Herbert W. Armstrong Audio Sermon Transcripts
The Church of God Faithful Flock brings you transcripts of sermons given by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Why Only a Few Chosen Now?
Sermon Date: June 5, 1982
I have already passed my 50th anniversary in the ministry, and I missed just 3 ½ months of my 50th anniversary in my marriage. And I wonder if you realize that last Monday, last Sunday rather, we all passed the 1951st anniversary of this Church, because it was 1951 years ago last Sunday that the Church was born—on the day of Pentecost, in Jerusalem.
Some newspaper reporter was saying to one of our men recently that "Well, Mr. Armstrong founded this Church, didn't he?" Someone said, "No, he didn't found it." "Well, I thought he did. Everybody said Mr. Armstrong founded this Church." Oh, no. No. The Church was founded by Jesus Christ, way back 1951 years ago. I just came in sort of the "Johnny came lately," like all of you did. So this is rather an old Church, when you get down to it.
And it seems like it has taken 1951 years for the Church to learn WHAT the Church is and WHY it is. Why should there be a Church? What is the Church? I want to tell you, the world does not know. People in what they call the Methodist Church don't know. The Baptist Church, the Congregational, the Presbyterian, the Lutheran, or the Roman Catholic; they don't know. The Church actually has been called "the called out ones"—a Church called out. But called out of what? Well, we're called out of the world. And if we're called out of the world, WHY? What's wrong with the world? And why should we be called out?
The people in the world don't understand that. If you ask them "What is the Church?" they say, "Well, it's a building. We have a number of them here in town. There's one down on the corner with a very steeply sloping roof and a steeple on top pointing up to heaven, a cross on its façade; and Sunday morning people go there, to that church.
I read the Bible and found something else—a different kind of a Church, where I found the Church went to a building. Or the Church sometimes went out by the riverside, where prayer was commonly made. Or the Church assembled in somebody's home. But the Church is the people, not a building; and yet the Church is compared to a building in Ephesians, let me see, the 5th or the 3rd chapter.
But if it is called out of the world, why? What's wrong with the world? Well, in this world we find a world of awesome progress. On the other hand, while it's been progressing so rapidly... It began progressing fairly rapidly in the 19th century, and it has just run riot in its progress in the 20th century. We've sent men to the moon and back; and we've had close-up photographs on the surface of Mars, fairly close-up photographs from Jupiter and Saturn. We've invented the computer and so many new machines. Aircraft have come this century. Do you know the first airplane was flown when I was 11 years old? Man had never flown in the air, except to get up and sail maybe a little bit with the wind blowing on a balloon, until I was 11 years old. And yet it is only very recently that we've come to the jet plane that really moves along once we get up there in the air.
So it's a world of awesome progress. But also it's a world of APALLING TROUBLES, unsolvable problems and evils, sorrows, suffering, anguish, violence, war, and a discontent and unhappiness everywhere. Half of the world is illiterate. Half of the world is in abject poverty, living in filth and squalor. We are supposed to have minds to learn what to do, and yet we haven't learned to do it very well.
Now, the Church was started by Jesus Christ. He was the founder of the Church. And He came into a world such as we have. The world has progressed a great deal since that time. We have a great deal more progress. We are doing things they had never known how to do when Jesus came into the world. But also the appalling evils and troubles have multiplied since He was here. So it's gone in opposite directions, and nobody seems to think of the contradiction there between progress and retrogression at the same time. And why? And what has caused all of that?
Well, Jesus came into this world; and He said, "I will build My Church." [Matthew 16:18] And He said that the gates of the grave would never prevail against it, and it has continued on. However, the Church lost a great deal of its original teaching. And when I came among them—came into the Church and among the people of the Church—I found they still had the basic law of God. They had the name, the Church of God.
The Old Testament Church was the Church of Israel, or the Congregation (which means the same thing) of Israel. And Israel was a man, a human man. But this Church is not the Church of a man—like Luther, or Calvin, or Wesley, or Fox. This is the Church of God. It is God's Church. And that is the Church that Jesus said He would build. He said in II Corinthians 6:17: "Wherefore come out from among them..." That is, of this world. It is a people called out of the world.
II Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
So Paul there quotes Jesus as having said that.
Now Jesus began with His message that He brought from God. And the message was the foundation of the Church, and the Church was built on that message. And we read of it (as I have read so many, many times) in Mark the 1st chapter:
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What is the gospel? Well, I was noticing on television I think it was just last night. After I got home, there was a religious program on; and they were trying to get money to tell the people about Christ. And they seemed to think the gospel is man's message, man's gospel, about Christ—where really, in the Bible, the gospel is Jesus' message about the Kingdom of God. Here you read, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Then it talks about John the Baptist, and finally the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John, and then His temptation by Satan. And then verse 14:
Mark 1:14-15 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel [What gospel? The gospel about Jesus Christ? No, it was Christ doing the preaching. And he said, "the gospel...] of the Kingdom of God, (15) and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Now, why did He say that? What does it mean? The Kingdom of God, you'll find if you research it a little farther in the Bible, is the begotten and then born Family of God—of people that are born into the very Family of God. And they are as much God as God is, only God is the Father; and Christ is His Son, and the Bridegroom or the Husband of those that are going to be born into it. You will be His wife, ultimately. But they'll all be the same Family. God the Father will be in supreme command. And Christ will be the Husband, who is the head of His wife. And the wife will always, even though of the same Family, will be subject to the Husband in all things.
But why was the time fulfilled? The time was fulfilled because, I'm going to show you, there was a kingdom here on Earth; and there was a throne over the whole Earth. One sat on that throne, and that was Satan. And Satan was carrying on a sort of government all over this Earth, all over the world. Jesus Christ had come to wrest that government from him. And Christ had qualified, as you read in just a verse or two ahead of what I was reading. The one verse ahead, the 13th,
Mark 1:13 [Jesus] was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan.
He overcame Satan; and, in so doing, He qualified to take over the throne of the Earth and to rule over all the Earth. Now, He's not only going to rule over the Earth; He wanted to help people be begotten and then born as the children of God, and to become His wife and help Him because a husband needs a wife to help him. And Christ, when He comes to RULE this world, is going to need a helper. That's where you and I come in. I hope you realize it.
Well now, the time was fulfilled because at last someone had qualified to replace Satan and sit on that throne. The first man, Adam, had had his chance to qualify; but as you know (I've spent a lot of time lately telling you about that) he failed to qualify. And Satan continued to stay on that throne. But now "the time was fulfilled" BECAUSE CHRIST HAD QUALIFIED.
Mark 1:15 The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is AT HAND...
Why was it AT HAND? Brethren, I don't think you ever realized that; and I know the world doesn't realize why the Kingdom of God was then "at hand." You are going to have to come to see that THE CHURCH—that means all of you, and all of the rest of the Church all over this world—THE CHURCH IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD in embryo. Not yet born, not yet developed very far. Only an embryo or a fetus, so to speak. Unborn, but begotten. We ARE the Kingdom of God in embryo. I don't think we've ever really come to realize that at all.
He called us out of the world. Why? What's wrong with the world? God is continually revealing new truth. Now, new truth is just a little further understanding on truth we already had. As I explained last night in the Bible Study, the Bible is like a jigsaw puzzle of several thousand pieces. You get a certain group of pieces together. That's what I did first to start 55 years ago. I had a number of scriptures that went together; and, all together, they formed a picture. They formed the truth; and that was that the Sabbath was made holy time, and God commanded us to keep it that way (keep it holy). And that is one of the very foundations of God's law, and it is the test commandment of God's Ten Commandments. It is the one that is the crucial test, more than any other is the Sabbath.
