Herbert W. Armstrong Audio Sermon Transcripts
The Church of God Faithful Flock brings you transcripts of sermons given by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Another Civilization
Sermon Date: 2 October 1982
This is the largest festival, the largest gathering, that is held anywhere in the world every year eight days. Although we are gathered in many different feast sites (or festival sites) all around the world, we are all together; and we are joined together by satellite television as one body. Very soon now we are going to come to the time that you read of in the 11th chapter of the book of Revelation, beginning in verse 15:
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded [and that 7th trumpet will be sounding soon. I don't mean this year; but very, very soon.]; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world [That means the United States, Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Russia, Japan; every nation all over the world.] are become [and will then become] the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign FOREVER.
And we shall be there, brethren, hopefully (and I hope we all will be there) reigning with Him. It will be a different world all together than this world, because this world is NOT God's world. I wonder how many of you think it is God's world. Mostly people do. There's something wrong about this world, and a better world is coming -- a new world, a new civilization -- with peace, with happiness, with joy, with great accomplishment.
We will be accomplishing things forever and ever because we will have immortal Life. We'll have self-containing Life. We won't have to breathe air to live. We won't have to refuel about three times a day with food and water from the ground. We won't have to have a heart beating. We'll have Life inherent, self-containing Life, immortal Life in the Kingdom -- the Family -- of God. The Kingdom of God is the Family of God into which we may be born. Jesus Christ was THE FIRSTBORN OF MANY BRETHREN! Are you going to be born into that Kingdom, as He was?
As a basic theme for this entire great festival I would like to read to you my mother's own favorite passage in the Bible. It's the 133rd Psalm. I would like to set this as the basic theme all through this entire eight-day festival.
Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
Or then, as I said last night, in John 13 and verse 35:
John 13:35 By this [Jesus Christ said, "By this ... "]shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
You know the law of God, which the world seems to hate; they say it's done away. They try to say (and the Protestant churches especially are trying to claim) that Christ did away with His Father's law, His Father's commandments. But He said, "I have kept My Father's commandments, and I've set you an example that you should do as I have done." And He sent the disciples out to teach others to do exactly what He had taught them, and that was to keep His Father's commandments.
But those commandments are just love, and love is out-flowing towards others in service and into the concern for the good, and the welfare, and the happiness of other people -- instead of trying to compete, to harm, to hurt, to take away from others, to get, and to take for yourself. That is the way of this world. But this is not God's world.
Now love is God's way of life; and we are to love, brethren, all people. We are to love even our enemies! And I think I mentioned last night that when I pray, I customarily pray first of all ...
Well, first of all (let me say) I give God thanks. I believe perhaps the most prevalent sin is ingratitude. People are not grateful for what God has given them, most people. We should be grateful, and I want to thank God for what He has given. Thank God for His great purpose. Thank Him for His great master plan, for revealing it. I thank God first of all for that, and that the greatest POWER (greater than any other power) is that power of God, who is love. Who loves us all so much He gave His only begotten Son to die and give His life for us -- to pay the penalty that we have incurred on ourselves, every one of us. That is love, and I want to be grateful for it. So I usually, in my prayers, start out by thanking God (if that is any kind of example to you).
Next I pray for my enemies, and they are many; and I do have enemies. There may be some waiting to serve a subpoena or summons of some kind on me outside right now, for all I know. There have been the last two or three days. There are enemies trying to destroy this Work. And right now Satan has great wrath. He is very angry, and he is angry at the Church of God -- the Church that Jesus Christ started 1951 years ago. Satan tried to destroy the Christ-child when He was born. And before Jesus Christ preached a word, Satan met Him in the great confrontation and tried to destroy Him.
Jesus QUALIFIED to sit on the throne of the earth and to RULE ALL NATIONS when He overcame Satan. Satan said, "If You fall down and worship me, I'll give You all the governments and the kingdoms of this world -- because they are mine! I sit on the throne of the earth." And he does! And he said, "You just fall down and worship me, and I'll give it all to You." Jesus didn't dispute that they were Satan's, but He knew it had to come from God.
He told Satan to get out and to leave Him. He gave a command, and Satan had to obey and slink away. So I do thank God that even though there are enemies, the greatest power is God; and that enemies, and even Satan, can do absolutely nothing except God allows it. When Jesus was on trial for His life before Pontius Pilate, Pilate said, "Do you know that I have the power of life and death over you?" Jesus said, "You could have no power at all over Me except it is given to you (and permitted or allowed) by My Father in heaven. You can have no power."
Satan can have power only as God allows. Brethren, that's a wonderful comforting thing to know. I have to know it. My wife of fifty years said (before she died) that Satan would rather destroy me than any man on the face of this earth, and he would rather destroy her next; and he has tried. Believe me, he has tried; but God has not allowed it, and I don't think He's going to. Not yet.
Right now Satan is full of great wrath. You read here in the 12th chapter of the book of Revelation, beginning with verse 7 ... I want you to see what we're facing in right now. While we're gathered here in these feast sites to celebrate the World Tomorrow, let's realize the kind of world we're living in; but we must not be of it. I want to show you about this world, and what WE are trying to qualify for -- the world to come. But in the 7th verse of the 12th chapter of Revelation:
Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven ...
Now the time of that is approximately the present. That may have occurred just prior to the assault of the largest state in the United States trying to end this Church and this Work -- in the great lawsuit of the state of California against the Worldwide Church of God and against me. They didn't win that lawsuit.
You know, it was the government that sought to destroy the apostle Paul. It was the government of Rome, (that was ruling the world) that put Jesus Christ to death at the behest of the Jews who rejected Him. And many of those Jews were Jews who BELIEVED ON HIM, but they didn't believe Him. There's a great difference! They didn't believe Him, but they said they believed on Him. I wonder how many of you just say, "Oh, yes, I believe on Christ." But you don't believe what He says. Do you believe Him? That's what you have to do if you are ever going to have eternal Life.
But here is a time when there was to be "war in heaven." If it hasn't happened already, it will happen any day now; and I think it possibly has already happened. Let me read it to you.
Revelation 12:7-9 Michael [a super archangel] and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, (8) And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. (9) And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan ...
