Herbert W. Armstrong Audio Sermon Transcripts
The Church of God Faithful Flock brings you transcripts of sermons given by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Success Based On God's Law
Sermon Date: July 30, 1983
Well greetings, brethren, once again. Next Sabbath I expect to be speaking in Boston — Boston, Massachusetts. I'm leaving on Monday for my third visit this year up to Orr, Minnesota for the camp up there. And then I'm going over to the camp at Loch Lomond. Ah, what do you call it, Lake Lomond? Anyway, in Scotland; however they pronounce it over there in Scotland. And I think it is good and perhaps necessary that I get over and speak to these young people — these youths from 13 to 18 years of age, or including 17. They are the leaders of just about 15 and 20 years from now. And what this Church is going to become, a whole lot depends on them. I wonder if we realize just how important they are.
Well, let me ask you the same thing you heard earlier this afternoon: Why we should come out of the world. This world is right now in the first stages of the crisis at the close of this age, or of this whole world — this present world. And another, better world is coming. Right now everything is stepping up. God has delayed certain events, but He says that He will make a short work and cut it short suddenly. Jesus gave us the expression of how it will come when it is least expected. And like a rat getting caught in a trap that snaps, when it didn't even know it, until it is caught. And that's how suddenly things are going to happen very, very soon.
How much longer God will delay before He does that, I don't know. But there is every reason why I can sense that we are coming very, very close to that time. Europe is reuniting; and, when it is reunited, our work will be finished. And that will lead fairly quickly into the Second Coming of Christ and the World Tomorrow. So the world is at a crisis.
This world is evil. The world is wrong. I've said many times that all errors and evil is merely the biggest error you can have; that all errors come from a false premise that is assumed and taken carelessly for granted. A certain premise that we assume, and it's the foundation or the basis on which everything and every argument and all so-called knowledge after it, is based; and yet it is false. And you find that in most cases, nearly always, errors are based on a false premise taken carelessly for granted and assumed as if it is so self-evident that it needs no proof.
Adam took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we do have both in this world. There's a certain kind of good that is a selfish good in the world, but also there's a great deal of evil. Now it all traces back to its origin. And this subject of origins is something that it seems science fails to look into, education fails to look into, religion fails to examine it; and yet that is the basic premise. That's where it all starts. If your premise is wrong, everything based on it is going to be wrong. That's why this world is wrong!
Satan has blinded this world on a false premise. (Let's see now, I have some notes I have scribbled down here that I want to bring to you.) Well, the false premise that Satan has given the world of education and science is that of evolution. That is the premise on which everything is based. In other words, that's their origin. They trace origins through their doctrine, or theory, of evolution. That's where everything began. And it cannot explain the troubles in the world. It gives no hope for a solution. And the whole world is in trouble. Now that's science, that's education, in the world.
But now look at religion in the world, especially in Christianity as a whole. Religion looks at it that, ah, God created man and God's plan failed right at the very beginning. Adam made the wrong choice, and it was the fall of man and ever since God has been trying to repair the damage. Satan came along and damaged what God had created, man. And God has been trying to repair the damage and make the man as good as he was in the first place, before Satan came along and caused him to fall.
Now, if you trace it, God wasn't succeeding very well; and so, 430 years after Moses, God formed a nation to be His nation. God tried to a new scheme. But the nation didn't obey; and Satan got the best of Him there, on the nation. And then He sent Jesus Christ to come try to repair the damage and make everybody in this world as good as Adam was before the fall, and to save the whole world in that way, one at a time; and go out in a crusade. So they look at it that Jesus Christ was sent into the world on a soul-saving crusade.
Well, I can't find any place in the Bible where Jesus went on a soul-saving crusade — where He ever pled with anyone to give Him their heart. I do see in the Bible where a young woman came to Him up in Samaria at Jacob's well. He spoke of the Holy Spirit in the terms of living water. And she said, "Give me this living water." She was asking for it. What a wonderful opportunity for Him to have converted her. Instead, He said, "Go and tell your husband." And she said, "Well, I don't have a husband." And Jesus said, "Well, for once you've told the truth because you've had (What was it? I think...) five husbands; and the one you are living with now is not your husband." He didn't try to convert her. He told her her sins and what was wrong.
And that's the way it is in the world. So the world has been deceived in regard to religion, to success in life, to our problems. They have been deceived about God's way of life; and they've been living a different and a wrong way of life, because they don't know its origins.
