A little here, a little there, that you may fall backward

Kathy and I, we were driving through the Kruger Park. I don't know if you know what the Kruger Park is, but it's a very large natural wildlife environment. I mean, it's large, very large. I mean, it's probably the size of, I don't know, but maybe Florida or something like that. It's a very large area, a huge area. And as we were driving up, we saw cars, and there you've got to drive slowly because you're driving through areas of wildlife. You've got to stay in your car. You're not allowed to get out. And then we saw a car stopped up a little hill, and then we stopped, and we looked, and we looked in the savannah, and then we saw a lioness.

And then we looked. Oh, there's a little water paddle there, and there were a couple of water buck. Now, a water buck is quite a big, it's an African type of deer, but it's a big deer. It's a big one. And there were a couple of them, and this lioness was slowly crouching and crawling towards the water buck.

But as we looked, and as we paid a little more attention, and then we saw another lioness, like maybe a hundred or 150 yards away, somewhere. I mean, you can hardly see them because the color of their skin is very similar to the color of the savannah, so it's really, you gotta pay attention.

And they, very subtle, moving. And then we saw another one. And there were a few, maybe five or so scattered, and kind of trying to circle where this water buck where. And they were crawling ever so quietly and carefully to catch the water buck by surprise. So yeah, they crawled a little bit here, and a little bit there, and a little bit there. And it was as if they were in contact via cell phone and talking to one another.

Obviously they went, but it sounded like they were coordinating it somehow. Sometimes I wonder if somehow they could communicate, but they were experts on the task, and they were encroaching onto these water buck. The intent was to kind of catch one a little bit less careless, and put that little one out separate from the flock, from the herd, from the flock, right, from the herd, should I say, it's more correct to say that.

And then chase that one and kill it. Because you want to separate one, make an independent, and then kill it, eliminate. However, the male buck, he was on the alert. He was all, and you could watch him, he knew something was cooking. And he then wisely gathered the rest of the herd and moved them away. Smart, smart. And in a little later, we saw the lioness trying to kind of do something, but they kept together, they stayed together, and the lioness just dispersed. There's a scripture that has got to me a lot of meaning, and that's in Isaiah 28.

Isaiah 28. And it's basically talking about to whom will God teach things. And, you know, he teaches a little bit here, a little bit there. And as we heard in the sermon, sometimes you have to search the scriptures.

You have to search the scriptures. So thank you for the sermonette. Good points. But we have to search the scriptures and really dig down. And then, you know, we've got to look a lion here, a lion there, and here a little there a little. That's in Isaiah 28 verse 10. But then a little ahead is actually talking about those people that don't pay attention to it. And it says to them, verse 13, Isaiah 28, 13, it says, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, yad a little, dare a little, that they might go and fall backward and be broken and sneered and caught.

End quote. You know, brethren, we have to be alert because this is how Satan attacks us. You know, a little bit here, you were so subtle, a little bit there, like the lionesses. They were just crouching in and a little crouching in there. And what you cause, you cause division, separation.

You know, it's not like just divide and conquer. It's divide, conquer, and eliminate. Satan wants to eliminate you and I. And so he's going to create a little division, he's going to, some people are going to become a little independent.

I'm okay. I've got my own little things and we've got to be careful. We have to be alert because Satan wants to bring about the vision and if we have like a spirit of being independent, be careful because ultimately he's going to strike the kill.

So today, brethren, I want to talk to you about the importance of being alert because Satan uses the surprise element. Satan uses the surprise element. Now, in 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8, so if you turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8, it says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The interesting thing, brethren, it's not the lion that does the hunt. It's the lioness.

