God Knows

Wayne Matthews

August 4, 2018

Welcome, everybody, to this Sabbath day.

The purpose of this sermon is to consider the fact God knows our thoughts. The title of the sermon is God Knows.

Only those that have God’s holy spirit can come to see their own thoughts, motives, and intents, because without it nobody checks their real motives and intents, their true motives and intents. Well, that’s why we’ve been called into the Body of Christ, so that we can start to check why we do what we do.

Now, everything that’s done by mankind has a motive that is selfish. Well, although it can’t be seen it’s so selfishly motivated. So although we can’t see often what’s coming back to them, something is coming back, and generally outside of that it’s like the praises of men. People do things for the praises of men. Their motive is not clear to themselves even, but what they’re doing is they’re looking for recognition. Motive – look at me – pride. That’s what’s driving it. So everybody has that.

Well, we’re called, then we’re given God’s holy spirit, well, now we can see this motive. We start to see it in our thoughts, words, and actions; why am I really doing this? Am I doing it to get credit to self? Because often in business, having been involved in business in times past, if there was somebody important in a room there were always people gravitating to them. The reason they gravitated, although they thought they might get a favor, the real motive is self. It’s really selfish because this person has the power (at least that’s what they think) that can benefit me. That’s the only reason. “I might get promoted.” “They might see me or recognize me.” But there’s something in it for “me.” But they would never admit that’s why they’re doing it.

And having God’s spirit one of the first things that I noticed was that I would try to avoid that because I knew that that was my motive deep down. So someone (so called) important would walk into the room, well, then what happened was that I go to do the opposite to what I knew that I had the capacity to do, which was go to the someone in higher power or (so called) more important in an organization. It can happen in the Church. We were at a particular Feast site, Chris and myself, and I turned around to her once, because we were on an elevated view, and I said, “I can tell you the ministers in God’s Church.” It wasn’t God’s Church then; it was United Church of God, but I could actually tell you who the ministers were, and it wasn’t hard. Do you know how I did it? Because I could see where people were gravitating, because it’s natural. It can only be natural without God’s spirit. It can only be natural.

So it wasn’t hard to spot them because you could see people gravitating. I said, “That person’s a minister. That person’s a minister.” At that point they’re all miles of course, “That person’s a minister.” It was easy! Because it’s natural!

Well, that’s the same in business.

Well, that’s what we are. We’re called into the Church to discipline that thinking. Because we know God has the power to raise up and pull down, and therefore, you don’t have to do anything about yourself. So it worked one way; I would tend to pull back because I knew what I was capable of; I’d pull back and leave it in God’s hands. That’s what we’re here for, to start to work on self, this thought process that we have. So it’s only with God’s holy spirit do we have the power to do it, which is a different way of thinking.

Intent is the real reason (which is our motive) of why we do what we do. What is our intent? Now, law courts and that try to look at people’s intent, why did they do this? And often with crimes they’ll say, the first thing they’ll look at is what is the motive of doing this? Why would the person do this? And often they struggle to find a motive. Well, why did that person do that? What’s the motive of why they killed them? Often it’s money, life insurance policies, and all these different things, but they look for that. If they can find that the victim had a $20 million life insurance policy they can instantly work out who’s the beneficiary. That person? Well, now they’ve got motive. Ah-ha, that person killed them because of the money. Motive.

So people do know about motive and intent, but only with God’s spirit can we really examine ourselves, which is about why we do what we do. Not what other people do, what do we do with it? Why we are doing what we’re doing. It can come up in many walks of life of why we do what we do.

We’re going to start by looking at a definition in Genesis 6:5—Then the Eternal saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart, of his mind, of his thinking, was only evil continually. Now, this is an incredible period of time where mankind had gone to a point in the way that they thought. Now, this word “every intent,” well, it goes back to motive.

Imagination, which is in the thinking. So it’s about a creative process that takes place in the mind that a person starts to think about advantage to self all the time. Not just now and again, this is a constant way of thinking that mankind had come to. It’s a frame of mind, or framing of the mind. In other words, they wake up and think, “Okay, today this is the thinking, “and it’s about what advantage can come to me, about me, about self. It’s about sin. That’s the advantage was to self; sins to self.

Thin framed or thought about, motive behind a work or action. Now, at this point God saw, and now when we say this it’s not that God came down to the earth and walked around and said, “Ah, huh.” No, it goes back to this title of the topic God Knows, and the rest of it. God knows every thought within every human. God knows. He doesn’t have to appear somewhere and go up and examine. God knows.

Well, one reason that God knows is that God created mankind, therefore, He knows the way we think – natural, carnal mind and when He has God’s spirit involved, where He gives God’s spirit, He knows. And what does it come to? What happened to Abraham? “Now I know you.” “I know what you will choose under any situation or under any circumstance.” So God knows us. He knows everybody He’s called and He knows why He’s called them, but He knows our thinking.

Now, it can be quite confronting when we fully grasp and understand (because we don’t always remember this), that God does know every thought. You can’t hide anything from God. But we live life as humans as if we do. And even within the Church, the Body of Christ, we live our lives often that way, because we have thoughts. I know that certain times certain thoughts will start to run and I know they’re not right, and therefore, the role that I’ve got, responsibility I’ve got as someone who’s been called, is to stop that selfish thinking, that evil thinking, stop it. I haven’t committed sin yet because the thoughts there, it’s whether I want to continue or not. I’m aware – you’re only aware with the power of God’s holy spirit, spiritually you’re aware – ah, this is wrong. This is sin. This is evil. I don’t want it; I’m going to stop it. You battle and you fight. There’s a victory. Fighting is a victory, really. You’re fighting. People don’t fight.

I know in my early days of life I never fought one single thought. I remember it very clearly. Until I was called I never battled one thought. To think it’s wrong, I was justified in pulling someone down or thinking evil of someone – just justify it. I’m right, they’re obviously wrong and da-da-da-da.

Different for us now. When we get those thoughts we’ve got to say, “Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I thinking this way about that person? It’s about the intent, the thought, the motive. Well, the motive of thinking evil of somebody else and continuing that thought process is pride. We want to pull them down so we can lift ourselves up.

So here we see, from this scripture, that mankind continually thought about self, selfishness, and their intent was to fulfill it. It was all about self, gratification for self. Evil, selfishness was their motivation. So it was all about what is the benefit towards me. They planned evil in their minds.

Now, we have this opportunity. We can plan evil or we can plan good. It’s a choice. We can plan a good work, powered by God’s holy spirit. God does the works, but He gives us the thought to fulfill something, or we can plan evil by the way we think.

Our spiritual intent in this physical life should involve checking every motive and intent, motive of why we do it, behind every thought, word, and action. Now, it’s easy said. There’s a lot of things in God’s word, as I said, just obey the 10 Commandments. Easy said. Doing it? Whew, totally different matter! So this is the same; this statement is the same. Checking every thought or word or action, thinking about why we said it or why we did it, well, it’s easy said. But doing it? That’s a battle. It’s a really big battle because it’s not natural and we don’t use God’s spirit all the time. We know sometimes what’s right and wrong and choose wrong because there’s an advantage to self.

We should check to see if our intent is of God or not. That’s why we’re doing the checking. Is this what God would think? Is this the way God would operate, or is this me and my selfishness? Now, if we’re really honest and check our motive and intent regularly you’ll find that within us that most of our motives and intents are selfish. It’s just the way it’s designed, that that’s the way we will be. But we have to come to a point where we see things (because we see because God gives us the power to see), and then we’d make a choice we’re going to choose something different than what we would naturally.