So today I want to talk to you a little about the seven laws of success. I want to talk too about the origin of law and of government, and basic things of that kind that explain WHY the world is wrong. I want to tell you why, and why I've been now for about two years going back to origins. I've gone back to the two trees. I don't know whether some of you have said, "Ah, there goes Mr. Armstrong again. I wish he'd get off of those two trees." I'm not going to get off of them.
Did you ever tune on a movie on television, or go into a movie motion-picture theatre, and the play is about one-third, or half, or two-thirds over? And you can't make anything out of it. You haven't seen what when on before, and you don't understand what you are seeing now. Well, brethren, we came into LIFE; and all life is a moving picture of God's program and plan. There is a purpose being worked out here below, and God has that purpose; and it is God who working it out. And in the working out of that purpose, we've come in, well, at about the eleventh hour — when it's almost over; and most people look at it from here. Not having seen what went on before, they don't understand where we are now or what causes the condition that we see now. You have to go back to the origin and see how it all started. We have to get the premise right, or else our conclusions based on that premise are going to be false.
So the world has been deceived in regard to religion. The world has been deceived in regard to education, to success in life. It's been deceived in government, in every way. It doesn't know the origin of law.
Recently I spoke at a meeting down at the law school of the University of Southern California. And I mentioned to them something about the origin of law and of government. You know, I don't think that they know the origin of law; and yet it's a law school, and they are studying law. And I don't think that the judges on the Supreme Court of the United States understand the origin of law and of government. They've come in like we have, at this late hour; and they don't understand it. If you don't go back to the beginning, you are all mixed up. You have a wrong perspective. You don't understand what's going on now.
I explained to the law school of the University of Southern California — that is, to a group of them — I explained how, when I was five years old, my father told me that someday I would be a Philadelphia lawyer. Because I was always asking so many questions, he got tired of answering them. Well, when I was age 34, I was CHALLENGED on a question of law. And I told them I went to a law book to solve this question of law. I said it was a book that I didn't know whether they had a copy in the library or not? I doubted if most law schools had a copy of this book on law. But it's a basic book on law, and it speaks about law from its very beginning. In fact, that book is the Holy Bible; and it speaks about law in the 2nd chapter of the very first book. And all the way up to the last chapter of Revelation, you still see law spoken of. It's about law all the way through!
Now sin is the transgression of the law. And it has a lot to say about sin and about law. You know, they discovered down at the University of Southern California law school that they did have one copy of the Bible there; and they said they were placing an immediate order for several more copies. Well, I think they are to be congratulated. The Bible should be the basic textbook on law.
I gave them a hint on the origin of law and of government, and how it all ORIGINATED. Where did this thing of law start? Where did government start? What is law? Lawmakers, judges, rulers of government don't understand. That's why they are messing everything all up today. They just don't understand where it began. They have a wrong premise.
What is law? And what is government? Well, law is the rules that regulate human conduct in relation to others. For example, you might call the rules of a football game or a baseball game, you might call them THE LAW of the game. Law is merely rules that regulate conduct so that we get along, so that everything goes along like it should. But the law schools don't understand the origin of law. As I say, I don't think the judges on the Supreme Court of the United States do.
Now the first words in all that LAW BOOK, which is the chief source of law; and the beginning (and every law school ought to begin here) is Genesis 1 and verse 1, where it says:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now "God" is a plural word, Elohim. It was written in the Hebrew language. That was written, let me see, well I guess over 3,000 years ago; and it was written in the Hebrew language. And we have an English translation. We have the English word "God." "In the beginning,God..." Well, the word "God" is an English word translated out of the Hebrew word "Elohim."
Now Elohim is a plural, meaning more than one. How do you explain that? What is GOD? I've said "What is law? What is government?" Now, WHAT IS GOD? Well, we go back to John 1 verse 1 in the New Testament, as I've done many times before.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word.
Now in Genesis, "In the beginning [Elohim]" — more than one Person. In John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word." What is the Word? Well, in the 14th verse it explains:
John 1:14 The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us [and became Jesus Christ].
So the Word was Jesus Christ before He was ever born as a human being. Now if you'll ask further "What is God?" — God is a Spirit. (John 4:24.) So the Word was, then, a Spirit; but the Word was made flesh, and He became human. And before that He'd been a Spirit. Now, continue in John 1:1.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word [That's a Spirit Personage.], and the Word was with God[We know God is another Spirit Personage, because God IS Spirit. So now we have two Spirit Personages.], and the Word wasGod. [The Word is also God.]