And the lion sits back and just watches it and he's kind of, let's call it, delegated. Oh yeah, during the middle of the night he does wrong, but during the hunt he's quiet. I remember we went once to, with a youth camp. We went to a youth camp with the teenagers in South Africa to a place, if I remember correctly, was called Chukudo. And on the first night, I think it was the first or second night, we had like a campfire and the young people had to sit around the campfire during the whole night and they had shifts to look after, during the night, to look after. And they kind of lied down with their sleeping bags, with their feet towards the fire, their heads out, and then somebody would be on a watch. And then we had like a roster. You watch for so many hours, two or three, then others would wake up and they said, and the story was, well, because they are lions there. And they were. They were lions there. And you got to watch because if a lion comes at you, you got to call an alert and the next thing during the middle of the night, you hear the lion roar. It's a real powerful roar. I mean, what I'm doing doesn't match it by any means. And you know those teenagers were terrified. I mean, this was, and it was a unique experience. Let me tell you, it was a unique experience. You never forget it. Then the next day, we had a drive, and because that was a lion park, we could see the lions in their fenced areas, and they were roaring during the night. So they were lions there, but they went in the area where we had the fire. So, but it was an experience for the young people, and it was kind of all part of excitement. But yeah, the lion does roar, but it's the lioness that does the hunt. But sight in his artversary, but quite often it's these little other demons out there that are actually going at us and creating little problems under his quote-unquote orchestration. So it's interesting. And his tactic that he, that the lions have, that's the way their nature is, is a little yah, a little dare, that you may fall backward. You know, it's the same tactic that Satan uses. A little yah, a little dare, that you may fall backward. Now, you're reading the story in Genesis chapter 3, how the serpent was very wise, very cunning. And what did the serpent do? Think about it. It created doubt. You think about it. It created doubt because he says, well, didn't God say this? Oh no, God said, oh, but you won't die. You see, he's actually calling God a liar and creating doubt on Adam and Eve. You know, so very subtle, ever so subtle, a little deviation. And if you and I are not careful, these subtle deviations will take us down the wrong path. And that's what it is. So my question is, are you, am I, are we on a solid foundation? Or are there some loose bricks in our trust, faith, trust of God, and that he's in charge, and he knows what he's doing? And yes, sometimes we go through difficulties. Look at the, the Israelites through Israel, they went through difficulties, but their trust in God was tested, and they failed miserably. You see, the little changes come slowly. Now, most of you, maybe some of the young people can't remember that, but most of you in 1995 know there was over the few years, there was a little change here, a little change there, a little bit changed there, and they were saying, we were not changing anything. I mean, you remember that. Those of you that have been around a little longer, oh, we're not changing anything. There's no change. Everything is the same.

But subtly, there were changes until there was a day that the gauntlet came down and says, well, we're changing this, and those people that have been kind of already acclimatized to some of these changes, oh, well, we, we're free now, and whatever. But you see, is the little change that comes ever so slowly, a little change that comes ever so slowly. And you know, you could say, well, it doesn't matter. Well, it's just a little change. It really doesn't matter.

What's really the difference? It really doesn't matter. Just a little change, just a small thing, so it doesn't matter. But it does matter, because it's deviating ever so slightly from the trust. Really, in the end, belief is trust deviating ever so slightly from the trust of God and of His leadership. And then you start deviating. I'll give you some examples. I'll give you some examples. Oh, well, I had that just about a week or two ago. Somebody said, well, but the day starts at sunrise. Oh, well, I can say the day starts at sunrise. Sure, the day part of the day. But you can't say that the day, the way God looks at the beginning of the day is at sunrise. So His reasoning was, because the day starts at sunrise and ends at the next sunrise, keeping the Passover on the 14th would be actually what we call the 15th. That was His reasoning. You see, it's so subtle. And then He says, well, I've got 100 scriptures. I'll send them to you to prove that the day starts at sunrise. So you've got other examples.