But what is wrong with the world, and why must we come out of the world? You know, we are the beginning of another world. WE ARE THE BEGINNING, just in embryo; or, you might say, we are just the begotten fetuses. We are begotten children OF THE WORLD TOMORROW. We are the world tomorrow, not yet born. And we are to have nothing to do with this world, except that we have to live in it; but we are not to be of it. We are to come out of it.
That doesn't mean put on some special kind of uniform. Women [wearing] an old fashioned black bonnet of some kind, looking like a covered wagon put on her head. Or men with some kind of a hat with a wide brim going around all the way. I've seen some religious people doing that. No, it means a different way of living, an entirely different way of living.
You can't understand unless you know how this world started, because Jesus came TO START ANOTHER WORLD—THE WORLD TOMORROW! And He called us out of this world. Now, how did this world start; and what's wrong with it? It's just that simple. So let's get back to it. Everything started with the Creator, and I have to start there is you're going to find a place for starting. And once again I'm going to go to the first chapter of John.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word...
And the Word was a great personage, the Spokesman in the Family of God.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word [That is, a personage.], and the Word was with God [God was another personage. Now we have two persons.], and the Word was God.
It's just like saying, "I saw John, but John was with Smith; and John was Smith." "You mean John was...
You just saw one man?" "No, I saw two men." "Well, what do you mean? How can you see two men, when one is John and the other is Smith?" "Well, they're both Smith. You see John was Smith's son." Or John was Smith's father. (One or the other.) Smith is just a family name. One of them was named John, and the other was Mr. Smith. We don't know which person it was for that one.
Anyway, here was the Word and God. They are two persons; and They—two combined—made God.
John 1:2-3 The same [the Word] was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
You read, in Ephesians the 3rd chapter and 9th verse, God "created all things by Jesus Christ." Now, God is the leader. He directed what should be done, what should be made. He told the Word to do it. The Word was the Spokesman, and the Word spake. As you read in one of the Psalms, "He spake, and it was done." [Psalm 33:9] Now we also find that, when He spake, the POWER—the Spirit that emanated from both God the Father and from the Word (who was not yet His Son, but later was born as God's Son)... The Spirit was the power that did whatever He said, and He only said what the Father told Him.
John 1:4 In him was life...
L-I-F-E. He had life inherent, life within Himself. Immortal life. He had always been. Now, of the Word who became Christ, the fourteenth verse:
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us [and became Jesus Christ].
Now we read over in the book of Hebrews that Christ was immortal, and there never was a time when He came into existence. He had ALWAYS existed. And, of course, your mind can't conceive that; so don't try to. My mind won't, and I don't think yours will either. But He was "without father, without mother, without descent," without beginning of days, "having neither beginning of days, nor end of life." [Hebrews 7:3] You and I don't have that kind of life. We have to have our life by breathing air, which will oxidize blood and keep the heart pumping blood throughout your body. And the blood in you is the life thereof, as the Bible says; and the breath is the breath of life. That isn't life. It's only a physio-chemical existence, and that's all we have now.
But you notice that They lived. If They had life, then They lived. If They lived, They had to live a certain way. They had to do something. What did They do? Well, They created. And the Word made everything that was made. God is the Creator, but the Word did only what the Father told Him. And God created all things by Jesus Christ. So that was Their job. That was Their profession. That is what They did.
But how did They do it? How did They live? That is quite important, because They lived together. Now, two cannot live together except they be agreed. So They were agreed. When Jesus came to Earth in the human flesh, He said, "I and My Father are one. I have spoken nothing of Myself. The Father that sent Me told Me what I should say and what I should speak, and I have spoken according to His Word." There was perfect agreement. So They could walk together, because They agreed. Two can't walk together except they be agreed.
They knew how to love. Now when Jesus came to Earth, was born and grew up to about age 30, and He was baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist; and God the Father said, in a voice from heaven, "This is My BELOVED Son, in whom I am well pleased." He LOVED the Son; and Jesus LOVED the Father, and He obeyed the Father. And there was love between Them. There was cooperation. They were in perfect agreement, but one had to be the leader over the other.
You take a couple getting married, and someone "Well, we don't want the husband to be the boss now. We want a 50/50 marriage." Oh, you do. Well that's not what you are going to have. That's just what you think you are going to have. But if you think you are going to have a 50/50 marriage, the wife will be wearing the pants. She's going to run the roost. ONE HAS TO LEAD, and one always WILL lead. But there must be harmony. There must be love. The husband should dominate his wife, but NOT domineer over her. There is quite a difference. He should be the leader in love, and there should be perfect agreement and harmony. And they should get along. There should be no quarrel, no difference of mind whatsoever. And, if you are not of one mind, you shouldn't get married in the first place.
On the Earth was a throne. They created angels first. Then the angels were the first occupants of this world, of this Earth. But you read in, let me see, it's II Peter 2:4, "God spared not the angels that sinned." And so angels did sin. And we find elsewhere in the Bible it was about one-third of the angels that sinned. Apparently the other two-thirds are still holy and righteous, and have not sinned. But one-third of them became demons. And God took a super archangel, the cherub named Lucifer, and set him on the Earth.
Now, God and the Word had a way of living together. They had a job to do, and that was creation; but there was perfect cooperation. There was a leader, though. That is necessary if there is direction; and you have to have direction, especially when there is more than one person. If there's two or more, there has to be a leader. Always there has to be a leader. They had a way of living together. That way of living becomes a law.
What is a law? A law is merely a guide that is a way of life. You break the law means you live contrary to that way of life that is defined by that law. A law is always a way of living. And laws that we have in the world are supposed to be designed to help us cooperate along together and get along with one another—husband and wife get along together, neighbors get along together, people to get along together. The trouble is nations don't get along together. Nations have troubles; and finally, you know, they set up a Court of International Justice.
Now, I have actually entertained at dinner all of those justices of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in the Netherlands. And I've been photographed with the President and with Dr. Singh, who is one of the judges on that court (representing the nation India). And, by the way, I must see him next time I'm over in that part of the world, in England and that area. I would have seen him this last time. I was just over there just last week. But I understand that he was not there but he was back in India at the time, and I didn't want to go over there.
However there has to be a law, or there has to be a rule of conduct, to guide the way you get along together; or you're going to have trouble, and you don't get along. You'll have nothing but trouble, and friction, and unhappiness; and one impedes the work of the other. And so God set angels on the Earth, and He set A LAW, He set a government over them. And He put one of the super archangels, Lucifer (who's one of the two archangels or cherubs whose wings had spread out over the throne of God, right on the very throne of God). He was experienced in the administration of the government of God over the universe.
And God set him on a throne on the Earth to rule over angels. Now, we don't find in the Bible very much given about it. You find quite a lot about this and what brought on the sin of the angels in the 14th chapter of Isaiah and the 28th of Ezekiel. And we find that the one on the throne was named Lucifer, which means "shining star of the dawn." And he was given, naturally, a law—which is the law of God, which is love. L-O-V-E.
