By: Fred R. Coulter—December 14, 2019
We learn obedience from the things that we suffer with action, thought and emotion
and doing what God wants; then perfection will come at the resurrection!
The title of this message - "Overcome Through God’s Purpose for You"
(FIRST HALF of video).
(SECOND HALF of video).
Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services! (Fred rings his cowbell) Someone started a nasty rumor that I was in the hospital with a heart attack! So, just to let you know, I’m alive and I’m well. If I were sick and down, I would have Jonathan up here bringing the sermon!
Calendar Question:
I’ve gotten some comments on the Calendar booklet--Which is the True Calendar of God?—and we’re going to look at a framework. I’m going to study it and put it in proper perspective.
Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life… [he became 600 sometime before this] …in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened.”
Verse 10: “And it came to pass after seven days…” Noah and the family were all in the ark for seven days before the Flood started!
So, let’s look at how long there were in the ark, because that is the main framework for everything else; everything else has to fit into that framework. This means that if they were in there for seven days that they went in on the 10th day of the month and “…on the seventeenth day of the month” everything cut loose. They went on 10th day of the 2nd month.
Genesis 8:14—this is the next year: “And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was fully dry.” They left out of the ark on that day!
They were there 1 year+7 days +10 days. How long was that year? 360? 385? or 355? That’s what I’m going to have to determine to make it absolutely clear! But there’s one thing that this establishes. The time that they were in the ark was clearly established, wouldn’t you say? That’s clearly established!
How all of the other days fit in refer to the water. So, you have the ark and the family in the ark for 1 year, 7 days ahead and 10 days after the water.
How all the days of the water fit in, that’s the question. Someone just sent me something showing that if you add up all the days it’s 360. Well, you have to do your math correctly, and counting the water, the days of the water, does not necessarily equate to the length of the time that they were in the ark. So, we’ll leave it at that and let’s see what you can do.
What I’m going to do is take the calendar framework for 385 days, for 355 days, and for 360 days and see how it all fits.
A Little Politics:
Delores and I were talking about this nonsense of impeachment going on. I talked to someone the other day who said, ‘All Trump does is lie.’ I asked. ‘Why is that?’ Well, he never settles on anything. I said, ‘You mean like he told the Chinese that if they don’t make a deal he’ll do it after the 2020 election.’ Yeah, that’s what I mean. I said, ‘That is negotiating.’
· Tell me which lie Donald Trump has deliberately spoken to deceive? Can’t find any!
· How many lies did Obama give that caused trouble?
· What happened after Obama told the Medvedev to ‘tell Vladimir (Putin) that I will have more flexibility after the election’?
· What happened? The Russians invaded Crimea, took it and invaded Eastern Crimea, and Obama sent blankets and pillows to the Ukrainians for defense!
Obama didn’t raise anything about invading and taking Crimea.
· What happened after Joe Biden and his ‘wonderful’ son Hunter went to China and came back and had that $1.5-billion set up in an investment company in America?
· What happened?
· Does anyone know?
Nothing was done by Obama!
· What major thing happened? The Chinese developed that disputed island in the South China Sea and made an airbase out of it!
Obama didn’t even lift an little finger, or open his mouth for a single word! Two things need to understand about America:
1. the Congress does not run the Presidency
2. the ‘deep state’ does not run the Presidency
This is the battle that you are seeing! The Democrats are full of lies!
· Was this similar to what Satan was doing to try and convince a third of the angels to follow him?
‘God is mean, nasty and harsh and He won’t let us do anything. Look I have glory almost like God! If we go to war and take over the throne, we’ll run the universe!’
· Did that happen? Yes, it did!
That’s why truth is so all important!
*****
Now, because of politics a lot of people are depressed. If you watch the news and everything is all mixed up. Some people never search for the truth. A lot of people believe the lies, and a lot of people don’t believe the lies. It’s all mixed up and it leaves people depressed.
There’s a man who delivers some things to our house and he’s said that he’d been so tired for so long that it’s hard for him to get along and even function. It affects you, doesn’t it?
· What do we need to do to keep from letting the world depress us?
· What do we need to do to keep the focus of what we need to be doing?
That’s what we’re going to cover today!
Here’s the first thing to keep in mind, because God is greater than us and His graciousness is greater than anything we have every imagined. We’re going to cover the things that will help us, to inspire us to overcome any of these things that tend to drag us down.
You don’t like to watch the news and then see something like ‘shifty, nifty’ Schiff blither and blather lies, and everybody believe it! Here’s what you need to keep in mind:
2-Timothy 1:7—Paul is in prison: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound-mindedness. Therefore, you should not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner” (vs 7-8). Here Paul is in prison waiting to be executed. How is he keeping his spirits up there?