For instance, well, I am tired of the church's music. The church's music we have, yeah, we hymns, they are boring. You know, I mean, we want some more exciting Christian happy songs. Now let me ask a question. Do we sing the hymns to make you and I feel good, or do we sing hymns to praise God? Now, I'm not saying that songs that you may want to have, like to sing Christian music, that it's got a good feeling, etc., there's nothing wrong with that as much as they're not saying the wrong things, it's got the wrong words. But to worship God, we don't come here to sing songs to praise myself or to praise us. We come here, even in special music, we don't do songs to praise me, myself and I. We come to sing songs to praise God. The focus should be on God. That's what we come to church for. But you see, it's so subtle. Oh yeah, but it's nice music and it makes me feel good.

You see, so subtle.

Or you may start, we'll give you another example, which is subtle. You may start changing the names of God's holy days. Well, for instance, we don't keep the Lord's Passover, let's just call it the Lord's Supper. I'm sorry, you read in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 20 that we don't come together to have the Lord's Supper. And so on. You can think of others that are doing it. Doing things, for instance, on Easter Sunday and calling it themselves, well, it's a die of first fruits or whatever. We gotta be careful, brethren, because it's so subtle.

If you think about it, what happens is if you were to send a rocket to the moon, and it's just one micron out, over time it's going to miss the target. Because over the distance, then it deviates, the gravity pulls it out, or whatever it is, and you have to continuously correct it. Now, that correction is not destroying it, it's not smacking it to death, it's just tweaking it to keep it on track. That's what we gotta do, brethren, to ourselves. Because it's these little changes that come, and then there's a second little change, and then there's a third, and there's a bigger one, and next thing on another planet. We gotta be careful, brethren, because that's how Satan works. We live it. We live it. We live in a time where things that are happening in the world are just never been like this before. It really, the world is explosive. I mean, you see China now orchestrating an agreement with Saudi Arabia and Iran, so-called enemies, and then you had like a proxy war in Yemen between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and that proxy war, those people said, hey, behave, because they're just puppets to the bigger ones, because it's a proxy war, behave. So you'll probably see some calming down over the period of time in Yemen. But why? Because China is now orchestrating something else.

And what's on our news? Oh, well, it's because of this politician is this. We've got to put this one in jail, and we've got to... We also wrapped in ourselves. We're not seeing what's happening in the world. And then we know what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3, which says, For when they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. Brethren, we are on the verge of something very big.

But the news in this country, they're hiding it all from you. You are just not aware of what is going on. One of the big moves is China to make its currency, a trade world trade currency. And now, if you have its trade currency you want, and that means, well, you can buy oil through and buy all these things through it, then the dollar loses its value. And if the dollar loses its value, then if China does something against Taiwan, and we say, well, we're going to put sanctions, what's the good of sanctions? Because everything is being done outside of the dollar world.

You see, it's big things that are happening that we don't see. There is a scripture in Daniel 12 that really is very powerful. Sometimes we don't read it with its full meaning, and we have to read it very carefully. Daniel 12, and that is in verse 6 and 7.

And one said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, how long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be? And then I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and of a time. So three and a half years. Now the word and is not in Hebrew. So for three and a half years, so if we read without that word and, you would read it this way. It shall be for three and a half years. You know the great tribulation is three and a half years, right? Before Christ came in is when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered.

Do we get that? When the power of the holy people has been completely shattered.

Satan, and God is going to allow it, is going to completely shatter the power of the holy people. Now who's the holy people? Oh, I believe we can look at it physically and spiritually. The power of the holy people spiritually is a church. It means that they will come before the great tribulation, is a church. It means that they will come before the great tribulation, that we will not be able to do a work.

Right?

Now if you look at from a physical point of view, before the great tribulation, and if you put that together with Isaiah chapter 5 verse 6 and others, and I think it's Psalm 83, and others, and our booklet, I think it's our booklet, the Middle East in Bible prophecy, goes through that in quite a bit of detail. But if you put that together, it means that during that period of one month, the United States, the English-speaking nations, and the Jewish nation Israel will be destroyed in one month. And that, looking at this, is the period from 1290 to 1260. See, there's a countdown. 1290 is the abomination of desolation. You got in a month. And then 1260, when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered. It's then, it's too late.

