Your Walk With God

There's a lot to say for traveling. You get to see other cultures, other peoples, and you don't understand them until you can actually live among them. Spend a little time. Here's some of the fears. Meet people who can't get through their front door without seven different keys along the way. Meet people who have been pistol-whipped or their brothers have been killed or shot. People who fear for their life because of illnesses that they have or the AIDS that's around them. Or just the culture when the phone rings and a woman's on the other line saying, Mr.

von Belkom, would you pray because the local town council is meeting today and they're choosing which white farms to take. And they only give us a couple hours notice and they won't let you take anything but your clothes. You can't take any of your machinery or any of your farms or any of your furniture because that's part of the booty that comes with this type of thing. But where you travel, whether it's in Europe, whether it's in Africa, whether it's South or Central America, Asia, the thing that strikes you most is that mankind is running down its own path.

It can be in Arabia and it's wonderful. If you think the Arabs, if you think the Palestinians are terrible people, you ought to go live among them, be among them. Some of my favorite people on earth, sorry to say so, also have weird, fanatical, horrible ideas about the Jews who are also wonderful people. And they used to coexist at some times in some ways together. But people are wonderful wherever you go. You can go to some of the places where you hear the stories of the worst and you find some of the nicest people there.

But everybody on this planet is going down the wrong path. And there's a payoff at the end of that path that is death. It's a way of death. It's a way of dying. It's not a pleasant path. The Bible says, the way of peace they have not known, though everybody's trying for peace. The whole concept of European Union, of the beast power is for peace on our terms. You know, peace among ourselves to get what we want. That's what the various factions in South Africa feel.

You have three factions over there. One is the whites, and they were the ones that moved in and colonized and took and took and took and set everything up to favor them. One are what they call themselves the coloreds, and those are the people from India, Pakistan, various other people with a colored type of skin that have moved in there also because of the opportunities of that land. The natural resources, the gold, the diamonds, the trade, the commerce. And then you have those who call themselves the blacks, the various tribes that live in that country who maintain that that is their country and are now in power with the ANC government and find it is just like a plum ready for the picking.

That they can just put anybody in any job and they just can suck up the funds and take them. They're obviously problems, big problems. And over in South Africa, the taxi cab drivers, what we would call matatus in Kenya, the minivans that drive around and pick people up, if you get too many minivans or the competition gets too great, they just pull out AK-47s and eliminate a few of the minivans in some of the competition. It kind of levels the playing field, as it were.

And amidst all that, you have the French Huguenots who fill the beautiful valleys with vineyards and the wineries are as outstanding or more so than the Napa Valley. And you have this huge mixture of humanity wherever you go. And the African people out in the rural areas are just as sweet and kind as you could imagine. You can go walk among them and their biggest crowds on market day and they'll love you for it. And they won't bother you. They just really appreciate you. And so people have a good side to them.

God created humans and said, they're good. It's good. There is good. But we've chosen a path lured by Satan to go a contrary way to God. We don't like to retain God in our knowledge as the human race. And this is so evident wherever you go. Even people professing God don't like to retain God's laws. They don't want to do what he says. They'll use his name and jump around. We can hear in East Africa about four o'clock, five o'clock in the morning, the loudspeaker wars.

The Muslims crank it up about four thirty with their calls of prayers. And then the Christian preachers get busy right after that with their loudspeakers. And in our places, probably two kilometers, is the crow flies from downtown. But you hear all this coming through the night air just blaring at you. And the Christian guy down there sometimes is demon-possessed, out of his mind, screaming and ranting and raving in some foreign language that I don't understand. But he's talking about Jesus half the time. It's an odd mixture. The blind leading the blind down an inky black road. And that inky black road is not getting better.

There's no signs of it getting better. The current government over in Kenya was supposed to be better than the last one, talked for two years about getting rid of corruption. And it turns out the U.S. government was right. It is more corrupt than the last government. It's just through and through corrupt. Everything is corrupt. You, however, sitting here today, are offered a different path.