Now he is a former archangel himself. He is the former cherub, Lucifer. Michael is a cherub of the same rank. And so Michael here was fighting against the former cherub who now has become Satan, the devil.
Revelation 12:9 ... which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast (out into the earth), and his angels [who are now demons] were cast out with him.
I think I want to come back to some of that a little bit later.
Now only this very morning here in Pasadena, California, this Church and I were on the front page of the newspaper of another lawsuit. This one filed by an individual; and I think that I could read you from the first chapter of Romans, where those that have been closest to you -- who have eaten of your bread, and whom you have fed -- will turn on you and rend you (as you read in Romans 2:1).
There have been any number of lawsuits filed against this Church. I would say there may have been 30 or 40 just in the last few years. So far, every one has failed. God has prevailed. God has defended this Church, and we have won every lawsuit. But, brethren, we have to keep on our knees; and we have to keep praying, because Satan is very powerful. He sits on the throne of this whole earth, and this is his world. IT IS NOT GOD'S WORLD! But remember, as I said, Satan can do nothing God does not allow. And the one who has the GREAT POWER is the God of love -- who loves us, and who loves His Church.
Now, as I was saying a while ago, we are to love even our enemies. We are to love all people, and I pray first even for my enemies. I wonder if you'll understand why? I don't pray and ask God to harm them. I don't say, "God, smash them. Make them suffer, God." Oh, I don't say anything like that. I say, "God, I want You to bless them. I want You to bless my enemies." I pray for them before I pray for YOU, because the only way God can bless them is if they turn around and start to go the other way -- the blessing of pulling them out of the way they're living in now. I want them to have God's blessings.
You know, for years I couldn't understand when Jesus said, "Pray for your enemies." Well, how can you pray for? Most people think, "Oh, I should pray against my enemies." Oh, no. I don't pray against them. I PRAY FOR THEM, and I name them by name; and there are several that I name every single day.
God is going to hear my prayers. They are going to find out where God is working. Of Jesus Himself, He said He could do nothing. Let me tell you, of myself I can do nothing. Of myself, I have done nothing! A wonderful Work has been built here. This is a wonderful campus, and the three campuses you just saw. Maybe you think I built them? I did not build them. Jesus Christ built them.
I did give myself over to Him as an instrument. And, as I said last night (And I think you all heard it. You should have heard it, if you attended the service last night.), I haven't left myself 100% in God's hands. Have you? Can one of you say, "Well, I have; I'm better. I'll point a finger of accusation at you, Mr. Armstrong"? Oh, you can't do it because YOU HAVE SINNED TOO and every one of us has even sinned since we have given ourselves over to God (since we've considered we were Christians). You read of it in I John the 1st chapter.
I John 1:9 If we [We in the Church.] confess our sins [and turn away from them], he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Yes, I've made mistakes; and I've actually committed sins -- but not willfully, not maliciously. And so have you, brethren (every one of you). You can't point a finger of accusation to anybody, nor can I; nor do I. I don't point a finger of accusation to my enemies. I ask God to bless them. There's kind of blessing, I tell you, the world doesn't understand; but God does. I know He won't bless them in any way that is not right. Not in any way that is not right.
Well, I just want to say, brethren -- you people over in England, you people all through Canada and all over the United States -- I need your prayers personally. There are thousands of you that have written that you are behind me 100%. I have to have you behind me, brethren, because Satan does not love me very much. I have to fight my own self. Do you have to fight yourself? I'M STILL HUMAN, and I do fight myself; and it isn't easy. But by the strength of God and by His grace I shall succeed. Not by my own power or strength, but by the power of the Spirit of God I shall.
Well, I need your prayers because very soon now you're going to find what will come here in the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation, beginning with verse 1 (where John recorded what he saw in vision on the Isle of Patmos about 90 A.D.):
Revelation 20:1-2 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. (2) And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan [Now you see who this serpent is, who the devil is. He is the serpent. He's called that, and a dragon, in the Bible.], and bound him a thousand years.
This is his world. Thank God, his time is about up! And it won't be his world any longer in just a very few short years; and it could be fewer than you think. It could be no more than 4 or 5 more years until the Millennium will be here. It's possible.
Revelation 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.
Brethren, do you realize that he will still be living a 1,000 years from now? He is immortal! He has self-containing Life. But he had a mind. He had free moral agency, just as you and I have; and he made the wrong decision. He turned in rebellion against God. He turned against God's way of love, and he turned to the way of hate. He turned from God's way of give, to his way of get. He turned from God's way of humility and obedience to God, to rebellion; and instead of love towards others, and cooperation, and serving, and helping -- to competition and strife, to envy and jealousy, to hatred, to destruction (instead of construction and building).
Brethren, God has called us to be on the side of CONSTRUCTION, building UP. That's what we are trying to do -- build character. We've builded two great campuses. That's only a physical setting to work in. But the main thing is the character in the students and the character in you and you people in God's Church. That's what we are trying to really build. That's only the setting of the diamond.
So (in finishing this) he will be removed; and at the end of the 1,000 years, he'll be released for a little season -- for just a little while. But THIS IS NOT GOD'S WORLD! I'll show you whose it is. It is Satan's world.
I'm going to turn now to II Corinthians 4, verse 3 and 4.
II Corinthians 4:3 But if our gospel ...
That is the gospel of the Kingdom of God, not man's gospel about the person of Christ, but Christ's own gospel of the Kingdom of God. And that is the World Tomorrow. That is another world! Satan is ruling this world. This is not God's world. The gospel is about ANOTHER WORLD THAT WILL FOLLOW THIS WORLD. We are the pioneers of that world.
II Corinthians 4:3-4 If our gospel [which is about the World Tomorrow] be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: (4) In whom the god of this world ...
Who is the god of this world? I've just been reading to you about him: That old dragon, Satan the devil.
II Corinthians 4:4 ... the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel OF Christ ...
Not a gospel about Christ, but the gospel of Christ. That is the gospel Christ preached. They don't preach that gospel. It was NOT PREACHED FOR 1900 YEARS, brethren -- until God raised me up to begin to preach it to the whole world. CAN YOU REALIZE THAT? That may be a preposterous statement, but that happens to be true! That gospel was not preached 100 years ago. That gospel was not preached 75 years ago, when I was a young man.