Now, that can only be in the same sense that, if you'd say "In a certain place was John, and John was with Smith, and John was also Smith." You've got two people and they're both Smith, and Smith is the family name. And they both have the same Family name. However, God is not the Word. And the Word, well the Word was God — because They were both God. And the Word did become... When He was born human, He did become the Son of God; and God became His Father.
If you read a little further on (to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th verse), you read that all things were made by Him — the Word. And later on it says in Him was life. Now, They both had life. They both lived! If They had life, They lived. If They lived, that means action. That means performance. That means doing something. What did They do? Well, they were Creators. And to create, you have to first think out what you are going to create. You have to design. You have to plan. You have to think it out. And then you have to produce and form and create. And so, God had to do all of those things. Now we get back to Genesis 1, verse 26:
Genesis 1:26 And God said, "Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness.
You see, God said that to the Word; and there are two people there. God didn't say "Let Me." He said, "Let us." He told the Word to do it. Now HOW did the Word create? And HOW did God have anything to do with it? In Ephesians 3 and verse 9, you read that God created all things; but He did it BY Jesus Christ. In other words, Christ is the Word. One of the Psalms says He spoke and it was done.
Well, how did He speak? His own ideas?" No. When He was in the human flesh — and He didn't change, because He said He's "the same yesterday, and today, and forever" has always been. He said He spoke only what the Father told Him to speak and commanded. Now, God created things BY Christ. God told Him what to do; and He spoke, and the Spirit of God that emanated from both the Father and the Son is the power that did it. So that's the way that the Word created, and that's the way the Father also was back of creation.
Now, They lived; and, as I said, They created. We have two there, and They were working together in this creation. When two are working together and living together, two can't get along except they be agreed. So They had to be agreed. I've shown you now WHAT They were doing. They were creating. Well, HOW did They do? HOW did They get along together?
Well, in the first place, where there are two they not only have to be agreed; but one of them is going to always be the boss, or the leader. You have to have leadership. And so God created everything by Jesus Christ. And God told Jesus, or the Word, what to do; and He did it.
Now how did They live together? What was Their manner of relationship one to another? What was Their lifestyle, if you please? Their mode of life. When Jesus was baptized, the Father's voice said from heaven, "This is My beloved Son [Or, You are My Beloved Son.] in whom I am well pleased." He LOVED His Son! His Son was His Beloved Son. And Jesus loved the Father and obeyed Him.
And so Their way was cooperation. Whatever the Father said do, the Word did. He did it instantly. They were both together. They were agreed. One was the leader. There was cooperation. Now Their WAY OF LIFE — the way They lived — was love one toward the other. That way simply was a rule of life; and, therefore, was law. And in God's creation and God's purpose, that way — LOVE — becomes the supreme LAW! That's the way of life!
Now, first of all, you know you can expand that a great deal; and Jesus came to expand the law. To... (What's the word? I can't think of it right now. I don't know why a certain word that I've used maybe a thousand times in my life won't come back to me when I want it.) Anyway, it is a principle that does expand. There's a better word than expand that means the same thing. Love became the law, a way of life!
Now God had a purpose. I'd like to get back to my book "The Seven Laws of Success" and let's see if they square up with God's way. The first law of success, according to the book which God inspired me to write (I hope, and I believe), was having a purpose. Having a goal! If you don't have a goal, you don't know where you are going. A goal is your objective. Where are you going? What are you going to do?
Most young men never think about having a goal. They never think about what are they going to do when they grow up. They never think about what kind of work are they going to do, what kind of occupation or what kind of profession will they get into. Or, if they do, they just think "Well, I'd like to be a dentist." "I'd like to be a doctor." "I'd like to be a lawyer." And they decide to go to a school. And maybe the one who decides to be a lawyer would be better talented, and equipped, and have more ability to become a doctor.
Well when I was eighteen years of age, I put myself through a self-examination by a book I found in the public library that examined whatever abilities or talents, if any, and what weaknesses, and shortcoming, and faults I had. And also it went through a complete examination of the professions, the occupations, the different jobs, to see where those particular talents or abilities fit and where those weaknesses and handicaps did not seem to do so much harm.
Now I didn't choose just the right profession because the one that I should have chosen I didn't know yet, until God called me. I had no way of knowing it at the time. But what I did choose I think God guided me in, because it prepared me for what I...and gave me the experience that I needed when I did start the real profession that God later did call me to.
