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(Day 1—UB—LIVE)
Roger Tointon—March 28, 2021
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Howdy, everyone: It's very good to be here in Hollister, California. We kept the Night to be Much Observed together with quite a little group over in a special place; it was very, very good to be back together with brethren.
All of you out there, I hope you had a good Night to be Much Observed, because really there is a message in it. There is a great message, and in this time in which we have entered—you're all aware of that, I won't have to belabor it—is a new chapter in our lives.
We who have been touched by God Almighty and His Son should be very, very aware of the time in which we live and what is going on. It reminds me of a Scripture in Psalms that David wrote:
Psalm 12:1: "Help, O LORD, for the Godly man ceases; for the faithful disappear from among the children of men. They speak falsehood… [hypocrisy] …each one with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak" (vs 1-2).
We see that all around us! It's been going on a long time, but, boy, has it increased! It reminds me of what happened in January, this year:
Verse 8: "The wicked walk on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men." Did that happen? It certainly seems to me!
We talked about the days of Unleavened Bread, what they mean and how God brought us out of bondage. When did He do that? Shortly after He reached out and parted our mind and got our attention! We didn't run and hide, thankfully, and we began to listen and to learn. Christ began to shepherd us through our time of judgment in this age.
Time of judgment for what? That God's purpose in His great plan could be worked out! There could be firstborn sons and daughters into the Kingdom of God before all of the rest eventually. So, that's what God called us for.
- When were we convicted of these days?
- When did we begin to understand what these days of Unleavened Bread, which we are now in? After we were called by God!
Then we began to learn! Yet, in the beginning we did not really understand things fully at all. We probably don't even to this day. It is a learning process! Yet, we have been learning; some of us for decades. I don't when each of your first Passover was. I know that mine was in 1967. I didn't enter the Church doors, darken them, until August in 1966. I tried, but I couldn't find where there was a Church. They didn't want me to know in those days until they checked me out.
Well, it's a wonder they let me in, but they did finally. So, in February… I know that some of you hadn't kept the Passover, yet. I know that Jonathan hadn't, because I first met Jonathan in February, 1967, but he was still in his mother's womb. That was in Salt Lake City in February, and he was born in March; he was ready to come out!
Then he grew up and came to understand, too. That's great! We have another new one here today and that's nice; it's great to see some new blood, new life. God the Father had decided to part your mind and you responded, you didn't run away. All you people out there, you know your own story of your calling.
Your calling is so precious that I want to talk about it a little today so that we can go over this together. We should never forget our calling. Why? Because that's when God began to deal with us! That's when we began to learn and start on our journey toward the Kingdom of God.
But some of us had a long journey to go, and we don't know for new people how long they will have. That's up to God and His timing and appointed time for the resurrection!
But we know that we had to go through judgment. The days that we're keeping now for Unleavened Bread is tied to that. We know what the message is; it's picturing coming out from sin and following God.
Let's go to Acts and we'll go to a Scripture that you should be familiar with, you should be, and we will touch on it. This was God's calling of the Apostle Paul. His name was Saul; you know his story. Paul is giving his account; he's on trial.
Acts 26:13: "When I saw on the road at midday, O king, a light from heaven, surpassing the brightness of the sun, shine around me andthose who were traveling with me."
This was a very, very dynamic calling! We can't full understand that because we weren't there, but it was dynamic. God intervened in a mighty way, because He knew what He wanted to do with Paul and how He was going to use him down to our time.
Look at all the Scriptures that we go through in any given day or week that Paul penned. God wrote them, but Paul penned them through the power of the Holy Spirit to write what God wanted. He wanted to make sure that this man was going to do what He wanted in the future.
Verse 14: "Then all of us fell to the ground; and I heard a voice speak to me, saying in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.' And I said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting'" (vs 14-15).
We can't imagine how Paul really felt, but I know that God got his attention! What did God do? He blinded Paul, momentarily! If you can see, and all of a sudden nothing; what an experience! There have been people who have had that happen. But Paul went on.