The world heard a gospel ABOUT Christ. "We must tell the world," they say, "about Jesus." That's all. But they don't even know what sin is. I asked a minister up in Oregon one time for a definition of sin. I said, "What is sin?" He couldn't answer it. I knew that he knew, but he wouldn't answer -- because you find the answer in I John 3 and, let's see, verse 4.
I John 3:4 Sin is the transgression of the law.
But he tried to say the law is done away, we don't have to keep the law of God. That's the law of love. You know why he didn't want to keep it? Because that law talks about the holy Sabbath day that belongs to God, and says that belongs to Him (not to us) and to quit profaning it. But he didn't believe that. That's the test commandment -- and the churches of this world don't believe it -- and the annual Sabbaths, of which this is one (and also this is a weekly Sabbath) on which I'm speaking. He didn't believe it, and he couldn't answer.
I said, "I want a Bible definition of sin. What does God, how does He define sin?" (Just like a dictionary definition.) He refused to answer it. This world is deceived AND WILLINGLY deceived! I've opened the minds of many, even ministers. They just give some sarcastic remark and go on with their false doctrines and their false beliefs just the same.
Now, notice this:
II Corinthians 4:4 ... the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel OF Christ ...
Not about Christ, but the message Christ preached. The Bank of Morgan in New York was not a bank inside of Morgan. It isn't something he swallowed that was in his stomach. It was a bank he owned! The Kingdom of God is the kingdom God owns. It's God's Kingdom. The Kingdom of heaven is a Kingdom not in heaven but a Kingdom of heaven.
II Corinthians 4:4 ... lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is in the image of God, should shine unto them.
You know a bright light, when you've been in darkness, will just blind you all of a sudden. It hurts your eyes. And I guess the truth does hurt the eyes of people that don't want it but that love this world.
This world does have its pleasures; and its pleasures, and the things it likes, you find on television. Television today is a commercial enterprise to get over the commercials to sell merchandise to you. They say, "Don't go away, stay with us," and so on, so you can get the commercials to sell you some merchandize. And yet, what is the entertainment they give you? It is either sex (illicit sex, the wrong kind of sex. And even the commercials are filled with sex. Nearly always a man and woman together; and they get their faces up as close as they can get them in order to give every indication of something sex to work on your mind) or in the many programs that are filled with violence and excitement. That's what people want today.
There's an old saying in the business world: "Jones pays the freight. Give Jones what he wants." Television gives the public what they want; and what they want (what they have an appetite for) is that which is evil, which Satan puts in their minds and hearts to desire -- which is not right and not good for them.
So there is Satan. Now I want you to notice something in Ephesians 6 and verse 12.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood ...
That is, we're not having to strive against it. It's not flesh and blood striving against us. The lawsuits I told you about, it's not just human beings. It's Satan in back of it. Here it is, brethren.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not [or struggle not] against flesh and blood [or other people], but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness [or wicked spirits] in high places.
This is Satan's world. He is the god of this world.
Now I'd like to have you notice verse 11, where it tells us:
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
And then continuing after the verse I read to you, in verse 13:
Ephesians 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day ...
We're in that evil day now; but we're here (all over the world) to celebrate a day and to look forward into a day of happiness and peace and joy, when the world will be at peace. But we are to live that way among ourselves now, even praying for our enemies; but not praying for the world.
Ephesians 6:14-15 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth [which is the Bible], and having on the breastplate of righteousness [right doing according to the law of God, which shows you the way of righteousness]: (15) And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace [instead of war] ...
I'm often called "an ambassador for peace" to the nations of the world, and I talk regularly with the heads of state all over the world. My most recent conference was with Mrs. Thatcher, who is the Prime Minister in England. Just as you heard in the sermon this morning, we've come to the time when women are ruling over men. You know the first thing I said to Mrs. Thatcher when she ushered me into a sort of living room (it wasn't in her office), and she ushered a very comfortable chair up for me; and she said, "I think you'll be more comfortable here." She said, "I'll sit on the sofa." Then we sat down, and I told her ... I said, "Well, Mrs. Thatcher, now I can say, having met you, that I have met all four of the women prime ministers of the big nations of the world."
So then she began to try to name the other four. Well, she could name Mrs. Meir of Israel (whom I met and knew very well), Mrs. Gandhi of India (who spent at least 20 minutes trying to explain to me why she couldn't send an ambassador into Israel -- because the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel had asked me to give her his love when I saw her and to ask her to send an emissary of some kind, or if not an ambassador some other emissary, to Israel to establish a connection between the two governments. She spent 20 minutes explaining why she couldn't do that, because of the Arabs on her border.).
Mrs. Thatcher stumbled just a little bit on the other woman ruler, who was Mrs. Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka. She became Prime Minister when her husband died, who was the Prime Minister; and so they just had her take over. I think her term, of course, has expired before now; but I also saw her in the living room of her home, where she served tea, and spent quite a little time in an afternoon with her.
Yes, women are ruling over men today. That was started by mother Eve, and she started the ERA movement. In case you never knew what ERA stands for, it is Eve Ruled Adam. E-R-A. [audience laughs] And now we are at it again.
So we must put on this whole armor of God. You find it in the Word of God, and through faith, and through the faith OF Jesus Christ.
Now, if this is Satan's world, how did this world get started? And how does it happen that this is not God's world? You know, God has a great purpose. I've said time and time again (You've heard it many times. I've said it on television. I've said it on radio. I've said it in print.) How Winston Churchill said during World War II and before the United States Congress, he said, "There is a purpose being worked out here below." Now, naturally, "a purpose being worked out here below" implies God Almighty doing the working out -- God above.
WHAT IS THAT PURPOSE? Winston Churchill didn't know. He knew somehow there is a purpose. He didn't really understand what it is. The world does not understand it! The world does not understand it. Let me tell you what it is. GOD IS REPRODUCING HIMSELF! You read in John, in the New Testament ... That is the first place (so far as the historic record is concerned) about God, and God's existence, and the origin of God.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word...
Now, the Word was a personage. That was originally written in the Greek language, and the Greek word was logos. The Logos, or in English {2} it means Word; and it means Spokesman, the one who speaks. That's precisely what it means.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God [God is another person. We have two persons.], and the Word was God.