“…but jointly suffer with me for the sake of the Gospel, according to the power of God” (v 8). We’re going to suffer some things! We’re going to go through some difficult things!
Verse 9: “Who has saved us and called us with a Holy calling…” All of the saints are called the elect--Greek: ‘electos’--meaning selected!
If you get down, depressed and ‘woe is me,’ remember that God has selected you! God loves you! And we will see what we need to do in return, and what God will do in return. Here Paul is in a desperate situation inspiring Timothy.
“…not according to our works…” (v 9). What was Paul before he was converted? A top Pharisee! The Pharisees had a closed knit circle and he was one of the chief among them. Everything they did for approval was a work, a work, a work!
He’s showing here “…not according to our works…” We’ll look at the work of God’s a little later. I want you to apply this to yourself:
“…but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us… [God had this all planned how many eons before we even existed] …in Christ Jesus before the ages of time” (v 9).
How far back does that reach? The main thing here is to remember how important it is what God is doing that involves us. Everything else doesn’t matter. We know that we’re going to face a lot of difficult times.
I just did a couple of Church At Home {churchathome.org} Why is Evil Rampant? This is kind of a little sequel to it. How do you get along once you know that?
God’s purpose and timing: What is God’s purpose for us? Christ states it very early on! Matt. 5:48 is summary of everything that he brought up there. Everything in Matt. 5 has to do with how you think! That’s what conversion is all about. Before we were called and answered the called and are baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, we have what is called a carnal mind, which is enmity against God!
There are some people who are real nice and don’t think that they have enmity toward God. But they just can’t give up their Sunday-keeping and Christmas. That is enmity against God! It doesn’t matter if you say it nicely or shout it with acrimony! It’s still against God!
Matthew 5:48: “Therefore, you shall be perfect…” That’s God’s goal!
Think about when a baby is born. The only thing a baby knows when it’s born—because breathing comes automatically, the body is already working, the heart and everything else is working—and had a little practice in the womb by sucking its thumb, is to nurse. It knows nothing else. It may, by intuition and by the beginning of the forming of the working of the brain, understand/recognize the mother’s heartbeat and her voice. Everything else comes after that:
· How did we grow up?
· Where did we grow up?
· What did we do?
I look back on my growing up, and I remember just certain things. I knew nothing about God. I heard a little bit here and there. One of our neighbors was Pentecostal and my aunt was a Sunday-school teacher. Whenever she would come over and visit us, she would bring her ‘cloth board,’ which was covered with felt. Then she would tell Bible stories with little cutout felt pieces: lamb, children, Jesus, and so forth. That’s about all I ever knew.
One time I was delivering papers early in the morning up in Seattle, and I went through a park and it was Easter morning. There were a lot of people there, so I went over and watching. Here are all the people, and when the preacher raised up this wafer of bread I didn’t know what it was, all the people bowed down. I wondered what this was; I knew nothing about it.
So, then I also remember after I got out of the Army I was at my sister’s and it was a Sunday, and I thought I’d go down to church. The only thing I knew was that the Catholics and Protestants were always at odds against each other. I go into this Episcopal church and they read the Apostle’s Creed: ‘We believe in the Holy Catholic Church.’ I said, ‘How can that be, these are Episcopalians and are Protestant and they say we believe in the Holy Catholic Church?’ I thought that this was crazy!
I knew nothing! Then I was going to college, had a job as a cook, and had my own little apartment. The truth is that
· human beings were made to need God
· He made us deficient
· He made us incapable of solving our own problems our own way
When you have problems you look for help. The only thing I remembered was that ‘if you ask you receive.’ So, here I am walking at night and I could see a star or two and I said:
O God, the only thing I know is that if you ask you will receive. I’m asking. I don’t know what to do and don’t know where to go.
I had my little ole Nash Rambler, and in my apartment I had no television or radio. So, when going to college I could study Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Went to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’m never out of my apartment at nine o’clock at night. Here I am in my Nash Rambler and I like classical music so I had it on that station. They started playing the dirge of Bach! That’s some of the most awful classical music that there is. I can’t stand it!
So, I turned it to another station and heard the first World Tomorrow program. As soon as I heard that I said, ‘That’ it!’ Then things went from there and I ended up at Ambassador College.
But we start from nothing to become perfected! That’s the whole purpose of why we exist!
Matt. 6:33: tells us what we are to do after we’ve been repentant, baptized and received the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 6:33: “But as for you, seek first…”—‘protos’ primary, the first and most important thing in our lives is God the Father, Jesus Christ, and]: …the Kingdom of God… [in that order] …and… [How is our behavior to be?] …His righteousness…” This tells exactly what our purpose is and what we are to be doing!