All right. God has a purpose that is being worked out here below. That's the beginning now, of the first law of success. And, you see, that's what God does in His life; and Christ. They had a purpose. And Their purpose was this:
Genesis 1:26 Let Us make man in OUR image.
Now, what did that mean? That simply said "Let US reproduce Ourselves! Let Us take dirt out of the ground." And so in the 2nd chapter of Genesis and verse 7:
Genesis 2:7 God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
And the dust of the ground became a soul. So a soul is made out of matter, and not spirit. God's purpose, then, was to reproduce Himself. Job asked:
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? [He said,] All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till mychangecome. [He said "God shall...] call, and I will answer...He will have a desire to the work of His hands.
WE are each one a piece of God's workmanship. When God created Adam, He was creating something out of which He meant to develop and reproduce Himself, or God, and in other words, to have that one ultimately created and born into the God Family.
Now, when reproducing Himself, you have to ask then "What was God?" Well, God is Spirit. Yes. But God is a lot more than that. God was also perfect, supreme, righteous spiritual character. He had CHARACTER; and that character was all built on the way He lived, which is love. And love was the foundation, or the basic premise (if you please), on which He based that and His whole character.
Now in order to create a God out of man, and out of the dust of the ground, God had to get God's character into that man; but it couldn't be character if a man didn't choose it himself. If God just simply did it by fiat and forced a certain character into him, that's like a machine you make. It has to do what you tell it to do or what you cause it to do. You turn a motor on; and it has no mind, it has no volition. It can't say "Oh, I'll decide to be turned on and to run." Or, "I won't." You turn on the motor in your automobile, and it's going to turn on unless there's something wrong with it. But it has no mind to decide. There's no character.
But God was creating CHARACTER now. To do that, He put one spirit in man; but he was incomplete. I've said so many times, He creates in a principle of duality. It's like a one-two punch. Man was physically incomplete without a wife. He couldn't reproduce and have children of his own. So God gave him a wife. And now he was physically complete. But he wasn't mentally and spiritually complete! He had one spirit.
Now God also made animals that breathe the breath of life. And animals have all of the sense a man has. They have eyes to see with, and ears to hear with. They have nerves to feel with. They have nostrils to smell with, and they have a sense of taste and everything that man has. But they can't think. And its THE SPIRIT that God put in man that causes him to think. But now that spirit needed...
It was incomplete and it needed another spirit to go with it; and that was the Holy Spirit of God. The spirit man haddid not give him life! How did man get his life? Not from that spirit. God breathed the breath of life into him. The life gave him breath. And the Bible says the blood thereof is the life thereof, not the spirit. Nowhere does is say the spirit of man is the life thereof. The spirit of man simply gave him the power to think, and the power to come to physical knowledge, and the power to make decisions (either good or bad) up to the extent of the knowledge that he had.
So there was another tree in the Garden of Eden. There was one tree — the tree of life. And God wanted the man to have that. If he had taken of that tree that would have meant God would have injected GOD-LIFE into him. In other words, the God Spirit. And God's Spirit is the very life of God! It is the MIND of God. It would have given him God's intelligence, God's mind, and God's life. But he rejected that.
The other tree was the knowledge of good and evil, just on his own; and he chose that. Now it's true that men that have been born from Adam (And today there are 4 ½ billion of them.), that some of them have desires of good. They have good intentions, good morals, good ethics. It's all selfish. It's all self-centered.
I've explained how mother-love is even selfish. She doesn't love other children the same way as she does her own; and many a mother doesn't love other children at all. But her own is part of her, came out of her. That's selfish. And self is an empirical self. It includes everything that is yours. Now that can even be your football team, your basketball team, your baseball team. You root for them. You want them to win. You don't like the other team. You see, you're selfish; and you take sides. And that gets into competition; and that gets into strife; and it gets into the very opposite of the cooperation and love that existed between God and the Word.
Now God's law and government was the basis of God's character. His character is merely God's law in action; but it must be chosen voluntarily, and activated voluntarily, by the one who has it — or he couldn't become God. God Himself WILLS and has made the decision to have that kind of love instead of having competition, and vanity, and jealousy, and envy, and hatred. God is a God of love, a God of mercy and compassion. That's His character!
Now man had to make a choice. Otherwise God couldn't reproduce Himself. That part man had to do for himself. So there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and the man chose that. He chose that kind of good and evil, which is self-good and self-evil. And there was Satan there, influencing him to do it; and Satan is evil. Sin is the transgression of the law of love and of the way of God's character. I John 3:4. So the first man sinned. Then God cut off the Holy Spirit from man.