I don't think that you and I appreciate. We think, oh, we got a choice. No, no, no, we have this choice. No, you have a calling. A calling has a choice associated with it, but you have a calling. And Jesus said that none can even come to me unless the Father draw them. And in this drawing, as Monty has taught us in the past, there is resistance. You know, you draw something, you have to... you're going to draw a car to you, you're going to pull something, a rock. We resist, don't we?

We like that other road. We like that other way. This different path has different direction with different consequences than the world is going down. The book of 1 John is all about walking. And it shows these two paths that you can go by. 1 John talks about walking in the light or walking in the dark. There's a choice, a choice that we have to make.

It says in 1 John 2 and verse 5, But whoever keeps his word, not hears it, not comes to church and hears and listens and yes to them, it's a lovely song, but he who keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. So as we go down this path, there's a perfection that is to take place.

We are to become perfect like our Father is perfect. And by this we know that we are in him. Verse 6, He who says he abides in Christ ought himself to walk just as he walked. So we see here the different direction and it's not knowing the path, it's not knowing the road and liking it, it's walking it. A chapter over in chapter 3 and verse 10 of 1 John, it says, In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.

Here's how we tell them apart. Whoever does not practice righteousness, not about those who love the law, know the law, advocate the law, those who practice righteousness are God's. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. And you can beat fine the phrase, love your brother, as to how that is done, how that can be accomplished, how we need to do it. But do we ever get up and walk down that road?

Or do we sit in our chair and say, well, I love my brothers, but I really don't want anything to do with serving, helping, loving, giving. It's about me. My wife and I were driving in here, right out on the street, there was a bumper, not a bumper, there was a window sticker. And the window sticker says, here's this little girl, she's got a heart, it's a little love sticker, you know, and it says, Let's focus on me.

I've seen that now twice. I saw a girl had a t-shirt on one time, says, Let's focus on me. That's sort of right out there, isn't it? But that's typical. We all like to focus on ourselves. In verse 18, it says, My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth. So today I want to ask you, are you walking like Christ? Or sometimes watching? Today let's examine the path of life and our trek down it in the sermon entitled, Your Walk with God. In Leviticus chapter 18 and verse 14, we learned that God has given ordinances.

Leviticus 18 and verse 14, you know what? This should be Exodus 18-14. My apologies. I wrote Leviticus, but I know this is Exodus. No, it's not. I hate it when this happens. I think it's Deuteronomy. But I'm not too worried because I have it printed out here. Well, I don't have it, but I'm going to read it to you. You shall observe my judgments and keep my statutes, my ordinances, to walk in them. If you see where that is, you just call that out to me. Well, just listen up, people. It says, you shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances and walk in them.

It's one thing to know the laws of God. One thing to hang the commandments on your wall. Me too. It's another thing I find to walk in them, to get up every day and to put God first, His will first, His way first, to put His teachings first. He says, I am the Lord your God, and you shall therefore keep my statutes, my judgments, which if a man does, not hears, but does, he shall live by them. Let's go to Exodus 15 now, in verse 25.

Exodus 15 and verse 25. I think I'm on safer ground here. What happens is these statutes and judgments he's talking about that if we live by them, we will live. We need to understand what they are. The nation of Israel here in Exodus 15 and the second half of verse 25, it says, there he made a statute and an ordinance. A statute and an ordinance. An ordinance is a decision based on God's law.

It's an application of the law. For them, He's talking about Israel, and there he tested them. Verse 26, and he said, now here comes the statute. This statute contains three things. First thing is, if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God, to heed the voice of the Lord your God means you have to first acknowledge Him as your Lord. You have to not have anything before Him. Not yourself, not anybody else, not any other thing before Him. Heeding the voice of the Lord your God. And secondly, and do what is right in His sight. In other words, perform God's will today in your life.

Doing what's right in His sight, not your own will. And the third thing is to give ear to His commandments and keep all of His statutes. To continually obey Him then. To give heed to them, deny the self, give heed to Him, and obey those throughout your entire life. And then He gives an ordinance, which is, based on these things, I will put none of these diseases on you, which I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.

