Herbert W. Armstrong Audio Sermon Transcripts
The Church of God Faithful Flock brings you transcripts of sermons given by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Spiritual Health Checkup
Sermon Date: April 1983
Last night in the Bible Study I was reading to you from I Corinthians the 11th chapter and verse 22. I would like to read it again. In verse 28, I should say -- verse 28.
I Corinthians 11:28 But [and this is just before the Passover, but] let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
So we are commanded to examine ourselves just prior to the Passover and before we take it, but the command is to take it. I mentioned last night that it is a very safe thing to have a health checkup at least once a year. It is more necessary to have a spiritual checkup, and this is the time for that spiritual checkup. Also we should examine why we have the Passover service. Examine what it means. Why do we have it? What is the significance? What does it mean?
You know the pagan holidays and their special annual services have no meaning whatsoever. Actually, Easter does not celebrate the resurrection of Christ. He was not resurrected on a Sunday. Good Friday does not celebrate His crucifixion. He was crucified on a Wednesday and not on a Friday. He rose late on the Sabbath day, not on a Sunday. Christmas does not represent the birth of Jesus Christ. He was not born at that season of the year, but considerably earlier.
The festivals of God all have a very, very important meaning. I said the question that I had questioned, back when I was first challenged about the Sabbath question, I questioned whether God exists. I had been challenged not only on the fact of the Sabbath. When my wife had listened as well ... She had listened to a neighbor lady but allowed this lady to have her turn to certain scriptures and read them aloud; and they plainly said to her that she'd been keeping the wrong day, and the Sabbath was God's day. Jesus said He was Lord of the Sabbath, so therefore the Sabbath is the Lord's Day. A lot of people don't think. They think Sunday is the Lord's Day; and, of course, there is nothing in the Bible making a statement of that sort at all.
But I was challenged at the same time on the theory of evolution, which at that time (It was back in the fall of 1926.) was just coming to be widely accepted in all higher education, in all college and university teaching. As I delved into the doctrine of evolution and the writings of its advocates, I found them somewhat convincing. Their arguments, however, were based on a false premise that had been carelessly taken for granted; and everybody seemed to just assume.
I began to question: does God exist? I had been taught from childhood about God; and I just realized I took God for granted, that I had never proved whether there is a God. Now I said, "I have to prove it. I have to know. I have to prove if evolution is true." There are two theories of origin. Today, the one accepted theory in the world and in all of higher education is the theory of evolution. The other is not a theory. That is the one that in educational circles they call "special creation" -- or it is the historic fact that is recorded in the 1st chapter of Genesis.
I proved the Bible account to be true. I proved the existence of God. Then, after I had disproved evolution and proved the existence of God, the next thing I wanted to know: could I rely on the Bible? As a matter of fact, it was things that I saw in the Bible that pretty largely convinced me of the existence of God. Among them were promises that God made to the ancient Abraham, and how He has kept them in a manner that the world doesn't seem to understand. But it is quite evident and does stand proved. Is the Bible God speaking?
Now at the same time I said, "I want to also now examine the writings of other religions." There was the Koran of the Islamic religion and the whole Arab world. Then the writings of the Buddha and the writings of the ... (Oh, what was the name? Another oriental religion.) I decided to look into those also. I proved the authority of the Bible. I proved that the Bible is God speaking. I proved that Jesus Christ is the Word of God in person, and that the Bible is the same Word of God in writing, and that there is no difference between Jesus in person and what He said and what is said in the Bible. It is Him speaking in print.
The Bible reveals God. It reveals who and what God is. Also the Bible reveals the truth about humans. Now, incidentally, I found this as I studied further: that no religion knows who and what God is. The followers of Islam don't know who and what God is. They call Him "Allah," and they know that there is some God; but they don't understand. I'm going to show you, in one of his writings in just a moment, that even in the Koran it does speak of God in the plural, as more than one person; but they still don't understand it. The other religions, the oriental religions, simply do not know who or what God is.
You would think the Christian religion would understand it. But the Christian religion (that is known as Christianity in this world) does not know who and what God is. Roman Catholics, and I think primarily Protestants, believe God is a Trinity -- God in three persons. God Himself does not reveal Himself in that manner at all! They still don't know who and what God is.
Now another thing, they also do not know what humans are or why. How did we come to be here? What are human beings and why are we here? Also they don't understand what is this world. How did it come to be? Why is it and why is it as it is? Why is the world a world of awesome progress, today especially in this 20th Century, at the same time with the crazy paradox? It doesn't make any sense at all. While it's a world of amazing progress, it also is a world of appalling evils and troubles and suffering and everything wrong. It's going backward farther than it is going forward, and how can you go forward and backward both at the same time? This world is really doing that, and it is a mystery. It's a mystery that they don't understand.
Now you might say the church ... The Church is also a mystery, and it's spoken of as a mystery in the Bible. It's something they don't understand; and, brethren, I wonder if we have understood it? It is not generally understood. Who and what is God? What and why is mankind? What is this world? Why is it like it is, and what causes that? What and why is the Church? What is it? So many people, I think most people, think the Church is a building with a very steeply sloping roof and a steeple pointing heavenward and a cross on the façade of it (a pagan sort of a building) and that the people go to church instead of the Church going to a building (or congregational worship). It is a mystery, and they do not understand it.