As the sermon title, God Knows, this is something we should always remember; in all times, everywhere we are, no matter what we’re doing God knows. He doesn’t have to sit there and look. God knows and it’s done on a spiritual matter; it’s done by the power of God’s spirit. He doesn’t have to manifest or be there in the room to see it; God knows. He knows the thinking. So hiding our selfish parts (parts of our nature) is our nature. We hide. We like to cover up.

Genesis 3:8. Here we’re looking at Adam and Eve and what they did. This is from the beginning of mankind, and this action is what we actually do by nature. Genesis 3:8—And they heard the sound of the Eternal God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves. Now, why would that be? Before they wouldn’t hide themselves, but they’ve hidden themselves because of sin. Now, they think (cause this is the way humans are), that if it’s not seen it’s not known. That’s human nature.

So here it is, they decide, they know they’ve done something wrong, so what are they going to do? Hide themselves. So that’s what we do, we hide ourselves. Now, how does that take place? It takes place in many ways as humans. We have a tendency to hide ourselves. We think that nobody knows what we think. We think that nobody knows what we do. For example, if we ever use bad language we don’t automatically think God knows. But He does. If we get on the Internet and looked at pornography, for example, on a computer, we think it’s hidden, it’s done in secret. It’s not. God knows, because nothing is hid from God.

So this is why, really, we should monitor and check ourselves more often than what we do. Because God does know. And that’s what our life is about. We can’t hide anything from God.

So here it is, Adam and Eve know they’ve sinned. What do they do? They hide themselves from the presence of the Eternal among the trees of the garden. Now, with God’s spirit we can say this is just stupidity. It’s dumb humans, really, when you think of it, isn’t it? But this is human nature and we have this capacity.

But we can try to do it on a spiritual level. I find it fascinating that certain times in email that come in people try to hide (even though they have God’s spirit), they still try to hide something because it’s natural to us. One way of hiding things is you don’t tell all the truth, you tell half the truth. You didn’t lie, but you didn’t tell all the truth because there’s a part that you don’t want revealed, hiding yourself, hiding self.

So when it says “hid themselves,” it’s like us – hide self, hide the bad part of us. That’s what we tend to do by nature, hide it. I don’t want others to know this part about me, what I was really like and what I am really like.

Verse 9—Then the Eternal God (Yahweh Elohim) called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? Which is, “Where have you been?”

Verse 10—So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. So he’s saying now the motive was that he realized that he was naked. So he’s now justifying why he did what he did, which is not really the truth at all. He hid himself because of sin. That’s why he did it. But here he’s saying, “Oh, I hid myself because I was naked.”

Now, we are professional at hiding self. We are all professional at it because it’s part of who we are. Now, we hide ourselves from an early age, once you go to school. We learn how to hide, we really do. We can’t have others really know what we’re like when we think we’re by ourselves because that’s not true. We are never by ourselves. Never. God knows. God sees.

Romans 8:27. Now, this really cuts to the chase about why we have been called and what our life in the Church, the Body of Christ, is really all about, and why we are human and why we’ve been given a mind because we’ve got to make choices in this process that God has given us life, physical life for a reason.

Romans 8:27—Now He (God) who searches the heart, which is the inner thinking. So God searches it and we’ll get into that bit more about the searching part. God searches the heart, knows what the mind of the spirit is. So the natural mind, God knows our natural mind and knows our motives, because he, referring to Christ, makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Now, God searches the heart. God searches the mind.

So when we’re called what is it about? Well, it’s about finding out what we think. Now, we think we believe the 57 Truths plus 1. We think we believe that. Well, there are other things to be revealed about what we really think. The only way to find out what we really think is to put us through a test and trial, fiery trial. That’s the only way because although we might think this is what we’ll do, but when it arrives we may choose something different because we really don’t know our selfishness yet. Not all of it. We really don’t. We think we do, but we don’t and we often respond a different way to a test and trial spiritually than what we think we might.

So the way that God finds out what we will do is like what happened with Abraham, which was God said, “Now I know you,” because it takes you to the very brink of what will you really do under all this stress and all that went with it. It must have been horrendous knowing what was required, to take your son and kill your son? The mental anguish of knowing that—believing God, trusting in God—but knowing that’s what you had to do? Then to be stopped and say, “Now I know you.” Whew! In other words, “I know that no matter what situation I’ll put you in you will obey Me.”

Well, we are the same. God has to come to know us. We have to come to know ourselves more, and the way that we do it is through tests and trials. We think we’ll respond a certain way.

I know often when a truth comes out that people in the Body of Christ respond differently. We always think, “Well, this is God’s true Church.” We all say that. We believe it. “This is God’s apostle.”  We say it. We believe it. Then a new truth comes out and then, “Well, hang on a minute.” Because we’ve got to be tested to see what do we really believe.

So no matter what happens we know where God is working. We believe this is God’s Church. We’ll follow God’s Church. In time it’ll all be revealed what’s happening and why. But we believe that. Well, there’s more tests and trials, guaranteed, coming our way. Because it’s the only way that God searches the heart to know whether we’re going to put Him first, whether we really believe what God says.

Jeremiah 23:20. If we could live our life, our physical life, with God’s spirit knowing and believing what we’re covering today, God Knows, it would change a lot of our behaviors because we wouldn’t do things that are wrong because we know God knows. But we forget it and we do it, but we don’t really believe that God knows because we do it in secret or we say things and we just don’t. But if we really believed that we knew that God knows everything we might change some behaviors that are not right before God.

Jeremiah 23:20—The anger of the Eternal will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. So what God thinks and what God does is justified because it’s righteous, and He says, well, once He’s planned it and done it He’s going to do it, it’s going to happen. It’s like the return of Christ – it’s going to happen. It’s planned. It’s going to happen. So He won’t pull back. God’s will, will be achieved is another way to say that. It’s in His thinking; it will be.

In the latter days you will understand it perfectly. Well, that’s right. We’re going to see it. So we’re going to know perfect. It’s going to be understood perfectly because why? Because we’re going to witness it. We’re going to see the return of Christ to this earth. We will know. It’s been determined. His thoughts are there, His plan is there, and in the latter days we, you, will understand it perfectly because it’s going to be made evident. The thoughts of God are going to be made evident.

Verse 21—I have not sent these prophets... Now, it’s referring to people that aren’t of God. There have been times when people say someone is a false prophet and all this type of thing, but the reality is the way that you know is the truth. Because we have God’s spirit and when a truth comes out and we’re in tune with God, it’s God’s thinking, therefore, if God’s prophet reveals it we know it’s of God. We’re in unity with God, God’s spirit. Therefore, it’s a true prophet.

Now, anybody that doesn’t have God’s spirit, how can they say that they know a true prophet? They can’t. It’s not possible. Therefore, people that don’t have God’s spirit are going to turn around and say what? That God’s true prophet is not a true prophet. It’s natural to do that. (I hope you’re with me.) Because without God’s spirit you can’t identify the truth, therefore, you can’t identify God’s prophets. It’s not possible. Absolutely impossible.

I have not sent these prophets... And the way to know is they don’t preach the truth and they don’t believe the truth. But, see, it’s pretty easy for us with God’s spirit. ...yet they run/ran. I have not spoken to them yet they prophesied. So there are going to be people and there have been people, and there are going to be people, and there are people times past, present, future, that are going to say things that may or may not come true. So don’t be shocked. Don’t be surprised. But if it’s not within God’s Church and it’s not of the truth, no point listening. It’s like reading other books, of Nostradamus, all these other; what is the point? Some of it may come to pass because they can twist things to make them fit. All irrelevant. Makes no difference. This is about the truth.

