at-One-Ment

Fasting is an important spiritual event in the life of a Christian. It's something that kind of raises a little dread within us. You know, God even created a holy day concerning fasting. I'd like you to turn with me to Isaiah 58.

We're going to take a look here at the first few verses of this chapter. This chapter is typically used by some in the church or church as kind of a rallying cry. To get out and do the work. To hurry up and finish the work so that Jesus Christ can come. In Isaiah 58, beginning in verse 1, it says, Cry aloud, spare not. Let's get on the TVs.

Let's get on the lectern. Let's get one of those big megaphones and cry aloud and spare not and tell my people their sins. Lift up your voice like a trumpet over in Africa. They sell these kind of a powered megaphone that's shaped like a trumpet, a big bell off the front. And people hook these things up over there. Get a microphone attached to a big old amplifier and they'll go at it.

Just tearing up the citizens with the word. Sometimes it's in a language you can't understand. Most of the time it is. But they are passionate. Should we do this? Should we cry aloud and spare not? Lift our voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins.

Close the book. Boom. Okay. We have a mission. We have a mission. Let's go out and tell all those carnal sinners in the house of Jacob, all of Israel and the descendants of Israel. Let's go tell them their sins. Well, whoever read verse 2, They seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness. Does that typify the world in which we're in? If we went out to the world today, to the nations of Western Europe, to the descendants of Israel, are these people seeking God daily?

Are they delighting to know His ways as a nation that did righteousness? That did not forsake the ordinance of their God? They ask of me the ordinances of justice and take light in approaching God. It's just possible, brethren, that this is a dual statement or prophecy, something with duality that sure, God is not going to allow anything to befall the nations without a warning going out. But if we look carefully here, is He not also talking within?

To people who seek Him daily, people who are trying to do righteousness, who take delight in approaching God on a daily basis. And who would that be? And this house of Jacob, or Israel, is not the church called the house of Israel? The spiritual house of Israel? Are we not the spiritual Jacob? In verse 3, why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen?

Oh, these people are fasting. Talking about fasting here today. Who are these individuals? Is this not sometimes you and me? You know what? Fasting is something that can be done for two different reasons, maybe more, but I would say two different reasons. When it says in verse 3, why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? That is one reason. They are fasting to receive something. And God must be asleep. Something's wrong here. We fasted, where are you? We're trying to receive something, but we've not gotten it.

In verse 3, continuing, why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice? We're not getting anything in return. That's one way of fasting. In fact, it says, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your labors. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. Is this a fast that I have chosen?

Hmm. A fast that God has chosen. What fast has God chosen? You know, perhaps it's an annual fast called the Day of Atonement. A fast that God has chosen. We're about to participate in the Festival of Atonement. What is that festival about? Is it just a small event, a little road bump on the way to the Feast of Tabernacles? A little slowdown before you go have a lot of fun and a lot of food. You have to sort of go through purification or prepayments. What is that Feast of Atonement all about? And does it really have any real meaning for the rest of our life, for the rest of the year, for the rest of the plan of God?

Duality, I think, is relevant here for certain. Who is in the cross hairs of God's focus? What we find in the end time, God does want to test and prove Jacob, and it's a time of Jacob's trouble. But at the same time, it's a time for judgment to be upon the house of Jacob, spiritually. So God is looking at both. And it's important for us, I believe, to realize what our responsibilities are concerning Feast of Atonement, fasting in general, and those things that God would have us do during a fast. A fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul. You know, in my Bible, if you look directly across the page from verse 5, is verse 13, where it says, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, then you will delight yourself in the Lord. It's interesting, the Feast of Atonement is a Sabbath. It's an annual Sabbath, an annual holy day. And there are ways that we are to observe the weekly Sabbath and these annual Sabbaths that are very, very pleasing to God.

I'd like to take a look at that today as we examine the purpose of fasting, the purpose of Atonement, and the greater long-range plan or aspect that this will have in the plan of God.