We find in the Bible that God's law of love is divided into two great laws. It's love to God first of all, and love to neighbor. Why God first of all? Because you have to have direction, and the direction has to come from God. He's the leader. And without that leadership, you are sunk. And then that is divided in turn. Love to God is divided into the first four of the Ten Commandments, how to love God. And how to love your neighbor is divided into the last six of the Ten Commandments, telling you how to love your neighbor. They're just ten broad principles—in the principles of the spirit, or the attitude, of love; and love is an attitude. It is a spirit, and it is a spiritual principle. It is a spiritual action, rather than a material action.
But the angels sinned. Lucifer led a rebellion. He inoculated his angels with a spirit of rebellion—a spirit of get instead of give, of hate and opposition instead of love, of vanity and of coveting and wanting to get, and towards others of jealousy, of envy, rebellion against authority, of competition leading to strife and violence and destruction, and all that sort of thing. So they had that attitude towards God. One of rebellion. One of vanity. I mean one of vanity towards themselves; and one of jealousy, and envy, and competition against God. And they flew up to heaven to try to pull a coup, and knock God off the throne, and rule the whole universe instead of just this Earth. But they were cast back down to the Earth.
Now, something happened to the Earth. And the Earth became, as you read in the first chapter of Genesis, where it says "without form and void," or that comes from the Greek words "tohu" and "bohu". Actually, it means chaotic, in confusion or decay. Probably it was decayed. It probably had been a long time. God did not finish the Earth. He put them here to finish it, and to work on the Earth. The Earth contains not only just matter, but it contains many forces like energy, and many forces of energy that can be put together. Even electricity can be created and energy in various fuels. And finally we've found the energy of the atom, the atomic bomb and now the hydrogen bomb, and other things like that all exist in the matter of this Earth.
But the Earth had come into, where it had been in light—the light of truth and of God's truth—now it was in the darkness of error and of sin. So we read in Genesis 1, "In the beginning God..." And God there, the Hebrew word was "Elohim," which is a uni-plural noun and includes the one who is God and the one who is the Word; and it was including those Two, which is the God Family. And it began with those Two who had existed always, forever. "God created the heavens [and it should be plural, and is as Moses wrote it in the original Hebrew] and the earth." They were created all at the same time, as you read in the second chapter of Genesis and verse four. You can read that, but I'm not going to take the time now.
So the Earth was, or became, in this chaotic and decayed state. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep." Now you read in the 104th Psalm, and verse 30, that God RENEWED the face of the Earth. It says:
Psalm 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they were created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.
So notice here now:
Genesis 1:2 Darkness was upon the face of the deep [It was all a watery ocean surface.], and THE SPIRIT OF GOD moved upon the face of the waters.
There is the Spirit of God, the power that was going to do it.
Now, what about the Word of God speaking? Genesis 1:3 And God said...Oh, the one who said it was the Word. And what did He say? Whatever the Father told Him to do. Whatever God said to say. He said, "Let there be light: and there was light." So He went on REMAKING, renewing, the face of the Earth for man. And after He had done that, then in verse 26 (after He had created animals after the animal kind, cattle after the cattle kind, dogs after the dog kind, and others; and I've gone over that so many times) He said:
Genesis 1:26 Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.
"Let Us make man after the God kind." Now, man was made to be born into the God Family, right there. And the first man, Adam, was not given eternal life. You read in the 7th verse of the next chapter that:
Genesis 2:7 God formed man [And that was the man, Adam, and his wife, Eve] out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [Breath is called "the breath of life."]; and man became [The dust of the ground became...] a...soul.
So a soul comes out of the ground. It is not spirit, but is matter. But he didn't have eternal life. He only had a temporary existence. Now, you know the story. There were two trees in the Garden, and Adam had to make a choice. One was the Tree of Life. The other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of knowledge meant the knowledge of taking to himself spiritual knowledge. Now that was the knowledge of the way of life. That kind of knowledge meant a way of life. But he would decide FOR HIMSELF how to live. He would decide right from wrong, good from evil—all by himself. He would not look to God as a leader. He would not look to God to tell him which way is right and which is wrong. He took it to himself, when he took of the fruit of that tree. That's why God forbade it.
Now, what about the Tree of Life? That was also a tree of knowledge. That was revealed knowledge from God. But that kind of knowledge was a way of life—the SPIRITUAL WAY OF LIFE, the way of cooperation and peace, the way of happiness. The way that God and the Word had always lived together. The way that He had intended the angels to live, but they didn't live that way. Adam made the wrong decision. He took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He rejected the Holy Spirit of God, which would have revealed to him God's knowledge of the right way to live, a way of life. The way we see in Christ. In the Word was life. [John 1:4] The way He lived. And that could have been in Adam.
Now, in the 3rd chapter of Genesis in verses 22 to 24, you find that as a result of man's sin... Adam was on trial to see if he could take over the throne of the Earth from Satan. He had to reject Satan's way of living. He had to accept God's way that would have come through the Holy Spirit of God because you cannot understand spiritual knowledge, which God must reveal. But even though God reveals it, you can't understand it without the Spirit of God.
Let me explain this. A cow has every faculty that you have for receiving knowledge. The only way you can receive knowledge is either through the sense of sight, or hearing, or smelling, tasting, or feeling. You can't tell me any other way you receive knowledge. You don't get it any other way. You just don't get it through your little toe. You don't get it through any other organ or any other part of the body, just through those five senses. Now a cow has every one of those senses. A cow can see, and it can hear.
But you try to explain some of the laws of chemistry, or physics, or astronomy to a cow. Well, it has ears to hear, if you want to talk. It has eyes to see, if you want to give it to him in writing. But it can't understand anything, not any more than a chicken or a turkey; and they don't even know enough to get out of the middle of the street.
And so Adam made the wrong decision, and he did not qualify; and Satan remained ON THE THRONE. Satan deceived Eve, and Eve led Adam by the nose to do the wrong thing, and many wives have been misleading their husbands ever since—when a wife is supposed to be her husband's helper, and they're supposed to get along together. But it takes two to get along together, and just one alone can't do it. But the two had better both be right, or else they're in trouble.
So now God shut up the Holy Spirit. He shut up the Holy Spirit UNTIL Christ, the second Adam, should come—until someone could qualify to set up God's world, God's government. Adam would had to have accepted God's government, which God would have revealed to him through the Holy Spirit if he had taken of the Tree of Life. But Adam never did get it, and he never learned God's law really. He never learned spiritual knowledge because he rejected that. And Satan went on with the whole spirit of rebellion, of vanity and glorifying himself, with the spirit of coveting and trying to get everything he could, of competition, of strife and vanity and jealousy, and of hate, and of tearing down instead of building up.
Now, we have to understand the mind of man at that time before we go any further. I've explained that again and again. But I just want to cover it again so we'll have it in mind. The mind of man is brain plus spirit. A cow has a brain, just like a human has. An elephant has a brain just like a human; only an elephant's brain is bigger. A cow's brain I think is a little smaller. At least a chimpanzee's is just a little smaller than a man's, than a human brain. But the difference is they have no spiritual comprehension. You give them spiritual knowledge, they haven't any idea what you are talking about. In fact, they don't have even material knowledge—the animals. They only have instinct born in them—instinct.
Man has to have knowledge. He has to be trained because his mind has to lead everything his hands, or his feet, or his body does. The mind has to govern. In other words, you have to have a head. Just as we need God over all people, your own body—to perform and to function—needs a brain to guide it and tell it what to do. Man had to have knowledge. He not only had to have knowledge to deal with matter and with things. God created him with that kind of a mind. But He didn't create him with a mind to get along with other people. And in making things, the reason man never learned to make very many things until this 20th century, was because... (And that's the 20th century since Christ. It's a lot more than the 20th century from Adam.) But it's because man did not have the Spirit of God and spiritual knowledge. He only had the knowledge to deal with things.