I'd like to read you a little from the Koran (that is, one of these religions). One thing about the Koran, their people believe the Koran. One thing they believe in the Arab world about Christians, they look at Christianity as a sort of Sunday-only religion. The people observe Sunday, and they don't know why they do. And that's true. They observe it; and for some people that are supposed to be good, they go to church, and of course most people aren't good anyhow so they don't go to church.
But it's a time for sports, games, anything like that. It's a time though when you lay off your work and enjoy yourself in sports and fun and whatever. But I have here some quotes from the authorized English translation of the Koran. It's from their book Sura chapter 7, verses 11 and 12; and this is quoting the same thing that the Bible quotes in Genesis 1 and 2, or primarily in the 2nd chapter of Genesis about the Two Trees. And this is what they quote, and this is supposed to be God speaking (or "Allah" as they call Him). By the way, to them, Allah does not mean a different God. They think of Him as the same God as Christians are supposed to think of -- only they don't understand Him, and Christians don't either.
Allah is only the Arabic language name, just like Elohim is the Hebrew name. Well, for example, we have the name "Henry" in English, and in German it would be "Heinrich." It's the same name, but in the German language. Allah is the same name, but in the Arabic language. So they quote Allah as saying:
"And we created [not I but we created] you[meaning man], then fashioned you, then told the angels 'fall ye prostrate before Adam;' and they fell prostrate, all save Ebolous, [which meant Satan] who was not of those who make prostration."
Now the reason that is there is because Islamics are required to make themselves prostrate three or four times every day before their god, Allah. Now they go through the motion, but I don't think anything of any great significance goes through their minds at that time. It is just an exercise they go through, and I have seen them doing it over in those countries. And it continues:
"He said, 'What hindered thee ... . [That is, Allah is supposed to have said to Satan: 'What hindered thee ... '] that thou didst not fall prostrate when I bade thee?' Ebolous said, 'I am better than him, thou created me of fire whilst him thou didst create of mud.'"
Instead of the dust of the ground, they use the word mud. Now it continues on:
"And unto man he said, 'Oh Adam, dwell thou and thy wife in the garden [And so he mentions the Garden of Eden there.] and eat from whence ye will; but come not nigh this tree lest ye become wrong doers.' And Satan whispered to them that he might manifest unto them that which was hidden from them of their shame. And he said, 'Your Lord forbad you from this tree only, lest ye should become angels and become of the immortals.' And he swore unto them [That is, Satan swore to Adam and Eve.] saying, 'Lo, I am a sincere advisor unto you.'" [Well, they had that much right: he posed as an angel of light. "I am a sincere advisor to you."] "Thus did he lead them on with guile. And when they tasted of the tree their shame was manifest to them and they began to hide."
Now you will notice there that God is supposed to have said that, if you take of the forbidden fruit, you will become wrongdoers. There is nothing said about death, because Mohammed wrote and taught them that you are an immortal soul. He still believes Satan's lie; and, of course, the Islam religion believes that. So they can't put it into the mouth of God (or Allah) that "you would surely die."
They don't understand the purpose of life. They don't know God's purpose. They don't know God's master plan. They don't understand this world. They don't understand who and what God is; what and why man is. They don't understand any of these things. They don't understand about this world.
They do follow their religion. They do believe their bible, the Koran; and they follow it exactly. And the one thing they won't tolerate is anyone saying anything against the Koran. They think it is holy and sacred, much more than Christians do the Bible.
Well, I think it's time that we come to understanding and know the things that seem to be a mystery to the world and hidden from the world, but God reveals them. Now the Bible is the Word of God, and in the Bible God reveals Himself. There is a reason why He reveals Himself to us and not to the world as a whole. There is a reason why the whole Arab world (Well, its a few hundred million people.) believes this false religion. And you can see that whoever wrote the Koran knew something about the Bible but didn't believe it and twisted it around his own way. The forbidden fruit is mentioned. They refer to the Two Trees.
Now Buddha, for example, wrote about human good principles and morals. And his is merely a teaching about human-devised good teachings and morals that the human mind is capable of devising and understanding. I want to explain that now in just a moment as we go along. But there is no revelation of God or from God in the writings of Buddha, nor in the writings really of the Koran, and no understanding. Then, (I'm trying to think of that other oriental religion that's quite popular, the same one) ... Confucius. They are just sayings of Confucius; but it could not be an inspired Word of God where God is revealing Himself and revealing things that are a mystery to the world.
I say the world doesn't understand who and what God is. They don't understand why and what man is. They don't understand the world. Those things are a mystery. Now God does reveal all of those things, and no other religious writing does reveal them. That's what I want you to understand. There is no supreme authority but the Holy Bible! Even that is not generally understood, and I want to show you a little bit why this afternoon.
There is no revelation of the Family relationship of God, of the purpose of God, and the purpose of human life and why we were created and why we were born, why we are here, where we are going and what is the way -- none whatsoever. Nor is there any in this world's Christianity. They do not believe the Bible. They teach precisely the opposite in most essentials.
I was brought up to believe that I was an immortal soul, not that I "would surely die." I believed if I sinned I would live forever in hell fire, that that was the wages of sin. I didn't believe that "the wages of sin is death." Neither did I believe that eternal life was "the gift of God through Jesus Christ." I thought I already had eternal life. I believed I would go to heaven -- while Jesus said, "No man has ascended up to heaven." The Bible teaches that the righteous shall not inhabit, but the righteous "shall inherit the earth" and dwell therein forever.