If you go over the truths that God has placed in the Church they’re wonderful and they’re spiritual in nature. They’re not physical things. “There’s going to be an earthquake in Thailand next week.” Maybe. Maybe not. But some could say that are there could be an earthquake. “Look! He’s a prophet!” Has nothing to do with God at all, nothing – because it’s not of the truth, because they’re spiritual in nature. And the moment you’ll know it’s someone of the truth is they’ll believe the 57 Truths and back the 57 Truths. That’s not hard for us.

But the world can’t see it and we shouldn’t expect them to. So don’t be surprised if things get worse before they get better when it comes to people saying things. And yes, people will say things, and yes, some of those things may come true. Doesn’t make them of God though. It just means it was a good guess. I could get up now and say (I’m not a prophet), but I could get up and say, “There’s going to be an earthquake in the world within the next twelve months.” I’ve got a pretty good chance of being right. There’s like fifty a day, small ones everywhere. So it’s not hard. A lot of people say things and that’s what happens.

But anyway, verse 22. So, in verse 21 it says, “I had not spoken to them, yet they prophesy.” So, in other words, they’re going to say things representing God, being as if from God, and we know the answer. Unless it’s of the truth from within God’s true Church it’s not of God, they’re not in unity with the truth. They’re not in unity with the truth, doesn’t matter what they say even if it’s right or wrong.

Verse 22—But, if they had stood in My counsel... Isn’t that incredible? “Well, if they had stood in My counsel, which means they had listened to Me, they’d lived the way of life that I’ve revealed to the Church, direction of love, direction of loving the truth,” the truth that sets us free, well, if they’d done that we would have known they’d be accurate, they’d be right. ...and had caused My people to hear My words... So, in other words, a true prophet of God will reveal truth and what will they do? They’ll live the truth and they’ll live God’s words, which is the 10 Commandments. That’s what a prophet would do. They’ll live the 10 Commandments.

What are the 10 Commandments? Love God, love your neighbor. How can you love? You can only love if you have God’s holy spirit. Outside of that it’s human love. What is human love? Selfish, advantage to self.

Now, do we love someone that hates us? Uh, no, we don’t. That’s what family feuds are about. That’s why people get divorced and hate each other. It’s a feud. It’s not love. It’s, “I used to love them, but now I don’t.” Well, is that of God? Is that God’s spirit? You understand. People say, “You’re preaching to the converted.” That’s right, because we know these things.

...then they would have turned them from their evil way. So this is about preaching for the purpose of repentance so that people will turn to God. A person that turns to God, what do they do? They repent. What do they repent of? They repent of disobedience to God’s law, 10 Commandments, all of them. So that’s why within the Church when a person is first called the first thing that is asked, “Are you keeping the seventh day Sabbath?” and if not, you best start, because there is no access to God’s people unless you’re in unity of spirit, which is the same mind. Therefore, if they’re not going to be doing Sabbath keeping it’s easy to tell because there are two or three basic things that you can ask somebody: 1) Are you Sabbath keeping? 2) Are you tithing? and 3) Do you believe this is God’s true Church? Now, if the answer to those three early truths is “No.” “No.” “No.” Or no to any one of those three, there is no point in continuing any further email communication. It’s going nowhere because they don’t believe the truth. They don’t believe God. If they don’t believe God there no point being here at all, because we believe God. That’s what God’s Church is about. We believe what God’s Church teaches.

...but if they had stood in My counsel, which is “in My counsel,” and had caused My people to hear My words, which is about the truth, then they would have turned them from their evil way, so there’s a repentance involved, and from the evil of their doings. That’s what it’s about. That’s what a calling’s about.

Am I a God near at hand, says the Eternal, and not a God afar off? So God is close. God is with us. If we believe the truth God is here, it’s God’s mind about a matter.

Verse 24, which is an amazing statement, Can anyone hide himself/herself in secret places so that I shall not see him? Isn’t that incredible? Can anybody hide? The answer is no. There is nothing that takes place on this earth without God’s knowledge. Nothing. It talks about, whether it’s a parable or Christ might have even said it, that God knows when a bird hits the earth. And most people say, “That’s a bit insignificant. There’s billions of birds around but God knows?” Well, the earth and the creation and we are from God’s mind. When God mentions about the creation we should see God in the creation.

Where I live and where Chris lives, we’re so fortunate. Because nature is from God’s mind, so a kangaroo, a lion, a giraffe, and an elephant didn’t evolve to be like they are, rabbits, hares. It came from the thinking of God. Isn’t it incredible? A beautiful thing that’s so unique. The breath of life was given to them, life as an animal, breed after each kind. It’s a wonderful thing. Then to see that and realize that’s of God, that’s God’s thinking, and it’s all for us. It all came because of us, because God had a plan for a family and He made all of that – the water, the trees, animals, all of that – for you and me, for our benefit. God says in scripture that from the creation we should see Him.

And man’s without excuse! Because if we look at nature (animals, birds, insects), we should see the mind of God. And therefore, mankind is without excuse to turn around and say that things evolved. Because how stupid was the kangaroo not to be a panther that could run faster? What a dumb animal! When you think of it, how dumb would you reckon the koala is? It can only eat five types of leaves! What a stupid creature that it would choose to do that and not have wings! It makes evolution look stupid. Because God made these things for a reason and it was for us, so that we could actually benefit from it.

We know about clean and unclean – to our benefit. But what about the other things in creation that we can see to give glory to God who made it? Amazing mind! Amazing mind that can come up with all of the creatures and all of the creation. Every tree that’s different, no two the same. Fingerprints, no two the same. Can you get your mind around that? That little space, no two the same. It’s amazing. God did it because it came from His mind.

Can anyone hide himself in secret places so I shall not see him? Well, the answer is no, says the Eternal. Do I not fill heaven and the earth? In other words, God occupies it all because it all came from His mind by His great power. That’s what made it. “By His power we’re led,” holy spirit, we’re led, says the Eternal.

Psalm 139:1. The main point of the sermon is that we cannot hide anything, thoughts in particular, from God. He knows them. So when a person acts out a role it’s really someone being quite stupid, to act out a role, to try to convince or have others think good of them. When you think of it, it’s just stupid, stupid humans sinning, because God knows what’s really going on in the person’s mind. So there’s no point acting out any roles about anything. We are who we are; we should just be open and honest about it. We’re all the same.

Psalm 139:1. Now, in the top of the heading of this it says, “God’s perfect knowledge of man,” and it’s from a Psalm of David. We’re going to look at this in a little bit more detail because it really reveals a lot about a way we should really think about the fact that God does know everything about us. There is nothing hidden from God.

Verse 1—Oh, Eternal, you have searched me, which is the inner person, and known me. So we know that that’s what God is doing. God is searching our hearts, searching our inner mind, searching our thinking. That’s what God is doing. We’re in the Church because God is searching to see what we will do with certain information. We’ll be tested because God wants to know. God wants to know what are we really choosing. Really, deep down? Might be able to hide it from other humans; can’t hide it from God, because God is searching us. That’s why we have tests and trials, it searches to see what we’ll really do under difficult circumstances.

You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. So there’s no thinking that can be hidden. None. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. So there’s nothing hidden from God. So God knows us. And when we examine ourselves, I know oftentimes times, we go through this process and you think, wow. Me, personally, I think I’m never going to make it. I think, “I’m never going to make it. I’m just not going to make it.” But then I realize it’s not about me making it. It’s God’s going to do the work in me. The fact that I don’t think that I’m up to it, I’m just not going to make it, I just can’t do it, I’m making too many mistakes, I’m not putting enough effort in, all these things, then I realize it’s “I” am not going to make it. It’s a selfish thought that I’m having because I know that God can do it in me and God will achieve what God wants to achieve in us.