Now then, we get back to the basic premise. We get back to origins. And we know how life started. And we know how humanity started. We know how the world got started. We know the origin of God. We know the origin of man now. Science doesn't know it. Governments don't know it. The Supreme Court judges don't know it. The ministers of the Christian religion don't know it — traditional "Christianity." They just don't know it.
Righteousness and character are all based on God's law, and God's law is love. Now, how does love act? Well, love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is a noun, and that's what it is. But it also is a verb. And love is the fulfilling of the law — active love. But, as you read in Romans 5 and verse 5, it is:
Romans 5:5 The love of God... shed abroad in our hearts BY the Holy Spirit.
Now that is a love you can't have until the Holy Spirit comes into you. If Adam had taken the tree of life that would have meant God would have INJECTED God-life into Adam. He didn't inject God-life. He injected simply a chemical, mechanical, temporary existence into the man. You see there is energy in matter. Think of the energy in an atomic bomb or a hydrogen bomb, that all comes out of the ground and out of matter.
And so the breathing of air and the circulation of blood, combined with the eating of food and the drinking of water, it all tends to create energy; and it's physical energy within you. That's an energy that God set in motion, but it isn't specifically and directly caused by God and given by God. That's an energy God set in motion that you just have yourself.
But the Spirit of God is divine energy. It's a different kind of energy, and it's a different kind of love. It is the basis of God's character. Now human love with the one spirit of man CANNOT fulfill the law of God, because it's a spiritual law and it requires the love of God. The Holy Spirit in us is the only kind of love that can fulfill that law. It's impossible for you to really love God in the sense you must love God, because the real love of God (if you love God) is simply the love of God shed abroad in your heart — the Holy Spirit coming into you and then going back to Him.
In other words, it's like electricity coming into... Do you see what I've got here? If I turn it around a little bit, you can all see that light. But there are two wires going into that light; and electricity comes in, and it circulates around and goes back again. It's on a two-way circuit. And that's the way God's love is. And it takes the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.
Now we come to the question then "What IS the Holy Spirit? And let me tell you, the world does not know. And I don't believe Billy Graham knows, and I don't believe that Jerry Falwell knows. I don't think they KNOW what is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the life of God injected into us. I mean if we have received the Holy Spirit, it is that.
Let's get back to the principles now. If you have the Holy Spirit and you have a purpose in life and the laws of success. First you have the Holy Spirit. Now you have to have the laws of success if you are going to become God. And it starts with your repentance, baptism, and RECEIVING of the Spirit of God. Now the Spirit of God in you puts within you the mind of God, the life of God, begotten into you.
But you see when you first had physical life begotten into you, you were a little tiny (Oh, now I've used that word thousands of times.) embryo. And you were about the size of a pinpoint. Not the head of a pin, but the point of a pin. But you had to grow physically, fed on food — on physical food; because you were going to grow physically into a physical form and shape and into a physical life, all based on the breathing of air, and the circulation of blood, and the refueling by food and water.
Now if you are going to become God, that is a spirit life, being begotten and born. And so you have the Spirit of God, and that gives you a purpose in life — to become a child of God, and become born of God, and really to become God — to grow spiritually.
Now the second: You've got a goal now alright. Second, to achieve that goal, the second is education or knowledge to acquire that goal. Well, to be educated, your Teacher is God. And God teaches you through His Word. Now Jesus is the Word of God, as I have said. But the Bible is the same Word in writing, and Jesus is the author of the Bible. In other words, He is the Word who speaks. And what He speaks, all that He speaks that we have to know now, is written here. Now He could speak maybe a lot more, but He speaks here all that He intended us to have now. And so, God becomes our Teacher in and through the Bible.
But I have said recently a great many times (I didn't know this a long time ago.) but the Bible is a coded book. And humans ordinarily cannot understand the Bible. Billy Graham can't understand it. I know he has said to others, and it's come to me, that I understand the Bible. But without the Holy Spirit you CAN'T do it, because the Holy Spirit is the key that decodes the coded Book so you can understand it.
Now let me explain that. Here was Paul speaking to people some of the truth — but he didn't go into the language of scholarship — with plain, simple words; and yet the people couldn't understand it. (Ah, wait a minute.) I Corinthians 2 He said:
I Corinthians 2:7 We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery...