Well, by that time, we have a countdown. So by that time, then, oh, we know the day or the hour, or maybe not the hour, but you count down the days. But before that, we don't. And that could come upon us like a thief in the night. So the point is, there's going to be a time when the power of the holy people will be completely shattered. Brethren, you can save as much food as you want for the last three and a half years. But when you have another government ruling in the States, where there's no democracy, there's no hope. Things will be a disaster.

So what is our hope? We have to trust God. You and I have to trust God. Remember the Israelites leaving Egypt? They tested God and tempted God because they didn't trust God.

Our only hope is trusting God. How did the Israelites were fed? Well, it's because they had a pantry full of canned foods and carried with them. You know the story. God provided food for them in the desert miraculously.

For whatever million people they were, three or whatever, two million people, whatever, for 40 years. And when they rebelled, even, they even gave them meat. That we're tired of quail food for up to yah. But you see, God can provide for us.

We have to trust God.

But you and I know from the prophecy there will be some people that will be protected and some people will not.

Revelation 12 is very clear that it says you'll persecute a woman and the woman will be protected, but then you'll go to the remnant of the woman who does. They'll keep the commandments and have the faith of Jesus. So a part of the church will be protected and part of the church will not. You read Matthew 25. We've got the 10 virgins. Virgins. They're all virgins. So in my mind, they're all in the church of God. But five were wise and five were foolish. Five, in a sense, you could say we're protected and five were not. You could interpret it that way. And that's why it says watch and pray. You read that at the end of Matthew 25. It says watch and pray. You see, yeah, we got to watch and watch world news. Correct. But I think the most important we have to watch is ourselves.

Is ourselves.

You read in Luke 21. I think it's verse 36. It says, watch and pray that you may be counted worthy to escape and to stand before the Son of Man.

It doesn't say watch and pray that you'll make the right decision to flee. It doesn't say that.

But it says that you will be counted worthy by whom? By God. How? I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised if you look at stories like Lot and others, that an angel came and intervened for them. God did those things. They are examples for us that He can do that again. And that's why you read other parables and it says, two are in the field. What do you mean in the field? Let's say two are in the church. And one was taken and the other one was not. Taken where? To... I could speculate, maybe I'm wrong, but I could speculate, to a place of protection from the face of the serpent. The point is we have to be watching ourselves.

You see, the big battle you and I have is here in our minds, in your mind, in my mind. Paul describes that in Romans chapter 7. He says, I have a war. There is a law in my members that it's against the law of my mind because He has God's Holy Spirit, God's Holy Spirit working in His mind, but in His carnal flesh there was a drive. You read that in Romans chapter 7. Let's just look at verse 23. Romans chapter 7 verse 23.

It says, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind. In other words, my carnal mind, my carnality, it's in my members, it's warring against the law of my mind, which is God's Spirit is working in my mind, in your mind, in our minds, and we have this war. We have this battle. Be careful how you say something. Be careful how you treat other people like we heard in the sermon there. True religion is a way. It's how we... and if you read, for instance, I think it's Hebrews 5, the last chapter of Hebrews 5, that you gotta be mature and have by reason of practice exercising the discernment of right from wrong. That is Christian maturity. That is true religion. Is putting to practices living the way and exercising that and living the right way. You see, the real battle is here. Oh, and what about Satan? Yes, Satan is like... he just pushes you a little bit over the wall. He just pushes you further. But people, even in the world tomorrow, Satan will not be there pushing them over the wall. Wrong peers will not be there. Wrong society, wrong world will not be there influencing them. But they will still have to overcome their carnal mind. You see, you and I have to overcome.

We have to overcome ourselves, our mind. That's what we gotta do.