It’s not about me not making it by my own effort. This is about God in me. My desire has to be to always strive to please God and underline “always strive” to please God. It doesn’t mean to say I always will, but I’ll strive to do it. That’s what God’s searching. That’s what God wants to know, it’s in our heart, it’s within our thinking. I know I’ll make mistakes, but doesn’t matter; I can get back up because God wants me to succeed. God doesn’t want me to fail. God will be with me as long as I chose Him.

So God comprehends everything about what we do. When we go to bed, when we get up, there’s nothing hidden from Him. But He is with us. He knows my ways. He knows what I’m like. He knows the things I’ve learned up into the age of thirty years of age that were completely corrupt. He knows those things, then decides to call me, now I have to overcome that past, that pattern of thinking I have about many things. We’re still going. Fifty odd years later we’re still going. We’re improving slowly. It takes time. There’s no magic wand that just flashes it, and it’s about a personal choice, never stop, never give up until the day I die, whenever that day comes.

Verse 4—For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O, Eternal, You know it altogether. So everything that is said, it’s not secret. More importantly, the motive behind why we said it is what God is searching. Why did we say that? Why? Why are we thinking that way? Why? God wants to search our heart to see what we’ll do. But God knows it altogether.

You have hedged me behind and before, which is about the spiritual protection. God won’t leave me unless I leave God. ...and laid Your hand upon me. So I know, like you know, that God is with you. God is with us. Members of the Body of Christ anywhere in the world, God is with us. He’s the most powerful being there is. He’s with us and He wants us to succeed. The most important thing is that we don’t attempt to hide anything from God. We shouldn’t try to. But by nature we do.

Verse 6—Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high; I cannot obtain it. It’s difficult to know that God knows everything, but He does. It’s beyond our thinking that He could know 7 billion people’s thoughts. Pshew! He knows us more because of God’s holy spirit. Because that’s what it’s about, He wants to know us more.

Verse 7—Where can I go from Your spirit? So where can we go from God? Answer? Nowhere! There is nowhere we can go no matter what we do, where we hide, whatever place we go, there’s no hiding from God. So He knows everything about us and He wants to know everything about us. But He wants us to know that He knows, therefore, we should make right choices. We’ve got to keep choosing.

And where can I flee from Your presence? Nowhere. If I ascend into the heaven, let’s go up there, You are there. Hmmm, God’s up there too, so I can’t get away from Him there. If I make my bed in the grave, die, behold, You are there. Because the spirit in man there, then it returns to God to be stored, but God knows everything in that spirit of man, therefore, dying doesn’t change much; God still knows everything about us as individuals.

Verse 9—If I take wings of the morning and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, go to the bottom of the ocean down that big trench, go down there, well, God knows that, too. ...even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. Referring to members of the Body, baptized members, God says He holds us. God loves us and wants us to succeed. So if God is for us who can be against us? It’s a wonderful scripture. Because God is for us, therefore, as long as we’re striving.

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to You. So even at midnight in the pitch black corner of a room, makes no difference, God still sees everything because it’s spiritual in nature.

For you formed my inward parts. So it was God that made our minds, those selfish minds that we have, that capacity. It was God that did it. He did it for a beautiful purpose and one of the reasons is so that we can make choices so it can be transformed. You covered me in my mother’s womb. So even when we were in our mother’s womb—we all had mothers—God knew about us, that we were going to come into an existence.

I shall praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. We are unique and distinct. We are unique. We are not the same. Every one of us is slightly different. Even with identical twins they’re not identical. There is something that’s different. So we are unique. We are distinct. And we are, particularly here, because of God’s spirit, we’re unique and we’re distinct because we’ve been called to be that way.

Marvelous are Your works. Now, that can be physical, marvelous work, to be physically made, but a marvelous work that God is dwelling in us, that God is giving a portion of Him to us. We don’t deserve it. We’ve done nothing to earn it, we can’t. But God chose us and has given us this; God in us, marvelous.

And that Your life knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, which is in the womb, and skillfully worked in the lowest parts of the earth.

Verse 16—Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me... That’s interesting. Time. So for certain people God has worked with them and there is a time. God knows their life, how long they will live. There’s a time that’s given, and the point that God says, “Now I know you,” well, life could still go on for those people for a time because there’s a role that God is fulfilling in that person, therefore, God says He’s written it down and they’ve been allocated a time.

Someone like Moses was allocated a time. We know forty years in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness, and then I think it was in the wilderness where he was born, he was going to Egypt, then he went into the wilderness for forty years, around that area, then he went to Israel, then there was another forty years. So 120 years of age. There was a time set for that to be achieved. It wasn’t by, so called, luck or coincidence. No, it was a time allocated for Moses.

You’ll find that the first forty years of Moses’ life is about learning cultures and learning ways because he’s going to be brought back there. He didn’t know that. He was going to be brought back there for a reason, to deliver Israel. He didn’t have a clue about that when he was born, none at all. And he grew up in Pharaoh’s household, in all the ways of the Egyptians. He knew all that. Then he fled, of course, out into the wilderness. He was forty years out there going around looking, getting married and whatnot. I can’t remember if it was him that got married. It was Joseph I think. But he was out there doing different things, then God calls him through the burning bush and he has to go back to Egypt, where he came. Fortunately, it says, Pharaohs had changed, and therefore, another forty years allocated time.

Now, that doesn’t apply necessarily to everybody because time and chance happen to all, but there are certain people that have been allocated time. Joshua the Christ – allocated exact time. Had to be exact time. So there are things that God does with people for reasons. We don’t always see them.

When as yet there were none of them. In other words, there’s no time. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s planned out. It’s planned out and it’s going to happen. Now, we know “as yet there are none of them,” these times. Well, we know two of them: thousand years and a hundred years. So they’re planned. Haven’t happened, but God has set them down. They’ve been fashioned for a purpose. Thousand years called the Millennium where mankind will be given the opportunity and the truth to build for a period of time of a hundred years where they’ll be no death. It’s planned. It’s going to happen. But none of them have happened yet. But we know it. It’s incredible knowledge we have. People mock it.

Verse 17—How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God. Now, this to me is so exciting, that God thinks on us. Who are we? We’re nothing. We’re just humans. We don’t deserve a calling. We don’t deserve to be part of the Body of Christ. There’s nothing we can earn. We’re just like everybody else, same, selfish.

If we grew up in India we’d be acting out worshipping cows. If you grow up in India, that’s what you do, you worship cows. If you grew up in another country you’d be blowing yourself up and yelling “Allahu Akbar.” That’s what they are. We’re not anything different. We’re just who we are. But God says His thoughts have been directed towards you and me individually. Isn’t that incredible, that God would think on us? We don’t deserve it. We’ve done nothing. I think it’s wonderful. But then we should always remember God knows our thoughts, but He’s always thinking towards us and about us. That’s what the Church is about. When a truth comes to the Church it’s God giving us an opportunity to know more of Him, more of Himself being revealed. Those thoughts of God are toward us, that we’ll choose to accept it.

How great is the sum of them. So it’s not just, “Oh, God just thought of me yesterday,” and that’s it. This is God thinking about us, every member of the Body, every one of us, that God thinks about us.