But one person alone does not build an airplane, or an automobile, or a steam engine, or a railroad train. One man doesn't do it. It takes the cooperation of many men. One man can't build a great steel works that supplies the steel to build many of these things with. And men can't work together except there be a right leadership, and a way of living and working together. And that requires the law of God, or you are in trouble. And the world's been in trouble all the time, ever since Adam.
Now, I've gone through this about the human mind again and again. But at the time that God closed up the Holy Spirit from man, at that same time... Well, I want to read you first a scripture here. It's in Revelation 13 and it's just the latter part of verse 8, where it speaks about "the Lamb" (which is Christ) "slain from the foundation of the world." The foundation of the world was the time of Adam because the world didn't start until Adam made that decision. And the world started in Adam, as he was influenced by Satan.
So at that time it was decided that Christ was to come and be the second Adam, that He could pay for the sins of humanity. Otherwise, humanity could never be redeemed from the sin of Adam. Now you take the sin of Adam, and his son Cain was born the same way, and Abel. But you see Satan got to Cain and began influencing him before he was even six months old. Cain had a spirit in him; and that spirit was on the wavelength of Satan, who is a spirit. And Satan's spirit had access to his spirit, and put a spirit of animosity and contention and disagreement; and Cain disagreed with his brother Abel. He was about to have a fight, and God talked to him. And God warned him and said, "You be careful, or you are going to be in trouble." But he didn't listen to God.
He didn't have God's Spirit, and he wasn't in tune with God. He went ahead and killed his brother Abel. Now God did speak to him, but his mind wasn't open to understand what God said. He didn't comprehend any truth that God revealed. God revealed the truth to him. He'd be in trouble if he did it, if he went ahead with his anger and his spirit of revenge. Well, he got revenge all right; and his brother Abel was dead. Cain was greatly punished. Then he complained that his punishment was too great. And that's the way that humans have been ever since, just like that—same attitude.
Now, also at the time when God closed up the Holy Spirit, the foundation of the world, you read in Hebrews 9:27...This became the policy of God. It was appointed from that time for men ONCE TO DIE but after that judgment. God had a policy, Christ was to come, that there would be a time of judgment when people would have a chance. Their sins would be forgiven by Christ, and they would have a chance to receive the Holy Spirit that Adam had rejected. And that was set up from that time. From that time it was decreed that Christ would come, that the Lamb of God would be slain. That was about 4,000 years later, but nevertheless it did happen.
Also it was decreed, as you read in I Corinthians 15:22, 23, 24 and on.
I Corinthians 15:22 As in Adam all die...
Adam only had a temporary life. He was going to die. And God said, "If you take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die." Well, his children did the same thing; and they've been dying! So it's appointed to men once to die, but after this a judgment. Well there has to be life after that, or there couldn't be a judgment. And so:
I Corinthians 15:22 As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all [The same all. All who died.] be made alive [by a resurrection].
God decreed that! He decreed that Christ would come and pay [for] the sins of people; and that they would be given a chance, like Adam had in the first place. But God had shut up the Holy Spirit.
Now, we have to know something about the human mind; and I've gone into that again, and again. But I think it's good if I read a couple of scriptures again, because I think this is something that many of you have not yet fully gotten. I wonder how many of you could explain this to someone else. If someone out in the world, not in the Church, would say, "Well, what is this? I understand psychology."
And there's a man who used to be on our faculty. He's now on the faculty of another college, and he's teaching psychology: That you are an okay person. That you must have confidence in yourself. You must have vanity. You must think you are a somebody. And it's only if you think you're pretty good that you ever will be. But it's all in your OWN SELF. You don't need any help from God. You just do it yourself, on your own. That's what Adam had! That's what the world has been doing ever since, and look at the world. That's the world Christ came to call us out of! And here's one that's been here, and graduated from this college, and been on the faculty, and been a head minister in the Church, but is now TEACHING that kind of ROT!
SOME HAVE TURNED BACK, like Lot's wife. There was something in the sermon this morning, if you were here for the morning service, about turning back. And unfortunately some have gotten to the top in this Church, and then turned back. I don't know that they will turn into a pillar of salt, like Lot's wife; but they certainly won't turn into children in the Kingdom of God and sons of God.
I don't know. I read in the book of Hebrews that, if after we have come to this knowledge of the truth and tasted of God's Holy Spirit, that if we fall away it is impossible to renew us to repentance again. And I sometimes wonder. The only chance that some of those people who have been here have is IF (so far as I can see now) if they never were really converted in the first place and God had not called them, and if He will do it sometime in the future. Otherwise they have had it! They'll live the rest of this life, and THEY'VE ALREADY BEEN JUDGED! WE ARE BEING JUDGED NOW. But the people from Adam's time on, until Christ, were NOT being judged. It's appointed to man once to die, AFTER THIS the judgment. They have not come to their judgment yet. Now do you realize that?
Why is it God is only calling a few, and that we are the firstfruits? And God isn't calling others in the world? I want to come to that before I'm through with this sermon today. I want to show you why God COULD NOT have called the others. You think He's playing favors to call us and not others? Oh, no! If anything, He's playing favorites for them. But that needs to be explained.
Well, now about the human mind. Here in Job the 32nd chapter and verse 8, "There is a spirit in man." And now you turn to verse 18; and it says, "I am full of matter [We are composed of it.], the spirit within me constraineth me." That is, it influences. Or, well, it doesn't force you. It doesn't compel you. But it does tend to lead you, and it does motivate you. The spirit. And Satan is a spirit, and he gets you into a wrong spirit. And that wrong spirit does motivate you into the wrong attitude and the wrong way all together.
Now in I Corinthians the 2nd chapter, let me just go over a little of this once again. In verse 9:
I Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man [as man is made now], the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
In other words, a man cannot receive spiritual knowledge since the Holy Spirit was shut up. That's exactly what that's talking about. Now the next verse:
I Corinthians 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his SPIRIT.
Now the Spirit doesn't do the revealing, brethren. The Holy Spirit is not a teacher. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God to open your mind to comprehension. God is the Teacher. Notice here: "But GOD HATH REVEALED..." Not "the Holy Spirit hath revealed." "God hath revealed them unto us BY his Spirit." The Spirit is merely the means that opens your mind to comprehend when God teaches, when God reveals; and it is revealed knowledge.
I Corinthians 2:10-11 For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. [Now here it comes, next verse.] (11) For what man knoweth the things of a man [Has the knowledge that a human can have—knowledge of chemistry, knowledge of physics, knowledge of astronomy, mechanical knowledge.], save [by] the spirit of man which is in him?
The spirit of man is what gives you physical knowledge, but it doesn't give you spiritual knowledge.
I Corinthians 2:11 Even so the things of God [Or the spiritual knowledge, and what God reveals, and what God teaches.] knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God will open your mind to understand, and you can't understand the things of God until the Spirit of God comes. Now get what I said about a cow. A cow does not have A SPIRIT. It just has a brain. And its brain is as good as your brain. It's just like your brain—made in the same way, of the same kind of matter, in the same form and shape in every way at all, every way. But a cow can't understand mathematics. And you can't explain a computer and how to operate it to a cow, or a chicken, or a horse, or even an elephant (which is perhaps what we would call a little more intelligent, but not of man's intelligence).