That very thing that He presented Israel with then, He presents us with in the model prayer. In that prayer outline, we're to acknowledge God, we're to reverence Him and His kingdom, we're to apply His laws through repentance, and we are to continually obey Him, resisting Christ throughout our lifetime. So that is the path. However, the problem is that human nature gets in the way. Let's go over to Ecclesiastes 11 and verse 9.

Ecclesiastes 11 and verse 9 says, Rejoice, O young man in your youth, O goody, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Well, you look this up in a Bible commentary, such as the new commentary. This is showing how human nature gets in the way of us walking God's way. He says, Rejoice, O young man in your youth. And this is not a positive statement, but it's a warning. It's a warning. If you rejoice, O young man in your youth, the Hebrew word here for youth is boyhood or girlhood, the young years of life.

He goes on and says, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Well, that word is a different word in the Hebrew for youth. Two different words. One is a boyhood, girlhood. The second one means a chosen young person, one who is selected. It's almost as if you are now being called. That's how I might apply that. You see a progression here.

Rejoice, young man in your youth, okay? And let your heart cheer you in the days that you are selected. Going on. But know this, verse nine, for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Therefore, remove sorrow from your heart and put away evil from your flesh. We have these choices. We have been called. The lights have come on. Now, in times past, we have all walked contrary to God's way. It says in Romans 6 21, what fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?

Everybody here comes with some baggage. We all had this walk in our youth, as it were, and we all transgressed God's way. And what fruit did we have in those things? For the end of those things is death, Paul says. But verse 22, but now having been set free from sin, you've been liberated from the enslavement to your human nature. What are you going to do with it? You're going to walk away and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness in the end, everlasting life.

Some things that people hold onto may not strike them in their rational thought processes. I think all of us would tend to think, well, I'm a Christian, I'm obeying God, I like the laws, I'm waiting for the kingdom, doing okay, each day is all right. However, there are things that we as humans play games with. There are things that we don't totally get rid of.

Our human nature tends to gloss those over, like honesty. How honest, really, really honest are you when the policeman walks up and asks you a few questions? How brutally honest are you when somebody is asking you something that may require money or may require your life? I've seen individuals outright lie. Individuals who will tell a lie in the church, baptize people who will tell a lie and then say, well, it's okay if you're trying to save your skin. After all, Abraham did it or Abram did it. Abram did it, you know, a couple times there when he was going to get in trouble with some kings, Obimalak and another king.

So he just lied and said, she's my sister. And he lied. He was untruthful. Yes, he played his little game, but the man was a liar. And he didn't learn his lesson and he liked to play his game, but finally he became the father of the faithful. Later on, he grew out of that. What are some of the things that you and I might hang on to and not want to change or let go of? Taking God's name in vain, loving self before God and man. We do that. What we need to do as Passover approaches, begin to ask God for a deeper insight, a better understanding like David, show me my sins, test me and try me and show me where I'm wrong and create a clean heart in me.

Each day we should be doing that and be bold about it. Don't be timid. Don't be afraid to see, because after all, the freer you get, the more of God's blessings can come into your life. There are two paths you can go by. And here we are at a time when we still have an opportunity to choose which path. There's still time to change the road you're on. We have that ability, that opportunity.

The time is coming, however, when people will want to make those changes, when Jesus Christ is coming as very near, and the door will close and people will knock and it won't be open to them. In Romans 13 and verse 11, the Apostle Paul talks about stirring up that spirit. We all need that spirit stirred up at times, not to become complacent, not to say, oh yes, well I'm just waiting around here as one of the ten virgins and I don't need a bunch of oil in my lamp.

He says, and do this, do this, knowing the time that now is high time to awake out of sleep. I've never seen a time in history that could be closer to the return of Jesus Christ. I called Aaron Dean yesterday and we were talking about the 19-year time cycles because I was reading one of Mr. Armstrong's member letters from 1972 when one of the 19-year time cycles ended. And I wanted to know what happened in 1990 when the next one came along.