This is a very unique festival among the seven festivals. It's the one where you stop eating. It's the one where some stop rejoicing.

You go through a period of near-death experience.

It's a funny thing. You take food away and water away from a human being, and we begin to panic. We really begin to wonder if everything's going to work out.

Let's begin by turning back to Leviticus 23 and verse 27. Leviticus 23 and verse 27. I want to focus on a particular word. The word is, Anah. Anah. That word, Anah, is directly associated with the Day of Unleavened Bread. Leviticus 23 and verse 27 says, Also, the tenth day of the seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall anah your souls.

You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. If you look up this word, Anah, in Strongs, it says it's the idea of looking down or browbeating. It's to depress, to abase the self, to chasten the self, to humble the self, to submit the self, and to weaken. Often times when we read this passage, we think it's a day to afflict ourselves by not eating. Therefore, we're going to be afflicted because our stomach will hurt, and we'll be real weak, and we'll have bad breath, and we'll feel lousy, and probably have a headache.

Especially if we like coffee, it's going to be a real miserable day. So we will afflict ourselves. But this word really means to do something mentally, as much as physically. And it's a looking down, a self-abasement, a self-chasening, a humbling of oneself. This is the importance of fasting. This is the importance of the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement is all about getting rid of the wrong will, of looking down, getting rid of the self and self-will, and bringing in the will of God.

It's all about removing all people, especially the great author of a different will, a selfish will, and replacing it with the will of God. There were two trees in the Garden of Eden, and man has been trying to draw his life from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He didn't eat off the tree of life, but he's been using this other tree to try to make that his life sustenance. Pulling this fake life, this self-determination of good and evil, is not taking man in the right direction.

We're to stop eating that. Essentially, on an atonement or during a fast, we're to stop eating from the wrong tree. Stop thinking our own thoughts. We're to abase ourselves, put our thoughts aside, our will aside, like Jesus Christ fasted 40 days, 40 nights. He came face to face with Satan. He put his will aside and any temptation and selfish thoughts, and he only did the will of God. This is a time to stop eating that, instead to chase into a base to humble the self, to realize that life only comes from the other tree, and that you and I eat too much off the wrong tree.

All humans do. That Satan is the author of that false tree. We've got to withdraw from that and look to Jesus Christ as our source of bread and our only source of food in life. Life is in God through Jesus Christ. That is where life is. And fasting is a wonderful time for us to stop and analyze ourselves, put away those other mentalities, and focus on God.

It also said there, in that same verse, that you shall offer an offering made by fire to God, to the Lord. A fire offering is one of those offerings that was totally burnt up. Nobody received anything from it. The Levites didn't have steak that night, sort of broiled, no? The boiled offerings they were able to stick forks into and get some food from. But the fire offerings, those burnt offerings, all were burnt to God.

They were totally burnt up. They were a sweet aroma, sweet-smelling savor to God. But there was nothing selfish to draw from that. It's interesting, on the Feast of Atonement, we abase the self and we don't expect anything back from God. It's not like those fasting, Isaiah 58 said, Hey, we fasted for you, but we didn't get anything back. We didn't receive anything. Are you death up there? What's going on?

You didn't hear. We need to look to God with no kickback. We really, really, truly desire the nature of God. Not just because some great God who could punish us wants us to do that and therefore, okay, we'll do it to make Him happy so we can get something. That's not what God wants.

He wants us to have His mind.

Let's go to Romans 8, verse 11.

Romans 8.

Begin here in verse 11. It says, But if the Spirit of Him, of the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, this other mentality, this other mindset, then the Father who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, which dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh or the mind of the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

That's how we need to abase ourselves, to humble ourselves, to find those sins and put them out. And if we do that, put to death the deeds of the body, then we will have life.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

The word led, that verb, is an interesting word. It means ego, or it actually is ego, and it means to lead, obviously. But it means to bring, means to drive, to go, to induce, to carry, or to be carried. There's a lot of motion here to transport somebody in a certain direction.

