.  I know this is their last Christmas but they can’t hear.  We don’t hold it against them.  We smile, my son smiles because he thinks we’re idiots.  But we shouldn’t take offence.  True?  We shouldn’t take offence at it.  They’re not called to it. God’s very clear about this.  We should be encouraged by it.  I actually take a lot of encouragement out of the fact of what I see within God’s Church, what I hear within God’s Church, and the fellowship in God’s Church.  I’m actually encouraged.  It reinforces the fact that God’s called me, for whatever reason He believes, He called me; but I am so blessed, just like you – so blessed, and I’m going to cherish this calling beyond anything else.

Proverbs 8:11 – For wisdom, this is talking about the mind of God, the thinking of God, the ways of God.  For wisdom is better than rubies; so there’s nothing physical, whether it’s diamonds, physical wealth, inheritance, anything physical – big house, big car, good job – none of it is worth anything compared to what God has called you and me to.  Nothing!  It’s all irrelevant.  And we should want to give it up [snap’s fingers] like that for God’s ways.  And I know God’s people do.  We’re willing to walk away from all of that.  It’s all irrelevant, it’s temporary, it’s passing.

So this is really saying that to have the mind of God, to understand God’s ways, to understand the Sabbath, the Holy Days and the 57 Truths, what you have in this room and those listening on the webcast today, what we have is better than rubies!  A big pile in the corner of rubies and diamonds, we would walk away from all of that.  We don’t want that!  That’s God’s mind in us.  We want God’s thinking.  We want God’s thinking!  We want to love others, that’s our desire.

...and all the things one may desire cannot be compared to her. Nothing can be compared to the ability to think like God.  Nothing!  So the more we understand the truth on a spiritual level and how we apply what we understand and learn from it then the more valuable it becomes.  So the trial we may be going through today, or the one that’s just around the corner...we should value it with gold because really it’s about how we respond in it.  The reality is how we respond in that trial is more precious.  Because if we let God live and dwell in us, the way we think towards others, that’s what’s valuable.  That’s what’s valuable.

We sort of realize our son - I’m not talking evil of my son, he’s not called - but we understand that he can’t see what we see, but I do know that he can see spiritual things but on a physical level.  I’ll explain that.  He can see that we’re different.  He knows we’re whackos, but that’s alright.  But what he sees – he can see whether I’m gentle.  He can see whether I’m patient or unmerciful.  He sees those things on a physical level.  But that’s what God’s called me to do.  That’s what God’s called – that’s what my accountability is.  And when I fail in that that’s when I feel bad because I’m not living God to others, and particularly my own family.  But he sees that, he sees we’re different.  Our daughter-in-law sees we’re different – because we are, we hope we are, because if we’re not we’re failing terribly.   Because that’s the requirement that God has on me, that’s my responsibility, and I can rejoice in it because I know that she sees things in us that she can’t put a finger on.  We’re different but not sure why.  But I know she sees God, that’s what I hope, because it’s not me and it’s not Chris, its God dwelling in us that thinks differently to others.  And one day I know God will use that thinking.

Now, one way to measure (and I don’t like measuring), but one way to check ourselves or to measure ourselves is our way of thinking, and this can be very testing.  There are two things in life which I found very difficult in life, and one of them happened in the Church a long time ago to me.  I was falsely accused.  Now that was the most difficult period in my life that actually burned me very badly because when you’re falsely accused and you can’t defend yourself, when you have to rely on God to do it it is difficult.  Because human nature, we want to defend.  True?  “But hey, now listen... Now, listen, you’ve got it all... Let me tell you... you’ve got it all wrong.”  No, you’ve got to stand back; and I knew I wasn’t in a position, that I had to rely on God to defend me.  Now, that’s easily said.  That is so easily said, but try it!   When you have to trust God and wait on God!

Now, all of the attributes of God, one of His attributes that is greatest is patience.  But compared to human nature, “I’d wish He’d hurry up!”   That’s human nature, true?  We’re going to wait on God... 24 hours later – “Why hasn’t God intervened!”  That’s something we learn.  Waiting on God is easily said, very difficultly done.  I’m talking about myself here, by the way, on things that have been difficult for me.