Well, about all that happened that year was the college in Pasadena was closed and everything moved to Big Sandy which gave the people at Pasadena a greater opportunity to teach whatever they wanted without faculty and anybody bothering them about the details.

But the next one comes up in, let's see, 2009. That's what, three years end of it. What could happen then? You never know. What could happen then? Then you find that people have calculated the end of 6,000 years. One ending date was 2024. I think that was the last one Dr. Hay had before the last one he told me he had. Well, somebody else calculated one here recently and said that most of the calendars and started naming off the calendars say 2012.

2012, just three, three and a half, you know. Well, anyway, 2012 is the end of several calendars, ancient calendars that say after this there will be no more time. The end of civilization will happen. Well, I mean, we're not going to start talking about dates, but let's talk about bombs. Who will have the nuclear weapons in the next five or ten years?

And how reliable will these countries be? You can name just a few. Iran, North Korea. Who's building missiles and selling them to each other? Who just got some nuclear fission material? Perhaps. You saw the sheet today. And where did it come from? Good old UK.

People don't know where some of this stuff is floating around.

All I'm saying is, if we apply this scripture knowing the time, that it's now high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. It could happen anytime. Anytime. Or your end could happen anytime. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly. Notice, walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, not going down that path, not being like society around us. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. We need help.

We do. And that help is available to us at all times. It's God's Holy Spirit. We need to be asking God to stir that up and show us our sins. How many cities do you want to rule over? Five, ten, or none? Kind of Jesus laid that out there. One guy got none because he sat and watched.

Well, Genesis chapter 5 and verse 24 is an example of an obscure individual named Enoch. Genesis 5 verse 24. Wouldn't it be nice to have said about you what God said about Enoch?

Enoch lived 65 years and he begot Methuselah. Methuselah was the longest living individual written in Scripture. I think something like 960 years. I'm not sure that's a good thing. But nevertheless, after he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God. Here's a person who walked with God 300 years. You today, if you're in a relationship with God, are walking with God. How long do you get to walk with God? Enoch walked for 300 years. It must have been quite a walk.

And it wasn't just smooth sailing. What was that like? Verse 23. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And it says, Enoch walked with God. He walked with God. Well, that's a good thing. In John chapter 8 and verse 12, Jesus Christ lays out how we too can be successful.

Enoch was a man of God, a person devoted to following God. And Jesus spoke in John 8, verse 12, said, I am the light of the world. Now what is this light of the world about, anyway? Is it so you can sit it on a hill and people will know that you're light?

Let's see what he's talking about here. Light for what purpose? What's the purpose of his light?

I am the light of the world. He who follows me, ah, shall not walk in darkness.

The point here is following and walking. We are not to just love Christ, have faith in Christ, or anything else about Christ. We are to follow him in the light that he shows us, the drawing that the Father gives us with the Spirit. And we are to walk in light, not in darkness. But it'll have, that individual will have the light of life to walk in. Do we want to walk?

Do we love God? Do we love his way? Do we love his family? Do we love his kingdom and his laws and his ways? If so, it's lit for us. It's very, very lit. Jesus would say, later, you are the light of the world. For what purpose? For what purpose would you be light to the world?

Well, to show the way, to light the path. Let's go to Psalm 119, verse 1.

This, the longest chapter anywhere in the Bible, begins with David as a youth. David was a youth, and he was called from a very early age. He was anointed the king. And what was the journey that he took? Well, it included youthful lusts, contrary to God.

He went through an initial faithful period where he killed Goliath and then became king. And then he went through a youthful lust period as a young king, and eventually, in his life, he became a faithful servant who had a heart after God's. Here in verse 1, it says, blessed are the undefiled in the way, in the way of God, who walk in the law of the Lord. These are very blessed. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. They also do know iniquity. They walk in his ways. Now, if this sounds too perfect for you, this sounds too high and lofty, it's okay, because it was for David, too. And that's what he's talking about here. Verse 4, you have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently, O that my ways were directed to keep your statutes. But they're not, you see. I have human nature. He goes on in verse 6, then I would not be ashamed like I am when I look at myself, when you show me my sins, when I look into all your commandments, it makes him ashamed.