Now the Christian religion doesn't teach that, and I wasn't brought up to believe that. I was brought up to believe the Protestant religion. The human mind can come to certain principles, ethics, lofty ideas, and so on. But it can also have a lot of evil in it, and a lot of selfishness; and it is essentially selfish (the normal natural mind) although even a selfish mind can have certain good principles and ideas. The human natural mind is capable of that. There is a difference between human natural mind and a spirit-filled and a spirit-led mind (very great differences).
All of the knowledge and the purpose of life is revealed in the Bible, and we begin for example in John the 1st chapter and the first 4 verses in the New Testament and in the beginning of the Two Trees. You have to go back to origins. Evolution is the subject of origins. That's where God started me. I was challenged on this subject of origins when I was challenged about the Sabbath. God rested on the Sabbath day because in 6 days He had created the heavens and the earth and rested on the 7th day. The Sabbath day is merely a memorial of Creation, and it has something to do with origins. Evolution has a great deal to do with origins.
So the very beginning of my teaching and training, and when God first called me, was on this subject of origins. If you don't find out how it began, and what has happened since, and get the purposes -- you simply can't understand. That's why all of these things are a mystery to most people in the world. Now most people just don't want to know. They shut up their minds and say, "Don't bother me. I don't know about that. I want to go see this basketball this afternoon" (or tonight, or this baseball game, or whatever). "I'm only interested in the prize fight. I want some of this world's activities."
But we begin in the Bible really in the New Testament -- in the first chapter of John, verse 1 on to 4:
John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word [That is a personage.] and the Word was with God [God is another personage. Now we have two persons.], and the Word was God. [They're both God; but they are two different persons, and each one is God.] (2) The same was in [The Word is "the same" there.] in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made by him [That is, the Word.]; and without him was not anything made that was made.
Now who is this Word? In verse 14 it says:
John 1:14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The Word then is the one who was born of the Virgin Mary as a human infant, grew up and became Jesus the Christ from Nazareth. And it says in verse 4:
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
So in God was life, and in the Word was life. Now in John 4:24 you read that " God is a Spirit." God is composed of Spirit. But now we turn back to Genesis 1 and verse 1, and here we find the beginning mentioned in another place; but this is second in time order.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven(s) ...
And it should be heavens; and the only translation I know of that gives the singular there ("heaven") is the King James. All other translations, so far as I know, have it "heavens;" and it is in the Hebrew original. Moses wrote it "heavens," and it should be "heavens" -- plural. "In the beginning God ..." Now the word for God that Moses wrote ... He didn't write in the English language.
You know that makes me think of my Quaker grandmother, because I was born and raised in the Quaker Church; and, of course, the generation of my parents didn't still speak like the generation ahead of them had. But my grandmother was of the generation before, and she never said "you" or "yours." She said "thee" and "thou" and "thine" and so on. She used that kind of language.
I was in impudent little boy, as a little boy. And I said to my grandma one time, I said: "Grandma, why do you say thee and thine instead of you and yours?" And she said, well, she wanted to speak just like Jesus did. Well, of course, there wasn't any English language when Jesus lived as a human. He was speaking in Hebrew, and He spoke somewhat in Greek; and all of the New Testament was written in the Greek language. Although Jesus spoke many of the things in the Hebrew, in the writing of it the New Testament, the things He said, the writers wrote it in the Greek language; and we have that translated into the English language. Now the "thee" and the "thy" is merely the King James type of English of about 400 and some years ago; and the English language has changed in 400 years. We don't use it that way anymore.
But now something else has come within the last week. I have always said: "In the beginning God" and the Hebrew word was "Elohim" and that "Elohim" was a uniplural type of word. Like the word Church: One Church, but many members. One God, but the two persons (God and the Word): That it was like a sports team of some kind. It might be one team; but nine players, or five players, or eleven players, or whatever but only the one team.
Now I find in the Hebrew that is not correct; and I received that from a student that I believe knows what he is talking about; and I am perfectly willing to accept that. So it is the PLURAL of God. The singular is Eloah, and Elohim (adding 'im' on the end of Eloah) pluralizes it; but does not make a uniplural. It is just plural of the word God. Eloah is God. This then is "Gods." Now in the Koran where God is quoted He said "we." And you notice in verse 26 here:
Genesis 1:26 ... God [or Elohim] said, Let us make man in our image ...
There is more than one person there. Now that's what we're confronted with. It is speaking of the Word and God, exactly as you find in John 1:1. Now it doesn't change the actual meaning. It's merely a matter of grammar and getting the grammar correct. It is not a uniplural. And the two persons do... Through begetting us through the Spirit of God, and when we are born of God, we become a Family; and God is a Family. For example, there is the human family; but two humans are not one family. They are two humans, or five humans, or ten humans, or whatever. And the two Gods are two Gods. That's just God and the Word. It's just that simple. But They are a Family.
There's the angel family. There's the human family. There's the animal family, or kingdom. So then we have an animal kingdom. (And it's called a kingdom right along. We're all familiar with that.) There can be an angel kingdom. There's a human kingdom. There's a God kingdom, and we're going to be born into the God Kingdom. And it is a Family relationship! That's what it will become. The one who is called God will be Father of that Family.