When you really look at it God wants to give us what He has, spirit life. Whew! Doesn’t have to but He wants to give it. Not human, is it? Most humans take it for themselves; they’re not giving anything away. God is giving us something. We can’t earn it in any shape or form.

Verse 18—If I should count them, talking about these thoughts, they would be more in number than the sand, these thoughts towards us now that we have God’s spirit. When I awake I am still with You. So we go to sleep. God doesn’t. But His thoughts are towards us.

O that you should slay the wicked, which is everything that opposes God. So this is something that we know with God’s spirit, that yes, we want the wicked gotten rid of. That’s what it’s really saying, which we know, because they oppose God. Anything that opposes God is wicked. Anything in rebellion is wicked and it’s better off to be out of the way because it hasn’t chosen God’s way.

O God... Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. So what David’s saying is he doesn’t want anything to do with people that are in rebellion against God. For they speak against You wickedly. Your enemies take Your name in vain. I do not hate them, their actions, O Eternal, You who hate them. We know within the Body of Christ we’re not to hate evil doers, the people, we’re to hate the evil action.

Now, that’s a complicated thing when people say, “I don’t hate the person, but I don’t like what they do.” Well, that’s true. That’s the answer. Because God loves His creation. He doesn’t want them that way, but that’s the way that they are at the moment. But given the opportunity like we are going to be given now, which we have, and they’re going to be given it, well, they have a choice to make.

Do I not hate them, which is their actions, not the individual, O Eternal, who hates You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You. So, yes, we don’t like to see people sin. We know that they’re choosing to hurt themselves in doing it. I hate them with perfect hatred. Isn’t that incredible? How can you have perfect hatred? Well, we can because we can hate sin. But we have to learn to hate sin within ourselves. Not what others do. We don’t like to see what others do, but this is about us learning to hate the sin in us. Then we will come to understand how God feels about sin, that it’s going to hurt. Sin hurts. I count them Your enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties, or disquieted thoughts, any doubt. Now, that’s what we should say, “Search me. Find out more about me. I want to find out more about myself, what I lack in faith. What is it that I don’t believe?” Well, God will test us if we don’t believe, and we’ll be tested in it.

Verse 24—And see if there is any wicked way in me, any evil thought in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. So it’s about learning to obey God and coming to know that we are being measured. You know, Ron often talks about the measuring of the temple. Well, measuring of the temple is about testing and measuring us individually. We’re going to be tested so that God can turn around and say, “Now I know. I know you. You’ve chosen this.” And for some it takes longer than others to come to that point.

1 Chronicles 28:1. Verse 1—Now David assembled at Jerusalem all the leaders of Israel, the officers of the tribes, and the captains of the divisions, who served the king; the captains of thousands, and captains over hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possessions of the king and his sons and his officials, the valiant men, and all the mighty men of valour. So this is referring there’s an organization that takes place, organized structure because you need organization. God’s not the author of confusion so you need structure of authority, which is what that’s covering.

Verse 2—But God said to me, You shall not build the house of My name, talking to David, “or for My name,” because you have been a man of war and have shed blood. Now, this is about David and what He did and God says you’re not going to build it but your son’s going to build the temple.

Verse 3—However, the LORD God of Israel of Israel chose me about all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever, a prophesy that will soon be fulfilled. So when we look at David, and we know about King David, he was chosen as a king over Israel. Well, God chose him not just as a physical king but he’s going to be a king over Israel in the future as a spirit being. So that was a dual thing that took place. Well, we know that that will soon be fulfilled, that David will be a king over Israel – spiritual, on a spiritual level, part of the 144,000.

For He has chosen Judah to be the ruler. And the house of Judah, the house of my father, and among the sons of my father He was pleased with me, to make me king over all Israel. Well, we’ve been called and it’s pleasing to God that He’s called us. David was called for a purpose; we’ve been called for a purpose. ...and all my sons, for the LORD has given me many sons. He has chosen my son, Solomon, to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel. So now it’s going to go to Solomon.

Now He said to me, This is my son whom shall build My house and My courts, and I have chosen him. So God had done this. ...to be My son and I will be his Father. So it’s God that is going to build. Now, this is physical. We know that it’s actually spiritual, that God was going to build a temple through a son, Joshua the Christ, and he had a father, God the Father. Moreover, I established his kingdom forever if he is steadfast to observe My commandments and My judgments as it is this day, which we know he didn’t.

Now, therefore, in the sight of all Israel and the assembly of the Eternal, and in the hearing of God, be careful to seek out all the commandments of the LORD your God that you may possess this good land and leave it as an inheritance for your children after you forever. This is talking about obedience. You can either have to choose obedience or disobedience, but the choice is yours. Same for us, the choice is ours – obedience or disobedience.

As for you, my son, Solomon, know that God of your fathers and serve Him. So he was to know God. But, of course, we know that he didn’t do as God wanted. He did build a temple and he did some things right, but then he went off. But God still used him. It’s interesting that God used Proverbs, the wisdom of God, and gave it to a man like Solomon, and the book of Solomon. It’s incredible. Ecclesiastes was all about a man, but here is a man that’s got the mind of God being given to him to express things in written form, the Proverbs, but he was not of God, but God used him.

Well, God can do that now. God can use another human that hasn’t got God’s holy spirit to achieve something, but it doesn’t mean to say they are of God. We know how to tell the difference between a person that is of God or not. It’s called the truth.

So God was going to use Solomon and he is being encouraged here by David to know the God of your father, to know the God of David. But Solomon didn’t do that.

...and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind. For the Eternal searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. God knows every thought and every intent, which is even greater, the intent or why we’re doing what we’re doing.

If you seek after Him you will be found by Him. But if you forsake Him He will cast you off forever. Now, this principle applies to us, that we have to seek God and choose God’s way, and if we choose another way we will be cast off forever at some point in time. We may get an opportunity during the hundred years, if we don’t commit an unpardonable sin and reject God altogether and set our minds against God, but then we’ve still got to face the same choice.

So really, when we think about it, its better off now to choose it now and to receive a reward than to divert off the path and have to come back and do another hundred years of life. It’ll be easier in some ways, but we still have human nature. So it’s easier to do it now, do it once. Do it once, get it over and done with rather than having to do it twice, because if we don’t choose God He will forsake us forever, which is called a second death.

Consider now, for the Eternal has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it. Well, we can understand that, that it was Joshua the Christ that was building a house. We are the house of God. Now, we have a High Priest and a soon coming King. We know that. Well, God is doing it through His Son. So we know we have great power and authority around us and with us. We’ve got it. But we don’t always use it.

Today it is God with us. We are His dwelling place. God has chosen to dwell in us. Now, you couldn’t say that to anybody. But isn’t that amazing? What are we? Who are we? But God has chosen us so we should take that to heart, and therefore, we give God the credit, give God the glory. We are to be strong today and to choose to obey. That’s what life is about, choosing God.

Matthew 6:1-8. People in the world think that they can get away with a lot of things. But they get away with nothing because every sin is brought to judgment at some point in time to be recognized and repented of, and if a person chooses not to recognize it and repent there’s nothing God can do with them because they’re choosing another way.

Matthew 6:1-8. The heading here is “Do Good to Please God.” Verse 1—Take heed that you do not your charitable deeds before men, because it’s about their motive. So someone can do a charitable deed, but God says to do it in secret. But they didn’t want to because their motive is different; they’re looking for the praises of men. So God knows their motive. ...to be seen by them, that’s their motive. Their intent is to be seen by others, “Look at me. Look, I’m doing a good thing.”