It's not just a matter of having the Holy Spirit, but to be carried by it, driven by it, from inside, motivated by it, induced to do something.

Verse 15, For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, like you have to do this. Now you've been called so you have to obey God. If you do that, brethren, then you're no different than a Pharisee who kept the law but didn't love the law. We have to have the internal compulsion by that Spirit to want to be godly. And if so, notice what it says. If we're led by this, then you received this Spirit of sonship, or adoption, by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

The Spirit of adoption. Now, we teach in the church that this is not adoption but sonship. It actually is adoption in the Roman form, but the Roman form of adoption is very different than any adoption we would know today, where you graciously would take someone and you would bring them in, and there would be a special child within your family. This is talking about a little different form of adoption. I'd like to read from the Adam-Clarke commentary something about adoption. The Spirit of adoption. It really means sonship. Adoption was an act frequent among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, by which a person was taken out of one family and incorporated with another. Persons of property, a person who had wealth and he had property but he had no children, often would adopt. He would adopt those of another family. The child thus adopted ceased to belong to his own family. It was a formal cutting of ties with the original family, just like our old father, the devil. But we have been brought into as sons into the family of God and we cut off, we cease, we are formally brought out of that old crazy family, if you want to call it that, and into the family of God. Continuing on, Adam-Clarke says, and now this child was in every respect bound to the person who had adopted him, as if he were his own child by birth. And in consequence of the death of his adopting father, he now possessed his estates. He now possessed his estates.

If a person after he had adopted a child happened to have children of his own, then the estate was equally divided between the adopted children and the biological children.

That is true sonship. So when it says in verse 15, you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by which we cry out, Abba, father.

We find that this is a true family relationship. It's genuine. We find right after this, in verse 16, the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joined heirs with Christ, so you see, we receive the inheritance just as if we had been born divinely into the family of God at our first birth. Sure. The term Abba, father, is addressed in several ways. Some say it's a very familiar Abba in the Aramaic, very familiar, almost what a child would say to a father. And that's fine, but I want to focus on something else just for a minute. While anyone can know of the Father in heaven, only his children can use the Syriac Aramaic term Abba. Reason why? Again, from Adam Clark, it has been remarked that slaves were not permitted to use the term Abba or father to the master, nor could a slave use the term Emma or mother to their mistress. We notice up here in verse 15, you did not receive the spirit of bondage or slavery or servitude, as it were. It's not that relationship. So we are able to make the statement, Father, like he is our real Father because he is our real Father. Barakas' commentary on the Hebrew canon states, men servants and maid servants do not call their master Abba, nor their mistress Emma. Jesus Christ tells us, back in the Gospels, I call you no more servants, I call you friends.

What is the meaning and purpose of this great festival, the great fast atonement?

Simplified, to be in the family of God, you have to be saved because we are on a road to death.

You can look at almost any kind of a clandestine adventure where a person is facing death and the death is getting closer and closer. The old movies, the old silent movies, you might have this woman captured and put on this conveyor belt. The conveyor belt is this giant saw and she is kicking and looking at the saw and it is getting closer. She is all excited. The bottom of the screen words flash out, oh no, I am going to get cut by this saw. Somewhere over here is a cowboy in a big white hat. He looks at her and is like, mmm, mmm, mmm. He is going to go do something about this. She needs a savior. A person who is drowning out in the ocean and they are about to go under. They need a savior. They need somebody to save them. Well, you and I are on a path towards destruction. This earth is going to burn up. And if we don't get off in spirit form, we are going to die. And it is just as simple as that.

Read all about that in 2 Peter chapter 3. So we need a savior. We have to be saved.

We have to have a hero right in and save us.

Now that hero we all know is Jesus Christ and he will save you on one condition. Switch families.

That is all you have to do. Switch families. Because one family is going into destruction and everlasting punishment. The other family is going to live forever happy in New Jerusalem.