Jesus is the Son of God by a first birth by the Virgin Mary as a human being. Then He was born again, this time born of the Spirit (as you read in Romans 1 and verse 4) -- and, by the Spirit, born of God and became very God. And He is God! He is spoken of as God in the first chapter of Hebrews where it is quoted as saying; "Thy throne, O God ..." speaking of Christ. So Christ is God. The Father is God; but Jesus, who is God and was God in the human flesh, and He was also called Immanuel, and Immanuel merely means 'God with us' in the human form. That's what it means. But "In the beginning God [or it is the two who are Gods] created the heavens and the earth."
Now then, if you look ... I want to give you something new that is new knowledge for us just within the past week. God keeps revealing additional things. See if that changes any understanding or any truth. It doesn't at all. The earth was in a very chaotic condition "without form and void." The Hebrew words are 'tohu' and 'bohu;' and it means waste and empty, decayed and in a condition of that sort.
Genesis 1:2-3 ... darkness was upon the face of the deep. [There was no land. It was all ocean, and it was dark.] And the spirit of God moved upon the waters. (3) And God said, let there be light and there was light.
God said. Elohim said. Well, which person said it -- God or the Word? The one who later was called the Son, or the one who was called the Father after Jesus was born? In this case, it is the Word. Jesus said when He was on earth as the Word of God and as Immanuel (or God with us); He said, "I have spoken nothing of myself, the Father which sent me ... He told me what to say and what to speak." (John 12:49) He has spoken His Father's words faithfully.
So His Father had told Him to say this, and He is the one who said it; and the Holy Spirit is the power that did what He said and obeyed that Word. But it came from God the Father through Christ, and the Holy Spirit performed it. Then later He said, "Let the dry land appear." Well, that was the one who later became Christ who said that. Now then we come down a little later to verse 24.
Genesis 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind ... [And so on.]
Well, who said that? The Word did. He said it as the Father had told Him to say it. But this is the Word speaking, and it happened. Now to verse 26:
Genesis 1:26 And God said; Let us make man in our image ...
There it looks like one of the two that form God is speaking to the other and said "Let us do something." Now would that be Christ the Word speaking to God the Father and suggesting, "Well, I've got an idea. Look, I tell you Father, let us do this. This is MY idea." Is that the way you would interpret that? By no means whatsoever! That was God the Father speaking. Elohim there is the two, and it could be either one of the two speaking. But you have to determine by what is in the sentence, and as you find it explained in other places in the Bible, which one of the two was doing the talking. This was the Father saying to the Word "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
So the idea of the creation of man came from GOD, the one who became the Father of Christ and who is our heavenly Father. We then are the product of God the Father. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion ... " Then, in chapter 2, another name is introduced.
Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God [rested] His work which he had made ... [That's Elohim rested on the seventh day after the work which He had made.] and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. (3) And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Now who did that work? Read the next verse.
Genesis 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the [now here you have another word] LORD God ...
The word "LORD" is in small caps, but capital letters and not lower case letters; and that means that it comes from the Hebrew word, YHWH. And the word God here is Elohim -- the YHWH Elohim. Now the YHWH Elohim is the one who became Christ. Now it speaks definitely of the Word under the name YHWH.
Genesis 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens [plural] and of the earth [in the day] when they ... "
Not just the earth; but "they," including the whole universe. "When they were created" -- all in the same day! That means that the earth was created at the same time as all the rest of the Universe. I don't think that God had ever created matter prior to that time. There is no record of it. This is the first record of the creation of matter in history, right here when "they" -- the whole Universe -- was created.
"In the day the YHWH Elohim" or the Eternal God (because YHWH really means Ever Living or Eternal; and the one who became Christ made the earth and the heavens)... So it was Christ who made it. It was God who said: "Let us make man," however. It was YHWH who had done the speaking, but He only spoke as God had told Him. Now then if we read on:
Genesis 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew [In other words, they were already bearing grain and fruit at the time they first started at the creation.]; for the [Eternal] God [or YHWH God] had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
So there wasn't time to plant a lot of things and till the ground and wait till it grew so it was a harvest. In other words, it was in the fall; and the harvest was all there with the fruit and vegetables and things for the man and the woman that God was going to create to eat. Now read right on.
Genesis 2:6-7 But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. (7) And the [YHWH Elohim, which is Christ] formed man of the dust of the ground ...
Now put it together. It was God the Father who said, "Let us make man in our image." But Christ spoke only as the Father told Him. So it was Christ who formed man; but God is the one who said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness." So, in verse 27:
Genesis 1:27 So God [or Elohim] created man ...
Now there is a difference here. Some of these verses use the word "made" and others use the word "create." There is a distinction, and you need to get that distinction if you want to really understand the Bible. It's most necessary to understand this beginning if you are going to understand what has happened since and what is now to understand the present. It's very necessary to understand these things. Now:
Genesis 2:7, 9 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 [Just this kind of temporary life, but not an immortal soul. He was mortal.] ... (9) And out of the ground [caused the YHWH God] [and that was the one who became Christ, or the Logos] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of [the]knowledge and good and evil.
And then coming down to verse 16:
Genesis 2:16 And the [Eternal] God commanded the man saying [Now here is what the Word said as God the Father had told Him.], Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat (17) But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Now that was Christ saying that, but He said only what God the Father had told Him to. So now we have that all straight. Now I've gone into this so many, many times we don't need to go over that again. The first man was created, but his creation was not physically complete. God wanted him to reproduce and have children. As I've said before, the poor man couldn't do it. A man can't have children by himself. It was just one man. That was the only human being on earth. God had to provide the wife and create her too. But He made her from one of Adam's ribs.