It’s like an organization today, and philanthropic (I think it’s called), where they know (I worked in a company that knew), they know that there’s a peer pressure now within business and people that people support philanthropic companies because they’re giving. So the leaders of the organizations in today’s world, do you think they’re really doing good? This answers it. Take heed to yourself that you do not do your charitable deeds before men. They give donations to be seen to be good. It’s the only reason. They’re not doing it because there’s poor starving. They’re doing it because if your company doesn’t have a connection to a charity people won’t buy your goods. Motive. Motive; to be seen. “We want more business. We’re going to give a donation to the Red Cross or somebody else, put it in big print, big thank you, big check,” to be seen of men. People go, “Oh, look at that company.” I’m going to go and shop with them because they give to the poor. Motive! Motive. That’s what it’s about.

Well, God says here, “Hey!” So these organizations should be giving charitable deeds to them and not tell anybody. Now, do you think anyone’s going to do that? Not really because it’s business. This is about getting. So they’re doing things to be seen by others. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. There is nothing coming back to them. Why? Because their motive is wrong. Their motive is self. Benefit to self, benefit to organization.

Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. Because their motive is attention from others, glory to self, that they may have glory from men. Now, that’s what it’s about. This is what life is about. That’s what most movie stars are about.

Now, if a movie star makes two or three dud films do you think that a director is going to ring them up and say, “Hey, I want you to act in my movie. The last two lost billions of dollars, but don’t worry about it.” Doesn’t happen. This is about money, career paths, to be seen. You’ve got to be seen by others and recognized. That’s what promotions are about amongst people; motive, promote goods to be seen, TV adverts, to be seen, because people want to buy it.

So this is about not drawing attention to self. It says here the motive; they do that for a wrong motive. They’re hypocrites. Now, what’s a hypocrite? Actor. The word is actually “actor.” They’re actors. So we have heaps of hypocrites in the TV and heaps of hypocrites in the movies. Actors, they’re acting out something that’s not real because they’re fulfilling another role. That’s now who they are; they fulfill a role. They’re called actors.

Well, these people here religiously were doing things for a wrong motive, that they may have the glory of men, the praises of men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have had their reward. So there’s nothing coming from God because there are laws. Sin brings a reward. Penalty of sin is death. Righteousness, which is God’s spirit in a person, has a reward if we live by the spirit. If we live by the spirit there’s a reward. It’s called a blessing from God. That’s what the blessings and cursings are about. Selfishness – curse. God’s spirit, choosing it – reward. It’s reasonably straightforward.

There are people that do things on a physical level, like Sabbath keeping, particular time, there’s a reward connected to that, but it’s not spiritual in the fact of the truth. But there’s a benefit by resting for the seventh day and putting God in that day. Not that they really do that, but there is rewards for certain things, people that do things. Because there are laws and there are rewards, and there are rewards or laws and curses, penalties.

But when you do your charitable deeds do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. So it’s got to be done privately, in secret. Nobody should know.

As we are aware within the Church sometimes people say, “I would like to give some money to another member in the Body.” We encourage people to, if they’re going to do that, they should come to the ministry, talk about it, and give the money to the ministry. Then the ministry can pass it on to the person, because then it’s in secret. You can say, “Somebody in the body wants you to have this.” No more questions need to be asked. And if they did say, “Well, who was it?” You say, “I’m not at liberty to tell you.” Not that the person would ask that. But it’s from God. We can see that. The glory and credit goes to God. It’s God’s Church; this is really the person being inspired to do it. It’s God’s power that’s doing it. The person gives it to the ministry, they give it and say, “Here’s a give from somebody in the Church.” That person should give all the glory to God, credit to God. “God allowed me to have this benefit. It’s wonderful.”

That’s what God is saying, everything should be done privately so you don’t draw any attention or credit to self – none – for anything. Now, that principle applies to many things in life, that we should be doing things privately. It’s between you and God and that’s it. You want the glory from your Father in heaven. You don’t want the glory from the ministry or from another person. You want it from God, the credit to God. Then the glory is, “Thank you, God, for inspiring me to do it.” That’s where the credit goes, back to God.

So everything we do in the way of any charitable deed or deeds that are inspired by God’s spirit need to be done in confidence, in confidentiality. ...that your profitable deeds may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret, there’s nothing hidden from God, will Himself reward you openly. There’ll be a great blessing.

And when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogue... Why? To be seen. ...and on the corners of the streets... Why? To be seen. ...that they may be seen by men. So they want credit. “Look, oh, isn’t he righteous! Look at him banging his head on that wall.” “Wow. Look at him; look at the robe he’s wearing. Whew! It’s incredible stuff.”

Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward. That reward is recognition of men. But you, members of the Body, when you pray go into your room, which is just go somewhere quiet. You can pray walking along the street if you need to. It’s in the mind...in the mind. And when you have shut your door pray to your Father, who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret... There’s nothing hidden from God, not a single thought. ...will reward you openly. But when you pray do not use vain repetition, same old, same old, the “Hail Mary’s” and the “Our Fathers.” It’s just empty words of vanity, just round and round, and round, and round. It’s not this. God wants to know us. God wants to search our heart. What is the priority to us? What do we think about? What do we pray about? When do we pray? And it’s about this 8-10 hours? What is it? It’s about having God in that 8 or 10 hours.

So people say, “Oh, I’m a workaholic.” But more importantly, someone can work four hours and God not be in it. Someone can work eight hours and God can be in it. So it’s not about time, it’s about whether God’s in the thoughts, whether the priority is about God.

So we’re not to use vain repetition, same old thing. God doesn’t want to know that, God wants to know what’s really going on in our life. ...as the heathen do. Because their motive is vain repetition, to be seen of men, and thinking they’re getting something back from God. ...for they think that they will be heard by their many words, continual.

I grew up a Catholic. When I was younger I went to a Catholic boarding school, had to go to a Catholic mass every morning, basically, or benediction, or one of these other cultural things that they had, and as a young boy did all those things. One of the things that I remember now, what was really weird, as a young boy I was probably 13, 14, 15 when I was going through that main period, we were told we had to go to confession. And, really, you don’t think (didn’t think as a boy, it was a cultural thing; I did it), went to confession. You kneel down and there’s a priest there with this little veil or screen and you say, “father, forgive me,” because he’s placing himself in place of God because only God the Father can forgive sin.

So he’s called “father” (Bible tells him not to), but he’s called father because the Catholic Church knows that only God can forgive sin and He is a Father, “Forgive me of my sins.” Isn’t that incredible how it’s all twisted? He has the power, because he’s (so-called) of God, that he can say, “Your sins are forgiven, my son.” Got called that a lot, “My son.” Son of God. “My son, you’re forgiven,” and for penance you’ve got to do so many “Hail Mary’s” or “Our Father’s” or whatever.

Now in hindsight in all that, because I was not of the truth then or didn’t know the truth, you can see how culturally this culture is there, that that’s what it’s like. I know that there are laws within the Catholic Church that says you have to go to confessional once a year minimum, and you have to go to mass once a year minimum. Most people of that religion will choose Christmas Eve. That’s their once because there’s always a Christmas Eve mass and go to confession once.

Well, after a while you realize that it makes no difference. Like, who could go to confession before God after a year without spending an hour and a half in there? He’d be bored out of his brain if, “Okay, let me tell you...” It’s all over like that because there’s a big queue there. He’s not going to stay in there for hours and hours and hours is he? So it’s just all a farce. The whole thing’s a farce. It’s all just evil. But it goes back to this whole vain repetition. It’s a repetitive thing of vanity, really, and it’s got nothing to do with God. God’s not involved in any way, shape, or form. It’s just error, just total error, delusion.