“…and all these things shall be added to you” (v 33)--all the physical things that you need! But look at what God is going to add beyond that.
How is this accomplished? First of all, God calls us and we answer the call. But God’s call is His love toward us. When we’re called, then how do we respond to God?
Everything that we do hinges on being perfected, seeking the Kingdom of God first, and then here is the first action that we do. It’s action, thought and emotion altogether. It’s our whole life.
Mark 12:28: “And one of the scribes who had come up to Him, after hearing them reasoning together and perceiving that He answered them well, asked Him, ‘Which is the first commandment of all?’” The Jews always do that! What’s the most important commandment? So, He told them!
Verse 29: “Then Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is, “Hear, O Israel…. [put your name there] …Our one God is the Lord, the Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment’” (vs 29-30).
Look at how all encompassing that is! It involves thought, emotion, work and doing what God wants. This also gives us a good thought concerning conversion. This command makes mandatory all the rest of the commandments, if this is the first one! Like we’ve said concerning the Ten Commandments.
I just did this on Church at Home recently: Go to the Ten Commandments and tell me what’s wrong with them! Show me one thing that is wrong! You can’t! Why? Because God is love and all of His commandments are based on love.
The difficulties that we have is that we live in an evil world, because of Satan the devil. We’ve got these things interfering constantly, and that’s why we need the Sabbath every week. Just like the world has their thing every year, God has His thing every week and every year. Why? We learn, we grow, we add to that knowledge, and we come to understand! As we go along we also begin to understand how wicked and evil that human nature really is and how much we need God.
Verse 31: “And the second is like this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Let’s see how we put this in action. We still have human nature and God does not remove it from us, because it’s a process of overcoming. That’s why we all die, that ends that!
We have a lot of senior citizens in the Church. That’s just the nature of it as it is right now. I was talking to Harry Curley just before he died and he said, ‘You know, Fred, when I first came into the Church, I was always going to weddings. Now I’m always going to funerals. I said to him, ‘You know why? Because God is harvesting!’ So, don’t look at it as some great overwhelming tragedy that you can’t overcome, because no one yet has overcome death except Christ.
We’re all going to die one day. But isn’t it something, as we’re young and strong and all of this sort of thing, we never think of that. I mean, when you were 25, did you think about the day that you were going to die? At 30? No! at 40 you’re still going pretty good. At 50 you’re still going good. At 60, well, maybe a thought or two. At 70 a whole lot of thoughts. At 80 a lot of thoughts! And legal things written down such as wills, and if you have any possessions, who is going to get it?
Remember what Solomon wrote: What if a man lives a thousand years twice-fold and he leaves everything behind? He’s taking nothing! Look at those stupid Egyptians! Great pyramids, great tombs and ‘we’re going to all take it with us.’ They all died! A monument to Satan the devil and men’s stupidity because they reject God!
Because we have to overcome human nature, God has given one thing in His great love through Christ. He is the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Remember what Paul wrote, ‘Not of works…’
Understand that before there were human beings, probably before there were any angels, before the ages of time, God had this plan! Now, way, way, way down in time, all of those of us are part of His plan and have been with all of those recorded in the Bible, plus a lot of those in the New Testament Church who were never recorded in the Bible. There are people that we have never heard of, never seen whom God is working with, because God’s plan is greater than we think!
· Can God control the whole universe? Yes!
· Can He control one cell? Yes!
As a matter of fact, it’s made in a miniature design of the universe. Guess what, out bodies have trillions of cells. Isn’t that amazing? Right while we’re sitting here, our stomachs and intestines are digesting breakfast, making room for our lunch that we’ll take in a little bit. Our bodies are adjusting to the heat and we’re going to need something to drink. You need water, air, food and all of those consist of cells. That’s amazing!
Just think about how much God loves you just in the physical creation. He didn’t put our ears in the back of our head. He didn’t put getting rid of the waste under our chin. He made us as human beings in His image! Now, he wants to make us in His likeness! How do we keep the first commandment going, loving God, and what does this produce?
1 John 1:3: “That which we have seen and have heard we are reporting to you in order that you also may have fellowship with us; for the fellowship--… [that’s what it is in the Greek; not a fellowship] …indeed, our fellowship--is with the Father and with His own Son Jesus Christ.”
That’s why we have prayer every day; little short ones all during the day. That’s how God leads you and guides you and gives you understanding. That’s also called, with God’s Spirit and God’s Word combined, the washing of the Word by the Spirit! We will see what that does in just a minute.
Verse 6: “If we proclaim that we have fellowship with Him, but we are walking in the darkness… [the way of the world] …we are lying to ourselves, and we are not practicing the Truth.” A perfect description of Protestants and Catholics!