But these tools—the spiritual tools—are revealed by God but THROUGH the Holy Spirit, and cannot be understood except after you have received the Holy Spirit. Now God closed up the Holy Spirit from the time of Adam, until Christ should come. So I want you to notice, when Christ came, He said "I will build My Church." But before I come to that, I want to talk about the world Jesus came into.
A civilization started with Adam. And Adam only had the knowledge to deal with things. He did not know how to even deal with other people, let alone how to deal with God and to receive instruction and direction from God, and supervision. And you must have supervision. You must have a supervisor. You must have a leader. We have many departments in this Work, but there is a leader over every department. And others are under him, and he supervises their work. And they're all responsible to me, and I am responsible to Christ. And that's the way it has to be. It has to be an organization.
Christ said He was the Vine, and we are the branches; and the grapes come off of the branches. Now there's one main stem. There are other little stems off of that, and different little branches. It's the branches that produce the fruit. But they can produce it only as long as they're joined onto the main vine, and the larger little branch, and that branch onto the still larger one. Or, like in the tree, there are many twigs; and then there are larger branches, and they just down into bigger branches, and they're all joined onto the trunk. And all of the life of the tree comes out of the roots. That's a comparison all the way through.
But when Adam rejected it, the Holy Spirit was not yet available. So Adam started a world—because he had children. He had Cain and Abel, and he had Seth. Now, the Bible says he had other sons and daughters; but it doesn't name them. And others came, and they had sons and daughters. And it came to the time when population was increasing, at the time of the Flood. They were having a population explosion. God caused them all to be drowned because they were going the wrong way, except Noah and his family, eight people. And ALL THE WORLD has come from those eight people. But they have come on without the Spirit of God, without the direction of the Spirit of God, without the Spirit which would open their minds to understand the teaching of God.
Now there was the kingdom of Israel raised up from slaves. And God REVEALED His law to them. God REVEALED truth to them. But they didn't understand it. They didn't have the Holy Spirit. So they weren't taught it. It can normally be understood through the Spirit to open up your mind to understand it.
A cow can't understand what a man can, because it doesn't have the spirit of man. It's the spirit of man that makes your mind understand materialistic knowledge. I hope you can understand that. But Adam's children, now, gradually got into a civilization. As they were then, they didn't [have] many people. They began to realize they had to get some kind of organization. So they had men at the head of this and that and the other. But they didn't have right knowledge about how to get along with one another. And the man at the head was always self-centered. And he tried to use those under him for his own good, and his own benefit—where God uses those under Him for the benefit of the ones under Him. God is a Giver, not a getter. But those who are head over other people in this world try to GET from them.
The rulers over governments, and kings over governments in this world, they pretend to be and they pose and represent themselves to be the benefactors of the people. They pose as the servants of the people. Politicians running for office, they're trying to tell the people how they are going to serve the people. Don't kid yourself. They want to get rulership over the people to serve themselves. Anytime a person gets in a good-sized political office, he doesn't have to worry about where his money's coming from the rest of his life. You don't know how it's manipulated and how it's handled, but he finds a way; and he always gets along just fine.
Now, I remember when the President of the United States got $50,000 a year. ($50,000 a year.) And then I remember when it was raised to $75,000. Frankly, I don't realize what it has been raised to now; but it's not so great. Many people in the large industries—presidents who are board chairmen of large industries—get a much bigger salary that the President of the United States. But no President of the United States ever needs to worry what's going to happen to him if he only served for four years. Jimmy Carter will never have to worry, and he doesn't have to live off of his peanuts. [Audience laughs.] For one thing, they can write their memoirs. And great money is going to come. And there are a great many little ways through politics that money keeps coming into. Ways you don't know anything about; and I don't know either, so I can't tell you.
But anyway, a civilization got started; and man began to have his own government. First, after the Flood, there was a city started by Nimrod; and his wife, Semiramis, started the religion. And so different religions became involved, other religions came. And then there were different cities. There were just city-states—no new countries, no nations yet for a long time. Finally we came into ancient nations. There was Egypt, and there was Greece, and Syria, and Assyria, and other nations like that. And then one king over Babylon got many nations together into a united empire. And the first world empire was the Chaldean Empire, called Babylon. And so we came to live in empires, and ever since we have different nations or empires. Now empires are just about gone. The British Empire, the sun has set; and it really isn't an empire any more. It is no longer Great Britain. It is just Britain.
But there came governments over the world. There came a system of education devised by man. And man believing in himself and teaching psychology of believing in your own self. But don't believe in God. Different religions came. A different system of society, or a certain system of society, and it came into what we call civilization. That's the way people were living when Christ came; and that's the way people are living today, only it's bigger and it's worse today than it was then.
The only reason they didn't produce materially and physical things a lot sooner... Men could have gone to the moon and back a lot sooner than they did, but they didn't know how to cooperate together. There was always competition. Man didn't know how to get along with man. And so even his MATERIAL PROGRESS was slowed down very greatly and almost stifled. But a human society was built, and human nature came.
Now, human nature came from Satan the devil. Maybe I should read from Ephesians 2. But let me just say the one thing. In Ephesians 2 it says "You...were dead in trespasses and sins." And you were, because you are just going to die. Anyone is subject to death in this life. People think they are going to live forever—you're not. This life, we are only here for a short time. I just wonder whether I'm going to live tomorrow. Here next month I will be 90-years of age, and I have to think about that. Now, I know God can keep me alive. He could keep me alive for another 30 years. He doesn't do that to very many people very often. I know that He could, but I don't know that He will. But whatever is His will, He will do; and I have to be subject to it. And I am. I mean to be, and I want to be.
But here was this world. And we are the same as dead in trespasses and sins. But now God says, "You are alive." In other words, we have life through the Holy Spirit. Jesus came and called His Church out of this world. Jesus came to QUALIFY to sit on the throne of the Earth. And He did, before He came to preach a word. After He had qualified, He said "THE TIME IS FULFILLED." Now He had qualified, and He could proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. That's the government of God, the Family of God, that will rule a different civilization. And He came to call people out of this world and to START that NEW CIVILIZATION—the World Tomorrow. And that's what the Church is. It's a new civilization just begotten, just started.
Let me explain right now, while it's on my mind, what that means. How were you born? I've explained this before. Let me go over it once again. I want to refresh your minds right at this point. You were an ovum in your mother's womb. You came out of one of your mother's ovaries. She had two of them, and you came out of one of them. You were a little tiny ovum, the size of a pinpoint or the size of a period at the end of a newspaper sentence in just ordinary small type. But there was no life except a maximum of not longer than 28 days, and probably not that long. It was only a temporary existence.
You wouldn't have been born except that a sperm cell from the very body of your father entered into that ovum and imparted life to it. And it took the male to impart life, otherwise it would only have a temporary existence. And then you became an embryo. You were an embryo human being, but you weren't a real human being yet. You didn't even have human form or shape, and you were as small as a pinpoint.
After four months, you were beginning to take on human shape. There was a sort of a body, and off of that body were sprouting arms and legs; and there was a head. Things like that were beginning to appear, and inside of that body a heart was forming. And veins and arteries were beginning to form; and blood was beginning to circulate, and the heart was beginning to beat. You were taking on human form and shape. But you were still very, very tiny and just beginning to have human shape.