Therefore, do not be like them for your father knows the things that you need of before you ask Him. So God knows everything. We don’t need to use vain repetition. We need to be asking God. He knows already what we do need. He knows. God knows ahead of time what’s going to happen, so we should make sure that we’re there talking to God just like we do after services here, we talk. “How’s this?” “How’s that?” Tell God about it. God wants to know. He’s searching the heart to find out do we trust Him, put Him first, or don’t we.

Psalm 25:14. This is a very powerful statement that is made here. Psalm 25:14—The secret of the Eternal... So God has secrets, secret things that are hidden from mankind and from angels; there are certain things, like the truth is a secret thing of the Eternal. ...is with those who fear Him. We respect God, we obey God because it’s out of the respect we obey God, we fear God, we respect God, we obey Him. ...and He will show them His agreement. That’s us. Isn’t this beautiful? We know (in this room and those listening), we know the secrets of God. The world doesn’t. Isn’t it amazing that God has revealed His thinking, secrets to us? We only know some of the secrets of God because He has revealed them to us by His power. It’s the power of God that did it, otherwise we’d be just like everybody else out there knowing nothing of God or of God’s ways. It’s by His holy spirit.

We know the ways of love. We know the ways. The world cannot love as we should be able to love with God’s spirit. We know about the Sabbath. Now, the Sabbath is really a secret of God that’s been revealed in the Bible, but man has rejected it. But we know the secret of it. What’s the Sabbath about, really? Time of rest, but it’s spiritual! It’s the day God pours out more of His spirit so that we can know more of God, know more of the truth. It’s a secret; the world doesn’t know it.

If we were to say to other people “We rest on the Sabbath day and we listen to God speak to us.” “Yeah,” you know, “Where’s the white jacket. You’re so special that God’s communicating to you?” Because that’s what people use in a court of law or defense, “God told me to kill him.” And here we are, we communicate with God; God talks to us on a Sabbath an hour and a half to two hours. “Okay...” But we know that this is true. It’s a secret of God. They don’t know anything about it. The holy days. We know God’s plan for salvation for mankind. We know we have a Savior. God saves us through Christ. Isn’t it incredible? We know that. Mankind has no idea. They believe in someone different.

And when you look at that truth that came up just recently with regards to Joshua the Christ versus Jesus Christ that belongs to the world – an effeminate man with long hair nailed to a cross called Jesus Christ. We have nothing to do with it, nothing. Totally separate. Isn’t that incredible? Isn’t that beautiful? A secret that has been held secret. The early Church knew it. They saw it. They lived it. They knew what it was about. Then it was lost. 325 – totally changed. 325 A.D., totally changed, lost, now revealed.

A secret of God’s been revealed. Joshua the Messiah. We know it. The world has no idea. None whatsoever. Odd person might have clicked on certain things and come to a bit, but this is a spiritual matter. This is a complete separation from the Roman Catholic Church. The trinity completely gone, done away with, no association. It’s just so beautiful and clear. It’s a truth. Sets us free. We don’t want to go back into that bondage. I know I don’t. We don’t want to have anything to do with that bondage. It’s incredible that that’s what we did believe. But how beautiful is this?

The truths of God are a secret that only we have and only we understand because of the power of God’s spirit. Now, people can read the 57 Truths on the Internet. You can look at it and say, “I know them,” and repeat them. They don’t “know” them. They don’t understand them. We do, because of the secrets of God being revealed to us.

So how incredible is it (and it’s not about building us up at all), but how unique is God that He would call us (nobodies) and reveal secrets to us in this environment, where the secrets of God are hidden to all mankind? And yet a small little group have this mind of God living and dwelling in them.

Exodus 16:4—Then the Eternal spoke to Moses, Behold; I will rain bread from heaven for you. We understand physical bread was to sustain life. Well, the bread of heaven was Christ and we understand it’s about truth coming to the Church because we’re only kept alive because of God’s spirit and the truth that’s in us.

And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota everyday that I may test them whether they will walk in My law or not. And that’s the part that I wanted to get to. It’s a test. The Sabbath is a test commandment. Will we walk in God’s way or not? Test. Tithing is a test. Many of the truths are tests. So we should expect to be tested. And the only way to get through this test is to listen to God, which they did, listen to God. Remember, there were some that went out on the Sabbath day and picked up sticks. Others went out and didn’t collect enough manna; some collected too much. Well, that’s what it’s about. It’s about a personal choice and coming to grips with God knows everything. So if we sit there and think, “I think I’ll do this today,” it’s stupid thinking. It’s “No, I’ll need to listen to God this day and I need to obey God. That’s what’s important.”

There are disadvantages to obeying God in this world today. Thousand years and the hundred years, a disadvantage will go because Satan and the demons will be removed, therefore, the disadvantage to it. Whereas now, that’s what it’s all about. We’re walking with God’s spirit now in a world that rejects us. Fantastic! Who do you think there is out there that could say, “I’m rejected by man. Oh, beauty! Fantastic!” Aren’t you excited that you’re rejected by man? It’s great! I think it is. It just sets you apart. We’re set apart because of the truth and it’s made us free. We don’t worry about certain things that they worry about. Doesn’t matter.

We are to gather the truth spiritually and walk in God’s way, walk in the spirit, walk in the truth or choose not to. It’s reasonably straight forward. Truth delivers the Church from error of the world. The truth, as it comes in, we remove more error. Now, there’s error in our life. Well, slowly we remove it, God removes it from us.

So, all truth delivered to the Church is a test to see if we will walk in the spirit of it or not. So as truth comes we either accept it or we want to go our own way and we’ll separate ourselves from God.

I think I’ve got enough time, we’re going to look at Daniel briefly, Daniel 2:16. And these are about Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, which we’ve looked at before. We’re going to look at this quickly and then we’ll go to a conclusion.

In all of this we know that God revealed the dream to Nebuchadnezzar; he had it and it was real to him. Here we see the power of God, that God knows everything about everything. There is nothing can be hidden from God.

Daniel 2:16—So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. So Nebuchadnezzar’s had the dream and he’s now put a test out to all the astrologers and all that, and they are all in great fear. It’d be like me saying, “Okay, I want you to tell me what I dreamed last night and if you don’t tell me I’m going to cut your head off.” Can you imagine the fear that was in those people? They would have been terrified. They would have been trying everything in their way of trickery to try to deceive. They would have done anything, communicating, trying to communicate with evil spirits, trying to find out what the dream was.

But the evil spirit world wouldn’t have known the dream because God placed it in Nebuchadnezzar’s mind and it’s a secret of God – that He placed it in there and only God could reveal it. Well, Daniel knew that. God works with people but Daniel knew he didn’t know the answer either. Nobody knows the answer. Nobody knows what I dreamt last night. I don’t even remember either! So they’re on the same page.

So Daniel went into his house and he made a decision, the decision known to the three, that it was, his companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that were thrown in the fire.

Verse 18—That they might seek the mercies from God. Because it is merciful. For God to reveal it is a merciful thing, because otherwise guess what? Everyone is going to lose their life. So, therefore, it’s going to be revealed, so they seek “God, be merciful, reveal it.” ...the God of heaven concerning this secret. So this is a secret. It’s a secret of God that’s been given to Nebuchadnezzar. ...so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. So there’s a lot of fear here.