They keep Sunday. There are some Protestants that do preach a good deal of the Bible. But if you ask them:
· What is God’s plan? We go to heaven!
· Why do you keep Christmas? That’s when Jesus was born!
· Why do you keep Easter? That’s when Jesus was resurrected!
You’re walking in darkness and you are not practicing the Truth! The Truth is the Sabbath and Holy Days, and none of that other nonsense!
Verse 7: “However, if we walk in the Light…” We are, because:
· the Word of God is Light
· His Spirit is Light
· His Truth is Light
“…as He is in the Light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin” (v 7).
That’s the process of overcoming! Being cleansed of all sins!
Living in this age, we have more things smashed up against our brains and in our ears and eyes than any other generation has ever had, for good or for evil!
Jonathan just told me that they updated the Bible app, so if you if you have that you have to go and update it. They haven’t yet got it updated for apple, but it will be there. So, you have the Bible on a pad.
· What do you do with it?
· Do you use it?
· Do you read it?
If you have it on your phone and you never use it, how much different is that if you have a Bible at home and it’s on the shelf. No difference!
Verse 8: “If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth is not in us. : If we confess our own sins…” (vs 8-9).
What does the daily prayer say? First thing, honor and hallow God! The next thing is ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Who is that referring to? To each one of you as you’re praying to God for His will in your life! Did Jesus have to do that on the night that He was arrested to be crucified? He had to agonize, because it was really a terrible thing that He went through!
Next time you have a little pity-party about how bad it is for you, go read what Jesus went through. Read Psa. 22. Then ask yourself: ‘What are my troubles?’ they’re nothing but God will help you with them!
“…He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (v 9). Seeking the Kingdom of God first, through the fellowship with God, and all of these things will be added to you, and become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect! See how that fits together? That’s what we are to do daily.
I have to admit that this last week with all of this nonsense going on with this absolute satanic, insane impeachment going on, I was a little depressed. I was going around having my own little pity-party.
So, what I did, I told myself I had to stop that because there’s nothing you can do about it. What can you do about it? If you worry about it, what are you going to do? Nothing! So, concentrate on what God wants you to do.
Verse 10: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” Who is the one who says that God is a liar? Satan the devil!
1-John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And yet, if anyone does sin…”--because you have the pull of human nature, lust the eyes, lust of the mind, and you have television, cell phones, billboard signs and everything like that!
“…we have an Advocate… [advocating, interceding] …with the Father; Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (vs 1-2). And we know that is in God’s time and plan!
Here’s how we know that we are doing what God wants there’s a lot of people who say that they love God, ‘I go to church every Sunday. We have a marvelous Christmas at home.’ Or a Catholic would say, ‘I go to Mass every day.’ What did God say? Once year! ‘Every day! You must be so righteous, it’s incredible!’ No! You’re deceived! I had one man say, ‘I don’t agree with you with IFMA—Independent free moral agency.’
Verse 3: “And by this standard we know that we know Him: if we keep His commandments.” That’s our reciprocity back to God!
Verse 4: “The one who says, ‘I know Him’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him.”
I tell you what! I was thinking of going to one of these reunions of Ambassador College; they had one in Pasadena this year and I thought that maybe I’ll go. Byron Norrod said that he went one time and ‘I would say that you wouldn’t want to go, because it would really make you disappointed and maybe even mad.’ He went and there’s everything under the sun, and was shocked to see one of his classmates who was a minister in the Church (WCG) who is now a minister in the Lutheran Church and he had a big gold cross!
This is why we keep His commandments; that’s back to God. Look what He’s done for us with everything else. Notice what happens here:
Verse 5: “On the other hand, if anyone is keeping His Word…” What does that mean? Everything that He has spoken!
What did Jesus say? The first thing out of His mouth with the temptation of Satan the devil, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God!
“…truly in this one the love of God is being perfected….” (v 5). You cannot be perfected without Law-keeping! Why? Law-keeping requires what? Mind, emotion and action!
“…By this means we know that we are in Him…. [this is becoming perfect, right here]: …Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself also to walk even as He Himself walked” (vs 5-6). This is becoming perfect!
Would you say that Christ is perfect? Yes, indeed! Perfected through the flesh and through the resurrection!
Verse 6 is a good one for Protestants and Catholics. And Sunday, you know that’s the thing. Where does it say at any time Jesus saying that ‘you have heard it said of old time that God is Lord of the Sabbath, but I tell you I’m Lord of Sunday.’ Do you find it in the Bible? No way! Who is the lord of Sunday? There is one who is the lord of Sunday, who claims to be God, and that’s Satan the devil! Maybe you never thought of it that way.