New heavens and new earth. You have to switch families. In order to do that, you have to switch natures. You need to repent, detest the family you have been with, the mentality of that family. You need to apologize for it. You need to change. You need to devote yourself to the new family. Come to embrace all the mentality, the goals, the mindset of the new family and pursue it.

And if you do that and get adopted in, you get to be a son or a daughter in the new family.

You're good to go. That's really what it all boils down to. The apology comes from admitting you're stupid. Now, would you admit that you're stupid? Would I admit that I'm stupid?

No, we as humans tend to think we're smart. We eat off this tree of knowledge of good and evil. We've developed all of this industry and culture that we have. We're racing along towards our doom, and we think as a human race we're just as bright as it gets.

But God has called a few that aren't so wise. And it turns out that there's a lot of stupidity that we in the human race are all about. In Galatians 5 and verse 19, we see it explain to us in terms that we should be able to understand. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, and it starts naming them. Stupid things. Stupid things. Trash your own family is the first one. And trash your future family is the second one. Things that are just really, really dumb.

Verse 20, trash your relationship with God. Make sure that doesn't exist. And then go about and make everybody as mad at you as they could possibly be.

And if you get past that and do it well, then you get down to verse 21, and then you get into the physical retaliations that go around for all that. Isn't that stupid? That's really, really dumb. It really is.

And so we really have to admit that man's way is dumb. It's like Forrest Gump said. My mother said, stupid is as stupid does.

You know, if you don't want to admit that stupid is, well, just look at what stupid does.

Who in their right mind would develop all the wonderful things that we do, go around the world and help everybody, build it all up, donate, charity, and then develop the most sophisticated bombs that can go blow it all up?

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Hey, we're good at this. Just take pride at it.

Name some of your stuff, the destroyer.

The destroyer. And other names out. We can destroy. We can blow things away. And then right behind it, you've got another group. We can rebuild.

You know, for just a few trillions of dollars, we can rebuild what we just destroyed.

So we can destroy it again. It's just stupid. It's crazy.

This thing about being stupid is important because if we look in Galatians 5 and verse 22, we see the fruit of the Holy Spirit recognizes one's own stupidity, believe it or not.

The Greek word is prou-tis. The Greek word is prou-tis. And it means, essentially, recognizing one's own stupidity. Now, can you find it in the list there? It starts out, the fruit of having God's Holy Spirit in your life is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Wow. Those are the things that build up relationships with God, with family, with friends. This is smart. But going to verse 23, gentleness, self-control. Oh, that means my ideas are not the good ideas. I have to control them.

And the next word we find here, well, the word just before self-control, sometimes translated gentleness, is meekness in the margin. Meekness, of course. How many can define meek? How many know what meekness is? Well, meekness is the admission of stupidity.

There you go. Looked at this word for many, many years and analyzed it in all respects. There's no English equivalent of the word meek or prou-tis in the Greek. There is none. You have to use a whole long string of things. But it basically means, I don't know anything. I don't know anything. And in my not knowing anything, I must rely totally on God. Now, Jesus Christ said as a wonderful example, I do not say it in the least that He was a person who knew nothing. But what did He say? I don't do my own will. I do the will of the Father. I don't speak my own works. I speak the will of the Father. He was totally reliant on God the Father. When somebody called Him good, He said, don't call any man good. Reflected on God the Father. Because in the human realm, we as human beings don't have the smarts for these things. These come from God.

So this meekness means the admission that one knows nothing. One knows nothing. It's very important for us to not retain human knowledge in the sense of human will, human integrity, my way, I know best, I want my way. We must divest ourselves of those things and seek the will of God. Praying daily, not my will be done, but your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, in this body, in this mind, as much as it is in heaven. Until this takes place, the meaning of the Day of Atonement cannot take place. It cannot be done. It cannot be fulfilled.

Because the Day of Atonement isn't just about people going hungry. It's not just about putting Satan in a dark hole somewhere. It's about a change, a change of way, a change in the universe.

A change in eras.