It's a mystery. It's a code. In other words, it's a code that they can't understand. A mystery is something that is mysterious. You can't understand it. It's a mystery to most people.
I Corinthians 2:7-9 ...even the hidden [mystery], which God ordained before the world unto our glory: (8) which none of the princes of this world [That is, the leaders. Maybe the leaders of education, maybe the leaders of government, the leaders of business, the leaders of any kind. None of them have understood it.]...for had they [understood] it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (9) But it is written [Now he's quoting Scripture.], Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart [or, the mind]of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
That is, God's purpose. What God is going to do. What God's purpose is. In other words, it's talking there about the basic premise, which is God's purpose and what He's doing — what's going on, what your life is all about, why you're in the world, why things don't go better than they do, and how they would go well. That is all a mystery, and they can't understand it. It is explained here in the Bible; but, as I say, it's a coded Book. The next verse explains, the 10th.
I Corinthians 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us [Us who are begotten of God and who have received His Holy Spirit. To us who have the Holy Spirit in us.] by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
In other words, God is the Teacher. God reveals these things to us. And here it is — the Bible. But He reveals what is in the Bible by the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit you can't understand the Bible. The Holy Spirit is the instrumentality God puts within you to un-code the Bible, to decode it, to make it so you can understand it. The world cannot understand the Bible. The ministers, the electric evangelists on the air, cannot understand the Bible.
I'll tell you another thing: "A good understanding have all they that doHis commandments." Do they do God's commandments? No, and they won't. And they all feel a very great sense of competition against me. They try to control television stations. They try to keep me off. They'll all go together; but as long as you have any of the government of God in it, they don't want anything to do with it. It gets back to law and government again. And they know that I keep God's commandments. "A good understanding have all they that do His commandments." And "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" and understanding. And they don't seem to understand that.
Now it goes on to say that a man couldn't even have human knowledge except for that one spirit that is in us. A cow, an ox, can't have it. But in the same way, a man (who can understand human knowledge) can't understand the things of God without the Spirit of God. That's the next verse here, verse 11. Then verse 14 says... Let me see.
I Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man [Just your ordinary man with one spirit in your brain.] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God [the Bible]: for they are foolish unto him...
And the Bible is foolishness to most people in the world, and to the highly educated in the world. That's why they had to search and see if there was even one Bible down at the law school of the University of Southern California.
Now then, let's see, we've been on this second one: knowledge and education. Well, it requires now not only the Holy Spirit to open the Bible; but the Bible teaches you, and that's where you get your education. But it requires study and prayer on your part to get that education. That now is the second of the seven laws of success.
Now the third law of success: (I'm getting so even the way I wrote large black type or print that I've made up my notes, which I could read four or five months ago, I can't even read any more. My eyes are getting worse apparently.) Oh, yes, the third is spiritually in our case of being begotten of God until we become God... The third law of success, then, is good health. Well, now we have to look at it in spiritual health. The Bible also gives you a number of laws about physical health. But it is especially concerned about spiritual health.
Now the dieticians say that you are whatever you eat physically, and that's pretty much the truth. Well, you are SPIRITUALLY pretty much what is fed into your brain. Not fed into your stomach, but fed into your mind. For example, in Matthew 4:4. (Let me see. I didn't put a marker here to that. I'll turn to it in just a second.) Matthew 4:4, on the great temptation of Jesus, where Jesus was tempted by the devil; and He said... (Well, I don't need to read it. It's too hard to read. But I know it anyway by heart.)
Matthew 4:4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word...of God.
And Jesus said: "I am the bread of life." And He is the Teacher who teaches, and that is spiritual food. Now you have to have spiritual health. And so, you see the seven laws of success apply spiritually on becoming converted.
Now the fourth one I have as drive or initiative, and that might be called (Oh, I have another word for it. I think I wrote it down here, I wanted to use.) applying yourself. You have to strive, and apply yourself, and drive yourself. And it is love put in action; and it's the Holy Spirit, the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. But you yourself have to put it into action. Let me explain it this way. As many as are LED by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. That's in Romans 8.
Romans 8:14 As many as are led by the Spirit of God [they] are the sons of God.
You see we have something to do about it. Just having the Holy Spirit doesn't make you into a God. It doesn't give you the character of God. The character of God requires YOUR ACTION! YOUR EFFORT! YOUR DRIVE, if you please. Initiative. You've got to work at it. You have to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Now the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God comes into you, it will open your mind to understand the Bible. The first thing the Holy Spirit does {4} is impregnate you with the life of God. Next comes, in order, the opening up to your mind the way of God. In other words, education so you can understand the Bible. And it is an attitude. The Holy Spirit is an attitude, and an attitude is the direction you're going — your purpose.