· Can Satan be sweet? Yes!
· Can Satan be gentle? Yes!
· Can he say he’ll give you a benefit? Yes! I’ll give you many benefits! Yes, he can!
That’s what the obligation for us!
Calendar Question:
I’ve gotten some comments on the Calendar booklet--Which is the True Calendar of God?—and we’re going to look at a framework. I’m going to study it and put it in proper perspective.
Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life… [he became 600 sometime before this] …in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened.”
Verse 10: “And it came to pass after seven days…” Noah and the family were all in the ark for seven days before the Flood started!
So, let’s look at how long there were in the ark, because that is the main framework for everything else; everything else has to fit into that framework. This means that if they were in there for seven days that they went in on the 10th day of the month and “…on the seventeenth day of the month” everything cut loose. They went on 10th day of the 2nd month.
Genesis 8:14—this is the next year: “And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was fully dry.” They left out of the ark on that day!
They were there 1 year+7 days +10 days. How long was that year? 360? 385? or 355? That’s what I’m going to have to determine to make it absolutely clear! But there’s one thing that this establishes. The time that they were in the ark was clearly established, wouldn’t you say? That’s clearly established!
How all of the other days fit in refer to the water. So, you have the ark and the family in the ark for 1 year, 7 days ahead and 10 days after the water.
How all the days of the water fit in, that’s the question. Someone just sent me something showing that if you add up all the days it’s 360. Well, you have to do your math correctly, and counting the water, the days of the water, does not necessarily equate to the length of the time that they were in the ark. So, we’ll leave it at that and let’s see what you can do.
What I’m going to do is take the calendar framework for 385 days, for 355 days, and for 360 days and see how it all fits.
A Little Politics:
Delores and I were talking about this nonsense of impeachment going on. I talked to someone the other day who said, ‘All Trump does is lie.’ I asked. ‘Why is that?’ Well, he never settles on anything. I said, ‘You mean like he told the Chinese that if they don’t make a deal he’ll do it after the 2020 election.’ Yeah, that’s what I mean. I said, ‘That is negotiating.’
· Tell me which lie Donald Trump has deliberately spoken to deceive? Can’t find any!
· How many lies did Obama give that caused trouble?
· What happened after Obama told the Medvedev to ‘tell Vladimir (Putin) that I will have more flexibility after the election’?
· What happened? The Russians invaded Crimea, took it and invaded Eastern Crimea, and Obama sent blankets and pillows to the Ukrainians for defense!
Obama didn’t raise anything about invading and taking Crimea.
· What happened after Joe Biden and his ‘wonderful’ son Hunter went to China and came back and had that $1.5-billion set up in an investment company in America?
· What happened?
· Does anyone know?
Nothing was done by Obama!
· What major thing happened? The Chinese developed that disputed island in the South China Sea and made an airbase out of it!
Obama didn’t even lift an little finger, or open his mouth for a single word! Two things need to understand about America:
1. the Congress does not run the Presidency
2. the ‘deep state’ does not run the Presidency
This is the battle that you are seeing! The Democrats are full of lies!
· Was this similar to what Satan was doing to try and convince a third of the angels to follow him?
‘God is mean, nasty and harsh and He won’t let us do anything. Look I have glory almost like God! If we go to war and take over the throne, we’ll run the universe!’
· Did that happen? Yes, it did!
That’s why truth is so all important!
*****
Now, because of politics a lot of people are depressed. If you watch the news and everything is all mixed up. Some people never search for the truth. A lot of people believe the lies, and a lot of people don’t believe the lies. It’s all mixed up and it leaves people depressed.
There’s a man who delivers some things to our house and he’s said that he’d been so tired for so long that it’s hard for him to get along and even function. It affects you, doesn’t it?
· What do we need to do to keep from letting the world depress us?
· What do we need to do to keep the focus of what we need to be doing?
That’s what we’re going to cover today!
Here’s the first thing to keep in mind, because God is greater than us and His graciousness is greater than anything we have every imagined. We’re going to cover the things that will help us, to inspire us to overcome any of these things that tend to drag us down.
You don’t like to watch the news and then see something like ‘shifty, nifty’ Schiff blither and blather lies, and everybody believe it! Here’s what you need to keep in mind:
2-Timothy 1:7—Paul is in prison: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound-mindedness. Therefore, you should not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner” (vs 7-8). Here Paul is in prison waiting to be executed. How is he keeping his spirits up there?
“…but jointly suffer with me for the sake of the Gospel, according to the power of God” (v 8). We’re going to suffer some things! We’re going to go through some difficult things!