Well, you can say at a certain time there was John, and John was with Smith; and John was Smith also - two persons. Well maybe John was Smith's son, or maybe John was Smith's father -- one or the other. Smith was the family name.
"GOD" is THE FAMLY NAME! We come into that Family. We are begotten into the Family. "As many of you as are LED by the Spirit of God, you ARE the children of God;" and we are named after our Father. The Church; and it is not the church of Luther. It is not the church of Calvin or Wesley. This is the Church OF GOD! God is a Family name, and we are going to be begotten into that Family; and God is reproducing Himself. NO CHURCH ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH BELIEVES THAT! NO CHURCH BELIEVES THAT. DO YOU BELIEVE IT?
Brethren, I didn't believe it until two or three years after Ambassador College was established here in Pasadena; and it was established 35 years ago. I had seen it in the Bible. I had seen it here and there all through the New Testament. I had seen it in the Old Testament. But I said, "Well, it can't be true. I ... I ... I ... Apparently it can't mean that. It would be blaspheme to believe that we're going to become God -- that He's going to reproduce Himself and we'd be born as His own children. We'd be like Him. We'll be God -- in the God Family." Finally, I saw it so many places in the Bible; and it is consistent all the way through the Bible in the whole purpose of God. That is the purpose of God!
Another thing that made it difficult for me to believe: I'd been raised in the Protestant world, and it was hard to come out of it. It is much harder to unlearn error than it is to learn new truth, and I have had to do both; but it was very hard to unlearn some of the error. But I had to do both.
But what about this world (if it's Satan's world), and how then did it get started?
God's purpose is to reproduce Himself. Now, God is Creator; and God is more than one person -- the Word and God. In verse 14 of John 1 it says:
John 1:14 The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ... [and became Jesus Christ].
Then again, in Ephesians 3 and verse 9, it says that God created ALL THINGS, but how?
Ephesians 3:9 [He] created all things BY Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Word. How did Christ create all things? How did God do it through Christ? Christ is the Word, and one of the Psalms says:
Psalm 33:9 He spake, and it was done.
He spoke. Well then, how was it done? [Psalm 104:30] He sends forth His Spirit. Christ speaks. The Spirit responds. The Spirit is the POWER.
Brethren, I saw a personal example of that one time; and it was in the first week in the year of 1914. Now most of you weren't born yet then, 1914. But I was then a traveling editorial representative of a national magazine (the largest magazine of its kind, the largest magazine in the trade paper field, in the United States) -- the Merchants Trade Journal published in Des Moines, Iowa. And they had asked me, right after the first of January. I was over in New York State, and they asked me to catch the first train back to Detroit. We didn't fly yet in those days, we went by train. (We've flown afterwards.)
So I took the next train to Detroit to see Henry Ford. He had put a new $5.00 a day wage scheme into affect. So I went to Detroit. I saw Henry Ford. I was 21 years, 22 years old at the time ... Let's see, 1914, yes, I was 22; and I have to count back to find out. Anyway, I was a young man. I was getting along pretty well. I was already a correspondent for a national magazine at age 22. I saw Henry Ford in a business suit, just like I'm wearing today and like most of you are wearing. He was in the breezeway between the big office building and the factory. (It was out on Highland Avenue at that time. That's a long time ago.) But I didn't see Henry Ford making anything, yet he was the manufacturer of the Ford car.
But I looked through the breezeway; and in that great giant factory I saw thousands of men. It was a vast building. (Later he built one out at Boulder, and it's a much bigger factory now than the factory no longer out on Highland Avenue.) But it was in 1914, in January; and there I saw men in overhauls working. But the men themselves still didn't do the work. They did what Henry Ford told them and paid them to do. He paid them wages. But they were making the Ford car by the use of machinery and electricity and power. That was the power that they used to make the Ford car, but Ford was the maker.
Now, God is the Creator; but He created things by Jesus Christ; and Christ Himself is the Workman. But how did He do it? He did it by speaking, and He only spoke what the Father told Him to speak. But the Spirit of God is the POWER that leaped to do what Christ said. And that's the way you were made. That's the way all creation was made.
God had created some archangels. You know of three of them mentioned in the Bible -- Lucifer, and the other two: the one I just read to you about, Michael and ... Why can't I remember names? The other one was familiar as my own name: Gabriel. (Names don't come to me, people just understand. It doesn't mean I don't know it. It just won't come to my mind.)
God first created angels, but He gave them free moral agency. After He created the earth, you'll find in the book of Job and the 38th chapter, that the angels were already created when He created the earth; and this was to be their home, and they were shouting for joy. The archangels were shouting and the angels were singing for joy because it was to be their home.
God set a throne on the earth; and He put a super archangel there, and he'd been one of the cherub whose wings spread out over the throne of God in heaven, as you read back in the 25th chapter of Exodus in the Bible. One of the super archangels whose wings spread over the very throne of God, and he was put here to enforce the law of God. That is, to ADMINISTER THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD.
Now, all government is run by law. You can't have a government without laws, or rules of conduct. And government is merely regulating according to the rules, or the conduct, or the laws. You have to have rules in any game or sport. You have to have it in any city, in any county government, any state government -- any kind of government.
God cannot have a government without a LAW, and God's basic law is the law of love. It's love to God and love to neighbors. Love to God comes out in 4 points of the first four of the Ten Commandments. Love to your neighbor is expressed in the last 6 of the Ten Commandments, starting with loving your father and your mother; and so on down to love your neighbors.
Well, Lucifer rebelled. He became envious. He said, "Look, God gave me this little Earth." He knew that there were other planets much bigger than this Earth. He said, "Why didn't God put me over some of them?" He said, "God kept all that for Himself. God kept back a whole lot. God wasn't fair. So I'll ascend. I'll exalt my throne above Him." You read of that in the 14th chapter of Isaiah, beginning with verse 12. His name was Lucifer, and in Ezekiel 28 you learn that he was perfect in all of his ways from the day God created him TILL INIQUITY -- or lawlessness, rebellion -- was found in him. He was so beautiful, and the beauty went to his head.