You know, there were many people who attempted to retain their human ideas and human ways while becoming Christians. The Bible is full of examples like that. You saw one disciple, Judas. Oh, he wanted to be a disciple, but he also wanted to have his own way and his own money, see? And he figured out even how he could betray Jesus Christ, but still be in the group. We saw individuals coming to John the Baptist to be baptized. And what did he say to them? You brood of vipers!

Who told you to come? There were individuals trying to keep the law of God, Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, keeping the law of God while at the same time trying to keep their own selfish mind, their own selfish ways.

Acts chapter 8, Simon Magus. Well, he saw how the Holy Spirit was given, and he wanted to be part of that group, but he also wanted his selfish, I guess it was money-making schemes, personal power, wanted that to be maintained at the same time. You remember Ananias and Sapphira in Acts the fifth chapter. Well, they were part of the New Testament, New Church converts. They wanted to be giving and serving like everyone else and appear that way while at the same time be selfish and retaining their own selfishness. They both fell down and breathed their last. Jesus Christ says in Matthew chapter 5 that it's the meek that will inherit the earth. Now, there's an interesting statement.

It's the stupid ones in their own mind, in their own eyes. They will inherit the earth. What is that all about? Why is it those who say, I don't know how to live, my feet can't direct my own paths, create in me a clean heart, I don't know how to live, God. I need you to be my intelligence.

Well, the meek, those who look to God and His mind, His will, they're going to inherit the earth. Atonement shows us our way into the kingdom of God. It's the cleansing of the saints of Satan, of the old father, of the old family. It's the harmonizing of the saints with the family of God. That's what Jesus Christ is all about, the harmonizing. If you think about how the prophetic timeline goes, let's just notice some things.

Feast of trumpets we just kept, it's all about Jesus Christ as the King of kings.

Revelation chapter 19, beginning in verse 14, we see here how the heat comes in very powerfully. The armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white horses clean, followed Him on white horses, I'm sorry, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. So here's Christ with the saints, the armies in heaven, out of His mouth goes a sharp sword that He would strike the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. So here He comes in on the Feast of Trumpets and what that feast symbolizes. Now, the Feast of Atonement follows the start of the very next chapter, the removal of Satan. The angel, the powerful angel, comes down having a key to the bottomless pit, and He laid a hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil in Satan, and He bound him for a thousand years. This is a very powerful angel, and He cast him into the bottomless pit, and He shut him up and set a seal on him so he should deceive the nation no more until the thousand years were finished. Then we come to the Feast of Tabernacles.

We find this is the time when the knowledge of God fills the earth. It says back in Isaiah the 11th chapter. But continuing on here in verse 6, blessed and holy is He who has a part in the first resurrection, over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. So here's a thousand year millennial reign, which the Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes. Then we have that last great day, or the eighth day, of the Feast. Verse 12, Revelation 20, I saw the dead, small and great. These are the dead from verse 5, the rest of the dead that did not live again until the thousand years were finished.

And these small and great standing before God. They're no longer dead. They're standing.

The books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works in this lifetime, according to the things which were written in the books. So here we have this plan of God, and within this plan is the Day of Atonement and the removal of Satan. You know, this removal of Satan is going to happen quickly, firmly, and it's done. But it's also going to happen on a different level, and it is happening today on a different level. The first level is when he is removed from the earth. It's an initial step. It's an important step. It's vital, because then he cannot deceive anymore. He cannot hamper within the Millennial period. He can't interfere with what God is doing. But the result of removing Satan is a neutral environment. You might even say a neutral mentality will result. Nothing spiritual results just because you take Satan out. You just have a neutral environment, one that would be more conducive to making good choices. But no choices have been made yet, you see. You know, you and I can experience this very thing that they will experience then. You and I can experience it now by simply resisting the devil, and he will flee far from you by coming out of her, my people.

Keep the Sabbath holy. That's a special time where we pull out of whatever we were doing. The same with the holy days, the festivals of God. To keep those holy. We can resist the devil. He will flee from us. But again, that gives us a neutrality.