Verse 9: “Who has saved us and called us with a Holy calling…” All of the saints are called the elect--Greek: ‘electos’--meaning selected!
If you get down, depressed and ‘woe is me,’ remember that God has selected you! God loves you! And we will see what we need to do in return, and what God will do in return. Here Paul is in a desperate situation inspiring Timothy.
“…not according to our works…” (v 9). What was Paul before he was converted? A top Pharisee! The Pharisees had a closed knit circle and he was one of the chief among them. Everything they did for approval was a work, a work, a work!
He’s showing here “…not according to our works…” We’ll look at the work of God’s a little later. I want you to apply this to yourself:
“…but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us… [God had this all planned how many eons before we even existed] …in Christ Jesus before the ages of time” (v 9).
How far back does that reach? The main thing here is to remember how important it is what God is doing that involves us. Everything else doesn’t matter. We know that we’re going to face a lot of difficult times.
I just did a couple of Church At Home {churchathome.org} Why is Evil Rampant? This is kind of a little sequel to it. How do you get along once you know that?
God’s purpose and timing: What is God’s purpose for us? Christ states it very early on! Matt. 5:48 is summary of everything that he brought up there. Everything in Matt. 5 has to do with how you think! That’s what conversion is all about. Before we were called and answered the called and are baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, we have what is called a carnal mind, which is enmity against God!
There are some people who are real nice and don’t think that they have enmity toward God. But they just can’t give up their Sunday-keeping and Christmas. That is enmity against God! It doesn’t matter if you say it nicely or shout it with acrimony! It’s still against God!
Matthew 5:48: “Therefore, you shall be perfect…” That’s God’s goal!
Think about when a baby is born. The only thing a baby knows when it’s born—because breathing comes automatically, the body is already working, the heart and everything else is working—and had a little practice in the womb by sucking its thumb, is to nurse. It knows nothing else. It may, by intuition and by the beginning of the forming of the working of the brain, understand/recognize the mother’s heartbeat and her voice. Everything else comes after that:
· How did we grow up?
· Where did we grow up?
· What did we do?
I look back on my growing up, and I remember just certain things. I knew nothing about God. I heard a little bit here and there. One of our neighbors was Pentecostal and my aunt was a Sunday-school teacher. Whenever she would come over and visit us, she would bring her ‘cloth board,’ which was covered with felt. Then she would tell Bible stories with little cutout felt pieces: lamb, children, Jesus, and so forth. That’s about all I ever knew.
One time I was delivering papers early in the morning up in Seattle, and I went through a park and it was Easter morning. There were a lot of people there, so I went over and watching. Here are all the people, and when the preacher raised up this wafer of bread I didn’t know what it was, all the people bowed down. I wondered what this was; I knew nothing about it.
So, then I also remember after I got out of the Army I was at my sister’s and it was a Sunday, and I thought I’d go down to church. The only thing I knew was that the Catholics and Protestants were always at odds against each other. I go into this Episcopal church and they read the Apostle’s Creed: ‘We believe in the Holy Catholic Church.’ I said, ‘How can that be, these are Episcopalians and are Protestant and they say we believe in the Holy Catholic Church?’ I thought that this was crazy!
I knew nothing! Then I was going to college, had a job as a cook, and had my own little apartment. The truth is that
· human beings were made to need God
· He made us deficient
· He made us incapable of solving our own problems our own way
When you have problems you look for help. The only thing I remembered was that ‘if you ask you receive.’ So, here I am walking at night and I could see a star or two and I said:
O God, the only thing I know is that if you ask you will receive. I’m asking. I don’t know what to do and don’t know where to go.
I had my little ole Nash Rambler, and in my apartment I had no television or radio. So, when going to college I could study Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Went to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’m never out of my apartment at nine o’clock at night. Here I am in my Nash Rambler and I like classical music so I had it on that station. They started playing the dirge of Bach! That’s some of the most awful classical music that there is. I can’t stand it!
So, I turned it to another station and heard the first World Tomorrow program. As soon as I heard that I said, ‘That’ it!’ Then things went from there and I ended up at Ambassador College.
But we start from nothing to become perfected! That’s the whole purpose of why we exist!
Matt. 6:33: tells us what we are to do after we’ve been repentant, baptized and received the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 6:33: “But as for you, seek first…”—‘protos’ primary, the first and most important thing in our lives is God the Father, Jesus Christ, and]: …the Kingdom of God… [in that order] …and… [How is our behavior to be?] …His righteousness…” This tells exactly what our purpose is and what we are to be doing!
“…and all these things shall be added to you” (v 33)--all the physical things that you need! But look at what God is going to add beyond that.
How is this accomplished? First of all, God calls us and we answer the call. But God’s call is His love toward us. When we’re called, then how do we respond to God?