Now man was physically complete, and the two became one physically; but they weren't one mentally or spiritually. That's why we have so many troubles today and why so many marriages break up. They become one physically, and they were one physically. In each one was a mind; and, as I've said before, God creates in dual stages -- sort of a one-two punch.
A few of you used to be Lakers fans years ago. The Lakers had a one-two punch (They are all retired now. They are not on the team I guess any longer.), and it was Gerry Westin/Alvin Baylor. They called it a one-two punch because they were the ones that got most of the baskets and made the scores. Well, God creates in that form -- a sort of a one-two punch, if you want to call it that.
The mind was not complete. It was first just physical, but it also had a spirit. So there was a spiritual content in that mind as God created it, but still it was not complete. Now the human mind: we know now from the newer science of brain research (scientific knowledge that has come recently) the human brain is just the same as an animal brain. The cow has a brain just like you do, or an elephant, a chimpanzee, a whale or a dolphin. The whale, the dolphin, and the elephant all have bigger brains than you do -- a chimpanzee just slightly smaller, other animals still smaller (some of them). They're of the same composition, but the difference is they are not minds.
Human mind is brain plus spirit. Now there is no spirit in the animal. It's just brain only. It is physical only. There is nothing spiritual in an animal. But then man IS a spiritual type being. He is created with A SPIRIT IN HIM, and he is BORN with a spirit in him.
I've said before we don't know (I believe, wasn't it last night I mentioned that? Recently I did.) at what time the spirit enters the human brain. It has to be one of three times, and I have always thought that the most logical is at the first breath because breath and air are both the same word in both the Greek language and the Hebrew language. Air or breath -- it is "pneuma" in, let's see, that's the Greek I think. What's the word in the Hebrew? Maybe I forget that, as well as names I guess. Anyway, it is the same word for air or for spirit.
And Christ, in speaking to Nicodemus, likened even the Holy Spirit to air or wind. Spirit is likened to wind in a sense. God likened the Holy Spirit to water, and pouring out of water. He talked ... He said the time would come when He would "pour out His Spirit." It'll be poured on"all flesh." And Jesus called the Holy Spirit "rivers of living water" on one or two occasions. So it moves, and is fluid, and also it is sort of like being gaseous in nature. It is not a spirit being. It is not a ghost. It is not a spirit person. It is spirit essence within each one.
Now it either enters with the first breath, or it could enter at the time the heart begins to beat. Something has to trigger and spark the heart and cause it to begin to beat. It could be that the spirit enters at that time during pregnancy. That's about the time (somewhere near the time) between what is called the embryo and the fetus, after about 4 months after conception. Or it could be at the time that the male sperm fertilizes (meets with) and sparks life into (or that kind of life into) the female ovum.
Now God doesn't tell us when or how the spirit enters, but there is a spirit in man. And that He says in many places: the 32nd chapter of Job, and 2nd chapter of I Corinthians and many, many places in the Bible. In the 8th chapter of Romans, God's Spirit witnesses with our spirit (the spirit in us) that we are the sons of God. That's a spiritual knowledge, and so on.
Now I've said so many times that the human mind with a human spirit it can acquire physical knowledge, but it cannot acquire the spiritual knowledge of the things God has in store for us -- of God's purpose, of God's program and of what God is going to do. There is NO WAY that a natural carnal mind can come to understand or know that. In, let me see, I Corinthians 2 and verse 9:
I Corinthians 2:9 ...eye has not seen ... ear [has not] hear, [nor has it] entered into the mind of man, the things which God hath prepared for [those] that love him.
The natural mind cannot come and see them. In verse 14 it says that they are foolishness to the natural mind, but in verse 10 it says GOD reveals those things. Now, not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't do the revealing. GOD does. And God reveals it through Christ, His Word. But God reveals those things to us. HOW? BY HIS SPIRIT IN US! Does God reveal it then to the average PhD in a University in the great minds of this world? Oh no, they don't have the Holy Spirit, and God does not reveal it to them.
God does the revealing, but you can't understand what He reveals. You have ears to hear if it's spoken, and you have eyes to see if you read. You have all of the five senses, and the only way knowledge comes into the human mind is through one of those five senses. But the natural mind, no matter how good that mind is or how highly educated, cannot know the things of God and the things that God has prepared for us.
The one who wrote the Koran didn't know that, and so he doesn't reveal any of those things. He didn't know it; and the whole Arab world is in darkness, and they don't know those things. And the Christian world has the Bible, and GOD SAYS IT HERE. BUT THEY DON'T HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THEY CAN'T COMPREHEND IT. HERE IS GOD SPEAKING IN THIS BOOK. BILLY GRAHAM HAS IT. HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND IT. JERRY FALWELL has it; and when he reads God can speak to him, but he doesn't understand it because God reveals to us BY HIS SPIRIT. And if they don't have God's Spirit, they cannot understand it. Now I am not making statements to accuse them one-way or the other. I am not trying to judge whether they have God's Spirit or not. I just say you know them by their works, you know them by their fruits.
Now Adam ... Let's get on with this. Adam had never committed a sin when God first created him and when he had to make a choice. God had these Two Trees. God talked to him and gave him a command: "Don't take of that Tree." Now we know God had been talking to him, and all that God said it not revealed. God could not have said "You will surely die" under the condition (if you take that) unless God had explained about the law -- because He was pronouncing the penalty of that law on condition; and if He hadn't explained about His Law to Adam, He couldn't have said that.