It means obey God. It means submission. "As many as areledby the Sprit of God." In other words, brethren, the Holy Spirit (and I've said this before) is not going to drive you and force you to do anything, if you're not willing to USE the Spirit of God in you. Now if you are being led by it, it's not going to pull you. It will show you the way, but you have to use the human effort to go that way. So YOU HAVE YOUR PART IN IT — physically as well as spiritually. So the Spirit of God will give you understanding. It will give you the love of God. It will give you faith and power. It will give you all of those things. (Well, wait a minute. I'm getting way ahead of myself here.)
Anyway, the fifth one was resourcefulness. (Let's see, the fourth. I covered that, didn't I? Yeah. Drive, initiative, or exerting your own self; and you have to do that.) You are led by the Holy Spirit, and you have to supply the driving force; but you are going to need some help, and that comes from some of the other things the Holy Spirit gives you.
Now you're going to run up against problems, and you don't know how to solve them; and it's going to take resourcefulness to solve those problems. Now part of that is going to come from God; and part of it is from knowing and understanding the Bible, which gives you directions enough to show you how to do and how to solve problems. But also by prayer and by turning to God, God will fight your battles for you. God will do many of these things. But it requires a resourcefulness that comes from the knowledge of the Bible, and the Holy Spirit, and faith. And it's a living faith which... Well, that is really... (Let me see. I can't read my notes any longer. You'll just have to forgive me, brethren. I can't help it. But my eyes are failing.) That is the fifth of the laws of success.
Now the sixth is endurance. Stick-to-itiveness, I've called it. The Bible says:
Matthew 24:13 He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved.
I've talked to you about the four hurdles. The first is repentance. The second is faith, believing God. And the third is growing in knowledge. Now we've covered all of those, and they do come in on the seven laws of success. Then, "he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved." Now that...
One of the next things that the Holy Spirit gives you is power. And that power is to drive you on. That power is power over yourself. Power to resist the world. It is power to endure if you need to, when the going gets tough and gets hard.
Now seventh comes the guidance of God, and that comes by the same two things I've mentioned before. It comes from Bible knowledge, understanding (and you can only have understanding by the Holy Spirit of God in you) and by prayer and talking to God. And God will inspire you and just literally put things in your mind. He often puts things in my mind. I sometimes wonder how they got there. But I'm meditating, and I'm thinking along that line; and I have so many things of the Bible in my mind anyway already. And He'll cause one of those things to come and just open the door, and the solution, and how to solve this-or-that-or-the-other matter.
In my position, I have to make important decisions quite often. Very often Mr. Tkach comes in. He's got these questions that have come up from some of the ministers, and that question; and they get into all kinds of ramifications.
The Holy Spirit in us is a begettal of the life of God, which is INJECTED into us — that divine life, which we never had before! Then the Spirit of God is an attitude. And you pretty much come to that attitude before you repent and are baptized. But you have to continue in that attitude, which is your direction of life — to go God's way; and the attitude of love instead of competition, instead of strife, instead of envy and jealousy, instead of all of those things. It's obedience to God instead of to man.
Then another is, yes, obedience and attitude; and then obedience to God. And, let's see. Now that would make it...one, two, three. Understanding would be four. Love... Well, love is... The first thing the Holy Spirit gives you, outside of attitude and a spirit of obedience, is understanding of the Bible. God reveals these things to us by His Spirit. But we have to apply the Spirit. It takes drive. It takes application. And sometimes it isn't easy to push ourselves on. The Holy Spirit won't push you. It won't shove you. It won't get hold of you and pull you and drive you. It'll just open your mind. But now it will give you help, and God will give you help if you need it. Then you have the love of God, and now you have to put it into action — fulfilling God's law, and loving even your enemies; and love is an active principle. It's something that you do. It's a way of life!
Next comes, not you working up faith, but the receiving the faith of Christ by the Holy Spirit until you have the very same faith He had. And you have to have faith to rely on God for some things that are out of your power. You can't do of yourself. You have to rely on God through FAITH to do some things for you. Then comes power! And those are the things that the Holy Spirit will give you. The Holy Spirit is all of those things. It is DIVINE LIFE put into you. It is the power of understanding, but it has to come with the attitude of submission and obedience.