The other one, this is God’s thinking, is that our thinking must reflect God’s.  God’s thinking is that He always benefits others, so when somebody is elevated or promoted or receives something better or more than what you perceive you have, do we rejoice in that?  Now that’s a big challenge on the thinking, because we have a mindset.  But do we rejoice when others receive things?  Really?!  Do we really rejoice?  Well, only you can answer that, just like I had to answer it myself.  God wants to give and others be elevated.

So if you’re in a business and you’re a manager and there’s another manager and that manager is made a general manager and now you’re reporting to them, are you really happy for him or her?  Human nature – there’s no way! There’s no way!  We should rejoice – that God is letting them be elevated, God is giving.  So whatever the blessing that is given to others within the Body or in the world, we should always look positively to it and not look negatively to it.  But it is an attribute that God has which is His ability to rejoice when another person is lifted up or elevated in whatever way, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter.  That is an attribute that we should check in our mind.

One thing that I have also learned is that we should rejoice that God is who He is.  We should rejoice!  And you can only do that if you know God, because when you know who God is and what God is we can actually genuinely rejoice.  How thankful are you that God is merciful?  Really, you know, we deserve to be rubbed out.  Really.  The things we do and say and think – any other being would rub you out.  Satan, for example, would rub you out.

One of the attributes I was talking about before...if you look back at Satan’s thinking, what was the problem?  The problem was his inability to rejoice at someone else being elevated over.  “You’re going to do what with Him? Don’t you see my position here now, what it is...and you’re going to what?  I’ve got to report to whom?”  Can you see that thinking?  Because that negative thinking is actually demonic.  If we do not understand how to rejoice at anybody receiving anything, we’ve got wrong thinking that needs correcting in us.

So, I’ve also learned to rejoice that I do know God, I do know what God is doing – in part – and I do know God’s attributes – in part.  But I am thankful that He’s loving.  I’m thankful that He’s patient.  I’m thankful that He’s merciful.  I’m thankful that He’s a God of rejoicing, is a God of peace.  I’m really thankful for all those things, because I can relax in it in the sense that I do know God and I know that His desire is for me and that everything He desires for me is good; and I can rejoice in that, so can we.

So what does God require of us?  God requires that we treat everybody the way He treats us.  I’ll repeat that.  What does God require of us?  God requires that we treat everyone the way He treats us, which is with mercy, forgiveness, gentleness, kindness, love, patience.  That’s what God requires of us, that that’s what we have to desire within us.

We are now entering a very exciting time and it has to do with the 7th Thunder.  The 7th Thunder is the accelerated revelation of God to man.  Now, God accelerated His revelation of who He was in 2005 to the Church, and prior to that if you had said to me that I knew God, I was deceived.  I thought I knew God but until I understood the sermons of 2005 at the Feast and you read the last chapter of the red book, ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’; if a person has not read that book and understood and believed what God has revealed there they do not know God.  It’s impossible!  Because God revealed who He was.  He accelerated the revelation of who He was.

We’re now going to enter a time where  the acceleration of that revelation is going to increase into the millions of people.  Millions!  Millions of people are going to be called into a relationship with God the same as we have and it’s going to be exciting.  And we’re going to what?  We’re going to rejoice!  True?  I know, I am so looking forward to people being called, and I’ve been very blessed that in Australia I’ve managed to have people called virtually every 6 months where I’ve been able to work with those people, and it is so exciting!  It’s hard to describe to a person that’s involved how excited you are for them.  You just rejoice for them!  You want them to have what we have and you want to give it to them awful, you know?  You’ve got to slow down.  You want them to have a relationship with God!  Well, that’s what God is about to do.

There are going to be millions of people that are going to be called into a relationship with Him and we’re going to be part of that.  We’re going to have the knowledge of it.  We know what God’s doing, but its part of the 7th Thunder.  So that is an exciting time!

There have been many, many prophets and apostles and many others that have desired what?  To know what we know!  Just to live at this time, to know what God’s doing in this next period of time and up to Christ’s return.  They would love to have known this, love to have lived at this time!  And here we are!  What a blessing!