Everything that we do hinges on being perfected, seeking the Kingdom of God first, and then here is the first action that we do. It’s action, thought and emotion altogether. It’s our whole life.
Mark 12:28: “And one of the scribes who had come up to Him, after hearing them reasoning together and perceiving that He answered them well, asked Him, ‘Which is the first commandment of all?’” The Jews always do that! What’s the most important commandment? So, He told them!
Verse 29: “Then Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is, “Hear, O Israel…. [put your name there] …Our one God is the Lord, the Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment’” (vs 29-30).
Look at how all encompassing that is! It involves thought, emotion, work and doing what God wants. This also gives us a good thought concerning conversion. This command makes mandatory all the rest of the commandments, if this is the first one! Like we’ve said concerning the Ten Commandments.
I just did this on Church at Home recently: Go to the Ten Commandments and tell me what’s wrong with them! Show me one thing that is wrong! You can’t! Why? Because God is love and all of His commandments are based on love.
The difficulties that we have is that we live in an evil world, because of Satan the devil. We’ve got these things interfering constantly, and that’s why we need the Sabbath every week. Just like the world has their thing every year, God has His thing every week and every year. Why? We learn, we grow, we add to that knowledge, and we come to understand! As we go along we also begin to understand how wicked and evil that human nature really is and how much we need God.
Verse 31: “And the second is like this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Let’s see how we put this in action. We still have human nature and God does not remove it from us, because it’s a process of overcoming. That’s why we all die, that ends that!
We have a lot of senior citizens in the Church. That’s just the nature of it as it is right now. I was talking to Harry Curley just before he died and he said, ‘You know, Fred, when I first came into the Church, I was always going to weddings. Now I’m always going to funerals. I said to him, ‘You know why? Because God is harvesting!’ So, don’t look at it as some great overwhelming tragedy that you can’t overcome, because no one yet has overcome death except Christ.
We’re all going to die one day. But isn’t it something, as we’re young and strong and all of this sort of thing, we never think of that. I mean, when you were 25, did you think about the day that you were going to die? At 30? No! at 40 you’re still going pretty good. At 50 you’re still going good. At 60, well, maybe a thought or two. At 70 a whole lot of thoughts. At 80 a lot of thoughts! And legal things written down such as wills, and if you have any possessions, who is going to get it?
Remember what Solomon wrote: What if a man lives a thousand years twice-fold and he leaves everything behind? He’s taking nothing! Look at those stupid Egyptians! Great pyramids, great tombs and ‘we’re going to all take it with us.’ They all died! A monument to Satan the devil and men’s stupidity because they reject God!
Because we have to overcome human nature, God has given one thing in His great love through Christ. He is the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Remember what Paul wrote, ‘Not of works…’
Understand that before there were human beings, probably before there were any angels, before the ages of time, God had this plan! Now, way, way, way down in time, all of those of us are part of His plan and have been with all of those recorded in the Bible, plus a lot of those in the New Testament Church who were never recorded in the Bible. There are people that we have never heard of, never seen whom God is working with, because God’s plan is greater than we think!
· Can God control the whole universe? Yes!
· Can He control one cell? Yes!
As a matter of fact, it’s made in a miniature design of the universe. Guess what, out bodies have trillions of cells. Isn’t that amazing? Right while we’re sitting here, our stomachs and intestines are digesting breakfast, making room for our lunch that we’ll take in a little bit. Our bodies are adjusting to the heat and we’re going to need something to drink. You need water, air, food and all of those consist of cells. That’s amazing!
Just think about how much God loves you just in the physical creation. He didn’t put our ears in the back of our head. He didn’t put getting rid of the waste under our chin. He made us as human beings in His image! Now, he wants to make us in His likeness! How do we keep the first commandment going, loving God, and what does this produce?
1 John 1:3: “That which we have seen and have heard we are reporting to you in order that you also may have fellowship with us; for the fellowship--… [that’s what it is in the Greek; not a fellowship] …indeed, our fellowship--is with the Father and with His own Son Jesus Christ.”
That’s why we have prayer every day; little short ones all during the day. That’s how God leads you and guides you and gives you understanding. That’s also called, with God’s Spirit and God’s Word combined, the washing of the Word by the Spirit! We will see what that does in just a minute.
Verse 6: “If we proclaim that we have fellowship with Him, but we are walking in the darkness… [the way of the world] …we are lying to ourselves, and we are not practicing the Truth.” A perfect description of Protestants and Catholics!
They keep Sunday. There are some Protestants that do preach a good deal of the Bible. But if you ask them:
· What is God’s plan? We go to heaven!
· Why do you keep Christmas? That’s when Jesus was born!