And it took five more months for you to develop. You weren't born again. You weren't born yet. You were begotten. And after five more months you were ready to come outside of your mother and to be born, and now to have your own life. But even now it was only a temporary life, and you had to grab your first breath. And you yelled, "Whaa, whaa." I know I've heard that three times with three of my own children, when they were born and drew their first breath. I guess it hurts the lungs when you grab that first breath and makes them yell out. And that's the way you were born.
But now let me tell you, if you received God's Spirit in the Church, the Church is merely an ovum with the Holy Spirit of God impregnated. And we are an impregnated ovum. We are, therefore, an embryo impregnated by the Holy Spirit that comes from the very body of the Father, who is God. This is the divine Father coming into us. His Spirit, therefore, mingles with our spirit. And the spirit in us, as we grow up, is the nucleus. And we as a human being. An adult human being is a fetus. A fetus that only has a temporary life, and it is not an embryo until the Spirit of God comes. When the Spirit of God comes in, that is (you might say) the earnest—not a full down payment—on eternal life.
But you are now begotten to be in the Kingdom of God. So the Church is AN EMBRYO. The Church IS the Kingdom of God, but not yet born. Not yet with divine life, only the life of the Holy Spirit in us with ours. And Satan the devil is still getting to us. The Spirit of God now is going to open our mind to understand God's knowledge. And it's as many as are LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT as God through the Holy Spirit reveals knowledge. God is the Teacher. The Holy Spirit opens your mind to understand that teaching. Does the Spirit of God open your mind to understand what I am teaching you now today? How wonderful it is that we can be begotten into the Kingdom of God!
We are begotten Gods, children of God. Do you realize how great that is, brethren? Or is it of that much consequence to you? THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN. And we just take it as if it's: "Now everyone's supposed to go to church, and I guess maybe we should have the Holy Spirit." But you don't know if you've got it or not. Is that the way you look at it? Is it just of no consequence? Or is it the most important thing that ever happened or ever could happen in all the universe, to anybody? To be AN ACTUAL CHILD OF GOD. And the scriptures say "Behold, NOW are we the children of God." It just doesn't appear yet what we will be. That doesn't appear yet. It will appear, because then we'll be like Christ; and this vile body will be changed into a spirit body like His, when He comes.
So I tell you: What is the solution of all of the troubles in the world? The world is in trouble. People say, "Well, Christ is the solution." What do you mean? Just believing that there is a person like Christ? A great evangelist, Billy Graham, has said that. "Christ is the solution." In other words, you just believe that Christ is and say "I accept Him." Oh, that's not the solution. The solution is that the Spirit of God must come as the result, through Christ. Christ is the door. But Jesus said "NO MAN CAN COME to Me except the Father that sent Me draws Him." And God is only drawing a few now!
I want to get to that now. Why is God only drawing a few now? Why is God calling THIS CHURCH; but He's not calling the people in the Methodist, or the Baptist, or other churches? Now, does that sound like I'm a competitor and I'm talking competitively? Not at all! We're not in any competition with anybody. It's just, I'm only stating the fact. And it's just as many of you sitting here as HAVE the Spirit of God and ARE BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD that are really in the Church because you're not baptized into the church in water. You say, "Well, are you a church member?" "Oh, yes, I was baptized." "What do you mean?" So-and-so baptized me in water." That didn't put you into the Church. Do you think it did? Well, you've been thinking wrong! That didn't put you into the Church. Let me read it to you.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit [That's the Spirit of God.], if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his [He's not a Christian, and he's not a member of the Church.].
By ONE SPIRIT are we all baptized into the one Body of the Church. By one Spirit! Not by water. Water baptism is only something you are commanded to do to show that you're willing to do what God said. But that doesn't put you in the Church. So don't ever say, "Oh, I'm a member of the Church because I was baptized" meaning you were baptized in water. Not unless you have the Holy Spirit to open your mind to comprehend the teaching of God, and unless you are being LED by that teaching. Once you hear it, that you follow it. Not the HEARERS of the law are just before God but THE DOERS OF THE LAW shall be justified. You first have to hear it, or read it. Then you have to do it! Just knowledge alone won't save you. But you have to have the knowledge before you know what to do. But it's the doing that finally saves you, brethren. Oh, I hope we can get these things straight.
Now then I'm coming to the most important part of all. Jesus said, "I will build My Church." But He said also John 6:44. Read it in your Bible there. I've read it so many times.
John 6:44 No man CAN come to me...
There's only one door to God, and that's Christ. There's no other way you can get to God but through Christ. And yet He said:
John 6:44 No man CAN come to me except the Father draw him.
And God is only drawing a few. Why? Why isn't He drawing them all? How did God start the Church? Let's get to that. Jesus called twelve disciples. They didn't choose Him. He was walking along a place, and I know I've walked along that same place many times. I've been all around the Sea of Galilee, and I think there's only one place that could be the place where He was walking along. And He saw Peter and his brother, Andrew, out in the boat with their father; and they were fishermen. You know: like father, like son. They were two sons that their father. And it was Simon and Andrew really, because his name wasn't Peter. His name was Simon. And Jesus called them and said, "Come, follow Me. I'm going to make you fishers of men. You are through fishing for that kind of fish." And they came. Apparently the father didn't. Apparently Jesus didn't even call the father. But He called those two brothers, and they came.
And when Jesus saw Peter (There's another scripture, in John, that indicates it was the first time He saw him), He said, "Thou art Peter." Or Cephas; I forget, but it means the same thing. And anyway, Peter is merely a surname. And it says that Jesus surnamed Simon "Peter." Now his real name was Simon the son of Jonas. And Jonas was his father. But Jesus SURNAMED him. And a surname is a title designating the kind of job or occupation you'll have. "Peter" is the title of a leader, and Peter was made to be the human leader in the Church of the apostles. Christ made him the leader. He chose eleven others along with him.
But now I want you to notice the great commission. Jesus taught those apostles for 3 ½ years. They went to school. They didn't sit in a classroom. It was a little different. They didn't follow Plato's system of a building with seats and a teacher with a desk up front. No, He followed His own system. They went from city to city, and they all went along with Him. They had to walk most of the way. I don't know how they slept. It doesn't say very much about that in the Bible. But Jesus taught them, and they were listening. And now Jesus preached to the people, but as a witness. He didn't call them to be converted. He only called primarily these Twelve. However, to those He preached, He said, "REPENT ye, and believe the gospel (the good news) of the Kingdom of God." And it is recorded that, on the day of Pentecost, there were a total of 120 including those Twelve that had come and were there ready to receive the Holy Spirit when the Church was founded on that day.
Now Jesus taught them so that they could become teachers. I want you to get this principle. He didn't start a Church with a lot of members. He only started a few students, that they could become teachers. Then He could start the Church around them, and then they would be THE FOUNDATION of the church; and they would be the teachers. Do you get that, brethren? He didn't call members of the Church at all. He called students, and they weren't members of the Church. They were taught so that they could become teachers. And when He started the Church, He had teachers already there. The teachers were the apostles. Now I don't think you've ever understood that before. Did you get that?
All right. He taught them. And when He had finished teaching them, now He had some people taught to become teachers. They had been students. Or, you see, if you look up in a dictionary. I'm sitting at my desk. If I reach down in this drawer down here for a dictionary. Of course, this isn't my desk. This is only a platform here. But in my desk in my office I can reach down in my dictionary. And I look up the word "disciple." And what do you think I find in the dictionary? It means a student or a learner. One who is learning and who is a student. And the DISCIPLES were students, and Jesus was the Teacher.