That's the big challenge. Oh, sure, there's a Satan, there's a roaring lion with these little subtle thoughts. Hey, what does it matter? Just, it really makes no difference. Let's just do this or do that. It does matter. It does matter. Let's not allow a little yah, a little day, that we may fall backwards. It does matter.

And if you read a little bit further in Romans chapter 12 verse 2, it says we have to renew our minds. We have to transform. The word there in Greek is metamorphosis. You know, metamorphosis, when you got a little animal and goes through a little bug, whatever it becomes through metamorphosis, it becomes a butterfly. You know, that's a complete change, a metamorphosis. Our minds have to go through this metamorphosis, this transformation to become a divine mind like God.

Okay, maybe we don't fully make it, becoming fully mentally changed by the time we die. But God sees the heart and intent. You'll be trying, you'll focus, you're really working on it. And then when we're resurrected, God will make up the difference because he knows the heart and you'll be trying. But the point is you are making an effort not to deviate from the way by allowing a little yah, a little day, and therefore we end up falling backwards. We must not allow that. You see, the big problem, you read Jeremiah 17 verse 9. Let's just turn there. Jeremiah 17 verse 9. The heart is deceitful, desperately wicked. Oh, not my heart. I don't see any wickedness in my heart. Oh, yeah. Let's not call the Bible, Bible a liar. It says the heart is deceitful above all things. That is your heart. That is my heart. That is our heart. Do we see that in you and I? That we have this subtleness to say, oh well, it's just a little yah or a little day. It really doesn't matter. It does matter. You see, it's deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Of course, God is testing us and allowing us, checking us. You see, God has got a big plan for you and I. Think about it. He's developing his team, executive team. He's developing his executive team of people that he can absolutely trust in the world tomorrow and for eternity. He's developing the Creme de la Creme, the real top executive team. Oh, yeah, you can be a very nice person. But are you really the Creme de la Creme that he is going to crown as his executive team? Now, quite often, I look at it and I say, Revelation 14 says it's 144,000. And I say 144,000 since the days of Adam and Eve. It's a mighty small number.

If indeed the first fruits are only 144,000, boy, I better bone up. We both, we all, better really jack ourselves up. I hope I'm wrong. But if it is only 144,000, man, that's a small number.

So, what do we need to do?

We need to put on the new man, 24 by 7. Now, we just left the days of 11 bread and we had the analogy of putting 11 out. But the spiritual meaning is, this now is in our minds that we have to be spiritually de-leavened forever. We're going to keep striving on that.

Look at Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3.

We're going to start reading verse 5.

It says, Therefore put to death your members, which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanless, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Hey, covetousness is idolatry. Because of those things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which things you yourselves once walked. Okay, so those things we've put off by baptism, hopefully. By baptism, we have put them off.

But, but now, what we have to put off now, then we are baptized. But now, you yourselves are to put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you put off already those deeds. But now, it's in the mind. It's how you treat other people. It's how you think and how I think, how we think. Do we say things? I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. Okay, we all do that. None of us is without sin. But at least we say, I'm trying to change. You see, you all have experienced situations during the days of 11 bread that maybe you found a little bit of leaven and things like that. That brings us lessons to say, hey, all these little things crop up and we find those spiritual things in ourselves. We find them, oh, there's a little leaven out there, a little sin that I've got to still work on. That's what that lesson is.

There's a wonderful scripture in Titus chapter 3. And I want us to look at that because quite often, maybe we haven't read it with that full meaning. Titus chapter 3.

And let's just read verse 4 and 5. But when the kindness and the love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, do we get what is just said? Or it's just words and whatever. What he's saying is the kindness and the love of God, our Savior, appeared. Who's appeared? Christ. The kindness and the love of God that has appeared is Christ. God, our Savior, is the Father. Oh, but Christ is our Savior. Of course it is. But they both work as a team, right? The Father had to be prepared to give up his Son, and the Son had to be prepared to die. They're both working together. They're both at our Savior's. Right. Christ gave his life. Right, so he's our Savior. But the Father is also our Savior. So when it talks about when the kindness and the love of God, when the act that the Father did by allowing his Son to die for us, that is the kindness of God towards us by giving us his Son, and his love towards us by giving his Son. When that appeared. Verse 5, not by our works.