Beauty is the thing with which Satan is gripping you women, you young girls, you teenage girls and you women. You want to sit before a mirror, and admire yourself, and paint up your face and CHANGE the face God gave you, and change it another way. I'm glad that was mentioned in the sermon this morning here in Pasadena, and I hope it's mentioned in other festivals. Oh but that makes some women angry; and they get angry at me if I tell them GOD'S WAY!
God says, "CRY ALOUD, AND SPARE NOT, AND SHOW MY PEOPLE THEIR SINS." I'M SHOWING YOU WOMEN YOUR SINS, BUT YOU'RE REASONING. YOU CAN'T REASON IT OUT or against it. Women write me: "Mr. Armstrong I want to show you a woman's viewpoint about that." Listen, you women, I'm not interested in a woman's viewpoint! I am interested IN GOD'S VIEWPOINT! Do you understand that? And you'd better get interested in God's viewpoint instead of a woman's viewpoint. I'm not interested in a man's viewpoint. I'm not interested in a teenage viewpoint. I'm interested in God's viewpoint, and you had better be, and you men. You'd all better be on the same boat there, on that.
Well, Satan went wrong and he became Satan the devil; and then God created man in His own image. Now we go back to Genesis 1 and in verse 26, after God had created the land animals each after his own kind.
Genesis 1:26 God said, Let us [not "Me." "Us" (more than one) God was Elohim, more than one person. That was God and the Word. "Let us ... "] make man in our image, after our likeness.
Not "in My image," or anything but "ours." Now He made man in the form and shape of God; but God is composed of Spirit, and He didn't compose man of the same material as spirit, of the same composition. Verse 7 of the next chapter, verse 2, or chapter 2, I mean, and verse 7:
Genesis 2:7 And the [Eternal] God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
What came out of the dust of the ground -- matter, material -- became a soul. A soul is not spirit, but there is a spirit in man. But a man's life comes from breath; and the blood thereof is the life thereof [Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:14], not a spirit. The spirit only gives you and imparts the power of intellect to the human mind. Animals don't have a spirit in their minds as a human does have.
Now remember the government of God had been taken away from the Earth. Adam had the chance to RESTORE THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. Restore the government of God!
This morning, here in Pasadena, the sermon had a great deal to say about Elijah and about the book of Malachi, the 3rd and 4th chapters. Elijah, Jesus said, was going to come and restore all things; and Jesus said that after John the Baptist had already finished preparing the way before the First Coming of Christ. After John the Baptist was in prison and his work completed, Jesus said: "Elijah shall YET come and restore all things." [Matthew 17:11] Elijah did not restore.
What was taken away? The heavens have received Jesus "UNTIL the times of restitution of all things." - (Acts the 3rd chapter and verse 19 down to 21.) Restitution means restoring something that had been taken away, restoring to a former state or condition. What was taken way? THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD ON THIS EARTH! The government of God was taken away. It was to be restored.
Now something else I'm going to show you later: The GOSPEL -- as soon as Christ brought the gospel -- inside of 22 years it was supplanted by another gospel; and the true gospel of Christ was suppressed. And for 1900 years (a thousand nine hundred years) the gospel OF CHRIST was NOT PROCLAIMED around the world at all. Even the Church of God had lost it. And when I came among the true Church of God of the Sardis era, they had LOST the gospel and didn't know what it was. They had what they called a third angel's message instead of the gospel. But God raised me up to restore it.
God raised me up to restore THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD, but it is only restored so far in the Church. I have no authority from God, no ability, to restore the government of God any further than just over you brethren in the Church; but that has been done. That has been done, brethren. You go back and read Malachi 3:1-5, and Malachi 4, and where Jesus said, "Elijah truly shall come." Even after John the Baptist was put in prison, he was yet to come. But he was to restore! John the Baptist didn't restore.
You'd better realize, brethren, what this Church is and what you are behind when you say you are behind me 100%, and how this gospel is going as Christ said. It is going to the world, and it is going the heads of government all over the world.
Now, God formed man; and He gave him the opportunity to restore the government. There were Two Trees in the Garden of Eden. One was the Tree of Life, and God offered him that fully. Now, God did not give him immortal Life, but the Tree of Life would have given him eternal Life. But he had to choose between that and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan induced them, through Eve, to take of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Let me just turn over one little page here in the Bible and read that in the 3rd chapter of Genesis.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent [I read to you in Revelation who the serpent is -- Satan, the devil.] was more subtil than any beast of the field which the [Eternal] God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
"Didn't God hold something back?" You see Satan had just said, when He was Lucifer he said, "Well God held a lot back. He didn't give me everything. God is holding something back. He should have given me it all." Now he's says to Eve ... He tempts her the same way he'd been tempted. "Didn't God hold something back?"
The woman said, "Well, we can have everything but that one Tree; and God said 'If you take of it, you shall surely die.'" And then, in verse 4, the serpent replied unto her, "You shall not surely die. You won't surely die. You're an immortal soul." Well, Eve believed that. Do you believe that? That you are an immortal soul? The world does! The Protestants do. The Roman Catholic Church does. "Christianity" believes it. The organized "Christianity" of this world believes it. But they are of this world, and Satan is the God of this world. Now put the two and two together. Satan is the god of this world.
Genesis 3:4-6 The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (5) For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods [Or I think he really said, 'You'll become God.'], knowing good and evil. (6) And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [As far as she could see, it looked good.], and that it was pleasant to the eyes [It looked pretty, and she looked at that.], and a tree to be desire to make one wise [It appealed to the vanity of mind, and so the first woman had her vanity alright.], she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
He had disobeyed God, and he rejected ... If he had taken of the Tree of Life, he would have received the Spirit of God. And through the Spirit of God, God would have revealed to him all about the government of God, the way of life of God, the attitude of God (of love toward other people instead of competition and strife and hatred). And Satan would have been deposed then! But Adam didn't do it, and then this world started. They had rejected the way of God. They rejected the revelation of God. And the revelation of God is in the Bible. God has had it written.
But brethren look, I had a broadcast recently. I don't think that's been aired yet. I don't really remember whether it has or not. One of the vital things in World War II was the secret code that Hitler had, a secret code. And he said that he thought it was absolutely unbreakable. It took a machine something like a computer to decipher that secret code.