But this is what we should do – turn to God. God knows everything. God knows every thought. God knows everything. God’s got a plan that’s going to be fulfilled so why do we fear? We should turn to God and seek the mercies of God. With regards to the truth, if we don’t fully understand it, turn to God and ask God to reveal more of the secret that He has about that matter to us so that we’re in tune with God’s Church. Not more than or less than but identical to. Hear the sermon two, three times, so go, “Ah, didn’t hear that last time.” That’s what it’s about, seeking the mercies of God, that God will give us the spirit to hear and not adding to it and speculating.

Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in the night vision. So God did it. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Can you imagine that? That you didn’t know anything about this dream. Someone asked you that question and you go to God and say, “God, we’re going to lose our life here unless we know it,” and then God reveals it? What a relief! What a relief! “Whew! Mercies of God being given to me.”

Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. For wisdom and might are His. Yes, God knows every thought. God’s got all wisdom. It belongs to God. It doesn’t belong to a man. It didn’t belong to Solomon. It all came from God.

And might; all the power is God’s. God can give life and take life. Mankind has no power – no matter how many armies, how many tanks, how many nuclear weapons. A nation with no nuclear weapons can wipe out a nation with hundreds of nuclear weapons. How? God’s great power because God doesn’t need nuclear weapons.

So this goes back to that point God knows the thinking of mankind and God will achieve what God wills to achieve.

Verse 21—And he changes the times and seasons. He removes kings and raises kings up. He gives wisdom to the wise, spirit, us. We’re given wisdom. The wisdom of God that we have is in the truth. That is the wisdom of God. It’s in the truth. How to live life, what to know. I think of the wisdom of God with regards to the plan of God which is about resurrections. I have enormous wisdom that I believe God about my mother and father will be resurrected at the end of the thousand years to live into the hundred. That’s a wisdom that I have that nobody knows out there except us and a few others. True? But we have that, therefore, you can relax.

People often walk around and say, “Ah, they’re looking down on me,” and I’ll go, “No, they’re not. They know nothing!” They’re going to be shocked by the way I think one day when they realize what God did through us. I mean, “Wow, you’re joking! How did that...?” God. God’s great power. He knows what He’s doing.

Verse 21—He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness, nothing can be hidden, and the light dwells with Him, because He sees everything spiritually.

Verse 23—I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers, You have given me wisdom, which is that secret, and might. There’s a power now being given to him to be able to reveal this secret. You have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of You, for You have made known to us the kings demand.

Then verse 26, drop down, The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation? The dream, this is what you dreamed. That’s no good. What does it mean, which is even more powerful?

And Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, and the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare it to the king, because it’s a secret of God. Magic is not going to help, and deceit, and all that and guessing isn’t going to help.

Now, Daniel does what we should do – credit to God...for our calling, for the truths, for everything we have. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and He has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and visions of your head upon the bed are these...and then he reveals what it means.

Drop down to verse 36—This is the dream. Now we will tell you the interpretation. So he reveals what the dream is, now the interpretation, which was actually more important in some ways. What does it all mean?

You, O king, are king of kings, physical on this earth, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

Drop down to verse 45—Insomuch as you saw the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, which is talking about Christ, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, and the clay, and the silver, and the gold, the Great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain and the interpretation is sure.

Now, Daniel, we know, gave all the credit to God. He didn’t say, “Oh, I’m going to tell you, you know, it was me. I’m good. I’m clever.” No, he said “The God of Heaven has revealed this.” He knew that only God could reveal the truth. Only God could reveal the secret because it was from God in the beginning.

We’ll conclude by having a quick look at Mark 4:21—Also he, talking about Christ, said to them, is a lamp bought to be put under a basket or under the bed? So when we buy a lamp, which was a lamp with a wick in it, and then you hide it? No. The answer is no. You don’t buy a lamp for that; you buy a lamp so you can see. Is it not to be set on a lamp stand? Yes, it’s to be put on a lamp stand in a room so that it can give light.

For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, this is God revealing something through Christ. There is nothing hidden. It’s all going to be in the light. There is nothing you can do in the darkness, because it’s been hidden. Nothing is hidden. There is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that which should come to light. So we can’t keep secrets.

Now, the purpose of this sermon is to try to remember for all of us, including myself, that God knows and sees everything. There is nothing hidden. No wrong motives. No ill will that we’re thinking towards anybody else. The way we think towards God. God knows it all so it’s far better to just be open and honest with God about everything so that God can search our hearts and know us.

Because we all want the same thing. We want to come to a point where Abraham got to, where God says, “Now I know you.” Isn’t that a beautiful statement? Wouldn’t that be great? “Now I know you.” That’s what we want. That’s what we’re doing.

Therefore, when we face test and trials, spiritual ones about doctrine, we want God to know us. We do. And we want God to say, “Now I know you, that no matter what is put before you you will always choose Me.” Because God knows us as we are now, but there’s more to be revealed in our minds that we don’t even know – the way we think. We think we do but God will test it so that He can turn around at some point and say, “Now I know you. Now I know.”

Verse 23—If anyone has an ear to hear let him hear. This is the point spiritually.

Conclusion. We’ll finish up. It is the same for us today being called, baptized, that in the future will happen to those in the millennium and the hundred years. They’re going to be called and they’re going to be given an opportunity to transform their minds. At some point God will test them. Different ways of testing than now, but they’ll be tested because they’ve got a natural mind and they’ll have to be tested with change, because change tests.

We all become somewhat complacent with what’s considered the norm, truth we have. But when change comes we’re tested. So in the future mankind will be tested with change because there’s a lot we don’t know. We think we know but we don’t. But when it’s introduced by God through Christ, change, what will we do? How will we respond? “I don’t agree.” “I agree.” That’s what the test is, whether we agree with God or not.

God says we’re to walk before Him and be blameless. We are to continue every day to strive to check our motive and intent, why we do what we do. That’s what God wants us to do, be checking ourselves, because He’s checking, if you know what I mean. He’s seeing. He does things to check, to see what we’ll do.

We cannot hide anything from God. We need God’s holy spirit to live a life of checking our motives and intent behind every thought, word, and action. Everything that we do has to be to please God.

We’ll close with Ecclesiastes 12:13. This is Solomon coming to a conclusion that we should come to. Ecclesiastes 12:13—Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, what we’ve talked about today, Fear God, respect God, and keep His commandments. This is man’s all. The purpose of life, anything else that is achieved on a physical level by anyone without God’s spirit is totally irrelevant to the scheme of it, because there’s no point in it. It’s all going to pass. They’re going to die.

Their inheritance is going to be passed on to some younger person who’s going to what? Blow it all more than likely. What a waste of time building up that big company and being wealthy and then you die and then all your family fight over it and there are lawsuits for twenty years trying to get a million or two out of it. It’s all a vanity. This is man’s all, is to obey God. Everything else doesn’t really matter.

Verse 14—For God will bring every work into judgment. The Church of God now is under judgment. We are under judgment. We’re being judged to see the way we think, what we will choose. ...including every secret thing, which is something concealed in our thinking.

Now, people don’t know us. You might say, ah, you know me. You don’t know me. Because I have secret thoughts, but you don’t know them. But God knows them. Not that I’m saying they’re evil, but I have thoughts. But you don’t know those thoughts. You can’t. God knows. Therefore, God knows every secret thing within us. My thinking when I’m walking up a road or whatever, God knows it. So why would we want to try to hide it? We shouldn’t. We should be open and honest with God.

So God knows everything. He will bring it into judgment. We’re under judgment now. We’re being measured now, including every secret thing whether it’s good (in other words, whether it’s of God) or whether it’s evil, whether it’s from our selfishness.

So we walk away today knowing that there is nothing hidden from God and that God knows. God knows you and He knows me.

With that we’ll conclude.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1