Verse 16: "Now arise, and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you as a minister and a witness both of what you have seen and what I shall reveal to you. I am personally selecting you from among the people and the Gentiles, to whom I now send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan…" (vs 16-18)—the father of sin!
That's who Satan is, and that's what he has done; keeping people in bondage in this world. We pictured last night coming out of that bondage, because God the Father personally called us.
Here the pre-incarnate Christ called Saul, but with us the Most High is our heavenly Father, and that's why we pray to Him as such. Here he has pointed out what the that was. That is a tremendous example, because here God blinded Saul so that he to literally come out of darkness. He had to do it physically, and then he had to do it spiritually.
- Who taught Paul that?
- Who prepared him for his great role as an apostle?
Well, Paul says that he went into Arabia for three[transcriber's correction (Gal. 1:17-18)] years. It was Christ Himself… We don't know exactly how that all took place, but we know that it was that way, because of what Paul was going to have to do.
Ephesians 1:3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly things with Christ; according as He has personally chosen us for Himself before the foundation of the world in order that we might be Holy and blameless before Him in love" (vs 3-4).
This is not for our glory, this is for the glory of God. He's working out His plan. He personally decided to include us in this age. God has a plan for all mankind who won't absolutely refuse to accept that plan. There will be some, of course, who will not accept it, but for everybody else they're going to have their chance. But God personally chose that we—in our first lifetime—would have that chance to become a firstfruit. That's very important!
Ephesians 4:1: Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord…
He felt that way; he was a prisoner and owed his whole life to Christ, because Paul had persecuted Him so severely. That was something that Paul had to bear.
"…am exhorting you to walk worthily of the calling to which you were called" (v 1).
Our calling, too, is very, very important. What we learned afterward is what is going to 'make us or break us' because we have responsibilities.
Rev. 2 really points out what our job now is, in the time that we have left. I want to cover the first Church that Christ's message went to. It's very important for us to stop and think!
Revelation 2:1: "To the angel of the Ephesian church, write: 'These things says He Who holds the seven stars in His right hand, Who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.
What does Christ say to that Church; we know that these are things that are written to people in each of the, probably, scattered Churches of God.
Verse 2: "I know your works…" So, they had works. What are works? It takes effort!
"…and your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot bear those who are evil; and that you did test those who proclaim themselves to be apostles, but are not, and did find them liars; and that you have borne much and have endured, and for My name's sake have labored and have not grown weary" (vs 2-3).
Those are wonderful things to have said of you! If we have that said of us, won't we be very, very thankful?
Verse 4: "Nevertheless, I have this against you…."
You do all of that, and maybe you've done for several decades in our case, and then you get tired and you let down. Can Christ say this of you?
"…that you have left your first love" (v 4).
We can think back to our calling again, and we should remember when we had a fire in our belly for what we were learning. It was very strong and we felt it. I hope we now feel it more than in the beginning. I hope we haven't lost our first love now.
But it shows the danger that if we don't stay focused, and focused we have to be! What is our assignment now? We have a little time! We don't know how much! But if we don't stay focused and we don't do as Christ said to every one of the Churches, to overcome and endure to the end! If we don't do that we could lose everything!
So, in the time that we have, we must focus! I wanted to give a very touching example of being focused, but I don' t have time to do that.
So, I can simple say that as we think back—and we need to think back—many times about when God called us. Who are we in covenant with? With God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, Who came here below and suffered the horrible death that we could become sons/daughters of God, and we could become firstfruits.
We must have that constantly in our mind. I think that as we think forward to this short time that we have. We don't know, tomorrow something could happen to us. But we do hope that we can endure and overcome.
I think we need to do what we read in Eph. 4:1, Paul's exhortation: That we walk worthy of our calling, because our calling was miraculous, powerful and significant, because it was from God the Father!
It was to fulfill His purpose in our lives! Let's truly walk worthy of our calling!
Scriptural References:
- Psalm 12:1-2, 8
- Acts 26:13-18
- Ephesians 1:3-4
- Ephesians 4:1-3
- Revelation 2:1-4
RT:bo
Transcribed: 4/4/21
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