Even though it isn't recorded in words here in Genesis, I know that God explained about His Law -- that sin is the transgression of the law of God, and the law of God is love; and its love to God first of all, and then love to neighbor. What this world leaves out is love to God. They have a certain kind of love to neighbor. There are certain principles you know that the human carnal mind can have: principles of honesty and morality and certain integrity and things of that sort. The natural mind of man can have those things, but they still are selfishly motivated.
Mother love even is selfishly motivated. She loves her child, but it's like part of her. The child came out of her and she has fed it. She nourished it. It's hers. So there is a little bit of carnality in that. Now even carnality can have good principles, but what carnality can't have is the knowledge of what God has in store for us and cannot have the LOVE OF GOD. That's a different KIND of love. That's the love that is only "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" Romans 5:5. The LOVE OF GOD is spread abroad in our heart BY THE HOLY SPIRIT and no other way.
Most of us don't have that kind of love. That's the kind of love that loves even your enemies and prays for them that "despitefully use you and persecute you." That's not carnal love. So what about the natural mind of man? No matter how lofty its ideals, no matter how honest it wants to be or tries to be, no matter what good morals -- the natural mind of man, "the carnal mind is enmity (which means hostile) against God" and "is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be." Romans 8 verse 7.
Now there can be a certain amount of good in the natural carnal mind, up to a certain point; but IT IS NOT THE LOVE OF GOD. That love is ONLY GIVEN BY GOD, and it's the love ADDED to the love we already have, and it is the love that comes by the Holy Spirit. Now, I said that God had not finished the creation of the human mind. He only put ONE spirit in man. That's the human spirit, and that is capable of a selfish love; but it is also capable of hate, of wrath, or anger, of animosity, or envy and jealousy, of competition and strife and selfishness and of great evil.
The natural mind of man is capable of anything from mother love and high moral principles and integrity to the basest of human motives. Without the Spirit of God he is capable; and God CREATED man capable of all of those things beside the capability of acquiring physical knowledge. That's why man with that kind of knowledge has produced awesome things out of physical matter. He is able to solve even going into outer space and going to the moon and back; making of an automobile and airplane, all of the marvelous machines that they have, the marvelous computer. And man has invented many things.
And now I see one thing else added. We thought we'd reached the ultimate when the hydrogen bomb came. That could destroy a city as big as New York or London, a thousand times more powerful and more destructive than the atom bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Now they are beginning to produce (and its coming out of Russia, and the United States is behind Russia but coming along on it scientifically) laser beams that can be shot from outer space and can wreck things and be far more destructive than even the hydrogen bomb. And you wonder what man is going to come to in his destructiveness finally. You'd better stand aghast at that. (Now I don't think you've read that in any newspaper or magazine yet. That's one of the latest things. I think it has been in one or two scientific magazines, but you probably didn't happen to read one of those.)
Now where are we? Adam made the wrong choice; and, as a result, God closed UP the Holy Spirit (the Tree of Life) which was offered to him. The Holy Spirit would have revealed the KNOWLEDGE of the things of God. The Holy Spirit would have given him spiritual understanding. The Holy Spirit would have given him the love of God -- a DIFFERENT KIND of love, SPIRITUAL LOVE (not carnal love).
The Holy Spirit would have impregnated him with God-Life, with immortality, self-containing inherent life; but he didn't get the Holy Spirit. He was SHUT OFF from the Holy Spirit. So that was the foundation of the world. God SHUT UP the Holy Spirit from mankind; and, as a result, man ever since has not, on the whole, wanted to have any relationship with God. The few people that wanted a relationship with God, they are very few and far between. But without God's Spirit you can't have a real relationship with God.
Now certain things happened at that time. One thing is that God CLOSED OFF the Holy Spirit from man. Secondly, you read in Revelation 13:8 that at that time it was decreed that Christ would come to pay the penalty of human sin, to redeem us, that we now needed a redeemer because man had sinned. Now man had sinned. When God first talked to Adam, he had not sinned yet. He had not committed any sin. ADAM DIDN'T NEED TO REPENT, he had never done anything to repent of. Then he did the wrong thing, and God just shut the Spirit off from him after that.
Now it is decreed that the second Adam would come, but God closed up the Spirit of Life UNTIL that second Adam should come. Now thirdly, Hebrews 9:27 (I'm not going to read you those scriptures again, I've given them to you time and again.) -- it was appointed that men should die once, and after that the judgment. In other words, God had not yet judged man. Man had to die; but the judgment comes later, by a resurrection.
In I Corinthians 15 beginning with verse 22 (and you can read on the verses after that): " ... as in Adam ALL DIE."
Now He decreed that everyone had to die from Adam on, " ... so in CHRIST [the second Adam that they say should come] ... ALL be made alive." The same "all" will be made alive, and then they'll be judged. So going clear back, the question is: will Adam be made alive?
The assumption is then judgment is on the Church today (those that have been called). It is not on the world today, and the world started with Adam. So apparently judgment is not on Adam, and he'll come up in the Great White Throne Judgment; and maybe Adam will have a chance. He didn't know about the Redeemer. At least everyone since Adam will come up in that Great White Throne resurrection, those who are already dead I mean.