If you have not read the 7th chapter of the book, ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’, you have not come to begin to know God.  It’s not started.  Not the true God that has revealed Himself.  God reveals Himself in a set way.  God reveals Himself through Jesus Christ to His Church.  If you are not in the Church, the Body of Christ, you cannot come to know God.  It’s impossible!  So, to come to know God people have to be placed into the Body of Christ where the truth is, where God’s mind is.  That’s where it has to come.

There is only one true Church, ‘The Church of God – PKG.’ Now that’s going to sound ludicrous to the world.  For those that have been called before and fallen asleep and not been awakened, they do not know God.  That sounds terrible doesn’t it?  But they don’t.  They actually do not know God.

I want to turn to 1 John 2:3 in closing.  How can people know God if they reject what He tells them?  That’s a straight forward question, isn’t it?  How can people know God if they reject what He tells them?  How does God tell them?  He has always worked in a set way.  He has always told people through His prophets and apostles.  So if people reject it they can’t come to know God.  If they reject His end-time prophets and His end-time apostle how can they begin to come to know God?  The answer is very clear – they cannot.  Because God works through a set way.

God’s Church is where God is, where He is working.  God’s Church knows God the Father and Jesus Christ.  We do.  1 John 2:3 – Now by this we, talking about those in the Body of Christ, know that we know Him. So there is a way to know that we know Him.  ...if we keep His commandments.  So straight away if anybody is not a Sabbath keeper, in the spirit of the Sabbath, they do not know God.  Impossible!  Because that’s what God says!  God says you don’t know Me because you’re not willing to obey Me and keep the basic foundation of the Sabbath!  This includes, His commandments can cover all of Leviticus 23.  It starts with Passover, Sabbath, seven annual Holy Days.  So if people aren’t willing to submit their will to that they can’t have a relationship with God, it’s impossible!  They refuse to come into unity with Him.

God is only working in one place and that’s His Church.

Verse 4 - He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a liar, that’s strong language isn’t it?  And people say, “Oh, that’s a bit strong...”

“Oh no,” God says... “you don’t know Me!” God says.  “If you’re not willing to listen and obey My basic commandments you don’t know Me, you’re a liar!”  But people don’t know that in their own minds they’re lying to themselves.  They’re justifying things in themselves, making excuses to the carnal mind.  ...and the truth, which God places into the mind, is not in him. Isn’t that a profound scripture?  It’s very black and white.

So, unless we are part of the Body of Christ we cannot come to fully know God.  In your calling, in the beginning when we’re not part of the Body, we can begin to see God on a spiritual level, attributes, aspects, but we still don’t know God.  It takes time.

Verse 5 - But whoever keeps/obeys His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him: so it’s a process of time.  The love of God is God’s thinking, the way we think toward others.  By this, by this obedience, we know that we are in Him.

Verse 6 - He who says he abides in Him, in other words is in unity with God, ought himself also to walk just as He walked.  So we’re going to have to walk like Jesus Christ walked, the way He thought, the way He acted.  His attitudes towards things.  Christ was a Sabbath keeper!  It’s really basic, isn’t it? Christ was a Sabbath keeper and the scripture says you’ve got to walk as He walked... He was a Sabbath keeper and He went to the Feasts and He kept Passover.  You’d think it’s logical, isn’t it?  But if you’re not called to see it, as the first scripture says, it’s impossible to see it, impossible.

So what is God the Father and Jesus Christ now focused on and excited about? They are focused on the next step of God’s plan of salvation for mankind – that is the revelation of God to mankind.  It’s going to increase.  God is going to begin to call millions of people, and we can think like God and be excited like God is...and we should, brethren...excited about new people from the world being called out of this world, people that are asleep.  A lot of us here have friends that are dead asleep and you can’t talk to them about anything because they can’t know God, they’ve not been called or awakened out to know God. But that’s just around the corner.

So we have a lot to look forward to in the number of weeks that are left, and there’s not many.  If you count it in weeks there’s not many left.  But there is going to be something great that happens on this earth and we can rejoice in it because we are going to be a part of it in one way or another.

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