Now then, when they were taught and ready to be graduated... And they didn't graduate until they received the Holy Spirit, and that was going to come later, after Christ's crucifixion. But He called them, and I want you to notice now in Matthew 28. Notice the Great Commission. Let's see if you don't see something here you never noticed before. Here's the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:18 Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
He had qualified. Now He had ALL POWER in heaven and earth. And He said:
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore...
In view of the fact I have that power, and you represent Me, I'm giving you power of attorney to represent Me, and I'm conferring some of that power on you. "Go ye therefore" and what? What is that next word? Can you read it?
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach...
They were now teachers. They were going to become the teachers, and the ones they teach were going to be the students. But no man was going to come and could be taught spiritual knowledge except the Father drew them. But He said to Peter, "Feed the flock." Go and teach.
Matthew 28:19-20 Go...and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name [or, into the name] of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy [Spirit]: (20) teaching [There again, teaching.] them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
He spent 3 ½ years teaching them the doctrines, the way of life, how to live; and it's all based on the word love. It's all based on loving God first of all, and then on loving your fellow man as yourself. But you have to even love your own self because the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you need to take care of it. Be sure of the food you poke into it. Be sure of the kind of mental food you poke into your mind. And take care of this body. And most people don't. Most people don't know what they ought to eat. They've never studied to find out. A very large percentage of people are way overweight. They eat too much. They abuse their bodies by eating too much. They feed their minds on the wrong kind of food. You don't even love yourself like God intended you to. It is love to God and your neighbor as yourself. And it's a responsibility towards your own self. So that's what He said to do.
Now the Holy Spirit was not then given yet to everybody. Back in Joel 2:28, where Joel the prophet made this prophecy.
Joel 2:28 It shall come to pass afterward [Actually, this has not fully happened yet. "Afterward..."], that I will pour out my spirit [That's God speaking. God says that He will pour out His Spirit.] upon ALL flesh.
He's not doing that yet. He's only pouring out His Spirit on those that God calls; because Jesus said no man could come except those that are CALLED BY GOD. Now why did Jesus? He didn't go out and say, "Well, who will come?" Whosoever will may come? Oh no. He chose twelve. He selected them. They didn't have anything to say about it. Jesus decided who He would call. Peter didn't decide he'd be the head—the leader among the ministers of the Church, the apostles. Jesus decided it! The apostle Paul didn't decide it. Jesus struck him down, blind, and put him through quite an experience to wake him up, because he was going the wrong way and Jesus just turned him around to go the other direction, so to speak.
So it isn't a case of "whoever will" can come get into the Kingdom of God. Not now. And there's a reason, and I want to explain that reason. I haven't come to the real crux of this sermon yet. All this is building up to it, Now we are coming to it. The day of Pentecost He called 120 that were filled with the Holy Spirit that day. I don't need to turn and read that, Acts the 2nd chapter beginning with verse 1. But now, with the spiritual mind, they were sent out to grow in grace and in knowledge. II Peter 3:18, where Peter said...It's the last words of Peter in II Peter.
II Peter 3:18 GROW in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Anyone who comes to have the Holy Spirit, now the Spirit of God will open their mind to understand—when they are taught. So you must grow in spiritual knowledge. In other words, go to school. That's what it means. Go to school.
Next I want to read from Hebrews the 5th chapter and verse 12. I want you to notice. Paul says here, in writing this book of Hebrews:
Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers [Now, he's talking to people in the Church. And it says "you ought to be teachers"—you in the Church. You should have learned enough to be a teacher.], ye have need that one teach you again [because they weren't good students; and they weren't paying any attention in the 1st grade, and the 2nd grade, and the 3rd grade. And they didn't learn very well. It says "teach you again..."] ...the first principles of the oracles of God [that is, in spiritual knowledge and the way of God]; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat [Or, solid food. Only just liquids and milk like a little baby. A baby hasn't grown up yet.].
We—although we are grown human beings—are merely infants in Christ. We are merely in the embryo and the fetus stage of the Kingdom of God. Now you notice Revelation 5 and verse 10, where it's speaking here of Christ.
Revelation 5:10 Hast made us unto our God kings and priests ["Priests" means teachers; and we are to be teachers and kings, ruling and teaching.]: and we shall reign on the earth.
That's in the Kingdom of God. And we are being taught. Everyone in the Church is now a student BEING TAUGHT so we can become TEACHERS and RULERS UNDER CHRIST IN THE KINGDOM! That's the point I've been trying to get over. Now I want you to notice what Jesus said here in Revelation 3:21.
Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh [overcomes the wrong things, and goes by the way he's learning; and learning in spiritual knowledge] will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne.
And in Revelation 2, verses 26 and 27:
Revelation 2:26-27 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give POWER over the nations: (27) And he shall RULE them with a rod of iron..
But we are going to teach them a new way of living! The Kingdom of God will have to live a different way if we are going to have peace. But we don't have peace in this world. We have some progress, yes; but even that progress has been retarded by competition. Competition even within an organization. Capital is against labor, and labor is against capital. And the laboring man is taught "Well, give the boss as little work and cooperation as you can. Get all you can get from him. We'll go on strike for more wages, but let's give less. Let's not give him anything if we can get out of it. Let's produce as little as we can." And so in everything today it's man against man.
Brethren, listen. Take two people. It started out with God and the Word. They were two beings. Now take two people today. One is trying to get something for himself. He has to get it out of the earth. So he tries to get something for himself out of the earth. But here's this other person over here. And the other person is trying to keep him from getting anything, and trying to take away from him even what he already has, and to stop him from getting any more. And so this man is trying to prevent this other man from getting anything and to stop him from getting any more, and take away from him what he has.
No wonder it took us up into the last century of 6,000 years before we could send men to the moon, and photograph Mars and Jupiter and Saturn; because man was working against man to stop his progress and to prevent it. Competition! Everyone against everyone. Everyone trying to get, and trying to keep the other person from getting.
Now then, we have two persons; and each is wanting to help the other. And this person is interested in what he can produce out of the earth, and so is the other; but this man 'A' over here, he tries to help 'B.' He says "I'll do all I can, and I'll help him do what he can." And 'B' says, "Well, I'm going to help 'A.' I'm going to work with him. We'll cooperate. Together, will they produce more than if the two are fighting against each other and he's trying to take away from the other? Can you see? When cooperation comes...
Now Satan argued that competition is better. He argues, you see, that you're all for yourself that is a spur to endeavor and to arouse you to ambition, so you'll work harder and therefore you'll produce more. Yeah? You'll produce more when you are working against the other guy, and he's working against you, and each of you is trying to prevent the other from getting anything? Oh, no. You work more when you both put your heart in it, and both trying to help one another, when you work together.
I'm going overtime. I'm going to have to stop. But I've given you the message. I didn't know it was so late. I got so interested in it myself. I don't go over time very often. I hope you were interested too. But the Church is the Kingdom of God in embryo.
Now let me just...I have to give you this in conclusion. When I was over in Amman just recently, in Jordan, I found that the princess, who is the wife of the heir-apparent to the throne. In other words, it's King Hussein's brother, Prince Hussein. She had started a school for the mentally retarded. I got interested in that, and I went out to see the school. The princess showed me all the way through. They had mentally retarded children, and they were trying to teach them. They even had to teach them how to put a button in a buttonhole. They had to teach them how to go to the toilet. And they had little practice toilets for these little kids. They had to be taught how to do everything, because they were mentally retarded. Their parents didn't know how to teach them.