The purpose of mankind is not neutrality of mind. It's not. God didn't call us just to be without something. He called us to be with something. To aspire to godliness, to sons, to family, to being his children, to being of his mind, doing his will, obeying him from the heart.

And that's the second level, the spiritual association that really the Day of Atonement begs in the long term. That we have a spiritual association with God, and at one meant with God. To remove Satan from our mind, from our hearts. And this at oneness comes through a process. A process that you and I have been involved in since baptism.

You know, Jesus Christ has some titles that he uses. One is Prince of Peace.

Prince of Peace. The word peace doesn't just mean an absence of war. It means harmony. He is Prince of Harmony. He is like a conductor of a symphony. And all of the different players with various instruments, each one unique and different, all are taught and finally combined in a very beautiful symphonic production. It's a wonderful thing. That's what Jesus Christ has come to take the many people and the many minds and to bring them into a symphony that is one and united with the theme of God, with the mind, with the plans and the purpose of God. And this is the oneness of mind through the process that Jesus Christ is the champion of. He is the champion of harmony, or harmonizing. His whole mission is to take the dysfunctional, diffused family of man and to harmonize it with the family of God. He's called the King of Salem. The King of Harmony would be another definition of that, another definition of peace. This harmony and peace is accomplished through a oneness of mind. And that's what it all comes down to.

The only people that will be in the kingdom of God are those who have the mind of God, those who are led by the Spirit and have a compulsion from within, who get rid of Satan, get rid of the self, who put it down, debase the self, just as we do in the Day of Atonement, we're told there in Leviticus 23, and we replace that with the mind of God. We follow the example of Jesus Christ who sought to do his Father's will and fulfill what was on his Father's mind.

Let's go to John 17, verse 22 and 23. Here's a prayer that he prayed just before his death, and it summarized this prayer in chapter 17. It really summarized what he had come to do and what he and the Father aspire to do then and in the future, including us. But just to pluck out two verses. John 17, verse 22, and the glory which you gave me I have given them. There's some glory, there's some specialness, there's something unique that has been given to us, that they may be one just as we are one. Now what do you think that is that makes us one with God just as Jesus Christ and the Father are one? Well, that is the mind of God through the Spirit of God, the overcoming, the repenting, those gifts that God has given to his first fruits.

In verse 23, I and them and you and me that they may be perfect in one.

At-one-ment is the name of that festival of atonement. At-one-ment, to be at one, of one mind, to have divested ourselves of all other family ties, all other mentalities, to say, you know, I'm just not smart enough to know how to direct this family or even this individual. I need to rely on my Father. Father knows best. When we come to this mentality, then we will fulfill their desire that they may also be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. This unity of mind is what your life is all about. It's what you're on this earth for. You have to choose. What family do you want to be of? What family do you want to be from?

Is this the society, the world, the way, the mentality that you claim? If so, you have a country and you have a political system and you have your favorite political players and you have your angst that you go through when you watch the news each day and you wish that your political players would do things a little differently so that it would all work out. Or, as we heard in the sermon at in Hebrews 11, there are those who declare they're from a different country. They have a different father, a different system. And, heartbreaking as the world events are each day, they really are not of our concern because we are not of this country or this nation.

We are not even of this humanity. We are of the spirit world, the family of God. We are children of a heavenly father. We are children of a heavenly country. And that country right now exists in the spirit side or you might call it the heavenly side, the spiritual side. And that's where we yearn to be. That's where we want to be. And the Apostle Paul said, you know, we've grown within this earthly tent, but if we could be, we'd be absent from the body. We'd like to get on to where the home is, where Jesus is preparing a place for us in the family home. We'd rather be in New Jerusalem, doing the will of our Father. This is exemplified over in Leviticus 16.

I don't know if we realize it, but there will be a clean break between these two mentalities.

Absolutely clean break. There will be no commingling in the end. And this is shown in what we observe on the Feast of Atonement. Leviticus 16, beginning in verse 8.