Now then, when we come to what humans have done, there was Satan; and Satan was getting at people. Next I would like you to turn to Ephesians. (Oh, let me see. I had that here.) Ephesians the 2nd chapter and verse 1 -- talking to those who already had the Holy Spirit in Ephesus, the Ephesian Church (This was to those who had the Holy Spirit.), the apostle Paul writes:
Ephesians 2:1-2 And you hath he quickened [or made alive, spiritually alive], who were dead in trespasses and sins [they were spiritually dead]; (2) Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world ...
Now a world developed from Adam, and everybody walked according to this world. It was a world based on selfishness, on vanity and on greed; on the "get" principle instead of the "give: principle; a world cut off from God; a world sinning.
Ephesians 2:2 ... in time past you walked according to the course of this world, [now that's the world] according to the prince of the power of the air...
Well, he is the god of this world! He is the one who has cause the world to go his way -- the prince of the power of the air. Now in II Corinthians 4:4 Satan is called the "god of this world;" and the world really looks on him as god, but they don't call him Satan. The one that they think is God is really Satan, because they don't understand the real God; and Satan is the god of this world.
Ephesians 2:2 ... the spirit that [now] works in the children of disobedience.
And that spirit did work in every one of us. EVERY ONE OF US have had that spirit working in us from Satan from the time we were born; and before we were a year old we all had it, every one of us. Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He broadcasts through the air (just like television and radio goes through the air), and he gets those attitudes into our minds.
Now the world's civilization was really influenced all the way by Satan, who is the god of this world; and the whole world is deceived. In Revelation 12 you read that all nations are deceived by Satan. EVERYBODY is deceived! Now look, how does God look on persons that are deceived by Satan? A deceived person doesn't know he is deceived. I sinned. You sinned. Yes, we all did. Did we know we were doing wrong? Well, most of the time, yes. Sometimes we sinned in a way we really didn't realize it was wrong, but Satan was the real instigator.
Now we had our part in it. Christ came to pay the penalty of our part once. We had to turn away from it and repent however. Christ did not pay Satan's part, and Satan himself is going to have to bear that. That's a truth that we learn on the Day of Atonement every year. But Satan has ruled this world, and it is his world. It is not God's world. This is not God's world! It is a world cut off from God.
Yet human standards of good conduct and lofty principles and ideas are mixed with selfishness, self-centeredness (the idea of "get" instead of "give"); and men are, whether they realize it or not, they are cut off from God. And most of them don't want any contact with God, so it is come to the spirit of competition and violence that are filling the world today.
Now finally the second Adam, Christ, came; and when He was about 30 He began to speak. He said, "I will build my church" (Matthew 16 verse 18). Now why? "As in Adam all die ... in Christ shall all be made alive." Christ came to START A NEW AND A DIFFERENT WORLD. THIS WORLD STARTED WITH ADAM. It is SATAN'S WORLD, started through ADAM. CHRIST CAME TO START GOD'S WORLD. THIS IS NOT GOD'S WORLD. JESUS CHRIST CAME TO START GOD'S WORLD. THAT'S THE WORLD TO COME.
Now, He brought a message; and His message is the GOSPEL. The word GOSPEL means GOOD NEWS. AND WHY IS THAT GOOD NEWS? The good news is the fact that GOD'S WORLD is coming! HE CAME TO ANNOUNCE THAT. He came to start it, and he said, "I will build my church;" and that was the start of God's world.
This is not God's world. Now God's world is that when Jesus had said, "Come out from among them and be separate" to come out of this world. He is calling certain ones that are in this world, who have been deceived by the Devil. Yes, we have sinned; and some of us have sinned willingly too, not necessarily willfully. There is a difference between willingly and willfully. But we have sinned willingly.
The Church and the people now being called, unlike Adam, have ALREADY sinned. When God talked to the first Adam, he had not sinned. Now when Christ came, He had not sinned; and He never did because He was God in the human flesh. The second Adam is one who did not sin and who lived as the first Adam should have lived. The first Adam didn't.
Now the second Adam is here to "found" another world. The first Adam founded this world, and this is his world; but it's Satan's world really because that first Adam died but Satan is still here running it. Christ came to start ANOTHER WORLD. The Church is the embryo of that world.
Now He called twelve especially. There were many who followed Him. Of those who started following Him, many deserted Him. He said to the twelve, "Are you going to desert Me also and go away?" He has called many in this Church. Many have sat right here in this auditorium who are no longer with us. They've gone away. Several deserted the living Christ when He was here. He is using me now as His apostle. Many have deserted me. They are not sitting here today.
So that's all my fault? Well, not only Judas (one of the twelve), but probably hundreds of others departed from Jesus during His ministry, which was only 3 ½ years -- because it's those "who endure unto the end" that are finally going to be saved.
So the Church (unlike Adam) had sinned. Now we, as I just read you in Ephesians 2:1, we have all been part of the course of this world; and we're called out of it. We're called out of sin. That is fundamentally what we do first. Where do we start? We repent. So Jesus came preaching the Gospel. Now we turn back to Mark first and you find here "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ." The word gospel means "good news." He came as a Newscaster with good news. In verse 14 you read about His good news (His message).
Mark 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel [which means good news] of the kingdom of God. [Came announcing GOD'S WORLD, GOD'S Kingdom.]
I said a while ago there is the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, the angel kingdom and the God Kingdom. We are in the human kingdom now. He came to announce the God Kingdom, which will be all the children of God -- a world to come. And Adam could have gone into that world if he'd taken of the Tree of Life, but he did not take it.
And Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled." It was fulfilled because He had come. The second Adam had come. He had been tempted of the Devil, and He had conquered the Devil and qualified by turning away from Satan's way (where the first Adam fell for it and swallowed it). Jesus rejected it and told Satan to get behind Him and to leave Him. And Satan had to slink away and obey Him. Jesus qualified to set up God's world, for this has been Satan's world. It's not God's world. Jesus came to start God's world. So:
Mark 1:15 ... The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand, [because He had qualified for it, to START IT.]
Now all we get now is the impregnation, not yet born into the Kingdom; but He said that those who would repent and follow Him could then receive the Holy Spirit, those that were called. So you see we have to repent, where Adam didn't. That's the first thing that we have to do. We make the choice like Adam had to make a choice, but if and when we are called. Now in Acts ... Now I should, I wanted to read here John 6:44; and I forgot to mark that, but I want to read it right here. I want to read that because many times I have quoted it. I want you to know it's here. I think if I read it, it stamps it on your memory a little more than if I just say it. John 6:44, Jesus said:
John 6:44 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.
Now you see, it's the Father who said "Let us make man in our image." It is the Father we have disobeyed really because He is the Lawgiver. Jesus had merely told Adam what God had told Him to say, and it was God the Father that he really disobeyed; and really it is God the Father we are cut off from. You notice that the Protestant churches today talk a lot about Christ. They say very little about the Father. It's the Father we've been cut off from. It's the Father we need to get back to, and there is no way back to the Father except through and by Christ.
Jesus said no man could yet come to Him except God the Father chooses you and selects you. Every one of you has been chosen as one out of several thousand other people of all of the people on the earth. If God has called you, you are only one out of several thousand. And God has looked down and picked out, and by predestination has called you and you are given that wonderful chance. But what did Jesus say here?
Mark 1:14-15 ... came ... preaching the gospel of the kingdom ... (15) Saying the time is fulfilled ... the kingdom of God is at hand; [and then He said] REPENT YE and believe the [good news about the Family, the Kingdom of God and being born into that Family, into that God Kingdom till we are in the Kingdom of God].
Now both the Word and God are in that Kingdom now. The angels are not, and there is not one word in the Bible that says that ANYBODY else is in that Kingdom now except God and the Father. But we are already heirs of it -- if we are Christ's and if the Spirit of God is in us. And, if we are led by the Spirit of God, we are already the begotten sons of God; but only heirs now and only begotten now.
Now in Acts 2 and verses 38 and 39, the day the Holy Spirit came and the Church was started:
Acts 2:38 ... Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now the Holy Spirit was being poured out on those that were called. And then he went on and said:
Acts 2:39 For the promise ... [Of the Holy Spirit. It's not for the whole world now. I want you to notice: Who is the promise to, the whole world? No, the promise] ... is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Oh, only as many as the Lord our God shall call; but not to just "whosoever will." The one time that "whosoever will" is mentioned in the Bible is in the last chapter of the Bible, long after even the Great White Throne Judgment has occurred.
Now, we who have sinned are called into the GOD WORLD -- THE GOD WORLD, A NEW WORLD -- and to be pioneers in that world (as Adam could have been). Yet first we have to repent though, because we have all sinned (where Adam didn't). That's the first hurdle. Jesus said, "Repent and believe the good news about the Kingdom of God." How can they believe that kind of good news of the Kingdom of God when they had never even heard it, and most in the world have not heard it? Now, I tell you, millions have heard it by my voice by now, and in print; and the gospel is being published in all the world (as you read in Luke the 21st chapter).
Now, third, as you read in II Peter 3:18, once we receive the Holy Spirit we have to "GROW in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." We grow in spiritual knowledge, which we don't have at the beginning. And then the 4th hurdle; "he that endures unto the end."
Now we have obeyed what Christ said: Come out from among the world and be separate. We have obeyed the command in the 18th chapter of Revelation and verse 4;"Come out of her." That's Babylon (all the religious confusion) and that's the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches primarily. Then in Revelation 2:26 and 27, if we OVERCOME now and endure unto the end, we will be given "power over the nations." We will rule them, and we will be in the Kingdom of God and ruling the rest of the world that is not yet in the Kingdom of God. They'll still be mortal. We'll be immortal in the Millennium.
If we overcome, we will sit with Christ on His throne while He judges the whole world; and then judgment will be on the world, and Satan will be gone. We will be KINGS AND PRIESTS, AND WE WILL REIGN ON THE EARTH (Revelation 5 verse 10) -- if we repent, and if we do till Christ comes and grow in grace and knowledge as God reveals it in the Bible, and if we have the Holy Spirit so that God's revelation makes sense to us and we understand it.
Now Satan will persecute and will hinder us; but in Ephesians 6 verses 10 to 18 you will read that we are not fighting against people, but unseen spirits (Satan and his demons, who really rule this dark world). This is Satan's world, but Protestant churches believe this is God's world. The Pope at Rome preaches that this is God's world. He is trying to make this world a better world. God is not trying to cure this world! He's calling us OUT OF THIS WORLD. He's starting a NEW AND DIFFERENT WORLD. That is the Gospel, and it's news. It's good news. Another world is coming. We can be pioneers in it; but we have to endure, we have to put on the whole amour of God and continue on from now on straight through to the end.