You know it's like a secret alphabet I had when I was a boy. Let me see, I must have been about 14 or 13 years old. I worked out a secret alphabet, and a lot of us kids used it. Our parents couldn't understand a thing we were writing. We could write notes to one another. We could understand it, but our parents couldn't understand a word because of the secret alphabet.
Well, every government has its secret code to transmit information to its other officials in other parts of the world; because they know other nations are going to see the message on the way, but they want it to be transmitted in a way that only their own people will understand it. Do you know that no nation has an unbreakable secret code, but that God does?
Do you know God has a secret code? And THE WORLD CAN'T CRACK IT! Do you know what it is? Here it is. It's got words in it. The holy Bible! That's God's message for those that are His. The world can see the message, and they don't understand it. They can't read it. They can't really make head nor tails of it. It's A MYSTERY to them without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the machine, or the computer, or whatever that helps you to decode it. With the Holy Spirit you can understand the Bible.
Do you think I could have ever understood the Bible, to give you the truth of the Bible, of myself? I had to surrender to God. I had to be willing to give up my way. I had to let God give me His Holy Spirit. It didn't depend on my righteousness. It did depend on my intention, and my will, and my purpose. But I didn't have perfection of will or purpose within me yet, and I still don't have. After age 90, I still don't have. But God took and used me because I did give myself into His hands.
Now, if someone else is giving himself into God's hands more perfectly than I, tell me who it is. I'd like to know. I wish there were many. I certainly do. I just wish that there were many. But God says that none is righteous, no not one -- except Christ; and that is true. Not one of you is righteous, and we can't point a finger at one another in any way at all.
Let me read you one scripture now in the 3rd chapter of Genesis, after Adam had made that decision.
Genesis 3:23-24 Therefore the [Eternal] God sent [Adam and Eve] forth from the garden of Eden ... (24) He drove out the man [and, of course, the woman with him] and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
GOD SHUT UP THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM THE WORLD! GOD SHUT OFF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE WORLD HAD NO ACCESS TO THE HOLY SPIRIT UNTIL JESUS CHRIST CAME. That's why they can't understand the Bible. You can't understand the Bible without the Holy Spirit.
So this world started from Adam, and it was influenced by Satan; and Adam went right along. He not only went along with his wife Eve and let a woman rule him, but he went along with Satan; and Satan has deceived ALL NATIONS (as I read to you in Revelation 12). This whole world has been deceived by Satan, and this is Satan's world.
Now then, into such a world finally Jesus Christ came as the Second Adam. Jesus Christ came as the Second Adam. God's purpose is to reproduce Himself. People have gone the wrong way. They didn't have God's Spirit. God's Spirit was shut off until after Christ should come and pay the penalty of our sins. Even then, God wasn't going to give His Holy Spirit to everybody at all.
Man was created incomplete. Now let me go back to something in Genesis 1 again. Man was created incomplete physically because God's purpose is to reproduce Himself and, in order to do it, man had to reproduce himself so there'd be a lot of him; and God is going to convert millions of human beings to become His children. But Adam had to begin reproducing himself with other children BEFORE GOD COULD REPRODUCE GOD'S SELF!
But Adam was not complete. God first created a man, but a man couldn't reproduce himself. Did you ever see a man that could reproduce himself and have children all by himself? I never did. Tell me, who is it? No, man wasn't complete. He wasn't physically complete until God made him complete by creating a woman; and the woman and the man -- the two -- became one.
Now go back. God is creating Himself in us, recreating Himself. God and the Word are one. Jesus said, "I and My Father are one." We are to become one with God. That's what we learned in the feast of the Day of Atonement, just five days ago. We are to become one.
When God made a woman for Adam to be his wife, they became one. They had children. They were one family - one family, not several families. As soon as they had Cain, there were three of them. Their first child was named Cain. Their second child was named Abel. But they didn't train their children properly. They didn't have God's Spirit. They didn't have God's teaching. They didn't understand God's law, as they should have. And so the first son they had, Cain, became a murderer; and he killed his brother, Abel. God said, "Where is your brother, Abel?" And then Cain lied to God about it. He said, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
Then they had another son, whose name was Seth. And he became the father of all living from that time on. Then he had other sons and daughters. But we've all sprung from Noah, and Noah was descended from Seth (not from Cain or Abel).
So man was created incomplete. I compare it this way, brethren, to a woman who has baked a cake; but it is not complete. And yet she's completed her cake in a sense, but it still isn't complete till she puts the icing on it. You get the point? The man wasn't complete until God created the woman.
Now then: God gave the man a mind, which He didn't give to animals. Man has animal life. And animals have a brain, just like a man; but they don't have the mind like a man. What's the difference? Man has a spirit in his brain. Animals don't have any spirit in their brain. But man had one spirit, and that one spirit gave him the power of intellect to understand material knowledge.
Now he had the power of coming to an attitude either of love or hate. God could have instructed him in the right way and given him the love of God to go the way of God and fulfill the law of God, but he rejected that. Instead he let Satan lead him into the wrong attitude, the wrong thoughts, the wrong intent, the wrong purposes.
Now then, he built a civilization that has come along to the world today. Today, look at the civilization. It has amazing, absolutely incredible, and (what's the word I use regularly?) awesome progress -- awesome accomplishment -- in the world today. Look at the airplane I fly in - men going to the moon and back. Look at the awesome computer, and it is an awesome thing; and now you can buy little ones for your own home and your own office.
And yet, while man has made such progress, at the same time he has gone the other way just as rapidly. He has gone into APPALLING EVILS, and harm, and bringing suffering on himself, hurting one another. And the world is going to more and more evil all the time. As it advances physically, mechanically, and electronically, it is going backwards spiritually because man's mind was not complete. God didn't complete it. It's like He baked the cake but didn't put the icing on yet.
What man needed was the Spirit of God. The one spirit in man was alone and lonesome. That's why man is unhappy. That's why he is discontented. You may have contented cows, but you don't have contented people. Cows out in the pasture go ahead munching on their grass, and they are contented. People are not contented because THE SPIRIT -- that one spirit in people -- gets a wrong attitude, and it clashes with the spirit in some other people. Their spirit will not be in harmony with God's Spirit.