Do you think that the Catholic and Protestant churches of the world have those attributes? No. By their fruit you know them. I think there was, it was either a sermon or a sermonette this morning on attitude. I mean on bearing fruit. We have to bear fruit. We have something to do with that. Christ is the Vine. We are each individually the branches. But we have to bear fruit, or we are going to be cut off; and that is our doing. That is action. That takes study. It takes prayer. It takes doing. It isn't just to say you got saved and you have nothing further to do but just wait until you go to heaven. It's making you into a God!
Now this is Satan's world, and this world is going to die. I haven't explained all of God's plan here this afternoon. I've done that on other sermons. But God is calling us out of the world, because Jesus came as the second Adam; and He came to start A NEW WORLD, A NEW CIVILIZATION, and He only called a few. And no one can come to Him except God the Father calls them. And we've come out of the world, but yet we live in it. But we are of THE WORLD TOMORROW — living a different way, as we have the Holy Spirit and are led by the Holy Spirit.
The world is NOT led by the Holy Spirit. The world is led by lust, not love. The world is led by competition and strife, selfishness, greed, anger, violence — all of those things. And we have to live by love and cooperation, and obedience to God. And it's an active life. And we have to each one of us bear fruit.
Now there's another thing. Here one says, well, you see the churches are like Christ said about the Vine. There are many branches. So there are many churches. There's a Baptist church, a Presbyterian, and this and that. And one, who left this Church and started another church of his own, said he's one of the branches — that there are many churches, not just one Church.
But they are all joined onto the Vine, and that's speaking of individuals; and there are individual Churches, but they are all joined onto the Vine. Now there's a Church here. There's one that met this morning in this same place. There's another one meeting this afternoon over in the Imperial Gym, I guess it is. We've had Churches today meeting today in Boston, where I expect to speak next Sabbath. You know, they're all branches too. But we're joined together! And we are joined in, and through, and by Christ — together.
We all speak the same thing, not different things. And you find in Ephesians 2 and Ephesians 4 that the Church is like a building. It's all joined together, "fitly framed" together; and like every joint is welded on to the other joint, so to speak. That is, not in physical location; but in understanding, in belief, in doctrine, and in the way of God instead of the way of the world. That's why we are to come out of this world and be separate. But there's only the one Church in the long run.
So I hope we have the understanding of those things, because the world does not have understanding. The world doesn't understand about God's Holy Spirit, and what it is, why we need the Holy Spirit of God. It's like Jesus said, "Without Me you can do nothing." And Jesus Himself said, "Of Myself I can do nothing. The Father that dwells in Me does it." And each of us has to realize that. It takes the Spirit of God in each one of us!
But we all believe the same things. We all speak the same thing. We all live the same way, which is God's way. We all have come out of the world. And yet we are joined together through Christ and through His principles. And we are a united body. And we must produce fruit. And individually each of you must produce fruit. And so we have many things for you to do.
And I noticed that today they were asking for volunteers to do this and that. Now, in a Co-worker letter (Well, it was the next to the last one now.) I asked for contributions for the summer camps because there was a need. Well, a lot of the people in God's Church are bearing fruit. Actually twice the amount that was the bare need came in — because brethren were liberal, and brethren were bearing fruit, and they responded. Now that's the part they had to do. I can't do it all. I have my part, and each of you has your part.
And, by the way, if you look at the telecast tomorrow morning, I wonder are you indifferent — thinking "Well I don't need to look at it"? Well, brethren, it's money that you pay in. Of course, it's God's money. But that's what's paying for it, and each one of those telecasts tomorrow (The one tomorrow morning on Channel 11, and the one tomorrow evening on Channel 9.), each one of those just for that one-half hour is costing several thousand dollars. Did you know that? But they reach a lot of people; and telephone calls come in by the hundreds and the thousands as a result immediately, from people clear outside of the Church.
But that's part of your work. I just happen to be the speaker. But you notice that it says, "This is sponsored by the Worldwide Church of God." Not by me. I don't sponsor it. You are all the Worldwide Church of God. The Worldwide Church of God is all of us combined, put together. And we're ONE BODY fitly framed and joined together whether we are in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Philippines, South Africa, England, Germany, or where — ONE BODY, many offices, many things to do; but one body. So let's understand that. And each of us has his own job to do. That's why one scripture says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" because we each have something to do.
Well thank you, brethren. It'll be two weeks now before I can be back, but I'll see you the next time I can.