Now they had just a little over 100 pupils there, I believe it was. And I said, "Now, is this all the mentally retarded people in your nation here?" She said, "Oh, no. It's only a small fraction." I said, "You mean you've got a lot more mentally retarded?" "Oh, yes." Well, I said, "Why can't you go on and teach them all?" "Well, Mr. Armstrong, we can't teach them until we first teach teachers. We have to get other people taught how to teach them. And we can't do it."
And I'm trying to do that. Do you see? Jesus couldn't start the Church until He taught some to be teachers. Jesus can't start the Kingdom of God until He has ALL OF US AS TEACHERS to teach the millions. So He called twelve to teach a few thousand. And there were 3,000 converted that very first day, and they were taught by the Twelve. And then they were multiplied for a few days. They must have gotten up to about 100,000 or so, and about the size of this Church right now. And then they went backward. Then the false doctrines came in, and false apostles; and the true gospel was suppressed, and was not preached to the world.
And even the true Church began to lose most of their teaching that they had. When I came among them, they knew the right name, the Church of God. They knew about the Sabbath. But oh there was so much they didn't know. They didn't know about the annual holy days. They didn't know the purpose of the Church. They didn't know the meaning of it. They didn't know what's going to happen in the Millennium. They just knew there would be one, but they didn't know anything about it.
You have to teach teachers to teach the others. Christ came to start A NEW WORLD. A NEW CIVILIZATION! People think this civilization is wonderful. Oh, it's Satan's civilization. Jesus came to start God's civilization. He started it with twelve. Then He started it with the Church. Now here are more than a thousand of us right here today. And each of us is going to be able to teach several hundred, if not a thousand. And if there are 1,000 of us and each of us can teach 1,000—a thousand thousand, let's see, is that a million? I guess so. How many does it take to teach the billions of the Earth?
That's why God did not call everybody. He was not calling the world to salvation. The world can't be saved until they LEARN the way of God. And to learn, they first have to have the Spirit of God; and then begin to learn at the beginning, in 1st and 2nd grade. And then maybe the equivalent to Junior High and High School, and then they can get into the college and university. And He's calling US now in order that, in the Millennium, we can teach the millions and even the billions.
Listen, the world thinks that Jesus came to teach. And if you just say you got the password, "I accept Christ," and you go forward and get a little Billy Graham literature, you can go home and forget about it tomorrow morning, but you're going to get into the Kingdom of God. Oh no. We have to learn the way of living of God—the way that is cooperation, that helps to produce. And, brethren, ultimately (after that 1,000 years and the Great White Throne Judgment) we're going to go to other planets, and we're going to raise up new people. We're going to start new worlds. And it's going to go on and on until here are BILLIONS TIMES BILLIONS of people. And God is starting with a few of us.
DOES THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU? IS THAT A CHALLENGE TO YOU, TO GET ON FIRE AND TO LEARN MORE? But learning alone isn't enough. You have to be doers of the Word, as well as hearers and learners. So God is developing CHARACTER—and that is the knowledge plus the action of doing.
Now I want to give you THE MEANING OF THE CHURCH. The people in the churches of this world haven't any idea of the why there should be a Church. Why has not God called everybody? Just like in Jordan, they have to teach teachers before they can teach others of these kids. And God has to call and teach teachers before we can teach the others. And they have to be taught before they know how to live in the way to build a right society and a right civilization that will be both happy and productive, and everybody cooperating with everybody. Everybody at peace and enjoying life; and none of the troubles that we're having in this world today. Do you get the message, brethren?
This Church is doing everything it can to that end. We're trying to teach you every way we can. We're trying to not only put ministers over you in churches all over this world, and now there are hundreds of ministers. God used me to start Ambassador College. Not only here; but finally we started in Bricket Wood in England, and then we started in Big Sandy, Texas. And, I tell you, over 50% of all the men who have graduated from Bricket Wood in England are in the ministry today. And I think about 40% both here and in Big Sandy have become ministers. And many of the girl students that are graduated through these years have either married and become wives of these men, helping, or they themselves are employed someway in the Work of the Church.
The purpose of Ambassador College is merely to call, and to teach, and to train people for the Work of the Church. And the purpose of the Church is to call people that GOD HAS CALLED, and God selects them, to be educated, to be taught now as students, so that we can become teachers when God does start to save the world! The world has to be TAUGHT how to live! The world has to be TAUGHT how to cooperate. And they have to be taught that they have to have a Head, a Leader, who is God. And God leads through Christ. And Christ has to have human leaders. He leads on this Earth with me, through me. And I lead through different ministers and through heads of different departments; and through men over the heads in Australia, in South Africa, in England, and in other countries around the world. There is organization, and there has to be such organization.
Satan has done everything he could to stop this. He tried to kill the Christ Child. Then he tried to get Christ tempted when He was 30 years old, just before He began to preach. He has thrown everything he has at me personally. You don't know what Satan has thrown at me personally, and what I've had to suffer. And Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He's accused me of this, that, and the other thing. Every rotten thing that Satan can think up, he just thinks it up; and I'm supposed to be guilty of it.
And brethren, I want to tell you, those who were in the Church and have got embittered and have gone out they are much more concerned about this Church and what goes on in the Church than you people who are in it. To them, it's their life. It's just their energy. What's going on in this Church? They're against it, and they want to destroy it. To them, it's A PASSION. Is it a passion with you—to learn, to be a student, to get good grades and learn the way of God, the way of life of God, and to be a teacher of others? You don't just go out and get others to say "I receive Christ." It isn't like that. They have to be taught, from the ground up, the way of life of God and of Christ. And you're all called, or otherwise what are you doing here if God hasn't called you?
God help you to open your minds to see and to have a vision and to have ambition to get there, and for the Kingdom of God. An ambition is the desire plus the willpower to put forth the effort, the inspiration to WANT TO DO IT. Is your whole heart in it, brethren? Or it is just a little something? Are you just here to be amused and entertained? Or were you here to learn something today?
Well, God help you. You were given the opportunity that Adam had. And you have to make the same decision he did. But you are now, you're students. What are you going to do? How much are you going to learn? As I say, we're doing everything we can. We not only have ministers, look at the publications we send out. For the Church, we have the Good News. We have the Worldwide News. We have all kinds of booklets. We have the Bible Correspondence Course. We have a letter going out every month from me. We have the Plain Truth [magazine] and that contains matters for others—to feed our people as well as the outside world. And for children, we have the Youth '82. And we have all kinds of things to feed people. We are trying to teach you, and you are students.
There's no Church like this on the face of the Earth. The others are not churches of God. They are churches of men! They're part of Satan's world. And Jesus says that the people in them are the children of Satan. You're called to become the children of God. Oh, brethren, I hope you get it. I hope you can put YOUR WHOLE HEARTS into it. And some of you are, in fact many of you are.
I know there've been many good reports have come. But I feel as somehow we haven't really been stirred. We haven't really gotten the message. And we don't have that inspiration we ought to have. Well I hope that God gives me a little of that inspiration, and that it's catching, and that you catch it, and that you get to have the dynamic interest and vitality, and will to go ahead in it that God has given me. I wear myself out. And I hope that you will, too. Well, I've gone overtime today—I don't do that very often, but you needed it. Thank you very much brethren.