And then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats. This is on the Feast of Atonement.

One lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. The scapegoat is a mistranslation. It does not exist. It's the Azazel goat. It's not a scapegoat. It's not like somebody blamed the wrong guy, you know, and he becomes a scapegoat. No, it's Satan, and he deserves it.

But this Azazel goat, in verse 9, Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord's lot fell. See, one represents Jesus Christ and offer it as a sin offering. Jesus Christ died so that you could repent and I could repent, so that we could be forgiven afterwards, and we could be reconciled to the family of God, so that we could have the mind of God, that we could become the children of God with the full inheritance of sons and daughters in the divine family of God. In the goat, in verse 10, on which the lot fell to be the Azazel goat, shall be presented alive before the Lord. See, you can't kill Satan. I don't know why. I don't know why God can't kill spirit beings, whether he chooses not to, or it's just not possible. Chances are good it's not possible, and that's why you and I are flesh and blood, because it is possible to get rid of us. But on this goat, he used to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement upon it and to let it go as the Azazel into the wilderness. So he was taken by the hand of a very fit man and let go into an uninhabited place, just as the great angel will take hold of Satan the devil and bind him and cast him into outer darkness eventually in an uninhabited place, bottomless pit.

This also represents the whole mind of Satan. Carnality, selfishness, Satan, the whole nine yards, the second tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it and everything with it is going away. So that these two mentalities will never coexist, not on earth. They won't exist in the future, and they do not, will not exist in the first fruits, those of us who are becoming the children of God. We are instead resisting the devil. We are repenting of selfishness. We're putting on the mind of Christ, and those with the mentality of the God family are going to inherit the kingdom. If we go to Revelation chapter 21 and verse 7, we find very clearly the one mindset will inherit the kingdom. He who overcomes, that's he who wins the battle. Overcomes means to win in a conflict, a war. You're fighting against Satan. You're fighting against his mentality. You're fighting against your selfish carnal nature. He who wins that war and overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. That group inherits the kingdom of God. But those with the mentality of Satan won't be there. In verse 8, "...but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone," which is the second death. You can reference that in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 10.

This is the end of that mind, that mentality. The two will not coexist.

I'd like to conclude by reading some in the book of 1 John. 1 John chapter 3 verses 1 through 9.

We'll begin here and indulge me just a moment because I don't think historically in the church we spend much time with verse 9 other than to state how much... well, actually, let's go to 1 John chapter 3 verse 1. We'll just read this passage and get to the other in chapter 5 I was talking about in a minute. "...behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us," 1 John chapter 3 verses 1 through 9. "...behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God." Children of God. "...therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him." Minds, mentalities. Beloved, now we are children of God and has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed we shall be like Him. We will be God as God is God.

For we shall see Him as He is, and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

To be a God-being means you think like a God-being. You do what God-beings do. When I say, we will be God as God as God, it's just like saying your baby when it's born will be human as you are human. It will have all the attributes that a human has. God is only wanting children who respond to Him, are humble, look to Him as the soul, mind, mentality, way, that are pure as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawless. That's a different mind. That's not according to the will and the mind of God. But who abides in Him does not sin. Do they ever sin? Yes, they do, but they do not sin in the same way that they used to. It's not their desire, their nature, their intent.

Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. See here, it's the mind, the mentality of the family. Little children let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. That's the mind of the family. That's what God wants. But He who sins is of the devil. For the devil is sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. All of that mind, all of those ways are to be destroyed. Yet whoever has been born of God, engendered from the new Father, doesn't mean literally born necessarily, but born, we've taken on the new Father, we're now engendered from above.

This individual does not sin. He doesn't have the mentality of sin. For His God's seed remains in Him. And He cannot have that mentality of sin because He's been born of God. Or you could say, once we are born spiritually into the family of God, you cannot sin. Because God beings cannot sin.