Christ didn't come because your eye was such a nice goody-goody boy, let's call it that. No, Christ came because of the kindness and love of God. Not by my works, not by your works, but according to his mercy. He has done everything that is needed to save us. We're not yet fully saved, but we are in that way. In God's eyes, he's done everything to save us. Therefore, he saved us. How? How? Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

You see, the three work together. There's the Father, there's the Son, and there's the Holy Spirit. Now, when I say the three, I don't say the Holy Spirit is a person, but I say the three work together. The Father gave up his Son. The Son gave up his life for us, he's our eye priest. But the Holy Spirit is the power of God that you and I receive that does two important things. One, regenerates us. And two, renews our mind.

What do you mean regenerate? When were you generated the first time? When you and I were generated the first time is when you and I became a little embryo, ovum, in our physical mom because our physical dad gave that sperm that went into the ovum and then it fertilized that egg and we were that egg was fertilized was generated first time.

But we were regenerated when you and I, after baptism, through the receiving of God's Holy Spirit by the prayer and laying on of hands, the Father gave of his divine seed to us and he regenerated us as his real children of God.

By doing that, we are indeed children of God. We are indeed children of God. And that spirit is now renewing our minds by preaching your conscience, preaching my conscience, and daily. And you and I need to pray and ask for more of God's Holy Spirit daily. And daily we ask for more of God's Holy Spirit and our minds are being renewed. That's the transformation that we read in Romans 12 verse 2. The renewing of our minds. How? Through God's Holy Spirit. So the Father gave his son. His son came and died for us. He's now a high priest in heaven, but he sent us the spiritual tool, quote unquote, the spiritual energy, power, mind of God, essence to help us to change. And so it is a lovely scripture. God is writing his laws in our mind, in our hearts, through his Holy Spirit. That's what it is. And so as we do that, we have to be alert.

Now another thing that when I lived in South Africa, that we had to learn, that a company I worked for at that IBM, they took us to special training to beware of terrorism. See, there was a lot of terrorism at that time. People were putting bombs in the middle of the streets and things that people are coming in and you there's a lot of traffic jams and people walking between the cars and breaking into cars and things like that. So one of the things they taught us be alert. When there is a suspicious character out there, I'm watching you. I'm not being caught by surprise. And you know what? Then you know more an easy target is going to go to the other guy in front of you. I've seen that happen many times. I'm watching you. I'm not doing a visible sign, but he can see my eyes that I'm alert. I'm not playing with my cell phone completely distracted. I'm focused in what is happening around me.

And that is a way of being alert. You and I have to be alert to the things in the world, to these ideas, these things that come upon us, these vibes all the time so that you're alert and put them away because it's a battle of the mind. And you've got to put those things out. You've got to put those things out. Otherwise, you're distracted and you've got peers, you've got society, you've got gender laws, and you've got legalizing murder of babies as it's happening today and things like that. And you know, the world is just getting worse and worse. So, as we are living in this society, we need to watch like that water back was alert, took its little herd out separately, protected them, kept them united. We have to watch our minds all the time. We're going to be aware of our circumstances, of our influence of the world, influence of other people, allow, make sure that we don't allow junk in our minds, whether through our eyes by seeing it on the internet or whatever it is on TV or whatever it is, not watch things that are full of violence or full of sex, whatever it is, avoid that because it destroys your mind. We have to be watchful. Like that that herd of water back, they were watchful. You see, Satan and his demons are ready to pounce on us, but the biggest challenge is actually ours to be alert. We're going to be alert. And so, Satan's strategy, the strategy of the Swaldis, a little yah, a little deh, that you may fall backwards, are you and I alert.