They needed the Spirit of God; and, until they had the Spirit of God, they were not mentally complete. Mentally, intellectually, the mind of man is only half there. The greatest intellects in the world, with all of the PhDs and other doctorate degrees after their names, they are of all men most ignorant. They don't understand the truth of God. They can't understand this Book. It's foolishness to them. They can't understand it. They are wise in their own conceits, but the things of God are foolishness to them. And yet their wisdom is foolishness to God because they don't have a complete mind. Their minds are only half there.
Psychologists don't even understand the makeup of the human mind. The Bible reveals it. If you have the Holy Spirit of God, you can understand about the human mind; but all of the psychology courses and all of the universities can't teach you what the human mind is. They don't know. They are ignorant! But they would call you and me ignorant, brethren, if you have the Spirit of God. That is just the way it is.
Now, Jesus came to start another world. Here was a world. It is Satan's world. It's man's world. It's a materialistic world. It has its educational systems. It has its governments all against one another. The educational system is entirely materialistic. You don't find the Word of God taught in the universities.
You find hundreds of books. Now we have to have books in our libraries, because we live in this unhappy world. And you notice on the film at Big Sandy there are, I think it said some (What is it?) 40- 60- 80,000 volumes of books. They were all written by men. But you find a lot of Bibles over there too. But in most of them you don't find many Bibles. You just find books written by men; and without God, and without God's inspiration; they just say a lot of nonsense, absolute nonsense.
With the Holy Spirit shut off, a human civilization has been built blinded by Satan. Into such a world came Jesus; and He came to start ANOTHER WORLD, which Adam could have started. To START A WHOLE DIFFERENT WORLD, brethren! Now the world doesn't understand this. Now get this. Everything I said up to now is only just background material. Here's the real message. Now get it.
Jesus came to start another civilization, to start another world. He didn't call everybody volunteers and just hocus-pocus "Just accept My name, and I'll send you up to heaven:" Nothing of the kind. He didn't come saying, "Please believe in Me. Won't you accept Me? Won't you let Me into your heart?" You can't find that in the Bible. He didn't say anything of the kind.
Jesus, however, came and chose twelve, twelve disciples; and "disciple" is only an old English word that means a student, one going to school and learning. Jesus was the teacher, or the professor; and He was teaching them. Now they didn't have a classroom with armchairs, like Plato started in the Platonic system. They went by foot from village to village, and Jesus taught them wherever they were. But it was a 3 ½ year course; and, at the end of that 3 years, they were ready to graduate and become apostles.
Now they were ready to be sent out and start to teach others. Jesus sent them out saying, "Go to all the world and TEACH all nations. Go out into all the world and teach all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have taught you." [Matthew 28:19-20]
Brethren, if you come into the Church, you are a student; and you are to learn and to study the Word of God -- to study a new kind of civilization that is in the Book of Life. If you think just accepting Christ and warming the seat of a church service is going to get you into the Kingdom of God, you are of all people most deceived.
I tell you, I worry about so many of our own people; and I wonder how many of them really are converted. Are you a student? Are you studying the Bible? Are you praying every day? Are you meditating on the Word of God and thinking those thoughts? Put your thoughts and everything on the things above not on the things of this world. Where are your thoughts? What's in your mind? Aren't you thinking about the football or the baseball games, and the basketball game, instead of thinking about the things of God, and the Kingdom of God, and the way of God, and the way of Life of God? And this rotten civilization and how we are just pioneers to start building another world.
Brethren, every one of you was an ovum in your mother's womb. You would never have become a human being if that ovum had not been fertilized from the very body of your father. Every human being is A SPIRITUAL OVUM, and you will die. It's appointed to all men (after Adam's sin) all men to die, and after this the judgment. And as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive; but not all yet. Jesus didn't call everybody yet. He only called twelve.
Now, others followed Him. At the end of His ministry of 3 ½ years, only 120 were still with Him because many began to leave Him (who had followed Him and were students under him). He called more than just the Twelve, but He called twelve to be named to become apostles later. There were 120 when the Church started, and the Church started with that 120 on the day of Pentecost. There were thousands of people there though and saw the great display of the Holy Spirit coming with a rushing sound of a mighty wind, and they could see the flames of fire on the heads of the 120. Peter preached and said (when they wanted to know "What should we do then?"), he said:
Acts 2:38-39 "Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ ... and you shall receive the ... Holy Spirit." [And you children and;':] (19) ... to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
But only those that God will call, because, (now in John the 6th chapter and verse 44) Jesus said:
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.
God only called a ... He didn't call for volunteers. He constricted those. He drafted those He was calling. He said to His disciples, "You did not choose Me. I chose you." First Andrew and Simon had intended to be fishermen. Jesus called and said, "You come out of that." Another two were with their father in fishing boats, in the fishing business. He said, "Leave your father, and come with Me" and they did.
He took Simon, whom He had called, and gave him the title of Peter; and Peter is a surname or a title. Jesus surnamed him Peter. That means he was the leader of the apostles. Some people don't believe that, and don't even know it; but that is the truth. There was a chief apostle. There always has to be a leader. God never works through committees. God works only through one man at a time, and always did. All through the Bible you will find that God had to work through one man at a time.
But now I want you to notice back in Joel the 2nd chapter and verse 28.
Joel 2:28 It shall come to pass afterward [God said], that I will pour out my spirit upon ALL FLESH.
Now, He had shut up His Holy Spirit and shut it off from all flesh; but the time would come when He would open it up. Well now, Jesus came to make that possible; but Jesus didn't yet open up the Holy Spirit to all flesh at all. He simply did not! He chose those, and no one can come to Christ except God the Father draws him.
Now let me show you something else that the world doesn't understand. The 1st chapter of the book of Ephesians and in verse 11, it's speaking about Christ here, just two lines above:
Ephesians 1:11-12 [Christ] in whom also [We in the Church. He's speaking to the brethren in the Church at Ephesus.] we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him [What is God's purpose? I just told you: to reproduce Himself; and we are "predestinated according to the purpose of him"] who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: (12) that we should be [the FIRST] the praise of his glory who FIRST trusted in Christ.
We are THE FIRSTFRUITS! The day of the Pentecost, one of the annual holy days, is to show us that we are the first to believe in Christ. Christ isn't calling the whole world at all yet. He called a few. Now then, the Twelve and all the other 120 had been taught by Him. 3,000 more were converted on that day of Pentecost. The very next day 2,000 more, but the 120 could teach all of them. The Twelve could teach any number.