· Why do you keep Easter? That’s when Jesus was resurrected!
You’re walking in darkness and you are not practicing the Truth! The Truth is the Sabbath and Holy Days, and none of that other nonsense!
Verse 7: “However, if we walk in the Light…” We are, because:
· the Word of God is Light
· His Spirit is Light
· His Truth is Light
“…as He is in the Light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin” (v 7).
That’s the process of overcoming! Being cleansed of all sins!
Living in this age, we have more things smashed up against our brains and in our ears and eyes than any other generation has ever had, for good or for evil!
Jonathan just told me that they updated the Bible app, so if you if you have that you have to go and update it. They haven’t yet got it updated for apple, but it will be there. So, you have the Bible on a pad.
· What do you do with it?
· Do you use it?
· Do you read it?
If you have it on your phone and you never use it, how much different is that if you have a Bible at home and it’s on the shelf. No difference!
Verse 8: “If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth is not in us. : If we confess our own sins…” (vs 8-9).
What does the daily prayer say? First thing, honor and hallow God! The next thing is ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Who is that referring to? To each one of you as you’re praying to God for His will in your life! Did Jesus have to do that on the night that He was arrested to be crucified? He had to agonize, because it was really a terrible thing that He went through!
Next time you have a little pity-party about how bad it is for you, go read what Jesus went through. Read Psa. 22. Then ask yourself: ‘What are my troubles?’ they’re nothing but God will help you with them!
“…He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (v 9). Seeking the Kingdom of God first, through the fellowship with God, and all of these things will be added to you, and become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect! See how that fits together? That’s what we are to do daily.
I have to admit that this last week with all of this nonsense going on with this absolute satanic, insane impeachment going on, I was a little depressed. I was going around having my own little pity-party.
So, what I did, I told myself I had to stop that because there’s nothing you can do about it. What can you do about it? If you worry about it, what are you going to do? Nothing! So, concentrate on what God wants you to do.
Verse 10: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” Who is the one who says that God is a liar? Satan the devil!
1-John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And yet, if anyone does sin…”--because you have the pull of human nature, lust the eyes, lust of the mind, and you have television, cell phones, billboard signs and everything like that!
“…we have an Advocate… [advocating, interceding] …with the Father; Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (vs 1-2). And we know that is in God’s time and plan!
Here’s how we know that we are doing what God wants there’s a lot of people who say that they love God, ‘I go to church every Sunday. We have a marvelous Christmas at home.’ Or a Catholic would say, ‘I go to Mass every day.’ What did God say? Once year! ‘Every day! You must be so righteous, it’s incredible!’ No! You’re deceived! I had one man say, ‘I don’t agree with you with IFMA—Independent free moral agency.’
Verse 3: “And by this standard we know that we know Him: if we keep His commandments.” That’s our reciprocity back to God!
Verse 4: “The one who says, ‘I know Him’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him.”
I tell you what! I was thinking of going to one of these reunions of Ambassador College; they had one in Pasadena this year and I thought that maybe I’ll go. Byron Norrod said that he went one time and ‘I would say that you wouldn’t want to go, because it would really make you disappointed and maybe even mad.’ He went and there’s everything under the sun, and was shocked to see one of his classmates who was a minister in the Church (WCG) who is now a minister in the Lutheran Church and he had a big gold cross!
This is why we keep His commandments; that’s back to God. Look what He’s done for us with everything else. Notice what happens here:
Verse 5: “On the other hand, if anyone is keeping His Word…” What does that mean? Everything that He has spoken!
What did Jesus say? The first thing out of His mouth with the temptation of Satan the devil, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God!
“…truly in this one the love of God is being perfected….” (v 5). You cannot be perfected without Law-keeping! Why? Law-keeping requires what? Mind, emotion and action!
“…By this means we know that we are in Him…. [this is becoming perfect, right here]: …Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself also to walk even as He Himself walked” (vs 5-6). This is becoming perfect!
Would you say that Christ is perfect? Yes, indeed! Perfected through the flesh and through the resurrection!
Verse 6 is a good one for Protestants and Catholics. And Sunday, you know that’s the thing. Where does it say at any time Jesus saying that ‘you have heard it said of old time that God is Lord of the Sabbath, but I tell you I’m Lord of Sunday.’ Do you find it in the Bible? No way! Who is the lord of Sunday? There is one who is the lord of Sunday, who claims to be God, and that’s Satan the devil! Maybe you never thought of it that way.
· Can Satan be sweet? Yes!
· Can Satan be gentle? Yes!
· Can he say he’ll give you a benefit? Yes! I’ll give you many benefits! Yes, he can!
That’s what the obligation for us!
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