I will praise you with uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous judgments.

I will keep your statutes. O, do not forsake me utterly. Their brethren is where we're all at.

There's where David was. That's where you and I live, in this desire to live God's way and walk, and walk perfectly. But we don't have the heart at times. We don't have the mentality.

And so we are ashamed when we look into the law of God. But that's okay. Look in the law of God and be ashamed and repent of that. Apologize and get up and try again.

That's what we need to do. David goes on there to sing praises to God and determines to keep the statutes. But please don't forsake me utterly. And in other places, don't take your spirit from me.

This world is on a youthful mission, as it were, a youthful path. It's going in the way of youth and self and self-exploration. But Christ's body is on a different path. It's on a challenger course up the mountain. And that's the higher route. It's the more difficult route, but it's the better route. A lot better. And those of us who are on the challenger course with Christ following the light are heading for perfection. And we're not perfect yet. We are very much under construction. And we should not expect anything from anybody else except ourselves with the help of God. That is the daily challenge. And it's very doable, brethren. It's doable. And the more we participate in it, the better life is, the better it gets. Paul, you remember, said at the end, I have fought the good fight. There's a lot of energy, a lot of motion, a lot of walking, a lot of running that's involved in that. Ephesians 4, verse 1, as we wrap this up, says that we are to walk. Walk. Be in motion. Head down that path that is challenging.

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord be, seat you to walk and walk worthy of the calling in what you were called. We are not like society in the sense that we don't have to go that path that leads to destruction. And Paul here encourages us to walk in the calling of which we were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, linked up with God, linked up with that which is God's, those things that are holy and those people of God that are holy.

In closing, it's very much human nature for us to be concerned about our own needs, to save our own skin. It's very typical for us to be righteous in order to get into the kingdom, get ourselves saved, but there is a higher purpose for you, a higher purpose for me, a bigger reason for walking God's way than just being in God's kingdom or just, you know, saving your skin, as it were, from the lake of fire. In Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 20, I'd like to close by reading a scripture that we hear oftentimes at feast time. Within this context, it gives us the purpose for walking the difficult path, for going through the narrow gate. Isaiah 30 and verse 20 says, And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, He's not talking about you. He's talking about people in the millennium. He's talking about people in the second resurrection that come up for that hundred-year period when all of humanity gets resurrected again to the human state. And though the Lord gives them the bread of adversity, which is good for them because it tests and challenges and moves them forward and the water of affliction, yet your teachers, ah, the teachers, your teachers, what's a teacher? It's one who is trained, one who is experienced, one who coaches, one who advises.

Those teachers that Jesus Christ and God the Father are calling and working with now, that's you and me. Your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Our conversion isn't just about us. Our conversion is to help. It's to assist Jesus Christ as His bride, is to be a helper in the kingdom, a helper of humanity. When we see all the social ills that exist on this earth and we sigh and cry for them, the answer is not to join the Democratic Party or the Green Party or any other party. The answer is to be a teacher, as it says, your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way. This is the way. This is really it. I know it is. I've tried the various paths, and this is the way. Walk in it. And whenever you turn, whenever they turn from that way to the right or to the left, it'll say, this is the way. Walk in it. Because I'm adamant about the true path. I'm only for the true path. That's the only way in which you can walk and live.

So, brethren, let's help light the way for humanity. That's what our calling is about. If you love the world like the Father loves the world and gave His Son for it, then give your self. Give up your old human nature, your carnal self.

Sacrifice it so that you can change the wonderful world tomorrow.

As Passover season approaches in a few weeks, let's consider our path. Which path are we on?

And what is our progress down that path? There's a whole world that's depending on you.

It's depending on your progress down that path so that you can come back and show them the way. Let's be serious about that calling, brethren. Have a pleasant Sabbath and very nice to be home.