I remember Mr. Armstrong saying, really what God needs of you and me is for us to be able to stand before Jesus Christ at the resurrection and make the statement, as a child of God and the divine family of God, I will not sin. Because a God being cannot lie. And a God being has a desire and an intent that must be followed. Because God is truth. That's what God wants from us. Of course, it's a little too late to be a God being and then say, hmm, I don't think so.

So He's got to know now, doesn't He? He's got to know now that you and I will never sin. And we will absolutely not only state but be of the mindset that we would never sin. And therefore, we couldn't sin. God can't sin. God cannot lie. He couldn't lie if He wanted to because He doesn't want to. It's not possible. It's a wonderful thing and something we can all look forward to.

But moving on. Whoever is born of God does not think. We're not perfect yet, but we don't think like we used to think. When we're engendered of God, we desire the deeds and the mentality of the family of God. And that's why we crave a different country. It's not because we're not patriotic or not appreciative. We just have a mindset that's different than the selfish mindsets that exist here on earth. Now, let's go to 1 John 5 and verse 8. Verse 7.

Now, in the church, I don't believe that we've spent a lot of time appreciating 1 John 5, verse 7 and 8, because it's been such a big thorn in the side of true Christianity to have these false words inserted here to try to push this false doctrine of the Trinity.

And so, you spend so much time laboring in here to say what doesn't belong and to get rid of it.

And it's so intrusive to have false words written in there. Do we ever really take the time to appreciate what this passage is saying? First of all, let's clean it up. Verse 7. For there are three that bear witness. Now, after that word witness, if you have a pin in your pocket, you can just take it out and just draw through the rest of the words down to the middle of verse 8, because all that doesn't belong there. It was inserted there sometime in, I think it was the eighth century or sometime later down through time. Somebody wrote that in there. It should just say, for there are three that bear witness. Nothing else in verse 7 exists in the Bible. And then verse 8, the first phrase does not exist. So you can write right through that, through the word earth. Okay, through the word earth. Now we've got it all cleaned up. Now, let's go back and read what it's saying. For there are three that bear witness, the spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree as one. Or some translations say these three are one, are as one. In fact, this verse is exactly what I've been teaching you today.

The oneness, the unity, the at-onement for humans with God comes from these three things. These three things that bear witness, the spirit of God, this Holy Spirit that God gives us, that's the mind of God being put into our mind. That's a miracle. To be able to think the way God thinks, even a little bit, is a miracle. And the water reminds us of repentance and baptism, of forgiveness of sin, which is the only way that we can be reconciled to God. And the blood, the forgiveness that came through the blood of Jesus Christ. So we have the mind of God, we have our self-abasement, this meekness, this self-abasement, this repentance, this detesting of our old relationship with Satan and our own thoughts, our old thoughts. And now the forgiveness. And these three are one. They have single purpose, in other words.

These three have single purpose in helping the children that God has created on this earth, the children of Adam find a new Father and become children of God. In verse 10 it says, He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. If you and I believe, truly believe, and we have that faith from God, then we have this witness. The witness, the spirit, the water, the blood. We have that in us. We are moving along that path.

We are moving towards being one with God. Verse 11, and this is the testimony that God has given us, eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Verse 18, we know that whoever is born of God does not sin. Literally, when we are born in the family of God, we will not sin. Those who are now engendered from above do not have a mentality of sin. But he who has been born of God or engendered from God, engendered from above, keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

Isn't that something? Isn't that something? You and I keep ourselves, and Satan does not touch us, just like he will not touch those in the world tomorrow or in the second resurrection. This is our time. This is our time of atonement in the flesh with God. And we know that we are of God, and yet the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. It says in verse 19, now verse 20, And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us in understanding that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Brethren, we have a fabulous calling. The Holy Days reveal a fabulous plan, and the Day of Atonement is crucial to our being involved in that Kingdom of God. Now, as begotten children, and later as fully born children, let's really seek to remove Satan from our life today. And then we can help God remove Satan and all the Satanism and the selfishness from humanity in the world tomorrow as we reign with Jesus Christ.