We send one minister out that has graduated from Ambassador College; and he can pastor a Church of 300, or in cases up to 600 or so. Usually, if we have a Church of 600 though, he'll have an assistant or a co-pastor. But one can teach several hundred other people, and each one of them becomes a student.
Each of you, brethren, you don't have to come to Ambassador College. You are still a student to study your Bibles, and to pray every day, and to meditate on these things, and to keep your mind on these things instead of the things of this world. In the Millennium, you'll be a king or a priest ruling over the world and teaching the world.
How much can you teach right now? Ask yourself -- you sitting in that seat right out there, you sitting over here in this seat, you over there. If you were today put to teach 300 other people, are you qualified? Could you do it? That's what you're going to have to do when Christ comes and in the Millennium; and, if you couldn't do it, you are not ready yet to meet Christ when He comes. YOU ARE STUDENTS, AND YOU ARE TO LEARN!
I started learning 56 ½ years ago. I started learning many things before that, but that was in this world. I only started learning God's truth about 56 years ago. Brethren, I have learned more in the last 2 years than I think I have learned in any other 5 or 10 years. I am still learning; and God is revealing new truth to me all the time, because I keep on studying.
Although my eyes -- one eye's blind and the other is so dim I can hardly see even with a magnifying glass; and it is very difficult for me to study, but I still study. I have things blown up and we have special equipment to blow up things for me in larger type. Even then I still have to use a magnifying glass. I have to work at it. Are you doing it, or do you just want me to do all the work for you? Brethren, you have to do it too! I mean that.
You had better think: Are you ready? Most of you are not ready yet, brethren. Now this Church is beginning to get ready. We are getting back on the track. I think we make a good impression in the cities where we visit here in these feast sites. I think we conduct ourselves very well. Well, it's good that you've learned some things. Let me tell you one thing that some of you have not learned. Some of you come to the festival services improperly dressed. Some of you men don't even wear a jacket, and you come in your shirtsleeves. You come in work clothes, any old way.
Some years ago, as a matter of fact, it was on December 1, 1968 I was to meet the President of Israel. I was to announce to him that we were ready to accept their invitation and go in with them at $100,000 a year contribution on the great archeological project to clear the way for Christ's throne to be ready for His Second Coming. I was in the offices of one of the professors of Hebrew University. We'd been in his office; and he said "Well it was time to go." We started down the hall, and he was dressed in his shirtsleeves. He said, "Wait, wait. I've got to go back and put on a jacket. I'm going into the presence of the President. I can't go into the presence of the President like this. I've got to be better dressed." So he went back and put on a jacket.
You know, Jesus gave a parable of a man that came to a wedding; and he didn't have on the proper wedding garment. It shows God talking to him and saying, "Cast this man clear out. He's not worthy." You come, some of you, just come dressed ANY OLD WAY. WHEN WE COME INTO A CHURCH SERVICE BRETHREN, OUR FELLOWSHIP IS WITH GOD THE FATHER AND OUR FELLOWSHIP IS WITH CHRIST THE SON. WE ARE COMING INTO GOD'S PRESENCE! HOW DARE YOU COME INTO GOD'S PRESENCE LIKE SOME OF YOU DO. HOW DARE YOU!
Yes, I see some sitting out in front of me in their shirtsleeves; not dressed up. I imagine it's the same all over the United States, Canada, and Britain, New Zealand, and Australia. You are coming into the presence of the holy Almighty God. You don't have to go out and buy something you can't afford. I didn't say that. Just wear the best you have, but dress the best you can. HAVE RESPECT FOR GOD. HONOR GOD. Don't come in like thumbing your nose at Him, and insulting God by the way you dress.
You women, likewise: Dress with the best you have. Now there's certain separate evening dress that women wear, sometimes long skirts; and then shorter skirts in the daytime. Now you don't have to dress formally (I don't mean that.), but at least be well dressed when you come into the presence of God. That's just one little thing that came to me, but we need to know those things.
Now the time is coming -- the beginning of the Millennium -- when God will begin to pour out His Spirit UPON ALL FLESH; and WE, BRETHREN, ARE THE ONES THAT ARE GOING TO HAVE TO TEACH ALL OF THEM. Every one of you may have to teach two or three hundred other people Are you qualified to teach 200 people? If you are not, you are not ready yet. I want to get that over to you. Also, I would like to have you maybe read in Romans, the 8th chapter of Romans from verse 28 on.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them [But not for everybody. Oh, no. To them ... ] that love God, to them who are the CALLED according to his purpose.
That is not to everybody. Those that are called and to them that love God. Now then, go on:
Romans 8:29 For whom he [God] did foreknow, he also did PREDESTINATE to be conformed to the image of his Son ...
Brethren, if you are in the Church, it's because God wanted you a long time ago. God CHOSE you. God DRAFTED you. You didn't come of your own accord. God chose you (and probably out of another 2,000 people). There are 4 ½ billion people on this earth; and there's just a little over 100,000 of us, brethren, here hearing my voice today right now. A little over 100,000 -- and each one of you is going to have to teach a great many out of that 4 billion (which is 4,000 million).
Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow [He did foreknow you.], he also did predestinate ...
Predestination does not mean God has decided what decision you are going to make. Oh, no. It means that God decided when He would call and whom He would call first. We are the FIRST to be called. He is not calling the world yet. Brethren, if YOU were predestinated, He called YOU. He drafted YOU. That's why you are here, brethren.
Romans 8:29 ... to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he [Christ] might be the firstborn among many brethren.
He was born by a resurrection from the dead. A lot of these people who say they are "born again Christians" don't know what it is to be born again. They haven't even started towards being born again yet.
Romans 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also [will glorify].
It says "was" here, speaking as if it was already past; but that is yet present.
Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Well, we have to think of that when we are persecuted; and the persecution is mounting and increasing, as I told you at the beginning of this program. Now today, where are we? Coming to the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation and beginning with verse 4, after Satan is put away (which we celebrated 5 days ago), John here is giving what is going to happen:
Revelation 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them [Are you going to be on one of those thrones? Each one of you is to be on one of them.] ...